Full Transcript
Caloroga Shark Media. Benner Johnny Mack with your Daily Comedy News. Today, my guest is Shane Brendan. I loved Shane. This was such an easy flowing conversation.
We really hit it off. He’s got a new album. It came out yesterday. It’s called either Way, Pretty Funny. We’ll talk about that, and I kind of dragged Shane into some of my comedy snobbery along the way.
I really clicked with this guy. I like him a lot. Here’s Shane Brendan. So my new attempt to get listeners. As I’m asking comedians about Taylor Swift so I can put in the episode title, Shane Brennan says, Taylor Swift is.
Is is probably not great for the NFL. Oh. I like that. That’s a good hot take. I’m a college football guy more so than an NFL guy.
But I think if Taylor was slipped, she’s such a distraction from what’s really going on. And I believe that if I were in the chief’s locker room, if I had a problem with all the shine that my teammates girl is getting instead of focusing on like me as I don’t know, Patrick Holmes or something, like that. Then I would internalize that because that would it would break down team dynamics if I came to you like, yo, why is your girl always getting all the coverage? Dog like? So because of that, I’m burying all that.
I’m burying what i really feel inside. And while we’re at practice, I’m not even focused on the game or what we’re supposed to be doing because I’m so heated thinking about the things I want to say to Kelsey about his lady being in all the games. It’s gonna basically, she is a yoko for the Chiefs Kansas City. He’s going to lose the football team. And you know what, that’s fine, That’s fine.
I don’t like them anyway. Hey, you gave me in my episode headline great talking next Lite, So my take on Taylor that we’ll actually talk about comedy. So I grew up in the Northeast, so Springsteen is our god, and I’ve seen Springsteen fifty times, and then I went to see Taylor Swift. And I would tell you this after seeing Taylor Swift. If Bruce and the guys want to tell me, hey, we’re going to stand at one end of the arena and play guitars for two and a half hours.
That’s nice. I’m no longer impressed like she put on yeah, I mean show. I’m not taking anything away from her as far as being an entertainer. From what I hear, she is phenomenal, but hey, keep it to your arena, all right, don’t bring it to our arena. Let’s let us watch in football.
She’s really bad at rooting. Kelsey will do something, and she’s just over the top with the hugging everybody in the skybox. It just seems very good try. I talked shit, but I would also if I got an invite to be in that box, I’d be there in a heartbeat. Hang now, of course I would.
I dug enough of a whole forest. Let’s talk comedy. You’ve got an album and an album? Why an audio album? It is called either way pretty funny, but why on an album.
I didn’t realize that it was weird that I was only putting out an album until I started talking to people about it. I didn’t think anything about it. Everybody’s putting out specials, all right, or you can call it a special you can. Well oh wait, yes, let me jump in there, because that’s one of my pet Peeves, no problem anybody putting out anything. But I think we’ve gotten a little carried away with here’s my latest special.
Now I’ve talked about this with other comics. I don’t know where the line is. But at one end I’ll put George Carlin at Carnegie Hall, and at the other end it’s somebody’s eight minutes on Tuesday Night at Chuckle Hut. Those two things are not equal. I think there’s some combination of who you are and what’s the room.
Right. So if Adam Sandler plays the Chuckle Hut on Tuesday Night and puts it out a special, if somebody else plays Carnegie Hall on a Saturday night in the middle of the New York Comedy Festival, that’s a special. But somewhere in there, I’m with you. So I distracted you. But yeah, not every.
Yeah, I mean, I’ll be honest. I came up when I was when I first started, I was like anybody else that gets in the comedy. I found the albums. I found the Kyle Kanaines, the Pete Holmes and the Lewis Blacks. I found all their stuff and their albums, and I just listened to them religiously.
Right, and then later on I was like, oh, yeah, there’s specials. Let me watch these specials, you know what I mean? And me and with these guys I mean too. This was like I find like their first record, and I listened to it over and over again. I even did that thing a lot of comics do, as you just start doing bad impersonations of your heroes, like I was basically doing Kanang for the first two years of doing open mics and all that, and then you start watching their specials after a couple of years in and it’s special then not to say, look, I’m putting out a record.
This is my first album. I love it. It’s basically the first decade and some change of me trying to figure out how to do stand up, figuring out some bits, and then figuring out about forty five fifty minutes worth of stuff that I’m like, Okay, if people listen to this today or in ten years, I’ll still be okay with it, But is this a special It is not the next thing I do. Hopefully I will have leveled up and I feel confident in myself and they’ll be like a I guess a kind of demand. But if I put a special out.
You wouldn’t be talking to another comic in my head. My name wouldn’t pop up in your head. Like not everybody’s putting out something special. I want my Special to be special. But yeah, people are like, why did you.
