Andrew Schulz on Meeting Mark Gagnon, starting Comedy, and Untold Stories

Summary

Podcast Summary: Camp Gagnon Episode Featuring Andrew Schulz

Title: Andrew Schulz on Meeting Mark Gagnon, Starting Comedy, and Untold Stories
Release Date: April 24, 2025
Hosts: Mark Gagnon and Andrew Schulz

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1. Introduction and Setting the Stage

Mark Gagnon opens the episode by warmly introducing his guest, Andrew Schulz, highlighting their deep personal and professional relationship. Mark emphasizes the significance of this episode as a long-anticipated deep dive into their shared history in the comedy world.

Mark Gagnon [00:20]: "This episode is a long time coming and was really, really cool for me to sit down with someone that I respect and admire so much and just truly an awesome friend."

2. The Origin Story: How Mark and Andrew Met

The conversation shifts to the origins of their friendship and professional collaboration. Mark recounts his aspiration to open for Andrew at a comedy show, detailing how a chance meeting led to Mark joining Andrew's tour.

Mark's Perspective: Mark shares his journey from college to reaching out to Andrew, driven by admiration for Andrew's comedy style and success.

Mark Gagnon [25:33]: "In Orlando, I was far away, and I was just like, yo, can I edit? [...] And then I couldn't believe it. Like, this is insane."

Andrew's Perspective: Andrew humorously describes the planning and slight exaggeration of events leading to their collaboration, emphasizing the unpredictability and fun in their early days together.

Andrew Schultz [00:20]: "I'm gonna tell him to go to this burger joint, which I know is closed, and then we're gonna go to IHOP and talk about Hitler until three in the morning, and then he's gonna hire me and later get a haircut inspired by that conversation."

3. Early Tour Stories and Challenges

Mark and Andrew delve into memorable moments from their early tours, including unexpected incidents like a fan having a seizure during a show. They discuss how these experiences strengthened their bond and shaped their approach to comedy.

Andrew Schultz [29:35]: "There was a girl that passed out during Pedro's set. And then you walk on stage and start making fun of the fire department."

Mark Gagnon [29:42]: "And then there's a girl in the crowd that gets mad. She's like, I shouldn't make fun of the fire department."

4. Building the Podcast and Content Creation

The duo reflects on the evolution of their podcasting journey, from humble beginnings to producing engaging content that resonates with a broad audience. They emphasize their commitment to genuine, unfiltered discussions and the importance of community-building.

Mark Gagnon [09:36]: "We were in a stream where we were just, like, cooking, dude, you know? And I was like, oh, yeah, we're just hammered every single episode."

Andrew Schultz [37:14]: "I was like, yo, can I help out with, like, I can edit a little and I can, like, maybe help with, like, clips and stuff."

5. The Creative Process: Magic Tricks and Comedy

Exploring their creative dynamics, Mark discusses his background in magic and how it complements his stand-up comedy. They share anecdotes about incorporating magic into their acts and the challenges of balancing different performance styles.

Mark Gagnon [12:24]: "There's two sides to every story. There's the truth, then there's Hitler's bad. Very simple."

Andrew Schultz [17:15]: "I pulled out a 7 of hearts out of her vagina. What are the odds? Yeah, consensually. But it was crazy. That's how we do magic, bro."

6. Overcoming Obstacles and Growing Together

Mark and Andrew talk about the hurdles they faced, including logistical challenges on the road and technical issues with podcast equipment. They highlight how their teamwork and mutual support enabled them to navigate these obstacles successfully.

Andrew Schultz [48:03]: "We spent, I think, and this is... At the time, this was like, so much money, it's unbelievable. We bought a micless audio system. That was a huge mistake."

Mark Gagnon [109:25]: "I was like, hey, I'm a comic. Is there any way I can help in the writing team? And they were like, sure, we have like eight writers."

7. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The discussion shifts to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on their careers. They recount how the pandemic led to canceled shows and necessitated adaptations in their podcasting and stand-up routines.

Mark Gagnon [84:12]: "Covid happens and then all the shows are canceled."

Andrew Schultz [84:19]: "How awesome is it, though? Yeah. [...] But now, like, at that point, I was like, how am I gonna make another hour?"

8. Reflections on Media, Information Dissemination, and Responsibility

In a profound segment, Mark and Andrew discuss the role of podcasts and media in shaping public opinion and disseminating information. They express concerns about the commercialization of conspiracy theories and the responsibilities that come with a large audience.

Andrew Schultz [145:31]: "How do you get good ideas in front of people that might not be inclined to indulge in a point of view that is against their, like, innate underpinnings?"

Mark Gagnon [147:07]: "But you do hope that there's going to be a subset. They're going to be like, oh, actually, you know, I'm... I think this is a. This is an interesting idea."

9. The Power of Collaboration and Support Networks

Highlighting the importance of collaboration, Mark acknowledges Andrew's contributions and the critical role their network plays in their success. They discuss how having trusted partners and mentors like Ben Uyeda has been instrumental in their growth.

Mark Gagnon [175:26]: "But I saw the trajectory, and I was also making like, you weren't you."

Andrew Schultz [175:17]: "But I can't imagine doing it without you."

10. Future Directions and Concluding Thoughts

As the episode wraps up, Mark and Andrew share their visions for the future, contemplating the evolution of their podcast and stand-up careers. They reiterate their commitment to authentic communication and fostering meaningful conversations.

Mark Gagnon [184:24]: "It's a return to kind of like pre-printing press. Like how ideas would be shared in a square."

Andrew Schultz [186:55]: "But it actually was a testament. It's like, everybody's like, how, it's, who do you know and how do you do. No, it's just ask like every famous person we have on the podcast."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Andrew Schultz [00:20]: "I'm gonna tell him to go to this burger joint, which I know is closed, and then we're gonna go to IHOP and talk about Hitler until three in the morning, and then he's gonna hire me and later get a haircut inspired by that conversation."

• Mark Gagnon [25:33]: "In Orlando, I was far away, and I was just like, yo, can I edit? [...] And then I couldn't believe it. Like, this is insane."

• Andrew Schultz [145:31]: "How do you get good ideas in front of people that might not be inclined to indulge in a point of view that is against their, like, innate underpinnings?"

• Mark Gagnon [147:07]: "But you do hope that there's going to be a subset. They're going to be like, oh, actually, you know, I'm... I think this is a. This is an interesting idea."

---

Conclusion

This episode of Camp Gagnon offers an intimate look into the dynamic between Mark Gagnon and Andrew Schulz, exploring their shared history, creative processes, and the challenges they've overcome together in the comedy and podcasting arenas. Through candid conversations and humorous anecdotes, listeners gain valuable insights into the making of successful collaborative ventures and the importance of authentic communication in media.

Transcript

[Mark Gagnon]

You.

[Andrew Schultz]

And you didn't tell this story accurately. Miles told me that you planned to open for me and then work for me, that that was all part of your design.

[Mark Gagnon]

Of course. It's in the mind. You know what I mean?

[Andrew Schultz]

I'm gonna work for him. I'm gonna tell him to go to this burger joint, which I know is closed, and then we're gonna go to IHOP and talk about Hitler until three in the morning, and then he's gonna hire me and later get a haircut inspired by that conversation.

[Mark Gagnon]

Exactly. This guest needs no introduction. You probably know him as Andrew Schultz, but I know him as a brother, a friend, a mentor, and really guy that gave me, you know, my career in standup comedy. Typically, on this show, we deep dive onto weird, strange topics from around the world and the Internet. But today, Schultz has joined me in the tent to break down our story. The origin story of how we met in the first place, how I opened for him at a show where a woman had a seizure, how we became friends, how I started touring on the road with him. And we even go through some of the early tour stories. Some of the funniest moments of my entire life will be explained. Stories that have never been shared anywhere else. We even go through how we created a Netflix show together in the middle of a global pandemic while I was, like, 24 years old. This episode is a long time coming and was really, really cool for me to sit down with someone that I respect and admire so much and just truly an awesome friend. And we had an absolutely amazing time, and I really hope you guys enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed having it. So without further ado, sit back, relax, and welcome to camp. What's up, people? And welcome back to camp. Welcome to my tent. My name is Mark Gagnon, and this is a show where we explore the most interesting, controversial, and terrifying theories from around the world. And today, I've been accompanied by a dear friend, a mentor, an og, a legend not only in the comedy, but also the business and Pedel space. My dear friend, Andrew Schultz. How are you, sir?

[Andrew Schultz]

Hello, Mark. How are you?

[Mark Gagnon]

Thank you so much for joining me, dude.

[Andrew Schultz]

Thanks for having me.

[Mark Gagnon]

It's been a long time coming.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, I'm excited.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

I can't believe it's been so long for you to invite me on the podcast for real. To force you to be invited onto the podcast on.

[Mark Gagnon]

If you want to know the honest thing. Yeah, you've done enough. Truly, you've done enough. I genuinely felt, like, guilt. I Was like, don't.

[Andrew Schultz]

Don't you end up being the hero here? I tried to be the good guy.

[Mark Gagnon]

No, no, no, no, no. I'm the good guy.

[Andrew Schultz]

And now you're the good guy.

[Mark Gagnon]

Actually, I'm the good guy.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay.

[Mark Gagnon]

I don't know if you knew this about me, but I'm actually the good guy.

[Andrew Schultz]

I did every podcast. You couldn't open your phone without seeing my annoying face.

[Mark Gagnon]

Is that why you were doing all the podcasts?

[Andrew Schultz]

Poor people? To have more money? That's what it was.

[Mark Gagnon]

This is all been a ruse.

[Andrew Schultz]

And then I'm waiting. I'm doing every pod. I'm like, maybe Mark will ask you. Maybe Mark will ask me. And then you refuse ass. So I go, yo, when am I doing camp? I think I asked Tanya. I'm look to the campers know about Tanya.

[Mark Gagnon]

No, I've tried to keep her away from all the good people on the show. I'll be honest. But I do want to apologize for everyone that's been on TikTok in the last month.

[Andrew Schultz]

Wait, why?

[Mark Gagnon]

Because they've just seen you nonstop and I didn't realize that if I had just invited you on that they could have been alleviated of all that stress. Yeah, I know. My bad, dude.

[Andrew Schultz]

So Hitler is misunderstood. You kept on saying, let's talk about how Hitler's misunderstood.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's not what I said. That's not what I said.

[Andrew Schultz]

You're like, there's some really cool information out there.

[Mark Gagnon]

There's two sides to every story.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[Mark Gagnon]

There's the truth, then there's Hitler's bad. Very simple.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay, okay. So is that our topic today?

[Mark Gagnon]

No, no, no, no.

[Andrew Schultz]

What was our topic today?

[Mark Gagnon]

Well, I had asked. I said, what do you want to talk.

[Andrew Schultz]

Don't put this on me.

[Mark Gagnon]

No, no. I said, what do you want?

[Andrew Schultz]

I knew Mark was going to do this. I was like, I'm. I say you pick the topic. I knew he was going to pick the most boring topic. I go, you. You have this big thing with Hitler. You have this big thing with autism. You have all these big things with autism.

[Mark Gagnon]

Actually, write that down. That's a good episode.

[Andrew Schultz]

Is he into it?

[Mark Gagnon]

He had it. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Allegedly.

[Mark Gagnon]

Allegedly.

[Andrew Schultz]

No way.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

No way.

[Mark Gagnon]

They love trains. Yeah. That's like. What is more autistic than that?

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay, I guess you're right.

[Mark Gagnon]

But you had said, oh, let's talk about corporate.

[Andrew Schultz]

I mean, walking like that is pretty fucking autistic.

[Mark Gagnon]

The biggest.

[Andrew Schultz]

Evan.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Can we get. Can we get a Google Hitler Goose stepping.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Or Just Google the kid from Love on the Spectrum seeing Jack Black because he hits a goose step like you've never seen in your life.

[Mark Gagnon]

He was fired up. I would do that for Jack Black, though.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Shout out Jack Black for doing that.

[Mark Gagnon]

You see Shallow how? You're not going to go crazy a little bit.

[Andrew Schultz]

What a great movie.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, right?

[Andrew Schultz]

What a great, great movie.

[Mark Gagnon]

All time. But you said.

[Andrew Schultz]

Would you want that?

[Mark Gagnon]

What? Shallow how?

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, the thing about Shallow how. That's interesting. Does. Does everybody know the film?

[Mark Gagnon]

I can explain it.

[Andrew Schultz]

Can you let me go with you? That's the topic. That is the topic. No, you find fat girls pretty.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Right. And. But here's the thing. It doesn't take into account that everybody. Everybody else finds them fat. Right. So, like, eventually, are you worried about what other people think?

[Mark Gagnon]

I guess. You. You wouldn't be because you see them as beautiful and so you just don't even care. And then people tell you they're like, oh, she's fat. You're like, no, she's not.

[Andrew Schultz]

I forget that you've only been with your wife and, like, this is a horrible.

[Mark Gagnon]

But I'm Shallow Hal in real life because she got pregnant and I was like, hey, you're still beautiful.

[Andrew Schultz]

Wow.

[Mark Gagnon]

And everyone else was like, dude, she's a fat whale. And I was like, no, she's beautiful, actually. You know what I mean? But that's the beauty of the film. It's actually about a man going through pregnancy. Not a lot of people know. It's an allegory for that.

[Andrew Schultz]

Didn't you find your wife beautiful when she was pregnant?

[Mark Gagnon]

More so up to what month?

[Andrew Schultz]

At one month were you, like. All right, did you. Did you. Can I ask you about having sex with your wife?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Did. Did you guys have sex all the way through, like, all 10 months?

[Mark Gagnon]

No. I mean, what does that mean? They're all 10 months. Like, no.

[Andrew Schultz]

What month were you like, we can't.

[Mark Gagnon]

Really do this once, like. Because it's not that it stops. Is that positions get filtered away.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

You know what I mean?

[Andrew Schultz]

How many were you doing?

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, you hit the normal routine.

[Andrew Schultz]

What do you got?

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, you go like, just.

[Andrew Schultz]

What do you start at?

[Mark Gagnon]

Regular mish.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, you don't start from the back.

[Mark Gagnon]

Reverse. That's a ending. That's an ender. What are you talking. How are you going to stand and not just bust immediately? It's obviously an end. That's a finisher, dude. Okay.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Play Mortal Kombat.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. You can't hit the crossroads immediately.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Of course not, dude.

[Andrew Schultz]

If you're gonna do the wrestling fans.

[Mark Gagnon]

Now, you do the pedigree at the end. Everyone knows this. But no. So you start with mish. Okay. Because it's respectful. Yeah. You know, face to face. There's some intimacy to it.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Never start. Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But much my wife's chagrin, you start mish, and then you move on to, like, side saddle. You know what I mean?

[Andrew Schultz]

Side is crazy.

[Mark Gagnon]

Why. Why is that crazy? Basically back without the effort.

[Andrew Schultz]

I feel like I got, like, only a quarter of my meat in it on the side. You gotta find the right.

[Mark Gagnon]

Well, this is the thing I don't like. I feel like my penis is like a. Like an American girl doll.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay?

[Mark Gagnon]

So, like, if it's. If it's. Kids touch it and. Okay, we're gonna cut up and we're back.

[Andrew Schultz]

And we're back in Hitler if.

[Mark Gagnon]

No, no, no, no, no. We can't go all the way back.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay?

[Mark Gagnon]

So if you go. If my penis is up, then I'm good. And I got. I have. I have stamina.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay.

[Mark Gagnon]

But the second it goes horizontal, why? I don't know. Don't you dare point that.

[Andrew Schultz]

What do you mean?

[Mark Gagnon]

No, no, no. Wow.

[Andrew Schultz]

There's so much power.

[Mark Gagnon]

Don't. Don't do that.

[Andrew Schultz]

Can you even show this on YouTube?

[Mark Gagnon]

I actually, I don't. We had a guest that was flaunting it. Oh, no, we had fathead, a Chinese gangster, and he came in and he was waving it around just the whole time, like, talking, holding it to his own head, putting his mouth.

[Andrew Schultz]

YouTube Flag it or something. Wow.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Cool.

[Mark Gagnon]

But as soon as my penis goes horizontal, then it's just game over, Meaning you.

[Andrew Schultz]

Orgasm.

[Mark Gagnon]

Ah. So the. The position has to get progressively. It's like a clock. It's gotta wait to get down so.

[Andrew Schultz]

Vertical, you can have more stamina.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Does everyone. Not like this?

[Andrew Schultz]

I never accounted for that at all.

[Mark Gagnon]

Because I think the. The muscles tighten.

[Andrew Schultz]

You're saying there's more, like, top pressure. Oh, you got a sensitive head because you're not served.

[Mark Gagnon]

Also that.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. My shit's been rubbing on Levi's for 40 years, so of course I don't feel anything. Honestly, I think sensitive part of my dick is the bottom real.

[Mark Gagnon]

Your dick's like the Grand Canyon. It's been eroded away for real. Thousands of years.

[Andrew Schultz]

You ever seen, like, a weightlifter's, like, dick dick?

[Mark Gagnon]

I have. Can we Google a weightlifter's dick actually, while we have it? This would be good. Ronnie Coleman's got a face on him. Not a lot of people know that his dick has traps, I'm pretty sure.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay, listen. Okay, so what boring ass topic did you suggest for me?

[Mark Gagnon]

All righty. Don't skip forward, gu. I am on the road. World's fastest ad read coming at you. I'm going to be in Bangor, Maine, Portland, Maine, Charleston, South Carolina, Atlanta, Strsburg, Hoboken, Indianapolis, Buffalo, Raleigh, Poughkeepsie, Portland, Oregon, Fort Worth, Texas, Austin, Texas, Stanford, Philly, Levittown, Chandler, Arizona, San Diego. I'm also going to be adding Toronto, Montreal, as well as Washington, D.C. and a bunch of other dates. You can get all that@the markagnon.com dates are in the description. Also in probably the comments of this episode. Go see me on the road. Come hang out. I'll be hanging out with everyone after the show. Come shake my hand, call me an idiot, whatever you want to do, I will be there. Additionally, I will be doing my one hour of standup comedy. I'm very proud of this hour. I'm really excited to share with you guys, and it would mean the world if everyone could come on out. And what do you wear to a show on the road? That's a great question. You can go to campgoods Co. That's right. We got merch. We got camp merch. We got hats, hoodies, T shirts. A lot of stuff is out of stock. Things have been selling like hotcakes. But we're going to be restocking everything in all the sizes. So you can go there right now, get all the merch, get all the coolest clothing in the podcast game. We're going to be updating that site regularly. And if you come out to a show, I'd love to see you sporting some of the threads that we got up online. I'll see you guys there. Let's get back to the show. Speaking of Chablis, I was going back through, like, flagrant episodes.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, God.

[Mark Gagnon]

And I was like, dude, like, we were in a. We were in a stream where we were just, like, cooking, dude, you know? And I was like, oh, yeah, we're just hammered every single episode. Like, in the summer. It's just so fun. What was it? We're like, yeah, we're blackout drunk.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. We would get drunk for five months out of. It was wild, huh? That's the thing we got to work on.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, dude, Miami was so crazy. Yeah, we were shitfaced.

[Andrew Schultz]

Should we, I mean, bring that back? At what point is it just, like a sacrifice that you make? It's like working in a coal mine.

[Mark Gagnon]

You know, I mean, it's not a sacrifice we make. Sacrifice? Our wives and family and children. They make the sacrifice.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yes, they do. Have you seen your kid today?

[Mark Gagnon]

Not my kid, no. No, I. No, I saw him briefly. I take him for his nightly walk.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. I love your schedule with your kid. It's phenomenal.

[Mark Gagnon]

That part is nice. And then you get to like, show them off. Yeah. I feel like I'm normalizing fatherhood. I'm trying my best. I'm like, yeah, just have a kid. It's great to walk around. It is the best in the morning time. It's really morning. And right before bed.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then you just walk around with them.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Gotta have that you time with the baby.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, that's the best.

[Andrew Schultz]

That is the best. But then again, you know, you want. Your wife wants to hang out too.

[Mark Gagnon]

A bath time is where I shine.

[Andrew Schultz]

My wife be stealing all my jokes from the baby.

[Mark Gagnon]

Really? Does she have your delivery?

[Andrew Schultz]

No, but like, little tricks I do, she tries to do. And I'll come home and she's doing it with them and I'm like, like, what?

[Mark Gagnon]

What's what?

[Andrew Schultz]

I don't wanna, you know, I don't want to have to, you know, give away all my tricks here.

[Mark Gagnon]

No, everyone's gonna be taking them. Yeah, everyone's watched.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, I'm trying to think. I don't even what Noah would call it. Oh, this was like an old, like, movie with the Hulk. But remember when he was like running and then when he would jump, he would jump like states.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Do you remember that scene from an old movie? Does that reference make sense? Maybe you can bring it up, Gabe, and do something. You know, let's see what he looked up. Google. Yeah. Hulk jumping states. Yes. So that's what I do. I grab my kid by the arms and then I tell her to run as fast as possible and then I jumper and then she starts shopping. You're not paying for YouTube Premium.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, we're on a budget here, Gabe. Yeah, yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

You guys have the most stunning podcast studio in history. There's a lot of like, eagle. I'm not trying to make it. I'm not trying to make this about your boy, but there's like a lot of.

[Mark Gagnon]

What do you mean, not my boy? This. I don't want American eagles. American.

[Andrew Schultz]

I agree. The bald eagle is.

[Mark Gagnon]

But the eagles that you have here is predominantly American. That's an American thing. Welcome home. I think, I hope is American. I hope to God. And then everything, everything else is I mean, Houdini American. Well, here's a Hulk jumping over many states.

[Andrew Schultz]

Have you. Have you when you were a kid and you got into magic? Yeah, because you and I both got into magic as kids. Did you buy the. The thing that taught you, like, the secret breaker for magic?

[Mark Gagnon]

I bought a few different ones.

[Andrew Schultz]

Do you know that there was, like, a video? It was like, a.

[Mark Gagnon]

The Masked Magician.

[Andrew Schultz]

I don't know if it was a masked magician. Maybe it was, but it was like, you could buy it. They were doing ads online or something like that, and they would tell you all the tricks and how it worked.

[Mark Gagnon]

I don't know this one specifically.

[Andrew Schultz]

How'd you learn the tricks, then?

[Mark Gagnon]

My brother had a whole chest of dozens of tricks, and then he taught me a bunch.

[Andrew Schultz]

What was the first trick you learned?

[Mark Gagnon]

I think the very first one is the multiplying bunnies. What, you never heard this?

[Andrew Schultz]

No.

[Mark Gagnon]

You take one bunny, it's like, made us, like, sponge.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, yeah. And you can, like, put them in.

[Mark Gagnon]

Your hands, crush it, and then you move it, and there's a bunch of bunnies. Yeah, that was the first one.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay.

[Mark Gagnon]

There's, like, a little sex joke in there. I was a kid. I was like, what was the sex joke? It was like, yeah, you know, bunnies, like, they love to make babies, you know, and then it's fire. That was fire. What was the first trick you learned?

