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here we go Tony Henchcliffe is on today and uh you know he does Kill Tony A lot of people know him from that Started The Comedy Store moved to Austin The Mothership and they have a great
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hilarious maybe it's called a variety show What would you call it I think it's a new new wave variety show Postmodern
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new form Yeah And he breaks down he's the brainchild of Kill Tony He breaks down all the different ways it operates for him He really cares about it I mean he's 13 years in and he's it's it's
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highly thought about It's not and made to look like people just showed up and they shoot the rehearsal It's really a fun show Do you think our fans would know about it I think they would I think
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a lot of them know about already I've done it once I think you're going to do it in the future Uh it is fun It's a
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total crazy [ __ ] show It's a lot of laughs Uh they bring out They have a panel They have a great audience that a
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slow build over the last 13 years and now it's huge They play Madison Square Garden Yeah They uh are on Netflix
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they're on YouTube Uh they they do well everywhere but there's a panel and they usually have a guest uh comedian or
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someone Jane Gillis Kyle Don talk about that and we also talk about how he accidentally got inside the 2024
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presidential election and was for a while talked about as the person who who might have ti tilted the election
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derailed yeah in a different way and that's a really interesting story he did a Puerto Rico joke that's how some
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people might only know him just from hearing about from the Madison Square Garden thing with Hulk Hogan and everything he was in that made a joke it
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trended for weeks and it was uh got a lot of attention and then uh you know and he'll tell you all about that We won't give it away but uh so uh here we go We got Tony Hinchfliff Very funny guy
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[Music] Look at that [ __ ] chair I know Um yeah we're That is there an explanation Well I love
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it personally but are you on a set or you No this is the middle of my home actually I uh I finally made money after
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uh a decade and a half plus of uh really really struggling and I decided you know what If I'm I'm going to if I'm going to
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buy stuff for my home I'm going to do it crazy in the way that I've always imagined in the wildest ever Gold chair
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first order business Yeah Yeah I like that of you Championship belt That is so I know Is that UFC Dana White That's pro wrestling That's WWE the world
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heavyweight champion right now So we're catching you at a time because we ask people a lot sometimes because I'm
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curious about celebrity net worth and things like that but the first time you make a million dollars or this is your
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first really grandiose grabbing something This house is this the first time Yeah Yep First
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time And it it was not it's in the middle of Austin Texas Okay Yeah Okay Nice city Nice house Love it It's kind of fun when you can actually go look at
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something nice like that You never even thought you could look at it It's the wildest thing There was all these real
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estate agents when I moved to town I think they all thought that I already had a lot of money but I didn't really I
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got it here anyway Not a It's not a Well we we'll we'll break that up I don't want to push everybody away No no no We
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We understand that um you know there's uh a it comes with a price I mean you're famous and you're wealthy and there's stuff that happens It's not a complaint It's just an observation But I'm just
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curious what would do like when I was coming through and I don't know I got it for a little bit then I didn't but
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whatever I wanted like a movie theater recording studio swimming pool a halfcourt basketball Jesus I'm just clicking off things that that I would be
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a really good swimming pool Like a great I didn't realize I thought you were a comedic uh comedian and comedic actor I
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didn't realize you were a rapper Dana Carve Yeah he has a rap album Oh I can rap Give me a word Down some beats Give
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me a word or anything Pepper Pepper Pepper Yeah Pepper See a leper What you going to say Are you on an upper Take yourself down Don't wipe off that frown
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Come on man You're like a biff You're like Tony Hen Cliff Yeah Oh Jesus I got to jump off I know it's terrible but but I but I I had so much fun and I liked
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your moves But anyway Tony you could put him right up on Kill Tony with that I would love that Dana comes out I'm
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already planning I'm planning because I want to come on as a character I loved Yeah Uh you know obviously Shane and you have Kyle on there with his his intense
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prosthetics with Elon Musk Yeah Um so and and he switched during that show He went back into the prosthetic chair and turned into RFK Jr halfway through the episode
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Oh wow Yeah that's Kyle Do you provide a guy Do you provide a a a guy or a woman
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that does Oh there's there's a whole team for these ones now It's all It used to be just a rubber mask many years ago
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Good luck And now there's a whole truck and uh multiple people that it it's like
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a nightmare back there You're putting some money back into the production I like that Right Make it nice I actually
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went there Dana It is nice They treat you right You go back there Got some good black and white shots of me and
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Tony walking around and u I think those ones like I see clips all over the place
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but which is great Those clips have to help They're just floating all over and they're always funny And I think a great
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addition is when Shane comes in and does now what does he do as Trump Does he put anything on or he used to not Now he
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puts a little I think it's just a little bronzer and a full wig I don't think a wig Okay Yeah Yeah I don't I don't think it takes much It's nothing crazy Yeah Yeah Yeah I'm just saying it it's just the voice is so funny anyway And he's
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got his mannerism so and he's always it really works What what I like what you've done is like the show has gotten so big but it still feels like in a way
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it's made for a dollar You know it's still you know I that would be the first worst thing Some idiot somewhere would
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say "You got to get in a fancy studio man The club ain't working." And like so that's that was part of the actual demands that I made was uh was we got to
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keep it real We got to keep it raw And in fact my note post the first one post this newest release today I was talking
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to the production team and I said it was a little too flowy It seemed like the people coming out were on the other side of the curtain Like we need to get back to a little more gaps pauses Yeah Rough
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on the edges Yeah Bad intros I mean awkward just get coming on the stage kind of feels like they're not ready to come on kind or something like that Yeah Mess ups You need that You need that those mess ups Uh I only know it from my
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one experience just we're talking about Kill Tony We're talking to Tony Hcliffe Uh that uh that's why we're like on the
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radio back from a commercial We were talking with Tony on K5 105 and you know I didn't know much about it in full disclosure when I went I knew about I knew about at the comedy store and I'm
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never up past 9 9:15 so I didn't even do like roast battle which isn't this but you know all these things pop up and I think a lot of people are copying you now in a way of going let's do a some
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sort of different thing than just standup Yeah I'm sure you're aware of that And it was interesting because I
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didn't know how many people in Austin would come I don't know if it was that way at the
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store but it's obviously bigger in Austin And then they wait Is it in a restaurant or something It's at a bar
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right next door Big dingy hollowed out you know barely a bar Barely a bar Like it's really just a bartender Barely anybody has the money for drinks You
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know what I mean And like it's a lot of tap water a lot of water coolers and people waiting and a lot of broke you
