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#049 - Analyzing Andrew Schultz's Netflix Special + Comic Q&A - comedy podcast
In this episode we discuss their experiences at the West End Comedy Fest, highlighting the importance of community in comedy. We also dive into Andrew Schultz's latest comedy special, analyzing its structure, humor, and the evolution of comedy specials in the age of social media. The conversation emphasizes the significance of storytelling and the impact of clippification on modern comedy. We also talk about the intricacies of comedy marketing, the evolution of comedy formats, the importance of feedback, and the balance between personal life and a comedy career.
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Takeaways
- The importance of community in comedy.
- Andrew Schultz's special showcases effective storytelling.
- The evolution of comedy specials reflects changing audience preferences.
- Feedback from different sources can vary; trust your instincts.
- Living life outside of comedy is crucial for material.
- Taking breaks is important for mental health and creativity.
- No one is monitoring your comedy journey; prioritize your own path.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Hot Breath and Community Engagement
05:25 Reviewing Andrew Schultz's Comedy Special
20:03 The Evolution of Comedy Specials and Clippification
20:49 Marketing Mastery in Comedy Specials
24:03 The Evolution of Comedy Formats
27:14 Navigating Comedy Advice and Feedback
35:08 Balancing Comedy and Life
42:56 Community and Support in Comedy
Transcript
There's the theme song.
Speaker A:I feel like I came in hot again.
Speaker A:But we're gonna start anyway because we're doing it.
Speaker A:Welcome back, everyone.
Speaker A:We are limping in to today's Hot Breath, the show where you learn comedy from the pros.
Speaker A:Your weekly guide to comedy mastery.
Speaker A:Your weekly comedy tune up.
Speaker A:That's what we started calling it.
Speaker A:Your weekly comedy tune Up.
Speaker A:Comedians Joel Byers and Yoshi.
Speaker A:So here to answer your comedy questions and share our own comedy journeys we're gonna get into today.
Speaker A:But also, should we just not do this?
Speaker A:Maybe we should just shouldn't do this.
Speaker A:Maybe we shouldn't.
Speaker A:You know, it's.
Speaker A:It's funny.
Speaker A:I was at.
Speaker A:I went to West End Comedy Fest this weekend here in Atlanta, and I got to meet several hot breathers.
Speaker A:And I forget.
Speaker A:I mean, I don't forget, but I do forget.
Speaker A:Like, people listen and care and enjoy the show.
Speaker A:And I.
Speaker A:I'm so grateful to hear that, as my wife calls it, my validation tour, because I was like, I gotta go back to Weston.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:I met a lot of hot breathers there last year.
Speaker A:And then she's like, oh, you're going on your validation tour is what she called it for me to go into this festival.
Speaker A:But, yeah, I just forget, I guess when we're doing this every week that, like, people actually enjoy the show and we're doing something positive that really helps people.
Speaker A:So I like on these days where we both kind of limped into it on a Monday morning, that it's.
Speaker A:It's for.
Speaker A:It's for a good cause.
Speaker A:And I'm very grateful that we are able to do this every week still.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then West End is also run by hot breath veteran.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, Hallie Ballantyne, Holly Ballantyne for show.
Speaker B:Her entire crew of people doing some amazing stuff in comedy.
Speaker A:Just Amber and Sarah Michelle.
Speaker A:Brit.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:As well.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Great crew.
Speaker A:We talked about them last year after that festival too.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And gave them some shout outs.
Speaker A:Embry.
Speaker A:He's a comic based in Florida who runs like, the right 10 after dark.
Speaker A:And he's very involved in Hot Breath Averse for years now.
Speaker A:I got to see him there, which was very cool.
Speaker A:He actually drove up to help out with the festival.
Speaker B:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker A:So, yeah, it was very cool.
Speaker A:Got to meet a lot of cool people.
Speaker A:I went to see the.
Speaker A:The day one homie.
Speaker A:Ben Palmer.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Who.
Speaker A:He lives in Nashville now.
Speaker A:But he, like, texted me to come through.
Speaker A:He wanted me to do some.
Speaker A:He wanted me to be a plant in his show.
Speaker A:He was.
Speaker A:He was headlining the festival.
Speaker A:He's, like, blown up on social media.
Speaker A:If y'all haven't, you can.
Speaker A:Palmer Trolls is a social media.
Speaker A:But, yeah, incredibly funny and such a unique kind of a comedy wave that he found that, like, Bob came out to his show.
Speaker A:Bob, like the Atlanta artist.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:The big fan.
Speaker A:And he came out and, like, took a photo with him and stuff.
Speaker B:That's awesome, dude.
Speaker A:But he.
Speaker A:He wanted me to, like, yell out that, I love your LinkedIn.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And all this.
Speaker A:He's like, so where'd y'all find me?
Speaker A:He's like, tick tock.
Speaker A:And people like, woo.
Speaker A:And he's like, instagram, woo.
Speaker A:And he's like, LinkedIn.
Speaker A:He's like, I want you to, like, yell and be like, I love your LinkedIn.
Speaker A:So then I did, and then there's gonna be a callback at the end, but I guess I didn't do it enthusiastically enough because we didn't do the callback at the end.
Speaker A:And then afterwards, he was like, dude, you're supposed to, like, scream it and yell it.
