Thank you. Welcome to Overeducated and Underemployed.
I'm Fedden. I am here with my interview with
Levi Crumley. I really enjoyed talking to this
guy. He runs a lot of shows up in Athens, Georgia,
including a comedy competition that I've been
in before. We talk about it in the episode. He
is super gracious. He also, we probably had the
most intimate conversation that I've had with
anybody. thus so far on this podcast. And I just
want to say thank you to Levi for really opening
up for this episode and sharing his story with
us. I think he has a really good mindset for
how to live his life with all the hardships that
he's faced at times and all the blessings that
he has now. He's got a really good balance and
he's a really talented guy. And also just Just
a really interesting person to talk to. I really
enjoyed talking to him. I hope you enjoyed listening
to it. Here we go with Levi Crumley. All right,
I'm here with Levi Crumley. He is a comedian,
and I'll let him tell you more about what else
he does. He's actually the first guest on here
that I don't really have much of a history or
rapport with. I'm really interested to learn
a lot about... the Athens comedy scene and his
path into comedy. And I'm just going to start
with the question I've been asking everybody.
First of all, I think all comedians are like
wannabe rock stars anyway. So this question applies
to comedians just as much as it does musicians.
But what is your first memory of a song that
you love? And what song was it? Like the first
song that you remember loving? Oh, man. They
used to play, my Uncle Ted and a lot of guys
in my family were in a bluegrass band. My Uncle
Ted especially would play this song called If
My Nose Was Running Money. It's a really funny
song, but it's clever. It's like, if my nose
was running money, I'd blow it all on you. It's
got these very funny lines and stuff. It was
one of the first times that I'd heard music and
stuff. My dad was a big ACDC guy. I'd never really
heard music. They just kind of made me smile.
Yeah. And that was a big thing for me. And I
remember just like trying to learn that like
banjo and stuff as a little kid, trying to play
along with it. I fell in love with it. And then
other bluegrass songs, like there are a lot of
gospel stuff. Will the circle be unbroken? Yeah.
First time I heard that song, I cried. Yeah.
Being a little kid, like crying from a song.
I think the last time I heard that song, I cried.
That's a good funeral song. that's yeah that's
where it was at a memorial so yeah oh yeah yeah
yeah you called it that's on command that's like
time time of your life by green day at graduation
some people you're gonna get a couple criers
in it oh man so about how old were you when you
like first remember that song do you think four
five okay yeah i was super young they would play
my uncle bobby lived across the road from us
we were dirt poor uncle bobby was really wealthy
he owned a construction company that my dad and
a lot of other guys in the family worked for
and they had this big mansion across the road
that my dad helped build and he would have he
had the stage out there and they would have music
and the crawfish bowls and stuff and one of the
only just like really low like acoustic song
just guitar just banjo company was that song
and i was like just a little kid like i remember
Staying in there barefoot and gravel, just watching
my Uncle Ted and smiling. Not even worried about
my feet hurting on the gravel or anything. It
was like a big deal for me. I was four or five
maybe. I was really young. So here's a similar
question, but you're actually the first comedian
that I've had on here yet. This is the first
batch of episodes. Cool. What's your first memory
of a comedy bit or maybe a sitcom or something?
But mine was like a sketch. Yeah, but really
anything like your first the first thing that
you really remember just like really cracking
you up that that wasn't a Person that you knew
yeah on TV or a movie here. I think mine was
like cartoons early on Yeah, I really noticed
like jokes and cartoons like Looney Tunes and
Tom and Jerry's very much set up punchline It
was like okay. He draws the circle on here makes
it look like a tunnel and then the punchline
is him running him actually run into it himself
or whatever and it was like always uh then you
have the misdirection stuff with that and everything
and i just remember thinking that was really
interesting and being a little kid and like wanting
to do funny stuff like that not really knowing
how but like just having that desire to be silly
and funny yeah it sounds like you really were
able to recognize instead of you just finding
it funny yeah it's almost like you were able
to recognize what made it funny in a way It was
like, I think there was like a narcissism that
every comedian has for sure. But there was in
me early on, like a desire to be like the center
of attention. And I remember like sitting there
watching people, like when I would watch TV,
I would watch other people watch TV. And I'd
be like, why do they like this? Why do I like
this? And I would go, okay, how do I develop
that? Like, how do I build that skill up? And
then I would hear like jokes and stuff. And I
would try to write my own ones early on or repeat
jokes I heard. and it was always like i always
found laughter was like the quickest way to get
people's like attention and to like really hold
it yeah because it was like i don't know there's
just nothing even today like when you're just
holding court with a group of people you're like
a comedy show is great but when you're hanging
out with comics after the show and you're all
standing around and you're the one making everybody
laugh and you're dude that's the best feeling
that's better than killing i think i agree and
also watching and one of your friends who's a
comedian bomb oh yeah that might be better than
killing incredible that might be better than
killing two guys that's one of my favorite things
but see i figured like at least when i bomb i'm
making somebody laugh the best comparison i can
do i love what like when i bomb i don't always
take it well because i'm a perfectionist and
i like and i've got a kid so i'm out and about
i'm like i really want to make it worth it so
if i bomb it's either the crowd was like whatever
and everybody bombed and it was just a bad show
that happens but if i bomb and other people do
well i take it very personally and that's a tough
thing to be because i love watching other people
bomb because i'm like oh god like i just know
the feeling so well yeah the only like comparison
i can have is when i was playing high school
football a buddy of mine towards acl and then
the next month or two one of our best friends
also towards acl oh no and they went through
it together and they were just like so close
because of that yeah yeah and being a comic you
just have that with other comedians like it's
just that pain of doing a show in front of two
people and getting heckled by green yeah yeah
for sure or whatever it is bombing and like just
trying putting yourself out there there's like
a certain scar tissue that every comedian if
they've been doing it long enough, really has.
Yeah. Because it is so hard that I've seen, I
mean, we've all seen like an open mic where every
open mic, there's like somebody doing it for
the first time and then you never see them again.
Sometimes they stick and that's wonderful. Like
I had, I've seen so many comics in Athens first
times doing comedy and now they're like, they
love it. They do it all the time and it's great.
Some are really good at it. But then I've seen
so many people where they get up there because
they see other people do well and they, oh, this
is fun. And they try it and it's just too hard.
So was stand -up the first thing that you tried
comedy -wise, or did you do something like writing
or improv or anything like that first? So I did,
throughout high school, I did a lot of outside
-the -box stuff. I didn't do drama because there
was a lot of homophobia in our school and where
I grew up and stuff. If you just said that you
were going to try out for a play or something,
you would get homophobic slurs written on your
car or whatever. That's wild. Where did you grow
up? Let's call that place out real quick. I grew
up out in Madison County around Isla, Georgia.
It's not far from Athens, 20 minutes outside
of Athens, but it's just so rural. It's four
or five hundred people. And this was a while.
Yeah. This was, this was early 2000s. Right.
So there's been progression. Yeah. Yeah. You'd
like to think that things aren't. The internet
just didn't jump. You think of it that way. I
didn't have internet in my house until I was
like, I was a teenager. A lot of people in the
South, like in the town I grew up, nobody really
had the internet. So it's like, you only knew
the people that you knew. Yeah. So it's like,
you didn't know a gay person or a black person.
You just heard they were a certain way. A lot
of people soon. So. as people got the internet
and like actually knew more people and everything
you saw a lot of that dissipate which i'm thankful
for not with everybody because some people it
was just it didn't matter yeah yeah there's gonna
be because i think with the internet first there
came like the like getting to be aware and like
getting to know different types of people but
then their the back side of that was a lot of
misinformation and propaganda and so we've had
a lot of that I feel like the pendulum like definitely
swung one way at first with the internet. Like
it was this really empowering free place. And
now it's, I don't know. It's like anything else.
I call most issues or not issues with the thing.
It's like a human issue. It was just, there's
people, you get people involved with it and it's
eventually going to fail in some way or the other.
So sometimes it's just. Unfortunately, that's
part of why I love stand -up is it's so solo
that you do a lot of it by yourself. You're your
own editor, your own director, your own performer,
your own writer. And it's a lot of pressure to
do it that way. But as a performer, for me, it's
like when I do make shows or I write things or
anything, it's very rare that somebody does the
performance the exact way I want them to. And
that's not their fault. That's my fault. Because
if I give somebody something, it has to pass
through the lens of their own interpretation.
and they have to find the funny their own way
so i'm letting go of that the more i do different
things but early on when i was in school i would
find other ways to be funny like i would just
make people laugh in class and i was a big class
clown guy in some classes did you get a lot of
trouble oh yeah yeah i got a lot of trouble my
mom was short for the school system when i got
older as a teenager but i would get in a lot
of trouble they wanted me to be tested for add
and all these different things and my mom's pretty
stark against all that stuff But I would just
get up and just do, like, jokes or bits. I was
big on bits. Like, I would have a callback that
I would say over and over. Okay, what's today's
joke? Oh, it would be, like, the teacher would
be wearing a shirt that says, like, Southern
Raised or something, and I'll make a boner joke
out of it. And I would see how many times I can
hit that throughout. And then every verbiage
I would use would be, like, this class is really
hard. It would be, like, just, like, stupid stuff
like that. A lot of times it was like literally
trying to find just how subtle can I be funny?
Because I know if I'm like, just say like boners,
you'll get mad at me. They taught me a lot doing
that way. And then I would find things like we
had the power football game when I was in school.
And I just asked, I was like, hey, can I be the
announcer for the football game? Because they
had a guy that would go 10 yard game, three,
third and 10, whatever. I was like, can I do
that? Sure, because nobody really volunteers
to do it. So I was like a teenager. I was like
15, 16, maybe. So they gave a teenage boy a microphone
in front of the school? I had a lot of confidence.
