TCB Infomercial: Courtney Michelle (Live From Audacy Studios)

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Speaker 1 Hey guys, real quick, not everything has to be an app.

Speaker 1 Not everything has to be an application.

Speaker 1 What are we doing?

Speaker 1 I'm freaking out. I'm freaking out.
What are we doing? What's happening? Okay, I went to go buy a milk frother, a milk frother, and upon further review, found out it only works via Bluetooth. What?

Speaker 1 I'm sorry, what? It doesn't even have buttons on it.

Speaker 1 What are we doing? Okay? Bring buttons back, please. Make America mechanical again, okay? That's my platform.
All right? I just, I don't understand it.

Speaker 1 Listen, I'm all for advancements in technology to make our lives easier. I don't want to have to use Wi-Fi to brush my freaking teeth.
That's absolutely insane.

Speaker 1 The other day I went to go buy a ticket at this at this venue. And in order to get my ticket, I have to download an app and create an account, which you guys know how much I love that.

Speaker 1 Email me the ticket. That's what email's for.
I'm so sorry. It's just, we've gone too far.
It's gone too far.

Speaker 3 On this episode of the Commercial Break, I'll feel a little bit more.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think we're given, and I think for men, they're given less rope to feel that vain.

Speaker 1 And so I think that probably compounds when you're taking a photo and you're like, all right, how do I make this seem like the most casual? I don't give a shit.

Speaker 1 I'm just going to do this thing with my hands as opposed to making it look look like I care by posing. Yeah, or I think women get away with it.
It's all, we all have the same insecurity.

Speaker 3 Sometimes I wish I could tap into my little bit of my gay and like pop out a hip. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 Tap in your gay, pop out a hip,

Speaker 3 and just get if I could tap into a little bit more of my gay, then I think I'd be better.

Speaker 1 This practice, if we could all tap into a little bit of a little bit more of our gay, I think I'd be happy.

Speaker 3 Listen,

Speaker 3 the next episode of the commercial break starts now.

Speaker 3 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 Hoadley. Best of you, Chris.

Speaker 3 Best of you out there in the podcast universe. I say aliens because today, Chrissy, we are aliens in a foreign land, unknown to us.

Speaker 3 We have been allowed outside of the four walls of my child's bedroom, my recycled child's bedroom, into the Odyssey Studios here in downtown Atlanta.

Speaker 1 This is really cool, actually.

Speaker 3 I'm really enjoying this.

Speaker 3 This has been a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 We have been graciously welcomed by the folks at Odyssey into their studios in a very tall building. Into the inner circle.
Into the inner circle.

Speaker 1 We made it. We made it.

Speaker 3 And we've got a bunch of people that are helping us here. Thank you to Slim and Kimberly, who have been so nice.
And all the folks at Odyssey who have been so nice to help us out. But I like Slim.

Speaker 3 Slim's my new friend.

Speaker 1 I know. I'm going to have to interview him next.
In your mind. In my mind.

Speaker 3 We'll talk to him about that later. today it's a tcb infomercial tuesday live from the odyssey studios as we welcome in courtney michelle social media influencer comedian

Speaker 3 also she's doing a one-woman comedy show now chrissy i think she started it in nashville and now she's taking it a few other places after

Speaker 3 a one-show successful run and right with a couple of friends but yes she's the she's the mother of the show she is she's been on social media for a long time making people laugh it's courtney michelle i think is uh yep it's courtney Michelle, is her social media handles.

Speaker 3 You can also find all that information in the show notes, as we always do. I say we don't waste a lot of time here because I'd like to get to as much Courtney Michelle as possible.

Speaker 3 Plus, I don't know how long we have before they kick us out of the studio.

Speaker 3 So, yeah, so we better.

Speaker 3 We better put our foot on the gas pedal. So once again, live from the, I'm just trying to find the liners here because, you know, we're in a different place.
So there we go.

Speaker 1 I found it. Look at me.
Good. I'm so good, Chrissy.

Speaker 1 I'm glad I brought our own equipment because I would be running from one end of the room to the other, had we not purchasing cords off of Amazon as quickly as possible. Oh, I already did that.

Speaker 1 I already did that. All right.

Speaker 3 So here's what we're going to do. We're going to take a quick break and then here with us for the first time ever.
Well, at least the first time ever since actually, this is the first time.

Speaker 1 Well, first time ever with Courtney Michelle and first time ever live in person. With any guest.

Speaker 3 Oh, Gustavo. Gustavo.
But he's not somebody.

Speaker 1 He's not somebody you know.

Speaker 1 He's my brother-in-law.

Speaker 3 That's why he's in my, he's allowed in my house. I wanted to bring people to the house, but Esther said, uh, uh, uh, uh, no, no, no.
I think she was worried about the paparazzi and

Speaker 3 for us mainly, you know, the paparazzi that chases us around.

Speaker 3 Oh, God, what would we do with blue? Or the kids, yeah, or the dirty diapers, or the dishes, or the laundry.

Speaker 1 Best to keep the mystery alive.

Speaker 3 We've eased Chrissy into our chaos at our house.

Speaker 1 But would Courtney Michelle deal with that? Probably not. Nate Pargotzi, I don't think so.

Speaker 3 Dusty Slay, maybe Dusty Slay. Have you seen him? I mean, come, let's get it on.
Anyway, Courtney Michelle here with us live from the Odyssey Studios in downtown Atlanta, sitting right in front of us.

Speaker 3 We could probably touch her. I am not allowed to because Astrid's here, but

Speaker 3 you can touch her. Okay, we'll touch Courtney Michelle after these messages.
We'll be back.

Speaker 1 Let me do something Brian has never done. Be brief.
Follow us on Instagram at the Commercial break. Text or call us 212-433-3TCB.
That's 212-433-3822.

Speaker 1 Visit our website, tcbpodcast.com, for all the audio, video, and your free sticker. Then watch all the videos at youtube.com/slash thecommercial break.
And finally, share the show.

Speaker 1 It's the best gift you could give a few aging podcasters. See, Brian? That really wasn't that difficult now, was it? You're welcome.

Speaker 2 This episode is sponsored by our longtime sponsor, Squarespace. I am working on a new project, Information TBD.
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Speaker 4 So if you're into good conversations that ruffle a few feathers, join me every Wednesday and follow Free Range with Von Miller everywhere you get your podcast.

Speaker 2 This episode is sponsored in part by Rula. You know, there was a time when I really needed therapy, but I could not find a therapist who took my insurance.

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That's rula.com slash commercial.

Speaker 2 You deserve mental health care that works with you, not against your budget.

Speaker 3 And Courtney is here with us now. We are live in the Odyssey Studios.
Thank you, Courtney, for joining us.

Speaker 3 Welcome.

Speaker 1 Welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 3 I have a question because Chrissy and I, we need to know, how do you use social media?

Speaker 1 What is, how do, how do you use social media yeah what is it what is it so how do you do it unhealthily

Speaker 1 is it an obsession I think it's um is it an obsession um I think it's more of a of a

Speaker 1 defense mechanism and a

Speaker 1 very unhealthy tactic I think it's the place that I go when I need validation or when I need

Speaker 1 to look at something,

Speaker 1 to look at someone hot. There's a lot of hot people on social media.
It's like a little pool of fishing for hotties.

Speaker 1 None of this is good. None of this is a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 But you're admitting it. Like, I think you have a, you seem self-aware about the reasons why you use social media.
Is this how you started on something?

Speaker 3 Like, what, did it become, like, were you obsessive about it at first? And that's kind of how it grew? Or?

Speaker 1 You know what's so funny? So I started off acting. Acting was like my baby.
Still do it. It's still like my number one

Speaker 1 honey. But,

Speaker 1 but,

Speaker 1 and back in the day I don't know if you remember this back in the day before like tick tock there was people would do Instagram videos yes but they were they were of a certain um they were a very specific thing there was like sound effects and it was very big and it was very broad and I was like I will never do that

Speaker 1 and there was it was kind of if you were an actor it was kind of looked down upon like these people who were acting in these little skits um like oh could never be me yeah and I don't know when it kind of changed probably the pandemic and people were like I have so much time I have so much time and energy and bravado and desperation.

