From Ice Cream Truck Hustler to 1 Million Followers—He’s in Milwaukee

SPEAKER_03
0:00

But all these other New York City clubs, nobody gave me an opportunity. So I just said to myself, you know what? This industry. Everything now is about building your own platform. And I just went all in. I'm meeting 300 people to 500 people city. I'm handing out flyers out the wazoo. I'm having ra il real conversations with people.

SPEAKER_01
0:21

Hey guys, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut. It's your host, Richie Burke, and today I'm co-hosting with Mayor Tommy. We've got comedian Tony Dabas hailing from the beautiful area of Staten Island on today's episode. He'll be performing at Vivarium, a great new venue over on the East Side. We were just there for Three Sheeps Battle of the Bands a few weeks ago. It's an awesome venue. He's performing at Vivarium this Saturday, so make sure to get your tickets for that. Tony D will be putting on a good show. We also put out a video, New Yorker hijacked some Milwaukee history tour on social media last week with Tony. Um, just a one-man wrecking crew. It was fun roaming around the city of Milwaukee with him. He's very talented. He's got, I believe, over a million followers. He's gotten over a billion views on his videos. He's got some of the best skit videos on the internet, and he's doing shows all the time. Just an absolute grinder. In this episode, we go over his backstory, which bounces back and forth between comedy and running an ice cream truck. His biggest break, bouncing back from a heart attack, getting inspired creatively, and more. Before diving in, I just want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee on Cup possible. We'll kick it off with Nicola, the Middle West law firm injured. Get Nicolay and Russ and the team will take good care of you. Drink Wisconsin Lee Beverage Company, best vodka, brandy, and canned cocktails in the game, available at bars and liquor stores across the state. And now at Amfam Field at their corner bar in Wright Field. And last but not least, our good friends over at Annex Wealth Management. If you're looking to get your finances together and have a goal that deals with your money, your earnings, your investments, go talk to the experts at Annex. They have an amazing team ready to listen and help you with your personal goals. Annex Wealth Management, know the difference. All right, let's dive in with Tony D. Alright, we've got a comedian straight from Staten Island experience experiencing Milwaukee for the first time? Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_03
2:22

First time I've been to Madison before. That doesn't count, Tony D.

SPEAKER_01
2:26

That doesn't count.

SPEAKER_03
2:27

I realize, yeah, yeah. I realize how many college kids were there. Let me get out of here before I catch a case in this file.

SPEAKER_01
2:32

He's been to W.

SPEAKER_03
2:34

Am I allowed to curse on this thing? Yeah. Okay, good. I'm just making sure.

SPEAKER_01
2:37

Yeah. You want to redo it? B you. B U. All right, beautiful. Or did you want to drop four F bombs in the in the opening sentence? We need to restart this. Okay. Um he's got a million followers. Has some of the best skit videos on social media. God, man, you're absolutely phenomenal. I mean, the the the white guy who just found out he's 8% black. That was that was the banger.

SPEAKER_03
3:01

My co-stars were helping on that too. They were good. Yeah, they were good. They were good. The key thing is to just get good, like no matter how popular someone is, it doesn't matter. Like you guys get good chemistry. You know, like friends, you ever see friends, the show? That that show, no one was famous before the show happened. So I try to make my skits. I grab the best people and I put them together.

SPEAKER_01
3:22

The New York dads on 4th of July. Oh, that was that was a bang or two. Which one though?

SPEAKER_03
3:26

There's two the one that was under investigative. Because the first one was sanitation guys. I I went to the sanitation place and I'm like, these guys are great. They just walk around like they look like they're in the mob. I'm like, what do you guys do? Sanitation. I'm like, all right, can you want to be in a skit?

SPEAKER_01
3:42

I liked the cops one when you were like, what's your number? 1-800 jerkoff? Yeah, that was that was that was good. That was I liked that one. That was my I like that was my favorite one of the of the two.

SPEAKER_03
3:51

Staten Island is like a lot of mob. I mean, I heard there's a lot of mob shit out here too, though, no? Like Chicago, Milwaukee, because it's close to the border of Canada.

SPEAKER_01
4:00

I don't know how much mob shit is still. I think there was some back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Not New York. You're Italian?

SPEAKER_00
4:08

No. No.

SPEAKER_01
4:10

He's Jewish. No. Austrian. From from Ohio, actually. Get out of here.

SPEAKER_03
4:15

Ohio's nice, dude.

SPEAKER_01
4:16

Yeah, you were just there. You had a nice small town encounter over there.

SPEAKER_03
4:20

Oh no, that was Fort Wayne.

SPEAKER_01
4:21

Indiana. Fort Wayne. Fort Wayne, Indiana. We passed through there at all, Tom.

SPEAKER_00
4:25

Oh yeah, crossroads.

SPEAKER_01
4:26

Oh, we got we got the mayor co-hosting the episode as well.

SPEAKER_03
4:29

Let's go. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01
4:31

Tommy Violet in the building. How are we doing?

SPEAKER_03
4:33

Tom Tommy, how do you say your last name? It's Violet. Violet. Tommy Violet. Pleasure to officially meet you. Pleasure, brother.

SPEAKER_01
4:40

Yeah, Fort Wayne.

SPEAKER_03
4:41

Fort Wayne, yeah, it's a lot of characters out there, bro. A lot of characters. It's uh everywhere you go, like you just gotta kind of like I personally do a lot of uh self-deprecating humor, like stand-up, but also observational. So like I just let people, if you just let people speak, they'll make themselves they'll the funny will come out. Like, you know, you just gotta let them speak. You know, that's what I realized.

SPEAKER_01
5:02

Yeah, and anyway, if if you do want to see this guy live, he's gonna be back in town at Vivarium August 1st.

SPEAKER_03
5:08

August 1st.

SPEAKER_01
5:09

August 1st.

SPEAKER_03
5:09

Is it Vivarium?

SPEAKER_01
5:11

Yeah. What did you think it was?

SPEAKER_03
5:12

Vivarium. I was calling it the wrong thing. I was telling people like, where is that? I'm like, no, no, no. It's right, it's it's nice. So there is there another Pabst Theater or is that the first only one there?

SPEAKER_01
5:22

The Pabst group owns about five venues in the Tom.

SPEAKER_00
5:26

I I couldn't name all of them, but yeah, it's it's like five or six.

SPEAKER_03
5:28

Oh, that's why when I tell people, I'm like, I'm at the Pabst Theater, they're like, oh, wow, you're at the PAPS. Just tell them that.

SPEAKER_01
5:34

They'll think you're more important.

SPEAKER_03
5:36

I'm like, I'm like, yeah, I'm like, yeah, I'm at the PAPS. You know, the the big one down a block. You gotta look it. That's the one I'm at. I'm at this decide location.

SPEAKER_01
5:45

Because they got the PAPS, they got the high life theater, and then it's got Bavarium.

SPEAKER_00
5:50

There's a couple more that like you wouldn't even know. Like they don't even leave.

SPEAKER_01
5:54

Bavarium's the newest, though. Really? So that is special right there. Means there's gonna be. So don't give it too much shit. It's it's they did a nice job.

SPEAKER_03
6:02

Oh, I'm kidding around. They actually I heard really good things about it, and honestly, the way they manage their accounts and how they run ads immediately, they you can tell they're very like on point.

