From the Big Apple to Bend: Nick Tilleli

Join us for a panel discussion with Central Oregon comedians Brian Keister, Laura B. Wright, Anthony Poponi, and Julia Reed Nichols as they swap hilarious stories, local insights, and sharp takes on everything from biking trauma to Odyssey’s movie casts.

This episode also features Nick Tilleli, a New York City–based comedian known for his sarcastic storytelling, offbeat observations, and razor-sharp perspective on authority, identity, and everyday absurdities. Bringing a fresh voice from the Big Apple, Nick adds a unique contrast to the Oregon comedy scene—and we think you’ll love getting to know this up-and-coming comic.

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

Everybody has a blue light on their mic, right? Blue, blue, blue.

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Blue, blue, blue dot.

SPEAKER_06 0:04

Blue, cool. Yay. Yeah, that's butter.

SPEAKER_08 0:08

Thank you. Oh, do I have a blue dot? Where? Oh, here we go.

SPEAKER_06 0:11

Blue dot. We are here. We're all cuddled in. We're all cuddled in. And we're here. All right. Welcome back to this week's episode of Nighttime Benders Powered by the Source, your favorite place to catch up with Central Oregon's favorite funny faces. I'm here with some great comedians that we will get to just straight off the bat. Laura, if you want to start by introducing yourself.

SPEAKER_08 0:33

Hi, I'm Laura B. Wright, and um I do comedy all over Central Oregon. So look forward to seeing you guys.

unknown 0:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

I'm Brian Keister. I uh grew up in Bend. I have a bachelor's in biology, which informs my comedy, as well as I'm a stay-at-home dad, which also informs my comedy.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

And then at night, I'm humorous productions, and I'm Anthony by day and Tony by night.

SPEAKER_06 1:01

Tony Poponi. And I'm Julia Reed Nichols. And we are back here with some of our hot topics, local news, and quite frankly, whatever else comes to these people's mind. And Anthony, you were bringing up some embarrassing what would you call this? Like traits, habits, thoughts?

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Maybe all of you above. We'll see what comes up. Just things that I find funny that are like maybe embarrassing to a younger version of me. Like, you know, maybe even reading glasses. I'm 53 years old now, and like I can't ignore the fact that if I fly fish and I have to tie stuff, I have to read it's it's over, and I'm like, I don't even care. I moved here from Colorado and I back there it was like skinny, biting all the time, you know, outside all the time, and I still do all those things. But as I'm aging, it's just gotten like chiller and more enjoyable, right? And to the point where the thing that I love the most right now that I'm embarrassed about, but at the same time I'm not embarrassed about, is that I I love my e-bike.

SPEAKER_06 2:04

Like I why was I ever pedaling?

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Like, why did I ever shoe this? Uh it's just something I completely love.

SPEAKER_08 2:11

So I don't do you guys have e-bikes as a you're like a crossfit coffee for e-bike.

SPEAKER_06 2:15

I yeah, I don't bike e-bike or otherwise. I don't bike. I'm terri I'm actually bad at biking. I don't enjoy biking. Yeah, we share that in common. Yeah. Do you bike?

SPEAKER_01 2:26

No.

SPEAKER_06 2:27

We're just you just you're more normal for vent. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like we're the odd ones out here.

SPEAKER_08 2:36

I'm I'm bad at it. Like we would like go on vacation or something and like, oh, we'll get bikes and we'll just tour around. Yeah, I'm like, okay. I mean, I'm up for it. I'm up for like lots of, you know, I'm like, sure, we'll do it. And then I'm like trying to stop and like falling off and it's less fun when you feel like you're gonna get hurt. Yeah, when you're gonna get hurt. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:55

You know, mine's more childhood trauma related. So my dad, uh, when he was a single dad after the divorce, thought it was a fun Saturday activity to take us on really long forced bike rides. Mandatory fun. Mandatory fun. One time we even went from Seattle to Portland in two days. Oh my gosh. That's 200 miles, in case you're wondering. And I was 10. Oh no, no, no. The first time he took me to Europe, we get off the plane. I didn't know he packed our bike. The bikes come down the thing, and he's like, guess what? You're biking your way through the extra damn.

SPEAKER_05 3:30

Were you flying? When he was like in the airport, you're like, I don't want to.

SPEAKER_06 3:33

Multiple times I've broken down crying because of my guy. So just like deeply and so yeah, now I don't get on a bike.

SPEAKER_08 3:39

Okay, all of that you'd think you'd be like a really good cyclist and just not like it.

SPEAKER_06 3:42

No, I think I'm physically like I'm capable. Okay. And but I just I it's like, yeah, I just don't want to do it. But I will do like a power spin class, like a soul cycle.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Oh, really? It has to be stationary.

SPEAKER_06 3:55

It has to be stationary. There has to be neon lights. There has to be a gorgeous person at the front of the room telling me what to do.

SPEAKER_04 4:01

Good music.

SPEAKER_06 4:01

Good music, yes.

SPEAKER_04 4:03

Yes, a reward at the end.

SPEAKER_06 4:04

Yes, and peer pressure, so I perform. That's the benefit of group fitness classes. Otherwise, you'd do it at home. It's the peer pressure.

SPEAKER_08 4:14

Although your dad was like, if you don't bite to the next place, there's no place for you to sleep. I mean, that's all. No, precisely.

SPEAKER_06 4:19

It is I remember every house we would pass, I'd be like, oh, if we lived here, I'd be home all day.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

27 more color. So you're still in speaking terms.

SPEAKER_06 4:33

Yes, I love my dad very much, and he has finally stopped asking me to go on bike rides, but it took like maybe 20 years of me rejecting them before he like actually got the idea that I don't enjoy this. And it's not just me, it's me, my brother, my stepsister were all equally traumatized by it. And he he'll remember it. He like to my husband, he was like, Remember when Julia and I went to Amsterdam and had that great bike trip?

SPEAKER_02 5:00

One of you had a great bike trip.

SPEAKER_06 5:01

That's what my husband told me.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

And the other person was Julia.

SPEAKER_06 5:04

I know. And he said that same thing in front of my best friend. And my best friend was like, Clark, I don't know how to tell you this, but you're delusional. She fucking hated that trip.

SPEAKER_08 5:15

I hate to wreck this like core memory of your bonding with your daughter, but that's not what her.

SPEAKER_06 5:20

But parenting is hard. I don't think parents have the same. I don't have kids. You have you're the only one here with kids. Wait, do you have kids?

SPEAKER_04 5:27

You don't have so you're the only Brian, you're the only one with kids. Would you take them on a cross cross-European bike, forced bike mandatory?

SPEAKER_01 5:34

I don't even want to take the one to Europe. Ship them these things.

SPEAKER_06 5:39

Can you put them like underneath the seat like a dog?

SPEAKER_02 5:44

That's the thing. But like these core memories can come, they can be like so nostalgic for one person and so like like for the other person that are just like traumatizing. But there's like moments I'm glad like I pushed through that my parents may be doing things that they made me do. Comfortable outside because of stuff. I I'm comfortable outside because we were poor growing up, and the cheapest thing to do was to go outside. So that will get you somewhere camping, you know. Yeah, yeah, those things. My mom said the funniest thing. She we went camping when I was a kid, and I was born and raised in New Jersey. And I was like, Oh, going camping this weekend. I still camp, you know, for graphics and shit. And I'd I'd much rather sleep in a hotel bed at this point. And she was like, I love camping so much. And I was like, Mom, when's the last time you went camping? You tell me you love it so much. It's like when you were kids, and I was like, that was like four decades ago.

