TCB Infomercial: Dusty Slay

Summary

The Commercial Break — TCB Infomercial: Dusty Slay
August 19, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Commercial Break, hosted by Bryan Green and Kristen Joy Hoadley, features the celebrated comedian Dusty Slay. Known as a “clean comic” and prominent figure in Nashville's comedy scene, Dusty joins the hosts for a lively, candid conversation about his comedic process, the Nashville comedy boom, classical music, career milestones, and his approach to life and laughter. The chemistry between the hosts and their guest delivers a vibrant mix of humor, insight, and inside-baseball knowledge of stand-up comedy, culminating in a rapid-fire, Southern-living-inspired game.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction & Setting the Scene

[05:55-07:12]

• Bryan and Krissy are recording remotely for the intro/outro due to a housewide skin infection.
• The episode is part of their "TCB Infomercial" series, spotlighting notable comedians.
• Dusty is introduced as a central figure in Nashville’s comedy resurgence, with two Netflix specials ("Working Man" and "Wet Heat") hitting top 10 status.

2. Dusty Slay on Comedy Output & Creative Process

[08:17-14:31]

• Dusty talks about releasing two Netflix specials in 18 months.
• On writing and discarding material:

  "Some of these jokes I’m tired of telling... If it’s not recorded, then it just kind of goes into this abyss."
  (Dusty, 08:35)

• Emphasizes the importance of recording jokes to avoid losing them forever.
• Discusses the organic evolution of material:

  "The more you create stuff, the more you want to create stuff. The more you feel the flow..."
  (Dusty, 10:03)

• Dusty prefers developing jokes onstage rather than scripting them, keeping material dynamic:

  "If I just have an idea and I take it to the stage, mess around with it a little bit, you know, if it doesn’t work, we wave, we say we’re having a good time, and you move on."
  (Dusty, 12:29)

3. On Comedy Community & Nashville’s Rise

[15:30-19:22]

• Dusty credits hanging with other funny people for keeping comedy muscles sharp.
• Explains the shift from small club sets to longer headline shows, striving to stay fresh and relevant.
• Reflects on early career moments at Atlanta’s Laughing Skull Festival, which proved pivotal as industry scouts noticed him when he stopped trying to impress:

  "This time, I was just happy with my career... so I didn’t put this weird pressure on myself to impress people. I was just gonna enjoy myself."
  (Dusty, 18:03)

4. Classical Music & Escapism

[19:21-23:22]

• Dusty shares his love for classical music, especially cello pieces, and its role in helping him relax and process the constant influx of information as a podcaster and comic.

  "Classical music… is the most relaxing music in the world."
  (Dusty, 19:42)

• Talks about growing up in Alabama:

  "I grew up in a trailer park, and I think at some point I just wanted to feel like I was classing it up a bit… so I just started listening to this music, and then I was like, ‘Oh, this is really great.’"
  (Dusty, 21:03)

5. Comedy Frequencies, Mood, and the Science Behind Music

[22:29-24:41]

• Discusses possible connections between musical frequencies and emotions or health, referencing a (probably exaggerated) TikTok claim about classical music and cancer.

  "Music is frequency and you can listen to stuff that gives you a boost in mood... there’s things that just don’t seem to jive the same way."
  (Bryan, 23:13)

6. Favorite Bands & Music’s Impact

[24:28-25:17]

• Brief aside about the emotional impact of Limp Bizkit - “you can listen to Limp Bizkit and suddenly you’re like angry and resentful… just listen to some classical, relax for a second, chill out a bit.”
  (Dusty, 24:41)

7. Grand Ole Opry, Wikipedia Myths & Comedy Generations

[26:06-28:09]

• Dusty clarifies the myth of being the youngest comic at the Opry, recounts how a new management connection led to his performance and opened doors for a new wave of stand-ups there.

  "Once I did it, and it went well, I think the Opry was like, 'Oh, this can work... Let's get more, new younger people in here.'"
  (Dusty, 27:47)

8. The Nashville Comedy Scene & Clean Comedy

[29:01-33:16]

• Details about how Nashville’s comedy ecosystem grew, especially during and after COVID.
• Monthly and weekly showcases boomed, often favoring clean or “within reason” comedy.
• Why Dusty works clean:

  "I want you to be able to bring your aunt, or your mom, or your dad to the show and not be embarrassed... but I do like to say some things. I try to do it in the cleanest possible way."
  (Dusty, 31:38)

9. The Art of “Edgy” Clean Comedy

[33:16-34:09]

• Dusty enjoys testing boundaries by “taking the audience right to the edge” but making them feel safe:

  "If you establish some sort of line... then you can kind of inch up to the line and it feels edgy, even if it’s not really that edgy."
  (Dusty, 33:16)

10. Callback, Openers, and Stand-Up Craft

[34:09-35:48]

• They riff on showmanship—opening too strong (like magicians or rock stars playing hits too soon):

  "He kind of blows your mind with the first trick. And then the rest of the time he’s doing tricks that are like, ‘yeah, this is mind-blowing too, but you’ve already blown my mind...’"
  (Dusty, 34:23)

• “You always gotta have the callback.” (Bryan, 35:48)

11. “We’re Having a Good Time” Rapid-Fire Round

[36:32-44:13]
A light-hearted, yes/no game focused on Southern culture and road life. Notable exchanges:

• Waffle House at 2AM? — “Anytime.” (Dusty, 36:56)
• Mowing the lawn vs. fishing? — “I love mowing the lawn. The lawn is fun.” (Dusty, 37:51)
• Duct tape as a legitimate home repair? — “Absolutely.” (Dusty, 38:44)
• Eating boiled peanuts in the car? — “Absolutely. I love boiled peanuts... Anytime.” (Dusty, 39:36)
• ‘Y’all’ at a job interview? — “I say ‘y’all’ everywhere. Me too.” (Dusty, 40:23)
• Socks with sandals? — “Whether they’re looking or not, I’m not into it... If you’re wearing sandals, it’s time to feel free.” (Dusty, 42:43)
• Taking home hotel shampoo? — “I’m not against it... But I just think you can buy better shampoo... Just treat yourself better than that.” (Dusty, 43:52)

12. Comedy on the Road: Hotels, Touring, and Staying Grounded

[44:04-49:46]

• Dusty books his own hotels now, prefers mid-tier chains over luxury, keeps things practical.
• On career trajectory and fame:

  “Nate’s reached this incredible level, but I’ve always believed… that Nate is just a couple of years ahead of me... but I don’t really have aspirations like that. I like comedy being in a tighter spot.”
  (Dusty, 46:46 & 47:15)

• Discusses fulfillment and happiness over relentless ambition, striving for a rich catalog over a singular big break:

  “What I want, is to be able to look back and have a bunch of albums that are really funny... Just tons of comedy that people can watch.”
  (Dusty, 49:46)

13. The “Art” over the Hype

[49:46-51:12]

• Dusty and the hosts note the temptation to always focus on the “bigger thing,” but recognize value in building a respected body of work and authentic satisfaction.

