#671 - Casey Rocket

Today's guest is a stand-up comedian. His origins are mysterious. Yes. But you'll know him from his wildly popular Killtony appearances. He's on the road. Now you can see him live. There's no one like him. I had a great time with today's guest, the Sultan of Riff, Mr. Casey Rocket. T-Shine on me and I will find a song I will sing it for you. Sometimes I can't tell if I'm having like male hot flashes or whatever. Sure. Men of a certain age. Every age. Every age, maybe. Men of a certain age being the spectrum of all ages, yeah. Dude, I think these days, things have gotten crazy. You'll see a little kid having a hot flash or whatever. He'll be like, you know, you'll see a little kid is like just looking from like a faucet. People are trying to do anything they can to cool these kids off. Yeah. Yeah. To help themselves. Sure. Yeah. Spick it. You'll see people doing like the level we've gotten to in a society of trying to help ourselves is crazy. It's like people are playing like a lot of like certain hurts of sounds that are supposed to like, you know, help you pass old trauma or help you, you know, win the lottery. Like there's a lot like, there's a lot of mega hurts that's variable for different options, you know? Yeah. Yeah. There's all kinds of sounds that can help you win the lottery. I'm the first to admit that. Yeah. So certain like tonal. So certain like tonal shifts. So if you go like low, like you'll win. What is it? Like 10 to 20 grand. Yes. But the higher ones, they get dangerous for your like, what do they call it like terminal mental velocity. Yeah. Yeah. Well, when people win too much money, it induces a lot. I think it's called high dollar trauma or something, HDT. And you will see people with that like rich people or whatever and they're suddenly eating like rare cheese as cheese is made from, you know, obviously that, you know, cultivated or pasteurized in the tears of the poor and young. Yes. So what did they say? It's like old money at the poverty line. So it's like L.A. by way of New York. So the lower the cheese is unlike a vibrational frequency, the higher the dollar amount, you don't have to pay. It's like a tax write off. Yeah. Oh, definitely. If you get, because there's somebody running around the 425 megahertz K so dip right now. I know there's a truck that just stalled out on the way to the Hamptons. It was full of it. And engine just could not function like that. Yeah. And you're pushing that much high dollar dairy and you're pulling it behind you. And you have a fucking probably a seventh or eighth grade reading level driver, you know, the polarity there is just not healthy. And it's like, where does the buck stop? The buck stops. The buck stops when the truck stops as they say. That's it. Yeah. That's how it works. God. If K so made us frickin' smarter God, can you even imagine? Can you imagine the mental bandwidth I would have right now, because I had to get all K so breakfast. Yeah. So frozen solid liquid. Yeah. Oh, wow. So you get like, what is it? Like a fudge pop of like frozen K so fresco. And then you go like, okay, you go chili con carne pure liquids. You leave that on the dashboard. And then you go with the gas, which is just like a handful of like rids. And those are so good. And what I've also heard is that they have those new K so whippets or whatever. Like a whippet, like pimento cheese whippets and you can get a galaxy gas. Yeah. Yeah. You hit a couple of those, brother. Ooh, I got stomach ache. Oh, you'll get sick. Yeah. You'll have to shit. You'll have to poop. Yeah. It's bad for your appendix. Yeah. Oh, you're these days that your appendix will burst or a rich person will hire you to burst your appendix so they don't have to. Sure. Yeah. They'll tether you up. That's what I've been to Duff McKagan from Guns and Roses. He'd see, I can only tether to himself. We've been dancing with Mr. Brownstone. God, dude. Too much of a good thing. Too much dashboard. K so. Yum. That's our band name, like the string cheese incident. Oh, God, dude. I used to follow widespread, so I'm, did you? Really? Yeah. I think I know. Well, not widespread, but I know someone in the Tuskegee trucks band. Do you? Dwayne. Johnson? Almond. Dwayne the Rock Johnson. Dwayne Almond. Yeah. I've always wanted the last thing that was a nut. Bring him up. Dwayne Almond. Peter Pistachio. Or a pee or like Ronnie Garbanzo or whatever, like a bean, maybe. Yeah. Wait, is Dwayne Almond dead? Oh, no. He died in 1971. Who have I been talking to? Oh, dude. It's probably one of those Nigerian scammers. He's like, "Hey, I want to teach you steel guitar," and I'm like, "Great, that sounds great." Melissa. What's the catch? What's the catch? I'm going to teach you how to play Southbound. All right. Casey Rocket. Good to see you, man. Good to see you. Good to see you too. Happy to be here. Thanks for talking to Casey. Oh, yeah, dude. It's almost, well, I'll misread your name earlier, and that's what he meant me thinking about it. I thought it was Casey Rocket. Sure. Yeah. Okay, so Object Permanence Rocket. There should be like a Latino version of you that comes out named Casey Rocket. And I go, "This person's an imposter." And he's like, "No, I'm not, Paul." He's all liquid. So soft. God, I hope we're okay. I need to. Dude, if like that, we'll make you start questioning like your purpose in the world. Yeah. Things get rough, dude. It reminded me. It took me to a place when I went to see, um, I went and we watched. It was at a music festival one weekend. It was in New Orleans. It's called jazz and heritage festivals every year. And it's, uh, they had who was playing the guy, uh, shit. Some guy that was going to die soon. And was that, so was that the general consensus or that you like retroactively, you were like, he was about to die. He would have like, he was out there, but his kid was singing with them kind of. You know, like when they get the kids out there, and he's sitting over there and somebody just kind of spraying water on him, almost like he's like a, like a, like one of those Indian plants or whatever that he'll, that really, that happened with Ozzy too. They like hooked him up to a life support machine. I was there. I was in Birmingham. I saw Ozzy's last concert. Were you really? Yeah. And did they, like, was he on an IV and stuff while he was up there? Yeah. He was in like a UV light. Oh, really? Yeah. They had them in, like, it was like a makeshift, like final destination tanning machine. So it was like, but it was like pointed out word. So he, what didn't have to be laying down, but see so that is a tanning bed. You can see the blue, yeah, it helped him, like, he had like photosynthesis. It made him, like, effervescent. I mean, that's the darkest tanning that you can get. They're like, how dark do you want to go? It's like, we offer like, you know, Pensacola, Alabama, Tried Delta, Pensacola Beach, or we also can go all the way. We can do Ozzy last show, dark. We could do South Padre Island or you in a casket. So that, they're actually pointing an EMP at him. That's a sound weapon. So he has Havana syndrome. Yeah. Oh, yeah, dude. He's just singing that song, San Juan, Mejijo, have you seen those freaking TikToks, dude? It's like, it's a bunch of people that can't read and they're going to Puerto Rico or whatever. And so they made a song about it. Have you seen that, Trevor? I have not. What was the song? San Juan? It's like, it's a lot of people that have been trouble reading and writing who refuse to teach their kids that are reading right because they can't, right? Sure. Sure. Well, that's a good reason for not doing it. Yeah. For years, people have been pretending they can and then they show the kid. And that's like trickle down, ignoromics, right? Sure. It's Reagan started it. And that's the kind of shit that we don't need in the community. So a lot of them are going to San Juan and they're doing this song on the way there to gain points with their Lord. Okay. And then when they land, hopefully they have enough like spiritual savings account to not go bankrupt. Yeah. They get a Carlos and Charlie shirt on the way home. Can you bring it up? You haven't seen this thing, dude. No. I don't even know if we can play this or not. Hopefully it's not copyrighted. I think it was. Oh, AI made the song. That was the craziest thing about it. This is it. Okay. So I am into stuff like this. Yeah. If you heard this, so it's basically, it's music pretty much for the learning disabled. Okay. We're just where we are. There's a whole new genre of music for the learning disabled. Sure. It helps with like shapes and colors. Well, we thought for years they were listening to what we were listening to, right? And finally people were like, no, they need their own music. Play a little more. Play a little. Just keep going. (upbeat music) - In the boot scootin' boogie. (upbeat music) - Yeah, so it's like a pure troll dyslexia. - Yeah, well that's exactly what it is. And I think it's, I wanna say it's Baptist-based. I'm not sure. But is there some, well you can see kind of like the proving ground of like the Pentecostal religion as well. You can see some of that seeping into the groundwater. - Oh, it's, you know, sometimes you wake up and your legs are all soggy and you're like, you know. - How do I dry these puppies out? - Who did this? Who did this and why? 'Cause I used to always know someone would pee in my bed every night and it wasn't me. - How could it be? - Dude, it couldn't have been that many times. - Mm-mm. - No, once or twice you go, all right, I've been making some mistakes. Four, five, 10 times. You get up to double digits, you go like, I'm being persecuted. - Yeah, definitely. - I'm being gangstalked by a bunch of pissers. - Yeah, dude, it's obvious that they're sneaking in through our broken window downstairs near the kitchen. - Yeah. - They're coming up, they're hissing on you boy, okay? - I've talked to the landlord. He won't answer me. It goes to Melor Damon. Yeah, dude, every time I call the landlord, it goes to a front desk of Christian Dior somewhere. So they have no clue what we're talking about. - No, they go, they go, first of all, how can you smell through the phone? - Yeah. - I don't know, he told me who's pissing my bed, and I'll answer your little inquiry. - They're like, we could replace the sheets. - That'll be 11 hundred dollars. And you're like, God damn. I'll just sit here in poverty and piss. - I'll sit here in the potty bed I made, a water bed full of piss. - Oh, dude, that, that is what we need is. This is what we're gonna get to, 'cause the society's getting weird, can we agree? - Sure, I'm the first. I'm the second to admit that you were the first, yeah. - Okay, I'm glad we're here. And society is getting weird, people are not wearing gloves anymore when they drive, okay? I saw an animal the other day, no hoofs on his feet, okay? - Yeah, what happened to the nuclear family? - It's a big question, dude. I saw two gay men, they were wearing dog collar's dog, sitting there smoking in the car by himself, okay? - Windows up, yeah, ruins the resell value. - It's just nobody, I don't know if people don't care or if they've taken our ability to care away. - Yeah, if it is endemic of a greater social, sociopolitical problem, or if it's engendered upon the human race in general. - Yeah. - Well, 'cause that's a big question, because the first thing you would take away from somebody is their ability to care. - Yes, yeah, 'cause it leaves you in a spot, you know? - Yeah. - Well, the one true export of all of the maleficence of consciousness is hope without faith. - God, that gives me the shivers. - That's so scary. So people are now dogs without nails. - Hmm. - God. - And they still think they're scratching each other's backs. - No, they were born on third base and they thought they had a triple. - Yeah. - It's a different time, man. The zygotes are different. - Yeah, I'll say that. - Sure. - You know, have you seen a CAT scan of women's belly recently? (laughing) - Like a recent, like an up-to-date CAT scan? I've been looking at like old ones to see how the technology's progressed. (laughing) One woman, one woman, had a frisbee and an eight ball in there. That was it. - Yeah. - So whatever is living in there, or