SPEAKER_01
6:11

Yeah, they got they do a good job. The independent independent group. Uh no, I don't think they're Italian.

SPEAKER_03
6:18

They're Austrian, like Tommy.

SPEAKER_01
6:19

Gary Witt. Wit Wit Wit is the owner's last name. Really? Yeah. Okay, I never thought he's white. I don't know what nationality he is. He's he's white.

SPEAKER_03
6:29

He's a white man, bro. Hold on. So you guys, I'm looking at these cameras and they got solid state hard drives plugged right into them, huh? Wow.

SPEAKER_01
6:38

I can't speak to any of that. Richie's terrible with technology. Yeah, yeah. Who sets that up? Nod tech guy. Bree's pre Bree's good with it.

SPEAKER_03
6:45

Bree, you do all that? Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_01
6:47

I'm Bree does a lot here.

SPEAKER_03
6:49

They let women do a lot more in here than New York. No. I'm just kidding, Bree. I'm talking about. My brother, you know.

SPEAKER_01
6:58

We're all about women in power. Our team is mostly women. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
7:02

Yeah. Listen, my mother still folds my laundry. No.

SPEAKER_01
7:07

Some other woman. No, no, no. We're gonna take you around a little bit after this. You've been here for uh not quite 24 hours, but you were moving around a little bit. What do you think of Milwaukee so far? You were down at Festa Italiana?

SPEAKER_03
7:20

It's very yeah, very cultured. Like a lot of different culture, a lot of uh Italian, a lot of Arabs, a lot of uh just ethnic, the food's great, a lot of Greek culture in here. Super, super cool town, and then the beachfront and the lakefront was gorgeous.

SPEAKER_01
7:34

Are you just saying Greek culture because you went to Oakland Euros in the Giannis mural yesterday?

SPEAKER_03
7:39

You know, a lot of Greek when I say Greek, I mean like there's very few, but uh it it's powerful.

SPEAKER_01
7:45

But they make their presence felt.

SPEAKER_03
7:47

Yeah. Well, there's not a lot of Greeks. I I I because I read that ChatGPT told me, I mean, I guess it's telling me the wrong thing.

SPEAKER_01
7:53

I'll be asking ChatGPT. Hey, we're asking for your actual opinion, not what ChatGPT told you before you got. Did you really get here last night? You fucked me over there.

SPEAKER_00
8:02

Chat, help me right now.

SPEAKER_01
8:04

So you got you guys all grew up here. Tom grew up in Ohio. I mean, I grew up I grew up in Madison, where you were. Oh, wow. So you did a show in Madison.

SPEAKER_03
8:12

So Madison's like known as a college town.

SPEAKER_01
8:15

Yep. Madison's a big college town. That's where University of Wisconsin is. That's a great town, right? Right between two lakes. They got the isthmus, the capital.

SPEAKER_03
8:22

The isthmus. Oh, yeah, the capital.

SPEAKER_01
8:23

It's an isthmus. An isthmus is a town between two lakes. Not quite a peninsula like Florida, because that has an end to it. Like if Florida had another piece of land on the end of it, it would also be an isthmus.

SPEAKER_03
8:37

You gotta love the way he speaks, right? He speaks like he puts so much thought into every sentence before he speaks it. Yeah, it's very like they should make he should do audiobooks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
8:46

Yeah. I think that that's that's a nice compliment. Great voice. Absolutely, great voice. Thank you. Most people just think I'm stoned, but I don't smoke at all.

SPEAKER_03
8:56

It's fine. It's better than saying rushing to speak and saying the wrong thing like I do most of the time.

SPEAKER_01
9:01

I need to when we do social media videos though, I need to really like kick it into a different gear that I'm not used to because you can't be that slow on those.

SPEAKER_03
9:09

But um Yeah, yeah. No, it's good though, man. I feel like for podcasting, it sucks you in and like almost like uh in a good way, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00
9:18

When you're like doing skits, do you have to like do you like get in your own head when you're doing them? Or like how does that be?

SPEAKER_03
9:23

No, no, no. I've always been around I've been in the film business for years. Like I started I have my own sketch comedy show when I was in 2015. Yeah, uh, with this dude, Reggie Green. We had a show on online, it was you know on TV, public access. It wasn't successful, and I just didn't have my heart into it. And then I quit, I quit doing the videos there, and then I kind of just got back in the stand-up like six years ago, and then three years ago, I was like, I've always been around the film business. My brother's a director, so like once it's really just like locking into it. So I I I don't know if you paid attention to the number of posts I have over the last three years. I put up 2600 videos, so it's like you know, it just becomes like second nature, like you don't realize it, but when you do something over and over, it just gets at first my first video Are you editing a lot of those? I edit every video. Jesus. I edit every video, I could even edit my stand-up, I just don't have time. So I have a couple of editors now. Uh I film like people always like, oh, who's filming your videos? I film on a Sony camera, like an FX3, but I'll just get like if I don't have my film guy with me and I'm at right, I'll just be like, hey buddy, like this homeless guy here holds your $10. Can you film this? And I yo, you love the the camera movement. It's like a little raw and shaky. It's the crackhead down the block that was filming by Lake Superior.

SPEAKER_01
10:44

So, you know Lake Michigan tone. Lake Michigan, yeah. Lake Superior's uh north.

SPEAKER_03
10:50

No, I filmed one over there. Okay. When I was in Canada, I was in uh London and uh I wasn't special ed though. I was I hadn't were you guys in special ed by HS? No.

SPEAKER_01
11:00

I was in the uh LDC. Geniuses. Geniuses were were were were they called it the Learning Disability Center, but I know the D student Learning Development Center, but but everyone called it the Learning Disability Center in high school. I I was I was up in there.

SPEAKER_03
11:15

Me too. You know, this is the thing. I feel like creatives are always labeled as like, oh, special ed or uh needs like a learn like um extended uh time and and test because we're focused on a million different things. They're like, oh, this guy, we can't figure him out. Like, no, he's creative, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01
11:32

But you can lock in when you're interested in something.

SPEAKER_03
11:35

So when I when I do these videos, like I get so into the character that sometimes I'm like, this sit this like the scene is over, but I'm still going. Like I'm like we were doing a car scene the other day with getting chased, and I fucking tick off on the guys, and I'm like going 110. The guys like, yo, it's over. The scene's over. But I'm like about to go over the bridge, and I'm like, motherfucker. It's just you put the glasses on, and it's just it turns on. Who the fuck are you guys? How the hell did you get here? Were they sitting there the whole time? Who's she? Why is she pressing buttons? Where do those wires go? Is that the FBI? No, kidding.

SPEAKER_01
12:10

Have you ever like got in trouble or got called on by the police while filming a skit?

SPEAKER_03
12:15

So this is the thing. I'm very connected on Staten Island, New York, uh, even Connecticut, like the whole East Coast, everywhere I've ever gotten.

SPEAKER_01
12:21

So if you're going 120, they'll just be like, it's Tony D and he's got a skit to do.

