My BattleBots Creator - Trey Roski

Summary

Tosh Show – “My BattleBots Creator – Trey Roski” Original Air Date: April 7, 2026

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EPISODE OVERVIEW

Comedian Daniel Tosh sits down with Trey Roski, co-creator of the iconic robot fighting competition BattleBots. Together, they go deep into the show’s quirky origins, its evolution from a cult event into a pop culture phenomenon, and the enduring spectacle of robot warfare. The conversation ranges from early technical struggles to the unique intersection of comedy, STEM inspiration, and competitive engineering—all peppered with Daniel’s signature irreverence and banter.

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HIGHLIGHTS & KEY THEMES

• Origins of BattleBots & Early Robot Wars
• Oddities and Insider Stories from Comedy Central days
• The Mechanical and Cultural Evolution of BattleBots
• STEM Education and Youth Robotics
• AI, Autonomy, and the Future of Combat Robots
• The Vegas Live Show and New Pro League
• Trey’s Perspective on Technology, Cheating, and Comedy

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TIMESTAMPS & DETAILED DISCUSSION

1. Daniel Tosh’s Palm Springs (and Plastic Bag Catastrophe) [01:14 – 13:59]

• Daniel regales the crew with vacation tales: a sensitive fire alarm, a squad of firemen asking for underwear photos, and a legendary incident involving a plastic bag, fried chicken & waffles with eggs Benedict, and an urgent call of nature.
  • "You were coming up here to save my family’s life. It’s the least I can do. So now I’m posing shirtless in underwear with the Breathe Right strip with these ripped young firefighters..." – Daniel Tosh [06:41]
  • Memorable moment: Daniel’s candid reflection on abandoning a “square” plastic bag in the desert and pondering the fate of its mysterious contents.

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2. Introducing Trey Roski & Early Inspirations [17:50 – 21:08]

• Daniel formally welcomes Trey, jumping straight into the existential: “Do you believe in ghosts?” [17:51]

  • “No.” – Trey, succinctly [17:53]

• Of course, the obvious path not taken: “Are you still happy you went with the BattleBots route instead of the lucrative yet disgusting world of sex robots?” [17:54]

  • “That’s a good question. Sex sells, so I know it’s—” – Trey [18:02]

• Trey’s childhood with erector sets, early tinkering, and the mechanical curiosity foundational to future robot builders.

  • “Most of our contestants start with things like that to build. Even today they’ll start with Legos.” – Trey [18:32]

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3. The Birth of BattleBots (And Law Machine) [18:50 – 23:34]

• Origin story: Created with his cousin Greg, with roots back to the mid-90s Robot Wars conceived by Mark Thorpe, a George Lucas/ILM model builder.
  • “He first built a vacuum cleaner that he put on a remote control tank… he started bumping into things…decided, hey, maybe I’ll get my ILM friends to build some robots.” – Trey [19:31]
• Daniel marvels as Trey details the construction of their first competitive robot, La Machine—a $200 wedge, using scavenged boat starter motors and a car battery from a friend’s Honda Civic.
  • “We didn’t have a charger, so we’d put it back in the car, start the car, and let the car charge it.” – Trey [21:08]
• La Machine upsets a much heavier champion, delighting the crowd.
  • “We ended up winning the middleweight competition that year, and we ended up winning the heavyweight melee that year.” – Trey [21:57]

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4. BattleBots: From Underground to Comedy Central [25:12 – 27:22]

• BattleBots’ TV journey: pitching, initial skepticism, and how Debbie Liebling of Comedy Central saw something in the chaos.
  • “Debbie Liebling…kind of in charge, saw it and said, yeah, this is funny.” – Trey [25:34]
• Trey insists it’s treated as a real sport, not edited for punchlines.
  • “It was a sport to us. We weren’t going to let them edit the fight…This is a real sport.” – Trey [25:47]
• Daniel’s inside-baseball observations on the network’s odd comedy priorities, host quirks (Bill Dwyer’s single ‘L’), and infamous guest hosts from Carmen Electra to Donna D'Errico.
  • “She didn’t know the market. Those nerd kids don’t want to hang out with Carmen.” – Daniel [27:44]

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5. DIY Culture and STEM Impact [29:38 – 31:24]

• Parenting tangent: Daniel’s son’s destructive “inventions” and the parallels with Trey and Greg’s early creativity.
  • “You should encourage him actually. Best thing you can do if you’ve got something that breaks…give it to him. Let him take it apart. What he could learn from that is phenomenal.” – Trey [29:38]
• Post-Central, Trey launches a nonprofit to promote robotics for kids.
  • “It’s kind of the whole point of BattleBots is to get kids interested in math and physics and building little things like that.” – Trey [31:24]
  • Inspiring story: All-girls Catholic school in Miami still building BattleBots thanks to alumna Andrea Suarez (“Witch Doctor”) [31:48]

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6. Cost of Robot Wars & Notable Underdogs [33:27 – 35:44]

• The spendy and the scrappy: some teams drop $70K on hi-tech bots, others (like 9- and 10-year-olds with carpeted wooden boxes) win with $200 in duct tape and cleverness.
  • “Duct tape is good.” – Daniel [35:29]
  • “We outlawed duct tape after that too.” – Trey [35:31]

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7. Cheating, Tech, and the Edge of the Rules [35:49 – 39:05]

• Cheating: It’s mostly about pushing boundaries. Mythbusters' Jamie Hyneman’s psychological warfare, signal jamming, paint as a defensive weapon, and Daniel’s (always comedic) effort to “beat the system.”
  • *“You can’t do that. So, the rules are basically—" * – Trey, on signal jamming [37:57]
  • “I want a robot that just starts laying bricks and just builds a wall around [the opponent].” – Daniel [38:46]

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8. Robots, Drones, and the Human Element [39:27 – 43:22]

• The military’s interest in BattleBots alumni, the influence of companies like Boston Dynamics (creature combat teasers, anyone?), and the ongoing discussion: Are AI-driven robots interesting?
  • “It's the human element... when this AI robot goes up against a human driving a robot, that's interesting to me. But if you had two AI robots going against each other, that would be boring.” – Trey [42:44]

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9. Las Vegas Live Show & The BattleBots Pro League [48:09 – 53:41]

• Details on the BattleBots Vegas residency: family-friendly, all ages, with both pro-built and amateur robots in action.
  • “We have a couple dozen robots that were made by the professional teams… we also have proving grounds… for the newbies.” – Trey [48:17]
• Famous faces in the crowd: Chris Angel, Donny Osmond, but alas, not Celine Dion or Carrot Top.
• Daniel and Trey dig into arena safety protocols, discussing tops, filtration, and explosive battery management.

The next phase:

• The new Pro League, filmed for YouTube with independent sponsorship—a huge shift from the traditional broadcast model.
  • “Now because we’re going to YouTube and we’re going to be a YouTube full show now we can get our own sponsors. So we got our very first sponsor…” – Trey [51:20]
  • Filming 20 episodes April, airing June/July.

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10. Miscellaneous Fascinations: From Chopper Pilots to Giveaways [44:07 – 47:14]

• Trey’s love for flying helicopters, why he won’t do it in bad weather, and skepticism about personal human-carrying drones.
• Daniel gifts Trey an array of random items, including “legs” for a robot, a Japanese dustbin, and his Comedy Central gold record (“I thought it was weird to hang your own stuff up…”).