Speaker A:And I was like, yo, I didn't want to steal the show, you know, I'm sorry, I'm not a professional heckler.
Speaker A:And, like, before I did it, I told Holly.
Speaker A:I was like, holly, I just want, you know, Ben wants me to yell out in the middle of a set.
Speaker A:I'm not doing it to be.
Speaker A:She's like, he told me it's fine.
Speaker A:I was like, telling everyone in my immediate area, listen, I'm about to have to yell and I don't do this, but it's Ben's idea.
Speaker A:So I probably did limp into that yelling for sure, but it just felt weird to yell out in the middle of a comedy show.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's funny.
Speaker B:It's funny because people also assume that people do a lot of plants in comedy, but it actually doesn't happen a lot.
Speaker B:No, it's always for a bit, though, too.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:But when we did do the callback at the end, I was like, oh, interesting.
Speaker A:And then, like, the first thing he said when he saw me, he's like, dude, you're supposed to, like.
Speaker A:He wanted me to, like, fan girl out about it or, like, I don't know what he wanted, but I didn't supply it.
Speaker A:But for the price, I certainly supplied the free heckle.
Speaker A:I was nervous, though.
Speaker A:I was, like, standing there with Embry and I was, like, rehearsing the line.
Speaker A:I was, like, trying to.
Speaker A:Getting.
Speaker A:Trying to get method acting going.
Speaker A:Like, I love your LinkedIn.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:Yeah, it was a lot of fun and got to meet a lot of hot breathers and it was just very, very cool to just see comics building their own thing and they've built that festival from the ground up and yeah, killer headliners coming through.
Speaker A:It's grow.
Speaker A:It was sold out.
Speaker A:Like yeah, big, big things popping over there at West End Comedy Fest fish out for show.
Speaker A:But I did, I had a few questions coming in from comics over the week that I do want to get into because I thought they were very relevant and questions we hadn't really gotten before as well, which was always, which was always interesting, exciting.
Speaker A:But did you see the Andrew Schultz special?
Speaker A:Have you seen his new special?
Speaker B:I have seen his new special.
Speaker B:It's Schultz.
Speaker B:So nothing really like surprised me.
Speaker B:There's some things that I was like, oh, I had had no idea you were gonna go there kind of thing special.
Speaker B:But for the most part the overall like theme of the special was very well done.
Speaker B:Just story wise, the jokes, I mean I did like, like a easy math level of jokes for I counted how many jokes were in like the first like five minutes of when he actually got into it.
Speaker B:Not like the audience applause or anything versus like the middle versus like the end when he got into like just stuff.
Speaker B:I think he was averaging like, you know, I'm, I'm a big technical LPMS fan.
Speaker B:That boy was averaging about 8 to 10 laughs per minute.
Speaker B:And the, the laughs were long.
Speaker B:Like the bad boys were like.
Speaker B:There was just no silence throughout his special.
Speaker B:He had them engaged, he had them on the hook.
Speaker B:And I think this is probably the first time I've ever seen him do really like first 10 minutes was about like the process of having a baby and then getting into the details of the baby.
Speaker B:So like the whole special is truly like the special is called life.
Speaker B:So it's definitely centered around fatherhood and him having a baby.
Speaker B:But overall I thought it was pretty solid.
Speaker B:What'd you think?
Speaker A:Yeah, I, I was interested, yeah.
Speaker A:To hear your opinion on it.
Speaker A:And Also, yeah, the LPMs.
Speaker A:I was watching it like, oh, I need, we need Chris Gron to give us the numbers here.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because it was like laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh.
Speaker A:Boom, boom.
Speaker A:It was boom.
Speaker B:He had.
Speaker B:It was consistent rate of heaters.
Speaker B:He didn't waste any time.
Speaker B:And I'll say one thing about watching him is I feel like Andrew has figured out how to get a lot of laughs in a stadium that a lot of people don't have the same kind of cadence and it's almost like they laugh.
Speaker B:They don't like reset.
Speaker B:It's almost like a rolling laugh.
Speaker B:But he still gets to say what he wants to say to get the next laugh.
Speaker B:He never lets it die down, that's for sure.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And the.
Speaker A:The sound design, it's like you almost felt like you were there.
Speaker A:Like, however they had the sound set up, it was.
Speaker A:It just.
Speaker A:It felt different.
Speaker A:There was a different audio experience to it.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:However they.
Speaker A:Whatever they did, it felt very immersive as well, which I'm.
Speaker A:Which was very intentional, of course.
Speaker A:But the fact they pulled it off at that scale is.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I was like, oh, wow.
Speaker A:This feels different too, from a production side.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It was very well done.
Speaker B:And he incorporated video and imagery, which I thought was very cool.
Speaker B:Very different for.
Speaker B:For him.
Speaker B:Not something that he's done in the past, but it's just.
Speaker B:It's a very cool.
Speaker B:I thought it was very personal special.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:He's the only one that could truly, like, write this story.
Speaker B:And I love.
Speaker B:I mean, honestly, I just.
Speaker B:Favorite part he had.
Speaker B:You know, I always think this is like, if you're gonna make a special, you got to make a special that you tell somebody you're gonna do something in the beginning and then you hit him with a banger at the end.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Little callback.
Speaker B:He had a call back that he called out in the beginning and then did it at the end.
Speaker B:That just hit.
