.png)
Starting Standup in Maine with David Walton
This is an audio journal of actor, David Walton (Fired Up, New Girl, About a Boy, Bad Moms, Power:Ghost) as he builds a standup comedy set in public with the help of comedians and friends. New episodes every Thursday.
Starting Standup in Maine with David Walton
Ep 8 - Jeremy Sisto Interview
Jeremy Sisto joins David Walton to talk about their recent comedy adventure in New York City and how embarrassing it was to watch each other do standup.
https://www.instagram.com/startingstandup
https://www.instagram.com/davidwalton
https://x.com/davidwalton
Email List
https://forms.gle/Xyd7Y2sLkbr5dey16
We've got Ted Jones and then Nick Tonerides Right now. Please welcome David Walton. That was incredibly lukewarm and I appreciate it. Oh man, that's rubbish, that's rubbish. So that was my introduction to my first open mic in new york, open mic number 10. But who's counting? Actually I am, I am counting. We got to get to 100 and then we get to start, um, but I was listening to that introduction and I think and I said, uh, that was a lukewarm and I appreciate it. And I just want to show you the laugh.
Speaker 1:The one dude in the audience gave me this laugh, which I hadn't heard before, and in the interview that's coming up with my dear friend Jeremy Sisto, we talk a little bit about how laughs are like colors. There's just an infinite number of laughs. I'd never heard this one before and I don't know how to analyze it. It was just a little pop, a little ha. But here it is and then I had some fun because I was like that it's like the fake laugh, it's just like oh, I'm so tired of these open mics and this guy probably know the thanks for the lukewarm response. That joke's probably been told, I don't know, maybe 200,000 times in New York alone. I thought I'd never said it before so it's new to me. But his laugh really did feel like I got to give it to him because it's a joke. But then I thought it'd be fun to just see what it see, what this laugh sounded like if he really kept it going. So here's that. Okay, we're having fun today, all right.
Speaker 1:So very, very excited about this episode. It's the first interview I've ever done and it will be the last. It went horrible. No, it was my very dear friend. So much love for this beautiful man. You may know him. He's a very incredibly talented actor, a real actor deep, deep, powerful, creative being amazing performances. And what do I say about my dear friend Jeremy Sisto? We met on a best tennis movie ever made. It's called Breakpoint. He wrote it. My wife actually knew him before I did, and he is, let's see. You probably see, six feet under is when he really started showing his chops. People got very excited.
Speaker 1:Four years he played the emotionally troubled brother of Brenda Chenoweth and then he was on Law and Order for five years. Now on FBI for eight years. He's got the most absurd job on earth and everyone's happy for him. So happy for you. No, he was in Clueless 13. Waitress, he's amazing and maybe you guys don't know this, but in 2000, he played Jesus. I mean literally he played Jesus. So the man can do everything. And now he's supporting my, he's now my comedy buddy and he's helping me out with things and we came together in New York and we went on some comedy adventures and we're just going to talk about it with you.
Speaker 1:So I hope you enjoy this interview. It was completely recorded over Zoom, so it sounds great. Alrighty, I'll see you at the end of it. Please enjoy. There's a few Easter eggs in there. If you enjoy live open mic material, I've plugged in a few things to force you to listen to the whole interview. Okay, talk to you later. First guest for those of you who don't know what jeremy looks like, he um, he's had a lot of looks over the years. He is currently rocking a goatee, very clean shaven on the outside, because his character on the hit show fbi. Um, do they color your goatee or do they keep it gray?
Speaker 2:uh, we, this season, we we let a little more gray live in the world, but I'm starting to darken it up again.
Speaker 1:Now, do you use just for men, or what's the?
Speaker 2:They have like a mascara pen or whatever that's called a mascara brush, I guess, and you know they give it a little, you know, a little scrape, scrape, and you know you can just see it better. The problem with my gray is it just kind of makes it disappear a little bit and looks like I'm rotting. It's just I've got rotting flesh as opposed to, you know, hair, which is better than rotting flesh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, just from my perspective, the camera that I'm looking at you is sort of from below, as it is with me, and I think that we look about as bad as it gets right now, wouldn't you say, is this our?