SPEAKER_03
12:25

So like if I was doing 120 and I got pulled over on Staten Island, I mean, listen, off the record, you know, I'm saying, like, off the record, I just call Trump. I'm like, yo, homie, what up? Yo, Trump, pardon me, real quick. No, kid. No, no. I uh I you know what it is. I have a lot of friends that are law enforcement. I also used to be the ice cream man on Staten Island. So certain areas, I feel a little bit more invincible. Like it, like, let's just put it this way in New York or the whole tri-state area, I'm the like the guy out there. So like if they were to pull me over, 99% of the time they'd know me. I I think it's all about like this too. Um, it's all about what do they call that, law of attraction. And when you believe something, I I believe that I like I know that I have multiple PBA cards of very high levels of law enforcement, deputy inspectors, and all this. So because I have that, I know that they're not like if I did get pulled over, I most likely will talk myself out of it. By by doing that over and over, it's convinced me that I am not gonna get in trouble. Which which the belief of that is attracting less police in my way. Because when I'm speeding, they're just never around.

SPEAKER_01
13:39

You know, so I think it's like a part of This is great advice for the listeners out there. So just go go 110 and you just if you pretend you're in a skit.

SPEAKER_03
13:47

Yeah, if you no, no, not even that. If you just like you believe you're not gonna get pulled over, most like but it like a for instance.

SPEAKER_01
13:52

It's the whole key visualizing something before it happens, right? What athletes do, you're just kind of doing that with the police.

SPEAKER_03
13:58

So a hundred so like a law of attraction, you guys believe in that? Yeah. So I gotta be honest with you, I've always been a very firm believer in believing in the thing, and then it becomes true. Now, with that being said, you can't just say, okay, I'm gonna have a Ferrari one day and do nothing and sit on your ass because you're you might say, Oh, I'm gonna get a Ferrari, I'm gonna be rich one day, but you don't truly believe that. But now, if you're like, okay, I'm gonna get a Ferrari one day, I'm gonna be so set up, and now you got a podcast, and now you're meeting with people, and now you're doing steps every day to achieve that goal that you want to have, that becomes more realistic in your mind, which brings the universe, attracts that thing to you more. It's really like the law of attraction is real, but action needs to be taken into making that a reality. And the more you think it and do it, the more it becomes believable inside. Because you if you say it, but you don't really believe it, it'll never happen. So you have to believe in that and that's like all the stuff I do is that's how it, you know. I knew I was gonna be I knew I'm gonna sell out the garden. I didn't do it yet, but I knew that I I'm capable of doing something big when I was 22. Then I quit comedy, left, worked on the ice cream truck again, got back into comedy. Actually, I worked in the film business with my brother. Uh my bro, I've been working in the film business in this type of stuff. You know, I was a grip, I was a lighting guy. Uh if you look on on IMDB, I have like 10 credits, you know, for being a dolly grip, uh assistant camera, I was a focus puller. Um, I've always known that I was gonna be doing something big, but I never applied myself. The more you apply yourself, the more you see that thing possible.

SPEAKER_01
15:40

Yeah. So I I listened to a podcast you were on. It seemed like you were making some good money at a young age, being the ice cream guy.

SPEAKER_03
15:49

Yeah, I was making some good money. I mean, uh, it's uh, you know, I'd rather you know, technically, some people would say they were you know skimming off the top, some of these guys. Me, I never took part in that, you know what I'm saying? Allegedly, that's what some of these guys used to do. Uh, but me, I always, you know what I'm saying, I'm a Christian.

SPEAKER_01
16:08

So I'm in the ice cream business.

SPEAKER_03
16:10

The ice cream business is kind of interesting because like, you know, uh people I used to overcharge people too. I mean, listen off the record. But nope, listen, people get overcharged all the time. It's about how you how do you feel about the transaction, right? Now, if I sell you something and you love my product and you think that it's you had a great deal, like I'm like, ah, it's a thing. Like, when somebody comes up to me with the with the ice cream, maybe you don't put this in there, I'm just telling this for you guys.

SPEAKER_01
16:38

Maybe yeah, I think this is riveting. Keep going.

SPEAKER_03
16:42

I hope I don't get in trouble for this one. Uh wait, isn't it's past the statute of limitations? Um, so listen.

SPEAKER_01
16:48

Yeah, this was decade a decade and a half ago, baby. Exactly. Yeah, you're you're you let it rip.

SPEAKER_03
16:53

So, oh damn. This is what happens when the production. What happened here? Bray, come on. Nah, she's a good kid. She's been yeah. Oh, this is what happened? Short circuited?

SPEAKER_02
17:06

That's what happens.

SPEAKER_03
17:08

But what I was gonna say is um so like when somebody I know this is bad, but I was raised by criminals. Okay, let's just be honest. I was raised by criminals, I was very big into the mob stuff. Uh but your parents were criminals? No.

SPEAKER_01
17:20

Or you were just around criminals. My neighborhood's neighborhood.

SPEAKER_03
17:23

My neighborhood was a lot of criminal. Like in Staten Island.

SPEAKER_01
17:26

It's Staten Island.

SPEAKER_03
17:27

So there's a lot of like mafia guys, like the vibe was very mafia. So I kind of like took that. Um, it's all good. It's a sign from God. They don't like this. They don't need to talk about this anymore. I'm random myself. It's all good. Oh, is it the plug? It's all good. So um you know, it it's funny because like someone could be I'm very aware. Let's put it that way. And I'm not saying I take advantage of people. Everything I've ever done wrong in life has been taken from me. Let's put it this way. All right, before I say with this being said, I lost probably close to half a million dollars in the stock market over the last couple years. Um like a lot of money. All the money I ever stole or took or did the wrong way, like, you know, things with, it didn't work. Life didn't it life adjusted it, you know, because I'm a man of God, I believe in believe in it, I believe in God. I for the last six years I've haven't touched a single thing, I've been doing the right thing, uh, and that's why I'm winning now. I'm finally winning, I'm building a uh a name and money and everything off of my own name, and I'm building a career. In the past, though, when somebody comes up to the truck, I'm studying them. I mean, I study people from a young age. I can see this guy comes up, hey, what's going on? Like, I'll give you a people used to let's just say somebody used to come up to me, I'm sorry, they used to come up to me like this, they'd be like, What's going on? Then I come to the truck, yeah. It's on me, whatever you guys want. It's on me. How much, buddy? And the guy's like this. He's got like he's got like money. He's buying three cones, but he's handing me this. He's handing me this. Yeah, it's just whatever they want, don't worry about it. And I'm like, uh, it's uh let me see that. I'm like, uh, it's uh it's 40, but just give me 30. Meanwhile, it's 25. So technically, was I stealing or was I creating opportunity for myself? And then the guy's like, don't worry about it, take 40. And I rip them off, and he's giving me a tip. So if anything, I think I think I'm pretty smart, you know? That's how I look at it. But uh listen, not only that, like I built up my ice cream business like when the when when the like I used to be, first of all, I consider it hazard pay. All right. I'm gonna make I'm making a movie about this one day. I'm already started writing it. But like I used to drive these ice cream trucks. These ice cream trucks are all illegally rigged up, none of them have the proper, like they're not brand new. These are like from 1967. They smell like diesel, you're breathing in fumes, they got no air conditioning, you're working 13 hours a day. I was the top, I was one of the top earners, you know what I'm saying? So I used to make you know uh 25% of whatever I sold. But I was still I was bringing in two, three thousand dollars a week uh uh a day off the ice cream truck, and these other people were only selling a thousand. So if I hand if everyone was selling a thousand and I'm handing in, you know, uh two thousand, meanwhile there's twenty five hundred, you know, I mean, who's gonna know? You know, maybe cut that part. But I'm just you know, uh just for you guys to understand that the scale of what I did. But yeah, I mean, listen, for for what it's worth, I don't think that stuff is good. I'm very ashamed of myself. Everything I ever stole got taken from me. But you know, and in all fairness, the people that hired me before they owned the business, they used to do the same thing. It was like a known thing. Like everybody's like, yeah, when it was standard that we all stole 300 a day, and then all the drivers they spoke to. Long story short, I'm not proud of it, but yeah, I moved on. Yeah, but yeah, that's that's the truth, you know.

