134: Placebo Addict with Shane Mauss | Soder Podcast | EP 132

Hey everybody, thanks for watching this episode. I'm on the road a little bit. Listen, we got a bunch of clubs we're about to announce soon. We're getting a poster together with it. We're getting all the dates. I'm gonna be building a new hour in these clubs all summer, July, August, September, November. It's gonna be a hell of a time. But right now, if you wanna see this hour before we film it for Netflix, June 1st and June 2nd, Comedy Key West. In Key West, Florida, one of the best venues to have fun in Key West and comedy. It's a blast. I'm looking forward to it. It's a Monday, Tuesday, June 1st, June 2nd, Comedy Key West, DanSoder.com for those tickets. And then June 5th, I'm gonna be at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. I'm bringing Sam Evans and Greg Stone. Gonna have a hell of a time. DanSoder.com for those tickets as well. And then in Mill Valley, we'll see ya. The Throckmorton, June 13th. We're looking at trying to open up some more tickets once we find out our camera setup. So stay tuned for that. But DanSoder.com for all the dates. We got all the dates up there and we'll be announcing a ton of club dates soon all together. Also, if you're in Montreal, I'll see you July 25th for Just for Laughs. I'll be at Club Soda doing a headlining show. DanSoder.com. Thank you guys for watching the podcast. Hope you're having a decent week. The part about New York City apartments that people don't understand is it's not like, if that would've happened in the suburbs, you would just go, is this your house? And you go up and you go, well, he lives next door. But New York City, you're like, hey, I'm in the meat refrigerator of a market. Is this your apartment? And you go, no. And then you check. I gave you the completely wrong address. That's fucking crazy. It wasn't of the numbers to have wrong. It was a decent one. It was one block away. Yeah. If it would've been the first number, it probably would've really fucked some shit up. But also, I feel like it's unfair for you to say, it's unfair for you as a person that enjoys drugs that in that moment, I was like, how many people in that moment go, it's probably on drugs. Not realizing it was my fault. I mean, I'm on drugs too, but weed's not even a drug. I get asked to do so many psychedelic events and I'm like, let me guess, well-meaning, terribly organized, and this is gonna be a nightmare. For those of you that don't know Shane Moss, I don't know Shane Moss. I don't know Shane Moss. Go watch Shane Moss. He is one of, he's just a fucking fantastic stand-up comedian. And the thing that I love about it is, I remember watching you when we were booze buddies and we'd go do stand-up. The thing that's great is you had this whole evolution and did experiences with DMT and all these. He's got a special out right now called First Dose. Second Dose is coming out April 13th. I think this might come out after that. So go watch it. It's great. I watched half of the first one and I love the entire, the entire idea of you explaining drug trips, but through jokes. A lot of times people do this shit and they just talk. You're still, that's what I said when I told Katie when I watched it, I go, it's awesome to watch you do material about drugs and you're still Shane Moss. You're still like writing great bits. I actually, so it started, I transitioned from doing regular stand-up to doing science-themed shows. Sure. And then I just. What made you want to do that? You just were bored with stand-up? Honestly, I remember I got my Comedy Central Presents in like 09. Yeah. And that was like my dream at the time. I remember when I started comedy, I was like, if I just had a Comedy Central Presents in like five years, boy, then I'd really be on something. And that was like an unrealistic expectation, but I did it. And I remembered, I like had this party in this bar and friends and family around and stuff. And I just remember going, and like killed it, loved the taping. And then I was like, I'm not happy. Like this didn't. And was it at the after party? It was after that. And then I wrote an hour to like do an hour. And I was like, boy, I just don't care about this. And what, what changed? Because I think like, the thing about joke writing that's interesting is it's figuring out a puzzle a lot of the time. Yeah. I have this idea but how do I make this idea do this thing of making people laugh? Yeah. And so I think a lot of the joy in joke writing is figuring it out. But when you did the new hour, were you just like, whatever. It was like a lot of drinking and dick jokes and stuff. And I was like, ah, and then I was doing, you know, I was, I was doing international shows where they're doing these themed shows, which, and I was like a late night comic. And I was like, well, what would my, would my theme be? And I was always just reading science books. And, uh, and I never put the two together that I could put, uh, science in my act. And then anyone that ever tries to do science jokes, it's always like late nighty. Like you read a headline and then have a, a little, a little, yeah. - Or they're like, Mars might not be as far as you go. Mars isn't as far as my wife's fucking, my ex-wife's fucking feeling. Yeah. - It's like so lame. And I was like, I care about ideas. Like I like to eat mushrooms and watch David Attenborough documentaries and stuff. - Who doesn't? - And that was literally what I was doing. And I had all these questions. I was just like in a funk and I just started writing scientists. - Yeah. - And then they like wrote back. And I was like, that's so weird that they're writing me back. - But I feel like out of celebrities. - Yeah. - Scientists are the most to write you back. - Yeah. Oh. - Cause they're not. - Well, they're not celebrities. - Well, that's what I mean. Even if they are. - Yeah, yeah. - Like world renowned physicists. - Yeah, yeah. - They're not getting pussy thrown at them when they walk out of the lab. - Oh no. - They're not like, you were figuring out gravity on Saturn. Can I suck your dick in your Jaguar? - They're taking a Honda back to a very like. - No, there's not like ladies lining up to like to blow the roadie to get backstage in the lab. - I would enjoy celebrity so much more if it was for intelligent people providing information. - And that's my whole thing. And then I like went to all these labs. I started this here we are podcast where each week when I was touring, I'd go to a different university and talk to them a lot about how the mind works and perception stuff. - Sure. - And I'd be talking with these people and I'd be like, oh my God, like 200 people on earth have like read this paper that you wrote. They're all in your field. - Yeah. - And no one in the public would be hearing this at all if it weren't for my like minuscule amount of listeners. - Yeah. - Listening to this. - Or you going and digging it up. - And it blew my mind. And so I started putting together, like I had a Netflix special called mating season. That was like a bunch of animal mating behavior and as it relates to. - Yeah. - I had a bunch of different things. I had a bunch of different things. meaningful like themed thing and like i'm not there but but that's something to aspire to for her when people go i don't like maria bamford it's like when someone doesn't like a 400 bottle of wine where you go i don't even think you know what you're into i don't think you realize this is some of the best of the best yeah she has uh done done stuff that i've listened to i like listening to her albums while i drive because for some reason just listening to it helps