TCB Infomercial: Trae Crowder

Transcript

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Speaker 2 My whole life growing up, poor rural Tennessee, whenever I heard others talk about white people, in my head, that was always like Connecticut Yacht Club, like Dill, is this, is that Dill?

Speaker 1 Fucking white people, right? Like

Speaker 1 white people.

Speaker 2 And I didn't know what I was, but I knew I wasn't the same thing as them. And it was very confusing to me as a young man.
Now that I'm an adult, it couldn't be more clear. I'm not white.

Speaker 2 I'm white trash.

Speaker 1 And it is different.

Speaker 2 It is different. There's a whole list of differences.
Like, white people got a trust fund.

Speaker 1 White trash people got trust issues.

Speaker 2 White people got a sister who's secretly a lesbian. White trash people got a sister who's secretly their mama.

Speaker 1 White people play golf with their boss on the weekends.

Speaker 2 White trash people play scratch-offs with their rent money on paydays.

Speaker 2 It's different

Speaker 1 on this episode of the Commercial Break.

Speaker 2 A lot of times the people in places like that who are on the other side or on the left or whatever, they just never speak up and I don't blame them.

Speaker 2 It's like you don't want to be the one that ruins Thanksgiving dinner or whatever or just gets yelled, gets ganged up on.

Speaker 2 So I get it, but I never had that problem when I was growing up. And what I've always chalked that up to is the other thing that was going on with me as a kid was that, like,

Speaker 2 I was the smart kid in my school. And, which I say now, I realize now, looking back, it's like being the straightest guy at a share concert, you know,

Speaker 2 it's not really that impressive, but I didn't know that. I had no frame of reference.

Speaker 1 The next episode of the commercial break starts now.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, Cats and Kittens. Welcome back to the Commercial Break.
I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co-host of the show, Chris Joy Hoadley.
Best to you, Chris Eric.

Speaker 1 Best to you out there in the podcast universe. How the hell are you? Thanks for joining us on a TCB Infomercial Tuesday with our friend Trey Crowder.
Trey Crowder is a noted comedian

Speaker 1 and political commentarian, I guess is the best way to put that, known as the liberal redneck. And some of you will know his work and some of you will not.
Some of you will care and some of you won't.

Speaker 1 But I really think that Trey has got some important stuff to say. I've enjoyed his stuff for a long time, so I'm glad that he is coming in.

Speaker 1 Trey is on the constant never-ending stand-up tour, as most comedians are, and he's a very popular one. Treycrowder.com is where you can get tickets to any of his shows.

Speaker 1 He's also got a brand new special out on YouTube and his website called Trash Daddy. And I think he's got a couple of other things in the works.

Speaker 1 Maybe we'll we'll get a chance to talk to him about that.

Speaker 1 But, you know, listen, not everybody a huge fan when we choose to talk politics or bring people on who do talk politics, but give it a chance. We're not here to beat up anybody.

Speaker 1 We're just here to have a conversation.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. And I'm open to conversations on all sides of the aisle because I think that's what we need.
We need to talk to each other about what...

Speaker 1 where we can find common ground, like mountain monsters, and Carl Lentz is an idiot. And, you know, most churches are scams for money.
Well, I mean, let's just be honest about it.

Speaker 1 Most churches are scams for money. Frankie B.
Frankie B. Although Frankie's B seems to have gone away.
I don't know where Frankie is. What's that? Got a girlfriend.

Speaker 1 I know, but he could make a video about something, about his diet, about his hair plugs, about something. I wish Frankie B would make a video.

Speaker 1 I'm like almost tempted, almost tempted to write him and say,

Speaker 1 we're out of content to review, bro.

Speaker 1 What's going on? Give us something. We're out of content to review.
Give us something.

Speaker 1 While I've got you and before Trey gets here, I'll remind you that on May 31st, the 12 hours of TCB celebrating five years of the commercial break and 12 additional episodes

Speaker 1 in Mental Health Awareness Month, which is, of course, May. We're going to do it on the last day of May because that's the kind of people we are.

Speaker 1 We wait till the very last minute to tell you about mental health awareness. That's how much we care about your mental health is that we'll wait till the last minute to get it all said and done.

Speaker 1 And no, this is for an important reason. And we're going to be raising money and awareness and talking to some celebrity guests about their own challenges and thoughts on mental health.

Speaker 1 And so we're super excited about this. 12 straight episodes recorded that day that we will put out.
That's a Saturday. So

Speaker 1 we'll give you the right day. I hope there's no like major sporting events or anything, is there? I don't know.
Not on May 31st. It's after Memorial Day.
I will tell you that. So it's not.

Speaker 1 Don't worry. It's not a Memorial Day weekend.
We did it the weekend afterwards so that we knew you would have plans. I'll tune in driving back from your

Speaker 1 vacation.

Speaker 1 That's right. Whatever your vacation plans are, we'll give you three long days to digest all 12 hours of the commercial break.
Don't ask me why. Don't ask.
Whee!

Speaker 1 Yeah, we it's going to be a lot of fun. Thank God we have five-hour energy here in this studio.
Boxes of it. I think we'll need all of it to get through that 12 hours of TCB.

Speaker 1 So, Trey Crowder, traycrowder.com that's where you find more information about trey all of his tour dates there's a link to his special trash daddy up there uh let's do this why don't i know that this is a short intro but let you know we don't always need to blab on forever we do that we'll do that on the 12 hours of tcb how's that um so why don't we take a break chrissy now and then when we come back through the magic of telepodcasting very popular overnight i say overnight i'm sure there's some story behind that but overnight sensation, Trey Crowder will be here with us in studio.

Speaker 1 He's been on Bill Maher. He's been on MSNBC.

Speaker 1 He's been on in movies and documentaries, and he's a hot commodity. Why he's showing up here, I have no idea, but maybe we'll ask him that too.
Which agent are you going to fire after this appearance?

Speaker 1 All right, we'll take a short break and we'll be back. What do you think? I think we should do it.
All right.

Speaker 1 You make this rather snappy, won't you? Somebody can be thinking to do it before 10 o'clock.

Speaker 3 Hi, cats and kittens. Rachel here.
Do you ever get the urge to speak endlessly into the void? Like Brian? Well, I've got just the place for you to do that. 212-433-3TCB.
That's 212-433-3822.

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Speaker 3 Okay, I gotta go now. I've got a date with my dog.
No, seriously, Axel needs food. Today is pork chop day.

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Speaker 1 Trey, thanks so much for your time today. How are you doing? You're welcome.
I'm doing all right.

Speaker 2 All things considered hanging in there what are all the things to consider when you suggest what are all the things to consider just the general general dissolution of society and everything the general breakdown of democracy is that what you're talking about yeah that type of thing we ain't got to you know not to get just dive right into politics or nothing i just mean you know i don't there's I feel like a good chunk of people are generally feeling like things are not entirely great.

Speaker 2 Let's put it that way. It's like a, you know, it's a

Speaker 2 one way to put it.

Speaker 1 I agree. We've talked about it.
It just feels soupy out there, right? It's just everybody feels a little bit on edge right now.

Speaker 1 Just like the general energy in the room, if you like read the room, it feels like everyone's one step away from a nervous breakdown

Speaker 1 from the Starbucks. Even when you drive, it feels like people are just like getting aggressive for no reason.
And it feels real weird. But let's start with the easy stuff.
I agree with you.

