All right. Welcome to the latest episode of the
Dan Time Podcast. I'm your host, Dan McCardle.
I'm so glad you're here and happy almost Halloween.
Don't you love having these holidays that we
run through in full effect on the weekend before
or even the whole week before? And then we have
it again on the actual day. And then on Wednesday,
we act like it never happened and we're marching
onto Thanksgiving. Hey, you'll have all those
yellow starbursts and the orange starbursts and
all those little strawberry bonbons in a bucket
on top of your fridge till New Year's. Okay,
last week we heard from a man of many talents,
Sean Henniger. If you've missed a few weeks,
go back and throw a dart. Catch up on any of
these episodes. DJ Simms, singer -songwriter
Dan Harrison. Dan Cabelka, one of my favorite
episodes. Dan is a champion of special needs
ball players in Chatham, Ontario, Canada. Vic
Penn, Chris Furmeister. See, it's not all Dan's
all the time. And today, I'm ecstatic to bring
to you Long Beach, California, comedian Daniel
Iches. Daniel was born and raised in Fresno,
California. He graduated from Cal State Long
Beach. and he became the youngest finalist ever
of the Funniest Comic in LA Comedy Contest at
the John Lovitz Comedy Club in 2010. Check out
his website at danieleachus .com, that's E -A
-C -H -U -S. His latest stand -up album, Where's
Daniel, is available for download on all music
platforms. Folks, it is a perfectly good idea
to jump off this episode right now. Go download
that album. and then come back to Dan Time. It's
a few finger taps away. You can find Daniel on
Twitch TV, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook,
X. Daniel even recorded podcast episodes. Your
worst favorite podcast, which I highly recommend.
So look that one up. He's got a book out, A Day
at the Zoo in 2062. You're going to love his
take on Beer at the Movie Theater. angry dads
at Disneyland, and nobody needs french fries.
You've gotta check out on YouTube, Don't Be Skinny,
Daniel Iches. Some of the comments, Wow, what
a set. This guy is on his way to greater success.
The whole set had me rolling. Gotta keep a lookout
for more of this guy. Another commenter, His
jokes are so multi -layered, I spent more time
laughing at his wordplay than anything. Wow,
most comedians only make me laugh three or four
times during their set, but this guy had me laughing
so hard through his entire set. So funny. Now
I'll have to search YouTube for more of his videos.
I am also thin and afraid of the wind because
it can literally blow me away. You're gonna love
this conversation. We talk about what it's really
like to work as a comic around the clock. How
the book came together. his other projects, how
Daniel perseveres, and what he likes to do for
fun when he's not constantly working on new material.
Daniel is a huge football fan and loves the Fresno
State Bulldogs and Minnesota Vikings. If you've
got a Carnival Cruise vacation booked for early
next year, there's a great chance that you'll
see Daniel perform. He'll also be appearing this
Saturday at Comedy Row in Visalia, California,
and Sunday at Anime Pasadena. then dates later
this month in Cave Junction and Grants Pass,
Oregon. All right, let's get to the conversation.
Folks, it is Daniel Iches time. Daniel, I just
want to say that this kind of connects to the
theme of Dan Time, the podcast of Dan talking
to other Dan's and rooting for people that had
the same name. Daniel, the lankiness, the skinniness,
I lived in this world my whole life and to see
a guy that... resembles my body, I guess I'll
be endomorphs. I just naturally root for you.
And so I just want to kind of throw that out
there at the start. How are you doing today?
Good. Still, still lanky, still skinny. It's
all it's just all it's all for the comedy. You
know, I mean, I did this for the joke. No, no.
Yeah, I've always been like this. I was like
the the additive gangly. Yeah, well you like
it until it comes across in like a tinder message
or something and you're like, I don't know about
that Well, Daniel, you're a pretty busy guy.
You're not one -dimensional Some people have
heard about you through your comedy album or
things that you've done on stage A lot of people
don't know that you're also a writer and producer
So I wasn't quite sure where I wanted to start
off But for people who have just never heard
of you, I guess give me a little on how you got
started in the business and maybe flash forward
to where you are right now. Yeah, well spoiler
alert right now I'm in my room in front of a
closet, but we'll go back and I guess talk about
the beginning I. you know it's funny if you're
in LA or SoCal at all you know every person your
mailman is also a writer and producer you know
I mean like everyone has that title so I just
feel weird even just like saying it because it's
like of course you are you know what I mean like
I joked about dating apps earlier but that's
like sort of a running joke on there like anytime
like somebody asks you what like what do you
do and you tell her like oh this is you know
i'm on this and this it's always like of course
you are of course you're an actor everyone is
apparently um but it is true i do a lot of acting
stuff for commercials mostly i think i've been
in i think like 22 nationals right now big stuff
uh google belvita breakfast bars fruit of the
loom Oh my god, I lose the track of Virgin Mobile.
It's the Amazon. There's been a lot of them.
HP, that's a new one that's coming out like any
day now. Do you ever get some offers where you
just say let me think about that one for a second
I really hate that product I Wish I was in that
position to turn stuff down Never like oh, I
hate that product, but there have been ones where
I'm like, do we need a commercial for this? I
guess I don't want to cut there's a certain Not
that anything there was it was a great commercial
great people to work with, but I guess without
naming names, there's a certain state that is
especially known for having the best potatoes.
And we all know that this state makes the best
potatoes. And for some reason they decided they
needed national advertisement for this recently.
I don't know why. I haven't seen these commercials
yet, but I don't even know who number two is.
You know what I mean? That's the state where
you're at fourth grade and you're like, what's
the one thing that everybody knows about Nebraska?
And I don't really remember, but when you got
to, uh, to Idaho, sorry, I spoiled it, but I
don't think anybody knew what else it's sorry
for anybody listening and I, and Idaho, cause
there's a lot there, but. Well, yeah, it's potatoes
and that Boise state has a blue football field.
That's it. That's the only thing anyone ever
knows about it. Um, but yeah, anyway, there's
been so many random commercials. They're always.
They're always fun roles. They're always, it's
more, it's not about the product being weird,
but usually what I'm asked to do, a good example
of that was I did a commercial for Dollar Shave
Club. And it was, I don't know what you call
them, but I kind of call them like ensemble commercials.
It's like the commercial where there's just like
a lot of different lead actors in it, not one
single person. And so we all kind of got cast
together and we all auditioned for many different
roles. So we didn't know. exactly which role
we were going to be playing, or if we'd even
auditioned for the role that we ended up ultimately
getting. And this one was filmed at the Universal
Studios backlot. And as someone who grew up in
California my whole life, I had gone to Universal
Studios, the theme park, so many times. And that
backlot tour, if you've ever been, that's like
the biggest, best thing there. And it was something
that I always liked. just dreamed about being
able to like film a movie or film something in
the Universal Studios backlot so sure enough
I get cast in this Dollar Shave Club commercial
and they're like we're filming in the Universal
Studios backlot oh my god this is gonna be amazing
I get there on set they're like we're gonna do
our costume fitting there it's gonna be great
you'll find out what role you're gonna play perfect
So I'm with all these like, I mean, it's all
dudes in there. It's all Dollar Shave Club people.
So it's like a bunch of guys in there and one
at a time people are going in and then they're
coming out in their costume. And it's, you know,
it's, if you've seen a Dollar Shave Club commercial,
they're always funny. So, you know, guys were
coming out just wearing like, oh yeah, I'm like.
You know, nothing crazy, just like, Oh, I guess
I'm like a sports guy and his hair is crazy.
And he's in like, you know, a half a Jersey with
his stomach exposed and we're all laughing and
high fiving each other and having a good time.
I just happened to be last. And so they're all
like, Oh, I wonder what you're going to be Daniel.