SPEAKER_06 6:30

If you love something, I love the memory of it so much.

SPEAKER_08 6:38

Exactly. I have all the current gear to do it because I kept thinking, oh, I'll go I'm gonna become a camper.

SPEAKER_06 6:43

I'll go backpack. We live in the most beautiful place in the world to camp. Absolutely why would we not camp? Why would we not camp? I'll tell you why. Okay, I have reason.

SPEAKER_08 6:51

I knew this was not on topic, but I'll tell you why. This is why we wouldn't do it, is because everything is so accessible here. You do not have to hike four miles or eight miles or whatever to get to a waterfall. There are tons of them just on the on the roadside, like they're all so easy to get to and beautiful vistas and beautiful, and you can go on these amazing day hikes. I don't think you're gonna see something else by hiking longer.

SPEAKER_06 7:19

Like it's not gonna get better than Green Lake or Sparks Lake, right?

SPEAKER_08 7:23

There. I grew up like I grew up in Mississippi and Texas. You gotta go a long way to see something like tucked away. Tucked away, like nature.

SPEAKER_06 7:31

In Texas, my parents would take us to like Fredericksburg and be like, this is the pretty part, it's yeah, yeah, yeah. The whole country. And then it's pretty. And then they would take us to a rock. Yeah. And be like, that's the rock we're gonna climb today. With that enchanted rock. Yes, enchanted rock. You climbed.

SPEAKER_04 7:48

It's just a big rock. It's a big rock. It's a big rock. People are very it's not a hill, it's not a mountain. But it is a giant, it is the biggest rock I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

So growing up in Oregon, my dad would take us to Rooster Rock.

SPEAKER_08 8:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Up on in the Columbia River area. And uh it's a nudist uh beach.

SPEAKER_04 8:08

Oh, oh so it's cockroach.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

He did, yes. Cockrock. No, the the sundial told told no, no, yeah. Us kids didn't partake generally. There were there were a lot of us kids though. There were like six kids.

SPEAKER_08 8:30

So um were there other children at Cockrock, or were you the only family that it was a family?

SPEAKER_01 8:36

No, it was a family outing. It was family-friendly.

SPEAKER_06 8:38

It's a family-friendly cockrock.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Yeah, was you know, 30 years ago.

SPEAKER_06 8:42

That's how I went to a nudist hot spring that Harbin Hot Spring, which I don't know if you guys I love those places.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

I always in my opinion, all hot springs are nudists, right?

SPEAKER_06 8:54

That's true. Wait, this place had like kids running around and like it felt like very normal, but you're like, I understand, like I wouldn't normally get naked in front of other people's children.

SPEAKER_08 9:04

Yeah, yeah. But I can also appreciate a very like if if if if the mood and the vibe is all like this is just how we are, this is bodies. Like, if that's the vibe, yeah, awesome. But this takes one creepo to like ruin that vibe.

SPEAKER_06 9:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Why don't you make eye contact with me when you're yeah, exactly?

SPEAKER_06 9:22

I try so hard not to be that creepo when I'm at those places. I'm like eyes down the rise on your own eyes.

SPEAKER_08 9:28

Yes, that's so true. Because also, if I see someone beautiful, I'm like, damn, that person's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

And then I'm like, the the real creepos are the guy with the Buddhist beads and the didgeridoo. That's the creepo. It's the official outfit of creepo.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_08 9:45

I don't think you own either one of those, Tim. So I don't think you're not meaning to cast any disparaging.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

I would say the other thing they have there, what'd you say? The beads and the didgeridoo? Yeah. Yeah, boot Buddhist beads and the don't take this wrong because you've got a you know hair back here, but I would say a hair and a ponytail. Stringy ass, you know, it's just terrible. Not yours, theirs. No, yours is gorgeous. Yours is lovely and flawed.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

I I also have a Buddhist tattoo.

SPEAKER_06 10:12

You are the creep at the hot spring.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Apparently, I have pigeonholed myself.

SPEAKER_06 10:19

I was just gonna make a comment. I was like, well, that's definitely not the person you want to be your life coach. So going into our next topic. So I was at Jackson's Corner, which is a cute little restaurant here in Bend, and I was eavesdropping on a conversation, as you do, right? When you're waiting for your food. You're not gonna like, I don't, I don't, well, I don't carry a smartphone, so I can't scroll my phone anymore. So I have to eavesdrop. It's the only form of entertainment. It's like the 90s. It just happens. Yeah, exactly. So I'm listening to this conversation, and it's two women, uh, both which look seemingly successful. They're having a very nice lunch at Jackson's Corner, which is presumably like $30 a person or something. And they're there, and one of them is getting life coaching from the other one. And I felt myself instantly judge both of them. Because I felt like the person that was asking the question was asking the wrong person the question because the life coach wasn't, I didn't feel like was I mean again, in my opinion, giving her very helpful advice. I mean, I'm sorry, if you want some producing tips, let me give you some. But but then I realized I was being judgy and life coaching helps people. What do you guys think about life coaching? Well, I know Anthony, you probably have very, very strong feelings about life coaching.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

Oh, well, yeah, I mean, I think I have very strong feelings of probably in a lot of different dimensions around. Like, can it be very helpful for people? Yes. But uh, can it be you hearing back what you want to hear back from the person you're talking to? Also, yes, you know, just depends on what it's being used for. And if it's just like therapy, you can go into therapy and have your therapist not actually provide you any relief on things, you know, and actually resolve anything or challenge you to do things, you know. So yeah, fine. It's it can be all things. I like some of these things, like anybody can be a life coach. You can just say, I have received money for coaching, I am officially a professional life coach. I mean, at this point I am a professional comedian because people have handed me for coaching.

SPEAKER_04 12:15

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Not all of us here.

SPEAKER_07 12:16

I was like, Hey, we're a room full of professional comedians.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

Yeah, uh professional means a lot of things, though. Yeah, but that's just uh I don't know. Sometimes people I I don't know if I can handle a lot of the energy around life coaches, though.

SPEAKER_06 12:30

Yeah, one of my life's mottos is don't take advice from people whose life you wouldn't switch with. Right? Like just like Oh, that's so good. If they like just don't even listen. Like whatever they have to say, good or bad, about whatever you're doing, like they don't fucking know. Right. Because they haven't done it.

SPEAKER_08 12:48

And also they might have a good life, but you still might not switch with them. So it might be good for them.

SPEAKER_06 12:52

It might be good for them, but like if it's not good for you. So I think that's where, and then like I fucking like wouldn't switch lives with anybody. So I think that's that's where like life coaching for me, I'm like, uh but it's also like I realize some people need like accountability. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like a buddy to like accomplish goals with a partner, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:15

A safe space to explore stuff, you know. Yeah, I I could see where like if you feel really comfortable and confident about where you're going and what you're doing, you may not need that. Other people really just don't have that within them. Like and somebody needs to help kind of tease that out a little bit. Yeah. So that that accountability piece can be really valuable. And that place for vulnerability to really talk about stuff that you can't talk about with anybody else can be really valuable too. Yeah. I mean, I've been a beneficiary of coaching, I've been coached a lot of people too.

SPEAKER_08 13:39

Yeah. Have you ever heard of what do you think about life coaching? Have you used one or what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 13:44

My sister's a life coach.