Speaker 1 90 Day Fiancé is the greatest example of what is going on here in this country and how proud we should be as Americans of what we've built because so many

Speaker 1 beautiful men and women seem to want to hang on to dum-dums in this country just to get in the front.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I've got a, yeah, there's a bit about that on my new special trash daddy because that's what I always thought.

Speaker 2 Whenever I watched 90 Day Fiancé with my wife, that was always the thing that like struck me the most about it was it made me feel like oddly patriotic or whatever because like you know you just watch these people these like gorgeous people from uh you know all over the world who are just like

Speaker 1 just

Speaker 2 attaching themselves to complete jabronis you know just losers just just so they can get into america and it's like man people will go to great lengths to get into america and it's uh that's got to be indicative of something and i'm sure for a lot of those people in a lot of those places even now that holds true but that it's funny like that bit i The special that bit's on, I recorded it a few months ago and it like just came out.

Speaker 2 And I've been feeling like, you know, I wonder how true that still is or feels now.

Speaker 2 Like, I bet there's at least some of those people in some of those places are rethinking their decision to try to, you know, infiltrate over here.

Speaker 1 You know, my wife's listeners of the show will obviously know this, but my wife is Venezuelan.

Speaker 1 And like when I say Venezuelan, like when I met her, she was living in Venezuela and then moved to Switzerland to get her master's degree.

Speaker 1 And I chased her around Europe for a couple of months, brought her back to the United States.

Speaker 1 But when we first started watching that show, which kind of the beginning of that show coincided with our own story, we were like, that resembles nothing like anything that we went through.

Speaker 1 These people are, I mean, the chances of their success in their marriage is zero to minus seven on a good day.

Speaker 1 Like, it's just so clear that some of these people are ill-fitting, and it makes for great television that you wonder how in the world they're going to stay together.

Speaker 2 Right. And I think they don't.
And I think that's a secondary concern to the producers of the show. You know, like they

Speaker 2 ensure, they specifically select the, you know, the wildest pairings that they can. But since you have some personal experience, like, I don't even know the

Speaker 2 foundational premise of that show.

Speaker 1 Like, is that accurate? Like,

Speaker 2 you know, the whole 90-day window thing and all that.

Speaker 1 It is. So, so there are multiple ways to bring your loved one, specifically someone you want to marry or you're married to, over to the United States.
There are multiple paths to get there.

Speaker 1 The 90-day visa is one of them. It's an option that can be considered.
And you do have 90 days as the clock starts. And it does take a process.

Speaker 1 There is a process by which you, I mean, it's really strict. You have to go by it.
But that's not the process by which we accomplished being able to live together here in the United States.

Speaker 1 But that 90-day visa program is no joke. And it's 90 days.
and you're out.

Speaker 1 And I've heard from other people, if you do that 90 days and you don't get married, your chances of getting back in the country even from some countries even on a tourist visa are slim to none because they imagine you're coming in now just for other purposes right to to be in it's really you know it's such a such a stressful thing to go through when you fall in love with somebody from another country and you have to get lawyers involved and so many people I would imagine did not have the same resources that I did to like actually hire an attorney to walk you through the steps and all that and you would think that it would just be a little bit easier that if you actually fell in love with somebody and the relationship was real and you could prove that to whoever you needed to prove it to, that it would just be, you know, okay, you know, go on about your life.

Speaker 1 But it's not that way. It's an unduly stressful situation to go through.
And luckily, it worked out fine for us. We didn't have any drama.

Speaker 1 But so many of our friends and family members who have been through similar things have been through so much drama. And now today, 2025, I couldn't imagine going through it.
I couldn't. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Well, it's funny. I mean, I totally believe you, obviously, but I just always think about this.
A buddy of mine. Now, this was years ago.
I mean, this is like 2005. That's like 20 years ago.

Speaker 2 We were 19, 20, 21, something like that at the time. And I had a friend that was in the military, joined the army and

Speaker 2 was, you know, not the sharpest tool in the shed, but a little bit of a wild card. This guy, like, he would get like a signing bonus and just like...

Speaker 2 like buy kayaks from gas stations and he would

Speaker 1 crash

Speaker 2 crash into embankments immediately and

Speaker 2 He'd rent cars and take them off-roading and mudding and stuff and then just bottom them out and get sued and shit like that all the time. So, you know, not the soundest decisions.
But I always

Speaker 2 remember he showed up one. He didn't even tell us this was going to happen.
He came to a get-together we were having or something with this

Speaker 2 girl none of us had ever met and she was from like Colombia or Bolivia or some South African or South American country. I can't remember.
And it was totally out of the blue.

Speaker 2 And he was like, he was like, hey guys, this is my wife.

Speaker 1 And we were like, you're what?

Speaker 2 And he was just openly talking, discussing how like, he was like, yeah, so

Speaker 2 she gave me like 200 bucks, right? It was literally like $200 or something.

Speaker 2 He's like, she gave me like 200 bucks so we could get married so that she could have like a, whatever, you know, a visa or green car, however it works. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And it's like, And he, he was just talking about very casually and like shrugging it off.

Speaker 2 And then I, you know, I never, and I don't think he, I don't know know if he ever saw that girl again, like after that, but like,

Speaker 2 I, I'm assuming in retrospect, they probably

Speaker 2 were not doing it right. But, like, no, no, no.
But the way he was like, I mean, I know it was, I know it was like shady, sure. But I mean, in terms of like even, you know,

Speaker 2 accomplishing it properly, they probably were not. But it always just seemed like

Speaker 2 the way he, the way he presented it and the way I experienced it, it made it just seem like the most

Speaker 2 casual, ridiculous thing in the world. He's like, Yeah, she gave me $200.
We got married. Now everything's, she got what she wanted.
And then

Speaker 1 I don't care. So, you know, here's the crazy thing.
A similar story.

Speaker 1 When I was, I'm twice married, right after I got a divorce, I met a girl through some friends, and then we started like loosely dating, but she'd always come over to my house.

Speaker 1 I was never invited over there. And then one day she said, I said, well, why don't we swing by your house for something? And she said, I feel like we're far enough along, like fourth date.

Speaker 1 I got to tell you something. I'm married.
And I thought to my,

Speaker 1 and she goes, but before you freak out, before you freak out, I'm married for the green card. And I go, for your green card?

Speaker 1 I thought, you know, and she was like, no, for this, for my husband's green card. And we live together for appearances.
And I was like, oh, okay. I had no experience with this.
I had no idea.

Speaker 1 But they lived together. They had businesses together.
They had like a business together. They had bank accounts together.
To give the appearance that all of this was real, he paid her bills. Right.

Speaker 1 And she, and he got to stay in the country, essentially. Now, I understand this is 1,000% illegal, right? And we didn't date for very long after that because I got comfortable.

Speaker 1 I got uncomfortable with the idea that there was some, her husband was in the house.

Speaker 1 But then later on in the, like, you know, two days later, she explained that that was not the first time that she had been married for those purposes. Wow.

Speaker 1 So I totally understand that there is fraud that happens, obviously, in this process, in this system. 90-day Fiancé, it's a really hard way to commit that.
You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 To commit that fraud.

