Comedian Explains Why Comedy Branding Matters | Mark Gagnon

00:00:00 - 00:00:47

it like I really enjoy performing like I enjoy it's like the coolest way to connect with humans I think like I don't know it's like such an honest like it's yeah there's something so honest about it and like so like like Primal in a way I don't know like one guy talking and a bunch of people just like listening and laughing all in unison like you got some lights we got some cameras we got four people sitting around like sit down like let's go I didn't think I was going to go to jail

00:00:24 - 00:01:15

you know what I mean like M like and then if I did go to jail I'd be like oh this is hilarious like two nights in jail in my red suit like this is so funny mock welcome to the Pod man we did it guys we did it we're in New York things are happening hell yeah welcome man thank you yeah of course thank you so much for having me yeah we had so much fun man we landed uh the first night at like 3:00 a.m. smash into some pizza but like we didn't have quite as much fun as hanging out with you checking out

00:00:54 - 00:01:39

kid super Studio checking out your wild ass pod set thing's crazy wild we'll put a photo my wife killed it with that she like designed the whole she like designed the whole like interior like put all the stuff up I didn't know that yeah I thought it was your Genius I mean I put it together I had to build all the stuff but it was her it was her genius that was like making it happen and then the kids super guys were like super helpful with that cool man it was just cool to see the setup and like see how

00:01:17 - 00:02:13

how much you've done in such a small time frame yeah yeah yeah I'm kind of tired so dude how how did you even um get started in comedy like we out so ask me questions bro this we we haven't actually like talked about any of this yeah in the few times we've hung out but I started stand when I was like 18 like basically right when I started college so like 2016 is I started doing standup and I was just obsessed since I was like a little kid like my parents would just play standup all the time in the house I

00:01:45 - 00:02:30

would go on like long road trips with my mom we would just play like Serious XM station we have like satellite radio and just play like comedy over and over and over and over non-stop so I was just since I was like a little kid I was just like obsessed always like thinking of jokes I like get a Facebook account and like most people are on Facebook like hitting up girls and like just getting out there just getting busy you know what I mean like I was just trying to write like on liners just non-stop on my

00:02:08 - 00:02:58

Facebook profile was just like writing on liners like bad jokes just like so shitty didn't make any sense and people be like we don't get it and i' be like you guys wouldn't you know like it was so bad it's too highy brout to you yeah literally and then I was like yo this is awesome and so like I'm playing soccer since I was like a little kid that's all I did like throughout all of my teenagers this in Florida yeah in Florida and like yeah I was just obsessed and so at like the end of like my soccer

00:02:33 - 00:03:22

playing time it was like okay do I go to college to play soccer or like do I try something different thing and I was like I'm not going to go pro on soccer you know what I mean like it like it's it reached a certain point where I was like I am not good enough you know what I mean the other kids are just destroying you like there's no way man yeah exactly I was just like I don't know anyone that's ever gone pro like when I was like 15 I was like yeah I can probably go pro I'll

00:02:57 - 00:03:45

go play in college and I'll go play for anything's possible when you're yeah I'll go play for Barca and then like I'll be on the French national team none of which was an option and then by the time I was 18 I was like yeah there's just no way and so I was like all right I'm going to hang up the boots and then but the whole time I was like trying to find ways to like do standups so like in high school I would do like presentations and stuff and just try to make it just jokes and so like the

00:03:21 - 00:04:11

teachers would be like very funny you didn't talk about the Civil War at all but it was funny and it would just be like on liners about like Wars and [ __ ] like teachers would laugh and they all right sick and then yeah I would I just like went to an open mic my friend of mine was like there's an open mic down the street like the coffee shop Austin's Coffee and Winter Park and I was like all right so I rolled in had like my 5 minutes set up I did like one minute of jokes forgot the other four minutes and

00:03:46 - 00:04:41

then uh kind of bombed and got off stage and I was like I'm immediately going to do that forever really even though bomb were like that was a rush yeah absolutely how did it feel that first time like losing your like comedic virginity on stage way better than my actual Virginia for sure yeah was you're just like oh yeah yeah I mean yeah I actually came and I don't know it was like I yeah it was just awesome like it was just like uh yeah it was just such a cool creative Outlet like these ideas

00:04:14 - 00:05:07

that I had like the things the two things that I loved the most like in college were philosophy and standup but I was like I can't get a degree in philosophy cuz it's not realistic but I love that like you I could go in philosophy classes and be like all right guys crazy hypothetical and you're not called weird weird for it like you could just like throw out a hypothetical and like you would debate I remember going to like philosophy class like first semester and wait you guys have philosophy class yeah yeah that's so

00:04:40 - 00:05:35

crazy man we don't have that you guys don't have Phil I don't think so Australians aren't philosophy people I get no you guys not really man no no you have you have mining in the western states and that's it okay that's that's that's what you go to school for but like yeah we had like I so I technically minored in philosophy but I didn't actually get the degree cuz my final semester it was like okay do you want to finish your Philosophy degree do intro to modern modern philosophy or do you

00:05:07 - 00:06:00

want to take scuba diving and I was like immediately scuba diving I was like the minor doesn't matter at all so I didn't actually minor but I took all the classes except one but I love philosop because like first day we get in and this professor was like all right let's say everyone's using birth control and no kids are involved is it immoral to bang your sister and I was like what the [ __ ] and then we just like debate it like yes no like why why not like it was just like open Forum discussion and

00:05:34 - 00:06:22

every week it was like a different one like that like the trolley problem have heard of the trolley problem so this is like a thought experiment there's a train going down a track and it's about to hit five workers that are working on the track yeah and you're standing right next to the lever that can divert it so you can pull the lever and it'll divert it to another track what would you do yeah i' probably diver the track probably divert it right but here's the problem on the other side of the track

00:05:57 - 00:06:49

there's like a little kid playing oh so do you pull the lever save these five workers that don't hear the train coming and kill one innocent kid right killing one person better than five or do you do nothing and just let you know chaos take its course and let these people die it's a crazy hypothetical people debate it all the time the point is that I went to these classes and like they brought up these hypothetical I was like oh this is awesome and I was like this is kind of what standup is like in a way like yeah

00:06:23 - 00:07:11

you're like pitching an idea or altering like a thought of like a thing and Again comedy is not always philosophy sometimes it is like the genius guys do it like philosophy my comedy is not philosophy my comedy is about my penis but uh but like I like the experience of like yo let's throw out a crazy hypothetical and then instead of like trying to figure out let's just like make it funny like just riff jokes on it so I was like oh this is so fun I'm doing standup and I'm hanging around all

00:06:48 - 00:07:46

these other comics and we're able to like riff these ideas and it was just like exhilarating what a cool creative outlet and I noticed that when I was spending a bit of time with you and Andrew and Sydney and you guys obviously were doing the tour in Australia and I know you guys toured Europe and the Americas as well M and like watching you guys talk hypotheticals backstage my assumption was like everything's always going to be jokes but like you guys are actually really deep into like discussing different

00:07:17 - 00:08:04

things about like religion and politics and like culture and ideals and it was like quite a shock to me how deeply you guys think about real world things yeah it's it's just really fun and then having the levity and like people that have like senses of humor to like joke about it it really creates like an open Forum to like learn about stuff like the first time I ever like met a trans person was a comedian this girl Ariana went up on stage she's like I'm trans and I was like whoa and I felt so

00:07:41 - 00:08:30

comfortable asking her questions I was like so did you what happened like this like what's the deal and I was I felt comfortable asking like one is my friend but two like this is another comic so like she'll just like go there and just like I'm not going to get judged for it she'll like make jokes about it and like call me stupid if I'm being stupid you know what I meant like there was just like an openness and uh yeah it was just like so fun so what point did you move to New York 2019 okay so I had been

00:08:04 - 00:08:59

doing stand up for like 3ish years yeah coming up like maybe four I can't remember the exact time and like had you built like a like a full set over those three years or you just kind of like doing it here and there yes and no like even four years in like you still suck you know what I mean like I'm like how however many years I am now 8 n and I still how long did it take to stop bombing on stage um like you kind of learn how to bomb like you never really stop because like you're still going up

00:08:33 - 00:09:14

with like new jokes all the time and they may or may not work but like in like skateboarding like that was another thing I love skateboarding when I was a kid and like you learn how to fall you know what I mean like you SK you growing up so it's like you fall in a certain way where you don't injure yourself yeah exactly like you hit like a four stair and like you lose the board like you know how to like bounce and roll to where like you're fine like the first time you fall you just [ __ ] scrape

00:08:53 - 00:09:45

your knees and just like just eat [ __ ] yeah you just knee it and you're like [ __ ] this sucks and so like the first time you bomb you just hit your knees hard but then you kind of like learn how to get out of it I don't know if you ever like fully stop bombing but uh in terms of like having a whole set that just goes terrible probably like 3 4 years in and kind of be like okay I'm going to starve with this good joke that I know Works try out some new stuff that is 50/50 who knows and then and then

00:09:19 - 00:10:06

even after a while with that like you kind of get a sense even the first time like oh this will probably work based off of Prior experience so probably like three four years in I was like I felt confident pretty much any room I could go into I could like do fine yeah but from the beginning you didn't have any fear like being on stage being like embarrassed or anything like that not really no I I I've enjoyed it like I really enjoyed performing like I enjoy it's like the coolest way to connect

00:09:42 - 00:10:27

with humans I think like I don't know it's like such an honest like it's yeah there's something so honest about it and like so like like Primal in a way I don't know like one guy talking and a bunch of people just like listening and laughing all in unison like and then you go cross cultural and you're able to like connect with different cultures in a cool way like I think it's the coolest lens to like see any culture in like what what do Australians think are funny like what

00:10:05 - 00:11:00

what like what do you guys like in like City to City yeah like how do people in New York laugh versus you know like down south in Florida it's like such a cool way to tap people yeah what have you found like in Europe America and like Australia like what's your opinion on like how we differ in comedy I mean I think that in the UK and again I've only been like a couple of times so I'm not an expert but in my experience I found that like in the UK there's a sort of like a like a little bit of like an

00:10:32 - 00:11:24

emotional like uh like severity there's sort of something like a little bit like serious about like British culture like historically and I think like there's like this these like Unwritten rules of like British aristocracy where people don't really like they don't want to be affected so like if I make a joke to you if you laugh there's almost like a subconscious sense of like uh affectedness like I've made a joke and I've forced you to laugh like this actually shows up in Japan where like