SPEAKER_08 13:46

Oh I don't know if I knew that coach.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Oh wow, there was judgment instead of no, no, not at all. She she lives uh in Boise. I don't have any particular uh opinions on it, um positive or negative. Uh I view it essentially as uh uh Anthony was saying, is that there there's gonna be positive and negative. And uh as far as the accountability aspect, I mean we used to have these mentors and mentees systems, you know, like like uh almost like uh you know journeyman plumbers and and whatnot. And uh yeah, exactly. And you don't really see that too much anymore. I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 14:35

Yeah, except in the entertainment industry, it's one of the few fields where mentorship is uh essentially required to progress. Like if bigger producers than me didn't entrust me, I wouldn't have like my career. Same thing with like performing. If bigger performers didn't allow me to hop on their bills, I would have never have gotten so it's like when you get to a step, you you almost have an obligation to take the next row of artists with you.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

It's but but is that uh coaching?

SPEAKER_06 15:10

Would you call that a mentor and I would call it more mentorship? Yeah, I think there's a lot of people that have been maybe like five to fifteen years ahead of me in my career who it and they're symbiotic relationships, right? Like they need me, right? They need young, cheap, eager talent. Like I was very eager, I was very trainable, right? But like at the same time, like I needed them because I needed somebody to like give me an opportunity where people would see my work. I mean, otherwise you're just like so.

SPEAKER_08 15:40

I think that's I think that's could I come from like a very corporate world. So I think that more in terms of like sponsorship. Oh so it's the person, so they're not mentoring because they're not like necessarily like guiding you through, or like maybe I don't know if you talk with them or not about like a struggle that you had, but a sponsorship would be somebody who would like put your name forward and say, That person, I've seen a little bit of what they do, I believe in them, I think that they can move forward, and that's super valuable. And I I mean all of it's really valuable, but I agree that it's great. I think this just happened to me actually.

SPEAKER_06 16:11

So I'm like like where you did it for someone or someone did it for you.

SPEAKER_08 16:15

Well, somebody people have done it for me, which has been amazing, but it's where I realized I'm now in the comedy scene in a way that I need to or I can say, like, there's this comic coming up, and I think they're great, and I want to make sure that the right people know or the you know, know who that person is. Not that I know all the right people, but whoever the right whoever I know, I want them to know. Yeah. So like it was kind of it's good to like, I think sometimes we're always looking for what we want, and we forget, like that great quote you had. What was that quote about the potato?

SPEAKER_02 16:45

The life you're living is a life that other people dream about.

SPEAKER_08 16:47

And sometimes we forget, like that we're in a privileged position. All the time.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

Yeah, yeah. There's something there about even with the life. I mean, the life coaching thing sometimes can have an element of um people want to brag that they have a coach. It's just something cool to say about, you know, like uh well when I was talking about coach, you know, like fine, cool, great. There's real value in it, I'm sure. And I think that there's an importance of skill and structure to those things, whatever that would be, and even mentoring, like, and I even think what you were saying, while incredibly valuable to you, mentoring it needs to have some structure to it too. Like for like a there's a formal process for some businesses to have mentoring and structure within that to be like, here's the things we want to show you. We're gonna be paired up with somebody intentionally. It is part of their job description to help you with that versus the informal stuff that happens. Yeah, and the informal stuff that happens. That it's like the it's not the passing of the torch, but it's this reciprocal sort of thing of being like, hey, other people did this for me. How can I make sure that I can do this for the next group of people that are coming along, you know?

SPEAKER_06 17:41

So I think there's I think it has really great values, but there's times when it's like I could see sitting at Jackson's quarter and just listening to that conversation and being like it's also I I just have like a horrible mean streak where I judge other people. So it's also just like that side of me coming out.

SPEAKER_08 17:55

Was this pre-lunch or after lunch? Oh, I hadn't eaten yet.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

My blood sugar was definitely a lunch.

SPEAKER_06 18:03

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

We we solved that one.

SPEAKER_06 18:06

You know, but what we haven't solved is how the World Cup clock works. So Laura, so Laura, please explain to us Okay, first of all, I'm your understanding about the world.

SPEAKER_08 18:19

I understand your understanding. I'm the I'm the sort of person who's like, yay, sports. Like, I don't I don't really follow sports. Sports ball. Yay sports. I almost got a baseball hat that just said sports.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

My girlfriend has a shirt that says, I just hope both teams have fun. Yeah, that's it right there.

SPEAKER_08 18:33

Like when I see a really beautiful play, I'm like, that's a beautiful play, and like everyone's like, that's not our team. And I'm like, oh sorry. I'm not supposed to appreciate it. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so my understanding of it, of football as the rest of the world calls it, soccer as we call it, is that the clock counts up and then they'll like just tack on a bunch of time at the end. And so, and not just, I mean, I know there's like I'm sure there's reasons. But like so 90 minutes, but it might go 92 minutes or 97 minutes. And from the audience perspective, I don't think we know, ever know, or have a mechanism for knowing how much time's gonna be added on, but also we're having to constantly do math because it's counting up, and so you kind of constantly have to subtract that from 90 to know how much time your team has left to score. It's just I'm used to American football, which just tells me just it's just easier, it's just easier, it's a lot easier.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

It's like that it's as stressful as like if you were trying to watch a toaster and being like, when's it gonna be done? Like, and then it springs out and you're like, oh shit, it is.

SPEAKER_06 19:40

So the game it ends just like at an arbitrary time and you don't necessarily know.

SPEAKER_08 19:44

No, it'll tell you. It ends at 90 minutes, yes. But then at 90 minutes, it will also go plus seven. And so on the screen, you'll now know it's 90 seven. So the game's over, and you're like, game's over!

SPEAKER_02 19:55

But I know it's no.

SPEAKER_08 19:56

But it's not over. And you you know they're always gonna add a little bit of time.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

Because they're doing the extra time for people to get injured and stoppages and giving yellow cards and red cards, and the referee's keeping trick you know track of that time.

SPEAKER_08 20:06

Anytime that's not there's not plenty.

SPEAKER_06 20:07

But they can why don't they actually track that and just keep like adding it or stop the clock for the I it's just or at least give like the audience like a little referee clock in the corner so they're like account up, a count up.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

Yeah, that would make sense. Yeah, if other parts of the world would just do things like America does.

SPEAKER_06 20:25

All the problems would be solved. Or if I was better at math, yeah, or if our American school systems are better at teaching us math. No, my my little sister who's 18, can't read a regular clock. They didn't teach her that in school. They were like, you don't need to know this. She also can't read cursive. They were like, you don't need to know like the amount of things that I remember spending like years of my childhood education on. Like I remember drawing in the clock hand.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

And they had the lines of paper with a depth.

SPEAKER_06 20:55

Like, this really, I remember the smell of that paper. It had like a very special see all of our like millennial and gen X audiences like that.

SPEAKER_04 21:06

Right? All of this. I know how to, yeah, I was a talk person.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. She wouldn't even know how to put the the tape back into a cassette tape if she had to.

SPEAKER_04 21:13

Oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_06 21:14

I don't even know if she would if you showed her a cassette, what it is, I don't know if she would be able to identify it as like a thing that plays music. That's so strange. I guess it's we have different, it's I I all of a sudden just like hit middle age and I don't know when it happened, but my sister really highlights important.

SPEAKER_08 21:35

It's like beautiful mirrors.

SPEAKER_06 21:37

Yeah, because she's 18 and I'm like, oh, your youth. I'm not not.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

I have a sister that's 21 years younger than me, too. And I'm just like, oh yeah, you I don't know. I don't know what's happening.