Speaker 1 Where do I put it?

Speaker 1 So it just like broke that barrier. But I had always said like, I'll never do,

Speaker 1 I'll never do like social media acting. Yeah.
It's literally the thing that pays my bills. And it's just the number one thing that I'm doing now, which is crazy.
So, no, I was never obsessed with it.

Speaker 1 And now I am very interested by it.

Speaker 3 Is it because you got the feedback, like the feedback started happening? Like you got that gratification, you got the feedback. Now you have an audience.

Speaker 3 Now people are reacting to what you're doing that you start to like, just kind of go down that rabbit hole. You're like, okay, now I gotta, I'm just gonna create.
Like people are reacting to it.

Speaker 3 This is something that I can do.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 What is like the first big reel that like, what is the thing that kind of like blew it up for you?

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 you know, I had, I think that

Speaker 1 it's been, it's been slow growth, which people would argue it hasn't, but for, for me, it feels like slow growth.

Speaker 3 When is your, when did you first get on social media? When did you first started doing Instagram reels during the pandemic?

Speaker 1 Um, no, I started playing with stuff before the pandemic, like 2019. I got like a TikTok and started kind of just like trudging around and then really committed to it during the pandemic.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like most people. It's the most cliche story.
Same with us during the podcast. There you go.
Exactly. So many things burged from this virus.

Speaker 1 But yeah, I think.

Speaker 1 And then what was the question?

Speaker 3 So you started in 2019, but like what's the,

Speaker 3 what kind of catches fire for you?

Speaker 1 It's so funny. I did a video.
I feel like this is always so boring to talk about. Like I did this one video and I was like this, but I did do this dumb video.
This was like before

Speaker 1 you could before, this is when TikTok was like from musically, right? So it was kind of all like lip syncing and very little. It was either like dancing, lip syncing.

Speaker 1 Yes, it was dancing, lip syncing, or like vines. It was very small and short

Speaker 1 and music based. And so I did like a lip sync to some song

Speaker 1 talking, I think talking about being a whore. I don't remember what the song was.
I think it was like a Nicki Minaj song about being a hoe.

Speaker 1 And I lip synced to it with some sort of text on top, whatever. And it got like millions of views.
This is when it was like really easy to go viral because there weren't a lot of people

Speaker 1 creating or people that were already on the platform by default. And so I got a couple million views.
And I go, this is the most validation I've got from anything ever.

Speaker 1 I can't imagine. I was like, could I forgive my parents? So it felt amazing.
And I look back and I think, I honestly,

Speaker 1 and I had done a few other ones that also went viral within a few months. right? And I go, if I didn't have that, I don't even know if I would be doing this because it really

Speaker 1 validated that I could do it before everybody else started doing it.

Speaker 1 And then once everyone else started doing it, I was like, well, I've, guys, I've been doing this. Right.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. And so I just kept diving into it.
And I think I didn't really catch a stride.

Speaker 1 I didn't really start making content that felt authentic to me and my sense of humor and what I like to do until probably like two or three years ago. And then just from there.

Speaker 3 Where did, so what kind of upbringing did you have?

Speaker 1 Oh, you're like from Nashville.

Speaker 3 This is a very dramatic podcast.

Speaker 4 No, no, no.

Speaker 1 I live in Nashville, but I'm from West Virginia originally. Okay.

Speaker 1 What kind of childhood did I have growing up? What a fantastic question.

Speaker 1 Well, as you can see, I'm hilarious, so it was awful.

Speaker 3 You come from a long line of funny men.

Speaker 1 We go back and back and back.

Speaker 1 I grew up

Speaker 1 poor, single mom,

Speaker 1 just but like loved entertaining people. And I loved like musical theater and dancing and all those things.
So always a big ham, only child.

Speaker 1 Always a big ham, no father figure. So like really slutty, just like all of the cliches.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then I went to college in like the same town I grew up in. I was like, I got to get out of here.

Speaker 1 Went to Miami and I had literally gone to spring break in miami i never left west virginia really besides going like the beach or once or twice and i was like i want to live somewhere else and i'd gone to spring break in miami and i go that's a place to live that's it i know that place

Speaker 3 that's the place i know second best exactly

Speaker 1 but truly truly at that point um so i moved to miami and which was a total change. Wow, from West Virginia to Miami.
That is completely different. It's completely different.
Yeah. It was a different.

Speaker 1 Good for you, though, to have the courage to do it. I think it was stupidity.
I don't know that I was courageous at all.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I think youth brings bravado.

Speaker 1 It really does.

Speaker 3 It's a great adventure. At my age, at least, a great adventure is like, you know, going to bed after 11:30 at night now, because I know that there are ramifications, but when you're young,

Speaker 3 there's a great sense of like, oh my gosh, there's freedom and adventure, and I can go down there and start a new life for myself. You get to a certain age and you realize it's never that easy, right?

Speaker 3 It's never that easy.

Speaker 1 And it's never that thing. Right.
It's never that easy.

Speaker 3 Never scratches the itch.

Speaker 1 No, and never.

Speaker 1 I'm always so itchy. I had just me too.
So itchy. Yeah.
So itchy. I had just like gotten dumped by my first real boyfriend in college.
And I think that was like, I romanticized leaving this town.

Speaker 1 Right. Which is so crazy because he also went to Florida.
But I was like, I'm going to like leave and go to Miami.

Speaker 1 Yes. And just like be a brand new person, be like rediscover myself or whatever.
And I mean, it, it was definitely a self-discovery because I threw myself into a city that I

Speaker 1 had no business being in. And when I was at 22, I was the poorest person in that city.

Speaker 1 I was driving like a 1998 Saab. I mean, it was crazy.
I pulled to Vallettes. They'd be like, you can't be serious.

Speaker 1 We actually can't.

Speaker 3 You can make $200,000 a year and be the poorest person at Miami.

Speaker 1 I mean, honestly.

Speaker 3 There are parts of Miami that are just dripping in wealth and international wealth.

Speaker 1 Not like

Speaker 3 U.S. wealth, like my daddy owns a siding company kind of wealth.
It's like, you know, Saudi Arabian Prince kind of wealth.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 3 Or Venezuelan

Speaker 1 oligarch kind of wealth. Yes.
Incomprehensible wealth in Miami and like showing it on your hands. I mean, it was crazy.

Speaker 1 But anyways, I moved down there. Again, super poor.
I was working. I did marketing for a commercial real estate firm.

Speaker 1 I just, and I started doing bottle surface on the weekends because I really couldn't pay my rent. What do you have to do? And

Speaker 1 I had met a guy who did background work for like film and TV. Oh, interesting.
I didn't know that was a thing. I thought that those were just like people that were, that were there.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And he gave me his like agents information for this thing. And I started acting.
And I, I think, thank God, because like, I don't know what path I was going down in Miami. It was not a great one.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 But I was like, oh, I think I love this thing. This reminds me of

Speaker 1 like, like the

Speaker 1 musical theater and the dancing and the the and the bands that I started with my friends growing up um but as an industry yeah and that's really cool I feel the same way but we're at a job which is wild and I fell in love with just the entertainment industry and then I'm I moved to LA and did LA for six years and then went to Nashville during the pandemic and that's kind of when like the social media part of it kicked in you were acting in LA I was acting in LA correct did you get any like can you tell is there any specific things that we could find you in Absolutely not.

Speaker 1 No, really.

Speaker 3 You were just like a background actor.

Speaker 1 I mean, LA is such a fucking hard time town.

Speaker 3 I've only spent time there briefly, right? But it feels very transactional to me in so many ways, like Miami, but in a different way. Right.

Speaker 3 And I think it's very, it's a very hard town to be in if you're. a creator.

Speaker 3 I don't know, but I have people that I know the people that live there and you can either make it or most people break it, right? It's just a very difficult town to be in.

Speaker 1 It is. I love LA.

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 1 miss it all the time. I think what I loved about LA is that everybody is chasing a dream, and that is such a contagious energy.

Speaker 1 I think, inherently, in that dynamic, there will be people who are so desperate for their dream that they aren't able to make authentic relationships.

