"My Heart Wasn't In It" - Ralph Barbosa on Hosting His Own Show

Netflix comedian Ralph Barbosa sits down for one of his most honest interviews yet. 

He gets into his blue-collar roots learning auto body in his dad's Dallas shop, how wrecking his own cars pushed him into the trade, and knocking out every comedy goal he ever set. 

Now he's chasing something completely different - cars, his YouTube channel Formula Bean, and starting his career over on his own terms.

It's a candid conversation about ambition, knowing when you've "made it," and why the grind everyone glorifies isn't always worth chasing.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

No pressure on you, but feel like the future of comedians on podcrash is all in your hands right now. Hell yeah. Let's do it. Please welcome the very funny Ralph Barb.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

My number one objective everywhere I went was just to figure out how to make everybody laugh.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

I feel like I've hit a point where like I I'm very much satisfied. You're satisfied for today. And when your life circumstances evolve change for whatever reasons, you never know.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

I have a huge hunger right now for making anything happen in the automotive world. And this is like my baby now. So for now, comedy's paying the bills, but ah man, uh the world of comedy and entertainment in general. You know, I don't know what's truly right or wrong sometimes, but there's certain parts of the entertainment industry that so I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

You're the milestone for us. You're the first comedian on this podcast that's about a year in now. Oh man, don't worry. They're gonna be lining up after this. They'll be like that. That show was so great with with Ralph. We're gonna bring we're gonna get other side. I'm gonna promote their shows here. Yeah, yeah. So no pressure on you, but I feel like the future of comedians on Podcrash is all in your hands right now. Oh yeah. Let's do it. I I'm not worried it'd be great. And you did some work with us on recruiting, so really, uh, really appreciate that. The great thing about your background is you've got some some car repairs, some blue-collar stuff in your background, so it made you a great choice for us to maybe help us recruit some people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Thank you guys for recruiting me to help recruit. You know that your body shops are the first body shops that I went into that like all the safety requirements were met. Oh yeah? Yeah. I like I've only worked in shops. Man, and I gotta be careful what I say, because if I name the shops later on, yeah, yeah. Like, you know, but I don't even think a lot of these shops are around anymore. I've worked in shops that had no business names, no title. Like, it's just a shop. Yeah, somebody knows the guys. Were the cars hot that were pulling in there? Nah, the cars weren't hot, but they came in in one piece and left in 20. The people that took their cars there, maybe you know, maybe they were uh hot and not I'm not talking about attractiveness. Yeah. But and then I've worked in other shops that were, you know, a little more legit. But um this this was my first time in like uh actually second time in a shop that like everything was up to speed. Oh, that's great. Up everything was regulation, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 2:56

We hope people see that and we'll let our customers know that they could trust us because you saw you saw underneath the hood and gave it a snap of approval. And if anybody works there, it's safe. You know, the m the truth is, is you need to keep people safe. Like like we're short people already. So the last thing we want to do is have people hurt themselves. And the other thing is, is when you're big too, you also get a big target. So everybody thinks because you're a big company, there's there's money to go behead. So people try to don't want to give people an excuse to sue us. People try to sue often? Oh yeah. Lawsuits, I don't know. I'm scared of lawsuits. I've never had a lawsuit. My first lawsuit was when I was a kid. I w I I was my own best customer for a while. I kept wrecking cars, and one time I rear-ended a car and the guy got hurt, and that lawsuit was like three years long. Of course, it was my insurance company paying, but I was just a kid. Scared me a little bit. Dang, they're trying to sue you as a kid. Well, they sue the insurance company, yeah. But you gotta go do the court. You gotta go and testify and tell why you were an idiot and ran into the back of the car. Why'd you do it? You didn't like the guy or what? No, I was a bad driver. Oh I was paying attention to something else and not the road.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

That's the thing that comes up as a car.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

That's like your full like Batman moment. Like you were a bad driver, and then you went and started a business supplied by bad drivers. Yeah. Or unlucky drivers.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yeah, I I got in this industry because I wrecked my car second time, first one totaled, so I was scared to death I was gonna lose my insurance if I made another claim. So I went to a guy in the neighborhood and asked him to show me how to fix it. Oh, that's nice. Where's that guy now? Uh, good question. Haven't stayed in touch. Oh man. But worked with him right after high school at the shop that he worked at and stayed in touch for a few years after that. But what was his shop like? It was a small town in Illinois, and this was just a garage behind his house. And then the body shop that he worked at was about seven or eight buildings in the middle of the country, in the middle of Illinois, and they did everything from horse trailers to UPS trucks to semis to cars. So it was a great first experience of seeing a big variety of stuff to fix. Nice. Hell yeah. You spent some time in a shop.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Your dad owned a shop. Yeah, my dad had a shop in Dallas, Texas, and uh I was very, very small. I think he first got it when I was maybe like eight or nine years old, something like that. And he had it up until I was maybe fourteen. Okay. Yeah, and then he moved shops, but that one was like the one that like got me into pain and body, or at least at least the paint. I was always more a fan of the paint side. Body work is tough for me. Like I never got the gist of it. Yeah. It it feels very much like wax on, wax off, listen to your heart to me. Because like my uncle would show me, he's like putting his hand flat across, and he can feel like the high spots and the low spots, and I don't know what he's feeling. Oh, you couldn't tell the difference. Mm-mm. I can like it had to be a uh obvious high spot for me to feel it. Okay. But it had to feel like a tumor. Like to me, it would feel flat, and he's like, nah, it's high right here and low over here. Yeah. Uh but he, you know, he's got tons of experience. But I like it's just never computed to me.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yeah, for those that aren't in the know on what you're talking about, when you repair a panel, the waviness of it'll show up after you paint it. Yeah. So you don't have the advantage of paint as the technician making the panel right, so you gotta do it by feel. Yeah. So you're feeling if it's gonna be nice and flat like it's supposed to be, or if it's wavy and you didn't have the feel for it.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Uh-uh. Like I couldn't, but he could. But he like I I got good enough at it. Yeah. Where I could I can repair small dents, but anything bigger than like, you know, eight inches, uh, I couldn't help you. Were you a good painter though? Yeah. I I would say I was a good painter. I never today if it I think yeah. I never painted a full car. The most I painted was like half a car. Um but I I I felt like I was pretty good. My uncle would start to let me paint the uh insides of parts just to practice at first. Okay. And then uh I didn't actually paint anything until I went to uh to school at uh Eastfield College back in Dallas. Okay, the auto body program. So I I was doing like the the painter's certificate program. And uh, you know, you just go to a body shop and ask for an old fender, and then that's like your your projects for the like anything that they're gonna show you, they show you on your fender. And that was my first time actually painting. But I had I had gotten in like enough reps with my uncle that uh I I pretty much by the time I went to auto body school, like I nailed the first paint job because he'd let me paint the insides of parts, and then a couple times he let me clear the inside just so I can get like a feel for it. Yeah. So yeah, the only thing that I maybe struggled with like with my first few paint jobs was uh adjusting the gun, like finding like a good pattern and stuff and pressure. But nah, and then I would take on extra jobs too when I was at at the uh auto body school. Like I I would offer to paint people's uh PlayStation 4 controllers. Oh really? Yeah, so I'd take them apart and like paint them, or I would uh smoke out headlights. A lot of people back home would try to do them on their own, but they would I guess they would try to paint like they're probably buying spray paint from the hardware store or something, right? Yeah, or if they would paint it, like I think a lot of them were doing like they they just put like black paint over it. Okay. But now you know with the with the body shop experience, you know, kind of learned a little trick just to throw some black paint and some clear coat and like you know, the rest was gravy.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

So you grew up with that around you. Were you thinking about doing that when you grew up or were or were was it more like a conversation with your dad, uncle others where they're telling you, no, you gotta find something better to do than this when you grow up? My my dad wouldn't really tell me much.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Um, you know, he'd he'd tell me maybe like that I could have my own body shop one day or or that it was just good to know it. My uncle, who was like the one that would actually do the work, because my dad just kind of like ran things.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

