Celebrate the Gas Man!

Meet the doc who keeps you safely knocked out--and the comedians who keep you laughing! Dr Ben hangs with anesthesiologist Dr Justin and comedian John Datoy.  Dive into anesthesia secrets and comedy stories. Laugh, learn, and CELEBRATE THE GAS MAN!  🔴 Dr Ben and Friends Ep1-A

Join us for Nashville's premier episode of Dr Ben and Friends, where Dr Ben a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon and standup comedian CELEBRATES HEALTHCARE HEROES and PRO COMICS!  Each week, Dr Ben rotates the guests...putting the MED in COMEDY!

If you like this interview episode join Team Dr Ben for the mini-game episodes (Headline or Hoax? and What the Heck?) later in the week!

A special thanks to our sponsor The Needles Group, Marco Island's hometown real estate experts.  Dr Ben knows a good NEEDLE when he sees one!  If you're buying or selling, let The Needles Group INJECT some serious VALUE into your property game. www.theneedlesgroup.com

This episode was produced by Angie Debelak with post-production editing by Ben Hill Sound.

Thanks for listening to Dr Ben and Friends.  Laughter is the best medicine...unless you're treating bowel or bladder incontinence.  See you next time!

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Transcript

INTRO

Dr Ben 0:09

Knock knock howdy folks, Dr. Ben here. Hello from Nashville to Dr. Ben and Friends, the podcast dedicated to putting the med in comedy. We're shining a big bright spotlight on everyday heroes of healthcare. We're glad you're here. I'm your host, Dr. Ben, board-certified orthopedic surgeon and stand-up comedian, and admirer of anyone who can handle a code blue and a full bladder at the same time. Today, my fantastic co-host and laugh out loud funny comic is John Datoy. How are you doing, Doc? Doing all right. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Our guest of honor is Dr. Justin, a phenomenal anesthesiologist who can find an airway faster than my phone battery dropping from 50 to 5% the moment I leave the house. I hope so. Good to be here. Thanks for being here. Yes, thank you, Doc. The Dr. Ben and Friends podcast prescribes 100% comedy with zero copay. Don't worry about meeting that deductible, folks. Just us learning the medical moments that belong in a comedy special, not in

The Needles Group

Dr Ben 1:11

a chart. A special thanks to our sponsor, the Needles Group, in beautiful Marco Island, Florida. As a doctor, I know a great needle when I see one, and these realtors are the best in the business. Buying or selling, let the Needles Group inject some serious value into your property game, theneedlesgroup.com.

Healthcare Hero Interview

Dr Ben 1:30

Thanks for joining the team. Let's scrub in and get laughing. Special shout out to Wally in North Carolina for his podcast name suggestions. He suggested the podcast be named Dr. Ben Around the World or Dr. Ben there done that. Thank you, Wally in North Carolina. Oh, for true.

Dr Justin 1:51

Oh , yeah, that's good stuff.

Dr Ben and John Datoy 1:52

Oh, for true. All right. John, Dr. Justin, do you know each other? Let's have a brief introduction. I think I've seen uh Dr. Justin at some of your shows in the past.

Dr Justin 2:02

Ye ah, he's he's uh I remember him as the yo-yo guy.

Dr Ben 2:04

That that is a world yo-yo champion. The youngest. Uh tell us what what age?

John Datoy 2:11

I was 11 years old when I became the youngest American to ever win the world yo-yo championships. And obviously, I do stand up with Dr. Ben, and I'm also an electrical engineer. Uh, I work with the electric grid, and I have a past working in biomedical engineering as well with 3D printers. So it's really great to be here. All right, another nerd with us like us, he's an electrical engineer. Different levels or nerdery!

Dr Ben 2:32

So not shocking. All right. And then we have Dr. Justin here. He's an anesthesiologist, John. And I'm yes wondering if uh you could explain. Do you know what an anesthesiologist is and does?

John Datoy 2:47

I know it's where things get real, but our production team actually gave me some names for Dr. Justin here that are common. The knockout king, which is that could be uh that could mean multiple things.

Dr Ben, John Datoy, Dr Justin 2:58

Uh a nod to his rugged looks or putting people to sleep? I don't know. And the gas passer. Gas passers also. Uh my dad loves to say that one. I think that's what his wife calls them, also. The gas passer.

Dr Justin and Dr Ben 3:10

For multiple reasons. Yeah. Home at work.

