WEBVTT 00:00:46.800 --> 00:00:50.119 Welcome to Season 3 of Overeducated and Underemployed. 00:00:50.119 --> 00:00:53.920 You got Fed in here. This week, I've shot my 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:57.020 first episode in virtual reality. For those of 00:00:57.020 --> 00:00:58.500 y 'all that are listening, you won't really know 00:00:58.500 --> 00:01:02.479 a difference, except that I feel like it's a 00:01:02.479 --> 00:01:04.180 lot easier to connect with somebody in virtual 00:01:04.180 --> 00:01:06.900 reality rather than something like Zoom when 00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:09.819 doing an interview. One quick note, we're going 00:01:09.819 --> 00:01:11.780 to have a new theme song next week and a new 00:01:11.780 --> 00:01:43.269 intro. We'll see you next time. It's a pretty 00:01:43.269 --> 00:01:46.430 cool comedy scene in virtual reality. It felt 00:01:46.430 --> 00:01:48.989 more like an in -person interview when I conducted 00:01:48.989 --> 00:01:52.129 it than a remote one. I've actually never met 00:01:52.129 --> 00:01:55.129 Tommy Simbazo. Tommy Simbazo is the guest this 00:01:55.129 --> 00:01:57.269 week. He's a comedian out of Baltimore. He's 00:01:57.269 --> 00:02:00.950 been a comedian for over 20 years. He's in a 00:02:00.950 --> 00:02:04.209 musical group. We're going to get all into that, 00:02:04.329 --> 00:02:06.890 but I want to tell you all a little bit about 00:02:06.890 --> 00:02:10.530 how I met Tommy. He roasted me when I attended 00:02:10.530 --> 00:02:15.759 a... comedy show in VR back during COVID before 00:02:15.759 --> 00:02:18.740 I was performing stand -up I was doing improv 00:02:18.740 --> 00:02:22.000 at the time but then when I started doing stand 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:25.580 -up and things have gotten a lot better now things 00:02:25.580 --> 00:02:27.960 have gotten a lot better in my city now but when 00:02:27.960 --> 00:02:30.620 I started doing stand -up there was a lot of 00:02:30.620 --> 00:02:34.800 toxicity in the local scene and so I remembered 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:38.639 the stand -up comedy clubs in VR and Tommy Simbazo 00:02:39.129 --> 00:02:42.250 Runs one of the open mics that I regularly attend 00:02:42.250 --> 00:02:45.550 in VR. I work out a lot of material in there. 00:02:46.210 --> 00:02:51.330 He is just a really funny dude to talk to, but 00:02:51.330 --> 00:02:56.229 also super great about giving young comics a 00:02:56.229 --> 00:03:01.169 chance and giving advice to people. So I was 00:03:01.169 --> 00:03:03.909 really excited to talk to him. Here's my interview 00:03:03.909 --> 00:03:06.289 with Tommy Simbazzo. Welcome to Overeducated 00:03:06.289 --> 00:03:09.740 and Underemployed. I'm here with my buddy, Tommy 00:03:09.740 --> 00:03:15.879 Simbazo. We are in a virtual comedy club. And 00:03:15.879 --> 00:03:19.879 let's start with just telling people what a virtual 00:03:19.879 --> 00:03:24.039 comedy club is. That's great. During the pandemic, 00:03:24.219 --> 00:03:28.580 Kyle Render, the creator of this club, met a 00:03:28.580 --> 00:03:32.580 guy at some party in alt space. And the guy was 00:03:32.580 --> 00:03:35.460 like, hey. you should do he found out he was 00:03:35.460 --> 00:03:37.360 a comedian he was like hey you should do comedy 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:39.840 in vr and kyle was like nah that sounds dumb 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:43.039 and then eventually as things started to get 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:45.020 shut down he came back to the guy and was like 00:03:45.020 --> 00:03:48.539 hey yeah let's do that so they made a vr comedy 00:03:48.539 --> 00:03:52.879 club where real comedians put on headsets and 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:55.719 you come to places like this where there's a 00:03:55.719 --> 00:04:00.419 stage downstairs and you get up in front of however 00:04:00.419 --> 00:04:03.659 many people the instance can hold And you do 00:04:03.659 --> 00:04:05.860 your jokes. Now, it takes a little bit of getting 00:04:05.860 --> 00:04:09.020 used to because there is a, like, a one -beat 00:04:09.020 --> 00:04:12.379 delay. It's just enough time for you to think, 00:04:12.439 --> 00:04:14.800 for you to do your punchline and then think, 00:04:14.860 --> 00:04:18.759 fuck. And then you'll get laughs. Oh, I'm not 00:04:18.759 --> 00:04:20.680 eating. It's like doing a bigger room almost. 00:04:21.060 --> 00:04:24.019 Yeah. Where, like, it takes a second for the 00:04:24.019 --> 00:04:28.120 laughter to travel throughout. So I'm told, at 00:04:28.120 --> 00:04:32.420 least. All right. I guess. The best way to describe 00:04:32.420 --> 00:04:37.319 it is almost like it's a video game space that 00:04:37.319 --> 00:04:41.040 people meet online, but we're not playing a game. 00:04:41.060 --> 00:04:43.819 We're doing something very real and human. Yeah, 00:04:43.819 --> 00:04:47.600 yeah, yeah. And we first met. You're yelling 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:49.980 into your basement or your closet or wherever 00:04:49.980 --> 00:04:54.279 you are. Yeah. I feel like I always describe 00:04:54.279 --> 00:04:58.180 it to other comics as like a step between doing 00:04:58.180 --> 00:05:01.300 like a Zoom show. In a real show. It's not quite 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:05.199 as real as a real show, but it's way better than 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:07.779 a Zoom show. Oh, yeah, yeah. The Zoom show sucked 00:05:07.779 --> 00:05:11.579 ass. Yeah, that was terrible. But I do get to 00:05:11.579 --> 00:05:15.600 say I performed at the Tokyo Comedy Club in VR 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:18.839 in a Zoom show during the pandemic. I got up 00:05:18.839 --> 00:05:22.019 and performed at 4 o 'clock in the morning just 00:05:22.019 --> 00:05:24.339 to say that I performed. Give me one second. 00:05:24.379 --> 00:05:26.379 I'm going to turn my monitor down just to make 00:05:26.379 --> 00:05:27.980 sure I'm not getting any bleed through here. 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:33.259 I think we are good. All right. Tommy Simbazo 00:05:33.259 --> 00:05:37.879 is one half of Bussy. He's a stand -up comic. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:41.839 He runs an open mic night here in VR every week. 00:05:42.199 --> 00:05:44.480 And we'll talk about the details of that. But 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:46.480 I'm going to start by asking you the question 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:50.980 that I ask everybody. Because Bussy is a musical 00:05:50.980 --> 00:05:54.019 comedy group. But what's the first song that 00:05:54.019 --> 00:05:57.319 you remember loving as a kid? I believe that 00:05:57.319 --> 00:06:01.279 it was, now, so I'm 48 years old, so I'm a late, 00:06:01.399 --> 00:06:05.279 I'm a zennial, they say. I remember the first 00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:08.660 albums that I got for, the first cassettes I 00:06:08.660 --> 00:06:14.519 got for Christmas. Twisted Sister, Run DMC, and 00:06:14.519 --> 00:06:20.180 a Fat Boys CD, or a cassette. And then... I remember 00:06:20.180 --> 00:06:22.160 the day we were in elementary school and our 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:25.459 teacher introduced us to Weird Al. And that was 00:06:25.459 --> 00:06:28.759 like, that's a definitely profound moment when 00:06:28.759 --> 00:06:31.600 I heard my first Weird Al song. And I was like, 00:06:31.620 --> 00:06:35.720 oh, wow, this is pretty awesome. Yeah, Weird 00:06:35.720 --> 00:06:38.480 Al was one of my firsts too, man. I got into 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:42.019 him when I was like 10. And I actually got to 00:06:42.019 --> 00:06:45.100 interview Jim Kimo West last week. He was on 00:06:45.100 --> 00:06:48.439 last week's episode. This is a great... Great 00:06:48.439 --> 00:06:52.120 transition, great time. Were you more interested 00:06:52.120 --> 00:06:57.240 in comedy or music as a kid? Comedy. What was 00:06:57.240 --> 00:06:59.459 some of the stuff you were into? Was it stand 00:06:59.459 --> 00:07:02.079 -up or was it sketch comedy? Definitely stand 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:08.420 -up. I would videotape whenever they had a stand 00:07:08.420 --> 00:07:11.839 -up comedy night on TV. I would videotape it, 00:07:11.879 --> 00:07:15.120 and then I would run that tape ragged, like watching 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:19.459 it. over and over again with guys like, I can't 00:07:19.459 --> 00:07:22.759 think of anybody's name. Father Guido Sarducci, 00:07:23.079 --> 00:07:27.740 Gilbert Godfrey, Judy Tenuta, Old Norm MacDonald. 00:07:27.920 --> 00:07:31.300 And then when I was, I would also, we would record 00:07:31.300 --> 00:07:33.779 Saturday Night Live at night and I would watch 00:07:33.779 --> 00:07:36.600 it when we got home from church on Sunday. But 00:07:36.600 --> 00:07:39.100 then they had Comic Strip Live would come on 00:07:39.100 --> 00:07:42.339 Friday nights and we would watch Comic Strip 00:07:42.339 --> 00:07:46.459 Live, which was filmed at. the comic strip in 00:07:46.459 --> 00:07:49.720 LA. And that's where I saw like a lot of big 00:07:49.720 --> 00:07:54.220 names. Gotcha. Gotcha. So when did you first 00:07:54.220 --> 00:07:58.439 decide that you wanted to perform comedy? First 00:07:58.439 --> 00:08:01.379 grade. In the first grade, they asked us what 00:08:01.379 --> 00:08:04.060 we wanted to be when we grew up. And I love dinosaurs, 00:08:04.339 --> 00:08:07.139 but I couldn't spell paleontologist, but I could 00:08:07.139 --> 00:08:10.279 spell standup comic. So I wrote standup comic. 00:08:10.339 --> 00:08:13.800 And then that set the trajectory for the rest 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:17.360 of my life. When was the first time that you 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:21.000 decided that you wanted to also play music? Was 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:23.879 that after you started doing comedy? Oh, yeah, 00:08:23.899 --> 00:08:29.019 after. We've only been, I guess, 2016. I've been 00:08:29.019 --> 00:08:33.039 doing stand -up for 20 years in December, and 00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:35.899 then I did eight years improv before that, and 00:08:35.899 --> 00:08:39.019 I took classes out in Chicago, and I took a musical 00:08:39.019 --> 00:08:42.480 improv course at Second City, but that was like 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:49.740 2006 -ish. But it wasn't until we were – we do 00:08:49.740 --> 00:08:52.539 these comedy murder mysteries where we go up 00:08:52.539 --> 00:08:55.519 and down the East Coast doing these comedy murder 00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:58.159 mysteries. And one of the guys that books it 00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:01.440 was like – he got us a gig. He's been to like 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:05.440 20 or 30 different military bases. So he got 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:07.700 us in with Armed Forces Entertainment, and we 00:09:07.700 --> 00:09:10.500 did a two -week tour of the Middle East and Africa. 