Speaker 1 They aren't able to have a conversation with you that doesn't involve that. It takes up all of their space, their brain power.
And

Speaker 1 where Miami was about money and wealth and

Speaker 1 power,

Speaker 1 LA was similar, but it was more about how can you make my dreams come true.

Speaker 3 It was aspirational and transactional at the same time.

Speaker 1 It was a two-for-one. It was a two-for-one.

Speaker 3 It's like one big networking meeting, I feel like, in LA. When I've spent time there, like with people who live there, right? It feels like one big networking meeting.

Speaker 3 It's always an opportunity to do the next thing.

Speaker 1 Well, in Nashville, it can actually be the same way, too, for the music industry.

Speaker 1 I lived in Nashville for five years and not for music, but I saw a lot of that same type of thing with the LA and acting. Nashville is for music.
Yeah. I think that's why I like Nashville.

Speaker 1 I'm like, okay, being there. Yeah.
Because again, I do kind of miss, while it's annoying to go to a party, every party in LA, you start off by being introduced as to what you have to offer.

Speaker 1 It's always like, this is Cassie. And she,

Speaker 1 she was just.

Speaker 1 She's a line producer of the newest, greatest ABC flop. Or she's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, daughter, or she's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, or she knows blah, blah, blah's agent.

Speaker 1 So it's always like, that's how you're introduced,

Speaker 1 which is crazy. And I I hate it.
And I didn't say everywhere, just like it happens so much. It becomes a shtick in itself.

Speaker 1 But I just do love that everybody is, there's so much passion that it kind of, again, it's contagious. And there's so much

Speaker 1 charisma in a place. It's infectious.
It is kind of infectious. And I feel like my ability to like banter with people, my ability to just like talk about.

Speaker 1 a little bit more deeper things did tend to happen in LA because people were in the arts.

Speaker 1 But what I do love also about Nashville is because of the music, it is also a dreamer city.

Speaker 1 So there is that energy. And while it's not my dream, it's still a contagious energy as well.
So I've found,

Speaker 1 I've found, and there's like a huge entertainment industry coming to Nashville. I shouldn't say huge.
There's like you bigger than you would think.

Speaker 1 It's having a moment. It's something there.
It's having a moment. It's having a moment.

Speaker 3 And it has been for like the last 10 years, but it feels like.

Speaker 1 Yeah, well, the show Nashville was pretty big and bringing a lot of that to that town.

Speaker 3 I don't know, to me, at least on an outsider looking in, it feels like it's reached a fevered pitch around Nashville.

Speaker 1 Everybody has a bar there. Yeah, Jack Wyatt,

Speaker 1 Kid Rock.

Speaker 3 Everybody's got something going on in Nashville, which up until 10 years ago was a relatively small town, like a tertiary city that people knew about because there's always been music, country music there.

Speaker 3 But now it's very cosmopolitan. It feels it's a cosmopolitan in a weird lot.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes.
Which I appreciate for the good. Exactly.
And I appreciate for for the cool scene. It's got a lot going on.
Not the traffic, but besides that,

Speaker 1 it's been lovely.

Speaker 3 You have a Kid Rock though. You have a Kid Rock restaurant there.

Speaker 1 We have a Kid Rock restaurant.

Speaker 3 How lucky are you?

Speaker 1 I would say other things make me laugh

Speaker 1 at that.

Speaker 1 It is funny how

Speaker 1 not incestuous, maybe like inslurry it becomes because I was talking to my friend. I did like a a commercial with this like country music artist.

Speaker 1 And I was talking to my friend yesterday here about it. And he was like, like, who is that? Like, oh, that's right.

Speaker 1 Like people outside of Nashville don't maybe know country music the way that I do because I've lived there for five years now. Right, right.
And it becomes kind of your,

Speaker 1 it's the industry. So it kind of becomes, you put these people on pedestals just by proxy, which is so fascinating.
Yeah, it really is.

Speaker 3 So in the three minutes that I've known you, I've already dissected your entire life.

Speaker 1 Tell me.

Speaker 3 Fix me. I get the sense that single mother, no father figure around, you

Speaker 3 found some solace and probably some validation and some gratification in being kind of the center of attention in a creative way. And that just came to you easily.
Like, is that true?

Speaker 3 It's like, you know, I liked being the ham and hamming it up and

Speaker 3 having that kind of being able to create and have people pay attention to it and getting some feedback around that felt good

Speaker 3 for me too. Right.
Yeah. For me too.
So this is, I'm speaking one to another.

Speaker 3 There is a hole in my soul, which I fill with the laughter around me or the laughter that I create or the things that I create. I find great comfort in that.

Speaker 3 And I think it's a gift and a curse at the same time sometimes.

Speaker 3 And I traveled to great lengths in my head and outside my head to fill that hole in a lot of ways.

Speaker 3 But not everybody is funny at the same time. And you're funny.
Like a lot of people are that way, but they're just not funny. They just seem, they come off corny and kind of.

Speaker 3 weird. Like they're pining for your attention, right?

Speaker 1 Mey almost.

Speaker 3 But you're not that way. You have a thing.
You've got a thing. and people resonate with that.
Doesn't that feel good to you?

Speaker 1 Like, oh, it feels like I made it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and you're making money. You're making money.
And you're making money from it. Yeah.
It feels incredible.

Speaker 1 It feels good when I let it feel good. You know, it feels good when I'm not comparing it to what someone else has or what I should have or whatever, right? Like, I could say that.

Speaker 1 That's when it gets murky.

Speaker 1 But yes, to answer your question, yes, I was looking. Well, and it's all the things, you know, to get into my memoir

Speaker 1 yet.

Speaker 3 You're doing it right here on the commercial break.

Speaker 1 We're breaking news. Memoir scoop.
Yep.

Speaker 1 But I think, yeah, it was, again, dad

Speaker 1 wasn't around and then mom was like always like looking for love. So she was always like dating new guys and blah, blah, blah.
And she was a great mom. She crushed it.

Speaker 1 But I think I was just like always looking for attention. So we have that built in.
I was

Speaker 1 kind of like the weird friend, I think by default, because I didn't have, we didn't have a lot of money in a town that had a lot of money.

Speaker 1 So I felt kind of like I was wearing weird clothes and I didn't have like the things that other kids had. So weird by default.
I had a lot, my friends were all very hot too.

Speaker 1 And I like took a little bit. So all of those things kind of.
You grew into it. I grew into all of the things.

Speaker 1 But I think

Speaker 1 I think all that kind of equated into

Speaker 1 me trying to find something else besides looking cool, being cute,

Speaker 1 having the right like cheerleading moves or whatever. Yeah.
And it was entertaining. So I would be like the goofy, the funny friend who was like, when I was little, it was like, you know, shticks.

Speaker 1 It was like falling or like playing dumb. Or, I mean, it was early 2000s.
So I was like,

Speaker 1 I'll be the dumb blonde. That was the hit thing back then.

Speaker 1 And then I think as I got older, it migrated into

Speaker 1 comedy that I'm more familiar with now, which was like jokes and like telling stories and like the idea of being with a bunch of people and holding court about a story that I, that I went through and that really started feeling very fulfilling.

Speaker 1 And then I was able to, you know, transition it into like some semblance of a career.

Speaker 1 Well, because now you're, you've taken that kind of on the road too, right? By doing some shows. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We're doing live shows.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we're doing a live show, which is, I still like struggle to even define what it is.

Speaker 3 Yeah, what explain because

Speaker 3 I couldn't find much, right? There was some, you had some reels and stuff like that, but I couldn't find much. But explain what, what, how do you transition from funny person being able to

Speaker 3 on the internet, multiple takes, edits, cuts, and all that stuff, to then doing it live. That's a brave thing to do.

Speaker 1 Again, probably stupid more than anything. I don't know.
Again, I don't feel bad. I feel like I'm just like falling and flailing.
But

Speaker 1 I think this show, which again,

Speaker 1 we've done a great job marketing it since no one knows what it is, I guess. But it's a live show.
It's basically a bunch of different sketches that kind of tell one story about girlhood. Okay.

