TCB Infomercial: Brandon Rogers

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Speaker 3 Thank you, miss.

Speaker 2 On this this episode of the Commercial Break.

Speaker 4 In a way, my work has always been really tailored for this vertical short form, grab the audience kind of

Speaker 4 system that we have now.

Speaker 4 And I'm trying to embrace that. I'm trying to lean into it.

Speaker 4 No one's gotten anywhere by

Speaker 4 refuting progress and being like, imagine when the toilet came out, all the people were like, I refuse to adapt.

Speaker 2 And just.

Speaker 2 I will shit myself continuously.

Speaker 2 I will will continue to fill these pants.

Speaker 4 No, but

Speaker 4 so yeah, verticals, I think that's the biggest shift.

Speaker 4 And just, you know, I watch a lot of comedy.

Speaker 2 I know

Speaker 2 what's hot right now.

Speaker 4 I know the things that are, I try not to do anything super topical so that people 10 or 20 years from now or further can find my work and still enjoy it.

Speaker 2 The next episode of the commercial break starts now.

Speaker 2 Come on!

Speaker 2 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 to you, Chris and Brian.

Speaker 2 Best to you out there in the podcast universe. And thanks for joining us on a TCB Infomercial Tuesday with comedian, actor, director, YouTube sensation, social media star, and now

Speaker 2 writer and producer of a very popular streaming show, cartoon called Hell of a Boss on Amazon Prime, Brandon Rodgers.

Speaker 2 Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with Brandon Rogers, I am at a loss for words. No, I know.
There's really no thing, one thing to describe him.

Speaker 2 No, but I would say if I had to like intro him, I would say from, or I had to intro his work, I would say, from the twisted mind of Brandon Rodgers.

Speaker 2 His comedy is off-color, off-beat, quirky, goes places that, you know.

Speaker 2 That most comedians don't go. Let's just be honest about it.
It is weird, wild, improv comedy.

Speaker 2 And I like it. It's dark humor, and I like it.
Most of it, I like.

Speaker 2 And he has amassed an incredible following of people, and rightfully so. He's prolific on YouTube.
He's done this now, hell of a boss on Amazon Prime. And, you know, he's taken over social media.

Speaker 2 He's got millions and millions and millions of followers.

Speaker 2 And I do understand why, because people like that. They like that twisted sense of humor.
Look at Adult Swim. Adult Swim

Speaker 2 made an entire catalog of shows that, quite frankly, were not fit for prime time. No, Mr.
Pickles. Oh, my God.

Speaker 2 Jeff and I, I remember the first time we saw that show, we were like, what? What in the fuck? Children's.

Speaker 2 A murdering psychopathic dog, satanic dog that runs around named Mr. Pickles.

Speaker 5 It's so dark, but it's hilarious.

Speaker 2 It is hilarious. And if you like that kind of humor, you are going to love

Speaker 2 this show.

Speaker 2 Royal Crackers is another show that is, I think of Brandon when I watch Royal Crackers, which I believe is on, I want to say it's on Netflix, but I don't know, but it's a cartoon that's just twisted.

Speaker 2 I mean, it's fucked up. It's so twisted about a family that owns a crackers business.
Like they make crackers and they're rich and, you know, they're fighting the other cracker company.

Speaker 2 It's really, but they're killing everybody and heads are flying off and, you know, boners. And it's just a weird, wild show.

Speaker 2 And just like, you know, Tim and Eric, Awesome Show, Great Job, all those shows. It's in the vein of all of that type of comedy, but he's doing it in his own way.

Speaker 2 He's building a little empire, quite frankly, over there. What I saw, and I'd love to talk to him about this.
What I saw just in preparation for this show, he had the conjoined twins on.

Speaker 2 Do you know who I'm talking about? The two conjoined twins. Let me see.
Let me, what were their names?

Speaker 2 Conjoined twins married. One of them is married.
Do you know who I'm talking about? Yes, I do. Abby and Brittany Hensel.

Speaker 2 Okay. Abby and Brittany Hensel, very famous conjoined twins.
They've been on all the shows, Dr. Phil, Dr.
Oz, Dr. This, Dr.
That.

Speaker 2 Really, because of the medical oddity that is conjoined twins, the rarity, the oddity. But Brandon puts them in a whole different light, and they are

Speaker 2 wild in his skits. I mean, wild in his skits.
And I love it because here's what I like about it.

Speaker 2 He's not making fun of them. He's having fun with them.
And that is a completely...

Speaker 2 Yeah, those are two different things. He handles it with he handles it with care essentially, but he still goes there.
It's still crazy.

Speaker 2 And they're still making fun of themselves and the people around them and their condition.

Speaker 2 And it is awesome because otherwise, what would these two twins like who else is going to put them in a movie or a skit or whatever?

Speaker 2 Brandon, you know, put them in there and he's put them in a number of different skits and every fucking one of them is hilarious. Yeah.
Every one of them. So I love it.

Speaker 2 I love that he's, you know, giving

Speaker 2 opportunities giving the opportunities but then also looking at the the and person and for people not to be like oh no like

Speaker 2 yeah they can do for themselves let's help them to be pitied and you know puddled and humbled and all this other stuff no brandon's like no these two girls are funny let's let them rip right and they do rip there they go and also he he he puts a cast of characters around him that is similar in the way that they are not stereotypical hollywood actors actresses, comedians.

Speaker 2 They are just people who are funny, but would probably be overlooked in the typical Hollywood setting. And then he goes to fucked up places with them.
I mean, fucked up places with them.

Speaker 2 It is really. And he does a cast of characters.
Brandon's great. Crab Apple on crack.
That's what Brandon does. And he does it for real on video.
It is fucking fantastic.

