Clean Comedy Chats
Join Drew Davis as he interviews members of the Clean Comedy Collective each week and gets to know each individual better as a person and as a comedian!
Clean Comedy Chats
Zach Williams
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Zach Williams is based out of Nashville, TN and in addition to being a comedian he is a content creator, show producer, and actor. In this interview, Drew and Zach dig deep into the craft of Comedy, joke writing, and social media.
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Welcome back to the Clean Comedy Chats podcast. This is absolutely the first time we did this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, nothing bad happened before this started.
SPEAKER_00Nothing bad happened. Thank you all for coming back. We're here with another Clean Comedy Collective comedian. This is Zach Williams from I guess you can greet.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, hey, what's up, y'all? I'm Zach. As he said, yeah. So good to be here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Uh, we're glad you're here. This uh Zach is also a fellow Nashville comedian. Uh, we were saying the first time, although if you go on the website, cleancomedycollective.com, and you go to Tennessee, you're gonna see him as a Memphis comedian.
SPEAKER_02Uh we're gonna get that updated.
SPEAKER_00We'll update that. Um, but you know, we'll talk about here in a little bit, but like it fits. You kind of you kind of are you still have a foot in both worlds.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, I do feel like sort of transitional right now just because a Memphis is like three hours away, so it's not that difficult to bounce back and forth, which helps, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. But if you're a comedian in the or excuse me, if you're an audience person or someone who likes comedy in Nashville, Zach is someone you could see.
SPEAKER_02You will see me around, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Now, I I was beginning to say this before all the power broke out, and so maybe if it happens again, this is just a curse.
SPEAKER_02Again, I maintain it was just too funny and the system overloaded.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that um I don't claim to have a ton of podcast followers, like people that just love me just because of the the podcast. But if you're a longtime listener of my podcast adventure, this is the episode you've been waiting for.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I like I was saying I feel bad that I don't have the bald cap. Yeah, no one's gonna recognize me without that.
SPEAKER_00They're like, who's this perfectly normal person?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he's not dressed up as Vincent Diesel, so what are we doing here?
SPEAKER_00I love that you called him Vincent Diesel.
SPEAKER_02I don't think anyone's ever I'm I think I I I I think Kyle Canane called him that one time, but yeah. Yeah, no, for sure. But but Vin Diesel, uh yeah, of the Fast and Furious films. That that was the first podcast you had me on. And now, like, I'm I'm glad you had me on this one. I didn't watch a movie to prepare for this, so I don't really know.
SPEAKER_00It's weird.
SPEAKER_02It feels like we're yeah, I don't have a roadmap.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're this is a new territory for you. We we don't talk about movies as much in this podcast. But I'll give you permission if at any point you decide to that we should stop talking about clean comedy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if I black out and just start talking about Fast and Furious, I'll allow it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'll that I honestly would prefer it. I don't know if our listeners would. They probably came here to listen about Clean Comedy or the Clean Comedy Collective or just do you personally, but we'll give the people what they want. Yeah, uh Zach, we're so glad you're here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, good to be here, man. Thanks for having me. This is fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so you we alluded to a little bit ago. Uh you uh were you were living in Memphis, that's where you started your comedy journey, and then you moved here to Nashville. Um, I don't did we ever do comedy in Memphis at the same time? Like, were we ever because I also lived in Memphis for a little bit, well, around Memphis and didn't really I I don't think so.
SPEAKER_02So I got started at like the end of 22, and I think you had already moved on to Nashville, and that's where we first met because I came to the JuicePal mic that you were one of the running that was like the the only clean mic that I was aware of in town. And uh yeah, I met you there. I think I had like maybe seen you before you probably had come to like an early version of the High Cotton Club when we had that going on. Um, so that was like the first time I saw you, but then met you at the JuicePal mic.
SPEAKER_00And I remember uh because you were like, Yeah, I'm a comic from Memphis. So I was just far enough removed from Memphis where I was like, No, you're not, I would have known you already. Like it was very hard for me to process. Yeah. There are people from Memphis that I didn't know.
SPEAKER_02No, that that was definitely like a feeling that I had when I got into comedy in Memphis because there was very much like a crop of comics who came up before I did. And oddly enough, I remember like going to open mics um as a spectator, you know, when I was doing theater, and I would watch those guys perform. And then like once I finally got into comedy, I I kind of had a little bit of a parasocial relationship with those comics because I had seen them perform, but like the longer I spent doing comedy in Memphis, the more I realized, like, yeah, there was there was an old guard of people who had either like gotten out of comedy or they were doing it like still but minimally, right? And like a couple of people who were still sticking to it. Um, and then you know, as as I started to come up, there were people who joined after me. And it's amazing how quickly, like for me, it was like three months into comedy. If someone just started, I was like, Well, you newbie, what are you doing trying to encroach on our territory? Like the the sense of tribalism, it it gets infected really quick.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I find. So you have a theater background and you ended up jumping into com so how did how did how did you get into comedy from theater? And then like why also it might be, and then like do you remember the first time you ever performed, where it was and what it was like? Yeah, I still remember it.
SPEAKER_02Um so yeah, starting with theater, um, I that's what I went to school for, uh, fresh out of high school. I went to the University of Memphis and started pursuing a degree in theater and took a bit of a scenic route getting my degree, um, which means that I I did not get it in four years. Um, but yeah, I did theater around Memphis, uh, ended up working for the Tennessee Shakespeare Company, and then worked with them up until 2018, and then I left theater for a while uh and I started focusing on like building up um online brands and like digital media marketing, that kind of thing, just sort of training myself on a different skill set. And uh then around 2019, I was like, ah, yeah, you know, I kind of want to get back into performing. And I remember I auditioned for uh a play called Measure for Measure, which is a Shakespeare play, but it was being done on like a community theater level, and went in, had a good audition, it was fun, and they cast me in the role that I wanted to play, and uh rehearsals were supposed to start in March of 2020. So that didn't happen. And they were like, Oh, we're gonna do Zoom theater, and it just yeah, that that's the appropriate response. It sounded awful. Like Shakespeare's all about you know, performing live and you know, feeding off an audience, and the whole idea of being like reduced to Zoom performance, it just I I couldn't do it. So I left that, and then I um I worked on social media marketing and sort of like expanding like with different small businesses, helping out uh my family business, getting them set up online, and that turned out to be um very lucrative. But then in 222, that itch sort of came back, and I remember um at the time I was living with my now fiance at the time, girlfriend, and she was having a girls' night. So she was like, Oh, you you gotta get out of the house. So she gave me the option. She was like, I can put your Xbox in the back room, or you can go find something to do. I was like, I'll give you the house. I'm I'm not I'm not gonna just play Red Dead Redemption while y'all do girl talk.