But uh my uncle would show me how to do everything, and he would tell me, like, I'll teach you, but like uh I'd I'd like you to do something else where you're not like breathing in like all these dangerous fumes or like kind of like hurting your back and stuff, you know? But um The fumes are my favorite part as a kid, by the way. Mine too. I liked it. I was like, dude, you can't take me away from the fumes now. Like I like the fumes, man. Um he but my uncle's also like he he wasn't you know, it was it was a backyard shop kind of thing. So he he's speaking from like his experience. And once I got into like an actual body shop, I'm like, dude, my uncle I don't think my uncle really realizes like how how much harder it is on him compared to like in a in like a I guess more corporate body shop because my uncle's doing all of the work. Well not only that, but like my uncle has no help. I was his only help. Okay. So like you go to any body shop and there's body men and then there's you know a uh an a paint prep or paint apprentice, and then there's a painter, like the the the work is is divided. Yeah. And my uncle's doing everything from like you know, using the the machine to pull pull the frame to uh fixing to fixing all the dents to to painting. So he's doing it from like start to finish all himself. And it's like, well, no wonder he's telling me, don't do this. Like he's kidding himself doing like every job. But by the time I got to a body shop, you know, half half the responsibilities of his shop were like gone. Yeah. Now I can only focus on this. Concentrate on the painting the part you like. Yeah. When did you get funny? Um I think I I think I was pretty funny in any workplace I was in. Okay. Like it I because I've worked in, you know, in body shops, also worked like in kitchens and random places. My number one objective everywhere I went was just to figure out how to make everybody laugh there.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Through practical jokes or or just or through humor, through comedy, like you do today.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Whatever I thought, like I'd get to know the people there first, and then I can kind of guess like this would probably make them laugh, like if I do this or that, or uh, you really thought thought it through. Yeah. Even in high school, like I wasn't a class clown in every class, but in the classes I was, I would like just kind of lay in my bed at night the day before, and I'd anticipate like what my teacher would say, so I can kind of like have like a funny interjection. Yeah. I'm weird with it, man.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Well, that's why it's you're that's why you're doing it, but that's why you're a professional at it. I I think I can be funny in moments, but I've never like sat up at night thinking through how can I say something funny tomorrow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Yeah, I've never even it it's it it started happening because a class would be that fun. Like the students in that class or the or the teacher in that class would make it easy. Cause like I feel like I I'd usually think of the funniest stuff when I wasn't trying. When I'm trying to be serious or trying to be a good student. Okay. Sometimes they say stuff, and I and I like the first thing that comes to my mind is like, you know, it'd be funny if somebody said this or that, you know? And a lot of the time it would work. So then if I knew that that like it works in that class, then it it it just make me hungry for more.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Well, you could probably sidetrack the whole class.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Like, forget this math we're learning. Let me tell you a joke, and then we'll be so proud of myself. Change the whole room. Uh senior year English, my teacher was Mr. Colbertson. I would make him laugh a lot, and I'd make the other students laugh. And I would I was able to like negotiate. Really? Yeah, like I'd tell him, like, hey man, like, if we finish this by this time, like, you know, you gotta let us watch a movie, or you gotta let us do this. He let us watch one movie, and I was proud of that.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Well, here, was it a good movie? It's a good movie. Or was the class like, thanks for this shit, Ralph?

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Nah, we have to watch this crappy movie now. Man, this is better than doing the work. They but uh they better appreciate it. I remember in first grade, uh, I didn't really want to talk. First grade. Okay. Yeah. Most of my classes, and even now I don't even remember being that old. I I I think I got decent memory for some stuff. Most places I enter, my initial thing is like I don't want to talk. Okay. Like uh I I it takes me like a while to really want to joke with people. I really don't want to talk at first. And in first grade, I will I just I didn't talk for like the first I don't know how many days.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Okay. And so you're an introvert at heart.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Yeah. You're not going in there outgoing. Yeah, I've always been really self-conscious about my voice. I feel like it it sounds weird. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Well, nobody likes their own voice when they hear it because it sounds different in our head, but your voice is fine. I was hoping you'd say that. What don't you like about your voice?

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Not deep enough? Nah, it just always sounded kind of like like funny to me, like goofy, like not in a good way. Especially because I I'd compare myself to like some of my friends, and I remember like in middle school when I really started to feel uncomfortable with it. My friend Alex is like ladies' man, he's like handsome dude, and like he'd he'd like a smooth way of talking. And I would tell him, like, when he says a sentence, like, it sounds so cool. But when I say that same sentence, it feels like it's like up and down, like weird, like goofy sounding. Okay. Yeah. And I felt like I kind of got over it up until uh a couple months ago. My girlfriend's mom told me I have a weird voice. Or like she didn't say voice and it all came back. But she didn't say weird, she said uh like a she said like it was a different, like she's never heard a voice like mine. And then my girlfriend was like, Yeah, and I know what she means, like your voice sounds like distinct or something like that. I don't know. But I was like, you see, I'm not crazy. I knew I sounded weird.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

I feel like you're gonna need therapy. Nah. People listen to your voice all the time. That's what you do for a living. So I imagine if it were I'm saying it's not a problem, I don't see it. And it if it was a problem, I imagine you would be hearing it.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Yeah. And I mean it worked out for stand-up. I think the hardest part about stand-up is finding out how how you're funny without anybody else.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Meaning nobody else said something for you to kind of poke back at or make fun of what they said or something. You had you you gotta get up there and tell your funny story just Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

And that's what makes it hard. Yeah, it made extant stand-up made me realize I wasn't as f as funny as I thought I was. I was I was only funny if I could really get a chemistry with the people I was around. And sometimes the chemistry would be like at the first joke, or it'd take a it'd take a while of getting to know the people I'm around. But when you do stand-up, like as soon as you walk on stage, the clock is ticking, like you gotta say something.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Yeah. Like, hell kill Tony in that now, but do they give him a minute? They give him one minute. You come on and say your best stuff in one minute and we'll decide if we ever want to hear you again.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Yeah, you got one joke. Which shouldn't be too tough. If you if you've been doing stand-up for a while, like let's say you've been doing stand-up like from six months to a year, I think that's enough time. You should have like a five-minute set under your belt. Okay. And the rule of thumb, well, at least when I was coming up, is like you want your first joke in a five-minute set, you want your first joke to be your second strongest joke, and you want your last joke to be your strongest joke. So that you can start off good, and even if you bomb all in between, you can end on a good no. So I think if you're gonna go on kill Tony, just use one of those two jokes.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

It's the same in a business pitch, by the way. Oh, yeah. Or a business. Well, yeah, if you save everything for last, everybody's gonna check. If if I got a 20-minute presentation to make and I save the best stuff for the last three minutes, they're asleep. They're asleep or checked out by the time you get there. So you gotta come strong. You gotta start out strong too to get to get everybody engaged somehow.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Yeah, I'm learning that's just like uh like a rule in general for for anything that requires you to like keep people's attention. Like we're watching YouTube videos on how to make YouTube videos. Yeah. And they're saying like you gotta start off with like a hook and then like a question, and then throughout the intro, maybe lay a foundation of like a few more questions that people are now gonna want to hear the answer to throughout the video to make them stick to it.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Yeah, if I have like a vendor come in to present to me or something and they've got this PowerPoint presentation and they want to talk about all these features and benefits, I'm like, can we skip to the last slide where it talks about like what you're gonna charge me? That's the slide I want to see.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

What do you think made you go from like you started off working with your neighbor who showed you how to do bodies? Why didn't you what do you think kept you from like just staying there? Like you don't think that would have kept you content? Like, did you want to keep climbing? Are you the type of person who when you see a play that could happen, you gotta make the play happen? Or did you have that in mind even before you started doing bodywork? You're like one day I just want to start a business or something.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Yeah, I wanted to own my own business. Yeah, even as a kid, I was mowing grass, delivering newspapers, kind of which is your own little subcontract business, right? To go and sell papers and deliver them. So I always wanted to do my own business. So even doing bodywork, I dreamed that hey, I could own my own shop one day. And I don't know, I don't know why. I think there's some out there say it's kind of an entrepreneurial gene and it's a real it's a real gene setup. I don't know, but it's a it's definitely an entrepreneurial way of thinking that I've always just had.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Like, do you ever find yourself because I'm I'm sure it's like stressful in your position. Do you ever find yourself thinking like, man, it'd be way simpler if I was just one of the body guys? Like I should have just stayed there.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Oh yeah. I I don't spend a lot of time thinking that. I would say that my good friends have always wondered if I secretly like hate myself because I've always managed to make my life harder all the time. And I but to me, I just don't think in a way of Oh, this is good enough, or I I you're always looking for how to make it better, how to make it bigger, how to make it.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

I've I very much feel like I've I reached the this is good enough point a long time ago.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

Really?

