Comedy as God's Gift for Pressure Relief

Today Fr. Aaron spoke with Jordan Stanley, a comedian local to Dothan, Alabama, but is expanding her reach through invitations to travel to new venues. She shared some of her life story leading up to performing at the Dothan Opera House. They both relayed their funny life experiences, why keeping a sense of humor is so important, and why God seems to let us go through embarrassing situations to keep us humble. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello, everyone. Today I had the pleasure of talking with Jordan Stanley, a local comedian who will be performing at the Dothan Opera House very soon. We had a wonderful conversation talking about her set, how it's developed over time. She runs a clean set, and so the whole family can be invited to her performance. A lot of her performance is made up of the bits that she's compiled over the lifetime of experiences she was able to look at through the lens of the humor that God gives us all, so that this life is bearable and not only just bearable but enjoyable. Anyway, we had a wonderful conversation. I hope you'll join us for this journey. Thank you for coming and joining us. Yeah, I'm excited. This is fantastic. Yeah. So you're gonna be performing at the Dothan Opera House.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Yes, on June 13th. Like less than a month now. One day less than a month. What would that be like? 29 days? I don't know. But yeah, soon.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

So is that the your that your first time doing that?

SPEAKER_00 1:01

So no. So I have uh Darcy Lynn is like a I don't know if you've ever heard of her. She opened, or she not opened, she won America's Got Talent. She's a puppeteer.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

And she came to the opera house in January, and she's really big, but she requires clean comedians, which is what I am. Okay. And so they uh invited me to come open for her, which was that's gotta be much more diff.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

That's gotta require much more discipline. It does.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Well, also, that's just how my brain works. I don't necessarily like to include a lot of like shamey stuff. Like the rote, there was just like a big celebrity roast online, and I was like, I would decline the offer. Right. Because it would hurt my feelings, just so we're clear, like the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Oh my gosh. Well, I mean, I have to admit, I mean, I I sometimes am a Kill Tony fan. Oh, yeah, me too. But I would not survive that because I just I don't have thick enough skin for that.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

No, I don't. I don't. The one guy from Kill Tony just made it to SNL, I think. What's his name? Cam somebody?

SPEAKER_02 1:57

I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

I don't remember his last name.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

But no, I I've I've seen a couple of ropes. I'm like, I could not handle that. Even though because there's one thing that that for a lot of us, our humor is so relaxing and it opens up so much, you know, opens up so much that it it opens up some of the dark sides of ourselves without if even thinking about it. Yes, you know, our own nature is flying under the radar, and next thing you know, we joked about something going, oh, I can't take that back.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Do you watch Theo Vaughn at all? Yeah. Have you heard his he's perfect for saying stuff that you're like, had he not said it that way, I feel like people would have got offended. I was like, okay, this makes sense. Like he's really good at that.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Well, but the comedians, I mean, people who were able to kind of make us point out absurdities and kind of make us laugh at the uncomfortable thing. Yeah. So necessary.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

It is necessary.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Oh my gosh. I mean, without that, and I'd been around a lot of people who I don't know what the deal is. Somewhere along the line, humor and piety just didn't, they decided it shouldn't mix or somehow. I don't agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Yeah, me neither. No, I was talking to someone, I was getting my hair done yesterday, and the lady was, she came out and she's like, I'm gonna tell a joke that's super dark, but I'm just gonna tell it. And I was like, Bring it on, because I'm here. Because that's the whole thing for me. It's like I've been through a lot my whole life. There's everyone's been through a lot.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

My life has been filled with a lot of stories that would kind of sound like a lifetime movie, a lot of like abuse and all these different things. And I'm like, had I not gotten funny out of it, and my therapist not said it's okay to cope with humor, I'd be really sad.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Lifetime movie or Hallmark? Lifetime's rough.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Hallmark has like I mean, it does have a happy ending now. It could be Hallmark. Right. It could yeah, sure. A really weird Hallmark movie, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Or unless you go to the Bet channel, it'd be bet you a Bet TV, then it's a different thing altogether. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

That would be funny.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

So, no, I I it's real.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

And you when you deal with it too, like, because I'm uh I'm staff at a church too, so there's a lot of heavy situations. Obviously, you know, we're here to help people and point them to Jesus. And there's sometimes where things are so heavy that if I don't crack a joke, like during 2020, during COVID, we went to so many funerals that I just became a basically a jester of the courts, is what it felt like. And I just walked around making jokes because everything was so intense and everyone was so scared. And it was like, okay, we have got to like lighten the mood a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

That pressure relief valve was so important. We oftentimes I've spent a lot of time around fire service as a chaplain for a different department. And people oftentimes talk about the dark humor of first responders. It's a thing, it is, and it's also necessary too. Yes, and I remember specifically, I was on a call with the station in Seminole County in central Florida, where I just came up. And so we are on the engine, and we get there was a the call came off as what they call chemical suicide. And we're like, what is a chemical suicide? I don't know. So we're not sure what that is, but you get a little bit more information as you go on the engine, as by the time we get to the scene. When we get there, we realize the reason why it's called a chemical suicide is be came off as on that across the call is because someone saw someone who's deceased in a car and they could smell them from across the parking lot.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

That's why that makes sense, right? Right. So that's why it came off chemical suicide. We're like, okay, so what's going on here? How do you even handle that? Well, this person has been there's been a missing person's report for quite some time. Yeah, and the Florida sun had been baking them in their car for quite quite some time. Awful, yeah. And right, and so by the time we get there, their decomp has really has its thing. And so everybody at one point looked up, went up to the window, and we're like, oh my gosh, who was no, who's gonna open this car? I don't want to open this car. Are you gonna open the car? We've got to pull the victim out of it. First of all, sheriff's office is gonna tape that hole off. Right. You have to investigate it as a crime scene first. Turns out it just looked like there's someone who had deceased and maybe for whatever reason. But no one knew it's gonna make the corners off the autopsies gonna be difficult because of decomp. Nevertheless, everyone went up to the window and went, boy, you know, rock, paper, scissors, who's gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Rock, paper, scissors. Because it's so intense.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

So so here's the here's where that dark humor goes. Okay, Chapman goes up to the up to the window, looks inside, and I'm sorry. I said to I looked at my crew and went, he chose poorly.

