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Roderick on the Line

Ep. 101: "Where All the Lilypads Are"

 

00:00:00   [Music] [TS]

00:00:04   hello a John Merlin how's it going get [TS]

00:00:11   are you doing pretty well [TS]

00:00:14   wow you sound good voice little i have [TS]

00:00:17   yeah I haven't eaten here using your [TS]

00:00:20   scott simpson voice oh well that's [TS]

00:00:26   exciting i'm glad i'm not that we found [TS]

00:00:28   a way to talk to each other today [TS]

00:00:29   yes yes i am to you been busy you had [TS]

00:00:33   your big show [TS]

00:00:34   I put on a show I hear good things i [TS]

00:00:38   wish every time I walk out the door [TS]

00:00:40   jingle stick or now that's right [TS]

00:00:45   feathered headdress the world is just a [TS]

00:00:48   big percentage of them that you that you [TS]

00:00:51   just enter and exit at your leisure [TS]

00:00:53   yeah I stand out at the front arms arms [TS]

00:00:56   spread wide in Jesus Christ pose ffi I [TS]

00:01:00   say I'm a golden God already does that [TS]

00:01:02   internal much to you [TS]

00:01:04   mm she had your shot at the at the [TS]

00:01:08   rendezvous how to go at the rendezvous [TS]

00:01:10   show [TS]

00:01:11   well it was a it was a learning [TS]

00:01:13   experience for me a growing experience [TS]

00:01:15   learning and growing the you know the [TS]

00:01:21   what I need to learn [TS]

00:01:23   here's what I don't know i do not know [TS]

00:01:27   how to use three-by-five cards and I and [TS]

00:01:35   I know that might sound strange to you [TS]

00:01:37   given how well you utilize three-by-five [TS]

00:01:39   cards i hear them there but I never [TS]

00:01:43   learned to use them I remember a in what [TS]

00:01:47   would have been in general maybe fifth [TS]

00:01:50   grade is where they first say now you're [TS]

00:01:53   going to make a topic statement and then [TS]

00:01:56   an outline [TS]

00:01:57   nope yeah and i add in junior high they [TS]

00:01:59   really really focused on it and I [TS]

00:02:02   remember sitting on the floor surrounded [TS]

00:02:05   by three-by-five cards and I had done [TS]

00:02:09   everything I could number them in order [TS]

00:02:12   them and they just always got mixed [TS]

00:02:14   up you know I'd start flipping through [TS]

00:02:16   them and pretty soon they're all mixed [TS]

00:02:17   up in the been crazy order and never [TS]

00:02:20   made any sense to me my mom was a three [TS]

00:02:22   by five card user or at least she knew [TS]

00:02:24   how to do it but three-by-five cards [TS]

00:02:27   have always baffled me I've never [TS]

00:02:30   learned how to employ them the things [TS]

00:02:33   that I end up riding on three-by-five [TS]

00:02:35   cards are always just random and useless [TS]

00:02:39   when I'm standing in front of a crowd [TS]

00:02:40   and look at what you don't know what it [TS]

00:02:41   means later [TS]

00:02:42   yeah I look at it it's just like it says [TS]

00:02:45   ballpoint pen and it's like that's that [TS]

00:02:47   I i'm not referring to that in my speech [TS]

00:02:49   i don't know what i'm talking about why [TS]

00:02:51   don't you write that down and now you're [TS]

00:02:52   off your game because you're thinking [TS]

00:02:53   about pens [TS]

00:02:54   yeah well so so that's the problem i i i [TS]

00:02:58   i had i needed some notes I wrote some [TS]

00:03:02   notes and then the notes were a constant [TS]

00:03:04   distraction to me because i would look [TS]

00:03:07   at periodically would look over to the [TS]

00:03:09   lectern at my list of notes and they [TS]

00:03:12   were and it was just like I couldn't [TS]

00:03:14   read my own handwriting and also I [TS]

00:03:16   didn't know what I meant by the things [TS]

00:03:18   that written down so that's very that's [TS]

00:03:22   so that's something I need to learn how [TS]

00:03:23   to do i need to learn how to [TS]

00:03:24   bullet-point a presentation and then use [TS]

00:03:29   those bullet points to effectively jog [TS]

00:03:33   the speech in my mind can we circle back [TS]

00:03:39   to index cards I i want to hear about [TS]

00:03:41   your show but I actually i think what [TS]

00:03:44   you just described a phenomenon that is [TS]

00:03:47   really damaging to a lot of people who [TS]

00:03:49   could be very creative and I'd like to [TS]

00:03:51   circle back to that but I've like [TS]

00:03:53   because I don't take off the game with [TS]

00:03:54   your show but I got to say about what [TS]

00:03:56   you're describing here [TS]

00:03:57   yeah well I'm hope i see i'm hoping to [TS]

00:03:59   get your your insight and your wisdom [TS]

00:04:01   because i know that you do i know that [TS]

00:04:03   you see this is the thing to get up and [TS]

00:04:06   give an hour-long presentation where you [TS]

00:04:10   have no there is no like you're not a [TS]

00:04:13   guest on somebody else's show you are [TS]

00:04:16   not hiding behind your guitar [TS]

00:04:19   you're not be you are not an opener for [TS]

00:04:22   something you are not there is no [TS]

00:04:24   context other than i am here during a [TS]

00:04:26   show i'm walking out onstage America [TS]

00:04:28   I'm an hour-long show this is something [TS]

00:04:31   I know you've done and for me I've [TS]

00:04:35   always had a guitar or have been part of [TS]

00:04:40   a larger production [TS]

00:04:41   mhm and to get up and say like I'm going [TS]

00:04:44   to entertain you with nothing else other [TS]

00:04:46   than my own thoughts for an hour [TS]

00:04:49   it requires a little bit of organization [TS]

00:04:51   but like do you make a set list for the [TS]

00:04:53   band [TS]

00:04:54   yes okay i think a set list is a [TS]

00:04:56   terrific example of I'm gonna I'm gonna [TS]

00:04:58   rhian circle back because i think this [TS]

00:05:00   is not talking about and jumping jumping [TS]

00:05:02   any point with the show okay i so you [TS]

00:05:06   know right tool for the job is what it [TS]

00:05:07   comes down to [TS]

00:05:08   there's a bigger pattern here but the [TS]

00:05:10   little pattern is that you discover [TS]

00:05:11   which tools work for you I think so as a [TS]

00:05:13   set list is has been for years has been [TS]

00:05:16   a classic for a simple reason I mean [TS]

00:05:18   it's really everybody understands what [TS]

00:05:20   it's for you understand what order the [TS]

00:05:22   songs are in unless you're the drummer [TS]

00:05:23   you might need some special explanation [TS]

00:05:25   something that's all you need little [TS]

00:05:27   stars and numbers by the song [TS]

00:05:29   hey John these real names of our songs i [TS]

00:05:32   no see the little number by that that [TS]

00:05:34   that means you use sticks on this one [TS]

00:05:36   that's your name dude [TS]

00:05:37   so I i think that that's a really good [TS]

00:05:41   example because what do you really need [TS]

00:05:43   to know like so you know how your songs [TS]

00:05:44   go you you know how they start an end [TS]

00:05:47   the thing that you need is the like like [TS]

00:05:51   my get the job my dad used to having [TS]

00:05:53   radio is called traffic which is not how [TS]

00:05:55   cars are moving it was basically how you [TS]

00:05:57   fill time and so my dad like a lot of [TS]

00:05:59   people in broadcasting at the very [TS]

00:06:00   unsexy job sitting there with a [TS]

00:06:02   stopwatch and figure out exactly how [TS]

00:06:04   many seconds each thing took and did [TS]

00:06:05   they read the announcements this time [TS]

00:06:06   and all that kind of stuff like the [TS]

00:06:08   David Letterman you speak booth in an [TS]

00:06:09   announcer at a TV station same job super [TS]

00:06:11   boring but it's really it's kind of [TS]

00:06:13   about transitions in some ways and I [TS]

00:06:15   think in some ways you could think of [TS]

00:06:17   set list is that yes a list of the songs [TS]

00:06:18   are going to play that's what people [TS]

00:06:19   want to take home and put on the dorm [TS]

00:06:21   wall and stuff but to you it's just it's [TS]

00:06:23   a queue of what the next thing is and [TS]

00:06:25   then you don't have to think about it [TS]

00:06:26   again until that songs are just about [TS]

00:06:28   over and you look out of the corner of [TS]

00:06:29   your eye and even have to read full name [TS]

00:06:32   of the song down because you know how [TS]

00:06:33   you know if you just wrote down medicine [TS]

00:06:37   like you know what song that is [TS]

00:06:38   right bc i'm saying though I can I think [TS]

00:06:42   you may be a quote-unquote index card [TS]

00:06:44   person already it's just that you have [TS]

00:06:46   been probably poisoned by the same [TS]

00:06:49   system that i was poisoned by which is [TS]

00:06:51   you know I don't know I think there are [TS]

00:06:54   some people who think in very different [TS]

00:06:56   ways there are many books about this and [TS]

00:06:58   some people are analysts some people are [TS]

00:07:00   synthesist some people can do both [TS]

00:07:03   there's some people though who like to [TS]

00:07:04   see the whole problem finished and know [TS]

00:07:07   what it looks like and are able to like [TS]

00:07:10   make a thing without having to analyze [TS]

00:07:12   it like they know what the whole thing [TS]

00:07:14   is so I'd I was really embarrassed at [TS]

00:07:16   the time fifth sixth seventh grade will [TS]

00:07:19   really just in general but but I was [TS]

00:07:21   really embarrassed because I i thought i [TS]

00:07:22   was the only person in the world who [TS]

00:07:24   wrote the essay first and then made an [TS]

00:07:26   outline after they wrote an essay and [TS]

00:07:29   then reverse engineer the index cards [TS]

00:07:31   from the outline because that's what you [TS]

00:07:33   had to hand and they want to see you [TS]

00:07:34   show your work right I think that's [TS]

00:07:36   really stifling to some people if [TS]

00:07:38   somebody can write an essay let me write [TS]

00:07:39   a cot damn essay [TS]

00:07:41   okay you know you can get so obsessed [TS]

00:07:42   with teaching that person this one [TS]

00:07:44   little unit on how to use index cards to [TS]

00:07:46   write a report that you really end up [TS]

00:07:48   scratching their their creativity by not [TS]

00:07:51   letting them make things the way they [TS]

00:07:52   don't even realize they already know how [TS]

00:07:54   to make it so now you make them think [TS]