Cause I saw the people who the roles I had auditioned
for, they would, they already came out. So I
was like, I guess I didn't audition for the role
I got because I don't, I don't, I've seen them
all in this room already. So I go into the costume,
the wardrobe room, and the lady just goes, well,
um, here it is. And she just hands me, it's basically
a speedo, skin tight speedo, the same color as
my skin. And I was like, okay, so what, what
else? And she's like, that's it. And I'm like,
that's what's so like, but I just wear my shirt
and she's like, no, no, no, nothing else. Just
that. And I was like, what's my role? And she's
like, uh, she looks at a paper. She goes, you
are, uh, your man seeing how high you can pee
in the shower. I was like, okay. All right. So
I guess I'm supposed to be naked. They're like,
yeah, you're supposed to be naked, I guess for
the commercial. So I just go out there in a speedo
and, uh, I'm like, I guess I can't get any weird
in this. I go on the set, we go to film and,
uh, it's a backlog. It's not a real. house. So
they created a bathroom in there for me to film
in, like just in the movie studio. Side note,
we were randomly in the studio. They're filming
all the new, like some reboot episodes of Will
and Grace or something. But anyway, they emptied
it and they created this bathroom in there for
me to film in. And what I didn't think about
until the water turned on was that because it's
not a real bathroom, it doesn't have hot water.
It's just a hose. This is freezing water coming
out of there. Also, there's no actual drain.
I mean, it's a tub, but it's just like concrete
under, so the water's not going anywhere. So
they had to fill the drain with concrete. So
the water's just building up to my ankles. I'm
like, oh, this is early onset frostbite is what
I'm feeling right now, I'm pretty sure. I'm freezing
cold in a thong or in a speedo. And then they
give me this hose that's filled with fake pee
and they're like, yeah, so this is what you're
going to hold and you're going to do this motion.
They give me the action, you know, like you're
just going to pee is going to come out and there's
going to be pee all over the wall. And like that's,
we're going to do a bunch of takes doing a bunch
of different things. I'm freezing. I'm like,
this is so weird. I don't have any lines. This
is kind of crazy. They stopped me after the first
take. And they're like, sorry, this is a long
story. And they're like, uh, Daniel, sorry, we,
we can, every time your speedo is getting pink
when it gets wet. So, and we can tell you're
wearing a speedo, which you're obviously not
supposed to be. So we're going to have to give
you something smaller and smaller. I mean, I
was like smaller and this lady just comes out
with a literal song and goes, you're yeah, you
got to put this on. I was like, right now? They're
like, yeah. And I was like, I was not. Mentally
prepared for this day at all. It's like six in
the morning, too. I'd already been up for like
three hours Okay, so I put on this song we filmed
this commercial honestly one of the hardest acting
things I've ever done in my life. I know a lot
of times we kind of click through commercials
We don't really pay attention to but we're usually
asked to do so many things of such a small Shot
and this was one that was like especially difficult
because, because of how freezing I was, they're
pumping fogs and make it look steamy. And the
director just kept telling me, Hey, just remember
it's hot. It feels great. It's warm. It's like
40 degree water. I'm sitting here. It's anything
but hot. It's everything but hot. My nipples
are hard. It's like not a good feeling. I'm wearing
a thong. And I, there was this like sort of moment
of clarity that I had at one point where they,
they were, they were laughing. They're like,
it was great. They say cut. Yeah, they were having
a great time. They cut it and they're like, hold
on. We're going to take a look at some stuff.
And I had this moment of clarity where there's
like fake pee all over the wall. I'm up to my
ankles in water. I'm wearing a thong and there's
cameras all around me. And I was like, never
in my life did I ever think. that this would
be my Universal Studios backlot experience. I,
you know, I'm sure the average person didn't
realize that there could possibly be that much
mystery that goes into an experience like that
of, you know, half an hour before you had no,
you couldn't have dreamed up this scenario, this
outfit that you're in, and here you are. They
don't tell us what our role is going to be or
exactly what we're doing. I mean, I've had it
happen multiple times where, you know, you're
being sort of chauffeured around everywhere by
all these different people. Oh, meet so and so.
And this is the actor. OK, great. But hold on.
We're going to take you. You're going to sign
this thing. OK. And then you get on set and you're
like, OK, ready and action. And you're like,
what is what am I doing? I don't even know what
I'm doing with a cut. OK. Did anyone give them
a script? I'm like, there's a script like that's
happened. So many times I did one for a company
called honey Which is like a web I guess it's
like a thing that goes on your browser and you
get like it finds you coupons for like online
shopping and They're doing a big Christmas promotion
and I was with someone else in the scene Who
we didn't know which of the two roles which were
very different roles with very different lines.
We didn't know which one we were doing and sort
of based off context clues and what we're wearing
we're like I'm pretty sure these in mind so we're
back there memorizing our parts and our parts
only we get onto the set they say action and
we had had the roles wrong and neither of us
knew the other lines so they're like scrambling
to figure out how do we okay get them the scripts
let's hurry this is like right there in the middle
of covid which had all these protocols and it's
we had to be quick on set and it's It's a lot
less organized than you would think. I was going
to say, it has nothing to do with the companies,
by the way. It could be the biggest, best companies
in the world. And it's just, every commercial
shoot is always insanely unorganized. Wow. Yeah.
So it could be near calamity multiple times over
just to film a Swifter commercial. I mean, a
young mother sweeping her kitchen. Or showing
off the new vacuum or something. I mean that
could have been just a hellacious How many hours
do you sometimes spend trying to to cut a 30
minute tv ad like that? Yeah, 30 seconds. I honestly
Yeah days that dollar shave club one was Uh,
it was over. I wasn't there every day, but it
was two weeks I think I was there for five days
doing that which was fun because I got to eat
lunch on the If you've ever been to the back
lot, there's a there's a famous the new york
City Street that they've done Seinfeld on they
do a million movies and commercials on this street
and we got to eat on that but it was especially
fun for me because all the tram tours were going
by and People kind of figured out quickly like
god. These must be extras. I don't know any,
you know, I don't see Chris Pratt I don't know
any of these people or whatever, but they would
see me The one guy who had to wear a robe because
I was 99 % naked underneath And you see a guy
on a rope eating a sandwich on the back lot.
You're like, I don't know who that is, but he's
famous. Why else would he be in a rope right
now? So I had so many people taking pictures
of me back there. Little did they know I was
in a thong, but yeah, it's wild. Every experience
is just completely different. And the amount
of stories and the amount of, I know I did a
Virgin mobile. one where I played a meat smoker.
I'll let you figure out how those two things
are connected. And they, I thought for sure I
was, they're like, yeah, yeah, you're in this
garage, but we're going to make it look like
a butcher's locker layer. I don't know what you
call a butcher work. And, uh, they use real meat,
like giant. I don't know what those things weigh
40 pounds each, like hunks. meat hanging everywhere
and then they didn't use fog they used actual
barbecue smoke which I'm like how is this any
of this I don't know legal or something I feel
like we're all getting high off fumes right now
and people that that were there that morning
or part of the week and they just never came
back and said I'm done with this no I've seen
people get cut out never from anything I've never
seen any like dramatic you know, Christian Bale
blow ups or anything, but I've seen people sadly
get cut out where, you know, a lot of times the
director, they don't always know exactly what
the scene's going to be or what they want because
commercial directors have a tough job. They're
usually, I mean, to be honest, not to stereotype,
but they're usually very creative people who
are trying to make their name as directors who
are just doing this for the money, you know,
because it's not much of a They don't even have
a credit. You don't know who directs any of these
commercials and I've seen some I've had some
directors that directed I did a Topgolf commercial
that was directed by I'm forgetting his name
but the director who directed all of the Eric
Andre show and there's a prank movie Eric Andre
came out with that he directed it was just in
theaters and he's doing a Topgolf commercial
so they usually do it because it's great money
and And you know, but a lot of them are very,
very qualified at what they do. And now they're
on this set where at the end of the day, it's
the, the company has the last word, you know?