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Yeah, everything else has just been like extra icing.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

So what does that mean to you? Like you don't need to do another comedy special ever, or I'll do the specials.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

That that is pretty fulfilling is to like create an hour and then you know eventually put it out there. Um but even if they didn't give me a special, like if nobody offered me a special, uh I'd still like focus on creating an hour and then another hour. Uh okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

So here, maybe ask this. Who do you think who's the best out there right now?

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Comedian? Yeah. Like of all time, Dave Chappelle.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Okay, I I agree. I love Dave Chappelle's show stuff. So you don't look and say I could be that funny one day. Oh, I yeah Or I could I could get as as talented as him at it one day.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Yeah, but do I want to? Yeah. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 21:45

What yeah. You don't want to? You just want to be half ass I don't feel Ralph comedian or what? I'm not saying you're half assed, I'm just saying you don't look at it and say, Man, I'm a I'm gonna be just as funny or more well known or

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Nothing, huh? I uh I think that um to get like that level of funny and that level of success I can see s kind of of like the work that it'll take. And I think my love of this craft of the or whatever you call it uh takes me to as far as I've gone.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Got it. So I've had friends have the same conversation with me. Basically they're like, I don't want what you want. So like if if I get to this level or get accomplish this, I'm good there. That's all I really want. And I don't want to have to work as hard as you you work, and I don't want to have to I I spoke to Dave about that once.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Like how with with the amount that he travels and the amount of work that he does, you know, and I and like I didn't get like an in-depth answer, you know. Like I asked him like when he was coming up and even to now, like how how does how does he go about you know balancing like his family life? Because there's no balance, right? But like how do you go about that? And um I remember he told me that you know it's tough, but he he said that he has a um like a high tolerance for being in uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Yeah. Which I feel like you have to have when you have a career where you have to like travel a lot or move around a lot, you know. Um but yeah, I I just think there's other stuff that I like to do. Like I don't also um I've never really had the capability of like only focusing on like one subject or like one like career. Like I love comedy so much, I don't think I'll ever quit. But I also do reach a point where I'm like, alright, I don't want to joke around or like write a joke for like the next couple weeks. Like I just want to go do I just want to go do car stuff, and I feel like we're gonna talk about that because you are a true car guy at heart, for sure. Yeah, I I love doing like anything in the automotive sports world, the automotive world in general. And yeah, maybe if I was like smarter, a little more talented, it would take slightly less effort and I could like go for it more. But I know like at my intellect level, at my skill level, I would need like this much more work to get this much further. And I'm just like, nah, I'm good. Yeah, I get it.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

So I'm as good as he is because he put in all the work to get that good, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

And also, he is you know, he's just really good. But yeah, not not saying that like I'm just turning down opportunities, and I'm also not saying that I just got like crazy opportunities coming at me, but there there is like uh a lot of comedians that I feel like we were popping off around the same time, and I've noticed some of them put in more work than me, and some of them kind of put in less, and you see the outcome, you know, so it's like damn. I I I I hit a point where I was like leaving home so much, I'm like, I gotta really be careful on what opportunities I'm fighting for, because I have found myself fighting for opportunities that once I'm like one foot in, I'm realizing how much commitment this is gonna take, and I'm just like, dude, never mind. Like we like uh I've jumped into like trying to write my own show, yeah, and then I realize how much those guys work. Like when you got your own TV show, like that is your life. And that and so once I started notice once it are actually started coming together, and like we had writers involved, I backed out. I'm like, no, no, no, never mind, because my heart isn't in here. It's just not, and I'm not I know I don't have what it takes to commit to all these people. It becomes a whole team, and so I'm like, let me just stop before I I gather a team and then end up hating this.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

The greatest thing about that is though you you you know it. So knowing what you want and what you're what you're willing to do is is a good thing, I feel. So For sure, yeah. And what's also interesting to me is even if you've got all this amazing, God-given talent, in this case to be funny, to be the greatest of best, or whatever, it's a it's gonna take a crap ton of work no matter how much natural ability you got. You have to work hard at it to get to certain levels in in the world today, it seems. Yeah, for sure. It's true in everything.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

Sports business, you name it. But I also don't like man, I also don't really talk about this too much because for anybody who's like younger than me, or even if they're older than me, but still ha like they still haven't maybe gotten started on like the path they want to take towards a career. Like, I don't think people realize how much work it takes. Even if you are the most talented, like if you're a singer and you just are like God given you know how to sing, or like if you want to be a comic and you're just the best joke writer right off the bat, like it doesn't matter how good you are, like it still takes tons and tons of work. And I maybe I'm just getting old. I got my 30th birthday coming up, but man, like I know my generation was like accused of this, but I feel like the ones even younger than me are even worse at it, where it's like they don't realize how much work it takes. Yeah. Like if you want to land on the moon, you gotta fucking shoot for Pluto.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

But don't you think that we all should talk about that? Because I feel that people have expectations today that are irrational and uh and they don't think you have to work hard.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

That part we should talk about. The part I said that I don't like to talk about is the part where I say where I'm like, oh, I don't want to keep working at it because I don't want to keep going further. Because I don't want people to think like, oh yeah, yeah, like I just put in some work and I got this far, but I don't want to go further. No, no, like I put in a lot of work to go here. Yeah. The thing is, sometimes I restrain from putting in a lot more because I I feel like I've hit a point where like I'm very much satisfied.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

I'd love to catch up with you in like 15 years because you're satisfied for today. And when your life circumstances evolve, change for whatever reasons, you never know. For sure. You you might get a second win that you never saw coming.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

Well, I have a huge hunger right now for making anything happen in the automotive world. I feel like I I've I've started over on like trying to start a career, and this is like my baby now. This is where I'm trying to like start.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

So for now, comedy's paying the bills, but if you can figure out and it's still very much for you.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

Yeah, it's still I still very much love comedy. I'm not like going through the motions with it either. Like uh, I'm gonna tape a special soon. I don't think I can announce with who or what yet, but like I'm still very much like trying to think of a joke all day, trying to work out this next joke on stage. Like, I'm still doing that. It's just the uh the goal, like I don't have as many goals that I'm trying to reach. Like when I first started comedy, I had a list of goals. I was like, I want to be on Comedy Central one day, I I want to be on Netflix, I want to be on the Tonight Show or any late night like comedy. I wanted to be on Conan, but before I got a career going, he he had retired. You know, so I was like, I had all these goals. So were you on the tonight show or okay? And I knocked them all out. So you knocked all of them out. I knocked them all out. So there's not a there's not like a whole other goal. Like, you know, like if I'm being honest with you, ever since I was younger, it wasn't like a goal like, oh, I want to host SNL one day. Because that does take a whole lot more work, you know? Now, if I could get there one day, maybe I would try to shoot for it. I'm not saying like oh, that's not I'm not interested.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

If SNL called you and said, hey, come come audition, would you?