part time, or whatever is keeping its luggage there. - Sure. - Okay, obviously, likes to party at the park. You know, I'm party at the park. That was a great WCW paper view of the party at the park. - Was that one? - I know they did the bash of the beach, so I can only hope that they did the party at the park. - Oh, I hope they did too. And it was like kind of a, it was a beautiful day, it was by a river, right? They hung like a briefcase full of the worlds, like the finest charcuterie board in the world, right? They hung the finest charcuterie board in the world up and you had to climb up a ladder, right? And then you had to get three strong kids and you had to climb up one of their backs, right? And you didn't know which one and the winner, right? - You didn't know which one had the best back. - Yeah. - 'Cause they kept their shirts on. (laughing) - So it's purely intuition. - Which, and also, if you're standing there, intuitioning which kid has a nice back dude, if you do it too strongly, you go to jail, right? So, it would take you longer to get to the charcuterie. - Yeah. And if you do it too long, also Booker T's gonna hit you with a chair. - So, yeah, that was like a good thought experiment. That was like the Stanford Prison Experiment in action. - Oh, it's where we are. Casey Rocket, dude, good to see you, man. - Good to see you. - Happy to be here. - It's awesome, dude, you're such a talent and it's great to just see you like in the wild. (laughing) You weren't hunting till last night, I saw? - Yeah, I was in Huntsville. - Or Huntsville, yeah, they keep changing the fucking name. - I know. - Because they're trying to avoid the IRS or whatever. - Yeah, I actually, it's funny. Before I came here, I took a shower, a Gregorian Greco-Rumman shower, and which is, of course, a cheese Danish that I put in a bunch of socks that I kinda strain it out over my head. But I wrote on my hand, (laughing) I wrote on my hand last night, I don't know why, but I wrote Santa Cruz or Santa Fe, one of the Santas. So, that doesn't really answer your question, but I did just look at my hand. But if the question was, did you just look at your hand and the answer is yes. - Okay, okay. - Yeah, I was in Huntsville at levity live. That was great. - Oh yeah, the stage, the location from the stage to the audience, it has a unique ratio there. Do you feel that there? - I do. - Like the height of the stage and the ratio to the audience is very rare there. - It is. It is quite unusual, actually. The Heliums aren't set up like that. Even Zany's Nashville, Zany's Chicago, Zany's Rosemont's kinda like that. - Is it slower to the ground? - Have it's been time out there, would love to get out there or I'm not allowed to go. I shouldn't be there, I don't think, but one day I will go when my mom passes. - Sure, I'm gonna get out there 'cause she would want me to see it, you know, that's why. - She'd want you to see how they make the spaceships, they do the spaceships there. - She would want me to see it, man. - Lockheed Martin. - Oh, is that where they're based? - Yeah, Lockheed Martin there, that's where they reverse engineer the anti-gravity technology, so apparently that's where some of the scientists are going missing, you know those scientists. - Oh, is that where that's happening, really? - Yeah, one of them went the way of the dodo. - Not Rosemont at Huntsville. - Oh, and that's where those scientists have gone missing at a Huntsville. - So one of them in particular, she did go the way of the dodo, she did take an early exit, but. - Yeah, they're being missing all over the place. - It's crazy, dude, from MIT to MIA, bro, that's the craziest. At least 10 individuals connected to sensitive US aerospace, nuclear and defense research have died or disappeared recently. That's two different things, though, disappearing. - Yeah. - That gives me more pause that we're a part of, some like greater like neo-noir detective thing. - Yeah. - Them just dying, I mean people die every day. - People die every day. - Yeah, William Neil McCaslin, a retired US Air Force major general, he vanished from his new Mexico home in February, 2026, leaving his phone and identification behind. Well, Santa Claus or Santa Fe, dude, that takes you back to that question, man. That's a tough one. - Yeah, well, somebody let the door open and the wrong dogs came home. - Yeah, dude, oh, I know who it was. It was some of those piss four years from Frick and Christian D or probably pulled off and wet that dude down a little, you create enough of a stream in the kitchen, a senior is gonna fuck, yeah. - Flash flood. - Oh, a senior does not stand a chance against a flash flood and I'll say that out loud, brother. - I'll run into a damn vineyard vines and scream, man. - Sure, and I'll be receptive to it the whole time. - Yeah, yeah. - I'll be sitting there back there with a good book. Just going, "God dang." - He's right. - He's right. You'll poke your head out of a changing room. Be like, "God, never had a chance." (laughing) - I'm like, "I never had a chance, bro." - Yeah, if you slick somebody up, like, and I've said this for months. - I was there when you said it. - Yeah, if you slick somebody up good enough, anything can be a slip-and-slot. So, a staircase, most homes have a staircase, so if they're slick enough, bye, bye-bye. - Bye. - Grandpa, and he's gone. You can barely even fuck, you know? Or you try to use his real name, then Henry, you know? Like, that's the craziest thing. Now, a black grandpa, they'll mill around a little, but even the stream is even gonna get them, you know? - You would think. - Well, yeah, they're probably more worldly, and they'll see the stream maybe before the white grandpa, but either way, when the flood comes, come on, man. You don't understand a chance, baby. That's the Bible work, and that's Noah, the piss flood. That's it, brother. - Grip, grip. - It's scary to think about. - It's scary to think about, dude. Aw, you're living aw. Anyway, you're living in Chicago now, huh? - Yeah, I moved from Austin in December, and I lived in St. Louis for six months, And now I've been settling in Chicago. - Oh, yeah. - How's it been there? - It's been good. They have a hot dog culture that is out of this world. Relish mustard the works. - Oh, yeah. - And the people have been treating me with gracing kindness. And I, in turn, have been passing on to them a smile. - Very fair. - Yeah. - Did you miss Austin when you left? What was the reason of leaving Austin? 'Cause things were going good there, right? - Sure, yeah. Yeah, I worked at a mothership for a year and I won the equivalent. I won the Austin's, not the funniest person, but the Austin comedy competition. So yeah, I was really ingrained in the scene there. - And that was 2021, was it or no? - When I won that, I moved there in 2021. I think I won that in 2023, maybe. - Okay. - But yeah, I have a lot of really great friends there. I felt like maybe it was time for me to do something else. I'm going to grad school. So you wrote me a letter of recommendation for that. And I'm going to DePaul to do screenwriting. So I just wanted to make some changes in my life, yeah. - That's wild, dude. Congratulations, man. - Thanks. - I'm getting in over there. Are you excited about it? - I am. It starts in September and then I'm gonna write my great American novel. - Dude, yup. Is there a novel that you kind of were inspired by? Like, it was a novel that you kind of read that led you to even kind of spark that in your head? Or a book that you read that kind of sparked that in your head? 'Cause I think, like, I like to write. So I think there's things in like, there was one book I read and I was like, huh. - Yeah, there's some good like memoir type books that I really liked. One of them is a book called "Permanent Midnight" by a guy named Jerry Stahl that they made in two movie with Ben Stiller. Another great one is "Sing Backwards in Weep" by Mark Lane, again, who used to be the lead singer of the Screaming Trees. - Oh. - So, yeah, some memoirs. And then a lot of like screenplays, like, obviously I'm a big fan. As most people are of Paul Thomas Anderson who did "Magnolia" and "One Battle After Another." - PTA. - PTA. - Yeah. So, yeah, I love movies and (laughs) I like movies and I'm just as happy with a good book. I can't trust that enough. But yeah, I wanna learn how to like write screenplays and stuff like that. And I wanna be a multi-hyphenate. I wanna be a bad boy and I wanna be a sweetie. - Hmm. - How do you do that, I wonder? I'm trying to think of like a candy that really presents itself like that. - Oh, it's an hour of patch, kids. - You think? - Oh, 'cause they're kids. And there's nothing more rotten than a kid. - Right, but they're, but they're also very Cherubian. Kids are very Cherubescent. - Sure. - They're very much like the angels, their gods, little wiggers or whatever, right? And so, when you add that sourness to them, you're saying this is another thing about them. - And you might not like a white boy. - Might, you might not like a little piglet. - Yeah. - So I think there's a lot of that that goes on. - Sure. - When you combine stuff like that, there's also some candies that some people can't even get through like we had kids that couldn't handle gobstoppers or whatever they had to move to another school. We'd have, you know, and people were like, you know what I'm saying? Like they just couldn't, they couldn't figure it out. - Sure, well they, it's a lesson in patience. It's, for me, when I think of gobstoppers, I think that the line of demarcation is only visible to those outside the cultural means of production. And so, so it really is linenism that it's the most stolen gradient, but it's, it's beautiful. So you can see that's actually a model of the universe. - Oh, they call them the Berlin Ball, you know? That's why, 'cause you just, you get, there's so much to go through. - So, you have to be willing to do it. - You have to be, if you wanna get to that center, which is just plutonium, it is yellow cake uranium. So it'll make you sick as a dog, but it'll make you grow in ways you should not. - Oh, dude, I saw a kid who had to take his shoes off in the middle of one, 'cause they just, there was his feet were popping right out of him. This is forever chemicals. These is, and a lot of rumors is that, that Wonka was working early with forever chemicals. That's rumor. - Yeah, but there's a lot of PFA's in there. I saw a video of the other day, people's grandparents now have PFA's in them. So they're suggesting like, shutting down hugs, shutting down. - Yeah, well, the original recipe was Zyklon B. So it does make people like, it'll make you happy in the moment, but sad for a lifetime, so. - Yeah, so it's your choice, Bucco. - Yeah, you know, pick your mouth. - I don't mean one, Mr. Grinch, you know? That's what's going on. Short answer, yes, several popular candies, formerly marketed under the Wonka brand. Like nerds and laughies, have you recently tested positive for very high levels of arsenic? - Thank you, perplexity, which is a persistent forever contaminant in the environment and can accumulate in the body over time. Is it, it's not good, is it worth it though? - Sure, yeah. They make the candies good when you're a kid and you get the nerds or what was it for you? Was there a candy that you were like, yeah? - Maybe like a Charleston chew. - Oh, inside the freezer and a fridge that's unplugged. So, it's planning this seed of like, this is getting, (laughing) so it's like, it's like my body's telling me this is getting colder, but my heart of hearts is like, brother, you know this is room town. (laughing) - Here was an old trick we would use if we were driving around and doing coke, right? - Sure. - We'd fill the glove box with Charleston juice, right, so the cop pulled you over. You open that, he sees him all fall out and he goes, oh, sorry, fellas. (laughing) - Yeah, on your way, sorry, boys. - It was just like, it changed the level of anger and curiosity of the cops. - Sure. - It put it a little bit more of a joy. - Yeah. - It was a little bit more, oh wow, there's piñatas in here. - Yeah, these are just a couple of candy guys out for midnight stroll. - Well, the original tagline for Sour Patch Kids was there is no greater send than the send of being born. - So that is powerful. - Well, it's something, I remember Sugar Honkeys Unite had that slogan, okay? 