Funny You Should Mention: Dusty Slay

Summary

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The Gist: Funny You Should Mention — Dusty Slay (Nov 7, 2025)

Episode Overview

Comedian and host Mike Pesca sits down with Dusty Slay, the Alabama-born stand-up known for his inviting, observational style, to discuss Dusty’s recent Netflix special Wet Heat, his Southern roots, his comedy approach, and his knack for mining humor from everyday language and life. The conversation is both richly detailed and relaxed, moving from Dusty’s early life in Opelika, Alabama, to his unique takes on country music, work history, and comedic philosophy. The episode delivers genuine laughs while exploring what makes Dusty’s comedy both specific and warmly relatable.

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Key Themes & Discussion Points

1. Dusty's Southern Background and Opelika’s Snow Festival

• Opelika, Alabama Roots:

  • Dusty shares stories from growing up in Opelika, including being crowned the "King of Snowpilika," a tongue-in-cheek winter celebration involving artificial snow due to the local climate ([06:04]–[07:09]).
  • On receiving the key to the city:
    “All my friends are like, I don't know if they're disgusted by it, but they're like, of all people, all the things we used to do here in this. And now the mayor's given you a key to the city.” ([06:38])

• Opelika’s Quirky History:

  • Mike relates the town’s wild 19th-century political riots, which Dusty riffs on for its odd phrasing and names, like "Mayor Dun Bar." ([07:43]–[08:53])
  • Dusty jokes about locals shooting at trains:
    “I think they were just drunk and bored and they were like, here comes something to shoot at.” ([09:30])

2. Comedy Style: Inviting the Audience In

• Audience Connection:

  • Dusty is self-aware about his lower-key delivery compared to more high-energy acts. He prefers guiding audiences gently:
    • “I just try to bring them in rather than force it on them. Yeah, it doesn't. Forcing it on them doesn't work well for me.” ([11:23])

• Meta-Jokes and Framing:

  • On labeling certain jokes as “good, but you won’t like”:
    “I like to go, no, that is a good joke. I like to do that sort of thing.” ([10:11])
  • His famous “well over 50 years” joke and the value of setting up an audience’s expectations before the punchline ([10:36]–[12:01]).

3. Wordplay, Song Lyrics, & Comedic Inspiration

• Language Humor:

  • Dusty’s love for word-based jokes, reminiscent of George Carlin but always in service to larger stories ([13:08]).
  • Example: The improvement and “framework” in his songs routine:
    “It starts off as a longer joke, and then I start to find the real funny parts and whittle it down, and then you got a really nice framework…” ([14:25])

• Country Song Lyric Bit:

  • Dusty’s method for dissecting country lyrics for laughs, e.g., “Five O’Clock Somewhere” and Brooks & Dunn’s “Hard Working Man” ([15:19]–[17:10]).
  • “You just gotta find a song that has a story...you make fun of the character as if that character's really telling his story.” ([14:38])

• Expanding Beyond Country:

  • Potential bits on rap and Fleetwood Mac; recognizing the limits of “clean” material when evaluating what works on stage and what’s better suited for podcasts ([17:57]–[18:55]).

4. Comedy Business & Stage Craft

• Navigating Showcases and Differentiation:

  • On following somber or huge acts (e.g., after Vince Gill at the Grand Ole Opry):
    “It usually takes them a minute to really get into what I'm doing. But then by the end, I really got him.” ([21:25]–[22:09])

• Comedy Seller vs. TV:

  • Contrasting the pressured environment of the Comedy Cellar with prepping for the Tonight Show, and Dusty’s experience with both roaring and bombing sets ([22:18]–[24:08]).

• Signature Phrases:

  • Origin of “We’re having a good time”:
    “All the comics will always ask, hey, you having a good time?...It’s very welcome for someone just to take the reins and say, we are having a good time.” ([24:08])

5. Accent, Identity, and Family Background

• Dusty’s Unique Accent:

  • Traces the “blended” aspect of his speech from his Alabama upbringing, northern-influenced family, and Canadian wife ([26:32]–[28:32]).
  • “My accent, I don't know. ...I’m obviously still Southern, but...there's certain words that I think don't...like, my parents are both very country, and then my wife's dad is very Canadian...” ([28:11])

• Cultural Parallels:

  • Drawing similarities between rural Canada and rural South; both sets of family are farmers ([28:45]–[29:28]).

6. Work History: Pesticides, Food Service, and “Resting Clerk” Face

• Odd Jobs Inform Comedy:
  • Selling pesticides for Spectracide; the absurdity of being mistaken for staff due to uniform colors ([31:29]–[34:31])
  • “The great thing about working in a store, but not for the store, is you got some free rent. You go, no, they didn’t.” ([34:12])
  • The circuitous “corporate” job, getting laid off, and comparing sales spikes with effort or lack thereof ([37:31])
  • “So I would just, you know, drink on the clock...I started dating a girl that was on the compet[ition]...Bayer girl.” ([37:54], [38:03])

7. Trailer Park Upbringing and Life Skills

• Not Glamourizing Poverty, but Appreciating Lessons:
  • Dusty explains the realities and camaraderie of growing up in a small, single-wide trailer ([47:26]–[48:53]).
  • “It wasn’t until a certain age that I even thought about living in a trailer. I was like, yeah, this is my house.” ([48:51])
  • “I really feel like I learned that you don’t really need money to be happy.” ([50:12])

8. Podcasting, Conspiracies, and “Chill Comedy”

• Nateland & Conspiracy Bits:

  • Dusty is the “disbeliever” personality on the Nateland podcast, often playfully skeptical of dinosaurs, science, and accepted narratives ([51:23]–[55:06]).
  • On his comedic philosophy:
    “For stand up. I like to provide people with, you know, just relaxing comedy. Right. You're not going to get mad about anything.” ([53:05])
  • “I'm not saying I'm not an idiot. I'm just saying I don't believe it.” ([52:31])

• Separation of Stage & Podcast Persona:

  • Enjoys exploring edgier or more off-center opinions in podcasts, but keeps stage material inclusive and “as many laughs as I can...not pressuring you to do anything.” ([57:22], [58:32])

9. Observational Bits: Milk, Hand-Washing, and Gas Station Names

• Milk Routine:

  • The comedic process of turning life observations (milking cows, buttermilk vs. sweet milk) into longer bits ([65:12]–[67:16]).
  • “I would say a braver person might be the one that tried cheese for the first time.” ([67:16])

• Hand-Washing and Science Skepticism:

  • Dusty’s bit on society’s hand-washing obsession and his own shortcuts:
    “It's all performative. Now, if you're pooping, let's wash our hands. Right.” ([62:16])

• Gas Station Naming Riffs:

  • Ponders why so many store names are barely-disguised puns: Dick’s Sporting Goods, Come and Go, Pick and Save ([59:32]–[61:16]).
  • “I'm just like, why are we doing this? I think they'd still shop there if we just called it Richards or just.” ([60:10])

10. On “Bombing,” New Material, and Stage Zone

• Making the Most of Bad Gigs:
  • Uses unsupportive crowds to experiment:
    “Once you go out and you give them your best jokes and they're not really laughing, you go, all right, well, I'm just going to try this new jokes because...if I get anything, that's a win.” ([73:33])
  • Describes the physical and mental “zone” he enters while performing ([71:29]–[71:43]).

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Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• On his approach to comedy:
  “If I come out and I'm like, dinosaurs aren't real, I feel like that's not relatable to everyone. And I don't think they're not real. I just think they're not. What? I just don't believe everything.” (Dusty, [54:58])

• On his “We’re having a good time” catchphrase:
  “So I like to go, 'Yeah, we're having a good time.' And then also it's like...are we having a good time? You worried the audience is going to go, no.” (Dusty, [24:08])

• On country lyrics and comedy:
  “I like that song because, like Alan Jackson, I believe that you should never let your personal responsibilities get in the way of your alcoholism.” (Dusty, [16:06])

• On comedic development:
  “It starts off as a longer joke, and then I start to find the real funny parts and whittle it down, and then you got a really nice framework...” (Dusty, [14:25])

• On rural commonality between north and south:
  “You get so far north in Canada, you're like, back in the South.” (Dusty, [29:01])

• On skepticism and science (“the sun”):
  “What thermometer did you use on this?” (Dusty, [55:28])

• On not pushing buttons with stand-up:
  “I just want people to know that if they come see me, it's just going to be laughs...” (Dusty, [58:32])

• On memory and performance:
  “I feel when I'm on stage, I feel so sharp, and it's really great...That would be the worst thing for me to, like, lose the sharpness of memory.” (Dusty, [71:10])

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Notable Segments & Timestamps

• Opelika hometown and being King of Snowpilika: [06:02]–[07:29]
• Language jokes & “well over 50 years” bit: [10:36]–[12:01]
• Country music breakdowns: [13:29]–[17:10]
• Comedy philosophy—inviting vs. provocative: [53:05]–[54:58]
• Podcasting, conspiracies, and the “dinosaur debate”: [51:23]–[56:08]
• Milk and hand-washing routines: [65:12]–[63:29]

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Highlights & Episode Takeaways

• Dusty Slay’s humor is approachable and gently subversive, rooted in linguistic quirks and relatable experience rather than provocation for its own sake.
• His background growing up in rural Alabama—complete with small-town festivals, trailers, and unusual jobs—deeply informs both his worldview and comedic material.
• While he enjoys poking holes in accepted narratives (dinosaurs, science “certainties”) on podcasts, his stand-up consciously aims to unify and comfort, not divide or challenge.
• Dusty’s process is iterative: jokes start long and are gradually refined, often springing from personal memories and wordplay.
• His conversational, inviting tone makes his humor work for a broad audience—both in the South and beyond.

