Luke Capasso| Comedian

What happens when a comedian, craftsman, history buff, veteran, and storyteller all occupy the same wonderfully curious mind?

On this episode of Rodney Veal’s Inspired By, Rodney sits down with comedian and creator Luke Capasso, whose unconventional journey has taken him from the U.S. Air Force to the comedy stages of London and beyond. With a singular mix of humor, history, DIY know-how, and sharp observations of everyday life, Luke has built a creative world uniquely his own.

Rodney and Luke talk about finding your creative voice, the discipline behind making people laugh, taking risks, and discovering inspiration in the most unexpected places. It is a funny, thoughtful, and wonderfully unpredictable conversation about the winding road of a creative life.

Listen to more episodes of Rodney Veal’s Inspired By and catch The Art Show anytime on YouTube or the PBS app.

Learn more about the Luke Capasso  online: @lukecapasso Instagram and Tik Tok 

Transcript

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SPEAKERS

Rodney Veal and Luke Capasso

Rodney Veal (00:05):

Hello everyone. My name is Rodney Veal and I'm the host of Rodney Veals Inspired by. And today, what I love about our show is the fact that we cover the arts and I believe comedy is an art. I am adamant about that and I'm so excited about that. And Luke Capaso is a comedian, writer, does a lot of things and he has an interesting journey and I cannot wait to ask questions about the art of comedy and a life that's pretty full. It seems like it's a really profull life. And let's just have that conversation. So Luke, welcome to the podcast, man.

Luke Capasso (00:43):

Oh, thank you for having me. Yeah, appreciate you having me on.

Rodney Veal (00:47):

Oh, it's totally my pleasure. So my thing is I've had a couple of comedians on the show and it always amazes me that they always had these interesting life journeys to being a comedian. No one in the third grade says, "I'm going to go be a comedian." I mean, maybe Richard Pryor might have done that, but I kind of. But what did you think you were going to be when you were growing up and how did you end in this lane of comedy, man? I'm just kind of curious

Luke Capasso(01:16):

About that. I will say this, I wouldn't say it was third grade, but I don't know if you remember old. Pardon my loud squeaky chair. I don't know if you remember old Comedy Central where they used to just play five, 10 minute clips all day. And I used to watch it. I used to think they were just going up and talking. They just found funny people who walk up and talk. They don't write material. So I did sort of have an image in the back of my head, that could be something I could see myself doing. But back when I thought I wanted to be a musician. I though that was going to be my -

Rodney Veal (01:53):

Oh,

Luke Capasso (01:54):

I see the guitar

Rodney Veal (01:55):

In the back.

Luke Capasso (01:56):

Yeah. I know about six chords. Now it's a decoration for the most part, but yeah.

Rodney Veal (02:05):

So you saw Comedy Central and it was kind of like this could be a thing.

Luke Capasso (02:11):

Okay. But I didn't really see it as a real job. I was in the Air Force for a while and then I got out and I was a construction superintendent in DC for this company, but I was very young for that position. But the way I'd keep scheduling meeting on task because I'd be just roasting people in there. Otherwise, these old dudes wouldn't have gave me any respect or at least not paid attention to me at all. But the whole time they were like, "You're in the wrong job. You should be doing comedy and not this." And I'm like, "Yeah." I don't even know where you'd go begin to do that. I'm going to try to keep the story short, but - No, there’s

Rodney Veal  (02:52):

No shortness.You don’t

Luke Capasso(02:53):

Have to shorten it. There's no shortness. This PBS. Yeah. Okay. So I was in the Air Force, was a construction superintendent in DC, and my wife at the time got a job in England, London, England.

(03:05):

And on the way over there, I was watching this Dane Cook comedy special and I was like, "I can at least do what that dude's doing." Then I went there and I'd found a timeout magazine and it had all these things like open mics or whatever. Went to an open mic, just got an idea of what it even is. Then I thought, "Why not?" So it gave me something to do while I was over there. Didn't know anybody. I didn't have a job yet. So I worked on five minutes of mediocre material, went to open mic, met some people that were really cool. London was kind of a very cool place to start because even though as an American I was an outsider, most everybody in the city was an outsider, whether they're coming from Ireland or Scotland or the suburbs. We were all kind of in the same boat.

(04:00):

So you make friends and then they invite you to other stuff and it was as much about meeting people in the beginning as it was the art form. So kind of got me locked in very early.