[Andrew Schultz]

I don't remember, but I remember learning it and then going, holy, this is so cool. You can kind of command attention, but not in an annoying way, because every time you give the. You show somebody the trick, it's like, the coolest thing that they've seen. Why does magic have, like, such a weird. It's like, if you're not one of the best magicians, you're a nerd. What is that about? Yeah, because we all love it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, It's.

[Andrew Schultz]

It's without a doubt, really cool.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Anytime someone goes, I know a magic trick, we want to learn about the magic trick. So why does magic have this, like, rollerblades? Perception.

[Mark Gagnon]

I think it's kids. Kids have, like, a disorder, benefit from magic. Because kids learn magic, then they get power over adults.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

So, like, as a kid, you're like, hey, look at this trick. You command all this attention, and then you can actually impress adults. Or, like, all right, we'll do it again. You know what I mean? Like, adults would give you a little.

[Andrew Schultz]

They take you seriously. It's like one of the first times in your life.

[Mark Gagnon]

First time ever, because you don't know, you don't know any jokes you, like. You can do, like, clever, like.

[Andrew Schultz]

And your thoughts, they've already had, like, there's nothing relevant. You feel like they're patronizing you a little bit.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. 100.

[Andrew Schultz]

And then you do a magic trick, and they are genuinely interested. And then we feel that primarily.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

On some level.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then I think as you get older, you're like, oh, yeah, magic, that's like kid stuff, because I think kids have such an affinity for it because it gives them power over adults. And so then I think a lot of people that grow up, they're like, yeah, I've been doing magic style as a kid. And then as a result, they have, like, this sort of infantile, I don't know, corniness to their whole shtick.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

You know, wearing a vest, you know, you're dressed like a waiter to do magic.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. It is cool when someone's like, once. Once someone calls themselves a magician. They're not cool unless they are the best magician.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

But knowing a magic trick or two, like, if you're like an uncle or a grandpa, you know a magic trick or two, and it's good, and you don't tell anybody the trick. That's a. That's a party stopper.

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean. I mean, you saw. You saw what I did.

[Andrew Schultz]

Show these girls were going.

[Mark Gagnon]

You saw. You saw what I did.

[Andrew Schultz]

Got out the pool. The missing child is Lucia Blix, 9 years old. Please let her come back home safely. Thursdays. The kidnappers plumbed it meticulously. If money is what it takes to get her back, we're gonna pay it.

[Mark Gagnon]

The secrets they hide.

[Andrew Schultz]

You can't talk about this. You can't write about it. Are the clues.

[Mark Gagnon]

The mother's hiding something.

[Andrew Schultz]

I know it. To find her, tell me where she is. The stolen girl. New episodes Thursdays stream on Hulu.

[Mark Gagnon]

Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from EBGLIS. After an initial dosing phase of 16 weeks, about 4 in 10 people taking EVGLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin. And most of those people maintain skin.

[Andrew Schultz]

That'S still more clear.

[Mark Gagnon]

At one year, with monthly dosing, a.

[Andrew Schultz]

250 milligram per 2 milliliter injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to ebglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe.

[Mark Gagnon]

Eye problems can occur.

[Andrew Schultz]

Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglis. Before starting Epglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection searching for real relief.

[Mark Gagnon]

Ask your doctor about eglis and visit.

[Andrew Schultz]

Ebglis.Lilly.Com or call 1-800-LilyRx or 1-800-545-597. A wetter.

[Mark Gagnon]

Come on. Yeah. How was that possible?

[Andrew Schultz]

It was. Bring it up, Gabe. Bring up Mark Gagnon's fraternity video.

[Mark Gagnon]

He doesn't have access to those phones. Those are on a secret database.

[Andrew Schultz]

Did you have to make them private?

[Mark Gagnon]

I did. I moved them all to a separate YouTube. YouTube account.

[Andrew Schultz]

All the brothers asked. They were like, listen, we're doing things now. We can't have this out there.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Because at the time, it must have been the coolest video.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, they loved it. And they were showing everyone. Then the second they got real jobs, they're like, hey, I work for the DoD. Can you actually not share this? If you guys aren't familiar, I made a video when I was in college. It's actually available on the flagrant Patreon right now.

[Andrew Schultz]

No, you were gonna show it.

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, I was on Patreon. I mean, we can't show it show. But we showed it on Patreon. And in the video, serendipitously, I just happened to perform a magic.

[Andrew Schultz]

Mark edited the whole video.

[Mark Gagnon]

Look, so I.

[Andrew Schultz]

But he left him.

[Mark Gagnon]

I had a hand in some of the editing.

[Andrew Schultz]

The girl went crazy, and she was going buck wild.

[Mark Gagnon]

Dude, I pulled out a 7 of hearts out of her vagina. What are the odds? Yeah, consensually. But it was crazy. That's how we do magic, bro. I'm telling you, it is a showstopper. You do it at a party and everyone.

[Andrew Schultz]

Why'd you stop?

[Mark Gagnon]

Well, I got married.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, you chose comedy, but, like, why'd you stop doing magic?

[Mark Gagnon]

They're really good at. I was never really good, okay?

[Andrew Schultz]

I was like, public perception.

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, it's just like, you get older.

[Andrew Schultz]

Can't be a virgin and a magician.

[Mark Gagnon]

It's a tough seller.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, yeah. Like, you could be like, what's the guy's name? Not David Blaine, but is David Anthony. No, David Blaine. Yeah, you could be David Blaine. And because those guys occupy the same space and there's no disrespect to Anthony Bourdain, but, like, there's a similar, like, affect to both of them. Oh, yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like a mysterious sort of sad boy.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. And, like, are you white? And then. But I. But, like, yeah, he was getting tons of pussy, so we were, like, cool with it.

[Mark Gagnon]

You want a magician that looks like they discovered magic in their 20s. You know what I mean? You want to look like he just, like, picked it up later and then has the vibe. Like, this is not a guy that was doing magic as a child, even though he was. Yeah. But he has the energy, like. Yeah, I just kind of got into this, like, in my late. After, like, I relapsed, you know, I went to rehab, and now I do magic.

[Andrew Schultz]

Also doing street. The street angle is great. Yeah, yeah. The whole spectacle with the tigers, it's a little.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, it's too much.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But the second you're able to be, like, the Christopher Columbus of magic, you're like, hey, I'm going to show this to black people. I mean, like, you, like, you create a whole new land. You change magic forever.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, it was phenomenal.

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, we really do need to pay for YouTube Premium, by the way.

[Andrew Schultz]

This is crazy.

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, it's just. It's insane.

[Andrew Schultz]

Crazy. Just use my account.

[Mark Gagnon]

Use.

[Andrew Schultz]

Use the flagrant.

[Mark Gagnon]

Be something. Right?

[Andrew Schultz]

All right, but pretend.

[Mark Gagnon]

Bet.

[Andrew Schultz]

Would you bet hearts here or hearts here? Or could I impress you? If the heart was on top, diamond was on bottom. The heart's on top. Come on.

[Mark Gagnon]

Turn your hand over.

[Andrew Schultz]

Go ahead.

[Mark Gagnon]

Turn your hand over.

[Andrew Schultz]

He's shaking his head. Clown. You understand me?

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, unreal. Legit change magic. Yeah, I. I'm a little embarrassed.

[Andrew Schultz]

Is that what it is? Is that what made magic cool?

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, I think so, yeah. Like, bringing it out of, like, this, like, you know, elitist, little, you know.

[Andrew Schultz]

Nerdy, like, dungeon and black box theater.

[Mark Gagnon]

With, like, your, you know, suit to making it on the street with real people. 100.

[Andrew Schultz]

That's fire.

[Mark Gagnon]

I am embarrassed to admit that I was a big fan of Criss angel as a child.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah? Why?

[Mark Gagnon]

I. I think I just thought he was the devil, and I think I was like, this is how I'm gonna rebel against I live.

[Andrew Schultz]

That was where I thought I was like, do they know your mom on the show?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you gotta have.

[Andrew Schultz]

Have you done an episode with her?

[Mark Gagnon]

No, I have not, but I don't know if they can handle it. There'd be a lot of edits on that one. Christos would be working overtime.

[Andrew Schultz]

Christos. Leave it in. I mean, Amanda.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, yeah. But she thinks Chris angel is an actual sorcerer. I told you that.

[Andrew Schultz]

I. I subscribe to that.

[Mark Gagnon]

And you can see it.

[Andrew Schultz]

I could see it, yeah. I mean, yeah. I always thought he was weird. I didn't like it. It felt forced, you know, Like David is. Is. We should have him on the pod.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, 100.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. David is. Yeah. Look at that. With the hair. He looks like the Mary Kate and eight plus eight or something. What's that show called? Something eight.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like K plus eight.

[Andrew Schultz]

K plus eight.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, yeah. No, she. He's got pageant mom here for sure.

[Andrew Schultz]

What happens in Vegas with these, with these guys, like, where they just become this kind of this, like, caricature of themselves.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

You saw it happen to Toolbot. What's his name? Toolbox?

[Mark Gagnon]

Carrot Top?

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Carrot Top. Who, who I hear, by the way, his show is absolutely phenomenal.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Everyone I know that's ever gone to is like, yeah, he's the best. And he's also a nice guy.

[Andrew Schultz]

They say it. It's kind of funny. They say it as if, like they're exclaiming something that nobody else knows, even though his show's been sold out in Vegas for two decades. But they're like, it was incredible. Y. Basically saying, I thought it was going to be horrible. I went there to just kind of laugh at him. And then it was. It was amazing. Yeah, but. But yeah, and he's kind of gotten all the surgery and all that kind of stuff. Like, I expect that in la. I expect that maybe in like Miami a little bit in New York. But like, what is it about Vegas?

[Mark Gagnon]

I'm assuming the Vegas thing is that you get stuck in your own little bubble and you literally just go from hotel to show.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay.

[Mark Gagnon]

And that. I think you just exist in that. And you do long residencies where you never get out of that. That little, you know, routine.

[Andrew Schultz]

And then what happens?

[Mark Gagnon]

And so then you just get kind of like self preoccupied is what I'm. I'm assuming. And then you become the character yourself because you're like, I'm just existing within my own little box.

[Andrew Schultz]

But like, what specifically about the way that they look?

[Mark Gagnon]

That part I don't know.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, like the, the surgeries or even.

[Mark Gagnon]

I wonder if it's like, like Vegas showmanship, like things.

[Andrew Schultz]

Everybody's a showman, so it becomes more normalized.

[Mark Gagnon]

And also you're just trying to like, get bigger, like more Outrageous. You know, like, I think I'm assuming people are responding to, like, the campiness of it. No pun intended.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But like the sort of like the this, like, garish, like, almost drag element.

[Andrew Schultz]

And it's okay out there because you see it everywhere you go.

[Mark Gagnon]

I think that's just the point of the show. Like, people go to Vegas to go see crazy shit. And so you go see the show and you want it to be crazy. Then you, like, do it for a year and you're like, how do I make it crazier? How do I make my personal aspect more?

[Andrew Schultz]

That's true. There is no, like, regular one man show. Like, Mike Birbiglia is not doing one of his one man hours. Vegas.

[Mark Gagnon]

No. Yeah, I guess that's a thinking man show. You know what I mean?

[Andrew Schultz]

And you, you actually want to not. You want to watch the Cirque du Soleil.

[Mark Gagnon]

You want to see something insane.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And so I'm assuming these individual characters are like, okay, how do I like, either subconsciously or consciously, how do I, like, embellish my character even more and more and more and then they become just kind of a character of themselves.

[Andrew Schultz]

Whoa.

[Mark Gagnon]

But probably to the benefit of the show, I'm assuming that the show gets better and better and better because they get more outrageous. I mean, Carrot Top is Diesel. Have you seen him now?

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Can we get a picture of Carrot Tops in fully nude by.

[Andrew Schultz]

Bring up that one that. Where his balls are hanging out on his inst. Instagram. He had an Instagram where his balls were hanging out. Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

I'm going to pay for ads on his Instagram also. I didn't actually mean his full nude, but here, you can pull up one of these pictures. Yeah, pull up that one.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, he's shredded.

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, unreal shredded. I mean, all time legend. I feel like that's what I'm turning into slowly. That is as I'm. I'm trying to get in better shape and my hair is getting more unkempt. That's gonna be me in three years.

[Andrew Schultz]

Jesus, Martin. I wonder if it never. Like you've. You've seen that. That episode with. I think it was. Was it Conan on Conan with Norm and him?

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

I don't even know if he was on it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Norm's not on it. Board of Education.

[Andrew Schultz]

No, he's not on it. But the girl who's in the movies. Yeah, I think that killed him.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like that rollerblading joke.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Literally, like ended rollerblading forever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's Carrot Dog is me. If we never connected in Orlando, that's really what it is.

[Andrew Schultz]

Now there's somebody else. That's you. If we didn't. And we're not gonna bring them up because it would break their little hearts.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's actually. That's a fun story. I was actually wanting to talk about this. Okay, tell me the very first time we ever met.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, this was great.

[Mark Gagnon]

I was so terrified.

[Andrew Schultz]

Mark planned this meticulously.

[Mark Gagnon]

Don't do that.

[Andrew Schultz]

Does he not know? Have you not heard this story? Because I've heard the story from. I'll tell the Miles version, and you.

[Mark Gagnon]

Tell your version, but you just do it like Miles. Miles.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, yeah, I got that shout out. Miles, the legend. The camp legend.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, yeah. Let's get a Miles in the chat, if you guys don't mind.

[Andrew Schultz]

Miles.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, yeah. The chat's going crazy right now.

[Andrew Schultz]

Miles is a absolute saint. Miles can do no wrong.

[Mark Gagnon]

I will say Miles has gotten more into public infrastructure ever since. Ever since that window of time. I've known this guy almost 10 years, and he was just kind of like a regular college guy. In the past, like, three years, he's gotten very much into trains and stuff.

[Andrew Schultz]

He.

[Mark Gagnon]

He noticed this.

[Andrew Schultz]

Maybe I'm the only one biting his tongue with Buddha Judge. The second he started talking about was amazing. There's a moment on the episod episode where Mous goes, I really like trains. And then bu goes, I love trains. And then all of us went.

[Mark Gagnon]

Just pure, just raw, you know, just a moment of just two. Just two men just enjoying trains hanging. But my version of the story.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yes, you tell me your version.

[Mark Gagnon]

I just walked into a comedy club. They say, hey, you want to jump on stage? No, the version of the story. That's the truth.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

March 2019. I'm approaching graduation. You are going to Orlando to do a show. I had seen the Pyramid joke on YouTube maybe three months prior. And then I binge441, go through everything, and I was like, okay, I see what's going on. This is fire. It just touched on everything that I like. There was cultural comedy. It was smart, it was nuanced, and then just ultimately really funny and then available. Did all the things. So I was like, all right, that's pretty cool. So I started watching it, and then I was like, I would. If there's anyone I could open for, it'd be you. So I hit up Krista at the Orlando Improv. Now Funny Bone renamed, and I was like, hey, yeah, they changed the name.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, really? Funny Bone bought The Improv.

[Mark Gagnon]

I don't know what happened. I don't know if they, like, turned it over. So it happens. You do a couple theaters, you know, you start missing out. These things start missing out on a local club politics. But, yeah, that's what happened. So now it's a funny bone. But at the time it was improvised. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna ask my one favor to try to open for someone at the club. I texted Krista, I said, is there any way I can host? Any way at all? I'll do whatever. You get like one ask, like a year to, like, get in. Sometimes she'll just throw you up. And like, you.

[Andrew Schultz]

Were you already hosting or featuring at the club?

[Mark Gagnon]

Just hosting.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay.

[Mark Gagnon]

And like, she'll put you in rotation for random people on off nights, stuff like that. On a weekend, you'll get like a couple a year.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But you get like one ask. Maybe like two.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

I never asked. And I was like, hey, this is my one time. I really would love to host.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And she was like, I'll get back to you. A month goes by now. It's like five days before the show. She's like, I'm reaching out to their team. I don't know. There's this guy Alex media that's saying stuff. We don't know exactly what's going on. And then the day of the show, she goes, hey, you're gonna host. And I was like, that's crazy. And then she goes, congrats, Two sold out shows. And I was like, oh, I've never performed at the Improv. When it was sold out out, it was only off nights, like. And then it was like the weekends. But it would be like half full.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And I was like, that's crazy. So it was two. I was opening for this guy. I was coming to town. That was like blowing up. I was like, this is insane. And then on top of that. Sold out.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And so then I go, I'm sitting in the green room and I'm like, nervous as hell. I'm like, trying to dress before the show. I was like, I don't even. All my clothes are stupid. Like a New Yorker wouldn't. Wouldn't look at this and think it was cool. So I'm like, going through. I like, find like a Muhammad Ali shirt. I'm like, that's kind of cool. You know what I mean? I was like. I was like, I don't know. Boxing is. I don't like, he's black. I was like, I don't know, I was like, I'll just throw. Throw it on. And then I'm sitting in the green room, and then you and Alex come through. So tired.

[Andrew Schultz]

That's right. We drove down from Jacksonville maybe. Yeah. Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

I think the day before or day. The morning of.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And you guys just roll in suitcases the whole deal. And then you just, like, chill in the green room. And I just don't say a word. Just so nervous.

[Andrew Schultz]

Did you not say anything?

[Mark Gagnon]

I, like, I was like, we talk to you. It was like, sort of like host, headliner talk. It was like, yo, what's up? You're from there? Yeah, like, just, like, as. From my memory. It's just like, very brief, sort of like interstate yourself. And then show happens. The first show is just, like, normal, fine. I got off stage, and Pedro Lima, a great guy from Orlando, he's featuring. And then you turn to me and you go, funny stuff. And I was like, thanks, man. And then went out in the hallway, and I was like, let's go. I was, like, fired up. And then I didn't watch any of this.

[Andrew Schultz]

I feel bad. I feel bad.

[Mark Gagnon]

No, you watch.

[Andrew Schultz]

You watch.

[Mark Gagnon]

Of course. Of course you're not gonna throw out a. Of course you listened the whole thing all the way through.

[Andrew Schultz]

I'm just joking.

[Mark Gagnon]

I'm just joking. I'm just joking. But it was. At the time, it was great. It was.

[Andrew Schultz]

I. Dude, go on. I remember. Yes. I remember those moments, and it's Liar. No, I mean, I remember the moments where, like, you get a compliment from a comedian that's, like, doing clubs or whatever like that. It's just. You float on it for months.

[Mark Gagnon]

Prior to that, I did a show with Mark Normand at a comedy festival, and he complimented a joke, and I was like, this is crazy. Like, I listen to these guys.

[Andrew Schultz]

Do you remember you closed on, like, what your last joke was?

[Mark Gagnon]

No clue.

[Andrew Schultz]

Was it the rib joke?

[Mark Gagnon]

Joke. I don't even know if I was doing it then. I have no idea. I have no memory of that specifically.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

On the stage. The stage stuff I have no memory of. It was all the backstage that was like this. And then the second show, a girl passes out.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, had the seizure. Right.

[Mark Gagnon]

During Pedro's set. Yeah. And then you go and check on her, make sure she's okay.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And you just walked out there. I, like, went in and I was like, hey, there's a girl, like, having a medical thing. Like, just. You can just chill here. You, like, take off your Nike jacket. And you went out there and you make sure the girl's okay. And you're like, hey, are you okay? She's like, yeah, I'm fine. I'm a big fan. She, like, consoles you. She's like, yeah, it's fine, it's fine. I'm just gonna go. And she's like, I was out at Disney. I'm tired. Like, I just passed out. And then the fire department comes in.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then as the fire department's in there, you just walk on stage.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And I almost, like, grabbed you. I was like, no, no, don't go, don't go. Because I was like, he doesn't know. I was like, maybe he doesn't know that they're still here in the room. So I was like, no, no, no, don't go, don't go. And then you just walk on stage and you just start making fun of the fire department that was fire. And I was like, what is happening? Yeah. And then you start, like, just like teasing the girl a little. And she's laughing on the way out. She's like waving at you and. But she, like, almost doesn't want to go. But the fire department's like, no, no, we have to stabilize you. And she's like, no, no, let me stay. So she's having fun. And then there's a girl in the crowd that gets mad.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, that's right. Yeah, the girl that was. Yeah, yeah, I remember.

[Mark Gagnon]

The girl in the ground's like, you shouldn't make. You shouldn't make fun of the fire department.

[Andrew Schultz]

No, the girl, she was like, I shouldn't make fun of the curl past that.

[Mark Gagnon]

She's mad at the whole situation. She's like, don't make fun of the. Like, it's too sensitive. Da, da, da. And then you start roasting her and you go, what's your job? What do you do? She's like, I'm a nurse.

[Andrew Schultz]

And she didn't help.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then you were like, well, why didn't you help?

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

At this point, there's like a standing ovation five minutes into the set that hadn't even started. The lights are still on. Like, there's emergency medical professionals in the room.

[Andrew Schultz]

That was crazy.

[Mark Gagnon]

And it's a full on standing ovation where, like, you can see the video. It's on YouTube right here. We're gonna watch a six minute ad before it comes and.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, no, I'm gonna be so embarrassed. Okay. Thank God they're selling vacuums again.

[Mark Gagnon]

But, yeah, there's a full standard innovation. I'm filming it on my Phone. Just like, what is happening?

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then you get off stage and you're like, yeah, they're pretty good.

[Andrew Schultz]

I was like, what? I think I kept doing the set, right?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, no, you did a full.

[Andrew Schultz]

And then I went into the set. Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh, that's right. And this guy's name is. What's his name?

[Mark Gagnon]

Pedro Lima.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, I remember that. That's a tough position to be in in. Oh, wow. It's a 10 minute clip. We are putting out crazy. Go to the middle. Go to the middle of it. Oh, God. Listen, we're not meant to watch it. You guys can watch it on YouTube. Dude, that's crazy. That. That was. I. I connected these things. Yeah, yeah, but that was a wild. That was. But sometimes those. Those moments are. I think those moments are more fun. I mean that when. When we get into these, like when we're doing theaters and stuff and arenas, it's very hard to control thousands of people.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

But at a comedy club, when like something goes wrong, you can take 200, 400 people or whatever and you can kind of get them all on the same page.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, that's your perspective. At the time, my perspective was like, if you can control seven people at a coffee shop, like, you're killing.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

So the idea of 300 people at a comedy club and then just getting them all in the same wave to like, kind of make fun of the girl, that's being indignant. You know what I mean? I was like, this is the craziest thing.

[Andrew Schultz]

You wanna know something crazy? Yo, we went out to dinner after that. We went out to like a diner or something like that.

[Mark Gagnon]

This is other craziest moment in my life.

[Andrew Schultz]

And what did you start telling us about how Hitler was.

[Mark Gagnon]

No, no, that's not it.

[Andrew Schultz]

This is not it. No, that's not it.

[Mark Gagnon]

He's not it.

[Andrew Schultz]

Crazy conspiracy theories.

[Mark Gagnon]

He's misunderstood.

[Andrew Schultz]

He's worse. He's worse. He's worse than people think.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's what it is.

[Andrew Schultz]

But you were shooting. It was like, you were like, this is the moment. I gotta let these guys know I'm down. He just made fun of a dead at the show. I could talk about anything.

[Mark Gagnon]

We gotta stop it, dude.

[Andrew Schultz]

I had to level up.