Speaker 2:course you look good yeah yeah, I mean, that's your problem as a stand-up comedian. You you're kind of too. You know you're pretty. Whatever you know, you look like you've come from a prep, say it.
Speaker 2:It's okay for you to say it, you know what you just look and you're like, uh, you know, uh, you know what you are partially, which is the uh, you know, the, the, the boarding school kid who's um, you know, had a privileged life and has got, has been blessed with a nice tall physique and uh, you know dark, dark eyebrows and uh, you know, just kind of a easy way about you and that's, I think that's why I've always found you fun and amusing and interesting is that you have a various, you have there are other sides that are quite, um that, quite incongruous with the that original one, and I think that's kind of what you're hunting for is how to how to tap into that in a way that is easy to laugh at I want to say I really like what you're doing here.
Speaker 2:I just want to say that I think it's really brave and interesting and I think a lot of people have a, you know, a dream of trying something like this and have been told including myself, have been told that's not a good idea. I remember when I was thinking of doing it and I told a couple of writer friends and the way they laughed at just the idea of me doing it was like, hmm, perhaps I can do that, but you're actually doing it and I think that's really cool.
Speaker 1:Well, I think we may have to change the I to the we, because I wanted to talk about how cool it was in New York. I've hinted at this, but you came over. I had been working in writing and much like our entire relationship it's like you just showed up and I think within 15 seconds we were working on the material, and I have been alone for seven months, or whatever six months just alone with my thoughts and a microphone, trying to figure out what's good, and I can't tell you how just how fun and what a relief it was to just be able to work with someone. That already, I think the advantage is like I feel incredibly comfortable with you. I always describe you as someone my friends is like there is nothing I can't talk to you about, from the deepest things to the most idiotic, and I would say we would say 75 of our conversations are complete horseshit, nonsense. 25, though, are the complete opposite. So, anyway, this is all to say. You're an extremely open, uh, seeking creative person, and you get you. You just understand that things aren't going to be, you know, good right away. So there's just a freedom. So I was immediately just super charged and we talked what would you say about an hour and a half, where you were just like, yeah, that's not funny, let's figure out a way to get into that faster.
Speaker 1:And then we walked or you went, we we split up, and then I was doing my first open mic in I don't know four months, the first one in New York, extremely nervous, and I was waiting to do it and you were like, are you still there? And you came and joined and I remember you walked into this dark room and I was like, okay, we've just worked on it. Now I get to show Jeremy the fruits of our labor, just worked on it. Now I get to show jeremy the fruits of our labor. And I got up on stage and you like I find you to be one of the easiest laughs and also, like you have this great chuckle which hopefully we'll we'll hear at some point in this podcast. That was a really light one, but usually he's got a nice party deep chuckle. And so I was like this is gonna be so nice doing open mic and just hearing that comforting chuckle. And then it was just radio silence. I was like, if I'm not making my friend, laugh.
Speaker 2:well, I I didn't want to be like. I just remember my mom always being in the audience laughing when no one else was laughing really loud and you feel really uncomfortable. So I was like I'm not going to do that and nobody else was laughing. So I was like all right, I'm going to stick to that.
Speaker 1:And then I started to finally, finally, I gave in. Because it's a very strange dynamic.
Speaker 2:I've never been to open mics before.
Speaker 1:Tell me what it was like for you to watch me get up there and flail painful bro.
Speaker 2:It was so painful, super painful yeah like like uh, like a secondhand shame. Like like you're like red in the face you said it's just you. You know, you had this one idea that we had been talking about. That was funny and we thought it was funny and and it was all building up to it.
Speaker 1:You get up there with this like this was an idea I was gonna make a run about and I'll hopefully I'll play you some of this, but it was a run about being a procrastinator and having a box that I hadn't returned in two years. Right, that's the premise.
Speaker 2:It's just like what is the reason, but it was even before that there was. I can't remember what your first thing was. I don't think it was that it was.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:It was either everyone's miserable or something whatever. There was an idea that oh right.
Speaker 1:It was, yeah, I just wanted to. It was. The premise was like everyone you've ever met in your entire life in the world is actually miserable yeah, I remember that, okay, and um, it's, it's.