Rodney Veal  (04:11):

So was that first five minutes mediocre or was it actually

Luke Capasso (04:15):

Work?

Rodney Veal (04:17):

Out of curiosity.

Luke Capasso (04:18):

No. Well, here's normally the way it plays is your first five minutes, it usually goes way better than it should. And then you get a false confidence and then your second or third one, you die. The universe puts you back where you're supposed to be. It was terrible the first five minutes, but it wasn't as humiliating as I had thought it would be because you're over practiced and whatever else if you're. Yeah.

Rodney Veal (04:49):

If you're getting ready to go do it for the first time, you really are. Yeah. Second, third time, not so great, but you still have the itch to do it. That's always fascinating because every comedian I've talked to every. Well, actually every artist I've talked to, once they get the bug, they just keep going. And I'm kind of curious what motivated you to keep going?

Luke Capasso (05:17):

You’re

Rodney Veal (05:17):

In England. How long were you guys there?

Luke Capasso (05:20):

About under 10 years, probably about eight years or so I was over there.

Rodney Veal (05:23):

Oh wow. Wow, wow.

Luke Capasso (05:24):

Yeah. But no, I would say because I know in the intro I saw you had to explain to some people because they doubt the artistic merit of standup where they're like, "It's not an art form." Or I would argue it's the hardest art form of.

Rodney Veal  (05:43):

Comedy's hard,

Luke Capasso (05:46):

Folks. If you look at. You always hear stories either like a really special child could play the piano or they could paint like a renaissance master or someone gets hit in the head and all of a sudden they can do mathematics. No one gets hit in the head or some kid with a special skill can do an hour of solid standup. I don't care. I don't care. Find me some genius child who could write some good one-liners. They don't exist of all the art forms. So screw you, concert pianist. If a four year old can do it, you ain't that good. First time you really crush a set, you're going to be chasing that feeling for the rest of your life. You catch it and you're like, "Oh, okay, this is what that is." And then you're trying to get back there again.

Rodney Veal (06:39):

And every time. And so you talked about this, you said you didn't realize there's writing involved. There's actual. I mean, there's a craft of writing and every person, everyone that I've talked to, they just said writing and you're writing and observing. And so your kind of comedy, how would you describe your kind of comedy to someone? Because it talked about that it's very. On your website, it was really funny, all these great victories, but also the utter humiliation of defeat. And I though, "What the heck is he talking about?" You seem to be a person who sees the whole spectrum of life and it's your observations. And so how did that come about? And what is your style of comedy and how did it form in itself?

Luke Capasso (07:43):

That's a big question that's hard to answer. That's one thing that's tricky about standup because it's not like music where you could be like, "I'm a reggae musician or I perform country music or whatever, some variation thereof." A lot of times it's for the listener to decide the type of comedy it is. Sometimes I do surreal nonsense or other just storytelling and I'm not usually trying to make a point. I don't feel like that's if people bought a ticket to have a good time not to get preached to. But I don't know. I feel like they like to play with different comedy styles. Sometimes I like to be a little absurd, sometimes ironic, sometimes the audience doesn't understand what's happening entirely. I don't know. I will say that being starting in the UK has definitely put that flavor on my standup. Okay. I

Rodney Veal  (08:44):

Was going to wonder.

Luke Capasso (08:46):

Yeah. Where sometimes it's wordplay or where you have subtext to a joke, like they play with more irony than we do here, but sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes, like I said, the audience here doesn't necessarily clock on immediately, but that's my job to make sure they do. So if they don't, that's my failure.

Rodney Veal (09:10):

So I'm just thinking about that and thinking about London and England and the subtext and contextual humor. They seem to also play around with that with their art as well. It's like a moment where you're just like, "Okay, I didn't know the subtext of that work. Okay, let me do some research. I'll come back to you. I'll go back and see it again." But they're also incredibly. I've been there. I went to school there for something completely unrelated to the arts, political science, whatever. Yeah. So that tells your.

Luke Capasso(09:47):

Parents - What school you go to over there?

Rodney Veal (09:49):

I went to Bulmershe College in Redding, England.

Luke Capasso (09:52):

Oh, all right. Yeah, I

Rodney Veal (09:53):

Was there. I was at Bulmershe.

Luke Capasso (09:54):

Yeah. Nice.

