Part Of The Problem - Dave Smith - 742 - The State Of Comedy
Aired: 2021-06-08
Duration: 53:22


=== Stop Visiting The Post Office (01:58) ===

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=== Patrice And The Comedy Craft (15:05) ===

[00:01:59]  All right, let's start the show.
[00:02:04]  We need to roll back the state.
[00:02:06]  We spy on all of our own citizens.
[00:02:08]  Our prisons are flooded with nonviolent drug offenders.
[00:02:11]  If you want to know who America's next enemy is, look at who we're funding right now.
[00:02:17]  Every single one of these problems are a result of government being way too big.
[00:02:22]  You're listening to part of the problem on the Gas Digital Network.
[00:02:26]  Here's your host, Dave Smith.
[00:02:29]  What's up, everybody?
[00:02:30]  Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem.
[00:02:33]  I am the most consistent motherfucker you know, Dave Smith.
[00:02:37]  He is the king of the caulks.
[00:02:41]  Robbie the Fire Bernstein.
[00:02:42]  What's up, my brother?
[00:02:43]  How are you feeling this morning?
[00:02:45]  I'm good, dude.
[00:02:46]  We got to do some shows.
[00:02:48]  Yeah, last night was a lot of fun, dude.
[00:02:50]  We were, if you missed us, we were in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Comedy Club at Old Man Hustle.
[00:02:57]  It was a great show.
[00:03:00]  Myself, Robbie the Fire Bernstein, and our boy Chris Fega.
[00:03:05]  Great, great show.
[00:03:06]  Sold out the room.
[00:03:07]  I guess it was their, they're a new club, but it was their first sellout, which I thought was pretty.
[00:03:11]  That was made me feel good.
[00:03:14]  Yeah, that was nice.
[00:03:15]  And yeah, if you missed it, we're coming back this Sunday.
[00:03:19]  So come out and see us if you're in the Brooklyn area.
[00:03:22]  It was very cool for me on a lot of different levels.
[00:03:26]  A really, really fun night.
[00:03:28]  Number one, just, you know, like I'm from Brooklyn.
[00:03:34]  And so, you know, going home and doing a show in Brooklyn is fun.
[00:03:38]  And it's really cool to go do a show in Brooklyn and to be able to sell it out.
[00:03:43]  And I know, like, really, you know, from the bottom of my heart, and I know you feel this way too, Rob, that it's just so cool that we can just go do shows and fill up rooms with our people.
[00:03:55]  It's really just, it's great.
[00:03:57]  And so it means a lot to us that you guys come out to the shows.
[00:04:02]  And we love doing stand-up comedy.
[00:04:04]  Like it's just, you know, it's the best.
[00:04:06]  And that's really what me and Rob started as, you know, and then the podcasting thing was kind of like secondary to that.
[00:04:12]  And then, of course, you know, with the podcast revolution kind of happened and this became kind of the main thing.
[00:04:19]  But stand-up is our first love.
[00:04:21]  And it's a lot of fun to be able to do that and to draw your own crowd.
[00:04:25]  And so that was really fucking cool.
[00:04:27]  Now, maybe, you know, we could talk about this for a minute, but me and Rob were talking about this last night a little bit.
[00:04:33]  And I don't know if we have, we have slight, maybe slightly different perspectives on it, but you're just saying like, so I used to, for years, I just grinded stand-up comedy like every night.
[00:04:44]  Like the reason I'm good at comedy is because I spent, you know, like well over a decade doing, just obsessively doing stand-up, like every single night, being at comedy clubs, being around comedy, doing comedy, all of that.
[00:04:56]  I don't really do that anymore.
[00:04:59]  And I mean, not part of it's just the last crazy year, but part of it's also just, you know, I have a family now and stuff.
[00:05:06]  And I've got the podcasting stuff and I, there's just a lot going on.
[00:05:11]  And I don't feel like being away from my family every day.
[00:05:16]  Like I just don't, I'm not particularly motivated to do that.
[00:05:19]  And I'm good enough at stand up because I have my chops from all those years that I don't really need that anymore.
[00:05:24]  But the other part of it is that it's like, you know, the purest attitude in stand-up comedy, which is what I always had traditionally, was that, you know, you always, you don't want to just get up in front of your crowd.
[00:05:39]  You want to get up in front of random crowds too, you know, and the theory being that like, well, okay, my crowd already likes me.
[00:05:46]  So it's going to be a little bit easier to kill with that room than it will be to kill with some room of people who have no idea who I am.
[00:05:52]  So if you work your jokes there, then you can really make sure they're that, you know, that on point.
[00:05:58]  And then ultimately when you bring them to your crowd, they're just that much better.
[00:06:01]  But obviously the end goal is to be in front of your crowd, right?
[00:06:05]  Like the end, the ultimate A plan for a stand-up comedian is to be, you know, Dave Chappelle or something like that, where you're always in front of your crowd.
[00:06:14]  That's, that's who the crowd just always is is at your shows.
[00:06:18]  And that really for me kind of changed over the last few years when I just, on top of having a family and being more successful and not needing to go grind it out in all those shows, just the whole rise of wokeism just the culture changed so much to the point that you almost always have to be on guard of saying a no-no word or saying a dangerous thought where people will just,
[00:06:44]  you know, like it's not even like the room won't love it, but there'll be three people in the room who feel completely entitled to be like, that was offensive and blah, blah, blah.
[00:06:54]  And it almost put me in a position where I'm like, I don't even give a shit to do comedy for you fucking people.
[00:06:58]  There's a funny, Chappelle had a bit about this like a couple specials ago where he was like, he did the impression and he's like, that's my impression of you.
[00:07:06]  You guys suck.
[00:07:07]  And like, he's just shitting out his audience because you're the worst people anyone ever tried to entertain, you know?
[00:07:12]  And so I kind of have that feeling.
[00:07:14]  And like, our crowd is just so cool.
[00:07:16]  And they're just so down to laugh that I'm kind of like, yeah, you know what?
[00:07:20]  I'll just do stand up for my crowd.
[00:07:23]  I don't care.
[00:07:24]  Yeah.
[00:07:25]  Anyway, so I was thinking about that.
[00:07:27]  No, I mean, listen, when I leave my house, the only thing I'm leaving behind is no furniture in a domino sense.
[00:07:33]  So it's a little bit easier for me to make the decision that I'm going to venture out.
[00:07:37]  But no, I got to say more and more, I guess there's something really nice when you show up in front of your crowd and you've crafted this stuff so you know it's done and like you know that they're about to hear some really polished shit and that's relaxing.
[00:07:51]  I am finding that some of the material that our crowd likes, I cannot work on in a club.
[00:07:56]  And, like, it's the stuff that they most enjoy, you know what I mean?
[00:07:59]  And it's like, when I'm in front of the people that listen to us here, that's kind of like family.
[00:08:04]  I want to impress them the most.
[00:08:05]  Like, that's the people I care about.
[00:08:06]  Those are the people that actually like what we do.
