265: #265 - Teachers featuring Mike Vechhione & Philly

Summary

The Nateland Podcast Episode #265 Summary: Teachers Featuring Mike Vecchione & Philly

Release Date: August 13, 2025
Hosts: Nate Bargatze, Brian Bates, Aaron Weber, Dusty Slay
Guest: Mike Vecchione

---

1. Welcome and Introductions (00:42 - 01:09)

The episode kicks off with Brian Bates warmly welcoming listeners to "The Nateland Podcast," introducing regular hosts Nate Bargatze, Dusty Slay, Aaron Weber, and guest Mike Vecchione. Mike expresses his gratitude for being invited back, marking his first appearance since the release of his special "Low Income Whites."

**2. Waffle House vs. Cracker Barrel: A Southern Culinary Debate (02:00 - 07:37)

The conversation quickly dives into a lighthearted debate between two Southern staples: Waffle House and Cracker Barrel.

• Waffle House's Resilience:
  Mike shares his first experience at a Waffle House in Mississippi at the age of 50, highlighting the restaurant's iconic status of staying open 24/7, even during hurricanes. Dusty adds, “It's a metric that FEMA uses” to gauge hurricane severity, illustrating the establishment's cultural importance.

  "[02:51] Mike Vecchione: The whole thing is it always stays open. So even during a hurricane."

• Cracker Barrel's Upscale Appeal:
  The hosts contrast this with Cracker Barrel, noting its more upscale vibe and diverse menu options. Brian reveals an exciting piece of news:

  "[06:57] Nate Bargatze: My dad is a big Waffle House guy and he doesn't go to Cracker Barrel. Obviously I'm a Cracker Barrel guy."
  Mike proudly announces, “I’m the face of Cracker Barrel,” celebrating his role in their national advertising campaign. "[06:57] Mike Vecchione: I love everything about it."

3. Mike Vecchione: From Education to Comedy (85:42 - 102:26)

Mike transitions the discussion toward his background in education, delving into the challenges faced by teachers today.

• Teaching Experience:
  Mike recounts his eight-year tenure in education, spanning city schools, behavioral schools, and working-class suburbs. He emphasizes the varying challenges across different environments, from supportive suburban parents to overbearing ones in wealthier districts.

  "[85:55] Mike Vecchione: I taught in a city school, I taught in a behavioral school, I taught in a working class suburb..."

• Teacher Shortages and Burnout:
  The conversation highlights the nationwide teacher shortage, exacerbated by factors like understaffing, low wages, and increasing administrative pressures.

  "[93:33] Brian Bates: Median annual wage average is $63,000 a year. ... 90% of teachers say they spend their own money on classroom supplies."

• Systemic Issues:
  Aaron Weber and Mike discuss how the education system hasn't kept pace with societal changes, leading to increased stress for educators. They touch upon the rise of alternative schooling options and the need for public schools to adapt to remain competitive.

  "[94:31] Mike Vecchione: I like the idea of like a school where it's like, you bring your kid, we tell you what, what we're gonna do, what the plan is..."

4. Comedy Craft: Callbacks and Joke Writing (52:29 - 54:57)

The hosts shift focus to the intricacies of stand-up comedy, particularly the use of callbacks—a technique where a comedian refers back to an earlier joke to create a cohesive and engaging performance.

• Natural Integration:
  Nate shares his approach to callbacks, emphasizing spontaneity and natural flow within his acts.

  "[52:29] Nate Bargatze: Most of the time, I set it up... I start to remember it, and then I do a new joke, and then I go, oh, I could bring that back right here."

• Avoiding Forced Callbacks:
  Aaron and Dusty discuss the importance of keeping callbacks unforced and ensuring they enhance rather than disrupt the performance. They caution against making callbacks too obvious, which can detract from their effectiveness.

  "[53:16] Nate Bargatze: If you can't see it, you wanna... you don't have to call back in this new hour."

5. Depictions of Teachers in Media (106:12 - 109:35)

The panel reminisces about various movies and TV shows that portray teachers, sharing their favorites and critiquing how education is represented in popular culture.

• Favorite Films and Shows:
  The hosts mention classics like "Dead Poets Society," "Dangerous Minds," and comedies such as "School of Rock" and "Mr. Holland's Opus." They discuss how these portrayals range from inspirational to exaggerated, reflecting both the nobility and the challenges of teaching.

  "[106:12] Mike Vecchione: There was a movie called Teachers. I don't remember. It was Nick Nolte."
  "[107:07] Dusty Slay: Definitely 'Dead Poets Society' is one of the best ones."

• Critique of Representation:
  Aaron Weber critiques the superficial representations, noting that many films oversimplify the complexities teachers face.

  "[107:34] Aaron Weber: Why would you... Why would you make it not fair etc."

6. Personal Stories and Tours (09:54 - 116:38)

The episode is rich with personal anecdotes from the hosts and Mike about their experiences in stand-up comedy.

• Comedy Tours and Special Releases:
  Mike shares highlights from his recent tours across cities like Erie, Philadelphia, and Boston, emphasizing the thrill and constant surprises of performing live.

  "[19:46] Mike Vecchione: And Boston Garden was unreal. Everything is... It's like you never get used to it."

• Interactive Audience Engagement:
  Discussions around engaging with the audience through crowd work and handling various crowd dynamics showcase their comedic versatility.

  "[75:35] Aaron Weber: ...welcome to my new life."

• Special Highlights:
  Dusty Slay talks about his experience at the Grand Ole Opry, bringing his baby on stage and the warm reception it received.

  "[26:11] Dusty Slay: It was the best set I had at the Opry ever."

7. Challenges Faced by Teachers and Educators (85:42 - 102:26)

Returning to the topic of education, Mike delves deeper into the systemic issues plaguing teachers, such as:

• Administrative Pressures and Lack of Support:
  Mike highlights how teachers often feel unsupported by administrations, leading to increased burnout and attrition rates.

  "[93:33] Brian Bates: ...many teachers are either unfilled or filled by teachers not fully certified for their assignment."

• Parental Involvement and Conflict:
  The hosts discuss the escalating tensions between teachers and parents, with some parents undermining educators' authority, making the teaching environment more challenging.

  "[95:25] Aaron Weber: You're supposed to parent my kid... So I think that must be a new thing too."

• Financial Struggles:
  The conversation touches on the financial strains teachers face, such as spending out-of-pocket for classroom supplies despite their regular salaries.

  "[99:47] Mike Vecchione: I did, yeah. But I was like, that wasn't that was the least of the problems..."

8. Closing Remarks and Show Promotions (113:00 - 116:38)

As the episode winds down, the hosts promote upcoming shows and specials, maintaining the energetic and humorous tone characteristic of the podcast.

• Upcoming Performances:
  Mike announces his upcoming shows in Des Moines, Hartford, and Nashville, urging listeners to follow him on social media for updates.

  "[114:52] Mike Vecchione: ...Des Moines, Iowa, August 15th and 16th... Funny Bone, Hartford, Connecticut."

• Final Joking and Banter:
  The hosts end with playful banter about Cracker Barrel advertisements and humorous interactions, leaving listeners with laughter and anticipation for future episodes.

  "[116:08] Brian Bates: ...the key and pill substitute teacher sketch has 226 million views on YouTube."

---

Notable Quotes:

• Mike Vecchione on Waffle House's Significance:

  "[02:51] Mike Vecchione: The whole thing is it always stays open. So even during a hurricane."

• Mike on Being Cracker Barrel's Face:

  "[06:57] Mike Vecchione: I love everything about it."

• Nate on the Art of Callbacks:

  "[52:29] Nate Bargatze: Most of the time, I set it up... I start to remember it, and then I do a new joke, and then I go, oh, I could bring that back right here."

• Mike on Teaching Challenges:

  "[85:55] Mike Vecchione: I taught in a city school, I taught in a behavioral school, I taught in a working class suburb..."

• Brian on Teacher Salaries and Spending:

  "[99:46] Brian Bates: ...teachers spend their own money on classroom supplies. On average between $500, $750 of their own money every year."

---

Conclusion

Episode #265 of "The Nateland Podcast" offers a blend of humor, personal anecdotes, and insightful discussions on the evolving challenges within the education system. With guest Mike Vecchione bringing firsthand experiences from both teaching and stand-up comedy, the hosts navigate topics ranging from cultural touchstones like Waffle House and Cracker Barrel to the systemic issues facing today's educators. Interspersed with laughs and camaraderie, the episode underscores the importance of understanding and supporting teachers while celebrating the vibrant world of comedy.

For those passionate about education, comedy, or both, this episode provides a rich tapestry of stories and insights, making it a must-listen on The Nateland Podcast.

Transcript

[Mike Vecchione]

Mmm.

[Dusty Slay]

Oh.

[Mike Vecchione]

Whatcha eating?

[Brian Bates]

The new banana split cookie from AM pm. All freshly baked with real butter with.

[Aaron Weber]

Banana, chocolate and strawberry flavors.

[Nate Bargatze]

Wow, that sounds amazing. Can I have a bite? I'm sorry, but no.

[Brian Bates]

But you can't split the banana split.

[Nate Bargatze]

Not even a little. Not even a crumb. What if. No, please.

[Aaron Weber]

Mine. When it's too legit to split. That's cravenience. Get a 3 pack for 99 cents with our app ampm. Too much good stuff. Plus tax where applicable. Prices and participation may vary. Terms and conditions apply. Foreign.

[Brian Bates]

Folks and. Hey, bear. Welcome to the N Land podcast. I'm Brian Bates, joined today with Dusty Slay.

[Nate Bargatze]

He's back.

[Brian Bates]

Aaron Weber.

[Mike Vecchione]

Hello.

[Brian Bates]

As always, Nate will be here. He is on his way, so don't turn it off yet. And our good friend Mike Vey.

[Mike Vecchione]

Thanks for having me back, guys.

[Brian Bates]

A while. It's been a while.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's been a while. Yeah. Since I've been invited back. But thank you for having me. Finally.

[Dusty Slay]

First time on the podcast since the release of low income whites.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yes. And there's a lot down here. And there's also a lot in the north also. I'm not saying that.

[Nate Bargatze]

Just.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's just down here.

[Dusty Slay]

Higher percentage up there, right?

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah, I think it is. If you. Did you look that up?

[Brian Bates]

No, I just think we just know. I. I kept calling your. I was here the night of your taping and I. I kept calling it sarcastic.

[Mike Vecchione]

I thought you were saying amazing for a while. Were you not? We were pressing flesh. We were networking. And you said amazing a little bit without making eye contact with me and looking for someone more famous in the.

[Dusty Slay]

Room over the top of your head.

[Brian Bates]

Yeah, it was amazing. It was a great.

[Mike Vecchione]

Thank you special.

[Brian Bates]

But. But Aaron used a better term, I think, than sarcastic. I don't know. Sarcastic's right. He said tongue in cheek.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Brian Bates]

And did I.

[Dusty Slay]

Do we have this conversation?

[Brian Bates]

I was texting with you one day.

[Dusty Slay]

Okay. Okay.

[Brian Bates]

And about how funny it was we both saying that.

[Dusty Slay]

And we were talking about the punching down on the South.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Brian Bates]

Yes.

[Dusty Slay]

The reason I think it didn't bother me is because it's very transparently tongue in cheek.

[Aaron Weber]

Right, Right.

[Mike Vecchione]

Or maybe just having some fun. Just an outsider poking a little fun. Just a man who walks into a Waffle House who's never been to a Waffle House before. He's a little shocked by it's a little fun ribbing. Going back and for.

[Nate Bargatze]

When was the first time you went to a Waffle House?

[Mike Vecchione]

When I was in Mississippi with Nate.

[Nate Bargatze]

How old were you on a tour?

[Mike Vecchione]

50.

[Nate Bargatze]

Wow. It's your first time?

[Mike Vecchione]

First.

[Dusty Slay]

Mississippi Waffle.

[Mike Vecchione]

Mississippi Waffle House.

[Dusty Slay]

Baptism by fire.

[Nate Bargatze]

You even miss the heyday of the Waffle House. I don't even feel like it's the same as it used to be.

[Dusty Slay]

Mississippi. I bet it is, but does it.

[Nate Bargatze]

It depends, I guess, where it. Where. Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

The whole thing is it always stays open. So even during a hurricane. The hurricane might be the only reason it closes. The different levels of the hurricanes, I think. Isn't that true? You tell how bad the hurricane is by if the Waffle House closes.

[Dusty Slay]

It's a metric that FEMA uses.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yes. Yeah, it's a metric.

[Dusty Slay]

I remember the first time I thought, wow, this Covid thing might actually have some wheels was in rural Georgia. I went to a Waffle House, and they were takeout only.

[Mike Vecchione]

Wow.

[Dusty Slay]

And I was. I don't even think they were set up to do that.

[Mike Vecchione]

I didn't think they believed it was real.

[Dusty Slay]

Well, that's when I was like, oh, man.

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, they didn't believe it was real.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Nate Bargatze]

The government was forcing.

[Mike Vecchione]

The government was forcing.

[Brian Bates]

It was real.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Nate Bargatze]

And the Waffle House wasn't like, oh, we're scared.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah. No, the Waffle House, they were scared of anything, especially not cholesterol.

[Nate Bargatze]

Government overreach again. That's what I think it was.

[Mike Vecchione]

Okay.

[Brian Bates]

Do you remember wearing this? I might have been.

[Mike Vecchione]

Was that with you guys in Mississippi? I don't think so. I've been on the road very much with you.

[Brian Bates]

Yeah, I guess that's true. I did Biloxi, Mississippi night last year, and we stopped at a Waffle House, but I don't guess you were with us.

[Mike Vecchione]

I went with Travis. So that's. That's a guy you want to go to a Waffle House with?

[Aaron Weber]

Yep.

[Mike Vecchione]

He's got a knife in his boot. He's ready for anything, that guy. He's ready for action. Did you love. I liked him immediately when I.

[Nate Bargatze]

Did you find the Waffle House to be dangerous? Did you feel unsafe in there?

[Mike Vecchione]

I felt safe with that manager walking around talking at high volumes to away. I could hear everybody's conversation. He had no secrets in 1100. Keys on his. Just walking around.

[Nate Bargatze]

That's a man with responsibilities. Got a lot of locks to unlock.

[Mike Vecchione]

I love it.

[Dusty Slay]

You got a lot of keys in your keychain.

[Nate Bargatze]

I do got a lot of keys, yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

You have it in your pocket?

[Nate Bargatze]

I got a lot of keys. I got a lot of locks.

[Dusty Slay]

You don't have to show it to the camera, but I'D like to hear what kind of.

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, I mean, yeah, I mean I.

[Dusty Slay]

Got a lot of. That's a fair amount of keys. You know what? All of them are for you.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, I mean I got, you know, I got some. These are my, my land keys. So I got my four wheeler. I've got the lock to the gate.

[Dusty Slay]

You got them organized.

[Nate Bargatze]

This is. These are a couple of shed keys.

[Mike Vecchione]

Okay.

[Brian Bates]

Is that a tissue falls.

[Nate Bargatze]

And these are some shed keys out there.

[Dusty Slay]

Still. Land still.

[Nate Bargatze]

Land still. And then this is the cabin door. Oh, and then. Yeah, this is my post office box.

[Mike Vecchione]

Where's the key for the bunker?

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, you know, you don't keep them all on one kitchen.

[Dusty Slay]

That's a thumbprint.

[Mike Vecchione]

Shed, shed, Cabin shed.

[Nate Bargatze]

You know, these are Nashville key. And then we just bought a house. So we have new keys now.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Nate Bargatze]

So.

[Dusty Slay]

And the car keys.

[Brian Bates]

So I was that Tennessee balls.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, but it, it's, you know, it's a pharmacy care of Tennessee. I don't know, you know, I don't use them, but I came with a key. Keychain.

[Brian Bates]

Oh, okay. I thought you support Alabama, Auburn and now Tennessee.

[Nate Bargatze]

No, no, this is a pharmacy which I also don't support.

[Mike Vecchione]

You get your medications from the underground? Yes. Underground meds, Yes. I like it.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, no, but I immediately love the waffle. It's like a tribute to the waffle. I'm sorry, I'm trying to over explain. It's a tribute to the Waffle House. Really? I enjoyed it. The this guy was at the counter, first thing the manager said, he's like, hey. He comes and sees him, he goes, they'll let anybody in here, huh?

[Nate Bargatze]

Oh, yeah, I love it.

[Mike Vecchione]

I love it.

[Nate Bargatze]

Classic Southern Joe.

[Mike Vecchione]

I love everything about it.

[Nate Bargatze]

Truckers and just let anybody in here these days.

[Mike Vecchione]

And then I was on the road somewhere else and I went to a Waffle House and they saw me at the show and they bought me my meal. It's friendship at the Waffle House.

[Dusty Slay]

And have you paid it forward yet? Did you paid for it in some way next time you go to the Waffle House?

[Mike Vecchione]

No, the next time I have to get somebody else's meal at the Waffle House. And do you guys divide it between the Waffle House people and the Cracker Barrel people? Is there a big divide between the. There is a difference.

[Nate Bargatze]

My dad is a big Waffle House guy and he doesn't go to Cracker Barrel. Obviously I'm a Cracker Barrel guy. You know, love Cracker Barrel.

[Brian Bates]

I do both. But Cracker Barrel is A little bit more upscale.

