Hey folks, welcome back to Good News York. It's
still April or it is April and it's still cold.
It's still cold. And I don't understand that,
but there's no good news in that other than it
should be ending soon. Look. And it gives me
an excuse to wear my new hoodie. Yeah. So I'm
a hoodie connoisseur, so I don't, I guess I don't
necessarily hate that. Being a weatherman is
like the only job you can keep and be wrong all
the time. 45 and a high of 97, but it's what
am what do I wear anyway enough about that? I'm
Mike Brindisi. This is Matt Mazer. What's up
to me back? He's our first repeat guest I think
he is our first ever repeat guest our returning
champion comedian extraordinary I kept knocking
on the door. Please let me back in he did it
was all he's like a cat we fed him once and He's
waiting here every morning, and I love you, and
I'm so glad you're here. You've got a big you're
shooting a special 11 days in 11 days April 12th
at the McCarthy Mercantile building in downtown
Syracuse in the name of the special letters are
hard. You've got to come to this. I'm obviously
going to be there to show 7 p .m. and 9 p .m.
I love that you're doing that. Let's jump right
in. Why are you doing that to why am I doing
two shows? Yeah, yeah, I know. But I'm going
to pretend I don't know most tapings. They usually
will do four shows actually or even more. I think
Tom Segura said that he did. eight and really
what it comes down to is you want to get it on
the right take and sometimes something will happen
something will come up audiences now definitely
are and god bless them i don't particularly hate
it is there's a lot more crowd work in stand
-up and stuff like that. So I think that they're
expecting sometimes a bit more engagement. And
specials usually, unless it's a crowd work special,
is about the material. So you want to get in
a good take. Things can go wrong. Things can
happen. So we're doing two just to be safe my
last half hour. I had to cut out two jokes that
I really liked just because I fumbled over one.
And then the other time I had that crowd work
engagement. And so just having to to be able
to try it once. Maybe I'll get again back to
Tom Segura. I think out of the eight, he said
he got it on the second one and then the rest
he could just have fun with. So, yeah, that's
so smart. Gives you more to work with. Everybody
wins. If you can't get into the first show, you
can get into the second show and vice versa.
Have you ever gone the route? I feel like you
this would be a chance a Leap of faith, but I
feel like I want to it could have it could happen
Have you ever done it to where you're like, you
know what? It's 7 p .m I'm gonna tell this joke
with this punch line, but I also like this punch
line for it So I'll try that in the 9 o 'clock
show. Are you doing that at all? I've done that
with Not shows that I'd be recording, but I've
done that on shows. There was a club in Times
Square called LOL, and they had three rooms,
three rooms that they would fill with like 100
people. It was crazy that they were able to get
it. And you'd have six comics just. It was like
Scooby -Doo when they go through the doors and
stuff like that. So you'd get off stage, someone
would open the door to the next room and you'd
run in to be able to get on stage. And so sometimes
you could definitely be like, okay, I'm gonna
try this punch line here. But then it also became
like a cloud of comedy where I'd be looking at
a crowd and I'd be like, did I do this joke yet?
I literally just did it. I've done that before.
I love toying around with different punchlines
and it's been really fun working like I've jumped
on every show that I can and every mic and so
it's fun working with a lot of the comics in
the scene like a lot of new comics and just talking
about punchlines and what if you did it this
way have you thought about that and so it's really
fun I love that process and that part of it so
yeah I remember when I was I did comedy. I don't
know why I can't speak today man. I'm bad five
strokes already on the air Sorry Brian Deep breath
No, so I've I've had moments where in music and
in comedy But I've always felt like when I was
when I wrote a song I was never satisfied because
I thought there's fucking 80 ,000 more melodies
I could have came up with and what if the one
I'm sticking with is not The one that is the
best melody for this when I and in jokes I feel
like I go through that sometimes too where I'm
like the setup could be better It's just it's
all part of the process, but it just drives you
crazy. Sometimes you find that yeah, and I worked
in TV for a while as a producer and When you're
on the other side of it and there is a time crunch
when there is you're the one kind of setting
the deadline it definitely helps I think with
the process because Without it things could always
keep going you hear about these directors who
have been working on a film for 12 years and
it just keeps spiraling and it's because No one
said, hey, it's got to be done by Tuesday. And
so I think sometimes you just are putting it
as it is. I'm always surprised that a stand -up
hasn't done a retooling of some of their older
material. I'm surprised at Seinfeld. I know he
did a special where he did all of his old material
and talked about that process. But it would have
been interesting to see what 55 year old Seinfeld
would have done with this joke versus what he
was doing when he was 20 So that's always interesting
to me to see if people would because there's
tons of jokes. I would have gone back and done
Differently or punched up differently or put
somewhere else. Yeah, one of my favorite stories
I actually I probably told this on the air. So
I forgive me if I have but to your point I was
in the studio with my band when I was doing music
for a while and we were like In the 11th hour
of this song and it was the last song to go on
the record And I kept saying let's do this and
the producer finally looked at me and he goes
sees that shelf over there And there was a shelf
of CDs at the time and he's every single one
of those albums was recorded here He's the only
reason they were finished is because we either
ran out of time or we ran out of money He's I
could have sat I could still be sitting here
today tweaking this song It's like an artist
with a canvas like you wake up you walk by and
you go, okay You can always brush it up and you're
so right and especially in the ADHD world you
get it Deadlines are everything the worst thing
someone could tell you is just get it to me whenever
yeah whenever is like the worst We talked about
this last time I was on just the no just this
scheduling and how is particularly this one However,
the special turns out. I'm already happy with
myself for immediately jumping into tasks. It's
not waiting till later scheduling it out and
That's such a big part of that process. But yeah,
I think you just got to be able to say, I got
to have it done by this time. And it that's the
best version of it. It is. I wanted to ask you
this last time. So I'm so glad you're here again.
