TCB Infomercial: Phil Hanley

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What do you do, sir?

You got a great smile.

You're so handsome.

I'm a forensic analyst.

A forensic analyst?

Okay, cool.

I dabble a little bit.

I watched the show, right?

How long did you go to college?

Four years.

That's it?

I thought you'd have to go back from, you know what I mean?

You're like a doctor of the dead, dude.

Not that kind of forensics.

No, what kind of forensics?

Audio, video.

Oh, shit.

Never mind, dude.

All right.

I thought it was, you know what I mean?

Audio forensics.

Someone's like, this radio's not working.

Don't worry, I aced my finals.

It's unplugged.

on this episode of the Commercial Break.

That's a real hurdle in life, I can imagine.

And so, what gets you through that when you're young?

Is that, I'm sure that that's like a

it was like I had the best like childhood kindergarten, just killed it.

Unbelievable.

Kindergarten was your, that's your high watermark?

We walked out and I peaked.

And then I arrived in the first grade and yeah, like everyone started reading.

And I was just like, so like it was like all of a sudden from like the first grade, it just became like this like Dickens play where it was like all of her was so dark and

didn't know.

Now, I mean, it's like completely, it's like a positive thing to be dyslexic.

The next episode of the commercial break starts now.

Oh, yeah, cats and kittens, welcome back to the commercial break.

I'm Brian Greene.

This is my dear friend and the co-host of this show, Chris and Joy Hozley.

Best to you, Chris.

Best to you, Brian.

Best to you out there in the podcast universe.

How the hell are you?

Thanks for joining us on a TCB infomercial Tuesday with a personal favorite stand-up comedian, Phil Hanley.

Yes, I can't wait to see him.

Very excited about this one.

Phil has been around for a long time.

He is one of those comics who is noted by other comics as their favorite.

And I'm interested to ask him about that because when your heroes then denote you as their hero I wonder what that feels like it must feel good plus he's a deadhead plus he's a deadhead and we're never gonna we're never gonna hate on a deadhead here like an OG deadhead yes not like a John Mayer fan who then became a deadhead because John Mayer's in the band no shade on John Mayer he plays a wonderful guitar he's a virtuoso if you don't mind Kristen but

That's not a real deadhead.

A real deadhead is a Jerry Deadhead, like a deadhead from way back in the day.

Or you got turned on to the Grateful Dead in its original format.

And I have a feeling The Grateful Dead is going to be one of those bands that iterates and iterates and iterates.

I think so, for sure.

There's going to be

some

lineage of the Grateful Dead playing Infinitum.

For sure.

Like the children of the Grateful Dead, the grandchildren of somebody in the Grateful Dead.

Somebody's going to continue this on forever and ever.

Maybe John Mayer will be that guy.

Maybe when the older folks kind of pack it in or pack it up, then John takes it to a new place.

Anyway, I'm excited to ask Phil about all of this.

He is also an advocate for mental health and specifically dyslexia, which I'd like to talk to him about.

Also, he's got a book.

It's called Spellbound, My Life as a Dyslexic Wordsmith.

And so if you want to check that out, please do.

I'll put all of the social handles.

Also, Phil is going to be somebody you recognize because I think he has made the art of crowd work very popular on social media.

He's like one of the original people doing this in the current format that we're all so familiar with.

Like crowdwork is social media stand-up.

If you're not doing crowd work,

you're not doing social media stand-up, I guess is the best way to put it.

It's so popular and this gets all the clicks and all the views.

I mean, there are certainly stand-up comics who put just their stand-up comedy out there, but that crowd work, people love it when the crowd gets involved.

Oh, yeah.

It's kind of part of the show.

For a lot of people, it is.

And Phil is so good at this, it's like he's working a muscle that is bigger than the rest of ours.

And I don't want to be specific about which muscle because we can all point that out on Brian, okay?

Shut up.

Anyway, all of Phil's information down in the show notes below.

We're going to talk to Phil about all of it.

But first, Chrissy, and unfortunately, we have to do what we always do, which is take a short break.

And then, through the magic of telepodcasting, Phil Hanley will be right here in this studio on our television, a thousand miles away from some exotic location,

calling in just to talk to you and I.

Doesn't it make you feel special?

It does.

Yeah.

It gives me a little pep in the step.

It's the only thing I have to look forward to in my life.

It's what somebody puts on our TV.

Our brush.

Our brush with fame.

Yes.

Our brush with someone else who is more wealthy, more famous, and better looking than us.

Phil Hanley, all of those things.

We'll take a break and we'll be back.

Okay, you're probably wondering why I, Rachel, have taken over the voice duties at TCB.

It's pretty simple.

Astrid asked me to shut Brian up, even for a minute.

Well, lovely Astrid, your wish is my command.

Do you want to help Astrid too?

You know, you do.

Leave a message for her or me or Chrissy at 212-433-3 TCB.

That's 212-433-3822.

You can be on the show too.

Just call and say something, anything, or text us and we'll text you right back.

Promise.

Then head over to tcbpodcast.com and get your free sticker.

It's your constitutional right to a sticker and we must abide.

You get the point.

Follow us on Instagram at thecommercial break and watch all the episodes on video at youtube.com/slash thecommercial break.

Best to you and Astrid, especially especially Astrid.

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And he's here with us now.

Phil is here with us now.

Fellow Deadhead and Comic Extraordinaire.

You obviously have been a Grateful Dead fan for a long time.

Yeah, since I was a kid, yeah.

Well, who got you into Grateful Dead?

I had older friends that went to college and they,

you know, they kind of got me into like all the live shows and stuff.

But initially, I was a really heavy, I was really into heavy metal.

And I heard of a band called The Grateful Dead, and I was like, oh, these guys have to be so heavy.

Yeah.

That's what I thought, too.

I was a little disappointed.

Yeah.