00:07:55   that they're a dumbass because they [TS]

00:07:57   don't know how to use index cards i [TS]

00:07:58   think that happens a whole a lot in [TS]

00:07:59   schools [TS]

00:08:00   I completely forgot why they even made [TS]

00:08:04   us use index cards and now you've just [TS]

00:08:06   reminded me yes of course they were [TS]

00:08:07   trying to get us to use index cards to [TS]

00:08:09   organize our thoughts to write a paper [TS]

00:08:11   yeah and I was exactly like you of [TS]

00:08:14   course i know what i want to say i'm [TS]

00:08:15   just going to write it's not like I just [TS]

00:08:17   let it sit down and write an essay i [TS]

00:08:19   didn't have to organize my thoughts on [TS]

00:08:20   index cards and then I had to like dummy [TS]

00:08:23   up to gin up these index cards to [TS]

00:08:26   pretend like i had used them he had to [TS]

00:08:28   like cook the books [TS]

00:08:30   yeah but that's actually what so this is [TS]

00:08:33   what [TS]

00:08:33   so this is my preparation for my show [TS]

00:08:36   was i sat down and I wrote 2,500 word [TS]

00:08:41   humorous SI and then i read it and i [TS]

00:08:45   don't quite weak and lakes yeah that's [TS]

00:08:48   exactly right 2500 word universal well [TS]

00:08:51   begun [TS]

00:08:52   and that indicate the theme of it was [TS]

00:08:55   two kinds of people in this world [TS]

00:08:57   winner's lose just and so then I i read [TS]

00:09:06   it and i liked it and I honed it as i do [TS]

00:09:09   until it I until I really liked it and [TS]

00:09:11   then I read it and I was like oh but I [TS]

00:09:14   can't memorize this 2,500 work si like [TS]

00:09:17   if I was doing if I was coming up with [TS]

00:09:19   the show that I was gonna do like a rock [TS]

00:09:22   band set list where i was going to do it [TS]

00:09:24   30 times i was going to take this show [TS]

00:09:27   on the road now is going to do it 30 [TS]

00:09:28   times then yeah I would sit and spend [TS]

00:09:31   three weeks memorizing my my [TS]

00:09:34   presentation and then i would go out in [TS]

00:09:36   the first couple of nights would be a [TS]

00:09:37   little bit rough and I be looking at my [TS]

00:09:39   my cue cards but then i would get the i [TS]

00:09:41   would i would get my show and then I [TS]

00:09:43   would do it 30 times but what I am [TS]

00:09:46   trying to do is do a show a week and I [TS]

00:09:50   don't and and memorizing an essay isn't [TS]

00:09:54   my forte and so then I was like maybe I [TS]

00:09:58   should just maybe the show should be [TS]

00:10:00   that I just sit on a stool and read my [TS]

00:10:02   dramatic SI and I thought about that i [TS]

00:10:05   read it out loud a couple of times and I [TS]

00:10:07   was like well no first of all i I'm I'm [TS]

00:10:10   bad at reading essays aloud like I don't [TS]

00:10:13   but it's not fun i don't like it and [TS]

00:10:16   also they don't think that's [TS]

00:10:17   entertaining sit was watching guys sit [TS]

00:10:19   on a stool and with it reads SI so the [TS]

00:10:21   TBS right now so i was like no no what I [TS]

00:10:24   wrote the essay to get my thoughts going [TS]

00:10:27   and now i'm just going to get up onstage [TS]

00:10:29   I'm going to extemporize based on having [TS]

00:10:31   written this essay I thought about that [TS]

00:10:33   for another day or two and then I sat [TS]

00:10:35   down and I wrote a second 2500 word [TS]

00:10:38   essay because when i read the first one [TS]

00:10:41   allowed it only took it only lasted 15 [TS]

00:10:43   minutes I was like oh I guess I need [TS]

00:10:45   5,000 words [TS]

00:10:48   so wrote a second essay which I also [TS]

00:10:51   liked which i also did not intend to [TS]

00:10:55   memorize and then when I got up on stage [TS]

00:10:58   I basically got up there and spend an [TS]

00:11:04   hour tried to recall the two essays I'd [TS]

00:11:06   written and signed up so I be talking [TS]

00:11:13   about be like and then blahblah and then [TS]

00:11:15   in my mind voice would say you had a [TS]

00:11:19   really really funny way of putting this [TS]

00:11:21   in your essay and I'm talking I'm still [TS]

00:11:25   telling the story but half of my [TS]

00:11:26   attention is devoted to trying to recall [TS]

00:11:29   the funny way that I had of saying the [TS]

00:11:32   next thing I'm about to say range of [TS]

00:11:34   course i could not recall I couldn't lay [TS]

00:11:37   my hands on the funny turn of phrase so [TS]

00:11:40   when I got to the place in the story [TS]

00:11:43   where I where I was trying to recall the [TS]

00:11:44   funny term friends [TS]

00:11:45   I you know I I bumbled through it like a [TS]

00:11:48   guy trying to walk up a muddy road like [TS]

00:11:51   you know I jump over onto this rock and [TS]

00:11:53   then I see like oh there's a rock over [TS]

00:11:55   there and I jump but i miss alright it's [TS]

00:11:57   not a rock it's a puddle and so the [TS]

00:12:00   whole show [TS]

00:12:01   I'm feeling this step I'm doing this [TS]

00:12:04   state of a of handicap itude where I [TS]

00:12:11   have on my computer sitting feet away [TS]

00:12:14   from me in a bag to very humorous essays [TS]

00:12:19   it's like it's like a headache you're [TS]

00:12:22   just holding two aspirin against your [TS]

00:12:24   head nothing's happened it and now I'm [TS]

00:12:27   trying to basically in part the gist of [TS]

00:12:30   these two humans essays to a roomful of [TS]

00:12:33   people who have paid to watch me [TS]

00:12:35   entertain them and so when I walked off [TS]

00:12:38   the stage I was like okay good learning [TS]

00:12:41   experience first lesson you cannot [TS]

00:12:45   recall your essays when you're onstage [TS]

00:12:49   and knowing that you've written them and [TS]

00:12:51   having them in the briefcase next to you [TS]

00:12:53   there is no as Moses that gets the the [TS]

00:12:56   funniness of them to you and also [TS]

00:12:59   they're just a distraction like I'm up [TS]

00:13:00   there if I had [TS]

00:13:02   if I'd been standing on the stage [TS]

00:13:03   totally cold and your voice from the [TS]

00:13:06   back of the room had said bananas i will [TS]

00:13:12   I know you could attend three hours [TS]

00:13:13   yeah I've got a funny story about [TS]

00:13:14   bananas and then I would have had no [TS]

00:13:17   there would have been no effort but in [TS]

00:13:18   it instead I had prepared just enough to [TS]

00:13:23   to hobble myself because I because part [TS]

00:13:28   of me part of my brain was tied to the [TS]

00:13:30   idea that i had already done this better [TS]

00:13:33   somewhere and that's entertaining to [TS]

00:13:37   watch [TS]

00:13:38   well mhm and I don't think the crowd i [TS]

00:13:42   don't think the audience would have have [TS]

00:13:44   noticed or I mean you know my mom was [TS]

00:13:45   like at one point I could see you [TS]

00:13:47   visibly tried to recall something on [TS]

00:13:50   stage and I was like now that's [TS]

00:13:51   entertainment but i I've had a slice of [TS]

00:13:55   pie one little pie was it let me let me [TS]

00:13:59   just stand up here and try to recall a [TS]

00:14:02   funny anecdote was that uncle Morris Oh [TS]

00:14:05   uncle Wesley Morris don't know I want to [TS]

00:14:07   get it right and and I feel like you [TS]

00:14:10   know I feel like after a little bit of a [TS]

00:14:12   rough start I did a surrender to the [TS]

00:14:14   idea that I was just get it was just [TS]

00:14:16   going to try and re i was gonna try and [TS]

00:14:19   we capture the fun of telling these [TS]

00:14:22   stories in in real time and I don't [TS]

00:14:26   think I I don't think I traumatize the [TS]

00:14:28   audience and in fact you know the great [TS]

00:14:31   had a great like hack of this show [TS]

00:14:37   there are a few hacks first attack is [TS]

00:14:40   that the room has 75 person capacity so [TS]

00:14:45   it is it's a it's an intimate [TS]

00:14:49   environment although when I walked out [TS]

00:14:51   on stage it was not as intimate as I [TS]

00:14:53   thought it was there how much distance [TS]

00:14:55   is their first highest stage and how far [TS]

00:14:58   is it from the first row seats [TS]

00:14:59   the stage is three feet high and it is [TS]

00:15:02   one and a half feet from the first seat [TS]

00:15:06   that's intimate so but there were 80 [TS]

00:15:10   people in the room rate and so that is [TS]

00:15:13   just beyond the [TS]

00:15:15   you know that the people toward the [TS]

00:15:17   middle of the of the hall start to fade [TS]

00:15:20   into the mist like there are a lot of [TS]

00:15:21   there are enough people here that I [TS]

00:15:22   can't just I can't just look down and [TS]

00:15:25   address everybody by name but that but [TS]

00:15:28   the double hack of this was what was a [TS]

00:15:32   an idea that i cribbed from Hodgman [TS]

00:15:35   which is at the end of the night I said [TS]

00:15:37   I'm going to read out the URL i'm going [TS]

00:15:39   to do a dramatic reading of the URL [TS]

00:15:41   right now [TS]

00:15:42   bi t dot ly / and I read out the URL for [TS]

00:15:48   the ticket link for them it's for the [TS]

00:15:50   next show and I said for for the next 24 [TS]

00:15:54   hours [TS]

00:15:54   this link is only open to people in this [TS]

00:15:58   room [TS]

00:15:59   here's the code word here's the piers [TS]

00:16:01   the password and so for 24 hours only [TS]

00:16:04   people here have the ability to buy [TS]

00:16:07   tickets to the next show like your [TS]

00:16:09   grandfather again that's right so if you [TS]

00:16:12   were here at the first show and you want [TS]

00:16:14   to keep going to the next to the show's [TS]

00:16:16   then you are you know you have first [TS]

00:16:18   right of refusal on that psychology is [TS]

00:16:21   that nice it's easy [TS]

00:16:22   it creates a sense of false scarcity [TS]

00:16:24   that's so important today it really is [TS]

00:16:27   people like a little bit of scarcity and [TS]

00:16:29   sleep all this even if they know it's [TS]

00:16:31   false but I gotta get going to get it [TS]