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“I want everyone in the audience to be happy. I want them to leave the show going, you know what? That was really fun. I had a good time at this show.”
— Dusty Slay ([57:22])

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

It's Friday, November 7, 2025 from Peach Fish Productions. It's the Gist. I'm Mike Pesca and this is Funny you should mention. And this is Mr. Dusty Slay. He has a new special out, a relatively new special, let's put it this way. You could get it if you subscribe to Netflix. And I've seen the subscription numbers you probably do. It's called Wet Heat. And he also had a special called Working man about a year ago. So special year. He's really cranking them out. And he's a. He's a hilarious guy and an interesting guy. You know, one of the joys of Funny you should mention is you just meet people from Alabama or Kentucky and they're funny and they reflect on where they're from. And they reflect where they're from. I've had many a Southern comedian, I guess I'm in a Southern mood. On Funny you should mention. And Dusty, he was, well, you'll hear he was the. What do they call it? The Snow King. He was fetted and honored in his Alabama hometown. They have this very bizarre snow festival. So why not have Dusty Slay, a kind and welcoming but in his own way, very bizarre person, oversee it? As always, there is excellent video of this on the Gist's YouTube channel standalone feed. We don't have to put up with my introduction of the topic right there. Just subscribe to Funny you should mention should you wish to. I think the video feed is really good. We have a nice set there that we record at the home of the comedy seller who is our partner in these endeavors. And now enjoy Mike Pesca and Dusty Slay. Funny you should mention, Claude is an AI service that I so love. I use it for writing all the time. It's also excellent for coding and it's improved my professional workflow. I am not going to say that all of the correspondence I get goes through Claude at some point. I mean, if you write in, you're going to hear from me, but just as an assistant. This saved me hours, hours and hours and hours. Claude is the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough. It's the collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you, not for you. Whether you're debugging code at midnight or strategizing your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter. It gives me suggestions I wouldn't have thought of and takes what I did think of and polishes it so that it's what I meant or I can tell myself, yeah, that's what I meant. And the thing that it does, artificial intelligence, right? What is intelligence but identifying connections where you didn't see them before? That's what I think. A key definition of intelligence is in my head. And when I think of intelligent humans, now that we intelligent have machines and that's what Claude does. Claude finds connections between all these sources that I wouldn't have found on my own. Plus all the professional tools through MCP connectors, GitHub and Jira and HubSpot and Notion. If you work with those. You know what I mean. Ready to tackle bigger problems. Sign up for Claude today and get 50% off Claude Pro. When you use my link. Claude claw AI slash the gist. That's Claude AI the gist right now for 50% off your first three months of Claude Pro. That includes access to all the features mentioned in today's episode. Claude AI the Gist. Okay, the weather's getting colder unless you're in Phoenix, but it's still getting colder. And sometimes when you're in a warm city, you're like, look, I might get to wear a sweater. And sometimes when you're in a cold city, there is this phenomenon known as sweater weather. And quince has got you covered, literally. $50 Mongolian cashmere sweaters. Oh, it's such a luxury. That's the Mongolian cashmere. $50. That's what you can afford. And that's the one I love. I have this green quince sweater that is a go to and I am going to go to Quintessential for additional sweater type coverings. I also should mention that they've gone beyond clothing. They've. They have home, bath, kitchen and travel. Some luggage from Quints Give and get. Timeless holiday staples that last this season with quince go to quince.com/the gist for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada too. That's Q U I n c e.com/The Gist Free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.comThe Gist hi. Welcome to Funny youy Should Mention, which is our show where we talk to a comedian and we find out why he or she says what he says. And I couldn't be more excited because Dusty Slay is with me. His new special is out on Netflix. Wet Heat. It's a wet heat. I shan't give away the joke. It's not the. It's not about the joke. It's really about Dusty inviting you into his world. Welcome. Thanks for coming in.

[C]

Thank you. I appreciate it. This is fun.

[B]

And your world started out in Opelika, Alabama.

[C]

Opelika, Alabama. Yeah. Some people call it Opelika and that's how you know it's a telemarketer when they call you back in the day. Opelika, you know, but Opelika and you were like the.

[B]

The king of Snowpilika. They. There's actually snow there.

[C]

Oh, yeah. Well, they pumped it in. You know, we only get snow once in a while. But they did have a little SN machine where they were pumping it in. But they do a nighttime parade now. It's a big deal. Tons of people showed up. And I got to be the grand marshal of the parade.

[B]

The grand marshal.

[C]

I got to ride around on a float with all my friends out in the crowd that I used to party with. And I'm getting a key to the city from the mayor. And all my friends are like, I don't know. I don't know if they're disgusted by it, but they're like, of all people, all the things we used to do here in this. And now the mayor's given you a key to the city.

[B]

What was the. The kind of person, what station in life would a typical grand marshal of the Snow Palika Parade have before Dusty Slay was tabbed with that?

[C]

You know, I don't know. I don't think this has been going on very long.

[B]

Wait, did they invent the parade for you?

[C]

Maybe. I mean, the May. The parade's been going on, but I don't know if they've been doing a grand marshal. The. The mayor had been there for 20 years. He became the mayor right about the time I left. I don't know that the old mayor would have given me such an award. But the.

[B]

Did he have beef with you?

[C]

No. Well, I don't know. I did get arrested and I just think. And it could be he could have came to Western Sizzling and I was his waiter. And he was looking for, you know, a lady to be his waitress. And it was a 16 year old kid.

[B]

Yeah. So this is what I was reading, the history of Opelika. And your history is different from the towns, but I know a little bit about you and how you hone in on certain words and phrases and there's certain description I think you could have fun with. In 1882, two factions claimed to rule the city government. One known as the bar, headed to. Headed by Mayor Dunbar. That. That's not the current mayor. This is 1882. A saloon keeper. Get it? The bar room. And another known as the citizens. Here's the. Here's the sentence. In a riot in late November, December of that year, a dozen men were wounded. In the end, a few of them were killed.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

Okay, so I don't know what jumped out at you. Jumped out at me. But what about that sentence? I mean, you're learning a lot about Opelika, so that's good.

[C]

I had not read that. But a few were injured.

[B]

Y.

[C]

And then in the end. Yeah, like they're almost covering it. They're riding it as they're watching. A few were injured. No, they were killed. Right.

[B]

A dozen were injured, so that's a solid number. So we have the injury numbers.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

But then when it comes to the killed, which you might think is more important. Yeah, they're kind of vague.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Some of them were killed.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. You don't. Yeah. You don't want to lead with that, I guess. But maybe. And I also like that his name's Dun Barr.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

He's a saloon keeper.

[B]

Right.

[C]

And it's the bar room party. So bar a couple of times for him.

[B]

In terms of branding, I think he has a leg up on the citizens.

[C]

Yeah. These was this. Yeah. I mean that makes sense though there's still a lot going on in. Okay, so there was one I read where, you know, it's a railway rail station.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So that when the train used to come through, they said they would instruct people to get down because people in Opelika would shoot at the train.

[B]

Why? Why were they resentful of the train?

[C]

I think they were just drunk and bored and they were like, here comes something to shoot at.

[B]

I know the Chicago Miami Express used to roll through there, but it was since discontinued.

[C]

Oh yeah, that's too bad.

[B]

The other part of that sentence was they said in late November, December. And that reminded me of a few of your jokes. So the weird thing about late November, December is you could pretty much Cross the November part off. What's November? What's November? Even doing any work there in late November? December. But it reminds a couple of your jokes where you talk about. First of all, you will sometimes tell the audience, this is a good joke. You're not going to like it, but it's a good joke.

[C]

I love doing that. Yeah.

[B]

Okay. Why do you do that?

[C]

Well, I think it's just fun. Like, you know, you do. You do a joke and maybe it doesn't go the way you want it to go. Yeah, I like to go, no, that is a good joke. I like to do that sort of thing too.

[B]

Right. Well, that's true after a joke and it gets a little bit of response. But in this special, you very much set it up with. I am now going to tell you a joke joke that you're not gonna like. It's not offensive, but it's. You're not gonna like it.

[C]

That joke in particular, I like that joke. I like the joke where well over, you know, people say, oh, we've been in business for well over 50 years. And I'm like, well, how well over? Right. But no one was laughing at it, but I like doing it. So I just started at one time at a show, I go, listen, this next joke. Nobody likes it. And then so I kind of really played up how no one likes it. And then I did the joke and then everyone applauded and I was like, oh, well, this is the way. This is how I'll do that joke.

[B]

Yeah, I think you're doing what you do without being explicit about it. You're really inviting the crowd into your world. Like I said in the beginning, I mean, you're very. You're a very inviting comedian. You're not throwing. You're not assaulting them. You're like, hey, join me in this observation. And I think that joke explicitly does that.

[C]

Yeah, I like that. I like the whole idea of, like, if I'm on a showcase or something with people that are more high energy, it may take a minute for the crowd to get into what I'm doing. But I. I just try to bring them in rather than force it on them. Yeah, it doesn't. Forcing it on them doesn't work well.