Rodney Veal  (09:55):

Studied American politics of the 1960s. And then I ended up dancing, so my parents were like, "What the…"

Luke Capasso (10:03):

They

Rodney Veal (10:03):

Were like, "We paid for that? What are we paying for?" And I just always remember just this whole notion like, "Well, one, they're smarter than us. They really seem to pay a lot of attention." I kind of asked this question, bombing in front of a British audience versus bombing in front of an American audience, is it one and the same or is it completely different because of just where they’re

Luke Capasso (10:30):

Coming from? I'm just out of curiosity. Again, that's a big. Okay. I would say, well, sometimes if you're bombing in front of a UK audience, I'm like, "I'm bringing shame to my people." So it's that added pressure to it. Okay.

Rodney Veal (10:47):

To represent the United

Luke Capasso (10:48):

States of America. Yeah. But I would say the worst show to bomb. If you're at a primarily black show, whether that be in the UK, if it's Caribbean, there's a lot of Caribbean audiences there or a Black audience here, that's the worst place to die, but the best place to do well. If you have a room full of people shaking their keys at you, they're going to leave, that's a soul realigning feeling. But if you're killing it in front of a room like that, it feels like you're going to float out of the place, but yeah.

Rodney Veal (11:25):

Wow. They

Luke Capasso (11:26):

Shake

Rodney Veal (11:27):

The keys? You

Luke Capasso(11:28):

Can shake your keys. I'm leaving. If you don't pick it up, I'm out of here.

Rodney Veal (11:35):

I need to use that in a meeting.

Luke Capasso (11:38):

Got to go. Got to go. You

Rodney Veal (11:39):

Got to go. I love it.

Rodney Veal (11:41):

You're there for 10 years and you're coming back to the United States. Are you here? Where are you located in United States? You're in Dayton?

Luke Capasso (11:49):

Yeah, I'm Dayton. I'm in the Xenia area. Zenia. I was in Yellow Springs for a minute, and then I'm an economic refugee. I moved down the road to Zenia.

Rodney Veal (12:00):

You moved down to Zenia, which is. Yeah, I love economic refugee, which is booming, by the way. It's starting to figure it out. It's starting to figure itself out. Well, just this notion of you've moved back to the United States, you're in Zenia, we talked about. Yeah. So you're living in Zenia, and is comedy. Well, the thing is you did a little bit of time in Yellow Springs. I didn't realize that, and this is something I know through Mike Shea, who's a producer of the podcast, there's a lot of comedians in the Southwest Ohio. Is it a thing?

Luke Capasso (12:39):

There's a lot of comics, a lot more comics everywhere than. Well, when I say people that attach themselves to it, there's a lot more than in my thing. It seems here, the bar is different. There'll be some people that'll go to five mics in their life and they're a comic for the rest of their life in their mind. But in a way, why not?

Rodney Veal  (13:03):

Why

Luke Capasso (13:04):

Not? Yeah, whatever. If you want to give

Rodney Veal  (13:05):

Yourself the title, go for it. Knock it out.

Luke Capasso (13:07):

Yeah, it's fine. Yeah. But there's a fair amount that do it pretty regularly. I would say there's more. Yeah. I think we're losing clubs but gaining comics because I think even the last five to 10 years, I think with the rise like social media and whatever, there's a lot more people entering it and that are more aware of what the...Like I said before, I though it was just people walking on stage talking. Now people sort of. They get what it is now.

Rodney Veal  (13:47):

Okay. They

Luke Capasso (13:48):

Actually understand. So there's so much social media involved with it. I think it's attracting new audience or new participants.

Rodney Veal (14:00):

I'm just thinking about Southwest Ohio. How many comedy clubs are in this. Well, actually in the state of Ohio. So can you make a. I knew I was talking to Jesse Nutt and it's this comedy circuit. I mean, is there a robust circuit, even though you're losing places, is it still robust enough as you as a comedian that you can make a part of it as a part of what you do? Do you know what I'm saying?

Luke Capasso14:29):

Oh yeah. And I would say even at, you would think the highest levels of standup, they're not making their money strictly on standup. Really? I don't care. They all have a podcast and whatever else, they're trying to get TV parts. I don't know that many strictly club standups, if that even exists anymore. However, I would argue that in the Midwest, you definitely have space that you could make a pretty decent chunk of your income at the club level if you can make it work and you can get booked at them, sure. Dayton, Ohio used to have three pretty solid clubs and now we've lost a couple, but Ohio still is doing pretty well as far as independent clubs go.