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NOTABLE QUOTES

• On Parenting and Tinkering:

  • "You should encourage him actually… Give him a toaster. If it doesn’t work and you’re going to throw it away…and you’re not going to get it fixed, which most things you don’t today.” – Trey [29:38]

• On the Origin of the Roomba:

  • "He invented the Roomba." – Daniel Tosh [19:49]
  • "I would say that’s pretty accurate." – Trey [19:51]

• On The Human Element vs. AI:

  • "You kind of ask yourself: do you want to see football players that aren’t human? ...It’s the human element." – Trey [42:12, 42:44]

• On Being Outlawed:

  • "We outlawed duct tape after that." – Trey [35:31]

• On Trying to Beat the System:

  • "What about a robot that just starts laying bricks and just builds a wall around [the opponent]?" – Daniel Tosh [38:46]

• On BattleBots’ Long Game:

  • "Did you ever think…that here you are 30 years later and you’re like, yeah, still doing that, building robots?" – Daniel Tosh [52:01]

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MEMORABLE MOMENTS

• Daniel’s epic tale of vacation mishaps and a “deserted” plastic bag [03:05–13:29]
• Trey's stories about building robots with scavenged car parts, and letting young kids outsmart big tech with duct tape [21:08–35:44]
• Anecdotes about Carmen Electra misunderstanding nerd fandom and Donna D’Errico kissing broken robots [26:51–28:41]
• Live improvisation and attempted “robot parenting” with Daniel's son’s toys [29:11–29:54]
• The transition from TV to YouTube, and finally landing the show’s first outside sponsor after 30 years [51:08–52:01]
• Daniel contemplating a world where wars are resolved by BattleBots [39:33–39:44]

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BATTLEBOTS AND THE FUTURE

• New Show: “BattleBots Pro League” will stream on YouTube (filming April, likely airing June/July 2026)
• Las Vegas Live: Family-friendly, ongoing, featuring pro and up-and-coming robots. Open to all ages and backgrounds.
• Continued Mission: Inspiring the next generation to build, tinker, and challenge the status quo—in a box loaded with saws, hammers, and the occasional crowd-pleasing fireball.

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Summary prepared for listeners who want a full rundown of both the comedy and the history, with easy navigation to the most insightful, offbeat, or hilarious moments.

Transcript

[Daniel Tosh]

This episode of Tosh show is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states. Hey guys, it's me, Daniel. Do me a solid. I don't ask for a lot, but like and subscribe to this podcast also, you could rate it highly. I would appreciate, maybe even write a review. Maybe we become best friends. Comedy Central is one of the few companies in 01 that wasn't preempted during 9 11. BattleBots was on during that coverage. I'm just pointing that out.

[Trey]

Yep.

[Daniel Tosh]

Posh show. Posh show. Toss show. Welcome to Toss Show. I'm Daniel. There's Eddie.

[Eddie]

What's up, Daniel?

[Daniel Tosh]

Man? I'll tell you what's up, Ed.

[Eddie]

Okay.

[Daniel Tosh]

You know, I went to Palm Springs and had a delightful time. Now, when I go to Palm Springs, I usually rent a mid century modern in downtown Palm Springs and I try to pretend I'm in the Rat Pack, right?

[Eddie]

You know, the old flavor.

[Daniel Tosh]

Yeah, I smoke constantly. I push Carly around.

[Eddie]

Hey, get over here.

[Daniel Tosh]

Yeah, you know how it is. The golden days of show business.

[Eddie]

The golden days.

[Daniel Tosh]

No, I don't do that, but I do always rent a mid century and I do listen to a lot of Rat Pack music while I'm there. Now this time I decided to do something different. This year. We broke tradition and I said we're going to rent a house in Palm Desert. Okay. Now that's a neighboring community, but it's much closer to Indian Wells where we're going to watch tennis. So the commute's gonna be a lot less. Now, first of all, the house we rented, just beautiful hillside home. It turns out it's. What's his name? Bobby Burke. It's his house. Okay, now you know who he is. No, you don't. He's. He was on Queer Eye. He was like, he's the guy on Queer Eye that does the real work. You know, he's not the guy that like combs somebody's hair and goes, oh, there you look pretty. He's the guy, like, builds them a home.

[Trey]

Okay, okay.

[Daniel Tosh]

So. So his area, his taste and area of expertise all comes together in this property that he owns that he rents out. And it's just beautiful.

[Eddie]

Awesome.

[Daniel Tosh]

Oh, it's a beautiful home. A lot of structures. So I could put family members in different Areas had a pickleball court.

[Eddie]

This is good.

[Daniel Tosh]

Anyway. Great. Now, do I have a complaint? It wouldn't be me if I didn't.

[Eddie]

I bet you do.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay, now, I bring a candle with me, you know, set the mood in case the kids go down early with no fuss and my wife's got a hankering for some tomfoolery. I'm ready to go. Right, okay. So I have a candle lit. Then at no tomfoolery, just got a candle. No, I lit the candle, she's asleep. And then I'm like, well, I'm gonna fall asleep. I better blow the candle out. Blow the candle out.

[Trey]

Smart.

[Daniel Tosh]

Yeah, you blow a candle, next thing I know, oh, no. All the fire alarms are going off

[Eddie]

from the candle being blown out.

[Daniel Tosh]

The smoke from the candle triggered a fire alarm. Now here's the problem. There's like four different structures all the way down the hillside, and they're all connected. So my in laws, they're down there trying to figure out why their fire alarm. Nobody has a clue.

[Eddie]

You have to go up and down a hill.

[Daniel Tosh]

It's just awful. There's just. I'm manually turning them off in each room. I got two kids asleep. My wife is furious. Then I find one smoked area that's like 20ft high in this like two story area. I'm like, well, I can't get to that button. And then I go to the alarm, the house alarm, and it says the fire alarm's going off. And my wife just quickly like type in the house code they gave us for the doors. And I did. And it just shut off.

[Trey]

It worked.

[Daniel Tosh]

I was like, oh, thank goodness. Then I go up there, check on the kids. Guess what? Still sound asleep.

[Trey]

That's great.

[Daniel Tosh]

I'm like, this is amazing. Now we have other guests and they have kids. I didn't check on them.

[Eddie]

That's their problem.

[Daniel Tosh]

You think the story, you think this is just the end of the story? No, the story gets way better. Okay? You have to understand, this house also is very remote. And it is the last house on the end of a road that is a single lane road that's, you know, going up and down canyons, half dirt, half paved. Anyway, I'm getting the house settled. It's like 11 or so at night now. I'm climbing back and all of a sudden I see lights like crazy. And there's a fire truck in the driveway.

[Eddie]

No.

[Daniel Tosh]

And I'm like, you got to fucking be kidding me. And it's gated driveway. So they, you know, they have their Own key that they can open up. So I run downstairs and I'm like, hey, guys, I don't know what happened. And the main guy gets out. The captain. We'll call him, okay? He's irritated. He goes, I came up here last night for a false alarm. Are you the owner? I'm like, no, I'm not the owner and I just got here today. He goes, you need to tell the owner of this place, get this fixed. We're coming up here every night because the fire alarms are going off. And I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't, you know, nothing I do could have done. I. I typed. I tried to get it turned off. I didn't know I needed to call in to cancel. He's got a little bit. He's getting a little mean.

[Eddie]

Right.

[Daniel Tosh]

But I mean, I'm. I understand.

[Eddie]

Sure.

[Daniel Tosh]

He's got to back a truck down the craziest driveway in the world. Next thing I know, another one of the fire guys gets out. Young guy, big guy. Goes, you Daniel Tosh?

[Eddie]

I'm like, yeah, good, thank you.

[Daniel Tosh]

I'm like, yeah, I'm Dan. Daniel Tosh. He's like, what's up? That gets the other guys out of the truck. It's Daniel. So we're all just. Meanwhile, I'm in my underwear and I got a breathe right strip on.

[Eddie]

That's good.

[Daniel Tosh]

You know, that's how I sleep at night. I've got boxers and a breathe right strip. And they're like, can we get photos with you? And I'm like, yeah, of course you can get photos with me.

[Eddie]

Yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

You know, you were coming up here to save my family's life. It's the least I can do. So now I'm posing shirtless in underwear with the breathe bright strip with these ripped young fighters, good looking firefighters in front of their trucks with the lights on. And I'm just like. I'm just like posing.

[Trey]

Oh. You know, as the captain light.

[Eddie]

Yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

Was he like, the captain lightened his mood? Yeah. He's like, I don't know who you are. And I'm like, oh, it's okay. You don't need to. He's like, well, let me. Let me look it up. I'll watch some stuff. I'm like, well, wait till you get back. Come on. Anyway, so that was. That was our. Our. Our instance. Anyway, I appreciate Bobby Burke's place, but I want him to know that his. His fire alarms are a bit sensitive. Sensitivity needs to be dialed down, dial, dial it down. I was just trying to have, you know, just a nice little candle in my room. It wasn't even near the fire alarm. It was, it was, you know, near the nightstand. Whatever. I'm just giving him information now. This is just for him. Okay, but this, this is only part one of this nonsense. And you need to know that the house is extremely far away from, like, the main road. Like, you have to really travel to get to the house. Like, once you get off the main road, it's another 10 minutes of driving. Now, why is that important? I'll tell you. They don't have any EV charging. Okay. Now, my wife and I came up separately. She came up early, do a little shopping, go out to lunch. And she said, why don't you just wait till the kids get out of school and you take the kids and Carl? And I'm like, that's perfect.