Dr Ben 3:12

Same nickname applies. Home and at work.

John Datoy 3:15

I guess my guess is where uh is uh Dr. Justin's specialty is when things start to get real. That's that's the my layman's way of putting it, probably.

Dr Justin 3:25

That works up, that works really well.

Dr Ben 3:26

Yeah, so

What does an anesthesiologist do?

Dr Ben 3:27

Dr. Justin, uh, for the listener at home, I'm just gonna say listener because I think we only have one, and that's my dad in Michigan. But and he's actually hard of hearing, so he's probably reading it in cap closed captioning and maybe not actually listening. But for the listener at home, what does an anesthesiologist do if you can explain it in simple terms? So simple that even an orthopedic surgeon could understand?

Dr Justin 3:50

I'm gonna have to dumb it down a lot. Yes. Uh so in general, an anesthesiologist does as responsible for the uh kind of right around surgery, sedation, uh, making sure patients are safe, making sure they're comfortable before surgery, during surgery, after surgery. Obviously, there's other places in the hospital where people do sedation, like uh the ICU or emergency room and things like that. But really, there's kind of a symbiotic relationship between anesthesiologists and surgeons because there's they're both doctors in the room and making sure the patient is comfortable and safe. And if I don't do my job, then he can't do his job. And if he didn't have his job, then I wouldn't have a job. So thanks for being here.

Dr Ben and Dr Justin 4:26

Thank you. Uh symbiotic, I'll look that one up later. Sorry big words. I don't very rudimentary vocabulary here. Uh, is one of your priorities to delay surgeons or can this confirm not to do that? You didn't include that. Okay.

Dr Justin 4:40

Uh I'll tell you later.

Dr Ben 4:41

So to become an anesthesiologist, what kind of training do you need? Is that just a GED or an online course that you take for two weeks?

Dr Justin 4:48

No, no, no, no, no. It's it's 13 weeks. Okay. It's a very, very involved uh University of Phoenix program. Shout out to University of Phoenix online anesthesia. No, it's actually uh so four years of undergrad, so you have to have a bachelor's degree and then go to medical school for four years, and then um at least four years of anesthesia at residency. Some people will also do fellowships on top of that in subspecialties of anesthesia like cardiac or intensive care or uh pain management, those kinds of things. But so at least 12 years after high school.

John Datoy and Dr Ben 5:16

That's crazy. And what was your uh uh major and undergraduate?

Dr Justin and John Datoy 5:20

Uh I did medical laboratory science. So I was a lab nerd and took care of people's blood and specimens and you basically always you always had your eye on the prize. So Yeah, yeah, I well that for me that was like a stepping stone to medical school because it was, you know, got my feet wet and everything. And I was actually also a EMT in college. That's way back there. But I figured laboratory was a good way to get my foot in the door, but also it was a fallback. If for heaven forbid I didn't get into medical school, I could also just be a laboratory guy and it was a decent career path from there on.

John Datoy 5:48

Well, I'm really glad that things worked out.

Dr Justin 5:50

Yeah, me too.

Dr Justin and Dr Ben 5:51

Love it. I'm curious as to like how and when you decided on anesthesia.

Dr Ben and Dr Justin 5:55

Did you have a like a light bulb moment that this I want to go into this field or yeah, I mean it was kind of a gradual few steps, but like I said, I was an EMT. I figured that was just a good way to kind of get some hands-on patient experience in college, and I loved that a lot. And as an EMT, I was actually transporting people to the ER. So I spent a lot of time in the ER talking to ER doctors and seeing emergencies unfold and doing CPR and that kind of stuff. And I really went to med school with the intention of being an ER doctor. And then as a medical student in medical school, I was still planning on that. And when we were rotating through the different rotations and went to the ER, I really realized that all the stuff I liked about the ER was all the anesthesia stuff, all the airways and the lines and the very hands-on, you know, taking care of people and resuscitating them, that kind of thing. So that's when I fell in love with it.

Dr Ben 6:39

I like it. And for the listener at home, what's a typical day? I know the ABCs of anesthesia are usually airway, book, chair. Oh, you got that. So if you could either tell us, either dispel that myth or tell us maybe C is coffee. I don't know. What's a typical, typical day for an anesthesiologist?