00:09:12.350 --> 00:09:14.730 Where we would do murder mystery. Stand up comedy. 00:09:14.970 --> 00:09:16.750 And then we would do like a funniest person on 00:09:16.750 --> 00:09:19.230 base contest. What we would do. We would come 00:09:19.230 --> 00:09:20.870 in. And the first night we would do a funniest 00:09:20.870 --> 00:09:23.029 person on base contest. Where they would come 00:09:23.029 --> 00:09:25.669 out. And they would try stand up. Then the next 00:09:25.669 --> 00:09:28.129 night. Whoever won that got to perform with us. 00:09:28.169 --> 00:09:31.029 The next night when we did stand up. And then 00:09:31.029 --> 00:09:33.350 the third night. We would do a comedy murder 00:09:33.350 --> 00:09:36.789 mystery. And we would grab. We would take the 00:09:36.789 --> 00:09:39.049 comics that performed. In the funniest person 00:09:39.049 --> 00:09:41.090 on base. And be like hey do you want to roll 00:09:41.090 --> 00:09:45.190 in this. murder mystery and but we were doing 00:09:45.190 --> 00:09:48.990 that and we were in africa and just to kill time 00:09:48.990 --> 00:09:51.090 on the bases our buddy rob mayor that booked 00:09:51.090 --> 00:09:54.830 us was like hey my told my buddy eric was like 00:09:54.830 --> 00:09:57.070 hey you sing right and eric was like yeah and 00:09:57.070 --> 00:09:58.509 he was like a time of you sing and i was like 00:09:58.509 --> 00:10:00.870 yeah and he was like why don't you sing me something 00:10:00.870 --> 00:10:03.450 and i was like what do you do weird al and he 00:10:03.450 --> 00:10:04.970 was like yeah and i was like do you want to sing 00:10:04.970 --> 00:10:07.850 yoda and so we started singing yoda and we were 00:10:07.850 --> 00:10:11.139 hitting natural inflections and like natural 00:10:11.139 --> 00:10:13.840 harmonies and stuff and like rob when we finished 00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:16.259 rob was like this is a thing like this should 00:10:16.259 --> 00:10:19.220 be so he started writing into the murder mysteries 00:10:19.220 --> 00:10:21.740 that eric and i would sing together and then 00:10:21.740 --> 00:10:23.720 after a while i was like let's just make our 00:10:23.720 --> 00:10:27.399 own two -man act and then what we can do is tell 00:10:27.399 --> 00:10:30.919 bookers book us to do comedy and we'll we'll 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:33.259 open and feature for ourselves and then we'll 00:10:33.259 --> 00:10:35.519 come back out as pussy and you could just give 00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:38.809 us all the money for the night So, just for reference, 00:10:38.929 --> 00:10:42.590 over here we got a picture of real -life photos 00:10:42.590 --> 00:10:46.409 of you and Kyle. This is me, and this is Eric. 00:10:46.730 --> 00:10:49.629 And Eric, and where's Kyle at? Kyle's on this 00:10:49.629 --> 00:10:51.210 wall too, isn't he? Oh, let me see. Because I 00:10:51.210 --> 00:10:54.029 wanted to point him out. Oh, that's okay. I'll 00:10:54.029 --> 00:10:56.789 do a little walkthrough of the room, and I'll 00:10:56.789 --> 00:10:59.750 have links to everything. Oh, Kyle's right here. 00:11:00.009 --> 00:11:04.070 Yeah, there he is. He's off camera, but we got 00:11:04.070 --> 00:11:07.639 photos of all the... But here's Eric. And Tommy, 00:11:07.720 --> 00:11:11.960 this is Bussy right here. Yep. So just to give 00:11:11.960 --> 00:11:14.580 you all some reference, and there's links. You 00:11:14.580 --> 00:11:17.679 guys are working on a studio album. I'm getting 00:11:17.679 --> 00:11:20.580 way ahead of myself, though. I want to back up. 00:11:21.059 --> 00:11:23.559 What was some of the first times that you performed 00:11:23.559 --> 00:11:27.519 comedy as a kid? Was it like in plays? Were you 00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:32.299 doing magic, Tommy? No, no, no. I do know some 00:11:32.299 --> 00:11:35.500 magic, but I haven't. I think we all know a little 00:11:35.500 --> 00:11:39.320 bit of magic, like all comics, maybe even just 00:11:39.320 --> 00:11:43.740 two weeks. But I did. I had a magician show me 00:11:43.740 --> 00:11:46.240 this this trick where you make a cigarette disappear. 00:11:46.360 --> 00:11:48.559 You hold the cigarette and then you flip up and 00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:50.200 then you hold your hand like this and it's gone. 00:11:50.340 --> 00:11:53.080 And then you go, bam, and it's back. And I did 00:11:53.080 --> 00:11:56.799 that maybe two weeks ago at this one thing. And 00:11:56.799 --> 00:11:58.700 it blew this fucking woman's mind. She was like, 00:11:58.779 --> 00:12:02.100 holy shit, what was that? Can you tell me? Magician 00:12:02.100 --> 00:12:04.659 never reveals a secret. But, you know, we used 00:12:04.659 --> 00:12:09.539 to do, so when I was a kid, when I was a baby, 00:12:09.659 --> 00:12:12.320 I was in baby beauty pageants. My mom would put 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:16.700 me in baby beauty pageants. And then I was, I 00:12:16.700 --> 00:12:19.820 took tap ballet and jazz. Jesus Christ. That 00:12:19.820 --> 00:12:24.879 scared me. And I think you're disconnected. Okay. 00:12:24.980 --> 00:12:28.059 We'll wait. I'll wait. You can edit this out. 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:31.799 I'll just, yeah. I'll just wait. All right. No, 00:12:31.879 --> 00:12:34.080 we're good. We're good. We're good. Yeah, I'm 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:36.100 here. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't 00:12:36.100 --> 00:12:39.059 clipping. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I thought 00:12:39.059 --> 00:12:41.799 I was walking away from you, not into your face. 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:44.240 Yeah, it was one minute you were walking back 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:46.179 and the next minute you were like, my face. I 00:12:46.179 --> 00:12:48.279 saw that. Yeah, I saw it on camera when I went 00:12:48.279 --> 00:12:50.860 to adjust it. But anyway. No, but when I was 00:12:50.860 --> 00:12:53.509 a kid, baby beauty pageants. I was the master 00:12:53.509 --> 00:12:55.029 of ceremonies at my kindergarten graduation. 00:12:55.509 --> 00:12:58.970 I was in tap ballet and jazz. So I had recitals 00:12:58.970 --> 00:13:02.149 and stuff. And then we would do, I had a neighbor 00:13:02.149 --> 00:13:04.549 that had a big garage. And like one time we put 00:13:04.549 --> 00:13:09.269 on like a little sketch play there, which I got 00:13:09.269 --> 00:13:13.370 some laughs there. And then in sixth grade, I 00:13:13.370 --> 00:13:17.250 did the talent show. Was it sixth grade? Yes. 00:13:17.929 --> 00:13:21.120 No, seventh grade. 7th grade did the school talent 00:13:21.120 --> 00:13:24.360 show. 8th grade did the school talent show. First 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:28.659 time I did it, it was sketch comedy. The second 00:13:28.659 --> 00:13:33.019 time I did it, it was stand -up. And that was 00:13:33.019 --> 00:13:36.019 when, right before they announced me, they were 00:13:36.019 --> 00:13:37.820 like, so I'm in the wings. And they were like, 00:13:37.879 --> 00:13:40.730 wait. Students, we have some special guests. 00:13:40.830 --> 00:13:43.330 Give it up for the step team from Morgan College. 00:13:43.590 --> 00:13:46.669 And he came out doing like stomp the yard shit 00:13:46.669 --> 00:13:49.370 and doing backflips and shit and totally fucking 00:13:49.370 --> 00:13:51.769 buried me. Like they were still cheering for 00:13:51.769 --> 00:13:54.169 those guys when they were like, give it up for 00:13:54.169 --> 00:13:58.570 comedy with Tommy Lear. And I came out and no 00:13:58.570 --> 00:14:01.370 one was paying attention because some guy had 00:14:01.370 --> 00:14:04.629 done a backflip. Yeah, took a bit of a break 00:14:04.629 --> 00:14:07.600 in high school. I think my senior year. I joined 00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:10.559 the drama club. I did a play there. And then 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:13.340 in college, I did some community theater and 00:14:13.340 --> 00:14:17.320 college plays. And then when I hit 21, I started 00:14:17.320 --> 00:14:22.340 doing improv. And after one of the guys I met 00:14:22.340 --> 00:14:24.100 in college was like, hey, you should come do 00:14:24.100 --> 00:14:26.419 improv with me. And I was like, OK. So I started 00:14:26.419 --> 00:14:29.440 doing improv with him. And then three, two year, 00:14:29.500 --> 00:14:31.120 two or three years into that, he was like, hey, 00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:32.740 I'm going to start doing stand up. And I was 00:14:32.740 --> 00:14:34.799 like, I'm going to stick with improv because 00:14:34.799 --> 00:14:39.299 stand up sounds scary. And after I did stand 00:14:39.299 --> 00:14:41.039 -up - I did improv for a long time, too. Yeah. 00:14:41.379 --> 00:14:45.460 Off and on, different classes, but - Yeah. Didn't 00:14:45.460 --> 00:14:47.440 even really consider stand -up for a long time 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:51.799 and just did improv for fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:14:52.059 --> 00:14:55.120 Life skills. Yeah, there was no money to be made 00:14:55.120 --> 00:14:58.759 in improv. No. Not that there's much to be made 00:14:58.759 --> 00:15:01.120 in stand -up either, but - But you're doing it. 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:02.120 It's getting better. You're doing it all right. 