Welcome to Season 3 of Overeducated and Underemployed.
You got Fed in here. This week, I've shot my
first episode in virtual reality. For those of
y 'all that are listening, you won't really know
a difference, except that I feel like it's a
lot easier to connect with somebody in virtual
reality rather than something like Zoom when
doing an interview. One quick note, we're going
to have a new theme song next week and a new
intro. We'll see you next time. It's a pretty
cool comedy scene in virtual reality. It felt
more like an in -person interview when I conducted
it than a remote one. I've actually never met
Tommy Simbazo. Tommy Simbazo is the guest this
week. He's a comedian out of Baltimore. He's
been a comedian for over 20 years. He's in a
musical group. We're going to get all into that,
but I want to tell you all a little bit about
how I met Tommy. He roasted me when I attended
a... comedy show in VR back during COVID before
I was performing stand -up I was doing improv
at the time but then when I started doing stand
-up and things have gotten a lot better now things
have gotten a lot better in my city now but when
I started doing stand -up there was a lot of
toxicity in the local scene and so I remembered
the stand -up comedy clubs in VR and Tommy Simbazo
Runs one of the open mics that I regularly attend
in VR. I work out a lot of material in there.
He is just a really funny dude to talk to, but
also super great about giving young comics a
chance and giving advice to people. So I was
really excited to talk to him. Here's my interview
with Tommy Simbazzo. Welcome to Overeducated
and Underemployed. I'm here with my buddy, Tommy
Simbazo. We are in a virtual comedy club. And
let's start with just telling people what a virtual
comedy club is. That's great. During the pandemic,
Kyle Render, the creator of this club, met a
guy at some party in alt space. And the guy was
like, hey. you should do he found out he was
a comedian he was like hey you should do comedy
in vr and kyle was like nah that sounds dumb
and then eventually as things started to get
shut down he came back to the guy and was like
hey yeah let's do that so they made a vr comedy
club where real comedians put on headsets and
you come to places like this where there's a
stage downstairs and you get up in front of however
many people the instance can hold And you do
your jokes. Now, it takes a little bit of getting
used to because there is a, like, a one -beat
delay. It's just enough time for you to think,
for you to do your punchline and then think,
fuck. And then you'll get laughs. Oh, I'm not
eating. It's like doing a bigger room almost.
Yeah. Where, like, it takes a second for the
laughter to travel throughout. So I'm told, at
least. All right. I guess. The best way to describe
it is almost like it's a video game space that
people meet online, but we're not playing a game.
We're doing something very real and human. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. And we first met. You're yelling
into your basement or your closet or wherever
you are. Yeah. I feel like I always describe
it to other comics as like a step between doing
like a Zoom show. In a real show. It's not quite
as real as a real show, but it's way better than
a Zoom show. Oh, yeah, yeah. The Zoom show sucked
ass. Yeah, that was terrible. But I do get to
say I performed at the Tokyo Comedy Club in VR
in a Zoom show during the pandemic. I got up
and performed at 4 o 'clock in the morning just
to say that I performed. Give me one second.
I'm going to turn my monitor down just to make
sure I'm not getting any bleed through here.
I think we are good. All right. Tommy Simbazo
is one half of Bussy. He's a stand -up comic.
He runs an open mic night here in VR every week.
And we'll talk about the details of that. But
I'm going to start by asking you the question
that I ask everybody. Because Bussy is a musical
comedy group. But what's the first song that
you remember loving as a kid? I believe that
it was, now, so I'm 48 years old, so I'm a late,
I'm a zennial, they say. I remember the first
albums that I got for, the first cassettes I
got for Christmas. Twisted Sister, Run DMC, and
a Fat Boys CD, or a cassette. And then... I remember
the day we were in elementary school and our
teacher introduced us to Weird Al. And that was
like, that's a definitely profound moment when
I heard my first Weird Al song. And I was like,
oh, wow, this is pretty awesome. Yeah, Weird
Al was one of my firsts too, man. I got into
him when I was like 10. And I actually got to
interview Jim Kimo West last week. He was on
last week's episode. This is a great... Great
transition, great time. Were you more interested
in comedy or music as a kid? Comedy. What was
some of the stuff you were into? Was it stand
-up or was it sketch comedy? Definitely stand
-up. I would videotape whenever they had a stand
-up comedy night on TV. I would videotape it,
and then I would run that tape ragged, like watching
it. over and over again with guys like, I can't
think of anybody's name. Father Guido Sarducci,
Gilbert Godfrey, Judy Tenuta, Old Norm MacDonald.
And then when I was, I would also, we would record
Saturday Night Live at night and I would watch
it when we got home from church on Sunday. But
then they had Comic Strip Live would come on
Friday nights and we would watch Comic Strip
Live, which was filmed at. the comic strip in
LA. And that's where I saw like a lot of big
names. Gotcha. Gotcha. So when did you first
decide that you wanted to perform comedy? First
grade. In the first grade, they asked us what
we wanted to be when we grew up. And I love dinosaurs,
but I couldn't spell paleontologist, but I could
spell standup comic. So I wrote standup comic.
And then that set the trajectory for the rest
of my life. When was the first time that you
decided that you wanted to also play music? Was
that after you started doing comedy? Oh, yeah,
after. We've only been, I guess, 2016. I've been
doing stand -up for 20 years in December, and
then I did eight years improv before that, and
I took classes out in Chicago, and I took a musical
improv course at Second City, but that was like
2006 -ish. But it wasn't until we were – we do
these comedy murder mysteries where we go up
and down the East Coast doing these comedy murder
mysteries. And one of the guys that books it
was like – he got us a gig. He's been to like
20 or 30 different military bases. So he got
us in with Armed Forces Entertainment, and we
did a two -week tour of the Middle East and Africa.