Dr Justin 6:57

Very, very true, ABC. That's that's really good. Usually it just starts really early, get there, you know, six in the morning, six thirty in the morning. Most cases start at 7, 7:30, depending on where you're at, but it takes preparation beforehand, getting the room set up. There's a lot of nuances depending on where you work, how if there's just anesthesiologist only, if there's CRNAs or nurse anesthetists, that's the same thing. And we're collaborate with most of the work I do here around Nashville. Is I'll supervise up to four or five sometimes rooms, ORs that are going at a time. Each of those rooms have CRNAs or nurse anesthetists that are doing that case, they're sitting in that room, and I'm just kind of supervising all of them at the same time. So I'll see the patients in pre-op, make sure they're optimized and ready to go for surgery. I'll explain the anesthesia plan to each of them and uh make sure that they understand it and they're consenting to it. And uh go over the plan with the students. That's crazy. Yeah.

John Datoy 7:44

Wow. So you're like a multi-team leader, basically.

Dr Justin 7:48

Yeah, it's sometimes gonna be a lot of juggling.

John Datoy and Dr Ben 7:50

Now, I actually have a question for both of you. Why do surgeries always begin so early in the morning? Because like I my wife had surgery and her surgery was at like 6 30 in the morning. Is that just because like, well, the surgeries can go long, or is that like you know, I think it's because anesthesia will try to delay you.

Dr Ben 8:10

And so if you're starting later and they delay you an hour, then it's already noon.

Dr Justin 8:14

So we've got to start time 3 a.m. Actually, no, just listen to 4 a.m.

John Datoy 8:20

So you're basically saying it should be earlier, even though I'm just kidding.

Dr Justin 8:24

Uh that's a good question. I think it's a multifaceted answer because I think uh first of all, you your stomach has to be empty before you go into under anaesthesia. So some people don't like to you know be hungry all the way until two or three or four in the afternoon. I mean, sometimes that still happens when later cases, but uh it might be more of a a business thing, like the sooner you start, the sooner you get done. Oh, okay.

Dr Justin and Dr Ben 8:43

I'm not totally sure the the answer to the yeah, and I think a lot of it's yeah, being NPO or nothing by mouth after midnight. So we don't want to keep those patients, especially some of them are diabetic and yeah, so there's also kind of an order to where if we do like pediatrics like small kids, they can't go quite as long.

Dr Justin 8:59

You know, you have to feed a baby every four hours. So they usually do them first thing of the day so they don't have to be without food for as long.

John Datoy 9:06

Yeah, so it's basically risk. You're you're minimizing it.

Dr Ben 9:10

So yeah, with solid foods, unless it's an emergency, you don't want to have anything in your stomach for at least eight hours. Right. Oh, okay.

John Datoy 9:17

Now there's different types of anesthesia, right? Because I've heard that you can do like, is there like a there's gas and there's is there a liquid one too?

Dr Justin 9:24

Yep, there's I mean, there's a whole spectrum. And honestly, the the depth of anesthesia is also kind of a spectrum. There's a lot about spectrums these days. But this spectrum is you can go all the way from just kind of angelysis is the word we use, frequently done like in the cath lab or kind of minor procedures where we give a just a little bit of medicine just to help you kind of not care so much, but you're still awake, you're still breathing on your own, all the way down to the depth, the fullest depth we go is general anesthesia, which is where you're all the way asleep, you don't move, you don't feel anything, and we usually have to have a breathing tube to breathe for you because you don't breathe on your own when you're that anesthesia. Oh, okay. And everything in between. So like things in the middle would be like a colonoscopy where it's deep, but not general anesthesia.

John Datoy 10:00

Yeah, not to be like too crude, but like I've had one of those, and I thought that was always funny because like the anesthesiologist uh team member was like, Hey, tell me about your wife, and I'd be like, Yeah, she's blonde, and I'm just out like in like two seconds.

Dr Justin 10:12

So it's amazing because like the experience of it is you go into there, they start to push the medicine, and the next thing you know, you're in the recovery room. It's it's this like off switch, on switch. And so that's your experience of it. What happens between that off switch and on switch is is a lot more than that on our end.

Dr Ben 10:28

But yeah, I can't imagine. Yeah, Dr. Justin actually told one of my patients that I can either put you to sleep with gas or hit you over the head with a boat paddle. He said it's an ether oar situation. Ether or so. I would not take credit for that job. That was a good idea. How do you yes? And I actually had uh one of my patients that wanted to do his own anesthesia, so I told him, Go ahead, knock yourself out. Like a little button, you know, put him sh put him where's the drummer with the snare and the symbol? Now, surgery, a lot of people are nervous, and rightfully so. How do you kind of relax them aside from a medicine called versed? Um, what do you what do you do to help relax a patient before surgery?

