Truth, Comedy, and Creative Freedom

Alrighty, folks. Welcome back to transacting value. Former, SDYT the podcast. I'm Porter. I'm your host, and we're still talking with real people, different perspectives over shared values.

 

And here in the month of July, we're covering initiative, honor, and Freedom. If this is your first time tuning in to the podcast, I appreciate your time. Thanks for stopping in and welcome.

 

And if you're a continuing listener, welcome back. We've got all sorts of topics we're gonna cover in this episode with self proclaimed comedian, former active duty marine, Personal good buddy of mine, Casey Wright.

 

But we'll get there in just a second. Guys, I appreciate you stopping in sticking with us through a name change and tracking us down across all these platforms of social media, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok.

 

Wherever you get to listen to your favorite podcast, you'll find us there as well. So without further ado, guys, I appreciate your time. Again, Porter.

 

I'm your host, and this is Transacting Value. Alrighty folks. Welcome back to Transacting Value. Again, I'm I'm your host and we're covering initiative, honor, and freedom with self proclaimed comedian, mister Casey Wright.

 

So everybody, please, warm round applause, Casey, what's up, dude? How you doing, man? I appreciate you having me. Yeah. No problem. I hear the applause. Yeah. No. It's it's there. It's there. They're in spirit.

 

And I genuinely, I appreciate you lowering your voice. It makes you sound cooler on the radio. In the world. Oh, man. This is this is cool. So for all of our listeners, Casey and I have been talking about this for a little while.

 

I don't know. The better part of a month, I think. Yeah. Something like that. About 2, 3 weeks now. Yeah. Trying to get you to come in and talk about some stuff.

 

We'll take a quick couple minutes and figure out who was the man myth behind the mask. Build some relatability. So who are you? What made you you? Yeah. My name's Casey, and I am wearing a mask because I'm not gonna risk getting COVID.

 

I'm just joking. Porter and I know each other from our time in the military. Spent a little time at the same unit together, did a deployment together, and I'm off from all over the place.

 

Just a little bit about me, born and raised in Pittsburgh, lived in Alabama for a little while, went into the marine corps, spent 5 years in there.

 

And then when I got out, kind of moving all over the place, Birmingham, Denver, San Diego, now North Carolina pursuing comedy, you know, trying to make a living. Getting married, you know, doing all the right things, I hope.

 

And just living life, man. Just living life. Traveling Yeah. Travel's a big 1, especially now because, well, we haven't been able to. We'll jump into travel a little bit too because there's a couple places that you and I discussed.

 

Curious to hear you're taking what some of your plans might be. And for anybody listening or anybody that lives there, maybe you guys can send in an email, send us a comment up on social media.

 

We can talk about this a little bit more in the future too. But first, Casey, let's let's focus back on you for a minute here, man. You mentioned you mentioned something before we got on the air that I I think is important.

 

Over the last, let's just say 2 years. Right? Since the start of, what, 20 20, COVID 19 20. Yeah. Yeah. And that changed a lot of things for a lot of people all over the world.

 

But you had your own journey of of self discovery. Let's let's talk a little bit about your weight gain journey, man. How to go? Yeah. So When we first met, actually, it was funny.

 

I was a little overweight -- Yeah. -- because you remember, and we had a little bit of a weight loss journey. Together. And you helped me along that. And then I stayed in pretty good shape when I got out.

 

I got out in 20 19 and stayed in good shape in once this COVID happened, man being locked away wasn't really motivated to, you know, work out on my own. I a group setting, you know, things like that.

 

And I just was unmotivated, drinking, eating, partying by myself, like, alone. Just gain away. Yeah. And and it's been a it's been a little bit of a struggle. But, you know, now that COVID's finally kinda over.

 

I have an excuse to get back in shape, you know. The beach is opening back up. Thank God. Yeah. But, yeah, it's been a struggle. I've I've been gaining a little weight in I'm sure I'm not the only 1.

 

You know what I mean? COVID was tough on on us big boned people. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Something to be said for viral diseases making your bones more dense. Yeah. It's a science. Exactly. Yeah. It may be fringe, but it's there.

 

It's that what's I'm telling you it's there. I'm telling you just believe me, doctor Fauci's a fraud. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm living this right now. No. But, yeah, I hear you, man. There's a lot of people over the last couple years.

 

Obviously, because you couldn't do anything. You couldn't really go anywhere. In fact, I'm willing to bet that there's plenty of people that also would have loved to have had a party of 1, but they got stuck with their families.

 

They get stuck with people. They maybe didn't get with. You know, interesting point. They may have even, over the last couple years, gotten stuck in households with people that they didn't get along with. Because they were I don't know.

 

In the closet, for example, or some sort of body dysmorphia or some sort of know, they they they've been charting their own life course and now had to go home because schools closed down, colleges, whatever.

 

Or their jobs, they couldn't go into work, and they couldn't sustain living in the towns they were at, so they went home. And they got stuck with these families.

 

Right? So there's a lot of judgmental people or a lot of judgment that people experienced at least. Yeah. No doubt about it. That they had to deal with. So all things considered, a party of 1 might not have been a worse thing.

 

It wasn't that bad. I I did have my wife with me, luckily. Oh, well, okay. Yes. So so it wasn't necessarily a party of 1. Yeah. Well, no 1 Okay. You know, it will I mean, we at least we get along, you know. Yeah. That helps.

 

But yeah. And and she likes Core's light just as much as I There you go. But No. But when she was working and stuff, it was a little it was difficult because I'm an outgoing person. I'm an extrovert, you know, and it was tough. For us.

 

And like you just explained, you know, people that got locked away with, you know, their families or people they didn't get along with or people that judged them because they weren't really around them enough, really understand who they were, you know, and that person's, let's say, is an introvert or even an extrovert that's around those people that that they don't get along with it would have been really tough for them too.

 

I think a lot tougher for them, to be honest, than for me. I had it good. Yeah. There's an interesting saying, I can't remember who set it off the top of my head.

 

I just read this the other day. Is that a different version of you exists in the minds of everyone you come into contact with? And they're not necessarily wrong. It's true.

 

Yeah. Especially given the current time frame with doctor Strange just coming out. I don't know anything about doctor Strange. That's fine. We'll we'll go right back. Doctor Strange 2. There you go. Doctor Strange 2. I heard about it.

 

Yeah. Yeah. So the the premise is there's this multiple different universes that are parallel to yours. Yeah. Where different versions of you are doing different activities, different things towards different destiny in states.

 

I think that happens. I real life. Well, based on this point here, I think metaphorically, at least, people take from you what you put out into the world but interpret it in their own ways. Mhmm. Right?

 

So we'll we'll get a bit more into comedy, but case in point, if you're up on stage trying to deliver something to the audience and elicit some sort of emotion, whatever you're trying to get, you're going to exemplify what you think is going to get that response.

