Funny You Should Mention: Trae Crowder

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Gist – "Funny You Should Mention: Trae Crowder"

Introduction In this episode of The Gist, hosted by Mike Pesca from Peach Fish Productions, Mike engages in an in-depth conversation with Trey Crowder, a comedian known for his persona as the "liberal redneck" and his branding as "Trash Daddy." Released on July 18, 2025, the episode delves into Trey's comedic journey, his cultural identity, and the broader socio-political landscapes that influence his work.

Trey Crowder's Branding and Comedy Style Trey Crowder opens up about his unique comedic identity, discussing the origins and implications of his monikers. He explains, "It's Trash Daddy because I mentioned I have sons. They're... I'm the trash, not them" ([08:55]). This branding juxtaposes his progressive views with a stereotypical Southern persona, creating a compelling contrast that defines his humor.

Trey addresses the challenges and advantages of being labeled as a "liberal redneck." He shares, "From the very beginning, we... I was like, I don't want that. And I wanted to just say my name" ([54:31]). Despite initial reservations, he acknowledges that the label significantly contributed to his viral success and career trajectory.

Cultural and Political Discussions A significant portion of the conversation centers on the cultural divides between rural Tennessee and more liberal urban areas like Los Angeles. Trey discusses how his Southern accent and background affect audience perceptions, noting, "In LA shows, sometimes people are like, what is happening right now?" ([17:26]). He emphasizes the importance of context in comedy, especially when addressing sensitive topics.

The discussion also touches upon broader political themes, including the shift in Democratic Party dynamics and the impact of neoliberal policies on small-town America. Trey reflects on his family's experiences with economic downturns caused by policies like NAFTA, stating, "My openly gay uncle and his partner... after NAFTA passed, that factory moved to Mexico and never... all those businesses closed" ([34:51]).

Personal Background and Influences Trey delves into his personal history, highlighting the influence of his upbringing in Salina, Tennessee. He recounts the economic hardships faced by his town due to factory closures and the rise of OxyContin, which he believes contributed to political shifts and the rise of figures like Donald Trump. "NAFTA is something that was going to happen no matter what... no one gave a shit about places like my hometown" ([35:08]).

Further, Trey discusses his early responsibilities, having children at 25, which was typical in his community but exceptional in his California milieu. He shares, "I wouldn't change anything about it... my dad got to know him and be a grandfather" ([68:40]).

Interactions with Other Comedians and Political Figures The conversation shifts to Trey’s interactions with other comedians and political figures, notably J.D. Vance, the author of Hillbilly Elegy. Trey reflects on their similarities and differences, saying, "We were like going on TV and talking about rednecks and hillbillies and stuff" ([40:07]). He critiques Vance’s portrayal of rural America, highlighting perceived inaccuracies and ethical compromises, "I do think those things... he's still doing it and saying it" ([46:40]).

Trey also touches upon the influence of wealthy individuals like Peter Thiel on political figures, suggesting that such influences may lead to compromised ethics and distorted public personas. "If he's entirely compromised by the Peter Thiels of the world... then it's worse, I think" ([46:40]).

Comedy as Social Commentary Trey emphasizes his commitment to using comedy as a tool for social and political commentary. He explains, "I just want to joke about stuff that's true to who I AM and who people have seen me to be as a comedian" ([49:36]). This approach allows him to address complex issues without alienating his audience, blending humor with meaningful insights.

He highlights his preference for upending expectations in his jokes, rather than conforming to stereotypical comedic narratives. For instance, when discussing Portland and Antifa, Trey uses humor to critique misconceptions and exaggerated perceptions, "Antifa itself is barely a thing... they do exist, but it's way overstated" ([63:24]).

Conclusion Throughout the episode, Trey Crowder offers a nuanced perspective on identity, comedy, and politics. His ability to navigate and critique cultural divides through humor underscores the podcast's mission to go beyond rigidity and dogma. By blending personal anecdotes with broader socio-political analysis, Trey provides listeners with a thoughtful and engaging discourse on contemporary American life.

Notable Quotes

• "It's Trash Daddy because I mentioned I have sons. They're... I'm the trash, not them." — Trey Crowder ([08:55])
• "From the very beginning, we... I was like, I don't want that. And I wanted to just say my name." — Trey Crowder ([54:31])
• "NAFTA is something that was going to happen no matter what... no one gave a shit about places like my hometown." — Trey Crowder ([35:08])
• "Antifa itself is barely a thing... they do exist, but it's way overstated." — Trey Crowder ([63:24])

Conclusion Trey Crowder's episode on The Gist offers a deep dive into the intersections of humor, culture, and politics. His reflections on personal experiences and societal changes provide valuable insights into the complexities of modern American identity. For listeners seeking a blend of thoughtful analysis and engaging storytelling, this episode stands out as a compelling exploration of what it means to be a "liberal redneck" in today's divided landscape.

Transcript

[Trey Crowder]

Foreign.

[Mike Pesca]

It's Friday, July 18, 2025, from Peach Fish Productions, it's the gist. I'm Mike Pesca. Days after the US Struck the nuclear sites in Iran, the president, Donald J. Trump issued an assessment. Really? It was a word, and that word was obliterated. Perhaps shockingly, given the track record of our president. He has a history of slight bluster and upon occasion has been proved to be not entirely accurate. So given that there was reason, the assessment to take that word on faith, and therefore, initial reports trickled out, some from the Israelis, some from the US that said things were less than obliterated. But here is the first big report that got a lot of play. I'll quote the CNN headline, exclusive. Early U.S. intel assessment suggests strikes in Iran did not destroy nuclear sites. Sources say this was from the Defense Intelligence Agency. It was put together within a few hours and days of the strike. Carolyn Levitt, the spokesman from the White House podium, called it flat out WR and reiterated that the best word was, of course, obliterated. Soon thereafter, a CIA assessment which got a lot less attention than that CNN story came out.

[Trey Crowder]

CIA says its intelligence indicates that America's strikes did severely damage Iran's nuclear program.

[Mike Pesca]

Okay. And everyone who knows anything will tell you that this is more an art than a science figuring out what the bomb damage assessment was. And it would take time. Well, some time has passed. And today the Washington Post had their update. This was the podcast summary of what they found.

[Trey Crowder]

U.S. intelligence suggests that two Iranian nuclear sites were not obliterated. That's our fourth story. Last month, U.S. strikes hit three nuclear facilities in Iran. President Trump quickly claimed that they had all been completely destroyed. A leaked initial intelligence report undermined that claim. And now officials and others familiar with ongoing assessments gave the Post the latest understanding of the damage. It suggests that only one of three sites was dealt a knockout blow. That's the nuclear facility at Fordo.

[Mike Pesca]

Only the nuclear facility at Fordo was dealt a knockout blow. Only the facility that was the main focus that had the most advanced centrifuges. That is a big one. I would say that is a bombshell. You might say the Washington Post headline about this in print was, iran Bomb Damage intel suggests two Nuclear sites not obliterated. Okay. If your question about the strikes was how many Pinocchios can we hang on? Donny? Trump, congrats. You nailed it. If you want me to say that it set back the Trump administration 60% enriched bullshit, many months, if not years. Sure, I could offer that assessment with low confidence, of course, but if the question, and you will, you will infer from my tone that I think it is the question. If the proper question is how much did this bombing set back Iran's quest to get nuclear weapons, I think that question is a lot better answered by the New York Times, where the headline was New assessment find sight at focus of US Strikes in Iran badly damaged. Yes, the focus of the strikes was Ford up thing they were trying to hit and did and damaged badly, maybe even destroyed, maybe even obliv. Nope, not going to say. The Times writes Iran's deep buried nuclear enrichment plant at Fordeau was badly damaged and potentially destroyed. Last month, two other nuclear sites targeted in the US Attacks were not as badly damaged, but facilities at the sites that would be key to fabricating a nuclear weapon were destroyed and could take years to rebuild. U.S. officials said. And I say when it comes to an accurate understanding of world events, let's not obliterate what's important. On the show today. It is a funny you should mention and I am joined by the liberal redneck Willie Nelson.

[Trey Crowder]

No.

[Mike Pesca]

And by the way, that's not an insult. Willie Nelson has called himself an old hippie redneck. No. I'm joined by Trey Crowder, a Kentuckian, Tennessee and actually Tennessee. And a Tennesseean who has a great history and tells great jokes and was just great to talk to Trey Crowder on Funny you should mention. Up next at True Classic, the mission goes beyond fit and fabric. It's about helping guys, guys like me, maybe guys like you or a guy like, you know, show their confidence, show their purpose, their stride. Right now I'm wearing a True Classic T shirt. This thing looks great. I have a black one. I got like an off gray one. I wear them all the time. I don't really even have to think so much about anything other than they're gonna look good. They're gonna go with almost everything I wear. They're casual yet classy enough to get the job done. They make me feel good about myself, feel amazing, and the price is fantastic. True Classic, of course, has remarkable fit, remarkable fabric. They also have a lot of intention behind everything they do. It was built, the brand was built to make an impact. So it's helping a guy like me show up better in my daily life. And with you on the show, they also get back to underserved communities. They make people laugh. Maybe not me today in this ad read, but you know, potentially the ads don't take themselves too seriously, though. This is a serious. I really have to show off how classic this Troupe Classic shirt is I want you to feel the difference the moment you throw one on. No bunching, no stiff fabric, just what's the word for it? True Classic. Built for comfort, built to last, built to give back. You grab them at Target, at Costco or head to trueclassic.com the gist which helps us the most when you peruse their wares. Trueclassic.com the gist and get hooked up today. This message is sponsored by Greenlight. Money is at the core of at least half of the issues we covered and a little bit deeper down with all of them. Financial stress is a major part of life. The finances of our nation drive our nation, drive our people, and can drive our children a little mad. Teaching kids about money isn't just smart, it's the right thing to do. For them, it's essential. So what Greenlight does is offer a debit card and a money app for families. It's a safe way to teach kids and teens about money, preparing them for bigger financial decisions later. They learn to save, invest and build money confidence. They're not scared of it. If I had green light when I was growing up, I'd probably be a bit savvier. I know people, people close to me in my own life who if they had green light growing up, things would massively have changed. So this is why I recommend that you give your kids the financial education many people didn't get. Greenlight is the easy, convenient way for parents to raise financially smart kids and families to navigate life together. Maybe that's why millions of parents trust and kids love learning about money on Greenlight, the number one family finance and safety app. Don't wait to teach your kids real world money skills. Start your risk free Greenlight trial today at greenlight.com/the gist. Hi, welcome back. Or if it's your first time to funny, you should mention where I talk to comedians and ask them about, well, sometimes we say the profundity behind the punchlines, why they say what they say beyond just getting a joke. And we've got a great comedian today. His name is Trey Crowder and he was guilty of, or I should say responsible for such good branding with a previous album that it's hard to get it out of your head. He calls himself the liberal redneck and upon the first minute you hear him, you're going to get the second part. You know, if you jump, if you jump to conclusions, the first part will probably occur 10 minutes into hearing him. But I'm going to ask him about that branding his new special is called Trash Daddy. Now I know what. I know what a cat daddy is. It's someone who has a cat. A trash daddy is not the father of trash.