SPEAKER_00 29:56

For sure. I I would. But it's it's also not something that I'm like fighting for or working towards. And I very much probably makes your odds of succeeding less. Way less. Because somebody's gonna want it way more than you. For sure. I don't because I don't want it that bad. Even if I did want it that bad, I I know very well that I could I could put blood, sweat, and tears into getting on that, and it still might not be good enough, you know. But yeah, I I all I'm saying is like I still very much love the craft of comedy. I'm just not really there's not really some next big thing that I'm really trying to get on. Okay. I I've gotten an acting gig, a few acting gigs that I'm very grateful for, and I did put in work for that, but I'm defin I I'm very much aware that I'm not putting in as much work as people who are uh acting more consistently and like more often than I like because I'm I'm very much afraid of being away from Texas. Really? Yeah. Why? I just love home. Okay. I I met uh a very wise comedian that I used to open for named Dusty Slay, and he told me once that uh he's never moved to LA because he never wants comedy or the comedy industry to be his life. He just wants it to be his job. So when he has his time off, he wants to go home to his kids after work or his his wife and kid. And so yeah, there's like I I gotta catch myself. That's that's one of the main reasons that I ask myself, like, do I really want to go down this and knowing I have to like it it becomes a little more closer to being my life than my job.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

I don't think you're uh unusual in that. I don't know what the stats are, but I've heard them in the past, and it's a pretty good number of people that never, from where they live perspective, move far from where they have their whole life. You know, within an hour or whatever, wherever their life has been their whole life. That's probably as far as most will venture.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

Well yeah, also, you know, because I feel like I've I've marked off my personal check marks, now my next like list of check marks is like in the automotive world. Um I'm very much still hungry in there, and I don't feel successful in that world.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

So You're doing some fun stuff, so you so you're wearing a a shirt for your YouTube channel. Yeah, Formula Bean. And I checked it out. You're I mean, it's some fun stuff you're doing. Yeah. I I think so. We're still feeling like that. You just gotta get it to pay the bills or cause.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

Yeah. If I can get it to pay the bills, that would be cool. We it's it's one thing to like know how to work on cars or know what kind of cars you like or what kind of car stuff you want to do, but it's another thing how to translate it, you know, through YouTube and like get an audience through YouTube, you know?

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Yeah, you're doing entertaining stuff with the cars. Yeah. So check it out, everybody. It it's pretty good. Uh you blew up a motor on a Nissan 240. Yeah. I owned one of those out of high school. Uh that same guard. That same car, I mean it w the one you were doing is a lot more raggedy than the one I had, but but I had that same exact car.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

That's a fun car. My my buddy Luis wants to uh LS swap it. Okay. Like, you know, that has that hasn't been done before. So he wants to LS swap it, but the motor was perfectly fine, the KA motor that was in there. So he's like, well, let's blow it up first. It doesn't really make sense to swap out a perfectly good motor. It's like, let's blow it up and have a regonna swap it out. So we we installed nitrous and a turbo on it with no tune. And uh, man, those motors, I have a whole new respect for KA motors. Dude, you cannot kill those things. We thought we blew it up, we blew up a coupler, so then we the motor still ran and we took it to uh to a dyno and we just kept adding NOS and more NOS and more NOS until it blew up and it would not blow up. And we thought it finally gave out. So, you know, we took it off the dyno and we were like, yeah, it's done, it won't start anymore. It still started again, like the next day. So yeah, if man, get you a KA motor. It'll last forever, hard to blow them up. Yeah, that thing's sweet. But yeah, as far as the YouTube goes, like we're trying to find our own style. So we we went through a few different like editors and like trying to figure out a system that works, like we'll record these days, we'll send off the footage and whatever. But uh so far, the one we had the most fun with and we've had the most positive feedback with, and uh and pretty good success, like view views-wise, was the latest one we did. Um, where I got arrested. Uh not on purpose, but literally what you're out there doing and filming. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Here come the cops.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

So we had that footage, and we didn't think we had enough footage to make like an entertaining video, but we put it together and we started kind of like doing voiceovers, tad jokes in there. And this was the first time that we both edited ourselves. Like, we're just like, dude, let's just do it ourselves and think do what we think is funny. But wait, arrested or a ticket? Two different things. I got detained. Uh they couldn't take me to jail because they couldn't prove how much I cost the city and property damages.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

So what did you damage? What did you do? Well, it's out there. I guess I can watch that I can I watch that video.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

You gotta find the video for me, Lou Bean, and it's me getting arrested. But yeah, is we so we we've been trying to learn how to drift and we're getting pretty good, but you know, one thing that we like pride ourselves on is that most of our work is done by us. Yeah. Um it's not a stunt man in there or a professional driver. Yeah, also not a professional mechanic. My my buddy, he's very, very smart, very skilled mechanic. He was a he was an engineer for a lot of years. So I convinced him to quit to be on YouTube with me. And he knows his stuff. So we spent like all day just replacing parts on this Facebook fine car we had, and we had a show in Portland, Oregon the next day. Okay. We finished the car around midnight, and we had a flight like 6 a.m. So at like 1 a.m. we go test the car out in this empty parking lot, and yeah, cops show up, and they were calling the city, but like nobody's gonna answer at 2, 1 a.m. I don't know who he was calling. So he's like, Yeah, I gotta let you go, but tomorrow you call this detective because this is still like a case, like an open case or whatever. Did you tell him, like, hey, dude, we got this YouTube show, you shouldn't check it out. He recognized me from comedy, he's like, Don't you do stand-up? I said, Yeah. He's like, What are you doing out here? I was like, donuts. Oh, that's great. Yeah, so uh, I ended up calling a lawyer because I was like, dude, I'm gonna put my foot in my mouth, like I'm gonna say something I shouldn't say, like trying to talk this out. Because he told me that basically I call the detective and he'll tell me how I can go about like paying for the damages, but there's a chance that the city could still press criminal charges and then I'll go to jail. And it and it all it also depends on how much the damages like accumulate to. So if it's over like, you know, $2,500 worth of damages, yeah, then it's like for sure jail time and whatever if it's below that and whatever. Um but they they ended up having to drop everything because there was tire marks previously made, so there's no honest way to say which ones are mine and which ones were the old ones. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

So you were respectful to the officer and yeah. The officer was also.

SPEAKER_00 37:36

I mean, that's what I would do too, but yeah. Today it seems to be popular to No, no, no. He was nice and I was nice. Yeah. Yeah. We were two short adults having a conversation.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

Yeah, I don't understand people today that want to make things difficult for the police to do their do their job. I've always been like, got me, but you got me, but can you let me go? Yeah. I mean, I've never done nothing that wrong from a legal perspective.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

It's more been speeding or whatever, but I've always been Yeah, most cops that I've had encountered with have always been really respectful. There's maybe one that was I f I felt like he was unnecessarily mean to me, but I was twelve and he was the officer at my middle school. Okay. And I stole a juice box once, which was bad, you know. He caught me and he threw me in ISS in school suspension. But after that, every time something would happen at school, like he blamed me. Like I stole one Capri son, and he thought I was like this drug lord. And it got so bad I had to tell my mom, like, hey, this guy doesn't leave me alone, so she called and complained. Because like I remember a kid's phone went missing from a bus I didn't even ride. And he's like, Well, I know it's your MO. And I'm like, What to hop on other people's buses? Like, I don't have his phone. I was just thirsty one time, man. Yeah. And I and I I wasn't like a crazy bad kid, but I wasn't like super good either. Like, I think uh the following year, like later in that that same year that I stole the juice box, me and my friends were like, You guys want to skip school? And I was like, Man, we should just go through the cafeteria and just walk out. Like the the lady who cleans the cafeteria, she doesn't care. She's not like a teacher, like, she's not gonna stop us. And my friend was like, No, no, no, uh, let's just go in the restroom. And so, like, five of us go in the restroom, and now we're just standing there waiting for the class to end. But like, I'm like, dude, we're just standing in a restroom, and the officer walks in, he caught us in there, and so he takes us to the office, and one by one, he's calling us into the office, and uh, I go in there and he grabs my backpack and starts dumping everything out.

SPEAKER_01 39:45

And I was like, whoa, like looking for weapons or drugs.

SPEAKER_00 39:48

Yeah, he said that we were in there doing a drug deal. I was like, what the hell? Like, we're just skipping school, man. Like it also feels disrespectful that he think I'd be that horrible of a drug dealer. Who would do a drug deal during class in the restroom? Like, they're gonna. So you're basically like, dude, I'm a smarter drug dealer than that. If yeah, if I was a if I was a drug dealer, I wouldn't, I wouldn't do it here when people are looking for me like.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

Yeah. I I've had cops be mean to me. I never thought it was smart to be mean or something. Yeah, I'm not gonna expect that. This is what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 40:21

I'm not, yeah, I'm not I'm not gonna win that battle. This guy's not gonna be like, oh, you know your stuff. Yeah, like this guy doesn't take anything. That'd be a good time for some comedy, maybe. Yeah, I just I was trying to be funny the first time I got pulled over. I was going stupid for like this was idiotic. But uh um I had a license for like two days, like the hard copy had just come in, and I was doing like eighty-two in a thirty-five. Yeah, that's and uh That's like a bigger bigger as far as the ranking of the Yeah, of course three miles an hour faster and you know that you go to jail. Okay. Uh so the cop was like being pretty mean, but like rightfully so, you know, like uh that was dumb. And he's like, What do you what do you think of going that fast? And I was like, Oh, it's because I went to the car wash, but like I couldn't dry it off and have towels. He didn't laugh. He didn't laugh at all.

