Our guest today is a Comedian and Actor.. He’s been a part of shows like Drunk History, Gotham, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and more. He also hosts the podcast: Weird AF News – the only daily weird news show recorded in a closet with more than 1200 episodes and millions of downloads.
In this conversation I get to deep dive with Jonesy into his work, the world of standup comedy, and so much more.
It was a really fun conversation. I’m fascinated by the art of standup and the incredibly challenging work that comedians go through to develop their acts.
I had a blast digging into all of this with Jonesy. I think you’ll enjoy this one.
Listen in here:
Subscribe: Apple | Google Play | Stitcher | Overcast | Spotify | AmazonIn this episode you’ll learn:
- What Jonesy does
- His transition to becoming a comedian
- How Dan and Jonesy’s podcast shows are growing.
- Exploring how opportunities work in this universe.
- How the skill of being a big reader helped on Jonesy’s career.
- How the real work is about manifestation (and why we need to be careful with that concept!)
- How to endure failing in front of other people.
- Behind scenes of the comedian’s bit development process
- About the weird news on the Jonesy show.
- Advice for when you feel stuck.
Resources Mentioned:
Guest’s Website
Guest’s Instagram
Software Generated Transcription:
Dan: Jonesy, thank you so much for joining me. Welcome to The Meaning Movement podcast. I’m so excited to have you here with me.
Jonesy: I’m very flattered that you, uh, reached out to me about this and that you considered me podcast worthy. So
Dan: Yes, well, I, I love, I, I love, uh, you just that you have a one word name. Um, you know, it’s like, you know,
I know Pele and I know Joanie, right?
Jonesy: Yeah, the one word name gets me in the door after that. They’re like, you’re just a regular dude. What is this? You’re not, you’re not Madonna. it’s a total bait and switch oh, this is like a Madonna type of person. And then I come in dress like a normal human being. They’re like, you don’t look like a Jonesy one, you know, cuz I mean, when you walk around with a, with a nickname, they just assume you’re an extravagant DJ and I’m not
Dan: Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Well, the question I like to start with is how do you begin to talk about the work that you do?
Jonesy: I begin to talk about the work like that. I do. Like I begin all long monologues with a sip of coffee
Dan: we go. It’s a great, great place to start.
Jonesy: I sort of tell people that I’m a, a creator, uh, I’m really a comedian podcaster at this point, although I’ve done a lot of things. I sort of. Get to say, fortunately that I I’m getting paid to be funny, cuz I pay my bills by doing standup comedy and my podcast between those two things, I’m able to pay my bills.
And I, I’m funny on in, in both of those realms. So I get to say, I get paid to make people laugh and smile. And I mean, because I get to say that I think, you know, I’m like in the 1% of the, probably less. And, and I also feel as though I’m one of the luckiest people in the world. I, I really feel so fortunate to be able to do these things.
And when I’m doing standup comedy, in addition to, you know, trying to bring joy to people’s lives, I get to hang out. The funniest people on the planet, like on a regular basis, people much funnier than me. I get to hang around with them.
Dan: Yeah.
Jonesy: that’s so great. I get to say that too. Like some of the funniest people in the, in the world, I would say in the world professionally, are I get to call my friends, you know, I’m, I’m so fortunate to say these things and, uh, you know, dedicating myself to the, to being an, a comedic artist has really paid off in so, so many ways, and I’m happy in life.
Um, which I think is the most important thing, you know?
Dan: I love it. I love it. I mean, it is, it is a rare and wonderful thing that you get to create, you know, and, and pay your bills, doing, doing something that you love so much. Right. I think there’s so many, so many people trying to make it as, especially in entertainment or any of the creative fields music that you have, like these parallel lives of your, you pay the bills, you know, working your nine to five, and then you, you, you know, pay, pay the, you know, pay your, your creative side by, uh, indulging, indulging in, in whatever other creative activities you have.
How, like, tell me some of the journey, like from, from, I don’t know, let’s, let’s start by just asking. Did you always, uh, imagine yourself being a, a creative and entertainer, a comedian? Like what categories did you use when you were younger, thinking about your future self.
Jonesy: I thought I would be a major league baseball player, but I never got taller than five foot six. So pretty limited. There’s been a handful of guys that have made it at that height, but, uh, you know, I was, you know, I grew up in Boston, huge sports fan red Sox fan, obviously. And I’d spent my, all of my spare time learning how to hit a baseball and throw a baseball as hard as I could.
And, uh, but then I, I discovered music. I started playing and playing music and playing singing in bands and whatnot, and I thought, wow, this entertainment thing is pretty fun. And then when I was in college, I. My roommate was trying to be a comedian and I went to some of his open mics and, and they’re pretty horrible.
Um, know, if, if you’re, if you’re even the slightest bit funny, you would watch a comedy open mic and think to yourself, well, I could do better than this. This is, these are, this is a ho this is it’s some of the worst stuff you’ll ever see, but very entertaining because of that. And I have to say, I re.
Everybody goes see a comedy open mic, cuz if they’re funny, it’s great. If they’re, if they’re really bad, it’s also pretty funny. So, uh so I was pretty inspired by, by what he was doing. And so, you know, he said, well, why don’t you write something and come with me next time? You know? So I did this and then, you know, I, I kept doing it again.
I got kind of the bug, you know, I was like, oh, I wanna figure this out. Cuz you know, the things you think are funny, then you get on stage in the beginning. It hardly ever works. And I, I was very frustrated cuz like, well right, look, I know this is a funny idea or a point of view or an opinion. I must not be saying it right.
Or whatever it is. And I, I thought, you know what, I’m gonna figure this out. And, and it just pulled me into a whole new world of um, standup comedy beginning in Boston. And it led me to move to New York city where I, I, I did a lot of cool stuff. I was there for over a decade when I got to New York, it was like other opportunities came about like acting and.
Doing a, a, a hell of a lot of voiceovers. And I ended up paying my bills with commercials and voiceovers and whatnot, which allowed me to stay in New York and continue to do standup comedy and even write sketches. I sort of explored the writing area, you know, took a screenplay class, you know, like the things that you do when you think you might wanna be a writer.
Uh, and then that took me eventually to LA and in LA other opportunities popped up, um, for acting and whatnot. And then, but also this podcast kind of fell into my lap as well. Someone asked me to, to do it and, uh, to be a content creator on their platform. And they, they paid, they paid me a flat fee from day one.
And then eventually that went away, uh, and they said, well, you can still do your show, but we’re not gonna pay you anymore. And then I had to make a decision. Well, do I keep doing the podcast without, for, with no money. But at that time I had to built up a following already. And some people who were pretty.
Big time fans of it. And, uh, so I continued to do it and I thought I’ll figure out how to monetize later. And so now, you know, I’ve been in this business since, you know, 2004 trying all sorts of things and where I’m at now is, uh, you know, a place where I can, you know, pay my bills, you know, modestly. I mean, I’m not living the high life here, but, but, you know, I think my podcast is the way that it’s growing and the money that it’s, that’s increasing slowly.