unknown 6:19

Poorly.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

They but from Indiana Jones. From Indiana Jones. You did not go there. Yes, I did. Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Because they're dealing with this kind of stuff every single day. And it's like, how do you rationalize that in your brain? You make jokes because you just can't, and it's not making fun of people, it's trying to make light of the situation so you can process it. You're right, exactly. Because people are, especially like in first responders or anyone has those kind of heavy jobs, yeah, it can get really dark in your head. And if you don't kind of just say it sometimes and clear the air by saying something, sometimes it people hold on to that and they take it in to home or they take it in a different area. It's not worth it.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

They've you have to crack that pressure relief valve open, otherwise the pressure builds up in the soul over time. And it will the the tank can blow up in some unproductive way.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Yeah, it's true.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

You know, and so that's why you get that kind of the person with that sense of humor who's helping other people laugh about the same thing. Yep. And you all of us have our own guilty pleasure. Where's true in public we would say, Oh, that was it's such poor taste. And then secretly we're watching the video again so we can laugh our head off. Yes, right? I mean, it's like it's it's it's that secret, that secret, you know, that we maintained for ourselves. Sure. Kind of like how the difference between Baptists and Anglicans, that the Anglicans will actually wave at you at the liquor store.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

See, there's so many of these. I know some jokes, but I realize that none of them are about Christianity. Honestly, my family's Polish, and the other side of my family wasn't Polish. And so there's some jokes that I don't get that are from like 1920s. I don't tell them, but I remember telling one one time at school and they were like, You cannot do that. That's anti-against Polish people. And I was like, I didn't know, no one told me. I don't even know Polish people. And they were like, We're Polish. It was a whole thing. No, but sometimes you can offend people, sometimes people laugh.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Sometimes people, especially if you're laughing at yourself. Yeah, it's true. The problem is that, like, you know, for you know, racial comedy, I can't, I I can't, it's hard to make fun as a white person, it's hard to make fun of myself because if I try to do an impression of a white person, like everybody else, I'm only doing an impression of Eddie Murphy doing an impression of white people. Correct, yes, right, right, because they kind of corner the market on what a white person sounds like and they're really uptight, and they simply have their and their belts pull too tight and they simply can't dance.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

And so that's you're always making an impression of someone else who coined that, but you're still trying to make fun of yourself in some way. I think that Christians are need to do that, they have to maintain that practice. Yes. I haven't given you this book yet, but it's it's on loan to someone else at the church. But I have a book in the library. Well, it's it's a book called A Field Guide to Evangelicals in Their Habitat. It's an ethnography of evangelical quirks.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

What does ethnography mean?

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Oh, okay. Um what is that? Uh sorry, it's uh anthropological study.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Okay, what does anthropological study mean? What in the world?

SPEAKER_02 9:12

I'm sorry about this.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Don't be sorry. I love that I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

I have a little bit of a background as an academic.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

I love it. I went to Troy University for communication, so I don't know anything about but about YouTube algorithms. It's fine.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Well, YouTube algorithms, I I don't, I don't that's but your words are the YouTube algorithms that want you know, so yeah, but no, so anthropology is of course a doctrine of the shirt. Right, yeah, but it's also in academic setting, it is a it's a study of shared pattern human behaviors.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Okay, great. And so but it's okay, I'm here. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

Right. And so if you're so if so anthropology as a doctrine is what is the nature of man and why do we need Jesus? But anthropology as a academic study is what does that culture do and why do they do it?

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

And so culture, of course, is every those things that everyone knows so much that no one has to say. And so what we had a book here called The Field Guide to Evangelicals and Their Habitat, and discusses the various different habits of evangelicals and why why are certain why are certain licensed plates more popular with some sure what is the necessity for what you the why you must dress a certain way, why it's hilarious, yes, with a comprehensive list of who's going to hell.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Yeah, love it. Just pre-decide, you know, just go ahead and tell them, let them know. We have I we took a class called Propaganda and Persuasion. That's the closest thing I can think of. That talked about why people wear what they wear, but it got really dark, and so that class was really intense. So never mind. Anyways, it got really scary because I was like, why are people like they're like the same thing that caused people to hate each other causes people to buy the same shoes? And I was like, this is too heavy for me. I thought this was a free class, but yes, that book.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Well, no, it was the reason why it was so helpful is because you you saw yourself in your different pages, like, oh, the okay, this is where I see where this is going. You know, a whole chapter on you know the Christian speak and Christian words and Christian knees, Christian E's, exactly. You're like, oh man, I that I'm so in found in so much in these pages. You know, why do you find when someone asks you to pick a life first? Why did you pick that life first as opposed to others? Yeah, why and various different articles? It was familiar with Babylon B.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Yes, I love Babylon B.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

It was it was published long before Babylon B was a thing, but it was Christian satire, okay, which really had us rolling, which is wonderful. Oh my gosh, it was hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

I need to read that.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

So your so your first time performing at a Dothan Opera House is coming up.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Yes. Well, so the last show was at Dothan Performing Arts.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

And then, or sorry, was at Dothan Opera House, and this time is my own show where I have an opener who I'm working on right now, contacting, and a whole show that's dedicated to laughing and having fun.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

So, how did you develop your set over time? I'm sure that goes from the first time you tell someone and you know you're you're you're able to tell the joke in the right timing, and someone goes, You should do this on stage, and kind of if you could walk us through to the point where now here you are doing your own show.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

So I grew up in, like I said, some heavy environments. Like there was a lot of drug abuse, there was a lot of just different things going on family-wise. But my big thing is never casting shame on them and trying to because everyone's like, I think people think that generally, I would never do that. I could never get in that situation. Oh, yes, you would. It is very hard life, and my biological family has been through a lot of really hard stuff. But one of the good parts of them is that we would go and sit around bonfires, and they would just, my aunts and uncles and my mom and all these people would just story tell. And they tell the most atrocious stories, like horrifying. As a kid, I was like, oh my gosh, but why am I laughing? And they did that, and they're and I think I was thinking about that on the way here. That's kind of where it started for me. My aunt Nina, who was in Nina, her name was Glenna, not Nina. Nina's very country. She passed away probably six or seven years ago, but she was an incredible storyteller. And I remember hearing that, and they had been through so much, they had so much pain in their lives, but they were storytellers. And so I grew up hearing that, and I grew up knowing that like in heavy moments, still there can be like some humor. And so I just did that. And I naturally, that's how I cope with everything that I went through. A lot of pain and a lot of things. And so for me, people would always say stuff like people's memos would be like, Jordan, you missed your calling. You should have been a comedian. I was always like, quit saying that. Like, I get they're trying to meet it as a compliment, but it's kind of like a southern back-handed, like bless your heart. I didn't, yeah, right. I'm like, I didn't miss anything. I'm only 20. Like, I really want to do this. And so I there's multiple families that have stepped in, obviously, to the nature of my upbringing, stepped in. There's John and Brandy, who are people, they're like local pastors in town, but they stepped in when I was like, I believe 15. I try to remember 15, and then my friend Chandler's room, and all these people who just came around and helped me get to the right sources to actually get healing, to know Jesus. And also, so when that came in of like knowing Jesus and being like, there's a part to me always, because I didn't grow up. So, like the Christian eating stuff you're talking about, I didn't grow up in church, right? My family was kind of like, I mean, my one side was kind of like a little trailer park Wiccans, is what I like to call it. Like they did witchcraft and like something like that.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

