Robert Dubac "Solo-Show" Producer & Star Show #204

On this fun interview, the talented Artist & Producer of three unique "Solo-Shows", Robert Dubac (Bob Dubac in the comedy world), shares how tackling difficult and yet common subjects, is done with his theatrical shows. Bob has found a way to take his experience as a Soap-Opera actor & standup comic to entertain large audiences around the country. His three shows: "The Male Intellect, An Oxymoron" , "The Book of Moron", and "Stand-up Jesus" are being seen at theaters everywhere. In the interview he talks about Mark Twain and George Carlin, and like himself;  how each followed a similar path in their growth as entertainers...fascinating.

Transcript

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Announcer: 0:04

This is another episode of stand up comedy, your host and emcee, celebrating 40 plus years on the fringe of show business stories, interviews and comedy sets from the famous and not so famous. Here's your host and emcee Scott at words. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the podcast. You know, I have a vast network of friends from my stand up comedy days. And there's one gentleman that I did interview once before, and he is doing some amazing work. And so I invited him back, we have a little bit of a odd phone connection, because he's up in the snowy mountains of Colorado, as we speak. But this guy is amazing. Not only did he start off as a terrific stand up comic, but he's an actor, a writer, a director, or producer. That's right, he does it all. He in fact, he has three, count them three, one man shows theater pieces that are still working all around the country. The first one was the male intellect, an oxymoron than it did the book of moron. And he's currently working on stand up Jesus, please welcome to the show, my good friend, Robert Dewback.

Scott Edwards: 1:26

I wanted to get Robert in there, because that's how people find you. Of course, I call you, Bob. But Robert, got works out. And And folks, if you are looking to book this amazing actor, producer, director, Robert Dewback. That's the name you want to use on your Googler. But Bob Dewback started off as a stand up comic working for my club, many years back, we don't need to say how much, but you've had success in television. You've done a ton of corporate. But what really is amazing is that many years ago, you made an interesting transition to tapping your background as an actor and going into one man shows small theater pieces. What caused that transition for you, sir?

Unknown: 2:20

Well, I mean, it was kind of the writing on the wall. When we were when we first did stand up. There weren't that many of us now, we have more stand up comedians, we got Russian spies in this country. Which means some standards are Russian spies, by the way. Yeah. So I could just see it getting so tight, just overflowing with talents. And, and there's just so many ways to exploit that and perform at the time, because I was acting and when I was working in clubs, I was also a soap opera right after that period. And so I was into, I don't know, really call that acting, but it was it was definitely an experience. It's its own style of acting, because you're doing just, you know, new new scenes every day. So you can you know, you just want to hit your marks and say the words. But I realized during that process, when I got started getting back into stand up that it just became flooded. And I wanted to put together a lot of my stuff into a solo show. And at the time, I called solo shows, by the way, not one man shows because some, for some reason one man shows as a real negative thing to it.

Scott Edwards: 3:30

Really. I wasn't aware. I'm sorry. Well, I will No, no,

Bob Dubac: 3:34

no, no, not you. Not. Not at all. Everybody. The problem is when I first started doing there were very few of us. I think Eric Lugosi and Lily Tomlin. Were some of the few and yeah, yeah. Anyways, regardless, it's pretty difficult to do. A lot of people think that you can just get up there and tell jokes for an hour, an hour and a half. And it's not about that, that kind of a story. So at any rate, when I started doing it, at that point, it was kind of virgin territory. So I was able to, you know, pretty much get on the circuit with all the theaters. And it was also economical when you when you put on your producer hat and you go to a theater and you say, hey, look, this show costs x amount of dollars, which is 10 times less than what you're paying for a musical lipid in your programming, and everybody's happy. So that worked out terrific. And that's what launched the first show, which was the mainland way. an oxymoron.

Scott Edwards: 4:30

It is interesting on a couple levels, what you said First off, being a comedy stand up comedy producer, I totally understand how in the mid to late 80s Stand up comedy just got overblown, and then by the early 90s, it was all over TV. Stand up shows not necessarily successful stand ups. There was a few gems that came out of it. But as you mentioned, it got to Be a very crowded space, and being on a soap opera, where you're acting, but it's not like a weekly TV show or a movie, where there's going to be some stature or real big bucks. You know, you were you were finding yourself really, with a foot in each world, right?