So the director might be the, uh, you know, quote
unquote, like expert on the film stuff. And it'll
be like, cut. This is the best version of that
scene. That's the funniest version. It's great.
And it'll be like, okay, do you have any notes
company? And the company will have some absurd
thing. Usually that's like, Oh yeah, yeah, we
want them to say this word instead. And it makes
no sense, but they want it because it's their
product and it's their money. And I've seen so
many like directors fight with the brand to try
to get their ideas in and all that. And sometimes
that means at the last second being like, well,
I guess, I guess we don't need that actor, I
guess, then coming in and saying that line. So
yeah, you can go home. Fortunately, that's never
happened to me. Would have been extra sad to
be sent home wearing a thong after all that work
But I've seen it happen and it's always sad because
everyone's excited to be there and then it's
like well Okay, Steve you can leave now. We don't
need you anymore. You're not in a commercial
Well, Daniel, I want to real quick just before
we get too far ahead I want to talk about your
your current album your comic album Probably
saying that all wrong your stand -up album. Where's
Daniel? And I've been listening to this thing
for the past couple of weeks and front to back
track by track. It can almost skip around if
you have to do it randomly, which I had that
setting accidentally when I was listening to
it. But that's funny. Like, why do you introduce
himself in the middle? That was weird. This thing
is a riot, Daniel. And I want to also get ahead
of something here to your approach to stand up
comedy. And you're in nightclubs. You're talking
to adults who are having adult beverages. But
your comedy is not profanity laced and and it's
hilarious and I think there are I don't I wouldn't
Even say most people but I think there's some
people that think that you got to be a little
bit Vulgar to really come over the top and be
be hilarious I disagree but I wanted to comment
on that approach and How you find success with
that and how you enjoy writing like that. Is
it more challenging? Yeah, I've always It's funny.
I've always hated the word clean you know, when
people say, oh, you clean comic and it's like
a, not a pet peeve, but I just, it always sounds
so boring to me. You know what I mean? If someone
was like, let's go see a clean comedy show, I'd
be like, oh, this is going to be the worst, you
know? And I've always just done what I thought
was funny. And to me, most of the time, like
all like dirty material at all, it all involves
around sex basically. And to me in my head, that's
always just been one subject. That's it. I'm
not against talking about it, but it's like,
why would you make your whole career talking
about one subject? Some pretty well -worn paths,
I think. If a guy gets up there and does a sex
routine, and you're thinking, okay, I heard whoever
in the 70s or 80s do this and do it pretty well.
Right. Yeah, because it's just one thing. There's
only so many stories out there, and you're like,
all right, I'm not... It's never been like a
moral high ground thing or anything like that.
It's always just like, there's so much more out
there to explore. And I feel like I always tried
to stick to more universal subjects, just to
one, try to bring everybody in, but two, just
to try to be uniquely me or whatever that means,
and talk about everything that I wanted to talk
about. And the opening track, and I won't give
away any details here, but just the title, if
anybody had some doubts. Like you said, clean
comedy is not really the best catch -all. Drunk
at a movie theater is the way this album kicks
off. You're speaking my language there. What
really got me rolling though, because I am a
dad, was there's a bit there in the middle of
the return of Disneyland. If you want to go into
any detail here, I'm not going to do it, but
there's a line there that is just hilarious.
I've been there in some other situation. Yeah,
yeah, I have a I live pretty close to Disneyland.
My friends convinced me to get a Disney Pass,
which is all another story. But, you know, so
I've been there pretty regularly, maybe once
a month and once every couple of months, whatever.
But I could not help but notice, especially when
you have a pass, the money part of it. you know,
it's done, you already paid for it, it's out
the window. So you can kind of just sit back
and enjoy yourself now, you know, we'll sometimes
we'll go to Starbucks, we won't worry about like,
you know, we're at Disneyland, let's get the
most out of our money, let's ride every ride,
which is the way I, you know, always approach
it as a kid with my family, because it was like,
we're here for one day, do everything, you know,
it's been a lot to be here. But now that I have
a pass, I can actually just, you know, sort of
Okay, we can take a break and go eat lunch and
hang out and you know You know sit on sit over
here and eat a churro or drink coffee and then
go on a ride and When you do that, you can't
help but notice all of the just the angriest
dads Who did who I've my dad's been there, you
know, I've seen in a million two We're just you
know, it's 2 p .m. It's 1 p .m. And they're just
over it already over All of the money they spent,
the family, everybody wants to ride different
rides and it's probably not funny to them but
it's absolutely hilarious to me sitting back
and watching that while eating a churro and I
enjoyed it so I had to talk about it and that's
made it on the second track of the album. Another
track on here, Nobody Needs French Fries. I wanted
to talk about your affinity for Taco Bell and
just the... overabundance of french fries every
other place you go you get the sandwich and the
fries the burger and the fries the Whatever the
nuggets and the fries and the fries and how many
fries do we have to eat? It's refreshing going
to Taco Bell and There's nothing you just don't
get tots or fries you just get something wrapped
up with the with the meat and the cheese and
the lettuce and And the oozy stuff and but it's
not exactly it's only entrees, you know, I mean,
yeah, they don't even they don't even really
make sides Yeah, I mean ironically now they have
the nacho fries there too But most people don't
get those and I guess you can get chips if you
want But yeah, I got I yeah shout out to Taco
Bell who by the way accident or not accidentally
Maybe it was an accident. They sent me Coupons
for the first time ever. I don't even know that
was needed But then when I saw them, I was like,
oh my God, this is definitely needed. Daniel,
I got to ask you this. I've got some questions
on these episodes that I usually say for the
end, but every once in a while I'll pepper one
in in the middle of the episode. OK, have you
ever yourself or have you ever known somebody
who has who has won? one of those back of the
receipt sweepstakes where you call in the survey,
you tell them what about your experience and
you win the 500 bucks. I have never in my life
that they've been printing those things on the
dollar general receipts or the taco. Do these
things actually get doled out? I don't think
anyone takes them up on it. I think you'd probably
win immediately if you called because they'd
be like, oh my God, you called. The funniest
one to me is you go to Taco Bell and I don't
know if they all have this, but definitely a
few of the ones that I've been to. Have you ever
gone to the ones where they'll say, would you
like to like round up or would you like to donate
your change for education? It's just education.
I'm like, who's that? Who's education is this?
And how come I've never in my life gone to a
school and be like, how did you guys get such
nice desks? And they're like, well, because of
the cheesy, cheesy Gordita crunch, baby that
paid for all this. Who's where's this money actually
going Taco Bell schools don't exist. Where's
this money going right? Yeah, I feel like you
could just call in right now and probably win
Automatically, I've always just wanted to call
and be like I think you guys are doing great
I have nothing more to say. I don't want anything
from this. Just keep doing what you're doing
I actually I ran through a Taco Bell today in
honor of this episode And the customer service
at least the one that I went to and if I do go
it's superb It's head and shoulders above the
other guy the burger guys where they used to
call them It's just a very underwhelming experience
a lot of places but Taco Bell is that's another
thing that people don't when they take selfies
and they take pictures their food at the nice
restaurant and they post it people never take
a picture of a double cheeseburger and I mean,
there's some delicious sandwiches out there,
but Nobody really promotes the awesome $7 and
whatever lunch that they had. Yeah. Why do we
act like we don't do this? I think, you know,
the reason I respect Taco Bell so much, it's
because what everyone else isn't doing. Taco
Bell has never promised us to be anything more
than it is. Taco Bell has never sat there and
been like, we have the greatest, most authentic,
never. They've never said those words. They would
never try to. You know what you're getting. And
that's that, where I feel like every burger chain
claims to have the best burgers. Ours are grilled.