[B]

For me now with the. Well over 50 years. Have you ever seen or heard the. The brag for over 54 years or for over 73 years, which, if it's not 74, what are you doing?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. That's a weird one.

[C]

It is weird. It is weird. But, yeah, I mean, to you know, but yeah, it's weird to get specific.

[B]

Which is to get vaguely specific. And it reminds me of an earlier joke. Tell me if you think that it's a similar joke where you're talking about a guy who did. He brags about doing all of his Christmas shopping online. Do you remember this joke? What is the joke?

[C]

Well, I said, yeah, this is a really old joke. I said, I heard this guy say. He said, this year I bought all my presents online. Well, except for some of them. And I was like, that's why we invented the word most.

[B]

Yeah, but those are two similar ideas that, like, the people saying it think they're conveying some sort of exactitude and really they're just at a loss for the right language.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah, that's fun. Yeah, I. You know, I had another joke about the word obituary. I was actually doing a radio show one time, and a guy on the thing said, obituary, and there was a girl on the phone who had called in and she was like, what'd he call me? And. Yeah.

[B]

So, you know, usually, though, your jokes about words, which are my favorite, I don't know. Did you watch a lot of George Carlin?

[C]

Yeah, yeah. Bet. I mean, the baseball versus football is very, very.

[B]

So I love jokes about words and I love language, but that'll never just be your only punchline. They'll be scattered throughout the bit, but it'll be in service of a bigger bit. And that bigger bit is usually something about your life experience or. One of my favorites. When you go over song lyrics, that's.

[C]

Also one of my favorites. I like country, though. I like that country song. It's Five o' Clock Somewhere. You know that song, the song that justifies drinking any time of the day, you just say it's 5 o' clock and it's okay. Right? It only works for drinking, though. You can't show up late for work and be like, hey, nine o' clock somewhere. Be nice if that did work, though. If your boss is like, well, I can't argue with that logic. Hell, get in here. Hell, by that logic, it's five o' clock somewhere. Let's get out of here. Let's get a drink. What are we even doing here? Well, what happens a lot of times with me and jokes is it starts off as a longer joke, and then I start to find the real funny parts and whittle it down, and then it gets to be a smaller joke, and then you got a really nice framework, and then you can explore different things. Then you can add tags and then it could go off in wild areas because you already got your framework built.

[B]

Right.

[C]

But with a song, it's like, yeah, you just gotta find a song that has a story and you have a character, and then you don't make fun of the song. You make fun of the character as if that character's really telling his story.

[B]

Right. So every time I've seen you do this, you always say, love the song. Great song from the 90s. And it's five o' clock somewhere. That's one of the songs you do it for. What's the one in the latest special?

[C]

That's Hard Working man by Brooks and Dunn.

[B]

Okay. So I have to tell you, I am not the biggest country fan, which I think you have a joke about. I don't hate country at all. And when you said Brooks and Dunn, I was like, wait, that's not Garth Brooks, is it? But then I realized it was Kicks. Brooks. Yeah, Kicks.

[C]

Similar to Kicks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Best kicks. You know, there was also a country singer named Doug Stone. Apparently when he came out, his name was Doug Brooks, and so he recommended he change his name.

[B]

And what's the Brooks and Dunn song you talk about on this special?

[C]

Hard Working Man.

[B]

Right. Hard Working.

[C]

Yeah. Well, this song, you know, you really.

[B]

You really lay some truths on that. I wonder if Brooks and Dunn really thought about it.

[C]

Well, I've tweeted at them about it. You know, my last one, I had a couple of Travis Trent songs, and I did tweet at Travis Trent and he responded.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And he seemed to really like it.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I don't. No word on whether I did another song on there. I'm already there, by a band called Lone Star, I think.

[B]

Yeah, you said you like that.

[C]

They never responded to that one. I don't think they cared for it, but. But I actually don't like that song as much.

[B]

But do you admit that in the special?

[C]

I don't know.

[B]

Okay. Yeah.

[C]

But I do love Hard Working man by Brooks. And that's the thing, you know, you're listening to the song and you're just enjoy it, and then you go, wait a minute, this doesn't make sense.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And see, with the Five o' Clock Somewhere, I just had this line that I wanted to write where I said, you know, I like that song because, like Alan Jackson, I believe that you should never let your alcoholism get in the way of. Oh. Never let your personal responsibilities get in the way of your alcoholism. Which I thought was a very funny line. But no one ever laughed at It. So I was like, well, let me listen to the song a few more times. They're really fun. And then as I started listening, I go, oh, there's a. There's a funnier thing here.

[B]

Yeah. Do you think with most of your audience, the laugh is that they knew the song and never really thought about the lyrics that way? Because I have to tell you, with the Brooks and Dunn song, I had never heard the song. I went on Spotify, I'm like, that's the song. I get it. I found another song that they sang about a woman who's not the cheating kind.

[C]

Is that a Brooks and Dunn song?

[B]

Yeah, that could be. That could be another one. Rife for comedy, but. So I never knew the song and the bit still killed. But with your audience, it's like, I know that song. I've been listening to it. I've listened to it hundreds of times and I never thought of the lyric. You think that's what's going on?

[C]

Yeah, I think so. Especially with five o' clock somewhere. Yeah. I think some of the others can get forgotten about a little bit. But my friend told me he was riding around with his mom and the song, the Travis Trick song came on where, you know, he's like a woman warm and willing. That's what I'm looking for. You know, it's like, that's a pretty low standard.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. And he said his mom laughed at that.

[B]

The warm part especially, I guess, the willing. We should give someone credit for, I don't know, the age of. For like believing in consent to some degree.

[C]

It's tough to be willing if you're cold. That's right. If your body's cold, you're not willing.

[B]

The two are correlated. That is true.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Do you think you'll ever do a non country song? I mean, do you listen to other kinds of music that strike you as terrible lyrics?

[C]

A little bit. You know, there's a couple that I've thought of. There's a couple of rap songs that I like that I wanted to talk about, but it's. They're a little dirtier.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So it's hard to really get into it. Like, I wanted to do a joke about the Ice Cube song Today Was a Good Day, which is a song I really loved when I was in high school, but I was at the bowling alley with my kids and in the middle of the day and they're playing the edited version, but it's.

[B]

Does it have any words?

[C]

It's like, yeah. He's like, my Beep. Ran deep. So deep. So deep. Put her beep to sleep. And it's like, okay, Ice Cube, this is. That's not clean.

[B]

If you asked him, he would say, this is not meant to be played at bowling alley, right?

[C]

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think he would complain if he was at the bowling alley with his kids.

[B]

Yeah. What the fuck? Get this off right now.

[C]

But there is a couple. There was, like, a Fleetwood Mac song that's like, thunder only happens when it's raining. And I'm like, well, that's not true.

[B]

That's not true. It's just meteorologically. And, like, if you want to diagnose why landslides happen, there's another one.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Fleetwood Mac gets its meteor. Meteorologically speaking, it's totally wrong.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

They're all high, though.

[C]

I think that's why they're all coked.

[B]

Up the whole time. So the last thing you're going to do is get the barometric pressure right.

[C]

That's true. That is true.

[B]

Do your fans come to. Do they expect you to do a riff about a song every show?

[C]

Well, I don't have one in my new. I do have a new hour now. I don't have a country song yet, so I'm thinking about it. I did, you know, I get to do the Opry, and I. So I get to work with some songwriters sometimes. There's a guy named Don Schlitz. Oh, yeah.

[B]

That guy's legend.

[C]

He wrote so many songs. And he wrote the Gambler by Kenny Rogers.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And he. We worked together. He saw me do the Brooks and Dunn Breakdown, and he loved it, and he wanted me to do a gambler one that would be good, and I think that's a good one to do, but I haven't really found the thread for it yet.

[B]

Right. For a sip of your whiskey, I'll give you some advice that. Well, just in terms. Do you play Texas hold'? Em?

[C]

Well, I know a little. I don't play, but I know a little bit about him.

[B]

So if you go all in this. And this happens all the time, everyone stops and says, all right, how much money do you have? So you have to count your money when you. According to the rules that you have to count your money when you stand at the table. Yeah.

[C]

And also, he never really gives him advice.

[B]

It's not good advice.

[C]

He says, you got to know when to hold him. No one to fold him. And it's like, yeah, but when. Yeah, sure, I gotta know it. But you're not. You're not telling me when Right.

[B]

These are general rules. Like, okay, let me tell you how to be good in football.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

You gotta know how to score.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, how's.

[C]

Know how to score? Know how to keep them from scoring. Let me get a cigarette and some whiskey.

[B]

Know how to tackle. You got any, like, aim for the hips? No. That's all I'm saying.

[C]

And then he bums a cigarette, drinks all his whiskey, and then dies.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

It's like, you couldn't die without drinking all my liquor.

[B]

If you don't mind me saying, I could see your eyes of aces. Well, sir, if you don't mind me saying, you're an inch away from dying.

[C]

Yeah. I'm also out of liquor.

[B]

Yeah. Who are you to tell me I'm out of aces? Yeah. I love the gambler. Yeah. Yeah. You got to know when to fold them. So is that in Nashville? Is the grand old Op in Nashville?

[C]

Yes. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

And Ryman Auditoriums in Nashville.

[C]

Ryman is. It's in. Ryman's downtown. The Opry is out of downtown.