00:16:33   I got to get the fucking ticket but I [TS]

00:16:36   woke up the next morning and the show [TS]

00:16:38   had sold out the next shows already sold [TS]

00:16:40   it sold out before the tickets were went [TS]

00:16:43   on sale [TS]

00:16:44   god bless John Hodgman isn't that a nice [TS]

00:16:47   a good trick [TS]

00:16:48   it's a very good trick and so that this [TS]

00:16:51   this this mention of it here on the [TS]

00:16:54   podcast is the last time all I will ever [TS]

00:16:56   credit John Hodgman for the idea and [TS]

00:16:59   going to get a lot of credit for things [TS]

00:17:00   as it really does and he probably stole [TS]

00:17:02   it from somebody I don't know maybe he [TS]

00:17:04   thought into Canada a pretty smart guy [TS]

00:17:05   but I'm I'm not crediting him anymore [TS]

00:17:08   end and I hope when the wikipedia entry [TS]

00:17:11   that written in 2025 reading deadly [TS]

00:17:15   lakes a lot more dramatic bit ly [TS]

00:17:17   readings will credit me [TS]

00:17:19   uh-huh innovation John Roderick's [TS]

00:17:22   primary contribution to Western culture [TS]

00:17:25   was this idea that he stole from [TS]

00:17:27   somebody who's name is lost to history [TS]

00:17:31   this brilliant innovation [TS]

00:17:33   notwithstanding John would frequently [TS]

00:17:35   just repeat one word as the course for a [TS]

00:17:37   song [TS]

00:17:39   he's known firm for more than 11 culture [TS]

00:17:42   culture additive you know we do we get [TS]

00:17:45   in our own way [TS]

00:17:46   that's the yes yes I was in my own way [TS]

00:17:49   yep it was like I was onstage and and I [TS]

00:17:52   kept standing in front of me and then [TS]

00:17:54   there was a third me that was trying to [TS]

00:17:57   move me and the other me around [TS]

00:18:00   interesting people on stage is let's be [TS]

00:18:02   honest john hodgman innovation haha he's [TS]

00:18:06   very good at you can email because you [TS]

00:18:10   dinged him just now [TS]

00:18:11   no he doesn't listen to our podcast good [TS]

00:18:13   no I think he does actually that's [TS]

00:18:15   alright so good [TS]

00:18:18   well so so so as I thought about the [TS]

00:18:21   show I was like the thing is I like [TS]

00:18:23   writing the 2500 word essay I that I [TS]

00:18:26   enjoy that and not only do i enjoy but [TS]

00:18:30   when i'm done i have a 2500 word essay [TS]

00:18:33   that I wrote [TS]

00:18:34   yeah which gives me a feeling of [TS]

00:18:35   accomplishment and so I write it and I [TS]

00:18:39   enjoy the process of like what that that [TS]

00:18:41   word isn't quite funny enough like how [TS]

00:18:43   do i how do I punched that up oh right [TS]

00:18:45   and then I find the funnier way of like [TS]

00:18:48   I like that [TS]

00:18:50   but there's not enough time every week [TS]

00:18:52   to to memorize all the funny turns of [TS]

00:18:58   phrase and and having written it out and [TS]

00:19:02   made it funny i have i have kind of [TS]

00:19:05   removed it from the realm of like [TS]

00:19:10   extemporaneous story that I'm just [TS]

00:19:11   coming up with and you're very colorful [TS]

00:19:14   speaker just listening to you talking [TS]

00:19:16   about your experience with united [TS]

00:19:18   airlines at seatac I've listened to that [TS]

00:19:19   episode that especially that first [TS]

00:19:21   episode of thank you for calling i [TS]

00:19:23   listen to that twice just for how [TS]

00:19:24   articulate you are at telling this [TS]

00:19:26   particular miserable story and your [TS]

00:19:29   turns of phrase are fantastic you didn't [TS]

00:19:30   write that out what you might have [TS]

00:19:31   written it out i don't know what but I [TS]

00:19:34   are awfully you're awfully good at that [TS]

00:19:35   it's a one reason people i think enjoy [TS]

00:19:37   this program is is you are a wonderful [TS]

00:19:39   extemporaneous storyteller and anything [TS]

00:19:43   that would get between you and getting [TS]

00:19:45   to the point where speaking comfortably [TS]

00:19:46   you know I mean I think it's because [TS]

00:19:49   this is what I want to learn and this is [TS]

00:19:51   the learning and growing part yeah like [TS]

00:19:53   I know that I can get up in front of a [TS]

00:19:55   room of people and say and basically you [TS]

00:19:59   know say to give me an animal a cat give [TS]

00:20:03   me a city st. Louis [TS]

00:20:06   alright let me tell you a story about a [TS]

00:20:08   cat in st. Louis [TS]

00:20:09   you know i got i know what you decide [TS]

00:20:12   which one but yeah exactly how many how [TS]

00:20:15   many cats stories of from st. Louis time [TS]

00:20:18   let's see well let's just limited to the [TS]

00:20:21   eighties but what I want to do is I want [TS]

00:20:24   to develop my I want to develop into a [TS]

00:20:28   like the whole point of doing this show [TS]

00:20:30   is to develop a new skill and what I [TS]

00:20:33   would what I want that skill to be what [TS]

00:20:36   my goal is is that i do some preparation [TS]

00:20:39   period like I do some preparation and I [TS]

00:20:46   know what I'm doing [TS]

00:20:47   I go into it with a little bit of [TS]

00:20:51   preparation and so [TS]

00:20:53   so do you you want to get your own way a [TS]

00:20:56   little bit and I grow you have to do [TS]

00:20:58   something more and it's something that [TS]

00:21:00   everybody falls into like you know god [TS]

00:21:02   bless Bob Dylan if he hadn't started [TS]

00:21:04   annoying Pete sticker with electric [TS]

00:21:05   music we would have a real different [TS]

00:21:06   idea yeah and that morning meal we're [TS]

00:21:12   good see except ring is hilarious and [TS]

00:21:18   what you're working your way just enough [TS]

00:21:19   to be able to you you're trying to put a [TS]

00:21:21   little sand into generate a little pearl [TS]

00:21:23   write something new [TS]

00:21:24   exactly well a couple years ago paul f [TS]

00:21:26   tompkins I saw a couple of politicking [TS]

00:21:30   shows we may have talked about this [TS]

00:21:32   before i saw a couple of politicking [TS]

00:21:36   shows where he had evolved he was [TS]

00:21:38   evolving his act away from straight [TS]

00:21:41   stand up and he was going into this [TS]

00:21:43   long-form storytelling where he started [TS]

00:21:46   out any he did an hour-long show and the [TS]

00:21:51   entire show was basically the story of [TS]

00:21:55   his his job history before he became a [TS]

00:22:00   comic like all of the shit jobs that he [TS]

00:22:04   had when he was a teenager in his early [TS]

00:22:07   place and so that is like basically any [TS]

00:22:13   rock on the line episode and any night [TS]

00:22:17   at a cocktail party with either you or [TS]

00:22:18   me [TS]

00:22:19   right like oh you wanted you want two [TS]

00:22:22   hour-long like disquisition you might [TS]

00:22:25   want to get a couple drinks and graphs [TS]

00:22:27   eat it because let me tell you about my [TS]

00:22:30   first five jobs or whatever but what [TS]

00:22:32   somebody say busboy [TS]

00:22:34   hello I know I'm busboy [TS]

00:22:38   yeah how many people in the room ever [TS]

00:22:39   worked at a glance real quick um but [TS]

00:22:44   watching Paul do his show it was evident [TS]

00:22:48   that his 20 years of stand-up comedy had [TS]

00:22:53   at was greatly informing his [TS]

00:22:55   storytelling his his comic time in was [TS]

00:23:01   you know not just impeccable but also [TS]

00:23:04   the laugh lines of the stories [TS]

00:23:07   were not what you that it wasn't built [TS]

00:23:11   around like here comes the story here [TS]

00:23:13   comes the story and it's coming up to [TS]

00:23:14   the end and the end is going to be funny [TS]

00:23:17   and then there's the blue the end haha [TS]

00:23:20   it was much more like he's telling the [TS]

00:23:22   story and then there would be a little [TS]

00:23:24   detail and it would be that it would be [TS]

00:23:26   the biggest laugh line of the night but [TS]

00:23:28   it wasn't the laugh lines were all kind [TS]

00:23:30   of like these polyps and the threat of [TS]

00:23:34   the story continued underneath and you [TS]

00:23:36   know the end of the story and like you [TS]

00:23:37   were saying the transitions between this [TS]

00:23:40   story and the next story work were these [TS]

00:23:43   seamless kind of you know he didn't it [TS]

00:23:46   wasn't a case where he just said well [TS]

00:23:47   then two years later I got another job [TS]

00:23:49   like it it all it all wove together it's [TS]

00:23:53   so much harder to do than it looks [TS]

00:23:55   incredibly hard to do and so I'm sitting [TS]

00:23:57   in the audience of these shows i'm [TS]

00:23:59   watching him work and I'm like okay he [TS]

00:24:03   has gone full circle from years and [TS]

00:24:07   years of standing up and saying you know [TS]

00:24:10   what's the deal with rutabagas and like [TS]

00:24:15   doing stand-up he's evolved and found [TS]

00:24:19   this long-form storytelling that is [TS]

00:24:22   that's really like a thing that I that I [TS]

00:24:27   do and have been doing my whole life [TS]

00:24:29   long form humorous storytelling taking [TS]

00:24:32   over a corner of a of a party and you [TS]

00:24:36   know and going on these sort of long [TS]

00:24:38   humorous digressions but he has but all [TS]

00:24:42   of the work he's done in comedy and all [TS]

00:24:45   his stage time and obviously the [TS]

00:24:48   preparation that's gone into making this [TS]

00:24:50   one show like it gives it allows him to [TS]

00:24:55   have the appearance of just [TS]

00:24:57   extemporaneously telling a story but he [TS]

00:24:59   knows every note of it and you know and [TS]

00:25:05   so he still allows for the opportunity [TS]

00:25:09   of chance right he can still he can [TS]

00:25:12   still respond to somebody in the crowd [TS]

00:25:13   he can still go off on a tangent but he [TS]

00:25:16   knows where all the lily pads are [TS]

00:25:19   and so watching it I was more than [TS]

00:25:24   anything I was like that is so outside [TS]

00:25:26   of my skill that here that is so above [TS]

00:25:30   my skill level what he's doing but I [TS]

00:25:33   recognize the framework and I mean this [TS]