SPEAKER_00
21:20

You know, you spoke about like law of attraction, and like it sounds like you've gone through like you know, a lot of different things, like with the ice cream truck, going back to comedy, coming back to the ice cream truck. And I feel like the law of attraction is a lot about attention. What are you paying attention to? Like, if you're paying attention to you want to get to Madison Square Garden, sell that out. So it's like how what are those signs in your life like where that pulled you back into comedy or like back into where you are now, you know?

SPEAKER_03
21:44

So I I had a heart attack uh six years ago from uh I took a weed out of it. It was laced with like fentanyl, and I woke up in the hospital, and I kind of had like a res like a re like an epiphany in life. I'm like, man, 35, I'm 30 years old. Old at the time, I was like 28, 29, turning 30. And I it was 2020. I sent you the picture of that gut, like that chin on my chin. My chin, I cracked my fucking chin open right here. Woke up in the hotel. My brother thought I was dead, I was on the floor. And uh my brother's like, you know, my brother was disappointed with me because my brother's a DP, straight edge, never stole a thing in his life, never smokes weed, never drinks. My parents are, you know, working class, honest people. So I was like this guy that had a lot of potential that fucked up. So now I'm like, man, I'm gonna live in home with my parents, all the money I ever made in life was gone. That same time I cracked my chin open, I also lost another 150 grand in the market. All the money I ever stole or did any illegal stuff to get was all gone. Now it just made me like drop down to my knees and like say, God, like I need to like get my shit together. So I quit all this fast money bullshit. I started working at the diner for $80 in the morning and did stand-up comedy every single night. But this time I was like really getting good at it. Now I'm doing multiple shows a night, I'm hustling, I'm scraping by. I had a dog at the time, my dog Spike. Yeah, my dog Spike, he was a Boston Terrier, and you know, he got sick, and like two, three years into going back into comedy, he got sick, and I moved out actually three years ago. Uh, three years ago, I moved out in my own apartment, and that really helped me as well develop as a man because uh me and my brother were weren't seeing eye to eye because you know he's a little bit of a dick and he's a hard ass and is like always trying to like boss me around. I'm like, listen, I can't be this somebody who's like a boss, make it yourself guy, and then answering to another man 24-7. Like, I'll cut the grass, do this, do that. I'm like, no, fuck you. But no, so long story short, I uh I really started grinding, and that thing became more of a reality, and and you know, ever since you know, I I just like I know I have it. It was actually what made me really become an animal in terms of like just saying, hey, fuck it, I'm going all in. I seen so many untalented people around me succeeding, and it just like and everybody doubts me. The comedy clubs weren't giving me spots, uh, none of these people were giving me opportunity. I had a couple clubs, St. Mark's Comedy Club in New York City, which is ran by the Carabano brothers, which Alexis Carabagno and Danny Carabano, two really good guys. If you ever go to New York, definitely go to see their club. They had a small club, I was waiting tables of their club uh for the you know last couple years that I was before I popped. And I I was working with them, I was working at governors, but all these other New York City clubs, New York Comedy Club, The Cellar, all these other clubs, nobody gave me an opportunity. Nobody, none of the comedians that were part of the cool cliques wanted to hang out with me, even when I was coming up, even when I was popping on social, even still, still, people are very so. I just said to myself, you know what? Fuck this industry. Everything now is about building your own platforms. I'm gonna hang out with people who show me respect, who have mutual respect for me, and I don't got, you know, and I just went all in. And the more I started doing it, the more I realized the feedback. Like, I'm out here, I speak Arabic fluent, Spanish pretty well, some Russian, some Greek, some Hebrew. I look like Adam Sandler. I used to be 300 pounds, I was in special ed. Like, I I don't even gotta try. My story is good. I just gotta put it together. So, you know, I've been putting it together for the last 13 years, and the last year and a half, I've been headlining and I've been taking like really, really major strides in the business, and it's just like it just becomes more of a reality. You know you can do it, and and it's just like people but for instance, I'll do a show, 150 people will come to the show, 60 people will buy posters. You know, like that's like half the people are staying around buying a poster, so it just becomes more of a reality, you know.

SPEAKER_01
26:05

What what was uh what was the biggest break you got? Was there was there a moment when you got back into it five years ago? Was it a series of smaller breaks? When did so did social media really help you since you weren't getting those opportunities in the in the physical clubs? How how how how did you pop off a little bit?

SPEAKER_03
26:22

So to be honest with you, no there was no specific break. It was really just a continuous for me. It's never been I haven't been pushed by a single entity. Barstools never put me on their thing, World Star never put me on. Uh actually, they put me on their website once. Nobody from like the clicks, like like the the news never wrote nothing about me. I I've just been I'm like the underdog. I'm like the guy that everybody counted out that uh that is like just keeps pushing. I've slowly been building it.

SPEAKER_01
26:56

Uh you didn't have a video like uh like a Matt Reif a few years ago where he just he just shot out of a cannon overnight when a couple TikToks popped off. Hey guys, Summer is here. Time to get outside, enjoy the weather, have a nice cold drink on a patio, and maybe take a hard look at your financial life too. Annex is a holistic wealth management firm right here in Milwaukee that helps you with everything retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. They'll help you declutter your old accounts, dust off your investment strategy, organize your estate documents, and build a plan focused on your goals. That's our good friends at AnnexWealth Management, annexwealth.com. Know the difference. All right, let's get back with Tony D.

SPEAKER_03
27:47

One video I did, I was playing the Adam Sandler thing. I was doing like the I was like, when you get pulled over by the cops, you just put the helmet on. Well, off the thumb full thobby. I was the Adam Sandler thing. And I'm like, that video got like eight million, and that kind of motivated me to keep going. And then I got posted on 50 Cent posted me on his Instagram. Yeah, I did a podcast with Wiz Khalifa, uh, which was pretty cool, uh, where I convinced him that I was a marijuana grower that like grew his own pot with his own uh fertilizer using his shit. And then I'm like, yeah, it was going on. I used to be in the sun-dried tomato business. Like I come into the podcast, and Wiz is like, oh yeah, this is my my stuff. It's called Dingleberries. And I'm like, shout, and they're all like smelling it. Yeah, we smoking that, you know. And I I made a video, I made a video about that. There's a couple of little cool things, but to be honest with you, my story has never gonna been easy. It's always been, I've also turned down a lot of opportunity. I've turned down multiple agencies that try to get me to the next level because the contracts these guys have are very predatory. They're always trying to like own your intellectual property or take a higher percentage than they should. It's okay if somebody caps like like for instance, let's say Richie's like, hey, I got this deal with Corona, and I'm gonna bring you in on it, and I want uh I want you to give me 10% or 15%. Okay, no problem. But now these people will like get a deal from Corona, say, hey Tone, we're gonna we're gonna get you 30 grand. Meanwhile, they're billing 80 and they're giving you, they're taking 15% of the 30. They're screwing you over. So it's like a lot of those things exist. So for me, it's like I'm like I was raised around the mob and it taught me a lot of things. It taught me not to trust people, it taught me how to read people. I could read you guys, you guys are amazing people. You can just tell from the bat how much you've gone the bat for me as it is, how much you've helped me, you've barely known from a hole in the wall. So it means a lot to me. I can tell you guys are good people and you're gonna continue to succeed, but I'm able to just assess, like the same way I used to rip people off, I can judge people in situations, you know. So I think that the most like for instance, I don't run Facebook ads. Maybe that's not the smartest thing, but you want to know what it is? I rather I've been going out, I have all these viral videos, people know me, but I'm still going out every single city. I'm meeting 300 people to 500 people a city. I'm handing out flyers out the wazoo. I'm having real conversations with people. So I know that eventually this will grow and spiral into like an international thing.