SPEAKER_08 21:51

Yeah, it's very different. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

The different world.

SPEAKER_08 21:53

So I was telling you, I was I was I was at the club. I was at the club. At the club. Yes. In the club. They were it was a it was a DJ? Yeah. And they were, it was all like house music and DJ. And they were filling in like bits of old songs. So it kept me very engaged. Because I was like, I love this song. I remember song. And I'm like, oh my God, this whole crowd, this is the only reference point they have. Is this they don't know the source material like at all? Nah.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Did you go around trying to explain it to them? You're like that guy from the progressive commercials.

SPEAKER_08 22:23

Oh the progressive commercials hit too close to home, though.

SPEAKER_06 22:29

Don't like what is it? Don't become your parents. Yes.

SPEAKER_08 22:32

And you're like, careful about anything how much, but they do need to know how to park. I want to help them.

SPEAKER_04 22:37

Or whatever the channel is.

SPEAKER_06 22:38

Yeah, exactly. Whatever it is. You're like, but that is helpful when you're traveling to know like it is helpful. It is helpful.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

And nobody else here is a parent. And let me tell you, the thing that will get you to recognize how much like your parents you are is your kid.

SPEAKER_08 22:53

Oh how many things have you said that you're like, oh my gosh, that was my mom, that was my dad.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Not necessarily things that I've said, but the way I've said things for sure. And you're like, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah. It's like, no, no, pull it back. Stick that back in there. And then do you like it?

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Do you overreact and try to play cool dad again? You're like, I gotta correct that again. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

I mean, I mean, I I wouldn't say that I ever try to play cool dad. Uh, but definitely things will come out and it's like, okay, take a minute, apologize, and say, you know, that that's not how I want to parent, and you know, just uh be clear and open that this is new to me too. Yeah, you know, it's it's it's my first time parenting.

SPEAKER_06 23:41

I was like dental parenting, that's so nice.

SPEAKER_08 23:45

Like, oh, I just made a mistake and I'm gonna address it and I'm gonna like and I'm gonna say and I'm gonna correct it. Like, I think that's a great like modeling for them to explain.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Absolutely. Yeah, I I I I honestly that that's one thing that in my parenting uh wheelhouse is the one thing I try to make clear is that it is okay to make mistakes, and we just uh either replace it, fix it, do whatever we can and learn from it.

SPEAKER_06 24:13

And uh that you know that's gonna save them so much self beating up when they're older if they learn like everybody fucks up, whatever. Yeah, it like because it's the attempt. It takes so long to learn that where you're like, I I just yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna start talking to myself like a friend, not like an enemy, like that whole thing.

SPEAKER_08 24:32

That internal voice. Oh my god. Oh, she can be real harsh.

SPEAKER_06 24:36

Oh, is yours a is yours a woman?

SPEAKER_08 24:37

Mine is a woman. Is your internal voice a man?

SPEAKER_01 24:41

I don't have an internal voice. Uh my own. I've heard this. Yeah. I've heard that someone's not. No, no internal monologue.

SPEAKER_08 24:47

Isn't that weird? That's weird. I'm sorry. She's like, you're weird. Do you know that? I've heard this once before from somebody else, and I find it so fascinating.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

How many people have you killed?

SPEAKER_06 24:57

So do you not you don't have a reflective thought on your thoughts? Like there's no extra thought when you have a thought.

SPEAKER_08 25:03

Can you imagine trying to explain that?

SPEAKER_04 25:06

And they're like, I don't think so. I don't know what you're talking about. Do you have thoughts? You have thoughts though, right? Of course. Yeah, those are thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

And I think the thought nebulously is the thing. It's like clouds of thoughts or uh in my parents are meditation teachers and were were when I was growing up. I think that might have something to do with it, that I learned to meditate at a very young age. And uh the the thing is to allow the thought to kind of percolate and bubble up and then just go away. Yes. And uh it's the cloud of the blue sky. Sure, yeah. Or like cloud bursting like the men who stare at goats. No, but yeah, it it's I I don't want to get us too off uh track with uh my, you know, it's it's interesting though.

SPEAKER_06 25:51

It's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

We're lost. We won't even start a culture.

SPEAKER_06 25:53

I am like, I think we're gonna follow you. Does it involve mushrooms?

SPEAKER_01 25:56

That's it certainly could.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

I could tell you which ones are safe.

SPEAKER_08 26:01

But do you have an internal bottle of it going or no?

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and I think getting like more comfortable with it is uh I I even talk about this in my programs about just getting to understand that voice and to kind of like how you sabotage and the negativity about yourself and other people and just turning the volume down on that and just you know like catching yourself and then like being having that minimizing the impact it has on you, you know. Just being like, Yeah, cool, I understand where that comes from. You're trying to protect me. I get it. Cool, but that's not the case. We don't need you here right now.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

So I think it's very different from what you're talking about. I'll also interject here that I think that it negatively has impacted my learning process for a comedy that because I don't have the next thing.

SPEAKER_06 26:42

You don't have a newer thought.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Yes, exactly, uh queued up.

SPEAKER_08 26:46

And uh so you don't have the performer and then the preparer like right behind.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Yes, and that kind of like uh you know, DJ mixing of like from thought to thought uh is is so I I'm better with scripting less and or ad libbing, but uh ad libbing my scripted material is far more difficult for me personally.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

Okay, how so you said ad libbing, how do you do with crop work? You do a do you do that at all? I could.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

It's one of those things where I I need to some muscle. Uh yeah, exactly. Get get some work out with that. Did you do crop work?

SPEAKER_08 27:25

I end up doing crowd work. I plan on it, but like I kind of end up end up doing it kind of ends up happening. I mean, I cause because I kind of like my favorite times are when I can feel the audience and I see like if I say something and I see them whisper to somebody, or like one time I was in stage and somebody repeated what I said, like to themselves, I could see them repeating it, and I was like, Oh, that's fascinating. So then I'm like engaging with them. So I don't know if that's really I don't think that's probably considered crowd work.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Sure it is. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 27:57

Because then I like saw it and I was like, and it was something that I was it was yeah, it was advice for men having relations with women, and I was like, you do repeat, repeat that to yourself. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

You need that information, like which is exactly what made a crowd work, right?

SPEAKER_08 28:12

Yes, yeah, and they were you know, it was good like banter, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

I see you trying to lock that one after you. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 28:18

Did you do uh yes, I do. Yeah, I would rather just talk to people all day and never tell a joke. That that's a payment.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

I've seen people do it. I was a cruise that I just did in to Alaska, put that on the embarrassing things that I it's actually really weird to go on a cruise if you're used to planning all your own vacations and just go there.

SPEAKER_06 28:39

Like, you're like, oh, I just show up and eat when they tell me to eat, do the thing when they tell me to do it.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

All right, fine.

SPEAKER_06 28:44

It's like it's great. It's yeah, retirement.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Uh but and you know, Matt Reif does all the stuff where he does all just crowd work. Uh this guy, I don't remember his name. I haven't f follow him on Instagram now, but if that's what his show was all crowd work and it was amazing, you know. But I also think it's a muscle too. Like if that's what you're going to do all the time, that you just like he's got 75 responses in his back pocket for whatever you say. Oh, you're a plumber, or you're a dentist, or you're you know, he's he's got he's ready for all of it. So but there's something beautiful about the organic nature of it, if you do it well, that can really connect you, I think, with the audience too. Like they feel like they're contributing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 29:16

Yeah. Well, that's why people like way to live comedy, is because they feel like they're seeing something spontaneous. And I think when people feel like they're getting the same canned show that another city got, that's why you always have to add in the couple openers about the city when you get there. And that's why you always have to spend a little time like getting to know the people in the audience and their jobs. It's because they want to feel I mean, they pay to see you, but really you're there to make them feel good. Like we all want to be seen. We all want to be seen.