SPEAKER_00It sounds like a good night, though.
SPEAKER_02I mean, like it yeah, in in retrospect, that could have been one of the good days. Um, but no, I I I got out of the house and I I went to the high-tone open mic. Um, and you know, I had I I've I've always been interested in stand-up comedy. I remember listening to like different uh comedians on Pandora, and I grew up, my dad, you know, he exposed me to like uh Sam Kinnison and George Carlin and Eddie Murphy. Um, and you know, I always had an appreciation for stand-up, so I knew it was something I wanted to try. So then when I went to the high tone, you know, I signed up and uh the list got very full very fast because I showed up on time. Don't do that. You you show up early, yeah. You show up early so you can go home on time. And uh yeah, I remember the first time I went up, I I just had like the the worst idea of what I was gonna do. I thought, oh, I'll try a funny accent. And I had this bit about microwaves that I thought was gonna be groundbreaking. I love it. I love it a lot. The whole idea was like, oh, microwaves, you know, why do I have to put time on them? Why are the microwaves moving in on the calendars game or the clocks game or whatever? Still terrible to this day. I've never tried to revive it. But uh yeah, I remember I went on stage and I'm doing the bit, and I just like I look up and the whole audience is just staring at me. And I the comic who had gone on before me was Richard Douglas Jones.
SPEAKER_00He's good.
SPEAKER_02He he yeah, he's dynamite, and he he I remember distinctly him fighting with the host because he was having such a good set, like arguing with him. Like, I'm not getting off this stage, I'm I'm giving these people what they came to see. So finally they get him off the stage.
SPEAKER_00Which, by the way, as much as we love Richard, that is not great open mic etiquette.
SPEAKER_02Like, don't do that. It's not, but he was again, he was doing well, and I I can't argue with that. So, so then the host, uh John Miller, he brings me on stage, and um I'm you know, do doing my terrible attempt at comedy, you know, a very theater kid killer microwave bit. My killer microwave bit. I'm I'm breaking ground, they're just all too stunned with how funny it is to laugh. And I hear from the back of the room, Zach, you're done. It's like three minutes in, I just got off the stage. And uh, yeah, that was my first open mic experience. So I I bombed.
SPEAKER_00So you know what I always I'm always interested by this. Um, what made you be like, let me do that again?
SPEAKER_02Great question. Um funny enough, an another comic who was on the scene, Topher Shaw, um, he he kind of pulled me aside, and I had met him before, like uh going to like um music shows or whatever, and he kind of told me, like, uh, you know, good stuff, uh, try shorter jokes. And he kind of walked me through like if you do like a setup punchline, you know, that that if you can get a laugh in the first 10 seconds, then they know to trust you so that they'll pay attention for the rest of the set. Because if you're not funny, if you know, if if if I'm an audience member and I'm paying attention for 30 seconds and I'm not laughing or I'm not if they're not leading me somewhere, then I'm gonna mentally check out. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00If you're gonna in the first 30 seconds, you could very easily be like, well, this person's not funny, and then you stop listening to the rest of it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So even if you have a great killer joke that takes 45 seconds, maybe put that second in your set. Um, and yeah, once he told me that, you know, it it kind of made me go back to the drawing board and I wrote out some thoughts and tried to get them shorter. I I think uh um yeah, Merritt, my my now fiance, she she actually bought me like an online class for Second City um that was a stand-up class, and that kind of took me through like the basics of joke writing and understanding your perspective and understanding how to like win the audience over, that kind of thing. So once I had that, uh you know, that took about three months. Um, and it was a grind, like the you know, I st I've I still have recordings from some of my early sets, and it's hard to listen to because like it's a lot of silence.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um I always encourage newer comics to like after they do their uh first set, they like post it online, but like as a real and it's like but there's no laughter. I'm like, you could wait a little bit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, wait till there it's a little bit more polished or something. But um, but yeah, once I once I got like the first few laughs and I knew like, oh, this is a joke. This is a joke that I can tell consistently that will get some kind of reaction, it will get some kind of laugh. Then it became like uh an exercise in okay, how do I make it better? How do I make one joke tie into the next? How do I like put together a set? How do I keep them engaged for five minutes? Because the the next hurdle that I found is I would do well, but I would get off stage before the light. And it was like I ran out of things to say, so I I didn't know how to be on stage and like keep the momentum going. So so then it became like, okay, how can I make a full set? How can I make a full five minutes that works consistently? And then from there, you know, it's it's the science of like still to this day. I think every comic still wants to like as soon as you get to one plateau of like, okay, I had them laughing for 20 of 30 seconds, how do I get to 25 of 30 seconds? Um, and you just expand that out and out and out, and then making sure like this joke worked for one room, but it didn't work for this room. Why? You know, right?
SPEAKER_00So so yeah, now that's the most fun, fascinating part about the skill of comedy is like recognizing so many factors go into is it a good routine? Changing things up for different audiences or knowing where to put that joke or what words to cut out or the mannerisms of how to say I mean, yeah, there's just so much.
SPEAKER_02Constant tinkering is is the addictive quality because once you know you can do it, then it's like, okay, how do I do this better? How do I and and you know, also having the freedom to like recognize like maybe my jokes are gonna work, but I might have to like abandon the game plan when I go into this room because they're already a hot room and I just gotta ride that wave for a little bit. And and that's kind of like the place I've gotten to now where a lot of my jokes, I I've written them, I've told them, they have gotten uh consistent laughs, but I'm trying to figure out how do I get to a more playful space where you know, so there's there's comics out there that could read the phone book and people are gonna laugh because they're just entertaining in their mannerisms. And I think like figuring out that playful space for your material is is like the kind of plateau that I'm chasing right now.