Dr Justin 11:14

I mean, versed's great. Um, it's also one of the downsides of Versed is most of the time you have to give it up in the IV, so you have to have an IV first, but I like to give a little what's called verbal anesthesia. Just kind of pat him on the leg. It's gonna be okay.

Dr Ben 11:27

Everything's gonna be okay. Honestly, I we're in Music City. Do you sing to them or anything?

Dr Justin 11:30

Ooh, I should try that. That might make it more anxious, though. If I just leave. Genuinely, but I think I think comedy does play a little bit of a role in it, so you can give kind of break the ice with some some humor and oh yeah.

Dr Ben 11:40

Feel free to use those jokes.

Dr Justin 11:42

I will.

Dr Ben 11:42

Ether

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Dr Ben 11:43

or either oar knock yourself out. All right. Thanks, team. Now it's time for common sense healthcare ads we wish existed from Dr. Ben, because real sponsors don't know this awesome podcasts exist yet. This episode of the Dr. Ben and Friends Podcast is brought to you by Anti-Snoring Symphony Spray. Anti-snoring symphony spray. Spray this in each nostril before bed and transform your snores into a beautiful orchestral melody. Your partner will thank you and request an encore. Possible side effects may include attracting neighborhood cats. Oh, yes. Paula will definitely like that. Have you

Foley Artist?

Dr Ben 12:29

ever thought of being a foley actor? How are how are your sound effects?

John Datoy and Dr Ben 12:33

Uh I've always wanted to do voice acting, but I couldn't do sound effects to save my life. You're good at impressions. So I don't know about good, but I enjoy doing them. How about you, Justin?

Dr Justin 12:43

I mean, I'm amazed at some of the sounds I can do. Like I I didn't know what a fully artist was until I asked my videographer brother, and he's like, Yeah, you know the all the other sounds that are not speech. That's that comes from a person, a foley artist, and it's it's a hard drive.

Dr Ben 12:55

I know I thought it was someone that put in a bladder catheter.

Dr Justin 12:58

Oh.

Dr Ben and John Datoy 12:59

But that's something different. The full oh, different foley. Maybe maybe they're the same person. Are there any

Misconceptions of Anesthesia

Dr Ben and John Datoy 13:10

misconceptions about anesthesia or anything that you'd uh like our listener or surgeons or nurses or John to know about your role that yeah.

Dr Justin 13:19

There's so many, like the way you see anesthesia performed in in TV shows. Right.

Dr Ben 13:24

How accurate are a lot of those?

Dr Justin 13:25

Obviously, there's some they get some things right, but it's uh it's people think, oh, it's an off switch, then it's an on-switch. Or some people think, oh, but you get one medicine to go to sleep and then another medicine to wake up. Like there's you know, on medicine or off medicine and on medicine. It's not quite like that. It's it's a lot more it's like a cocktail, isn't it?

John Datoy 13:41

Like of different things.

Dr Justin 13:42

It is, but usually we don't. Part of the difficulty of it too is everywhere is a little bit different. Everyone kind of does it a little bit differently and kind of there's there's variations, but in general, you induce general anesthesia with propofol, which is IV medicine. It's the white stuff, milk of amnesia, Michael Jackson drug. There's a lot of different names for it.

John Datoy 13:57

But that's amazing.

Dr Justin 13:59

That's induces gentle anesthesia. You can also use it in smaller doses for like colonoscopies or lighter, lighter sedation, just depending on how much you give. But yeah, other misconceptions. It's people, oh man, one of the biggest ones these days, people get so scared when you use the word fentanyl.

Dr Ben 14:13

Oh, right.

Dr Ben and Dr Justin 14:14

Fentanyl is a drug, it's a very, very deep stigma around that. Yeah, there's a lot of stigma, especially the last few years with a lot of the overdose deaths and things, which is they're real and they're bad. If you get fentanyl from an anesthesiologist, they know what they're doing. Rest assured. It's on the street. Sometimes I'll joke and say, This is fresh from Tijuana, you know?

Dr Ben 14:32

Uh but probably not a lot of quality control on the street when you're getting it.

Dr Justin 14:35

No.

John Datoy 14:36

No, there's definitely not 12 years of schooling. That's true.