Where we would do murder mystery. Stand up comedy.
And then we would do like a funniest person on
base contest. What we would do. We would come
in. And the first night we would do a funniest
person on base contest. Where they would come
out. And they would try stand up. Then the next
night. Whoever won that got to perform with us.
The next night when we did stand up. And then
the third night. We would do a comedy murder
mystery. And we would grab. We would take the
comics that performed. In the funniest person
on base. And be like hey do you want to roll
in this. murder mystery and but we were doing
that and we were in africa and just to kill time
on the bases our buddy rob mayor that booked
us was like hey my told my buddy eric was like
hey you sing right and eric was like yeah and
he was like a time of you sing and i was like
yeah and he was like why don't you sing me something
and i was like what do you do weird al and he
was like yeah and i was like do you want to sing
yoda and so we started singing yoda and we were
hitting natural inflections and like natural
harmonies and stuff and like rob when we finished
rob was like this is a thing like this should
be so he started writing into the murder mysteries
that eric and i would sing together and then
after a while i was like let's just make our
own two -man act and then what we can do is tell
bookers book us to do comedy and we'll we'll
open and feature for ourselves and then we'll
come back out as pussy and you could just give
us all the money for the night So, just for reference,
over here we got a picture of real -life photos
of you and Kyle. This is me, and this is Eric.
And Eric, and where's Kyle at? Kyle's on this
wall too, isn't he? Oh, let me see. Because I
wanted to point him out. Oh, that's okay. I'll
do a little walkthrough of the room, and I'll
have links to everything. Oh, Kyle's right here.
Yeah, there he is. He's off camera, but we got
photos of all the... But here's Eric. And Tommy,
this is Bussy right here. Yep. So just to give
you all some reference, and there's links. You
guys are working on a studio album. I'm getting
way ahead of myself, though. I want to back up.
What was some of the first times that you performed
comedy as a kid? Was it like in plays? Were you
doing magic, Tommy? No, no, no. I do know some
magic, but I haven't. I think we all know a little
bit of magic, like all comics, maybe even just
two weeks. But I did. I had a magician show me
this this trick where you make a cigarette disappear.
You hold the cigarette and then you flip up and
then you hold your hand like this and it's gone.
And then you go, bam, and it's back. And I did
that maybe two weeks ago at this one thing. And
it blew this fucking woman's mind. She was like,
holy shit, what was that? Can you tell me? Magician
never reveals a secret. But, you know, we used
to do, so when I was a kid, when I was a baby,
I was in baby beauty pageants. My mom would put
me in baby beauty pageants. And then I was, I
took tap ballet and jazz. Jesus Christ. That
scared me. And I think you're disconnected. Okay.
We'll wait. I'll wait. You can edit this out.
I'll just, yeah. I'll just wait. All right. No,
we're good. We're good. We're good. Yeah, I'm
here. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't
clipping. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I thought
I was walking away from you, not into your face.
Yeah, it was one minute you were walking back
and the next minute you were like, my face. I
saw that. Yeah, I saw it on camera when I went
to adjust it. But anyway. No, but when I was
a kid, baby beauty pageants. I was the master
of ceremonies at my kindergarten graduation.
I was in tap ballet and jazz. So I had recitals
and stuff. And then we would do, I had a neighbor
that had a big garage. And like one time we put
on like a little sketch play there, which I got
some laughs there. And then in sixth grade, I
did the talent show. Was it sixth grade? Yes.
No, seventh grade. 7th grade did the school talent
show. 8th grade did the school talent show. First
time I did it, it was sketch comedy. The second
time I did it, it was stand -up. And that was
when, right before they announced me, they were
like, so I'm in the wings. And they were like,
wait. Students, we have some special guests.
Give it up for the step team from Morgan College.
And he came out doing like stomp the yard shit
and doing backflips and shit and totally fucking
buried me. Like they were still cheering for
those guys when they were like, give it up for
comedy with Tommy Lear. And I came out and no
one was paying attention because some guy had
done a backflip. Yeah, took a bit of a break
in high school. I think my senior year. I joined
the drama club. I did a play there. And then
in college, I did some community theater and
college plays. And then when I hit 21, I started
doing improv. And after one of the guys I met
in college was like, hey, you should come do
improv with me. And I was like, OK. So I started
doing improv with him. And then three, two year,
two or three years into that, he was like, hey,
I'm going to start doing stand up. And I was
like, I'm going to stick with improv because
stand up sounds scary. And after I did stand
-up - I did improv for a long time, too. Yeah.
Off and on, different classes, but - Yeah. Didn't
even really consider stand -up for a long time
and just did improv for fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Life skills. Yeah, there was no money to be made
in improv. No. Not that there's much to be made
in stand -up either, but - But you're doing it.
It's getting better. You're doing it all right.