'Cause that was a big one. - Is there any candy called Sugar Daddy's? - Oh, there was, and then a website bought it out. But there was also Sugar Ain't got nothing on this clan. Who had that? (laughing) - Who had that, dude? - The Sugar Union? - Yeah. - Oh, no, they're like the Pinkertons. - Sugar Daddy's that was it, man. - Oh, they were a thing. And then you eat a couple of them and you go, I shouldn't be eating those. - Yeah, you have one Sugar Daddy you go, I shouldn't be eating them. - You're right. And then they gave the babies away. Here's the craziest part, and this is you, going back to the nuclear family breaking down. There's never a mother involved, you know? No. - It was Sugar Daddy, Sugar Babies. - Sure. - It was like, yeah, the pursuit of happiness. It was like gorgeous, but tragic. - Oh, yeah, it was like I am legend or whatever. It was, it was like I robot. - Yeah. - It was very similar to some of that, dude. It was kind of like her with Joaquin Phoenix. It was just a challenge, man dancing around in a mall. - Willing to try on the air to get a little sugar in his system. - The old reboot. - Yeah, they call that the old Milwaukee handshake. - Oh, yum. - Oh, God. - There's nothing that'll make you leave your family faster. Then a good bit of sugar, okay. I thought, and I hate to default to riff. I thought, surely, you were talking about Wanka being a progenitor of forever chemicals. I was like, oh, surely this is just a Christmas riff. And then you pulled up the paper trail, which engendered this idea that was very much factual. - Yeah, it is bad, it's giving people bone stuff. That's not good. - Yeah, and the saddest part is, the injuries, our grandfather's had real injuries, like missing a limb from like, you know, he was, you know, got drunk and he was petting a landmine or something in E.W.G., but right, right? - Sure. - Missing his wife, maybe put some of his wife clothes on a landmine, got a little crazy, whatever, lost a limb, lost half, you know, lost something important that had seeming hiding in it. But now it's just some guy, you know, you see some guy in a wheelchair and you're like, what happened? You're like, you know, I had too many nerd ropes, you know, with something like just the turnover, the embarrassment of our injuries is gonna start to get real and it's gonna start to get real fast. - Oh yeah, well, it's already, they call it, it's at the event horizon. So like, we can't stop what's coming. We can only hope to like build a fallout shelter. But yeah, I've met some older guys who thought that like nerds clusters were like, basically like a, like a tasty hydrogen bomb. So it like looks, it looks like the atom, like the base molecules of human life, but they eat them and they like shit their pants and scream at their family, whatever. But then the crazy part is they start to choose that. - Yes. - They choose that behavior. - Yeah. - They don't know any better. - But it's gonna get weird when our, what, you know, what happened to you, you know, and you're like, yeah, I heard my, you know, like I was, after years of plowing or working or whatever, doing trade work or whatever. And now it just seemed like, you know, after years of hiding from my wife in the other room eating what's your McCall, it's a whatever now, you know, I have a fucking, I have a pH balancing of a fucking fluorescent light bulb at a mall, you know. - I've cellulared my toses. If you eat, what is, there's a limit on the package. If you eat more than five, you get osmosis joints. - Oh, really? - Yeah, so you're like a little guy, like, fighting slime. crime. Well, I love that. And I'm guessing that's happening at a Aussie concert. Yeah, it's yeah, like young blood doing Aussie covers and then you had a whole crowd. It's like Astro World, they just start dropping like flies. That's hilarious, dude. But that's a world we live in. I guess if we're really here. Yeah, if we're not just an interference pattern on a different plane of consciousness. Let's take a call. Let's take a call from ourselves, man. Shopify. You heard me. Shopify. It's hands down the best place to start and grow a business these days. If you're trying to start your own thing, you need to show them. You got to show them. Shopify is the platform where you really own everything your store, your community. Plus Shopify gets your products in front of shoppers where they are. Google YouTube TikTok shop the shop app even chat GPT. 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It's a hometown story and a can. Yes, sir, right here. Next time you grab a dude, just know it's more than just a drink. It's an American original. Mountain Dew tasting great since 48. So you you've taken a break from comedy when you moved out? I did. Yeah, I took like, well, I did some gigs. I did some shows with Fiona Calli, our friend. Oh, she's so funny. And Matt is her husband. Yes, I don't know if I've met him, but I guess I'll meet him tonight, probably. That's Amy's. And then Dylan Curlino. Do you know Dylan Curlino? Yes, I do know him. He's in Austin. Yeah, he's so funny. So yeah, I like kind of stopped headlining for a bit and then got back to doing like some local stuff I got involved in the St. Louis scene and I like featured again. And yeah, just kind of started over a little bit. I'm running a new hour and it's been good to enjoy doing it. You know, when it feels like a job, you get kind of jaded. And it's like, I just ever wanted, all I ever wanted was to riff. So it just things got complicated. Yeah, were you happy with like, because Killtony was was an is kind of like the tonight show in a way, right? People would call it that kind of like the tonight show, but you know, a different like a malgommation of it, right? Or like a present semi present day. Yeah, you know, there's also dark sorcerers that are involved with it, but it's exactly where we are in the world. And it's great. It's a great show. Did you feel like being attached to that but came too much or like, how did you handle like the popularity and celebrity? Because I would say you were one of the most popular guys that kind of came through that system. Did it feel like that? Because even in my own, I've been recently like, I was, you know, like in the past year, I've thought a lot about like ego and what does popularity or mean and the value of it and stuff like that, you know? Yeah. Well, I think I started to do a sign some of myself worth some of myself worth and the opinions of others, not that I I would never look at stuff online, but I guess I got too wrapped up in my sense of self, like the poltergeist of self, like what, what all of this meant? Because all I ever did was stand up for years and years and years, all I did seven days a week. And then if it wasn't going well, then I didn't know who I was, you know? So yeah, more so than the Killtony thing, I'm that, you know, it gave me a platform and it allowed me to do all this stuff. I just tried to take take the good and and not think about anything else. But yeah, I was just really wrapped up in all this pressure that I was either misinterpreting or putting on myself. And I didn't like it. I didn't enjoy doing it anymore. Yeah. And as you say, like when it wasn't going well, I didn't like myself kind of. Yeah. Yeah, dude. I can relate to some of that, man. Yeah. I felt like an, you know, I try to improvise so much riff. Some have said many have said. And if I wasn't able to catch my thoughts perfectly, and that opens the door for so much pressure on myself, where I was thinking of myself, maybe rightfully, so maybe not duality, yes, laws of polarity, that I had so much potential. And so every night I would go out and I would try to use 100% of my potential on stage. And when I set myself up for that, there's no way I can possibly reach that, which makes it fun to keep going, makes it always exciting, but I will never be satisfied with it. Right. And always set you up for a little bit of failure in a way. Yeah. Which a little bit of that is good. It's good to strive. And, you know, comedy is a, it's a lifelong thing. If that's what you choose to do with your life, but I came to realize, and then probably in December that there has to be more to life than this, there has to be more than a performative affect. I have to be worth more than what I think I'm worth to my friends, just as a performer. And if my whole world is wrapped up in the business of show business, then I am doomed to go spiritually bankrupt. There's nothing that will ever be enough. So, yeah, I just try, it was really nice. You know, I made a lot of friends that weren't comedians for the first time in a long time. Wow. And it was just great, you know, people who didn't know who I was to know that I have worth to people like not being funny. Like I can just go to the movies and I can talk about movies or we can kick a soccer ball around, which I never did, but I could have. Yeah. And if we had found a soccer ball at any point in the beginning of the year, I could have kicked it around. And it's, and that kept me going. So I would wake up every day and I would make myself a promise. And it was firm. And it was if I run into an unattended soccer ball today, or when I could borrow just for the time being, I won't kick it back and forth with whoever's around. Oh yeah, I know exactly you'll kick it back and forth with some victim of who had too many of those little crackle bars or whatever. And it's now in a wheelchair. And the last let me can move is just soccer and back and forth with a stranger passing through. He has to do one of those muscle tests. So he has to hit his knee at the exact right time. And he kicked it. And he does it himself now. Yeah, because that's his insurance provider. They mail you the little hammer with a little triangle and you do it yourself at home. Oh, yeah. That's Moderna. Yeah. That's Moderna. Yeah. I mean, I just got to get the other day to take a couple siss off my own body. They'll mail you the scalpel mail and all of the stuff that made you a picture of a nurse. You put that up in the corner. And you do it, man. It's pretty cool. And the picture and not to get you off, but I think that it's one of those pictures where you look at it one way and she's beautiful. Yeah. And then you look at the other way and it's a wedge. Yeah. Her name is Ramona Lisa. It's her name. It's an Italian nurse. And you can pick with ethnicity, want the nurse to be. Oh, good. And it comes with a chocolate, which is ironic because that's what got us into this position. Exactly. You know, like, okay, I feel like this is cyclical. Yeah. Yeah. Great. This is what happens when there's no free healthcare. Exactly. That's where we are right there. Two different women. And both of those were drawn by Christina Mariani as well. I want to let everybody know that on an etch a sketch, which is unbelievable. I've seen Christina do freehand, which is if you've never seen someone freehand draw, I highly recommend it. But well, she's in that. She's in that new musical. It's a one person musical. Yeah. It's a one woman show. She's doing it at Edinburgh. I've seen it. Yeah. It's my state's bro. Yeah. It's in the Delta. Yeah. It's the male version of statesboro. Sure. Yeah. Statesboro by way of all doll stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I get that's where I went to college. I went to college at Georgia Southern. Did you go over there? Yes. By Savannah. Oh, wow. Were you jealous that you weren't at Savannah because like just being like a like I think you're a creative and artistic guy. I think you're one of the most unique guys in comedy. Or I think I don't know if that's the best thing to say to somebody. I think it's true. But I think you just have a unique way of being alive. Sure. Which I think is pretty cool because it's hard to figure that out in the world. Yeah. But did you ever want to be over there at Savannah? A scan? I think it was. Yeah. You always hear about that place in the South. I want to call it to Charleston for a little bit. And you always hear about scan, like the people that scan. - Yeah, it was like ground zero for guys and