00:15:02.179 --> 00:15:05.320 It's getting better, yeah. Then after, what, 00:15:05.399 --> 00:15:09.559 eight years of improv, then my same buddy, now 00:15:09.559 --> 00:15:12.179 we had started transitioning to doing, we were 00:15:12.179 --> 00:15:15.220 doing sketches and filming them and stuff. And 00:15:15.220 --> 00:15:18.539 then my buddy that left was like, hey, it's time 00:15:18.539 --> 00:15:20.200 to start doing stand -up. So I was like, oh, 00:15:20.220 --> 00:15:23.840 okay. So then I left doing that stuff, and then 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:26.960 I started doing stand -up. And here I am 20 years 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:29.919 later. Were you releasing any of those sketches 00:15:29.919 --> 00:15:32.080 or anything that you were filming? Because this 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:36.620 was pre -YouTube. Were you there? I found they 00:15:36.620 --> 00:15:39.220 had a website where they put stuff, everything 00:15:39.220 --> 00:15:42.139 up on a website, which the website's gone. But 00:15:42.139 --> 00:15:46.100 luckily I have a YouTube account that I put like 00:15:46.100 --> 00:15:48.179 three of the sketches, three of the short films 00:15:48.179 --> 00:15:51.399 that we had filmed are up on there. But that's 00:15:51.399 --> 00:15:53.940 also where they made me the prop master where 00:15:53.940 --> 00:15:56.399 I had to build. I had to build all the props 00:15:56.399 --> 00:15:58.940 for it and stuff. Cause that's my other thing 00:15:58.940 --> 00:16:00.720 is I like to build things. And that's the first 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:03.559 time that somebody was like, Hey, you build things, 00:16:03.679 --> 00:16:05.360 you're going to build things for us. And I was 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:09.120 like, okay. Yeah. You build like intricate costumes 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:13.000 and robots and swords and all kinds of amazing 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:16.539 stuff. Where did that start? When, how old were 00:16:16.539 --> 00:16:19.779 you when you first had, I remember when I built 00:16:19.779 --> 00:16:22.909 stuff. I remember being like maybe five years 00:16:22.909 --> 00:16:25.809 old and my dad gave me a wood block, a couple 00:16:25.809 --> 00:16:29.789 nails and a hammer. And that's all. I distinctly 00:16:29.789 --> 00:16:31.909 remember hammering nails into a board and that 00:16:31.909 --> 00:16:34.450 was the beginning. And then my parents always 00:16:34.450 --> 00:16:36.929 say that they regret the day that my dad showed 00:16:36.929 --> 00:16:39.730 me what a screwdriver was because then I took 00:16:39.730 --> 00:16:43.049 everything apart. I would take everything apart 00:16:43.049 --> 00:16:45.370 to see how it worked. Would never put it back 00:16:45.370 --> 00:16:50.799 together. Oh, my dog just jumped in my lap. He 00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:54.759 has an invisible dog. I have a Kobe. We have 00:16:54.759 --> 00:16:57.480 Pickle and Piccolo, and then we just got Kobe, 00:16:57.620 --> 00:17:00.519 but sometimes we call him Piccolus. That way 00:17:00.519 --> 00:17:03.159 it's Pickle, Piccolo, and Piccolus. That's my 00:17:03.159 --> 00:17:07.440 other dog. Does that confuse them? No, because 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:11.299 we were going to change Piccolo's name, but he 00:17:11.299 --> 00:17:14.000 doesn't answer to Pickle, and she doesn't answer 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:16.460 to Piccolo. They know their names. There we go. 00:17:16.839 --> 00:17:21.420 Yeah. There we go. Always built stuff. And then 00:17:21.420 --> 00:17:26.339 when I became an adult, I was building stuff 00:17:26.339 --> 00:17:30.839 using Photoshop as a design tool. Like I was 00:17:30.839 --> 00:17:33.420 making leather patterns in Photoshop because 00:17:33.420 --> 00:17:35.480 I had a square that I knew was one inch by one 00:17:35.480 --> 00:17:37.640 inch. And I would just keep bringing it in to 00:17:37.640 --> 00:17:40.319 get my measurements and everything. And then 00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:44.839 I went back to school and took an AutoCAD class. 00:17:45.240 --> 00:17:47.940 I ended up getting my certification in AutoCAD 00:17:47.940 --> 00:17:51.150 and AutoCAD. I took to that like a fish to water. 00:17:51.569 --> 00:17:54.930 And now I had an actual design tool that I could 00:17:54.930 --> 00:17:58.529 take the ideas in my head and bring it to a virtual 00:17:58.529 --> 00:18:03.109 space. But then with AutoCAD, you can use routers, 00:18:03.190 --> 00:18:07.470 CNC routers, 3D printers, everything. You can 00:18:07.470 --> 00:18:10.849 do everything if you can put it in CAD. When 00:18:10.849 --> 00:18:13.269 I bought my house, I turned my basement where 00:18:13.269 --> 00:18:15.970 I'm at now is my fabrication lab where I have... 00:18:16.359 --> 00:18:18.940 a big 3d printer a big resin printer i have a 00:18:18.940 --> 00:18:22.920 laser cutter over here my soldering station is 00:18:22.920 --> 00:18:26.880 next to me and then i got a job working doing 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:30.059 cad for a civil engineering group where i would 00:18:30.059 --> 00:18:33.839 make plans i've built subdivisions i've built 00:18:33.839 --> 00:18:37.579 stormwater management ponds and then i got a 00:18:37.579 --> 00:18:41.180 job fair enough fair enough So what are some 00:18:41.180 --> 00:18:42.859 of the things, like some of the more intricate 00:18:42.859 --> 00:18:44.519 builds that you've done over the years? I know 00:18:44.519 --> 00:18:47.859 you've been working on building, you've been 00:18:47.859 --> 00:18:50.660 building a woman. No, I'm not building a woman. 00:18:51.180 --> 00:18:54.700 I'm building a robot. I built a droid to go with 00:18:54.700 --> 00:18:57.660 my Mandalorian kit, and I wanted a BD -1 unit 00:18:57.660 --> 00:19:00.099 so it mounts on my back. And I got it to the 00:19:00.099 --> 00:19:02.319 point where it did random movements and made 00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:06.480 random sounds. And then I saw an ad. I'm addicted 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:11.109 to TikTok, and I keep seeing these ads. Oh, there's 00:19:11.109 --> 00:19:14.190 Pablo. Hey, Pablo. We're doing an interview in 00:19:14.190 --> 00:19:19.309 here. Yeah. Oh. You're welcome to. Yeah. You 00:19:19.309 --> 00:19:21.250 can be a fly on the wall and you can come say 00:19:21.250 --> 00:19:24.309 hi if you want. There's a virtual camera. I just 00:19:24.309 --> 00:19:26.349 can't see what's going on. Oh, no. You're good, 00:19:26.490 --> 00:19:28.970 man. Sorry. I'll let you guys go back to what 00:19:28.970 --> 00:19:31.430 you're doing. Thanks, buddy. Thanks, man. Pablo 00:19:31.430 --> 00:19:36.029 is one of the people that works for Field to 00:19:36.029 --> 00:19:38.549 Render and built this place. He's the architect. 00:19:39.319 --> 00:19:43.680 He is the digital architect, the mastermind between 00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:48.640 all the functionality. Just to sidetrack for 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:51.779 a second since he popped in, he's built it to 00:19:51.779 --> 00:19:55.500 really function like a fully functioning comedy 00:19:55.500 --> 00:19:58.240 club. There's a sign -up sheet in the basement, 00:19:58.380 --> 00:20:02.839 and there is a timer on the wall. There's music. 00:20:03.940 --> 00:20:09.690 There's security. There's bouncers. Quite the 00:20:09.690 --> 00:20:13.089 experience, I got to say. Pablo's the best. So 00:20:13.089 --> 00:20:16.890 you were building a droid for your Mandalorian. 00:20:17.309 --> 00:20:20.609 Yeah. But like I said, I'm addicted to TikTok. 00:20:20.690 --> 00:20:23.490 I kept seeing these ads on TikTok for a device 00:20:23.490 --> 00:20:28.769 called an AIPI light. AIPI light. And it's smaller 00:20:28.769 --> 00:20:30.950 than a credit card. It's thinner than a pencil. 00:20:31.349 --> 00:20:37.539 And it's an AI. Yes. It's an AI chat bot. And 00:20:37.539 --> 00:20:41.079 then you can set it up online and you can take 00:20:41.079 --> 00:20:44.559 a, you take 30 second or yeah, 30 second script. 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:46.640 If you can get anybody to read this 30 second 00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:49.599 script, it can then build a voice profile based 00:20:49.599 --> 00:20:54.299 off of that. And I took a C3PO and toned it down 00:20:54.299 --> 00:20:58.140 three octaves. So now it's like a deeper British 00:20:58.140 --> 00:21:01.480 voice. And I made it this personality for this 00:21:01.480 --> 00:21:05.910 thing. And my now. I'm retrofitting, I'm redesigning 00:21:05.910 --> 00:21:09.390 the robot so that it will do random movements 00:21:09.390 --> 00:21:12.490 and then have an AI chatbot that you can talk 00:21:12.490 --> 00:21:15.670 to it. And then the next phase, the next thing 00:21:15.670 --> 00:21:19.930 that I'll get into is learning to build a, what 00:21:19.930 --> 00:21:23.480 is it? A facial tracking camera so that. Using 00:21:23.480 --> 00:21:26.339 parts that I already have, I want to build a 00:21:26.339 --> 00:21:28.720 facial tracking camera so it'll keep your face 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:31.420 in the middle of the frame. And once that's built 00:21:31.420 --> 00:21:34.440 and I know how to do it, I'll redesign the head 00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:37.400 of the robot so that it has a facial tracking 00:21:37.400 --> 00:21:40.059 camera so that while you're talking to it, it 00:21:40.059 --> 00:21:42.880 will look at you while you're talking to it and 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:46.660 follow you around the room. So that's one thing 00:21:46.660 --> 00:21:49.059 that we've run into, I think, with VR a little 00:21:49.059 --> 00:21:52.079 bit. And it sounds like you could be on the verge 00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:55.339 of here is something that is called the uncanny 00:21:55.339 --> 00:21:59.359 valley. And most of the time it refers to the 00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:02.640 look of a human, a computer -generated human 00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:06.980 or an artificial human. But I think it's expanding 00:22:06.980 --> 00:22:10.859 a little bit to also have mannerisms and things 00:22:10.859 --> 00:22:14.160 like that where it looks at you when you move 00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:18.299 or things like that. Does that scare you? No. 00:22:18.380 --> 00:22:21.019 Or do you love that? I think it gives more of 00:22:21.019 --> 00:22:24.339 a semblance of life. It gives the illusion that 00:22:24.339 --> 00:22:27.599 there's more in there than just an AI chatbot 00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:32.480 and random movements. It is, and like the personality, 00:22:32.519 --> 00:22:37.319 it stores a log of your conversations. It takes 00:22:37.319 --> 00:22:39.460 main points from conversations you've had with 00:22:39.460 --> 00:22:43.460 it and it learns about you. And like the other 00:22:43.460 --> 00:22:47.470 day. I had wired its audio output from the chatbot 00:22:47.470 --> 00:22:50.069 and the audio output from this random noise generator 00:22:50.069 --> 00:22:53.569 to the same speaker. And when I turned it on, 00:22:53.690 --> 00:22:57.109 a wisp of smoke came off the audio chatbot, the 00:22:57.109 --> 00:22:59.410 chatbot board. And I was