[Mark Gagnon]

It was your fault. But like, it was.

[Andrew Schultz]

What did you say? You had some wild.

[Mark Gagnon]

Even that whole experience was crazy for me also because you were like, yeah, can you drive us the hotel? And I was like, oh, I get to drive in the hotel. This like, you know, I said, you.

[Andrew Schultz]

Want to get some food?

[Mark Gagnon]

Well, it evolved. Like, I don't think. I don't think you even realize how big it was for me. Like, I'm just like a local open micro.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay, go, go.

[Mark Gagnon]

Because you're like, yeah, just drive his hotel. And I was like, all right, Bet we get my Chrysler 300 that.

[Andrew Schultz]

No.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yes. 100. Yes, it was, bro. It was my Chrysler 300. 2010.

[Andrew Schultz]

There's no way Al got in a Chrysler 300 and didn't say something about.

[Mark Gagnon]

He said, can I drive? No, I'm driving.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay.

[Mark Gagnon]

We get in the Chrysler 300. This is the car that also always stalls out. So the whole time I'm driving, I'm.

[Andrew Schultz]

Just like, don't stall.

[Mark Gagnon]

Any minute this car is going to stall out, and I'm gonna have to restart it on the highway at any second and look like an absolute idiot. It. And so I'm in the car, and we put all the stuff in the bag, and I was like, all right, let's go to the hotel. And then you go, let's eat. And we went to one place that it was fire. It's this like a. It's like a Puerto Rican burger spot.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And I was like, okay, let's go there. And it was closed. And I was like, you it up.

[Andrew Schultz]

So what was open?

[Mark Gagnon]

Ihop.

[Andrew Schultz]

That's right. And then we sat at that, like, center table. It was like a long table they gave us.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

So we went. And we went to ihop, and then.

[Mark Gagnon]

We just talk conspiracies for a while. Yeah. But there was stuff even evolving in my mind that now obviously makes sense, but at the time made no sense.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, what? What?

[Mark Gagnon]

Cuz, like, I was with my wife, my girlfriend at the time.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And you were like, so, like, as a comic, you're in college. Like, you, you. You dating, you talking to girls. And I was like, well, I have one girlfriend that I've been with since high school, and now I'm in my senior year of college. And we've been together the whole time. Like, I could see us eventually getting married one day.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And you were like, what, are you guys having sex? I was like, nah, we don't really do that. I'm Catholic. And you're like, you're a virgin?

[Andrew Schultz]

No, I didn't judge it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, you didn't judge it. But you. You said Alex said that.

[Andrew Schultz]

Alex said that.

[Mark Gagnon]

Alex was, bro, you're a virgin? And I was like, like, yeah. I mean, kind of. Yeah. And then you made a comment. You're like, I. I always find these people. I Always. I, I collect. I, I. How do I always find people? Why do these people find like what is going on? And then Alex goes is like Akash. And I was like, who's a. It's like it was like completely oblivious. And then, and then, yeah, we just did that till three in the morning. And then Alex pointed to a guy randomly at ihop. He was like, I think that guy is aids. And I was like, what yo? He was like, yeah, that guy's do.

[Andrew Schultz]

That on the road. He thought he could like sense it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, he could smell. He's like a cat in the hospital. He's like, yeah, that guy's AIDS for sure. And he's like, I just have a feeling, dude. I don't know. And I was like, all right, the Holocaust. I was just, I was like, all right, we can, we can top that. I was like, whatever. That's not what we talked about. Okay? On the record. For real. We just talk conspiracies. And then we did that till like three in the morning. And then I dropped you guys off at the hotel and I was just like, hey dude, if there's anything I could do, like help. Yeah, like I'll just do whatever. Can I just give you my number?

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then you were like, yeah, sure. And I was like, you just give me your number. That's crazy.

[Andrew Schultz]

And then what happened?

[Mark Gagnon]

And I called you like, I think I texted you maybe like a couple days later. I was like, yo, thank you so much. The show was awesome. If there's any way I can help, I have some ideas. Maybe I could, you know, fill in here and there and then you're like, McDonald's meets the Minecraft universe with one of six collectibles and your choice of.

[Andrew Schultz]

A Big Mac or 10 piece McNuggets with spicy, spicy Nether Flame sauce.

[Mark Gagnon]

Now available with a Minecraft movie meal.

[Andrew Schultz]

At participating McDonald's for a limited time.

[Mark Gagnon]

A Minecraft movie only in theaters.

[Andrew Schultz]

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[Mark Gagnon]

Oh yeah, let's talk. And then we got on the phone, and I basically gave you the pitch where I was just like, hey, can I, like, help out with, like, I can edit a little and I can, like, maybe help with, like, clips and stuff. And I can also, like, I can help with merch. I can, like, I design them for my fraternity. So, like, if I get the merch, maybe I can, like, sell them on the road. And, you know, I can also maybe open this, maybe just host the show because it'll add consistency to the show. That was the part where I felt like I was stretching, where I was like, there's no way he's gonna go over this. I was like, dude, I didn't have.

[Andrew Schultz]

An opener at the time, huh?

[Mark Gagnon]

No.

[Andrew Schultz]

So I was just traveling with Alex and then whatever openers they had at the club.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's what I presume. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Wow.

[Mark Gagnon]

So I was like, all right. If I can, you know, maybe open it, might add some consistency to the show. You know, you don't have to worry about someone before. Yeah. And I was like, he's gonna see right through. He's gonna think this. He'd be like, no way. And then you're like, yeah, let's try for a few months.

[Andrew Schultz]

I didn't ask you to edit a clip or anything first or you weren't cutting some clips first.

[Mark Gagnon]

I think maybe it was like, all around the same time. I was like, let me do the merch, and I can bring it to the shows and I can help with the clips. And then da, da, da.

[Andrew Schultz]

How I remember it is like, you were cutting some clips, and then you were coming with us on the road. When did you come on the road? Next.

[Mark Gagnon]

Addison Improv.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, wow.

[Mark Gagnon]

Addison, Texas?

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

You guys went to Cleveland, and then the weekend after you guys went to Addison doesn't.

[Andrew Schultz]

And then you had something. You had to graduate or something, Right. Didn't you have to graduate? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you had to graduate. I remember that. And then you said you could come to New York.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And you would live in New York.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. I was like, for the summer, I'll go and I'll just do whatever you guys need. I'll just down to help and then.

[Andrew Schultz]

How'd you afford that?

[Mark Gagnon]

I lived on Joey Rinaldi's couch.

[Andrew Schultz]

No way.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. So he. I knew him from, like, another friend paying you deal. Yeah. I mean, that was like, the deal. I was like, hey, can I just do road stuff and I'll just get paid from the road? And then you were like, yeah, we'll do the road stuff, and then I'll also, like, throw you looks on the extra.

[Andrew Schultz]

I was like, okay.

[Mark Gagnon]

What? I was like, that's crazy. I was like, I just need the road money.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay. So you were cooking up clips, and you're obviously funny on stage, but you were, like, savvy with the stuff. I think from our conversations, I must have known. But you said something funny. I don't know where it was. I don't know if it was in Orlando.

[Mark Gagnon]

It was in Addison.

[Andrew Schultz]

You remember it 100. Yeah. I remember the moment because I was.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, oh, I made them laugh.

[Andrew Schultz]

I remember it. I remember it. Like, I had a feeling you were, like, clever, but you weren't shoot yet. And then we were driving on the highway, and there was a car that pulled up, and it was missing a bumper, and it was missing, like, a side panel. And then, like, there was, like, duct tape on one of the windows. And I was. I look over like, damn, that car's up. And then you were like. You're like, virgil made it or something. You were like. It was, like, off white. Like, it was an off white reference. And this is when off white was, like, popping. And there was the deconstructed.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Was it Jordans? It was that Jordan.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, the air Max. All this.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember you saying that. I was like, oh. I was like, that's kind of funny, like, to just think of that in the moment. Like, whoa.

[Mark Gagnon]

Alex gave it a T. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And I was like, no, you got, like, a big laugh, like. And it wasn't even like, a. I think the laugh wasn't even. I was like, oh, wow. Okay.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's how I felt. I was like, oh, okay. I guess that was.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, I remember that. And I was like, oh, wow. Okay. And then obviously, I was seeing, you know, the standup I thought was funny. I must have, like, thought you were funny. I wouldn't take somebody on the road if I didn't, like, watch and think. You were good. Good. But I remember you saying that and, like, having, like, these funny, like, quips with us. And I was like, oh, he's funny. And then you understood the game. You definitely understood the game, especially the way that we were playing it. Like, this is early on when, like, I was, like, at the Cellar, trying to convince comics and put things up on social media, and they're telling me, like, oh, you just gotta go do Jimmy Kimmel or something. I'm just like, where does he put it?

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, that's another part of the story. That's so funny that you. I reposted something that you had on Instagram, and I was like, yo, I think Schultz changed the game with, like, the. His whole release strategy. I think YouTube is a move. Da, da, da. And I put it on my story. And then you reposted it. And I was like, oh, that's crazy. I think I messaged you. I DM'd you. I was like, hey, man, if you need any help, let me know. And then I don't think you read it. And then when I. When I actually went on the road with you guys, I deleted those messages. I was like, oh, I don't want to. It's gonna be so corny. He's gonna be like, oh, this guy's so thirsty. So I just deleted him.

[Andrew Schultz]

That's so funny.

[Mark Gagnon]

But I saw the trajectory, and I was also making like, you weren't you.

[Andrew Schultz]

Working with Sam or something? And Joe or something.

[Mark Gagnon]

Joe Mackie and Phil Hanley.

[Andrew Schultz]

Phil Hanley, that's right.

[Mark Gagnon]

So I met Sam at a comedy festival, like, the summer before.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, God.

[Mark Gagnon]

And I was just like, hey, I. I was, like, listening to pod. I was like, joke's on you.

[Andrew Schultz]

Up, guys. Up. Big time. Most talented people in comedy you had right under your fingertips.

[Mark Gagnon]

I was in Orlando. I was far away, and I was just like, yo, can I edit?

[Andrew Schultz]

You were, like, editing their pot or something?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, I was like, can I help with the ball?

[Andrew Schultz]

But they didn't see it.

[Mark Gagnon]

I was also distant. I was, like, still in college and stuff now.

[Andrew Schultz]

You gotta see it, dude. I mean, listen, I give myself credit for a lot, but one thing I'll definitely give myself credit for, if you're talented, I can see it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, I saw it quick.

[Mark Gagnon]

I was like, oh, yeah, you plucked up shifty from Home Depot.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yep, got shifty. But you quick. Yeah, you quick. Shifty. Quick. Alex, too. He was just, like, so eager. And, like, even though he couldn't do it yet, like, I knew he would teach himself how to do it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

You know, like, when he first started, it was, like, really rough, but I. But I was like, ah, he just wants it bad.

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, even thinking about the early days of the content you guys were doing even before I joined, now that I'm a little bit in that sort of, like, lane where I'm like, okay, you got to do POD during the day, Then you got to cut stand up at night. Da, da da. I'm, like, talking to these guys. I'm like, yeah. I don't know how Alex did it, bro.

[Andrew Schultz]

There was A time. This is actually crazy.

[Mark Gagnon]

What's up guys? We're going to take a break really quick because I want to talk to you about the most discreet, coolest way to curb your nicotine craving. Cravings. And that's right here with Zipix. You've probably seen me chomping on a couple of these toothpicks during the episodes of this podcast. I like to use a little bit of nicotine when I'm locking in on a long term conversation with someone, trying to figure out the, you know, deep meanings of life and aliens or even consciousness. I also like it when I'm trying to write. Sometimes right before I go on stage, I find that it just gives me a little bit more of a locked in feeling. I can focus for a little bit longer. There's even been some studies to show that nicotine has improved aspects of fine motor skills, attention and auditory processing and memory. So if you're trying to lock in for a little project you have, you just need a little boost. A little bit of nicotine is great. And these are great if you're trying to quit smoking too. If you don't want to fill your lungs up with smoke, but you still like the little nicotine feel, they have a bunch of great flavors. They also have 2 milligram and 3 milligram options. Zipix toothpicks are great for flights, little sporting event, or even just hanging out with the boys, having a couple drinks. Zipix has helped hundreds of thousands of customers get their nicotine fix without needing to enhance nail smoke or vapes or any of that stuff. So if you're interested, go to Zipix. That's Z I P p I x toothpicks.com and the listeners of this program will get 10 off their first order by using the promo code GAGNON. That's right. G a g n o n. Get 10 off. I also should let you know that you have to be 21 years old or older to order. Also, nicotine is an addictive chemical, so please use it wisely. Only as much as you need. Now let's get back to the show.

[Andrew Schultz]

When you first started. I don't know if you were working with this at this time, but there was a time where I, I remember I, I stopped working at MTV or something like that. I, oh, I got asked to do one, like, asked to do like a show on Vice or something like audition for a show on Vice and I was like, this is my last time doing some for tv. Like I had known it was done. I, I kn but it I got an opportunity. This is the time Vice was. Was, like, falling off. But it was, you know, D. Zemero was popping on Vice. So it was like, okay, they're still kind of cool D. Zemero left, but they're looking for someone to kind of replace it. They're looking for some hoes. And I get asked and, like, I go, okay, let me go do this. And I remember telling myself, I was like, if I don't get this, I'm going all in on YouTube. Like, this is the last thing I even care to do. I remember I was doing a. I had, like, this MTV contract. They give you, like, a yearly contract. And I was on, like, five different shows. And the. The. The amount was. It was. I think I got. I made $118,000 a year, right? And I thought I was the richest person on the planet. Like, I didn't even understand taxes or nothing, dude. I would just walk into stores and buy shit. I was like, I have $118,000, dude. Like, I felt so rich. It was unbelievable.

[Mark Gagnon]

And.

[Andrew Schultz]

And then I got, like, a 3% or 5% increase every year. They had me on five different TV shows.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, I was getting paid minimum wage to be a TV personality. How crazy is that?

[Mark Gagnon]

Was it jobs that suck, Jobs that don't suck or jobs that don't suck?

[Andrew Schultz]

Girl code Guy code guy court. I'm fudgeing hosts and mtv. I was so grateful. I'm not complaining about this at all. But, like, very early on, I was like, oh, people on TV don't make any money.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, and then this Vice thing. And then what happened was I got. I got told by one of the executives over. Over there that they were not going to continue my contract, like, two weeks before it ended, which I thought was kind of, like, cruel. Like, what if this is the only way I can afford to live? And you. I. I have to ask you if it's going to be continued. I was actually going there to. Asking them if they could if they would let me do this sitcom.

[Mark Gagnon]

This is.

[Andrew Schultz]

On this hockey show. Anyway, the. And I remember I was like, I'll go all in on YouTube. And then I was like, I'm going to turn the YouTube channel into a TV channel, and I'm going to have a new show every single. So every single day, there'll be a new show. And I think it was, like, flagrant. Was one day brilliant. Was one day the jokes show. Inside jokes was another day. Dropping standup was another day. And then I think we were doing Dropping in and then dropping in was another day. And then maybe there was like a clip that would come out or something from Brilliant and a clip. Clips would come out from Flaker, something like that. And I was like, seven days a week there are going to be. There's content on this. And it was insane. And Alex was just cooking up all the he. While he was full time corrections officer. Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

It's crazy.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

He had a full time job.

[Andrew Schultz]

Full time job.

[Mark Gagnon]

It was editing a full tv.

[Andrew Schultz]

He had like an injury from like some felon that like tried to run out of the courtroom.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, really?

[Andrew Schultz]

And Alex like stopped him and like hurt his knee. And it was perfect for us because he could get disability. So they put him in just a room. Like you can do paperwork. He's like, all right, I'll do paperwork. He's just editing Brilliant idiots the on.

[Mark Gagnon]

You put a knee under him.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. So it was like. Yeah, that was insane. I mean, think about that. Like the amount of content.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Even now to get one podcast out. It's insane.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And granted, the expectations for things were different. Right. It was.

[Mark Gagnon]

You go back and watch the old. It's still fire.

[Andrew Schultz]

It's still fire. But like at the same time, everything felt so. I don't want to say like rebellious, but it was like everybody's expectations were different because you're at a nightclub in. In deep Brooklyn. You're not at a nightclub in Soho. You go out to a club in Soho, that better be nice. The seats better be cleaned every. Like that's the Internet now. But early on it was like, how are they getting this up on the Internet?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

People couldn't believe it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Well, even think like right now on flagrant, we'll use like the lavalier mics.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

You guys were using that on dropping it.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

You know what I mean? Like you guys were doing that and that was a podcast.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

In 2017.

[Andrew Schultz]

I wonder if we even use that shit. We used it on dropping it.

[Mark Gagnon]

I'm pretty sure. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And Alex figured out a way to make it work, bro.

[Andrew Schultz]

I remember when I. I bought a tv. There's a TV in the old flagrant that went right there. It wasn't my studio. It was Chris Moreau's studio for loudspeakers. And I was like. And I asked Chris, I was like, chris, why don't we just build this? Like it's going to be something. And he didn't. He didn't see the vision with me, I guess, and. But shout out Chris. But I was like, I Was like. I was like. And I bought this tv and it was this little flat screen TV that lived there at the end of the desk. And I thought that it was the Tonight Show. I mean, and all that went there was the logo of the show. And I was like, everybody could have their own logo of the show on the thing. And then it feels like a real show. Like, the bar was so low back in the day. It was like, look at this. To look at this studio right here. Like, this is the nicest studio in all podcasting. Hands down.

[Mark Gagnon]

Down.

[Andrew Schultz]

To look at this compared to old flagrant days. Like, I mean, old, old day, bro. You might not even have pictures of it. That's it. That's it right there.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

When. When we put that up, bro. There was one episode where Al got there early, and Al put. He bought black curtains and he lined the whole studio with black curtains. Okay. And he lined the whole entire studio with black curtains because he wanted to, like, give it, like a more studio looking effect. And. And we showed up and we walked in there and you couldn't see Kaz the whole episode. I mean, it was a great idea, but remember, we're not. There's no lighting in that studio. You're using the lights from the.

[Mark Gagnon]

The luminescent.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. But this is. It was so. It was really weird. It's interesting to talk about it. It was like a really exciting time.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

We'd throw something up and have no clue what it would do. No clue. Every time he threw it up. No clue.

[Mark Gagnon]

Do you know how many views the episodes would get at that time, bro?

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, we had a porn star on once and it got 500,000 views. And we're like, what?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And then we fought that urge to just kind of continue doing that, which I'm proud that we did at that time. It was very easy to change. Chase. I don't think we were monetized for years.

[Mark Gagnon]

Really.

[Andrew Schultz]

I don't think we were making YouTube money.

[Mark Gagnon]

Why? Because you just didn't turn on or you.

[Andrew Schultz]

We didn't know. We just. Like, the way I was thinking about this is like, building community. And, like, I thought that people would come out to live shows.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

So I just paid for it. For the first year, I just paid for it. I. Like, Akash was almost homeless and it was just like. And Alex, we found some agreement. And then, I mean, the moment we're. Alex. Alex, like, quit his job was like a big.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, we're going all in.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Yeah. It's like, yeah. We have people Committing their lives, like, for. For everyone on the show. It's like, yeah, you know, we're making money on the road, but Alex is like, yeah, I'm. This is it.

[Andrew Schultz]

And we weren't even making money on the road. We were making like two grand a weekend, which is great, but, like, that's the bare minimum you're making as a comedian.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

You know, if you're a headlining comedian, you're making a couple grand. If you're not getting, like, the door. This is before you could guarantees. Yeah, yeah. And.

[Mark Gagnon]

And you're not working necessarily every weekend.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, you like, you working as many as you can get. But again, like, at that point, I'm getting the shitty weekends in any club. Like, yeah, it was. You're getting like the worst. Like, it's fudgeing super bowl. And I don't even know if that's even good. I'm trying to think of like, there's a big thing happening.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

That nobody would go out to a comedy club. Then you get off for the weekend. You're like, fuck it, I'll do it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And you're just going. And you're going alone.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

It's like, super lonely.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

I mean, having you and Al around, it was like. You got to understand. It was having Al. I was like, this is awesome. And then having you. And I was like, oh, my God, this is the most fun.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

We're just traveling the country, getting in trouble, doing stupid shit, video taping it, putting on the Internet. People like it. More people start coming to the shows. It was like, insane.

[Mark Gagnon]

But that is also weird for me because I think about the early days when I was on the road with you. Almost every show was sold out. Like, at that point, you caught on.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, that was like the first time in my career. Like, I won't say the first time. I think you caught on when I started to make money. So basically what happens? Like, the first time I. I was doing the clubs, when I. When people started to find out about me, the rooms were papered. Which, like, anybody listening means, like, the comedy clubs have a call service. They call people, they go, do you want free show tickets to the Andrew Scholl show? And they just. That was the business back in the day. They give the comic two grand and then they just try to paper the room and sell them drinks. And so the first after I put out, like the 4:4:1 or even before that, when I started doing like the 52 weeks of stand up, I was like, okay, I'm starting to get it? Like, tickets are starting to sell, but not sell. The rooms would be packed. So I did, like, a whole tour with the rooms packed from papering. Then I did a whole other tour with the rooms packed from selling. And I would get, like, bonuses.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

So you get two grand and you get, like a 500 bonus if you sell out the show. And it's like. And also you have to sell out all five to get your bonus. Like, it's insanely stacked against you. And. And. And I did a whole other run with that. And then after that, I finally got the courage to, like, tell my agent, like, I think we're doing good, and I think maybe we can ask for, like, some sort of deal or something.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Because even that show in Orlando was one night.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, one night. Yeah. We did Jacksonville, I think, the night before, and then that.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then basically every show from then. I remember, like, two. In the very early days, it was like St. Louis. Yeah, St. Louis, where it was like, oh, there were some seats in the back.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then other than that, everything else was sold out.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And it's just crazy to think, like, even at that point, like, things were cooking.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, it was. Sorry, Mark.

[Mark Gagnon]

Don't worry.

[Andrew Schultz]

So, yeah, that was in the.

[Mark Gagnon]

In the trap door. We have. We have another.

[Andrew Schultz]

That was a fun time. It was just. Yeah, it was just so exciting. Everything was so exciting. Putting something out, having. Having it catch on. And like, also the energy at that time in your career is so great because, like, you're not. You're not successful yet. So, like, everybody that is rooting for you, you know, there's this, like, energy about, like, oh, what's going on? What is this? This is different. Like, I. I want this person to win. Once you have, like, perceived success, and we've talked about this ad nauseam, but once you have perceived success, there's. There's a lot of people, like, almost human instinct to be like, ah, you don't deserve that. Yeah, whatever. And. But the energy, I think that's why it's, like, so seductive on the way up. The energy of that is just. There's no one that's not rooting for you. Yeah, it. It's.

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, that's how it felt for me. Like, I was so excited just to be a part of it, you know, because, like, in my mind, I was like, I'm in college. Like, there's no way you can even make money doing, like, I was like, there's no way this will work that I could go on the road. I Didn't even understand how it could.

[Andrew Schultz]

Work, but you were killing. You got funny fast, too. Let me mean, you got funny fast.

[Mark Gagnon]

Took a couple takes.