Dr Justin 14:38

Oh, that's true.

Dr Ben 14:39

And it might come with some horse tranquilizer in it.

Dr Justin 14:41

Exactly. Yeah. So just rest assured if you're getting fentanyl from an actual doctor, it's gonna be okay.

John Datoy 14:47

What is the most realistic doctor show that's like been out there for doctors?

Dr Justin 14:52

I've seen a lot of them. My wife was a huge Grey's Anatomy fan for a long time. She's seen all the seasons multiple times. I think the the one that I've seen most recently that was really good was The Pit.

Dr Ben 15:02

Um I heard that's very realistic.

Dr Justin 15:03

Yeah, we started watching that, and it's it it honestly can kind of brought back some memories, like because they kind of go into like when COVID was happening and how difficult it was, and how there's patients dying left and right, and how traumatic it was on the providers. And so they kind of went into that a little bit, and it I didn't need to pause the show show and step away for a minute because it brought back memories of when I was taking care of patients during COVID. It was it was very realistic.

Dr Ben 15:25

Yeah, I heard like a medical doctor say he actually learned accurate medical information from that show.

Dr Justin 15:31

It's a great show.

Dr Ben 15:32

We should get some CME for watching it or something.

Dr Justin 15:34

Yeah, man, we should yeah, we should do that.

John Datoy and Dr Ben 15:36

Badass.

Technology Changes in Anesthesia

John Datoy and Dr Ben 15:38

Dr. uh Justin, can you talk to like technology and how far anesthesias come from the chloroform ether days and where you think uh it's headed with uh AI, artificial intelligence? I'm curious to hear about technological advances in anesthesia.

Dr Justin 15:53

I'm also I mean, I'm learning a lot about it and how AI can be used, but uh back in the day it was kind of ether, and can you breath that? And there's a lot of side effects and you had headaches and nausea and liver failure and all kinds of stuff. But um the drugs have gotten better, the IV stuff, the monitoring. Honestly, what's gotten way, way better in improving patient outcomes and safety, which is people's biggest issues, which understandably uh has been a lot of the monitoring. We can really watch heart, you know, heartbeats beat to beat. We can watch your blood pressure the whole time. We have medicines to make it go up, make it go down, make your heart stronger. And you know, it's it's just there's all kinds of uh monitoring capabilities that we have now that we didn't, you know, 15, 20, 30 years ago. One of the big inventions that is revolutionized anesthesia too is ultrasound. We can do nerve blocks that you know numb a whole part of your body, your whole leg, your whole arm, things like that. And they're really nice for play ultrasound as in like uh same kind of technology that you used to look at your baby. Yeah, yeah. Okay. You can actually use the same technology to look at and find nerves, and then I can see a needle come in to the numbing medicine around a nerve that'll numb a whole section of your body. Yeah, that would be groundbreaking science. Very useful. I do dozens and dozens of them.

Dr Ben 16:58

It's great. So any uh concern for job security with AI and anesthesia? Could a robot do your job?

Dr Justin and John Datoy 17:05

Oh man, if I could figure out how to intubate from home, I would do it. I'll work from home anesthesia. I move the camera a little bit, I can't see what I'm doing. Yeah, I don't know. I I think there's always gonna be a place for that that human element. Like, hey, I'm here. I'm at the head of your bed, I'm taking care of you. I'm gonna be here the whole time, right here with you. Even though if you don't know it, I will be here. I think that there's nothing that can really place that replace the human element.

John Datoy 17:28

Because uh I I was recently in the hospital and I I saw a proxy doctor, which was kind of weird. It was a robot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just type. FaceTime doctor. Like a FaceTime doctor. And I'm like, I would rather have Dr. Ben or Dr. Justin being like, how's it going? Right.

Dr Ben, John Datoy, Dr Justin 17:42

Just tell a joke. Yeah, tell a joke. I can shake your hand. AI. But there are certain specialties of medicine that I would imagine AI would I might have a little uh insecurity about my Yeah.

Dr Justin 17:55

I mean, one of my buddies is a radiologist, and he's actually working with a company trying to like improve the AI. And I'm like, dude, aren't you kind of like signing your own pink slip?

Dr Ben 18:05

Especially the other diagnostic radiology where they're not interventional.

Dr Justin 18:09

Right, right. And he his his take was, man, AI is so stupid right now. So it still has a lot to learn, but I mean, I think it'll get there someday.