Bob Dubac: 5:21

Yeah, exactly. And you know, I mean, the thing is, is when you look back during that period of time, most comedians and still to this day, comedians are really just playing themselves to the they have learned how to act. But there was no training back then there was no actual set of skills, or skill set. So and that's what was brought from doing the soap opera, and other acting gigs. And that's what I brought into the stage work for the for the solo shows, because like I said, you just can't sit up there and tell jokes one after another unless you're the headliner, that people are paying to see people and you're paying money to go see Chappelle or Seinfeld or wherever you want, whoever second moment, but to sit there and to be an unknown, what's really selling the ticket is the title of the show, and what the show is about, hey, I want to go see this show. The first show I wrote the male intellect. an oxymoron is about men and women's about relationships. And it's still, it's an evergreen. So it still works. That's the other thing about doing the solo shows that you can't, you can be topical, but you can't, there has to be something that isn't daily current news, because it just gets washed out. I mean, that's why you have a lot of late night talk shows they can do some current, and do jokes. And then news changes, and they get some new the next night, the shows have to have a lot of resistance, they have to hold up over a period of time. So the writing is a little more delicate, you know, you can't make a joke about Haagen Dazs ice cream organizes it around anymore.

Scott Edwards: 7:05

Well, and you mentioned a couple of things there that are so important. First off, that it is true that any really good professional stand up comic has to learn some acting skills, because to really be successful with your material, you have to practice it and do it on stage, you know, 100 500 times, yet you have to act like you just thought of it. And you're presenting it to the audience for the first time each night. And those are skills you pick up subtly, that are somewhat acting. And then the other thing is male intellect, oxymoron, it's an oxymoron. about relationships, it is so true, that that's a topic of you know, the relationship between men and women that has been going on for 1000 years and will go on for 1000. More. So you know, congratulations on picking something that everybody can relate to.

Unknown: 8:02

Yeah, and that's I mean, all the other shows are relatable as well. And that's what I kind of learned with doing the first one. But that one was, you know, I mean, even though these things are difficult to do, that was the easiest to come up with, because it is about something, it doesn't matter if you're eight or you're 80, it's always, you know, something about men and women or whatever the gender choices you make. There are two people involved, there were three people involved, whatever it is, today, it doesn't matter. If this show was done now, in 2024, it was done in 1954. It's the kernel of the show, as well applies to anything, it's just transcended over a period of time. But this, the idea of coming up with a concept that everybody can identify with is what has kind of gone through my work with the three shows, because the second show, it comes to pick up more on is about stupidity, and our inability to use common sense or to be, as we all know, that's been going on in the past couple of decades to be manipulated by false narratives, believing in things that aren't true. And so that show is about a person who really tries to figure out you know, where the baseline of truth is. And it's, you know, none of these shows are really my story. They're more everybody, everybody's stories that they're struggling with. I always found that that was a little difficult when when some of these so solo artists get on stage and start talking about their history. And I just kind of tune out because I'm not really interested in going into a therapy session.

Scott Edwards: 9:46

Well, a couple things. I want to explain to the audience that the first show the the male intellect was I think the foundation of that was your stand up comedy set. Okay. And I've seen you both as a stand up comic. And I've seen this show and I can see a lot of similarities where you were able to take your really funny stand up comedy act and morphed it into this solo show, and one man acted theatres. Peace, won't call it a play, although it is one man play, but it's more of a theater piece. And I think solo shows a good way to explain it. But I think it's, it's good to understand that you didn't just sit down and write a show, you would already been working on the material, the comedy material in relationships for your stand up comedy. And then after your acting gig on the soap opera, you brought it together in this one man show, I'm sorry, solo show. And then the other thing that's interesting is with the book of moron, it is so true that for the last couple of decades that the media and the government and even closer at home, in family situations, people are finding themselves manipulated by the news and the information they're fed, and what's real, what's not real. And turning that into a show. Now that show was written specifically I think, more out of the blue. I don't remember that being a part of the original standup Correct. Yeah.

Bob Dubac: 11:29

Well, see, here's the Exactly. Now, it's very intuitive for you to see that how the, the original material was morphed into the original solo show. But all the solo shows that I write, do start with kind of a basis of a stand up writing.