Speaker 2 So I'm going to put all of the links in the show notes. Go watch Hell of a Boss on Amazon Prime.
I'm really curious to see what we get here. I have seen him do interviews in character.
Okay.

Speaker 2 So, I don't know. We don't know what to expect.
I have no idea.

Speaker 2 There's no expectations. There's no expectations.
Let's just, we're all going to wade through this together. And, you know, if

Speaker 2 you don't hear from Chrissy and I after this, then it was Brandon's fault, I guess. There you go.
All right. Let's, what do you say we do this? Let's take a break.

Speaker 2 And when we get back, through the magic of telepodcasting, Brandon Rod, the very famous Brandon Rodgers, right here with us in studio on that TV. I say, let's do it.
We'll be back.

Speaker 5 Hey, it's Rachel, your new voice of God here on TCB. And just like you, I'm wondering just how much longer this podcast can continue.

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Speaker 5 Now I'm going to go check the mailbox for payment while you check out our sponsors, and then we'll return to this episode of the commercial break.

Speaker 1 And the twisted mind of Brandon is here with us, Chrissy. Right there.
Very excited. Welcome.
Welcome.

Speaker 4 Maybe we can untwist it a little on this podcast.

Speaker 1 Well, who would want that? I mean, who would want the untwisted mind of Brandon Rodgers?

Speaker 4 A lot of people wanted me straight for many years.

Speaker 1 I wasn't talking about that kind of twisting. But

Speaker 1 I wonder,

Speaker 1 where is this comic sensibility coming from? Listen, I'm a huge fan of the dark humor. Yes.
Of the just like

Speaker 1 you interviewed those conjoined, or not interviewed, but you did the skits with those conjoined twins. And I thought to myself, this is brilliant.

Speaker 1 And one of the reasons why I thought it was brilliant is because they were in on the, they were in on it. And that makes it to me so much more funny that it's not just beating down on someone.

Speaker 1 It's like, hey, let's, let's have fun with this. Where does this comic sensibility come from?

Speaker 4 We need to be okay with laughing at dark things because life is dark and humor needs to keep up if it's worth anything.

Speaker 4 And so I just, I've always had a family who joke about dark things, joke about death and disease, joke about conflict, divorce, religion. Nothing was off the table with my family.

Speaker 4 It was just how we got through things, how you get through tough times. You just have to laugh at stuff because, you know, you're going to die.
And then that's that.

Speaker 4 And we're, we exist in this small little window between two eternities. You know, why take it so fucking seriously? Anyway, I think the twins are a great example of that.

Speaker 4 The twins are a prime example of laughing at just what life has given you. Because what else are you going to do about it? Just

Speaker 4 torment, lay tormented with it and just exist miserably. I don't plan on that.
And so, no, I appreciate you saying that.

Speaker 4 I think that there's a lot of people who feel uncomfortable laughing at stuff that they believe they they should be taking seriously when i mean it life is so short and so i

Speaker 1 i think that's i think the way that you described it is is best said if

Speaker 1 If we can't laugh at the darkest things, then we're kind of fucked, right? Because then what do then what are we doing? Then we're just sitting in it forever and wallowing in it forever.

Speaker 1 And I think also the comedy helps to open up energetically to a place that can allow for healing and all this stuff.

Speaker 1 And these can join twins, when I saw that, again, the part that I thought made it even funnier was they're in on it. It's fun with them.
They are having fun with it too.

Speaker 1 How did you come up with that idea, by the way?

Speaker 4 Well, actually,

Speaker 4 it's actually the one on the right, Lupe. She's the one that came up with everything.

Speaker 4 Carmen is often the more vocal one, but Lupe is the sick, twisted fucking.

Speaker 4 She's the one who thought of the worst humor. You know,

Speaker 4 one of them, and we just did a film called The Night at the Park, and it's all my character. It's like my end game of all my like most recent successful characters.

Speaker 4 And of course, I had the twins in there, and there's this big storyline that one of them is secretly dating

Speaker 4 a trans lesbian, and the other one doesn't know about it because she's chloroforming her every night. And

Speaker 4 they're just the shit that they came up with. And she says, you try being conjoined without chloroform.
Or, oh,

Speaker 4 we're dating a trans girl.

Speaker 4 are we pregnant now do we need to find some stairs this is just shit that she was saying and i'm really glad we got it on camera because a lot of that dialogue she just comes up with on the spot and um you know you you could argue that she's just really funny but i think that for someone improvised like that with such a dark tasteful sense of humor, it speaks to a larger genius that I think she has.

Speaker 4 And I think that I hope that she has a future in comedy writing because some of my greatest jokes on my channel this year came from her. And so,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 that's great. And I loved it.
I love that. Yeah.
And I love that also.

Speaker 1 That one of the things that, you know, I don't want to make comparisons because there is no comparison, but one of the things that

Speaker 1 I appreciated about like Stern with the whack pack is that he would bring them in and people would laugh at them, but they were also in on the joke too.

Speaker 1 So, and he was also giving opportunities to people that might otherwise just be walked, that would be taken as an oddity, right?

Speaker 1 But then they're people and they have personalities and like you get, it humanizes people who sometimes might get overlooked. So I really, I really appreciate what you're doing in that sense.

Speaker 1 How do you come up with these characters, these wild fucking characters? Yeah, what's the process? Is it just like wake up one morning and as twisted as I can get, figure it out?

Speaker 4 Not really. I mean, my videos are largely a reflection of the resources I had at that time and whatever I was inspired by, what movies I was really into at that time.

Speaker 4 It's sort of just whatever I felt like making. And the actors that I choose, you were saying, you know, talking about diversity and giving roles to people who might not otherwise shine elsewhere.

Speaker 4 I've considered myself really lucky to have the actors that I do.

Speaker 4 I think that not only are they talented, but they're extremely enjoyable to work with.

