From Wildlife to Stand-Up: Eeland Stribling

Join Jon Brown, Creach, Jake Woodmansee, and Julia Reed Nichols as they dive into Bend's vibrant comedy scene, swap personal stories, and explore everything from fire safety and local history to the everyday absurdities of modern life.

This episode features special guest Eeland Stribling, a comedian whose unique path from wildlife biologist to stand-up comic has given him a one-of-a-kind perspective on life. Elon shares stories from his career, his passion for fishing, and how his eclectic background shapes his comedy. The conversation also ventures into life in New York City, the outdoors, and the experiences that inspire great storytelling. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Anybody needing people for me? Fantastic. Great. Well, welcome, welcome, welcome back to this week's episode of Nighttime Vendors Powered by the Swords. I am here with some of Central Oregon's favorite funny faces. Uh we will get right to it this week. John, would you want to introduce yourself or people that might not be familiar with you?

SPEAKER_05 0:26

My name's John. I'm a comedian here in Bend. I've lived here for three years. I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Yeah. And Creech, this isn't your first time here. You're coming back. Please introduce yourself or people that might have missed your first time around.

SPEAKER_04 0:42

Yeah, my name is Creech. I'm a native Bendite, uh born and raised here, and travel a little bit. Back here now and excited to be in the room with other funny people.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

And Jake, this is your very first time here. Please tell people a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Yeah, I'm a comedian, actor, and writer, and I've lived here off and on since uh the 90s.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

So yes. I like I I I was gonna be like, you're the granddaddy of Central Oregon comedy, but that makes you sound much older than you actually are.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

No, I'm 45, I'll take it.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Yeah, I mean, in the comedy world, that's a long line.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Well, I uh I was hit by a bunch of drunk drivers in my 20s, so I just didn't like driving anywhere. So really it was just uh picking gigs I could walk to. So that's that's why we started making venues happen in bed.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

So is that a true story?

SPEAKER_02 1:31

That's absolutely true. I was hit by three different drunk drivers in about a seven-year period in my 20s. So all these gigs here that I was doing and working with people, that was all just because it was like awesome, I'll walk and I'll meet you there, and then we can do stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Wow. Well, thank you for like the foundation for our scene. I it sounds like necessity was the mother of invention.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Yeah, well, actually, uh Jennifer Davis is was probably the biggest uh proponent of that. So she started uh last comedian last comic standing for Central Oregon. That's really what got everybody networking and working together, and then um everybody put their heads together and started making like a scene. There was a community after that. So yeah, it's been a cool ride. It's great to see where it is now and see these guys and you and all the people doing the things.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Yes, and I'm Julia Reed Nichols. I did not say that, and we are nighttime benders. Um back to talk about really whatever the hell we want to talk about.

SPEAKER_04 2:31

I have one question on that. Did you think that drunk drivers wouldn't hit you if you're walking?

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Uh I felt like I could avoid them a lot faster because they couldn't trap me with those painted lions on the road.

SPEAKER_04 2:41

You're still in a protected box if you're driving.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

I had PTSD before it was cool, is what I was saying. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Wow, Ben can be a real dangerous place, even if it's not a very populated place.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

No, it was one in LA, one in Primeville, and then one actually a block from here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Wow, all over. I had a friend that used to get hit all the time in her bicycle on parking lots. It sounds like you have like that kind of luck where it's just like Yeah, there were never like Friday night hits or anything like that.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

One was a Sunday morning, one was a Tuesday night. They were pretty wild times. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Wow, you're just that lucky, huh?

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Lucky. I live to bitch about it.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

So live to bitch about it. Well, talk about Are we allowed to do the sweet? Yeah, you're allowed to swear. We press that explicit button. That button. At last we can share everything. Yeah, that button is fast. So speaking about uh shitty things you've lived through, you lived through a fire, haven't you?

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Yeah, yeah, nine years ago, had a house fire over on the east side. And uh everybody made it, even the cat. And uh got my nephews out before they got a breath of smoke and all that stuff. So yeah, it was uh it was six months after back surgery. So the back surgery made me able to run away from the fire and all that, so it all worked out.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

And that fire had nothing to do with like a big fire going on. That was like an individual.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Yeah, that was uh it was like day after Thanksgiving. It was a furnace malfunction, so it was under warranty and a greased turkey the day after Thanksgiving. No, no, none of the none of the usual stuff. Uh furnace malfunction. I was I'm still an insomniac. I smelled burning plastic, checked the garage, saw like a little fire. We did everything right, hit it with fire extinguishers, and but because the cords from the furnace got in there, it made it a chemical fire. So even though we did everything right, according to the fire department, it just made it bigger, and then there was a bunch of tile tools, which are a lot of them are magnesium, so that just went very, very quickly.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Yeah, you see, you do a class, right? What's it called?