Ours are restaurant quality. Ours are like so
many promises. And Taco Bell is like their whole
catchphrase. Like, why did you just not have
a burger? Like they didn't even say their food
was good. They were like, we're not burgers.
And you're like, that's right. You aren't Taco
Bell. It's a respect thing. I feel like that,
you know, I know what I'm getting. I know what
I'm paying. And if they do mess up, you kind
of give it to them because you're like, yeah,
you didn't tell me you wouldn't mess up. So.
It's a win -win. All right. We could talk about
that for a while, but I don't want to get too
far along without mentioning the book that you
released, A Day at the Zoo in 2062. Yeah. It
was a lot of fun to do. The two weeks of mandatory
quarantine happened back in 2020. I was like,
okay, what am I going to do right now? I was
like, you know what I'll do. I've been meaning
to reorganize and clean out. one of the closets
in my room and a couple of like cabinets. And
so I was kind of going through stuff and I found
this notebook that I had written labeled back
in 2010. So exactly 10 years before that. And
it was a bunch of short stories. I forgot that
I had challenged myself to a 30 day challenge
to write a short story every day. And it could
be whatever I like. It's been five minutes doing
it. I could spend an hour doing it. I just had
to do one that day. And I liked it so much, I
ended up doing two of those. So I had something
like 60 short stories in this notebook. And they're
fun, but I sort of forgot about it. I didn't
have anything to do with it. It was 2010. I don't
know. I was doing comedy, but I was pretty new.
So that was kind of that. And so in 2020, when
I found this notebook, it was basically like
reading it for the first time. It had been 10
years. I'd forgotten about most of them. And
so Bunch of them like genuinely caught me by
surprise where I was like, Oh, this is actually
funny. And I was starting to, you know, 10 years
had gone by. So I was like, Oh, I can, you know,
I'm good enough now where I can, I can fix this
and make a new punchline here. I was coming up
with new ideas. And so I just, because I had
the time, uh, started rewriting a bunch of them
and then picking my favorites and all that. Next
thing I knew I had 50. Short stories that I really
liked that I thought were really funny and well
written and I kind of just didn't know Okay,
that was fun. I don't know what I'm gonna do
with this. I can't really these don't really
translate into stand -up bits So I'm not really
sure What I'm gonna do with 50 short stories
and then one of my best friends he is like it's
this great illustrator just for fun and he showed
me this new piece of like technology they had
gotten where he can basically draw digitally
now, like with this pad and the special pen.
And I was like, oh, that's really cool. What
are you going to do with it? He's like, I'm not
sure, but I have it now. And I was like, you
know what, what if we just made a book? What
if you drew a drawing for every one of my short
stories and we should have enough for like 120,
150 page book. Like let's make a book. And he
was like, how do you make a book? And I was like,
I have no idea, but it looks like we have nothing
but time right now. So let's Google it. So I
did, I did it the hard way. I started just researching
like, okay, what are the dimensions? What kind
of fonts do I use? You know, there's this whole
rabbit hole of like, well, this fonts for this
genre and this fonts for this. And, uh, it took
a long time, but I was determined to make it
sort of a 2020 goal of mine. Uh, so much so that
I literally pressed the confirm button minutes
before midnight. uh, at the end of 2020, right
before 2021 and ordered the books from the publishing
company to be printed. And, uh, I'm like really
happy with it. It's also surprisingly easy to
write a book. It's just four million steps. I
think that's the, there's so many stupid little
things where you're just like, how do I get numbers
on one side of the page on that one and numbers
on the other side of the page on that one? It's
like dumb stuff like that. uh that took forever
to figure out but a lot of formatting yeah it's
out now yeah a lot of formatting and just i don't
know the whole font thing was like a big thing
they're like well you don't want to use this
font for this genre and you're like is anyone
paying attention to this uh but yeah it's on
amazon now uh day at the zoo in 2062 uh you can
probably also just search daniel eaches and find
it that way yeah when i first visited your website
i want people to realize that You can kind of
find your favorite little corner with Daniel
Iches, whether you like the stand -up albums,
if you want to watch some separate YouTube videos,
if you want to order the book. Daniel, one other
thing that you did, you know, people do this
with podcasts where, I mean, who knows, even
with Dan Time, I mean, are there going to be
new episodes in 2032? I don't know yet, but the
fact that you actually strung together a couple
dozen episodes, And even alluded, I think, in
the last couple that you were saying, this might
be the end, but that's not such a bad thing.
Guys, if you just want to start burning away
at some of these podcast episodes and get started,
get a little taste of Daniel's material, that's
the first thing that I did. Because I'm driving
around a lot. I don't have time to really stop
and watch things during the day. So I got a kick
out of some of these. Oh, thanks. Honestly, they
were all... your worst favorite podcast? Hell
yeah. I'm a planner. I don't know if you can
tell that, but I write a lot of stuff out. All
my jokes, I meticulously go over them over and
over and over before I end up doing them or putting
them on an album or anything. This was the first
thing that I ever gotten to do publicly that
was just sporadic. a theme idea and kind of chose,
you know, the, the, the two things for the theme,
um, in the beginning. So for those of you not
familiar yet, it's called your worst favorite
podcast. And I will take a theme, you know, something
like theme parks, for instance, that will be
the theme of the episode. And, uh, and, and so
the episode would work like this. I would talk
about the worst ride at my favorite theme park.
And then I would talk about my favorite ride.
at what I think is the worst hate park, which
is sort of a positive spin on a negative thing
and a negative spin on a positive thing. And
I thought that was just fun to look at it from
different angles. And it was a lot of fun to
do and a lot of fun to just sort of talk and
not be. So in my head about what exactly I was
going to say about that thing. And I'm proud
of a lot of the episodes. I think they turned
out really fun. The dating stories really had
me go in there and fast food. I mean, if you
need a starting point, fast food, please everybody
just throw a dart and play one of these and get
started on some Daniel Eaches. And I think that
you'll want to listen to more. and explore more
and download the albums as well. Now, Carry the
Pillows was your first stand -up release. Was
that a long time coming? Were you working on
that for a while, thinking about it for a while?
Yeah, I had pretty much worked on that. I think
it was somewhere between eight, nine years to
maybe ten. It was coming up on ten years, which
is pretty, I don't know, sort of... standard
if there is a standard for stand -up comics the
first album it usually takes forever to get to
that point and then after that it's like every
two or three years you're coming out with a new
one but yeah it it was basically a culmination
of everything that I had come up with up until
that point although that makes it sound much
more grand than it actually is because you know
the first five years of stuff wasn't good enough
to make it on the album. So it's probably more
like the last two years of that eight year run
or whatever it was. What was it like in just
your first few times up on a stage and talking
to just a handful of people? Were there some
nights where you got off stage? You're like,
that did not land very well. I don't know what
happened there, but you seem to kind of had this
quality about you where the next day is like,
well, let's do that again. like yeah did you
let that bother you or were nights kind of fell
flat or you felt great about the gig and then
you felt maybe not terrible but just like oh
well that's what was that like in the very beginning
well I could tell you what it was like last week
and a bad show that no yeah you know it is it
that stuff always happens you always have you
know bad shows here and there you hope that that
happens much less frequently as time goes on,
which thankfully it has. I've always been, yeah,
very, I don't know if driven's the right word,
but as cheesy as this sounds, I've always been
like a big football fan. And that's sort of the
attitude there where it's like you have a bad
game or you throw an interception. Like I said,
I know this sounds corny, but you do something
wrong and it's like well too bad You got to have
a short memory you go back out there and you
do it again You figure out what went wrong and
and you fix it So I feel like I was just naturally
had that attitude and I definitely subconsciously
or not apply that to comedy all the time But
you know, sometimes you just I did a show last
week. I won't say words that because I'll probably
end up doing it again Sometimes you're just like
I don't want to blame the crowd but I have to
blame the crowd. There's something wrong with
how you guys perceive laughter or just if you
have humor, I'm not sure. But it happens where
you just don't have an answer. And you're like,
well, you know what? I'll just let me just rewrite.