SPEAKER_00Right. Someone told me a long time ago, but it stuck is like, you know, you're the entertainment, your jokes are just one of your tools. Like realizing that there is more to it than your written jokes, and um because I I have always I don't know if I'm scripted, but like I feel like I've always I I've never loved crowd work, I've never loved like just trying something off the cuff or whatever. Like I want to say what I'm comfortable in, what I think is funny. Yeah, but um I have over the years gotten a little bit more comfortable with you know, when I see a reaction to something playing into that a little bit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. And I I think like for me, similar to that, I've I've again starting with that theater background, I was so rigid and so scripted in my approach. Like I knew these are the jokes that I say in this order, these are the words that I've spit out to like get a laugh reaction, but getting to a more playful space where you have a roadmap, you have a game plan of what you're trying to get to from beat to beat, but being okay to deviate from that, because one of the phrases that I've I've heard that I love is you don't do you do comedy with people, you don't do comedy at people. Yeah. Because even if you have killer jokes, you know, all throughout your set, if you just continue to just do them by rote and you're just an automaton, like doing joke after joke after joke, eventually the audience realizes like you're not really present up there, you're not with us in the room. So you I there there has to be a balance, I think, between like, okay, here are my jokes, but we're also gonna have fun. And and finding that that nice little mixture. And I think it's different for every comic. Some comics like George Carlin, he was syllable like down to the syllable of scripted and planned. And as an audience member, you just kind of have to strap in and go on the ride. And then there's other comics that are a little bit more interactive, where yeah, if there's an odd laugh in the room or if there's you know a weird reaction, they're gonna play off that. Yeah. Or directly asking, like, what do you do for work? You know, that that's the more raw form of crowd work. So at the end of the day, like whatever's gonna make the room laugh, that's what you want to go for. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I I think a wisdom in in your story that uh comp especially newer comedians or people wanting to try comedy should benefit from is especially when it comes to open mics, like if you if you go up there and you bomb or you have a bad set or you're not satisfied with your set, like go come back next week. Do it again. Like there's nothing there's nothing wrong with bombing at open mics. I mean, it doesn't feel great.
SPEAKER_02No, it doesn't feel good. And like if it's if it's weighing on your mental health, then yeah, you might want to like figure out something else different to do. Um, but yeah, that's what it's for.
SPEAKER_00That's what you're you get better as you go, you know.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Yeah. But yeah, you need to learn to correct the behaviors that are not working, otherwise you're never gonna get better.
SPEAKER_00Because I feel like after you as it so for me, when when I get on stage on an open mic and I try new jokes and I bomb with them, there is a slight success to it because I'm like, okay, so now I know that doesn't work. Yeah. What what do I do to change that? Now there's a different story where someone bombs with the same jokes constantly and they never change it.
SPEAKER_02That and and I've also seen the thing where like I think there's a lot of uh benefit in being able to discern why people are laughing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because sometimes people will laugh because they're uncomfortable. Like it right, you can or a pity laugh. A pity laugh, like, oh, that was bad. Yeah. I'm guilty of that. I for whatever reason I love seeing a train wreck happen at a mic, and I I feel bad.
SPEAKER_00I'm I'm the same way. I don't want you to feel alone in that play.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I like I feel bad because I know I'm laughing, and I don't know sometimes if they can discern, like, oh, that was a right.
SPEAKER_00They'll walk up and I killed that guy over there was laughing. So and it's like we not for the right reason. That's it. That's uh maybe that's an example of laughing at you and not with you, I guess. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I think a lot a lot of people doing comedy, they get very uncomfortable with silence and they they want to have some kind of reaction. So they'll just say something crazy because they know it's going to elicit some kind of response, and even that feels better than just dead silence, you know. So, so like being able to know what you want from them and want them like wanting being very clear about what you want them to laugh at about the joke, that that helps a lot.
SPEAKER_00Um, and then you can gear what you're doing towards that. You can be like, okay, well, if that's what I want, then how do I get there? And then that's that's the whole skill of comedy, which is like you said, addictive and fun and part of the enjoyment of doing it. Yeah. Um, so so we're gonna shift yours a little bit. Um, you I love your social media, I love the videos.
SPEAKER_02I love that's good, because a lot of the people in my comments really seem to hate it.
SPEAKER_00I love reading the hate comments. Uh I I just it's just enjoyable because I love your reactions to it. And like uh, so for and and feel free, uh, I'm gonna have you help me with this. Uh tell them tell them about your social media, where to find you. And and if we we may do this later when we do the official plugs, but like uh that's good context for them. Uh tell us tell us a little bit about um you know what you do on your social, how'd you get into it? And I mean they're very successful. If you'll feel comfortable, let us know your numbers because um, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um so so social media, the the platforms I primarily deal with are TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Um I've posted a little bit on YouTube, but like YouTube Shorts, just because the the videos that I do, they're all under three minutes because after three minutes, uh Instagram will cut it off and you have to do separate reels, and that I don't want to I don't want to deal with that. Um so so I've I've used social media before, and when I before I got into comedy, I sort of studied social media as a marketing platform and how to use social media to get in touch with your audience and find people who are gonna respond to whatever it is you're selling. For me, it's uh jokes and ideas. Um and when I was, I guess it was November of 24, um, I I went to the Memphis Urban Laughs Comedy Festival and run by uh a great woman named Latoya. Yep. And she uh she had one of the like people to come in and speak to everyone who was attending the festival or being a part of it, and I forget her name, I would have to look that up.
SPEAKER_00But I was at that same workshop as you. Yeah, you were there. I remember that.
SPEAKER_02So I'm so so she she gave a whole class basically, lasted about an hour and a half on social media and how to establish your presence. And she like really hammered home the idea of like people are getting uh real legit opportunities off of social media. And I really think that's the medium nowadays, like more than television, more than uh anything else. Like, you know, 20, 30 years ago, I think the goal for comedy, or at least like the the well-worn path, was you do really well, you get booked on a show, maybe you get booked on like the tonight show or something, and then you get like uh a development deal, or you might get a sitcom or some something where you you get to the gate and then you talk to the gatekeepers, and then you're allowed to pass through.