Speaker 4 I think

Speaker 4 I like a group of people that don't look like they belong together.

Speaker 4 Like whenever we go out and and grab dinner after a video or drinks we certain I think people try and determine like are these co-workers are they there's

Speaker 4 who are these people why because we don't look like we would hang out with each other

Speaker 4 to me whenever I'm casting obviously you have to you know you have to act that's number one but then on top like in terms of appearance I'm always drawn to people who look very unique or have a very unique element to them.

Speaker 4 I don't know. I feel like Hollywood is still very, very attractive.
And it's still very, and I, I know how I sound about body positivity and this and that, but it's true.

Speaker 4 It's still very much like a beautiful place where being good looking gets you places. And I don't know, I'm just not drawn to a character who looks like society is kind to them.

Speaker 4 There's nothing about that type of

Speaker 4 that I don't relate to. I certainly don't see myself as that.

Speaker 4 And so when I see characters who have a uniqueness to them or who don't look conventionally attractive or don't fit that very thin mold, inherently I'm going to listen to them a little bit more.

Speaker 4 I'm going to side with them a little bit more. I kind of understand them more.
And so

Speaker 4 anyway, I

Speaker 4 think that Carmen and Lupe, I think that they're two of the most talented people I've gotten to work with this year. And

Speaker 4 I just, I really also just love working with them. They're really great on set.
They're very chill. We worked late hours into the night and neither of them complained.

Speaker 4 And so hopefully I get to do more with them very soon.

Speaker 1 Is there like a line, Brandon, that you ever feel? Do you ever have a line in your head where you go, oh, that's too far? Or do you just let it fly and let it sort itself out later?

Speaker 4 I mean, the line is if it hurts anyone, if anyone is

Speaker 4 upset by something. Obviously, comedy is supposed to be meant to be a positive getaway from whatever the viewer is going through in life.

Speaker 4 And the moment you make them reflect on something negative or make them, because art can do that. You can be watching a funny movie and something can trigger something in you that,

Speaker 4 you know, hurts.

Speaker 4 Obviously, if it, that's my one line is just, you know,

Speaker 4 like I fully believe in just doing whatever the fuck I want to do in life unless it hurts anyone. And so like, that's the one caveat I have, not just with comedy, just with anything I do.
I feel like

Speaker 4 happiness at all costs except the pain of others. And so, yeah, same thing goes with my work with comedy.
I think that's pretty much the only line, though.

Speaker 4 I feel like if the person's laughing, then fuck it. Who cares what it was shot on or how it was done or whether they laughed.
And that's really the bottom line of the channel since day one.

Speaker 1 No, I agree with you. I think that it's a good philosophy in life to have that, you know, first of all, live and let live, no matter what it is, unless you're hurting somebody else, right?

Speaker 1 That's like the one thing. It's just the, it's the golden rule, right? Do unto others.
And so, as long as you're not hurting anybody else, I don't give a shit what you do. It doesn't matter to me.

Speaker 1 Right, right.

Speaker 1 Those are personal choices that you make. And I don't have to agree with every single one.
But, you know, as long as it's not hurting anybody, I really don't care.

Speaker 1 But I have to imagine, and I'm not trying to dig or poke, but I have to imagine that some of your comedy sometimes gets a reaction out of people. I mean, it's just the nature of what you do.

Speaker 4 Oh, yeah. I just did a video where I play a cult leader and that offended.

Speaker 4 And weirdly enough that offended Catholic people and so I'm like well I'm playing a cult leader I'm not playing a Catholic priest so the fact that you're getting offended is more telling about what what your beliefs are but um yeah I mean here's the thing that the larger the audience grows the larger the chances are that a fraction of those people are going to not enjoy a joke that you make or something like that.

Speaker 4 But I feel like at this point, at this point, people often know what they're getting into when they, or at least when they're a video or two deep in my arsenal, I feel like they know what they're getting at.

Speaker 1 It's burning itself out. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Right, right. Usually people's first introduction to me, there's a probably some kind of swear word or a bot, like my naked body or something.
There's a vomit or something, you know. So,

Speaker 4 yeah,

Speaker 4 I'm very upfront about what my comedy is. And I don't try and pull pull in people and trick that.
I mean, there's enough safe comedy on the internet. I'm very upfront about being bad with mine.

Speaker 1 Well, that's very, that brings up an interesting thought in my head is as you have been on YouTube and a YouTube creator growing your audience, which by the way,

Speaker 1 for those listening that aren't familiar with Brandon's work, he's immensely popular.

Speaker 1 And as you have grown on YouTube and become more of a prolific creator and getting more attention, how has the evolution of YouTube affected your own creative process?

Speaker 4 Verticals have been the biggest pivot in my career. Having, because I'm a filmmaker at heart and I've learned this is how you tell a story, this wide script, like, because that's how our eyes are.

Speaker 4 That's how we examine a room when we walk into it. That's how, you know, every, you know, that's everything is

Speaker 4 horizontal to us as having, you know, our eyes are like this. But our palms are like this.
And we now have this device that

Speaker 4 it was only a matter of time before this is going to happen. Where before we have devices, we can watch movies in our hands and our hands hold things like this.

Speaker 4 So now we have to re-learn telling stories in a vertical way, which provides new

Speaker 4 options, but also provides a lot of limitations. You know, characters, if two characters are talking to each other on screen, they have to stand this close to each other.

Speaker 4 Otherwise, or you have to see their whole body. And, you know,

Speaker 4 that's true. So, yeah, and vertical, I mean, just, it's just, if you want something to pop off, it's far more likely with a vertical video than a horizontal video.

Speaker 4 Um, that's just, that's just how the algorithms on almost every platform are tailored now. Um, who knows how long this could last.
It could be forever. It couldn't just be for another few years.

