Carpool Karaoke For Guns? Meet the Viral Sensation, Charlie Cook!

Charlie Cook, the host of "Riding Shotgun with Charlie," discusses the origin of his popular podcast and video series, which he created after being inspired by Carpool Karaoke and blending his passion for guns with a new focus on video content. He shares his background as a musician, including opening for artists like Dolly Parton, and his long-time profession as a band teacher.

Charlie details the rapid growth of his show, highlighting a pivotal moment in 2016 when an interview with Mark Walters led to a feature on Armed American Radio and a speaking opportunity at the Gun Rights Policy Conference.

Beyond the show, Charlie teaches gun classes and creates viral "Gun Grams," where he plays the trumpet while shooting a firearm, showcasing his unique combination of talents. He also emphasizes the supportive nature of the gun community and outlines his goal to film an episode in every state.

Links:

• Otis Technology (00:06.082): The podcast booth where the interview is being recorded.

• Shot Show 2025 (00:06.082): The trade show where the interview is taking place.

• Riding Shotgun with Charlie (00:30.933): Charlie Cook's video series and podcast.

• Carpool Karaoke (01:00.672): The TV show that inspired "Riding Shotgun with Charlie."

• Toastmasters (02:54.676): Organization where Charlie worked on his speaking and presenting skills.

• USCCA magazines (03:59.049): Magazine where a guest's husband's story was featured.

• Lessons from Unarmed America (04:08.575): Book by Rob Pinkus and Mark Walters.

• Armed American Radio (04:22.052): Mark Walters' nationally syndicated radio show.

• Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) (05:24.322): Conference where Charlie was invited to speak.

• San Diego County Gun Owners (07:33.473): Group that hosted "Gun Prom."

• Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) (09:34.673): Charlie interviewed its founder, Alan Gottlieb, at the headquarters.

• YouTube (14:48.210): Where Charlie posts his "Gun Grams" videos.

• TikTok (14:48.210): Platform that banned some of Charlie's "Gun Grams" videos.

• Comedy Central's At Midnight (18:03.551): Game show that used one of Charlie's viral videos.

• Gunstreamer (21:55.776): Platform where "Riding Shotgun with Charlie" is posted.

• Rumble (21:55.776): Platform where "Riding Shotgun with Charlie" is posted.

• Spotify, I Heart, Apple Podcasts (22:04.226): Platforms where the show's audio is available.

• Armed Lifestyle Magazine (22:15.820): Magazine Charlie writes articles for, repurposing show content.

• News 2A (22:20.150): Website out of New Jersey Charlie writes for.

• Ammoland (22:28.851): Website that runs Charlie's show (requires him to write an accompanying article).

• GOA (Gun Owners of America) Goals (23:19.463): Event Charlie attended in Knoxville.

Key takeaways:

• Niche Adaptation: A successful format from mainstream culture (like Carpool Karaoke) can be effectively adapted to a niche topic (like gun rights) to create unique content.

• The Power of Networking: A single high-value connection (like Mark Walters) can rapidly accelerate a new content creator's platform and exposure.

• Leverage Multiple Talents: Combining disparate

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to Amateurs and Experts Podcast. We are already laughing in the Otis Technology booth here at SHAT Show 2025. Jessica's wiping tears from her eyes. And it's only 912. We're here with the hilarious Charlie Cook riding shotgun with Charlie. I'm so excited. I was giddy when you said that you would come on our podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Well, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

No, no. I mean that we didn't we decided not to do videos.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Right. I'm not saying anything. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

You are so hilarious. Oh, well, thank you. You've been across country, I mean, across the country.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

I'm working on it. Yeah, working on it, working on it. I filmed shows in 34 states so far. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yeah. And you're just a guy with some cameras and a rental car and a funny personality. Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

So I had the idea for writing Shotgun after watching uh Carpool karaoke.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