Obviously, Brian Inc. Recording his special letters
are hard at the McCartney, McCarthy, Mercantile
and downtown Syracuse 12 to show seven and nine
p .m. What day of the week is that Saturday?
Saturday, that's Saturday. We love Saturdays.
So the question I wonder about is. Back in the
day, you never the comedian never really dictated
when they got the special because it was you
worked at stand up, you worked doing your stand
up and hopefully one day a network would approach
you and say, we want to shoot you shoot a special.
Now, just like the music business in the comedy
world, in the podcast world, you just put your
stuff out there and you. run the show. From your
point of view, as a comedian myself, I'm asking,
when do you know? You know what? I think I'm
at that point where I can record a special. I
know you've already recorded a special, but like,
when do you know? I think I have it's what's
my time. Oh, it's when you and I did this today.
It's when you go in the fridge and say that pork
shoulder is going to go bad if I don't cook it.
And these jokes are going to go bad for me. They're
going to go to a place where I'm like, I've done
them so many times. And they don't have the pop
anymore with the audience because they don't
have the pop with me anymore. I'm not excited
to do these jokes. And right now I love these
jokes, but I know in the next month or so I'm
ready to move on to other material. And so that's
what it is when you just reach that point where
you're like, this is going good. let's do it
before I start getting bored with these stories.
And it's also my last special, I talked about
being in a relationship that's, it's before I
met my wife, it was years before I met my wife.
And it's funny to see because I'm uploading those
clips to promote the special also, I've been
getting messages from people who are like, Lakshmi's
not from Philadelphia. I have a joke about dating
a girl from Philly and everyone's like, your
wife's not from, I'm like, I know this, there's,
I need to put a timestamp on this. This is from
before. And so there's, I'm going to be reaching
stages in my life where I'm like, oh, I'm not
going to do this joke anymore because I'm going
to start talking about what it's like to be not
a newlywed, but like a married guy and a dad
and that stuff. So right now this whole thing,
this whole special feels, and it's talking about
a few things, but it really is newly married.
being in an interracial marriage, which is super
funny and Moving up to Syracuse I talk about
how different it is from New York City and then
just all these jokes feel really good to me right
now and I'm ready to leave them there and move
on to the next stuff So that's when you just
like if I don't do it now this meat's gonna spoil.
No, that's a great That's a great metaphor. Yeah
for that. What? What do you do with a special
like this? Is this something that you now make
available and have folks? Is it, do you try to
sell it to Netflix? What, how does this work?
There's a few ways to do it. They're the last
one I didn't really shop around. It was mid pandemic.
I'm sure I could have, but I just wanted it up.
And I also know. I'm a no name, so I just wanted
it out there. It's not like people work. You're
not a no name. I'm somebody. You are somebody
to someone. I think with this one, I'm going
to do more of a push to work with a production
company. There are so many you hit on it that
there's so much self produced artists right now
and podcasts and music that I do that. There
are smaller scale production companies that are
working with those not smaller scale in a bad
way. It's like shopping local versus shopping
Walmart. There's more local production, and it's
interesting where the deals, and it's not about
the deals, but it's interesting where the stuff's
going. I think Hulu has a really good model right
now of Bill Burr, Roy Wood Jr., oh, talk about,
we're gonna talk about later, underrated comedian.
Roy Wood Jr. is the most underrated comedian
living right now. But Hulu's deal is, you put
it on our platform, you get to put it on your
YouTube channel, which is super smart for them
because the Hulu stamp will be there. So you're
gonna bring Roy Wood Jr.'s audience into Hulu's
verse. Hulu's verse is gonna go to Roy Wood Jr.'s.
And a lot of comics were self -producing on YouTube
because they wanted to have... the rights to
their contract. And a couple production companies
that I've talked with, they've had that, where
they're like, every year we renegotiate. If you
wanna try to send it somewhere else, you can,
but it can live on our platform, and every year
we renegotiate versus in perpetuity throughout
the universe forever and all time. So I think
it's a really interesting place where... The
business side of the art is going and I think
that can only help the artist create what they
authentically wanted to do I think we'll see
a lot more of stuff funded and shot by the artists
and then share with the production company So
that's very interesting because that's what I
was gonna actually ask you when I hear the words
production company I assume they are the ones
who have to show up and shoot the thing in all
that We definitely had one in particular. We
had that offer for them to fund it and produce
it But in that world, it's percentages change
a lot as well as stand up because I think I did
the first one. I know what that budget looks
like. I know what that timeline looks like. So
I knew I could do it myself. Sure. If I. If one
of the scripts I'm working on gets picked up,
that's something that I would not. I would say,
I don't know, you have that. I don't know that
world. I don't know how to create that. So it's
what you feel like. You guys knew that you could
do a podcast because you knew the nuts and bolts
of it. But if I was like, hey, we're going to
go into, I don't know, we're going to go into
a paint installation, you'd be like, we should
have someone else do that. That's not our skill
set. No, that's incredible. I've always. Wondered
how those sorts of things work. So I think it's
neat that you're able to put these things together
But then get the opportunity to get it in this
man. Yeah, you're right. It definitely was you
Got big either on a late -night spot or something
like that And then you worked out a deal with
a place and you did your half hour whether it
was Comedy Central or HBO or wherever it was
and now there's a lot more And you just go where
the audience is also and the audience is watching
more stand -up on social media and on YouTube
and You just go where that is I'm off to flame.
