JW Ep 135- Stuart Thompson

Wow, well, we will, we will. It's a brand new bonus episode of Jeremiah Wonders. Never done tune a week. Well, there you go.

I hope you are liking the podcast. Give a like, leave a comment below. All that's appreciated. If you're listening to Apple Music or something, why don't you go on over and leave a review.

I've got a very good friend on the show today, Stuart Thompson. He's got a debut stand up album that he just released called Danny Man. That info is in the link below. We'll get to Stuart here in a second.

If you haven't listened to the show in a while, maybe you've missed out on some episodes. Maybe you missed the Pete Holmes episode or the Bobby Lee or Eric Griffin or maybe Steve O back in the day. Or Kevin Neal. And there's so many.

Check it out on the Jeremiah Wonders YouTube channel. I love making the show for you guys. I'm going to try to be doing more bonus episodes soon. If you guys are into that comment below, if you are digging it.

And thank you so much for the support. Without further ado, I want to get into this episode with my pal, Stuart Thompson. Yay. Yay.

Yay. I'm here with Stuart Thompson in a virtual chat room right now. 90-style, late early 2000s, AIM, Instant Messenger. We're on the inner webs right now.

This is my pal, Stuart Thompson. I'd like to welcome him to the show. A brand new album out on all platforms called Dandyman. It is his debut stand up comedy album.

We have been friends for years through the comedy sort of through the improv, through the open mic scene. He's from the Bay Area. Without further ado, my pal Stuart Thompson, ladies and gentlemen. Consumet host.

I love it. Yeah. It's a nice to see you, Jeremiah. And I thank you for having me.

Of course, dude. Thanks so much for doing this. And how where are you at right now? First of all, where are you at?

Well, by the looks of my screen, I look like I'm like a field reporter about to interview someone in a nursing home who is actively dying of COVID. Yeah. That looks good. It also looks like you took some people's high school photos.

And you're like, let me get one in on myself real quick. You know, I'm always the giver. You know, maybe I need to be the taker once in a while. Every once in a while, dude.

You'd be like, hey, Kurt, I got to step to the left. It's my time to shine right now. Yeah, I got like the pillars that I lean on. I put on the cap and gown.

Yeah, exactly. He's like, how? When did this guy? Does he go here?

He's like a ninth year senior. It is. His muscle is big. It's thick.

It's going to be a very thick right now. It's exciting. Yeah. I'm currently in Burbank.

I moved here right as shelter in place was going into effect. And my building is one of those buildings that's very impersonal. It's like over 100 units. And I feel like my roommate and I are the only non-immigrant family in the building.

Yeah. It's very much like a Soviet vibe that I'm feeling here. Nice. I live next to Russians on the complex next to me.

And nicest people. But I've seen my neighbor Alan flare up a couple times. And it is a sight to behold. Like he's like just cussed out somebody who like was actually giving me crap.

He like stood up for me and just started smoking out. And I was like, Alan, there's a darkness inside you and I like it. Now was he cursing people out in English? Or did he revert to a different language?

He didn't get mad to the point where he reverted to his mother native language. Because that's a different level of anger. Whenever you just start talking so fast, where you revert to your original language. Yeah.

I had a Spanish teacher in middle school from Chile who we got along pretty well. Her and she and I, but for the as a class, she did not care for us. And so she would be like, you must do your homework. I can't I can't right now.

No, no, no, no, no. It's like, she was she was just like this tiny Chilean ball of hatred. That's awesome. Yeah, I in my Spanish class in high school, my my teacher was named Senora Senora Lemons.

Her actual last name was Lemons, like not like Lemons. It was like LEMONS. And I would always goof off in there. But like as long as I got laughs, I didn't get in trouble in that class.

But like if I bombed then she would reprimand me. So it was a very good training program, you know? It's crazy you say that because Spanish was where I learned how to be funny in front of an audience early on. My because did you have to write dialogues in your Spanish class?

Yeah, I even had to do some short films that I ended up doing in Spanish, which were fun, which I wish I wish I had. I don't even know where those are on some hard drive somewhere. I'm sure. Yeah, it's some VHS tape.

Yeah, yeah. Like there's an old man underneath the blanket for some reason is like, no, it looks really nice. I got all your films. Yeah.

It's tough. You and your friends look supple and it's like, all right, we got it. We got to haul you away. But moocho bonito.

So I yeah, we had to do dialogues in front of our class. And we would figure out how to say like the basic stuff that we had to say. And then we would ask my teacher like dozens of questions that say other stuff that we wanted to say. And we created like recurring characters and we had, what do we do?

We had people like play like elderly. We really like tested my friends in my range as far as like acting was concerned. And we would always, if we knew we were making our teacher laugh, if she was laughing, we were doing well, like we would get a good grade. But our friends in our class were just like whoosh over their heads.