00:10:58 - 00:11:54

people kind of cover their mouths it's this affected so there's like an emal stoicism that transcends through so like if I yell at you you'll kind of be like serious and if I make fun of you you'll be kind of serious and if I make a funny joke you'll sort of be serious so I think that's where like dry senses of humor come from and so the British brid like it's kind of so then British comedy is very much like how witty can you be like how cunning can you be how quick can you be and like how dry can you be

00:11:26 - 00:12:17

like it's like an effortless like uh wittiness that the British really like and so it's fun to go over there and be like oh wow this is how they do it here it's like very kind of serious and like how how clever can you be whereas like in America like there's a whole different subculture of Comedy where people are uh like you can just be boisterous and loud and like like bombastic and you don't even really need like punchlines like if you're just like crazy energy the audience can get on

00:11:52 - 00:12:42

board and like they like it whereas like you don't see that as much in the UK then we went to we went to Moscow do you test comedy sets before you do them on tour like do you go like a little comedy Center in like London beta test the jokes and then you kind of a larg crowd we have before it's just kind of hard with like Logistics and like having the time but like we have done that before and uh that's always like super helpful it's really helpful for like Andrew obviously he's like doing an arena and

00:12:17 - 00:12:58

like headlining it so like being able to like test stuff within like a really different Market is super helpful but you don't always have the opportunity to like we went to Abu Dhabi and like there's not really like a comedy club you can like pop into you know what I mean so like you kind of have to like get a sense through like ation like have a dinner with some emirati guys and be like uh what do you think of this joke and they're like oh that's great you're like okay that'll probably scale yeah

00:12:38 - 00:13:26

yeah but like we went to Moscow and like their comedy culture was brand new so they didn't have like a history of Comedy like comedy is not that old in general like the way we currently see it like some people give credits like Mark Twain back in the day but even that's like 130 years old something like that 120 years old yeah he was like kind of known for like writing like these funny on liners yeah and he would go around and give presentations and like do these funny presentations and speeches that

00:13:02 - 00:13:56

like were kind of comedic that people really liked but like as far as we know it in terms of like like borch belan comedy like Henny Youngman and dudes like that it's like I don't know what 60 70 years old like it's really recent um so with that being said like it's a pretty new art form and it seems like the art like the like comedy different places kind of evolves through time so like in Russia when we went it was basically like a 8-year-old comedy scene you know what I mean like by the time we

00:13:29 - 00:14:23

were there like it was brand new so they were still kind of like figuring it out and like the first versions of Comedy it seems like again I don't know I'm not an expert this is just what I seen is like uh it's almost like slapstick right like it's very much like like uh like puppetry and like characters and like clowning it's like very much like silly and then I think like sort of more serious like dialogue or like idea based comedy kind of comes later but they saw it as like rock and roll it was so cool

00:13:55 - 00:14:42

like they like you had to think like 15 or I guess 20 something 25 years ago like if you had a bad opinion like You' get killed you know what I mean like in Moscow like if you said the wrong thing like you would just everyone's quite like sensitive and like clammed up then are quite sure like what they can yeah and so now there's this new art form where it's like yo we're going to go on stage and say whatever it's like oh this is like Punk it was it was really cool it was it was a really cool experience

00:14:19 - 00:15:13

but like that kind of stuff you get to see through comedy which is just such a cool way to connect with people what about Australia Australia was interesting it was like it's like there's a little bit of like the British sensibility I find where like there's like it but it's less uh like cth you know what I mean like it's very much I think what you see like across Australian culture where it's like remnants of like British properness but it's sort of like uh the reject you know

00:14:46 - 00:15:40

what I mean so like there's an awareness of re yeah there's like an awareness of like the sophistication but uh I think there's way more of a pallet for like the runchy craziness like we love the crazy [ __ ] yeah like go hard and like like talk you know like talk your [ __ ] I think there's like a really fun like especially I mean kind of everywhere but in Australia specifically for like crowd work like you like make fun of us like touch us like be in the audience like I don't know again I think there's this is

00:15:13 - 00:16:03

like broad Strokes generalizations but like yeah I think there's a real sense of like yo I want you to talk about the room right now whereas like I don't know if you guys necessarily like like I'm going to go up on stage and like talk for an hour about like one I like one thing and not talk anyone and not like get into it I don't know like that's just what it seems like but yeah so there seems to be like comedy where there's like a performance and then there's like crowd work and then there's

00:15:37 - 00:16:25

maybe a hybrid in between yeah yeah yeah and different you have categories like do you guys have labels for like how like comedians kind of like operate I don't think like uh on the whole I think that's like a subjective thing yeah so I think like some comedians like Bill Hicks used to have this thing where he's like the ACT is what you go to and you don't have anything else to say so it's sort of like you have these jokes in your back pocket but you just talk in the audience and like be funny in the

00:16:02 - 00:16:48

moment and then when you kind of run out of things to talk about like go to the jokes and there's other Like Comics that are like hey you guys paid money to hear jokes so I'm going to go up on stage I'm not talking to anyone here and I'm going to do my jokes I just think it's like a personal philosophy of like what kind of comedian you are so what what happened with your career when you moved here like was the move because you wanted to progress in comedy and you felt like this was the scene in the place to do it

00:16:25 - 00:17:25

like yeah absolutely so I I got really lucky just linking up with Andrew when I did so I was living in Orlando trying to figure it out like going to open mics doing shows like having some success in the scene and like it's a really small comedy scene what's cool about small comedy scenes like Orlando is you're able to get a lot of stage time pretty quickly yeah like if you're in a really competitive market like New York like you're doing open mics here you're competing against the greatest

00:16:55 - 00:17:41

entertainment in the world yeah like not only are you competing against like the best comics in the world at the Celler New York comedy club you're competing against like Broadway you're competing against like the greatest restaurant in the world like it's just so competitive to get people into an open mic is like really hard whereas in Orlando the competition for entertainment is way lower so we used to do these shows like this dinner theater so like people would go to this dinner theater they'd watch

00:17:18 - 00:18:00

like this like Mystery Dinner Show or whatever do you guys have those in Australia like it was like a dinner show where basically like four or 500 people go into this room and like they act out like a mystery where like someone died and all the people at the table have to figure it out and like there's a presenter and then you eat while you do it it's like a dinner show and when the show ended all the people would file out and then we would just be like hey do you guys want to come to this comedy

00:17:39 - 00:18:27

show inside the same venue so like there's a big room and then there's a little room and we would get like 100 110 people some people like yeah sure we'll hang out there's nothing else to do like you just on I drive it was like 10:00 and you're like yeah so we would filter in 100 people and then like a year or two in a comedy I'm doing sets for like 100 people that are like paying customers traveling from around the world tourists like real people and it's like w you can't do that anywhere else

00:18:03 - 00:18:46

in the world so you can get like pretty good in these like kind of like B or C markets and so I was doing that for a while and then I heard about this dude Andrew Schultz I saw a clip of him come up on YouTube and I was like yo this is awesome yeah it was refreshing I remember seeing him a couple years ago and I just was like who is this guy he just had everything he was like just a star just like immediately like I just saw this clip and I was like I think it was like the woman food bit and I was

00:18:24 - 00:19:16

like okay this is like clever it's thoughtful it's so funny and he just had like this cool like Just Swag like it was like New York but it was like I was like this is perfect yeah it wasn't like classic New York comedy it was it felt like a bit more raw yeah it was like so real and I was like this guy's on it like I didn't know really anything else about like what he was doing his career d d d I just was like this guy is awesome and I saw he was coming to The Improv in like two weeks so the way like

00:18:51 - 00:19:39

the comedy clubs work is like I knew the woman that ran at this girl Christa and I you don't really have like an open door but like if you're tight with her you can kind of like call in a favor every now and again and I never called in a favor with her so I never was like hey let me do the show can I open for like I never asked for anything and this was the one time where I hit her up and I was like Hey Christa this guy Andrew's coming I think he's so funny can I please just like host the show and even

00:19:15 - 00:20:01

if she said no I would have still just like gone to the show and like just try to shake his hand just be like dude you're awesome yeah and she was like yeah I got to see like sometimes these guys you know they bring their own people da d da so I was like all right whatever not worried about it so I put in my thing and I was I was like that's fine so I was like studying for an exam this is like the end this is like March of 2019 I'm like going into like finals so I'm like studying for this exam doing

00:19:37 - 00:20:33

like paper and then like a day goes by a week goes by like the show's on Friday and it's like Wednesday still haven't heard anything then Friday morning rolls around I'm like waking up working on school [ __ ] and she texts me she's like hey you got the show if you want it I was like whoa like my mind was blown and so were you nervous going on stage first oh yeah yeah like yeah still I was like I was like I'm opening for this guy that I think is like one of the best right now he's so

00:20:05 - 00:20:59

good and I'm like hosting and at that time again like I'm not good I'm like 3 four years in like I'm just trying my best and yeah I just remember like walking in I like said what's up to him I said what's up to Alex again I didn't know like I the people I didn't know the like I didn't know Alex really like I just met Andrew I was like this is so cool yeah hung out in the green room and then I like walked up on stage did my set it went pretty well came off stage

00:20:33 - 00:21:22

just like was quiet sat there I was like okay awesome and then this is wild because this is the show a woman like passed out and so there's this clip on YouTube that's like super viral like you should check it out if you haven't seen it I haven't seen it yeah a woman like passes out during the show I think she like got tired she might have been at Disney I don't know what happened it to Orlando bro like people she might have had Ebola I have no idea um but she like just passes out in the show and this is

00:20:58 - 00:21:46

during the features act so there's the host the feature and then the headliner so the feature is this guy named Pedro and he was up and all of a sudden he was like what's going on like someone passed out right at the end of his set so he was like all right we got to go like hey turn the lights on like intermission and so he gets off stage and we're all kind of standing back to like yo what's going on the fire department comes they like assess the woman she she ends up being fine and I see something I've never seen

00:21:21 - 00:22:08

before ever Andrew just walks on stage no introduction like I went up on stage and was like hey guys we're going to take an intermission like please stay your seats uh like we're going to figure out what's going on like concerned like you can see it in the clip I go up on stage and I walk off stage and I was like damn what is going to happen I'm like looking and then all of a sudden from the side I hear Andrew being like yo Orlando what's up and I look up he's on stage and I was like what what is

00:21:45 - 00:22:35

this guy doing like the like the woman like the fire department's still there like assessing the woman did he know her no no what he didn't murder her did he know that this was all taking place as he oh yeah he knew everything he like went on stage anyway like what what normally would have happened what 99% of comedians would have done is like the show would have stopped like the woman would have been like you know aess the fire department would have left and then I would have gone on stage and be like