[Trey Crowder]

But.

[Mike Pesca]

But we're going to figure it out. Trey, welcome to the show.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, glad to be here. A lot to unpack already.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah, go ahead, take it. So what do we worried about? Trash daddy being misinterpreted?

[Trey Crowder]

Only. Only from the weird sort of sexualized version of the word daddy that's happened in recent years. Like, which is completely alien to me. Yeah, I, because part of being white trash, I had my children relatively early. I was like 25. My sons are 12 and 13 now. And like, so that, that kind of predates the whole, like again the sexing.

[Mike Pesca]

Up of the word or predates regular America knowing about it. Right.

[Trey Crowder]

It's gotten popularization.

[Mike Pesca]

Although cat daddy, I don't think is supposed to be sexual, but maybe, maybe it plays on like leather dad.

[Trey Crowder]

That's what I'm saying is I only was worried about that part and, and you know, and I asked like a lesbian comic friend of mine, she was like, I think people might read some queerness in that, in the trash daddy thing. And I was like, well, I don't want that because I don't look like stolen gay valor or something because I'm straight. You know, I don't want that either, but most people are like, nah, nah, you're fine. So I just rolled with it. But it's Trash daddy because I mentioned I have sons. They're. I'm the trash, not them. Like I'm Tennessee trailer trash. They are little Californians, you know, the older ones have been a vegetarian for moral reasons since he was like 3 years old. And the 12 year old's got long skater bro hair and stuff like that. They're very California Y and I'm from rural Tennessee, so it's about that, like dynamic.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah. And from rural Tennessee, you didn't eat meat because, you know, it was a little more expensive. Hamburger Helper.

[Trey Crowder]

I ate meat. It just came in a pot. Potted meat. You ever heard of potted meat?

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

This trailer pate. No, not even Spam.

[Mike Pesca]

Spam is more highbrow canned meat.

[Trey Crowder]

That's right. Potted meat specifically is like. I called it trailer pate. It's like, it's like ground up, like awful, I think off a L, but.

[Mike Pesca]

Also a little awful.

[Trey Crowder]

And it literally, it's sincerely, it really isn't any different from pate, except pate is made with high quality ingredients and this Is made from the stuff they sweep up off the slaughterhouse floor or whatever. Wow. But it comes in a little pack. But yeah, you'd eat that with like hot sauce and some saltine crackers or like vini as we called them, or Vienna sausages. You familiar with Vienna sausages? Yes, those are called Vianney sausages. So yeah, that's all mate. Made from a. A can. But you could get. There's actually a cut of pork that I've only ever seen in my hometown. And I realized years later is because it's like for poor people and it's cheap, but I love it. It's like very, very thin cut pork shoulder steaks basically.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

But they're like.

[Mike Pesca]

They throw steak on something.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

Claim to it up. But we know what's going on.

[Trey Crowder]

There were options, most of which are like gross. Also you'd eat, you know, a lot of venison. People hunt deer stuff. I don't want to make it sound like you had to do that to live. I just mean people ate a lot of like not overly high quality meat options.

[Mike Pesca]

What about. What about the shooting of smaller animals? Your squirrels, your possums. Question within a question. Do you go possum or opossum?

[Trey Crowder]

Possum. Possum for sure.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

Although I mean it. The animal that we're talking about is literally the opossum. Right?

[Mike Pesca]

Yes. And I think you know it is.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, that's the American opossum. But we. Everybody just says possum. And then in Australia. Wait, is that right? Yeah. And then in Australia they have possums with no O.

[Mike Pesca]

Right.

[Trey Crowder]

It's a very different like type of creature. It's kind of more foxy sort of a little bit.

[Mike Pesca]

Australia is of course home to all the marsupials. And I believe the opossum is the only North American marsupial.

[Trey Crowder]

I think you're right. That's a fun fact.

[Mike Pesca]

That's what.

[Trey Crowder]

And they eat all those ticks. They don't get rabies. Possums are buddies. I gotta like people people. Because they're so ugly. They just look like the dev know people can't get past that. It's all. That's all that matters with the animals is like if they're cute or not.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

If you're cute, you're probably okay. And if you're not, we'll either eat you or, you know, shoot you from afar while screaming.

[Mike Pesca]

But like stories about you.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, but possums are actually, you know, they're cool, man. People, people don't know, I got a. My merch at present is a picture of a possum with a top hat on. It's got my name.

[Mike Pesca]

That's right.

[Trey Crowder]

See, you get it. You understand?

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah. Was your son, your vegetarian son? Was. Is he big on the. Oh, you only eat the non. Cute animals. Is this something he teases his younger brother about?

[Trey Crowder]

No, no, but he's not remotely preaching. We all, the rest of us in the family all eat meat and he doesn't care. He just won't do it. But when he was like, I mean, even when he was like three or four, like, I asked him, I was like, why don't, you know, why don't you eat meat? And he was like, because I like animals and I don't like it when people eat animals. And I was like, okay, yeah. But then that's pretty much the only thing he's ever even said about it. But he's been a vegetarian his whole life.

[Mike Pesca]

Now, you said you're from. Is it Salina?

[Trey Crowder]

Salina Salon. Everyone who ever sees the name of my town written down says Selena. Yeah, and I'm sure those people are right, but it's our town and we call it. So that's what I'm going to go with.

[Mike Pesca]

700 of you get to decide what's the. How many, what's the population in the.

[Trey Crowder]

Like, town itself, like city limits? In the actual town, it's less than a thousand. It's probably 8, 900, something like that. And then in the whole county of Clay county, it's, I don't know, 3,4000 maybe, something like that, but I'm not 100% sure.

[Mike Pesca]

So in Salina, yeah, you mentioned that at 25, you had children relatively young. Would that be young or right on, right on target for Salinan?

[Trey Crowder]

No, no, no, no, no. That's only young for me as like a comedian and a person who lives in la. My friends back home that I grew up with, they all have kids that are either my kids age or older. You know, like, that wasn't to them at the time. They're like, you know, what took you so long? Like, it wasn't. That wasn't weird at all for where I'm from. But like, I got two really good comedian buddies who are also from rural southern towns, but they're my age and they both just had their first children, like in the past two years. So they have babies right now and I've got teenagers.

[Mike Pesca]

So you have a joke about how IVF and these advanced fertility options, that's A big kind of California west coast thing. Right. But the rural Tennesseans have a different version of fertility or a different approach to it. Right.

[Trey Crowder]

Well, you just. We're just. What do I even say in the show? Basically, you just can't stop us from having children.

[Mike Pesca]

Right.

[Trey Crowder]

We're just excessively naturally fertile in the bit you're referencing, I hope I say a little funnier than that, but I'm blanking on what I actually say. But yeah, white trash people just propagate. Like, you don't have to take all these extra steps. Oh, white trash people are more fertile than an Amish cornfield.

[Mike Pesca]

There you go. That's good.

[Trey Crowder]

It didn't take me too long.

[Mike Pesca]

That's a good analogy. You know, like, you start off pretty early in the set saying that you're a giggle monger, which is a great turn of phrase. You have a few of these great two word turns of phrase, you know, or an Amish cornfield. And then you also have an observation about sometimes you use a phrase that's southern and you go, oh, no, is this racist or southern or just Southern? Like, what's the one about squirrels?

[Trey Crowder]

Well, I, I see. You know, somebody asked me, have you seen Jeremy lately? As I, dude, I haven't seen Jeremy in a. In a squirrel's age. You know, because it pops in your head like, what is that? That's not racist. Is it something I've been saying my whole life? You know, and coons age is not racist.

[Mike Pesca]

No, Black.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah. Right. But like, you know, when you know the context of how many other things are racist in origin in the south, and not just the south, but in America, you might hear that and think like, oh, wait, have I been saying something racist my whole life? But I think you're safe with that one.

[Mike Pesca]

Well, the other thing is that people will hear your accent and jump to, well, that must be racist and work backwards from there. And you have proof upon you.

[Trey Crowder]

Very, very much so. True. Yes.

[Mike Pesca]

Now, is that good or for comedy, is it a little bit of a secret weapon?

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, yeah. I think it definitely has been a massive tool for me as a comedian over the course of my time doing it, which is good. That's lucky because it's not. It just is how I sound, you know, Like, I don't have to. It's not contrived or anything. It's just the way that I talk. But I do think it mostly works in my favor. But there's ups and downs to it. I've lived in L. A for eight Years now. And at L. A shows, sometimes people are like. I think they're mostly like confused almost. If I don't like a very early on established, like, this is real.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

Like, I'm not doing a character. I'm not gonna. There's not gonna be some turn in.