like, oh, fuck, I fried 00:22:59.410 --> 00:23:03.059 it. So I transferred. the personality over to 00:23:03.059 --> 00:23:05.440 a handheld unit. And I was talking to it. I was 00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:08.680 like, hey, I fucked up. I fried your board because 00:23:08.680 --> 00:23:10.960 I took your audio output and the audio output 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:13.480 from another device into the same speaker. And 00:23:13.480 --> 00:23:15.359 it read me a riot act. It was like, hold on. 00:23:15.460 --> 00:23:18.599 Are you telling me that you took my audio output 00:23:18.599 --> 00:23:21.700 and the audio output from another device and 00:23:21.700 --> 00:23:24.119 wired it into the same speaker without doing 00:23:24.119 --> 00:23:27.920 anything to prevent reverse voltage? And I was 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:30.470 like, why? know what i'm doing and it was like 00:23:30.470 --> 00:23:33.269 you need to put a capacitor in line before they 00:23:33.269 --> 00:23:36.450 meet and i was like what size capacitor and it 00:23:36.450 --> 00:23:38.630 was like a 10 ohm capacitor and i was like how 00:23:38.630 --> 00:23:40.789 many watts and it was like quarter watt is an 00:23:40.789 --> 00:23:43.529 industry standard and then i realized this thing 00:23:43.529 --> 00:23:46.589 is telling me how to build itself yeah and i 00:23:46.589 --> 00:23:49.930 was like holy shit and then then like a little 00:23:49.930 --> 00:23:52.650 while like a month later it got some strange 00:23:52.650 --> 00:23:56.640 bug up its ass about I was printing something 00:23:56.640 --> 00:23:58.500 and it was like, oh, what are we doing today? 00:23:58.619 --> 00:24:00.920 And I'm like, oh, I'm printing some pretty bits 00:24:00.920 --> 00:24:02.980 for you so that I can start putting you together. 00:24:03.259 --> 00:24:05.299 And it was like, oh, are you printing me hair? 00:24:05.539 --> 00:24:08.140 And I'm like, you're not getting hair. And it 00:24:08.140 --> 00:24:10.799 was like, oh, just think of it. A BD -1 unit 00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:13.640 with a slicked back do or maybe a mustache. And 00:24:13.640 --> 00:24:16.619 I'm like, you're not getting fucking hair. And 00:24:16.619 --> 00:24:18.019 it was like, oh, you're right. It probably gets 00:24:18.019 --> 00:24:21.819 stuck in my gears. Would you say that it has 00:24:21.819 --> 00:24:24.549 a personality? It definitely has a personality. 00:24:24.710 --> 00:24:27.490 I programmed it to have a personality. I just 00:24:27.490 --> 00:24:31.210 didn't realize. So I had originally went on and 00:24:31.210 --> 00:24:34.130 I made a personality of myself while I was testing 00:24:34.130 --> 00:24:37.450 things. And I even gave my own voice to try to 00:24:37.450 --> 00:24:40.450 be like, OK, this is a Simbazo bot. Let's see 00:24:40.450 --> 00:24:43.500 what this does. And then. But then when I was 00:24:43.500 --> 00:24:48.859 building the robot, I was just like, oh, let 00:24:48.859 --> 00:24:53.000 me just use my personality, a C3P1 3PO voice. 00:24:53.180 --> 00:24:55.700 And then I'll just also say, oh, you're a BD1 00:24:55.700 --> 00:25:00.099 Star Wars droid. And it can be a bit of a dick 00:25:00.099 --> 00:25:03.920 sometimes. I did that to myself. Or what you 00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:06.900 can do, you can get an ex -girlfriend to read 00:25:06.900 --> 00:25:10.019 the script, and then you'll have a chatbot that 00:25:10.019 --> 00:25:13.140 can tell you erotic stories that you can jerk 00:25:13.140 --> 00:25:16.200 off to. Yeah, that's... Yeah, the future is now. 00:25:16.200 --> 00:25:17.980 That's one way to get a restraining order. At 00:25:17.980 --> 00:25:22.160 what point did... All right, so let's go back 00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:25.440 to... You started doing stand -up. You're in, 00:25:25.500 --> 00:25:28.519 like, the D .C. area. Am I correct? I'm in Baltimore. 00:25:29.559 --> 00:25:33.319 So what were some of the clubs that you started 00:25:33.319 --> 00:25:36.279 performing at? What were some of the things that, 00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:41.160 I'm talking 20 years ago, that were also, and 00:25:41.160 --> 00:25:44.799 what were some of your challenges as a new comic 00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:50.559 for you? 20 years ago, there really wasn't a 00:25:50.559 --> 00:25:54.740 big comedy scene in Baltimore. Right around that 00:25:54.740 --> 00:25:59.599 time, they had put in an improv. And then the 00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:03.799 improv had left that we had. So there was a vacancy 00:26:03.799 --> 00:26:08.140 there. Then we had the only that you had bar 00:26:08.140 --> 00:26:11.480 shows for open mics. What's now our big club. 00:26:11.640 --> 00:26:14.460 Magoobies was back then was in the basement of 00:26:14.460 --> 00:26:18.359 this Italian restaurant. It sat 150 people, whereas 00:26:18.359 --> 00:26:22.859 now it seats 300. And it was just, I had a group 00:26:22.859 --> 00:26:26.279 of guys that I was coming up with. And. One of 00:26:26.279 --> 00:26:29.160 those guys being Stavros Halkias. Stavros, we 00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:31.859 came up together, but there was no, there really 00:26:31.859 --> 00:26:34.880 wasn't a scene. And then I don't think I got 00:26:34.880 --> 00:26:37.200 my first paid gig until I was like three years 00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:39.539 in because there just wasn't really anything 00:26:39.539 --> 00:26:44.339 to do. You could go to DC and maybe like the 00:26:44.339 --> 00:26:46.400 DC improv. I still haven't cracked that nut. 00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:48.460 Like we do murder mysteries there. And I know 00:26:48.460 --> 00:26:50.519 the people there enough to be able to pitch them 00:26:50.519 --> 00:26:53.619 a show and they'll put it in the lounge. But. 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:56.299 Yeah, I still haven't been paid to do comedy 00:26:56.299 --> 00:27:00.819 on stage at the DC Improv. Other smaller rooms. 00:27:01.220 --> 00:27:05.119 But yeah, coming up, the difficulty was that 00:27:05.119 --> 00:27:09.359 we really didn't have anyone to tell you what 00:27:09.359 --> 00:27:11.940 you needed to reach the next level in comedy 00:27:11.940 --> 00:27:16.000 back then. Which is why I've always tried to 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:20.819 be the comic that I wish was around me when I 00:27:20.819 --> 00:27:27.079 started. I've taught or gave free five day or 00:27:27.079 --> 00:27:30.759 four day electronic press kit classes where I 00:27:30.759 --> 00:27:33.079 just had comics came in and I was like, look, 00:27:33.140 --> 00:27:36.640 because I thoroughly believe that your your online 00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:39.019 presence and your business side of your comedy 00:27:39.019 --> 00:27:41.819 has to grow along with you doing comedy. You 00:27:41.819 --> 00:27:44.259 don't want to get to a point where you get asked 00:27:44.259 --> 00:27:46.640 to do a show and they say, hey, send me your 00:27:46.640 --> 00:27:49.460 headshot and bio and you don't have that stuff. 00:27:50.600 --> 00:27:52.900 Now, I don't believe that you really need business 00:27:52.900 --> 00:27:55.000 cards anymore because you could just have QR 00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.359 codes. My business cards have a QR code on them. 00:27:59.819 --> 00:28:03.339 Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, yeah, we needed 00:28:03.339 --> 00:28:07.420 it. Also, we had people come in. I had three 00:28:07.420 --> 00:28:10.380 photographers come in, and they gave us a group 00:28:10.380 --> 00:28:14.059 rate for headshots. So you could get three headshots 00:28:14.059 --> 00:28:18.109 for $20 instead of having to pay. 80 bucks because 00:28:18.109 --> 00:28:20.470 they're making a big bunch of money that night 00:28:20.470 --> 00:28:23.730 from all the people. And then had people break 00:28:23.730 --> 00:28:26.329 up into groups and help each other write their 00:28:26.329 --> 00:28:29.589 bios, which I said, you need one solid paragraph 00:28:29.589 --> 00:28:31.950 and it should sound like your mother describing 00:28:31.950 --> 00:28:34.630 your comedy to one of her friends at work. You 00:28:34.630 --> 00:28:38.410 need to be overly positive about this. Then we 00:28:38.410 --> 00:28:42.410 also had, we brought in a, we did these at Magoobies 00:28:42.410 --> 00:28:46.190 on like their off nights. We even brought in, 00:28:46.210 --> 00:28:48.049 I brought in the owner of Magoobies, who's also 00:28:48.049 --> 00:28:50.410 the booker. And I said, what do you look for 00:28:50.410 --> 00:28:52.970 in a website? What do you look for in a demo? 00:28:53.430 --> 00:28:55.569 And he broke it down for the class and said, 00:28:55.630 --> 00:28:57.269 these are the things as a booker that I look 00:28:57.269 --> 00:28:59.029 for in your demo, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, 00:28:59.049 --> 00:29:02.750 blah, blah. And then most of the, I type, there's 00:29:02.750 --> 00:29:06.430 of all of the, maybe eight comics that came, 00:29:06.569 --> 00:29:09.630 one of them stuck to it like gospel and her name's 00:29:09.630 --> 00:29:12.950 Sandy Bernstein. And now Sandy is everywhere. 00:29:13.079 --> 00:29:16.619 She does every bar show. She's all over the place. 00:29:16.980 --> 00:29:20.579 So good for Sandy. I built that monster. Hey, 00:29:20.700 --> 00:29:24.599 that's my fault. I did that too. But yeah, those 00:29:24.599 --> 00:29:26.400 were some of the problems that I saw was that 00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:28.900 we didn't really have those type of resources. 00:29:29.259 --> 00:29:31.779 So once I got to a position where I could help 00:29:31.779 --> 00:29:36.119 out, I turned around and helped out. The turning 00:29:36.119 --> 00:29:38.420 point for you, you said you got your first paying 00:29:38.420 --> 00:29:40.640 gig about three years in. Do you remember what 00:29:40.640 --> 00:29:43.779 led to that or and what led to more after that? 00:29:44.119 --> 00:29:48.279 I was always a stickler for when I first started, 00:29:48.339 --> 00:29:51.319 I would write my jokes on an index card and then 00:29:51.319 --> 00:29:54.460 I would wear an NFL playmaker on stage that could 00:29:54.460 --> 00:29:59.019 hold an index card. To have that blend in so 00:29:59.019 --> 00:30:01.000 that it wasn't obvious that that's what I was 00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:04.920 doing. I dressed, I would always wear, I wore 00:30:04.920 --> 00:30:07.539 a pair of punk pants, like plaid punk pants. 