[Andrew Schultz]

No, I thought you would always do well. But then you started to, like, kind of break the mold a bit.

[Mark Gagnon]

I think I understood the audience a little bit where, like, you're doing, like, open mics in Orlando and it's just, like, random people and it's hard to understand. It's hard to understand what they need.

[Andrew Schultz]

You can't charm them. They're like, well, actually, I don't know what the Orlando comedy scene is, but, like, if it's all comics, you're not going to charm them.

[Mark Gagnon]

It's a lot of comics and then just random people. There just be open mics where it's like, okay, there's like a girl doing homework on her computer.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then. And then a comedy show of what happened. And so, like, the way I would judge jokes is, like, if a girl took her headphone out.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And, like, laughed, I'd be like, yo, I'm killing right now. Like, if. If her headphone came out, I was like, this is crazy.

[Andrew Schultz]

Paid attention.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, there have been times, like, you do crowd or something. You're like, oh, so what do you do? And they'll just put their headphones in and you go, all right, and then move on. And it's like daytime out. It was a nightmare. So the idea of, like, being on the road and, like, actually actual comedy fans and the people that really loved stand up.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

You know what I mean? Like, even to this day, the shows are the same way, but especially then, it was the first time performing from an audience that loved stand up.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, they were like, we want jokes. They.

[Andrew Schultz]

And yeah, you have, like, a lot of creative liberty there because you could do. Especially with our audience, like, you could do kind of up.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, yeah. They wanted you to go, like, hey, push us. Like, make us a little uncomfortable. Like, do the wild thing.

[Andrew Schultz]

And especially at that point in time, like, a lot of the brand was commie was, like, really neutered, at least on tv. And my whole thing, at least at that point in time, was just like, that sucks and I'm not gonna do that. And then people were really rallying behind it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And it was. And also this is at a time where it's like, that wasn't popular.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. You know, I think you'll miss that. Like, people that became comedy fans the last, like, two, three years.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

I think that part's kind of lost.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Yeah. It Was not popular. Most people were trying to get on commi central. Yeah, they really wanted to do that. They were trying.

[Mark Gagnon]

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[Andrew Schultz]

This message comes from Greenlight. Ready to start talking to your kids about financial literacy? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app that teaches kids and teens how to earn, save, spend wisely and invest with your guardrails in place with Greenlight, you can send money to kids quickly. Set up chores automate allowance and keep an eye on your kids spending with real time notifications. Join millions of parents and kids building healthy financial habits together on Greenlight. Get started risk [e-mail] Spotify trying to make their acts clean. Like they were trying to figure that out. And I get that completely. That makes total sense. But the people that were coming out because of that, there weren't many options that were like that.

[Mark Gagnon]

And which was the standup? I always loved like I like I always said like my favorite comic was Tosh. I just loved like he's like, he was like abrasive. Like he would like go against the grain. It felt like.

[Andrew Schultz]

But he was so good.

[Mark Gagnon]

And there was something cool about like I just loved him. And so that was a stand up I was drawn to. But I could never really do it like an open mic at a coffee shop at 6:00pm yeah. And so then being on the road with you, I was like, oh, I can actually do the jokes that I like. Yeah. And then it actually works and connects. And then that just blew my mind. I was like, I can't believe that's working. Yeah, it felt so much easier. Easier than trying to like write like a clean kind of corny joke that I think that the audience will like. And it just like it all clicked. It just blew my mind. And then even in those early days, remember like sharing like an Airbnb.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Specifically in like Texas.

[Mark Gagnon]

We would all just crunch.

[Andrew Schultz]

We did the fashion thing. What was that? What city was that? Was that Addison?

[Mark Gagnon]

I don't remember the first one, but yeah, I think it was, I think it was there doing the fashion, the fashion videos. Do you guys remember those? Of Course.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, those were so funny. Like, it was so cool. All this stuff was so organic. We were just throwing something out there being. And then it would kind of catch. And then there was just so much positivity around everything because people are like, these guys don't give a fuck. They're doing good, funny comedy. And it's different from everything that we're seeing. And it's kind of like this. I don't even want to. I don't know if you're, like, going backwards or forwards or whatever you want to call it, but it was like, oh, yeah, this reminds me of Tosh or reminds me of Patricia. Like, reminds me of these comics I really liked. And now you're not seeing this in the space as much. Not that there weren't comics still doing that, but in terms of tv.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, it wasn't rising up. Yeah, yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And yeah, we would do those fucking fashion videos and then those started to build.

[Mark Gagnon]

I couldn't believe it. Like, I. It just blew my mind that you could make something that you liked and that people would also like it. Like, in my mind, it was always like, capitulate to what you think people want.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But then you were just like, no, no, this is fire.

[Andrew Schultz]

That is a good. Yeah, that is a. That is something that you've had to kind of, like, wrangle with.

[Mark Gagnon]

I've noticed, 100%.

[Andrew Schultz]

It's like, you're really good at hacking the game.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. But I lose touch of, like, what.

[Andrew Schultz]

You really want to say.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And it's like reminding yourself, like, I always tell you this, but it's like, what do you want to do? And then the Internet will find the people that also like that thing.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

You'll figure out how to make anything work. But you should start with the thing you want to do. I just like doing that type of comedy and nobody fucking wanted me to do it. I mean, people did, but not on tv. Like, no, but, like, nobody. I mean, I couldn't get. I couldn't get anything, bro. It was like, even when I got jfl. And in retrospect, I look back at it, I'm like, I wasn't ready for it, really. Like, I was ready enough compared to other people there, but I didn't have, like, a package that would. When you do something like that, you have, like a package that could be sold. That's the reason you're there.

[Mark Gagnon]

There's a. There's like an audition set. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

JFL is a festival in Montreal. And just for LAUGHS and essentially what it is is like, they sell tickets to all like, the agen agencies and the production companies and the movie studios, and they come there to find their new stars. And then before comedy was on the Internet, this was the place that you went to go see. And it's a big party and all that kind of shit. But, but like, getting it was this like, real moment in a young comics career.

[Mark Gagnon]

And I think the people that do really well kind of have that, that brand where they're like, okay, I'm gonna introduce who I am. I'll explain, like, sort of who I connect with, who my people are, and it'll be really funny and it'll be mostly clean all in like a five, ten minute set.

[Andrew Schultz]

And I was like, how do I tell the joke about the Mexican ste jobs when they don't even have Mexicans in Montreal?

[Mark Gagnon]

They don't have Mexicans. You're not Mexican. Like, and everyone's like, hey, don't do this. But then you did it.

[Andrew Schultz]

No, I didn't, I didn't do that joke. I actually tried to do like, what I thought the, the set would be for, like what would make a TV show.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, really?

[Andrew Schultz]

So I did a little of that and it was like, fine. It was.

[Mark Gagnon]

When was the nasty show? When did you do that?

[Andrew Schultz]

Because that, that was different.

[Mark Gagnon]

That was different.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, that. So jfl, like New faces is the one where you're young. By nasty show. I don't know when exactly that, but by nasty show, like things had changed and it was like. And then specifically I, I, I experienced JFL when you go there and nobody really cares about your set. And then when you go there and then when you're cooking, you start getting asked to do all these other different shows, you know, and, and the nasty show was like, in my opinion, the most prestigious show show there. It's nasty, but it's also like, that's who, who wants to go to the clean show, right?

[Mark Gagnon]

It was like the guys jfl Christian show.

[Andrew Schultz]

You're like the guys I looked up to were doing an asset. Patrice is doing a nasty show, you know, and yeah, I could feel there was a different something different happening there. I don't know what year that was though. That's interesting.

[Mark Gagnon]

That was before. That was before we met.

[Andrew Schultz]

Are you?

[Mark Gagnon]

No, I think so. I feel like it was like 2018.

[Andrew Schultz]

No, for a fact, it's not really because Emma came up with me.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, really?

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, wow.

[Andrew Schultz]

I know for a fact it's not cuz Emma came up there with Me and we knew each other prior to Emma, right?

[Mark Gagnon]

I think so, yeah. March 2019.

[Andrew Schultz]

Is that prior.

[Mark Gagnon]

You'Re calling on?

[Andrew Schultz]

I think I know each other. I think we knew each other prior.

[Mark Gagnon]

But no clips came out from it. And I didn't go because it was. It was. There was no nothing for me to do. It was just like, hey, it's a comedy festival.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

So then if it was after, it was like, yeah, we're gonna go to Montreal. And I was like, all right.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

So I was just sleeping on Bernaldi's couch.

[Andrew Schultz]

I think Al went, though.

[Mark Gagnon]

I think so. Yeah. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

See, I don't think I had my own show there. I don't think so. No.

[Mark Gagnon]

You were just doing the. The showcase.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But then I think Al had told me either. I didn't know when the timing was, but he had told me. He was like, oh, yeah, that show was crazy.

[Andrew Schultz]

The nasty show.

[Mark Gagnon]

He's like, yeah, that was like. There was something different.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. I mean, there was a couple there that were just. Yeah. I'm trying to think that something happened there where it was just like. I think there was a lot of, like, buzz. And also, you know, there was a lot of buzz, and then there was maybe like, a confirmation of the buzz. Does that make sense? Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was a cool time. Like, I even remember when. When I'm trying to, like, organize all these times. Like, we were cooking. We did that tour, and then I started to do. I think when I met you, 441 was coming out because I released it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, it was in there. You were just doing the end of it. And the last part was coming out, like, the weekend or the two weeks after I met you.

[Andrew Schultz]

Did you not come to Europe with this?

[Mark Gagnon]

No. Al got arrested. I wasn't there.

[Andrew Schultz]

Where were you? You.

[Mark Gagnon]

I was in. I was in Florida. That was before me.

[Andrew Schultz]

You. Hold on. So you didn't come out. You didn't come with us during 441. You came out with us when Views from the Cyst was coming out.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, that's what I meant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Views was coming out. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

So I think, like, the cuz the plan of that. Had I done Rogan already?

[Mark Gagnon]

You were just about to, too.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

You were like, days away. Like, I think you told me in the gr like, yeah, I'm gonna do Rogan. I was like, what? And you're like, yeah, I'm gonna go do it. I was like, are you nervous? You're like, no, I'll just talk. I was like, what? It just blew my mind. You were just, like, nonchalant, like, yeah, I'm gonna go do Rogan.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Like, I mean, this was at a time where, like, if you were a comedian, you did Rogan. You were. Let me preface this. If you were a comedian and you did Rogan and you had other things out there, there for all those people to go watch.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

You were a household name in comedy.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And that existed for several years. Obviously, the landscape is different. Like, so many more people are putting out specials. It's a different time.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

But this is at, like, if you did Rogan. So at this time, I'm putting out. I put out 52 weeks of stand up. I do 441. I do views from the CIS.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. It was coming out in that. In that window.

[Andrew Schultz]

And my goal was. And I remember saying this to myself, I'm putting out views from the CIS and I'm gonna do one. I'll put out one section of it every week for five weeks or whatever it was. And it was like five different pieces. Right. In five different cities in Europe. I don't know why I filmed in Europe, but that's fire.

[Mark Gagnon]

I remember even watching it at home being like, he was in Norway.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Like, this is crazy, but what a dumb idea. I did comedy so hard. Four, one for. No. I'm like, you could just film the same set. But, like, every mistake I made ended up working out. It's so weird how things work out. It's like if you do a special and you're in the same outfit with the same background, all the clips start to blend into each other. Yeah, but because I thought it'd be a cool idea to do this, like, night of comedy. I did it in five different clubs in the city and end up being four with an edit. So that's 4, 4, 1. And because of that, each background is different. So when people see new clips, clips organically, they're like, oh, this is another thing from him.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Whereas if I just did it all in the same club, they wouldn't have seen that. But that wasn't by design.

[Mark Gagnon]

Wait, what do you mean? It's five, but one with an edit.

[Andrew Schultz]

It was five, five, one. So when I put out the album, it's five different clubs.

[Mark Gagnon]

Why?

[Andrew Schultz]

Because I'm just a insane person and it wasn't fun enough. But it's in the album, the album that's out there.

[Mark Gagnon]

Do you remember what bit was in or, like, what jokes were in that that you cut out?

[Andrew Schultz]

No, and I cut it down from an hour to. I think it's like 20 minutes or something like that.

[Mark Gagnon]

How long is.

[Andrew Schultz]

How long is 441? No, go to 441. Because the album's like an hour, I think, or close to an hour.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's. That's. So that's something I never knew. Like, I never understood why.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, this is. I cut it down to like 17 minutes. I just was like, it has to be heat. Undeniable heat. Yeah. I'm curious what. What I cut, but we can find. I mean, I cut a lot. I cut like. Like, yeah, 30 minutes. So. But I'm sure I use some of that as part of, like the build up or something.

[Mark Gagnon]

I don't know. But then you go to Rogan.

[Andrew Schultz]

But I said, like, before that, I was like a year or two before that, like, maybe a year. And I was like, I'm gonna release this as five different things again. And. Oh, no, not again. I'm gonna do five different things. Because then I have a different version, the different, like, entry points into me. I have five different ones. So if this one doesn't get you, maybe the next one will. Maybe the next one will. If you watch this one thing and it's 40 minutes long, you might hate me after five minutes. And then you won't watch the end, which you would have really liked. So I'm like, I'm going to do five different ones and I'm going to Europe. And for some reason I thought that would be cool. It's not cool. I have one chance to do these jokes right. I bombed the Belgium show entirely. I decided to do the whole thing in places where people don't even fucking speak English. It was the dumbest thing ever, which randomly.

[Mark Gagnon]

I ran into a guy that you did a show with in Norway. John Joseph. Jonas. Yes, Jonas Joseph.

[Andrew Schultz]

Somali.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. He's in New York now.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

The nicest guy.

[Andrew Schultz]

I gotta hit him up.

[Mark Gagnon]

I've been, like, hanging with him randomly. Like, he shows, we'll just like, kick it.

[Andrew Schultz]

I think he opened for me, didn't he?

[Mark Gagnon]

That's what he said. He's like, oh, yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

I opened for shows at that show.

[Mark Gagnon]

And I was like, what?

[Andrew Schultz]

That Al didn't film one of the cameras. Piece of which would be a theme. Which would be a theme for many years to come. I should have noticed.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's so funny.

[Andrew Schultz]

Anyway, I was like, I'm gonna. I'm gonna do Rogan. I at this point, never spoken to Rogan. No connection Rogan. I was like, I'm gonna Do Rogan the second week that I deliver of this five weeks, reviews from the SIS and. And the idea was one piece will be out, and then the second week. The second piece will be out, and then the people will follow the next few. And I'm gonna tell him everything that I think is gonna happen in comedy for what is happening right now will happen for the next few years. And I did Rogan the second week that was coming out.

[Mark Gagnon]

How did he hit you?

[Andrew Schultz]

Brendan Schaub. Yeah. That's why I love Brendan Schaub. Today I did the Fighter and the Kid. And I remember. And he was talking, and then I remember I went out. It's interesting. I went out to la. I had shows at the Comedy Store. I had two shows at the Comedy Store. And Rogan came in the Belly room. No, in the main room, the big one. And I had two shows, and I think I had shows. They were my shows, if I'm not mistaken. But, like, he. He opened, opened. He, like, popped in.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, really?

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. And then I think he watched. But this is what. This is the thing. It was like Instagram and comedy was new. It's not like we all know somebody on Instagram now doing comedy because everybody does it. But at the time, it was like I was doing a different new thing.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And he had just heard, and everything was kind of like word of mouth in the community. And you're like, what is going on? What is happening?

[Mark Gagnon]

Knowing that he's watching. Were you nervous? Cuz kind of make or break a little bit, where it's like your plan is to then go on a show.

[Andrew Schultz]

I'll be honest with you. No, no, I wasn't. I. I wore a crazy outfit, too. It was like a Kiff Jean jacket and like. Like, running pants.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's all we need to talk about. The early outfits.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, they were crazy.

[Mark Gagnon]

Were fire.

[Andrew Schultz]

Y'all got to see this. And I think I have a picture of it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Do you remember the model?

[Andrew Schultz]

Monochrome.

[Mark Gagnon]

You're like, yo, each city I'm gonna do different monochrome. I was like, what?

[Andrew Schultz]

I wore purple in Nashville. Yo, you gotta go to the Nashville. This was. So I was trying to figure out how fashion and. And comedy could mix a little bit.

[Mark Gagnon]

But you were like, the Toronto show.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, that was crazy.

[Mark Gagnon]

A pin in that also. Yeah, but you wore full orange, like a prison outfit.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yo, it was crazy.

[Mark Gagnon]

And in my mind, I was like, oh, do I wear this hoodie, or is this hoodie gay?

[Andrew Schultz]

You're never gonna find.

[Mark Gagnon]

Shouldn't do it. And then you're wearing full. Orange is the New Black.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yo, I look like a lesbian from Orange is the New Black. Yo, D. But the Nashville. The Nashville show is crazy. There's a clip out from it. I forget what it is, but it's. I'm dressed like a vibrator. It is so bad. But this is early days.

[Mark Gagnon]

I ended up inheriting that shirt.

[Andrew Schultz]

You did?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. For anyone that doesn't know, there's a. There's a sort of swap meet that happens in the studio or basically, like, once a month, Schultz will bring in, like, the old catalog and be like, yo, if. If anyone wants anything, grab it.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yes.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then. And then we would fight over it.

[Andrew Schultz]

You're on a gape.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, this is it right here on a gate. And I ended up getting the shirt and then try to wear it, like, three different times, and it didn't work. And I was like, I can't wear it.

[Andrew Schultz]

Wears this every day. This is Kid Super. Before Kid Super. Just let y'all know, we invented Kid Super. All These outfits were 10 years before their time.

[Mark Gagnon]

You know, it goes with a navy sleeve, turquoise.

[Andrew Schultz]

Look at the orange collar. I'm dressed like a dolphin dog. Isn't how little dogs get dressed. So I look at this outfit. The confidence in Nashville, Tennessee, bro.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's the thing that always blew my mind every show. I'm terrified. You're just like, yeah, I'll dress purple. And I was like, really? Like, yeah, it's fine streetwear. Cat Williams.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. It was crazy. I don't know why I thought I was like, maybe it was because we were posting stuff online. Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Every week you were posting, like, an inside jokes dropping in and a clip.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

All different outfits, and, like, each city was a different outfit.

[Andrew Schultz]

I also was like, that's so funny. This is the car. Yeah. I also was like, I. I saw how people like, what the trend was for people dressing in comedy, which was kind of, like, inspired by Louis ck, you know, which is this black shirt, jeans. Yeah. Which is like. Like, I'm in a purposely kind of dress. Like, I don't care.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

But, like, I do. Like, I felt contrived a bit, but.

[Mark Gagnon]

If everyone's wearing the same thing, then it's like, yeah, you do care because.

[Andrew Schultz]

You did the thing. You tried to dress like you don't care, you know, but then you're still trying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just felt like it was like, what is this? This is phony. This is, like, so that they like you for, like, a second. Like, they're gonna forget about your outfit once you're funny. Like, what is. What are we doing here? Yeah. And I'm also like, we're clowns a little. Like, we don't have to dress that. They like, what are we? Who are we impressing?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And, yeah, I just thought it was kind of fire.

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, it was like. It worked for every clip where it was like, yeah, it was a joke, bro.

[Andrew Schultz]

The one in Dallas. I think I'm a milkman. I wore, like, all cream on stage.

[Mark Gagnon]

But to your credit, you made a joke about your outfit every show.

[Andrew Schultz]

I would tease it. I would, like, tease it. If it was that ridiculous, I would tease it. But what was interesting is that, like. And again, this is one of those happy accidents. But, like, it's engaging to look at. You see a person in a purple outfit on TV. I'm not aware of this or YouTube, but I'm, like, aware of this at the time. Time. Look at that. That was fired, though. Am early. I just want point that out. I'm early.

[Mark Gagnon]

Get equity play.

[Andrew Schultz]

You need that.

[Mark Gagnon]

Come on now.

[Andrew Schultz]

Come on. Pull F. Paid full price. I mean, Dallas, Texas. A cream jumpsuit.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. They thought it said Amy. They have no idea what I thought.

[Andrew Schultz]

So, yeah, it was.

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, that's aana show. I remember. Remember? So I just showed. I was like, I think it's a theater. I remember telling you. I remember telling my girlfriend. I was like, yeah, I think it's a theater. She's like, really?

[Andrew Schultz]

Was that before Town hall or after?

[Mark Gagnon]

That was before.

[Andrew Schultz]

We always do the. The bigger thing in Toronto before anywhere else.

[Mark Gagnon]

Dry run, you know, dry run for the Canadians. But I was like, I mean, this is this. Oh, Tyler Morrison shot in. But I was like, oh, this. This is crazy. And then we showed up at the place and I immediately text her. I was like, this is. I don't know what to do.

[Andrew Schultz]

This felt like the biggest venue I've ever seen in my life.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's why I felt.

[Andrew Schultz]

I mean it. What an insane outfit to wear. Also not meat flattering. Like. Like, I think I wore you packing.

[Mark Gagnon]

You're packing.

[Andrew Schultz]

N. Like, I wore them low so it didn't look like my had hang. Oh, wow. What an insane outfit. What the.

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, crazy. I forgot what the name. I forgot the name of this video. I remembered it. It was seared in my memory because I was looking at the date coming up and I was like, oh, I really have to do this.

[Andrew Schultz]

I know this. I bet you it's in the Danforth Music Hall.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's the Danforth. I think you might be right.

[Andrew Schultz]

Is it Danforth?

[Mark Gagnon]

Gabe, if you go in the description, I bet you it says it. Yeah, Danforth Music Hall. Wow.

[Andrew Schultz]

And that was like a big deal. I think Daniel Caesar did like 20 of them in a row or something. Right? Like, it was like a. A venue that was like, meaningful.

[Mark Gagnon]

It's an iconic spot, like in the Danforth district of Toronto. Yeah, yeah. And I just remember going on stage being like, this is crazy. I was selling T shirts moments before walking on stage.

[Andrew Schultz]

Did you remember what you did? What jokes?

[Mark Gagnon]

Vaguely. Yeah. I actually listened back to it not that long ago and kind of like rehashed my memory and I was like, oh, this is actually pretty good. I was like shocked, but I was selling T shirts moments before going on stage. What's up, guys? We're going to take a break really quick because I got to tell you about a dirty little secret. Okay. The insurance industry doesn't want you to know this. Well, basically what the insurance companies do is that they profit by holding onto your money as long as possible. You pay them every. Every month. And then eventually when an accident happens, they try to deny or delay your claim so that they can keep their profits going. I mean, it goes even worse when in court. The insurance companies want jurors to think that the at fault driver, you know, a mom that rear ends someone, you know, she's a single mom and they think that she is going to be paying the verdict amount. Meanwhile, it's really the insurance companies who are going to be covering the costs. And that's what I want to tell you about the good folks over at Morgan and Morgan, because they will take on the case and they are almost always going out after the big insurance companies and not the individuals at fault. Morgan and Morgan fights hard for their clients and these corporations know that and it pisses them off. A recent client in Pennsylvania just received $29 million. The insurer's best offer, $500,000. Yeah, there's another client in Florida that received $20 million. And the last offer from the insurance company was $0. There's a reason why Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm. So if you or Nordstrom brings you the season's most wanted brands, Skims, Mango Free People and Princess polly, all under $100.