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know struggling artists and people that are doing Uber Eats and Postmates and all these side gigs to make extra money
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It's a real vibe It basically took the place of the front patio of the comedy store which is where people used to kind
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of be camped out just camp out and hang out and look for they made it to LA Now what they just go there and go I got to be around what I've always thought about comedy store this and now with
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Mothership and Joe's uh place there people want to be part of it somehow and this is actually a good way to cut the
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line because you know if you're not a big headliner if you don't know Joe it's very hard I'm
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sure to get into the comedy uh mothership and just do a week So these people I think Dane you can explain what what is actually the the breakdown of the Kill Tony show for the people who
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aren't familiar Well the show is basically you know people want to perform on stage They get 60 seconds It's all random There's a bucket in which over 200 names are on the inside
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of it So many people that want to do sometimes it's over 300 It's been up to 350 at times when um yeah and and in the arenas that we do and stuff it's the
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same thing And we try to fit as many of the signups as we can into a seated section in the arenas But yeah at the Mothership there's a big dingy sixth street nasty gritty bar next door And if
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I pull the name out of the bucket a producer goes runs behind Yep out the back porch with a
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headset and yells you know Jeremiah Smith And everybody goes "Hey Jeremiah." And Jeremiah walks out and um and then they bring them right backstage And then
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when the person before them's done I call up Jeremiah Smith and then they get 60 seconds uninterrupted Completely uninterrupted You know a lot of the ripoff shows like you were mentioning
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they just don't get that part They just can't wait to possibly be funny and they
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jump in at any point trying to get their own laughs in and uh but the format is pretty critical to the show because then you know wow did they make the most of their 60 seconds or did they kind of
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bomb and they know what they're signing up for You know the show can be pretty ruthless uh if they do really poorly and
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didn't prepare And so it's kind of like it could be a roast or it could it's a real make or break because they they can
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really score in two three jokes or one joke that you can win and there's a panel Let's say it's you It's always you
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and who else is it always or and then you have like extras right There's my co-host Brian Redband who mainly focuses
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on sound effects and making sure that everything's being recorded Yeah exactly 60 seconds that sound of a cat plays and there's not a buzzer It just goes meow
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Yeah Just a little something to let them know like last chance to wrap it up because 10 seconds later a giant
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overwhelmingly loud bear roar happens which completely cuts them off And then I conduct an interview uh with them um
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for an unlimited amount of time if I find them completely interesting Actually only a couple weeks ago I think
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we had the record holder for all-time longest interview Um I think it was 23 or 24 minutes total on his first interview The guy just had the most unbelievable answers to every What was
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that guy's name Alex Tarune Oh my god His shoes were falling apart He works at a pizza joint He has eight dogs Turns out he was on the next week We found out that he got kicked out of his apartment
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because the people found out because of his appearance on Kill Tony that he has eight dogs He has makes cartoons He's
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just the It was just hilarious And you know the interview parts to me that's the secret main part
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of the show Everybody's like "Oh a minute to make it or break it." But really it's the eight minutes in the
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interview part where people can play along and tag along and you get an idea of how they can improvise or if they're
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naturally funny Sometimes they're so much funnier in the interview part than they even were with it saves them And
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and also you were you're good because you're the guy that interviews them and you have to extract the right questions
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to make them funny or just stumble into something and when you do well my experience I was there you would come into something and then we would find out something and then everyone yells and then it's like oh we hit something
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now let's jump on that Exactly And they can use that as material in their future and whatnot And that's kind of what I'm
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digging for I'm using my uh my gut instincts to try to like feel where there's something missing Is it in their childhood Is it in their dating life Is it something they do for work I used to
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uh I was just telling somebody this the other day and it kind of hit me where this thing comes from because I was
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telling them yeah actually it was uh it was carrot top we just had on And I was talking to him about how I used to fall asleep as a kid watching Letterman I
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would sneak I would put a towel under my door so that my angry furious single mother wouldn't yell at me Uh and I
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would watch Letterman as a little kid I would fall asleep to Letterman and I would stay up extra late and I would
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wake up extra early to listen to old school Howard Stern on terrestrial radio So this interview thing is it's only and here I am 40 years old 12 years into the
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show and it's starting to hit me now That's where it's kind of molded out of My interview style comes from the
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preparedness and calm coolness and comedian style of Letterman but mixed with the chaotic uh craziness and naughtiness kind of of old school Howard
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Stern That's what raised me I didn't really have a dad in my life growing up as a kid And these are the things that I
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looked up to was Letterman late at night Stern first thing in the morning and pro wrestling throughout the evening and
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days if I got to do it And if you look at those three exact things and kind of mix them together with with my job as
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main job as a stand-up comedian the show kind of just it is exactly kind of that
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you know Wow Well for people are just some of our listeners it's a phenomenon Yeah And it it's fascinating to me that usually every movie I've ever done not many but the behind the scenes was
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better than the movie you know and you guys keep it like it's like the green room I mean there is no And I it's
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fascinating to me how you've casually put this together but it seems to really come through you completely The
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sensibility and all the decisions I mean I know you have partners and other people but it seems to be you And um I
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love it because in old school show business the only thing we have is the gong show that was like this I don't know if you ever saw that but it's not
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like your show but it would be like an ancestor of it Decon and Letterman deconstructed late night in his own way
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for sure And then of course the sarcasm at Howard Stern's brilliance of that And
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then being really curious I think when you're in that mindset and the person's there and you know this is now a
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vulnerable thing maybe 13 years ago but it's a big thing to be on Kill Tony and talking to you And so I just was talking to David earlier we walkie-talkie and I
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said you just have a real likability to you Even though the show you'd say oh it's mean or this and that but there is
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a sweetness to the show If you were not a nice guy it wouldn't work right They can sense that So that's all I wanted to say I'll see you guys tomorrow Those are those are some of the best parts for me
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is making the magical or not making cuz you can't even make them It's almost like deep sea fishing and you're just
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hoping sometimes that a buck a perfect episode like Monday's episode that we just taped right Let me just take you through this one because it's kind of a perfect example a few months ago Here I
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am getting stoned at my place in the afternoon thinking "What could what where are we going What's the next?"