  “No matter where we get, we can always find something to go, oh, I didn’t get invited. We can be mad about not getting invited to something that a year ago we would go, oh well, I’ll never be invited.”
  (Dusty, 50:41)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the Nashville Scene:
  “When I moved there [Nashville] in 2014… Zany’s was great. And then… COVID hit, and a lot of LA/NY people moved to Nashville. Some left, some are still there… Now Nate [Bargatze] has a weekly showcase…”
  (Dusty, 29:01)

• On creativity and writing:
  “When I sit down and I write, I write not the way that I tell jokes… [but] if I just have an idea and take it to the stage, mess around… the audience laughs, because they’re in on it.”
  (Dusty, 12:10–12:29)

• On ‘clean’ comedy:
  “I don’t want to do comedy for kids… but I want you to bring your aunt or your mom or your dad to the show and not be embarrassed… I try to do it in the cleanest possible way.”
  (Dusty, 31:38)

• On fulfillment:
  “I just want to be able to keep doing that, have albums that are good and just tons of comedy that people can watch… I don’t want to lose touch.”
  (Dusty, 49:46)

• On artistic satisfaction:
  “We can always find something to go, ‘oh, I didn’t get invited’… and that’s where you’re like, you know, you just put on a little classical.”
  (Dusty, 50:59)

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Important Timestamps

• [08:17] — Dusty joins, talks about Netflix specials.
• [11:45] — Dusty explores how he develops material.
• [13:37] — Dusty discusses paring down jokes for maximum effect.
• [15:31] — The impact of hanging with funny people and the Nateland crew.
• [17:26] — Atlanta’s Laughing Skull Festival: career turning point.
• [19:21] — On classical music as relaxation and inspiration.
• [24:28] — On the emotional impact of Limp Bizkit, frequencies, and music.
• [26:06 & 27:47] — Myths about The Grand Ole Opry and ushering new comedians.
• [31:20] — Why Dusty chooses (and enjoys) clean comedy.
• [36:32] — 'We're Having a Good Time' rapid-fire round (Southern living bits).
• [44:04] — Touring, booking hotels, keeping things simple.
• [46:46]—[49:46] — On fame, ambition, and happiness in comedy.
• [51:12] — Dusty’s signature callback about classical music = processing life.

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Tone & Atmosphere

• Laid-back, self-aware, friendly, and quick-witted, with plenty of good-natured ribbing and tangents reminiscent of old friends in conversation.
• Dusty Slay fits seamlessly, maintaining a gentle, thoughtful humor that never undercuts his sincerity or comedic craftsmanship.

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Final Thoughts

• Dusty Slay is lauded by Bryan and Krissy as “absolutely delightful” and “a technician of comedy.”
• The episode provides valuable perspectives on joke creation, the realities of comedic ambition, staying grounded, and the distinctive flavor of Nashville’s scene.
• Standout segment: The rapid-fire “good time” round, which becomes a showcase for Southern quirks and Dusty's personality.
• Dusty’s current Netflix special "Wet Heat" is recommended as PG-13 and approachable for all but the youngest listeners.

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To see Dusty Slay on tour or find his Netflix specials and podcasts, visit: dustyslay.com

Transcript

[Dusty Slay]

And I was talking to a friend of mine one night outside a comedy club, and she was out there smoking a cigarette. And I got her so fired up, you know, she was like, dang, I want to have a kid now, too. You know? She goes, but then again, if I get pregnant, I gotta quit smoking. And I was like, well, I don't know, you know, like, it's different for everybody, you know? Like, for instance, my sister, she smoked while she was pregnant, and it only took her six months to have a baby.

[Brian Green]

Okay.

[Dusty Slay]

Nah, that is true, though.

[Brian Green]

And.

[Dusty Slay]

They'Re fine, though. That was years ago. They're fine. But I think my sister liked it at the time, you know? Cause the hospital wanted to babysit for a while, so she had to go back to her trailer and smoke cigarettes and take care of her diabetes. This episode of the commercial break, I agree with that. And, yeah, like, I went to see. I saw a magician when I was in Vegas recently. Very good, very good. I'm not even into magic. Very good. But, you know, he kind of blows your mind with the first trick.

[Brian Green]

Ah.

[Dusty Slay]

And then the rest of the time, he's doing tricks that are like, yeah, this is mind blowing, too. But you've already blown my mind. So I'm like, yeah, of course you can do this. I just watched you do something. Of course you can do that.

[Brian Green]

That's like Pink Floyd or Roger Waters doing Comfortably Numb as the opener. You're like, what the shit is going on here? Why did he start with Comfortably Numb? I'm not even high yet.

[Dusty Slay]

The next episode of the commercial break starts now.

[Brian Green]

Oh, yeah. Cats and kittens, welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co host of this show, Kristen Joy Hoadley. Best to you wherever you are, Kristen Joy Hoadley. Best to you, Brian, and best of you out there in the podcast universe. All right, so let me get it right out. I'm just going to address the elephant in the room. Chrissy's going to sound weird because for the first time since 2020, Chrissy and I are recording this intro and the outro to our TCB infomercial, who is. We're very excited about Dusty Slay. We're recording it remotely because of what, you know, the story. Last week, the whole house had Mercer. The whole house had.

[Rachel (Voice of God)]

There's a.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

There's a nasty skin infection.

[Brian Green]

Yes, there's a nasty skin infection going around the entire house. And because the strong medication they gave us made me feel additionally worse, we didn't Have a lot of recording time and we were excited to get this one out to you. Hot off the presses. They say that two out of three ain't bad. Chrissy, two out of four ain't bad because we have now had two out of four of the hosts, the rotating cast of characters known as Naatland, of course, Nate Bargazzi's podcast. We've had Aaron Weber. We have long tried to get Dusty Slay.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

It's been a couple of years in the making.

[Brian Green]

I think we've had some fits and starts with Dusty. Not. Not his fault, but mainly our fault.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

And this one almost didn't. This one almost didn't happen either because we are still having technical issues.

[Brian Green]

We almost made it three for three on Dusty Slay. So we have already. Usually we record the intro previous to the guest, but we have already recorded to Dusty. So let's just get that out there. We are doing the intro outro.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

We were together when we recorded it.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, we were together when we recorded it. And because we wanted to get out very quickly, we decided let's just go ahead and do the intro outro via remote. Dusty Slay is an American comedian coming out of the very hot bed of comedy right now, which is Nashville. I think largely in part to Dusty Slay, Aaron Weber and Nate Bargazzi, who have really taken a lot of comedians under their wing. Dusty will share more about why he believes Nashville has become a hotbed of comedy up there. But he's a. He's what they call a quote unquote, clean comic. I don't think it really matters if you use, you know, the fuck or the shit. I think it really matters whether you're funny. And Dusty certainly is that.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

He has two Netflix specials in the last 18 months, Working man, which just came out back in early 2024, and his new special, Wet Heat. Am I getting that right, Chrissy? Wet Heat.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah. He's got the funny bone.

[Brian Green]

He does. He's got the funny bone. And he's also. I mean, I. I gotta imagine it's very difficult to come up with just one good hour of comedy in your entire Life. We have 900 episodes and I don't know if we could string together. We're still trying. I don't know if we could string together an hour of laughs out of those 900 hours. Dusty's got two, one hour, two, one hour plus specials on Netflix, both of which have now been in the top 10 for a period of. Of time on Netflix. So, you know, he's doing Something right in the vein of the great Jeff Foxworthy, Jerry Seinfeld, the storytellers of our time, who managed to do it and take you, as he will say in the interview, managed to take you to the edge but make you feel safe that you're not going to cross it. And I got to be honest, Chrissy, about this one, saying this before we go into the interview, sometimes you don't, like I've said this a lot. You don't know what to expect when a stranger comes on the television. And. And Dusty was one of those people that was like, I don't really know what to expect out of this. We're not a clean show. We definitely play blue a lot. I mean, dick jokes are easy, right? Dick jokes are easy.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Low hanging fruit.

[Brian Green]

Low hanging fruit for all of us. I didn't know what to expect and I left this interview really like the vibe was high with Dusty Slay. I had a really good time with him.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

We both, I mean, all three of us, I think, really got along well. And just like it just flowed.