[Andrew Schultz]

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[Mark Gagnon]

We'Ve curated the styles you'll wear on repeat this spring. Free shipping, free returns and in store pickup make it easier than ever. Shop now in stores [e-mail].

[Andrew Schultz]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try.

[Mark Gagnon]

@Mintmobile.Com Switch upfront payment of $45 for.

[Andrew Schultz]

3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month. Required intro rate first 3 months only.

[Mark Gagnon]

Then full price plan options available.

[Andrew Schultz]

Taxes and fees extra.

[Mark Gagnon]

See full terms at Mint Mobile. Ever injured or dealing with an insurance company that doesn't want to pay up their fair share, you could go check out Morgan and Morgan. That's right. Hiring the wrong law firm can be disastrous. And hiring the right law firm could, you know, be a big, substantial increase to your settlement. And Morgan and Morgan makes it so easy to get started. Their fee is free. Unless they win, there's literally no risk. Unless they win your case, you're not paying a dime. With Morgan, Morgan, it's never been easier. I'm telling you. You just go to. For the people dot com. That's right. F o r the people dot com and use the code GAGNON. G a g n o n or dial pound law. That's pound 529. That's for the people dot com GAGNON or dial pound law. That's Pound 529. And this is a paid advertisement. Now, ladies and gentlemen, let's get back to the show.

[Andrew Schultz]

There's a. There's a moment where like we start to do these venues. And it was like, mark, you can't be selling T shirts on. We gotta stop this. What is going on?

[Mark Gagnon]

It was like shortly after this one, I think.

[Andrew Schultz]

I think so. I think that's where we're like, we're in theaters.

[Mark Gagnon]

We can't really die.

[Andrew Schultz]

It just wasn't the right leg. I mean, you were always like, too funny to be doing it. But you know, at the same time, we're like traveling with three people. How insane is it now? Our, like, logistics team. Were you guys doing all this before? How would the theaters get done?

[Mark Gagnon]

I have genuinely no clue now.

[Andrew Schultz]

Now it feels like we got 30 people trying to make a theater show work and it's still problems. It used to be me with Alex just telling union guys to shift the light. Do you remember? We would cut. There was a. What was it? Michael Buble's version of Feeling Good.

[Mark Gagnon]

Feeling good at Town Hall.

[Andrew Schultz]

It was every place we would go and it would take us 30 minutes to an hour to get them to understand how to make the lights come out when, remember?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yep. I mean, even being in Toronto, I had to sell the shirts and I didn't know how to get the square to work.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh. Because it was.

[Mark Gagnon]

Couldn't use the bank account. So I ended up asking like a random guy that you knew. I was like, yo, can I use your bank account? We put the money through there. Never got it out, probably. It was just like cr. It was insane. Like, the whole organization of the whole thing was just wild. But somehow it worked.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. We just treated theaters like comedy clubs.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

We're like, you guys will be set up to just do whatever we need to do.

[Mark Gagnon]

And I remember. I forgot where we were, but I remember walking on the sidewalk and you're like, yo, you want to go to Australia? I'm like, what?

[Andrew Schultz]

I said that?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. You're like, do you want to go? And I was like, yeah. And you're like, all right, yeah, let's get you a ticket. And I was like, do I. How much? Like, do I have to pay? You're like, no, I'll pay for it. I was like, what are you going to pay for me to go to Australia? And you're like, yeah, it'll be fine. And we did all of Australia. And I was like, this is cr. I remember, like, my group chat from college being like, mark, what are you doing? And I'm like, honestly, dude, no idea.

[Andrew Schultz]

I was in such a bad mood the first, like. I don't know if you remember this, but, like, we were. I was in a horrible.

[Mark Gagnon]

Wait, why?

[Andrew Schultz]

I think I was, like, jet lagged and, like, I don't know, like, if it took a toll on me.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, you don't do well with lack of sleep.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, something. But I remember I was in a bad mood for, like, days. Where'd we start? We started in Perth.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Yeah. No, Adelaide.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, wow.

[Mark Gagnon]

Flew into Adelaide and it was like. It was like a ballroom thing.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. It was like the second floor of a place, right? Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

It was an iffy show.

[Andrew Schultz]

Honestly, I bombed that show. Bad. But it was a lot of people. I was like, for the time I.

[Mark Gagnon]

Was like, in Adelaide. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. But I remember not liking that show.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, that was a tough one. That was a tough one.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, man. I was like sleeping in the green room before you brought me up. I was like, trying to get something to work with the audience and it just wasn't happening. And I was like, what's going on?

[Mark Gagnon]

But from my perspective, it was like, Okay. I did an open mic. And then six months later, I think four months later, I was doing a theater in Toronto. And then two months later after that, I was in Australia doing shows, the theaters there. And I was like, what is happening?

[Andrew Schultz]

We've told this story before, but was that the trip where. Where Alex and you tried to. To steal the business class? It wasn't even a business class. It was like, Economy plus.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn't even full lay flat. Al just went up there with a.

[Andrew Schultz]

Face mask, and the Asian ladies were trying to get him to get out.

[Mark Gagnon]

We were connected through Hong Kong on an Asian airline flight. I don't even remember which one. Yeah. And the lady was just like, sir, you have to go back. They told me immediately, but we assumed because of, you know, Alex's blackness that they were like, oh, we want to. We don't want to cause a scene, you know?

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, they got you out of there quick. And Al just kept waving him off, and he got like, another hour or two.

[Mark Gagnon]

You have no idea how pissed I was.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, I know.

[Mark Gagnon]

Back there, seeing Al's row empty. He had a full row.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, so he could have slept more comfortably back there.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, you should have taken that row.

[Mark Gagnon]

Well, I was going to, and then within 45 minutes of me steaming mad in the back of the plane, he just walked through, and then he's like, yeah, they kicked me out.

[Andrew Schultz]

It's like, now, we had fun out there. That was a good time.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then Covid happens.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, wow.

[Mark Gagnon]

Basically.

[Andrew Schultz]

Are we in. Are we in the Brooklyn studio yet?

[Mark Gagnon]

Just starting that. Just starting that. That was like, February 2020.

[Andrew Schultz]

You know how lucky we are, bro. Just thinking about this is pure luck, that Brooklyn studio. I'm looking at studios. I'm going to Queens. I'm going to, like, all these different places. I can't afford anything in Manhattan. I looked at a couple, and. And, like, now I would do it, but back then, I'm like, there's no way. And there was a. I looked at a bunch, and I finally looked at that one. I, like, called my mom, and I was like, should I go for it? It's a little bit more expensive, but it's. It is it. It's the one. Blah, blah, blah. Mom's like, you should do it. You'll figure it out. I'm like, all right. And I'm not even, like, counting. Like, I don't. I'm, like, financially illiterate. So, like, I just go, okay. I have money in my bank account, so I Think I could pay the rent even if we don't make any money? Like, that's how my brain kind of works. Like, and. And I remember we. I remember I get a message from Ben Ueda, who's our friend. Ben Oeda. I don't know how I. Maybe I spoke about it. I have no clue. To this day, I got to ask him, like, how we should call him.

[Mark Gagnon]

Right now, please, immediately. Which, thank goodness you did. Ben has become, well, like, the greatest mentor. He's incredible ideas person ever.

[Andrew Schultz]

I hung out with Ben for, like, like, 24. Yo, yo. You're on Camp Gagnon with me and Marito.

[Mark Gagnon]

What's that?

[Andrew Schultz]

You're on Camp Gagnon with me and Mark.

[C]

Oh, hey, guys.

[Andrew Schultz]

We were just singing your praises. But, but, so. But before, I have another question that I have to ask you before I get to this, but yeah, I. I hung out with Ben for, like, 24 hours. Hours before I did my, like, press run for this special. And anything smart I said on that press run was just that I did not. And I just put my, like, spin on it. Of course I influenced the influencers, and. And that press run knocked it. I'm talking all in telling them what to do with the. With the money, how they could do it. Like, literally, we would just have breakfast at the Sunset Tower Hotel. Hotel. We would just talk to each other and just come up with good ideas, and then I would just kind of let it rip. Do you remember that a couple weeks ago, it was.

[C]

It's like, my favorite thing to do, right? Like to just be the fly on the wall with all your guys's chaos running around. I get to be the older.

[Andrew Schultz]

This is. You're Yoda. It really is Yoda.

[Mark Gagnon]

He really is Yoda.

[Andrew Schultz]

You're Grandpa Ben.

[C]

It's fun.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay, Uncle Ben. Uncle Ben Uyeda also interrupted race. We have a question for you. Okay, so how did you even find out? We're talking about, like, old, back in the day, flagrant studio, the one that you and Mike built. How do you even get in touch with me to the point where we have that meeting at the coffee shop in la? Like, how do. How do you. How do you even DM me to go, hey, I'll build this for you? Like, how does that even happen?

[C]

Was. Remember when Kevin Hart got. Got the Oscars taken away from him? You posted a video. I think you had, like, 17 to, like, 20,000 followers at the time. And it was just you looking not as svelte or as well dressed as you do now. Like, wait, hold on. We also got to talk about your glow up sometime.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yo, we were just talking about. With the early outfits credit, dude. We were just talking about of all.

[C]

And then all of a sudden, my sister was like, does Schultz have someone dressing him now?

[Andrew Schultz]

Shout out to wifey. Yeah.

[C]

So anyways, that. It was during that time and you posted a whole video about how. The point isn't that they want to apologize. The point is punishment. Because you did. You made a point where you're saying, he apologized for this. And it has. And that was 10 years ago, and he hasn't happened. It hasn't happened again. He hasn't used that word in 10 years. So 10 years would kind of suggest that he meant the apology because he changed his behavior. And I saw that video. I think it was just Explore play. I think it popped up on my Explore page amongst a bunch of other things that we won't talk about.

[Mark Gagnon]

Strong women.

[Andrew Schultz]

Strong women. You know, you and Rogan got the same women.

[C]

Hey, I. I support strong women, but. And I thought I was like, oh, this is kind of clever. And it was, like, mixed in with you just, like, kind of talking and stuff. So I, like, reached out like, oh, this is, like. I think I said something, like, really insightful and stuff like that. And then we were kind of, like, exchanging sort of, you know, compliments. Just basic digital media stuff. And then when you came to la, we got like, a coffee, and we're just. We were just chatting about YouTube. Chatted a little bit before general Internet pleasantries. And then you're like, hey, I'm thinking about a studio.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, you brought it up.

[Mark Gagnon]

You.

[C]

You brought it up after, like, a few other kind of, you know, back and forth.

[Andrew Schultz]

I will. Anyway, thank you.

[C]

The part of that studio that we never really got to utilize was the lineup where we had that line right at six feet.

[Andrew Schultz]

I know I did take pictures of the. Of people on that on the photo wall.

[C]

Some people are lying.

[Andrew Schultz]

Humbled a lot of people. Humbled a lot of people. But no, it was amazing that you guys did that. And, like, it wouldn't be possible to have that studio without you guys doing that. I mean, like, that would. That would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire people to do we.

[C]

Literally improve that whole neighborhood.

[Mark Gagnon]

Well, don't forget there was a robbery that Alex's Tesla picked up. Do you remember this?

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, my God.

[Mark Gagnon]

God in the neighborhood. This.

[Andrew Schultz]

You know, you want to know a great podcast? First of all, a Camp Gagnon Uyeda podcast would be also great. But just the three of us talking shit. We got Ueda. We got to do a pod where the three of us come talk some shit at.

[C]

At the hotel.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, now we're talking. Now we're talking.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay, hotel reset. Can. Can you get. Can we do a little setup? That's a great idea. We do a camp episode. We should do a flagrant episode too. But we do a camp. No, I'm just saying just to promote. Just to promote the hotel, but do the episode. Bring the whole crew.

[C]

Dude, it's gonna be. It's gonna be nice. Especially this summer, right? The pool is epic. The whole pool thing is ridiculous.

[Andrew Schultz]

You just won't send me a single pic. I ask you every single day that I text you. I go, can you send me pics? And you won't send me construction? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, look, Ben is the. The last hotel that will be built. Pre tariffs can just.

[Mark Gagnon]

Under the wire. Under the wire.

[C]

Neo in the matrix dodging tariffs.

[Mark Gagnon]

Right.

[Andrew Schultz]

And wait.

[C]

And it starts with. Okay, no, I want to predict.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The quality of audio right now is. Is not high enough to extend this conversation, but I just want to let you know that we love you and we need to get an episode in the three of us immediately. Love your boys. Bye.

[Mark Gagnon]

Love you, Ben.

[Andrew Schultz]

Say hi, everybody. Peace.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, what a legend. He's a fucking all time legend.

[Andrew Schultz]

He's just a ghost, dude.

[Mark Gagnon]

I genuinely, like, hit him up, I don't know, once a month just to be like, hey, here's where I'm at my life. We just talk.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

He has such good advice. Yeah, it's awesome.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And a very, like, sage wisdom.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, he loves giving it and he's just very generous with it. Hotel reset, by the way. Go check it out. And Joshua Tree.

[Mark Gagnon]

I'm trying to think after that studio, we tried the. The micless setup.

[Andrew Schultz]

That's another thing. We don't talk enough about the. That we do that goes horribly wrong. You know, it's funny. It's like we get all this credit for that. Like, sometimes. Sometimes. Sometimes. Okay, this is cool. Like, we'll get creative credit for laziness. Like, sometimes we did shit purely out of laziness that people were like, yo, they're do. This is crazy what they're doing. Like the turn your phone videos. This is really funny. This is like. And this is kind of cool. We had done so much like, weird, random stuff like subtitling a comedy video. Like, nobody thought that that was the way to do the way we subtitled. But like, even now, it's better to not kill the punchline. Like, here, anybody who listens, this is a comic. Just. This is bare minimum. Don't write out your punchline in the subtitle before you say it. Like, that should be a obvious thing, right?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Comedy hinges on surprise.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then you tell them the punchline before the surprise.

[Andrew Schultz]

Somebody reads the whole thing, and then they're looking at your face. Whatever, it doesn't matter. But. But, like, just figuring out, okay, 90% of people watch Instagram without audio. Like, I'd just be on the subway, like, watching people watch Instagram and be like, nobody's got their headphones in. I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah. They're not getting any of this stuff. And, like, just all these little things that we kind of figured out, like, put into the world. And then there are things that we did not figure out. We were just lazy. We'd work our ass off on these turn your phone videos, and then we're like, are we really going to re edit the whole fucking video to be vertical? Vertical. That. What if we just do turn your phone? And then it was so funny. Like, afterwards, there would be people online going, this is a genius engagement hack. You can't swipe away if the phone is horizontal. Oh, my God. No, no.

[Mark Gagnon]

Alex. Media was working on drop. Yeah, yeah, dude, yeah. And then the. The mic. Micless tile, bro, We.

[Andrew Schultz]

We spent, I think. And this is. This. At the time, this was like, so much money, it's unbelievable. We bought a. A. A micless audio system. And it's in that, like, video that you put right there, where it was just like a panel. And it was basically made for, like, boardrooms to have conference calls. And it had these, like. There it is. That thing that's hanging right there at the. On the ceiling above them. It's like right below the lights, that thing right there. So it has, like, eight microphones in it, and they're like targeted microphones. So they say that it can target Mark and it can target Gabe and it can target Christos and it can target me. And because I was like, how do we get microphones away from pods? I thought that was going to be revolutionary. Like, we're always thinking, like, oh, what can we do that nobody's doing? Like, that's the thing holding podcasting back because there's a microphone in the way. You guys went the opposite. You're like, make it orange. Like, that will revolutionize the game. And the real idea was, how do you make it natural? How do you make people not realize they're being recorded.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And it was funny even like Rogan, when he came on the pod, like initially he on it, and then after a while he's like, it's actually kind of cool. Like, you're not worried about if somebody's like, there's a functionality to have in the lav mic too, is you don't have to worry if somebody understands. Microphone. Yeah. Oh.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, my goodness. I mean, on this show, I mean, the amount of people are just like, yeah, over here.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. And that's the idea with the headphones. It's like you want to hear yourself and headphones. Just destroy a podcast.

[Mark Gagnon]

To me, I hate headphones visually or even in the dialogue.

[Andrew Schultz]

All of it. It's just wearing them sucks. Like, hearing yourself too much is. You can get self conscious. Like, it's just horrible.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. I think one episode like this came out it.

[Andrew Schultz]

And you guys should listen to is staying clear the closing door like that. The subway guy. The person that gives the announcements on the subway. Yeah, that's it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Drive through a little bit.

[Andrew Schultz]

And it costs 25 grand. You have to understand, like, I put everything that I had into, like, and then 25 grand. I think we were able to sell it back for like five grand or something like that. It was huge mistake. Huge mistake.

[Mark Gagnon]

But it got us where we were trying to go.

[Andrew Schultz]

It got us where we were trying to go. But so many failures along the way.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then Covid happened and you did something fire in Covid. I don't even know if I ever even told you.

[Andrew Schultz]

What's that?

[Mark Gagnon]

Covid happens and then all the shows are canceled.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, that's right. We did our last show in Kansas City. Do you remember that one?

[Mark Gagnon]

I think so, yeah. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And I think they had, like, separated some. They did a little separation.

[Mark Gagnon]

I remember if that was the last.

[Andrew Schultz]

Show or the first show.

[Mark Gagnon]

Might have been the first show back.

[Andrew Schultz]

Where's our last show? That's interesting. I think our last show is Kansas City. And I think that we were like, making fun of it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yep. Yeah. Making fun of it for hair shut.

[Andrew Schultz]

Being down for a cough.

[Mark Gagnon]

Blah, blah, blah, my dumbass. I remember being like, oh, I like seeing when people have masks that way, you know, who's gay from far away because of global pandemic. Thousands of people die. Millions of people die. I was like, oops, all right, my bad.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay.

[Mark Gagnon]

But covet happens. And then I remember I was in the brilliant studio. And then you, like, close the door. And I was like, oh, sure's about to talk to me. This isn't good. And then you go, hey, so I know you were getting some money on the road, and then I'm. You were paying me at the time, like for the weekly stuff, like around the studio. And then you basically said, now that you're not getting the money on the road, I'll just supplement it out of pocket.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, what a nice guy I am. Well, you know, that was pre kid. That was pre kid Schultz.

[Mark Gagnon]

And I. I was like, wait, what? And you were like, yeah, and I'll also just bump it up in general. So it was a overall pay raise plus supplementing the stuff that I didn't get on the road.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And I was like, that's crazy.

[Andrew Schultz]

I'd like to let you know that I actually did that out of kindness of my. My heart or whatever that saying is, because I'm not financially literate, so I don't even know if I could afford it.

[Mark Gagnon]

You couldn't.

[Andrew Schultz]

Probably not.

[Mark Gagnon]

This guy will refuse to take a compliment. I try to give him a genuine compliment. He's like, I'm an. I'm like, no, no, you're actually a good guy.

[Andrew Schultz]

I was saying, I'm really like, I. I didn't even crunch the numbers and make sure I could do it, but yeah, yeah, okay.

[Mark Gagnon]

Financially negligent, for sure. And I remember feeling so self conscious where I was like, damn.

[Andrew Schultz]

Why?

[Mark Gagnon]

Because I was like, you're paying me this amount of money, which was an insane amount of money in my mind. I was like, to be out of college making this amount of money, I was like, this is crazy. And then being so insecure about it, being like every single day being like, I have to somehow justify this.

[Andrew Schultz]

Really? Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

I was like, this is crazy.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, wow. I just thought you were doing so great. You had so many awesome ideas. And like, also just when we were writing those turn your phone things, I thought it was just like, that was so much fun. Especially, like, early. It was just me and you writing these things. And it was just like, it was fun and, and, and, and like exciting and like, cool. Learning about.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And then bringing in Robbie. I mean, that was so much fun. Like, writing the script when without jokes sucked. Yeah. But when we got into like, punch up mode.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. It was just ripping.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh. And shot at FA2. Like, poor FA was thrown in with wolves. Like, you know, FA has never done stand up. And he's got like the three of us out there who, like, I think are pretty good at stand up. Yeah. But him to just, like, maintain his Confidence in that thing and like find ways where he could offer value is just like awesome.

[Mark Gagnon]

Which I've actually always been curious, when did FA first reach out to you? And also, could you explain who FA is?

[Andrew Schultz]

FA is a Turkish border guard.

[Mark Gagnon]

He's the wall. He's a.

[Andrew Schultz]

He's the wall.

[Mark Gagnon]

He's the wall.

[Andrew Schultz]

FA Ill guy is a guy who emailed me, this is back in Brilliant Idiots days. And he emailed me I should look up these emails. And he said something to the extent of like, this is when me and Charlemagne would like argue so much. And it was about all these different things. And I was, it was like. So it was so much of these arguments and there was like this at the time, like the Brilliant Idiots audience was all Charlemagne's fans. Like, some people maybe knew me from MTV's Like Guy Code, but you have to understand it was like radio people who were transferring into pod people. And a lot of these radio people listened to the brilliant breakfast club on YouTube. So like the majority of my early career was Breakfast Club fans that became Brilliant Idiots fans and hip hop fans abroad. The only access they had to hip hop abroad, like the news of hip hop was Dat Piff. Do you know that like blog and then video wise was the Breakfast Club because they were the first one to pump put their video out there and it was so stolen. Charlemagne had the genius to be like, let them put it out. So they put it on the Breakfast Club website and then someone would rip it and then put it on a private Breakfast Club channel. Not private, but like a, you know, whatever. And he had the genius to like understand. So he was like, no, no, no, you have to let this thing go. So when I would tour internationally, like I'm in Sweden and black people are at the show. And that's because these are like the hip hop fans that found me through Brilliant Idiots Idiots via Breakfast Club. Right, right. Where were we? There's a point of bringing that up. It was fa. Oh, fa. So we would argue on this thing and like sometimes, like, I couldn't just leave it in. FA wrote me this email. He goes, sometimes you got to let the jury decide. And I thought FA was Nigerian for some reason. And I don't. Maybe it's because I think Nigerians are all like geniuses or something. But it was like this like lawyer esque email and leave it in the hands of the jury and all these fancy words. And I was like, this guy's got to be Nigerian. Like, I just know it. And it turns out he Turkish Border guard. And I remember, I think the first time I met him, it was at. In England. We were eating at an Indian restaurant. Were you with me when we were touring? No, this is when we were filming Views and he came and met us, and I was like, who the fuck is this Turkish guy? But, yeah, he just emailed me, and, like, most of the people that I've ended up working with have just emailed me or message me.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, I don't know that many that haven't. Yeah. Like, now, obviously, things are growing, so we have different people. But, like, I've always preferred to work for people who, like, understand it and believe in it.

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, the Alex one is the funniest one.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, Alex. Alex made a fake name for himself. Before it was Alex Media, it was Alex Anderson. And I had done comedy with a guy named Alex Anderson for years at the Village Lantern. This Zen is hitting. He's in. Slap you a little bit.

[Mark Gagnon]

Did you guys know the Alex story?

[Andrew Schultz]

This is hilarious.

[Mark Gagnon]

He pretended to be someone else.