And I, you know, you see James Corden, and I'm like, he's uh he's chubby and he's English, and and I'm chubby and I speak English, so it should be like the connection shouldn't be that hard. Perfect. Right. And so um, I mean, you know, my my background is uh I'm a musician. I I wanted to be a rock star, but again, fat kids that play the trombone don't get to be rock stars. So playing for KISS was never an option. That was the dream.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Getting quite the visual in my mind.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Yeah, I know, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Spandex. Spandex P.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Right, right. The whole deal. Big wig. Um, so uh so I wanted to be, I wanted to be a rock star and been being a musician, spent 10 years in a Motown disco funk band. Um back in my previous life, I had an opportunity to open for Dolly Parton. Oh, um, had an opportunity to uh we opened for Ray Charles one time. We opened up by the time we opened up for Earth, Wind and Fire, we couldn't hang out with them. So I'm like, well, who cares? Like I can't, I can't first of all, this is before, you know, cell phones, so there's no no pictures of eviden any evidence of this.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Well, pictures or it didn't happen. Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

So it's I can't really prove to my kids that I met Dolly Parton. Because I'm like, really, trust me, I met her in the early 90s. Like, really. So, so Polaroids. Yeah, right. We're gonna shake it. Exactly. Which when Dolly Parton starts shaking it, it's really not so bad. No. But um, anyway, so I uh, you know, wanted to be a rock star, uh, end up being a band teacher for a hundred years, and then um Carpool karaoke comes out, and I'm like, look at this, this guy gets to hang out with rock stars. He's not really that funny, right? It's all this fake baloney, oh, I'm gonna drive to work, oh, look what I run into with the Starbucks, it's the Foo Fighters. Right, they're hanging out at Starbucks. So that's that's kind of where I get the idea from. I'd uh I spent a bunch of years in Toastmasters working on my speaking, presenting skills, gaining confidence in yourself, leadership skills and stuff, yeah, which was really good. And then I was working on a manual called Communicating on Video. And we had to interview someone for five to seven, uh, be interviewed by someone for five to seven minutes, do a press conference, do a um uh an editorial video editorial, and then we had to make a little video teaching people how to become better speakers. So when I was working on this, I this was 2016. I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna start a show and I'm gonna drive people around like James Court, right? And I was I was a gun instructor and a gun guy and stuff, and I'm like, uh, I'm gonna talk to gun folks. So that's kind of how the whole thing, uh, how I had the idea for the whole thing. And I interviewed some local friends and gun folks and not gun folks and whatever, get some reps in and pay some dues. And I ended up um in 2016, I interviewed Anthony Calandro and Ken Blanchard, the Reverend Ken. Um these were the first guys that I reached out to that were, you know, outside of Massachusetts, and they both said yes to this. And I'm like, this is great. I interviewed, uh I reached out to this is bizarre bizarre, but it was a friend, uh husband's friend, uh, this girl I used to be friends with back in the 90s. Uh, she her husband was robbed at gunpoint.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

And yeah, and his story was in uh it was in one of the USCCA magazines, and Rob Pincus and Mark Walters wrote about it in their book, Lessons from Unarmed America. And I don't know any of this. This was like, I knew Pincus was a deal. I didn't know the radio show. Like, you know, I messaged this friend of mine in Minneapolis, and I'm like, hey, I'm interviewing people. Uh I know your husband was robbed at gunpoint, I'd like to talk about this, and you know, have him on my show. So uh his name is Lee Williams. He's uh uh he was a conservative talk show host in Minneapolis. So he's like, hey, if you come out this particular weekend, I'm gonna have Mark Walters here. And Mark Walters is armed American Radio, and I'm like, oh, that's big time. So I like to.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Stars are lightning.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Yeah, I totally I had two GoPro cameras. Um, I went and picked up Mark at the hotel, and I'm like, Lee sent me to pick you up, and I'm gonna drive and interview you. And he's like, All right, sounds cool. And then he's doing a uh radio broadcast that night, and he's like, hey man, that was really cool. You want to be on my nationally syndicated radio show tonight? Uh yes, I do. Yes, yes, I do. And then um, after we did that show, he called me the next day. I don't know why how this voicemail got deleted because I hang on to everything. But um, he called me the next day and he's like, dude, that was really cool. I'd like to help out with this. And I'm like, awesome. I I don't really know what that means, but I'm gonna take it. And um, lo and behold, two days later, he's like, Do you want to speak at the gun rights policy conference? Um, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

So that was in 2016. Um, and I was on a panel of people that use new media to promote gun rights. I'm like, I don't really know what I'm doing here.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Like, you've like I've I've done it for an hour and now I'm here on a panel.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

