Pilot Episode: Retirement, Roast Chickens, and Recovering Californians

In the very first episode of Who Gave Jeff Allen a Podcast?, Jeff Allen and Carollynn Xavier introduce the podcast no one asked for—but somehow, we all needed. With zero retirement savings, a lot of comedy mileage, and a millennial co-host to help him decode life, Jeff kicks things off with honesty, heart, and a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor.

Carollynn shares her wildly unexpected road from atheist Instagram comic to seminary student and surprise Tennessean—while Jeff opens up about addiction, bombing on stage, surviving marriage, and the joy of connecting with an audience that’s grown up laughing at (and with) him.

🎙️ Topics Covered:
✅ Jeff’s early days in comedy... and close-up magic
✅ How bombing on stage (twice) led him to a 40-year career
✅ Carollynn’s wild ride from Waffle House to salvation
✅ Marriage, midlife, and the truth about roast chickens
✅ Sobriety, sanctification, and the pain of personal growth
✅ The strange and beautiful friendship that launched a podcast

This pilot episode is honest, hilarious, and deeply human—a heartfelt intro to a show about faith, failure, family, and the funny stuff that keeps us going.

🔥 Listen now and subscribe!

Join us for Jeff Allen’s Celebrity Golf Classic, a two-day event packed with comedy, camaraderie, and a whole lot of competition, all for a great cause. June 29th - 30th at Westhaven Golf Club

Your ticket includes: Dinner reception + comedy show and full tournament play. Open to golfers of all skill levels and ages.

Bring your swing, your sense of humor, and your heart for a good cause.

To find out more, head over to jeffallencomedy.com

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:03:23
Speaker 1
Holy cow. Hey, everybody, this is Jeff Allen. And, welcome.

00:00:03:23 - 00:00:05:16
Speaker 2
To, our.

00:00:05:16 - 00:00:26:17
Speaker 1
First podcast. We did a lot of marketing research. First of all, I want to back up my. I was talking to my accountant. And, he told me I. I have no retirement account. You need to figure out a way to generate more income. And I thought, gee, I better do some research because I'm doing everything I can.

00:00:27:02 - 00:00:38:06
Speaker 1
Comedy wise, out on the road. So, anyway, I hired a company. Money I didn't have. And they came back and said, you know, there's just not enough podcasts in the United States. And one.

00:00:38:06 - 00:00:39:05
Speaker 2
More.

00:00:39:07 - 00:01:03:06
Speaker 1
Podcast would strike the right balance with the American people. So here we are, our first podcast. And, I was, I did not want to do this alone. Because I'm neurotic and, afraid to be out here on a tight rope by myself. So I looked around and I realized that the biggest problems in my life right now are my millennial children.

00:01:03:13 - 00:01:20:21
Speaker 1
I just can't figure them out. I don't understand how they think. I don't how they process information. So I thought, how cool would it be if I could find a millennial? And then I thought, you know, the other problem with my wife is my wife, Tammy. I can't figure her out 38 years. They say women are like onions.

00:01:21:06 - 00:01:36:06
Speaker 1
And, I agree with that because nobody's made me cry more than Tammy. So, I figured then I'll get a find a millennial woman. So maybe that can help me sort out the differences I have with my with my bride and with my children.

00:01:36:07 - 00:01:37:10
Speaker 2
So with that.

00:01:37:10 - 00:01:47:09
Speaker 1
Said, I like to introduce my co-host, for the podcast, Carolyn Xavier. She will, you can explain who you are and.

00:01:47:11 - 00:01:49:17
Speaker 2
Yeah, why you're here. Right? Well, I chose.

00:01:49:17 - 00:01:50:22
Speaker 1
To get with them.

00:01:51:00 - 00:02:11:17
Speaker 3
I'm a little nervous now because you. I didn't realize I was supposed to help you with your kids. I know you, you're married. I didn't realize it was a part of the thing. My name is Carolyn Xavier. If you don't know me, which you might not, I am an Instagram stand up comic that moved from the wilds of Los Angeles to the South.

00:02:11:18 - 00:02:29:17
Speaker 3
I've never been to the South before, and I tried standup. I tried my hand at standup, and I decided I'd rather be a mom. And I was telling Jeff the first time we met that I'd rather be a mom. And he was like, I have a great idea. Look, I need help with my kids and I need help with my wife.

00:02:29:17 - 00:02:31:21
Speaker 3
And then boom, here we are.

00:02:31:22 - 00:02:33:21
Speaker 2
Here we are, here we are.

00:02:33:23 - 00:02:37:02
Speaker 3
And we don't necessarily have a name yet, but we're working.

00:02:37:02 - 00:02:37:14
Speaker 2
On it and we're.

00:02:37:14 - 00:02:49:20
Speaker 1
Working on a name for the podcast. But also, we realized as we sit down and we're booking guests, we're going to have guests every week, that, probably more interesting than we are. We hope they're more interesting than we are.

00:02:49:20 - 00:02:50:13
Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean.

00:02:50:22 - 00:02:53:10
Speaker 1
And that will keep you coming back. But.

00:02:53:12 - 00:02:53:18
Speaker 2
We.

00:02:53:18 - 00:02:59:07
Speaker 1
Realized we don't really know that much about each other. We've, we've been friends now for for a few months.

00:02:59:13 - 00:02:59:21
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:03:00:07 - 00:03:03:12
Speaker 1
And matter of fact, you are going antiquing with my wife.

00:03:03:12 - 00:03:19:12
Speaker 3
I am going in for weeks, so I love leg project type stuff. And Tammy was telling me that she bought this birdcage, and she was standing it, and she was refinishing it, and I was like, I thought I was the only girl that was, like, really into this, and I can't even believe that it was it blew my mind.

00:03:19:14 - 00:03:23:00
Speaker 2
Our first.

00:03:23:02 - 00:03:24:11
Speaker 1
25 years of marriage.

00:03:24:20 - 00:03:32:21
Speaker 1
Every piece of furniture we had basically was bought at a thrift store, sanded and refinished by my wife.

00:03:32:22 - 00:03:35:20
Speaker 3
That's how I do everything. Yeah, it drives brand crazy.

00:03:35:22 - 00:03:38:03
Speaker 1
Well, it drives her crazy to pay retail for.

00:03:38:03 - 00:03:38:14
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's.

00:03:38:16 - 00:03:47:05
Speaker 1
Like a Pottery Barn, you know? And I always say, well, I work for a reason. Let's just get the the finish. She goes, I just can't do that. She just can't do that.

00:03:47:07 - 00:03:47:17
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:03:47:17 - 00:03:59:16
Speaker 3
So it's like this thing where it's like, I see it. It might be a little bit too much like my marriage, but I'm like, I see it and it's a little banged up and broken. But if I put in a lot of effort in the garage, I can fix it up.

00:03:59:18 - 00:04:00:19
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah.

00:04:01:00 - 00:04:16:12
Speaker 1
That's fascinating. So you came from Southern Cal? I found you on Instagram before I even met you. I was so funny when I ran into you at zanies. I'm terrible with remembering things, but there's this part of my brain that goes. You've seen her?

00:04:16:14 - 00:04:17:04
Speaker 2
Yeah, and.

00:04:17:04 - 00:04:25:16
Speaker 1
I couldn't remember where. And I think I went back home and I was just scrolling through Instagram because I follow you on Instagram. You popped. I went.

00:04:25:19 - 00:04:27:00
Speaker 3
Oh, you put two and two together.

00:04:27:00 - 00:04:40:20
Speaker 1
That's the her, that's her. And I remember us talking about you wanting to get off the road, and get away from standup, and, I had had the idea that I wanted to do something like this to get off the road. The same.

00:04:40:22 - 00:04:41:10
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:04:41:12 - 00:04:42:10
Speaker 3
We're both retiring.

00:04:42:15 - 00:04:49:04
Speaker 1
Yeah. Pretty much. Yeah. Temps, after 40, for 38 years of a road comic for a husband.

00:04:49:09 - 00:04:51:13
Speaker 3
She doesn't want to just see you with the grave now.

00:04:51:13 - 00:04:56:14
Speaker 1
That's it. You know, that's what she told me. She said, I just don't want to.

00:04:56:16 - 00:04:57:07
Speaker 2
To.

00:04:57:09 - 00:05:09:19
Speaker 1
To just have our last three or 4 or 5, 20 whatever years they are is the is the same. So we kind of look, what can you do? And, you know, I guess the podcast thing, we'll find out if people pick up on it.

00:05:09:19 - 00:05:19:08
Speaker 3
But I think there's a moment here to be like, look, he's trying to get off the road, so get your tickets now. Jeff@comedy.com.

00:05:19:10 - 00:05:23:14
Speaker 1
You're giving it away on next year. It's my first farewell tour.

00:05:23:14 - 00:05:24:05
Speaker 3
Really?

00:05:24:06 - 00:05:26:11
Speaker 1
Just first. Everybody has 4 or 5.

00:05:26:11 - 00:05:31:06
Speaker 3
Yeah, I have seen all of the classic rock guys right there. About 6 or 7. Farewell.

00:05:31:07 - 00:05:33:22
Speaker 1
Yeah. So my first farewell tour will be next year.

00:05:33:23 - 00:05:36:04
Speaker 3
I think that's because they just burn through money. Is that what.

00:05:36:04 - 00:05:37:22
Speaker 2
Happens? I just think they're.

00:05:37:22 - 00:05:38:21
Speaker 3
Addicted to the.

00:05:38:21 - 00:05:54:17
Speaker 1
I think that's it. I love what I do, I love interacting with, you know, it's so funny. My manager tells the story when I was using he knew me. My my manager knew me since 1983 when I was using drugs and alcohol and stuff.

00:05:54:19 - 00:05:55:10
Speaker 3
While man.

00:05:55:12 - 00:06:13:07
Speaker 1
And, I never stuck around after the show, I finish the show and leave. I just go, you know, one of the parts of this disease of alcoholism is isolationism. You just isolate. So I used to say I could sit in a crowded bar and be alone. I didn't need to be with it. I just had people around me.

00:06:13:07 - 00:06:33:12
Speaker 1
But I wasn't interacting with human beings. And now he says, he tells people on the last one to leave Tammy, I'll do that. She'll grab me by the eye. It's so funny. What if Tammy travels with me? She'll sit there and, because she's anti-social. She doesn't want to meet anybody, so she'll sit and I'll watch her just.

00:06:33:14 - 00:06:34:15
Speaker 2
You know.

00:06:34:17 - 00:06:35:11
Speaker 1
You never shut.

00:06:35:11 - 00:06:36:16
Speaker 2
Up, but.

00:06:36:18 - 00:06:54:15
Speaker 1
And I'm shocked that anybody want it. But I love what I do, and I think that's it. You just get away from it for whatever period of time, and you go, you know, I miss that. The adrenaline. Yeah. The enjoyment, the people who come up and tell you, the impact you've had on their life and stuff. I, I don't think that gets old.

00:06:54:15 - 00:06:56:06
Speaker 1
If it does, you should quit.

00:06:56:08 - 00:07:03:07
Speaker 3
Yeah. I did not like it. That's why I stopped. So when did you start? Because I don't really know any of this. Okay. You started in what year?

00:07:03:07 - 00:07:04:11
Speaker 1
1978.

00:07:04:13 - 00:07:05:12
Speaker 3
78?

00:07:05:12 - 00:07:06:13
Speaker 1
Yeah. Comedy club.

00:07:06:15 - 00:07:07:13
Speaker 3
Okay, so they.

00:07:07:13 - 00:07:09:02
Speaker 2
Had as a magician.

00:07:09:04 - 00:07:10:11
Speaker 3
You started as a magician?

00:07:10:11 - 00:07:35:18
Speaker 1
I did. I was a close up magic guy. I met a guy in college. He was a friend of my girl I was dating. Her best friend's boyfriend was a world class Close-Up magician. So we're at a bar one night, and he goes, I do magic. And I went, oh, yeah, okay. And he takes five coins from me and proceeds to push one of them each time through the into a glass underneath the table.

00:07:35:20 - 00:07:37:02
Speaker 2
You're like, how? Well, that was it.

00:07:37:06 - 00:07:46:06
Speaker 1
Yeah, that was it. And it's like, so funny how people react to magic. Tammy's one of those that if she can't figure it out, it upsets her. She doesn't enjoy it.

00:07:46:10 - 00:07:46:18
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:07:46:23 - 00:08:06:05
Speaker 1
You know, I think I've gotten to a point now where when we go see Close-Up magic, I said, just enjoy. It's not a game. It's not sitting there going, you idiot, I'm going to fool you. He's just entertaining you. So enjoy. I think she's there. And my youngest son is one of those that just. He can't. He's got to figure it out.

00:08:06:05 - 00:08:27:23
Speaker 1
I mean, it's it's it it's not about entertainment value. And I wanted to learn how to do it. I did and, and I learned and I learned from two of the best, in the country at the time and, got got adept, fairly adept. So I did some places in Chicago. And then I saw I came to a comedy club.

00:08:27:23 - 00:08:46:10
Speaker 1
I was working for a jewelry company, and they said, hey, you want to go to the comedy clubs now? I had to back up. My brother was a musician, and he had a couple of comedians open for one night, a comedy team, O'Brien and several, they were Chicago, people and, blew me away. I was 16, maybe when I saw them.

00:08:46:12 - 00:08:47:08
Speaker 2
Yeah, just.

00:08:47:08 - 00:09:04:16
Speaker 1
Blew me away. And I thought that would be the coolest thing. And when I got to college, I would do stand up routines in the locker room about guys I grew up with. I would just make up stories about them. And I thought, man, I could do this stand up and this would be great, but how do you do it?

00:09:04:16 - 00:09:20:07
Speaker 1
I mean, it's not like today where they have every club has a class, every club. I mean, you can go to comedy club. There were a couple in Chicago that I never knew about. So anyway, I'm working for this jewelry company and I got to go to the comedy college. I go, what's that? They're going to these comedians get up one after another.

00:09:20:07 - 00:09:22:07
Speaker 1
It's really kind of cool. In my.

00:09:22:09 - 00:09:23:08
Speaker 3
Room, you're like, this is.

00:09:23:08 - 00:09:25:01
Speaker 1
Mine. So that was the magic.

00:09:25:01 - 00:09:25:09
Speaker 2
That was.

00:09:25:11 - 00:09:26:17
Speaker 3
That. You're like, I'm out of here.