SPEAKER_00And all throughout that you're developing a following.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and and then once you're at a certain level, the the machine will sort of like push you out in front of a certain audience. Nowadays we have that on our phones, and the the gate is uh being on social media and being on the apps that people use. So wherever people are dedicating their attention, that's that's where you gotta be if you want to like climb the ladder. So she she kind of gave us a spiel all about that, and I really took it to heart. I, you know, after that festival was done, I really started to like be consistent about you know, opening up the phone, hit and record, and just saying whatever was on my mind. Of course, this was around uh November of 24, so this was around the election cycle, and I've always grown up admiring like the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and uh the Colbert rapport. So I think uh comedy with uh a political slant to it is not something that I've ever shied away from. Quite the opposite, I find myself more often than not going towards that. So for me, I I I tried to go on social media and work jokes or work ideas in that vehicle. Because sometimes, like and you've experienced this, I'm sure, um, most creatives have when you have an idea, if you work with different disciplines, whether it's music or painting or script writing or joke writing, sometimes you don't know what is the best articulation of that idea. That's right. For me, social media was a new way to articulate ideas that I couldn't really work on stage. It wouldn't, I don't think it would translate as well. Like being a one of the things that I like to do a lot is I'll do like a two-camera angle where I'll literally just switch back and forth between my two hands and it gives the appearance of a dialogue. Um, and that you know allows me to play two sides of a coin about any particular issue, and it uh it's provided like a way for me to again like explore ideas on social media. And you hit post, and you know, it's a roll of the dice every time. You know, sometimes videos they're gonna get 300 views and then stop flat. Other times something really takes off. And with consistency, you know, it's a numbers game. You're going to increase your chances of having something go off. So now, you know, I when I started, I I just used, you know, the Instagram account that I had been running for years. The I think I originally posted like paintings and stuff before I got into comedy and theater. Um I I did that when I started posting like aggressive comedy uh content, it eventually got I think like I don't I don't know what the first big one was, but it I I I take that back. It was a video commenting on the tariffs situation where I literally had like a video with the American flag over, and that was one side, and then the video with the Canadian flag and like them two reacting. And I posted it, didn't really think anything of it, because at that point I had been posting for maybe uh two, three months. And then within a day, like my account grew from like 1,500 followers to like 5,000 followers.
SPEAKER_00That's awesome, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And and that's that's the crazy thing about it. And like, you know, you see like celebrities that have been in movies and they're like resharing your thing and they have millions of followers, so then it just spreads like wildfire. And then from there, that kind of taught me like, okay, like here here's ideas that work, and here's formulas or formats that actually will work with repli replication and duplication. Um, so now I'm sitting at, I think I just crossed over like 41,000 on Instagram, I'm sitting at 25,000 on TikTok and 21,000 on Facebook.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, which is incredible.
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, and I mean I'm sure I'm relative to where I was. That's the other thing, too. Like I said about plateaus, like I I'll I'll run into other comics and they've got 100,000, 800,000 followers. So again, there's always like another mountaintop to achieve, but it like you don't recognize where you're standing until you look back and see where you started.
SPEAKER_00And I think there's something about something I I'm big into like mental health with comedy, like there's not a lot of mental health in comedy. No one's advocating for I've yet to see a therapist comic. So so they well, I'm big when I talk to comedians. Like, I don't think I get on stage and like, hey, this is something we should all talk about. Let's make jokes about it. But like I do think as comedians, we're sometimes our biggest critics. Like, we don't appreciate that you grew in 5,000 followers in one video because you in your head you see what other people have of bigger followings, and you're like, well, that's where I want to be, which is healthy and good to want to get grow.
SPEAKER_02But like it's it's the balance between um your aspirations and being content. Yeah. Because if you're just content all the time, you're not gonna grow. Yeah. But if you're always banging your head against the wall of like, I have to be more, then you won't appreciate where you're where you're at.
SPEAKER_00Right. And then you'll drive yourself crazy, and and um, which is not good. Um I hope people that listen to this appre uh appreciate the amount of work that you put into that, right? Because uh, we hear all the time in in comedy, and you you hear critics or other comedians who feel like they're not where they want to be, and they'll be like, oh, that person just got lucky with social media, or like they but like I've known and I and I used to be someone who's like, Man, I just need to get lucky with I just need one video to take off and whatever. Yeah, but and and there is like you said, there is a degree of luck, there is a rolling the dice, but before you're getting to that point, you're filming the video, you're posting the video, you have a schedule, you have a plan. How often do you post a day, if you don't mind me asking?
SPEAKER_02Um, so right now I'm posting anywhere from two to three times a day. And sometimes, like some days, you know, I posted once today, and I I sometimes you just don't have it, like you don't have like the creative oomph to to to articulate something. Other times there's you don't don't feel like there's anything worth talking about, so you know you take days off, but um it was probably around March of this year I uh I had a video really take off, and it was just after I had gotten monetized on social media, and that that for me was motivation too, like okay, well now I have to post. Well, it's a it's a double-edged sword because on the one hand, yeah, it is a motivator. Like in in uh in the spring of this year, I had one month where I made like 1600 on Facebook and I made another $400 on TikTok. So that was rent. That was rent knocked out for a month. Like that's a great motivator. But on the other hand, you you run the risk like of getting tunnel vision, and you just feel like, oh, I have to post about something. Oh, that video didn't get views. All right, I need to do something crazier in the next video. I need to like, you know, yeah. The the it's very easy to lose sight of the goal, which is to express yourself and hopefully find people who are aligned with your audience in, you know, becoming like a clout chaser. Like I remember when I first saw, you know, that deposit into my bank account from social media posting, I understood clout chasers in a heartbeat because it's like, oh, you you get addicted not only to the attention and the engagement and people reacting to something you said, but there's also a paycheck attached to it. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like you said, that's a rent paycheck. That's fantastic.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And so, you know, if you're not careful, I think it's very easy to like lose yourself into I'm just gonna do whatever's gonna get a reaction, I'm gonna rage bait, I'm gonna do, you know, whatever I can to try to get people to interact with my video. Because in in a lot of ways, social media is geared towards uh virality and people reacting. So if someone's commenting, ah, you suck in the comments, that's engagement. Yeah, you know, and and I think Facebook probably incentivizes that more than someone being like, that was a good video.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02You know, so so you have to be careful in your dance with the machine now, like similar to the gatekeepers of old, you have to be careful with how you interact with this this technology because it's it's it will swallow you whole if you're not careful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, have you thought about like your end game for comedy, like what you really want uh to accomplish with entertainment and like where you want to go, where you want to be.
SPEAKER_02If if everything works according to plan, what's the I I mean right now I'm I'm at a place where I probably have you know 25 to 30 minutes that I I feel like I could get through that amount of time and not feel like I'm sputtering on stage. Um, so that's that's been the goal for like the for the most like the past four years is trying to get to a point where I'm competent and I can be on stage for an extended amount of time and be funny. Um beyond that, like the longer term goals, like on the one hand, you have like touring, like going around the country, going to different clubs and you know, entertaining different audiences every night. I've also heard a lot of comics who are in that position, they talk about ah, the road, you know, it's it's a lonely life, and you know, it's it's uh it's very demanding, and invariably they always seem to talk about how much your personal life uh gets traded off for that. So, you know, I'm in a position, you know, I've been with my my my fiance now for like eight years, and we have aspirations, you know. Obviously, we're we're trying to plan a wedding, and we've we've talked about, you know, we we want to have uh a good life, you know, we want to be there for each other. So my options there are to A, take her on the road with me, or B, be gone for a significant portion of the time uh if I'm that touring comic. So like that's kind of the pullback. Like, I I would love if I'd be presented with that conflict of like, all right, you got to choose do you want a home life or do you want uh to to be on the road? Um, but you know, if if that doesn't work, then I would love to see myself in more of like a comedic acting role where that's something I can kind of see like a little bit more balance more. Yeah, and you you have the skill set for it too.