[B]

Right.

[C]

It's kind of. They call it the New Opry a lot of times, but it's like. Like been there since the 70s, I think.

[B]

So what's called something. An Opry, though. It can't be that cutting edge.

[C]

Yeah, right, right. It can't be brand new.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, it's an Opry.

[C]

But it's very nice. I mean, it's 4400 people, and when it's sold out, it's like. What's fun for me is that it's like, you know, it's all country musicians, and then it'll be a showcase, and then I'll come out after some, you know, country act. I had to follow Vince Gill one time, which was really tough, because he sings the saddest song of all time, and then I go, all right, we're having a good time, and. But it's good because it usually takes them a minute to really get into what I'm doing. But then by the end, I really got him.

[B]

You like that, right? I like being the opposite of everyone who's on the bill, which is why you do. You've said it a couple times here, which is why you tell people we're having a good time.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, I love it. The comedy seller scares me a little bit, because I only do the comedy seller when I'm doing the Tonight Show, So I got five minutes. I can't. I mean, Michael Cox is here to watch me. I can't mess around. I'm Like, I'm doing my five, and then I've had some re. The last time I was here, it was a hot set. I loved it. But the time before, I don't know, the first half was a bit of a bomb. And. But then I.

[B]

On the show. You mean on the.

[C]

At the seller. Oh, at the Cellar and the Tonight show, it's. It always goes great.

[B]

It always works okay.

[C]

Thankfully. But actually, and I. And I do think it's a. It's good for me to bomb a little bit at the seller before the Tonight Show. Makes me rethink everything. Makes me really be prepared.

[B]

Right. So typically, a comedian said, at the seller would be 20 minutes, but when you're prepping for the Tonight show, you only do the five. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's weird. That's a little weird because everyone else is doing 20.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm just popping in real quick. Yeah, but it's good. I mean, the. The two times ago, I just released my special, and Dave Chappelle had just released a special, and the host brought me up and he said, oh, we got a special guest drop in. He just released a Netflix special, Dusty Slay. And I feel like all the air left the room. But so this time I was like, just say from Nashville.

[B]

Right.

[C]

And so there's no expectation. And then it went great.

[B]

But then it wasn't the fact that. Or the case that everyone thought it was Nate Bargazi.

[C]

Well, in Nashville, I won't let them bring me up to. He's on the Nateland podcast. I say, no mention of that.

[B]

Right. So when you do. We're having a good time. This was. I'll explain for everyone, because all the comics will always ask, hey, you having a good time? And after 12 of them, it's very. It's very welcome for someone just to take the reins and say, we are having a good time.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, people. I feel like the audience, these showcases, they get so wore out and go, oh, you guys are having a good time. And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, do the jokes. So I like to go, yeah, we're having a good time. And then also it's like, you know, depending on the show, you go, are we having a good time? You worried the audience is going to go, no.

[B]

Right. Do you think that could work? With some of the other common phrases that comedians, the MCs, will say, like, are you ready to laugh? If you were to assert you're ready to laugh, do you think that would work?

[C]

I think so.

[B]

You're ready to laugh.

[C]

I think so. I mean, you know, club owners may disagree and want the host to keep doing the. Are you ready to laugh? But I think so. I mean, I host my show. I do a show at Zany's and I host my show, and I don't think I'm a great host, but I'll go, I'll do my set at the beginning. And then sometimes they get hot, sometimes it's not that hot. And I go, well, my job was just to come out here and warm you up. And I think you're all just above cold, so that's good.

[B]

You know, warm and willing, if you will.

[C]

Yeah. And I like that stuff. I love. If I go last on a really long showcase, I go, I'm just out here to help you get to bed. You know, I'm just here to wind it down.

[B]

Well, I've heard you aspire to do an ASMR comedy album.

[C]

Yeah, I'd like to do a sleep one where I just do. You know, it's just very chill comedy. You can listen to it while you're going to sleep. Because I like to listen to podcasts sometimes when I go to sleep.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Especially if I'm in a hotel and I'm high, I'll. I'll be too afraid to turn the lights off. So I'll listen to a podcast and. And then they start yelling or something. Yeah, I'm like, well, I don't, I don't want that. That's why you need a. Just a chill, relaxed.

[B]

What podcast do you like to listen to? What kind of podcast?

[C]

Well, I, you know, I listen. I like, you know, I like gardening podcasts. Cool. Because I'm into gardening. But gardeners are not always the best podcast.

[B]

Well, but they're probably not going to be yelling that much.

[C]

They don't yell that much. But, you know, you know, an ad might. Yeah, I mean, I listen to. What do I listen to? I don't know. I just want to hear people talk sometimes. Maybe a history video on YouTube will be good. You have to get YouTube Premium because then an ad will come in that does you. But even everybody's doing their own ads. Yeah, I get it. Everybody's got to make money. But. And you know, an ad can change the flow.

[B]

Well, I like. On the Nateland podcast, you do the Bombas ads, you do other ads, but you really, for a guy with certainly a southern accent, you have this trait. You hit your T's very prominently. So when the promo code is Nate, that really pops now, is this. I don't know, people from your exact area of Alabama. Is that part of either how they talk or did you train yourself to be. To really enunciate the tease?

[C]

I really don't know where my accent comes from. I feel like even, like, when I was a kid, if you listen to videos of me as a kid or recordings, I'm very Southern. Southern. But my sister's 11 years older than me. She started dating a guy from Michigan when I was, you know, I don't know, nine or so. And he's been in my life this whole time. Right. So I was basically an older brother.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Who's from Michigan.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So I think he, like, started to influence my accent. Then I moved to Charleston, South Carolina. Very old Southern town. But so many transplants from Ohio and other places that I started. I was hanging out with all these northern people, and now my wife is Canadian, and I'm like, I don't even know what my accent is.

[B]

You're still Southern, but your wife has a Southern accent.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

Right.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Your wife, like.

[C]

Yeah, I picked it up quick.

[B]

She can. She put it down. When you guys go to Toronto, does she do the ads?

[C]

She can. She'll still throw out an A once in a while, and she. She can lock it up some. But, yeah, everybody. All her family talks about how Southern she is.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

My. My accent, I don't know. It's. You know, I'm obviously still Southern, but it. It goes. It. There's certain words that I. I think don't. Like, my parents are both very country, and then my wife's dad is very Canadian, you know, and she'll still say zed. They do. They're abc. They do Zed.

[B]

And do they go nil for or not? What are their zeros?

[C]

I don't know. I guess she does. Zero.

[B]

Yeah. Are. Is the very Canadian and the very southern, or there more overlaps than we might think?

[C]

Well, I think so. I think, you know, like, weirdly, like, with Canada, the majority of the population lives on the southern border, so it feels like everybody is more rural as you go north.

[B]

Right.

[C]

Whereas, you know, in. In the States, it's, like, more rural as you go south.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So I feel like you're almost like you get so far north in Canada, you're like, back in the South.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

The accent's different, but she was raised in Peterborough, Ontario, which bigger town than Opelika, but she was raised on a farm. And you know her. She has cousins, and her uncle is a Garlic farmer and soybeans. And so my. My dad lives on a farm. Beef cows. So.

[B]

But in Peterborough, the snow prince or princess, that just known as everyone.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

Snow festival is just known as Thursday.

[C]

Yeah. They don't need to pump in snow there. That's for sure.

[B]

Another Opelika fun fact. I don't know if you'll consider it fun. And I talked about town Mottos with T.J. miller for an extraordinarily long time, and it's not my shtick, but I got to bring it up because the Opelica town motto is rich in heritage with. With. With a vision for the future. And I say you got to pick a lane. I know you want to be everything, but to me, it's like the state quarters that have every single symbol associated with the state. No, just put the Statue of Liberty on it if you're in New York.

[C]

Yeah, Yeah. I don't know that I knew the motto, and I think sometimes the motto changes, you know? You know, at least on the car. Like in. I lived in South Carolina for a long time, and the car tags used to say, like, smiling faces, beautiful places, and now it's something else. Yeah, but it's as fun as smiling faces, beautiful. But I think that's a fun kind of motto. But. Yeah, I don't. I don't know. I mean, Opalika is old, I guess, but I don't know. Rich inherited. I don't know.

[B]

I have the citizens versus the bar crowd, the riot, the famous late November December riot.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Maybe the only late part was the few who died. They were late.

[C]

Maybe that's it.

[B]

Yeah, we've cracked the code.

[C]

Their last names were November.

[B]

Oh, it could be. Yeah, yeah. The. The Hatfield, the McCoys, the November. A couple other observations from your jokes. One is the untucked shirt.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

You can only wear the untucked shirt. I wouldn't say I can only wear it, but I much prefer it. But isn't it weird that there is a company called Untucked and there are shirts that are, quote, meant to be untucked? Shouldn't that be the default setting that they have to market something to undo a really, if you think about it, weird way to wear a piece of clothing.

[C]

I agree. I. You know, because, you know, I talk about that on the Working Man Special, but it is true for me. It's like I used to have to. I had this job where I sold pesticides and I had a green polo with the collar, and I had to tuck it in and People in the Lowe's would come up and ask me to help them find stuff, and that's fine, but I would go to the grocery store after work, and people would be like, hey, where's the bananas? I would go to the spa. I went to Dick Sporting Goods. Apparently, they wear green polos. At least at that time, I had to leave the store because people would not stop asking me for help. I'm like, I am at work, but I'm. I'm. I'm shopping on the clock here, guys.