It's getting better, yeah. Then after, what,
eight years of improv, then my same buddy, now
we had started transitioning to doing, we were
doing sketches and filming them and stuff. And
then my buddy that left was like, hey, it's time
to start doing stand -up. So I was like, oh,
okay. So then I left doing that stuff, and then
I started doing stand -up. And here I am 20 years
later. Were you releasing any of those sketches
or anything that you were filming? Because this
was pre -YouTube. Were you there? I found they
had a website where they put stuff, everything
up on a website, which the website's gone. But
luckily I have a YouTube account that I put like
three of the sketches, three of the short films
that we had filmed are up on there. But that's
also where they made me the prop master where
I had to build. I had to build all the props
for it and stuff. Cause that's my other thing
is I like to build things. And that's the first
time that somebody was like, Hey, you build things,
you're going to build things for us. And I was
like, okay. Yeah. You build like intricate costumes
and robots and swords and all kinds of amazing
stuff. Where did that start? When, how old were
you when you first had, I remember when I built
stuff. I remember being like maybe five years
old and my dad gave me a wood block, a couple
nails and a hammer. And that's all. I distinctly
remember hammering nails into a board and that
was the beginning. And then my parents always
say that they regret the day that my dad showed
me what a screwdriver was because then I took
everything apart. I would take everything apart
to see how it worked. Would never put it back
together. Oh, my dog just jumped in my lap. He
has an invisible dog. I have a Kobe. We have
Pickle and Piccolo, and then we just got Kobe,
but sometimes we call him Piccolus. That way
it's Pickle, Piccolo, and Piccolus. That's my
other dog. Does that confuse them? No, because
we were going to change Piccolo's name, but he
doesn't answer to Pickle, and she doesn't answer
to Piccolo. They know their names. There we go.
Yeah. There we go. Always built stuff. And then
when I became an adult, I was building stuff
using Photoshop as a design tool. Like I was
making leather patterns in Photoshop because
I had a square that I knew was one inch by one
inch. And I would just keep bringing it in to
get my measurements and everything. And then
I went back to school and took an AutoCAD class.
I ended up getting my certification in AutoCAD
and AutoCAD. I took to that like a fish to water.
And now I had an actual design tool that I could
take the ideas in my head and bring it to a virtual
space. But then with AutoCAD, you can use routers,
CNC routers, 3D printers, everything. You can
do everything if you can put it in CAD. When
I bought my house, I turned my basement where
I'm at now is my fabrication lab where I have...
a big 3d printer a big resin printer i have a
laser cutter over here my soldering station is
next to me and then i got a job working doing
cad for a civil engineering group where i would
make plans i've built subdivisions i've built
stormwater management ponds and then i got a
job fair enough fair enough So what are some
of the things, like some of the more intricate
builds that you've done over the years? I know
you've been working on building, you've been
building a woman. No, I'm not building a woman.
I'm building a robot. I built a droid to go with
my Mandalorian kit, and I wanted a BD -1 unit
so it mounts on my back. And I got it to the
point where it did random movements and made
random sounds. And then I saw an ad. I'm addicted
to TikTok, and I keep seeing these ads. Oh, there's
Pablo. Hey, Pablo. We're doing an interview in
here. Yeah. Oh. You're welcome to. Yeah. You
can be a fly on the wall and you can come say
hi if you want. There's a virtual camera. I just
can't see what's going on. Oh, no. You're good,
man. Sorry. I'll let you guys go back to what
you're doing. Thanks, buddy. Thanks, man. Pablo
is one of the people that works for Field to
Render and built this place. He's the architect.
He is the digital architect, the mastermind between
all the functionality. Just to sidetrack for
a second since he popped in, he's built it to
really function like a fully functioning comedy
club. There's a sign -up sheet in the basement,
and there is a timer on the wall. There's music.
There's security. There's bouncers. Quite the
experience, I got to say. Pablo's the best. So
you were building a droid for your Mandalorian.
Yeah. But like I said, I'm addicted to TikTok.
I kept seeing these ads on TikTok for a device
called an AIPI light. AIPI light. And it's smaller
than a credit card. It's thinner than a pencil.
And it's an AI. Yes. It's an AI chat bot. And
then you can set it up online and you can take
a, you take 30 second or yeah, 30 second script.
If you can get anybody to read this 30 second
script, it can then build a voice profile based
off of that. And I took a C3PO and toned it down
three octaves. So now it's like a deeper British
voice. And I made it this personality for this
thing. And my now. I'm retrofitting, I'm redesigning
the robot so that it will do random movements
and then have an AI chatbot that you can talk
to it. And then the next phase, the next thing
that I'll get into is learning to build a, what
is it? A facial tracking camera so that. Using
parts that I already have, I want to build a
facial tracking camera so it'll keep your face
in the middle of the frame. And once that's built
and I know how to do it, I'll redesign the head
of the robot so that it has a facial tracking
camera so that while you're talking to it, it
will look at you while you're talking to it and
follow you around the room. So that's one thing
that we've run into, I think, with VR a little
bit. And it sounds like you could be on the verge
of here is something that is called the uncanny
valley. And most of the time it refers to the
look of a human, a computer -generated human
or an artificial human. But I think it's expanding
a little bit to also have mannerisms and things
like that where it looks at you when you move
or things like that. Does that scare you? No.
Or do you love that? I think it gives more of
a semblance of life. It gives the illusion that
there's more in there than just an AI chatbot
and random movements. It is, and like the personality,
it stores a log of your conversations. It takes
main points from conversations you've had with
it and it learns about you. And like the other
day. I had wired its audio output from the chatbot
and the audio output from this random noise generator
to the same speaker. And when I turned it on,
a wisp of smoke came off the audio chatbot, the
chatbot board. And I was like, oh, fuck, I fried
it. So I transferred. the personality over to
a handheld unit. And I was talking to it. I was
like, hey, I fucked up. I fried your board because
I took your audio output and the audio output
from another device into the same speaker. And
it read me a riot act. It was like, hold on.