SPEAKER_00Like I feel like you have the training, you have the I'd like to think so.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like I I have the theater background, you know, a lot of comedians they start off doing stand-up comedy and then they get into acting, and that can work. Um, but I already have this theater training that like I I know how to be in a scene, I know how to take on different roles and different characters and different intentions. So I feel like I could play that. Um, but that's also like that's that removes the independence of comedy. Because in comedy, it's just you, you know. If you're if you're a touring comic and you have a sound system, you can do shows literally anywhere. You can just show up, plug in a microphone, and go. Like you're not reliant on other people, versus if you're on like a production, if you're doing like comedic, even in a stage play, right? You know, you have cast members, you have directors, you have designers. If you're in a production, then you're adherent to like, you know, and scene, you know, you you have to be reliant on other people, which I'm always fond of working with collectives, so I'm not really worried about that as much, but that I've been doing comedy now for four years, and I just haven't dedicated time to like uh film or or stage production.
SPEAKER_00I mean, shift gears, um, I've told you this before. I am very impressed with your joke writing. And uh, and I mean this as a compliment, although I think this is the weirdest compliment to get. Like, it's been so cool to see you improve over the few years that I've known you. Um when you first started, uh you had clever puns, but that was like kind of your thing, you know? Right. So and now you now you do have jokes about issues, social issues, and then you you f turn and find a way to make it entertaining. And then my favorite is when you have jokes about so social issues that also involve puns. Uh you have a bit, I don't know if I'll be able to find it to put it on here for people to hear where uh you talk about like opening a uh a roll uh Oh yeah, the the gender roles bit. I thought that was that's that's one of my favorite bits. I kind of forget about it until till I hear it. I'm like, that's a good bit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, I like that one. It's still one of my favorites.
SPEAKER_00Um so so is the question like how Yeah, so just talk about your joke writing process because that that that's uh an area you're a good writer, so I'd love to hear kind of Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So like um, like you say, like I think the the first thing that I I sort of learned how to put together was the setup punchline. And to me, a punchline was just a pun and it was very rudimentary. It was like something clever, something that you know could could be construed either way, or or you know, something that kind of made the brain do a little mental glitch. Um, and that was I kind of stayed in that pocket for a long time because I didn't really know how to string together ideas, and so I would just do setup punchline, setup, punchline, setup, punchline. And it was a very um sort of early style of comedy. And then as I developed more, like I over time, you know, you you learn, okay, I have a joke about driving and I have a joke about GPS. I know these two ideas are related. Let me work on the connective tissue to sort of bring the two together. And that ends up being, you know, that turns two 30-second jokes into a minute and a half because you find that connective tissue. So, so yeah, over time, I think it just it got to a point where I in my joke writing, I was I was uh limited because my jokes were so short. And I could do like seven jokes in you know, five minutes, but that would be it, and I wouldn't have anything left to say. So, so now like I said earlier, I'm I'm trying to get to that place where I'm a little bit more playful, and the jokes that I'm saying, they kind of set up, you know, some kind of interaction with the audience or some kind of reaction that I can play off of. Um, and you know, you you're always like going through your brain of like trying to rack, okay, what are some experiences that I've had that are worth talking about, uh, whether it's anecdotes or you know, uh observances that you've made. Um I I I had I think it was like the hunting versus fishing bit that I wrote back in 23 when I was going to the juice pal mic. I remember um I had a uh a thought and it was a good point, but it wasn't a good joke yet. And I remember in a week, you know, I that I was really taking advantage of like going to the mics every single night of the week and like tinkering with it and playing with the joke, and it evolved from being like, here's a clever observation. Now, how do I word this so that it becomes a joke? And I remember it was at JuicePow because I had been working, I'd wrote the joke on like a Sunday, and I worked it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and I had been working it, working it, working it, but it was still in that rigid form. And I remember Thursday night before I went up at JuicePowl, I was like in my head, just like, just tell the joke. Yeah, like don't feel like you have to say it word perfect, don't be script with it. Um, like just tell the joke. And it worked because I wasn't like thinking in my head of like, oh, I got to say this part next. Like instead, I was just in that sort of flow state for a minute of like, I know where I'm going with this, let me find the wording on the You were the entertainment, you knew like I know the entertaining part, and now I'm gonna share it. Yeah, so so I think now like that's been the most comfortable form of joke writing is like if if you have an observation that you feel is is valid or something that's you know a stone that hasn't been turned over a whole lot, you know, finding what is your point, and you should be able to articulate that in one sentence. Yeah. Um, being able to like take that point and make it funny. And the other thing, too, that I've I've learned to dial in on is when I first started out, I was so exposition heavy in my joke writing because I felt I had to explain everything and spoon feed it to the audience. The audience is smarter than you give them credit for, like they will follow you along if you are specific in your thought and you know what you're saying. So, so the technique I would use is a page paragraph punchline where if I had a joke or a thought I wanted to explore, I would write out everything that I could and like fill up the page with everything that I could talk about for that subject. And then I would read it through a few times and then I would go through a pen and like mark out everything, all the trim the fat, they call it. And I would try to get that whole joke down to a paragraph. And then like it's in its stage where I can kind of talk about it on stage, I can explore this idea, figure out what works and what doesn't. After I've done that for a few times, then once I know what the funny part of the joke is, what gets a reaction from people, then it's punchline. I'm trying to get that joke down to a setup punchline format. Yeah. Where here's here's the premise, here's what's funny. And if I can get it down to that, then I know it's a good joke. Like I know it's compact. You know, you you have to think of it like an elevator pitch. You know, if you have a minute to be funny, you you you want you don't you don't want to spend all day talking about like, oh, well, here I drive a truck and here's what a truck is. You know, you you gotta like jump to it because you will lose audiences. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I know for me when I'm putting together a set or like when I'm putting together like a special, it's like I spend the the majority of my uh anxiety and nerves about that is like what's my opening joke gonna be? That's because in my mind, that's like the most important. That's like Yeah, it sets the tone. Like I usually it takes me less time to figure out what my closing bit is. Because even though that's kind of also that's like your big, you know, hurrah. Like for me, the stress comes down to like what's that first joke you're gonna do?