Speaker 2:I know I didn't know what to make of this environment. There's four or five guys in there and they're all hey hey, there were seven they're all thinking about their own set. They're kind of sort of paying attention. I think I don't know what the laughter is. I mean, it's not a accurate portrayal, but either way, you said your thing and it was so aggressive and so silent you know you're supposed to ask how everyone's doing and stuff, but I think I know, I think I know it's okay, it's actually the theme of my show here.
Speaker 1:Uh, the theme of my show because, you know, think about 47. Am I the oldest in this room? Am I the wise elder? Oh, you got it. Well, you'll probably agree with me on this. I just want everyone to know. You young bucks, everyone in this room, everyone in this room and everybody that you've ever met, and everyone in the world is fucking miserable.
Speaker 2:It's truly miserable, even like the, the positivity and, through the course, even the homeosexuals, I think are even the dalai lama is actually, is actually miserable and just the what happened to your face, and maybe I was projecting, but it was just this, this just it was hard, it was like traumatic. And then you close, your face, got a little red, I feel like, and then you closed your eyes, which is something that you do when I'm talking to you, when you're trying to think, but in the moment it just had this feeling of you being like I wish I was anywhere, but right here I go, I need to go to a place, and you spoke for the next minute with your eyes completely closed.
Speaker 2:It just felt so lonely and sad up there for you.
Speaker 1:It was you know.
Speaker 2:I've seen, like not open mics, but you know, newer comedians and it's always a lot of pressure for me because I feel like I have to laugh at everything and it's, it's, it's very, it's very vulnerable but I have to see your friend up there doing it but it just made me more kind of impressed by your project.
Speaker 1:No, you're sweet. Well then you, you came in and you there was another, so that was a four 30 open mic and this and the guy who hosts had another one right at six and it was. I was so glad you were there, because you were like we gotta go, you gotta go again. You just gotta get up, right up and do it again.
Speaker 1:And I was like uh you know you're, you're reverberating like a bell with shame. You just got like a shame bell and then you're like, let's ring it again, ring the shame bell again. And then you're like, let's ring it again, ring the shame bell again. But what was so cool was that all of a sudden you got a little tickle and you're like I think, should I do it too? And that's when things, I think, started to really get exciting for me, because I was like you had never done an open mic.
Speaker 1:You have had what years of every once in a while thinking about it. You'd obviously said something to a group of comedy writers who laughed in your face at the idea of doing it. And then you, you just ponied up. You were just like we went online and made a little six dollar. What is it? Six, seven dollars? You pay, got it all. And then we walked around the west, the Greenwich Village, just getting increasingly kind of nervous and surreal. You started to tense up. What was your experience as you prepped in your head for that? Do you remember what that felt like?
Speaker 2:Well, I guess I had always, I kind of always thought I would go to my deathbed and be like man. I don't believe I never even got up for an open mic and, um, you know, not drinking, uh. So there wasn't that. You know I've done. I've done bold things in my life. Drinking that don't really count you know, right, like a different person, without the inhibitions. But you know, after the painful first draft and not just you but the guys afterwards it was because you're doing it to basically a silent room with every now and then I find it comedians in general.
Speaker 2:I've heard or I've noticed when I'm at a comedy club. If you see other comedians listening in, they do these like loud laughs sometimes for certain jokes and they always seem a little forced to me, you know it doesn't feel like, and so some of that was there, like 100 picking and a choosing of like, but whatever it was like, it was not.
Speaker 2:It was not many people and the people that got up afterwards it was a similar level of like, struggle and pain and embarrassment, and yet also, you know, we learned something from the next guy and the guy after that. There was something that was like oh why did that work?
Speaker 2:And and it's cool. I mean, you know, stand-up is a very, very strange thing, you know. I know, I know a lot of your thing has been sort of uncovering what it is from, like, the teachers and but I think there's a a there's a mysterious quality to it that is, uh, that is really interesting to me and, I think, interesting to you too, at your core, which is why are we doing this? You know, there's always some understanding of like, all right, there's some issue with me that I want to be looked at this much, that I need this much attention, and so there's something dark in that.