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Uh, how to survive a fire. So I'm working with the rotary club coming up here soon, mid-August, and uh gonna be getting more uh free classes. Just there's tons of uh information on how to prevent and uh be prepared. There's really not a lot of information about what happens afterwards. Like I didn't even know Red Cross uh responds to individual crisis after that. I thought it was just like national scale stuff. So there's things like that that reach out, and so just uh especially with people at risk now, let them know there's there's good things that can help, and how to be a good friend is somebody going through it if somebody close to you goes through that.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Okay, so we're in fire season. What are the top tips to keep us safe?

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Fireworks are stupid, however, pretty. Don't start fires. Yeah, right off the top. Yeah, if you have somebody in your camp's like, stop camping if you can't make goddamn s'more. Uh yeah, that's uh lose that person. Uh just a lot of common sense stuff. I mean, there's uh firewise and your local fire departments. Like, if you actually want to be a better person about that, there's tons of information out there. Uh unfortunately, white people are gonna have to do their own landscaping, I think, to prevent a lot of the fires in uh this area.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

So yeah, that's a big thing, right? Like cutting your trees six feet off the ground and keeping like a perimeter around your house and your property and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Yeah, and having some sort of plan, like the biggest thing I tell people is do not count on yourself to be as reasonable as you are right now. Like count on yourself being a scared idiot when shit goes down.

SPEAKER_08 6:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

And that will make a lot more sense for you. Like, I am on the road a lot, so I'm already packed. Like uh the last time I had an evacuation notice a few months ago, like literally all I had to do was grab a suit because I was officiating a wedding the next week.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

You're like, well, keep this the wedding.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Yeah, get gotta keep my fancies.

SPEAKER_04 6:31

So so that's all really good advice, but in your case, isn't it like don't buy GE?

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Like uh that's GE is a fine American company. I have no idea what the fuck you're on. Did they replace your house? I want to know none of those tips would have said and honestly, you know, I with just some of my weird stories right there, you can be prepared and do everything right, and weird shit still happens. So, you know, it's uh yeah, that's kind of a doomsday approach that I just uh Well, no, we're in fire season.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

It's on everybody's mind. We I I mean much of the state is burning right now.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Um, you know, just imitate your uh conspiracy theory friends, have a bug out bag.

SPEAKER_08 7:20

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

As a I did a lot of construction for years, so like I've always got snacks and just stuff to survive like 24 hours with at least. And uh really that's all you're gonna be have having to do immediately afterwards is just buy yourself time. Make sure I tell people at the classes a lot of like what I told people when I was a preschool teacher, just halt. Like hungry, angry, lonely, tired, plan for those things. Like make sure you have a way to sleep, clothe yourself, brush your teeth.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

I found out me and my husband aren't good at evacuating because we weren't on level one, but we were next to a level one. So we're like, oh, we're gonna like pre-evacuate to my parents' house. We put all of our documents in like a thing, and like we pack up all of our stuff, we get to my parents' house and we left all that shit back in our house.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

I just got my social security card replaced like three years ago from this. I it's been a ride.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Yeah, it was like we're not good at this, but they've downgraded near our house. Now we're back at our house, and I don't know. I it's my it's the first time I've ever like lived in a property next to like an evacuation zone. So it's like a weird level of concern, but it's like like we were talking about it's like in the World War II when the British people were like, keep calm, carry on, just like act like life is normal, ignore the big smoke cloud in the sky.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

The biggest thing I will say succinctly about if anyone near you goes through a house fire, do not try to relate to them or cheer them up with a it's just stuff comment. Like, fuck you, burn in hell. Like I had a coworker actually say she knew exactly how me and my family felt because she burnt the lasagna or something like that. Like everyone on her team was just like, was she Italian? No, no, actually, she looked like one of those people that puts mayonnaise in her lasagna. I don't know that for a fact, I'm just assuming and being a bitch, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

I I assume a lot lasagna was bullshit. Yeah, uh, but talking about something else that's bullshit. We check ourselves out the registers, but we don't get a discount for that. And some is it Rhode Island, you said?

SPEAKER_04 9:35

Yeah, I saw something about Rhode Island, and I think Brooklyn is implementing this where they have if you do self-checkout, you get 10% off your your purchase. And the the article was Walmart braces for 10%. It's like you don't have any of your registers open because you're trying to save money. That's what always gets me with like the technology. Like, we're here to save you work. So you work less than like, do we still get paid? And they're like, no, you lazy piece of shit. You're only paid for when you work. So it's like, who does this benefit?

SPEAKER_00 10:04

So I guess my question is, are they just gonna raise prices 10%? Because like, if I was a capitalist, that's how I would solve that problem. I'd be like, cool, new law, new prices.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

Also, kudos to you for just thinking outside of yourself. Giving them the book. I've just had asshole rules for self-checkout. If more than one employee has to help me, or they give me more than one pointer for how to check out my groceries, then you do it. I step back and I'm like, well, you can figure it out then.