Yeah. You're like, you're not, you're not going to pass this class as well. Yeah. Me armanos, me se armanos.

I know how long, like, are you almost fluent in Spanish? Or like what's your level of learning? Like how far did you get with it? I went all the way through AP Spanish.

So it was five and a half years between middle school and high school. And I tutor students in Spanish currently and I have been for years. But yeah, I can't say I'm going to teach you how to survive in like Bolivia on your own. But I will help you like if you're visiting a city, I can help you get around.

I'll definitely help you pass your classes. When people hear my Spanish, they're like, oh, that's very grammatically correct. It's not like slang Spanish. Right.

It's not like if you might use necessarily like, you know, if you live somewhere after a while, you kind of pick up certain things where you're like, okay, they don't quite say it like the, they're not using you instead form or whatever. You know what I mean? Yeah. I do, I do try not to get hung up on the grammar, but that's just kind of how I'm wired.

I'm wired to like see languages is like a math problem. You know, it's like this plus this plus this gets you a sentence. And so I just, I kind of see it that way. But I, I did have help with some of the slang.

My buddy, I will say his name because it's my favorite name. He's like, he's one of those people who I think should have been a comedian, but never did. His name is Carlos Yang. I mean, I love that combo of a name already.

Right. Yeah. And so he, he grew speaking Spanish at home because his father was from Peru and his mom was from Argentina. So he spoke at home and he would teach me a lot of slang that was wildly inappropriate to say in class, but great for when I played soccer and wanted to know what my opponents were saying about my teammates and me.

Oh, that's right. You played soccer for quite a while, right? Yeah. And before COVID, I would still play like recreationally out here in LA.

It's, I, I kind of want to be like my dad and all his friends, like they still play, but it's like much slower. And they just like, they play until their, their legs don't work anymore. Sure. And so I kind of want to get about to that point, you know, I am, I still play.

I'm just, I'm not as good as I used to be. Well, I mean, you know, it's, if you were as good as you used to be, then you wouldn't be doing stand up, you know, I would have self assurance of an accomplished human being in like pro sport. But I, but I remember going to tryouts one time after learning a little bit of Spanish and this Latino kid who I knew from, you know, games in the league was talking to my wife, friend, he's like, you know, Trevor was like, Hey, what's up, Hector? And he was like, Hey, what's up, my gone?

And I was like, Oh, Hector hates you, Trevor. Yeah. Straight straight straight to your car. Yeah.

I got away. Yeah, but it's welcome to two white guys talking a little bit of Spanish on Jeremiah wonders. Welcome to un pokito. On today's last thing, we'll teach you how to get beat up in English and Spanish.

Yeah, this is a pokey domain is where we actually take a burrito from someone as opposed to make one for them. I'm into it. Yes. So what position did you play when, I mean, you still play, but so what do you currently play and did you have a different position before that?

Because I played keeper for years and then later on, I played forward. What's that? I was saying, Oh, did you have the framing for being a keeper? Dude, you got that my, my wing span, dude, is so wide.

Like I can't even like because of the framing right now, I can't even show you how wide my wing span is. But yeah, I was one of those things where I was notorious for blocking PKs, as you know, which is very difficult to do as a goalie. And you almost, I think you're improv training and you're just propensity for like going with the flow had to be might have been a real advantage to you when blocking penalty kicks because penalty kicks as a goalkeepers perspective is just about making a choice because, you know, for those listening and watching, you know, you're just taking a spot kick from 12 yards away from the goal and there's no one in front of you except the keeper. It's definitely to the advantage of the shooter.

You know, the keeper, there's no real, I mean, there's pressure, sure, but like if you make the wrong choice, it's not really your fault. You made it, you had to make a choice. Yeah. But I, because you, you've, I've seen you vibe with people so effortlessly in stand up and on stage and hosting and everything else you do, I think you might have been able to vibe with the shooter in a way that you would go where the ball was supposed to go.

Yeah, I, um, because most of the time, like when I would watch a soccer on TV with friends growing up, I would see like in the pros, they always, you know, they just make their decision on which side they're going to go to, you know what I mean? They, like a lot of times they either, they, they jump left or they jump right. Sometimes it's in the completely wrong direction. That happens a lot of times.

Yeah. But when at the, at the skill level where I was at, I would wait, like I would literally wait down to the wire, like until the ball like literally started like poking off, off their toe and that's when I make the decision. I wouldn't like just choose. I would really like zone in and, uh, yeah, it was, uh, you know, those were my premier days of soccer.

So that's when he peaked. Yeah. Pretty much, pretty much for some, I played a lot of indoor soccer later on though, which I've always, I really like indoor soccer. Indoor is great.

It's, uh, if you're not ready for it, it will destroy you. Dude, each you alive. If you don't have the wind for it, it is great. Like you're ready to throw up.

