Carmedy #2 - Festivals and Local Comedy Politics

Dave almost dies talking about the IE Comedy Festival and Local Comedy Politics that don’t matter 😂 

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@iecomedy

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Carmedy Podcast, where comedy meets yourslash my commute. I'm your host, Dave Thompson. Hello everyone. This is going to be a fun drive. If you've never listened to Carmody before, let me tell you what it's all about. Carmody is where I drive in my car and I talk, and you drive in your car and you listen. And you think about it and you ponder upon it. And we're gonna cover a lot of stuff today. Okay? We're gonna cover a lot of stuff. Uh I just wanna forewarn you that I have allergies. So if you hear me sniffle a little bit, I don't have COVID. Relax. I don't have COVID. You're not gonna catch it through the phone. Kiss me through the phone. Sorry. Um, you're not gonna catch it through the phone. I do not have COVID. I haven't tested, but I don't have it. Uh I've been dealing with a migraine today. I woke up this morning, absolute horrific migraine. Took two extra strength migraine pills, and it seems to be okay, but if I sneeze, my brain falls out. My brain comes out if I sneeze, so therefore I'm going to get a headache again if I sneeze. And the problem is the allergies are crazy. So I've been sneezing a lot. So it's just a difficult time for me right now. I hope you guys will join me in a word of prayer. Lord, please heal me from these allergies. Because it is very, very difficult to deal with these allergies and do a podcast. God, thank you for forgiving me of my sins so that I may do a podcast in Jesus' name. Amen. Hallelujah. Thank you, guys, for joining me in a word of prayer. So, yes, my name's David Thompson. I'm a comedian in Southern California. Thank you for listening to Carmody. Uh, there is nine people. Thank you, nine people. Nine people that have been consistently listening to my podcast. And I just want to thank you. So, if you're one of the nine, thank you. It sounds like I'm talking about Lord of the Rings, talking about the Nazgul. Okay, if if you're one of the nine, Nazgul, looking for the one ring. No, but seriously, guys, if you're listening to the podcast, thank you so much for listening to the podcast. It means the world to me for you guys to listen uh to my thoughts and to maybe have your own thoughts. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me on social media with questions, comments, concerns. Uh, I will answer questions if they're not stupid. I will comment on your concerns if they're valid, and if you have any ideas, uh, you can always shoot them my way. And if I like it, I'll answer back. And if not, I'll move on. Because my energy, my chi, I don't let people in my chi, my circle, my inner chi circle, my chiral. I don't let people in that if they got negative energy. You know what I'm saying? Get those negative energy Nancy's out of my chi circle. Thank you very much. Uh, a couple things I want to talk about today. Um, some people have commented on the audio. It's the car medie podcast. Car. I'm supposed to record this in the car. Carmedi. Comedy meets your slash my commute. We're supposed to be commuting together. If you don't like the audio, buy me equipment. God bless. Okay. Also, too, somebody commented this pod would be good if there was video. Did you not hear anything I've been saying over these episodes? If there was video, I would have to record it whilst I was driving. And and and and and if you're listening to the pod while you're what are you gonna do? Watch the pod while driving? If you're sitting in traffic in Los Angeles on the 405 or the 157, whatever the freaking freeways are, and you're sitting in traffic, okay. I understand. Maybe you watch a video, okay? I've been known to play a game of magic or hearthstone whilst I'm on the freeway because there's an accident or because of ice protests, okay? But normally I'm not watching videos on the freeway or on the road because I'm driving. Can you imagine the guilt I would feel if one of you, if one of you nine, or maybe even new people, if you're new and you're not one of the nine, but you want to join the nine, you want to make it to ten. Could you imagine how bad I would feel if you died? And they said on the news, breaking news, someone died today after getting in a car accident. Upon further investigation, authorities found that that person was watching the Carmedy podcast before they hit another vehicle. And unfortunately, they passed away immediately. Do you know how bad I would feel that you were watching me drive while you were supposed to be watching yourself drive? I would feel horrific and I would cry. I would cry because you died. That would be sad. Please don't do that. Also, too, yeah. Look, maybe I don't have the best audio, okay? But you know what? Maybe you're not the best listener. Maybe you don't have good ears, or maybe your ears are so good you hear everything, right? You hear my freaking snot? You hear my freaking snot because I got allergies? What am I supposed to do? Edit out the snot? I don't have time to edit out the snot. I'm sorry. Excuse me. I actually needed to do that for like three minutes, and I didn't because I was waiting for me to say that. Look, here's the deal, folks. Ladies, gentlemen, people of all ages, genders, creeds, religions. I'm inspired by people who just put it out there. Okay? I used to listen to Nikki Glazer's pod back when she used to just walk around New York City and or she'd be walking around another city. She just had her airpods in. She just had her headphones in. And