[Brian Green]

It did. It did just flow. So I encourage you to go to Dusty Slay dot com. He is on. He now has a really long set of dates he is stringing together for his fall and winter tour. I'm sure that will run even further than that. He was just here in Atlanta a week ago as we're releasing this episode a week and some change ago. We just recorded this hot off the presses. We Wet Heat, Working Man. Both of those are now available on Netflix as well as the N podcast and his own podcast with his wife, which he does also. And I'll. I'll link all of those in the show notes below, as I always do. And tickets are available@dusty slay.com or, you know, whichever local venue he's there. I'm not sure they're all through Ticketmaster, but I know that some of them are. So why don't we do this, Chrissy? Let's take a short break. Let's take a short break from.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

And through the magic of Tele podcast.

[Brian Green]

Through the magic of telepathy podcasting you down on the south side, me up in the north side of the little city known as Atlanta, Georgia, all the way from Nashville, will triangulate and get us all in one place with Mr. Dusty Slay. How does that sound?

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

I think we should do it.

[Brian Green]

All right, we'll take a break. We'll be back with Dusty.

[Rachel (Voice of God)]

Hey, it's Rachel, your new voice of God here on tcb. And just like You. I'm wondering just how much longer this podcast can continue. Let's all rejoice that another episode has made it to your ears. And I'll rejoice that my check is in the mail. Speaking of mail, get your free TCB sticker in the mail by going to tcbpodcast.com and visiting the Contact Us page. You can also find the entire commercial break library, audio and video, just in case you want to look at [e-mail]. want your voice to be on an episode of the show? Leave us a message at 212-4333, TCB. That's 212-433-3822. Tell us how much you love us and we'll be sure to let the world know on a future episode. Or you could make fun of us. That'd be fine, too. We might not air that, but maybe. Oh, and if you're shy, that's okay. Just send a text. We'll respond. Now I'm gonna go check the mailbox for payment while you check out our sponsors. And then we'll return to this episode of the commercial break.

[Brian Green]

And Dusty is here with us now. Dusty has put out two, not one, but two specials in what, 18 months? I've seen Netflix. 18 months.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, that. Yeah, that's about right. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

That is a good clip. Or do you intend to now follow it up with a third one in less than 18 months? Is it.

[Dusty Slay]

Well, I'm. I'm ready to go. I don't know. You know, I don't really know how fast you should or shouldn't put these shirt. But, you know, I felt, you know, I felt good about Wet Heat. And I was like, you know, some of these jokes I'm tired of telling you, and I'd like to get them recorded so they don't, you know, you get tired of telling something, you push it out of the set.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

If it's not recorded, then it just kind of goes into this abyss.

[Brian Green]

It's an ether.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah. Of where you forget how to tell it. And now and then it's just gone. So I was like, we gotta record it. But I really liked it. I was very happy with Wet Heat. I think Wet Heat's better than Working man. And in between, you know, Working man and. And my last album, Son of a Ditch, was, you know, eight years.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

So it really doesn't take that long, I don't think, if you're on a flow.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. But I guess that's. I guess that's a Good point. And it leads to. My next question is like, you're in the zone, right? There's this kind of, like, propagating creativity that's just you're feeling. And I like what you said, that if you. If a joke goes out into the ether, you forget how to tell it. So. And that probably has to do with being in the zone, too. This is my material. I'm in the Z. I know how to read the audience. I know how to get them to react. I know when to pause and all that other stuff. It's just, like, natural to you. And you're going through kind of this, like, creativity. You're going through a growth spurt, if you will. Dusty, you're having. Growing. You're growing. You're a growing boy.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, well, I think you're right, you know, and it's like, you know, the more you create stuff, the more you want to create stuff, the more you feel the flow, the more you're in with it. I mean, I have a new hour now since putting out Wet Heat. I mean, I got right to work, and, you know, in Atlanta, I did an hour and 20 minutes of all stuff that's not on the special. And I thought it was really good. I mean, you know, it's. You know, I feel like I have a pretty good gauge of when it's not good.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Right.

[Dusty Slay]

You know, I don't like to do not good stuff.

[Brian Green]

Fair enough.

[Dusty Slay]

You know, and I don't like the. You know, some comics do it, and I realize you have to do it sometimes, but they'll go, I'm on tour, and this tour is the Working on Jokes tour or whatever, or the New Jokes Tour. I don't like doing that. I don't want to do that. So, you know, I had about an hour and a half of material when I recorded Wet Heat. So then you record an hour. Then I have an hour that I have a half hour that I like. And then. And then, you know, as I go along, I'm. I'm doing the half hour that I didn't record. I'm doing, you know, a half hour of. Of new stuff.

[Brian Green]

Sure.

[Dusty Slay]

And then I'm doing about 20 minutes of stuff that's on the special.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

So that way we're getting all good jokes. But I can pepper in the new stuff. And you do that while it takes time for the special to come out. So by the time the special's out, you should be done with all the other stuff. Yeah. And at a good enough place to where you can still Work on some jokes without your whole act being read from a notebook. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And. Go ahead, Chrissy.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Well, how does your. I'm curious, kind of just how do you come up with your material? Is it. Do you sit down, really dedicate some time to work on it, or do the things kind of simmer and bubble up throughout your everyday living and you write them down?

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, I think it just simmers up and bubbles up throughout every day. Because when I sit down to write, I like, now, this could be an excuse that I've created for myself.

[Brian Green]

Procrastinators unite.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah. But I do believe that when I sit down and I write, I write. Not the way that I tell jokes. I have a different. You know, so I write and it's funny to me, and then I go tell what I wrote, and then it's not funny to the audience.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

And then I've almost cemented it in my mind because I wrote it down. So now I'm like, no, this is the funny one. Even though the audience is not laughing at it. Yeah, but if I just have an idea and I take it to the stage, mess around with it a little bit, you know, if it doesn't work, we wave, we say we're having a good time, and you move on, you know? Yeah, but. And then the audience laughs because they're in on it and everything's fun and. But if. If. You know. But then that way I get to work that. You get to go through those natural instincts of just being a funny person in life.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, you had. It's a living and breathing thing, and. And in that moment, it stretches and it contracts or whatever it is. You can think of it like, you know, like, I don't know, like a ball of jelly. You're playing with it to find out I wrote it. I know it's funny. I just have to figure out how it's funny. In this moment, being connects, you know, and then the connective tissue to the last joke or the next joke or whatever. Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

I mean, yes, it feels like it. I don't know if I lost you, but you. You froze on me. But I think maybe I'm still there.

[Brian Green]

Oh, you're still here. Yeah, we can still hear you.

[Dusty Slay]

But the I like a joke starts. It's a ton of words, very long, and then you're just telling it and you're trying to find those funny parts. You're like, okay, where am I getting laughs? And then where you start to. You start to get a little bit of a structure of the laughter. And then you take away all that other stuff that doesn't matter.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

And then once you got that firm little skele a joke, then you can start adding all these other tags.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Right.

[Dusty Slay]

I love. This is why so many of my jokes, I say I like to tell triangle jokes. I'm just making fun of myself, but where I like the laugh, we go up, up, up. Then we hit a funny part, and then I'm still telling the joke, even though it's getting less funny and less funny because I found it. I'm like, this is it. This is the punchline. But then I want to add on all these tags to where we eventually get to a place where we're like, are we still telling this joke?

[Brian Green]

Are we still here? You know, that's. That's really interesting. I love hearing. I. You know, I think comedy in some ways is a noble profession. I really do. And I love hearing how some of the, you know, we've had a lot of comedians on here, some of the best joke writers and storytellers of our time, comedically, how they do their craft, how they work in their craft, how they see their craft is very obvious to me that, you know, you may be lazy, your words, not mine, but you're very much a tactician. You're a technician of the joke. Right. You're thinking about it, and you understand after all these years, how to put it together and how to do it when you. But I think you have an advantage, too, and tell me if I'm wrong. You sit in a room often with a bunch of other really funny people bantering about. You're all very Nateland, and you're all very funny. Just kind of, you know, this, like, comedic stew that's going on all the time. Do you find that.