SPEAKER_01
30:29

Yeah, so spe speaking of that, too, you're you're at a relatively high level right now. You're just in Milwaukee, you're performing here in a month. You're you're I mean, I know you're doing some videos on the way over that you got. It seems like you're just hitting the country you're posting, hey, I'm gonna be in this area, hit hit me up and people hit me up. And just get getting out of here.

SPEAKER_03
30:49

Yeah, I mean, listen, you know, I just think that even if I'm at a high level, one day I'm gonna be at an even higher level, and I won't be able to do this type of stuff.

SPEAKER_01
30:58

So, like But is anyone else doing this shit at your level, right?

SPEAKER_03
31:02

Nobody's doing this. Nope, there is not a single person at my level who have over a half a million followers, and I'm literally handing out flyers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and my own. I'm not even just handing out I'm not even handing out so I have a whole pitch. Like, it's not like an unauthentic pitch. I'm like, hey, what's going on? I'm actually doing the PAPS theater. I'm like, this is my stuff. I'll say something funny. Like, I'm like, hey, if you don't like my videos, report the account. Like something silly. Just try to actually connect with them, meet somebody and have a genuine conversation. You do that, like let's say you do that 300 times a city. 300 people talk to you and meet you. Maybe they don't come to that show, maybe they come to another show. Now, if you do that every city around the country, 300, let's say 100 of those people put you on their story. 100 times 50. How much is that?

SPEAKER_00
31:53

5,000.

SPEAKER_03
31:53

5,000. 5,000, everyone's got a thousand or 5,000 followers on Instagram. 5,000, let's say a thousand, 5,000 times 1,000. How much is that? 5 million?

SPEAKER_00
32:05

Yeah, roughly.

SPEAKER_03
32:06

5 million people now have exposure to you from physical, like you have met you. You know, and now they're on their they're on their stories. And you know, I've had, I've had like I just I just can feel it in my soul. There's no, you know. Plus, I'm I make very like I'm I'm an I'm an Arab Christian making videos because my father was born in Israel. My mother was born in Lebanon, you know, and uh they moved here, were Christian Arabs. My family's very diverse. My mother was born out of nine, nine brothers and sisters. My father was born out of three, they're still in Israel, living in Israel. One of them passed away, actually. But uh everyone married to different cultures. My mom, one of her brothers, married uh Italian, one of them married Spanish, one of them married French. So it's a it I've been around a lot of cultures, so I make videos including everybody. Like I'm I'm an Arab Christian, Palestinian Christian, hanging on the side of a Jewish police car through Crown Heights. In today's day and age, with what's going on in the Middle East, it's unheard of. But you think that like I'm all I'm like, I'm not doing it in like a way to to invoke a reaction from people. I'm doing it because I always see the beauty like in cultures that the Arab some Arabs and Jews will continue to butt heads and not want to deal with each other just off the rip because they're Arab and Jewish. That's on them. But me personally, I'm doing what I do and what I know is right. Like I'm a New Yorker. My friends are mixed. I have friends that are Israeli, friends that are Italian, friends that are Arab, Christian. Everybody gets along. I know a lot of people in New York, and probably here, Muslim Palestinians have businesses with Israelis. So I make these videos and I'm getting a lot of good feedback. Bro, think about it. How many bad DMs do you think I get a year? About like, oh, you you're a fucking anti-Semite or you're a fucking this or not maybe like not too many. Maybe one bad DM from somebody who's like, stop making Arab content, you Jew. Like they don't even know what I am. Yeah, you know, like they're messaging me things, they don't even know what the fuck I am. They just like I'm like a chameleon, you know. So I just think like if I'm if there's no one else doing what I'm doing, there's a you know, and plus I have control over it. You know, I could produce whatever I want. My movies, everything will be produced by me. I'll call you guys in, and you guys will get in the movies. I'm gonna build something with people that I've worked with. That's my goal.

SPEAKER_00
34:33

Well, it seems like there's something powerful. Like the phone, the phone's competing for our attention. Like everything is just about attention, and there's something powerful about like you're meeting people face to face. You're beating, you're beating the phone. You know what I mean? You're like, hey, I'm a real person, get to know me. And then that word of mouth kind of goes further. And it feels like, I mean, I might be wrong.

SPEAKER_03
34:52

Who else does it? Yeah, exactly. Who else? No, no, think about it. Who else does it besides comedian? Think about somebody who does that, what I'm doing now. Think about in the world.

SPEAKER_01
35:01

Politician.

SPEAKER_03
35:01

Yeah. Politicians. I'm on a fucking campaign out here. I'm not lying to people. That's the difference between me and them. I'm out here just can't. If a politician's gonna go out there and campaign, why can't I? I'm campaigning. I'm on a fucking national campaign. People are like, why don't you fly? I'm like, fly. I get anxiety just thinking about what I'm gonna bring on this trip. I can't decide what I'm gonna fit in the suitcase. So I'm like, you know what? Fuck it. I'm driving.

SPEAKER_01
35:29

Bring the whole fucking pickup right.

SPEAKER_03
35:31

I bring the pickup truck. I got raccoons in the trunk. I gotta I'm selling them on the side. What do you think? I'm out of control, no?

SPEAKER_01
35:40

We love you.

SPEAKER_03
35:41

All right, we love you too. Yeah, you guys are.

SPEAKER_01
35:42

You're a fucking maniac. I love it.

SPEAKER_03
35:45

I mean well, I mean well, and I honestly, I'm just people like, oh, what is this kid on? Adderall? I'm like, no, I'm on nothing.

SPEAKER_01
35:51

I guessed that. We had a conversation before you came in because Wisconsin's a big drinking culture, like huge. And I I was like, I bet he's sober. I think he's just naturally high and energized. I don't think he's on anything.

SPEAKER_03
36:04

Yeah, it's it's it's it's true because like when I when I am on something, it just completely God was giving he gave me a gift, he gave me this gift of like just having this energy and because he knew I was gonna be on like this mission, you know. And you know, I love live performance. I've opened shows with like 3,000 people uh for I used to open for Felipe Sparta. I still open for him here and there. Felipe Esparsa, the Mehangano comedian, he's Mexican, Mexican comedian. He uh he has three specials on Netflix, really, really funny guy. And he let me open for a minute, and I'm like, man, I'm fucking doing these rooms with 3,000 people. It feels like I belong in this world before I started headlining. So I'm like, man, and then I started headlining, I'm like, man, this is where it's at. Like, I gotta be just constantly in front of people. I like being in front of people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
36:53

So did you used to drink a lot or do a lot of edibles or not really?

