Don Gavitte Talks Teaching & Comedy

This episode features a lively panel discussion with Central Oregon comedians Laura B. Wright, Julia Reed Nichols and Jon Brown. They share their insights on living in Bend, local culture, community issues, and humorous takes on current topics.

Plus we are joined by special guest, Don Gavitte from The Teacher Show coming to bend on June 25th. Teaching and comedy may seem like two very different professions, but for some, they are intertwined in unexpected and delightful ways. In this episode, we explore the unique relationship between education and humor, as revealed in my conversation with Don, a veteran high school teacher and stand-up comedian from Portland, Oregon. 

Keywords

Bend Oregon, local comedy, community issues, off-leash dogs, e-bikes, child marriage, local culture, humor, lifestyle, Teachers

Transcript

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Inaugural episode of Nighttime Benders. So exciting. Very exciting, right? Okay. Here we go. Well, welcome everybody to the first inaugural episode of Nighttime Benders, Powered by the Source. This is where you get to catch up with Central Oregon's favorite funny faces to talk about local news and hot topics and really anything else that comes to these people's minds. I have two of my favorite funny people here with me today. I'm gonna start with Laura B. Wright. Laura, would you like to introduce yourself? Hi, well I'm Laura B. Wright. Um I am a local comedian, and um yeah, I've been in uh Central Oregon since uh just before the pandemic, and it's been amazing. So it's a great scene to be part of. Yeah. Well, welcome to the podcast, Laura and John. Please introduce yourself. My name's John Brown. I'm a local comedian performing out of Bend for two years now. I've lived here for just over three. Um and I moved down here from Seattle to be closer to my niece and brother. Aw, you're a family man. Sometimes you wouldn't know it by looking at you, but heart of gold in there. So for people that might not be familiar with Bend, how would you describe it to people, like what brought you here in the first place? Oh my gosh. It's absolutely gorgeous. Yeah. It is gorgeous at every turn. It um I've heard other friends who've come to visit and they say we live in Pleasantville. Yeah. Yeah. And there's sweeping views and there's everything very close. The coast isn't terribly far away. There's mountains, there's uh lakes, there's anything you want outdoors, Central Oregon has it. I just it's there's endless things to do here. It really is beautiful. I came here for the first time on tour, maybe in 2019. This was pre-pandemic. And I came up here and toured at General Duffy's, and I remember just being like blown away by the views. I was only here, like drove in and drove out, but it it left a mark enough for me to come back. Did you just come for family, John, or is there anything you love about the area? Uh the first time I came here, I think it was like 2018, and I was driving through on a road trip with my dad to visit my brother in California. And it was just one of those things that we both kind of hit us of like, oh well, this place is really nice. And then, you know, a couple years ago, my brother let me know he was planning on moving here, and then uh his sister-in-law and their family was also moving here because they all have kids, and I mean they just had a at that point a one-year-old. And I was like, Well, I can I can move, it doesn't make really much of a difference if I work in Washington or Oregon. So I drove down and I mean it was uh definitely the driving factor was to be in close proximity so I could have an active participating role in both their lives and her life. Um and then it's just you know kind of gone from there. Yeah. What do you think people should do when they come to Bent? Like if you had to give people like number one thing to do when you come to town, what would you do? Tell them to do. I mean, if it's in town specifically, I'd probably say go to Drake Park. If it's in the area, probably the High Desert Museum. Oh, it's so great. Yeah. They do such an amazing job. It's a really great muse. It like it is a great museum, isn't it? It really is. I mean, if you're into that sort of thing, it's a great museum. But I feel like it uh it offers a lot of different things. Like there's animals there, and there's art, and there's um you can walk through the one where you walk through kind of like the pioneer um the even the even the murals in that section is beautiful. So I feel like there's kind of a little bit of f for everyone. I feel like Bend is really known for it's like laid-back kind of like festival lifestyle in the summertime. There seems to be a festival on every street all summer long. Yeah. Street fairs and you can buy from