[Nate Bargatze]

I'm dinner.

[Mike Vecchione]

You think so?

[Brian Bates]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Is it the flea market that's attached on Thursday? Oh, you do? You do. You're doing Cracker Barrel.

[Dusty Slay]

He's in a national ad campaign for Cracker Barrel.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

He's literally the face of Cracker Barrel.

[Mike Vecchione]

Wow.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, but my dad is always. My dad's always been more of a Waffle House guy. But personally, I'm not into the. Whatever Waffle House is using to cook with these days. It doesn't do me. Well, it ain't butter.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's lard.

[Nate Bargatze]

May look like butter, but is it lard? It's something.

[Mike Vecchione]

Because that's actually reverse. Good for you.

[Nate Bargatze]

It's not. Whatever they're using is not good for you.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's carnivore.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, but it's. I'm just saying I don't. I don't feel good. I still love the taste of Waffle House, but I do think it's undergone a change.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

It definitely doesn't have that big health kick that Cracker Barrel has, but.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Dusty Slay]

But it's still pretty good.

[Nate Bargatze]

Cracker Barrel has a campfire menu that's. I know pretty.

[Dusty Slay]

I learned all about it from you. I would say there's more of a situational divide between Cracker Barrel and Waffle House. I think a lot of people go to both, but you. You go there in very different times of your life.

[Mike Vecchione]

Oh, really?

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah. You don't go to, like, Cracker Barrel. I think they're open kind of late. But you're not going to a Cracker Barrel at three in the morning.

[Mike Vecchione]

But you're saying Waffle House is a young man's game.

[Dusty Slay]

Well, it's a young man or just what you got going on.

[Nate Bargatze]

Does serve beer now, so you can pre game at the Cracker.

[Dusty Slay]

Wow.

[Nate Bargatze]

And then go to Waffle House later.

[Mike Vecchione]

Before you shop at the flea market that's attached to it. Is that what you're saying, Dustin?

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, yeah. You get loose. Get loose in there. Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Eating and shopping.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

I want yourself an American.

[Dusty Slay]

I want an electric ball with a ferret wheel attached to it. Yeah. A ferret tail.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

You seen those things?

[Nate Bargatze]

I have two at my house.

[Brian Bates]

Wilson County Fair starts this week, so how about you can win one there?

[Nate Bargatze]

Wow.

[Dusty Slay]

Well, welcome, Mike. We're excited.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, thank you. Thank you for having me.

[Brian Bates]

Little Nateland News N Land presents the showcase. Season three is here. We all hosted this Friday tune into Nateland YouTube channel for the premiere of Kellen Earl.

[Nate Bargatze]

Kellen's great Is super fun. Very funny guy.

[Dusty Slay]

Very bike lock joke that went superv. You remember that joke about him with a bike lock?

[Nate Bargatze]

Very funny.

[Brian Bates]

I could have said it before y' all did the phonetics. They got in my head. They're like, say it like this.

[Dusty Slay]

And I. Oh, they had it written out on there for you.

[Brian Bates]

Yes, I know, Kellen, but I got in my head.

[Nate Bargatze]

It's a hard last name. He knows it's a hard loss.

[Brian Bates]

If they didn't wrote that, I would have said it perfectly. Yeah, but you know, Adrian's gonna have something to do.

[Dusty Slay]

He's dealt with that his whole life. Yeah, he knows.

[Brian Bates]

Anyway, Dusty, we have not seen you since Wet Heat.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Premiered on Netflix.

[Nate Bargatze]

I've been out and about. Yeah, I went to New York for a couple of. A couple of days. Went to LA for a few days. I've been out and about.

[Brian Bates]

And what's the reception been?

[Nate Bargatze]

I think it's been good. I mean, it seems good.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

You know, I'm excited. I had two shows this weekend. I did Atlanta, the Theater Atlanta Symph Symphony hall, and I did a theater gig in Huntsville. I forgot what it was called, but it was attached to the Warner Von Braun Center. It was great. Great shows.

[Mike Vecchione]

What do you think of New York as a city, Dusty? And just be honest.

[Nate Bargatze]

I like it. I like. I do like that I don't live there and I.

[Mike Vecchione]

You don't like it that much, then.

[Brian Bates]

He's being as honest about New York as you were about.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, you're being positive about being negative.

[Nate Bargatze]

I like to visit.

[Mike Vecchione]

You like not living there, is what you said. Exactly.

[Nate Bargatze]

I like visiting. It's fun to breeze in, bounce around the city a little bit, eat some food, have a good time, and then get out to a bit more of a relaxed environment.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah, right.

[Dusty Slay]

Likes being there, loves leaving.

[Aaron Weber]

That's how I feel.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

That's the way I do like it.

[Mike Vecchione]

You feel that way also?

[Dusty Slay]

100%.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

I do like it, though. I do enjoy being there. I think it's really fun. But I do like, you know, what.

[Mike Vecchione]

Is it that you hate about living there? Just the people on top of each other.

[Nate Bargatze]

It just never ends. It's an endless city where it feels like you can't really get away from it.

[Dusty Slay]

I wonder if I'd like it more if I were thinner. I honestly think if I lost a hundred pounds, I'd like it way more.

[Mike Vecchione]

Really. But because you can maneuver more everything.

[Dusty Slay]

In the tight spaces, you're always in the way. There's nowhere to just like, stretch your arms out and scream.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Dusty Slay]

I never feel like I have just like a.

[Nate Bargatze]

You're doing that a lot around here.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, but I could. There's plenty of places for me to do that if I'd like to.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, in New York, people just do it on the street.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Or in the subways. They just scream.

[Nate Bargatze]

I mean, I do. Like, there is something. I like to get in the subway. It's like. It's fun to zip around. I like to get in a cab. I love doing all that.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Nate Bargatze]

I think it's fun.

[Mike Vecchione]

How's your yelling? Do you like to yell at a stranger?

[Nate Bargatze]

I'm not much of a yeller. I yell at my kids a little.

[Dusty Slay]

Mostly in the car.

[Nate Bargatze]

I like. I go to. I went to a restaurant one time, and they were like. The servers were taking turns, like, singing show tunes.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Nate Bargatze]

I was like, this is great. I'm into this.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yes.

[Nate Bargatze]

You know?

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

But, yeah, I do like. I like a more relaxed environment.

[Dusty Slay]

Go to a really nice restaurant in New York, and the table is about as big as my laptop. And then there's another table right next, you know.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Dusty Slay]

Everything's packed.

[Mike Vecchione]

You're all up in people's business. Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

And I feel like if I. I wonder how much of that is. I didn't grow up that way versus I'm taking up more space than I should.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Nate Bargatze]

It's almost being at a Waffle House on a Sunday morning.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Nate Bargatze]

At the countertop.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Or Saturday. Ye. Midnight or something.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

But get involved in someone else's conversation is.

[Dusty Slay]

Do they want you to do?

[Mike Vecchione]

I think so.

[Dusty Slay]

Okay.

[Mike Vecchione]

I think it's fun.

[Dusty Slay]

I'll try it next time.

[Mike Vecchione]

Bates, your thoughts on New York City.

[Brian Bates]

I remember going one time with my mom to New York on some type of trip, and we had to share a table with some lady on her work break. Like, literally, Stan. Both eat our pizza or whatever with another lady. And my mom had to start talking to her. And I don't think that woman wanted.

[Mike Vecchione]

Us to get conversation.

[Brian Bates]

She wanted to get on with her.

[Aaron Weber]

Life.

[Mike Vecchione]

But that's okay.

[Nate Bargatze]

Probably needed that.

[Brian Bates]

She probably needed a little Southern love instead of just, you know.

[Mike Vecchione]

And you take a risk when you engage, but even if it doesn't pay off, it still pays off because you took the risk. You know what I mean?

[Brian Bates]

How many years have you lived there?

[Mike Vecchione]

20.

[Aaron Weber]

Wow. Wow.

[Dusty Slay]

So this is the kind of stuff.

[Mike Vecchione]

22.

[Dusty Slay]

This kind of stuff you have to tell yourself after being there for 20 years?

[Mike Vecchione]

No, I mean, it's Too late to.

[Dusty Slay]

Realize you've made a mistake and that you'd be happier somewhere else.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, I mean, that is true. That is true. There are a lot of. You guys are making a lot of good points about how terrible the city is to live, but I enjoy it. I enjoy the tight spaces. I enjoy the high rents. Just charge me ten grand a month. Just. Let's do it.

[Dusty Slay]

Why not?

[Mike Vecchione]

And poor healthcare choices. Just extremely. If you don't. If you're not part of a sag, aftra. A part of an organization. If you're just part of the New York marketplace. Just give me $1,000 with an 8,000 dol dollar deductible. That's great. Let's have fun.

[Nate Bargatze]

I do like this subway. The subway is now. No, no, no. The. The subway that you ride in.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Nate Bargatze]

You can now tap to pay on your credit card and not have to get the Metro card.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yes.

[Nate Bargatze]

Which. I enjoy that.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's a good one.

[Nate Bargatze]

I'm much smoother with that.

[Mike Vecchione]

And the subways, be honest, they're not scary.

[Nate Bargatze]

They scare me a little bit. But. But I do it and I do enjoy it.

[Mike Vecchione]

But you're armed.

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, not in New York.

[Mike Vecchione]

No.

[Nate Bargatze]

You can't be in New York. Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's three years in prison if you're armed in New York.

[Dusty Slay]

Really?

[Mike Vecchione]

You're caught with a gun.

[Aaron Weber]

Wow.

[Nate Bargatze]

So everybody knows you're not armed.

[Mike Vecchione]

Everybody knows you're not armed. But then people have different. They. People have knives, they have different, you know, different ways to get around it.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. Okay.

[Brian Bates]

And since you've been here last, you got married.

[Mike Vecchione]

I did get married, yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

All right. Congrats.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, I was forced to by Nateland. They said if you want another special, you will be married. Otherwise, you're a weird uncle, and we can. Can't have you in the Nateland compound. You're gonna be deported from Nateland. Deported. Either marry like a Christian or get out of Nateland. I'm just saying how it was put to me.

[Nate Bargatze]

Did they say Mary Christian, or. They say marry and be Christian.

[Mike Vecchione]

Mary and be Christian.

[Nate Bargatze]

Okay, that's what I thought. Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

You're half of the way there.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Well, congratulations.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, thank you. Been married a few months now. Really paying off for me. I love it. I don't know why I didn't do it sooner.

[Aaron Weber]

Yep.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yep. Probably because in New York. In New York, yeah. We're all just mixed together, and you're kind of like animals. You guys haven't said it, but you meant it. And we're just kind of mixed together and just, you know, But I did the right thing and I love her and I love her family. Her family is fantastic. They're from the middle west of the United States and we're at Indiana.

[Nate Bargatze]

Okay. Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Indiana's like the south without the accent.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah, it is kind of like the south. It's rural too. Where they live is very rural.

[Brian Bates]

Northern Indiana.

[Mike Vecchione]

Indianapolis. Outside of Indianapolis. Two hours.

[Brian Bates]

Oh, I'm in. Helium September 7th.

[Aaron Weber]

Tell them.

[Mike Vecchione]

I absolutely will.

[Brian Bates]

Okay, thank you.

[Mike Vecchione]

Helium. September 7th.

[Brian Bates]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

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[Brian Bates]

Should we talk about our weekend?

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Where were you?

[Dusty Slay]

What's going on?

[Brian Bates]

I was home for most weekend, but Friday night I drove down to Huntsville to do the boom dusty sleigh, night shift tour.

[Dusty Slay]

Lanyards.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, I got that. Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

You know how much money I could get for that? All access. I sold that on the dark market.

[Dusty Slay]

I would like to see black market.

[Mike Vecchione]

The dark web.

[Brian Bates]

The dark web.

[Dusty Slay]

The dark market.

[Mike Vecchione]

He said everything but it. The actual name of might be the dark market.

[Brian Bates]

It might side that.

[Aaron Weber]

I'm.

[Brian Bates]

I don't dabble there Too.

[Mike Vecchione]

No, that's fine.

[Nate Bargatze]

That's how you hide it. That's how.

[Brian Bates]

You're right.

[Dusty Slay]

The dark market.

[Nate Bargatze]

You're like the dark market.

[Mike Vecchione]

I like what you said better.

[Brian Bates]

Look at that. Isn't that something?

[Dusty Slay]

How about that? You got people sneaking backstage for stuff. I mean, you got high security now in the store.

[Nate Bargatze]

No, nobody. Nobody sneaks back, but I.

[Dusty Slay]

Because you have the system.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. Where I do invite people back, but. Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

How many people get one of those? Dusty?

[Nate Bargatze]

Not very many people. Honestly, I didn't even know Brian had that one to be honest with.

[Brian Bates]

Well, I won't for long.

[Mike Vecchione]

Do you order your security to shoot first and ask questions later?

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, I'd say shoot a person a show just so they know we're serious.

[Brian Bates]

But yeah, Dusty was nice enough to let me come down to a set. I had a great time and it was great show was fun.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

I remember a time that we all were in Michigan and Dusty was headlining the club there. And Dusty was kind. There was 11 of us. And Dusty was kind enough to let all of us do guest spots.

[Nate Bargatze]

I love that he let all of.

[Mike Vecchione]

Us do guest spots in front of him. And they were all there to see him. And then they watched all of us go up and do five minute guest spots. And that was so kind of.

[Nate Bargatze]

I don't think that the audience really understood that night how great of a show they saw. I was like, this is a great show. You guys just got a phenomenal show.

[Mike Vecchione]

That was a great one. But for you to be like, yeah, each of you guys can do five minutes since like an hour.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, it was.

[Brian Bates]

It was you, Nate. Joe Zimmerman.

[Mike Vecchione]

I think Joe Zimmerman.

[Nate Bargatze]

Steve Rogers.

[Mike Vecchione]

Steve Rogers.

[Nate Bargatze]

Nick. No, Nick Thune.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Wow.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

My guy, Alec, who was. Alec Parent, who was already featured.

[Dusty Slay]

A bunch of headliners.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

It was unbelievable.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah, it was Michigan. It was great. Yeah, it was fantastic.

[Brian Bates]

Where were you this weekend?

[Mike Vecchione]

I was with Nate opening in Erie, Pennsylvania, and then Philadelphia and then we finished out in Boston. It was great times.

[Brian Bates]

Junior's last laughed.

[Mike Vecchione]

Junior's last laugh was an Erie helium. And there's another one there. Oh, the laugh. Boston.

[Brian Bates]

No, it was incredible. Look, it was where the 76ers play the Sixers.

[Mike Vecchione]

It was the Wells Fargo was in Philly. I lived in Philly for eight years. I actually started comedy in Philly and. And then made the move to New York. But so that was great. And Boston Garden was unreal. Everything is. It's. It's like you never get. I don't know how you guys feel. I haven't been on the road with you guys really, but I don't know how you feel, but like, you never get used to it. It's always mind blowing. You figure out after a couple of like, oh, I'll just get adjusted to get used to it. It's like you never do. It's always the most thrilling thing that you've ever seen in your life.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, I figured it out pretty quick. But I get how you could.

[Mike Vecchione]

Because.

[Brian Bates]

You'Re in small spaces.

[Mike Vecchione]

Probably because I'm living in small spaces and on too much stimulation.

[Dusty Slay]

No, it is. It is insane. When I was out with them last weekend, like the. The show that everyone kind of overlooked that weekend was an added show, and it was. It was only 13,000. And it felt like, all right, let's get through this kind of nothing show. You know, it was just.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's crazy.

[Brian Bates]

Well, if you're doing a comedy club, you'll get off stage, say, hey, that table is a little rowdy nature section 317.

[Mike Vecchione]

And the 3 o' clock shows blow my mind. It's like he's selling more at 3 o'.

[Aaron Weber]

Clock.

[Mike Vecchione]

I mean, I was in Kansas City one time just doing the club, and the openers were like, well, Nate is in town.

[Brian Bates]

I was on Saturday.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yes, you were on that one.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Because he said. He texted me. He's like, come over, do the three o', clock, announce that your show, and then. And then we'll send some people over to your show.

[Brian Bates]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

And it was the super bowl weekend. Kansas City was in the super bowl, and he sold out a 3pm show on the weekend that Kansas City was in the Super Bowl. I'm like, this is. I've never seen anything. I don't think anybody's ever seen anything like that.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, pretty wild.

[Mike Vecchione]

Wild.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

You're out again with them this weekend?

[Mike Vecchione]

No, I'm in Iowa at the Funny Bone in Iowa. I have my own dates. I selling at the Iowa. Funny.

[Nate Bargatze]

Des Moines. Funny.

[Mike Vecchione]

Des Moines. Funny Bone.

[Nate Bargatze]

I love that place. Great club.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's a great club.

[Nate Bargatze]

I love it.

[Mike Vecchione]

I love it. I love the people of Iowa.

[Nate Bargatze]

I do, too.

[Mike Vecchione]

But that's kind of like. You're right. The Midwest, the Cracker Barrel people. I equate Cracker Barrel with the Middle West. And I crack. I equate Waffle House with the South. Am I wrong?

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, you know, Cracker Barrel headquarters is right here in Nashville.

[Brian Bates]

Lebanon.

[Dusty Slay]

Wow.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Lebanon.

[Nate Bargatze]

We really have it all here in the South.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, it's a sweet. It's a sweet Spot.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

The Cracker Barrel and a Waffle House. The same place, but you.