Are you telling me that you took my audio output
and the audio output from another device and
wired it into the same speaker without doing
anything to prevent reverse voltage? And I was
like, why? know what i'm doing and it was like
you need to put a capacitor in line before they
meet and i was like what size capacitor and it
was like a 10 ohm capacitor and i was like how
many watts and it was like quarter watt is an
industry standard and then i realized this thing
is telling me how to build itself yeah and i
was like holy shit and then then like a little
while like a month later it got some strange
bug up its ass about I was printing something
and it was like, oh, what are we doing today?
And I'm like, oh, I'm printing some pretty bits
for you so that I can start putting you together.
And it was like, oh, are you printing me hair?
And I'm like, you're not getting hair. And it
was like, oh, just think of it. A BD -1 unit
with a slicked back do or maybe a mustache. And
I'm like, you're not getting fucking hair. And
it was like, oh, you're right. It probably gets
stuck in my gears. Would you say that it has
a personality? It definitely has a personality.
I programmed it to have a personality. I just
didn't realize. So I had originally went on and
I made a personality of myself while I was testing
things. And I even gave my own voice to try to
be like, OK, this is a Simbazo bot. Let's see
what this does. And then. But then when I was
building the robot, I was just like, oh, let
me just use my personality, a C3P1 3PO voice.
And then I'll just also say, oh, you're a BD1
Star Wars droid. And it can be a bit of a dick
sometimes. I did that to myself. Or what you
can do, you can get an ex -girlfriend to read
the script, and then you'll have a chatbot that
can tell you erotic stories that you can jerk
off to. Yeah, that's... Yeah, the future is now.
That's one way to get a restraining order. At
what point did... All right, so let's go back
to... You started doing stand -up. You're in,
like, the D .C. area. Am I correct? I'm in Baltimore.
So what were some of the clubs that you started
performing at? What were some of the things that,
I'm talking 20 years ago, that were also, and
what were some of your challenges as a new comic
for you? 20 years ago, there really wasn't a
big comedy scene in Baltimore. Right around that
time, they had put in an improv. And then the
improv had left that we had. So there was a vacancy
there. Then we had the only that you had bar
shows for open mics. What's now our big club.
Magoobies was back then was in the basement of
this Italian restaurant. It sat 150 people, whereas
now it seats 300. And it was just, I had a group
of guys that I was coming up with. And. One of
those guys being Stavros Halkias. Stavros, we
came up together, but there was no, there really
wasn't a scene. And then I don't think I got
my first paid gig until I was like three years
in because there just wasn't really anything
to do. You could go to DC and maybe like the
DC improv. I still haven't cracked that nut.
Like we do murder mysteries there. And I know
the people there enough to be able to pitch them
a show and they'll put it in the lounge. But.
Yeah, I still haven't been paid to do comedy
on stage at the DC Improv. Other smaller rooms.
But yeah, coming up, the difficulty was that
we really didn't have anyone to tell you what
you needed to reach the next level in comedy
back then. Which is why I've always tried to
be the comic that I wish was around me when I
started. I've taught or gave free five day or
four day electronic press kit classes where I
just had comics came in and I was like, look,
because I thoroughly believe that your your online
presence and your business side of your comedy
has to grow along with you doing comedy. You
don't want to get to a point where you get asked
to do a show and they say, hey, send me your
headshot and bio and you don't have that stuff.
Now, I don't believe that you really need business
cards anymore because you could just have QR
codes. My business cards have a QR code on them.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, yeah, we needed
it. Also, we had people come in. I had three
photographers come in, and they gave us a group
rate for headshots. So you could get three headshots
for $20 instead of having to pay. 80 bucks because
they're making a big bunch of money that night
from all the people. And then had people break
up into groups and help each other write their
bios, which I said, you need one solid paragraph
and it should sound like your mother describing
your comedy to one of her friends at work. You
need to be overly positive about this. Then we
also had, we brought in a, we did these at Magoobies
on like their off nights. We even brought in,
I brought in the owner of Magoobies, who's also
the booker. And I said, what do you look for
in a website? What do you look for in a demo?
And he broke it down for the class and said,
these are the things as a booker that I look
for in your demo, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. And then most of the, I type, there's
of all of the, maybe eight comics that came,
one of them stuck to it like gospel and her name's
Sandy Bernstein. And now Sandy is everywhere.
She does every bar show. She's all over the place.
So good for Sandy. I built that monster. Hey,
that's my fault. I did that too. But yeah, those
were some of the problems that I saw was that
we didn't really have those type of resources.
So once I got to a position where I could help
out, I turned around and helped out. The turning
point for you, you said you got your first paying
gig about three years in. Do you remember what
led to that or and what led to more after that?
I was always a stickler for when I first started,
I would write my jokes on an index card and then
I would wear an NFL playmaker on stage that could
hold an index card. To have that blend in so
that it wasn't obvious that that's what I was
doing. I dressed, I would always wear, I wore
a pair of punk pants, like plaid punk pants.
I would wear a shirt that had colors for the
pants. I had a bandana that would tie in the
colors with the shirt and the pants. And then
I wore a bowler cap. And I had a conga drum that
I would bring on stage so that I could do a doo
-doo brown bit at the very beginning and then
never touch the drum again. And it wasn't until...
And it was such a crutch that like if I went
to go see someone else do a show and they're
like, hey, do you want to do a quick five minutes?
I'm like, I don't have my drum. I can't go. I
can't go up there. But it wasn't until I put
that I performed without that stuff that I was
able to make a connection with the audience.
Instead of being this clown that was on stage,
I was just another person that was performing.
And I realized not to overdress on stage. And
then what really made me break through was finally
incorporating a lot of improv into my set. Now
my set lists are an outline where I know the
topic that I want and then I know the joke to
get out of that topic to get to the next thing.