[B]

You have resting clerk fits. Yeah, they're just. Are you approachable or is it just the shirt? They don't see past the shirt.

[C]

I don't know. I mean, I pulled into. I did a thing in LA recently I had to do, so I did a meeting, and I pulled up to the garage, and the guy goes, goes. He comes up to my window, he goes, you know, Uber eats now. I have a meeting in here.

[B]

Gonna, like, toss you the keys and tell you to park it. So when you in your comedy special talk about being in the grocery store and someone asked for bread and you do show them the bread, where does the truth of that end? And where does the comedy artifice inject itself?

[C]

Well, you know, I will. If I know where something's at, I'll help him find it. You know, I actually.

[B]

Well, okay, but now do you say, I don't work here, but. Or you just help them find it first and then maybe let it dawn on them that you don't work there?

[C]

Well, like, if you're old. I mean, I helped a guy find some cookies in the grocery store the other day. I don't know if he thought I worked there or not, but he asked if I could help him find the cookies, and I found them for him. But, yeah, I mean, you know, it's only if, like, the requests keep coming, right? You know, like, I'll help you find. And then they go, what about this? And I go, well, I don't work here. And then it gets weird. And then it's like, oh, well, why have you been helping me at all?

[B]

That's a weird question to ask someone. Why have you been helping? What's in it for you?

[C]

I don't know that they say it, but they. They look at me like, oh, what a weirdo. And I'm like, well, I just. I know where the bread is.

[B]

But if you were truly one of the greats in the pesticide game, maybe you could move some units based on that relationship.

[C]

That is true.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

That is True.

[B]

The legend.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Doug Smerdliff, he'd be able to do it.

[C]

That's true.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But I, you know, in a Lowe's, you know, I, you know, especially on the pesticide aisle, I mean, I knew that in every store I knew. And the people would go, what about this? I go, no, they don't have that here. And they go, well, you used to. And I go, no, they didn't. That's the great thing about working in a store, but not for the store is you got some free rent. You go, no, they didn't. And they go, no, they had it last year. And I go, no, I was here last year too, and I stocked this whole shelf.

[B]

What kind of pesticides?

[C]

Well, I work for a company called Spectracide, so I sold, really, I'm going.

[B]

To guess the whole spectrum of pesticides.

[C]

Yeah, we had it all. We had Hot Shot, we had pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides, and for a while we had fertilizer. So I used to, I used to do it all.

[B]

Rodenticide is what they call.

[C]

So that's what they call what you kill rodents. Sure.

[B]

You would think it's shame that pesticides already taken, right?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Because it's still a pest. Yeah. But they would, you know, I think maybe you throw that in if you're really trying to look smart with it.

[B]

What was Roundup? Because that, they took that. Do you know about this? They took that off the market and it would, There was a huge lawsuit. Do you know anything about that? Can you talk about that now?

[C]

Well, you know, Roundup was my competition. Okay. Uh huh. So I would, yeah, so I would. I sold. We had weed and grass killer, Spectracide, weed and grass killer. And they had Roundup. So my job was, you know, I'd stand on the aisle, you know, I'd be stocking, I'd be doing other things. But if I'm on the aisle and somebody's going for some Roundup, I'd go, hey, have you ever thought about trying the Spectracide, weeding grass? You know, you talk them into it. Yeah, I think it's. What is it? It's the atrazine or something like that. I forget.

[B]

So Roundup had it, but Spectracide did. It didn't.

[C]

In our Spectracide, weed and grass killer. It didn't have it. Well, it's not atrazine. It's another one that is very like. People talk about it now.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And it's like really bad.

[B]

It's. Yeah, it's the new asbestos.

[C]

Yeah. But I We had it. We actually had a generic company.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

That we represented, and it had it in there, but the Spectracide didn't have it.

[B]

When you were a pesticide salesman, and maybe you're making it sound more interesting than it was, but I could talk about this for a while.

[C]

Yeah. I used to get drunk in bars and talk to people about pesticides.

[B]

Were you wearing your uniform? Is that what started the conversation?

[C]

Well, you know, you try to talk to women, and they ask you what you do, and you try to be vague about it because you want them to know you have a professional job with benefits and a car allowance, but you don't want them to know you sell pesticides. So you say, I work for a chemical company. And they go, what kind of chemicals? And then you could beat around the bush, but eventually you just go, all right, I'm a pesticide salesman. Okay.

[B]

You beat around the bush until eventually you kill it with your herbicide. So then it comes up. Was your humor key to your success, as it were, in the pesticide business?

[C]

Well, I think I did very well in a lot of areas, but when people found out that I worked with that, I did comedy. These were people just in the low stores, and they would be like, oh, you do comedy? They go, you're not even really funny. And I go, yeah, I hate this job.

[B]

It turns out when my material is any song lyric in the world versus this one pesticide and the possibly a tetra scene in it or whatever it is, I don't have enough to riff on.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. At first, I really liked that job. Yeah. When I first got it, I really liked it. And I thought, this is a good career move for me because I didn't go to college. So it's a job with health benefits and car allowance, and it allowed me to get a new car, and I felt very good. But, you know, it's a corporate job, so they keep changing. You know, I had the job for a year, and then they sold the pesticide, they sold the fertilizer, and then laid off half the company. Company. So then my territory really grew.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And then it got. So I had more work, same pay, more demand, and it just like, eventually you're like, all right, I figured out my boss would be on me. I would have a. A week where I worked really hard in the store, and my sales would be down. And then the next week, I wouldn't do anything, and my sales would be up. So I'm like, all right, so nothing that I'm doing matters.

[B]

Right.

[C]

So I would just, you know, drink on the clock and, you know, I had a. I started dating a girl that was on the compet.

[B]

And you. You dated a roundup girl?

[C]

Well, she worked for Bayer.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Bayer and Monsanto now, I think are a team, but back then, Bayer was separate. So I dated the Bayer girl and.

[B]

Monsanto said, what corporation has a worse corporate history than we do? Maybe Bayer.

[C]

Yes, exactly. They were like, let's team up. Maybe we can take the heat together.

[B]

Were you doing comedy then? What was your comedy like?

[C]

I was doing a little comedy. I just got into it around 2008. I've been doing some improv prior to that, but not really stand up. So I started getting into it. And so I was. But I lived in Charleston, so it's not like, you know, when people, you know, if people are in New York starting comedy, you can just perform any night of the week. In fact, it seems like you're wasting time if you're not performing every night.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Especially in the beginning. But in Charleston, you know, we get one, maybe two open mics a week and that's it.

[B]

And were they in the existing comedy club or somewhere else?

[C]

We had no club. We had an improv theater.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So we would do. We had a show there. We would do. And then the others were bar shows. I hosted an open mic. I was hosting it one at a place called the Upper Deck, which is no longer exists. The building's still there, but it's now some weird kind of karaoke bar. But it was a great dive bar. Lots of hipster type people in there, college people. And it would be packed, but they weren't there for comedy. So you were really battling an audience. So you learned. I don't know, I felt like you learned to be tough with the crowd. And then I hosted trivia. I was a trivia host.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Which I felt like was good for comedy. Comedy, too. Not good for working out jokes, but good for learning to talk without people listening to you or caring what you have to say, which would come in handy later.

[B]

Did you put a lot of time and attention into the questions or did they come from somewhere?

[C]

No, they came from someone else. I worked for a company, okay. They got the gigs, they gave me the questions, and we split the money.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

So I was just hosting. And people would yell at me. They would go read a book, you know, or quit drinking thing, because I would, you know, I wouldn't be able to pronounce names correctly. And I would, you know, I'd get pretty drunk by the end of the night. But I'm like, quit drinking. That's why I'm doing the gig.

[B]

This is the point.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Yes, yes. Getting high when you're a restaurant server, drinking when you're a comedy host. I don't know when you're a pesticide guy. Afterwards at the bar, I did drink.

[C]

Some during the, the pesticide days. I would go drink on. But I, I, it's not that I had anything to do that required other than driving. I had nothing to do that required me, you know, be sober. I mean, they required it.

[B]

Right. But they, they had no means of enforcing it.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

But in most cases, once I got, if I did drink on the clock, I wasn't really doing any work. So there wasn't really a workman's comp issue.

[B]

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[A]

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[B]

And we're back with Dusty Slay on. Funny you should mention when you worked at the Western Sizzlin, which is a weird name for different reasons than you point out, I think.

[C]

Yeah, well, it's on the east coast, basically. Alabama's in the east part of the country.

[B]

Oh, I see.

[C]

It's not really the west at all.

[B]

Well, I was thinking about this. So it's a, it's a buffet. It's an all you can eat.

[C]

It's buffet. But they also serve steaks. So a little different than like a Golden Corral or a Ryan's, where I would never, I would never dream of ordering off the menu. At a Golden Corral, it's buffet or get out of here. But at Western Citizen, they actually had a good steak.

[B]

And if you opted in for that, then you weren't paying buffet prices. How would it, how would it work price wise?

[C]

Well, you could do. There's several options. Okay, get the buffet and, and the salad bar. Or you could go in and get a steak and a salad bar. I think if you wanted, you could get the steak and a buffet. Probably be a little cheaper for the buffet.

[B]

Interesting.