scarfs. - Yes. - Summer scarfs too, which is a rarer. Oh my God. You know what they say, summer scarfs, bring winner tekers. And that's George Orwell as well. - Yes, that's 1984. That's so Orwellian, truly a dimerouge of existential pessimism. But no, I never, (laughing) and I'm happy that we are bringing up the tenets of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. But it has been, it's been a crazy summer. No, I wish I went to SCAD. I didn't have artistic inclinations until I was probably 20. That's when I started doing standup. But no, I didn't know. I was more into boozing. So it was the only school I applied to and they call it State's Vegas. And it had some great bars out there. - Good bar scene, good bar scene. - A lot of field parties, parties in the woods, mudding. - Oh yeah, a lot of that stuff. - You got into that culture. - Yeah, my mom's a horse trainer. So I grew up in North Georgia, sort of by the foothills of Appalachia, I think. - Is that like near the range? - No, it starts with an L or a different letter. - It's Tacoma. That's what I'm thinking of with the tea, beautiful oil area. It's about like Gainesville by like Forsyth County. So like up there on 400. - I wanna get up there one day. - Which one of the major outputs up there are like exports? - I don't even know what they do up there. The commerce isn't exactly bustling. - Oh, it's not a busy area. - Well, now it's become, it has become like nicer like sort of towards like Alfa Reda where they had that helium there in Alfa Reda. - Oh, they got free helium up there? - Yeah. - Yeah, so nitrous will cost you, but helium's a handshake. And that's, and I do sell stickers that say that and we're printing them right now. But no, it's, I don't know when I live there's really rural. So anyways, we got into mudding at an early age as most kids of my generation. - Oh, that's a good way to be it. And did you feel like, 'cause you kind of have like, I don't know, you created such like a unique you, right? And do you, do you ever think like, is this the real me? Or is this a me that I created? Does it ever come to your mind yet? - Oh, sure. Yeah. - I mean, it's no judgment against you. I've just had that happen in my own life recently. I quit, I took a break from touring. And so much of my life, I didn't realize had been like attached to. I'll always have somewhere to go. Well, I gotta get going. There's somewhere to be, there's somewhere I need to be, there's somewhere I'm gonna be seen that's coming up. And then now it's not really like that. And it's okay, but it's just been interesting to be like, okay, well, safe that we're going forever. Then what, you know, who would, how would I, what's going on with me, you know? - Yeah, how would I, 'cause it is, it's a degree of show business, past a certain point, is almost not even like seeking, it's like running. It's like you're running, you think you're running toward something but you're running like a way again from this idea that I have just coined the Poltergeist of Self about the, the visage of like, who is Casey Rock, who is this interference pattern of like, where I grew up, what my friends were like, what I like to do. And then also this person I try to present on stage, which is, you know, it more or less is me. I'm just having, I'm just letting myself be a goofy guy. - Yeah. - But yeah, I mean, I have had instances of like, ego death either chemically induced or just being in a really low period of depression where, yeah, I look around and I go, what is all this for? You know, but if I did have any answer, it would be that the macro mirrors the micro. So that in the little victories of my life, I figure out my greater purpose like so. It's easier for me now because I've gotten used to it, the first six months of this year of not running around so much. It's, I've been so, I've been so much happier where, I'm just a really stressed out guy. You know, I get, I wear the world really heavily. So, if I have to do anything, like even just like, go do a local showcase, you strive me nuts, I ruin my whole day. Just this stress and knowing that it's coming, it's hard to operate. Yeah, some people seem to be able to operate kind of freely, even if there's something looming, you know? Like me, I'm already like, fuck, man, my marriage, will my wedding day be like, that shit's gonna fucking be net. It's gonna be hectic and my, if my wife's there, she's gonna be pissed or whatever, you know what I'm saying? But that shit will weigh me down. It's like on a regular Thursday afternoon, dude. Not to mention whatever else I have to do or sometimes like, yeah, that's such a cool way to say that. Yeah, sometimes I just feel like I wear the world heavy. And some people just seems to be like this like, summer shawl that, you know, that it's nothing. Like it seems to be like just like a little baby kite landed on their shoulder and then it's brushed it off, you know? Yeah, yeah, fuck, fuck, like sometimes I wouldn't wanna go to sleep at night because I'd be like, shit, this is just leading to tomorrow and it already feels like so much. I know, you know? Yeah. Not to complain, I'm just, I'm also okay. It's just like, yeah, you just think about this. Sometimes that shit gets heavy, you know? Yeah, well, I think that professionally and just part of our gumption, and I am not using the correct word when I say that, but we just want, you know, we have lives that are based on creation, right? So they were engendered to create. And I know if I have any down period where I'm not creating or I don't have to, I feel like I'm not doing enough. So yeah, it would drive me baddy. I'd be running in circles chasing my own tail. But it's nice to do just like regular stuff. Like I'll read for a bed and then, 'cause I'll get so stressed out about like nothing. Yeah, I'll be like, man, I gotta knock up some barista. Like I gotta have a child with like a barista suit. And then I'll be like, what is a barista? Yeah, what am I gonna name the kid? That's beautiful. And I think it's beautiful though. Yeah. Oh, I feel like anytime I go in a coffee shop, I hope maybe I fall in love or something like that. I am the kind of guy who I do think anytime I walk into a place could be gas station, coffee shop, you know, tire center, not tire center, but somewhere a place I can have women. Sure, like a firestone. Yeah, like a firestone, but that's been in business and then has a little bit of extra loot to keep a decent looking broad at the front, you know, hostess. Yes, yes, yes. Is there anything more divine than a greeter at a firestone tires? And she's standing there and there's three tires right by her. And I'm like, hey, baby, let's hit the road, you know, like I got one in the trunk. Yeah, I got one in the chamber on me, you know, my car is on center blocks right now. You got three, I got one. Let's start a life. Hey, honey, up with the sin and sender, you feel me? Let's get out there. I got a pair of cedar tires up back. A pair of cedar sign eyes. Oh, dude, that has had to have been the worst tires. Back in like the wagon wheel days, back when a little house in the prairie was just starting out or whatever. Yeah, which was a new season out now. Go watch it. My friend, Crosby Fitzgerald is in it. And I've been watching it. Someone called me watching it yesterday on my phone at the gym. So I'm going to go to a different gym now. But don't pull the lung alarm on your ass. We got a plan of fitness. Yeah, the lung alarm you to high hell. Bring up the lung alarm because I got to make sure there's still use in it, you know? That is one of the better. I wish all places of business had something comparable to a lung alarm. They used to just yell fatty or whatever, you know? Or, you know, or yeah, they would yell something like that, you know? Bad bones, bone structures. Yeah, they used to yell steroid, boy, or whatever. But now there we go. They still have it. Dude, he gets it with a 20 feet of a planet fitness that had the lung alarm. And it's just outside, you're kind of going Friday night. Just got that train from Chess, but you know what? Jake Cutler from the Chicago Bears. Oh, my dear God. Wow. They hit him with it. And it's just for somebody that's being, I guess, overtly. What? Strong and in good shape? Yeah. They hit that, like, the Doomsday Clock was at one minute to midnight. Yeah, dude, this is some people's wide to K, dude. Yeah. And that caused a splinter of effect that effectively ruined ergonomics. Yeah. Well, here's the crazy part is, dude. That guy, like, now we don't even realize it. They're getting us to think that being in shape is bad, right? It's all this slow, let me tune the dial a little different, right? Let me just mess with the opportunity here, little. That's how they're doing it, man. Yeah, it's planning bad seeds. Cedar cyanide, dude, those, if you got cedar cyanide wheels on a wagon, that was the worst, dude. Yeah, it was, yeah, it was terminal. It was like having fleas, like, within your, like, roost, yeah. Yeah. That's so brilliant. It's a fox in a chicken coop situation, so they just go wild. But it's built in and imagine you get fresh cedar wagon wheels, and they have cyanide in them. And they're like, people, like, these are cedar cyanide, you're like, yeah, it's the best we have right now. That's all we have. If you want to go take the route through this year in Nevada, you're going to have to get this before the fall comes, like the Donner party. Yeah, yeah. But you just had to do what you had to do for your family back then. Families were tougher. Well, things have just changed, man. I mean, now you would have a Jeffrey Dahmer or whatever footwear, you know, key to have a shoe. Yeah. Well, Charles Bukowski should be sold to a rich family as a midwife, and I said that for oh my god. Yeah. are becoming new slaves. That's what I've been talking about. been saying that. Get the F. You're on a Chan gang. Yeah, you're making license plates. That is just what the president does through a complex is. So I am happy that there is a problem endemic to the state of Alabama that I'm able to bring up. There's a documented called the Alabama problem. So is there? Yeah, it's on HBO Max. I haven't seen that one, but I have seen the one about the mall that's kind of going out of business. If you seen that one about the death of the American mall. Yeah. But this one is a specific mall in Alabama. Bring that up. This is a great documentary. If you want to. Yeah. If it's raining or something and you want to watch something. I think I saw the trailer for it. Just for mall. See if it officially closed or not, man, this was pretty cool, dude. That's it's a good documentary. It's it's enclosed. Or is it closed? Yes. It's not a lot there. Um, rural king. Well, that's good. They replaced it with a rural king, which is what they're going to do for a nuclear families to. Well, that's just where we're going. It's like when this JC Penny closes doors there. But um, but yeah, that documentary is pretty good, man. This is episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. We talk about mental health more openly now. But asking for help can still feel hard. And BetterHelp's latest research confirms that. BetterHelp's 2026 state of stigma report surveyed 2000 Americans and revealed that 85 percent of Americans believe getting support is wise. Yet 74% say society discourages people from doing so. Don't let that be you. Don't get discouraged. If something feels uncomfortable, speak up for yourself. You have a voice. You have a heart. There's a reason for that. Cut out the noise and do what's right for your own well-being. That's what I've done. BetterHelp can help with over 30,000 therapists. BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over six million people globally. And they do the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. Don't let stigma stand in the way of support. Start therapy with BetterHelp. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com/thio. That's BetterHELP.com/thio. Have you have you kept in touch with a lot of the people from Austin still or did you kind of like take like a break from the communication there like um no I still talked I had to go back in May and I did my last show at Creek and Cave and Creek's always been really great to me so I I'm going back on the first of well I'm going back soon there's a special event I don't want to spoil it but I'm going back. So yeah I talked to you a lot of my really good friends from other ship you know we were all door guys together so I chat with them on the phone and yeah part of like changing my life and I have no qualms in saying this but I'm sober and that's a part of my life and part of that for me just means being there for my friends so like every day I'll like call a friend and stuff that I would do I guess when I was younger in the pre-social media age you know so I'll call people and feel like all these kids are only fucking phones now. Yeah I think that's popular but but not nobody calls anymore. I agree you know what that's a good thought. Sometimes I've I've certainly gotten away from texting and I'd rather to send a voice note I think that's better at least if you can kind of get a feel what's going on and even then like I will enjoy a call and I think honestly some people are appreciated it's like yeah and I think you just have to establish if you want like hey that's where I'm out of my life I want to hear my friend's voice you know like I want to know I want to have have some semblance just in what they're saying or how their energy is as to how they're really feeling because that's what that's what we're based on you can't pick it up through text it's pretty much impossible so and that that's just a little bit of the tuning of the dial it's like where we're at where the future's taken as it feels kind of scary. Yeah some of that is lost yeah yeah I feel like I operated better to buff as a person before technology got two bonkers because I used to like to daydream even though a lot of it had dangerous Voldemortian people in there like even though it was like a lot of pillaging of our home in a lot of my daydreams it was still like it was a chance for my mind to rattle on a little yeah so my mind didn't always feel like it was so attached to me I did like the time when you had more space just to kind of daydream and your mind got to like yeah you're right I don't you know I do that a lot when I'm driving so you're saying you a daydream in a way that was like the last bastion of free speech for a mind of cut this part out cut this fucking part out yeah my ship would be pretty lit Frederick Douglass would show but some of my daydreams like sure there was always someone at the pole pit yeah to let you know the type of energy that was there was life or death there were trials that were going on it was very Salem witchy and you know oh sure it's like the crucible yeah that part yeah it was like the crucible kind of meets McDonald's kind of sure so grimace was like judge jury and executioner which he often is in so many of our afterlives as I come to understand it grimace is like a topa and of he's like in a malgommation like a transmogrification of Saint Michael so is that what people are saying yeah he's like a figurehead for like this like this demigod we know as Saint Michael when he lets you in it is just a big pool of creamy chili sauce oh good I know I've prayed to him before for new condiments it's that's him answering prayer okay there you go dude but dude this is where we're heading people don't want to look at the signs that like there are children who go to bed and you will the wake up in the morning and then they'll have pissed the perfect shape of grimace and other sheets like moms are like oh that's nothing it's just hundred nights in a row of that like yeah nobody's connecting the dots of where we're going no like that you piss the shroud of terrem like you pissed the perfect exact golem of things come to pass dude yeah I know they cracked some kid open and he had 11 scenes from the patriot with male gibson inside of him and he's ledger yeah I know yeah well as my understanding it was just the gibson scenes so there was no he's ledger which is like okay what is this the director's cut so what is this and then he just screamed aim small miss small and disappeared into the ether it's just where we are um you mentioned what do you want to say no I'm just kind of just like coming to terms with some uh because it is it's an absolute you know and my will like my will's greater than myself you know I have a higher purpose and some of that is grimace like putting a kid in the woodchipper yeah I remember when we were in school and some kids didn't understand how the greater they and our lesson signs worked and we weren't allowed to kill those kids that always kind of made me upset I don't know I'm not even trying to get into some of that stuff but yeah thanks I don't know my time stables oh yeah well so what do we do what do we go from here you're right dude in a tweet if I'm willing to give you a pass but I'm not willing to give them you know sure well it's not a meritocracy you know it isn't it was it was in a perfect world when told story was kicking around with those guy off ski it was doing down abby was doing their shit when that shit was popping oh yeah when they oh my god me and my boys we would sit down every downtown and abby Tuesday it was good dude the first fucking season of it so good god I wanted to be a butler I'd be a butler son or whatever yeah just to be grandfathered into the butler trade would be such a blessing and the butler comes walking and he's like Gregory's gay you know you're like what this he told you in confidence dude dude just get the dishes yeah leave your son out of this that guy was so good bro yeah it's weird to see him like that not sleeping standing up in a closet cuz well he was a stunt double in a lot of coffins oh yeah oh yeah and people don't give him any credit you know no who's his name that guy was a great actor he looks like the guy who did the Wilhelm scream you know I'm talking about the Wilhelm scream they just won the contest there is something called the Wilhelm scream which is this scream they use in like a million different movies you would recognize that if you play a kid Carter so I think he's the guy who does that special special scream from the golden age of Hollywood we'll have to let's look at it the Wilhelm scream and see it again that sounds like Wilhelm Memphis yeah that's Bill Street if Bill Street could talk it sound like that so yeah that guy did that and then I guess he had to go to court to get like his residuals from a you're really so that scream they're they're calling it the scream of hope so it was one of the first famous scream of hope are you serious so yeah it's like a symbol Like how bad is it, God? Well, it's like, you know, like South Africa used Rodriguez and his albums to like fight against apartheid. So like, this is the American version of that. Yeah, the Armament and Tyler Perry's Mandela goes to jail, I think. Exactly, exactly. So Shep Woulee was the stage name of that old old guy who lived in the closet. And he just did this, he did this special scream that became like a message of hope. Oh, I love hearing this. And this is says it right here. And this says the famous Wilhelm scream was really voiced by actor musician Shep Woulee in 1951. It was recorded for the movie, "Distant Drums" for a scene where a man is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator. Play it one more time and let's put it, let's put it where it belongs in our heads. (screaming) (laughing) Oh, he gay, bro. That's all I'm saying, bro. He's a friend of Dorothy. Yeah, let's just say he's a friend of Dorothy. That's what they used to say. Or yeah, he's a total owner. Sure. I mean, we'd say that. I told him, have you seen that guy in Austin? He got a total. Who goes on the streets and he's like, you think this guy's gay, man? Have you seen those videos? No. Oh my God. Pull this out. This is worth watching, dude. This is one of the best things that's ever happened, I think. And it just goes to show how manner obsessed with pointing the eleventh finger at each other. Yeah, they're making a call to the ball pen, but nobody's showing up. Yeah. Sure. You know what I'm talking about, Trevon? Have you ever seen Elijah Wood? He rides around Austin on a little scooter sometimes. No, but I would believe that. I know, right? And I hope that happens. Me too. I hope that for the rest of the world and the rest of the day. Well, here's what we should do. The day one day in Austin that changed everything, okay. So this is how rumors get started here. And let's go into this. Let's click on this. This is a picture for those at home of Elijah Wood on a bird's scooter. Oh my God, he's ripping a heater. Fuck yeah, he is. He's got a hands-free pro union ripping a heater. Pro, he saved the whole freaking world. The day that changed everything. He's got 1,000 yard stairs that's staring into the future of American society. His son Gollum's dude. Yeah, he's on the Nephilim. He's the watcher. Yeah, dude. Oh, definitely. He's got his ball certificates out. Can you, what did that say? Did it say anything else about him on that? That's crazy. And did you see him while you were there? I have never seen something like this in person. It's by evil mobac. So this is, yeah, this is spell work right here. This is deep Elijah, a spell work. I told you equals magic. I fucking told you. This is an incantation. Despite my joke, ways online, I actually quite miserly with my laughs. It's just how I was paved. But when something gets me, it really gets me. So on the fateful day, when I saw the most quintessential 2018 Austin photo humanly possible pop into my Twitter timeline, I was reduced to a queeve. Okay, lovecraft. What are all these adjectives? This is just some fucking overwatch addict putting this shit together. Can you zoom down a little? Is this saying anything else after that part? Oh, that's it. We only have to pay to read it. So it was taken in September 2018 in Austin, Texas while attending the Fantastic Festival. He tried out the app-based rental scooter line for the first time while holding a cigarette. Oh, it's pretty cool. That is so cool. This is like pictures taken moments before tragedy. Let's hope not. I mean, well, actually, he's fine. So it's not before he did his test. You know, we're not casting anything. That's the only thing I don't want to cast anything. No. No, no, no, no. I don't want to do any spell work. No, and we don't have to. And I don't do talismanic magic. It's my understanding neither does Elijah Wood. So, but I saw you brought something. I saw you a little thing at bag of hair, or whatever, what's that for? Yeah, sure. So that's spare hair. So that's hair care. It's part of my self-care routine. So if anyone, while I'm talking to them, says like, hey, a big clump of your hair, just fill out, you're ready to go. Yeah, I'll be like, oh, thank you. First of all, thanks for holding space for the second of all, do you have any Elmer's glue? So, yeah, it allows me to kind of like, keep my hair line, like how I want it. So, yeah, it looks great. And thanks, yeah. And I think if someone mails you their hair and you care for it, it's everything. I mean, that's great. That's what fatherhood means to me. It's like having a son who's bald as a baby, like Kha'yu, or like Franklin the turtle. And then he's getting a big ol' glob of mush and just smooch it on top of that freaking thing. One time we were on a cruise ship. Not one of the ones that like, is sinking or as like shit floating on or whatever, that Netflix keeps advertising. But one of the regular ones, we were on there and we had Halloween, but we didn't have any costume store. So, some guy would sold a bunch of his pubic hair and people were like, glueing it on with honey as mustaches and stuff. So, everybody could be like the husband from, everybody could be Sam Elliott. Oh, that's so cool. Well, let's play this video right here. Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln? Look at that man's head. Look at his heart. You get a straight thing, man, what's up? You think all the people got that? Feel like he get a straight. That's a small man. Why are you saying that? He got it, he got it. You get a straight. I'm a man, okay? I'm straight. It's better. I make it, it's good. Every time, dude. Look at this, I make it, it's good. What the fuck? That make a f*ck like a little bap. You get a straight. I'm straight in this. I'm pencil. Feel like, you put like he get a straight. You put like he get a straight. He can be bisexual. F*ck. You get a straight. I don't care what the f*ck he is. That's why he keeps my hand. I put like he get a straight. Get his phone. What are you saying? F*ck is he wearing? Who is that John Jones? Who is that? You get a straight. That's John Jones. Is that Indiana John Jones, dude? Who is the f*ck is that? George Jones Jones. That's good, yeah. That's pretty cool. That was a cool outfit. I'd like to get to a place in comfortability and metaphysical wellness where I could wear a chain around my neck with a lock on it. I think you could do it, dude. I think I could pull it off. I used to paint my nails and then I would go to rehab like a week later. It happened. It happened several times in my adult life. I would paint my nails twirling my hair, talking on a corded phone, paint my nails, and then I'd wake up a couple days later and I was like, "I need help." Yeah. I was like, "I'm being fashioned forward, but I am turning the clock back." Oh, you're a f*cking just a little leapier. Yeah. I'm a leapier, baby. I have Benjamin Buttons disease, but I'm right in the middle between young and old, so I'm normal. Brutal. So, so, so, Brutal, so you, do you, can I ask you something about it? How has it been? Was there like a point that you got? Was it like, drinking was it? Or was it just like you were just feeling like disconnected from your own life and congrats on having to wear with all to like, try something new. Like even just to be like, "Okay, I've been in Austin. This is what's going on. I'm going to try something new." It's so hard to come to that conclusion for some of us. Yeah. Well, um, I struggled with those things since I was a kid and I would have long stretches of sobriety. When I was younger, it would be alcohol and then where I grew up in Georgia, it was, I was in high school during like the Purdue pharmaceuticals, like that, all that stuff. Oh, really? So, a lot of my friends got addicted to like, oxy cotton and stuff like that. So yeah, so like that I was exposed to drug use like that when I was younger. So often on and mostly I would sometimes go back to it when I couldn't deal with pressure. You know, there's a lot of excuses for things like that. But yeah, I had gotten to a point where I no longer wanted to do comedy. I no longer wanted to really do anything. I just felt like almost not like I had wasted my life because I love what I do. And I really like getting to meet people and I love making people happy. But it got to be too much when coupled with a habit that I had developed of various drugs and alcohol and things like that. Yeah. Where I was like, something has to change, like something has to change. Right. So you got to that point. Something has to change. Yeah. I had resigned myself to the idea of a certain death and that did not scare me. It would have been, um, I looked at it at that point and some sort of like welcomed relief. Like I had gone past the point of anyone being able to help me or me being able to help myself. And then when I did reach out and I did seek some help for that stuff, um, I realized that that's not what I wanted at all. What I really wanted was to figure out a better way to live, um, that I really just wanted to have some peace in my life that I knew even in the throes of it was not being given to me by drugs and alcohol. It was the opposite of that. It was making my life a thing. thousand times worse and by yeah, I've been able to cut so much guff out of my life so much guff in slime and I'm able to look around today and I know that I don't have any I don't live in shame about my life. I don't do that. I don't say things to things. I don't say things to people. I don't mean. I don't hurt my friend's feelings. I can be a better partner. I can kick a soccer ball. I can. It's basically it was soccer ball base. So I looked around and I was like, you know what? This house is missing. Soccer ball. And then I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. And I said, you're in no condition to kick a soccer ball. You're gonna hurt somebody. But it's just really basic things. You know, I wanted to be involved again. I wanted to be in the stream of of life. And yeah, dude, it's been so beautiful. I'm just so happy. And I don't think it's a temporary happiness. I think it'll be sustained if I continue to work on myself. I know. Yeah. Are you able to look and see congrats to man? I know it's not like a thing. It's like is a congrats thing. But it's a it's when you think about our world to take a break from anything. Yeah. And make a commitment to take a break from something and do it. It's tough. Oh my gosh. It's so for any of us. We're all. There's so many ways to get addicted to distract ourselves from us. Absolutely. It's a it's a disease thinking of I'm constantly because you know, I can do all kinds of things. I would spend too much money. I would gamble. I would do these things that on paper seem like a lesser thing than the usage of substances. And they are, but it's all just a symptom of a greater. I want to distract myself. And I want instant thrills that are followed by continuing to chase that thing. Yeah. What team are you betting on too? Can I tell you when I've been on it? I never did sports betting. And I didn't lose, I don't think I have like a gambling addiction, but I would go and I don't gamble anymore. I'll say that. Oh, bet. I would do slots. Oh, you do slots. You should spend, dude. Five dollars spend. Have a slap at the pokies. Yes. Oh, yeah. I would love to. Sometimes I like this time I didn't. I was just in Las Vegas, but I would I'd like to slip down there at night when nobody would be around. And I'd sit there and play some slots just putting 20 bucks, 40 bucks. You know, I'm just fucking try to get a little bit of money out of China. You know, I'd yell at the machine. I'd be like, we're gonna fucking get your cash. We're coming Beijing. Yeah, we're coming, dude. Congratulations. Port Boy. Yeah. You've popped the pig big. That's so funny because it will give you, and this is not a bit heaven forbid I do a bit, but it'll be like, congrats. You've won. You've been awarded dollar like you went eight dollar like a singular Judeo Christian dollar. And they found it out. It takes for any like fuck, dude. If I would have just called it in a way, even like just fucking taken a call on a phone and asked them for $2. I would have made more money. Yeah. Doing something else. You've been accepted into the winner's circle. Press B to trust. And then it's $1.47. And you're like, okay, I'm betting $5. You just told me I'd lost. Yeah, and it's like, oh, you've won the DC sibling round. We're gonna bring back and a Marie. And you're like, oh my god. My sister's back. My sister's back. But it's so funny. It'll be like, that's how it's going to get. Don't you see where we're going? I know. That's, I mean, that's going to be in our freaking textbooks one of these days. You're going to have to go to the win or encore, or you're going to have to go to Dragon's Beard or whatever the casinos will be named in. You know, or fuck I get realm or whatever they're called, right? You're going to have to go to some of these places, sorry. You have to go to the circus of life or Trump's nuts or whatever the casinos are going to be called. You're going to have to go there in the Biden's Oculus, right? You're going to have to go there and they'll be like, you know, get four spins and you'll see your father, you know? And that's really what it's going to be like. Yes. And you have to keep playing it. You will use your social credit score to go have a round of spins at John Carpenter's cigarette burns. And you will be lucky to walk out with a talisman or an amulet of any repute. Yeah, dude. It's brutal. And it's so, I always just think it's so funny how there'll be like gar, gar, gar, gar, gar, you've awarded the pig some hooves. And then just like print you out one US dollar. Yes. Yeah, dude. What do we, I mean, where do we go from here? You know, um, what are some things that you feel like because like I'll go to meetings. I'm going to go to a meeting probably whenever I get done with this today. Um, what are some things that the meetings do for you? Do you notice something like that over time? Yeah. Um, like going to recovery meetings. Yeah. There's a lot of 12 step meetings out there, you know, sure. I went this morning in Nashville. I like to, um, at the, at a very good 730 meeting over there. No, it was at, um, a sober living in Nashville at 1130. But at the, at a very base level, what I can say is that I have never, ever walked out of one feeling worse than I was walking in. I will always, even if there's two other people in there and I've been to plenty of things like that, um, newer meetings or smaller towns, um, I'll always hear something that relates to my life or relates to how I want to have my life. So it's just, I like to meet random people too. It's like makes me uncomfortable. And then when I leave, I feel like I did something good because I know it's good for me. And I know I need it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of cultivates a part of you that you can't even access. Like I think for me, like I share in meetings. I try to share, um, most of the meetings that I go to. Um, and I always want to kind of why it's like, uh, and then I was like, oh, well, when I was a kid, I didn't, there wasn't like a place that was safe for I could speak up, right? Like in our house, you couldn't speak up. Nobody cared how you felt. There wasn't even, I didn't know I had any feelings except that I wasn't feeling good. Sure. And it was like nobody. And that was our whole like system at home. Yeah. And so like sometimes when I go in there, it's like, well, this is a place that's safe enough where I can speak up. Even if I don't know exactly what I'm going to say or how exactly I feel, it gives me like a little bit of space to explore it. So it's almost like sometimes I feel like, um, it's almost like the kid me or the younger me that's in there that's kind of like, I mean, it's an adult me, but it kind of like, um, it helps me honor a little bit of that. Like here's this younger me that never got to speak up. So in here today, I'm going to sit here with you and we're going to, you know what I'm saying? We're going to speak up for ourselves. Yeah, that, that is really beautiful. I can definitely, um, identify with some of those sentiments from feeling like a bit voiceless when I was younger. Yeah, it is, it's so nice to, anytime I've, I'll try to like prepare something smart to say, it'll be like you're, you're a troglodyte. Like I'm a mute, I'm a mute deaf speech list, but I'm like, it's summer's, summer's hard. They're like, what the, what are you? Not even who are you? What are you? And why? The big three, um, when somebody will share something in there and that you've been wanting to say your whole life or here, yeah, and you'll finally hear it or, or, and you're like, oh, I feel like a part of me like we're almost like the locks will like turn. Yeah, and a new door will open. Yeah, you feel like a weight has been lit. I can't even describe how it feels like really get involved in that stuff. And, um, it's so crazy. It makes you feel like, you know, I'm of the belief that the universe is all mental and it unfolds just for us. You know, how can it not? Our live experiences are designated and interpreted solely for us. And when I'm in there almost every time something will happen that's so kismet or a synchronicity and you'll hear something you were just thinking about or something that's upcoming you've been worried about. And you're like, what are the odds of that? And it happens almost every day where you're like, I'm on the right path, you know, when you do the right things, you get the right things. It might be the things you want, but the thing is that you need at least. And the little things you hear in there, man. Yeah. The little things like a contrary action. Like there's a lot of times I won't want it if I don't want to do something. Unless it's for like a reason where there's like safety concern or something like that, then I need