JW Ep 45- Dave Ross

That was a little preview of the new hit track from Reagan and Watkins SBD. Yeah, that's right, y'all. SBD is live right now on YouTube. Go watch it.

That's right. The second debut track from the upcoming Reagan and Watkins debut album. Man, I'm freaking excited for you guys to watch this music video. We've been a long time coming.

We were waiting on the master and we just got the track mastered from the studio. We shot this a while ago with our buddy Lucas Hurl helped us shoot this and edit this and put this together. So go to Reagan and Watkins.com and you can watch it or just type of Reagan and Watkins in on YouTube and it should come up. Very excited.

What's up everybody? How are you? How have your last couple of weeks been? I've had a lot of people reach out to me through social media lately asking what's going on with me and Kiltoni.

Coming back soon guys. I'm actually going to be in Texas this week with Kiltoni. So there you go. Very excited to be back on the show and excited for some other upcoming shows as well.

I'll release this right now. I like telling you guys before I release lineups other places on Instagram, social media, you guys will get tickets ahead of everybody else. The link is up on the Comedy Store's website. But the lineup is going to be announced right here right now.

The next stand up on the spot on Tuesday, November 20th has Joe Rogan, Steve O, Rory Scoville and my buddy, Geron Horton, who just wrote on historical roast for Netflix. He will be on that as well as myself, your boy, hosting that mother. So go get tickets for that. So remember 29th guys, I will be headlining the rec room in Huntington Beach.

I'll link up for that soon, but I'm bringing my buddy and former guest of the show, Lee Syat. So we're going to head down to Huntington Beach together and give you guys a heck of a show. And then December 6th, I'll be headlining in Detroit and December 7th, I'll be headlining in Toronto. Yeah.

Had a good week guys. We finished up the last three episodes of Taping for the historical roast for Netflix with Jeff Ross. Had a fantastic time with that. There's a lot that I will share with you guys a little bit closer to when it comes out.

Their one is to keep the info kind of on lock. They don't want to post some pictures and stuff. I post some Instagram stories of me as some different characters and me dressed up as some different stuff, but you know, those expire in 24 hours. So there you go.

I only give you guys a little bit of a taste of what's going on. Guys, email me at your kindness challenge letters. I'd love to read some new ones here on the show. And you can also support the Rotorite Club Algaro and Italy.

They're doing it weekly. Check out their Instagram and my Instagram for updates on that. But yeah, if you don't know what the kindness challenge is, guys, every week I challenge you guys to listeners to do something out of the kindness of your heart for a stranger, or it can be for somebody that you know, it can be little, it can be big as long as you're contributing something positive and good energy and putting it out there into the universe. You know what I mean?

So thank you to everybody who does that. And maybe you're not writing it. Maybe you're just doing the kindness challenge and you're not writing in stories. I appreciate that as well.

My guest today is Dave Ross. Guys, he is one of my oldest friends from the Open Mike scene. I started out with this guy and I actually love this guy. I'm very excited that I got to have him on the show and catch up with him.

You may have seen him on Drunk History. You may have seen him on Argy Fears Storytelling Show. This is not happening on Comedy Central. This dude's all over the map.

I love this guy. We're in kind of different scenes right now in the LA Comedy scene. There's a lot of different scenes. And he's he's hilarious.

I'm glad that we had a chance to riff. So I want you guys to tune in to this episode and share it. Keep sharing and all that good stuff, guys. I want to thank the sponsors of this show.

Speedweed at Speedweed and Bronx Born Pizza at Bronx Born Pizza in Bend, Oregon. You want that sticky, icky, wickety, greeny, bluish, share the bread of manna, yeah, dang it won't do it. Hit up Geno at Speedweed for that marijuana delivery. Had a good chance to hang out with Geno.

He came to almost all the Netflix statements. That was really cool of him to come hang out for those. And yeah, what's up to my buddy, Thomas Shiffer. Go to Gray Block Pizza in Santa Monica.

That's closer to you than Bend, Oregon, wherever you're at. And guys, I'm still looking for a saxophone sponsor, somebody who maybe works at a saxophone company or has the hook up to a music shop. Your boy is in the market. I'm looking or at least wanting to upgrade my saxophone that I've had since third grade.