I don't know how to edit video. I can't get the video to synchronize. I don't like it. I don't even know they had an app for that, you know. So that's uh that's kind of how things got going for me. That's amazing. Yeah, it's it's been cool. And and you know, I if if I would have thought something was gonna become of it, like I would have picked a shorter name rather than writing shotgun with Charlie, because it's kind of a mouthful.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

No, but I think it flows well. It does, and it is so fun. It well, thank you. Yes, I love watching it and who you have on. And I know uh last year you had Deb, the founder of, and she said, Oh my gosh, that was so fun.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

You know, yeah, we're driving around the strep, holy crow, mole, traffic's bad. Yes, just it was so much fun.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Probably a couple blocks is all you gotta do.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah, I really, exactly. We're driving around the parking lot.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

All right, well, thanks very much. It's been 45 minutes. Yeah, yeah. Um, so as far as what's going on now. Uh it's I What state are you gonna conquer this year? Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

So I haven't written my goals down for 2025 yet. I know it's 2025, right? I know. I know. We're almost at the end of January, Charlie. When are you gonna get on it? Probably by February. Um, so the the one of the goals for me is to do a film show in every state. And uh, like I said, I've knocked out 34 states so far. I have uh four states east of the Mississippi, and then everything else, wet like a lot of states west of the Mississippi, like the big states.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Are you coming to California?

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Um I don't know. I would love to.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

But you know, I live in California.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Uh where?

SPEAKER_00 7:26

There are parts that are not on fire.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Oh, wow. There are, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

What's left of it?

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Right?

SPEAKER_00 7:32

I um we're part of uh like uh near Sacramento.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Oh, okay, cool. I haven't been there. So I've only been to San Diego twice. Uh I went in 2022, I went to Gun Prom, but that the San Diego County gun owners did. Oh. And uh and that was pretty cool. That was that was a lot of fun. Um, and then uh I went last September for the gun rights policy conference.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

And it was it was really cool to me because everyone's like, ooh, you is you're gonna go down to the wall, you're gonna go to the wall. And I'm like, there's a tribute to Pink Floyd? I had no clue. I had no clue they were huge in San Diego.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

I wouldn't have put those together either.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Right, no. So then I'm like, um, what's the wall? And they're like, the border wall. I'm like, oh, let's let's do it. I'm gonna go. So I interviewed, um uh I interviewed uh Desi Bergman. She's like, let's go to Coronado Island to a beach that she plays volleyball at. I'm like, it sounds cool, man. Let's do that. And then I uh interviewed this gentleman, his name is Mateus Quellenberg, and uh he does uh I think it's a San Diego shooting school, um, a San Diego firearm school. And uh we get in the car with him and he's like, Well, where are we gonna drive? I'm like, dude, take me to the wall. I want to go to the wall. And right in front of the border wall, there's a mall. It's the it's the wall mall, right? The wall mall. The wall mall, yeah. It's right before the wall. And so we we got our pitch, we drove down there, got our pictures in front of the wall, and drove back.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

So you have been to California then?

SPEAKER_01 8:53

I have, yeah. But look, I have not Northern California, not yet.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Okay, yeah, I mean there's potential in the future for them to split California into two states. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

We can only hope.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

I can only hope, yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Totally, totally. Hey, so um there's several people out there that um that you would probably love to.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

I so one of one of the things that I do is when I go someplace, I try to try to get as many interviews as I can. And then when I and I'm I'm telling everyone how the, you know, uh whatever, how the the sausage is made here. Um but it uh I'll I'll film a bunch of shows when I go someplace, and then I I don't put them out in order because there's no chronological sequence to things. And then I uh in 2021 I put out seven months worth of material. Like I put out two shows a month, and then I ended up in like well by March, I had 14 shows to edit, right? I went to California, I went to Florida and I filmed five shows. I had four shows already, and then I went to um the Second Amendment Foundation headquarters and interviewed uh Alan Gottley. I get to drive Alan Gottlieb's Corvette around. Oh my gosh. Yeah, so I like I love this. This is the completely ridiculous, but um you know we have varying degrees of pro-gun. You know, we have the second amendment, some second amendment butters, and then we have the shotgun. I I like to say uh we have the people that want to hunt. The people that want to hunt don't want to carry. The people that want to carry don't want to hunt, and nobody knows what's going on with the shotgunners, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:19

So um well, if you come to California, I don't have a Corvette, but you can definitely drive my bed so well.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

So some people give me a hard time because I have to borrow their car.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

