Burning Man w/ Andrew Schulz | You Be Trippin' with Ari Shaffir

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It's for you.

One, two.

What is that?

Donate it to someone.

I'm going to take that money.

Donate it.

You're crazy.

What is that?

You pay the guests?

Yeah, I know.

Your time.

Just to make sure they have Uber money or something like that?

It's just like, I'm making money off it.

Yeah.

You should have some.

Yeah.

I get paid for spots.

I take that money.

I guess that's good.

Yeah, I think that.

Do you feel like Rob Lowe took it?

Do you think you did morally?

No, no, I'm not taking that.

Rob Lowe took it.

Morally, what?

Like, if you didn't do it, would you?

Yeah.

I've been doing it for a decade already.

I've been paying people.

Really?

Yeah.

Where does this, like,

where did it, yeah, where did, where does the,

what's the impetus for this for you?

What's...

It takes your time.

I don't know.

No, no, but like, why do you feel conflicted about it?

Like,

is this like religiosity in your background or is this a...

No, it's just we should get paid for our work.

So it's a comedian thing.

It's like, we're usually overlooked.

Nobody cares about our time.

When there's a bar show and

there's no door,

then don't pay me.

Yeah.

But when there's a $20 door, of course, pay everybody a little bit.

You know, remember that UCB when they wouldn't pay anybody?

I know.

And it was like, well, you're lucky to perform here.

I'm like, and you're lucky to get Galifenakis to come down.

Yeah.

Silverman.

Like, give us our fucking valet money, at least.

Yeah.

Metzka was like, I'm out $250 on the way and $250 on the way back.

To do what?

To take a fucking subway down there.

Oh, I think you mentioned that.

Oh, no, no.

It's like, pay my subway.

Yeah, yeah.

I think that was the idea behind Spot Pay back in the day.

It's like,

you got to find a way to get me here in time yeah yeah like i need to take a taxi to get here on time yeah yeah exactly once i met sky i was giving out i was just splitting the door for the storytelling show yeah so people were making like a grand on a tuesday that's some good money yeah and metzo's like oh my credit card is working like buddy get a calf i have a thousand dollars waiting for you and you're out you can't do a hundred yeah Then he never made it and we all made a little more.

It's like, all right.

But you're strict about this.

What do you mean?

Like, this is something that's like really important to you, that you have to do it.

You're disciplined.

Yeah, I just have it.

As erratic as you are, I'm surprised you're this disciplined about things.

If I didn't get spot money, I don't know if I could do it.

If I didn't have cash on me easily,

it's like going to the ATM, that's another chore.

It's a thing of convenience.

Hold on, this is good.

I'm learning so much about that here.

This is great.

This is great.

The fact that you have the cash, you don't have to do an extra thing.

Yeah.

You're like, I'm going to be a good person.

You are burning man.

I'm burning, man.

No, no, you are burning them.

What do you mean?

I don't know if we started yet.

Let's start.

All right, let's start.

Where you been and where you going?

This is our Reese Travel Show.

Yeah, we're going to talk about travel today.

It's UB

Trippin.

Guys, welcome to the Yubi Trippin.

It's a travel podcast everywhere we grow upside differently.

And this one is about a state of mind of some sort.

I have on today a guest that has corrected his terrible hairstyle, and he's now back for your pleasure.

Andrew, non-Jew Schultz.

Thank you.

Thank you for clearing that up.

Yeah.

No, what's up, my man?

It's going.

But yeah, Burning Man, is that what we're doing?

Yeah.

I love it.

If we've included the beginning, well, it doesn't matter.

We'll do it anyway.

Yeah, we will.

They'll put a Lisa Cheeser in there.

There's a, no, like, you, people are capable of being like really kind and generous and good when they're emotionally full.

Interesting.

Yeah.

You get a check and then you're like, I'll hold a door now for people.

Yeah.

I'm getting drained.

Yeah.

You have extra cash lying around.

You're like, when people come to my podcast, I want to pay them because it's the right thing to do.

But having to go outside in the rain to the ATM.

Oh, yeah, no way.

You came out in the rain today.

Of course.

You should make a little money off that.

No.

I mean, at least where you're like,

yeah.

But at least like when you're out at lunch or something, you're like, oh, I need, I don't have a fucking tip money.

I'm like, oh, I got some from Art.

So here's.

Rob Lowe took it.

Chuck Polonik, the guy who wrote.

Yeah, yeah.

He took it.

Really?

People take it.

How was Chuck?

So interesting.

I was a bad interviewer that day.

Why?

You weren't prepared?

I was.

I just couldn't get it.

I just couldn't get it right.

We were doing something about, oh, full circle.

The beginnings of Burning Man.

Get out of here.

The Mary, whatever they did in San Francisco.

Yeah.

Those pranksters.

Okay.

You don't know anything about that?

I'm not familiar with it.

He was second level or just after these pranksters just started all these weird shits in San Francisco, in the San Francisco area, like dressing in a salmon outfit and running against the current at a

marathon.

Yeah.

Swimming upstream.

Yeah, SantaCon was started by them.

Yeah.

And then it got out of hand.

Just like Hamas.

Yeah.

Okay.

So they did all this stuff, and it was like this small Burning Man thing, and then it went like into Nevada, then it became this bigger.

So that was the precursor to Burning Man.

Well, what are you doing?

I'm looking something up.

I never heard about this.

The only rumor I heard about Burning Man while you looked this up is that

Dr.

Dre was part of the people that discovered it.

What?

It's probably not the case.

But that he was out in the desert filming...

What was that, Tupac video?

Cacophony Society.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Remember the Tupac video where he's like, they're doing Mad Max?

Okay.

So they were out there, and then he saw these guys partying in the middle of the desert because they were out there while filming it.

They're just trying to find a barren desert.

And then he saw these like white dudes doing wild shit.

And apparently, he gets involved and he helps it blow up to what they say.

I think it's complete bullshit, but that's the lore.

It was already going.

Okay, here we go.

West Coast Group of Pranks called the Cacophony Society.

Wow, I didn't know this.

They did a bunch of pranks.

It was people giving, organizing hugs, spectacular displays.

So they'd have a bunch of like

people, like Santa's getting on a knowing the route of a bus one by one, different stops.

That's great.

At first, the Santa's like, oh, where is Santa Club?

I'm like, there's another one.

That's good.

And another one.

And just to fuck, they're not filmed.

They're just to fuck with people's perception of reality.

That's great.

They're often boring jobs.

Yeah.

And Palanik wrote

Fight Club.

Choke.

Choke.

What's the other Bateman one that I'm thinking of?

Bateman one.

He did.

He did.

Didn't he do the Patrick Bateman?

Oh.

Am I getting that right?

No, I don't think that was him.

What was that one?

Oh, damn.

Where he was quoting all the Huey Lewis in the news.

Yeah.

Seminal Band from the.

Yeah.

I don't think that was him.

What book was that?

Damn it.

Well, there's another book that.

Oh.

Damn it.

Gone.

Damn.

Fuck.

American Psycho.

American Psycho.

And then there's another book.

Who wrote American Psycho?

Bryston Ellis.

That's who I'm thinking.

Okay, my bad.

Anyway, committed suicide.

Yeah.

I can see him that old.

Yeah.

So, wait.

Okay.

Let's go to Burning Man.

Yes, yes, yes.

How long have you been going?

I think I've gone four times.

Who told you about it?

So my buddy Bobby.

Fick name.

What's that?

Fake name.

No, real name, but I actually won't go too much into who he is.

And

you would not expect to go to Burning Man for sure.

And

so he told me once, I had just broken up with a girlfriend and he was like, hey, what are you doing?

And he's like, do you want to come to this Burning Man thing?

And I was like, what is it?

It's like a concert.

Like, I had no clue what it was.

I thought it was like a concert.

I thought it was like Coachella or some shit.

And he's like, yeah, no.

He's like, just go buy these things.

Buy like a face mask and buy this other shit.

And like, I'm like, what is this?

It's like camping?

Like, why do I need like goggles?

Like, why do you have it?

It's in the desert.

So he's like, just buy all this stuff, buy a canteen for like water, buy all this shit, and then just come meet us.

And I go out there and we meet meet them in Salt Lake City, and we drive from Salt Lake City, where we pick up the Winnebago, to Black Rock, which is where Burning Man is.

What year is this?

I'm trying to get a sense of like when you went in the.

I'll have lots of questions.

10 years ago, maybe?

Okay.

Something like that.

Yeah.

Right before the kind of explosion of knowledge of it.

Anybody there would be like, it's already over.

Yeah, so they say they're about New York too.

Exactly.

Okay.

So there's kids coming every day going, what a city.

Okay, so here's the thing about Burning Man.

It is everything you think it is, no matter what you think it is.

So if you're cynical and you're like, this shit is over.

It's a bunch of people from LA and just models dressed in rhinestones.

This is the dumbest, most contrived shit.

It's that.

It is, if you're listening to like weirdo tech people tell you what the future is going to be.

It's that.

Like, I remember going randomly, this is like maybe 10 years ago, maybe longer than that, to like a crypto talk there.

Really?

Yeah.

That does not jive with my knowledge.

Oh, with my what I think of Burning Man.

Okay, so maybe we go like, okay, so I don't even know how we should.

But you told me you were like, I think you should check out Burning Man.

I was close one time, I'll tell you, and then I had a kind of vasectomy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you and I.

You and I.

That's just insulting to me.

I need to put a stop to this thing.

This thing's got to mind of it.

And I was going to go with Duncan and Merv.

For anybody who who doesn't know, I just put out a whole special about how my sperm does not swim.

We'll talk about it in a minute.

But we don't have to talk about it ever again.

I'm here to discuss trippiness.

Mine really doesn't swim.

No, you got shamoo.

It's just not allowed out of the pool.

That's right.

Just stuck in SeaWorld.

It's a Panama County out closed.

Okay.

Shamu.

Tell me what your thoughts of Burning Man were.

Well, you were like, you should, well, okay, I was going to go.

I got a vasectomy.

The doctor was like, two weeks, you should be fine.

And then I'm like, all right, I'll get it two and a half weeks before Burning Man.

I'll be covered.

And then it's still like leaking pus.

And I'm like, hey, it's not healed yet.

Like three days out.

Just always leaking.

Just always leaking from every hole in the body.

And I was like, can I go to Burning Man?

He goes, describe it.

I'm like, it's a lot of dust.

And like, he goes, is there any way to not get dust on your penis?

Right.

I was like, no.

And he goes, all right, well, you're going to get an infected dick.

Yeah.

And I'm like, what if I go anywhere?

He goes,

you may have to amputate.

I don't know, man.

Don't get your dick infected.

It's a pretty, I don't think anyone's chancing this.

And you don't get the vasectomy to also lose your dick.

Right.

Yeah.

The first guy in history.

May as well just get the dick chopped.

Exactly.

So I was like, fuck, couldn't go.

Mervers took my tent.

We had a swamp cooler in it, and I couldn't do it.

And I wanted to go back.

And you were like, you should go to Burning Man.

I think you'd enjoy it.

And I remember being cynical, like, oh, really, Andrew?

The guy who loves drugs would enjoy burning man

and you were like dude it's more than that yes yes it is it is more than that it is more than that but it also is just that okay that's why like the way i try to approach these things is first of all anytime you pitch burning man yeah it's uh it's like it's like pitching game of thrones you know how like it's great but you sound like a virgin

Right?

There's dragons in castles, right?

You're just like, there's no way it's good based on describing the show, but then you watch it.

I don't know if you like Game of Thrones.

I did love it up till five.

Of course, of course.

The first few seasons, you're like, this is the best show.

And Hollywood writers took over from actual writers.

There we go.

Now we're talking.

Real guys from Jersey.

That Kurt Esker joke is so funny.

He's like, he goes, Do you know?

Do you know that the guy who wrote, he goes, you know, the guy who wrote Game of Thrones is from like Ridgewood, New Jersey, or something like that?

And he's like, what?

He goes, do you know how many times you have to get stuffed in a locker to write that?

Like, you think it's written in the 1700s by some guy?

Yeah.

who like my grandfather saw a dragon.

Anyway, so

yeah, that's the thing about it is, I guess, is like what you expect, you could go there and then find that exact thing, like a bunch of douchebags.

Like, they only just want to do drugs and like there's nothing interesting about it at all.

And you could do that.

And you could also go there and have like a transformative experience.

I know that sounds super corny.

It is, but I get what you're saying, but it does sound corny.

How do you say that without being corny?

I'm trying to caveat it so that when I do say something like that, you're aware that I'm aware of the reaction to that.

Does that make sense?

And the eye roll is reasonable.

It's like when you're like, like an art firm, like stand-up, by the way, it's dick jokes.

Exactly.

Like, we feel embarrassed to say it's an art, even though if you really ask us, we're like, yeah, it's a fucking art.

We're arts.

But we feel a little embarrassed.

So, yes.

So, not many artists walk drunk white women.

Dude, how much art is consumed by a bachelorette party?

Then I'll go to the Louvre with dick necklaces, screaming.

Just heckling photos.

Show your points.

Okay, so, okay, so you give me, give me your perception, what you think it is, and you're right, by the way, in everything you think it is.

Yeah, well, I know.

I know,

I know

when people say it's over, it's all the Hollywood people showing up, and they had

locked RVs, and they were totally not the spirit of it and then baldinger was like you don't even see those people that's also true it's 80 000 people and those are a hundred so let's describe real quick it's like 80 000 people converged onto the desert it's a non-profit you can't wear logos you can't whoa whoa wow yeah there's no logos So you can't wear logos.

You can't promote anything.

It's frowned upon if you wear an Alexander Julianne Kalor shirt.

Nobody can go up to you and say, take off your logo, but you can't have, because it's radical acceptance and radical inclusion.

There are these tenants.

You can look them up.

There's like 10 tenets in Burla, but it's about radical inclusion.

Like, how do we make sure everybody's included radically?

So you can't do like, hey, this is just a private party with a rope.

There's none of that.

You also can't announce beforehand performers that are going to be there.

Oh, so they always go into fake names.

They don't even announce a name.

The idea is you're buying tickets to this event and you're going there to this event to share and give something.

There's no money.

The only thing you can buy there is coffee and ice, and that's off survival, right?

That's off survival.

So you can survive.

Coffee, no, but ice maybe, some shit.

You know, water, water, whatever.

But yeah.

But those are.

But you can buy water.

You can buy, I believe it's...

I don't even know if you can buy water.