local makers and music everywhere. Yeah. It's also a very beer and bike scene. Lots of beer and lots of bikes. That's one of the things I really liked about it when I moved here was I didn't have a car when I moved here, so I just walked everywhere. Yeah. And like, other than when it's really cold, that's you know, really feasible. But I went to school in an area that's at elevation and has almost the exact same like climate as Ben. So I'm so used to just, oh, I'll just put a bunch of layers on and Yeah. Where'd you go to school? Wazoo in Pullman. Wazoo in Pullman. That's not that far away from here, is it? No, it's like four or five hours. Do you ever go back, alumni? I will eventually. Eventually. Yeah, I haven't. I mean, I have a couple of times since graduating, but not recently. Yeah, yeah. I always I have this like dream of going back to my college as a big star and telling them to go F themselves. I don't. It's like a dream that I have. You know you could do that now. I could. You know. I don't I guess I don't have to wait to be like a bigger star, I guess. You know. It's never too early to go back and tell people to F the voice. Uh so living in Venn sometimes feels like a bubble to me. Do you guys ever feel that way? Like you're living in this, like, like you said, like a pleasant fill bubble. Yes. I I I feel actually very safe considering what's going on in the world right now, because I feel like we're gonna be like the last place that you know another country's gonna want to bomb. Like we're just not gonna get on the radar. Um yeah. And I like that. I like that. It's like it's like when the British people moved out to the countryside during World War II, right? It's like it you feel safe and and not involved in the craziness of the outside world. It's weird how localized issues kind of spiral here. Like the homeless people stealing bikes. Yeah. It's I've I've bicycled past the bike mound of stolen bikes. It's just crazy that that exists. Like the whole people walking pets off-leash, that's like a normal thing. Oh, that that's a that's a topic that has to be addressed though. This off-leash stuff. This off-leash, are you you're are how do you feel? You feel I feel like you have opinions on this. I have I actually do have opinions. You have opinions on this. Okay, what are your opinions? Because it it feels very privileged to me if someone else has their dog off-leash. Yeah. Because you don't know what anybody else's situation is. So that person might have had an experience where they were attacked by a dog as a child. My my um unofficial mother-in-law is that happened to her. Yeah, she's scared of dogs. And it doesn't matter how friendly your dog is. If your dog comes up to her, it scares her. So I think triggering that response isn't going to get a good response from the dog as well. Exactly. Yeah, all of a sudden she breaks out in fear. Yeah. Oh, that's not great. So it's this you know, tumbling thing. It's like just put your dog on a leash. I've just never been a good enough dog owner to have an off-leash dog. Like, I've never bothered to train a dog well enough. Yeah. So the idea that other people do just like blows my mind. I'm like, really, you trust your dog to see a squirrel and not run across the park. If your dog is that good. Well, the amount of people who trust their dog and the amount of people who actually have a well a well-trained enough dog are different different things. Those are two different things, right? I know that's the thing. I must so I live a little outside of town. I live between um sisters and Tamil, kind of in in the middle of nowhere. And so I don't have to interact with people by my house, which is very nice. It's lovely. Um, but when I'm in town, I get like increasing I like Ben now feels like a big city to me. It feels like it feels like I'm coming in and I'm like, oh, there are cars and people and e-bikes. Yes. I mean, we were talking about e-bikes earlier. Yeah, but e-bikes have become quite a problem. I mean, the addition of pay-to-use e-bikes just being all over the city it makes it really hard to mitigate people then like incorrectly using e-bikes. Yeah. Yeah, I know the Bend Police Department just released a like a statement or an article or press release or something, basically saying that incidences with youth are on the rise and they're reminding parents that kids are not supposed to be on these motorcycles. Um because essentially that's what they are. They're they're motors, they go like 40-50 miles an hour. Like well, they're also really easy to modify into going way past their you can modify them? Yeah. They're just technology. Ooh. Is that like changing the uh we don't need to know the classes? I was like, wait, what are we tips? It's the difference of like swapping a battery or changing a gear