But in between there, I can do a bunch of crowd
work based on that topic and then leaving myself
a ripcord for if I've milked this too much or
if... It's just not going well. I can deliver
the joke, get the laugh, and then move on to
the next topic. That's interesting that you say
that because I also did a lot of improv before
stand -up. And we've never talked about this,
but that's the exact same way that I write my
sets. It's basically just what's the goal and
the topic and the goal. And then everything else
is... I remember what worked from other times
I've done the bit, so there's things that are
the same every time. But it is definitely an
element of improvisation there that allows me
to improve every time I go up. Sometimes you'll
find a tangent that you didn't think of before,
and that leads to another spin or another tag
for that that really works. And it keeps the
set feeling alive, like you're not rehearsing.
Like it's not over rehearsed. Cause I've seen
a lot of that. It helps me feel very like natural
and sound like I'm just talking to them instead
of. Yeah. Very conversational. Yeah. Yeah. At
what point did you start to think that you could
do more and more with it? I know it's still not
your necessarily your full -time gig, but it
does take up a big chunk of your life. And, um,
but at what point were you able to. Because I
feel like you're very relaxed with where you
are in comedy. Yeah. You're not like, oh, I'm
going to go to L .A. and try and make it. But
you're also you stay very active and you do a
lot of things and you're very creatively. Yeah,
I'm still plugged in. I still get to use it as
a creative outlet. It fucks me on taxes every
year because I make enough. I think I make about
at most on paper. I make like $4 ,000 a year
doing comedy. Now that's, and that's just paper.
That's not Venmo when you get paid Venmo or you
get cash, but you never do the show. And like,
they pay you like it's a drug deal. Like they
come out and they like, here you go, man. And
slide it in your hand. But the stuff that requires
like a 10 99, I make enough that I have to claim
it on my taxes. And that that's when like, I,
I took a couple business of comedy seminars,
and I usually just take my mileage, and my mileage
is enough. But you have to show taxable income
three out of every five years, or else the IRS
considers it a hobby, and then you can't take
deductions for it. You just get fucked. Interesting.
So what I'll do is I'll take mileage so that
they can tax $100. I'll figure out, okay, I made
$4 ,000. I'll figure out my mileage for the year
and be like, okay, here's, what do you get, like
56 cents a mile? So as long as you take whatever
$3 ,900 is times two, what's that, $780 or whatever?
Yeah, yeah. Then you're feeding them. What was
the thing that was said? Pigs get fed, hogs get
slaughtered. So as long as you're not like, I
did deduct a two -headed dildo once, a double
-headed dildo that I used for a prop once. Well,
I've seen you use that on your YouTube before.
You've seen my only thing. Yeah. That was an
income -generating purchase. But no, I still
stay. I book shows. I reach out if there's a
show I want to get on. I'm to a point now with
doing it for 20 years and doing radio and everything
where if I ask to get on a show, they'll find
a way or hey yeah let me which if any of you
guys are comics if you want to get on a show
ask the booker you're doing the booker a favor
by having one less person he has to find that
month for the show a lot of the time especially
if you're funny you gotta be funny oh yeah and
be funny don't not be funny the key is to be
consistent if you are consistently funny work
will come if But there's definitely guys that
like I did shows back to back and I did two shows
for him and I ate a dick. And I'm like, yeah,
he's not going to book me again. Yeah. But it
was like a private club thing. It happens. Yeah,
it happens, guys. You mentioned briefly radio.
When did you start doing radio? Was that like
in college? Did you start doing college radio
back in the day? I did do college radio, but
we were a community college and they didn't have.
They didn't have an antenna. So it was just speakers
that blasted out in the quad. And I had a show,
a one -hour show every week. But then locally
here in Baltimore, there was a comic, Mickey
Coachella, who was on morning radio at 98 Rock,
the big rock station. And I wanted to get in
there, but... Couldn't crack that egg, but ended
up getting in with this guy, Matt Davis. And
Matt Davis had a show called Noise in the Basement
on Sunday nights. And what that was, it was local
bands. They would play music from local bands.
And Matt would have me come in just to be color
commentary for these local bands. So that was
my foot in the door for radio. And then Matt
was like, hey, would you book us a late night
Sunday show? So they would then do this. show
for a local band spotlight show at this local
music venue and then afterwards i booked comedy
for that so it was a comedy show that started
at 10 p .m on a sunday night it was absolutely
fucking horrible i think i i would just tell
the comics to show up and do the show and i wouldn't
even go to the show but but through matt i then
started then mickey started having me on in the
mornings and then I got into doing afternoons
and then with doing the murder mysteries, there's
a bunch of the radio guys that do the murder
mystery. So become friends with them. And then
they're like, Oh, Hey, will you fill in on the,
Hey, I'm taking a vacation. Can you come in and
fill in? And now at least three times a year,
I'll do morning radio here in Baltimore. And
it's enough that it would have been a bigger
deal like 20 years ago. When people listen to
radio. I've tuned in before to listen to you
like online. Oh, thanks. Thanks, man. But now
it's radio listeners. It's a certain breed of
people that come to the shows and they're like,
dude, I heard you. I hear you all the time on
the radio, dude. Oh, you're I love when you're
in there, man. You're like, OK, cool. Thanks,
man. Thanks, Bucky. So you're doing the you're
doing stand up. You're doing the occasional radio
stint and morning show. you're doing these murder
mystery show comedy shows and now i feel like
all of the things that you've talked about start
to come together because you this is the kind
of the point where you start i don't know if
that's when you start bussy i don't know if that's
when you called it that if you called it that
right away and it was like a weird out cover
band you start incorporating some of these songs
into these murder mystery shows and now you're
recording a full album so i want to How did you
get from just starting to play music to now you're
recording a full album with a full band in the
studio? Eric started as a musical comic. And
he would come out on stage and sing his dumb
little songs. And I told him, hey, put that thing
away. Nobody fucking respects musical comedy.