SPEAKER_01 41:23

It's before they had the wind tunnels to drive him on the way up to, right? Yeah. I was the wind tunnel. There's a story somebody told me, and I don't know if it was a joke or a real story, but cops sitting there and uh the guy's driving a vet or something fast. He's 120 or something, the cop pulls him over and says, I've been waiting for you all day, and the guy goes, Well, I got here as quick as I could. And I think the joke got him off, is the way the story went.

SPEAKER_00 41:49

My friend Alice got pulled over going fast, and like uh I forgot what it was. It might have also been a vet or something. And he said, Is there a reason you're speeding? And she said, if you had a sports car, wouldn't you want to drive the hell out of it too? It's honest. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

Honesty's usually a good policy.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

Yeah. I I never I've never tried to lie. Like, I've never tried to make up an excuse, like, oh, I got this emergency. Anytime they're like, Why are you speeding? I'm like, I was just being dumb. I'm just a dumb guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:22

So I love that you love cars because it's an interesting world today compared to when I grew up. When I grew up, I couldn't wait when I was 10 to drive a car. Couldn't wait to. But I feel especially depending on where you live, if you live in the city as a young person today, you may never have a desire to have a car. They're trying to, you know, autonomous cars. And I I feel like a lot of America loves to drive a car, and even if it could drive itself, the control that you get or the fun you're trying to have with it will always be there. What what do you think?

SPEAKER_00 42:58

I'm I'm glad there's a lot of safety features in cars nowadays. Like it's good, you know, for safety, for keeping people alive and not hurt. But I also think that it's kind of taking some of the fun out of being a kid and wanting to grow up and like have that car that that you really like, like the loud car or the car that can do donuts or whatever, because I feel you know it's it's all going electric, which is like for the environment or whatever. But there's there's like so many safety features. Like when I was a kid, my uncle had a truck, and I I used to like to take that into a parking lot and just do like one U-turn, but just like floor it so it can like slide out, you know?

SPEAKER_02 43:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:41

And uh also my dad lived out in the country, so when I got to go out there and drive on dirt, like that was fun. Yeah. But I feel like That's what I remember too. I feel like nowadays, like, you know, if you if you have an electric car, it's maybe not as fun on dirt, or maybe you're not allowed to take it on dirt. But back then it's like, dude, we had this. A beater. Like that was the the car that we took everywhere. So it's like whatever it gets dirty, so what? Yeah, I also think maybe people who are into cars nowadays because of like all the new stuff that's changing. I feel like the people that are into cars now are more into older cars. Yeah. And that makes me sad. Because it's like, dude, the the the percentage of cool cars that are coming out now is like lowering. It's like if they're if like if they're cool, they're just like crazy expensive now.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

Interesting you say that because I saw a video of you with a car collection. Old video, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

Yeah. There's some stuff that I like that's new, but it it's way less, you know.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

When I was like So you seem to me to be in the older stuff rather than the new anyway.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

Yeah. For the most part, yeah. But uh one thing I've noticed about myself, once I started to earn the money to buy cars I like, is I started to realize I'm not even into cars that are like collectible or like low mileage. I I like stuff that I can beat up. I like stuff that I can drive. Okay I I really want to drive what I have. And even like I had to sell the stuff that was more valuable with less miles because I was gonna put the miles on them. Like if they're in my position, I'm I'm I'm gonna tear them up. You wanna see you wanna you wanna have fun with it?

SPEAKER_01 45:30

Yeah. Not be afraid of putting a scratch on it.

SPEAKER_00 45:33

Yeah, no, I want to like really push it to its limits, and then once I find that, I want to figure out how to raise its limits.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

There is some freedom with a like a beater or whatever, too. Like you don't have to worry about it. Park it right in the front of the store with the keys in it and don't worry about anybody there are newer courts.

SPEAKER_00 45:51

Not worry about taking it. Dude, this this thing would be fun to like push and like beat up. Yeah. But I also have to like learn to be more financially responsible and not go buy some expensive thing just to beat it up. Like I really wanted a Mustang Dark Horse. Or just work harder on the next comedy special. Yeah. Or find the salvage title.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

But I messed you up on a story you were gonna tell me about.

SPEAKER_00 46:14

You found a Yeah, I found a salvage title, Dark Horse, and that thing is fun. I always wanted uh have some type of Mustang, and I really like the body style on those. I feel like those get a lot of hate, but I really like those. But um, mostly because of that that movie, uh, what's it called? Bullet. Okay. So I was like, dude, I want to feel like I'm driving like a modern day version of that. And that dark horse is fun. It also has like a a drift brake option. Because that handbrake works like a hydro brake. Like it doesn't stay up. Oh, you can go in and turn it off where it turns off the traction. Yeah, you just pull it and it works like a hydro brake, like in a drift car. Okay. Yeah. That that car is fun. That car is really fun.

SPEAKER_01 47:00

So, I mean, the people the guys you're hanging with like cars as much as you do, I'm sure. So asking you how the majority of young people feel about cars.

SPEAKER_00 47:09

Man, I don't know about the younger people. And it's like I I also don't know what it's like in different parts of the country. Like in Texas, I feel like a lot of the younger people are way more into uh trucks, and then coming in at second place would be like JDM. I don't see a whole lot of love for like American muscle anymore, especially like old American muscle. Maybe because it's a little more expensive to restore them or keep them running. Yeah. But right now, trucks and like JDM are very keen in the car world. And there is like people who like like the Hellcats and stuff, but I feel like once you get into like Hellcats and Mustangs, uh there is like true car people that have those, but a lot of a lot of them I feel like maybe aren't very much like super car people. Gotcha. But very but they just want something cool that they know is fast or whatever, you know. But I feel like the the real car nerds right now are are into trucks and like JDM cars.

SPEAKER_01 48:09

I don't know if I call it a dream, but your dream right now for this is to entertain people with some of the cool stuff you're doing on cars. That's what you would really like to take off.

SPEAKER_00 48:19

Yeah. I I really want to get better as a driver in in different types of motorsports. So I'm I'm hoping there's a way to like document all of this. Like finding out what kind of motorsports I'd like to try. Because like I I went to like rally school uh the day before yesterday in Austin. Oh really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:39

And then the day after that, uh in that ta is teaching you how to how to drift and do things like that. On dirt. Yeah. Which is like Isn't it easy on dirt to drift?

SPEAKER_00 48:54

Man, it I learned to drift on on what do you call it? Asphalt first, and it's like almost the complete opposite rules on dirt. Okay. Like uh, you know, on asphalt, you you yank that e-brake to break traction, and as soon as you break it, you're back on gas to keep sliding.

SPEAKER_01 49:13

Yeah, you didn't watch the cars movie when you're a kid?

SPEAKER_00 49:15

Turn right to go left?

SPEAKER_01 49:17

I never saw that. You didn't watch it? No. But on you you turn it. Otherwise, it because my son watched it like crazy. Nah, I never saw it. The older car was coaching him how to drive on dirt, and it was turn right to go left.

SPEAKER_00 49:29

If you want to stay sideways, you gotta kinda stay on throttle. But on dirt, you don't stay on the throttle or go sideways. You you're you're staying on brake. You're you're left foot braking, you need both pedals like going at the same time. And it's uh it was a little confusing at first, but I mean it's it's fun. It's just hot out there, man. Yeah. If you love cars, you gotta be able to withstand heat. We're out we're out there in the heat, like it was 112 yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 49:54

Well, if you convinced your your partner in it to quit his job for it. He was on the line anyway.