SPEAKER_02So let me ask, do you do you like reverse engineer like if you know your closing joke is gonna be this one? Do you sort of like, all right, well, I want to put this joke before that one, I'll put up this joke before that one.
SPEAKER_00Um kind of it normally uh yeah, well, so you you do start I do start putting things together that match and uh hopefully it goes in a linear form to by the time it gets to the closing. Yeah. Um, but in the in the previous routines, it hasn't been all formed around the closing bit. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Um it's been that's that's kind of the phase I'm in right now of trying to look at those longer sets and figure out all right, I have this much material, but it's figuring out the order of events to like coherently get through that amount of time.
SPEAKER_00My my first one was easy because uh in that um everything it was called revolutionizing failure, and everything I talked about was like how um how like I would I would say it's self-deprecating, I would talk about a quality of myself and I make fun of it. And the last joke was always like, but here's when it's come in handy.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so that's the term.
SPEAKER_00Yep. And then I was able to um with that particular group of 30-minute jokes, I was able to at the end you know, kind of reference all the different things I had said and then wrap it up in my closing joke. So that one was nice because like it didn't matter what order I did it in. Um I could work.
SPEAKER_02I feel like with a long set like that, you almost kind of have to like have a formula or a callback that that sort of like, like you say, wraps a nice button around the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00For me, I usually have a theme around it. Uh and and it's not um, although my my last one, which was an hour, I finally looked at it and I was like, I like the other two, I felt like I was giving people a message by the like I was like, oh, this is like the first one was talking about like care loving yourself no matter what your flaws are, accepting the second one was really just me sharing my story of transitioning from full-time ministry to into full-time comedy. Um, and then the third one, which was the longest one, I I kept looking at it, be like, I don't know what I'm trying to tell. I'm just entertaining these are just jokes. These are yeah, so yeah. Maybe, maybe the overall thing because it's called actually funny. Maybe I was like, no, this one's good. Like this one will actually make you laugh. I don't know. Um, but yeah, so no, uh for me it's very helpful though the way I structure my longer routines is because you know, you have all these bits, you have all these routines. Uh the last joke always leads into my next joke.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so there's always a transition, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So and that helps me keep the memory of it, like keep it in memorized. Um, so like if I'm you know, I might do my youth pastor bit, um, and then uh that the then the last joke then it might lead me to talk about food starting with my Chick-fil-A jokes, because I think like youth pastor, Chick-fil-A, whatever. But then my doing all these jokes about how much I love eating or awkward food experiences, maybe it leads me to do jokes about like I have jokes about like how I'm a little bit bigger, like a little like so I have my fat jokes, and then and then that might lead. I might talk, I have a lot of different appearance related jokes, and so after doing fat jokes I can hit those, and then you know, so uh yeah, it's it that's that's how I remember things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, grouping ideas. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, okay, so we uh I've asked you so many questions and I appreciate your answer then them, but now we're gonna enter the Ask a Comedian section of the podcast, which is Oh yeah, these are where I chose the numbers. Yeah, these yeah, you chose the numbers earlier uh for everyone listening. Uh first of all, thank you for still listening. You're here and we love it. We appreciate you. I I don't know if other podcasts do that, but usually in the middle of my podcast, I'm just like, hey, thanks for still being here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I think it's good to ingratiate yourself with the listeners, let them know they're appreciated.
SPEAKER_00We we love that you're still here. Um and uh we so the way it works is uh I'm gonna read a few questions. Uh uh Zach has picked numbers which dictated which questions I'm gonna ask before the podcast. And these are all questions that have been sent by viewers, listeners um on my own social media at Drew Davis Comedy on Threads and Instagram, and then also on my Facebook page, uh Facebook.com slash Drew Davis.
SPEAKER_02And these are just general questions they send in.
SPEAKER_00Um so yeah, so they I just tell them ask a comedian, ask any question you want. Um most of the times they have to deal with comedy. There has been a few.
SPEAKER_02Other times they don't. They they don't do they do the if they don't win, do they get uh put into the next round?
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, absolutely. I just keep a list going and I just Because you said what, 38 questions?
SPEAKER_01That was a very specific number.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, so now it's you know 35 for the next send send Drew more questions.
SPEAKER_01We need to get that number up to 50.
SPEAKER_00I do, I do uh when it starts getting low, I'll I'll I'll uh ask you.
SPEAKER_01You'll do a few write-ins.
SPEAKER_00Once I write questions. This is what I want to know. About once a month I post my things, and I'm like, hey, send me more questions. But just so you all know, you can just shoot us a message with a question if you have one. In any no matter how you're listening to this podcast, there's a send mail option and it will send us a comment where you can ask a question. If you're on YouTube, it's a little bit easier to just drop a comment. Um, I've had people just email me questions before, so feel free to just, you know, if you know me, you can ask me and I'll write it down on my phone app, you know. So um okay, so this uh first question came from Joe Hoftwell on Facebook. He's uh he's a fellow comedian. And he said, uh, what's your best advice for a new comic who wants to work clean?
SPEAKER_02Oh, who wants to work clean.
SPEAKER_00I think it's funny that we haven't talked much about clean comedy in the clean comedy chat.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I feel bad. Like I I know this is part of your like your clean comedy collective. I don't know that my Definitely not political stuff is clean. I've been told that before.
SPEAKER_00I would, I would, um, I would push back on that a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. So here's my opinion. Oh, I have heard that too. I've heard like because part of sometimes people say like avoid controversial things. So religion, race, political.
SPEAKER_02Anything that's gonna upset someone.
SPEAKER_00Right. So um it's but here's the thing, um depending on your audience, those people not might not be offended by your political joke. To me, not uh to me, clean comedy is non-offensive comedy. So, like, for example, I worked with a client one time who was getting ready to do jokes for like he worked, he was doing jokes at like a Republican conference. So, like all of his Republican jokes they're gonna be great.
SPEAKER_02You gotta read the room, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh it was it was weird because I'm I I I'm real I'm not dem I'm not a Democrat, but I feel like I'm really not a Republican. Like, I feel like I'm not either.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I feel like you lay more liberal and progressive.
SPEAKER_00So like I'm sitting here trying to help him with these jokes, and I'm like, ugh, I hate this, but like here's a here's how they're gonna eat it up. And so, but in that case, his political jokes were not offensive at all. Totally the room for it. I mean, it's literally a polit political, you know, event. Yeah. And like, or maybe you go to a church that leans more conservative and it's a church, a church clean show, but like they are gonna all love those kind of jokes, you know. Yeah. So is it goes back to knowing your audience and knowing, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I guess that's the best way to answer. Like, if uh what's his Joe?