[00:08:09]  Uh, and so I agree with you that it's it's taken this weird turn where there's certain topics that even if like you just tip your toe into them, some of the room is so upset at you.
[00:08:19]  And it's like you can get by, like, you can still do it.
[00:08:22]  You can upset some people, and half the room will laugh, and then you can rebuild from it.
[00:08:26]  But it doesn't, it doesn't motivate you creatively when you know you're showing up to New York City clubs where you might potentially have an argument with someone, you might even end up in a fight, you might walk people and be in trouble with the booker.
[00:08:38]  I like, I get it like when you get to Patrice's level or whatever, and I like not that I'm as funny as Patrice ever was, uh, but like he's at a level where he's allowed to walk people.
[00:08:47]  I am not like, I will not work that club anymore if I decide to delve into a topic enough where I'm walking people.
[00:08:53]  And you're like, fuck you guys, you want to leave, leave.
[00:08:56]  Like, that's not that tough.
[00:08:58]  Well, by the way, just to be clear, because I was around for those days, Patrice, but this is what happens, right?
[00:09:05]  We, like, our group of comics, like the Legion of Skanks, those guys, we loved Patrice.
[00:09:11]  We like worshipped him.
[00:09:12]  Like, he was our God.
[00:09:14]  Like, he was just like, he's the best.
[00:09:15]  We, we were all like Attel and Patrice are the best comics in New York City.
[00:09:21]  And like Greg Giraldo and a few others that were like in that ballpark.
[00:09:24]  And then Bill Burr and stuff like that.
[00:09:26]  But those were like our guys really were like Patrice and Attel.
[00:09:30]  Everyone worships Patrice now after he's dead.
[00:09:34]  But it wasn't, that's not what it was like when he was alive.
[00:09:37]  It was just like us.
[00:09:38]  And like, you know, he had his whole, you know, like people, but Patrice got banned from a lot of those clubs.
[00:09:45]  It's not like as if he was just allowed to do it.
[00:09:47]  Patrice was banned from like the, he was definitely, I mean, I don't know exactly banned.
[00:09:52]  You know, a lot of times they'd say he was banned and then they would, you know, like he could really kind of come back if he wanted to.
[00:09:58]  And then sometimes it was like they'd be like, like he'd ban them.
[00:10:03]  Like they'd be like, okay, Patrice is suspended for a month.
[00:10:06]  And he'd be like, fuck you.
[00:10:07]  I'll never work the club again.
[00:10:08]  Like, you know, because that was Patrice's attitude.
[00:10:12]  But Patrice was one of those, not the comedy seller, the fucking the comic strip, like all these clubs that were the big clubs at the time.
[00:10:21]  Patrice just straight up wasn't working anymore.
[00:10:23]  That's part of the reason why Elephant in the Room was running that at like Eastville and CB's Comedy Club.
[00:10:29]  That's Let's Wick where he was running that shit because he was like, fuck all those other clubs because he would do that.
[00:10:34]  And then they'd be like, well, you know, you walked a lot of people tonight.
[00:10:37]  And he'd be like, fuck it.
[00:10:38]  Those people stunk.
[00:10:39]  You know, and like, so it's not, just to be clear, even no matter what level you're at, short of like Chappelle Seinfeld level, it's a tough thing.
[00:10:49]  Yeah, I remember when I was uh, when I was working my uh, my our special Libertas, uh, which so that came out in 2007.
[00:10:59]  You crafted so much of that at LOL, which is the harshest environment.
[00:11:03]  Oh, yeah.
[00:11:03]  Like, I mean, I was shocked every night that the things you were able to win people over for, which well, there, yeah, you know what?
[00:11:10]  There, I would be able to win people over, but that was like five years ago, yeah.
[00:11:16]  So, this was like the LOL stuff was almost it, it was before the Trump years, you know, so it has changed, yeah, it changed a lot after that.
[00:11:26]  So, my special uh, Libertas, like a lot of the first half of it was it was out in 2017, and the first half of it was all about kind of like the rise of Trump and like all shit related to that.
[00:11:37]  That stuff I didn't really craft at LOL, the second half of it, a lot of that stuff I crafted at LOL and Eastville and some of the other clubs in the city and stuff.
[00:11:47]  But one of the things I noticed when I was working out, you know, a lot of the Trump stuff, which is, you know, which a lot of those jokes I was really proud of, like there was some really fucking, there was some good shit in there that was very different than any of the other Trump material that comics were doing, which a lot of it was pretty fucking hacky.
[00:12:06]  But so I noticed this thing and I actually talk about it on the special.
[00:12:10]  It's one of the first bits I do where I'm talking about what it's like to talk about Trump to regular crowds.
[00:12:18]  And so I kind of part of the reason why I had that take is I had to almost work that in like this disclaimer to get the crowd to loosen up.
[00:12:28]  So like I would mention Trump and then I'd be like, oh, look how weird it already is in the room.
[00:12:32]  You guys are all worried.
[00:12:33]  Are you on my side?
[00:12:34]  Like, do you hate Trump?
[00:12:35]  Are you?
[00:12:35]  And then you almost like, you almost bully them into giving you permission to do this.
[00:12:40]  And I would almost kind of disclaim it by being like, yeah, motherfucker, I'm not like a Trump supporter here.
[00:12:46]  I don't support your side or his side.
[00:12:48]  I don't give a fuck about any of that.
[00:12:49]  You know what I mean?
[00:12:50]  And then just relentlessly, you know, like bash them and then bash Trump and all of them.
[00:12:54]  And so I would find this way to do it.
[00:12:56]  Cause if you just started talking about Donald Trump and then you were just making fun of Hillary Clinton, there'd be these fucking like, like house moms like fucking walking, standing up, and this is racist and Trump's a racist and you should condemn him.
[00:13:10]  And you're like, lady, you're at a fucking comedy club.
[00:13:12]  Like, what are you doing right now?
[00:13:14]  You know, and it would never be the whole room.
[00:13:15]  It'd always just be, you know, the three woke assholes, like always, you know?
[00:13:20]  But so then I'd find this way to kind of disclaim it, put those people in their place, and then I'm allowed to do my comedy.
[00:13:28]  But I always felt even then almost like I felt a little fucked up about it because I was like, as a comic, like, okay, look, I'm not a Trump supporter.
[00:13:38]  So I'm not lying to you by letting you know I'm not a Trump supporter before I go and make fun of Hillary Clinton.
[00:13:44]  But then I'm like, I shouldn't have to.
[00:13:47]  I shouldn't have to sit here and worry about your feelings or disclaim something before I can tell my brilliantly crafted, hilarious joke.
[00:13:56]  Like, let me just shut up and like laugh or don't laugh, you know, like it's and the idea that you have to stand up comics.
[00:14:06]  If you're not just, you know, it's fine if you completely buy into all of the approved opinions, then you can still be free.
[00:14:13]  But if you don't, then you have to find a way to guard against this and deliver this material.