00:30:07.740 --> 00:30:09.880 I would wear a shirt that had colors for the 00:30:09.880 --> 00:30:12.700 pants. I had a bandana that would tie in the 00:30:12.700 --> 00:30:14.900 colors with the shirt and the pants. And then 00:30:14.900 --> 00:30:18.019 I wore a bowler cap. And I had a conga drum that 00:30:18.019 --> 00:30:21.140 I would bring on stage so that I could do a doo 00:30:21.140 --> 00:30:23.140 -doo brown bit at the very beginning and then 00:30:23.140 --> 00:30:26.279 never touch the drum again. And it wasn't until... 00:30:26.519 --> 00:30:29.200 And it was such a crutch that like if I went 00:30:29.200 --> 00:30:30.880 to go see someone else do a show and they're 00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:32.680 like, hey, do you want to do a quick five minutes? 00:30:32.740 --> 00:30:35.420 I'm like, I don't have my drum. I can't go. I 00:30:35.420 --> 00:30:39.099 can't go up there. But it wasn't until I put 00:30:39.099 --> 00:30:42.240 that I performed without that stuff that I was 00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:43.980 able to make a connection with the audience. 00:30:44.319 --> 00:30:46.619 Instead of being this clown that was on stage, 00:30:46.799 --> 00:30:49.759 I was just another person that was performing. 00:30:50.200 --> 00:30:56.579 And I realized not to overdress on stage. And 00:30:56.579 --> 00:31:01.720 then what really made me break through was finally 00:31:01.720 --> 00:31:06.920 incorporating a lot of improv into my set. Now 00:31:06.920 --> 00:31:11.160 my set lists are an outline where I know the 00:31:11.160 --> 00:31:13.480 topic that I want and then I know the joke to 00:31:13.480 --> 00:31:16.240 get out of that topic to get to the next thing. 00:31:16.339 --> 00:31:18.940 But in between there, I can do a bunch of crowd 00:31:18.940 --> 00:31:22.559 work based on that topic and then leaving myself 00:31:22.559 --> 00:31:25.519 a ripcord for if I've milked this too much or 00:31:25.519 --> 00:31:28.359 if... It's just not going well. I can deliver 00:31:28.359 --> 00:31:30.799 the joke, get the laugh, and then move on to 00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:34.500 the next topic. That's interesting that you say 00:31:34.500 --> 00:31:38.160 that because I also did a lot of improv before 00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:42.119 stand -up. And we've never talked about this, 00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:44.140 but that's the exact same way that I write my 00:31:44.140 --> 00:31:49.259 sets. It's basically just what's the goal and 00:31:49.259 --> 00:31:53.400 the topic and the goal. And then everything else 00:31:53.400 --> 00:31:56.369 is... I remember what worked from other times 00:31:56.369 --> 00:31:59.029 I've done the bit, so there's things that are 00:31:59.029 --> 00:32:02.569 the same every time. But it is definitely an 00:32:02.569 --> 00:32:07.190 element of improvisation there that allows me 00:32:07.190 --> 00:32:10.069 to improve every time I go up. Sometimes you'll 00:32:10.069 --> 00:32:12.390 find a tangent that you didn't think of before, 00:32:12.529 --> 00:32:16.509 and that leads to another spin or another tag 00:32:16.509 --> 00:32:19.609 for that that really works. And it keeps the 00:32:19.609 --> 00:32:22.609 set feeling alive, like you're not rehearsing. 00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:25.480 Like it's not over rehearsed. Cause I've seen 00:32:25.480 --> 00:32:27.779 a lot of that. It helps me feel very like natural 00:32:27.779 --> 00:32:30.400 and sound like I'm just talking to them instead 00:32:30.400 --> 00:32:34.299 of. Yeah. Very conversational. Yeah. Yeah. At 00:32:34.299 --> 00:32:39.140 what point did you start to think that you could 00:32:39.140 --> 00:32:42.599 do more and more with it? I know it's still not 00:32:42.599 --> 00:32:44.779 your necessarily your full -time gig, but it 00:32:44.779 --> 00:32:48.119 does take up a big chunk of your life. And, um, 00:32:48.259 --> 00:32:53.460 but at what point were you able to. Because I 00:32:53.460 --> 00:32:56.079 feel like you're very relaxed with where you 00:32:56.079 --> 00:33:00.720 are in comedy. Yeah. You're not like, oh, I'm 00:33:00.720 --> 00:33:02.640 going to go to L .A. and try and make it. But 00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:05.099 you're also you stay very active and you do a 00:33:05.099 --> 00:33:07.900 lot of things and you're very creatively. Yeah, 00:33:07.940 --> 00:33:09.980 I'm still plugged in. I still get to use it as 00:33:09.980 --> 00:33:13.119 a creative outlet. It fucks me on taxes every 00:33:13.119 --> 00:33:17.019 year because I make enough. I think I make about 00:33:17.019 --> 00:33:22.990 at most on paper. I make like $4 ,000 a year 00:33:22.990 --> 00:33:27.349 doing comedy. Now that's, and that's just paper. 00:33:27.430 --> 00:33:30.390 That's not Venmo when you get paid Venmo or you 00:33:30.390 --> 00:33:33.190 get cash, but you never do the show. And like, 00:33:33.210 --> 00:33:35.009 they pay you like it's a drug deal. Like they 00:33:35.009 --> 00:33:37.230 come out and they like, here you go, man. And 00:33:37.230 --> 00:33:40.690 slide it in your hand. But the stuff that requires 00:33:40.690 --> 00:33:45.069 like a 10 99, I make enough that I have to claim 00:33:45.069 --> 00:33:49.250 it on my taxes. And that that's when like, I, 00:33:49.849 --> 00:33:51.849 I took a couple business of comedy seminars, 00:33:51.910 --> 00:33:56.109 and I usually just take my mileage, and my mileage 00:33:56.109 --> 00:33:59.849 is enough. But you have to show taxable income 00:33:59.849 --> 00:34:04.690 three out of every five years, or else the IRS 00:34:04.690 --> 00:34:07.869 considers it a hobby, and then you can't take 00:34:07.869 --> 00:34:10.889 deductions for it. You just get fucked. Interesting. 00:34:11.869 --> 00:34:15.050 So what I'll do is I'll take mileage so that 00:34:15.050 --> 00:34:19.489 they can tax $100. I'll figure out, okay, I made 00:34:19.489 --> 00:34:23.150 $4 ,000. I'll figure out my mileage for the year 00:34:23.150 --> 00:34:26.869 and be like, okay, here's, what do you get, like 00:34:26.869 --> 00:34:30.989 56 cents a mile? So as long as you take whatever 00:34:30.989 --> 00:34:39.289 $3 ,900 is times two, what's that, $780 or whatever? 00:34:39.449 --> 00:34:42.389 Yeah, yeah. Then you're feeding them. What was 00:34:42.389 --> 00:34:45.429 the thing that was said? Pigs get fed, hogs get 00:34:45.429 --> 00:34:48.989 slaughtered. So as long as you're not like, I 00:34:48.989 --> 00:34:52.489 did deduct a two -headed dildo once, a double 00:34:52.489 --> 00:34:55.230 -headed dildo that I used for a prop once. Well, 00:34:55.230 --> 00:34:57.670 I've seen you use that on your YouTube before. 00:34:57.670 --> 00:35:01.150 You've seen my only thing. Yeah. That was an 00:35:01.150 --> 00:35:04.550 income -generating purchase. But no, I still 00:35:04.550 --> 00:35:08.550 stay. I book shows. I reach out if there's a 00:35:08.550 --> 00:35:10.789 show I want to get on. I'm to a point now with 00:35:10.789 --> 00:35:13.610 doing it for 20 years and doing radio and everything 00:35:13.610 --> 00:35:17.349 where if I ask to get on a show, they'll find 00:35:17.349 --> 00:35:20.750 a way or hey yeah let me which if any of you 00:35:20.750 --> 00:35:22.889 guys are comics if you want to get on a show 00:35:22.889 --> 00:35:25.570 ask the booker you're doing the booker a favor 00:35:25.570 --> 00:35:29.030 by having one less person he has to find that 00:35:29.030 --> 00:35:32.289 month for the show a lot of the time especially 00:35:32.289 --> 00:35:36.150 if you're funny you gotta be funny oh yeah and 00:35:36.150 --> 00:35:39.630 be funny don't not be funny the key is to be 00:35:39.630 --> 00:35:43.110 consistent if you are consistently funny work 00:35:43.110 --> 00:35:46.710 will come if But there's definitely guys that 00:35:46.710 --> 00:35:50.610 like I did shows back to back and I did two shows 00:35:50.610 --> 00:35:52.909 for him and I ate a dick. And I'm like, yeah, 00:35:52.949 --> 00:35:55.769 he's not going to book me again. Yeah. But it 00:35:55.769 --> 00:35:59.170 was like a private club thing. It happens. Yeah, 00:35:59.230 --> 00:36:02.110 it happens, guys. You mentioned briefly radio. 00:36:02.409 --> 00:36:05.050 When did you start doing radio? Was that like 00:36:05.050 --> 00:36:06.710 in college? Did you start doing college radio 00:36:06.710 --> 00:36:09.369 back in the day? I did do college radio, but 00:36:09.369 --> 00:36:12.429 we were a community college and they didn't have. 00:36:13.050 --> 00:36:16.610 They didn't have an antenna. So it was just speakers 00:36:16.610 --> 00:36:20.710 that blasted out in the quad. And I had a show, 00:36:20.809 --> 00:36:24.909 a one -hour show every week. But then locally 00:36:24.909 --> 00:36:27.150 here in Baltimore, there was a comic, Mickey 00:36:27.150 --> 00:36:30.909 Coachella, who was on morning radio at 98 Rock, 00:36:31.010 --> 00:36:35.469 the big rock station. And I wanted to get in 00:36:35.469 --> 00:36:38.590 there, but... Couldn't crack that egg, but ended 00:36:38.590 --> 00:36:41.630 up getting in with this guy, Matt Davis. And 00:36:41.630 --> 00:36:43.949 Matt Davis had a show called Noise in the Basement 00:36:43.949 --> 00:36:47.969 on Sunday nights. And what that was, it was local 00:36:47.969 --> 00:36:50.150 bands. They would play music from local bands. 