You're spinning like it's crazy. It's easily like two thirds of the length of a regular game, but because, uh, it's usually off the wall, you can, you know, you never stop. Like even those soccer skincare, just what we never really stop in indoor, you truly cannot and will not stop. Uh, I played, I played defense mostly, uh, growing up.

I was, uh, I was left-footed and I was not the kid who could run the fastest, but I was the kid who learned how to run the longest. So I would just like, I just kind of wait people out and I loved being the guy, because like the forward was usually the guy who was more flashy. He had like bleached hair and a headband, even though his hair was short and it's like, what sweater are you blocking, bro? And then he had like gold shoes and his socks were taped up weird and I loved crushing that guy's spirit.

I loved it. Uh, cause I was just kind of like this burly kid with like man legs and like a weeping willow of a torso and my hips end like right where my nipples begin. It's like, it's, it's, there's no, there's no body. A collarbone is my hip bone.

It's a weird thing. Yeah. Yeah, I gotta get a hip replaced. I call you.

I call you. So, um, yeah, I got a little hip. Um, so yeah, I, I would play defense. But now because I have, um, you know, typically in the wreck games that I play with, it's like a bunch of like teachers and lawyers and a couple of comics in me and I will, I'll kind of play wherever I'm needed.

Uh, and oftentimes they'll put me at like center midfield, which, uh, ruins me for the rest of the week. Oh, well, yeah. I mean, that's, that's a lot of work. Trying to make it happen to go downfield upfield the whole thing.

So, yeah. Yeah. But we take care of ourselves. The other thing where we don't, we don't let people slide.

Like we've got to work Monday. Yeah. We're like, we've got other things in our life now. We can't be slide tackling.

And yeah, I, uh, my, my mom was one of those, uh, moms that was so concerned about, if I did headers with a ball that I would get brain damage. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

She hated anytime I tried to do a header, not, and I really didn't have to do it too much until I start playing forward later. But like, even practice and stuff like that, my mom would freak out being like, no, no, no, there's no, there's no technique. But like, um, I don't know if you were playing soccer during this time, but they came out with a line of head gear for a while. that was designed for people to like, to like cushion the blow a little bit.

But you know, what I learned just from an anime standpoint, like the part that you're supposed to hit it with, you know, the front of your head, that's the part that is the thickest part of your skull. So like, that's why people head butt and stuff like that. Yeah, I mean, man, I don't know why people head butt. That's, that's crazy.

And I think it was a 2006 World Cup, Wednesday dawn just head butted, you know, the Italian guy, Madarazzi, just in the chest. And like, this is some like, Steven Seagal level craziness. Yeah, my brother once head butted somebody who was kind of, he was cackling his wife at a club. And my brother and my wife don't even go to clubs.

They, and maybe this is the reason why they don't go to clubs. But this guy like started kind of cackling on his wife. And then he was kind of like, whatever about it. And he's kind of like, hey, this is my wife, like easy.

And then that guy tried to start dancing with his wife. And, and they started like getting into a verbally and he pushed my brother and my brother went straight to head butt. And then the guy hit him in the face. And, and my brother fell down all while not spilling his drink.

Man. Yeah. But he was like a little shiner for like a couple of weeks. Wow.

Your brother is the coolest dude. I can, I just, because I picture, I don't know what your brother looks like. Exactly. I think I may have seen him at your wedding, but like if he's anything like you and your wife, and if his wife is like the three of you, I just feel like you would be like this, this quartet of like, Mormons trying to get people to convert at the club.

Sure. Sure. And, and then all of a sudden he just unleashes this, like this rhinoceros, you know, big horn, cheap move. Yeah.

I think there's a Watkins fury. I think there's something deep inside us that burns that sometimes we get our, our switch flipped. I don't know how many times this happens for you, but I remember seeing that flip. I think I saw it flipping you one time at the comedy store.

I can't remember if you were hosting or if you were doing it. It was like, it might have been early in your paid regular sets. So you're going up either like really early or really late. And you, this person, you're so, you're such a kind person and you handle things so well, but like, this person was interrupting the show twice and is like, all right, I've let you know twice the third time.

I will not be nice. Like you said it with like a smile and everything. And then it happened and I saw the switch and I was like, oh, he can do this. Like all of a sudden, like a red lightsaber just like.

It was, it was, it was, it's amazing when we see that happen in our peers, like when we know them to be one way and then they switch on us, not through any fault of their own, just, you know, happenstance. And it was, I don't know, it kind of gave me, it gave me more respect for you. Not that I didn't have a small, I had a great amount of respect for your comedy, but to see the other dimension really pushed it over the edge. From my point of view, seeing you handle that is like, oh, no, he's, he's not this crazy happy person all the time.