me with my it's like almost like reading a book yeah you picture it better yeah where when i listen to maria banford i can like hear all the places she goes where i think when i watch i get distracted by lighting or the curtain or how she's standing so i love listening to her albums and one that i always listen to and i have for years is unwanted thought syndrome because you start seeing the like beginning of her going into the deeper stuff but she like just puts her foot in it but the last minute are still yeah yeah yeah i mean you can go to her site and find these treasure troves of all these like weird like web series things and stuff that she's lady dynamite was like he was born out of all that yeah yeah like she was like uh yeah she's incredible i love people that do that i always really respected what ari shafir did with storytelling yeah because he would be like yeah you got a long story but you can punch it up and then when i did his this is not happening i worked on this story about getting robbed when i lived with a drug dealer and i remember trying it and you have that feeling where you go i've really bummed out the room yeah the room is like oh my god they're like i don't want to laugh right now you have a gun on your head and you're like oh yeah it's gonna be fun and like to learn how to put that shit in to kind of like make it palpable for like or digestible as comedy well that was also like i was i was part of the reason why i was so like shot tight and dry and everything was i was like a very shy introverted person sure um when i was young and so it was like a way of having like very tight control over exactly yeah every it's it's funny when people are like it's weird an introvert would get into comedy it's like oh we like one-sided conversations yeah you've never known i always thought it was funny when people like you talk to yourself and i'm like how do you know how do you work out voices don't talk to them it's crazy when people think i'm crazy for talking to myself it's like so when you drop something on the ground you just breathe through your nose you just go you don't go you idiot you fucking drop you like even that like even that little bit i think people have i think there's a spectrum of how much inner monologue we have and some people have i've heard people don't have any at all that's what i've heard my so that's very interesting to me to just not have a voice going what the fuck is that so get this my my my special we call them trips then it's like the first dose and the second dose i'm doing the third dose live and now i'm stuck in this fucking yeah yeah yeah we were talking about the first hit made the the universe crumble on itself and then the next one you're like my whole life went dude i wouldn't be able to handle that yeah yeah but i part of the reason because i did a psychedelic tour back that's what we talked about and then i set that aside and started doing other things but then this opportunity one of the first things that came up after covid was this opportunity to do a vegas residency with like visuals and everything and add all these artists and whatnot which is really fucking cool yeah and it was a fun thing to get to work on it took a really long time we kind of have it down now but um but my bj michael strauss who blends things and together in real time so so i'm not locked into a script so i can go off and he can so basically almost like lighting cues and stuff like that but with visual art yeah yeah you can go oh you're going over here let me instead of turn the lighting over here i can like make it blend behind him in the same way a dj can alter things based on the vibe he can throw in he has he has like 25 years worth of visuals so like say uh say a service dog is in the show and starts barking he might start putting up dog visuals or something that would make my dog yeah yeah my dog like there's dogs all over here i gotta go fucking crazy i mean with the stuff like you know the the reference to dmt where you're like you learn all the whole universe you said it's in the trailer for second dose yeah and then it's like all the stuff behind you yeah and then you're like and it's just forgotten is that is that kind of visuals planned or is that a lot of it a lot of it is like yeah so a lot a lot of the bits we have like a set these are the visuals that that i'll put when he launches into this bit but i what i'll do is i'll do the bits and then if i improvise he'll improvise as well damn you gotta be he's gotta be on it he's been doing it for 25 years he was one of the first he started doing his first vj set was taking was was cutting vhs tapes together and put it together with scotch tape and having multiple players with multiple projectors going on and stuff 25 years ago and and and so any of we i i saw him at a conference providing visuals for talks and i was like this is the guy i know he can do this and we started working on it and then right before launching the vegas residency we were in the backyard in in vegas uh and he had this this projector um set up and and he was playing visuals and stuff and we were on this research chemical 2cb and doing like a little nitrous and stuff and watching visual visuals that's how we put together so funny that's how you do your tasting you know do we have any uh do we have any experimental great now throw up those flares perfect and i was trying to describe i forget what it was but i was like you know that one part during this one aspect where it will look like this and like your mind's eye or whatever i thought was universal and he's like oh i don't i don't see anything i have um aphantasia and i'm like what do you know have you ever heard of aphantasia so aphantasia is this is what brought it up it's when you don't see any visuals in your mind's eye at all so he only sees them when he's on psychedelics which is why he's so attracted to this and seeing these so normally he can't think of it yeah if he's on psychedelics it'll be in his face so like what we were saying about the inner monologue people have that with their visual system where where it's on a spectrum so so if you say like picture an apple some people would see like a black and white apple some people two-dimensional apple a cartoon apple and then like a better cartoon apple and then a vivid apple and i like i see like like an apple like almost takes over my vision yeah you know depending i have a very when i when you said that to me i have a very uh clear picture of like a water dusted apple you know like where you see at the grocery store with the little flicks of water on it like the round thing like that see you're on the higher end of it then so you're more like hyperphantasia i think a lot of comics hyperphantasia is absolutely gonna be my screen name hyperphantasia as you grow up you realize there's things you need in a house a family that stuff but if you have those things you're also going to realize you need life insurance and if you need to find out how to get life insurance use ethos ethos will tell you what kind of policy you need what it can cover it makes getting the life insurance fast and easy it's 100 online you get a quote in seconds apply in minutes and get same day coverage that's huge because then you have you're like oh i have health i have life insurance you can get up to three million dollars in coverage some policies are as low as 30 a month so take 10 minutes to get covered today with life insurance through ethos get your free quote at ethos.com slash soda that's ethos.com slash soda application times may vary rates may vary doc doc gotta learn that noise means it's doc doc if you uh