SPEAKER_00 50:01

I mean, he's gotta make money, he's gotta eat, don't he? Yeah, but it like if you don't jump off that building, you're never gonna learn to fly, you know? Okay. Or you die, but I mean starvation's a motivator, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 50:12

Yeah. So so is that. Both of them work. You don't want to die, man, you know? Oh, that that's awesome. But just as hard working, I know you're just as hard working at comedy right now, too, because even now you're headed up to you're headed up to Madison for the weekend to do it. Yeah. To do three days of work.

SPEAKER_00 50:33

Yeah. I think I got a great hour right now. Maybe maybe not great, but it's getting great. But I think it's a really good hour. Is this that refining stage before you turn it into a special? Yeah. I've been touring with this hour throughout the year, maybe last year and a half, and I've been adding to it. Um, so yeah, I think I had like an hour maybe since sometime last year. But as I think of new jokes, and if I feel like some of these jokes are funnier than ones I already had, then I'll replace them so it can be like just the funniest hour. Okay. Yeah. I want to give people a good show. They paid harder money to come out. I want to give them a really good show. So I'm I'm always thinking like what's funny, what's funny. Yeah, that's respectable.

SPEAKER_01 51:13

Uh I imagine the feedback from the crowd is important to you anyway. It wouldn't be any fun if they weren't laughing. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

Yeah, for sure. I need them to like I need them to like me. I'm very much a people pleaser. That's like my whole job description.

SPEAKER_01 51:29

Yeah. When you're the CEO, you're often talking to your own company, so people laugh at your jokes, even though I I'm sure if I tell those jokes and I'm not the in the role anymore, them jokes won't be funny at all.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

Yeah, that's why I like hanging out with people that I have nothing to offer to. Yeah. People who are like good with or without me, you know?

SPEAKER_01 51:48

Yeah, if they laugh, then you know it's funny. Yeah. That's great. At first, was it a lot of like hard nights where you couldn't make people laugh?

SPEAKER_00 51:57

Yeah, hell yeah. It was a lot, dude. Really? Uh it was probably like a good six months before I got my first laugh. Well, how do you keep getting invited back? Or you don't you don't have to? You don't get invited. You sign up for open mics. It's just open mic after open mic after open mic after open mic after open mic. Same places or you move around? Same places. Sometimes the mics change, but you know, for like on Monday, there's usually like one or two open mics going on at either this bar or this comedy club. Most of them are at bars where people don't want to hear comedy. People are there to like watch a football game and you're just disrupting them with your jokes about your grandma. Like sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 52:42

Well, that's not as bad as the trivia. The the ones that drive me nuts is the trivia. The trivia? Yeah, but you go to a bar to have a drink and watch a game and they're playing trivia.

SPEAKER_00 52:49

You're playing trivia night? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no. Comedy beauty. Ours can be entertaining because every at every open mic, there's a few, you know, loose screws, and you hear some stuff that's not funny, just entertaining.

SPEAKER_01 53:00

Would you come back with new jokes, or do you come back and and refine the say, I know this stuff's funny, I just gotta tell it better and try the same thing. Yeah, you're you're it's joke the bottom. It's a lot of refining. It's a lot of refining, yeah. Yeah, like anytime you're not like it.

SPEAKER_00 53:15

Sometimes, yeah. You'd be surprised. You I recommend everybody should go to a few open mics locally, because every city has them, you know. And you'd be surprised how many comics have been doing the same jokes at the same open mics for like ten years. Really? Because at some point, I think for some people it becomes this thing where they're like, ah, maybe they don't really care to like make it. This becomes more like um like trivia nights for them or adult soccer league, like they just need like a social club after work, you know? And they enjoy it. And more power to them. If they like it, they like it. As long as they're having fun, you know, it's all about what makes you happy. But there there is a lot of people that are trying to make it, so they're out there like, okay, last week or you know, on Monday at this mic, I said it like this. It's on Tuesday, they might change it up. If they're not changing it up, they're not good comics. Yeah. You gotta you gotta refine it until it works, you know. That's why comics in New York get really, really good. There's a saying, if you want to be a famous comedian, go to LA. If you want to be a great comedian, go to New York. Really? It's in New York you can you can go up five times a night. You can do ten, ten to fifteen minute sets at five different spots in New York every night of the week. So you never been in New York? Yeah. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 54:37

Oh you want to be great. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 54:40

See, my jokes aren't funny. I can't go. That's a good one. I'm just not I'm slow, man. I didn't catch it. I'm horrible at uh catching jokes, by the way. Are you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:51

Well, I always thought if you have to explain a joke, it's definitely not funny. No, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 54:55

It's funny. I'm I'm just bad with it. But go ahead. So New York is where you really get good. Yeah, dude. New York is just reps after reps after reps. You know, repetition makes you better. And so you can just do a joke, it doesn't work, rewrite it on the way to the next show. You'll feel why. It's not geography, is it because they they're harder to make laugh? I just some like maybe you have a topic or an idea you think could be funny, but it's like, how do you deliver it? You know what I mean? Yeah. You you could have a uh something you think is funny.

SPEAKER_01 55:33

Maybe my question is what is it about that crowd that makes it it sounds like you gotta be great because the crowd's harder to please there. Is that why or it's not that that's not what it's like?

SPEAKER_00 55:44

No, it's not that. It's just that you get so many reps in in a single night.

SPEAKER_01 55:47

Oh, because it don't shut down. Yeah, they go to bed at noon in Los Angeles, it seems, right? The club's all club.

SPEAKER_00 55:53

Yeah. And then you're in Dallas. Noon, I mean midnight. Yeah. Not noon. If you're in Dallas or another, you know, smaller city, uh you you you'll be lucky if there's like one mic a night. Okay. You know, you might be able to do like two mics on a Tuesday night and then not get another good mic until Thursday, you know? And then at that, you you better be refining it. You you you gotta lock in, you gotta like really focus, listen to your set. Because you have I I feel like because you have less um less times you can repeat it, you really gotta pay attention. Like if I'm doing a new joke on stage, even right now, if I if I know like, alright, this is the new joke I'm gonna try, right before I say it, I'm like, pay attention. Cause like I'll say it, and if they laugh, then I make a note. They like that part a lot. But this part they didn't like so much. This part they hated. So now after, as soon as I get off stage, I gotta go and like, okay, keep the part they laughed, change up the part they kinda like delete the part they hated.

SPEAKER_01 56:59

That's the work of it, the talent of it. Yeah. Do you then once you get it, then you go and negotiate with with somebody to broadcast it and Yeah, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 57:11

Yeah. I that's more for my managers, my agents. Okay. I feel like uh I'm not good for business. Like I'm not a good businessman. Like if if I didn't have an agent or manager, but Netflix would somehow notice me and be like, we'll give you a dollar, I'd be like, all right. Okay. So you wouldn't know your you wouldn't know your market value. But thankfully some very kind Jewish men do.

SPEAKER_01 57:40

And they take charge of that. I like that you said they're very kind. I'm sure they get I'm sure they get their percentage.

SPEAKER_00 57:47

They're nice, yeah. They're nice. They like money and I like it.

SPEAKER_01 57:50

The way it works is the more they get you paid, the more they they get to make the way it should be.

SPEAKER_00 57:56

No no contracts. So it's just an agreement. Work hard with each other, don't screw each other over. And if you want to cut ties, it's easy as just saying it.

SPEAKER_01 58:07

Well, that seems good. So, you know, I don't know anything about that kind of business, but it seems like sometimes people sign deals that they regret later. So it's just like stop shit from doing that, huh?

SPEAKER_00 58:20

Yeah, I've heard stories from older comics like, oh well, like I because I'd open for random comics all the time, and some of them wouldn't really talk about their business, and some of them would, and I'd I appreciate it when they would because it'd give me, you know, tips on what to look out for. Yeah. But some of them would would tell me how maybe their first manager or agent or whatever signed them to a like a like a contract for a year, but wasn't really putting in work for them to like help them get more opportunities. So that now this comic is doing that for themselves, like going out there and getting his own opportunities. And still has to pay. Still has to pay because of the contract. So my my agent, my manager, they don't they never made me sign a contract. They just kind of like all all we signed was a paper that says they are my reps. Like they can say they're my reps. I I tell people they're my reps, you know. But uh, and we're both working at it. I'm working on the comedy side, making sure I got jokes to deliver. If Netflix or whoever comes calling, you got an hour, I got it. And their job is to make sure they do call or call them and renegotiate the deals.

