MEET THE SMILE SURGEON

If you’ve ever wondered how surgeons put faces back together after devastating injuries, this conversation gets surprisingly specific, surprisingly human, and occasionally ridiculous. 🔴 Dr Ben and Friends 

We sit down with HEALTHCARE HERO, DR.STEVE, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon who focuses on facial trauma, to explain how modern technology is reshaping facial reconstruction. 

Listener, join PRO COMIC DREW DAVIS as we explore these technical topics and try to understand the adventure and compassion of healthcare and comedy.

We get into CT imaging, 3D surgical planning, and custom titanium plates that can be milled or 3D-printed to match a patient’s unique anatomy, because the truth is your face is not actually symmetrical and that matters in the OR.

We also talk about what patients and families need when everything feels uncertain. Dr. Steve breaks down how clear communication, realistic expectations, and visual tools like 3D models can prevent misunderstandings and help people feel grounded on the worst day of their life. 

Then we take a hard turn into stress relief and work-life balance: how surgeons decompress, why leaving work at work is a skill, and how a hospital chili legend ends up with a backyard wood-fired pizza oven and strong opinions about dough hydration, proofing time, and topping discipline.

Finally, we tell the story of how Dr. Steve helped nudge Dr. Ben into stand-up comedy, what it’s like walking into a brutal open mic, and how clean comedian Drew Davis thinks about staying composed when your brain blanks on stage. 

If you like medical innovation, facial trauma surgery, surgeon life, and clean comedy, hit play, then subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

THANKS TO OUR GUESTS:

Dr Steve: no social media- he's at the hospital if you need him!

Drew Davis: IG/TT/FB @drewdaviscomedy, www.drewdaviscomedy.com, www.cleancomedycollective.com, IG @clean_comedy_collective

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!

Team Dr Ben

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Transcript

Welcome Dr Steve and Drew Davis

Dr Ben 0:09

All right, knock knock out it, folks. Dr. Ben here. Hello from Nashville. Welcome to the Dr. Ben and Friends podcast. We're shining a big bright spotlight on unsung healthcare heroes and comedians. We're glad you're here. I'm your host, Dr. Ben, orthopedic surgeon by day, stand-up comedian by night. I believe last year can boost your immune system better than vitamin C, but please keep taking your vitamin C. Today, riding Shotgun is the very hilarious co-host, funny, clean comedian, Drew Davis. Hey, how's it going? Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here, Drew. And our guest of honor is Dr. Steve. Thank you for having me. Yes, he's an incredibly talented oral maxillofacial surgeon. Oral maxillofacial surgeon. We'll learn more about what that is momentarily. But just know, under pressure, he can reconstruct a face faster than a barber can reconstruct a bad haircut. So we're glad you're here. That's right, Dr. Ben and Friends Podcast prescribes 100% comedy with zero copay. Today we're celebrating the heart, hustle, and hilarity of the people that keep us breathing, healing, and occasionally laughing through the pain. Thanks for joining, team. All right, let's roll. The doctor will see you now.

Sponsor: The Needles Group

Dr Ben 1:30

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Custom Plates And 3D Planning