I just made it seem like I could do it. That
was a risky move on their part. It's also one
of our coaches that was up there. He knew I was
a funny guy. And so he really gave me a chance
on it. Was roasting the players. I was like,
all right, guys, we're going to have a cleat
drive. Because this one girl kept slipping. I
was like, we're going to get a pair of cleats
out here. By God. It was funny as hell. And then
I did. I had so many people just came up to me.
It was so funny. It was incredible. And it was
just such a good feeling. And then the next year
I did it. And I brought my best friend up in
the booth with me. And he has a stutter. And
I make fun of the stutter a lot. Yeah. People
loved it. But one lady got. Really? Oh, she obviously
doesn't know Donnie Senstack. My buddy made fun
of his own studies all the time. Yeah. We worked
out. I didn't, he knew about it. I didn't think
that he was sitting there getting upset with
you. Yeah. It was just like, I don't know. You
learn that with commie. It's like the people
that get upset are rarely the people that like
on paper should be offended. Or the ones that
are directly affected by the thing that they're
mad that you're joking about. A to B, I make
a stutter joke. It should hurt my friend's feelings.
That's not my intent. My intent is to make my
friend laugh and by proxy make everybody else
laugh. But it doesn't hurt his feelings because
he knows me and it's my intention. That's a way
of showing acceptance of these things about people,
I think, too. I never, ever want to make jokes
to hurt people. No. That's never. Our goal is
to make people laugh. And if you get hurt, then
we either need to make it funnier or you shouldn't
be at stand -up. One of the two things is missing.
It's tough, man. I've done a lot of roast battles
and stuff. We had the roast championship in Athens
that I won at the beginning of the year. And
it was fun for me just because I love writing
jokes. That's my favorite part of it is just
going. Okay, I got to write a joke about Mike.
How do I make this funny? What's funny about
Mike? And I can really sit there and analyze
it. Because rarely in comedy, you have something
that's that direct, because it's normally like
you're just sitting around waiting for something.
Right. At this stage, you very rarely have something
where you go, oh, I got to write five minutes
on this, or I got to write jokes about this specific
thing. At least that's how I write. I have to
experience life, and then things are going to
come to me. I can't really sit down and force
it like that with my stand -up. I'm the same
way. I was just talking to Sloane Simpson this
morning, and he and I were talking about the
writing process, like songs and jokes. I think
the process of writing them can be very similar.
Oh, sure. For him, he really come up with the
concept of what he wanted to write about and
get the core, and that would be very intentional.
And then the rest would... come to them around
that and for me it's like what you said like
the joke has to happen to me and then I've got
to sit down later and figure out how to make
that into something that I can tell on stage
instead of it just being a situational thing
what I started writing music recently I'm doing
this music project and I'm working on but the
I think with everything with me I just look always
look for like the story and everything If I can
find a story, and that's part of why I love drive
-by truckers in general, is like some of their
songs, there's a story in it. Yeah, yeah. And
I do that with like music, with comedy, no matter
what it is. I always just, I feel like a reporter
in a lot of ways. And sometimes it sucks being
a comedian or a musician, because it feels like
you never really turn your brain off, because
you're always scanning the world for meaning.
How do I interpret this into comedy or music?
And so in some ways, you're never really turned
off. And I think that's why a lot of artists
do substance, substance, drinking, whatever it
is. And I'm certainly guilty of that where it's
like, you have to turn your brain off because
if you don't, you're just going to sit there
and overanalyze everything. And you're going
to try to look for meaning in things that you
don't necessarily have to. Yeah. It'd be very
difficult. But when I hear a perfect example,
and I can't always turn it into anything, but
like one day I was at H Mart. you know h -mart
is i don't actually so h -mart is like uh it's
like a world market it's like okay it's mostly
like all asian culture so it's like a ton of
like japanese and korean ingredients and thailand
all these different places really cool places
we have a local place where i'm at yeah very
similar but so the one i go to is out in atlanta
and it's huge and they got all kinds of stuff
and everybody that works there is so sweet and
it's great they have a food court and the food
court has amazing food they have different restaurants
they have a korean barbecue spot a szechuan spot
like standard chinese type place and then the
hibachi and a lot of different things they'll
have like more authentic stuff too and all these
different restaurants are like all independently
owned okay and then like you're just walking
around in there and they have all these like
things saying like hey make sure you put your
tray back to the restaurant that you bought your
food from everywhere And I'm just like, there's
like a whole war going on. Every day, somebody
goes to the green barbecue spot and they get
like a tray. And then they take that tray to
the Vietnamese spot and they got to deal with
it. And then he's got to walk around. I'm like,
oh my God, that must be horrible. That's like
their own. That should be on CNN, like how tense
it must feel. Because I'm just looking around
and people are like, it's like the old West.
Like a guy's like washing the glass, looking
around. And he's like, people are eyeballing
it. Have you ever tried to get a napkin from?
The place at the food court you didn't get your
food from? That's tough. It doesn't go well.
I've done that. I've definitely got sauces from
a spot after I got food from another place. Chick
-fil -A has the best sriracha sauce. Yeah, yeah.
You can't taste hate, man. I don't care what
people say. I know. Or if you can, it's delicious.
Dude, it's incredible, that sauce. So I'll get
food from a Chinese place, and I'll go there
to get the sauce. I do think they bottle that
sauce. You don't do that? I think so. Maybe not
that one. I know they bottle it. Yeah, I know
they do that one. The Chipotle sauce one, that's
good, too. But, man, that's sriracha sauce. For
a very white company, they've got that figured
out pretty well. Cultural appropriation, that's
our game. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, that's the
game. But, no, I was doing that. I also would
do stuff like they had the news at school, and
I would just... go in there and, hey, can I do
something? And if I said it confidently enough,
usually they would let me. And then you just
act like you belong somewhere and people think
you belong there. And then I would give them
credit. So I was like, hey, I did the Powerpuff
game. And they would go, oh, I heard about that.
It was like early comedy. Like we're now, that's
all I do. I go, hey, I got this going on. And
then people, sometimes I book you on stuff. All
based off whatever you've done or whatever. Do
you ever bring up the powder puff game now? Do
you ever use that as a credit? I want to do it
on stage sometime. I feel like you should put
it as your top credit on everything that you
send out. And people can be like, what is that?
I don't know, man. I'm sold. So I want to back
up. I got a little bit more information here
in what you were just saying. So I want to back
up a little bit. When did you realize... that
you wanted to play music to it sounds like very
young right oh yeah first thing that was i wanted
to do music ever since i was i don't know since
i could walk like i just i thought musicians
were the coolest people i thought they were the
most honest people do you still consider yourself
to be pursuing that like you do comedy okay yeah
i keep it very separate because my music I'm
doing it in a weird way. Like I'm using a different
name for it and everything, but I'm doing like
different projects where the one I'm working
on currently and I'm rounding out is it's all
banjo music and it's all childhood trauma. It's
a lot of stories and different things from when
I was a kid and some really sad stuff. But the
banjo kind of lightens it up a little bit and
it's got like a different sound to it and it's
got some like emo strumming and stuff too because
I like that type of music. I really, I'm keeping
it separate because I know a lot of comedians
that also play music. They'll play music on stage
and it's wonderful and that's great. That doesn't
really fit my style of playing as well. And I
don't want to like undercut any of the songs
that I have that are bad or emotional. I feel
like the more you do musical comedy, the less
they'll take your other music seriously. It's
hard to take. If Weird Al were to write, like,
a heartbreaker, it would be really hard to take
it. Some of his hilarious... No, the reverse,
though, can kind of work. It can, yeah. Because
he's got, I think, You Don't Love Me Anymore.
Yeah. That song is both hilarious and sad. Oh,
dude. Even guys like Stephen Lynch, he's got
some songs that are pretty sad. And I've been
hearing him write, like, some really sad ballads.
Who's that? John LaCroix, the guy that did the
Show Me Your Genitals, Guns Don't Kill People.
Oh, yeah, yeah. He was pretty funny. He did those
on YouTube, but he was on that show, The League.
He has a music project called Wolfie's Fine.
I just watched him on, he was on, I think maybe
it was Neil Brennan's podcast. Yeah, dude, he's
really funny, but his music is really good. He's
got one song in particular about when Hulk Hogan
beat Andre the Giant. And it's a very emotional
song, but it's, I can't make music like that
at this level. So I have to, I'm not really keeping
things simple, but I do everything very grassroots.
Like I think that's the only way to build things.
Like my Instagram is a perfect example. I didn't
have Instagram my whole life until I started
comedy. I was like, that's the only way to do
comedy at this point is to have Instagram. I
didn't see a way around it, but I'm very particular
about what I put on there. but it's all self
-built like nothing's bought nothing's anything
so it's i've only been at it for about two years
a little under two years and i've got uh i'm
getting close to a thousand followers now and
it's to a lot of people that's not a lot and
it isn't but it's like for two years and i can
say these are all from comedy none of it is friends
or family none of the people on there i don't
think i follow you on instagram no i don't ask
people to i just go if people want to they can't
i don't mention my instagram much Unless somebody
just goes, how can I follow your comedy? That's
the thing I mentioned. But it's just a perfect
showcase of it started at zero and it just grew
to what it is now. Organic. Yeah. The same thing
with all my shows and stuff. I got some shows
that are getting pretty big now and they started
so small with just like an idea. And I think
that's like, that's my favorite thing is like
when you just have that idea and you go, oh,
that could be a joke. that could be a song and
then you just know it's going to be good yeah
yeah like when that happens it's such a great
feeling like i got a joke i have now that i'm
doing in my act that it kills every time i do
it and it's just i have so few jokes like that
it's so satisfying and like usually those jokes
are going to kill before you ever even tell them
the first time like you're just like no oh my
god this is gonna get them because it makes you
laugh like you can't even get it out it's one
of those jokes where i'm just like i know and
i can milk it like i know i can if i want to
make it longer i can and i just and there's one
part one part in particular it's like part act
out but it's a line in it and i just know that
it's like the big pop i just i'm building up
to that and i just when that happens i just get
this big smile i can't help it I have this running
theory. I mentioned it briefly earlier. A joke,
a theory that all comedians want to be rock stars.