you could hear the taxis honking at each other and all that. That really inspired me. It really did inspire me. And you know, I know it's not perfect audio. I'm sorry I'm not Theo Vaughn. I'm sorry I'm not Jerry Seinfeld on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Okay, I don't have that type of equipment. I have AirPods and I have a cell phone and I have a voice recorder on my phone that sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. Sometimes my audio stops recording at 13 minutes, 41 seconds for some reason, and I don't know why. But I'm gonna tell you ahead of time. If this episode or any other episode is 13 minutes and 41 seconds, I'm just gonna upload it and whatever it is, I'll just pick it up. If like if we're in the middle of a conversation, well, not a conversation, if I'm in the middle of a monologue and I'm talking about something, I'll just pick it up on the next pod. Because I'm not gonna edit it. I'm just not. If I'm not editing the snot, I'm not editing anything back into the 13-minute, 41-second episode. That's just facts. Okay, who has time for that? Not me. I'm currently looking for sponsors for the IE Comedy Festival. If you've not heard of the IE Comedy Festival, it is a festival that I'm running. I created, I mastermind. The Inland Empire Comedy Festival is going to be the first four weekends of April 2027. April 2nd through the 4th, April 9th through the 11th, April 16th through the 18th, and April 23rd to the 25th. First weekend is Palm Springs, second is Redlands, third is Riverside, fourth is Temecula. The Inland Empire is huge. The Inland Empire is Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Do you guys understand how big these two counties are? Do you have any idea how big these two counties are? They are humongous. Over 50 cities spans these two counties. So the only way to really bring a festival together to life, especially my first festival, is to break it up into bite bite-sized pieces. I've ran multiple shows over a weekend. And I'm just doing it four weekends in a row. I have multiple different venues that are so excited and have committed to being a part of the IE comedy festival. I am booking almost 200 comedians for the course of the festival. National headliners working on getting some workshops. There's going to be showcases, and for those few that have not got a spot on the festival, don't worry. I have booked pretty much no one for the festival. Certain people, I've kind of put it in their ears that I want them to feature on the festival to see a longer set. But pretty much everyone is going to get on the festival showcases. The showcases are gonna be six minutes a piece. Six minute sets. The same way they do it at Netflix is a joke, the same way they do it just for last auditions that you have in Hollywood. When you try and become famous one day, we're doing it the same way. A ton of comics on a showcase, bringing their best A material so that these crowds can see just how talented local comedians truly are, because that's what it's all about. Bringing awareness. We want you, and I say we, I mean me. I would like you guys to get followers. I would like our communities to know that there is funny comedians around and nearby them, and that there is local shows all the time. And so when I bring you up, if you're a local producer, you know what I'm gonna say at the showcase? If I bring you up and you're a local producer, I'm gonna say this guy, this gal, this person produces shows, follow them, check them out. You know what I'm saying? The the the festival's not all about me. I'm just putting it on because nobody else is doing it. Okay, can we get some ambition out here? There's so many comics in this area, and there's 50 plus freaking cities out here. I just talked to somebody who I'm not gonna mention. I ain't gonna name their name. Message me in the DMs. I ain't gonna name this person, but this someone from Los Angeles that came out to Redlands, ran a show in Redlands. I showed up to the show, we had never met in person before, and they proceeded to tell me that even though they're from Los Angeles, they're gonna start coming out here because the inland empire is such an untapped market. What? An untapped market? So this person's coming out here to do shows from Los Angeles because they don't think there's any shows, and they're coming out here to make money. Oh, and by the way, not booking us. I mean, what is going on here? What are we doing? You know what I'm saying? I just want to bring awareness to our communities, all of us together about what we got going on out here. That's the goal of the festival. That's the goal of these shows. That's the goal of I.e. comedy to help support the scene, to put people on, to give people opportunities, because these are opportunities not only that I want, but these are opportunities that everybody should want if they're serious about comedy. Even if you're not serious about comedy, but you're funny. Let's get you some opportunities to get on stage and make some people giggle. You know why? Because these communities are there's a lot of hardworking people in these communities. I'm so stressed out right now. We're inching up to the 13-minute or 41-second mark, and I just hope that this doesn't go out because I'm on fire right now. Absolutely on fire. No, I'm cooking right now. Okay, here's the thing: there's a lot of hardworking people in these communities. There's people from all different backgrounds, there's people that are rich, there's people that are poor. Our two counties here literally has everything, right? You have the mountains, you have lakes, you have the desert, you have the