SPEAKER_01 59:30

Do you I'm sure that you guys you guys give each other feedback comedians too? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:37

But I I I I'm careful like I gotta get to know the comic before I know how serious to take their feedback or their Oh really? What do you mean?

SPEAKER_01 59:47

Like the if their feedback might be meaning they're not funny and they're telling you how to not be funny?

SPEAKER_00 59:54

No, not necessarily, but some comics I gotta I gotta figure out what they like or what they mostly think is funny. Cause uh some comics I feel like, oh man, he just gave me some feedback, hell yeah. But then as I hang around them in other comics, I'm like, well, he kind of gives that similar feedback to anybody who's not as dirty as him. Like maybe he's just not a fan of King comedy and stuff like that. So and you wanna be careful because if you hear everybody's feedback, the the next thing you know you're writing a set that's that's made to please like five different people. But you also gotta stay true to yourself. Because if if you're just trying to cater to people, uh the the audience always sees through it. Maybe they don't know exactly what they're seeing, but they know they don't like what they're doing.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:39

It won't seem authentic to you.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:40

Yeah, they're just like this is weird, this is not funny, it's just off, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:43

That makes sense. So curious, you you have a son, how old? Seven. You know, in a few years when you start talking to him about the future, will you give him any advice? Would you would you tell him to stay clear of blue collar stuff? Would you tell him to stay clear of blue?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:02

Man, I'm I'm hoping he stays clear of comedy because he says that he wants to be a comedian because he wants to be like me. Okay. But it's like, ah man, uh the world of comedy and entertainment in general, you know, I don't know what's truly right or wrong sometimes. I think that varies from person to person. The lines can get blurry. Yeah. But there there's so there's certain parts of the entertainment industry that I think it's I for me personally, I consider it like wrong to focus on. Because it's a lot of like, I need to get these people's attention so they can give me attention from those people. Or like, I need to say I hung out with this person, and like I never like that, you know. I like hanging out with people if they seem like cool people. Yeah, you know, I don't want to hang out with somebody just because they're famous or just because they can give me an opportunity. So, and I don't want my son to ever get caught up in that. Got it. I want my son to be a drifter. I was gonna say if he came home and said I want to be a race car driver, you would love it. I'd be scared for him. Yeah, but I'd I'd be way more like comfortable about like his uh his soul, man, like his his his his character. Like a lot of the people in the I think the the worst thing I could say about like the car community that I've seen so far is just cockiness. You know what I mean? You people who are good sometimes get cocky, but other than that, like a lot of people in the car community, even at its worst, are still very kind people, yeah, very helpful people. Like I've been to you know, like the rally stuff, to the drifting stuff. I did like uh I just skipped barber racing school to try to get on road courses, and everybody's just trying to help you get better because no because it's a dangerous thing, nobody wants to see you crash, right? Everybody's cool to share tools. Like I'm saying, at the worst is maybe someone's like a little too cocky or something, but it's whatever. But like in comedy, you know, man, and I'm and I'm guilty of it too. It's like we all end up talking crap about each other. We all end up like, well, how did he get that gig? I wanted that gig, and and like that's another reason that I I never wanted to move to LA because I know myself, like I'm very competitive, and I'll get way more caught up into it. I'm like, dude, let me stay in Dallas, let me know when to say when. Like, let me go into like dial it back. And I'm not always good at knowing when to say it, but I just man, I don't want my son to be caught up in the and maybe he won't, you know. Like if if he's a good kid, then he'll he'll grow up to be, you know. I've I'd hope there's a there is a lot of great comics, don't get me wrong, who are great people and don't do that. And maybe my son would be one of those, I'd hope, but I'm very scared. I'm more scared of the comedy world than I am of the automotive world. Understood. What about college? I would love for him to go to college. Everybody that I know that has gone to college and has a degree, they just seem a little more well put together and maybe a little more confident in the world, you know. Uh also a little more realistic. A lot of my friends that didn't go to college, uh, a lot of them are kind of in denial about why they didn't go. Like they say it was their choice, maybe, or like they don't need it, they can do it without it. And some of them did, but a lot of them didn't. So if my son would I I would never I would always encourage my son to chase more education, even if it was in college, even if it was trade school. Okay. I don't think there's any anyway. So you wouldn't discourage them from a trade either. Nah, nah. All knowledge is good knowledge as long as it's positive, you know. If it's work, it's work. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:43

Sounds like you're pretty, pretty open-minded about all the variety of ways you can choose to make money.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:50

Yeah. And no matter what my son wanted to chase, I still support him 100%. Whether it'd be comedy or whatever. He could he can do whatever he wants, man. He could be a clown or a hurting salesman. Like I'd be. Yeah, you just want him to do something he likes and you want him to be successful. I just want him to be a good person. Yeah. Yeah. He could be a bum as long as he was nice. Really? As long as he's polite and respectful and chases has good values, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:20

I don't know enough bums to I know a few bums. A lot of them are mean. If they got good values in the biggest. Nah, usually the values Usually you become a bum, I would think, without the family gave up on you, which means something something's wrong there. Yeah. But I I hope I do a good job with them. I hope. Oh, all of us do. That's the one thing in life that I scared to death of messing up is being a father. How many kids do you have? Two. Um, my daughter's seven, my son's nine, and I don't know how to do it right. Nobody does, right? You just gotta do your best. Yeah. I feel like you're doomed to screw it up in one way or another. Yeah. If you were perfect, I say then that you'd have messed them up because you were perfect.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:59

Yeah, my dad. And I talked about that once because my dad, you know, he's pretty sensitive, as am I. But I remember my dad saying once that, like, uh, I don't know what I called him out on. He's like, 'Yeah, what about when your son calls you out because you're not perfect with her?' I'm like, 'He will.' That's all kids, though. Like he still remembers it, how he still brings it up. Yeah, he said, he said it's this was like uh maybe two years ago. He's like calling me out because I was calling him out. I'm like, dude, like it's gonna happen. Like, you can't you can't expect me not to like call out some stuff here and there, you know. I feel like it's only healthy between a a father and son. Like, we can't talk about something we think is is off. Like, what are we doing?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:39

Yeah, that's that tells you you and your dad are are close, so the relationship is good. Otherwise, if it wasn't, you wouldn't tell him. You wouldn't you wouldn't care.

unknown 1:06:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:48

I know my son is gonna call me out on stuff. He calls me out now.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:51

Yeah, I was gonna say. Um, I mean, being married gets you used to being called out anyway.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:59

I'm not married yet. I don't I think I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:02

When that happens, then you get used to being called out. You get called out on the daily, maybe. Weekly. Weekly anyway. What are you doing, man? Uh what are you not doing? It's uh it's not like that severe. Like it's just I don't mind it. I don't I don't mind my wife telling me what's bothering her. That's good. Sometimes you wonder, of course, like there might be a day where I'm like, really? Now you're bothered again? But it's not the norm at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:32

I've I've been with my girlfriend quite a while. We're out in Europe. There's a few things that she that she called me out on that I was as she's like telling me what she didn't like, and she's kind of getting emotional. I just stayed quiet and she was like, Why aren't you saying anything? I was like, I well, I don't know. I don't know how I screwed up the first time, but I don't want to screw up more. Like if I don't know how I fucked this up already, like I'm gonna I'm gonna just shut up.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:59

This is this has been fun. Um I didn't know where the interview was gonna go or a variety of stuff. I appreciate you working with uh us, as I said at the beginning, for helping us do some recruiting. I've been on a mission to talk about all the opportunity in the collision repair space, and I think it applies to all the trades because you know, a lot of us there's stigmas that have been on the industries for for years of that's not the best careers to go after. And I just want people to know that there's a lot of blue-collar trades out there that you can make a really good living at that aren't maybe what the stereotypes are in a world where AI threatens, you know, a lot of admin, you know, of so-called white-collar jobs today. Appreciate you helping us to uh get the word out in a in a funny way about about the body shop. And it's great, it's a perfect fit because you've grew up around a body shop, spent some time in it.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:58