[Nate Bargatze]

Several exits have both.

[Mike Vecchione]

And you're going to tell me that there's not a healthy rivalry between the two?

[Nate Bargatze]

No.

[Mike Vecchione]

You're going to say that?

[Nate Bargatze]

I think so. I think they're probably.

[Mike Vecchione]

But Aaron says, like, at different parts of your life. So if you're an older and you're an established person with a family, you're headed to a Cracker Barrel.

[Dusty Slay]

I don't.

[Mike Vecchione]

But that's. They said they just got beer. What's that mean?

[Dusty Slay]

I'm trying to think. I worded it wrong. Not what's going on in your life, but what you're doing in that moment. Like, if I have my. My parents are in town and you want to have like a Sunday brunch, that's a Cracker Barrel situation. If my buddy from high school's in town and we just saw a show or something.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Dusty Slay]

That's a Waffle House situation. I feel like I can dip my toe in both and be accepted by both.

[Nate Bargatze]

Cracker Barrel has chicken and dumplings, which are really good, but you can also get dumplings as a side, you know, so you can get chicken and dumplings and dumplings. You can't do that most places.

[Aaron Weber]

Wow.

[Nate Bargatze]

I don't think you can do that at a Waffle House.

[Mike Vecchione]

But isn't there, like. It's kind of like a museum and a Cracker Barrel, too, because there's old guns and old pictures, like on the walls and stuff.

[Dusty Slay]

There's guns, but.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, no, there's like. There's like muskets.

[Nate Bargatze]

They're actually doing a model. They're remodeling all Cracker Barrels and they are doing a more modern look, and there's less of that. People. A lot of people have said that to me. They said they don't like it, but.

[Mike Vecchione]

Oh, really?

[Nate Bargatze]

I've not seen the new look, but.

[Brian Bates]

I haven't been a Cracker Barrel last few weeks. But I bet Christmas decorations are already up. And they're not decorations, but stuff they're selling for.

[Dusty Slay]

I mean, it feels like Christmas in there.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Are they updating from the 1800s to the 1900s?

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, 1880s.

[Brian Bates]

To me, cracker Barrels rivals. I mean, they're the top dog, but it would be like more like a Bob Evans or those places where.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Waffle House is more like Huddle House or.

[Dusty Slay]

Right.

[Aaron Weber]

Like right.

[Dusty Slay]

Or an ihop.

[Brian Bates]

Yeah, we're an ihop.

[Mike Vecchione]

Ihop.

[Nate Bargatze]

I think Huddle House is better than Waffle House.

[Dusty Slay]

Oh, that's one of the dumbest things you've ever said.

[Aaron Weber]

Wow.

[Nate Bargatze]

I.

[Mike Vecchione]

What does Huddle House have that Waffle House?

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, the patty melt that they have is way better than the Waffle House Patty.

[Mike Vecchione]

And what do you think they cook?

[Nate Bargatze]

Huddle House used to have a restaurant on James island, and I would go drink downtown and then drive home and stop at the Huddle House on the way home.

[Dusty Slay]

You have better memories associated with Huddle House.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

It's not a better restaurant you're talking about. It's in, like, the back of a. A gas station sometimes. Yeah. Behind a dumpster.

[Nate Bargatze]

Sometimes.

[Brian Bates]

He likes it.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

That's what makes it better.

[Mike Vecchione]

Behind a dumpster.

[Nate Bargatze]

Sometimes McMinnville has, like, a brand new Huddle House.

[Brian Bates]

Oh, I didn't even know they were.

[Dusty Slay]

They're making new Huddle House.

[Brian Bates]

I thought they're almost out of business.

[Dusty Slay]

I thought we were just left with the ones we had. Just try to keep those alive.

[Nate Bargatze]

That shows how educated you guys are.

[Dusty Slay]

I unsubscribed from Huddle House weekly a few years ago, so I haven't. But I only see the one on the way down to Huntsville.

[Nate Bargatze]

They do pancakes, and Waffle House only does waffles, but maybe Waffles does pancakes now.

[Mike Vecchione]

No, no, no, no.

[Dusty Slay]

They're strictly waffles.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, I think so. Huddle House does pancakes.

[Mike Vecchione]

Wow.

[Dusty Slay]

Okay, so that's the key differentiator.

[Nate Bargatze]

They're all crushing ihop, though, these days. IHOP is taking it.

[Mike Vecchione]

Breakfast is very lucrative. Breakfast any time of the day is a very lucrative idea.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

I think we solved a lot of problems here. I'm happy to be a part of it.

[Brian Bates]

Aaron, did you tell us where you were?

[Dusty Slay]

I was at the Grand Old Opry this weekend. The Grand Old Opry? I got to bring the baby. First time at the Opry. It was very cool.

[Nate Bargatze]

Did you take her out on stage?

[Dusty Slay]

No, I don't think I would.

[Mike Vecchione]

I thought about.

[Dusty Slay]

Would that be weird if I did that?

[Nate Bargatze]

Probably. So, yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

I'm like, nobody knows who I am.

[Aaron Weber]

And they're, like, classy.

[Dusty Slay]

Bring us.

[Aaron Weber]

Get.

[Dusty Slay]

If I were Garth Brooks, and I go, hey, my kid's with me. That's a fun moment.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

A guy they don't know brings their kid out. They're like, what's happening right now? What kind of show is this? You do think about doing that, like, one time.

[Nate Bargatze]

Kid should be in bed.

[Dusty Slay]

One time. One of the best sets I had at the Opry ever. It was, like, sold out, and I was just.

[Nate Bargatze]

Ha.

[Dusty Slay]

You know, you're just like, it's just going well right now. And I did a joke where I mentioned my mom and my mom was there, and I go, my mom's actually here, side stage. She didn't come out, thank God. But that would have been weird.

[Aaron Weber]

Come on.

[Dusty Slay]

And they're like, well, you're not doing that well. You could start bringing family members out on stage, but we got to take her around and get some good pictures. And it was a fun weekend.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. Did the audience really cheer, though, when you said, my mom's here right now?

[Dusty Slay]

It got a huge pop.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

And I feel like that was as.

[Nate Bargatze]

And then you're like, yeah, she drove me here. I don't have a license.

[Mike Vecchione]

Did you say, good luck getting backstage because you don't have one of these? And you flashed a pass at her.

[Nate Bargatze]

Exactly.

[Dusty Slay]

They're so great at the opera. They are just. Everybody there, they gave. They gave. They gave Olive a Opry baby blanket. Oh, isn't that fun?

[Aaron Weber]

Wow.

[Nate Bargatze]

I got two kids. I've not gotten a blanket.

[Dusty Slay]

Well, you got.

[Nate Bargatze]

Maybe I have.

[Dusty Slay]

You just got to be weird about it.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. I may actually have gotten a blanket.

[Dusty Slay]

Where were you, Dusty?

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, I was in. I've been all over, as I've said. I did a show at the Comedy Store in la. It was really fun. I headlined there. First time headlining in the main room. Very fun.

[Brian Bates]

Who else was on it? That's okay. I'm sorry.

[Dusty Slay]

Was it like a lot of comics did it?

[Nate Bargatze]

No, I had a few. My. My guy, Willie Simon.

[Mike Vecchione]

Okay.

[Nate Bargatze]

Was on it, and. Gosh, I. You know, I can't think of names.

[Brian Bates]

Sorry. He did a show with Will Smith of the Dodgers.

[Dusty Slay]

Oh, yeah, I did.

[Nate Bargatze]

Did that show. Yeah, I did that show.

[Dusty Slay]

Nickerson was on that show, too.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yep, he was. Tig Notaro and Tom Papa and Jim Jeffries.

[Mike Vecchione]

This is in la.

[Brian Bates]

Judd Apatow.

[Nate Bargatze]

Judd Apatow. Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah. You remember all the famous people's names, but you don't remember the guys.

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, I asked the people to be on my show that did my show. That's what's so sad about it. But I didn't.

[Brian Bates]

You and you.

[Nate Bargatze]

No. Gene Whitney, my friend Gene Whitney.

[Brian Bates]

Remember Gene Whitney?

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, another friend. I've just. We've become friends recently, but now I can't.

[Dusty Slay]

Not one of my dear buddies. Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Not coming up with her. We did a couple of shows together. She's very funny. It's a real shame. I'll come up with it.

[Brian Bates]

Warpeak.

[Dusty Slay]

Whitney Cummings.

[Nate Bargatze]

No, I'll come up with it later.

[Mike Vecchione]

Can we fix it in post?

[Brian Bates]

Yeah, it's too late.

[Dusty Slay]

There's no post.

[Mike Vecchione]

No. There's no post here.

[Dusty Slay]

No, it's all pre.

[Nate Bargatze]

No. It's embarrassing, but.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, Dusty, you got a lot going on, though. It's like you're always moving. Things are going well for all of you guys. The podcast, it really bumps you guys, right? Did you get a big pop on Dusty's show because of the podcast?

[Brian Bates]

Well. Oh, yeah. Not as big as I hoped.

[Mike Vecchione]

Hope, though, right?

[Brian Bates]

Yeah, it's never as big as I hope. I. I had this vision when I started going on the road with Nate at these arenas that everybody there would know.

[Mike Vecchione]

I would. I would imagine that they would.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Nobody knows.

[Dusty Slay]

Well, this is the reality is that while I think the podcast is really big for me and Brian, Nate and Dusty have so much going on outside of it.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Dusty Slay]

That we're. We're a very small part of that.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Which is kind of fun because Brittany Ross.

[Nate Bargatze]

Brittany Ross was on the show.

[Brian Bates]

Okay, Well, I saw Dusty's new hour 20 and it was hot.

[Dusty Slay]

Is that what you were doing? You're doing about an hour 20?

[Mike Vecchione]

That's insane, man. He did.

[Brian Bates]

You know what I'm talking about? He did the voice of God. And that was about five minutes. I walked away and came back and he was still doing it.

[Dusty Slay]

I'll do a five minute set, then I'll bring the host out.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's really great.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, it was good.

[Aaron Weber]

Here we go. Look at this.

[Dusty Slay]

Welcome in.

[Mike Vecchione]

Wow.

[Aaron Weber]

Hello. Welcome to or. Welcome.

[Nate Bargatze]

Welcome.

[Aaron Weber]

Philly. This is Philly. This is our. Our new dog. She's fine walking on the table, right? I'm a great.

[Mike Vecchione]

Get in there.

[Aaron Weber]

I'm a great dog owner.

[Mike Vecchione]

No, I love it.

[Aaron Weber]

No, I love thirsty. Well, she's thirsty, Mike, and that's immediately.

[Mike Vecchione]

I don't have a problem with it.

[Dusty Slay]

Drinking out of Vecchion's glass.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's a. That's a good omen.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. This is also how Vecchion drinks out of.

[Brian Bates]

Poor dog.

[Aaron Weber]

Have you given any water? They. We kept her. No. Yeah, we've been. Give her water. We get her. She drinks a lot of water. She's been eating very good. She knows how to pee inside of arenas. Unbelievably, she's one of the best at it. But yeah, this is Philly.

[Mike Vecchione]

Philly's drinking water. Like she's from Camden.

[Dusty Slay]

No, I don't.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, I don't get. It's like a. That was a local until. Yeah, local reference. She used it this weekend he's off. Mike's off a high because he hit the mother load. The mother load of local references.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yes.

[Aaron Weber]

In Philadelphia, dude. Because he lived there. I mean, it was like Wayne Newton.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's Wayne.

[Aaron Weber]

It's Elvis.

[Mike Vecchione]

He's.

[Aaron Weber]

He. Oh, yeah. Abigail's there. She's not going. Everybody's here watching T. I know, but this looks bad.

[Dusty Slay]

No, it's great. It's controlled. How you doing, Philly?

[Aaron Weber]

So girl or boy? Girl. Okay. And, Phil, you went to the wrong direction. Yeah, yeah. So that's Philly.

[Mike Vecchione]

Philly.

[Aaron Weber]

And very, very cute. So it was. So sometimes these. Well, I talk about his mother. So he's just doing local references of Philadelphia.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

And, dude, it was how long? Oh, I did.

[Mike Vecchione]

I did some of my act. Look, look. And I feel your judgment. I feel the judgment coming at me. So let me defend myself.

[Nate Bargatze]

I'm into it.

[Mike Vecchione]

I did a couple of joke first to establish myself as a valid comic.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

But then I said, who's got the 610 area code? He knows our area code. And, like, maybe you're from the 215. And they're like, oh, my God. And Nick was on the show, and Nick is from that area. And he. He was blown away.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Was it 21 5? Is that. What's the other area?

[Mike Vecchione]

215 is in Philadelphia. 610 is right outside.

[Aaron Weber]

So Derek Stroop kept saying he's sitting next to Nick when Mike's on, and he's. And Nick's like, oh, my God. And he goes. And then. I mean, he's like a fan, and he's like, this is how life. And he goes. He goes, I'm 215. He goes, I moved to 610. Nick's like, oh. And he goes to Derek, and he's like, that's literally right outside the city. Like, Derek wasn't getting it. He goes, you got to understand. That's right.

[Mike Vecchione]

He goes.

[Aaron Weber]

It's just right outside eyes. He was like, losing it, dude. And so it was. It was. It was. It was. It was great. But he hit.

[Nate Bargatze]

I mean, it was just area codes or you were.

[Mike Vecchione]

No, I went area codes. Dusty, don't minimize this. Don't minimize. No, he did zip codes, too.

[Nate Bargatze]

All right.

[Mike Vecchione]

It was area code. I went Wawa, which is local, but it's now in Florida. But you guys don't have wawas here, do you?

[Dusty Slay]

But we know about it.

[Aaron Weber]

But Wawa's a easy one for Phil.

[Mike Vecchione]

But I was doing sand. I was like, hoagie the hoogie. I was.

[Dusty Slay]

Your favorite movie's Rocky. Did you tell us?

[Mike Vecchione]

No. No, no, no.

[Dusty Slay]

Okay way. That's entry level stuff.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, you were like.

[Dusty Slay]

You would have been embarrassed to talk about.

[Mike Vecchione]

No, but see, Julian. Julian did a Rocky joke.

[Aaron Weber]

Of course.

[Mike Vecchione]

So it's like we can't. And Julian's from there too.

[Dusty Slay]

He's host and he's got to get the low hanging fruit. Right. You can dig.

[Mike Vecchione]

We can't step on each other, so we have to do teamwork in front of Nate. Nate doesn't realize it. He doesn't. He's petting his dog.

[Aaron Weber]

I walk up to a not excited crowd is all I know. I don't know how they got there, but apparently they've been working together to get them like that.

[Brian Bates]

You gotta bring a dog on stage.

[Aaron Weber]

Just to get him back. I got. Does anybody have a. I need a prop.

[Dusty Slay]

Go find a dog outside.

[Brian Bates]

Go adopt me a dog.

[Aaron Weber]

It was so fun to watch Mike do these references because they were. They were not like your. Like you said, like you would do the Rocky and the Wawa reference. Wawa's even something that a lot is a big reference, but he was doing even. And I mean the area coat thing to the mummers. The mummers. Like mummers. I don't even know what that. And it was.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. What's mummers?

[Mike Vecchione]

It exploded. It's a. It's a thing. Once a year on New Year's, it's these guys in South Philly, they're working class guys. They get together and they dress up and it's a big parade. They dress up as like in clown costumes and all that stuff. And they play music and march down the streets and they prepare for it all year.

[Nate Bargatze]

Wow.

[Mike Vecchione]

So.

[Dusty Slay]

Sounds awful.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's.

[Dusty Slay]

But everybody knows what it's.

[Mike Vecchione]

Everybody knows what it is. That's the important thing.

[Dusty Slay]

And you were a Philly comic for.

[Nate Bargatze]

Seven years, murmuring about it all year or how long?

[Mike Vecchione]

Three and a half.

[Dusty Slay]

Okay, so you.

[Aaron Weber]

You.

[Dusty Slay]

These are these old jokes or do you just like, you're just weaving?

[Mike Vecchione]

No, I mean, I. I was. I was riffing them in the moment because I know Philadelphia and I went to. I got my master's from Cabrini College, which is in the area, and night school.

[Aaron Weber]

But yeah, it was cool. It went out of business. He talks about that.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's a master's degree. It went out of business. And the jo was. It was bought by Villanova and then bought by a Super Wawa. That was the joke. And big pop.

[Aaron Weber]

And I was like, yes, better joke. Would have been that it's easier because it's at night. That'd be more of a point. That's why I should have went up and said, yeah, it was. We talked about it when you were here. Because I think we talked about it.

[Mike Vecchione]

In a negative way.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah. You called it a loose masters. Because it was.

[Mike Vecchione]

And it doesn't matter that the college went out of business. I was working a day job, and I went to get my master's at night for five years.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

And I want a little.

[Dusty Slay]

That is impressive. Yeah, it is impressive.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Thank you.

[Dusty Slay]

Respect the workout. That's a Philly workout.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's a work ethic, Nate.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, well, it was. It was like. It was just so. I mean, it was just very fun, man. Because it's always fun when you can do. You have local jokes, but to hear them with that many people is I. That I've never heard.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

And it was like. It, like, man, it was so. It's so many people. And so it's. It's just. It's whatever your dream of. Of being local jokes in whatever venue or whatever you could go do, he. He lived it. He rode the ride.