I also think a lot of rock stars, maybe not all,
but a lot of rock stars want to be comedians.
Especially ones that write those funny one -liners
into their songs and stuff like that. But I also,
my whole life, noticed that comedians and musicians
always hang out together. Even though you're
keeping these two things pretty separate, they
come from the same fire. For sure. And they're
both different ways of processing trauma. Yeah,
absolutely. And I think it's pretty rare. I think
it happens. I was at a little panel with BJ Barham
a couple weeks back from American Aquarium. And
he was talking about how he had the perfect model
family. That's what... And that's rare, right?
Like for somebody to be like, I don't want to
say all art comes from pain because I don't think
that's true. But I think the desire to like look
at the world a little bit differently in the
way that comedians and musicians tend to does
have to come from pain. Like maybe not the actual
art, but the perspective. Yeah. And is there
anything that you can pinpoint that you'd be
willing to talk about that you think put that
fire in you? You can get as personal as you want.
I've definitely had a lot of it. I think my music
in particular is a way for me to make sense out
of pain that I felt. When I was a kid, I couldn't
even make sense of it. I started drinking very
young. I started drinking when I was six years
old. I drank very consistently. It wasn't like
I drank one time and I put it down. I just drank
the whole time I was a kid. I hid it very well.
i think people just thought i wasn't developing
well and me and my mother had a really tough
relationship so we wouldn't we wouldn't be very
close and she wasn't very approving of me and
that always drove me to want to get that approval
so it was always like how do i make everybody
laugh how to get their attention yeah yeah and
that definitely drove me where i was like i want
to be more than what i am right now i grew up
like it's a very poor very really small house
that We didn't move anyone as a kid. We just
had that one house and it's electricity and working
a lot of it. We didn't have a washer and dryer
for most of my childhood. We washed up in the
creek and we dried on clothespins. And then we'd
have to go to the laundromat after my dad. My
dad passed away when I was 14. And seeing him
die, he was, the last couple of years of his
life, he was very immobile. He had lung cancer
and he couldn't move around a lot without getting
out of breath. So just seeing him not. be the
personality that he was because he was he was
a wild guy at times he got arrested at one point
for trying to jump cars on the highway on his
dirt bike he was a partier he was a big drinker
alcoholic like i am and sounds like an adrenaline
junkie maybe yeah i think so and he loved acds
he was like i love that rock and roll he was
didn't really like country music that much and
Drove me away from country music for a long time,
but I have a similar experience with my dad Yeah,
it was just like he was so cool man and people
loved my dad. My dad was so funny He was the
funniest guy I've ever met in my life. Yeah,
and it was like he was so witty and fast and
I had that Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, and
I don't have a lot of stuff for my dad, but he
had a lot of stuff stolen as well from his brother,
and we didn't get back. And I drove his truck
for a while before he passed away, and I totaled
it. I flipped it when I was a down high school
kid driving home after a football game. I tell
the story in my comedy. And it's just, I want
to keep his memory alive sometimes. And people
didn't, my daughter didn't get to meet my dad,
obviously. My daughter's four years old. She'll
be five in May. And she... She didn't get to
meet my dad, but a way that I know he would interact
with her would be by making her laugh because
he loved that. He loved making kids laugh, like
just the silliest, stupidest, whatever he had
to do to get a kid to smile. Patch Adams style.
Yeah, basically. And then with the older you
got, the comedy really matured. Like he knew,
like when I was 14, when he died, he was really
going through it, but he wouldn't. still find
ways to like make us laugh and he would he knew
like i got a dark sense of humor already because
i'd already been through a lot and he would find
like a dark way to make me laugh that he wouldn't
do with anybody and it was like this playing
to the audience even when there's only two or
three people and he would have been a great comic
he would have been incredible so anyway so I
definitely took a lot from that when he passed
away because now when I think about my daughter,
like I said, she's about to be five years old.
So she's about to be five. And in my head, because
my dad died when I was 14, I think I only have
10 years left. I think everything I do, I'm rushed.
Like I have to make it work. I started comedy
late. I was 27. So everything I do, I think,
okay, I got to make all this work. She's only
got this amount of time. And it's not about like
a success thing about like, having a Netflix
special or having a show on that's a million
subscribers or any of that stuff. Like that really
doesn't matter because I know myself well enough
to know that none of that stuff really going
to make me happy. What's going to make me happy
is if my daughter Nova grows up saying that she
can do that. Right. Cause she has all the potential
in the world. And I know that if I nourish that
at a young age, the way I didn't get it, she
can do so many wonderful things, not just for
herself, but for other people. And so when I
do, Comedy and music, a lot of times I do it
in that scope of, like, how do I make this? And
that feels very weird sometimes with my comedy,
because a lot of it is, like, I have a joke about
gas station urine and, like, pissing on people
and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. It feels weird
to also say I'm a dad and I have to be very responsible
and I do all these things. But it is, like, a
form of expression. Like, I don't tell her she
can't say bad words. I just tell them she shouldn't.
because so it's like she has a very like she
has a very potty sense of humor right now she's
four so she thinks like p is really funny like
she would have said i still think she thinks
farts and stuff are really funny which i think
are funny objectively yeah very into that stuff
right now and it's hilarious but it's i don't
tell her not to do that stuff when i was a kid
it was like very frowned upon like i was very
ashamed for stuff like that So I just tell her,
like, hey, just to let you know, some people
may not like this sort of thing, but you get
to decide. So, first of all, thank you for sharing
all of that. Oh, yeah. I know it's not the easiest
thing to talk about sometimes, and I really appreciate
you opening up, but you really actually made
me think about something that you said earlier,
too, when you were talking about people who get
offended at a comedy show. Yeah. And it made
me realize. The people that are getting offended
at comedy shows are getting offended because
they've never had to deal with it. It's a privilege.
Yeah. It's the trauma or whatever it might be.
The people that are directly affected by it aren't
usually the ones getting offended because the
ones getting offended are the ones that have
never really had to deal with it. Yeah, Athens
is tough because it's a college town and people
are very socially conscious, socially aware,
and usually that's a wonderful thing. For us,
as far as change socially and how people treat
each other, that can be good. Comedy is a different
world. Yeah, and it is. It's a world that exists
to mock and find the folly in things and figure
out what's weird about this. And if you're not
willing to do that, you're not willing to find
out what's wrong or what's amiss with this and
try to find... It can be tough to make college
kids laugh when you... You just approach things.
If you just talk about race at all, it can just
be like, even the most basic of whatever, the
second you mention a different ethnicity, it
can be the most positive thing in the world.
A lot of them will just instantly turn where
it's, what do you say? And then you can see the
difference in like how they look at you. If you
look at crowds enough, like you can see, oh,
he's looking at me with the intent of laughing
because he's smiling. I can tell his body language.
I worked in sales for a long time. I'm big on
body language. So I'm looking at audiences. I'm
looking around and we don't have the biggest
scene. So we'll have 30 people. There's a pretty
good show for us. I'm looking around. I can get
a pretty good gauge of how it's going just by
looking at people while other people are on stage.
I could say, oh, that girl's perked up. She is
like. keyed in she's listening to every word
trying to figure out like why she should be offended
what's messed up about it and at no point in
her process is she passing through that filter
that says oh this person is on stage because
they're trying to be funny they're a comedian
they're not doing a TED talk they're not doing
a speech but there is a lot of responsibility
on the performer to handle that satire whatever
they're trying to accomplish with a lot of care
and and not just get up there and just say slurs
the whole time. Of course. I'm reminded of Jerry
Seinfeld has this scale of the more offensive
a joke is, the funnier it has to be. Yeah, I
think that's a fair thing because 9 -11 jokes
are a perfect example. Everybody has a 9 -11
joke, I think, at some point, especially if you're
a comic that was alive during that time. Now
I need to... I need to go write a 9 -11 joke.
I feel that now. Dude, I don't know how many
open mics I've been to where it's like. I have
church shooting jokes. Dude, yeah. I've got one
9 -11 joke that I do that's about when it happened.
And it was just a story about me because I got
suspended from school that day. And it was just,
I forgot all about it the other day. I was thinking
about it. It's like the fact that my parents
were upset about 9 -11 and I didn't know 9 -11
happened. And I got home, I thought they were
upset with me for getting suspended. And so I
was like relieved when I found out what happened.
That's awful. I love that. That's amazing. Yeah.
But it's like finding like what's unique or different
about your joke. If you're just like your joke,
it's just a 9 -11 was an inside job and there's
not like a lot of extras on it or anything. It's
just finding out like that's a perfect example.
That's a story like that's unique to me. And
I think. For me, it's always finding the story
in it. Not all my jokes are stories, but a lot
of the one -liners and stuff, it was like an
experience I had. Right. Okay, that's like a
quick thing. Yeah, you have to, I think, you
have to have experienced it for it to be distilled
into a one -liner, unless it's just, even if
it's just like a thought you had because of an
experience you were having. I'm reminded of times
when you come up with a one -liner, like in a...
friend group situation yeah shooting the shit
how do you when you when that happens and it's
really good but you can't figure out how to get
it into a bit what do you do like how quickly
do you give up on that i don't i just i find
a way to make it work somehow because i can do
i have a show that i just recently started it's
called pot roast it's very outside the box show
where it's the comedians Essentially, they write
five roast jokes about themselves, and then they're
going to put their roast jokes in a pot, and
that goes into an envelope, and then the host
draws the names out so they don't know what order
they're going in. He draws that comic up. They
do 10 minutes of their material. They sit down
and draws another comic out. They do 10 minutes,
and then those two comics swap their roast jokes.