Do people show up unprepared?

Yeah.

And then just like.

You could live like a king unprepared.

Because somebody is going there that week.

And the one thing that they want to do is in their home, they built a little cart that their gift to the event, to the ply, if you will, is they're giving hot dogs out.

So they spend months building a cart where they can cook hot dogs and they can bike the cart out to the middle of the desert.

And when someone hungry that's been doing drugs all night comes by, they go, Hey, can I give you a hot dog?

And there are 80,000 people that are doing different versions of this.

That's Abraham.

That's that's the maybe not the hot dog, but yeah yeah but it was like taking people in the desert literally okay so there's a you're gonna find a lot of

you're gonna find like a lot of religious backgrounds you're also gonna find like once you go you're gonna be like oh everything's taking from this like every commercial you see is a version like you'll see the creativity there and then it's in a commercial like even movies like there's a whole there was that movie that i think

oh fuck it was that fucking it was a pixar movie or something like a guy who goes to the underworld or like he gets concussed he was playing jazz or something like that.

He was at the Blue Note, I think.

Okay.

And then, anyway, the version of the world that they live in or that they go to,

it's called Soul, S-O-U-L.

Okay.

Anyway, the world that his soul goes to, there's like a boat that's driving in the sand because there's no water.

It's all Burning Man.

Oh, yeah, there it is.

Wow.

So, like,

so the world that they go to is essentially Burning Man.

And so a lot of these things inform a lot of pop culture shit, but you're not there to see it.

And keep in mind, there are people that go there.

They won't notice a single thing.

You'll see children there, like one-year-olds, two-year-olds.

You'll see 70-year-olds.

There are people that don't party at all.

You see a lot of sober people.

There's a marathon.

No, sorry, there's a marathon every day.

Every morning, I think, is it a marathon?

But like people just run the whole ground.

So it's 80,000 people converged on the desert, and it's very organized.

There are streets.

Streets.

Well, the city gets organized in a,

and all this is donated time.

Nobody makes money.

You can't make money on Burning Man.

So that is against the rule.

You can't promote that you're a DJ going to be there.

You have to come just because you want to be there.

So the biggest DJs in the world that are getting paid fucking millions of dollars just go to DJ for free at Burning Man.

And

if they find out that a camp is promoting one of the DJs, they kick the camp out.

Wow.

They kick him out all the time.

Who's in charge?

They have like a board.

Okay.

And I think one of the directors died.

But to maintain this over years, because it's so easy, how many things like get bought up by money and then get destroyed?

Bonnaroo.

Every year after Live Nation bought out, there were more arrests on Thursday than the entire weekend before.

So every single festival.

Yeah.

Right?

Everybody's out there doing drugs.

Except Glastonbury.

It's independently owned.

Well, and maybe it's still

out there.

They won't sell.

Then there's kids there too, and there's sober adults.

There's everybody.

So

you're going there essentially, and the idea is what can you give to the, what is your gift?

And the gift can be really small.

Like, I took a pink Starburst one year, and every time I was out, I had a good conversation with somebody.

I just gave them a little pink starburst and I let them think that I just randomly reached into my pocket and they got the pink one.

Oh, that's pretty cool.

Right.

So,

right?

So it's like, but some people, what they do is they just have like

chapstick.

Okay.

Some people make a like a magnificent art car and it takes them the whole year.

And an art car is essentially, it could be like a boat on wheels and it's an actual size of a ship.

And so then you're not giving anything tangible to people.

Well, you're giving them experience.

You can give them your time.

You can just sit down with people and be like, hey, tell me whatever's on your mind.

I'm here.

Some people heckle.

Like Lucy?

Who's that?

Like the psychiatric advice from Snoopy?

Is that, I don't know what this is.

Yeah, Lucy's psychiatric advice.

Is it an ad?

No.

It's from Peanuts.

It's from.

Oh, sure.

My name says.

Not related.

Sure, yes.

You know what I'm talking about, right?

You've seen this.

There's also like, you'll just be somebody that's sitting there with a microphone.

You could just heckle people as they walk by.

Now.

I like that one.

There's also like the version where there's like the sex parties.

Yeah.

And like fucking the weirdest sex shit you ever want to get into.

You'll find it there, I'm sure.

I went to one of those, there's an orgy tent, and there's like a part of the tent where you can join in.

And there's a part of the tent where it's just like, hey, you can watch us.

And I always joke around, like, the level of attractiveness between those two things is like something you've never witnessed in your entire life.

People joining us are sucking.

Man, it's rough.

And then the people who watch are like, okay, maybe there's some good stuff here.

What you need is a few hot people to start.

And then the ugly people feel I shot.

They're shamed to it.

Very little shame there.

There's obviously tons of nudity.

There's all these parties.

But the idea is

if you're radically including everybody, nobody feels like there's a rope that they can't get into, a party that they're not cool enough for.

Wow.

There's no hierarchy in terms of cool.

Like so often, you know, we live in New York City, so it's like, oh, I can't get into that club.

So So there's like a lot of people who are not.

You're not even dressed the right way.

No way.

I don't know anybody.

When people feel included,

when people feel accepted, and when people are trying to give, like

they're not trying to take from one another, which is constantly what we're trying to do, let me sell you something.

Let me get you.

How do I get, get, get, get, get?

Yeah.

They're going, how can I give, give, give, give?

And they're on drugs.

For a week, we can be really good to each other.

And you get this kind of high from it because you're like,

the drugs definitely help, don't get me wrong.

but like you get this high because you're like, wow, like humans are really awesome.

And I felt really comfortable being really kind and generous to people because they were so accepting and kind

of my generosity.

And they wanted to actually give to me.

So you can't buy shit there.

You don't even trade.

They're like, it's a barter system.

It's not a barter system.

You need a battery.

You walk to your gut next door neighbor and you go, hey, man, do you have a battery?

And he goes, yeah, sure.

Take it.

I'm sick.

I have one.

And

he can't wait to give you batteries.

Because the joy is

giving.

There's a person who, what they do is they set up a fucking.

This is how Steve Simone lives all the time.

Who's that?

He's this really nice comedian from L.A.

He

donates all his time to the children's hospital, goes down there, organizes pizza parties.

And he probably lives a way happier life than ever.

Yeah, it's just like he gets something out of it.

Yeah.

So it's almost like selfish.

We've talked about it.

My dad battled depression.

You know, he's battled with depression his whole life, but and he's the most generous, giving person.

Like he just constantly is anytime anybody needs help, he's there for them, gives them his attention.

He was trying to give like citizenship when he started having dementia.

Like, my mom had to take his fucking debit card away because he would forget he was taking out money and giving it to the people in the neighborhood, like the fruit stand guy or this.

Like, the fruit stand guy was going to be a citizen because my dad was like, Yeah, I'll help you.

He doesn't even know how to help, but he has dementia, so you know, he doesn't exactly.

Anyway, give, give, give.

It's, it's, it can make you feel good.

So, someone who battles with feeling good realizes that that's a way out.

That's very helpful.

Good tip.

Anyway, good tip.

It's a

you create that environment where you just are trying to give.

You're not trying to take, and then they don't allow the taking, if you will.

I'm not trying to like bash capitalism, but the idea is like I'm trying to sell you something.

Hey, this is

a good thing.

It changes everything.

It ruins everything.

It's pretty great.

It's awesome.

And we love it.

It literally ruins everything.

This is brought to you by Bluetooth.

So,

so,

I mean, yeah, these podcasts where we started just being straight through.

God bless you.

You probably already stopped four times by now.

So it's just like you're in this environment where, and there are dark sides to it, too.

Don't get me wrong.

Like, it starts Saturday.

What do you mean?

Say again?

Black people.

I think I brought the first one.

Like, I literally think I might have been.

Okay.

Yeah, it's not many.

It lacks diversity.

Okay.

I mean, it's open.

It is open.

Anybody can go and is accepted.

And what I will say is that a lot of people are hesitant even the first time, not because they're scared, but there's a little part of them like, am I tapping into this thing?

Like

they feel a little insecure, like

they're encroaching on someone else's space.

Ooh.

You know, I had that feeling the first time.

And what I realized after taking somebody is the whole thing survives through the eyes of the people that are experiencing it for the first time.

And so you notice those people.

Oh, so you're not upset like, you're from the L.A.

guys.

No, you're like, do you remember?

Like, you remember what you thought when you walked out and you saw an entire city lit only by like those, what's it called?

Neon lights.

Like, you got to get some of the images up of, like, what it looks like.

80,000 people.

They create streets.

They have a grid.

And the grid works on alphabet and then time.

So you live on a letter.

and then a time.

Look at this.

This is all perfectly organized.

They bring...

What the fuck?

When I was going to go, they were like, hey, you can get there later because you're friends with Duncan.

Yeah.

But we're all getting there like 10 days early to set up.

And I was like, oh, I'll go for that.

That's awesome.

I want to go set up.

Some people would go.

I want to see it being built.

That's the purest form of it or whatever.

Like everybody has their own things.

Each one of these is a car down there.

So each one of those tiny little things is a gigantic Winnebago.

Right.

And then some people are just in tents.

Some camps have a version of like 10 and Winnebago.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

No, it's okay.

That's the center.

That's the center.

You see that right there?

Yeah.

And like.

This guy.

Yeah.

And what's all this?

That's what's called the playa.

So each one of those things that like, like those little markers,

like that thing right there is an art installation.

Oh my god.

Oh my god.

And then in the middle, go to the middle thing right there.

That's the man, and that man is going to burn.

And then there's another thing somewhere out there.

Maybe it's the thing further back to your left.

Go right.

Oh, no.

We'll go back.

Oh, go back.

So go, go.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, you're almost right there.

You see that big thing over there?

that's the temple so that also burns and then people will go to the temple and they'll like write a note to their lost loved ones or someone who just that's what Merv did he put his picture of his dog up yeah and that's really emotional you're walking there there's just people crying and so that is this and that changes every year it's someone else someone else sets it up somebody else sets it up with their own different exactly with their own inspiration and they burn that too they burn it all

they burn it all and they have their own inspiration and it's this idea that I guess you know you're letting go of whatever that attachment is.

And then the man they burn, I'll be honest, the burns.

I don't care for the burns, to be honest.

I think it's kind of like, to me, I'm like...

Steve Burn.

Say again?

Real Steve Byrne.

What does that mean?

Steve Byrne.

Real Steve Byrne.

What about him?

Yeah.

Burn.

I already said it.

I already said it.

I don't care.

No, no.

To me, it's like

I go there for the connectivity.

Okay.

But everyone does their own thing.

Everyone gets their own thing out of it.

See, so, and that's the thing about it, why I say it's like, I tell people to hesitate to judge because it's like, if you let yourself explore, like, if you just want to see art, you'll see the coolest art that you can climb all over.

There's no security.

It's actually a really like, it's the best argument for like libertarians, even though like none of them go.

But it's like, when people are left to their own devices and they're rich, they have enough money to build this shit, whatever.

But there's no like building committee.

You'll build a six-story structure that people are allowed to walk all over.

And there's nobody handing out a ticket.

There's no waiver.

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Now, let's get back to the episode.

Trip planner by Expedia.

You were made to outdo your holiday,

your hammocking,

and your pooling.

We were made to help organize the competition.

Expedia, made to travel.

And what you learn here is there are 80,000 people on bikes that are now electric bikes, biking in the sand, mind you.

Wow.

But there's no traffic signs.

There's no stop sign.

There's no anything.

And nobody dies.

Somebody died one year by running into the fire.

Yeah, were you there that year?

Yeah, I think I was there.

I don't even, like, I don't remember it, to be honest.

Like, maybe I wasn't there that year, but like, it wouldn't change it that much.

Those are 80,000 people.

There were many said there's a death.

It's like, well, yeah, with 80,000 people, how many people die at Coachella?

How many people die at all these other events where there's security every five seconds?

They're looking through your bag and all this other shit.

Eight, like, full-on, like, forcible whatever.

But it's like, I don't know, there's a lot of people.

So sometimes you'll see like the state troopers or that kind of shit.

Yeah.

Like trucks that are on the playa.

Go back to that picture where you showed like the, that was really good.

It was the whole thing.

Yeah.

Black Rock City.

Nope.

Photos of boom.

This one.

Yeah.

So like, so what happens is this, right?

Damn, look how.

I mean, it's beautiful with the mountains behind it.

In this, actually, can I hold it?

Yeah, absolutely.

Oh, fuck.

Bring me back to that.

But

so.

So you're surrounded by stunning mountains.

I don't know if it's the Sierra Nevadas.

I don't know what the fuck it is.

Yeah, it's gorgeous in the back.

It's unbelievable.

Does anyone walk out that way?

Of course, my boy.

But they tell you, what they try to do is they tell you not to.

So,

can they see what I'm doing with the

mouse?

Yeah.

So, like, walking out this way, there's an airport that's a makeshift airport.

And all these planes come down from Alaska.

And they're the guys who like fly in Alaska.

They come down and they'll land in the desert and they can take off in the desert because the winds are sometimes crazy.

You have these sandstorms.

Like, you need like legit badass pilots to do this kind of flying.

So, more bougie people, I've fucking done it.

You can fly fly in and fly out.

Okay.

The journey of doing the whole thing, not the setup, what you were talking about, this is the whole thing.

You get your Winnebago, you go to a Walmart, you stack up on food and alcohol.

We did our Walmart run in Utah.

Yeah, let's talk about your experiments.

Okay, so

you get your car, your Winnebago.

You probably have to get it down to Salt Lake City because they all get bought up in Reno, which is the closest big place.

So you just got to keep going further and further and further.

And eventually Salt Lake, you can see it.

And you make a road trip out of it.

You make a road trip.

So you're there for it.

I tried to rent an RV here.

Yeah.

And then the guy was like, that just happens when we bought her a weekend.

And I'm like, I mean, I'm tight to get there.

Yeah,

I'm not trying to hide it.

I'm just, we're going to drive down and go get it.

And they give you like a mileage thing.

Yeah.

Like, all right.

They try to jam you in this shit.

It's so funny.

Like, the second you leave this place where everybody's just about giving and it's sweet and it's kind.

And the second, like the Winnebago place, anywhere you rent it, you rent to Vegas, because it's Labor Day weekend, they go, you can't return on a Monday.

So you just go, so you just leave it there with the key and you go, I hope everybody gets it.

And that's what we all do.

Like, you leave it there with the key on a tire and you go, I hope that you got your Winnebago back.