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Right What's what's something that'll throw off the fans that have watched 730 episodes of this They watch it every
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week They see me and my homies doing it quite often What's something that I could throw into the mix And somehow
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someway one of the one of the many messages that I've gotten recently from somebody's assistant or friend or friend
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of an assistant or whatever is that hey Carrot Top might be interested in doing the show who I've met a couple times
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before So I'm like "Hell yeah that's perfect This sounds crazy Let's try it." Mhm So uh we exch we exchange numbers and we talk on the phone He's on his boat off the coast of Florida at the
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time And you know naturally just like anybody or anything we all want everybody to like us right Isn't that
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really the secret We all want to have a mutual respect for one another So here he is He's got nothing to gain right
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He's on a [ __ ] yacht off the coast of Florida He ras in cash falling out of control Life is good He doesn't need anything But you know people want to be
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part of the fun of the modern show So there I am talking to him and he's going "You really want to have blah blah blah
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blah?" And I go "Yeah." And you know what about what if you brought like a trunk of props and kind of did some of
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your famous prop stuff throughout the show And uh he's like "Really You sure Like I don't know Like I could just be a normal comedian and sit there." I go "Yeah you could but we always do that
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and the and our video and our cameras and everything is so good now and we're at such a high level that we can really
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capture this I think it could be great And you know we set it up and he he you know is kind of I can feel the weariness at the time right Naturally like really
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props Is he setting me up This and that kind of he doesn't say that I kind of feel it Do you feel it like 4% And as it
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gets closer there I am last week going looking at my schedule going "Wow I booked carrot top solo right?" Like
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anything can happen here One thing that I've learned from doing the show so long is that egos can be the trickiest part
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right If I give a a comic that I started with you know 18 years ago the seat next
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to me they're happy to be there They're looking to sell tickets They're going to be funny this and that but I have to
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make sure that the guest really feels special and wants to be there and this and that So last week I'm like "Holy
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[ __ ] am I crazy Cuz this could just be a nuclear meltdown I've never worked with
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Carrot Top before What if he goes out there and doesn't like something about what I It's funny either way Almost Almost Right Exactly Almost Until
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someone goes "Yeah I don't want that episode out I'm leaving." Or they storm off We once had Ric Flair storm off of
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an episode because he got way too drunk during the way too drunk during the day at a hotel lobby and he got mad because
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we were making fun of someone who donates their time to coaching kids baseball And basically I called the guy
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a pedophile in the moment It was a joke that worked perfectly fine No one in their right state of mind would have
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been offended And he goes "I don't like it when people make fun of people that donate their time I'm out of here." And I thought he was kidding But he left
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Ended up being one of the big highlights of the show's history because people It's real It's real Exactly People love
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the fact that drunk Ric Flair walked off But anyway cut to Monday and it ends up
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being an unbelievable episode And I mean Carrot Top right after the first comedian says
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they work at a restaurant he busts out a fork that has chopsticks attached to the
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backside And for white people that might not know how to use chopsticks you'll love this It's a fork on this way and
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the chopsticks are just clacking together Comically hilarious And that was just the first thing that he pulled
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out of this trunk That's smart He's waiting for a spot and then he puts it in which is smart Oh so genius Oh that
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that's killer And that's the thing is being able to make it you know refillable and fun and I make it
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entertaining for myself hoping that the fans of the show are with me kind of you
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know what I mean Just on the adventure to see something kind of different cuz you guys know all these shows you have
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you know pre-intered guests and everything's kind of a lot more set up than a lot of people think it is So this
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whole thing being improvised it's a huge risk huge reward huge risk Millions of people are going to catch it And um you don't know what's going to happen And I and the and in closing with this Carrot
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Top thing just using it as an example if they gave Emmys away to podcasts I think this would be an episode that would win
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an Emmy Carrot Top on Kilton out of nowhere Almost like what in and I'm not dissing Carrot Top here but it feels like I'm introducing a whole new era
00:21:24
Sure You've got a whole big crowd 15 to 35 year olds to the mystique of carrot top Yeah What what what's old is new again When you were telling this story
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in my brain I'm going "Oh that's going to destroy." Because it's I don't know the word silly
00:21:41
It's abstract It's a guy who made these props and comes out one at a time For a new audience of young people this is revolutionary It's not a guy with the elbow on the thing going "I jacked off in front of my cat today." It's just no