cities, like there's so much. You know, you go down tourists, there's wineries and to make a lot, like there's casino, like there's so much out here, and people need to freaking laugh. There's so much going on in the world, there's so much going on around us, okay? People need to freaking laugh, really. Even God says in the Bible that there's a time for laughter, okay? God thinks laughter is important, and if God thinks it is, so should you. Excuse me. Sorry, that last uh line I was kind of uh I was kind of channeling my inner Ian bag. Uh yeah, so that's what the festival's about. That's what i comedy is about. Um that's it's just something I've had the vision for, you know, since I started it. Of like, hey, if you tag me in a post, I'll repost it. Because I want people that I know that follow me to know about your stuff. Is it because I think you're the coolest person ever? Probably not. Is it because I think you're the most talented or funniest person ever? Definitely not. It but is it because we're like good buddies and good friends? No, it's because we're colleagues, we're doing comedy together, we're out here, we're in this scene together, and I want people to be aware of you because if people are aware of you, then people will be aware of other comedians, and then we can help work together to have a beautiful, wonderful, thriving scene that attracts new talent where people are getting inspired, and there's a clear path. Whoa! There's beds flying at me. There's beds flying out of a truck! You guys! I almost just died right now! A full bunk bed just fell out of a truck Oh my gosh. My headache is coming back. I'm okay. I'm okay, I'm okay. This dude has a massive trailer with like trash or something on it, like garbage, and literally a bunk bed and a mattress just came flying out because they were sitting on top. No ties, by the way. What the freck? No ties. This is live Carmade Podcast. I wish that I had my video on for that because you guys would have seen me just in a freaking sicko move right now to avoid that bed. Absolute master class on my part. Let me take a drink of my Dr. Pepper. Wow, what a rush. Some people do drugs, I drive. What a rush. What a rush. That's actually funny. Let me write that down. Some people do drugs, I drive. That's funny. Um, okay, so I don't remember what the frick I was saying before I almost freaking died. Could you imagine me dying on the Carmedy podcast? Darling, if you're listening, my darling wife, beautiful wife Ashley, if you're listening to me, if I ever died and there's a voice recording that's about 30 minutes long on my phone and hasn't been uploaded yet, can you just hit upload on that? The world needs to know how I die. Um, because there's maybe nine people that care. What a day. What a day. You never know what's gonna freaking happen on the Carmody podcast. You never know. You never know. Okay. Getting back to it, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Okay. I eat comedy festival. Very excited um for it. I hope that there's new comedians that pop up. You know, we have people in the scene like George Farrito that run classes, we have people that are pretty decent mentors for people that give advice or that help joke write. Um, and I just hope that the toxicity of some people just kind of gets stomped out. That's really what it is. Because I gotta say, also, once again, not name-dropping. Man! Sorry, my heart rate is through the freaking roof right now. Oh, okay, I gotta breathe. There's a comic. Uh, when I was very uh young in comedy, I'm still young in comedy, but when I was very young, uh like less than a year, a number of months in, uh, I I had been listening to podcasts, and uh I was hearing on all these podcasts that it's great to find a little group to do writing together, to bounce joke ideas off of and bounce premises, and it really helps you get better and sharper when you're around people that you trust that you respect as joke writers, and and and you guys work together on stuff. And I thought that was a super cool idea. So I wanted to get a group of four people together, and I asked somebody that I respected, and and I still respect this person uh for being funny. I'll leave it at that, but I asked this person if they'd be interested in writing jokes with me, and this person not joking looked at me and said, Why would I want to write jokes with you? Why would I want to help make you funnier? And I was like, Okay. Alright, well, there you go. Like, like we're in some sort of competition together. Like, oh, we're competing. I'm not I'm not competing with anybody out here. I don't know if you guys feel like you're competing with each other, but like there there's literally so many people out here, so many cities, and this area is so big. There is so much room for even more producers to pop up shows and for people to support each other in this community for everybody to get stage time and to get funny. There's literally so much room. Like, what are we competing over? Like, are we in Hollywood competing over becoming door guys at the store? Like, like, if I was if I was like trying to get you know booked at a club or or or or start working in a club like the comedy store, and and I was in direct competition with somebody and I was in a different place. I mean, maybe I would have that thought process, but like we're not doing that out here. There's no comedy store out here. There's not industry people out. Like, what what are we competing about? Like, oh, you don't want me to be funnier? You don't like what? What a stupid comment. I still think about that to this day. I'm like, what a stupid comment. You know, you know why? Because