You're still in a good mood of like, nobody steals.

Exactly.

So

anyway, so this way you have the airport.

There's also one street that's not a street.

It's like just little flags that are put in the sand to direct you back to like the town.

Okay.

The other direction if you go this direction over here yeah eventually you go enough out where they put a little um

like rope saying

it's like skiing it's like don't go past here you're fucked it's basically like

it's the middle of the night it's pitch black you don't know where going the only thing that's that you see when you're on the playa are these like patches of neon lights moving and that's another party that's somewhere random moving like out left yeah let me get you let me get you burning Man at night.

I'm going to get like.

Do you have any of your pictures?

Yeah, I'm going to give you mine.

You can plug those too.

If you want to plug your phone in.

But yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Take over, bro.

Yes.

Producer Schultz instead of hiring someone.

Got you, my boy.

Okay, so.

Wow.

So this is an example.

Wow.

That's when the man is going to burn.

But let me...

I want to go for other little things.

So look at this.

That's the temple.

Everybody's.

That's the guy with a bike.

Everybody's bike is wrapped in these neon lights.

Yeah, I remember that.

You had to get black.

There's utility.

Because at night, in the pitch black, how could you ever locate your bicycle when you're walking around the desert?

What's you put it down and then walk on and do some shit?

Yeah, you just put it down and just walk on and do some shit.

But you have to go back and find, and keep in mind, whatever you're doing in the playa is moving.

So it's an art car with a huge DJ set up, and then they drive away, but your bike was located near that art car.

Now the art car isn't there.

You don't know where your bike is.

And also, it's a way to

probably find your own bike, or it's like mine had the green and the blue.

Everybody has the green and the blue, right?

Right.

So, yeah, exactly.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

So, so, yeah.

So, you wrap these like lights around your bike, and now you can locate it.

You know what it is.

Some people will put like a huge thing sticking out, so you know what it is, or you park it by the bathrooms or something like that.

But there's utility to this stuff.

It's not just I want my bike to look like an asshole.

It's how do I find it in the middle of the night when I'm on drugs and I forgot where the fuck I put it?

Yeah.

And then that string at the end of the property, you could go past it.

Nobody's standing there telling you not to.

It's just a reminder.

Like people back in the day used to just walk miles out into the desert because they were on fucking K or some shit like that.

And it's their way of going, hey, you're at the end.

You can keep going.

It's the same as skiing.

Like, hey, we're not going to come look for you if you go past here and there might be like drop-off cliffs.

But we recommend.

But yeah, but like if you know somebody, go for it.

Yeah.

So it's what's interesting is like when you leave people up to their own devices and they're responsible for their own fate, we take shit really serious.

It's like everybody has like a thing of water that they take with them religiously and fill up religiously because you're like, God forbid, I'm stuck in the desert with no water.

At Coachella, you're like, ah, somebody will be selling water.

Right.

You're always going past a place.

You can get some.

You know what I mean?

They wouldn't put us out here without protecting us from water.

But out there, you know, you got to stop at the end of a street because there's no stop sign and somebody else might run into you.

And there's no accidents.

Well, there's not no accidents, but there's very few because people both are thinking the exact same thing.

My safety is on me.

But hold on.

But then you're adding.

Medical self-reliance.

But then you're adding drugs and alcohol to that.

Yeah.

Even with drugs and alcohol, think about that.

So look at all these bikes.

Look at those bikes.

Yeah.

Each one of the bikes, right, is designed its own little thing.

How could you find your bike here if it doesn't get?

No fucking way.

And keep in mind, zero chance.

On ketamine?

Forget it.

No chance.

And when you put your bike there initially, there was 10 bikes.

Two hours later, there's 10,000 bikes.

How do you find it?

I don't know if there's a spot.

So.

What do you do when you go there?

Or we can also not say if you want.

No.

Yeah, I'm totally fine.

What do you do when you go there?

Like, like...

My whole thing, as in most things in my life, is just like

just connecting with friends.

So like, I'll have some friends that I really want to share these experiences with, and I find that like...

When they're in this state, they're in their most confident, they're most comfortable, they're most grateful.

And I know me, like, I'm full emotionally, anything else I just give back.

That's like the beauty of Molly, right?

It's like, if you were going to say Molly is a good drug, it's pretty fucking awesome.

But the idea is like nobody, I don't know nobody, but very few people do Molly and they're selfish.

Right.

Right?

You do Molly and you're immediately like, okay, how do you.

You guys should all have some of this.

And hey, I love you, man.

You're awesome for this reason.

I just really wanted to tell you that.

And I think that when you're around the people you care the most about in environments where they feel really really like cared for, loved, appreciated, but also it's like awful.

Every day there is miserable.

The weather is horrible.

Does it go from freezing to burning up?

And like, and like, so like you have to dress for two different cases.

You can't even be outside during the day.

Like, I don't know if I've been outside during the day ever.

Like, you just sleep all day and then like you can eat.

You try to do drugs till sun up and then go to sleep?

That's, I've chased.

I kind of tend to chase out there.

What do you mean?

Meaning like I chase the party a little.

Like I And then when you see that sun come up and it's freezing, you got your fur coat on,

but you're dancing, you got some alcohol in the system, and all of a sudden that sun starts to peek over the mountains and you see it and everybody sees it and the music is peaking.

And it's this collaborative experience.

Everybody's feeling that same thing the exact same time.

And you know, music has a weird way of like stretching out your drugs.

Like

no music, the drugs last an hour.

Music, they're like three hours.

Like something's going on.

I don't know what it is.

That's happening.

It's peaking.

The music is going crazy.

And then you're like, okay, let me get some food and then let me pass the fuck out.

There are some people that just keep it going.

There are people there that don't sleep the whole week.

It's insane.

RV is so much different than Tent.

Sorry, Agnes.

RV is so much different.

I don't think people tent.

I don't know how that's possible.

During the day, it's 100 degrees.

And it's miserable because the only way to keep it somewhat authentic is to make it impossible to get to and miserable while you're there.

If it was nice,

it would be Coachella.

Yeah, it's too easy to get to.

You need people to go, oh, but you're covered in dirt.

You're covered.

It protects it.

Wolf told me about some hike to get to something.

Maybe, I don't know where, some national park.

And it was like a two-day hike.

Yeah.

And then suddenly, and everybody got there, like, congrats, you made it.

And then the rich people started doing helicopters.

They're like, oh, now there's no joy to getting there.

What's the place in Peru?

Moncha Peacha.

Moncha Peacha.

Isn't it like a four-day hike to get up there or something like that?

It's like.

Yeah, and it's like, you earned it.

And someone else is here, like, well, you earned it.

Yeah.

There's a mutual respect and appreciation.

Okay, hold on.

Usually I do this, like, this is coming out this coming week, so I'll do it now.

But usually, I do this later.

But hi, everybody.

Let me tell you about today's guest.

It's Andrew Schultz, one of the premier comedians in the United States.

There by the world.

He has just released a special called Life that is doing what I was hoping would be doing, is throwing it in the face of the UK Edinburgh Comics.

It's a theme hour to let you know that we are number one, you are number two, and the one thing you had, a theme hour, we have now taken it from you.

That's right.

Okay.

Take it from you.

Go check out life.

It's

funny the whole fucking way.

Why do you got to be serial for fucking 20 minutes in the middle?

There's no reason for it.

Who said to be serious?

Love it.

And Andrew doesn't do that.

Check it out right now on Netflix.com.

I still think they drop ship stuff to you if you're looking for that, if you still have that plan.

Or Blockbuster.

There you go.

Oh, let me get my phone out.

I'll get you.

What are you looking for now?

No, no, I was just going to find you guys some pictures of my experience there.

Anyway, the

all right, so yeah.

So more.

So now I think you're getting a sense.

So what I do there is like to stay up, because I'm an old guy.

No, no.

Oh, does it go in?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, amazing.

Yeah.

So in order to stay up,

I have to use like Adderall.

Okay.

Performance-enhancing drugs.

Yeah, I have to use performance-enhancing drugs.

And then like, I'll do Molly.

Here's the thing I've noticed about me.

Like, I can't party really for more than like,

like, if I party for more than three days, I'm over.

Like, my body just stops producing whatever is needed.

So, like,

even if I take Adderall,

I'll be awake without the desire to have fun.

This is where cocaine has incredible utility.

It's festival coffee, they call it.

I mean, and it is that, right?

It's like, hey, whatever dopamine you got left in your fucking head, I'm going to find it and then keep this night going.

It's a truffle pig.

It is a truffle pig for the fun.

Whereas Adderall is just like, yo, we'll keep you up, but we're not going to guarantee this is going to be enjoyable for you, you know?

So, but I'll do Adderall drink and then I'll do Molly a little bit.

And the night that we did, like, there's like a Tesla, you know, that pill.

Are you worried about fent at all?

Fentanyl?

Now that I have a kid.

Like, I haven't done drugs since I had a kid.

I haven't even smoked.

I haven't done anything since I had a kid.

Like at all, but not like anything that like...

Yeah.

Yeah, it's kind of crazy.

But

so this would be tricky because part of the experience there is having that peak moment where you're like, you're with your friends and the music you're hearing is the best music you've ever heard.

And they think it's the best music they've ever heard.

And the people around you, you're so stoked that they can feel your energy.

And there's a guy next to you, and he's like the music.

And you're just like, bro, this is amazing.

It's, it's,

yeah, right.

You're just like with somebody, and they're just like, we're both going through this.

It's awesome.

So now we're friends.

We're friends and everything's great.

And you're great.

And it's an amazing time.

That's what Billy Strings concerts are.

Shout out to Billy Strings.

Everybody just goes, it's your first one.

Oh, my God.

You got to know this.

Okay, come, go stand there for the next song.

And isn't that, it's a beautiful enthusiasm.

Yeah.

Whereas there's a lot of places like, oh, you're here.

You're posing.

Where are you coming from?

You're posing.

Exactly.

This is not the energy.

Now, there are those people there.

I remember that happened once.

Like, somebody said we were like way out in Deep Ply and we were biking by some people.

They were sitting down.

They were probably on LSD.

They were like looking at certain things.

They have like LSD tents or mushroom tents.

They have a tree that like.

Let me show you.

Okay.

By the way, Andrew has no tour dates.

No, I got to take some time off.

Yeah, I love it.

I fucking for real love it.

You get that shit.

Yeah.

I am finishing up my tour.

I'll be in Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Calgary, and Emmerton this week, and then Anchorage.

All the storytelling shows are very nearly sold out in April.

But get tickets at racehorse.com and subscribe wherever you're watching or listening.

All right.

Oh, we're here.

We're in deep.

Okay, you want to see my first ever experience at Burning Man?

Yeah.

Okay.

I think this is it.

Did you do the accessory thing?

Did I ask?

There it is.

It's on.

Okay, ready?

Yeah.

So this is just, whoopsie.

That's an art car?

No, that's just a deer drill.

So this is one of the first things I see.

I'm biking out into Burning Man.

Your first year.

Yeah, and I'm like, what the?

I just land.

I'm like, what the hell is this place?

I have no clue what's going on.

Okay.

And then do we have audio on this?

Let's try.

Let's try.

So here is just a thing that someone made.

Got him.

Somebody just built this entire thing.

They built it.

Oh, it's a big fucking Vitrolla.

So it's just there.

And there are hundreds of these things that people just decide to build.

Here's this LSD tree thing.

So the trees leaves are changing colors in different patterns.

That's perfect.

Look at all these people underneath.

That's perfect.

And the trees, it's perfect for acids.

Right?

They're changing.

It's always, it keeps changing.

That's fucking perfect.

So how do I make sure people don't text me?

Do not disturb.

Okay.

Yeah.

And then, so here's like a version of what the man looks like.

Hold it sideways.

Let me see that.

And then here's like this is like this would be a party during the day.

Wait, hold that sideways for a second.

Oh.

Yes.

Okay.

So look at all those people.

Oh, Steampunk Central.

So that's.

Wow.

Yeah, the Steam Punk

is kind of like

informing it for sure.

I would say that's like the most like, almost

hacky.

I don't want to call it hacky, but more common version of it.

Basic.

So all the glasses and shit have been.

Who the fuck is that?

And he's just some dude who brought his thing and he's like, I'll play with it.

So they set this up.

This is kind of wild.

Mad Max?

Literally.

So these two guys just.

You and I can do it.

We just decide to go do it.

And these things just bounce around.

And then I'm filming this from up on the cage.

There's a domed cage.

Like Mad Max.

Exactly, yeah.

What?

Oh, my God.

So.

Oh, my God.

So there's just like thousands of these little things.

And then like just random people passed out.

Done, so.

You know?

So there's like thousands.

So that was the first.

Oh, here's the end of the fence.

Is that you?

Yeah.

Wow.

Oh, that's the fed.

So you really can't walk past it without knowing.

You just, you know, no, you can't.

I just know.

Who sets that up?

The BlackRock like a committee, and they have all these people that contribute their time.

Like, they literally have a post office there.

And then everybody who's there contributes in some way.

So when you're part of a camp, you contribute to the camp in some way.

So you either have to like, you know, help build the camp, you're doing ice runs, you're monitoring certain things, you're cleaning out the port-a-potties, you're everybody's giving back to the thing.

So some people are doctors and they'll donate their time to that.

Some people are, you know, they'll work at the post office.

Some people just like manage the grounds.

But every single person working there is not being paid.

And if they find out that people were paid to build the camp and then leave, they kick the whole camp out.

Because you're like, we don't do that.

The whole point of this is everybody contributes and tries to make it this great place.

And we don't want the type of people who would just pay someone else to do it.

Tim Ferriss used to, you know, Tim Ferriss?

Yeah.

He used to go be a sober, like, talk people down at festivals.

This is that same tree.

Wow.

So now they're doing like...

Dude, the slow movement of color is so perfect for psychedelics.

Yeah, just...

So here's the fuck colour.

So here's the little baby.

That would freak me out if I was on drugs.

So this is this big meetup.

One of those burned down, but it's Robot Heart and Mayan Warrior, my boy.

One of those burned down?

Yeah.

By accident?

Look, so the sun just came up.

So this is what.

Oh my god.

So you're all stoked.

You're all stoked.

Yeah.

You're like, we did it.

We brought the sun.

Exactly.

So like, here's, again, this is son coming up.

This is probably my second time here, but like, look at his outfit.

I have no lick.

Oh, okay.

And then this is just like crazy shit.

Like, look, somebody made an art car at Converse.