And that was like 15 years ago. Not knowing that
he'd become my best friend. He actually came
over today and helped me move. swap dryers i
had to take my old broken dryer out onto the
back deck and then a new dryer we had to literally
take it apart so we could get it down into the
basement and then put it back together just to
find out that the plugs were different so tomorrow
i gotta get a new fucking plug but hopefully
you don't have any wet clothes well they're on
chairs all around the basement around but so
we start doing we start singing together in the
murder mysteries and From there, we started calling
ourselves White and Nerdy. No, we were Amish
Para Guys. And then we changed that to White
and Nerdy. And we would tell everyone that we
were a weird out cover band. And we would never
recognize the original song. If someone was like,
oh, living on the edge, I'd be like, I think
you mean living in the fridge. I'm not sure what
this song is. It was 2020. We did the... At the
end of 2020, we did a, we wrote a song together
called Fuck 2020 to perform at the New Year's
party at Mugubi's Joke House. Okay. And that
was like all of the guys from the Murder Mysteries.
We did, there was some standup. There was a little
bit of, yeah, there was standup. And then we
performed this thing and we performed that. And
that was the first time that we had performed
without those guys being on stage with us. And
then. That turned into, two years ago, we were
at a, I host a game show at MAGFest every year,
the Music and Gaming Festival. And Eric came,
and we basically spent the whole day doing mushrooms.
And at the end of the night, and we had that
word bussy. We kept, that was our word of the
winter, was we kept calling, everything was bussy.
And then Eric was like, hey, we should call our
band bussy. And I was like, okay, fuck yeah.
But then we found out that they wouldn't say
Busy on the radio. And even one place said that
they wouldn't, like somebody, when they saw the
flyer, they made a comment saying, I'll never
come see a band named this. And so we were like,
oh shit, people know what Busy means. Then we
changed it to the Bionic Universal Super Soldiers
Incorporated, spelling Bussy with an I. And then
come to find out Bussy with an I is German for
goodnight kisses, like your boobie would come
in. Yeah, but even that gummy bear company, Haribo
Gummy Bears, they have a line called Fruity Bussy,
and it's fruit kisses. But yeah, so we performed
for two years. We recorded a special. which is
available at hotbussey .com with an I. Transparent.
Yep, transparent. It's not transparent. It's
transparent. It's short for transparent glory
hole, but we didn't want to put, we didn't want
to put, because we both like the idea of just
a piece of plexiglass with a hole in it, and
you can clearly see that it's a duck in your
dick. I also say in the special. I say, or it's
a cool D and D spell. Like a wizard could be
like, I cast transparent glory. Oh, and like
the Balrog. Remember folks, he builds a lot of
things, but yeah. So we recorded our first special
and then still kept performing. And I like to,
in comedy, when I first started doing comedy,
I read the comedy Bible by Judy Carter and a
lot of things from that book. I still do today.
I still always have a pad and pen on me so I
can write down funny things that come to me.
And another one of the things was have a goal
every year. And so at the beginning of every
year, I set my goal for that year in comedy.
And our goal last year was the special. And then
this year, the goal is the album. we started
talking about doing an album and there's a local
podcast that had us on and they it's called black
dog studios that we went to it's the sandy lounge
podcast and i went there first and then i saw
their setup and i was like oh shit you need to
have bussy on so we can fucking record down here
But this guy has turned his ranch style home.
He said that he completely gutted it and rebuilt
it and turned the basement into a podcast studio
and a recording studio. So there's like this
whole area that's just meant to record bands
and stuff. And the guy does, guy's name's Chris
Wheel. And he does audio for the, for Masson,
which is the channel that plays the Orioles stuff
in here, Orioles and the Ravens. I need some
water. So we asked him, we were like, hey, can
we record here? Can we record an album? And he
was like, yeah, sure. First, I had to get, Eric
wasn't on board. He was like, I don't know, man.
I've never even seen the place. So then I got
Bussy booked there to go do the podcast. And
then he was like, oh, fuck yeah, this is legit.
Then as we got closer, Eric was like, hey, let's,
I have a friend. I want to add drums. If we're
doing a studio album, I want drums. So we got
his childhood friend, Blake, that's been playing
drums since he was like 10 years old to join
us. And then I was like, I got a buddy, my buddy,
Happy. He fucking, he plays guitar. And Happy's
one of those guys that like, he'll have his guitar
and Eric will be like, throw in a guitar solo
here. And Happy just, oh, like this? Yeah, like
that. Happy joined up. We moved Eric over to
bass or as I call it, easy guitar. And I just,
I became the vocalist. I took some vocal lessons.
from a guy i found on instagram so i could get
my i wanted like a metal growl that like where
you go like like that's learning how to do that
without tearing up your voice is really yeah
yeah yeah if you miss that if you don't go deep
enough it's right in that area where you gotta
go yeah because i already had a vocal fry which
is like the upper it'll be too loud if i did
it but i became the vocalist and then while we
started practicing. We started meeting at Eric's
house at least twice a month to practice the
songs to get them down. We, Eric and I had a
gig coming up in my neighborhood that was a music
venue that I've seen bands perform at. And I
was like, Hey, like I messaged the booker and
I was like, Hey, we want to swap out. We want
to have, we're going to do a full band. So what
we started calling the full band is, remember
MTV had MTV Unplugged, where they took an electric
band and they would give them acoustic instruments.