But I started liking them when I was really, really young.

And then I'm extremely dyslexic.

And I found out that Bob Weir, the rhythm guitar player, was extremely dyslexic.

And

yeah, I was like, you know, yeah, this is this is you found some common ground.

Like a hero, somebody you looked up to was

essentially dealing with the same struggles you were.

Absolutely.

And doing it with such grace and

was just, you know, spectacular, spectacularly dyslexic.

And yeah, so it was, you know, really inspiring.

Can you tell me, because I am

not.

I actually suspect that one of my children may have dyslexia, but they're very young.

And so now's not the time to test them.

You know, they don't even really know how to read yet.

But I just have some suspicions, and I've read online.

Can you explain to me, because I'm just ignorant about it,

what do you see when you're dyslexic?

What do you see when you're trying to read something or you're looking at something?

It really varies.

First off, I can diagnose kids with dyslexia from like a mile away.

Oh, really?

Yes,

if you're a kid or if you're interacting with a child and they're really personable, well, like socially, you know, like chatting with adults and very

interested, like intelligent, very bright kid.

Yeah.

Yet for some reason, they can't, you know, dyslexia really affects organization.

And as far as reading

goes,

it varies.

For me, I can't identify a symbol with a sound.

So non-dyslexic could see a last name or a street name or a word that you're introduced to and ballpark it and get pretty close.

I'm like, no idea.

Like, it might as well be in another language.

I think this is why I have some concerns is because the organization, when they, I'm not going to, I'm not going to out them here on the podcast, and they're very young still, but when they look at a piece of paper and, you know, we're like doing the ABCs or something like that.

The problem is in the organization of it.

She won't identify a letter and repeat it again again and again.

She can't, she doesn't understand those sounds.

And so I just have some concerns.

And, you know, we talked to the teacher and the teacher said, too young, but maybe, you know, too young.

That's a real hurdle in life, I can imagine.

And so what gets you through that when you're young?

Is that, I'm sure that that's like a.

It was like, I had the best, like childhood kindergarten just killed it.

Unbelievable.

Kindergarten was your, that's your high watermark?

We walked out and I peaked.

And then I arrived in the first grade grade and yeah, like everyone started reading.

And I was just like, so like, it was like all of a sudden from like the first grade, it just became like this like Dickens play where it was like Oliver was so dark and

didn't know.

Now, I mean, it's like completely, it's like a positive thing to be dyslexic in my mind.

To my teachers that it's so funny.

I think back and I'm like, God, she must have been 80 years old, but she was probably like 31.

Right.

We say this all the time.

We say this all the time.

But they were just, you know, they called me stupid and they were really discouraging.

And I was blessed with the parents that I have that my mom would kind of go in and advocate and get me through the school.

But dyslexics, we excel in all these areas, just not sitting in a shitty little desk learning some boring ass, you know what I mean?

Yes.

Lucky it's all appreciate or whatever word they're like.

But everything else, else, you know, we excel creatively.

We think, they say dyslexics think 3D.

But reading is just not, I force myself to read, but when a dyslexic reads, we actually use a different part of our brain.

It's really

taxing.

But

very interesting.

I'm so glad there's more awareness.

Yeah, that there's a lot more awareness and that it's treated.

Listen, everybody's got something.

We're not all cookie cutters.

Totally.

Totally.

Yeah.

It's because, and people always say that, like, oh, well, now everyone's ADHD and everyone's dyslexic and everyone's on the spectrum.

It's like, yeah, because we're not as ignorant and we're educated and we can recognize that different people

have different challenges, but every challenge kind of is also something else that we'll excel in.

And so my like life's mission.

is to talk to parents from particularly dislike parents of a dyslexic kid, but anyone in the neurodiversity world.

And I'm like, just maintain their self-esteem.

And I guarantee they will excel at whatever they do once they leave school.

Because we're nine and we have the grit of someone that's been through like three divorces.

Like

Halloween back and we're not 10 yet.

Yeah.

We're tenacious and determined and have all the skills that you really want to instill in a kid.

They're just inevitably going to happen when you have a dyslexic child.

It's like a blind person who all of of a sudden has this amazing hearing or ability to read music, or someone who's autistic who, you know, has it's non-verbal, but then all of a sudden can play a piece of music hearing at once.

You're working different muscles just because one area.

Listen, I'm weak in most areas of my life, but I excel at putting mediocre comedy podcasts out four days a week.

Do you make the connection that

dyslexia in some shape or form

pushed you toward comedy?

Like, was it a defense mechanism?

Comedy became your thing.

100%.

Like, everything in my life, including my relationship with my mom or everything that I'm grateful in my life, my love for the Grateful Dead, everything

is because I'm just like, I credit dyslexia with everything positive in my life.

I'm from a small town, kind of like a mini Detroit in Canada.

Now I live in New York City because I'm just like, like, all these things are because I'm dyslexic.

And And yeah, comedy,

yeah, because I was so stifled in school.

You're like, okay, read 10 pages and then you don't and then talk about it and you have nothing to say, you know, from first grade to grade 12.

So

recess and any opportunity that I did have to communicate, it was like, you know, my first set on the tonight show.

I was just ragging rock

and really wanted to express myself and let people know because I was so stifled in other areas.

And

you're really quite brilliant.

One of the, you know,

I've been following your comedy for a long time, and I think I really started to enjoy your comedy on social media during the pandemic.

You're brilliant at crowdwork.

I think it's one of the things you probably would be known for, at least on social media.

But one of the things that impressed me when I started doing homework about you, Phil, is that

there are so many other comedians who have said such wonderful things about you, like other legendary, you know, John Oliver and Jon Stewart.

And they say, and Sam Murrill, who we've had on the show, Mark Norman, they say such wonderful things about you.

You're a comic with a point, right?

And that's like some people, I think Amy Schumer said that's desperately needed.