SPEAKER_07 29:48

You should get in the life coaching.

SPEAKER_06 29:51

You know what else wants to be seen? The new Odyssey movie. Yeah. So we were talking there, it sounds like it's gonna be a very epic movie, right? Explain some of the controversy around this movie. You were saying it's coming, it's Christopher Nolan.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Yes, yes, Christopher Nolan. He did the Dark Knight trilogy with Christian Bale, he did uh Tenet, he did uh Inception, and so already, like you you know, you look at his filmography and you think, man, this is gonna be a banger, right? I mean it's uh taking amazing. Yeah, absolutely, and and his takes on things are unique and uh uh uh great, you know, like like truly uh the taking on an epic myth and uh of the Odyssey, it's it's fantastic. And especially with a big budget behind it, unlike the like Amon D'Arsante version from the nineties, you know, that was fantastic it's in its own right. Vanessa Williams played uh Circe, I think.

SPEAKER_07 30:55

Or wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 30:56

That was a made was that made for TV. Made for TV. Made for TV, I remember.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Three parts, I think. I remember the really, really old ones before that when that it was the stop animation stuff from we were kids. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

Yeah, Harry Housen and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

I don't know, Harry Housen. What's that?

SPEAKER_01 31:10

What's stop motion animation?

SPEAKER_02 31:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Old old school.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Yeah, that whole stuff with with Oh, do you remember this? You know what I'm talking about? I know it's like bronze statue that comes alive and attacks them, and you could tell it's like this, you know, like really jerky motions of all this stuff. That was really cool. I don't know, trying to remember like the he yeah, it's Jason and the Argonauts. Yeah, that was a great sign. Anyway, that was it.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

Oh yeah, back back to Christopher Nolan's uh Odyssey. Yeah, so uh his casting choices uh are you know a whole host of like normal and great great choices, and then uh people that have uh severe overreactions perhaps to uh uh some of the other ones, such as like a big one is Tom Holland playing the son of Odysseus. Uh I'm forgetting his name. It's uh right on the tongue. And then uh Matt Damon? No, Matt Damon Matt Damon is Odysseus.

SPEAKER_06 32:09

Odysseus.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Yeah, and then like John Barenthal from the Punisher series on Netflix and uh sorry, Disney now, and like all these big names and that are normal/slash well received, and then there's expected, which is sure, expected, uh yeah, classical uh casting choices. And then you have Helen of Troy, who is the greatest beauty in the world, played by Lupita Nyongo, who is perhaps one of the most beauties in the world, yeah. Absolutely, and then also Elliot Page playing uh Achilles, and uh I think it's a a great uh casting, and he has gotten in just immaculate shape, he's shredded for this role, so it's gonna be very, very interesting.

SPEAKER_08 33:00

But there's there's been controversy around those last two castings, right? Because people were saying like Helena Troy is not black, but it's a mythical character. Like that's been the pushback. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 33:12

Yes. So apparently, apparently people decided that everybody in mythology was white. I think that's I think I think they could have been green, they could have been purple, but for some reason a bunch of people have decided. I think a bunch of white people have a bunch of white people have decided they're all white. Yes, but I like the creative casting.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

Just like Caucasian Jesus. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_06 33:35

Yeah, I think representation's really important. It's one of the reasons why I think that if you have an opportunity to produce, it's important to produce a diverse group of voices at any time. Because honestly, it's more interesting for the audience. Like we've all seen the story the way we've seen it. Let's see it. Like this is tale as old as time, like literally.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

Like I'm really curious to see how that plays out because you know, the the uh the archetypes in these old versions of that are they're very straightforward, you know. Like, you know, it's the beautiful, you know, la the beautiful woman that's helpless, you know, and it's uh you know that all the males are the same thing. And and of course, you know, not only was everybody white and into all these, but they all had an English accent. I'm like, who decided on the English accent? For a bunch of people from, you know, from Greece.

SPEAKER_06 34:28

Yeah, it's also the quintessential definition of a tragedy. It's like if you look at when you go to college and you study drama, the reason the Odyssey is what they consider a tragedy is because it's a hero creating a good life, but through their own hubris, tearing it apart. Like nothing outside of Odysseus really is what brought him down. It was his own hubris that ended up being his defeat. And once he gave that up, he was able to return home at the end of the Odyssey. Not to ruin the ending for anyone who does like.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, it's just but that that's one of the things, also, right? That these two characters are, you know, traditionally a very, very small part of Odyssey.

SPEAKER_08 35:17

That's true. And so it's like so what story will be told places to go.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Perhaps there's gonna be a multiples.

SPEAKER_06 35:25

Are they gonna do is it gonna tell the whole Odyssey story? Because that is epic.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

I don't know. Oh wow, isn't it an epic?

SPEAKER_06 35:32

It is an epic. It is an epic and yeah, factually, and literally. So well, I guess that'll be out in movie theaters soon, or is it out now?

SPEAKER_01 35:42

Soon. Soonish August. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 35:44

Uh people will have to check that out. But some other entertainment. You were visiting a friend recently.

SPEAKER_08 35:49

I was visiting a friend and we we she used AI, like chat AI, I don't know which one, to ask. Like, so I want to go dancing, as I alluded to before, and uh, I want to go dancing. Where should we go dancing? And the AI told her, well, it looks like you've had a long day. You might want to check out the wine bar down, you know, down the street and get an early night in. And my friend was like, excuse me, you are a tool. I don't need you where the club is.

SPEAKER_06 36:23

Did did AI actually tell her where the club is finally?

SPEAKER_08 36:26

No, we we ditched it. We like found we like another resource, a one that wasn't so ageist.

SPEAKER_02 36:34

AI is ageist. So was the next day, were you guys tired the next day? Or is it was it a good time? It was a great time.

SPEAKER_05 36:39

We had so much fun.

SPEAKER_02 36:40

The next day, you're like, you pop open an AI and AI is like, I bet you're really tired this morning, aren't you? Do you want to know where the coffee shops are that you do?

SPEAKER_06 36:46

Do you guys wear wearable health trackers? So, one of the funniest things about wearable health trackers is if you drink, it'll tell you you have ruined your life. If you don't drink, it's like you're walking on clouds today. It has an agenda. It has alcoholic either that or alcohol really has an effect on your body. I know.

SPEAKER_05 37:09

It can't be that. It can't be that. It can't be that.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

I think we should keep researching.

SPEAKER_06 37:17

I, you know, it's I think alcohol, there's the social aspect. It's I struggle with it because you hear doctors say it's like a carcinogenic now. They're like, oh, it's cancer causing. Right. Like, well, I don't want anything that's cancer causing. But your girl likes a little drink at the end of the day. So I ate cheese, isn't that cancer cause? Isn't everything cancer causing? I think carcin I think like this table is carcinogenic. What about the plastic? I mean, I'll ask the biologist, what's carcinogenic mean? Cancer causing cancer causing, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:49

Sure, yeah. I mean, uh as far as that goes, like, yeah, every everything is gonna be use a more oratorial voice, if you would, please.