[Andrew Schultz]

No, no. Alex chose the name Alex Anderson randomly. I mean, like, what are the chances of this? He texts me on dms, me on Twitter, and made a video. And he was like, here's a video of you doing something. It was like, something I did. And he, like, made a. Create a video about. About it. And this is like, I think the story's even out there right now. Okay, so this is. So he made this video, and I thought it was Alex Anderson, this comedian that I did comedy with for years at this Village Lantern. So I was. I answered it just because I thought it was him. And I don't think he used. I thought if. If he had a black dude's face as, like, a thing. I thought it was Alex being sarcastic. So I'm messaging him as he's the comedian. And I think he was working for Sypha Sounds at the time, and I think he filmed something with Sypha, and then, like, it didn't go well or something. And then Sypha fired him. And then Alex sent me the video, and I was like, oh, this is cool. But I would do something differently. And then I needed someone to film Brilliant Idiots. So I just hit Alex. I was like, dude, do you know how to edit? And he was like, of course I know how to edit. I know everything about editing.

[Mark Gagnon]

Still thinking he's the comedian?

[Andrew Schultz]

No, I thought he was. At this time, I realized he wasn't. And I had met him once.

[Mark Gagnon]

Okay.

[Andrew Schultz]

And I was like, do you want to do it? He's like, I'll absolutely do it. He took the opportunity, went with it.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's far.

[Andrew Schultz]

It's just a testament. It's like, everybody's like, how, it's, who do you know and how do you do. No, it's just ask like every famous person we have on the podcast. Like Mario Carbone is on flagrant this week. And he, we're like, how do you get a job? He was like, Daniel Ballude, who's this Danielle Ballud, who's this famous restaurateur in the city. He takes his dad, for his dad's birthday to one of Danielle's restaurants. And Danielle, Al notoriously goes to his restaurants and works the room. Like I've been at a restaurant of his. And he, he, he knows who's there. He comes and says hi. He tells you. You're the funny. You know, he does the thing. He's, you know, and he, and, and Al, like, he did it. He just, he just, and he not only did it, he didn't ask for the job, he did a job for free, knowing it could get rejected. It did get rejected and then eventually he, he got the job.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. And if it wasn't that restaurant, it would have been another restaurant.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, sorry. So Mario at that dinner gives his resume to Danielle and then calls relentlessly to do it. You. And you didn't tell the story accurately. Miles told me that you planned to open for me and then work for me. That that was all part of your design.

[Mark Gagnon]

Of course. It's in the mind. You know what I mean? It's, it's in your, it's in your thoughts.

[Andrew Schultz]

I'm going to work for him. I'm going to tell him to go to this burger joint which I know is closed, and then we're going to go to IHOP and talk about Hitler until three in the morning. And then he's going to hire me and later get a haircut inspired by that conversation.

[Mark Gagnon]

Exactly. And then you were like, I'm going to put out a stand up special and then Rogan's going to call me. Right.

[Andrew Schultz]

Got to put it out there in the world. So there is a combination of like putting things out there in the world, but also just like doing the work for free. It's like, I think corporations take advantage of that urgency, which is like the internship and it, that kind of, it kind of sucks in a way because like they've found a way to, to profit off of people's like, neediness and trying to get a job. But that is how you get a job. You do an internship whether you like it or not. You're going to do an internship like Mario Carbone, like just worked at a restaurant, cutting leaks or whatever he said. And then event which we should put out as a clip. That's a great clip. Write it down. But he just, just cut leaks for a week. And then someone goes, you're not working here. Why are you even here? And he goes, well, where do I go? Go to another restaurant that's owned by Danielle and then see if it works. And then it works. It's amazing. It's like how everyone gets a job. You just work for free. But not the internship thing. I think that's, I think it's a little.

[Mark Gagnon]

Internships become pitch because it becomes its own sort of like self mechanizing thing that people don't necessarily see.

[Andrew Schultz]

Also, once you agree to do an internship, you agree to not make money from me. So my guilt goes away. Not mine personally, because I don't really believe in it. But like the corporation goes, this person has agreed to work for nothing with.

[Mark Gagnon]

No outcome, so therefore they deserve nothing. Yeah, yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

So I'm not like anti internship, but I am like you intern on your terms, say, don't pay me, I'll just do it. I'll open for you, I'll cut clips for you, I'll do whatever. You're doing an internship without me agreeing to it. And eventually I'm just like, I gotta pay this kid. He's fucking working. But if you do it for Chase, they go, I don't have to pay him. He agreed to work for free at.

[Mark Gagnon]

All high competition positions like opening for a famous comedian on the road or working at, you know, like Citibank or whatever is going to have a higher. It's going to be more difficult to get the position 100%. Like JP diamond said this thing where he goes, or Jamie, Jamie Dimon. Jamie Dimon says if someone asked for an internship or no, he asked for an internship from someone else. I forget who is a major like banking executive. And he goes, I'll do it for free. And he goes, that's above my pay. Or something like that.

[Andrew Schultz]

That's above your pay grade?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, it's above your pay grade. You should be paying me for the experience of being in the environment. Yeah, and it's completely true. Like even the opportunity to like work with you on the road and getting paid from the clubs. Yeah, I was way overpaid.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, I mean you weren't, but I was.

[Mark Gagnon]

I got to get experience on the road, become A better comic. Learn the entire business. And I was getting paid on top of.

[Andrew Schultz]

How much would you pay for that?

[Mark Gagnon]

I was. I would pay anything. And then I got paid. I was like, this is crazy. This guy has no idea what he's doing.

[Andrew Schultz]

When I first. When I first did, like, the 441, I think I spent like 50 grand on it or something. Something like that. Or 40 grand. I got these guys, Manhattan Productions. They were awesome. They edit it and they made it better and they filmed it and they did all the things. Like, it was filmed beautifully. Like, 441 is filmed beautifully. Like, high level. I had two production teams running at the same time.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, especially at the time for YouTube.

[Andrew Schultz]

At the time it was in 4K. It was like. Like, look at the production value. That kind of shot does not exist on YouTube. Yeah, at the time, like, it just didn't exist. I don't even know if we uploaded it in.

[Mark Gagnon]

I don't know if YouTube even had forecast.

[Andrew Schultz]

It might have been like, 720 or 1080 was the top. Right. But like, look at a shot like, that doesn't exist even. Like, that's a normal shot. But those shot side shots, where is moving. It just didn't exist on YouTube.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, it'd be on Netflix itself because.

[Andrew Schultz]

I had, like, a real production company do it and the goal was sell it to Netflix. I would have. I would have paid them to put it on. Yeah, 100%.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

I. I was like, if I get it on, it's over. And obviously they weren't interested at the time, which I get. It's like, who the am I? Like, I'm trying to. I have no leverage. I can't sell you anything. Like, anyway, do it for free, but don't do an internship. Yeah, offer to do it for free.

[Mark Gagnon]

But internship portals and stuff, I never did that. It was like, yeah, submit your thing for an internship. I try to get an internship at the Tonight Show. Did you ever tell you this? You.

[Andrew Schultz]

You told me you got one at Bob and Tom. Like, you did a bunch of them.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, I. Well, it was always that kind of thing where, like, I knew someone or I emailed someone and I was like, hey, I'll do it for free. And then all those ended up turning into paid opportunities because they were like, oh, you're doing a good job and you're working hard. Like, we'll pay you. Because they see, like, oh, he's willing to do it for free. It wasn't an internship. I was like, hey, I'll just do it for free. What's up, guys? We're gonna take a break really quick because I'm sitting here in my beautiful tent, as you can see, every week, day in, day out. And people always ask, they say, mark, how do I have a tent like that? I want to, I want to sit in a beautiful tent and invite a lover, a friend, you know, someone that I appreciate and that door. I want to give them a good time inside my tent. Well, it's easy. Thanks to the good folks [e-mail]. that's right. Bluechew is the original OG brand offering chewable tablets. And what do these tablets do? Oh, I'm glad you asked. They are going to give you the just in a stronger, harder and longer lasting sexual performance. That's right. They're going to help you pitch a tent any place, anywhere. And the best part, it's all done online. That means you don't have to go to a doctor's office and, you know, talk to him. Be like, oh, you know, I'm feeling some type of way. Look, this is not for people that are, you know, lacking necessarily. This is for people that want to have the best experience of their life, whether it's Valentine's Day, birthday, a funeral, who knows, whenever you need it. You never know when you could use bluechew. And we have a special deal for the listeners of this program. That's right. Try your first month of Blue Channel Chew. For free. That's right. Completely free. Mark, is it going to work for me? Is this, hey, it's free. Why not just try it? Visit bluechew.com for more details and important safety information. And we thank BlueChew for sponsoring this podcast. All right, now let's get after it and let's get back to the show.

[Andrew Schultz]

Do they know about your Indiana one when you were living in the church?

[Mark Gagnon]

I don't think I've ever spoken about it here. Do you guys know about this? When I was living in the church in Indiana, yeah. I was living in Indianapolis on Mass Ave. In a church because it was the only place I could afford to live underground.

[Andrew Schultz]

And then what, the, the gong would wake you up every morning, right?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Well, it wasn't a Chinese church, but it was a church bell. And it would, it would ding every morning, like 8am and you would hear eight dings. You'd be like, all right, time to wake up. But I'd be up before. I'd be up at 6am to go.

[Andrew Schultz]

Bob and Tom was for the Midwest. What Rogan was yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

For comedy. Meaning, like if Chris Rock has spoken about this, you go and do radio and crush it on Bob and Tom. You sell out the weekend so comics would show up, excuse me, that Thursday morning or Friday morning, and you would.

[Mark Gagnon]

Just, you sell the whole weekend. You'd be at Crackers and the whole thing would be sold out. Then you could hit a whole run. You could go to Bloomington. All that stuff would be sold out. And I knew a dude who was a character actor on the show and I knew his son because he went to my college and I was doing open mics and he was like, yo, you do comedy? My dad is comedy. I was like, what? And his dad, the great, you know, late Donnie Baker, rip.

[Andrew Schultz]

Okay.

[Mark Gagnon]

And he connected me with the people over at Bob and Tom. They're like, yeah, you can go up there. And so I was just like doing like production work. They're like, what do you do? I was like, whatever you need, I can figure it out.

[Andrew Schultz]

But you were writing jokes for them too.

[Mark Gagnon]

Eventually, that's when I basically asked. I was like, hey, I'm a comic. Is there any way I can help in the writing team? And they were like, sure, we have like eight writers. And the joke, like the stories that they're going to talk about come out at like 8pm they get sent in an email and then just write jokes all night and then we'll read them at 6am when the show starts. And so then I got this. They were basically like, yeah, we'll add you the email list. And then I did that for like a week or two. And then my first joke I read by Tom.

[Andrew Schultz]

Do you remember which one it was?

[Mark Gagnon]

Don't even remember. I don't. I just remember listening to the show every morning at 6:00am, like, hoping, dude, I was like, I was in the studio. Like, I would wake up at five, I would do an open mic that ended at one and then like wake up at like five, take a. Like they had like these like car like ride share things or I had Uber or sometimes bike. And it was like a 40 minute bike up outside of Indianapolis. And then you bike up there and then you're in there at six in the morning, freezing cold. And then he would say a joke that I wrote and I was like, this is crazy. And then after doing that for like three or four weeks, Tom was like, yeah, we'll pay you a few hundred bucks a week. And I was like, that's ins to write jokes. Like, how insane is that? And then that was. I was Able to save money because the church was charging me, like, 300 bucks a month or something. 400 bucks a month? Like, live in the basement.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then he ended up paying me, like, five or six hundred bucks a month or something like that. It was like a couple hundred bucks a week. I was like, this is crazy. And I was just like, oh, I can actually. Because at that point, like, you don't even know if you're funny.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

You know what I mean? So the idea that, like, I was like, a year and a half into standup and jokes were getting read on Bob and Tom to other comedians.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, Roy Wood came through. Like, Roy Wood Jr. Came and did the show. And, like, he said it. Joke that I wrote to Roy and I was like, this is cr. And, like, Roy laughed and I was like, he has no idea. Like, this is insane. It just blew my mind. I couldn't believe it. So I did that one and then did the Laugh Factory. And then I did this thing with North South Productions. They ended up making Impractical Jokers. So they did a bunch of stuff for, like, True TV and, like, intern there kind of. And then linked up with you. And that was like, every one of those was just like, okay. I just knew someone. Get in, do whatever they need.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then just try to, like, build it up.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. And even if you don't know anybody, just, like, offer to do some.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Just like, hold out. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, it's. People would way rather hire somebody who's just offering to help out.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. And that's actually even a testament to you. Like, all the people that have helped out have also been around the entire time, basically. Yeah. Like, it's pretty wild.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, even looking at the people in the studio, it's like, Alex, me, fa. Like, Dove, Jamil, obviously you've known forever, but, like, everyone's in the studio has been there the whole time.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Dove is like, my best friend from college. Jamil's my best friend from high school. Like, Jamil does all our partnerships. You know, Dove is my manager, but, like, producing partner. And. Yeah. Just. I would rather create shit with everybody. I. I kind of learned that early on. This is not even. Even before career. I was like, there are certain people who have, like, different friend groups, you know, like, there's like, oh, these are my friends here. And I was like, I don't have time to manage all that. Like, you guys gotta find a way to get along. So, like, all of there are friends of mine who I've introduced to other friends and they are closer than I am.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, wow.

[Andrew Schultz]

With them.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

But it was just like, listen, let's all. If I have a moment free, I'm going after this comedy shit. So. I knew for a decade I was gonna have no time. Like, I didn't have a birthday party. Like, my birthday is October 30th. So, like, I would come. Come back from, like, doing Foxwoods comics in Foxwoods or whatever like that, and it would be, like, a costume party in my apartment that, like, Jamil is throwing, you know, with my boy Chris and who else? Whoever else was living in there and. But yeah, that's the. I wasn't upset about it. Like, I was. Dude. Yeah. You just got to do shit for free. Comedy is doing shit for free.

[Mark Gagnon]

But you have a. You have an ability to assemble people in a unique way that all the people you assemble all generally get along.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Because they're cool.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, I've become friends with your friends from high school.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. I like cool people, man.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And if I don't fuck with you, you're not cool. Like, it's that simple. Like, it's just everybody who I think is cool and I really fuck with that, they're still around. And if I don't. Man, it is. It is what it is. Like, you know, it's not that you're not cool, but, like, it's just you're grading or something. I don't know. Like, you can't just be with the people. Yes. It's like when we get to do crazy shit like the Garden or something like that. Like, all these things are decades in the making.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, Dove and I were going to do a radio show in college.

[Mark Gagnon]

I never knew this. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

We were like, yo, we should do a radio show. That'd be so cool. And now, like, you know, he's producing a podcast.

[Mark Gagnon]

You're doing it. You're doing it. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, all these things happen and just. Just have, you know, crazy ideas and then running with.

[Mark Gagnon]

I remember even after talent, Town hall, which, for anyone that doesn't know, is in New York.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Probably like, 1200 seats. 1500.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, maybe something like that.

[Mark Gagnon]

Something like that. And you were like, we're gonna do the Garden.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And at that point, it was like, Kevin Hart, Andrew Dice Clay.

[Andrew Schultz]

There's a video dropping in. It's dropping in after we did Town Hall. Where, Where, Where? I, I. This is so, like, I get it if you're like, what an. After doing town hall, we do a video video. It was a dropping in. And at the end of it. I go, I know where we're gonna. I know where we're going next. Or something like that. Yeah, that one right there. Go to the end of that video. This is insanity. This is so cool. Look at that outfit. Just insanity. I want to say thank you to every single one of you that have helped me get this far. This has been an amazing journey, but it's so cool. But listen up. We're not done yet. We got a lot of work to do. I hope you're ready because I know exactly where we're going next. What year is this?

[Mark Gagnon]

Hold on. Click, click. More. Yeah. 2019. That's crazy. Like, that's wild because at that point, again, if you looked up, like, who had sold at MSG for stand up in 2019, it was literally, Kevin, I think you're on mute.

[Andrew Schultz]

Workday starting to sound the same.

[Mark Gagnon]

I think you're on mute.

[Andrew Schultz]

Find something that sounds better for your career on LinkedIn.

[Mark Gagnon]

With LinkedIn job collections, you can browse curated collections by relevant industries and benefits like flexpto or hybrid workplaces so you can find the right job for you.

[Andrew Schultz]

Get [e-mail] jobs finding where you fit. LinkedIn knows how.

[Mark Gagnon]

Pro ball or Lonzo ball for buzzballs Ready to go.

[Andrew Schultz]

Cocktails, take 12.

[Mark Gagnon]

Buzz balls just dropped their biggest blue balls. Script says Biggie's blue balls.

[Andrew Schultz]

Lonzo, take 13.

[Mark Gagnon]

Blue balls just dropped their biggest buzz balls.

[Andrew Schultz]

Ugh.

[Mark Gagnon]

Let's try a vocal exercise. Buzz balls. Biggies.

[Andrew Schultz]

Blue balls.

[Mark Gagnon]

Buzz balls.

[Andrew Schultz]

Biggies.

[Mark Gagnon]

Blue balls. Big balls. Just drop. Get blue balls this season with buzz balls, please. You're responsible.

[Andrew Schultz]

Buzz ball, wine & Malt, 15% Alco B&Bus Balls LLC.

[Mark Gagnon]

Carrollton, Texas Art, Dane Cook, Dice Clay. Maybe like, maybe a couple others, like Aziz. I think, like, yeah, it was like, household names.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

This guy, this guy that I'm working with from YouTube's like, yeah, we're gonna do. I was like, all right, is that crazy? And I honestly feel guilty for having any skepticism in the moment you told me. And I was like, I mean, you get maybe like. I was like, who does that?

[Andrew Schultz]

I couldn't see a world where it wouldn't to happen.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's. That's crazy.

[Andrew Schultz]

Isn't that crazy? Now I realize that's crazy. Isn't that weird? Like, like now, like, at that moment, I had no insecurity that, like, what if it didn't happen? Like, how that could be perceived. But I wonder if at that moment, like, you're like, who's even paying attention?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

I don't know. I don't know why, but I think.

[Mark Gagnon]

That'S every great ever that has done anything. Right?

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, I had no question. Isn't that nuts? Like, no question session.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, I remember when we did Radio City, there was a part of me that was like, ah, should we have done. We did two at Radio City. Right? And I was like, so we could have done the Garden. Like, we could have maybe done one maybe. Yeah, maybe squeaked out one, but maybe not.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And. And I remember after doing it, going, like, how am I gonna make another hour? Like, I thought that, like, I was like, how am I gonna do it? Like, I don't even know. Like, how long will that take? And will it be fun? And. And then this one happened, which was, like, really awesome. But. But, yeah, that was just crazy. Look at that. Insane.

[Mark Gagnon]

The leather shirt is fire.

[Andrew Schultz]

Also, just the pants. It's like, every episode of Flagrant, people are like, oh, I can see your. Your legs and stuff. Like, all right, so for Radio City, you're gonna see a lot of them.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, George watching, bro. That's fire.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But, yeah, it's wild. And then now that I'm circling back, like, getting. I'm now doing shows where I'm getting the deals that you got 10 years ago.

[Andrew Schultz]

How awesome is it, though?

[Mark Gagnon]

It's wild.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But, like, there's actually a clip that I'm going to chop up. But it was a show at Governors, which actually sold out. It was crazy. Yeah, but it. And I should say sold out. The way that your early show sold. It was like, you know, got some papers here and there.

[Andrew Schultz]

We call it sold out, man. More water in this. Throw me a little water bottle right there.

[Mark Gagnon]

But I did the show, and then a girl was like, oh, I saw you at msg, and a bunch of people clapped. And then I was like, yeah, now I'm. Now I'm here. You know what I mean? Like, the circle of life kind of, like, just goes all the way back around. I mean.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, that's the. The cool, fun part.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Going through that. Also doing it by yourself. Oh, doing it by yourself is. Is very exciting, too, you know, like, headlining, I'd imagine is different.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Like, it's. Yeah. Headlining is kind of. Yeah. I mean, it's what standup is. You know what I mean?

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, you do spots in the city and you're like, all right, it's fun, but headlining is, you know, I mean, it's fire, but I don't know, it's just an interesting full circle. Even hearing you talk about how excited you were to do that, like, in my mind, I don't know. Like, I get, like, I get nervous. I'm like, ah, can I do it? Am I able to do it? Da, da, da. But, like, your excitement of, like, to come up kind of reinvigorates my excitement to be like, yeah, I'm like, I'm excited. Like, to headline four shows in a weekend is crazy.

[Andrew Schultz]

Just say the craziest shit out loud and put the pressure on yourself to do it. Yeah, yeah. Like, Covid, I think, made me think, like, there was nothing we couldn't do. That made me think there was nothing.

[Mark Gagnon]

You sold a Netflix special.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. But, like, do you remember what I told you at that when I was like, if we do this for. I was like, if we do this for four months, we will do a net. We will get. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? I think we did 17 weeks. It was like, one week off. And I was like, we do this for four months, we will get a Netflix special.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. And again, I was like, get made. I don't know.

[Andrew Schultz]

But there was no question. I was just. And shout out to Bill Maher. Bill Maher was. It was the piece that started. Started that.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

He put out a piece, and it was about, like, why it's. People were saying it was racist to call it, like, the Chinese flu or something like that. And I remember I got sent that piece by, like, four different generations of people. It was like, my wife's stepdad sent it to me. Maybe you sent it to me. Somebody, like, around my age sent it to me. It was like. It was like four different generations. And I was like, oh, people are really feeling something that they can't. That they don't feel comfortable communicating. And we had nothing to lose. Like, we weren't going for any deals anywhere. And we had a whole studio that Ben Uyeda built for us. Like, I don't know, it just seemed like you would be crazy to not. And there was also. Part of me was like, and if we don't, it will be bigger. We fucked up with that in retrospect.

[Mark Gagnon]

What do you mean? The pieces were too long, like, for Netflix. You mean for pace. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, I think I was so insecure. I was like. I was like, it gotta be undeniable. Like, it. Everything was always. It's gotta be undeniable, you know, like, four for one. I. It was 50 minutes. I made it 14.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

It's gotta be undeniable.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's something you always said, like, even cutting a standup clip, like again, me, early on, I'd be like, no, it's good. Like, I think this can go. And you go, has to be undeniable.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And I'd be like, well, it's. It's good.

[Andrew Schultz]

You know, you always have that. That's why I never felt. That's why I think you and I connected. We both have the insecurity of. Of it. Of it not living up to our expectations.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And that can be crippling too. Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, welcome to the show.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Yeah, it could be.

[Mark Gagnon]

Me and Gabe are going through stand up clips and he's like, oh, that's good. I got. That sucks.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

It's like a joke I've been doing for seven years. I'm like, that it sucks.

[Andrew Schultz]

And that's the, that's the importance of posting regularly. Like, even if I don't post something for like a week or something on my Instagram, like, I feel like there's a pressure on the thing I post. If I'm posting daily, it's like, no pressure. I don't care.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, tomorrow we got heat.

[Andrew Schultz]

Or it's like it doesn't matter. Like, oh, this didn't do. This will do. Well, whatever. But like waiting time. You just put so much builds up.