are nervous about going and seeing a doctor or maybe you're like frustrated by it and you're just like i don't know man how the hell do i go see a doctor well try sock doc i've been using it for years as an app and as a website it's a free app and website that helps you find and book high quality in network doctors so you can find someone you love if you want to see a doctor in person great you want a video visit great you can do that you can view thousands of verified patient reviews to give you a real sense of who your doctor is maybe they hate small talk and just you know just want to get to it that's what i like i like a very straightforward doctor here's what's going on so when you're ready you can see their real-time availability and click to book instantly no phone tag no waiting around so stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to sock doc.com slash soda to find and instantly book a doctor you love today that's zocdoc.com slash soda zocdoc.com slash soda thanks zocdoc for sponsoring this message so i filed this out i'm on drugs i'm about to start the show and i'm like oh my god my visuals guy is blind in the head but he's almost like you know what's funny about that is he's like the blind guitar player from roadhouse where he just like fucking wails like he can wail on your visuals because he doesn't see it because he has this like other thing of it's almost like um you know when they like i can't smell uh i lost it during covid it's just completely gone oh you haven't regained it no i haven't regained it i'm so sorry it's all right does it affect your taste yeah it dulls it like a lot of hot sauce a lot of rant i need stuff that actually like steps on my tongue for me to like really feel it but i was telling katie it's there's like moments where i'll get like uh now that the seasons are changing i don't know if it's like a memory smell or whatever but it's starting to be like i'll walk and i'll get like kind of what you were talking about about how i have like on the higher end i can picture an apple to me it's like i just see the edges it's it was similar to like when i've seen documentaries where people talk about their sight returning where it's all of a sudden it's like so big you can't see stuff but you can see the outlines of it yeah that's been happening recently with my smell where i go i i can like take in the overall but i can't smell specific what it is but i go like that's a season change that's like a spring it was when it got really hot outside and i walked out i was like oh i almost i i like wouldn't say i smelled but i would say that i took something in through my nose that made me remember stuff and that was always what smell was to me there's an interesting thing i think it's called charles benet syndrome i'm probably off on that but oliver sax writes about it in his book the mind's eye i think uh great neuroscientist um the the movie uh that robin williams about parkinson's uh awakening awakening yeah yeah that he he played oliver sax in that movie um oh i didn't realize that yeah yeah yeah yeah and and so he uh he had this thing about people that go blind in in life like they weren't born blind they'll they'll often have these visual hallucinations because what happens is when a part of the brain kind of goes dormant it's not receiving stimulation in the way that you when you uh park a car you don't you want to fire up the engine every few months to make sure stuff so the brain does a similar thing really and so maybe that was my brain going oh the season's changing what did that used to smell like it might be something like that i don't know but there are exercises and i just haven't sat down and done them where they really are like sit there with like uh i think it's something like a like a nail polish it goes in order of like very very hard and potent to like very soft and then you're supposed to like do the smells and go down and then try to repeat up to teach your brain how to take it in it's like relearning how to smell interesting yeah you uh i also heard if i take glp ones those things that they've been restoring people's smells not and not to be a a cliche but have you had a psychedelic experience since this happened i have there's like i mean i'm i'm due for it i'm actually a bit of a skeptic for someone that does as many psychedelics as i do is the psychedelic community they're like everything psychedelics you know it's gonna heal everything but there is it does certainly psychedelics uh create a lot of new connections that at least temporarily and i always because like my my bad foot that that uh that has some like nerve damage and so from when you broke it from the surgeries sure they just you know cut into so many tendons and everything that it's like half of the foot's it's not a big deal like i'm going rock climbing later today and stuff and and so it's but i sometimes have a little bit of a limp and everything and and sometimes when it's when it's worse it can um i've i've noticed when i've had an experience that there's like a little bit of a reset like it goes back to like feeling like a normal foot for a while sure yeah yeah i haven't done mushrooms since 2019 so i'm due yeah i'm due for a big one and i think i'm i'm gonna i'm gonna probably wait till the tour is over yeah what's the hours taped it's safely done that's a good idea i don't want to crack open and go i don't like that whole middle chunk oh my god i people always ask me if i trip on stage like during the show there was it was it was always when i started doing psychedelic shows 11 years ago i had to have like in in the i had to have a question a q a in the show description of common questions like should i come on drugs i'm like that's really meant to simulate a trip more than like be on psychedelics and things like that but one of the common questions is are you going to be on drugs while performing and like i just don't know why that would be entertaining for for people but i mean it's fun when you hear like whoa this band during woodstock was on 20 hits of acid or whatever but i don't i wouldn't want to it wouldn't want to i wouldn't want to see a band more if they're like we're gonna dose tonight i'd be like ah is it gonna be tight i don't know if the music's gonna be tight well there is the times i have i've done ari's storytelling show in montreal on mushrooms and what was that like good until it wasn't yeah it's good until it wasn't he was like we're all gonna everyone on the lineup it was at montreal he's like everyone on the lineup's gonna do mushrooms and i was there first because i think it was like one of my first years doing montreal so i ate two and a half grams and then i hung out okay that's not crazy not crazy and i knew it wasn't gonna be crazy i can handle under three yeah but it'll launch me for a little bit and i was like all right and then i remember smoking a joint upstairs in that uh it was at cleopatra's that like strip club yeah and then ari comes into the room and he goes bad news you and i are the only two that did mushrooms no one else wants to do them and i was like what and then he's like and the show's starting and i was like all right and he goes but you're on mushrooms do you want to go first and i went yes i want this over with right now which is the worst headspace to be in when you're about to have a fucking six or seven hour trip yeah and then i went on stage and it was going well because i was telling about this story about uh doing mushrooms in high school and i took him before my friend and he had to drive my car so we're like talking about it's almost like can we get away from the cops and i'm