I, I see a, a bigger picture for it. I see like a lot of money and a lot of success I can hire teams and do and branch off and maybe create a network. And I just see bigger things for it. Um, because it’s, it seems to be working whatever I’m doing in that place, which is funny because I never of all the things I’ve ever tried.
You know, I’ve been, I’ve been on the Letterman show. I’ve acted in major. Network television shows. I’ve done standup comedy all over the world. You know, I’ve written and produced web series I’ve I’ve, I’ve I’ve shot and edited and put out funny sketch videos. And of all the things I’ve ever done this podcast is like the only thing that ever really seem to touch people, like on a big level, like people just reaching out from all over the world saying that they, how much they love it, which that’s what really keeps me going with them.
So that’s kind of been my journey. That’s where I’m at now. And, uh, so ju
Dan: Yeah. Just incredible journey. And thank you for yeah. Sharing that, that high level. Yeah. Overview. Wh when did you start the, the podcast? How long ago?
Jonesy: so it was the beginning of 2000, I think it was the, was it the summer of 2017? About the middle of 2017? Yeah. So now we’re 18, 19 20, 20. So yeah, going on five years, uh, almost it’ll be, I it’ll probably be five years, like. July or something next month? I think, I think that’s when I start. Yeah. Yeah.
Dan: That’s cool. Very cool. Yeah, we, I started this show 2016, but I’ve kind of had some on, on and off, you know, here and there. It’s always been, you know, just me and, and I have a, an editor I work with, but, um,
Jonesy: and you you’ve taken some, you’ve taken a hiatus or two?
Dan: Yeah. I took a couple hiatuses through there and then like ramped down, slowed down my production to once, uh, no twice, twice a month.
So I was doing like every week, then I dropped down to like just twice a month and that’s been like really sustainable. Um, but I’m about to ramp back up to, and to start doing twice a week, which
is, this show will be a part of, yeah. This show will be part of that, uh,
Jonesy: and, and do you, do you, um, do you sort of organize it like you’re doing seasons or you’re just gonna be ongoing.
Dan: yeah, this we’re treating this, uh, this endeavor with the, the twice a week endeavor as a, as a season. So we’re just gonna do that chunk and then kinda just see how it feels. And then we might, you know, my, my hope is that we do that chunk maybe take a couple weeks off and then just get after it again. Um, but we’re like, yeah, we’re kind of in the midst of the, of the, the chaos of that right now.
So, um,
Jonesy: and what do you, what do you want your podcast to do?
Dan: Oh, that’s a great question. This is great. It’s like, we’re turning the tables here. Um,
well, I want
Jonesy: that on your show yet? I mean, have, has anyone asked you that?
Dan: no, no. It’s usually, I’m usually the one asking the questions here. Um,
yeah. Yeah. I want my show to do two things. One is help people, uh, inspire people to live a life that, that they wanna live, give them and give them the tools to, to get there.
Because I think a lot of people know that they, what, like some of what they want, but they don’t know exactly what to do, you know how to get there. And that’s some of why you feature these stories of folks like yourself, who’ve done these crazy things. and then two, I want, I want it to be a platform where people get to know me and what I’m up to.
Um, cause I have, you know, a business around, around this and of course, and, and those kinds of things. So it’s like a kind of a diving off point. I, my hope is in, into the rest of my content, a helpful free diving off point, um, that, that yeah. Helps people and gets people more engaged in the rest of what I’m up to. That’s that’s my hope.
Jonesy: Great. That’s awesome. Yeah,
Dan: How does that. land
Jonesy: That, land’s amazing. Yeah. Uh, and I think your listeners need to know how important that is to you
Dan: Yeah.
Jonesy: you know, they should be appreciative of what this is and, and, and get what they can out of it. Um, because hearing about someone’s journey is like, You know, I can’t tell anybody how to, how to do what I do.
Cuz when I look back on it, there was so many like what one would call synchronicities. I, you know, that like just these weird opportunities that came outta nowhere, but I had been prepared for them, you know? And the opportunities that you’re prepared for will work out. Sometimes opportunities come by, you’re just not ready.
You’re just not ready. And a lot of those I wanted real bad and a lot of those were the ones that didn’t fall into my lap, but I, I reached out and I tried for that opportunity and it didn’t work. The opportunities that seemed to fit me sort of in some weird way, found me now. I don’t know if this is how the universe works, but I think there’s something to be explored there.
Uh, and so for people that feel like they need to always in whatever endeavor that they’re doing, a lot of times we feel like we have to. really push it really. Um, well, you know, I’m here, but I really need to be here because I’m, you’re comparing yourself to others in your industry maybe. And so you say, you know what, I’m gonna audition for that position, but it’s just so far, you’re not really ready
Dan: Too big of a reach.
Jonesy: Yeah. Yeah. But I find if you just stay in the pocket and you just work on your craft and, and try and compile all the tools in your tool belt to, to, um, you know, to accomplish these, you know, whatever you’re trying to accomplish, just keep at that, the opportunities that find you, they seem to fit and, and it feels good.
You know, it doesn’t feel good to get rejected. Of course you have to, you know, um, I mean, you talk to a lot of people who have, who’ve accomplished hard things. They always say, get to failing, start failing. Yeah. And there’s something to be said about that too. but you know, I, I, I say all this, just to point out that yes, sure.
Shoot for the stars. Shoot for the stars. but in my doing this for so long, like I, I know, and in many different ways, as an actor, trying to shoot for the stars as a comic, trying to shoot for the stars, the stuff that I really pressed for, I never really got the stuff that really, the stuff that I got was the stuff that sort of found me at the right time.
And so, um, that’s, that’s, that’s good to know. And, and, and it can sort of, I hope create a mindset where you just don’t feel sorry for yourself. If you don’t get that big gig or, or whatever, like the stuff that, you know, you don’t get what you want. Sometimes you get what you need as the famous philosopher.
Mick Jagger said. Correct. So like, um, you know, Just working on your craft or working on whatever it is that those are the things you really can control. And then the opportunities come be open to them. And the ones that you’re ready for, you’ll knock out of the park, you’ll hit a home run, and then that’ll be a job for you.
That’ll be a gig for you. And it might be long term like this podcast. I didn’t think it would be this long term. It fell into my lap. I thought I would do it for a year. And now here we are five years later doing it. And, um, having some success with it, I never saw it comment, but all my skills are proper for this podcast.
All the skills, you know, I’m a big, yeah, I’m a big time reader. Right? So my whole life I’ve been a reader. This has nothing to do with entertainment. Right? Big time reader, you know, all of that reading. I can, I can, um, I’m so skilled at reading that when I record my podcast, I can pull up an article and then just jump into it and just start reading and it, and it sounds like I don’t screw up really.
You know, I’m very articulate.
Dan: that voiceover work you did.
Jonesy: All that voiceover work. I did. Correct. Also. Yeah. Yeah. All being a big reader helped me in voiceover as well. So that was something that I, you know, unknowingly cultivated as a skill. And, and so that, and then the improv that I, that I took improv classes, I’ve always been involved in comedy and, and sort of worked on an improv muscle that helps with the podcast as well.