[Dusty Slay]

That.

[Brian Green]

I'm sure you do. Does you find that that helps when you're. Yeah, just the energy. Like, just the energy.

[Dusty Slay]

The.

[Brian Green]

The energy in the room.

[Dusty Slay]

Well, I think, yeah. I mean, you want to hang out with funny people, right. They say if you want to learn another language, you go to that country and immerse yourself in that. So I think hanging out with funny people, being on showcases, being in the green room, going on, you know, the road with other comics, you're always talking about stuff. You're always trying to make each other laugh, so you're keeping those muscles going. But I think for me, I mean, I love to talk about doing an hour and 20 minutes, because when I started doing comedy, like when I started headlining, it's kind of like the mandatory Amount of time you have to do is 45 minutes. And so when I started headlining, I was like, oh, man, 45 minutes. That's a long time.

[Brian Green]

Sure is.

[Dusty Slay]

And then. And then. But. But I quickly realized that I wanted to get to do an hour because the show is 90 minutes. So the more I can do on the show, the less the other comics are doing. And I only mean that because, you know, you may get paired up with someone that's very funny, and you don't want to give them too much of a show.

[Brian Green]

You don't.

[Dusty Slay]

You got to come at the end. Yeah. You know, so you're like, you know, you. You know, so I wanted to do an hour, and now that I'm doing theaters, I, you know, I do the hour 20. Part of that is so I have plenty of time to do some jokes that might not be as funny, that I weave in between funnier jokes just so I can, you know, keep building my material.

[Brian Green]

That's it. So. So you had the Atlanta show this last weekend. You were at Symphony Hall. Beautiful place, by the way. Beautiful place to go see a show. I don't know. I'm. I'm. I think there are a number of comics who have done Symphony. I've never seen comedy. Oh, yeah. Nurse Blake was there. How. How was it? Did you feel. Was the energy good in ATL Atlanta? Did we rep? Did we represent?

[Dusty Slay]

I've been coming to Atlanta for years, so Atlanta's always great for me. I mean, really? Atlanta, doing the Laughing Skull Festival now it's my third time doing it, but that's where I really had a break, you know, And. And. And people from jfl, people from the Tonight show, were all at Laughing Skull when I got. You know, that's where I started to get things in 2017.

[Brian Green]

Oh, really? Tell me more about that. So Laughing Skull Comedy Festival, and you've got some people in the audience, some movers and shaker people who could give you a spotlight, essentially.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah. I had already done Live Skull twice, and back when it was a competition.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. And I remember that I was. I was there a couple times.

[Dusty Slay]

Okay. Well, I had some good sets, but I never won. I never got far in the contest at all. So then I took a year off. I didn't. I didn't try for it in 2016, and then 2017, I came back, but this time, I was just happy with my career. I was happy with how things were going for the most part, so I didn't put this weird pressure on myself to, like, impress people. I Was just like, I'm just gonna enjoy myself.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

And I'm like, I come to Atlanta all the time. I do the punchline, I'm doing the laughing skull. It's like these are people. I make laugh all the time. There's really no pressure here.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

And then I. And then that's when I had a really great set.

[Brian Green]

You found it front of.

[Dusty Slay]

In front of the industry. So, yeah, Atlanta has always been good for me. But the just to the symphony hall question. I love classical music and I think it's just amazing music. So to do comedy where I know that music is happening feels a little wild. You know, just to know that they're putting out like the most beautiful music in the world and then here I am telling jokes.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

But I am happy to do it.

[Brian Green]

Why are you a symphony? Why are you a music of a fan of classical music? Symphonic music?

[Dusty Slay]

Not to be cliche about it, but I do think I like all music.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

But classical is a not. It's just nice music to have on. I like cello. Classical music specifically.

[Brian Green]

Interesting.

[Dusty Slay]

Because it's the most relaxing music in the world.

[Brian Green]

There is no doubt about that.

[Dusty Slay]

My wife says it's depressing. I like some organ music too. And my brother in law said it sounds like we're at a funeral, but I just find it really relaxing. And sometimes I'll take long road trips where I just listen to classical or I'll sit around my hotel with a Bluetooth speaker and just listen to classical. And I feel like it just relaxes me and I think it helps me be creative. I think we're, you know, we're all doing podcasts. I do two podcasts a week. You do most of the time? Sometimes more. You know, everybody, you know, we're all doing, we're all talking and we're also all taking it in. And I feel like we take in so much and sometimes we're like, I don't feel like we're processing it.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

That's so true.

[Dusty Slay]

Stuff's always just going in.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Feels like listening to some classical, I feel like just helps me process things and I like that.

[Brian Green]

But did someone turn you on to that? Was that something that was in the house when you were young? Did you just like hear it one day and you're like, oh, that, that's good. I like whatever that is is making me feel good.

[Dusty Slay]

Well, I, you know, I grew up in Alabama and I grew up in a trailer park and I think at some point I just wanted to feel like I was classing it up a bit.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

I wanted to feel like I was better than everyone, even though I don't want to feel like that now, but I feel like at the time I did. So I just started listening to this music, and then I was like, oh, this is really great.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

And, you know, I'll go through periods where I don't listen to it for a long time or I'll go through a little jazz period. Yeah, I like jazz too.

[Brian Green]

Me too.

[Dusty Slay]

Not as relaxing, but it is. It does, you know, like jazz piano. And I don't, like. Sometimes you go to New Orleans and they got that real walking out on the street with the drum. I'm not as into that marching band jazz, but I like, you know, maybe nightclub jazz.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, nightclub jazz is good. I agree with you. Like, some of the. Some jazz can be a little chaotic and disjointed for my taste, but is in general, I'm a fan of jazz. My dad used to listen to Beethoven and Bach and Mozart when we were kids. He would listen to that and he liked it, and I. That turned me on to it. And so for me, it's comforting. It is a bit of escapism. It's very. It's very beautiful to think that some of those people wrote that music, you know, blind one eye, deaf. You know, they're writing that these complicated orchestral pieces, symphonies with hundreds of instruments and people singing, and they did that without the benefit of auto tune or editing software, is just a feat of immense, godlike creativity. It's crazy to me. It's crazy.

[Dusty Slay]

It is crazy. And. And I don't. I mean, I would never be able to prove this sort of thing, but they say that, you know, there's frequencies, right? And a lot of our music today is the wrong frequency, very low, and it's like dumbing us down. And, you know, but whereas classical is a. Is a different frequency that, you know, helps our brain. I saw this video on TikTok. Probably not true, but I just. They said they were saying that Beethoven, fifth Symphony helps people with cancer. They were saying it helps kill cancer cells. Like, again, probably not true. And I'm not saying it, but might.

[Brian Green]

Be true for someone. We just don't know.

[Dusty Slay]

If I have a pain in my body, I put on a little fifth Symphony and I go, no, I'm gonna listen to the whole thing because.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Can't hurt.