John Datoy 18:16

Well, the human body is so complex, it'd be hard to design AI around like one modem of human, I feel like, as like I mean, we could say what a standard is, but what is a standard in today's world?

Dr Justin 18:29

Yeah. And one of the things that's kind of the nuanced is that every person's a little bit different. I can give, yeah, for example, we do a lot of cataract surgeries at one of the surgery centers where I work, and it's we give the same, almost the same dose of medicine to almost every person. That varies a little bit, but it and they'll do one eye one day and it'll come in two weeks later for the other eye. And almost invariably I ask, hey, how much do you remember from that procedure? And I almost get a different answer from every single person. Like some people say, Oh, well, I walk in and I remember sitting in this chair, and then next thing I know, I was driving home. And some people remember all of it. And they're like, I remember going back to the operating room and I saw lights and I was comfortable, but I was like half out, and it, you know, it's just interesting because medicine is such a uh, you know, you titrate to the response and you you treat the patient individually, and everyone's just a little bit different.

John Datoy and Dr Justin 19:13

So it's what are what are the main things that influence like the anesthesia, like in terms of like, is it is it weight, is it just classic stuff like weight, heights, or oh like you mean like dosing medicines and when it comes to that?

Dr Justin 19:25

Yeah, definitely. I mean, weights definitely one of the big factors. One of the big ones, it's kind of harder to quantify is I can look at somebody and say, okay, they're gonna need more. And typically it's are they younger, are they healthier, are they more um energetic? It's hard to really quantify that, but it's or are they lethargic?

John Datoy 19:42

Got it.

Dr Justin 19:42

Right, right. Are they old, you know, kind of half asleep?

Dr Ben 19:45

People metabolize the drugs differently, too.

Dr Justin 19:47

Absolutely, yeah. It's interesting because you can ask somebody, hey, how much do you drink alcohol-wise? And people who drink a lot more alcohol are gonna be a lot more resistant to getting drugs. So I think it's you know, it metabolizes they're those enzymes that metabolize the drugs or very well accustomed to them.

John Datoy and Dr Ben 20:04

Make sure we don't get any beer sponsors for the you mentioned uh cataract surgery. I just wanted to interject. Uh, before I met my wife, I dated a gal with cataracts, and uh one day she just stopped seeing me.

John Datoy 20:17

Oh more

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John Datoy 20:25

guys, we gotta talk about something serious. It's time for some common sense healthcare ads, and uh today we're gonna be talking about Brain Boost Bubblegum. Yes, this podcast is brought to you by Brain Boost Bubblegum. You can chew your way to genius level IQ. Each piece is packed with smart making vitamins chew responsibly. Overuse may lead into solving world hunger, but forgetting your own name. So um just like everything else, there's a risk, but consult your doctor, maybe your anesthesiologist.

Dr Ben and John Datoy 20:58

So uh

Comedy Questions

Dr Ben and John Datoy 21:04

any other questions for Dr. Justin before we uh I feel like in the last five minutes I've learned a lot about about how everything works. All right. And uh Dr. Justin, we'll give you this opportunity to turn the tables. Do you have any questions for uh uh engineer, a comedian? Any questions about uh the comedy world for you have uh the audience of two two stand-up comedians?

Dr Justin 21:30

Yeah, I no, I actually am really curious. You Ben, you've made the point that people are a lot more accepting of a surgeon who does some comedy on the side than a comedian who does some surgery on the side. So how did you how do you even get into like stand up comedy? Because I you know you see you know these big names like you know, Nate Bargatze, or and you wonder how did they get started?

Dr Ben 21:50

I love hearing their backstory too, and I'd love to hear John's backstory. And I'll briefly go into mine. I was going around telling the one liner dad jokes, which you uh

Dr Justin 22:00

Oh Yeah, mostly in the operating room.