[Mike Vecchione]

It was.

[Aaron Weber]

It was awesome.

[Mike Vecchione]

Because I started comedy there, so. And I lived there for eight years. I went through some tough times there. And to have that, like, emotional homecoming of those jokes.

[Nate Bargatze]

Is this your first time back?

[Mike Vecchione]

No, no, no. I've worked.

[Nate Bargatze]

But you get to.

[Mike Vecchione]

I mean, in that arena is like. That's like.

[Aaron Weber]

It was. That's, like, up two shows. They were both like 15,000 something people.

[Dusty Slay]

That's crazy.

[Mike Vecchione]

And people are texting me that I know in the area. They're like, I heard you were on the show with. I heard you were opening for Nate. Why didn't you tell, like, people that I know. I've got, like, six texts out of the woodwork from people just from the area I heard or somebody's at, and they texted me that you're there and you're opening for an eight. It's like, yeah, mindblowing.

[Nate Bargatze]

And you're like, I come here once a year.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

How about you come for my shows? You know what I mean? How about you fill in? I need some seats filled at my shows. No, they want the glory.

[Aaron Weber]

Well, they're. His friends were like, oh, did he do, like, the murmur stuff? Yeah, he did a lot of murmur. Is that what it is? Murmur?

[Dusty Slay]

Mummers.

[Aaron Weber]

Oh, yeah. He goes, was it all mummers? And he goes, it was a good, good. Most of it was Mummer. Most of it was Mummer. Yeah, it was awesome. So. So Philadelphia, they brought. We've had it happen before. It said I was gonna bring some rescue puppies to the venue and you know, the. All the crew gets to go hang out puppies. It's very cool event. I. We have if, you know, from my special, I've talked about one in a second dog and I just kind of figured like. Like, I kind of was like, you know what? If it happens, it happens. I didn't want to go necessarily purchase one or go like forcefully try to get one. It was like, I want to just. Let's see what happens. Yeah. If I come upon a dog and then I'll take the dog. That's honestly what I thought. And then. So Philly, usually when these rescue dogs come in, it's a lot of like mix pit mix some big dogs. Like dogs that are not going to be able to kind of come on the road or hang out or, you know, even be around.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. Loose pit bull on the, on the tour bus is what you want. That's what you want. I like a loose.

[Aaron Weber]

Harper really wants to. Holly doesn't always sleep with Harper and so Harper wants a dog that would go sleep and cuddle with her. Like, so there's a lot of factors. And so, yeah, we got in there and I mean, I was like, I honestly, when I walked in, I thought it was the woman's dog that was holding it. I like, I didn't know it would be a rescue and I didn't think about it with the breeders because breeding is like a. So out of control now. And people are making so much money that they're breeding, they. They rescue this person from a breeder that was not a good breeder that took like 26 dogs from them.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

And they kept them in some back room locked up. It was the temperature, I think they said was 112°. And these dogs were all just living in that kind of cage. Her peeing in an arena on a hard floor, you know, that's what she was having. That she was just peeing kind of on herself. And so she didn't have grass. She didn't have grass. So it's. We think they told us it was like a spaniel. We've heard English setter. We've heard a few things. I don't know if we know exactly, but it just kind of was like, you know what? Like, you're gonna. I'm gonna do it. I'm trying to not, you know, just be like. Like, yeah, we have A lot of guys on the road, everybody was pretty excited about it. Sure. She's a puppy. We're going to. We're getting some help training her, and I'm like, I'm not bringing her out this weekend because we're going to. She's. It's. She's four months. She. I need to get her a little more trained so we can. It's not as much of a burden on everybody to have to kind of be on top of her at all times, but she was. She's the best.

[Mike Vecchione]

We did get her some open mics and then maybe some club shows so she can work her way up. Up to the arenas first.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

A little bit of something.

[Aaron Weber]

There was. At first, there was a good day and a half. I did not realize, like, they kept giving her water, and they. Some reason people started. They were doing Fiji waters, and I was like. I was like, there's two days of this dog. I'm like, this dog's only had Fiji water.

[Mike Vecchione]

Like, it hasn't even living.

[Aaron Weber]

This dog's living it, so. But it's had tap. Now it's back to reality.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

And so it's. Yeah, it was. You know, it's in my mind. I mean, like, we're gonna see how much Harper's gonna take this dog from me. She loves. She's very excited, but it's like, when I'm on the road, it's. It'll be good, too, because I. You can get pulled in so many different directions. So it's nice to have, like, I need to go back and walk the dog or take it, you know, like. You know, just kind of slow me down.

[Mike Vecchione]

Now, are you gonna work the dog into the schedule, like, for, like, when we come on the road?

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

So it's like when Joe Zimmerman comes on, Philly comes.

[Aaron Weber]

Yes.

[Mike Vecchione]

Like, coordinate it with somebody.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. If I have people that are not dog, like, I don't know if I'd have it with you, because I feel like you're.

[Mike Vecchione]

I'm a dog person.

[Aaron Weber]

You're more.

[Mike Vecchione]

I'm gonna drink this water.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, you're more of a direct. You're gonna say something to everybody about that after.

[Dusty Slay]

Wow.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Look at that.

[Mike Vecchione]

Of a dog person. I am.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. That is a dog person. And. Yeah, I'm ready.

[Mike Vecchione]

And I have worms.

[Aaron Weber]

Mike's a rescue as well, so.

[Brian Bates]

And what does Holly think?

[Aaron Weber]

So it was like. That was the thing. I brought her in last night. We got in pretty late, and. And so it was like. I mean, I'm just throwing this dog in Holly's like, what? But Holly did good. Holly wasn't nothing crazy. It's kind of like what's going on kind of ignoring her. This dog is just two. We got. This dog is so chill. Like, when you. It's. She goes up to everybody. She's been good with other dogs. She's been. I mean, she's very, very friendly. It's just, you know, she's got to get her bearings. Chase has been. That was the thing is when Chase. Chase basically the one that's got a dog now. But Chase was the one that happened to kind of watch her all week.

[Nate Bargatze]

Where was this dog that you just found it? Like, this lady just had it.

[Aaron Weber]

I'm neighbor Gy do standup comedy. Was in Philadelphia. They had rescues and they brought them to the show.

[Nate Bargatze]

Oh, so the people brought the rescue to the. Okay, now you said. I thought it was the ladies saying.

[Aaron Weber]

I think at the beginning I said.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, they brought a bunch of dogs. And this was.

[Aaron Weber]

And they do that sometimes at the.

[Mike Vecchione]

Are they bring their own dog.

[Aaron Weber]

We're glad to have you.

[Nate Bargatze]

So you said on your special that you. If you could just find a dog that.

[Aaron Weber]

I didn't say on my special. I. I said I wanted a sec. I. I only want a second dog. My wife doesn't want.

[Nate Bargatze]

Been saying it publicly.

[Aaron Weber]

Honestly, not the fine. I said I wanted a dog at a joke saying.

[Nate Bargatze]

So they showed up. They were like, this guy wants it. We know somebody.

[Aaron Weber]

Could be.

[Nate Bargatze]

But they know somebody that.

[Dusty Slay]

Did they show up with that intent that we're going to unload one of these on?

[Aaron Weber]

I mean, no, but they've showed up with other. Like, I've had this happen before. I mean, a lot of rescues, sometimes when they show up, they're not. It's. It's like, you know, for the situation that you're in, you can't always take everything.

[Dusty Slay]

Like, of course.

[Aaron Weber]

And so a lot of it is all these. These kind of variables that go into it.

[Nate Bargatze]

But.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, I've talked about wanting a second dog, but I did not publicly say I'm letting it.

[Nate Bargatze]

Okay.

[Aaron Weber]

I just kind of privately. Yeah. Minded my own business and thought, you know, if I'm supposed to have a dog, I'll. I'll let it happen.

[Dusty Slay]

Dog will find me.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, yeah. Like. And then, you know.

[Nate Bargatze]

But I'm. I'm just. I'm asking if you had said this.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Oh, if a dog finds me, it finds me. And then this lady goes, oh, I know how a dog can find you.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

I were just driving down the road in the tour bus, and you saw this dog and pulled over.

[Aaron Weber]

Well, one time we had a dog that came up on the road, but it. It was like. It was the most fun dog, but it had. It, like. It had all the information, the call, whatever, and it was like a dog that. You're like, this dog. Like, this dude knows this dog. It'll go home. It knows how to go home. Like, it's just in the dog that found you, you.

[Nate Bargatze]

You let it go.

[Aaron Weber]

Well, it had. It has its phone number. Yeah, it was, like, clear.

[Nate Bargatze]

Guys call.

[Aaron Weber]

I don't think we called because it was. It was like. It was in Fort Worth, Texas, and they were having a rodeo thing. So there's a lot of, like, the horses and trucks and people staying in the cabins and stuff like this. So there was. There was essentially kind of a couple dogs, like, kind of hanging.

[Dusty Slay]

It's just animals about.

[Aaron Weber]

There's animals about. And so this dog. Dog was clearly like, it. Like, the guy knew the dog. I feel like the person knows this dog will run around and go to anybody. So I'm gonna load it up to make sure, you know, that this is someone's dog and the dog's fine. And then the dog, you know, next morning, it was. I'm sure it went back home. All right.

[Mike Vecchione]

The dog's got a lot of personality.

[Aaron Weber]

It did have a lot of personality. It was a very fun dog. Vert. Yeah. But, yeah, I did not specifically say it publicly because I figured that's what would happen.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, I've just said every show.

[Aaron Weber]

I didn't even mention it to anybody. Like, in my tour, I didn't mention to anybody anywhere they've done this. That's if they. That just happened.

[Nate Bargatze]

Chatter about it online. So I guess it happened at the Philly show. You announced that you had this. Yeah, yeah, I saw some chatter about it.

[Aaron Weber]

It happened that night.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

And so those people that. They were wonderful is the Pennsylvania aspca. Yeah, gta. And they were great. Very nice. But yeah, yeah, they. They do that a lot. They did it with, like, you know, they said they had, like, Kendrick Lamar when they come in, they brought in public. Really? People do it for these. These band. For anybody that comes to arena, it's like, they do it, you know, and I think they hope for them to get, you know, but I don't think it happens. I think most people don't take a dog home because it's like, you're on the road, like, what are you gonna do?

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Aaron Weber]

It's just a unique situation where you just go, like, oh, you know what? This is going to be the one. And it was like, all right, you know what? Let's do it. It was not the weekend to do it. We. I was. Couldn't have been busier and more stuff going on, even outside of the show and all this. But with everybody's help with Chase, when we have enough. We have enough guys on the road that you're like, everybody was. Tony babysat promoter.

[Nate Bargatze]

He.

[Mike Vecchione]

He babysat.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. One night we went out and he. He was like, look, I. I'll. I'll babysit. So he. He's kept the dog that night, and. And so now I want to get the dog's bearings a little bit, get it trained, get its bearings a little bit, and then I'll bring him. I'll bring him back out, you know, when I. When I can. When the bearings are there, when it's. I know we're not just making this dog be like, what is happening? So, yeah, there we go.

[Brian Bates]

That's awesome.

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, dog's probably happy just to not be in a 112 degree.

[Mike Vecchione]

Oh, he went from zero. Hero. He went to from zero to hero. He's like, living the best life now. We said that.

[Dusty Slay]

That's crazy.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's unbelievable.

[Aaron Weber]

He'll be able to always say, though, man, I had a hard upbringing. He's going to use that. He's gonna play on that.

[Mike Vecchione]

He's gonna use that narrative, and it's not fair. Barely had it because he's rich now.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, yeah, he's got it. Yeah. Now he's. He's buying whatever he wants.

[Mike Vecchione]

I wonder if Wu Tang adopted it, because Wu Tang was there a few weeks before. So I wonder if they adopted a dog. Dog. There's like eight of them. Eight guys.

[Nate Bargatze]

So it's tough to say.

[Aaron Weber]

We've had. We've had it. We had a guy on our crew adopt one last year on the last tour, and so.

[Nate Bargatze]

Oh, so they got your number. They know. They bring some dogs somebody's taking. Right, Right.

[Aaron Weber]

But I mean, out of all the ones that's happened, we've had two dogs be adopted.

[Brian Bates]

Did he take it on the other bus?

[Aaron Weber]

No, no, he. He's. He took his home, but, I mean.

[Brian Bates]

He quit the tour out with you.

[Aaron Weber]

That weekend, and he had to have.

[Mike Vecchione]

It on that bus.

[Aaron Weber]

No, no, I. I think they.

[Dusty Slay]

They mailed.

[Aaron Weber]

We did it in a way that it was different where I was able to take this dog. I think he. They got the dog to his house. And it was another kind of aspect to it.

[Brian Bates]

I got you.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. All right. Any more questions?

[Brian Bates]

Is Laura happy to open the door twice now?

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, she opens it up twice. Yeah. She's been with the dog all. She did good all day. Cuz it's like, you know, it's not completely potty trained yet. So she's been kind of all over it. But yeah, Laura, I mean, Harper subbed the dog last night. Woke up this morning, you know, great energy, Walked the dog like, you know, it's fun.

[Brian Bates]

Oh, man. Summer may be ending, but. And everyone's going back to school.

[Dusty Slay]

Is it almost there?

[Brian Bates]

Summer?

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, it feels so hop.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Yeah. I mean, I think.

[Nate Bargatze]

I think we're gonna have an endless.

[Brian Bates]

According to this, summer is almost over. It's September 21st, I think so we're coming up on.

[Nate Bargatze]

Grass is crunchy.

[Brian Bates]

It is, it is. But here's the good news. Or frames are the perfect way to relive. Relive your favorite summer memories long after the season ends. Dusty, you've been to. What beach did you go to?

[Nate Bargatze]

I went to Gulf shores, Alabama.

[Brian Bates]

Gulf shores. You were in Denver last weekend. Had fun.

[Nate Bargatze]

Took a lot of pictures. Yeah, I'd like to see them in my living room.

[Brian Bates]

Eleanor's taking swimming lessons and we've been posting those photos on our. Or on my mom's aura frame so she can see how she's doing swimming lessons. Because, you know, it has video too on there. Yeah, you can do that. They look. My mom loves getting to see her.

[Nate Bargatze]

And even lets your mom can watch and go. She's drowning.

[Brian Bates]

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[Aaron Weber]

All right, started off with your comments. Kelly, Renee, I just saw Nate on my first night in Boston after moving from the south. I got a little emotional in the middle of his act because he made me feel so at home in my new foreign city. Thank you for the best. Welcome to my new life. Well, I love to hear that. Yeah, It's a lot to move.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. She might have been crying mind during your set. You're probably making fun of this Alphabet. And she was.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

No, I. This was Boston. So I did say in Boston. I was like, God, I love being here. This is. It makes me want to rob a bank. I just want to feel because of all the movies, but it's got to be hard to move from the south.

[Aaron Weber]

Out of the wall. Wall material when you got to Boston?

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, I had to. I was searching around for local references. I just want to be a janitor at a upscale college and solve math problems. Hey, they got that one.

[Aaron Weber]

You guys know about the Mummers, right? I was just in. Yeah. Just trying to bring it back. Try to bring local references to a new town. I'm from Philly. I bet y' all don't. You know about the Mummers. A couple people, like, I think so. That's enough, John Kessler. I just watched Dusty's Wet Heat special, and I never thought Working man could be topped, but Dusty crushed it. So much fun. And still clean with a grimy little edge.

[Mike Vecchione]

Wow.

[Nate Bargatze]

That's right, John. Thank you, John. Appreciate that.

[Aaron Weber]

What do you want?

[Nate Bargatze]

It's a hot special. Wet Heat did great.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, it's hot.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Scott Reed, Dusty Zoo Special special, which is stellar, by the way, masterfully demonstrates the art of the callback. Boom. When you're writing a joke that you will call back to later in the show, do you know when you're writing it that you want to use it as a call back later?

[Nate Bargatze]

Most of the time, I set it up.

[Mike Vecchione]

Dusty, what's your process?

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, you know, not most of the time. Most of the time, as you start to do the hour. The hour 20, depending on what you're doing, you. You know, it just. You start to remember it, and then you do a new joke, and then you go, oh, I could. I could bring that back right here.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yes.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

It's fun.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Do you listen Back, back.

[Nate Bargatze]

I don't really know. It's just a new joke. I might go, how did I tell it on that show?

[Mike Vecchione]

When you're doing a bunch of shows in a row, you kind of don't need. You're just in the rhythm of it.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

So you can kind of like, sit back and reflect on it.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. That's why, you know, I mean, for me, clubs, like, you can do like, four or five shows, like, boom, Boom, boom. That's where it's. That's where it's at.

[Mike Vecchione]

I love a good callback, though.

[Nate Bargatze]

I love it.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. You don't want a forced callback.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Nate Bargatze]

Sometimes I force it and then I go, nah, that's too forced.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Well, sometimes they seem obvious.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

I've had callbacks where if they feel too obvious, I don't like a callback. But if it. If it can naturally kind of happen, I don't want to do it. If I think you think I'm gonna do it.

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, yeah, you don't. Yeah. If that's what I mean. Like, it seems. Yeah, you're like. But if you.

[Aaron Weber]

That's why I never said that in the dead sleeping horse thing. Everybody, why don't you beat a dead.

[Dusty Slay]

Like your last special closes on the call. Callback now.