[Trey]

Deal.

[Daniel Tosh]

I'll just get stuck in traffic with two screaming kids and a dog and we'll drive the, the four hour drive, which under normal, you know, driving would be two and a half anyway. I do it because I know that in a relationship it's about trying to give more than the other person. Okay, so we have two EVs and you can't charge at the house. Okay. So I have to charge one of them at Target down the street.

[Trey]

Okay.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay. And I say, come pick me up and we'll go out to breakfast. Nice, right? Nothing wrong here. So we go to this breakfast place. I should remember the name of it. It's popular in the Palm Desert area. And one of the guys came up to me and just told me at the restaurant, he goes, just love the podcast. And anytime somebody specifically says the podcast, I feel like, okay, this person is, is making some effort to endear themselves to me by complimenting my latest project. Yeah, So I liked it. Now, what was the special that day? It was fried chicken over waffles with eggs Benedict on top of it. And I'm like, well, that sounds delicious.

[Trey]

Yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

And my wife just looked at me like, are you nuts? And I'm like, what are you talking about? It's fried chicken and waffles with eggs Benedict on top of it. Yeah, this is delicious. So I devour this and I'm like, okay, let's get out of here. We have friends with us at this breakfast. Let's get out of here. But we gotta swing by Target to pick up my car. It's finished charging. You don't want your car to stay on a charger. They now, like, have a little extra charge for just eating up. Well, I didn't like that, so I wanted to get back there. Anyway. We agreed to get, I think, my son or daughter, like a Lego or something from Target. So we were going to walk in there because we didn't find a good toy store. So we walk into Target. As soon as we walk in, I say to my wife, whoa, My stomach doesn't feel great. And she's like, no shit.

[Eddie]

She told you, man.

[Daniel Tosh]

And I'm like, I'm going to just leave. Is that okay? If you just. You stay with the kids and do the. Get the Lego, because. And she's like, how are you going? I go, there's. We have two cars here. She's like, right, right. She's like, take off. No big deal. I'm like, perfect, I'll take off. So I drive the five to seven minutes to the turnoff. Okay, okay. At about the five and a half minute mark, my stomach's like, you're not gonna make it. But right when I get the turnoff to where the house is, I have, I told you, 10 more minutes of backwoods driving. And as soon as I turn off, I'm like, I think I can make it. I get stuck behind the slowest car in the world. And I'm like, oh, no. And, like, just. Just having to be behind this car, I'm like, this isn't good. This isn't good. So I look, look in the car. I'm in my wife's car. I took hers, her suv, and I say, oh, she's got this huge plastic bag that she had just bought a little outfit for my daughter. And I go, I'm just gonna. I just pulled over real quick. I. I emptied out the stuff that was in the plastic bag, and I just stand behind the front seats in the suv and I just explode in this bag.

[Eddie]

Did you blow right through the bag?

[Daniel Tosh]

No, no, it's a big, heavy plastic bag. I explode in it. I fill this bag. It's kind of nice. And then there's tons of wipes because this is my wife's car, and we've got, you know, we got a young daughter. So I had wipes, and I'm like, this is nice. And then I tie this big, huge bag up nicely, and I open the door and I just set it outside on the side of the road. Okay. I mean, this is littering. I know.

[Trey]

Yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

But I, I, there's nothing. I'm not keeping it in the car. So I set it down, and again, this is kind of deserty area. So much. Let me just bring this back to one more thing. When I pulled off of this road the first time with my son, he had just woken up from a nap, and he goes, dad, I woke up and we're in Mexico. I don't know why he appropriates, but it was a good observation. Cause it definitely feels like you're out there. Anyway, so I dropped this bag off, and I get home, and I make it to the bathroom again for rounds three and four. I sat on the bag for two rounds, one and two. Anyway, I. So then I. Everybody gets home, and I immediately tell the story that I didn't make it. You know, I got close, but they are like, it is a long distance from the main road to this house. Almost sympathetic. They're like, why didn't you go to Target? I'm like, eh, I thought I could make it. Anyway, later that night, we're leaving to go back to tennis for the evening session. Okay. And I point out the bag. I'm like, there it is. My wife's freaking. She. Why is it such a. Why is it so square? And I'm like, I don't know why it's square. Like. Like the sh. She was shocked at the bulk of the bag. Right. On the way back that night, we'll stop. I'll take a photo of it for the podcast, you know. Anyway, on the way back, the bag's gone.

[Eddie]

Oh, man.

[Daniel Tosh]

So either someone picked it up, but I can't imagine somebody cleaned up because it's so remote. I think an animal took it.

[Eddie]

Yes.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay, so an animal took it and had a snack. I mean, I know what you're saying. Fried chicken waffles with eggs Benedict.

[Eddie]

That's a Daniel shooter. That's. That's setting you up.

[Daniel Tosh]

It got me. Oh, it got me.

[Eddie]

I like Carly being like, are you crazy?

[Daniel Tosh]

No. Well, because it was just. It was a fun order.

[Trey]

Uhhuh.

[Daniel Tosh]

You. If you're going to make that your special, I'm going to order it. All right. We got to get to it. By the way, today's episode. You love robots, right, Ed?

[Eddie]

It is my thing. I like it. I used to draw them, remember, on airplanes, so people wouldn't talk to me.

[Daniel Tosh]

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[Trey]

Thank you for having me.

[Daniel Tosh]

First question, do you believe in ghosts?

[Trey]

No.

[Daniel Tosh]

Are you still happy you went with the BattleBots route instead of the lucrative yet disgusting world of sex robots?

[Trey]

That's a good question. You know, sex sells, so I know it's.

[Daniel Tosh]

We all know it sells. Did you ever know anyone from that world that was working on sex robots? Is like, hey, you know what? I could create something that might do some damage in the ring. Is that a no?

[Trey]

No. Okay. No.

[Daniel Tosh]

I don't know. I just feel like it's such a parallel world. Have you always been into robots?

[Trey]

Yeah, more or less.

[Daniel Tosh]

Do you have an erector set as a child?

[Trey]

I did.

[Daniel Tosh]

Did you like it?

[Trey]

I did.

[Daniel Tosh]

I loved my Rector set.

[Trey]

It was a lot of fun. Most of our contestants start with things like that to build. Even today they'll start with Legos.

[Daniel Tosh]

What about Magna tiles? I feel like those aren't good. My kid loves Legos. But I had the Rector set. That was fun.

[Trey]

That was the best.

[Daniel Tosh]

Yeah. Tightening bolts all day long. You created BattleBots with your cousin Greg.

[Trey]

Correct.

[Daniel Tosh]

That's pretty great. When did you create it?

[Trey]

Back in 1994. 95 is when it all started with Robot Wars. And then actual BattleBots came into existence in 98, 99.

[Daniel Tosh]

But first of all, how old were you when you guys created this?

[Trey]

Fresh out of college. So, you know, 20 something.

[Daniel Tosh]

Both from California.

[Trey]

Yes. Same area, kind of where I grew up, kind of in L. A. He was in Northern California and Marin. But our mothers were sisters and so we were. Neither of us had brothers, so we were kind of pushed together. Our mothers were best friends and they talked. They every single morning.

[Daniel Tosh]

How did you stumble into like robots actually fighting the robot wars, which was 1994. 95.

[Trey]

So Mark Thorpe, guy worked at ILM he basically built models for George Lucas. He first built a vacuum cleaner that he put on a remote control tank and he started driving around thinking he was going to make a vacuum cleaner remote control out of this so he could sit in his couch and that didn't work out.

[Daniel Tosh]

He invented the Roomba.

[Trey]

I would say that's pretty accurate.

[Daniel Tosh]

Yeah, okay.