SPEAKER_04 10:34

Well, you don't just take like the free candy as you go.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

It's like a free candy that's not free candy creature.

SPEAKER_06 10:40

I mean, I feel like self-checkout always was a discounted. You get like four or something, you ring one of them up, you move all four of them into the bag.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

You're like, I haven't been getting 75% discount on everything.

SPEAKER_06 10:54

Yeah, if they don't want to watch, that's fine.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Yeah, they have to realize it's like that's weird. Nobody is ringing one organic vegetable in years.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

I think there's that story of somebody who like they're like, oh, I steal from Target all the time. They just waited until it was like $2,000 or $3,000 because it's a felony amount. So basically what I'm saying is you can steal up to $2,990.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Really useful information. So if you go through a house fire, go through self-checkouts and never take more than two grand. Yeah, and I mean they will watch you for years. Oh, okay. Building a case, so that's your cap. Your eyes shut really wide on that. Okay. I mean you to not try this twice. You have done the work. It only works once.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Uh so there's another scam that I want to make you guys aware of that I just became aware of.

SPEAKER_08 11:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

My parents are selling their house in Bend, and they got a letter in the mail telling them that they were not in compliance with a new Bend code that requires them to pay for an energy audit if they're gonna sell their house. So my parents are very law-abiding people, so they call up the recommended company for this energy audit, and they pay the $300 required dollars to get somebody to come out and put a device in their house and say, like, how energy is efficient their house. And probably following that, my stepmom got an hour-long solar pick. Yeah. So basically, she had to pay $300 to have a solar sales guy come to her house. Which feels very strange considering they come knocking on your door for free.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

I don't know this for a fact, but it sounds like Mormons came up with this.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

How do you guys feel about this? Does it feel icky to you?

SPEAKER_06 12:51

Yeah, well, it does. Yeah. No. Because it only affects people who are selling their houses. That's true. You're a homeowner already. You have property, you're selling it, you're in a position of power. It's $300.

SPEAKER_04 13:04

Do you want to sell it or not? I think on laws like that, you should be able to say, You have to fight me to enforce it. If you can beat me in a fight, I will pay that $300 to enforce that.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

But like, well, and then they told me there was gonna be a penalty. And I was like, well, maybe you should roll the dice and see what the penalty is. Right.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Well, like any worse than listening to a solar guy for an hour.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

God it could be like uh when you don't pay the day fee to park somewhere, and the fine is the $5 it would have cost to look at the waterfall in the first place. Probably free parking. Yeah, mostly free parking.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Mostly free parking. You don't have anybody to enforce that in parks anymore. That's the thing about that's the thing about like when we go up to like you know, like these remote places, and they're like, make sure you have your day use pass. You're like, are you muting me?

SPEAKER_04 13:56

Find me on the mountain.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

You're gonna go come find me and give me a ticket. I'll find you. I know, and I know that's I know you're supposed to get everyone get their passes. Pay the money, give it away. So I heard the national park pass now has Trump's picture on it. It's a thing though. Yeah. Like how do you feel about a president putting their picture on something that's as apolitical as national parks?

SPEAKER_06 14:24

I'm glad it's his picture and not like one of his kids. Right. Because he definitely put a Vanka on it. Because he mmm. I don't know if I can continue that yeah, thought process. I smell what you're stepping in. What level is this gonna be sensual for? Is he gonna say gonna come find me?

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Yeah, right. You don't want anything that's gonna get you like tracked by the CIA.

SPEAKER_04 14:49

Weirdly enough, it's not unprecedented given we have four presidents' heads on a mountain that's a national park.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

But they were all dead when that was Yeah, just their face on anything national park. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 15:02

Yeah, but that monument is unsightly.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

I'm not super stoked on it.

SPEAKER_06 15:06

I'd like to just put his face on it because it'll just the whole thing will break. It like legitimately ruins that entire mountain. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Which also was just ruined in the first place. It was sacred ground for the indigenous. So yeah, that's what I that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_06 15:19

It's like both in the visual aspect and then in the like actual doing the process of building it and everything. Well, and it's like multiple violations on top of itself.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

My number one gripe about acting jobs is I don't like looking at myself. So like I I can't imagine somebody carving my face into something and just being like, I'm not crazy about what they look like. That's like that airbrushed, you know?

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Right. Like they were probably they have like dimples and pores and all kinds of shit.

SPEAKER_06 15:50

I'm sure the weird lip wrinkle from using dentures. Yeah, yeah. I'd be fine with Trump being added to it if it's photorealist. There's just someone out there airbrushing it every day. Just spray tan leaking off of it.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Well, now that we all are leaning on that visual, I want to give people another visual. I want Jake, you you've been a Bendite for a long time. You both you and Craig both have you lived here almost your whole life, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:23

Yeah, I moved here on my 11th birthday, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Yeah, and then you've lived here your whole life, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

So how has the mill district, which for people that might not be in Bend, how would we describe the mill district today?