like i'm pretty i'm doing a good job laughs per minute yeah funny and then one of the lights on the stairs went and then it went and then it went off and it went up and then my whole entire attention was like was that real and people were like was what real because no one saw it it was one of the lights from under the stair so you don't trip and i went that light did that go off and then it was and by the end i went ah anyways the cops pulled us over with i didn't even have like a punchline for this and then i left and walked around montreal all by myself with i remember i had an ipod at the time it's before iphones yeah there's no it must have been like i had an android so it must have 2013 and i remember like putting my ipod on and being like i'm just gonna walk around yeah and what you want to do it was it was beautiful yeah of course i remember listening to phil collins outside of a like a french church in montreal and being like one more night i was like this is incredible i had a great time but performing no thanks that was my experience every time i performed i was like i want to be looking at trees right now like this isn't it's not like it really hurt the performance too much but it was like i was just on autopilot and then i'm like zoomed out i'm having like an out-of-body experience watching the stupid thing that i do for my life yeah that's when you really realize you go we're all organisms and i'm a dumb one what am i doing i'm just talking for a living this is so stupid there was uh do you go do you do do you go to shows uh like music oh oh uh some yeah i mean like uh like i'll go to like i i went to this uh it's called pretty lights uh fest it's like a kind of like an edm fish thing where that makes sense that seems like a place to trip i saw i did truffles in amsterdam and i went and saw a pearl jam and that was the last time i want to trip inside yeah because i felt mushrooms are pretty intense too i like to be kind of by myself yeah and being able to control the environment i think that's why i had to text while i was on it yeah what an unpleasant experience yeah looking at your phone and realizing what a phone is when you're on mushrooms oh the last time i was on lsd i was like trying to read and it looks like sanskrit and that's how i was texting lou from the bonfire i was like in the back of arena tripping hard and then he came to the back and i was like ah and he's like damn you really are going through the thing of truffles that i didn't understand the difference between them and american mushrooms was that it hits a lot harder the visuals are a lot more and it burns cleaner you like go up but you go down it's like quick to rise quick to fall yeah yeah because by the end of the pearl jam concert we stopped by a cafe to get a joint my like friends wanted a beer or whatever and i i wanted like a spliff i wanted some tobacco mixed with some weed yeah and i remember being like i'm i'm pretty normal again yeah like i went to bed that night and our hotel room not yeah i didn't feel like a lot of times when i do mushrooms i feel like at night and the next morning the shell is coming back together like i'm shelling back up like getting a harder like letting all the thoughts out but this i was like immediately like oh i'm gonna go to bed that's why on tour like when i do these big psychedelic tours it's the least amount of psychedelics that i do you know when i'm not on tour i'll i'll i'll trip and like try to write about it and articulate the experiences so i have something to talk about when i'm touring But when you're on tour, yeah, especially the older you get, the more you realize like, no, want a few days afterwards to think about some of what happened and yeah i'm really interested to do a trip you know i think it might really uh just even if it's like less than three grams of mushrooms just to be back again and just get launched and go like oh yeah we're just we're all just an organism on this rock it's there's there's so many different um it's changing so much because of the decriminalization of of things that you can get kind of specifically what you want like like 2cb is this research chemical that's especially good for something like a concert because it's just it's mushroom visuals and mdma like body and feel but but no head trip like you're clear you're clear headed what that's crazy that would be both pimp and i are looking at each other like that would be fucking fantastic that does feel like at least we're at that part of science where you go we can make some fuck cool trips yeah yeah well that happened that was this guy alexander shulgin sasha shulgin he was a chemist in the 50s um one of the legends in the field he he made a fortune making some fertilizer for dow chemical and they're like here's your own lab just do whatever you want and he had had an influential mescaline experience and he started tweaking the mescaline molecule and he tried testing on animals and wasn't noticing anything and he's like meanwhile those raccoons are just tripping their dicks off they're like yeah dude i won't dig through any trash holy shit man holy shit my legs grew out and then my hands grew out and then i understood why i have fingers like a raccoon being tested on with its fingers it's like what is fucking happening yeah but you can't see from the outside it's like a lab rat for that versus like you know what i mean getting tumors put in you know we're gonna hit this one with radiation you go no but this one you're like brother can i get a cigarette that was unbelievable so he got this whole is like lab to himself and and he was like we need to test it on humans but it would be unethical because even even with the best chemistry and neuroscience you have no idea like what this new thing is going to do or what what is the right dosage and so he decided the only ethical thing to do was to test it on himself hero listen this goes back to my thing that i'm i'm preaching on several podcasts across the anytime i can get on a mic i'm going to preach it i've been shorthand terming it calling it dan's law but i think we should where i believe that if you work if you own a company you need to work there so to me this falls right in line yeah you're a scientist better try it on yourself you know what i mean like i'm not gonna like you can't be a board member of dow and go i i like this chemical you go no i need the motherfucker in the lab that's like all right here i go that's what i want accountability baby yeah and he took a lot for the team because he made over a thousand chemicals a new new psychedelics and he tried he liked one out of five which meant four times it was tough four times he went no no no no no but that one time he had to go okay that was pretty crazy especially in the 50s where like people were sleeping in suits like you had to like wear a suit to go to bed that's how dressed up they were like pinned up being like brother i launched myself yeah yeah well this is in oakland so people were like a little looser shout out and we're the soda family immigrated to shout out the east bay and he if he liked it he would give it to his wife ann cool um and then if she liked it then they would invite friends over for a weekend that's the invite they had these like good friday experiments and then and then they would all do this brand new psychedelic that they are that that he had just concocted for the first time and then they would write a paper about it and publish it he did get let go from dow you know too fun we're letting you go for being too fun what is it specifically about the bay area that there's so much psychedelic influence and because