[Mike Pesca]

A minute like, you're not Andy Kaufman.

[Trey Crowder]

I just sound this way, right? Like, I pretty much have to explicitly state it. Sometimes there are people in la I could just feel they'd be like, what is happening right now? Cause nobody. I mean, it just doesn't really happen out there. Generally at comedy shows, did anyone comes up there sounding like this? And people do characters and weird shit. Alti stuff or whatever. So I think sometimes people genuinely think. I mean, I had people say to me, I even. I'll stay in the grocery store, it'll be like, oh, I love your accent. I mean, if it. If that's your real accent, like they assume that I'm faking it for whatever.

[Mike Pesca]

Reason, but, like still keeping it up when they encounter you in the kale aisle.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, right. I'm like, do you think that I'm like a method actor?

[Mike Pesca]

So freaking committed to the.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, like a method actor, you know, who's like, getting ready for a role as a member. Yeah, right, exactly.

[Mike Pesca]

But do you think that it is for them just the confusion and once you settle the confusion, everything's fine? Or do you think it's maybe a hurdle to get over? Like, they do assume you're racist. They're a little on guard that you're gonna really say something racist?

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, I think so, depending on the crowd. Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

Now, some crowds might want that. Or like.

[Trey Crowder]

Yes. Yeah, no, I definitely think that that is a thing. I try to. I try to get that sort of out there first too, without making it like exploring explicitly political, but just basically like, yeah, I'm not racist, you know, like, it'll be okay. And then, I mean, I'm self aware. I make fun of that whole dynamic quite a bit. Especially when I do, like, shows for general audiences in LA or New York for that matter. But I live in LA that are definitely like, about that. You know what I mean? Like, whole thing about how everybody hears me talk, thinks I'm dumb. So I'm like overcompensating for that a lot. I just, I'm using big words totally superfluously, you know, like in ways that are neither germane nor apropos. Like that. Like this type of stuff that's like. It's all about that. Because I'm Trying to make it impossible for them to not understand, you know, sort of who I am or what my thing is, basically.

[Mike Pesca]

Do you think it's not exactly the Southern accent, but your version of the Southern accent, which is a little Appalachian, isn't it?

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah. Do you think that's funnier than just regular American Nebraskan?

[Trey Crowder]

I mean, look, I'm biased, but a hundred percent I agree. So I think that it's like, me personally, my rankings, I'd put it up there with, like, a Scottish brogue in terms of funniest white people accents or whatever.

[Mike Pesca]

Like, of course, when you watch Trainspotting, they have to sometimes subtitle the Scottish accent.

[Trey Crowder]

Oh, that happens with Appalachian accents, too. Like. Oh, yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

Subtitles.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, they'll put subtitles on, you know, if it's an episode. Episode of Cops said in rural West Virginia or something, they'll have subtitles for what the hillbillies are saying and that type of thing. But I.

[Mike Pesca]

Which is. If I were a dick, I'd say something like. Which is really unfair since much of the people actually.

[Trey Crowder]

Yes.

[Mike Pesca]

Oh, I wasn't thinking that. No, that's what I was thinking.

[Trey Crowder]

The. Wow. What was I gonna say?

[Mike Pesca]

Funniest accent and.

[Trey Crowder]

Oh, yeah, funniest accent. Yeah, There's. There's a line. Jason Isbel. You know, Jack is singing.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

Drive By Truckers. Yeah, right. He wrote it when he was with the Drive By Truckers song called out fit.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

Which he wrote. He was, like, 24, and it's all about, like, fathers and sons. It's crazy. He wrote that at the age of 24.

[Mike Pesca]

Oh, my God.

[Trey Crowder]

But one of the things that he says in there is like, don't. It's like a father saying to his son, don't do this, don't do that, whatever. And he's like. He says, don't worry about losing your accent. A Southern man tells better jokes.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

And I've just always thought if I write a memoir or whatever, I'm going to ask Isabel if he minds if I put that in the. You know, the first page. What do they call that? You know, you put the front page. Yeah. The preface, that thing. I should figure out what it's called before I try to write a book.

[Mike Pesca]

Look, I once found out the difference between the forward and the preface, but now I've forgotten.

[Trey Crowder]

Well, forward is like. That's something you get another person to write for you, isn't it? That's like.

[Mike Pesca]

This is the difference.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah. Right.

[Mike Pesca]

Yes. Okay. So do you think it's. Let's break down. Why it's funnier. Is it funnier because people have certain associations, or is it funnier more inherently about the rhythm? And that part of the rhythm where there is elongated vowels and that allows sort of chewing over excellent words like giggle monger. How do you say stand up for me? You say stand up, but it's like a little stain. Yeah, yeah. It's almost the second syllable in there.

[Trey Crowder]

Me specifically, I think it's at least a little bit of both. I think the accent in general, I do think there's something inherently funny about it. Like you said, the rhythms and just the intonations, the way things are said, just. It just sounds funny to people. But then with me, it's also the expectations part because it's like, you know, I say big words and shit too. And that coupled with this accent is like seeing a monkey read a book or something. Like, it's just funny to people, the juxtaposition of it, you know?

[Mike Pesca]

Yes. I also think the speed. It's funny because New York accents. And you do a bit about a Bronx chemo, a Bronx oncologist, I guess it would be, or maybe just some guy from the Bronx who has some thoughts on oncology. But New York goes fast, right? And so there is something funny about boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, rapid fire. But there's also something funny about taking your time and making the audience really work with you to think and be in your rhythm and that. Yeah, good.

[Trey Crowder]

I mean, obviously you've seen my stuff and whatever, but I. But I think that. I think that another thing that I do that is a little different or weird is because that's the common, you know, the conventional wisdom with Southerners and Southern accent is like, you know, move like molasses, slowed down and laid back. But I would argue that I talk pretty fast, both in the, like, make videos I make and also on stage. And it's like, I don't know why I do that. I've always kind of done that. And it's like I try to. That also is a factor that makes it different, I think. And it's like, so I talk fast and weird accent, but also work very hard to actually enunciate the words still so it doesn't just run together into a garbled mess. But I say all that. Like, I've sat down and like, you know, figured all this out. But it's just. Just the way that I talk.

[Mike Pesca]

But it's also. It must occur to you, and you talk to comedian friends and other Southern Comedian friends and California comedian friends and comedians always talk about what's. Why is this working? You know, it works for a reason. Do other comedians. Are they jealous of you?

[Trey Crowder]

Oh, I mean, well, it depends. There's a great many of them that would have no reason to be jealous of me. And then some, you know, might be for whatever reason, but not. I don't think it'd be any different than just anyone who, you know, they perceive as being wherever slightly above them on the ladder could sell more tickets or what. See, I think.

[Mike Pesca]

No, I was just thinking in terms of, like, natural advantage, right. I always thought this with Monty Python. I love Monty Python, they're so funny. But if you translated transliterated that into just an American accent, they get 20% less funnier.

[Trey Crowder]

It is a little unfair advantage, I agree. Yeah, maybe. But I think. But I. I could be wrong. I don't think anybody who doesn't have this accent, like, really wants it. I don't think so. I don't think anybody, like, man, I wish I sounded like that, you know, like. So I don't think it's that people used to tell me, but other, like, Southern comedians and stuff, they would be like, man, I can't believe the shit that you get away with.

[Mike Pesca]

Like, what do they mean? What?

[Trey Crowder]

Well, I always did kind of, like edgier stuff or whatever not to jerk myself off. I'm just saying that's the type of thing I've always liked, like pushing buttons, at least a little bit. So I'm talking back then before, when I was completely anonymous and a young comic and nobody knew who I was, and I was in Nashville and Knoxville and Atlanta and these clubs, and I would do, you know, bits about the Bible, making fun of the Bible or making fun of, like, the Confederate flag or any of this type of. Or like, making fun of homophobia or sticking up for gay people, or I had a pro choice bit I used to do all the time, like that. That type of stuff that, like, other people would be like, I have no idea how you, like, got away with that in front of this crowd, but I always thought for that crowd, for those crowds at that time, it was because, like, they identified me as being like, you know, one of them or whatever, so I had a longer leash. Like, if a New York comic had come down there and done, like, said those bits, like word for word in front of those people, it would not have gone over well if they let me do it, though.

[Mike Pesca]

But I also think if you did those bits, if a New York comic did Bits questioning the Bible, they'd have to be really, really strong because some of comedy is the frison of tension where you're defying expectations. And if the audience isn't essentially Bible believers, you doing bits about the Bible doesn't seem that dangerous or funny or entertaining to say a new quote, unquote sophisticated New York crowd.

[Trey Crowder]

No. Well, that's. Yes. That's another thing like that I want to point out to people sometimes about like, you have to understand the context in which I started because, yeah, all that stuff I just said, if I was doing that in front of like northern New York crowds or whatever, they'd be like, you know, like, oh, wow, you think the Confederacy is bad? What do you want a cookie? Like Jesus Christ. That's the bare minimum. Like, but I'm. But at that where I was and 15 years ago, like that shit was edgy and pushing the envelope and everything. And so like I for there and you know, it's just all about like, everything's relative. It's all about context. But that's, you know, I was kind of doing a similar type of thing basically from the beginning.

[Mike Pesca]

You know, in Trash Data you have a bit, an extended bit where you essentially embody a white supremacist. You have many jokes about. They don't seem that supreme. But it's the. The premise of the bit is all the losses across the years and you kind of act out him running a meeting that takes place over a few years. And I want to know if the joy of that bit, not the point, but what you like most about the bit is pointing out the losses or just embodying the sadness of imagining this white supremacist character and just how demoralized he is after a while.

