Joe Gatto's Secrets to Comedy Success & Life Balance | Joe Gatto DSH #1258

You know, you get destroyed, but you get lucky. Yeah.
But I feel like those kind of games, I like them. They're more communal.
So you like cakeball, then? It's on my bucket list to try, but I have tennis elbow currently. Ooh.
I don't know why. I don't play tennis.
And I hurt my elbow about a year ago. And I went to the doctor, and they're like, you have tennis elbow.
I'm like, how? I'm about to hit your funny bones. I must have too much cannolis or cookies or something.
I don't know. Love me some cannolis.
Oh, the best. All right, guys.
He is back. Joe Gatto in the building.
Hello. What brings you to Vegas this time? I missed you.
Yeah. Thank you.
I'm honored. Came to see you.
Yeah, yeah. No, I came.
I'm on my way back from LA. I had a couple things to do in LA.
Okay. A couple shows.
I'm on tour. Yeah.
LA was a couple meetings and stuff. I got some scripts I'm trying to get going.
Let's go. So I'm on my way back to uh perform this weekend so are you in new york uh no i'm actually this weekend i'm in uh indiana missouri uh a little bit middle america so it made sense to go stop on the way back home and then finish back in new york so you're still on tour huh i'm on tour yeah let's get into a tour just uh i started in september and it's uh yeah it goes through june yeah it goes through june and then i'll take the summer off to be home with the fam.
Damn. When the kids are off from school and then I'll start back up.
That's a lot of traveling, man. Well done.
Yeah. It's, it's easier.
It's like the weekends, you know, I do Thursday to Sunday, you know, I get home and then I'm home during the week with the kids and stuff. So it's good.
It all works out. Any cities surprise you or shock you? Pittsburgh was cool.
Really? Like Pittsburgh. I don't know.
I just, when I got there, I just like, you know, you always see, you always have like a vision of a city before you go to it, I think. Yeah.
You know, but like when I got there, the way it presents, you'd go through this tunnel and you just opens up into this bridge and it's this island where you see literally everything at once. It looks like a painting.
And I was like, I went there, I was like, this is really cool. Wow.
Really nice. I've never been there, man.
You haven't been to Pittsburgh? No. I've been to all 50 states.
I performed live comedy in all 50 states i made my i made a bucket list thing and i finished uh two years ago okay fargo north dakota was the last checkbox and where do you rank that last in fargo no it's it was completely different like it's way up there yeah you know i'd imagine new york is your first favorite state no really no yeah that's a lie it probably is but like california i love i love florida i've pleasantly supplies with uh ohio i always have great shows in ohio yeah columbus cincinnati you know cleveland i love those cities there's a lot of a lot of good people there it's cold out there man yeah i'm from new york yeah yeah yeah you're not out here in this desert heat well i grew up in jersey so now i get cold out here right now Oh, well, yeah. When the sun goes down, it gets freezing out.
Yeah. I mean, out here in this desert heat.
Well, I grew up in Jersey. So now I get cold out here right now.

Yeah.

When the sun goes down, it gets freezing out.

Yeah.

I mean, you adjust.

Like people complain about being cold in Miami when it's like 50 degrees.

I was just, well, there was this whole weird thing than that, like a month ago where it

snowed in North Carolina and like, he had no idea what to do.

Like nobody even had like salt.

They're like, what do we do?

They just shut everything for three days. We're like, we're just waiting for this to melt when i was in dc it smelled like a foot and it was normal you know yeah dc and i was in uh have you ever been to swear sundance festival uh in uh utah utah yeah park city park city you've been there no i've been to salt lake okay i've been through at another state there but not i haven't how was salt lake the mormon so like yeah they love comedy man really yeah they're fun people uh it's all looks great it's really cool it's uh it's got like uh it it does because it has like a stigma to it because of the mormon yeah thing but i didn't find it to be much different than any other comedy crowd you know really came out to life they got to be led by like 10 p.m yeah you know good show you tuck them in there's no electricity you know that's not that you're doing anything on tv anymore uh no i'm trying to uh i do the stand-up stuff now and then uh i've been trying i started i wanted to be a filmmaker that's where i got into this that's cool yeah i actually moved to california la in 2003 to chase a dream in hollywood and uh to be a film i ended up working at nordstrom but well it's a side thing but uh i uh i really love film always was so now i'm concentrating on hopefully try to direct the feature let's go a couple scripts which is cool and i love writing so it's fun but the stand-up i mean i just love performing i love making people laugh yeah again now making a reason for people to come out and forget all the bs that's happening you know that's who you were on impractical jokers man no this you were the best at making people laugh yeah thank you bud it translates translates so well.
Yeah. You were doing comedy before that show, right? Yeah, I've been doing it for since, performing live since 99.
Damn. Yeah, we started our improv comedy group in 1999 and we've been doing that.
So yeah, way longer than you've probably been alive. I was born in 97.
Oh, there you go. All right.
Come here, man. Birthday's tomorrow, actually.
Oh, happy birthday. Let's go.
That's great. Quarious.
Oh, nice. So your birthday's tomorrow.
You got big plans or what are you doing? Nah, a little bit. I feel like as you get older, it's not as fun.
Do you find adults who celebrate their birthday weird? Yes. That's like a big, that's a big conversation.
It's weird, right? People, yeah. I think like, I mean, you gotta hit, you gotta do the bangers.
You gotta do the decades. I'll give you the half years, you know, 35s, 45s.
Okay, no you that. You know, but like somebody's on like 47th birthday, you know, 32nd birthday.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's got to end in a 0-5. That's right.
A 0-5. And do you think they should stop at a certain age overall? No, I think then you start celebrating.
I think it starts getting more. It's like, you made it, grandma.
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Yeah. You scared of aging? No.
You're not? No. That's cool.
No, I'm not. I mean, I just, I lost my dad when I was young.
I was 19 years old. My dad passed away and my mom was pretty young too, but I was just like always taught and felt live life to the fullest, you know, do what you can while you're here.
That's important. I think it's really, I think it's, I think it's the most important thing.
Yeah. Because a lot of people save up and save up.
It's like, have some fun now, man. Yeah, do it while you can, you know? You'll be responsible to do what you can, but also don't be afraid

to, you know,

put yourself in a position

where you have to hustle

a little bit

to make a little more

and make the memory.

It's so true.

I hear this all the time

and I believe it now

is like your kids

will forget

whatever you bought them

for last,

ask your kids last year

when you got them

for Christmas

and then ask your kids

what their favorite

vacation was

and they'll be able

to recap the whole vacation

and completely forget

when you got them

for Christmas.

When I tried that

with my daughter last year

and all she did

was she recapped

the whole trip

to Disney World

and didn't even mention

Thank you. a whole vacation and completely forget when you got them for business.
When I tried that with my daughter last year. And it worked.

And all she did was she recapped the whole trip to Disney World and didn't even mention one thing she opened.

Damn.

Which is cool.

That's so true though.

I remember my vacation to Greece when I was a kid.

Yeah.

Back in my life.

Is that crazy?

And it was my favorite one ever.

It's all about Christmas.

I can't remember a single gift for my parents.

It's experiences.

It really is.

Damn.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you got to live life traveling and experiencing things.