Do the visuals? I did? We did do visuals, and it’s just to chop up. And throw out there on socials, just to stir the product a little bit. But I don’t think I ever had any plans on putting out The first thing I ever do, like on my YouTube page is hey, check out my special because it ain’t special.
I love that it’s an album. Quick on me. I run Serious XM comedy for ten years. I run the comedy properties at Live one slacker, so I schedule comedy albums. So I’m a bit snobby about this.
It bothers me when Dave Chappelle wins the Grammy for Best Comedy Album, when I love Dave, but I’m not sure what he’s doing is a comedy album as opposed to what you’re doing. I hope you win the Grammy because you are putting out a comedy album. But that’s neither here nor there. But I love it because as things have trended more towards video. A lot of stuff’s not coming out for audio.
And there are all these artists that I want to play and I would play the heck out of but there’s stuff just doesn’t exist in an audio format. Part of that is a royalties Wardora get it, totally get it. But it just sucks that the old school album has gone. Yeah. Yeah, so I’m fighting a good fight by just putting out an album.
But also it’s just like put out something I’m already when I’m working and I’m going on the road. It’s I finally have something that I can push besides stick or some small pins or something like that. Hey you like that I just did. There, here’s the whole hour worth of stuff you didn’t hear merched. I think I’m thinking I’m about ten years behind the time to all this.
I don’t know how this is going to affect my career, but I just like it this way. It’s great. I’ve got a couple of years on you. We used to go to the record stores when that was the thing, and there’d be a big barrel of the nice price and there was always Carlon cassettes in there. That’s how I found a bunch of his early stuff.
Anybody my age can probably do Eddie Murphy’s special from memory. The Raw Delirious one hasn’t aged so well. Ye, it’s funny. When I went back and watched that randomly, maybe during the pandemic. After five minutes in, I was like, damn, all right, shit, forgot how this goes.
Yeah, it’s interesting that I think all art you’d have to judge it by its time, because I was there in nineteen eighty three. I was a kid. Nobody was walking around going, oh Eddie Murphy cut that out. We were all laughing around a little different times. Yeah.
Yeah, So I’m curious. I’d love to know more about Don’t Tell Comedy and your involvement with it. I’m seeing every day there’s an article about it. As I put this podcast together, I’m seeing more and more articles about it. So how did you get involved with that?
And you’re programming the Portland Room like just I’d like to know everything about it. I met Kyle Guy who runs Hotel the CEO there. We met years ago when I was doing Sketch Fest in San Francisco and he was brand new. He I think he was at one of my shows, showcases and hanging out, and he was like, hey man, I’m doing this little private show at some rich kids parents’ house. Do you want to jump in?
I’ll get you some extra bucks. I was like sure. So it was like me in a comic buddy of mine, Steph Tola, We drove down there. It was in somebody’s living room and they had a little poster in the back that just said don’t tell well the lady’s lips and like that. It looked like an Ashley Madison poster.
And I was like, this is cool. What do you do. I’m just trying to set up stand up shows and places like the private events and places to what you wouldn’t expect, so people’s houses, backyards, stuff like that. I was like, all right, this is pretty cool man. And we kept in touch and then over the years, yeah, once they started filming sets.
Like I said, we had cross. Paths a couple of times just doing festivals stuff like that. So I always followed what they were doing.
And then he hit me up.
He said, hey man, I want you to get on and tape your little set, tape a set of your own for one of these little showcases that we’re doing. I actually had to do two. Went down to Santa Monica and did the first one, but that crowd was so dog shit that no one. Everyone had to take their set over again because I don’t know, it’s a Santa Monica crowd. These people they saw the cameras around, so they all just tightened up.
No one, no one got anything. So they brought us all back. Went to Santa Barbara. Better crowd killed that one and then that came out. But yeah, once they started spreading out all over the country, he knew that I was up here in Portland and he was like, would you be interested in bringing down Tell up there?
And I almost didn’t do it because I’m like, hey, man, I live here, but I’m not really here that much anymore. Starting to work very bad B and C rooms. I’m out there. So yeah, but I got a buddy of mine who’s another Portland comic. I was like, if I can bring in another guy to help me co produce, we’ll do it.
And I’m glad we did it because it really is a great show to have in a local scene because a lot of the comics that come from out of town too. They’ll hit us up like, hey, I heard you got it. Don’t tell. I’m doing like a one nighter at the Helium on a Thursday. Are you gonna do it?