Speaker 1 And what I wanted to do was, I feel like a lot of the videos that I do online are geared towards all people,

Speaker 1 but specifically, like

Speaker 1 I kind of make videos for like what I would want to see. Sure.
And so what me as a woman of a certain age

Speaker 1 would want to see and what she relates to and whether it's like people that annoy you, whether it's like situations that are embarrassing or whatever.

Speaker 1 But it's almost like kind of me being a woman and what that looks like that I was like, how do I do that about a trajectory?

Speaker 1 Like, how can I talk about myself more and in a different vehicle and make people even more obsessed with me and be even more narcissistic?

Speaker 1 Let's try it. Let's try doing it live.

Speaker 1 Fuck it. We'll do it live.
Fuck it. We're doing it live.

Speaker 1 And that's what we did. We did.

Speaker 1 I've been writing it for, I started writing it like last spring with my friend Ollie and

Speaker 1 kind of like using him as a backboard like constantly like is this funny is this relatable is this stupid um and then wrote this

Speaker 1 show

Speaker 1 um about girlhood and it's again it's a bunch of different sketches and there's like music in it and there's like videos in it but it's not really any characters that I do online it's all different stuff yeah but like it It's very funny and goofy and light, but it also like tackles my relationship with my mom and my relationship with like dating and my relationship to like girlfriends and all that stuff in a very light, fun,

Speaker 1 very millennial way.

Speaker 1 Very like nostalgic.

Speaker 3 Is your relationship? I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put a pin there and I'm gonna ask you another question about doing stuff live. Is your relationship with your mother complicated?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, all relationship with mother complications. I know, that's like a stupid question, right? Yeah.

Speaker 3 But is it like,

Speaker 3 are you guys good friends?

Speaker 1 It's so funny. She just came and stayed with me for three weeks.
So

Speaker 1 I am fresh off of that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, she's,

Speaker 1 I think growing up,

Speaker 1 you know, my mom didn't have a great mother figure growing up either. So she was kind of figuring out as she went.
Most people are. Yeah, but exactly.
There's no rule. Yeah.
There's no rule book.

Speaker 3 Motherhood parenting is, there's no rule book. You're literally feeling it out minute by minute.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And,

Speaker 1 you know, she definitely did the best she could. And she had some great moments moments in there, some rock star moments.

Speaker 1 And I put her through it some moments as well. So always give her kudos for that.
And I think now getting older, I feel like we go through these like phases with our parents. Sure.

Speaker 1 They're like, you know, your mother. And then you start seeing flaws and you start resenting them and you start blaming them for everything.
And now I'm in this phase of seeing her as a person. And

Speaker 1 you relate?

Speaker 3 One of the one of the most wise things that I ever read, I had a complicated relationship with both of my parents. And my mother was mentally ill.

Speaker 3 My father was emotionally unavailable like a lot of fathers of people my age were because they just grew up with World War II fathers or Vietnam or Korean war fathers who were a different breed. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Different, there was no PTSD. They just stoically,

Speaker 3 silently, and sometimes violently took it. Right.
And then they taught, they sent that on to their children.

Speaker 3 And so there's this softening of parenting going on as you, as I think as you go through time in some cultures.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 But one of the wisest things that I read as I was trying to reconcile with my own

Speaker 3 childhood was a guy named Ram Das who wrote that the most important thing that a child can ever do is recognize that the words mother and father are simply words.

Speaker 3 There's no meaning behind that. They're words.
They are human. They are flawed.
They are violent and ugly and loving and they are as complicated as you are. They are not here to save you.

Speaker 3 They are not here to be you. They are not here to tell you what to do.
They are just people.

Speaker 3 You were born to them, and hopefully they will give you some good guidance along the way, but not everybody gets that.

Speaker 3 And so that was like a very powerful moment when I let go of the word mom and dad, because then I could look at them for who they were, loving people who did the best they could in the circumstances that they had and the information that they had in that moment, which could have just been...

Speaker 3 shitty information.

Speaker 1 You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 3 Like it's not all, you know, we all are human. We know it's kind of a complicated thing.
So when you say that, I recognize that.

Speaker 3 I hear what you're saying. That's, yeah, that's a powerful thing to do.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I think because I'm single and I've been,

Speaker 1 I think a lot on like dating and how I've

Speaker 1 come to the conclusion for a while now that I tend to like fall for the idea of someone. Right.
Like, and it's these expectations that get built up and then let down.

Speaker 1 And it's like, I'm doing all of it. Right.

Speaker 1 Like, there's some there's shitty people and I've been in shitty relationships, or I've met shitty people, but, um, but a lot of it is the onus falls on me of building up an expectation for something that doesn't even exist, or a person that doesn't exist.

Speaker 1 And I think

Speaker 1 your mind. And they can't read your mind.
You have to come here to

Speaker 1 as gross as it feels.

Speaker 1 So difficult. It sucks.
But I think it's the same thing with.

Speaker 1 I think the strife that I feel towards my parents comes from the same beast.

Speaker 1 I think if I really look at all of the resentment or ill feelings that I have towards either of my parents, the large majority, I could sit here and I can name, well, she did this and he did this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1 But I think ultimately it's the expectation of what I think a mother should be and expectation of what I think a father should be and how they've let me down.

Speaker 1 When really I've fallen in love with a person that never existed. And I think that has been a huge thing for me as I've gotten older.
I'm like in my 30s.

Speaker 1 I shouldn't need, I shouldn't need my mother and father to love, to like show their love for me or to like take care of me or to validate me in any way.

Speaker 1 And one side of that is there, I think there always is a tether. Yes, mother and father is, they're just words, but there also is like a weird tether that's your inner child, no matter what.

Speaker 3 Always looking for mom and dad.

Speaker 1 It will always be there.

Speaker 1 I think recognizing that that's maybe where something is coming from. And then is this a reasonable expectation of a person whose story you know? Yeah.
And who was actually like I had to forgive.

Speaker 1 We're getting so deep.

Speaker 1 Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 This is so deep.

Speaker 1 This is crazy.

Speaker 1 But I had to like forgive my father a long time ago after learning about his childhood. And I was like, homeboy isn't capable of loving me in the way that some people are.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, okay, we gotta let him go. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And that's huge. Yeah, you know,

Speaker 3 expectations, we sow the seed of our own disappointment with expectations, right? That's just it. But it's really hard not to do that.

Speaker 3 And also when it comes to our mother and father, we can let the words go, but the inner child always still needs mommy and daddy. And I think will till the day that we die.

Speaker 3 We always need mommy and daddy. It's just the way that it is.
And we look for that in the people and the things around us.

Speaker 3 And we look for that in the validation on social media or with your spouse or with your loved one or whoever it is. Okay.

Speaker 1 Let's lighten it up for a little bit. Oh, okay, sure.

Speaker 3 We'll go back and forth. We'll oscillate in the comments.

Speaker 1 You don't want to do more trauma? Oh, we're going to do more trauma. I'm keeping you here for three hours.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 This is a therapy session that your mom ordered. It's not a podcast.

Speaker 1 Great. I honestly wouldn't put a pastor.
I'm a big grip.

Speaker 3 Is it, do you find that doing live shows are more or less interesting to you than doing creating on?

Speaker 1 How many have you done so far?

Speaker 3 How many are in the bag?

Speaker 1 For this show that we're touring with, one. Okay.
We've done one show in Nashville.

Speaker 1 At Zanny's. I saw that.
Yeah, it was sold out. Yes, I saw that it was sold out too.
That's great. Yeah.
I mean, a lot of it was just like friends and

Speaker 1 who cares. Yeah,

Speaker 1 the promoter doesn't care.

Speaker 1 Exactly. Exactly.

Speaker 1 But yes, we did one show just to kind of try it out. And we're like, if this goes well, then maybe we'll see what

Speaker 1 we can do with it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I will answer your question, but I will also say that I left.

Speaker 1 that show because again it's it this became my baby yeah like not only is it something that i wrote from scratch that um i like brought these lovely like some of my favorite human beings are also involved in this.

Speaker 1 It's a, it's me and two other people who kind of like play characters around me. Yeah.
And then we have like an incredible piano player.