So, one really cool thing, I'm going to see if I can get this video is like, when you're in the middle of the playa at night, not the playa.

Yeah, the other playath.

Is that you with the hat?

Where is it?

Yes.

Let me see that.

What are you saying here?

Wow.

And just dress so fucking absurd.

Just dress in the most absurd way possible.

Hold on.

I don't know what I'm saying there, so I can't share that with you.

It's probably so embarrassing.

I can't do that.

You don't want to record yourself on drugs.

That's the the problem.

I'm not going to stand by this when I'm sober.

So like, this is Alex.

So that's, you met Alex.

Alex Media from the Pod.

Wow.

So there's the sunrise.

So.

Oh, you took all your boys out there?

Always, yeah.

Try to.

Whoever's down to go.

Yeah.

But like, look, somebody just makes this.

classic slide.

It's called.

And then you just climb up and you can go on a slide.

But somebody's dedicated a portion of their year.

Yeah, you can't just build that in an hour.

You got to set that up.

Yeah.

But look, this somebody built.

Look at this.

Look at the size of that.

These are...

Do you see what they are?

They're carts from grocery stores.

Wow, deconstructed?

No, no, it's just put on top of each other and like staple to one another.

So there's Alex hanging off the top one.

Look how dangerous that is.

Damn, Alex.

But there's nobody that's going to tell you what to do or what you can't do.

Like this, I thought was kind of cool.

There's people because the windows crazy.

They're like windsurfing all this.

So

now we're back to reality.

Let me see if we get back there.

Oh, yeah.

Here we go.

Like, I'm trying to take you to.

I love it.

I mean, this is such an adult playground for drugs.

There's so much creativity.

Like,

even if you're on them or not, you're going to see an insane amount of creativity.

You ever been to?

Look at this.

Yes, I have.

It feels like that, sort of, where they're just doing it for the sake of it.

It feels dark, though.

Like,

it feels a little dark.

Yeah.

Like, there's like a little...

When the gangs come in, it's bad.

Exactly.

But, like, look at this.

Somebody made an act, took an actual boat.

They put it on wheels, and that drives on the sand.

That's what Seoul took, in my opinion.

How hard is the sand?

Can you walk on it or is it really like beach sand?

So sometimes it's beach sand.

Sometimes you can walk on it.

When they had those crazy rains, it turned into like mud, so you couldn't do anything.

So like

no.

You never know what to expect.

You just never know what to expect.

And it's just the idea is just roll with it, whatever, just roll with it.

You have to rely on yourself.

So figure it out.

So, like, this thing doesn't look that scary from that angle, but like, somebody just put these beams in the middle of the desert.

I wish I had a better picture of them.

Oh, yeah, here it is.

Here's one.

So they just put these beams in the middle of the desert.

It's so interesting.

You can just climb up and just.

This is the cool thing about art.

This right here.

Yeah.

Isn't it close to as beautiful as some of the other pieces that somebody made?

It's just these two beams that are angled in such a way that gives you the confidence that you could walk up them, but it's just high enough where you feel.

If you fall, you're fucked.

Yeah.

And they were consumed by it.

Like you would walk up, like, do I have the courage to do it?

There'd be big lines to do it.

And like, think about that.

The simplest little thing was the most used.

It's so temporary, too.

So it's not like this is the thing you do.

This is the cliff we all dive off for for generations.

It's like it's gone.

There's Mark.

There's Mark in another little LSD situation.

Look at that.

Overcoat and shorts.

He's got the, what's it called?

There's Akash.

Akash came for one day.

He broke his ankle or something within an hour of being there, and then he left.

Not his thing.

Look at Alex really gets in.

He leans in, huh?

And you see this beautiful side of him.

Like, look at that shot at Sunrise from the top of the Winnebago.

My boy Ben Uyeda, my boy Jamil.

That's, yeah.

I mean, just.

Wow.

I don't know if people have.

So, yeah, so it's just this like.

What's that video you like?

Down down right there.

Where?

Middle.

Middle, almost left.

This one.

You hugging a guy.

That one?

Yeah, that one, I guess.

Oh, yeah.

I was going to say that one, but the other one, too.

This one?

You're having damn.

So this is like this little day party, I think, called District.

Does your, so you've been going there 10 years?

Well, I've gone four times.

Over 10 years.

Yeah.

So 10 years ago,

10 years ago, you were.

not

like you are now in terms of size of name.

Not at all.

Yeah.

So you don't, you weren't using your celebrity in any way?

No.

No.

My friends just were like, they had gone before.

They're like, do you want to go?

And I'm like, yeah, and then I went, and I was like, wow, this is so cool.

And then I went the next year.

And then I kept, I think I took a year off or something.

Then I went another year and then we went another year.

How is it now now that you're big?

Affected?

No, like

people recognize you, you know, but like you're also going to see like

people will see Elon walking around or Diddy was at every single one.

That's the kind of funny thing.

Like you love Bernie Man.

So like there's like a party.

I saw Dwight Howard there.

Like, you'll see all these people, and nobody's like making you awkward.

You might just hang out.

Like, it's great.

People say, What's up?

They give you a hug.

Everybody's feeling really confident.

So they're not acting like weird and sheepish around you.

You know, they're feeling pretty good.

Oh, right.

And also, you're like-minded.

Yeah.

You're doing the same exact unique thing.

Look at this dude.

What?

Wow.

You're just vibing.

Look at that bass.

Just vibing on the bass.

Wow.

Literally feeling the music.

Yep.

Anyway, so that's the idea.

And

how much does it cost an average person to get it ready and go?

There's an expensive way and there's cheap way.

So like the tickets, I think, are like.

There's tickets.

Oh, yeah, there's tickets.

And you can't resell them, right?

You can resell them.

They try to find ways to not do it.

And literally, their idea is.

Aren't you supposed to give it to someone?

That's what you should do.

But then give them my money back because I'm out, but no more.

Yeah, I think that's the the right thing to do.

But then some people, they're trying to cut down the secondhand market because they just get expensive.

But the beautiful thing, yeah, it's like, let's say it's $600 or $400.

I don't know what it is.

But it's like you're there for eight days.

So it's actually kind of a bargain

for eight days of the best DJs in the world.

You know what I mean?

That you can go and be front row to everyone if you want because there's no seats.

And then the cost of like the Winnebago's, the cost of the the Winnebago.

You don't have to Winnebago, you could tent.

You could tent.

You know what I mean?

Like, you got to get a swamp cooler or something.

Yeah, what I'm saying is there's cheap ways to do it.

And price is an inhibiting factor in that, like, it's hard for people to take a week off of work.

It's hard for people to fly to the club.

But there's guys who are like, that's my vacation every year.

Yeah.

I get two weeks in America, worst country in the world for vacations.

And then, and I'm taking it for that.

And they go there and they get after it.

And they're like, I want to make that.

For me, it's like, I want to make it as enjoyable as possible in that i want to be comfortable so that i can absorb as much of the time that i can so i would rather spend more money on the winnebago i'd rather have the ac running like non-stop yeah i i want to i want to like sleep as as good as i can so that every waking moment i'm enjoying the time of my friends yeah

it's not it's not like a soul-searching thing for me Some people really go there to find themselves.

It's not as internal for me.

It's more of a connective thing.

That's what I do with mushrooms.

It's medicine.

It's medicine.

Sure, sure, sure.

I'm trying to watch the killers on it.

I quit it with the medicine all the time.

I don't go too inside all the time.

Sometimes it's not that fun.

Whereas I get great joy from...

It looks like hanging with your boys.

That's all it is.

In a, we have nothing to do here.

And it's like, what is...

I really feel like people create their best stuff when they feel confident.

I think the best version of themselves.

themselves.

There are people that have like, go, go.

You see a guy, Marcelo is a good example.

I had this.

I booked my first commercial.

The next day,

my sets were better, but I didn't write new stuff.

Marcelo, when he booked SNL, just jumped

on confidence and the ability, like, they're not going to get mad at me.

Yeah.

I'm good.

I know I'm good.

Just that you see it in people.

Yeah.

And then you're right.

That's just your natural self.

If I'm confident, I'm like, hey, how you doing?

You're new here, right?

Bro, this is crazy.

The first time I did it.

And again, this could be placebo.

You know how like when we're feeling good about ourselves, everything else feels better because we're less tuned into the negative.

When I'm feeling bad about myself, right?

Tuned into the negative.

I'm tuned into,

let's say you like, I'm talking and then you yawn.

I'll be like, oh, is he bored?

If I'm feeling good and then you yawn, I'll be like, bro, are you tired, bro?

You're not getting a lot of sleep?

Right.

You know?

So it could be that.

It could be like when you're positive, you just attract all these other positive things.

When you're negative, you attract the negative shit.

sure but i'll tell you one thing the first time i went i only went for like three or four days i came back

and this sounds so like mumbo jumbo it's so dumb i can't even believe i'm gonna say this

but

i uh

i like understood how to talk to my mom better like every conversation i had with people i understood what they wanted not what they were saying but what they wanted out of that interaction.

What are they doing?

How do I feel about it?

Yeah.

I was so much more generous.

What drugs did you do at that time?

I just did Molly.

But it's got the experience has to be an experiential drug.

It filled me up in a way where even when I came back, when I was talking to my mom, I was like, oh, my mom is anxious, and she really wants my love.

And she just really wants me to listen to her.

And sometimes the things that she says,

the things that she's saying, don't reflect what she actually wants.

So then when talking to her, I was really just kind of leaning into her and giving her that love.

And it really calmed her down.

And then I would have talks with friends, and I'd be like, Oh, wow, like they really need someone to listen to them right now.

Okay, I'm just gonna, instead of trying to like extract something from them in every moment, I'm like, Oh, shit.

What do they want?

What do they actually want?

What do they need right now?

And how can I, and how

stupid when I say I'm thirsty?

I don't want you to get me water.

I want you to say, I too have been dry-mouthed this, I too have been thirsty.

That one thing can't jump.

Yeah, that's good.

That's great.

But yeah, like, so I know that sounds stupid, and I'm sure it's not like, I'm sure it's not a drug I took or whatever, but I'm sure it is like.

Opening yourself up to the possibilities of really being like, like, present, probably that for three to four days straight of like, oh, I'm in this now.

And everybody for that long was really nice to me, welcoming to me, kind to me.

Like, they, there, I, no one made me feel insecure or that they were trying to take advantage of me.

Like, think about it.

I grew up in New York City.

You just chill.

You just calm yourself because no one is trying.

Right.

New York City.

My whole life, every single time I left my apartment, there's somebody trying to take advantage of me.

Yeah.

There's somebody going, hey,

you know, do you want to sign up for this thing to help Greenpeace?

Beat it.

Right.

Hey, you want to pick up the picture?

Can I just talk to you?

No, that's not what you want to do.

Shut up.

Somebody outside, 10% discount on.

The second I leave my house, it's people trying to take advantage of me.

They're not bad people.

That's their job.

But they are trying to fish.

They're trying to extract.

So I'm on defense constantly.

And then for three days, I go to this place where people are only trying to give me shit.

They're just trying to give me a hot dog, give me a sandwich.

They built a diner on wheels that's in the middle of the playa that makes coffee and the diner mugs.

It has the stools wrapped around it, and they make pancakes.

And I'm eating pancakes with a cup of hot coffee.

The sun is rising.

There's syrup on them.

I'm like, holy shit, thank you so much.

And you don't want any money from me?

You don't want anything?

Why would you do this for me?

It makes no sense.

When you don't want anything from me.

I didn't know that that was possible.

Like, I always thought I was a good person.

I wanted to give back, but I didn't realize the true power of pure

benevolence.

Manhattan or another borough?

Manhattan.

Manhattan, right?

That's the pleasure.

I grew up a few blocks from here.

So

the second I walk out there, there's a guy with a flyer trying to get me to sign up for some shit he don't even really give a fuck about.

Right.

He's just working.

Yeah.

Every day.

Do you have trouble after this reintegrating?

No, it was the best reintegration.

Matter of fact,

you're so exhausted and depleted.

And the second you get back to like

regular society, you get a jolt of energy.

Because you're like, oh, I could shower.

Like every aspect of it feels good.

You're like, I get to be clean again.

Oh, that was the best shower I've ever had in my entire life.

Like, oh, I'm totally clean.

I smell good.

Oh, the taste of this.

I didn't have a burger for a while.

Oh, the taste of that is so good.

Like, every part of it is fantastic.

But the transformational part was my whole life being in a being a place where people are trying to extract and more so even with career.

Like I want, want, want.

What else can I get?

I'm very ambitious.

How can I get?

It plagues our whole industry of like, all right, but what are we hanging, guys?

I mean, listen, one of the, I think, unbelievable things about Joe is the benevolence, bro.

And I think that he's pushed that on all of us, like the importance you do it really well.

I don't know if there's anybody that's like as supportive of other people for no gain on your own at all than you.

And it's just like, that shit is one, addictive.

You're pretty great at it too.

I try.

Everybody I help with YouTube especially like how'd you learn this?

I'm like, Andrew told me about it.

He told me, tell the rest of them.

Tell everybody.

But it's like, and I, and

then we're all better off.

Everybody.

That's the selfish part, but we're not even doing it to be selfish.

It's just like, I care about you.

Once you realize it also feels, it feels better helping people.

Yeah.

And it's counterintuitive because you're like, I got to compete to get the thing I want.

That's what they tell us.

It's not like that anymore.

Like, we can all eat.

But when we were coming up, the younger comics don't know this as much, but when we were coming up, it was, there's going to be eight people that get half hours this year.

Are we going to be one of the eight?

Right.

And if we weren't, it was like, well, they didn't deserve it.

Now it's.

What helped me with that is the who's going to get past at the comic store.

And I would get mad.

I'd start to get mad at my friends for getting it.

And then I realized it wasn't them or me because some weeks she passed four people and some people passed none.

It just wasn't me.

And so then it's like, well, good for you for getting in.

You're a smart, mature person.

But a lot of people don't.

Yeah.

Well, a lot of people don't even get there.

Especially in our field.

There's a lot of like, these are really competitive people and also insecure people in our field.

You see people going off publicly.

It's a new hackiest thing.

And you want to be like, bro, what are they doing?

They're not stealing from anybody.

I'm sorry they're not as good as you want them to be.

We had it buttoned up

for like a five-year run.

There was like a five- or six-year run.

And I think it was.

support or be quiet.

And I think it was literally like when you went on Rogan, you became famous.