That's complete sense awesome now This is not
only just a comedy show for you and for the crowd
We have let's talk about the patty foundation
again. Yeah There's a charitable component to
this whole thing. Not just me the charity. No,
not just you. Me too. Not your typical stand
-up charity. Right. So the proceeds are going
to the Patty Foundation, a late friend of yours
we talked about last time. Syracuse Pride is
involved and ACR Health. You want to talk about
that a little bit? Yeah, I know Syracuse Pride
in particular and the guy who runs that, Jimmy,
is a fantastic Guy he has been taking on pride
forever and this year in particular it's we know
the lay of the land right now like I They're
having a really hard time with pride and it is
he told me there are corporations that funded
last year that aren't funding this year because
they're not being encouraged or you could even
say pressured into helping this community as
Well as he said that there are some that are
afraid to help donate to Pride and stuff like
that. And at the end of the day, it's just ridiculous.
So we're gonna send some of the money to Syracuse
Pride. Some of the money's gonna be going to
the Patty Foundation, which again, takes care
of LGBTQ youths. And then the ACR Health. Just
got on board. We're gonna work with them also
They actually found out about us through this
podcast last time that I was on and they literally
have housing for kids that have been kicked out
of their families and their homes just for being
gay and We're gonna raise money to make them
even gayer. We're gonna make them Know these
you know, we can play the game back when they
go, you know before Dragon Ball when they go
Super Sam. Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna
do that, but So no, but we're going to these
kids. Rainbows are just going to be emanating
everywhere, everywhere. And you guys should definitely
have Jimmy on. I'll connect you guys because
he's great. And yeah, it's just it. We're going
to be able to send money to a place where this
shouldn't even be a question anymore, that they
need help and. and to be taken care of and celebrated
and danced with and all those beautiful things.
So let them live their lives. Yeah, the rest.
Yeah. But anyway, I think that's wonderful that
you're including a charity. And the Patty Foundation
that let's talk about Patty. He was a good friend
of yours. Yeah, I want to bring it up again,
because I just I love this man. And I never met
him. Oh, my best friend in the whole wide world,
Patrick cocktail. He Beautiful guy and very funny.
He would have loved this huge nerd huge bills
fan film fanatic and the sweetest nicest guy
and the meanest queen in the whole wide world
and He just cared so deeply about what he called
his community and I think for a lot of people
in that community the LGBTQ You have your group
of people who are your people who love superhero
stuff. You have that stuff, but sometimes also
always feel like you don't have. And he just
wanted to take care of these kids who were through
no fault of their own having terrible circumstances
put upon them. And so after he passed away, we
had time to miss him. And then his boyfriend
and I just, we reached a point where we were
done. Missing him and we wanted always will miss
him, but we wanted to have it be a more active
thing And I think that's why a lot of people
do charities About people who have passed because
in this way you could get to talk about them
in the present And so it's maybe be the selfish
thing for me It might just be the selfish thing
for me and Jake to want to talk about Pat and
the current Yeah, it just it's just this thing
that we wanted to do to If he was still here,
he'd be doing exactly this. So that's just what
we wanted to do. And yeah, it's been great. And
it's a great part that this has already brought
up the ACR health who are have been boots on
the ground doing this beforehand. I'm a new tourist
to this community. And so I am so glad that there's
people who are like, yeah, we've been fighting
this fight for a while. We'd love to help out
and stuff like that. So I would definitely say
I'm sure you guys will put links in. If you can't
make the show, the Eventbrite has places to donate
like $5 and your credits go into the special.
And then I'm sure you guys can link ACR Health,
Syracuse Pride, all these things. And yeah, it'll
be it's just places if you can't make it. put
that money there because we wanna help these
people out. That's fantastic, I love it. And
this also allows me to do all the gay jokes that
I want. You get a free car. You're allowed to
just gay it up. I can't wait to see the comments
that are like, that's not what this means. What
are you doing? So let's talk about, that's the
charitable part of it, but where can people get,
I know we're gonna give away some tickets, but
where can people get tickets to your show on
April 12th at the McCarthy Mercantile? It's on
Eventbrite, and I would definitely say if you're
thinking about going, grab tickets and pick a
show. There's the 7 p .m. and the 9 p .m. show,
and grab that just so we know how to seat the
room. It's this beautiful open space, and if
we see that... there's 75 people at the first
show, then we'll seat it a certain way. So definitely
grab the tickets. It helps us out to organize
it and how we go from there. But yeah, we have
tickets for you guys to give away. But Eventbrite,
I'm sure you guys will have a link on there.
Tickets, I think are $8, comes to $10 with Eventbrite's
cut. So very much for a beer. That's beyond reasonable.
Yeah. And I think if you've never been to a recording,
we talked about this last time, it's super fun.
Anytime you guys watch a special and you're like,
I think it'd be fun to. What's that like to be
there? It is super fun. And it's going to be
just a great show. The audience for a TV show.
Yeah, it'll be super fun. You're a part of it.
And I was just talking about this. I think it
was last week. I was last weekend or the weekend
before I went and saw Colin Jost at Cornell.