Let me just come back in three years when I have
all this stuff and try this over again. But yeah,
you just got to have a short memory. You know,
if. If, as long as you're writing stuff that
you find, that you find funny, then there's something
there. You know, and maybe in the beginning,
you're not skilled enough to like be able to
figure out the right wording or where things
should go or how exactly you should say it. But
there's something there. And I guess having that
trust, that confidence in that goes a long way
because you know, okay, well, I genuinely find
this very funny. That means there's something
I can do to fix it. And it's very rare that you
genuinely find something funny and there's just
nothing you can do, no matter how funny you are,
how skilled you are at doing it to get it to
work. But it's a long game, man. Everyone just
thinks we go up there and just talk about airplane
food and fart on stage and call it a day. There's
so much that goes into it. It's such a long game.
We're basically mad scientists up there just
trying to figure stuff out. Sometimes I look
at it like you almost have to be the type of
person that could carry a conversation at just
a dead party where people are watching a ball
game. Nobody's talking. Nobody's laughing. You're
like, well, I guess I'll bring up the next subject
and the next one. I mean, it's different with
people that come to see you, but they're just
not. interacting with you. I've always thought
that that's got to be a huge challenge to just
write the jokes, make them transition well, and
do it the next night and the next night in the
next city. Yeah, I think the biggest challenge
is I definitely don't want to speak for every
comic, but a lot of us, myself included, tend
to be like sort of introverts in real life. We're
very quiet. I'm always quiet. I guess I'll just
talk about me. I'm always quiet because I'm always
listening and sort of like always analyzing Like
what's actually happening here? And you know,
is there drama over in the corner and figure
out what is what's actually happening here that
most people aren't seeing. And because of that,
I feel like I'm always like very quiet. And then
the challenge is now you have to get on a stage
with a room full of, you know, sometimes hundreds
of thousands of people and be an extrovert. And
it's like you just you have to be like. is sort
of this A personality and B personality and just
be able to turn them off and on constantly. I
think that's probably the biggest challenge of
comedy is that sometimes your onstage personality
isn't exactly who you are in real life publicly.
I mean, it's always who you are in your mind.
You have to bring who you are in your mind out.
Physically and I think that takes a while to
learn sometimes is what they like. People always
say like, oh, this person found their voice and
it's really just them going. Oh yeah, that's
that person in my head is finally now coming
out of my mouth, right? Do you do you have any
rituals or anything that you do before a show
like alright? I'm not going to eat after 4 o
'clock today or I need to make sure I go to bed
at this time before this gig or whatever. Do
you do things like that? It's a spoonful of mayonnaise,
uh, right before, uh, no, not really. I'm a pacer.
I'll say that much. And a lot of people think
that like, Oh, you, you pace cause you're nervous,
which might be true for most people, but I pace
because I naturally have such low energy that
if I didn't pace, I think I would just die. Uh,
my heart would stop working. I'm just, I'm like
anxious to get on there. Like, ah, I just want
to go up there and say that not it's definitely
not. my mind is the opposite of nervous. I'm
like, I know I want to get up there now and just
do all this stuff that's in my head because I've
been, you know, going over this all day or for
the last few hours or whatever it's been. So
I definitely pace before every one of my shows.
I always write my set out on a piece of paper
that's in my back pocket. I never look at it.
I never use it. But I just like knowing that
there's a plan. Because a lot of times the plane
gets derailed not in something like a special
or something that you're filming but on a typical
show something will happen and whether that screws
up one joke or or Excuse me whether that derails
you into this whole tangent of things that you
weren't even planning on talking about that night
Something will throw you and so I like knowing
that like well at least there was a script At
some point But yeah, I don't know nothing nothing
too weird now so yeah right now you're you're
doing a run of dates to Southern California right
or I guess for anybody listening I've got some
people out on the west coast. Where are you gonna
be the next couple weeks or so? Yeah, I've been
I kind of had a really busy I was gonna say really
busy summer, but it's really been a busy 12 years
It was the summer, I was out of state a lot and
so I kind of wanted to scale back this fall and
do a lot more SoCal stuff and West Coast things.
So I do have a few more Central California. uh
in early november mid november i do head to southern
oregon to do some uh headline some shows in in
grants pass and cave junction and the following
weekend is uh headlining stir crazy comic club
that's one of my favorite comic clubs honestly
in the whole u .s And that is in Glendale, Arizona,
which is in Phoenix. That is November 17th and
18th. And then in early first weekend of December,
I headline another one of my favorite clubs,
Laughs Comedy Club in Tucson, which is actually
where I recorded the Where's Daniel? the album.
So there's a lot of West Coast stuff right now,
San Francisco, San Diego, a lot of California
for the rest of the year. And then I'm actually
hopping on a bunch of, headlining a bunch of
Carnival Cruises the first six months of this
next year. There's going to be a lot of other
club dates that I'll put out on my website, but
if you happen to be on a Carnival Cruise, there's
a good chance you might see me on one of those.
So if you do hear this, Feel free to message
me on any of the platforms, whatever you want,
Craigslist, whatever you got, and tell me if
you're gonna be on one of those cruises and I'll
let you know if I'm gonna be on that one. And
that's a great way to reach people who heard
about you and they live in West Virginia or Maine
or Nebraska, but they go on a cruise once a year.
Or Idaho. Or Idaho. Daniel, just a couple other
questions and we'll wrap up here. I could keep
talking, but when you have just some wide open
days, you don't have anything booked, do you
do okay with those types of stretches where you're
like, well, I guess I'll just watch some TV for
37 minutes, or do you always need to be kind
of doing something at this time and then at this
time? What does that mean, having nothing on
a schedule? Well, I don't understand what that
means. Honestly, yeah. You know what's funny?
On the days, it's always the day before is the
most important day. If I'm really busy, the day
before sucks so much. I'm just like, oh my God,
I get it. I do this. I just go over my schedule
over and over. Okay, fly here and off on the
plane there and go there and then I'm driving
there and I got this and I have no time to sleep
because I'm going to that club and straight to
that club. Fly to the next place and the day
before is absolutely the worst thing ever and
then when it actually starts happening, I love
it. It's great. I'm like I'm on the plane. I'm
like One of those weirdos on the plane who's
excited to be there while everyone else is tired
and cranky and the baby next to him to shut up
and the sweaty guy next to them to get off their
armrest. I'm that guy who's like super excited
to be there. I love traveling when I'm actually
doing it. But beforehand, it's daunting. It's
extremely daunting. And on the opposite. On the
opposite side of things, the day before I know
I finally get rest, it just happened to me recently
once I got off the road for the fall where I
was like, oh man, I have two weeks where I just
have local LA gigs. This is going to be the most
amazing thing ever. I couldn't wait for it. Then
when it was actually happening, I was like, this
is boring. I miss flying. I think at the end
of the day, I just don't know what I want until
I'm actually doing it, but it is a struggle.
Going, you know mentally through this like okay.
I'm touring now. Okay. No, I'm not I'm working
on a project and I I think I just like staying
busy So if I'm not touring I am trying to like
I'm I'm on to the next project. What am I gonna
do next? Okay, am I gonna record a special? Am
I gonna write another book? Is it you know, it's
script writing thing like commercials I just
you know, I've been doing a lot of commercial
Stuff recently just had a call back for another
one today. It was good. So I don't know I just
always try to keep moving because I think at
the end of the day I don't exactly know what
I want. Yeah, but that's part of life. I figure
it out That's a that's a great mindset and in
the midst of all the madness and the planes and
the travel Do you ever just look at your phone?