Speaker B:It was like, oh, my God.
Speaker B:So it's just overall, just well done, well rounded.
Speaker B:Special, for sure.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And that's good for retention where he's like, here's something, but we'll get to that later.
Speaker A:Now then call it back at the end.
Speaker A:That's good for retention, for people to hang around and just for designing a comedy special.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But yeah, to take essentially a single topic and stretch it out into an hour.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker A:And it's still beyond topic.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker A:But just.
Speaker A:Yeah, it even.
Speaker A:Just from like a writing standpoint, I think comics need to see it.
Speaker A:Just to see how much juice you can squeeze out of a topic and how far you can go.
Speaker A:It.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I loved it, dude.
Speaker A:Like, Yeah.
Speaker A:I think I thought it was incredible.
Speaker B:Also hit you different as well.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Memories for me.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Like, for me.
Speaker B:Because it's.
Speaker B:It's story about.
Speaker B:It's a story about pregnancy and being a dad for the first time.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And trying to become a dad.
Speaker B:Those struggles as well, and the struggles of that.
Speaker B:So, like, it just had a lot of very relatable things, I would say that definitely hit Home with me as a dad.
Speaker B:He even called out girl dads and boy dads.
Speaker B:He had a bit about boy dads and girl dads.
Speaker B:That was just stellar joke writing.
Speaker B:But being a father of both, I was like, he's so right.
Speaker B:Like, he just hit on a lot.
Speaker B:And you're right, he squeezed the entire experience.
Speaker B:The pregnancy, the struggles with pregnancy, the going into the doctors, the delivery, the what happening before the testing, like all the things that you have to do if you are trying to get pregnant as a couple.
Speaker B:And so, yeah, that was very cool to see him, like, just walk everyone through what that looks like for a.
Speaker A:Lot of people and it be funny the whole time.
Speaker A:Like, killer, Killer funny.
Speaker B:Hilarious.
Speaker B:Hilarious.
Speaker A:I mean, I.
Speaker A:I watched it with my wife and, you know, and she, you know, and she's not like the biggest comedy fan, but it was like she likes Schultz and she.
Speaker A:We sat through it and watched it together and laughed and it was a very, very fun experience and something.
Speaker A:We haven't sat down and watched a comedy special maybe since, like, Nate.
Speaker A:I think we watched Nate's together.
Speaker A:So this was very different from Nate Special.
Speaker A:And, you know, Schultz goes there, but it's still funny.
Speaker A:It's not.
Speaker A:He doesn't go there to where you're like, oh, like, you know, some people.
Speaker A:Oh, people can't.
Speaker A:I'm just too edgy.
Speaker A:They can't handle my brand of comic.
Speaker A:Well, it's like, no, you just got to be funny.
Speaker B:You just gotta be funny.
Speaker A:You gotta be funny.
Speaker A:And younger comics can fall into that of.
Speaker A:They're just not ready for how edgy I am.
Speaker A:It's like, you're not ready to pull off the edgy stuff.
Speaker A:You gotta learn how to be funny first, and then you can apply how you're funny into these edgier topics.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:But that's just one opinion.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think it's a must watch for every comic.
Speaker A:Learning how to get a lot of juice out of a topic and really just find the funny angles and when you find a funny angle, just hammering it over and over and over again.
Speaker A:And it was a great.
Speaker A:It was kind of a great refresher for me as a comedian too, because, I mean, you know, you.
Speaker A:You watch a lot more specials.
Speaker A:I don't really watch that.
Speaker A:Mini specials.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's just, I'm not like, oh, I gotta see this.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker A:I think every comic's different.
Speaker A:I don't really watch that many specials.
Speaker A:It's not like a personal choice.
Speaker A:I think it's just I.
Speaker A:I rarely.
Speaker A:I'm not always like, oh, I gotta be on this next one, or whatever.
Speaker A:But this one was one I wanted to see because I heard it was more about a singular topic, which I think specials are moving and are going to move more and more in that direction as everyone can release a special.
Speaker A:So now it's like, okay, out of all these comics releasing a special, how can yours stand out?
Speaker A:What is your unique stamp on the format?
Speaker A:How can you make it your own?
Speaker A:And I think having this kind of autobiographical or singular focus, it's like, okay, this special is about him trying to have a kid and the struggles of that.
Speaker A:And so other specials.
Speaker A:Okay, what is this special about?
Speaker A:It's about X instead of, oh, we got a little bit of this, a little bit of that.
Speaker A:The more you can kind of almost brand your special to kind of be about a certain thing, the greater your chances are of more people finding it or being more shareable.
Speaker A:Greg Warren is an example with his special the Salesman.
Speaker A:And it was.
Speaker A:It's basically about him being a salesman.
Speaker A:And it like, he got a lot of press because he goes really deep on people, peanut butter and how he was like in charge of selling peanut butter at these grocery stores.
Speaker A:And he goes really in depth on like Jif or Skippy and all of this.
Speaker A:And it was just something super specific and singular that people could attach to the special.
Speaker A:Then that made the marketing of it explode because he was getting all these write ups about, have you seen the special with this guy yelling about peanut butter?
Speaker A:So I think that's something for comics to think about when they release a special.
Speaker A:Like, what is your peanut butter moment?
Speaker A:Or, you know, what is.
Speaker A:What is the hook of the special?