you had ken kesey right yeah yeah then you got this scientist and you have the mary pranksters you have hunter s thompson giving the angels lsd i don't know i don't know the grateful dead right just wonder if it's like what is it about the bay area that just lends itself so much to psychedelics yeah i mean there's there's good weather first of all yeah well it's great it is it's always a little foggy and then it gets a little warm and then it gets goes it goes back to being cold it's never oppressive in any way with whether with cold or with heat well then there's like there's a fair amount of intellectuals around but it's always been like this alternative there's also blue collar people san francisco at its best is mixed at its worst it's all tech people driving people out but my aunt my aunt grew up you know my dad's from oakland and my aunt was born in oakland and they all grew up in the east bay but my aunt uh became a drug addict later in life but did a lot of psychedelics in the 60s because she was just a teenager and it was around and she now people use psychedelics to quit addiction you're on hers was on the way up but she told me a story she had a big fear of little people she had like a very very big fear of little people that i thought was so funny i was close to her and i used to like go stay with her as my dad's sister just after my dad's dead so i had a really good relationship with her and she was very very funny she's a big lady you know former drug addict she'd tell it like it is but oh man i'll tell you right now my biggest regret was in middle school signing up for french and not spanish because boy i don't use french and i could really use some spanish right about now but thank god i don't use spanish right about now god for babel you can do real learning with real results you want to learn a new language probably not about memorizing grammar tables or topping a leaderboard it's because babel wants you to speak it out in the real world with real people babel gets you there fast learning a language with babel is all about small steps big wins and progress that you can actually feel their bite-sized lessons fit easily into your daily routine and also just 10 minutes a day is enough to start seeing real results here's a special limited time deal for our listeners right now get up to 60 off your babel subscription at babel.com forward slash soda that's getting up to 60 off at babel.com forward slash soda spelled b-a-b-b-e-l dot com forward slash soda rules and restrictions may apply it's all about the money stop overpaying for wireless just because oh that's always been what my bill my bill's been so i should just keep paying it no mint mobile they're here to rescue you with premium wireless plans starting at just 15 a month all plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5g network ditch overpriced wireless and get three months of premium wireless service from mint mobile for 15 bucks a month if you like your money mint mobile's for you shop plans at mintmobile.com soda that's mintmobile.com soda upfront payment of 45 for three month five gigabyte plan required new customer offer for three months only then full price plan available taxes and fees extras see mint mobile for details huge fear of little people like to the point where they would come on tv meanwhile you're a wrestling fan and stuff they're all over the place she's watching doink with all the little clowns but i remember specifically us watching austin powers spy who's shag me and mini me she was like no no no like not even i mean i was laughing but like she was like no no i'm not playing i don't fuck with that shit i can't do that and then finally when i was older she told me the story of her and her friend took 20 hits of acid in downtown san francisco and we're walking around and they went into a giant uh hotel i think it was like a marriott downtown and they went up to the banquet hall and it opened up and it was a little person she was like 16 years old and like tripping and they were all like talking to her and like grabbing her arms and she was like no no no and it just fucked her up fucked her up until the day she died like she would not fuck with little people in any way like it and i was like what are you talking about they're small what are you you're big what are you worried about she's like she called me danny she goes danny i don't fuck with that i don't want to fuck with that and i always remember that and then when she told me that story i was like well yeah you were tripping yeah and then an elevator opened up and everyone was half the size you were gulliver and gulliver's travels of course you were freaked out and she was like yeah i don't know but is that like i don't know i always i think of her when i think of uh psychedelics in the bay area because she would be like because my grandmother had her committed when she was a teenager for doing acid she did acid she got in trouble and she did acid alone in her room and she came out it was like watching tv with my grandma and she was like whoa you got snakes in your hair my grandma was like what and she was like laughing she's like you got snakes in your hair it's wild and my grandmother's from oklahoma it's like a buttoned up conservative was like oh my daughter lost her mind yeah and i think my i think aunt karen told me she did like 15 or 16 hits acid so she was up there for a while yeah they drove her to the mental institution and then like a day later she called and she was like no i was on drugs come please come get me she's like no i'm just crazy and i was like damn doing that's what it was like in the 60s yeah yeah like the regular community didn't understand what psychedelics were yeah they're like what do you mean you're taking acid what is acid now it's like i think it's like yeah late 60s she was born in 50 so it must have been like 68 to like 73 now there's like frat houses doing mushrooms like instead of having kegs and stuff it's weird and there's like there's like the oh you're like the mega mushroom person which doesn't feel like it connects on any level how are you taking that and not looking at trump with his with his bronzer on his face and not being like yo this is fucking me up to think you take any sort of mushroom and look at a politician like any politician yeah there are the peak of phoniness yeah they're like at uh like i couldn't imagine watching a campaign speech and take blue or red out of it but watching someone being like and i'm gonna do this and being on mushrooms and being like yeah yeah really that is crazy do you take any offense to the micro dose culture i don't take offense i think i think it's like old i get that it's funny the the word psychedelic it's like latin for mind manifesting and these are considered the most mind-altering substances on earth and that's why people had historically done them some people are like oh yeah i want to take the most mind-altering substance on earth but just enough so it doesn't alter my mind and in any way whatsoever i don't want to do the thing but i want to take the thing yeah yeah you know that is you know what's funny about that is we're both um former drinkers yeah drinkers yeah and that is always kind of how i felt about people who drink na beers that don't have problems yeah because you go well i need it to to uh crutch an urge yeah i needed to overcome my disdain for the taste of beer to get drunk but for me now it is like uh it is a like a crutch yeah like if i'm the urge to want to drink 20 beers right but if i find a heineken zero i go oh and i take a couple sips i go that's that's fine but i couldn't understand if i