And he had two other comedians open for him that
are from SNL. And it was in Barton Hall. And
if you're not familiar with Cornell University,
Barton Hall is literally an airplane hanger that
they turned into a venue. And I don't know how
many probably five thousand or more people. It
was like a graduation. Yeah. And we're talking
about these guys are heavy hitters. They've been
on SNL. I don't want to say they bombed, but
there was. There was just the whole time I was
cringing because the jokes were funny, but no
one was laughing and so the airplane hangar had
bombing. Oh, yeah We laughed and my friends were
like hey Mike like I'm the comedy whisperer all
of a sudden They're like, why do you think it
wasn't going over and I'm curious as to your
opinion or if you can back this up I said I think
a lot that has to do with it is that is so hard
to translate comedy in a large venue. And I feel
like I've heard big comedians like Kevin Hart
that are doing arenas, Dane Cook that were, yeah
man, I actually wish I could go back to clubs.
And you can't see faces, you can't, it just,
I don't know how to explain it other than the
jokes don't hit like they do when you're in a
smaller venue, do you agree? Demetri Martin had
a great line in one of his specials where he
said, the best places for comedy are the worst
for a fire. And it's 100 % true. It's amazing.
You want heavy curtains, you want frayed wire,
you want a dark room with one exit and it's yeah,
the worst ones for a fire are the best rooms
for comedy. the rooms that are really good, we
call them kill boxes, because it just, everything
hits right. And it's, I've been seeing all this
stuff on. the internet too of like healing sounds
and frequencies and stuff like that. And I think
it's similar for a comedy room. There is the
right size. Shakespeare had that famous theater
that he did in a certain shape so that the sound
projected. Sure. It was a black box theater or
something like that? No, I think it was like
a hectic, a black box theater. I don't know what's
a black box theater. I like the idea of Shakespeare
and all the actors are in turtlenecks. I don't
even know what a black box theater is. It just
sounded right. No, we have this old, and it was
a specific design, and so I think rooms have
that. I think some comics are getting away from
stadiums for their specials. I think if you can...
What a problem to have. Exactly. But if you chewer,
and a lot of people want to see you, stadiums
make sense. Yeah. I think it's, and it was a
college kids, right? It was college kids, but
here was the real rub. There was also... older
crowd and townies like myself. So it was like,
how do you prepare for that? Because those are
two completely different demographics. I was
going to say college kids I saw, I think we talked
about this last time also. That's just going
to be the name of this episode. I think we talked
about this last time. Younger kids are getting
their stand -up through social media and a lot
of that with the shorter clips a lot of it is
crowd work based That's right. And so I particularly
like crowd work I'm good at it and I enjoy doing
it especially because people like it and I'm
not burning material And what that means is if
you hear my joke once you'll listen again You'll
like it, but it's not like a band where you come
back a week later. We love that song play it
again you want to hear a different bit. And so
jokes have a different time stamp on them. And
the crowd work is great because you get to upload
something, but you're not burning material. And
if the younger crowd, when I did my show at the
Utica college, I did mostly crowd work because
that's what they were, what they're accustomed
to. And there was a time where standup was vaudeville,
then take my wife, please. Then we got into observational
humor then we have more stories and so right
now it's just crowd work it's a lot more crowd
work and stuff like that so if you have a bigger
space it's a little bit harder to do that if
you're not doing that and you have a younger
audience they're like why are you telling me
about the breakup you had that's not crowd work
with me yeah and Just because there's people
who are amazing improvisers amazing sketch writers.
It does not mean that they'll be good stand -ups
I'm a good stand -up and I'm an okay improviser
I'm not a great sketch writer like those things
are just because you can play bass guitar doesn't
mean you can play piano sure Yeah, I would have
to see the show, but also everybody does bomb
every once in a while, and that's nice. I feel
like, I'm glad you said that, because I feel
like I'm the opposite. Like, I think I'm a -
You never bomb? No, fuck you. You bomb all the
time. No, that is not, no. You heard it here,
Mike never bombs. Ever, ever. When you go to
his next show, it won't be a bomb. It'll be a
fucking hoot. It'll be great. No, what I mean
is, I'm better at improv and writing sketch ideas
and sketching. I'm good at stand up, but I just
I can't remember things and so I enjoy the crowd
work because like you said Or like we were actually
just talking about you want to talk about feeling
like you're part of something The media the minute
a comedian goes into crowd work you whether you
know it or not You love it because you know that
it's off the cuff and that's already funnier
Yeah, and now you feel part of it. So I respect
anyone that there is yeah There is a level of
it being extra impressive. Yeah, because it's
that Remember doing shows in New York City and
I tried to work with people Other comedians where
I was like, hey, I've got to show it this time.
He's I got to show it this time Like what if
we pay each other I'll go in and we'll work it
out where I heckle you but you fucking bury me
and I was like I can start a little side business
and it never took off but But it was for that
reason because you want to be the professional
Professional bad heckler. This is also like 2004.
And yeah, I just want to see you try to claim
that on your taxes. Yeah. Yeah. Professional
heckler. Where do I write off? Sir, please leave.
Yeah. All right. So Brian Inc. Let's play a game.
You want to play a game? Yeah. Say it one more
time. His special letters are hard. The McCarthy
Mercantile in downtown Syracuse, April 12th,
two shoots, seven and nine p .m. Get your tickets
at Eventbrite .com. Brian, I love you. So you
said you wanted to play a game. What do you want
to do? I super love and I don't know if it's
a game, but it should be, which is just over
and underrated. I think that there is a really
good get to know you. And Matt, we've never met
briefly, but I want to get to know you better.