Making memories is true. Because like that too is like that's what all you leave your family with or your friends with, they remember the stories.
You know, they don't remember the thing you bought them or the thing, you know, what they did. So.
Facts. Family's super important for you.
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. Big family.
I grew up in a divorced household, so it was kind of traumatic, but I think I really want kids. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
You should do it, man. It's fun.
How old were you when you had the first one? I was 39. Oh.
Late name. Yeah, I didn't meet my wife until I was 30.
I didn't get married until I was 36 or 35. Okay.
So I was later in the game for sure. Getting married this year, man.
Oh, yeah. 28.
Dude, that's awesome. Congrats.
Want kids by 30. All right.
I want a few. Okay, I will just want one.
I have two. I love the Tuesday night.
I had one girl, one boy, so I was like, all right, we're done. I won't.
You can't pick. If you had your pick, would you want a girl first or a boy first? Do you want an older sister? You want an older brother.
Yeah. Interesting.
Do you have an older? So I grew up with older sisters. I have two older sisters that are awesome, and I really think they help raise a gentleman or a guy who knows how to handle and not be afraid afraid okay women like being a house full of that's an interesting thing things like that so i really like that and i think later in life it comes in handy but there is something to have an older brother like i used to get my ass kicked a lot and i kind of wish i had all the really it's an older brother yeah wow so you got picked on yeah a little bit i got bullied a little bit i was super nerdy when i was younger what were you ner nerding out about? I saw the movie Willow.
Do you know the movie Willow?

It's basically like a,

you know,

Lord of the Rings light

kind of deal,

magic elves and stuff.

And I started creative writing

and, you know,

fantasy stuff.

I was good at math,

chess,

things like that.

I wasn't good at sports,

you know.

You still play chess?

I do.

You got to play, man.

Oh, yeah.

You play?

I play every day.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Are you good?

Well, it depends what good is.

Okay.

Your version.

So, do you know the rating system? No, I don't want to. I want to say it right to you.
Like, do you think like, you're like, yeah, if somebody said you're good at chess, you're like, yeah, I'm good. I'll put it this way.
If a random player who's never played before played me, he wouldn't win. Gotcha.
Like there's no way I would lose to just some random. Somebody on the street.
Yeah. Okay.
So I would put myself at, um, almost good. Like I'm between.
Okay. And good.
Cause I don't play as often as I used to. When I was younger, I used to be better, you know? But my son started playing, which is fun.
So now I'm here to teach him and it's- It's so fun, man. I love chess.
Yeah, chess is good. I like it because it's also now like it came back into, there was that show The Queen's Gambit.
Yeah. So it came back into like culture a little bit.
That's why I started playing. No way, really? Yeah.
I didn't play as a kid. Oh.
Yeah, I was a late bloomer. Oh, wow.
That show brought a lot of people to the game. Dude, I'm watching it.
It was like a perfect storm with that COVID. Everybody getting locked up playing the apps.
Everyone was bored. The chess app.
They banned twice. Did you? Yeah.
Why? How do you get banned from a chess app? What are you doing on these streets? I'll be honest. I'll be honest.
I'm a sore loser. Oh, okay.
So I was talking shit. Okay.
And you're not supposed to talk in chess. No.
I think you should be able to. Well, it's an app.
It's not like a walkie-talkie. No, but there's a chat thing.
Oh, so they're tight on you. They shouldn't have it then.
Why is the chat thing there? Some players can turn it off. Oh, God.
But when you both have it on, you can talk to each other. You're like, checkmate, bitch.
Yeah. When someone's about to win, they someone's about to win they'll be like go ahead pussy type oh really yeah yeah but I like that trash talking but someone reported me man no but I think there's snitches on these streets you gotta be careful yeah man but even in person cause I go to New York I played in New York once that's a bunch of things did you play in the park yeah I got destroyed oh they are so great I used to sit there and people watch hours so great I never sat down at those tables but they were so fun talk about trash talking yeah but that's like that's

like that is like uh destination things for people it's like a bucket list thing like you said like

that people are like i'm gonna go play there i went out of my way to play there really yeah i

went i told my girl i'm like we're going here to play that's like i know we're in jersey today but

we're going it's like a pickup game at the west fourth street court so like if you want to like

see if they can play basketball like yeah you play basketball uh i shoot the ball okay

Thank you. know we're in jersey today but we're going it's like a pickup game at the west fourth street court so like if you want to like see if they can play basketball like yeah you play basketball uh i shoot the ball okay that's where it starts and ends i'm a bowler like a bowl what's your best bowling score 288 damn that's almost all strike in high school yeah i was a math lead and i was on the bowling team so that's what i'm talking about wonder why i got picked on but uh yeah so i was uh yeah average was like two, 10 to a one.
That's still, but it's still good. Yeah.
You could have went pro. I did.
Well, yeah, but I didn't, no money in that. My, my dad was on a bowling league.
So he used to go Thursday nights and we'd take me and my friend, Joey, Joey T. We used to go, but like we would, they put the kids on the lane, but go just bowl.
And I, so I bowled like every twice a week for like ever. And then I joined the bowling team in high school.
Wow. And I just bowled.
But now it's funny because it's like a sleeper thing. Like we're on the road or something.
I'll be with people like, let's go bowling. I end up in a bowling alley.
And then I was just trying to like, what the hell's going on? Yeah. Yeah.
Cause you don't lose that. That's like muscle.
Oh, that's it. Yeah.
You get it. It's like riding a bike.
That's a hundred percent sure. I wanted to be good at bowling because pool takes so long to be good at.
Pool, I can't do it. It's so hard.
Oh, no. But bowling, I feel like you could get decent.
I think people look at it like at a beautiful line thing that you figure out. I was like, I don't know how to hit the ball, where to hit the ball.
That's it. Air hockey, I represent.
You're nice at air hockey. I am nice.
Foosball was my game. Foosball, no good.
You're good at that. That's cool.
That was good. Yo, do you know the Italian skeeball? Italian skeeball? Like, it's like, basically the sliders.
It's like a long table like this and it's got a one, two, and three. They have a shuffleboard.
Yeah, shuffleboard. Yeah, it's a skeeball.
I meant shuffleboard. I love shuffles.
I love those long tables. You get a nice 16-footer.
Yeah. Those feel great when you hit it in the three.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I like those kind of games because anybody, like that, foosball kind of, but more like air hockey, anybody can play it. That's true.
You know what I mean? They can get up and get played. You know, you get destroyed, but you can get lucky.
Yeah. But I feel like those kind of games, I like that uh foosball kind of but more like air hockey anybody could play it that's true you know i mean they could get up and get played you know you get destroyed but you get lucky yeah but i feel like those kind of games i like those they're more communal so you like pickleball then uh it's on my bucket list to try but i have tennis elbow currently oh i don't know why don't play tennis and i hurt my elbow about a year ago and i went to the doctor and they're like you have tennis elbow i'm like how you must have hit your.
I'm like, I had too much cannolis or cookies or something. I don't know.
Love me some cannolis. Oh, the best.
What's your favorite dessert? Dessert. Ooh, cheesecake.
Cheesecake. Good old New York cheesecake.
Straight up? What are we talking? Drizzle? You got a drizzle on it? It was whipped cream. Whipped cream, yeah.
Drizzle. I could go without drizzle.
Without, yeah. Playing Jane for me.
Me, yeah. You're cannoli though, right? I'm a cannoli, yeah.
I do a cannoli or a lobster tail. Okay.
I love those like. I've had a lot of bad cannolis though.
Have you? Yeah. I'm sorry.
Yeah. I'm here to apologize.
I have the cannoli community. I'm sure if I had a good one, I would like it because the concept of it, I would like.
Yeah, I think you get, in the big cities, you're good. Okay.
But I'll have people, I'll be on the road in these little towns and they're like, you got to get the cannoli from here. It's the best cannoli in town.
And I go and I'm like, this is the worst cannoli. Sometimes the bread ratio is off.
Well, yeah. So a lot of it falls into like, if you get a sog cannoli from here it's the best cannoli in town and i go and i'm like this is yeah the worst bread ratio is off well yeah so a lot of it falls into like if you get a soggy you know yeah it absorbs too much the cream the shell it's terrible like you need that crunch so it's it's not an easy thing to make i don't think so have you ever made it no i didn't want to ruin it for myself i'm not a baker i'm a cooker yeah i cook one because i love pizza but making it's uh it doesn't taste as good no way you know yeah right did you have a big thing I'm a cooker.
Yeah. I cook one.
Because I love pizza, but making it doesn't taste as good.