Dr Steve 1:50

So I've been I've been very lucky in my career. And and I and I and I just because of one of the few people who really only does facial trauma and cares for facial trauma patients, I do get to go throughout the world and lecture and talk about it and and different things. And one of the things I I talk about is that I've been very blessed in my career that I've been able to have things that have completely changed the way that we take care of patients. So the way I take care of patients even now is different than we even did four or five years ago. And that's all because of the advancement in technology. So it's to keep things in a simple manner, both Dr. Ben and I were fixing broken things today, right? So just if you have a broken bone, you think about, well, the bone is broken. We're gonna reduce it to where it goes, and then we're gonna put some type of plate and screws on top of it to hold it in position. That's sort of the simple way of what we do. And historically, you sort of take flat plates or plates that may have little curvatures in them, and you try to bend them with big pliers and clamps and stuff like that to try to hold the bones together. One of the things that we have in the face that makes it different than other parts of the body is that none of the bones in our face are flat and straight. It's not like your arm or your femur or some of your other bones. Everything that we deal with is curved. And so a lot of times you're trying to match the curve of one side to the other. And people do think that their faces are symmetrical, but in reality they're not. So there's varying, if you if you took one side of your face and mirrored it to the other and did that with the other side, none of them would look like you at all. But that's sort of the uniqueness that makes our face. That's why your face would be extremely difficult for me to make better. I'm just that's the only reason it would be asymmetrical. But but the uh but the idea is by utilizing being able to do some of the more advanced surgeries by doing them on computer first and then figuring out where we're gonna put the plates and screws to hold things together, we can now either machine mill or 3D print our plates and screws out of titanium. And what and what that allows us to do is that if we get them on in the right place, we know that we're gonna have perfect reductions of what we're supposed to do. But it also allows us to take a more of a minimal approach to do the surgeries because I because you don't want a gigantic scar in your face. So we try to do most of the surgeries that we do, believe it or not, is you know, if we're fixing your eye socket and your cheekbone and stuff like that, a lot of those we actually do from inside your eyelid. So there's not even a scar in your face afterwards. Wow. The things that may fix your lower jaw or your upper jaw or cheekbones, we may go from inside your mouth and sort of work our way up through there so there's no scars on your face. That's amazing. So that's where the technology has improved. And so we can get better results, less likelihood of having to go back secondarily and do things, and we can take more of a minimal approach so that the patients have less dysfunctional components and scarring afterwards. Wow. And you mentioned fixing like eye sockets and orbits. And how do you get around the eye? That's just an area where I don't go as an orthopedic surgeon, but how are you fixing a socket of an eye around the eye? So you you to get to it, we pull out the eyelid, believe it or not. Wow. Cut inside the eyelid, maybe make a little nick right here just in the corner of the skin, and then you dissect along under there, you lift the eye, and then so we lift the eye in the cloud. With a special retractor or something. Yeah. It looks like a little, it's just a a a plain malleable, a coated malleable. Lift it up, and then we work in that little tiny hole and lift the tissue of the orbit back up in there, and then with a custom orbital plate, it's like sliding a little fancy guitar pick in there that will lay in there and then support the eye socket and keep the tissue up. That is amazing. And then you don't have any big scar on your face. Or the old traditional way was make a big cut right here. Wow. And I've seen some of the 3D CAT scan CTs that you guys have. That's just amazing. Now you can just image any portion of the face or the skull and so technology. Um, any robot uh assistance? Not yet. Okay. I mean, I'm we're looking at that. They use some of the robots for some of the head neck cancer stuff, especially for some of the stuff that goes deep underneath the skull base and stuff like that, but not in the trauma world yet. But I have a friend who uh works for a robot company and we're looking at a few things. Okay. So uh kind of double-edged sword, uh, robots won't be taking over your job anytime soon. No, just yeah, we're good, just like you. Because they are taking over a lot of uh jobs, but yeah. I think we're I think we're good for at least the length of our careers. Okay. It's not something you guys have to worry about. No, no. I think we're okay.

Talking Patients Through Trauma

Dr Steve, Drew Davis and Dr Ben 6:56

Yeah. Uh you mentioned you see patients sometimes on the worst day of their life from just brutal, awful traumas. And uh, how do you kind of go about uh comforting them or you're having to treat a lot more than just a broken face? I think honestly, I I think a couple different things. I think one, you have to be upfront and honest with them, right? I think it's all about setting expectations right from the front of what can be done and what can't be done. I think it's the three-dimensional models that we have and the three-dimensional CAT scans and the modeling that we have have been very good at where you can sit down with patients so they can truly understand. I think, I think a lot of times when patients and their families get upset, it's because they really just don't understand. And so anytime that you can sit down and show them a picture and scroll through the pictures with them and rotate, or even when we have when we're gonna rebuild them and fix them, we have this nice report that sort of shows what they were and it's all nice in colors and then what it's gonna be and how we're gonna go about doing it. I think it helps set the expectations so they're all on the same page. I think when patients get upset over things, it's not usually related to the severity of the injury. It's usually there's been some miscommunication over what's gonna happen next, or when it when is it going to happen, or why did this not happen? And so I think community like in anything, any type of relationship, communication is key. I think for the patients, whenever they're coming to you, whenever they're trying to get help, there's so much uncertainty in their circumstance. So, I mean, I know I've been on things where when you leave the doctor's office, even though you heard news about something that's not super exciting, you're a little relieved because now you have yet have an answer to a question you were wondering. Yeah. And I so I see what you're saying about how it's so important. A lot of times everyone's so upset because they just don't know or they don't understand or they have questions that haven't been answered yet. So yeah, and we encourage it, we encourage them like with these three-dimensional things that like Ben was talking about. I can if you break your face, it's the pictures we're gonna give you looks like a skull. And I tell patients, like, here, take a picture of it, stare at it, and you know, next time we talk, at least you'll you can ask some questions. If I start describing things in a bunch of big Latin words to people that even the people I work with don't understand, then they're not gonna understand and they're gonna get frustrated. Yeah. Layman's terms. Yeah. Sound like you're talking to an orthopedic surgeon, just who's very rudimentary, simple broke bone. Right. Yeah. Bone broke, me fix. Yeah, be fine. It's crazy because that's actually aside from comedy, that's my job. I'm an orthopedic surgeon. So I take a lot of offense to all right.

Fake Ads And Real Stress

Dr Ben 9:47

Well, we need to um pay some bills here. So let's uh thank you, team. It's time to uh announce some common sense healthcare ads we wish existed from Dr. Ben, but uh unfortunately real sponsors don't know this awesome podcast exists yet. Our listener is gonna help us out with that. That's right. So uh uh this episode of the Dr. Ben and Friends podcast is brought to you by Stress Shredder Shreddies. Stress Shredder Shreddies, the breakfast cereal that eats your stress for you, fortified with zen and zero regrets. Pour milk and watch your worries dissolve. Not liable for sudden enlightenment. Use the promo code DRBENCOMEDY for 25% off your first purchase of stress shredder shreddies.