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 and I like brought these people into this like thing to try to like

Speaker 1 like milk what I know they can give. And it just, it just felt like I just was, it was so precious to me.
Interesting. And we did the show.

Speaker 1 Well, first I'll say we did a rehearsal. of the show for a few people and it was okay but there was like very little laughing and then we were hurt hurt we did a tech rehearsal um

Speaker 1 like right before the show and i was kind of like watching the people out in the audience to see if i could get any no not even not even a huff of air off the nose oh no and i go all right this is gonna this is gonna be awful this is gonna be i'm gonna embarrass myself in front of everyone that i know um

Speaker 1 and so then we we did the show and There were more laughs than I could have. They were laughing at jokes that I was like, I didn't realize that was a joke, but

Speaker 1 the just like the voice applause. I mean, people were crying.
People had such great compliments about it. I think it just like it's, it's a, it's a, an energy thing.
I think it just is

Speaker 1 live. You just need a lot of people.
Yeah. Like you need the energy of the crowd around you in order to feel safe, giggling and laughing.
So I left that show.

Speaker 1 I remember walking off stage, like feeling that I've never felt before, which is, because again, I've done stage stuff, but this is my baby.

Speaker 1 So it felt very vulnerable. And I was like, okay, I'm going to either throw up or cry

Speaker 1 or potentially shit my pants. Like there's a lot of stuff happening in my stomach.

Speaker 1 And I, but I couldn't stop like smile. I was just like laughing for no reason.
It was the most euphoric, crazy feeling having like immediately walking off that stage that I was like, oh, fuck.

Speaker 1 Like this. This is the thing.
I think this is the thing. This is

Speaker 1 wonderful. End up doing a lot of.

Speaker 1 And so, yeah. And so the second we had a chance to tour with it, I was like, wow,

Speaker 1 we have to. We

Speaker 3 have said this a lot. I've been saying this probably since we started podcasting is that podcasting is kind of a lonely venture in some ways.

Speaker 3 I mean, I'm lucky to have Chrissy in the room with me, right?

Speaker 3 If she wasn't there, I don't know. I mean, I'd just be talking to myself.

Speaker 1 And that's probably no one wants to hear that.

Speaker 3 My wife made me start the podcast, so I stopped talking to her.

Speaker 3 It's a lonely venture because there's no instant feedback. There's like no reaction.

Speaker 3 If people react, it's like I'll record and then three days later when it publishes, somebody might text us or email email us, oh, great show or whatever. There's no instant feedback.

Speaker 3 And while that feedback is great, it's not instant. There's no reaction besides what's going on in the room.

Speaker 3 So, you know, we've had people come to us and oh, do the show, do it live. And we actually had plans to do a live show and then I got sick and I had to have surgery.

Speaker 3 But that's beside the point, like my greatest fear was what you said about the first two versions of that is that we're going to get up and we're going to do this show and all the places where we think there's going going to be laughs.

Speaker 3 It's literally going to be dead silence and it's just going to be an embarrassment of our creation. And I don't know if I want to hear my baby get shit on, right? Because this is my baby.

Speaker 3 I think it would probably be more the latter is that we get the laughs or we expect the laughs. And then at the end of the night, we'd feel really good about that.

Speaker 3 But it takes an immense amount of huge testicles to get up when you're normally, you know, putting a phone in front of you by yourself.

Speaker 3 And then to create something, whole cloth, that, and you're not a stand-up comedian. You've never done this before.
You're not used to working a room and doing all that.

Speaker 3 And then to get up and do that, that takes into a lot of kaones. And so I applaud you for that.
Just the fact that you got on stage in front of a crowd, even if they were your home team, right?

Speaker 3 Just the fact that you got up there. Yeah.
It says a lot about your willingness to

Speaker 1 probably helped too, you know, with some of that. Yeah, I think having, like, again, it's been a while since I've done stage stuff, but it's always kind of like lingered there.

Speaker 1 And I did, again, when I was a kid. And I, to prepare for the show, I actually did a bunch of stand-up.
I really enjoy. I've done, I've

Speaker 3 went to open mics and did stand-up?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I did a few open mic shows

Speaker 1 and a few show shows, like just like table shows. Yeah.

Speaker 1 To really prep. for it.
And I just love stand-up. I think the difference with stand-up is it's so expect.
It's like, it's really hard for me to overcome that expectation

Speaker 1 of, okay, if you don't laugh, there's no other reason for you to be here.

Speaker 1 At least I feel like with our live show, it's more acting. So there's like a performance, there's like a takeaway, there's a story to tell.

Speaker 1 And I feel like for a podcast, laughing isn't the only

Speaker 1 expectation of it. I think it's also

Speaker 1 just like getting to know someone or like feeling related to or whatever it may be. I think, first of all, I think you should do it.
I think you guys would crush it. Well, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 We will do it.

Speaker 1 I think we're going to get back to it. We're going to get it.
We're going to get back to it. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 It's, but taking what you do here improv right yeah which is

Speaker 3 i mean i imagine when you do social media i don't know what your process is but i imagine i have a seed of an idea i find i observationally i find something funny yeah and then you have a format right i've watched a lot of your reels and you have kind of a format right hi i'm my name is courtney and this is i'm this is my impression of right or whatever it happens yeah we don't have a format necessarily we just get on here and start spitting shit yeah and hoping that it's funny and sometimes it is and sometimes it's not.

Speaker 3 But

Speaker 3 taking that and putting that into something like malleable, like that has a thematically makes sense, was really difficult. And we did figure it out.

Speaker 3 We eventually figured out something, but we'll get back to it. Still nerve-wracking to get up on stage.
When you were doing stand-up, did you like it?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, I blacked out every time. It was so, it was so

Speaker 1 nerve-wracking. Yeah.
I have really bad performance anxiety. So that whole part of it

Speaker 1 was, I still, like, I had a show

Speaker 1 two weeks ago. Yeah.
And

Speaker 1 just getting up, it was like there was like 20 people there because I was an opener for, so they have no, the people are like trickling in very slowly. Yeah.
But still I was like, oh my gosh, right.

Speaker 1 I can only imagine. And then, I don't know, I think you go into like autopilot or something.

Speaker 1 The first laugh, the first joke that hits or the first thing that hits, whatever it may be, really carries you.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It really hilaries.
It breaks the ice. And I feel really bad for people who

Speaker 1 like it takes them a second to get to that first joke because you're just kind of like floundering. Right.
And I'm sure it happens all the time with stand-up or comedians in general.

Speaker 3 My wife and I once saw Pete Davidson at like the, he was breaking in new material. So he's in a club, probably a little bit bigger than this.
And I'm not shitting you. It's tiny.

Speaker 3 And he's got three comedians that come on in front. Right.

Speaker 3 And I don't know any of them. But the first guy who comes on, the crowd is just not with him.

Speaker 3 There's a lot of chatter going on in the room and everyone's trying, he's trying to settle everybody down a little bit.

Speaker 3 But it was the 15 minutes of the most unimpressive comedy I've ever seen. He just started insulting people after a while and that kind of got some laugh.
Like he went to insult, right?

Speaker 3 And some people laughed about it. But honestly, there were very few laughs.
And I felt terrible.

Speaker 1 for the guy

Speaker 3 because I was like, you're not very funny. You're not being very funny.

Speaker 3 But still, it's got to be terrible to be up on stage and no one's laughing at you. And this is your job, your only job is to make people laugh, and you haven't gotten one.
It's got to feel awful.

Speaker 3 Conversely,

Speaker 3 when you're hot and you get the crowd growing, that's got to feel amazing. That's got to be something that really just

Speaker 3 kind of puts fuel in your tank.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm very lucky. I haven't done enough to ever, I haven't bombed yet.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Hopefully, none of these live shows will, but you never know. They could.

Speaker 1 Part of the experience. It's part of the experience.

Speaker 3 So you're not going to learn unless you bomb, right?

Speaker 1 It really is.

Speaker 1 So, but yeah, I can't, I mean, I can't even imagine like getting up there and not, I'm such a people pleaser again that I'd be like, oh my God, I'm not giving you what you want on top of like me feeling like shit.