Rodney Veal  (15:22):

Wow. Yeah, because I was thinking about how. I mean, an artist, there are tons of galleries. I mean, Ohio, a dancer, there's going to be a place to dance. If you're a musician, there's places to play. But I always think about it's very special for a comedian from clubs. So do you do a lot of work that's outside the club? 

Luke Capasso (15:48):

I’m  Putting air quotes

Rodney Veal (15:49):

Club.

Luke Capasso (15:51):

Yeah, yeah. No, I see what you're saying, but I would almost say you're using the example of an artist with a gallery or dancers and stuff. I feel like with those type of art forms, it's like a pyramid. Once you get to a certain chunk, you have a lot of opportunities to go to those things, but there's so many people below it that you're not. And comedy, it's a little less than that because like you were saying, outside of the club scene, which is where the vast majority of the stage time you're going to do is outside of a strictly comedy club. I would say for most comics in the Midwest, especially, I'd put it be about 90 / 10 shows outside of clubs versus in a club. Wow. Yeah. And where I'm at now, I still do some clubs, but I'm not as. I got a pretty decent online following and I'll just market to them direct.

(16:53):

I just did a West Coast kind of tour, a little small tour, and I did Pittsburgh or Pittsburgh, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Canada. And I just found a venue there like, "Hey, can I do a ticketed event at your show and you get the bar? I'll bring this many people in." And they're like, "Yeah, sure." And then I've done it that way. If I get with the club, cool. If not, I'll just find a VFW somewhere and put a show on there. I don't care.

Rodney Veal  (17:22):

You don't care. It

Luke Capasso (17:22):

Don't make any difference to me.

Rodney Veal  (17:24):

The venue is not the big draw.

Luke Capasso (17:27):

No. If anything, I'm not in the club. I'm doing all the promotion anyway. Why am I splitting the money with you as a club? Why would I give you a chunk of that?

Rodney Veal  (17:38):

Is that a new occurrence for comedians? Do they

Luke Capasso (17:41):

Have it

Rodney Veal (17:41):

Kind of be all

Luke Capasso (17:43):

The

Rodney Veal (17:44):

Things?

Luke Capasso (17:46):

The way I'm doing shows outside of the Dayton area, outside of clubs like that, I don't know many comics doing it that way, but I'm in a unique position to do it is my social media did really well, but also a lot of times people get really good social media, but they have no standup experience and then they want to start doing standup. So you'll see comedy clubs book some social media person with a couple million followers, but they can't do standup and they don't really know anything about that side of the art form, but they're going to sell tickets. So fine, whatever. Comedy club's a business. I don't shame them for it, but where I'm at, I've run so many crappy bar shows and so many shows and Knights of Columbus Hall. I've got a lot of experience organizing those kind of shows. So when I finally got the social media presence, I'm looking at the ticket sales versus a show that's in an old bingo hall versus the show I did in a comedy club.

(18:53):

I'm like, I'm making double the money at the show I'm running. And I got to bring all the people in. So what benefit is of me to go to this club other than ego for other comics, which I don't care about. So I'm just like, I'll do it this place.

Rodney Veal  (19:11):

It's interesting because we never talk about the. I described at the top of the podcast being an art form, but the other part of it, it is a business.

Luke Capasso (19:23):

Oh, yeah. A lot of comics don't understand that part of it, but yeah, it's a business.

Rodney Veal  (19:28):

How did they miss that

Luke Capasso (19:29):

Part? Because they think if they're like, "I have the best half an hour of jokes," in their head. So they're like, "I should be getting all the stage time." And what I say is, "A comedy club is nothing more than a bar restaurant with a stage in it. So if you can't put enough people. I don't care. If the other person's reading from the phone book, and it's for anybody young, a phone book, we used to have people's telephones in it. I just lost half the audience. The

Rodney Veal  (20:02):

Audience was like," How dare he? "But it's true. Come on, young people. Yeah, phone books.

Luke Capasso (20:07):

Yeah.