Speaker 4 I don't know.

Speaker 4 But the truth is, if you really want something to go viral, it's not going necessarily to happen the same way it did 10 years ago, which is, ooh, let me think of a video that a lot of people are searching and hopefully a lot of people will look for it.

Speaker 4 And it'll, we're in this sort of stumble upon time period where you have to make something that's really going to Google Gaga, catch them in that moment right there, as opposed to like being educated about what their interests are and trying to find what they're going to be searching for.

Speaker 4 It's more just, for me, at least, I've been finding a lot of success in getting people to stop scrolling. And as a Doom scroller myself,

Speaker 4 I'm very aware of what what makes me stop scrolling this isn't a way i would think 10 years ago this this way of trying to grab people's attention was not

Speaker 4 but ironically it's how i got famous because i never had i never made vine content that took off i people were taking my clips out of context from youtube and throwing them on vine and that sort of goo goo gaga grab your attention aspect of them is what blew me up and so in a way my work has always been really tailored for this vertical short form grab the audience kind of um uh

Speaker 4 system that we have now um and and uh and i'm trying to embrace that i'm trying to lean into it um no one's gotten anywhere by refuting progress and being like imagine when the toilet came out all the people were like i refuse to adapt and just yeah i will shit myself continuously

Speaker 4 i will continue to fill these pants um no but uh so yeah verticals i think that's the biggest shift

Speaker 4 And just, you know, I watch a lot of comedy. I know what's what's hot right now.

Speaker 4 I know the things that are, I try not to do anything super topical so that people 10 or 20 years from now or further can find my work and still enjoy it.

Speaker 4 But I do try and follow comedy, especially if there's a comedic trend that I find funny. I try and jump on it as much as I can.

Speaker 4 But yeah, vertical short form, that's the biggest

Speaker 4 change.

Speaker 1 That is interesting. And you do bring up a point that's pretty obvious to content creators, which is,

Speaker 1 you know, even when we first started, you were playing for the search, right? You were playing for the search. What is being searched? What is trending? What is searching?

Speaker 1 Now it is more of what gets someone's attention in the first two seconds, because that's what everyone is doing is flipping, flipping, flipping on this.

Speaker 1 And what you're describing is a very technical requirement of trending right now, which is, it's got to be vertical. It's got to be short.

Speaker 1 It's got to capture people's attention in the first three seconds. Anytime we have a reel go viral, the number one thing it says on the back end on the dashboard is this reel is

Speaker 1 trending because it catches people in the first three seconds, right? And so everybody knows that.

Speaker 1 And really your stuff is so visually

Speaker 1 either disturbing,

Speaker 1 whatever it is, right? It's that you have to stop.

Speaker 4 And that's why I'm not really that angry about all this, right? Because I do feel like my stuff lends itself to that grabby kind of format.

Speaker 4 And also

Speaker 4 the vertical shape, like I'm not grabbing anyone with my like, you know, landscape imagery or my beautiful cinema. I'm grabbing people with character stuff.
And characters are vertical.

Speaker 4 You know, they're

Speaker 4 so when I say that there's cons to the, you know, vertical, it's mainly because you can't tell a story the same way as a filmmaker, but you can tell a story as a clown easier because it's about this.

Speaker 4 It's about the person. And so that's why I don't think it's better or worse.
I think it's just new.

Speaker 4 I think that we are in this new aspect ratio that as a clown comedian, you know, actor, it's great for me because it makes it more about the subject than it is about the situation. And

Speaker 4 so yeah, the inner filmmaker in me still makes horizontal videos because I love making short films. But I think the comedian in me or the clown in me really is embracing the vertical lifestyle.

Speaker 4 And so,

Speaker 4 yeah, it's just, it's different. And it's fun because here I am at 37 relearning a way to do what I love.
That's really cool. And

Speaker 4 it doesn't bother me at all. And so

Speaker 4 I like to think of myself as adaptable for whatever kind of changes the algorithm throws at us down the line.

Speaker 4 And yeah, I'm just thankful that this is a pretty fun limitation. So

Speaker 1 it's a way of staying relevant, right? What you're describing is relevance is understanding

Speaker 1 where we are and the, you know, in kind of the arc of time and the arc of popularity and the arc of trending. And then you say, okay, I can meet it there by doing the following things.

Speaker 1 I can take my own creative process. Yeah, it's always changing.
Yeah, it's always changing. And it's always been changing.
There's nothing new under the sun.

Speaker 1 It's moving faster, I think, than it ever has before, but

Speaker 1 it's changing. Do you find yourself close to any of your characters that you create? Are there ones that you just like,

Speaker 1 I'm sure you're close to all of them, right? They come from you. They're your babies.
It's just like when the commercial break, it's our baby. We love it.

Speaker 1 But are there any characters specifically that you feel attached to, closest to?

Speaker 4 Very, very much so. And in fact, sometimes I kind of

Speaker 4 lean into behaving like my characters without realizing it almost as a way to like how I'm supposed to behave at a certain setting.

Speaker 4 I don't know if that makes sense. I know it makes sense to, I don't know if it's a,

Speaker 4 I feel like we all kind of do this. We all kind of become certain versions of ourselves when we go to, say, like a christening versus the library versus a pub versus a concert, right?

Speaker 4 Versus an orgy versus, you know, it's like we're all

Speaker 4 in a way, I find myself adopting traits that my characters have when I go to certain places, almost as if I'm taking parts of those character characters and wearing them as armor, social armor, when I go to places.

Speaker 4 You know, I have characters who are confident, and I almost kind of pick, have them in my mind when I'm self-perceiving.

Speaker 4 It's weird. Yeah.
And also, if I play a character for a long time, if I'm talking like them all day, and then let's say we go out to a bar after we're filming, I'll be talking to people at the bar.