Look at the clock. You're like, alright, it's
shoot. It's 237. I got it I gotta call grandma.
I gotta call somebody that's like stationary,
that's a relative, that's in a house, that doesn't
do what you do. And you're like, hey man, I haven't
talked to her. I haven't called him in like three
weeks, but maybe I need to do that. Do you have,
do you have anybody in your circle where you're
like, I gotta place, I gotta, I'm gonna be on
the phone for about 45 minutes, but I gotta do
this. Yeah, I make sure to call grandma in prison
once a week. I'm actually very good at time management
stuff. It helps to travel a lot because so much
of it is transportation. I've learned over the
years to be like, okay, you're not just on a
plane for three hours. You're sitting down doing
something for three hours. So let's get stuff.
And, you know, a lot of times, if it's a local,
especially in LA, you're in traffic, you're driving
to shows. I try to go on a walk every day just
to kind of like clear my mind. And I probably
call my mom. My dad's always there too in the
background, in the call listening on speakerphone.
I try to call my parents probably four or five
times a week, honestly. You know, it's usually
when I'm out on a walk and I don't know, I think
that's... Part of it, you know now now I'm in
my I'm in my 30s now don't tell Hollywood I think
I'm 16 or 18 or whatever as long as you can I
feel like part of being in your 30s this I Feel
like when you start to get in your late 20s and
you start maybe figuring out what you want to
do as a career you just start getting Actually
busy for the first time in your life and then
you hit your 30s and I feel like you just go
Oh wait, this isn't going away. It doesn't get
easier. Cause then you start thinking about like,
well, what happens when I have a family or like
I get married or that you're like, that's just
more things to think about. This never goes away.
So I think the thirties is all about just accepting
and figuring out. You just have, you just better
make this work. You don't have another option.
And so I think you're sort of forced into. figuring
out your time management, whether it's, you know,
like, okay, podcasts is going to be what I do
when I am in the car, you know, because I need
to just get my mind off stuff or need to laugh
or need to learn something or whatever you listen
to podcasts for. But yeah, I've always been good
at just how do I fit everything into times that
seem like, you know, the things that people hate.
which is usually being on planes and being transported
from one thing to another. I try to be in the
moment when I can. I don't want to be that guy
who's on my phone constantly or whatever in conversations
and I'm busy texting people. But in those times
that are supposed to be boring or whatever, I
try to get the most out of it, productive -wise.
I like what you said right there, being in the
moment, because I would think as a comedian,
You're always trying to capture things that are
happening in that moment Because if you're not
looking around you may have just missed a four
-minute second I don't know how long it might
be but you know something like that. You may
just Something may have blown by you. Yeah, I
mean I see stuff that happens like the day of
a show Do you ever see stuff and you're like,
oh my gosh, I'm gonna work that in tonight Or
does it does it happen on the fly ever like that?
Oh, definitely. I mean some of some of my favorite
bits came from Yeah stuff that just happened
or I try to write beforehand for most of them,
but it's a pretty it's a good chunk maybe 20
% 15 % of the stuff that I've done like I kind
of tried spontaneously or you know, there are
shows It just happened sometimes especially in
like a bigger city When you're like LA if you're
trying to hit like three shows in a night or
four shows in a night Where you know at least
one of those is not gonna be good. There's not
gonna be that many people there Maybe it's just
comics in the back of the room And you're like,
I'm going to be so corny if I go up there and
start doing jokes to my four friends. And like,
this is the dumbest thing ever and the biggest
waste of time. And maybe it's just me again,
trying not to waste any time. But, you know,
I don't want to do that. I'm like, how do I be
productive here? Let me actually tell this story
that I don't really have any written jokes for
yet. But who cares if it bombs? Because I'm going
to bomb anyway tonight. That's happened to me
with several bits. In fact, a new bit that I've
been doing a lot that's not on any of the albums
happened in that exact way where I was in a show
that it was just comics in the crowd. There's
only like five of us. And I was like, I actually
have a funny story that happened to me at a comedy
show that the comedians will appreciate. And
I did it and it just killed. They were just loving
it. And I was like, okay, let me test this in
front of a real crowd of like real people who
aren't. comics who laugh at usually the darkest
things and laugh when you're getting hurt usually
and I tried in front of a crowd and again it
just like it did super well and I was like oh
man I'm so glad I like took that risk on it because
I don't know I didn't think to tell this story
to people so yeah I mean it happens we just sometimes
just feel like I need to change that I feel too
in my head I feel like I've been too robotic
on stage the last couple of nights let me just
Let me just open up with five minutes of just
talking about what my day was like and then get
into the set after I try not to do that all the
time, but sometimes you need to just throw in
a curveball, you know, keep it fresh. Yeah, it's
like Taco Bell. Well, Daniel, I love what you're
out there doing. I noticed that your Dan each
is or there's that there's a tag date or do you
sometimes go by Dan? It's the stupidest thing
ever I've never in my life gone by Dan, but when
social media first started I was like well Dan
shorter and people are gonna get lazy and not
want to spell out Daniel like as if that stopped
anyone So I was like I gotta go by Dan on social
media because it's shorter and now I'm just stuck
with it Everything's Dan each is but yeah, Dan
is when I was 15 because people started calling
my brother My older brother Robert Rob, and I
thought he came up with it And he said, you know,
people gave him that name. So I was like, well,
I'm going to go by Dan. But I wear it. I own
it. I love it. But I think that's part of just
going back to our body types. And, you know,
do you remember being 13 or 14 and just getting
out of the shower and looking at yourself and
saying, what is this? God, what have you created
here? I did that earlier today. Yeah, well, I
still wear that. Dollar Shave Club song around.
So that helps. There's probably, you know, I
always try to look at the root of like things
of like, yeah, it is, it is weird why like Dan
and Danny, especially Danny seems so, why does
it seem so much weirder than just going by Daniel,
even though there's a million like Dan's and
Danny's in the world. It probably, I would assume
has something to do with the fact that like Daniel's
a biblical name that's been around for, you know,
hundreds of thousands of years. and all of a
sudden add a note within the last, I don't know,
but I would assume within the last 100 or two
years that people were just like, you know what,
I'm going to change that. I'm going to go by
Dan. It's like, Rick, you're going to change
this thing that's been around for thousands of
years just because you felt like it. Oh yeah.
And like, who's the savior of that? But jeez,
is he going by jeez now? You know, he's going
to start calling Moses Mo. Like, it just, it
feels weird to take this thing that's been around
forever and been like, yeah, I'm going to modernize
it. You know? There was a lot of resistance with
my family as a teenager, because like I said,
it was about 15. My mom didn't like it. Nobody
really liked it. They just accepted it over time.
And then, you know, now I kind of got that old
guy at the bowling alley's name and I'm okay.
You probably get people, I don't know, like for
me, I'm certain there's like two people, I know
specifically two people that call me Dan. And
I just don't question it because it's just, I
don't know, it sounds right coming out of their
mouth and they just, they've just always done.
My dad will do that. He'll be like, Hey Dan,
which I've never even questioned it. It just,
that's just how he just gets to say that and
no one else does. And then I got a comedian buddy,
my buddy Sean Grant. if he happens to be listening.