Speaker 1 Like, you would think if you're going to go through all that drama to be on TV for 30 episodes of 90 Day Fiancé, there's some attraction or at least a willingness to go through it there.

Speaker 1 But, you know, it's flawed in a lot of ways. But at least for me, when I went through it, it being obviously it was kind of a light, felt life or death for me.

Speaker 1 When I went through it, it felt very stressful. And we had to, you know, have reams of documents and pictures and interviews.

Speaker 1 But we never got hassled. To be fair to the immigration, we never got hassled.
Everybody was always like, he seems like you have a beautiful, start of a beautiful family. Congratulations.

Speaker 1 You know, your,

Speaker 1 your visa is approved, which is like the biggest relief you can ever feel when you're in that situation is when an officer or someone in charge says, you're good.

Speaker 1 And it's like, oh, thank God we can kind of rest. But, you know, I imagine that I always thought to myself, wouldn't Donald Trump just put a stop to that 90-day fiancé show immediately?

Speaker 1 That felt to me like a place to start, like low-hanging fruit for him. He hasn't attacked it yet, though.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I don't know. You know, he loves ratings and stuff.

Speaker 1 Like he loves a hit.

Speaker 2 And even though it seems like antithetical to their whole general immigration philosophy, it's a TV show that people like.

Speaker 2 And so he probably thinks they're, you know, doing great work over there or whatever, I would imagine.

Speaker 2 Which, I mean, from a TV perspective You know, not that they're not There's like eight spin-offs or whatever something we get into them Does your gross

Speaker 2 no we didn't watch all we just went through a little spell there where we were watching it, you know

Speaker 1 I actually

Speaker 2 It actually wasn't even her it was I was gonna we it

Speaker 2 doesn't make any sense. We were trying yeah, we yeah, we were trying to do a

Speaker 1 these

Speaker 2 me and these two guys other comedians Corey and Drew that I have a podcast with and collaborate with and stuff.

Speaker 2 We were trying we were doing these digital sketches for Comedy Central at the time, and we were thinking about doing one that was,

Speaker 2 Drew had the idea to do one based on 90 Day Fiancé, and I'd never seen it. So to like watch it.
or to research it, I mean, I watched it and then ended up, you know, getting sucked into it.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I got hooked a little bit and like watched a whole season or two or whatever. And then we never even did that sketch, by the way.

Speaker 2 So I just watched it just to watch it.

Speaker 1 You wasted 36 hours of your life. Well, I mean, the episodes too are like almost two hours.
Yeah, it's too much. Yeah, it's too much.
It's jumped the shark. I'm done with it.
But anyway,

Speaker 1 you have quite the career, Trey. I have to ask, I've been watching you for a long time, and I really think you're very smart, very, very sharp, and you've got a political flavor of comedy.

Speaker 1 In 2016, I think it's 2016, you kind of had this video go viral, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 what was that like? Because you kind of went from zero to a thousand overnight. Imagine.
I mean, I know you probably have been doing comedy for some time, right?

Speaker 1 I don't, I know that overnight stories take a lot longer than one night,

Speaker 1 overnight success stories, but what was that like to go through that in the moment?

Speaker 2 No, yeah, you're right. I mean, it was both of those things are true.
Like I had started, I started stand up in 2010

Speaker 2 in Knoxville, Tennessee, where I was living at the time. And

Speaker 2 I had been doing it for like, you know, six years or whatever. And it was going fine, like for all things considered, I lived in Knoxville and I had like a manager in LA and I'd gotten into this

Speaker 2 writer's development program that NBC had and all this stuff. So I was feeling pretty encouraged by it, but I was in complete anonymity.
Like I had no following.

Speaker 2 No one knew who I was or anything like that. Couldn't sell any tickets or nothing.
But I still, you know, was pleased enough with how it was going. And then I

Speaker 2 decided to to make these

Speaker 2 internet video.

Speaker 2 At the time in stand-up, I was closing with this bit about the simplest thing, but it was basically just on a set list, if I wrote it out, I called it the liberal redneck bit, but I never said the words liberal redneck on stage.

Speaker 2 It was basically, I said, you know, everybody that hears this accent assumes I'm one type of person, like a Bible thump and troglodyte, because that's the only time you ever hear this accent in the media.

Speaker 2 It's that type of person.

Speaker 2 But I'm not that type of person. So gotta, I gotta figure something out to try to like balance the scales.
I gotta find a way.

Speaker 2 I need to go out in public and, you know, be just as loud and rednecky as they are, but just say a bunch of super liberal shit to like, you know, try to balance the scales.

Speaker 2 And then I would literally just scream a bunch of like really, really liberal political talking points, but in the most redneck fashion that I could. And it like,

Speaker 1 I closed with it.

Speaker 2 It always worked. Even in like small comedy clubs in like southern cities and stuff like that, like it always worked because it's wild to say now but in that time you know 2015-ish and through like

Speaker 2 it wasn't as like charged the politics

Speaker 2 divided yeah right so like people would

Speaker 2 i there'd be plenty of people in the crowd who were like they were conservative but they would still laugh at that bit because it was just like that's just a funny juxtaposition you know

Speaker 1 So it like, it worked as a stand-up bit.

Speaker 2 And I had the idea to try to make like internet videos out of it. And at first I was like, ah, man, but you know, I'll have to buy a fancy camera.

Speaker 2 I'll have to figure out how to edit things and light things.

Speaker 2 I don't know how to do any of that. And it just felt like a barrier to entry or something.

Speaker 2 And then one day I saw this,

Speaker 2 I saw this like

Speaker 2 preacher guy, like a deep south preacher somewhere in North Carolina, who was standing in the woods by a big truck, like just yelling in his phone about like,

Speaker 2 he was, you know, preaching fire and brimstone about the dangers of, you know, transgender people using the bathrooms with their little girls and all this type of stuff.

Speaker 2 And it's like not, not a dick joke in sight. It wasn't funny at all.

Speaker 1 Just,

Speaker 2 you know, just spewing venom. And it had like 20 million views or something like that on Facebook.
amongst like, you know, people on the right, obviously. But when I saw that, I was like, oh, wow.

Speaker 2 Okay. Like, I don't, if, if that guy doing that thing, like, if that's what I'm trying to, you know, like make fun of or whatever, then I, it, I don't need to do anything fancy about it.

Speaker 2 In fact, that would be a mistake. Like it would, that, that would be the wrong thing to do.
Like, I should just do exactly what this guy does. I should just pull my phone out and yell at it.
Right.

Speaker 2 And once I had that sort of realization, I, I made the first one like in the next couple of days. And the first one got like 50,000 views or something, which I was over the moon about.

Speaker 2 I was thrilled with that. And then the second one I made was also about the whole transgender bathroom law thing.

Speaker 2 And that one like went to the moon at like 30, 50 million views or something and just like went like crazy, you know, megaton viral and like changed my life literally overnight.

Speaker 2 So it was like zero to a thousand. So I'd been working at it for a while and it was a very deliberate thing, but I also did not expect it to work like that.

Speaker 2 And then when it did, like I still had a day job at the time and I posted it the night before and I was sitting at my day job the next day and it was like an office job. I worked for the U.S.