SPEAKER_04 37:56

Oh, what more?

SPEAKER_01 37:58

Oratorial. Why thank you for asking?

SPEAKER_04 38:01

Oh, professor.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

But I as far as that goes, yes. Uh we you you could say that uh the dose makes the poison.

SPEAKER_08 38:11

There you go. I mean, we're I'm I'm not, but people are drinking like coffee out of pods, plastic pods every day. So heating those plastic pods up every day. Microplastics. That's gotta be cancer-causing.

SPEAKER_06 38:22

I know. I went through and got rid of all the micro. Well, that's an exaggeration. A lot of the microplastics in my house when I was on my fertility journey did not help, but my coffee tastes better now because it doesn't have plastic in it. So I switched to uh like a glass or uh well, we lose you we use like a percolator, and then now we have like a little ceramic mesh pour over one we use in our camper. And then I must admit, I finally did go back to a regular coffee maker, yeah. Which does have some plastic in it, but it has a mesh.

SPEAKER_08 38:58

Yeah. Oh, the the coffee filters instead of plastic. I know. I know it's tough. It's tough, it's everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

It's all I am not a fan of whatever those things are called, the Keurigs. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 39:08

Well, there's lots of different ones, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

Uh I'm gonna do, I'm gonna just let you know how big of a deal I am. I uh I fly a lot for my work. So I have a past the United Lounges, you know, and you go on there, and the food's not great. Pay attention. They have a full bar of poisons, and then they have the little coffee making machines there, right? You know, you can push in the latte latte and all that. And I'm like, this is nice. I never drink these, I'll have a cappuccino, sure. I normally would just have some jip coffee. And I was standing next to some woman, and I'm gonna say she was from Southern California, and she walked up to that and she was like, This is how we get our coffee. And I was like, This is the nicest coffee. It was a human thing about it. I don't know if we used to take away from their craft, but I was just like, I'm not gonna be able to tell the difference. And could you, or was it no, you can't tell. A good cappuccino from a bad cappuccino.

SPEAKER_06 40:00

Machine cappuccinos can be like in Europe, they have coffee machines everywhere, and they're fine. And you put like a quarter of them, and it's yeah, it's great.

SPEAKER_01 40:10

I have, I have to say, an espresso virtuo. Let me tell you, I thought I was about the United States. Aluminum. Aluminum and they recycle for you.

SPEAKER_06 40:22

They can make a bicycle, they can make a bicycle. That's so nice. And it does taste so much better. Much better. It does.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

It's one of those things where my I'm like, I'm telling you, my palate is not refined on those things. And I'm just like, there's times when it's probably better, you know. Like, I am just as happy with a $3 street taco as I am with like a really fancy steak. And I'm like, that's cool. I'm really happy with like a fine bottle of whiskey or tequila versus the crazy expensive one. Like, I don't, those are expensive habits, you know.

SPEAKER_08 40:49

Well, it's kind of I agree with Hood River Distillery vodka. Yeah, sometimes it's good not to know because like so the way my mom told me not to do drugs as a child, this is really she said, Well, so if you do cocaine, you might like it. And then where are you? And I was like, this is a great point, right? I was like, okay, this is a great point, but she never said that about flying first class. Yeah. You might be other expensive habits.

SPEAKER_06 41:15

My mom told me that exact same thing about premarital sex.

SPEAKER_07 41:19

You might like it.

SPEAKER_06 41:20

She was like, you don't have premarital sex because it's fun. Because you might like it.

SPEAKER_04 41:27

And then you're gonna like it. Well, you had way better pigmentalistic than that advice.

SPEAKER_06 41:32

Oh my gosh, it's a my yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

In high school, I remember my English teacher told us about the importance of spelling. Then I was in high school and like I graduated in 1990, so there wasn't spell check back in those days. You had to do it yourself. And somebody wrote an entire persuasive essay about why it should be okay to have pre-martial sex. Might make it less violent.

SPEAKER_06 41:59

You should. If you're going to war.

SPEAKER_04 42:00

Bring up the testosterone.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

Go get laid before you. Weed weed and sex will solve it in all war. I agree.

SPEAKER_06 42:10

Well, on that note, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Nick Tillelli, who's gonna be coming to town later this year with uh his comedy. Um, he is a New York City-based comedian, and I would love for you guys to check out that conversation now.

unknown 42:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 42:27

Well, welcome to the podcast, Nick. If you can introduce yourself for people who might not be familiar with you and your comedy.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

Uh I find it hard to believe that nobody knows who I am. Um, but I am uh my name is Nick Kalelli. I'm a comedian from New York City. Uh I've been doing comedy for about 10 years now. Um and it has been better than a lot of people tried to tell me it would be. That's really it.

SPEAKER_06 42:59

What made you decide to get into comedy?

SPEAKER_00 43:05

I couldn't fathom having to have a boss, in all honesty. I grew up with uh a real uh issue with authority my entire life, and then I was like, if I can't listen to my baseball coach, there's no way I'm getting a job where someone has to tell me what to do. So that's really what kind of I really if I'm gonna be honest with you, yeah, I'm funny and all that stuff too, but it was mostly like there's no way I could have people tell me what to do all day. Believe it or not.

SPEAKER_06 43:38

Believe it or not, that's okay. It's okay to be independent minded. You are in America after all. Uh so I watched a lot of your comedy to kind of get a feel for you before we talked, and you feel like the quintessential New Yorker. How do you think living in New York City has shaped your comedy?

SPEAKER_00 43:56

I think it grew up with a lot of people who were bullies and Uh but they were very funny. It was a very sarcastic Italian-Irish neighborhood where uh everyone you're just there there was never a sincere conversation. Anything that you had said to somebody, you were immediately going to be ridiculed for it. There was just a line that was gonna derive exactly who you are, what you just said, and what they think of you within a moment's notice. That eventually that's how you were only able to communicate. It's taken me years to actually complete the sentence I'm doing right now, in all honesty. Uh so New York was, I think, completely influential to me. Uh, you know, and then I grew up on Long Island, I moved to the city, and for some reason I moved to New York City and now I'm the most New York person here. Uh, which I don't claim that title. That's what a lot of people who's like, oh, you must be from New York or Hall. I'm like, well, Long Island, but uh, you know, since there's like so many transplants now, I uh end up being the toughest guy on my block.

SPEAKER_06 45:01

Yeah, for sure. There's definitely an energy difference between the east and the west coast, which I'm sure you will feel when you're here in Oregon. We're a little bit more of a laid-back vibe. Have you ever performed in Oregon before?

SPEAKER_00 45:16

No, but I went to California and I got really caught up in the laxadaisical lifestyle, like just waking up at like at first I woke up at like 10, I went to the beach and nobody was there, and everyone's like, Yeah, they don't wake up yet. Like you're I'm an early riser over here. Yeah. Uh but yeah, and I and then I've been to Tennessee. I've been to the South a few times, I guess more mostly uh California, where I've really felt the hey buddy, how you doing, kind of a thing. And I felt like the most fast-paced. So I'm interested interested to see what's been what's it like over by you guys. And uh everyone seems to be sharing the same sentiment as you.

SPEAKER_06 45:55

Yeah, it's uh well, and Bend is a little bit different. So Oregon's a very it's one of those states where it's like city mouse versus country mouse, kind of like New York, right? You have New York City and then you have the rest of New York. Um we're a little like that with Portland and then the rest of Oregon. So you get such a different experience as you travel throughout the state. It's I love it here. I moved from, well, I lived in New York for a little bit and then LA and then Vegas and now here. And I I love it. I think I'll have a great time.