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I'm going to be balls out funny and abstract thing And by the way I've heard Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock sing
00:22:01
Carrot Top praises because who else is doing his act And he's a nice guy too I mean I went and saw him in Vegas just to I think it was the Luxer We were there a night early I Let's go see Kerattop No
00:22:15
hate or anything Just like let's go see I haven't seen him And I just hear and people like to use them as like a punchline but you go something's working
00:22:22
And we [ __ ] laughed our asses off He's pulling out a toilet He's ridiculous It's so ridiculous You go
00:22:27
into I'm glad someone's doing this Yeah cuz I can't think of this [ __ ] Oh I think that was brilliant I mean what what a great thing to have him and understand And of course they wanted to
00:22:39
see all the props in his job They don't know they want to see him They don't know what he does And they're like "Oh shit." because they're also waiting for
00:22:46
you who's the boss to say "Oh like this guy." And if they go "Okay," they give him a chance and then hopefully he comes
00:22:52
through which jumping in when it kind of fit in the story is really Yeah It's inspired Yeah Yeah Yeah And then it's
00:23:00
like "Oh can I is this out now It's coming out in two weeks." Two weeks Okay Yeah I got to see that one That sounds hysterical And it had everything
00:23:11
It had uh it had people bombing which is what people love It had people doing good which people love It had great
00:23:18
interviews which people love And we had a guy win a golden ticket This amazing uh cool obese black man came out with children children's books for adults
00:23:31
that he had written and he brought them out And yeah it's just the funny I want to It was so unbelievably funny that I realized this guy's probably going to make tens and tens of thousands of
00:23:43
dollars just from the get me letting him give the shout out because the front page the first page was so funny I think
00:23:50
the name of the children's book for adults was Man [ __ ] them kids And and the first page he said he goes "Just read the first very first page." and it said like sorry to all the pedophiles
00:24:05
that bought this book thinking it was something else man [ __ ] Ray [ __ ] these kids
00:24:11
Um but uh he ended up winning a golden ticket which is a super rare thing What does that do Which means that you can
00:24:18
come back on this show anytime as long as uh there's not another golden ticket winner already scheduled So you basically just get to come back without having to worry about signing up and waiting at the bar next door in the
00:24:30
bucket You get to kind of like know That's a tough weight because I think when I did it we How many do you get
00:24:35
through on an average night 20 No it seems it feels like that Probably about uh uh with the regulars altogether probably about 12 or 13 Okay Nine bucket
00:24:48
pulls three regulars Right Because it's not just one minute It's a bunch of [ __ ] and maybe we'll talk for a
00:24:54
second and then I'll you know it it's organized chaos because before I went out I think I think it was me and David
00:25:00
tell and you said let him get through it like you told me you know like you said just now and then I'll probably start
00:25:08
and then you guys jump in and it's a mixture of that like I'm sure we got greedy we want to jump in while you're
00:25:14
doing an interview but it all worked out Oh it's always great It's always organically different and the people
00:25:19
love it being different If someone goes on a run and they take over for a bit that's great If they're quiet for 15
00:25:26
minutes straight that's totally fine It's just the moment and the difference and the vibe and the energy and it's
00:25:33
kind of what makes it its own thing The fact that it's unproduced and doesn't have network notes is the reason why it
00:25:41
survives Yeah Thank god Netflix got that I couldn't believe I think Ted is smart
00:25:47
about that It's unpolished and you just luckily if they just go in somewhere like that den and say "Okay whatever this is works Pull this put it somewhere
00:25:58
else but let's just get it exactly the same and don't spruce it up and make it Hollywood It's the thing everyone
00:26:04
hates." You know what I mean They go "Oh they ruined it They ruined And in fact we like I said we accidentally
00:26:09
organically did that for the Netflix for the first Netflix taping And it was on and it falls on me you know it's my note to myself is like oops we did what they
00:26:21
would have wanted to do accidentally Little more chaos little more improvising on my part instead of going
00:26:27
to what I have next on my little notes Yeah And uh and don't let the Netflix of it all get to my head you know Oh wow That's that's really hard to do Uh
00:26:38
especially it's Netflix you [Music] know It's just very interesting to me that um this new digital media and it's
00:26:51
been around for a while but this this show it had to happen uh if you were I mean it's so entertaining and so real
00:27:00
and the numbers I don't I mean Bert Chryen was the first when we on the podcast and he kind of said it not you
00:27:06
know Bird's such a sweet guy but he's like "Oh I get way more numbers more people than the Today Show or any of
00:27:12
these any of these television shows." What are your meaning YouTube right YouTube numbers playing arenas just just all this energy around this I don't know
00:27:25
who is in this new I don't call it a rap pack There is sort of like there's Shane and you and Bert and Tom and uh the last
00:27:34
seven eight years creating their own ecosystem their own universe It's very cool to watch from someone who came from
00:27:41
the 60s 70s It's it's it's a whole interesting um world we're living in because something that isn't applied to the even just the simple numbers is the amount of
00:27:56
shares the amount of the length watched for example like even back in the day if
00:28:03
the Tonight Show had um let's just say 4 million people watching it Well what are those real four million Is 200,000 of them
00:28:15
hospitals and nursing homes and is a million of them you know grandmothers falling asleep or you know who's exactly watching Whereas with like a Kill Tony for example 100% of the viewers are
00:28:30
comedy fans or at least 98 the 2% that might be watching it for the first time because they went down a weird rabbit
00:28:35
hole might be there but they're going to get hooked too You know I'm joking about moms and grandmothers but they are they
00:28:43
100% love the show Everybody always says to me I I I had my mom glance at it and
00:28:48
I can't believe that she loves it But it's they love the fact that they're wa they can't believe that they're watching
00:28:55
someone get a magical opportunity to have a chance that they literally were just on the street not knowing if they had a chance and now they're trying to
00:29:06
make it So there's really something for everybody But my point is is also you know a huge factor is Yeah So if there's four million people watching the Tonight Show how many people actually make it to
00:29:18
the standup comedy part which is what after two interviews or whatever and a whole monologue and this and that and
00:29:24