Don’t tell on a Friday. I’m like yeah, so we can piggyback off what the clubs are doing, and these comics coming in you can get a little extra cash in their pocket. And some of these people that are that maybe have never been to a comedy club. BUTOK know a boy, some of these bigger names from social media and stuff that they’re surprises hell when they walk in and I don’t know, like a Ralph Barbosa is here in a sneaker shop for some reason on a Friday. So I think it’s a good thing to have in like mid level scenes, b scenes other than the Austin’s, the New York and LA’s.
So I’m glad I’m part of it. As a performer. Is it weird? I have so many questions about the setup. So let’s say we’re at a sneaker shop.
Is there a riser? Is there stage? You just flat with the audience? What are they sitting on it? Like?
All right? For instance, the sneaker shop is one of our popular go to spots it seats about seventy five eighty. You’re performing in front of a wall of sneakers. This is not like a foot locker or anything like that in the mall. These are like expensive, like a boutique, high end sneaker cool hip.
It’s also like an NBA like retro clothing store. So it’s got all the chotchkes and it’s like a cool vibe atmosphere. Crowd is into it, they’re close, they’re right there. We got lights, we got the cameras, we got the whole setup.
And then on the upstand of the spectrum, we have this place called Hallowed H…
So we have the whole spectrum of venues. The craziest thing about Don’t Tell is these people don’t know where it’s going to be until the day of. They don’t know who’s going to be there, but they always sell out. It makes you think, like for years, like comics, are we putting too much priority on how cool our poster is in all that stuff and who’s there? Because these people are buying tickets and they have no idea who’s going to be there.
So you’re selling like a you’re selling a night out, You’re selling a whole vibe that is buying it blind. As that brand grows, is there more pressure to make sure you’ve got an a list or a solid headliner in There are people coming to shows and be like, oh, it’s just six regular points whatever. I don’t feel the pressure. HEYK where you live. I know where I live, don’t.
The dontels in LA are way different than the down tails in Portland. I had a lady we always we like to ask people what they have been here before when they’re checking in, and one lady goes, yeah, I’ve been the one in LA saw a bunch of famous people. I was like, cool, you ain’t seen that tonight, but thank you for coming, and they had a good time. The pressure is just to make sure we don’t put on a shift show and just book good comics that get people their money’s worth. I guess it’s just like any other show.
So as a producer can mean many things. I’m just really curious about the logistics of this. Are you showing up early, are you plugging in speakers? Are you running the room? You’re get everybody.
I do everything for me between me and my buddy Brent Lowry is another good twenty Portland comic. Don’t Tell is an exercise and how well you can pack chairs and equipment into a super cross track and how in time management, Like if we want doors at seven point thirty and I live thirty minutes away and this place will only open the doors to us at six point thirty, can me and another guy successfully set up one hundred and ten shares, two spotlights, a PA system and make the lineup and make sure these knuckleheads show up the comics on time, and then afterwards make sure we go in into the system so everybody can get paid. So you’re doing everything you get paid, but Don’t Tell also gets paid and the comics get paid too. It’s it’s like just producing and running your own show. But the cushion, I guess the safety that is.
I know that Don’t Tell I was going to promote the hell out of it. They do a lot of targeted ads and all that, so they’re spending money to make sure people there’s butts and seats that way, I know I’m not setting all these comics up. Most of my friends to come to a half empty room and have a boring show, you know what I mean. So yeah, every show you can basically bank on it being a good a good packed out crowd. That’s the one thing you can guarantee from a comics perspective.
Are you running into knucklehead? No show? A shame? Bro? Sorry, man, I’m meant to make it.
But it’s all right. I just can’t. Like we’re the guys. There’s been There’s one guy in particular I can think up, but he flakes on everyone. And that’s just that’s the character flaw for you.
But it’s not so much that people not showing up. The problem is when you’re in a scene. The problem is there are a lot of comics that know you are a booker for Dometeo, and they they will bug you and bug you about getting a spot, and it’s just like you walk that fine line. I’m not trying to hurt anybody’s feelings, but I’m just like, man, I’ll try to get you something, but it’s just like I’ve just seen you each shit all over town every opportunity you can, and then you’re always. Hammered around me.
Hey man, when you’re gonna give me a spot. It’s just it’s not gonna have a brother. That’s the hard part is trying to like duck and dodge people who just be funny on stage, and then word will get around and be like, yo, you should book so and so. Don’t wait until I’m at a bar and look, Shane’s with three drinks. He looks like he’s vulnerable.
Now let me ask him for a spot, because that has happened in the past, and that has worked in the past, and I’m not gonna do it anymore. Yeah, there is. And again I’m a guy in a basement recording a podcast. But I’ve been, as I’ve called it, show Visit bab adjacent for most of my career. And you got to learn how to roll.
