Andrew Schulz details his strategy for maintaining creative control on his Netflix special by building independent equity and audience leverage, allowing him to negotiate as an equal partner without compromising his identity. He contrasts this with industry norms, expresses a preference for radio's live engagement over stand-up, and debates Tim Tebow's authenticity while explicitly explaining Mormon "soaking" practices. The episode concludes by highlighting the tension between maintaining "flagrant" content and corporate fears of social media backlash, ultimately asserting that true artistic freedom requires owning one's product before entering network negotiations. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Creating Your Own Content00:12:38
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Here is the exclusive clip.
As far as the photo shit, you being in LA with execs. and all these people in power.
If you know they're frogs and they're corny, how do you do that?
And this is somebody who can help your career.
You know what?
I've done everything in my power to not feel like I have to rely on anybody for my success anymore.
So now when I enter relationships with people, I don't need them for what I want to do.
Like the whole goal was build this so that we can have control of what we do with our careers and have put stuff on a platform that doesn't have some sort of middleman that allows me to upload it or not.
Right.
And now when I enter business with like people in entertainment, you know, Netflix or whatever it is, that relationship is very different.
I've had the best time.
But is that a level thing?
It is a level thing.
If you're a young comedian, that wouldn't be your answer.
No, no.
But what I would say is you got to do what I did.
Like depending on how you want to navigate the business.
But like one of the things I'm most proud of of the Netflix special is like we got to create the special we wanted to create.
And the only reason that we're able to do that is because we built up so much equity.
Netflix was down to allow me to create the special that we wanted to create.
If you're a brand new comic, they're not willing to roll the dice on that.
But we built up that equity ourselves.
We built up the following.
We built up the interest and we built up the show.
So that's what I would tell anybody.
It's like, stop, you know, hoping that networks will be charitable.
Create your own charity and then enter this business relationship.
And those relationships are amazing.
I can't say so far.
I mean, we're, you know, recording this before the special technically has dropped.
So fingers crossed, everything works out.
But so far, I can't complain about a single thing from them.
They've been incredibly supportive.
Now, that's not going to be a young comic's first time on Netflix experience.
So I can't speak to that.
But what I can speak to is building up enough power and equity where you can have that relationship with the people you do business with.
So it's like, you're not being fake with me.
You're just being supportive of me.
But I also create some dope shit that you want to support.
And back.
Yeah.
I just see a lot of times, especially walking around.
Now that I'm in a content business, being with people who can help or hurt you, my energy changes.
I try to catch myself.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
I try to like, don't, don't do this because you know he can help you with this.
Stay like walk in the room, be the same guy, but also know who is, who this guy is and how he can help you, how he can benefit you.
But don't switch because then you feel like, man, I really don't like this dude, but I know he can help me with this and he can help me with that.
You won't switch when you don't need them.
Right.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, you got to get to that point.
You got to get to that point.
You got to get there.
He's willing to get there.
Like, I don't know if you're there.
Are you there?
No, I'm not to the point where it's just like I could walk, but I'm to the point where it's like, if I don't like a project, I don't have to take it.
Whereas before agents would send me on these auditions, I'd be like, this sucks, but I'll take it.
Now I might take it just to do the work.
But it's like, if I don't want to do it, I don't do it.
And I've told them, like, if it won't work with my podcast, I'm not doing it.
That's a great place to be.
I remember I told my agent, he said, Jeffrey, what's the Jeffrey Jeff, Jim Jeffries has an NBC show coming out.
They want you to audition.
And I was like, yeah, where does it film?
And they were like, LA.
I was like, I can't do it.
And then he was like, yeah.
And he was like, do you understand how much money?
So you're not nervous.
And I was just like, I understand.
And I understand what I'm doing now is what I want to do.
And it's maybe not the same money, but it's close enough that I'm good.
And he just couldn't like.
Yeah, I think I would be too paranoid not to take it because you can't give up your thing.
Like when it's yours, if it's comparable pay and it's what you want to do, I'm not doing some shit I don't want to do for comparable.
For what?
What's the if it's level up?
And if it works with this, and I can, and that's what he's brilliant at is creating the leverage.