So, you know, just so being funny and, you know, and then I’m, I’ve always been a learned and curious person and that helps with the podcast as well. Cuz if I’m curious and I’m reaching, I’m trying to find, you know, my podcast is weird news, so I do weird news. Five days a week. And I’m just genuinely curious about the weird world that we live in, you know, um, I’m, I’m not interested in news about the Kardashians or any of that crap, you know, that, you know, that doesn’t really, you know, world, world news governments.
And I just, I just can’t stand that stuff. I like the weird crap, you know, so all of this stuff kind of came together stuff and I was, so I was already built for it. I was already prepared for it. Had I just tried to reach out to somebody and look for a gig like this. I, you know, I wouldn’t even know where I would’ve found it, but it landed in my lab and I was ready for it.
And people need to know that. And so wherever you’re at, don’t despair, there’s an opportunity waiting for you. That’s really perfect. You just have to stay in the game. You know, I find just stay in the game. I’ve stayed in the game a, a long, long. And, uh, and it’s hard, you know, they say it’s not a, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.
I think that’s important to remember. Now we live in a world now where, um, you know, a lot of younger generations are, they wanna leapfrog. They’re very impatient. You know, my, uh, my buddy teaches like a, a television hosting class and he teaches, you know, it’s like any questions in the class and all these young, these young.
Kids, I guess you call ’em kids. They’re just young. They’re much younger. You know, they’re younger than us. Let’s say early twenties, they wanna be influences, whatever they’re they’re they don’t wanna learn about how to be a, a good host. Like if you were to host a travel show or something they don’t wanna learn about on camera technique, any of this, they just wanna be, they’re just, how do I get more followers?
How do I get more fo like, uh, you know, so to those people, it is this whole generation that just wanna leapfrog and take the easy way, you know, hard work. You can’t avoid it eventually, you know, you can’t avoid it. And so they don’t want to hear that this is a marathon. They want to think that it’s a sprint, but it honestly, it, you have to know that it’s not like that, that way you can get a mindset and prepare yourself for all the obstacles that you’re gonna hit with.
You don’t wanna be, what are you gonna come up to one obstacle and then quit. This is the kind of, that’s the kind of mindset that they are sort of working with. And you gotta, you gotta think about the bigger picture and you gotta say, this is, this is, this is a long haul. This is a long game. You know,
Dan: Yes. I love it. I’ve been, I’ve been studying myself just a lot about mindset, trying to expose myself to, just level up my thinking. Cause I know that like the way you think about the world changes, changes your reality. Right. And it just so
much aligns
Jonesy: it should. Some people don’t, some people, it doesn’t change them. They’re called,
Dan: yeah, yeah.
Jonesy: Orthodox Yeah,
Dan: it’s just so much aligns with what you’re saying about like when the right opportunity comes, being ready for it. Like, you know, you, they use words like, you know, manifesting and things like that, which like, you know, feel you gets a little woo, woo. But like, I think there’s like some truth to that. Like when you have an intention, you put it out into the world, put out into the universe or, or God, or, or whatever you want.
However you wanna talk about that. Real, that side of reality, like that something will come to you and when you’re ready for it, it’ll be
the right thing. Yeah.
Jonesy: let’s be careful about that though, because I think this whole manifest thing has slipped, so, and some people get it and I think they’re rational with it. I think other people aren’t rational with it. I think they, they believe that now this is, this is, this, isn’t a swooping generalization.
There are, I think, but there’s a subgroup out there that believes that they could spend their time and energy manifesting. Right. That’s not what I do. I, you know what I’m saying is. I don’t know where these things come from. These opportunities. I don’t know where these synchronicities in life. Come from, I don’t think we can explain that.
And I don’t, I’m not very confident. I’m a little skeptical that you can ask the universe with prayer and, and this sort of thing. I’m a little skeptical about that. And therefore not a place I recommend to spend your time, because we don’t know where this stuff comes from. We don’t know what it is.
Alright. Uh, we don’t know that there is magic in the world, but we don’t, I don’t, I don’t believe that we can easily start pushing the control buttons of that
Dan: Mm. Yeah. Yeah, totally.
Jonesy: There’s a lot of these, you know, ideologies though, that would believe that you could, I don’t think it’s, I don’t think it’s fruitful to spend your time there.
It’s fruitful to spend your time working on your stuff, working on yourself, working on your skills, preparing yourself for when those come, you know, that’s I think that’s, I never, I never sat in my room and said, please bring a podcast into my life or please bring, you know, I don’t do that. I just.
Dan: yeah,
Jonesy: I worked on writing jokes, telling jokes.
I work, I worked on, you know, you know, like I was, I mentioned my reading. I was, I’m a voracious reader and writer. And, and I just try to be funny. I take improv classes, you know, if you’re in a city that you can go to UCB and take some CLA take that, like I took sketch writing classes. I was just constantly trying to hone my skills in an area that interests me, that I, that I like, you know, being funny.
I’m not the funniest guy, but I was always somewhat funny and I always liked it. And so spending your energy there, I think this is all we can control you. I don’t think we can control that other stuff. I think that’s left to the universe. I really do. It’s bigger than us. I really believe that. I think what you can control though, is your work, your work and your sweat and, and, uh, you know, and if you’re working is something that you enjoy all the better, you know, that’s a big, it’s a big way.
And why wouldn’t you wanna spend time working? Why wouldn’t you wanna sh if you’re. If you’re an actor, why wouldn’t you wanna spend the weekend shooting a scene with your friends now what’s happening there. You’re learning all the skills that it takes to shoot a scene with people. Maybe you even wanna get behind the camera a little, maybe you wanna edit it afterward.
You know, these are helpful skills. Meanwhile, you’re having a good time. You’re around other actors spending your time where you would wanna spend it anyways, which is doing that thing that you like, that that fascinates you. And it may not make you any money now. And that’s okay too. A lot of people feel embarrassed.
Like I, why should they don’t wanna tell people? Well, it’s just a hobby. That’s fine. That it’s just a hobby look at. We, it’s hard to feed yourself in this world. Isn’t it? It’s very hard to, you know, this is sort of the unfair. Deal that, you know, we co people talk about original sin, original sin. Yeah. Okay.
You know, I was raised Catholic. I don’t know about you, but you know, this original sin, I never bought that. You know, why should I be walking around with this, this guilt that I, of something that had nothing to do with me in my opinion. But what we are born with is this is a tougher road. I think.
the bills to stay here, tougher work, tougher road, man, tougher road. We all deal with that unless you’re wealthy, right? We all deal with that. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with having to pay your bills, work a regular job while you work on your podcast on the side while you cultivate, I don’t know, maybe you wanna be a scuba instructor.
So you spend your weekends taking those courses, you know, upgrading your equipment, going out and working on that as a side career with the hopes that someday it’ll be your main, your main source of income. There’s nothing wrong with this at all. And people shouldn’t feel, you know, demeaned because they wait tab, oh, I’m in Hollywood and they don’t wanna tell you that they wait tables.