 

Yeah? Yeah. No doubt. And it's funny that It was just a coincidence that I said that, but that's I mean, I think that quote is super true and it's it's even more true on stage.

 

And even on the mic, you know, like, on this podcast. Yeah. A lot of people might be on here. You might listen to a bunch of podcasts, you know, out there, and those people are probably totally different.

 

You know, if you met them in person and you were friends with them or maybe they aren't, but you're trying to listen a response. Mhmm.

 

You know? And you gotta be a different person or maybe you don't, but you at least try to be I don't know. There's a lot of different ways you can you can pull that. Yeah. But, I mean, you've gotta make a conscious effort either way.

 

For sure. For sure. Yeah. I like to put it to you like this. So, like, in terms of comedy, People say, oh, I'm the most hilarious person in front of my friends. Well, your friends know you.

 

Mhmm. And they know all the b s that you're talking about, and they know the story about that time John, you know, got a little too tuned up and and, you know, threw up on, you know, his girlfriend's shoes or whatever.

 

Like, they know that story. The hundred 5200 people in the audience do not know that story, and they don't wanna hear it because it really isn't that funny. Yeah. That's a good point because you had to be there. Yeah.

 

Exactly. Yeah. I've seen I can't remember his name. There was a comedian. He did a bit about you had to be there stories. Mhmm. And killed it. Even though all he did was tell stories that you literally had to be there to understand.

 

But then he took the ending or the punch line way far and left. It wasn't George Carlin. It was a while back, but Not sure about that bit, to be honest.

 

Yeah. I can't remember who it was now. But anyways, it's it's the same sort of thing. Right? Like, there's a organization called Toast Masters International. Have you heard of them?

 

I've never heard of them. They're a public speaking organization a worldwide, actually, public speaking organization, which I understand hot off the presses sounds like the coolest piece of pop culture you've ever heard.

 

It's like, you know, buying, I don't know, headlining tickets for 200 dollars a piece to go see a debate club. Be like, this is gonna be an awesome night. Said nobody ever. Best night ever.

 

Yeah. It's it's 1 of those. But but, no, as far as public speaking goes, it's it's the ability to work your own rhetoric and your own style and get people to convey whatever kind of emotions and responses that you intend to get.

 

And it's the ability to match that. What you intend to get, vice what you actually get. Yeah. Yeah. And I've had nights where I've been tended to get a certain response, and I've gotten a totally different response. Yeah.

 

And that's gotta be a reality check too. I'll tell you a story about the first not the first time I ever did stand up, but is we'll I mean, we can get into that if you want, but I had been wanting to do stand up for a long, long time.

 

Been told by friends, hey, you gotta do this. You got a bunch of good jokes to set any other, and I finally decided, okay, hey, COVID is is kinda cooling down. Open mics are open back up. And so I signed up.

 

I signed up for a bunch of them in 1 week just decided to throw myself into the fire. Yeah. The first time didn't go that bad. Okay? Because I had a bunch of jokes written out, and I pretty much just read them off off a piece of paper.

 

And I got a, you know, a few responses, you know, whatever. And it didn't go that bad, but then the second night was at a different club.

 

And there was about a hundred and 50, hundred and 70 people there just to watch the open mic I said 1 joke and it didn't get a response. So instead of moving on, I stayed on that joke, and I'm not even gonna get into what it was.

 

Because I listened back to it and I cringe. It's the only -- Yeah. -- recording of my comedy that I've ever deleted. It was so bad, and I left that place feeling like hot garbage. Yeah. Like, just the worst person on earth ever.

 

How'd how'd you get around that? Because it's 1 thing to be laughed at. It's another to not laughed at but feel like you've been humiliated. That's well, that's what it was. It wasn't there was no laughing.

 

Right. So it's bad it's if you're really bad comedian, people will laugh and be like, my goodness. This dude's doing this and and that's bad. I've never really had that to have no 1 laugh at all and just kinda look at you?

 

Like, you got something crawling out of your ears -- Yeah. -- you know, or that, you know, you have the worst BO in the world, and they just are making face, like, this is disgusting.

 

To to leave that venue with that feeling is just horrendous. And and the only way I got around it is thinking there's probably a million comedians that have stood on stage in the world and they've all had this feeling.

 

Every single 1 of them doesn't matter if it's Norm McDonald or you know, Norm Johnson from, you know, Milwaukee.

 

They've all had that same feeling. And so I was like, look, it can't get any worse than that. If that's the worst that it can be and I left here without crying, running my car off a bridge on my way home.

 

Yeah. You know? And I was able to go back the next day, then can't get any worse. You know, everybody has a sense of humor. It might be respective or different to everybody, but has a sense of humor.

 

So how do you bridge that? You know? Like, it's like stop stage. It's like you as a -- Yeah. -- you as a person. Like, you've gotta you kinda gotta always be on. Yeah. Like, in English. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you kinda know what's coming.

 

You know what you wanna say next. It's it's your I guess you kinda call it, like, you're always on the money. You know? You're always on the button. You're always ready to to say something. And just be, like, quick witted more luck.

 

Yeah. Just be quick witted. Yeah. Okay. And sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Now I will tell you that it's easy to write jokes, and it's easy to be in that mode when you're around, you know, 50 other comedians -- Sure.

 

-- every night, you know, 5, 6 nights a week. But it's it's still tough to be on all the time, and it's still tough to, you know, convey your sense of humor to those.

 

Like you said, everyone has a different sense of humor. That sounds fatiguing, mentally. It it it can be, but as long as you have fun with it, like, I have fun with it, you know. Yeah.

 

And sometimes you do leave the comedy club like, man, I'm exhausted mentally from just having to be on, you know, maybe saying a joke on stage like a little quip or something and it doesn't work or trying out new jokes, you know, say I say I write a new joke this week, I'm not just gonna try it once and throw it out just because it doesn't work.

 

I'm gonna try it and try it and try it and try it and switch it up and switch it up and and if it doesn't work after about 2 weeks at all, then I'm gonna throw it out.

 

But that's tough to go on stage for 345 minutes and have that experience. Okay. So that experience of just trying and and having that sort of perseverance, but what about the experience of having that kind of rejection.

 

That's gotta take a toll too. However, you perceive it to be a rejection. Like I said, that second night that that I went on stage and it just it was the worst performance that I bet any of those people were subjected to in that room.

 

Yeah. I felt so bad, but every time after that, as long as it didn't go that bad, I didn't I never felt that bad again. It's kinda like an addict getting high.

 

You know? Like, if I smoke crack, I'm a get really, really high. And then maybe I might get that high once or twice after that, but then then the reason why I'm getting hooked is because I'm trying to get to that feeling.

 

Same thing with comedy, you go up on stage, you get an enormous laugh over a joke that you wrote and that you performed.

 

You're chasing that. And as long as it never gets as low as that low point, it's it's not gonna be that bad, you know.