didn't have a drinking problem being like give me the beer with none of the good stuff yeah i'd be like no good the why na's work is because you have one or two and you go no warmth yeah there's no like right the the feeling of when you drink and you have a couple and you're like i'm starting to fucking feel it and a's don't have that so you have two and you go i'm just drinking bubble water yeah it's making my gut feel heavy yeah the whole the whole cliche with the the microdosing and the tech culture i don't know i was just i was commissioned to there there's this show um surviving ai i sometimes people ask me to put together some comedy on various science concepts and i don't know a thing about ai but i was trying to put together some material and it's this variety show there's like a scientist a tech person uh i don't know i don't know a thing about ai but i don't know a musician and and it's at this frontier towers in san francisco they it's like this futurist thing each level is like like i think ethereum has a level and there's an ai level there's a like a longevity level that i saw like brian johnson's poster out of it i'm just wet skinned old dudes they're like i'm gonna live forever oh you creep me out bro you look like you just got do you know what forever is yeah you go i don't think also i don't want you to live forever you stink have someone cool you're not even like i'm gonna live for a million years yeah do you worry about my old ridiculous my old japanese neighbor albert in tucson was cool why can't he live forever yeah you bring me tea when i was hung over you're a dickhead i don't want you living forever and i went and there was a i wanted to get a water and there was a vending machine and it was an ai vending machine which i would love because i would love to i used to love beating the shit out of vending machines when i took my money i'm glad it's gonna be feeling something yeah yeah it's like four times as wide as a regular vending machine you know when airports try to be like look at how fancy this vending machine it's like an adult claw machine and then it never works it never works sfo if you go to the delta i think it's terminal two there is a vending machine with one of the claws that grab stuff and they have canned gatorade yeah i love canned gatorade it reminds me of my childhood yeah i'm trying to i always when i'm at sfo i'm like maybe the machine will work this time and i go can go get a can of orange gatorade before i get my it never is working you put money in and it goes and it just doesn't you go i'd rather just have an old one that had the swirls that would just drop it the vending machines are pretty solid we've got the we don't need you to put ai into the vending machine and this had this had two screens on each side and then a glass window so you could see like a third of the stuff that was in there and then it has like this ai lady on it you're supposed to be able to talk to her whatever it's new she's not quite working yet you can't quite talk to her yet of course and then and so now i gotta use the screen to find a drop down menu and there's no just like a8 or something like that just give me a fucking number a letter and a number so i need to go like drink soda water and then i and then i look and i'm like oh my god i'm gonna have to go to the vending machine and there's things in there that i can't find on the menu because the menu is not all together yet and then and i'm like all right here's snacks fine bag of chips and then i order another thing and it goes and to get this soda water it turns into a person that walks down the hallway and pours you a soda water you're like just drop it out your asshole you're a vending machine just go here's a soda it opens up like the star trek like that they got food out of or whatever and then i i grab the drink out and it knows my hand was in there and the thing spent and then it closes and goes into trees and then it does the classic thing where the bag of chips comes halfway one thing to fix on vending machines the only thing to fix stop letting it get stuck against the window where it's like that's so funny and theoretically like wouldn't you think an ai vending machine has all these sensors it's doing its own inventory and ordering and backing itself and stuff and and it doesn't even know that it has and i'm trying to go on the screen to like ask for help that's not an option the ai lady has an instagram and i can go on and message this but you can't just and then if you hit it it would be a hate crime if you like shook it like an old one they'd go please don't do that i've asked you not to put your hands on me yeah well instead you're like oh she's doing the best she can oh my god i should follow her instagram really see if they update the chip selection i'm really hoping for she gets her stuff together you're the girl you're dating he's like who is that and you go that's an ai vending machine and she's going through it right now she's on only fans i support her she goes do you want to watch me open a bag you go is that cost extra that's what it's going to be they're going to they're going to like know what phone is nearby know your preferences and then put like the big titty lady or kid walk by it would be their favorite cartoon character or whatever selling you stuff and then and and then it i i still had to stick my hand into nothing so that it would close to go out and retrieve my third item and i'm like making fun of this thing and then there's a guy in this tech building that comes over and i'm like oh is it his or something like he's taking this personally that i'm like mocking this thing i love that he like opens up the he opens the thing up and gets me the chip and i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm it's not like it works perfectly as long as there's a human there like it's like we're bringing back the like bellhop and elevators or something i used to like i don't need that button you can save that you could cut that out but they are they they want it to like it's it's almost like there's no practicality sometimes behind it and that's what feels like you guys are spending your money i remember when my mom would you remember book fairs in elementary school where they'd be like hey we're gonna have a book fair so you can go down and buy a couple books and then you can buy books or when christmas was coming i'm talking about when you're really little and they'd go there's a there's a store so you can buy your family some christmas gifts and you'd be like second grade and you go down you go i get my mom this i'm gonna get my stepdad but i remember the first time doing that of going in there and being like well i want that i want that i want that poster book and you take that and you go well i want that too and then you go back to class and you go i just bought all this stuff for myself with my mom's money i remember learning that lesson yeah and my mom was like you're supposed to buy stuff for other people that's what it feels like tech's doing right now oh they go i'm just doing this all for all the shit i want you go you're supposed to be doing this for the rest of us so that it's fucking that it makes our lives it's real neat that they have this ai vending machine man ai vending machine you go that helps no one and and it was and then i do the show in there with like a bunch of people that were like in the tower and like co-work in it or whatever and um and and the tech guy like brings up the vending machine i started making fun of it and they all fucking tightened up these are the edge lords that think elon musk legalized comedy by the way do