ratio, and then all of a sudden this thing goes way faster, and it's like, you know, the difference between knowing that and not knowing that is about six months worth of doing basic mechanic research and understanding. Yeah. I mean, I think if a kid shows up on like an elementary school campus or a mill or a middle school campus, they don't allow them to stay with the e-bikes because if you're not old enough to ride it to school, like you obviously shouldn't be riding it to school. Right. Um people in middle school are what 12 and under 13 or 10. They're surprisingly young, but they act surprisingly old like children these days. The law is what 16? Yeah. So like even at high school, it's only at most half. I know. But I sometimes feel like a cranky old person because I don't have kids. None of us have kids, right? Like we're all childless, yeah, child-free. You got a niece. Like you have a child in your life. That's very nice. But I also think like just just use a bike. Just use a bike. Just do the work. Yeah, like pedal. You have the energy. We have to pedal. You should have to pedal too. Just do the work. You can't go faster than your like ambition will carry you if you have to pedal. Or get on a skateboard and sketch on a car or whatever. I do think I I I the one thing I did see something where uh where it was two adults and they were talking about how um this person was saying, I now feel more comfortable going on bike rides, like on trails with my friend, because I know, like, I'm willing to push myself further because I know I'm not. You know you can get back. Yes, I know I can get back. And so I kind of was like, okay, actually, I do appreciate that perspective that it's a little bit of like a safety net. This person's trying to push their boundaries, but I don't think that's how it's usually used. And also most of our other physical endeavors don't have that safety net. Yeah. Right? If you go on a hike, you gotta walk. If you go on a seven-mile hike, it's a seven-mile hike. Like it's what it is, yeah. Exactly. Well, I don't know. I I don't think we're gonna fix the e-bike problem in Bend, but And they're also heavy. I don't know if you've ever ridden on one, but they like they are heavy. And so if you're not strong enough to handle it, yeah. So you don't know this about me, John, but I hate bike riding. Oh, I don't like it. I don't like it either. Oh, we all hate bike riding. We are so rare in Bent. My brother has an e-bike. I'm really uncomfortable. Fine on that. Yeah. Fine, but I have lost control of it, and it is heavy, like slowing down lost control of it and fell. And it's like, you know, a 60-pound e-bike, and I was out on like a gravel path and it just wasn't ready for that kind of stop. And yeah, you can someone who's not ready to catch 60 pounds worth of bike and is you know 14 or whatever could break a leg pretty easily just under sheer force. So all of us childless bike-hating people are telling you to get your kids. Get your kids off people. Get your kids off the street. We don't want them there anymore. Well, I mean, I get terrified that I might actually bump one or hit. I'm already nervous about street figures anyway. It's terrifying. Well, it's because they don't know the rules of the road because they haven't learned how to drive, so they don't know the laws. Like they they don't know. They just don't know. And so were you ever gonna get over like if you accidentally hit somebody? I would never like you know, like what more. I don't know. I think I could probably get over it if it was their fault. I know that sounds awful. I know that sounds awful, but I do think I could probably be like they turned into me because they were like, I would feel like it's a good one. And then you just move to a different jurisdiction and get a job in a similar field, and it's you know, I have a friend who this kind of not on e-bikes, but this kind of happened too. Yeah, it would he was I think he might have been but in high school when this happened. He some he is a road, and then somebody was crossing the road, just walking, and somebody stopped, and it was not a crosswalk. Yeah, yeah. And someone stopped here, he was coming up here, and he kept going and he hit the child. Oh, okay. So bike safety is important. That's that's where it is. Well, and also cross at the crosswalks. Yeah. Like we can't see your little bodies. Like, we don't want to. Yeah, you gotta look out for children. You gotta look out for children. Yeah. Which brings us to our next topic. Oh no. Uh, so Laura, Laura shared with us an interesting topic this week. But Laura, explain, explain what you were were reading about, watching about what Oh, I you know, probably scrolling through and seeing something awful. Yeah. Um, because that never happens. Um Tyson Fury is a is he a