 

But you gotta find that floor. Exactly. Yeah. Well, it's I mean, it's a it's not it's not a floor. It's like an abyss. It's like the bottom of the Mary on a trench. It gets down there. Yeah.

 

And it feels terrible. I'm sure it does. Yeah. Yeah. What we're talking about, I guess this wasn't really the original intention, but what is your opinion on, I guess, just overall mental health or or mental stability of of comedians.

 

Like, your your goal is to make other people happy, but I imagine there's a fair amount of ups and downs and chemical imbalances and and rejection and all sorts of stressors that influence your ability to maintain your own mental health through all of those things.

 

Right? It's not just jokes. Yeah. I mean, well, I I personally think that I've had a it a little bit easy because of my time in the military, as you know, you know, you can't have thin skin -- Mhmm.

 

-- in the military. If you have thin skin when you're in the infantry in the marine corps, then you're not gonna last. Yeah. You get eaten up.

 

So I think having that experience, and also I had 2 older brothers and, you know, friends and and that's kinda, like, the the way we went about growing up was just making fun of each other and And you had to have thick skin, and I think that helped me.

 

But I have seen it where people don't have thick skin, you know. That they are struggling mentally in some way, and, man, it it eats them up.

 

And then they quit they quit. Mhmm. That's what ends up happening. They quit. And I've luckily have never had to experience anything like that. So then, like, some of these veteran comics, those still living.

 

Right? Like, obviously, George Carlin passed, who's in Louis Anderson just recently. Steve Harvey, he sort of changed his direction a bit, but you know, he's still a living comedian.

 

Yeah. Kings of comedy, blue collar comedy tour from back in the nineties, eighties, in some cases. I'm trying to remember the 1 guy who's the actor He's always screaming about something.

 

Which guy we told him? I can't remember his name. He he was an he was an infantry officer. Doesn't matter. There's plenty of them. There's 2 officers that are screaming about something.

 

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I can't remember his name. Somebody somebody's gonna call us on this too and be like, oh, these guys are idiots so much in it. But it Why am an idiot? Well then. Just for the listeners.

 

Yeah. Alright, Cinderella. You know, like It's fit. But I'm with you. Right? Like, there's people that come from all walks that use their backgrounds and use their perspectives in a way that they expect other people to find as funny.

 

Mhmm. Right? And then obviously, when that crashes or when it falls or or fails, maybe redress that.

 

But where else do you pull influences from? If not your own life and your own perspective. I mean, a lot of a lot of my own life and own perspective.

 

And a lot of that stuff doesn't work, too. You know? So I I try not to pull too many influences from other comedians because then you tend to get in this cycle of that dude is just trying to be so and so.

 

You know? And I don't wanna ever do that. I'm sure that I have had jokes like that, but I try not to.

 

I just try and pull from my life experiences. You know? Growing up with 2 brothers, I'm not gonna say I grew up hard or anything, kinda middle class, but, you know, moving around a was tough as a kid.

 

You know, other other kids kinda I had a hard time. You know, I had to kinda prove myself, being in the military, you know, doing some of the stupid stuff that I did in the military, you know, things like that.

 

And and and a lot of people take comedy literally, you know, like, oh, he's just told a story about, you know, whatever.

 

That had to have happened. It didn't necessarily happen. I like to take a lot of those life experiences and then make some wild story out of it, like, know, I'm a writer.

 

I'm trying to write something that's gonna make you laugh, and I might not have done that thing, but it's it's a creative process. You know, you had to at least had an experience with that particular thing, in at least in my opinion.

 

Well, so even if you're not creating the material or the perspective, I I think you still have to have and I'm this sounds like what you're saying.

 

You still have to have an ability to infer from these experiences -- Yeah. -- commonalities, things that because that's what makes a joke in my opinion. Right? Like, to me, that's what makes a joke funny, like, if I can relate to it.

 

Yeah. Because if I don't get it, I just I just here's the thing. I just learned with in the last month or 2 is the value of a Chancleta. Are you familiar with what that is?

 

Not really familiar with that. It's a slipper. Okay. Yeah. It's it's it's a slipper. But, like, a house slipper. Right? Like, you want at the moms would throw -- There it is. -- at the Hispanic daughters. Or whoever. More sons.

 

Right. Yeah. Right. Like, curving a bullet, you know, around the wall yeah. Yeah. Right. But I don't have that experience. I never got a shoe thrown at me or a house slipper. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Like, it wasn't my thing growing up.

 

Yeah. Right? Like wooden spoons, soap, the occasional spatula, or backhand, like, belts. Right. Like, I'm old school pretty traditional that way. Those are all good. Yeah. Right? The old reliable, shoes.

 

Not really. Not really my thing. But I understand if I hear a joke about discipline or being disciplined as a kid -- Mhmm. -- the method doesn't really matter. The humor is still on the underlying concept. Okay. Right?

 

So have you found that as you've either deployed or traveled the country on any of these trips that you were alluding to, anything that you've been able to pull material from other people's experiences, perspectives, cultures that you just don't actually have any relatability with?

 

I I think so. But, you know, again, it's a lot of these jokes are works in progress, you know, until you perfect a joke, it's not gonna be perfect.

 

I have, from a couple of the trips that I've been on, been able to take some experience that somebody else, you know, talked about or for instance, like, I have a joke that I'm writing about how the women in Norway, Ireland are very ugly.

 

And the men are too, but Okay. But, yeah, but I have no experience with with, you know, Irish people other than my 1 week visit there, you know. But that's that's probably the extent of my know, making jokes about other things.

 

Yeah. So that 1, I think, needs needs a little work. But but I'm That's the premise. Yeah. No. No. No. I'm I I'm with you though because I think everybody can relate to being in the background and then blending in.

 

Right? Like, Tom Cruz may get 10 hours of makeup. But the homeless guy on the bicycle holding the radio in the background that's still sort of blurry like that far back, he didn't get into that trailer, you know.

 

Like I'm definitely not. Yeah. Yeah. And I think everybody has some experience to feeling like they've been sort of washed into the background lost in a crowd metaphorically actually, whatever.

 

Yeah. Relatability is is definitely important. Before we get into some more of that though, let's take a break for a couple minutes.

 

And we'll talk some more about these values. We'll get a little bit more into your values, your perspective, and how they've influenced you, your comedy, your your outlook on life back on transacting value in a few minutes to type.

 

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The place with the boiled peanuts. Alrighty, folks. Welcome back to transacting value on Porter. I'm your host. And again, I'm sitting here with Casey Rights. First off, Casey, welcome back. Thank you for having me.

 

And to everybody listening, welcome back as well. But as we were discussing this on the break, a lot of the things that we started describing and talking through. We ascribed a little bit more specifically towards creative freedoms.

 

And that's where we're gonna dive into a little bit in this segment but we also talked about initiative and honor and freedom as our core values for the month of July and so we'll touch a little bit on those 2.