Speaker 1 I'm not giving you what you want. You feel like shit.
I'm so sorry.

Speaker 1 Do you?

Speaker 3 What do you remember being funny as a kid? Like, what's the first thing you remember being funny as a kid? Television show, movie,

Speaker 3 weird Ali Yankovic? I don't know. I like to ask this of people.

Speaker 1 That's a great question.

Speaker 1 i hate that's a great question too but that is a great question

Speaker 1 uh

Speaker 1 what do i remember and sometimes it's hard to think of like yeah the like uncle making a joke i mean i don't know like you know i'd like to find out what what gets what do people remember lighting that fire for comedy right oh my god that's funny i love that i wish i could do that you know it's funny someone i had an interview last week and they asked me like who are my like early comedy mentors and i was like i mean i didn't like, we didn't watch stand-up in my house.

Speaker 1 I didn't really know what stand-up was until we got older. Like, we didn't watch SNL.
We didn't, like, we would watch like ABC sitcoms. Yeah.
And my mom loved Reba, you know, or like, right.

Speaker 1 Those, those kind of shows, or King, King of the Hills, the other one, whatever, like, those.

Speaker 1 King of Queens. King of Queens, yeah, like those shows that we watched like during dinner or whatever.
And that was our, that was our comedy. Sure.
And I think as I got older,

Speaker 1 even actually when I was, when I was young, I think I was really drawn to the

Speaker 1 person in the room who was commanding the room and had control over the people of the room with comedy. Yeah.
Like their ability to like the ease, mainly ease the tension in the room.

Speaker 1 Like it just felt like such a superpower to be able to have the right timing to make

Speaker 1 to make someone laugh at a funeral

Speaker 1 or to

Speaker 1 you know, when we're all sitting around eating dinner, just to like

Speaker 1 add that reprieve for a moment, especially if something's heavy or whatever. Yeah, it helps.

Speaker 1 Those people in my life growing up, and sometimes it was like kids in school, like even like kids my own age who were just really funny.

Speaker 1 I can like think of a few in my head of just like some boys and girls who were just like, they had that cadence and they made me feel good. And I was like, that's what I want.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So it was more real people in my life that I could viscerally feel that feeling from them than like,

Speaker 3 you know, any kind of like, oh, George Carlin.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Yeah. It was more, it was more what I was experiencing than what I was seeing.
And then as I got older, I started really appreciating more comedy.

Speaker 1 And I'm just now like learning about older comedians and appreciating older comedians and trying to watch more stand-up because it wasn't a part of my experience for a while.

Speaker 3 We watched a lot of SNL. My dad was a big fan of SNL, and he was

Speaker 3 remarkably into MTV when it came out.

Speaker 3 So there was like, you know, occasionally there would be like a comedian who would be on MTV as a guest VJ or whatever, and you would see them do a couple minutes of material.

Speaker 3 And I remember getting into stand-up comedy, and you are probably too young for this, but we remember when Comedy Central first came on, it was clips of stand-up comedians doing a bit.

Speaker 3 So like two or three minutes, like set up punchline, set up punchline. Like a video, like MTV used to play videos back to back to back.
No commercials. Stand-up, stand-up, stand-up, stand-up

Speaker 3 for days on end. No commercials.

Speaker 3 That was it. They were just putting stand-ups.
Stand-up comedians, not doing full shows, doing just one joke. And they would just run it.
And they would put their name at the bottom with

Speaker 3 the name of the joke. Like, you know, whoever, Kevin Nealon talks about a cat or whatever it was.
And I remember looking at that, thinking that that's a very, I'm laughing at this.

Speaker 3 And it's, and my daddy's too. It's a very noble thing that they're doing.
They're getting up there and making a whole bunch of people laugh. Yeah.
It's the first time I remember thinking that comedy.

Speaker 3 stand-up comedy specifically was a noble profession.

Speaker 3 They were giving a gift to people. Like, you know, even at my young age, I remember thinking, wow, those, you know, you're taking a break there.

Speaker 3 You're getting a, you're getting relief from whatever it is that's going on in your life. So I think it's very noble.

Speaker 3 And now I think social media is just another way to convey this kind of nobility, this gift. And a lot of people do it poorly.
I think you're doing it very well. A lot of people do it poorly.

Speaker 1 I mean, sometimes I do it poorly, too.

Speaker 3 Well, I mean, yeah, but you put out so much content.

Speaker 3 There's going to be a few stinkers.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's going to grow.

Speaker 1 We're the same. Not every show is like.

Speaker 3 No, 900 shows.

Speaker 1 Yeah, nine of the shows I think are probably listenable out of the 900. We're 1%.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's a great ratio.

Speaker 3 Do you have trouble with any followers on social media when you have this big of a follower?

Speaker 1 That's a good question. Do I have trouble with followers?

Speaker 3 Do you have any trouble with followers?

Speaker 1 Ones that you want to discuss.

Speaker 3 People just being like...

Speaker 3 Stalkers, weirdos, people being mean. I'm not sure there are people being mean.
I'm sure you have people that come out of the woodwork and just say stupid shit. I can imagine his name is Bob.

Speaker 1 Do you read the comments?

Speaker 1 Do you read the comments? I guess.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it kind of depends on where I'm at.

Speaker 1 I tried not to do my DMs because every time I do, I'm doing it for validation and then it feels empty. So I'm like, let's just not do it.
Unless I'm asking for feedback on something. Sure.

Speaker 1 Like when we were like pitching the shows, I was like, where should we go? I will read those DMs. Or if I'm talking about something that's really

Speaker 1 important to me that I'm going through, like I went off birth control and I post post a lot about that just to kind of see what other people are doing for

Speaker 1 these symptoms or whatever.

Speaker 1 But besides that,

Speaker 1 I try to

Speaker 1 see

Speaker 1 like within the first like hour or two of posting, I can kind of tell from the comments whether or not something is relatable or whether some people are just like, oh, it's fine video.

Speaker 1 Like they're just like, oh, this is funny because it's because it's supposed to be funny.

Speaker 3 It's funny because it's supposed to be funny and because you put it up there and cause I like you. Yes.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And then but I can like if there's like people will like quote certain things or I'll take note of what they're relating to and

Speaker 1 where they're at. Like sometimes a lot of the characters that I do, quote unquote, I'm using air quotes.

Speaker 1 A lot of the characters that I do are

Speaker 1 like you can either be they can be perceived as

Speaker 1 you can either relate to them or you can hate them. Yes.

Speaker 1 And it's, I'm, I always find it so curious how many people, like the ratio of people who hate this person versus the ratio of people who are this person or who feel like this is a very relatable thing versus like they hate when this thing happens.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
And I think that's just like a fascinating human psyche thing. It is.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And moving forward, I try to make it even more ambiguous because the more people, because if I make it seem like it's more relatable, then the people who hate the person aren't going to get anything from it or whatever.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 I don't really have issues with followers. I don't think I'm like, I don't think I'm like fine-less enough.

Speaker 1 You see famous people get it all the time. I'm like,

Speaker 1 I wish I had that. I know.
I'm like, feel free to start hate campaigning.

Speaker 3 I wish I had one stalker.

Speaker 1 Because if I had one stalker, just one, then just one guy at my door. That would be your validation, Brian.
You really solidify that.

Speaker 3 We have weird people that are contacting us.

Speaker 3 But I go, does this qualify as fame or does this just qualify as

Speaker 3 a couple of the girls that I dated in high school?

Speaker 1 They were like,

Speaker 1 you know what I'm saying? Is it just just math at that point. Yeah, but there's going to be at least a few.

Speaker 3 It doesn't matter. I could be anybody, and they would be that crazy, right? Are they crazy about Brian and Chrissy, or are they just crazy in general?

Speaker 1 I'm waiting for that TCB stalker. That's what I want.
Oh, there you go. Yeah.
There you go.

Speaker 3 But here's what's interesting: is that you know,

Speaker 3 we get pitched a lot of people. Hey, come on, you know, come on the show, come on, come on.

Speaker 3 One of the things that we do that Astrid often will do is you go to someone's social media and you see who follows them.