wrestler? Is he a wrong thing? He's a boxer. He's a boxer. He's a heavyweight boxer in the UK. Yep. And he just married off his 16-year-old daughter to, I guess, one of his co-workers, who's also a fighter, and I think that man is like 19 or 20. Yeah. Um, and it just got me thinking about child marriage, still still rampant. And and it it required um parental consent for them to get married. Yeah. So I I think about child brides often. I I felt like I was a child bride. I was not a child bride. I was a 22-year-old child bride. But I still feel like I was a child bride. So the idea of somebody even younger than me making that decision just like it seems like any adult would be like What are you doing? What are you doing? Like any adult would be like, you're 16. But certainly. But an adult with CTE. So explain CTE for people that uh it's repeated head trauma. Repeated head trauma, right? Like maybe what could happen after repeated head trauma is you might think child marriage is appropriate. I don't know. I don't know what explains all of the child marriages that are happening. Just this one. Just this one. It kind of heavily validates why this heavyweight boxer is like, yeah, sure, whatever. Here's a couple million dollars. It's really interesting, you know. I I came from a state where I think the age of consent was 16. I think that's what it is in Michigan, or at least it was when I was growing up. Some states it's as young as like 14. I'm so jealous of that experience. Growing up and having to move to North Carolina and watch my sister go through that time period of like early teenage. Yeah. In the high school that in the state had the highest teen pregnancy rate. Was just like, what the fuck is going on? Why are all of your 14-year-old friends pregnant? Yeah. Like all of them. Yeah. What is this? No, I so my parents, I I grew up in Seattle, Washington, and um, my mom married a guy from Michigan, and that's how I ended up in Michigan. My high school in Michigan had the third highest teen pregnancy rate in America. That's crazy. And I was like, and you would be like, oh, how did this happen? And they literally would be like, I have no reason to like not get pregnant. And you're like, nobody's ever told you there's a reason. There's so many reasons. There's so many reasons. There's like a lot a lot of reasons. I mean, I came up with so many reasons that I've gone to 40 and still haven't gotten pregnant. Like there's there's a lot of reasons to not do it. Like there's this great woman on TikTok. Have you seen this woman? She, I think every I don't know if she's still doing it, every day she posts a reason why not to have children. And she'll like she'll learn about something horrible like preclampsia or something, and she'll be like, reason number 512. Yeah. That would, I mean, complications of alone is such a huge why would you gamble on this without oh my gosh. Yeah, I guess at people conscious understanding, informed consent. Exactly. There's a there's a lot of those are big words. A fully developed brain. Yeah. There's just like all these things. And and I remember how horny I was as a teenager. Like I remember Were you not? I just wanted to kiss all the boys. And then I and then I wanted everything to stop and kissing. I was like, I wanted some really heavy kissing. And then everything else, like, maybe very annoying. Well, maybe that's like she's like, well, all we've been doing is having kissing, and I would like to progress, so can we get this marriage thing going? It doesn't help that like institutionally across the board in the United States, everyone from the age of like 13 to 25 is groomed into you should be having a child in like every conversation about sex. Yeah. Yeah. Like anything that's a discussion about it, it's not like here are your other options, or here's how to, you know. How to not. Yeah. Here's here's what different kind of relationships are. None of that. It's just, yeah, if you get pregnant, you should have this child and bring it to term, and here's all the resources you'll need and people you should be talking to. And it's like pump way harder on those breaks. Well, sometimes they don't give you all the resources you need to have. Yeah, they only give you, they only give you the resources you need for the child to come out. Then they're done. And then the resources are done. Are done. No, but one of my favorite things about this is I guess he gave her like basically a dowry. Is that like what you would call it? So my understanding, my understanding. This is not fact-checked, so we're not. I didn't dive super deep in it, but my understanding is that he paid for the wedding. Yeah. Which was apparently like this big, you know, and like a 16-year-old would, like a ball gown. And crocs. She had white crocs on. She had crocs on white