No way.

You know?

Yeah.

Did you have a big thing that happened,

and I think probably in Jersey too,

was like the backyard pizza ovens.

Do you know those,

like they did the brick oven thing?

There was a big fad when everybody was doing the outdoor kitchens.

Okay.

They would do a backyard.

Oh, during the pandemic?

Yeah.

I was in LA.

So they were doing that kind of thing.

And it was like,

everybody would like have pizza parties

in the backyard. That's cool.
Make their own pizzas. I miss Jersey pizza.
Yeah. And Italian.
Out here, no good. Not really.
No. Because they bring the restaurants out here, but it's the water.
Yeah. Something in the water, right? You don't go to New York, New York and get the pizza.
Or get a real slice and authentic. Nah.
Vegas has its restaurants though. For sure.
We can hold dude I love it out here yeah I'm out here like seven

eight times a year

damn

what's your go-to hotel

um

Aria or Cosmo Palman

yeah

yeah the Cosmo

I'm actually playing the Cosmo

in May

oh no

yeah May 3rd

I'm at the

I'm at the

Dune of Chelsea

I'm psyched

is that one of your biggest audiences

uh

it's a big theater yeah

no that's about where I hang

about yeah

1500

yeah

you're selling out 1500

yeah about there yeah

ew

there's levels to comedy

for sure

you start out in like

the hunter person right

you do like the comedy club stuff

yeah but when I toured with the

you know with the guys we did uh you know big rooms and stuff and then when we started i started my solo stuff you know i started doing stand-up i had to do the little rooms just to see if i took to it and how it went and i liked it and then people started coming out and i actually put together an hour i liked and i was like okay this is nice this is cool so I started uh moving to the theaters pretty quick and I move around a lot like I you know I got a lot of energy so like those smaller comedy clubs are tough like those little I find more jokes when I have more room really so like my hour always got stronger when I started moving to a theater nice and then when I did my first one so I did uh I toured for two and a half years with Messing With People. It's my special.

Messing With People?

Messing With People.

It's on Hulu.

So yeah, you can check that out.

But when I did that,

I remember like the last show I did in the comedy club

versus the first one I did in the theater.

I was like, I found like,

I'm not even kidding.

I found like 10 more minutes of jokes

just because I used my body more.

I had more room to walk around.

You know, I'm pretty physical.

My gosh, you've seen me, you know,

like I'm very physical in my comedy. So like when I had that, had that i was like oh wow so i really enjoy a stage yeah do you have any methods for getting loose with the crowd no i don't really do crowd work um i what i do do is i'm not a comic that like sits in the hotel room and waits for a show like i'll go out about town grab a cup of coffee a donut hit main street walk around pop into shops and stuff.
And I'll always garner a story or two from that. So I'll open with that a little bit just to talk about that a little.
And then I'll get into my. Wow.
I like that. You see some wild stuff.
Yeah. The day I saw someone walking a wheel on a leash.
A wheel of a car. I'm not even kidding.
On the way to the studio. Dude, I have a good excuse for that.
That's insane. I was like, what's going on? Well, this is Vegas too.
So like, that's probably pretty normal. Like I was like, yeah, I'm just taking my wheel for a long.
He was probably trying to sell it or something. I don't know.
So was it a push or pull situation? Pull. The wheel was behind him and he had something in his other hand.
It was interesting. I think he was homeless, but yeah, wheels are worth some money.
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah you could do a resale there's a big resale market

on wheels

I don't know if he stole it

or how he got the wheel

that was where my

I threw your head

right away

he's like

where'd you get this wheel

I don't know

how you get one

one single wheel

one wheel

yeah

that's crazy

what's the craziest thing

you've seen on the streets

oh my god

forget it

in New York

I mean in New York City

in New York City

I didn't think I was

gonna tell this story

but in New York City

I had seen

I'm not even kidding

it was two homeless people

getting married

by a third homeless guy

Thank you. I didn't think I was going to tell this story, but in New York city, I had seen, uh, I'm not even kidding.
There was two homeless people, uh, getting married by a third homeless guy. No, they were having like a full blown, it was down by wall street.
And, uh, they were having like, I was like, I was like, oh, these people. And then it was just the three of them.
And he was like doing a wedding and I was like, oh, I was looking around for cameras. I was like, oh, is this like a, something being filmed? Like just, and it was just like the three of them.
And then they, he like got set and he kissed her and the guy like threw rice at them.

And then they like picked up their car

and it just walked away.

And I was like,

did I just see two homeless people

get married on the street in New York?

So it was insane.

That was like one of the weirdest things.

But love happens anywhere.

You know what I mean?

Home or not.

Yeah.

They've seen public love on the streets.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I've seen it on the subways.

I've seen it.

You see some cool stuff. Well, out here, the homeless are hidden.
There's a little documentary on this. They're in the tunnels.
The hidden homeless. Wow.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, they have to be, right? Because of the sun all day. Yeah.
I guess it's too hot. Tough.
In the summers. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, you see people that are like in Boston and they're homeless.
I'm like, why aren't you trying to like to go south? Like same with New York. Yeah.
Same deal. that.
I was like, yeah, it's got to be so much harder to deal with the elements. I'm complaining about moving my trash to the road and then I'm like shivering.
But these homeless people are out there all night. It blows my mind.
It's crazy. I think maybe you get used to that life too, right? It's like anything.
I guess you adapt. Yeah.
But I can't imagine it, you know? No. But some people who just see them, they adapt and it's, you know, they're out there.
There was a guy down on, I used to live like i told you i used to live in la and santa monica busking was uh legal on the street and on the promenade so you could play some music and you know panhandle and they wouldn't bug you and there was this guy that was there for years that was just you know homeless and lived like on the beach and he would just be there for years wow and i was like that's crazy that's impressive yeah he's just there that's still taking the subway these days? I've been to crazy videos. No.
It's not bad? No way, yeah. Yeah, the city's crazy.
And you probably get recognized. Oh, yeah.
Mostly, I don't want to get trapped on a train with people that are like yelling Larry at me and being like, no, but it's, yeah, it's not very good. I don't find it only in New York.
I find like everywhere is a little weird. Really? Yeah, it's a little weird everywhere.
Damn. Yeah, you get, you know, people are, you know, it's not a good time right now for a lot of people.
So I think the streets aren't as safe as they used to be. And I always have like my radar up even more when I'm like with the family and stuff.
I got my wife and my kids with me. It's like a little different, but.
Well, that's why comedy is so important right now. And that's why you guys are crushing the podcast scene.
Yeah. Oh my gosh.
You guys get the most views genre i know it's so so great to just be the escape you know yeah it's great yeah people made it but yeah shout out to guys like theo and schultz they're just get pulling massive numbers so money yeah you you're not you know you know what to sneeze at you're doing pretty good yourself though i'm doing all right i'm doing all right you must be funny yeah not really but oh yeah you got you got some killer guest stuff like yeah I have some cool guests. Do you do your own reach out or how does it work? Sometimes, yeah.
At first, yeah, it was all me. Now I got a team.
Now we're getting inbound. That's when you know when people want reaching out to you.
Yeah. But it was not like that the first year.
Yeah. Yeah, I had a grind.
Okay. I know you got your own show too.
How long? Yeah, I have two cool moms. Me and Steve.
And we didn't doing this guests right away because he's a comedian too steve burns so we just talked to bs and we filled up the 45 minutes or hour pretty easy and then we're like oh it'd be kind of fun to get another perspective in here and then we had a lot of fun we had q on of course we had my um sal and then you know we had a we just had colby calay on it was really fun different like a different voice like you know she's a musician at nashville and and then we you know we get these different people like some bands and red clay strays and it's just like different people that have like you tell your stories about like your mom too or any of your family and you hear about their upbringing and just different lives you know they were the red clay strays were alabama mobile alabama you know and then it's me from New York and Steve grew up in Jersey and