Could you have imagined in your wildest dream, when did you start comedy?

I started comedy,

I started in Vancouver,

yeah, like a couple decades ago.

Yeah.

And with the dream of like

Vancouver's so far from New York City, but my goal was comedian had come out the documentary, the Seinfeld documentary.

Oh, right.

He hangs out at the comedy cellar and he's hanging out with Colin Quinn and working on jokes.

And that was like my dream.

And

yeah, so it seems so far away.

So yeah,

you didn't, I don't think I let you finish your question, but yeah, it's so surreal that I get to work with these people and that,

you know, I get to perform at the comedy cellar every night and stuff like that because it was so far away.

And it's really hard for Canadians to immigrate to the States and all that stuff.

Yeah,

go ahead, please.

No, I was just going to say, but that's all, I started with so many people that have now stopped doing comedy or, you know, stayed in Vancouver, which is great.

I mean, Vancouver is an amazing place to live.

Oh, so beautiful.

But

because I was dyslexic, I was like, I mean, stand-up is really hard.

And I have never been good at anything else.

I'm not good at anything else.

I'd never had anything like where the more you put into it, the more you get out of it type thing.

I just kind of stayed and just did comedy every day, wrote every day, tried to do shows every day.

So it took a long time.

But yeah, I mean, to me, I'm again, I'm so grateful that I know these people and get to perform with them and talk about jokes.

I guess my

second part of that question, do you, is it hard to take that compliment that the other people who are considered, you know, really good at the craft or comedians or people in comedy, you know, that are

you know put up on a pedestal essentially is it hard to take that compliment that they think you're the guy that they want to be like you know oh my god he's the guy that i i

feel great i mean i yeah

i've never heard anyone say it like that but and that would it feels great Yeah, it feels really good.

If someone said that to my face, I'd get really uncomfortable and change the subject.

I'm still very Canadian.

But

no, yeah, it feels really good, especially in comedy.

because, and it's like, I mean, comedians talk about it all the time, but it's the same in any aspect of pop culture is sometimes you can be

like, you know, all comics think David Tal is the greatest.

And he's not necessarily, you know, the most,

you know, he's not playing arenas.

A lot of comedians are playing arenas and stuff like that.

But it feels good because sometimes, you know, you do, you feel not recognized.

And I'm really grateful now.

Some people, you know, people are coming to my shows and stuff like that more and more.

But for many, many years,

I would just go and it would be, you know, people would get free tickets or, you know, I'd have six fans or whatever.

So it feels nice to get those compliments from other comedians because it takes a long time to be recognized in the sense that people are coming to your shows and stuff.

Yeah, you're like a true journeyman comic.

And do you...

Do you credit social media with this new fan base, like the ability to connect directly with people?

Yeah,

I was so, my goal was to play the comedy seller, and I did it.

And then for 10 years, I was just like, and I was watching a lot of my friends, like Sam and Mark, you know,

start playing theaters and all this stuff.

Make their own gin?

Yeah, yeah.

BodegaCat.

Bodega Cat.

But I, yeah, I was just really content writing.

And then I finally started,

yeah, posting online.

And I've always, I post crowd work clips because then I don't burn material right

by posting

jokes then when I try to sell a special they'll be like oh yeah we've seen this has all been posted so improvising part of my love for the grateful dead and I think their influence on me I want every show to be different each time so I improvise you know in my jokes and in between my jokes And then we just cut up those.

I tour now with like a videographer.

We cut up those chunks and then post those.

So then when people come to my shows, they haven't heard the jokes.

And then crowd work's going to be different each time.

So, yeah, that really helped me.

But I was so reluctant for social media.

Yeah.

You know, one, yeah, every so many comics we've talked to.

Yeah, it's tough.

It's tough.

You need to be consistent with it and really do it right.

Yes.

In the right way.

So yeah.

And it's intimidating.

It's for us, even.

It's intimidating.

Yeah.

And it's also, it's like comics get so spoiled because it's like we just do what we want to do every day.

You know, we get up, we get a coffee, we write joke, and then all of a sudden you got to start posting it.

Like, you hear if a comic has a dentist appointment the next day, it's like

you, the complaining, because it means they can't do exactly what they want to do.

Yeah,

it puts a kink in the armor.

You're like, holy shit, you mean I have something on my fucking, I got to be at the commercial break at 12.15.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Yeah, it's every because we're so you, we're really, you know, spoiled in that sense that we just kind of do exactly what we want to do all day, you know?

You know, I one time we had this like

conversation about the greatest American rock band and I made the argument that it's the Grateful Dead.

Yes.

Not because they have the greatest music in the world.

They have a lot of great music.

I'm also a deadhead.

I love the Grateful Dead.

Both of us, yeah.

Yeah.

But because

From the beginning, they weren't all that great.

They just started noodling around with each other.

But they went on a journey.

And without selling a ton of albums, they went on a journey.

And the mistakes and all the

improvisation, it was going to be good one night and bad the next.

Every single time that they picked up their instruments or Jerry started to sing or whoever, it was something different.

All the warts and all, it came out, but they, we watched that growth.

We watched them through that journey.

And I often think that, like, when I think about like George Carlin's,

you know, career,

or whoever, whoever you enjoy as a, as a comedian, if you looked at their entire history, the best often go through that.

They are journeyman comics.

They do improvise.

They're changing all the time.

The warts and all.

Some's good, some's bad, some's ugly.

How hard is it to get up there every night?

And I mean, you're so good at it probably now, but that crowd interaction, you're so fast and you're so snappy with it.

Is that just a muscle?

Is that like a muscle that you work?

You're in the zone?

Yeah, I think, I mean, it's,

I credit, I think it's part of my dyslexic brain.

Um, it's also,

when I started in Vancouver, I, I, I write really short jokes, and I was able to be funny for 10 minutes.