You know, I have a lot of friends that are out here that are comedians and then they wait tables and stuff and they they’re embarrassed about it. This don’t be, you don’t have to be embarrassed about it. You, you have. You have to stay alive to do the thing that you love, you know, just stay in the game.
And then you hope that someday, you know, you make a little bit more money in that area that you like a little bit more, a little bit more, and then you get to a point where, ah, now I can just do that, you know,
Dan: That’s so good. It
it’s a,
Jonesy: to shoot for.
Dan: I have an article on my side about, uh, letting go of job shame, which is exactly about this, this idea that, that oftentimes people have, you know, they want, they wanna be doing whatever, pursuing their creative things, but they’re, you know, waiting tables. I was, I was waiting tables at a, at a pizza restaurant when I was first, you know, starting my entrepreneurial journey.
And, and like, sometimes I like would feel kind of embarrassed about that and wouldn’t want to talk about it, but like, like I think what you’re saying, I totally agree. And just want listeners to hear that, like, to that there’s, there’s no shame in putting in your time doing whatever you need to do to pay the bills so that you can then do what you actually wanna do in the rest of your time.
Jonesy: Yeah. One.
Dan: super important truth for people to hear.
Jonesy: One could argue, this is the responsible way to do it. You know, it’s like kudos on you for not just like everybody loves that story about Jim Carey. He lived in his car, he wrote himself a million dollar check and was like, I wanna make it. I mean, we shouldn’t let these, we shouldn’t let these anecdotes be our guide.
They’re so rare. It’s, it’s irresponsible to do it like that in my opinion. And I didn’t do it like that at all. Um, you know, there, of course there are stories like that and they, they inspire us, you know, but there’s one Jim Carey, you know, in, in billions of people that come along, there’s only, you know what I mean?
And, and we can’t hold that up as an example, the, the, the responsible thing to do is do it like you did it and do it. Like I did it and I waited tables too. You know, I did that as well. I’ve done a lot of odd jobs and so
Dan: And it got,
Jonesy: responsible way to do it. Yeah. And you don’t have to feel bad about yourself whatsoever.
What, so you, hell no.
Dan: well, let me, I wanna ask you this. Cause I’m all, I’m, I’m fascinated by, by comedians, by, by standup in particular, cuz it sounds like one of the scariest things in the world to be up in front of a group of people, just you in a microphone and then like and then like what if they don’t laugh?
Right? Like, like from what I hear, you know, I, I, I, I listened to, um, Steve Martin’s book, born, born, standing up not too long ago, talking
about his process I’ve, you know yeah. Read, I I’ve watched, you know, Seinfeld, um, comedian, you know, documentary movie, whatever you know about his whole process. And like, so I I’ve seen you from very much from the outside, like the, the, the work it takes to like build a, to build a standup routine.
And it just seems terrifying. and I’m just curious for you, like, I want to hear you, you talk about like what that’s like and like, how do you, how do you endure like failing in front of people. Because it has to be part of the process, right?
Jonesy: Yeah. It, it, unless you’re a sociopath. Uh well, I mean, there are some people that, that just don’t give a damn and they don’t take in, they don’t even take in social data. Like they
Dan: Their ego is so big. Everything just bounces off.
Jonesy: Like the guy in line, who’ just taking forever to order. And there’s meanwhile, there’s 30 people.
Like, I don’t know where those people get their brains, but they’re out there. Uh, you know, I don’t have that luxury I actually have SELFA I have self-awareness. So,
Dan: you go.
Jonesy: um, you know, everybody’s process is different though, but I think, uh, you know, overall you have to go through the whole bombing. You have to bomb a lot.
You know, when I say bomb, that’s a, that’s a bit of a, that’s a bit extreme, maybe not bomb, but you have to, you have to continuously fail in front of audiences with, um, with your, with your new jokes. I mean, I’m gonna break it down like that. You know, there’s always that growing ping of a new joke and it’s.
You know, as you get better, like now when I write a new bit, I would say I’m probably 75% of the time it works. Cuz now I know what works for me, what my, my style is, what makes sense in, in my act. And I kind of get, I kind of can gauge a little more accurately. What will, what is what the audience will also think is funny that I think is funny.
But even then I’m probably only at 75, maybe 80%,
Dan: Yeah. And you’re like,
Jonesy: right. So that’s for doing that’s from yeah. Yeah. I don’t know anybody, you know, and, and you know, I’ve seen Seinfeld talk about this and this is what keeps him interested in a fascinated and standup comedy is he still feels as though he hasn’t mastered it or figured it out.
And I think what he means is he still isn’t at a hundred percent. Like if you th if you say to yourself, oh, I’m gonna say this. It’s gonna work and you get up there and you say, and, and that’s a hundred percent of the time. you know, I think at that point you would just lose, lose fascination with it.
You know what I mean? So that’s what keeps him going. So for all of us comics, you know, and when we start out, let’s less than less than half of the crap we bring on stage is gonna work. You know, I mean, unless you’re Dave Chappelle, who apparently was funny from the very get go, and, there’s a few cases of that, but for the most, the rest of us PLE in comics, the, there was that process of trying to get better at that.
Well, and, and then throughout that, you just so many failings, you know, wow. I really thought this would be funny, you know? And so you feel that burn again and again and again, and like anything else, eventually it just stops. It just stops bothering you. Like you’re a, you know, in the beginning you go, oh, how am I ever gonna recover from this?
You go home, you question your. Choice. Like, what am I doing? You know, maybe you had three of these sorts of shows in a row where this stuff just isn’t working. And then you, you think about quitting. You know, I’ve been there a few times, especially when I was in New York city, which was just a tough place to, was just tough, but I’m, I mean, I’m glad I did it.
It was, I got better. It’s like you had, I had to go through that. and that that’s hard and it definitely takes, you know, what would that characteristic be? Well, certainly confidence belief in yourself
Dan: Mm-hmm
Jonesy: a little bit of a, I don’t give a, I don’t give a damn attitude, I suppose, letting stuff roll off your back.
Like what do they say? Rolling off your, like a Duck’s back, like water off a Duck’s back is, did I just date myself right there with that? With that archaic analogy, water off, you gotta let it roll off. You gotta roll it off. Well, I think the, the new upgrade is brush the dirt off your shoulder as, uh, who did, Jay-Z say that I’m just trying to be hip
Dan: Yeah. There you go.
Jonesy: I’m trying to connect to your young hip audience here, buddy. Uh, yeah. It takes a lot of these qualities to, to, to get
Dan: to it. That grit Uhhuh.
Jonesy: through that. And, and then, you know, you’re still gonna find yourself in, in situations like that. you know, no matter how many years you’ve been doing it, you it’ll throw you off.
You’ll get thrown off. I liken it to surfing, you know, it’s like surfing. Like sometimes you’ll just be out there all day and as you just can’t catch one, you know, it’s it, standup comedy is a bit like that. And then, so you gotta be cool with just like, all right, today, wasn’t the day, you know, go, I’m gonna go rewrite that.