Speaker 4 I'll find like that voice still coming out of me as if, as if the stranger I'm talking to is in on the joke. Like as if they're, because I'll do it with my, with my crew.

Speaker 4 Some, like, I won't break character, for instance, with my crew. Just as, because, like, when I'm playing like Diana Holliberger, she's a Hollywood actress, right?

Speaker 4 When I'm playing her, we'll be done, we'll cut, I'm out of the makeup, but we're the whole crew, we're all talking like her. We're all in on the joke.

Speaker 4 And then we'll go out for drinks and we'll still be doing it, but now to strangers and they're, they're, they don't get what the voice is. And they're not.

Speaker 4 And I, it, so, so that's kind of where a character, they can kind of stick to you like, like glitter or beach sand, you know.

Speaker 4 But also, they're just fun to play. I, I, I create them for a reason.
They're just fun, it's fun drag, and it's sometimes you don't want to get out of it.

Speaker 4 Sometimes I'll leave a costume on if I go to a party or something just for fun, especially on Halloween.

Speaker 4 If we're filming during October, I'll go to a Halloween party and just wear whatever character I was playing. And it's like, oh, I already have the costume.

Speaker 1 Do you get recognized a lot out there as just regular Brandon?

Speaker 4 This last year, it has happened a lot more than ever. Like this last year, it happens to a point where I don't leave.

Speaker 4 I've stopped leaving my house without sunglasses or makeup just because

Speaker 4 I've had people just ride out in the street as soon as I walk outside. They just happen to recognize me as they're walking by.

Speaker 4 I don't think they're waiting for me, but I've had people just flat out recognize me when I look like dog shit. And then sometimes they don't ask for a photo.
They'll be filming.

Speaker 4 I've had people film me when I'm in the line at the airport for TSA. There's like a 20-minute video out there of me just in line at TSA the whole time, just zoomed in like Sasquatch.

Speaker 4 But it's

Speaker 4 my audience, they're all, I mean, I love them. They're amazing.
And

Speaker 4 they're weird, but I'm weird too.

Speaker 4 And mostly, largely, my audience are people that I was in a previous time in my life. Most of them are people, like remind me of college me or high school me.

Speaker 4 Like really authentically me, like someone I can understand when I see them.

Speaker 4 And I'm really glad because not everyone has a fan base that they can identify with. I do a lot of conventions and I meet a...

Speaker 4 A lot of actors who have these lines of people who not a single one of them they relate to.

Speaker 4 And I'm just so fucking thankful that I can, that I know what my fans are finding funny about my work because I find it funny because we have the same sense of humor.

Speaker 1 And so, um, yeah, the difference might be, um, just flying off, you know, thinking off the rip, is that you are creating the characters that come from you.

Speaker 1 But a lot of actors who get famous, they get famous from playing a character or an or a part that someone else handed to them. That's right.
Right. And so they don't embody that character.

Speaker 1 They acted that character. They lived it for a short period of time and then it outlived them.
And they never expected that.

Speaker 1 And now they go to these conferences and they see people who are in love with the character and then

Speaker 1 the only living thing that they can get close to about that character is the actor who played it.

Speaker 1 And so I think that, you know, you're not having, you're still, there's still a parasocial relationship going on there. You don't know any of these people who are filming you.

Speaker 1 But for some reason, right,

Speaker 1 you identify with them. Because you created the characters that they fall in love with.
You are that, that is that. And it's all just one and the same.

Speaker 1 So I think that I'm just guessing that that is part of the reason why you identify with your fans so much. They're in love, not with some goofy character, but the Brandon who created the character.

Speaker 1 And you know that. Right.
Yeah, you are.

Speaker 4 Which is a very authentic part of me. You know, I grew up with a family who didn't always

Speaker 4 understand what I do or like or, yeah, they've always supported me, but they weren't necessarily, you know, my mom and my dad are now my biggest fans, but they weren't always.

Speaker 4 You know,

Speaker 4 It was very much a hobby of mine for a long time. And

Speaker 4 I feel like,

Speaker 4 what was the question you were just asking?

Speaker 1 I'm just wondering if the, the, I was saying that I believe that these, you identify with a lot of fans. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Yeah. So

Speaker 4 yeah, I, okay, so

Speaker 4 my family knows a very

Speaker 4 specific part of me. They know a very personal side of me and they love me for that.

Speaker 4 And I always felt like this frustration because the people who love me for me didn't necessarily also love me for this thing that I cared very much about. But then my fans loved me for that.

Speaker 4 And I felt like I was kind of split between like my family and my fans who like loved me for different reasons.

Speaker 4 And then it took me a long time to realize that these characters that I play come from a very authentic part of me.

Speaker 4 And if my fans love that, they are also loving an equally real part of me that my family, you know, just doesn't. So it took me a long time.

Speaker 4 What i'm trying to say is it took me a while to legitimize what you're talking to to think that like

Speaker 4 where these characters are coming from is just as much a part of my soul as just who i am in real life like like it's my art it's my self-expression and it's what i spend a lot of time and thought you know on

Speaker 4 and um for someone to enjoy that part of me that's that's a big part of my soul and i was i wasn't giving that enough credit way back in the day but yeah these characters all come from a very personal side of me i'm i'm not cranking out characters that I'm hoping the algorithm at that time loves.

Speaker 4 I'm coming up with characters that I've kind of always had in my head. A lot of these characters I've had since like childhood or high school.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 4 Just characters, you know, you come up with drag fantasies of like

Speaker 4 certain types of people. Like when I was a kid, I always had this like semi-drag fantasy of this 80s businesswoman that later turned into Bryce and

Speaker 4 so on and so forth. Like a lot of the characters that I play came from from somewhere very rooted inside of me.