00:25:35   is the danger that people have when they [TS]

00:25:37   watch a stand-up comic they're like I [TS]

00:25:39   could do that but like I could see the [TS]

00:25:41   architecture of it and I saw how much [TS]

00:25:45   how far I had to go how much I had to [TS]

00:25:47   learn and so for the last year I've [TS]

00:25:51   tried I've had multiple opportunities to [TS]

00:25:54   get up and do extemporaneous [TS]

00:25:55   storytelling and I've i have probably [TS]

00:25:58   done it now a dozen times where I've [TS]

00:26:01   gotten up and told a half-hour story [TS]

00:26:02   that I was making up off the top of my [TS]

00:26:04   head not the not the stories of course [TS]

00:26:07   they're all one hundred percent true [TS]

00:26:09   yes but the storytelling and now i [TS]

00:26:13   wanted i wanted to switch gears Merlin I [TS]

00:26:16   want to I want to I want to get better [TS]

00:26:19   at a thing where I am where I'm from [TS]

00:26:23   crafting a thing but I don't know how I [TS]

00:26:29   don't know what to do next and when you [TS]

00:26:30   try to ask paul f tompkins about it it's [TS]

00:26:32   like you know it's like asking a [TS]

00:26:34   magician to show you how to cut a lady [TS]

00:26:36   in half [TS]

00:26:36   he's like haha yes storytelling is funny [TS]

00:26:39   anyway I think it's something well first [TS]

00:26:42   of all I mean it's I i think it's high [TS]

00:26:44   time you did this [TS]

00:26:45   I'm glad you're doing this it's you know [TS]

00:26:47   i-i've been an advocate for a long time [TS]

00:26:49   for you realizing how talented new and [TS]

00:26:51   potentially gifted as horrible as a [TS]

00:26:53   human being is your that you are really [TS]

00:26:55   so awfully talented these things it's [TS]

00:26:56   nice to see you giving yourself the [TS]

00:26:58   chance to do that as nice to see we [TS]

00:27:00   appear onstage by yourself certain you [TS]

00:27:03   know if you're up there with a band and [TS]

00:27:05   rocking out if one is up there with the [TS]

00:27:07   band and rocking out that's one thing [TS]

00:27:08   and you know you could modulate your [TS]

00:27:10   performance for like how the sound in [TS]

00:27:13   the room is but you're not really i [TS]

00:27:15   don't know i feel like when I've done [TS]

00:27:17   music performances [TS]

00:27:18   I'm not changing that much based on like [TS]

00:27:20   how people's faces look on how they're [TS]

00:27:22   responding is not that much that I can't [TS]

00:27:24   even can change that much [TS]

00:27:26   it's so much changes when you're looking [TS]

00:27:30   at that audience we did our show we're [TS]

00:27:31   talking about this with these two shows [TS]

00:27:33   and just the chance to do this with you [TS]

00:27:35   in front of people I immediately [TS]

00:27:36   realized stuff we had to change the [TS]

00:27:38   second night not you know it's like a [TS]

00:27:40   bad way but like oh duh [TS]

00:27:42   there's a bunch of people in the [TS]

00:27:43   audience right and and like they're part [TS]

00:27:45   of the their part of the bit [TS]

00:27:47   yeah and we pretending they're not there [TS]

00:27:48   we can't now [TS]

00:27:51   no they won't go away they're still here [TS]

00:27:54   but that's I mean that's so silly but it [TS]

00:27:56   takes a certain amount of empathy and [TS]

00:27:58   the ability to open yourself up and [TS]

00:28:00   eventually I guess you open yourself up [TS]

00:28:02   in very selective ways when you get [TS]

00:28:04   really good once you get good at crafts [TS]

00:28:06   but it's it does take it certainly a [TS]

00:28:09   very different skill to call it just the [TS]

00:28:11   same kind of performing is was really [TS]

00:28:13   missing the point [TS]

00:28:14   it's a very different kind of much more [TS]

00:28:15   personal thing to be up there by [TS]

00:28:17   yourself having to carry the whole room [TS]

00:28:20   well and and and what was funny is about [TS]

00:28:24   halfway through the show I recognized [TS]

00:28:26   that I was adopting a kind of Todd Barry [TS]

00:28:30   like deadpan that that just to take Todd [TS]

00:28:36   Barry and paul f tompkins two examples [TS]

00:28:38   like Todd uses this this super low a [TS]

00:28:43   fact as a as a great sort of comedic [TS]

00:28:48   wedge and he becomes I i think i think [TS]

00:28:55   what i was seeing is that every comedian [TS]

00:28:57   I know every performer that gets up and [TS]

00:29:00   does a one-person show like they they [TS]

00:29:03   find a way to make their character [TS]

00:29:06   sympathetic make their make the person [TS]

00:29:10   onstage a person that everyone in the [TS]

00:29:13   audience can empathize with and so [TS]

00:29:16   somehow Todd Barry makes this like [TS]

00:29:19   really low a fact disagreeable uh you [TS]

00:29:26   know [TS]

00:29:26   a status conscious character that he [TS]

00:29:29   presents like you your ear on his side [TS]

00:29:33   right and and polished Tompkins is very [TS]

00:29:37   animated and friendly he appears to be a [TS]

00:29:40   guy that you would want to know and be [TS]

00:29:42   friends with who you're onstage want to [TS]

00:29:46   put them on a keychain you so cute he's [TS]

00:29:49   cute [TS]

00:29:49   you're onstage thing when you give your [TS]

00:29:51   presentations at a you know I hear your [TS]

00:29:54   inbox zero presentations around in your [TS]

00:29:56   yeah when you get up on stage and do [TS]

00:29:58   your thing you know you [TS]

00:30:00   your character is like the guy that [TS]

00:30:03   everybody in the room who you know [TS]

00:30:05   wishes would come into their office and [TS]

00:30:08   and be there with them for an hour you [TS]

00:30:11   know like you are the one you're the guy [TS]

00:30:12   that they all want to be right and my [TS]

00:30:17   thing standing onstage with the rock [TS]

00:30:19   band like I the guitar and the song was [TS]

00:30:26   was so active and so there was so much [TS]

00:30:30   life in the music that then I could be [TS]

00:30:35   this kind of rye voice in between songs [TS]

00:30:38   where I would just you know I kind of [TS]

00:30:40   talk to the audience like this and this [TS]

00:30:41   voice just say oh you think that was [TS]

00:30:44   good [TS]

00:30:44   we'll look you don't you fucking shut up [TS]

00:30:47   for a second but and then go back into [TS]

00:30:51   the song was like yeah i am and the and [TS]

00:30:54   the attention and the contrast was was [TS]

00:30:57   exciting and it's part of why that [TS]

00:30:59   character worked but as I was doing this [TS]

00:31:01   our like I heard myself and and and was [TS]

00:31:06   conscious of this this persona where I'm [TS]

00:31:12   you know I'm kind of talking to the [TS]

00:31:13   audience like this for an hour and and [TS]

00:31:18   and it raised all these questions of [TS]

00:31:21   like well who is this guy like this [TS]

00:31:24   isn't this isn't how I'm this isn't how [TS]

00:31:28   I talk to my three-year-old [TS]

00:31:30   and this isn't you know and if I'm if [TS]

00:31:34   I'm standing somewhere and trying to get [TS]

00:31:36   a bunch of people's attention like I can [TS]

00:31:38   tell a very animated story but because I [TS]

00:31:41   have everyone's attention already in [TS]

00:31:43   this room and it's quiet room and [TS]

00:31:45   nobody's talking about me I'm you know [TS]

00:31:47   I'm all the way down here at this sort [TS]

00:31:49   of like and then so that anywhere then i [TS]

00:31:51   said this and then I said that and I was [TS]

00:31:52   like how do i need to divide it to turn [TS]

00:31:55   them turn the energy up a little bit on [TS]

00:31:58   me like be a little bit more excited [TS]

00:32:01   about my own story [TS]

00:32:03   I don't know that's another thing i need [TS]

00:32:06   two things I cannot bear to listen or [TS]

00:32:10   watch myself perform i should i should [TS]

00:32:14   be reviewing gameday tapes [TS]

00:32:17   yeah I should be watching these shows [TS]

00:32:19   and saying like oh that's that's the one [TS]

00:32:22   thing in mind I i really i can listen to [TS]

00:32:24   podcasts I've been on i can listen to [TS]

00:32:26   music I've done but I don't like [TS]

00:32:27   watching myself alone on stage doing a [TS]

00:32:30   thing and it's not embarrassing to me [TS]

00:32:32   but it does it makes me self-conscious [TS]

00:32:35   in a way that I'm not sure is good and I [TS]

00:32:40   mean it's I to me is how it feels in the [TS]

00:32:42   room you know it needs to feel a certain [TS]

00:32:44   way in the room and which means yes it [TS]

00:32:46   means that I need to feel a certain way [TS]

00:32:48   in the room but i think especially in [TS]

00:32:49   comedy quote-unquote comedy one of the [TS]

00:32:52   problems is that I don't know how to [TS]

00:32:54   describe this it's almost like people [TS]

00:32:55   think that they can win the room over by [TS]

00:32:58   controlling the temperature of the room [TS]

00:33:00   and making it hotter and colder right [TS]

00:33:02   she kind of also have to have these much [TS]

00:33:04   more subtle and ineffable qualities of [TS]

00:33:06   controlling the humidity and barometric [TS]

00:33:07   pressure there's this ability to like [TS]

00:33:10   it's like kegeling or something you [TS]

00:33:12   discover this mostly didn't even know [TS]

00:33:13   you [TS]

00:33:14   you had I tried killing and i discovered [TS]

00:33:17   i didn't have that most I think you have [TS]

00:33:18   to act like you're stopping or you can [TS]

00:33:21   get a little bar belt [TS]

00:33:22   I do that all the time i got like [TS]

00:33:23   stopping people just act like I'm [TS]

00:33:25   stopping [TS]

00:33:27   I keep eating sure you're not a Buddhist [TS]

00:33:29   haha what I can join the humidity there [TS]

00:33:33   what I what I do is I go into men's [TS]

00:33:35   rooms and I act like I'm stopping peeing [TS]

00:33:37   all of all the guys who have been [TS]

00:33:38   carrying a ladder and a bell and just [TS]

00:33:40   stand in the back and I'm like but it's [TS]

00:33:47   it's super interesting to me how you [TS]

00:33:49   know it's it's what makes me want to do [TS]

00:33:51   lots more live stuff because i know i [TS]