He has this depth that goes somewhere. I can say sure. But yeah, there's a realness there that I think probably you probably could relate to a little bit more rather than if I'm just being physical and silly. A hundred percent of the time when stage you're like, okay, well, this guy even a real person and then you see me snap a little bit.

You're like, oh, there's a real guy in there. He's a very, very good guy. What am I? Yeah, no, no, no.

I've gotten that too. Where people people are like, hey, you don't drink right? So you're like, no, I just, you know, maybe I don't drink around you. But like, yeah, I drink in a closet.

It's fine. Don't worry about it. I'm very closeted about my drinking and I appreciate you. I appreciate you acknowledging that.

Absolutely. Of course. That's something that you and I share in common is for years, we both hosted at the Comedy Store, the pop up and that's one of those thankless jobs where it's so fun to do, but it's also one of the most stressful gigs that you can even ask for. Yeah.

Have you explained it on the show much? Not really. Not really. Not really.

And there's a lot of fans or listeners rather of the show that they go to the Comedy Store or are fans of the Comedy Store. So I think that'd be interesting for them to kind of know what that is even like from our point of view, like being, you know, so if you want to take that. Sure. And fill in your experience if I'm missing anything.

But I, what Potluck is, is this, it's the, it's the new talent night at the Comedy Store where, you know, it's an audition for, and it starts out with an open mic for the first hour. And the next two to three hours is people who are trying to become paid regulars, but are not quite there. They call it friends and family. And afterwards, it's paid regulars working out basically until the end of the night.

Sometimes, and by the end of the night, I mean 2 a.m. It starts at 7 p.m. And goes till 2 a.m. And there's three hosts throughout the night.

And oftentimes you and I would be the first host. You started posting like the second time occasionally filling in for Fratorsmith, who is, you know, radio host here in LA and, you know, in my opinion, one of the greatest hosts in comedy. I agree 100% LA legend as far as I go. See hosts at all the major clubs.

And when my wife's mother was actually visiting town, she grew up with Fraser on the radio. So when she got to meet him, she was like blown away because he was literally like the Howard Stern of LA, like people love and they still love Fraser. But like, it was one of those things where it was like a movement with him, like, in the 80s, I believe. That's so crazy.

You're your wife's mom grew up on him because my mom grew up in Southern California and also grew up listening to Fratorsmith. And I told Fratorsmith and I said it as I was introducing him to pass off the mic for him to host for the latter half of the show. And he did not respond to it like well, because I think he like, I felt like I was aging him unintentionally. Oh, and you're just trying to say a nice thing.

Like, Hey, this is, this is really cool, right? This, yeah, I was just trying to show that, you know, his, his multi-generational influence. And, but it was a, we still have a great relationship and I have a lot of respect for him. But for the first part of the show, a second, I have to tell you a quick Fraser story that plays with using me snap on stage.

I just Fraser snap a couple of times. And it's some of my favorite comedy store memories of all time because you know, Fraser, happy, go lucky. He is like, he's got, he literally tells, if you watch a 15 minute set, it's over a hundred jokes. There's so many punchlines that are hitting us.

He's training the crowd. Exactly. He gets them in a rhythm and then it's momentum and then it just builds and builds and builds and it's awesome to see. Uh, basically one night he was trying to get into his rhythm and a lady kept chiming in and then this guy started chiming in and, uh, he starts getting heckled every other joke now and Fraser drops.

Literally, he drops the snap for a second and like his momentum and he goes, I'm from Detroit, bitch. I'll cut you. I was in the back of the room looking around. There was only one or two other comedians in there and I'm just dying, laughing.

I'm like, no, it's nobody. How's like hardly anybody's seeing this right now? This is like such a magical moment. I've never seen that before.

I need someone else to witness this week. I was literally looking around for any other eyes of comedians. I could be like, did you see what's just happened? It was beautiful.

Oh, man. I wish I could have seen that. I'm I've there. I got when we get back to doing stand up live, uh, you know, whenever that happens, that is going to be one of my few like very clear goals outside of my own, like career aspirations.

Like I want to see, I don't want to see Frazier struggle. I want to see him snap for a moment and handle this business in person. Dude, it shut it down immediately. And then he kept killing the rest of the set.

It was amazing because it was such a left turn from his act. People were like, whoa, guys, come on. Like right back. So we're having fun, right?

Yeah, we're having a good time here. Guys, like it was beautiful. Uh, so back to the first part of potluck, you're explaining like the different levels and stuff like that. Yeah.

So the so the part that we would often host is the open mic and the friends and family portion. So it ends up being anywhere from three to four hours of us hosting with people going up and doing three to five minutes sets, which is bonkers as a show concept. If that was the whole show, it's that's easily to probably three shows in one. And, you know, you're not really the only part that has some real structure is the open mic because that list is not chosen for you.

That is chosen sort of before the show starts. They, you know, a bunch of people sign up now. It's almost 200 people sign up every Monday. It's got crazy.