00:09:26:18 - 00:09:48:10
Speaker 1
Well, no. I kept doing closer and stuff, but I hung at that club every night from August until Thanksgiving night, when I finally got the courage to go up. Everybody in that building knew I wanted to do this. Just didn't have the courage to do it. So I went up that first night and I brought my magic stuff, and I was so blessed.

00:09:48:12 - 00:10:00:00
Speaker 1
I never did stage, I did table, so I had no table. I dropped things, my hands were shake. I mean, it was. And I used to say, I don't know if I was a sadist or a masochist. So someone was getting punished, enjoying it.

00:10:00:06 - 00:10:01:23
Speaker 2
You know, if it was more me or them.

00:10:02:01 - 00:10:05:03
Speaker 3
What did you sell it like? You were like the stumbling magician.

00:10:05:03 - 00:10:08:01
Speaker 2
Not at all. Not at all. I didn't have any any skills.

00:10:08:03 - 00:10:16:07
Speaker 1
And then I went back Sunday. I was Thursday night because Thanksgiving night. So, Thursday night was open mic. I go back Sunday and.

00:10:16:09 - 00:10:17:21
Speaker 2
I went on and I.

00:10:17:21 - 00:10:28:16
Speaker 1
Went home that night. This is the way I handle shame and humiliation. I cried all the way to my apartment. And then when I got in, I punched holes in my closet door. The rage came out. So I thought, that's my cycle. Shame.

00:10:28:17 - 00:10:34:10
Speaker 2
Tears, you know, rage. So anyway, I come back Sunday night. Back?

00:10:34:12 - 00:10:46:08
Speaker 1
Yeah, I went back Sunday night. And it was funny when I met Tammy and told her the story, she goes, why would you go back after humiliating yourself that she reminds me of all the humiliation that I spent. You know, babe, I was kind of over it.

00:10:46:10 - 00:10:51:07
Speaker 2
You know, it had been 20 years, so, you know. Anyway, I go back Sunday.

00:10:51:07 - 00:10:58:22
Speaker 1
Night in this very large black, and she comes over to me. I loved Orlando race. And he said, you're going to have to make some sense to me. We're still.

00:10:58:22 - 00:11:00:05
Speaker 2
Trying to figure out.

00:11:00:07 - 00:11:08:19
Speaker 1
What you said Thursday night. And I go, yeah, I know it was pretty bad. He goes, no, it was more than I mean, he goes, we have no idea what you said. I mean, I was drunk and anyway.

00:11:08:21 - 00:11:09:19
Speaker 3
Oh, you were drunk.

00:11:09:21 - 00:11:10:11
Speaker 2
Oh okay.

00:11:10:16 - 00:11:11:08
Speaker 1
I stressed.

00:11:11:10 - 00:11:13:08
Speaker 3
I fix you this just like dirty scared.

00:11:13:08 - 00:11:14:06
Speaker 2
Not at all.

00:11:14:06 - 00:11:19:13
Speaker 1
Just trashed. So I get up there and then I bam again humiliate myself.

00:11:19:17 - 00:11:25:15
Speaker 3
But at least you knew you humiliated yourself. How many people have you seen bombed trash. And they're, like, suffering in it.

00:11:25:17 - 00:11:28:03
Speaker 2
Yeah I know, wow, that was so funny.

00:11:28:03 - 00:11:41:08
Speaker 1
And then like a month into doing open mics and believe me, I was all I see a guy. Larry Reeb, one of the funniest guys out uncle there writing in a notebook. And I go, what are you doing? He goes, I'm preparing my set. I go, you prepare.

00:11:41:08 - 00:11:42:21
Speaker 2
This and he goes, you.

00:11:42:21 - 00:11:46:00
Speaker 1
Don't. I go, no, he goes, well, that explains a lot.

00:11:46:02 - 00:11:54:21
Speaker 2
If we felt we would try to discuss, you know, because after a month you think you develop some chart, at least a joke. Yeah. So anyway.

00:11:54:23 - 00:11:55:19
Speaker 3
So you're just winging.

00:11:55:19 - 00:11:56:12
Speaker 1
It. I was.

00:11:56:12 - 00:11:57:19
Speaker 2
I thought you talked like I.

00:11:57:19 - 00:12:03:15
Speaker 1
Did in the locker room. I would just talk about guys I knew and whatever what happened at work or.

00:12:03:17 - 00:12:05:06
Speaker 2
You know, I just kind of.

00:12:05:08 - 00:12:06:00
Speaker 1
Made stuff up.

00:12:06:05 - 00:12:07:10
Speaker 2
And I, and I look at it.

00:12:07:10 - 00:12:31:02
Speaker 1
Also in hindsight, as great training, you get used to bombing and humiliating yourself. You're willing to try anything new. I saw guys, in hindsight, going back three years later, they were doing the same 15 minutes that they started with because to step out of that comfort zone and not get the laughs, because they would get huge laughs with the stuff they knew.

00:12:31:06 - 00:12:31:14
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:12:31:16 - 00:12:36:15
Speaker 1
And then go out and not get a laugh and immediately go back to me. I was used to bombing.

00:12:36:15 - 00:12:48:15
Speaker 3
So people that are listening that don't know, every time you say bombing, I can feel my heart palpitations going harder because it's like all of that trauma like and this like, like it's it's.

00:12:48:15 - 00:12:49:18
Speaker 2
Not normal and.

00:12:49:18 - 00:13:03:23
Speaker 3
It's like. And it's weird because it's like you have this, like, trauma trigger to bombing, and then it's like you still step on the stage anyways. And it's like, oh God, we're going make it this time. It's always like, that's where the adrenaline comes for me is like, am I gonna survive this?

00:13:04:01 - 00:13:09:15
Speaker 1
Well, in the back of my head, I knew somewhere in there I could do this if I could just get over the nerves.

00:13:09:21 - 00:13:10:20
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:13:10:22 - 00:13:17:09
Speaker 1
And, again, I really had no life. I mean, I was, I was working at a job that I didn't care about. I mean, it wasn't like I had.

00:13:17:11 - 00:13:19:19
Speaker 2
Placed it in.

00:13:20:00 - 00:13:24:11
Speaker 1
The context of my book was, I wasn't a planner.

00:13:24:13 - 00:13:25:02
Speaker 2
You know?

00:13:25:06 - 00:13:28:18
Speaker 1
And, you know, what are you going to do in five years?

00:13:28:20 - 00:13:31:05
Speaker 2
I don't I know, I don't know.

00:13:31:07 - 00:13:33:04
Speaker 3
This close up magic might pan out.

00:13:33:05 - 00:13:33:21
Speaker 2
Not at all.

00:13:33:21 - 00:13:37:02
Speaker 1
I dropped that pretty quick. I realized I could bomb without the props.

00:13:37:03 - 00:13:48:10
Speaker 3
Was it, like, just to get attention from people that were like, you just wanted. Oh, I want to make people laugh and make people have a good time with close up magic. Or like, this is how I'm going to get chicks. Like, what was the.

00:13:48:12 - 00:13:48:16
Speaker 2
I.

00:13:48:16 - 00:13:58:01
Speaker 1
Just wanted to learn how to do it. And it was a skill I still admire today. I, I love close up magic. I love sitting.

00:13:58:01 - 00:13:58:06
Speaker 2
At a.

00:13:58:06 - 00:14:04:22
Speaker 1
Table and watching people, especially having some knowledge of how things work.

00:14:05:00 - 00:14:05:09
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:14:05:11 - 00:14:29:19
Speaker 1
And I, you know, you know, I kind of look for poems and passes and things. I don't I don't spend a lot of time trying to figure out, I just enjoy I know, I know what it takes to develop a skill to be able to misdirect somebody and move something somewhere when they're not looking. And, I appreciate that from a, technical standpoint.

00:14:29:21 - 00:14:33:07
Speaker 1
And then I think it's not too entertaining. If there there are a lot of.

00:14:33:07 - 00:14:35:01
Speaker 2
Boring.

00:14:35:16 - 00:14:37:15
Speaker 1
Magicians.

00:14:37:17 - 00:14:37:20
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:14:37:22 - 00:14:39:21
Speaker 1
Cadence wise, there's just a lot.

00:14:39:23 - 00:14:41:02
Speaker 2
Of one of our.

00:14:41:04 - 00:14:43:22
Speaker 1
One of our friend Stephen Braganza. He's probably one of the best.

00:14:44:00 - 00:14:44:19
Speaker 2
So funny.

00:14:44:20 - 00:14:58:00
Speaker 1
He's his skill level is huge. But then his entertainment value is through the roof because he's just a naturally funny guy. His text cracked me up when I said not.

00:14:58:02 - 00:14:59:04
Speaker 2
XD he.

00:14:59:08 - 00:15:02:14
Speaker 1
Trashes me as being an old man because I think I'm a year older than him.

00:15:02:17 - 00:15:03:16
Speaker 2
So.

00:15:03:18 - 00:15:24:04
Speaker 1
It gives him right to call me names. So anyway, back to the that a comedy? That was 78 by 79, I developed maybe 10 or 15 minutes. That was passable. You know, I did have a club owner come to me after about a year and tell me, you do know you'll never make a living at this.

00:15:24:06 - 00:15:39:08
Speaker 1
And I said, thank you. And he goes, you're welcome. I said, because nobody's ever made anything of their life is not had some pinhead in the past tell them they're not going to make anything. And they're like, yeah, you're my Pinot. I'm going to tell the world, I'm still telling this story looking I'm still telling the story didn't bother me at all.

00:15:39:10 - 00:15:40:21
Speaker 1
47 years later.

00:15:40:23 - 00:15:45:14
Speaker 3
You get up every morning and looked at your whole year tour schedule and you're like, not making anything.

00:15:45:15 - 00:15:48:00
Speaker 1
Making anything. But he. Yeah, he's long gone.

00:15:48:02 - 00:15:51:06
Speaker 2
But,

00:15:51:07 - 00:16:02:14
Speaker 1
By 1980, the country exploded with comedy clubs, literally exploded. There were more clubs and or comedians you can do. So I was able to hit the road with my 15 minutes.

00:16:02:14 - 00:16:03:02
Speaker 3
And make.

00:16:03:02 - 00:16:03:23
Speaker 2
Money and make money.

00:16:04:02 - 00:16:04:15
Speaker 3
Which is a.

00:16:04:15 - 00:16:09:17
Speaker 1
Couple hundred a week to 50 a week. You know, back then it was 250. Yeah. Today you need.

00:16:09:23 - 00:16:11:15
Speaker 2
That's a successful story to be.

00:16:11:15 - 00:16:12:18
Speaker 1
Worth it to 50.

00:16:12:18 - 00:16:13:12
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:16:13:14 - 00:16:16:18
Speaker 1
I 250 went farther back in 1980.

00:16:17:01 - 00:16:19:21
Speaker 2
And 50 weeks.

00:16:19:23 - 00:16:35:09
Speaker 1
I had nothing else to do and and went and I'm an alcoholic and a drug addict. So if you, if you like to sleep, get a job at a mattress factory, you like to drink, get a job in a bar. And I was in a bar five, six nights a week, seven nights a week, you know? And,

00:16:35:14 - 00:16:37:01
Speaker 3
250 probably didn't last long.

00:16:37:04 - 00:16:54:12
Speaker 1
Not at all. Not at all. I mean, you know, and then eventually I worked my way up to middle acting, middle act, you know, five, 600. And then when I met Tammy, I was 7 or 8 years in. Yeah, eight years, because I was almost I was 29. So seven years and I was headlining back then. Comedy clubs.

00:16:54:23 - 00:17:00:00
Speaker 1
Yeah. Not a draw, though. Not a draw. See, there's a difference. And I always knew the difference.

00:17:00:00 - 00:17:00:18
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:17:00:20 - 00:17:04:04
Speaker 1
I said to people, you know, they call me headliner, but I'm not.

00:17:04:06 - 00:17:09:08
Speaker 3
I heard it one time. They said, you're not a headliner. If you don't have a draw, you're a closer.

00:17:09:09 - 00:17:09:18
Speaker 2
Closer?

00:17:09:23 - 00:17:20:07
Speaker 1
That's what I was. I closed the shows and that's what they had. There weren't many true headliners because the big names were moving into performing arts centers and bigger.

00:17:20:13 - 00:17:20:18
Speaker 2
So.

00:17:20:18 - 00:17:24:00
Speaker 3
Remind me of the old days, who was big in the 80s?

00:17:24:00 - 00:17:24:17
Speaker 1
Seinfeld.

00:17:24:22 - 00:17:30:06
Speaker 3
Because to me it kind of all blends together. Anything pre 2000, I'm like, all those those guys.

00:17:30:14 - 00:17:34:13
Speaker 1
Seinfeld. Came out of the club.

00:17:34:14 - 00:17:35:20
Speaker 3
Was like Bill Hicks big.

00:17:35:20 - 00:17:49:09
Speaker 1
Then Bill Hicks was was gaining a big following. Hicks was more of a, appear pure as loved. Technically everybody comics loved him.

00:17:49:12 - 00:17:50:06
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:17:51:01 - 00:18:00:11
Speaker 1
And I'll be straight up. I didn't get him. I was in New York, I couldn't wait. I was working catch, and I heard he was working that night. I got there early to catch his set.

00:18:00:12 - 00:18:00:20
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:18:00:23 - 00:18:20:00
Speaker 1
And I saw it, and I went, yeah, it's not my cup of tea. Yeah, again, I wasn't. It's so funny. He changed my life. I to say that he called Ronald Reagan a capitalistic swine. It was New York, so they applauded and cheered.

00:18:20:16 - 00:18:28:23
Speaker 1
And I'm driving home that night, and I realized I didn't get it because I didn't know what a capitalist was. And it hit me like a freight train.

00:18:29:01 - 00:18:30:02
Speaker 3
Like I don't know this word.

00:18:30:03 - 00:18:35:08
Speaker 1
I make my living with words. And I'm assuming capitalist is a basic word, I don't know.

00:18:35:10 - 00:18:36:04
Speaker 2
And then go back.

00:18:36:04 - 00:18:59:01
Speaker 1
To high school. I remember taking a test. I get called in freshman year and they said, we need to have you take your test again. I go, what test? The vocabulary test. And I go, why? They go, well, your comprehension came back in eighth grade, 12th grade, ninth month. You're way ahead in comprehension. Your vocabulary came back third grade.

00:18:59:03 - 00:19:01:09
Speaker 2
So there's they're trying to figure.

00:19:01:09 - 00:19:03:07
Speaker 1
Out how you can comprehend things if you don't know.

00:19:03:07 - 00:19:04:14
Speaker 2
What they mean. Yeah.