Pittsburgh, you know, so it's like just a different meld. And then you realize that the homes and the parents were kind of the same, just in different states.
That's why I love podcasting. You meet all sorts of characters.
Wow. I've had some interesting ones on this show.
Top three. Okay.
Top three, Philly Mob Boss. Okay.
That was wild. Wow.
One guy who remembered being a rock in a past life.

I'm sorry.

I'm going to go time out right now

just to bring it back. He remembered being a rock.
So the rock had awareness. Yes.
And he, in his mind, the rock had a brain and was like, oh, okay. Yep.
Do you know the wheel? Not just a rock. He remembers all his past life.
Really? Yeah. He was a little cuckoo now.
Depends who you ask. Yeah.
i have a spiritual side to me you so you believe the whole rock thing i don't know if i believe the whole rock thing and the whole but i believe in past lives okay past lives is fine yeah being a rock though is really where i that's where you loop out where the story starts to get some cracks every pun intended um so okay so he thought he was thought he was, well, okay. Past life.
But he was, he put forward a good case. Yeah.
Okay. I mean, he was saying stuff about Atlantis, about the pyramids.
Yeah. Okay.
Interesting stuff. All right.
That's cool. That's definitely a cool.
Yeah. That was cool.
And then, do you know Billy Carson? No. Ancient civilization expert? No.
Okay. I'm into like history.
So I nerd out on this stuff. Oh, God.
Just that's great. That's a great conversation.
But it's hard to pick. I've had 1,400.
1,400. So I'm just saying what like comes to mind.
No, come on. Yeah, but I like that.
When people say what's your favorite movie, I don't go, well, let me see what I'm, I just say whatever like comes to my mind about that. Yeah, my answer on that question has changed every, for my whole life.
Yeah, right. Because I get asked that.
Right now it's The Departed. The Departed.
Yeah. Oh, okay.
That's a good one. That's a great one.
What about you? What's on your mind? I mean, my favorite of all time all time always is young frankenstein melbourne's old school one um but then also princess bride's always up there for me but i just saw the uh the ministry of ungentlemanly warfare okay uh which was uh guy richie's new one which was unbelievable henry cavill stars and i recommend it to everybody if you haven't seen it's a good one but uh we were really really just such a fun interesting watch you're a history buff you said i am gotta watch it yeah gotta watch i love that yeah i'm into nerdy documentaries and stuff oh i would i would figure yeah i do i feel like you're very intellectual the whole thing you're presenting goes for i'm decent my iq's decent my dad's holy shit yeah yeah he was dead yeah yeah but you don't want to be that smart no no i the scenes. Can never rest, right? You get in your own head.
Yeah. Right.
You can't turn it off, right? No. Yeah.
That's why I like being just. Like slightly above average, I feel like is the best.
Yeah. You know? Yeah.
Slightly above. Slightly above.
So you, okay. You say you're slightly above? I, well, I took a test.
So yeah, I guess the test on the paper. But who knows if that actually measures actual intelligence? You aren't you supposed to take it a couple times to see if you get the same number yeah I should probably retake it I think I've gotten dumber with TikTok and everything yeah everything like that I know for a fact my attention span has gone down the drain yeah I mean I can't even watch a movie now without going on my phone but you hold conversation well I can hold but that's like a conscious thing i think okay so here's an interesting thing that i'd like to ask you yeah when you're outside the podcast studio when you're out and about let's say you're you know at a club or with friends or just anywhere doing anything are you able to when you're not running the conversation you're able to engage as well yeah if i if i'm interested okay yeah oh so how quick do you lose interest quick depends on the topic depends on the topic you know what about you I dive interested.
Okay. Yeah.
Oh, so how quick do you lose interest? Quick. Depends on the topic.
I'm fine with. Depends on the topic.
You know, what about you? I'm, I dive in, man. I love it.
I love being around the table with people. Okay.
So you're not checking your phone at dinner. Really? Yeah, not really.
Wow. Yeah, I don't do that stuff.
I think that's your generation though too. Partially my generation too, but I also have people in my generation that do that.
Oh, really? Yeah, like my wife's on the phone all the time. So it's infiltrated your era too.
it's it's made its way in it's such a big part of everything though you know a lot of it is i think a big part is like when you run a business so like you know my wife runs uh our dog uh rescue and she likes always like getting you know text messages about hey could you help this dog or hey do you have this kind so she's always like i feel like when work invades your uh like that happened when i was on jokers like work invaded my phone now that i run my own kind of thing it's i could be like no let's put this away for a minute yeah that was why you left uh well yeah partially you know it was like a lot of personal stuff but like one of the things was like one of the things i was able to redo was like okay i have a family like let me pay attention to dinner time and that's a good point though that's why i actually got two phones i ended up not even using the second one, but my thought process was, let me have one personal and one business and then it just didn't work out. Yeah.
So my wife has two work lines, but they're both on the same phone. So I was like, it kind of defeats the purpose.
You know what I'm saying? But I think work infiltrate, if work infiltrates your phone, it's way harder to put it down. And that's where I'm at since the show is kind of new and I got to get it going but i think down the road i'll branch off more yeah live like tucker carlson he has no what was it no email or something really or no phone he only uses email it only uses email yeah and one of my guests was like that too graham hancock oh i thought it was the rock guy you didn't have no it's grinded at gmail.com that wouldn't surprise me Oh, no.
But yeah, that's got to be an interesting way to live.

He pulled up with MapQuest printed out.

My dad used to use MapQuest.

Yeah.

Good old MapQuest.

Amazing.

And yeah, he was taking notes on MapQuest.

I drove cross-country using, I had a MapQuest.

So when I, in 2005, when I had to move back to New York,

I had my car out in California.

And I asked all my friends.

I was like, hey, I got to drive my car back.