Speaker 4 And there's still other characters and personalities I want to play that are, you know, still from my youth. So

Speaker 4 anyway, yeah, I think that they all come from somewhere very, some of them are more rooted in me than others. But theoretically, I don't really play a character unless I

Speaker 4 feel like I understand at least. part of their point of view.

Speaker 1 And I think that's why the audience relates so much not only to, they get excited not only about the characters and the videos and the stuff that you do, but then they also get excited about Brandon too, because they recognize that comes from his brain.

Speaker 4 I love artists for like musicians or directors for that reason.

Speaker 4 I think what I'm most a fan of when it comes to an artist of any kind is their

Speaker 4 sensibility of what they curate into their work.

Speaker 4 So like, like, you know, Lady Gaga, Tarantino, Tim Burton, you're not necessarily like, oh my gosh, they, they are, the movie is about this or they cast this person.

Speaker 4 For me, with those artists, it's like, I'm getting a slice of someone's sensibilities that I already love.

Speaker 4 And I'm getting, I'm getting what they curated into something that they like. So I hopefully I'll like it.
And so

Speaker 4 I want to be more than acting, more than, you know, directing or editing. I want to be known, I think,

Speaker 4 mostly for just my

Speaker 4 comedic sensibilities and comedic taste.

Speaker 4 For someone to watch something and be like, wow, this feels like a Brandon Rodgers production, that's a huge compliment because it means that there's already a brand of mine out there.

Speaker 4 And I think that

Speaker 4 that brand, especially in the world of comedy, is super rare.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 No, no, it's okay. I just wanted to share that I do think you have a certain style, a certain sensibility that feels very recognizable, right? I think it's very unique.

Speaker 1 And anybody who watches the videos, just for a short amount of time, is probably going to identify that that's a very unique sensibility and styling.

Speaker 4 Well, going back to like what you were saying about characters coming from one's self and not from the exterior, like all of my heroes, just about all of the people who have inspired me, it's the same thing.

Speaker 4 The stuff that they, the characters they played or the work that they produced came from them. Like Paul Rubens is a huge inspiration of mine.

Speaker 4 And just about everything he ever did came from himself and or everything he was really known known for was like a,

Speaker 4 you know, it wasn't necessarily that I loved him acting as Pee-Wee Herman. I loved the things Pee-Wee did because I know it was the things Paul was doing.
I know it was like him

Speaker 4 pulling the strings and you kind of admire it through the character. Same with Mr.
Bean.

Speaker 4 Same with Amy Sederas, Jerry Blank.

Speaker 4 These are characters that were created with love because they would have to be played by the creator. And same with John Waters.

Speaker 4 I know know John Waters is an actor, but his films, you're looking into a very personal part of him. Like that's part of his, that's his soul.
And so

Speaker 4 again,

Speaker 4 it's an artist's brand or their familiar sensibilities. That's what I, more than anything,

Speaker 4 am attracted to in an artist, but also want to be known for as an artist above anything else.

Speaker 4 But yeah, so anyway, that's all to say. Thank you for saying that, because

Speaker 4 that's what I work hard. I try to achieve that.

Speaker 1 Well, it comes from a place of sincerity.

Speaker 1 When you

Speaker 1 have so much success, now you've got a Prime show, right? Hell of a boss. And so now you really have reached mainstream.

Speaker 1 The little characters that had their seedlings when you were a kid and running around and having these drag fantasies.

Speaker 1 And then it's all manifested into now this incredibly popular YouTube channel, kind of like a little bit, a little empire that you're creating. And then now you've reached reached into Amazon Prime.

Speaker 1 How fucking outrageously crazy is that, Brandon? Like, I'm just trying to put myself in your shoes and think of that little kid running around having characters in his head.

Speaker 1 And fast forward to 30 years later, and you've got a show you can turn on on Prime.

Speaker 4 There's certainly a lot of noise that can be... funneled into things like imposter syndrome or just distracting, overwhelming noise.

Speaker 4 And I think

Speaker 4 I keep telling myself, we've made it this far. Stick to your guns.
Stick to what you think is funny. Stick to the, the, what, because you, I always have.
I've always stuck to, you know, what, what I,

Speaker 4 I've never done jokes thinking that like, oh, this is really popular right now. So let's do this thing.
You know, it really has to tickle me from inside.

Speaker 4 I think way back in the day when I was first like when I was trying to vlog and trying all these different forms of YouTube videos, I was doing things that i didn't necessarily believe in because i was hoping the algorithm would would favor me but it wasn't until i really started being authentic to what i find funny what i you know thing what i think the like the world needs more of or what i want to put more out there of um then the channel started to take off and so now that we're on prime

Speaker 4 It's just this level of like, don't change yourself, don't alter yourself, don't be someone you're not because you've made it this far. You made it here because of a certain brand of humor.

Speaker 4 So don't don't go back on it now.

Speaker 4 And also the fans that have stuck around because of my brand of humor, the fans that have grown to be familiar with my sensibilities, my biggest fear is changing them because I'm on a bigger platform or because I have a bigger audience.

Speaker 4 So anyway, also, I think more people laugh at dark humor than they're willing to admit.

Speaker 1 I agree with that. I agree with that statement.

Speaker 4 I really do.

Speaker 4 You'd be surprised how many parents I meet that

Speaker 4 look conservative, act conservative, but kind of chuckle under their breath and just be like, kind of, they'll come up to me at the table and they'll be like, you know,

Speaker 4 he doesn't know I watch your stuff. Like after their kid walks away, they don't know I watch your stuff.
Like, I do think that

Speaker 4 there's an inherent part of us that is like clamoring and clawing to laugh at the dark stuff in life.

Speaker 4 But

Speaker 1 especially as the world gets darker, right?