[Dusty Slay]

I'm curing myself. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

You know, I knew a guy, went to Georgia Tech, and he was studying very complicated physics in some way, shape or form, and somehow he went to go get his doctorate and he was doing some thesis in that education where him and a couple of other students were trying to prove that there was a key of life. There was a note, a frequency of life, like that connected all things throughout the universe. It was a very interesting. I am not smart enough to repeat what he said in this many years ago, but that turned me on to the idea that, you know, music is frequency and you can listen to stuff that obviously gives you a. A boost in mood. Just like if you go see a comedy show or, you know, your favorite movie or whatever it is, and then there's things that just don't seem to jive the same way. And I do think the music today, not all of it, but some of it feels, I don't know, not like. Not like some of the music that I've heard before, like older music, but that's not a knock on. On younger folks. That's just. They are, you know, we're in this world that we're in and they're reflecting that back to us.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah. I mean, you know, because I, you know, I used to listen to Limp Bizkit, you know, when I was in high school, and I still love Limp Bizkit. Right. But I'm like, you can listen to Limp Bizkit and suddenly you're like angry and resentful.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. And.

[Dusty Slay]

And I'm like, you know, you're like, why am I angry and resentful? Yeah, I'm like, you know, and I'm like, you just listen to some classical. You just relax for a second, chill out a bit.

[Brian Green]

Have you. Have you met Limp Bizkit in your travels? Have you been.

[Dusty Slay]

I wish that. I wish that I could, though. I mean, I. I was into it. I mean, I love. I mean, the first three albums, at least I know that. The third one, the Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, whatever that's called. That one was a jam to me at the time.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Doesn't hold up as well.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

But the first two, still unbelievable.

[Brian Green]

I am fascinated, always been fascinated. Will continue to be fascinated by the relationship between Fred Durs and Corey. Corey Feldman. It's fast if you follow those two on the Internet. It's a weird, wild relationship. Corey Feldman, wannabe musician. Fred Durst, actual musician. But they support each other, seem like brothers that like kind of, you know, like a bromance, so to speak. But they're the funniest odd couple I've ever seen in my entire life. And Limp Bizkit's still out there touring just this last year and absolutely killing it. You mentioned being in a trailer park. You went from trailer park. And then I read that you were the youngest comedian to be on stage at the Grand Ole Opry. Is that true, or is that Internet mythology?

[Dusty Slay]

Well, you know, I don't have a way to know if that's true.

[Brian Green]

Okay, I do know this.

[Dusty Slay]

I do know it's not true. Now, at the time, I might have been the youngest comic to do the Opry, but then I know John Crist and Aaron Weber are both younger than me, and they've done it since then.

[Brian Green]

Oh, you know what? We had Aaron on. And I think we had this same stat for Aaron. Now that you're saying it out loud.

[Dusty Slay]

I don't think Aaron did it. And maybe. But maybe he did, because we had a running joke for a while. Someone made, like, a fake Wikipedia for me, and the Wikipedia bio was, I was once the youngest comic to ever do the Opry. And then that title was taken by Aaron Weber.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

That's so funny.

[Brian Green]

I think we talked to him about this. I can recall.

[Dusty Slay]

But, you know, I think I. And I don't know, but I think that I kind of ushered in a bit of a new era of comedy at the. At the Opry now, you know, for a long time, Henry Cho and. Oh, gosh, I can't. Gary Mule Deer. Okay? They're both members of the Opry, and they were doing it for a long time. They were like, I don't know, maybe the only guys doing it for years and years.

[Brian Green]

Okay.

[Dusty Slay]

And then I think one of the directors saw me at Zany's, our club in Nashville, and they liked what I did, and they invited me, you know, to do the Opry, or my manager made it happen. I got a new manager. And all of a sudden, the moment I signed with my new manager, I was doing the opera.

[Brian Green]

Pay him double. Pay him double.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, but the. But, you know, after I did it, you know, then there was kind of a new wave of comics from Zany's and stuff. And. And I don't mean that it was me necessarily, but I think that once I did it and it went well, I think the Opry was like, oh, this can work, right? Let's get more new, younger people in here.

[Brian Green]

You ushered in the opportunity to kind of turn a new leaf and say, hey, listen, this works here. In a certain brand and a certain style and the right person, we can get them in here, and they can, and they can do it. And that must Be.

[Dusty Slay]

Because it's possible if I'd gone out and just bombed that they would have.

[Brian Green]

Been like back to Henry Cho.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah, that was the test.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Nashville is. We talked to Aaron about this. Nashville is like a hotbed comedy. Comedy. And, you know, I think if I might praise you, compliment you a little bit, I think it might have something to do with Nate and you. And even though I'm sure Aaron wouldn't admit this, you know, it's like there are a lot of really good comics that are basing themselves in Nashville or out of Nashville. Do you feel that energy in the air when you're in Nashville?

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I. When I moved there 2014, there was there. There was. Zany's was there. And Zany's was really good. And we had. Zany's has always been great. And we have a. You know, I had a pretty good open mic scene, you know, so I got involved in that. And then around about 2015, I started doing my show, which is a monthly showcase that I still do at Zany's. And, you know, I started putting all these comics on and. And then, you know, when Covid hit, so I was doing, you know, and then there was some other showcases too, but I've been doing my show for a really long time. And then when Covid hit, they started kind of doing other showcases. Some. A lot of LA people, a lot of New York people moved to Nashville. Some left, but some are still there. So they started doing other kind of like sort of open mics. And now Nate has a starting. About last year, Nate started doing a weekly showcase.

[Brian Green]

Oh, interesting.

[Dusty Slay]

You know, which is. I've always done. My show's always been relatively clean. I don't require people to be super clean, but just keep it within reason.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Keep it in some balance.

[Dusty Slay]

Because if you've been to open mics, you know it.

[Brian Green]

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Pretty wild. Yes. Yeah, I think there's a. Like there's clean and then there's. You know, people think there's clean and then everything else in the world, I think there's a little space in between.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, I. I agree with you. And you go to some of those open mics, it becomes like the most X rated slam poetry sometimes. And I think people sometimes are misguided in their idea of what might or might not be funny. I think some people do it for shock value. I think other people just talk that way. I think there is a third version that is very funny. And they work blue, so to speak. Blue, right. And but you go to those open mics sometimes and it just gets a little out of control. But Chrissy and I were talking about this before you. You came on, and we've had lots of clean, quote unquote comics. Is that a choice that you make or is it just, listen, I want to be accessible to the most amount of my fans as possible. So I. And I'm not interested in shaking the tree in that manner. What. When. So when you do a clean show, what is, what is the reasoning behind that?

[Dusty Slay]

Well, I think it's, you know, a little bit of both of those things where you say, I do want to be accessible to more people. I want people. I want to do the kind of comedy. I don't want to do comedy for kids. I always say that. Well, you know, I, I don't recommend.

[Brian Green]

You're definitely not comedy for kids. Yeah, definitely not that.

[Dusty Slay]

But I, I, you know, I want you to be your aunt or your mom or your dad to the show and you not be embarrassed that you brought them. Yeah, I'm not doing something where you're like, I wish my dad wasn't. I wish my mom didn't know I was into this type of comedy.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Dusty Slay]

You know.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Dusty Slay]

I have a friend just in, you know, there's a lot of dirty comedy that I do like. I have a friend, Jordan Jensen is her name, and she lived in Nashville for a while. She's back in New York. And she is. Is very dirty. Right. But she's dirty in a way that it feels like that's just who she is.

[Brian Green]

It's authentic to her. Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah. And so it's like, it really doesn't feel that bad.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Right. But. But for me, if I'm saying what Jordan's saying, you would be like, oh, gosh, settle down. Yeah. So I'm just not naturally that dirty of a person, but I do like to say some things. I do like to talk about drugs. I do like to talk about this and that. But I try to. And if I am making, you know, sex jokes, I try to do it in the cleanest possible way.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

You know what I'm saying?

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Dusty Slay]

I'm not throwing it out there. Right.