So I think it's about that time. It's a face-to-wear, entair of the road, the trials, and tribulations. So I'm looking to upgrade my Alto saxophone. Email your boy, Jeremiah Watkins, at gmail.com to some kind of challenge letters or to feature your music on the show.

I love featuring different artists on the show. I give him back to the artists community guys, and you can support the show. JeremiahWonders.com, there is a PayPal donation button there, and I really appreciate anybody who has, in the past, donated, or sent me something through PayPal. I really appreciate you guys.

I also want to thank my buddy, Gage Teorina, who edits the audio and video on this podcast. He is based out of Texas. I'll be hanging out with him later this week. But yeah, what's going on with you guys?

Did you think it's good? Things good? I know I can't hear you right now, but I'm sending you positive vibes wherever you're listening to this. And hopefully this is a good start to your day, a good positive start.

And if something happened last week that didn't go your way, well, you know what? We're going to turn that around, turn that negative and a positive right now. We're going to get into this sweet episode with my pal, Dave Ross, on JeremiahWonders. Hit.

Hit. Hit. Hit. Hit.

We're freaking in it, dude. Yeah. What's up, dude? How you been, dude?

Oh, dude. I've been freaking good, dude. It's been like freaking a minute since we hung it. Yeah, dude.

Yeah, it's been a time, dude. It has been a time. What you been up to, dude? I've been like, you know, I've been like, smashing dashes.

I mean, I was going to build up to that, but like, you know, I've been doing that too. Really, dude? Yeah. How about you, dude?

Nah, never. You puttin' butt? Never one time, dude. Never one time?

You never put a butt, dude? I'm single. I'm a virgin. I plan to stay that way.

Until I die, which should be pretty soon. Oh, cool. Congratulations. Thanks, dude.

That's a really exciting stuff, dude. That's really exciting. Yeah, I'm playing this to fucking vote, November 6th. And then, see you later.

OK. Well, mission accomplished, dude. I just want to die on my board. You told me.

Dude, can more people just die on their boards? I'm like, yeah. Whatever kind of board you got, dude. Like, whatever you got, whether it be.

Or skateboard, waterboard, just die. Dude, anything, dude. If you want to die, this is the podcast where you did. Longboard.

Longboard. I haven't seen a longboard in a minute. It's been a minute. Have you been a Venice?

No. I think that's where they still breed. Sure. Yeah.

Like, Venice Beach, just people cruising between all the tourists and stuff like that? Yeah, I wonder. Yeah. They're probably just laying around.

Like, I guess I just haven't been to Venice Beach. But I imagine Venice Beach is that there's just a pile of longboards sitting on the beach, right near Muscle Beach. And anyone can grab it. There's bird scooters.

There's bird collectors. Like, there's a dude. Instead of a pickup truck, it's like a VW van that picks up all the longboards and is like, well, let me redistribute these. I don't totally.

Or the morning comes, dude. Yeah, there's skateboard socialists out there in Venice Beach. Dude, we got to keep the fight alive. You know what I mean?

I agree to this. Forget the lights. Skate and destroy. Hell yeah, dude.

That's why I voted. Vote yes on board. Robboard on board. On board.

Yeah, dude. It's five props, BOA, RD, on all of them. Not to be confused with prop board, BOA, RD. That's like a social interaction prop that people get really confused about.

Yeah, dude. It's like state funding to help you like. It's state versus federal. So that's where it gets like really tricky.

Totally. Yeah, dude. Not being bored is legal in California, but it is illegal in America. Or the reverse.

I don't remember how I was trying to do that joke. So I'm just continuing to talk and hopefully you will find a lot of this. You know what I'm doing. Or watching, then you just forget with the beginning once.

Yeah, totally. I mean, totally. Yeah. Anyway, come see my stand up.

I'm super funny. Anyway, I've got really well crafted jokes. And I think you'll really appreciate it. Yeah, dude.

Well, we're doing here. I write 15 hours a day. That's a great point, people. Dude, I work 10 hours a day.

All right. And you're like, wow, that's impressive. I work one day a week now. It's a thing.