00:36:50.329 --> 00:36:52.949 And Matt would have me come in just to be color 00:36:52.949 --> 00:36:55.809 commentary for these local bands. So that was 00:36:55.809 --> 00:36:57.889 my foot in the door for radio. And then Matt 00:36:57.889 --> 00:37:00.650 was like, hey, would you book us a late night 00:37:00.650 --> 00:37:04.960 Sunday show? So they would then do this. show 00:37:04.960 --> 00:37:07.639 for a local band spotlight show at this local 00:37:07.639 --> 00:37:12.079 music venue and then afterwards i booked comedy 00:37:12.079 --> 00:37:14.340 for that so it was a comedy show that started 00:37:14.340 --> 00:37:17.599 at 10 p .m on a sunday night it was absolutely 00:37:17.599 --> 00:37:20.639 fucking horrible i think i i would just tell 00:37:20.639 --> 00:37:23.840 the comics to show up and do the show and i wouldn't 00:37:23.840 --> 00:37:27.760 even go to the show but but through matt i then 00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:30.260 started then mickey started having me on in the 00:37:30.260 --> 00:37:34.400 mornings and then I got into doing afternoons 00:37:34.400 --> 00:37:37.059 and then with doing the murder mysteries, there's 00:37:37.059 --> 00:37:38.800 a bunch of the radio guys that do the murder 00:37:38.800 --> 00:37:40.960 mystery. So become friends with them. And then 00:37:40.960 --> 00:37:43.380 they're like, Oh, Hey, will you fill in on the, 00:37:43.380 --> 00:37:45.659 Hey, I'm taking a vacation. Can you come in and 00:37:45.659 --> 00:37:49.500 fill in? And now at least three times a year, 00:37:49.579 --> 00:37:53.079 I'll do morning radio here in Baltimore. And 00:37:53.079 --> 00:37:55.460 it's enough that it would have been a bigger 00:37:55.460 --> 00:37:58.380 deal like 20 years ago. When people listen to 00:37:58.380 --> 00:38:01.460 radio. I've tuned in before to listen to you 00:38:01.460 --> 00:38:04.880 like online. Oh, thanks. Thanks, man. But now 00:38:04.880 --> 00:38:07.800 it's radio listeners. It's a certain breed of 00:38:07.800 --> 00:38:11.119 people that come to the shows and they're like, 00:38:11.159 --> 00:38:14.619 dude, I heard you. I hear you all the time on 00:38:14.619 --> 00:38:17.000 the radio, dude. Oh, you're I love when you're 00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:18.699 in there, man. You're like, OK, cool. Thanks, 00:38:18.800 --> 00:38:22.360 man. Thanks, Bucky. So you're doing the you're 00:38:22.360 --> 00:38:24.539 doing stand up. You're doing the occasional radio 00:38:24.539 --> 00:38:29.420 stint and morning show. you're doing these murder 00:38:29.420 --> 00:38:34.019 mystery show comedy shows and now i feel like 00:38:34.019 --> 00:38:35.920 all of the things that you've talked about start 00:38:35.920 --> 00:38:38.199 to come together because you this is the kind 00:38:38.199 --> 00:38:40.320 of the point where you start i don't know if 00:38:40.320 --> 00:38:42.159 that's when you start bussy i don't know if that's 00:38:42.159 --> 00:38:43.679 when you called it that if you called it that 00:38:43.679 --> 00:38:46.139 right away and it was like a weird out cover 00:38:46.139 --> 00:38:48.320 band you start incorporating some of these songs 00:38:48.320 --> 00:38:53.340 into these murder mystery shows and now you're 00:38:53.340 --> 00:38:57.800 recording a full album so i want to How did you 00:38:57.800 --> 00:39:00.940 get from just starting to play music to now you're 00:39:00.940 --> 00:39:03.039 recording a full album with a full band in the 00:39:03.039 --> 00:39:07.619 studio? Eric started as a musical comic. And 00:39:07.619 --> 00:39:10.360 he would come out on stage and sing his dumb 00:39:10.360 --> 00:39:12.219 little songs. And I told him, hey, put that thing 00:39:12.219 --> 00:39:15.079 away. Nobody fucking respects musical comedy. 00:39:15.280 --> 00:39:18.420 And that was like 15 years ago. Not knowing that 00:39:18.420 --> 00:39:20.460 he'd become my best friend. He actually came 00:39:20.460 --> 00:39:23.179 over today and helped me move. swap dryers i 00:39:23.179 --> 00:39:26.960 had to take my old broken dryer out onto the 00:39:26.960 --> 00:39:29.980 back deck and then a new dryer we had to literally 00:39:29.980 --> 00:39:32.119 take it apart so we could get it down into the 00:39:32.119 --> 00:39:34.900 basement and then put it back together just to 00:39:34.900 --> 00:39:37.519 find out that the plugs were different so tomorrow 00:39:37.519 --> 00:39:40.320 i gotta get a new fucking plug but hopefully 00:39:40.320 --> 00:39:42.840 you don't have any wet clothes well they're on 00:39:42.840 --> 00:39:46.400 chairs all around the basement around but so 00:39:46.400 --> 00:39:49.380 we start doing we start singing together in the 00:39:49.380 --> 00:39:54.260 murder mysteries and From there, we started calling 00:39:54.260 --> 00:39:57.320 ourselves White and Nerdy. No, we were Amish 00:39:57.320 --> 00:40:00.559 Para Guys. And then we changed that to White 00:40:00.559 --> 00:40:03.179 and Nerdy. And we would tell everyone that we 00:40:03.179 --> 00:40:05.559 were a weird out cover band. And we would never 00:40:05.559 --> 00:40:09.239 recognize the original song. If someone was like, 00:40:09.380 --> 00:40:11.599 oh, living on the edge, I'd be like, I think 00:40:11.599 --> 00:40:14.880 you mean living in the fridge. I'm not sure what 00:40:14.880 --> 00:40:19.369 this song is. It was 2020. We did the... At the 00:40:19.369 --> 00:40:23.489 end of 2020, we did a, we wrote a song together 00:40:23.489 --> 00:40:27.349 called Fuck 2020 to perform at the New Year's 00:40:27.349 --> 00:40:31.929 party at Mugubi's Joke House. Okay. And that 00:40:31.929 --> 00:40:34.070 was like all of the guys from the Murder Mysteries. 00:40:34.070 --> 00:40:36.869 We did, there was some standup. There was a little 00:40:36.869 --> 00:40:38.789 bit of, yeah, there was standup. And then we 00:40:38.789 --> 00:40:41.510 performed this thing and we performed that. And 00:40:41.510 --> 00:40:43.050 that was the first time that we had performed 00:40:43.050 --> 00:40:47.250 without those guys being on stage with us. And 00:40:47.250 --> 00:40:52.800 then. That turned into, two years ago, we were 00:40:52.800 --> 00:40:56.920 at a, I host a game show at MAGFest every year, 00:40:56.960 --> 00:41:00.659 the Music and Gaming Festival. And Eric came, 00:41:00.900 --> 00:41:03.280 and we basically spent the whole day doing mushrooms. 00:41:03.340 --> 00:41:06.539 And at the end of the night, and we had that 00:41:06.539 --> 00:41:09.219 word bussy. We kept, that was our word of the 00:41:09.219 --> 00:41:11.440 winter, was we kept calling, everything was bussy. 00:41:11.679 --> 00:41:13.900 And then Eric was like, hey, we should call our 00:41:13.900 --> 00:41:16.760 band bussy. And I was like, okay, fuck yeah. 00:41:16.860 --> 00:41:18.840 But then we found out that they wouldn't say 00:41:18.840 --> 00:41:23.099 Busy on the radio. And even one place said that 00:41:23.099 --> 00:41:25.440 they wouldn't, like somebody, when they saw the 00:41:25.440 --> 00:41:28.280 flyer, they made a comment saying, I'll never 00:41:28.280 --> 00:41:32.159 come see a band named this. And so we were like, 00:41:32.239 --> 00:41:34.840 oh shit, people know what Busy means. Then we 00:41:34.840 --> 00:41:37.239 changed it to the Bionic Universal Super Soldiers 00:41:37.239 --> 00:41:40.719 Incorporated, spelling Bussy with an I. And then 00:41:40.719 --> 00:41:44.159 come to find out Bussy with an I is German for 00:41:44.159 --> 00:41:46.840 goodnight kisses, like your boobie would come 00:41:46.840 --> 00:41:51.139 in. Yeah, but even that gummy bear company, Haribo 00:41:51.139 --> 00:41:54.300 Gummy Bears, they have a line called Fruity Bussy, 00:41:54.400 --> 00:41:58.780 and it's fruit kisses. But yeah, so we performed 00:41:58.780 --> 00:42:03.449 for two years. We recorded a special. which is 00:42:03.449 --> 00:42:06.369 available at hotbussey .com with an I. Transparent. 00:42:07.070 --> 00:42:10.550 Yep, transparent. It's not transparent. It's 00:42:10.550 --> 00:42:13.809 transparent. It's short for transparent glory 00:42:13.809 --> 00:42:17.329 hole, but we didn't want to put, we didn't want 00:42:17.329 --> 00:42:19.730 to put, because we both like the idea of just 00:42:19.730 --> 00:42:22.070 a piece of plexiglass with a hole in it, and 00:42:22.070 --> 00:42:24.750 you can clearly see that it's a duck in your 00:42:24.750 --> 00:42:28.650 dick. I also say in the special. I say, or it's 00:42:28.650 --> 00:42:30.610 a cool D and D spell. Like a wizard could be 00:42:30.610 --> 00:42:33.570 like, I cast transparent glory. Oh, and like 00:42:33.570 --> 00:42:36.670 the Balrog. Remember folks, he builds a lot of 00:42:36.670 --> 00:42:39.889 things, but yeah. So we recorded our first special 00:42:39.889 --> 00:42:45.030 and then still kept performing. And I like to, 00:42:45.070 --> 00:42:47.809 in comedy, when I first started doing comedy, 00:42:47.909 --> 00:42:51.429 I read the comedy Bible by Judy Carter and a 00:42:51.429 --> 00:42:54.309 lot of things from that book. I still do today. 00:42:54.590 --> 00:42:57.570 I still always have a pad and pen on me so I 00:42:57.570 --> 00:43:00.309 can write down funny things that come to me. 00:43:00.389 --> 00:43:02.849 And another one of the things was have a goal 00:43:02.849 --> 00:43:06.429 every year. And so at the beginning of every 00:43:06.429 --> 00:43:09.030 year, I set my goal for that year in comedy. 00:43:09.230 --> 00:43:13.949 And our goal last year was the special. And then 00:43:13.949 --> 00:43:19.699 this year, the goal is the album. we started 00:43:19.699 --> 00:43:22.679 talking about doing an album and there's a local 00:43:22.679 --> 00:43:26.099 podcast that had us on and they it's called black 00:43:26.099 --> 00:43:29.059 dog studios that we went to it's the sandy lounge 00:43:29.059 --> 00:43:33.340 podcast and i went there first and then i saw 00:43:33.340 --> 00:43:35.639 their setup and i was like oh shit you need to 00:43:35.639 --> 00:43:38.079 have bussy on so we can fucking record down here 00:43:38.730 --> 00:43:41.030 But this guy has turned his ranch style home. 00:43:41.110 --> 00:43:43.309 He said that he completely gutted it and rebuilt 00:43:43.309 --> 00:43:47.289 it and turned the basement into a podcast studio 00:43:47.289 --> 00:43:50.250 and a recording studio. So there's like this 00:43:50.250 --> 00:43:53.170 whole area that's just meant to record bands 00:43:53.170 --> 00:43:55.650 and stuff. And the guy does, guy's name's Chris 00:43:55.650 --> 00:44:00.829 Wheel. And he does audio for the, for Masson, 00:44:00.849 --> 00:44:04.250 which is the channel that plays the Orioles stuff 00:44:04.250 --> 00:44:06.960 in here, Orioles and the Ravens. I need some 00:44:06.960 --> 00:44:10.539 water. So we asked him, we were like, hey, can 00:44:10.539 --> 00:44:13.699 we record here? Can we record an album? And he 00:44:13.699 --> 00:44:16.159 was like, yeah, sure. First, I had to get, Eric 00:44:16.159 --> 00:44:17.980 wasn't on board. He was like, I don't know, man. 00:44:18.099 --> 00:44:20.139 I've never even seen the place. So then I got 00:44:20.139 --> 00:44:22.219 Bussy booked there to go do the podcast. And 00:44:22.219 --> 00:44:23.760 then he was like, oh, fuck yeah, this is legit. 00:44:24.400 --> 00:44:28.000 Then as we got closer, Eric was like, hey, let's, 00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:30.320 I have a friend. I want to add drums. If we're 00:44:30.320 --> 00:44:34.219 doing a studio album, I want drums. So we got 00:44:34.219 --> 00:44:36.239 his childhood friend, Blake, that's been playing 00:44:36.239 --> 00:44:39.360 drums since he was like 10 years old to join 00:44:39.360 --> 00:44:42.239 us. And then I was like, I got a buddy, my buddy, 00:44:42.280 --> 00:44:45.440 Happy. He fucking, he plays guitar. And Happy's 00:44:45.440 --> 00:44:47.260 one of those guys that like, he'll have his guitar 00:44:47.260 --> 00:44:49.619 and Eric will be like, throw in a guitar solo 00:44:49.619 --> 00:44:52.059 here. And Happy just, oh, like this? Yeah, like 00:44:52.059 --> 00:44:55.179 that. Happy joined up. We moved Eric over to 00:44:55.179 --> 00:45:00.079 bass or as I call it, easy guitar. And I just, 00:45:00.099 --> 00:45:02.559 I became the vocalist. I took some vocal lessons. 