So these, you know, senior comedians in the scene would be like, come on the road with me to play some logging camp in the Rocky Mountains.

But they would be, they would say,

you have to do half an hour.

And I didn't have half an hour.

So I would be on stage and I would just please someone heckle, please.

A waitress drop a tray of drinks.

Like I would want something to happen so I could be like,

get off my material and go into the crowd for that.

And that was always,

that was, that was just something that I developed.

Always wanting something to happen, a heckle, anything, rush the stage, do something and rip on and stretch.

Because there's no worse feeling than, you know, a room of drunk people wearing plaid looking at you.

You know, you have half an hour and you, in your head, you're like, I have three minutes of material left.

Yeah.

It's not 12 minutes.

Like, I have 18 minutes cover.

So I think I developed it like that.

And I think it's really my humor when I'm riffing with the crowd and stuff is really the humor that my friends in Oshawa, Ontario grew up encouraging.

Me just being a smart ass at a party or, um,

yeah.

So

that part of my act, I've kind of been working on since I was like a kid, or my family really encouraged, uh, we would have these big dinners and we would invite my friends and my sister's friends and stuff.

And we would all kind of just riff and bust balls at the dinner table.

And it was really more important to my parents, particularly my dad, than my grades, was

being funny at dinner.

Nice.

And you mentioned someone rushing the stage.

Did that happen to you?

Oh, it's happened a few times.

Yeah.

That a woman,

a woman that could take me in an arm wrestle for sure,

rushed the stage.

And it was in, I mean, I've had it a few times, but not because I'm so provocative or whatever, but it's more just I did a lot of shitty gigs.

And I did

people were because they spent the money.

Yeah.

And I did a show in St.

Louis.

And I have a rule.

I try to be nice.

If someone heckles me or whatever, I try to approach them nicely.

And it rarely happens.

You know, when you go to a club, the bouncers are always like, if there's, you know, what should we say?

Do we have a coat?

And I'm like, no one's going to say any.

Like,

people that come to my shows are very well-behaved and just want to have fun or whatever.

Generally, but this is, I mean, God, this is probably 16 years ago or whatever.

No one was there to see me.

And I was in St.

Louis.

And before I took the mic out, her husband heckled me and I shot him down and wasn't particularly kind about it.

Yeah, okay.

And then the next thing I knew, I could see everyone's eyes like looking at me, like looking a little bit beside.

And this woman was just like shaking and seething because I heckled because I, you know, slammed her husband

and she was on stage.

And it was like,

you just sense when someone is like just so close to punching you.

Yes.

Yeah.

And the doorman didn't, the guys of the clubs didn't.

And I was like, you know, if I worked here, I would really.

So they finally got her off the stage and they sat her back in her seat which was fun row

it was brutal

but but it killed a lot of time yeah exactly

it killed 10 of the 20 minutes

but i'm sure that

Like, I don't know, I don't know if I was listening, like Tom Papa maybe was saying this.

One of the things about comedians is that we get out there.

Like a lot of middle-aged, you know, he was talking about like middle-aged men.

He's like a lot of middle-aged men, they're in their houses, they sit around, they watch TV, they go to work, they come home.

He's like, one of the things about comics is that we get to get out and we observe things and things happen and there's action and there's moments and, you know, we see different people and we get different perspectives.

I'm sure that after 20, 25 years of doing this, your brain is probably filled with all of these stories and moments.

And that becomes like,

I don't know,

it's like training for a marathon.

You know, you keep on going and you get through the next hurdle.

You break the next mile and you become better and better at what you do.

I really think

you're a very talented comic, but also you're really good at making a point.

I think there's a couple types of comics.

And I think,

if I may, the type of comic you are is you're funny, but then also you can make a point.

And I think that's when comedy.

is like a noble profession, right?

When you make a point.

Oh, thank you.

Yeah.

It's funny that you say that.

Yeah,

not that just comedians get to go out, but like we have to.

I was thinking, and this is such a crazy thought, but I was like,

you know, I'm working on a new hour and then I'm already planning that I have to record that in time to, you know, because every two years you go back to the next city, right?

Sure.

You need a new hour than you had two years ago type thing.

Right.

Like, I was walking down the street and it just popped in my head.

I was like, I gotta have a kit.

Like, I need that.

Right.

That provides material, right?

Yeah, like, you just need to change.

Something needs to change in your life.

Like, I just moved to a completely different neighborhood.

I lived in East Village forever.

I moved a new neighborhood, new building, different type of building.

Because I'm like, you just need to,

you know, you can't be a certain age and

talking about sex thing still.

Like, it's like everything else needs.

I mean, you can.

I mean, I would love to hear a comic that's 70 years old talking about sex thing.

Yes.

Yes.

For me, you just don't want to have, I had those jokes last time.

You need kind of new stuff.

Let me give you that comic's name.

His name is Eddie Brill.

And if you want to talk about your kids, do you know Eddie Brill?

I know Eddie.

I haven't seen Eddie in a while, but I do know Eddie

from when I first moved to New York.

Yeah.

He's still out there.

He's still kicking.

He's really, really very, very funny.

He's still out there

doing his thing.

He used to be, I think, the Letterman Talent Coordinator.

And he did warm-up for Letterman.

And yeah, he's someone who's been around for a long time.

They talk about, he must have amazing stories because, you know, we worked with all these legends.

We had a like Clubhouse was a thing during the pandemic.

Clubhouse was this app where you like social audio app.

Everyone would get on and start these rooms and talk to each other.

And we met Eddie Brill, and then we started doing a room with him.

And every Friday night, he would bring in comics to talk about their stories.

And Eddie would give all, you know, he had all these stories.