00:22:10 - 00:23:01

all right guys you ready for your headliner Andrew SCH he would have gone on stage he was just like [ __ ] it walked up on stage and then made sure the woman was okay was like hey are you okay she gave a thumbs up and was like I'm good and then just starts just going in starts like making fun of like the crowd making fun of the firemen that are lead he's like man these guys are jacked why are they so strong like who are you saving with all those muscles like he was like just like poking front of them

00:22:35 - 00:23:27

talking to the lady she's having a great time she's like dying laughing and then a woman in the crowd gets mad she's like what you shouldn't make fun of her da D and he was like she's laughing like who the [ __ ] are you he starts going out on this girl she starts freaking out the crowd is like now Standing Ovation in the first8 minutes of I'd never seen anything like this so like imagine me I'm like 22 21 I don't know like I don't even know standing there I just like saw

00:23:01 - 00:23:49

this guy on YouTube like a couple weeks before amazing bit and now he's just on stage getting a standing ovation talking about this event that like has never happened to him before like a once in A- lifetime thing like complete improv complete improv Standing Ovation people going crazy the woman that passed out's loving it she's like she's standing up she's clapping it's was like yo sit down lady you might die again like what the [ __ ] and I was like this guy is just the

00:23:24 - 00:24:14

best he's the goat I was like I like if that was all that happened I would have walked away being like this is the greatest night of my life and then after the show and at that time he was only he only did like two shows which by the way it was so cool because both shows were sold out like at The Improv it's like 350 people almost like 400 and it was sold out that was the most people i' ever performed for I was like this is crazy it's like sold out of the Improv and so by that time I was like all right

00:23:50 - 00:24:38

if this all ended right now I'd be happy not like my life I don't want to die but I was like if if the experience ended and then he was like all right I'm hungry you want to go eat I was like yeah this is crazy so then like we went to IHOP we went to IHOP to like 3 in the morning and just like talk [ __ ] we're like making fun with each other talking about conspiracies it was just like so fun and then I dropped him off at their hotel I was like hey man this was like the night of my life like you gave me

00:24:14 - 00:25:03

like the greatest time ever thank you so much and he was just like so nice and like he paid for dinner it was just like so chill like he I immediately he like treated me like a friend which like a lot of times like Headliners come to town and like they kind of you know like they'll be in one room and you're in another room and you'll do a show with them and never talk to them Andrew is not that guy like I did the show with him immediately he was like just so nice so friendly so cool and we go eat and

00:24:38 - 00:25:22

he's just like so like just I'm dying laughing the whole time I was like this is the best night ever and then at the very end I was like hey dude can I like I have some ideas like I would love to like help what you're doing and like contribute in some way is there any way we could talk and he was like yeah here's my number gave me a cell phone I was like who does this like Headliners like they come to town especially like big like at that time he was like comedy famous he wasn't like famous famous the

00:25:00 - 00:25:49

way he is now but in the scene like he was like a micro celebrity yeah yeah and like comedians KN knew who he was like oh yeah you heard about this Andrew Guy like he's popping but like now he walks on the street and like every third person's like Andrew you know what I mean so it wasn't like that but it was like people knew and so the idea that this guy gave me his number I was like this is crazy and then yeah like a week went by I texted him a bunch of stuff I was like hey dude here's my idea like

00:25:25 - 00:26:09

can we talk and he was like yeah yeah sure and then like gave me his like in famous New York City like walk and talk where like he goes and like walks around the city I guess I don't know but like in the background I hear like people honking horns like [ __ ] move like just like Puerto Rican dudes like playing music and [ __ ] like it was crazy yeah and he was like all right what's up and I was like okay dude can I like I know how to edit videos I at that time I had edited like a couple like viral

00:25:46 - 00:26:41

videos that had like gone pretty big um I had worked with a couple comedians like edited podcast stuff um and I was designing merchandise for my fraternity wow so I was like so you kind of like a creative kind of guy always dabling with different and just like doing a ton of stuff so I was like I can apply all of this to you like I can uh you know like I can help with social Clips I can help like cut stuff I can uh you know design merchandise and like print all the merchandise I can go to the print shop I

00:26:14 - 00:26:58

knew all the people that are making the t-shirts let's make the t-shirts I'll bring them with me I'll put them in my suitcase I'll travel to every city that we're going to and I'll do everything for free you don't have to pay just consider like an internship like this be like what what in you like made you feel like you needed to make that kind of forther like you just wanted to be in the proximity of what he was doing or like yeah I just knew like if I was able to go on the road and do standup and be

00:26:35 - 00:27:26

around the best guys I would be the best that I could be yeah so you're rate reaction was like how do I give value to this guy yeah and I just wanted to be a part of it like he was just was like at that point I like de like dug more into like what he was doing and he was releasing his own stuff on YouTube which at the time was like so brand new and like released the whole special and all these pieces and like like it was just a wave and I I saw the model and I was like oh this is this around 2019 2019 is

00:27:01 - 00:27:54

this around the time where he had the deal with Netflix and then something happened and he wasn't able to do the full set so he bought it back that was later that was later that was later at this point he was just fully on YouTube yeah and I was just like yeah this guy is on a wave this is like so cool I just wanted to be a part of it I was like let me help let me do anything and I was basically like and in exchange you don't have to pay me at all let me just go on the road for you let me host and then

00:27:27 - 00:28:14

have the club pay me the host pay which was like 70 bucks 80 bucks a show and I was like I'll pay for my own flights like cuz I was thinking like if he does like three or four shows maybe I'll make like I don't know 300 bucks 350 something like that I could pay for the flight and break even so I was like that's perfect he was and I was just like look give me two months can we try it and if I'm bombing if I'm not doing good on stage if I'm a bad hang if the merch sucks if the clips aren't good

00:27:51 - 00:28:47

like whatever if there's anything it'll like just call it off no harm no foul I'll never talk to you again and he was like all right like just as easy as that like I I couldn't believe he said yes I was like that's crazy and so basically like the next weekend I was like on the road we went to Texas and we did like the Addison Improv and I was like still finishing school I wasn't done with school yet so I was like Monday through Friday like doing exams taking classes going to philosophy class doing scuba

00:28:18 - 00:29:07

diving like going to fraternity parties whatever and then Friday morning I like got in my car drove to the airport flew to Texas my mom was like why are you in Texas and I was like it's a long story can't explain right now yeah did the shows and then like that just went on for basically 2 months and at the end of the two months I was still living in Florida going back and forth like flying to all the gigs he was basically like dude why don't you just move to New York I was like all right so we invited you

00:28:43 - 00:29:34

to New York yeah he was basically like yeah dud just move up here and like keep doing what you're doing and like help out and then like I'll pay you like an actual like salary for everything you're doing wow and then yeah he's just always been like the man and then a story about him that no one knows I've never actually told before but like just to kind of put like a testament to like who he is as a dude so that was like 2019 by the end of like the internship period that was like 2 months-ish we did a

00:29:08 - 00:29:55

theater in Toronto so like I went from like open mics like at coffee shops like trying to figure it out within 2 months like at a theater in Toronto it was probably like a thousand people or something and I was just like so I like couldn't believe it it was just me and him doing this theater and I was like this is crazy and we did that all the way up until 2020 when Co happened and then the pandemic happened so we didn't have anyone else with him at that time no he would like sometimes we'd find

00:29:32 - 00:30:15

people in like the local city to like host and then I would feature but no one like traveling with him no and I at that point he was like oh Mark is like pretty good like I was doing really good on the shows and so I wasn't a host anymore I was a feature and then we'd have someone else host do you think like you were like helping him in other ways other than like the videography and all the rest of it like he liked having someone on the road with him that he kind of yeah I mean like the road gets lonely

00:29:53 - 00:30:39

for anyone you know what I mean like you start doing comedy in the city and like you're around all your comedy buddies you're bouncing around to spots you're hanging out at the bar like it's like very communal and then you go to like Witchita Kansas and you're alone you don't know the other comedians they put you up in like a shitty comedy condo that's like like like other comedians have had sex in there it's like it's like you know daveid tell's cigarettes

00:30:17 - 00:31:01

are like laying around in the shower you're like what is going on and then you don't talk to anyone all day and then you go up on stage and have to go be funny and it just be kind of becomes like an isolating experience and so being able to take people on the road with you is like most fun thing ever now like you like jam out you can test jokes it just happen just a buddy to like go get food with like you can just go to a restaurant and just like talk [ __ ] like it's just like it makes it 10 times like

00:30:39 - 00:31:25

imagine you would to do this trip to New York without anyone yeah I think I was thinking about it the other day cuz like walking around in a group the three of us like kind of know that there's less to be concerned about at 3:00 a.m. in the streets of New York when we're walking around but yeah it's just good to not feel alone to know that you're sharing an experience with someone that you care about like imagine you got everything done imagine you found a local videographer that like right at

00:31:02 - 00:31:44

you know whatever time we started showed up set up the cameras you never talk to him like you can like try to connect but he's only here for an hour you know what I mean like it gets isolating it's a different social contract cuz you're just kind of there to like exchange services but like with c and cam we're able to kind of like hang out and share this experience talk about it like give feedback to each other off the the podcast that we do and everything so I know what you mean like I think being on

00:31:23 - 00:32:10

the road alone would kind of suck yeah and I think maybe Andrew valued you for like friendship among other the things yeah it's just nice to have like a crew like we would go do stuff together we go like go-karting so like we'd wake up in the morning we were in some random Town we're like oh they have go-karts here and we wake up and work out and then go go-kart for two hours and then go to the show it was like so fun and but what people don't know is that when Co happened basically like my I was like

00:31:46 - 00:32:42

getting paid through Andrew on like uh doing like you know video stuff and like helping out around the studio like whatever I could and then I was getting paid on the road and So Co happened my pay got like cut in half basically and I like it wasn't like crazy money of the time I'd only been like working with him for like seven eight months of that maybe yeah almost a year maybe 10 months yeah and Co happens and then he just kind of comes to me one day he's like hey dude I know that your road pay is gone right

00:32:14 - 00:33:03

like we're not on the road you're not going to make any money on the road so I'm just going to pay you double whatever you going to make like never was like a combo he just like was like hey you're still G to keep the regular pay you're getting from me every week and then whatever you're making the road it by two and then I'll add that to what I'm paying you wow so just like it never even was like a second thought like his Road he never mentioned anything he was just like uh

00:32:39 - 00:33:26

and his Road pay also got cut like he wasn't making money on the road either but he was just like you're doing a great job you're a good dude and like you moved to New York to like pursue this dream with me boom wow and so just like immed like I made more money and like he just like and yeah I just think that's like a testament like who he is as a dude just like so thoughtful and like really takes care of the people people around him like all the guys that like work within the studio have been