[Brian Green]

It's innuendo. And sometimes innuendo is the harder joke to make. It's easy to say whatever. You know, we can say it here on the show, but I want to make sure I keep it relatively clean so your audience likes it too. But, you know, you can say whatever. But if the innuendo or the look or the Motion that you make on stage, sometimes that's, in my opinion, the harder thing to do and something that you do do well and funnier and funnier sometimes. That's true.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah. I think if you establish some sort of line like where. Where the audience kind of feels like you'll never cross this line, then you can kind of inch up to the line and it feels edgy.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Even if it's not really that edgy.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, it feels.

[Dusty Slay]

It's like the. It's like the, you know, the dirty guy in church or whatever. You're like, oh, he said that. No one else will say. But it's not so far that it gets you kicked out.

[Brian Green]

That's right. I always thought this about, like, Andrew Dice Clay, like, when you start off with Hickory Dickory Doc and anybody knows, Andrew knows that the rest of that, we start off with a hickory dickory dock. Where do you go from there in the set? It's like, it can't get any crazier than hickory dickory doc. Right. So I. I don't know. But. But again, that's a choice he made, and it worked for him, at least for a period of time. It worked for him very well.

[Dusty Slay]

Well, I. I agree with that. And yeah, like, I went to see. I saw a magician when I was in Vegas recently. Very good, very good. I'm not even into magic. Very good. But, you know, he kind of blows your mind with the first trick.

[Brian Green]

Ah.

[Dusty Slay]

And then the rest of the time he's doing tricks that are like, yeah, this is mind blowing too. But you've already blown my mind. So I'm like, yeah, of course you can do this. Yeah. I just watched you do something. Of course you can do that.

[Brian Green]

That's like Pink Floyd or Roger Waters doing Comfortably Numb is the opener. You're like, what the is going on here? Why did he start with Comfortably Numb? I'm not even high yet.

[Dusty Slay]

You know, they said Billy Ray Cyrus, when he came out with Achy Breaky Heart, every live show, he would open and close.

[Brian Green]

Okay, ready? There's there. You remember this song from two. From the pandemic, Despacito. Remember the Despacito song? And I think Justin Bieber did a version of it. Usher did a ver, you know, with the guy singing Luis Fonsi in the back. Despacito. My wife's Venezuelan. We go to the Luis Fonsi show. I swear, this is the absolute truth. He played Despacito four separate times during a two and a half hour show. Four separate times. And the crowd Ate it up. Every time it got crazier. The crowd got crazier and crazier. And the last one was like a seven and a half minute version. And I was like, oh, my God, if I hear this, Give the people what they want.

[Dusty Slay]

It's almost like a callback. You're like, you hype them up and later on you do it again. You go, remember that.

[Brian Green]

It'S good. The call. You always got to have the callback. We always try to end the show. I mean, this is a little technical on just about the inside baseball, but, you know, you try and end the show on a callback, right? What you started with or something from the first segment or whatever it is. All right, Chrissy came up with a. With a good game. And so we're going to play a game with you. It's clean. I promise we won't.

[Dusty Slay]

We're not set. By the way, I love this sign. This looks good.

[Brian Green]

Thank you, buddy.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, you guys are on the same screen. It really feels like we're just in the room today.

[Brian Green]

I know. Well, since if we can't be here in person, hopefully someday that'll happen. But if we can't be here in person, we wanted to cozy it up a little bit. We used to sit at a table. It just looked a little weird. You know, we look like we're at an office or something.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah, it did.

[Brian Green]

We were staring at people like this.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

It was. This is more conversational.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yes.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

All right. Go, Chrissy.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

All right, this is a we're having a good time rapid fire round.

[Brian Green]

Yes or no?

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah, just yes or no. All right, get started here. So Waffle House at 2:00am yes, yes, absolutely, yes.

[Brian Green]

I have a side.

[Dusty Slay]

You're just looking for yes or no.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

No, no, no, please. If you have something funny to say, go for.

[Dusty Slay]

Makes no difference.

[Brian Green]

Exactly.

[Dusty Slay]

Anytime.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Anytime.

[Brian Green]

How many times times in a week or a month will you visit a Waffle House?

[Dusty Slay]

Well, it depends on if I'm hanging out with my dad or not.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Dusty Slay]

My dad lives in Alabama. I live in Nashville. That's a five hour drive.

[Brian Green]

There's 300 waffle houses between two times.

[Dusty Slay]

On the way up.

[Brian Green]

Oh, yeah. I'd eat there every day if I could. There is nothing like Waffle House to me. Okay. Free motel breakfast worth waking up for.

[Dusty Slay]

I'm gonna go. No, there. I, you know, I go down to the. I go down to the breakfast sometimes and I just walk through.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

I know, I know.

[Brian Green]

I'm like, no, if there's not a large cup of highly caffeinated coffee at the end of the breakfast bar with cream in it and sugar. Then I'm not going. That's it.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

All right, so the next one is fishing just to get out of mowing the lawn. Yes or no?

[Dusty Slay]

No. I'm gonna go. No. I love mowing the lawn. The lawn is fun.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

It is therapeutic. With making the lines.

[Brian Green]

Yes. You make the lines. You get away from the kids.

[Dusty Slay]

I like a riding mower with no headphones, Just listening to the engine. I love it.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Smelling the grass.

[Brian Green]

I. I like Dusty's version of escapism. He actually turns it all off. I wish for one freaking second I was able to do that.

[Dusty Slay]

It is hard. That's why the lawnmower's great.

[Brian Green]

Yes. I agree with you.

[Dusty Slay]

I got some land in McMinnville, Tennessee. A little too hilly for a zero turn, but I ride the zero turn out there. So you really got to be focused. You don't need distractions. It's really good.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

That's fun.

[Brian Green]

All right, I'll come help you one time. You show me how to relax. Doc, you could show me how to relax. Duct tape as a legitimate home repair.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Brian Green]

I agree with you on this. That's pretty straightforward. I think any man who has half ability to fix anything, like, I'm a guy who can probably figure it out, but most likely to call the dude who knows how. Duct tape is a good replacement.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah. I built a. I've been trying to feed crows. I've been trying to make friends with crows. So I built a long thing to put up top to get land on, and I used PVC pipe, and I couldn't figure out how to connect to the base that I had. So I stuck a stick inside, put the pipe over, and then duct tape it and then painted it, and it works great.

[Brian Green]

Did the crows come?

[Dusty Slay]

They do. They do come.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

That's so fun.

[Brian Green]

Crows are super smart animals.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

They are.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

They're like one of the more intelligent birds, I think. I don't know if that's what I mean.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

All right, so eating boiled peanuts in the car.

[Dusty Slay]

Oh, absolutely.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yes, Yes.

[Dusty Slay]

I love boiled peanuts.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

I love them anytime.

[Dusty Slay]

Anyway. Peanuts anywhere. But I. I love them in the car.

[Brian Green]

Okay, but hot or cold? Cold is the question, because I do not like them cold, but I love them hot.

[Dusty Slay]

I prefer hot. I can do cold, but I do prefer hot.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

I can go either way. I love them both. I love them anytime.

[Dusty Slay]

They probably don't really like. I'm out of a can.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

No, no, They've got to be in the bag from the side of the road. Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Canned boiled peanuts. I could do without that. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Or they give it to you in the Styrofoam cup, which to me is the best. And not because it's not great for the Earth, but at the end of the day. Why I like that is because the. They stay warmer longer. You can dig down in the bottom and get a hot one even 15 minutes after you've gotten.

[Dusty Slay]

That's true. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

All right. Saying y' all at a job interview or a proper setting, I say y' all everywhere.

[Dusty Slay]

Me, too.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

I mean, I say yes to it, but I. You know what? I used to wait tables. I moved to Charleston, I waited tables, and I noticed myself one day saying y' all every five seconds. And I just started, I go, how y' all doing today?