Scott Edwards: 11:51

Oh, style, you've kind of the style or outline of the material, you kind of Yeah, I think it had anything in mind.

Unknown: 11:58

Yes, because you have to, I mean, the shows have to be funny. If not, they're a lecture, or they're

Scott Edwards: 12:05

there. That's true. Couldn't be Robert Bohr their lecture. Yeah.

Unknown: 12:09

Yeah. And, or be therapy or be you know, it's just, you know, I, there are people who do that, and that's fine. But it's just not my thing. And so the idea of having a good background in stand up comedy makes me be able to write every single paragraph and sentence so that it strikes, it's either either a punch line, or it's a setup for a punch line, because you have to laugh nonstop through these things. And that's what makes it difficult, or at least more, more difficult than just doing stand up. Because it all has to be woven together. Plus, it all has to reinforce the central theme and the central plot of the story. So that's what takes a lot of time. And that's what's so difficult. And that's where I've already made all those mistakes the first time so I can learn not to repeat those mistakes the second time. And then on the third time, it's even close even faster.

Scott Edwards: 13:08

But I think it's interesting to point out that the first one came a little easier, you had to really kind of knuckle down and work to get the second one done. And you're right. I hadn't even really was aware of that. But you're you don't want it to be a lecture. I don't know if you're aware of it. But a comic that we knew from back in the day, Yakov Smirnoff went on to get his PhD, and is now doing theater shows. And he in puts a lot of humor. But it is a lecture it's it's more of a therapy session, and uses the stand up comedy is kind of a segue between things. But that is more that's different than what you're doing. You're doing actual, right. My

Bob Dubac: 13:52

shows, I have different characters that I become so it's really not just me, it's me and six versions of me talking back and forth each other so it is kind of but now, okay, knock off. Your cop is a smart guy, because you're a cop already. You know, and I've known him for years, he already made a name for himself. So this is where I contradict myself and say, you know, nobody's gonna pay to see you go up there and talk about so. The caveat there is if unless you are well known and you have a name, if you are Billy Crystal, that job that February, you're out John Lithgow and even Yakov Smirnoff, and people already know who this person is. So they aren't going to say okay, here's my 50 bucks. I want to listen to what this guy has to say. It's the people who are unknown. And I put myself in that category for when you're talking about a broad national awareness that I don't think I can sit there and have the hubris to say, hey, how much it comes to pay me 50 bucks to listen to what my story was growing up in Atlanta, Georgia. That's just selfish, and my point of view. So that's the difference between these kinds of lectures you can get away with Lecture make it funny that people know who you are.

Scott Edwards: 15:03

Well, it's just interesting to me as a producer, listening to you explain the how you are different than these other very successful people that are doing similar but yet distinctly unique versions of what they were doing a stand up comics. And in your case, you took your television acting, and melded it into this. Did you do a lot of theater? Or was this your first step into theater?

Bob Dubac: 15:38

No, no, I had done quite a bit. Okay, I was studied with, you know, a fairly well known people in the theatre circles, who know the name Sanford Meisner, who I've heard of, I studied with him, specifically and individually for years and his Laurentius methods. So I mean, the best thing about Nohrian technique for a stand up to it was regarding acne is that you have to learn to listen standups usually don't listen, because they have to keep building, they listen to the silence, and the depth to it to a stand up. That's why it's difficult, difficult for a lot of students to be actors, because they're not used to listening to what the other person has to say. They're already in their head, figuring out how to deliver the next line. And then that's what rings false when it's an interesting scenario. And then when I'm performing at different characters, interacting with myself, as weird as it sounds, I have to listen to myself and then react to myself as a different character. So that's a little bit of a technique that takes a little practice. Yeah,

Scott Edwards: 16:43

that's that's taking acting to a different level. Well, you're very successful at it, Bob, congratulations. And I did have one question still relating to stand up comedy, and your years as a stage comic. In the situation, of being a stand up, there's a lot of audience interaction, and you were just relating how you have to listen in so a good stand up comic, does listen to the audience does react to the audience. And that's a part of being a stand up comic, it's the give and take with an audience, whether it's actual questions or comments, or it's just the the laughter and where it fits into your show. When you go to this play scenario, this solo show, there's less audience interaction, you still have the laughter, but you're not bantering with the audience. Do you miss that? Or does that too much? Not at all. Not at all. That's the simple way. I