Speaker A:And the hey, but.
Speaker A:And it's got to be funny.
Speaker A:This Schultz one was also.
Speaker A:It was also a re.
Speaker A:Kind of a reignition of like, oh, I need to, I need to get it together.
Speaker A:Like, he's throwing heat, bro.
Speaker A:He's laughing at a certain point.
Speaker A:Like, my wife was laughing hard.
Speaker A:And I was like, well, hold on, calm down over there.
Speaker A:What you talking about?
Speaker A:Never heard you laugh that loud at me.
Speaker A:Like, he's throwing heater.
Speaker A:And I know this is a comic at the top of his game and people argue one of the best.
Speaker A:Or some people argue the best alive right now.
Speaker A:So this is a guy in the top 1 of 1% of comedians, but definitely, I think a special that you can watch and learn from and get inspiration from.
Speaker B:Yeah, he is definitely operating at a different row right now.
Speaker B:It is, it is you.
Speaker B:It is, it is so different.
Speaker B:But also you saw this early on, right?
Speaker B:Like you saw this when he started this podcast, when he started touring, started showing the video, started the clips.
Speaker B:Like, I mean, I mean you could say like Schultz is probably like one of the godfathers of crowd clips.
Speaker B:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker B:Putting that stuff out there and realizing that it was getting attention and then driving it and doing short term versions of it and like just.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:But a lot of his clips were comedy clips.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:It was jokes too.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So he was kind of just putting that stuff out there where that wasn't really like a big thing back then.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so it was.
Speaker B:Yeah, it was just.
Speaker B:It's fun to watch the evolution because he's also, you know, he also got the interview with Donald Trump.
Speaker B:Like he's doing the flagrant podcast.
Speaker B:He's doing a lot of stuff, like a lot of arenas and.
Speaker B:But it's fun to watch his success ascension but then come back to like, I don't want to say call come back, but like almost never forget what he does, which is comedy, and be like, yep, here's comedy.
Speaker B:Here's what I do very, very well.
Speaker B:Even though I'm doing all this other stuff, here's what I do do kind of thing.
Speaker A:So it's just, yeah, still got it type vibe.
Speaker A:And that's why I was interested to watch this special as well.
Speaker A:Because he is responsible for almost like the Internet ification like of comedy.
Speaker A:You know, I mean, you know, Dane Cook was probably the started all with MySpace and all that, but Schultz was kind of the next iteration who really was putting clips out there br.
Speaker A:Positioning them in a way like, oh, heckler.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:You know, he.
Speaker A:Well, Steve Hofstadter is another one who kind of did the heckler side of the Internet clips.
Speaker A:But Schultz was definitely someone of like, oh, branding this clip to be.
Speaker A:He had so many Indian guy reacts to white comic or things like that.
Speaker A:He was always very intentional about.
Speaker A:He noticed that if you could brand a clip around a specific subset, a specific culture, that culture will share it within their community.
Speaker A:So it's like if he's doing crowd over the Nigerian person, he'll brand it as like Nigerian person reaction and then all Nigerians will share it with each other.
Speaker A:And he went viral doing that with like clips around the world because he would tap into these kind of subsets of culture.
Speaker A:Not to.
Speaker A:I'm saying that as a white man, but you know what?
Speaker A:I'm.
Speaker A:Can you clean that up for Me Yoshi on Ramadan.
Speaker A:Can you clean that up for me?
Speaker A:Assalamu alaikum.
Speaker A:But I think you know what I'm saying.
Speaker B:Joel's been practicing that for so long.
Speaker B:He's like, that's right.
Speaker B:I gotta get this right.
Speaker B:I have.
Speaker A:I was rehearsing it before this show.
Speaker A:Llama, Llama Red Pajama.
Speaker A:That's a child's book for anyone.
Speaker A:But, yeah.
Speaker A:So, yeah, he started this whole clipification of comedy.
Speaker A:So it's good to see him also, like, oh, here's kind of how you can do a special now.
Speaker A:Because I was talking with someone and they were saying his infamous special, it felt more like he was doing a comedy special of clips.
Speaker A:It felt like his special was more formatted to like, okay, here's a clip.
Speaker A:Okay, now here's the next joke that's going to be a clip.
Speaker A:And it was almost.
Speaker A:It felt more like that and not this cohesive arc like his newest special is.
Speaker B:I don't doubt for one second that he thought about that and was like, oh, yeah, y'all.
Speaker B:Y'all just think I'm clippable.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:I got jokes, I got stories.
Speaker B:I mean, and if you ever watched, I mean, his other specials, right, he's done more than one, and he's released multiple.
Speaker B:He does stories and he has, like, even longer jokes.
Speaker B:But definitely the one that, you know, that, I guess, a network didn't take, and then he released it himself, bought it back from them, and did all that was definitely clippable.
Speaker B:Had a lot of clippable moments.
Speaker A:And that was probably the height of, like, this clip culture as well.
Speaker A:That was probably, like, the peak where this is just this, you know, this blowout special that's huge and big and bombastic.
Speaker A:Yeah, it was marketed that way.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.
Speaker B:The marketing of.
Speaker B:Of it also was very, very stellar.
Speaker B:Like, I think I might have told you this a while back, that he tapped into what I call the Usher Raymond Confessions of marketing, which is get a lot of controversy going around your special, and then people will go watch your special and just get the buzz going.