You got to learn that when there’s a time to ask, and when there’s a time to all right, Shane’s just at the bar with his friends, like, hey man, we do my podcast. Yeah yeah, it’s people get very creative when they want to get booked for things. And I guess call me old school again, but I can’t up at a time where it’s it’s say hey, if you want to get booked, just try to do well for the people that you know, like you walk too a venue. Oh okay, I recognize that’s so and she books that show, that so and so he books that show. Let me maybe not do all new stuff tonight for fifteen minutes.
Maybe let me just try to do my best ten so these people will be like, huh, that guy was pretty funny. Maybe I should put it on my show. To me, it sounds like so simple, but man, some of these kids are just like they focused on They’re focused on everything but what they’re doing on stage to get known, to get numb followers, to get booked. I’m just like, oh dude, this sucks so bad. You brought a couple of things to mind.
All right, let me in order on my mental list. So back to the hustle culture and comedy albums. So when we first started playing comedy records on serious this was a new thing, right. There was no comedy radio before. You couldn’t do it on FM, can’t play anything.
So satellite radio comes along. We start playing the records and we start hearing from artists, you’re stealing my material, you’re burning my stuff. Nobody’s coming to see me, right, So we go through that. Then some comics realized, oh, I’m being heard on serious and more people know who I am and they’re coming to see me. But then the royalty check showed up.
I saw a pretty and known comedian one time backstage, and I was his best friend because he had just gotten an eighty thousand dollars royalty check. So suddenly we went from thieves to oh, how come you’re not playing my stuff? Can you play my stuff more? Can you play my stuff? And I said, no, I’m playing Louis c.
K. It’s two thousand and five. Yeah, man, the hustle you’re talking with the hustle culture. I think it’s just like with the clips, with the crowd word stuff and all that, the pressure to have to post clips every day or multiple times a week. It’s just sometimes I get upset, but I’m just like, hey, the algorithm, the industry is rewarding these folks because they’re doing.
What I guess the algorithm of what people. Want right now, which is every day there’s a crowd work bit or some or just a half baked premise, there’s something, but there’s something every day, and I can’t get mad that this person will get followers and get all this stuff because I’m not doing it because I, hey, don’t do crowd work and be I’m not going to throw out a half baked premise just because it’s Tuesday and it’s twelve thirty and the algorithm says I need to do it. Maybe I’m not hustling as much as I should be. I’m just working on it’s the joke. No, I yeah, I was going to ask you about feeding the beast.
It’s got to be just like you said, just relentless. When YouTube shorts came out, I played around with a little bit of pulling shorter clips from this show and putting them up and you’d see you to get like this little burst of I don’t know, three thousand views in an hour, and then just it would go straight to zero. And it was like, all right, what is this? I’m just a dumb podcast, but you know it is it actually converting to anything, and I have to feed it every day.
And then I imagining you’re up on stage age, maybe not you, but somebody else…
Let me work this clown in the front row with the orange sweater to pull eight minutes. I get three days of clips out of that. You could see it in the room. I’ve been on shows where I’ve seen some comics they’re just going through their material, but then someone will pipe up and then they just change. They snapped their like, oh this is a moment I can let me do the crowd work.
Let me this is the clippable moment, you know what I mean. And they get that and then they’re out. And like I said, I used to be a big hater. I’m trying to tell myself now, hey, don’t hate. It’s just not my cup of tea.
It’s not meant for me. So I’m just like, all right, that’s what they’re doing. You do that. Everybody has their own journey, so to speak or whatever. But it didn’t make it any better.
When one of my good buddies is Canane and he takes I go, I’m on the road with him for his tour and all this stuff now and he is me and him sidn’t basically talk about what me. You’re talking right now. Just the crowd work guys, And not everybody does crowd work as ship. There’s great at it. There’s a there’s a bunch of people that are great at it, or a handful of people that are great at it, but then there’s just a majority of the people that are out there that people see on the internet are terribles.
And then that makes a crowd that makes people think that, hey, you know what, I’m going to go. I like these people online, these crowd work guys. Let me go to my local comedy club or just some local show.
And then those are the people that start chirping ash you, and then they’re c…
They’re like, well, no, I thought this was no I’m just helping I’m just trying to help you out. Bro. Like earnestly, they’re not trying to be dicks. They just think, but my favorite guy on on TikTok does this, I’m just trying to help you. I think you’re fornny too, which is a real thing that some bro said to me after a I chewed him out after I thought you were really funny man.
I was just trying to give you some prompts or something to go off of, and I was just like, no, dude, please don’t do that work. There’s a generation and I’m on old Man Mountain now growing up flipping through things on TikTok on their phone. Who don’t I don’t want to use the word understand, but and I don’t want to explain comedy to a comedian. But the art of the callback, the art of the line I said here was set up seventeen minutes ago. There’s at arc to it, which is a lot different than comedian Slam’s heckler.