I'm going to take a road trip. Take a, you know, I got to.
It's going to be like five days or whatever. And nobody answered me except Murray.
Murr. So Murr flies out to California and me and him take a road trip cross country.
And this is before like GPS was really around. It's 2005.
Yeah. And I bought Microsoft Maps.
It was a program that you plugged in a USB GPS thing and you put it on top of your car. So Murray was sitting shotgun with a laptop open.
It looked like an airplane and he was like on the map like looking. And that's how we got and I had to print it out MapQuest as a back which is insane.
And like we'd be in the middle of like nowhere Arizona and we would lose signal. And I was like what did it say? He was like well I remember it saying go straight for like 120 miles.
So I was how many miles have we gone you know I don't know how our parents drove on MapQuest man I talk all the time about how insane it is I'm like you know what from here I want to drive to Chicago I put it in and I can go to Chicago it's insane it's just insane technology now when I drive without maps I feel so lost you How do I get through? I still use it to my studio from my house

every day. I don't know if I could get here without

just like a 20 minute drive.

Dude, that's a challenge you gotta do

tomorrow. It's not how to get here without him.

I want to see what happens. Let me know.

Yeah, I don't know how

people drove, especially across states like you did.

Across every state. Damn.

My dad used to drive us down to Florida. It's kind of a straight

shot, but once you get into Florida, there's a lot

of different. There's still a lot of love.

It's a long state, so there's a lot of shoot-offs

to the stuff anymore. Not at all.
You just use AI actually? That's a big sign.

Well, I have multiple thoughts about it.

I don't personally use it. I will say that I got an awesome photo

of me boxing Mike Tyson.

Somebody generated with AI.

And I got it and it was hysterical

and I just sat on it for a while

and then I posted that I was going to fight Mike Tyson

and I tagged Hulu, the Bellagio,

and Mike Tyson saying,

hey, I'm so excited.

And everybody bought it.

It got picked up actually by a couple

I'll And then I posted that I was going to fight Mike Tyson. And I tagged Hulu, the Bellagio, and Mike Tyson saying, hey, I'm so excited.
And everybody bought it. It got picked up actually by a couple of boxing sites, I swear.
Wow. It was like on Instagram.
And it was like one of my biggest, you know, hits, viral hits. It was so funny.
And when I saw that picture, I was like, wow, this is pretty impressive. Yeah.
That it could do something like this. And, you know, but as far as like people like, oh, you could make it write a whole script and then, you know, you just sell a prompt or whatever.
And then you read those scripts and then you're like, yeah, but there's no human to that. You know, you need human still in some stuff, you know? Yeah, it takes away the art of script writing, right? Yeah, I think it takes away the art in a lot of things.
It takes away the human from a lot of it. Look, some stuff, yeah, for sure.
Like if I need to write, I need a factual report about something and it can give me a breakdown quickly. That's great.
That's technology.

That's growth.

I use it for itinerary planning.

So if I'm going to a new city, it'll recommend restaurants.

That's perfect.

That's fantastic.

It saves me time.

Cause if you individually look up everything, it would take like a bunch of time.

Do you like the fun of being like, Hey, I want a pancake and I'm here in Cleveland.

Let me find a Cleveland pancake.

And you just, uh, I used to, but now I'm way too healthy.

Oh, really?

Yeah. Okay.
So I didn't mean that the way you look. I just, you said it so indignantly.
No, I felt like you were judging me actually. No, I used to eat out a lot, but now that I know about seed oils and all this health stuff, you know.
Oh, gotcha. So what kind of, what do you have like a diet you're on or something or.
Or you just stay with. It's like whole foods, you know.
Yeah. I prefer like organic, grass-fed meat.
I know you're vegetarian. Yeah, I'm vegetarian.
Yeah. I'm vegetarian Yeah pescatarian I eat fish Okay Yeah But you eat high quality vegetables Yes Organic right Yes For the most part Yeah Yeah Because the other stuff Pesticides Yeah You know It's hard How much of it do you believe though Isn't it like That's a good question Yeah right There's a lot of just marketing Yeah right Because who knows if it's actually organic There's no proof It's not the organic Yeah I there's some you do that's when you do the research on companies and see how much integrity they have yeah you know some that have been around for a while i feel like they're a

little bit more yeah about it so i mean i love burgers and pizza so i'll have a cheap meal once

in a while okay i love me some in and out oh that's in and out huh nice i haven't had it in

and out in a long time but dude that was a good that was a good burger my wife it's our favorite

still her favorite whenever she's west coast and could get one she gets she doesn't need me either