00:33:53   think i know what you're saying is that [TS]

00:33:54   you discover this this person emerging [TS]

00:33:56   through these little my new trial and [TS]

00:33:58   error things and I can only imagine how [TS]

00:34:00   much more I would learn if I did that [TS]

00:34:02   every week or every two weeks or [TS]

00:34:03   whatever you know where I feel like by [TS]

00:34:05   the time I'm ready to get off stage at [TS]

00:34:07   some kind of a live performance i think [TS]

00:34:08   im just barely starting to understand [TS]

00:34:11   I'm I'm loosening up that warming up and [TS]

00:34:14   I'm getting out of my own way and I'm [TS]

00:34:16   letting silence float when it needs to [TS]

00:34:18   float I'm knowing when to run out and do [TS]

00:34:20   something goofy but I but suddenly it [TS]

00:34:23   takes awhile for me because I don't do [TS]

00:34:25   it all the time where somebody like [TS]

00:34:26   politics or whomever can just walk out [TS]

00:34:28   and you know immediately they the energy [TS]

00:34:31   in the room changes when they come out [TS]

00:34:33   because there are presents they know [TS]

00:34:34   they are empathetic I don't have another [TS]

00:34:36   better word than that empathetic and [TS]

00:34:38   they can see themselves in the audience [TS]

00:34:40   watching it and knowing what they should [TS]

00:34:42   be doing and you know part of it is [TS]

00:34:44   probably that you can explain that to [TS]

00:34:46   somebody just got to go and do it a lot [TS]

00:34:48   it's like that one Saturday morning when [TS]

00:34:50   you wake up and can suddenly play bar [TS]

00:34:51   chords you can tell somebody put your [TS]

00:34:53   fingers here and then they can do a [TS]

00:34:55   whole bunch and eventually gets less [TS]

00:34:56   heart but honestly one day I could do a [TS]

00:34:59   barre chord the day before I couldn't i [TS]

00:35:00   don't know why but it was just I don't [TS]

00:35:02   know why was that Saturday rather than [TS]

00:35:04   the one before the one after but that [TS]

00:35:05   was the difference because you know what [TS]

00:35:07   was the Grays out the the guys with the [TS]

00:35:11   alien guys have a great came into your [TS]

00:35:13   room [TS]

00:35:13   they said he's ready and they said let's [TS]

00:35:15   see let's upload the the matrix program [TS]

00:35:18   for our cords [TS]

00:35:20   well apart though right well and so so [TS]

00:35:24   like a kurt braunohler do you know this [TS]

00:35:27   comedian he's a very funny comedian i [TS]

00:35:31   did a couple of shows with him in the [TS]

00:35:33   fall where he got up in like cold in [TS]

00:35:36   front of a room that was it was one of [TS]

00:35:38   these shows like that is 10 [TS]

00:35:40   sighs it was the wesley space the [TS]

00:35:42   cabinet of Wonders right it's like all [TS]

00:35:45   right [TS]

00:35:45   a british guys gonna get up and play to [TS]

00:35:47   folk songs and then there's going to be [TS]

00:35:49   a you know a guy who's playing wine [TS]

00:35:52   glasses and then there's gonna be an [TS]

00:35:55   emoji then the juggler and Men the [TS]

00:35:58   comedian gets five minutes and he walks [TS]

00:36:01   out and he you know ease in this [TS]

00:36:04   incredible position of trying to present [TS]

00:36:08   to the room like this casual comedian [TS]

00:36:14   effect where right away you're gonna [TS]

00:36:18   you're gonna be on board listening to [TS]

00:36:19   him tell his story and he also was doing [TS]

00:36:24   this what i can only think is like a new [TS]

00:36:28   movement in comedy which is like a funny [TS]

00:36:30   thing happened to me on the way over [TS]

00:36:31   here and told the story you know 10 [TS]

00:36:35   minute long story that was that again [TS]

00:36:38   had all these elements of of joke making [TS]

00:36:42   that that was ever that showed 10 years [TS]

00:36:46   in the comedy trenches or longer of kind [TS]

00:36:49   of nowhere jokes and annoying how jokes [TS]

00:36:51   live but the framework of it was just [TS]

00:36:57   the anecdotal story telling and so [TS]

00:37:03   there's all this there's all this work [TS]

00:37:06   that's ever that's obviously gone into [TS]

00:37:08   this art form that they done the work so [TS]

00:37:12   now they can forget it and I have done a [TS]

00:37:16   lot of that work but it's it's a [TS]

00:37:20   patchwork quilt and so these shows the [TS]

00:37:24   this last show that I did and then my [TS]

00:37:26   goal for the shows for the next six [TS]

00:37:28   months is to is to get up there and and [TS]

00:37:33   really you know like I a lot of people [TS]

00:37:35   congratulating me after the show [TS]

00:37:37   everybody was very happy obviously [TS]

00:37:38   everybody that was there bought a ticket [TS]

00:37:40   to the next one or more they they call [TS]

00:37:44   their friends and said I can't go but [TS]

00:37:45   you should or whatever like it's like [TS]

00:37:48   selling tickets isn't isn't something [TS]

00:37:50   I'm worried about at least for now [TS]

00:37:53   so I have the opportunity to get up [TS]

00:37:55   there and failed but my god getting up [TS]

00:37:57   and failing is not fun even if you know [TS]

00:38:00   everybody in the room is like doesn't [TS]

00:38:02   matter to us go for it and that was that [TS]

00:38:05   was just good let me get that you get [TS]

00:38:08   that well [TS]

00:38:09   oh yeah that was good that was good i [TS]

00:38:11   mean you know there were a couple like [TS]

00:38:12   yeah that that story went a little long [TS]

00:38:15   but you know it was really good like [TS]

00:38:17   fuck you [TS]

00:38:18   but-but-but I expected it you know and [TS]

00:38:22   even even the guy from the guy from the [TS]

00:38:24   robber who runs the AV the dude up [TS]

00:38:28   I mean there's one microphone right so [TS]

00:38:29   he's up there is just got his hand on [TS]

00:38:30   the fader through the whole show one [TS]

00:38:32   fader but like he came back right [TS]

00:38:35   afterwards i'm sitting in the backstage [TS]

00:38:37   area he came back to sharpen his pencil [TS]

00:38:40   or something and and i'm looking at this [TS]

00:38:45   guy for some kind of validation like [TS]

00:38:47   well well you know I don't know your [TS]

00:38:50   name but tell me how i did and he's just [TS]

00:38:53   he's just one around back there like me [TS]

00:38:54   anything right and it needed anything [TS]

00:38:57   and I'm like no I'm going to me is like [TS]

00:38:58   okay and he walks out I'm like fuck the [TS]

00:39:02   thumbs-up no nothing [TS]

00:39:03   fuck i didn't win that guy like I [TS]

00:39:06   changed my life over funny to me that [TS]

00:39:08   you would feel that way that's so funny [TS]

00:39:10   you know it's terrible but but but also [TS]

00:39:12   i'm also i'm also monitoring myself a [TS]

00:39:16   through the whole process run like okay [TS]

00:39:18   calm calm down now Richard Pryor like [TS]

00:39:23   you just did one show rate and the AV [TS]

00:39:26   guy didn't put a Hawaiian lei around [TS]

00:39:30   your neck you're fine just [TS]

00:39:32   I got upset and so philosophical of [TS]

00:39:35   about this i mean you did your daughter [TS]

00:39:37   walks right she walk around [TS]

00:39:39   oh she likes to walk so yeah it's [TS]

00:39:41   actually see if Walker goes from here to [TS]

00:39:43   there but you know the first time that a [TS]

00:39:45   child this is the ultimate obvious [TS]

00:39:47   on-the-nose analogy because that's not [TS]

00:39:50   even an analogy but the first time you [TS]

00:39:52   know kid tries to walk for a really long [TS]

00:39:53   time and falls down and you applaud them [TS]

00:39:55   for for trying to walk and eventually [TS]

00:39:57   one day another good-looking get up your [TS]

00:40:02   week [TS]

00:40:03   get up look at this chart but you know [TS]

00:40:06   where you don't want to live buddy 48 [TS]

00:40:08   percentile that is no place to live [TS]

00:40:11   my mom wrote down the the day that I [TS]

00:40:13   first walked and you are two percent [TS]

00:40:16   behind already [TS]

00:40:19   but you know eventually one day the kid [TS]

00:40:21   the kid walks for a while and you free [TS]

00:40:23   cuz you're like oh my god this is great [TS]

00:40:24   it's great it's great and then for a [TS]

00:40:26   long time [TS]

00:40:26   the kid doesn't walk very well but the [TS]

00:40:28   kid walks and then eventually the kid [TS]

00:40:30   walks and so on and so forth and I I [TS]

00:40:32   that's kind of how i feel about a lot of [TS]

00:40:35   performance where I used to really I [TS]

00:40:38   don't know it's not even superstition I [TS]

00:40:39   kind of don't like talking to people [TS]

00:40:40   about what i just did it feels it feels [TS]

00:40:43   undignified I i like it when people [TS]

00:40:46   complicated like it makes me feel good [TS]

00:40:47   but I don't want to parse it I don't [TS]

00:40:49   it's just it's done it's done now and [TS]

00:40:51   like for me it's just a matter of doing [TS]

00:40:53   that over and over and over and I got to [TS]

00:40:55   a point where like you know I didn't [TS]

00:40:57   worry about what the sound guy thought [TS]

00:40:58   and when doing like you know talks and [TS]

00:41:00   stuff and it made me it made me a [TS]

00:41:02   happier person I would it also made me I [TS]

00:41:04   think a little bit better at kind of the [TS]

00:41:08   trend that I mean obviously you're way [TS]

00:41:10   more performant I'll ever be [TS]

00:41:11   but at the same time like there's [TS]

00:41:12   something nice about getting the point [TS]

00:41:14   where you go thanks I'm glad you enjoyed [TS]

00:41:15   it and then you you know going to the [TS]

00:41:16   next thing but for me like I kind of [TS]

00:41:20   felt like that person who can I can walk [TS]

00:41:22   and I can walk pretty well and make it [TS]

00:41:24   can walk a little bit fancy sometimes [TS]

00:41:25   but it's just a matter of doing the [TS]

00:41:27   walking every day just doing that every [TS]

00:41:29   every every every day and eventually [TS]

00:41:31   like I'll know what I'm good it won't [TS]

00:41:33   matter i'm glad you liked it but what [TS]

00:41:35   matters is whether i think it's good and [TS]