00:33:02 - 00:33:55

there the whole time or they've been like his friends from like high school it's like his boys like he like grew up with yeah so like all the guys that are there have like anyone that's like joined has stayed you know what I mean like the culture within the studio and just like being on the road and all that stuff is like so solid so I don't know I just think that's like a really cool like side that people don't always see well I experienced it like when he and you came to Sydney I remember you

00:33:28 - 00:34:31

invited me backstage to The Green Room I was incredibly nervous and my fiance was freaking out and for like me I think like um you know when I was backstage and Andrew walked in he's just really humble and chill like he was just going up to people saying hello like what's up hanging out like there was no ego there was no like I'm better than you all or holier than D complex just yeah it's just really like down to earth nice guy yeah yeah so I've applied those lessons to like the stuff that I'm doing now

00:34:00 - 00:34:46

like I'm building my own pod and like all the guys that are working on it I'm like like the pod's like not killing it you know what I mean it's doing pretty good but like it's not like you know the biggest thing in the world so like as much money as I can throw to like the guys that are working on it or like get them more involved I just remember how much that meant to me and so now I'm like yeah just let's keep it going so then when you jumped in were you immediately working on the flagrant pod

00:34:23 - 00:35:13

like adjacent so like by the time I moved up I think I was like taking no notes or something like I was like helping out with like C like whatever like he had a c he had himself and then yeah and then Alex was doing basically everything else and then uh there were some other guys that were like helping out but at that point like I wasn't as familiar with the podcast and I didn't like I listen to podcast all the time but I I wasn't like I didn't understand like the back end really and so I was

00:34:48 - 00:35:40

just like helping with whatever was around I was like what like I'll mop like I'll sweep up the floor like I'll reset the room yeah like whatever I could do so I was just like figuring it out and then yeah that was basically like about the time that I moved up which was like halfway like near the end of 2019 yeah and that's when you started showing up on the couch on the show that was even before that so like I was like off camera like it was really around Co that like it got more integrated yeah

00:35:14 - 00:36:13

because Co happened like we only saw each other and So Co happens and I was just like in my apartment hanging with my wife she moved up and like we were just hanging out with our cat and then I would like bike to the studio and then we would like do pods and I'd bike back home and like that's all I did for like a year basically and uh yeah I just like was just doing whatever like off camera no microphone just like throwing ideas out just like throwing out like topics like just trying to you know add to the

00:35:42 - 00:36:42

vibe yeah and like for like comedy and like the podcast space I've noticed that a lot of brands are starting to scale in the podcast market around comedy like you've got especially here in New York there's probably like or 14 pods I can think of like were you guys knowingly in the pocket catching the wave or did it just kind of happen and come together I think it was just like coincidence I guess I don't know like I can't say there was like a ton of like like there's obviously some strategy but I

00:36:13 - 00:37:04

mean he was already doing a podcast with charlin yeah and so and I think he really enjoyed it so then he started like his own with Akosh and then yeah it just kind of like bubbled as like its own kind of community and I know you guys just finished going on tour yeah didn't finish yeah it's still going still going still going when are you guys finishing up I don't know I don't know exactly I'm imagining like 2025 at some point but I don't know exactly all right like it's a long ass tour yeah cuz

00:36:38 - 00:37:23

comedy tours are different than music like music it's like all right we just dropped an album 3 months we're going to go every single day and we're going to like bus and we'll drive around because like with music you have like all this equipment so when people think tour I think they think like a specific like segmented period of time like we're going to go and do this that's why I had imagine like you do like a 3 month like back to back thing but like is a little different like a lot of markets uh like

00:37:00 - 00:37:54

like Mo still with music but like most markets don't sell as many tickets on like a Monday Tuesday Wednesday so we go basically like sometimes Thursday but like Friday Saturday hit a bunch of cities and then bounce back um I noticed that you've started your own podcast it's going really well you guys are getting like hundreds of thousands of views on some of the episodes how did you feel that you needed to start your own podcast I was just like always enamored with like Rogan and Dak Shepard

00:37:27 - 00:38:17

yeah like they're I started listening to Dax recently man Dax is awesome like those two pods I was just like hooked on since I was like young like even I was like listening to Rogan I was like high school early high school you know what I mean like just listen to him like Joey Diaz just like talk [ __ ] I was like this is the best and so I really liked that format how long has Dax been R I can't remember I want to say like he's got like a couple hundred episodes now I think more I think he's been going like

00:37:52 - 00:38:53

four or five years really yeah so probably I only just started like getting hooked into his I think 2018 I think if I had guess but he's one of the first dudes kind of in like the celebrity podcast space I say celebrity because like he like it's now like a thing where like known celebrities do big podcasts but his was so unique because he's a celebrity but talking to like academics kind of like how Rogan was and I was like oh this is awesome like just like really really cool long form one-on-one combos with people that

00:38:23 - 00:39:15

don't necessarily have like big name no big following just are like really interesting yeah and I don't know to that that often times is like some of the best episodes of like people that are really unknown yeah yeah absolutely absolutely and so my thought was like okay I'm 20 I think at the time I was like 25 or 26 and I was just like what is the best use of my time in my 20s like what would be like the most like formative thing I could do and I just as like a human being and I felt like it

00:38:49 - 00:39:36

was sitting across from people that are like smarter than me or like had more life experience than me and just asked them all the dumbest questions I can think you know what I mean like literally I was like okay what if I could sit down across from like like I just had all these thoughts I was just like okay what about like parenting or what about like War like I never met someone that like really went to prison like my uncle was in jail but like it was like you know bank fraud or something you know what I mean you had

00:39:12 - 00:40:11

like mob bosses you had conspiracy theorists you've had abolutely academics um yeah what I find interesting about your PO is you have like these really deep story oriented episodes about crime and like history and jail and things like that then you'll have someone on from like MI6 talking about UFOs and they're in workings and then you'll have an academist on talking about like parent psychology or what have you exactly do you think that for podcasting that needs to be a niche or do you think you can

00:39:42 - 00:40:33

just kind of do whatever I think there needs to be a niche in the short term yeah if your goal is like okay I want to grow fast you need a niche yeah for me the goal was to talk to the most interesting people and like become a more well-rounded human yeah like I just have even still there's like so many blind spots about the world yeah and like things that I'm like researching trying to figure out and so in my mind I'm like going through these wi computer articles all the time like reading stuff

00:40:07 - 00:40:58

and instead of reading the wi computer articles like reading the books I'm like what if I could just call up the dude that wrote the thing and then ask him and then ask like the nuanced second or third question and then grow that way so I was like yeah I don't really care necessarily about like growing fast you know what I mean like it's not like like I'm like I'm just going to do this forever like I'll do this even if the cameras aren't on you know what I mean like I would just go to dinner with you

00:40:32 - 00:41:21

know this like UFO guy or I would just like go to dinner with this mob boss or I would like have lunch with this academic or this business person last time we were talking about how Joe Rogan like the first year you said he only had 54 episodes yeah yeah and then year two he had 100 yeah there's this really interesting chart you can see like the episodes he put out year by year and he didn't even do that to my knowledge he was like four years in he wasn't really well known and he had hundreds of

00:40:56 - 00:41:44

episodes yeah so what's interesting is that like he was well known from like Fear Factor and from his own standup and then UFC but he even said this to Tucker recently in a clip he was like I wasn't looking at the numbers I wasn't looking at anything for the first like 5 years I wasn't really making any money and he was like I did the show at the Chicago theater and I was like uh does anyone here listen to the pod which is like so funny like imagine Rogan being like do you have you guys ever heard of this

00:41:20 - 00:42:11

podcast that I'm doing and the whole theater was like yeah yeah and he was like oh wow this is like had like an oh [ __ ] moment he was like stage how crazy and so yeah I just think that's like it depends what your goal is like I think if the goal is like and also yeah it depends on like what your specific interest is also like if you're like I love Pokemon I only want to talk about Pokemon yeah then having a Pokemon Niche makes a lot of sense yeah which is pretty much what C and I always talk

00:41:46 - 00:42:42

about yeah exactly have you seen Tim noi on Instagram I don't think so dude there's this guy on Instagram is it Tim Noy or Tim naaki nacki Tim nakaki tim. n AK Ki and uh he's playing a hand of blackjack every day and he's oh I've seen this guy yeah he's a day 7 the amount of followers he has he puts like a quarter he did a million in 74 days a million followers on Instagram and he's doing 10 cents for every follower he gets on a blackjack hand yeah yeah but now he's like can't go to casinos they

00:42:14 - 00:43:06

have like uh ceilings right so now he has to like find like High Roller tables and like yeah online it's so crazy I mean what a great idea so he's up like 600k since he started so cool such a good idea that's awesome I'm like oh man getting tempted with gambling like this is a bad thing but to the Pokemon thing it's like yeah if you have a niche like go for the niche but if the goal is to create a community in like your own Niche then it's just time cuz I meet people all the time that start a pod cuz

00:42:40 - 00:43:28

they're trying to grow a business or they're trying to drum up attention and I agree it's like kind of great for marketing but like yeah the interesting thing about Dax Joe Rogan yourself Andrew like it just seems like it's a genuine thing that you guys like to do yeah yeah yeah I mean like again I don't know Dax is like Financial situation but like I don't think he needs to work anymore so he's doing the Pod because he really loves it and I think if it was doing half the views I think he would

00:43:04 - 00:43:42

still do it I think if it's doing Twice The Views I think he still does it like Rogan basically said that verbatim he's like you know I wasn't making any money I didn't know how many views it was getting he just loved doing it and so how are you going to beat that guy that just is obsessed with like having cool comos about what he's interested in yeah cuz I think it brings a bit of magic if it's genuine and you're interested and you're a seeking guest you want to like

00:43:23 - 00:44:07

learn from and unpack ideas from I just think it's the best way to like grow in your 20s I genuinely like any person that I can meet that I'm like oh this person is interesting can like I can learn from I get to sit down for 3 hours and they have to answer my questions like that's crazy like why is that allowed like where else can you do that yeah you where else does that really happen where you sit down and have like a really detailed and I used to do it before the Pod like if I like met

00:43:45 - 00:44:30

someone that I like really liked and I was like hey dude can I just like call you for 15 minutes and just like pick your brain and just like see what you think about the world like learn like about a specific thing that you know about or like I would just read their book like quietly I would meet them and be like oh this guy's awesome and I just like read his book and be like I wish I could like text him about this chapter and now I can it's like how cool is that so like I said if zero people watched it