Yeah, you’re right, Yeah, you’re absolutely right. There’s no way any of these new I wouldn’t even call them comedy fans. I think they’re just fans of the TikTok And there’s no way they would know anything about a callback. The algorithm or the format doesn’t allow for a video to be long enough for a callback or anything like that. Or they don’t know about the rule of threes.
They don’t know about any of the basic stuff that any comic worth their way has worked on for however long, because that doesn’t exist to them as viewers, and it, honestly, it probably doesn’t even exist to the comics that they’re watching. They’re just see you get me fired up man talking about this. I’ll give you a real example. Aside from the hypothetical twenty something on their phone, and my audience is going to be sick of me saying that’s going to be the saying this to every comic. So I watch a lot of specials because of what I do, and of the time, not ninety nine of the time.
My wife shows up thirty seven minutes into the hour with a laundry basket, stares at the TV for a minute, and then goes, is this guy funny? And he was till you made me hit pause And you don’t understand that thing he said there he set up three things ago and it was misdirect And again I’m not explain comedy to you, but it’s yeah, he is funny, but you can’t just walk in the middle. That’s yeah, that’s you know what. Yeah, put that on my tombstone. That happened to me All the time.
When I’m watching comedy, my wife will come in and ask me. So I asked if this is a person funny? And I’m like, yeah, I’m just trying to or I’m trying to figure it out. You do comedy, you should know if someone’s funny. I’m like, okay, man a chill I do this.
Because she’ll be like, are you watching this? Are you can enjoy it. Because I haven’t heard you laugh. I’m like, that didn’t mean I don’t think it’s funny. I don’t know when, but like a lot of comics, something happened to where I stop.
And there’s times I genuinely will laugh if something is just silly enough. But now I just, oh, that’s good, that’s funny. I’ll acknowledge it. I am so with you. I call this Emperor of Rome syndrome because again, not a comic, no kidding, not a performer, didn’t want to be a performer, but sitting at serious for ten years listening to comedy radio nine ten hours a day, five days a week, and it was everybody’s best of the best, right, So it’s not just you being funny.
It’s the one you put down on record, right, So it’s everybody’s best of the best. And along the way I stopped laughing. But the same thing, I can watch a set and I’ll just do the thing the comedians in the back of the room do is go. Oh, wow, that’s a great show. Wow, that’s hilarious.
What a we called back? Oh?
And then every now and then somebody will set up a misdirect and I’ll actuall…
I’d treasure that stuff when somebody actually gets me and I don’t see the back to the word algorithm. I remember being sitting with one of my hosts. We were at when the jfl ustaffed the Chicago somebody you have heard of. We were at their set, and I felt bad because it was like back in grade school when you would graph a sentence like I could see it. It was like, okay, premise duration, thing that didn’t actually happen callback And I’m like, dude, I can see I could graph yourself for you.
It drove me insane that I had gotten deeper math comics. It’s all formula. Yeah again, I’m trying not to be a hater. I’m working on myself. I’m dragging you down, all right, let me go the other way.
Kyle Kinane’s chunk on the fast and Furious. I’m putting in a class with Eddie Murphy Barbecue, Baseball and Football by Carlin. That is an all time chunk. Please tell him myself. Well, he’ll be like, hey, you know what’s it’s so nuts working with him is it’s a double edged sword for me because for what it’s just crazy that now we’re pals.
And I used to listen to him when I first started. I’m like, and I told you again, like I was doing a bad canine for the first two years, and you fast forward about eleven years later. Now we’re neighbors because he left La he lives up here and well he takes me out on the road with him. So over the years I’ve been able to watch him like we were at that Fast and Furious when we went to the Fast and Furious because me and a couple of him in a couple of comics, we were laughing so hard about how ridiculous it was, and we were all sitting around afterwards he threw out like just one line from that actually made the bit, and then to see him go from we’re there, we’re watching this, yeah, this funny kind of throw away, we’re wearing a circle of comics and then fully. Stretch it out.
I forgot how long the bit is, but just that’s to see how his brain works in comedy. It makes me have to step my shit up and also makes me furious because I’m just like, why am I even trying to do this? I’m glad I have to go. I’m glad I go before you to get people okay with the idea of comedy, I don’t I don’t ever want to have to follow it. I love those films.
I saw the first one Blockbuster video. I just pulled it off the shelf. Nobody cared about that franchise. Let me rent this. You know, those guys have gone from being from stealing DVD players.