[Aaron Weber]

Yes. But I was able to get that in a way that I don't think anybody saw it happening. That's true.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. If you can't see it, you wanna.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

You don't have to call back in this new hour.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

My closer in this thing has a.

[Dusty Slay]

Callback, but I. I call back within the bit itself.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, yeah. Which I don't want to give too much away. Like. But it's. Yeah, there's. But you do it. Yeah. You. You want to be able to hide it.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

And then it's like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can. Because you could. A very easy thing to do is have a call back. That's obvious. And everybody claps because they go, oh, look at that. How you called. You'd rather it be.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, I like to stagger them, you know, have something at the beginning that you bring back towards the very end. But then also throughout, there's little ones and it's like, yeah, you little.

[Aaron Weber]

Littles are not bad. You can't. You can't be. You got to feel how far you get, too.

[Mike Vecchione]

They got to remember it.

[Aaron Weber]

They got to remember it. You can feel, oh, if I get too far from it, then they're not. They're like, well, what? And you're like, remember, that's like four hours ago. Remember I set up.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

I like to say that sometimes I like. I like to say that. I like to say. Remember that back then.

[Dusty Slay]

I like to do a phone motion with my hand.

[Mike Vecchione]

Let them.

[Dusty Slay]

Let them know.

[Aaron Weber]

And then you. You hang it up because you go. Calls over.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

And they go, oh, so it's all new stuff from here on out. Yeah, yeah. Yep. Tom Jobson or Joseph? Tom Jobson seems like a good guy. I better bear. Just go, that's a Nice guy.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

He's unemployed.

[Aaron Weber]

No, he's not unemployed, Tom.

[Mike Vecchione]

Job son is. I was going for the joke.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Hello.

[Mike Vecchione]

Check is my mic on comedy podcast.

[Aaron Weber]

I'm telling a joke too, that. It just seems like a name that would be very nice person. You go, you meet Tom Jobson. You go, I know him, love him. What about about him?

[Nate Bargatze]

You think Jobson is biblical or Jobson Job son.

[Dusty Slay]

Job son died, got a tough life.

[Aaron Weber]

A good example of exponential growth that Nate can relate to would be betting 10 cents to win the first hole on the golf course. The loser then agrees to double or nothing on the next 17 holes. If he loses every hole, he will have to pay the winner $13,107.

[Mike Vecchione]

Wow.

[Aaron Weber]

I mean, that's.

[Dusty Slay]

That's crazy, right?

[Aaron Weber]

It's my bad. That's insane.

[Mike Vecchione]

Sounds like Tom's a mathematician.

[Aaron Weber]

That's a crazy gambling game. If you started a game and somebody you could. You could almost make anybody get into this gambling game and they would be like, yeah, I'll do it. And then, yeah, so 10 cents. So then the next hole would be 20 cents.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

And then 40, 40, 80, $63, 20.

[Brian Bates]

What do you think?

[Nate Bargatze]

It were me at the end, I would go, oh, oh, no, I'm not paying you that.

[Brian Bates]

How many holes do you think you'd have to get to? Do you realize, oh, this was a mistake?

[Aaron Weber]

Well, cuz it would be like you could almost. You could. You could. You could lose the first eight. Yeah, you could lose probably with first seven holes and it doesn't matter. And then it starts mattering.

[Brian Bates]

Yeah. And then you start realizing what I've done.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah, right.

[Aaron Weber]

Huh. That's interesting.

[Dusty Slay]

You like that better in the folding paper, huh?

[Aaron Weber]

I do too. I like it, but I don't know if it's still. It's hard to. It still seems crazy that it could get to that high. But. Yeah, I like it better than full. Maybe. I still don't understand.

[Mike Vecchione]

It just.

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, it doesn't make sense because you lose a little bit of paper each time you fold.

[Dusty Slay]

Can I ask Mike's just guess and we can move on. I just want to hear.

[Aaron Weber]

I guess so.

[Dusty Slay]

Did you hear the paper folding thing?

[Mike Vecchione]

No.

[Dusty Slay]

You watching, Alan? Every week you sit down and watch it.

[Brian Bates]

Or the last.

[Dusty Slay]

You were on.

[Mike Vecchione]

On in the background when I shower.

[Dusty Slay]

If you were to fold this piece of paper in half and it doubles, you know it'll double in thickness when you fold it in half. And if you were to fold it in half, it would double again. In thickness. How many times would you have to increase double the thickness for it to get from here to the moon, do you think if you had to guess how many times you have to fold.

[Mike Vecchione]

Oh, I know what you guys want me to say. Infinity.

[Aaron Weber]

No. No.

[Mike Vecchione]

I don't know. I don't know.

[Dusty Slay]

42. Only 42 times.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's a real answer.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, that's the real.

[Mike Vecchione]

I thought it was unimaginary.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. It isn't measured.

[Nate Bargatze]

But the paper. There's not enough paper here. That's the problem is there's not enough paper to get to the end. So the problem is that you need a huge.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, but the problem is nobody has enough dimes for Tom Jobson's example to work either.

[Aaron Weber]

You can get that. Come on.

[Mike Vecchione]

I think Tom is.

[Nate Bargatze]

I've racked up this much money on.

[Mike Vecchione]

A coin, you would just convert it to bitcoin.

[Aaron Weber]

William Taylor. I went to college for physics and engineering and had to endure a lot of thought experiments. A lot of thought experiments. Oh, yeah. Thought experience. That's how they. That's how they get you in college, boy. They just. Yeah, they just come in and just be like, how much air can be in a tire if the tire had a bubble on the side of it? Everybody's like, oh, I don't know.

[Dusty Slay]

That's an important question if you're building a car.

[Aaron Weber]

Oh, God.

[Brian Bates]

It actually sounds like a question. In your college.

[Dusty Slay]

That's one of them.

[Aaron Weber]

True. Now, my college, we were. I'm gonna show you how to change a tire. Yeah. Because y' all gonna be on some rough roads and you're gonna need to change your tire. I agree. There isn't always a lot of value and things like that. However, my brain equates it to going to the gym. Am I ever going to need to do tricep extensions to save my life? Probably not, but it might help me do other things. Thought experiments like this help your brain with more advanced problem solving and critical thinking. All right, you got me a little bit of that. So, like, because I need to work out, and I've. I struggle with the idea of why. Like, I know it's. The grand scheme of it is to be healthy, and I. But I sometimes have trouble, like, wrapping my head because it feels like it's something for me, and it feels. I had this idea that it's. Did we talk about this before? Like, it's look like it's luxurious. This feels privileged to work out, and sometimes it might feel self.

[Dusty Slay]

Indulgent.

[Aaron Weber]

Self indulgent?

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

And so I can feel that. And so it. I. I don't know. It's hard for me to do it when I can't think, why am I doing this? But just for me. But it's. But if I could think I'm doing it for something else.

[Brian Bates]

Your daughter.

[Aaron Weber]

I know, but it's like. I know that's the idea of health and living longer, but it's like the idea of you were like trying to get strong or trying to get whatever. Or there's. There is things that you can be healthy. But it's. It's like, what am I really? You know, if you're in the military and you're like, I've got to go fight right. For this everything.

[Nate Bargatze]

But you might need to physically defend yourself.

[Aaron Weber]

That. That's getting a little bit harder to have. There's so many other outlets too now where you can physically, like, you can keep yourself kind of out of trouble and say yes in situations you might have. Have it. But if you're. But it's like, you can then go like, all right, well, like, you could learn. Be. Learn how to use a gun better than anybody on earth and all these other things that could go into it. So then that gets rid of that kind of concept. In fact, just being somewhat able.

[Nate Bargatze]

Three months in prison if you carry a gun in New York City. I just found out.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's real. That's actually real.

[Brian Bates]

Three years.

[Nate Bargatze]

Three years.

[Mike Vecchione]

Three years, three months.

[Aaron Weber]

Dust. But I. I'm saying I. The thought experiment of that is I've actually been having my own thought experiments because I've been trying to find the. The click to make me become obsessed with it.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

And really know why I'm doing it. Other. Because I don't have the thing that makes me want to do it just to. For health reasons.

[Mike Vecchione]

But there's a mental toughness aspect to it too.

[Aaron Weber]

That's.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's when you're going through it and you're going through sets of 10 and you watch. Start watching your mind when you get to five and it's. You're exhausted and you're like, I have to push through five.

[Aaron Weber]

Five more.

[Mike Vecchione]

Let me see what my mind. Mind starts to go crazy. Your mind starts to like, how can we get out of this? It's like you want to push through.

[Aaron Weber]

That's so lately. And I haven't done it yet, but I've been realizing the. Even the mental toughness of. As creatively as I go forward, I'm now having to. I. I would need to stand My ground more than I ever would because there's going to be more opinions into what I want to go do. Do. And so I. There's you. And I stand my ground. Like, it's not like it's. I'm trying to be like, everybody's trying.

[Mike Vecchione]

To not make clear, decisive decisions. The mind and body are connected.

[Aaron Weber]

Yes. If I have the vision, it's. And I. And someone comes up and then I'm going to get a lot of, like, it's the idea. When you write a movie, if I don't want this movie to have this little dumb, like, stuff that bothers me. Well, I've got to mentally be able to have the strength and the, the energy to sit here with anybody that's going to try to go against me and not become tired and go like, fine, dude, do whatever.

[Mike Vecchione]

And.

[Aaron Weber]

Because I can't do whatever is. And then destroy them in front of them.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yes.

[Aaron Weber]

Destroy them. Take their power.

[Mike Vecchione]

No, but we were talking about. It's like fighting for an idea.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

And working out does help with that. It helps the mental with the physical.

[Brian Bates]

And you've kind of already done it. You cut out drinking. I mean, you, you couldn't get to.

[Mike Vecchione]

But you're right with this, with saying that. It's like, I know you for years. It's. It's like when you get obsessed with it, then you'll just do it all the time.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

But you, it's like finding the hook.

[Aaron Weber]

It's finding the hook. And so I'm a little bit more. Yeah, I did like, that helped with that. So the food aspect is kind of like telling that. But then I feel I'm so busy and so crazy. It's like I never even have a moment to, like, reset. And I, I want all this. I love it. So it's like I, I, you know, I think about it, I pray about it, I talk. Like it's like, mentally like, it's, it's going to come. It's going to click for me. I'm finding my way. I'm seeing how it's doing it and I enjoy it. I enjoy trying to find the thing to do it. And it's, it's more of that, that mentality of going. I know if I want to stand and go, like, this is the vision I want. I'm going to have. Most people say they don't. They're going to have their ideas. So I have to be able to, to knock their ideas down or accept the ones that I want to do. But then the ones that they think is stupid.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Aaron Weber]

You know, be able to stand there and go like I know. I think it's. But this, it's just my thing. I kind of want it to be like this and trusted that, you know, got to do it. So we'll see. We'll see. It's either that or Nate Land will become rated R and got bought out. Either one or the other. I give up. And it's off now.

[Mike Vecchione]

I like the idea of you winning the argument and then demoralizing the person and sending them packing.

[Aaron Weber]

Yes. Well, fighting them in that moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Arm wrestling them.

[Nate Bargatze]

For a while I felt like my house was a hideaway for bugs. You know how that is. I don't mind bugs. I just prefer them outside. But now I have Pesty. Pesty is do it yourself pest control. They give you the same products the pros use at a quart quarter of the cost. Their kit makes it so easy it only takes a few minutes to apply. Other pest control companies charge over get this, over $800 per year. But with Pesti you can get started at just $35 per treatment with a customized plan based on your location, bugs and climate. I have been using Pesti for over a year now. Abigail, one of our producers just started with Pesti 2 and she agrees. She said she was using one of those companies and now she does her entire home herself. The kit includes a sprayer, mixing bag, pesticide gloves, super clear instructions that you can complete in less than 10 minutes.

[Aaron Weber]

Wow.

[Nate Bargatze]

Pesti gets rid of over 100 types of bugs from spiders and ants to roaches and and stink bugs. It is kid and pet friendly. The pesticides they ship are fully registered and have been used in hospitals and schools all over the country. Pesty also offers 100% bug free guarantee or your money back. If the bugs don't go away. They'll give you a full refund.

[Aaron Weber]

Wow.

[Nate Bargatze]

Now is the time to protect your home from bugs with pests. Pesty. Go to pesty.comnate for an extra 10 off your order. That's P E S T I E.comnate for an extra ten percent off.

[Aaron Weber]

Sam Yonak. It's a fun one, man. It's a good last name. I bet everybody calls them yo yo N. How do you not call the yaks all to buy their last name.

[Dusty Slay]

You have to this guy.

[Aaron Weber]

Sam's a great first name but the.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yonak and this guy sounds like he was a nose tack tackle. I don't.

[Aaron Weber]

We are completely on different pages.

[Mike Vecchione]

Nose Tackle.

[Aaron Weber]

You're crazy. Yak is tough.

[Mike Vecchione]

No neck. No.

[Aaron Weber]

Yak drinks beers.

[Mike Vecchione]

Shotguns. Beers.

[Aaron Weber]

A guy that didn't play sports, but can play all the sports but like he just didn't like he was almost too good at him and. But he didn't. Was like he was like a gifted guy, it seems like.

[Dusty Slay]

Obviously.

[Aaron Weber]

Obviously. And the Yaks are so stupid. Yeah. The Yaks friends with everybody. No, we're just in different pages.

[Mike Vecchione]

We're in. Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

His to. To. To. Michael Yak is a nose guard.

[Mike Vecchione]

Nose guard, nose tackle, no neck.

[Aaron Weber]

It seems like Aaron just casually glossed over the fact that he was youth governor of Tennessee. This seems like a big deal. What did it involve? Yeah, get into the.

[Nate Bargatze]

Did you talk about this last week?

[Brian Bates]

Yeah, he broke this news last week.

[Nate Bargatze]

The youth guys. I see it. Last week. I see it. Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Mean, it's one of those things that felt like a very big deal to me at the time, but in retrospect, it's not.

[Aaron Weber]

Everybody was.

[Nate Bargatze]

Did you get voted in?

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah. What is youth governor?

[Brian Bates]

Somebody posted a video of you giving your speech at the Capitol, I think.

[Aaron Weber]

Oh, wow.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah. If you similar like boy state or girl state. I don't know if you've heard of those.

[Mike Vecchione]

I'll tell you how I picture it. You're the highest level of the Boy Scouts and then you have to run for now you have to run.

[Aaron Weber]

You're like above the. The. What's the leaders called of Boy Scouts? Scouts like the ones Eagles? No, the. The head. The adult. That's the troop.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

What is it takes them out.

[Dusty Slay]

This has nothing to do with Boy Scouts.

[Aaron Weber]

You're above that.

[Dusty Slay]

Okay, but I am above.

[Mike Vecchione]

But is the Boy Scouts the military wing of the youth governor if you go to attack another region.

[Nate Bargatze]

Now that is a good question.

[Mike Vecchione]

That is a good question.

[Brian Bates]

Just to he legalize marijuana, I decriminalized.

[Dusty Slay]

It in the state of Tennessee in 2010.

[Nate Bargatze]

People shouldn't go to jail for it. Whether you want to do it it or not.

[Dusty Slay]

Well, that's why we did it. But there's a. A lot of states have a program program in Tennessee. It's called YMCA Youth Legislature and kids from all over the state come and they essentially take over the state government for a weekend. They act as senators and congressmen and they pass bills and there's a whole state government of high school kids. So my junior year of high school, I ran for governor of Tennessee and then senior year I was the governor governor for the whole state.

[Mike Vecchione]

Kids running the state government.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

What's that look like money is now jello.

[Dusty Slay]

We got a lot done. None of us were corrupted, you know what I mean? We got, we got a lot done actually.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Why would you.

[Nate Bargatze]

Either was there other of these or you were the youth governor.

[Mike Vecchione]

You were the youth governor.

[Dusty Slay]

I was a youth governor for my year. And then the next kid runs and there's a new one every year.

[Nate Bargatze]

But like so all of Tennessee, you were top dog of the youth.

[Dusty Slay]

I think there might have been two conferences in Tennessee, but I was the guy for my, my, my part.

[Brian Bates]

You had to run against other people in other schools.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, I think we ran kids from all, all over the state. The election was the most fun part of it.

[Nate Bargatze]

So this guy, you really are governor.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, I was.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah. That dude right there with that hair too.

[Mike Vecchione]

I love it.

[Dusty Slay]

I had a camel skin jacket that I wore.

[Mike Vecchione]

Those are great.

[Dusty Slay]

The election was the most fun thing. Cuz you're like, you're treated like you're, you know, the, the newspapers interviewing you and you're doing debates in front of everybody and it's, it's like a little like almost like a presidential debate. That whole thing. It was a lot of fun.

[Aaron Weber]

If you decriminalize marijuana, like said, is it? But you didn't make it legal. Well, it is legal if you decriminalized it. Right.

[Nate Bargatze]

I think you just can't go to jail for it. You can't sell it, but you can't. Marijuana with possession of it, you don't go to jail.

[Dusty Slay]

It's regulated at a federal level, but the state can decide. We're no longer gonna.

[Aaron Weber]

So it would be.

[Nate Bargatze]

I think there is a difference in being legal and being decriminalized.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah. They can still get like a ticket for it, right? You can still give them like a ticket.