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Today, not full bougie, but a little bougie.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

It's pretty it's a nice bougie shopping center.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

It's it's the spot where people go to in Bend where they don't actually it's for people who travel, but they don't actually want to see anything different. So they still go to the chain stores that you can see anywhere else in the country, and it's the same things.

SPEAKER_08 16:54

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

So it's kind of like that, but it's also like you know, well-tended lawns, and there's a nice flowing river, it's pretty, and it's next to Hayden Holmes Amphitheater, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:06

So, what did that area used to look like?

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Well, it was the actual abandoned old mill. Like yeah, like how old are you?

SPEAKER_04 17:15

I'm 31.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Oh, okay. Yeah, well, baby.

SPEAKER_04 17:18

Uh I don't remember the mill itself. I just remember the deserty bend. This is this is the rich side still.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

Well, because fun fact, kids, they actually found Clark Gable's uh time slot cards when they revamped it. So Clark Gable used to do mill work and then save up enough money to go uh spend the winters down in LA and look for acting work. So that's uh I it keeps moving around, but it's on display somewhere. So that's a fun fact. But like in high school, it was like the place uh you'd like dare each other to go into the building or uh photography class, we'd go there a bunch, take pictures of bats and like what's now REI used to be submerged and like uh right before they turned it into the old mill shopping area. They did a haunted house there. It was badass.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Uh totally it sounds badass, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

There was logs jammed left over. It looked like the mill shut down midday and everybody just left their workstation. Like is that essentially what happened? Pretty much. That's gotta be what happened. Yeah, well, because they found like the pikes that they used to like move the logs around. That was like one of the things that used to stab people. They used to tell you not to swim in the river at all.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

You mean the same river we all float in all the time?

SPEAKER_02 18:23

You weren't supposed to Yeah, yeah, that you can buy like a guided floaty tour now. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Yeah, you weren't supposed to go in it. Why? Because you would die.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

Uh all the waste, yeah. Uh there was like rebar that could like pierce your leg and uh kill you. There was uh the spillway. Used to be a hydroelectric uh dam under the bridge, which is now like where the little surf wave is and like where people go wee. Yeah, a lot of people did not go wee down that so like uh it used to be the poor person activity. Like if you were broke, you could float the river.

unknown 18:53

And then you had to get out.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

But you had to know how to get the hell out, yeah, before uh you went over the spillway and got hurt. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:59

Oh wow. It's a mix because on one hand, growing up here, especially if you don't have money, you're like, what can I do? You could go to the old mill and watch a movie, or you could go bowling and that was it. Otherwise, your friends had to be outdoorsy, or you had to be like playing in the desert, which is fun if you have like paintball and stuff. But when you have a lot more people come in, there's a lot more to do. Like there's there's now people, there's a big there's like a K1 racing, huge on pickleball, huge on just every single sport or activity you could want has exploded, and it's nice to have options. It's not nice when a lot of people come in because they're like, Oh, this is so beautiful, and then they start changing laws, and then those laws are like, hey, now you have to have an energy thing before you car. Like, that's the most California thing I've heard. And I don't know if you know this, but if you're born here, you just inherently you don't like the Californians for that reason. Not racist, but California's California.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Yeah, I yeah, I it comes with a stigma. It has a stigma. I understand my husband does not tell people he's from California.

SPEAKER_04 20:06

After 10 years, we forgive you, though.

SPEAKER_02 20:09

That that was kind of the rule though because yeah, we moved here from California. I forgive you by the seventh winter. People were like, you are now. I doubt the You have complained about cinder dust removing that your car's paint job enough. You're fine. But it's wild, it was great to see actual culture because like I saw Jimmy World at Hidden Amphitheater not that long ago.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

I didn't the same concert.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Yeah, it was a great show, uh, but I was laughing my ass off uh because uh me and my friends used to throw punk shows at what is now Silver Moon, and like we had an underage dance club there, and the cops were there every night as soon as the doors opened. Like they literally had nothing else to do, and we had nothing else to do. So it was a great education and like how to run a business, how to actually liaison between it was like an actual underage dance club where you played like DJ music and we're like no booze. Yeah, yeah. Under Underground Treehouse is what it was. It started out in a warehouse off of uh First Street, and then we we grew up and we went to where Silver Moon is now.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

So can I ask where the money is in a nightclub that doesn't sell alcohol?