Speaker 2 Department of Energy, which I'm sure won't exist soon, but I used to work there.

Speaker 2 And I was sitting in a conference room in some meeting and like my phone like got hot in my pocket, like so hot.

Speaker 2 Like I don't know if you remember around this era, phones were would sometimes just explode.

Speaker 1 Yes, yes.

Speaker 2 Remember how phones used to just blow up for a while?

Speaker 2 So my phone got like

Speaker 2 real hot in my pocket and I like freaked out put out and threw it on the table or whatever, like, you know, told everybody to duck, get down. It's going to blow.

Speaker 2 But it didn't, it wasn't exploding. It's because I had, you know, I got like notifications and stuff.

Speaker 2 And it like overloaded my phone, you know, when it all like started. And the phone never did explode, but it got like, it ran the battery completely down in like 15 minutes or something.

Speaker 2 And my phone died. And I'm still at, uh, and I'm still at work

Speaker 2 knowing that something is happening. But, you know, now my phone is dead and I'm there the rest of the day.
And by the time I got off work and got home, it was like,

Speaker 2 you know, I mean, like I said, my life had changed. I wasn't ready for it either.
Like I, I did, now I have a fan page. First of all, at this point in time, Facebook was still the main one.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's what I keep hearing

Speaker 1 on Facebook. And it's like, Facebook, who uses that for anything but dating and buying buying old shoes.
Yes.

Speaker 2 Well, 10 years ago, almost 10 years ago, Facebook was still the main one.

Speaker 1 Of course.

Speaker 2 And so all this was on Facebook and I didn't even have a fan page or nothing. That first video that went viral was just on my like personal Facebook page.

Speaker 2 So I maxed out my number of Facebook friends like immediately. First of all, I shouldn't have been accepting all those people's friends

Speaker 2 because it's different, you know, followers and friends. They're like, it's two different things.
But at the time, I was like, I got, you know, the

Speaker 2 Like, I accept everybody, but I maxed that out immediately. And then it was just nuts.
And I was getting, I got contacted by Warner Brothers. They signed me to a development deal.

Speaker 2 I signed a book deal with a publisher. I started touring.
I quit my day job, started touring.

Speaker 2 I didn't think anyone was going to, even in spite of all that, I didn't think anyone was going to come to the shows.

Speaker 2 I was like, you know, dude, look, it's one thing to watch somebody, like to click play on a video on your computer or on a phone. Right.
Like, it's a very different thing to spend 20,

Speaker 2 $20 and get a babysitter or whatever and

Speaker 2 come out to a comedy show. I was like, nobody's going to do that because of these.

Speaker 2 And we posted, we did like a trial run one week of dates and the very first tour date I ever had as a headliner was at the Punchline in Atlanta and it sold out. It sold out like almost immediately.

Speaker 2 And we had to add a second show and it sold out too. And that's when I was like,

Speaker 1 holy shit,

Speaker 1 this is wild.

Speaker 2 How long does it take you to get that?

Speaker 1 Like, does the development deal? Does your agent just like send that over to you the next day? They're like, oh, my God, they want to sign you to a development. Does that happen just so quickly?

Speaker 2 That first one, so thankfully, I said, I did beforehand. I had a manager already who lived in Los Angeles, but she was very green and new.
She was like a rookie manager herself, you know, so

Speaker 1 she was a rookie.

Speaker 2 Yeah. But she

Speaker 2 still, she helped me navigate all that because she at least, you know, had some notion of how things were supposed to work. But like, I didn't even have an agent yet or anything.

Speaker 2 And the first, the Warner Brother,

Speaker 2 the

Speaker 2 assistant to or secretary of or something like that of the president of Warner Brothers Television, like sent me a message on Facebook

Speaker 2 is how that happened initially. And then

Speaker 2 I got contacted by a literary agent.

Speaker 2 because she knew that, you know, there was whatever, a publisher who wanted to do a book deal or something. And

Speaker 2 yeah, and it just, I mean, it was wild.

Speaker 2 And then I was on, you know, a couple months later, I was on like real time with Bill Maher the Friday after the election in 2016, like three days after the election.

Speaker 1 Appearance.

Speaker 1 I do remember that. I think that's my, that was my introduction to Trey Crowder.

Speaker 2 That was crazy. Like the, the whole, that was so surreal, that whole thing.
Because, I mean, you know, of course.

Speaker 2 Like that was, everybody was pretty gobsmacked in in that audience or in that production staff and everything. Like, people were not expecting that to have happened.
And

Speaker 2 the mood was just wild. And especially added to it is the fact that I'm fresh out of the holler and I'm, you know, I'm new to all this.

Speaker 2 So just the experience of even being there was crazy to me. And then add on top of that, the larger societal context and the energy and everything.
And it was like, I mean, it was nuts.

Speaker 1 I remember that day after the election, like we had just moved into a house, my wife and I, freshly,

Speaker 1 you know, married, basically.

Speaker 1 And we were sitting on two patio chairs because our furniture hadn't shown up yet, this big screen TV in this huge living room and watching and clear by nine o'clock at night.

Speaker 1 And I was like, this is fucking insane. I don't know what happened.
And the next morning, I took a run down at the park where I've been running for years.

Speaker 1 And I just remember everybody looked shell-shocked. It felt to me similar to the day after 9-11 when everyone was like,

Speaker 1 what hangover are we in? What universe did we end up in? In such a weird time. But then you go, okay, well, here it is.
Let's hope for the best, right?

Speaker 1 Let's wish that everything, let's hope that someone, there's an adult in the room and everybody figures it out. Did you,

Speaker 1 did the, when did the, for you, when did you sense the energy started changing and becoming more

Speaker 1 divided? Like, I think it's clear that right now there's a lot of, I'm on this team, I'm on that team.

Speaker 1 You know, there's a lot of tribalism that goes on in this country, whether that be real sports teams, religion, politics. There's so much tribalism.

Speaker 1 We all have to identify with some group of people so that we have something and identify an enemy that we have to fight, real or imagined.

Speaker 1 Did the did the after that election, did the crowd start to change? Did you feel the energy of the crowd start to change?

Speaker 2 I mean, I don't know. I really do think, like, I know I just said a minute ago, like right before I went viral and I was doing that bid on stage in 2015 and it was fine.

Speaker 2 That is all true, but it still does feel to me like it, A, happened pretty quickly and B, like, you know, coincided with the rise of Donald Trump and MAGA specifically.

Speaker 2 And I feel like the reason for that is all the people who are not on board with it were so, just so powerfully, like, you guys are joking, right? Like, that's you cannot be serious.

Speaker 2 And then the people who are on board with it are, we're already so sensitive to feeling

Speaker 2 condescended to, or however you want to put it, by these same people that that, you know, that really struck a nerve with them, the general reaction to it.

Speaker 2 And also they like liked it in a way that we were so put off by the whole thing. And it just like it was kind of woven into

Speaker 2 the whole MAGA experience from the very beginning, I feel like.

Speaker 2 And then so it, you know, as that got to be more and more of a thing leading up to the election, and certainly after they won, it was like, we were kind of in it at that point because I, I had all, I had been doing that bit at live in front of live shows and never had a single problem with it ever.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 now that I have an internet presence, I mean, I'm that whole time, you know, in 2016 and everything, like, I mean, I'm getting death threats and crazy stuff all the time, you know?