And one day he calls me up and he says, I need you to get on the phone with my friend bill um we're gonna have him in the room and i said oh okay and you got this is the podhead podcast had just started and i said okay who's your friend bill and 15 minutes later i'm on the phone with bill burr and i'm like holy eddie like you gotta give your brother a little bit of a rolodex yeah he's got a he had a rolodex uh a mile long so um you're in your new apartment It's it looks great from this angle.

I just want to let you know that.

Fantastic lighting.

Yeah, fantastic Lighting.

Do you still enjoy the hustle-bustle of comedy?

Is it like in your blood at this point?

I just like it.

I go.

I just,

it, it, because it's great because it's always, um,

it's always cha like, you know, it's always changing and you get to do different venues and stuff like that.

And I love like,

you know, trying to figure out jokes.

And then,

um, yeah, you get tired of

traveling and stuff like that.

But, um, yeah, it's, yeah, I mean, I, I love it.

And also now

i'm so grateful that you know i'll do after shows i i uh you know you get to meet people who you know they just found out their kids dyslexic you get to have that conversation i'm so grateful that a lot of i'll be on stage i'll look out there's a lot of tie-dyed shirts at my shows now there's a lot of deadheads that come to shows which yeah i'm always really excited about and you know talk to them and um so yeah i i think i enjoy it more.

It changes, but I enjoy it more now than probably ever.

Like, I'm so excited for the fall.

I have a big tour coming up.

And yeah,

I do.

I really love it.

Is this the part you're getting excited about?

Like, when we when we we've talked to Tom Papa a couple of times, a number of times, one of the things that he said has changed is that when he was young, you know, he went up and he did his set and, you know, he wanted to get the laughs and be the best and do the thing and sell out the arena.

He said, now what I really enjoy is I really like meeting the people, hanging out with the folks, you know, talking to them, hearing their personal stories.

And he goes, and it's always great when I get a hey, your comedy affected me and this.

He said, so my reason or my thoughts about success have changed.

I have the money.

I can do the thing, whatever.

He said, what I really enjoy now is getting to meet people and saying hi to them.

Is that you finding that similar in your?

Yeah, I do.

Yeah, I love that.

And also now I get to,

I can afford to bring the people that I like on the road with me and stuff like that, which is really cool.

And

yeah,

it's great to meet people.

I lived in England many, many years ago, and I get to play England now.

I did it last year, and I'll do it this year, and I'll do it next year.

And

yeah, so just the traveling to new places and meeting people.

And it's also, it's like,

I feel like now, if you just sit in your house and you watch TV and you watch the news, it's so, everything seems so divided.

Yes.

And for sure.

Right.

And it's a humor.

And you feel feel so

kind of isolated and you feel like this group of people think this way.

And then when you travel, like, you know, I'll play every, you know, red stage, blue stage.

And you meet people and you're like, yeah, you don't, you don't feel that anymore.

You really feel that, you know, you might not agree on everything, but, you know.

It's a lot more common.

Yes, absolutely.

Wow.

You meet great people that

probably didn't vote for the same person as you.

Yeah.

I think that part of like, I think loneliness is

comedy breaks down these walls.

Yeah.

It breaks down these walls.

And it can at times then give an opening.

It's like you open a, you take away the armor for a minute, opens a soft spot to open your mind to another idea or see that we are all, we all laugh at the same shit.

We all bleed the same color.

I mean, it's really interesting.

And I think that when you sit around and you, I think, first of all, I think social media and being online gives a lot of people courage that they otherwise don't, or some kind of stupidity that they otherwise don't have

in real life.

And number two is that these television stations, the news, and all this other stuff, it is there to divide us because that's what sells

advertising.

And then people become lonely.

And loneliness, I think, is a real epidemic.

And I love going to see live comedy for that.

for one reason.

Live music and live comedy.

Yeah, yeah.

It feels good to be in the same room laughing with people, to have a common something.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

And I always find that you'll like play,

you know, you'll play some on the weekend and you'll come back and people are like, oh, how was that?

And you're like, it was great.

I met the best people on the shows.

It was amazing.

And I think certain, like, you know, San Francisco people think that everyone's going to be like this way.

And then San Antonio, everyone, and it's, it's just not the case, you know?

True.

Well, maybe just cool people like your comedy, Phil.

Maybe that's what's going on.

Yeah, I

definitely

like my comedy are cool.

but I'll meet like I'll meet someone after the show and it'll be like, he'll be like, he'll work for like the FBI, like some job so far from, I'm like, whoa, I watch movies about it.

My favorite television show is about a guy like you.

And I don't like that guy on that show.

Who are the comics that you are bringing on the road?

Who are the up-and-comers?

Who do we need to pick?

Who do we need to invite onto the show?

One of my openers is

Ana Bianco,

and she's based in New York and super, super funny.

And then I also

bring someone named Michael Myers, who's a really cool dude.

He's based in Chicago, and

we have very similar tastes in music, and the green room is playing great tunes.

Yeah, it's great.

So that's really nice, and that's something that I never had before, you know?

Well, that backs into a question I like to ask every comic of note on this show is who, when you were growing up,

who were you watching and who do you consider some of the best comics, doing it today or doing it in the past?

When I started, I loved Seinfeld.

I used to watch Seinfeld all the time with my mom, and I loved Mitch Hedberg.

When I was in Vancouver, when I was first starting, Zach Alfanakis was filming a television show there.

And he would do stand-up.

And

he was like famous.

And he would play these like open mics that we would do, these like alternative rooms.

And I'd never seen

anyone so confident and so kind of

just like he'd take the mic and walk outside of the club.

Just so cool and so original.

Those are guys.

And then there's like local guys in Vancouver that, you you know, really influential.

There's a Canadian comedian named Brent Butt that's great.

Graham Clark is a local comedian in Vancouver that's still there.

That's amazing.

He does this

tele to raise money.

He does like 24 hours of stand-up comedy.

Oh, shit.