[00:14:18]  And I just thought that was like, I was like, that's bullshit.
[00:14:21]  And it was something that really turned me off to just doing like the club circuit.
[00:14:27]  The, you know, it's been in my experience, it's been better since, you know, since the reopening kind of.
[00:14:37]  I think people are really hungry.
[00:14:39]  They don't give a fuck and they just want to have fun and go out and laugh and stuff.
[00:14:43]  But, you know, I really haven't been doing all the shows I'm at now.
[00:14:46]  It's like pretty much even when it's at like a club spot, it's like, it's, I'm, I'm tweeting that I'm going to be there and the room's at least like half my fans.
[00:14:55]  So it's, you know, it's, it's interesting.
[00:14:58]  But anyway, as starting by, it's, it's great that they come out for us.
[00:15:02]  You're inspiringly good at going from, I'm assuming it's, it, it's it, you sit down pen and paper, but maybe you don't even do that.
[00:15:08]  But you're pretty good at just crafting it and having it work.
[00:15:12]  So you, you're, you seem to be bypassing part of the process.
[00:15:16]  And I'm, I'm finding, and I'm, I'm behind you in terms of my comedy years, but I'm finding with some of my material that is doing the best and I find to be the most interesting, which is the stuff that's a little bit political.
[00:15:26]  More and more, I don't need that.
[00:15:28]  I don't need to hone it in the club, which I think of anything that's like, that's a kudos if you can figure out how to do that.
[00:15:35]  Yeah.
[00:15:35]  Yeah.
[00:15:35]  Well, I like, I like that a lot about your comedy style.
[00:15:39]  And I, that, the reason I do that is because that's what I like.
[00:15:42]  You know what I mean?
[00:15:43]  So I, I, you know, I've, I, I feel like, you know, there's a weird thing.
[00:15:47]  And one time I was with Tom Woods and Bob Murphy.
[00:15:53]  It was when we were on the Contra Cruise and we were sitting around like having some drinks and chatting, you know, like late into the night.
[00:16:00]  I mean, we, we just, I think probably like Tom and Bob would probably retire at some point.
[00:16:05]  Like they'd, the Contra Cruise was so much fun, man.
[00:16:08]  I don't know if they'll ever do that again, but they, uh, the, we would like.
[00:16:12]  We'd just drink and talk all night long and they would go, they'd go till like probably one in the morning or something like that.
[00:16:19]  And then, you know, Tom, and then me and Scott would just go till like four in the fucking morning.
[00:16:24]  You know what I mean?
[00:16:25]  Like this before I had kids, before I was married and stuff, there was, you know, it was like that.
[00:16:29]  I was in those days where I was used to, you know, being up all into the night.
[00:16:33]  And we would just drink, just with a crowd, you know, a group of people, a group of great people just hanging out, just talking all types of shit.
[00:16:40]  But I remember this one conversation with like Michael Bolton, who he would, he would hang with us too.
[00:16:45]  Michael Bolton would be going hard.
[00:16:47]  That guy is, I love that guy, by the way.
[00:16:49]  Such a great dude.
[00:16:50]  But so we would, we'd be hanging, we'd be talking about whatever.
[00:16:54]  But this one particular time, we were all hanging out and they were like asking me a lot about like comedy, like the craft of comedy.
[00:17:01]  And I, it was funny because like, like at first, I'm kind of like, I don't know, man.

=== Shutting Down Funny Moments (08:04) ===

[00:17:05]  Like, I don't even have that much to say about it.
[00:17:06]  I don't know.
[00:17:07]  I just kind of go do it, you know, whatever.
[00:17:09]  And then they'd ask like one question and then I'd have like a 15 minute answer for it and another one and another.
[00:17:13]  And then you're like, oh, okay, you know, I guess I do have a lot to say about this.
[00:17:16]  I just don't really think about it.
[00:17:17]  But I loved when Dave Chappelle said once, I think it was on his Inside the Actor studio, where he said, he said, comedy is a language that I speak fluently, you know?
[00:17:27]  And I think like, you know, I don't speak it as fluently as Dave Chappelle does, but it's a language that I, that I speak.
[00:17:34]  Like I, you know, like in the same sense that if you just went to like, you know, Italy with someone who spoke Italian, you're like, like reading out of a book and you're like, grande.
[00:17:46]  And they're just like, like they speak Italian, you know?
[00:17:49]  Now there might be someone else who's like speaks it a little bit more perfectly.
[00:17:52]  Like Dave Chappelle was like born in Italy.
[00:17:54]  He speaks.
[00:17:55]  He was born in comedy.
[00:17:56]  He speaks it completely fluently.
[00:17:58]  The rest of us aren't quite at that level, but we can still speak it.
[00:18:01]  So I'm just, I'm kind of able to like, if I have ideas about things or things that are funny, the things that I think are going on are funny, I can get up on stage and just speak it in the language of comedy.
[00:18:15]  So I will speak, I will talk this in a way that gets the crowd to laugh at what I'm talking.
[00:18:22]  You just kind of learn how to do that.
[00:18:25]  But one of the things that I think is really interesting, so it reminds me, I was on with Zubi on his show.
[00:18:32]  He agreed, at least in, I have a verbal contract with him.
[00:18:36]  He did agree to come on to come on part of the problem.
[00:18:38]  So I'm going to try to set that up in the next few weeks if possible.
[00:18:41]  But he's great.
[00:18:42]  Really enjoyed doing his show.
[00:18:43]  And I've been a fan of his for a while, but he was talking about at one point was really interesting is that, so he's like, he's, he's a rapper, very talented rapper, but he's like, he's clean.
[00:18:52]  Like he doesn't curse.
[00:18:53]  He doesn't talk about drug use or gangbang or anything.
[00:18:56]  He's like a good dude.
[00:18:57]  No, I'm reading this textbook.
[00:18:59]  Yeah, exactly.
[00:19:00]  But he's very talented.
[00:19:02]  But the funny thing, right?
[00:19:03]  But he's on, he is really critical of like left-wing culture and left-wing politics and stuff like that.
[00:19:10]  And so he'll have these people who are like, he was saying, you know, who will be like, hey, dude, I'm a big fan of your music.
[00:19:15]  I love all your stuff.
[00:19:16]  I don't follow you online because I don't want people to see that I'm following you because it might be like a weird thing, you know, like that type thing, which me and you get some of that too.
[00:19:23]  Like I get, I get a bunch of other people in the comedy scene shooting me text messages and stuff who are like, dude, I love what you're fucking saying on Twitter.
[00:19:30]  I love that you're saying this.
[00:19:31]  Like, I'm not going to say this stuff, but I love that you're saying this.
[00:19:33]  And, you know, but it's just funny that, you know, like in his perspective, right?
[00:19:39]  Could be a fan of like gangster rap, just talking about like pimping and like all this, and not worry at all like, have no fear about the social pressure of that.
[00:19:49]  But if you like this guy, who's like a good dude, who's not promoting any of that, then you're that's like the dangerous guy to like.