That's a good combination here.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

But they were good at like I don't, I don't know. Like, I don't know what to say. The other half, my father's side of the family was Catholic, and we only went to church like once every once in a while.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

I prefer the trailer park wiccans to the upper crest.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

It was just like I was so confused on what was going on, and there was so much, and there's the obviously the Christian people as well, but it was just like this very confusing conglomeration of like all these different things. Once again, a lot of brokenness, but also a lot of just life. Everyone has brokenness. And so, with that, when I came to know Jesus, there was always a part of me that I felt like when I finally, I don't know, made that decision to know that oh, Jesus has been with this whole time and this is how there's so much humor in this. But you're right, a lot of people don't like to laugh or poke fun at fun in it because they're like, it's a holy thing and you cannot laugh. And I'm like, laughter is holy. Are we kidding ourselves right now? Like, you don't think there's sometimes John was saying the other day, I don't remember what it was about, like thinking about what Jesus was thinking in moments. Like some moments when he just kind of walked away for a minute. I'm like, you know, that joker was probably like, and you just have to laugh. It's like when your kids do something really silly and they say something that's actually funny, but you're like, I don't need to laugh at that. So you just have to walk away for a second and go, if I encourage this behavior, Souza will forever do that. But that's my daughter's name. But you know, whatever. But all long story short, I grew up like that and finally I told somebody, his name's Clay Dempsey, he's the Dothan Performing Arts Director. I was like, hey, I just want to do this, I want to try. And then he called me one day, like two months later, and was like, Hey, do you want to open for this girl? So it went backwards. I was not supposed to be able to do that. I should have gone to multiple open mic nights and done that stuff before I got this opportunity. Opportunity happened, apparently. It sold a lot of tickets from like my side of things and obviously her side of things. And I was given the opportunity. I did it. I came off stage and he was like, Hey, you want your own show? And I was like, What? And so that's how it happened. And so I'm excited. There's a couple other things coming up. Like this coming Tuesday, I'm doing the Houston County DHR has a annual foster parent dinner, and they asked me to come do comedy for a few minutes, and I'm like, I wasn't in foster care. Like, I make a lot of jokes, but I kind of skirted the system, so I don't know. Like, should I go up there and be like, I should have been foster care, but I wasn't. So here we are. Like, I don't know, but not really. But it was just there's that kind of opportunity, and now I'm going to Colorado to a place called Fort Collins.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

I don't know if you've ever heard of that to do someone's like employee retreat. And I'm like, how is all of this happening? And I know it's the Lord, and it's just so exciting that like it's happening. I'm 32 and it happened at the right time.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

Oh, I know. Uh, there's a term that we throw around, it's kind of an old world term. I feel like it's I'm I'm sad that it fell out of favor. I wish it would get a comeback, but the term is providence, and it's an old world term that people m use to mean divine intervention through seemingly natural processes to achieve redemptive results. And it gets used in a lot of the documents related to America's founding. You see it in old letters, but everyone understood that providence is I can't quite see exactly the miraculous finger of God holding the button down on this, but it's obvious to me the way in which events have been arranged, where this redemptive results have come about. And so as the as the events occur, you're like, I can't this, I can't take credit for all this. Correct. I mean, it's obviously some God is working something in some manner that I can't claim remotely having orchestrated this for myself. Yeah, that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Yeah, and you asked how my sets come about. So the first time I every time I'm telling a story about something and someone's like, Oh, that's funny, I'm like, I'll just write it down. So I didn't practice that one night until the day before. And all I practiced was my transitions.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

And somehow it worked. And I was like, okay, because when I try to memorize the entire thing, it doesn't work. I start stuttering on my words, it gets weird. I'm trying to force something, but when I'm just getting up there and storytelling, it's so much easier. And people will be like, hey, I have a joke for you to tell. And I'm like, hey, all my jokes are just random stuff that happens to me. It has to be authentic to me. I can't tell your joke, which you can, because I'm trying to start an open mic night in Dothan. Have a meeting about that today. And so I think that people I love hearing other people's stories too. So it's just getting up there, telling stories, and just going for it. I probably should prepare more.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Well, well, I mean But I don't. Well, it there's you'll find that. I mean, anything you really want to do well requires some measure of honing.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

And and because I myself have never lost the preaching jitters. Just because any given time at the pulpit is like, oh my gosh. I mean, John Mullaney once described the homily as a combination of a book report and stand-up. And so I love John Mullaney. But but nevertheless, even though that should you should get used to that, I haven't.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

No.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

And it makes me I know, my gosh. And and so as a result, there are ways in which you practice to try to get a little bit better. Just because it's natural doesn't mean it doesn't need improvement.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

And so you'll practice those transitions, and you'll hone it down to a fine art. And you're getting where it seems very everyone else is going, Boy, she seems to do this so effortlessly.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

No, yeah, I'm about to shake out of when I went up right before the last time, I almost started crying. I was like, I can't do this. And I was like, but I have to. And then I just stepped out and I was like, hey everybody. I was like, whether or not I show how nervous I am or not, it I don't I don't know what I was about to go there. But I just basically was like, you can either be nervous and ruin this or you can try. And I just went out and tried and it worked out. So I was thankful. I did, I will say, like, way my brain works, I have ADHD. I've had it, like I'm one of the OGs. I've had it since before Doph and Behavioral was over here by I do my AD in HD.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

See, see, so you understand a little bit. But like either I have this, so cop like writing it down and working on it and thinking through it a lot, and then practicing the transitions like a week before is helpful to me because it's free-flowing enough that new stuff can come in, but it's also like just repetition. I couldn't do what I did again right after it. It's like dump like learning a lot for a test and then dumping it and then walking away is what happens. So I'm gonna work on that. But it's it worked out.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