 

Casey, where we left off, we're talking about comedians as writers and as creators of their material and influences that you've had from your experiences and perspectives or or other comedians or or other people or whatever and and how you've used that in your experience so far, being on stage and just developing into the the find young man you've become.

 

Thank you. You're welcome. You sound like my mom. I get that all the time.

 

And It's a little a little less pretty. I'm from Norway. But no. So yeah. In talking about creative freedom, it got me thinking, your perspective as a comedian, and then you can attribute this to however whatever you want.

 

But freedom is important. It's not just the freedom to do what you want, when you want, how you want, dress how you want, be with whomever you want, now mass marketed publicized list of freedoms.

 

When you're on stage, you've gotta, 1, give yourself permission to talk about all sorts of things that might be controversial.

 

But 2, make the audience feel comfortable sort of manage their expectations that you're about to talk about things that might be controversial or or offensive, that type of creative freedom as you're writing through this.

 

So do you find in your experience so far as a person or a comedian on stage whichever?

 

That having that type of creative freedom is sort of a release from stress to get it off your chest or to say what you want or as a coping mechanism for issues you're facing?

 

Or or is it just sort of whatever comes to mind you think will be funny and you just put it out there? What's your perspective on those things. I mean, yeah, I think being silly, you know, is a way to kinda deal with things.

 

That you don't I mean, not necessarily, like, oh, I'm going through hell right now. I need to just, like, laugh and it'll walk away. But like being silly on stage and just, you know, having fun is is, you know, and being creative.

 

At least to me, being creative is as a way to manage my stress, being on stage, all be it stressful in itself because you if you don't meet that audience's expectations, then you gonna crash and burn, which like we talked about sucks, but having that adrenaline rush, you know, getting on that stage doing those things, definitely a stress reliever to me.

 

Yeah. And I think it is for a lot of people. Does that have anything to do with a crash when you get off stage?

 

I don't crash when I get offstage. Oh, unless I act absolutely bombed on stage, then I I mean, I'm already at at ground 0. But I guess I kinda said it earlier, like, you know, you know, it's like a crack addict.

 

You know? You might get that high once or twice or 3 times whatever. You're just chasing that. You just forget about everything that happened that day. Like, hey, I didn't make a sale at at my job today.

 

But then I got on stage and I crushed in front of 200 people. I don't even remember, work. Did you ever see I think it was Pixar, a movie called Soul? I've never seen it. Okay. Have you heard of it?

 

I never even heard of it. Oh, well, so it's an animated movie called Soul. I'm pretty sure it's Pixar, but it's about this guy. He's a jazz pianist that Deborah really takes off in his career, and so it becomes a middle school manager.

 

That. Yeah. And then dies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And his soul is life thing. Right. Yeah. Right. So what you just described sounds a lot like just being in the zone.

 

Like, when you're when he for him, it was when he was playing piano and he just went and drifted off got in and it just sort of carried him away or what I picture was happening in Michael Jackson's head when he was performing.

 

Mhmm. But, like, in front of an audience, not like rehearsals. You know, like you just got lost and he just was the music.

 

Right? I I imagine it's pretty similar to what you're describing sort of as a release where you just detach and and Yeah. Go somewhere you're more comfortable, especially as an extrovert extrovert like you said.

 

Yeah? Yeah. I mean, it's and it's kinda interesting. It's for me, personally, I have those times or you know, things are going really good, and I don't even know where the past 8 or 10 minutes went.

 

But there are sometimes too whenever I don't even feel that And it's it's I think this is more me being hard on myself and, you know, the need to succeed kinda thing for my own, you know, self worth, I guess, to prove my self worth.

 

But sometimes, I don't even feel that great feeling until I get off the stage. But while I'm on the stage, I'm not thinking about that bad day at work. I'm thinking about making sure I'm doing what I'm doing well.

 

Sure. And, yeah, I do have those times where I'm on stage and I'm telling a joke and I'm getting feedback and I'm, you know, giving a quip to this audience member over here or whatever.

 

And all of a sudden 10 minutes are gone and I'm getting the light because I need to get off stage, you know. And that's a great feeling. Do you give yourself and be and maybe where it is. Quote, dude, get away from me, man.

 

Like, Do you do you give yourself permission to pull material from things that are offensive or things that you think are just gonna get a rise from the audience regardless of how well you do just to give you traction?

 

I don't necessarily think that I'm gonna go out there and try piss somebody off just to be there. I don't know if that's what you're trying to say.

 

No. No. I I just mean, like, to get any sort of a rise so you can gauge which direction to take a joke. Oh, well, I have a set up, like, say, I'll write my set list out and let's say I have like an 8 minute set list.

 

Right? I'll have some backups in there. Just in case, like, hey, I'm tonight, I'm gonna joke about gay chicken in the military or you know, the abortion laws in Texas or whatever. And let's say that audience is just not feeling that.

 

Well, I've got some fallbacks for sure. Because I'm not trying to just dig a grain. You've got a fallback to gay chicken in the military? Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know gay chicken. Gay chicken is where Oh, it's 1 of my favorite pastimes.

 

It's where 2 men. They go to kiss each other and the first 1 to pull out of kissing the other guy, that's the queer. Right? That's the 1 who's gay. He's he's not gonna kiss his best friend.

 

He hadn't? Okay. Sometimes people don't like that. I imagine that. Think, oh, you know, you're joking about gay people is really know I'm joking about the Marine Corps and how, you know, nothing's gay with boot bands on.

 

That's what they say anyways. You know, a lot of that I feel like you remember when at first came out, the movie and Sasha Baron Cohen was, like, ridiculed by a lot of people.

 

Oh, yeah. Why would you do this? And and I can't I'm not trying to to quote him more really even paraphrase. I don't remember close enough, but his response, basically, was you're really missing the mark here.

 

I'm not joking about people from Eastern Europe or anything. I'm satirically trying to talk about how foreigners get treated. By a lot of people in the States and then personify that image.

 

Exactly. But I I feel like it's that sort of It's like, what's the worst stereotype that you know, and a dude from Wisconsin thinks about somebody from, you know, Kazakhstan. Yeah. Like, what does he think of Kazakhstan he looks like?

 

And then be that person and make a joke out of it. Right. And that's funny. Yeah. But I mean, it did great. Yeah. And, obviously, there was, I don't even know, 3 or 4 other videos and movies that he's done.

 

But but I feel like that's a lot about what you're describing. Right? Like, there's nothing wrong with gay people in the military it's obviously allowed.

 

There's nothing wrong with you brought up abortion rights in Texas or abortions, I think you said in Texas, but Even still, regardless of what your stance is on abortions, to mock or make fun of the extreme stereotypical perspectives of that do have opinions on those topics.

 

Right? It's like when people make fun of doctor Fauci, that's serious dude. He's got a lot on his plate. He's been dealing with COVID for years plus. I'm sure.