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Oh, the money came from uh featured acts. We were also 17 and lived there, so not really enterprising entrepreneurs, yeah. Yeah, it was more like hey, we can afford to get our own rock stars this week, you know.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

No, but it's a legitimate question. People are drinking less.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

So we did refreshments, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Like adult refreshments, people are drinking less, which is affecting the way producers are able to produce, right? So we've been thinking about this a lot with the festivals because even though our attendance numbers are going up, our bar sale numbers are like consistently going down at all of our festivals because like I never have more than one drink when I go out anymore. If I have one drink, I'm very sober curious. Completely sober.

SPEAKER_02 22:01

Not completely. I uh yeah, yeah. You can't have all my injuries that I've approved and say goodbye to weed fully.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

Uh still coin worthy uh for three years, yeah. That's funny. I do like my souvenirs. I'm like, I worked hard enough to do that.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Right, but that's it's pretty common these days for people are you are I want to get you guys both drink, right?

SPEAKER_06 22:26

Yeah, I think it's price-based. Yeah, it's a hundred percent that. Like if Silver Moon has four dollar beers, I'll buy four dollar beers.

SPEAKER_04 22:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:34

You have a seven fifty dollar beer, like maybe one. Or if you're at Hayden Homes, what's it like sixteen bucks for a white claw or something? Yeah, I'm not gonna buy any of that. I'm gonna pre-game. I'm just gonna get shit faced ahead of time.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

Like even if it's just in the parking lot, I'll just so you pass out at the amphitheater the night before and then just wake up still going.

SPEAKER_04 22:55

It's fiscally irresponsible to get a drink at these places. And yeah, it's not shocking. Like you said, for a pint on Monday's four dollars. I could get what five of those for one drink at Hayden Homes. And that's and like then we have the beer carts that are like, oh, look, we have beer, and then we outsource the food to other people. Uh-huh. We're all gonna be overpriced.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

But it's white people beer, so it's really all the backstory that you're paying for.

SPEAKER_04 23:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

Nobody told me that I could express myself through malt.

SPEAKER_04 23:25

But the eighteen dollars doesn't get me as drunk as a bunch of four dollar beers. Like, it's if it got me more drunk, that's a thing. If it was like a more alcoholic, if you can handle weed or edibles, it's like, man, for six dollars, I can have a hundred milligrams. Depending on how much on that logic five to ten different nights out that I don't, and I can drink a soda from a bar because I can be like, I don't drink, and they're like, Oh, are you driving? Cool. Here's a free soda.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

But based on your efficiency math, though, it sounds like you're an LSD person in a beer world. Like you're not an LSD at all.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

Oh, you know that for a fact?

SPEAKER_02 24:02

One bad experience is because based on your hair, you look like me after LSD. Yeah, I know. Not one bad experience.

SPEAKER_06 24:10

One bad experience.

SPEAKER_04 24:11

It was a very bad experience. You need like three bad experiences like anything to do that again. It was like 17 hours of too long.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Oh, it sounds like you did it wrong. I absolutely did.

SPEAKER_04 24:21

100%.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

I haven't done LSD. I wouldn't completely write it off in the right situation, but I've made it to 40. So you you get to the point where you're like, maybe I don't need to add more drugs to my system. I haven't tried.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

But 17 hours from what I hear is more than it's supposed to be.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Probably not by much.

SPEAKER_06 24:40

It's a time commitment. It depends on your dosing and how you're doing it.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

I got dosed with a whole vial at a party, and I was high for about 30 hours.

SPEAKER_06 24:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Way too much. Yeah, yeah. That's that's an insane amount. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:54

I think if you took one hit, a hit and a half, you're looking at like an eight-hour experience. Right. And that would be like realistically kind of the most pleasant vibes you'll have outside of your body, as long as you don't do there's just like a couple things you shouldn't do. Like, don't look at your poop. You know, it's just one of those things. It's just like if you have to take a shit, take a shit. I want to hear the story about you looking at your poop on LSD though. I haven't, I got that advice. Okay. I I got that advice. I had to think a shit. I was like six hours in, I was tripping really hard. And like in my mind's like in my internal voice, it was like, don't look at your poop. I was like, Yeah, that's that's probably a good idea. Oh, so inner John gave John the show. No, no, no. My the people who were introducing me told me, like, there's just a couple things.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

Like, that's one of my set and setting, man. Set and setting.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

I would say mushrooms show you how your soul works. Like, you'll kind of gravitate towards things that are uh touch your soul, and then acid shows you how your brain works.

SPEAKER_06 25:53

Like Yeah. I acid's a very inside drug for me. Mushrooms is a very outside drug. Mushrooms is like go out and be a nature. Be a nature. Yeah. Yeah. And acid is like I want to draw, I want to watch cartoons, I want to just experience different forms of media and make like man. Creating music on acid is as good as it gets.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Are you even a musician?

SPEAKER_06 26:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

If you are, what do you play?

SPEAKER_06 26:19

I played trumpet for 13 years. I played drums.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

You know, what what kind of music do you make on acid?