To international lovengers. Somehow. Ludacris is the just a tech guy that knows everything about computers and all that. I don’t buy that Tyres is in space. What are we doing?
We do it? So I think Kyle’s a great example of everything we’ve talked about. Whether it’s short clips or my wife in the laundry basket, there’s a vibe there, right, So at some point and dworphins are kicking into your brain, you’re just feeling the room. You’re along for the ride with the performer, and I just don’t think the short clips get you there. They can be funny, and comedy can come in many forms.
So I don’t want to snob too much, but there is something for all right. I’ve bought into what this performers selling. Let me just go along for the right. Yeah, those fans tend to stick with you. They become they trust you.
They trust that and you’re going to give them that performance or that kind of a feeling when they first discovered you. Kylesmans are They’re great. They’re a great crowd. I love performing in front of them because I know that these folks are here because they like comedy. I’ve had to open for these kill Tony guys, these like these one minute dudes.
Oh wow yeah, and they’re like, I hate that show. I think it’s bad for comedy. I think it gives people the wrong idea of what stand up is because these some of these kids that go on there and they’ll get a viral one minute clip from the show. Next thing, you know, and he walked walk into the local comedy club and that kid’s face is on the poster for a one night er. I’m like, all right, Yeah, they got millions of views online, but they only have one or two one minute clips.
Now I go, hey, watching, I’m like, let me see you struggle. Do you have forty five minutes? Can you do an hour? Because you’ve only been around since breakfast, So let’s see what happens. And I went they Unfortunately I saw this one kid.
He packed it out on a Wednesday night, and his fans were exactly who I thought they would be, just the other inceel looking little dudes. And he went up there and for about the first five ten minutes he just said all the stuff that you’re not supposed to say, and then had nothing and it turned into a Q and a. I left, but from a buddy of mine who works there, it was pretty bad. For about thirty five minutes, he was just like, well, you guys got to ask you some questions. Let’s go show me, you guys, any pictures of hot girls.
I’m like to see. This is what it is? Now, this is what it is? Oh wow wow. I don’t want to get vulgar here, so I’ll pull the final word of what I’m about to set up.
But I teach a couple of college classes, and I would explain to them and I would just suddenly say and then they punched her in the and naughty word there and I would get a laugh and I would say to them, I didn’t even tell a joke, guys. I didn’t set that up. I just said something out of nowhere and made it super vulgar. And you guys are laughing. I’m like, that is that doesn’t mean I can get.
Up and do ten Damn I take that class. If my professor said that every now and then, that’ll wake me up. Yeah. It’s a bit of a departure from my normal personality, all right. I hate to ask things that I guests have been asked five hundred times.
But you’ve got two things on your bio, and I’m sure you know what they are that I’ve got to ask about your first stand up set Afghanistan. I was, I was deployed, and that was I think it was as like my second or third diployment at the time. Yeah, we were. I was with this mobilized unit. We were just in one of the smaller out post in the Helmet province and we’re only supposed to be there for a couple of days to get some work done and we were supposed to leave, but there was a sandstorm, so the helos were down.
That was going to transport us out for at least the next forty eight hours. In that forty eight hours having to be Christmas, right, so that bass at post anyway, they have what they call MWR Morale Welfare and recreation, so like to get people a break. It’s Christmas time. It sucks we’re all out here. It was a base of like maybe three four hundred people, So like, hey, in the cafeteria area, we’re going to do a talent show.
And so I saw flyers all over the place, and me and my buddies in my unit, we’re like, shit, we’re stuck here. Let’s just go and see what’s going on. After about the fourth or fifth guy I saw go up with an acoustic guitar and play a Radiohead song or a Creed cover, I was just like losing my mind. And I was a guy in my unit who I talked shit, I cracked jokes all the time because that was my fight or flight. And I was back there getting pretty loose lip, making fun of all these guys.
And then there was a couple of dudes sitting around. They’re like, once you go up there and tell some fucking jokes, why don’t you go up there and yeah, cracking jokes people, I want to hear what you’re saying. Trying to defend their buddies because I’m like roasting the hell out of these guys. And I was like, all right, I’ll sign up. Can I sign up?
Let’s do it. And I went up there. I signed up, and yeah, they let me go up there, and I just I did what I know now to be just panic riffing, crowd work. But it all worked because. I was just I just talked about it was already we all.
It all sucked. Being out there sucked. The food sucked. Those guys playing guitars sucked making fun of the higher ups they were sitting in the front row. If I was to say any of the stuff I said to any of those guys without a microphone, without that context, they would have put me in the brig that I would have been busted down so many ranks.