[00:19:57]  It's so weird how upside down the world is.
[00:19:59]  But in the same sense, there was something you said to me last night which was, you know, made me think of it like it reminded me of that same pattern where you were like the funny thing is you go, like you can go into any random club and do your like jokes about like titties or something like that, like no one cares about that.
[00:20:16]  But then if you start doing your more like thought out intelligent, that's when they'll kind of be like whoa, you know, it's just, it's so backward in a sense.
[00:20:24]  My other stuff is very offended by.
[00:20:26]  That's so true because everything is so x-rated and I can do that all day.
[00:20:30]  You're never worried about that, right?
[00:20:32]  You're never worried that like oh, someone's going to get offended because i'm talking about just like this degenerate like, like that, just that's.
[00:20:39]  That's not the issue at all.
[00:20:41]  And it's really funny, like it's just interesting.
[00:20:43]  It says something really interesting about our society.
[00:20:45]  Like you could, you could go up there and do like a joke criticizing religion, religion or, you know, like traditional morality or anything like that.
[00:20:54]  You're never worried that that's gonna be what offends people.
[00:20:59]  Um and uh, that it says something about who the dominant culture and who the counterculture is at this point.
[00:21:04]  But that's the funny thing is that it's like the that is offensive is like wouldn't you like that's what's offensive to you.
[00:21:14]  Like you don't mind that Rob just did a whole joke about like weed and titties, but like you're pissed off because he reads about economics right, you think that's the up thing about Rob.
[00:21:24]  Like not not the other part, it's so up because you're so right.
[00:21:27]  If you even just do an like an Anti-biden joke, there'll be a percentage of the room that's just upset that you're even gonna like take like.
[00:21:34]  For me, even we, like Ron Paul.
[00:21:36]  If someone got up and started doing a Ron Paul joke, i'd be interested.
[00:21:39]  I'd be like holy, this guy's got a take on Ron Paul.
[00:21:41]  It doesn't matter what i'm into.
[00:21:42]  I, you and I have said this.
[00:21:44]  One of the best pieces pieces of um, like comedy satire i've ever seen was Jim Jeffrey's bit about guns.
[00:21:51]  I don't agree with one word of that bit.
[00:21:53]  But that is the high.
[00:21:54]  That is, at the highest level of the kind of comedy I like, where he's taking a social issue, he has an opinion and he makes it really funny, and I don't agree with one word of it.
[00:22:02]  There's this new thing that if you're approaching it from our perspective, you can win a lot of people over and a lot of people laugh.
[00:22:09]  But there's some percentage of the room that just because you're approaching it from the other angle, they shut down.
[00:22:15]  Yeah, it's like a censorship thing.
[00:22:16]  Where it's like I can't support this yeah, it's funny.
[00:22:18]  It's funny because we never we don't really talk about just comedy that much on the show.
[00:22:22]  But i'm interested to have this uh, this conversation.
[00:22:24]  But like so I used to put it this way right, where i'd say this is how I would, I would say it, right, I go, if you could pick whatever your favorite comedy is like, whether it's a movie or a television show or or a stand-up special or anything like that like your favorite thing, the thing that makes you laugh the hardest, right and and I I was going to say okay, i'll give you 10 million dollars if you sit through it and don't laugh once.
[00:22:51]  You absolutely could do that.
[00:22:54]  There's, there's no question.
[00:22:55]  It wouldn't even be challenging.
[00:22:56]  You just be like, yeah, okay, I won't laugh.
[00:22:58]  Like I will make myself not laugh, even though this is your favorite thing.
[00:23:02]  So the point that I'm just getting at when I, when I make that, the point I'm making is that like, it does kind of take to like, even if something is really funny, even if it's your type of thing, if you decide to shut down, you can shut down and not enjoy some type of comedy.
[00:23:19]  Now, you know what I mean?
[00:23:20]  And it's not as if like, look, if something doesn't make you laugh, it doesn't fucking make you laugh.
[00:23:24]  That's fine.
[00:23:24]  You know, like that's part of the game is we're trying, but it's a different thing when people like intentionally shut down if you're coming at it from the other side.
[00:23:32]  And I agree with you that we don't do that.
[00:23:34]  I mean, like, I love that Jim Jeffries bit.
[00:23:37]  I've loved all types of bits that are coming from completely different, you know, completely different perspectives.
[00:23:43]  I actually, I remember one time, like, it wasn't great.
[00:23:46]  It wasn't that funny, but it did make me laugh when they did Saturday Night Live did a thing on Ron Paul.
[00:23:52]  And it was completely not coming from our perspective, you know, but it was, they were doing the debates at one of the debates that he was in, and they had some guy like playing Ron Paul.
[00:24:02]  And I think the question was, they go, so Dr. Paul, do you believe government should be involved in healthcare at all?
[00:24:08]  And he was like, no, absolutely not.
[00:24:10]  And then they go, all right, but let's say that there's a child who's in desperate need and they paint like some crazy situation.
[00:24:17]  And then they're like, then can the government help out that person just a little bit?
[00:24:21]  And Ron Paul goes, no, I'm a purist.
[00:24:24]  And like, it's just, it was just kind of funny, like the, the way they did it.
[00:24:27]  It wasn't like that, but it made me, it made me chuckle.
[00:24:29]  And I was like, I don't care.
[00:24:30]  Like, I don't care whether you're like, you're, you're trying to be funny here.
[00:24:34]  Funny is a different force.
[00:24:35]  It's not, it's not propaganda.
[00:24:37]  It's, it's going after humor.
[00:24:39]  It doesn't, you know, anyway, I wish as a comedian and just a free person, I wish we had more of that culture that we had just really definitely five years ago, but really 10 years ago, where it was just like when people came into a comedy club, you expected to like, you expected people to say fucked up shit that was hilarious and that no one was like, there just wasn't the same culture of like the race to be offended.

=== Quip Oral Care Essentials (02:02) ===

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[00:27:07]  All right, let's get back into the show.
[00:27:09]  So one more, one more thought on stand-up.

=== Hope For Normalcy Returns (09:28) ===

[00:27:12]  And I think you would probably agree with me on this.
[00:27:14]  One of the things to me that makes stand-up so fun and always fresh is that it never stops being a challenge.
[00:27:20]  There's a lot of games in life that you play.
[00:27:22]  And once you figure out the game, you kind of get bored of it.
[00:27:25]  Stand-up's not that way.
[00:27:26]  There's always like some new thing that you can improve.
[00:27:28]  You can always like strive for perfection.
[00:27:30]  So I will say in terms of like city spots and doing like the more controversial material, sometimes it's fun for me battling a crowd.
[00:27:37]  And sometimes like I still have this feeling like I can win and like there's a way to figure it out and there's a thrill to that.
[00:27:43]  I think more of the hindrance is like, for example, if the stand would book me every single night and let me eat shit trying to do this material, like I would do that every night because it's a thrill.
[00:27:53]  It's more you get to a point where you're like, I don't really want to try and deal with this book or to be on this stage.