[C]

They let you do whatever you want.

[B]

So my thought with the Western sizzling was you in the special and in your comedy talk about how it's a little like a Golden Corral, maybe a Silver Corral. Yeah, you keep taking it down. Bronze Corral.

[C]

I trashed it. But I'll be honest with you, it's better than Golden Corral. It is better. It is better. But it's closed now. They bulldozed it down and.

[B]

Oh, so it wasn't a chain, was just one Western studio.

[C]

It used to be a chain. And they slowly started to. And the guy who owned that one also owned one in Columbus, Georgia, which is close. And he owned it for many, many years. And then I put out the Netflix special and then he sold it and now it's become a quick trip and I blame myself, but I think it really was just that it was really old.

[B]

Yeah. So my thought with the name where you took it was of course funnier than I was. The golden, silver, bronze, and then an okay corral, which I think is a funny joke. Does that count as a pun?

[C]

I don't know. Maybe. But I think it's.

[B]

Yeah, it's a good joke. I was just thinking, well, why the western? It's in the eastern part of the country and it must be they're going for something possibly psychological to convince the patrons, like, you need to eat because tomorrow we're waking up at 6am we're going to herd the doggies. We're going on this big, big calorie producing job. And so it's a permission structure. I think maybe, maybe I'm doing too much work to figure out what's going on there psychologically.

[C]

Yeah. And I think there's like this thing of Montana, Wyoming, Texas, all kind of out west. They're doing steaks.

[B]

Yes, yes.

[C]

We act like we're not producing beef in Alabama. You know, could have called it the Alabama sizzling.

[B]

Yeah. Do people in Alabama think of themselves as having some kinship with people thousands of miles away in places like Wyoming and Montana because of. They're both rural in a way?

[C]

I don't think so. I didn't, I didn't think of, I didn't know anything about Montana or Wyoming. Those, you know, I, I saw westerns and I wouldn't even like, you know, a lot of them are in Utah and Arizona. And I just thought everything out of the south was a city and I had no idea about anything.

[B]

Right.

[C]

I thought everything was a city and that, you know, we were the rural part of the country.

[B]

So when your sister's boyfriend from Michigan, you just thought he was from Detroit.

[C]

Yeah, his. He was from, you know, he was from close to Detroit and his parents both worked for gm.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

They had a little money.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So I thought, Yeah. I mean, they're fancy Michigan folks. I didn't know anything about Michigan. I just thought Michigan was so fancy.

[B]

Michigan shows up in a lot of your jokes. Like when you're talking about, like how you like to make chit chat with the weather. You go to Michigan for the Twitter.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I have done a lot of comedy in Michigan.

[B]

Great comedy state.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

They keep the weather cool.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. So tell me about a lot of your life and comedy is about growing up in a trailer. What kind of trailer? Cause I know whenever I talk to people who grew up in trailers, they're very quick to say ours Was a double wide or ours was whatever kind of trailer to point out. Oh, it wasn't that kind of trailer. Yours that kind of trailer?

[C]

Yeah, ours was that kind of trailer. When people like to. They love to say it was a double wide. Yeah, they do love. People will tell me that. They go, oh, hey, I grew up in a double wide. I go, okay, you grew up in twice what I grew up in. So you're just bragging it.

[B]

That's right.

[C]

The trailer park I lived in was small, probably 20 trailers. And then at the ends was double wides. And it really did feel like those.

[B]

People, they anchored the park.

[C]

They were like fancier. Even though they weren't. It just seemed like they were, were. I think they had more problems than the rest of us.

[B]

Sure. Mo trailer. Mo problems.

[C]

Exactly. But, you know, I liked it. We had a. You know, it's like trailers will. They're built with this kind of presswood. And then over time, the heat, the moisture will. It will swell up in areas and then make other parts thin and the floor will fall through.

[B]

Oh, my God.

[C]

So my mom was always very handy and she would replace the floors with plywood. So we had very good floor. But my sister. Sister was renting a trailer at one point and they weren't the rent. The owner of the trailer wasn't fixing it, so they just put a piece of plywood down over the hole. So then you had a little, you know, toe stump going around. Yeah, but yeah, I mean, my mom would do work to the trailer and fix it and I liked it. I. It wasn't until a certain age that I even thought about living in a trailer. I was like, yeah, this is my house. And we had a great time. I had a bunch of kids that I played with in the trailer.

[B]

Trailer park.

[C]

But yeah, it was a. It was a small, single wide, two bedroom, one bath. My one sister lived with her dad most of the time and. And would stay and then my other sister lived with us. And so, you know, I had no bedroom.

[B]

Right.

[C]

But it didn't. It wasn't sad.

[B]

Where'd you sleep? The couch.

[C]

Couch. Or I'd sleep at my mom work. Third shift.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So I'd sleep in my mom's bed or I'd sleep with my sister and her husband. I mean, we were like. Not her husband was her boyfriend at the time.

[B]

I mean. Okay, well, otherwise it'd be weird.

[C]

Yeah, we were all close.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I'm sure he hated it.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But I was like, yeah, I mean, we're. We're Brothers and sisters, here we sleep together.

[B]

Do you think that you benefited in some ways from being in the trailer?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Other than just a toughening you up, the closeness, the lack of pretension, not needing certain creature comforts later in life?

[C]

Yeah, I think so. I mean, that for sure. There was insecurities that I got, but I think that was more. More, you know, probably just, you know, insecurities that maybe my parents had that they didn't know how to work through themselves versus help, you know, to help me work through it. But, yeah, I mean, I. I learned. I had a great time, so I really feel like I learned that you don't really need money to be happy.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Right. And I think that's a good lesson that I learned and will keep forever. Now, I want money, and I want. Because money creates options for you, and I want that for my kids. But I do think there is something to, you know, just being able to appreciate all these things because you know what it's like to not have them.

[B]

You're an extrovert, aren't you?

[C]

I think so. I like to talk to. I think in some ways, I think doing comedy has made me more of an introvert, because I.

[B]

Do you mean, like, defensive and guarded?

[C]

Maybe. But I think that I just, like. I talk so much to people now that I. When I'm not doing comedy, I really value alone time.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But for sure, I like talking to people.

[B]

So I listened to you on the Nateland podcast, which is Nate Barghazi, and there's a bunch of other comedians there. And I listened to. I didn't realize you weren't part of the original group. People look at it now. There's a tile. There's the four of you, Mount Rushmore, you're Jefferson, I guess, or was ever on the far right. And I don't mean politically, I mean on the tile. But I listened to the first episode you were ever on, and you came on to talk about dinosaurs, I believe.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

Yeah. And then the second episode you were ever on, you came on to talk about conspiracy theories.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And I think they pegged you in the beginning. You were a lot of fun for them because of your disbelief in things like. Well, it's not that you disbelieve dinosaurs. You disbelieve that humans and dinosaurs really were around at different times. Yeah.

[C]

I mean, I. My. My people. Somebody bought me, like, a dinosaur book for my kids.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And I'm like. I remember learning about dinosaurs, and there was, like, I don't know, a handful of them. And now this book is this thick and we're going through. I'm like, you guys are just having fan fiction with these dinosaurs now. They're like, oh, yeah. And then this dinosaur, and it's like, this is a Marvel character.

[B]

That's right.

[C]

It's like, it's so ridiculous now.

[B]

Telekinesis. Yeah.

[C]

And I'm just like, where are you getting this and that? Just. And I'm not saying it didn't exist, but I am saying, why are we not questioning these things? And everybody's like, oh, well, my uncle's a scientist and he says, you're an idiot. And I'm like, listen, I'm not saying I'm not an idiot. I'm just saying I don't believe it. Yeah, I don't believe at all.

[B]

So here's my question. It worked great in the context, and they were all laughing, and everyone on the show was a continuum with you of the most disbelieving. And we just heard the nature of your disbelief. You're not going to yell at someone. Someone, you know, like on a gardening podcast or wherever people yell. You're not going to yell at someone who does believe in dinosaurs. But in your standup special, I don't think you pro. There is no word provoke or prod with those kind of opinions. Not just your special. I don't know, I haven't seen all of them. But is that generally true? You won't put your.

[C]

I mean, I like to. For stand up. I like to provide people with, you know, just relaxing comedy. Right. You don't, you know, there's nothing. You're not going to get mad about anything that. It's like, everybody deserves a break from the world that we're living in, you know, so you just come in for an hour, hour and 20 minutes, depending on the show, and just relax and laugh. But, yeah, I mean, everybody, we're doing all these podcasts now. We're just talking all the time. It's like, I'm out of things to talk about. So I like to, you know. You know, you get into some. Some other stuff. And the thing about Nateland is Brian Bates and Aaron Weber are the other two hosts. And we've been friends for a long time and we've been on the road a bunch together. So they know things to say to me, and they. And Brian loves it. Like, I could be just on the podcast, just cool and chill, and Brian, like, wants to bring me into the conspiracy.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And I'm just like, I get. Everybody yells at me When I talk about it. So I don't want to bring it up, but he. He'll poke at me, and then I. And then I start talking about it, and then they go, oh, Dusty. I can't even listen to him.