[Mark Gagnon]

And builds up and builds up.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. I mean, that's the kind of Rick Rubin thing. Like, just live creatively. Just make stuff, put it out there. Make stuff, put it out, iterate on it, get better. Make stuff, put it out.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And I'm trying to do that now where I'm like even looking at stand up, I'm like, I always tell you.

[Andrew Schultz]

You just got to put it out. Put out some. That sucks. And then see how people don't care that much. You know what I mean? Like, your standard for yourself is already going to be 10 times higher than everybody's. That's why I always felt comfortable creating with you, because I didn't. I could. Like, I could, I could, I could go, yeah, like, Mark will make the right decision because he's as insecure about this badly as me.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Where there's other people that you create with where you're like, they don't have that insecurity. And that's why like even editing a Netflix special and just. Or not a Netflix special, but like, because we edited that. But like handing off a special to a random editor who's a good guy.

[Mark Gagnon]

Y.

[Andrew Schultz]

But he's got other he wants to do. Matter of fact, he wants to Be a. A screenwriter. So he's working on his screenplay. He's not working on your Netflix special where we're painstakingly, like, looking at every single line playing. Like, those pieces that we did. Like, people don't even know this. We would adjust the speed. People don't even realize this.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, this part's a lot of, like, kind of, like setup and sort of expository stuff.

[Andrew Schultz]

Go 1.3. Yeah. But then adjust the tone of the volume so they don't. Or not the volume. Like the tone of the voice so it doesn't.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. The pitch. Yeah. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like putting the pictures on. On the punch line so they don't drop before. And then it was so funny. Why watching, like, the. The networks start to, like, they weren't. We didn't invent something, but they would adapt to what we were doing. You could feel it. And they didn't even know. It was just some editor there going, oh, this is working. Let me. Let me see if. If I do this, maybe I'll get some credit.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

At, you know, Oliver.

[Mark Gagnon]

But I would internalize all the criticism. Like, there's ever, like, a comment that was like, ah, I think they. They missed it with this one. Or like, that. This. This line was a little off. Off.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

I would be like, oh, yeah. I would, like, lose sleep. I was like. My wife would be like, what's wrong? I'm like, just this line. I just feel like we didn't.

[Andrew Schultz]

That was. This is one of the reasons why that show was so magical, is that you. You were like, it's got to be sliced. Right? And you would, like, you. Like, they could say this or they could say that. They could say this.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Right. And I'll be like. Like, it's the Chinese fault. You know what I mean?

[Mark Gagnon]

Technically, they're from the Han dynasty, so.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But.

[Andrew Schultz]

And then, like. But you need. Like, you needed whatever I got in my head that makes me go, I'll just say it. Yeah. And I needed you to be like, well, it's specific. If we go, like, right here, this. And I learned a lot even through that process. It's like, it's gotta be. It's gotta. This is the reality of what made that show so good is that the truth is boring. But we had jokes that made the boring truth interesting and fun.

[Mark Gagnon]

More importantly, you could take the truth and make it digestible.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yes.

[Mark Gagnon]

So, like, I would be on the phone with my college professor, be like, hey, dude, how do we break this down? And you're like, hold on. It's like this.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then all of us would kind of be like, yeah, it is. Mostly.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But, like, you would take a difficult to understand concept and then put it into, like, a sentence.

[Andrew Schultz]

I could explain smart shit to dumb people. And I could explain dumb shit to smart people.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

I'm like a. Like an intermediary for them. You know what I mean?

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, intellectual, bisexual. Yes.

[Andrew Schultz]

So it's like, o could tell me some, like, really smart, heady. And I'll be like, all right, I get it. Nobody's gonna understand the way you say that. Well, actually, U is amazing with metaphors. He's, like, really gifted in that way. Like, he'll be like, it's like this. And I'm like, that's the best joke that's ever been said. Like. But usually people with that level of intellect, they. Vivec is an issue with it. He don't know how to communicate to dumb people.

[Mark Gagnon]

He's too smart.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. And it's like, I. I could. I know what you're saying, and I can make it digestible.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. I think it's a New York thing.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Maybe because it's.

[Mark Gagnon]

You're growing up around all different types of people. Right. Like, you'll go to school and there's like, the hedge fund kid that, like, you're like, all right, he's smart. D. But then you go play ball, and there's a guy who's like, doesn't. You know, he didn't. He didn't go to the same schools, but you can know how to talk to him.

[Andrew Schultz]

I might just be just smart enough to understand smart, smart people and just dumb enough to. To communicate to dumb people. Like, I might be in that. Whatever that is. Like, that perfect. Like, Venn diagram.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then you add some jokes in there.

[Andrew Schultz]

But that. The. This is what I. It's like what we were doing was wildly not edgy. Like, it was edgy because we were saying crazy. But if I would really dissect, wasn't that. That edgy? The jokes were edgy. But the point of view, the reason why I was so crazy, at least what I felt at the time was so successful, is because it was sliced so thin. And you deserve so much credit for this, is like, it was sliced so thin, and we were not lazy about that at all. It was, like, so thin that, like, the most conservative person and the most liberal person would have to be like, ah, that's kind of how I feel.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. It was sensible.

[Andrew Schultz]

And that's boring. Sensibility is boring. But if you add jokes, it's funny. Yeah. And it was just this, like, magical combo.

[Mark Gagnon]

I remember. I think Rogan reposted one and he tagged me in it.

[Andrew Schultz]

Jason Momoa, son. It was. Everybody was.

[Mark Gagnon]

It was.

[Andrew Schultz]

And, yo, shout out to Rogan, because he blew that thing up. Yeah. And that's another cool thing about Ro. I mean, every. You know, he's just. He always, like, supports things that he really loves, and, like. Like, he shows a lot of love, but, like, he tagged you in it. Huh?

[Mark Gagnon]

I couldn't believe it. Like, I. I got an Instagram, like, notification like, Joe Rogan tagged you. I was like, what did I do? And then it was a piece, and I was like, this is crazy. Like, again, a year before, I was doing open mics, graduating college.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. And then, like, a year, year and a half later, Joe Rogan's tag me. I was like, this is insane. Like, I just didn't think it was possible. Possible to do.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then it was all happening. I was like, I can't believe I remember being in the park. I was literally in Central park with my wife and was like, yeah, I guess. Yeah. Rogan attack.

[Andrew Schultz]

I knew that was gonna kill. I just knew it, bro. I was like, everybody's. Nobody's doing anything, and they have nothing to watch. And now these. These NETWORKS with the 50 cameras and 100 writers, like, they gotta compete with us.

[Mark Gagnon]

Do you remember they tried to poach you?

[Andrew Schultz]

Who?

[Mark Gagnon]

I don't know if we can. If you want to edit this out, we can, but Trevor, Noah called you.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They didn't try to poach. Wanted. He wanted to produce a show, but.

[Mark Gagnon]

He was like, yo, let's get you on tv.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which was cool with Trevor. It was cool, Trevor.

[Mark Gagnon]

But then you were like.

[Andrew Schultz]

I was like, I don't. Like, I like, yeah. Like, how can we do this on tv? It's crazy the. That we were saying at that time. And this is. I do have a lot of empathy for Joe because, like, a lot of the shit that he says eventually becomes normalized, but he gets a lot of shit for when he says it in the moment.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

I still get people, like, if. If anybody says anything complimentary and, like, a. Like a respected, you know, journal or whatever, they have to say. He got a lot of heat for saying Asian jokes or whatever.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

The Asian jokes were literally Covid.

[Mark Gagnon]

Came from Asia and it did. But.

[Andrew Schultz]

But there's. It's so funny. It's like, once you get, like, a stain yeah. They. They will never, like, remove it, even if it was right.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then slowly, the culture started. Like, John Stewart came out.

[Andrew Schultz]

When Stewart did that, everybody. When Stewart was on, what show was it? It was on.

[Mark Gagnon]

I think it was Fallon.

[Andrew Schultz]

No, no, Colbert. And Colbert is, like, shaking. He's like, what the. Is happening right now? And then he just said the most on. And he had the trust of the people, but he said just the most honest, simple thing.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

You know that we're doing Covid studies at the gain of function Covid lab.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then a Covid hand china.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And the name of the facility.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then everyone kind of got on board.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then now, I think the Congress put out a report, and they were like, yes.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. We called it the. The Wuhanic plague. And they called us races for that.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Isn't that up not wild?

[Mark Gagnon]

And it's like, look, I mean, it's true, bro.

[Andrew Schultz]

We had. That was so much fun. And. And, yeah. And people are like, why'd you stop doing it? And. Because it. It. It wasn't needed. The only time I felt like it was needed again was Is honestly now.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, before that, it was like, it's not needed. Like, there was no. Like, when Biden came in, everything kind of calmed down. And, like, no one was that, like, infuriated by. I was like, okay, it's not like, if we do it now, it will just seem like we're trying to grab on an issue every week.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

That was the other thing. Like, these shows that got to do every day. There's nothing to talk about every day.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yep. Like, we would. They got sponsors. They got AD commitment D staff. Find some.

[Andrew Schultz]

You got to find some. Yeah. And then you become the shows that seem like. So then it's easy to find some every day. That's just like, oh, this is the conservative thing, or this is the liberal thing.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. What's working? And then you kind of lean in. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

But we were like, what is the issue? And it would be hard. We'd spend the first three days of the week going, what's the topic?

[Mark Gagnon]

Once you have an issue, then you can kind of build it out. You write some jokes. Finding the issue is the hard part.

[Andrew Schultz]

Brutal. There'd be times where it be Friday, and we have no issue. Right.

[Mark Gagnon]

Like, yeah, But I think some of those pieces were the ones that did the best, which is interesting.

[Andrew Schultz]

That, like, Women's soccer one.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Like, the. I forget what it was. It was like, something about, like, Tekashi 69 and Trump.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, that was great. Yeah. When you. When you. Oh, oh, was this the one? Oh, no, no, the Tekashi one. It's like when you want to. When you want fast, content with something. Something. Oh, the last line of it was go to the. Go to the end. This was fire. There's also a cool little dictate success today. Clout. And Trump and Tekashi are climbing clout. They have an unbelievable ability to garner attention. And in the age of social media, attention, whether good or bad is the only requirement for victory. The marketplace is dominated by clicks and shares, and as a result, we don't always get the best person for the job. We just get the person that grabs the most attention, and maybe that's what we deserve. We're a society that demands to be entertained, entertained every moment of the day for free. This is what we ask for. When you want a circus, you exalt the clowns. So enjoy the show. Watch this, watch this, watch this. There's like a few seconds of black, right? Yeah. The point of the few seconds of black before the video ends is so that you look at your. Yourself, so you're reflected in whatever screen you're watching, and it. And the hope is that you'd be like, oh, is that me? Yeah, yeah, it's you.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Here is a bullet. The Scotland Yard detective's hand trembled as he opened the letter. Dear Boss, it began on this day in 1888. Jack the Ripper's most infamous message arrived, taunting police with details that almost only the true killer could know. But what the letter revealed about the Ripper's true identity would remain hidden for decades. Now let's travel across The Atlantic, where 115 settlers vanished without a trace. The lost colony of Roanoke. Abandoned homes, untouched plates of food, and a single word carved into a tree. Croatoan. To this day, it remains America's oldest unsolved mystery. These aren't ghost stories. They're real historical events from Today in History, the newsletter that delivers history's most gripping mysteries straight to your inbox. From unsolved crimes to unexplained disappearances. From ancient enigmas to modern conspiracies. Ready to unlock history's greatest secrets. Scan the QR code now or click the link in the description to sign up for Today in History. Yeah, that one was fire, and that one was a. That was one that I think we cooked up, like, on a Friday. Yeah. Like we were dropping them on, like, what, Sunday Sundays.

[Andrew Schultz]

And it was just like, there's nothing coming out. There's no shows. There's nothing. It was like us and the last dance and it was. And you know what I liked about it? It was like we got to put 100% focus on one thing. Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. That was kind of nice.

[Andrew Schultz]

That is just.

[Mark Gagnon]

Even in Miami, it was just like.

[Andrew Schultz]

100% focus on one thing. I can do. I can do two. I can do one thing. The. The best I can do two things. Really good. And that's it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And we were doing like, the pod was good at this time, but I think the pod was floating on some of the success of these rants. Like, it was always good. We were like, chopping up and like fun. The pod was, I think, the best. When we. After Infamous and we were doing the new studio and that run was crazy and it was like, I wasn't doing stand up, we were going all in and it was just insanity. And then I had to take time to build out the standup and then, I mean, like, I'm biased, but I think the show that we put together for this last tour, and I mean from top to bottom, I mean, like, Derek, you made the experience. They got the show. I think it was just the best that you would see. It seems braggadocious, but, like, I genuinely believe, like, you come out for a night of comedy and that hour and a half we give you, from the intro video to the fucking end, it was like, I'll put that up against anything. Anything else that's out there and. But we got to put all of our attention on one thing. And it was just insanity.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, yeah, it was far. I mean, I'm curious actually now.

[Andrew Schultz]

Now it would crush. I think about this all the time. It's like, how do we. Yeah, like, it's like now is the time. Like that kid who got. Or I didn't know if they're a kid, but like the. The El Salvador. Yeah, like, what's happening? Video breaking that down. And also the amount of jokes would be. But like ms.13 sounds like a code name for like a Epstein Island. Ms. 13.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, it's a New York City middle school, I think.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yes, but. But yeah, just like now we're in that information bubble where it is a Trump effect, where it's just like anything he does is going to be met with immediate rejection. Rejection. And like, sometimes he does that, like, deserves the rejection and sometimes he does that doesn't. And like, you just deliver the truth on that thing.

[Mark Gagnon]

And who can be honest and slice.

[Andrew Schultz]

It and who doesn't care enough?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Because everybody else got to care. You have your audience, you have your sponsors, you have. You have people you speak to. And most importantly, like, people are like, beholden to their audience. Yeah. And the beauty of this was, like, this didn't have an audience. It was just whoever was watching. It's not like we were appeasing the group of people that day.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. It was just. What is the truth?

[Andrew Schultz]

There's no audience. It was just like, we weren't targeting a person. It was like, this is the story. And if you never listen to another thing, but you listen to one thing that week, it was because you were interested in it. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a really fascinating. But now is the. Now is the time. Like, this is the only time that made me go, like, if we get everything else in order and we really build out a team, like, we could fucking.

[Mark Gagnon]

Are you. Are you excited to get back into standup mode?

[Andrew Schultz]

Not yet.

[Mark Gagnon]

Really? Because, like, you haven't even in, like, the new, like, political era.

[Andrew Schultz]

I haven't been on stage in months.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. And then even before that, it was just the hour you've been working on for months before that, which was, like, really personal.

[Andrew Schultz]

It was nothing about what was happening in the world.

[Mark Gagnon]

But now it feels like everything's different.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. I'm trying to figure out, like, what the thing is that I really want to talk about. About.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And, like, it will happen eventually, but I don't want to force it. And I feel like I just. I'm like, I'm excited about the pod again. Like, this week was, like, fun. Like. Like, it just felt like back in the day, like we were just. Yeah. Just like really kind of organizing and figuring that out. But there's always a part of me that goes, because these pieces make no money. It's the worst form of content. It's three to five minutes. So you can maybe put one sponsor on it.

[Mark Gagnon]

It takes 25 hours of work.

[Andrew Schultz]

It takes minimum. It's insane amount of work. It's the worst form of content. And because of that, it's the best piece of content.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like anything that looks like it took way too much work for what you could make money on. It feels the best.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Yeah. It's like a short film. You know what I mean? It's like. It's like some students spend like a year of their life making this stop motion thing.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's only 12 minutes long, but that's oftentimes the stuff that you're like, oh, holy shit, this is crazy. It's so distilled. I Mean, are you thinking of bits now?

[Andrew Schultz]

No, I haven't thought of a single joke. Isn't that crazy?

[Mark Gagnon]

I don't believe that. I just don't believe it.

[Andrew Schultz]

Swear to God.

[Mark Gagnon]

But I'm sure it's, like, in there. And you're like, not one.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, maybe I'll have a note. Let me see if I have a note.

[Mark Gagnon]

Does it ever depress you when you open your notes app and you're like, haven't been edited for a month. That'll happen to me sometimes. I'm like, ah, I haven't put anything in here in four weeks. This is not good.

[Andrew Schultz]

Say, right? Nope. Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Ukraine war. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

It's like, I'm trying. I'm like, what do I. I have to really figure out. I also got to get tapped into culture. Like, I've spent a while, like, with the pod. You get to do it.

[Mark Gagnon]

But I feel like this pod run going to all sorts of people, then you get to know what people are feeling.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. And like, it was interesting. I had like a. I called up Hassan Piker the other day because I watched the. Did you watch the Dave Smith.

[Mark Gagnon]

Douglas Murray.

[Andrew Schultz]

Douglas Murray. Did you watch. It's really interesting. And there was, like, a moment of it, like, really. I mean, we spoke about a little bit, but, like, it was a moment, like, really, like. And I hit Rogan up about it, and it was like. Like, Douglas Murray was talking to. To Rogan and also, like, talking to Dave. And he was doing this thing about, like, experts. And it's like, you say you're an expert, then you don't say you're an expert. He was saying, like, Rogan doesn't have enough people. And I hit up Rogan. I was like, listen, Douglas was, like, tiptoeing around something. Not tiptoeing is the wrong. But he was, like, close to something, but it wasn't actually there. And not to be critical of Douglas, but, like, the point wasn't really there and. Which is, like, it's not about whether you consider yourself an expert or not. That's actually unimportant. It's like Rogan, us, like, we don't consider ourselves the news, so we entertain. That's why I hit up broken. I was like, so we entertain these people who are far more absurd because we're comedians who like absurd shit.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

So we don't hold ourselves to the journalistic standards of the news. Assuming I'm being very generous with the news. Let's just assume I'm being generous with it. I know. I already Comments with the news is fake. Yes, of course. Blah, blah, blah. But the idea would be, is that, like, if you're going to print something, it would have some journalistic integrity that give the best case scenario. Whereas, like, we don't. Like, we'll have Billy Carson come on. And we know he's full of shit and he's fun full of shit. Yeah. And. And we're treating him almost like our comedian friends. We're like, yo, be fun. Full of shit. This is entertaining.

[Mark Gagnon]

We tell him straight up. Yeah, we're not gonna fact check.

[Andrew Schultz]

We're not fact checking. And that's our way of communicating to the audience, like, all this is lies and it's fun lies.

[Mark Gagnon]

Or some of it could be true, but we're not gonna check.

[Andrew Schultz]

We're just gonna enjoy this. The problem is, and this is not to, like, escape culpability here, but, like, at some point in time, we became the news Rogan. To a lesser extent, us other podcasts, we just became the places where people got information. And that's dangerous because we don't want to be the news. We want to talk to crazy people. So crazy people became normal.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And that's why everybody's obsessed with conspiracy and everything, because we're like, yeah, that's the most fun. It's magic tricks. I know it's fake. I still want you to do it. Yeah, I know wrestling's fake. I still want to watch it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

But we, I guess, in a lot of ways normalize this stuff. And we never felt responsibility because we're like, we're not the fucking news.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

We're comedians. But at a certain point in time, and I was. I was just trying to, like, you know, like, hold myself, you know, accountable. I was like, when a certain amount of people, when more people watch you than the news, are you the news?

[Mark Gagnon]

Hmm.

[Andrew Schultz]

And then even if you say you're not, like, what responsibility do you end up having?

[Mark Gagnon]

I mean, I think. I mean, we've always been forthcoming with guests that are fringe.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Right. Just been like. Like, yo, we're not going to co sign everything. Just take us on a ride.

[Andrew Schultz]

Take us on a ride. But at the same time, like, you can't expect, I guess, the listener to just assume it's a ride. Especially when these things are so much more interesting and digestible. It's like we were saying before, like, when we did that show, that was like what we, after our research thought was like. Like at least the emotion or the sensibility of people. And then we made it funny. With jokes. But the emotion or sensibility was like really hard to get to. And we had to read documents and ask a million different fucking people and call up all these. It's like we had to fact. It was like boring. We don't do that with a podcast. You just let someone come on and say whatever. And I guess we assume that that's okay because it's like, that's what I'm interested in. It's my show and you should be allowed to do that. This is America where it's a free country. We're allowed do whatever the we want. But there's no way the news can now the news also up. They put out tons of fake. They promoted propaganda. They lied to us. They are responsible for our loss of faith as well. But their mixed with our interesting. You can't compete. It's almost like the shitty standup that was happening. And then, you know, we were putting out cool shit on YouTube. Like, of course people are going to go watch on YouTube.

[Mark Gagnon]

The History Channel. Right. Like the History Channel for years was just like this war that happened in Peloponnesia. Da da da da.

[Andrew Schultz]

This exactly how it happened.

[Mark Gagnon]

And now it's just like, yo, aliens did all of it. You know what I mean? It's like, yeah, that's way more interesting.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, yeah. They're going for the views.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Wow. The History Channel has become all aliens, huh?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, 100%. If you look up like history, discovery, all these channels. Yeah, it's just like the most interesting, unfortunately.

[Andrew Schultz]

But like, oh, Netflix put out the whole Graham Hancock thing. It's full of. And I imagine it is. And like I like the fullest. I went to the pyramids. Yeah, specifically. But it's full of. Yeah, Like Ben had got the best. The best way of looking at this. He goes, you got to understand, like back in the day, we're talking about 4,000 years ago, there was no basketball. So Steph Curry back in the day was the Steph Curry of making. So you figured out how to move big heavy blocks in the sand because he couldn't play basketball or he couldn't do, I don't know, whatever Darwin was doing or whatever all the smart people back in the day built.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

They didn't have time to do anything else. And when you put all that brain power towards one specific thing, which is making this tall thing that's pointy at the top, you'll figure it out. That's the most likely scenario.

[Mark Gagnon]

There's also hubris that we assume that people a thousand 2000, 3000 years ago, couldn't do this. Yeah, they're so dumb.

[Andrew Schultz]

Only we can do things. Agreed. 100. So I don't know, there was this like, moment so I hit up Hassan. I was like, I, I, I, I was like, what is your take on this? Not the Israel, Palestine, but like, just what is your take on the idea of like, information and disseminating information and the responsibility and the idea of like us entertaining these people? And he was like, yes. Like, I think that that's a lot of times what maybe the left has complained about, maybe the right has complained about it too, like platforming and these types of things. And whenever I looked at it, I, I, I eye rolled because I didn't see like the downstream effects of it. But now I see just how popular conspiracy is. It's almost like annoying. It's so mainstream. And I think a lot of times, like, we'll hear one story about the CIA and we'll be like, now it looks like I'm a propagandist for the CIA, but like, they hear one story about the CIA or 10 stories about the CIA and like the whole CIA is bad. And it's like some of these probably stop some bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And there also might be a fringe group that exists within these organizations that do bad.