Speaker B:So the fact that he mentioned the thing about, you know, I can't tell you what network it is, but I bought it back from a network because they wanted to take out this joke.
Speaker B:We still never know what joke he actually took out.
Speaker B:I think he might have mentioned it, actually, but, like, it was just one of those things where he had so much buzz around the cancel.
Speaker B:Oh, I might get canceled.
Speaker B:So I bought it myself.
Speaker B:Released it on YouTube.
Speaker B:And I think he.
Speaker B:People paid for it before it got released on YouTube as well.
Speaker B:So I think there's just a lot of, like, I love the fact that Schultz has thought about all the different levels of ways to market himself to get his material out.
Speaker B:And it's very different.
Speaker B:Like, one was released on YouTube.
Speaker B:Just there's a.
Speaker B:Here's the release.
Speaker B:One was released before YouTube.
Speaker B:This is released on Netflix.
Speaker B:And then he did the show on Netflix.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So he's got just a lot of buzz around his writing and his capabilities.
Speaker B:But, yeah, he's.
Speaker B:He is stellar, man.
Speaker B:Just, yeah, big fan.
Speaker B:Good special.
Speaker B:Like, this is a good special.
Speaker A:It.
Speaker A:I mean, one of my favorites, dude.
Speaker A:It.
Speaker A:Yeah, it was incredible.
Speaker A:And, you know, he's always a part of the next step.
Speaker A:So I am interested to see now the next iteration of comedy, the next.
Speaker A:Where we're headed now that we've kind of almost hit max capacity on clips or, like, crowd work clips at least and things like that.
Speaker A:It's kind of like, all right, well, what's next?
Speaker A:Everyone has a special.
Speaker A:And so now how.
Speaker A:What's kind of the next iteration?
Speaker A:Now everyone can set up a tripod and film a set.
Speaker A:Now how can we continue to push the medium forward and continue to challenge comics to not just get complacent?
Speaker A:And yeah, I think this singular focus comedy special and how he had a little multimedia with it as well.
Speaker A:Not too much, but, you know, we've seen it.
Speaker A:Kevin Hart has obviously done this as well and made his, like, Kevin Hart has a special where he's literally sitting in front of a toilet.
Speaker A:He's talking about sitting on the toilet, and then the backdrop is a toilet.
Speaker A:And so the medium could be heading more in that interactive way.
Speaker A:So comics at open mics, at coffee shops can't just post a crowd work clip from an Android and pop off.
Speaker B:Yeah, I definitely think Singular topic is very interesting.
Speaker B:I did a show with a comedian this weekend, Nima Williams, who is an OG comedian.
Speaker B:They did my show in Duluth.
Speaker B:Very funny.
Speaker B:But he's got this bit about his son that's just incredibly touching.
Speaker B:But he also mentioned that, like, he hadn't done a lot of it.
Speaker B:So it's the first time he actually did a lot of just this material and he wants to do more with it.
Speaker B:But I just love the topic of just the thought of just putting out something about one topic and just saying, like, this is the topic.
Speaker B:I'm gonna just put this out.
Speaker B:And Schultz was birth of my Family.
Speaker B:Like, birth.
Speaker B:I mean, Birth of my kid and everything sort of, like, attached to that.
Speaker B:So it's.
Speaker B:Is this something, like, unique about that?
Speaker B:It's almost like now it becomes, like, chronological, where we could also watch, like, your life.
Speaker B:So you're like, all right, you know, this is the first time, this is the second time.
Speaker B:Like, so you just never know.
Speaker B:I mean, Ali Wong did that with her special and baby cobra.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:The first one that she came out with, she was pregnant with child number one, and then child number two.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:The second one, and then the third one, I think she was just like, you know, life is good, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker B:And then the fourth one, she was divorced.
Speaker B:So it's like, there's a chronology of things that happen with.
Speaker B:With her life as well.
Speaker B:So it's like, I like that because now you're just following.
Speaker B:It's like, yes, comedians now are kind of like, you know, like we mentioned last time, kind of like the rock stars, and now you're just watching their life.
Speaker A:Yep, that's a very good point.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker A:I like.
Speaker A:I like the chronological and autobiographical side of it.
Speaker A:That's very interesting.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:I'll be interested to see kind of.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Where.
Speaker A:Where the special takes comedy or what is next.
Speaker A:So that was.
Speaker A:Yeah, that was very interesting, I think.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:A must watch for every comic.
Speaker A:Just knock out killer laughs throughout.
Speaker A:And the writing is just, bro, impeccable, bro.
Speaker A:I'm.
Speaker A:I was literally, like, sitting there at some points, like, oh, dang, I gotta get it together, bro.
Speaker A:Like, he's hitting, like, dis.
Speaker A:Like this.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Because there's that part of me, you know.
Speaker A:You know, ever since I had a kid, you know, there's that part of me that's like, yeah, I don't, you know, I want to be home.
Speaker A:I don't, you know, I want to be home.
Speaker A:I want to be here for this.
Speaker A:I don't want to be out on the road as much and starting to find ways to build more stability from home, which I've been able to do and I'm very happy for.
Speaker A:And then I see a special like that, and I was like, oh, man, I gotta get after it.
Speaker A:I gotta leave my family because I need 10 laughs per minute.