00:19:04:16 - 00:19:25:06
Speaker 1
And I said, well, it's funny because I can look at a paragraph and I can figure out what things mean. But if you ask me what a word mean, even when my kids were growing up, they come in with, what does this word mean? And I could use it in a sentence. I could use it in context. But to define it, I wasn't an amazingly when I would look words up, how wrong I was about my definition of what the word was.

00:19:25:06 - 00:19:26:00
Speaker 2
Yeah, again.

00:19:26:00 - 00:19:43:01
Speaker 1
I could use it in a sentence. So I'm driving home that night after watching and I go look up the word capitalist. And the first thought I had was, what's wrong with that? And I kind of knew Hicks enough peripherally to know that he was he was out there seeking money, you know, like everybody else his age was pushing.

00:19:43:07 - 00:19:44:20
Speaker 2
Up to get every dollar.

00:19:44:22 - 00:19:46:12
Speaker 1
I mean, he enjoyed the system.

00:19:46:14 - 00:19:47:12
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:19:47:14 - 00:20:06:20
Speaker 1
So anyway, I didn't quite understand that. But I realized I needed help, so I went, I did, I went got an s.a.t collegiate book and started studying. I even wrote a joke for the word acquiescence so that I would remember it. And I said, I, I, I came up with a line of men's Cologne for people like me.

00:20:06:20 - 00:20:16:08
Speaker 1
For men like me, it's called acquiescence. It's from real men who know how to comply. It's made with the oil of a jellyfish.

00:20:16:10 - 00:20:17:15
Speaker 2
So I it was a great job.

00:20:17:16 - 00:20:31:06
Speaker 1
Plus it allows me to use a big word so I sound more intelligent. And, so I studied this book and I started realizing that my comedy was changing because I had more words to use other than the seven that George Carlin said were taboo.

00:20:31:19 - 00:20:32:11
Speaker 2
And,

00:20:32:13 - 00:20:34:01
Speaker 3
Oh, yeah. Because you were dirty back then.

00:20:34:01 - 00:20:50:08
Speaker 1
I was dirty. I was just I had a foul mouth, you know, instead of pinheads and morons and idiots, they were f ING this f ING that, you know. Right. And when you don't have anything to fill in. And that's what always kill me about Dennis Miller. Dennis Miller blew me away. He emceed the first show. I worked in Pittsburgh.

00:20:50:08 - 00:21:08:01
Speaker 1
I was the middle act, and I think Bill Curtain Bottle was headliner. Bill was hysterical, and Dennis went up and I was so blown away at how glib, how dry and how funny he was. And one night some guy was heckling him kind of, and he goes, what do you do for a living? And he goes, I'm a lawyer.

00:21:08:01 - 00:21:11:22
Speaker 1
And he was finally somebody with some brains, and he just.

00:21:12:00 - 00:21:13:05
Speaker 2
Married.

00:21:13:06 - 00:21:33:19
Speaker 1
The guy tried to keep up, and that is just dry as you could strike a match on. His humor was, you know, so impressed, man, I just I hung around him and I, we became, fairly good friends at that time, because we're both kind of at the same level, struggling. And, I went to his house one day and he had all these books, and I go, you read these?

00:21:33:19 - 00:21:38:10
Speaker 1
He goes, I read 90%. I never read a book in my.

00:21:38:10 - 00:21:40:03
Speaker 2
Life at all.

00:21:40:03 - 00:21:57:00
Speaker 1
And I said, oh, gosh, I started reading, you know, when I got sober, I just started reading self-help. I went to a therapist. I just wanted to figure out why I behaved the way I behaved.

00:21:57:03 - 00:21:58:01
Speaker 3
Punching holes in the wall.

00:21:58:03 - 00:22:03:12
Speaker 1
Yeah, punching holes in the wall. And that. And against seeming like there was no control over it. And my.

00:22:03:12 - 00:22:04:04
Speaker 2
Brother left.

00:22:04:04 - 00:22:04:15
Speaker 3
Out anger.

00:22:04:18 - 00:22:20:17
Speaker 1
And that was my dad. My brother. Nothing they did in midst their rage was their fault. It was always triggered by somebody. So it was whoever triggered them, their fault. I looked at it the other way. I should have control over this. And I'm scaring my family.

00:22:20:19 - 00:22:21:08
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:22:21:10 - 00:22:40:02
Speaker 1
So I just got to kind of try to figure it out. And so I went completely. When I got sober, I sat on a stool for years, 2 or 3 years. I never got off the stool. I would sit and do my show on a stool.

00:22:40:08 - 00:22:40:16
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:22:40:19 - 00:22:49:12
Speaker 1
Look at the floor. And I remember I wrote about this in my book. You know, in a hockey rink. They were turning everything into comedy clubs.

00:22:49:14 - 00:22:50:11
Speaker 2
They. I mean.

00:22:50:11 - 00:22:51:02
Speaker 1
I'm sweating about.

00:22:51:02 - 00:22:52:02
Speaker 2
Hockey rink.

00:22:52:04 - 00:22:54:09
Speaker 1
On a Saturday night, 500 people.

00:22:54:11 - 00:22:57:15
Speaker 3
You said that immediately. I'm like, first of all, the ceiling's way too high.

00:22:57:15 - 00:22:58:06
Speaker 2
Way too.

00:22:58:08 - 00:22:58:20
Speaker 3
The sound.

00:22:58:20 - 00:22:59:08
Speaker 1
Sound is.

00:22:59:13 - 00:23:00:18
Speaker 3
Terrible.

00:23:00:20 - 00:23:05:11
Speaker 2
Now, so anyway, I'm on stage.

00:23:05:13 - 00:23:19:17
Speaker 1
I can't I can't get a word out. I'm sitting on a stool and I'm looking at the floor, and I said, why are we here? I mean, really, and from the I mean, you can hear a pin drop. I mean, people are thinking, this guy can lose it.

00:23:19:20 - 00:23:21:09
Speaker 2
I mean, he's this.

00:23:21:09 - 00:23:22:07
Speaker 1
Is not comfortable.

00:23:22:07 - 00:23:23:04
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:23:23:06 - 00:23:29:08
Speaker 1
And some little voice in the back, some woman goes, we just want some jokes.

00:23:29:10 - 00:23:36:08
Speaker 2
Isn't that great? I said, that is legitimate. That's right. You're here at a comedy club and I'm supposedly a comedian.

00:23:36:10 - 00:23:38:08
Speaker 1
And I snapped out of it, and I did. Well.

00:23:38:08 - 00:23:40:10
Speaker 2
And you leave, and then the club.

00:23:40:10 - 00:23:41:18
Speaker 1
Owners are calling my agent.

00:23:41:18 - 00:23:42:08
Speaker 2
Going, you.

00:23:42:12 - 00:23:46:18
Speaker 1
He's not funny anymore. He quit drinking, and it's just not funny anymore.

00:23:46:20 - 00:23:48:20
Speaker 2
You know? And,

00:23:48:22 - 00:23:51:14
Speaker 1
I, I got back to drinking again, you know?

00:23:51:14 - 00:23:56:21
Speaker 3
Do you think it wasn't the drinking? Where did you find Christianity at that point that later.

00:23:56:21 - 00:23:59:18
Speaker 1
That was 7 or 8 years into my marriage? Yeah.

00:23:59:18 - 00:24:00:08
Speaker 2
We,

00:24:00:10 - 00:24:03:10
Speaker 3
Oh, so you had tried, quitting drinking?

00:24:03:10 - 00:24:12:13
Speaker 1
I quit a bunch of times. A bunch of times. I tried to quit. And I made a year once by still doing cocaine. I. By the way, if you're going to a AA, I don't recommend continuing doing cocaine.

00:24:12:15 - 00:24:14:02
Speaker 3
I'm just throwing that out.

00:24:14:02 - 00:24:18:18
Speaker 1
Just throw it out there again. I don't want to be the the Debbie Downer in your life.

00:24:18:20 - 00:24:24:12
Speaker 2
Why not? You know my problems. Alcohol. So, but I, I.

00:24:24:15 - 00:24:42:08
Speaker 1
White knuckled my way through, weeks. You know, I started quitting when I was 25. I went to my first AA meeting at 25 years old. I and I wrote about this in the book, my, my friends, they were. I didn't realize that the guys I was drinking with were all the younger brothers of my peers.

00:24:42:10 - 00:24:47:14
Speaker 1
My peers had moved on. They had wives, they have families. So I just started drinking with the younger brothers.

00:24:47:16 - 00:24:48:20
Speaker 3
I got. I was staying.

00:24:48:20 - 00:24:49:16
Speaker 1
Young. I was small.

00:24:49:16 - 00:24:50:21
Speaker 2
Town. Yeah, yeah.

00:24:50:21 - 00:25:00:04
Speaker 1
And again, I had no one to drink with. So I started and one night I got drunk, passed out in the bar. They tied my shoelaces together. So when I stood up, I fell on my face.

00:25:00:07 - 00:25:01:03
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:25:01:05 - 00:25:20:13
Speaker 1
And I look up and I'm laying on the ground drunk again and they're laughing. All these kids that I grew up, you know, making sure they were younger brothers. We made fun of them. They're mocking me. So I took one shoe off, and I walked about a mile and a half, two miles to my house crying. You know, humiliated.

00:25:20:17 - 00:25:22:18
Speaker 3
And punch holes in the wall. I did not.

00:25:22:19 - 00:25:23:07
Speaker 2
That I.

00:25:23:08 - 00:25:25:10
Speaker 1
Popped open the vodka and I started drinking, so.

00:25:25:11 - 00:25:28:11
Speaker 2
I. So anyway.

00:25:28:11 - 00:25:44:18
Speaker 1
I was watching, Daniel Giovanni, the actor on The Tonight Show, talk about his alcoholism and how he got sober and it changed his life. I immediately I called my dad the next morning. I said, you need to come pick me up. I need to quit. Okay? He goes, we didn't know yet. I didn't want to bother you.

00:25:44:18 - 00:25:59:00
Speaker 1
I don't want to burden my parents with my problem. I had enough issues with my brother, so my parents took me in and I said the deal was you stay sober. So I went to than a month's worth of AA meetings, realized I wasn't as bad as those people.

00:25:59:02 - 00:26:00:12
Speaker 3
Yeah, that gave you some freedom.

00:26:00:12 - 00:26:12:08
Speaker 1
Gave me some freedom. But I did not go my way for about nine months without a drink. I was traveling and helped my comedy tremendously. But I was still doing cocaine and, speed.

00:26:12:10 - 00:26:15:06
Speaker 3
And so this is around the time of the hockey rink.

00:26:15:08 - 00:26:18:17
Speaker 2
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So sitting on a stool.

00:26:18:19 - 00:26:20:23
Speaker 3
A probability that maybe you were struggling a little.

00:26:20:23 - 00:26:21:06
Speaker 2
Because you were.

00:26:21:06 - 00:26:44:23
Speaker 1
I'll tell you what it was because it was 1985 when I met Tammy. That November hockey rink might have been again. I get mixed up on my dates, but it might have been December or not much long after I met Tammy at Hilarity, and I was keeping in touch with her. I started drinking the week I was off of booze when I met her, and I started drinking when I met her.

00:26:45:07 - 00:26:53:06
Speaker 1
I had a hard time with certainly, intimacy and, relationships sober because I never had one.

00:26:53:06 - 00:26:54:21
Speaker 2
So I was.

00:26:54:23 - 00:26:57:00
Speaker 3
Freaking liquid courage, like they used to say.

00:26:57:00 - 00:27:03:21
Speaker 1
Well, that was it. You know, it. She she drank. And what I told her, one of the reasons I fell in love with you is because you can drink and not get giggly. I just quit.

00:27:03:22 - 00:27:05:12
Speaker 2
Steam.

00:27:05:13 - 00:27:08:08
Speaker 3
Women don't realize how much men dislike that personality.

00:27:08:09 - 00:27:14:18
Speaker 2
Oh, they laugh and laugh and cry. Yeah, it's the word I know is the word.

00:27:14:20 - 00:27:18:05
Speaker 1
I think the Bible compares it to train on a metal roof or.

00:27:18:05 - 00:27:19:23
Speaker 2
Something until.

00:27:20:01 - 00:27:24:21
Speaker 3
Everything becomes a question. I mean, I'm going to go one taxi. Oh.

00:27:24:23 - 00:27:26:16
Speaker 2
I live right.

00:27:26:18 - 00:27:30:18
Speaker 1
So anyway, she wasn't drunk for drink. She can shoot a good game of pool.

00:27:30:23 - 00:27:32:02
Speaker 3
And she's hilarious.

00:27:32:02 - 00:27:33:18
Speaker 1
And she is. She's,

00:27:33:20 - 00:27:34:09
Speaker 3
She's so.

00:27:34:09 - 00:27:34:17
Speaker 2
Funny.

00:27:34:17 - 00:27:44:16
Speaker 1
She's got a very wicked, self-deprecating sense of humor. The sad thing is that I do a character. My correction is always stop talking about my wife that way.

00:27:44:19 - 00:27:46:01
Speaker 3
That's what Brant does to me.

00:27:46:03 - 00:27:47:05
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, I don't.

00:27:47:05 - 00:27:50:19
Speaker 1
You talk about my wife that way. You think I let some stranger come in and say that about you?

00:27:50:19 - 00:27:51:15
Speaker 2
Yeah. No.

00:27:51:20 - 00:28:09:09
Speaker 1
So you don't get to say that if I think she means. If she doesn't. She gave me a great line, that I've used in my show. I was going to get a physical. She came back from a physical, and I said, when the doctor said. She said if I was part of a wildebeest herd, the lions would be circling me.

00:28:09:11 - 00:28:13:03
Speaker 1
That's what he said. So anyway, I wrote that down. I said that I'm using that.

00:28:13:05 - 00:28:13:20
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:28:13:22 - 00:28:16:07
Speaker 1
So much. That is me, not her.

00:28:16:09 - 00:28:16:21
Speaker 2
But,

00:28:16:23 - 00:28:32:04
Speaker 3
And. Okay. Do you route her on when she gives you better tags? Because that's a struggle that me and Brant have. Oh, people that don't know if that's my husband, because a lot of the times I'll give him a tag or he'll give me a tag, and if it lands harder where it was like, like.

00:28:32:06 - 00:28:34:00
Speaker 2
Oh, I love it. I love it.

00:28:34:00 - 00:28:38:12
Speaker 1
I take, I write a lot of stuff down that she says.