We did it. It was probably somewhere in the low 100s is I would say. And now it's up to like 200. Yeah.

Yeah. And so and everyone's just signing up for 16, three minute spots. And that's your audition. And, you know, you know, you did it.

I did it. And, you know, you hope you get a good response or you catch the talent coordinator at a good time. Uh, they're not, you know, dealing with other stuff and they can pay attention to your set. Maybe someone puts in a word for you.

And so we would host that and we'd get it going. And when I don't remember when you started hosting or if you had started hosting before I was even at the store, but I started hosting in like around this time of year, 2012, it's like eight years ago. And, you know, the talent coordinator, Tommy was like, I think you should start hosting now. I think it'd be good for it.

And so it's like, OK, and that's exactly what Tommy sounds like, by the way, for the listeners who don't have any context. That's a spot on impression. So continue. Thank you.

I have a witness. The, so yeah, and I just kind of run through it. I make a comment here and there and then you, and then you just, the rest of it is just kind of chaos because it's like a bunch of people are friends, are peers, you know, people who have been doing comedy longer than us and we're all trying to buy for these other spots. And you know, at the time that I started hosting, there was really no guarantee who would go up.

It was just like create a show that is cohesive, that people will enjoy, that has ups, that peaks and valleys and hope it's worked out, which that's the main difference for, from how they do it now. Because basically when you and I were doing it, it was actually even harder on the host because we had the power to make those decisions and be political. If we wanted it used to be a hundred percent political. Now I've hosted that like a while ago, since then, since like those days where you kind of had total controls, the host and you're given the list of employees.

And now it's like, you can't put up anybody else until you go through all the employees. When we, when we did it, there would be sometimes where we couldn't even fit all the employees because we're like, there's some other comics that need to get up. And then that would cause controversy and stuff because that's supposed to be one of their spots of the week, but also you're taking it. It's a whole thing.

That's where it becomes political where it's like, yeah, you work in the store, but there's this other dude who came in who is like a 15 year vet that crushes. I want to put him up over you who's been working at the store for a year. So it's like all these political things that you kind of had to choose to either follow through and stand behind or kind of crumble and be like, yeah, okay, you're right. Yeah, I'll put you up.

So it was like this weird dynamic. Yeah, I remember when I was first starting to work there, Pete, sometimes a host would, I would check in with a host and they'd be like, Hey man, I just don't really see where I can fit you into the show tonight. And I'd be like, and it's like, you know, there's a great way to figure that out is to boom. Yeah.

See where I did it. But yeah, it was a it was a crazy time, but it taught me how to host. It taught me how to use. I don't I feel like this is a weird way to say it, but like use people to the best of their abilities the way I saw them.

No, that makes a lot of sense. And what Stuart, I think what you're kind of explaining is there's different dynamics within a show. And sometimes you need a comic to do a certain thing at a certain time in the show. And when the lineups are made, you'll even notice like, Oh, okay, there's not a lot of times where two super high energy guys are following each other because it's one of those things where use them for their skills in that energy department and put one here and then put one in the other part of the show and maybe put like somebody who's a little bit more low energy, maybe between them or not right next to them.

So it doesn't dip real big and it's more of a build. There's like this. So many things that go into thought whenever you're making a lineup. Yeah, absolutely.

It's it was really it was really a true lesson in like, you know, who can who can I put together and create like a cohesive run of comedy? Like I would not put you, especially if I knew you were working on characters right after someone I knew who also did voices, even if they didn't necessarily look like you exactly or sound like you, it would just be it'd be too much of the same thing. Just like I wouldn't put, you know, two people of like a really similar height one after another unless they were like unabashedly different from each other. Interesting.

Even down to the visible appearance. That's an interesting thought as well. Well, I mean, it was it was one of those things where I was like, I don't want to say that like crowds are I don't think it's a, you know, the crowds would be like to like to naive to know the difference between the two meetings. I think crowds are smart in that if they feel like the show is going in a certain direction where they can kind of predict it because they can start to build a pattern then they're like, well, I think we've had enough show.

We kind of know where this is going. Maybe it's time for us to pack it up. I'm going to bow right now. Yeah, I've seen what the where the rest of this night is going.

I have an idea of I think I don't think I don't have that foam anymore. You know what I mean? Yeah. Hey, you guys enjoy the show?

Give a like, leave a comment, leave a review on the audio platforms. It's all helpful guys with the YouTube algorithms and all that stuff. Hope you're enjoying this bonus episode with Stuart Thompson. I put in the description link below a link to his standup comedy album.

Check it out. Give it a listen. If you got Spotify, I believe it's free. Who knows?

I could just be making that up. Email the show. Jeremiah Wonders at gmail.com with any questions, concerns, maybe some guests that you want to hear from. I'll try to get them on the show.