Over and underrated things. And I think that
it's I want to see. I could definitely kick this
off. And this is going to be a Syracuse. specific
one and I might lose anybody who was thinking
about getting a ticket. Straight slice cut pizza
is not only wildly overrated, it is an abomination
against humanity. I know we do it here and I
don't, every time it happens I feel personally
attacked and I know it's only here. You're saying
as opposed to like the traditional triangle cut.
That's what makes it pizza. I didn't want pizza
breadsticks. Places do this. Who came up with
that? I don't. I feel like it's a thing of, hey,
Rochester's got garbage plates. Buffalo's got
their wings. What do we have? We have a lot of
things. See, I remember when I was a kid, that
was not the way to go, but if you wanted, like
you or you're having a lot of people, you could
ask for a party cut. That's right. And that was
the idea for smaller pieces where you got hundreds
of people, whatever. It's an option. Yeah. And
it was by far never the default. No, you know,
I've said this and we probably and now you have
to select an option if you want it Why for me?
Listen, I consider myself a pizza connoisseur.
I almost said penis connoisseur, which would
have been hilarious But I could be both I can
do both. I like a little sausage on my pizza
anyway, I Will cut that part. I Judge a good
pizza by this. It's got to be triangular. Okay,
it's got it It's got to have the triangle when
you fold it the crust Doesn't have to but bonus
points if it cracks and if you can get grease
down your arm It is the absolute perfect pizza
piece of pizza Yeah, I'm not down with that.
You can't do that with the strip. No, I wonder
if Original pizza out of Italy might have that
cut they call it like the grandma slices or coastal
Sicilian like a toasty like what's the French?
Yeah Even if they did, it's wrong. Yeah, it's
they did. They were wrong. Yeah, I know. It's
yeah. Wrestling was invented in Greece, but we
perfected it here in America with the WWE. I
mean, like they pizza. I got. Yeah. So that's
definitely not only a under or overrated. It
is an abomination. I've heard with you overseas.
There is a real deal. battle going on where Greece
claims they invented pizza not Italy and There's
some proof behind that I like that. That's what
you classify as the battle You're like, I don't
know if you guys know there's a fight there's
a war. There's a hot take ours is better than
both Don't worry about Gaza. I was like I was
yeah, I was like we could donate money to Ukraine
to like You're like actually Greece needs your
support. They think they invented pizza Ukrainian
pizza sucks China invented Pasta and noodles.
I know that's a big Take also and I know you
guys probably have a big actually you want to
talk about relevant to New York. There is there's
been a good There's been a real argument that
the ice cream sundae was created in Ithaca and
I forget who they're arguing with Some other
town in America that claims no we they were the
first one to throw chocolate on their boring
-ass vanilla ice cream They were also early for
integration also that might have been Okay, wait
another over under actually you do an over underrated
me. Yeah, what about the video games? Yeah, we
could do video games. Do you have a video game?
That's either overrated or underrated I'm gonna
see this is gonna we're gonna be fucking hate
mail now I'm sorry. I don't understand the fortnight
or the minecraft Just you're too old. I think
that's more of an age thing. It's a kid's thing
All right. It might be a kid's thing, but wait,
let's take that out of it. I do think that if
we're looking at a game critically, Fortnite,
I think, can be qualified as overrated. I think
Minecraft is a building simulator, so that's
just different. But Fortnite was what Pog, what's
that called? It's a drop in game, and I think
that's not a super creative mechanic. And at
the end of the day, Nothing's changing in that
gameplay. They're just throwing skins on it.
So I think you can't argue that is overrated
Yeah, yeah, I'd go with it. I've got a bunch.
I'm thinking wait. I got a game. That's underrated
Star Wars outlaws it had a terrible release it
had a terrible first couple days but I played
it and my brother put it perfectly because they
dropped the price to $30, $40. He goes, it's
a great $30 game. And so I played it. I really
enjoyed it. It is a Red Dead Redemption meets
Star Wars. I love it. And not to the quality
of Red Dead, but it's, yeah, it was definitely
an over, assuming an underrated game. Yeah. I'm
going to go underrated with Star Fox. Do you
remember Star Fox? Yeah. That is a game that
was phenomenal. Never talked about enough. The
characters were great. The action was great.
Big fan of Star Fox. Yeah, Star Fox is great.
Yeah. I could go on. I have a whole list. We
just lost our entire female audience. Hi, we're
virgins. No. I could do so many. Ready for under.
left field wait matt do you have an underrated
overrated i i don't have a great one yet so go
for it i have a underrated this is gonna this
is people are gonna be like oh he has adhd and
autism i think trains are underrated trains are
super underrated i go down to new york city all
the time i take the train i don't have to drive
I get to sit and sleep and relax and it's great
and I think trains are awesome and I'll even
argue trains beat planes sometimes because the
amount of time you gotta wait in security and
wait for your flight because you gotta get, you
could just waltz onto a train, you could moonwalk
onto it and then just start headed to where you
gotta go. What's your favorite part of the train?
My favorite, now we're getting real. Like the
upholstery. I don't know enough about trains.
Are you pass this I almost get a train set to
go around the Christmas tree and I don't but
I Yeah, I think trains are super underrated and
they're a great way to travel. So we're not very
video games now We're just doing things that
are yeah. Yeah, we can go back to video games.