00:41:37   when I know it's good it won't matter if [TS]

00:41:39   you didn't like it [TS]

00:41:40   that's to me that's kind of that's the [TS]

00:41:42   the good place to be not to be arrogant [TS]

00:41:44   but you know same thing again just we're [TS]

00:41:46   back the whole check your privilege [TS]

00:41:47   thing like if you actually are good at [TS]

00:41:48   something it's it's it's like Harrison [TS]

00:41:53   Bergeron you know like nobody's allowed [TS]

00:41:55   to be good at anything [TS]

00:41:57   Walker you certainly aren't aware you [TS]

00:41:59   sure are a lot to be aware if you're [TS]

00:42:01   good but if you get to a point where you [TS]

00:42:02   like don't need to glance across [TS]

00:42:04   everybody in the room to find out [TS]

00:42:05   whether you're happy with how you did [TS]

00:42:07   what you did because it's what you do [TS]

00:42:09   and you just keep going out and doing it [TS]

00:42:10   it's you know it makes me really want to [TS]

00:42:13   do that stuff more to get to where I it [TS]

00:42:16   really is about you know the crafters [TS]

00:42:18   and there's always going to be another [TS]

00:42:19   one that's the thing you're always going [TS]

00:42:21   to do more of these right well and this [TS]

00:42:23   was the thing that I mean watching Paul [TS]

00:42:26   Tompkins tell them tell his do is show a [TS]

00:42:28   couple years ago I was very very [TS]

00:42:31   conscious that the the apparent ease and [TS]

00:42:37   effortlessness of his work [TS]

00:42:39   surely every night invites 5 to 10 [TS]

00:42:43   people to come up to him in the bar [TS]

00:42:45   afterwards and talk to him about their [TS]

00:42:47   storytelling talents you know I mean [TS]

00:42:50   like it seems so easy and so so people [TS]

00:42:57   are duped into thinking it's easy and so [TS]

00:43:00   I was very careful not to [TS]

00:43:04   and the problem was it's impossible [TS]

00:43:05   because I'm standing there with Paul [TS]

00:43:07   afterwards and I want to tell him about [TS]

00:43:09   how i like to tell stories and how the [TS]

00:43:11   how inspirational this was I recognize [TS]

00:43:14   that that that he hears it all the time [TS]

00:43:18   and unlike guitar playing and rock [TS]

00:43:20   banding like you get off the stage at a [TS]

00:43:22   at a rock concert yeah they're going to [TS]

00:43:24   be five or six guys that come up and [TS]

00:43:25   talk to you about their band but there [TS]

00:43:28   are so many things you have to do before [TS]

00:43:31   your band is headlining a show that you [TS]

00:43:34   can listen to a guy talk about his band [TS]

00:43:36   his guitar playing and all the things [TS]

00:43:37   that all his aspirations and then at the [TS]

00:43:40   end you can kind of just you know pat [TS]

00:43:41   him on the shoulder and go well good [TS]

00:43:43   luck buddy i hope good things happen to [TS]

00:43:45   your band but with storytelling that [TS]

00:43:50   Eugene Mirman anecdote about you know [TS]

00:43:53   that was really good now good for 10 [TS]

00:43:55   years exactly go do it for 10 years and [TS]

00:43:57   the other thing about it is the [TS]

00:43:58   of entry to get up in front of a crowd [TS]

00:44:00   and hold the microphone in your hand [TS]

00:44:01   there is none like anybody can do it [TS]

00:44:04   anybody can stand take that first step [TS]

00:44:06   onto the stage holding a microphone and [TS]

00:44:08   the question is do does the audience [TS]

00:44:10   leave an hour later entertained so so [TS]

00:44:16   when I walked off the stage at the other [TS]

00:44:19   night and people wanted to talk to me [TS]

00:44:25   about it as much as I as much as I in a [TS]

00:44:32   wanted feedback I didn't need any ever [TS]

00:44:35   and what I kept playing in my own head [TS]

00:44:39   what other what I kept going back to [TS]

00:44:42   because you know i wanted i want to [TS]

00:44:43   criticize my own show and turn it into a [TS]

00:44:46   pile of what wet ashes [TS]

00:44:49   that's my instinct like to go through [TS]

00:44:51   each moment of the show and be like when [TS]

00:44:54   ashes or wet ashes who went ashes what [TS]

00:45:01   you know what I kept saying to myself as [TS]

00:45:03   I'm sitting backstage was a year ago you [TS]

00:45:08   were superior like massively depressed [TS]

00:45:12   you were 40 pounds overweight and the [TS]

00:45:17   prospect of actually getting up onstage [TS]

00:45:20   actually booking a show and following [TS]

00:45:22   through on it was like an insurmountable [TS]

00:45:26   obstacle you couldn't imagine doing it [TS]

00:45:29   and four months ago you said you set [TS]

00:45:36   some some goal and in a way like the [TS]

00:45:39   first time I ever first time in a very [TS]

00:45:41   long time actually wrote a goal down on [TS]

00:45:43   a piece of paper and it was a little [TS]

00:45:46   handful of of goals that all that all [TS]

00:45:50   dovetailed with each other like find an [TS]

00:45:52   assistant renting office space book a [TS]

00:45:56   weekly show and in the in the tension [TS]

00:46:02   and the anxiety leading up to this first [TS]

00:46:04   show it was very difficult to to take [TS]

00:46:08   pride in having taken any of those steps [TS]

00:46:11   because it seemed like oh sure you got [TS]

00:46:14   an office but the but they put some [TS]

00:46:16   chemical sealant on the floor and you [TS]

00:46:17   can't be in there because it gives you [TS]

00:46:18   allergies and you know yeah you said [TS]

00:46:21   about trying to find an assistant but [TS]

00:46:22   now now you have for assistance and it's [TS]

00:46:25   and and like three times the anxiety and [TS]

00:46:30   oh you book to show sure but but between [TS]

00:46:33   now and when the show starts [TS]

00:46:35   maybe your pants are going to catch on [TS]

00:46:36   fire or maybe the world is going to come [TS]

00:46:38   to an end and sitting backstage what I [TS]

00:46:41   was a lot what I was allowing myself was [TS]

00:46:44   in fact you have you have accomplished [TS]

00:46:46   the goals that you set out to do [TS]

00:46:49   well you have to give yourself that you [TS]

00:46:53   allow yourself in that moment I was like [TS]

00:46:55   do not do not turn the show that you [TS]

00:46:58   just did it too wet ashes now is the [TS]

00:47:00   time to reflect on the fact that you [TS]

00:47:02   have an office you have you have an [TS]

00:47:05   assistant in fact you have two [TS]

00:47:08   assistants and maybe about two [TS]

00:47:11   assistants maybe maybe more i'm a [TS]

00:47:13   manager or two of the assistants I [TS]

00:47:16   haven't met yet [TS]

00:47:17   I've definitely met two of my assistant [TS]

00:47:20   and most importantly you have you have [TS]

00:47:25   you booked a weekly show and you have [TS]

00:47:27   now done the first one so no matter what [TS]

00:47:30   happened if I it if you know and and the [TS]

00:47:34   fact is like not only did the show but [TS]

00:47:36   like succeeded at it if I'd gotten up [TS]

00:47:40   there and just stuttered for an hour I [TS]

00:47:44   could be proud of having taken all those [TS]

00:47:47   steps and in fact I got up and I [TS]

00:47:48   entertained the crowd and everybody [TS]

00:47:49   laughed and sold out the next one [TS]

00:47:53   well and so that was before I knew that [TS]

00:47:54   right and so I was sitting there and I [TS]

00:47:57   was like listen maybe you're gonna sell [TS]

00:47:58   20 tickets to the next show in advance [TS]

00:48:00   and then you're going to have to promote [TS]

00:48:03   it and get you know put 50 more people [TS]

00:48:05   in there but that's not going to be hard [TS]

00:48:06   to do and over time this will build and [TS]

00:48:09   maybe [TS]

00:48:10   at some point there will be a long five [TS]

00:48:12   months from now and you'll only see and [TS]

00:48:14   nobody will come but you just keep doing [TS]

00:48:17   this [TS]

00:48:18   this is the this is the trail and a year [TS]

00:48:23   from now you will know a year from now [TS]

00:48:26   something will have revealed itself and [TS]

00:48:30   so I allowed myself that and and and [TS]

00:48:33   everytime everytime the voice came into [TS]

00:48:35   my head that was like you know that you [TS]

00:48:37   butchered the show last night and [TS]

00:48:39   everyone in the room that used to be a [TS]

00:48:41   fan of yours now realizes that you are [TS]

00:48:43   charlatans every time that happened that [TS]

00:48:47   voice speaks with a lot of battery am at [TS]

00:48:49   my house every day it's very hard for me [TS]

00:48:51   to to to describe that that character [TS]

00:48:54   because he speaks Welsh but yea right [TS]

00:48:58   that is the that every time that voice [TS]

00:49:00   came into my head I just repeated that [TS]

00:49:01   little like I a year ago we had hoped [TS]

00:49:06   Bob Hope and steve jobs and johnny cash [TS]

00:49:09   and now we have up we have up a [TS]

00:49:14   basically a group of assistance unusable [TS]

00:49:18   office space but you have done this show [TS]

00:49:20   will you use the gold first of all [TS]

00:49:22   congratulations i don't make it about my [TS]

00:49:24   congratulations and but also that the [TS]

00:49:25   thing about a goal is and three girls [TS]

00:49:27   are stupid is that most times people let [TS]

00:49:30   the goal becomes the goal the goal is [TS]

00:49:32   this thing that they basically carven [TS]

00:49:34   stone sometimes having absolutely no [TS]

00:49:37   reason and no credibility to make that [TS]

00:49:39   goal that I probably most people i think [TS]

00:49:41   is people are all into these goals and I [TS]

00:49:43   think the real productive if they got a [TS]

00:49:44   goal my goal is to corner of the solar [TS]

00:49:46   market [TS]

00:49:47   yeah yeah within three months but it's [TS]

00:49:49   the same but like I'm just biting my lip [TS]

00:49:52   to not going to put on my merlin hat [TS]

00:49:54   because there's so much about this that [TS]

00:49:55   is why people beat up on themselves and [TS]

00:49:57   end up not not not even not succeeding [TS]

00:49:59   that even trying like thinking it's easy [TS]

00:50:01   well yeah it's just the only people who [TS]

00:50:02   think something is easy or people who [TS]

00:50:04   haven't done it yet [TS]

00:50:05   anybody who's actually done anything [TS]