So now, like, I wrote five jokes about me. You
wrote them about you. We swapped. So now you're
doing jokes I wrote about myself. That's amazing.
So a lot of times they're going to be a lot deeper,
a lot meaner. Yeah. It gives the audience permission
to laugh because it's like you wrote it. So it's
like a different, and like, it's very fresh and
unique. And I think people will really like that.
And the people that have seen it really love
it. I love the idea. That's great. But with that
show, I had the idea of, okay, this is going
to be cool, but it's also very different. So
let's find ways to. do a lot of silliness in
between so i have these things called ad breaks
where it's like a minute and a half of improvised
whatever i have one where it's a it's just called
wweat where it's like me and another guy will
pretend like we're doing wrestling promos but
we're talking about food that we're eating we're
gonna eat we get really into it like rick player
style and it's like talking about like the the
diarrhea that you're gonna get like the defeat
it's like finding some funny ways But it's now.
It's the second time Ric Flair's come up on the
podcast already. But it's just, it's great. Finding
ways. So now it's like, if this doesn't work
for my standup, it might work for like an ad
break or like an improv thing or a roast joke.
There's a lot of different ways. You'll just
have those a lot. I'm constantly trying to make
my friends laugh. Like one of my best friends
is Liv Taylor. She's a great comedian in Athens.
She's very open about this and she's gone through
a ton of stuff, but her husband tragically passed
away. but not long ago. And she talks about it
on stage, and we've talked about it a lot, and
we've both had very hard lives. And she's a perfect
example of somebody who's been through so much
that she doesn't get offended by anything. Yeah.
Like, we've all written jokes about her husband
or her mom that passed away, like, right before
she started comedy, and she loves it. Like, she
laughs at the pain. She really, like, heals from
it. There is a difference when you're writing
jokes about a comedian, though, too, right? Yeah,
for sure. like that's always different yeah it
is and but with her it's one night we were outside
of an open mic me and her and some other comics
were standing around and she was saying something
about one of her exes or something i was like
oh it's funny oh if you're everybody you date
is either an x or a cross i was like dude it
killed her and then when she's laughing they
all laugh i was like that's like a perfect like
witty so I don't know if I'll ever use that,
but I keep it in my head. I keep that H Mart
thing in my head. I think about that. You can
use things in a variety of ways. I've also had
stuff like, I wrote a sad song one time. So I
was trying to write a joke about when I was a
kid, I learned how to do a trick on a skateboard.
I learned how to do a heel flip. And my best
friend got really jealous because he couldn't
figure out. So he just broke my skateboard. I
was like, wow. My first thought was like, that
is, I was just thinking about it because I used
to drink a lot and I'll just have memories come
back to me sometimes. I was like, just think
about it. Cause I was looking at a skateboard
with my daughter and I just had that memory.
I was like, that is, that's hilarious. But maybe
it's like deeper than that. So now I have a song
that's all about, it's about jealousy and just
becoming like what you inevitably want to be.
And one of the lines is my best friend broke
my skateboard because he was jealous of a new
trick that I learned. And it has a rhyme that
goes with it. It just became more powerful thinking
through that lens. People just are so jealous
that they will literally destroy any way that
they can to make you the same as them. Do you
know about blue crabs? Have you ever heard that?
So blue crabs, you get them in a bucket. When
one starts crawling out, they just start pulling
them back down. Dude, comedy is the perfect example
of that. But I think that's not a comedy problem.
It's a human problem. Because I had that in sales.
I had that in church when I was involved in the
church, in school. It really doesn't matter.
It's just... People see success, especially early
success, and they just instantly hate you for
it. That really leads nicely into the next thing
I wanted to talk about, which was you've done
a lot to lift up other comics in this scene.
And first of all, just to back up a little bit,
are you competitive in nature? Yeah, I am. Embarrassingly.
Yeah? That's part of why a lot of my shows...
I have to be careful to not make them very competitive
because like tournament topics is a competition,
but I try to make it very like fun and lighthearted
and low stakes. And we're not making fun of each
other the whole time. It's a little bit. So it's,
even though it's a competition, I didn't want
it to be one of the shows where most comedy competitions
I've been involved with. It's one person leaves
feeling great and everybody else feels like shit.
Yeah. Oh, they didn't like my jokes. They thought
that guy was better. Maybe I should quit. You'll
have people leaving. Thinking they should quit
comics. Dude, there was five people there and
they were all that guy's friend. Yeah. There's
just so much of that going on, but comics don't
really be honest with themselves sometimes when
it comes to bombing or not winning. So when I
did that show, part of the whole thing that I
love is when comics do it and they tell me they
had a great time and they want to do it again.
I don't pay anybody anything. I can't afford
to pay. It's money comics total. I just can't
afford to pay everybody and we don't make a ton
of money. I had a blast. I had a blast. I was
also out in the first round. But I felt good
about my performance still. You know what I mean?
Just like you said, the only reason I was disappointed
to be out was not because I didn't win, but because
I didn't get to go up again. I just wanted to
keep doing it. To me, that's the only way to
sustainably run a comedy show. big beef with
a comedy show one time I won't talk about it
much but it was like the whole problem I had
was the way that they treated people that were
on the show not just me but you couldn't get
the people's names not just at the show but also
on the flyer then I asked people about it and
they didn't change it and that's fine whatever
okay but then at the show like I would make it
a I would try to make it a habit of getting people's
information because in comedy that's like the
whole thing you have is your identity like That's
how people find out about you. Most people are
very honest about themselves on stage, and if
you can't even get their name right, it makes
it very difficult. So when I bring people on
stage, I've got to do it with a lot of love,
really pump them up. And it does wonders, not
just for the comic and seeing their confidence
rise, feel good. Oh, I actually feel appreciated
at the show, but it makes the show better because
the crowd doesn't know. If it's not Matt Rife
or Tom Segura or... Nate Borghese, whoever, they
don't know the comics on stage, really. So if
you just tell them, this is a great comic, they're
hilarious. These are not lies. Everybody's hilarious
that's doing comedy. It's just maybe they are
that night, maybe they're not. But if you empower
them and you really boost them up, it does wonders
because now the audience's expectations are like,
they're really ready to laugh. They're like,
oh, this is going to be a great show. And there's
definitely, we've all had those shows where we
go out there and we're just trying to get through
our time, right? And the audience can tell that
more than we can. Yeah, for sure. But I think
the other thing though is like, how personally
do you avoid being overly competitive while at
the same time, I feel like you've put on all
these different shows in Athens. And if you want
to like list some of the things that you've done
in the last few years. So for me, like my competitive
fire, it really, it does drive me a lot because
I, This is a horrible way to think of it. I've
been told and researched how bad this is, but
I think of it in terms of who's the best comedian
tonight? Who's the best comic on the show? Who's
going to have the best set? And I know that a
lot of that's uncontrollable, but it does make
me really focused. So early on in my comedy,
I used notes a lot. I was like, I couldn't remember
my jokes. I had a lot of stage fright. I had
drinking problems. I couldn't go on stage unless
I was drunk. And then I had so many nerves where
I just had to use my notes. Now I'm like... One
of my commitments, if it's a book show, no notes
ever. I can't. I cut myself off. I got to know
these jokes. So the only way I found to be able
to make that happen was I got to remember whatever
the time is, I got to have another three or four
minutes memorized. I got to have all right. And
then I'll know my beats. I'll know my transitions.
I'll know how to get to stuff. And then, because
you never know, you do a show, sometimes you're
killing. They don't let you keep going. So if
I got some extra time prepared, it really...
can make your night or you might have a on the
same note you might have a longer bit at some
point that you're like this is not working let
me get through it and then because maybe the
next one will work yeah and if you can get through
the one that's not working and still put a nice
little bow on it and move on so my competitiveness
like i was i just wrote a lot i was like always
a lot of comics like the whole thing is how do
i build the perfect five i gotta build a perfect
five right and then And sometimes what I've seen,
and this isn't relatable to everybody, but what
I would see sometimes, you would see a guy working
on five, and then he would just let jokes go
past him all the time. Yeah. Because it's like,
I can't write any jokes. I'm working on my five.
I got to get my five tied. And it's like, then
they would never do those jokes on stage. They
might write them down, maybe, but then they would
just never do it because they're still always
working on the same exact thing. And there's
strength in that. But my worry was like, if I...
don't keep writing and i don't keep trying these
jokes my jokes are gonna get better the more
i do them yeah i don't want to be married in
this early stuff like and i went back and used
a lot of my earlier jokes but i was like how
do i write as much as i can and that was a very
competitive thing with me every time i get on
stage i want to have something new every time
now i'm doing like more book shows i'm getting
paid a little bit of money to do stuff i'm like
okay it's got to be pretty tried and true stuff
like i don't want to just come out there winging
stuff that's still I like it when I can do a
joke a little different, add a little tag. Every
band can throw in like one. Yeah. You always
want to leave stage. I always want to leave knowing
something. I look at the way I used to look at
football. Like we lost so many games, but I learned
a lot. Every time we lose, it's if I bomb or
a joke bombs, I can go, that didn't work. Why
didn't it work? Okay. This is a charity event
or this is a coffee shop, or maybe it was a little
edgy for that. Maybe I can set it up better.
With my shows and everything, I started a tournament
of topics a little over a year ago in Athens.