SPEAKER_03
36:57

I used to smoke a lot of weed, which kind of I didn't like who it made me become. I was like a gym rat. Like I was in sort of you were 300 pounds of weed. Yeah, but then at one point I was like a six-pack. I freaking I looked, I mean, I'm not in terrible shape right now. I'm getting back to it, but when I smoke, I get fat, I get lazy, I'm not motivated. It's just it's not for me.

SPEAKER_01
37:20

Oh, yeah. The gem of the week photo you sent me. So it's not up to date right now.

SPEAKER_03
37:26

I mean, it's not terrible. It's not listen to me. It's not in a f when you meet me, it's gonna be close. All right, you know.

SPEAKER_01
37:33

Well, I mean, I gotta ask questions about that. You know, what kind of woman are you looking for when you're back in town on August 1st?

SPEAKER_03
37:39

I'm looking for one that's grounded. So in case there's a tornado, she sticks. She's planted. We don't want her blowing them in the wind. No, I'm kidding around. Honestly, you know what? Me, I'm like more into like a natural woman. I don't like if if a girl, like if I see girls on the street, they always wear like some of these girls on Stand Island, they wear like so much makeup and they're always dolled up, fake eyelashes, Gucci down. I'm like, listen, it's not for me. You know, I'm more of like, you know, you know, just a nice, wholesome, you know, person.

SPEAKER_01
38:08

What would you say your good qualities are? And what do you what would you say your red flags are?

SPEAKER_03
38:13

Uh actually, to be honest with you, uh, it's a lot of red flags. So no, no, no, no. Honestly, I'm I'm I never cheated on a woman in my life. So like I I'm a very talented cook. You know, to be honest with you, I'm a talented cook. I'm like a mis I'm like a professional masseuse. So uh I've never cheated in my life. I've always been pretty honest.

SPEAKER_01
38:34

Uh I yeah, I never other than the ice cream ice cream truck custom. That's that's a different genre. That was the thing.

SPEAKER_03
38:42

Remember what I said. That was some somebody.

SPEAKER_01
38:43

It was the industry. That was the industry. That's what they did. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03
38:46

You were a part of, yeah, but practices. That was the kind of things they would do. Right. Potentially. Hypothetically. Hold on, that's my lawyer. I got this, I got this uh indictment going on right now. No. Uh so yeah, no, I mean, red flags, I'm kind of like sometimes I'm late. Um I don't like being tied down. Uh, you know, like in terms of like if somebody's trying to control me or like, hey, don't go to this show or don't like my work is priority. If a woman wants to be part of my life, they have to understand that like I have dreams and aspirations that are, you know, it's not easy to get to and it requires a lot of sacrifice. And I'd be more than happy to have them come, you know, I'm more than capable of supporting someone wherever I am, like, because I kind of like I could kind of do whatever I want. Now I travel, I, you know, make enough money to take care of somebody. But at the same time, I don't, you know, actually it's funny you say that because I'm looking for, I'm looking. My mom, my mom said this the other day, she's like, you have to find a wife. I'm like, well, I'm looking now. Like, now I'm actually looking. But it's gotta be the right person. They have to be a good relationship with their parents, right? Uh, you gotta have a good relationship with their parents, have some sort of faith. And uh, in terms of bad quality, I don't think I don't have a lot of bad qualities. I work, I'm trying, I work out, I'm an I'm a very talented cook. Uh, you know, I'm kind of perfect, to be honest. No, I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_01
40:08

Love it.

SPEAKER_03
40:08

No, I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_00
40:10

Would you prefer someone like know what you do or like have no idea who you are?

SPEAKER_03
40:13

I would rather they think I'm Batman.

SPEAKER_01
40:17

I mean, listen, I mean, I definitely have women coming up to you after the shows.

SPEAKER_03
40:21

Sometimes, you know, that you know, otherwise Was there more of that when you had a six-pack?

SPEAKER_01
40:26

You know, you know what, man?

SPEAKER_03
40:27

Or are they liking the listen, it's it's uh, it's it's a little jiggle here, but it's there, it's getting back. I transformed. Welcoming. I transformed very quickly. I actually just got acupuncture done. I got the.

SPEAKER_01
40:38

Oh, you get a little cup there? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
40:40

What happened was uh when I whenever I do the acupuncture, I don't uh I give it a few days before I work out. So the last three, four days I haven't worked out, but I've been I eat really good. I'm very like good at I lost a lot of weight before Ozempic. So me, I just dial it in, you know. Once you dial it in. But the the women thing, you know, it just uh I never actually been in like a full-time relationship, like a real relationship, you know. I've always just been, I dated a couple chicks, I found out. I have no no um tolerance for drugs either. Like if a girl's doing coke and this and that, it's just like I don't, you know.

SPEAKER_01
41:16

Problem over on Staten Island.

SPEAKER_03
41:18

You know, just anywhere. Like, you know, you'll talk to a girl and she's beautiful, and this and then she starts doing coke. I'm like, no, I'm not. And then also you just gotta like, you know, I definitely have some, I'm messy. I'm a little messy. I'm like sometimes I like to leave my house a mess and then I'll come home in two days and clean it. Oh yeah, yeah. Who doesn't have bad quality? What would you say my bad quality would you think? I have any telling what kind of qualities you think they're bad.

SPEAKER_01
41:41

I literally just met you. Yeah, I'm a fan.

SPEAKER_03
41:44

No, I mean, listen, I I wonder if you notice anything. What do you think? Nothing. Yeah, that's good. That's good. Well, listen, you know, everyone's got their thing. Uh you in a relationship too?

SPEAKER_01
41:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
41:57

Nice. No, it's good.

SPEAKER_01
41:58

Tom, Tom's been in a relationship for over a month. Just over a month. Wow. Look at that.

SPEAKER_03
42:03

Listen, it's you know what it is? It's it's also tough for me to find a woman at this stage because I'm women get very jealous, you know, you know, like they're not uh I'm faithful, but like they think I'm some type of fucking porn star. Like, where are you?

SPEAKER_01
42:19

You're giving off porn star vibes to these women.

SPEAKER_03
42:22

No, but like they think like because I'm out here taking pictures with all these women after the show, like it's my job to be welcoming. As a matter of fact, like it is your job. I'll get I'll get DMs from people and I'll be like, they're like throwing me layups of like, hey, come, I want to, you know, blah blah blah, blank, blank, blank. I'm like, no, I'm not going over there, you know. But like, I you know, some men for me personally too, I don't just have sex with someone just because they're throwing it at me. It's I'm serious. If I don't like the person's personality, I just won't do it. So I just rather, you know, because I know that I'm gonna be big one day. So you don't want somebody to have um you don't want somebody to have like uh blackmail on you. Not even blackmail, but you don't want somebody to try to capitalize on you, some like loser who's just trying to hook up with you for clout or some bullshit like that. You know what I mean? I haven't really had to deal with that before, but uh you got the Milwaukee on cut, you know what I'm saying? Sweating over there.

SPEAKER_00
43:22

Do you want like are you looking for like a girl that's like like balances you out?

SPEAKER_03
43:25

You feel like it seems to me like you're an educator and who knows how to spell. Someone's gonna teach the kids.

SPEAKER_01
43:31

Tony, what um what's the craziest fan interaction that you've ever had?