Bob Dubac: 17:46

think that that's become a crutch with a comedian nowadays, you call it crowd work. And let's say you got 30 minutes of material go, but I can do 30 minutes of crowd work, though. So you do 60 minutes? No, no, no, you're still doing 30 minutes. And let's leave the crowd work to the experts like Jimmy Brogan. And you know, these guys who've made a you know, an art form out of it. But just ask somebody where they're from, or what kind of tractor the driver is, is, to me, it's feel served. And I know that the audience has now been, you know, they've been educated that though we do need to talk to the audience, and we do need to talk to the comedian. And we do need to make it feel like a social movement. And that's fine, but it's just not my bag. I think what's really interesting about the acceleration of the way, stand up comedy, changes during a person's lifetime, if you look, and I find it's happened to me, it happens to anybody, when you look over their work, you take the original person who kind of designed all this was for at least got credit for it was Mark Twain. And even in his books, when he when he started out. It's interesting as a human being, there are certain things that are important to your life as you get older. So my first show today, a little X is all about relationships. Well, if you notice, with twain all of those early books, was about you know, the adolescence of the country. And he wrote them through the voice of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer saw it. And then later when he started getting frustrated, he's his books were more political. And again, I find myself as I get older in the book of moron, it's now very much of a political show, because it's not favoring one side or the other, but just kind of trying to get the ignorance out of the way. And then in the end of his life, Twain was very adamant about religion, and how hollow it was, and how it controlled the masses. And that's where I am now with the new show standard pieces this show we're Jesus comes back and just stand up comedian and he's a He's 2000 years old. So he looks like he's in his 60s. And he's taken over the family business because dad is so old he has Alzheimer's now.

Scott Edwards: 20:09

Well, I want to get to

Unknown: 20:11

your universal story so that people can come and go, Okay, I get it, whether I agree with it or not, you know, whether I'm a Bible Belt. Christian has been born again thinks this is a sense of, or I'm somebody who says, Well, yeah, let's see how this has, is gonna play out. It's, it's something that everybody can identify with. And I think you'll even see guys like, Carlin, before he passed away, it went through the same face, you know, when he was early on. George is mostly about adolescent humor. You know, it's about dirty words and fartsy things, you know, then he got into politics, and they start destroying religion at the same time. And we find that when we get older, I mean, this is just the natural progression of a human being. And that's what's interesting to me as far as developing these types of jobs. There's

Scott Edwards: 21:01

a logical pattern to what's happening. And it's not just you, it's with everybody as they age. And I want to get to that. But before I had one last question about your solo shows, that I think is different and interesting than stand up comedy, is that I've been to your shows, they're they're amazingly funny. But you do have a set a theater type set with props. Oh, yeah. And do you find that the props

Bob Dubac: 21:33

that's called Scott, that's called production value? If you're sitting there with a microphone, people say you're ripping them off.

Scott Edwards: 21:44

That's true. But that actually leads into my question is that do you find that the props not only help you through the show, but help you write the show, because you can now interact with the props?

Unknown: 21:57

Yeah, and it's, you know, the props help propel the story. And the narrative. I mean, like in the book of moron, for example, the plane is about a guy who's in a coma. And it's a metaphor for we're in a coma because we've been beaten with so much false narratives and heightened spin really know what's true anymore. So the canvas and the backdrop in the production of the of the set, it looks like it's the inside of a guy's brain. And so he's in there, and all these characters that he portrays are these pieces of everyone's psyche, you got your inner moron, you got your inner ankle, you got your inner child, you got your voice of reason. So and then those are all specific characters who can say things that the main character, I mean, that was one thing about doing stand up is you come up with some great jokes, and I can't get away with it, it's just not my essence, will be shows Okay, well, doesn't have to be me. All right, a character who can say this is going to be offensive to some people, but still gonna protect the main, the main character in the play. So these are ancillary characters. But that when you when you look at it visually, you go, Okay, I'm already into the story, I'm already into the, you know, he's already started got me hooked, you know, in the male intellect, it's similar where the guy I mean, I do have kind of an overall theme, where it's always inside the brain trying to figure something out. And in the male intellect, you know, he's got his feminine side of his brain and his masculine side of his brain. And the stage represents that. And he goes through trying to figure out, you know, what women want, like all the characters that pop up with that, in that show are all these older guys who are gets chauvinist and out of date. And they're trying to teach a young guy how to deal with women. And it just completely backfired. Well,