[00:27:58]  Like I can just, I figured this out.
[00:28:00]  I know how to write it, do it to my crowd.
[00:28:02]  I'll put it up online, try and get more people, book more of my own shows.
[00:28:06]  If anything, it's like the actual process is becoming more efficient than it's more, you know what I mean?
[00:28:11]  It's more of like an industry thing than necessarily like a dealing with people thing.
[00:28:17]  No, I agree with that too.
[00:28:18]  I think there's that whole side of it as well.
[00:28:20]  I just think that the thing where I'd maybe disagree with you a little bit, or it's not even disagree, just like my, the way I feel about it is like, I love the challenge of like a tough crowd.
[00:28:36]  You know, I've dealt with a ton of them over the years.
[00:28:40]  I love, there's nothing more satisfying than like winning over a crowd that's on the fence.
[00:28:46]  The reason I used that analogy about sitting through your favorite movie when you paid $10 million, it's a slightly different thing when it's a crowd who's deciding not to give you a chance because you offended their thing.
[00:28:59]  That I just kind of, I'm like, you know what?
[00:29:01]  Like, fuck you then.
[00:29:02]  Also, leave.
[00:29:04]  Exactly.
[00:29:05]  To my example, that's part of the game also where you get bored of it, where you're like, I've done crowd work.
[00:29:11]  I've had this conversation before in one back room.
[00:29:13]  I don't care.
[00:29:14]  I want to do this material.
[00:29:15]  Like, I literally don't, I don't care.
[00:29:17]  So that actually is a part that in terms of interest level can change.
[00:29:21]  And I also just like, again, it's, it speaks to, in a way, it's like the same, again, it's a minority.
[00:29:28]  It's not like the majority of crowds.
[00:29:30]  And that's what's annoying about it too.
[00:29:31]  It's always like this one, you know, dummy who's like, like, let the rest of us all enjoy this, you know?
[00:29:37]  But it's in the same sense that like our group gets kicked off of Facebook, but the Legion of Skanks group is still up there.
[00:29:44]  So it's like, yeah, you can do filth, just unmitigated filth.
[00:29:47]  No one cares about that, but you have the wrong political view.
[00:29:51]  And all of a sudden, this is, you know, the thing that'll fuck everyone up.
[00:29:54]  Anyway, the point of all of this was that it's just so goddamn cool that we can now sell out with our own crowd.
[00:30:00]  And, you know, anyway, we're coming up again.
[00:30:03]  We're going to do Brooklyn again on Sunday.
[00:30:05]  Then we got the show in Norwalk, Connect, Norwalk.
[00:30:09]  Am I saying that right?
[00:30:10]  Norwalk, Connecticut.
[00:30:11]  That's coming up on, what is it, the 19th?
[00:30:15]  Yes, on the 19th.
[00:30:17]  Two shows up there.
[00:30:18]  Come check us out there.
[00:30:19]  Then, of course, Porkfest.
[00:30:21]  And we got a whole bunch of stuff.
[00:30:22]  Me and Rob are we're going back on the road.
[00:30:24]  There'll be a lot more stuff coming up in the near future.
[00:30:27]  So yeah, look for all of that.
[00:30:30]  The other thing I will say, aside from the comedy aspect, which was really nice to see, is that it did like being back in Brooklyn.
[00:30:40]  It was the first time I've been in Brooklyn in quite a while.
[00:30:42]  The first time, I mean, I've been into, you know, the, I've been Manhattan a lot since the whole COVID thing.
[00:30:49]  This is the first time I've gone to Brooklyn since COVID.
[00:30:52]  And it was like really nice to see that there were a lot more people not wearing masks.
[00:31:00]  I mean, New York City has been pretty insane.
[00:31:02]  New York City, up until the last week, two weeks, everyone was still masked up outside.
[00:31:10]  Like almost everyone.
[00:31:11]  It was still a thing where like if you didn't have a mask walking around outside, you were getting looks from people.
[00:31:17]  And in Brooklyn the other day, I'd say outside 50%.
[00:31:24]  Yeah, well, those people are young and attractive and they don't get sick.
[00:31:27]  Yeah.
[00:31:27]  Well, there's, but even some of them still have the masks on, but it was at least like, okay, at least some of you guys are.
[00:31:34]  Yes, you are.
[00:31:34]  It really, you know, and then inside was really nice to see is the staff didn't have masks on.
[00:31:39]  It wasn't just that you didn't have to have a mask.
[00:31:41]  It was like that the staff there could actually, you know, you kind of feel bad.
[00:31:45]  Makes me feel so uncomfortable when the whole staff is masked up and you just know they got to work like that and it fucking sucks.
[00:31:52]  And then you kind of feel like a dick when you take your mask off.
[00:31:55]  It feels like this weird thing like, oh, I get to enjoy myself, but you don't.
[00:31:58]  I hate that, you know?
[00:32:00]  So it's really nice to see, you know, it's like being a server is not an easy gig.
[00:32:06]  I mean, they, you know, if you hustle, you can make good tips.
[00:32:09]  And when it's a sold out room like that, you know, I'm sure that that girl made like some decent money last night, but it's tough.
[00:32:15]  You're like, you're moving, moving, moving like the whole time, you know?
[00:32:18]  And to do that with a mask on just sucks.
[00:32:20]  So that was cool to see.
[00:32:21]  Like that just made me feel more comfortable.
[00:32:24]  Everyone in there was not wearing masks.
[00:32:25]  Security, bartender, waitress, no one's wearing masks.
[00:32:29]  I really liked that.
[00:32:30]  There's something really nice about that in Brooklyn, just seeing like, you know, the place I'm from being like, it reminded me almost of like this, you know, some movie where you're like hiding, taking shelter in a bunker.
[00:32:42]  And as they're like slowly coming out of the bunker, like, oh, can I, can I take my mask off now?
[00:32:48]  Oh, okay.
[00:32:49]  Oh, look, we're not dead.
[00:32:50]  You know, anyway, I hope.
[00:32:52]  I hope he doesn't get upset at me for this, but I'm going to pay him a compliment.
[00:32:56]  From what I've heard, some of the other clubs have been a little bit less cool and some might even be tapping into the Xler pass or whatever the New York City COVID passport is.
[00:33:06]  Ed's been super cool.
[00:33:07]  He's the owner of the Brooklyn Comedy Club.
[00:33:10]  I think he would have similar views to us on a lot of these issues.
[00:33:14]  He's definitely like a pro-freedom guy, and he's been trying to operate as open as he can be.
[00:33:20]  He's a responsible business owner and he's been in compliance, but he's definitely the kind of guy who's like, I'm not, you know, I don't care about vaccine passports.
[00:33:29]  You know what I mean?
[00:33:30]  He's just, he's not taking that angle in any way.
[00:33:32]  And even that from a business in our business, right?
[00:33:36]  The show business stuff.
[00:33:38]  It's nice to have someone who has a at least a respect for our political views or even maybe similar sensibilities.