I I don't I personally just don't see it like that. I really don't. I love it when people are funny, I love it when people are funnier than me. There's a lot of times, a ton of times, most times, where there's people on mics and on shows that are funnier than me. And that's okay. In my whole life, where wherever I do comedy, and however long I do comedy, there will probably always be people that are funnier than me. And that's great. Like, what are you doing? That's just it's just like if this person asked me, hey, can you help me punch up a joke? I would still do it. You know why? Because I don't care if that person gets funnier. I I would actually prefer it. Because think think about this, right? If there's more local comedians that are funnier, that actually benefits me. Because that person might kill it at a show, and 40 people at that show are like, wow, we really like local comedy. And then they keep going to shows and they look and see a show of mine that maybe I booked that person on, and then now they came and they saw me because of how well someone else did. You know what I'm saying? It's just it just makes sense. You just want people in the community to know that there's funny people. That's all. It doesn't gotta be weird, it doesn't gotta be a competition thing. Like, oh, I want more people to go to my shows than go to your shows. Oh okay. Congratulations. All of us should just be striving to sell out every show. That's really what it is. And and if you guys send me a flyer, if you're listening to me, you send me a flyer and you're like, hey, can you please post this? Yeah. Yeah, I will. Even if I'm doing a show five miles away from you the same night, I'm still gonna repost the flyer. You know why? Because we're trying to get 40, 50, 60, maybe 70 people in a room. Do you know how many people are in between us five minutes up the road? Thousands. The frick are we talking about here? The frick are we talking about here? Some weird egos up in this area. Some weird egos. First of all, not warranted egos whatsoever in any fashion. Not warranted. Come on. That's crazy. But lo and behold, lo and behold, ladies and gentlemen, I would just like to help build up uh the scene that we have here, which is already existing. Somebody made a weird comment about something. I'm not gonna say I'm not even gonna give them the time of day. There is a big scene out here, and I just want to help sprinkle some seasoning on it. That's all. Sorry. If you don't like it, just say no to the bookings. If you don't like me booking certain people because you think people don't deserve bookings, then just say no to when I asked to book you. Just say no. It's fine. That's all you gotta do. Just say no. You know? What a rant on the Carmody podcast. There's nobody listening. Are any of you nine still listening to me rant about local comedy politics? You know what? This is what I gotta say to that person who made that comment about booking people. This is what I gotta say to you. And I should have said this more in depth, but I've had time to think about it now. I am so glad that the person who first booked me on a show, my very first show that I was ever booked on, I'm so glad that that person didn't go and tell people that I bombed and that they shouldn't book me. I'm so glad. I was fresh, I was new, it was my first show, I was nervous. I mean, can can we are people forgetting the human element here? Like, yeah, some people maybe aren't that funny. But you know what? Let those cards fall as they fall. Give them a give them a chance. Maybe, maybe they bomb their cheeks off, and then it's like, okay, maybe let's wait a while again. Maybe come back to that in six months. How's this person doing now? Is this person freaking super funny now, or is this person just quitting and they don't care about it? Okay, well, if they're quitting and don't care about it, maybe don't book them. But hey, maybe six months later, try it out again. Four months later, try it out again. How are they doing now? Like, so so many people are so quick to just write people off and be like, I saw this guy bomb once and it opened mic. Shut the frick up. Everybody bombs at open mics, everybody bombs everywhere. All the time. Everybody, you guys, I was bombing at mics all day on a Wednesday one time. I went up to the comedy store and I had an electric set, and and they immediately put me into the finals from my set. They just said, hey, you're going straight to the finals. I'm like, if I would be just listening to that, oh, I'm bombing at open mics, I'm bombing. Shut up. We do open mics and we bomb, and we and we do shows sometimes and we bomb because that's just what happens. It's all part of the freaking process. And I don't want to just do the same jokes over and over again for year after year after year after year. Some stuff I do, and some stuff I'm gonna keep the entirety of when I do comedy, but I'm trying to come up with new material. I'm trying to figure out how I want to say things and how I want to construct sets. I'm so sorry that I'm not perfect and just the best comic of all time. Sorry. You're not either, you weirdo. But lo and behold, lo and behold, the only people I really got beef with out here are people and steal jokes. That's really it. Just don't do that. Come on. You weirdos. Why are you stealing jokes, dude? Just write stuff. Your your life is probably interesting. But just write something. And if you can't write something, then you're probably not a comic. Because comics write jokes and then perform them. Actors copy lines and memorize lines and perform them. There is a big difference between a comedian and an actor.