That's my biggest show. The way it works is 16
comedians compete by spinning a wheel two at
a time. They get a topic. They each get a minute
to riff on that topic. Three judges then decide
who was the funniest out of those two. It's a
bracket of 16 comics, so it goes two by two until
we get to the final two. That's the championship.
Whoever wins, they get... They get a goat ring,
and usually we have a cash prize as well. It's
a pretty popular show. We've been doing it in
Athens for a little over a year. I do it out
in Marietta at the Alley Stage right now as well
once a month, and possibly doing it at some other
venues at some point. I've talked to a couple
people recently about maybe some pretty cool
opportunities there. It's a really fun show.
It's very improv, but it's not improv in the
form that it's long form. What I really like
about it is it's still stand -up. it's to me
the whole thing is like that just that spark
you get like when you come up with an idea I'll
be honest, there's a couple of jokes I wrote
on the spot that night that I've used since and
worked. Well, that's what I love about all these
different benefits from the show is comics get
material from that sometimes. They'll land on
a topic that they've never even thought about
doing a joke on. They go, oh shit, I actually
had something to say about this. And you can
get a lot of extra material. Also, comics will
record their set. I've got recordings of stuff
too, but when comics will just have something
set up, they'll record it. They can post that
minute. Now they're not burning their material.
And they're also not doing crowd work the entire
set trying to get something that they can put.
Because that's all that they. Yeah. Honestly,
I'm not even somebody that focuses a lot on that
kind of content. No. Because I feel like I have
other avenues to pursue. I don't want to share
my stand -up until I'm putting out a special
or something. It's nice when you have something
really good to share. I post up sometimes less
than I used to. I went to a stage there where
I used to post, I used to post a clip every day.
Oh, wow. On at least my stories. Yeah. And I
had some really good clips and stuff and I still
have them and all that, but it just, to me, it
was also like, I should be like, I want to keep
writing. It was a good way to keep me writing
all the time. Cause just wanting to make sure
we only have so many mics at town. I can do stand
up three, four times a week usually. Yeah. But
I'm writing every day. So I'll have a backlog
of material a lot of times. Which is frustrating.
It's probably one of the hardest things about
my stand -up. One of the most frustrating things
is that I'll have... I honestly think I have
about four hours of jokes. But I've probably
only done two and a half hours of them. Gotcha.
So I've got a lot of stuff I've just never done.
I did an hour of stand -up about six months into
stand -up. An hour of comedy. It was mostly about
my addiction to alcohol. And this day I had a
crisis center here in town. And it was all mental
health and addiction stuff. It's on my YouTube.
It was really fun. It was such a small little
thing. And it was so early. I was like, let me
just do this. See if I can do an hour. I was
able to do that. And I did another hour last
August. A buddy of mine asked me about doing
another hour. It was called Eddie's Boys by my
dad and parts of it. But a lot of it was just
jokes I had for a while that I was really into.
That was a fun one. I've got, I used to run shows
at this venue where I would do standup shows
and stuff, but I honestly feel like. crowds are
a little disenfranchised and a little bored with
stand -up open minds and showcases yeah at least
that's the vibe i get when i go to them a lot
of times where it's just oh here's this comic
and then there's and that's just that 10 times
a lot of times i'm trying to i've been honestly
trying to remember for 10 minutes who said this
to me and if i remember before i post this i'll
give them credit in the intro or outro but someone
was talking oh you know what pete mcbrier I don't
know if you know him, but he's actually just
got a bunch of mutual friends. And he used to
do comedy. Doesn't really do it that much anymore.
He says he got bored with it. But what he said
to me, and I thought about it for a week, was
people go see bands and people go see comedy.
They don't necessarily go see a comic. When you're
talking about people like Tom Segura or whatever,
like Theo Vaughn was in my town last night. Yeah,
I saw him a few years ago. He is like one of
the dumbest, smartest comedians ever. Man, sometimes
he is so... He's got this one joke where he's
talking about racial relations growing up. Oh,
the tank top one? Where he's talking about growing
up for the... Yeah, I think it's that one. Yeah,
and he's like... I don't have your stuff. I'm
over here. I didn't take your stuff. Somebody
else has both of our stuff, and they're watching
us fight over it. And I'm like, dude, that is
exactly what's happening. I think I would do
all that shit to you and then move right next
to you. It's really smart, too. Yeah, for sure.
And I don't even know if he knows how smart some
of those folks are. But I guess what I'm getting
at is most of the time, people just go see comedy.
Unless they're going to see a Theo Vaughn or
a Tom Segura or a Nate Bargetti or Mark Maron
or whatever. Locally, they don't go to the comedy
night because they're like, oh, I know that guy's
really funny. I feel like there might be a couple
of people in town that are like that. A lot of
people come to shows, they're like, oh, I saw
you were on this one. It happens. I know people
that have a little bit of a posse or it's like
they'll have two or three people that roll with
them all the time. But not at this level. It's
very rare that you just, we couldn't just go.
hey our biggest comic in town is headlining this
show and then a hundred people come that wouldn't
be realistic for us i feel like there's one guy
a couple of in this i feel like this happens
in other zones where there's they might have
celebrity status from other things that they
do yeah like i'm thinking of i think there's
a sports announcer here that does comedy yeah
he's quite funny yeah there's a guy that i'm
not trying i'm just not trying to call anybody
out there's a guy that did He was a social media
guy. I saw his first ever stand -up set, and
now he tours and does comedy because he has 100
,000 followers or something. And that buys you
a lot of, I can get in here because I have this.
And nothing against the guy. His comedy is not,
to me, it's not very good. And you can tell he
just never really had the time to sit down and
write. He didn't struggle with the open mics
the way that we all do. I'm seeing that a lot
with these YouTube comics. But it's like, how
do you deal with that? He's going to book me
on a show where I get to perform in front of
a lot of people. That benefits me. It's also,
it does bring attention to our scene when he
does shows. And as much as I don't like bad comedy,
I don't like promoting bad comedy, when bad comedy
occurs and it makes your good comedy look better,
I do an open mic in town where sometimes you'll
see five, six people in a row just bomb zero
laughs. And then if I get up there and have a
really good set, I leave there feeling good.
damn I had this shit to a degree where it's faulty
and you need to go bomb at a show where it's
like it has to have that balance but I do think
there are people like that where they cross over
and T .I. is the guy that famously tried to do
comedy and was awful at it and apparently it's
caused some trouble with him but I don't know
to me it's I want everybody to do comedy for
the right reasons And a lot of people do it because
they see it as a way to get people interested
in them or other stuff they're doing. To me,
I think you should only do it if you can't do
anything else. Yeah. I struggle with, I used
to have this thing where I can't not do it. Compulsory.
Dude, that's my thing. It's like, I, if I haven't
done standup in a couple of days, I start feeling,
I'm like, dude, I gotta get on stage. I gotta
do it. I just feel drawn to it all the time.
But I know people that like. The same thing,
like, before I go on stage, I'm dreading it.
I'm going, oh, I'm going to bomb. Why am I doing
this? Neil Brennan says it's like putting our
bodies through a car wreck every night. Yeah,
that's probably good. That's good. But I know
some people where they just look at it like,
so, my God. And it's like the whole time they
just dread it. And you can feel it on stage,
too. That's the one thing. When I used to do
sales a lot, like. You'd always try to have this
separation. You're dealing with stress all day
and trying to commission only jobs and trying
to talk people into shit. You get home, you still
want to talk. But you still have to have, especially
when my daughter was first born, my wife was
at home with her all day by herself. She doesn't
talk to anybody. She wants to have some human
connection, some time with an adult. And I want
the exact opposite. So it's like you have to
figure out transitioning that. So when I get
on stage, I try to just leave everything else.
It's not the audience's fault. Like I'll bring
what I have to bring my jokes sometimes are trauma
related or related to something I'm going through,
but I'm not going to get on stage. Like right
now I'm doing this baggage or I'm not going to
get on stage and go, Oh, I don't feel good. I'm
not going to give a good performance. I'm not
going to take it. I am the one that decided to
do it. Like I said, yes, I got it. I don't drop
out of shows. I don't know if I've ever, maybe
once I had to drop from something, but I'm very.
if i agree to do something i'm very loyal about
i have to see it through i just because if i
don't i'm just going to feel awful about it like
i beat myself up a lot and my other shows like
but that was the start of everything was like
trying to find with my shows especially how do
i get people interested in comedy in general
like in our scene because when we first started
doing a lot of extra shows i started in 2023
in june and uh so i'm still very new at it but
we just didn't have a lot going on and now like
yeah an open mic on sundays Everything else was,
like, it was, like, also music. You could do
a little comedy. They had poetry and music. And
it was, like, that's tough. Right. Like, a guy
does Nirvana, and then you get on, and you got
to do jokes. It's like that. Yeah. Especially
in a town like this that is mostly a music town,
anyway. Yeah. And so you're, like, playing, doing
jokes right after, like, some of the most amazing
musicians, like, period. Yeah. We would have
that, and I could do those mics. And it made
me better, I think. But it was like... Sure.
It was those things. And then we would have decent
-sized shows at Hender Shots, but they were always
booked by out -of -town comics. And those guys,
they're not going to book me. They don't know
me. They're not coming to our mics. They don't...
And that left an impression on me. So I was like,
how do we just build more interest? Because then
I was like, we've got to start more shows. So
I'd start these shows and get these rooms open.
Not just me, but other people. And some of the
ones I started, it was like, I just struggled
to get people to come out because people just
didn't know about comedy really in our town.
It's a music town and people don't, it's very
much like the population recycles itself every
year to a degree because people graduate. And
we have our townies, but most of the townies
in Athens, when students are here, they ain't
going out. They're going to hang because those
people are fucking crazy. The day that school
starts back. I used to work on Atlanta Highway,
which is a pretty big highway out here. I would
sit there and just watch two, three accidents
a day. Students, all of them, just guaranteed.