00:44:07 - 00:45:01

I would still do it where does the identity pod come from like the set where does that yeah cuz your set's crazy you've got like this like if you walking into the space we could probably put a video up here and you've got the ceiling blacked out and you've got what looks like fake Stars we can hear crickets you put up fake trees against the walls like it feels like you're actually outside it so my thought was like I wanted to just replicate the most like authentic human connection possible yeah and so I was

00:44:34 - 00:45:20

like like even like right now this is a different kind of show but it's like this is not how we would hang out like we hung out yesterday yeah and like there's lights on us there's cameras on us like there's two people it changes the dynamic yeah which isn't bad but I don't I don't want to like put a prescription on I just think it's a different thing where like sometimes you want that like you want like hey the lights are on like game time showtime like and people want different things

00:44:57 - 00:45:51

for different shows I just think that's like the default setting that most like podcasts to is they're like oh yeah we have to have cameras we have to have lights like this is a that's a blueprint that's what that's what a pod is and for me I was like okay if like I said I don't like I want people to watch cuz like ideally like I don't want to just lose money forever right um but like if I was doing this for No One watching like what would the ideal environment be and in my mind it's like detached from

00:45:24 - 00:46:15

technology no cell phones there's no cell service like out in the world out in nature like just like walking around like I always thought like my best combos with like my friends were either like late night like after like the bar or like we like went to a party or some [ __ ] we're like hanging out by like the pool outside and it's just like three guys just like talking [ __ ] till 400 in the morning no one knows what time it is everyone's phone is dead or like my wife and I would just go for hikes like

00:45:49 - 00:46:46

Upstate New York we would hike like our phones would have no service and we would hike like 8 Miles with no thought cuz we're just like walking and talking and I was like oh this is like the way humans for the last 100,000 years have communicated so I was like how can I replicate that and film it so like I you done an interesting thing where like you're sitting across from a table right behind you is the tent and there's like this nice warm cozy close-nit feeling like it feels like intimate yeah and

00:46:17 - 00:47:15

then you have the media uh behind a wall so that you can't even see it when you're on the pond yeah cuz like that's not how me and like you know this like World War II historian would talk like it wouldn't be us two and then like a third person watching us like I how much do you think this set like changes how a guas feels because entirely you've got multiple sets with Andrew Schulz you've got multiple different pods different layouts and formats like yeah what's what's been your opinion on how like the

00:46:47 - 00:47:31

environment shifts oh 100% so like with flagrant it's like all right you got some lights we got some cameras we got four people sitting around like sit down like let's go kind of feels like a sitcom show it's a show it's like yo you like it is like we're performing like we are like we're talking we're joking like we're bringing energy like it's crazy hot takes we're talking about stuff in the news like it just like energy and then for my show it's very much like I

00:47:09 - 00:47:50

wanted all the lighting to be practical and by that I mean like I don't want any big studio lights I want all the lights to be like how the lights would be like in your house like all the how all the lighting you have like in your home is practical lighting where it's like it's supposed to practically light the room that you're in so I was like I wanted it to be that I wanted the cameras to be like obscured or like completely invisible which like I'm working on right now like to make the cameras like

00:47:29 - 00:48:06

completely like out of sight um I didn't even notice them when I was in there yeah and and obviously people know like they're being filmed like I tell them like hey this is a video podcast here's what it is yeah but when they're in a conversation their brain can kind of drift off from the fact that that's even happening yeah I just wanted to be like a real human connection like Hey we're actually talking and like if you go on a tangent like that's cool let's go down

00:47:48 - 00:48:42

that path cuz like I don't think you're bringing up the tangent for no reason you know what I mean like there's there's something that you're trying to like teach me or tell me that we're but I've noticed your guest goes straight into into the DNM do you guys say that in the US like DNM like deep and meaningful no I've never heard that DM I was like oh like I thought the DM is like into like the dirty you got to add dnm's no no DNM is like deep and meaningful conversation

00:48:15 - 00:49:00

it's like that stuff at 3:00 a.m. with your buddies when like no one's around you have like those crazy hey man have you ever wanted like what the meaning of life is like those kind of moments I noticed that your guests slip into that pretty quickly yeah and I think this space has a lot to do with it I think it's like cuz I've done pods where like I went to someone else's home and the energy is totally different like they're in like their domain and as a result like and again it's not good or bad it

00:48:37 - 00:49:19

just creates a different Dynamic where like they feel a lot of uh a lot of like compulsion to like drive and I think it's some consciously it's like I'm in my house you're a guest in my house like how do I make you comfortable and so they'll just like go and it's like kind of hard to like get the reins on the combo and like at the end of the combo I'm like I didn't ask any questions like they just it was just it was you know what I mean like I didn't get I didn't I

00:48:58 - 00:49:47

didn't ask what I was really curious about so like now that there's like a like a neutral kind of space or like my space they're able to come into it and like yeah I think that there's a subconscious level of like yeah we can just kind of go and like I also want the show to feel like yeah you can be philosophical be deep like talk to me about God whatever like I just think that's like at least that's like when me and my friends like late at night or like walking around like that's what we

00:49:22 - 00:50:11

talk about like are there aliens out there you know what I mean like what the [ __ ] is going on why are there planets for no reason reason yeah they're just floating around they got dust on them and water like why the [ __ ] is that even up there I saw a quote and it said that um we're just ghosts floating in skeletons covered in meat a rock through space yeah it's crazy those kind of like late night thoughts where you're like huh like yeah pushes your wig back bro that sh is crazy but like Walt Disney

00:49:47 - 00:50:43

was like one of the guys like I grew up going to Disney all the time as a kid and he was like so big on like the experience so like you when you go to a Disney park you park your car in the parking lot and you get on like a train that drives you to a mono Rail and then you take this monil into like this world and then you're in Disney World where nothing is like real world like there's no litter on the streets there's no gum you know what I mean like there's like everyone that meets you is like happy

00:50:14 - 00:50:54

like it's its own world and it's created that way by Design like you go onto a ride and like the ride starts when you walk into the line of the Ride Like the difference between Disney and like a carnival is like a carnival is like you're going to spin on this thing and throw up you know what I mean like you're going to too much sushi in Japan just Yak everywhere like that's like what that's what the like that's what a carnival is like you stand in the line and you go on a ride whereas like Disney

00:50:35 - 00:51:16

is like the ride starts when you're in the line and so it's like all this kind of like subconscious feeding of like oh I'm in an experience and that's why I wanted this to be like once you walk into the door it's like oh I'm in a world so the set is not just the chairs it's like the Treehouse and every time people go in the treehouse they go oh what is this for and I don't have a good answer crazy man so you climb up like 10 steps on this ladder and you've built

00:50:55 - 00:51:41

inside this studio uh I believe we got a photo of it it's like shag pile coming on the inside and you told me you nap in there yeah yeah if we're doing two pods in a day I'll take a nap but like yeah what is it for like nothing it's just cool I'd like tree houses I wanted a treeh house when I was a kid like my dad built me one and I was like this is the best day ever and then I got to relive how awesome that day was when I built my own Treehouse I was like yeah this is sick and people

00:51:18 - 00:52:09

were like oh like do you film in here I was like no like it's not for money I was like now you think about it yeah I spent a lot of money building this treehouse it's what there's no benefit there's no reason like the stars in the ceiling like you kind of see them a little like why did you do it like cuz I wanted to because it's sick I like I want the I want the feeling of like I walked into a world and like I'm a part of the world and the viewer that's watching like they get to be a part of

00:51:43 - 00:52:32

the world and like I want it to feel like its own little like EOS that's cool cuz it's kind of like inside someone else's world which is kid Studio which is wild yeah when you were taking us through there last night he was showing us that he had had a store here in New York somewhere else and he ripped the walls out when he left his story is crazy and brought it into the new studio yeah it's awesome just got these old walls wall sorry these old walls and doors from his old shop in his new shop

00:52:08 - 00:52:52

yeah I mean he's like a true like creative genius yeah and uh has excellent taste in podcast has that rubed up when you like hanging around with these characters like made you start to get a bit more creative and a bit more wild with how you exp absolutely like especially when like you're hanging out with like Comedians and Like Comics are always focused on like okay like what is the next show like how do I like get my Clips to work like how do I get this joke to work like there's very much

00:52:30 - 00:53:08

like an entrepreneurship that goes along with it whereas like in the kids super Studio it's just still focused on like fashion like how do we make clothes and like how do we create a brand that's really cool but there's a lot of stuff that just happens where it's like yo we're just going to have fun just like goof off and like it's very like like we'll just play like Jeopardy like I'll like walk in like there's just some debate happening and I'll just like jump

00:52:49 - 00:53:32

into a debate with like all right Mark you're gay what do you think of this and like I'll just like chime in it's like CRA it's so fun and so the environment is just like so loose and there's so many cool characters that come in and out that like I think is really helpful for like Creative Energy I find that too like even at rival like we're almost 30 people now and the more people we get together the Wilder the ideas become and like people just start sharing different things yeah I think yeah I think

00:53:11 - 00:53:59

creative Community is like really important you know what I mean like I just think the people like this like an old saying right like show me your friends I'll show you your future kind of thing and like the people you hang with like really rub off on you and like if they're all negative like it's I don't know if it's escapable like you can be the positive person like I think it's a little bit of you get stuck in it and so I'm fortunate to be around like so many awesome creative people like a

00:53:35 - 00:54:32

rubs off like I I think had I stayed in Florida I would have been a very different person so with the comedy scene like for me looking at it from as an outsider I've been watching stand up for years and I love it like there seems to be this introspective philosophical side at least what I've experienced with you and uh Andrew um mixed with like this entertainment Show Business mixed with like business like how much of this is like branding how much of this is just hustle like how do you describe the

00:54:03 - 00:54:56

scene like is it I think it depends like person to person but like there's been an interesting shift I think in all creative Fields like all art where people now have to be like creative entrepreneurs or like back in the day you could just be creative and then like a company or like Comedy Central or you know the company that's like producing your sitcom would just be able to come in and be like okay you focus on doing this and we'll take care of all the business stuff yeah which was awesome

00:54:30 - 00:55:19

for some people like they you know their careers took off and they had a sitcom and became like the biggest person in the world um but then also like [ __ ] over a ton of people that like oh I'm in a 360 deal making like no money and you guys are making all the money off me and like people got like pimped out so like they're pros and cons and now it's much more democratized which I think is in general better for everyone but it does now require you to kind of be a little bit more of an entrepreneur I think that

00:54:55 - 00:55:43

transcended the standup I think that's all cretive field whe you're like an artist if you're you know making like Tik Tok content whatever it is that you're doing like you now have to be like okay how do I do brand deals like how do I roll out merchandise like how do I do these other things like other streams of Revenue that I think the new generation of like creative people have to figure out yeah cuz you used to have like the gatekeeper of your community right you'd have to know the person who