Announcer: 23:49

it just is fascinating to me that stand up comic is a guy with a microphone, and you were successful at that. You go into working a soap opera, where you're on a TV set, and you're interacting with other actors, and in this essence, in this world, to the set of from the show, and then with your solo shows, the other actors are you in your own mind, which is very challenging, but you have a stage setting or props that allow you to transition from character to character or from joke to joke to get your story across. It's really, you know, a lot of brain work. I mean, it's, I don't want to blow you up, but you're a smart guy.

Bob Dubac: 24:37

Well, thanks. You know, I'm actually writing this all down because you put it together better than I could put it and you're making me sound like I'm somebody more than I think I am. So well,

Announcer: 24:47

I just I just think that from a production side, you have to think, you know, a stand up comic like you said he's going up and he wants to get from joke to joke and have the right segue and keep the audience in tune in. in us, the audience, maybe the audience is the prop for the cat and for the stand up comic, but when you're doing a solo show, you're bringing kind of all that together everything that you learned in your years of entertainment, and making it meld into these really successful shows. And again, we want to explain to the audience your transition from the male intellect, an oxymoron. And then the book of moron and both these shows are still out there, you're still performing them. Very, very funny. But your latest edition, is stand up Jesus. And that in itself, the name itself is going to draw crowds because that is such a Yeah, it's, it's a touchy,

Unknown: 25:47

do you? What's one of the hardest things, and people don't even understand this, the hardest thing of the shows is coming up with a title. Because you don't have a famous name that can sell it. So it has to be something people identify with. I always dabbled in, you know, making fun of religion. And to me, it's the most one of the most absurd organizations in the world. I don't care what they believe. It's all manipulative. The idea of I know, not only myself, but other people who poke fun at religion, you know, whether it's famous people like Ricky Gervais, or it's just people stand up. It still has, they're still a protection, but it gets me in my opinion, I'm going to tell you what I think about religion, and ISIS, who's who's going to take the step, and actually embody themselves as the religious figure and come back and have the balls to get up there? Say, Yes, my name is Jesus. I'm from Nazareth. And I know what you're thinking, and to really been that's what is the, the exciting part for me, and it's also the backlash. That's where I start getting people who will pick at me sometimes, and they you know, as they write bad letters, and they told me on the internet, but is there all of that? And the thing is, is they know, the actual show has a pretty good decent message. And but they, of course, are contradicting their own belief that you're not supposed to judge something, and they're going in and judging the show before they even see it. Yeah,

Announcer: 27:17

that's so much what's happening.

Bob Dubac: 27:20

Like I was saying earlier with all the shows, so the show was called stand up Jesus. Now, how do you make it so that we do know that that's what it is, is Jesus doing? Stand up comedy? Well, the backdrop is a brick wall. So you know, this is the problem that you have when you talk about stand ups who tried to be individual, but you got one coming after another who's on the same Baron stage with one microphone. And it just all melts into the into one of one another. And it's hard to distinguish where you're doing a theater piece, like I'm doing doing a solo show, you have your own set, you have your own production value, and so and that helps cement and magnify what the show is. So here's Jesus coming out in the robe in front of a brick wall, which is the go to look at any comic club. So he's bringing the comedy club, ironically, into the theater. And Jesus is telling jokes.

Announcer: 28:18

Well, it is it is hilarious by the way.

Unknown: 28:23

I got you now. That's so weird. Start talking about Jesus and he just comes in and just anyways, I'll show you a joke. I'll play joke. I'll play a joke on you Mr. Smart.

Announcer: 28:38

Yeah. i By the way, you know, you're sharing some such great information and what you've been able to create, through your you know, foundation of stand up comedy and your acting abilities. The idea of there being a stand up Jesus, and where we lost you. And now we found you what I was about to comment that one of the great things that sells, though show is that you look you end up dressing and in using makeup set yourself up. You you have that look of Jesus.