Speaker A:They'll understand.
Speaker A:My neglected child is like, but dad got 10 laughs per minute, so everything's okay.
Speaker A:Yeah, he murdered, though.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, yeah, he straight up killed it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, yeah, go watch life.
Speaker A:And if you have seen it, we'd love to hear your opinion.
Speaker A:And if you haven't seen it, go watch it.
Speaker A:And then please like share us your opinion in the Facebook group or on social media and tag us because.
Speaker A:Whoa, it's.
Speaker A:It's all killer.
Speaker A:No filler, in my opinion.
Speaker B:Great way to describe it, dude.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So in the.
Speaker A:As we in the last few minutes here, I do want to get to a couple questions that I got this week.
Speaker A:Yeah, just about a few about comedy.
Speaker A:And the first one was actually from a comic named Steve Owen, who, you know, I'll do set reviews for comics and actually did a set review for him.
Speaker A:And speaking of set reviews, if you're listening to this the day of its release, the March Clean Comedy Contest registration is open.
Speaker A:It closes at 5pm Eastern Time today.
Speaker A:So that's probably a good time to promote that when it closes in less than 12 hours.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's how you promote stuff, right, Yoshi?
Speaker A:But anyway, yeah, so I'll link that in the show notes.
Speaker A:But Steve Owen, I did like a set review for him and then he got some feedback from like a club booker on his set as well.
Speaker A:And it was like kind of contradictory to what I said.
Speaker A:So I thought this was an interesting kind of opportunity to.
Speaker A:For comics to, you know, take all advice, feel free to listen to advice, but not necess.
Speaker A:You don't have to apply everything and you kind of.
Speaker A:That's what I hope this show is.
Speaker A:It's not the bible that you have to do everything we ever hear and say.
Speaker A:We give our points of view based on our own professional experience.
Speaker A:What works for me may not work for you and vice versa.
Speaker A:So you kind of hear different points of view, but you apply what works for you.
Speaker A:It's kind of how comedy works.
Speaker A:There's no right way.
Speaker A:There's your way.
Speaker A:So just kind of focus on continuing to what works for you and following your own instincts.
Speaker A:But you can also absorb other insights along the way and see if it works for you or not.
Speaker A:But basically Steve had this whole act out where he's like rolling around on the floor and he was acting like a baby giraffe and he like rolled on the floor and I thought it was funny.
Speaker A:And I was like encouraging him to do more things like this.
Speaker A:And the booker gave him the advice to not roll on the floor because it leaves too much dead space like on the stage.
Speaker A:So especially if you're at a show and you're rolling around on the floor, I guess most people wouldn't be able to see you if you're in like a comedy club setting.
Speaker A:They're kind.
Speaker A:Then you're like below the chairs and they can't see you for sure.
Speaker A:So basically I was like, oh, do more of that.
Speaker A:And the booker's like, oh, don't do that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, and I think it's about different perspectives.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But that's a good, good thing to like, look at and say, is there a way that I can do both of these things right now?
Speaker B:I know comedians that do that, that.
Speaker B:That started rolling on the floor, and then when they got to a club that, like, the floor was not safe or like it was conducive, they just started rolling on the chair.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:They just started using things to still make it like an act out.
Speaker B:Like, you could just roll on the wall to make it look like the floor as well.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Like, so there's many ways to still get this done, but it still takes both points, which is I, as a booker, am not going to be able to see you, and the crowd may not be able to see you.
Speaker B:So now you're leaving dead space and you're saying rolling on the floor is very physical and it's entertaining for people and you should do more of that, especially because it's entertaining and it adds to the joke.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So I think both things can be true.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I.
Speaker A:And I was able to, like, re.
Speaker A:Clarify that.
Speaker A:It's more of that part of the set that he sent me.
Speaker A:It felt the most.
Speaker A:It felt like he was having the most fun doing that, and it felt like he had the most energy doing that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So it was more.
Speaker A:I clarified of, like, not necessarily rolling on the floor is like the punchline of this joke.
Speaker A:It's more of your commitment to that act out and the absurdity of it.
Speaker A:So I was like, you could still act out being a baby giraffe without having to roll on the floor, and you can still be upright and silly and kind of wobbling, like Bambi or something.
Speaker A:So, yeah, I.
Speaker A:That kind of helped me with.
Speaker A:Also when I give feedback to, you know, some people will hear feedback and then be like, exactly that.
Speaker A:That is exactly point A to point B.
Speaker A:I'm doing everything that says, but I need to be more clear about the intention behind.
Speaker A:Yeah, no, it was just you committing is what brought your set to life.
Speaker A:So look for more moments to where you can commit.
Speaker A:Not necessarily rolling on the floor commitment, but just committing to that act out is where the humor came from.
Speaker A:So, yeah, I mean, if the booker of a place you want to get booked gives you advice to do or not do something, you may want to listen to them if you want to get booked there.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:But also just.
Speaker B:It gives you an opportunity to work on what else you can do with your material.
Speaker A:Yes, Yep, exactly.
Speaker A:So I just thought that was an interesting one.
Speaker A:And just to help comics as well is, like, they're listening to a comedy advice show to, you know, take our advice, but also apply it on your own and make it your own.
Speaker A:There's no.
Speaker A:We're by no means saying, these are the rules of comedy you must follow.