I'll actually clean it. Oh, bro, nice! She cleaned it for us for SHAT show. Yeah, excellent. Yes, excellent. Yeah, it's it's kind of the extension of my purse, and my child likes to think that it's like the fast food.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

That's awesome. Yes. But yeah, we I would love to have you in. I'd love to, yeah, that'd be great. Yeah. Yeah, let's let's I would love to make it happen.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

And then I'll tell all my friends and be like, oh my gosh, let's let's and then we'll we'll actually hijack you. Perfect. And you'll be writing shotgun with their pack.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

I love it. I love it, I love it, I love it.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Oh my gosh, I'm so giddy about it. We'll definitely have to make that happen.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

You know, um, getting back to I think that it's really cool, like Otis, right? We bought two microphones and a podcast board.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

And it turned to two microphones, uh, two tables and a microphone.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Yeah, off of Amazon, and then and then they built us a podcast booth.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

This is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

I know. And so, you know, just like how somebody brought you and said, hey, love what you're doing. Yeah, let me help you.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yes, it's this is the thing with the gun community. Like everybody's everybody's very helpful, everyone's very encouraging. It's not it's not the nonsense that the anti-gun folks believe like want us, want people to believe that they are, or that we are.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Yes, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:53

We're not bloodthirsty. I mean, rarely are we bloodthirsty murderers, but um it's a lot of paperwork, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

You know we're not really in. My nails get dirty, not really into jail, or orange is not my color.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

There's the show.

unknown 12:11

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

No desire to go on a cold toilet.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

No, I don't need two hots, two uh three hots in a cot. Right. Although you do have plenty of time to work out and play the harmonica. So right. Well, in California, they give they give you iPads. Oh, there we go. Yes, babysitters. I heard federal prison in California is the is the word the way to go.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Oh, well, there we go. If you have to go to if you have to go to prison, it should be in California.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

California. Yes. So what what else are you what else are you doing? Because I know you just don't do uh writing shotgun with Charlie.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Don't blow my cover here. Um so I uh I've been a gun instructor I uh since 2007. And in 2010, I started teaching at a shooting school in central Massachusetts. Right. And uh, you know, I would go in there and I would do the four-hour singing and dancing for the uh CCW. Yeah, and it's it was don't tell the NRA this, but it was like a bastardized version of the home fire and safety class. Because it's it started off like that, and then uh yeah, in Massachusetts, they have approved curriculum that you have to teach if you want to get a permit or a license to carry.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah, 16 hours. 16 hours. Oh my god.

unknown 13:25

Crazy.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

So uh ours is only four hours, it's non-life firing, they are changing all of this. Oh wow, yeah, it's it's bad. But um, I would sit there in the class and I would uh I teach 20 people, and I know everyone paid 100 bucks, and you know, my pay was not a hundred bucks per person. So um there was a commercial for uh for a bank where everyone, if you refer to friend, they give you a hundred bucks. And in the commercial, like this guy's walking down the road and everyone's face turns into Benjamin Franklin. And and right, uh and I I would I would see this commercial and I remember this, and I'm teaching a class, and I'm I'm looking around, everyone looks like Benjamin Franklin, and I'm bringing one and a half Benjamin Franklin's home and giving 18 and a half to the boss. So I'm like, yeah, I'm like, I need to become an instructor on my own. So about 2013, 2014, I started teaching classes on my own. So I I you know I became a instructor, uh certified instructor through the Mass State Police, through the NRA. Uh I can teach a bunch of those classes, but nobody ever takes personal protection inside the home. Um I did refuse to be a victim. I did the uh saber pepper spray class, instructor for that. I teach the Utah class too. So um so I teach gun classes on the sides, uh, you know, at secondary income. Um I make videos playing the trumpet and shooting a gun at the same time. You do? What?

SPEAKER_00 14:43

How did we not find that? Wait, where do you post those?