Yeah, it's insane.

And

that's where I got the idea.

We did 12 hours.

I had an idea to do 24 hours of podcasting for mental health awareness, but I decided it was bad for my mental health.

So I did 12 12 hours.

12 hours.

Yeah.

When did you do that?

Just about four weeks ago.

Yeah.

How did you feel afterwards?

We did felt okay, actually.

It wasn't the worst thing in the world.

Yeah.

Well, now we had like celebrity, we, and I say celebrity, we brought on like Tom Papa, Reggie Watts, some other, some other folks that we brought on, and we recorded

three of those, three or four of those ahead of time.

So it ended up being seven or eight episodes in a day that we put out, we recorded and then put out.

But I got to be honest, it wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be.

So now I do want to do the 24 hours, but Chrissy won't agree to it.

He said, just come in for 12.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's funny how

that when you do do, like, it is tiring.

And, you know, like, I have friends that work in like steel mills and stuff like that.

And I hate for them to hear me say this.

But

podcasting and stuff is really, it's funny because you're so engaged and you're so, you know,

you're really on.

So I would imagine 12 hours would be, you'd be pretty wiped.

It's exhausting.

We took a couple breaks and that's what did it.

Actually, you know what the strange thing is, is that what's called, we called it TCB's Endless Day.

And I think you were going to be one of the people who were going to come on and we were going to do an interview with you, but the timing didn't work out.

But we had, we were talking.

So anyway, whatever.

You were, but we're glad to have you now.

I wanted to ask you something.

about your mom because you talk very fondly of her.

I've seen throughout the years.

You've said a few things really nice

about your mom.

Is she still with us?

Yes.

Your mom?

And you still have a great relationship with her?

Talked to her for an hour and a half yesterday while I was grocery shopping.

I love that.

I love somebody who loves their mom.

I miss my mom.

Yeah, your mom is.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's got to be.

We're close.

I don't like that.

Do your mom and dad, do they have a great sense of, you said you already said it was important for your dad.

Yeah.

Being funny was important to your dad.

I wish my dad was like that.

We could be funny.

We are four boys in an an Irish Catholic house.

We could be funny at the dinner table, but

there was no value placed on that.

I think as we got into teenagers, maybe he loosened up a little bit.

But was your house a very funny place?

Was everyone in the house?

My dad is really funny.

My sister's really funny.

My mom is probably the greatest straight man.

I love that.

Yeah, and it's funny.

I've never bombed with my mom.

Everything I've ever said with my mom, I always hit.

That's

a good sense of humor.

That's got that.

I think that

in life, I mean, I guess you could look at it both ways.

We've talked, I think we've had conversations with people who had not so great childhoods and they were very disconnected from their parents and they ended up being remarkably funny.

But then there's a through line sometimes, I think, which is that

the environment that someone is in ends up fostering

the confidence to be funny, right?

It's like, there's no doubt I'm funny because my parents always thought I was funny or my family always thought I was funny.

So I had this already instilled self-confidence about who I was as a comedian just walking out the door.

And I love to hear when parents are supportive of the creativity of their children because not all parents are like that.

It takes, I think, I think that must be hard.

Yeah, it is important because comedy is like, you could have the greatest line, and if you like

don't say it exactly when it pops into your head, it's It's not, you know, like a tenth of a second later, it's no longer funny.

Like, the timing is so key.

Yeah.

And to have, like, I remember my, my friends have commented growing up, like later, that I would, like,

where did you get the confidence to be, you know, we'd be at like a, uh, we'd be in grade nine and at like a 12th grade party.

And I would have no qualms with bah, bah, bah, you know, be bop and statin.

And it just never, I don't know.

It just popped into my head.

So I felt that I should say it.

But obviously that comes from you know years of doing that sure with your family and it being um you know celebrated yeah well let me get philosophical for you here for a minute i'll quote ram das

uh well let me get philosophical here for a moment brian likes to have i like to have little philosophical moments with

it

that is god my friend this is god working through you that is the magic of the universe just streaming through you like you said it's there one moment it's it's not there the next either you're in it either the flow is there and it's just coming out you, or it's not.

I imagine when I watch comedians like yourself and you're on and you're hitting and it's funny and you're in a room and you're commanding that room, you know, I think even Jerry said this in a different way is that I just tune out and let it flow through me.

It's just coming through me, right?

It's like you're pulling it out of thin air.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The dead talk about that all the time.

And yeah, that's it to get to that place.

There was a Bob Weir quote where he's talking about when he plays music and like time kind of just dissipates and goes away.

And sometimes you'll start a show and you're waiting for that to happen and it eventually

happens.

But yeah, that's the best place to be.

And that's where you are when you're in like a great conversation or when you're with the right person or

intimate moment, dare I say.

You're in the you're just in the moment and it's almost fair way.

When i first saw the dead when i was a kid that i got there through their music and i i i think someone also had spiked my drink but i

that was something i i chase that for sure and it's it's something that it happens when you're on stage and it it's such an amazing thing i meditate a lot and sometimes it's easier to get there

on stage than it is through uh meditation you do tm right i do i do i do tm and I do Vipassana.

Very, nice, very interesting.

I don't do TM, but I do meditate.

I've been interested in TM, yeah.

Me too.

I've been interested in it.

You know, who started talking about it that got me interested in it?

It was actually Howard Stern.

A number of years ago, I don't know, 20 years ago, he started talking about how he was doing TM.

And I thought, what in the world does he?

And then I read about it, but I've been meditating for years and years.

And it can be really difficult to get to that place, to quiet the mind, to be in the spot, to get in the flow, whatever the fuck you want to say yeah um but creatively when we're in the room and something's hitting i know it and it's like i'm just tuned out it's like i can watch myself from the top of the room just you know rolling and being funny and unfortunately most of our listeners don't think so but i think so in the moment

we laugh at each other we laugh at each other yeah um okay one more question do you enjoy

So you saw Jerry and you saw the original lineup of the Grateful Dead, not the original, but you saw a lineup of the Grateful Dead with Jerry.