Work-Life Balance In Surgery

Dr Steve 10:42

Dr. Steve, your job seems very stressful, or it sounds like it could be. What do you do to kind of decompress or with your work like life balance? Um what do you do outside of work to uh I hang out with my uh my wife and my new puppy. Oh and you know, we have friends and like to cook and do other activities around town. And so I think I've been doing this long enough that I've understood the work-life balance from early on, honestly. I mean, it's one of those work hard when you're when you're at work, but when you're done, you go home. Type of deal. It was sort of the my my chief resident early on was the um eat when you can eat, sleep when you can sleep, leave when you can leave. However, you don't get to leave until I tell you you can leave. That was sort of the orientation that you probably got as an intern also, right? So it's sort of the same thing. I mean, when it's when we're we work hard to get things done, try to be efficient. But when it's time to go home, go home and leave what you do at work at work, and I think you do fine with it. Again, I think if you're happy with what you do, it's it's easier to keep that balance. Doctors that I've seen that have have not been happy with their career choice, it really doesn't matter what you do, what you cancel, they're not happy, and they're never going to be happy. They haven't found what makes them happy. I've been I've been very blessed that I've found what makes me happy.

Chili Cook-Off Dominance

Dr Steve 12:10

That's awesome. And uh tell us about some of your culinary masterpieces. I think you've won like the chili cook-off at the hospital, and you're known for your uh uh pizzas that you make at home. Uh yeah, so you just got so much cooler, in my opinion. Like you just he's he's the he's a cook. Tell us to your so I I make a really good pot of chili. I I will admit that. I have won throughout my time here in Nashville, and we moved here 2006. I bet you I've won at least 10 chili cook-offs. Wow. I've even won chili cook-offs where I haven't even been there. I've just made the pot of chili and given it to people like at the hospital, and they'll they'll enter it in whatever local chili content. Did you come up with the recipe? Or is it a family recipe? No, I got it. Don't tell us the secret. I got it. I'll give you the I'll give you the recipe. It's when it's Wendy's chili, isn't it? Yeah, no, it's it's extremely there there there was a chili, there's a big national chili cook-off down in Texas, Terralinga, Terlingua, something like that, that a guy years ago won, and through a friend of a friend, gave me this recipe. Now I'm sure there's something he left out, right? Right. But it's all the secret ingredients. And it's consistent because it's it's all powders and broth. So there's no fresh onions or peppers in it, but but it's different chili powders and stuff that you have to purchase and have. That sounds good. I'll give you the review the recipe. Oh, I don't want to manageable though. I just want to eat it. But it's easy to make, it's incredibly easy to make. I think you can take credit though. If all three of us made the same chili, same recipe, would it taste the same? Or is it if you follow the directions, yeah. Wow. I mean, I'll see you in. So what's funny thing is that's episode three. We're uh we're doing a chili cook-off with the same recipe. My wife has made one bowl of one pot of chili in her life. Okay. And she won a chili cook-off. With that recipe, she took, we were, we were, we both entered, we I entered this one chili cook-off that I entered, and I've won it like two or three times, come in second, like a few times, come in third, you know, like once. Like it's I'm gonna get at least third. Wow. In this thing. So I'm making the chili the night before, and then my wife's like, Oh, I want to make chili and go in the chili cook-off. I'm like, okay, sure. Because she's it's just whoever brings chili, that thing. So yeah, we have another crock pot. Yeah, so she's like, okay. So she sort of follows my recipe, sort of, sort of, and then she throws like some salsa in it and some chops a green pepper, throws crap in it, and I'm like, okay, whatever. And then we get to she we get to the chili cook-off, and there's you know, like 30 pots of chili or whatever there. And then, you know, they go through and people are coming up, going, oh, I know which one yours is great, blah, blah, blah. And then we're sitting there and they're calling out, you know, the top three. And they call out the top three. The number three, it's not me. It's not number two, not me. And I'm like, oh, I don't know, maybe I won again. And then they call out Number one, yeah, and it's your wife. My wife's and I'm like, okay. Beginner's luck, or I I I guess. Maybe her chili's petter. I don't know. Then she retired after that. And the next year they had her as a judge. Wow. So so that's it. So, so yeah, I make a good pot of chili, and um I have a wood-burning pizza oven in my backyard. Wow. That's cool. Tell us about pizza making. Yeah, I love making you make the dough too. I make the dough too. Years ago, my wife uh Where did you learn this? My wife, um, when she was in college, spent uh like a semester and a summer in Florence, Italy. So that's her favorite place in the world. So we went back for a vacation one year and and and did some stuff. And we went to a pizza place that you she used to go to, and um they had a Jack Daniels sign. In Florence. Like in Florence on like in the the bar area of this thing. And my wife, an Italian, is like talking to the guy, you know, we're from where that's from, and all that type of deal. We know Jack Daniels. Right, yeah. And I've tried making pizza at home throughout the years. My my wife's family owns a pizza restaurant up in Newport, Rhode Island, but she's sure typical and you know, like carry out pizza stuff. And so I've always tried to make pizza at home and it was just flat out garbage. Wow, okay, horrible. And then I tried a thing where you, you know, you put it on your green egg, you know, with the pizza stone. Horrible. So we were there and we were eating this pizza, and it was great. Next thing you know, my wife she goes off shopping, and she's like, You're staying here for today, and they're gonna teach you how to make pizza. Wow, in Florence. Now, I think part of it was she didn't want me hovering over top of her while she was shopping, right? Do we really need that? Yeah, yeah, right. Like, do you like this? Do you like this shirt? No, right, or do you like this hat? No, right? Because that's what I would say. So she left me there, and I spent there and part of the next day and learned how to make pizza. And then we got when we we got a pizza oven in our backyard, wood fired, and with stuff and other things you can learn on YouTube and on the internet, like this great podcast will be in the future. Yeah. You sort of can dial it in and tone it in, and and you've heard the discussions that we've had in the surgeons land. So we have now multiple people at the hospital that now have pizza ovens. Wow. You know, other orthopedic surgeons, general surgeons, oral surgeons. There's a whole group on this all that have pizza ovens. Um, but yeah, I make really good wood-fired pizza.