So Yeah. If I could go back, I'd still do it again. Like I'd still go work at a body shop. I still I still do body work now at home, very little, very minimal. But you know, I I built a a small body shop on my dad's land for my uncle to use and for me to use from time to time. Like, even though I I I'm very grateful I learned this trade, there's still other trades that I'm like, I still want to learn that. Like I still want to go back. And yeah, I hope there's never like I hope there's not a lot of people out there that think that because it's like a trade that it's not gonna make you good money, like especially in the auto body industry. I mean, maybe it's like this in other industries as well, but because I worked in the auto body industry, I know a lot about like flag hours.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:42

You know, just working on multiple cars and within the same day and you're getting paid for both of them. Like, it's body shop, it's not like you clock in, get your hourly pay, and like clock out. Like, it's it has more to do with like the amount of work you're doing, which I I feel like is great. But yeah, it is that is that like a problem right now? Like are you are you having like a problem finding enough employees, like young?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:05

Yeah, the industry's short about 30,000 technicians today, and with a lot of the technicians being of the retirement age projections, say anywhere depending on who you which number you want to believe, 70,000 to 100,000 short over the next 10 years. Well, you know who you gotta blame is the old technicians.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:24

Yeah, they're the ones telling their kids don't be like me. Yeah, don't do it. Yeah. You gotta brainwash them, dude. If you brainwash them, you can tell them you'll give them a bonus if they sign their kids up or something.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:36

I also think it's different today than it was 20 years ago. Everything's you know, the body shop business has evolved too, and probably more so than anything because the cars have gotten so advanced.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:48

Yeah. Yeah, it's you gotta learn a whole other skill set. Um yeah, other trades are kind of like that too. Like even uh Barb Barbara College from when I was I went to Barbara College as well. Oh yeah, I I heard that. So would you do that job again? Yeah, I still cut hair for like my son, my brother sometimes. I love every trade I've learned, I still love it. But yeah, like Barber College, the stuff they would teach you there and the stuff that would be on like the the state exam, like the practical to get your license changed like right after I got it. You gotta you gotta and not not like dramatically, but it's always changing to keep up to date with like the the services and stuff. Oh meaning like had to be able to do a fade and yeah, well now they offer different stuff. Like now barbers gotta know how to like take care of your face and stuff. I don't know too much about it, but I don't know, I don't really like it. I'm I'm stuck in my ways. That's a bad thing about like starting in these trades when I was like 12, is that by the time I'm 20, I'm like these kids these days, like they don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:52

I gotta I my wife cuts hair and I don't have any hair, so I haven't been to a barber in a long time, but I can't imagine going to the barber and have them touching all over my face.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:02

What's crazy was when I was a kid and like just stick to the hair. Dude, they even the way they designed barbershops now is different. Like when I was younger, the shop that I grew up going to, like I grew up going to like two, three shops max. I bounced between three barbershops my whole life. And I worked at one of those once I got older. And they all had this kind of like old school, like classy but rugged kind of look, like maybe like a brick wall. One of the walls was brick, and like, you know, some some picture frames of like just like a dude design. Just like a dude design, yeah. And like now, even the all dude shops, they kind of look like salons. Not whatever, you know, whatever's cool. I don't know. I don't know if it's cool or not cool, you know. I'm just a kid, what do I know? But it I don't know, it's stuff changes a lot. So I imagine, yeah, in the auto body industry with like all these new cars, and like when I was at at your guys' shop, one of the guys was teaching me how to recalibrate the sensors with like a laser. See, that's something I never learned as a teenager at a body shop. Like, we never had to recalibrate sensors, yeah. We just had to not paint over them. Right. But like that was that was it. So yeah, like, but man, I I think that should let you know as as a you know young person trying to find a a job or a trade, like that that should let you know that these pay well. You gotta learn some some technical stuff here.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:29

Yeah, I I I feel like we've gotten some attention. I think the message really to a lot of young people has changed over the last couple years that um and mostly because there's such a demand for it, it's kind of supply and demand kicking in across all kinds of industries where we need people, which is great because they pay better, the jobs pay better than they used to, and the opportunities are there. So I think the messaging in general is becoming different. But I also think there's a world of social media that the danger is young people thinking that it's easy, that there's quick money, and it's great to hear you talk about even in a stuff, even in what might be a dream career for some, like being a comedian, you're talking honestly about it ain't easy.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:13

Yeah. I think even if you are trying to, and like I've always told this to other people, if you're trying to chase, you know, a career with social media or streaming or in entertainment or fashion design or whatever, you should still learn to trade. You still need a job. Everybody needs you need a job. Yeah, like even if you don't fall back on it, you need something to support you while you're chasing this. Because even if you're like, well, it takes too much time, I'll just work part-time at this restaurant, you know, or at McDonald's until this career takes off. It's like, dude, if you can make if you can put in just a little more work to make a little more money, you're gonna be able to chase your dream a little quicker, a little better. Like I was working at as a barber, and in on my if I had extra, like, like if I didn't have any appointments on a Monday or Tuesday, then on that Monday or Tuesday, I'd go work at the body shop for my uncle to make some extra cash. But all my nights were for comedy. And I also needed to work as much as I could because if there came a day where like I could finally go out of town for a weekend to open for a comic, I needed to have money that I had already earned to pay for my trip out there. Like, your first opportunities are never like a paid opportunity. Yeah. You know, if you're trying to make it like, oh, I need to figure out a way to get in this room with this entertainer to sell them on this product or to convince them they should hire me as their tour DJ or their stylist, whatever it may be, that you need to leave work, like it's it's never you were discovered, come on, you're coming with me. It's always like I paid my way out here, I took the loss, but I made the connection. I I I established a relationship, you know, like it starts off with like that. So if you want the money to fund establishing those relationships, fund you getting your foot in the door, like man, it's better to just get a tr a trade. Like go do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:12

And I even feel for college too. Like you can learn the trade and go to college, and at least you can pay for the college along the way rather than just mass up a bunch of debt for it.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:20

Yeah, just because you you learn the trade doesn't mean it has to be your forever job. You just you just gotta put in the work. So uh man, I don't know. One person getting really lucky and not having to put in like a crazy amount of work, and like they just struck gold first time they started making TikToks will ruin it for like a million people. Because all it takes is one person to get lucky for a million people to think they'll get lucky too. And and it's it's really a million people that don't get lucky for everyone that does get lucky. That's the way everything works. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:54

This is lotteries the same way. Most won't ever win, but a few win. It's not the it's not a great game plan for success. Everybody needs a job. Everybody needs a job. So we've got a question here that we always ask at the end of this pod crash, because we're about championing people. So given the opportunity, who's a person in your life that you would champion and why? Mateo Jose, my uncle Jose.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:25

Because he always supported me and whatever I wanted to do, but he always made sure that I was working with him. He always made sure I was good. And he he told me something one day that changed everything for me. And it was when he was teaching me how to paint. Okay. Uh the first time he let me paint actually he didn't let me like paint the whole thing. He just let me lay one coat down on uh on a truck, on a fender. It was uh it was a blue truck, and I and I made a run. It was it was dripping the paint. And I was I told him that I don't think I'm cut out for it, and I think I'm just too stupid to learn to be a painter. Like I don't think I'm gonna be able to learn this. And he said, There's nothing too hard to accomplish in this world. You just have to want it bad enough. And like that just kind of like had this big boom in my brain where I'm like, oh, like, okay, yeah. Like one step at a time. Learn one step of this at a time. After that, I felt like I could learn rocket science if I wanted to. Yeah. Like one step at a one, you learn one thing at a time.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:40

Perfect, love it. And then how can people follow you? So on YouTube we talked about the channel, Formula Bean. Got a special coming, but don't know where you're gonna air it. And we'll figure that out. But how else can people stay in touch with you, follow you?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:56

Uh, Instagram. I'm at Ralph Barbosa03. Okay. Uh I wasn't born in 03. My son was born on the third, so I put 03.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:05

But um, yeah. And other than that, I walk around the street a lot. You'll see you'll see me.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:13

Good stuff. Been a great time. Thanks for spending the time with me. Thanks for having me, man.