(20:09):

But yeah, so even if they're boring and they're terrible, but they sell a lot of tickets and sell a lot of drinks and a lot of food, you can't get mad at the club for putting them on ahead of your. You might have the most majestic cutting edge material, but if no one's watching it, you're not selling tickets, who cares? It's a business. They got to keep the lights on. They got to pay their staff. So don't take it personally. And I think a lot of comics, because like I said, they're still artists in a way, so they're sensitive and they're like," I don't want to change what I'm doing. "But yeah, just because you think you're better than them artistically, it doesn't mean anything if -

Rodney Veal  (20:48):

Nobody. Yeah. It's a business. Yeah,

Luke Capasso (20:49):

It’s

Rodney Veal (20:51):

A business. And it's a business. And this business of comedy, it just feels like that there's a lane for every type of comedy. You talked about that, and there's a lane for the comedy that you do. So you know your lane, but you know that there's opportunities. And so what opportunities do you see, because it's like you've got a robust social media presence online, you've got followers, but you're also doing the clubs, plus you're doing mini tours. I mean, what other things can a comic do to sustain their career that somebody who doesn't know what a comic does did you have to do that might be surprising to people?

Luke Capasso(21:41):

Well, they've all sort of meshed at this stage, but I was because I did a lot of handyman construction work to support everything. I just worked for myself. So if I got a show, I could just split out early. I'm working on the kitchen. I'll be like, well, leave at lunchtime because I got to drive to Cleveland or whatever. But then while I was doing it, I started doing short form videos of the work I was doing. So now a lot of the following I have is based on comedic building construction type videos.

Rodney Veal  (22:18):

Okay.

Luke Capasso (22:19):

Wow. So the audience I've built by and large are people that are either in the trades or just homeowners or I do a lot of arts and crafts type stuff as well, which construction, building a house is just big arts and crafts as far as I'm concerned. So I get a lot of people that are into crafting or whatever. So they come out. A lot of the audience I get that come out to my shows have never been to a standup show before. And so it's like I'm introducing them to that.

Rodney Veal (22:52):

Oh, wow. I never thought about someone not going to a comedy show. I mean, I've been.

Luke Capasso (22:59):

Yeah. I'll get brick layers or whatever that's new to that ass part of the world. So it's all meshed into one. So now I make some income off the social media, some off the building still, then the shows. And then yeah, I've written a couple books. So those get sold either at shows or sometimes off the tail end of a video. It's all big loop eating itself right now at the moment.

Rodney Veal (23:35):

And because you've been at this for a while, so we're talking. It's been a minute. Yeah, I'm saying.

Luke Capasso (23:40):

It's been a minute.

Rodney Veal (23:42):

Yeah. It's like, wow. I mean, well, the thing is about the minute, it's like the longevity of it. It's astounding. One, not that you're funny.

(23:54):

That's easy. That was to me, my good housekeeping seal of approval. Rodney say you're funny. Well, thank you.You're funny. But I think it's one of those moments where I always feel like that the work, putting in the work seems to be the through line with every artist I talk to. Not just a comedian, every artist. And someone pointed it out to me over coffee yesterday. They were like, the through line is every time I listen to the podcast, it's about the work. And so talk to me about what's a typical day for you? If you're doing. How do you manage the handyman, social media?

Luke Capasso (24:40):

Some days better than others. Okay.

Rodney Veal  (24:42):

There's a lot of layers there, dude. I mean, are you doing this all by yourself?

Luke Capasso (24:47):

Pretty much, yeah. I do. Yeah. I would say, okay, like you were saying, it's about the work, but I'd say, yeah, that's the biggest chunk of it because I think a lot of it's, one, it's three things I think that make any artist successful really. And it's all different measures of it. It's either you get some talent, work, and luck. But the most important of all of them is the work, because it don't matter if you're not putting the work in and you get a lucky break and you don't have the work to back it up, or if you're the most talented person on earth, but you don't do any. And you're working your ass off, but you're just unlucky.

(25:25):

But I think the hard work is the biggest chunk of it. But for me, I'm pretty ADD, but whatever aspect of it that I feel like I've got the most fire on, I'm like, "Well, I'll push that right now." I try to ride the fire that I feel. But you still got to drop back and tidy up the business side of it to make it go. But yeah, I would just say it's like being able to be flexible and move with it. If I get a couple calls and it's a job that I think sounds exciting to do, I'm like, "Cool. I can make that video and I can fit it in between these shows and that'll help promote that show." Yeah, just to find a way to sort of smoosh them all together and make

Rodney Veal  (26:21):

It part of

Luke Capasso (26:21):

The same machine. Yeah. The

Rodney Veal (26:23):