Thank you. nice i haven't had it in and out in a long time but dude that was a good that was a good burger my wife it's our favorite still her favorite whenever she's west coast and could get one she gets she doesn't eat meat either she's she's straight vegetarian and she'll just get she'll get the packets in like lettuce and that's it and just had like their grilled cheese version you know it's hard and she'll love it it's hard to be you're from new york though so shake shack is big out there shake shack is but i never took to it.
You weren't a fan. I liked Five Guys a lot.
Five Guys a lot. Yeah, I liked Five Guys a lot.
When I was eating meat, I liked Five Guys for a burger. But when the Impossible Whopper came and I was able to get that, like because being on the road is a comic late night's tough.
Yeah. Not many options.
Yeah, you're late. You're after the meet and greet.
You get out. It's like 1030, 10 o'clock.
You haven't had something to eat yet. Yeah.
What do you got? You got Burger King. You got a local Denny's, you know, what you get but that once i got that impossible whopper like it was the only you know vegetarian sandwich really that you can get you know i used to eat impossible meat it tastes good i'll give it that yeah i it really texture wise i was like super impressed by it there's actually this new this new vegan steak company marbled it's called and it's like uh they it's like filet mignons and it's unbelievable the way it cooks and everything.
Yeah, it's really, really cool. It was like one of the things I was like, oh, this is something different.
Yeah. Because I think a lot of other companies tried and didn't do it as well.
But. Did you switch for health reasons or animal cruelty reasons? I met a cow named Caesar.
No, you didn't. 800 pound cow at Woodstock Farms.
It's up in upstate New York and they do this thing called Thanks Living where you feed the turkeys. You go up to their farm and you feed the turkeys on Thanksgiving, like around there.
So my wife was like, hey, we should go to this. We went.
And they give you a tour of the facility and this 800 pound cow Caesar comes walking out of the barn. I'm like looking at it.
It's like seven feet tall. Comes over, I was like, wow.
And it just walked right up to me and I just like rubbed his nuzzle and I put his head down and I like pet it like a dog. And I was like, oh my God.
And I was like, this is unbelievable. And I was just like, I wasn't eating that much meat at that time anyway.
My wife was already vegetarian and I did all the cooking. She didn't cook.
So it was like, I wasn't making steaks. And so I was like, you know what? Let me try to be vegetarian for a minute.
So I did it and it stuck. The only thing I really missed was like buffalo wings, a good prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich, you know, like that kind of stuff, like those little things.
But overall, like there's good options, good enough options that you could get around it, you know? And then I saw, I went full vegan for nine months. Damn, that's intense.
That was intense, but it was the healthiest I ever felt. Wow.
Yeah, really good. And that was in, I saw the documentary Game Changers.
Game Changers. That's like a vegan doc, but a lot of things didn't hit with me, but what hit with me was, um, I don't have the best track record when it comes to eating.
So like, I think I've damaged probably a lot of my body with the sweets and, and the meats and everything. So it showed like the science about like how you could regain some time and whatnot.
I was like, let me try it. I tried the first, loved it.
I did one month, did two months. And then I got up to nine.
I was like, I need some salmon. You felt too weak, right? I need some salmon.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's hard, man, to get that many calories. Sure.
You did eat 32,000 calories in a day though, right? It was delicious. That cheesecake was the best, man.
It was a whole cheesecake? No, that wasn't me. Oh, that wasn't you? No, that was Di de stefano i was on that podcast with him and he told that story but uh i i almost ate a full so we had to break between two bits on jokers and i you see me have like a sugar crash on tv it was really funny actually but i uh i had this huge piece of cheesecake and we were in between i just eat it and mer's out there doing a turn and I start like getting dizzy or whatever.
I was like, and I was like, oh, but I know what it was. I was like, I just, I'm coming down off this sugar rush too hard.
And Murr's turn is going on, but it's really good. So the three of us are in the back and I'm like, you know what? Just bring the medic and I'll just sit in the back and cheer him on.
So me and Salad Q are just there by themselves and I'm in the back being like, get him, Murr. I'll go into the light lot of jokes I was like We'll never have this opportunity To do something like this again Which is really funny So that was one thing that people were like Wow I can't believe how much sweet you're eating I was like yeah me neither That was right about the time When I was like I gotta start changing now Should I take going to the dentist They found like seven galleys on me last time Really? I got a sweet tooth You do You do? Yeah.
But you don't eat bad. You don't, you eat well, I mean.
I do have a sweet tooth though. I eat well food-wise.
Desserts get you. Desserts get me.
Love that. Love that about you.
That's why we connect. Yeah.
Oh man. I mean, desserts, just so much happiness.
It's so great. Childhood memories.
That was the best. It unlocks like a side of me.
But I think there's something about like sharing desserts with friends and it's like a party, right? Like that's the, it's the, it's the part of the meal right now i'll be like check out these appetizers you know i mean like bring on the cupcakes plus my fiance is a baker so that doesn't help she cooks some amazing desserts well where do you live so she makes does she do desserts at home yeah she's a baker by trade she does like she she doesn't sell it she just bakes for me god and sometimes the studio that. That's nice.
But she didn't do it today. Not today.
Today would have been a good day, actually. I should have had her made some canola.
Yes. What's her name? Ariel.
Ariel. Next time.
Oh, some canolis ready for your next time, man. That's cool to be married to a baker though, right? Yeah.
That's good. That's good that you didn't do it for a job, though, because then you'd never get anything.
Nobody wants to bake at home if they're baking at work. That's tough living man yeah yeah but shout out to her i love coming home to all sorts of creeds the house gotta smell fantastic fantastic right we got a garden too oh do you yeah you got all going on yeah yeah plant basil and mint and everything nice so you're a chef too right yeah i like to cook i wouldn't call myself a chef i i i represent when it comes to around the stove what's your go-to dish uh i do a good teriyaki salmon with pineapple rice if i have to i like plant parmesan is pretty good my baked zivi is okay you know i do a vegetable lasagna i tried a couple times which went well so you love pasta uh it's all mostly italian stuff yeah but my kids actually love um like a noodle dish so i'll do like a lo mein kind of you know or udani kind of thing with them which sometimes i like some spinach and shrimp and stuff, like a vegetable-y kind of thing.
My daughter's pescatarian too. My son is still vegetarian.
Wow. The whole fam is either vegetarian or pescatarian.
Yeah, yeah. That's impressive, man.
Yeah, my daughter just does a little bit of like, she does the same fish as I do. She likes a baked clam, salmon.
She gave up on shrimp. She must have had like a bad shrimp she didn't like.
But she used to love shrimp she stopped eating that but she likes like she'll try everything she's pretty adventurous she's nine he's seven and now he's just like getting into it a little bit so you big on sushi I love good sushi oh man yeah I crush a boat I love the boat I just bring me a boat I love it by myself with friends but I love going out and just like telling them to bring it we went we were in LA last night and I went out with a bunch of friends and I said, let's just tell them to bring out stuff. And I love that.
Yeah. Cause you get something not really ever going to try, you know? Agree.
My favorite memory is in LA. We got a boat.
We accidentally ordered two. No.
So we were all full after the first one. Oh my goodness.
You're like, that's a Santa Maria. So we all started chatting one more each.
I think like five of us puked on us. Oh my goodness.
Those boats are 200 pieces. Because you don't even realize like the multiple layers and the things.
Oh my gosh. That was way too much sushi.
Is that your go-to food type? Sushi? Yeah. Yeah.
If I had eaten one cuisine the rest of my life it would be Japanese. Really? Yeah, because you got sushi, curry, and their food's kind of light.

I understand. You're not like heavy.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I'm pretty close.

Italian just edges out Japanese.

Really?

Yeah.

On the road,

my two go-to was like,

all right, let's find

the Japanese place in town

or the Italian place.

Okay.

What's better?

But I love Japanese.

I mean, I love Italian,

but just sometimes I'm too heavy after.

Yeah.

There's a lot of grain.

Well, I mean, if you,

I don't eat the meat stuff, so my sauces are always a little bit lighter. You know, they're just a light tomato sauce normally.
And the pastas, they can get heavy if you eat too much of it. Oh, yeah.
But the way I lost my weight, a lot of my weight, was I stopped eating half. Like, I don't know if like ever you'd done that, but I was like, portion control is so huge.
Like, you don't realize like you're like, you raise to be like, finish your plate. You know what I mean? It's like, but I ate half the sandwich and I would just stop and be like oh i'm full i'm not gonna eat this half i'll just save it for later and i just dropped lb's like damn very quick yeah because you can eat mindlessly mindlessly completely you finish eating and you're like i feel disgusting right and you're like i was so hungry yeah especially when i'm watching videos i'll be just eating until the video ends like it doesn't even matter oh yeah like i don't even notice yeah it's like popcorn in a I eat the whole thing.
No matter what size you got, right? If you get the small one, you eat the whole thing, you're like, oh, I'm full. You get the medium, you get the large bucket, you eat the whole thing.
You don't realize. It's just mindless.
That's a perfect word. They do a great job with that.
They get you. That butter, damn it.
Then they started the seasonings. They started the little- There's seasonings now? Oh, yeah.
Dude, you gotta get up on your movie. Wow.
Popcorn game, brother. Yeah, they got the little packets you could like make.
What? Like Cinnabon and like all this fun salt shaker. I don't go to the theater as much as I used to.
Okay. I used to love it.
You gotta go. I mean, now we got Netflix, Hulu.
It's the only way to watch your movie. Right now on Peacock.
Oh, yeah. All sorts of platforms.
You gotta get out there and laugh with people, get scared with people. It's the only way to see a movie.
Yeah. It's funny, because I went to the Ricky Stenicki.
It was a movie, you know, I went to the premiere of it and I saw it in the theater and I was like, oh, this is so fun. It was such a great experience.
And I turned it on at home and it wasn't nearly as funny to me. And I was like, I really, the crowd really brought a different energy to it.
That's a good point, though. Yeah.
Laughing with people. I didn't think of it that way, but you're still right because the energy of the room.
I mean i mean you still one of the most epic videos ever is the moment in the avengers you know and when they show the video of the person who was in the movie theater and video the moment of in the avengers movie when the team yeah yeah and the place explodes when you know captain america picks up uh the hammer and it's like to see the video of that, wow, that is insane. That piece of art could move a room full of people to insanity.
Like it's a rock concert. It was crazy.
I agree. You know what I mean? If you could be any Avenger, would you be and why? What makes you think I'm not? First of all, defense of that.
I probably would be, I would probably go with Black Widow because I would look great. Wow.
No, I think it's the most, I think being able to handle yourself with fisticuffs would be the most important thing out of all of it. Because I mean, you could say I'd be Iron Man and stuff, but I think I need a suit.
I don't have my own heart. That's weird.
Yeah, it seems annoying. Yeah, it seems a little bit annoying.
I mean, Thor's a tough one to beat though because I... Yeah.
Or is it flat? You deal with traffic he's just flying all over the place i'm gonna go dr strange for me oh that's a great one yeah yeah you could time travel yeah teleport you could move around yeah that's great yeah for me that's some major plot holes happen with because of his powers you know like yeah once they started time travel yeah a lot of that's with's with any series. It turns out.
Once time travel. You're right.