Well, there are aspects I mean that you'll work on and you'll try to hone, but I there are things that I've still always struggled with, and seemingly it's never improved.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

I don't know. I'm sure this is what Paul's thorn in the flesh was. He was like this thing. Right. I probably have the same thing. I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Ma'am. But it it's I I always I've never been able to slow down talking. I've even put little turtle icons on the edge of my on my on my on the edge of my you know sermon, you know, like slow down, buddy. But I still my my my I was referred to one time as the audio equivalent of fine print.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

You know, the audio equivalent of fine print.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Like you somehow my preaching, my preaching is somehow the you know, the the lottery disclaimer that the end of the commercial. Yeah, and like, no, I'm trying to slow down, and I've never been able to overcome that, though I keep working on it. Right. And you'll find those things you're like, I'm still working on this. It's even after years of being on stage.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Yeah, I think I I started using, I started trying to move my hands a lot, but I realized if I go back and watch it in full speed, I just kind of did this. Like I was like doing like that Rasputin dance from just dance. I just kept going like this, and I'm like, what was I doing? I didn't even fully grab my arm. I don't know, it was like a nervous tick. And so I'm like, I want to get better control of my arms.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

Well, you're trying to keep a clean re you're trying to keep a clean uh set, but you were sign languaging some profanity. I was sign language. There was a little bit going on here.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

I don't know what was happening. Yeah, it was really funny because the the some deaf person's gonna.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Right, you right, and they're gonna be like, would you realize what you were saying?

SPEAKER_00 22:03

No, I don't know. I was just going for it. And I like grabbed my arm back here and go like this, and I was like, was I hugging myself or something? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

COVID was great for that. COVID was the first time we saw all sorts of people giving health health officials giving in television announcing announcements with the sign language person there on the screen. Right. And we all ignored the person that was talking and just watched the sign language version. It was so cool. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

I love watching it.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Right. And some of them where it gets expressions or facial expressions, their gestures at the language. You get some popcorn out, you just watch that. It's wonderful. It's greatness. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

So the part of the with one of the family or like John and Brandy who took me in, Auntie Donna, who is John's aunt, is deaf and hard of hearing. And her daughter goes through and I watch her because when they're communicating, she'll translate for us. But I'll just get so stuck on watching Elisa. I'm just like, this is so cool that I'm like, I'm in a conversation. And so it's a it's a whole thing. But I just love being around them because it's like a whole different way. I tried, I should have done ASL in college because I had to do like some sort of language instead of failing Spanish four times because we got a conjugation, which I don't know if you know what that is of verbs. Yeah, it's more. But basically, it's like where like I don't, rubber meets the road and I just failed every time. And I should have just switched.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

I tried ASL and I felt like I always had the same speech impediment.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Did you grab your arms like that?

SPEAKER_02 23:20

I just somewhere along the line, my fingers and hands were just not in the right place, and it just came across as a visual learning disability.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Right. You were like, I just can't get it.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

I can't.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

No.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

Oh, it's my feet.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

It works.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

So your set's comprised of a lot of personal stories.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

A lot of personal stories, yeah. Things. The last set, I don't know, I probably should have sent it to you before this. Well, I don't know. I told a story about being on a plane and getting food poisoning. And you saw that. You did. Okay, great. I crabbed my pants and sent thousands. And people were like, hey, can you come and do this? But can you not tell that story? I'm like, it was one time, okay? I'm not gonna tell it again, but it's worth it because it made people laugh. But also, I don't I don't want to go around. Somebody came up to me after the show and he was like, That bit you wrote about the plane was really funny. And I said, Yeah, that was real life, sir. And he was like, What? And I was like, That was real life. Who makes it who makes up the fact that they crapped their pants on a plane? Not me. I'm not gonna make it up. It's not a fun thing. Oh reality.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

No, I and well, and I have stories like that, but I mean, of course, I always have to be I always have to weigh that against the self-image that I really want to project to other people because I my ego is way too fragile. And so I I really don't want to share things of that level of detail.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

I share way too much.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

I know. I mean, but unfortunately, though, I did share the story one time about why eventually uh there was a time when I was not in better shape. Sure. And so what was the catalyst to try to get in the shape? It was the time I shot a button off in the middle of church. And no, I'm not oh so here's the I'm I'm not making this up. So I'm at the church in Katie, Katie, Texas, and I wasn't the priest, I was assisting him as a deacon. But I there was this moment where you know Anglican worship, but in Catholic worship is very calisthetic. You're kneeling, you're standing, you're sitting, and so forth. And you just it's you keep the calisthetics up to make sure everyone stays awake. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

Yeah, but point is that there was a moment when I was kneeling, I was kneeling next to the altar where the priest was preparing everything, and I felt in the front of my robe like this little something hit the front of my robe. I'm like, oh no, I've just shot. Oh gosh. And I know what's gonna happen when I stand up because when I stood up, that the moment I stood up, the button came out from underneath the robe and it was and it rolled across the tile, all the way across the stake. It was loud too.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

I was hoping it was carpet.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Oh, no, no, no, it was a tile rolled all the way over across across the the whole chancel, over by the rail where people were gonna be kneeling in a moment to take communion. I'm like, oh no, that was God going, dude, you gotta and so silly so you know no, that's the thing. Like people go, you that did not happen. Absolutely, 100%, right? Because God will have none of this, you know, inflated self-image thing.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

It just somewhere along the line, he saw, he looked, he saw you and went, You have you think rather highly of yourself. We'll have none of that.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

It's fine, crap yourself off me. No, I'm just kidding. That's just what it felt like. I was like, that was a little humbling.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

I know, right?

SPEAKER_00 26:13

But yeah, it's not taking ourselves too seriously. It's like there was this famous TikTok audio that went viral like maybe a year ago, and the girl says, You know what? It never was that serious. And I listened to that and just kept saying it because I'm like, you know what? It's not that serious. It's not that serious. There's some things that are serious, but I don't need to take myself so seriously because during COVID, I got so stressed out because I my growing up, my family would always talk about the world ending. I don't know why. They love to talk about it. I was like, this is the worst. They had a heavy distrust of the government, which was very confusing because we were on WIC, and I'm like, you we're taking from both things. It's fine, though, do what you need. But like we did this, and like they would talk about it. So when COVID happened, I went, This is it. Half my face went numb. And so for six months, I walked around like this because I was so stressed out. And I was like, I'm fine, I'm fine. And I come into the office.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

So you just like had just come from the dentist for like six months?