I’m gonna get back out there tonight. And then, uh, and we’ll try it. We’ll try it again. Maybe you write a new ending. Oh, the ending ain’t working. Let me write a new ending, try it again tonight. Or the beginning. Ain’t working. Let me write a new beginning. And there’s just that, that constant thing until you get a joke to the right place but yeah, I hope that answers your question.
Dan: it does answer it. I mean, it’s at least begins to answer. I just think it’s fascinating, uh, because it is such a vulnerable, like, and I think what’s fascinating about is like so much of so many creative, fields, like everything is done in like that, that work is done in private, like a musician who’s writing a song, they’re not writing the song.
Jonesy: correct.
Dan: They don’t need the audience’s response to write that song. Right. They have the, they have their own response, that’s guiding them. and so, yeah, I just think it’s a real, I I’m fascinated by it. And, and just so I love, I love hearing you
Jonesy: Yeah. I’ve, I’ve done music too, so I can speak to that. Yeah, you can, you, you have the luxury of finishing the song in your bedroom, right.
Dan: Yes.
Jonesy: And releasing it to the world whenever you feel like. And or if you’re a painter, you can, you can just keep working on it before the world even sees it. It’s like, as if the world watched you paint, you know, like they don’t get to, they don’t really see the work in progress, you know?
So that’s a very vulnerable situation, you know, when they’re seeing your work in progress, like that’s, and this is why, you know, some of your listeners might wonder, Hey, you know, I went to see, you know, I was at a comedy club and Kevin Hart showed up and they told me to put my phone away. Why, why is that?
Why can’t I shoot video of Kevin Hart? Because Kevin doesn’t want his work in progress to be shared the rest of the world. You know? So So when Kevin Hart shows up at a comedy club to do us do a, what we call a drop in that’s that’s comedy speak a drop in. Okay. And then when Kevin Hart drops in, if you were supposed to go on stage, you get, you get bumped.
That’s what we call it. So I’m teaching people, some comedy lingo. So you, you would say to another comedy. Oh bro. I got bumped by Kevin Hart last night. And he came in, he dropped in and did 40 minutes. Uh, so that that’s uh, that’s his little, that’s a little lingo in the comic
Dan: this good? Yeah, I love it. I love it. So if you get bumped you’re just out for the night or do you just go on after? Like
Jonesy: it depends on the timing of the show.
So if the, if it happened earlier on in the show, maybe you’ll get to go on afterward. If it’s late in the show, they’ll probably end it after him and by, and by the way, you probably wanna end it after him anyways, like you don’t wanna follow. You don’t want to go on it’s two and a half hours now, and Kevin Hart just got off stage.
You don’t want to go on after that. I’m gonna tell you something that first of all, the people aren’t gonna listen to you. They’re gonna, and most of ’em gonna get up and go anyways, cuz it’s not gonna get any better than that. Yeah. So To get back onto what I was saying. Kevin Hart, when he arrives at a comedy club to do a drop in, he brings security and there, uh, a couple of them will just walk around and make sure people put their phones away specifically.
That’s this is their job. You know, you got guys to protect him security, but then you got guys who just walk around and go, please put your phone away. Please put your phone away, please. And the, you know, that’s hugely important. Dave Chappelle makes you lock your phone up in the bag. When you arrive at his shows, from my understanding, um, you know, we don’t people, they don’t wanna expose their work in work, in progress to the world because it takes so many trial and errors with a bit, depending on how skilled you are.
Maybe Kevin Hart can make a bit work after trying it only 10 times. Maybe let’s say he’s at that level, but still those first three times, they’re not ready for the world. You know, they’re just not. And you have to have that. I mean, it’s easy when you’re Kevin hard, you know, I was gonna say, you have to have thick skin at this point in his career.
People love even the, the jokes that aren’t really working. They just eat it. You know, um, but when you’re starting out, you have to have a really thick skin because people won’t give you the benefit of you being famous to let you get away with some half ass bits and jokes, they will judge you, they will judge you harshly.
And, uh, and so you have to have a thick skin and, and yeah, but if you already, you know, it helps if you have jokes that already work, cuz you worked it out. So you can, you can kind of do a joke. That’s not quite done and maybe it doesn’t go well. And then you can even tell the crowd, you know, we have all these little tricks that we do as comics.
You say like, ah, well, you know, that should have stayed in the notebook. I’m so sorry. And they go, ah, they like that. They like that. Oh you say, oh man, I thought that was funny this morning. I really did. And you know, and I, and so did, so did my landlord, my landlord, or you say like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve said before, this is a great one.
I really thought that was funny this morning. And I, and I said it to my, to my drug dealer. He thought it was pretty good too. I thought I was ready for tonight, I guess not. And then you go into something, you know, already works, you know, and if you’ve been doing it long
Dan: a little bit.
Jonesy: yeah, and if you’ve been doing it long enough, you learn these little tricks and you learn how to make it not burn so bad, you know?
I mean, that’s what we’re trying to like, make it, it doesn’t hurt so bad. It just hurts for a little bit. And then you move on and hopefully you can end the
Dan: more like the duck with the water rolling off its
Jonesy: correct? Correct. Yeah.
Dan: I love it. I love it. Yeah. Thank you for indulging my curiosity there. I think I love hearing comics talk about the creative process and, and writers. Right. And I think it’s because those two, cuz like a writer, a writer writes about writing, right? A writer writing about writing it’s this is meta, but like you don’t get as many, you know, singer song writers writing about their creative process or, or, and so I think there’s also something about, uh, I feel like it’s, it’s, it’s my way in my window into how people think about, about making things.
Um,
Jonesy: you know, and, and you, you alluded to an area you alluded to it earlier. I think people say, they say standup comedies, like the scariest of the art forms. And I, I, I would agree because of this aspect that we’re talking about, because you’re so vulnerable sharing your works in progress, you know, and I think that’s what, that’s the thing you have to swallow as a standup comic.
You have to be like, I have to, that’s the price that you pay. You’re at, you’re extra vulnerable as an artist over, over the other artists. And now we’re in a climate now where, um, you know, people’s people it’s kinda like open season on comics from people that aren’t pleased with their, with what is being said on stage, whether it’s a complete idea or a work in progress, they don’t seem.
They don’t seem to differentiate from, from that. Uh, they’ll just attack you online and, you know, accuse you of being some sort of demon. Um, it seems to be something that’s been going on in the culture recently
Dan: Yeah.
Well, I think it’s interesting, just all on that, because like the, the role of, of the comedian in, in society is like the, like the truth teller in some ways. And,
and so I feel like, so you’re like, I don’t know. I feel like we, we gotta give comedians like the extra permission to, to, to, you know, not be politically and politically correct, or like, whatever it is, because we need, we need people to tell us the truth, right.
The truth that other people can’t say. And that’s why it’s funny. But I also think that I’m, like you’re saying opens the door to, you know, a lot of, I don’t know, crusaders against
Jonesy: don’t, they don’t look at it. Like they obviously don’t look at it like you do, because you’re an, you’re a reasonable human being and you’re intelligent. And you, you understand the importance of it. Yeah. The comedians are like the barometer of the culture. You can tell, we can, we can, in real time take the culture’s temperature.