[Nate Bargatze]

Like you can't open a store that sells it, but if you have it, it's illegal.

[Dusty Slay]

That's what we.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's not putting them in jail.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. So if you illegally can get it, we won't be able to get it.

[Nate Bargatze]

Right. I think it's still like illegal to sell, but it's like, like, but then.

[Aaron Weber]

Why would you not. Like if they came to your house and you had tons of it, you'd be like, ah, this is all my personal use. I got it.

[Nate Bargatze]

You could.

[Dusty Slay]

I don't remember the particulars of how we did it, but we, we decriminalized.

[Nate Bargatze]

I think there's like, they can, they can, they can say there's an intent to sell.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Nate Bargatze]

Like you could be like a Certain amount. You have a certain amount. Yeah. And if it's like in all individual things, like you are going to sell it, then it, you know, Know.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

It's different than a little personal.

[Dusty Slay]

Some kid in the state of Tennessee wrote a bill decriminalizing it. I signed it into law.

[Aaron Weber]

Oh, okay.

[Dusty Slay]

Okay. It wasn't like a part of my campaign platform.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. I think that's what I was confused about.

[Dusty Slay]

Okay.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

No, cuz it seemed like it was like you. Yeah, it felt like that was like what you ran on.

[Dusty Slay]

No, no, it wasn't like my main thing.

[Mike Vecchione]

But what, what were some of your other initiatives?

[Brian Bates]

Vending machines and every school free.

[Nate Bargatze]

Free second lunch.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, it's all food stuff.

[Aaron Weber]

It goes, you know when those freezers, those big walk in freezers, unlocks from the inside.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah, yeah.

[Brian Bates]

For safety.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. That was a big him thing.

[Nate Bargatze]

He goes, mandatory shirts in the pool. Kind of.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Brian Bates]

You have to wear one.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Air condition set on 63.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

The era of big government is back, baby.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Shirts on in the pool. I don't remember all the lot of what we did. We were a good government though. We, we, we were.

[Brian Bates]

You know what, I saw the video of you.

[Aaron Weber]

That's impressive.

[Dusty Slay]

Well, thank you.

[Brian Bates]

And even then you have that commanding voice that gets your attention.

[Dusty Slay]

I think that's why that was way before I did stand up, obviously. But the debates, I was like, I was going for laughs and the debates and I think that might have been.

[Mike Vecchione]

Did you say we need to drain the swamp? Did you have like a catchphrase before?

[Aaron Weber]

It was pre swamp.

[Mike Vecchione]

Pre swamp.

[Dusty Slay]

This is pre swamp.

[Aaron Weber]

He was trying to get, he goes, we need to build a swamp.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

He, he was going for a swamp.

[Dusty Slay]

We're gonna make Kentucky pay for it.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. John. No. Kristen Mayberry. Oh. I live and work in Las Vegas and thrilled to see you guys doing shows out here. I'm certain. I saw Dusty in the hotel parking lot. As I walked by, I saw Dusty walk around his car and take out some boxes of Chiquita bananas. Did I see Dusty or, or does Dusty have a twin in Vegas delivering bananas?

[Nate Bargatze]

It wasn't me. I mean, you might have saw me, you know, with the banana or two, but I didn't have a car out there and I wasn't.

[Dusty Slay]

And you don't support Chiquita.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, you know, I don't.

[Aaron Weber]

What were you walking around cars with bananas?

[Nate Bargatze]

Probably. No, the last time I was out there was 112 degrees.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Nate Bargatze]

And your shirt Off. I was a dry heat, which I'm not a fan of, and I try to keep it inside side.

[Brian Bates]

Yeah. Wet heat now on Netflix.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. Wet heat, guys.

[Brian Bates]

Sorry.

[Aaron Weber]

John Blanderson. Mike Vecchion is truly a unique town. Nobody has his original cadence.

[Nate Bargatze]

I agree with that.

[Aaron Weber]

His jokes have no fat. Thank you for posting this amazing special. Everyone who liked this, please go watch the attractives on also on the channel. It's also incredible.

[Mike Vecchione]

Thank you, John.

[Brian Bates]

What made you choose John Blanderson as the name?

[Mike Vecchione]

I wrote this myself.

[Brian Bates]

John's a fan.

[Mike Vecchione]

Thank you, John. Thank you for saying something, John.

[Aaron Weber]

There is no fat.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah. I try to get as lean as possible because as Nate knows, in New York City, there's a gun to your head when you're on stage to get to the punchline immediately because everybody's busy.

[Aaron Weber]

Yes.

[Mike Vecchione]

But, John, you're the best. Thank you. That really touched me.

[Nate Bargatze]

I agree with that, though. Very funny.

[Mike Vecchione]

Thank you, Dusty.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

And I don't think you deliver bananas. You're more of an avocado.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Guy.

[Nate Bargatze]

I do like a banana here and there, but I wouldn't have a case.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, it's good to know that Kristen is a stalker.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

And she's following you.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

Well, she's following someone else, but yeah. We should probably tell him, you know. Yeah. Tony Richardson. I was at Mike Von's Low Income White special taping in December. It was great. But there was a tremendous storm during the first set. I'm wondering if that was distracting to Mike as a performer.

[Dusty Slay]

Do you remember that, Mike?

[Nate Bargatze]

No, but the storm.

[Mike Vecchione]

I do remember it. I remember. I remember the second show being the better show.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

But I don't know. Maybe that's why. Maybe that's why the first show, because there was a storm. Tremendous meteor, meteorological.

[Brian Bates]

The second show was better because Nate went out and said, guys, can you laugh at this, please?

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah, Nate did go out and lobby for me.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, it was. And he first. Like that new thing on social media where they go, hey, my buddy Mike's coming out here and he's gonna do comedy and y' all gonna like it.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

It's like that. No, it was. Yeah. Mike killed it. Joel Thompson. Joel Thompson. How do you know when to draw the line between roasting someone, for example, when doing crowd work without offending them?

[Brian Bates]

Just put out a crowd work video last night.

[Mike Vecchione]

I did, yes. I've been doing that on the road, and I like to do it at the end of my sets because I like to do my set and not put anybody on the spot, you know, Coldplay. So I like to make sure that everybody's comfortable. And then if there was a cheating scandal with the Coldplay.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, right, right, right, right.

[Mike Vecchione]

Anyway, I have people.

[Nate Bargatze]

Silly.

[Mike Vecchione]

It wasn't Philly, was it? No, I. I don't know where it was.

[Nate Bargatze]

601.

[Mike Vecchione]

Area code callback.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

610. Is it 610?

[Mike Vecchione]

610.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

But 601 feels like Tampa.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

What was I even saying? I do it at the end. I take requests. I have people raise their hands, and I. I tell them what's going to happen. I say, let's try to get a clip out of.

[Aaron Weber]

Of it.

[Mike Vecchione]

Kind of wish my guy wouldn't have included it. I kind of wish my guy wouldn't have included it in the clip, but he did, and I love them for it. And if they raise their hands, then we try to talk and get to some. Something funny.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, this. That I could. That's you. Your personalities. You go on stage, you go, hello, everybody. This is a business transaction. Y' all paid for this. I'm gonna put on a show. I hope you guys enjoy the show. I'll do it to my abilities. And here we go. We start the show now.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's exactly what he did.

[Aaron Weber]

Well, that's Mike. I mean, he said, don't raise your.

[Brian Bates]

Hand if you don't want to be talked to.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Aaron Weber]

Well, that's good, though, because people have a choice.

[Mike Vecchione]

They have a choice. And it's the end. I already done my set, so that's why.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Have any of y' all done a. Cuz I was a. A judge on the Roast Battle show here last week in. In the lab, and I've never been a part of a roast. Have y' all done one of. I know you've done.

[Mike Vecchione]

I've done roasts. Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Have you done a roast Battle? I think I have. Okay.

[Mike Vecchione]

But it's like, first of all, it's a tremendous amount of work because it's a joke writing exercise.

[Dusty Slay]

That's all it is.

[Mike Vecchione]

And at the end of it, you're like, well, I could have just worked on my act.

[Aaron Weber]

Yes.

[Mike Vecchione]

You know what I mean? So. And then it all comes from a place where. How do you know when the line is. It's like, where your intent is. If you're like a. If you're coming at it from a place where it's like a joke writing exercise, and you're like, you know, just respect the other person as a comic. And it comes in an intentionally love Loving way, then it comes through. But if you're just trying to be as, you know, I understand the concept of roasting, but if you're trying to just be as vicious as possible.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. If you don't know the person.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

You're just making fun of them.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

And then you're trying to kind of win that. And I think that's not really the way it should go.

[Dusty Slay]

This one was super fun because except for one of them, they were all matchups between good friends. So it was very good natured.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's great.

[Dusty Slay]

They were like, they would hug after they were done. It was, was. It was fun.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's like the same thing with somebody breaking your chops. Someone's breaking your chops and you're good natured. Like, you know, if it's coming from a loving place, but if they're doing it in such a way, like they're trying to put you down, you can kind of feel that energy.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Breaking your chops.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Busting your chops.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

The different down here, you say breaking your chops.

[Nate Bargatze]

Busting your chops and breaking your. Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Something else.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, Yeah. I, I agree with you that it's like when you're, you shouldn't be just working on your act.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Aaron Weber]

That's the main, that's what I always think.

[Nate Bargatze]

But yeah, but it's like now it's like people that the clips are what get social media following and then that's what gets people. I mean, I'm, I'm not doing it, but I, I get it now. It's like that's how you get the following.

[Aaron Weber]

There is no system and hopefully we can help.

[Mike Vecchione]

But I did. I've done good on a roast before and people were like, you were great on that roast. It's like, but have you seen my act? And they're like, no, I don't know. Yeah, but it's like, yeah, look at my ass.

[Aaron Weber]

It gets you the clips. But if you don't, when they show up, you then you got to keep doing what you're doing in the video. And if you do that, then you can. That's the only thing I would tell young comics. You can do the stuff to get the clips. You better do that stuff when they show up or they're going to stop coming.

[Mike Vecchione]

They're going to expect it.

[Aaron Weber]

And if they. And if you don't do it, it. And then you try to go, no, then I'll just do my acting. They're not going to be on board that. And how Much energy and time and mind and creativity you put into that. You got to put in a lot into it.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Aaron Weber]

You're taking from your other thing. Everything that comes out of your mouth, borderline should be like, if it's anything that feels could be a joke, you should pull it back immediately. If you're on a podcast, you're on. Not that some stuff does, but you kind of just anything you kind of go, just catch yourself and go, I don't know if I need that right now. Like, and let me save it for my.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, I mean, I agree with you, but that is how. I mean, people are selling tickets like that now. It's like it's a whole.

[Aaron Weber]

They are, but it's, it's. Look at the longevity of it. What are we doing?

[Nate Bargatze]

You know, I mean, I get it. I mean, I'm with you.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

I mean, I try to follow that too, but I, Yeah, I mean, people are blowing up out here. Off, off podcast, off, off crowd work clips.

[Aaron Weber]

They, they are. But I, I, if you really wanted to go through the weeds of it and like, did a. Numbers of it, it's not as much as you think. I believe. I don't think it's as many as people think. Yeah, they think it is because there's, there's, there's ones that are. But yeah, they're not as much as you. If you really started going through it and doing it, it's, it's. There's no way there's as much as you think they can do it. Maybe one time, mind.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Aaron Weber]

But.

[Mike Vecchione]

But what? They look at it like I'm nowhere right now, so I'm looking for any leg up. They're looking at it like that.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, yeah, I understand. I understand it. I know why you're doing it. It's in. Yeah, I want, it's like, you know, we do Nateland Live show, come down and try to. It'd be better to learn a craft that you can do.

[Mike Vecchione]

I agree.

[Aaron Weber]

No, you don't, Mike.

[Mike Vecchione]

I do. I'm with it. I came up there. I came up through the same system. You came up. Didn't 2008 start screaming my credits?

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, you're wearing that jacket. Noah Eden. I started my junior year of high school the other day while my English teacher was introducing himself, he mentioned that Nate was his favorite comedian. I immediately yelled, hello, folks. He stared at me for a solid minute, then said, okay. He clearly didn't get the reference. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm insane, but I'm not. I'm just a folk. Folk. Well, you know, might not have known the hello folks reference. Just as a comedian.

[Mike Vecchione]

So he doesn't listen to the pod.

[Dusty Slay]

Doesn't listen.

[Nate Bargatze]

Maybe don't yell at a guy. He said immediately yell.

[Mike Vecchione]

I agree.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's like, how about as a teacher, you should be raising your hand junior year. You should know that. Sorry if I.

[Aaron Weber]

But I would think in this circumstance, you would. If someone. If you. You would. You would go, you know, like, was it like Howard Stern if the. If the teacher goes, I love Howard Stern. And someone goes, hey now. Or Baba Bowie. Yeah, yeah, like that. You would yell. You wouldn't raise your hand and then go, baba booie. You would go baba booie. So I think he did it the right way.

[Mike Vecchione]

But there's certain rules in a classroom I have to take issue with. This is because I worked out and now I have to fight for my idea.

[Aaron Weber]

It's a callback.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's a callback I have to take issue with. It is a classroom. There needs to be rules within a classroom. Otherwise you have anarchy.

[Aaron Weber]

Well, don't. Then don't be personal and say that you're personal stuff.

[Dusty Slay]

What if you're trying to teach anarchy?

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah, that's a good example, and that's from a former youth governor.

[Nate Bargatze]

It also should tell you about something about your teacher, though, too. Your teacher's probably a liar, right? If he doesn't, how favorite. How much is he really into it?

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Nate Bargatze]

You know?

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, I forget that all teachers are.

[Dusty Slay]

Liars is a small part of people's lives. Lives. You know what I mean? Because it's our entire life.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Even somebody would say, I'm a big comedy fan. They maybe go to three shows in their life.

[Aaron Weber]

Well, it's a mix of both, too. Is like we go to these arenas, you know, not everybody knows there's a podcast. A lot of them don't. Or they kind of vaguely know. Yeah, but they're not. You know, there's going to be stuff. The. The. The difference of where people are. This would be more the niche section of where what the arenas are when you go out more there because they. The. The specials and the other stuff like that and they all feed off each other. But yeah, we need the hello folks in there and we love them.

[Dusty Slay]

This is an ad by Better Help Today. It just feels like everybody has a hack for everything, right? Cold plunges, gratitude, journal, screen detoxes. But how do you know. Know what works for you with the Internet and information overload about mental Health and wellness. It can be a struggle to know what's actually helpful therapy. Talking to someone makes a huge difference in everyday life. It can help with coping skills and how to set boundaries. It's not just for those people who've experienced major trauma. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally. And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. It's convenient, too. You can join a session with a therapist at the click of a button, helping you fit therapy into your busy life. Plus, you can switch therapists at any time. No awkward conversation, just switch it up. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Talk it out with better help, our listeners get 10% off their first [e-mail] Nate that's betterhelp.com Nate well, speaking of.

[Brian Bates]

Teachers, this week we are talking about teachers.

[Dusty Slay]

Teachers.

[Brian Bates]

Mike, former teacher.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yes.

[Brian Bates]

How many years did you teach?

[Mike Vecchione]

I taught five, but I worked in a behavioral school for three degree while I was getting my degree at night. So eight, eight years total.

[Brian Bates]

And then you worked in the trenches.

[Aaron Weber]

What time was your class?

[Mike Vecchione]

8:00Pm I had some at 8:00pmnate.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. How were you? Like, I got a one tonight. I got 7:00pm 8:00pm and a 9:30pm and then nothing. And then at 12:30am in a free period at 10:00pm I guess I'm gonna go see a movie and then I'll come Back to my 12:30am These are classes.

[Mike Vecchione]

They weren't spots.

[Brian Bates]

Bounce back. Your dad was a teacher?

[Aaron Weber]

Y.

[Brian Bates]

My dad briefly a teacher. My grandmother was teacher entire life. Both your parents teachers? My parents met in school.

[Dusty Slay]

They met as teachers at the same high school?

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Was that a scandal?

[Dusty Slay]

I don't know. It was a scandal.

[Mike Vecchione]

They.

[Dusty Slay]

They were two teachers and they. And they were engaged within two months of wow.

[Mike Vecchione]

I wonder if they had to let the principal know that dating.

[Dusty Slay]

And then he wasn't the principal yet. And then within two or three years he became. My dad was a high school principal at 27.

[Aaron Weber]

Wow.

[Dusty Slay]

And that seems so young now.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

I was seeing these comics that I'm hanging out with that are like 26, 27.

[Aaron Weber]

Like.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, my dad was a high school principal when he was your age. It's pretty crazy.

[Mike Vecchione]

Did you go to the school where he was a principal?

[Dusty Slay]

I did, yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

All my siblings were you Held to a higher standard.

[Dusty Slay]

I don't. He was always pretty good at keeping things separate.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah. Did the kids give you a hard time?

[Dusty Slay]

A little bit at first especially. I moved to a different high school. I moved to Tennessee in the middle of high school.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Dusty Slay]

For my junior year, we moved to Tennessee. So my dad was the principal at a new school. I was the new kid coming in. So a little bit at first, but people. People are pretty nice.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's good.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

Did your alter your ego hat help? Your hat says alter ego. What is that?

[Dusty Slay]

This is a company.

[Aaron Weber]

Oh, really? It's called Alter Ego.