Once time travel comes in,

besides Back to the Future in which it's based.

Yeah.

You know?

Oh, yeah.

But then death doesn't matter.

Once time travel is introduced,

death loses its meaning.

Mm-hmm.

You know?

Because now these superheroes will die,

like what happened in Avengers,

but they're still alive in the next movie.

Yeah, we'll bring them back

from a different one.

Yeah, different guy.

I still love Marvel, though.

Marvel's great.

It makes you feel like...

You see the new Captain America yet?

No, how was that?

I didn't see it yet.

It comes out this weekend, I think.

So, no, the premiere was tuesday i didn't it comes out this weekend i'm looking forward to it i think they're gonna they they're gonna come back with this new next batch i think they'll get a little bit more focused with it i think i think they'll try to stay away from that multiversity thing that confused people yeah what's your of choice? What do you gravitate towards when you're watching movies?

Action comedy.

Action comedy.

Yeah, I like action comedy.

But I mean, comedy for sure.

Horror, I've dipped into

horror now too.

I love a good horror.

I think there's a lot

of great horrors going on too,

which is fun.

But there's a lot of horrors

that masquerade as comedy,

which is fun.

That's true.

You know, comedies

that masquerade as horror rather.

And I think that's pretty cool too.

You know, there's a lot of

comedic actors and filmmakers

that are making horror.

You know, Jordan Peele, Krasinski,

and you have some really

Thank you. And I think that's pretty cool too.
You know, there's a lot of comedic actors and filmmakers that are making horror.

You know, Jordan Peele, Krasinski,

and you have some really fun titles.

Peele crushes his movies, man.

It's just so like thought provoking.

I love movies like that.

Is horror your genre of choice or no?

Used to be, now it's more thriller, mystery.

Total mystery.

Yeah.

Horror just gave me too many nightmares, man.

It was impacting me too much.

Oh, really?

Yeah, you don't get nightmares from horror movies?

No. What? No, no.
Do you remember your dreams? Yeah. Oh, yeah.
That's impressive. How do you shut it off? I don't know.
I don't sleep much. Okay.
Yeah, so I think works. That works.
I've never given myself enough time. It's scared.
Yeah, I do. Actually, that's so funny.
I had a nightmare the other night. I called my wife because I had a dream that my daughter was yelling for me.
And I was in LA and she's in Nework and i rolled over and it was 4 45 of them here uh in la so it was like they're getting ready for school and i called i said uh i said where's my where's she okay and she's like yeah what are you talking about it's like she's in school already she had an early thing i was like oh i said i just had a dream that she was screaming and that that was like the only nightmare i have i don't i don't have nightmare i don't think i've ever had nightmares with monsters or ghosts or anything like that i think i had a recurring one like i think everybody has after they graduate college about you you forgot your final paper oh even that old thing so i had that one for a while but for the most part i really don't have much many nightmares yeah i've had the test taking one i've had the naked in class one oh have you talks yeah i'm surprised you haven't had any wow wow yeah you believe in ghosts and like dark stuff like that yeah for the most yeah i don't necessarily think it's like boo like there's a woman in like a white dress with like glass eyes here you see at the on a staircase or something like that i don't think that's real but i think for the most part there's a little bit of truth to the beyond you know i think like i think spirits happen and go on my i've had a couple experiences like when my dad when my dad died and my mom died i think you i think they get to reach out for a little bit before they just go okay i think they're given that yeah yeah so i've had dead people appear in my dreams it makes me wonder if like that's their spirit sometimes oh you know how's that happen to you no it was a pirate captain once i didn't have any pirate captains in my family um I could see that that's pretty cool so you've had people that died show up in your dream in my dreams i've only dreamt a couple times of my mom and dad okay and they'd always been happy and alive in them but they always my dad for a long time and dreamed of him for a while and then i dreamt from for like a couple months in months in a row. And that was awesome.
It was like, I hadn't seen him, you know, that kind of thing, which is cool. Crazy.
So I don't know. Maybe you got like a, you got like a hall pass for a little bit.
Hang out for a little bit. I don't know.
But it was, it was interesting to think of it that way. I don't really dream of dead relatives.
Do you dream of? Not often. Not often.
But it's happened. My dad passed too.
And he's been in my dreams. Once I was in his dream, dream that was wild so i don't know what happened there how old was he when you how old were you when you passed i was it was two years ago so i was 25 all right yeah sorry about that but yeah i was in his dream that was like super weird you were in his dream yeah he was showing me his dream wow that nuts that is some onion layered fucking craziness dude that's like that movie with uh yeah inception yeah it's that's a good one yeah oh dude that ending made me just want to punch myself in the face i had no idea why it's hard to dissect how it all part that's how i felt with shutter island too shutter island that one messed me up for a week i'm gonna go old school for you if you haven't seen if you like a thriller yeah memento i've heard of it if i need to watch it that's a good one no if you're thinking about like a good thriller and you like that kind of inception-y kind of thing.
Oh God. Memento is fantastic.
Yeah, I like stuff that makes you think. Yeah, that's a thinker.
Because when I can predict the end, it's a turn off. I turn, I don't even, I'll be watching a movie and I'll be sitting there and I'll go, oh, come on.
And my wife's like, oh, don't tell me, don't tell me. She'll know I've gotten, I was like, and then I'll just sit there like, you don't know what's in yet? You don't have it? Like that kind of thing.
So you're intuitive. I'm pretty intuitive.
That's cool, man. Yeah, for sure.
I love that. You'd be good on the show I'm watching now called The Traitors.
I've heard about it. I haven't watched it.
It's a reality show. I don't watch much reality TV.
I usually don't, but this is skill-based. Yeah.
Yeah. Did you hear about this other one where there's people, the escape where your family could take you out off the island by pushing the button.
Oh, yeah. I forgot the name of it.

It was on,

they were showing a million commercials

during the suit.

Yeah, we are.

Extraction.

Extraction.

Yeah, yeah.

That was,

that looked really weird.

It was like,

it's basically Survivor

and you want to leave,

but your family has to say

if it's okay or not.

It's like, what?

It's like,

I'm the one on this island

getting bit by snakes.

Pull me out.

Oh, I'd hate that.

My mom would pull that shit so fast.

You know?

Yeah, right out.

If you could go on any reality TV show,

what would it be?