Maybe some of the kind of challenge letter happened on that segment in a bit. I'm here for you guys. I love displaying listener art on my Instagram profile and also on YouTube and the different various forms. So if you are an artist listening to the show, send me maybe something that has to do with this episode of Stuart and myself or just of myself on Jeremiah Wonders or Kill Tony.

However, you know about me. I appreciate the support that you guys give the show. Without further ado, let's get back into this episode with Stuart Thompson. I would say that the one thing that hosting potluck did teach me is how to be a host anywhere.

Because there is no harder show to host than that show. That is the biggest lesson I got. Yeah. You learn a lot and it's one of those things where you know, you take that knowledge and then you go and create your own thing sometimes.

That's what you did with Luke Schwartz and you guys have run an amazing show, The Improv for years. I've had the pleasure of performing on and it's a good in many respects. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. We had we had you on for stand up and we had you in Pat playing music together and you guys would what I loved about you guys, you always added to the show. And we Luke and I were always about we wanted our lineups to have like a variety of voices, but you know, we always wanted people who added to the show and kind of built on this, the odd premise that we were creating, which was this very low budget, you know, late night talk show that had that had all the variety elements, but you know, all of the chaos of just like a regular stand up show. Yeah.

You know, it's for those who haven't haven't seen it heard it. You know, it's the late night show of Stuart Luke and we would have a, it's basically like watching Conan, but if Andy Richter did not like Conan at all. Your dynamic with Luke is very funny and it's like a very gentle, like you guys are obviously very close friends, but it's one of those things where as an audience member, it's very fun to watch that dynamic because Luke is constantly kind of ribbing you and you're like, well, you know, we have a show to get to. So, you know, let's, yeah, let's be professional about this.

Yeah, it's I'm trying to run an honest show and Luke will interrupt me. And I love Luke very much. You know, he is, I call him my bitter half and. Hello.

Yes. Here's some wild, wild chef. Bring it up to Carson, bring it up to Steven Brody Stevens. Yeah, I love doing, I love doing both of those.

My girlfriend loves it when I do Dirty Johnny Carson. I'd love to hear that. What is, what is Dirty Johnny Carson sound like? So I just got back from the clinic.

It was a free clinic and it turns out, it turns out my pubes can dance. Be read for that. Yes. Thank you.

Yeah. Very so you be sober, Ed and healthy. Yeah. I'll be dirty, Johnny Carson.

Yeah. And I love doing Brody. It's my way of allowing him to like continue to to it's letting him live through me in a way. Sure, man.

I'll I'll I'll I'll around Maya and around just like even myself, whatever. Like I still hear his voice all the time and I'll even make Instagram videos as his voice just because it's something that I used to love watching his Periscopes and his just his Instagram stories so much that it was it's one of those things where I'm like, Oh, this is just a good way to keep that positivity going. Yes. Yeah.

And I just I love every dimension of Brody because I got to watch him all the time as I know you did at the store. You would close out these shows and do an hour and a half after the people had already seen three, four hours of show and he'd be drumming and being indignant with the crowd and the management of the club. It's like, how dare you? You don't do that to me.

Just like, and it's like no one's doing anything to you. We're just letting you know that it's one 30 in the morning. Yeah, I would I would love when you or Luke would occasionally like yell something from like from working the door and he's like, Oh, great. The door guy's going after me now.

Yeah. And sometimes sometimes you would get like he would turn on us too. And that would be fun to watch. And then sometimes you would give a shout out.

It's just like Stuart, he was on the marching band at UC Berkeley. He gets it. By the way, what did you play in the marching band? I played the trumpet trumpet.

Heck yeah. Thanks, man. Do you still play? I haven't played in a long time.

I tried to. The last time I played was for a standup show. I was playing a character that do you know the show? Sarodokigante, Condón Francisco.

It was like a telemundo. You don't know. So so my girlfriend is Latina and she had a podcast with two other Latina comedians and she and they wanted to create a live show where they kind of had a theme about this show that they loved. It was kind of like SNL, but also kind of the Today show, but for a Latin American audience and Spanish speaking audience.

And so the host of it was this guy named Don Francisco and they'd had people come on and like sing songs, like kind of like American Idol. And then some of them would get like rounds of applause if they sang well. And then some of them if they sang poorly, they would get El Chacal, which was this guy who looked like he looked kind of like a ghost in a way. Like he had this really like flowing black robe in this like oddly pointy you know, head covering and he would play the trumpet and he like play these people off like the Sandman at the Apollo.

It was and so they had they asked me if I would play El Chacal. And so I brought out my rickety ass trumpet and managed to play a little bit of of stuff for them. But I would when I when I watch you get back into playing saxophone and integrating it into your comedy, especially with Kill Tony and everything, I I had this. I did get a bit of a yearning for my trumpet playing days because I played for about 12 years through college and when I moved LA, which was right after college, I kind of set it aside.