00:55:18 - 00:56:03

owned the venue the person that was at the door like you know pre- internet I imagine it was like quite different to get that would be done through like booking agents like you would get like a good booking agent that knew the people at the clubs and they're like hey sign with me because I know these hundred people and someone else would be like no sign with me cuz I know these 100 people whereas now you can just you know become known on Instagram or Tik Tok or YouTube and then all those doors open and then

00:55:40 - 00:56:29

like you can just sell out tickets to a show yeah yeah yeah literally I mean like my buddy Ralph Barbosa is like such a good example of this like he's a comic I think he was living in Houston at the time he's from Texas and started putting out clips and like the clips he's like so funny and immediately the clips just go crazy and and then in like I to me again I don't know his exact timeline but it seemed like within a span of like a couple months he was like sort of like just a really funny like unknown dude to

00:56:05 - 00:56:54

now one of like the biggest touring comedians selling out theaters and venues everywhere and like just like that immediately and it back back in the day I don't know his situation but like back in the day someone might have looked at a comic like that and been like oh we don't know like is this right for like the market and like our roster we already have like we already have like a Latino guy so we don't know if we want to add it on like da da da and then he might have you know like tried to get

00:56:29 - 00:57:17

out there and there might have been door shut but now he can just post his stuff and get seen everywhere easy yeah and for you man like when you're looking at the podcast side of things like what are some things that people should be mindful of when they trying to get that initial traction on like YouTube I think it depends what the what the goal is like if you're starting like a if you're doing it for like business purposes like you don't need a big audience okay right like you just need like the Right

00:56:53 - 00:57:35

audience so like if you're starting like a real estate podcast like you don't need a million people to listen you need like a thousand people that are like real estate people that then you can like connect with or like if you're starting a podcast where you're like okay I'm getting into like this new industry and I want to connect with people in the industry you don't even necessarily need any listeners yeah you could just be like hey I'm running a restaurant podcast I'm going to have

00:57:14 - 00:57:58

like every great like Chef because I want to meet chefs and I want to like talk to chefs and like build a relationship with chefs you know what I mean if that's your thing and so in that case like you don't like obviously the more listeners you have like the more likely you to get like big people but depending on how small the community is like people kind of it's can be just like an excuse to connect like just with the guest you know what I mean so like yeah so rather than like focusing on

00:57:37 - 00:58:30

like trying to be a big shot and become famous it's like focus on building a community like bringing something to the table that like a niche group might be like really obsessed with and like maybe creating the Pod that you kind of wish you could Listen to If it depends again it's it depends on what your goal is like if your goal is to like be the biggest podcaster in the world then I'd probably like okay create a niche that's like in a blue ocean where there's like a ton of demand and no one's supplying

00:58:03 - 00:58:55

it and just go crazy on the niche and like blow it up like that would be and like invest a ton of money like get funding get Clips like pay guest to come on that are like big people that then can like get the ball rolling roll it out really strategically where it's like all your biggest guests in a row and then like build it up that way within a very very specific Niche yeah if that's what the goal is like I think Dio did a great job where they like yeah he's like a beast like if you've looked in the

00:58:29 - 00:59:17

back end of his stuff it's like Unthinkable the amount of like effort and strategy he's put into it he's like I'm talking to CEOs it's very specific this is two CEOs four CEOs four people interested in business and like I'm going to grow it that way so it's like in a very specific Niche it was kind of like underdeveloped at the time when he was starting like there were not a lot of people like talking of really high-profile CEOs and found a blue ocean and then just like pumped like so much

00:58:53 - 00:59:50

energy and time into it to where now it's one of the biggest podcasts in the world yeah I think Cam went to his show yeah from your opinion like looking at Steven botle like what do you think he's got right that others hadn't really figured out I mean he just applied so much data to podcasting that like I always look at like Mr Beast as like one of the first people to like really apply data to like YouTube content and was like okay how do we like improve the click through of these thumbnails like

00:59:21 - 01:00:06

if I do this face it's better than this face like how do we like increase the retention and no one had really done it for podcasting so like we had done it like with flagrant a little bit with like oh we're going to do intros and we're going to like spice up the thumbnails and we're going to make it like like more palatable and more marketable but then Steven took it to like a different level where he like hired like the best trailer editor in England like literally guys that like

00:59:43 - 01:00:33

cut trailers for like Inception like crazy movies [ __ ] hired that guy paid him whatever he was getting paid again this is like crazy over he's like pouring money into this to get the best people and now they make 90c trailers and intros for all their episodes that have an amazing hook a really great story and Arc a Content Gap and then a cliffhanger yeah and so like it follows this like beautiful formula that like you watch the first 90 seconds I dare you to click on any one of those videos

01:00:08 - 01:01:05

and by the end you'll be like I want to listen to this yeah and like he has a ton of like expose on like their inner process and if you just watching this videos you're like oh wow he's like just put so much data and analytics into creating this like machine and has done an amazing job cuz he's not just grabbing CEO like he's planning out the whole thing like from like trailer through to production the filming the editing style the questions everything's so so prepared three identical studios

01:00:37 - 01:01:24

in London New York and La I didn't know that yeah three identical Studios that like sit in a warehouse when he's not using them then he goes out there he has an advanced team that sets up the studio so the studio is the same in every episode but he's in different cities every time it's just it's so so so brilliant so he's got one in the UK yep one in the US two in the US I believe two in the US one each Coast line yeah and so go to La have 10 guests lined up bang bang bang two in a day go to New

01:01:01 - 01:01:48

York bunch of guests lined up and then he's running his business at the same time yeah I think guys like Chris Williamson do things different but in their in its own beautiful way where like he's not necessarily going for like CEOs he's going for like academics and like really like you know profound like authors and you know professors and things like that and then now he's doing like eight camera video wall Unreal Engine episodes yeah and then he Hedges it where he'll do like some of those

01:01:24 - 01:02:08

every week or maybe every month and then he'll do you know Zoom ones but it's like really high quality on Zoom where like the level doesn't drop off and so he's able to like pour a ton of money to these and then do these a little cheaper but like the quality of the conversation is still the same so the audience loves both yeah and so again it just depends on like what is the niche that you're going for if there's a niche and if there's no Niche then you become the niche yeah you know what I mean like

01:01:46 - 01:02:36

Rogan like what is his Niche he is the niche you know what I mean so like anyone that goes on his show you're excited for the guest but you're really going because it's Joe Joe is talking this you're hanging out with him exactly so like it doesn't really matter who's across from like and sometimes it's a superstar it's Jordan Peterson it's Elon Musk whatever yeah but sometimes it's like you know just a comic buddy of his and it's just as entertaining if not

01:02:11 - 01:03:01

more entertaining like as fun like and and the numbers you know sustain because they're there for him and so that is sometimes the problem I think when you like Chase a niche too hard is that you kind of wash out so if you chase a niche really hard again it could be good or bad but like let's say you have like this Pokémon Niche where it's like hey everyone that listens is here for Pokémon and the host is irrelevant the host can like swap out potentially right and people will be like yeah we're

01:02:37 - 01:03:19

getting our Pokemon info or like if you have like a stock trading if you have a stock trading podcast you're like we talk about stocks the person that's there maybe that's important I don't know but like it's less important than if it's like a personality-driven show where the individual is the niche you know what I mean like if Rogan's like hey can't do the episode today I have my friend filling in people will be like what is no we're here for you this is you know what I mean like it's called

01:02:57 - 01:03:37

The Joe Rogan Experience like you if Howard Stern was like Hey I'm going to swap out if Oprah was like Hey I'm going to do something else like all these people are like phenoms in their own right and you tune into the show not necessarily because who they're talking to because of them because they become a niche in their own right I think one thing to be careful of is like and I've even found this like I did a bunch of episodes early on with like Crime Guys cuz I was like really interested in

01:03:18 - 01:04:06

prison I'd never met someone that got in prison like despite my tough demeanor I'd never been to prison um so I was like I would love to talk to someone that like did in like a federal penitentiary so like I talked to this dude Andre Norman and he was just like so cool he was awesome he spent like 14 years in prison got out went to Harvard and like now is like a speaker that does like prison reform I was like this guy is the coolest and that episode did like a million and a half views within like a

01:03:41 - 01:04:31

short period of time and if I was less cautious or if I was newer in the game I might have been like this is the niche I'm going to talk to guys that went to prison I'm going to do True Crime and I would have just only done that and I like and those episodes still do really well like if I have a mobster on it's like oh yeah this episode does really well it's awesome but and then I'll drop an episode with like a comedy friend and that episode won't do as good and there's like a gamification that happens

01:04:07 - 01:04:48

on YouTube specifically like within the YouTube analytics on the back end where you're looking at it and you're like oh I feel really good when I get a lot of views and I don't feel that good when I get no views and so you're then kind of and then there's a financial component like oh I make money when I talk to Crime people I don't make money when I talk to Comedy people and if you're not it depends what you're in it for like I kept saying like if you're in it to like

01:04:28 - 01:05:12

make money and get views which is completely fine I don't think there's anything wrong with that then you're just going to kind of like go down that path and then YouTube has put you in a niche which again is not bad it's just its own thing so I was very diligent to be like hm I'm going to do this episode with this like World War II guy and it's probably going to bomb and probably no one's going to watch it but I really think it's interesting and I love talking about history so I'm going to

01:04:50 - 01:05:40

have them on and I'm going to talk for 3 hours and just let it be and then that episode did amazing like did really well I was like this is 40,000 people listen to us talk about World War II that's crazy yeah and then like the UFO guy I was like H I had on all these academics and if I have this UFO guy on like people are going to think I'm crazy and other guests are not going to want to come on and it's episode's probably not going to do that good but I was like I really want to know about these aliens

01:05:14 - 01:06:08

bro I need to know what's going on yeah me too man so I had them on and then the episode did great and I was like oh this is so cool so now I feel confident that like hey I'm just going to try stuff and like try new niches and have new people on that I think are really cool and if they don't do good the quality of the conversation is is great still and for you with the tour and everything that's happening like what's next what are you obsessing with right now seems like the podcast is doing really well yeah um it

01:05:42 - 01:06:36

sounds like you guys are doing great with the tour like what's next man just do this forever like literally I was like I really thought this was going to be like a found your thing yeah yeah I I remember and I think yeah I think Joe said this like Rogan said this on a podcast when I listened to in like high school and he was like he described his day and I don't know if it's changed or if I'm making this up completely but I believe I'm recalling this accurately I hope but he was like I wake up I have