Speaker 2 So,

Speaker 2 yeah, I felt like it happened pretty early on in the process and it has only gotten worse over the intervening years, I feel like.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's gotten super intense. And we do a particularly bland form of humor here.
We don't talk a lot of politics generally.

Speaker 1 I think if you listen to the show, y'all are, what's that? It's a good call.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it was.

Speaker 4 Well, it was 2020.

Speaker 1 It was 2020. Right.
And so, you know, things had, we were leading up into change, and you could feel the tone and texture of

Speaker 1 the country was different than it was in 2016. It was clear that

Speaker 1 a lot of people wanted to move in a different direction. And it was the pandemic.
And so we just made a decision. There's so much of that is on television in people's ears.

Speaker 1 So many people are talking about it. And so many people are smartly talking about it.

Speaker 1 Are we going to add to the noise or are we going to cut through? And it was just clear that we were going to add to the noise. So I was like, let's just leave it alone.
Let's not talk about it.

Speaker 1 Let's give people a break from it. The name is the commercial break.
Let's give people like a real-life commercial break from all this drama that's going on right now.

Speaker 1 Now, since this last election, you know, I think our opinions are known. You know, I think one of the mistakes that was made in 2016 is that we all,

Speaker 1 a lot of us with certain feelings did

Speaker 1 go, what the fuck are you thinking? Like, you're clearly not well in the head if you think QAnon is coming to, you know, so there's some day of judgment coming with some guy that's talking on Reddit.

Speaker 1 Like, I mean, you know, it just doesn't make any sense. I think the mistake early on was believing that everyone who felt supportive of some of these initiatives or felt a certain way

Speaker 1 was just an idiot, right? Because that obviously turned out not to be true.

Speaker 1 Many people felt like some of the ideas and principles that the conservatives believe in or that Trump specifically believed in was something they also felt strongly about.

Speaker 1 They felt left out by the process and MAGA let them in. And

Speaker 1 so now it's a form of populism, in my opinion. Yeah.
Right.

Speaker 1 And so

Speaker 1 is that, is it really,

Speaker 1 I got to imagine. I probably know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask it anyway.
It's got to be really tough sometimes to have this brand of comedy in this

Speaker 1 moment in 2025 because you do get death threats and people want to, and you don't know who's out there. You don't know who's taking it more seriously than the next guy, right?

Speaker 2 Well, I mean, honestly, I probably should, I guess, but I don't, I don't really worry about that part of it too much.

Speaker 2 And I guess it's because in nine years in, I thankfully, you know, knock on wood, haven't had any kind of like real life experiences or anything that made me realize, like, oh, this is,

Speaker 2 you know, this is a serious concern, but it still is like tough. I mean, it's why I said, you said, yeah, we don't do politics.
I was like, yeah, good call. It's like, because I've,

Speaker 2 I mean, there's a a lot of aspects to it. Like,

Speaker 2 honestly, before this most recent election, it's not that I

Speaker 2 did not think I knew what was going to happen. I didn't know what was going to happen.
I was like, you know, this could go either way in my mind. We'll see.

Speaker 2 But had it gone the other way, I had fully intended to,

Speaker 2 like, I kind of had a plan in my head for like.

Speaker 2 pivoting away from politics because in my head it was like had it gone the other way it's like okay we could put all this nastiness behind us and just kind of go back to the old boring version where people don't care as much politics

Speaker 2 corruption happens behind the scenes yeah right yes and and then i can do like i was gonna do like you know cooking videos and just more stand-up clips and that type of thing yeah but then that didn't happen and now and now i feel i feel like almost obligated to you know keep because of my brand and what i do it's like well i can't stop that now so i'm even you know i'm deeper in it now than than I have been in recent years.

Speaker 2 But it is,

Speaker 2 you know, it's obviously, it is, it's divisive. So it's like I'm on, there's a huge chunk of people.
I'm never going to get on board no matter what because of that.

Speaker 2 But then also a massive part of it that I, I frankly never saw coming is that

Speaker 2 there's been a huge influx of like right wing stuff in the comedy world specifically. Like, and that never used to be the case.

Speaker 2 It used to be like, it it was like a stereotype or cliche, even that it's like, are there any conservative comedians? Is there anybody funny that's conservative? It's like, it just doesn't happen.

Speaker 2 And there'd be like a couple of token ones you could throw out or whatever. It's like, well, post-9-11, Dennis Miller is, you know, he's pretty good.

Speaker 2 Or it's like, you know, Nick DiPaolo or Adam Carolla or guys like that. But like, they were very much the minority.
And now

Speaker 2 the objectively, the biggest

Speaker 2 people in the comedy world are like at least at least somewhat associated with like the right or

Speaker 2 if not all the way on the right at least they're like they're like you know anti-woke or whatever they're flirting with it they're flirting some of them some of those guys that get categorized over there

Speaker 2 i don't think it's fair i don't think they they are actually like that but they do have a lot of fans that believe they are like that and then and then some of those guys i mean it's you know they just are that way Are that way?

Speaker 1 Yeah, right.

Speaker 2 But there's a huge chunk of them and they're like some of the biggest names in comedy and serious power brokers and all that. And it's like, I

Speaker 2 never,

Speaker 2 ever would have anticipated that that would happen when I was getting started.

Speaker 1 Absolutely right. And it's kind of strange.
It's like it's flipped upside down. And part of me thinks that some of the podcast comedy,

Speaker 1 man is fear, whatever they're calling it these days, bro is fear, bro, podcast fear. I don't even know what the new name is.
You You know, everything's something, everything's got a name.

Speaker 1 I don't know what it is. So part of me believes that

Speaker 1 it's in fashion to troll and to press those buttons because that's where the clicks and the likes are.

Speaker 1 And the more you can flirt with it and be controversial while maintaining a brand that can be on SNL or wherever, then the better off you're going to be.

Speaker 1 So it's like one foot in, one foot out, and you know, in for a penny, in for a pound kind of thing. Like, we're here now, so this is what I'm going to do.

Speaker 1 And then five years from now, it'll be another thing. And then five years, it'll be another thing.
Feels disingenuous to me. And I think I can see through it with some of these folks.

Speaker 1 And some of these folks, I believe they really believe it, right? It's it, that's the way it is. And there's no doubt that, you know, Rogan has had an influence on all of that.

Speaker 1 He had become a serious power broker in comedy. No more Carson.
Now it's Rogan and others, right?

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 you have been faithful to kind of these causes that you have always,

Speaker 1 I imagine, believed in. You say that you grew up in a rather liberal household,

Speaker 1 and that may have been strange for where you grew up. I mean, I think it's a stereotype to say that the entire deep south is, you know, conservative, Bible-beating, you know,

Speaker 1 troglodytes, as you put it, because there are a lot of people who don't think that way or feel that way. We live in Atlanta.
We know it.

Speaker 1 Even in the deep, deep south, Valdosta, Georgia, or, you know, North Lake,

Speaker 1 North Lake, Florida.