Like, you know, this is not me right now. I need to focus on this aspect of my art, but there's no reason there was no real reason for me to limit that. Sure. Yeah, it's one of those things where Jesse Johnson brought it up to me.

She's now in the Kill Tony band and it was one of those things where she by basically just seeing that it was even possible to include an instrument that was not a typical guitar or piano, you know, that she that it gave her a little bit more of a nudge to like, Oh, I can do this. And now like with her stand up show, she does bits like with her trumpet, like she'll do one liners and some characters and then stuff like that. And it's pretty cool to see. So yeah, it's always great.

I mean, my inspiration was, of course, Steve Martin, you know, the banjo is not a typical comedy instrument whatsoever. It was not. So I was like, OK, saxophone, let's freaking go. Yeah, why not?

Yeah, I thought about I thought about bringing my trumpet on to stage with me, leaving it by the side doing my act, never acknowledging the trumpet and then just taking it with me off stage. But I've also thought about playing it, you know, just being like, trying to become like the satchmo of comedy. Dude, I'd love to see that. Yeah.

So like play a sweet tune. It's going to be like, do Jews walk into a bar. How do we're there? I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use that.

And that was the one. That was the moment right there. How were they? That feels like a show that was on like after your show up shows, dude, 100%.

How do we're there? How to wear the. Yeah, with like an audience in the size of a GT, just like how Joe, what are they? It sounds like they weren't that Jewish.

And I was like, boo, we like that. We're into that. We like that around here. And brace your culture.

You are called. This is at first, you know, I was taken aback by the name of the show, but it's actually way more progressive than I thought. Yeah. Like you get more.

You get more points the more that you're leaning into your culture on the show. Yeah. Well, I'm gonna do that. Yeah.

Everyone wears a yarmul car. That's part of it. Yeah, dude. So I want to talk about this before we get into the final segment of the show, called sex doc, a listener favorite.

But you recorded a stamp album. It's your debut album. And I want you to tell the listeners about that and the viewers and where did you record it? And yeah, just give some more info on it.

OK, great. Yeah. The album is called Dandy Man. I recorded it in San Francisco at a independent venue called the setup in the Tenderloin.

Awesome venue. Richard's a birthday, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Richard, sorry about that. And I'm high, not a carne run it. Yeah. Great, dude.

They were they were kind of give me a night and I brought I brought Luke up with me. I brought my girlfriend, Anna, up with me. They opened the show tremendously. We just got sold it out and it was recorded it miraculously in early February, right before all this COVID stuff was under, you know, under our skin and in our consciousness.

It was like, I remember not even being a thing when we recorded it. Of course. And then a month later, we were like, OK, where are we going to hold up for however long? Yeah.

I mean, you know, it's yeah. You got to be super grateful for the timing of that to actually get that in and make that happen before everything goes because it's one of those things where even, let's say you were, you know, you're running that that amount of time places. It's one of those things where let's say you didn't record and you had to record after. Are you going to have the same passion or even the same skill that you did when you were running it all the time, like that?

It takes a long time to get jokes flowing and the performance to be at a place where you're like, I'm ready to release this. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's like anything. If you want to get good at it, you got to do it all the time.

And I was lucky to have a really nice run up over the previous six months leading up to it. So I got to do a lot of long sets all over the country. And I'm so grateful to anyone who let me on their stage over that period of time and before, of course, because it all adds up. But yeah, and I was able to put it out with this independent label called Radland Records.

And yeah, it was one of those beautiful things that really came together in a way that I'm super proud of. And I really hope people get to hear it and enjoy it, especially during this time, when there might not be a lot of new entertainment available to people. And that's where where can people get that exactly? Sure, it's available everywhere.

You get albums, you know, the main places that they're available are Apple, Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, title, YouTube, but it's also on like Google Play and TikTok. And anywhere you can get an album, you can find it. Just great. I'll put a link in the description of the YouTube video where it goes so people can easily click on it there.

That's amazing. Thank you. And I'm just excited for people to listen to it. You know, however they choose to listen, I'm OK with it.

It's it brought me a lot of joy, you know, putting together this material. And you know, first album is such an introduction to the public. I know, man. And yeah, I'm proud of you for for doing it, man.

Like I had yet to release my my debut Santa Bob. I have been doing some music stuff here and there, but it's one of those things where it's it's quite the accomplishment. And you know, it's been something that you've been honing these last 11 years. So I'm poor.

People to check it out, man. Thank you, man. I really appreciate it. Let's run it out with the final segment is called sex talk.

Sex talk. All right, Stuart. Yes, yes, yes. So if you would, I'd like for you to share a story of a sexual encounter.

It can be as innocent or as graphic as you would like. And I will basically follow you along with a sweet, sweet saxophone. So let me know when you're ready and I will start following you along. OK, OK, I think I got one for you.