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Those are on the YouTube. I did get them kicked off of TikTok, right? Well, I no no surprise. Right. I I told them I told my kids I was too hot for the talk.

unknown 14:59

Ops.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Right. Yeah, so but half the videos on TikTok would get banned, half of them wouldn't. And I'm like, this is really stupid.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Gosh, I didn't see that didn't come up. What? It did not come up. It didn't come up? No. This is what you were gonna get on your shirt. The picture of me with the gun and the trumpets. Yes. That's what I do. But I would I just thought it was a cool design.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

No, oh my god. Girl, I nice job on your research, ladies. So I I call these uh I call these gun grams. And um I've been a I've been a band teacher for, you know, so I tell my students since the 1900s, and um I play the trumpet. Oh, thank you. Uh being around mu uh kids and playing music keeps me young. So I'm only 107 so um I need your skin routine. Yeah, I know, right? It's the Jack Daniels, and just some.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

I've been using tequila.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Nice, perfect. I'm sure it's the same effect.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

So um, yeah, so I I've been a band teacher for a long time. And uh I play trumpet with I can play trumpet with both hands, all right, because it's the only instrument you need, the only instrument you can play that, or only band instrument you can play with one hand. Like a flute, clarinet, sax phone needs two hands, trombone, you need two hands. So uh I played trumpet at school and I would go over and point to music and you know, move kids' hands to put them on the right keys and play the drum parts and stuff with one hand. So at one point I decided that uh I had a friend of mine say to me, he's like, you know, Charlie, when you when you talk about your old gigging days, you get that little twinkle in your eye. And he says, when you talk about guns, you get that little twinkle in your eye. So you gotta find a way to put the two of those together. So um he's like, you should go out and do like bum-bada. Right? So I did that, I did that in 2014. I made that video. I did the blue danube. So if you look up trumpet glock duet, you'll find the blue danube. Okay, and then in 2015, I had a friend whose it was her son's birthday, and um I did the played happy birthday and I shot the cha-cha-cha that kid sang. But I shot that with an AR. So I got a trumpet in one hand and holding an AR in the other. And um, and I and yeah, and so in 2015, um, I had a lot of friends that are like, oh my god, dude, can you make one of those for me? And then that led to um, you know, a bunch of versions of Happy Birthday, but the Indiana Jones theme and Star Wars, like blah blah blah bum. Ba ba ba boom, right? So so that was really cool. And then in 2015, uh I got a phone call or I got an email from some television show, and they're like, hey, we'd like to um put some viral videos out, and we can we use yours? I'm like, yeah, here's here's the Adams family, here's uh here's Bob Marley's Three Little Birds, and and you know, another tune. And that led to uh getting phone calls from radio stations in Jacksonville and Chicago and El Paso. And they're like, Do you wanna do you wanna be on the radio with somebody in El Paso, Texas? Are you are you the guy that plays the trumpet and shoots a gun at the same time? Yeah, I am. Uh do you want to be on the radio in El Paso? Yeah, I'd love to. Right? Yes. So so that was kind of cool. The the highlight was um Chris Hardwick used one on Comedy Central for a little game show he had called At Midnight. And they don't reach out to you. Like when they steal your stuff, they don't reach out to tell you this.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

No, they don't.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

No. So a friend of mine was up at two o'clock in the morning, you know, watching TV, couldn't sleep. And then she told me the next day, she's like, Oh my god, dude, I saw you on TV. I'm like, what? And she's like, Yeah, you you're the only guy that plays a trumpet and shoots a gun. I'm like, where did you see this?

SPEAKER_00 18:31

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

So I I find this on Comedy Central, and I go to school one day, right? And these kids are like, uh, hey, Mr. Cook, we saw your video on YouTube. I'm like, uh, what video? The Comedy Central one? Yeah. Like, we saw you shooting a gun and playing the trumpet. I'm like, well, that seems dangerous. Why would someone do that? No, uh, it's not me. Like, she looks just like you. I'm like, it is not me.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

It's totally not me.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Right. And they're like, dude, it's totally, I'm like, all right, listen, don't tell the second grade teacher because she's a crazy woman.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

So And how old are these kids?

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Uh these kids were like in sixth grade.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

And they were up at midnight watching.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

No, no, they I well, it so it ended up being like the 27, like this particular day, it ended up being like the number 27 trending video on YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

So it's got, I don't know, a couple million views. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

So is that your primary job then?