SPEAKER_00 46:26

No, absolutely. You know what's funny? I've been I've been paying attention a little bit to Oregon just based on have you been following the story of Bricks and Minifigs Lego scandal?

SPEAKER_06 46:37

No, what's that scandal about?

SPEAKER_00 46:39

You're a reporter, you don't even know what this is. This is this has been obsessing my mind since this inception about two months ago. This is uh it's not in Bend, Oregon. I forgot exactly. It's I think it's 150 miles away from you guys, but there is a company who sold and bought Legos for certain people on co-signment, uh consignment, excuse me, co-signment, Jesus. Uh, and one of the people who gave a bunch of their Legos uh was you know on co consignment for them to sell it, and then the corporation closed down that location, kept all the Legos that were worth over $200,000, and the guy tried to get them back, and he's just like, no, these are mine now. What are you gonna do about it? Like, this is gonna cost you more legal battles to actually do something. He hired a YouTuber, and now the main hub of this place is in Utah. He went to Utah to confront these people. They called the police on him, had him swatted, like made him the person to believe the police to believe they stole the Legos, and now they're in a legal battle that's playing out on YouTube for the whole world. And I have been obsessed with it, but it all began in Oregon, believe it or not.

SPEAKER_06 47:52

Wow, yeah. Weird things begin in Oregon. Close I know. Yeah, we we really love a good, unique human being around here. Yeah, that sounds like an Oregon story.

SPEAKER_07 48:06

Yeah, it's hilarious.

SPEAKER_06 48:08

For sure. What do you like to do when you travel as you tour around? Do you ever go out? Are you like a food person, a tourist person? What do you like to do as you travel?

SPEAKER_00 48:17

I do what people tell me to do. I'm like, what's the spot around here? And then I follow it around. But I'm I'm bigger, like I wake up, I I wake up and I just like walking around. I'll grab a cup of coffee and just like walk around the city and get a feel for what everyone's like over there. That's kind of my favorite thing, just kind of drift alone into the city.

SPEAKER_06 48:35

Yeah, Ben's a resort town, so I think you'll have a very nice weekend here. Uh we have everything from like river floating to mountains, um, high altitude lakes if you're into that. Um, we also have like great food and breweries if you're into just like staying inside and spending money, you can do that here too. That's an option.

SPEAKER_00 48:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 48:55

Yeah, you'll feel like you're in New York City.

SPEAKER_00 48:57

Yeah, that's every New Yorker loves to feel that way. How can I feel exactly like from the place that I left?

SPEAKER_06 49:04

Right. Right. And uh for people who haven't watched your comedy before, how would you describe your work and like the themes it centers around?

SPEAKER_00 49:17

I um I guess it's mostly my own personal experience and I realize that it's still relatable, so I don't live that much of a unique life. Uh and you know, even though I mentioned it in the beginning, it is a little bit, I do question authority a lot. I'm always just like, what? What do you mean? Like I'm that's if I had to surmise my comedy, it's like, what'd you say? And that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_06 49:49

Yeah, uh, I really liked your stuff too, because it felt like I got to know you watching your comedy. Um like I felt like I kind of got to know you and your wife, and it's it's very warm. Like you feel like a friend. So um I feel like I already know you after watching an hour of your comedy. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:07

That's an amazing compliment. Thank you so much. Yeah, that's that's kind of the goal.

SPEAKER_06 50:11

Yeah, absolutely. Um, and so you're gonna be coming to Bend, and you are doing a festival. Do you do a lot of festivals?

SPEAKER_00 50:22

I have been recently. I uh I kind of just decided to make a run for every festival that uh the country has to offer, and I've gotten into every single one, which has been amazing.

SPEAKER_06 50:35

So that's fantastic. Yeah. And what advice? So a lot of comedians are kind of like, hey, I would love to get noticed more. Festivals seem like a great way to network and meet people outside my market. What tips would you have if they're just starting to look into applying for festivals?

SPEAKER_00 50:53

A good tape. Um, I think that's what's been helping me the most. I was lucky enough to have uh a 12-minute set taped by a production company in New York City who kind of follows a similar format to Don't Tell, where they just get comedians to do short sets and high quality camera equipment. And uh, you know, so I just got uh and I also I make sure I had a very tight, like that was my tightest. This is every 15 seconds is gonna be a punchline, and I think that helped uh with me submitting to a lot of festivals. So high quality and tight punchlines, I think, is the most valuable to get into festivals.

SPEAKER_06 51:37

Yeah, crazy. Good joke writing helps get into festivals. Weird.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

I know. No comic likes to hear it.

SPEAKER_06 51:46

Um so if people want to check out more of your work and connect with you online, where is the best place for them to do that?

SPEAKER_00 51:53

My Instagram. Um yeah, I usually post uh front-facing videos, which people seem to like, and a lot of my stand-up clips. Uh yeah, I think that's the best way if you want to follow what I'm doing. That's where I'm most consistent. I try the other apps, they don't seem to care as much as they do on Instagram for some reason.

SPEAKER_06 52:13

I I joke with people, I feel like I'm screaming into the void. So I've been in events and entertainment for 20 years, and you know, I've been through kind of so many iterations of social media and building different things. And um, nowadays I literally feel like I'm screaming into the void because I'll post the same video and one platform will get 200 views and one will get 200,000.

SPEAKER_00 52:36

And I'm like Yep, I'm completely lost too.

SPEAKER_06 52:41

Completely lost, and but you're doing great, your stuff's getting noticed, so you're clearly doing something right, and we're really excited to have you come to town and share your talents. You're definitely a unique voice for our West Coast town.

SPEAKER_00 52:54

I'm really looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_06 52:56

Are we all back? Are we all ready?

SPEAKER_00 52:57

I think we're good.

SPEAKER_06 52:58

Okay, and that was my conversation with Nick. Connect with him online if you want to see where he's gonna be performing here in Bend and all over the country. But beyond that show, we have some other amazing shows coming up here in Central Oregon. I would like to make a shout out that we are doing the world's funniest gnome competition at the Little Woody this year. Applications are due July 31st. If you would like to sign up to compete for World's Funniest Gnome. It's the last Woody, so if you win, nobody can take your title.

SPEAKER_07 53:33

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_06 53:34

I know, and you get money. So you get money and bragging rights, and I'm gonna make a gnome crown for the winner. It'll be like similar to a plastic Burger King cat crown. Um that'll be the starting, but like with like gnomy elements. It hasn't been designed yet. It's gonna be couture. Custom. Oh yes, custom.

SPEAKER_02 53:53

Sorry, I'm confused. The last woody is also what my grandfather called his last.

SPEAKER_06 53:59

No, I know. We've been like emailing people and we keep being like, Do you have the plug for the last woody? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 54:06

And it's like and they're like, Yeah, everyone's it's it's funny, it's funny. The woody.

SPEAKER_06 54:13

We also have comedy at Silver Moon on July 15th. It's five ladies and a gent. What's it called? Ladies and a gent. Five ladies and a gent. Five ladies and a jent. I'm one of the ladies, you're one of the ladies, yeah, and then the gent is John Brown, and then there's Katie Ipox on that show, and Courtney Stevens is on that show.

SPEAKER_01 54:32

And Ella Teresa.