to consider trying to go do it. Like I don't really need to do this yoga. I don't really need to go and like walk over to my neighbors and drop this off just so it's because there's a darker part of me that wants to me to be by myself that wants me to stay like isolated and sit and think and ponder about everything and just learning those things. And eventually I have to learn things a lot, right? Yeah. I have to learn things a lot. It's like my forgetter is really big. It's like it's almost like when I wake up in the morning, it's like there's a part of me that's forgotten if people care about me. That's forgotten if I care about me. You know, it's not exact, but there's a lot of like somebody comes in almost at night and cleans like the dry erase boards, you know, I need to be reminded that I matter and at a bigger level, other people matter more than me. Yes. Yeah. Other people matters. You know, I was the main actor in my life for so long and it was all how things were affecting me and what I was doing. And it's so nice to, yeah, just genuinely give a shit about other people. Dude, some of the best moments or the my moments or my favorites or if I wake up and my first thought about somebody else, it's almost like God, thank you. Or if I'm just driving out to remember something somebody who'd say, "Yes, Dave, like, "Oh, I'm gonna call them and check 'em on them about that." Or something somebody cared about. And I was like, "Oh, let me see how that played out for them." The more those I get, the better it feels. - Yeah, 'cause we're meant to have community. And my mind does the same thing. It's so much easier. There's a million other things I could be doing for an hour and a day than doing that. But when I'm alone, if I make an excuse like that, I'll make another excuse, then I'll make another excuse. And it may not lead to drug use, but it definitely will lead to me having a sadder life. At the very least, I don't want that. - Yeah, yeah, that's so. - And it's like, I just remember people care about me. I'll walk into a meeting and I'm like, "Oh, yeah, dude, I ran mad." And it's not that I forgot them or anything, but it's just like, I have to have this thing replenished. That's like, yes, your heart works, you work, you're okay. Things are okay, there might be problems, but they're not that big and everything's gonna be okay. It's almost like you just like, I don't know. It's definitely is like church. Some people are like, do you go to church? And it's like, I don't go to church every week, but in a way, I go to church four or five times a week. - Yeah. - You know? And you feel it. And you feel it. - Yeah. - Like I walk out of there. I'm like, okay, if I'm, this, like, I mean, there's some days when it's rough. If somebody sit on their phone next to me, the whole meeting, dude. - Oh, there's a kid running around God forbid. - Oh, a little Christmas kid. You can tell it's like a New Year's Eve, baby. - Yeah, and he's like, my birthday's coming after whatever. And I'm like, no, it's not. - No, it's not. We're in July. I can tell you're a New Year's Eve, baby. Get the hell out of here with your holiday spirit. - Yeah. But no, man, I think that community's great. What do you think if there's somebody who's scared to try to go to a first meeting? All of friends will ask me sometimes about like, or what do you say to somebody who's thinking like, maybe I might be struggling with this, you know? - Sure. Well, something that I go back to is that it's just so nice to be around people who I, you know, there's a saying, the saying of a terminal uniqueness that makes people continue to struggle. That we think that we're so different in our suffering. That we're put on this earth just to suffer. And who am I to say if that's not the case? But everything you've been through has meaning. And of course it has meaning to you, but it doesn't really have that much helpful meaning to you, the things that you've gone through that are really bad. Ruminating on that does not help, but when you put it out of you and you see that, it helps someone even just for a day. Like being around people who also hurt that way, it's just an incredible feeling. It's not a chore, it's not something you have to go do. It's something I look forward to doing. - Yeah. - 'Cause it's so nice to look around and go, oh my God, I'm not this little freak. - Yeah. - I'm not this little guy that God forgot, you know? I'm someone that has purpose. Even if it's just for today, I can have a purpose of hanging out with these people. And I know that when I'm in there, I feel better. Just for, even if it's just for that hour, even if I leave and I get back and I feel like shit again and I'm going a little crazy and I'm riffing a little too hard about the wrong things and my little rain. It's a safe place. Like, and I hate to use that term, but it's, you know, places like that are just, it's somewhere completely free of judgment. It's so beautiful. - Yeah. - It's so beautiful and there's nothing else like it. - I agree. - Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy sometimes from people like, "Hey, do we come to this?" I don't know if I'm doing that. You know, I'm from driving over to meet you at a, water burger or something. - You know, just because they're popping off 'cause it's new or whatever in the seats are clean or whatever still. - Yeah, I'm not going animal style. You can't make me. - Yeah. But you feel like, hey, you want to drive 20 minutes across town to go to like this 11.30 a.m. like meeting. It's going to be mostly older folks in this church and I'm like, dude, yeah, that shit sounds popping. - I dig wisdom. - Yes, dude. I love to talk to some old farmer. Ooh, we, yeah. - I get off on talking to an old farmer. Our plant's got to eat. - Yeah, I don't know if that's what happened. He goes, "When my arm's crying, I gotta feed it. "When that baby's crying, I gotta feed it." And he go, "Hell, yeah." - Don't come on my back and tell me it's raining. You know, shit like that, you're like, yeah. People always have crazy quotes. But no, man, it's definitely like, I don't know, and it's there for you. It's like if you have a tough time, if you leave, if you come in or out the meetings are there, you can go back, right? - Yeah. - It's just so nice to like something that really sat with me this last go where I'm when I was trying to get my life together again, is just the simple thought that I don't have to live like that. Like whatever is making me feel like my life is for want of a better term escalating towards some terminal velocity where I've had so many times in my life where I feel like this is gonna end bad. I'm either I'm, you know, I'm working too much. I'm worried about the wrong shit or I'm, you know, I'm using again and I know it's gonna end bad. And to know, I don't have a have to feel like that again. 'Cause I know that I'm in control of my emotions now and it's so great. I like to let yourself have peace. It's so hard. - It's like the hardest thing in life. - Yeah, why is it hard, man? - That's such a fascinating thing. I have never felt like that to let yourself have peace. Yeah, like I don't want to let myself have peace, man. It's like, or I don't know if I don't think, or I'm not saying I don't, but it's like that would be the, like, yeah, I don't, do I not deserve it. Like what is that? - I don't know if it's something just the way that we're wired where, 'cause that's it, that some of the wiring is right there. Why won't I let myself have peace? I have friends that are, that like, and I've struggled. I've had some tough years over, you know, over the years for sure and, but I've had some friends that won't, won't get close to it, you know? - Yeah, what? - Try to get close to the fire. They want to just keep trying to do it. - What's familiar? - It's familiar. And there's a thing of like, I'll figure this out. You know what I'm saying? - Yes. - Like, I've gotten myself this far. - Right, and the world feels that you, I don't know, when I was a younger, I put a chip on my shoulder, like the world was an enemy. - Yeah. - And I'm gonna figure this out and watch me. And then the worst part is if you have some successes in your life or things that go kind of your way, it's hard to realize that like something, you know. - Yeah. - Because then you feel like, oh, well, I'm doing, I'll figure this out too. - Yeah, 'cause I did this for myself. I uprooted myself. I made this happen. But then also, I've made a lot of the bad things in my life. (laughing) You know, drinking, toss, walking down the road, having a little slip-and-slide. - Oh, you. - Carmically speaking, I'm a Carmick Patsy. I'm a, I'm a Charlotteson of redemption. I'm a Tussman. - You're the Jack Ruby. - Yeah. - Of that realm. - I am Jack Ruby and I am Nicola Tesla and we are building a free energy circuit that Edison will shut down. - Yeah. - For sure. - Yeah, but that ego is so, 'cause yeah, it's like, no one really helped me become a comedian. No one taught me how to tell jokes. No one, you know, I slept in my car for a long time. I spent my whole life working on this thing. So when we're able to turn that into something that is working, of course, I think, we're apt to believe like, oh, I'll turn this around too, by myself. That's just, you know, we both know that's not the case. It's impossible. - Yeah. - It just willpower. It's vibrant willpower. I'm amazed at the willpower sometimes of people that struggle. Like I have friends whose parents are out on the streets and we've been struggling for 20, 30 years, you know? And I'm sure some of them, like some of them even ask me, why do you think they say, what's going on? It's like, I don't know. But you just try to talk with somebody about that stuff and it's just the willpower of some of alcohol or of people that are in recovery or of alcoholism, of alcoholics, it's man. It's strong. It's like, I'll figure this out. Everything, I'll turn this around. Or then sometimes, but you just get, you just get trapped in shame and then you just want to stay away from your life because you feel like, I don't want to go around these people because I'll only make things worse for them. That's got to be kind of a crazy trap. - Yeah, that you're too far gone and you're like radioactive. - Yeah, that's heartbreaking. - Yeah, definitely. - But that people, you feel like people will be better off without you, which is such a dangerous thought that is never, ever, ever true. - Yeah, yeah, it's never true. You've talked about the occult a lot, right? And I feel like you've gone around the, up and down those realms, you reference, you low key, your closet occult, people say, okay. The occult adjacent. - No, I've read about all kinds of religions and stuff. So sometimes I'll throw some buzzwords out there. I do like that. - Will you do that? - I'll throw some buzzies. I'll do a little buzz, I'll catch you in a little, in a little fly track. - Are you the oral hershizer of throwing buzzwords out there? - Oh, yeah. - KC Orinthal, KC Orinthal, James Sensenrocket. - Oral hershizer. - Oh, yes, yes, yes. Sorry, I think he was one of the best pictures for your born. Dude, when I was a kid like the best picture it was kind of an old white dude. It was like, okay. - Randy Johnson. - It was before him. It was like, Randy Johnson's daddy or whatever. And that came to Johnson, bring up oral hershizer. There he is, dude, he's a legend. Yeah, him and Walker Bueller actually look alike. But from Buffalo, New York, man, he's a legend. But he was a legend when I was growing up. It was just like a white guy that was able to do it. And then thing has got Latino and just more diverse. But what I was gonna ask you, yeah, where do you feel like we're at spiritually as a people right now? Do you feel like we're in a tough spot? Do you see a different future for us? Like what do you really see? Having somebody who like kind of is willing to kind of massage a crystal ball of different realms. - That is an interesting question. And I'm happy to be here. But that's difficult. I think for me, as part of, Bye. life that I've tried to live. Yeah, I love reading about different kinds of positive philosophy from antiquity, so, you know, stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, up through