[00:33:45]  Yeah, yeah, you know, and it almost like it, it really does to me, in a way, kind of transcend political views, even what I'm talking about.
[00:33:53]  Cause what I'm talking about is just like, like what makes me happy about it is just someone who loves Brooklyn, who's from Brooklyn, who just likes to go back there and see like, oh, okay, there's some vibrance to this city again, you know, like there's people showing their face in front of other human beings.
[00:34:10]  Like, forget your politics or your feelings on the virus or any of that shit.
[00:34:14]  Just like, it's just nice to see, oh my God, like a little bit of hope that there might be some sense of normalcy, you know, like again, I get your point about the politics, but I'm like, you know, it's a very recent phenomenon that showing your face in public became a political issue.
[00:34:29]  You know what I mean?
[00:34:29]  Like this was, I like your point.
[00:34:32]  I like the business owners that fought that were like, I'm going to try and stay as open as they'll allow me to open versus some of the other people who just said, well, we got to be responsible.
[00:34:40]  Government said I can't operate.
[00:34:42]  Let me get a PPE loan.
[00:34:43]  No one can come in here without a mask.
[00:34:45]  No one can come in here unless you've been vaccinated.
[00:34:47]  Like, yeah, so I 100% agree with you on that.
[00:34:50]  I thought the compliance arm of the state.
[00:34:52]  Yeah.
[00:34:53]  And in fact, I thought some of the greatest heroes of the whole pandemic were business owners who actually fought the laws and stayed open in defiance of government mandates and restrictions.
[00:35:07]  And to me, that's like, that's like, you know, civil disobedience, like at the highest level, like just being like, listen, I don't care what you say, I'm doing like that.
[00:35:16]  The highest level to me of civil disobedience, the most noble level is when the government makes some peaceful, you know, nonviolent activity illegal.
[00:35:28]  And you just say, I am going to continue doing this and do whatever you want to me, but I'm going to keep doing this, right?
[00:35:34]  Like, that's that's to me the essence of the best version of civil disobedience.
[00:35:42]  And I think about so there were a couple gyms in New Jersey.
[00:35:46]  There are a couple like speakeasy type places in New York.
[00:35:49]  That was pretty cool.
[00:35:51]  There was that woman in Texas, I believe, who had the hair salon, who was just straight up like, we're staying open.
[00:35:58]  I got, huh?
[00:35:59]  Nancy Pelosi?
[00:36:00]  Yeah.
[00:36:01]  Yeah.
[00:36:01]  Nancy Pelosi.
[00:36:02]  No, some woman, this is before the Nancy Pelosi thing.
[00:36:04]  Some woman, she actually went to jail.
[00:36:07]  The judge threw her in jail for a night.
[00:36:10]  He said, basically, like at one point, and that this is what I thought was really heroic.
[00:36:14]  He basically had her there in court, started berating her, demanded that she apologize, and said if she didn't, he was going to hold her in content and throw her in jail for the night.
[00:36:26]  And she refused.
[00:36:28]  And he had been saying she was selfish and demand she apologize.
[00:36:32]  And she'd say, and she goes, Your Honor, there's nothing selfish about me wanting to feed my kids and I won't apologize.
[00:36:38]  And he threw her in jail.

=== Exposing Political Lies (04:40) ===

[00:36:40]  Awesome.
[00:36:40]  Yeah, because he felt it was unsafe to open a salon due to COVID.
[00:36:46]  So he threw her in a prison where it's nice and safe for, you know, no one gets COVID in a prison.
[00:36:52]  Anyway, so yeah, those were really some of the heroes of over the last year.
[00:36:57]  All right.
[00:36:58]  Well, we've talked a lot about that.
[00:36:59]  There was a great show last night.
[00:37:00]  Come out and see us in Brooklyn next week or out in Connecticut or Porkfest.
[00:37:06]  I'll be at Freedom Fest hosting the whole event.
[00:37:09]  I did, I guess we'll talk about a couple things.
[00:37:13]  We don't have that much time left.
[00:37:14]  But so let's hear I got a video that was going around.
[00:37:19]  Brian Stelter, our favorite little piggy, is trending because he interviewed on his show the White House press secretary.
[00:37:30]  This was really, I got to say, it's glorious watching the mask slip off the corporate press over the last, really, really over the last month.
[00:37:45]  I mean, this is something obviously that's been building for years and certainly was building during the Trump years, but really with the collapse of the COVID narrative and so much of this other stuff, it's just really, it's a glorious time for the mask slipping.
[00:38:01]  What, you know, what we're in the middle of right now with this whole COVID narrative, and I know we've been talking about this a lot on the show lately, separate from this, this clip that I'm going to play in a second, but maybe we'll talk a little bit about that Wall Street Journal piece as well.
[00:38:16]  This is, I got to say, like, I feel like a really big one.
[00:38:22]  You know, I think that In my life, if I had to say the three biggest, and there's a lot, but the three biggest, most prominent media scams, you know, narratives that were built off lies that completely fall apart in front of the American people's eyes.
[00:38:43]  The three biggest, I would say, were the WMD, Saddam Hussein.
[00:38:51]  You know, Saddam has weapons of mass destruction and he's colluding with al-Qaeda to hand these mass weapons of mass destruction off to, you know, whatever.
[00:38:59]  Like, I think that the whole, all of the lies leading up to the war in Iraq just falling apart to the point where like no one could really argue that that was true.
[00:39:08]  They all had to kind of admit it, you know?
[00:39:11]  That that's one.
[00:39:14]  Trump-Russia collusion, I think is two.
[00:39:17]  The sitting president is a puppet of Vladimir Putin.
[00:39:20]  Meanwhile, nothing.
[00:39:21]  It's complete bullshit.
[00:39:23]  And I think three now is becoming this whole COVID, just the whole COVID, all the lies, the origin story, the cover-up, the claims that it was a conspiracy theories, all of the policies being based on complete pseudoscience while they demand we follow the science, all of this shit.
[00:39:44]  And it's real interesting to see this one, this one get exposed.
[00:39:48]  And I think in a lot of ways, this one might be bigger than the other two.
[00:39:55]  Not necessarily in, you know, like you could, not necessarily that it was a bigger lie, or even if comparing it to the war in Iraq, that it was a bigger disaster.
[00:40:05]  It's more intrusive.
[00:40:07]  Huh?
[00:40:07]  It's more intrusive.
[00:40:08]  The Iraq war, we didn't, I mean, we probably paid for it through inflation or some other economic means, but it didn't.
[00:40:14]  But not like this.
[00:40:15]  Yeah.
[00:40:15]  This didn't, none of these things, you know, you saying the sitting president is in, you know, beholden to a hostile foreign power is a crazy lie for the media to tell, but it did not upend every single American's lives.
[00:40:29]  It did not, you know, like it was annoying and kept us from getting a wall.
[00:40:34]  Yes, right, exactly.