SPEAKER_03
43:38

Uh I was one time when I didn't really like have a huge, I might have had like a hundred thousand followers. I was coming off the Arizona Bridge, and I noticed this car followed me a little bit. I noticed it was behind me, but then I just didn't even pay attention. And then I'm like, this car followed me all the way to my house with a fan. Noticed me on the bridge and like literally followed me home. 30 minutes followed me. I didn't even realize.

SPEAKER_01
44:06

What was the interaction like after you got to do it?

SPEAKER_03
44:09

It was just a young kid who's excited to see me. But it's just like a 16-year-old dude? He was like a 30-year-old man.

SPEAKER_01
44:16

Oh, third question.

SPEAKER_03
44:17

A young kid. Yes. It's a 30-year-old. Uh and then I had this one guy who's like really weird, and he just comes to every show. Like he'll just travel to see me everywhere. And is it? I mean, listen, honestly, most people, I try to be very nice and appreciative. Actually, one woman, ah, maybe we shouldn't say this. But one woman, she's like, I'm disabled, but I got an accessorite coming to pick me up to bring me to the show. I'm like, listen, don't come. Okay. We're not wheelchair accessible over here. No, I'm getting around. But I mean, honestly, everyone's pretty nice. I'm even the weirdest people, I'm very thankful that they're there. They're spending money on the show. So I don't think anyone's weird. I think everyone's got something special. And uh some people should be locked in a closet somewhere. But that's you know, who am I to say that? You know.

SPEAKER_01
45:08

You got any advice for those trying to make it who are coming up right now?

SPEAKER_03
45:12

Do it on your own. Don't don't collab with too many people because if you collab, there's there's two ways of going this. I remember I used to always like look to collab with people or look to do things with people, and that was a part of my laziness that just like didn't really want to do the work myself. If you look at any of the most successful things that are on the internet, it's always them doing if you rely on someone else doing something or getting a group of people together to do something, you'll always be waiting on them, waiting on their schedule. If you want to, and you have to be realistic. Everyone says, Oh, I want to do something, but they don't actually do it. You just gotta do it every single day, and then every day you'll improve and you'll just get better and better at it.

SPEAKER_01
45:57

You know, you just how many stand-up shows do you think you did before that started gaining traction? Seemed like you were just grinding, like open mics and shit like that.

SPEAKER_03
46:06

Oh my god, thousands, brother.

SPEAKER_01
46:08

Thousands, thousands and thousands of mics shows. Yeah, wherever it would take you.

SPEAKER_03
46:12

I was doing shows in 2022. I'm sorry, uh 2013, when I was 22 years old, uh, laughing Buddha. Uh I was doing shows. Um probably like let's just give a ballpark estimate.

SPEAKER_01
46:27

Did you wish you had your act together then and you didn't go back to the ice cream business, or are you kind of glad things trip? Really?

SPEAKER_03
46:33

I was I wasn't doing the right material back then. I was my I was my problem was the first six years of my comedy, first seven years of my comedy, I was smoking a lot of weed, I wasn't focused, I was doing like maybe 10 minutes of material. One day I would crush, one day I would bomb. If the set the key with comedy is you gotta be able to pivot. Like, you'll see my show on in Milwaukee. Hopefully you guys can all make it. But like the key is not to be flawless as a comic. The key is to put a show on together, and when you're on stage, if you're doing material within the hour, if 20 minutes, like let's say you're doing two minutes on Italian stuff and it's not going over well, you gotta be able to pivot immediately. Don't do the full 10 minutes on Italian if it's not working. So back then I didn't know what I was doing, and I thought I was gonna be famous at 25. Then I quit, got humbled, really wanted it, and started learning. Even now, as good as I am on stage, as as much as people are like, oh, you killed it, bro, you're hilarious. I'm like, bro, I just that was that. I fucked that joke up, that tag needs to be this, that thing needs to be this. The second I leave a set, I'm listening to my audio, I'm writing notes. You you need to be in an ever lasting uh state of being like Plato, constantly growing, constantly learning, constantly open to suggestions. Anyone, anything.

SPEAKER_01
48:05

Do you you put out such a high volume of content while doing shows? Do you uh do you take any breaks at all? Does that help you creatively, or do you just get ideas? I mean, does does driving in the pickup for extended periods of time help? Because I I feel like um personally, like I have I haven't taken like a break in a while, but but when I uh you know mentally don't look at my phone for a while or something, I feel like that helps me creatively and just stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03
48:34

Um I definitely feel like I've slowed down a lot. I used to put out like five videos a day sometimes, and that was like too much, hard to keep up with. Uh I feel like taking breaks is great in terms of like right now. I feel like I don't run out of ideas because I constantly see the funny things. And now I'm actually, I feel like being sober helps come up with ideas, to be honest with you. You guys sober too? You don't drink smoke.

unknown
49:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
49:03

I mean, listen, you know, what are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_01
49:05

It's Wisconsin. You can't be perfect. Tom drank a decent amount of tequila a month ago.

SPEAKER_00
49:11

I would say I drink about 10 times a year. So it's like, yeah, it's uh there's always this like he went on and opened for Soldier Boy.

SPEAKER_01
49:18

Get out of here, and it was phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00
49:20

You're kidding me. I just do I just do random dancing stuff. That's sick, bro.

SPEAKER_01
49:23

He had he had the crowd going. He had the crowd going. He did he did not uh he he wasn't performing us, he wasn't performing songs, but I mean he got fired up.

SPEAKER_03
49:33

Oh yeah, taco tacos in tequila, yeah. So how'd you meet up with him?

SPEAKER_00
49:37

That's sick. No, we just we got invited, honestly. Richie connected us, and yeah, the the the um the festival just put on the event and they wanted us to just you know come out and perform and sick.

SPEAKER_01
49:48

Big big Frank's a local rapper out of Milwaukee. He had a pretty big hit, and Tom was in the music video dancing, and then Tommy went pretty viral for being the white boy dancing in the music video, and then people started calling him the mayor of Milwaukee, and then uh yeah, people love the guy.

SPEAKER_00
50:04

Yeah, mean that took off. So it's yeah, it's sick, dude.

SPEAKER_01
50:06

That's that's the cliff notes of the story. But anyway, a month ago at Tacos and Tequila, Tom and company just brought the house down before Soldier C.

SPEAKER_03
50:14

I don't mind having a drink once in a while. To be honest with you, like I went on a couple dates recently, like off a hinge, and I was hanging out with this chick where we we had like one or two drinks. I had a good time. I actually liked it better than smoking, you know? And and I have that relationship with alcohol where like if I drink a little bit, it's not gonna like put me on a bender, wake up in the morning drinking. But like weed, it becomes like an all day, everyday thing. You know, but uh what was what were we talking about right before this? You were saying something like completely for what you're saying, something like that.