Wood-Fired Pizza And Dough Rules

Dr Steve 18:14

Tips or tricks you can share with the listener that wants to either get into it or make a better what if they were like you and just cannot put together what's a key to success. They make these little portable pizza ovens now that you can buy. There's different companies that that have them. Oh, those are microwaves. Yeah, we we know. But well, you have the ones that either can run off of a propane tank or little small pieces of wood that you can put in your backyard. I would get one of those. They're not expensive. And honestly, you can make simple dough. It's all about getting good flour, okay, good hydration, and then as you get better and better with it, there's so many YouTube videos you can watch now. And that's it's all about ultimately getting to where you have a nice high hydration of dough, letting the dough proof for a length of time. The dough is key. The dough is key, and it's and then it's also don't put too much toppings on it. Oh real Italian pizza, yeah, tell us they have a scarcity of toppings, but they're all high quality and they taste great. So that's all it is. It's cracking. It's like anything. It's cracking. Quality over quantity with the topic. Quality over quantity. I like it. It's good though. How long does it take to make the dough? Is it labor intensive? Uh it takes about 10 minutes. Oh, wow. Doesn't sound like that. No. You make a batch of dough, you portion it out, and then you know, you're either gonna let it sit and ferment for a day or two days or three days. Okay. So you're not gonna make it and then cook it immediately. It's just like it's like baking bread, right? During COVID, everybody in the world started baking bread. And you can do sourdough because you couldn't get yeast, right? Right. So everyone's now trying to make sourdough bread and all sorts of stuff because you could leave your house, right? So people wanted bread. So it's just a it's just a continuation off of that. Do you throw the dough in the air? Is that necessary or for show? Or no, that with I would throw it, want to throw it in the air. Yeah, so when you have your traditional New York pizza that's a lower hydration, yes, you can do all that. But like with the real Italian style pizza that has a higher hydration, dough tossing. You you treat it very gently. Okay. Just treat it gently, be nice to it, and it'll be nice to you when it cooks. As an Italian, that makes sense. We don't need all the fruit fruit thrown. We're just gonna, we're just gonna be nice, do our thing, 10 minutes on a pizza. Yeah, it takes 90 seconds to cook. You know, 90 seconds. Yeah. Once you have the the everything heated up, it takes 90 seconds to cook. Just take it off, be nice to it, and it'll be great. Wouldn't it wouldn't it be funny if we did we learned later that Dr. Steve is just talking about like frozen pizzas and and the journal. Feel free to sponsor the show. Yeah, we didn't really like it. And later we're like, oh, he was just talking about tombstone. Yeah, right. And he's picking toppings off. Well, you know, you know, no pizza is bad. It's true. Right? I mean, it's like any port in a storm, right? You know, if you had to, but but you know, like like here. That's like, you know, you know, you're in for a treat. You know, that's this type of pizza that's like. Now what's on this one? You can show the listers and then the uh what's on this one, Dr. Steve? This one has a mozzarella. It has uh probably has mushrooms, it has probably some fontina, some robusto cheese, which is like a um compte or a gouda, and it has a basically some charred greens that are made into like a little sauce. Probably like some fennel tops or stuff like that. All right. Yeah, they're good pizzas. And Nashville's become a good pizza town. Okay. Oh, all right. Yeah. That's not a that's not uh I also I also like the like like you set for a good picture there. Like you I mean, it's funny, like when you go to restaurants and like Everybody's in there taking pictures of their food. I am I am absolutely that person. I want people with filters and if it's really good, you don't have to put a filter. But sometimes you're just like, oof, that doesn't do it justice. Let me throw a filter on. I I went one time with a friend of mine who's not the sharpest tool in the block, right? But his thing was Was he an orthopedic surgeon? No. Okay. No, no, he was not. Okay. Um but he would take pictures of everything. He's like, oh, they might think I'm a food critic. And maybe they'll they'll comp my food. Maybe. And I'm like, no. But I don't think the real food critics actually do that. Yeah. They already know when you come in if you're this episode of Dr. Ben and Friends Podcast is brought to you by Magic Magnets. Get perfect teeth with our magnetic braces. No office visits. Just snap them in at home. Warning side effects include Rogue Magnets high fibing your fridge door. Side quest unlocked. Use leftover magnets to pick up coins off the sidewalk while grinning. Really, don't put magnets into your mouth, please. That's dangerous.