crocs on. She saw a lady of comfort. Yeah. Um what what what 16-year-old wouldn't choose this outfit? Um, and then she, I think as a wedding present, her and her betrothed got seven million dollars. Um, but then they also got a pre-fab home that looks quite small. Like if I don't know, if you have seven million dollars, I don't know why you would live in this, but you had a great point about why that might have happened. Well, yeah, to give her the option to buy whatever house she wants. Well, them to buy whatever house she wants. But that maybe it's like a family tradition to give the first home. Give them the first home. But then not to burden them with like this is something nice you have to live in. Because they're from the traveler community, right? I think so. He identifies that way in his fighting persona. Whether or not it's I don't know anything beyond that. He's called himself the gypsy king. Okay. His title. His title, not our words, his words. That is the title he goes by. Okay. Because I do know that in those cultures they are like gifted caravans. So maybe if you're like a well, you get a double wide. Oh. Like maybe that's the Well, then seven million dollars to do whatever the w you want. Yeah, yeah. Build an addition if you choose. You have options. Grow up for the next eight years or whatever until your brain finishes developing. Exactly. Exactly. Um well, great. Those are our hot topics for this week. I actually was able to sit down with a comedian that's gonna be coming to town soon with the teacher show, Don Gabbott. Um, and I would love for you guys to listen to that conversation that I had with him a little bit earlier today. Um, if you could introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about uh the show that you're bringing to the end. Yeah, the um uh I'm Don Gavin. I'm a veteran high school teacher here in Portland, Oregon. I'm actually sitting in my uh classroom right now, that's why we're having technical problems, of course. Uh and um I uh started doing stand-up comedy about eight or nine years ago. And since 2020 we uh I realized how many teacher comics are actually in the Portland scene. Uh and since 2020 we've been uh putting a show together where it's teachers by day, comics by night, and uh a lot of people want to come out and see it. It's it's a lot of fun, and not just for teachers. I love that. Why do you think there's so much crossover between teachers and comedians? You know, the the job does require a sense of humor. You you you gotta be self-deprecating, you have to let things roll off your back, you have to deal with absurdity every day, whether it's from an administrator or uh a student or a parent or a a combination of all of them at the same freaking time. Uh and if you can't laugh through that, uh you will die. You will not live long. Uh you will be in the corner sucking your thumb, rocking back and forth. Um so humor's the only the the way I've been able to do it. It's how I interact and reach my students, and it makes me sad. And you think you're Veteran teacher, how long have you been teaching? I've been teaching high school since 1991. Oh, just a few years then. Yeah, yeah. So to give you some context, the number one song in September of 1991 was I Wanna Sex You Up by Color Me Bad. Okay. Um that's that's how long I've been teaching. That's pretty funny. So what do you teach? Do you teach just like all over the board? Are you one subject? What what do you teach? I'm a social studies teacher. I teach history. Uh I teach government. I teach economics. Uh I teach hygiene. No, I don't teach hygiene, but I should. Uh and uh yeah, right now I teach uh a lot of world history and government. What's it like teaching government these days? It's uh you know, I I could use a lot of blue language here, but it's freaking weird. Oh my goodness. The uh, you know, uh you want to see something radical, you want to uh look at something radical. Look at a 20-year-old American government textbook, and it says how Congress works, and it says the powers of the presidency, it talks about how the Supreme Court's supposed to work, and it's just it seems like a radical, completely different world than what we have going. No matter where you are politically speaking, you can't say that what we're doing now um uh is what's in the government textbook. Yeah, I I that's actually I've had that exact conversation with people. I'm like, this is not what they taught me in civics class. Like, I didn't think this was a possibility. Um turns out it is. Uh little did we know, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's uh and you know, I uh you don't want to get me started there. We could this could go into a whole new thing, and it won't be funny. It won't be funny at all. That's okay. We'll stick with the comedy. So