He's always been like, what's up, Dan? And I've
just never questioned it. I'm like, yeah, to
him, I'm Dan. I do feel like if somebody called
me Danny, though, I would just punch him in the
face. I'd be like, no one does that. You don't
need to do that. But do you have that where you
just like certain people like will maybe call
you Daniel or something? But it doesn't feel
weird? You're like, no, that's just what they
call me. It's it's pretty it's endearing I would
say like the the guest of the last episode I've
happened to I've known him so long that he he
calls me Daniel and then a lot of family members
do and that some people by choice will like you
said throw out Danny I'll answer to anything.
I don't think I've had anything to to out there
I mean boy I used to get Danny boy the pipes
are calling Dan the man you got to imagine that
happens constantly when I was little And I still,
I got no problem with this one. People would
sing the Elton John song to me, you know, Daniel,
my brother, and go off on the melody there. With
your parents, did you ever ask them, you know,
what was the concept, what was the idea behind
the name? My mom always said, well, I just liked
the name, honey. So I just, yeah, I just liked
the name. Was yours a family name? Uh, no, I
don't know exactly where Daniel, I think was
just on a list of names that they liked. I don't
know exactly why. The only story I know about
my name is that they were, they were set on my
middle name being Sean, uh, which it is. And
they first wanted to name me Eric. And then my
dad said, Eric, Sean sounds too much like erection.
So let's not name him that. And so like, well,
we're not changing Sean, so let's change it to
Daniel. It's the only story I know about my name,
but it's probably a good thing it's not erection.
Thank God for your old man. I mean, yeah, he's
like, wait a minute. I know you like this name,
but let me think about that. Let me think about
bullies in high school first before you go naming
the kid. All right, folks. Well, hey, everybody
listening. Check out a mild and skinny guy that's
got over 1 million views. If you got Paramount
Plus at home, cue up Amy and Peter are getting
divorced. That's already been released, correct?
That's already, yeah. I have a super small role
in that. My buddy wrote a part of that and was
in it. He was like, come by my house. I thought
it was just my face being seen. Again, one of
those moments where he's like, here's 10 lines
and I'm like, all right. But then all of a sudden,
next thing I know, it's on Paramount Plus. And
yeah, so check that out. It's a full movie. I
understand that you do like to watch dramas.
Everybody thinks that comedians must just be,
you know, around the clock, either writing jokes,
laughing with their friends. Every day is just
a riot. Do you have a favorite actor that's,
you know, always doing dramas? And it's kind
of a two part question. and later in your career,
would you like to accept a role in a full -length
film? Yeah, I don't know if I have a favorite
actor, but I can tell you right now, genre -wise,
when I come home, I want true crime, I want...
I don't want dark gritty. If no one's getting
murdered, I'm not even, why am I even watching
it? Honestly, I think it's because it's just
all day. It's this all comedy, comedy, acting
comedy. And then you get home and you're like,
can I just wind down and watch someone solve
a brutal murder tonight? Like, can I just, can
I just do that for once? And I know that sounds
like a joke and it half is, but I've been really
into like true crime. documentaries and like,
I don't know, dark history stuff and just a lot
of documentaries in general. I'm actually, I've
regotten into some of the Ken Burns stuff, which
shout out if I know people tend to associate
Ken Burns with, ah, that's like an older thing,
blah, blah, blah. My grandparents watched that
thing. Dude, he's still making stuff. And he
just came out with the American Buffalo, which
is a two part series, like literally. A week
ago or I don't know when this coming out, but
very very recently He's a national treasure Yeah,
and that man i'm only halfway. I only finished
the first of the two parts of that and it is
Man, it's good. I mean by good. It's sad and
depressing and you know, but like yeah, it's
educational but at least once in every episode
he'll just throw out this thing that you're like
That literally blew my mind. I like I did not
know that thing was happening or happened. And
I feel like that's so rare nowadays. We have
so much information coming at us at all times.
And we see firsthand videos of so many crazy
things in life that it's hard to be surprised
by stuff anymore. And so for him to do that with
facts and just pictures and videos that you didn't
even know existed that It's pretty incredible
and I really highly recommend it. I know that
sounds so basic and you're like, why should I
watch a stupid movie about bison? But I didn't
realize, and I don't think most people realize,
like how tied into America and just what happened
with Native Americans and all that. The American
Buffalo was like, it's all that. It's, man, it's
super good. I have nothing funny to say about
it. You should go watch that. It's very, very
good. All in yeah anyway, yes, I don't know about
favorite actor but genre wise definitely drama
the darker the grittier the better and I have
always wanted to be I would love like being in
a comedy movie. Obviously I would take any role
really I mean look I was in a thong in a commercial
but My like as stupid as this sounds my ultimate
dream. I just want to do I would love to be in
like an epic movie like a lord of the rings or
a star with like a like just an epic like wrong
thing but even more than that stupid as this
sounds I just want to do a movie where I'm forced
to learn a skill uh like right if they're like
hey buddy you're gonna have to learn to ride
a donkey because that's what your character does
and so we're gonna send you to the donkey riding
expert for six months and you're gonna have to
learn that. You know what I mean? Like that's
like a dream of mine to be like you're like okay
you're gonna have to learn to sword fight so
Daniel like go you got one scene where skydiving
off of a plane and having a sword fight so you're
gonna have to become a skydiving certified master
and also learn the ways of the samurai or something
like that sounds amazing to me. I just want to
learn a skill because of a movie that that is
something else. I mean is there I don't want
to get off way off on on another abstract question,
but are you afraid of? Anything that's like I
mean people might be afraid of spiders But like
as far as trying something just you jump out
of an airplane if someone said hey You probably
need to learn this for this role that we'd like
to have you play Well in terms of jumping out
of an airplane, I wouldn't Look, I wouldn't jump
off an airplane if it was still on the ground,
okay? I'm like terrified of heights and I get
so tired of people who are just like, what bro,
you wouldn't skydive? Like, what's wrong with
you? What's wrong with you? What's wrong with
you? Like, I'm not doing that. This is the dumbest
thing I've ever heard in my life. You're like,
don't you want to live? I'm like, by taunting
death? That's life to you? I have no desire to...
Test my fears to the extreme, but I do like to
know where that line is I'll give you an example.
So like yeah, I'm terrified of heights, but I
did recently I got really into doing like indoor
rock climbing and bouldering and I've been doing
that for like almost a year now where I go regularly
and even though those walls are only somewhere
between like When you're bouldering not tethered
in to anything you have no ropes they're usually
between like 10 and 15 feet it's really not that
high up generally speaking two to three times
your body length um that's terrifying still when
you're afraid of heights that's like the worst
ever i don't care about falling out of a off
of a mountain i'm like because then i'm like
i would for sure die but falling from 12 feet
where you're just like, I don't know. Now it's
up to me how I fall. Do I do the rolly thing
or like now I'm the idiot if I die in this situation.
That's way more terrifying to me because it's
up to my skills and if I die or not or what I
break or if I break anything. So I've been trying
to test my like fear of heights with that and
be like, let's try to get over this part. What
can I do to like? You've got this natural curiosity,
I would say, about just seeing if you can pull
it off. I feel like you've got that approach.
Yeah. Yeah. See if I could do it. Yeah. And again,
I want to come across like he's a daredevil,
man. Like I wouldn't even I don't there's so
many things I wouldn't do because I'm like, that's
stupid. I don't need to. I comedy definitely
teaches you about yourself more than anything
I've ever done in the world. Comedy. I know I'm
biased, but like It is a giant self exploration.
And so I'm kind of on that journey with life.