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Yes, what it looked like with the Nova Kane thing, right? It was just, and they're like, it's not Bell's posy. Is it stress? And I was like, I'm not stressed, who cares? And my friend Kenny, every time I walk into the building, he would play that song I by the weekend called I Can't Fill My Face Wrong With You. Yeah, okay, Kenny. So if you're listening, this is for you. And I got so mad. I was like, how could you do this to me? It's so disrespectful. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. And then one day I just went, you know what? This is kind of funny. I was like, but he's a great example of someone that like during that time, he's my husband's best friend, like they grew up together and all that, so they were really good friends at that time, too. And so it's funny because with me and him, he's always with me when I'm at the my most like I could just freak out over nothing. He'll say something funny or do like a roast or something, and I I have to choose in that moment is he being funny or am I about to get offended over what he's saying? And then choosing offense over like laughing with him. Now at this point in my life, I've choose funny with him way more often because he is funny. It is, he knows how to break the ice with humor. Right. But the offense, oh my gosh, during 2020, we were about to fight, fist fight at one point. When he played that song, I was like, Who does he get? And I was looking, I looked in the mirror and I said, Okay, he kind of got me. Like, I can't feel my face.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Just earlier this morning, we were Thomas and I were talking about tracking the absurdities through the Bible and the way in which the humor seems to leap off the page.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

And all the different episodes that if I'm making a movie of that shot, the it's gonna play. It's gonna play very well, it's gonna have full comedic value. Sure. And that's something that's sorely lacking from many who just the the stuff shirts who decided that somehow, you know, genuine reverent piety required having no losing their sense of humor. People can lose their senses. Um the the COVID people are losing sense of smell, sometimes you're losing sense of taste. People can lose a sense of humor.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

And as a result, it's just all the colors of the life just seem to kind of fade to fade to gray.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

It's true.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

So that's why that's why it's so necessary. Now, I try not to keep some of those jokes out of our liturgical moments. Right. But I'm trying to kind of like, you know, connect.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

There's appropriate time for jokes in certain things. It really are, right?

SPEAKER_02 29:20

But even then, even then, in those in those reverential moments when I'm really trying to execute things as I ought as they ought to go, there they're even then, there seems those moments where God goes, You're taking yourself pretty seriously right now, and we'll have none of that. And I've thrown the body of Christ spread across the the you know, across the altar before going, Oh my gosh. And you know that's like a capital offense. Yes, in many ways.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

I we went to some when we were going to the Catholic church when I was younger, they would pick or they my aunt would go help and she would clean up.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

And I didn't know why the why one of the ladies that was there would kneel down. And the church is beautiful, they were all very nice people. I was a kid, and so I didn't know that number one, my volume mattered, and my questions were not always required. And so every time this lady would stop and she would kneel in front of this golden like thing, I was like, why is she doing that? And my aunt was like, shut. And she explained it to me, but like, even kids, like I feel like kids haven't lost that sense of not wonder, but also laughing at things. But it's like this transition of like putting away childish things, and it just becomes this, you're right.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

No, my my daughter is has that sense of humor too. I love that. She and I one of the things I absolutely tried to cultivate and loved in her is just the ability to ask questions at the wrong moment with the right in in the right tone. And so I'm like, Oh, sweepy. Oh gosh, you're killing me. However, I'm proud of you.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Yeah, I'm glad you're asking questions.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

No, no, she had just and sometimes that biting wit that I would you want to have that kind of cultivation. Yeah. Like, oh, we gotta corral that. How are we gonna corral this somewhere?

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Right.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

I mean, we would we would we we were we talk movies a lot, and so uh she was asked one time, honey, um you know, she was asked by someone who was older, honey, have you seen the movie God's Not Dead? I have not, you know, and they'd ask her, well, because you know, a certain Christian movies wind up being like our somewhat like orthodox icons. If you don't kiss the DVD cover, we're not sure you're safe. Correct. And so the so they ask her, Are you seeing God's Not Dead? And if she says no, she knows that the old ladies are going to be praying for her soul.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

And so she's like, so but again, that humor is not quite corralled yet. So they'd say, Have you seen God's Not Dead? And she says, Uh, oh, is that the one where the underdog has to maintain their conviction against institutional pressure? Yes, honey. Oh, I think I saw that one, but the one I saw was called Captain America Winter Soldier. Right away, like stopped that sort of thing. No, you're killing me here.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

You're killing me. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

But no, that that quick without absolutely necessary. Yeah, she got she has that legacy from my sister. She, my my sister was also like that. The one who is the one in the family is perfectly willing to point out the obvious thing that no one else will say. And so everyone has to have that person in their family to crack to crack the relief valve open.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

It's fantastic. It's true. That's so funny.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

So does your husband ever go, Oh, are you gonna tell that story?

SPEAKER_00 32:14

He goes, That's gonna be in it, isn't it? That's that's actual words, that's gonna be in it. And I don't know if he knows what it means in that, but he's like, is that gonna be in it? And he's like, Okay, he's fully c like fine with me just I think if my like language came off a lot more shamey, because this is very important to me. Okay, I wanna be I I not wanna be. I love being funny, I love making people laugh. I will not do it at the expense of making someone feel like they're stupid.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

I won't do it because as much as it's like, oh, that's not that big of a deal, it is to me. I don't like it.

SPEAKER_02 32:47

No one ever tells you as big a no one tell ever tells you how big a deal it was to them.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

Oh my gosh, they never do. And I remember I'm not trying to be like overly sensitive because I think there's a part of comedy that you can talk about stuff that you normally can't talk about. That's these famous comedians in the past that can say things and they make you think and you go, Hold on just a second. I get what they're saying right now. And so, but for me, I think he trusts me, which is great. Other people in my life don't trust me. So when my comedy skip was coming, they found out that I was gonna be on the I had people reach out and go, Hey, so like what are you gonna talk about? I'm like, not you. Like, I would tell you if I was gonna make a joke that had you in. I would never just like throw someone's like Thomas out in the I mean, I like Thomas. There's been a lot of bad. Right. I'm gonna tell you before I say something, but yeah, I just love it.

SPEAKER_02 33:32

Well, a lot of pastors learn the hard way, how much your family members didn't care to be your illustration.

SPEAKER_00 33:39

Right.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

And they secretly weren't really appreciating how much they were advancing your career.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Right.