[Trey]

But anyway, he started bumping into things and chasing things and decided, hey, maybe I'll get some of my ILM friends to build some robots. And they all showed up in 1994 for the very first Robot Wars. Cousin Greg went to that event to help Mark Citrakian. Mark Citrakian is probably one of the most incredible engineers. He built that spider man that flies through the air at Universal Studios. That's unattached to anything. He built the little face that you see open up on Men in Black.

[Daniel Tosh]

Those things are actually practical. Like, they actually existed.

[Trey]

They actually existed back then. There wasn't the CG and stuff that they could do. So they actually built the robots and they built the things. And anyway, he invited. They went to school together, they took movie class together, invited Greg.

[Daniel Tosh]

So you built one for this very first.

[Trey]

The second. So Greg and I built a robot called La Machine.

[Daniel Tosh]

La Machine. Now, why did you go with a French name?

[Trey]

Well, it just seemed like it would work.

[Daniel Tosh]

La Machines genius was its simplicity.

[Trey]

Correct. Yeah, it was a wedge. Yes, it was a wedge.

[Daniel Tosh]

You guys were going there. You saw the mistakes that people had made. They were going, you know, form over function. And you were like, no, let's make one that can actually win.

[Trey]

We didn't think we stood a chance. We had no money. We had about 200 bucks my mom had given us to buy a transmitter. We didn't have speed controllers. We got the motors out of starter motors is what we used out of boat starters. We had a battery that we took out of Gage Cachois, one of our friends, Honda Civic. And we pull it out of the Honda Civic, put it in the robot. We drive the robot for five minutes. We'd pull it back out. We didn't have a charger, and we'd put it back in the car, start the car, and let the car charge it. It was very hard to drive. So it was either all on full force, each wheel, and you had to kind of do this, turn them on and off real quick to steer.

[Daniel Tosh]

It's like driving Bigfoot. It's. I mean, I don't never driven a monster truck, but I feel like they're always doing. Running one side of the wheels to the other side, etc. All right, go on. So it immediately did well.

[Trey]

Yeah. So the steering was very, very difficult. And what I would do is back up. I was a driver, of course, and I would back up to kind of line it up. And that backing up added this anticipation to the audience. And so they'd see this thing backing up and kind of lining up, and all of a sudden you just hit the go button and it went very, very fast because it had all that juice going right into the starter motors that start. Those motors are actually pretty powerful. And it would slam into the other robots. Nobody could beat us. We ended up winning the middleweight competition that year, and we ended up winning the heavyweight melee that year. During that final heavyweight melee, the crowd started chanting Law Machine and stomping their feet. Greg was gone, sitting in the audience with his girlfriend. At the time, Mark Thorp came up to me and he said, you're going to get wasted. You want to go in? The crowd is calling for you.

[Daniel Tosh]

What was the weight difference, just out of curiosity?

[Trey]

So we were 80 pounds and the heavyweights were 160 pounds. So it was twice our weight.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay.

[Trey]

This robot, Thor, was made by a company called Schilling Robotics. It was about the size of a go kart, was all hydraulic and had this hammer that would go down, this hydraulic hammer that when that hammer went down, it would vaporize the concrete. That was the champion at the time. They said, you're going to get wasted. Mark Thorpe said, you want to go in? They're calling for you. I said, absolutely. Quickly grabbed the battery at a gauges Honda Civic, stuck it in there. Greg comes out of the audience going, what. What is he doing? You know? And we ended up winning.

[Daniel Tosh]

How'd you. How do you beat. How'd you beat him?

[Trey]

We. We kept banging on him and pushing them all in the corner. We stacked them up. Literally stacked him up in the corner. We just kept pushing them and stacking them, pushing him and stacking them. And he was smoking and hydraulic fluid going everywhere. I mean, it was.

[Daniel Tosh]

What do you win for something like that?

[Trey]

Oh, it's just pride. A trophy we had.

[Daniel Tosh]

You got a trophy, though.

[Trey]

We had a little trophy.

[Daniel Tosh]

It's like the beginning of Big Hero 6. Do you ever see that movie?

[Trey]

Yeah, absolutely. I think there's a battlebot poster in that movie.

[Daniel Tosh]

There is, Yep. That's good. Had you ever built a robot before, Law Machine?

[Trey]

I worked on a lot of things, but not a real robot. I wouldn't say a real robot. We used to. We used to build things and then kind of destroy them and blow them up as kids. So Greg and I would build things and then we'd put little M80s in them and stuff and blow them up. We, you know, back then we had Cox cars Remote controls really weren't big, didn't really exist, or you couldn't afford them. But we used to have Cox cars and stuff that would follow strings and we'd run them into each other. We'd take those airplanes that had the strings on them.

[Daniel Tosh]

Yeah.

[Trey]

Remember those around and circles and you go upside down. And we'd each go opposite directions, try to hit each other, which was a little bit difficult.

[Daniel Tosh]

I didn't think about doing a war, a little dog fight with those old planes. Spin in circles. Has the robot ever gotten loose in the crowd like a bull jumping the stands?

[Trey]

Uh, not necessarily loosen the crowd. We had a incident once. We were trying to. This is way back at the beginning with Law Machine, actually. We were trying to get a sponsor and so we went and met the Stanley Steamers, which are a group of people who built some computers. They was the HP engineers that actually invented the computer system. And they had this giant room with, you know, chrome chairs in it. Right. And we went in there to make a presentation. A robot went a little crazy there and kind of banged up a bunch of their chairs.

[Daniel Tosh]

You got an 80 pound machine flying around. That's going to do damage.

[Trey]

Yeah, a little bit of damage. We didn't. We didn't get picked up on that TV show for some reason.

[Daniel Tosh]

How did you end up at Comedy Central?

[Trey]

We went and knocked on all the doors and they actually laughed at us and said, you probably had this experience too, right? Don't call us, we'll call you. And you never hear from anybody anymore. But they kind of giggle and chuckle and say, you know, oh, this is interesting, but it's, you know, whatever. Debbie Liebling was kind of in charge, saw it and said, yeah, this is. This is funny.

[Daniel Tosh]

Did you say we didn't want it to be funny, though, or were you in a position where, like, I'm just going to see. That's always what I did when I tried to sell shows. Whatever they thought it was like, that's what I pretended that. Yes, that's exactly what I wanted it to be.

[Trey]

We. We were pretty pretty hardcore on what we thought. It was a sport to us. So we weren't going to let them edit the fight. You know, that was. Initially they came in, they said, okay, we want to edit this and make this into our comedy, you know what? And we said, no, you can't do that. This is a real sport. But around that, we let them do their comic, what I would call comic shtick. Some of it was great. One of my favorite ones was Carlo Bertichini claims that his cat was injured out in a car thing, and he built this robot, and the cat could control the robot, and the cat's sitting in the robot, driving the robot around. It was absolutely hysterical. And one of the best pieces that Comedy Central actually did.

[Daniel Tosh]

I mean, I was always. As a young comedian at the time, I was always confused by the show. At first I was like, why is it Comedy Central would always put comics in things? And I'm like, is this what I have to do? I was always baffled by some of the things they did, the fighting. That part of it. That was the interesting part. Bill Dwyer, by the way. Bill with one L. Have you ever asked him why that is?

[Trey]

It's a good question. No, I haven't.

[Daniel Tosh]

He spells his name with one L. It just. I don't never set well with me. I've known Bill for. I haven't seen Bill in forever. But he's still hosting your live show in Las Vegas now.

[Trey]

He is, and he's great and he's really funny.

[Daniel Tosh]

The Sklar brothers used to be on the show as well.

[Trey]

Yeah, they were. You know what?

[Daniel Tosh]

They finish each other's thoughts. That alone is hysterical.

[Trey]

Yes.

[Daniel Tosh]

Let's see you and your cousin do that.

[Trey]

Yeah, that's not going to happen.

[Daniel Tosh]

And then what? You had Carmen Electra?

[Trey]

Yeah, she. She didn't really pull. I didn't like her, to be honest.

[Daniel Tosh]

You didn't like Carmen Electra?

[Trey]

It was funny during the filming and she came out the first time and all the kids would by her. She was sitting down once and she saw these kids running and she thought they were coming to take a picture with her or do something with her. They ran right past her to some of the engineers of the contestant, and her face changed from.

[Daniel Tosh]

She didn't know the market. You got to know the market. Those nerd kids don't want to hang out with Carmen.