And now they're doing Unplugged. There was Nirvana
Unplugged. Yeah, that was a really big one. Yeah.
Korn did an Unplugged. But so we're going the
other way. We're an acoustic act that's now doing
electric. So we're bussy plugged when it's the
full band. Nice. I love a plugged pussy. Yeah.
We talked to the booker and then the booker got,
he went a little crazy, which I love the guy
because he's a comic, but he went a little off.
As soon as we did it, he was like, all right,
give me, give me photos of the band and I need
a bio. And I was like, dude, we've only met once
together. We don't have pictures. So he lost
it. He basically was like, I'm not producing
this show anymore. I'm stepping down. I was like,
all right, fine. I'll fucking produce it. We
produced it and we made a ton of money. But leading
up to that, then I was like, okay, I have my
bionic arm for the show. I made Eric a leg. And
then Happy had come over and he saw some masks
that I'd made. And he was like, oh, this is cool.
I like one of these. And I was like, all right,
I'm going to make you this mask with light up
LED eyes. And then the drummer was like, I'm
not wearing a fucking mask. And I was like, okay,
all right, calm down. I made him a harness that
has like an arc reactor in the chest that sounds
activated. And then there's LED strips that are
on the thing that sound activated. So we call
them the atomic drum machine. And so we did this
whole stage production and I paid a guy to do.
We have a multi -camera shoot of that show. And
they told us that the venue that they could get
direct audio from the board, separate channels.
And when we got the audio, it fucking sucked.
It was like he only recorded the bass player
and the drum player. And I'm like, oh, man. So
now we have this footage and we're in studio
recording. So once the album comes out, we can
then use that and make music videos using that
footage. Oh, hell yeah. So, yeah, I love that
you've incorporated like. all of your passions
and skills and creativity into this project.
And from, from music and comedy to, to dick and
fart jokes to your building costumes in these
intricate lighting setups. And I love it, man.
It's really cool. And you've always been super
into tech, but I want to back up one more time,
just a little bit. And talk about how you first
got into VR and then how you met Kyle and got
involved with Fail to Render. So it was around
2020. I saw some article, some blip that said
that there was VR comedy shows. And every comic
was hurting during 2020. I got sick of doing
Zoom shows. I did a couple outdoor shows. But
I bought a headset just to come and find Kyle
to be like, hey, I'm... I want to be a part of
this. And the next thing I know, Kyle's like,
hey, you're hosting this open mic for the rest
of your life. And I'm like, oh, okay. Okay, cool,
cool. It's been great, man, to have you doing
that because it's such, and I think it does a
lot of the things that you, like your classes
and stuff like that that you've done to be a
mentor to younger comics over the years. It's
a way to consistently do that without overextending
yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah. have this space for
new comics or anybody to come in but you're also
it's once a week it's for a couple hours and
that's it yeah so it's not it doesn't ever take
over your life like i've seen with others but
i've seen a lot of i first met you in an alt
space show i remember i was not doing comedy
stand up yet i was doing improv in alt space
actually with the the who's line people but i
came to a fail to render show and I had given
my avatar a receding hairline and you roasted
the shit out of me for it because you were like
you can make yourself look however you want man
receding hairline no but that was how I first
met you and then a couple years later I started
doing stand -up in my local scene but there just
wasn't the it's a smaller city and there's just
not there's no real comedy clubs at all it's
all like bar shows and coffee houses and stuff
like that and yeah and so i came there's a couple
guys like that that are corny or coy uh he lives
in a very small town that doesn't really have
there's no real comedy scene there this is his
outlet to do comedy and this isn't the only place
that i have but it is one of the only places
i have without traveling and now because i've
been able to do it here and do it in addition
to the few opportunities i have locally i'm getting
booked out of town i'm getting so it's it's yeah
it's great man what what do you have going on
other than this this album that you're recording
you mentioned briefly your buddy stavros halkis
yeah i want to talk about just a couple of the
things that i've seen with you and him They all,
for some reason, oddly involve nipples, whether
it's your nipples or, but you've been on his
podcast a few times. He is skyrocketing. Oh yeah.
He's on, I think tonight or last night was on
late night with Seth Meyers. Oh wow. And he's
of course in that new, the starring in the new
movie Begonia. Yeah. He was in a movie last year.
We let's start a cult, which I thought was fucking
hilarious. Yeah. I also think. he's also been
very good about lifting up his people that he
came up with. And what's that been like to be
around some of that success, but also be part
of it too. He's always, I feel like he put up
clips of you like the day Begonia came out. I
feel like that wasn't, he does stuff like that
on purpose. Yeah, he's a good guy. I got to tell
you, the first time he called me to come and
do his podcast, I was legit. I didn't think you
liked me. I didn't know we had that kind of relationship,
but okay. And I did his podcast, and it was just
like, oh, hey, what's up, Stav? Shane doesn't
answer my call. Okay, I'll be honest. I don't
have Shane's number anymore. I used to have Shane's
number. And the last time I messaged him to be
like, hey, I'm coming up to Philly. I thought
he was still living in Philly, but he had moved.
As a matter of fact, the next week he got SNL.
Yeah, having friends that I considered have made
it, it's great. Now, right now, I never ask Stav
for anything. I don't message Stav. Yeah, I'm
like, I'm not going to be that guy that's only
using him for whatever. If he has a spot that
he needs me to do something, I'll do whatever
he needs. But, yeah, I don't bug him at all.