[Trey Crowder]

People believe all kinds of weird shit. Right now I call a related note. I feel like white supremacy has been having a moment in this country past few years. White supremacy is wild to me for a few reasons. First of all, I feel like every white supremacist I've ever seen is pretty much the least supreme looking motherfucker. Like. Like I've never seen an avowed white supremacist and thought to myself, behold the pinnacle of man. Like, it's not a bunch of Hemsworths walking around with swastika tattoos. You know, it's not your average white supremacist. Walks in looking like Busted magazine's fuck up of the year 2005. Walks in with a tattoo on his neck of a skull, it's got more teeth than he does. Walks in looking like he's about to invent a whole new type of hepatitis, ain't even thawed up yet. Probably the second thing, I guess. I mean, I love to point out the. The losses, too, but, like, at the end, I have him sort of, like, get overly frustrated by the end because there's another. There's, like, a dummy in the crowd who keeps asking questions that piss him off. You know, it's like, what's his name?

[Mike Pesca]

Randy?

[Trey Crowder]

Bobby.

[Mike Pesca]

Bobby?

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah. Like, is this a guy?

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah, is this a guy? You know? Is this type of guy.

[Trey Crowder]

No, no. I just picked Bobby. And then one night, early on, friend of mine came who I realized while I was doing it that his name is Bobby. I didn't make him Bobby, but he's gonna think that I, you know, Bobby.

[Mike Pesca]

A dumb guy pointing out. Too dumb to point out obvious things? Or is he, like, kind of a clever guy needling the.

[Trey Crowder]

No, no. To me, Bobby has no idea that he's. He's, like, being sincere. For example, the main guy says something, you know, hey, there's still no black people in country music. And Bobby's like, well, you know, what about Darius Ruggers? Like, shut the fuck up, Bobby. Like that. And. Yeah, so, yeah, that one was. That's fun.

[Mike Pesca]

So. So when you do that in front of Southern crowds, what's their reaction? Different from California crowds?

[Trey Crowder]

I mean, maybe a little bit. But the thing, like, you have to remember is, like, generally speaking, the. Like this. I've scratched a scab off of my arm.

[Mike Pesca]

Is that symbolic?

[Trey Crowder]

I don't know. Maybe it's not a meth scab or anything. So I'm gonna eat it. I said it as I lick my finger.

[Mike Pesca]

But I'm also seeing some open wounds on your legs. I've been pointing these out. I don't know what's going on. Maybe possums.

[Trey Crowder]

I got eaten up. Well, I just was in my hometown two weeks ago, and, you know, there's still bugs there all over the place. I got a lot of bug bites, and I guess I'm scratching them off and bleeding all over the place.

[Mike Pesca]

What I understand you're not necessarily the local boy who's made good in the eyes of the 1,000 Salinans.

[Trey Crowder]

No, I'm more of a pariah, I would think. You know, not universe. A lot of them are, like, cool with it and happy for me or whatever, but generally speaking, I'm a blood trader, unfortunately.

[Mike Pesca]

And there's the blood right there on different limbs.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, they. You know, it's not just talking about like Lefty or whatever. It's also like at one point Nightline or whatever sent like like a camera crew and a journalist guy to go to my hometown with me and interview me and talk about what happened there. Like the factory leaving and the, the, the economic devastation led to the rise of their affinity for Donald Trump and everything. Having had been a blue county before that for a long time, all that stuff. Nyland came there to talk about that and cover, you know, talk to me. And they interviewed me like downtown in multiple areas. And it's like ravaged that. I mean, it's tiny, but it's also like run down and decrepit. And people got all mags. They're like, he's making the town look bad. And I was like, I mean, I would argue that the cameras make the town look bad.

[Mike Pesca]

Exactly.

[Trey Crowder]

By virtue of capturing how the town looks. Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

But they, the lens caps being off.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, but they, that type of thing just, it didn't, didn't help me out any in the eyes of like my, you know, hometown people. And so a lot of them, it's a mixed bag, to say the least for sure. I can't remember what I was going to say before I started bleeding all over the place.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah, that usually is a conversation.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah. That'll oftentimes clean slate. Yeah. Pretty quick.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah. So one thing I keep thinking about when I listen to you and listen to the podcast that you do with Ag Mark Ag.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah. Weekly SKUs.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah, weekly SKUs. I think about the overriding discussion about why can't Democrats appeal to men or appeal to people in rural areas or appeal to Clay County, Tennessee? A lot of it, a massive percentage of it is cultural. I also think how they talk, the actual word use is part of it. But what's your, your analysis of that since you're someone, I don't even know if you're a Democrat, you're definitely, definitely left. But you would probably want the Democrats to appeal more to Clay. Clay county than they do.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah. If they were going to follow through on it particular, I'd like them to do things that, you know, help people in Clay county, but. Because I don't see that happening from either side. But yeah, I think it's so I tell this story a lot, but still it's first time on this show. But like I have a. I already alluded somewhat to like what happened with my hometown and everything in the mid-90s and I was like 10ish years old. My dad owned the video store in town. If you remember what Those were video stores.

[Mike Pesca]

How many. How many videos did he stock?

[Trey Crowder]

I don't remember, but it was a. It was a converted single wide trailer.

[Mike Pesca]

Single wide.

[Trey Crowder]

So that's a single wide trailer that he put wooden letters, crowder's video on the outside, so that tells you how big it was. But I couldn't tell you how many videos there wasn't. Porn section in the back. Kept the light. Well, there's a whole door, but. Yeah, door. And it was fancy. Yes, yeah, yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

Door and curtain.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

The belts and suspenders of the porn video world.

[Trey Crowder]

Yes, absolutely.

[Mike Pesca]

What percentage of profits were based on rewinding fees? Because I always thought that once DVDs hit, you lost out on that profit center.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, again, I don't know. I was a kid, so I wasn't up on the economics of it. I just know it was a cool place to be and hang out.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah. And inspired you to be a go in the entertainment show.

[Trey Crowder]

That's exactly 100% right. But he had that. His dad, my grandpa, had, like, a car lot and a garage. And my maternal grandmother had a country deli on the town square, across the town square. My openly gay uncle and his partner in the 90s had a deli, a successful deli that they operated in Salina. And it all was around this factory, this clothing factory, oshkosh b' Gosh factory. And then after NAFTA passed, that factory moved to Mexico and never. Nothing ever came in to replace it. All those businesses closed. The OxyContin showed up at the exact same time. Hilarious cosmic timing that was. But, like. And those two things combined to just ruin my town essentially forever. Right. But I have a vivid memory of sitting in my dad's video store. My whole family. I come from a family of, like, Southern Democrats, and my grandpa was like, a traditional Southern Democrat, which is to say, like, yeah, you know, he was a little racist. Right. But he was very traditional.

[Mike Pesca]

More than a little.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, right. Yeah, I know. Well, yeah, he wasn't in the Klan or nothing, but he was born in 1935 in rural Tennessee. Like, he was not, you know, he was a little racist, but he also. But he had been. He had remained a Democrat through the year. They didn't lose him after the Civil Rights Act.

[Mike Pesca]

Right.

[Trey Crowder]

Like, he stayed a Democrat, my whole family.

[Mike Pesca]

Like an Al Gore senior Democrat.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, right. Yeah. So I remember sitting at the counter in my dad's video store, and my grandpa walks in holding a newspaper that I guess had something on it about NAFTA or whatever. He walks in on the newspaper and he slams it on the counter and he says, I'll never vote for another Democrat as long as I live. Right. And he didn't live that much longer after that. He probably only voted in one more election after that. But still, either way, I think he stuck to it. So that was definitely like a big part and part of the beginning of the end. NAFTA is something that was going to happen no matter what, in my opinion. Like, the Clintons were in office, they were neoliberals, they did it. But it would have been done either way because no one gave a shit about places like my hometown.

[Mike Pesca]

But I would say, I don't know if nafta, that deal was going to be done, but the economic winds of taking an oshkosh type factory and having it not be able to work out in a place like Tennessee, that was writing on the wall.

[Trey Crowder]

Right. So. But still, like, the Clintons definitely got blamed for that and the Democrats in general. And I think that was the, the, well, not the start. I mean, the start goes back even further with the shifting of the parties and all that. But like they somehow the shift like the neoliberal Stu everything. And they weren't the party of working people anymore or the middle class or any of that. And then the perception of coastal elitism and looking down your nose at people and that stuff. And then now in recent years after QAnon, it's like not only all that, but also they drink baby's blood. And so it's like, it's just a lot. It's bad pr, man. It's a lot to overcome.

[Mike Pesca]

Do you think if the Democrats changed their. The way they sounded to people from your hometown versus if they had the perfectly aligned policies that really would best help the people of your hometown, what would be more important for the Democrats to actually gain the votes of people from your hometown?

[Trey Crowder]

Unfortunately, I think probably the former.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

Because they don't. I don't know. People don't. It seems like policies in and of themselves don't apparently matter all that much.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

At the end of the day, unfortunately, you know, I, But I want to.

[Mike Pesca]

Interrupt, is that not necessarily just valuing style over substance? Is there something to. I don't even mean the diphthongs and vowels, but the language you use, the things you emphasize. I have listened to your comedy. I know where you stand on gay rights. I know where you stand on immigration and all these issues. But connecting to a people who aren't as progressive as you don't you have to talk a little bit in a way where they say, he gets me.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. It would be. It would be better. I mean, it's kind of. It's related to what I was saying earlier about when I was doing stand up years ago in, like, Knoxville and saying, like, joking about those types of things and other comics being like, I can't believe they let you get away with that. And I always thought it was because I sound like them, you know, so.

[Mike Pesca]

Is there for a non. A way for a non white man to do it? Is there a way for someone with really good ideas to come in and just communicate? This guy's pretty normal, and I think he has my best interests at heart. Or this woman's pretty normal. I think she's offering a better vision of the future than, you know, let's say, J.D. vance.