Bob Dubac: 29:21

Yeah, I mean, that was that that helps, obviously, but you know, now I'm grading and I've got a graying beard. And but then again, Jesus is 2000 years old. So I mean, then so that helps, right? The joke right there when you first walk on stage. They look like an older Jesus. Right? Why are we why are we why are you older? Because I'm 2000 years old, you idiots. Good Lord. And when I say good, Lord, I mean good me. So all these kinds of things about religion, that society and humanity is blown out of proportion. Each is basically trying to funnel it down into the basic core message. That and we don't mood all this tradition and all this brouhaha. And all this? One of the we've got 5000 Different religions in this country. I don't know if people realize that or not. But is

Scott Edwards: 30:11

there really 5000? There are

Bob Dubac: 30:13

5000 when Jesus showed up, there were only three. There was pagans, Jews and Republicans. Well, they call themselves they call themselves Romans back then, but it was the same.

Scott Edwards: 30:26

So funny. But

Unknown: 30:29

you know, but in this is what's very creative about doing this show about religion so much that it's just already out there. Because we've been repeating these myths for 2000 years. And you when you just start talking, there's no way in hell I can turn the phrase here and it's a joke. Talking about theology so well, when I was what I'd like to do a stand up Jesus, to be honest, it's because I've written it so that it doesn't have to be me. It could be made to be Dave Chappelle. It could be Roseanne Barr, it could be you know, any, it could be any if the John Cleese anybody could do the show and call themselves Jesus. And I'd like to have a dozen different Jesus's all over the country doing shows at the same time in different cities.

Scott Edwards: 31:15

Well,

Bob Dubac: 31:16

that's one thing about the shows that I write, I'm not the only one who's done them. I've hired other actors to do them.

Scott Edwards: 31:22

Well, what's interesting is the writing is what's key. Now, I do want to just to keep it in the same synergy. The same, you were talking about having the brick wall, and I was mentioning how you dress and look like Jesus. And so we are setting the stage for the audience, so they know what to expect. And I think write that. And then you add, what, again, I'm complimenting you, but really smart writing, that takes a challenging and sometimes difficult topic, and pokes fun at it. And I don't think you disparage anything in particular, it's, it's the concept of religion, but you're not making fun of the people that believe per se, you're just, well, I

Unknown: 32:16

am kinda at the blowhole and it but when I say, the thing is, is when you believe in just one thing, that's the unique to the very end of the show is that, well, what if religion was like volleyball, and you had to rotate. So every Sunday, you have to rotate face, so the Jews would become catalysts. And Catholics don't use that what happens when you're automatically feel twice as guilty. But on the upside, and the upside, you get twice as many holidays. So you don't need those kinds of jokes right themselves. But that's the overall message is, is look, if we all just shared this. If you really can't get rid of your belief system, then just start believing what everybody else believes and share it and get it around. And then maybe we'll discover some tolerance.

Scott Edwards: 32:58

Yeah. And that'll bring us all together. Now it I'm not sure if this question is really pointed after your explanation. And so I apologize, Bob, but, um, when it came to writing stand up Jesus. And you've kind of already explained this, but the short answer was, do this due to your childhood, your family the way you were raised religiously? Or was this just a natural transition to based on age? As you mentioned earlier?

Unknown: 33:29

I probably both. I mean, I was raised Catholic, but I got kicked out of grammar school for asking too many questions.

Scott Edwards: 33:38

So you've Yeah, you've been questioning your whole life, and I've been playing

Unknown: 33:42

life? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It took a long time to figure out how to get let's be honest. I mean, nowadays, it's easier to prod these kinds of topics, you know, 20 years ago was a little difficult. I want to try to do this 20 years ago, and I could, you know, I had a hard time, even when I did the title of the second show the book of moron. I got flack from that, because I had come up with that title before the Book of Mormon was even on Broadway stages. Oh, I

Bob Dubac: 34:10

thought you borrowed it. I didn't know that. You had that first? No,

Unknown: 34:17

I was doing a person I actually had to I had to retitle the show's called something else, because nobody would book it. Oh, wow. I had to wait. I had to wait for the Book of Mormon. The musical to be done on Broadway before I could go back to my original title and people would be more relaxed with

Bob Dubac: 34:33

it. Wow. I did not realize well. culture changes. Culture does change. I mean, you know, look what Lenny Bruce had to go through and what everybody's doing on stage now. So right Right, right. And you're you're you've been on top of your you're using your intelligence and your smarts to stay on top of what's acceptable and also still pushing the boundaries a little bit enough comedically to keep it edgy and Fun for people. So let's get to my last, this has been interesting