I would have gotten so much trouble. But because I went up there and the hosting MC was like, Hey, this is so and so he’s gonna tell some jokes. He’s a funny guy or whatever. There you can feel people leaning in They’re like, all right, what’s he gonna do? And I just just roasted people for a good five ten minutes.
But then the next day there was a lot of There was a couple of people there was like I would be walking by and they’d be like, hey, man, you were pretty funny last night, or one of the one of the captains that I was getting after is he walked up to me, I saluted and I was like, sirs, do you remember me. I was like, yes, sir, you’re pretty funny. You’re lucky that shit was funny. I would have busted your ass. So like, I thought about that and when I shortly after the deployment was over, I was home stationed in San Diego.
And in San Diego we had I think four dedicated comedy clubs. You got the Manhouse Comedy Club, American Comedy Company, Comedy Store, La Joya Comedy Palace. So I went on leave for the whole month. When we got back and I had nothing to do, so I started popping into these comedy clubs my first time ever, just sitting in the back of open mics, and I was like, some of these guys are funny. Most of these guys are really bad.
If they can be really bad, then I know I can go up there pretty bad. For a while. That was the book. I did the first set in Afghanistan, and I think I told somebody, I’m gonna give it a shot when I get back home, and I just followed through and then I literally I just didn’t stop going after. It took me about two months from the first time I went to an open mic to write something and then build up the courage to go up.
But then once I got up, I don’t think I missed a day where I didn’t get up on stage. For the first two three years, it was going after Oh wow. And unfortunately I’m still going after. I mean still that story. I’m a big fan of Bob Hope, and unfortunately Hope gets judged a lot by maybe hanging on a little too couple too many NBC specials where he’s eighty five and reading off the Q cards.
But the younger Bob Hope was quick and just getting back to the art of it. I’m I’m sure you’ve seen clips of the USO shows and when one way they just seem really dated. They are from another time. But something you said, he would get up and just have he’d get a little bit of information about the locals and then do it, do the pacing and then mug for the camera, mug for the audience. A typical Hope joke would be like I see Captain Johnson’s here must be for the free hot dogs and then hit mug and get a laugh off and it’s not even a good joke, but just like everybody’s like yeah, Captain Johnson, it’s just as this vibe of we’re all in this.
Yeah, it really is easy. When I think back now, the only reason I did well was because it was the pressure release valve. Everybody knew. It was all common knowledge. Everything sucked.
No one was. You’re not really allowed to talk about it, but for some reason, if you go up there and someone gives you the title of a comic or comedian, then you’re allowed to go ahead lit a rip. So good times and you also did it looks like a pretty cool show with the Trailblazers. Oh more for a couple of years. Because I moved up here to Portland with the wife in twenty eighteen twenty seventeen ninety and I’m a big NBA guy and a buddy of mine.
There’s a comic named Ian Carr who is used to be here from Portland now write it for years for the Late Show. James Forten all that so real, good guy and became buddies over the years. Right when I got up here, he was like, hey, because he used to work for NBC Sports doing Lee be the goofy comedian guy they cut to and he’d say something weird or whatever. He reached out to them and said, Hey, I got a guy who just moved up there. He’s a big NBA guy, he’s a Blazer fan.
I think he’d be perfect for this thing you guys are looking for. Because they were doing auditions all over the Pacific Northwest, from Portland to Seattle for a crew of guys to do like an official pregame and then postgame show for the Portland Trailblazers. Yeah. I went in a couple of times, a couple of rounds audition with a different sets of guys, and I just knew. I was like, Okay, I’m funnier.
Then it was weird because they had to separate. They had to separated into Hey, if you’re here to audition, that’s the funny guy. Go over here and sit in this corner with these group of funny looking dudes. If you’re here to be like the straight up I’m the sports guy. I tell you the x’s and o’s.
Go over there. But they didn’t know like I can talk well, I know basketball and all this stuff like that. So I think I knew I had the job right off the bat, and it ended up being a good easy money to sit and I got paid to watch basketball, talk about it and just track jokes for a couple of years. Yeah, that’s me not saying no to a good opportunity. Are you getting VO work because you’ve got great sypes?
Me again, I don’t say no to opportunities presented. I do. I do VO stuff all the time. That’s there’s nothing better than just showing up reading a couple of lines in a booth and then going home and getting a check later and for doing minimal to no work. So I’ll take it.
I’m impressed you still going to a booth as a long time radio guy. One of the things the pandemic, For like about thirty six hours, we were like, what are we going to do?
And then we just everybody figured out how to broadcast from home.
You’d see people on cn when they’re in their living room. Was great. We figured out so back in the day. So clearly you and I are three thousand miles from each other and we’re doing this and it sounds fine. Back in the day, I’d have to bug you like, Hey, do you mind going over to the local radio station in Portland and we’re going to hook it up over a thing and it’s going to cost two hundred dollars and it’s two hours out of your day.