SPEAKER_02 33:46

Their embarrassing moment was your perfect opportunity to expound Ephesians. Yes, and they they and you and a lot of them find out the hard way, how much that really was kind of building over time.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Yeah. John's always done really good with that. I keep mentioning John, John Dowdy, because he's they're my family. And so I think about I wasn't a pastor's kid, right? But when I was 15, John and Brandy took a kid. You weren't a pastor's kid? I right sheltered life. Sheltered life. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

But that's where it goes. It goes, it goes literally goes pastor kid, and then you you graduate up to graduate up to Trailer Park Wiccan. Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

So there's a stepping stone. But with Tyler, he when he was younger, he's like, if I'm gonna tell a story, Tyler, I'm gonna give you money. And Tyler was like, I'm game. And so every time John would tell a story about Tyler, Tyler was like, That'll be 10 bucks. So he was racking it in, like he wasn't worried about it. But as he got older, John stopped telling those stories as much because Tyler's a grown person now, right? And he so he was really respectful of that. But I've heard some sermons before where I'm like from people where I'm like, You did not just say that about them, and they're like, and like they'll pan to the kid and it's horrifying for them. And I'm like, oh no, not using them as an example. So I don't do that to Jake.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

Sometimes you can get away with this so long as the self-deprecating. Right, yeah. As long as you know, because you give them ten dollars, right? Right. I mean, my wife is from the Philippines, and so every now and then that will come up, but typically it's a fish out of water story about me in the Philippines, right? You know, because I go there and I I don't blend in very well. Sure. I'm a full foot taller than the rest of the population of the country.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

Yeah, and uh you are tall. When I walked in, I was like looking at the doors, and then I saw you and I was like, He's tall.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

Yeah, hit your head on a few things, you won't be it. It's not so awesome.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

But uh the um, but no, we go there, and literally I'm like, I want to blend in with the crowd. She's like, I you don't blend in with the crowd, you stand out like a sore thumb. And quite frankly, I I it's not really complimentary to me to be walking next to Indiana Jones everywhere we go.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Right.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

So my gosh. So I'm like, I hear you, I got you.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

So mom loves Indiana Jones. Uh the what is the Crystal Skull movie?

SPEAKER_02 35:45

I only acknowledge the trilogy. Oh the original trilogy as some because my pre-ministry career was as an archaeologist.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

So not Harris and Ford.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

No, no, no, no, no, no. Is he on the other ones? The first three, the first three are yeah, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple Doom, and Last Crusade.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Right.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

And then somewhere along the line, the creators kind of smoke the wrong thing, and the Crystal Skull The Crystal Skull. Crystal Skull, and then something else later on came off. But really, it was a good trilogy, it just needs to stay there. And it was very inspirational because as a 12-year-old kid, I saw that movie like 12 times in the theater. Right. And so for many years, so actually I've been a priest for a little over a year now.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

My pre-priest career was as an archaeologist.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

That's cool. So like in uh, well, I guess in Indiana Jones. I'm trying to think about any other movie. The Mummy, wasn't he an archaeologist?

SPEAKER_02 36:33

They were, yeah, they were treasure hunters. Brenda Fanger, Brenda Frazier. I mean, that's still a fun one. It's sure. It's a it's a it's a blast. But uh yeah, I I I excavated in at sites in in Central and South America and then around Florida as well.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

Well, what parts of Florida?

SPEAKER_02 36:48

Oh uh well, I was I worked for an environmental engineering company that had me doing the cultural resource management work for any for new cell towers that were going any new construction of the panhandle to Miami.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

So all over the place. My husband's family lives in Ocala, and his brother lives in Orlando, and then I lived in the panhandle, which is what we lived in. We traveled often. It's funny, we lived with different people, but we I lived in Vernon, Florida, which they weren't putting up cell towers there. You wouldn't know about Vernon.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

So, no, I mean the panhandle is wonderful. I just didn't realize how much the northern Florida is southern Alabama. It is because that's just culturally, you just this extends to the coast. Yeah, but no, I was all over Florida, saw everything, and it was just it's it was fun. But people made fun of me because they're like, seriously, why do you carry a whip into the field? I'm like, because of wildlife that gets curious about your dig.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Straight.

SPEAKER_02 37:38

So sometimes a lot of gators, some snakes, and so forth. That was that was interesting.

SPEAKER_00 37:42

I can imagine the snakes. That's terrifying to me.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

Some uh the largest rattlesnake I've ever seen was near Talliasi.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

Side note, I saw this TV show being advertised earlier. It's on E what is the one? It's on some tele like some like actual television. And it's basically like, you know, people who what are the people called that go into people's houses and then they just know you invite them to dog sit and they never leave, and it's an issue.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

Oh, it's squatters, squatters.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

And so I don't know why I'm telling you this. You probably want to cut this out, but here we are. And that they went in and then the guy, they like are going in, and their job is to help get these people out of the house. Okay, and so the guy went in, and I believe he brought in an archaeologist or something, and this other person who brought snakes into the house because the lady was scared, so they had a big tank of snakes and they just sat there and she ended up leaving, and that's just people's job, it's just to go into people's house and get them out. So that's made me think of the snakes for some time.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

So, no, so that's triggering. Why did you bring that up? Because you said snakes and I got scared. That's the last snake I've seen. No, no, I'm regressing right now. You shouldn't have done that because I, when my kids were very little, there was I would remember I we were in a house in Northern California and I was laying in bed and you can hear something scratching inside the walls. Like, what's the mice inside the walls? Oh my gosh. And literally praying, literally laying there and going, God, could you do something about that mouse in the wall? And then, and then literally you're praying, God could do something about that mouse in the wall. I'm not being able to sleep very well. After a while, you don't hear the mouse and the scratching in the wall anymore. And you're like, that's awesome. I'm God did something with the mouse. He did. That's fantastic. You never know how you're going. General prayers get prayed get answered generally, and specific prayers get answered specifically. And so when you pray, God, please do something about the mouse in the wall. Well, there you go. So a couple, so a couple of weeks, you know, about a couple days later, or I'm in the kitchen getting ready, breakfast ready, and my kid's mom opens up a drawer and there is a coiled king snake in the drawer of the kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

No way.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

I'm not, I wouldn't joke about a thing like this.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

That's terrifying.

SPEAKER_02 39:40

No, so so we figured out how God got got dealt with the mouse in the in the wall. And so getting the snake out of the kitchen was a comedy of errors all in and of itself.