Same machine, which that's a good way

Luke Capasso (26:24):

Of putting it because

Rodney Veal (26:25):

It's -

Luke Capasso (26:27):

But to answer your question more,

(26:30):

I would say first thing in the morning I try to get up, I do at least something physical to get my blood moving. And then as early as I can, try to just write something creatively in the morning is the best time to get it out. And even if you don't have anything in you, you still just try to do it so that way your mind is like, "Oh, I'm trying to think." Even if you don't get there, you just start listing your groceries or whatever. You just got to be. Because sometimes it'll come, sometimes it won't, but you got to be there for it to happen. And then it's just clocking in, just punching in, and whether it's I'm building a porch or I'm setting up my tour, whatever, you just got to clock in and get the job done because it's on you.

(27:22):

So yeah.

Rodney Veal  (27:23):

So it seems like what I love about that is definitely for other people in the audience, because I would say we're PBS. Our audience is

Luke Capasso(27:36):

As

Rodney Veal (27:36):

Clicky as it's ever going to get. I mean,

Luke Capasso (27:39):

Eclecticism

Rodney Veal  (27:40):

Is built into who we are. And so I'm kind of curious, what would you say to. Because a lot of times to young people, and especially people who may. You had an inkling of being comedy, but you weren't a full-fledged adult when you dove into the pool of comedy. What would you say to someone who maybe though, "I would like to try this, but I never really thought about it." What would you tell them? I mean, what advice would you give them?

Luke Capasso (28:12):

Just you jump in. Most people that ask or they're interested in stand up in some kind of way, I tell them to not go to a professional show, go to a couple entry level open mics and just watch it. And if you can't sit through that and get the confidence that you can do that, then you weren't paying attention. You just see.

(28:37):

Some of them are diabolically bad and you're like, "At least won't be as bad as that." There's no way to get good at golfing without swinging the club. So you just got to get up there and just try, just get up there and keep doing it and not being. And I always tell people you got to give yourself permission to suck. Don't go up there and expect to be good. Just go up there and be like, "Yeah, I'm going to be terrible at this, but that's what it is. I want to learn how to do it and I'm going to be new. So the people that are new at something aren't going to be great at it immediately. Otherwise, everybody be doing everything.”

Rodney Veal (29:16):

Right. And everybody would be genius level and what's the point?

Luke Capasso (29:19):

Yeah.

Rodney Veal  (29:20):

Give

Luke Capasso (29:21):

Yourself permission to be bad at it. I mean,

Rodney Veal  (29:25):

That's a great advice from not only just for comedians, it's for artists. I was like, "Be bad at it for a while.”

Luke Capasso (29:30):

Yeah, be bad at it. Embrace it.

Rodney Veal (29:32):

Yeah, because you're not going to hit genius level art making until you stumble. I mean, you got to fall. That's what rehearsal's for. I tell people that all the time when I pursued dance, it was like I fell flat on my face. There were times we would just slip and fall and you're like, "Well, that happened." Get up. I'm like, "Okay, well, my ego's now bruised in front of a room full of people. But you just keep doing your thing. And so do you see this hybridization of all the things you're doing, the future? I guess let's say if you had your perfect moment and you talked about luck,

Luke Capasso (30:22):

Lucky

Rodney Veal (30:23):

Moment, how far would you like to take this to your comedy?

Luke Capasso (30:30):

Well, I've been re-imagining that question because I've always asked because my initial dream before was to do sort of almost like, the best way to describe it is like a PBS late night show where it's sort of this old house, but adult humor type of thing. But the way I look and then I'd get to go on my tour, whatever, but the way I've realigned it now is I've always wanted to have a show like that, but the way I look at it now is I basically do. I got videos that reach a couple million people. So I'm like, that's as good as a TV show in the 80s would've been or 90s. Asking

Rodney Veal  (31:23):

For a show now. What are you talking about?

Luke Capasso(31:27):

So it's kind of like

(31:30):

Realigning my goals or at least where the goalpost is because I'm like in a way I already have that and I don't have to answer to anybody to do it. So I don't necessarily know how to answer that question anymore because before it would've been, I just imagined the traditional television show, traditional bookings for clubs. I've written two books and the first one was through a publisher traditional way. And then after that experience, I'm like, I'll never do that again. I'm going to self-publish and make the money. I'm doing all the promotion anyway. So I've sort of really realigned what, as much as I hate the internet and what all these videos have made everyone dumber, the internet has done a huge.