Unknown: 35:05

that you, I'm glad that you've been, you've been able to pick that apart and understand because I've always tried to get something that gets a little ahead of the curve so that I know when I first comes out, people are gonna be a little offended, but they'll gradually kind of get into my, my audience after a while. So last question is what? Well,

Scott Edwards: 35:23

you've had this amazing career. And as I mentioned, previously, I mean, you're more than a comic, you're an actor or a writer, you direct you produce your the whole package. So an easy last question. What's next? Yeah, retirement, I guess? Well, I was gonna say you've got these successful shows, you already said you can hire other actors to do them hit Do you see an exit strategy?

Bob Dubac: 35:53

Not really, the only thing that's going to prevent me from doing this is just physicality, you know, as you get older, I mean, it's, to be honest, when I wrote stand up, Jesus, I he doesn't move around on stage as much as the other two shows is Jesus, Jesus. I'm older. And you know, you don't want to look like Clint Eastwood walking around on stage, you know what you're afraid to, here's a guy who scared the hell out of us. And now he can barely, you know, sit in the chair. So to see if there's an that's an acting problem that I have to overcome on stage, because you have to, you know, play the part. I mean, that's one reason why I'm coming back as eess is midlength. You know, later in years, because I am. I mean, I certainly couldn't pull off being a 32 year old Jesus.

Scott Edwards: 36:39

Well, there's a little bit of genius behind that, though. Because it not only fits who you are as the actor and as the real person. But you're you're bringing the story in a way that fits your life. But also, like you talked about fits what's going on in the world today? Yeah.

Unknown: 36:59

So, I mean, it's, as long as I can keep getting up there and doing things. But like I was saying, so Jesus does a lot of sitting and standing. He's on a microphone, he sits on a stool, you know, because, Damn, it's just tiresome to stand for an hour and a half, you know, on stage. When I was younger was no problem realizing, wow, it's given me 22 shows a day.

Scott Edwards: 37:23

Right, right. And I guess the the crux of the meat of the question is, you're not writing anything else? Do you feel like you're there? stuff? No,

Bob Dubac: 37:35

no, I'm still I'm writing I'm actually writing. I don't know if it'll ever get done. But I'm writing a comedy special called a not a comedy specialist. Not so special. Because to me, there's nothing special about a comedy special anymore. I mean, they are. The only way to make a comedy special special is to put the word Olympics at the end of it, you become a Special Olympics, what would that be, I don't know, a one legged or who doesn't tell jokes, that would be special. So I mean, that's just pure standup. And that's just pure writing of that. So what I want to do is doing like a half hour of just all the tropes and the hacks and everything that I see everybody doing, and I knew that I was guilty of when I was younger, of all this stuff that I want to educate the entire audience. Who's watching stand up comedy to go, Okay, let's move beyond this. These are old things. If you really are a stand up comic, let's get into something. You know, me.

Scott Edwards: 38:29

But yeah, I was gonna say, a little meat on the bone. Right?

Unknown: 38:33

So it's kind of a special about how comedy is not really special anymore.

Scott Edwards: 38:39

Wow, that that would be great to see and spending the last 40 plus years of my life on the fringe of show business. And in stand up comedy, I would find that hilarious. And so full of truism. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this has been so informational. So fun to do, Bob, great opportunity to share where you're coming from and how you see entertaining people in a slightly different way in such a successful way. And for you, the audience, these shows are still out there each and every week. It's Robert Dewback. You can find them on the internet. Is there an exact website you'd like people to use? Bob? Yeah,

Bob Dubac: 39:23

it's, it's Robert dewback.com. And I think Jesus is is coming to Asheville in the first weekend of May. So is anybody in Asheville, North Carolina?

Scott Edwards: 39:35

There you go, Robert. Robert, do back D you bac.com You can find out all about his shows. But don't miss male intellect an oxymoron? The book of moron and now the very popular and very funny stand up Jesus. Hey, Bob is has been really a fun conversation. Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. I thank you, man. All right, ladies and gentlemen, stay tuned. We'll be back next week with another great show. And we really appreciate Robert Dewback keep an eye out for his name at a theater near you. Bye.

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