[Dusty Slay]

Alter Ego Running.

[Aaron Weber]

Oh, oh, really?

[Brian Bates]

Running?

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

They sponsor you?

[Aaron Weber]

No, that is his alter ego. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Brian Bates]

It's perfect.

[Aaron Weber]

It's actually a perfect hat. He goes, yeah, it's brilliant. He wants a rudder. Yeah, yeah. Mine is too, buddy. All right.

[Brian Bates]

There's 3.8 million public school teachers in the United states.

[Mike Vecchione]

Wow.

[Brian Bates]

About three quarters. 77 women.

[Nate Bargatze]

I didn't know this was going to be on teachers. And I said I called all the teachers liars.

[Brian Bates]

I know, I know.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

You guys, nobody said anything, so it made it seem way worse.

[Aaron Weber]

Why did you call them liars? For a joke.

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, yeah, I was just making a joke and then you guys all looked at me.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's a good way to get into it.

[Nate Bargatze]

Made it real serious.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, I think it was tongue in cheek.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, no, I think, yeah, I just didn't get the joke. I think. And then it was like callback, call back. Yeah, yeah, Hang it up.

[Nate Bargatze]

Now you remember that once you call.

[Aaron Weber]

Back, you got to hang the. That's the cuz the callback's over.

[Dusty Slay]

Okay.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Yeah. 89% of teachers in elementary school are women. And then it gradually becomes more managed. Get the high school.

[Dusty Slay]

Why do you think that is? Why do you think it's dominated by women?

[Aaron Weber]

Nurturing, caring.

[Nate Bargatze]

Maybe they don't want men around little kids.

[Brian Bates]

My daughter's in preschool and I wouldn't.

[Mike Vecchione]

Want the movie Kindergarten Cop would see you wrong. That was a great film.

[Aaron Weber]

Same way you want. Yeah. You don't want a men massage. Massage.

[Nate Bargatze]

You're right. Exactly. Exactly.

[Dusty Slay]

Do women prefer women masseuses as well?

[Aaron Weber]

I think so.

[Nate Bargatze]

I think everybody does, but for.

[Dusty Slay]

For like a leisure. Leisure massage.

[Aaron Weber]

Now if you do physical therapy, I think some dudes say if you're an athlete, you might. You might want. Because you just need the. It's then it's outside the scope of. You're in a specialty. So I think it's like outside the scope, like, in generalities. You want, I think, a woman.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. You want women. Want women, men want women. And then you don't want to be in that awkward situation, but nobody wants it.

[Dusty Slay]

I got a Ring Dinger done in Chicago. You ever seen the ring dinger on YouTube.

[Brian Bates]

Clean podcast. Aaron.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, I don't know what that means.

[Brian Bates]

Let's cut that.

[Dusty Slay]

It's a chiropractic adjustment. Total spinal decompression. You lay on your back, they lock your hips in, they grab your head, and Yankee yank it and just yank it back, Right. It's called a Ring Dinger.

[Nate Bargatze]

Wow.

[Mike Vecchione]

I think what you're talking about is high school wrestling. Thank you for that transition.

[Aaron Weber]

It sounds like that. Go ahead.

[Dusty Slay]

I was gonna say it was. It was a tiny woman that did it.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

To me. And that was the first time after she did, like. I wish I had just, like, a dude.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Just like a big dude to eat.

[Aaron Weber]

That could do it, right? Yes.

[Dusty Slay]

Because I felt like she wasn't doing it enough.

[Nate Bargatze]

Enough.

[Aaron Weber]

How do they even learn what works in that?

[Mike Vecchione]

Wait, what do you mean?

[Aaron Weber]

Like, how do you go? Like, I got an idea. I'm g. Lock their hips in and jerk their head back. And he goes, well, we've never done this before. And they go. It's the first one. Don't go nuts. Yeah, don't go nuts.

[Dusty Slay]

It was a guy in Houston, a chiropractor invented that technique, and now he licenses it out to chiropractors all over the country.

[Nate Bargatze]

So she couldn't do it, though. She couldn't really get you.

[Aaron Weber]

She.

[Dusty Slay]

I felt like she wasn't getting in there. And enough. It wasn't a good enough pool.

[Mike Vecchione]

But do you look at it? Like, when you try a bit and it doesn't. You know, it does. It's not all the way there. It's like, maybe on the next guy, she'll get it a little closer, and that guy, she'll get a little bit closer.

[Dusty Slay]

Tried three times. I did a triple dinger.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Yeah. I think she's. It's the.

[Dusty Slay]

And I. You know, by the third time.

[Aaron Weber]

The reason. When you have, like. Yeah. It's the reason you.

[Nate Bargatze]

Can you ring the ding or not? I mean, come on.

[Aaron Weber]

It's. Yeah. When you get a refrigerator delete delivered, it's not two women that show up because she's got to break a refrigerator. Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

This is the guy that invented it.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

That dude.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. You want it to be quick and, like, it's Nate's dad. And then that way, if It. If it kills you, it's over.

[Dusty Slay]

Fast is what they do. They lock your hips in.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

And then I'll just fast forward to this. You can see it.

[Aaron Weber]

Oh, my gosh. Is this gonna be insane?

[Nate Bargatze]

Mean, it seems.

[Aaron Weber]

There you go. Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Oh, my God.

[Dusty Slay]

Doesn't that look like it feels incredible?

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

I don't know.

[Nate Bargatze]

Rip your hand.

[Aaron Weber]

What does it do?

[Dusty Slay]

It's to. It's. It's spot. Look, now there's.

[Aaron Weber]

Does it make you just come back again?

[Dusty Slay]

I haven't gone back. I haven't gone back.

[Aaron Weber]

He goes, you're never gonna have to do this until once I do it, you're gonna always have to do this.

[Nate Bargatze]

Kind of popping your knuckles.

[Dusty Slay]

There's, you know, there's all kinds of people saying that chiropractors are. It's whatever. And I don't even disagree with any of it.

[Nate Bargatze]

I love the chiropractor.

[Dusty Slay]

It feels good.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

And so I saw all these videos. I went down a rabbit hole. Then I was in Chicago, and me and my buddy Zach was with me. Let's go get a ring dinger. We went and got one.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

That was, like, our afternoon.

[Mike Vecchione]

And you had no back pain before that? You saw, like. Well, this might be fun.

[Dusty Slay]

I've got chronic.

[Mike Vecchione]

Oh, crap.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

I mean, I've got horrible. I've got a million things that. This would help.

[Mike Vecchione]

I mean, this looks like an interrogation technique. It really does.

[Nate Bargatze]

Zach didn't know what this was.

[Mike Vecchione]

Oh, he was.

[Dusty Slay]

You know, he was into it, too. That's why.

[Aaron Weber]

You know what I pictured when you said it? I thought you were laying on your stomach and they were somehow grabbing the back of your feet in your head.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

Squeezing. Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

I thought they were bringing you back. I didn't know what you meant by lock the hips in, but this makes it very clear. Okay.

[Dusty Slay]

Okay.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. I did not. This is not what I thought.

[Nate Bargatze]

You follow up video with this patient. I want to know how he's doing.

[Aaron Weber]

Six months later, a foot shorter because it all resettled and then. And his bones are loose in his body like a sack.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Here's Jack Arlo getting one pulled out of his car.

[Aaron Weber]

Well, I don't know if we need to go watch the history of it, so I think I'm good.

[Nate Bargatze]

Pulled the cartilage out of that guy's back. Bone on bone.

[Brian Bates]

Now, so about a third of teachers say they're extremely or are not very satisfied in their job.

[Mike Vecchione]

Job. Yeah. I went down a rabbit hole. Rabbit hole is a great call back. I went down a Rabbit hole of teachers quitting. Like, teachers are doing YouTube videos of why they quit. And all of it makes sense. All of it makes sense because it's like every other profession. It's changed over the years and now, you know. Yeah. It seems parents are tough to deal with. The kids are tough to deal with, and the administration mostly backs. They don't want to fight the parent, they don't want to be sued, so they back the parent. And a lot of these parents are. Many of them have their kids best interest in mind, but they're not correct about education. That's why you go to school for all these years and get a degree and get a master's and stuff so that, you know, education and that they have.

[Aaron Weber]

There's probably a bounce. The other side too is that the school and the administration needs to adjust to, like, everybody needs to readjust totally. It can't be just blamed on, like, I understand the parents, the parents. I. I do agree with that because people are going to just say whatever they want.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Aaron Weber]

But then there has to be a give and take too with. And I think other teachers like adapting to their way because it's a very old school union kind of idea that it's like, you do this, you do this, you there. There's a lot of that in the public school system. So there's got to be like. And now you're having these private schools pop up and they're expensive in these other types of schools. So now there's different options that people are seeing. So like, if you're. You're just a competitor, if you're a public school system, you would go like, we need to step up our game to compete with these other schools.

[Mike Vecchione]

I agree with that. I like the idea of like a school where it's like, you bring your kid, we tell you what, what we're gonna do, what the plan is and everything, and then you sign into that, you sign up for that. And then if something goes you. And you can't mitigate the problem and you can't solve it, it's like, okay, okay, your kid is not right for this school.

[Nate Bargatze]

Take them to another school and then take. I like that with you.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah, Y. Yeah. But the parents have like a working knowledge of their kid and that's important. And they need to work with the, you know, the school, I think. So that's what needs to happen. But some parents go there and they try to bulldoze and be like, I want this, I want this. And I'm. If I don't get this, then I'm going to put all kinds of pressure and all this stuff and it's like.

[Aaron Weber]

That'S, That's a nightmare.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

And you can't have that either. And there's some that are so hands off that they look at it as like it's a.

[Dusty Slay]

You're.

[Aaron Weber]

You're supposed to parent my kid. Yes, it's. And so they, the kids are there all day. Yeah. There's a. There's. It's all like. It goes back to. Yeah, you just.

[Dusty Slay]

You know, I'll say the idea of my parents taking my side over a teacher's is so foreign to me. I think that must be a new thing too.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Brian Bates]

Like I would have thought by the.

[Aaron Weber]

Time you were in school, who would. The school system. System.

[Dusty Slay]

If there's like. Like a parent. The idea that a parent will come in and go, my kid. And take the kid's side.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Dusty Slay]

Versus the teacher.

[Aaron Weber]

Oh, yeah. I think that's new. I think that's.

[Dusty Slay]

That would never have happened when I was.

[Aaron Weber]

Well, yes, but that's. I mean, you know, I think people have time on their hand more now and they're. It's not, it's not cut and dry anymore and it's all kind of loose and everything's kind of like, you know, you can get degrees and you can get all like, you know, you got to think like the way everything is now. We're so. It was just, just like us growing up was like, we're. We're not a 100. And when we grew up, you were still on the tail end of this. Like, there's no Internet, there's no access to even. And it just all kind of worked structured in communities and it just went forward like that.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

And then now you're like, well, we know what China does or any country in the world does. Cuz I can see in how they're doing it. And then they're like, well, we do it this way and it goes great. Well, it does. Because you are in a village that's like beautiful and perfect. You know what I mean? Like, whatever it is. And so you just have all these different, like different ways. And then that's where I would imagine the public school system has got to go. All right, we need to. Let's. Let's counteract this. We. What you should be doing is competing against private schools and you should be like, we should be providing that kind of level to where there's nothing not, you know, all these people starting their other schools or you Start other schools in public schools are just going to go the other way.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Aaron Weber]

And you get into like a male, the mail system where it's FedEx or you people are using this other kind of thing. And then you're like, well then now that's kind of what it is. And then school is.

[Brian Bates]

You know what happened in Nashville when I was growing up, Nashville public schools, there's a ton of great schools, Right. But in the last 10, 20 years.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Everyone's pulled their kids out and send them to private school. So then what's left is not great schools.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right. Schools. All magnet schools too. Charter schools. The school's an extension of the neighborhood too. It's like if the neighborhood is terrible and drug ridden and violent, then people go, well, the schools aren't. It's like, yeah, but the school's an extension of the. Yeah, it's not, it's not, it's not.

[Aaron Weber]

It'S not, it's not fair. I don't think it's necessarily like on the teachers, there's probably a much bigger problem. It's not on the teachers, it's a much, much bigger problem. And it's putting the teachers, the parents to fight where you want to go. Someone, someone else needs to come in and be like, we gotta look.

[Mike Vecchione]

The teachers are thrown into these situations.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Unwinnable situations. And you're lucky to even get some of these teachers that like. The fact they even go in there is like, to be honest, you're like some of their angels that they even would be willing to go do this.

[Dusty Slay]

Totally.

[Brian Bates]

There's major understaffing in schools. Last year along, 400,000 teacher positions either were unfilled or filled by teachers not fully certified for their assignment. Nobody wants to be a teacher anymore.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, no, the suburbs, they want to be a teacher because they make better money and it's better conditions. They don't want to be teachers in the city because they don't make as much money. And it's rougher, it's rougher conditions. So that's the big misconception. There's a teacher shortage in certain areas, but there's not in other areas. Everybody's fighting for the same, wants better jobs, better situation.

[Brian Bates]

Median annual wage average is 63,000 thousand a year. Some states more, some less. Nashville is about 52,000. But 90 of teachers say they spend their own money on classroom supplies. On average between 500, 750 of their own money every year.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Did you do that?

[Mike Vecchione]

I did, yeah. But I was like, that wasn't that was the least of the problems, the bigger problem. I mean different. I taught in three different districts.

[Aaron Weber]

Kitty had a fight every day. Me, you go, I didn't care about the fiber. It was every morning I walked in, this one kid, had to fight him to get to my desk. He goes, that was where I had trouble down.

[Mike Vecchione]

Let's go.

[Brian Bates]

You taught special education, right?

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah, I taught kids with emotional and behavioral problems. So 12 kids in a class. But it's just different challenges in different areas. I taught in a city school, I taught in a behavioral school, I taught in a city school, I taught in a working class suburb, which was the best situation because the parents were supportive but not overbearing, sharing and this, the administration was supportive. It's a very blue collar. And then I taught in a wealthier area. And that had its different challenges where it's like either the parents were not around or they talk to you like you clean their toilets. You know what I mean? So it's like different challenges in different situations.

[Brian Bates]

Do you think if you had done stand up comedy you would have stuck with education?

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, that's the thing with, with if you're in a bad situation, like the situation could change over time. So you're in there five years, you're making a certain amount of money, you get married, you buy a house. It's like, well, I want to quit this now because it's a nightmare. It's like, well, now you can't because you're making a certain amount of money. You're not going to make it anywhere else. You can't quit your job now. Now you have to bite down and just figure it out because you have other people. You have a wife, you have kids, you have a house. People are depending on you, so you can't leave. And I saw that, I saw at the end of my teaching career, I saw that's where it was headed. They were like, you're going to I of kind because I, I quit my job. I didn't like the way my year went, so I didn't like the way I was dealt with by the administration. So I said, I'll just leave. I'll just leave and look for another job or figure it out mid semester. No, no, no. At the end of the year, middle of class, get up, it's over, I'm out of here. No, but at the end of the year. But I could see, I could see what they were doing. It's like you could get and same thing with like policing and these other difficult professions. You could get locked in, and then, you know, you can't leave. You just can't. You're. You're. You're living for your family.

[Nate Bargatze]

That's the whole system design.

[Mike Vecchione]

It's designed to. Yeah, it's a trap. Yeah, it can be a trap if you're in the wrong situation. Yes.

[Brian Bates]

You know what IEP is?

[Mike Vecchione]

Yes. Individualized educational plan.

[Brian Bates]

Did you have one?

[Mike Vecchione]

I had one myself.

[Brian Bates]

For yourself?

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah. For yourself? No. Each kid in a special education classroom has an individual, like, educational plan. They don't get grades. They have goals. Goals within the plan. It's actually good for every kid. It's good for every kid to have.

[Aaron Weber]

Goals, but instead of grades, goals. Oh, yeah. I do that to myself. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Brian Bates]

All right. So there's a lot of comedians or former teachers. There's at least two tours I know of. Of teachers.

[Mike Vecchione]

I've been on a couple board teachers. I've been on board teachers.

[Aaron Weber]

Really?

[Mike Vecchione]

It's great tour. Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

What's up?

[Nate Bargatze]

What is it?

[Brian Bates]

Teachers.

[Mike Vecchione]

No, it's not a cruise. They might have a cruise, but it's just different venues that you go, and it's all teachers, and you're on the show with, like, four other teachers, and everybody does, like, 20 minutes.

[Nate Bargatze]

Oh, and you're performing four teachers.

[Mike Vecchione]

You're performing four teachers. Yeah. And. And everybody performing.

[Nate Bargatze]

Like, you get to do, like, teacher crowd work.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yes.

[Nate Bargatze]

Like, teacher jokes that you all get.

[Mike Vecchione]

Right.

[Nate Bargatze]

That's fun.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

I did a show once opening for Joe Dombrowski. I don't know if you guys know him or not.

[Aaron Weber]

And he.

[Brian Bates]

His crowd just loved him. All teachers hated me, but loved him.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

My board teachers is a great tour.

[Nate Bargatze]

That's fun. Just to get to do comedy in front of people that know that you know that job very well.

[Aaron Weber]

Well, it's the, like, doing the show in the Philly where you get it, you're just. Just resonating. So that's what his. What Philly was like is he got to do arena full of teachers.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

And I go, what if the joke's not going well? I go, what, are you guys, part of the administration?