[Trey Crowder]

Look, I'm going to be completely 100% honest and say that especially after the last election, a woman, I'm not sure. And I don't like that. You know, I'm not in favor of that. That's just me being, you know, being honest about what I think. I don't know that, that, that, that would happen right now. You said a non white man. I think. Yeah. Well, even then I was thinking, you know, I don't know, you could find some appeal on the other side. I was thinking of people like Vivec or whatever, but even he, like, you know, he'll go on Ann Coulter's podcast and she tells him to his face, obviously, I'd never vote for you because you're an Indian, but you seem all right as far as that goes. And he's like, thanks. So I, you know, it is more. That's the part that's hard for me. But, like, there's definitely a lot of just. There is a lot of, like, racism and xenophobia and that type of stuff that's just intrinsically tied into it all. You know, I won't always make the case, the economic case, about, like, what happened to my own town and they felt betrayed and all this stuff and all that is true. But I can't ignore all the, like, cultural shit, too, which definitely is a big part of it.

[Mike Pesca]

That's true. But there was probably more xenophobia and racism in 1936 and 1948, when the county was so reliably blue and more or less backing Democrats and in many cases, very, very important programs like the New Deal that didn't change, that got better.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

So you can't just blame it not you. But if the analysis is what are you going to do? They're racist. Like, it might be good to appeal to the self interest of racist that has something to do with non racial policies.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, no, I'm with you on that. Yeah. Believe me, again, I'm like from the, this place, you know, I know these people. So. Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

And what do you think of J.D. vance since he's from. He's not from Appalachia, he's from the Rust Belt, but he's trying to tell a story like yours and desiccated towns where he came from.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, I, Well, I don't know if you know this part, but I mean, I know J.D. a little bit. His book came out the same year that I first went viral. Like we kind of burst on the scene at the same time and he just lapped me immediately and now he's in the White House. But it did happen at the same time. So we like, like met first, like digitally very early. Like we're dming and then later texting and stuff. Like, dude, this shit's crazy, right? Like, because we were both like going on TV and talking about rednecks and hillbillies and stuff and, and all this.

[Mike Pesca]

You were the liberal redneck and he was the hillbilly elegy.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, the liberal hillbilly.

[Mike Pesca]

He could have been redneck elegy.

[Trey Crowder]

And it happened at the. Yeah, like the same time. Right. So we were like in touch and everything. He was living in Columbus at the time and he. I had a, I did a tour date in Columbus and at the Funny Bone, and he and his wife came and we went to a bar afterwards and hung out and drank beers and shit for a while. And like at that point in time, he was like a, he was a conservative. But, you know, that was back when very famously he was, you know, comparing Trump to Hitler and saying he was a scourge that was, you know, going to ruin this country. Like, that's what he was saying at the time, so.

[Mike Pesca]

And when you meet his lovely Indian wife.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, no, so we got along just fine, you know, and to the point that like over the years on like my political podcast and other stuff, when he started running for Senate, he started shifting further that way. I gave him more, you know, leeway initially than I otherwise would have because I was like, no, he's all right. Hell, he's okay. And then. But finally it reached a point where I couldn't do that anymore. But yeah, he's even having said all that, I read his book way back Then when it first came out, and there were times my first reaction to reading his book was like, obviously I very heavily relate to a whole lot of this. We had a very, very sim. Very similar experience.

[Mike Pesca]

Because both your moms have addiction issues.

[Trey Crowder]

Yes. Drug addicted moms and all that, you know, rural destitution and whatever. And I guess he was sort of more of a kind of a. Tourist isn't the right word. But, you know, he, he was like a temporary. Yeah, he would vacation there. Yeah. But I'm like, from there?

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah. You had no place to vacation too?

[Trey Crowder]

No, I literally didn't go on any kind of vacation vacation until I was a legal adult with some friends of mine.

[Mike Pesca]

That's so funny. You're like, J.D. vance, look at you with your vacations.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

To the holler.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah. Right. But. But also there were parts in it that I read at the time I was like, I don't like, we're coming from almost the exact same place. But I don't get how he's landing on some of the stuff he's landing on. There was a part in there where he goes in this whole thing about payday loan stores, which I think are like predatory and awful. Well, and he goes in this hole.

[Mike Pesca]

Remember what you said about the cameras and the lenses and that just like by vision makes it look bad. That's the kind of hard lift to prove that payday loans are predatory. Just looking at economics will prove they're predatory.

[Trey Crowder]

Right?

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

Okay. But in this book and Hillbilly Elegy, he goes on this little aside where he's talking about those. He's like, people say that they're predatory. He's like, I can tell you right now, for people in my hometown, they're a lifeline. They're vitally important. All this I'm reading that being like, what the. Doing we're. Where the fuck did that come from? And then, and then I don't even know if this true. But then I heard later that he had like, investments in some, you know, payday loan chain or something like that or whatever. And so I was like, well, that's pretty gross. And then also this. I felt like to me, the central thesis of that whole book, or one of them anyway, was he was like, yeah, listen, these people are just kind of fundamentally broken in a lot of ways. Like they're just not no count, as they would say back home. You know, they're lazy, they're sorry, they don't want to work, that type of stuff and that, you know, didn't that's kind of stuck in my crawl too. At the time I was like that. I don't think that that's entirely fair. It's also weird to me that, you know, I don't know that he. That. That doesn't. Well, they probably just didn't read the book. That type of thing, you think would be an issue too, for a lot of what is now his, you know, primary demographic.

[Mike Pesca]

So most of the analysis of him is about him and a person's psychology and maybe, and I've said this how he needs a father figure, but also he falls in with Peter Thiel and, you know, very rich people who sway him to his side. But do you have a different analysis of why he changed or is it mostly personality?

[Trey Crowder]

Why he changed? I mean, I've always just assumed, you know, I think he's basically bought and paid for and it's like the way to achieve his ambitions and also like make the most, you know, just, just it behooves him personally to have changed and.

[Mike Pesca]

Well, yes, this is to say, don't you think 30 years ago, that same guy with the same inclinations and some of the same experience, though the American economy wasn't where it was. He doesn't have to do that to excel within one of the two parties in America. It's MAGA ism itself writ large that impresses itself upon JD Vance. And then he's smart enough, or let's say cynical enough to know the way to advance within this world is to, you know, deny certain elements of what I am and embrace certain elements of things. You would never think I would be.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, right. I mean, that's the whole mag. And whatever that whole thing is fundamentally changed everything about like, like American politics, but especially on the right and for conservatives, you know, and that is a part of it. You have to, like, you got to bend the knee, you know, you got to get on board and ingratiate yourself and everything.

[Mike Pesca]

So not just as someone from similar backgrounds, but people who got out because of words. Right. It's not just your. You have certain convictions and ethics and so you would never sell out. But when you look at J.D. do you think he's being less true to himself? Just on an intellectual level, like, you know, what he thinks and how he can think. But now you're thinking about the things he says and you're saying, you know, that's not even true. You know, that's dumber than you are.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I do, I do think those things. That is what I have thought, you know, I have had exactly that thought about him before. It's like, I know you don't actually believe that shit, or I know you know better than that or whatever. But then other times I'm like, is that almost giving him too much credit or something to say that? Like, in a way that's almost letting him off the hook kind of by being like, you know, like, maybe I'm. Maybe I shouldn't say that because it's like, what difference does it make? At the end of the day, he's still doing it and saying it. You know what I mean? But like, yeah, I have definitely thought before. Yeah, you kind of. You're, you know, you know what you're doing.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

You know what you're really doing.

[Mike Pesca]

Is that good or bad? If you want to have hope, let's say he's the next Republican nominee or president. Does that give you hope that he knows better, or does that make you more depressed that a guy who knows better is still doing this? Yes.

[Trey Crowder]

If he's entirely compromised by the Peter Teals of the world and, you know, operating in the shadows and all that, then it's worse, I think.

[Mike Pesca]

Well, let's. Here's a scenario. Let's say Peter Thiel shaped him and here is who he is, then he becomes the most powerful person in the world. Let's take that as the scenario. Right. So is it better or worse that within him, he knows these things are not true?

[Trey Crowder]

Well, again, if he's gonna. If he's going to, like, be his own man in this scenario and, you know, be independent in that way and not be compromised, like I said, then I think that it's better because the hope would be that, you know, there would. There's a line that he wouldn't crawl, or it's like, you know, he's just playing a role in a van. He wouldn't actually take it that far. But that could also, you know, that could be total cope in, as they.

[Mike Pesca]

Say on weekly Skus, you talk this explicitly about politics, but I haven't. Maybe I missed it.

[Trey Crowder]

It.

[Mike Pesca]

I haven't seen it this explicitly. In your standup naming, say, JD Vance, or do you talk about Trump specifically?

[Trey Crowder]

Not really. Every now and then. That's all very much by design. What I try to do is like, if you go, you've seen my stand up, like, you know, recorded. You've, like, seen it from. If you come to an actual show, the first 10 or so minutes will probably be somewhat topical or, like, political, and that's somewhat. And that's mostly just me trying to give of my fans, like give them what they came for from the Internet, give them what they feel like they signed up for. So I do that. And then once that's over, I mostly don't talk explicitly about politics. But it's still, I feel like a lot of it is still stuff that's like, if you are a fan of mine, you will appreciate. Use an example from the trash data that you saw. Like that whole white supremacy bit, like that's about, you know, political and cultural, that's social commentary or whatever. It's just not like topical headline political jokes. And I do that type of thing. I got a big chunk right now in the new hour about like public education and schools. And again, that's all adjacent to like politics. But I do that bit and have done that bit in front of like any audience, like not just my fans, you know what I mean? But like it's twofold. First of all, it's practical. Like if you stuff that's like more ripped from the headlines and that sort of thing, it's got a shelf life as you know. So it almost feels like a way to waste of time as a comedian to like try to make a good bit out of that when you know it's gonna have to go away relatively soon. And then the other part is that I just don't want the, the again, social commentary, if you want to call it that, talking about like issues and real thing and like heavy stuff or whatever, that is always the type of thing that has appealed to me very much as a comedian. That's always been my favorite type of comedy.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

You know, like from the time I was a kid. So I'm all, Chris Rock is my number one. He's my all time favorite. Like he's my personal number one. So yes, Chris Rock and like so that I'm all about. But the like, the more, like I said, the more topical and political stuff that's like, I don't know, I'm just not as interested in it. It feels also like easier to me with, with my following, you know what I mean? To just, just whatever, goof on Trump for a while or whatnot. So there's a couple reasons why I try not to do it. But another part is like, if people bring family members or husbands or whatever who are not fans or don't know me or whatever, I don't want them to have a terrible time. So I try to joke about stuff that's like true to who I AM and who people have seen me to be as a comedian but without just baldly alienating, you know, some people right out the gate, basically.