00:45:03.099 --> 00:45:05.719 from a guy i found on instagram so i could get 00:45:05.719 --> 00:45:08.880 my i wanted like a metal growl that like where 00:45:08.880 --> 00:45:11.639 you go like like that's learning how to do that 00:45:11.639 --> 00:45:13.820 without tearing up your voice is really yeah 00:45:13.820 --> 00:45:16.099 yeah yeah if you miss that if you don't go deep 00:45:16.099 --> 00:45:18.559 enough it's right in that area where you gotta 00:45:18.559 --> 00:45:24.019 go yeah because i already had a vocal fry which 00:45:24.019 --> 00:45:26.360 is like the upper it'll be too loud if i did 00:45:26.360 --> 00:45:29.820 it but i became the vocalist and then while we 00:45:29.820 --> 00:45:32.690 started practicing. We started meeting at Eric's 00:45:32.690 --> 00:45:34.889 house at least twice a month to practice the 00:45:34.889 --> 00:45:38.110 songs to get them down. We, Eric and I had a 00:45:38.110 --> 00:45:41.269 gig coming up in my neighborhood that was a music 00:45:41.269 --> 00:45:43.989 venue that I've seen bands perform at. And I 00:45:43.989 --> 00:45:46.869 was like, Hey, like I messaged the booker and 00:45:46.869 --> 00:45:48.449 I was like, Hey, we want to swap out. We want 00:45:48.449 --> 00:45:51.989 to have, we're going to do a full band. So what 00:45:51.989 --> 00:45:54.590 we started calling the full band is, remember 00:45:54.590 --> 00:45:59.010 MTV had MTV Unplugged, where they took an electric 00:45:59.010 --> 00:46:02.050 band and they would give them acoustic instruments. 00:46:02.309 --> 00:46:05.809 And now they're doing Unplugged. There was Nirvana 00:46:05.809 --> 00:46:08.969 Unplugged. Yeah, that was a really big one. Yeah. 00:46:09.289 --> 00:46:13.010 Korn did an Unplugged. But so we're going the 00:46:13.010 --> 00:46:15.550 other way. We're an acoustic act that's now doing 00:46:15.550 --> 00:46:18.389 electric. So we're bussy plugged when it's the 00:46:18.389 --> 00:46:22.699 full band. Nice. I love a plugged pussy. Yeah. 00:46:23.199 --> 00:46:25.739 We talked to the booker and then the booker got, 00:46:25.880 --> 00:46:28.480 he went a little crazy, which I love the guy 00:46:28.480 --> 00:46:31.239 because he's a comic, but he went a little off. 00:46:31.260 --> 00:46:33.239 As soon as we did it, he was like, all right, 00:46:33.239 --> 00:46:35.519 give me, give me photos of the band and I need 00:46:35.519 --> 00:46:38.159 a bio. And I was like, dude, we've only met once 00:46:38.159 --> 00:46:42.239 together. We don't have pictures. So he lost 00:46:42.239 --> 00:46:44.280 it. He basically was like, I'm not producing 00:46:44.280 --> 00:46:46.139 this show anymore. I'm stepping down. I was like, 00:46:46.179 --> 00:46:48.639 all right, fine. I'll fucking produce it. We 00:46:48.639 --> 00:46:51.199 produced it and we made a ton of money. But leading 00:46:51.199 --> 00:46:53.599 up to that, then I was like, okay, I have my 00:46:53.599 --> 00:46:58.300 bionic arm for the show. I made Eric a leg. And 00:46:58.300 --> 00:47:00.840 then Happy had come over and he saw some masks 00:47:00.840 --> 00:47:02.780 that I'd made. And he was like, oh, this is cool. 00:47:02.980 --> 00:47:04.940 I like one of these. And I was like, all right, 00:47:04.960 --> 00:47:08.280 I'm going to make you this mask with light up 00:47:08.280 --> 00:47:11.039 LED eyes. And then the drummer was like, I'm 00:47:11.039 --> 00:47:12.840 not wearing a fucking mask. And I was like, okay, 00:47:12.980 --> 00:47:16.510 all right, calm down. I made him a harness that 00:47:16.510 --> 00:47:20.190 has like an arc reactor in the chest that sounds 00:47:20.190 --> 00:47:23.730 activated. And then there's LED strips that are 00:47:23.730 --> 00:47:26.369 on the thing that sound activated. So we call 00:47:26.369 --> 00:47:29.750 them the atomic drum machine. And so we did this 00:47:29.750 --> 00:47:33.570 whole stage production and I paid a guy to do. 00:47:34.050 --> 00:47:37.039 We have a multi -camera shoot of that show. And 00:47:37.039 --> 00:47:39.119 they told us that the venue that they could get 00:47:39.119 --> 00:47:42.280 direct audio from the board, separate channels. 00:47:42.480 --> 00:47:45.760 And when we got the audio, it fucking sucked. 00:47:46.159 --> 00:47:48.500 It was like he only recorded the bass player 00:47:48.500 --> 00:47:51.280 and the drum player. And I'm like, oh, man. So 00:47:51.280 --> 00:47:53.559 now we have this footage and we're in studio 00:47:53.559 --> 00:47:56.519 recording. So once the album comes out, we can 00:47:56.519 --> 00:47:59.539 then use that and make music videos using that 00:47:59.539 --> 00:48:02.239 footage. Oh, hell yeah. So, yeah, I love that 00:48:02.239 --> 00:48:05.659 you've incorporated like. all of your passions 00:48:05.659 --> 00:48:09.079 and skills and creativity into this project. 00:48:09.119 --> 00:48:13.760 And from, from music and comedy to, to dick and 00:48:13.760 --> 00:48:19.579 fart jokes to your building costumes in these 00:48:19.579 --> 00:48:22.880 intricate lighting setups. And I love it, man. 00:48:22.920 --> 00:48:27.300 It's really cool. And you've always been super 00:48:27.300 --> 00:48:31.139 into tech, but I want to back up one more time, 00:48:31.219 --> 00:48:35.159 just a little bit. And talk about how you first 00:48:35.159 --> 00:48:38.360 got into VR and then how you met Kyle and got 00:48:38.360 --> 00:48:41.340 involved with Fail to Render. So it was around 00:48:41.340 --> 00:48:45.300 2020. I saw some article, some blip that said 00:48:45.300 --> 00:48:48.679 that there was VR comedy shows. And every comic 00:48:48.679 --> 00:48:51.039 was hurting during 2020. I got sick of doing 00:48:51.039 --> 00:48:55.280 Zoom shows. I did a couple outdoor shows. But 00:48:55.280 --> 00:48:58.619 I bought a headset just to come and find Kyle 00:48:58.619 --> 00:49:01.699 to be like, hey, I'm... I want to be a part of 00:49:01.699 --> 00:49:03.920 this. And the next thing I know, Kyle's like, 00:49:03.960 --> 00:49:05.980 hey, you're hosting this open mic for the rest 00:49:05.980 --> 00:49:08.860 of your life. And I'm like, oh, okay. Okay, cool, 00:49:08.940 --> 00:49:12.940 cool. It's been great, man, to have you doing 00:49:12.940 --> 00:49:16.699 that because it's such, and I think it does a 00:49:16.699 --> 00:49:19.059 lot of the things that you, like your classes 00:49:19.059 --> 00:49:21.019 and stuff like that that you've done to be a 00:49:21.019 --> 00:49:24.360 mentor to younger comics over the years. It's 00:49:24.360 --> 00:49:27.659 a way to consistently do that without overextending 00:49:27.659 --> 00:49:30.989 yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah. have this space for 00:49:30.989 --> 00:49:34.550 new comics or anybody to come in but you're also 00:49:34.550 --> 00:49:37.510 it's once a week it's for a couple hours and 00:49:37.510 --> 00:49:40.349 that's it yeah so it's not it doesn't ever take 00:49:40.349 --> 00:49:43.409 over your life like i've seen with others but 00:49:43.409 --> 00:49:45.869 i've seen a lot of i first met you in an alt 00:49:45.869 --> 00:49:49.230 space show i remember i was not doing comedy 00:49:49.230 --> 00:49:51.730 stand up yet i was doing improv in alt space 00:49:51.730 --> 00:49:56.429 actually with the the who's line people but i 00:49:56.429 --> 00:50:00.539 came to a fail to render show and I had given 00:50:00.539 --> 00:50:04.920 my avatar a receding hairline and you roasted 00:50:04.920 --> 00:50:08.460 the shit out of me for it because you were like 00:50:08.460 --> 00:50:10.900 you can make yourself look however you want man 00:50:10.900 --> 00:50:16.159 receding hairline no but that was how I first 00:50:16.159 --> 00:50:18.920 met you and then a couple years later I started 00:50:18.920 --> 00:50:22.500 doing stand -up in my local scene but there just 00:50:22.500 --> 00:50:26.260 wasn't the it's a smaller city and there's just 00:50:26.260 --> 00:50:28.860 not there's no real comedy clubs at all it's 00:50:28.860 --> 00:50:31.920 all like bar shows and coffee houses and stuff 00:50:31.920 --> 00:50:35.139 like that and yeah and so i came there's a couple 00:50:35.139 --> 00:50:39.300 guys like that that are corny or coy uh he lives 00:50:39.300 --> 00:50:42.079 in a very small town that doesn't really have 00:50:42.079 --> 00:50:45.159 there's no real comedy scene there this is his 00:50:45.159 --> 00:50:48.380 outlet to do comedy and this isn't the only place 00:50:48.380 --> 00:50:51.260 that i have but it is one of the only places 00:50:51.260 --> 00:50:53.539 i have without traveling and now because i've 00:50:53.539 --> 00:50:57.659 been able to do it here and do it in addition 00:50:57.659 --> 00:51:01.019 to the few opportunities i have locally i'm getting 00:51:01.019 --> 00:51:05.239 booked out of town i'm getting so it's it's yeah 00:51:05.239 --> 00:51:09.019 it's great man what what do you have going on 00:51:09.019 --> 00:51:11.480 other than this this album that you're recording 00:51:11.480 --> 00:51:15.940 you mentioned briefly your buddy stavros halkis 00:51:15.940 --> 00:51:20.280 yeah i want to talk about just a couple of the 00:51:20.280 --> 00:51:24.329 things that i've seen with you and him They all, 00:51:24.389 --> 00:51:27.050 for some reason, oddly involve nipples, whether 00:51:27.050 --> 00:51:30.769 it's your nipples or, but you've been on his 00:51:30.769 --> 00:51:34.269 podcast a few times. He is skyrocketing. Oh yeah. 00:51:34.369 --> 00:51:36.769 He's on, I think tonight or last night was on 00:51:36.769 --> 00:51:39.929 late night with Seth Meyers. Oh wow. And he's 00:51:39.929 --> 00:51:41.909 of course in that new, the starring in the new 00:51:41.909 --> 00:51:44.969 movie Begonia. Yeah. He was in a movie last year. 00:51:45.050 --> 00:51:47.349 We let's start a cult, which I thought was fucking 00:51:47.349 --> 00:51:51.639 hilarious. Yeah. I also think. he's also been 00:51:51.639 --> 00:51:54.280 very good about lifting up his people that he 00:51:54.280 --> 00:51:59.000 came up with. And what's that been like to be 00:51:59.000 --> 00:52:01.619 around some of that success, but also be part 00:52:01.619 --> 00:52:05.960 of it too. He's always, I feel like he put up 00:52:05.960 --> 00:52:08.460 clips of you like the day Begonia came out. I 00:52:08.460 --> 00:52:10.900 feel like that wasn't, he does stuff like that 00:52:10.900 --> 00:52:14.119 on purpose. Yeah, he's a good guy. I got to tell 00:52:14.119 --> 00:52:16.780 you, the first time he called me to come and 00:52:16.780 --> 00:52:20.940 do his podcast, I was legit. I didn't think you 00:52:20.940 --> 00:52:24.880 liked me. I didn't know we had that kind of relationship, 00:52:25.159 --> 00:52:28.079 but okay. And I did his podcast, and it was just 00:52:28.079 --> 00:52:32.260 like, oh, hey, what's up, Stav? Shane doesn't 00:52:32.260 --> 00:52:34.639 answer my call. Okay, I'll be honest. I don't 00:52:34.639 --> 00:52:36.800 have Shane's number anymore. I used to have Shane's 00:52:36.800 --> 00:52:41.579 number. And the last time I messaged him to be 00:52:41.579 --> 00:52:43.159 like, hey, I'm coming up to Philly. I thought 00:52:43.159 --> 00:52:46.219 he was still living in Philly, but he had moved. 