Staying Alive with Jon Gabrus & Adam Pally

Episode: Only Eggs Are Eggs (w/ Jason Mantzoukas)
Release Date: October 23, 2025
Podcast Network: SmartLess Media
Guest: Jason Mantzoukas ("Zooks")

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into themes of aging, nostalgia, personal health journeys, and the ever-complicated relationship with technology, especially as it relates to social media and phones. Jon Gabrus and Adam Pally are joined by Jason Mantzoukas, and together they have an honest, wide-ranging, and frequently hilarious conversation about the realities of getting older, physical fragility, maintaining passion for creative work, and what it means to be present in a world accelerating with distractions. The bonds of improv, old friendships, managing allergies (and especially the perils of eggs), and the struggle to maintain good habits—all thread through the conversation.

Main Discussion Points

Reconnecting with Old Friends & The Power of Nostalgia

• Jon Gabrus recounts (00:49–05:34) a recent emotional reunion with childhood friends he hadn’t seen in decades, reflecting on how pivotal these relationships were to his formative years.
  • They reminisce about “firsts”: first D&D games, basketball, Ninja Turtles movies, and how losing connections over time shapes you.
  • The friends plan a nostalgic football weekend, testing if bonds forged in childhood still hold.
  • Memorable quote:
    • "Three guys who've never hung out in 25 years, drinking alcohol nonstop for 48 hours and traveling around, going to live sports. Really pressure testing if we are good friends." — Jon Gabrus (04:24)
• On nostalgia:
  • The hosts and Mantzoukas discuss how milestones (like Adam's son’s bar mitzvah) amplify nostalgia and make the passage of time more palpable (06:00–07:08).
  • Mantzoukas: “Time passing is—I find it—it’s getting so much faster. A year now, to me, feels like it goes by in about seven months.” (07:49)

Aging, Health, and Physical Fragility

• Physical vs. Mental Age (08:27–09:08):
  • The group discusses how men often perceive themselves as perpetually young until the body inevitably changes.
  • Gabrus: “In my body, I’m in my 50s. In my brain, I’m in my 20s.” (08:27)
• Ben Rogers’ lifelong sense of fragility (09:08–09:30):
  • Rogers shares that, due to health conditions from birth (including a severe egg allergy), he never felt invincible and had to operate with much more caution.
  • Gabrus: “You’ve never put out the vibe that you live life like a bubble boy—or something.” (09:30)

On Teaching and Improvisation

• Improvisation as a metaphor for growth and creativity (15:59–23:05):
  • Adam, Ben, and Jon reflect on how teaching improv classes greatly shaped their own skills.
  • Discussion about the uniqueness of every performer:
    • Mantzoukas: “What I love about improvising...is everybody’s way of doing it is different.”
    • Pally: “You don’t want Gemberling playing like Wengert, and you don’t want Wengert playing like Gemberling.” (21:53)
  • Notable moment: Recalling the joy of performing and teaching in a collaborative, creatively chaotic space, and the value of synthesizing one’s own experience to help others grow.

Egg Allergies, Control, and Trust Issues

• Ben Rogers’ egg allergy as a lens for control and vulnerability (24:40–29:47):
  • Adam remembers a close call during a bit involving eggs, and they discuss how a life-threatening allergy impacts daily life, trust, and psychology.
  • Rogers: “Only eggs are the thing that will kill you. You’re treating other things like they might also kill you... But if something innocuous like an egg can kill you, it’s hard not to think the next thing is natural trauma.” (28:13)
  • Childhood stories: Ben describes being forced to eat a cookie he warned an adult about, resulting in an allergic reaction, and the lifelong mistrust this instilled.
  • Key theme: The allergy fosters both necessary self-advocacy and a broader sense of mistrust, extending to expectations of control in adulthood.

Being Present: Stage, Sports, and the “Flow State”

• Performing as therapy and solace (32:22–34:19):
  • For both Ben and the others, being on stage is one of the few times they feel truly present, free from anxiety about the past or future.
  • Pally: “That hour on stage is one of the only times I’m not on my phone... flow state.”
  • Mantzoukas on phone distraction: “It takes you about 20 minutes to get into deep concentration... it only takes you two seconds to lose that concentration.” (34:24)

Phones, Social Media, and Technology Addiction

• The struggle to set boundaries (37:09–41:26):
  • The group compares phone/social media habits, with Ben being notably offline (no social media), which both Adam and Jon admire.
  • Ben: “I don’t sleep with it in the room with me.” (40:05)
  • Pally: “I feel like it’s now part of my job to check my phone to see where I’m at on the Internet before I even brush my teeth.” (40:31)
  • Discussion of the pandemic exacerbating device dependence, the erosion of real communal spaces, and the loneliness epidemic especially among men.