[B]

So am I hearing that your sense of what makes for a good show? If it's the Nate podcast. Nateland podcast, the good show is the dynamic with you being an outlier and a little bit crazier than the rest of them or just providing fodder for the conversation. But your definition of a good show, when it's just dusty on stage. Stage is different and much more relaxed. So in a way, you're a showman. You're just applying it to the context of the situation.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, you know, and this is the comedy that I like to do. I like to do relatable comedy.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

So if I come out and I'm like, dinosaurs aren't real, I feel like that's not relatable to everyone. And I don't think they're not real. I just think they're not. What? I just don't believe everything.

[B]

Okay. Okay.

[C]

And, like, the feather part. Yeah, feathers, for sure. Not the feathers. I don't even know where that came from. All of a sudden, now they have feathers.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And I'm crazy if I believe dragons were real. I'm just saying, what are we talking about? And then I. I get like that about a lot of things. You know, just, you know, narratives that are presented to us. I go, let's just think, like, just recently on the podcast, they were like, the temperature of the sun is this. This my. I go, how. How do they know?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

What thermometer did you use on this?

[B]

What if they're off by, like, half a million degrees, which is a lot of degrees.

[C]

Yeah. What thermometer did you stick in the sun?

[B]

Right, right.

[C]

I just don't believe it. I believe you might have an idea.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But say this is what we think.

[B]

Yeah. And it's one of those things where if they mistake Fahrenheit for Celsius, no one would even be able to call them out.

[C]

Right.

[B]

And they could have. Fifty years ago, one guy could have switched the seat for an F, and we'd be off by orders of magnitude and no one even caught the mistake. I'm with you. Sun's really hot. More hot than you can imagine. Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

And you got the temperature of it. And then they. And then they go. And the core of the sun. And I'm like, you have no idea. What's inside the sun?

[B]

Yeah. I'll give you something else. Global warming. So apparently our tiny little planet is warming, and yet we know the exact temperature of the sun. It doesn't seem like both things would be true.

[C]

That's all I'm saying.

[B]

That's all you're saying?

[C]

That's all I'm saying. It's like, who knows? Maybe it's is warming, maybe it's cooling. Some people think the fear is an ice age. I don't know. But I can't live in fear about it. That's my big thing. Apparently there's a counter here in the city that lets you know how many days we have left.

[B]

It's really quite an exact. And that counter, I want you to know, used to be an art project with random numbers.

[C]

Oh, okay.

[B]

That's the one in Union Square.

[C]

Right? You just can't live in fear about it.

[B]

Yeah, it's probably true, but a lot of comedians, and a lot of comedians I have on the show and why I wanted to start this show is they use comedy to make people laugh, sure. But the things on their mind are real top of mind for them, political issues. And they don't want to browbeat anyone into their point of view. What they love doing is throwing out perhaps a dangerous idea or an idea that people wouldn't agree with and like playing with it. But the idea is political, and the idea isn't the kind of idea that most people in the audience would readily agree to. Do you think you ever move into that kind of comedy or why doesn't it appeal to you now?

[C]

I don't know. Maybe so, yeah, at some point, who knows? But I feel like for me, it's like I want everyone in the audience to be happy. I want them to leave the show going, you know what? That was really fun. I had a good time at this show. I don't want them to leave mad because I And it. And it seems, like, overly cautious. I know, but I don't want them to leave mad because I said something. Something that. It can't help it. Every time. Yeah, people are gonna. I gotta. You know, I got a homeless joke that I feel like has upset some people once in a while. But my joke really is about. About admiring the freedom, you know, of not having a schedule. But I feel like it's upset people because they think I'm making fun of homeless people, which I have a lot of sympathy for homeless people. But I. I just. I don't know, I'm not into it right now. On the on podcast, I think, hey, we got a little. It's bit. A little, little long form here. We can get into some stuff, we can explore some ideas. But with stand up, I just want people to know that if they come see me, it's just going to be laughs. It's going to be me trying to get as many laughs out of you as I can and not pressuring you to do anything.

[B]

So. But the thing is you're thinking about these things and we hear you on other shows being very funny about these things. If you ever. Is it ever the case where you come up with like a really good joke? It's just on a topic that depends on the premise of you being doubtful of dinosaurs, something like that.

[C]

Yeah, I might. Yeah. I mean, you know, if it, if it comes to me in that way, I might do it.

[B]

Has it ever. Have you ever thrown away a joke? Just because I think this might be off putting or off brand from who I am trying to be for the audience?

[C]

I think only dirtier jokes. I do think of dirtier jokes sometimes and I'll do them at open mics and stuff like that in Nashville just for fun. But I, Yeah, I think that's mainly the only ones that I ever like throw out because I go, I wouldn't. I'm not going that to do. Do that in my. And even though my show is not completely clean, I like to say it's relatively clean.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But I, I don't. I always tell people not to bring kids to the show because I am an adult doing adult comedy.

[B]

Right.

[C]

But yeah, I mean, and that's really the only. I got some jokes I'm doing right now in my new set where I'm talking about how we're naming all these stores thing like Dick Sporting Goods. I'm like, it just seems like we're doing everything like that now. And the joke, it feels like my dirtiest joke. And all I'm doing is naming these stores. Like in Iowa, there used to be a gas station chain called the Come and Go. I'm like, let's, let's take it easy, guys.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

You know what I mean?

[B]

Imagine there's definitely people who've been to both in a single trip. Yeah. They needed to go to the Come and Go to get to Dick's.

[C]

Exactly.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

And I'm just like, why are we doing this? I think they'd still shop there if we just called it Richards or just.

[B]

Pick one of the two. The Come or the Go.

[C]

Yeah, just call it Gas Station. I don't even know that we need petrol service.

[B]

The come and go. Also, how didactic. How much do you have to hold people by the hands to tell them, here's the deal with the gas station. You can't stay. You can't stay. It's not an apartment building that happens to have gas every business, like eventually get out. Isn't that implied?

[C]

Yeah, like gas stations love that sort of thing. Like the stop and shop, the two things in one.

[B]

There's a one with a pick.

[C]

Like they love a thing.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

You come in here, you buy some stuff and then you get out of here.

[B]

Well, now I'm reading that more gas stations are going to have charging stations as more of the fleet goes electric and it takes a while, a lot longer to charge than it does to fuel up. So it's going to be a boon time for gas stations because they're going.

[C]

To sell a lot of things.

[B]

So, you know that biggest buc EE's that you guys were talking about the other day, it's going to be eclipsed by other Buc EE's that are much bigger. Yeah.

[C]

Well, what I like about that is that you can, with an electric car, you can finally smoke at the pump again.

[B]

Thank God. You could have in the old days, it was just.

[C]

And then you could smoke at the pump.

[B]

Yeah. Remember people where there was a time when they told you maybe the kind of people who said that they don't totally believe in dinosaurs, that you shouldn't use your cell phone at the pump because that was going to cause that rumor that wasn't true, but then it was also going to cause a brain tumor. There's a lot of things that they said it was going to cause. Do you think that may be true? Yeah, that may be true. In your latest. We haven't done the math. In your latest. I think it's the latest special, you talk about Washington, your hands.

[C]

Oh, that's still working, man.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So that's the one before this.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Do you think your habit or dislike of washing your hands at all ties in with the questioning science stuff?

[C]

Well, yeah, I think we should be washing our hands.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But I think it's out of control. I mean, there's times that I go to the bathroom, go in there real fast. I don't even touch anything. I got a whole method for not having to touch any. Anything but my pants. And I'm like, what am I doing here? And then you don't give me any hand towels. I gotta stand under this thing. I sitting there for five minutes and then still have to wipe it on my jeans. It's all performative. Now, if you're pooping, let's wash our hands. Right. I mean.

[B]

Okay, I'm glad you said that because you didn't make that clear.

[C]

I didn't. I didn't. But that is. Yeah. I mean, if you're wiping, let's wash it up.

[B]

But you're a victim of non hand washing more than most. I speak of your dipping experience.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Well, yeah, I mean, that's a good lesson if you're going to dip.

[B]

But the lesson didn't take.

[C]

No, no. I mean, well, I quit dipping, you know. Yeah.

[B]

Okay, so what happened was, go.

[C]

What do I like better, dipping or washing my hands?

[B]

Not wash your hands. And then you hit yourself with the contacts. Yeah, yeah. And so of the two things, like all you needed to do is wash, wash your hands, and then you could dip and then you could put the contacts in, but you gave up dipping. I guess it was good.

[C]

You know what I do now, though? I grow a garden and I grow peppers. And the other day I made a soup.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And I cut up some peppers, put it in the soup.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And then when I was done, I rubbed my eyes. And then my whole face was on fire and my. My eye was burning and I, you know, there's nothing I could do. And so it's still happening.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But, you know, I could have washed my hands.

[B]

Well, luckily, your best friend milk comes in handy then.

[C]

Yes. Yes. And milk. Yeah. I mean, milk. That's a. You know, that story really did have. A lady came up to me and asked me had I ever milked cows? And then asked me did I, did I want to?

[B]

And.

[C]

And I said no. But do you think she meant it.

[B]

Right then and there?

[C]

I don't know. I was in Iowa. I was opening for the band Alabama, the country band Alabama. Wow. And I liked Alabama. So after my part of the show, I went out to the crowd to watch.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And this lady came up to me and I don't know what she meant.

[B]

You ever see Alabama's record sales? Like how many records they've sold?

[C]

Yeah. It's unbelievable.

[B]

It's unbelievable. It's well over 50 million.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. Well over. Yeah.