And it was like, it was a five- or six-year run where everybody was on such good behavior, whether they agreed with the benevolence and they wanted to support it, like I hope we feel, or whether they were like, I want to be on good behavior and not piss these people off because then I won't get it.

But it didn't matter.

It worked.

By the way, it spread from there.

And people were supportive.

And if you weren't supportive, you would look like a loser.

Like, you're like,

what the fuck is this, Aaron?

We're all being cool here are you just gonna shit on people like what do you offer by shitting on people and you can feel it creeping back yeah and and i think it usually comes what is that no hope comes from no hope it's some successful people who have hope their success is determined by

unfortunately for the bottomless pit people where they are

compared to where they want to be where someone else is right right it's comparison it there are people that can sell out arenas but if somebody is doing two, that's the only thing they can focus on.

And it's like, and it's so sad because it's like, whatever, regardless of what you believe in, it's like...

Probably I know people in the top 10, top 20 earners list who are pissed about their position on it.

I'm like, you're in the top 20.

It's over $1 million a year, and you're mad at your placement.

Not even, I want more money.

Your money is fine.

You want them to be just below you.

No, no, no.

Actually, that's the most important thing.

They don't want more money.

They They just want that other person to be making less.

So if it's them make more, great.

If they make less, also great.

It's pure bottomless pit.

Guys, chill.

Dude, but that's, and then it gets rewarded because negativity is obviously rewarded on the internet because we all have these, the fear is what moves things in society.

You're like, whatever we fear, we see.

And, um, but it is a problem, man.

Rogan's great at that, though, though.

All the, everyone's like, he's right-wing, he does this, he does that.

But at the same time, like, he puts on open micers.

He literally props up the lowest of us.

It's the best.

People aren't paying rent.

And he goes, No, I got to have them on.

Oliver Stone, you can't come on this week because I'm full with this open micer I just saw who did something funny.

I just mentioned Derek on the pod with my son Rogan.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, not Keynes.

Poston.

Okay.

So I mentioned Derek Poston.

He opens for me.

I think you've got L.A., obviously.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And more from Austin now, but yeah, I know from him.

Or Austin, too.

But yeah.

So, and I mentioned him and I mentioned how he had a he just shot a Don't Tell comedy

special.

and um

and i was like yeah he's coming i mentioned it on rogan because i'm talking about how he's been killing on the road with us and and he's like oh when is it coming out all right i gotta have him on like

it's crazy adrian's like can i it's like when is it coming out okay i'll get you the day before it'll come out the day he already knows like all right well i gotta do that it's amazing because it's a special so that's the biggest thing in a three to five year period for a comic yeah and i listen Don't get me wrong, it is incredible that he's able to do it.

And like,

there's a thing.

It's like, I wish that every single comic that was like, hey, can I come on Flagrant?

I wish I could have.

But yeah, I mean, the problem is just like,

all right, well, unfortunately.

It's limited.

There's one episode we do a week.

Yeah.

You know, and then, yeah, unfortunately, that's the case.

But listen, maybe, maybe I would be pushing more benevolence if I did just make it this avenue for comics to get some exposure for their specials coming out.

Like, maybe that would work better.

Maybe it would fill my soul more.

I don't know.

But I also have to be like, okay, well, are there other people that I I committed to talking to?

So now we have four or five specials a week, and you're like, oh, I just, I literally can't do all of them.

I guess I'm trying to call myself out a little bit for saying this one thing and maybe not doing it to the perfect extent, but it is a little bit different in that regard.

But I rack my brain about, like, okay, well, what can I do even if I can't have them on?

You can post form.

Maybe I can post-form

the cumulus of helping that.

Exactly.

Like, there are other avenues of helping.

And I try to be as kind as I can and help as many people as I can with whatever.

Good advice.

But it is something that I've kind of noticed: is like that bitterness that existed in the 90s that creeping.

It's not creeping.

It's so many of them are doing it.

But it comes from, in my opinion, it comes from just a lack of.

There's two versions.

There's like bottomless pit people who are just always going to be bottomless pits.

Even during the final time.

That's their happy place, actually.

Maybe.

But there's nothing you can do about it.

But the other version, I think, is like where it just doesn't feel like there's hope.

When there's hope, and I think that was the excitement with the early YouTube version, the early clips, and then obviously Rogan.

Like, I think for young comics, I imagine the only way they think that you could pop off right now is if you get that kill Tony.

Well, I was talking to Nate about this, and he goes, We used to have something to aim for, Letterman, Leno, and we'd aim for a tonight show that actually mattered.

People listening at home, aren't it?

Understand this.

It like mattered and really helped.

And then that kind of went away.

And Nate's like, I want to create an avenue where even if you don't get it, you can aim for this.

My old storytelling show was Like something I could aim for to like,

and then if you fall short, you're still ahead.

But there's a thing you're going.

Yeah, I've been thinking about this,

like specifically with, also, that's great that Nate's thinking about that.

Like, even to just think about younger people and wanting them to succeed.

I was thinking about this like with New York specifically.

I'm like, what is the thing that a young comic here can do to get on?

Like there used to be, okay, maybe I'll work on one of the late night shows.

Like that's kind of not really the pathway anymore.

You're not, they're not really filming TV shows left and right like that.

Podcasts with so many, it's not, it's not standout of all.

And it's podcasting, is no longer the thing where, like, you do one episode, you're a famous person.

That's done.

That's done.

Yeah.

And so there's this part of me.

It's like the same kind of feeling with Nate.

It's like, I want to create a property.

Like, I love that Kill Tony gives so much hope to comics.

Like, they're like, if I get on that, people are going to see it.

Maybe I become a regular and then I can tour.

You know what I was thinking?

I want to create something for New York specifically where comics here go, oh shit, I can get better with the best comics in the world because there's no question the best are right here.

And I also have hope that I can build my career here because it's not just clips anymore.

And I see comics and they're like,

but I got to do crowd work.

First of all, you don't have to do anything.

You don't have to do anything.

If it's for you, it's for you.

If it's not, I talk to comics about this.

Like, I don't do it.

Like, then don't.

Don't do it.

But, but your thing will come around.

Do something.

This is the thing where it's just like, there's a little bit of this that's coming with the bitterness.

There's a little bit of this culture of like trying is gay.

That's Shane's whole, that's whole, that's his whole aesthetic.

But he trying is gay.

First of all, I don't agree with that because he makes

really amazing shit.

No, but he goes, I won't use good lighting.

I won't.

Trying as gay is his aesthetic.

Well, I don't want to feel like that's a shot at Shane because I think that he does like amazing shit.

No, he's promoting that.

He goes, this is going to be bad lighting.

We're going to have awful.

You're saying for the podcast?

For all of it, is trying is gay.

But the sketches are phenomenal.

Yeah, sure.

The stand-up is phenomenal.

But that's his aesthetic.

He betrays that aesthetic sometimes, but that's his aesthetic.

He's set up, where it's like, we're just chilling, we're just hanging out.

I'd have to, Mike.

That's why he never built a big studio like that.

But my suspicion is with that is that, like, he's lying.

No, I actually think it's like,

my suspicion is, I don't want this to get too big,

the podcast.

I'll put tons of effort into the things that I want to be huge and explosive, but the podcast is dangerous.

Like, imagine, look at what he went through initially with a podcast.

One clip cost him, could have cost him the thing that he always wanted.

Thank God it did not.

Podcasts, like as much as we say what we want about it, it's like we're throwing around lumps of clay and they exist on the internet forever.

Anytime I get in trouble for some shit, they don't go to my stand-up.

Bigger podcasts.

They go to podcasts where I'm loose with my friends and saying the most wild shit and then you get two hours of justification for whatever you thought for the last 10 years every single week.

So I wonder if, and I'd have to ask him about this, but I wonder if the thinking is essentially, I don't want that thing to get too huge because that's the thing that's going to make me vulnerable.

Whereas if I just let the focus be on the art, the stand-up or the sketches or the films, that's such a distilled, whittled-down idea that it's less vulnerable.

Thoughts on that?

Maybe.

Yeah, maybe.

But I do think that like...

Looking at that and going to the bottom.

It's an aesthetic style.

It doesn't mean trying to get it.

It's like, don't act like you're trying and like look at, you know, I've done done all this prep work.

Even roasts, like little ones will be like,

I didn't prepare for this.

And it's like, yes, you did.

Yes, you did.

You're lying because trying is gay.

We all try.

No, I think, well, then I fundamentally disagree with that.

And I've been part, I've done tires.

Like what they do is phenomenal.

And it's like,

yeah,

I can't imagine that he doesn't.

on some level really want to try and want things to work out.

You can't be great and not want and not production.

It does.

It's just the aesthetic.

Well, we've got to get away from that because

I think that their young comics or young creatives need to know that you have to try.

That's about a shitload of work went into Eurific.

Yes.

And it doesn't need to be fake.

Like, you don't need to put on somebody else's identity or do something else.

But effort is good.

I've always thought of

some way to do it.

I was never quite big enough of a young comedian's special.

of just like, hey, here's some people I think are funny.

They keep trying to do it.

And even with

Chappelle backing them,

it doesn't mean anything.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that

I think it's more like getting comedians to blow up in the spaces for them.

Like, a young comedian, like, for example, right, right, 50,000 YouTube views for somebody new is humongous.

Bro, I was telling this to Derek.

He was like, because, you know, he's, he's on the road with us, posted, and like, he's crushing on the road.

And he's like, dude, you know,

we film the shows.

And he's like, do you mind if I put some clips out?

And I go, of course, dude, put it whatever you want.

I go, he goes, Yeah, I was going to put something out from the garden.

I go, dude, you could do whatever you want.

That's your footage.

But if I'm somebody that's finding a new comic online,

I kind of want to find them in a shitty little comedy club.

Yeah, that's the cool thing about their clips and whatever is like the single camera at the cellar or New York

actually goes better.

It's like an indie band.

Because if you prepared it, it's like, no, this better be on this level.

But a riff should be, when you film that too well, to me, it's like, oh, you had a lot of takes at this.

Yeah, it doesn't work.

It only works in the moment.

Like, hey, shut up, man.

Oh, we'll look at you.

Like, oh, then it's okay.

I'm not even talking about like crowd work.

I'm talking about like literally a bit.

Like, if you're a comedian I've never seen before, and I see you.

So, you want to feel like you found them.

That's not bad.

And then, and I go, oh my god, this guy's hilarious.

Who is he?

If I see you at the garden, I start going, how do I not know this guy?

Who is this guy?

And you're not part of when I walk by

in my neighborhood late at night, and it's this crazy, cool sandwich place.

This guy's an artist.

He makes like kimchi, roast beef, and cantaloupe.

Stuff you would never expect.

It was so good.

And I found it.

I found it.

And then I told Big J about it.

He goes, oh, and then he checked it on Yelp.

He goes, oh, yeah, 11,000 reviews.

And I'm like, okay, but I found it.

So how can you get it?

So I have more ownership over it.

It's my spot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that's, that's what I was telling him.

It's like, so for me, if I was like wanting a young comic to pop, like, I definitely think using social media, at least to get that initial attention, but specifically not having it to be too refined, knowing that if you're a comic that nobody's seen before,

the expectation is that you're in a club.

Also, personally, glossy is too

smooth.

It's not quite what I'm looking for.

It's a jazzy art.

It's a jazzy.

I think for us, there's a higher expectation.

I think for us.

Like, I remember I saw like an uncolored treated version of your special.

And I remember the first thing I said is like, make sure you pop out from that background.

And it's because you spent, I don't know how much money you spent, but time developing what that looked like.

No,

it was cool.

Yeah.

And it was the, you never even imagine it.

Like, that's low-keys from burning that shit.

Like, it's just like, yeah, it's just for the people.

It's just enjoy.

Exactly.

Like, it doesn't help the funny.

It just helps you.

Like, you wanted to make something look significantly different and unique.

And like, you did it with Jew, too, with all the candles.

Like, anyway.

I went from making some money to losing money.

just because I'm like, this should look cool.

Because it looks cool.

That's the most pure version.

You're not trying to, whatever.

But

anyway, I like that.

But I was like, I want you to make sure that you pop out so that the person consuming it is still going to like it.

You've got a higher expectation now, especially after how good Jew looked.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Yes, exactly.

Right?

Like, people are going, well, that's what I told Abrams.

He was like, what do you want to do with this?

I'm like, well, eyes are on us now.

Yep.

So we either got to beat it or fucking go blank white background.

Yeah.

Or yeah, yeah, do the opposite.

Go

trill nothing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And yeah, so like, let's think.

So, how do we get back to

giving is what you're trying to do is be supportive of comics.

Also, give.

And, like, we need to create, we need to create some more opportunities for them in New York.

We got to figure that out.

That's something I really want to put time into.

Like, how do you create a launching pad?

I'm 100% down.

Let's do something.

I'm always thinking about it.

Yeah.

And then it's like.

It's tough.

How do you get people to love something they don't know?

There's not even a discussion anywhere

of that these aren't so easily the best comics in the world.

Yeah, it is.

It's like retarded.

Yeah.

It's every set at New York Comedy Club.

This isn't like the most notable one or second one.

It's like every set I go, every other set, I'm like waiting to go on.

Like they got the lighter, like all right, I'll check out those last three minutes.

And then I'm like, who the fuck is this?

Who the fuck is this?

He's killing.

Yeah.

yeah.

They're making it hard for you.

And it's like, not, you don't even have tricks to be able to follow him.

You know, there's tricks, you know, if I follow you every time, like, all right, I know a line, I can get them on my side.

Yeah, yeah.

And I'm like, I'm flying blind every time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And there's 200 of those here.

But there should be an opportunity for them.

Yeah, there should be an opportunity.

And they should,

they should.

We're doing well.

We're not, they're not failing, but it's nice to be able to pay rent.

They don't think.

This is my estimation.

Whenever I see bitterness, I assume it comes from lack of hope, like lack of potential opportunity, right?

Like,

I don't want to name certain people that people are upset about, but I saw some people being upset about somebody's success.

And I was asking, like, around, I was asking Mark Gagnon and some of the other guys, and I was like, are you hearing this?

They're like, yeah, a lot.

And I'm like,

my knee-jerk reaction was more, oh, fuck.

We need to find something where these guys can come up in here.

When they see someone else get success and they start being upset at it, it's because they don't feel like there's an avenue.

And not everybody is going to go shoot their own thing or clip.

Yeah, and when you're way bigger, you don't care if somebody gets past at the seller.