SPEAKER_06 54:36

Hey, see five, that's five right there. So if you want to get tickets to that, check out Ben Ticket. Also, you have what's so funny about happiness.

SPEAKER_02 54:46

That's my show.

SPEAKER_06 54:47

Right, that's your show. And where's that gonna be?

SPEAKER_02 54:48

It's at Unity Church, and it's uh comedy show. It's where the science of human happiness meets the art of comedy.

SPEAKER_06 54:54

Oh, that's so fun. I love Unity Church. That's my church.

SPEAKER_02 54:56

Yeah, it's a fun little spot. It's got a nice little stage and they do some video capture on it.

SPEAKER_06 55:00

Yeah, it's my church, but like everybody at Unity, I only show up like once a month because we're a wild soul sanctuary. So as a wild soul sanctuary, nobody shows up every week.

SPEAKER_02 55:10

I thought that was Catholic.

SPEAKER_06 55:12

No, it's it's honestly like I always they always like encourage you to like go out, live your life. I'm like, you guys, that's not how churches work.

SPEAKER_05 55:18

You're supposed to be like capture us, keep guilt us a little bit. Keep us here. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 55:26

Well, you have to sin first because then go out and sin, so you have to come back.

SPEAKER_06 55:32

But tickets for your show are at Ben Ticket.com, yeah. Very cool. Uh, we have the audit July 18th at Craft. I think those tickets are also at Ben Ticket. I'm on that show. That you're on that show. I think Cam Stone is headlining.

SPEAKER_07 55:46

Oh, fantastic.

SPEAKER_06 55:46

I don't know if that's his first official headline. I think it might, it's one of his first official headlines. He hasn't done too many headlining sets, but he's a very, very funny local comedian. And then, of course, we have the very, very famous Trevor Noah coming to town next Wednesday at Hayden Holmes Amphitheater. I don't want to brag, but I have done a show with Trevor Noah. No, that's gonna be a good one. That's awesome. It was Politicon in maybe 2015. It was literally the week before he took over the Daily Show.

SPEAKER_07 56:14

Oh, wow, wow.

SPEAKER_06 56:15

So it was like his press tour to like be like, here's this new comic, yeah, new comic that's taking over. And we did this event called Politicon. And I was hired to be like a little singing pinup at the event. So, you know, I'm practically famous, just like Trevor Burrus. So you're gonna drop out. Yeah, exactly. You're gonna drop out. I'm gonna drop, I'm sure he remembers me. I'm sure he's like, Oh, Julia Reed Nichols, come on back. I've been waiting.

SPEAKER_02 56:41

Famous enough where he can be like, of course I remember you.

SPEAKER_06 56:44

Of course, of course I remember you from that event that I did not care about 10 years ago. Of course.

SPEAKER_02 56:51

It's really interesting. He's having a really interesting story about essentially his he is uh mixed race, and that was a crime in South Africa.

SPEAKER_01 56:59

Yeah, apartheid at South Africa.

SPEAKER_02 57:00

So that's really his the early parts of the book are really awful.

SPEAKER_08 57:03

I found him so interesting.

SPEAKER_06 57:05

Oh, he's a fascinating human being, he's incredibly intelligent, and Hayden Holmes is a fantastic place to go see outdoor comedy. If you would like to go do that, Live Nation will sell you tickets to that unless they're sold out. I don't know. I don't know, but otherwise we'll take your money. And then we have open mics around town. If people want to get on shows themselves, try out mics. There's always Monday at Silver Moon, which is run by Beer Town. That's probably the most, I would say, like popular.

SPEAKER_02 57:33

If if we're ranking number of people, it's a it's been rated the number one open mic in the source or whatever.

SPEAKER_06 57:39

Yeah, yeah. You yeah, that just ended. The best of CO, the voting ended. The party is gonna be for the winners in August. I know that because I ordered trash cans for it today. So best of CEO party is coming. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:53

I'm having a hard time connecting the dots between a party and trash cans.

SPEAKER_06 57:57

There has to be trash cans. There has to be trash cans for the party.

SPEAKER_02 58:00

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_06 58:00

Yeah. So everyone thinks the award they get.

SPEAKER_02 58:03

No, no.

SPEAKER_06 58:03

Everyone thinks my job as a festival director is like bands, art, entertainment, and really it's like trash cans, toilets, electricity.

SPEAKER_02 58:14

Julia was the hire me for winter fest this year to do the 80s trivia before that. And I just remember like the mic, you know, those walkie-talkies going off and being like, we need toilet paper. And I was like, huh, the joy of a festival.

SPEAKER_06 58:28

Oh, we always run out of toilet paper. And the anger people will have if they have to drip dry in those corta potties. They will come to your information booth enraged and let you know what is up and that you should have been checking. And I'm like, I don't know. There's a lot of things to check on. It's like when you come complain, I'll go replace. Good no. Yeah. It's like, let me know. Obviously, like if it's getting low, give me a warning. I'm not, I would rather have a little warning. I don't want it to get low, but I'm also like one person. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:01

And also blame the person who used it last year. Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 59:05

The person who used an excessive amount.

SPEAKER_01 59:07

Somebody stole it all out of it. It was their job to go and tell something that it was out.

SPEAKER_06 59:13

Exactly. Uh but back to the open mics we're talking about. Away from trash. Away from trash. So Mondays at Silver Moon, Wednesdays at Craft. There is no Thursday worthy mic this week, but they will be back there next week. Did I get everybody's open mics?

SPEAKER_02 59:29

Is there an occasional pop-up one on Tuesdays? I don't remember.

SPEAKER_06 59:32

I've I've heard rumors of one in Redmond that I have yet.

SPEAKER_01 59:36

There was gonna be one that goes gonna start, but I don't at this point in time, not that I know of.

SPEAKER_06 59:41

I I but we're ready for it if it's there.

SPEAKER_01 59:44

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 59:45

Unless you're gonna take comics away from my Tuesday night taping of the show. Abundance, right? There's abundance for everybody. Um, Laura, where can people find you online if they want to connect or see more of your comedy? Yeah, they can find me on Instagram, uh Laura B.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:04

Wright, comedian.

unknown 1:00:06

Yep.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:06

All right, Brian?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:08

Brian JK365 on Instagram, TikTok, and um Blue Sky.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:17

You have Blue Sky. How is that? Is anyone on there?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:20

Did they just no it it's far less engagement, far less uh of a lot of things, far less vitriol. Yeah, that's a a a big seller for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:31

Twitter.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:32

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:34

All right, Anthony, where can people find you?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:36

www.h also on OnlyFans it's uh called see Tony's baloney.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:43

For a second there, I was like, do you have an OnlyFans TV channel? Because that is a thing for comedians. You are you guys aware of this?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:49

I I'm aware, but I've never seen it.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:52

Whitney Cummings was uh like a spokesperson for it. And you can start an OnlyFans TV channel where people can like engage with your content and you're not allowed to have anything explicit on it. So it's like but it ends up just being like hot women reading books or hot women doing other things. I mean, I'm I'm sure I'm butter because I've tried to be like, oh, is this worth my time? But I still think the overall job is talking to creepers online, which I talk to enough creepers, I don't need to go online. We don't need to increase that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:27

I didn't realize you could do it for comedy, so I have some other content I need to take down.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:32

And I'm Julia Reed Nichols. We are nighttime benders. We're back here every single week with Central Oregon's favorite funny faces. Please follow us where you're listening, like us, where you're liking us, press all the buttons. We are a new podcast that does really help. Until next time. Alright, we did it.