 

I I mean, no no no he talked to the last 30 till he released it in some cases. But like yeah. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. He came out with the medication. No. It's it's about how you personify those traits and then put it into a routine.

 

Right? Like you're not -- Yeah. -- openly trying to book or mock these people or these topics or sway public opinion? Or or are you? I don't know. No. I'm definitely not trying to sway public opinion.

 

I'm really, like, and I brought up and I have an abortion a joke about abortion laws in Texas. It's not about how you should not be to get an abortion in Texas after 6 weeks like the law says is about how ridiculous is that. Mhmm.

 

That's the joke. And I get people to say, oh, you you can't joke about abortion while I'm not joking about miss Jones who went and, you know, got herself pregnant and then decided to get an abortion. I'm not saying I'm not joking her.

 

I'm joking about the fact that this is a crazy law. What's the most extreme thing, you know, that I can think of that was the stupidest craziest thing that marines do. They literally kiss each other for fun.

 

Yeah. And they call it gay chicken. Yeah. I'm not even saying, oh, that well, there is a funny skit to that and I'll tell you later, but it's basically like, you know, I'm not talking about being gay, you know, or anybody that's gay.

 

I'm talking about that this is just a crazy thing that happens in life, you know.

 

Yeah. Well, and a lot of that stuff, you know, how you put on those jokes or or I guess how you perform those jokes or how you write the jokes for you to be able to perform them.

 

You can only take it so far because it's in the confines of your head until you rehearse it or try it out over a few weeks. Yeah. Right? But how an audience receives that material is totally out of your control.

 

Yeah. You can make the effort. Sure. But it's totally out of your control. Right? So then 1 of the things that I think helps with that being able to laugh at jokes, I think it's 2 things, actually.

 

1, understanding it's a joke. Like, you paid you paid to be there. So you're gonna hear things that are probably meant to be jokes. Well, in real I'm sorry to interrupt you, but go ahead to a little side note on that.

 

It's like, Instead of canceling that person for saying that abortion should be legal or, you know, that everyone should be gay or I mean, like, did you just say, like, the most extreme thing that they could say in San like, oh, get that dude out of here.

 

You can never perform here again. The best thing that you can do for someone who says something that's inappropriate to you is to not laugh or to not cheer.

 

To not laugh. Yeah. If I go on stage and I say something that's totally outlandish and the people in the audience start booing, that's a reaction. I'm eliciting a reaction from you.

 

If you sit there and you don't make me laugh like I said in the beginning of this podcast, like, no 1 laughed at any of those jokes that I was saying on that second time I went up, that made me feel terrible as a as a human being.

 

Oh, I see. You know what I'm saying?

 

So if if I say something that's crazy, like, you know, gay should be out of the military or something, and you don't laugh at it and you don't respond to it whatsoever, there's no reason for me to ever say something like that again.

 

You know what I mean?

 

That's the worst punishment that you can give a comedian or let's say like a radio host or a talk show host or whatever. Instead of booing them and then being like the you know, that you're making them the villain now.

 

Yeah. It's being being the villain is kinda cool sometimes. Yeah. Like, ask Tucker Tucker, like, that dude's a villain and he plays the villain well now. Yeah. You know?

 

It's because people respond to him. And if he was saying a bunch of stupid stuff and people weren't responding at all and he had no followers on Twitter, you know, no responses to any of his tweets, he wouldn't say those things anymore.

 

He would go in a completely different direction. That's true. I guess it is getting some sort of a response or or giving some sort of a response.

 

And the best way to know someone's crazy or homophobic or sexist or whatever is to let them talk. Sure. And then you'll know. And then those people aren't gonna have any friends. Well, yeah. Probably not. But in a comedy show.

 

Right. Yeah. Yeah. But in a comedy show, you've you've just gotta sort of let it play out. Right? You've obviously been to comedy show the mic nights, you it's not just you've only experienced them behind the mic, but -- Mhmm.

 

-- as other comedians get up on stage. Even if you don't think a joke is funny, you're still there. You know what I mean? You're still present physically in the room. Mhmm. So they're probably gonna recover.

 

They're probably gonna do some sort of physical action or verbal something say something, do something, whatever to make it recover and not cost them their entire set. Well, that's what I say, like, I have a fallback joke. Yeah.

 

So if the particular audience, like, let's say I'm performing in San Francisco, I might not wanna go and I go out there and, you know, joke about gay chicken, they're probably not gonna laugh as hard as a crowd in, you know, Dallas Texas would.

 

Mhmm. You know what I mean? It's 2 different demographics. So you gotta have a fallback of something that everyone will laugh at. Sure. You know? Well and I think that's the other direction.

 

Right? The other aspect that we talked about you behind the mic, but, like, as an audience member, you gotta be able to laugh at jokes too. Like, you find things that are humorous that you didn't come up with.

 

I assume, you know. Oh, yeah. Like, we talked about this a little bit we were off the air, but I think it's important to be bullied at least once in your life because it gives you the opportunity to learn to laugh at yourself.

 

Here's an example. If all the other kids in your second grade class call you, I don't know, short or shrimp or small fry or something to that effect. Yeah. It's the worst feeling in the world when you're 7 or 8 years old.

 

But really, what if you are the shortest kid in the class? Like, you might feel bad, but once you realize, you know what? Yeah. So, like, we that was a that was a great joke. Tommy, real knee slapper.

 

You know, like, once you start to laugh at yourself, whether it's self deprecating or not, but, like, you diffuse the joke. You diffuse the harm. And then you're able to see humor in that when you get older as an adult.

 

But I think if you don't have those opportunities and I'm not saying be bullied, like, shoved in a trash can in a locker made fun of every day, little things, if you don't have that, it's difficult to call us over and see it for being humorous because you take offense to it.

 

Yeah. Throughout your life, your experience so far?

 

Have you seen that sort of a trend from the stage from your perspective or or am I way off base here? You mean like Is it is it easier to laugh at jokes whenever you have had that experience? Or when you can relate to it at all? Yeah.

 

Yeah. For sure. I mean, like, if someone says, you know, if someone's joking about being fat, you know, I'm I'm kind of a fat dude. So I'm a laugh at it because I understand like, hey, what this dude's saying? You know what I mean?

 

It's not fun being a little overweight, but it's also not the end of the world and, like, you know, the I'm not gonna do myself any good by being callous towards people that are saying like, hey, man, you should lose a little weight or whatever or joking, man, like, hey, you gained a little weight this Like, you COVID did a number on you game COVID 15, didn't you?

 

Like, yeah, I I gained a COVID 15. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, what that's that's a true statement. Why am I gonna get mad about that?

 

Right. But that's the thing. If you don't if you're not ever faced with that challenge, to be able, like, You're dumb. You know, I I am not dumb. Well, I'm not I don't know you well enough to say that you are or not.

 

And even if you are or even if you're not, doesn't really matter. I don't even think you need to I mean, like you said, you kinda you kinda need to experience it to be a better human being.