No, I just it's a curveball. I'm ready Shit underrated
overrated. We're on to trains now. What do you
guys listen Matt? You guys prepared for this
and I didn't pay attention video games to trains
real quick trains all the things ladies love
Matt's going remember that urban legend where
you're like remember my friend. We heard he took
he drank a glass of Took a hit of acid or he
smoked too much weed and now he thinks he's a
glass of orange juice No, we didn't grow up in
Ithaca. Oh But anyway That's Matt right now.
He just got back from Vegas and he's still not
the same in another time you are still yeah time
zone so He's I can tell he's trying to do overrated
underrated, but he's just alright. Here you go.
I will On that topic, since it's top of mind,
I will give you one of the most underrated things
in Las Vegas, if you want to visit that. I'm
representing with this shirt here. I went to
this place called the Pinball Hall of Fame. It's
like an airplane hanger. I'm just writing down
a charity for autism. Full of video games of
mostly pinball going back to the 70s. Here's
what's great about it. Everywhere in Vegas it
is non -stop harassing you about you got to pay
a Massive ticket price to walk in the door and
then once you do that There's ten assholes who
like mob you and try to sell you everything from
show tickets to timeshares and it's it's infuriating
Pinball Hall of Fame none of that nonsense No
admission you walk in it is literally like an
old -school arcade you put your money in the
change machine and get a handful of quarters
and you just go to town and I played some pinball
machines from well before I was born that I never
have even seen before when they're in operation
from the 60s and 70s They had you want to talk
about underrated or overrated video games Mike
Tyson's punch out when the old -school arcade
version they had a wide variety of arcade games,
claw machines. It was the one place that my wife
and I went and we spent multiple hours and $25.
The only place you could say that anywhere in
Las Vegas. And it's definitely underrated because
I've never had anyone come from Vegas and be
like, Jude, the pinball was awesome. Best thing
if you... especially if you're prone to losing
all your money in the slot machines. Please play
a game you can have some fun with. There's people
who go to the pinball museum, and they come back,
and they're like, how was Vegas? I got a rash.
They're like, yeah, you did, you naughty boy.
They're like, yeah, one of the machines had a
little thing on it, so I have this rash now.
Yeah, my wrist hurts. Oh, whoa. I didn't wear
my brace, and I was playing too much game. OK,
so yeah, if you're going to Vegas, pinball. I
would 100 % go with that. Sign me up. It's incredible.
Wait, I got one here. Overrated. New Godzilla
movies. Super underrated. The 2000 Godzilla movie.
Was it Matthew Broderick? Yeah. Maybe I was at
the right age for it. I feel like that was a
great Godzilla movie. And I thought it was super
interesting. And you can argue with me. Everyone
does. I agree with you. One thing that pisses
me off in that world is when I was growing up
everybody was Batman Batman I'm a Superman guy
Superman was my first love my first superhero
love We've other than the Superman one through
five there in the 80s. Those were great, but
I'm talking about a new age Superman movie. They've
all shit the bed. What about the show anybody
step up and just Create remember the show in
the 90s with Dean Cain. Oh, no. Yeah, no Not
a fan. Although I did hear the what was the one
about Superboy that was like pretty big. The
new Superman movie James Gunn is going to be
awesome. Is it? It's going to be awesome. I just
I'm praying that we finally get a decent Superman
movie. James Gunn is fantastic at creating those
types of universes. And I think that we're talking
about this with a buddy of mine. It's amazing
that DC makes such bad. superhero movies when
their animated series and their video games are
so story rich and so good. And so I think if,
I mean do you guys have a huge audience that's
the CEOs of the DC universe? And so they should
just take that stuff and just put it into film
format and it would be. Great. Batman animated
series. There's another underrated. That's one
of the best superhero shows ever. That was the
most... I was a little kid and I'd get home from
school and I'd sit down and watch it. It was
the most serious cartoon I think I'd ever been
created. They did a documentary about it and
it was on purpose. They said that they wanted
to make a dark and challenging... They wanted
to talk to kids like adults and not in a... gross
way but yeah like yeah we're gonna talk to you
guys and you're gonna empathize with some of
these villains and you're going to see the challenges
that Batman is facing with his life and stuff
like that Superman's going to get his taxes done
yeah just boring I think that's great it's something
that's underrated because you're absolutely right
it was so good mind blow absolutely nothing like
it I'm not even sure since there's really been
anything quite like that. And then to contrast
the original, you think about the original Batman
with Adam West, that 60s live action thing that
was so over the top cheesy. There's a place for
that. No, and it was great. To go from that so
into basically a serious, I don't know. almost
manga before that was even really a thing, I
feel like, to some degree. They printed everything
on black paper. All the animation was done on
black paper. The creators specifically wanted
to make stuff where you empathized with so many
of the characters. It wasn't zany or silly. And
what's funny is on the same budget was Animaniacs,
the complete opposite, which is so funny. And
they played back to back. That was the thing.
After that, now it's jumping around the Warner
lot with the crazy Animaniacs. What a great show.
They rebooted it and it's awesome. Yeah. Really?
Yep. What is it on? Hulu. All right. All right.
Give me a over under. Oh, over under. Okay. Just
any topic or are we on? Anything. Anything. Okay.
I wish I had prepared for this. Okay. Over under.