The Surgeon Who Pushed Comedy

Dr Steve 23:22

Well, I actually have Dr. Steve here to thank. He uh encouraged me to start stand-up comedy. Tell us a little about that story. I think it was actually to punish people. It was actually to punish people. So, so good old Dr. Ben here has been, gosh, how how many years have you been in Nashville here? Oh, since 2019. Yeah. And so from day one, has always been the besides a very talented orthopedic surgeon. Thank you. Um, you wouldn't know by the patient reviews, but he really is. One's a good one star, that's good, right? Yeah, one star is good. Yes, okay. At least it's a star. It's a star. Number one. Yeah. Um always well try to brighten everyone's day with his jokes. It is, and he tries, and and some sometimes they're funny. Sometimes, you know, you gotta throw the pitches, right? You gotta see what happens. And Steve was a good litmus test. He'd be like, yeah, don't no, no, I wouldn't, I wouldn't I wouldn't do that one, especially to that crowd. Unless you want to get canceled. See, um, and so at that point, I was chief of our medical staff. So I was chief of staff of the hospital. And we have uh you have like a yearly meeting type of deal. And so just as a joke one day, I was like, we should let you do a like a little you know comedy bit to start the meeting, right? During the little cocktail party part before when the people are gathering in. And he was like, sure, I'll do it. And then next thing you know, we got like three pages of demands, right? I need this type of microphone, I need this. It's called a writer. I need to MMs and a bulb. I was like, I I think we can even pay you. Would you like to tell him how much you got paid for that first gig? Yeah, made me a professional, but sure, go ahead. Yeah, we paid him one dollar. Oh that's that's more than so many comedians' first gigs. That is like like that would put you on like the top 10 percentile of first year comics money. Yeah, I didn't pay the taxes on it, by the way. Yeah, and so um he he went out there and I think we he I don't know, how many minutes? I didn't bum, did I? I didn't bum. It must have been five or six minutes. The hesitation. I think you wanted like twelve. I was like, you can have like five. I was like I was asking for which is fair. That's a fair amount to ask for the first comic. I was like, five minutes of like good material, that's a long time. For first time. For for like any time. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I think it's I admire you guys, but to like to do even do five, seven minutes of something that's like really funny and not getting crickets and stuff like that, that's that's a tough thing to do. I I was terrified, by the way. So that was uh I don't remember if you remember your first open mic or doing yes, that was terrifying. Yeah, and he had about 40 seconds of good material. That's not not bad for our first time. No, no, and and it was fine, and I got a lot of like why we you know because because a lot of doctors are well, I mean, a lot of doctors are jerks, and so you have to sort of think about it this way. Like when you did your residency program, probably all the people you train with, probably a third of the people you really like, and you probably still keep in touch with. There's another third that that you don't really ever see much. But if you run into them years later down at a meeting or something, like you be nice and you can always pick up where you were before. And there's a third of them, like, boy, I hope I never talk to this person again. The problem is all those people are in that room. So a tough audience for your first time, that's for sure. It's a tough audience. Yeah, tough cards. But he did he did fine, and the medical staff was dumb enough to vote me in again to be chief of staff. So, you know, the next meeting I was gonna punish them again, and so I kept bringing him back at each meeting to basically punish him. Your first gig was a reoccurring gig. That's right. That puts you at the top five percent of comedians. And then we had another doctor who thought he could do comedy. Right. I know I made it look easy, rival doctor comedy because I made it look easy, maybe a little language challenged or understanding. Was English his second language? I thought you were saying like he was crass, not that. Third name down the list of trying to be nice, I'm not gonna name any names. Right. But he got up and tried to do something, which was just god-awful horrible, but then when you compare it, so it made you look better. Right. So I did a purpose. So not a bad idea to bring an opener who's like, we have the true did we have the entrance music and the movie at the first one or the second one? Um, uh, probably the second one. We're like we're polishing it a little. We should have an entrance. He had an entrance. They we they had a video, he filmed an entrance. Was this well, you or the other guy? Uh me. Love it. And the song? Yeah. I don't know. Can you say the song? I think so. It's get a copyright infringement. No, only only if we play the song. Oh, we picked uh Chopsuey. Oh um System of the Down. System of the Down. Love that song. Yeah, I mean, because it it hits, you know, the if you can play three seconds of it. Well, because they kept getting you can you kept complaining. Yeah, they would confuse me for another Asian surgeon at the hospital. I was always getting caughty out there. Everybody, I think. And he's much taller and more talented than the one guy that he was being complaining. So I just let it go. Yeah, so you're I just let it go. Yeah, thank you. It's really a compliment about it. Actually, he would get irritated. He'd be like, God, they compared me to Doctor again. Especially in the OR when they were doing that. That was even worse. The people you work with all the time. I just smiled and bowed. Yeah, so we decided that we would um yeah, he had a little entrance video. So he he hit off. Right, pretty much that's what that's what we were going for. So we had uh we had a little video made. I had it, I could click it. He was out in the lobby waiting, and then he we would play the video. I'd hit the chopsui, and then he'd come in, and then he would go off. And you know, the seven minutes we gave him at the time, he would try to go to 12, and I would have to like cut, I'd have to like click his mic off. Now he's starting to sound like a second to fifth year comic. That's that that comes once you get a few gigs in. You start to be like, Oh, did you say 12? No, we said two. Oh, yeah. Well, the the I remember his um your open mic at where was that over in East Nashville?