And that was just that one chunk of road. That's
wild. It's a completely different town with students
here. I mean, the population like triples or
something. It's insane. So we try to make the
most of what we can, but a lot of that was just
we got to build awareness about comedy. We got
to get people interested. And it's this thing
where it's like if you do a show and there's
only five, ten people there. It's very easy to
then make the whole set or the whole show about
how shitty the show is and how sparsely it is.
And I see that every single time I go to a migraine
thing where the host just they don't know what
else to do. And I probably have done it recently,
too. And I always feel really bad about it because
it's don't take it out on those people. They're
in it with you. Exactly. Let's make them laugh.
They're sticking around. But then. We either
have that or we'll have like mics where it's
like a lot of people are in there, but they're
all fucking talking and it's trying to get them.
And then we have a problem of we don't have a
lot of like really seasoned comics that can really
handle that sort of stuff. Yeah. So it's like
if people are talking, they don't know. The only
thing that works for me and I've learned this,
I got to get bigger. I got to be louder. I got
to really. That does work. I got to get them
to focus on me. But what happens with our scene.
is a lot of our really new comics they'll like
they're doing their jokes and it's not going
great and then people are laughing they're like
talking to each other they're not interested
because it's not going great and they're not
doing well and then people will shush them and
get them to be quiet they go okay you're right
yeah and then they'll watch them and then it's
still not good and it's that's tough and we have
to that's one thing i learned early on is like
the more shows we do like we have to make these
shows great yeah because if people leave not
having a good time they're not coming back to
this shit if they didn't know about before and
their first experience was bad the first experience
is a very lasting one so every show i do now
it's like how do we make this fun for everybody
like how do we make sure because the thing i
noticed that the comics don't have a good time
the crowd is not gonna happen right for sure
comics can be miserable and be funny but that's
a choice like most of the comics i know like
mark maron like he's a miserable guy in a lot
of ways But his comedy on stage is really him
playing into that misery and talking about it.
That's hilarious. But if you just have somebody
go on stage and they're just miserable for the
sake of misery, I have a tendency in my personal
life to get that way. If I take that on stage,
that's going to torpedo everything. So everything
I do, it's a lot about keeping people's attention
and momentum. I started that show, which is wall
-to -wall. It's not many breaks, not many lulls.
It's pretty consistent. I try to be quick on
my feet, doing little jokes in between when we
need to pick up. The judges in that book are
usually very funny. They do their own little
thing. And the comics usually do great on that.
It's 16 comics, a minute on the wheel. It's so
random. I think everybody got laughs. I think
that happens most of the shows. We've had people
bomb, but the thing about it is if they bomb,
it's a minute. I'll bomb for a minute. I don't
care. It's a minute. I definitely didn't bomb,
and a minute still felt really long. It felt
a good time. that's the only thing when you're
thrown a topic without like having any material
like you get the topic and then you start there's
not even a second to think about it it's a little
tough with kill tony's obviously the biggest
like comedy show like podcast or anything and
they do a minute and that was a big thing with
me especially early on was like okay we've got
a lot of comments going up doing a minute and
i'm like trying to separate the show from that
because i don't want people just going to the
show and go oh this is like a kill tony ripoff
or something right but i feel like our show's
very far removed from that and a lot of that
yeah i didn't even really but there was talks
early on in my head anyway where i was like what
if we make it like i don't know a minute and
a half or we make it like 30 but a minute is
perfect it really was yeah you can just you have
time to like you don't have to be like the whole
time just on the entirety of the time like you
you can take a little bit of a breath i did and
then i think my funniest joke came after that
little pause yeah you take it a little because
a lot of times people just get nervous and they
just say the topic over and over and that's just
nerves yeah one thing that taught me that i learned
very early on because i had a lot of public speaking
experience i used to when i graduated high school
i met my wife first day of college and then she
was very religious and i wanted to impress her
and her family and i got very religious and i
found out that religious people are very nice
to you if they want something from you i would
go to this church people would be really nice
to me i wasn't used to that they would like give
me food and stuff i was like oh my God, people
are so nice and they love me and they would say
they love me and they would spend time with me
and really acted like they cared. And that was
great. And then I got into preaching and teaching
Sunday school. I would go to jails to minister
and I would do funerals and teach kids. And I
was doing all kinds of stuff with the church.
I was probably working 20 hours a week with the
church. And the thing with that though, is like
you're doing, I would probably have three hours
of material I have to have every week, three
hours on the book that has been like, read and
dissected more than anything. So I'm like, I
got to be original, man. I got to find, because
I got three hours, I got to find a way to be
different. And one of the ways that I struggled
with early on, I would talk very fast when I
got nervous. I noticed that in my standup and
was able to fix it very quickly because it happened
early on in my preaching, where I would talk
very quickly because I didn't feel confident.
But one of the things I noticed is that the slower
you talk and the more positive and the more confident
you sound. Yeah. and it sounds so backwards because
i'm thinking if i just don't say anything they're
gonna think i'm dumb as they're not gonna this
guy don't even have a thought in his head so
i'm sitting there thinking it's it's like uh
it's and i sound like foghorn leghorn and it's
like i can't do that so it really taught me the
power of silence especially in our voices and
like learning your tells or whatever that you
might call them dude the greatest thing i figured
out lately with my comedy is a real breakthrough
i had is like if i just take a second after my
first thing i noticed early on my first bomb
i read the thing i noticed was i would do a punch
line and i would just rush past it because i
didn't get a laugh instantly but a lot of my
jokes are like a little clever and it's you got
to think about it a second but you also have
to tell them when to laugh sometimes sometimes
you do and i didn't know that at first i just
thought oh this i know it i get it they're gonna
get it if they don't get it i gotta move quick
because in my head i'm thinking oh i don't even
want them to think that was a joke i just wanted
to think it was just something consciously i
think we think that a little bit at the beginning
but it taught me thinking about my preaching
days like if i just pause and now i do this thing
like if i do a joke that i know is good and i
know it's funny But I know everybody hasn't gotten
it yet. I'll like pause. And a lot of times I'll
do like facial expressions. I'll really scan
and look. And I'll make a lot out of that moment.
Yeah. Early on in stand -up, I can just say I
had no control over that. I didn't know. And
it's cool to have those little wins. Like I think
that's the biggest thing. And I think that every
comedian needs to have is to be able to find
wins. Because what happens is people get disenfranchised
with it. They get bored with it. Yeah, yeah.
I don't want to keep doing this too hard. And
it is very hard. It's very unrewarding. One of
the hardest things I've ever done. It's super
unrewarding because it's like most people aren't
going to know who you are. It's almost as unrewarding
as parenting. It's close. It's close. But, like,
let's say you want to be famous. Like, my favorite
comedians aren't famous. David Hale's not famous.
He's famous amongst comics. He could walk down
the street. People wouldn't know who he was.
Like, he can still go out to eat. Yeah, and it's
like, I would love to be that level of famous.
That would be perfect. But comedy is not a good
way to get famous, I don't think, because even
the people that are, like Matt Rife, that's one
in, like, a ton of people that is pretty recognizable.
And then, if you're doing it for money, fuck,
dude. I've lost so much of my good stand -up.
Like, I've made some money, but I can't tell
you how many shows I leave going, oh, shit, I
gotta pay this comic, I gotta pay them, I gotta
do this. Or even just as a comic, you get there,
you buy a drink, or chicken tenders, or parking,
or buy a drink, or whatever. It's just always
something. Like, I can't, it's very hard to make
money doing stand -up, especially doing it, in
my mind, a very grassroots, very, like, building
up, like, confidence among the consumer type
of thing, versus just paying for, like, a bunch
of followers, and let's just produce this whole
thing based off of, I don't know, something that's
not even real. It's very difficult for those
things, but I think you have to find those wins.
If you can say, okay, that jerk, that joke worked.
That tag worked. I've got that in my tool belt.
Or you can say, I got booked on this and I got
this little thing. Finding those little wins
is so key. It keeps me like sane because I'll
just sit there and focus on all the negatives
and shit. But then the second I go, I had this
happen and this, and then I go, oh shit, I'm
two years in. I've got a lot of shit I can be
thankful for. And I think it's just figuring
out what those wins are for everybody. Because
not everybody's going to have my path or your
path or fucking David Hales or anybody else.
It's like finding your own unique celebration.
So the last thing I really want to ask you about
is something you brought up just a minute ago.
How do you feel about the impact that Kill Tony
has had on... the crap to the field of stand
-up comedy because obviously it's increased its
popularity tremendously yeah but i think it's
also it goes back to something we were talking
about earlier where a lot of people think they
can just be offensive instead of actually writing
a joke yeah it's have you noticed that with comedians
locally yeah as a problem is have you noticed
that it's like a like people trying to stand
up they think they can just be offensive Or is
that not really led into this local scene? It
has, for sure. But I think that probably happens
with every scene to a degree. Oh, of course.
When I first started doing comedy, I was pretty
edgy. I just thought, because you think, what's
funny to me, and a lot of comedians are really
damaged, fucked up people, and what's funny to
them is sometimes really dark shit. And it's
easy to just, I know a lot of comedians, I see
it more in Atlanta. with like comics out there
that are what i would define as like edge lords
or yeah that's what they want to call themselves
but i know some of those guys but some of them
are some of the best joke writers i know and
a lot of them are some of the sweetest people
i know there's a guy there i won't say his name
but he's one of the edgiest comedians he made
a joke the week that that Lakin was killed in
Athens. He made a joke about it, and it was a
really dark joke. I didn't think it was funny
at the time. There were people that laughed at
it, and they were cool laughing at it. I'm a
father of a daughter, so it hit me a little weird.
I didn't take it on that. I never held it against
him. He's a comic doing a joke. Yeah, of course.