Speaker 1 Yeah, in the rural areas, I think they also get a bad rap sometimes, too. I'm sure there are plenty of people who have liberal leanings that live in those areas also.
But

Speaker 1 when you were growing up,

Speaker 1 and I guess politics wasn't as much of a conversation starter back then, but did you ever feel like a fish out of water, believing and feeling certain ways, but yet being around in areas where there was a lot of conservative conversation?

Speaker 2 oh, yeah, all the time. But even though it wasn't as much of a thing, you weren't supposed to talk about like religion and politics, right?

Speaker 2 But, but still, but the main thing for me, I've talked about this a lot, but it's true.

Speaker 2 The thing that made it different is that, like, so I was raised by a single father, and my dad had only one sibling, a younger brother, my uncle Tim.

Speaker 2 And my uncle Tim is openly gay and has been since I was born. So, uh,

Speaker 2 and this was, you know, I'm growing up, I'm a kid in the 90s in the rural South. So there's like,

Speaker 2 I mean, just rampant homophobia, you know, and

Speaker 2 I, I, you know, I always loved Uncle Tim and was always just very opposed to that. And part of that also is that, so like, I also, I did not grow up in the church at all.

Speaker 2 Uh, so those two things definitely made me sort of stand out.

Speaker 2 But the thing, and also I was very, combative is not the right word, but I was very open with how I felt about that stuff and my disagreements. And a lot of people are,

Speaker 2 a lot of times, the people in places like that who are on the other side or on the left or whatever, they just, they like never speak up and I don't blame them.

Speaker 2 It's like, you don't want to be the one that ruins Thanksgiving dinner or whatever or just gets yelled, gets ganged up on.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 So I get it, but I never had that problem when I was growing up. And what I've always chalked that up to is the other thing that was going on with me as a kid was that like,

Speaker 2 I was the smart kid in my school. And which I say now, I realize now looking back is like being the straightest guy at a share concert.
You know,

Speaker 2 it's not really that impressive, but I didn't know that. I had no frame of reference.
So like at the time as a child and as a teenager, like I literally left that town.

Speaker 2 I left high school genuinely believing that I was like goodwill hunting, like a like a prodigy level intellect. Like that's what I, that's how I thought of myself.
Right.

Speaker 2 And then realizing in my 20s that that was not the case, like really screwed me up and engendered a major quarter life crisis that fucked fucking me for like a lot of gifted kids have that problem.

Speaker 2 You end up being like a, you know, just a burned out husk at 26 or whatever. But anyway.

Speaker 1 That's true, true.

Speaker 2 But as a kid and as a teen, I thought very, very highly of myself in terms of intelligence and intellect.

Speaker 2 And so it was always a thing where it's like, well, yeah, all these, so many of these people surrounding me, they disagree with me, but like, you know, of course they do.

Speaker 2 They're all idiots, and I'm brilliant, you know, like, so it makes sense that I would be the only one who's right about this thing, you know, like that's how I looked at it, which is like Da Vinci and they're the dum-dums, right?

Speaker 2 Yes, exactly. And it's like, that's, you know, I realize now that's, I mean, I'm very self-aware of how douchey and insufferable that is now.

Speaker 2 But at the time, I wasn't aware of that. So, like,

Speaker 2 so because I felt that way, I had, I just had no qualms about, about just being up front with like, that's ridiculous. That, you know, you're wrong, I'm right, whatever.
And pushing back on people.

Speaker 2 So like, I remember one time a story I always think of, we had

Speaker 2 our English class, like one Friday a month English class in high school became debate class because they didn't, they couldn't justify an entire like debate team or debate class.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 2 But like one Friday a month, it'd be like, okay, today's debate day. And

Speaker 2 we came in there one day and it was that Friday. And she goes, this is, you know, 2003 or whatever the timeline was for this.

Speaker 2 We were just gearing up to, we were debate, the country was debating whether to go to war in Iraq, right? Like weapons of mass destruction and all that. And she's like,

Speaker 2 who all here thinks we should go to war with Iraq? And roughly half the kids raised their hand. And she was like, okay, who thinks we shouldn't? And it was literally just me.

Speaker 2 Like, I was the only one who raised my hand in all class and she goes and who doesn't have an opinion and the other half of them raised their hand like i don't care and she's like okay you guys are on trey's team you get over here on you guys get on this half of the room and everybody else on this side but you know they had all just said they didn't even care so it was literally just me it was literally just me versus the other half of the team but but i was completely unbothered by that you know well i ended up getting bothered by it because i was like oh you know they're over there yelling like they knocked their damn towers down we got to do something now.

Speaker 2 And it's like, no, they didn't. Like I was bothered by the idiocy of it all, but like,

Speaker 2 but I wasn't bothered by the prospect of having to like, you know,

Speaker 2 be alone and, yeah, and

Speaker 2 push back on all that because I've been doing it my whole life. So I like,

Speaker 2 yes, I was very aware of being, like, I've been,

Speaker 2 it's like a running theme with me is I'm kind of a man without a country. I've been that way my, my whole life because I never really fit in in my hometown.
And like now I live in L.A.

Speaker 2 and I mean you know you'll be surprised to hear I don't super fit in here either

Speaker 2 so I just kind of never never really have so you know I'm I'm adjusted to it do you have any

Speaker 1 here's here's my sense of it and and like you I grew up I mean I don't say when I grew up in a liberal household, I grew up in an Irish Catholic household and my father leaned conservative.

Speaker 1 My mother was liberal about almost every social issue, which I think I picked up on that kind of empathetic nature of hers.

Speaker 1 And it made me really see the world in a different way to put myself in other people's shoes before speaking and, you know, all that stuff, like do unto others, the stuff that Jesus taught, the pretty simple stuff.

Speaker 1 But,

Speaker 1 you know, I always felt strongly that,

Speaker 1 you know, the government, a political faction, shouldn't be bullies. That was just kind of my thing.

Speaker 1 And so I'd never really felt strongly about conservatism because I always felt there was a little bit of that in it always.

Speaker 1 But that being said, I don't disagree with everything that the conservatives have to say.

Speaker 1 I don't think government should, I don't think we should have to fill out a piece of paper in triplicate to walk across the street, right? I think the government needs to be smaller.

Speaker 1 It needs to work more for the people in the middle and down below. And I think that, you know, there is a lot of waste that goes on in government.

Speaker 1 And so for me, I don't totally disagree with, I hate Doge and everything that it stands for under the, under Musk, right?

Speaker 1 But because I just don't agree with the methodologies and the way he's going about it and the reasoning that he's going about it.

Speaker 1 I don't think it's as simple as I want to cut waste and fraud. I think there's very complicated reasons in this own man's head.
But I agree that we could probably get rid of some of the stuff that

Speaker 1 we just don't need or we're spending too much money on. Do you feel that there is any common ground with the current administration? Do you feel like, does Trey agree with any of the things?

Speaker 2 No, the current administration, I mean, I mean, kind of just to steal your answer, I mean, I like, like I mentioned earlier, I used to work for the Department of Energy. So, like,

Speaker 2 I know firsthand, like,

Speaker 2 I'm sorry if it's inconvenient for anybody, but like, it's just true. There's a lot of areas in the federal government that could be tightened up.

Speaker 1 Let's say,

Speaker 1 like, it's pretty bad.

Speaker 2 Like, I got a political podcast and my co-host on there, he's the smartest guy I know, and he's very, he's very anti-all things, you know, Trump and MAGA and all that.