What are we uncomfortable with right now in the culture? What are our concerns? What are we angry about? What are we happy about? What, what do we like? What don’t we like the comedian can test that in real time. It’s a very powerful tool. You don’t really get that in the other arts. And so, because of that, you know, you need to give the comedians a, a longer leash to
Dan: I agree.
Jonesy: I would argue from a fundamental point of view, second amendment, you know, hands off when it comes to art, just let art be art. The market will, the market will decide what art survives and what doesn’t, you know, the. The comics that people stop buying a ticket for they’ll disappear, they’ll disappear, you know, Louis CK, they’re still buying his tickets.
They’re still downloading his special. So what does that tell you, tells you what he’s doing despite his character is valuable to the culture and that that isn’t upon one person to decide that’s upon the market to decide, you know, the other thing that that comedians do that’s super important is we’re kind of like some therapy for the culture.
You know, we get to talk about things that, you know, by me speaking about something that bothers me in the culture, uh, you know, other people Cathar can feel better about that, but, oh my God, he, he, he feels the same way that I do. I’ve never heard anybody voice it like that. You know, this is very common occurrence with, with comics in a crowd.
You know, we’re, we’re speaking things that they they’ve never heard spoken before, but it, they agree with it or they, they felt maybe they felt they were alone with that thought, oh, I, I thought I was the only one, you know, there’s a lot of instances of that. I’m just giving one example where comics really offer relief to the culture, by speaking about taboo topics or things that bother us or whatever, or making fun of our own plight, you know, and I have a nut allergy, I of a nut allergy joke and, and, you know, people have allergies and out there in the world, they really relate to that joke.
And the way that I talk about it, I’m really like complaining about it and joking about it. They, you know, I’m, I’m touching on something. You know, they, they feel the same way and, and, and they, they enjoy someone being able to joke about an allergy, make light of an allergy. You know, that’s super helpful for them too, you know, not just myself, but to frame it in a way that’s funny.
Maybe they don’t feel so bad about their peanut allergy or whatever the hell they lactose and tolerant, whatever they’re dealing with. You know, a lot of people are in the, right now in the culture can’t and at least in the us, can’t like, there’s some food that they can’t get near and, and I’m, and I’m sort of helping them through that in a way with, with humor.
So, because of all of these reasons, you gotta leave the comedians alone, man. And the people that are attacking us, they really don’t get it. They really don’t get the bigger picture. You know, Marshall McCluen, you know, the media philosopher from Canada, he recognized the importance of, of comics. And, and, and I use that phrase, the barometer for the culture.
I, I I’ve crib that from him, you know, I don’t know if you know, but I’m a reader. So,
Dan: Yep.
Jonesy: uh,
Dan: I’ve heard
Jonesy: yeah, so Marshall McCluen wrote about comedians, their importance in the culture, how they can take the temperature in real time. See what the, see, what the culture’s uncomfortable with. You could still see it now, like, uh, like you would like if I get on stage and talk about Hitler, right?
We’re still uncomfortable with hit. We are still, I won’t talk about Hitler on stage. I will not talk about not, I won’t even say that name because immediately it puts the audience in a very like, Ugh, you know, so you can see in real time, what, what what’s going on with the culture, where, what are our attitudes?
The comic can see that the comic can test that. You know, we’re like a probe into the culture. McCluen knew this. He thought that this was a very important tool for cultural change. And he petitioned the Canadian government to create a comedian university. He had the idea to just
Dan: I
Jonesy: out comedians and send them out into the world.
He thought this was a benefit. You know, it never happened, but that’s how important he thought he thought com comic. Are and were, and he’s absolutely right. You know, but these are, these are people don’t talk about this man. People don’t, people, people don’t realize how important comics are. They just, I mean, some people do you re you do, but you know, I, I, I, I wonder if your attitude is, is kind of rare, um,
Dan: yeah. Mm. I love it. Well, yeah. Thank you for indulging. My, my curiosity around, uh, the comedian, just, just the lifestyle, just the, the approach to your work. It’s, it’s fascinating to me, just to kind of shift gears a little bit. I mean, it’s not that big of a shift, cause I think it’s related. I wanna, I’m curious for you, like how you think about your work and I don’t know, even know what, what words you use.
Some people talk about vocation. Some people talk about calling. Some people talk about purpose. Some people talk about legacy. Like how do you think about if you really zoom out on your career? Let’s fast forward, you know, 20 years. You’re like, what’s, what’s the story you want to be telling in your work?
Jonesy: I often ask myself this, um, like what am I doing with my life? You know,
Dan: Yeah. Uhhuh,
Jonesy: I hit that age when you go, you know, what am I doing with my life?
Dan: Uhhuh.
Jonesy: I like I don’t, I think about the people that have done great things with their lives, you know? And am I gonna go out like someone who just kind of did something great, something kind of cool for a little while.
And then that’s what I did with my life. You know, you know, I’m not a Gandhi or anything like this. Uh, I guess I’d be satisfied if I just sort of brought some joy to people’s lives. and while doing that was able to stay here and live a life myself, and, and enjoy my life, you know, and I, you know, I kind of getting to the point where if the podcast gets as successful, as I think it’ll be, I’ll be able to really do a lot of things that I’ve always wanted to do in my life, travel and stuff.
Dan: Mm-hmm
Jonesy: that would be a big win. And in, in the meantime, I brought some, some joy to people’s lives. I’ve, I’ve been a distraction for people, you know, mainstream news is pretty crappy, right. It makes you feel horrible, you know? And, and so I’m, I’m, I’m delivering five day a week news that, although is news. It’s hilarious.
Oftentimes it’s ridiculous. It’s so. It makes you feel good about your own life to hear about what the people are doing in Florida? You know what I mean? Like, wow, Florida. Oh my God. At least I’m not there. you know, I’m, I’m kind of bringing joy to people’s
Dan: sample? Yeah. Give us a sample of like, tell, tell me some of the, some of the, the weird news. Like what’s a, what’s just what just jumps to your head stories. You’ve uh, you’ve. You’ve unearthed for us recently.
Jonesy: Oh man. So like on Monday’s episode was tremendous was absolutely tremendous. Let me, let me the stories, let me just, do you the headlines just to give people kind of a taste of like what, what you get on it.
Dan: little sampler here.
Jonesy: Yeah. Yeah. okay. 50 Canadians were summoned to instant jury duty while shopping at the mall. So you imagine you’re shopping at the mall and people come up to you and summons you to jury duty.
Sorry.
Dan: Right here. Wow.
Jonesy: court was walking distance by the way. But this is, you know, if, and as an American you’re like floored by that. Like what, you know, we, we never go to jury duty. Never. Like if someone came up to me while I was shopping and told me to go to jury duty, I’d be like, get outta my face, dude.