So, like a long way of saying, I’m a pressure not just recording in your base. It’s good a while since I’ve been to a booth, Mike. What I ended up doing, especially during the pandemic, is my little office space in the house just became all in one podcast recording studio slash. I go audition for a lot of things, but during the endemic, they just want you to self tape everything. So one corner of my office was in the audio podcast equipment set up, and in the other corner there was like my camera and then I had my lights and my backdrop pulled down so I could sit there and talk to the camera and be these auditions, which it does suck.
I used to book a lot more stuff and I could be in the room with a casting director, especially the comic because we could work the room. There were gigs that I knew I was going to book before we even started doing the lines, because I would go in and just start working the room like a comic deest, talking shit and riffing and making people laugh, and then they’d be like, oh, you’re pretty great. I’m like, are we going to read the lines? They’re like, oh yeah, go ahead and read the lines, and then boom you get the gig. But it’s hard.
It’s hard to show how charm you started to turn the charm on when you’re just recording yourself in your office, trying to keep your voice down because the baby sleeping and your wife is just trying to have a nice quiet time in a living room. The amount of times again my wife in the laundry basket, I’m recording the podcast and she thinks she’s sneaking down and is totally distracting me. And you’re married. You just don’t want to pick the fight of can you not do the laundry when I’m recording work great? Well, then you do the loader like it’s just like I just eat it and get stopped.
And it’s interesting to me that you say about working the room, because as we’re doing this, I’m finding the opposite. So I look at the way I look and in person, I give off suit vibes to comics. So I’m finding doing this in this style, I’m connecting a lot easier because hopefully it seems like you did we get a minute in, you go, Okay, this guy knows what he’s talking about at least, whereas I walk in and I’ve got my doctors on and you’re like, ah, all right, here’s another radio guy who suits. So this actually works better for me. That’s great, man.
I figured anybody that has a pod called Daily Comedy News probably knows what they’re talking about when it comes to comedy. If that makes so any better I was. I didn’t come into this skeptical at all. The absurdity of someone will be like, all right, let me do a podcast to focus only on comedy and just have no idea what they’re talking about or who they’re talking Like, now did I say that out loud? I have done a couple of interviews where the guy was like, so you have a joke about Steph Curry and so this guy’s right, he’s a sports The said, I don’t know why they sent me over, but the guy just does a sports talk radio kind of thing, and I pr people they’re just like, oh, he has a joke about basketball.
To talk to and I get there and I’m talking to the guys. So you have a joke about Steph Curry. I’m like, yeah, he goes, that’s crazy, man, I’m like, yeah, how did you come up with it? I’m like, you really want me to I’m not going to break down a joke for you, man, it’s just dude, good audio. Good on you.
I’m like, okay, I’ll tell you on the flip side. Sometimes you get a guest who you ask a three minute question, you just get a yeah back. So here’s my safety list. Don’t answer any of this. What inspired you to get into comedy?
Who are your influence is? How do you handle hacklers? Do you have any pre show rituals? How do you balance your career with your family? Those are my like, oh my god, how am I going to pull twenty more minutes out of this?
Dude? But I didn’t mean to do that today, But all the questions just asked me. I can think about all the people that right out of that’s all they did. They came right out of the gate. So how did you get into comedy?
What inspired it? And I’m not I’m very grateful. I’m glad to be doing this. Thank you for having me on all that. But I’m still this is my rookie album, you know what I mean.
So I’m not used to talking about the material. Just shit, just selling it, you know what I mean. Like I’ve spent all these times, all these years trying to figure out the material, and then I sell it when I’m on stage. So now this is a different kind of thing where you’re like talking about the album. I’m just like, Yeah, I think it’s good.
I’m proud of it. I think you should get it. If not, I don’t know. I can’t feed my family. I don’t know, I don’t care.
I don’t know what’s gonna happen. Make sure your peeps put it in sound Exchange so I actually can play it on those various digital platforms. Ointgere gonna be on Standard Change shouts the sound Exchange. I love getting those emails, but that lets me know I got another little deposit in the bank because it’s a serious spinning my stuff. So I’m glad for those guys.
And you were going straight into hot new releases. Good talking, Yeah, to make great talking, man. I appreciate it. Boy, it wasn’t he fantastic? I really, really liked him.
His album is called either Way Pretty Funny, available now from Blonde Medicine. Nice to see an old fashioned album album, isn’t it? And I hope he wins the Grammy. Shane Brendon either Way Pretty Funny, Really liked him, Hope to have him back someday. And that is your comedy news for today.
I’ll see tomorrow