SPEAKER_01 19:25

No, my. Because you said teaching what's going on. Oh, teaching, teaching my primary.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

I mean, or yeah, teaching teaching device.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

No, no, teaching band. I teach band at Catholic school. People like, so what do you do? This is great too, because no one I keep my I really try to keep my world separate, right? But um, I'm taking a week off of school, and I I teach band at Catholic schools, and and I just go in like for a half day, and then I go to another school for the rest of the day, and then the next day I go to another, you know, a third school, the next day, the yeah, next afternoon, a fourth school. So I just go to every school, I'm like, oh, hey, listen, um, I have an appointment next week, I'm not gonna be here. And they're like, oh, okay. I'm like, we'll make the lesson up. They're like, okay. I go to the next school, I say, hey, listen, not gonna be here next week. I gotta, you know, we're gonna change the schedules. They're like, oh, okay, sounds cool. I got an email from my boss. He's like, hey, um, you put your timesheet in, but uh, there's only one week rather than two. I'm like, um, I'm at a conference. He's like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

I'm I'm not feeling good. Right. The best one was this. I was I was playing in a band um and we had a gig in Aruba. And this was before caller ID, and before, you know, certainly before everyone had a cell phone. And uh I called in from a casino in Aruba and did the whole, I just need to cancel lessons.

unknown 20:34

Click.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Right? All the oceans in the background. Like Sino's ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You just make your own.

unknown 20:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

I have to make lessons up anyway, so if I gotta make them up, I make them up.

unknown 20:47

Whatever.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Your life is amazing. When I grow up, I want to be just like you.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

It's the fine line between amazing and pathetic, right? I'm not sure, I'm not sure which is.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

No, definitely not. No.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

So this is I have a I I teach um post-COVID. Um my my day job, I I teach three days a week. Um, and that's it. That's three days a week. I teach gun classes on the side. I got a got a little YouTube channel.

unknown 21:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

And you're writing Shakavanjaro.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

And I'm writing Shakya Vachara. This is what I do.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Living your best life. I really am.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Yeah. That's great. Yeah. I keep myself busy, keep myself out of trouble.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

And bringing so much joy to others. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Oh, well, thank you. I'm just I'm just trying to keep up. That's all. That's all I do.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

It's been great having you on the show. If somebody wants to hang out with you or uh learn how to call in sick, or I'll be at Mo's, right? I was thinking more of the Cheers Bar. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

No, I'll be at Cheers. I walk in, every everyone's like Charlie. One person, Charles?

SPEAKER_00 21:51

That's from the Catholic school, right? How do you how do they find you? On YouTube?

SPEAKER_01 21:57

On so writing shotguns. Um The writing shocking with Charlies are on YouTube. I've got a YouTube channel there. I've got one on Gunstreamer. I've got one on Rumble. I put the audio out as a podcast. So you can find that on Spotify and iHeart and Apple Podcasts. The um I repurpose shows for Armed Lifestyle Magazine. So I go back and interview some people, re-interview people and put a put a kind of 1800, 2000-word article about that, an Armed Lifestyle magazine. I also write for a website out of New Jersey called News2A. Okay. And uh Amoland. Uh this was great. So 2019, 2019, I got the Blogger of the Year Award at the Gun Rights Policy Conference. So I ran around for two days. I'm like, blogger of the year? Didn't write a word. Right?

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Thank you for the award.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

I know, this is great. Blogger of the Year, don't write any words. So I talked to uh I talked to the guys at Ammo Land. I'm like, hey, would you guys be interested in running my show? They're like, yeah, you gotta write 600 words. I'm like, oh.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

Like, am I back at school?

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Right. It's now at homework. It really is. It really is.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Chat GPT.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Transcribe this interview. So uh so yeah, so that's when I started writing uh writing show you know better show descriptions, and then um Amoland runs the show too. So I I try to be everywhere, you know. I um I've been coming to SHAT Show for a number of years now. I've been I've been going to the gun rights policy conference. Uh I've been a speaker there. Um this past year they they asked me to MC one day, so that was pretty fun. And uh what else? I've been going to the NRA annual meetings. Uh I went to the GOA's goals in Knoxville, so that was pretty cool. So I'm just trying to keep up with everybody else, man, so I can be cool. Uh yeah, on the plane. To and from. Right. To and from. Yeah. Usually my music lessons, too.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

But uh you go tell anybody.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Yeah, I know. I'm just trying to keep up with you guys so I so I can have a booth where somebody says, hey, listen, can you want a booth? I'm like, uh I don't want to stay stable. Like, I want to be on the move.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

I know. That's so cool.

unknown 23:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

Anyway, thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

The pleasure was mine. Thank you very much. Have a great show. Thanks for too.