SPEAKER_06 26:26

I mean, primarily what I was doing was using the electronic drum kit that I had, and then I also had a keyboard setup, and then I would just use the like demo tracks to let my friend play out music while we were tripping together, and then I'd play the drums. And like legitimately is one of those things of there's something like fundamental that shifts when the people are collaborating on art on acid. Oh yeah. You just kind of melt into it, and it's such a serene experience, and it's so positively beneficial for like just your state of mind.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

Wow, you're really selling me on this.

SPEAKER_03 27:02

Next nighttime vendors. Yeah, it's gonna be a 17-hour episode.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Okay, well, uh, we'll talk off line then. We'll talk offline. But then I also had the pleasure of sitting down with a great comedian that's gonna be coming to bend, Elon Stribling. He is not only a stand-up, he's also a fisherman. So he's gonna find himself enjoying some water time while he's here in Vent. And I'd love for you guys to listen to that conversation now. I love the painting behind you, that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

Uh, thank you. I got it in the Dominican Republic, got it in the DR last year.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

So it's yeah, that's fantastic. My grandfather was a jazz musician, so I'm kind of drawn to anything jazzy. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Very I I w I wish I knew how to play the saxophone. That that's like my dream.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Yeah, it's a sexy instrument. I mean, it got Bill Clinton elected.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Yeah. Very true.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

It did. It literally, it's the only thing. Like I'm a child of the 90s. It's the only thing I remember about that man. Well, not the only thing I remember about that man.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Not the only thing.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

One of the main things. Um, but welcome to the podcast, Elon. Thank you so much for joining me. Yeah. Can you introduce yourself for people that might not be familiar with you and your work?

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Uh, yeah, my name is Elon Stribling. I am a uh stand-up comedian here in New York City. And I used to be a middle school teacher. I used to be a wildlife biologist, I used to rescue bears. Uh, I am a uh fly fishing guide when I have time. And uh what else about me? Um I really need a haircut, and I I love chocolate chip cookies. I like when people bring me chocolate chip cookies to show.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

Well, there was a lot of information in there. I think the most useful is that you like chocolate chip cookies. Yes. Um But you live in New York City. Why do you choose to make New York City your base for comedy?

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Um, just because it's where the it's where if you want to be a great comedian, if you are a great comedian to to keep your chops, you can do so many shows in a night and you know be on stage with some of the best comedians alive working. So it's just a place where uh you like not become a great comedian, but you learn the the patterns and the rules and and all the stuff. So it's just them it's like the mecca of of comedy.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Can you tell us your comedy origins story? Do you remember your first time at the mic?

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Uh yeah, my first time I I was in college and there was like a music open mic, and so I I did the mu I went to this music open mic and asked him if I could do stand-up, and the guy was like, Are you sure? And I said yes. And he said, Okay. And he was like, just sign up on the paper. And I signed up on the paper, and I did about 10 minutes of stand-up, which was way too long for my first time, uh, to a bunch of people who were just listening to music. And I really don't think anyone was listening, but when I left, one girl like grabbed my arm and she was like, That was really good. And I was like, You couldn't even hear me because people were talking so loud. And then the next night I went to an actual like comedy open mic, and I I signed up and they called my name, and I just went up there and did my jokes and got off stage, and I was like, that was the coolest thing I've ever done. Like my heart was fluttering, and and I had like goose, like it was just the it was the coolest thing I've ever done.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

So yeah, no, I understand that it's quite the thrill, you know, being in control of the audience.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

It was very, it was very, very exciting, and not that I blacked out, but I definitely like when I was done with it, it was like, what just what just happened? And then I was like, Well, I'm I'm gonna be doing that forever.

SPEAKER_00 30:51

So you're like sold. Uh we've talked to several people that used to be teachers and are now comedians. Do you think there's any crossover in those two career fields?

SPEAKER_01 31:03

I was just thinking about that. I just think I think it is essentially the same job. It's it's like people who don't want to listen to you. Uh people who don't want to listen to you, uh, and you're trying to give them some sort of information. You're like trying to convey something that they don't really care about or they don't really want to listen to. And then, you know, you got the riledy ones, you got the good ones, uh, it's public speaking, it's composure, it's yeah, I just think it's it's the exact same job.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

Yeah, right. Like I think it, I think it really sets you guys up well because I I love teacher comedians, so you're part of a very um great group of people in my eyes.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, having having a drunk person yell at you is the same as having like a middle school boy who's doing like fart noises here the entire class. It's the it's the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

And for people who haven't watched any of your clips online, what kind of themes do you typically explore in your comedy? What can people expect to hear?