01:06:08 - 01:06:57

breakfast with my kids I hang out with my family I drive my kids to school I drop them off I go workout and I do like a hard workout for an hour and then I go into the sauna I get into the cold plunge I do my podcast where I talk to the most interesting person in the world or I talk to my friend or I talk to a producer of music I talk to whoever he has on his pod that day who he's interested in talking to and he does that for 3 hours and maybe like smokes a cigar maybe drinks whiskey like whatever

01:06:32 - 01:07:21

he wants to do that day and then at like 4:00 or whatever he goes and picks his kids up from school drives them home talks about the day puts them to sleep at like 8: and then go and does stand up at the store until 2: in the morning hang out with his friends doing comedy and I remember hearing that being like that's all I want to do literally like for the rest of my life I was like subscribe yeah and like it's not about like oh do one pot a week and then like go [ __ ] around it's like I will do that

01:06:56 - 01:07:41

every day cuz that to me is like it is arduous and like there's it is like hard and there's a lot of work but like to me it's like not work you know what I mean it's like as much work as like walking you know what I'm saying like yeah walking takes something out of you but like you can walk for a while you know what I mean and so I'm like yeah I'll just do that like I wake up on Monday and like I'll have someone on my pod and I do almost his exact day I wake up go

01:07:19 - 01:08:05

to the gym come home hang out with my wife have breakfast talk about whoever the guest I'm having that day I'm like dude I'm talking to this World War II guy like I'm I'm talking to this U this is like a like NYU psychologist that studies Consciousness and I'm going to talk like what do you think about Consciousness like me and her having I talked to this divorce lawyer and literally I went home after the Pod that day and I was like hey babe if we got divorced how much money do you want like

01:07:42 - 01:08:29

I just like I never thought about a prenup before and this divorce over was like yo everyone should get a prenup and like I just had a cool conversation with my wife or she was like I don't know like 20% I was like write that down like that's a great that's like such a great answer like how that she was like just like yeah that's probably fair I don't know so it's like I do the Pod and then I come home and I hang out with my wife and we talk and then I go to stand up at night yeah and then Tuesday rolls around

01:08:06 - 01:08:57

I get to hang out with my best friends and do flagrant and like Goof Off with them and like talk about current events and I don't have to like be so serious and like lock in about a specific thing I can just hang out and talk about stories and call each other gay for an hour or two like that's the best and then I go home and hang out my wife and then go to stand up yeah Wednesday I do the same thing Thursday I talk to people on my and then Friday we fly to like Nashville and perform at the Grand Old

01:08:31 - 01:09:19

opery like this famous country venue and like jelly R comes out and then we're singing at the grand opera and then Saturday I go to Austin and I do the Moody Center like the arena that's there and like I performing and like it's crazy bro it's like I can't even believe this is real life yeah and then we go to the club after and like Rogan is there I dap him up and he's like hey man good to see you Mark and I'm like he knows my name this is [ __ ] crazy and then I fly home to my wife on Sunday and we

01:08:55 - 01:09:47

hang out on Sunday and then I do it again and I'll just do it forever like it's the greatest thing ever it's so cool it's so crazy like if you had told me when I was like 22 even like I would have been like there's no way like the things I would have done the dicks I would have sucked like I would have like gone in the Illuminati I would have killed a kid like I would have sacrificed my like I would have done anything to do what I'm doing now and I get to get paid for it's like so crazy

01:09:20 - 01:10:20

bro it's insane but I think it's like you know I had this conversation with kristo on the Pod and he was talking about kristo oh yeah so Christo uh ran an agency called Blind and Tau of odd school like really prolific character and you know has being a mentor to me and he was saying like we kind of enter into these like social contracts with people and it sounds like very early on you were just giving a ton of value to Andrew and his team so then they just wanted to keep you around and I think so

01:09:51 - 01:10:40

many times like if we want to try and get ahead we don't necessarily have to go start our own thing but like if we can find someone who's doing well and find a way to give them value like there's there's an entrepreneurial route within that yeah yeah yeah I think there's a ton of ways to the top like the metaphor you were given yesterday like 5 + 5al 10 2 plus 8 equal 10 you know what I mean like there's a ton of ways to get to 10 yeah so like that was just my path and like maybe had that

01:10:15 - 01:11:03

path not opened up like I would have moved to New York and did a different path like maybe I would have started my podcast earlier and it would have been doing just as good who knows in your head is this luck or is this like I've owned this or just happened like like how do you see this it's a lot of luck yeah like I think it's I don't know I do think it's like uh it's just like buying lottery tickets you know what I mean like winning the lottery is lucky but if you buy every ticket like all of a

01:10:39 - 01:11:31

sudden it's not as lucky you know what I'm saying like it is but like what saying so it's like I bought a lot of lottery tickets like before I was with Andrew like I was helping out on this dude Adam Ray Adam Ray is like the funniest comic he's he does he does this Dr Phil character on kill Tony oh I know talking about he's a genius like he's the funniest guy whenever I watch kill Tony and he's on he just kills yeah he's like the best so like I used to edit like podcast clips for him like when I

01:11:05 - 01:11:55

was in like early college and like every summer when I was in college I went and did an internship somewhere cuz I was like okay I have 3 months where I don't really like I don't have any expenses I don't have anything tying me down to like where I am in Orlando I'm just going to try to do like the most high like high impact like highrisk like internship I can do so I went did internship at a radio show and like slept in the basement of a church and like woke up at 6:00 a.m. and like wrote

01:11:30 - 01:12:10

jokes for like the radio show and then they started paying me and I was like oh I'm getting paid for writing jokes at like 18 that's crazy and so like I did that for a summer and then I went to LA and worked at the Laugh Factory and like learned how to like do Social Media stuff and like a bunch of their Clips went viral and I was like oh that's how you make Clips go viral and then I would like just watch stand up all night and I would just like watch the best comedians in the world go through the laugh Factor

01:11:50 - 01:12:41

just literally sit on the balcony at every single show for 3 months sitting there just watching comedy and then I went to New York and like helped out this dud Sam marel and Phil Hanley with their podcast yeah and then I like helped out the comedy seller a little bit and like helped like their email list or something like so I was just constantly trying to be around people that were like doing really cool stuff to I was like worst case no I just learn a lot and if I can get paid to learn like this was the internship like

01:12:15 - 01:13:04

amazing and then best case like that's a lottery ticket that maybe they hit me up and they're like hey come do this thing or like hey I saw you perform a laugh act or like come on the road with me or like whatever it was so I just like bought a bunch of lottery tickets and one of them worked it's a really unique perspective like just thinking about how if you take so many chances eventually like you catch luck yeah cuz it sounds like you're very diligent you're very creative you're always doing something

01:12:40 - 01:13:35

and like yesterday we were talking about the culture in New York versus LA versus Miami is quite different you were saying how La you get around using Fame and Miami you get around using money and in New York you get around with the hustle yeah yeah broad strokes but yeah I think that's generally true and uh like huge generalization but like yeah yeah but I think that is generally I also like kind of recognized like okay I'm in school I'm getting like an economics degree you know what I mean like and all of my I

01:13:08 - 01:14:00

didn't know anyone doing anything creative everyone I knew was like they were graduating like my community like I went to like a private school so like everyone I knew like went to college pretty pretty much they got jobs like doing like just regular like normal healthy jobs like they would like sell insurance they would like do real estate like they would work at like a car dealership and like make good money and then they would buy like a house near like a golf course and then they would work 9 to5 and they would play with

01:13:34 - 01:14:23

their dogs and like lived an awesome life yeah and I was like okay that's worst case scenario like that's like my safety net I was like if everything goes wrong like that can happen for me like assuming I don't get like a drug addiction or like a mental health problem like assuming like everything stays fine that can be like my plan B so I was like okay what is like the most highrisk thing I can do to potentially like get like change my life so I was like okay how do I play like really

01:13:57 - 01:14:49

really big while I'm young I have energy and I'm like I also recognize like when you're young and like working hard people are more likely to say yes like I did this thing when I was still in college I was maybe like a sophomore in college I was maybe like 19 there was like a convention that happened in Orlando so Orlando has all these conventions that come into town like all these like business people it's like a like a convention Mecca like every week at the Orlando Convention Center there's

01:14:24 - 01:15:07

a different convention and it's like weather just makes sense so people would go there and so every week I would look at the convention calendar and see what conventions were going to town and there was one convention where it was the American Marketing Association and I was like I really like marketing I think marketing is really cool I like coming up with like brand stuff I used to watch like all the old Apple commercials like the old like wi and Kennedy stuff I like go on their website and like see what

01:14:46 - 01:15:26

they're doing like I just super ads yeah I thought it was really cool I was like it's this cool mixture between like creativity but still like business and like you can make money do it I was like this is this seems like an awesome thing it's kind of like a me science yeah exactly I like this is really I loved marketing I still do so I was like I'm just going to go to the convention I was like but I can't just show up so I and my thought was like if I can get to the convention I can like be around I bet

01:15:06 - 01:15:52

you I could like meet someone and be like hey I'm a like young college student going to like this school in Florida and I would love to like intern for you and I just knew that like being in front of people more doors would open up it was like more lottery tickets so I was like okay I'm going to go to the convention I was like I can't just walk into a convention so I was like okay I went on Instagram and I saw people posting like photos from the convention and there's all these people like

01:15:29 - 01:16:20

business people and again conventions people go just like drink at open bar and like their company flies them out like no one gives a [ __ ] so like I was like okay I saw pictures of like the lanyards people had so I photoshopped the lanyard and like I made it the exact same the way that theirs were and like I put my name and I was like coming up with like a fake company I was like what company should I do so I was like analysis Technologies okay but I shorted it so it was it was anal tech for short

01:15:54 - 01:16:38

so I was like okay analtech I was like for real anal Tech yeah yeah anal Tech so I was like I think this would be funny did you design a logo no there's no logos on the lantern that's a dead giveaway you're dead in the water they're be like wait a second you have a giant [ __ ] in your thing like you're going to get arrested for sure straight to jail so I was like all right I made it exactly and then I think I just went alone and I just like and I went and I was like okay how can I wear something

01:16:16 - 01:17:03

that would be like eye-catching like kind of like peacocking Vibes where like people might want to talk to me so I got like this giant red suit it's like a like a tie and a suit and it was like bright red like Dumb and Dumber type Vibes and I like put it on and I had my lanyard yeah and I just showed up to the convention and these conventions like there's no security like there's nothing you know what I mean it's like whatever so I just like walked no one even checked the lanyard I just walked in and