I always say life is a leverage game.
His leverage is always: look, you can come or go.
I'm ascending no matter what.
And they see that.
Everybody could say it.
For him, they can see it.
Yeah, like my what my strategy is create the product, create the heat.
And then if there is a deal to be done, let's do the deal.
And then that deal looks a lot more like a partnership than it does.
Like I'm working for somebody.
And that's important to you.
Well, because I get whatever I want out of the deal.
Like even when we were negotiating this, we started the negotiation, but my feeling was I have to be able to continue to do whatever I do on the internet with complete and total freedom.
You know, you hear a lot of times like athletes or musicians talk about like these like slave contracts.
And I understand, I never understood what that was because I'm like, you're making so much money.
Why are you a slave?
Like, it doesn't make any sense.
But then I started to go, oh, control.
Yeah, you're a quote unquote slave because you don't have the freedom to do what you want with your life outside of that contract.
So the most important thing for me was I need to be able to keep doing me.
And I realized the only way I could do that is if I gave finished products to these networks, because if the product is finished and I'm already profiting off of it and things are great, they don't have as much leverage to offer me stuff.
They can only offer me more eyeballs or more money.
But if I already have eyeballs and money, you're offering me more.
You can't take my freedom for a little more.
You know, if there was another league that LeBron could play for where he could make a little bit less money, but he had the freedom to do whatever he wants, the NBA don't have a lot of leverage.
So would you call that the Chappelle?
Is that Chappelle?
Is that what he did?
I don't know.
Recently?
Well, I mean, you're talking about when you create your own content, you control everything.
Is that something where I feel like Dave?
I feel like everybody knows Dave ignored the bag.
He went to Africa, came back, and now he has this, he's a free thinker.
He says whatever he wants.
He's electric every time he opens his mouth.
I just feel like a lot of times you don't, I think as a comedian, how me looking at him is he's one of few that can do that.
Not every comedian can do that.
Yeah, he built enough, I would say he, yes, equity.
Yeah, he built enough equity before where you're willing to do business with him in any way you can.
Right.
Whereas there's some people who like, I was talking to another budget, you know, Neil Brennan, right?
So Neil, there's a show I really want Neil to do, and I've been telling him to do it forever.
It's so fucking funny.
I won't say it now, but I really think, and it's about him.
And it's just, it's perfect for how he's funny.
It's a great device.
And he's like, yeah, I might just like write a treatment and then we could like pitch it to a network.
And I'm like, Neil, Neil, now just make one sketch of it.
Make that sketch funny.
Then make another sketch and make the people so interested and curious and find it so hilarious that they're begging for more.
And then make 16 weeks of it.
And then by then, you've proven the product.
You know it works.
You have all the leverage in every bit of the negotiation that you walk into.
And you can go anywhere with this thing or you can keep creating it on your own.
Why give it to a network and then have them look at you and go, well, we don't know if this is going to work or not.
So we have to create a deal that's a little bit more advantageous to us and protects us, which I understand because they're a business.
They got to protect themselves too, right?
But if I show you that the people love the cookies, they're going to sell whether they're with you or they're with me.
You know, like what is the first thing they ask in Shark Tank?
How much money are you making on this?
Yeah.
Right off top.
And if it's not profitable, they usually don't.
I mean, it's not profitable.
But you have the ability to do that.
I think you have the recipe.
I think you have the blueprint.
A lot of people don't want to see it through.
They just want to create and let go.
And that's, I find myself like that right now.
Like, I just want to create it and then be like, all right, it's going to come back.
Something's good from it.
But you're like, no, create it, stay with it, build on it, keep building, keep building.
And then you'll get to a point where you don't need anybody's input because the people are going to respond to it.
You know, you got something good.
That's hard.
Yeah.
That's hard for a guy who's not a comedian, a guy who's just coming off the field, working for Barcelona, man.
You constantly have to be in this mind frame.
Like, what can I create?
What can I do?
Are the people going to like it?
You got to push it out there.
And like, you guys have stage work.
I don't, I've never been on stage in my life.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
Well, what do you love doing?