Fuck.

You know, when you've done Madison Square Garden,

you lose that like, what?

They're in it.

Yes.

It's like, okay, good for you, man.

The weirdest thing about this is like the people that treat you like shit on the way up in comedy, the second you pass them, you have no animosity towards them at all.

It's crazy how that goes away.

Some low-level hurdle.

Yeah, and they were dealing with their fucking shit.

That's the thing, too.

When you look back at like Comedy Central Never Booking Me or whatever, you're like, oh, well, I kind of sucked.

Yeah, it's like, or it's like you had a job, you didn't want to lose it.

Like, I might have given you like a 2% chance more of losing it.

It's like, well, I take that.

It's not like there weren't.

other funny people.

It's not like I was the only funny person or you were the only funny person.

And then all the venues that canceled us or canceled shows.

It's like, oh, you just don't want angry backlash.

You're not even weighing in.

Yeah, yeah.

You don't really care about that.

I don't want this heat.

I don't want to.

Yeah, it's like you have a nice place in the Hamptons that you want to go vacation in.

and you're like, do you want to deal with the stress over the weekend?

No.

Now, does that suck because you take on that responsibility when you take it off?

I had Naom had to do this.

When he was like, to one of mine, he was like, I just got done with this with Louie.

Yeah.

He's like, can you just take some time off?

And I'm like, no, man, I literally can't.

I got to get back up.

And he's like, fuck.

Yeah, yeah.

They're going to come after my fucking business again.

All right.

I'll put you on this week.

But he does it.

He doesn't.

But he does it.

But he does it.

I admire that because he, most people would not have done what he did with Louie.

Yeah.

And I go, I go, I get it, man.

I'm not part of this Tommy Seller family the way I am at the stand.

He goes, No, no, no, no, no.

Everybody's in the family.

That's wrong.

He's fucking honorable, dude.

Yeah.

Noam is an honorable man and principled.

Principled about it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because now you have to.

Most people would just go, let me take the easy way out.

The business has never been bigger.

There's never been more eyeballs.

And he's like, no, we're going to keep fucking doing it.

Because of Louie.

Well, that's that was part of it.

Obviously, he's like a man, so he's like, guy, help me get here.

He is so much more like that.

We were giving away four free tickets to any show before.

Yep.

Yep.

I'm just going to turn my back on that.

Fuck off.

100%.

But it sends a message.

Yeah.

Let me go over these.

Yeah.

Radical inclusion.

These are the 10 principles of Burning Man.

Anyone may be a part of Burning Man.

Okay, so that's what you're saying.

Yep.

We welcome Respect the Stranger.

No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.

So, like, whoever's in, even blacks.

Gifting.

You know what my friend told me?

You know, Baldinger?

Brian Baldinger?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He goes, when I was going to go, he goes, my only advice is the only word in your head should be yes.

Anyone offers you anything.

Anyone says you want to do anything?

Just don't even just.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

And then it might be scary.

It might be easy.

You want a banana?

Sure.

You want this powder?

I don't know what it is.

I found it.

Sure.

Yeah.

I get scared with the drugs because people will offer you some shit, but taking that route, that's another way to explore it.

Like, this is another thing about burning man there's 80 000 people there right so imagine how many little camps there are you'll never be able to go to every single one there's this part of me that's like maybe it's some like manifest destiny explorer shit but like every time i go i got to go to the fence that i was telling you about and i have to go over it

It's so weird.

I have to.

It's like,

you ever go to like the Mall of America and you're like, I want to walk this whole fucking thing.

Like, there's just something about it where, like, I need to experience.

I just want to kill myself.

yeah that's also that's another thing yeah blow my brains out right over the fence and let it explode that fucking ice hotel that's inside of it

just walk around remember when we got to america they built it and was like this is a testimony how great america is and now it's like it's so malls blow it's dying so anyway i just want to explore i want to do all of it and then after going a few times i realized like No, no, no, just think of a thing that you want to focus on.

Do you want to see the sunrise this time?

Okay.

Do you want to just do the day?

Why don't I just do the day one time?

Why don't I just be sober one time?

See what that's like?

Why don't I just enjoy the art?

Like,

there's so many different ways to do it.

It can become redundant if you're just partying every single time.

So, how do you find?

I once sat in on a conversation about the Supreme Court justices and how that they were completely politicized, even though they're supposed to be like the most thoughtful lawyers in the country.

Interesting.

They still voted based on party lines.

This was years ago, and I see this conversation happening tons in the last couple of years because of all the justices that were appointed.

And I was like, oh, wow, that's interesting.

Some fucking person on mushrooms was explaining this to me in the desert like seven years ago.

Yeah, anyway.

Anyway, so the other things.

Gifting.

Yeah, Burning Man is devoted to acts of gifting.

The value of a gift is unconditional.

Oh, wow.

Gifting does not

contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

Yeah, when I heard it, it was like, no, you give them something, they give you something, but really, no, you give something.

Someone will give you something, but that's not why you're doing it.

And they might not.

Someone else might give you something.

It might be like not even here.

You're just doing it because you want to do it.

This is interesting right here.

Decommodification.

In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising.

Oh, nice.

I love that.

We stand ready to protect our culture from sucks of exploitations.

Wow.

We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

So for example, we did a Burning Man episode on Flagrant.

Okay.

And we put no ads on it.

Wow.

Because we can't possibly talk about that experience and make money off it.

We can't commodify it.

So sometimes people go there.

This is pretty shitty.

Like they'll take these pictures doing Pilates or yoga in the playa.

And it's the most stunning thing you've ever seen.

And then they'll use it for their like yoga websites for their business.

And that's what they're saying.

No, no, they're saying you can't do that

because you're commodifying this experience.

So,

yeah, perfect example.

But anyway, okay, radical self-reliance.

Radical self-reliance.

Okay, so that's like get everything, bring everything in.

And also, you don't leave trash there, right?

You cannot even leave, they say don't even leave spit.

So every bit, it's called MOOC, I think.

So every bit of the plya is returned exactly to the state it was before.

It's unbelievable.

There is no problem.

No trash.

Not even no trash.

Like you can put water in if it hasn't been in your mouth.

But if you like brush your teeth, you can't spit on the ground.

Now, no one's going to tell you not to.

Like you're not going to get fined.

I'll be honest.

I pee on the fucking ply all the time.

Like it's, it is, it's fucked up, but you shouldn't do it.

But people do it.

Okay.

Yeah.

I was like, it's just soak in.

But the idea is you're peeing on.

We want to respect the land, and you can't respect the land by just throwing whatever you want on it.

Didn't they have a thing where they wanted to put the city or the state needed to put trash cans in?

You're like, no, we can't put trash cans in because that goes against what we're doing.

Because then they'll be.

People will just throw their shit out there.

They'll think they could bring trash.

But if you go out there going, I have to take everything back with me.

Yeah.

You're not going to take plastic cups.

You're going to take this little tin cup.

So everybody got a backpack.

There's a little tin cup that you'll have on you so that when you go to a bar or like a party, they'll pour a drink into that.

Don't they have the fold-out

bowls too?

Bowls and plates so you can like just pop it out.

Like, here, you have chili?

I'd like some, and then pop it back out.

100%.

Yeah, Balder said, bring a spork to fold out.

Huge.

Yeah.

And this camelback, so you have like a few liters of water in your backpack at all points in time.

You can fill it up somewhere.

You end up in some random camp.

Steampunk and a camel back.

Kind of wild.

It doesn't go together.

Yeah.

Yeah.

People are very responsible.

It's interesting.

Like the amount of intensity you put into making sure you have enough enough water.

I would never do this anywhere else.

Do we have enough water?

Do we have enough water?

But you ever do the rub-down tent or not rub down tent, the Dr.

Bronner's?

What's that?

Where they wash you?

Oh, no, but I've had some friends that did it.

Do you ever fuck on this?

Do you ever fuck a random?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's not very sexual, though, I'll be honest with you.

Like, I think there are parties where that is more the vibe.

Yeah.

And you definitely can meet people, but like, you haven't really showered well.

You're dusty.

Like,

yeah, maybe you're like feeling good from drugs, but the feeling, I don't know if it's like horny.

It's more just like euphoria from just being around your friends.

But the first time I went there, I was like, oh, I'm supposed to fuck.

And then I went another time and I was like, oh, yeah, let's do it.

That's Molly.

Everyone sees them.

Are you all horny?

Like, no, I just want to touch.

Yeah.

It's not about.

So it's more about that.

I just want to hug.

Yeah.

Radical self-expression.

Yeah, that's all the art pieces.

Yeah.

Damn.

Communal effort.

Oh, wait.

A radical self-research is almost like an extension of the gifting.

Yeah.

Arise from the unique gifts of the individual.

No one other than an individual or a collaborating group can determine its content.

No one other than individual or collaborating group can determine its content.

It is offered as a gift to others.

In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

Yes.

I've started doing this, and people ask me about my special.

I'm like, it's out of my hands now.

What did you get from it?

It's it's not up to me anymore what I meant

Communal effort

That's just everyone joins in.

Yeah, okay, and then civic responsibility

Don't steal don't like punch push people I imagine and then leave no trace.

That's the thing we were talking about

Yeah

Participation are communities committed to a radical participatory ethic?

Yes.

That's to say yes, right?

I think I I believe that transformative change, whether the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation.

We achieve being through doing.

We achieve

being through doing.

Am I saying that right?

We achieve being

through doing.

Everyone is invited to work.

Everyone is invited to play.

We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

Damn.

And then immediacy.

Immediate experience.

I don't even know what that one is.

And in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture.

Our culture.

Damn.

This is so interesting.

Like they've created their own little utopia that exists for a week when everybody has drugs in their system.

Damn.

But it is really cool.

How do you get in and out?

And then, and then I want to know about two other things.

Drive in, drive in.

Is it like a mob scene getting in?

Oh, dude.

On the way in, if you're going like at the beginning, there's a line for hours.

And the line you could see snaking through the mountains on the way to the desert through the town.

And you just get a little bit more excited every inch.

Can you get out and just walk around and like talk to people?

Yeah, because you're all stuck in traffic, right?

Yeah, and then somebody like does a sweep of your Winnebago and it's like adorable.

What do you mean?

We're just making sure you don't have anything in here.

I thought at festivals, they're like, no glass.

So push it back, man.

Push it farther away.

I think they're not even doing for drugs.

They're actually doing to make sure that you're not sneaking individuals in.

That's what I assume it is.

Meaning, like

because each person pays for a paper ticket, right?

So if you just had to pay for one, you like have 10 people going.

But you just build up all this excitement.

And then your first time, you have to do like a playa angel.

It's like a snow angel.

But the idea is like get messy immediately.

Like before that, you're in your car and you don't want a Snickers to get on your pants and everything's like putting messy.

Hey,

get used to this dust.

This dust is with you for the next week.

Don't avoid the dust.

The dust and you are one.

Are one.

That's so good.

And it's just this immediate immersive.

If it's your first time, you got to do it.

If it's not your first time, you don't have to do it.

But your first time, they're like, get the fuck in there.

And I thought it was like a really cool.

That's nice.

That's how Jouve is too before like a carnival.

They're like, hey, we're all putting paint and mud on you.

Like, just do it.

You're not going to avoid it.

So just get it a little on your face.

Yeah.

And you're right about like saying yes.

Like, I remember Alex, it was his first day.

You know, this guy is from far rock away, Queens.

You know what I mean?

It's like.

I'm taking him fucking burning, man.

Now, what I will say is Alex pretty well traveled.

He's done some wild stuff.

So it's not like crazy for him, but he's still, he's out there.

And some guy rolls up in a crazy bicycle that was like a circle.

It might even not have a bicycle.

It might have been like an electric thing, but it was, I don't know if it had a bed on it.

It was just wild.

He rolls up and he's like, hey, man, you want a foot massage?

And Alex is like,

yeah, sure.

I'll take a foot massage.

So his first interaction at Burning Man

is he gets, some guy is giving him a foot massage.

Comes back.

I hand him a beer.

He takes a sip of it.

He goes, man, what the fuck is up with this?

And I might be confusing my Burning Man, so forgive me if this is a story, but

he goes, this doesn't taste right.

We look at it, and uh, we realize that we bought the beer in Salt Lake City, which is

so now we have

two percent beer for eight days on the playa.

You're basically drinking Poland Springs, this is what you get when you want state rights.

This is what you get: some negatives.

I'm not even drinking Polish shit.

Fucking carbohydrated Poland Springs.

Yeah, exactly.

Do uh, do phones fuck up your experience?

Uh, They don't work there.

And the more people that come.

Yeah.

So the more people that come, the more the service goes away.

Okay.

That should be great.

Yeah.

So you don't have any service.

You cannot communicate.

And one of the cool things about it is like when you meet somebody there, you're giving coordinates for your Winnebago.

Oh, this is actually really cool.

I'm glad you asked about this.

You really,

it brings you back to a time before phones, not in that we're looking at it all the time,

but in terms of planning.

Meet me at five.

It's like, I can't be like, I'm late.

Yeah.

Like, you better be there on time.

So now events really matter because events become these things where you can reunite with your friends.

So, all right, I'm going to take a nap.

I'm sick.

What are you guys doing tonight?

Well, we're going to go to this thing here and then we're probably going to make it over to that thing there.

So there was a night where like, I just slept until late.

I tried to meet my friends at one party.

They had already went to another one.

I was like, man, where is everybody?

I go to another party.

They're not there.

I'm by myself.

I'm exploring.

I go to the post office, have a great conversation with this dude, connect, write a letter to my wife.

No, no, I don't think I was married yet.

Write a letter to maybe my mom or dad or something.

I forget who I wrote a letter to.

Like, just, you know what I mean?

You're like,

you just, you're just kind of like, and then I end up finding them later.

Because they're the second coordinate.

You're like, no,

I'll be here at 10.

I'll be here at 12.

It was a random thing.

Oh, you just met him.

And then imagine the feeling you have when you randomly bump into your group of friends.

Oh,

damn it.

I fucking love that.

I fucking love that.

Oh.

So this happens all the time.

There's these like, and now you can find different ways, but like you leave notes on a whiteboard.

Hey, Schultz, when you wake up, we went to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

If you want to come.

So there's this old-fashioned form of communication where you really don't take for granted the idea of separation.

Separation means like, I might not see you for a day.

Live when we were kids.

Five days here.

When we were kids, like where's everybody?

I think at the the park.