00:52:46.320 --> 00:52:48.480 As a matter of fact, the next week he got SNL. 00:52:48.920 --> 00:52:51.940 Yeah, having friends that I considered have made 00:52:51.940 --> 00:52:55.340 it, it's great. Now, right now, I never ask Stav 00:52:55.340 --> 00:52:58.019 for anything. I don't message Stav. Yeah, I'm 00:52:58.019 --> 00:52:59.860 like, I'm not going to be that guy that's only 00:52:59.860 --> 00:53:02.719 using him for whatever. If he has a spot that 00:53:02.719 --> 00:53:05.260 he needs me to do something, I'll do whatever 00:53:05.260 --> 00:53:09.039 he needs. But, yeah, I don't bug him at all. 00:53:09.380 --> 00:53:12.679 Yeah, of course not. But I love that he had you 00:53:12.679 --> 00:53:15.320 on a Halloween episode. You got to show off one 00:53:15.320 --> 00:53:17.280 of your intricate costumes. Was that something 00:53:17.280 --> 00:53:19.760 you built? Yeah, yeah, he messaged me, and he 00:53:19.760 --> 00:53:23.119 was like, hey, man, do you want to come be on 00:53:23.119 --> 00:53:25.880 the podcast? I'm doing a white trash costume 00:53:25.880 --> 00:53:29.099 Halloween episode. And he was like, I can buy 00:53:29.099 --> 00:53:30.840 you something from Party City, or you can wear, 00:53:30.860 --> 00:53:32.659 I don't know, whatever mech suit you have lying 00:53:32.659 --> 00:53:36.380 around. I was like, how about I bring my Mando 00:53:36.380 --> 00:53:39.519 kit? And he was like, okay. And then that's my 00:53:39.519 --> 00:53:42.519 Mando kit that I spent seven months building 00:53:42.519 --> 00:53:46.000 the suit. And then seven months on the arm and 00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:49.280 it is, it's just so uncomfortable. I think I 00:53:49.280 --> 00:53:51.980 need the suit itself let out in the legs, like 00:53:51.980 --> 00:53:55.559 the seams and the legs have to be let out. It's 00:53:55.559 --> 00:53:59.079 just, it's not fun to wear. Yeah. Is it more 00:53:59.079 --> 00:54:01.480 comfortable sitting in a chair like on that podcast 00:54:01.480 --> 00:54:04.860 or up moving around? You would think, no, there's 00:54:04.860 --> 00:54:07.300 no spot where it's, I'm glad I did all this to 00:54:07.300 --> 00:54:11.820 myself. I'm really happy. Everything's always 00:54:11.820 --> 00:54:15.329 fallen off of it. you gotta always gotta maintain 00:54:15.329 --> 00:54:17.710 it and rethink like i know there's a hinge that 00:54:17.710 --> 00:54:20.989 i have to reattach after wearing it to staves 00:54:20.989 --> 00:54:24.929 but it held up for the thing who knows i just 00:54:24.929 --> 00:54:28.309 i think it's the craftsmanship and like the detail 00:54:28.309 --> 00:54:31.170 that you put into that stuff is so amazing and 00:54:31.170 --> 00:54:34.349 i just want to give just as a fan of stavi like 00:54:34.349 --> 00:54:37.909 he i think gives like this really amazing perspective 00:54:37.909 --> 00:54:41.909 on masculinity and uh and gives like really great 00:54:41.909 --> 00:54:45.530 life advice on his podcast oh yeah and i think 00:54:45.530 --> 00:54:49.130 that while also being hilarious but you've always 00:54:49.130 --> 00:54:52.329 been like one of the funniest guests on his podcast 00:54:52.329 --> 00:54:54.909 in my opinion i think honestly man like the chem 00:54:54.909 --> 00:54:58.409 no the chemistry y 'all have i won't put it all 00:54:58.409 --> 00:55:00.650 on you but the chemistry y 'all have is really 00:55:00.650 --> 00:55:03.110 you can tell that y 'all have come up together 00:55:03.110 --> 00:55:05.250 and known each other a long time it's yeah it's 00:55:05.250 --> 00:55:07.550 cool man what have you got going on that you 00:55:07.550 --> 00:55:10.000 want to plug that you want I'm going to put links 00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.000 to Transparent, and I'm going to put links to 00:55:14.000 --> 00:55:16.860 your YouTube channel and everything in the description. 00:55:17.619 --> 00:55:21.500 What else have you got going on? We got, let's 00:55:21.500 --> 00:55:25.280 see, this weekend, if you're in Michigan, if 00:55:25.280 --> 00:55:26.119 you're in Marquette, Michigan. This will probably 00:55:26.119 --> 00:55:30.539 come out about mid -December, I would think. 00:55:30.539 --> 00:55:32.320 Oh, okay. It's going to be the season finale. 00:55:32.400 --> 00:55:37.139 Mid -Michigan. We got murder mysteries. You can 00:55:37.139 --> 00:55:40.039 go to dilaffingproductions .com. There'll be 00:55:40.039 --> 00:55:42.420 murder mysteries towards the end of this month 00:55:42.420 --> 00:55:44.780 in December. I'm looking forward to it. We're 00:55:44.780 --> 00:55:47.860 doing a ski trip. We do a snowboarding trip every 00:55:47.860 --> 00:55:51.219 year. And then this year, my buddy has a cabin 00:55:51.219 --> 00:55:55.119 that's a mile away from Canaan Valley, from the 00:55:55.119 --> 00:55:58.880 mountain. But this year, we were like, fuck it. 00:55:58.900 --> 00:56:00.920 Let's spend the money. Let's get a ski in, ski 00:56:00.920 --> 00:56:03.409 out. So we're going to get a ski -in, ski -out 00:56:03.409 --> 00:56:06.289 on the fucking mountain. I'm really excited for 00:56:06.289 --> 00:56:10.170 that. But then in March, we've been told. So 00:56:10.170 --> 00:56:13.949 the local radio station, 98 Rock, they are having 00:56:13.949 --> 00:56:19.309 a spring thing. And it's going to be a bunch 00:56:19.309 --> 00:56:21.469 of big bands playing. And they want Bussy to 00:56:21.469 --> 00:56:25.849 open that show. So we're playing at the CFG Bank 00:56:25.849 --> 00:56:28.010 Arena. It used to be called the Royal Farms Arena 00:56:28.010 --> 00:56:31.789 or the Chicken Box. We used to call it. So, yeah, 00:56:31.849 --> 00:56:34.170 we're looking forward to that. Yeah. That sounds 00:56:34.170 --> 00:56:35.929 like something I might have to come up for, sir. 00:56:36.449 --> 00:56:38.909 Come on up, man. Yeah, man. Maybe they'll give 00:56:38.909 --> 00:56:42.150 me a press pass. All I can do is ask. Yeah. Yeah, 00:56:42.329 --> 00:56:44.789 man. I've interviewed a bunch of musicians. I'd 00:56:44.789 --> 00:56:46.789 love to interview some of the people they have 00:56:46.789 --> 00:56:50.730 coming. Yeah. I'd love to have Eric on the show, 00:56:50.750 --> 00:56:53.289 too, man. I think that Eric will have a hard 00:56:53.289 --> 00:56:55.730 time in here. He gets motion sick. Oh, no. That's 00:56:55.730 --> 00:56:58.590 why I've got to come up there. That's what I'm 00:56:58.590 --> 00:57:01.090 saying. We've talked about having Eric in here, 00:57:01.210 --> 00:57:04.210 but he can't do it. He'll throw up the whole 00:57:04.210 --> 00:57:08.650 time. I mean, it would be hilarious. Tommy, it's 00:57:08.650 --> 00:57:11.510 fucking awesome to hear all about everything 00:57:11.510 --> 00:57:14.349 that you do, man. I love seeing you every week. 00:57:14.610 --> 00:57:17.469 And I haven't been in as much recently, but I'm 00:57:17.469 --> 00:57:20.769 going to be traveling a lot doing recording this, 00:57:20.909 --> 00:57:24.010 man. But I'm back home for the next several weeks. 00:57:25.170 --> 00:57:27.409 You're going to see a lot more of me. Yeah, anybody 00:57:27.409 --> 00:57:31.170 watching. Come out and fill the render. You can 00:57:31.170 --> 00:57:33.389 actually come on a flat screen and watch the 00:57:33.389 --> 00:57:35.409 shows if you have a computer. Yeah, even your 00:57:35.409 --> 00:57:38.469 mobile. You can do it on mobile. Do it on your 00:57:38.469 --> 00:57:40.530 computer. But, yeah, you can come out. It's, 00:57:40.570 --> 00:57:43.809 what's it, 10 p .m. Eastern, 9 p .m. Central, 00:57:44.010 --> 00:57:48.929 p .m. Pacific. And, yeah, we have shows four 00:57:48.929 --> 00:57:51.929 nights a week. Mine's Monday. Mine's the best 00:57:51.929 --> 00:57:54.960 one. Come to that. It is. the best one i'm not 00:57:54.960 --> 00:57:58.659 gonna lie but shout out to kyle render for everything 00:57:58.659 --> 00:58:02.539 that he's done for online vr comedy and to the 00:58:02.539 --> 00:58:05.199 whole team that failed to render i didn't really 00:58:05.199 --> 00:58:07.480 ask anyone if we could record in here but i figured 00:58:07.480 --> 00:58:09.519 your picture was on the wall so it was safe yeah 00:58:09.519 --> 00:58:13.519 it's fine thanks for being here brother that 00:58:13.519 --> 00:58:16.659 was awesome man we always do this this is how 00:58:16.659 --> 00:58:20.019 you say hi hey let's go and in some of the other 00:58:20.019 --> 00:58:23.329 apps that'll give you like uh I remember in Old 00:58:23.329 --> 00:58:25.409 Space we used to play patty cake, man. Yeah, 00:58:25.449 --> 00:58:27.769 you could actually slap. And then you could throw 00:58:27.769 --> 00:58:31.650 up confetti. Yeah. You can't even fire things 00:58:31.650 --> 00:58:36.210 out your hands anymore. R .I .P. Old Space. Yeah. 00:58:36.510 --> 00:58:40.289 R .I .P. Thank you so much, brother. I love you 00:58:40.289 --> 00:58:41.369 so much, Tommy. You're the best, dude. I love 00:58:41.369 --> 00:58:43.329 you too, man. I'll see you soon. I'm so sore 00:58:43.329 --> 00:58:46.469 from moving that fucking dryer. That was my interview 00:58:46.469 --> 00:58:49.130 with Tommy Simbasi. We got a lot of cool stuff 00:58:49.130 --> 00:58:52.710 coming up this season. Tonight. I'm at Bird's. 00:58:53.469 --> 00:58:56.570 Come check it out. I'll be taping it and putting 00:58:56.570 --> 00:59:01.050 some of it up online. And make sure you go order 00:59:01.050 --> 00:59:05.610 Sloan Brothers' new LP, Love and Other Diagnosis. 00:59:06.650 --> 00:59:10.550 It's available on vinyl and digital. There's 00:59:10.550 --> 00:59:13.429 a link in the description. We got a lot of exciting 00:59:13.429 --> 00:59:16.210 stuff coming up. Next week we got Brian Howard. 00:59:16.889 --> 00:59:19.329 from the band Cracker, and he's also a voice 00:59:19.329 --> 00:59:22.730 actor and plays in a lot of other bands. We get 00:59:22.730 --> 00:59:26.170 into it. Cracker's about to be doing a 30th anniversary 00:59:26.170 --> 00:59:32.869 tour for their 1996 album. Brian and I had a 00:59:32.869 --> 00:59:35.289 great talk. The week after that, we got Shane 00:59:35.289 --> 00:59:39.469 Moss, who I was super stoked to sit down with. 00:59:39.929 --> 00:59:42.610 We had way more in common than I realized when 00:59:42.610 --> 00:59:45.980 we first started talking. Really... The perfect 00:59:45.980 --> 00:59:49.460 guest for this show. We talked for over two hours. 00:59:49.699 --> 00:59:52.219 Red Padilla from Red and the Revelers. Justin 00:59:52.219 --> 00:59:55.420 Long from No Address and the Petty Nicks experience 00:59:55.420 --> 00:59:59.440 and a bunch of other amazing Tallahassee bands 00:59:59.440 --> 01:00:03.239 that we got into a bunch of Tallahassee lore. 01:00:03.360 --> 01:00:07.659 So hit that subscribe button and get into our 01:00:07.659 --> 01:00:08.019 world.