But then that same guy, the first time I ever
actually met him, he offered to let me stay in
his house anytime I'm out in the area. It's just
that duality. If you know the guy, it's okay.
Yeah, it's a joke. Whatever. He's just... Yeah,
I don't think I'm talking so much about comedians
that end up being funny. But I feel like what
I'm getting at is people thinking that anybody
can do it. Oh, yeah. Because I can go, oh, I
can go be offensive. I don't know, man. That's
like anything, I think. It's a weird thing. If
you think about, I'm a huge football fan. I wonder
if there was a time when dudes, like, the NFL
started so small, like, its roots were, like,
in Cal pastures and just throwing around a ball
with, like, dudes wearing sweaters that also
work full -time jobs and don't get paid anything,
really. And, like, I wonder if there was a time
where, like, all those guys were playing ball
and they're like, oh, did you hear? This team's
getting pretty big. They're going to start televising
the games. It's like, oh. i'm gonna have all
these people it's like there's always that thing
of like when you have something you want it to
be yours and special like you want it to be exactly
how you want it to be and i think a lot of comedians
are contrarians and they don't like things that
are popular sure yeah i deal with that a lot
like i just any pop song i just instantly go
i don't like it it might be great i don't know
it's probably not for me But a lot of comedians,
I think, are like that. So if anything becomes
more popular, like Kill Tony was a pretty small
show when I first started listening to it. Small,
and I mean, it was a really big show, but it
wasn't like they weren't doing Madison Square
Garden or anything like that. They were still
doing, I think they were still in the belly room
of the comic store back then. And they mostly
had actual comedians signing up, too. Now, and
this is where the dynamic is emerging. That's
a big reason why I don't watch the show now.
Yeah, sure. It's because the show, a lot of times,
is just... let's bring this guy up here he's
gonna bomb for a minute and not really do jokes
he might do one or two and they're just not yeah
you can tell he hasn't done them anywhere else
before because this whole thing was i'm gonna
make my first time on kill tony that to me is
the dumbest fucking thing do not make your first
time doing comedy something that you have zero
control over because then you don't know what
if you're don't get pulled for a year or two
years that could be realistic that happens all
the time where a guy gets in there i've been
signing up for two years and it's I hope that
guy's been doing comedy that whole time because
now he wasted two years. And sure, I bet he had
a great time. But just if I'm thinking like...
I don't know. I heard the bar across the street's
pretty shitty. Is it? Yeah. My friend Liv, I
talked about earlier, is moving out to Austin.
And she loves Kill Tony. She loves that whole
thing. I don't like just how mean -spirited it
is sometimes where it's... Sure, yeah. the whole
thing is just let's make fun of all these comics
and that come up and i don't care if you make
fun of a guy that like you said just got up there
he doesn't have a plan or nothing yeah sure ridicule
that guy but you can develop that culture of
it's a quick way to get famous yeah and that
to me is probably the thing i like least about
it where it's just like people look at it as
like a ticket the second he literally calls it
the second he started calling it the golden ticket
i started rolling my eyes every time because
i'm like dude Because now he's convinced himself
he's some sort of geek. He's giving people all
this stuff. I don't know Tony Hinscliffe personally.
I don't know anything. He seems like a dick.
But I also have never cared for his stand -up.
I think he's, like, pretty irrelevant to the
show. Yeah. In general. I think he can write.
Like, his roast jokes are pretty clever sometimes.
Yeah. Like, he was great on the Tom Brady roast.
I thought so, too. That's, like, the only time
he's made me. I'll admit those. And he's quick
in the moment. Like, he's quick. Like, he can
do some quick stuff. And I've been amazed by
some stuff. But his material that he brings to
do stand -up, the fact that it's not renowned
or it's not considered good by anybody that I
know. And it's a choice. And it's like, why is
he now the authority on what's good and what's
bad? Like, it was cool when it was a small show.
And it was like, yeah, he's been doing comedy
for a long time. Yeah, respect that. But when
you start doing this, I have the same thing with
Dave Chappelle. You remember? It's like, when
he starts saying he's the GOAT. Okay, why? Like,
why are you the GOAT? Because Richard Pryor died?
It's just comedy. I don't know. I don't know
that the GOAT is a title you can give yourself.
No. The second you do, it just makes you so dislikable.
I'm a... Sometimes I'll get proud of myself and
I'll be really thankful for the stuff I've been
able to achieve and I can brag about a little
bit. But I always try to just end everything
I do with, so what's next? Let's just not, like
if I'm doing a show that is decreasing in quality,
but more people are at it, to me, that's a crisis.
Yeah. Like, to me, that's like the worst thing
because now people are exposed to comedy. They're
exposed to a bad form of it. Agreed. And I think
you described exactly what's been happening with
Kill Tony over the last couple of three years.
Comedy's just oversaturated in a way, but it's
that same thing. But do you think that's why?
It's not the other reason. I think people will
use that as a big point to blame. And Joe Rogan's
part of that thing, too. Well, he's changed a
lot, man. If you think about Joe Rogan five years
ago, even. He cared about weed and aliens. I
think when he signed that big deal, the big...
I don't remember all the specifics. It was so
huge. It was so much money. And it just... I
don't know. I noticed a pretty big shift in it
then. That was around... That was after Trump
first got in a relationship. I think it was like
2017, yeah. Oh, yeah. So it was... I mean, a
lot of shit has happened since then. It's just...
People need to understand, I think, their influence
in a way. But people, like... that's always the
get out of jail free court as they say he says
he's a dumbass he's a comic he doesn't know and
it's okay then just give back all your followers
then so if that was like the whole thing it's
like i don't care like i'm just saying what you
have to realize that not everybody is as smart
as you are like i think joe robin is incredibly
smart Sometimes. I think he's selectively intelligent.
Yeah. But I don't think you build what he has.
And it's not all been through hard work or anything,
but I think he's very smart about things. But
I think he understands that, like, he has followers
that don't know the difference of him being a
scientist and somebody who's went to school for
20 years. They just hear, like, he's, oh, he's
bumping elbows with these smart people. He must.
So now everything that he says, they don't necessarily
look at it through the same lens of that's the
fear factor guy saying that. They go, oh, this
is Joe's. They look at it as like a Rush Limbaugh,
who's another guy that shouldn't have been given
like any credibility. But it's like even he probably
has more right to talk about politics than Joe
Rogan does. Yeah, I would agree. It's like people
are always looking for somebody to follow. Like
people don't like to follow organizations. They
like following a person. So, I guess, like, my
last kind of thing I'm thinking about is, have
you seen Mike Birbiglia's Thank God for Jokes?
I don't think I've seen that one yet. I've seen
all his other ones. I highly recommend that one.
And I'm going to just summarize a small part
of it. He talks about how the guy at work says,
nice tits, Betsy. Yeah. And then he says, oh,
I'm joking. And then the boss, no more jokes.
I almost wonder if we've let... that guy in the
office into the comedy world and i don't know
i don't know if it's one specific guy but like
the metaphorical the golden ticket has allowed
the metaphorical office dude saying nice tits
betsy to go into the and be like i'm joking yeah
i think that part of the problem is all three
of those people are now in the stand -up world
versus before you had a very niche thing where
it's like people that were into stand -up were
just like they had to really seek it out right
now stand up is advertised everywhere it's not
for everybody no it's not for everybody and that's
the thing it's probably not for most people very
narrow for the amount of people they're going
to like stand -up comedy because on paper it
doesn't make any sense like it's a guy standing
there he's not informing you of anything it's
not like he's bettering you by giving you knowledge
it's not like a seminar or a speech or anything
he's literally just trying to make you laugh
and you have to be relatable enough for everybody
to get it but you have to be unique enough to
where it's not corny or they've heard it before
and that is such a narrow like tight path for
sure like you see uh you might do a show that's
got 20 comics on it how do i make these people
laugh using stuff that isn't like anything else
that has been said tonight but is still relatable
to them And that's so hard to do after so many
years of stand -up comedy that now I think we're
at this point where all three of those people
in that office are now at the show. Yeah. And
a lot of times all three of them signed up for
the open mic. It's crazy. And it's great that
comedy is getting that big. We all want to do
this professionally. We all want to make money
doing comedy. We all want to be able to just
do this and not have to work day jobs. And this
is maybe a step in the right direction, maybe
a step in the wrong direction. Where it's like,
you got to have people involved. You got to sell
tickets. You got to educate the masses. But there's
just not enough good comedy for every comic to
kill and every experience to be wonderful. So
that lady that comes in and got offended that
somebody said nice tits. And rightfully so. Somebody
shouldn't have said that. She comes to a show
and then a guy does a joke about that guy saying
nice tits. She doesn't see that guy making fun
of it. She just hears that nice tits line again.
She's not a trained comedy audience. She doesn't
digest comedy, but she went to the show at the
bar to have a drink. That person's there. You
got the guy that fired the other dude or wrote
him up. He's there. He's listening. He's getting
whatever he wants out of it. You got so many
people involved with it now that it's going to
be messy. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's the
thing that will help a lot of people if they
just go, it's not going to be perfect. It's going
to be a shit show. And I think that's the one
thing that Kill Tony gets right, is it knows
it's a shit show. I love that about the show.
And I use that in my stuff, too. But then it's
like, how do we lean into it? Do we let that
derail things? Or do we just go, man, how fucking
fun is this, man? And I do love it when Tony
does that, where he just goes, how great is all
Monday night? When he does that, I love that.
There's something really magical about it. And
there's a reason it's the most popular thing.
It's that thing of echo is going to be different.
You're going to leave that night going, that
was a unique experience I'll never have again.