Do you enjoy the new version,

the new reconstruction?

The one with O'Teal.

Yep, I do.

I do immensely.

I go into it not comparing it.

Jerry Garcia was such a gifted person that it's not,

he was a

comparison.

Yeah, it's its own thing.

Yeah.

And

yeah, no,

I'm going to see Dead and Co to celebrate the dead's 60th 60th anniversary in San Francisco.

Oh, you're going to that.

Yes, I am.

That's going to be big.

Yeah, I can't wait.

But I go to, yeah, I see the dead.

I go with my best friend from high school and sometimes other people from high school.

And yeah,

I see them every year, whatever.

Yeah.

Whatever

it is.

It's a generation.

Yeah, it's a celebration of the music.

And yeah, I go, my boogie.

It's great.

I love it.

I go every year here in Atlanta.

Oh, cool.

Yeah.

Phil, I think this comedy thing might be your thing.

I think you should stick with it.

I think things are going to turn up roses for you, my friend.

I think if you keep on plugging away, you're on the right track.

I think if you keep plugging away, you never know.

Maybe someday you'll make a living doing it.

Phil is on an extensive tour in the fall and in the winter.

Am I right about that?

World tour.

World tour.

Yeah, I'm going to Europe.

starting at the end of August, and then I come back and I play, yeah, all over all over North Carolina.

You come into Atlanta.

You know what?

I played Atlanta

a couple months ago.

Okay.

Yes, but I'll be back.

But it was the first time that I'd ever been to Atlanta, and the shows were great, and I met such cool people.

Oh, good.

Well, when you come to Atlanta, we would request a few minutes of your time.

Oh, I would love to sit and talk with us, or we'll come to the show or I would love that.

Yeah.

I mean, you guys have such great energy.

Thank you.

And I'm very selective of what podcasts that I do.

Not that there's like a huge demand, but you know, I'm asked to do a fair amount.

Sure.

No, I was really excited to do your guys' podcast.

So thank you so much.

Oh, my God.

I feel so honored.

I do feel honored because you're also one of my favorite comics.

And the energy you have.

Oh, thank you.

It's infectious.

Yeah.

When you get a couple cool cats together, you can rub sticks and make fire.

That's what I'm trying to say, Chrissy.

Phil, all his links are in the show notes.

He also has a book.

He's got so much material.

Go to the website.

Follow him on social media.

Go to the website.

All of that stuff will be available to you in the show notes.

If you don't know Phil, you should.

And we really appreciate your time today.

Thank you.

And I imagine we'll be seeing each other soon.

Thank you.

Thank you guys.

Talk about...

Time dissipating.

I cannot believe that it's come.

That flew by.

It really did.

Well, I often

when we have a good guest on, I have often said, you know, we ask for 45 minutes to an hour because you get a little nervous.

And when you don't know somebody, if it's not going so great, you don't want to have to try and make conversation where it's not there.

But sometimes when the conversation is flowing, you wish,

you wish you had more time.

And this was one of those conversations.

And I say that honestly.

Should I say something before we go?

We've talked about why The Grateful Dead is the greatest American band.

There were some points that I would just like to point out very quickly before I sign off here.

Yes.

That more so than any band, they incorporated every aspect of American music: bluegrass, jazz,

and also they started their own this improvisation thing that's now it's a whole gene on itself.

Yes, 100%.

Let me make one more point.

Why the why the Grateful Dead are the greatest American band, musical group that's ever been and may ever be is because they actively sought out the inclusion and the participation of the people who were in love with their music.

And that is almost as important as the music is being played.

They started a community that will probably live on forever, at least as far as humans are concerned on this.

But Phil Lesh, who

unfortunately passed away in the last year, he compared the dead.

He said they'll be performed the way Shakespeare is.

And it really will.

I mean, they're putting Will Gate Park for three days, 60 years after they got together.

And those three shows are all sold out.

And

yeah,

it's really,

and it was an American adventure.

They toured everywhere.

Did you go to the sphere?

I did go to the sphere.

I went there too last summer.

Yeah.

So, yeah, that was incredible.

Yeah.

Isn't this the ninth year anniversary or the 10th year anniversary of the Grateful Dead with Trey or the Dead with Trey at the

Soldier Field from Chicago.

Yeah, at Soldier Field.

That was

such a phenomenal weekend.

Did you go?

I did go, yeah.

We, Chrissy, and I watched it on TV.

My husband was there, yeah.

Well, was it good?

Did he have a great time?

Oh, fantastic.

Yeah, it was so, oh my, they did it so well.

I still have, um,

they get when you walk in, they gave you a rose, and

yeah it was so phenomenal um trey was incredible uh the band was so inspired bill murray was hanging out yeah because uh yeah

that was such an amazing um weekend god it was phenomenal chicago such a great dead town it was

a great city it was so good that energetically even through the tv yeah we were

dancing in the room

yeah we were dancing in the room

Our drinks might have been spied too.

Yeah, our drinks might be.

Only I did it.

I did it to myself.

They did

their version of throw that version of throwing stones and Trim and Bobby are like squaring up and pushing each other.

And

yeah, it was phenomenal.

Bruce Hornsby, I love Bruce Hornsby.

I got

Hornsby with the dead.

Yeah, it was really, that was really, really, really a special weekend.

In Chicago, when you ordered an Uber instead of like, you know, it has the car arriving, it was a steal your face.

Yeah,

it was really, that was really, really special.

And

I'm assuming that this weekend in San Francisco and I guess it's like almost a month to the day will be

equally, equally special.

I get so much inspiration from the dead and the idea that, like you said, they'd made a mistake.