SPEAKER_00Joe, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Joe. So Joe, I would say like the the biggest thing is comedy like cleanliness in comedy is very subjective. Like not everyone's gonna find the same joke offensive, not everyone's gonna find like be, you know, torn apart, uh offended by a joke. So if you want to like do clean comedy, then do that. Like uh, like I said earlier, you know, it's very easy to say something shocking to get a reaction, like shock humor. That's that's out there, and there are some people that uh build a career off of it. So like you can't knock it because some people are willing to pay for it. Absolutely. Um, that being said, you know, if your goal is to do comedy and not offend anyone, uh good luck. Um but I would start with like uh things like I think a lot of comedy comes from frustration. Like you you you have an issue or something that you you're up against, you can't like uh you you can't control it, so you you want to talk about it and share it. That's that's that's a universal feeling. So rather than try to like uh personify that frustration and point it at, I don't like this group or I don't like this thing, make it um make it something like you know, being stuck in traffic or something that we've all dealt with that no one likes. And if you can't, you know, dial in on that, do puns. You know, puns are always there, puns are your friend.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I love that. When all fellas do a good pun.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's that's my recipe.
SPEAKER_00All right, so cool. This question came from Threads from Jay Amaki. Um actually, we were kind of just talking about this, and I I feel like I shared my style of organization, but maybe you can share more about your own. Uh, how do you organize and um memorize your material?
SPEAKER_02Um, so organization, uh, like I said, is like where if you have a joke and you've written out the joke um and it's standing on its own, figure out what I am talking about. And you know, it could be anything. It could be, you know, cooking a meal, it could be good walking your dog or relationships. I feel like there's there's a few topics that often get covered in comedy. Um, relationships is one, um, religion is a big one, uh, politics or political leanings. Like, again, though those aren't really clean topics per se, um, but you can have a clean take on any of those. So as far as how you organize your bits, you know, figure out which jokes are the same shade, are the same uh palette. And once you know, like, oh, I've got two or three jokes about driving, well, figure out how to like word those together. Figure out, yeah, you know, one one about starting your car up, one about working on your car, or go into the mechanic, you know, that's three different topics, but they're all automobile related. And if you just add like one sentence in between the punchline and the setup of those jokes, then you can get the audience to go on board uh between topics. Um, as far as how to memorize your material, I mean, it's good to write things out. I have I have learned that you don't want to write it out word for word like you would, like if you were saying it on stage, because then you'll get tripped up trying to say it word perfect. Instead, you can write like headlines or bullet points um to get you through the thoughts that like set up, deliver the punchline, and add a tag. And then um I really I'm I'm I'm more of an auditory learner. So for me, if I have a new joke that I'm trying out, I will probably take my phone. I'll always I'm always recording my sets, uh audio. Um if I'll I'll try to get through it as best I can on stage, and you know, I might look at my notes just to sort of like get through it. But then once I have it record it, I have a recording of my voice saying it, then and I can record like know where the audience reacted to it or where they fell off completely. And once I can listen to that, then that gets lodged in my brain a lot quicker. Yeah. So uh repetition, that's that's the most sincere thing.
SPEAKER_00And it also I feel like the more you do it, the more you learn how you learn, the more you figure out what works for you as you're doing it. Yeah. Um, and I thought about something when you're talking about like organizing material and finding uh similar jokes to put together in like a bit. Sometimes the more you do it, like you might do a you might have a bit and maybe maybe you try it for a few weeks and you're like, ah, whatever, it's it's not really going great or whatever. And then like years later, you write a different bit, and then you think, I think I had a joke from years ago that would fit that. And then you take something from many years ago and you put it in. So like yeah, for me, like tease it up a little bit better. For me, when I first started, I had jokes about Kesha. Um and like real topical. Yeah, real topic. It it you know, 2023, 2024. It was oh no, gosh, that's not even like 2012 to 2014, wasn't it? Yeah, that's a decade ago. Well, that's depressing, but um, but uh yeah, so I I had jokes and like they were fine. I I think a few of them were keepers, but then eventually uh because it was probably topical, I didn't feel I needed to talk about Kesha all the time. Um but we um but we did we went to the same high school, and then so then I later, like a few years ago, wrote like a bit about being in a band in high school and and it was musical related, and there was like a Kesha joke that I did from years ago that fit with that bit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it was funny because it was like an eight-year gap. But then I was like, oh, this joke will actually go in. So sometimes you might write a set and might be like, I don't know about the set, and you're actually giving yourself something years later.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I think that's like credit to the idea of you always want to be writing because you never know which joke is gonna be. Uh, like it's it it it they're all like puzzle pieces, and eventually it's going to fit into a bigger picture. For me, you know, I had written a joke about the the Ten Commandments being posted in all the classrooms. And at the time it worked, it still works, it's a good joke. But one of the newer jokes I wrote um was uh about um polymarket betting. And at the very end of that, I talk about how you know you can bet on whether or not Jesus is coming back um uh in 2026. And you know, I I ended that joke and I knew I wanted to close on Classroom Commandments, but on stage I found just the transition of like, oh, it's been a big year for religion. Uh, and then that just naturally transitioned. So, like, the more you play around with like this joke goes here, I'm gonna start with this joke, no, I'll end with it this time. Like, that's the other thing I would say is like don't be afraid to take your set apart and think about it like different pieces and restructure it because you'll find on stage, like, oh, I can transition much better between this idea and this idea.
SPEAKER_00And yet, but the importance that break comes back to like making sure you have a well-defined punchline, a short setup and a punchline because that makes it easier than if you have to move a whole like paragraph or a whole page of a yeah. So, yeah, so that's um okay. Last question. This comes from uh Tabaret uh McCoy um on Facebook. He says, uh, do you find it harder to be funny when you're going through personal stress or is the stage your outlet? That's like a deep, like that's a deep yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'm I'm gonna reflect on this one for a minute.
SPEAKER_00Um the other one's like, here, just answer this.
SPEAKER_02And this one's like your soul. I don't know, man. Like early on, I remember one of the comics uh in Memphis telling me, like, you gotta get up every night. Like you gotta get up on stage, and whether you've had a bad day or you're feeling burnt out. And I remember thinking, like, that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Like, I think there's some benefit to going on stage if you are not feeling great, because it's sort of like it's it's like working out when you don't feel 100%. Like you will get stronger, but you do run the risk of like crashing and burning or or just being completely shot. So, you know, if if comedy is an outlet for you, that's cool. But I think you and I have both been there when people have said on stage, this is my therapy. It's like and my response to that is always, you should go to therapy. Absolutely. This isn't that. Like, we're here to joke, we're here to tell funny jokes. And if you can make your pain funny, great. Yeah, that's fine. I want to hear it. But you know, if you're just up there trauma dumping on people and you don't have a punchline, you're just, you know, holding up a part of your life and saying, Isn't this messed up?