I love radio.
See, that's that.
I love radio.
That's what I always focus in.
It's like, what do I love to do?
And what do I want to do?
And then I build everything off of those places.
And then I start analyzing the marketplace and I go, what is the marketplace missing?
You know, but like, what do I love to do?
It always got to start with there because I know I could work harder than anybody if I love it.
Right.
If I don't love it, I don't even care to do it.
Yeah.
I'll stop some shit that's successful if I don't love it.
You know what I mean?
Like, we can make a sketch that everybody loves.
If I do not have a good time on that sketch and it's boring, I'm not doing this no more.
Like, I can make money doing anything.
Yeah.
I choose to do the shit that I love.
So that's what I was focused on you.
It's like, if you love radio, you're great at it.
You know, you are naturally great at talking to folks with a microphone in front of you.
So it's like, if that's the thing you love, it's like, what are the ways that you can continue to do that and get even better at that and find ways that more people can find out about it?
That's what I've focused on.
Yeah, I think I get jealous of comedians because you guys get to work out your shit.
Yeah.
All the time.
Yeah, we always have an outlet.
Like being on radio, like where I'm on radio from seven to nine, my brain's not even on, bro.
So I'm stumbling, mumbling.
So I'm waking trying to wake myself up.
I'm not up to like eight o'clock, but I'm blew a whole hour just me being in zombie mode and like blah blah blah.
Comedians, you guys get to be on and vet and talk to the crowd.
The crowd gets to talk to you.
You guys, you guys kind of, you guys have that release.
You know, my release is for like two hours, then I'm holding it back up.
And even on social media, you don't mind having a camera in front of your face, but you don't feel like, I just like that engagement that you guys get the constant engagement, instant engagement from the crowd.
Yeah.
If you're a content provider, that's, that's, it's everything.
Yeah.
Have you ever tried maybe not doing stand-up, but like doing the pod in front or the radio in front of like a live audience?
We've talked about that.
Um, it's just a logistics thing, what that would look like, how we get, how we would get it done.
But uh, I just like that interaction with the crowd.
Like, I, it's, I've watched you do it.
I've even seen your stuff.
Like, I've seen you guys, you can tell you guys are in your set and then like, especially you, you'll bag on somebody in the first row and that just spawn, that'll just spiral into a whole fucking rant.
But that energy will make you go home with something like, man, that was amazing.
You know, this fucking Asian sitting down with this, this Irish dude.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, how did that date happen?
And to go down that and to constantly have that, that kind of, you know, being, being fed all that energy and that content, being a content provider, it's hard to get that because we're reactionary.
I'm wondering if like there could be something with callers for you.
Callers always reacting to callers.
Like, because that is someone that is feeding you something that you could react to.
We do.
We do, we do react to a lot of the callers.
But I think for me, I wish more women called our show.
I love like women from, women are, they vary.
Guys are kind of like, oh, we're all kind of same in this I'm around.
Women, they just come from different angles.
Can you easily do like a ladies' day or like every Thursday we take.
I would love to.
I would love to, dude.
I wish I would talk to more women.
Do you have a chick on the show?
The last one we had was JSB, Julie Stewart Banks.
I know her.
She's a sportscaster.
She's doing her own thing now, too.
I forgot who she's with.
I think she's with Pluto or something like that.
Right.
Because sometimes that helps, man.
Just having like a female voice.
I don't know.
I love having a female voice in the room.
Always.
Like it's just.
It's dope because like the way the conversation goes, you're considering what she is thinking.
And then I think when like the female listener is taking it in, like you never want to have a female co-host here?
We don't have a like a specific co-host, but Taylor is in a lot of our episodes.
Okay.
And like she like takes notes, but we also give her a mic because she's hilarious.
And To me, yeah, female energy just, maybe it is just you're considering the female perspective when she's sitting right there.
Yeah, but the female energy is just, and they got to be able to roll with the jokes.
Yeah, you can't roll with the jokes, get the fuck out.
Yeah, but if they roll with the jokes, then they just fine, yo.
Yeah, do you?
Yeah.
You can't roll with the jokes, get the fuck out.