I'm going to say right now there is a craze going
on and it is called water bottles And I think
it is completely overrated. We are talking we
are getting into stylish water bottles. Oh Wallace
Stanley's The designs it's too much. All right,
just throw some water in a goddamn thing sip
it and call it a day You see that SNL bit the
big dumb cup? No. It's phenomenal. Sounds exactly
like what we talked about. Just a bunch of white
girls with a big, dumb cup. Phenomenal. That's
what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Giant Stanleys. Yeah.
Yeah. My wife's on the sideline of my daughter's
lacrosse game, and she's like, good job, honey.
You know what I mean? She looks like a complete
ass hat. These things are so big. That was impressive.
Thank you. You're so strong. I didn't think you
were that strong. That's the other thing too
is it's like the people that are designing these
it's like they're like All right. I want to design
a water bottle. That's not gonna fit in any cup
holders in any car America and I've just I've
had it This is more me venting than over rate
can also be used as a weapon It could be this
one that I have is really cool. Nice. No, so
it's the bottom of my water bottle It's an coffee
mug and then you twist it on and it just goes
in nice water. I like that a lot. But yeah I
can think of so many better over -unders, and
I'm blanking today. See, I just don't understand
how folks keep track of those, because the reason
that I use the disposable cups is because I am
famous for setting my cup down and it disappearing.
Yeah. And I can't tell you how many hundreds
of regular, insulated, reusable cups that are
off in the world somewhere. 100%. I like these
also because I sip slowly, and so it's nice to
come back to it in an hour, and it's still warm.
Yeah, that's nice. the real advantage. That's
the key. Wait, speaking of which, this segues
perfectly. Super underrated, really good coffee.
Super overrated, really good wine. Okay. Yes.
I think really good coffee is such a... to me
that's the one where I can tell the difference
between crap coffee and good coffee and I think
especially in the morning when you need it really
good coffee is Worth it. We have a coffee maker
at our house where it grinds you put the beans
in and then it automatically in the morning will
grind and pour and I wake up with fresh coffee
and That's my favorite thing in the world and
really good wine Can't tell the difference. I'll
agree damn Jimmy. I'll agree if we did it blind
taste good ass coffee guarantee there one of
us if not all of us could sip up a $200 bottle
of wine and an $8 bottle of wine and some of
us would go I like the $8 wine better, but if
I'm a bad coffee You're like this is shit For
some reason, it's easy to mask it with. And not
that there isn't a place for really good wine
that's got a great story, that has a wonderful
vineyard, but at the end of the day, I think
there's too much emphasis on good wine and not
enough emphasis on really good coffee. Underrated
wine hangovers. Those are bitches. Those are
awful. Because it's sugar. It's all of it. I've
got an overrated. I've got an overrated. Oh.
I know. We're going on long, but I can't help
it because I finally figured out one. Okay. Overrated
for me. Every summer, my family and my in -laws,
we go to a different beach. Beach vacations.
I'm not shitting on them. I just think it's overrated.
Because for the next year and a half, I'm finding
sand in my ass crack, my shoes, my phone case.
Don't get me wrong. When I'm there, I'm happy.
It's fine. You heard it here first. Mike doesn't
shower. I don't. And why do that when you can
shower in the ocean? No, I just think it's fine.
But by day two, I'm good. We don't need to go
down every day. So I'm happy with a lake. I'm
happy with an ocean. I thought I was the only
one that felt that way. I just think beach vacations
are just a little bit overrated. And you're going
to think that I'm making this up? My last underrated?
Nothing do nothing days and vacations versus
packed vacations of every day gotta do something
I Would date you if I was gay because that we
would hit it off on vacation. There's nothing
worse than going on vacation Okay, so we're gonna
go we're gonna go do the sailboat tour at eight
and then we're gonna head over here We're gonna
know when people say what I would kill for a
day off. I'm like fuck that I would kill for
a day off With nothing nothing planned. That's
where i'm at right now. What would you do with
a million? I'll tell you what I do, man Nothing
at all. Nothing at all You're completely correct
because I just did that like I went away for
the weekend and i'm glad I did it was nice to
get away from things But I I was telling you
like I can't say that I necessarily relaxed Because
we had lots of things and I wanted to it was
like I said, it was great. We had a good time,
but um Still beat And it's fun to go do like,
we go to India once a year and visit my wife's
family and that's super fun. There is days where
we go do a lot and then there's days where we
just sit around and do nothing and it's great.
It's also, it was hilarious, we went to a resort
for the first time and watching my mother -in
-law and my aunt -in -law who are just women
who just always have to be doing something be
so uncomfortable at a resort. They were like,
what do we do? We're like, you just sit here.
And they're like. We don't cook anything or doing
it. I'm like, no, you just chill. And that's
the winning recipe, because then the days where
it's jam packed, that's fine, because there's
also sprinkled in days with nothing. If you had
a whole vacation of days with nothing, that would
get redundant. You had a whole vacation with
days that are busy. Like you said, you come back
feeling like, I need a vacation from the vacation.
Yeah. Yeah. No plans. Yeah, no plans. No plans.
Stan, call me. I haven't had a good overrated
yet, but. Plan Stan Stan call me believe it or
not asshole I Want to give one good overrated,
but I'm just fucking I'm shit today. I thought
you did well Yeah, we did a lot of under and
actually I am overrated. I'm I sound like a curmudgeon
I say I like I like underrated conversations
to think it's hitting on You guys are good news
under is good news overrated is so bad Underrated
I just think of one and then we can move underrated
underrated There's so many ways I can go on this.
I'll give you a 90s movie. That's underrated.
Please go Okay, never saw go with Katie Holmes.