SPEAKER_00 39:49

Yeah, I would have called the police. Well, no one wants your snake there is a snake.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

Turns out there aren't pest control people that will come deal with the snake. We had to do it ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 39:56

Really? In Dothan there are. There's a guy, I don't know if he can come and we used to know a guy, Thomas and I knew a guy named Wis, and I believe that that was his job. But there's another guy that goes around and he'll come get wildlife like a hawk out of your backyard or something.

SPEAKER_01 40:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:10

I don't know. It's not my job. Wildlife removal is what it's called. Or my pest control people actually told me, Redmond's pest control. They were like, yeah, at the golf course, we have to go remove alligators sometimes and put them in a different place. Never. I would never do that job.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

That's that's gotta be that's gotta be interesting.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

Yeah, just golf over it. It's terrifying.

SPEAKER_02 40:29

Well, I and I do see the alligators out at the golf course, but I mean, I and I've been wanting to I I don't know if you play golf or not at all, but I've been trying to get people to you know play golf with me because I I have to invent my own rules in order to keep it fun.

SPEAKER_00 40:42

I know a guy who will play golf with you, but it's just according to my rule, my rules keep it fun.

SPEAKER_02 40:47

I'm not, I I do not I mean I don't know if he he makes it like he's not good or not.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

Are you good at golf?

SPEAKER_02 40:52

No, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_00 40:53

See, he says that too, but I think that means you guys are good.

SPEAKER_02 40:56

No, no, no, I always say people people say, Well, how did it go? I'm like, I broke even. I found as many balls as I lost. Or or someone says, Yeah, well, what was your score? I'm like, I don't focus on the past, I don't think you should either.

SPEAKER_00 41:09

No, I'll play mini golf, but there's alligators and snakes there. There's you're gonna die, clown.

SPEAKER_02 41:13

So there you go, see, right? No, that's real that's helpful. So I'm so I'm excited. So June 13th. June 13th. Is your is your Dothan Opera House?

SPEAKER_00 41:23

It's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_02 41:24

That's gonna be it's gonna be a blast.

SPEAKER_00 41:26

Yeah, so somehow it's already sold tickets. That was surprising. I was like, and then people will just be coming at me randomly, like, hey, I got your tickets to your show, and I'm like, I cannot believe you're buying tickets to come hear me talk. It's just it's like what in the world? I'm excited.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

So, I mean, and prior to this, though, you've been in front of crowds. Have you had to interact do crowds interaction? How spontaneous have you had to be?

SPEAKER_00 41:48

So I'm very spontaneous because of ADHD, but there's a conference we do called Courage Conference for Women. It's for anybody that wants to come. And I host it and I do a session at it most of the time. So Courage Conference. And when I do that, it's a lot of interaction with the women in the room. And that's honestly was my first chance. So Brandy is the one who gave me the chance to do that, and so I learned the crowd work thing and the telling of the jokes and kind of like sensing what's in front of you. I've not done like really up close crowd work because on the opera house stage, I couldn't see. I don't know if it's because I blacked out because I was so nervous. I don't remember going up there, but I did. But looking down at people, I couldn't see anybody's faces because of the lights. So I'm hoping to do a little bit more crowd work. We'll see what happens. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 42:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

If I can see or if I don't get so nervous that I just fall off the stage. I don't know. Apparently, I made a joke about Adam Sandler and I watched back and I was like, oh, I didn't even know I did that. It's fine. Thomas was there. He would know.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

As long as they keep a little padding down in the orchestra pit, then you'll be fine.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

It'll be fine. And there's no padding, it's just straight stairs and floor.

SPEAKER_02 42:48

I know. I would require it.

SPEAKER_00 42:49

I'd go viral if I just passed out. I'd probably go more viral from just passing out and falling and breaking my arm than I would to having a good sit.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

That's why people ask me, How did church go? I'm I my response always is minimal injuries.

SPEAKER_00 43:01

Minimal injuries.

SPEAKER_02 43:03

So but because there are ways in which you could get noticed more, but it didn't accomplish why you were there.

SPEAKER_00 43:07

Right. People ask me too, like, how did church go today? And I'm like, it was wonderful. And I don't know what they want me to answer it with. I'm like, it was great, wonderful time. And the thing about you saying not taken too seriously that made me think about this moment too is a few, I don't know if you were there, Thomas, for like the it, I don't think it was the worship night that you came and helped with, but there was they started the music in the background, or however it works. My husband's the music like person with like a few other people, so I don't know exactly how it works. Basically, everything got off track, it was rough, and like they were getting into it, and they were probably like 30 seconds into it, and Calen was like, Hold on, everybody. Okay, that did not go well. We're just gonna start over. And that spoke to so many people because it was like we're not taking it that seriously. If it's off and like we're trying to figure it out, we'll just stop and start again. And it's like not that it's not it is not that serious, it's just I don't know. I appreciate that about the culture of the people that I surround myself with. Because Caitlin and Jackie, his wife, are some of our really good friends. And he's someone that just be like, hold on, let's just restart it. It's not that big of a deal.

SPEAKER_02 44:06

I've done that too. Where it's like you start off on the wrong foot and it totally goes off the rails. Yeah, just start it over. That's why I've I've mentioned it before, because we have acolytes and helpers, people that assist with that and assist with our worship. And there's it's always heartening to see that out of reverence, very persnickety about getting it right.

SPEAKER_01 44:25

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

And I'm great, that is the right attitude to have. But then when something goes wrong, I'll seem like, My gosh, what did I do?

SPEAKER_01 44:31

Right.

SPEAKER_02 44:31

And I always say, remember, for reasons which seem good to him, God has humans do this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

Right.

SPEAKER_02 44:37

If you want a perfection, he'd stuck with angels.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

Straight up.

SPEAKER_02 44:40

But and I have to remember that because of the time. I remember at another church where I was serving as the deacon, again, kind of calisthetic. You're standing, you're standing, you're kneeling, and so forth. And I was kneeling. We have you some of our furniture is that you kneel and you can have it's the kneeler. And so, like this one here. And so you kneel for prayer.

SPEAKER_00 45:00

Oh, yeah, I remember those things.

SPEAKER_02 45:01

They just kind of like right.