 

You know? To not be 1 of these people on Twitter that is just yelling at people over a keyboard because they don't agree with what they said.

 

Okay. Let's back up for a second. Those guys are doing adjust calls. Would you just call them guys? Okay. What's wrong with you? Hold on. I bet that you listen to Tucker Carlson on a daily basis. Don't you?

 

It's it's crazy how many things, sanctions we tend to put on ourselves through social media, in crowds, with our friends, whatever by not accepting other perspectives, by not accepting this creative freedom to be able to interpret things or just talk about things, whether it's in a humorous thing or otherwise, like, there's a line.

 

And I think it's more evident outside of the military because we tend to blur a few things. But -- Yeah. -- in a military culture, there's a very blurry line to say what's humorous and what's offensive.

 

And if you take offense to something when you could have seen it from some sort of humorous aspect, then yourself, you need to toughen up or deal with it.

 

Right? If you do it outside the military, it's an HR complaint or fine. Because it's disrespectful. It's not humorous at all. You should know better. You're like, well, what's the difference?

 

Everybody it's still the same people. It's just a different culture a different demographic, different perspective. Yeah. Right? But being able to laugh at yourself and being able to laugh at jokes, I think helps a lot.

 

And it's like you alluded to earlier on when you were talking about having thick skin and your brothers and and dealing with different insults and just sort of boys being boys.

 

What sort of an impact have you seen this cancel culture having on your material?

 

Does it help? Does it give you more material? Affect my material at all. And I won't ever stop going on stage unless people are kicking me out of comedy clubs, which I'm not saying things that are outlandish, you know.

 

Not going on stage and saying the n word, saying that black people don't have the right to live or something out of control like that.

 

Like, I don't think that way. You know what I mean? So no one's ever gonna tell me that I can't get on stage because I'm not saying things like that. I'm making jokes.

 

So I don't let cancel culture affect me, but I feel bad for the people that are letting it affect them, and I have a fear that it's going to affect more people, especially see things like this whole Will Smith incident at the Oscars, slapped somebody in the face, assaulted somebody for making a joke.

 

And then 2 weeks later, Dave Chapel gets attacked on stage in Hollywood by some weirdo with a knife on them. How do you even get in there? Yeah. And I think that a lot of people are gonna let that affect their content, you know.

 

Like if I'm a podcast maker, if I'm a radio show host, or if I'm a comedian on stage, or whatever the case may be and I have an audience, I'm not gonna let it affect me.

 

I'm sure a lot of people are gonna go on stage tippy toeing around things because they don't want that they don't wanna be next. That's social media.

 

Right? Like, the ability to be social doesn't have to be on a computer. Like, you do it in behind a microphone. You know, it's it's still you being social but the medium changes from well, I guess it's still a microphone now.

 

But like in in a comedy bar to behind a laptop where a camera or a a podcasting mic, for example, the method is still communicating with people.

 

The medium changes. Right? Like, I might use Facebook and Instagram. You might use YouTube for example.

 

There's a lot of different ways about it, but I think unfortunately, that's where it's going because the algorithms require you to win popularity contests and how you become more popular is either be more offensive or be more respectful.

 

And a lot of the times, I think that sort of collection viewpoints stifles this type of creativity, this type of freedom, which arguably is what everybody's pushing for to begin with.

 

Well, that's why I wanted to come on and do this July episode because of the fact that the core value was freedom.

 

You know, 1 of the core values was freedom. And as an entertainer, I need to be able to have that creative freedom without having that fear of am I gonna be the next guy that gets run up on?

 

Yeah. On stage while I'm doing my job. You know, while I'm doing a job or while I'm at an open mic or whether I'm, you know, whatever, if I'm an audience member and I see somebody get assaulted on stage, like, I don't wanna be next.

 

Mhmm. Why should I be subject to that just because you don't agree with what I'm saying?

 

Well and that's kind of the mark too. Right? I think it gets applauded or I don't wanna say celebrated supported by standing up for something and publicly taking a stand and, you know, making a scene to a certain degree or another?

 

That's how I was making a scene. Right. But, like, for what? I I get it to a point like you brought up earlier in in Well, Smith's case not to jump on this point too much in in the labor, but Sure.

 

Shivalry counts for something. Being courteous counts for some being able to protect your family and their image counts for something.

 

But a lot of those things where you get up and you go on stage to a degree, he could have been filling a character and potentially played it off that way.

 

Right? Well, then maybe maybe you script it, maybe you work with them ahead of time, maybe you don't, and it's on the fly, whatever.

 

The second you lose control over your actions. That's the only thing you have control over in life, in my opinion.

 

Yeah. It's how you respond to something. React. Yeah. And so the second you give up control over that is the second that you're no longer able to say that you have that freedom because then you don't.

 

Somebody else did something that caused you to respond that way. Yeah. So that freedom is now gone because it was controlled by somebody else.

 

Right? And if that's the only thing you've got left, then what are you doing? Like, it's 1 thing to stand up yourself or stand up for people you care about or bullies or punch somebody back, physically stand up for yourself, whatever?

 

Yeah. If someone was groping Wilson's wife and he assaulted them, Right. Well, hey, good on you, buddy. Yeah. That's totally different.

 

But if that's just in a bar and someone, you know, said, you know, hey GI Jane or something to his wife, I'm out at a bar, my wife shaves her head or whatever, and and someone calls her GI Jane, and I assault a dude.

 

Right. Well, my second question would be why did she shave her head in a bar?

 

There's a line and I and I think it's how you address people and how you handle situations and how you deal with problem sets that I don't know Will Smith. I've never met him.

 

I don't know if that's in his character or not or in response to some other stressor, but the point still being the same that as you're socially trying to build relationships as a comedian on stage as a podcast host behind a mic, as an actor in a movie, whatever the relation is or just as a worker in an office or a child in school, as you're trying to build social relationships, you gotta feel out those thresholds.

 

And if it doesn't start when you're young, when you have the leeway to make riskier decisions and recover from them and you then make those decisions when you're older, you can't always come back from them whether it's dealing with depression, or or dealing with bullies or dealing with insults or being in a crowd or being in an audience and responding to jokes.

 

Right? We'll we'll dive more back into those points here in just a minute. Let's take a break.

 

And we'll come back and we'll cover some more of that on transacting value. Hey, y'all. It's Joel here with the b and the bear creations. We specialize in custom tumblers, t shirts, car decals, and anything else you can think of.

 

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Again, you can find me at the bee and the Bear creations on Facebook. I look forward to helping you create your custom item. Alrighty, folks. This is Porter with the Transacting Value Podcast.

 

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Alrighty, folks. This is Porter with the Transacting Value Podcast. If you haven't heard of Anchrobus Spotify, it's the easiest way to make a podcast with everything you need all in 1 place.

 

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So if you're interested and you wanna find some value for your values, download the Anchor app, or go to anchor dot f m to get started. Alrighty, folks. Welcome back to Transacting Value. I'm here with Casey Wright.