Speaker 2 And he hates Elon and he hates Doge.

Speaker 2 And when we'll be talking about it, I'll tell him, I'll be like, well, look, you know, to be fair, man, like, there's, there, you know, we could clean some of it up.

Speaker 2 And he just, you know, he's always like,

Speaker 2 you know, he don't want to hear it. He's like, that just feed, don't, don't, you know.
It feeds into the narrative. It feeds into the narrative, whatever.

Speaker 2 But my whole thing is that it's like, okay, but I, but it, I, I know that it is true, though.

Speaker 1 Like, I,

Speaker 2 yeah. Like, I've seen it.
So I'm not going to, I'm not going to act like it isn't just because, you know, it's like inconvenient for my political beliefs or whatever.

Speaker 2 But like you said, the methodology is insane and the way they're going about it is ridiculous. So it kind of doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 It's also like, I mean, even going back to the very beginning of Trump, it's like the town that I'm from in Tennessee was wrecked by NAFTA and everything and opioids and all that.

Speaker 2 And just, it was actually a blue county for years up until like around the turn of the century, like Southern Democrat working man type shit. And then now it's hardcore Trump country.

Speaker 2 And it's like, I was always.

Speaker 2 sympathetic to the reasons that they felt because my town has been like utterly decimated and people there have been really screwed over through no fault of their own.

Speaker 2 They have a very valid beef with like things that have happened in this country. I just was always like,

Speaker 2 but this dude is not the answer for any of that.

Speaker 2 So there's a lot of it that I'm sympathetic to. Like you say, is populism, a general, a like more leftist populist message, like obviously like Bernie Sanders or something.

Speaker 2 That's really more aligned with where I'm at. There's plenty of things people do actually agree with.
If you take the

Speaker 2 letters out of it, you take the R's and the D's out of it and all that.

Speaker 2 And it's just about like, you know, most people agree with regular, you know, everyday Americans having more money in their pocket, pocket, getting paid better. You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 Most people are okay with taxing the rich and corporations, which more, you know, I'm kind of a no-war, but a class war type person. Like, I'm, I, I think it all really comes down to that.

Speaker 2 I, I believe that most of the culture war things are just purposeful distractions, you know, that like turn people against one another.

Speaker 2 And it's like, don't get me wrong, that's not, I think the trans people should have rights.

Speaker 2 I'm just saying the whole narrative around even debating it in the first place is just serve, it means, you know, just serves to like distract people from stuff that really matters is my opinion.

Speaker 2 So, and I think there's a lot of people, like you, I've heard Theo Vaughn talk about how like, or on his show, like

Speaker 2 a lot of people on his show, they,

Speaker 2 they like, you know, they hate like, oh, the, the billionaires that are really in charge or whatever.

Speaker 2 But the people that I'm talking about, they think that those billionaires are all like, you know, liberal elite billionaires, like George Soros and that type of of thing.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And it's like, I hate the billionaires are in charge, but I'm like, but I'm talking about, you know, the one that we see being in charge every day who's like clearly on the right.

Speaker 2 Like, I got a problem. Like, I've seen people tweet out, you know, it's like Elon's going to, you know, finally get rid of all these corrupt billionaires that are ruining our government, you know?

Speaker 1 And it's like, it's such a, it's, it is such a

Speaker 1 dumb, dumb thing to say. And I agree with you 100%.
I, I, I know a conservative that's, that,

Speaker 1 you know, yelling and screaming on Facebook. Elon's saving us.
He's got a great plan. He's going to

Speaker 1 get rid of the billionaire class. And it's like he is the epitome of the billionaire class.
And

Speaker 1 that kind of power unchecked on either side of the aisle.

Speaker 1 We should all have a healthy dose of skepticism about someone that wants to amass as much wealth as possible and make everybody else under him uncomfortable for no reason. That's it.

Speaker 1 Government is not, unfortunately, is not a private company.

Speaker 1 It's not a startup.

Speaker 1 It's not a small business mom and pop shop. It doesn't work and operate the same way and you can't treat it as such.

Speaker 1 There are things that the government does in the public eye and behind the scenes that just need to be treated differently because it's serving the people that elect it to happen and it can't be treated like that.

Speaker 2 It can't be motivated by profit margins and stuff. That's correct.
Some things are just not meant to be motivated by that. So you can't, yeah, you can't treat them the same way.

Speaker 1 I totally, totally agree with you. And,

Speaker 1 you know, and I think it's important, I mean, my opinion is it's important that when we find common ground with the other side of the aisle or people that we don't agree with, that we recognize that common ground because that's the way that we get less tribal, right?

Speaker 1 Is by saying, yeah, he's just like me.

Speaker 1 I think by and large, the people who voted for Trump, I imagine by and large, those people, they're good, hardworking people who just want better for their families and realized that it doesn't, that for some reason have been told or whatever that, you know,

Speaker 1 this particular version of it, the Kamala Harris version or whatever, the Biden version, didn't work for you. And they got convinced of that, but they wanted something different.

Speaker 1 They felt like they needed someone to shake that up. And, you know, hopefully maybe they'll see that this is kind of a little bit of a screwy mess right now.

Speaker 1 Who do you think leads the Liberal Party into the next generation? Like, do you, do you think it's kind of like a little

Speaker 1 like maybe the old guard is?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I definitely think it's time for the old guard to move on. I don't know, other than a couple that are obvious that already are there.
Like, I mean, AOC and Jasmine Crockett or whatever.

Speaker 2 And I like Eric Swalwell out here in California and some other people. But like

Speaker 2 I think one of the videos I just made recently was about how how the Democratic Party needs like a complete paradigm shift, in my opinion. It's like

Speaker 2 they need their own version of the Tea Party moment, like from the early 2010s, you know, where it's like

Speaker 2 some new faction or force needs to establish itself and shift them in a different direction because they're like completely lost at sea right now.

Speaker 2 And yeah, the old guard, you know, the Chuck Schumers of the world are just like,

Speaker 2 I just, I'm just ready for them to go go on.

Speaker 1 So I don't know.

Speaker 2 I have no interest in those people being around.

Speaker 1 If I get the double talk out of their mouths anymore,

Speaker 1 it does frustrate me to no end. And I don't believe in their ability to lead.
And it's driving me crazy. They were good for 1989, not for 2025.

Speaker 1 And I think it's time for, you know, there's got to be a turnover. There's got to be a reckoning if there's going to continue to be a strong, you know, liberal party in this country.

Speaker 1 And that liberal party needs to understand that most people agree with smaller government. You know, there's things that they need to work for the middle class again and not be so concerned.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's the biggest thing. I agree to do.

Speaker 1 Yeah, totally. And, you know, we had, do you know, Channel 5 News, Andrew Callahan from Channel 5 News, the YouTube channel, Channel 5? Do you know who I'm talking about? Oh, yeah, no breaks.
Oh, yes.

Speaker 1 Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's called Channel 5. So he came on the show and he was really interesting.
He's another smart guy.

Speaker 1 I think of you as a smart guy also. You know, that guy who debated the entire half of the class on the war in Iraq.
But he's another smart guy.