also um and also uh oh the length you know it's 2 hours and 15 minutes long whereas grand total what is the Tonight's Show if you take out the commercials 45 minutes 55 minutes or
00:29:36
something I have no idea 42 probably Still an hour It's an hour Yeah So when you think of the overall engagement and the locked inness of these shows you
00:29:47
know they're there it's a destination they get used to it it becomes a weekly habit And uh yeah so it's a whole
00:29:53
different I just want to ask one quick question So the guy who got the golden ticket did did he tear up or was it it
00:30:02
is it kind of emotional It it Yeah in that moment So that that's another frequency you're hitting on the show that you can also change There's a reality component to this at times like
00:30:14
America's Got Talent like the same people that like that you know because seeing people that night I'm a little
00:30:20
not as rough as like Atel is a sharpshooter so he's probably the worst person I could sit with because he can
00:30:26
he's a crowdwork guy He can say anything about anything And I also don't want to go for the jugular on these guys because
00:30:32
I'm part of the people that go "Fuck I can't be a dream killer." But then of course I get caught up in it and want to
00:30:39
get laughs But some people that do great it's a big deal Some people get crushed
00:30:45
and that's just the rough world they're entering and they sign up again and totally go again and flip it around Yeah
00:30:51
They know what they're signing up for and they can sign up again My one of my favorite features of the show is when I
00:30:58
notice and this happened on Monday as well is a comedian came up and crushed and I go "You look familiar You've been
00:31:05
on this show before right?" And he goes "Yeah two years ago." I go "It didn't go that good two years ago did it?" He goes
00:31:11
"Hell no it didn't." And so like you're watching the actual growth in real time He thought of that for two years Yeah And to and not only to answer your question about the golden ticket was did
00:31:22
he tear up Not only did we see him wipe a tear but again this is I'm talking about this guy is literally like
00:31:29
6'4 350 lb aggressive black man So you're watching him go like that and it hits so much harder than someone that
00:31:40
looks like a you know low testosterone white guy like the three of us Yeah Me Uh also we we put like even in that
00:31:48
movie Bus Boys that Theo and I did we brought in three guys from your show So that's to play these
00:31:56
these guys that work with us Dana but uh I don't know if you know them but they know them from the show and they came in
00:32:02
and they were cool I think one was on when I was there but they all do well and they all have a following and it's
00:32:08
just fun to pepper in stuff like that because the people that know will know and it's just another layer in there of
00:32:16
tapping into what's going on and that show's going on Yeah and those regulars that you had on you know these are this
00:32:23
is a very special thing that gets into the territory where nothing like it's ever been done before Um because yeah
00:32:30
there's an America's Got Talent element Yeah there's a little bit of a Letterman Sterny interview element But one thing
00:32:37
that this show has that's never been done is exactly that the the three four five regulars that are doing a new minute almost every single week People are watching them come up with
00:32:50
everything and it's a high pressure situation Honestly I am I would be scared to death if I was them Here I am controlling the spaceship calmly
00:33:01
Meanwhile I look at them like sheesh again Granted I might be writing ballpark about give or take a minute every week naturally on stage from
00:33:12
performing multiple nights a week but these guys are doing it publicly in front of millions and millions of people
00:33:19
And when those people go and buy their ticket they're going to see the more refined version all together their hour
00:33:27
of the stuff that they watched them debut Yeah Yeah Yeah Kind of like watching someone write a hit on an
00:33:34
acoustic guitar and sing it to you ac cappella and then you get to see how it comes out in the studio kind of the when it when they when they really work on it So people are literally watching these
00:33:46
guys grow and make a career in front of their very eyes like Cam Patterson uh is
00:33:51
like a Eddie Murphy Dave Chappelle type Chris Rock young young you know only a few years in 25 26 years old and they're
00:34:00
getting to watch this freak of nature become a superstar in real time He just booked a huge movie with Kevin Hart and uh is going to be out for multiple weeks
00:34:12
and you know it's like a main character main big role and uh and people have gotten to watch his process not just see a star Right You're right So
00:34:27
not not exactly like but you might be a little bit like a new Lauren Michaels I mean but you know uh I'm sure we could
00:34:35
fit a a stadium full of people who are have such gratitude for the experience and the feedback and then coming back doing better And how many of you just
00:34:46
like when you see Eddie Murphy Dana like the first time we see him it's for me it's delirious or it's raw It's a full
00:34:54
polished hour So that you're like "Holy [ __ ] this guy's good But if you can see he's good in one minute and then he
00:35:00
comes back and he's good again and then you're like "Oh is this a fluke?" It's like writing a hit song over and over
00:35:05
It's hard to do even a minute you know And probably harder Yeah And let me remind you some few with like a Cam
00:35:12
Patterson for example very few Maybe one out of every 20 or 30 minutes is kind of
00:35:19
rough And immediately as soon as the cat meows and he's that's my time he goes "Fuck I hated that minute that [ __ ] sucked I go "No it's not bad." He goes "No that [ __ ] sucked man." So they
00:35:31
get to see it That makes it real right It's like holy Yeah Right after they bomb they're able to with you guiding them going "Oh I just I just [ __ ] sucked." When you're playing open mics
00:35:44
back in the day they didn't get that opportunity Exactly And the millions of people watching get
00:35:50
to go "Holy [ __ ] every week he works so hard It's not easy to kill He makes it
00:35:57
look easy and then you have a rough you have one rough week and it's like "Oh it's it's real This could all go off the wire." Like yeah it's kind of like Lauren Michaels But at the same time
00:36:09
even SNL has its own writers and producers and everything A bunch of people clanking their heads together right These guys help make a star Yeah Yeah Exactly These guys are out there
00:36:20
sinking or swimming on their own So it's really exciting I get kind of nervous every time I bring up a regular because
00:36:26
I do want them to do good you know I want them to shine up Cam's a nice kid Danny's he's good-looking kid He uh I saw him at the improv the other night Surprised to see him at the improv in LA
00:36:37
but I guess he comes out here and uh but all those guys do well The one guy the tall guy was on Cameo they make money too Yeah they're doing good William
00:36:47
Montgomery is one of the highest paid people on Cameo Casey Rockets all over on tour Non-stop work ethic running around super physical Uh Ari Maddie from
00:36:58