Dr Ben and John Datoy 22:02

Eye rolling groaners. And I was doing that around the hospital. And then one day a doctor who was called the chief of staff in charge of uh coordinating all the doctors in the hospital, he asked if I would do stand-up comedy at a medical staff meeting where the doctors get together and talk about boring, hospital-related medical um topics like antimicrobial stewardship, which sounds riveting. But so they went, he wanted to heighten the engagement and entertainment at the medical staff meeting and asked if I would do stand-up comedy. And I looked at him like he was crazy. I said, I tell dad jokes, it doesn't make me a stand-up comedian. And now he's Nashville's Funniest Comic 2025. Thank you, thank you. Hold the applause. Yeah. And so I that's the most terrified I've can remember being. But I wrote a short set and did stand-up comedy for the first time. And then they wanted me back to do another one, and then other hospitals wanted me to do their medical staff meetings, and then I'm doing employee awards banquets for hospitals. Someone convinced me to do an open mic night where you go to a uh local establishment or bar and perform comedy in front of strangers, and that was uh scary. But uh that went well, and someone recorded that on an iPhone, and I sent that to one of the comedy clubs. Shout out to Third Coast Comedy Club, who gave me two shows and those both sold out. So then I contacted Zanie's Comedy Club, and uh they started giving me shows, and I've been headlining shows at Zanie's, and so that's kind of where I got uh started now doing corporate events to where um companies and corporations want me to come deliver stand-up comedy, yeah, particularly in medical uh conferences.

John Datoy 23:42

So and I and and the thing I love about Ben so much is that like it is his story is just so unheard of. Like from I started out comedy in a more traditional way, I started just strictly at the open mic level. Uh my grandma raised me on stand-up, uh, and uh Ray Romano, Jeff Fox worthy, a lot of those classic guys from the 90s and the 80s. But like Ben's story of how he's been able to to just basically start to sell out it also a lot of comics will sometimes come to me that aren't friends with Ben. They were like, What's what's the secret? When it's like, well, really what it is is like Ben became so good at something else, which is orthopedic surgery and being a doctor, that like his he knows what the work ethic is to be to do something like that. And now he's trying, he's like able to know what he can do on something else as well. And uh that's been kind of inspiring as his friend and uh and a comic, just also with my own goals to to be working on because uh yeah, it's been a fun ride to watch him do it.

Dr Ben 24:44

So thank you. Thank you, John. And yeah, initially, I think that's how people came out uh to see me was that they're kind of um interested to see, oh, this doctor's doing comedy, and so but then I also had to kind of back it up too with you know being somewhat proficient and good at it, or else they wouldn't come back, or like my novelty would wear off quickly, and hopefully it doesn't. But uh uh more about your uh backstory into comedy, John. You said open mics, and then how did it kind of progress?

John Datoy 25:13

And yeah, so I started out in Fargo, North Dakota, where most great comics do. And uh it's a gold mine for comedians, I think. It is. I mean, we I hope somehow we actually used to have three clubs up there at one point in time. So I started out there and then I went and saw Nate Bargatze in Las Vegas in 2021 uh with my now wife, and we were just in the airport thinking like we should move to Nashville. It just was like a crazy thought that popped into her head first, and I was like, Yeah, I'll follow you to Nashville. And because this is uh honestly, it's like the clean capital of clean comedy. So it's we got Nate Bargatze here, Dusty Slay, Leanne Morgan has a house here, I think, and it's just a great city in general. So we moved down here, and about a year in, my wife got a Drybar. We and then we eventually became a part of Nate Bargatze's crew, uh his crew, but the Nate land crew, and that's been really fun to kind of run alongside with them um and just have that open relationship that we do.

Dr Ben and John Datoy 26:14

So yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. I'm you know, maybe somewhat disappointed. You don't have more of a Fargo accent though. I know, oh great day for some comedy, eh? I betcha. But don't cha know, you you will see though that like when someone we're at open mics and someone tells us like a ridiculous joke, I'll be like, oof, that's not what I would do. Or oof dah. I would not do that. I like it.

Dr Justin 26:37

Whenever I hear Fargo, I think about wood chipper. It's just kind of like he's right. There it is at the visitor.

John Datoy and Dr Justin 26:42

At the visitor center, they have the wood chipper. Like it's just like I thought we were supposed to attract people to visit. You're right. So it's kind of fun. Do you own a wood chipper? I do not. I I would love to put one in my studio apartment, but it's it wouldn't fit.

Dr Justin 26:58

So instead of like you know, a drooling dog on the front porch, it's a wood chipper out front. Yeah, I see. Don't trespass. I love it. I love it.

Dad Jokes Delivered!