00:50:06   knows that nothing is easy it's only [TS]

00:50:08   easy after it stopped being hard and [TS]

00:50:11   it's not you know you and the thing is [TS]

00:50:12   nobody there is a new thing that's hard [TS]

00:50:14   absolutely there will be five new things [TS]

00:50:16   that are hard that's called growth and [TS]

00:50:17   the thing is sitting in a bar and [TS]

00:50:19   talking about this thing that's easy we [TS]

00:50:20   do you been doing that for 15 years [TS]

00:50:22   not you but I'm [TS]

00:50:23   like somebody's they're all this is easy [TS]

00:50:25   ok then why you sit around a bar talking [TS]

00:50:27   about how easy it is like what have you [TS]

00:50:29   done and that's and so the problem with [TS]

00:50:31   all those things this horrible [TS]

00:50:32   disconnect between where you think it [TS]

00:50:34   should be where you actually are and [TS]

00:50:36   where you can reasonably expect to be in [TS]

00:50:37   some amount of time so having a goal is [TS]

00:50:39   is so I think it's so valuable if it's a [TS]

00:50:42   goal that you're also allowing to have a [TS]

00:50:45   little air to it so I mean first of all [TS]

00:50:47   congratulations that you got this [TS]

00:50:48   bizarre that's pretty locked feat given [TS]

00:50:50   where you have been that's pretty [TS]

00:50:52   amazing with you in the troll that you [TS]

00:50:53   can get that far but also it's important [TS]

00:50:55   just always remember that a goal is [TS]

00:50:56   useful in as much as it keeps you moving [TS]

00:50:58   forward if the goal ever stops making [TS]

00:51:01   you move forward [TS]

00:51:03   you've missed the point of the goal the [TS]

00:51:04   goal is to make you show up every day [TS]

00:51:06   and to work really hard into the right [TS]

00:51:08   thing it doesn't mean now you become [TS]

00:51:09   some dumbass you stop taking a new [TS]

00:51:11   information or stops realizing that [TS]

00:51:13   you're trying to corner a non-existent [TS]

00:51:14   silver market [TS]

00:51:15   yeah that's the beauty part it's [TS]

00:51:17   whatever if that's the thing about a [TS]

00:51:18   hack that's the thing that gets you off [TS]

00:51:20   your ass and make sure you go out there [TS]

00:51:22   and do it every day until you understand [TS]

00:51:24   that enough to have a reasonable goal [TS]

00:51:25   that's why people don't get anywhere [TS]

00:51:27   right is they sit there they sit there [TS]

00:51:29   in their little pile of shit and talk [TS]

00:51:31   about how easy this should be and never [TS]

00:51:33   do anything to try and reconcile all [TS]

00:51:35   these possibilities they've introduced [TS]

00:51:37   into their life and they think the way [TS]

00:51:39   out of that is to come up with more [TS]

00:51:40   possibilities and then beam and [TS]

00:51:41   everybody because they didn't work out [TS]

00:51:43   quite well and and and and reflecting [TS]

00:51:48   back on how difficult it was like my [TS]

00:51:52   process since since we started talking [TS]

00:51:54   about this [TS]

00:51:57   not very many months ago I don't [TS]

00:51:59   remember what where when the debut of [TS]

00:52:01   the idea that i needed an assistant was [TS]

00:52:04   but it wasn't that blog now problem [TS]

00:52:06   could be much earlier than like holidays [TS]

00:52:08   fight last four months right [TS]

00:52:09   and the idea of asking for help was a [TS]

00:52:14   was an incredible obstacle to overcome [TS]

00:52:16   like I didn't know even who to ask for [TS]

00:52:20   help I didn't know how to ask for help [TS]

00:52:22   and having asked for it and then getting [TS]

00:52:25   a response from people and in and in [TS]

00:52:27   fact you know i don't know if i told you [TS]

00:52:30   that the the the way the assistant sign [TS]

00:52:32   now I heard about your [TS]

00:52:35   had like a medical assistant for a while [TS]

00:52:36   right well what happened was [TS]

00:52:38   that's why i said i have phrased that [TS]

00:52:40   poorly but you had an assistant manager [TS]

00:52:41   meaning you had someone who wanted to be [TS]

00:52:43   a manager of people who might be your [TS]

00:52:45   assistant right well so so so I I the [TS]

00:52:49   first thing i did was i called a my and [TS]

00:52:51   your good friend Adam practica who has [TS]

00:52:55   been working at he's a model of of a [TS]

00:52:58   task completion he's been working on the [TS]

00:53:00   long winters documentary for 15 years [TS]

00:53:02   hiya that said Adam like you know a lot [TS]

00:53:07   of people who are who are you know fans [TS]

00:53:11   of the long winters and sort of enemies [TS]

00:53:14   he is one dimension kind of away [TS]

00:53:19   he's one dimension away from me because [TS]

00:53:21   he's not me and he knows a lot of people [TS]

00:53:23   and I said who you know I need some help [TS]

00:53:26   finding an assistant can you think of [TS]

00:53:28   anybody and he recommended a couple of [TS]

00:53:30   people and I was thinking about like how [TS]

00:53:32   do I don't like all these people that i [TS]

00:53:34   know not very well and ask if they want [TS]

00:53:37   to work for me it's like you can't find [TS]

00:53:39   the number to call the optometrist [TS]

00:53:41   because you don't have glasses exactly [TS]

00:53:43   and so I called another friend of of [TS]

00:53:47   mine and of atoms Victoria Victoria van [TS]

00:53:51   bruna see who is an office manager for a [TS]

00:53:53   non-profit a very very capable like a [TS]

00:53:58   active sort of person and a and a [TS]

00:54:02   go-getter like a like get things done [TS]

00:54:05   kind of person she's the one who took [TS]

00:54:07   she's a photographer but she also kind [TS]

00:54:09   of put together how show that i played [TS]

00:54:12   here that that Adam film that's online [TS]

00:54:14   you a victorious somebody when she gets [TS]

00:54:17   an idea that sweet a little story and [TS]

00:54:19   sing the song exactly i was really good [TS]

00:54:21   yeah and that was victorious kind of [TS]

00:54:23   brain child and it happened at her house [TS]

00:54:25   and so I called Victoria and I was like [TS]

00:54:28   Adam gave me the names of a couple of [TS]

00:54:30   people that I think should be my [TS]

00:54:32   assistant [TS]

00:54:33   what do you think of these people and [TS]

00:54:35   Victoria said well I that girl would be [TS]

00:54:38   good except she's really busy and that [TS]

00:54:41   other person I don't think that they [TS]

00:54:44   would be very good because of some [TS]

00:54:45   reason [TS]

00:54:46   I was like oh ok she said that she's [TS]

00:54:49   gonna dick cheney you she said said I'll [TS]

00:54:53   find your vice president 05 you a vice [TS]

00:54:55   president is what she said and so she [TS]

00:54:58   started to do the thing that I that I [TS]

00:55:01   always desperately need the thing that [TS]

00:55:03   my dad's executive secretary used to do [TS]

00:55:06   which is she would call me or send me an [TS]

00:55:08   email or text me and say well why don't [TS]

00:55:11   you just tell me the five things that [TS]

00:55:12   you need and so I would kind of i would [TS]

00:55:15   reply and it took me sometimes two weeks [TS]

00:55:19   to reply but she never got impatient you [TS]

00:55:24   know she just said yeah justjust you [TS]

00:55:27   know i'm just reminding you you need to [TS]

00:55:29   tell me the five things that you need [TS]

00:55:30   and through this process she came up [TS]

00:55:33   with an ad i talked about it on the [TS]

00:55:35   podcast a dozen or more people applied [TS]

00:55:38   for the job of my assistant Victoria [TS]

00:55:43   vetted all the applications she cheap [TS]

00:55:46   hopefully communicated with all dozen [TS]

00:55:48   people may be multiple times and then [TS]

00:55:51   after a two-month long process [TS]

00:55:54   she said I think the best candidate is [TS]

00:55:58   me she literally dick cheney that and I [TS]

00:56:04   said oh alright uh you have a office job [TS]

00:56:10   you are all you already have too much to [TS]

00:56:12   do and she said well this is the thing I [TS]

00:56:13   think the best candidate is me to find [TS]

00:56:18   you a better candidate one day or maybe [TS]

00:56:24   to evolve this job into a job that [TS]

00:56:27   enables me to one day do this job so [TS]

00:56:31   what she is saying is i am your [TS]

00:56:34   assistant until I am either your [TS]

00:56:38   assistant or until i have grown an [TS]

00:56:42   assistant from mud that I take from the [TS]

00:56:45   beach of life or until I am your I don't [TS]

00:56:49   know I and it's and the thing is at [TS]

00:56:53   every step of the way my instinct to [TS]

00:56:55   micromanage the process I resisted it [TS]

00:56:59   are you that's the whole point that's [TS]

00:57:01   the idea what that is step one step [TS]

00:57:03   you're moving up the Buddhist assistant [TS]

00:57:05   ladder because Victoria was doing a lot [TS]

00:57:07   of great stuff and so I was just like I [TS]

00:57:11   am going to be quiet now and i am not [TS]

00:57:16   going to i'm not going to jump in here [TS]

00:57:18   i'm not going to tell Victoria that she [TS]

00:57:20   can't do the thing that she's trying to [TS]

00:57:22   do I'm going to allow her to find her [TS]

00:57:25   own course here and so she found sochi [TS]

00:57:29   of all the assistance that she had [TS]

00:57:31   interviewed there was one who lived in [TS]

00:57:33   denver whose name was Bailey McCann and [TS]

00:57:36   then we can manage the chain of coffee [TS]

00:57:38   shops in Denver but did not want to do [TS]

00:57:40   that anymore and wanted to live in [TS]

00:57:43   Seattle and she and Victoria struck up a [TS]

00:57:46   friendship online and I was like this is [TS]

00:57:50   an unusual interview process because it [TS]

00:57:54   seems like you guys are staying up all [TS]

00:57:56   night talking on the phone and giggling [TS]

00:57:59   but again I am stepping out I'm stepping [TS]

00:58:02   away not out just stepping back now [TS]

00:58:05   bailey has moved to Seattle she has quit [TS]

00:58:08   her job jobs in denver has moved here [TS]

00:58:12   and is sleeping on Victorious couch and [TS]

00:58:16   the two of them [TS]

00:58:17   this sounds like something something on [TS]

00:58:19   on cable TV [TS]

00:58:20   this well as I said the other day worst [TS]

00:58:22   porn ever it is it's called it's called [TS]