[Trey]

No.

[Daniel Tosh]

She's no Jenny McCarthy. Okay.

[Trey]

Tracy Bingham was great.

[Daniel Tosh]

Tracy Bingham.

[Trey]

Yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

I mean, listen to. Listen to all these people that were on BattleBots back in. When did it get picked up from Comedy Central? 2000. 2001.

[Trey]

Yeah, it was 99 or 2000. Somewhere right around that.

[Daniel Tosh]

Comedy Central is one of the few companies in 01 that wasn't preempted during 911 BattleBots was on during that coverage. I'm just pointing that out. It's a weird moment to have robots destroying things. Donna Dierko.

[Trey]

Donna Dierko was absolutely my favorite. She was a genius. She did stuff that actual comedy. That was so funny. This kid had lost. He was probably 8 years old. His robot got destroyed. And she says with a little kiss, make you feel better. And the kid looks up and his eyes open up and everything else. She bends over and kisses the robot.

[Daniel Tosh]

Huh.

[Trey]

It was absolute classic. It was. There was nothing funnier I seen.

[Daniel Tosh]

Is an eight year old really making a robot?

[Trey]

They obviously have help, but.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay, yeah, this is what my son built. You tell me this at five.

[Trey]

Okay.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay, yeah, this is this. He's got a car. He tapes. First of all, the rocket was still good. And he breaks it and he tapes it onto a car. And he's like, dad. And I'm like, ah, you just took two toys and turned it into one shitty toy.

[Trey]

This is exactly what Greg and I used to do as kids at his age.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay, so you're telling me my son might have something?

[Trey]

He might, yes.

[Daniel Tosh]

Let me see if this thing works.

[Trey]

His brain is thinking correctly.

[Daniel Tosh]

Get this off my desk. My son built this.

[Trey]

That's great.

[Daniel Tosh]

Oh, there it goes.

[Trey]

Yeah, it worked.

[Eddie]

That's good.

[Trey]

We'll see what happens when the dog.

[Eddie]

It's still going.

[Daniel Tosh]

Yeah, it's going.

[Trey]

It even prided itself when it turned over.

[Daniel Tosh]

So I shouldn't be mad at him for destroying two toys?

[Trey]

Absolutely not. No. You should encourage him actually. You should give him. You should listen, best thing you can do if you've got something that breaks that you're not going to fix, give it to him. Let him take it apart. What he could learn from that is phenomenal. A simple toaster. You know, if you give him that,

[Daniel Tosh]

giving him electronics like that, a toaster,

[Trey]

Give him a toaster. If it doesn't work and you're going to throw it away and you're not going to get it fixed, which most things you don't today.

[Daniel Tosh]

I'm glad you brought up a toaster though. On my toes to the plug. The third prong, it snapped off. You don't need that for anything.

[Trey]

Well, it, it, it's a safety.

[Daniel Tosh]

There's part of that's for safety.

[Trey]

That's for safety.

[Daniel Tosh]

But because I've, I've used it for years without that.

[Trey]

It doesn't, doesn't necessarily need it to work, but, but it's a good safety thing to have.

[Daniel Tosh]

Don't have it anymore. Yeah, I don't want to get rid of the toaster. It's too nice. Minus that little, little, little piece that broke off. That's the good thing about me with my son, like whenever he does something, I actually am impressed because it's like I'm like, I couldn't do it. I don't know why that. Why that works or doesn't work. Maybe I should start taking things apart. How many years were you on at Comedy Central?

[Trey]

We did five seasons.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay.

[Trey]

On Comedy Central some of those years. We did two seasons a year. But, I mean, Comedy Central did make us famous. You got to give them full credit, and they did.

[Daniel Tosh]

I don't give them full credit for any my life.

[Trey]

Well, I do.

[Daniel Tosh]

That's me. I'm. I'm bitter. Who fired you? Over at Comedy Central?

[Trey]

Do you remember Comedy Central was sold? Remember MTV ended up buying Comedy Central? Ah, so that was kind of our demise.

[Daniel Tosh]

That was my demise. Was. Was the. Over at mtv. Too old Chris, once he came over. Yeah, I shouldn't call him that

[Trey]

and edit that part out.

[Daniel Tosh]

Yeah, well, leave it in. You know, he knows what he is. After the Comedy Central show was canceled, you launched a nonprofit to teach kids robotics and promote STEM education. Why was that important to you?

[Trey]

You know, it's kind of the whole point of BattleBots is to get kids interested in math and physics and building little things like that. So if we can inspire somebody to do something that they don't normally do, I think that's the whole point. To make, you know, education fun.

[Daniel Tosh]

Any of those kids go on to,

[Trey]

like, they all end up going on and becoming engineers.

[Daniel Tosh]

No, I meant go on to, like, building a robot and fighting your thing.

[Trey]

Absolutely.

[Daniel Tosh]

Oh, okay. Yeah, that's good.

[Trey]

Yeah. I love to talk about Andreas Suarez, who's one who built Witch Doctor. She went to an all girls Catholic nun school in Miami, and the nuns fell in love with the girls asking the right questions. They're still building BattleBots there today. Makes math make sense. It makes all this stuff they try to shove into your head that, you know, what is PI?

[Daniel Tosh]

3.14.

[Trey]

Okay, what is it?

[Daniel Tosh]

I don't know. It's a circle. Okay, don't do this to me. I teach once a week at my son's school, first grade math. And let me tell you, I get panic stricken when they're like, check my work. And I'm like, all right, hold on, let me just look. And that's first grade math. So don't start with PI and its relevance to everything.

[Trey]

If you were going to build a battlebot and your son is going to build a battlebot, that's what it's going to make. PI make sense, because that's your wheel, that's your sprocket size, that's the speed that you're going to want to calculate your robot to go that math suddenly that they taught you way back when that they gave you an equation for that you know is 3.14 that you know is some circle that you don't know what that does. And most of the people that. Why did, why did you learn that?

[Daniel Tosh]

I don't know why I learned it.

[Trey]

Because somebody thought it was important.

[Daniel Tosh]

Because my parents made me.

[Trey]

Exactly. You know, but your son now is going to look at that and take that math. And now he's going to go to the car dealership when he turns 21 and you're going to buy him a car. And he's going to argue with the, the Ford dealer that that torque that they showed on the brochure is not correct because he calculated it using that equation.

[Daniel Tosh]

All right. This relationship that you've created between me and my son is not going to happen. What about the golden ratio? When do we start using that?

[Trey]

Oh, there's all kinds of crazy math out there. Yes.

[Eddie]

I think it's all crazy now.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay, now it's crazy. I got you. Talk to me about the process of building one of these robots. How much does it cost? How long does it take to build and are they completely destroyed after a match?

[Trey]

So it depends on who you are to build them. So I talked about Mark Satrakian before he built the Snake, which was one of his coolest robots in 18 days.

[Daniel Tosh]

That's a short time.

[Trey]

That's incredible. That's unbelievably incredible.

[Daniel Tosh]

I was clarifying.

[Trey]

Most people, this is more of a hobby. It's not a full time gig. I'd love. A lot of people would like to make it a full time gig. So if we get to the gambling days, eventually maybe then it will become full time and they can actually live off this. But most people spend their nights and weekends building. I would say it takes three to six months sometimes to build them. Money, you know, it all depends. You're buying parts. So if you take your time in the equation and you know how much, maybe you think you deserve an hour. How much does that cost? Or how much do you.

[Daniel Tosh]

I'm not a good example for that.

[Trey]

But the parts are not terribly expensive.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay.

[Trey]

You know, you can buy speed controllers for under a thousand bucks and motors for under a thousand bucks, depending on. So.

[Daniel Tosh]

All right. Once you start saying the word thousand, though, I'm like, it starts a lot of money just to have somebody else destroy it with their better invention.

[Trey]

There's a great story where these Professors spent about $70,000. They had cameras on board to drive with those goggles. You know that see, you know where the robot's going. They had a net throwing device back before we didn't allow net where you banned nets and which is a good reason. And they had saw as it would move in and out. They had a turret that fired this little piston cannon kind of thing. They came to win, spent a lot of money. They go up against these two boys, 9 and 10 year old, and they actually built their robot by themselves. It was two wooden boxes of multi bot that started as one and broke into two. It was two wooden boxes covered in carpet. And the light turned green. To start the match, two little boys, multi bot splits in half. In between the two robots, they had gaffer's tape, duct tape, and they duct taped them down to the floor. 200 bucks is what they spent on their robots.