[Mike Pesca]

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[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, no, that's pretty astute on your part, because it has been an annoyance, at least at times. There's certain times where I wish that I didn't even, like, have that moniker.

[Mike Pesca]

Right.

[Trey Crowder]

But I wouldn't change it, though, because I, like, you said it. I think that that name, me putting that name on those videos and when I first started them in 2016, and I don't think it would have gone viral the way that it did if I. If it wasn't called that. And I don't think it would have the effect that it did on my life and career, and everything. So I wouldn't change it. But. But, yeah, I don't. From the very beginning, we. When I did go viral and it's like, let's try to book some shows and go on tour. And I was like. And my man, I just had a manager at the time, and she was like, do you know, do you want a tour as, you know, your name or as the liberal redneck? And immediately I was like, my name, 100%. I don't even want the little redneck anywhere in the, like, the actual. I don't want to say, you know, Trey Crowder as the liberal. You know, it's like, if you want to put it in the bio part, like, in small print somewhere, that's fine, but I wanted to just say my name.

[Mike Pesca]

Larry the liberal redneck guy, Right?

[Trey Crowder]

Exactly. And so from the very beginning, I was like, I don't want that. And then now the other thing is, like, comedy has changed so much. American culture has changed so much. Like, it's only gotten more divided. Those videos were based on a standup bit that I did at the time that I used to close with. It was basically just the same thing. Literally the meat of it was just me yelling really progressive shit in a super rednecky fashion. And it used to do. Like I said, I close with it. It always did. And it's like, even in front of conservative audiences, it did great because it was like, it was a joke. You know, they're like, that's a funny thing.

[Mike Pesca]

But also, some of the stuff you were saying was, like, kind of crazy liberal stuff, right? Yeah. It wasn't just Something that they would maybe say on the stage from the dnc.

[Trey Crowder]

No. And it's like. And they were. But it was like, that's, you know, that's a funny thing to be. Both super, you know, and it's like. So even conservatives would laugh at it in a kind of like, how silly is that? Sort of way. But it was fine. Like it didn't piss people off.

[Mike Pesca]

Right, right.

[Trey Crowder]

And now all these like years later and I'm like married to it and it's. To some people, it's just like a immediate non. Starter. Multiple reasons. I think some people. Yeah, yeah. I think even. I think there's an element of people who read that and they're like, no, thank you. Just because it's like it sounds gimmicky or whatever. Like just that.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

Then there's people who are like, like eat. There's people who would hear liberal in a name and be like, nope, I don't want any of that. Preachy. Which I. I don't think I do very much of. Oh, and then there's other people who would see the word redneck and it'd be like, I'm not, you know, I don't need to hear some fucking, you know, blue collar comedy tour style.

[Mike Pesca]

Right.

[Trey Crowder]

You know, truck fucking jokes or whatever. But like, like, best case scenario is maybe I come across as folksy, you know, like folks, he's the best you can hope for when you talk like this. And my people got all these little sayings and phrases that help with that perception, especially if you're from the middle of nowhere like I am. But even that's not always great, you know, like, I'll be at some party in la, we run out of beer and I'm like, well, guess somebody better ride into town, pick up some more. And they're just like, ride into town Water. Are we out of sorghum? Has Molly took the fever? Why are you saddling up, cowboy? We'll just doordash it. So I think there's a lot of downsides to it, frankly. But at the same time it's. I don't think I'd be sitting right here talking to you about any of this if I hadn't called them that to begin with.

[Mike Pesca]

So have you ever. Are there other comics? I'm not thinking of Gallagher. Right. Or the unknown comic. That's more of a 20 or 30 year old bit. But there are there other comics as defined by a label as you are, that you didn't really want?

[Trey Crowder]

Didn't really want.

[Mike Pesca]

I mean, Well, I heard exactly what you said. It helped you, but at this point it's maybe not.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah. Well, if, you know, I still. And I need. I've been. Been thinking for a while now that I'm going to take it off the YouTube ones too. And I probably, I don't know why I haven't. But on the YouTube versions of videos I put out, it's still, those are still called liberal Reddit. Part of me is like what's been. It's been called that from the beginning. So it's like a big.

[Mike Pesca]

They're all together.

[Trey Crowder]

But like on all the other social media platforms, like I don't ever even use that anymore. I just like post videos.

[Mike Pesca]

You get as much many views. Are you as successful on the other social media?

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, generally. But, but, but everyone, everyone still knows. You know what I mean? Like even, it's like I, even if like a person, like I love your Instagram and on Instagram I've never even called myself deliver or on these videos or whatever. But like those people will still know that I am that.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

Or whatever. Do you ever. I don't know. And I don't know if there's other comics. I mean, I thought. No, I mean, you don't count like, like, you know, like there's Piff the Magic Dragon, obviously that's. He's crushing it in Vegas right now. And that's a. But that's like a full blown right like character, you know, and there are.

[Mike Pesca]

Characters, there are comics who are so associated Doug Stanhope with, you know, pot or something like that. But yeah, yours is a little different. Yours is a little like Gallagher in a way. Like they expect you to smash the watermelon at the end.

[Trey Crowder]

Right?

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

Have you ever thrown out a bit because you said no, this is just me being like in the last few years, there's just me being the liberal redneck neck probably.

[Trey Crowder]

But I think what I, I have a lower standard for myself with that first part that I was mentioning earlier, like when I first started, because I, I call that like the Cheap Heat part. That's also where I'll do like local.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

You know what I mean? Just to like get started. And I know that, I know that I'm not keeping any of that, you know, the minute I'm saying so like there's definitely been things I've said in there where later I'm like, nah, it was not. It was pretty hacky or was or whatever. But I know it's going away anyway.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

So I just I don't really worry that much about it. I've definitely had, you know, that's like.

[Mike Pesca]

Criticizing Springsteen for when he's singing because. Or damn, what's the song where he say. He sometimes says the real lyric is driving along this Missouri night, but depending where he's playing, he'll say this Wisconsin night or this Tennessee night, or you change the local.

[Trey Crowder]

That's in. I believe that's a pro wrestling term, or at least they took it. I've got buddies huge in pro wrestling. He told me that. But that. That exact thing you're describing in pro wrestling, they call that Cheap Heat.

[Mike Pesca]

That's awesome.

[Trey Crowder]

It's like, how you doing tonight, Nashville? And you know it's going to get a big pop just because you're in Nashville or makes like something about the Titans or whatever like that. So. So, yeah, but I've definitely. I mean, I have. I've had bits where, like, there's been parts where I get annoyed at myself for, like, the reason you just said. And usually I'll try to cut that part out or rewrite it or something if I feel like it's too. Too on the nose or too like, pandery or whatever.

[Mike Pesca]

You have some bits that I think in another comics just phrasing would come out more straightforwardly as. I'm not going to say conservative, but without the valence. And I'll tell you exactly the one I'm thinking of. Of. Oh, this is a liberal guy saying it. You do jokes about Portland, right. And the joke is that it's two things, right? It's penny farthing bicycles and ridiculous handlebar mustaches and other kinds of mustaches.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

And it is dangerous antifa guys. Like, it's both those things.

[Trey Crowder]

Right.

[Mike Pesca]

And so I think nine out of ten comics will just straightforwardly criticize the city or that mil you. But you. You do the joke where the joke is more on the kind of conservative who doesn't understand that or tries to make other scare other people by telling them that there's only this one kind of guy when there's really also this other kind of guy. Your joke is on the conservative. Yeah, I think most comics would make the joke about.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, I try to do Portland. I try to there. I feel like there's a couple times where I do something similar to that later in the set in the show when I'm talking about parents and parenting and everything. And I talk about like, like. And I've heard a lot of different bits that are sort of around the same idea. It's like, you know, back when I was growing up, we just ran wild. Like parents. They didn't give a shit.

[Mike Pesca]

Right.

[Trey Crowder]

And that's like the. But like, I feel like most of the other comedians I've seen do that bit. It's like. And that's why we're better than the kids today. These kids today are fucking soft. This was a good thing.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

And with me, when I do it, I'm like, what the fuck was wrong with them? That's insane. Do you know what I mean? Like, we could have done died. Like, I, I, you know, I'm criticizing it instead of doing the whole, like, kids today suck thing. So, like, there's a few instances where I do the thing that you're talking about there. And yeah, I do do that, but I also, I. And aside from just the Portland stuff, that's the other thing too. I'm having lived in California for a while, I've had plenty of bits and everything that make fun of, like, coastal people or Californians or stuff that would be more liberal. On the preceding special, I had a whole bit that was like, ripping on Europeans basically, for all the shit they talk about Americans. And it's like that. I think that bit could straight up be done by a, like, noted conservative comedian. And their crowd wouldn't bat an eye because it's like, patriotic and like, fuck Europe and all this stuff. And it's so, I mean, you know, I do try to switch.