Speaker 2:and and yet there's also something kind of, I think, inspiring for me anyway, to have the goal of like trying to somehow relate your experience as a human being going through this world and do it in a way that is really fun to watch and sort of putting those two things together. There's some comedians that don't worry about the the first part, which is I really want to share my experience with the world. There's some people that just write jokes and they're not usually as inspiring to me, but there's some people that you know hide those jokes behind a real sincere yearning to understand themselves and and be open and honest, and all that stuff is I love anyway, I'm going off track.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I was like yeah, no, that's beautiful.
Speaker 1:I love this. Keep going yeah.
Speaker 2:So I was like, yeah, I should do it. And then you got up on your second one and we were like, oh, maybe try this way, because the first one you got up, you were super I motor mouth like I'd snorted a par five of cocaine.
Speaker 1:I just was like I didn't breathe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you came at it really aggressively, like which I get you know, but it's a weird room to do that with because there's like no energy coming back at you and it also was like such the fucking bends of the thing of like going out at me like yo listen to this joke and boom and silence was really, I feel like, was really hard. But the second time we were like let's just go up and fucking just be, just be chill, just just relax, you know, and talk to the audience and kind of like, go through these things and just bring it way down.
Speaker 2:And you know it was, it was a difference, it was a different experience the second time and then, yeah, then I got up and it was much easier for me because I wasn't working on any material or anything. I was just like kind of making fun of them and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So it was cool, I was really well, it was really enlightening to watch you because I think what a lot of beginner stand-ups, myself included, feel like they have to do is get up there and talk and kind of perform these jokes properly so that you can get a laugh. And it seems like the best people get up, they connect and they just talk like with everybody. There's a, there's a sort of instead of an at, there's a with it's. That may not be helpful as a guy, but it is to me. It's sort of like we're having a conversation. I just happen to be the only one talking. We're just chilling.
Speaker 1:We're just chilling together here and what I notice in these open mics is everyone just gets up there and they're trying their hard jokes, which is fine. But I remember I did five open mics in New York and even if my stuff didn't get a laugh, if I felt like I was actually speaking to human beings and not at them or like connecting with them in some way or just calling someone out, it almost felt like I had made a friend. But I was like I'd done a human thing as opposed to like a let me performing monkey thing, which is what a lot of these stand ups feel like they're doing, which is what a lot of these stand-ups feel like they're doing. They're just like ringing a bell and listening for a laugh at the at the sort of level we're talking about, this lower level, does that make sense?
Speaker 2:yeah, we had a cool. We had a cool. All night was cool. We did a whole um uh, sort of tour of different levels. The next thing we went to was, um, you know, kind of like they had been doing it for less than a year, kind of vibe, and there was some really interesting stuff and that one guy was really uh, it made me sad because I, I get it, though, you know he his whole, his whole bit, his whole thing persona was how much he hates women and yeah, and you know, at some point he gave this routine and it killed, but in this particular night the jokes didn't. They didn't even seem like jokes. So it really just felt like a guy who hates women was up there talking about how much he hates women which was really uncomfortable for me and the women in the audience.
Speaker 2:And so it just, you know, but I get it. It's like some people find you, you know, if they're in a specific mood, then they can make something work. That has, you know, I don't know what this guy's thing was, but I don't know. For me it's, uh, it just, it just felt like, even if it worked, why, why do we need to? You know, why do we need to do that in that way? But again, he wasn't nailing it. So there's probably something in how he is that is, you know, that has a intent that I didn't see.
Speaker 2:And then there was another guy that we liked a lot, except we had this big, this big, uh you know final joke. It was a long setup, it was great. And then he said the punchline and he just said the wrong word and didn't realize he'd said the wrong word. He'd switched the two things that he was talking about and there was silence and he was like confused that that had bombed so bad, had no idea, and I had to physically hold you back from being like you shouted a little bit, but I was like, bro, I can't, it's too much. Yeah, I can't, it's too much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was drinking and you don't drink, and you were getting increasingly uncomfortable that I was going to start trying to insert myself into the comedy show. I was like a spouse that you're ashamed of, you know. You kept like digging your finger into my side being like pipe down, finger into my side being like pipe down. But I was trying to yell to him to try the joke again because he, uh he, it was a good joke and he had just he had just missed the thing. I wish I, I wish I remembered memories going bad, but I do remember. What I can tell you is I ignored your advice and when he got off the stage I ran up to him no, I was good with that part, I just didn't want you to do it.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay okay, oh, okay. Well, I talked to him. I said, man, you've got to understand something. You fucked up the word, you. Just you said you said the same thing. You, you, it was something about nazis and it it was some premise about.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna mess it up anyway, it doesn't matter he was just.