Speaker A:You just.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You kind of learn what works for you over time.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:As I say, you ain't got to listen to anything we say.
Speaker B:No, but we've been in this game.
Speaker B:Joel, you're like, 15 years.
Speaker B:I'm 10.
Speaker B:Like, we've been in this game for a hot second now.
Speaker B:So we just.
Speaker B:There's things that we know, and we're offering advice and we're giving it, and we're saying things that we've learned.
Speaker B:You don't have to take any of it.
Speaker B:You could just.
Speaker B:But I'll say this.
Speaker B:I wish I was given this advice because I've made so many mistakes, did so many things, try to do so many things myself.
Speaker B:And I think that's the difference is, like, I would say seeing comedy as a community is a bigger advantage for you.
Speaker B:Like, you don't have to go about comedy solo.
Speaker B:Yes, it's solo when you're writing.
Speaker B:Yes, it's solo when you're performing, but it's not solo to network.
Speaker B:It's not solo to ask questions.
Speaker B:It's not solo to ask an OG or somebody who, you know have been doing it or doing the thing that you want to do for advice.
Speaker B:I forget who gave the advice, but don't, like, look for advice from, like, someone who's so far ahead of you.
Speaker B:Look for advice from someone who's, like, doing the next thing that you want to do.
Speaker B:So, like, if you're featuring, go get advice from a headliner.
Speaker B:If you're headlining, go get advice from somebody who headlines a lot.
Speaker B:If you're headlining a lot, go get somebody who does, like, theaters.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Like, it's, like, just different levels.
Speaker B:But, yes, advice from, like, the Jerry Seinfelds and the big dudes are always great, but they're.
Speaker B:That's so much compacted within years of the journey.
Speaker B:If you're trying to get better, you want to go to the next level.
Speaker B:What's the thing that the person at the next level that you're trying to get to, like, if you're open micing try to get advice from someone who showcases, how do they showcase, what is it that they did to start getting booked more in the city.
Speaker B:So I think that's always helpful, especially from a community perspective.
Speaker B:Like look to the community around you.
Speaker B:People will.
Speaker B:People are surprisingly willing to help and just answer your questions if you ask them.
Speaker B:At least I have that to be true.
Speaker A:Yeah, and there's always exceptions, but overall, yeah, it seems like there is a very communal comedy scene out there.
Speaker A:In most scenes now you can find friends.
Speaker A:Yeah, this, this last one at the buzzer, we can squeeze this one in here.
Speaker A:But I, I told him I was, we were gonna get to it on the show and I think it's an important question.
Speaker A:This was from Brandon White who messaged me on Instagram and he said he thought this would be interesting for the pot, which I agreed.
Speaker A:But he said I'm four years in and work the clubs in the area.
Speaker A:Feature headline for one offs all around the area.
Speaker A:I run a weekly mic and do four to five non paid spots a week.
Speaker A:I think I'm afraid of slowing down.
Speaker A:What yalls best take a break without taking a break methods.
Speaker A:Take a break without taking a break.
Speaker A:I will say, I mean I didn't take a break maybe until the pandemic kind of and now I feel like I'm still taking a break.
Speaker A:But I think my break came, I don't know, I was pretty intense for several years.
Speaker A:I'm trying to think mine came with like balancing family or balancing even with getting married and balancing that time and now with a kid.
Speaker A:Another level.
Speaker A:Taking a break without taking a break mean you could.
Speaker A:If you're doing four to five spots a week, you could say, all right, this week I'm only doing two or this week I'm only, I'm not doing any and I'm just going to take a break.
Speaker A:And that's fine for you.
Speaker A:You know, it's not.
Speaker B:I think it's so important, it's so important to still just live life as a comedian.
Speaker B:If you feel like you're just in the clubs and everything that you do is comedy, you're not really absorbing life, you know what I mean?
Speaker B:And you need life to help write comedy.
Speaker B:You need to live right.
Speaker B:Like if you're, if everything you do is just comedy centric, then the only thing you can really talk about is comedy.
Speaker B:Well, that's not interesting for the masses.
Speaker B:You mean we could talk about how long it took us to write a joke and how much we worked on a bit, but that's not interesting to people paying $25 and two drink minimum to go into a club.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Like, that doesn't really, like, hit them the same way.
Speaker B:So you still have to live life.
Speaker B:I would say just take like certain days off.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Just like take a break within your day just because.
Speaker B:And also just know that if you go from, you know, going from four mics or five mics to two mics or three mics, it doesn't mean you're slowing down on comedy.
Speaker B:You're still doing comedy, it's still in your bones, and you're still like working out the muscle.
Speaker B:You know, I went from, like, you know, probably when I started, I was doing maybe three to four mics or three to four nights a week, but it just was not conducive to my schedule.
Speaker B:So when I went to like two nights a week, I would just pack in as many mics as possible on those two nights.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And then live the rest of the time and was not worried about it.
Speaker B:So I think there's also a way just to optimize your time.
Speaker B:You don't have to do comedy every single night.
Speaker B:And then you just got to think what time you're actually spending.
Speaker B:Definitely.
Speaker B:Something I remember from Stephen Dwyer in his master class that he gave us a while back is if you're spending time going to the mic, are you doing comedy on your way there?
Speaker B:If you're spending time leaving a mic, are you doing comedy on your way back?