00:28:38:12 - 00:28:41:01
Speaker 3
Yeah, but also she's not a comic, so there's but she's.

00:28:41:01 - 00:28:44:02
Speaker 1
Yeah. And again, it's, it's just real and genuine and true.

00:28:44:04 - 00:28:44:11
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:28:44:16 - 00:28:47:18
Speaker 1
So that's more relatable to someone who makes things up.

00:28:47:20 - 00:29:09:17
Speaker 3
Yeah. So we get to relatable. When you're talking about Bill Hicks, I really struggle with enjoying comedy where people are trying to make a point like, oh, I want like Bill Hicks, or sometimes even like Dave Chappelle is like, I want to frame this deep thought and make it funny. And I just, like, relatable and funny.

00:29:09:19 - 00:29:38:10
Speaker 1
Well, that's me. See what I loved about George Carlin? And again, in hindsight, I loved Carlin. I woke up to his Class Clown album in high school, like every morning. Yeah, I put it on getting dressed. And what? Later in life, when he got to that point where. But he was so brilliant at taking that.

00:29:38:12 - 00:29:40:23
Speaker 2
Point where it's almost preachy.

00:29:41:01 - 00:29:41:17
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:29:41:18 - 00:29:46:02
Speaker 1
Just when you're like, all right, get off the soapbox.

00:29:46:04 - 00:29:47:16
Speaker 2
Bam! Yeah, just.

00:29:47:16 - 00:30:05:01
Speaker 1
A clever joke. One of my favorite lines, that he. And I'll never tell me it was just so clever. Muhammad Ali was a conscientious objector. He wasn't going to go to war to kill people. Right? Carlin's line was, I can't kill people about beat him up.

00:30:05:03 - 00:30:06:22
Speaker 2
And kill him. You know what?

00:30:07:00 - 00:30:07:12
Speaker 3
I'm so.

00:30:07:12 - 00:30:11:14
Speaker 2
True. It is. But that's that's that, that's where you need to.

00:30:11:15 - 00:30:33:04
Speaker 1
You need the joke. You need. So today, you know, again, I always say I'm 99.8% politic or cultural free. I mean, nobody needs to hear from me. You know, you I assume my audience has already done their homework and research and they don't need me to come up there, shockingly point out something that they've known about.

00:30:33:10 - 00:30:33:18
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:30:33:20 - 00:30:54:15
Speaker 1
And and I'm not shying away from it because I can't. If there's a joke, I'll do it. You know, I do the joke about the orange and Trump, and I think it's funny. And I also do the thing about the, the, chest of waxing. Well, we spent billions to have people rip the hair out of our body by its roots.

00:30:54:19 - 00:30:58:18
Speaker 1
Yeah, that hurts, but we don't want our military to open water on the faces of terrorists.

00:30:58:18 - 00:31:00:05
Speaker 2
Yeah, I don't even get that.

00:31:00:07 - 00:31:02:08
Speaker 1
I think the CIA open up some spots.

00:31:02:11 - 00:31:06:17
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, we're going to the mall in the.

00:31:06:17 - 00:31:08:12
Speaker 1
Middle of the Baltic Sea on a barge. But it's.

00:31:08:12 - 00:31:09:23
Speaker 2
All political.

00:31:10:01 - 00:31:25:00
Speaker 1
It's all about phraseology. So anyway, yeah, I get an email every now and then. You know, waterboarding is bad. I go, yeah, okay, fine, get your own show and stand up there and tell people how bad it is, I don't care. But to me it was about the joke. If you can't get the laugh with it. And so many, so.

00:31:25:00 - 00:31:26:14
Speaker 2
Much.

00:31:26:16 - 00:31:30:02
Speaker 1
Today seems to be again from an old guy who's been around forever, and I've.

00:31:30:02 - 00:31:32:12
Speaker 2
Seen really good.

00:31:32:13 - 00:31:35:21
Speaker 1
Political commentary. Funny.

00:31:35:23 - 00:31:36:12
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:31:37:01 - 00:31:54:19
Speaker 1
Over the years, Jimmy Tingle was brilliant. The Boston comic, and they were the first line of Haitian refugees that were getting turned around. You know, Jimmy came out and said, gee, I wonder if they were blond haired, blue eyed Swedish women if our Congress would be pushing.

00:31:54:21 - 00:32:01:21
Speaker 2
Yeah. You need a chair. And that's funny. It is. You know, is it because they're, you know, black and brown.

00:32:01:23 - 00:32:21:11
Speaker 1
Haitian and poor and or is it, you know, is it a policy that we and again, that should be that was that was a funny joke, Andrew. You know, I did a joke about Covid. I said, you know, it's nice to wake up one day and realize that your life dream has been declared nonessential by a bunch of bureaucrats, you know?

00:32:21:11 - 00:32:28:12
Speaker 1
Yeah. It comedy. Nah, it's nonessential, but, you know, they cut the strip clubs open because Congress needs a place to meet.

00:32:28:14 - 00:32:29:01
Speaker 2
During these.

00:32:29:01 - 00:32:30:08
Speaker 1
Scourge, you know?

00:32:30:10 - 00:32:31:03
Speaker 2
So again, that, to.

00:32:31:03 - 00:32:32:07
Speaker 1
Me is a funny joke.

00:32:32:09 - 00:32:32:13
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:32:32:14 - 00:32:36:07
Speaker 1
And if it's not, then they won't laugh. And then I'll drop it.

00:32:36:09 - 00:32:37:02
Speaker 2
But yeah, I'm not.

00:32:37:02 - 00:32:46:21
Speaker 1
Trying to change anybody's heart or mind. I just want them to laugh. And if you point out the obvious, sometimes that's all you need to do is point out the obvious.

00:32:46:23 - 00:32:47:22
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:32:48:00 - 00:32:53:03
Speaker 1
So anyway, back to, this is what A.D.D. looks like, by the way.

00:32:53:03 - 00:32:54:18
Speaker 3
Yeah. And we both have it. So good.

00:32:54:18 - 00:32:55:02
Speaker 2
Luck.

00:32:55:02 - 00:33:19:19
Speaker 1
So good luck following the stream of consciousness. So anyway, I met Tammy in 85, and I. The hockey rink was somewhere in there, and, I asked her to marry me. And, April of 86. I met her in November of 85, and she had Aaron. Aaron was too, at the time. And, That was it.

00:33:19:19 - 00:33:22:09
Speaker 1
We were engaged. I asked you to marry me at Cleveland airport.

00:33:22:09 - 00:33:26:02
Speaker 2
Baggage claim opens my book. Romance, you know?

00:33:26:03 - 00:33:29:15
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. One of the female readers to fall in love with my romantic side.

00:33:29:19 - 00:33:30:07
Speaker 2
Yeah, that.

00:33:30:07 - 00:33:30:12
Speaker 1
Was a.

00:33:30:17 - 00:33:31:10
Speaker 3
Big.

00:33:31:12 - 00:33:31:19
Speaker 2
Warning.

00:33:31:19 - 00:33:32:14
Speaker 1
To me.

00:33:32:16 - 00:33:33:03
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:33:33:12 - 00:33:55:02
Speaker 1
So, anyway, it's funny. Anyway, I won't get into that, but. Well, But anyway, we moved it up. She got. I say I met her in November. She married me in April. She got pregnant May, we got married in July. And it's funny and thinking about it. When she found out she was pregnant, May, she sobbed.

00:33:55:04 - 00:34:08:04
Speaker 1
She already had one kid. Yeah, and here she's. I don't want to say I was. I was not a catch. I just, you know, I think there was some by May I was comfortable. So the anger was coming out.

00:34:09:18 - 00:34:10:18
Speaker 2
I can tell you I.

00:34:10:19 - 00:34:25:22
Speaker 1
Tell you right where it was the first time I snapped in her presence. She had given me the wrong turn, and I just was in a bank parking lot, slammed on the gas on the gravel around, and that was the first time she got a look at what her future was going to look like.

00:34:26:01 - 00:34:26:09
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:34:26:10 - 00:34:29:05
Speaker 1
And I think now she's pregnant, she's engaged. And here's.

00:34:29:05 - 00:34:31:22
Speaker 2
This lunatic. You know.

00:34:31:22 - 00:34:33:15
Speaker 3
She didn't even know a Pinto could do that.

00:34:33:15 - 00:34:49:18
Speaker 1
No, she did that. It was actually a Ford Galaxie 500. Her grandparents. And given her, and, anyway, we, got married at the Pipefitters Union Hall. Thank you very much. And married in a church. But then we, our.

00:34:49:19 - 00:34:50:11
Speaker 3
Reception, a.

00:34:50:11 - 00:34:52:09
Speaker 1
Reception at the Pipefitters Union Hall.

00:34:52:10 - 00:35:02:14
Speaker 3
Very nice. Yeah. Okay. So all these years doing stand up, did you ever. Do you ever get sick of saying the same thing? No.

00:35:02:16 - 00:35:03:06
Speaker 2
I mean.

00:35:03:08 - 00:35:10:19
Speaker 1
I'm fortunate I have enough material. Because people ask, what's your favorite joke? The newest.

00:35:10:21 - 00:35:13:11
Speaker 3
Yeah, because it's interesting. I'm trying to figure out the puzzle. Right?

00:35:13:12 - 00:35:29:03
Speaker 1
Trying to get that together, you know? And, but I, I still enjoy moving things around to help the flow. I spend as much time on Segways as I do structuring.

00:35:29:05 - 00:35:29:19
Speaker 3
To make it in.

00:35:29:19 - 00:35:33:00
Speaker 1
The story. Yeah, I make it a story. And, you know.

00:35:33:02 - 00:35:34:11
Speaker 3
Which is the hardest thing.

00:35:34:11 - 00:35:42:17
Speaker 1
Well, it is it's. Yeah, it took me a long time, to to not go joke joke joke joke joke. And then something completely off topic. Joke, joke.

00:35:42:18 - 00:35:43:17
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:35:44:05 - 00:35:57:12
Speaker 1
To where there's a flow to the show of getting to know me and Tammy. And that's what I really. And it's heartwarming when people come out, they go, How's Tammy? Tell him I said, hi, how's Aaron? And doing? How's that? You know, they know my family.

00:35:57:17 - 00:35:58:09
Speaker 2
Yeah. You know.

00:35:58:09 - 00:36:07:20
Speaker 1
They basically watched them grow up and on video. So no, I don't you know, it's funny, I don't, it's an act.

00:36:08:10 - 00:36:09:07
Speaker 3
You love it.

00:36:09:12 - 00:36:09:18
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:36:09:18 - 00:36:19:08
Speaker 1
And it's interesting because early. If I got into an argument with Tammy on the phone, it brought that anger up on stage and it effect on the show. And I have friends call my new caller before the show.

00:36:19:08 - 00:36:20:08
Speaker 2
I.

00:36:20:10 - 00:36:36:20
Speaker 1
You know, I gotta get, you know, but, now I'm able to, you know, if we have issues or something and something happens or something tragic comes in, I can I can compartmentalize what I need to do on the stage. It's not they don't care.

00:36:36:22 - 00:36:54:23
Speaker 3
Yeah. People don't realize, like, if you sell a joke like other people that might be listening to this, that it's never done this. If you sell a joke with a little bit of anger and that's the wrong emotion behind whatever you're saying, like it's crazy. It's word for word, it can be the same. But if the emotions are just a little bit off or a little bit different, the audience is like, we're not having it.

00:36:55:00 - 00:37:04:09
Speaker 1
Joan Rivers said. Comedy is, anger. And as long as it's, under 50%.

00:37:04:11 - 00:37:04:22
Speaker 3
You're safe.

00:37:05:02 - 00:37:21:14
Speaker 1
You're safe. But when the anger takes over and it's almost out of control, and I was, there were times Tammy would come out and, oh, the things I said so vicious. I mean, like, I, I'm not going to repeat, but it was bad. And she'd get in the car and cry, you must hate me.

00:37:21:18 - 00:37:23:00
Speaker 3
It turned into, like, venting.

00:37:23:02 - 00:37:45:10
Speaker 1
It was it was. That's all it was, you know, and it's funny because one of the most viewed stories I have online and people that are fans will know it, the roast or chicken that came, that came out of a pretty violent. I literally ended up stuffing a roasted chicken into a garbage disposal, and I had my foot up and I was say, it's funny.

00:37:45:11 - 00:37:53:02
Speaker 2
Oh, it's funny So anyway, yeah, people go, we love that story. I go, yeah, well, you know, I mean, when you.

00:37:53:02 - 00:38:02:19
Speaker 1
Pick an ass out of yourself. Yeah, you know, a bunch of times. But yeah, that was, our first year of marriage. You're welcome. Hey, this is the honeymoon period. It's only going to get worse from here.

00:38:02:21 - 00:38:03:23
Speaker 3
I made you dinner.

00:38:04:01 - 00:38:07:04
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah. So. But, yeah.

00:38:07:06 - 00:38:20:01
Speaker 1
We, I think a lot of it. The reason we've been. We were able to make it one. I believe God's hand was on us from the beginning. For whatever reason, there's no logical reason why we're together after all this time. Not at.

00:38:20:01 - 00:38:20:08
Speaker 2
All.

00:38:20:08 - 00:38:31:01
Speaker 3
So you get sober 7 to 8 years after you. You start comedy. You meet Tammy, 7 or 8 years after you started. And then when do you get sober? Sober?

00:38:31:03 - 00:38:31:14
Speaker 1
Well, I got.

00:38:31:14 - 00:38:33:00
Speaker 2
Sober at 30.

00:38:33:00 - 00:38:58:04
Speaker 1
One, in 1987. Yeah. 31. I had a series of incidences that happened. We were living in Boston when we got married. We moved to Boston in the 80s. Boston was probably out of maybe San Francisco was a hotbed, I don't know, Boston and San Francisco. There was so much clever, hip comedy coming out of both those cities.

00:38:58:14 - 00:39:03:16
Speaker 1
And I had a friend from Chicago moved to Boston, and.

00:39:03:16 - 00:39:04:14
Speaker 2
He.

00:39:04:16 - 00:39:18:13
Speaker 1
Called me up and said, if you, you know, if you want to come, he goes, I can get you one show. I didn't tell Tammy that that our our future is based on how well I perform in one show.

00:39:18:15 - 00:39:19:12
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:39:19:14 - 00:39:38:03
Speaker 1
So, anyway, I got a hold of his his agent at the time. Mike Clark Kent, Lenny Clark's brother. Mike calls me and he says, Kenny wants you to work. Kenny Rogers, one of my dearest friends. We were born same day, same year. We every birthday, we talk for, like, 40 years.