 

We've been talking about creative freedom, whether you're on stage as a comedian, whether you're off stage as an audience member or just in the public space as a human, how that's impacted in the political landscape in the world today, cancel culture and all sorts of other aspects is what we just finished covering.

 

But before we get into this segment, Casey, welcome back to Thank you again. I'm glad to be here. This is This is fantastic. Yeah. I'm so happy to be here.

 

I appreciate you saying that. Thanks. You know, I I've done this before where I've conducted interviews as a party of 1. And I am always very happy to be here, but I never sound as happy now. So I I appreciate it. So flipping happy.

 

Yeah. Kidding? No. And to all of our listeners, Welcome back. Let's let's dive into this. We were talking about making mistakes when you're young and facing adversity when you're young. So that way, you have 70, 80 plus years, whatever.

 

To recover and and to do something positive with that and to make something of that. So in keeping that in mind, you had talked a little bit earlier about how you love to travel and -- Love to travel.

 

-- the world, the country as far as travel is concerned, maybe taking the initiative to travel when you're older is feasible, taking the initiative to travel when you're younger, you're arrested as a runaway.

 

So there's there's a threshold here, but let's dive into that for a second. What places have you been to? Or what places are you planning on going? I have been to Japan. The Philippines.

 

All over the United States went on a couple road trips here in the United States, been to lived in California, lived in Colorado, been to Boston, from Pittsburgh, lived in Florida for a little while, lived in North Carolina, lived all over the country.

 

I've been to Mexico several times, been to Ireland. And this summer going to Aruba and all over Europe, I'll I won't bore you with existential details of that trip, but it's a 35 day trip all around Europe.

 

So 35 days. 35 days? That's gonna be pretty cool. And what are you gonna you hitchhike stay in hostels or train some airplanes?

 

Stay in hostels. Stay in hostels. There is a coach for transportation with the group that we're gonna be going with. So we'll be taking a bus from, you know, Barcelona to Central France, and to Paris.

 

It's a guided tour of Europe, basically. Yeah. Yeah. And then we're going on a train a couple places taking a ferry to a couple places flying, you know, 1 legs. So Man, that's gonna be cool.

 

Have you ever done anything like that before? Never. Never. My wife has, and she loved it. And so we're going back and just for fun. And like you said, I think it's important to take that initiative to travel while you can.

 

Because, man, traveling has changed me, you know, a lot. It's changed my perspective on things. It's given me a different outlook on how other people live.

 

And not necessarily international travel, but local travel. You know, like I said, I've been on a couple road trips. I've been all around the country. I've lived a lot of different places.

 

Man, people in all kinds of different states live in different ways. People in different towns live in different ways, and it's it's good to get all that to build your encyclopedia of cultures -- Sure.

 

-- that was important. I remember there's been opportunities. I haven't traveled too much outside of deployments -- Mhmm.

 

-- except for when I was younger, I guess, Going around to a lot of those different places, you see whether it's the amount of wealth people have in an area or an environment and how that impacts the culture and the customs and the economy.

 

Or the poverty and how that affects the culture, the people, the economy of an area. Yeah. I think what's interesting too though is you start to see how people compensate for whatever it is they're lacking.

 

Whether it's they have a lot of money in their lacking poverty or they have a lot of poverty in their lacking wealth, let's just say economically sort of disparity, but you also can see what people are doing to complement those deficiencies and how they're still thriving I've seen kids play soccer with rocks because it was all they had.

 

That's all they got. Yeah. But they were some of the happiest kids I've ever seen, or at least they look like it outwardly. Exactly. Yeah. And and you're right. Yeah.

 

Travel does a lot of that for you. But did you travel a lot when you were younger? I didn't do a lot of traveling when I was younger. Go to the beach on a family trip or go camping or whatever with the family, but no real traveling.

 

I started traveling on my own as an adult, and you know, kinda like you said, like it's apart from the wealth gaps in certain places, you get so much more from these people from just their culture and the way they live.

 

Like in some of the poorest places on Earth, they're the happiest people in the world.

 

And some of the richest places on Earth, they're the biggest douchebags of all time. Can be. Yeah. And it's, you know, I think you kinda learn how to be a better person through that.

 

You know, you learn how to have less money but focus on things that matter. You know, kinda like you touched on earlier, you can only control how you act and how you react to certain situations.

 

Imagine if those kids and and they were playing soccer with those rocks only had a rock and they just started throwing a fit about it.

 

You know, how's that gonna benefit them? Sure. It's kind of like you're forming an unwitting team to help you succeed in life.

 

Right? Like, they may not know they're gonna help you succeed when you're 40. Mhmm. But it was their lives and their experiences that helped you have something to fall back on to be a better human when you get older.

 

1 of the points that you brought up a little bit as a comedian especially in groups of comedians where it's easier to sort of work off of each other or inspire each other as a team to succeed, that teamwork is important you for that reason, but I think to what you just alluded to as well, it's still teamwork.

 

Maybe more metaphoric than anything else, but it's still teamwork.

 

Where you take other people's lives to learn how to better give advice or what better advice to give or for you to live better or whatever. Right? And just become a better human. Have you found that through your travels to be relevant?

 

Absolutely. Like, you know, I don't just see you know, like, you didn't just see somebody playing with a rock and been like, oh, maybe I should be a little bit more happier about not having, you know, milk my cereal in the morning.

 

You know what I mean? Right. Like a lot of this is through talking to local people.

 

How what what are their experiences growing up? How is it different than mine? Know, how can I build off of their experiences? You know, it's kinda like you learn monkey, see, monkey do kinda thing.

 

Instead of making a mistake, you just learn from other people's mistakes or other people's experiences. And it's like I said, it's like a collection of different people's thoughts and experiences and life lessons that they give you.

 

That mold you into the person that not necessarily that you wanted to be when you were 18, but that you became because it's just making you a better person.

 

Sure. Well, I mean, you're you're a product of your environment, but to a certain degree you have a control over the threshold and parameters of your environment. Right? Because you introduce new variables all the time.

 

Yeah. Let's say by virtue of traveling, you introduce those new ideas and concepts and foods and recipes or whatever music, anything into the playlist that the tomorrow you is gonna appreciate.

 

Exactly. You know? So I think to a certain degree it you're right.

 

It may not be the you who you want to be at 18 or who you saw yourself becoming when you were 18 as a 50 year old. Yeah. But who the you as a 50 year old can be proud of having become, at least.

 

Yeah. That that's a good way of saying it. Thank you. Proud of becoming that person that you are now because of the experiences that you again, 1 of those values that is a part of this month's episodes is initiated.

 

You took that initiative to, say, hey, I'm not gonna go eat out tonight. You know what I mean?