Dr Ben 27:10

All right, knock knock howdy folks. Dr. Ben here alongside Dr. Justin and the hilarious John Datoy. I mentioned early in the podcast dad jokes were actually the impetus to get me into comedy. And I know a lot of uh people hear the puns and one-liners and they groan and roll their eyes, but we want to celebrate those eye-rolling groaner dad joke one-liners. So please, listener, submit your favorite dad joke. And actually, you could submit a recording and we will play it on the podcast, and maybe we can uh have a comic critique your uh timing and delivery. And so please send us your favorite dad joke. I would go around the hospital and I like to trick people into thinking I'm telling them a story and then hit them with the punchline and uh see whether or not he does that so often.

Dr Justin 28:02

There's times when he comes up and actually talks about a patient that I'm like waiting for the punchline. I'm like, Oh, you're serious. Okay, yeah.

Dr Ben, John Datoy, Dr Justin 28:07

Right. It's great. So I'd go around the hospital. I was paying attention, yeah. I like to tell people, I just came from the emergency room. There's a guy down there that swallowed a bag of scrabble tiles, and they're like, Wow, really? And I'd say, uh, yeah, his next trip to the bathroom could spell disaster. So far, no word yet. Just little vowel movements. Just boom, keep them coming. So we celebrate your yes. That's all right. Do you guys uh have any favorite one-liner jokes uh that come to mind? I got you started there. I can keep going all day. We could do the whole podcast of me doing dad jokes, but uh and we want to hear the listener's favorite dad joke. That'll be for the Patreon.

Dr Justin 28:49

My my wife sent me the this great one this morning on the way here. She's like, okay, I got this friend named Elsa, and she has had a cough and sore throat, but she refuses to go to the doctor. She says the cold didn't bother her anyway.

Dr Ben 29:01

Oh I loved that one. I told her the cold never bothered me anyway.

John Datoy 29:06

I like it. My friend uh told me this one. He was like, Yeah, you know, HR pulled me into the office, and they were like, What do you think about a 401k? And he's like, I can't run that far.

Dr Ben 29:20

Uh 5K, maybe 10 at the most. 401k is a little work up to that. Like 2K. Sounds like a very long race.

John Datoy 29:31

Yeah.

Dr Ben 29:32

So I like it. All right. And then we'll have uh the very funny, hilarious John Datoy read our first dad joke delivered from a listener.

John Datoy and Dr Justin 29:43

All right. So our very first dad joke delivered is from Dave in Hendersonville. Thank you, Dave. He wrote, Why did the nurse bring a ladder to work? Because the patients keep raising the bar. Yeah, what do you guys think about that? Definitely uh dad jokes for the record.

Dr Ben and John Datoy 30:02

All right. Yeah, so what do you think, listener? Raising the bar. That's good. Did you see the pun there? Did you know uh that before they invented the crowbar? Crows had to drink at home. So crowbar. I don't know if you guys have with Russell Crowe. It's funny. It takes me five minutes uh to walk to the bar and then 30 minutes to for me to walk home from the bar. The difference is staggering. I like that one.

Dr Justin 30:35

Do you know what the the mermaid uses to wash her fins? Tide. That's good.

John Datoy 30:41

I like it. I went house hunting the other day and I shot five houses. I love it all. I told that joke, so Ben and I did that conference for OMED, and we were doing sound check, and I did that as like the sound check was the house hunting joke. And the people who hired Ben to do it could have not been more unimpressed with an opener. Was the funniest thing in the world? Oh, gee, this good thing this guy's only doing five minutes.

Dr Ben and John Datoy 31:14

But you know, catch John on the next house hunters for some trophy houses.

Dr Justin 31:21

Yeah, keep your rifles at home though.

Dr Ben 31:22

All right, keep those jokes coming, listener. We want to hear yours.

John Datoy 31:26

Yeah, we don't want to shun them for sure, and we won't roll our eyes.

Closing

Dr Ben 31:34

All right, folks, that's it for this week's Dose of Laughter on the Dr. Ben and Friends podcast from the heart of Nashville, Music City. Remember, we can be serious in surgery, but some of us are seriously funny. If you love today's episode, celebrating comics and healthcare heroes, hit that subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Amazon, wherever you get to your podcasts. Word of mouth is our best support. We appreciate you forwarding an episode. Tell your friend, tell your doctor, we'd love to hear from you. Give us your best dad joke. Tell us what healthcare worker would you like us to have on the show. And uh, your joke may be showcased on the next episode. Send in a recording of you telling a dad joke. Thanks for supporting our brand, Dr. Ben and Friends. We'll see you next time on the Dr. Ben and Friends podcast, where we are putting the med in comedy.