SPEAKER_00 45:03

I don't know why I'm doing that motion. They just okay, great.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

Well, the kneelers, of course, didn't kneel on it on the pad. You can place your book there, place your Bible there. Anyway, so they had one of those right upon the altar next to the altar. That's where the assistant could kneel when the priest is giving his praying. And the corner of my robe, of course, cut the edge of the furniture. And so when I stood up rather enthusiastically, during the quiet moment, quiet reverential moment when you're supposed to transition into something more sacred than even the rest of the service, caught a corner of my robe, cut the piece of the furniture, and I launched it, Jerry Springer style across the altar. And it's like a biggest ruckus that you could think of, and literally it's something out of Geraldo where the cherry goes flying. Yes. Completely shatters the whole reverence of the moment. And so I always assure people that are assisting me with that, and they say, Oh, I feel like I was off a little bit. And like, brother, you do not know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 45:58

That is such a good reminder that you said. I'm gonna remember that. I get a recording of this, I can watch it later. Okay, great. Absolutely. If he wanted perfection, it would not be us doing it. That is so true.

SPEAKER_02 46:08

Somewhere along the line, the human worship is to God more valuable than perfect worship.

SPEAKER_00 46:14

Right.

SPEAKER_02 46:15

Yeah, that's it's to us to pursue reverence and out of that respect and reverence and honor and love, want to get it right. That's our attitude. Yeah, but it seems as though he prefers human worship to perfect worship.

SPEAKER_00 46:27

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 46:28

And so that's why we, you know, humans do these things.

SPEAKER_00 46:31

That's why I can't sing, but I be singing, you know what I'm saying? We're not all Thomas.

SPEAKER_02 46:35

Well, no, I mean, no, no, but there's there's some limits to that. I'm constantly kind of admonishing our our congregation. Please sing louder. Come on, but please sing louder to drown me out. To drown me. Because to the extent you can hear my voice, it's not the best is as good as it would be. No, I think that it would be far better if people could hear me less. Right. Especially with regard to singing, because it does come across as you know, kind of a slow death.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

I just heard I just found out at our church there's crowd mics for the singers because they have ears in. And I was like, what do you mean there's crowd mics? And they're like, Oh, we can hear you because I sit on the front row because it's my job to go around and do whatever. And I said, Did you know there are crowd mics, Thomas? Jake says, Yeah, there's crowd mics, but don't worry, I have them turned completely down. And I was like, What? But all the front people can hear me just and I was like, This is the most horrifying thing ever. Why do we have crowd mics? They're like, because we want to be apart. And I'm like, I'm not sitting there. Can you like tune me out specifically? But this whole time I thought I'd just been really quiet. I know I could hear me, but apparently I'm just belting. They're like, oh yeah, we can really hear you. And I'm like, what does that mean? Really hear me at so much.

SPEAKER_02 47:40

Oh, I know. And and and I think I and sometimes in my quiet in my alone moments it's weird because I think I sound okay, I think I you know, I sound okay. I'm right, and then you get the right, and then you get the right recording, and I sound na like a nasal 12-year-old. And it's something really weird, like this is this pre-pubescent weird boy that decided he needed to preach that day, which is just something that is just not complimentary at all. I mean, and we and we all think we can sound okay, but karaoke tells the truth.

SPEAKER_01 48:06

It's true. And so I don't do karaoke.

SPEAKER_02 48:09

You're looking at the only white boy who beat a room full of Asians at karaoke. Okay, great. And I was when my I love that. When my wife and I were getting acquainted. And my go-to, my go-to to hit the high score each time was Bohemian Rhapsody.

unknown 48:21

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 48:22

What is it? Do you you've never seen this show, probably. I don't know if y'all have seen King of the Hill.

SPEAKER_01 48:25

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

Okay, I love King of the Hill. Isn't it Khan who is Laotian, but he he does comedy and it's like a huge deal, and he like gives his whole life to it. And then I think the machine gets turned off and he realized he can't sing at all. I don't know, that would be devastating. Because I think some people have mics. Even at some churches, I think they have mics that help like autocorrect. And I was like, Can I get one of those, Jake? I could be on the worst. I want a silent Mariah Carey in this mic for they have T Pain ones, but I want Mariah Carey. I don't want T Pain.

SPEAKER_02 48:54

I know. Well, it's like, well, that's why I resisted like the you know, videotaping. Are you people say, 'Are you streaming your service?' Like, I've resisted that because the temptation will be, wait a second, is it getting my good side? That uh that camera angle made my nose look too big. Thomas, get this in post. I want to make sure I want to look better.

SPEAKER_00 49:11

In post. Thomas and Jake, my husband really don't like when I say that because we'll be filming people for different things. I'm like, we could just edit that in post, and you just see their faces go, no, we can't.

SPEAKER_02 49:20

You know, we can't. It's right, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 49:22

It's fine.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

Whatever.

SPEAKER_00 49:24

But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:25

Thank you so much for coming in and joining us. This is a real pleasure, and I just wanted to find out about your routine, what you've got coming up, and just the story about how it got to this place. I mean, that's fantastic. And I just think that in especially a Christian developing a clean set that people will enjoy. Yeah. I mean, that's it's not that abundant.

SPEAKER_00 49:47

Right.

SPEAKER_02 49:47

And we need more of it.

SPEAKER_00 49:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:49

So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 49:50

Thank you. And the last thing I'll say too is I think it's not so because some people, there's clean comedy competitions all the time. And that's just for the sake, normally for them to be like, I can be, I can do a clean comedy set because it's like safe for kids or it's safe for anyone. I think for me, it's the purpose of God created humor to honor him with it. And it like I don't know how to say it, it's his. And so I think that like for me, it's not about being clean because I think that people who do that are just so it's not about that. It's about my personal conviction. So I don't look at other comedians who aren't clean and go, oh, who the heck do they think they are? I'm not doing that. But for me, it's a personal conviction to just know that like I know that like this storytelling can happen and it be in a clean way.

SPEAKER_02 50:34

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's about you know, pain is temporary, internet's forever. And so the It is.

SPEAKER_00 50:41

I told my students like crap my pants, it's never gonna go away. People are like, Yeah, it's just not that still, it's fine.

SPEAKER_02 50:46

Well, and so what happens is though, you you do want to part of having a clean set is you like uh whatever I say potentially is on a loop for someone for a long time. For a long time, and so that's why I will laugh at things that I will not say.

SPEAKER_00 50:59

Right. It's like oh yeah, I'm glad they said it. You know, I mean glad she told everybody she crap their pants because if I did it, I just cry by myself.

SPEAKER_02 51:07

Exactly. Yeah, and so it's like no, no, because now that's recorded as forever. Um, you know, I don't you know really need that to be part of my posterity.

SPEAKER_00 51:14

So thank you, thank you so much. This was fun for me too.

SPEAKER_02 51:17

I really appreciate it. Thank you.