That's a good question.

I mean, I would love like game show stuff. Yeah.
Like game shows are so fun. I've been fortunate enough to go on.
We did the misery index, which is great. But I was on a hundred thousand dollar pyramid with Stray Hand, which is fun.
But Hollywood Squares looks like so much fun right now. That looks like a really fun one.
I think game show stuff would be fun. As far as reality stuff, I don't think- Survivor, Amazing Race.
The Bachelorette would be funny. Oh.
That would be funny. I'm married.
Wife of the lady. No, yeah.
No, but just for the stories. Yeah.
I think it'd be fun. No, I think just to be part of that, like, because you can't help but, for me, when I watch those shows, like, you can't help but, my wife watches them and loves them, and I got sucked in, of, of course.
But I like when you watch those shows, like The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, when you just see them, and you see like the people in the room, like do they understand like what's going on right now kind of thing? It's like a group mind mentality that nobody really understands how crazy all of it is. I would like to just be part of that.
Not about the whole love thing, but just to see what the living in a house with all these people, what that does to you. Yeah.
It would mess me up, I think. Yeah, for sure.
They're all in the, same with Big Brother. They're all in one house.
One house. Yeah.
Have you seen that? Love Island. Right.
Love Island. Yeah.
What's the one Nikki Glaser? Was that, oh, Nikki Glaser was Love Island, right? I think Love Island. Yeah.
The dating ones are wild, man. Some of the dating ones are, yeah, and sadly.
Yeah. But Survivor, I mean, that's just, I can't, I can't imagine, I don't even know how they made that first one it was like here's the idea we just drop a bunch of people off on an island and they just gotta live yeah like it is like great let's do it it's insane and it's in it's like 900 seasoners from you know right i wish it was like it's 40 days so i want to go on that show but 40 days i mean that's 40 days a month you can't even drive here by yourself without the phone.
I know. You got no phone.
What do you do? You could be walking around the island.

It's like... but 40 days, I mean.
40 days? A month. You can't even drive here by yourself without the phone.
I know.

You got no phone.

40 days.

You could be walking around the island.

It's like,

how do I get to anybody?

Where did I put that coconut?

I'd be so messed up.

You're in trouble.

Yeah.

I'm actually thinking

about a dopamine detox.

Have you heard of those?

No.

So you don't,

you like put your phone

in like a corner

and you don't use it

for like three days.

Really?

Yeah.

Anything that gives you dopamine. So like phone, electronics.
But dopamine's good, isn't it? Yeah, but we're so over. You're over-doped.
Right now, yeah. Everyone's over-doped.
Over-doped. So it gets even crazier.
That's a term. No, it is.
That's merch for you. Oh yeah? Over-doped.
Yeah, we should trade them. No, people go in dark caves.
Really? For five days, it's like a dark cave dopamine detox. Do you think that has anything? I don't know.
It's pitch black and you're there for five days. That's, you got problems.
You shoot five. That's not right.
That's not right. That's not how you're supposed to live.
Yeah. Like you got to, that's wrong.
Like, yeah. First of all, who owns the cave? Who might suppose this? He's got a 15 muzzle.
Yeah, there you go. That's what I'm saying.
It's a business. Well, you could prey on people's insecurities.
So like you say, it's a spiritual awakening or whatever you want to word it. Have you ever been called to do something like that, a spiritual awakening? I went to Fargo, North Dakota.
No, a spiritual awakening? No, I'm pretty in tune with all that stuff. I have a pretty good handle on that.
I'm pretty honest with myself, I think. Yeah.
And honest with other people too. But I think when I had separated from my wife for a minute, I think that was the first time I lived alone in my whole life.
Mm. Wow.
I was always with a family or had roommates or whatever. And then I was like 40, what was I, 47? 46? That was the first time you lived alone.
Sitting by myself in a two-bedroom apartment said, what the hell happened? Like, and that was like, that's my dark cave.

Yeah.

You know, I was just sitting there like, all right.

So now I think that was a part

where it really made me get in touch with,

you know, analyzing hard,

getting a plan to get out of fix it all.

Grieving.

Yeah.

You know, rejoicing, trying to figure it all out.

You know, did you take some psychedelics?

I didn't take any.

Yeah, I didn't.

People, you know, said I've never taken a drug, tried a cigarette or even been drunk in my life wow yeah so people were like oh you should try that to open your mind i was like i don't know what the hell that's gonna do at this point in my life you know i've seen bad trips i've i have too yeah you know i've seen good ones too i've been around people good ones but i i've i've seen something that's gone wrong i was like it's not worth it for me it's a coin toss yeah I wish it was a little more controlled do you do psychedelics at all I do I microdose microdose I've done a full trip in eight years I don't think I'd do a full trip again you've done a like a full trip is when you take a lot was the last full trip bad no but I got what I needed out of it you know this is why you need your dopamine gate yeah so Kate. Yeah.
So if you micro-dose, you're micro-dopamining though, aren't you too? Technically, yeah. Yeah, so maybe try not to micro-dose and keep your phone in your pocket.
Yeah. There's worse things.
If you, for sure, but if you went, if you did that dopamine thing, would you stop micro-dosing? Because that now is kind of regulating you, isn't it? Yeah, it would offset it. Maybe.
I don't know. I don't microdose too often.
Gotcha. Yeah, just when I have him.
I have a couple of friends that do. Yeah, they do.
Mushrooms, right? Yeah, mushrooms. Yeah, microdoses.
A good friend of mine does them and loves it. Yeah, because you're not tripping.
You're not seeing anything. You're just feeling good.
I could see the difference in him too. Really? Yeah.
Oh, wow. So he made him better? Yeah, he made him better.
Okay. Yeah, like he made, he just calmer.
He had like a frantic energy about him, but not a bad one, but it was just very, you know, and then when he's on and it was like, oh, okay. Definitely helps with anxiety, man.
Sure. I think it's probably all connected, right? Anxiety makes you frantic.
I had some terrible anxiety in college, dude. Did you? Yeah, awful.
Where'd you go to school? Rutgers. Oh.
Yeah, good old Rutgers. New Brunswick campus.
Nice. Yeah.
Animal's up there. Oh yeah? Yeah.
I did. I accepted there.
It was one of my three that I was going to go to. What'd you choose? I ended up with the college that's like right around the corner from my house.
I don't know. I'm in Long Island.
Post. Long Island University.
I hadn't heard of that. Yeah.
I went and it was a coin to us. I was going to do Rutgers, but I was out of state.
So yeah, it's like 20 today. Yeah.
So it was like, I was like, you know what? I'll just go here. My sister was out of that school, so I got to go to, which is pretty cool.
She was a senior. I was a freshman.
So I had somebody who was there. I didn't learn much there, man.
No. Social, right? Yeah, social.
It's all social skills, I think. No, for sure.
That was the biggest thing I learned. It's always a big takeaway.
I think it makes you grow. It makes you a grown-up.
That's what it does. Absolutely.
Well, Joe, where are your next shows? Where can people keep up with you, man?

JoeGattoOfficial.com

gives you all the places

where I'll be.

I don't know when this is coming out,

but I'm touring through June.

I'm coming probably to a city

close enough to you.

And then on Instagram,

it's at Joe underscore Gatto,

and that's where.

Awesome.

Thanks for hopping on, man.

This has been so fun.

Thank you.

Check them out, guys.

See you next time.