Estonia is just destroying One of truly the best stand-up comedians and he's you
00:37:05
know still kicking out a new minute every single week In fact he does this thing where he flexes on everybody
00:37:10
because we let the regulars go as long as they want They're not just limited to a minute So he does a thing where he
00:37:16
like on Monday dropped 2 minutes and 30 seconds just for the sake of the how long he wrote that bit So it's really crazy what's uh what's going on It's
00:37:28
exciting because I get to be a fan of you just get to you're right there I I just have to insert this at this point I've just learned a hell of a lot about your show Yeah And I admire it on all
00:37:39
and how many frequencies I'm sorry to use that again or metrics it operates on and feeding into why it is such a success You go "Oh they they go up and these comedians bomb and they [ __ ] on
00:37:50
them." I don't know You know it's just completely comprehensive I just want to say that I was in Vegas I was at the Win
00:37:58
Hotel I wasn't I was playing a private date and across the way out the window I was way on a high floor every 10 minutes
00:38:06
early in the evening I would see you 100 feet tall the whole side of the resorts international I don't know how big a room but you were just playing there
00:38:17
right So just for a second how's your standup career going It's a whole other side thing You're playing a big rooms I
00:38:23
mean I' I've never had more fun you know all the stuff that uh that that I've worked on and I joke about it now in the hour is like I always when everything
00:38:38
was kind of I've always liked to um how do I say this in a non-corny way I like I like corny Yeah I like the idea of pushing the crowd away and then having to win them back over and touch on
00:38:52
really really you know racial issues and uh you know sometimes what would be considered um stuff that could get someone in trouble And I focused on that throughout the entire
00:39:06
pandemic You know when I found out I could move to Texas and be back to performing indoors rather than you know
00:39:13
outside in Los Angeles with cars six feet apart from one another and that Supernova gig that one Magic Castle Yeah Yeah Terrible And um and I focused on
00:39:25
all this even though it looked like Netflix and a lot of things were going cleaner and more you know uh if you want
00:39:33
to be successful you got to be uh you know mainstream or whatever And I really doubled down and focused on you know what I wanted to talk about and even the stuff that happened with the uh with the
00:39:48
with the Trump rally a few months ago like it's all applied now and it gives me kind of permission it feels with my stand up to really really really finally
00:39:59
after 18 years talk about the type of stuff that I want to talk about and they kind of know what they're getting even that Trump thing which did you ever
00:40:06
think if he lost somehow that people would be coming after you for that Oh yeah they know fact I actually found out
00:40:12
from the administration a few days before the election I was in communication with them the entire time
00:40:18
And on uh the Sunday morning before the election I woke up to a text message that said "Call me when you can." And I
00:40:25
looked at the time It was it was sent at 6:15 a.m from the guy that booked me for
00:40:30
the Trump roast a highlevel advisor in the camp like that's at all the meetings and everything And I my and I just knew it wasn't good And I called him and he goes "Hey man just to let you know uh
00:40:44
because the press writes their stuff up before it happens before the election they write it up This is what we're going to put out if Trump wins with the actual statistics This is what we're
00:40:55
going to put out if Kamla wins with the actual statistics." And he goes "Just to let you know the press already has it
00:41:01
written up If Trump loses they are totally 100% going to blame you and I Now I work in politics My career is going to be totally over I don't know how it's going to work for you as a
00:41:14
comedian And I'm literally like "Oh fuck." Because now what Now I've lost now I've lost basically everyone the Republicans and the Democrats I'm stuck with literally the the 6,000 people in
00:41:28
the country that truly don't give a [ __ ] about anything at all You got that crowd still
00:41:34
I I remember this Well I'm glad you brought it up because I I wanted to talk to you about it and you kind of I I
00:41:39
understand it now But it was like for about two three weeks your name was really everywhere New York Times Uh they tying
00:41:47
this to me a very benign just silly joke please people about Puerto Rico and floating garbage whatever and they ran with it politically But I just thought there was a period of time where you
00:42:00
were sort of gonna potentially from that joke reorientate how America tilts in the presidential election I don't think any comedian that I could think of in the history of comedy has been in that
00:42:12
position and now getting the confirmation that that's how they were going to write it that
00:42:17
that whole rally was a trip I mean but you were uh I just thought it was fascinating what happened with that Yeah The plan was to just go out there and kind of have fun and be part of this
00:42:29
wild gang of uh of kind of you know I don't know I'm sure a lot of people aren't going to like any part of what I'm saying but don't worry What could possibly What do you mean the the Hulk
00:42:42
Hogan of it and the Bobby Kenny I mean just sort of the what if you're on the left it would be the rogues gallery of
00:42:48
misfits and anti- status quo rebels you know basically Yeah And it was just it wasn't exactly how I expected it to go They had me cold open right after the national anthem which if you know
00:43:02
anything about my comedy style literally I don't even open I don't cold open anyone's show Mine nobody's That would be crazy to do especially at a political
00:43:14
rally especially with the lights all the way up which isn't exactly for some reason how I pictured it And I mean
00:43:20
audience completely lit all the way to the Raptors Madison Square You're like in a grocery store basically Yeah Like
00:43:27
you need to dim it down I don't want to see after the front row But you go "Oh so this is the lights are staying like
00:43:33
this." Okay I go on now All right Y and the audience was not miked for comedy levels It was for pure rally levels
00:43:41
which it turns out is hot death if you're listening to a clip of comedy Cuz in the room I'm telling you there's
00:43:48
there's tens of thousands of witnesses that were there It was a success I swear it was wild There was nothing but high fives and stuff right afterwards and then it didn't take long It was so live
00:44:02
Before you go wait a second Yeah Some narative developed that you bombed or something Was that what happened I saw I
00:44:09
was backstage looking at the uh monitors There's like a whole crew of you know it's literally it's like Hogan walks by Dr Phil's [ __ ] fist pumping Rudy
00:44:20
Giuliani It's Donald Trump Jr next to me And I said to him I go to Don Jr I said
00:44:28
"Man this they're trying I think this is like becoming a news story This they're focusing in on this one joke I made
00:44:34
about Puerto Rico." And he goes "Does it seem like they're outraged?" And I go "Yeah." He goes "Welcome to the team."