uh talking about comedy, what's your comedy origin story? How did you get into stand-up comedy? Uh in uh February of 2018, uh I was doing the eulogy at my father's funeral, and I grew up in New York City. Uh my father's funeral was uh at a funeral at a place on Staten Island, and he had worked at JFK Airport for 52 years. And uh there were guys there uh from like eight different airlines. There, you know, guys were wearing their blues, the place smelled like oil and hydraulic fluid. Guys literally were coming from the airport for his funeral. So um uh I got up and I started my eulogy, and the first thing I said was the um there's gonna be some serious fucking delays at JFK today. And the whole place broke up. Uh it uh it it it changed the mood instantly. Um so yeah, I killed at my father's funeral, uh, is is how it started. Uh and I always made him laugh, uh and that's how we communicated. Uh so uh with him gone, um, I I brought it to the public. Uh yeah, I love that. I think I think he would have got a kick out of. Yeah, do you think New York comes out in your comedy? I feel like there's a very dis different vibe between West Coast and East Coast. Yeah, yeah. You know, uh I've been on the West Coast for h almost half my life now. Uh and uh but it there's there's a rapid fire talking. There is, you know, if you grow up in New York City, you're always trying to think of what the next thing you're gonna say is, uh, and the next move you're gonna make, and the next step you're gonna take, and and all those things. That kind of pacing kind of gets in in your life. Um so so yeah, it it it it lends itself to uh to being on stage and turning on a dime and uh the set going where you want it to go, you know, and it's it's not uh you know, you don't have to be in New from New York to kind of get that uh way of talking, but it certainly helps. I'm going to my 40th reunion this summer, and uh as my wife always says, when I come back from New York, I come back with the accent nice and fresh and thick, and I'm talking a mile a minute, and um um I'm using uh certain words uh constantly that are not for the children. I can understand that. I lived on the East Coast for a very short period of time, and I tell people that it just made me a more angry person. Like I had to leave um because like I was enjoying being mad all the time. So it was like I was like, this is not good for me. This is not where I need to be. Um so when you're not on stage, what do you like doing with your time? You obviously teach, but do you have a family or anything else that keeps you busy off the stage? Uh I got adult kids and uh they're uh in various stages of being out of the house. Uh so um I'm starting to do those, you know, middle-aged, actually three-quarter aged man stuff. I'm always looking for projects around the house. Sometimes they don't need to happen, but they're gonna happen anyway. Uh I um I certainly uh have a problem with wristwatches lately. Uh so uh that's that's becoming an issue of time I'm spending uh with with these little devices on my wrist that I can. Are you fixing the wristwatches or just wearing them? No, I just I'm I collect them and uh the uh buying and selling them and just spending way too much time. I shouldn't be spending time on stuff like this because I am in the last quarter of my life and um being on eBay looking at another watch is is certainly something that uh I gotta I gotta calm down with that. But that's why I gotta rip the back of the house off next week and put new trim on, because that'll just keep me away from the watches. Exactly. It's like if your hands aren't busy doing something else, you're gonna be on eBay buying a watch. That makes sense. Yeah. That sounds yeah, that makes perfect sense. Um so you get I imagine you get your summers off as a teacher. Do you get to take advantage of that time to do comedy and shows like the one you're doing in Bend? Yeah, we we certainly uh bring the teacher show out and uh roll with that. We're gonna be in Bend and Legrand and uh uh Boise um uh uh in this little run. But uh ironically, summer is not the hot time for stand-up comedy. Uh people want to be outside. Stand-up comedy doesn't really work outside. Uh you need a dark, you know, uh room full of half-drunk people, preferably at one in the morning. Uh and in the summertime, that's not people's preferred uh form of entertainment as much. Uh but um the so yeah, when the school year is in, I tend to do comedy more uh than I do in the summer. But uh the we try to take the teacher show out, and that really works in the summer for obvious reasons. Uh is uh we can do a Wednesday show and teachers will show up. We can do a show that is doesn't start at 6 p.m. and and and teachers will show up uh because they're not asleep yet. Uh yeah. Is that is that a big