01:16:39 - 01:17:19

I got in with the crowd and it was like the coolest night ever like I was just walking around people come up to me like drunk like you know marketing moms and they'd be like I love your suit i' be like oh thank you and like we would just get to talking and they'd be like so what company with I was like oh analtech and they're like what and they would look at my lanyard and they'd be like this is so fun and like and then like that happened I met like the CMO of like McDonald's I

01:16:59 - 01:17:46

met like the CMO of like Coke like all these big companies I met all of them and they were like did you sneak in here I was like yeah I'm just trying to get an internship and they were like call me on Monday and so like this guy's a genius by the end of the night I had like this stack of business cards from like the biggest brands in the world and all of them were like this is my direct line people were like writing their phone numbers like call me on Monday like let's talk and then I had a bunch

01:17:22 - 01:18:18

of them I like put in my pocket and then by the end of the night seal performed like I I was like what like I turned around and like I heard like and it's just seal and it's like 200 people in a room and Seal's on stage cuz like these marketing conventions have these huge budgets so they paid seal 50 Grand to come and sing three songs so like I met all these awesome people I had like really fun conversations I was just like riffing and joking around with people and then seal performed and then I went home and

01:17:51 - 01:18:32

I was like this was the coolest thing ever and then I hit up all those people and like had a bunch of interiew interviews for internships and then I ended up picking the laugh Factor internship and I was like this is more comedy specific and then I just chose that one but like again those were all like lottery tickets so I was like worst case scenario they catch me and they're like hey you're banned your trespass from the venue you can't get in I was like all right like that's like like I

01:18:12 - 01:18:54

didn't think I was going to go to jail you know I mean like like and then if I did go to jail I'd be like oh this is hilarious like two nights in jail in my red suit like this is so funny so I was like worst case scenario like I go to jail for like a night maybe then you've got another bit yeah exactly and it's like a thing I'm doing at the time like it was great and then best case scenario like I get an internship with like McDonald's and who knows where that goes so I was like so again it's like yeah

01:18:32 - 01:19:30

it's luck like it's it's always luck but you can kind of determine your luck based off how many lottery tickets you buy yeah well like you were just explaining like it's a pretty strange thing to wear a red suit and to invent analtech break into an event exactly D that was my that was my my purple cow Super Creative man is it Seth Goden the purple cow have you heard that yeah Seth Goen dude good book man yeah um well dude like for you like it's it's interesting hearing your perspective

01:19:02 - 01:19:56

around the lottery thing because I think like so often times people think about like life as like happening to them it's not really happening for them it sounds like you have more of like a hey life's kind of there happening for me let me just take the best chance I possibly can do what I want yeah I and I think it was from my dad like my dad's like an entrepreneur and like what does your dad do he works in real estate so he works with like this this European real estate company and like but like he so my

01:19:28 - 01:20:16

parents had seven kids my dad was like painting houses in Fort Lauderdale like he was literally like a super at like a like an apartment complex it was like living in the apartment complex for free and had to like take care of the place so like someone would break a window he would like go in and like fix it and like the wall socket would come out and like it was a shitty apartment building like like someone would leave and there'd be like maggots in the fridge and he would like go down there and like

01:19:53 - 01:20:42

clean out the fridge and like fix it up like that's what he did for years he had like three kids like living in this apartment complex making no like yeah it's crazy and then he like figured out a way and so I think like is your dad a creative guy oh yeah absolutely he's like a performer like so it's actually interesting I found out much later like his dream was to be a stand up comedian even after I did standup but you didn't know that I had no idea when did he tell you he never actually directly told me

01:20:18 - 01:21:11

you just kind of figured it out he told my sister which is interesting like I actually should talk to him about this maybe I call him no like I yeah yeah I should dude you got to find out like he actually wanted to puru stand up yeah and it's so obvious now it's so obvious now like in hindsight like he's a performer like he loves talking in front of people performer like he's just like center of the potty or like yeah like if we went to dinner like he would like stand up and give like three toasts and

01:20:44 - 01:21:31

the toast are for nothing specific it's she's just like doing a bit yeah he's like Mark's hair looks stupid right guys like then you just like would be riffing and like just goofing around and like would make fun of someone and like talk about how stupid he looks like he would just just do and then he'd be like Anyway cheers and we be like why did we just cheer like why did that happen but like that's just him and so I think I got a lot of like that from him and he never told me any of this stuff it was

01:21:07 - 01:22:05

just I saw him do it and like that's with with kids like through and through like way more as caught than taau so like I was just was arounded seeing it and I you should find out if it's still his dream cuz you can get him on stage 100% he would love it like so I know it's his dream because so this sort of like a sad but it's okay now so my sister like maybe like four or 5 years ago was diagnosed with a brain tumor she had a astrocytoma in her frontal L and so basically the doctors were like hey

01:21:36 - 01:22:24

you have like 6 months to live like people that have this prognosis like don't really make it pass like a year so like it's realistically probably like six mon it was awful and so she was literally like looking at her mortality and she was like okay I'm going to die pretty soon like this is what it is like she was like 20 something at the time she's like this is like they could maybe operate on it but even operating on it was like 50/50 like it was just like Bleak and so she was kind of like

01:22:01 - 01:22:56

figuring out what to do with her life and she went to my dad at one point was like Hey Dad like I'm I'm going to be dead soon if there's anything that you wish you did in your life or like is there anything that like you hadn't done or any regrets you have like anything that I should try like before I'm not on the planet anymore like that you wish you did and the only thing he said was stand up he was like yeah I wish I did comedy and he never even told me that like and it's so obvious now like in hindsight

01:22:28 - 01:23:16

like he was just playing comedy in the house all the time he's like watching Seinfield he took us to go see Gaff again when I was like 8 years old like he was just obsessed and in my mind I was like oh yeah he must like comedy never once did it da me like oh it was his dream to like be a comic and yeah so I think it was like always his dream like he told my sister to straight up he's like yeah I wish I did stand up and she was like oh wellow and then she never did stand up and then got better yeah I think she if she had done

01:22:52 - 01:23:38

St she would have died so thank God she didn't do it okay she she stuck it out yeah she's alive she made it she's good but you see um David Gro used to take his mom on his tours no she used to go on the tour bus she'd be like upstairs drinking with Green Day oh that's sick in the pit like yeah that's awesome right like how cool is that like I would love to go on tour and like take my parents like they get to come to shows now like they came and saw me perform like an arena in Toronto wow and the

01:23:15 - 01:24:00

whole time my dad was just like so excited he was like this is crazy got to get him on stage bro I know I want to that'd be so fun just get him to open for you bro I know I would love that get him to roast you as a kid that be the best I mean he would do two hours that's the problem okay Dad you have 10 minutes like yeah yeah sure sure sure then an hour and a half later i' be like yo we got to get we got like Decades of bits put him together he is bits like so like I think my first like exposure to

01:23:38 - 01:24:26

standup is like he would go on these business trips to like Europe and then he would come home and it was the best so like be like come home and like tell stories and like you have no idea like when Dad came home it was like all right Showtime like it is [ __ ] on so he would come home come like and he would be he just got off like a transatlantic flight like he's exhausted it was like 8 hours whatever he would land put down his stuff he always had like a bag that he got everyone like presents so he'd be

01:24:02 - 01:24:46

like yo here's like European chocolate we got like Kinder buenos before you could even get them the Kinder Surprise like with the actual toy in it now they don't even do the toy in America CU it's like a choking hazard like he would give us like the OG like fire European like chocolate and then we bring everyone like presents and he'd be like Mark that present is from Germany what's funny about Germany and you would go into a bit about like German people and I'm like 6 years old and he's like yeah

01:24:23 - 01:25:05

these [ __ ] Nazis he just like be going off and I'd be like and I was like dying laughing yeah and he would just like be telling us stories and like that was like my first exposure to standup like for sure just like him like going on these extravagant like trips and like telling us like finish people are like this and like when I was in the place like I thought this guy was talking to me but I he was on the phone and I was talking to and like it was like this silly situational comedy he would like

01:24:44 - 01:25:32

do bits and we would all sit at the dinner table and like listen it was so fun and then every time I came home it was that and then like for like that whole like two weeks it would just be stories every night at dinner we all sit like had dinner every single night and it would just be stories and then you go away for a week and then come back more stories so it was like the best but yeah I think that's like that's just like who he is is like a dude and so all that to say like it was like his dream and now I

01:25:07 - 01:25:58

get to like kind of live like he sacrificed so much and like gave up so much for our family and like works his ass off even to this day so that I could like pursue his dream in a way without even knowing it like it's my dream that like dynastically was passed down like through him it's like so crazy yeah I just feel so grateful that I get to like does he take credit he's like yeah you're good cuz of me never no no never never yeah never he's like I can't believe you did this he's always like

01:25:34 - 01:26:21

how did you do this like how did you figure this out it's like a mystery to him meanwhile he has no idea he's the reason you know what I mean like he was like yeah this is CRA like every time like I'm doing a show he's like you got to post more you got to tell people you got to like he's like you got like he's the one telling me like do more like post like show your bits off like put your stand up out like yeah like it's yeah he's like so excited never takes credit yeah cuz you absolutely killed it

01:25:57 - 01:26:47

in Australia man thank you man I appreciate CU Ellie and I go to a lot of shows and she freaked out when Andrew was coming she's like oh my God cuz she knows how much of a fan I am and um we'd met pride of that and I was excited to see you come out to austral and hang out with the team and all the rest of it but yeah like the Australian comedy scene it's a little dry right now like we've got a couple guys that are out there killing it so whenever anyone comes from the US it's a big deal yeah I follow

01:26:21 - 01:27:14

Luke kidel he's great Le Spears is awesome we got a small like Community that's really starting to grow and I AR Barker is like an OG Aussie guy like I love even though he's not Australian but he is like I I love Arch Barker yeah you got to check out Kyle Baron yeah you might love or hate it but like I think you should check him out but like the scene's not as like yeah it's a small country 25 million people it's not as crazy as what what you guys have here but of course like but no places like

01:26:48 - 01:27:36

America and like what's happening in like New York and Austin and la like you can't really it's it's not there yet dad man yeah I know that's wild bro yeah and we've talked about it a little bit but like never yeah it's never been like to the full extent yeah I can imagine like a like a Morgan Freeman story just blooms late in life yeah becomes a Savage comic how crazy would that be we go on the road together yeah dude oh that'd be so cool yeah but yeah so it's

01:27:12 - 01:27:53

just been like a a really like wild ride I'm just like my mind is blown every single day well dude thank you so much for for popping in uh we definitely have plans to come back to New York love to get you one again and it's always fun hanging out man yeah yeah let's do it I can't wait wait thanks and then we got to get you guys uh into a comedy show in New York let's do it man when I come back I'll take you up on that dare yeah let's do it let's do it