different. I've had different times in my life where I was a more or less a believer of existential nihilism that life had no purpose, that we were put into this world simply from a dying God, sort of a nostic worldview of we don't have any purpose because we will ultimately die, right? So in doing so, the end justifies the means in the sense of whatever we end up doing it does not serve any sort of greater good. But I believe the opposite of that today, I think as human beings and these thoughts are sort of a mishmash of various other things, mostly the tenets of hermeticism and some sort of cabal, cabala, not cabalic, not like a cult. But the universe is always in motion and we're a part of the universe, right? So I know that my life serves a greater good today and I also know that I can be a driving force in my life while also knowing that I can only drive so far. So all I can choose to do is as they say the right hand path of doing the right thing and the next right thing and if I do do something wrong to a friend, small things, the mistakes I make today are smaller, I can be snappy, I can be rude, I can be not emotionally available, I can immediately act to correct that, right? So it's some iteration of karma and some iteration of the understanding that life is suffering, you know, it hurts to know that we're alive and to know that we're worth more than we'll be given. But hey, that's crazy, do I never heard that before? Yeah, you know, people, the meaning of life is just, it's the small things, it's to mean something in a moment by moment basis and to do things without the purpose of distraction. So it's so much easier, you know, we've both struggled with drugs and alcohol to turn that knob off. But I'm going to have to wake up again tomorrow and that's the thing about like developing a drug habit is like I would always be so furious when I would wake up and I can't believe I have to do this again. But I'm of the belief that we were all created so the universe can understand itself. You know, so I'm simply a cog in a and such a greater machine of I only exist because at the end of my timeline, I served some greater purpose, you know, for the creator of the universe, whatever you want to call that. And who do you hope it is? Like say if it is like a, and I think that's beautifully put, dude, I really do. That's pretty cool, man. You're an eloquent speaker, you're going to be a great screenwriter. Thank you for saying that. That's going to be exciting, man. I admire the fact that you're willing to do something that you want to do, right? Like I think it's easy to get trapped and like there's popularity here. There's some money here. There's reward. There's like ego reward here. But it's just really like what I really want to do. Like sometimes I really want to just focus on learning Spanish and be a writer, right? Some of those are things that I think, right? It gives me self-worth. Right. And but then you get caught in different things and sometimes they're blessings and it's great past and stuff. But it's like, yeah, do we reward like that? You know, do we reward that thing inside of us that also we that that was the reason maybe we started out wanting to be creative? Like sometimes you'll get on such a path that you never get back to those things sometimes. Yeah, it's been so nice to bring it back to comedy and any capacity to do things just for fun to go do an open mic at like a hot dog stand. Yeah, it's like I used to love stuff like that. I used to live for shit like that. And then when you get caught up in all the numbers and how are the tickets and what am I right? When you get caught up in all that it some of it gets lost. Yeah. And I'm tired of losing stuff. You know, I needed to trim some of my hedges, right? Tall poppy syndrome. I needed to cut down some of these egotistical parts of my life that I know don't serve me. And then it's a daily thing of figuring out, you know, chipping away at the block of happiness and trying to get them firmer picture of what that looks like. Yeah. Hard to say. I think well said. In the end, when we get there, do you and it's and we realize, oh, this was just a big mask singer, right? Sure. And they take it. They take the mask off. Who do you hope it is? Bill Paxton. Yeah. Who played for the bulls? That Bill Paxton. That's John Paxton. So Bill Paxton. I'm American actor who was an aliens and frailty. I'm just famed character Bill Paxton who did have leading man potential and was sometimes given the option to exercise that. Died in a medical malpractice incident. And he he once told me. Yeah, he got malpractice to have them. Oh, that's what happened like Kanye's mom. It was him and Kanye's mom then maybe. Yeah, I think they were doing like a dual suture surgery or something. They're doing sutures or something. It was a suture day. Oh, it's probably one of those new because they I know that insurance is offering if you both get surgery on the same day with someone you don't know. It's like it's like canceled zone. Then yeah, well, it's cheaper. Sure. Yeah, it's half as much for twice the people. And they're doing that new dry by surgery with some of his reaches out of like. Yeah. Ow. But yeah, he's a lot of great offers coming from the gods above. Oh, yes. Sure. We're simply vessels, man. Bill Paxton died in February, 2017 from a fatal stroke. Oh, man, 11 days after undergoing heart surgery, his family filed a wrongful death lawsuit accusing the surgeon in hospital of medical malpractice, alleging that doctors are unnecessary unconventional technique. Cedar's cyanide. No, full-circle rift put a bow on it. Okay. Cedar's cyanide. A lot of people call it, which isn't right there. And they are coming out with a yogurt. I've heard that's good. We are doing squatters rights on that rift. We are here to cut the ribbon on that rift. Before you go, Casey, the rifts, you're, there's your, you're a different instrument, man. You're a different instrument. How do you best set yourself up for the ability to rift? Do you have to do a certain sequence of events before you go on? Like, and not to put a lot of pressure on yourself, but if you notice certain things lead to better tuning for yourself as an instrument. Oh, that's a good question. Without giving away my entire process, which I am not even capable of replicating, which really gets me in a bind. When I can't even do my own act and I'm the one who does it, yikes. I like to do, I like to have some tent poles. So I'll go out there. I'll cause a bit of a fuss. I'll cause a fuss. And I like to, I'll say this, I like to go up there and sing because it gets me out of my head. So I learned a long time ago, the most embarrassing thing you could ever do is try to sing genuinely, like in a circumstance that does not call for it. So I'll go up there. I'll do a little grunge number, whoo, whoo, do a little Alabama shakes, Britney Howard. And I can feel super embarrassed. And then I go, well, surely nothing for the rest of this hour will feel like how that just felt. So that allows me to just sort of peel the mask off and then do a big Scooby-Doo reveal of me to myself in the mirror. And then I do a quick wink. And I will have some tent poles. So I'll try to do three jokes that I know I'm going to tell. So before I go up and I do my hour, I'll look at, I'll know three jokes that I'm going to say. Okay. And then I'll look at you joke joke joke. And then from there, hopefully, I've gotten about 10 to 20 laughs at this point. And if you extrapolate, let's say the room's 500, which is bigger than rooms that I do. Let's say in a perfect world. I'm headlighting 500 cedars. If I get 10 laughs out of 500, I go, oh, I only got 490 to go. So that's that. I'll do a couple jokes up top. That'll give me the confidence I need to string it all together. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, but I have like a thousand half sentence jokes. So if I ever lose my train of thought, I'll just like hit them with, I'll just do a quick stinky. So that's like an example of a joke. You're like an Easter basket that has matches in it. You're like, there's just something going on. Careful with the plastic wrap. You'll set the whole thing off. Can't bury in diesel. It's just, yeah, there's something just so charming about about your presentation of yourself. Thanks for saying that. It's the truth. Thanks. I hope you feel that in a place where we need to feel things that are important. But I just think like, yeah, I don't know. I don't mean that because I'm saying that to you, but I just think, yeah, there's a, um, I don't know. It's a great thing to watch. You're a great thing to watch, Casey Rocket. Thanks. Me and my friends watch no offense on Netflix. You're special. Oh, thanks. Right when I started comedy and it was very formative for me. And I thought it was so funny. And I'd never seen anything like it. So I really appreciate you saying that. Thanks, man. Well, you bet, dude. I'm glad that we've been able to communicate. Man, I hope we can do it more. I think I'm going to try to come out there tonight. You should come riff or at least come hang out. You don't have to riff, but come hang out. It'll be so fun. It will be so fun, dude. I think I'm gonna go up because I think it's probably what I need to do to get a reaction. - It's my crowds and I'm sure your crowds too, but they'll just be so happy to see you. You'll have so much fun. - Yeah, it'd be great. - All right, yeah. - All right, I'm coming then. - Yes. - What time do you show at? - 7 o'clock. - It is? - Yeah. - Okay, let's just go to a 630 meeting, but maybe I can find a six or maybe I'm going to one after. Casey Rocket, you got some tour dates coming up? - Yeah, I'm on the road. - Yeah, Casey rocketcomedy.com. Up in Liberty Township of it air, Cincinnati. That's a good place of it air. - Doing some more funny bones this year. One thing I want to plug, I have an hour of my standup on my Patreon, okay? It's $6 and all the money goes to harm reduction programs in Chicago. So community outreach, clean needles, harm reduction, all kinds of good stuff that helps people get, help people get the help that they need. So yeah, my Patreon's on there and if you feel like doing that, just know that all that money goes to charity. So yeah. - Yeah, that's awesome, man. Congrats on all the success, dude. Thanks for talking with us. We had Liberty Township over some of the other ones. I mean, just rattle them off real quick. Columbus Ohio, I love being in Ohio, dude. St. Petersburg, Florida. Asheville, North Carolina. Have you been there? - I have not done the Orange Peel yet, but I've been to Asheville, it's so cool, dude. Baltimore Maryland got offered a three, some there by an older mixed couple. One of them who I think was wearing an Ed Reed Jersey. We got Chicago back at Xanies Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Louisville, a lot of places. You can check them out online on his website, kasyrocket.com. - Kasyrocket.com. - Kasyrocket.com. - Yeah, of course. - And before you go, I want to get this note in for viewers know, the Jasper Mall and Jasper Alabama has not officially closed. It is still operating though in a very reduced and dead mall state. Dead mall state, that's what's gonna happen when the nuclear family collapses. - Not to be confused with dead mall five, actually. Who I think is still doing well. Can you bring up dead mall? - Yeah, I think that's one of Marshmallows aliases. So it's like dead mouse. Yeah, he's in the, what are they called? The Marshmallow extended universe. - Yes, oh my god, face reveal. Okay, spoiler alert. - Didn't know that was him. I hope he's doing good. Anyway, cool man. Dude, thank you so much for your time. Have a great show tonight. I'm gonna come up there and I'll figure it out when I get up there. - Yeah, I wouldn't have it any other way. And I'll say one more thing. - Yeah, for sure. - There's more to life than rifts, but there's not more to rifts than life. - Hmm. - That's it. That's it. See you at the mall. (laughing) ♪ Now I'm just falling on the breeze ♪ ♪ And I feel I'm falling like these leaves ♪ ♪ I must be cornerstone ♪ ♪ Oh, but when I reach that ground ♪ ♪ I'll share this piece of mind ♪ ♪ I found I can feel it ♪ ♪ In my bones ♪ ♪ But it's gonna tell you ♪