Open Mics And Tough Crowds

Dr Steve, Drew Davis and Dr Ben 30:03

Yes, the East Room. They have an open mic. Yes, I I actually fun story before I actually ever I remember the first time you ever went there, you brought a whole crew. You might have actually been there too. I remember seeing you there. Because I were you doing a set that night? I don't remember if I were this set or but yeah, I mean that's yeah, I do remember seeing you uh the And then it was like a Dr. Ben roast it turned into, but it did. It did, but it turned into it was mostly your audience. We were roasting your audience. Okay. Uh there was there was one up there that was like went after you pretty good. Like because again, you were there in a nice fancy suit. I was supposed to do four minutes, and I think it went into like seven minutes. I thought he sent me Morse code, like keep going. And I was worried at the point that there were gonna be people in the audience having seizures because the thing was like just going use and switching it back. That means get off the stage right now and they flash you a leg when they say it was beyond that. It was literally like and and so here's the thing East Nashville, the Easter room is so much nicer than it used to be because years ago when I first started, the audience was trained where thought if the comic was either going over or just really bad. Once you saw the host putting the light up, everyone would pull out their phones and like the comedian. I've seen it before where there was a comedian that and and I'm not gonna go into it, but they had good reasons for not liking this person. But when he got got on stage, and this was this is specifically the Eastermine was only like this, but uh that used to be like the it's the longest running open mic in Nashville, like it's it's a part of Nashville comedy uh culture. But um in just this room, I saw it before where like a guy had such a bad reputation that when he would get on stage, everyone would turn their chairs. Oh it used to be such a tough I remember like how nerve it took me months to to feel comfortable like putting in to perform at the East Room because it was it used to be so so just him flashing his light, they've they've eased up a bit. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'll there was one comedian there that I thought was funny because he was like, I'm not even gonna do my act. He goes, I'm just gonna talk about how like if if if Dr. Ben's surgical skills are even close to his comedy skills, I'm shocked he still has a license. That's great. That sounds about right. I do, but I do I just remember all the people, all the people that I brought some friends. I was I was scared to do it in front of strangers, so I'm like, hey, will you come? It looked like you brought the whole town. I mean, when you're Nashville's funniest comedian, I mean you know, but everybody knew, right? Yeah, right. They knew where it was. They knew it was gonna happen. They knew you have an entourage that just follows you. I was I was too afraid to do it in front of strangers yet, so I invited some friends to come listen. But listener, I encourage you, if you I know it looks easy. Drew makes it look easy up there, but uh if I a lot of uh people come up to me and say, you know, I think I'm pretty funny, I think I could do it. Those that do an hour special, they make it look easy. Try doing a four-minute open mic, and I tell you what, that was that was terrifying. Definitely more goes into it than people assume. I I mean everyone should absolutely try and have fun and it's a great time, but like uh like those hour specials that you see, when you see like an hour special on Netflix, typically you're seeing someone who's put together the best of their work from the past 10 years. A first hour special usually takes at least 10 years to get to that. And before they see it, they've probably rehearsed it hundreds of times. Yep. Yeah. So no, I remember I remember your early days of all those shows. Talking about on the way here that I actually I remember seeing you at the very first time you showed the East Room. Yeah, I I mean it was like it was like a side memory. You weren't you weren't the you performing wasn't the main plot of whatever I was gonna like, but like I in hindsight, I was like, oh yeah, I remember the first time you went to an East Room. We used to have when I was a so I I did my residency in uh DC area at a big hospital there, Washington Hospital Center, and there were a few residency programs in the DC area. And once or twice a year, all the programs would get together and do present interesting things to try to teach the other place. And the the guy who ran our program at the time was a very well-respected surgeon uh that was in the Navy and through Korea, Vietnam, all sorts of stuff. And and um he liked to have a good time, you know, and and and uh he was old at the time and did great, and he would sort of organize this thing. And I remember sitting there and we're going through and we would present stuff, and then one and then the army would, the navy would, the other Georgetown University would, and then there was an another institution that really didn't do much, they weren't a great program. And they got up and they would present something, and it would it would always just be horrible. And they would take the longest amount of time. And and and the guy, our former chair, he just wanted to get all this over so he could get to the bar at the Test and Avel. And because, you know, and then we would he'd hang out. And I remember sitting there, and this thing is going on forever and ever. And he's like, You wish you could give him the light. He's sitting there going, I'm old, I'm cranky, and I'm never gonna get this 20 minutes of my life back. And I'm never letting them, I'm never letting them come back ever again. Type of deal. Yeah. So I can I can imagine I get that reaction in my shows a lot of times. Yeah, well, I'm telling you, that's sort of what the early shows were like. It's true though. You I mean, and especially when you sit through your entire open mics, and then especially once you start working and teaching comedians, it's like you do get sit through a lot of the things where you're like, well, that happened. So and it's always the ones that it's rarely does someone who you want to go over their time go over their time. It's always the people you're like, you could have ended like 14 minutes ago.