Speaker 1 If we're not

Speaker 1 listening, we should be fighting it, but then if we're not fighting it, then we should be laughing at it because that's the way that we're going to get through.

Speaker 1 And also, like I said, energetically, it opens us up to solutions and other perspectives and different, you know, but not the beyond all of that, beyond all of the like the lofty goals of comedy, right?

Speaker 1 The reality is sometimes you just need to laugh to get through a really shitty thing.

Speaker 4 Yeah. And

Speaker 4 honestly, I like to normalize that idea.

Speaker 4 I hope if anything, my channel allows people to feel like they can laugh at things easier, or at least it's a place where they can safely laugh at things.

Speaker 4 You know, it's the internet, so anyone could just... go under their covers and just it's a very personal form of comedy.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 I don't know. I know how much comedy got me through high school, middle school.
I was a big fan of Mad TV.

Speaker 4 And I think Mad TV, oh, way over SNL. No shade on SNL, but Mad TV was like fearless.
And it had sketches written by people of all walks of life. So they got away with jokes

Speaker 4 just because they were written by voices that didn't on other shows

Speaker 4 get a voice.

Speaker 4 And so

Speaker 4 seeing that, even as a middle schooler, that wasn't lost on me. I could tell they were doing something different.
And I loved it for the diversity.

Speaker 4 I loved that the cast, again, was a group of people who didn't look like they would necessarily hang out with each other.

Speaker 4 They all had different comedic flavors. And I really enjoyed that.
And I think...

Speaker 4 If I didn't have that show, I wouldn't necessarily have that love for creating an ensemble cast of weirdos because, like Mad TV, they were all just very very differently weird. And

Speaker 4 they're still fucking amazing. I still follow all of them.
And

Speaker 4 I want to have that kind of effect on people because that show opened so many doors in my brain.

Speaker 4 It showed me ways that I could laugh or sketches that I could do or types of ways to convey

Speaker 4 just comedy to a large audience that

Speaker 4 just felt unique and original. And so anyway,

Speaker 4 I forget where I was in going with that, where I was going with that.

Speaker 1 Have you ever met any of the mad TV people that you admire?

Speaker 4 I have. I was in a Sum 41 music video with Will Sasso.

Speaker 4 I have met Michael McDonald. He was directing a movie in an apartment building I was living in at one time.
And

Speaker 4 yeah, and

Speaker 4 who the fuck else have that might be it, actually?

Speaker 4 I would love to meet Deborah Wilson. I think of all of them, Deborah Wilson was probably my favorite.
And Alex Borstein.

Speaker 1 Fucking funny man. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I think the

Speaker 1 seedling for Mad TV was Living Color.

Speaker 4 In Living Color.

Speaker 1 Which was popular when

Speaker 1 I was in middle school. And then

Speaker 1 Mad TV came along. I think the difference is that Saturday Night Live was on a main, like Fox was trying to make a name for itself, right?

Speaker 1 And so they were willing to do things that pushed the envelope and they were willing to allow the creators to just kind of take the reins on both In Living Color and Mad TV.

Speaker 1 And Saturday Night Live, Lauren was always playing for the next season. He was playing defense, where I think Mad TV and In Living Color were playing offense

Speaker 1 when it came to comedy. And Lauren just wanted to make sure he got another season, right? And so, no, no, knock on Lauren.
He's obviously the most successful in

Speaker 1 Saturday Night Live is one of the most successful television shows ever, and it will continue on, I think, for years and years. So now you've got hell of a boss on Prime.
What is next for you?

Speaker 1 What is in the works? Is it to continue to do, continue to creatively expand on YouTube and social media? Or are there other things in the works you can tell us about? Break news here on the show.

Speaker 4 Nothing that I can necessarily

Speaker 4 outwardly say that I'm working on yet, but it's

Speaker 4 honestly, YouTube is just a place where I don't feel like I'm reaching a ceiling of any kind.

Speaker 4 I feel like YouTube, every I just have the resources and the network now to make whatever production I want.

Speaker 4 And it almost becomes so overwhelming because it's like, well, what do I want to spend the next few months making? Or what do I want to? And that's just a wonderful thing to have.

Speaker 4 I have the sandbox to play with and the audience to, you know, play it for. And

Speaker 4 then beyond that, yeah, I think, I think beyond YouTube, I would love to continue expanding my

Speaker 4 brand of comedy onto other platforms.

Speaker 4 You know, like

Speaker 4 I would like to see what my comedy looks like, you know, maybe as its own animated thing or as an as a Netflix sketch special or something to that, you know, I think that the voice that I have can be translated into different formats that could be really interesting.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I look at some of your stuff and I think to myself that there is some streamer out there, I would imagine.

Speaker 1 I mean, even maybe an OTT streamer like, you know, Tubi or whoever it would be that would love to onboard some of your content or create new content. You would think that

Speaker 4 if you hear from them, give them an email.

Speaker 1 I'm still waiting to hear from them on me.

Speaker 1 I think that's why you are in the driver's seat, Brandon, is because you have now built this audience. of your own that lives on YouTube and other platforms.
And the audience is undeniable.

Speaker 1 And the people in the Hollywood positions or whatever you want to call them, the executive producers and the content directors and all that, they will find their way to you. They will.

Speaker 1 It's happening more and more. I mean, I just read that someone who makes, you know, one minute soap operas just got like a $20 million deal to make one minute soap operas.
Have you heard about this?

Speaker 1 If one minute soap operas are getting green lit, I'm sure some of your content is going to get green lit also.

Speaker 1 I think you're in for a ride here, buddy. I really do.

Speaker 4 Well, I told Netflix, I knocked on their door. I said, I do anything.
And now I'm not allowed within 20 feet of their headquarters.