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Apparently finding. Some schools have teachers have to find their own substitute if they're out that day.

[Mike Vecchione]

Oh, that's not. I never had to do that.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

So a Nashville teacher created a new app called Subby where you can go on one and find.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

Because you find, like, there's sometimes. It's probably, like, a decent job as a comic now, because you could just be Like a substitute teacher and just like pick it up now and just go like. Oh, yes. Because I always hear people, some like, they go, I substitute teach sometimes. Yeah. I mean, when you substitute, were you a substitute?

[Mike Vecchione]

No, but there was. The thing was, There was no YouTube back then. I told my kids, like when I was teaching high school that I did comedy.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

And they were like, cool. And that was like my night thing. But There was no YouTube. There was no social media. All that came later. So now it's got to be very difficult, I believe.

[Aaron Weber]

I would think. Yes. I would think so now too. Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

You almost got to use a stage name or a fake name or something.

[Aaron Weber]

Yes.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah. But it's hard to remain anonymous with everything. I. I don't want to come off like I was bashing.

[Dusty Slay]

It's not that hard.

[Mike Vecchione]

Parents or. No, I think teaching profession.

[Aaron Weber]

But yeah, I think it was. But it.

[Dusty Slay]

God forbid that way and teacher have a dream. Mike.

[Brian Bates]

No, he was defending the teachers.

[Aaron Weber]

Right.

[Mike Vecchione]

I was defending the. I could defend my people. The teachers.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. I think people don't, you know, the. Let's do some more not fun stuff.

[Brian Bates]

The key and pill substitute teacher sketch has 226 million views on YouTube. The Keen Pill substitute teacher support group sketch has 334,000 views on Aaron's Instagram.

[Dusty Slay]

Oh, how about that? Oh, it has way more. It has way more than that.

[Brian Bates]

Oh, well, not as of this morning.

[Dusty Slay]

That's the most viral thing I've ever, ever made. Made was. I did a sketch about that. You know, the. The sketch. The key appeal.

[Mike Vecchione]

The A. Ron Aaron. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great.

[Dusty Slay]

I'm still. I mean, every day somebody brings that.

[Aaron Weber]

Up to me still.

[Dusty Slay]

Hey, A. Ron.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

That's. That's the most viral thing I've ever done was sketch. Where was it biggest at which Tick Tock and Instagram.

[Aaron Weber]

Okay.

[Dusty Slay]

It probably has 15 million views across all the platforms.

[Aaron Weber]

Wow. People.

[Dusty Slay]

People resonate with it. But that sketch is so, so viral, dude.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

I came out. I was in college and it was like referenced all the time.

[Aaron Weber]

I mean, just the next day, Aaron.

[Dusty Slay]

I'm Aaron everywhere. And then. Yeah, De Nice and all those names.

[Aaron Weber]

It's very funny.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, it is. It's the best.

[Aaron Weber]

All right.

[Brian Bates]

Movies about teachers. You got a favorite.

[Mike Vecchione]

There was a movie called Teachers. I don't remember. It was Nick Nolte.

[Nate Bargatze]

Oh, I like this substitute with Tom Behringer. Oh, that's a good.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's a good one.

[Nate Bargatze]

Dangerous Minds.

[Brian Bates]

Dangerous.

[Mike Vecchione]

Dangerous Minds was.

[Nate Bargatze]

What about Only the Strong that's where they did the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The guy goes in and he teach the bad kids and teaches them Jiu Jitsu.

[Mike Vecchione]

Okay. Freedom Raiders.

[Brian Bates]

Freedom. Right.

[Dusty Slay]

Lean On Me.

[Nate Bargatze]

Oh, Lean On Me is the best.

[Mike Vecchione]

Great.

[Nate Bargatze]

Best of all time.

[Dusty Slay]

Kill your brain cells, son. You kill your brain.

[Brian Bates]

Deadpoint Society.

[Dusty Slay]

Deadpool Society. Sure.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's another good one.

[Nate Bargatze]

Finding Forester with Chunk on Honoree.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Sort of a teacher.

[Dusty Slay]

It's a good one.

[Nate Bargatze]

It's a good one.

[Mike Vecchione]

How about to sir with Love?

[Brian Bates]

Oh, I didn't have that one.

[Mike Vecchione]

That's Sydney Portier.

[Brian Bates]

That's an old one.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, I was a teenager back then.

[Aaron Weber]

I don't think I can even think it. Like, I guess Dangerous Minds. I would.

[Brian Bates]

School of Rock.

[Aaron Weber]

School of Rock. School of Rock.

[Nate Bargatze]

Pretty funny. Low on the list, but still good.

[Dusty Slay]

Dead Poet. Society's got to be the best one.

[Aaron Weber]

Is a substitute, like a scary movie.

[Nate Bargatze]

Or substitute is Tom Behringer. No, it's like Dangerous Minds, but with Tom Behringer, basically.

[Mike Vecchione]

How about Summer School with Mark Harmon?

[Nate Bargatze]

I just watched that the other night.

[Dusty Slay]

Yes.

[Nate Bargatze]

I love that movie. One of my favorites. I think Dead Poet. I don't know. I think Dangerous Minds is. Is maybe up there above it, I think. Criticized later Society.

[Aaron Weber]

Why?

[Brian Bates]

Because there was this wave of movies where white women go into black schools and.

[Dusty Slay]

And is that what Dangerous Minds is?

[Mike Vecchione]

Yes.

[Nate Bargatze]

Was that Freedom Writers, though?

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, how's it like? That's where you see the rotten tomatoes. 34%. You're like. That movie was huge. And like, you're like. What does that even mean?

[Nate Bargatze]

Evan had that. That song. Coolio had the song.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah. Coolio.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

That's the only song that everybody knows.

[Mike Vecchione]

Gangster paradise.

[Aaron Weber]

Oh, it's 64% popcorn media that. I feel like it did better than. It was.

[Nate Bargatze]

Way better than that.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah, it was way better at.

[Brian Bates]

The critics didn't like it, but people liked it.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

But. Yeah, the Tom Behringer one was. Was a playoff that.

[Aaron Weber]

That.

[Nate Bargatze]

Only the Strong was a bit.

[Brian Bates]

That too, but some TV show, I.

[Aaron Weber]

Guess will Goodwill Hunting. Is that teaching?

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah, I would say so. Robin Williams was a.

[Mike Vecchione]

He's a therapist, but he's still.

[Dusty Slay]

He's a juco.

[Mike Vecchione]

You guys are stretching. You guys are stretching. I'm sorry.

[Brian Bates]

I complete list, guys. Everything else is a stretch now. TV shows. Abbott elementary. Probably the biggest sitcom on today.

[Nate Bargatze]

Oh, I just watched AP Bio with the guy who I watched. Season one is unbelievable.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah, it's very funny. He's great. He's a.

[Nate Bargatze]

Season two was a Real drop off right away. But season one was unbelievable.

[Mike Vecchione]

AP Bio. I did watch.

[Brian Bates]

Welcome Back Cotter.

[Aaron Weber]

Saved by the bill, Head of the class.

[Brian Bates]

I guess it's more about the kids.

[Nate Bargatze]

Oh, totally. About school, though, right?

[Brian Bates]

Yeah, that's true. Well, then Breaking Bad.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yes.

[Dusty Slay]

That's Friday Night Lights.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Is about.

[Aaron Weber]

I've still never watched that whole. Whole movie series.

[Dusty Slay]

Oh, okay.

[Aaron Weber]

I think I've seen the movie. I never watched the TV series.

[Dusty Slay]

Read the book.

[Aaron Weber]

No.

[Brian Bates]

Those who. Those who can't.

[Dusty Slay]

But you haven't finished.

[Aaron Weber]

I don't think I ever started it.

[Dusty Slay]

Oh, it's so good.

[Aaron Weber]

So, yeah, I, you know, it's the one show that I remember. Ted Alexandro, very funny comedian. And he called me one day out of nowhere and just goes, have you seen Friday Night Lights? And I go, no, no. He goes, I think you really would like it.

[Dusty Slay]

I think you.

[Aaron Weber]

I appreciate that, man.

[Dusty Slay]

I think you would.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. I was thinking about that. Like, it was. That was it. Just a good. Just a wonderful person. Just going.

[Mike Vecchione]

He had a very funny web series called Teachers Lounge.

[Aaron Weber]

He was a teacher, by the way.

[Mike Vecchione]

He was a teacher. He was a music teacher, Ted. And he's one of our. He's a great comic.

[Aaron Weber]

Unreal.

[Mike Vecchione]

So funny.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, he had a very fun web series. Yeah. Teachers Lounge. He has a lot of jokes about teaching. Yeah, that's funny that. That came up and. Yeah, yes, they very, very funny jokes about teaching.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

He's a great comic.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Those who can't. It was. Is it the GICs? Is that what.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, the guys from Denver.

[Brian Bates]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was their show then. Roy Scoville was the principal. It was very funny.

[Mike Vecchione]

Oh, wow.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

And songs about teachers. Hot for teacher.

[Nate Bargatze]

Hot for teacher.

[Mike Vecchione]

Hot for teacher. The only one.

[Brian Bates]

Another brick in the wall.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yes.

[Nate Bargatze]

Oh, what about. We don't. No, no, that's another brick in the wall. What about schools at out for Summer?

[Aaron Weber]

It's in. Scream. I like that one.

[Nate Bargatze]

Out for.

[Brian Bates]

That's when teachers are not involved.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Well, it's still about it, though.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Aaron Weber]

All right.

[Brian Bates]

That's Teachers.

[Aaron Weber]

Teachers.

[Mike Vecchione]

All right.

[Aaron Weber]

We did it.

[Dusty Slay]

We covered it all.

[Brian Bates]

Thank you for your service.

[Mike Vecchione]

Now, thank you for having me on the. Are we. Are we winding down or.

[Aaron Weber]

We're winding down. This is it. No, this.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, thank you. Can I do a big reveal? I did a reveal on stage over the weekend.

[Nate Bargatze]

Cracker Barrel, if you're listening, he's wearing.

[Brian Bates]

A Cracker Barrel short.

[Mike Vecchione]

Wearing a Cracker Barrel short. Dusty, I didn't know that you Were representing that.

[Aaron Weber]

The face of Cracker Bar.

[Mike Vecchione]

The face of Cracker Barrel. But I want you to know that I'm on board. And if you need another face, maybe somebody from the north. I'm a candidate.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Are those commercial sort of running?

[Nate Bargatze]

I don't know. I. I've seen them. I bet they are, though.

[Brian Bates]

Okay.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

All right.

[Nate Bargatze]

My neighbor told me they were running quite a bit. She alluded to the fact that she was sick of seeing it.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, I've seen a lot of it. Yeah, I saw a lot of that.

[Dusty Slay]

I'm sick of you on Cracker Barrel. I'm sick of you at the airport every time I'm there.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Check your bags. Snape Bar Gety.

[Mike Vecchione]

Check your bags.

[Aaron Weber]

Someone's got to tell them, man. Someone's got. That was one of my goals.

[Dusty Slay]

Make sure it's your suitcase. Snake Bar Getsy.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

Trying to get my bag.

[Aaron Weber]

That's because you're here. It's too much. You know what? I'm gonna start calling you when you're there so you can get a double dose.

[Dusty Slay]

Remind me to check my bag.

[Brian Bates]

Oh, I have flashbacks.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Just to go away. He should.

[Brian Bates]

Yeah, I jump.

[Aaron Weber]

He does need to check his bags.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah, you've heard that. Y' all heard that?

[Nate Bargatze]

I heard it one time when I was in a bookstore and then I saw your book on the shelf in the airport.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Nate Bargatze]

There is a lot of Nate in.

[Brian Bates]

It's too much.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

You want to talk about your week turn up?

[Aaron Weber]

Sorry about. It's all, you know, worked really hard. Yeah. I'll be in South Carolina. Nice. Columbia, Jacksonville and Orlando this weekend. Very, very, very pumped and excited. Their tour has been great. And then Reading. Pennsylvania. Yeah. Then it'll keep rolling, man. And we're. Yeah, we love it. We're having a blast. We got. We got a new dog. I don't know if he's going to make out all the dates, but he'll be. Philly will be there. Not this weekend, so actually don't.

[Brian Bates]

Yeah, Brian B. Speaking.

[Mike Vecchione]

Can I say thank you guys for having me on? I really appreciate it. Are we going around?

[Dusty Slay]

Okay.

[Mike Vecchione]

Well, I didn't know if we were closing. No.

[Dusty Slay]

That's really nice of you.

[Aaron Weber]

We are.

[Dusty Slay]

You have the floor.

[Mike Vecchione]

Okay. Well, let me know when it's my turn.

[Aaron Weber]

Okay.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

I'm sorry, folks. That's. That was Mike mc. This is Brian Bay speaking. Let's see. The Home Before Dark tour comes to Huntsville this Sunday, 6pm Show. It'll be over by 7:30. You'll be home before dark. Come on out. Great time. A lot of people. I did.

[Aaron Weber]

Is you calling it that or you just made that up right now?

[Brian Bates]

No, somebody. Somebody. Was it somebody on here? Or maybe somebody wrote in and I think I just.

[Aaron Weber]

Why would it not be called the Easy to Drive Tour?

[Brian Bates]

Well, it is, but it's. It's morphed into a bunch of different cars.

[Aaron Weber]

Easy to Drive was the. That was the tour name.

[Brian Bates]

Easier to drive. Yeah, I know. Yeah, it's been.

[Aaron Weber]

It's trying to help you out by going. Maybe don't change your tour name up every five cities.

[Brian Bates]

Well, it's not.

[Nate Bargatze]

That's good, though.

[Brian Bates]

Home Before Dark.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Well, it never had an official name because quite frankly, places I'm going these days are not easier to drive. Thank you very much. So. But anyway, I am in Chicago August 31st at Zany's. That's a four o' clock show. So that. So you'll really be Home before dark.

[Dusty Slay]

Yeah.

[Brian Bates]

For that then.

[Nate Bargatze]

Good thing in Chicago. Right, Right. Because it's dangerous.

[Mike Vecchione]

Yeah, it's very dangerous.

[Brian Bates]

Then Cincinnati and Brookhaven, Mississippi. Mississippi.

[Mike Vecchione]

All right.

[Aaron Weber]

Oh, yeah.

[Brian Bates]

Perry Gould, Arkansas. You don't have to keep pulling those.

[Dusty Slay]

That's all right.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dusty Slay]

I'll stop when you stop.

[Brian Bates]

You started it, so.

[Aaron Weber]

Okay. Yeah. Okay.

[Mike Vecchione]

All right.

[Aaron Weber]

Go ahead, Aaron.

[Brian Bates]

No, Mike, are you. You want to save him for last?

[Aaron Weber]

No, I was joking. Because he.

[Mike Vecchione]

Because I jumped it.

[Aaron Weber]

Because he jumped it. I was gonna skip him.

[Mike Vecchione]

I didn't know what we were. I'm sorry. I was confused. I didn't know what we were doing. Please, I have some dates of my own. These are. I didn't update my website, so I'm sorry about that. Des Moines, Iowa, August 15th and 16th. That's this weekend.

[Dusty Slay]

Nice.

[Mike Vecchione]

At the Funny Bone, Hartford, Connecticut. The Hartford Funny Bone. Funny Bones love me and I love them.

[Nate Bargatze]

I love the Funny Bones.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

In Nashville, Tennessee. Right here. The Zany's Lab. Right after Christmas.

[Dusty Slay]

Awesome.

[Mike Vecchione]

So 2626 7th at comic MikeV on all social media platforms. Please follow me if you don't. And I appreciate going on your tour, Nate. It's unbelievable every time. And I appreciate being on the Nateland YouTube page. And if you haven't watched my special Low Income White, I put a lot of work into it. I do not even have my own podcast. I put everything into standup. So please go and watch it.

[Aaron Weber]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

I appreciate it. Thank you. It's great.

[Dusty Slay]

It's great. Aaron Weber here, the Grove Comedy Club, Lowell, Arkansas, at the end of this month, August 22nd, 23rd, throwing out the first pitch of the minor league baseball team. N. I've been saying it for a while. The tour's about to kick in, dude.

[Brian Bates]

So apparently you gave the wrong name of the team.

[Dusty Slay]

I did give the wrong name of the team. I'm sorry about that. The minor league baseball team in northwest Arkansas. That's the one I'm doing it for. So that. And then that's all plug now with the Opry on Friday, but okay.

[Nate Bargatze]

On Thursday, I'm doing a Cracker Barrel corporate gig.

[Mike Vecchione]

Nice.

[Nate Bargatze]

Yeah. And then. Yeah. And then Friday I'm in Madison, Wisconsin. Saturday, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then the next weekend, I got a zany show on a Tuesday, the 19th. And then I'm in Prestonberg, Kentucky, and Princeton, West Virginia.

[Dusty Slay]

Oh, wow.

[Mike Vecchione]

Awesome.

[Dusty Slay]

Wow. We're in Milwaukee, Paps.

[Nate Bargatze]

Paps. Yeah.

[Mike Vecchione]

Oh, that's awesome.

[Dusty Slay]

Cool.

[Aaron Weber]

Yeah. All right. All right. That's it.

[Dusty Slay]

We love you, Philly.

[Aaron Weber]

Say bye. We love you. All right, talk to you later. Bye. It.