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Uh yeah, my stand-up, I uh nothing uh is off limits. I've I've talked about it all. I am I try to be silly. I love being uh silly on stage, um, even a little bit facetious. So I I talk about uh dating, I talk about my my my family, I talk about uh I have like a lot of animal jokes, like a lot of wildlife jokes. I talk about sex, uh, I talk about I don't I don't really know how to like describe it. I do like telling stories. I feel like that's my I I love storytelling and I love listening to people who are great storytellers. But I tell like a series of stories with different themes in them or like or different um punchlines or or topics. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

Yeah, no, your comedy's great. I always dig through people's uh clips before I sit down with them so I can kind of get a feel. And I definitely I mean, you feel like a buddy, which I think is the goal, right? Like I feel like I'm like you're warm and fun and a party and I love it. It's great times.

SPEAKER_08 33:20

That's perfect.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Um, I also saw on your social media that you are a fisherman, which will be very welcomed here in Central Oregon. Are you planning on fishing while you're here?

SPEAKER_01 33:30

I am, I've already messaged. If anyone uh is listening to this and wants to invite me on the water, uh I'm gonna bring my fly rod and try to do, you know, maybe come in a day before or get up one morning before some of the shows and go on like a little fishing excursion, but I would love to fish when I'm when I'm there for some bull trout or or whatever else is in the water.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

It's a fantastic, it's like a fisherman's paradise. We have, I mean, the river is just a couple blocks away from the venue that you're at. So amazing. I mean, you don't even have to get up like that early to get to the water.

SPEAKER_08 34:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

Um you'll see people just like fishing off of kayaks right in town. Um it's an outdoor person's paradise. What do you love about fishing?

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Um, kind of the same thing I love about stand-up. It's like it just it's like my favorite thing. My favorite thing to do. It it like clears my mind. It's um I get to like go at my own pace. I get to kind of do what I want selfishly. So it's it's the same thing. It's just like nothingness. It's like being real chill and and taking my mind off of uh anything else, everything else. So yeah, I like I like fishing with people, I like fishing by myself. I just I like being on the water, and I'm you know, I used to be a biologist. My name Eland actually means largest African antelope. So I've always like loved the nature and stuff, so it's yeah, I just it's perfect.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Yeah, we also have, I don't know if you've done fishing at high altitude lakes, but we have those here, and they're nice. It's I mean, it's just like being in Switzerland, it is fantastic, it's beautiful. So I think you'll I think you'll particularly out of all the comics, some people are like, I don't like the outdoors. And I'm like, you're gonna have a rough time in Bend, guys.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

Yeah, no, I'm I'm I'm I was like part of the reason I'm like, of course, I'm so excited for the shows, but I've heard just so so I've heard such great things about uh being in Bend, and I used to go to Mount Hood every summer when I was younger to go snowboarding. Uh and so it's just yeah, I I really like Oregon, so it'll be fun.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Good. Is this your first time performing in Oregon or have you been here before?

SPEAKER_01 35:42

Uh I performed in Portland, um, but that's it. So this is my first time outside of Portland, a bit the big city. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:49

Portland's definitely a different vibe than central Oregon. Um, it's like City Mouse, Country Mouse. We're uh I mean our whole town is a hundred thousand people, like in the whole, you know, which is not big by city standards. Yeah. So yeah, it's it's it's it has its own little culture.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

I love that. So everyone's gonna come out to the shows then.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Yeah, they should. They should definitely come out to your shows. Yeah. If people want to see where you're performing, where is the best place for them to connect with you online and all that good jazz?

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Um, if they want to see where I'm performing, I think my website, I'll have the dates of each uh show that I'm on. Uh, and then my YouTube is Elon Stribling, just my first name, my last name, and then my Instagram is just my first name, my last name. And I post my show dates uh like two or three times a week, you know, on this on the story on the gram and stuff, so you can always uh see where I'm at next.

SPEAKER_00 36:48

Yeah, you're definitely staying busy. I was like, wow, this this kid gets around for sure.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Um I'm I'm excited. I'm going on like a kind of a fish tour in August. I'm going to Bozeman, uh, Key West, Salt Lake City, and then finally bend. So it'll be like the very four fishy weekends in a row.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

That is, I mean, Key West is fishing and doing comedy. Key West is next level. I'm a scuba diver, and yes, the water in Key West is just next level. And the things in water. Um my gosh, have so much fun and then come to Ben to tell us how amazing we are because we're a really great fishing destination as well.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

I can't wait.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

Yeah. Well, thank you so much. Is there anything else you'd like to share with the podcast listeners before you go today?