OK, all right, folks, the scene is La Jolla, California, the part of San Diego that you're OK with hanging out in for longer than 25 minutes. There's not as many drunks there to tell you which burrito filled with potatoes is the best and metal Ohoyah comedy store right there in the heart of La Jolla, the only comedy club right next to a Ferrari dealership. I'm performing and I'm I'm really killing it. I don't I don't do my own horn, but I am killing it.

I'm having a great set for show the weekend. You do the first show. I'm dusting the rest off. I'm getting my get my rhythm going, but this one I needed no dusting.

I was feeling it and after I get off stage, I get some time to relax. And after the show, people come and say hi. Sometimes they want to say hi to a comedian and one woman came up to me and she was on scale of one to 10. She was a lady.

And before I even spoke to her, I could tell that she had she wanted something from me. I was recently single and not not ambitious enough to really seek out women on my own. So I was ready to indulge what this woman wanted. So she comes up to me and she says, hey, I don't know if you're interested, but my friend and I would like to have sex with you.

Now, I don't know about you guys, but I've never been asked that question before. Not in real life. I've never even heard that in a porno. I don't watch a lot of porn, but I'm sure you could get that from looking at me.

And and ever the charming man I am, but also a businessman, I said, you know what? That sounds mighty interesting, Miss Lady, but I have another show I got to do. Maybe I could get your number and we could I could hit you up after I'm done with my second set tonight. She seems amenable to the terms of our agreement and I got her number and the next show I was supposed to do 20 minutes in front of a Friday night crowd at 16 minutes.

The one of the door guys in the back of the room told me it's time to wrap it up at 16 minutes and one second. I'm like, thank you. Good night, everybody. At 16 minutes and two seconds, I am off stage texting this girl.

And I asked her, hey, you and your friends still up to having sex with me? And she said, hey, you know what? My friends kind of tired and she's going home. But as the old saying goes, even if one person drops out, there's still two of you.

Let's just say we had a reason the next morning to eat one of those burritos full of potatoes. Yeah, we had sex. It was pretty cool. Mission accomplished.

One of the songs I was playing I was a little squeaky. I need to wet the read a little bit. But one of the songs I was playing is if you first you don't succeed, just yourself up and try again. I don't know if the listeners picked up on that.

But that was one of the songs that I was playing. Dude, that's awesome. That's one of those things where I thought the store was going to get a threesome in the store. I really did.

But still sex after a show is amazing. I can imagine it's never happened to me. But I just thought it just started. I mean, you're in a you're in a you're in a wonderful relationship that you've been in for a long time and I'm you know, everyone else is aspiring to that.

But until then, you know, the rest of the community is going to get it that way. Let's just say I've turned down some people in my time. If you know what I'm saying. Also, the La Jolla Comedy Store, this lady gave me her business card once.

And she said she wanted to book me for a corporate gig. Stewart, I hit her up for the corporate gig. The tech starts going astray and I'm like, what about that gig? There was no gig.

Yeah, more like a corporeal gig if you know what I mean. Oh, finger. Baddies, buddy. Hello.

Boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing. Yeah, man, it's a I'm it's not it. It's not it's like an off the currents or has been because I've been in a relationship for a long time as well. But I will say that the few times it has happened, it is like I've been trying to get this validation from within but when it comes from without with feels nice.

I'll keep riding that way. That's good. Yeah. Good stuff.

Yeah, you play great. I feel like I really added to that story. I feel like that I really sold it. It adds some sexual energy.

It really does. It gives him that a little extra. It's basically like, you know, there wasn't that extra woman in the room with you that night, but old Jeremiah was in the corner playing that's guiding your hips and pushing your butt. Smart friend.

That's what the sack goes. You're playing like this is not the corporate guy signed up for. Yeah, this is this is a this is a smellier. A lot more smells in here.

And so human, I don't need to wet the read. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Dude, it's been awesome catching up with you, brother. Like I said, I think I'm out.

Stuart's new album on all platforms. The link will be in the description. And is there anything else you'd like to leave the viewers and listeners with before we sign off? I just want to say thank you so much for having me, man.

And if you enjoy the album, shoot me a note. Let me know what you think and if they want to listen to the podcast, because we're doing it just as podcast right now, it's at the L eight night show on Twitter and Instagram for updates. Awesome. And what's your Instagram and Twitter so people can follow you there as well?

It's at Stuart B. Thompson and Stuart with you. Awesome. Check out Stuart's stuff.

Reach out to him on social media. I always love when the listeners and viewers reach out to the guests on this podcast and give them some positivity and send them their way. Love you, brother. And I hope to see you soon when all this crazy and scums down.

Yeah, same here, man. Always good to see you and hopefully we'll see each other soon. Absolutely.