Speaker 1 Brandon Rodgers has a YouTube channel that's extremely popular. There are links down in the show notes.
Hell of a boss is now on Amazon Prime. You can stream it there.

Speaker 1 Brandon, I really appreciate you coming on here. You have a sick and twisted mind, and I love it.
I think it's great. I really think that

Speaker 1 I think you're doing something so unique that we need it. Now that

Speaker 1 Adult Swim has kind of been defanged and a lot of these other places where we would normally mainstream see this type of stuff is getting defanged a little bit.

Speaker 1 I think we need the Brandon Rodgers out there pushing the envelopes, making it funny, making it fucked up, because that's where something really funny can live, but that's also something that pushes the envelope and allows for the next creators to come in and push the envelope even further.

Speaker 1 You're You're pushing boundaries. I love it.

Speaker 4 Thank you. Thank you.
And I just want to say, you host an amazing show. This is, y'all are such great hosts and

Speaker 4 you keep a great flow moving. I feel like almost no editing is needed here.

Speaker 4 We really filled in all the gaps.

Speaker 1 We won't edit anything. Yeah.

Speaker 4 And you're just, you're just.

Speaker 4 Thank you for promoting comedy. I mean, I feel like we need it now more than ever.
And y'all are helping bring to light some really great names out there. So thank you.

Speaker 1 Brandon Rogers, thank you. I really, we really do appreciate that.
And we are big supporters of comedy. That's mainly who we talk about and it's mainly who we talk to.

Speaker 1 And we're glad that we finally had a chance to connect with you. Brandon Rogers, links in the show notes.
Thank you so much, my friend. My six X to you and you're welcome back anytime in the future.

Speaker 4 Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 Well, lovely Astrid, your wish is my command. Do you want to help Astrid too?

Speaker 2 You know you do.

Speaker 5 Leave a message for her or me or Chrissy at 212-433-3TCB. That's 212-433-3822.
You can be on the show too.

Speaker 5 Just call and say something. Anything.
Or text us and we'll text you right back. Promise.
Then head over to tcvpodcast.com and get your free sticker.

Speaker 5 It's your constitutional right to a sticker and we must abide. You get the point.

Speaker 5 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 Astrid.

Speaker 2 Well, we did not get Brandon in character. What we got was a very down-to-earth, nice guy.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 There you go. I know.
I really loved talking to him. When the only thing you see of Brandon is his skits.
Yeah. Then you don't know.
You have no fucking clue what to expect.

Speaker 2 And what we got was a very pleasant human being. I liked his background in the back, too.
It was very colorful. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Flaming lips show. You got to go to youtube.com slash the commercial break because

Speaker 2 to see his background, is that his bedroom? I don't know. Is he living like a pink castle? There were like

Speaker 2 sparkly balloons and things, I think. I don't know.
I loved it.

Speaker 2 It's kind of the background I would have expected from Brandon Rodgers, but not the Brandon Rodgers I would have expected from Brandon Rodgers. He came to us very prepared to have a serious interview.

Speaker 2 But, you know, as you mature in life, maybe you say, well, I'd like people to know the real Brandon Rodgers. And there he was.
I liked it. All his glory.
Yeah, I liked it.

Speaker 2 And as I said, keep doing what you're doing, Brandon, because the world needs you. The comedy needs that kind of push.

Speaker 2 You know, he mentioned Pee Wee Herman. He mentioned Paul Rubens.

Speaker 2 And Paul Rubens was always very, kind of, family-friendly. That's not necessarily how he started out, but he quickly went there to family-friendly.

Speaker 2 But he was also twisted in his mind, and he always considered himself a performance artist, as per his own words.

Speaker 2 And he was just doing performance art that came to his brain, you know, all kind of improv, weird, wild stuff. And so I love that Brandon's out there doing it.
I love what Brandon's out there doing.

Speaker 2 Go check him out. All the links are down in the show notes.

Speaker 2 And go watch Hell of a Boss on Prime.

Speaker 2 I'm sure he'd appreciate it i don't think he needs our help but okay yeah 16 million followers or whatever he's got i think on youtube the guy's got like 22 million followers or something like that let's um

Speaker 2 uh brandon rogers youtube

Speaker 2 Uh, no, 7.2 million. He's got 22 million combined

Speaker 2 followers. Okay.
Okay. Well, we have 22.

Speaker 2 So, there you go. Combined.
Yeah, we're just seven zeros away, Chrissy.

Speaker 1 Just seven zeros away.

Speaker 2 So close. So close, but yet so far.
Yeah, Brandon's been doing it for, you know, a little bit longer than we have, but at this rate,

Speaker 2 I'll be 91 and we'll have our first 10,000. Yeah.
There you go. No, to be fair, we got 13, 14,000 Instagram followers.

Speaker 5 I know, I saw that, and I'm super proud.

Speaker 2 Super proud. Every one of them Venezuelan, but that's okay.
We'll take it anyway we can get it.

Speaker 2 Okay, go to tcbpodcast.com. That's where you find out more information about the show, all the show notes, all the guest interviews and the links to what they're doing and where they're at.

Speaker 2 You can find all of that on the website. Also get your free sticker.
Hit the contact us button. Drop-down menu says, I want my free sticker.
Give us your address and we'll send you one.

Speaker 2 Add the commercial break on the aforementioned Instagram. Please follow us, TCB Podcast.
I think we're almost up to 200 followers there on TikTok.

Speaker 2 Youtube.com/slash the commercial break for all the episodes, including this one. The same day it airs here on the video and 212-433-3TCB.

Speaker 2 Okay, Chrissy, that's all I can do for now. I think so.
Tell you that I love you. I love you.
I'll say best to you. Best to you.
And best to you out there in the podcast universe.

Speaker 2 Until next time, Chrissy and I will say, we do say, and we must say.

Speaker 2 Goodbye.

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