[B]

Do they just tour? Because. What? They're not the original members. A manager stole their money or. They love it. They love the music.

[C]

I don't know. I mean, it's still two of the original members.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

And I don't know why they do It.

[B]

They're not from Alabama.

[C]

Is that. They are from Alabama.

[B]

They are from Alabama.

[C]

Fort Payne.

[B]

Okay. Maybe they just need to tell America that if you're going to play in Texas, you better have a fiddle in your hand.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Not a lot of people might know that.

[C]

Well, I don't know. And I don't know that that's still going. I mean, I think people are playing in Texas now without fiddles, sans fiddle. That's not right. Texas is slipping.

[B]

I like your milk set. I mean, I love that.

[C]

I mean, that's what I was saying at the beginning, where a joke starts out and then you whittle it down to the funny parts and then it just starts to grow. Because it did. I was in. I remember I was in Oklahoma City at the. At a club called Bricktown, and I just started riffing on Milk, and it just. Oh. And I was also in Louisiana, ripping on Lafayette, Louisiana, riffing on Milk. And it was just crushing. And I was like, oh, this is good. And then I started working it, and it wasn't getting the laugh that it was getting in Louisiana, and I was like, oh, no, I gotta. I gotta work this out. And then I did work it out, and I'm like, it's. I don't know. I do think about that with milk, right? It's like. And I'm sure other people have pondered this too, but. Well, if we're. You know, you can drink goat's milk, cow's milk, but that's really about it, I guess.

[B]

There's yak's milk.

[C]

Oh, yes.

[B]

Milk that's pink, I think. But you're right. There are. Every mammal makes milk.

[C]

And my point is that at some point you gotta think they were trying out all the milks. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Did they land on cows first? And they go, this is so good. What else is there?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Or did they have to work their way to cows?

[B]

Do you know the David Brenner was once on the Tonight Show? Do you know about this?

[C]

No.

[B]

And so Johnny Carson turns to him and says, I don't know if it was a setup, but he says, who do you think the bravest man in world history was? And his. His answer was the first man who drank milk.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

Because he looked at a cow and said, whatever comes out of there, I'm going to drink. Yeah. And that killed to the point of. I don't know. The story goes that he kept getting invited back and then hosted the Tonight Show. But, you know, just in terms of. Oh, what's the word for it not horticultural, but agricultural history. Like, you watch the calves do it. You are a human, you do it. There's like a pretty easy flow from A to B is what I think.

[C]

So. Yeah. Yeah, I think. Yeah. I mean, you watch the cow doing it. The cow strong. And you go, I want to get in on that.

[B]

Right?

[C]

Yeah. And then, like, I mean, I would say a braver person might be the one that tried cheese for the first time. Like, you're scraping it off the top or whatever. I don't know. I don't make cheese.

[B]

But it's not just the milk. It's whatever happens to the milk after a while.

[C]

Yes. And even my mom, you know, my mom grew up poor. Her parents, you know, were raised during the Great Depression, and they had a, you know, garden and stuff like that. And they said they would. Buttermilk was all they had.

[B]

Right.

[C]

And once in a while, they would get what they called sweet milk, which is, you know, regular milk.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But they would drink buttermilk all the time, which is disgusting.

[B]

But highly high in calories, which is. Back then, you needed calories.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, obviously, we're humans and we need calories, but mostly we. We need to cut out calories these days.

[C]

And I. My dad. Well, my mom would tell the story about my dad saying that he used to work with a guy, and the guy would buy his lunch, buy him chicken. Just to watch my dad eat chicken. Because my dad would, like. He cleans a bone. Like, it is, like, unbelievable what he eats on a chicken leg now, it may be different now he's older, but he told me, he's like, well, when I was growing up, you got one piece of chicken. There wasn't extra chicken. We weren't going to a buffet. It was one piece. So you ate everything you could eat.

[B]

And then you throw the bone in a pit out back. If it's your dad.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And some guy would explore it.

[C]

I think dogs used to eat chicken bones somewhere along the way. Dogs, they were like, don't feed the dog chicken bones. I'm like, what dogs eat but bones?

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

But they say, don't do it.

[B]

The other thing about milk is the cow, I guess, is the biggest animal around in North America. I wonder if in Africa or other places. Well, Asia, the yak. But I wonder in other places if they milk the water buffalo. If they milk. I don't even know if you can milk an elephant or a giraffe. You can. Might be dangerous. I don't know if that was tempting to them.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Elephant milk. I drink. Drink it.

[C]

You drink it?

[B]

I would drink it.

[C]

I get. I would think it would be. Yeah, it would be dangerous. I mean, it'd be hard. Did they. Do they have domesticated buffaloes?

[B]

Well, they. I think so, yeah.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

I think so. I think maybe in Asia, like, you always see the Vietnamese farmers with the big.

[C]

What I like about this question, though, is like, this feels like the old days. Right. Because we could look this up.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But it's not as fun.

[B]

No.

[C]

It used to be, like, I remember a time. I mean, I'm 43. I remember lots of time before the Internet was so handy, and we would just sit around and talk about things and think about it, and then you may never really know the answer.

[B]

Let me ask you, is that sincere, You're a very nice guy, or is that a passive aggressive way to say, mike, look it up?

[C]

No, no, I do. I do like that because I. Mike was. I was saying this. You can't even lie to people anymore. They just look it up. I'm like, let me mess around.

[B]

I think of all. For a comedian or anyone trying to be interesting, think of, even if you're wrong, all the ideas that come up from just getting things wrong or following ideas down roads that might not lead to anything other than dead end, but it's still fruitful. Can be fruitful.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, and just even sitting around thinking is good for your brain. I think we're, you know, we were processing things, whereas now I don't think we process anything. We just take it in. We're just taking it in.

[B]

Yeah. I'll tell you another thing is that intelligence used to be retaining a lot of information. And then the idea of, well, why do you need it up there? It's right here on your phone. But, man, having it up there is really useful to make instant connections. And also when you talk so that you don't keep saying, oh, you know, the guy who was the other guy, like, having the actual, actual names. It's great for a comedian. It's good for a podcaster. It's great for regular people.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

To have that retrieval.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, with stand up, it's like, I, you know, sometimes I have a real hard time with names, but with stand up, I feel when I'm on stage, I feel so sharp, and it's really great. And I. That would be the worst thing for me to, like, lose the sharpness of memory.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Because I just feel like that would be. Affect my stand up so much because, you know, I'm not saying I'm the quickest guy in the room, but I. I feel like things are firing well. So where. When I'm riffing, things come to me.

[B]

Do you get in the zone like an athlete does?

[C]

I think so, yeah. I get. Because I can, you know, I can physically, I can feel bad and then I'll go, I don't even want to do this show. And then I get to the club or get to the theater, and then I start feeling it, My body starts. And then I walk out on stage and I feel good.

[B]

What about one of those guys gigs? That's six, eight, and ten. Three shows, and then you do that on a Friday and a Saturday. Does that get to you?

[C]

Oh, yeah. I hate that. I. I only did. There's only a few clubs that I ever did that did that. And I. I remember side Splitters in Tampa and the Punchline in Atlanta, and I love those clubs. But, man, that. That it'd be 6, 8, and 10. That 10 o' clock show was brutal because I wasn't selling tickets when I was doing those shows. So six would be pretty packed. Yeah, eight would. Might be sold out, but then 10 is like, we could have not did.

[B]

This show, but some extra seats at the eight guys.

[C]

Yeah. So I'm like, now I'm like, I just did my best show.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Now I got to do this extra one for, you know, drunk people and, you know, in Tampa that are just partying.

[B]

Oh, yeah. In Ybor City.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

[B]

Do you. Did you use the opportunity to go wild or try some different things, or do you just keep it actually tight and get the hell out of there?

[C]

Well, you know, it depends if the audience is fun, but, like, say they're not into the setup punch. Setup punch, but they're fun. I would riff. I would really get wild with it because that's what I liked about doing bad gigs on the road. I used to do, you know, a lot of road gigs, and it's like once you go out and you give them your best jokes and they're not really laughing, you go, all right, well, I'm just going to try this new jokes because I know the reaction I'm supposed to get off the good joke, and I'm not getting it and it's killing me. But I don't know the reaction I'm supposed to get off this new joke yet. So if I get anything, that's a win.

[B]

Yeah, well, I will tell everyone that you kill it in the Wet Heat special new on Netflix and also let's plug. He's on Nate Land. And. And Dusty has his own podcast that he does with his wife or did with his wife. She sometimes shows up and it's his catchphrase.

[C]

It's the we're having a good time podcast.

[B]

We're having a good time. And I will give you this compliment that usually I hate when the audience is too with a comedian, you know, if it's Chris Rock, I understand you lose your mind. But sometimes when you could tell the audience is in the bag for the comedian and they laugh at his setups and I as the audience at home say, well, you still have to prove to me you're funny, I did not have that effect. I was along for the ride and rooting for you even before I got to know you as much as I have here. So did a great job. Thank you, Dusty. Thank you so much.

[C]

Thank you.

[B]

And that's it for today's show. Cory Wara produces the gist. Michelle Pesca. I'll list her next. First in my heart, she is the CEO of Peach Fish Productions. And then there's Jeff Craig. He oversees all of our socials. And Kathleen Sykes very much helps me with the gist list. Noon Peru gpru do Peru. Thanks for listening.

[D]

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