00:44:42
And I realized right then I'm like "Oh yeah They've been bashing Elon Musk calling him a Nazi and all of this crazy
00:44:50
stuff for a guy that gives free Wi-Fi to the poor parts of the world builds electric cars for 100% of everybody and
00:44:58
this and that and everything Rogan one of the nicest people that I've I've never seen anyone help more people in
00:45:04
the world than Joe Rogan And meanwhile he's a Nazi that's a Nazi that's a a racist a racist a right-wing far rightwing And I'm like "Oh my god I'm that now This is crazy I'm a pot smoking
00:45:16
pro-choice anti-war centrist There's no way But they really throw Nazi around It
00:45:23
loses a little of its luster when you just use it every single day You start to go "Wait what is it again?" Yeah It's
00:45:28
It's It used to be a real stab And now you go I guess people just use it Kids use it now Now according to a lot of
00:45:36
people 53% of the popular vote of the country is Nazis I guess So what a world we're living in where 53% of the people can be labeled Nazis
00:45:49
[Music] Go on the record I don't think you're a Nazi at all Like I don't have any Me and
00:45:55
Dana aren't I don't get any Nazi vibe from you There's other vibes I get No I'm just kidding But um it's uh it is a fascinating world I don't think I I
00:46:08
always say this We we we got the wheel we got fire we got the printing press we got this we got nukes we got nothing
00:46:15
prepared us for social media Uh and if we if the world does end and they're digging through the rubble they'll just
00:46:22
they'll find a little box and all they'll hear is a voice go Zuckerberg Zuckerberg Zuckerberg Yeah it is not
00:46:30
literally him It's all social media But the news comes from the social the news comes from social media now Like it
00:46:37
happens there first The news was reporting outrage about a joke because of the tweet that uh that came out that said racist
00:46:49
speaker at racist rally had this to say about Puerto Rico Not comedian speaker not joke comment You know the way they label these things and if you don't know me
00:47:01
you're it sounds and that's the first a lot of people saw of you Yeah for sure Yeah People didn't With that said and
00:47:08
this is kind of where I think this backfired for the mainstream media and whatnot where it backfired is I don't
00:47:15
think they counted on because I'm not at the time especially wasn't a considered a mainstream guy You know I don't think
00:47:22
they factored in the power of Kill Tony the millions and millions of people and the millions and millions of people that
00:47:28
watched the most watched program of the year last year which was the roast of Tom Brady So when they called me a
00:47:34
speaker and said that I had racist comments I think a lot of people and I know for a fact a lot of people go "Wait
00:47:41
a second This is I think a lot of people realize the news can be extremely tilted
00:47:47
by this exact instance because a lot of people are like "Wait I saw him be more racist on the roast of Tom Brady He
00:47:53
called a black lesbian and a da da da and a this and a that and a whatever." You know it's kind of what I go for and
00:47:59
they're like "That's what he does." So Mhm you know out of place comedy The new cycle has changed and the networks and the traditional outlets had monopolies and then they they could cancel someone
00:48:11
and [ __ ] on them and there was no place really to go and now immediately you can go on Joe Rogan or wherever and set the
00:48:18
record straight you know Yeah I taped another episode of Kill Tony less than 24 hours after that rally and I was the
00:48:25
news at that point I mean it was me all day My guests canled on me that day I had some big guests that came in from Los Angeles for it and uh and uh yeah
00:48:38
it's it but I again you know the the real comedians here the real standups can't wait to be on that episode and it ended up paying off big time for them because it was an
00:48:48
extra episode because tune in and also the people that hear the joke go "Well he's doing a joke." Even though it's race related there's a lot of jokes out there that are just poking fun of stuff
00:49:00
It was just there's Puerto Rico there's pollution in the ocean It was just a connection of a joke It wasn't like
00:49:07
sitting around I got to make a joke about Puerto Rico I hate that Yeah Wasn't that Yeah And the thing that
00:49:12
happens when someone puts a when they focus in on a single clip is that you're missing out on the fact that oh I
00:49:19
totally 100% made a point to make fun of everybody Latinos whites blacks Israel Palestine my own mother Strategically that was part of the tone of the thing
00:49:33
It was supposed to be about free speech and how we can make fun of everything And that's another thing that kind of
00:49:39
happened is a lot of people saw wow this campaign might be the one with kind of a sense of humor even though that did you
00:49:47
have a dogs are different than cats bit in your back pocket I have one I can lend you just in case No but I did have
00:49:55
one about eating dogs and cats and I'm not even kidding you that that was actually in it too They're eating the
00:50:00
dogs They're eating the cats Of course you have a I I love the freedom I'm not in the the world My brand is something
00:50:07
very different and what I do but I laugh my ass off at your stuff And when I'm behind the scenes with comedians we're
00:50:14
all doing stuff like that It's the only way to make comedians laugh behind the scenes is something shocking something so foul or incorrect that you just laugh
00:50:25
And of course in the room everyone knows there's nothing behind it It's just because you're not supposed to say it
00:50:31
And so um I I a good comedy crowd If you're in a good comedy club and that's like a secret place to do all this stuff you can even get oo's and a's and but they still think it's funny They But
00:50:44
outside of that safety net it seems weird that people can take it wrong or pretend to take it wrong and really go
00:50:51
after you right Exactly And we all get it We get it It's a politician or a lawyer or someone like that doing that Yeah That's outside the parameters of
00:51:02
their thing like them doing that would be kind of crazy Sure Well for me I could only do for a while uh Western
00:51:09
European white males you know as far as voices like Swedes or French or whatever
00:51:15
And I I couldn't do South America or Asia or India But I'm working my way east Um doing some Mediterranean accents
00:51:23