There's There's no mistakes because if you make a mistake, then you just,

it's just, it's, you know, you want to call it mistakes, warts, whatever it is, the good, the bad, and the ugly, it all just rolls into this big, beautiful thing that's constantly growing and shrinking at the same time.

I mean, I could get, we could do this all day long.

Honestly, I just, I love talking about this because music, comedy, art in general, like, it's just a, it's a, it's a godly pursuit.

It's a way that God comes through you.

I'd rather go to the dead show than church any day of the week.

And anybody who doesn't say that does, I don't know if I want to be a friend.

It is church for a lot of people.

It's just a magical, magical thing.

And when done right,

it can lift you to a new place.

It can open up dimensions.

And you don't even have to be hi-ta to understand that.

If you've ever been to a dead show or fish show or panic show or whatever it is you're into, deaf punk, who cares?

Yeah.

Music and comedy that kind of take you to the same place.

And Phil, I think you're one of the better ones doing it out there today.

And I hope all of our listeners, if they haven't, go and check out your material.

And go see Phil when he comes to your town.

That's right.

Because he will lift you up like a Grateful Dead show will.

Thank you.

Well, again, thank you guys for having me.

And sorry for extending that.

No,

we got all the time.

You got to catch the train.

You go do your thing.

Well, thank you guys so much.

I was really honored to be on your podcast.

And I can't wait.

I don't know if you do people in the studio, but we should do a dead episode next time I'm in Atlanta.

That's a great idea.

That's a great idea.

We have this studio, which is in my personal home, but then we also have a studio with our network, and we just started doing in-person interviews.

So when you come to Atlanta, done deal.

We'll sit in the studio.

That's awesome.

And I'll break some copyright laws and we'll play some.

My husband will come down for that, too.

Oh, cool.

Well, I can't wait to meet him.

We'll talk about Chicago.

You know what we might do?

We'll invite a few of our deadhead listener friends and they can come in and we'll all banter about the deadhead.

We'll take questions as if we're experts.

Oh, that's great.

All right.

Well, thank you guys again so much, and I hope you have a great weekend and a happy 4th of July.

Happy 4th of you, too.

Bill Hanley, thanks so much.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.

Why don't you text us and we can text back?

And then you can text us and reply, then so on.

It's a fun little game I've been playing, and I think you'll be great at it.

212-433-3TCB.

That's 212-433-3822.

You could leave a message too.

If you do, maybe you'll end up being the voice of the show.

But be warned, the pay is not great.

You could go to the website and drop us an email, also, tcbpodcast.com.

And while you're there, you can get a free sticker.

Who doesn't want a free sticker?

Just go to the contact us button and ask for one.

Follow us on Insta at thecommercial break and watch the episodes at youtube.com/slash thecommercial break.

Now I'm gonna go back to that texting game.

You wanna play?

Come on.

Bye.

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Well, I think that's one of the nicest guests we've ever had on the commercial bro.

Do we have a new friend?

I, you know, sometimes I think that's true and then it reveals itself not to be true.

But Phil did seem genuine, and I am very excited about him.

He is so nice.

And for those, you won't catch the very last part of that because there's some stuff that's just private between me, Chrissy, and the guest.

But Phil was so generous with his time afterwards.

And it's true, like, I wish we had scheduled an hour and a half with Phil.

This is the first guest.

I will say this.

This is the very first guest ever.

There have been other guests who have said, oh, wow, that flew by.

Or, wow, that was a quick hour.

Oh,

Phil is the first person that we couldn't get off the phone.

He was like, wait, just a couple more things.

And it was truly enjoyable.

I know.

I really like Phil.

He will be back.

I don't know if I want to say he's our friend yet

because he doesn't really know us.

And once he gets to know us, it probably will all fall apart.

Yeah.

I'm going to try and not bother him like I do Mark Cuban.

Yeah.

But Phil is super sweet.

He's just such a nice guy.

And he, like I said at the beginning of this episode, he is lauded by many other comedians you know and love as one of their.

He's just got that humor gene.

He worked it.

He's working it.

There's other things that are not his strength.

And then he worked comedy to his advantage.

He's so quick.

He's so good at crowd reactions and he's a deadhead so

total package total pack hey

look out jeff here comes phil

jeff and phil would love each other i think they would yeah i think they would be good friends they would get along that's why i'm never allowing jeff anywhere near phil

my phil

my phil my phil my new tcv guest boyfriend

Phil, thank you very much.

All the links in the show notes.

He's on the forever tour, like a lot of our stand-up comedian guests are.

He's got so many dates, 68 of them coming up.

So it's likely he'll be somewhere around you.

I think this is one of those shows you should go.

See, you should go see stand-up comedy as often as possible.

Because if there's one thing that's hard to walk away from without a smile on your face, it's a good stand-up comedy hour or two.

Gotta keep saying comedy and music.

Comedy and music.

We should all focus on those two things and let a lot of the other bullshit go to the wayside.

Or maybe we should.

Maybe we should also pay attention to that stuff.

I don't know.

Anyway, it's a good break.

It's a good break.

That's for sure.

All right.

So, all the links in the show notes.

Follow him on the social media.

Check out his book, his specials, and his live shows.

Please, please, please.

Philhanley.com in case you're wondering where to go.

Okay, also do us a favor.

If you don't mind, 212-433-3TCB, 212-433-3822.

Questions, comments, concerns, contents, contents, ideas, we take them all right there on that phone number.

We will respond to you.

Might take us a couple days, but we'll get back to you.

TCBPodcast.com, all the audio, all the video, everything about Chris, all the, not all the things about Chrissy, and I, some of it.

All there, and your free sticker.

And youtube.com slash the commercial break for all the videos, including this one, on YouTube right now.

Go check it out.

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.

Best to you.

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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I gotta get some cocaine, gotta be crazy.