[00:40:35]  But I'm saying like, more importantly, kept us from working out a deal with Russia and getting some peace in the Middle East, possibly.
[00:40:42]  Not that that would have happened.
[00:40:43]  Who the hell am I?
[00:40:44]  Yeah, I know.
[00:40:45]  You're a big wall guy.
[00:40:46]  I was knocks him down just so he can build him up again.
[00:40:48]  No, but this, this, you know, destroyed every cultural societal norm, locked people in their homes, destroyed tens of millions of people's lives.
[00:40:57]  I mean, right, like this is the biggest one.
[00:40:59]  So for this to collapse is a real thing.
[00:41:01]  Before we play the Brian Stelter piece, I'll even maybe we'll just mention because it's more on topic this way.
[00:41:07]  But the, so, so, like, saying to you before, I mean, it's just really interesting that, you know, like all of the sudden, this is just out there all over the place.

=== Details Behind The Wall (12:02) ===

[00:41:20]  But the Wall Street Journal just ran this piece.
[00:41:22]  I'm not going to read it, but if you guys are interested, it's called, it's an opinion piece called The Science Suggests a Wuhan Lab Leak.
[00:41:31]  The COVID-19 pathogen has a genetic footprint that has never been observed in natural coronaviruses.
[00:41:38]  And it's a whole piece arguing that it's not just the circumstantial evidence, you know, like the people getting sick at the Wuhan lab or any of that, but that at this point, the overwhelming scientific evidence is that it came from the Wuhan lab because of the way the virus evolves or the way it mutates.
[00:41:59]  You know, I guess that's six, half dozen.
[00:42:02]  But more than that, the piece is specifically arguing that it's because of gain of function that it is that COVID was created.
[00:42:13]  So this is now just one more element that is like a major, like, oh shit, has Rand Paul lost one round to Fauci?
[00:42:24]  It's always, it's always Rand Paul versus Fauci.
[00:42:27]  And then the entire corporate press is dunking on Rand Paul.
[00:42:30]  And then two weeks later, Rand Paul was 100% right.
[00:42:33]  Every single round goes to Rand Paul.
[00:42:36]  And there was an article, like I think Fee put out that a title similar to that.
[00:42:41]  But yeah, so anyway, it's just interesting to watch this one that might be the biggest one in terms of how much it affected Americans collapsing right in front of us.
[00:42:51]  Yeah, it's a good article.
[00:42:52]  Good read.
[00:42:53]  Yeah.
[00:42:54]  I know I recommend people read it.
[00:42:56]  All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Bambi.
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[00:44:07]  All right, let's get back into the show.
[00:44:10]  Okay, so while this is all collapsing, here's how, and by the way, CNN's ratings are also collapsing.
[00:44:15]  This is what people are seeing, the few who are still turning on CNN.
[00:44:20]  Jen, thanks for coming on reliable sources.
[00:44:22]  My pleasure.
[00:44:23]  Busy summer ahead, infrastructure, election reform.
[00:44:26]  What does the press get wrong when covering Biden's agenda?
[00:44:31]  When you watch the news, when you read the news, what do you think we get wrong?
[00:44:36]  Well, look, I think some of our muscles have atrophied a little bit over the last few years, and there isn't a lot of memory, a recent memory or longer memory on how long it takes to get legislation forward or how messy the process of negotiating and the process of getting legislation across the finish line can be.
[00:44:55]  So we know, we understand everybody's always looking for a deadline, a timeline, things like that.
[00:45:00]  But at the end of the day, our focus is on getting these bills across the finish line, doing it in a bipartisan way if we can.
[00:45:07]  And we certainly recognize that that can be messy along the process.
[00:45:10]  So I don't know if that's the press getting it wrong.
[00:45:13]  I'll leave you to the critique of that, Brian.
[00:45:15]  But I think sometimes we forget how strange the last four years were.
[00:45:19]  And when we return to a place where democracy is working, where we're talking with Democrats and Republicans, where we're trying to get bills and legislation passed, it feels foreign, but this is actually how it's supposed to work.
[00:45:30]  There are times in your briefings where you seem so positive.
[00:45:33]  And there's times where you...
[00:45:34]  Yeah, I don't remember.
[00:45:37]  So her claim is, listen, Donald Trump was so effective and was able to get things done so quickly that that was an oddity.
[00:45:44]  And so the reason why we can't give you strict timelines on when we're going to get things done is because we're actually going with the usual process, which is a messy negotiating and takes time and we can't actually commit to anything because we're not into accountability.
[00:45:56]  So forget Trump, who is so good at getting things done.
[00:45:59]  Is that what she was trying to say?
[00:46:00]  You know, I don't think that's what she would say, but it does seem like, look, first of all, like the funniest thing about this to me, right, is that Brian Stelter does this show where he's like supposedly critiquing the media.
[00:46:15]  But of course, every single week he comes up and he has the same assessment, which is that everyone's doing a really great job except Fox News and all these lies on the internet.
[00:46:25]  But everyone else is just, man, they're on top of it.
[00:46:28]  Just, man, they are just nailing it, you know?
[00:46:30]  And like, that's his show.
[00:46:32]  And so he's sitting there and the topic is always, how is the media doing?
[00:46:38]  And meanwhile, he is giving the perfect example of what terrible journalism is.
[00:46:43]  Like he has the press secretary, the representative of the president of the United States of America, the mouthpiece for the president on.
[00:46:54]  And his first question is, what do we get wrong?
[00:46:58]  Like, please scold me.
[00:47:00]  Tell me what, tell me why we're bad.
[00:47:03]  And then just lets her spout off nonsense while nodding his head and not pushing back on anything.
[00:47:10]  Literally just like, it'd be so, it'd be so easy if you were to be a journalist here.
[00:47:15]  I'm not even saying like you have to be a perfect journalist or someone great.
[00:47:17]  You know, okay, really great would be to ask about corruption or some this or that or, you know, why did we push back the deadline to get out of Afghanistan?
[00:47:25]  Or what was, you know, why are we so, you know, moving troops around in the Middle East or, you know, where's the money going with big pharma or, you know, like, I'm not even saying you have to be like some great reporter.
[00:47:35]  But even if you were just pretending, you know, when they say something like, well, you know, you have to understand the legislative process takes time.
[00:47:41]  You'd be like, okay, but can is it reasonable for the American people to have some understanding of when things are going to get done?
[00:47:47]  You know, like just something.
[00:47:49]  But he literally just gets her in there and goes, so what are we doing wrong?
[00:47:53]  Go.
[00:47:53]  I'm going to smoke a cigarette.
[00:47:54]  You go.
[00:47:55]  Just ramble your stuff.
[00:47:56]  I'll just nod along while you do it.
[00:47:58]  Yeah.
[00:47:58]  So great.
[00:47:59]  So great that you would say that.
[00:48:00]  Man, you're smart.
[00:48:01]  Anyone ever tell you how smart you are?
[00:48:03]  Like, it's just like, what is this?
[00:48:06]  Just self-flagellating for, you know, like for the administration.