Yeah, but she needed Barbara.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
She's a wild girl, bro.
Like, she's just funny.
Yeah.
She is funny.
She's a funny girl.
Yeah, Karen Feehan.
You know, Karen.
Yeah, yeah.
She's awesome.
She's been on the show a bunch.
And she's sharp.
She's witty.
But then, like, you see her take some punches.
You're like, are we going to get in trouble for that?
Oh, we good.
But I've never had that.
You're going to be part of a corporation.
You have to worry about like HR departments and shit.
We have a real HR department.
Rolling With The Jokes00:06:16
Yeah.
And what's wild now is not even fuck HR, Twitter, it'll come for your ass.
Yeah.
You know, it's social media come for your ass if you show out of bounds.
You know what I mean?
Like we kind of like Barstup kind of has like this sling it or just Sirius XM or whatever.
You say anything you want, do whatever you want.
But when you see yourself say something that can get your ass canceled, like, oh, that could get me canceled.
Right.
Twitter, Twitter is where people go to die and bleed.
Like they would drag you.
So like talking to a woman or having that kind of back and forth jokes, you're always cautious.
Like, man, was that the line?
She smiled.
She laughed.
Man, fuck the line.
Go past that shit.
See?
Yeah, just go past it.
I wish I had that.
That is the foundation of this podcast.
That's what it was founded on.
Literally, yeah.
So we're now.
I wish I had those nuts.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I think you can have them if you're working for yourself.
That's easier because at the end of the day, the only people who can fire us are the people who listen.
Sure.
Right?
Like, we can't fire ourselves.
But if our listeners are like, nah, we don't like this shit.
And our listeners would fire us if we weren't flagrant.
That's what they're signing up for.
Yeah.
I said, I was on air the other day and I said that Tim Tebow was like Homelander from the boys.
And people came from my ass.
What did they say?
People just like, oh, you're comparing Tim Tebow to be a racist, homophobic.
I was like, no, I just, Homelander, anytime he's in front of the camera, he was fake.
I just feel like Tim Tebow's the same way.
And it was like, people thought it was the worst analogy.
People came from my ass.
And I was so dumbfounded by it.
Yeah, but you know what?
We've learned it does.
Those people, you weed them out.
And the people who get you, who are your fan fans, will be like, nah, that's funny.
Willie not.
Some people, yeah, some people got it.
Is he fake?
Tebow, yeah.
I've been around him.
And he's, yeah, he's real act.
No, it's not all.
I mean, he's works his dick off.
Yeah.
Super passionate about whatever comes out of his mouth, like overly passionate.
Yeah.
But I just felt like it.
So there was one story.
I think he had a bad practice.
This is before I got to the Jets.
He had a bad practice and the media was just waiting for him outside the gates.
He knew it.
And so he took his shirt off and ran by the media.
They didn't ask him questions.
They just showed him jogging with no shirt on.
Most quarterbacks, you throw eight picks.
You throw four picks at a practice.
You're sombre.
You're upset.
You know, you got to address the media.
He wanted to deflect all that by just taking his shirt off and fucking just running by the media.
So the media didn't even talk about the four picks he threw.
They was just like, Tim Tebow's in amazing shit.
Yeah.
It totally deflects from the practice.
Margo, it is smart.
Smart move.
But it was also like, bro, like.
Stand in the fire, take your shit like the rest of us got to.
Yes.
It also shows he knows how the media works.
Correct.
He acts like he's just this sweet little Christian boy, but you got to motivate and manipulate.
He got a little Ellen in him.
Yes.
I got you.
Is he pounding puss or is he a virgin?
If you Google his, I think if you Google his like girlfriend in college, she was like a smoke show.
Supposedly he never touched her.
I think it's bullshit because she was, she was gorgeous.
He probably got wild head, yo.
Yeah.
Oh, he's probably what he's probably a soaker.
A soaker?
What does that mean?
You know, Mormons, they soak.
What is that?
They just put the P in, but they don't move up and down.
Yeah, he can't just soak it up.
They just soak it.
That's what Mormons do.
It's like SpongeBob.
Yeah.