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Just over and over again. And I thought, well, let me try to work some other things.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Dusty Slay]

And then I kind of don't say y' all very much anymore. And I. It kind of goes against everything I believe in. But I. I don't really say it because it feels. Now I've gone a long time without saying it in a way that I feel like I'm some kind of phony. If I try to say it, I.

[Brian Green]

Could see that that's a. That's interesting. And with the accent, you would think y' all would come out every couple of sentences or that's just how you.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

So here's a funny story real quick. So I waited tables for a very long time, worked in the restaurant business. And I was waiting tables at a fine dining restaurant. I walk up to a table full of women, older ladies, older Southern ladies, and I say, hi, you guys. And the lady, all of them looked at each other. And the lady said, excuse me. And I said. I just said, hi, you guys. And she said, none of. There's not a guy in the group. And I said, oh, it's just the thing that we Northerners say. Because I grew. I was born in Chicago. I said, oh, it's just a way that we express it. She goes, it's y', all, or hello, ladies. And I thought to myself, wow. And that was the first time that I think I used y' all in conversation. I'm 20 something years old, first time. And now I use it probably way too often. Now Dusty's got me reconsidering.

[Dusty Slay]

That's happened to me before, too, where I. I. Because I was trying to find other things. That's the thing. And I Had women say that to me. We're not. We're not guys. And I'm like. I was just kind of like, what?

[Brian Green]

I understand that.

[Dusty Slay]

I got it.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah, Exactly.

[Brian Green]

It wasn't 20, 25 when I went up and said this. I'll just let you know it wasn't confusing then. And then I hate when people say, you guys' what are your guys is doing?

[Dusty Slay]

It doesn't sound weird, but I get it. Like, if it were all guys and you went up and go, what up, guys?

[Brian Green]

So in that sense, fair enough.

[Dusty Slay]

That they wouldn't like it, you know, Fair enough.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

That's true. Okay. Wearing socks with sandals. If nobody's looking, I'm still going, no.

[Brian Green]

I'm going, no.

[Dusty Slay]

Whether they're looking or not, I'm not into it. I'm not saying I've never done it.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

But I feel like if you're. You're wearing sandals, it's time to feel free. I mean, let the. Let the socks off the piggies. Breathe.

[Brian Green]

I'm a big fan of sandals, and I don't think I've ever worn socks. Socks with sandals. I've seen lots of people who do, and I don't understand why, like, if I.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

If I have socks on and I just have to run outside really quick.

[Brian Green]

Okay. That's one thing for something you're doing a chore.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Like, I can't get in the yard with the socks, but, yeah, that's the only time.

[Brian Green]

Okay, fair enough.

[Dusty Slay]

Socks feel like the hot part of the whole shoe. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Yes, Yes. I want to free my foot from all of that. I guess if you have nasty feet, free the foot. Now if you've got athlete's foot or some gangrene or something. Yeah. Keep that in close.

[Dusty Slay]

Okay.

[Brian Green]

Where are your shoes, socks, taking home shampoo bottles of shampoo bottles and. Or soap from the hotel.

[Dusty Slay]

Well, I'm not against it and I've done it a lot, but I'm going to go a. No, I don't think it's. I don't think it's bad to do it, but I just think you can buy better shampoo.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

You can do better.

[Brian Green]

You can definitely just.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, just treat yourself better than that.

[Brian Green]

Well, now, let me ask you this. Do you get to stay? And I'm sure it's a mixed bag, but do you get to stay when you go on tour at the fancier accommodations?

[Dusty Slay]

Well, here's a secret about when you get into theaters, you book your own hotels.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Unless you, you know, unless you have somebody that you pay to Book them.

[Brian Green]

Sure.

[Dusty Slay]

You book your own hotels. And I am a real middle. I get kind of cheap with hotels. Okay. Because I'm in and out.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah. For one day. Exactly.

[Dusty Slay]

And I just. I don't. I don't go. I don't go, you know, Motel 6 or Super 8.

[Brian Green]

But you're not at the Ritz.

[Dusty Slay]

I like a Marriott, you know, a Hilton. I'm good with the Hilton. Garden Inn.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, But.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah, Garden ends are nice. Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, but I don't. Yeah. I mean, because sometimes, especially in a city, you go, atlanta wasn't so bad. But they can be where you pull in and then you've already paid for the hotel. Now you're paying 50 bucks to park. Yes. Or somebody has to park the car for you. And.

[Brian Green]

And.

[Dusty Slay]

And it's like, I don't. I don't necessarily mind, but every time I want to get the car now I got to go give somebody a slip.

[Brian Green]

It's crazy. It's crazy. And then you have to. And if they hand them a 20 bill or they think you're a cheap ass and they're going to drive your car, get the fenders into the road. I know, right? Stupid. We went.

[Dusty Slay]

You can't have a nice. You got to have a raggedy car. And then you don't have to.

[Brian Green]

You tell Avis, can I get the worst car on? Can I drive your car? Why don't you take my rent a car?

[Dusty Slay]

If I pull up in a nice car, people think I stole it. I pulled. I was in a meet. I went to a meeting in la and I pulled up in a rental car. I got the cheap rental car, and the guy pulled into the garage and the guy goes, uber eats.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Oh, my God, that's really funny.

[Brian Green]

Meanwhile, we gotta tell you story. We have Ari Shafir on, right? You know Ari?

[Dusty Slay]

I don't know him, but I know who he is.

[Brian Green]

Okay. Ari and Nate are apparently friendly with each other. Other, right? So Ari is. Texts us before he comes on the show. And he. He, like, we very rarely have an actual. Like, the comedian actually text our cell phones. And it's like, hey, guys, can we push this? Like 30 minutes? I'm having lunch with a friend. And we're like, yes. So he comes on and I said, how was lunch? And he goes, great. I was catching up with an old buddy. You might know him. His name is Nate Margoti. And I was like, oh, of course we know him. What were you. Where did you guys go to eat? He's like, oh, he got off the. He he flew in on his private jet. So I went and met him at the airport for dinner or lunch and I was like, geez, Holy potatoes. Do you. Do you feel like your career is on a similar trajectory as Nate's? And is. Does Nate push you to be better? Because he's, I mean, he's been phenomenally successful and he's really good at what he does.

[Dusty Slay]

I mean, Nate's reached this incredible level. But I've always believed, you know, up until where he's at right now, that Nate is just a couple of years ahead of me. It always, yeah. You know, would seem like he would get something and then a couple of years later I would get that.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Dusty Slay]

I don't really have aspirations like that. I don't. You know, I did the arena with him at Bridgestone where we were in the round and there was 18,000 people in there. I mean, that show was fun, but I don't know, I'm not really into that.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

I mean, I would be into the money, sure.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

But I think there is something to me about comedy being in a, a tighter spot. Now I'm doing 2,000 seat theaters, but still those theaters, a lot of them are, are old or they're just built for that kind of acoustics.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Dusty Slay]

Right. And I just really enjoy that. I don't. I mean, well, listen, this is a.