you see what he did he brought a sink into twitter the worst the worst telling of a joke i've ever seen in my life was elon musk on joe rogan's podcast trying to tell a joke and you're like that's not a human being where he was like there's two economists okay and then he's like i'm not a human being and then he's like i'm not a human being and then he's like i'm not a human being yeah they're eating shit and you're like watch him tell this joke you go dude i'll pay give them all the money in the world not tell a joke you could this guy sucks you could have 10 000 comedians that you're paying like 200 000 a year to just write material for you you have so much money you don't have but that's what it is it's a lot of these guys it's like um that's what's funny about the micro dosing thing where you talk about bros micro dosing oh yeah well a lot of your shitty behavior is because you're insecure a lot of your shitty behavior is because you don't really know who you are and you have this like idea of what masculinity is and what you're supposed to follow and if you do these drugs you're supposed to get scared yeah because you're supposed to have a moment of not repent you're supposed to question the ai vending machine you're also supposed to go why do i need this every successful mushroom trip i've ever had there's been a moment where i've been like and then on the way down i always and i've i've used this analogy a ton but i liken it to the the the thing at the carnival where you get in and they strap you in and there's two of you and they pull you down and then they shoot you up yeah and that's what mushrooms is yeah where you go holy i'm so scared i'm so scared and then you take a view and you go look at the view yeah and then you go i'm scared a little bit then you go back up and every time you go back down and go back up you go you enjoy it more yeah because you go oh i remember doing it at coney island in brooklyn and they pull you down and i was going like the first one i was like and then the second one you're like oh look i think you can see staten island and then you're like oh and it's you're supposed to go back down to the ground and go i learned something yeah you're supposed to take a little bit of mushrooms to remain a antagonistic dickhead it's just a bunch of control freaks with like you know addicted to placebos like look at brian johnson just sitting in the dark like eating placebos all day like drain my blood you're like dude i get if you're keith richards and you're trying to come off heroin and they go dump your blood for new blood that way the hair and you go oh maybe that makes me feel better like just sitting there taking little pills being like am i younger that just always to me screams mental instability or mental uh like something's wrong and it's not even scientific so they're just finding whatever scientists will validate what they want to believe it's like but you can cast a net wide and far and you know tobacco companies would do this to find like the scientist that would take enough money to be like well we don't fully know the thing the whole basically what these guys are doing is they're just like you know they're just like you know they're just like you know they're just like you know they're just like you know they're doing now to have like a scientist that will tell them that they're gonna live forever and a dumb person like me reads that a scientist is helping them and i go oh there's a fucking scientist helping them but it was it really was like to find the the tobacco companies finding them being like it doesn't cause lung cancer or they find a scientist that signs off on anything yeah yeah that i mean there's a whole you're always gonna be able to find a disgruntled person or someone willing to take enough money for something but even the guy you were talking about that created um and i think that's a really good question i think that's a really good question in his own lab alex rogan yeah alex rogan he had to work for dow yeah to make something for dow that dow was like yo this is gonna be a forever chemical that's in the water forever and he's like okay and he like does it and he goes can i have my own lab so me and my wife can have our experimental parties yeah yeah but that's that really is the unfortunate part of it is a lot of times these these like these people who aren't using drugs for good reasons they're using it for nefarious reasons have the money so then they get these people who do know the chemicals to go and and you go it's just it's all fucked up but the thing that always upset me about microdosing was it never seemed to take a lasting effect as a three gram dose would or a terence mckenna dose of mushrooms yeah large dose is an experiential change that you're having so the chemicals go away but it was those insights that you had during the experience whereas microdosing like what's the difference between that and just like taking an antidepressant or something if you're taking it every other day anyway anyway and now your brain's going to acclimate anyhow and it reminds it's like to me it's the difference of like uh taking a cruise to visit places or just going and living in a place yeah where you go yeah well i went and lived in barcelona so now i call it barcelona because i was there for too long versus like you take a cruise and you stop and you go we were there for a day i wouldn't even say it's cruise level i'd say it's looking at a couple pictures and thinking you know barcelona now that's pretty fucking cool because i do think i i really do think the thing about uh psychedelics that i've always enjoyed even if i don't enjoy it in the time is the is it humbles you yeah where you go whoa there's so much bigger shit than what we are yeah and i think that is good for humanity to go like holy shit we're a tiny part of a big thing because a lot of what marketing now is you're the only thing that matters you're the only thing that matters you're the only thing you're living your experience and you go that's unfair to society yeah i'm i'm pretty concerned about the human ego so there there's this there's a study that's really stuck with me um it's i think it's called the book called the social brain or something but the idea is is that is that our brain the way our brains evolved we were we were like never thinking alone and so the brain was always like assessing what the brains in your tribe also knew so so you'd be like you know you might not be able to think alone you might not be able to think alone you might not know exactly how to build a shelter as well as this other person but you have access to that information and so then you're subconsciously if you're around someone that has the expertise in that thing you overestimate how much you know because your brain conflates the ability to access information with already having it that's a very interesting to think like i've heard this guy talk about cars for six months in depth i can fix cars and they test it so like one of my favorite studies they they go they make up a thing they and and tell people they go we've we have this we have this uh scientists discovered some mineral that glows they've learned everything about it how much do you know about how this mineral glows and people i think i have a handle on it and move back i'll tell you how this motherfucker glows right now which is related to this dunning cougar effect and and which is that we we basically when you know nothing about something is is the most amount of confidence that you have because life's just too full of information so our brains just assume we know enough about whatever uh to