People come and knock on your Winnebago door, like, hey, Schultz, what's up, man?

And you're sleeping.

It's like, oh, dude, I just got in.

Somebody told me you lived here.

I've been asking around everywhere.

You're just knocking on random Winnebagos until hopefully you find the person.

Remember,

you give a coordinate and then you give a letter.

That's this whole street.

Yeah, it's like go to the go to the bathrooms, then go down about 30 feet or so and inside.

I live on 20th Street between 2nd and 3rd.

And then you have to knock on every apartment building asking if somebody lives there.

You know, I used to find Joey Diaz when we were on the road together.

Tell me what floor you were on, and I'd just smell for weed until it got stronger or less stronger.

That's great.

And then I'd usually like, I'm going for it.

And then I would find it.

Or I got the Schultz dance.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's got a peak Schultz here.

That makes me want to go back this year, man.

Yeah.

Yeah, these little.

So no one's like taking photos all the time and interrupting shows.

He's in videos.

Absolutely.

And that has definitely changed it.

And the big interruption people are talking about now is electric bikes.

Versus pedal bikes.

I think it's improved Burning Man.

You can get somewhere without spending a day to get there.

You can enjoy more places.

But what it has done,

and this is where you would say it's hurt it, is that there's less of a commitment to enjoy the place you got to.

It allows you to have FOMO.

You're like, this party's all right, but maybe that one's better.

You can get to the other party faster instead of going, well, we're here.

I mean, I'm not not going.

So, one night, what we did is we got on an art car.

We didn't take our bikes.

And now you're submitting yourself to wherever the art car is going to take you.

And that might be miles away.

And you get out there and you're like, no, slowly walk back and find some stuff along the way.

And it just like hits you with fun things to do on your walk.

Constantly.

Like a fucking Lord of the Rings.

You just see something in the distance.

You're like, let's walk towards that.

And then you get there and it's like, oh, this just ended.

You're like, oh, damn.

You see something else in the distance.

Let's bike towards that.

You get there and you're like, what the fuck is this crazy seance that's that's happening here?

You see something in the dist.

You hear something, but there's no lights, but you hear it.

You go to the noise.

It's...

Wow.

Just constant exploration.

Are there different kinds of music?

Is it all EDM based?

Or is there like a honky-tonk?

There's mostly EDM, but yeah, you will find like, oh, there's a 90s hip-hop night.

They're literally like a book of everything you can do from like getting your hair washed to like.

There's a book.

That goes out every year, yeah.

Of all the different things, what times and where they're at.

So if I'm, when I did it before, I was like, should we make a comedy show as a gift?

Yeah.

And then there was like, would you say like 2 p.m.

every day, we'll be having it?

You're welcome to stop by.

Then you register it.

So you could register or you could not register.

You could just do it.

What I always thought would be cool is like doing, putting a stage and a mic and a stool and a joke book on the stool in the middle of the

and letting people be a comic for that's fun and giving them the experience.

Give them the experience of making people read it.

And then who knows?

Then maybe there's 20 people, and then you just pull up, and then all of a sudden

you're ripping, and then other people are seeing it happen.

And then you ever see Jewel get in, get in, remember Jewel, the player, yeah, yeah, of course,

get in costume and do karaoke, yeah, and she played this sheepish, like, oh no, guys, I can't, and then just rips it, and everyone's like, crying, like, what?

But she's ugly, how could she be good?

That only works in Britain.

Wow, dude, yeah, it makes me fucking wanna.

So my standard for these podcasts, not to sum it up, but is at the end of these, I'm like, oh, I got to get to that place.

And I really want to get to that place.

This is why I thought you'd like it.

And I'm always like, I always tell people everybody should go, but I thought you would like it.

In particular.

In particular, just because you have a curiosity about travel, also you're not afraid of doing drugs, but also like your connectivity with people.

And like, I think you see through a lot of bullshit.

So I think you'll see certain people and you go, oh, you're just doing this like Burning Man facade.

But then you'll see other people and you're like, oh, wow, like you've really committed a serious part of your life to giving other people a great experience here.

Like, tell me why do you do that?

And you'll like, people will open up.

Like, I would say, don't underestimate the playa or whatever.

That's what we would call it.

Like, don't underestimate it.

That's what?

That's Mother Nature?

No, no, no.

But it's good.

Don't underestimate Burning Man.

Right.

Meaning, like, push people, like, have tough conversations.

Like, see, like, I'm actually curious to see what it's like in like a politicized environment because it's like you got to include me radically.

You got to radically include me.

So push people, see where they're willing to go.

Like see if they're really up to the values of the place.

Remember who started it?

Those people.

The Cacoffity Society.

Remember who started it.

They want like go, make people go.

What?

Dude, they have.

Santa Cons was started by them.

So they have like the skirts on Tuesdays or something like that where everybody runs a marathon of skirts.

They have like this, they have all these other little things that are that are part of that ethos where there are people kind of pranking, et cetera, doing so.

They'll have a thing where it's like people will be promoting a party that doesn't exist just to get people to the middle of the playa.

And then there'll be a thing that says, just kidding.

Go enjoy it.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, it's just like, so whatever, right?

I love that.

Like, dude, they did this thing where they're like, this huge DJ is going to be at this thing.

Thousands of people came.

They're like, they're not even here.

Like,

they're doing it to fuck with you.

Because, oh, you're just here to DJ hop.

Shit.

You're not up, shake it up.

So whatever you want to make of it, I believe there is room for you to do it.

I love temporary art where like this isn't about commodifying it.

It won't be here long.

It's here right now in this thing.

And then it will go away.

So you're just experiencing here.

And it's

all that is there.

Yeah.

You're not going to put that in a gallery later.

It's taken down and gone forever.

The man itself.

It's like, it's literally burned up.

And like, who would put that much time into something that goes away?

It's something really pure about that, right?

Like, imagine to work your whole year developing this thing, buying all the materials to put it up, putting it up, and then just lighting it on fire.

Just for the sake of it, what the fuck?

It for the sake of it.

Yeah.

You know how they train?

But it's kind of what we do.

I don't want to make it about us, but like the idea of building a joke, building a set, putting it out there, it's lighting it on fire for us in that we'll never be able to use those jokes.

We'll never be able to get that experience from that audience from those jokes.

Like those jokes' utility to us is gone after that moment.

Proverbially lighting it on fire in terms of how it makes us feel.

Now it just makes other people feel things.

Right.

We can't get the laughs.

We can't get the applause.

Once we put it out, we're giving it.

Dude, I was dating a chick and she quoted a joke of mine from like 15 years earlier.

She says, one guy did whatever.

It's like, no way.

What?

She goes, yeah, I always remembered it.

Do you know that wasn't?

It was me.

Yeah.

She's like, no, fuck it.

It was like eight years ago.

Do you remember the joke?

Yeah, it was about how at strip clubs

a lot, like when women turned their fucking pussy inside, I was a whole thing about it.

But then this thing where they go, like,

get the fuck out of here.

No one's into that.

No one has a Wizard of Oz fetish that makes you want that.

Who told them that?

Who told them we're into that?

And so

she's just retelling you this bit.

Yeah, and I'm like, are you kidding me?

That's me.

Wow.

But, but, yeah, that's what stand-up is too.

When you're sometimes you're like

on the road somewhere else or just or on vacation with your chick, and then you're like,

you walk past, like, wait, is there, is there a mic going on there?

Yeah.

Is that a show?

And you're like, hey, do you mind if I just take 10 minutes here?

And you're like, really?

I'm like, yeah, I don't know.

It's like 30 people in there.

Yeah.

It's not nobody.

It's like an actual show.

Yeah.

Then I can not take a full week off.

Wednesday is perfect.

Let me just do that.

Yeah.

And it's like, not for anything.

Yeah.

But yeah, specifically burning material literally we call it burning material

i don't look again i i get that did you think of that before no no we're right now it's just you know we're doing a lot of things where it's like we're making these connections but we look at it in the same way meaning once we put out a joke it's dead to us it is it has been burned the only thing that it can do before what it did is when we told it to people obviously we can make some money but it made us feel really good like we created something the money's already there laughed the money's already there yeah but like but people laughed and we felt really good We felt creative.

We felt smart.

We felt all these things.

Once you put the joke out, you can't see them laughing anymore.

Yeah.

It's

now the experience with that is just for them.

And I think there is something kind of cool about that with comedy.

Musicians, we're jealous of them because they could play the same music forever, but maybe they don't know what it's like to never be able to play a song again and then just give that to the people to laugh at and tell boys 15 years later.

I think it's kind of cool.

Now, we we might be into.

I heard Henry Rollins say something.

It's uppity, but somebody was doing an interview with him, and he goes, He started quoting some lyrics to one of his old songs, and he's like, Oh, what is that?

He goes, That's one of your songs.

He goes, Okay.

Like, how's it go?

They got to like quote it.

And he's like, Oh, yes.

And like, dude, you wrote it.

What do you mean?

That's your song.

He goes, Oh, I just build the ships.

I don't sail them.

That's fire.

Yeah.

That's fire.

Yeah.

And it's the same thing.

You hear somebody will tell you a joke, like, how did that go?

I can't even say the, like, I'll forget the exact wording of an early joke.

Yeah.

But I think it's really cool.

Obviously, I love stand-up more than anything, but I think it's a really cool, unique thing about the art form in that,

yeah,

once we burn the material, it's just for everyone else.

I did open a show for like a fundraiser for Shelly Berman.

Okay.

That old, old Jewish guy.

I think he just died.

He was on.

curb a few times, a bunch of times.

Maybe it was Larry's father.

I don't know.

But anyway, there's all these 70-year-old people in the audience, Jews.

And then they were like, they screamed out a bit.

He goes, The radio bit, man, I haven't done that in like 50 years.

Hold on.

And then he's like, all right.

They did it for me.

And he got it.

Yeah.

Good enough.

But like, damn.

I love that no matter how big people are getting, you're in movies now.

Stand-up stays a stand-up.

Yeah.

It's the only thing they really care about.

Yeah.

Is the stand-up.

It's the only thing.

It's the only thing that matters.

The rest is just cake.

Yeah.

oh it's it's it's fine i mean i think that

i think stories are cool however they're told yeah so like if it's a film if it's a sketch of these things i think it's a cool art this special life was full stories almost from start to finish a few bits but almost story story story story yeah so i'd like to see what like doing a film would be like not acting in one only but actually like writing it out and like making it yeah like really making it and see if i enjoy that process process just because I really admire stories.

But outside of that, yeah, stand-up is the coolest.

I don't even know what I'm saying.

That's what I like about producing stand-up.

I like making other people's stuff.

I'm like,

none of these are my jokes.

I just like the building part of it.

Yeah, and now you don't have to deal with

the emotional distress of recording it right and knowing if you've said it better somewhere else.

You just get to be there to help them execute that video.

Yeah, that's what I'm like, hey, take that off your plate.

I'll make sure the seats are right.

I'll make sure the air conditioning is right.

Don't worry about it.

Just get in your head.

Yeah, we forget how little a lot of comics think about those details, but they really make a huge difference.

Yeah.

And people are like, oh, I didn't do it.

I was like, was the lighting way high?

Did you not go into this?

Yeah.

And

then everyone shooting it is like, oh, they just didn't do well or they did good, but you don't know how good it could have been.

Even the people shooting it.

Like, I was telling this to Cassetta.

Obviously, we know Tommy said to both of our audio, he's a fucking genius.

But we were talking about how, like,

every

part of the filming of a special, every like little division, is what they call it divisions,

they're working against each other.

So what makes the special look good often hurts the sound.

I.e., like, if you notice in mine, I have speakers in the front.

The visual team did not want me to have these big speakers in the front.

The audio team said that they could do without it, but they're like, it probably would sound better for the crowd.

Now I'm like, I want the crowd.

I want the crowd popping, or I'm not going to do as well.

Exactly.

You can't replace.

You can't just get your shots.

There's nothing you can do to replace doing well.

Yeah.

Let's go crush.

How are you going to crush?

Exactly.

And ultimately, that's what matters.

So I'm like, okay, if that's what we talked about with the beacon when you were like, I can't do this other place.

And you're like, how's the beacon?

I'm like, you did my show at the beacon.

How did you like it?

Yeah, it's great.

And that actually was huge for me with the just like the confidence.

Yeah, like I've performed here before.

I'm not guessing.

i've did it it wasn't even your crowd no definitely overlap but like but yeah but like okay yeah crushed in that yeah and it sounds like great okay let's go yeah yeah and just understanding that that was huge i tell people that too i'm like go do a guest spot or the think you're thick note smart the place you're thinking just try it because these places have comedy shows you can feel out the venue some rooms are better than others yeah

so like just like knowing that like yeah exactly like what each part of it what makes it sound good like for the room might actually not sound good in the mix.

Well, Cassette is the best at that.

He's phenomenal.

But even if like the first day, for example, the first show, I had to ask a camera guy to be removed.

He kept walking down the aisle.

And you're like, hey, stop, stop, stop.

You're distracting.

And I'd stop a show and be like, guys, I said, buddy, I need you to leave.

It's not your fault.

You're just being asked to do this.

You're a good guy, but you're just making it feel fake.

Right.

Like, I'm trying to do this thing.

Like, it's the first time I've said it.

Even though you know it's not, but I want to be emotional.

We're both in there.

It's wrestling.

We both know what it is, but we're all ignoring that for a second.

100%.

Yeah.

So take a seat and just fucking chill.

And then, like, we had the audio lower the first one because Tom was really precious about the audio.

And I said, Tom, I need some more juice because I need it to hit him.

I'll deal with if we have any reverberation in the edit.

I'm okay.

Maybe that, like, 10 minutes into the first setting, oh, he's yelling.

Nope, I'll stop it.

And I trusted only him to be like, don't fuck with it during.

So that's the other thing.

It's like, my rule is: once I set the audio, don't fuck with it.

I'll fuck with it.

Yeah, I'll go like this or like this.

But you and I are always.

I can't be guessing the whole fucking time.

But most, here's the thing: I think that this is something that I think.

If they want them to scream and hold their ears, let me do that.

Exactly.

But the audio people are used to comics that aren't maybe as aware of this.

That's it.

And they're adjusting to them.

And then they get us where we're like maybe a little bit more into the tiny details of this stuff.

And they're applying the same version of the comic that doesn't care.

And now we're chasing audio

because they're restricting and adding in the wrong places.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Dude, Cassetta was not available for my storytelling show.

He was like, I'm on a vacation with a wife.