thing in the teacher world? Because I as a kid I remember just like having to get up so early to be at school. But I guess all you teachers have to do that as well. So is it like our teachers during the school year? Are they like 8 p.m. to bed? Oh, yeah. You know, I'm doing a show next week here in town. It's not gonna start until 9.30. I don't think any of my colleagues are coming to that show. Uh the it's just way too late. Uh um, and yeah, no, I uh I started drinking Red Bull at like 55 years old. And uh it's um yeah, it's the comedy always gets me going and and gets me excited and gives me a third wind. Uh but on nights when I don't have a show, yeah. 8 30, that's stretched, start try to stay up maybe till 9 30. Impossible sometimes. Yeah, it's always embarrassing this time of the year because I start falling asleep before the sun even fully goes down, right? Um I I blame that on the Pacific Northwest. The sun goes down very, very late here. It's particularly rough here with that, yeah. Yeah, it it's so comedy. Why why do you think the world needs comedy right now? Like why do you put your time into it? It it makes me, you know, like I said earlier, it makes me feel sane, but the you know, the whole the whole idea that you could say something that on the surface is relatively absurd or benign or inane, right? You're talking about a parking space or uh your shoes or whatever, but you say something and you put words together in a row that make people burst into laughter because quite often they're bursting into laughter because they're like, yeah, I get that. That's very relatable. Ha ha ha. That is just a powerful jolt that once you do that, and once you connect with an audience or anybody that way, it's it for us, it's just it's it's life. It's it's uh it's the blood that flows through our veins. The um being locked in with an audience is addictive. And when people say thank you at the end of the show, going, I needed that, that was restorative. Um, the uh I almost pissed myself. I forgot about all my troubles. That's uh I think especially in this time, uh, an invaluable service. I don't want to make it sound like more self-important or anything like that, but uh the world needs clowns, and here we are. Yeah, I agree with that. I think nothing is better than a laugh, especially when you need it most, and with everything going on, um the world needs more comedy. So thank you for coming to Bend with your show. Have you been to Bend before? Yeah, we did the show last year uh in Bend. Uh it was fun. Uh we uh said we'll be back and we're not liars, we're back. So yeah, we're at the uh Volcanic Theater Pub again. Uh it's uh it's a place that usually seems to have just lots of uh music and not uh singer-songwriter type music. There seems to be plenty of uh uh uh louder, harder bands there. So I think we're one of the mellower shows that come in. I do know that they have unlimited free beer in the green room, which probably works really good for heavy metal and teachers. So do you think that uh comedians are funnier or not as funny after a few beers? Oh, good question. The uh personally, uh I can't uh uh drink a whole bunch before the show, but uh as we all know, uh one or two drinks is a very good social lubricant. Uh it's certainly uh uh it's not that I need to have a drink before every show, but I'm not shy if there's one there. Um, but it's like everything else, if if uh, you know, it there's a line between having a few and then getting sloppy. Uh uh I prefer a drink after the show. That is when the most satisfying drink can happen is after a show when um uh whether it's good or great or somewhere in between, that's good. But uh yeah, I think anybody who wants to be serious about anything, if you let substances lead you, um uh you're gonna lead down a dark path. Yeah. Yeah, you you definitely see that a lot in the world of stand-up. I think a lot of people start open mics and things, having a drink before, two drinks before. But generally speaking, by the time people are working clubs and doing headliner sets, they're like, no, I need my wits about me to talk for 45 minutes. Well, it's it's the problem with the industry is you know, we get paid quite often in alcohol and fried food. Uh so um yeah, uh I I gained a whole bunch of weight when I started doing comedy and I started getting paid for it. Uh uh because there's a bar tab, and I can't say no to a uh a bar tab, but now I do. Yeah, exactly. You're like, I learned my lesson. Yeah, I learned my lesson. But but yeah, you're um the uh alcohol is uh is is one and the same with the industry. Uh the uh the clubs make more money on the booze than they do on anything else. Um and so yeah, it's it's certainly something that you can get into a problem with pretty quick. Uh and you know, it's it's also something that it's also something that after a day of teaching, there's nothing better than a drink, right? The uh uh so you can't can't do that twice every day. Um that makes sense. That makes sense. I imagine, yeah. Like teaching is probably something where it's like a very kind of intense activity you do, and you kind of like enter a tunnel of the school day and you come out at the end of the school day. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. It really is. It is it is kind of uh a tunnel. Uh you prepare, you're anxious, uh, and you I get the same feeling. I I think I'm not completely burnt out when I do get butterflies, when I have a new lesson. I do when I do have a challenging class in front of me, uh, I know they're coming in. I'm nervous about it. I want it to work out well. I got all my ducks in a row. I've I'm practiced, I'm ready to go. And that's the same thing you do for a set uh at a club at night is uh you line it all up. Uh there's all always factors that you can't quite control. Uh and you have to be able to roll with it and keep doing what you're doing. Um and yeah, the uh it uh a tunnel is a good analogy. Yeah. And if people want to see you and the other amazing teachers that you're bringing to town do your thing, where can they get tickets to your show? Yeah, the uh the tickets are at uh through the venue's uh website, the volcanic theater pub. Uh um, and all you gotta do is uh punch in uh teacher show bend, and we'll be the first thing that pops up. Uh there's lots of local media that's uh covering it. Um the and but yeah, teacher show bend, uh there we are, uh Thursday the 25th, 7:30, if I'm not mistaken. Right. Um yeah, we have a Facebook page uh because I'm 58, so I have a Facebook page, and uh we have a teacher show Facebook page that has all the dates on it and everything. But uh for the Ben crowd, uh quick Google of uh Teacher Show Bend, you'll get right to Volcanic Theater Pub. Fantastic, Don. Well, thank you so much for coming on and chatting about your career and your show. Is there anything else that you want to share with the listeners before we head out today? The uh grab your tickets, come on out, uh we hang out after the show. Uh we can we can uh commiserate and uh bask in the glory of early summer together. Fantastic. Well, thank you again, Don. Appreciate it. Thanks, Julia. So that was Don. Do you guys think you're gonna check out the teacher show? Oh my gosh, it sounds so funny. I am sure that they have content for days. Yeah, I wasn't a very good student. So I don't know how you feel about going to a whole show about teachers, but I can see why people relate. My high school crush is an elementary school teacher now, so probably. Yeah, yeah. Like, how does that make it work? Is that unrequited love? Yes. Yes. We're digging deep into your past things that one, that one. Yeah, but please check out the teacher show. It's gonna be at Volcanic Pub on June 25th, so make sure you check it out. Um, but there are a ton of other great local comedy shows. You can check out what's coming to town at Venn Ticket. I'd like to highlight at June 5th, Jasmine Rogers is gonna be headlining at Craft Kitchen, which I think you are on that show as well, right? I'll be opening for some other amazing local Venn comedians. And then June 10th is $5 Comedy Night at Silver Moon, where I'm on that bill, you're on that bill. I'm also on that bill. You're on that bill. So come out and it's a really fun night. Everyone's just kind of trying stuff out, and it's a very low pressure, fun local comedy night. Do you guys have any pluggables you would like to go over? Anything you want to share with the peeps? Well, we have that other show. Yeah, so on June 27th, we'll be at Kraft doing a comedy show. And then on June 17th, I'll be doing, I'll be running uh Drunk History at Silver Moon. Uh that'll be as it currently stands, performed by Fredo, uh Pegliacci, Jamon Jameson, and Brian Keyster. Oh. With improv performances by the Tugboat Improv Group. Fun. Um and then for all of their dates and events that I'm at, you can just go to my website, downtownjohnbrown.com. Downtown John Brown. And is that where people can find you online? Downtown John Brown. What about you, Laura? Where can people find you? I'm on Instagram, Laura B. Wright, Comedian. Yeah, very cool. And I'm Julia Reed Nichols. You can find me at julialovesya.tv on Instagram. And this has been our very first episode of Nighttime Benders. Thank you guys for joining us. We'll definitely have you guys back for more episodes and more of our funny friends are gonna be here next week. And thank you guys again for joining us for our very first episode. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you are listening to your podcast. That really does help us out. Till next time. Bye. Bye.