Staying Calm When You Blank

Dr Steve, Drew Davis and Dr Ben 36:00

Right. It's not like yeah, like a Dave Chappelle where yeah, just keep going. Um, but just to kind of Drew can attest how scary it actually is for the a lot of times, uh fantasy football leagues, the person that loses a league has to do stand-up comedy as a punishment. That's how scary it can be right. Some of them you know you you have to get a tattoo. There are some where if you lose the fantasy football league, you have to do stand-up comedy. Which is always so insulting to the comedians. It's always like, oh, this thing we're doing recreationally for fulfill our dream is a punishment for someone else. I did have a client one time who reached out to me and he and it was a guy who lost his. And so he's like, but I want to, he's like, they all expect me to bomb and fail. But like, like I I he he bought like five lessons with me. He's like, I want to kill it. I want to just do absolutely hysterical. I don't know Did you go listen to him when he well, no, because he was in some different states somewhere. Like, I don't I don't remember where he was from, but like uh, but I thought that was I was like, I really want I don't I don't actually think I ever got to see his actual routine, like because some because sometimes they send me back, like, hey, here's because I'll ask about like how to go and stuff like that. I don't think I ever got to see it, but I wanted him to do so well just in like to make up for all the bad fantasy football guy leagues uh routines I heard. So we worked together. I don't even remember what his stuff was on. I do kind of he was just roasting his friends. And when you get clients for like teaching comedy, you do your best and you it's kind of out of your control. Sure. How long did it take before you felt somewhat comfortable up there? Wow, it it was uh it was terrifying for a long time to wear almost like borderline panic attacks. And I'm remember thinking, why am I doing this? I'm not doing this again. And then each time it becomes a little less terrifying. I uh kind of uh compare it to like riding a roller coaster to where if you're kind of mildly scared of heights, even you're like, uh maybe this wasn't a good idea, click, click, click, click, click, and then the adrenaline rush, and you're like, oh, I want to do that again. And so it's funny, and I and I and I can't remember the comic's name. But I remember seeing a little video talking about you know how terrifying it is to go up there and but also what happens when you get up there and all of a sudden you draw a blank, right? And you've got your act, and all of a sudden you can't really remember what's gonna occur next, and you're trying to stay clean. Because it's easy to go up there, you can just start insulting and cussing at the the crowd, right? Do some crowd work and yeah, but like when you're up there and you're trying to, you know, stay within what you do. Have you ever had that where you sort of lose I can think of a time. Well, I mean, yes, I have had it times where like it I've um forgotten whatever and then it was uncomfortable. And especially, especially the hardest is to keep your composure when the routine isn't going well. Like maybe you have a tough crowd, maybe you're not doing well, but like the the experience comes in, like the more experienced comedians can keep the same like excitement with their routine and with their jokes, even if they know it's not going well. But you can tell that but when you first start, you don't once it gets uncomfortable, you start feeling uncomfortable, and that starts impacting your you know joke delivery and your nerves and stuff like that. And I I think when I first started, if I'd forgotten a joke then, then it got a little weird. You get you feel a little sweaty, you kind of clam up a little bit and it gets awkward. Now, what I do is if I forget something, oftentimes you can make a joke about the situation because comic comedy is organic. It's not just you're not telling jokes at the audience, you're kind of telling jokes with the audience. And so once you're comfortable enough with yourself as a comedian and like what you're doing up there, you can lean into the awkwardness of like, well, I don't really remember where I was gonna go with that. So, you know, here we are. So, but uh it's funny because you said uh it's easy to, if you forget it, to like start making fun of the insulting the crowd or dropping curse words. I've always been this way where like I feel very uncomfortable like insulting people on stage for like I'll do self-deprecating because I don't mind making fun of myself, but like it would be more nerve-wracking for me to do crowd work and put people down, and then I'd be thinking about it for the rest of my routine than for me just to be like, I don't know, let's just let's go on to the next thing, you know. So uh a couple something I did or do some uh just insider uh inside baseball here. I'm revealing one of my secrets, but um, I have my outline on my phone and then I also have like a bottle of water on a bar stool so that can buy you some time. Yep. But I've always uh I don't know if I've had to do that yet, but was gonna look at my outline on my phone and say it was the ER texting, and then I'm looking at my outline and then just tell a joke like, oh sorry, that's the ER. They said they have a patient down there that swallowed a bag of scrabble tiles. His next trip to the bathroom could spell disaster. And then so that bought me some time. I see my outline what I'm gonna say next, but I made him or at least said that, oh, it's the ER calling or so if you see me looking at my phone. Let me know what's gonna be. Try not to make it obvious. Oh, what's my next joke? Oh, it's oh, it's the ER calling.