Speaker 1 Like, who are

Speaker 3 our guests or the people that we enjoy follow them? And you have a lot of people. Oh, really? People that follow you.

Speaker 1 Yes, that's correct. Who?

Speaker 3 Name them. I don't know.
Astrid, who are they?

Speaker 1 Hannah Burton. Oh, we love Hannah.
Yeah, we love Hannah.

Speaker 3 Hannah was one of our first interviews.

Speaker 1 Oh, really?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I think she would never agree to do it a second time.

Speaker 1 Oh, she was great. She lives in her husband.
Her husband

Speaker 3 has been on our show a couple times, too. Gian Marco Sorosi, I think, follows you too, if I'm not mistaken.
Heather McMahon, maybe, fathers you.

Speaker 1 She goes, no, no, no. Oh, no.

Speaker 3 Oh, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 You can talk. Feel free.
Go ahead and do that.

Speaker 1 I'll repeat what you're saying.

Speaker 1 If what you're saying makes me look good, I'll repeat it.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 I noticed the same thing with quite a lot of my friends. Yeah.
Followed you. So there you go.
That's the nicest. That's so nice.

Speaker 3 Well, I think it's a compliment. And then you say, well, this person is interesting to the people that we know and the people we've had on the show.
So they're interesting to us.

Speaker 3 They must be interesting to us. And they weren't wrong.

Speaker 1 I got to watch who I follow then, I guess. It is funny how that becomes a little bit of a stamp of approval, too.
Yeah,

Speaker 3 like this person, yes, we don't have a ton of followers, but the followers, but some of the people that follow us, I think, feel good to me.

Speaker 3 Like, the people who come on our show and we like and we have a good time with, they say they, it's like a, it's, I don't want to say it is some sort of validation, but then it's also like a little bit of social credit.

Speaker 1 Like, hey, I liked you.

Speaker 3 I'm going to follow you and see what you're up to. Yeah.
Um, you know, down the road. Now, question about your one of your social media posts.
Oh, no.

Speaker 3 I am one of the guys who does that whole Theo Von Bro pose when you

Speaker 1 pop out the two fingers with a single finger.

Speaker 3 I don't know what I do. I do, but I do something stupid with my hands.
I put them in my pocket.

Speaker 1 Yeah, right.

Speaker 3 Why do we do that?

Speaker 1 Because you're insecure about what to do with your hands. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Because I'm insecure in general about taking photographs. I think that's what.

Speaker 1 I mean, but girls do, like, we'll do a squat or we'll do like a hand on the hand. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 No one can take a photo without

Speaker 1 thinking about it. Otherwise, they're just sitting.
They're just

Speaker 1 limp and sitting there. I'm scared.

Speaker 3 From the age of,

Speaker 3 let's say, 18

Speaker 3 to maybe 26 or 27, I think there might be three known photographs of me. I avoided at all costs

Speaker 1 any photographs.

Speaker 3 And that's not even a joke. I do have some unlike.

Speaker 3 I have some disposable cameras that I haven't gotten

Speaker 3 taken to the film place yet. And I'm sure sure there's some photographs in there.

Speaker 3 But I didn't, I think I missed that generation of people who had phones directly, you know, cameras directly in their hands at all times, where a lot of the people I know are so used to taking photographs all the time, the selfies and all that.

Speaker 3 So I feel very uncomfortable when someone, even after all the photographs that have been taken for the commercial break, I still feel uncomfortable about it. It doesn't make me feel.

Speaker 1 Are you uncomfortable about the photo or are you, when you're taking the photo, thinking about how this is going to be perceived?

Speaker 1 Like, because me, I jump immediately to like, okay, if my worst enemy saw this, would they have something to actually make fun of? Yeah. It's very subconscious.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 But I feel like that's what permeates whenever you're doing anything. It also feels so, like taking a photo of yourself, having someone take a photo of you.
It feels so weird.

Speaker 1 It feels so self-indulgent. Yes.
It's literally how we tell time.

Speaker 1 It's been since the dawn of eras.

Speaker 1 We've been. you know, taking note of the things that we do in some way, shape, or form.
This is our versus our society's version of just like chronicling.

Speaker 1 But we are so ashamed of it. I know.
It's so fascinating.

Speaker 3 It's so weird. Yeah, you're right about that.
Like people are putting like pictures of themselves on the caves and the cavemans.

Speaker 3 And it's a way of denoting that moment in time, our age, our moment, our history. We're essentially,

Speaker 3 and now we can chronicle every moment of our lives. And I once heard a Buddhist monk say, there's no yesterday.
There's no tomorrow. It's this, and that's it.
You get one day, right? That's it.

Speaker 3 Forget about that. Forget about this.

Speaker 3 It's all this. Sounds nice in theory, but we're human.
Like, I'm not a Buddhist monk. I'm a dude, right?

Speaker 1 For them, there's only today. Yeah, for them, there's only today because

Speaker 3 run down and grab some grains of rice and hand it to your neighbor. But for me, I got to take fucking photographs for the podcast.
It just makes me feel so uncomfortable.

Speaker 3 But that was an absolutely relatable post because I see every one of the guys on my Instagram. I see them all making that stupid same fucking pose.
And I'm like, she's so right about that.

Speaker 3 Guys don't know what to do with themselves when it comes to a photograph. We just don't.

Speaker 1 Nobody does.

Speaker 1 But I think it's, I think it's, I, I don't, I think we're better about this, but I think, especially, especially when I was growing up, and I'm sure you guys were, like, it is, it does feel,

Speaker 1 taking a photo feels vain. It feels vapid.
It shouldn't. Again, we're, we have to, like, it, it really cements like a time, but um, it just feels vapid no matter what.

Speaker 1 But I think for some reason, like women in society were, were almost given permission to feel a little more

Speaker 3 self-conscious.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, to feel more

Speaker 1 vain. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I think we're given, and I think for men, they're given less rope to feel that vanity.

Speaker 1 And so I think that probably compounds when you're taking a photo and you're like, all right, how do I make this seem like the most casual? I don't give a shit.

Speaker 1 I'm just going to do this thing with my hands as opposed to making it look like I. care by posing.

Speaker 1 I think women get away with it.

Speaker 1 We all have the same insecurity.

Speaker 3 Sometimes I wish I could tap into a little bit of my gay and like pop out a hip. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 Tap in your gay, pop out a hip pop out of it.

Speaker 3 And just get, if I could tap into a little bit more of my gay, then I think I'd be better practicing.

Speaker 1 Just practice.

Speaker 1 If we could all tap into a little bit of hip. A little bit more of our gay.
I think I'd be happy. Listen.

Speaker 3 What?

Speaker 3 So now where are you going to go with the show? What's the next?

Speaker 1 You're here in Atlanta coming up, right? We're coming to Atlanta. City Winery.
I think this will come up before. When will this come out? In a couple of weeks.
Okay. Great.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Through September for the city winery? Yeah, they were doing September City Winery.

Speaker 1 Let's see. Congratulations.
That's a great venue. That's a great venue.
I was like right down the street from where I live. I just saw it yesterday.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And it's a gorgeous venue. I'm a little scared to fill it up.
It's big.

Speaker 3 It's big. We'll come.

Speaker 1 We'll come to the bank. There's a ton of people.
Yeah. And there's a ton of people in that area.
That's a great new area with if it's at the city winery.

Speaker 3 Some people are just going to show up because it's the city winery. That's what I'm thinking.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we'll come for sure. Okay.
Oh, man. I would love that.

Speaker 1 But yeah, so we're doing another show in Nashville, Atlanta,

Speaker 1 and then Chicago. We'll do Chicago and then Atlanta.
Austin, LA,

Speaker 1 and then hoping to do maybe one or two other shows like later in the year. Fantastic.

Speaker 1 It's a delighting tour, but. Yeah, no, but those are some big markets, though.
This is where it starts.

Speaker 1 Like, you know,

Speaker 3 the,

Speaker 3 you know, burner phones of the world and all that, you know, all that stuff. They started somewhere too in these small venues just doing that.