and working my way slowly back toward India And I will eventually on this podcast I do do a Japanese man suffering an earthquake and that's that's that's
00:51:35
been okay They don't you want to show it to him real quick Yeah What does that sound like I got to hear it Actually let's just fly on the wall Yeah Do it
00:51:40
Japanese man on the phone with his friend and an earthquake happens Be like I don't have a phone
00:51:55
[Applause] So anyway that I know it has nothing to do with uh Japanese people but I just
00:52:14
know that that sound and rhythm makes my brain happy So Oh that brings me so much
00:52:21
joy Yeah I love it making someone a comedian laugh Yeah I know He's the guy to do that one too That's for sure Fun Um that could be your minute Dana
00:52:33
That would have been part of your minute You'd have like another 20 seconds You have to bring your laptop up on
00:52:39
stage When When I can think of something to do on that show I would love to come on You could I I but I would confer with you but uh you know there's certain
00:52:50
impressions you just you feel like doing with prosthetic makeup Yeah And there's
00:52:55
just SNL and kind of you guys now and it's fun I mean I thought Adam Ray's uh Biden was really really a funny take on it His whole scared attitude and everything
00:53:07
Yeah Yeah He's fantastic We put that together in uh six days I texted him on a Tuesday
00:53:17
morning I said "Hey do you have a Biden?" Because he was he's always done um Dr Phil and it's always been a wild
00:53:24
success on the show guest of the year 2023 And it's like just the one of the biggest pops you could ever hear is Dr Phil coming out on a kill Tony show I
00:53:35
mean people just that he starts swearing and stuff It's such a funny obuse take to bring out Dr Phil in 2025 and have a kill It's kind of like really Adam and then you see it's killing Go ahead Yeah
00:53:48
And so I hit him up on a Tuesday afternoon saying "Hey do you have a Joe Biden impression?" And he goes "Just I
00:53:56
just do 5 seconds of it in my standup act I've never been in character as Biden before." And uh I go "What are you
00:54:04
doing Monday?" He goes "Oh let's go Let's do it." Because like at the time they were having debates and stuff Biden
00:54:09
and Trump And so I knew he was going to be Biden So I hit up Shane who's a big uh obviously huge Kill Tony fan and fan of Adam Ray's Dr Phil and his in
00:54:22
character work Yeah And I go "Hey Shane I got uh I got Adam Ray doing Joe Biden on Monday." And he goes "Shit I'm supposed to go to [ __ ] Philadelphia
00:54:34
to write the next season attires but I'll extend my I'll stay here an extra day I have to do Trump with Biden And so it's so fun how these things come
00:54:45
together It's literally like they want to be there They want to do it They want to collaborate with each other It's not
00:54:52
It's not like a job at all It's like a jam session So much fun Shane's such a home run hitter too and go out there
00:54:58
Perfect to have them both I'll tell you the purity of it because they're seated side by side and they're facing out to
00:55:04
the audience They're not You didn't build a set There's not movement walking It's just they're in character just
00:55:09
going forward and it and again it feels loose you know they kind of wait to have
00:55:15
something funny to say They wait and then if they have something they jump in or what do you think of that Trump I mean that's hard to do It's hard to be
00:55:22
funny be an impression and adlib off what's going on right that second It's just No they were they were having so
00:55:28
much fun and it was uh Yeah Shane is second to none He sees things on multiple levels like nobody else There's a guy during that episode I go "What do
00:55:39
you do?" He goes "I work at Trader Joe's." He goes "That's what we call this guy Trader
00:55:45
Joe." And it's like I was putting that together going "Oh [ __ ] Good one." Oh yeah Second I mean just Yeah He's He's
00:55:53
He's great He's like that all the time By the way we all live here in Austin Texas now And I mean oh my god off stage
00:56:01
on stage at a bar next door here at his place in the swimming pool everywhere He
00:56:09
can just lay you out all the time Incredible Yeah I'm jealous That sounds fun He's a freak Yeah just swimming sounds fun Yeah Um anyway anything else
00:56:21
for this young man Dane I think we he did a good job I I thought it was very uh interesting uh interview I think for
00:56:28
a lot of people who maybe only know you from the Madison Square Garden thing we'll be like "Hey um just all I can say
00:56:35
is you know really um congratulations I know it sounds corny but it's it's not easy uh you to to make it in show business It's not easy to take control and create something like this and buy a
00:56:47
house that I did get it online I mean it's,00 square ft which is shocking to me That's awesome And does not have a pool yet He's waiting But anyway um just
00:57:01
just just uh congratulations It's it's an incredible achievement and you're just in the pocket and no one's [ __ ]
00:57:06
with you and no one's telling you what to do So well thank you Obviously as a as a 40year-old I have been looking up to you guys and been a super [ __ ]
00:57:17
super huge fan my entire life I don't know how when mentioning Letterman and Stern and the pro wrestling influence
00:57:23
how I could possibly leave out I guess I felt it goes without saying how powerful
00:57:28
SNL and your guys' movies were to me And so let it be known that you know I'm I wanted to do this to hopefully be able to get you guys eventually on an airplane to Austin Texas to do the show
00:57:43
together It would be mindful That would be fun We definitely we Yeah we're gonna do We would love it I can't wait I'll be
00:57:51
I'll be bothering you guys for that And Tony my my waitress this morning had just seen you brought you up organically
00:57:58
Did not know anything about this And I think maybe the Honda Center Maybe she just saw you somewhere I don't know where but uh she had high praise So good
00:58:05
job on just doing stand up on top of doing everything else And uh we'll see you soon bud Thank you for coming on
00:58:11
guys A real honor and a pleasure Have a great day Thank Thanks Take care guys Nice to meet you Dana This has been a
00:58:17
presentation of Odyssey Please follow subscribe leave a like a review all the stuff Smash that button whatever it is wherever you get your podcasts Fly on the Wall executive produced by Dana
00:58:28
Carvey and David Spade Jenna Weiss Burman of Odyssey and Heather Santoro The show's lead producer is Greg
00:58:34
Holtzman