Speaker B:All that stuff is time, right?
Speaker B:Are you hanging out and are you optimizing that time that you're hanging out?
Speaker B:Like, what are you doing with all of your time?
Speaker B:We, A lot of people complain that they don't have a lot of time, but we actually have enough time.
Speaker B:It's just, how do you optimize that time?
Speaker B:And you definitely just need to live life because that's what informs your comedy.
Speaker B:That's how your comedy really gets good and relatable, is by you living it and being able to get the jokes out of it to tell people.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, like, on the way to the shows, are you rehearsing and going over your set on the way home from your show, are you listening and reviewing your set?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Making the most of that time when you're out.
Speaker A:And it you taking a break or not is a personal choice.
Speaker A:And no one is like, no one cares.
Speaker A:Like, no.
Speaker A:I mean, because, you know, that's something I've had to grapple with as well.
Speaker B:Say, say it again for the people in the back.
Speaker A:Joe and I'M saying this for me as well.
Speaker A:No one cares.
Speaker B:No, no one cares.
Speaker A:I like, you know, and I've talked to you about that, of me trying to prioritize local work more than being on the road and then in my head about, well, what are, what are comics gonna say?
Speaker A:Or what are people going to say if I'm not out there doing it like that and all that.
Speaker A:And like, yo, she's like, dude, no one cares.
Speaker A:Like, do what's best for you and your life and your family.
Speaker A:No one.
Speaker A:Everyone is worried about themselves.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:No one.
Speaker B:No one's like, ah, I wonder what Joel's doing.
Speaker A:Yeah, no one cares about that.
Speaker B:No one cares.
Speaker B:Yeah, the people that care about you are the people that are close to you and the people that matter and people that matter.
Speaker B:And I think a lot of times people think that, like, other comedians thoughts and ideas is going to affect them.
Speaker B:Guys, let me just tell you something.
Speaker B:It does not matter what they think, because they're not living your life.
Speaker B:They're not in your everyday struggle, they're not in your everyday pain.
Speaker B:They don't know what you go through the 23 hours out of the 24 that you saw them that they didn't see you.
Speaker B:I mean, so you need to prioritize what's best for you, and you need to figure out what you need to do to get the best out of your time and to get the best out of your career.
Speaker B:So, yeah, no one cares.
Speaker B:The.
Speaker B:Even the thought of, like, slowing down as a concept is just something that I, I wish us as comics got away from because it feels like we're just adding more struggle to the already, like, hectic lifestyle of comedy.
Speaker B:There's no such thing as slowing down.
Speaker B:You're just living life.
Speaker B:Like, no one's judging you.
Speaker B:You're the only person that's like, oh, I need to do more, I need to do less.
Speaker B:You're the only one.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:There's no, like, scale or there's no place or there's no comedy book that says if you do not put in 10 hours of comedy a week, you are not considered a real comedian.
Speaker B:No one says that.
Speaker B:No one gives a crap.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And no one's monitoring your time.
Speaker B:You're the only one.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And he said that he runs a weekly mic.
Speaker A:I mean, getting a guest host for that could be a good start too.
Speaker A:Like, running a weekly mic is horrible.
Speaker B:It's stressful, I would say.
Speaker A:You know what?
Speaker A:I do encourage people to start their own shows and everyone should.
Speaker A:They understand the amount of work that goes into it.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:But finding a guest host, there could be a great way just to take a step back because it is a lot of work to run a weekly show, so you could start there.
Speaker A:But I think the big, like, the big takeaway is like, do what's best for you.
Speaker A:No one, any voice in your head saying, what are people going to say?
Speaker A:Or what are people going to think?
Speaker A:This is something I struggle with daily on everything.
Speaker A:That's probably my biggest hurdle I'm really working on this year is that voice of like, well, what are other people gonna say?
Speaker A:Or how is this gonna come off and how is this gonna look?
Speaker A:That's something I struggle with.
Speaker A:So I'm saying this out loud to myself as much as anyone else, but no one cares.
Speaker A:And doing what's best for you and what is healthy for you is most important.
Speaker A:And you just determine that based on what kind of life you want to lead.
Speaker A:So hope that helps.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah, that was a good one there.
Speaker A:So thanks, Brandon, and thanks, Steve, for those great questions.
Speaker A:You guys can hit us up on social media at Joel Byers Comedy and at Yoshi.
Speaker A:So if you have any questions or I can ask them in the Facebook group as well.
Speaker A:But it's really.
Speaker A:I think.
Speaker A:I think we hit it today.
Speaker A:I think we hit it today.
Speaker A:And, Yoshi, your class, your helium comedy class.
Speaker A:Graduation is this Wednesday, right?
Speaker A:For anyone in Atlanta.
Speaker B:March 12th in Atlanta.
Speaker B:Come out and hang out with us.
Speaker B:It's going to be a fun show.
Speaker B:I got, like nine students are going to be performing.
Speaker B:It's going to be fun.
Speaker B:And then we've already got a lineup for the next as well.
Speaker B:So if you want to sign up, holler at your boy.
Speaker B:Go to the healing website to sign up for classes.
Speaker A:Yay.
Speaker A:And if y'all want to join the clean comedy contest this month, just click the link in the show notes and we'll hope to see you there.
Speaker A:But we'll be back next Monday right here on Hot Breath.