00:58:27   a little assistance [TS]

00:58:29   yeah assistant search that org but let [TS]

00:58:35   me just say this show that I did last [TS]

00:58:39   week I could not have done without [TS]

00:58:41   victoria and then the Bailey hit the [TS]

00:58:46   ground running [TS]

00:58:47   she's here in and she was like seriously [TS]

00:58:50   taking care of business [TS]

00:58:51   I had a at not just taking care of like [TS]

00:58:53   all the business where i was like i need [TS]

00:58:55   a paperclip boom there's a paperclip [TS]

00:58:57   might need a three by five card I don't [TS]

00:58:59   know how to use she was like boom here's [TS]

00:59:01   a three by five card and here's the [TS]

00:59:03   thing i downloaded from the internet [TS]

00:59:04   about how to use them [TS]

00:59:05   I was like huh not only that but like [TS]

00:59:07   she showed up to a meeting I had with [TS]

00:59:09   the old [TS]

00:59:10   of the rendezvous and she brought two [TS]

00:59:12   coffees one for me and one for her I was [TS]

00:59:17   like what's yes that's a French service [TS]

00:59:20   like know what you need before you know [TS]

00:59:22   you need it right so so I'm standing [TS]

00:59:24   backstage and I'm also saying at a lot [TS]

00:59:28   of different ways along the path to hear [TS]

00:59:30   i could have jumped into this Victoria [TS]

00:59:32   Bailey love triangle I could have made [TS]

00:59:36   myself the third pode but instead I did [TS]

00:59:41   what I basically was asking them to [TS]

00:59:44   allow me to do which is just think about [TS]

00:59:46   what i'm trying to do and in fact they [TS]

00:59:50   both did all of the stuff that I [TS]

00:59:52   everything I could have asked for and [TS]

00:59:54   more and they and so I was like this is [TS]

00:59:58   working [TS]

00:59:58   this is the Jonathan Club [TS]

00:59:58   this is the Jonathan Club [TS]

01:00:00   Alton come foo of just not not getting [TS]

01:00:06   another not stepping on other people's [TS]

01:00:07   toes not getting in the way of people [TS]

01:00:10   who are trying to help you and so that [TS]

01:00:13   was a that that is an ongoing mystery [TS]

01:00:17   and lesson to me that that the best [TS]

01:00:21   thing I can do is shut up and accept [TS]

01:00:23   other people's work neck once again not [TS]

01:00:29   as easy as it sounds so hard for me [TS]

01:00:32   because you know I want to send [TS]

01:00:33   especially three o'clock in the morning [TS]

01:00:35   i want to send everybody a five-page [TS]

01:00:37   email 2500 word essay had taught him all [TS]

01:00:39   what's wrong with that what they're [TS]

01:00:40   doing and and it and in this case just [TS]

01:00:45   letting it letting it go letting it be a [TS]

01:00:50   press produced tremendous results so [TS]

01:00:54   that is the story of my assistant search [TS]

01:00:56   and it has you know where we're in a we [TS]

01:01:00   basically like we have a little [TS]

01:01:02   professional organization now Victoria [TS]

01:01:04   and Bailey are calling themselves the [TS]

01:01:05   Roderick group [TS]

01:01:07   come on Wow get out of here right is [TS]

01:01:11   that cute [TS]

01:01:12   I all I feel like making business cards [TS]

01:01:13   for everybody it's it this this is [TS]

01:01:16   amazing [TS]

01:01:17   yeah so now I just have to do it again [TS]

01:01:23   and again and this is so also when when [TS]

01:01:26   the shows when we heard the following [TS]

01:01:28   day that the show sold out the upcoming [TS]

01:01:31   show sold out you would be amazed at how [TS]

01:01:35   quickly my think tank and i don't mean [TS]

01:01:39   Victoria Bailey but like my mom my [TS]

01:01:41   friend Ben London like I've got a little [TS]

01:01:43   constellation of of people who are all [TS]

01:01:46   you get a blue ribbon panel a [TS]

01:01:48   blue-ribbon panel and everybody was [TS]

01:01:50   everybody's instinct and my own instinct [TS]

01:01:53   to was like well we need to find a [TS]

01:01:57   bigger venue [TS]

01:01:58   weddings are charging more for tickets [TS]

01:02:00   yeah we need to get ready to scale this [TS]

01:02:02   up to the I disagree we need to take we [TS]

01:02:05   need to start to remember that video [TS]

01:02:07   where share is on an aircraft carrier [TS]

01:02:11   that's what we need to be thinking you [TS]

01:02:13   think chaps how do we get your you in [TS]

01:02:17   assless pants and then they're crushing [TS]

01:02:21   the bunny don't want to crush the bunny [TS]

01:02:22   well that's the thing and I don't think [TS]

01:02:23   they don't think any of them work we're [TS]

01:02:25   pushing that too hard it was just the [TS]

01:02:27   first instinct and it was my own first [TS]

01:02:29   question of course it is is that this I [TS]

01:02:31   i somehow managed to stand up without [TS]

01:02:33   falling down i guess it's time to pull [TS]

01:02:35   the halt [TS]

01:02:35   yeah exactly it's time it's time now to [TS]

01:02:37   a to launch a rocket into space [TS]

01:02:41   now is the time to six months at that [TS]

01:02:44   plump side some career advice just six [TS]

01:02:46   months at that place gets fucking [TS]

01:02:47   awesome at it and then think about that [TS]

01:02:48   think about adding another show maybe a [TS]

01:02:52   different show where you can grow some [TS]

01:02:54   more but you you know you're building [TS]

01:02:55   your platform [TS]

01:02:56   yep so it only time I think I think [TS]

01:03:00   credit to everybody in this organization [TS]

01:03:03   like it only took 20 minutes for [TS]

01:03:07   everybody to come to that understanding [TS]

01:03:09   themselves like wait a minute wait a [TS]

01:03:10   minute where maybe maybe instead of six [TS]

01:03:15   dollars we charged seven but that is [TS]

01:03:16   fixed [TS]

01:03:18   that's the extent of how much we should [TS]

01:03:21   push this this is a this is an incubator [TS]

01:03:24   it is a yeah it's just it's a little [TS]

01:03:26   world the real you know the real benefit [TS]

01:03:31   of this is going to be in a year when I [TS]

01:03:34   understand when I understand what I'm [TS]

01:03:37   trying to make the benefit of it is not [TS]

01:03:40   that not that I made four hundred [TS]

01:03:43   dollars right and I need to make seven [TS]

01:03:46   hundred dollars but and so like I saw [TS]

01:03:51   anyway I believe in this little team of [TS]

01:03:54   people and I believe in this little [TS]

01:03:56   operation and I believe that I can well [TS]

01:04:00   that i can try again next week and try [TS]

01:04:04   and do it better [TS]

01:04:08   my biggest fear right now is that you're [TS]

01:04:10   becoming saying and I don't want you to [TS]

01:04:13   fuck up the show [TS]

01:04:14   don't get too okay stay inej a little [TS]

01:04:17   bit off-balance [TS]

01:04:18   oh I want to become too like well that [TS]

01:04:21   seems like a question with a very simple [TS]

01:04:23   history early years [TS]

01:04:24   three-point plan 2,500 words how well I [TS]

01:04:29   think what will keep me crazy is that [TS]

01:04:31   you and I'd start doing live rhetoric on [TS]

01:04:32   the lines that will be completely [TS]

01:04:34   unpredictable on scriptable unscheduled [TS]

01:04:37   below what if we do it in a five-person [TS]

01:04:40   venue and charged $5,000 let's do it in [TS]

01:04:43   a van [TS]

01:04:44   mm and is anything but the band was so [TS]

01:04:47   we fly to Italy fly to a different city [TS]

01:04:49   in America and we do with a land in the [TS]

01:04:51   back we do a live right on the line in a [TS]

01:04:53   van and only five people can attend but [TS]

01:04:57   tickets are $500 5,000 5,000 articulate [TS]

01:05:01   making text and techniques you know what [TS]

01:05:02   to use some of you will get like three [TS]

01:05:04   fans from square and we don't work for [TS]

01:05:06   20 years [TS]

01:05:07   see now who's who thought of that who [TS]

01:05:10   thought of that Paula Tompkins yeah yeah [TS]

01:05:12   in your face mustache boy that's right [TS]

01:05:15   all you comedians are going to be like [TS]

01:05:16   you know my whole life was transformed [TS]

01:05:20   after John and Marlena pioneered the you [TS]

01:05:22   stop when you think she'd make a shirt [TS]

01:05:25   when in fact you charge 650 oh you know [TS]

01:05:28   what here's an idea [TS]

01:05:29   charge five thousand dollars two medians [TS]

01:05:31   in vans getting coffee but then I what [TS]

01:05:35   it was what it was like a really nice [TS]

01:05:37   van or maybe even like a limo [TS]

01:05:39   what if we got like a like a like a [TS]

01:05:41   white kids going to the prom limo [TS]

01:05:42   we got five or six people with a catered [TS]

01:05:44   meal escalade limo [TS]

01:05:46   yeah like super complicated maybe walk [TS]

01:05:48   around maybe have about the chemical [TS]

01:05:50   toilet in it like a nice one and then we [TS]

01:05:52   go around we do our show we drive around [TS]

01:05:54   somewhere that's not too interesting [TS]

01:05:55   where they would be distracted but drive [TS]

01:05:57   them maybe around the park a few times [TS]

01:05:59   go around the park ya go to the park [TS]

01:06:01   again geez you give them some give me a [TS]

01:06:03   gyro and and maybe some some lemonade or [TS]

01:06:06   something and H give us five thousand [TS]

01:06:09   dollars [TS]

01:06:09   yeah everybody gets a bell at the end of [TS]

01:06:12   the show everybody gets a bell it get to [TS]

01:06:14   take their belt sign your bail [TS]

01:06:16   that's right so we begin the van first [TS]

01:06:18   thing that get isabelle we make it seem [TS]

01:06:20   like they just get to hold the bell [TS]

01:06:22   oh it's a line yeah it's a little [TS]

01:06:24   something extra the end exactly say like [TS]

01:06:26   if the bell and yeah like listen don't [TS]

01:06:29   bring in a bunch but you're welcome to [TS]

01:06:30   ring it if you feel like it was it's an [TS]

01:06:32   occasion that the bell should ring you [TS]

01:06:34   get Val you get about [TS]

01:06:36   get out of my fucking number and we're [TS]

01:06:46   done [TS]

01:06:46   that's great [TS]