[Daniel Tosh]

Duct tape is good.

[Trey]

We outlawed duct tape after that too.

[Daniel Tosh]

Oh, you did? Yeah, just after that match. You didn't let them go again? Well, you know, it was stifle a nine year old's creativity.

[Trey]

It was great. The crowd didn't stop clapping and cheering and didn't sit down. It was.

[Daniel Tosh]

That's amazing.

[Trey]

Yeah, it was brilliant. I mean, we've had robots that kind of just skirt the system.

[Daniel Tosh]

Has there ever been a cheating scandal in the BattleBots community?

[Trey]

Not. Not exactly, that I know of. There's definitely some, you know, people that kind of push the envelope. One of my favorite ones was the mythbusters. They were battlebots contestants way before they were famous.

[Daniel Tosh]

Myth you guys created the mythbusters, basically?

[Trey]

Well, they were. Yeah, I.

[Daniel Tosh]

You gave her a platform and you

[Trey]

launched them and they. Yeah, they started. But Jamie, he goes over to his opponent and he starts talking to him. He goes, oh, we're going up against each other next. Show me your robot. Oh, that looks really cool. That's amazing. You know, and talks to him a little bit about it and then he walks away. And he takes a couple alka seltzers while his back's turned and puts those in his mouth. Starts drooling and foam is coming down. And he turns back and he looks at the guy and he's just, you know, starts getting angry and he turns all red and everything. And this guy, this opponent that he's going up against next, it's just terrified. His foam is driven all out of his. Nobody knew Jamie back then, but it was psychological warfare. He was psyching him out. So when he did get in the arena with him. That guy just kind of folded and didn't want to have anything to do with him. We've seen other stuff where people will actually go and measure parts. Like the one team will go away and they go over there and they measure and do a bunch of stuff and they're robots on the table.

[Daniel Tosh]

Well, that should be stopped. Shouldn't allow that.

[Trey]

We figure that's okay as long as they're not sabotaging the other robot.

[Daniel Tosh]

You can't measure someone's robot. I don't like it. Do you guys inspect these things, like to make sure that there's not a bomb or like, why does somebody have a hand grenade launcher and just toss that to the other opponent?

[Trey]

Yes, we, we inspect these things to make sure there's no bombs or hand

[Daniel Tosh]

launching a bomb would be a no brainer. Can you have fire?

[Trey]

You can. Yeah. And people love it. I'm not a big fan of it, to be honest with you.

[Daniel Tosh]

Well, you don't like fire.

[Trey]

Well, I'm the guy who goes in there and puts the fires out too. I've always sacrificed myself before any.

[Daniel Tosh]

I'll let Bill have Bill put a fire out. For goodness sakes. Can they fly and.

[Trey]

Yes, you can.

[Daniel Tosh]

You're allowed to fly.

[Trey]

You're allowed to fly. Yes, you can have. Lighter than air. You're thinking. I can see you're thinking.

[Daniel Tosh]

I'm always trying to beat the system. And I also just want to bet on it.

[Trey]

Yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

Can technology create something that jams the other person's signals?

[Trey]

You can't do that. So the rules are basically hack their

[Daniel Tosh]

car, make their own. The other opponent's car, commit hairy carry.

[Trey]

So we, we used to have rules. We really don't have rules anymore. But it is common sense, you know, and what we. We. Television doesn't want to see invisible weaponry. Right. That would be what I'd call invisible. If you. The robot.

[Daniel Tosh]

I agree with you. But not everything's about television. I just love. I want, I want somebody to win and I like somebody that has the ability to create that. Is that easy technology to create to jam their signals?

[Trey]

It would be pretty easy, yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

Oh, never mind.

[Trey]

Yeah. I mean, you could block their view, right? You could just block their view. They can't see to drive the robot. Then that wouldn't be exciting if their

[Daniel Tosh]

arm came up with just a can of spray paint and just start spraying paint in front of where the other driver.

[Trey]

I was thinking you're, you're gonna.

[Daniel Tosh]

I mean, I'm, I love it.

[Trey]

Yeah. Now we Start building.

[Daniel Tosh]

I like. What about. What about a. A robot that just starts laying bricks and just builds a wall around?

[Trey]

You can't have an entanglement device. Laying bricks be probably considered.

[Daniel Tosh]

I'm gonna. Not only will I show up with my legal team to dispute all of

[Trey]

your claims, we have small print.

[Eddie]

What about diplomacy? Is there room for diplomacy before the wars begin?

[Daniel Tosh]

That's a good idea, Ed. That comes out there and doesn't want to fight and just tries to turns its back. Oh, what a statement that would make in battlebots. Refusing to fight lays. Lays down their weapons that you have to engage. Has the military ever come calling?

[Trey]

They show up at every event actually and recruit. There's a few engineers that end up getting great jobs.

[Daniel Tosh]

Wouldn't that be great if that's how we solved our global conflicts, by just letting countries just battlebot each other.

[Trey]

That's a great idea.

[Daniel Tosh]

Oh man, it'd be fun to go to war.

[Trey]

I mean, we're kind of doing that now, aren't we not. I mean with all these drones and all these things that are kind of. Yeah, there's taking the human element out of it. We're kind of doing that.

[Daniel Tosh]

I'd still like us to enter a sex robot in every time. You know what we came to win. Boston Dynamics. Have they ever tried to enter any of your events?

[Trey]

Scott Lavalley, who I built robots with with a little kid, he actually built Atlas for Boston Dynamics and he worked on Big Dog, Little Dogs.

[Daniel Tosh]

The dogs. Do you think they would do well in your ring?

[Trey]

We are doing creature combat, which we did are just. We just filmed a little bit of kind of a teaser to figure it out. But we are moving on into this new kind of cre. It's not just dogs, it's creatures and it's kind of interesting to see where it goes.

[Daniel Tosh]

Alligator. Alligator would be a good. You want low to the ground. You recently competed at an Ultimate Fighting Bots event and won.

[Trey]

I did.

[Daniel Tosh]

How was operating a humanoid?

[Trey]

It's. It's. So I do have an ability to manipulate machines better than most people. So knock on wood. Never been in a car accident or anything. Just, you know, fly helicopters. I, you know, can drive just about any machine and flown just about any machine out there.

[Daniel Tosh]

You ever do that thing in Vegas where you drive heavy machinery around that like sandpit?

[Trey]

I have not done that.

[Daniel Tosh]

Do you know what I'm talking about?

[Trey]

Yeah, but that. That would be boring.

[Daniel Tosh]

It'd be. Yeah, but what if they let you fight them?

[Trey]

Oh, that'd be interesting. Yeah. It's not really geared to be fought, but that's a good idea. That's what I would do. Yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

Do you ever fantasize about tricking out a. A Waymo and destroying, like, a Tesla?

[Trey]

Oh, it would be interesting. Greg and I both worked for darpa. We were liaisons during the very first DARPA competition for autonomous cars. And my car was Carnegie Mellon, or that's a car I was a liaison for. And during the practice, the very first practice, it actually went into a wall, knocked the wall over and broke the gate. And I was like, yeah, BattleBots, man. I know. That's the coolest thing. They were like, all worried.

[Daniel Tosh]

Has AI helped improve the BattleBots?

[Trey]

You know, it's interesting to see where it goes. We do have a fully autonomous robot Orbitron, and practicing during our face offs, improving grounds and getting better. Did win its last fight. Full AI, the autonomous technology and all that is kind of interesting. I'm kind of on the fence with some of it. You know, let me jump backwards here for a second. The NFL has been showing a humanoid robot throwing a football and whatever that they've always wanted.

[Daniel Tosh]

Fox always does that nonsense.

[Trey]

And you kind of ask yourself, do you want to see football players that aren't human?

[Daniel Tosh]

Didn't they do a movie like this with what's his name, the guy that sings? The Showman? Yeah.

[Trey]

Real Steel.

[Daniel Tosh]

Real Steel. That was basically this, right?

[Trey]

I mean, that was.