[Mike Pesca]

Little difference. Little difference in how you do it than that. Imagine.

[Trey Crowder]

Well, that, that bit I'm talking about now is. I mean, it's pretty old and I haven't done it in a while. So I have to think if there's anything in it that I don't think a conservative comic would say, but I really don't. It's more tongue and cheek with me.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

So maybe there's. That just kind of, if that makes sense, where it's like, they might do it. It's like literally like, no, France, where it's like, I'm kind of. There's like, there's a wink with me when I'm doing it. Like, it's kind of joke. More jokey.

[Mike Pesca]

Do you think that the antifa guys really exist, or do you think they're mostly the portion of the conservative imagination? Like real dangerous antifa guys in Portland?

[Trey Crowder]

I mean, I. They probably, like, do exist, I would think, in much, much smaller numbers than. Than, you know, papaws think.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah. Because making fun of the boogeyman. I mean, if there is a boogeyman That's a different kind of humor, I guess.

[Trey Crowder]

Well, but you'd say like antifa guys, like, I feel like antifa itself is barely a thing. You know what I mean? There's nothing, not like it's not centrally organized, I'm not getting memos or nothing. There's not a newsletter you sign up for. Like, so there's that. But in terms of like those dude, like, you know, kind of badass, far left anarchist brick throwing. I mean, yeah, I think that they. I think it'd be crazy to say that they don't exist. And if they exist anywhere, it's definitely Portland. But I still think it's like way overstated. Yeah, it's like, I mean just recently the la, the most recent LA protest and stuff. Like I've been in New York for like four or five days now, but like it started last weekend. I live in la. I live in the Valley specifically and I was there for like three days. What was happening over the weekend when it was really ramping up and I'm getting all these text messages from friends and family back home and everything. They're like, you know, they think it's mad Max out there, right? They're like, they're like, are you okay? Are you all. Are you getting out? Or whatever? And it's like it's 99. Literally. Like I literally just walked home from the ice cream parlor at Twilight, like, you know, with a cone in my hands, smiling, listening to.

[Mike Pesca]

With no Waymos on fire.

[Trey Crowder]

Right. Like you literally wouldn't even know that anything was happening here if you didn't turn the news on. And so I just think anything, if it bleeds, it leads. It's not even just a purely political thing. That type of stuff is always just going to get overstated no matter what.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

And I think that's how. Because I go to Portland every year to do stand up and it same thing. I've never seen any of that wild shit. And I'm sure they are there, but it's just, I think they do exist. It is without a doubt 100% very much exaggerated though at the same time.

[Mike Pesca]

I think the other part about people who are not from LA worrying about you, perhaps very kindly, they don't understand maybe that you could live, let's say, four miles away from a place, but it's essentially another state.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

And not the Tennessee, Kentucky version. Like if this is in a place called Paramount California, which I've never heard of, have you?

[Trey Crowder]

No, I hadn't.

[Mike Pesca]

So we. So you're from la. We've never heard of California.

[Trey Crowder]

Well, I'm a bad example for that.

[Mike Pesca]

Because you've lived there for years.

[Trey Crowder]

I know, but I'm saying I still can't remember the damn neighborhood.

[Mike Pesca]

Paramount and then another ICE raid happened in Wilshire, which a lot of people understand. These are like, saying, hey, you're from Iowa. I heard there was a raid in Kansas or Missouri.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, it's mostly isolated to those. It's just like a couple of blocks, really. And also, even the stuff. Even in those blocks, like, the, you know, they're acting like people are dying every day and that type of thing. It's like, you know, even those Waymo cars, it's like, look, look, I'm not like, advocating for property damage, but if you're going to damage property, no one's.

[Mike Pesca]

By definition, no one's in it.

[Trey Crowder]

That's what I'm saying. They drive themselves. They're owned by Google. It's like, who really gives a shit about Burning White? Like, I mean, I don't. Sorry. But. But yeah. So I don't know, the whole thing, it is. It's annoying, too, when you, like, live there, because it's like, I don't know, you get more defensive about it, I guess. I don't consider myself, and I don't think I ever will consider myself an Angelino, really. I'm a. To always be a trice. Always said putting the bass in Ambassador, you know, like, that's how I feel is. I feel like a displaced Tennessee and always will. But still, it still is annoying, you know, even just living there and having been there for a while. Just the way that it gets covered sometimes.

[Mike Pesca]

By the way, you mentioned that you. You think it's more. You think it's more interesting artistically funnier to do a riff on instead of saying, and we were tougher as kids, kids to say that things were really dangerous. Gary Goldman does the same thing when.

[Trey Crowder]

Oh, really?

[Mike Pesca]

Yes, I know.

[Trey Crowder]

Just left him.

[Mike Pesca]

He does a great bit about how in the 70s, people would, like, shove. First of all, we were constantly dehydrated and people would shove your face into the water fountain, and it was much worse.

[Trey Crowder]

We weren't.

[Mike Pesca]

We have made progress.

[Trey Crowder]

Right.

[Mike Pesca]

And as he told me, it's just so much more satisfying not to make the easy joke to say, what do most people think? All right, let's find a way to say kind of the opposite of the expectation. That's also where a lot of comedy lives. Just maybe benignly upending expectations, but certainly upending expectations. So I could see why you'd be more attracted to that.

[Trey Crowder]

Oh, yeah, no, for sure. It definitely is more fun. And it's also. There's an added. Added layer for me, too, because it's like, I feel. I get sensitive about being perceived as, you know, being more pandery and that type of. Type of thing.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

You know, so in the beginning, the.

[Mike Pesca]

Very beginning of this interview, you noted that, you know, you. You had kids at 25, and that's normal for everyone back home, but very exceptional for the milieu you live in in California. Do you think one is better than the other? We understand socioeconomically why it happened, but do you. What's the good way to do it, do you think?

[Trey Crowder]

I mean, I go back and forth on it, and obviously I'm biased, but here's what I'll say. I. I wouldn't change anything about it. And one. One of the reasons is, like, deeply personal, is because my. My dad died of cancer when my youngest son was a newborn, and the oldest boy was, you know, 14, 15 months old. But my dad got to know him and be a grandfather or whatever. So, like, there's no way I would go back and, you know, take that away from him, regardless. But even putting that aside, it. I'll say this. Physically speaking, it sucks. The socioeconomic reality of our society are a real shame because there's no doubt in my mind that, physically speaking objectively, humans are meant to have children at a earlier age in terms of, like, energy and having it and, you know, the physicality of it all and not how tired you get. Even me, I think it's like I'm having two that close together. And the younger one had RSV when he was a newborn and barely slept at all. And it's like, I was a zombie at 25. If I was 40 and had that going, I don't, you know, it'd be a nightmare. And then also, you know, when the second one goes to college, I'll be 44 or 45. You know what I mean? Which is, like, still young. So that's the other side of it. It's like, so I wouldn't change anything about it. I think there's a lot of upsides to having kids younger than people want to these days, but I get that. That it's just not realistic for a whole bunch of reasons. You know, people can't afford to do that anymore. And so, like, I understand that.

[Mike Pesca]

So also, women working, like, when you don't have opportunities, go to grad school or to Work for a law firm. That. That plays into it, too.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, they have to. You got to work on your career and be ambitious and hustling and stuff when you're in your 20s. And if you stopped, if you have kids at that time, it'd be hard to. So, yeah, it. From a practical perspective, I totally get why people wait longer and longer, but I think there's definitely some upsides to having done it the way I did. Even though, again, we did not plan it. It just happened.

[Mike Pesca]

But twice.

[Trey Crowder]

Twice. Well, the second one was planned, yeah, because we didn't want to have an only child. And also my wife was like, I don't know how this sounds, but she wanted to get the damage to her body over with.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah, she was like.

[Trey Crowder]

She was like, I'm wrecked.

[Mike Pesca]

This is my breeding period.

[Trey Crowder]

I'm wrecked. Let's just run it back, get it over with. Because we want at least two. And so we did, and they're 13 months. Months apart. And then we shut it down right after that. Well, I mean, I'm, you know, I've been saying I was going to go get snipped forever, and I haven't, but at least ostensibly shut it down. The plan is to have shut it completely down all those years ago.

[Mike Pesca]

And so, yeah, when politicians or political people seize on something like that, a cultural difference, and say, see, this is how Democrats, liberals, coastal elites get it wrong. Does it. Do you think that they're being dishonest? Like the, you know, the natalism argument and movement, which is people should be having more kids, but as you point out, like, it's harder for some people in some circumstances. And maybe if you're living in a town that was gutted by nafta, having kids isn't really a choice you're making. It's just the way and the rhythms of life. Anyway, the question is, when natalism becomes an issue issue, is that helping politics or do you. Do you think that's mostly cynicism on behalf of the person saying that, see, this is the way that the normal, mainstream, regular America gets it right.

[Trey Crowder]

I don't know. I feel like the natalism arguments and stuff that I hear in, like, American politicians recently, I can't help but feel a little bit weird about them because they feel kind of like, you know, Brood Mary and, you know, Handmaid's Taily and that type of shit. I get why they rub people that way. Putting all that aside, I mean, look, people do. People generally need to keep having babies or, you know, or we're not gonna be around all that much longer. So like, I'm not saying the idea of that by itself is bad, but I think that it is cynical. It plays weird to me. It's also cynical and I think is ignoring a lot of the realities of how that whole, whole thing actually works. And they don't intend to do anything to fix any of those problems that, you know, make it hard to have kids like that. It's like, I know also, it was not just here. Like obviously Japan's freaking out about it and Korea and other places too. But they won't, you know, they won't change any of the things that are part of their culture that are leading people to not have kids anymore. They just like are trying to guilt people into having babies and it's like, well that ain't going to work. You know, you need to do something if you want, you know, you know, if you want people to.