No, okay. It was phenomenal. I'll give you an
underrated movie little monsters with Fred Savage
fantastic or how about That thing you do. I love
that thing you do That's a green tomatoes. That's
one of my favorite movies of all time. I don't
know if I'd call it underrated That's supposed
to be like a classic No, it's underrated the
godfather Yeah, that's true just didn't get enough
love Titanic. I don't know. I knew the ending
Titanic sucks. Fuck you serious He could have
fit on that fucking plank he could have fit You
saw Mythbusters did it. Could've fit. It was
sinking. Because it wasn't a... It was like the
specific type of door. It wasn't like a big door.
It was more of a door frame with a little bit
of door. And there was just no way to get two
people on it. It wasn't the width. It was the
buoyancy of it. They could've just given them
a couch cushion or some shit. Come on. Look.
Understand the dramatics of a movie going back
and arm -charing like these movies like there's
one for home alone now where they're like I forget
what it was but they're basically like Kevin
could have just called the police and then there
would have been no movie and Cool. Yeah, that's
that's overrated. I don't like this new trend
of the movie could have been done if or there's
this thing of I've seen ones, too, where they're
like, there's this theory that the show's actually
the dream of the, you're like, could you find
a more boring way to take a story? And it's,
I like some fan fiction and things that are,
stuff like that, but there's these ones where
it's actually, it's this. I was gonna say, once
in a while, there's a good one. Rarely, but once
in a while. Oh, it's an interesting way of looking
at something that you've always known, but people,
yeah, I think. Like the one about Karl Winslow
that takes it through he's a cop who shot somebody
and die hard and it takes it through the whole
story and About how the character goes through
different. Oh from all the movies. Yeah everything
Yeah, and a lot of times are really dumb but
the one with him that takes him through from
die -hard to family matters Yeah, yeah, it's
actually pretty damn good Steve Buscemi like
through Billy Madison and then That's a new thing
that's going on. I like it, but it's fun. It's
a stretch, but it's forget. All right. Here's
we get we're running out of time I'll give you
the last one As for something for underrated
okay Steve Buscemi in Sopranos Okay, I think
he's one of the ones that half the time when
you think about the cast and all that people
even sometimes forget that he was because obviously
he wasn't there the whole time yeah, but He was
epic. And the fact that he goes from all these
other crazy roles and he fit right in with these
straight out of Jersey Italian guys with no pro,
I think was incredible. No, he was great. He
did a great job. One of the greatest shows. I
bet you that's what got him Boardwalk Empire,
which is another great underage. I think that's
really good. Boardwalk Empire 100 percent. He
showed his versatility in The Sopranos. Yeah.
What an amazing fucking show. By the way, did
you know Steve Buscemi was a fireman? Yeah, he
was an actor, which I think is he. He, I think
was in New York City helping on 9 -11. Yeah,
he was, yeah. He was. Wait, to go back to Titanic
2, I also like, and we're doing fan theories,
I like the idea of Jack does survive on the door,
and they make it to America, and they realize
that they are not compatible, and they're at
a terrible marriage. Like, I love that idea of
they are just gonna get married because they
went through that traumatic experience. And then
they're together and then by the end he's just
I wish I died on that door Because this is a
tip they would have built the whole marriage
around that Hilarious, so you'd be much shorter
movie, but I was gonna say they get to the shore
and there's her boyfriend. Oh, that's funny I
saved you for all this, you know, oh bye man.
I Remember there was a A drinking game you could
play with Titanic. They should make a sequel
where the boat rises. They did make a sequel.
The submarine went down to go find it. It was
a bunch of bored billionaires. And they imploded.
Yeah, it was a short film. It was a very short
film. It was at Cannes, I believe. Oh, and if
you're mad, I'm sorry that those billionaires
died after every expert told them to not do it.
Who would have thought that the N64 controller
wouldn't work properly? come on look we're not
heartless underrated like we're sitting here
going oh overrated the spca underrated the n64
controller look at me underrated the n64 controller
it gets so much it it actually had an interesting
dynamic and it pushed the boundaries so don't
listen to him april 12th McCarthy mercantile
I will go in depth and if you bring an N64 controller
we hook it up to Brian and you can you can operate
me live and It's probably wouldn't work out.
Well because the controller is a little wonky
Ask the guys in the sub you just don't know where
to hold it Yeah, the N64 controller was pretty
fucking revolutionary at the time. It was great
for Like golden eye because yes trigger nothing
beats bond man Because he's too short, I'm a
living odd job. That's for damn sure. You know
this. And on that note. Yeah, listen, this has
been ridiculous and I love every minute of it.
Brian Anke, our pal, our first repeat guest.
Yeah. Yeah. Shooting his special. Letters are
hard, which is very true. April 12th, right here
in Syracuse, McCarthy Mercantile. Get your tickets.
Eventbrite .com. There's two shows on April 12th,
7 p .m. 9 p .m. So you have two chances. Go to
both. Why not? And you guys are going to have
10 tickets to give away. I don't know. Tickets
to give away, which we're going to post and we'll
talk to you about that in a minute. Proceeds
are going to the Patty Foundation, Syracuse Pride
and ACR Health. Brian, I freaking love you, man.
Yeah, this was awesome, man. Good news, York.
I can reach. And we will be back tomorrow, I
think. Yeah. Hey, subscribe to our podcast. Oh,
OK. Everywhere you find podcasts and I don't
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We're on there. You're saying of course YouTube
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York Peace out