 

I'm gonna I'm gonna I got some chicken in the fridge, you know, I'm gonna maybe maybe go hungry for breakfast this morning instead of going out and getting that breakfast sandwich or whatever and saving that money up and and or taking the initiative to buy the ticket once you have the money.

 

You know, or go out and get your passport if you wanna go internationally or taking the initiative to talk to somebody because you could travel alone and not talk to anybody and then just have a bunch of pictures of museums when you can get home.

 

Sure. You know, but you gotta take the initiative to actually get out there and do those things that you aspire to do.

 

That way when you're 50, or when you're 80 and you're lying on your deathbed, you can look back and say, hey, man, like, I did all that I could. Mhmm. And I'm proud of that.

 

Sure. A generalization that seems to be taking place is people trying to control other people's freedoms of thought. However, that manifest as sort of relative what they say or what they do or what they post online or or whatever.

 

But just because I think and feel a certain way, doesn't mean you can't approach me talk to me. I may not look like I'm approachable.

 

I may not actually want you to talk to me but it doesn't mean you can't. I think that's another benefit of traveling where you start to see that Some of the angriest looking people are some of the sweetest people you'll ever meet.

 

They just wanna take care of their families. They've just been out in the sun for 40 years, and your face looks really messed up.

 

But it's no fault of theirs. Exactly. But they've got some crazy life experiences and some really wild stories and some interesting perspectives that are likely going to be some of the ones that are gonna stick with you for years.

 

Like, we've been on a couple deployments and and going around the different countries around the world that you learn about, let's say, in elementary or middle school that you're like, I've never I'm not gonna remember this because I'm never gonna need to know it.

 

I'm never gonna be there. Like, it's not gonna happen. And then you end up there. Like you said, you went to the Philippines.

 

For example, what sorts of things did you experience or or did you learn about the Philippines or Filipino people and cultures that maybe you were unable to or haven't since experienced in the states.

 

Anything stand out to you? Because it that's sort of polar ends of the world. So Yeah. I just think their ability to make any situation take something good out of any situation.

 

Mhmm. You know what I mean? They don't have all the food that we have here. You know, they cook up some interesting food to eat, they do what they can to make it good.

 

You know what I mean? They they think, oh, you know what I might love a t bone steak right now, but this is all I got, so I'm gonna get the best out of it.

 

Or I don't have TV to watch. So let's sit around a campfire and, you know, tell stories or play some cards or whatever.

 

I mean, they they always seem to find a way to make things to make whatever situation better, you know, in their own way. Instead of just sitting there and going, man, I wish I had my freaking phone right now.

 

My phone's dead. So now I can't get on social media and scroll through Instagram. Well, that dude over there at the end of the bar who's, like, 68 who you probably don't think wants to talk to you would love to talk to you.

 

Yeah. You know what I mean? Sure. And thing you just brought up about phones, there's a certain magic to just turning it off.

 

Yeah. You know, but what if somebody has to get a hold of you? They will when you turn it back on. What if there's an emergency, you'll find out when you turn it back on.

 

Exactly. Yeah. But what if I need to call somebody? You can when you turn it back on. What do you think they did in 19 98 before cell phones really started becoming mainstream.

 

Yeah. Yeah. Your mom died. That sucks. Having a phone on you and panicking about it right now while you're trying to do something or while you're having a good time is not gonna be any benefit to you.

 

Yep. I think the double edged sword of technology, it obviously helps for convenience, but it really does complicate as much as it simplifies.

 

Definitely. And And that is something being able to travel. You start to identify because they may have wireless connectivity for the most part around the world now.

 

But there's not always reliable service outside of the Internet. And so seeing how people have compensated for things like that by becoming relative to their environments, better humans, more capable, more social whatever.

 

It really does influence your perspective overall for the better know, once you process or joke or get offended or or whatever applies and then come to a more mature understanding of that circumstance.

 

I think it really does make a big difference.

 

While we're talking about being able to make a difference in people's lives, obviously, as a comedian, as somebody who's up in front of people, and really just generally speaking as an extrovert, going to put yourself there in some sort of capacity just naturally as being you.

 

But what about if people wanna get in touch with how do they reach out to you? How do they find you? How do they follow your material? Find you at shows or open mic nights or whatever?

 

How do they get on to me? Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok. I do have a TikTok. TikTok's cool. But it's all KCR comedy that's CASEYR comedy, all 1 word. Like ARE or the letter RCASEYR, letter r, Romeo, comedy.

 

All 1 word. Okay. So it's the same on Instagram. It's the same on TikTok, and Twitter is what you said. Right? Yep. Okay. So if people wanna send you messages, we can track you down there.

 

What about any upcoming shows, upcoming open mic nights? You got anything lined up? Or wait until you're done traveling? Just open mics and Greenville Carolina at the pit, Burry, and then I'm gonna be doing some in Raleigh as well.

 

Just hit me up. I'll get you tickets. Alright. That'd be cool. Yeah. That way people can reach out to you. Yeah. You can get I'm not I mean, my phone number is yeah.

 

If you wanna get in touch with me, man, just hit me up on there. If you wanna talk about anything, you know, hey, if you're having a hard time if you wanna try and get into comedy, send me a message.

 

If you wanna tell me I'm an idiot, then, you know, please send me a message. I would gladly appreciate the feedback. 1 of the hardest things to solicit, I think, is active feedback.

 

Yeah. Especially now. Like, I'll give you a thumbs up, but I'm not telling you did a good job. You know? Okay. Cool. Well, that's why I like that's comedy is, you know, instant feedback.

 

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, nothing else is like it. You know, YouTube video, you gotta post it, gotta wait for people to like it, dislike it, watch it, not watch it, podcast same thing.

 

You gotta, like, just track the numbers. Hey, are people listening to this? What do they think about it? What's my reviews look like?

 

Sure. Comedy is instant feedback. Yeah. I imagine that's also good and bad at times kinda like you talked about earlier. Nonetheless, though, I I appreciate you making some time to come in and and talk here a little bit on the podcast.

 

Go over some of these things and just share your perspective, man. It it really does mean a lot we haven't talked in a few years up to this point.

 

But I don't think we've ever really talked about the majority of these topics especially not from these perspectives. So for what it's worth, I appreciate it.

 

Well, I appreciate you having me. I look forward hopefully being back if the audience likes me enough. Yeah. Well, see, that's the thing about delayed gratification. I'll let you know in few months, and then we'll talk more.

 

Yeah. Yeah. Well, again, it was nice being here. I appreciate you having me. Really nice to catch up. Yeah. No worries, man. And to all of our listeners, I appreciate you guys stopping in and joining us in this conversation.

 

If there's anything you wanna contribute to future episodes, whether it's topics, comments, critiques or criticisms and ideas. Please feel free to send an email at survival dad y t at gmail dot com.

 

Track us down on Facebook, Instagram, at survival dad y t or on TikTok or Twitter which is at survival that YT1. Saying that though, folks. For this particular episode, I'm Porter. I'm your host, and that was transacting value.