Uh, walking on hot Kohls is the new company bonding event gone wrong. So I covered a story about a lot of companies. They have these retreats, they do a lot of bonding rituals and they walk on Coles and there have been many hospitalizations because of
Dan: yes. What in the world?
Jonesy: So strange. Right. Weird.
Dan: Yeah. Weird that that would put people in the hospital.
Jonesy: yeah, especially like me.
I don’t, I mean, I, I, I, I’m not a guy who works at a company. Like I don’t, I never heard of such a thing. Like I. I know they went on retreats, but I didn’t know, they did this kind of crap like, wow, what a bad idea. Um, uh, here’s a story, a little controversial, a man denied his blood donation for refusing to answer his pregnancy status. So I like to touch on stories that like that, that there’s some weird things going on in our culture right now with regards to language and, and, and, and people are kind of reacting to it sometimes in pretty funny, strange ways. And so, uh, yeah, that, those are the kinds of stuff that I like to cover on there.
You know, like, I, I mean, some people, like, they think it would be like, oh, you’re doing aliens and Bigfoot. No, no, I don’t do that. I do like weird stuff like that. Like stuff that you’re that’s newsworthy. And then, so that’s Monday through Thursday on Friday. I only do weird news from Florida and that’s how it’s been going for years now.
So Florida Friday.
Dan: Florida gets its own its own day of the
Jonesy: Florida gets its own day, man, cuz it’s so weird. Uh, and, and, and one of my listeners suggested the idea, my buddy Ryan, in Portland, he, he said, you’re doing a lot of Florida stories. You could probably do a whole day of just Florida every week. And uh, I said, you know what, I’ll try it.
And then it ends up, it ended up being the most popular episode of the week. It gets twice as many downloads as any other episode, people can’t get enough of degenerate, Florida behavior, apparently.
Dan: That’s so interesting. I
Jonesy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so we do weird news from the, around the world, Monday through Thursday, and then on Friday only, only from Florida and, and, and people love it.
Yeah. So that’s just the taste of what the podcast is about, but it’s more the it’s more than that, because the way that I cover the stories, I, I really make it fun. You know, I, you know, whenever there’s a quote in the story, I try to do the accent of the person wherever they might be from, or an impression of the person.
I’m always acting out little scenes of how ridiculous this is. And hilarious. This is I’ll even pick up my guitar and improv a song about the situation sometimes. Um, I’ve had situations where I actually, wow, I’m like, this is weird. The zoo did X, Y, and Z. I’m like, I’m gonna call this zoo right now. And, and, and so then I would pick up the phone, I just prank a zoo, you know, like this.
And then I put it in the show. Like, I like to have fun. On the show and people like that, they get it extra. You know, they get, they get a little extra. And then of course my opinions, as you can see, I’ve been, you know, you’ve been interviewing me now for 45 minutes. I have strong opinions. So I bring those into the, into the show as well, which is something you don’t get when you just watch the news, they just tell you the news, they guy doesn’t tell you what he thinks of it.
I tell you what I think of it. And then I invite people to that, listen, to call and gimme their point of view if they want. And then people call the show and I’ll I’ll at times I’ll, uh, publish the phone calls as well of people calling about the previous episode or so. And I invite conversation about some of the topics that are a little controversial, so, and, and those get, we, we get interaction and, and, you know, we learn from that and we grow and it’s always helpful to keep an open mind.
Of course.
Dan: perfect.
Jonesy: so yeah, the show’s a lot of things.
Dan: ther. Yeah. Yeah.
Jonesy: but, you know,
Dan: to see it.
Jonesy: I try to be entertaining and educational. Those are the, those are the primary things funny as well. Funny is, so those three, those three, well and reliable, you know, I, I don’t miss a day. I try not to miss a day. I try to be there. Yeah. Like, you know, like you would take in your CNN or your NPR news.
I try to, um, every Monday through Fri Friday, do not miss a day. Make sure I get the episode up no matter what I’m doing. No matter what, if I’m traveling, I, I do it. I, I, I do it. People want it, they want to take it in. Like they take in their daily news. I’m part of people’s daily news lineup and I gotta be reliable and I gotta be there for them.
And now, you know, I’m at, I’m about to hit 1300 episodes. So it’s like, it’s like a lot.
Dan: That’s wild. That’s
awesome. Great work. Great work. Hmm.
Well,
Jonesy: Yeah.
Dan: just as we kinda move toward, toward, towards wrapping up, you know, a lot of people that are listening are at some place in their life where they’re they need, they don’t know what they, they don’t know what they, what they need sometimes.
Like they feel stuck in some way. And I’m curious if you just have any words of encouragement, maybe from your own story, or just, you know, general, general words of encouragement to people who feel stuck in life, trying to figure things out, trying to, to, you know, make a life that that’s meaningful to them.
Anything that you would say to listeners right now,
Jonesy: Well, it’s hard to tell people what to do in that instance. you know, I don’t have all the answers to that. The good thing is we live in a very special time where we have the web, which allows you to either directly try, try out your interests or join up in a community, even remotely that shares that same interest so that you can either get into it through them or get more information through them.
No matter what you’re interested in, you know, there’s kids right now. And. Who knows Chihuahua, Mexico that want to try standup comedy. They have no idea how to do it, you know, but they can, they can get on the web. They can find other comics near in their area or, you know, the nearest major city, whatever, you know, there’s ways there’s tools out there.
If you know what your interest is, there’s tools out there to get there. So that, but when they’re feeling stuck, that’s tough, you know, it’s tough. One could one could say to them, well, just try all the things, make a list of the things that fascinate you and then get out there and try them all, or get involved in the communities that would allow you to be around it.
You know, it might be a club of some sort, maybe you just, you know, and you know, I don’t know how helpful that is, but what I think is really helpful is that I could tell people don’t worry. Like there’s no, I tell people this all the time is not to worry. You know, worry is preposterous, worry, worry, implies that you actually can, can predict the future.
You know, it implies that you can predict the future. If you’re worrying, it really does. You know, because you don’t know a failure in the present can open all sorts of opportunities in the future. You have no idea. Let’s, let’s use it as a, as an example, how many of us have gone through a breakup? A lot of people can relate to this.
Uh, how many of us during that breakup feel like this is the end of the world. You’re going through role failure. You’ve lost your best friend. Your routine is tossed away. masturbation is now a part of your life. Again, you know, this is like , uh, you know, all of the things that this, the breakup throws at you, you know, and, and you just want to, sometimes it’s like the withdrawals are like, as bad as heroin or something from a breakup right.
In the present moment. And then how many of us have gone through that? And then down the line, we meet someone who’s actually a better fit. It’s actually a better relationship. Why would, and then you say why, so this is an example you can’t tell the future. You know, a lot of, a lot of opportunities come out of you get fired from the gig that you currently have.
And then the better gig comes down the road. I mean, you hear again and again, not just stories from super successful people, but regular people like us and our friends will tell you, they all have an example of this, where they suffered through something in the present, but it was. A better opportunity, descri uh, disguised as a failure, as a fall on your face, as a kick in the nuts, it was actually disguised as that.