Dad Jokes And Listener Submissions

Dr Steve, Drew Davis and Dr Ben 41:13

All right, folks, listener. Now is the portion of the podcast you've all been waiting. The dad jokes delivered. Dad jokes were a big part of me becoming a stand-up comedian, those one-liner, eye-rolling groaners. And so we want to celebrate those jokes. And I'd love for you to share your favorite dad joke in the comments down below. Well, to start us off here, we have hilarious professional comedian Drew Davis here with a uh dad joke he'd like to share. Love a good dad joke. This one came from Sam from Franklin. So if you see Sam in Franklin, let him know. Thanks for the dad joke. Uh, this one says, How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh? How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh? I have no idea. No idea. It takes ten tickles to make an octopus. Tentacles, get it? Tentacles. Tentacles. That one is that one or two. What do you think about that one factors? Oh, mine? What do you think about that one? Crowner. Tentacles. I would groan. Tentacles or tentacles? I had three grit three tentacles. But they actually have eight, right? Okay. All right. Dr. Steve is a dentist, and I'm a little worried about my dentist, actually. I think he's uh quite depressed. Every time I see him, he looks down in the mouth. He does. I give that one a good seven out of eight tentacles. Seven out of tentacles. Uh whenever I brush my teeth, I always try to brush my teeth with my wife. Uh, because my dentist said that uh brushing alone will not prevent cavities. So I'm always trying to I'm liking the octopus joke. Yeah, right, right. Suppose you do the other jokes and they make the first one sound. Like when I give an opener. So yeah. But uh Dr. Steve, do you have any gut busters for us that you can see? Oh gosh, I think you show up afterwards. I mean uh let's see. What's the difference between an oral and a rectal thermometer? So it's a good one. I I don't think I know the answer. I the I'm not gonna say the answer I'm thinking. Okay. The taste. Oh, the taste. Okay. Easily uh not good either. That's a good one. Um that one gets like, I'm gonna give that one to tentacles. But uh, Dr. Steve was actually uh dentist of the year. Do you know what they gave the dentist of the year? No, what did they give them? A little plaque. I don't like that one. When they win again, they give them a crown. Dr. Bush joke is doing better in the Yes. I I felt the judgment after I said that one. Yeah. I'm taking that back. All right, listener, on our website, drben and friends.com. We have a link for you, the fan and listener, to share your favorite dad joke, and we will play it on our podcast. So click on the contact below to leave us your favorite dad joke if you want to hear it.

Subscribe, Share, And Where To Find Drew

Dr Steve, Drew Davis and Dr Ben 44:21

All right, folks, that's a wrap on today's doctor's appointment with Dr. Ben and Friends at the heart of Nashville. We love celebrating our healthcare heroes and our professional comedians. Remember, some of us can be serious in surgery and some of us can be seriously funny. All right, we're getting started with season one. We appreciate you all for listening. Make sure to depress that subscribe button with your thumb or index finger. Smash that subscribe button. All right, your word of mouth is our best support, so please tell a friend. We want to thank Drew Davis for being on the show today. Drew Davis, how can uh our listeners find you? Yeah, first of all, thank you for having me on the show. This is a lot of fun. I feel like such a smarter person just being in the same room as you guys. If you want to find anything for me, uh all the social media forms, uh Drew Davis Comedy, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, all the things. Uh I also run a group called the Clean Comedy Collective, so you could look them up and find your uh next favorite comedian if you like clean comedy. Uh and in regards to them, I also do a podcast that I just recently started called Clean Comedy Chats with Drew Davis. That's me, that's in the name. And we just interview the uh comedians who are in our network. So if you like this and you're like, let's listen to less educated people talk about things, then have I the podcast for you. So uh drewavis.com, Drew Davis comedy on all the things. That's where you find me. Check them out, folks. And then uh I don't know if our listeners want to find you. They don't. If you see me at Home Depot, say hello, but hopefully you'll never see me at work. All right, thank you, listener. We'll see you next time when I, Dr. Ben and Friends will help you put the med in comedy. See you next time. Dr. Ben and Friends.