Speaker 1:It was one word that he got wrong. He didn't say the right word and the whole thing flailed and I said you didn't say the right word. If you had said the right word, I like don't give up on it. But to watch this young kid he's probably 22 tall, handsome kid, really talented like I thought he was the best and to see the disappointment in the in like this oh, this crestfallen, his face just fell and he goes.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, oh my god and that's the other thing is you're gonna be okay?
Speaker 1:just keep trying. It's a great.
Speaker 2:It's a great bit doing this thing. That needs this kind of feedback. You know, at our first place, the open mic place, there was a girl woman who got up and and I was just, I just got myself into a place where I'm just gonna be, I'm gonna laugh. You know what I mean? I'm gonna be kind of feeling laughing so it might have been a little forced, but whatever. And uh, she told the joke that I laughed at and she's like, oh good, I haven't gotten a laugh on that one yet and I was like shit, don't take, don't take my.
Speaker 2:You know that's not a.
Speaker 1:I mean not that it wasn't funny or it was but I was just making myself laugh.
Speaker 2:I don't even know if that works. And to like have so much power amongst this anonymous for this anonymous. You know guffawing is it's a challenge.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad you brought this up because I've noticed. You know, when I'll listen back to my open mics, I won't have noticed laughs Now, any laugh is information, and sometimes you start to notice there's it's almost like colors. There's an infinite number of colors. There's an infinite number of like kinds of laughs. You know. There's ones with like 5% sympathy oh my God, I'm dying for this guy. Let me give him a little something. There's laughs that are like, oh, like I'm in my own world. No one else is thinking what I'm thinking, so that was funny to me, but it's nothing connected to what the person's doing.
Speaker 2:And so you, and then there's the huge, you know, cry laughing, which is so rare, even going to seven shows in a row and seeing the best stand-ups, like the scream laughter that sometimes you hear in these specials, where people, people are screaming at the top of their lungs, yeah I mean, but then we went to see colin quinn and I was so I was so freed by the fact that this guy was so comfortable up there both guys, you know, we just watched so many people that were working it out and to see somebody up there that was just allowed you to laugh easily, allowed you to be comfortable, it felt like he was talking with you and not at you, and even the things that weren't going great he was like all right well whatever, I can still tell a joke.
Speaker 2:That one wasn't great and it was really fun to watch and it had a point. He had a point of view that he was trying to do. It really felt like, you know, a project with a bigger mission that was wrapped in comedy, all that stuff that we, that we ultimately, that you ultimately want to aim for yeah, colin is operating at a very high level.
Speaker 1:he's an incredibly smart guy with like a blue collar vibe, but he is a very deep thinker and some of this stuff is is very eye-opening. So Google all his specials. He's really ripping. But, yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up of this idea of we all want to be taken care of. And a lot of times in the teaching I'm learning and I haven't figured out how to do yet, but that first 30 seconds is just like critical, because you're getting up there and it's like you know, hey, how you doing and everyone's just waiting to be taken care of. Like, is this a professional who's going to own the stage or do we have someone that we have to care for? Like that we have to worry about? And you felt that relief of finally being with a professional and that's ultimately what we're trying to get to is to get up there.
Speaker 1:You say, hi, you maybe connect to something that just happened in the room, maybe there's some truth that's going on in the room, make, make people laugh. You hit a first joke that is really strong and everyone's like, oh, all right, we, we, we got this guy, we know what he's about and now, let's now, let's just buckle up and and that's extremely challenging, but we watched that happen over and over again that week you know, guys, just get up and they just have it. They have something ready. Or they're just so quick on their feet and someone's being weird in the audience hey, where are you from? They say the city, and it's almost like they have like an arsenal of responses for every single place in the world. It's like london or milwaukee or wherever, and they can just rip on milwaukee or rip on london or rip on gay people or or heteros or you know anyone who's weird or odd. They're gonna rip on them in a loving way right away. And it's really sweet, it's amazing.