00:39:38:05 - 00:39:38:22
Speaker 3
That's adorable.

00:39:38:22 - 00:39:39:11
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:39:39:13 - 00:39:44:00
Speaker 1
And, yeah, we were sitting at a bar drunk. I know every story I have.

00:39:44:00 - 00:39:46:15
Speaker 2
From that wrong, so let's just let's.

00:39:46:15 - 00:39:50:13
Speaker 1
Avoid that going forward. Just assume I was drunk. If I'm telling you something that.

00:39:50:13 - 00:39:51:00
Speaker 2
Happens, if.

00:39:51:00 - 00:39:51:21
Speaker 3
It's pre 87.

00:39:51:22 - 00:39:52:21
Speaker 1
Before 87.

00:39:53:03 - 00:39:56:23
Speaker 3
If he says a name and I make a face, like who's he talking about? He was wrong.

00:39:57:02 - 00:39:58:00
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:39:58:01 - 00:40:14:08
Speaker 1
So anyway, Kenny, we're sitting at a bar in Chicago after, work in the comedy cottage and, never met. And he says, you know, it sucks when it's your birthday. You got no one to drink with. You know, it's my birthday. So he goes, what day I go to the fifth, he goes, oh, my. To what year?

00:40:14:10 - 00:40:21:08
Speaker 1
1956? He goes, oh, me too. And then he looks at me. He goes, what time?

00:40:21:10 - 00:40:21:23
Speaker 2
You know, I don't.

00:40:21:23 - 00:40:23:20
Speaker 1
Know, man. Maybe were the same guy.

00:40:23:22 - 00:40:24:05
Speaker 2
You know.

00:40:24:10 - 00:40:27:20
Speaker 1
So from that out we've been friends and, we went to.

00:40:27:20 - 00:40:31:10
Speaker 2
Vegas, had no money.

00:40:31:12 - 00:40:37:18
Speaker 1
And we had to get back home. And there were people who were in cars in Las Vegas, and they need people to drive them.

00:40:37:19 - 00:40:38:05
Speaker 2
Oh, yeah.

00:40:38:05 - 00:40:57:00
Speaker 1
So there was a drive back to Boston, where he lived, and, he said, I'll drop you off in Chicago. So we needed we needed somebody to vouch for our character. And the only guy we knew in Vegas was a heroin addict. So we called jig up two in the afternoon. Of course, he's still sleeping. You know, it's Tuesday afternoon.

00:40:57:15 - 00:41:03:18
Speaker 1
And I said, we're going to somebody's going to call you, man, and they're going to we need you to vouch for a character. And he goes, what's in it for me?

00:41:03:18 - 00:41:06:22
Speaker 2
I go, JJ, come on.

00:41:07:00 - 00:41:09:12
Speaker 1
You know, I'll tell you what, we won't call the cops and get you busted for.

00:41:09:12 - 00:41:14:00
Speaker 2
Possession. So anyway, they call the heroin addict and.

00:41:14:00 - 00:41:15:04
Speaker 1
He vouches for our.

00:41:15:04 - 00:41:15:13
Speaker 2
Character.

00:41:15:13 - 00:41:16:04
Speaker 3
What a good guy.

00:41:16:06 - 00:41:38:19
Speaker 1
What a good. So we got to drive this car back to to Boston. So Kenny says, I got your one show, and, so I go up, and I did well, well enough to where they go. You're in, you know, which was really, I mean, of all the auditions I've done in my life, that was the one that I was the most nerve wracking because literally, we just moved our family.

00:41:38:21 - 00:41:40:23
Speaker 1
And if you're not in, you don't work.

00:41:41:01 - 00:41:41:17
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:41:41:19 - 00:42:03:19
Speaker 1
So I'm, you know, and then I found out the guy who hired me, I can say his name, Barry Katz. He's a big time producer agent now, and, la. But Barry, he I don't, you know, I don't I don't pay the night of the show. You have to wait a week for the money. No, I don't wait a week.

00:42:03:23 - 00:42:07:04
Speaker 1
I got I just wrote a bad check to get into my apartment.

00:42:07:06 - 00:42:07:20
Speaker 2
Yeah, again.

00:42:07:20 - 00:42:24:13
Speaker 1
Alcoholics, drug addicts. You know what I'm talking about. I had every bank figured out. I had three different bank accounts, so it took three days to clear something if I, you know, and the first time we got into electronic banking were checks cleared literally that day. I bounced like 13 checks in one day because I had so many go.

00:42:24:15 - 00:42:27:09
Speaker 2
Go. But I knew the day time I had, you know, and.

00:42:27:09 - 00:42:32:17
Speaker 1
Again, it's amazing to me how complicated your life is as an alcoholic and a drug addict and.

00:42:32:17 - 00:42:33:20
Speaker 2
You're not even real.

00:42:33:22 - 00:42:34:22
Speaker 3
There's so much effort.

00:42:35:03 - 00:42:36:03
Speaker 2
I know, just to.

00:42:36:03 - 00:42:38:15
Speaker 1
Keep all these balls in the air, you know, so you can.

00:42:38:17 - 00:42:39:02
Speaker 2
Feed.

00:42:39:02 - 00:42:48:12
Speaker 1
The beast. So anyway, I wind up at Barry's front door at two in the morning, pounding. I got his address again. There was no jeeps. No, I mean, so I haven't. I had a work to get his.

00:42:48:12 - 00:42:49:04
Speaker 3
Confidence.

00:42:49:07 - 00:42:50:02
Speaker 2
And then to find.

00:42:50:02 - 00:42:50:11
Speaker 3
Someone's.

00:42:50:11 - 00:43:08:08
Speaker 1
Address again. There's no maps. I had it figured out through Boston, and I'm screaming to wake him up at two in the morning. I want my money. I want my money. He goes, I don't pay, I'm not paying. Anyway, he finally gave me the money. I mean, I threaten him and everything. And that Christmas I get a Christmas card from Barry Katz.

00:43:08:08 - 00:43:25:06
Speaker 1
Me and Tammy get a Christmas card from addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Psycho. So that was my moniker in Boston was psycho. I loved the moniker. I thought it was really kind of cool. And being in Boston, where anger is the center of most of the comedy.

00:43:25:06 - 00:43:26:07
Speaker 3
It's the main emotion.

00:43:26:08 - 00:43:42:17
Speaker 1
Well, it's it's, I had a guy from HBO ask me one night, what is it with you Boston guys? You're so. I live in Boston. Yeah, my favorite one. I just thought I was talking to somebody. Said something about Bill Byrne. I said, I love Bill Burr, and he goes, how does he think of that stuff? I go, go to a bus stop in Boston at eight in the morning.

00:43:42:17 - 00:43:45:20
Speaker 1
There's like six bill Burns on every corner.

00:43:45:22 - 00:43:47:04
Speaker 2
It's just.

00:43:47:06 - 00:43:47:18
Speaker 1
It's just.

00:43:47:18 - 00:43:48:03
Speaker 2
Boston.

00:43:48:05 - 00:43:48:22
Speaker 3
Cold and angry.

00:43:48:23 - 00:43:50:13
Speaker 2
Well, it's it it's just Boston.

00:43:50:13 - 00:43:53:06
Speaker 1
And so. And I love it. I'm going but going back there.

00:43:54:05 - 00:43:57:10
Speaker 3
Okay. So next year is going to be your first farewell tour.

00:43:57:12 - 00:44:00:09
Speaker 1
First farewell tour. Next year I'll be 70.

00:44:01:01 - 00:44:09:03
Speaker 3
How do you deal with the road life? Like it's a struggle for Tammy, but do you think you're going to miss it? Do you think you're going to fill all the time up with other stuff?

00:44:09:03 - 00:44:20:06
Speaker 1
Well, and Covid gave me an insight that was off five months. I had not been off five months. Tammy at 30 days, Tammy came to me and said, welcome home. I go, what do you mean you have not been home 30 consecutive days in the entire.

00:44:20:06 - 00:44:21:23
Speaker 3
Day since 1987, right? Yeah.

00:44:22:01 - 00:44:29:09
Speaker 1
And I said, no. She goes, you have to say welcome home. And my joke is by day 45, we were scrolling our iPads for attorneys.

00:44:29:11 - 00:44:30:15
Speaker 2
Oh, it's like.

00:44:30:17 - 00:44:31:14
Speaker 3
This away from me.

00:44:31:15 - 00:44:33:07
Speaker 2
And he's a little stressed.

00:44:33:09 - 00:44:45:12
Speaker 1
And even now I catch it if I'm home for two weeks. We start getting, you know, because it's not rhythm. Our rhythm is. I'm home a week. It's five days, seven days, three days. Whatever.

00:44:45:18 - 00:44:46:06
Speaker 2
Yeah, but.

00:44:46:06 - 00:44:52:21
Speaker 1
When you get to 14, 16, 18 days, there's this, like, familiar. I already know he's still here, you know.

00:44:52:21 - 00:44:55:00
Speaker 2
Yeah. So.

00:44:55:00 - 00:45:15:07
Speaker 1
Five months in, I went out on the road, yeah. Covid hit in March, so July, August. I went out to Texas. The rooms were at 25%. And I said to my manager, I'm going, I need to work. I need to get out. And, I came home after two days and told him if we had the money, I'd retire.

00:45:15:09 - 00:45:15:23
Speaker 1
I really would.

00:45:16:00 - 00:45:17:06
Speaker 3
You enjoyed it?

00:45:17:08 - 00:45:25:21
Speaker 1
I enjoyed being home. I got well, I have acquaintances, I have plenty of them. But I got to know some of these guys. Our friendship got deeper.

00:45:25:23 - 00:45:26:12
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:45:27:00 - 00:45:43:16
Speaker 1
In that five months, you know, a past, the surface level. The big joke in our house is I golf with a guy for seven years, and then we're going to get the wives together for dinner, and Tammy goes, what's, country's wife's name? And I go, I don't know. You've been golf with her for seven years.

00:45:43:16 - 00:45:48:23
Speaker 1
You know why I never came up? She was to know my name. I got the whole world knows your name.

00:45:49:01 - 00:45:54:02
Speaker 2
That's. Yeah. I can't stop talking about you, but, yeah, that's, Again.

00:45:54:04 - 00:46:16:19
Speaker 1
You know, you're out there, you don't know, you know people, but you don't know. You know, I sat in bed more than one night wondering if I. Would anybody I know at the bottom of their life reach out to me and I'll say that maybe money, I don't know, I, I always think money would reach. I mean, my manager.

00:46:16:20 - 00:46:26:16
Speaker 1
I know Lenny for 40 years. He knows me better than anybody. But I think in his life he has friends that are deeper.

00:46:26:18 - 00:46:27:10
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:46:28:04 - 00:46:30:18
Speaker 1
I have, I have.

00:46:30:19 - 00:46:33:09
Speaker 2
Used.

00:46:33:18 - 00:46:50:09
Speaker 1
A friend in Chicago. I was at a really low point with the blues. I was in North Carolina, and I couldn't stop. I just could not stop. And I said, I called him, and I said, you got to come pick me up. I'm not going to get out of here alive.

00:46:51:07 - 00:46:59:05
Speaker 1
And he drove from Chicago to Raleigh or Charlotte and picked me up. We played some golf on the way home. That's a friend.

00:46:59:07 - 00:47:00:02
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:47:00:04 - 00:47:15:12
Speaker 1
And I wondered one night laying in bed, do I have anybody in my life that would reach out at that moment? I need to call Jeff. I don't know, maybe, you know, if they're watching this, maybe they'll reach out and go. I'd call you. You know, I don't.

00:47:15:12 - 00:47:15:23
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:47:16:01 - 00:47:29:06
Speaker 1
But I have. I have good friends, I have friends, I have people I can fight with. I've program people, you know, but, this business, everything is on the surface level. It gets very rarely does it get deep.

00:47:29:08 - 00:47:48:04
Speaker 3
It never does. Yeah. I think this is one of the few exceptions for me. And Brant like how me, you and Tammy all get along so well. Yeah, but it's like the two years I was on the road. I only did it like, legit, did it for two years, and I lost all my friendships and they just kind of disappeared because it was.

00:47:48:04 - 00:48:07:15
Speaker 3
Here's an invitation. Can't make it. I'm in this. I'm in Georgia, I'm in here, I'm in here. And then all of a sudden I couldn't do family stuff. And then I started missing everything for my son. I couldn't get that back. And then it was like I. My Instagram blew up and my son was a kid. And then I got off the road.

00:48:07:15 - 00:48:14:16
Speaker 3
And he is a legit teenager that's driving now. And I'm like, how did I miss? Why would I sacrifice this to just go?

00:48:14:17 - 00:48:17:01
Speaker 1
But praise God that you caught it.

00:48:17:03 - 00:48:17:20
Speaker 2
I think that was.

00:48:17:20 - 00:48:19:18
Speaker 1
The what we talked about that first night.

00:48:19:18 - 00:48:20:06
Speaker 2
I said, yeah.

00:48:20:11 - 00:48:24:05
Speaker 1
Five years from now, you look back and go, I did the right thing.

00:48:24:07 - 00:48:30:00
Speaker 2
It's hard though, you know, for me,

00:48:30:02 - 00:48:35:16
Speaker 1
It's interesting. I, I don't know how much of my esteem is connected to what I do.

00:48:35:18 - 00:48:37:18
Speaker 3
I really don't, because you've never not really done.

00:48:37:19 - 00:48:38:23
Speaker 1
I've never really not done it.

00:48:39:00 - 00:48:39:19
Speaker 3
Right.

00:48:43:10 - 00:49:01:02
Speaker 1
Tammy esteems me in ways that nobody else can. I guess it's why it eats at me when she's so self-deprecating at times. Because I feel like I'm not doing my part, as is her husband.

00:49:02:03 - 00:49:31:07
Speaker 1
To validate everything about her so that she doesn't feel the need to deprecate. So we had a discussion, you know, last week, I was, gave her a kiss or something, and she said, well, that's nice. Like, what do you mean? We just don't do that much anymore? I want I know if I kiss you every morning, you know, at night, like, you know, but those are rote, kind of obligatory.

00:49:31:09 - 00:49:31:23
Speaker 1
Good morning.

00:49:32:03 - 00:49:32:11
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:49:32:16 - 00:49:52:01
Speaker 1
You know, and then I got angry because it tripped the button in me. And then we got into a minor argument, and I went to my part of the house. She went to her part of the house, and it stood on me till I realized she's right. You know, when you get into this, whatever it is life is and it just goes by us.