So to worry, knowing that you just don’t, don’t worry, like, you know, like, there’s this great, this great old school, Chinese story that I I’ll tell sometimes I’ll tell my friends where, you know, there’s this farmer, you know, this old man farmer, he’s got all this land. He got, he’s got no animals though. He’s got a, he’s got a nice area that’s fenced in, but no animals.
All of a sudden these wild horses jump the fence, they jump into the, into his land and they’re just grazing and, and his neighbor comes over and goes, Gary, that’s not really a Chinese name, but he said, Gary, you got all these wild horses on your land. Now this is great. It’s like free horses, man. How fortunate and Gary was.
Fortunate. We don’t know this could be good. It could be bad. And his neighbor’s like Gary, Gary, you’re ridiculous. You know, he walks away. He thinks Gary’s ridiculous. Cuz clearly he’s got these free horses. How could that not how could that be bad? Well, here’s how it was bad. two weeks later, one of Gary’s son’s his own, I should say Gary’s only son, 18 years old.
He’s trying to break in one of these wild horses. He gets tossed and he lands strangely on his leg. He breaks his leg in 10 places. Horrible, horrible. He’s in traction with his leg. He’s like he’s outta commission. The neighbor comes over and go, Gary. I, I heard about your son breaking his leg badly. That’s compound fracture.
Horrible, man. This is terrible fortune. I’m so sorry for you. And then Gary says. We don’t know if this is terrible fortune, we can’t judge this. It could be good. It could be bad. And the neighbor’s like, Gary, you really need to see a therapist. I think Gary, but whatever, I’ll see you tomorrow. So cut to a couple weeks later, the army comes into town and the army takes all the young men and conscripts them off to a war that everybody knows is not gonna work out.
All the young men are taken except for Gary’s son, whose leg was screwed up. He’ll never walk the same again. They couldn’t take him. He’s useless. And the neighbor comes over and the neighbor says, Gary, they took both of my boys, but you still have your son. This is what amazing fortune man. You’re such a lucky guy, Gary, that you still have your son.
And then of course, Gary says, I don’t know if this is good or bad. I can’t judge on this. It might be good. It might be bad. Come on. And of course the neighbors like Gary. You, you need to take pills, man. You need some, you need, you really don’t have a, you know, , you know, and, and the point of that story is to just show you that, you know, you can’t really judge these situations, the things that are happening to you in, in the present it’s unless you can read the future.
And we really can’t. So, you know, not to say that I don’t suffer still. I, I obviously it’s hard when stuff happens. I, you know, a breakup is, would, would be tough for me as well. I had one, you know, and it was hard recently. but I remind myself these things, I say it’s preposterous to worry, you know? And so I.
I ask your, your listeners too, to think about that, you know, no matter what situation you think, you think you’re stuck in life or whatever it is. And we all, a lot of us feel this way. Life is so hard. It’s so goddamn hard, man. And, um, but you know, don’t worry, like just, it’s not productive to worry. And it, it really implies that you can, you can, that you’re Noam that you can foresee the future and you can’t, you can’t, you really can’t.
So don’t worry. There’s no need to worry. Just keep your head up. You know,
Dan: It’s a great message. Message to leave with listeners. Thank you.
Jonesy: I hope so. I hope I was helpful to some people out there that feel stuck in life, man. I, I get it. I’ve been there
Dan: Yeah. Yeah. We all, we all have.
Jonesy: yes. It’s part of it. You bought a ticket, you take the ride. That’s part of the ride, but I think you can, if you can just have another. Just a little lighter attitude about, about the things that are happening to you that are displeasing.
Like, just keep that in mind. Don’t, don’t worry. This could be a great opportunity disguised as a calamity, you know,
Dan: That’s that’s a great, that’s a great, yeah. A great invitation. Thank you so
Jonesy: and, uh, I will be, uh, I will be gathering in the park to speak to all my followers. If anyone wants to show up
Dan: and drink some Kool-Aid
Jonesy: you said Koolaid.
Dan: oh, now. Yeah. No. Now I’m really dating myself. Right. well, for folks that wanna follow along, you know, like what would you like to invite people to here?
Jonesy: Oh, well, if they like my personality, then, uh, you know, they can, they can enjoy it on a daily with my podcast, uh, weird AF news, uh, podcast, which is it’s available everywhere. So any, any podcast player that you listen to, or you can even tell your smart speakers to play it and it’ll play it. And it’s EV it’s on YouTube as well.
And I have a website weird AF news.com where you can go and you can click on the various podcast players there or play it right on the website. You could join my Patreon from there as well, if you wanna support. So I would say, I would say, um, do that. And if you happen to be in Southern California, you wanna come see a show or something, cuz I’m, I’m, I’m performing mostly around here.
Um, I post everything that I’m doing on Instagram at funny Jones. So at funny Jones. Oh, and I just, oh, this is, this is great timing cuz I just put out a new series. So it’s a new series. It’s called comedians react and it’s, um, me and a com a comedian named Dwayne Perkins. Who’s very successful between us.
We have, um, 40 plus years of standup comedy experience. We, uh, we watch a clip of a comedian that has inspired us and we break it down from a very technical, standup comedy perspective. That’s not, it’s not for everybody. You have to really, really like standup kind of nerd out about it. Someone like you, I think would like
Dan: I think I’d like it. Yeah,
Jonesy: Yeah, because you can really, there’s a, you can really get some insight into, uh, you know, approaching jokes, approaching, uh, you know, the craft. We get pretty technical about it, about the joke and the person and where they’re at in their career. Our first episode was Dave Chappelle and we chose one of his jokes off his very first comedy special called killing him softly, which is a classic.
Uh, comedy special that everybody should watch. So we picked a really cool joke off of there, and then we just broke it down and we just like, what’s going on here. Look at how, how, how, like the words he chooses for instance are very deliberate. You know, we, we get into all of that. And so if you’re a standup comedy nerd, you’ll, you’ll really, you would really like it.
So, so that one, we don’t have a website for that. So if you type, I mean,
Dan: Yeah.
Jonesy: On my Instagram at funny Jones, there’s a link tree link in the, in the, um, in my profile. And if you just click on that, that’ll take you to all the places you can get. So you can watch it on YouTube. You can listen to it as an audio podcast.
I recommend watching it on the YouTube because then you can see the comic, you know, you can see Dave Chappelle’s bit and all that you could still, you can still learn from the listening podcast. So it’s, we offer it on all the, the audio platforms as well. Um, but I think watching it on the YouTube is, is, is better.
Uh, but yeah, so at funny Jones is my Instagram at funny Jones and in the profile, there’s a link and it’s to comedians react or on YouTube, if you do comedians react, Jonesy, it’ll come up.
Dan: I love it. This has been so much fun. Thank you so much for, for, uh, yeah. Coming on with me and just sharing so much and it’s been, it’s just been a blast, so
Jonesy: Oh, thanks Dan.
Dan: to, uh, yeah. looking forward to staying connected. Thanks
Jonesy: Yeah. Yeah, please. Absolutely. Let’s do that.
Dan: Yeah, love it.