Speaker 2:It was cool talking about you know, talking through your stuff, and you know I don't think about that stuff that much and and since then I've been, you know just like what actually gets laughs.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's a it's a bit of a mystery how to find something that's to me anyway, how to find something that's that's funny and and not cheesy and sort of also has some, you know, thread of honesty yeah, you, uh, it's been so fun working with you because you've you've sent me a little of your material and it already, just listening to someone else, just completely honed me for my own stuff, because I'm going you know what I mean, you don't need all that. And the problem is, I think what's going on is that I clearly feel the need to express something that I'm not able to express, whether it's living in Maine and having no social life 10 months of the year or just being around people that you have to sort of abide by rules, unless you're going to, or else you're just going to get a bunch of weird looks. So there's a part of you that just wants to say what you want to say. Finally, and I think in all my first open mics, it's just, it's almost diarrhea of like okay, these are the things I'm thinking about and I finally get to say them, but ultimately like, and ultimately the first month was just my obsession with boning. You know what I mean. And then you're just like okay, and you start listening. You're like, oh, okay, enough, and you've almost gotten the poison out. It's like I don't want to talk about boning, I'm bored of it. You know it's it. So it's almost like this therapy that these comedians have and I've heard this from my stand-up professionals. They're getting the poison out and there's something very appealing.
Speaker 1:But my, the whole, this whole ramp up was to say that you, you feel like to the actual things that are funny about that viewpoint or that slant or opinion or premise. So, like right now, I'm working on this thing about just like you know, just really not liking my kids and just giving up and just being like I'm done, I'm done. Parenting it's over, you know, and they're 10, you know I can't, but I'm, I'm really done, and maybe that's a but there's the expression of being done maybe would take 10 minutes where I got all the poison out and then all of it can be summarized with. You know, the hardest thing about parenting is that it might be just the most inauthentic relationship on earth, because you're basically hiding what you really feel from your kids all day and then now you have something.
Speaker 1:Now there's a way of just playing with this. You know, that's funny about how we lie to our kids, or how we try to not lie but we end up lying, or maybe what we really, you know, what you say to your kids versus what you really think. There's a lot there and stand ups have covered this, but it's you would do it your own way. Well, my point is I would say four months ago I would have done four minutes of explaining all this stuff about you know the frustration I have with kids and now I got to completely reverse it where it's like 10 seconds of the setup and now I got to find four minutes of jokes and you might find 30 seconds and that's, does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it seems like also early on, it seems like you want to give the audience a good, a good feeling that you have an understanding of how to, you know, make them laugh. And yeah, so the desire to set things up, like to me, when I think about and maybe my version of, you know, stand up in my head has always been more like a one man show kind of stand up, which is different, you know, which is sometimes the stories aren't meant to be necessarily funny in a ha ha way. In my mind I'm like we're at a comedy club or something like that. You know you're telling a story. That silence starts to feel a little hostile, like, bro, we're not here to listen to you, talk about yourself. You know, yes, if you're in a theater, it's different and it's funny because then we listen to some music and I was like, wow, what a different experience. They're just up there having a good time and because they're having a good time, we start to have a good time.
Speaker 2:It's different with with the comedy, like it needs to be a uh, a shared, a shared experience. You know you don't need the people out dancing in order to make you know, the band can be just playing off each other and um, but yeah, so it's so. You don't want too long of a build-up where you're trying to describe some stuff. You want to get the the point across that you're here to make them laugh and have a good time quickly, even though the, the undercurrent might be something else. You know that you're trying to explore some kind of inner demon or some kind of I think you just gave me an epiphany.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think ultimately I just thought I could get up there and be interesting and it would be a success and you're. You're completely right. If you're in a comedy club and no one's like, it is just about the laughs and yeah, I had a.
Speaker 2:I had a moment up there too where you know, where I was saying something about my wife, and it was, you know, and I was just like you know, I love my wife, but also fuck her, you know.