Health Setbacks: Ben’s Spinal Surgery

• Recent major surgery and impacts (43:03–47:44):
  • Ben reveals he’s in the worst shape of his life due to spinal surgery:
    • Had his lowest vertebrae fused to his pelvis, with a piece of cadaver femur used as a spacer.
    • Was in severe chronic pain for a year prior, leading to a loss of sleep and major mental health strain.
    • The process of healing and the psychological impact of being the youngest patient on a hospital floor full of elderly people.
  • Rogers: “The last year of my life was untenable.” (47:52)
  • Group conversation about pain, sleep deprivation, and mental health.

Identity Crisis & Redefinition in Middle Age

• Shifting sense of self as bodies and roles change (59:44–60:40):
  • They share honest reflections on what happens as archetypes shift (the “big fat party animal” that can’t party, the “hot guy” who ages out of that role).
  • Gabrus: “What does the big fat party animal do when he can’t party and be fat anymore? This is like what I’m struggling with. Who am I?” (59:44)
  • Rogers: “This is an identity crisis.”

Parenting, Phones, and the Next Generation

• Raising kids in the age of screens (65:27–68:53):
  • Adam talks about the challenges in trying to set good screen-time examples for his kids in a world where everything is increasingly app-based and digital.
  • The difficulty in restricting technology and the hope that their kids come out okay, just as they survived their generation’s supposed vices (TV, video games).
  • Strategies like “no phones at the dinner table” and the mixed results.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On nostalgia:
  “We are deeply in it right now.” — Adam Pally (05:56)
• About the passage of time:
  “A year now, to me, feels like it goes by in about seven months.” — Jason Mantzoukas (07:49)
• On living with an egg allergy:
  “Only eggs are eggs. Only eggs are the thing that will kill you. You’re treating other things like they might also kill you.” — Ben Rogers (28:13)
• On teaching as learning:
  “Something about having to synthesize how I’ve thought and felt or how I acted on stage in a way of explaining it for a class’s consumption...was so helpful and informative.” — Ben Rogers (17:26)
• On the “flow state”:
  “It takes you about 20 minutes to get into deep concentration. It only takes you two seconds to lose that concentration.” — Ben Rogers (34:24)
• On identity and aging:
  “What does the big fat party animal do when he can't party and be fat anymore? ...Who am I?” — Jon Gabrus (59:44)
• On the struggles of parenting in the digital age:
  “You want your kids to have better phone health...maybe if I'm not on my phone when we're all sitting around, they're not.” — Jon Gabrus (65:50)
• On sleep rebellion:
  “I rebel against authority...Now I’m noticing it's included in me: ‘You should go to bed early tonight.’ I'm like, fuck you, dude.” — Jon Gabrus (51:31)

Key Timestamps for Major Segments

• Childhood Reunion & Nostalgia – 00:49–06:00
• Aging, Physical & Mental Disconnect – 07:49–09:08
• Teaching Improv & Creative Growth – 15:59–23:05
• Egg Allergy as Metaphor for Control – 24:40–29:47
• Stage & Flow State vs. Modern Distraction – 32:22–34:24
• Phone & Social Media Addiction – 37:09–41:26
• Ben Rogers’ Spinal Surgery – 43:03–47:44
• Identities In Flux and Redefining Self – 59:44–60:40
• Parenting Challenges in the Digital Era – 65:27–68:53

Episode Tone and Takeaways

The episode is both deeply funny and surprisingly poignant, balancing honest personal stories and thoughtful insights with the trio’s signature quick-witted banter. The mood moves fluidly—laughter around silly bits and improv memories, then emotionally honest when discussing loss, health crises, or the struggle to adapt as the world (and one’s own body) shifts.

Three veteran comedians reflect on how to “stay alive”—not just physically, but emotionally and creatively—in a time of constant change, distraction, and redefinition. With stories that move from childhood to middle age, and themes ranging from control to flow to the need for real human connection, the episode is rich and engaging for anyone contemplating their own health (or their phone usage) as they age.

For further context or laughs, listeners should check out the full episode, which maintains this rhythm throughout—and delivers plenty of bits and asides that only these three could pull off.