00:49:52:01 - 00:50:14:22
Speaker 1
And a month goes by and you, you're just two people that pass in the house and, you know, again, obligatory conversations about things, you know, and then the conscious effort it takes and it's great. But if you're on the road on it.

00:50:15:00 - 00:50:16:07
Speaker 2
Yeah. You know.

00:50:16:09 - 00:50:34:10
Speaker 3
People don't realize how much it is too, like people think that, oh, you're just having a great time. You get to see all these places and it's so much fun. They don't realize you're driving, you're driving, you're driving. You get there, you drop your bags, you go to the show, you work out, you eat right, you go to the show, you work out, you eat right, you go to the show, you come home, you do your laundry, you try to do all the chores around the house.

00:50:34:10 - 00:50:38:22
Speaker 3
You got to pay all these bills. I got to do all this. I got to do all this. And then my suitcase is back in the car and I'm gone.

00:50:39:00 - 00:50:40:03
Speaker 2
Yeah. That's.

00:50:40:03 - 00:50:51:13
Speaker 1
Yeah. And again, I'm not complaining. Believe me, I love what I do. I when I get there and I get to stand up in front of the people and the process of stand up comedy to this day, and that.

00:50:51:16 - 00:50:53:02
Speaker 2
I will quit.

00:50:53:04 - 00:51:07:12
Speaker 1
The minute it stops getting my juices going. Yeah. To to take a premise or come up with a line, oh, I can do that. I can make that, I can. And then figuring out where it.

00:51:07:12 - 00:51:08:18
Speaker 2
Fits in.

00:51:08:18 - 00:51:21:00
Speaker 1
The course of an hour and 20 minutes show, and now I'm getting millennial kids coming up and going, I've been watching you since I was eight years old.

00:51:21:02 - 00:51:23:06
Speaker 2
And it's kind of cool because, again, I if I had.

00:51:23:06 - 00:51:26:07
Speaker 1
A chance to ever talk to Bill Cosby back in the day.

00:51:26:10 - 00:51:27:04
Speaker 2
Yeah, that's what.

00:51:27:04 - 00:51:40:17
Speaker 1
I would have said to him. I my father's dark days, his depression, always we knew it was over. That spell, when we sat in the living room and listened to Cosby moms, you know.

00:51:40:19 - 00:51:42:08
Speaker 2
And,

00:51:42:10 - 00:51:48:21
Speaker 1
I grew up watching my father. Those moments.

00:51:49:22 - 00:51:54:04
Speaker 1
Everything dissipated when my father would sit in the living room and laugh.

00:51:54:06 - 00:51:54:13
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:51:54:19 - 00:52:06:17
Speaker 1
And to be able to do that for families, and to have them come up and say that, I mean, it is heartwarming. It is, I.

00:52:06:19 - 00:52:07:07
Speaker 2
It means.

00:52:07:07 - 00:52:22:17
Speaker 1
Something. And I've seen artists that dismiss it and you think, well, that must have come really easy for you, you know, I mean, when you live in this business in obscurity for 40 years.

00:52:22:22 - 00:52:23:18
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:52:23:20 - 00:52:34:14
Speaker 1
And then you get a a break like Drybar did for me. And then all of a sudden, people are coming out and you realize, oh, man, I've been watching online for 20 years and you're like.

00:52:34:16 - 00:52:35:21
Speaker 2
Really? Yeah.

00:52:35:21 - 00:52:38:14
Speaker 1
We just never wanted to buy a ticket.

00:52:38:16 - 00:52:42:02
Speaker 2
To come and see you. So it is.

00:52:42:07 - 00:52:49:01
Speaker 1
And Tammy hates my job because people ask, is she come out with. You know, her deal is five days in an ocean.

00:52:49:03 - 00:52:51:05
Speaker 2
Yeah. You know.

00:52:51:07 - 00:52:52:18
Speaker 1
So now you,

00:52:52:19 - 00:53:04:18
Speaker 3
But I think a lot of people. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think a lot of people. It's so weird. I wonder how many comedians that's their story. Because you were talking about you and Bill Cosby and your dad. Me and my dad. It was John Reed. It was really.

00:53:04:20 - 00:53:06:07
Speaker 2
I was. And then for your.

00:53:06:07 - 00:53:07:02
Speaker 1
Husband to get to.

00:53:07:02 - 00:53:08:00
Speaker 2
Open for.

00:53:08:01 - 00:53:38:01
Speaker 3
Well, John introduced me and my husband, which is even crazier. But John Reed and me and my dad, when I was a teenager, if we weren't arguing or I wasn't throwing something or we weren't just at odds, we were watching John. It was the only time we would connect and then then on for 15 years, we would just jokingly throw his jokes into conversation to break the tension, sometimes because it was too much and then similar with my husband and his dad was Sinbad.

00:53:38:03 - 00:53:38:16
Speaker 2
Oh, wow.

00:53:38:18 - 00:53:49:01
Speaker 3
So it's like, I wonder how many people it's like, oh, comedy bridge the gap in our house. It was like the one time, and then we could throw that when we were in the car and it was uncomfortable or whatever. Throw that joke back out there.

00:53:49:02 - 00:54:01:06
Speaker 1
Yeah, I had a funny story, Tammy. I got it when I, you know, back in the 80s, we're leaving a party in Boston and it really tension in the car quiet.

00:54:01:08 - 00:54:02:19
Speaker 2
And that's where Albert.

00:54:02:19 - 00:54:08:05
Speaker 1
Brooks comes on the radio with one of the most classic comedy routines about opening for a rock band.

00:54:08:09 - 00:54:08:18
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:54:08:23 - 00:54:17:17
Speaker 1
And he goes, you know, yeah, I had opened for so-and-so, and they go, yeah, this is how it always goes. Are you ready for it? And they give him the name.

00:54:17:18 - 00:54:26:17
Speaker 2
He goes, I go, hey, come here, we want more. But first go on. And I start laughing.

00:54:26:17 - 00:54:27:21
Speaker 1
And Tammy's just.

00:54:27:23 - 00:54:29:14
Speaker 2
Seething.

00:54:29:16 - 00:54:32:06
Speaker 1
I said, come on, it's funny.

00:54:32:08 - 00:54:34:00
Speaker 2
I can't help.

00:54:34:00 - 00:54:34:23
Speaker 1
It. I am in the.

00:54:34:23 - 00:54:39:15
Speaker 2
Middle of our angst. There was this this thing, the seed.

00:54:39:17 - 00:54:47:23
Speaker 1
And, anyway, it did break it. And, she said, you're such an A-hole. And I go, I know you know, I know you. And then you move.

00:54:47:23 - 00:54:48:11
Speaker 2
On.

00:54:48:13 - 00:54:50:18
Speaker 3
And you're such an asshole. But are you ready to see?

00:54:50:18 - 00:54:53:18
Speaker 2
Are you ready? But you know, first.

00:54:53:20 - 00:55:04:09
Speaker 1
Yeah, we've all been there. I mean, I remember somebody call me to open Easy Top and they wanted to pay me $50. And I said, I want, I want ten grand, you know, and I just threw out of nowhere to go.

00:55:04:15 - 00:55:05:05
Speaker 2
Not paying.

00:55:05:05 - 00:55:06:22
Speaker 1
That I go there. I'm not doing the show.

00:55:07:00 - 00:55:07:15
Speaker 2
Yeah, well, you can.

00:55:07:15 - 00:55:12:13
Speaker 1
Put it on your resume. I said I can put it on my resume. Anyway, I don't think Z.z top is going to call me, you know?

00:55:12:15 - 00:55:13:07
Speaker 2
Hey.

00:55:13:09 - 00:55:21:13
Speaker 1
Memphis said you open for shoot. I'll take that off your resume. They said I can make up whatever I want most people did. Yeah, I made up their resumes.

00:55:21:15 - 00:55:32:00
Speaker 3
But people don't realize that it's comedy. Death to open or go after any type of music. Comedy is like such a specific. Yeah, it is a specific art that needs to be done in a.

00:55:32:00 - 00:55:33:08
Speaker 2
Specific, like a series.

00:55:33:09 - 00:55:37:00
Speaker 1
It's like a theater. You need you need quiet to watch a play.

00:55:37:01 - 00:55:37:17
Speaker 2
Yeah. You know.

00:55:37:17 - 00:55:51:01
Speaker 1
And that's why I used to say, dice Clay was not a comedy show. It was an event like WWE. I had some friends and went to see him, and he said it was just chaos. The whole crowd shouting, and he's shouting at us, you know, for an hour or whatever. It's not a show.

00:55:51:07 - 00:55:59:15
Speaker 3
I saw Bill Burr at Bridgestone and it was chaos. It was really wild. Yeah, comedy in an arena. I mean, I can't even talk.

00:55:59:18 - 00:56:01:21
Speaker 1
That's why Nate's so upset. Special.

00:56:01:22 - 00:56:03:07
Speaker 3
Yeah. How he does it like that.

00:56:03:07 - 00:56:29:19
Speaker 1
14,000 people sitting quiet and listening to yeah, probably one again, a really dry, I wish I had met Nate McKenzie back when I was doing auditions for Letterman because I was told, you need to chop up all your stories, take three stories and turn three, 3 to 5 minute stories and turn them into three one minute stories or three minute and a half stories.

00:56:29:21 - 00:56:49:12
Speaker 1
So nothing really fit. Nothing was, you know, so I never felt comfortable doing auditions because I never felt I was doing my comedy justice. I was up, but that was a choice. It was my choice, you know? But to watch Nate, Nate will take one story, do it for five minutes and kills it. Just that. But that's the way it was written.

00:56:49:12 - 00:56:52:21
Speaker 1
That's the way it was performed, and that's the way it should be delivered.

00:56:52:21 - 00:57:10:22
Speaker 3
Yeah. Not set up punchlines at a punchline set up on time. Yeah. So true. I felt so bad. Speaking of Bill at the Bridgestone, I think that it in the round is helps because if he was in the round, he'd be right there. But we were at Bridgestone and he was way over there and I think it disconnects.

00:57:11:00 - 00:57:16:12
Speaker 3
Yeah. Everything. So I wonder if he was in the round like that's comedy nerd talk.

00:57:16:14 - 00:57:17:03
Speaker 2
Yeah, I would.

00:57:17:03 - 00:57:19:16
Speaker 1
Know because I don't do big events like that.

00:57:19:16 - 00:57:22:12
Speaker 2
But,

00:57:22:14 - 00:57:33:16
Speaker 1
So the recovering Californian. Yeah, that's how I found you. What was the genesis for that you just found, you just found life in Tennessee that different?

00:57:34:05 - 00:57:43:10
Speaker 3
Well, I had never heard the term recovering Californian, and I was leaving waffle House for the first time. Well, one of the first times having waffle House, and I just thought it would be so.

00:57:43:10 - 00:57:46:21
Speaker 2
Funny to God, you know, coming on here again. Again.

00:57:46:23 - 00:57:56:23
Speaker 3
So much waffle House. I've had so many carbs. No, I, I don't want to, like, my waitress had all her teeth, like, I don't want to. And it's pretty.

00:57:57:01 - 00:57:57:05
Speaker 2
Much.

00:57:57:05 - 00:58:00:06
Speaker 1
Been Franklin.

00:58:00:07 - 00:58:01:18
Speaker 3
It actually was Franklin.

00:58:01:20 - 00:58:03:06
Speaker 2
Was that. Well, there you go.

00:58:03:21 - 00:58:25:23
Speaker 3
Now, I was leaving waffle House, and I made some dumb joke online about how it was the Lord's. There's the Lord's Supper, and then there's the Lord's breakfast and his waffle House. And I said, hi, I'm a recovering Californian. First time I ever did it. And then I thought it was really funny. Yeah. And I just kind of kept doing it because I've noticed with social media, you have to have a hook right away, like it has to be.

00:58:26:01 - 00:58:37:01
Speaker 3
Okay, well, I look kind of interesting and different. And then my name is Carol and I'm a recovering Californian, so it's like if they find that funny or if that makes them anger. Yeah, I have anger. They're there for that, right?

00:58:37:05 - 00:58:38:11
Speaker 2
Yeah. As long as they emote.

00:58:38:15 - 00:59:02:04
Speaker 3
Yeah. And then that's it. They're just there. And then it was the craziest thing because it just. Yeah, I mean it exploded so fast and I so wasn't ready. So when I came back to stand up, I started stand up in 2019. And then I started to get a little traction, started to get at that point where I could maybe host and then the world closed up right?

00:59:02:06 - 00:59:24:03
Speaker 3
So I kind of thought, well, that's gone. And I tried to hold on to it a little bit during Covid, especially online, but it was premium. Jesus. So I was horrendous, like filthy, terrible. My social media. God, I hope those pictures, whatever was out there and ever comes back around if know it will bite me in the butt.

00:59:24:21 - 00:59:46:13
Speaker 3
But anyways, so 2019 happens. I start doing stand up. I get all these opportunities I didn't deserve way too quick. I had one guy I might have told you this before, but like I had one guy, he put me on shows because I had that unique, non-binary look, my hair at the time. And he was like, we really need a non-binary person for this poster.

00:59:46:17 - 00:59:53:00
Speaker 3
So I would get like a whole bunch of gigs, especially around San Francisco, Sacramento, because I had the non-binary one.

00:59:53:03 - 00:59:54:01
Speaker 1
I don't even know what that is.

00:59:54:05 - 01:00:16:23
Speaker 3
Yeah. Nobody does. It's a mystery. So they would put me on these shows that I didn't deserve. They'd be like, you got to do 15 minutes. I'm like, I have, I can talk into a microphone for 30s and they're like, you figure it out. And it was just garbage. It was terrible. It was awful. I remember going to a real comedy club for the first time in Vegas, and I built it up like I am a comedian, right?

01:00:16:23 - 01:00:17:13
Speaker 1
In Vegas.

01:00:17:13 - 01:00:39:21
Speaker 3
I'm going to the L.A. Comedy Club in Vegas. I posted getting a new tattoo while I was there. Before I went on the show, I was like, this is my life now. And, I hate it. So bad that I was like, I was on like the 15th at the Strat, like the 15th or 20th floor. I was like, there's a reason these things don't open, because I'd be right out there.

01:00:39:21 - 01:00:43:09
Speaker 3
I even scoped out the closet and I was like, oh dang, I'm too tall.

01:00:43:11 - 01:00:44:13
Speaker 2
But the.