get by in life and then once you start learning you go oh shit i don't know anything and that is why your first open mic you can kill and then spend the next few years eating shit that's exactly what happened and it takes 20 years before you have the same level of confidence as you had at that first open mic that's exactly because you realize just how hard it actually is truly i remember doing a first open mic and being like i got these three ideas i'm gonna talk about them and make them funny and i did and then i was done and i was like three minutes and i went damn i think i know how to do stand-up and then i spent just after that just like bombing i probably like legitimately bombing for like two years yeah just being like i don't know i don't know and then like learning like oh you gotta learn how to write a joke and then you gotta write a joke that's true to you and then you gotta deliver it like you're not fucking saying something you wrote and it is and then 20 years later you go i think i got an idea and then you go out there and it's funny and you go fuck yeah it really is it's like a long process yeah and everything's like that so so the experimental condition in this is that they said the exact same thing they go scientists have discovered this new mineral it glows um it's confidential how much do you know about it and people are like what do you mean i don't know anything about it because it's confident it's all the same information really because they said it's confidential they're like i don't know like i can't access that information yeah and so the idea is is that our brains are conflating the ability to access knowledge with already having it so what does that mean when we have the internet in our pockets all of the time we're all just going to walk around thinking we fucking know everything already because you can look it up you mistake it for like having already looked it up and doing the research i'm wondering of what the imprint is of learning it and retaining it versus just the idea because i think just in what i've noticed since smartphones have came out is my ability to retain information is much lower than it was before when i just had a flip phone and i'd read a book or i'd be on a read a magazine on the subway and then i would like read an article and then i would just like know about this subject versus now i'm scrolling and i read four different things on reddit in an hour and i got none of it i got absolutely none of it i got i got like little bits and pieces you can read like a mediocre book and be like oh my god i've just learned all of these things and on like one subject that might take you a month to read or whatever and and meanwhile you can you can scroll through instagram and i'll feel like oh i saw this thing on i saw a chart and i saw these i just learned so much and it's like i didn't retain any of that at all it's like taking a cup to the ocean and you're just like trying to get a cup of water and it's just like splashing out to where every time you pull your cup you're like there's nothing in there versus like a sink where it's just dropping and you go and i waited and now i got a full cup it's just it just feels like the overload of information washes everything out yeah and you go i can't fucking hold on any of this shit yeah yeah that's why i'm like it's interesting to watch your special again watch second dose on youtube we'll put the link right here but um it seems like from watching your first special you're back to finding the of writing jokes about stuff. - Yeah, yeah. - Like it doesn't feel good. as empty as that comedy central presents oh absolutely i mean now well part of it too is that is that i always wanted to like get out of my comfort zone because i had such a narrow comfort zone when i started when you speak about storytelling i remember when i first like i'm a storyteller now when i first started telling stories it was the scariest thing in the world the idea of of like well this is a really good story if people are into it if they aren't i'm bombing for 15 minutes i was used to like i can bomb on a joke i have eight more then i just pull out my best joke after that just reload and shoot reload and shoot and a story you're right also a lot of times with stories you might forget a integral part that you don't realize the audience needs so you're just telling a story and then they're just lost what's worse than bombing is having a crowd lost on a story where they're like i don't even know where we're at right yeah yeah that's what i learned by doing that story about getting robbed because i'm like all of a sudden i'm like no it's funny i have change in my pockets i'm like i didn't explain the whole bank part and then i you're like ah fuck and then you're lost yeah so now with storytelling you feel a lot more yeah and then and then trying to take you know like like these studies that i can't stop from like i'll tell anyone that will listen like they just really interest me and it's what i find myself thinking about going like now how do i make that funny though is really really challenging and so i like putting together i have a a new show myth understandings that i'm putting together that's all about kind of human storytelling and and why we evolved to create myths and how they were useful through time and and and how now that we have like more access to reality and information the myths didn't go away necessarily and how how it just kind of transitioned into disinformation and and and things and and so these are just the things that i just genuinely love talking about and and thinking about and want to you know anyone that will listen when i'm at a party or whatever and then just being like but can i make that funny yeah it's really challenging that's what i've always loved it's very similar to colin quinn and what he does subject that that's that's like probably the closest thing to what i'm trying to do right he just goes oh the uh constitution's uh interesting why don't i break it down with jokes for an hour yeah yeah i love that that's the sort of thing and i think that's an evolution for a comedian to hit that i think when you hit that as a comic you're you're you're you've stepped up from beyond the like you ever have a doorknob jam and your dick's out you know like i do love those i love i'm always gonna love jokes but i do like watching comedians that i like especially have that evolutionary jump where they go well now i have a whole subject and i break it down with like a ton of great jokes and you're like there's fucking rules but now i'm like doing regular old like if i had to do five minutes now i'm like oh that's a little out of my comfort zone like i can get on stage for 90 minutes no problem you're just no problem you want to do a full 24 hour set no one wants that i can do that and i go hey listen i need you to do a six minute guest set and you go i'm gonna bleed out of my ears i'm fucking scared i'm so scared it's literally like that that's fun so i think that i'll probably do i did like one weekend of regular stand-up uh last year but now that the specials are out i might do a more stand-up do it i think just fuck around why not see what it's like come on back i still i still make some notes fuck yeah i got some jokes you're always hilarious and one of my favorites to watch shane moss's special second dose on youtube out now watch it follow him go to his website see where he's performing he does if you enjoyed any of this conversation he's so funny and intelligent and just uh it's great to reconnect with him shane moss right right there thank you for watching thanks buddy yeah dude you