(32:21):

It's done amazing things for me to be able to find an audience for the bunch of the random things that I do. So yeah, I don't really know how to answer that anymore because I feel like in an odd way I've reached those things that I wanted when I started doing standup, it just didn't take the form that I had anticipated it to take. Because it wasn't even that long ago I stopped and I was like, actually, yeah, I've reached all these things that I've wanted. I would never want to have get so big where it's like I live locally near Dave Chappelle and he seems unhappy. If you see him in public, he doesn't look because he can't walk down the street really in his own town without getting stopped and whatever. And I never wanted to reach that level of notoriety. I would've rather where I can just do like I do, where I can go down to Asheville, North Carolina, sell a hundred tickets, walk down the street.

(33:22):

No one else outside of my audience knows who I am. Cool. And right now I'm like, that's 100% where I am. So I've reached a level that I like. Everyone can always use more money, sure. But as far as getting to do what I want to do and having an audience for what I want to do, I feel like I'm in a pretty good place with

Rodney Veal  (33:48):

That. No, that's a good feeling. I love this realignment of rethinking because I think everybody thinks about this career, that one, it's nonlinear. There is no straight path to where you're at. It took a lot of going through journeys on side journeys, then you got back on the highway because that's just the nature of life. And I think that that is something that's really interesting. I'm having these conversations with you and other people I've had conversations with. It's like that is the sweet space. It's like you don't want to be to the point where you're unhappy. You want to be in a place where it's like it's not comfortable. It's not comfort. It's just the essence of knowing that this is where you lock in.

Luke Capasso (34:47):

Yeah. And I would say because the traditional standup path for a lot of people that made it would be to go to a large market. You go to LA or New York and you struggle there for five to 10 years and then they accept you and now you've made it. That was the traditional path that a lot of big comics would only respect that angle. But for every one person that went to New York or wherever and struggled and made it, there's 50 to 100 people that did it.

(35:27):

But I'll say with this, the way it is now, like I said, the market it is now, you don't need to do that anymore because the media markets are everywhere. We have that control. We got a camera on our phone, we can upload it on our phone. So we don't need to. Those traditional comic avenues are no longer a necessity that they once were. So there's still people that see those type of standups. They respect them more because that's the struggle they went through. So they think every new comic should go through the same struggle they went through, but it's just not what it is anymore.

Rodney Veal (36:08):

Yeah. It has fundamentally changed. I'm kind of curious about this question because I've been thinking about this question in terms of art, other art forms. How much did COVID play a part in this, this change? I feel like those years just changed, literally upended the cart for everything. Do you think that?

Luke Capasso (36:34):

I think - Especially

Rodney Veal (36:36):

For comedy.

Luke Capasso36:37):

If standup is just another microcosm of society, I would say yeah, it absolutely upended. Nothing's what it was before COVID. I don't even think it's hard to quantify the amount of things that have changed for it, but standup, it definitely, we're kind of back where we least as far as the clubs being open and some whatever, but something shifted and changed. Sometimes it's hard to vocalize a lot of it, but I think a lot of things happened all at the same time. Politically it sphered us off and that's trickled down into all different aspects of art. So yeah, I think again, it's hard to vocalize this change, but

Rodney Veal  (37:32):

It’s

Luke Capasso (37:32):

Palpable.You

Rodney Veal  (37:32):

Could feel it.

Luke Capasso(37:33):

You can

Rodney Veal  (37:33):

Feel it.

Luke Capasso (37:34):

Oh yeah. You feel

Rodney Veal (37:35):

The change. But I think, like you said, I love how you said it's like all the ills of the internet and there are plenty of ills that should be addressed

Luke Capasso (37:45):

With

Rodney Veal (37:45):

The internet. But that's the joy of talking to you in this podcast was the fact that you got to follow it. You doing the work. You've done the work. You do the thing. And I love meeting you and I'm hoping I get to see you in person. And I hope everybody in the audience who's listening, go check out, because Luke has a website. Check out the YouTube clips. Go there, go there, go there because the humor. I just read your website and I was laughing. I said, "Okay, I get this guy. I like this. That's funny." I was like, "Yeah, there's sarcasm, but there's also a knowing and it's like you're just doing you and it's a good feeling. It's a good vibe. You give up the vibe. Thank you very much. You given up the vibe.