Speaker 3 And look now, you know, I don't know, Madison Square Garden, where is she playing? I'm not even sure. Hannah's

Speaker 3 truly amazing, but this is how it all starts. And if you can prove that you can fill some seats, then the promoter goes to the next level, right? Yes.
And that's it.

Speaker 3 And you have the social media following to fill some of these places. There's no doubt about it.
I mean, that's the scary part about the promoters, though. You know, they come to you.

Speaker 3 I don't know if you're... if you're working with a promoter.
I'm assuming.

Speaker 1 My manager does it all. Okay.

Speaker 3 So anyway, the promoter comes to you and he says, hey, listen, here's five venues. Go see if you can sell tickets.

Speaker 3 And if you can sell tickets, then we'll be happy to give you a check and you move on to the next one or whatever your deal is.

Speaker 3 But that's the scary part about it is you look at the numbers on your podcast or on your social media and you go, oh, yeah. I could definitely do that.

Speaker 3 But can I do that in one city on that particular night? Yep. It's a different question altogether, right?

Speaker 1 And will people, and will people even want to, like, do people see me in a way that they're like, I want to see what she has to say in person? Right.

Speaker 1 Or are they like, no, she stays in my little square and she feels safe there. And I'm hoping, I'm hoping that that's not the case.
Yeah, I can be like, I want to at least see what it is. Right, right.

Speaker 1 And I think this show, I didn't want to do like sketches from the internet in my live show. A lot of people do that.
And that's great for them. And I think it's a great like one-to-one.

Speaker 1 People know exactly what they're getting. This is not any characters I've done online.
This is not anything really familiar to that. It's the same sense of humor with me.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And it's supposed to be relatable, hopefully.

Speaker 1 But I wanted to give something that was more and different in my brain, more and different than what people have seen before, so that I have the thing that I do online.

Speaker 1 I have who I am in this little box. And then I have this other thing that I have in front of you.
And I'm giving in two separate ways. I think that's a great strategy.

Speaker 3 I think that's the smartest strategy because if you're doing the same thing you're doing online, the next time they come into town, they're going to go, I can just look over social media.

Speaker 1 Right. What's the reason?

Speaker 1 What's the reason to get out? Yeah.

Speaker 3 But if you show range, right? And I'm sure as an actor, it's always about range, range.

Speaker 3 If you show range and they say, oh, I got something completely unexpected, which was the same thing we ran into when we were doing our live shows.

Speaker 3 Do we give them what they're used to, which is an hour of the commercial break, brand new, or do we give them something completely different or mix the two together? Yeah. And so

Speaker 3 make it familiar enough that it gets, that they know what they're doing.

Speaker 3 doing But then I think it's a very smart idea to do something different because then you have legs and you can run with it the next time people will go I didn't yeah, I didn't get what I expected and I liked it and so now I'm gonna go to the next one.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so okay so smart so great

Speaker 3 We really this is our first live in-person interview with someone that we don't know.

Speaker 1 Let's put it that way. Okay, great.

Speaker 3 I think you have been wonderful.

Speaker 1 Yes, thank you for all I think you get an A plus. Guys, this was lovely.

Speaker 3 I think you'll get an invite back. This is lovely.
I'm glad this all worked out, that you got to come to the AC Studio.

Speaker 1 I am

Speaker 1 so happy that this worked out and that we could do this. And I would love to come back.
And

Speaker 1 thank you for having me. Well, thank you.
And good luck to you. We're excited to see you again in September.
You guys have to come. Yes.
We'll come in. In the comments.
Yes. 100%.
Okay.

Speaker 1 It's right down the street from me, too. Okay, good.

Speaker 3 Courtney Michelle, I will put all of her links in the show notes, all the appropriate links down in her show notes. You can find her on social media.

Speaker 3 You can catch her live if you're in one of the lucky towns that gets to see her show. Thank you very much, Courtney.
We appreciate it.

Speaker 1 Thank you guys so much.

Speaker 1 Rachel here. While Brian takes his old man Bladder to the little boys' room, let's talk turkey.
TCD needs your help. If you love the show, do us all a favor and share.
Sharing is caring.

Speaker 1 And we know you care. Don't you? Well, don't you? Ooh, that was some childhood trauma rearing its ugly head.
Do you want to be on the show? Leave us a voicemail at 212-433-3822.

Speaker 1 And you could be the next TCB disembodied voice. Ooh, what'd you do today? I was a disembodied voice.
You know, that sounds more dangerous than it actually is.

Speaker 1 Find us on Insta at thecommercial break, on the web at tcbpodcast.com. And all the episodes on video are available the same day at youtube.com slash thecommercial break.

Speaker 1 I'm gonna go help Brian get back up the stairs while you listen to the sponsors. And then we'll all meet back here and get back to this episode of The commercial break.
I'll take a raise now, bitches.

Speaker 1 Bye.

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Speaker 3 I think that went surprisingly well, Chrissy.

Speaker 1 I cannot believe how well that went. And I don't think I creeped her out once.

Speaker 3 I kept the cringe factor down to a one.

Speaker 1 You did a wonderful job. Thank you.

Speaker 1 Thank you.

Speaker 1 Astrid watching. Yeah, Astrid was

Speaker 1 without Astrid.

Speaker 3 Who knows what would have happened? Gordy Michelle was absolutely delightful. Lovely.
And I do have to say, I really enjoyed recording here, actually. All the people at Odyssey

Speaker 3 have made it great, and this is a fantastic facility.

Speaker 3 Yeah. I just said to Assard, I said, this is like, this is so much better than our studio at home, which she designed.
So I'll be in the doghouse paying many husband points for that later on tonight.

Speaker 3 I'm sure I'll be doing a honeydew list very long tonight. That's true.
Anyway, Cordy Michelle, she was wonderful. Thank you.
You know what I've noticed?

Speaker 1 I don't know why I do this, but I tend to go deep on a lot of our guests you do why do I do that you're quoting this a comedy showing ramdas and the Buddhist monk I know Buddhist monk ramdas and I'm not even sure it was ramdas childhood yeah so so how's your mother you never know what you're gonna get I'm trying to get them to cry because I see that gets

Speaker 3 clicks on social media that's what I'm doing I want to be important, but I don't want to talk about politics because fuck politics. Because we're all fucked and no one seems to care about it.

Speaker 3 Anyway, Anyway, Courtney Michelle is absolutely lovely. You can find her on social media.
You can catch her live in Chicago, Austin, Nashville, Atlanta. I think she said Miami, L.A., somewhere.

Speaker 3 Anyway, all that information is down in the show notes. We certainly would appreciate it if you would go and follow her and then check out her live show.
I think we should go.

Speaker 1 We're going.

Speaker 3 We have a long list. of shows to go to this fall with our guests, but we should try and make it to at least some of them.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Some people we just tell them we're going to go to their show and hope that they give us free free tickets. And then other people, we're going to go to the show.

Speaker 3 And I think Courtney might be one of them.

Speaker 1 What do you think? I love that venue. She's performing on the show.

Speaker 3 Oh, the City Winery is lovely. Lovely.
I wish I drank still because don't they sell wine there at the winery?

Speaker 1 Okay, all right. There you go.
That's the gig.

Speaker 3 212-433-3TCB. 212-433-3822.
Questions, comments, concerns, contents, ideas. We take them all right there.
So many of you writing in about

Speaker 3 Pauly couch cushions.

Speaker 1 Oh my God.

Speaker 3 We'll get back to him.

Speaker 3 What a character. We'll get back to him.
But if you have any comments or concerns or questions about this interview with Courtney and Michelle, let us know. We'll pass the message along to nobody.

Speaker 3 There you go. TCBPodcast.com.
All the audio, all the video, right there from one location in your free TCB sticker.

Speaker 3 Available only to you and 30,000 other people who are on a coupon site at the Commercial Break on Instagram.

Speaker 3 youtube.com slash the commercial break for all the videos the same day they air here on the audio. Okay, Chrissy, I guess that's all I can do for today.

Speaker 1 I think so. I'll tell you that I love you.

Speaker 3 And I love you.

Speaker 1 Best you.

Speaker 3 And best you out there in the podcast universe. Until next time, Chrissy, and I will say, we do say, and we must say.

Speaker 1 Goodbye.

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