01:00:44:13 - 01:00:47:01
Speaker 3
Blow dryer wouldn't reach the bathtub like it was.

01:00:47:01 - 01:00:48:01
Speaker 2
All bad.

01:00:48:03 - 01:01:13:11
Speaker 3
And I was like, come on, someone. And, so then, Covid happened. I go to the South for the first time. I never I was up the South was. So I was in the California bubble. I thought it was just all stupid red, stupid, racist rednecks that hated freaking kale shakes and everything. And then I, my mom lives on in a big farm in Arkansas.

01:01:13:11 - 01:01:30:02
Speaker 3
She bailed in California when I was like ten right? So she bails. I'm like, okay, well, I listen to a podcast. And I was like, if the world is ending, I'm sure as heck not going to do it smack in the middle of Sacramento, I put my son on a plane the beginning of March. I mean, they hadn't even started locking stuff down.

01:01:30:02 - 01:01:47:10
Speaker 3
Oh, all they did was take kids out of school. And I was like, well, I'm not doing this here. So I fly to my mom's farm. And while I'm on the farm, Arkansas. Really? Not for me, right? But like most people, I meet a guy on TikTok that swooned my heart named biscuit.

01:01:47:12 - 01:01:48:06
Speaker 2
A biscuit.

01:01:48:06 - 01:02:12:14
Speaker 3
Biscuit. His name was biscuit, and he drove for Walmart in Shelbyville, Tennessee. And he stole my heart. Oh, biscuit. First car by separate and, so it's crazy. I mean, my son, I had split custody. My son was with his dad for the summer, so I just decided to shack up in biscuit sandwich truck and see what happens.

01:02:12:18 - 01:02:37:11
Speaker 3
Really? Yeah. During the first couple months of Covid because my right, they were essential. Yeah, they were essential. And my custody agreement was my husband and had my son for the summers. And I had him the whole school year. So summer comes around, it's still Covid. I get in the back of the semi-truck. I mean, for anyone for safety, never get in a semi truck with a strange man for three months.

01:02:37:11 - 01:03:03:13
Speaker 3
No phone. One time my phone died while I was with him and I remember thinking, wow, my phone just died and I'm with this guy I've known for two weeks like this probably isn't great. Nobody knows where I am. They can't track me. They can't find me. But anyways, it wasn't that bad. So I decided to shack up with this dude, and his dad said we weren't equally yoked because biscuit was a Christian.

01:03:03:15 - 01:03:12:15
Speaker 3
His dad said we weren't equally yoked, and I was a staunch atheist, and I had never heard that term before. And I was like, I'm yoked.

01:03:12:18 - 01:03:13:11
Speaker 2
Might not work.

01:03:13:12 - 01:03:14:00
Speaker 3
Out.

01:03:14:00 - 01:03:14:22
Speaker 2
Well.

01:03:15:00 - 01:03:45:08
Speaker 3
Joe and, I decided as this crazy atheist to disprove everything this guy held dear. So I go down to Barnes and Noble. I was super pissed off. I only ever wore, like, demonic clothing. The first time I met the guy, I had an Amigo the Devil sweatshirt on. Ridiculous and I had ripped up leggings with all my my leg tattoos showing, and I'm like, I don't understand why your dad doesn't think I'd be a good wife like this in any sense.

01:03:45:08 - 01:03:52:12
Speaker 3
And, thank God Covid happened because I had a scheduled to get an upside down cross tattooed on my face.

01:03:52:13 - 01:03:53:13
Speaker 2
Oh my gosh.

01:03:53:14 - 01:04:09:10
Speaker 3
So good thing. I mean, I'm sorry if you lost your grandma, but I should have saved my face. It wasn't good. The hands had to be bad enough. But anyways, he said we were equally okay. I by this Bible, and I'm like, I'm going to prove this guy wrong. And I start reading it with a bad attitude.

01:04:09:10 - 01:04:28:23
Speaker 3
Like in the beginning, there's some stupid. And then I'm going with biscuit. Things are not going well with biscuit and all, and by this time it's towards the end of summer. I get my son back, I move, pack up my whole sold my house in California, pack up my whole house, moved to Shelbyville.

01:04:29:04 - 01:04:29:18
Speaker 2
Yeah, to.

01:04:29:18 - 01:04:31:03
Speaker 3
Live in Murphysboro.

01:04:31:05 - 01:04:31:17
Speaker 2
Yeah.

01:04:31:19 - 01:04:32:23
Speaker 1
And the big city.

01:04:33:04 - 01:05:04:10
Speaker 3
The big whole city. And he's gone. He's trucking at night and he's Mister Super Christian. That doesn't really know much about Christianity. So then I start reading Proverbs, just by accident. And, you know, I'm going to prove him wrong. And then when I started reading Proverbs, all the sudden, like, every problem I've ever had, the parent I needed, the wisdom I needed, the life I needed to lead, was all in this stupid book that I thought was for idiots.

01:05:04:13 - 01:05:21:20
Speaker 3
Right? And so I start reading it, and then all of a sudden this thing starts to happen where I'd read this proverb in the morning and then something would happen in my life and I'd be like, well, normally I would handle it this way, but I think I should actually handle it this way. And that was just the little seed that was planted.

01:05:21:20 - 01:05:47:00
Speaker 3
And then will I out your biscuit? I did, I said, hey, you're not Christian enough for me because all this I'm not shacking up together, not being married was weird. And the fact that we were both angry all the time and fighting all the time wasn't good. And so we part ways and, I ended up staying in Tennessee because I couldn't believe how kind everyone was, like, this weird, soft.

01:05:47:00 - 01:06:06:18
Speaker 3
And you've traveled all over the South and I. Sorry, in every other state. But there's something special about the people in Tennessee. Like, they're just so kind hearted and warm. And there was just something here and I couldn't figure it out. And I was working, at an audio, a car audio place because they were the only people that would hire me.

01:06:06:18 - 01:06:07:16
Speaker 2
With all the times, with.

01:06:07:16 - 01:06:10:02
Speaker 3
All the debts. Yeah, yeah. Which is crazy.

01:06:10:02 - 01:06:13:04
Speaker 2
They hire cons. Yeah. They do. Yeah they do. They figure.

01:06:13:04 - 01:06:16:07
Speaker 1
You've probably been lifting car audio to pay for the.

01:06:16:10 - 01:06:17:23
Speaker 2
Tattoos for years.

01:06:18:01 - 01:06:20:02
Speaker 3
She can't put one in before. Can she get.

01:06:20:02 - 01:06:23:09
Speaker 2
One. Oh no that's not going to get it out quick.

01:06:23:18 - 01:06:48:18
Speaker 3
Shout out to Cardtronics and Cool Springs, the only people that would hire me, but, Yeah, I mean, I had a great job there all the sudden I had the stability. I was able to support my son as a single mom. But then, I got, you know, that where I feel like we're gifted in a special way to talk to people and like to convey things through stories.

01:06:48:20 - 01:07:12:00
Speaker 3
And I still have that want where I was finding. I would say to you, like, I have my identity in Christ and I have all of my life in Christ, but I still needed appreciation and applause from everybody else. And I'd gotten used to that on social media. So then I'm like, oh, well, I'll take this Christian package and I'll take it to social media.

01:07:12:02 - 01:07:30:18
Speaker 3
And so I came out with the original was hi, my name is Carolyn. I identify as a baby Christian, and that blew up. That was the first thing to blow up. But then thankfully, by God's grace, I got, canceled. And so I had to write.

01:07:30:18 - 01:07:39:00
Speaker 1
Talk about that because you I when I met you, I was shocked because that completely went by me. I never even knew about it.

01:07:39:02 - 01:07:46:02
Speaker 3
Yeah, the greatest gift that ever happened to me. But it was the most painful thing I ever went through in terms of shame.

01:07:46:04 - 01:07:49:12
Speaker 1
So it's a it's a it came from a post.

01:07:49:14 - 01:08:24:15
Speaker 3
Yeah. I made a joke during Covid about the vaccine and I said, my head was shaved and I said that it would be the biggest trend in unvaccinated camps was have a shaved head. Yeah. And at the time, I thought it was hilarious. Right. I guess I was the only one, and so the last, one of the last Holocaust survivors got hold of the video and he made a video saying that I needed to be taught a lesson and, well, I think 40 million views later, hundreds and thousands of reposts and people remaking the video.

01:08:24:15 - 01:08:33:06
Speaker 3
Like, I remember there was even a psychologist in San Diego, a psychologist at that worked at San Diego State, I think, said that I should kill myself.

01:08:33:09 - 01:08:35:08
Speaker 2
Like, yeah, that's healthy.

01:08:35:12 - 01:08:54:20
Speaker 3
It was so dark. They shared my address. I left my church because of it. They went on my Facebook and found every place I never worked, gave them bad Google reviews. It was a complete. I lost a lot of friends over it. I lost at that time. I had a cleaning business. I lost all the cleaning clients except for two.

01:08:54:20 - 01:09:01:15
Speaker 3
At that time. It was horrifying, but it was also the most humbling experience in France.

01:09:01:17 - 01:09:04:08
Speaker 1
They kept you it though?

01:09:04:08 - 01:09:17:19
Speaker 2
No. Yeah they did. He kept. I was told like a joke in the middle of your pain.

01:09:17:21 - 01:09:19:01
Speaker 3
So much for the whole gig.

01:09:19:01 - 01:09:20:01
Speaker 2
Yeah. Well, anyway.

01:09:20:20 - 01:09:24:09
Speaker 3
No, but it was really. It was so painful at the time, and I really.

01:09:24:11 - 01:09:38:06
Speaker 1
It's so funny, me, because nobody finds the irony in destroying your life. Nobody sees the irony in that. Yeah, but you're not being taught a lesson. If anything, you're. If it wasn't for God's grace in your heart and the heart that it changed, I could see you turning even darker.

01:09:38:10 - 01:09:55:03
Speaker 3
If I didn't have Christ in my life, I would have killed myself. That's how bad it was. I mean, I didn't have an income. People were so mean to me like it was in sanity. I'd have people call me up out of the middle of nowhere and be like, I saw you online. I didn't know you were an anti-Semitic like mom.

01:09:55:04 - 01:09:57:13
Speaker 3
And that is so far from my heart.

01:09:57:15 - 01:10:03:21
Speaker 1
And the and half these people are now in the pro-Palestinian lines at the, at the, at the college because that's trending now.

01:10:04:01 - 01:10:05:09
Speaker 2
Yeah. They're trending.

01:10:05:10 - 01:10:06:12
Speaker 1
That's a joke by the way.

01:10:06:12 - 01:10:08:08
Speaker 2
Don't cancel me.

01:10:08:09 - 01:10:26:06
Speaker 3
Now. We're double cancel. Yeah. But it was the greatest thing because then I stopped identifying as the baby Krishna and I stopped professing things I didn't know anything about. And then I put myself in seminary school. I was like, oh, this thing that I don't know anything about, right? And I keep telling people I do, and I'm brand new to it.

01:10:26:06 - 01:10:41:20
Speaker 3
So I put myself in seminary school. Long story short, seminary school that landed me in an Eastern Orthodox faith. And then I've just been there since, enjoying my life with Christ and becoming this new person that struggles a lot. Yeah, with all sorts of things.

01:10:41:20 - 01:10:43:14
Speaker 1
Anybody honest will tell you that?

01:10:43:14 - 01:10:44:09
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah.

01:10:44:14 - 01:10:54:07
Speaker 1
There's this to where I look at it as half of me is my old nature, half of me is my new nature. And it's discerning. Yeah, that's the two.

01:10:54:08 - 01:10:54:16
Speaker 2
And it's.

01:10:54:16 - 01:10:55:06
Speaker 3
Painful.

01:10:55:08 - 01:10:57:05
Speaker 1
It is. And it should be.

01:10:57:09 - 01:10:58:19
Speaker 3
It rubs like sandpaper.

01:10:58:22 - 01:10:59:06
Speaker 2
Yeah.

01:10:59:06 - 01:11:20:03
Speaker 1
I mean, the Bible's clear that, Jesus said, I'll send you a counselor, you know, and it doesn't mean it's going to be pretty, but you'll have a new conscience. You'll have a new a voice inside there. And the key for me, anyway, is identifying what's old and what's new, you know, and it's pretty simple. Old is destroying me and new is, building me.

01:11:20:03 - 01:11:28:15
Speaker 1
I mean, it. Yeah. It's, you know, one of the most hurtful things that Tammy could ever say to me is. You mean you haven't changed?

01:11:28:17 - 01:11:30:06
Speaker 2
Oh, yeah. You know.

01:11:30:08 - 01:11:48:07
Speaker 1
Because of a moment or a, you know, heartbeat in the midst of our marriage, I'll throw something or smash something or. And then that line, you know, you'll never change. And, it's like the computer's kicked. Same hits, and then I'm off.

01:11:48:13 - 01:11:50:22
Speaker 2
For however long. Yeah.

01:11:51:00 - 01:12:24:22
Speaker 1
And, somebody I heard a pastor say one night, online, he was reading his mail, and he said, you know, I can read some pretty nasty comments about me online, and he's eating a sandwich at the time, and he goes, you know, don't bother me at all. But my wife can say something to me on Monday and it's even happier on Friday because she matters, you know, at a, at a biblical level, you know, and, I, I miss it.

01:12:25:00 - 01:12:47:14
Speaker 1
Going back to what we were talking about, friends, I have friends in my life that can tell me anything. I mean, they they can correct me. They've been given permission. They know my dirt. They know they know the buttons. They know I'm not just like anybody who loves you. Knows they know the buttons. Now, a healthy relationship, they don't willy nilly push them.

01:12:47:14 - 01:12:56:09
Speaker 1
They may push them by accident. And then obviously, if you can apologize for that, go. Look, I'm sorry I took a cheap shot, I really did.

01:12:56:11 - 01:12:57:21
Speaker 2
Yeah.

01:12:57:23 - 01:13:19:03
Speaker 1
But that's where the vulnerability comes in. In the midst of it. You know, Tammy Da married 38 years, and I'm thinking. Five years maybe we've been at another place. Where a lot of that baggage doesn't surface much anymore, but. Holy cow.

01:13:19:05 - 01:13:19:23
Speaker 2
Yeah.

01:13:20:00 - 01:13:41:05
Speaker 1
30 whatever years of stripping away. What is it? Carl Jung said, we as children gather things up, put them in a big bag on our back, and the lucky ones spend their entire adult life emptying the bag. I mean, it never gets empty. Yeah. Just gradually, you know, you just don't respond in certain ways that you used to.