Hold on.
There's no way.
Hold on, bro.
Break this down.
You never heard of soakers?
No.
I mean, it's a pretty descriptive term.
I'm surprised y'all can't really put this.
So if you insert your penis and then you just lay on top of her.
And then leave it there.
Don't move.
Because moving is the act of sex.
Correct.
Inserting is not.
It's called soaking.
But how do they get around it legally?
That's what religiously.
It's not a verb.
They're not fucking.
You're not fucking if you don't move.
It's not an action.
But you still penetrate it.
You've penetrated.
Yeah, but it's like placing the dog in the bun.
It's only a that's a wrong analogy.
I had it, then I lost it.
No, I don't know.
I just, that's what they call it.
I have buddies who are more.
I have buddies who went to a BYU and they was like, bro, yeah, we would soak all the time.
I was like, what the fuck is soaking?
Yeah, we just slide it in, but we wouldn't move.
I was like, so what would you do?
We just kind of just kissed, but I couldn't do the hump.
I wouldn't hump.
I mean, this is hilarious.
Those are like the Jewish girls I grew up with that would only give head or give ass.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
It's the same bullshit.
Like I said, white girls are amazing.
Like white girls, I'm a virgin, but like sucked 50 dicks.
Yeah, and got fucked in their ass.
That's sex.
All the Catholic school girls got fucked in their ass.
They thought God wouldn't know.
Man, that shit is so arrogant to try to trick God.
God's not the pearly whites.
Pearly Gates is like waiting there, watching your fucking gaping asshole walking.
Come on.
But soaking is different because soaking is penetration.
Yeah, but it's not fucking.
Did they do that with a wicked?
And you're not coming.
Yeah, you can't come.
You pull out and you come.
Yeah, but you got to pull out and beat off.
You can't come.
Like, you just put it in and stay.
Like, that's the loop to beat off.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yo, this is crazy.
I can't believe that this is.
Some call it soaking, others parking, marinating, or the provo float.
Or my personal favorite, the dock and talk.
Doc and talk.
That's so good.
No thrusting, no grinding, no climax.
Just pop it in and hold the fuck still.
It's like planking, only your dick is inside of a Mormon.
Urban dictionary.
It's a real thing.
I played with a lot of dudes who went to like, like I said, played with BYU went to B-L-Y-U and all that stuff.
And they would talk about it.
They're like, yeah, we used to soak all the time.
And the first time I said it, I heard it.
I was like, oh, like, you know, I'm still salt bath.
They're like, no, bro.
We would put the pee in there and we would just be still.
You think they would brag about how many girls they soaked with?
Like, nah, bro, I killed her this week.
Five different bitches I soaked with.
Yo, I'm out here like motherfucking Scotch guard or whatever.
That shit is Scotch right, bro.
I don't get it.
Can you be a soaking slut?
Yeah.
So you're just getting soaked out every night, but you're not technically fucking.
Nope.
But Hyman destroyed.
To pieces.
Bro, that's crazy.
I just couldn't imagine sucking that up.
Like, hey, you know, we're soaking tonight.
I don't know what the fuck you think going down.
Hey, get the Mr. Bubble bitch.
We are soaking tonight, bitch.
It is going down.
Imagine getting an STD and you didn't even nut.
Right, son.
That is crazy.
Bro, you could get STD soaking.
Surfshark Exclusive Offer00:03:41
Yes, you can.
Soaking transmitted disease.
That is sucks.
What happens if you're the fucker that just like your soap game is so pissed?
You don't even have a time to soak.
You just nut as soon as you get in there.
That's what I would do.
I feel like I get it as close as possible so I'm nutted on the insert.
So it would just be one stroke.
Because you technically get one stroke.
No, you don't want to break the rules either.
The dudes don't want to break the rules either.
Both of them are.
I'm not breaking the rules.
I'm soaking and then I'm unsoaking.
No.
But you're not allowed to nuts.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I don't think Mormons are allowed to masturbate if I'm not.
Yeah, they can't masturbate either.
So that's why you got to soak.
Very frustrating.
It's torture, bro.
That's why you got to soak.
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