unknown 28:10

Okay?

SPEAKER_00 28:10

If you want to be an actor that plays a comedian, go be in a movie. Okay? Don't go to an open mic. Don't don't go to shows and say, look at me, I am famous. Look at me, I am um super funny comedian. You're an actor. If you memorize someone else's jokes, or if you try and change a few lines in their jokes, and you're just using the same premise, the same punch, the same tag, the same everything, you are an actor and you are not a comedian. I'm sorry. That's just how it is. And no, I'm not sorry for anything. I would like to apologize to absolutely no one. You guys, this has been beautiful. We've we've talked about so much. We talked about the festival, we've talked a little bit about the pod, I've I've ranted to you about some thoughts of mine, about local comedy politics. And I hope you guys take this away from this. If you guys listen to this, uh, I'm I'm here to support you. If you want me to repost something, please tag me in it. Let me know if you have like, hey, um, I got this thing coming up. Yeah, tag me in it. Let's see. Even if I can help you get two, three, four, five more people there. I I would think that's a win. That's really cool. Uh, and yeah, message me if you guys need anything, if you guys want to talk jokes, whatever. I love it. Uh, my name's Dave Thompson, and it was a pleasure. Except for the time I almost died on this pod. That was crazy, where I had a bunk bed flying up my head. Uh, thank you guys so much for listening. You guys are wonderful, and please drive safe and be wonderful and cool to each other, be awesome to each other, and have a good day.

unknown 29:58

Come on.