SPEAKER_01 37:37

Uh no, just uh have fun, you know, burn down any data AI centers. Uh and uh yeah, if you do come to the show, Brie, I would love some chocolate chip cookies. Bring me some chocolate chip cookies that would that would make my heart melt. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

Oh my gosh. I bet you're gonna get plates of them now. Um, small town hospitality. Well, thank you so much, Elon. I appreciate you taking the time. Well, that was Elon. I had such a good time chatting with him. Check out his social medias if you want to find out where he's gonna be when he's here in Bend or what other shows he has coming up all over the nation. But we have some other great shows coming up right here in Bend this week. We have Nathan Hart coming to Silver Moon, which I met him the first time at your show. Oh, out of Legendsider and Nathan Hart's great. So he's gonna be at Silver Moon on July 31st, which seems to be the big show of the weekend. Um, there's also a lot of mics if people want to get on mics. There's the Monday mic at Silver Moon. Is anybody going to that one?

SPEAKER_06 38:44

Yeah, I'll be there.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

Yeah, you'll be there. Okay. Wednesday at Craft. Anyone going to that one?

SPEAKER_02 38:49

I try. I always end up busy on Wednesdays for some reason.

SPEAKER_00 38:53

And then Thursdays at Worthy. Yeah, which is a great mic. And I would love to get out to a mic this week because I have been working on a bidet joke.

SPEAKER_08 39:04

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

It's so I don't normally do toilet humor, right? That's not my drive, right? So I was like, but I'm a classy bitch. And I bought a bidet this week.

SPEAKER_06 39:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

Let me tell you, that thing has been inspiration since the moment I got it. Really?

SPEAKER_06 39:17

It sounds like you really became a classy bitch.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

Oh, the bidet's amazing. I was like telling my husband, I was like, it's like the dirtiest person you ever dated in your 20s. Right? It just like licks you front to back. Heated water or heated water, and it even blows you at the end.

SPEAKER_06 39:44

You gotta now you have my sense. Oh you gotta fucking fancy. All right. Mine's just cold water. It's I think it's great because it makes the end of toilet experience pretty quick. It's like, oh yeah, that's brisk, dry that off, and be done. That sounds awful in winter. It's just no, no, it's fine.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

It doesn't do that.

SPEAKER_06 40:06

That was the wrong hand yet. That's a that's a ice band difference. Mine was $60. Jesus, can you pour a cocktail on there and boof it?

SPEAKER_00 40:18

It lights up and it has like party blue lighting.

SPEAKER_02 40:21

And then so you got the Bellagio fountain for your asshole.

SPEAKER_04 40:26

She has a Japanese toilet.

SPEAKER_02 40:27

It's like standard in every Japanese house. You want all of these settings. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

I I yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

Do you have a name for this device?

SPEAKER_00 40:33

No, but we should come up with one because it deserves. It deserves a name. It deserves to stand up. But um, yeah, so I really have some jokes I want to try out though. So that's where I'm going with it. I I've had a lot of inspiration.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

Can you call it Clarice so that way you can justify the like ignorance? Until he botched that, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:53

I know we got it. It's nice. No, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

We're getting it. We're getting it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

Most. Most. Uh with that. Is there anything else? What was there with you, Jake? Is there where can people find you? Is there anything else you want to share before we leave the podcast today?

SPEAKER_02 41:07

Uh Jake Woodmansee on almost all social media. There is another Jake Woodmancy from Bend Oregon. He's a nice young man. Please don't bother him about my.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

There's another Jake Woodmancy.

SPEAKER_02 41:17

I met him in the hospital. Yeah. He's a very nice young man.

SPEAKER_00 41:21

I went to college with a girl two years younger than me, enrolled in the same program, Julia R. Nickel.

SPEAKER_02 41:26

No kidding.

SPEAKER_00 41:27

It happens.

SPEAKER_02 41:28

Wild. Wild. Yeah. Yeah. His mom's also named Lori. He's also got a sister named Jess. His dad's name Ron. My stepgrandfather's name is Ron. That's where we got the name. Yeah, Wild. But uh yeah. So if you're on Insta, Woodman C Jake. But yeah, I got a bunch of stuff coming up all around the Northwest. So please, yeah, let's let's laugh laughs and do stuff together. It'll be fine.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

And we're gonna be able to find you, Creech.

SPEAKER_04 41:53

Uh Creech Comedy on Instagram. Uh if you look up Creech, there's a lot of us, but all of us get my face because I just had that as a fun prank to my siblings. If they're not gonna get on stage, this is what you see. Creature comedy.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

And John What about you?

SPEAKER_06 42:08

I mean get me on my website, downtownjohnbrown.com. And then it has links to everything else on it.

SPEAKER_03 42:14

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 42:15

Is there links for your music on Twitter?

SPEAKER_06 42:16

No. I think we should be. I don't know. It's in a much more experimental place. I kind of got that vibe.

SPEAKER_02 42:24

By the way, I was intrigued.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

I'm Julia Reed Nichols. We are nighttime vendors. If you want to sign up for the world's funniest known contest, do you have until July 31st to do that at the little Woody website? Other than that, we will be back next week with more of Central Oregon's favorite funny faces. Until next time. Bye.