And I was like, buddy, I need you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's the best.

I need you.

You got to be there.

And I tell everybody, he just gets it.

He's also like a real artist about his thing.

We were going.

We'd go there in the mix and we're like, how do you want to do this?

And he's like, I could add a laugh.

I'm like, no, no, no.

Don't ever add a laugh.

And he goes, thank you.

Yeah.

That's That's not what I get told by a lot of people.

You have to add your managers.

In my opinion, it's like you have to honor the room.

Yeah, if it tanked, it tanked.

Then I tanked.

But I feel like you also have to recreate what you heard in the room.

Right.

Be in the middle seat with the laughs all around you.

Exactly.

So if you're taking only the mics that are in the back

and not enough of the mics that are in the middle, you have to go, wait a minute, the middle was more representative of what I heard that joke get.

So you can take that sound.

You shouldn't be making something that's not there, but you should be at least if you have somebody good like Cassetta, he'll give you a mix that makes you go, Oh, this is awesome before you even are doing tweaks.

Some guys are going to give it to you flat, and then you're like, I bombed.

Did I bomb?

Yeah, that's what everybody does.

That's why I warned everybody.

Like, hey, the first thing you hear, it's going to sound like you bombed.

You didn't bomb, they just didn't add any of the room

this mic and not those mics.

Exactly.

But then you're editing off of that bomb and you're making bad decisions.

Like, I guess this one did okay.

Like, you have to do audio first, and then you do video in terms of interesting, yeah.

Get the whole thing at least at a specific place.

Get it to a good enough place where you can trust the reactor.

That's what Sal had, too.

I'm like, I'm going off what does better, but I don't know what did better.

And it's like, yeah, we got to get you the whole thing.

You have to get it there.

I mean, the mix that Tom gave us

was phenomenal to the point where, like, I was, I walk into these things and, like, I'm like holding my heart in my hand.

I'm like, so terrified.

I'm like, oh my God.

It takes me two weeks to listen.

I'm like, I can't.

I'm terrified.

I just don't, because I don't want to deal with the disappointment.

I push it off.

Same thing.

And I remember listening.

I was like, I go, wait a minute.

If this is all it's going to be,

I could deal with this.

This is good.

And he was like, yeah, I did like a lot of patent.

I really tried to do what you do.

And here's another thing.

And I want to, but like

stylistically understanding, that's something that I actually explained to Tom.

I was like, there are certain comics that are going to do long setup, big punchline.

Stylistically, if I get into this kind of like, almost like a rant where I punch and then I tag and I tag and I tag and I tag and I tag, I go, Tom,

don't, because sometimes what audio people do is they'll duck audio.

They'll take away laughs because I can hear you.

And I go, Tom, I go, Tom, Tom,

this is going to distract people.

Let them, if we feel that noise there, let them hear that throughout.

And it's like, well,

it's kind of drowning out.

You can't hear.

I'm like, in the crowd, also.

Yes.

In the room.

Yes, that's what I'm saying.

I have children show up.

When I first saw Rogan

crushing of like Girls Night Out or something like that, it was like I could only hear every other tag

because I'm breathing too hard and I miss it.

So I miss it.

Yes, 100%.

And then the other thing that I learned is like our director, he did like a line cut.

Yeah.

You know what a line cut is, like where you edit it live.

Yeah, right.

And I said, I was like, please do not do that.

I go, we're not going to use the line cut.

I edit it.

What's the point of it?

It's like the metaphor is it's like trying to catch a far with chopsticks.

We'll do it later.

We'll say back up for this camera angle anyway, later.

So what are we even doing it for?

So why not use this time to make sure everything is framed up properly for the shot if we want to cut it.

Instead of going, go to camera two, go to the camera.

It's like, I want to see all the cameras anyway.

I'm going to want to see all the cameras on every second anyway.

So it actually doesn't benefit you at all.

What it benefits you if you're talking to each cameraman and making sure they're in the right position so that shot is usable.

God forbid they're in the wrong position and now that shot's not usable because we're going to do a line cut.

That's why I think editing comedy live, like even even doing the live special is why it's like the bravest fucking thing in the world.

I don't think I wouldn't recommend it because capturing the edit live, like, how do you know when I'm on a punchline, you're not cutting out to a wide shot?

I want you to be.

Who do you know what the material is going to be?

Who knows your material is like

which director that you're hiring randomly has your entire set perfectly down pat and choreographed.

And what if I want to like do it differently?

What if I want to go left instead of right?

What if the audience

is louder and you're holding that laugh a little longer before you drop it?

Yeah.

The live special I never got.

It's like, it's stand-ups always live.

What have you added?

A live sketch show is like, that's unique.

That's different.

Oh, because something...

Wait, why is that different?

Explain why it's different.

Stand-up, every single time you do it, is live.

It's live, yeah.

So to record it live is like, that's not a bonus.

A live sitcom, let's say that, instead of a sketch show.

A live sitcom, you're like, this is different than normal.

Because people are laughing in it.

And we're used to having it recorded, so this is a different thing.

But like, to do a live stand-up is like, like, that's what it always is.

That's what it always is.

So, no, you do your best of.

You do a few sets, and then you show them your best jokes of each one.

I couldn't agree more.

I'll be honest with you,

I couldn't agree more.

It is a brave thing.

It's not something I would do.

I don't have the balls to do it.

I don't see the benefit.

But I don't exactly.

I would rather you see the best version of that.

Exactly.

Do you get in some?

Leave me some.

Okay.

Don't take it all.

Don't take it all.

I say that to my wife.

Every time I fart and she goes, oh, that's gross.

I was like, come on, don't fucking take it all.

Andy Sholey, thank you, buddy.

My boy.

Thanks for having me, bro.

This is great.

This is fun.

I really want you to check out the burn, man.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

No, I'll have questions when I start prepping for it.

Yeah.

It won't be this year, but maybe next year.

What you up to this year?

I'll be traveling.

What are you going to do?

I'm just going to sell everything and go

for like eight months.

Why not do Burning Man as part of that?

That seems like a great time to do it.

I won't be in the country.

I'd have to come back up to the country.

You'll already be.

It's like Labor Day around there.

Yeah, I'm gonna...

That's September.

I'll be somewhere near the equator somewhere.

You just pop back up.

No attachments, bro.

Yeah, maybe.

So that's not an easy pop-up.

I might be in the jungle somewhere.

That's awesome.

I don't have plans to go anywhere.

Okay, fair enough.

So you're just going to let life take you.

Yeah.

So it's possible it could take you there.

It is possible.

You could meet somebody.

If I meet some people in fucking whatever, in Borneo, and they're like, hey, we're all going to Burning Man.

I'm like, oh, really?

All right, I'll go with you guys.

We got an extra ticket.

I'm like, fuck it.

Yes.

All right.

Yeah.

I like that.

And then get back to the fucking Papua New Guinea and eat some fucking human.

And eat some.

All right, everybody.

Check out Flagrant and everything.

You're about to get the skeptic tank bump.

You're about to get nine new listeners.

Peace, man.

Thanks.

All right.

Well, everybody, that's the episode.

What do you think?

I'm redesigning the

studio.

Oh, that's about to fall.

And while I do it, I got my old backdrop right here.

This is my mask from Carnival in

Trinidad and Tobago.

Thank you very much.

God, I want to go to Andrew Schultz.

Thank you very much.

I want to go to Bernie Man.

I feel like I have a blast.

I was worried about becoming too famous.

So if Andrew Schultz can go,

damn, you know who I can can go.

Let's read some postcards.

Next week's episode, I have not decided yet.

It's either me in Guatemala.

Do I have a, I gotta save that for when I have a sheath underwear ad because, man, I had such a good time on, damn, I guess I got away.

No idea who next week is.

No idea who next week is.

Go check out Andrew's special life on Netflix right now.

Let's read a postcard.

If you want to send a postcard to me from around the world, please send it to 151 First Avenue,

number 49 new york new york 10003 this one is from james bond island

fang nanga thailand oh that's close phong nga thailand that is close but look that's what it says

really getting me in trouble here ari i had a postcard with lots of different money a few months ago After my last trip to India, Thailand, Abu Dhabi, Germany, and Ireland.

Damn, bro.

I was back in India.

A few months later, I was back in India for another month.

After I stopped in Thailand, France, and Amsterdam.

Dude, this guy fucking goes.

I love a long-term traveler.

I really do, where it's not just your vacation in one spot, then back.

Ah, you're going everywhere.

You know what happens when you go everywhere?

You stop being tied to where you came from.

That's what I find.

Maybe it's different for you.

You stop being tied from where you came from.

So instead of going, I'm here in Thailand, I'm from America.

Once you go from Thailand to Amsterdam, now your last stop was Thailand.

And so now you don't feel like you're missing America.

You just feel loose.

I meant to send this card from Thailand, but fell in love.

Oh,

been there, bro.

Travel love does not last.

I'll just tell you that right now.

You make out with this chick.

You're like, let's start a relationship.

It's all great during travel.

Oh, we share hostels really great together.

Oh, we could each spend $9 on a hostel bed or $15 for the single.

Let's get the $15.

We're saving money.

We're connecting.

And then you get home.

You're like, he doesn't pick up his socks off the fucking floor.

You don't have a job.

No job in Thailand.

No big deal.

No job in Chicago.

Disgusting.

I will keep going back for three months.

I will

going back for three months in January, staying in an apartment and traveling.

the rest of Southeast Asia.

Damn, I'm jealous of this guy.

Thailand is incredible.

Food, people, and everything.

I think Thailand is the star.

What's the word?

With food?

Culinary star of Southeast Asia.

Although Indonesia is pretty great, Myanmar blows.

I loved it, but the food, tea leaf salad, good, everything else.

And Mohinga.

Thailand's incredible food.

I felt more comfortable there than in France.

Yeah, of course, because less body odor.

If I had

more room, I would tell you about

my Thai love.

Oh, is it Thai chick or a Thai person?

By the way, can I just say Lady Boy is a whole other thing from trans?

And if you say you should say trans, you got to ask them.

Lady Boy's a different beast.

It's like unrelated.

I can't even explain it.

But I will know.

I will tell you that I tried to fuck one and I couldn't go through with it because I'm a bit of a homophobe.

This chick was fucking hot, dude.

There's no reason not to go through with it unless that dick got in the way and it did get in the way.

I didn't even see it.

It's a hot check.

I should have at least made out with her.

I got a beach.

I didn't have to see the dick.

Homophobe.

It's really disappointing.

I was a little skeptical after hearing all the things about these girls screaming.

But this girl got my name tattooed on her arm.

Her second tattoo ever.

Ooh, now I'm in trouble.

Safe travel.

Shape travels, Forest.

Thanks, Forest.

If you've got a letter, please send it to 151 First Avenue, Box 49, New York, New York, 10003.

Ooh, an Athens one.

November 9th, 2024.

From Nancy and Jimmy.

Go Ravens.

Nice ball more.

Did you see that guy on the University of Maryland?

Definitely travel.

Dare Queen.

I mean, definitely travel.

But the refs are not going to call it traveling situation.

Go Ravens.

Hey, love you, Ari.

Also, there's a little of a bump in there to begin with.

Thanks for the endless fun times.

Love, love, love.

Sending love from Greece.

Damn, it's even got a Greek stamp.

Surprised it got there.

Greece is one of the most crooked countries in the world that I've ever been to.

Romania is the most.

Here's another one.

Just some sort of Asian thing.

What does this say?

Traditional Shiruku.

I don't know.

This looks like Japan.

Yubi.

Yep, Japan.

Yeah, you can see from Nippon.

They sent it from Nippon.

Pretty cool.

Hey, Ari.

Love the podcast.

Listened to the Harlan Williams episode and decided to do my own around-the-world trip.

Oh, nice.

Japan rocks.

Very Asian.

Sri Lanka is next for warm weather.

Stay black, Eric.

I'm going to get that.

Thank you for the episode, Andrew Schultz.

Everyone, check out a special right now.

Go see me on tour.

I have almost nothing left.

My whole tour is almost over.

This week, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

The Moore Theater,

the Vogue in Vancouver.

The McEwen in Calgary, and then something in Edmonton.

I don't know.

But tickets are all available at rushford.com, as well as my storytelling show.

Only two shows left on sale.

The 10 o'clock on Monday, the 21st, and the 10 o'clock on Tuesday, April 22nd, and then Anchorage, Alaska on June 18th, and then I'm done.

So I might add one more show

before I leave, leave.

Yeah, anyway, we'll see.

No big deal.

Guys, subscribe wherever you're listening.

And that's it.

Next week's episode, maybe I'll do me in Guatemala.

That might be a good one.

No, but ah, shit.

Well, who else do we have?

Let me tell you who we got coming up here.

Afghanistan with Yoshi.

Yannis Papa, South Africa.

Ooh, Tommy Pope, Cuba.

Tom Papa, Beirut.

Same talent, France.

We did that one.

Jamaica, Italy, Greece,

Congo with Baldwin Bankrupt.

North Korea.

Ooh, that could be a good one.

Gagnon, the UAE.

Should I finish?

Should I keep going with Gagnon?

Gagnon?

A little flagrant too.

Kuwait.

Ooh, that's a good one.

With Nate, Joe Liss, and Louis Katz.

Carnival, I'll save that one.

London Carnival.

Save that one for when it happens.

Joshua, Mexico.

DeRosa, China.

I wait for his special.

Ellis, Germany.

James McCann, I'll wait.

Ian Sterling, Denmark, possibly.

Graham K, Spain.

Faheem Enroll, Europe.

Emma Wilma, Netherlands.

Earl Bernie,

New Zealand,

China, Laos, Stockholm, Switzerland, Japan with Chey Durain.

Guys, if you want the Japan episode, ask Trey Durainer when he's going to put out a special because I'm going to time it with that.

Ghana.

Damn, that was a good one.

Peru,

Israel, Melbourne,

Guatemala, that's me.

Thailand.

That's me also.

Another Ari Maddie episode.

And that's it.

I got to record a bunch more in May.

Guys, that's it.

Please subscribe wherever you're listening.

If you are

submitting to the trip around the world, please submit it.

I have to, now that I've gotten everything set with the storytelling show tapings, oh, the lineups are going to be great.

I'm going to get to it and pick out who it is.

Or I'll narrow it down to 10 or something like that.

All right, that's it, everybody.

Thank you very much for tuning in.

Until next week.

I don't know what they say on the playa,

but I'll see you out there.

Say yes, goodbye.