01:13:41:06 - 01:13:53:10
Speaker 1
And. And that registers like, Holy cow. In the past, I used to throw something across the room, you know, and even now I just, you know, when people would come up, you know, it's amazing.

01:13:53:10 - 01:13:54:13
Speaker 2
How quick you can.

01:13:54:13 - 01:13:58:16
Speaker 1
Forget you have a peace that surpasses all understanding behind the wheel of an automobile.

01:13:58:20 - 01:13:59:11
Speaker 2
Yeah, but.

01:13:59:11 - 01:14:00:21
Speaker 1
Now I, I honestly, I.

01:14:00:21 - 01:14:02:04
Speaker 2
I'm,

01:14:02:06 - 01:14:11:02
Speaker 1
I'm pretty good, you know, that, Christ has removed a lot of that debris. Still have issues, you know,

01:14:11:04 - 01:14:13:00
Speaker 3
It's a slow purification process.

01:14:13:03 - 01:14:16:10
Speaker 1
It really is. And then breath. You met Brant? Where?

01:14:16:12 - 01:14:18:07
Speaker 3
Oh, okay. So I.

01:14:18:07 - 01:14:18:16
Speaker 2
Oh, he does.

01:14:18:16 - 01:14:27:22
Speaker 1
A line in his show. And again, I hate to be one of these fans. When he met you, he said that if another woman looks at you, your cutter. Yeah. Is that true?

01:14:28:09 - 01:14:35:03
Speaker 3
That is very true. I will cut her. But, that peace that.

01:14:35:07 - 01:14:36:10
Speaker 2
Surpasses. Yeah, it's.

01:14:36:12 - 01:14:58:06
Speaker 3
Even a shank. But no, Brant is actually the reason the recovering Californian came to be, because Brant and I have a pretty dark history. And when we met, he, like, refused to pick me. Essentially. We'll set that as up as the context. And I have that blackout, anger rage like you do.

01:14:58:08 - 01:14:58:20
Speaker 2
Yeah.

01:14:58:22 - 01:15:16:13
Speaker 3
And so I sat and I brewed and I was like, what is the best way to hurt this man that has hurt me so badly? And I had been out of stand up for years. I never thought that I would go back to stand up in any kind of way. And I was like, I'm going to go back to stand up.

01:15:16:15 - 01:15:29:06
Speaker 3
I'm going to be a headliner within a short amount of time. I'm going to surpass everything that he loves. I'm going to get into every club he loves. I'm going to just destroy him.

01:15:29:06 - 01:15:29:18
Speaker 2
It's a great.

01:15:29:18 - 01:15:31:04
Speaker 1
Foundation for a loving.

01:15:31:04 - 01:15:33:07
Speaker 2
Relationship, isn't it? It's great.

01:15:33:07 - 01:15:56:06
Speaker 3
Right? It's so sweet. And so I had this anger and I was like, I am going to explode so quick. This he's 13 years in. At the time I think he was 11 years. And I'm like, you've been doing this 11 years. Watch me get everything you've ever wanted in less than half the time. And I went that week to my first open mic here in Nashville.

01:15:56:08 - 01:16:13:07
Speaker 3
And I walk on that stage and I'm just like, this is me. And then within six months, I was the recovering Californian and I was in all the clubs in the South. It's just that fast. But I didn't want that to happen because then I wanted that to happen in like three years.

01:16:13:07 - 01:16:14:16
Speaker 1
Right? Then you have the material, then.

01:16:14:16 - 01:16:36:00
Speaker 3
I had the material because I didn't have the material. But then it was such a gift, though, because, I got to really reconcile that because I didn't have the material. I didn't have the experience. I didn't have the jokes. So I was so humbled and devastated that and I respect the art too much to just try to pretend and maybe do like a Q&A.

01:16:36:02 - 01:16:54:15
Speaker 3
So I had to call my favorite comic the one I love so much and humble myself and be like, Will you carry my shows? And Brant Blakeney carried my shows, so it was out of anger. But then it was so humbling and so beautiful because it was like, I did this in spite of you, and it made him a ten times better comic.

01:16:54:15 - 01:16:56:23
Speaker 3
And I had to be like, I can't do this without you.

01:16:57:00 - 01:16:57:23
Speaker 2
Right? Great.

01:16:58:01 - 01:17:16:23
Speaker 1
Yeah, he's been traveling with me and, as you know, and, he's good. Yeah. And I tell him, because I know he gets frustrated and, and it's it's only a matter of time. We'll have Brant Blakeney, but Brant Blakeney go to a very funny guy. And he said the,

01:17:17:22 - 01:17:20:11
Speaker 1
Flag thing was your was your idea.

01:17:20:12 - 01:17:21:15
Speaker 3
Yeah, that was my idea.

01:17:21:15 - 01:17:24:03
Speaker 1
All of my audiences are eating.

01:17:24:05 - 01:17:24:20
Speaker 2
Oh, see what kind of.

01:17:24:20 - 01:17:26:06
Speaker 1
People coming to my.

01:17:26:06 - 01:17:29:11
Speaker 2
Show. So, so.

01:17:29:16 - 01:17:36:12
Speaker 1
Anyway, Harvick, your son is 15. Three more years. Is he going to go to college?

01:17:37:09 - 01:17:40:05
Speaker 3
He wants to be a pilot.

01:17:40:06 - 01:17:40:18
Speaker 1
Then he has.

01:17:40:22 - 01:17:41:05
Speaker 2
Yeah.

01:17:41:06 - 01:17:42:10
Speaker 3
Yeah, that's his plan.

01:17:42:11 - 01:17:43:12
Speaker 1
Is going to go in the Air Force.

01:17:43:12 - 01:17:50:06
Speaker 3
Maybe he's thinking Coast Guard. Coast Guard because he's heard that they get more flight time. Yeah.

01:17:50:08 - 01:17:50:21
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah.

01:17:50:21 - 01:17:59:04
Speaker 1
The Air Force gets the, criminal background. You know, my, my nephew was Top Gun on the F-15 a number of years ago.

01:17:59:05 - 01:18:01:08
Speaker 2
Yeah. That's wild. Yeah.

01:18:01:16 - 01:18:13:05
Speaker 1
Again, I peripheral nephew. I don't meet that much, you know, but, that's the kind of family. It's interesting. Terry. Sister. Horrific. She's got a.

01:18:14:00 - 01:18:30:13
Speaker 1
A book in her, horrific upbringing. Kicked out of the house at 14, trafficked by some guy at 16. Gave birth to her son, and, anyway, got rid of the guy that was pimping her out. She got too old for him.

01:18:30:15 - 01:18:30:19
Speaker 2
You know?

01:18:30:20 - 01:18:31:08
Speaker 3
Oh, wow.

01:18:31:10 - 01:18:41:17
Speaker 1
1617. And then, she came back home, met a guy. He put her through college. She became an engineer. And then working at NASA.

01:18:41:18 - 01:18:43:06
Speaker 3
Yeah, that's an amazing.

01:18:43:06 - 01:19:01:20
Speaker 1
What it is like, you know, and amazing. And, her son from that marriage, after they split up, he was the one who became Top Gun. Tammy's brother, dropped out, you know, high school, went to work as a class apprentice. And now. Yeah, I think he has one of the largest commercial glass companies in the country.

01:19:02:08 - 01:19:08:08
Speaker 1
And Tammy's extremely bright and talented. I she would never think so, but.

01:19:08:08 - 01:19:09:15
Speaker 3
She's so creative.

01:19:09:16 - 01:19:32:14
Speaker 1
But she is she is, And her ability to, discern puzzling for me, were a good fit because, She's hyper. She could be hyper type A, and I'm a type Z, you know, but snap first.

01:19:32:16 - 01:19:33:07
Speaker 2
Yeah. I don't.

01:19:33:11 - 01:19:38:22
Speaker 1
You know, again, so many years of shoving off my problems really taught me to show off my problems.

01:19:38:22 - 01:19:39:20
Speaker 3
Yeah. Just take a nap.

01:19:39:20 - 01:19:55:23
Speaker 1
Yeah. And then the pain, that's what somebody once told me. Most alcoholics, have a very high tolerance for pain, emotional, physical, whatever. So I was able to ignore Iris, you know.

01:19:56:00 - 01:19:58:01
Speaker 2
Obviously, I show up.

01:19:58:03 - 01:20:10:21
Speaker 1
You know, at some point, a logical adult would look at it and go, it's so quiet. I want to get to this. Well, not today. Yeah, I'll go hit some golf balls, you know? And, Tammy's more, let's deal with it. Let's get it.

01:20:10:21 - 01:20:12:02
Speaker 3
Let's make it.

01:20:12:02 - 01:20:12:20
Speaker 2
Happen.

01:20:12:22 - 01:20:20:05
Speaker 1
Yeah, let's get it done. You know, and, her ability to to visualize, certainly decorating and and things like that,

01:20:20:07 - 01:20:36:22
Speaker 3
Everything the cakes she makes. Yeah. The I mean, she's so artistic, it's unbelievable what happens to me with the IRS bills is I have ADHD. So one extra thing on my plate, I get so overwhelmed, I just shut down.

01:20:37:00 - 01:20:38:03
Speaker 2
I'm like, that's me. Yeah.

01:20:38:03 - 01:20:40:03
Speaker 3
I'm like, I that's too much. I can't.

01:20:40:06 - 01:20:41:03
Speaker 2
Watch why.

01:20:41:03 - 01:20:44:14
Speaker 1
Tammy pointed out to me, if you would uncluttered your desk, it wouldn't overwhelm.

01:20:44:14 - 01:20:46:12
Speaker 2
You. But the I had no.

01:20:46:14 - 01:20:50:07
Speaker 1
Thought of that was like, oh, well, how do I, clutter it?

01:20:50:07 - 01:20:51:07
Speaker 3
Yeah. Going it.

01:20:51:10 - 01:20:55:16
Speaker 2
If I don't see it, I don't think about it.

01:20:55:18 - 01:20:59:13
Speaker 1
And then I find it two weeks later and go, oh, that was a bill. I should have been paid two weeks ago.

01:20:59:18 - 01:21:00:08
Speaker 2
Yeah.

01:21:00:10 - 01:21:08:06
Speaker 1
So what I've done now is I have a pile of mail upstairs, and it gradually works its way to the place where.

01:21:08:08 - 01:21:14:21
Speaker 2
It's where it gets finished and filed. Yeah. And that's that's it. And Terry, she she.

01:21:15:05 - 01:21:22:13
Speaker 1
Her OCD kicks in when the pile in the kitchen gets too high. Yeah. So I just snatch it up and bring it downstairs and throw it on the couch.

01:21:22:15 - 01:21:23:06
Speaker 2
Yeah. And then I.

01:21:23:06 - 01:21:25:22
Speaker 1
Don't even get, you know, and then I'll go down there, go.

01:21:26:00 - 01:21:33:10
Speaker 3
Well, because your house is so she's decorated. It's so beautiful. And she does all these little things. It looks like something out of, like, a Southern Living magazine.

01:21:33:12 - 01:21:34:18
Speaker 2
Yeah. And so if.

01:21:34:18 - 01:21:38:21
Speaker 3
There's a pile of mail, what the heck?

01:21:39:01 - 01:21:39:18
Speaker 2
Well, I've.

01:21:39:18 - 01:21:58:07
Speaker 1
Said this, and I will say this to, like, my dying day. There are people put on this earth to notice the blemishes in life. Tammy's one of those people. This morning, I go to kiss her good morning. She goes, you have eggs on you? And I looked and I'm telling you, it was a speck stuck on a whisker, you know.

01:21:58:09 - 01:22:01:21
Speaker 1
But that's what she should look and go. Oh, you got. Oh. And it still picks up.

01:22:01:21 - 01:22:04:21
Speaker 2
I mean, I just left the bathroom. How do I know it's.

01:22:04:21 - 01:22:10:08
Speaker 3
You know, she did fix how I'm doing. My eyebrows, I do my brows in the Tammy way now. And they are way better.

01:22:10:09 - 01:22:11:14
Speaker 2
Yes they are. Yeah.

01:22:11:16 - 01:22:17:03
Speaker 3
Yeah. I actually called her waxing lady this morning and I was like, I need the Tammy eyebrow treatment gel.

01:22:17:05 - 01:22:29:03
Speaker 1
Michelle, I, I do a show or joke about Michelle, Michelle, Mitch, Michelle I mispronounce Michelle. Anyway, I think, we have talked.

01:22:29:07 - 01:22:30:08
Speaker 3
We have talked.

01:22:30:10 - 01:22:32:06
Speaker 1
We have, have we not?

01:22:33:03 - 01:22:35:05
Speaker 3
We what are you going to say?

01:22:35:05 - 01:22:38:04
Speaker 1
I just going to say, is there anything that we need to get stuff out?

01:22:38:06 - 01:22:38:21
Speaker 3
I think.

01:22:39:00 - 01:22:40:05
Speaker 1
Subscribe.

01:22:40:06 - 01:22:53:19
Speaker 3
Subscribe to wherever. Thank you so much for listening. We're so excited. We have so many amazing guests planned. We also have some episodes that are going to be released that are just audio that are phenomenal. So thank you so much for listening. We love.

01:22:53:19 - 01:22:54:03
Speaker 2
You.

01:22:54:07 - 01:22:58:14
Speaker 1
Also. Yeah, we're done talking about ourselves. So, yeah.

01:22:58:16 - 01:22:59:10
Speaker 2
Never again.

01:22:59:10 - 01:23:19:06
Speaker 1
It'll be about the guest and not about us. And that'll be fun. Yeah. Somebody once said, in order for a podcast to be successful, you need to bring people in that you want to talk to. And that's what we're going to do. We're reaching out now to some, I will not drop the names, but we got some people that you're going to be really wanting to hear from.

01:23:19:09 - 01:23:19:17
Speaker 3
Yeah, it's.

01:23:19:18 - 01:23:20:13
Speaker 1
Really interesting.

01:23:20:13 - 01:23:20:23
Speaker 2
People.

01:23:21:02 - 01:23:26:08
Speaker 3
It's going to be so exciting. And thank you for going on this adventure with me and me to be a part of it.

01:23:26:09 - 01:23:30:10
Speaker 1
I'm enjoying the ride, and I hope five years from now we can look back at this and go, wow, what a ride.

01:23:30:15 - 01:23:31:17
Speaker 2
Yeah, I think so.

01:23:31:23 - 01:23:34:05
Speaker 1
And God bless you folks.