[00:48:11]  It's just, I don't know.
[00:48:13]  Brian's basically checking with his boss to make sure that they're getting the propaganda correct.
[00:48:17]  Yep.
[00:48:18]  That's, that's pretty much what you're watching.
[00:48:21]  Anyway, so let's let's see.
[00:48:27]  Let's play the next clip.
[00:48:28]  It's just kind of more of the same.
[00:48:31]  For other PR professionals who watch what you do, for journalists who watch what you do, what's your advice for them about trying to stay close to the truth in this world of lies?
[00:48:43]  Well, I think what I try to do is stay grounded to the facts.
[00:48:47]  And what I mean by that, the details and what we can help provide publicly to clarify context, to make it more understandable to the press, to the public.
[00:48:58]  And sometimes it's not more complicated than that.
[00:49:01]  Really talking to policy experts and gaining an understanding myself so that I can communicate in a way that my mother, my mother-in-law, other people who are not involved in politics like you and I are every day would understand what we're trying to do.
[00:49:15]  I keep grounded in that, but try to go deep in the details so I can kind of pull out and make it accessible.
[00:49:21]  Well, that's the top thread.
[00:49:23]  I know this.
[00:49:24]  I mean, how incredible.
[00:49:26]  She goes, listen, I just want to explain that the process is confusing.
[00:49:30]  So just remember the process is confusing too.
[00:49:33]  I'm just trying to share the details.
[00:49:34]  Those are opposite statements.
[00:49:36]  Yeah.
[00:49:37]  Yeah.
[00:49:38]  Just it's just utter nonsense that doesn't even make any sense.
[00:49:42]  And he just sits there the whole time.
[00:49:44]  Yeah.
[00:49:44]  Yeah.
[00:49:45]  That's exactly right.
[00:49:46]  Yeah.
[00:49:46]  You just got to explain it, you know?
[00:49:48]  Here you go.
[00:49:49]  Here's my one-on-one with the White House press secretary.
[00:49:52]  Here we go.
[00:49:52]  So what do you, what do you try to do that just makes things so great?
[00:49:56]  He goes, well, you know, the process can be confusing.
[00:49:58]  And so I just try to explain it in a way where people who aren't like me and you are really into it.
[00:50:03]  And I just stay, I stay grounded and rooted in the facts and the details.
[00:50:06]  And then I try to explain the facts and the details.
[00:50:08]  He goes, yeah.
[00:50:09]  So it's got to be great.
[00:50:11]  Can you imagine?
[00:50:12]  Like, can you imagine conducting an interview this way?
[00:50:15]  This is all they've got.
[00:50:16]  Like, to even pretend that you are in any way a journalist.
[00:50:21]  It's so, and what's beautiful about this is how transparent it is, because I'll tell you, this is what we need in this country more than anything else is for people to wake up that the whole cathedral is full of shit.
[00:50:32]  That this is all a fucking smoke and mirror show.
[00:50:34]  And I love that so many people have to be looking at this and just being like, man, they are like, like you.
[00:50:40]  might Brian Stelter might as well be a part of the Biden administration, right?
[00:50:45]  But what difference would it make?
[00:50:47]  If they, if they switched roles here, the press secretary was just writing the questions for him or something.
[00:50:53]  Would it be any different than this?
[00:50:54]  Could it be any different than this?
[00:50:56]  Like this is, you know, it's just, we have, in effect, state media in the country.
[00:51:02]  They're all getting their marketing orders from the CIA.
[00:51:04]  So, you know, they're just checking in.
[00:51:06]  But yeah, if you got the details, so tell us the details on the timeline.
[00:51:09]  Simple question.
[00:51:11]  Yeah, just something like that.
[00:51:12]  It's like, okay, so give me details.
[00:51:14]  Okay, you said you have the details.
[00:51:15]  All right, let's talk details.
[00:51:16]  Transition into one real question, something, anything that actually matters to the American people.
[00:51:24]  If you switched around the interview, this would be like Sacky sitting there and just going, Brian, I love your hair.
[00:51:29]  What kind of conditioner are you using?
[00:51:30]  And I go, yeah, you know, it's the per plus.
[00:51:33]  It's working really quick.
[00:51:34]  Yeah, I can see that shine.
[00:51:35]  It's a shampoo and a conditioner all in one bottle.
[00:51:39]  Saves you time.
[00:51:40]  You know what I mean?
[00:51:43]  Anyway, man, it's glorious.
[00:51:46]  It's glorious to watch all of this falling apart.
[00:51:49]  Yeah.
[00:51:50]  All right.
[00:51:51]  I think we're going to wrap up there.
[00:51:53]  I enjoyed this episode.
[00:51:54]  It's a little different from what we normally do, but I like talking about the state of comedy.
[00:51:57]  It relates to culture and politics and all the good stuff we normally talk about.
[00:52:01]  All right.
[00:52:01]  That's our show for today.
[00:52:02]  Come see us in Brooklyn next week.
[00:52:03]  Come see us in Connecticut in a couple weeks and in Porkfest, although that's sold out.
[00:52:08]  But if you already got tickets, can't wait to see you up there.
[00:52:10]  All right.
[00:52:11]  That's it.
[00:52:12]  Oh, and go watch, go watch, listen to Run Your Mouth.
[00:52:15]  Follow Rob on Twitter at Robbie the Fire.
[00:52:16]  Summer Porch Store.
[00:52:18]  If anyone shows up to Porkfest and sets up a shakedown street because you can't get inside, for those not familiar, if you ever go to a Grateful Dead show, there's people that follow the tour, don't even go to the shows.
[00:52:28]  They just party outside.
[00:52:29]  I'll party outside with you.
[00:52:31]  I don't think there's a parking lot for it.
[00:52:32]  I don't think they have an area.
[00:52:34]  I will stand on the side of the road and drink beers and be a part of Porkfest Shakedown Street for people who couldn't get tickets.
[00:52:40]  I'll be inside the festival.
[00:52:42]  Yeah, I'm sure you will.
[00:52:43]  And I'm sure the festival directors don't want me saying that, but I'm just saying, if we can build a shakedown street, almost certainly in breach of our contract to even promote this.
[00:52:54]  Don't even pay for tickets.
[00:52:55]  We'll do the show for free for you.
[00:52:57]  It doesn't matter.
[00:52:58]  They're paying us thousands of dollars to be here, but we'll just come give it to you for free.
[00:53:01]  Same show.
[00:53:03]  You're a sucker if you buy the tickets, to be honest.
[00:53:06]  This is not the way you promote a gig, Rob.
[00:53:08]  Oh, Rob.
[00:53:11]  We got to have a long time.
[00:53:12]  Let's get a shakedown scene going, dude.
[00:53:14]  You've never been to a dead show.
[00:53:15]  It's good for business.
[00:53:18]  All right.
[00:53:19]  That's our show for tonight.
[00:53:20]  Thanks for listening.
[00:53:21]  We'll talk to you guys soon.