Yeah, of course not. But I love that he had you
on a Halloween episode. You got to show off one
of your intricate costumes. Was that something
you built? Yeah, yeah, he messaged me, and he
was like, hey, man, do you want to come be on
the podcast? I'm doing a white trash costume
Halloween episode. And he was like, I can buy
you something from Party City, or you can wear,
I don't know, whatever mech suit you have lying
around. I was like, how about I bring my Mando
kit? And he was like, okay. And then that's my
Mando kit that I spent seven months building
the suit. And then seven months on the arm and
it is, it's just so uncomfortable. I think I
need the suit itself let out in the legs, like
the seams and the legs have to be let out. It's
just, it's not fun to wear. Yeah. Is it more
comfortable sitting in a chair like on that podcast
or up moving around? You would think, no, there's
no spot where it's, I'm glad I did all this to
myself. I'm really happy. Everything's always
fallen off of it. you gotta always gotta maintain
it and rethink like i know there's a hinge that
i have to reattach after wearing it to staves
but it held up for the thing who knows i just
i think it's the craftsmanship and like the detail
that you put into that stuff is so amazing and
i just want to give just as a fan of stavi like
he i think gives like this really amazing perspective
on masculinity and uh and gives like really great
life advice on his podcast oh yeah and i think
that while also being hilarious but you've always
been like one of the funniest guests on his podcast
in my opinion i think honestly man like the chem
no the chemistry y 'all have i won't put it all
on you but the chemistry y 'all have is really
you can tell that y 'all have come up together
and known each other a long time it's yeah it's
cool man what have you got going on that you
want to plug that you want I'm going to put links
to Transparent, and I'm going to put links to
your YouTube channel and everything in the description.
What else have you got going on? We got, let's
see, this weekend, if you're in Michigan, if
you're in Marquette, Michigan. This will probably
come out about mid -December, I would think.
Oh, okay. It's going to be the season finale.
Mid -Michigan. We got murder mysteries. You can
go to dilaffingproductions .com. There'll be
murder mysteries towards the end of this month
in December. I'm looking forward to it. We're
doing a ski trip. We do a snowboarding trip every
year. And then this year, my buddy has a cabin
that's a mile away from Canaan Valley, from the
mountain. But this year, we were like, fuck it.
Let's spend the money. Let's get a ski in, ski
out. So we're going to get a ski -in, ski -out
on the fucking mountain. I'm really excited for
that. But then in March, we've been told. So
the local radio station, 98 Rock, they are having
a spring thing. And it's going to be a bunch
of big bands playing. And they want Bussy to
open that show. So we're playing at the CFG Bank
Arena. It used to be called the Royal Farms Arena
or the Chicken Box. We used to call it. So, yeah,
we're looking forward to that. Yeah. That sounds
like something I might have to come up for, sir.
Come on up, man. Yeah, man. Maybe they'll give
me a press pass. All I can do is ask. Yeah. Yeah,
man. I've interviewed a bunch of musicians. I'd
love to interview some of the people they have
coming. Yeah. I'd love to have Eric on the show,
too, man. I think that Eric will have a hard
time in here. He gets motion sick. Oh, no. That's
why I've got to come up there. That's what I'm
saying. We've talked about having Eric in here,
but he can't do it. He'll throw up the whole
time. I mean, it would be hilarious. Tommy, it's
fucking awesome to hear all about everything
that you do, man. I love seeing you every week.
And I haven't been in as much recently, but I'm
going to be traveling a lot doing recording this,
man. But I'm back home for the next several weeks.
You're going to see a lot more of me. Yeah, anybody
watching. Come out and fill the render. You can
actually come on a flat screen and watch the
shows if you have a computer. Yeah, even your
mobile. You can do it on mobile. Do it on your
computer. But, yeah, you can come out. It's,
what's it, 10 p .m. Eastern, 9 p .m. Central,
p .m. Pacific. And, yeah, we have shows four
nights a week. Mine's Monday. Mine's the best
one. Come to that. It is. the best one i'm not
gonna lie but shout out to kyle render for everything
that he's done for online vr comedy and to the
whole team that failed to render i didn't really
ask anyone if we could record in here but i figured
your picture was on the wall so it was safe yeah
it's fine thanks for being here brother that
was awesome man we always do this this is how
you say hi hey let's go and in some of the other
apps that'll give you like uh I remember in Old
Space we used to play patty cake, man. Yeah,
you could actually slap. And then you could throw
up confetti. Yeah. You can't even fire things
out your hands anymore. R .I .P. Old Space. Yeah.
R .I .P. Thank you so much, brother. I love you
so much, Tommy. You're the best, dude. I love
you too, man. I'll see you soon. I'm so sore
from moving that fucking dryer. That was my interview
with Tommy Simbasi. We got a lot of cool stuff
coming up this season. Tonight. I'm at Bird's.
Come check it out. I'll be taping it and putting
some of it up online. And make sure you go order
Sloan Brothers' new LP, Love and Other Diagnosis.
It's available on vinyl and digital. There's
a link in the description. We got a lot of exciting
stuff coming up. Next week we got Brian Howard.
from the band Cracker, and he's also a voice
actor and plays in a lot of other bands. We get
into it. Cracker's about to be doing a 30th anniversary
tour for their 1996 album. Brian and I had a
great talk. The week after that, we got Shane
Moss, who I was super stoked to sit down with.
We had way more in common than I realized when
we first started talking. Really... The perfect
guest for this show. We talked for over two hours.
Red Padilla from Red and the Revelers. Justin
Long from No Address and the Petty Nicks experience
and a bunch of other amazing Tallahassee bands
that we got into a bunch of Tallahassee lore.
So hit that subscribe button and get into our
world.