[Daniel Tosh]

I didn't watch it.

[Trey]

It was a fighting thing. That. The problem is there is a lot, you know, that was all fake, and a lot of people think that was real. You know, even some who thinks Real Steel was real. A lot of TV people.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay, all right, sorry, I don't want to get you off track here. I agree with you. Nobody wants to watch robots play football.

[Trey]

It's the human element. Like when this AI robot goes up against a human driving a robot, that's interesting to me. Right? But if you had two AI robots going against each other, that would be boring. Like you mentioned the UFB event that I, that undisputed heavyweight champ right now. You know, it's. It's not that interesting because you don't, you know, when you see a guy fighting in a. You know, you see him get hit or something, you feel that. You kind of feel that experience. You go, wow, that would hurt. I mean, you watch football game, that guy gets hit and you go, I wouldn't get up. You know, that was a gnarly hit. But if it's not human, you don't feel it. You don't care. So I don't really see that being interesting.

[Daniel Tosh]

All right, fine. Done. Forget it. We'll be right back. This episode of Tosh show is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states. Paw show when did you start flying helicopter 87? You still fly?

[Trey]

I still fly. I still have my own helicopter. I was going to fly down here, but the weather was a little bad yesterday.

[Daniel Tosh]

That's good. You say no. You say no when the weather's bad.

[Trey]

Yes.

[Daniel Tosh]

Get there. Itis. Is that a real thing?

[Trey]

It's a real thing, but I don't have that problem.

[Daniel Tosh]

You don't?

[Trey]

No.

[Daniel Tosh]

You just like have a hard line? No chance.

[Trey]

I don't fly in bad weather. It's not fun.

[Daniel Tosh]

Why do helicopters struggle in bad weather?

[Trey]

They. They don't necessarily struggle in bad weather. I mean, the point is to be able to see.

[Daniel Tosh]

And I get it. But in general, why can't helicopters fly through thick fog? Why do people get twist and not figure out which way they're going?

[Trey]

Why would you want to?

[Daniel Tosh]

I don't know. I just want to know why there isn't a fail safe in helicopters that makes it.

[Trey]

I don't fly airplanes. Why? Because you can't see out of them. They give you a little teeny window. They put all these gauges in front of you.

[Daniel Tosh]

You can't even see the land half the time. They put up like cardboard in the windows just to block the sun from pounding them. It's like, why I'm not a flyer.

[Trey]

I want to see.

[Daniel Tosh]

Yeah, what about, have you flown any personal drones? The ones that can actually carry human yet?

[Trey]

No, not, not ones that carry humans yet.

[Daniel Tosh]

Would you, Would you?

[Trey]

I don't know. That's a good question. I kind of look at that entire industry and scratch my head and go, why? You know, I mean, you know, why are they reinventing the wheel? We have a perfectly good helicopter.

[Daniel Tosh]

No, because, you know, we need something. Here's why you need something. To get you out of danger and not have to actually learn how to fly a helicopter.

[Trey]

Okay, but you can autonomize a helicopter just as easy, if not easier. An existing machine and you could.

[Daniel Tosh]

Well, it's too big. Trey.

[Trey]

I hear you.

[Daniel Tosh]

Everybody that's on the show gets a gift Okay. I don't know where these legs came from, but I just had it. I had these in a drawer.

[Trey]

This is the gifts you give out.

[Daniel Tosh]

I just get. No. Well, it depends on who's on the show. But you. I thought you. You're definitely going to need these legs.

[Trey]

I could put that on a toaster.

[Daniel Tosh]

Put on what?

[Trey]

Put it on a toaster.

[Daniel Tosh]

We still got instructions for those. I don't know.

[Trey]

Creature Wars.

[Daniel Tosh]

That is. That is yours.

[Trey]

This is the way you stop your hoarding. This is. You just give this.

[Daniel Tosh]

Sometimes it's stuff. This is brand new. This is a Japanese. What is this? Best broom and dustbin to clean up the messes. But apparently this thing is amazing. I've never been opened. It's beautiful.

[Trey]

Wow.

[Daniel Tosh]

I'm sure it's nice.

[Trey]

This is the re. Gift from Christmas.

[Daniel Tosh]

No, that was not a Christmas gift. That's insulting. Somebody bought me that for Christmas. I don't. I think that was not insulting to

[Trey]

give that away then.

[Daniel Tosh]

No, you'll like it. You'll like it.

[Eddie]

Okay.

[Trey]

So every single night that I'm at the live show in Vegas, I end up sweeping the floor after. Yes. And try this broom I'm an expert at.

[Daniel Tosh]

Put that on the floor, please.

[Trey]

Okay. Yeah. Sorry.

[Daniel Tosh]

This. Oh, this I wanted you to have. This is my first. This is from Comedy Central. I've never a gold record from. I did this when you. Right when BattleBots came out. This was my first Comedy Central album. My manager, Christy Smith, just a horrible deal she got me in. I signed this deal to record a comedy album. This was back when CDs were a thing. And then I find out immediately that I have to give them five more albums.

[Trey]

Yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

I'm like, I never did it. I did one. I did one, and I never did it again. Anyway, I also thought it was weird to hang your own stuff up. So I never. It's obviously never. So I'm just gonna give that to you as a Comedy Central memorabilia.

[Trey]

You need to sign it.

[Daniel Tosh]

I'll sign it for you.

[Trey]

So I can go to Pawn Stars after that?

[Daniel Tosh]

Yeah, you go to Pawn stars, you get 20 bucks for it. But the only one I ever actually hung up was I had somebody else gave me Dane cooks, and I had that in my bathroom for, like, a decade at my office.

[Trey]

We have a little treasure spot at BattleBots. When you come to Vegas, you gotta come see the show and bring your son.

[Daniel Tosh]

Done. I'll bring my son. I'll bring my. I'm not gonna bring my mom. My mom in Vegas. Is a nightmare. Oh, it's. She'll just be complain about what I spend money on. Oh, how much does this cost, Daniel? No, that doesn't seem. Here, I gotta put those table lights on the floor.

[Trey]

Okay.

[Daniel Tosh]

You still tinker and make stuff or.

[Trey]

No, Absolutely.

[Daniel Tosh]

Uh huh.

[Trey]

Yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

Do you still have a law machine?

[Trey]

I still have law machine, yep.

[Daniel Tosh]

Did she ever lose?

[Trey]

She did lose, kind of towards the end. Biohazard finally flipped her over, then we put some writing mechanisms and then we started Battlebots and couldn't compete anymore.

[Daniel Tosh]

The live show, is it. Is it new people every day that are or is it robots that you guys have just created?

[Trey]

So we have a couple dozen robots that were made by the professional teams and we have many copies of those and we keep fixing them and putting them back in. We also have proving grounds and what we call face offs. Proving grounds is kind of for the newbies and we do this on weekends where people that want to come and compete and make it to the TV show, they can show up at proving grounds and kind of prove to us they belong in the TV rounds.

[Daniel Tosh]

I get you.

[Trey]

Yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

Is this all ages?

[Trey]

It's all ages, yeah. Okay.

[Daniel Tosh]

So I mean, a lot, a lot of times it's hard for me to find something in Vegas for my kid to go to.

[Trey]

Oh, he would absolutely love it. It's.

[Daniel Tosh]

He loves showgirls, but I'm just always like, yeah, I'm sneaking him in the back.

[Trey]

This is to inspire him. This will.

[Daniel Tosh]

Oh, that inspires you.

[Trey]

Yeah, that'll.

[Daniel Tosh]

What casino are you in?

[Trey]

So we're part of Caesars, right behind the horseshoe.

[Daniel Tosh]

You and Celine Dion. Yeah. Has she ever come in and used

[Trey]

one of the robots? She hasn't.

[Daniel Tosh]

That's a shame.

[Trey]

We do have a lot of Vegas fans, famous fans. Chris angel comes all the time with his kids. We have Donny Osmond. That comes.

[Daniel Tosh]

Chris Angels. He dressed. Does he dress weird still? Yeah, like. Like mesh.

[Trey]

Yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

And like nipples are showing or something. And chains everywhere. He's floating. Does he float? He.

[Trey]

He's very good at that. Yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

What about Carrot Top? You ever seen Carrot Top before?