SPEAKER_01
50:42

No, we were just talking. Uh oh, I was asking you if you took any like breaks and that if that helped you creatively just because you do so much and put out such a high volume of content, like we can really we're always trying to like put stuff out. But sometimes if I I take a step back or don't look at my phone for a while, I get a lot of good ideas and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03
50:58

And just also being more present. I think being present helps noticing things for me. It's situational comedy. Sometimes I'll put out less stuff, I'll put out less stuff, one or two a day. But like I thought of an idea, like I I get inspired to do things, and when I get inspired to do things, I do them. But if I'm not inspired, I don't like to just film just a film. You know, that's my whole thing now. But it becomes like there's neuropathways that build in your mind with sketches because I've done so many of them and the stand-up, I've done so many stand-ups, like for instance, just a rough estimate. Let's say 52 weeks a year times 12 years, 640, let's say I did 10. Probably did around 15,000 shows. 10, 15,000 shows. A rough estimate. But but headlining, like as a as a as an actual what what got me really confident in able to like do a headlining set the last three years, I did three times twelve, thirty-six. Um let's just say I did about probably like a thousand uh a thousand feature sets. So I was doing like road comedy. Yeah. Like I was doing 25, 30 minute sets opening for people. Bigger comics. And that really cemented me in my confidence because if you can handle a room for 25, 30 minutes where no one's there to see you. Where no one's there to see you. It just really like, what am I doing here? Then then, you know, headlining probably last year and this year together, probably like 200 shows already as a headliner. So that's like 200 hours on stage to have that in such a condensed time period, it really helps you develop. Like, you know, you just really like you're really in it, especially when you're in a room and they're not laughing easily. So not all those shows are perfect. Some of those shows I go to like fucking uh like Minnesota. I was doing shows in Minnesota when the shit when the shooting happened with the trans woman. You know that? The shooting? I did five shows in Minneapolis that same exact weekend the shooting happened. Those people did not want to laugh. With the ice stuff? No, the shooting. Remember that the there was a shooting with a trans woman? There was a shooting. Uh she went to a school and she shot up a bunch of people because the school kicked her out or something like that. You don't have to put this in the podcast.

SPEAKER_01
53:37

No, I'm just I don't recall that it's I'm following.

SPEAKER_03
53:40

But long story short, like I literally had to go there and do stand-up that weekend. They didn't cancel the shows.

SPEAKER_02
53:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
53:46

And everybody was so tired, like fucking morale's low. Bro, and nobody wants to laugh. And it's like you have to make them laugh, but we had to do the shows. We had five shows, you know? So you're never gonna be in a perfect state. I'm sure you guys too. You know how many times you're doing something and Brie forgets to plug the mics in. I'm kidding, I'm just kidding. But like, long story short, you know, you're never gonna be in a perfect state. Even me, look, I just broke my laptop. I got twenty thousand dollars in videos next week. I gotta do. What am I gonna mope about it? I gotta figure it out. Yeah. So, you know, we always gotta just figure it out.

SPEAKER_01
54:20

Well, dude, thank thanks for thanks for dropping in. Should we go get you some cheese curds?

SPEAKER_03
54:25

Yeah, dude. I mean, uh, are they fried? How what's a cheese curd exactly? Because I'm confused. I never really had one ever.

SPEAKER_01
54:31

It is a curd of cheese. You batter it, you deep fry it.

SPEAKER_03
54:35

Oh, so it's like a it's like a mozzarella stick.

SPEAKER_01
54:37

Yeah. Kind of.

SPEAKER_00
54:38

So you guys take on mozzarella.

SPEAKER_03
54:40

Huh?

SPEAKER_00
54:40

Our take on it.

SPEAKER_03
54:42

So what what is some things about Milwaukee that I should know? Because I I talked about myself this whole time. What are some things that I should know that the locals would appreciate that I knew? Drawing a blank, they say nothing going on over here.

SPEAKER_01
54:55

We get we got a very nice lake and some nice beaches. A lot of people from out of town don't expect that. The beaches. Yeah, we got beaches here that you could swim in.

SPEAKER_03
55:04

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01
55:04

Really? There's two there's tiki bar on.

SPEAKER_03
55:06

The beachy bars on them doesn't have sharks or nothing.

SPEAKER_01
55:10

No, no sharks.

SPEAKER_03
55:11

We should go swimming in the beach. Can sharks live in fresh water?

SPEAKER_01
55:14

Well, I I did before this actually. Right today? Yeah, in Lake Michigan. I love I love hopping in there. It's refreshing.

SPEAKER_03
55:19

Dude, let's go in there, bro. I'm down to pop in after. I'll fucking jump in the lake.

SPEAKER_01
55:24

We got we got that. There's a nice art museum by the lake. Um, the Bucks area is really nice. That's all new in the last five years. We had some New York money get pumped into here with the owners of the team. Uh, Lazarus in West Eden's were the guys who did it. Um but but yeah. Some good rooftops in the area. Rooftops. The brewers, Milwaukee Brewers, they're not at home today, but brewer games are a lot of fun. Brewer. It's a very diverse city. As you kind of alluded to at the beginning, there's a lot of different pockets and different cool neighborhoods. Is there a lot of crime out here? A lot of crime?

SPEAKER_03
56:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
56:00

Um, crime is down. I would say just like any major city has crime issues, Milwaukee has its fair share of issues.

SPEAKER_03
56:07

Um the Milwaukee Tool stuff that all came originated from here.

SPEAKER_01
56:11

Milwaukee Tool is headquartered in Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_03
56:13

But it started here, or is it just like a I believe so?

SPEAKER_01
56:16

Cool. Harley Davidson.

SPEAKER_03
56:18

Yeah. Started in Milwaukee. Yeah. Get out of here.

SPEAKER_01
56:20

Miller Light, Miller Brewing, which is no longer brewed here. That that was or there is a brewery here, but the main main operation I think has moved all over with the acquisition.

SPEAKER_03
56:29

But um you have any relations with Harley or stuff like that? I'm I'm a very uh avid rider of Rusty.

SPEAKER_01
56:35

The Harley Museum's right around the corner. Yeah, actually. You can pop over there. That's true. And they got a restaurant in there. No way. Yeah. It's a good there's a good bar scene, good food scene. Hell yeah, bro. I'm excited to try this. We wanted to take you to the maybe the uh there's a market hall, which just got voted, I think, the third best public market in the country.

SPEAKER_03
56:57

Public market, like uh like a like a bazaar type of thing where they have like uh the Milwaukee public market's good.

SPEAKER_01
57:02

That was voted the best third best food hall in the country, third street market was. But our public market, which that also is rated extremely high.

SPEAKER_03
57:10

And I like I like how convenient it is to park everywhere in Milwaukee. Yeah, it's super convenient.

SPEAKER_01
57:15

It's not it is better than most major cities, and traffic's not bad here compared to most major cities.

SPEAKER_03
57:20

Chicago? I mean, I love Chicago. You guys really come out for me on these shows, but damn, that traffic in Chicago sucks. The second you turn it off and go to Milwaukee, it just opens up.

SPEAKER_01
57:31

It's just terrible. And then you still got some fibs just whizzing by you. Oh my god, dude. That's fucking Illinois bastard, dude.

SPEAKER_03
57:38

The Illino, the Illinois people, they drive like they're in the Fast and Furious movie. They're such bad drivers. It's like it's crazy. I have that same tripod, it's in Monfrodo, right?

unknown
57:50

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01
57:51

But anyway, we'll we'll take you around a bit.

SPEAKER_03
57:53

Let's do it. Let's do it. Beautiful. Very nice to meet you guys. Pleasure. Pleasure. Pleasure. Richie, God bless you.

SPEAKER_01
58:01

Thanks for tuning in. A huge thank you to Tony D for dropping by. And before signing off, I want to thank our partners who make Milaukey uncut possible, Annex Wealth Management, Drink Wisconsin Bleed Beverage Company, and Nikola.