Speaker 1:And and then I was gonna talk about her wife, but I thought that would give a little chuckle.
Speaker 2:There was nothing and I was like suddenly felt like just a horrible husband and a mean guy, just like that guy whose thing was like about hating women, like if somebody doesn't laugh at a joke that doesn't isn't really authentic or something, it feels very strange or they don't get like you know. You know, because some things are funny, because you know me, you know that's different when you're laughing with me, because you know me and you know that you know the way I'm saying this thing is in sort of contrast to my real feelings about it or something, or there's, you know, some nuance to it that the audience is is not going to be privy to right off the bat.
Speaker 2:Who's the guy we love a lot, nate um, nate bergazzi bergazzi. You know, now there's, you know, jim gaffigan or whatever whoever it's like there's, you know, there's nuance, or chapelle, it's, you know you can just watch the guy talk for a while without needing to laugh, because you understand, you know the person yeah, that like I was just thinking about your thing about, but like no one sees how, what a family man you are.
Speaker 1:You know how much, how dedicated you are. So when you say fucker, you know your friends would laugh. But all of these people are like you. You could be a wife beater I mean you know who knows. And so it's almost establishing that likeability, the thing I took around. How do you do that?
Speaker 2:There's also like five guys who were 24 and had no idea about marriage.
Speaker 1:No, no idea I, and I'm finding that because you know I'm I've got kids and so I'm, like you know, milking the kid stuff and and every time I go in these open mics who here has got kids? It's just like crickets and I'm like, oh yeah, I'm this like oldaged guy, they're just looking at me like look at how God forbid I'm like this guy.
Speaker 1:The fact that I had about your set was the power of poise and comfort and the ability to kind of just sit with not silence but to be relaxed and to just chat it up a bit. Like you were speaking with us, everyone else was speaking at everyone and you just were like, hey, what's up? Guys?
Speaker 2:this is my first time, uh it's a weird place out here this bar yeah, they're all. Everyone's sitting around looking very unhappy, like they're waiting to get like a needs test result. Everyone's like going through their life and they're like. I'm looking at people like what is? This is the saddest bar I've ever been. No, it's because it's during your economy.
Speaker 1:Place is kind of weird, right Like it seems like people are all waiting to see if they've, like, contracted a venereal disease or whatever, like in in the bar bar. That was true, it was a sad vibe in there and everyone laughed like it may have been the biggest laugh of the night and it was just this little offhand thing that was real and connected to reality and I remember being like, oh fuck, sister is already better than me and also just getting green with envy.
Speaker 1:No, I was like, oh, look at him. He's just up there and he's just chilling and it's you want to watch, you want to just listen, because he's chill and he's not. He's not muscling it out and efforting. Uh now, if you had to go 20 minutes like that, I'd be like, oh fuck, he's going to be like this for 20 minutes without anything prepared.
Speaker 1:But like a five with five minutes, you're like, oh no, this is nice, and let's call it the power of just being there Comfortable. And now I'm not saying that you weren't like when you said the thing about your wife, you already admitted that you had some, you know, shame or felt really uncomfortable. I can't see that, I didn't notice it. And so I mean I remember coming away from it like, oh yeah, okay, you don't have to do anything except just be there and talk and just relax, and the stakes are low here, and so it was really helpful.
Speaker 1:And then I that was my second go around Like your advice was just stop, just be quiet and pause, as I am now, and I did pause and got like a weird you know like weird chuckle. It would take probably a minute to tape up the box and so that's two minutes to get to take care of this box, and this box has been in my office for two years. I was just like I haven't written.
Speaker 2:There was one of the guys afterwards that, or a couple of the people afterwards that, would start to speak louder as soon as they said a punchline. They would start to say a bunch of things really loud and they would not hear whether or not there was a laugh or not.
Speaker 2:So by the time it finished there'd be silence and he'd get really nervous. And so there's, you know there's, it's a balance, like you have to be really connected. But the part that seems really scary to me and weird is and like I don't know how to do and I'm an actor.