[Trey]

I've never seen Carrot Top. I'd love to go see Carrot Top.

[Daniel Tosh]

Oh, I can't believe you haven't seen Carrot Top. He's just. He. As soon as he finds out that somebody really would love to see them, he's going to be at your doorstep.

[Eddie]

I mean, talk about a guy that puts things together. He could probably.

[Daniel Tosh]

Yeah. Carrot Top, this is right up his alley. He builds stuff all day. Long. I still don't understand how somebody hasn't ever taken a stray from one of these weapons. Going whizzing by.

[Trey]

What do you mean?

[Daniel Tosh]

I don't know. Like you said, like at one point they were allowed to shoot little cannons.

[Trey]

Yeah, we, we allow untethered projectiles now.

[Daniel Tosh]

Yeah, right. And that just, there's just no way that that can. What if it aims straight up in the air and then we, we have

[Trey]

a very strict safety protocol and we've been doing this for a long time.

[Daniel Tosh]

Is there a top?

[Trey]

There's a. Definitely a top. There's two tops. Actually, there's a double layer top that's about a foot. Sits a foot to absorb energy.

[Daniel Tosh]

Makes a lot more sense now.

[Trey]

There's all kinds of technology in this box. It's a rusty old looking box. It doesn't. Yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

I still worry though now, now you're inside this box. Are the drivers inside the box too?

[Trey]

No, no, of course not.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay. Okay, that makes sense too. Yeah, that would, that is like one of them going, I'm in here with a suicidal maniac. Get me out. Are batteries exploding?

[Trey]

We have a lot of explosive. We are probably.

[Daniel Tosh]

There's probably in that, in that box there's some chemicals that you just probably don't want to mess with.

[Trey]

We have two vents bigger than this table that enter our box and evacuate everything outside that goes into a giant filtration system. It's a giant truck that. It has all this, you know, charcoal

[Daniel Tosh]

and stuff and they just pump that right into the casino floor.

[Trey]

It plumped right in the casino floor, had a little oxygen.

[Daniel Tosh]

It just keeps people gambling.

[Trey]

Keep some gambling. Little dizzy.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay, you've, you've thought of everything, by the way, how you've been doing. You've been doing paddlebots for how long?

[Trey]

Over 30 years and that.

[Daniel Tosh]

And are you, do you have another televised version or like mainstream television show in the works?

[Trey]

So we just got our very first sponsor.

[Daniel Tosh]

So we, after 30 years, you get your first sponsor.

[Trey]

We weren't allowed to get sponsors because we were broadcast and the broadcasters wouldn't allow us. So we started off on, like I said, ZDTV and the Internet. We immediately got swept away by broadcast. We got picked up by Comedy Central and then we went on to ABC and then we went on to Discovery and broadcasters, they wouldn't allow us to go get sponsored. They didn't want us to get Coca Cola and give it away. And now because we're going to YouTube and we're going to be a YouTube full show now we can get our own sponsors. So we got our very first sponsor that a company called Bright Data, who's given us enough to create the TV show. So we're creating 20 episodes, filming in April. It'll air probably June or July.

[Daniel Tosh]

Uh huh. Okay. I mean, good for you. For stick. I mean, did you ever think when you guys started this nonsense in the 90s, that here you are 30 years later and you're like, yeah, still doing that, building robots.

[Trey]

You know, there's, it's, it's kind of different in the sense that there's no end to what people can create. And we see new robots and new ideas and new things. I mean, Jameson has a chop saw that he'd been working on for, I don't know how long, seven, eight years.

[Daniel Tosh]

That's too long to work on a chop saw.

[Trey]

And he, he ended up making a win now, you know, and he's the champ. He's the one to beat.

[Daniel Tosh]

Explain to me what this new show is in April. It's not the current show that's in Las Vegas.

[Trey]

No, no.

[Daniel Tosh]

Is it called BattleBots?

[Trey]

It is, yes.

[Daniel Tosh]

Will Carmen Electra be on it?

[Trey]

I don't know yet.

[Daniel Tosh]

That would be a good. Haven't.

[Trey]

Haven't seen Carmen Electra.

[Daniel Tosh]

You don't want to.

[Trey]

But Pro League.

[Eddie]

Bring her back.

[Daniel Tosh]

All right, sorry. So in April we got the new Show. It's called BattleBots.

[Trey]

It's BattleBots Pro League. Yeah. And it's the best of the best.

[Daniel Tosh]

How many booby traps are set up in the current courses?

[Trey]

I mean, there's saws that come out of the floor. There's hammers. There's a new element to the new show that we really haven't told anybody about yet. And this is. We have hammers. The contestants control those hammers. For this pro series, we believe we're going to allow those contestants to take off one of the hammerheads that they'd like and reattach their own weapon to that so they could come up with a new idea that becomes part of our arena. Hazards that they control.

[Daniel Tosh]

But it only goes up and down.

[Trey]

It only goes up and down.

[Daniel Tosh]

I got an idea.

[Trey]

It's got to be a sex thing, right?

[Daniel Tosh]

That's all I come up with. The only thing I ever come up with is different. It's like, it's vague for goodness sake. Right? Is it being filmed in Vegas?

[Trey]

Yes, it can be filmed in Vegas.

[Daniel Tosh]

Trey, thank you for being on the show. I appreciate it.

[Trey]

Thank you.

[Daniel Tosh]

Thank you.

[Trey]

Appreciate me

[Daniel Tosh]

PA show. I want to thank Trey for being on the show and inviting me and my kids to the show in Vegas. And we will take them up on that offer on one condition. That we can compete. I want my kids to get in there and fight the robots.

[Eddie]

Oh, I like that.

[Daniel Tosh]

Right. I want to show my children that they are smarter than computers, humanity, and stronger. Either that or they're going to get their asses whipped.

[Eddie]

We all learn something. We'll learn something either way. Yeah.

[Daniel Tosh]

Kids fighting robots. You put that show together in Vegas. I'm coming.

[Eddie]

Kids fighting robots.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay, we got some plugs. Patreon.com toss. Show my first farewell tour. I'm out there right now enjoying this country. Some people call it the flyover states. Not me.

[Eddie]

Not you.

[Daniel Tosh]

I call it the refueling states.

[Eddie]

Yeah, exactly. You got to touch down sometimes.

[Daniel Tosh]

Yeah, you touch down, you refuel, you get the out of there. Tossshowstore.com and now, since I hear the music playing, I know that it's time for they Love Me. They Love me Not. Go ahead, Eddie.

[Trey]

All right.

[Eddie]

From Ceremonial Dagger.

[Daniel Tosh]

Hold on. Ceremonial dagger.

[Eddie]

Ceremonial dagger. The names are great.

[Daniel Tosh]

This is a ritual.

[Eddie]

I don't know who this is.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay. All right. Go ahead.

[Eddie]

Daniel, I love you. I love just about everything you say. I agree with almost every opinion you have, But I will not accept Larry Bird slander. That's where I draw the line. Good day, sir.

[Daniel Tosh]

I think it's a fair point. Now, in fairness, I was just poking the bear. You know, I didn't really believe what I was saying. Larry Bird is and will always be the greatest white player that ever played, that ever lived, ever. Okay?

[Trey]

Any sport.

[Daniel Tosh]

They say he was a good trash talker, but could anyone really understand him? Larry. I'll miss him. When did he pass?

[Eddie]

God, it's been a while.

[Daniel Tosh]

No. All right, that's. That's fair. I. Listen, my apologies to Larry Bird and all the bumpkins out there.

[Eddie]

All you bumpkins, we apologize.

[Daniel Tosh]

All right, what else you got?

[Eddie]

Heavy Gray. This is from Heavy Gray.

[Daniel Tosh]

Okay.

[Eddie]

Worst interview ever. She was a delight, though. Looking forward to the next episode.

[Daniel Tosh]

You think I'm the worst interviewer ever? But she was delightful, Ma. Maybe she was only delightful because of my horrible interviewing style.

[Eddie]

Maybe it's the way you're playing them. You're bringing them out.

[Daniel Tosh]

I only pretend to be the worst interviewer so that they can look more delightful.

[Eddie]

The cat and mouse game here.

[Daniel Tosh]

Yeah, you don't get me. See you next week. This episode of Tosh show is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash. Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.

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