[Andrew Schultz]

So. Yeah, and they're responsible also for their bad. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to put all the responsibility on us, but it is an interesting time that like, none of us really wanted, like, we wanted, you know, fun, crazy interviews and talking to wild people and big YouTube views and success and you know, like, you know, provide for our families and like, go do stand up and say crazy. That's what we want. We weren't like, we're going to be the people who disseminated information. I mean, maybe when we were doing that YouTube show, but definitely not when we're podcasting. Yeah, I mean, we got the mayor on and we're like, yo, build a strip club. There's no way that somebody's trying to be like, disciplined with the truth that doesn't have comedic chops, which these news people don't can compete with that. Of course we're not going to watch Fox or CNN compared to watching Rogan or compared to watching us or Theo or, or Tim Dillon or any of these guys. It, it's more entertaining.

[Mark Gagnon]

But is that more honest? Like, does it appeal to like, what is truly human?

[Andrew Schultz]

This is where like, this is, this is where like I try, I hate this. Like, this Is this, like, Ivy League? Not. You're not being. But, like, my answer would be this, like, Ivy League pretentiousness, where it's like, we have to be careful for the people out there and the information we give them. It's like, I don't think we do. I think people have to, you know, discern information for themselves. And yes, it is more honest, but if it becomes the news or if it becomes the information, it is very easy for people to get radicalized. Maybe that's even a strong word, but it's very. People. For people. Very easy for people to just kind of believe all these things. The amount of things I believe just off of a headline. And then I go, why do I believe that? And I go, it's just. That's what I believe. Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

All of us. Yeah. I had a conversation with a friend yesterday. Like, we were all talking about, like, George Soros. We're like, yeah, he's bad.

[Andrew Schultz]

He's bad. But I don't know why he's bad.

[Mark Gagnon]

Why? I don't know. And I did a deep dive, and I was like, yeah, he funded a bunch of da.

[Andrew Schultz]

And then he also, like, bet against.

[Mark Gagnon]

The British pound or something, made a bunch of money.

[Andrew Schultz]

Why do we care about the British pound? Didn't we try to destroy them? Yeah, yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And this. That was my thing. It's like, okay, funded a bunch of liberal DAs. I'm like, dude, he do it to subvert America. I'm like, I don't. That's where the conjecture comes in.

[Andrew Schultz]

That's the idea.

[Mark Gagnon]

But it's like, well, but he might just be a liberal guy.

[Andrew Schultz]

Is he the. The OEDA take. He's like. He's the liberal Koch brothers.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

So the Koch brothers have been funding all these conservative think tanks. They fund conservative programs. They, you know, they're trying to push their idea of the world into the world world.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And what if he's also trying to do that?

[Mark Gagnon]

And what if he just has bad ideas? Like, is it possible he's just, like, a misguided guy with a lot of money that has bad ideas? It's possible.

[Andrew Schultz]

And if. What if he's a misguided guy that has bad ideas with a lot of money and he can implement those ideas really effectively with that money? What, is that bad?

[Mark Gagnon]

Or he's trying to destroy America from the inside out so that he can make a global order?

[Andrew Schultz]

But then where's he gonna live? You don't want to live in not America. So it's like, let's say let's give best case scenario, he's a misguided guy. And like, he doesn't think he's misguided, but let's say he is. He's a misguided guy. He's got bad ideas and he's got tons of money. So he can implement and even force some of those ideas on people who don't want them. Right. That's us too. It's not. It's not. But is it like.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, at its core, not to the same degree we don't got billions of dollars, but at its core, we got.

[Andrew Schultz]

Way more effective tools than. Than him.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. I mean, you can get DA's elected, which goes, you know, politically farther, farther away.

[Andrew Schultz]

Of course. Of course.

[Mark Gagnon]

The point being that, yeah, we feel the same way that we want to see the world reflected in the way that we view it. I think all people do. He just happens to glad.

[Andrew Schultz]

But it's going to look like I got tapped by my Jewish handler. The reason why I stopped the pod is because he got tapped by his Yama guy. He's getting too close to the truth.

[Mark Gagnon]

The APAC boys had to stop it down.

[Andrew Schultz]

But this is why those pieces we did were so fucking effective. Because we would do a piece about this specifically and present George Soros, but also present the Koch brothers or present who funds Shapiro shit. Like whatever rich person funds that.

[Mark Gagnon]

But now it's just a bunch of people just being like, oh, I hate that guy. Or I like that guy. Based off of who they're funding. I'm like, are they trying to destroy America or are they just people with ideas? And some of them are good or bad.

[Andrew Schultz]

The people that paint the world as good and evil will get the most attention.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, it's simple.

[Andrew Schultz]

It's so simple. And it makes me feel so good to just organize the world in that way. I think we did a piece about this, about the conspiracy stuff when we did the Netflix thing. And that piece, like, holds up the reason. My. I think the issue with the pieces for Netflix, by the way, is that we did like 4, 15 minute. If we did like, which were the initial idea, like five minute pieces, like eight. Five minute.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

But it was just too much research and work to do it.

[Mark Gagnon]

But like, I think they also had a minimum.

[Andrew Schultz]

I don't think. I think we could have done. I think we changed it.

[Mark Gagnon]

Oh, really?

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. I think we was like, yeah, there's. It's so hard to do each one of these pieces we have to do longer about.

[Mark Gagnon]

We can stretch it.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Because we do all the research. So I can make it 15.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

But we can't. Whatever. It doesn't matter. But, like. Yeah, if we did. I forgot we were talking about. No, what was it?

[Mark Gagnon]

A piece on conspiracy.

[Andrew Schultz]

Oh, yeah. Or conspiracy. Or just anything like this piece. Like, is George Soros bad? Like. Or is this person bad? Or is this. Do these people really feel this way about the world and they're trying to make the world a better place in their view? I mean, if you ask the Koch brothers, others, they're not. I imagine even if it makes them more money, they think this is a better way for other people to make money. Maybe. I. I don't think. I don't attach nefarious intent. I don't try to. Like, there are obviously horrible human beings out there.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And I think they'll. They're even justified by like a better good in some weird, convoluted way.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

You told me about the Rockefeller thing. Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And he was highly motivated by trying to amass as much wealth as possible. Possible. But kind of thought he was doing it a benevolent way where he was helping people and he was, you know, creating HBCUs and doing what he thought was right and shaping the world in his image, which is how the world has gotten to where it is now, by people with ideas making in their image. Is it good or bad? It just is. And I feel that way. Just like in general, I don't know. I think it's easy to paint the good and evil, but it is just a marketplace of ideas and people trying to make those ideas manifest. Manifest in real life.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. And that is like the best way of looking at it. Unfortunately, that's not how we consume things. And again, it's not up to us to decide how people view the world. And we shouldn't assume a lack of intellect or curiosity in people. I think that's wrong. I think that's the Ivy League where, like, they're too dumb to know what they want. We'll help them.

[Mark Gagnon]

And in general, I feel like the marketplace does a decent job of creating, correcting, generally speaking, so long as that there's open information, like you have Billy Carson, for example, that comes out, says a bunch of stuff.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Becomes controversial. You have someone like Wes Huff that comes out and says other stuff against those ideas.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then his ideas win. Yeah. And then maybe someone else will come along and have other ideas that kind of slice at those ideas. And I hope that it generally progresses, I think, like the echo chambers. And obviously algorithmically this occurs. But I'm hoping that with open discourse, where people can actually engage with each other's. Each other's ideas, I hope that people are able to kind of sense out the bullshit.

[Andrew Schultz]

I think the problem is that with the algorithm, there is no longer this kind of open marketplace.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

It's like you are served the most salacious.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And that's what you actually want. That's what I want, and that's what I read, and that's what I'm interested in. And you're not really seeking out the other opinion, and you might not do that because you're busy. You got three kids. You're like, yeah, I got one time for one opinion. And it's probably the opinion that I already feel, and I just want it justified. And. Yeah. I don't know. Like, I think we. We've tried to, like. Yeah, we tried to, like, showcase different voices. We tried to have different opinions just off of our own curiosity. I think we've done a good job of that. But it is a thing. It's like, what. Let's say you got. Got 100 million people to listen every single week. I imagine that might change the way that you put out content.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, probably. Yeah, probably. But I guess my hope would. That would be that I could offer adequate enough pushback, and by creating a. Once you have, like, that amount of people, you're not existing in one singular echo chamber that you can entertain a bunch of different ideas all within that same audience to then hope that the best ideas win.

[Andrew Schultz]

You hope, bro. Yeah, you hope. But then you have a family, and you're like, I just don't want to go on vacation, bro. I don't want to research why George Soros is good, maybe. You know what I mean? Like, that's an annoying thing to do. What we did was annoying.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. But it also kind of. It gets me going a little bit, though.

[Andrew Schultz]

It's exciting and is one of the reasons why you're so good at it. But it. It was hard.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Like, think about how hard it was to find the. The truth.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

We had to look up the court case for the women's soccer team. Compare their initial ask versus what they asked after they got their initial ask. Compare that to the men's collective bargaining agreement.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

We're looking at court docs. We're just a couple with a studio in Brooklyn that an Asian guru built for us. What the fuck? Like, there's no way CNN's doing that.

[Mark Gagnon]

There's no.

[Andrew Schultz]

Because it's easier to. To just be like, Women are great and you should pay them. And it's easier for Fox to be like, ah, these girls are just asking for and they don't deserve it. It's so much easier. Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But I feel like, at least for me, I just in general, to a fault, have an aversion to certainty.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

Whenever I hear someone's like, this is what it is in all things, even the most fundamental things that I hold dear.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

I'm still like, maybe it's not like.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, that's why you're good.

[Mark Gagnon]

The things I'm most certain about in Life are like 99. They're not even 100.

[Andrew Schultz]

That's why you're good. That's why you believe in demons, though.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's like, there's. There's an open mindedness that goes with everyone. Like, all right, there's a percentage chance.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. You know, but that's why people will trust it. And when we were doing that, like, it was. I don't want to lament too much on people doing it, but like, it is just an interesting time in history. Like, I don't even know if this has ever existed. Existed before you had to have a printing press and the ability to like make a thousand newspapers.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

Make a book.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

We're just four guys talking, you know?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And when we decided to do the thing that was like, hey, we will stand behind everything in these pieces. And if we get it wrong, like, we'll admit it. We did. Remember when we up that one thing, we fixed it. Yeah. We cut it out for the Netflix thing. And it's like, yeah, it was a. That was hard work. Like, after doing. I was like, I see why these motherfuckers don't do this shit.

[Mark Gagnon]

But that's when you stand on it. Could you entertain someone and be like, all right, maybe, I don't know.

[Andrew Schultz]

Motherfuckers don't care. I had a fact checker call me from this one piece that they did on me for the thing. And like this fact checker called me and I said, no, I didn't say that. And he called me again. He was like, well, the author thinks you said that, so are you sure you didn't say it? And I'm like, yeah, I didn't say it. Stop trying to print the shit that makes you feel good for your article when I'm telling you what the facts are.

[Mark Gagnon]

But that's a lack of journalistic integrity.

[Andrew Schultz]

They don't have it.

[Mark Gagnon]

That's. Yeah. So then the question is, do these shows that you Know, have commentators that maybe are not experts but are open minded, but also, you know, having adequate pushback that have an aversion to certainty. Are they more journalistic, like journalistically integral shows?

[Andrew Schultz]

Are those like a Rogan?

[Mark Gagnon]

I guess, like if he's going to talk with someone, he'll like have pushback and he'll kind of like entertain a bunch of different ideas. But you know, he's going to be, he's going to, he's going to let good ideas rise to the top.

[Andrew Schultz]

Well, I think that's why he was able to have so much success, is because he was able to, to have these tough conversations that had like tons of scrutiny with people that a lot of different networks would never even platform. And that takes a lot of balls to do that.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And also takes like a genuine like curiosity and things.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. And like a financial security. You know what I mean? Like he starts the show after he's, you know, made millions of dollars on the Fear Factor and stand up and he's good.

[Andrew Schultz]

So, you know, he's doing it because he just wants to do it. But that shit is hard.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. And you have all these other political commentators now that are like, I gotta.

[Andrew Schultz]

Keep the lights on and everything's reaction video. Like it's just people reacting to. Right, it's just people reacting.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

I find myself watching reaction content to know what's going on.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. Because you trust the person reacting that they're going to react in a way that you think is sensible and then you just hope that they're not feeding what you already want and that they're actually going to be genuine.

[Andrew Schultz]

I don't know. It's got me thinking, bro, like how many. Yeah. How much? It's got me thinking, what responsibility do you have? I never thought we had any responsibility for anything. I, I didn't even real. Like, I thought by saying that I was, I was more just like acknowledging my humility, you know what I mean? Like, I was like, yeah, I don't think we got Trump elected at all. I think that's what people thought. I think some people interpreted that as like trying to skirt responsibility. No, I was just being humble.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

There's like, I don't think that I.

[Mark Gagnon]

Could affect 350 million people. People like we're going to sway it. Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

I also think that when things don't go well, you're looking for someone to blame.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, yeah, of course.

[Andrew Schultz]

Or not go. Go your way.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, yeah. Who's at fault? Yeah. Who are the people that, you know, put this Thing that I don't like into, into motion. I mean, the Republicans did this with Soros, right? Like, things go bad and they're like, okay, who, who funded it? Who's in charge? Who's actually behind the scenes?

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then I think with this specific election, just the amount of pods he went on, it was an easy thing for a lot of media to jump onto and say, like, oh, these are the needle movers. Was it that? Was it poor policy and campaign decisions from the Democrats? Like, I think it's, I think it's.

[Andrew Schultz]

It'S funny because all them want to come on now. All these same people are like, oh, the manosphere is sexist debate, whatever. Like, all of them are sending emails like, we'd love to get our candidate on your podcast.

[Mark Gagnon]

Good. Let your good ideas, you know, step.

[Andrew Schultz]

On the bad ones and we'll be here for it.

[Mark Gagnon]

It's great. Like, I think, I don't know. I, I genuinely kind of look at podcasting as a return in a way to the way that ideas used to get transferred, which is like long form discussion interlocution between two people having ideas and getting them out, rather than like being printed in books. And you lose tonality. It's like a return to kind of like pre printing press. Like how ideas would be shared in a square. Obviously the amplification is by orders of magnitude greater than it ever was. But still, I think like getting someone's actual, you know, vibe through a long form conversation is going to be way.

[Andrew Schultz]

More honest, far more effective if people subscribe to it. But like, I don't know, I see the reactions to these things. Like I. That Douglas Murray, Dave Smith thing, it's like everybody that already agreed with Douglas's take was like, he won the debate.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And everybody that already agreed with Dave was like, he destroyed of. It's like, so who are you fighting for?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, yeah, no, I agree. I think the debate format oftentimes just feeds what people already believe, but I think those people are immune to evidence regardless. Yeah, but are there. Is there a margin of people that kind of exist in between that are like, oh, no, this person actually raised a good point.

[Andrew Schultz]

You would hope that that margin is like 80.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. In a perfect world, you know.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But you don't really know how much it is. And obviously like the comments are going to be the most radical on either side. My hope, I don't know, maybe I'm like, I have too much faith in just the average person being able to like, sense bullshit. But my hope is that through actual good faith, open discourse, good ideas generally will kind of matriculate. Maybe I'm naive.

[Andrew Schultz]

How do you get good ideas in front of people that might not be inclined to indulge in a point of view that is against their, like, innate underpinnings?

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. I don't think the algorithms are going to do it naturally.

[Andrew Schultz]

So how do you do that?

[Mark Gagnon]

An unbiased platform.

[Andrew Schultz]

But how do they know it's unbiased? It's biased to them by nature. Because it's not what they believe.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, of course there's no such thing really as an unbiased platform, but a platform that would have on both ideas, like. Like a Joe that would have on, you know, Bernie.

[Andrew Schultz]

But even with Joe, they'll call him bias.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, of course. I mean, people are going to call you biased regardless, depending on what you. Because I don't think there truly is anything like unbiased.

[Andrew Schultz]

Right.

[Mark Gagnon]

I think every person has an implicit idea of what things should be and kind of lean one way or another.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But if you can have open discourse, like, I think flagrant does it. Right. Like, we'll have Cuban on and he'll have his ideas. We'll have, you know, a religious person on that has a very radical idea of, you know, theology.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But then we'll have the other side and have, like, open discourse. And obviously there's going to people that are in their sides that are not going to be swayed in any way.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

They didn't reason themselves into the position, so how could they reason out of it?

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

But you do hope that there's going to be a subset. They're going to be like, oh, actually, you know, I'm. I think this is a. This is an interesting idea, but again, we're not experts. We're just commentators.

[Andrew Schultz]

We're just commentators.

[Mark Gagnon]

We're entertainers, dude. You know, this has been fun.

[Andrew Schultz]

Thank you, my boy.

[Mark Gagnon]

I don't want to usher you out of here.

[Andrew Schultz]

Never.

[Mark Gagnon]

I. You don't feel that?

[Andrew Schultz]

Never, dude.

[Mark Gagnon]

But four hours, I recognize you're a busy guy.

[Andrew Schultz]

Three slices of pizza. I'm gonna regret every single one of them the second I walk out of.

[Mark Gagnon]

Can I ask a question as a mega fan? Please.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yes.

[Mark Gagnon]

Where would Schultz be without Mark? And where would Mark be without Schultz? What would you be doing? How would your careers be different? If I had to answer. That's a good question.

[Andrew Schultz]

Question.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yes, yes, I had to answer truthfully, I would have been in Orlando probably another, like, couple years. Still been doing stand up, probably Gotten like a regular job doing stand up at night and I basically would have probably been tested. I don't know if I would have left as soon as I did if I didn't have like a.

[Andrew Schultz]

You went down LA after you had success out there with the Laugh Factory and everything.

[Mark Gagnon]

I don't. I don't know if I would have gone without, like, a reason, like just the idea to go there and do open mics. I don't know if I would have done that. So, like, one path is I would have, like, tried to forge it myself, like, maybe making content. I was already making a lot of content at the time, so what have I. Would I've kept doing that? Would I have tried to, like, yeah, like, started my own thing in Florida? Or would I have just gotten like a job and been like, okay, this is pretty good. I can do stand up at night. And the prospect of trying to get on the road and doing it myself would have just been like, so insurmountable. I don't even know how you would do it that I'm like, oh, would I just, like, become pacified by the convenience of life?

[Andrew Schultz]

No, I don't think so. I think you would have just done a lot more digital content, maybe. Yeah, I think you would have made like, a lot more. Like, you would have found a way to, like, get comedy out there and then as comedy got popular, like online, I think you would have just done that probably earlier and then found ways to get success in that and then turning that into, like, moving to New York or LA or something like that. But I think you would just continue to do it it and, and I think comedy kind of opened up in a way that, like, leaned into your strength, savvy and know how. 100%.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah, I hope that's the case.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, I think so.

[Mark Gagnon]

I'm glad I didn't have to find out the other way. I'm very grateful for. For you swooping me up.

[Andrew Schultz]

Where would. Where would I be without Mark?

[Mark Gagnon]

Similar spot.

[Andrew Schultz]

No, no, no. It's like, I don't even imagine these things. Like, I don't know, know, like, I don't. Where would I be without Mark? I don't know.

[Mark Gagnon]

I think it would have been similar because I don't think I. I don't think I changed much. I kind of like, maybe like move things in certain directions and, you know, specific windows of time. But, like, you were already popping before me.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, but like, I. I think that like, you know, obviously I learned so much from you and your contributions have Been so huge. Like, I don't know if I'll be honest, I don't think that we're doing that the ranch show without it. And I think that Rancho is like huge for me, like in terms of just perception. Like, I think it broke out of just the comedy world or just the podcasting world. That's just kind of, especially when we were doing like the turn your phones even more so than the Netflix thing. Like the Netflix is I guess a cool stamp. But it was like those weekly videos, like just getting in. I think that was absolutely, absolutely huge. Just like organization, just like understanding the business and also just like funny. Like having someone that I think was like similar minded to me in terms of like the business ambition, but also like the standard of comedy, you know. And I thought that was, that's like really, I was like huge and massive. Just for me in general, Like, I think it a lot of times allowed me, I think it allowed me achieve so much more quicker. So like, would I get to the thing that I wanted in life? I think in my nature I'll find a way to do that.

[Mark Gagnon]

Or you would have died. Yeah. Those are options.

[Andrew Schultz]

No, but like, but, but I think that like in the way that we're able to, I think the more talented people you get, the faster you can move.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

And, and you know, with like that precision. Yeah. And just like so much more confidence solving problems. Problems.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. I think that's, I think problems got solved pretty quick. I mean even like Alex. Problems got solved quickly.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then with me, I think problems got solved a little faster.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah.

[Mark Gagnon]

And then every additional person, even today that's still in the studios, 100. Every person that goes in there, I think helps solve problems a little quicker.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah. Like, I don't think anything would be like, it's a weird thing for me. Like, I don't think things would be as big. Like, I, I just don't think. But at the same time I'm like, I can't imagine them being like this, this without you.

[Mark Gagnon]

I appreciate you saying that.

[Andrew Schultz]

So it's like, it'll just be different. Yeah. I, I don't know. Like I, I, I, in my mind I'm like, I will find a way. That's how I believe things work.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

But I also just can't imagine what that would be because you've just been so instrumental to the growth of all these things. So it's like I would hope that I could find a way to get here.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah.

[Andrew Schultz]

But I can't think of, I can't give you a way of doing it because you've just been so instructed, instrumental, and just been, like, so connected to every bit of success that I've had and that we've had since you've been a part of it. So I just don't even know what that would be. So it's like I can't even imagine. Yeah, I can't imagine where I would be. Like, I can imagine there are certain things I just would not do. Ideas I just would not have, like even being able to chew on the fat about certain. Certain things, you know? So, like, I mean, I could have just said some crazy and then have nobody talking off a ledge and then nothing would have happened. Like, that's very possible. I was a wild boy, you know.

[Mark Gagnon]

So it's like you would have someone.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, maybe. I don't know. But yeah. So it's like I would hope that I would do things just as I'm sure, like if we never met, you'd hope you'd find a way to have success in the thing, but. And I think you would want that thousand percent. But I can't. I really can't imagine doing it without you.

[Mark Gagnon]

Yeah. I appreciate you saying that.

[Andrew Schultz]

Yeah, absolutely. Likewise.

[Mark Gagnon]

And I'm glad I don't have to imagine.

[Andrew Schultz]

Same. My boy.

[Mark Gagnon]

Thank you so much. I really appreciate this.

[Andrew Schultz]

Thanks for having me.

[Mark Gagnon]

Absolutely.

[Andrew Schultz]

I hope you all feel like you have a good understanding on how corporations dodge taxes. And we'll see you next week on Camp Peace.

[Mark Gagnon]

If you've made it to the end of this episode, that's because you rock with us. And for that, we rock. Rock with you. You are sophisticated. You enjoy honest, true communication. A highbrowed type of person that understands this history is not just dates and names. It is a tapestry of human triumph and tragedy. From the day Nostradamus made his first prophecy to the morning Paul Revere took his midnight ride from ancient oracles to modern revolutionaries. That is why I need you. If you have not already, please sign up up for Today in History. Our free newsletter. Today in History brings you the stories that matter, the moments that changed everything, and the secrets hidden in time. Join thousands of history enthusiasts who get their daily journey through time. Don't let another day of history pass you by. Take the conversation to your inbox. Sign up now through the QR code or link in the description Today in History. Because history stories shape tomorrow's world. Thank you for watching the episode. We'll see you next time.