The same I am with, you know, I've accepted the
things that absolutely terrify me and I've accepted
the things that like, yeah, I'm never going to
get over that fear. You know, that's never going
to completely go away, but I could, I could know
where the line is. I could know what exactly
I'm scared. I could know that maybe I can. Slowly
get over that fear. Maybe I don't have to accept
it and some things I do have to accept so I feel
like it's all about just figuring out who you
are and what terrifies you and It's all one big
big journey with that in comedy There's really
and this is me speaking to the listeners Talking
about fear and really haven't approached this
subject on another episode before but one thing
that I've learned getting a little bit older
is That you can conquer Not every fear, but a
lot of fears and you can get through some things,
some experiences, just by getting control of
your breathing. There's a lot of things that
10 years ago you'd think, oh, I could never do
that. And then sometimes you might just be almost
forced into a situation. You're like, oh my gosh,
oh my gosh. And then you practice breathing exercises.
You could pull off a lot, whether you enjoy it
or not. There are quite a few things that are
possible out there if you just Get that oxygen
intake going the correct way Yeah, I mean there's
so many different tricks to certain things and
and really having an open mind to just like Okay,
maybe this thing sounds how is breathing supposed
to help? You know, like having that attitude
does not help you at all, you know Yeah, you
have to have an open mind and be like, okay Well,
let's actually try this thing and dive into it
and and see how far I can go but at the same
time to I think it's healthy to sometimes accept
or most times accept where you fall in that.
I mean, you should always try to do everything.
I feel like absolutely as best that you can.
And if you're not doing as well in certain things,
find new ways to do it, find new perspectives.
But at some point, you know, you can, it's okay
to accept, you know, when it comes to like rock
climbing and me and all that stuff, I'm, I've
accepted, I'm not going to go free solo climb,
you know, Half Dome or whatever, you know, I'm
not gonna go do but like there's some cool bouldering
things in Joshua Tree and in Zion There's some
cool hikes where like it kind of helps to know
about bouldering and I'm like, yeah, I can do
that You know, I can I although that would have
been terrifying to me even a year ago Now I can
do that and I've accepted that like that. That's
actually what I want out of this I don't I don't
need to climb Everest. I just want to look at
this cool rock and Near Zion And that's not giving
up because there is a difference between just
you know being like oh, it's too hard. I give
up and Really really trying everything the best
of your ability and deciding like maybe I don't
actually want What everyone else's final goal
is maybe my goal is is more specific and and
that's okay, too You know, that's right Did you
have anybody growing up who I'm sure still supports
you, but had just a much different plan, another
profession that they imagined you to be in, that
you kind of had to kind of disappoint their expectations
and like, nah, I'm doing this now. Did that go
on with anybody? Yeah, I was supposed to be in
a traveling circus. Yeah, definitely. I was a
very smart kid. I got straight A's, valedictorian,
always a smart guy in school, and I think that
helps a lot in comedy, honestly. But that's not
so apparent. People just think, oh, you do comedy
because you flunked out in school. This is actually
the opposite. I know comedians are some of the
smartest people I know, even if they weren't
smart in school or whatever. Anyway, point is,
because I always got good grades valedictorian,
I feel like when you get A's in school, people
just go to like the like, they just go straight
to high money jobs, you know, like job, job,
you know, careers, like lawyer, doctor, you know,
something like that. Right. And I was like, I
don't want to do that. I want to be creative.
I want to do creative stuff. And so that was
definitely hard for I would say family or parents
at least to swallow in the beginning. It wasn't
until I started getting booked doing commercials
and I feel like they would see me on TV. They
would go, Oh, wow. Okay. He's actually making
money off this. Oh, Oh, go. He can actually do
this. Oh, there isn't a thong. You know what
I mean? Like it had helped take that out of their
mind that, you know, that maybe I didn't want
to be a doctor, a lawyer, anything like that.
No offense if you are, by the way, it's a solid
jobs, but But yeah, with the creative mind, and
I'm sure you had to figure out all the different
processes of the day -to -day work that you had
to put in to be successful, you had to win people
over by showing them that you could tackle all
that stuff behind the scenes too. Yeah, and that
helps comedy as much as that kind of sucks. All
of that kind of goes into it. I feel like if
you go in thinking, I'm the funniest guy in this
room, you're probably not that funny. You're
probably not going to do that well. I mean, there's
a lot of that sort of underdog quality that goes
into doing comedy in general. You end up seeing
a lot of smart people because I feel like a lot
of times those people were in positions where
people didn't think they were very smart. And
I feel like a lot of comedians are out to prove
that I'm actually probably more clever than you
think I am. And that sort of feeds into the motivation
I think in a lot of ways with most comics that
you see. I really, I really like just now where
you pointed out your background and being valedictorian
of your class. And I'm glad we addressed that
on this episode where maybe not my listeners,
but a lot of people just, they don't imagine
comics to have some other. or career that they
probably could have just walked right into. They
just kind of think that maybe this guy used to
be a busboy, or it just knows how to tell jokes.
So I'm glad you touched on that too. Yeah, it's
it's a lot of work. I mean, you know this sort
of kind of running joke with commies that we
all get into it thinking like sweet. I don't
want a desk job. I don't want it and you get
into it. You're like this is so much more work
than anything. You're just working. Constantly.
And when you're not working, you're still thinking
about where you're still thinking about just
jokes. And how do I do you wake up in the middle
of the night and be like, Oh, I could fix that
thing. And I got to do this. And I got to promote
myself at the same time. And I got to edit videos
and learn how to do that and be a good public
speaker and, you know, go on podcasts and promote
myself that way. And there's just so many things
that go into it. And then on top of all of that,
you're literally pouring your heart out on stage.
doing something that is very vulnerable instead
of put all that work into it and then sometimes
have nights where it doesn't go well or people
don't think you're funny or they hate you or
you know they want to fight you or whatever it
is you're like oh my god i did all this work
for that reaction and now i gotta you know get
off stage and go to the next show and do it all
over again and and ignore that and uh forget
that i just threw an interception Love that you
connected back there because I think you're equipped
with the right mindset where you could get back
to the hotel Look at the the calendar and say
well that night's done and I'm on to tomorrow.
I'm already thinking about tomorrow Yeah, you
have to especially acting to actually got agents
very early on tell me that that that you go in
you do your you do the best audition you've ever
had in your life and then you leave that room
and then you Stop thinking about it immediately
or you're gonna go crazy and I feel like that's
always been a good philosophy with with not just
comedy but with life in general, you know to
try to be present and to try to like Focus on
this one thing do it the absolute best and then
go live your life You know if you get called
to do it again in some way or you have to do
it again Then sweet go focus on it again get
back into that mindset, but just sort of Toiling
over certain things or you know, it's different
because I talked about like oh you're always
thinking about how to make stuff better and I
think that's healthy but thinking about like,
you know, just I should have done that differently
and this went wrong and that went wrong and oh
I'm so unlucky because I didn't shoot that's
just gonna like you're just gonna go mad. That's
not gonna help anybody or anything. All right,
danieleachus .com E A C H U S on your streaming
platform, whether that's Apple, Spotify, Google,
you can find Where's Daniel? Man, I wish you
nothing but the best. And can't wait to see your
new material as it comes out. Thank you. Thank
you. Yeah, thanks for having me on. It's been
fun. All right, guys. Well, that's it for this
episode. And remember, when you're having a moment,
a day, a week, and things aren't working, you're
just throwing darts and nothing's sticking, Get
over that day, get over that lunch hour, get
whatever. Get rid of that girlfriend, get rid
of that boyfriend that's dragging you down. Get
all those people that you're collecting out of
your life that are serving no purpose, if they
are, and take charge of your passion, whatever
it is. I always throw something like that in
there at the end, Daniel, so thanks for being
here and would love to have you back again sometime.
Yeah, definitely. Hey, if you loved that episode,
tell a friend about it. I think every show probably
asks you to leave a review, leave a rating, and
I appreciate it if you do. But if nothing else,
just talk about DanTime. It really helps the
visibility of the program. You can find DanTime
on all the social media pages, and you can also
reach me at dantimepod at gmail .com. Thanks
so much for listening. I'll see you next week.