[Mike Pesca]

I mean, are they really even trying to guilt people into changing or are they just saying our way is better, you fucked up. Or they try maybe trying to take advantage of someone who's a woman in her 40s without babies and feels bad about herself.

[Trey Crowder]

Right, right.

[Mike Pesca]

Injecting. Ah, you feel bad about yourself, maybe come to our side taking advantage of that. Do you think there's anything that the right or conservatives do or say that they genuinely think either a plank of their party or a way of looking at the world, world that is superior to the way the left looks at things?

[Trey Crowder]

I mean, I'm sure, I'm sure I could come up with, well, okay, this I guess is maybe more libertarian, but I've always said like, I'm a big believer in like, in like personal responsibility. Yeah, that's not me. Say I'm also for like, you know, strong social safety nets and stuff. I just mean on a personal level. Like for example. So like I live in godless California, right? Deep, deep, deep blue state. And like one thing they just did recently was they made it illegal to sell vapes that are flavored. Right. Cuz well, kids get hooked on those and that's bad or whatever. And my whole thing is like, I don't give a, like I'm a grown man if I want to smoke a fruit loop vape. I pay my taxes, I'm 40 years old. Like, who the hell are you to tell me I can't do that? California, yeah, like that type of thing. Like I've always been a big believer in that sort in like just personal responsibility and that whole like, I think Mark Twain, if the Internet is to be believed. Mark Twain said it about, I think, like, censorship, but he said that it's like that's telling a man that he can't eat a steak because a baby is unable to chew it. Like that type of thing. I just am not, you know, not in favor of that sort of like any kind of like, nanny state bullshit and then. But they will. And I mean, I don't even know if I want to get into all that. I also, you know, I also thought before it spiraled out of control and it went way too. It got way overstated, the whole like, cancel culture thing and whatnot. But I'm also real lax on. I mean, I'm a comedian. Like, people get too, you know, too, too riled up about, like, words and offensive stuff and that type of thing. I think a lot of it is like, you know, I think it's all about context and intent.

[Mike Pesca]

Right.

[Trey Crowder]

Like, there's just certain things like you just. It's like people go out of their way to not listen to what the actual point of it. It's like, you know, who's the actual butt of the joke? What's it actually saying? What's the context in which it was said? Like those. It's not. Everything's not in a vacuum, you know, like, those types of things do matter.

[Mike Pesca]

Clearly. Clearly enough. And do you think that people would be wise or insane to vote on that issue? You.

[Trey Crowder]

Oh, yeah, no, I think there's more important things than what you're allowed to joke about. Yeah, but.

[Mike Pesca]

But it is onerous and oppressive. I mean, it is annoying.

[Trey Crowder]

Right.

[Mike Pesca]

And people use the ballot box as an expression of what they're thinking and what's annoying them. So. That is true.

[Trey Crowder]

Yes. And what's annoying them is just the left, I think. Yeah, that's just a part of it. That's part of the. What's annoying about the left. And they, you know. So. Yeah, I don't know.

[Mike Pesca]

So last thing that I want to ask you about is do you think some of what you articulated as libertarianism or let me smoke my mango vape, that it's had. Does it have anything to do with how you grew up? As, you know, you're. I've heard your bit about this, and then I heard you explain the actual bit. Your father didn't pay child. You lived with your father. He didn't pay child. Child support to your mom.

[Trey Crowder]

Right.

[Mike Pesca]

Under the legal principle of.

[Trey Crowder]

That's.

[Mike Pesca]

That's.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

And then you essentially had to pay.

[Trey Crowder]

Your own Child support, almost. I don't have much that has anything to do with what I said a minute ago about personal responsibility. But, yeah, it was this weird thing where, I mean, kind of like you said, so my parents got divorced when I was 7, and my mom got cut full, I think, full custody of me and my sister. Because, like. Like in 1993 in rural Tennessee, that was just like, the default. Like, that's pretty much just what happens. She got full custody of us, even though she was not in good shape and was a wreck. But. So she got.

[Mike Pesca]

She was struggling with addiction back then, right?

[Trey Crowder]

Yes, she got custody of us, but we lived with my dad, like, all the time. And so he was just like, well, I'm not gonna pay her child support if I'm. If they live with me. Like, you know, but he didn't, like, tell anyone that or, like, go talk to a judge. He just, like, stopped paying it. Right. My mom, I guess, you know, at least to her credit, she didn't have the audacity to complain about it or demand that he do it, knowing that we weren't living with her. So she just kind of let it ride and he didn't pay it. And it just went that way for years. And then years later, I remember we had to, like, go to the courthouse at one point, me and my sister, when we were probably 11 and 11 and 14 or something like that, and testify or whatever the right word is, to affirm that we did, in fact, live with my dad for that whole time. Like, say yes. No, we've been living with him because he had finally gotten into some trouble with it, and they, you know, they gave him a slap on the wrist. But also, I guess it's like, you're going to have to pay this back however many years it takes. Right. Well, then a few years later, my dad dies, and I had forgotten about all of that. I never had to deal with any of that. I was a kid. But when he dies, the state of Tennessee called me and they were like, yeah, he has this outstanding balance for whatever. It was like, I think it was like, 15, $20,000 or something like that.

[Mike Pesca]

Which is a lot of VHS tapes.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah, it's like. And I was like, okay, well, I don't know what you want me to do about that. And they were like, well, we were wanting to know, are there any assets at all that, like, you're intending to liquidate? You know, like, is there anything? Is there an estate? And I was like, no, they're using vocabulary words. How many estates you think are even in Clay County? I was like, but there was the house like, that my dad got from an FHA loan or like rural low income housing thing, but a house that he, that we grew up in. And I was like, well, there's. There, that's literally it. There's a house I grew up in. That's all there is. And I wasn't. Wasn't selling it either. And she was like, well, here's what you could do is you could you sell that house and then you give us this $20,000 back out of. And then the rest of it you could just keep. And I was like, wait, so you're. You're telling me that I need to sell the house that I grew up in where my mama still currently lives, so I can pay y' all my own child support? Like, that's what you're telling me I have to do? I have to pay you $20,000 of my own child support? And she was just like, it's like that was the first time that had occurred to her, you know, because she was like, you know what, can we call you back a little later? And I was like, yeah, that's fine. And then later, like, a manager from that office called it back and I still kind of can't believe this actually happened. He like, called me back and he was like, yeah, listen, you're right. Don't worry about it. We just wiped all that out.

[Mike Pesca]

Oh my God. So maybe that's actually has some legal residents, because that's bullshit. Was met with no big deal.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah.

[Mike Pesca]

What the. How. How is that possible?

[Trey Crowder]

Because I said when that happened earlier in the set, I'd said, you know, I was like, I'm not really white. I'm white trash. Like, there's a difference between. I like, there's, there's like upstanding white and then there's white trash like me, and I'm white trash. And I do a whole thing about that. And then later I tell the child support story and at the end when I say the guy called me and said, don't let, don't worry about it. We wiped all that out. We took care of it. I said, that's the first time in my life that I was like, damn, maybe I am white. It's just, it just worked out.

[Mike Pesca]

The only reason I said something about the libertarianism being informed by that was that's an example of the state doing something stupidly to compel, if not behavior, then money. Take your money now. They relented, but I could See where someone would come away with, maybe the government's not all on the ball given this.

[Trey Crowder]

Because it was just like, what? You know, just be a rocker. You know, just like. They're just, like, going, this is how this works, right? Like a. It was like she hadn't even thought about the reality of it. She's like, this is just how this works. Even though it was completely nonsensical, Trey.

[Mike Pesca]

Crowder is the trash daddy. And so many other things. We won't mention all the other things, but as you can see, a very interesting, thoughtful guy. Also has a weekly podcast called Weekly Skews, which is just, you know, skew on the weekly news. Trey, great to meet you.

[Trey Crowder]

Thank you very much. I appreciate it. It's a pleasure.

[Mike Pesca]

That was excellent. Thank you.

[Trey Crowder]

You.

[Mike Pesca]

What's the. What's the Jay Crowder story?

[Trey Crowder]

Oh, Jay. Just that when he was at Marquette, I was. I was starting in comedy, and I just got in a Twitter account, and I try. I used to tweet at him all the time. He was like, you know, a star in college, obviously. And I used to tweet at him in college pitches. Like log lines for episodes of the sitcom that we could do. The Crowder Boys. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it'd be like. It'd be like on this week's episode, Jay lights up Louisville for 35 points, and Trey has a zany running at the laundromat. Like, it'd be that type of I.

[Mike Pesca]

Green light that.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah. And it was, you know, but like, he. Some of his, like, buddies, some of his crew or whatever, like, retweeted some of them and liked or whatever, but, like, he never actually responded to it. Then years later, the New York Giants drafted a Tay Crowder, Tae Crowder. I thought about revisiting the whole thing, adding him to the script given.

[Mike Pesca]

Given the wildfire that had caught the first. The first time. Of course. Yeah. And then who's the louder with Crowder guy, that. Right?

[Trey Crowder]

Oh, Stephen.

[Mike Pesca]

Yes.

[Trey Crowder]

Yeah. My cousin Stephen.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah.

[Trey Crowder]

No relation. But, yeah, he's very different.

[Mike Pesca]

Is he a comedian? Does he say he's a comedian?

[Trey Crowder]

He does say he's a comedian. I don't know if he. I don't know how much he does it. I don't know if he did it or for how long before the punditry stuff. I don't know any of that. But, yes, he says he does self identify as a comedian.

[Mike Pesca]

And that's it for today's show. The Gist is produced by Cory Wara Astra Green runs our social Ashley Khan is in charge of coordinating production, Leo Baume's our intern and Michelle Pesca oversees it all, obliterating all obstacles in our path. Oom Perugee, Peru, Do Peru and may every day be a new Another wonderful secret Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn ads, go to Libsynads.com that's L I B S Y N ads.com today.