Speaker 1 And he said, I don't even think there'll be a Democratic ticket in 2028. And I was like, wow.
He's like, not the way it looks right now. I think it's got it.
It'll be a totally different thing. Right.

Speaker 1 And I was like, wow. He's like, there's just no strong leadership in that old guard anymore that can take you into this next version of what politics looks like.

Speaker 1 And I think he might be right about that. Yeah.
I really do. Your new special trash daddy is on YouTube.
Are you on the never-ending tour? Do you always? Always.

Speaker 2 Perpetually.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 I'm always going, you know,

Speaker 2 three weekends a month at least, sometimes all of them. I'm out and about around the country doing shows.
So, yeah, you see all that at TreyCrowder.com.

Speaker 1 Sorry, I don't know this, but you have a wife and do you have children? Yeah, they're middle school boys. They're 12 and 13.
Oh, yeah. You've got teenagers.
What's that all about?

Speaker 1 Tell me. I don't know.

Speaker 2 I'm living in fear, constant fear, of staring down the barrel of teenager gum, and I'm hyper-aware of it.

Speaker 1 You know that at some point, the lion cubs become the lion, right? At some point, the old lion dies, like is eaten by the younger cubs or something like that.

Speaker 1 My friend, who's had, I have small children. They're like half your age, but I have a million of them.

Speaker 1 One of my friends who had children young had a son, and when the kid turned 13, he got big.

Speaker 1 I mean, he got big, he got strong, and you know, they would get into little fussing matches about, you know, cleaning the room or whatever. And he's like, I'm honestly scared.

Speaker 1 Lion Cup has become the lion. Like, he now leads to pride.
He's like,

Speaker 2 take me, good. My 13-year-old is like, he's, he's taller than my wife, and he's, you know, approaching my height.

Speaker 2 So he's definitely shooting up, but he's also, he's like, you know, he's a little Timothy Chalamay. He's a, you know, he's kind of, he's kind of a beam pole.

Speaker 2 So I'm not worried about that part just yet.

Speaker 2 But yeah no i'm it's it's wild i've got two good friends the guys i mentioned earlier the comics that i toured with they uh they both had babies in the past like 18 months their first children their first babies in the past 18 months and so i've just been really really i've been thinking a lot about like you know the inexorable march of time and that type of thing and uh just the fact that you know kids are only they're only little once and then you know and that's for me that's over and now they're becoming you know hormone monsters and all that it's just uh

Speaker 2 wild part of it, but you know, it's pretty crazy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm an older dad, and I was talking with someone about this the other day. I think that has benefited me in one way is that I do understand.

Speaker 1 At 20, I didn't understand my own mortality, even at 30. Right.
At my age, I definitely understand my mortality. And it's a double-edged sword.

Speaker 1 I can see time marching quickly toward my end, but when they're young, I think I'm appreciating those moments right now because I

Speaker 1 see that mortality. So, Trey Crowder, I think you're one of the great voices of a generation.
I really do.

Speaker 1 And I think it's important, you know, not everyone chooses this road, but it's not the easy way out. And I think that you are saying some things that people need to hear.

Speaker 1 And I hope that, you know, I hope that even if our listeners are conservative, that you go, Trey's pragmatic. He's practical.
He's not out that, you know, he's not out there,

Speaker 1 you know, on the far fringes of conversation. He's saying things that make a lot of sense.
And I hope that you go follow him, TreyCrowder.com.

Speaker 1 You can find out where he's coming so you can get tickets to go see him. And please watch the new special, Trash Daddy.
You're welcome here anytime, Trey.

Speaker 2 Thank you guys so much. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 Thank you. Thank you very much.
Appreciate it.

Speaker 3 Let me do something Brian has never done.

Speaker 1 Be brief.

Speaker 3 Follow us on Instagram at the Commercial Break. Text or call us 212-433-3TCB.
That's 212-433-3822. Visit our website, tcbpodcast.com, for all the audio, video, and your free sticker.

Speaker 3 Then watch all the videos at youtube.com/slash the commercial break. And finally, share the show.
It's the best gift you could give a few aging podcasters.

Speaker 3 See, Brian, that really wasn't that difficult now, was it? You're welcome.

Speaker 1 Hey, Ryan Reynolds here, wishing you a very happy half-off holiday because right now, Mint Mobile is offering you the gift of 50% off unlimited. To be clear, that's half price, not half the service.

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Speaker 1 I do like Trey's outlook on things, and I think he's a smart guy. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 He just kind of got thrown right into the middle of it. And now here he is, but he's not shying away from the spotlight or the fire.

Speaker 1 In fact, he steps in, says he's stepping into it because he feels now it's more important than ever. And hey, listen, braver than I am, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 I mean, but no one wants to hear my opinion on any of that shit. Not even my wife.

Speaker 1 I like Trey. He's a

Speaker 9 Tennessee connection for me.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there you go. All right.

Speaker 1 Okay, well, TreyCrowder.com, that's where you find out more information. You can get tour tickets to his tour.
You can find a link to his special, special, Trash Daddy. And

Speaker 1 yeah, that's on YouTube also. And

Speaker 1 there's lots of other stuff to digest out there. Trey Crowder on Instagram, on TikTok, on YouTube.
He's got his own podcast. He makes appearances on a lot of other podcasts like ours.

Speaker 1 So there's lots of Trey Crowder out there for you to digest. We would appreciate it if you do.

Speaker 1 All right, 12 hours of TCB coming up May 31st. Don't want to miss out.
Set your calendars. Put an alarm on, kids.
Get up early. Get your coffee.

Speaker 1 Take a shower. Clean your ass.
This is going to be a long day for all of us. And I hope that you join.
And we may do a live show also. So stay tuned for more information about that.

Speaker 1 We'll get it to you just as soon as we have it.

Speaker 1 Probably just a few weeks before the event.

Speaker 1 tcbpodcast.com that's where you find out more information about chrissy and i all the show notes all the guests all the links to the guests information it's all there at tcbpodcast.com.

Speaker 1 You can also get your free sticker. I just saw Astrid, one of my kids, was helping Astrid pack stickers into envelopes, and I thought that was so fucking cute.

Speaker 1 And she, I did, and she was very excited about it, but we don't share that kind of stuff on Instagram. But

Speaker 1 okay, yeah, but she was so cute, and she was so excited about it. She's like, I'm helping.
And I'm like, oh, thank you.

Speaker 1 Can you do an episode for me? Because I'm really tired today.

Speaker 1 At the commercial break on aforementioned aforementioned Instagram TCB podcast on TikTok

Speaker 1 and youtube.com/slash the commercial break for all the videos the same day they air here on the audio. Go there, check it out.
We got a new studio.

Speaker 1 If you want to see Trey's pretty face, you want to see Chrissy's pretty face? Do you want to see a face of mine? You can go check that out on youtube.com/slash the commercial break. 212-433-3TCB.

Speaker 1 212-433-3822. Questions, comments, concerns, content, ideas? We'll take them all via text message or leave us a voicemail and be the next voice of the commercial break.

Speaker 1 Okay, Chrissy, that's all I can do for now. I think so.
I'll tell you that I love you. And I love you.
Best to you.

Speaker 1 And best to you out there in the podcast universe. Until next time, Chrissy and I will say, we do say, and we must say.
Goodbye.

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