Speaker 2:So I should feel like I could do this. But the saying the joke, the thing that you thought was funny when you came up with it, but probably are not going to think it's funny right here in the moment. But the best comedians are actually laughing at that joke as if they just thought of it. So that's happening. You know, that's that's. You know that's, that's the acting part of it. But the pressure to be able to come at a punch line, like my instinct would either be to hit it hard, but my instinct would probably be also just to like under you know, say it really under the cuff, slow and move on, which then would make me super sad if it didn't get a laugh there anyway. That just how to say like a thing that you thought was funny and here we go. It seems like so much pressure and it seems like an intense moment that I'm I don't know, I would like to.
Speaker 1:I would like to do it again and sort of play with that, yeah, yeah, I, I, I'll be back, we'll keep ripping and, you know, tune in for next time when Jeremy comes on, where he's got a Netflix special and I'm still grinding out open mics. He's just one of the quickest, most natural guys in the world, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I'll let you talk to those comedians that laughed at me.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, this is what I'll say. Sam Morrell we saw, or I saw, who's so funny. Look him up Prolific joke writer, just writing jokes all the time. Every time he goes to the comedy cellar he's pitching the manager val like five jokes. She said. You know, it's just relentless writing.
Speaker 1:And I remember talking to these comics like you just never know if it's going to be funny. Like you, you can think you've written the funniest fucking thing and you just don't know until you get up there. And so what a shitty craft where you can't. Like you can write a novel and know that, like you're cooking on a novel, that it's good, and maybe an editor. But this is like you mean, I gotta get in my car and I gotta go to a bunch of strangers to find out if this shit's any good. Fuck, yeah, um. So anyway, it's just to hit home your point of never knowing. We never know.
Speaker 1:So, jeremy, what a treat. Thank you for uh being there for me, for being my comedy buddy. It has changed the game for me. I have a. I'm gonna go perform, uh, my first five minute set where I feel like I actually have a rhythm and jokes that are that are real stand-up. You know that are designed for maximum laughs and not for some. You know poison expression, but the premise is of course about doing cocaine. So we have to uh, we have to respect the poison that needs to come out anyway um, but I'm sorry, buddy trip to new york.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it'll be new year, january, we'll keep it going and we'll keep being a buddy and um. Anyway, man, I love you, big boy love you too.
Speaker 2:Keep going with this thing, man. It is inspiring. I mean, I know it's hard every week to like. Sometimes you're just like what am I doing, what did I get myself into? And you just push through and the next week you're feeling good. It's just just, I don't know. It's, it's cool, I'm, I'm, I'm inspired by it, and uh and uh, I'm proud of you.
Speaker 1:Well, you're a sweetheart, I have to say you have, uh, you definitely put wind in and this week, out of nowhere, just a lot of writing like a lot of tinkering that I haven't been doing. So we're back on the horse and I just don't want to get bucked off, because there's some real momentum now.
Speaker 1:So, um, yeah, baby, let's go, alrighty. Oh, what a treat that was. Just so. You guys know we turn things around fast here. I did that interview today, wednesday December 4th. That interview, uh happened at 3 pm Eastern time. I then went to my 15th open mic at 8 pm in Biddeford, maine, and I came back here and I just put that shit together. This is what we're doing on a Wednesday Interviews, open mics and podcasts.
Speaker 1:We're cooking with gas. I was listening to this episode and I just want everyone to know I am not on any drugs. My jaw is so cold, there's a storm raging outside and for some reason I think, just maybe fatigue my jaw has got tremendous tension and is feeling like it's almost wired shut, and so there's a sort of a maybe you didn't notice it, but I certainly did Kind of almost a slurriness. But I promise you, not like Thanksgiving week, I've got nothing in the system. We're keeping it clean. It's just about 58 degrees in my office and here I am. Okay.
Speaker 1:So next week, of course, because this is a journal, I have no idea what's coming. I can just promise you that we're cooking and we're going to make things as exciting as humanly possible. We're going to keep searching for funny. We're going to keep digging deep, we're going to keep ranting, we're going to keep honing, we're going to keep learning. That is my solemn vow, and I hope all of you are doing tremendously well Again, if you've made it all the way to the end. I love you. I love you so much and I appreciate you being there, and I wish you again a week full of tremendous love, connection, joy, peace, safety and venery. Keep it up, it's the holiday season. Let's make some babies. All right, talk to you later.