[Brian Green]

This is a, this is a trope with musicians and with comedians with a lot of people who perform on stage. But, you know, know, big movie stars, they go back to the, to the smaller event. They want to go back to the days when there was more of a connection. Yeah. Four or five hundred people in the automune. Rolling Stones have been on, you know, they, they play clubs with 300 people and you know, Pearl Jam will warm up at a, you know, a 200 seat theater in, in Washington. Because I think that's where the magic happens, where you can see someone in the eyes, you can see them laughing, and it connects with what brought you there in the first place. It's that life force that comes through you when you're at the Bridgestone Arena. It's. I can imagine. It's just got to be like a little bit overwhelming. Sensory overload.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah. And I also feel like the more money that people make, I don't know, sometimes I see people and I think they don't look very happy.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

And they've made so much money and I'm like, I just feel like there's something to like, I've, you know, worked for a Long time. You know, I'm 43 and I was, you know, still working a full time job up until 30, you know, and, and so it's like, you know, this has just been. And even then, I mean I went to part time for a few years. So it's, I've been about a full time comic for about 10 years and I'm like, I'm very happy with what I'm making and, and I, I still have a lot of time to hang with my family and it's like I like, you know, I like being able to mingle with the big time comics. I just went to la, did like a charity show for the Dodgers and a lot of those guys were in the audience and then all these other comics on the show with me that, that I some that I had opened before in the past, but now I'm kind of on an equal level with and yeah, it feels good. I mean I love that sort of stuff, but I really like the art of comedy. What I want is to be able to look back and have a bunch of albums that are really funny. I want people to be able to, you know, when Wet Heat becomes an album then I'll have five albums.

[Brian Green]

Crazy.

[Dusty Slay]

That I put out and I like all of them. Yeah. So I just want to be able to keep doing that, have albums that are good and just tons of comedy that people can watch. And yeah, I want to make money too, but I don't want to lose touch.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Right.

[Brian Green]

I'm with you on that. I don't think there's any fear of that happening with us here. But you know, we have. That was a thousand episodes. And I was op. Maybe maybe fussing a little bit a couple of months back and with our agent and I was like, well, we redoing this and me doing. He's like, dude, you have almost a thousand episodes. You've built an incredible thing over there. You should be damn proud of yourself. Regardless, if you get invited to this Hooby Doob or that, you know, function, it doesn't really matter. You've built it, you've done it. Some things that people will never do. And you have too. And congratulations. This will be the first and the last time today. You're called Absolutely Delightful by Brian Green.

[Dusty Slay]

Well, you know, that's a thing though, right? It's like no matter where we get, we can always find something to go, oh, I didn't get invite. We can, we can be mad about not getting invited to something that a year ago we would go, oh, well, I'LL never be invited.

[Rachel (Voice of God)]

Right.

[Dusty Slay]

And then now we're like, well, yeah, I should be invited to that. Why am I not? And I get like that too. I mean, you know, you can find yourself in that spot and that's where you're like, like, you know, you just put on a little classical.

[Brian Green]

He did the call back. He did the call back. He got it. I knew you were going to work it in. Yay. Dusty Slay's brand new special is available. He's also out on tour. You're funny. You're technician of comedy. We've now had two out of three of the nan's podcast gu gentlemen guises here. And you're welcome back anytime. I hope I get to do this.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah, we enjoyed this.

[Dusty Slay]

Thank you. I would love to come. I mean, I used to come to Atlanta all the time, but now that I am doing theaters, I mean, I don't get to come as much. I think 20, 21, I did the punchline three times.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Because they were just.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

You know, they were looking for people that could come from. Yeah, yeah. So I used to come to Atlanta. My wife does used to do comedy and she used to come to Atlanta all the time too, and I love it.

[Brian Green]

Well, next time you're in the area or next time we're up in Nashville, let's connect all of the links in the show notes. Ladies and gentlemen, Dusty Slay.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Thank you.

[Dusty Slay]

Thank you very much. I appreciate you guys.

[Brian Green]

I got a lovely text message from a listener of ours, Elizabeth, who shared with me that she had pre ordered some of our [e-mail] she then went on to explain that she got the university sweater and the TCB logo T shirt. But as she was checking out, she wanted put to put a bit of spice in her life. So she ordered the piggy fronting T shirt. But Elizabeth is no regular listener. Just like everybody, she's got a story. Elizabeth is involved in event production and often deals with the Teresa Caputo tour itself. Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear piggy fronting T shirts. And in case anybody at the Caputo offices are listening, Elizabeth is not her real name. Enjoy the piggy fronting t shirt. Shoptcbpodcast.com, available until the 22nd of July of of August. Pre order now and get a free TCB sticker with every order. Also, when you get that merch, tag us on Instagram. We may send you free additional merch. Now let's hear from some sponsors and we'll get back to this episode of the commercial break. Well, there you heard it. That interview with Dusty Slay is. Is now one of my top five. I have a running list going on in my head. I. Cause I'm. Mainly because I can only remember five of the guests.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

No, I agree though. That was a great interview.

[Brian Green]

Okay, now listen, I don't want you any wise ideas about maybe getting a better microphone. That way we could record remotely because I like you here in the studio.

[Dusty Slay]

So.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

No, I love being there in the studio.

[Brian Green]

There's nothing like being in the studio. Not quite the same magic when you're so far away. But Dusty, what was fantastic. I think we all agreed walking out of that interview that it was just a good vibe with Dusty. He said, I think on two separate occasions it felt like he was here with us sitting in the room. And I wish he was here with us sitting in the room. And hopefully he can do that in next time. Next time. Dusty Slay Dot com. You can listen to him on the very popular Nate Linda podcast. We often bounce back and forth on the charts with each other, although I can guarantee they have more listeners than we do. He also does a podcast with his wife and then Wet Heat. Go check it out. It's his brand new special on Netflix as well as the tour that is available right now. So what else is there to say? An hour of Dusty Sleigh. What else is Slay? Dusty Slay. Go, buddy. He is. He is.

[Rachel (Voice of God)]

He's playing.

[Brian Green]

So listen, I hadn't seen what he. When we did the interview, I'd seen like, like cuts of it, right? But I hadn't seen like promotional reels, but I had not seen it. And so over the weekend I couldn't sleep because I was hopped up on very strong antibiotics. So I watched it and it made me laugh out loud on a number of occasions. Him and Nate and. And our good friend Aaron. All three of them working clean and being very good at it. Like, they're very funny. I. I didn't miss the fucking or the shits or the dirty jokes or. I didn't miss it. I mean, listen, I still love a good Carlin every once in a while, but I didn't miss it. It was actually pretty funny. And so it's. And you. I think most of the family can watch it. Anybody 13 and up can go and watch that show.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

So it's PG13.

[Brian Green]

That's Brian's rating for it. PG13. That's Brian's Rating for it. PG13. Like there's 13 kids in the. The House and I, I gotta do something besides watch another episode of Spider Man. Spider kids.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Oh, you're in the spider verse.

[Brian Green]

We're in the spidey verse. We're in the Diana, which is like one of these YouTube stars that now is on the Disney plus channel. These kids are making billions of dollars, Chris.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Oh my God. I know.

[Brian Green]

If I had just a little less scruples than I did do, which is not many, then I would be putting my kids to work on YouTube. The commercial break, the kid break. Like I'd have them in this my. In the studio. No, you're not eating until you do another take.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

They're itching to get be in there anyways.

[Dusty Slay]

They.

[Brian Green]

Oh, they are. They're already making their own videos. My. One of my kids asked me for a YouTube channel the other day and I was like maybe.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

Right, Let me think about that.

[Brian Green]

Let me think about it. What you should think about is going to shop. TCBpodcast.com please. If you got, if you, if you want to support the show, the best way you can is to pre order some merch. I know so many of you have, but you know, every little bit helps so we can keep it going. Shop tcbpodcast.com 212-4333 tcb Let us know if you buy some merch. We'd love to Hear from you. TCBpodcast.com all the audio, all the video, everything we do right there in your free sticker and YouTube.com the commercial break. If you want to see Chrissy and I in the studio with Dusty here together. All right, Chrissy. I guess that's all I can do for now.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

I think so.

[Brian Green]

I love you.

[Kristen Joy Hoadley]

And I love you.

[Brian Green]

Best to you. Best to you and best to you. Out there in the podcast universe, we will say, we do say we must say goodbye.