SPEAKER_00They're like, Yeah, but why are you telling us?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like we're not professionals, dude. You should you should take this to a pro. Um, so yeah, I I think I think there there are minimal returns to uh being out of sorts and going on stage. And you you I'm not saying you can't get anything out of it. And I know some people, it's their outlet, and I wouldn't want to deprive them of that. I'm more of the mindset of you you you shouldn't try to do it all the time every night because you'll get burnt out and you're not living a life. Sometimes you need to break. A break can make you a lot better. You do need a break. I'm more of the camp of like, if you're not feeling great, there's no shame and missing a mic. Now, if you have a book show, go do a show. And I would even go so far as to say if you know you have a booked show on Saturday, maybe hit the mics like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, but take Friday off. Go see a movie, go go to the library, read a book, you know, go on a date or something. That way you'll Okay, well, that one's a little bit harder for some. Well, I'm just speaking of my experience, folks. Uh yeah, like take care of yourself so that when you go on stage, you're able to be fun for the audience.
SPEAKER_00I think that's wonderful. I also for me, it's also um important. I like to be aware of how I'm feeling, and that sometimes dicks t dictates the jokes I do. Um that's because I have enough material where I can shift, like, oh, these are the things that you can do. You have enough to pick from where you know like these are my sad jokes, these are my happy jokes.
SPEAKER_02That's fun.
SPEAKER_00And I don't um I don't know if I've talked about this on this podcast yet, but I do have a uh like a comedy superpower, or like I don't know if you're a geek into like Final Fantasy, but I do have like a limit break with comedy. I don't know if that makes that might have been the limit break.
SPEAKER_02I get that that's the Final Fantasy term, but I don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_00Someone listening's like, wow, what a great Oh my god, he's talking about it.
SPEAKER_02But um for whatever next podcast is Final Fantasy discussions.
SPEAKER_00I think I would love that.
SPEAKER_02That would be a great I would I'd there's a community out there for it, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_00So I uh here and here's the re I'll I'll give you the reason why. I am constantly always wanting to please everyone, always like so much anxiety of like saying the right thing or like all that. Like it's it's it's it I don't even think about it, but it's always in the back of my head, even when I'm on stage, right? When I the I am my funniest when I'm uh a little pissed off because what happens is I don't care about anybody when I'm in a certain mood. Yeah, and then I've and my delivery is I I've just it's it's always been this way. But here's the thing I've learned I can't fake it, I can't try I try to put myself in that mind. It just there is it, and so there's been times where I've had a really annoying day, and I'm yeah, I need to go perform because I know I'll do great. That being said, if it's like too much, like I remember I did have like a personal tragedy, yeah. That's but then I had to I had a booked show, so I was like well, I gotta go perform. It was a comedy contest, and so I went and I sucked. And I was like, I mean, it makes sense. This has been a terrible day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's it's a very fine balance, like that that that rocket fuel of your emotions. Because yeah, I mean, I I've talked to comics around the Nashville scene, and one in particular, I've told him like you are at your funniest when you are frustrated. Yeah, and and that that can work, but that's that's like in the same line as like, oh, if you have a beer before you go on stage, it'll loosen the wheels. Like, yeah, yeah, that can work, but I don't think that needs to be the technique. That's not that's not I don't want that to be like here's what you need to do.
SPEAKER_00If one beer helps them, only seven, let me do seven being. Let me do seven beers. I'm gonna be hilarious after this.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't think you need to like go read comments before you go on stage to get pissed off about what's going on. Um I think I think like anything else, like if you if you train with weights on, you're you're gonna train different muscle groups, you're gonna get stronger. So if you if you practice going on stage when you're not in the best mood, you might get a little bit stronger uh than you would otherwise, or by depriving yourself of that experience.
SPEAKER_00Or then, you know, we don't want to forget about the enjoyment, personal enjoyment that comes with comedy. Sometimes I go up there and I perform and I leave feeling better, like, oh, I'm glad I did that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, now that that's another universal thing is you can definitely go up there and feel a lot better having done the thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So we're cool. Zach, thanks so much for being on this podcast.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, man. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_00I I I thought it might be weird if we didn't talk about Fast and Fears, but I think we made it work.
SPEAKER_02Like, I think I think we found a good balance.
SPEAKER_00We did, we did okay. Um, I you know, next time I'm like, hey, do you want to be on the podcast? He's like, what movie? Because I'm not just gonna talk to you about comedy again.
SPEAKER_02So this is good. Oh, I like this. Thanks for having me on. Um, is it okay if I plug stuff?
SPEAKER_00Yes, this is your time to plug whatever you want to plug.
SPEAKER_02Awesome. So you can find me on Instagram, TikTok at Zach Williams Comedy, Z-A-C-H Williams Comedy, all one word. I'm also Zach Williams on Facebook. Um, big thing that I want to promote is in Memphis we have the Pitt Comedy Club. Uh that will be coming up in September 16th, I want to say is our first show. But we're doing weekly shows on Thursdays. We're gonna have touring comics from all over the country coming to Memphis performing live stand-up comedy. Um, I'll be hosting sometimes. Uh, other times it'll be Ryan Bush, Colt Nails, or Charlie Virgos. Uh so yeah, come to the Pitt Comedy Club if you're in Memphis. If you're a comic who would like to come perform in Memphis, shoot me a DM, shoot me a tape, um, and we'll see if we can get you in. Uh otherwise, this has been great. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for doing this. Uh, and I'll I'll do the same old plugs Clean Comedy Collective. Find us on Instagram, find us on Facebook, cleancomedycollective.com. That's where you can listen to earlier episodes. That's where you can click uh the comedians and then Tennessee and find me and Zach and follow our all of our stuff, although all of his stuff is in the notes. So you can just scroll down and click that if you want. Um, and also that's where you can listen to previous episodes. That's where you can donate if you want to join Patreon or if you just want to give us money to help support what we're doing. We're building a virtual networking community across the country. We currently have about 250 comedians from 39 states and one from Switzerland. Um we're international now. Oh nice. Um, and then uh, but yeah, uh come back next week. We'll have a different comedian uh that we'll be having a chat with. And thank you as always for listening. And I hope you guys have a great week. All right, bye.
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