And I love that about every stand -up open mic
is like that. It's a less glamorized version
of that. And I love it when bands try and do
that. I just had J. Roddy Walston play my living
room about a month ago. And he told me he's doing
things every night that are different. And first
of all, it was amazing. That was really... Reach
out to him if you want to have him at home. Make
sure he makes money. The Sauron boys, Dave Marr.
The first time I ever saw him was at Sinai. I
watched this movie, A Shot in the Dark, the Pink
Panther movie. It was like his pick or whatever.
And then he and some guys played music after
that. I was like blown away. I'd never seen music
played in a mutant movie theater before. And
I just, I loved his music ever since then. But
it was just such a unique experience. And just
going, nobody else can say, besides the people
that are in this room, that they experienced
this. And I love that. And it's not, I think
everybody wants that experience to be Madison
Square Garden. But the fault in that is that's
more people that are also experiencing, your
experience is less unique by proxy. Yeah, yeah.
If I'm at an open mic with 10 people and some
shit goes down, like I was at an open mic one
time, a guy with one arm sexually harassed a
waitress. That's an experience not a lot of people
have had. I've only met a dude with one arm,
like. i can count on one arm how many times like
experiences like that where you just go wow i
would have never had this experience if i wasn't
in this room at this very moment and i think
that's what makes like because both of us have
the same favorite band you mentioned earlier
and that's what makes them they never play with
a set list in fact i saw the southern rock opera
tour four times and it was the first time i'd
ever seen them play the same show more than once
And that was a new experience. You know what
I mean? Because they had never done that. And
that was new. Yeah. I love that about them, too.
Yeah. That experience of every time you watch
them, you go, this is different than the last
time they played the song. A lot of people aren't
looking for that. I know. A lot of people watch
The Office over and over. A lot of people listen
to what's on the radio. And they listen to the
same stuff they listened to in high school or
college. And I'm just going to say, stand -up
isn't for everybody. It's not. Some people might
want to just stick to Looney Tunes and Tom and
Jerry. I think that a part of our job is I look
at it in some ways as a salesperson where I go,
I got to sell these people on this. So like when
I run a show, I watched, I love that movie Saturday
night. Yeah, I liked it too. I think a lot of
people hated it. i'm not accurate but fun if
you're watching any movie i watch it doesn't
i just automatically assume this is a movie probably
not very i just watch it it's an individual story
exactly but the thing i really grabbed onto is
like that anxiety that lauren michaels character
had where he's just running through and it's
very stylized and the music and all stuff but
i've felt that so many times we're just I want
the show to be so good. I want it to be great.
I thought it was really strangely relatable for
how inaccurate it was. You know what I mean?
It was like, and it was like the thing of, he
had the line in that, that they wrote that says,
you know, you can't expect people to recognize
what they've never seen before. That's always
stood out to me where it's, I want to do a style
of comedy that people haven't necessarily seen
before. They don't want it to be unique where
it's very fresh, but there is going to be a lot
of trial and error. I think that the price of
being original is that you're going to bomb more
than the people that are going to do the stuff
that's right down the middle. We've all been
to open mics where some guy gets up there and
he talks about, dude, I saw a show recently.
A guy did an Obama, Bush, and Clinton impression.
Oh, God. Shit, I've been here for 20 years. And
I was like, oh, my God, this is so hack. Audience
love. And I'm like, God. That's one thing that's
frustrating to me as a comic, too. Comedians
that go for the low -hanging fruit frustrate
me, but then the audience relax to it. I'm like,
I can't blame them. I can't. But that's our choice.
Being original, that's your choice. Would you
trade with them? That's what I always have to
break it down to. Would I trade? Even that guy
I was talking about earlier that's a huge influencer.
He'll do a show. He'll just go, I'm going to
do a stand -up show. Sells out. Dude, I've got
to work for a year to get to sell a show. I've
got to really grind at it. But my show is very
different. And that's the path that we take.
I wouldn't trade my life or career or even my
following with that guy. Because it's like I
know what he builds and what he does. I know
what I do. And it's going to take longer for
me. It's going to take. But talent and persistence
and hard work and all that stuff is the main
thing that I see that has rewarded me. It hasn't
always worked out. I've had a lot of really negative
experiences in stand -up. But for two years,
I can say that I've noticed how working harder
than people and how being more original than
people has benefited me. Yeah, there's been this
song I've been listening to a lot by American
Aquarium called The Luckier You Get. Yeah, I
like the song. Yeah, the harder you work, the
luckier you get. Oh, yeah. Before I have you
plug your stuff, I was reminded of just one other
thing. It's like when you're working with all
these different people in the audience, you're
always going to, I think, The main point of Birbiglia's
thank God for jokes is that every joke is offensive
to somebody. It's true. Or at least at somebody's
expense to some degree. And I think it's, like
I said earlier, it's a privilege to not, like,
to not, to, like, that be the thing that offends
you. Sure. But I do wonder, like, when you're
walking that line, I think Dave Chappelle is
a good example with the early, the early part
of his career. Like, he quit Chappelle's show
because. the show got too popular, and it went
beyond the audience that it was intended for.
And so, like, when we're thinking about comedy
and your, like, intended audience, you just have
to let it go. You kind of just have to just be
like, because you can't control who's going to
watch your stuff. You can't control. Something
I talked about last night with a friend where
it's like they bring friends to shows a lot,
like people from work. I never do that. I just.
In my mind, I'm thinking I want people to see
it when I want them to see it. I had my friends
come out the first time I ever went out to just
give me support. That's the only time I've really...
For me, it's honestly going to happen. Either
I'm going to... If I bomb, they're going to see
that. But they're not going to give me feedback
that's going to help me because they haven't
done stand -up. They're going to say something
encouraging, probably. Great. That might be nice
to hear, but it's not really going to benefit
me as far as doing comedy further. Probably going
to make me feel worse, honestly, knowing myself.
Or I kill, and then they're laughing, and that's
great. They got to see me kill, but that's not
repeatable all the time. Then they come back
to another show, and I bomb. Now they just think
I'm inconsistent. Or you can also never tell
them those jokes again. Yeah, then they see you
again. It's like, oh, I killed these jokes. I
got to use them again. Then they see the same
shit. They're not going to. Yeah. Why would they
come back? Yeah, it doesn't work like that. my
friend it's like they love comedy they want as
many people to see them do comedy as they can
they just love it so much but it's a very different
mindset i quit posting things on tiktok because
my family was seeing it like my mom my grandmother
and i didn't want them seeing the comedy that
was because some of it was darker edgier or whatever
it was i didn't want them to see it but there
is going to come to a point where ideally i don't
have any control over that at all i think it's
just for me it's like controlling it while i
can and if it gets to a point where everybody
knows about it That's the thing about Dave Attell,
where it's like, my mom doesn't know who that
is. I could theoretically be famous in comedy,
and she would know I do it, but she would have
no reason. You'd buy her stuff. Maybe. Levi,
it's been a pleasure, man. Where can people find
you on social media, find your specials? Yes,
my Instagram is Levi underscore comedy. I have
all my shows and stuff I post on there. I have
my YouTube link to that, too. That's where my
two one -hour things are on there, and I've got
a couple other sets and stuff. I used to do a
really cool 10 -minute set at this charity event
for pet adoption. Really fun. 10 minutes, but
it's actually funny. Clean commie. I really like
those jokes. So check those things out. My shows,
I have a Tournament of Topics third Sunday of
every month at the Globe in Athens. Really fun
show. I stand by that show. I host it every month,
and we have a lot of fun with that. It's really
good. Then I have Alley Stage Pyramid Topics
on the 17th of this month. We do it Thursday
at Alley Stage out in Marietta. It's a bigger
venue. It's a different feeling show out there
because the venues are so different. But once
again, it's not like anything you'll ever really
see again. And then I have The Pot Roast. It's
a new show that me and my friend Zach Hayes are
running at Showtime Bowling. The one I was talking
about earlier. It's a really fun, unique concept.
A lot of silliness involved in that. We do some
games and stuff. The audience can really get
involved in the show. very fun but every show
and that's going to be very unique and it's a
fresh concept that's actually at a bowling alley
and it's a free show it's completely free if
anybody wants to see that third third or last
tuesday of every month i'm sorry my friend zach
hosts it and then i produce it and we do all
kinds of fun stuff so check that out i have a
show that i'm doing with my friend seven homes
very funny comedian atlanta georgia absolutely
hilarious i he's one of the guys that i cannot
fathom how funny he is sometimes like He's one
of the few people that he'll walk people and
then while they're walking out, they're dying
laughing. He will offend people at times and
then just win them back. It's insane. And a lot
of it's like riffs and stuff. But we're doing
a show together called Seven Questions. It's
going to be an internet show. So we're working
on that. But that'll be on my Instagram too.
Cool. That was my interview with Levi Crumley.
I want to thank him again for coming on. I've
linked his social media in the description. I
have a feeling he's somebody that I'll talk to
again on the podcast. I go up to Athens quite
a bit, and he was a lot of fun to talk to. This
has been overeducated and underemployed. Next
week, we've got a special treat. We've got Sloane
Simpson from the Sloane Brothers. I'm going to
do an episode about the role of historians. And
then the week after that, we've got Jay Gonzalez
from the Drop -By Truckers, fresh off his project
with Sloane Simpson. So you're not going to want
to miss... either one of those interviews, make
sure you click that subscribe button. Make sure
you check out Fedden .net. That's F -E -D -D
-U -N .net. If you have a suggestion for a guest
or a question you'd like me to answer, email
me at FeddenXR at gmail .com. I want to thank
Levi Crumley again. And as always, thanks to
Lee Baines for inspiring the title of this podcast.
You can find that lyric. In his song Centerville.
And I'm working on getting him on here as well
soon. Thanks for tuning in. This is Overeducated
and Underemployed and I am fed up.