I take big vacations weekly. You know, it's more important. You know, I'm all about that. Work hard, play hard, hard, harder mentality.

Yeah, totally. As long as it's hard, I'm there. I think the Dushia's hat that I ever got. Oh, here we go.

Yeah, yeah. You're always going off about your hats. That's me. That's what people know about me.

I know this in Los Angeles. Jeremiah is kind of the hat guy. Dude, I literally, I started wearing hats a couple of years ago. And I had people at comedy clubs not recognizing me.

Like looking right through me. Because I never, a lot of people associate me with my long hair. Oh, yeah. To my right dude, you know, the tuck behind the ears.

And I put a hat on. Like I had people that literally... Wow. Who is this?

Tall boy. Yeah. It's tall, young, looking, lanky man with a hat on. It's so funny how simple we are as beings just in general.

I do it. Everyone does it. But like, there are numerous comedians in LA who just, they wear glasses that look like this. And everyone is like, you guys look just alike.

I'm like, really? Me and Conor McNutt, he's 15. Yeah. He's 15.

He's one foot tall. I get the exact same thing. So I get people nonstop that tell me either look like a friend of theirs or their college roommate. I think a lot of people might have had this haircut in college.

And I just stuck with it. You know? Interesting. But I get it all the time.

But I'm like, OK, show me a picture. I always, I'm like, show me a picture. I want to see what it's like. And they're the ugliest person on Earth.

Disgusting. They're so like, not once has anybody ever shown me somebody that I'm like, this is a good looking man right here. Totally. It's always somebody that's just like has been living underbong water.

Dude, I know. Like, oh, Dave, I found your doppelganger. And it's just like a pile of shit wearing a lot of glasses. That isn't even full of glasses.

It's literally a state piece of glass. I have two lenses. Come on. It's like a broken mirror with someone pissing on it.

Like, dude, Dave, it looks exactly like that. He was just like you. Dude, she's had it ever had. It was a shout out to this company.

I don't even know if it exists anymore. But they were a balabong. They were a sponsor of my old podcast. There's this company called Rally Flip Cap.

So it was a double-brimmed hat. I've never even heard of that. There's a reason. Sure.

So on the front of the hat, it reads work hard. And then there was a button flap on the other brim that you would pop it up. And you could stick it up like a sign on your forehead that said, play harder. What?

Yeah. Whoa. Man, I got so many questions. Yeah.

Well, I'm curious if that company is still alive and kicking. Because this is about four, at least four years ago, four or five years ago. Man, Flip Cap. So that probably means that every hat they made looked like that.

Yeah. It was like a whole thing. They had a lot of different options. Yeah.

I wonder if people ever wore them and thought they were cool. When I was in high school, one of my buddies, he was a redneck. And that was him. And I came from kind of a rednecky place, but he was like, oh, redneck.

Like to the point where he had a lifted yellow truck with yellow rims and like, what city are you coming from? I'm from Greenwood, like New York, which is like in the boonies in our northern New York city. And he had like Yosemite Sam mud flaps. You know what I mean?

Any, whatever reason, you can always tell the class of the person if they're an adult and they have a cartoon character like somewhere embedded on their truck. If you didn't outgrow that face. Totally. Then you will be this way forever.

Yeah. But the thing about it was like, you know, we gave him a lot of shit for it because we gave each other shit all the time. But it was like, he was being himself. And that was just him.

And then the PT Cruiser came out. And it was like marketed as a cool thing. And he bought into it. And he like sold his truck and got a purple PT Cruiser.

And we were like, dude, no, what happened? This is way worse than the yellow truck. At least that was you. What is this?

You're trying to be somebody who you're not, man. And I feel like the people that wore the flip cap, like the only people that wore the flip cap were the people that did that. You know what I mean? Like there wasn't a single person.

They're trying to get ahead of the curve. I guess this is the next trend. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't know what's cool. So I just believe stickers that I see or whatever. Or Jeremiah's podcast. Like do you think, they sponsor your podcast.

Do you think that you ruined any dates for men? Like, oh, hell yeah, dude. I mean, I was wondering what I was going to need to do to get in with this girl. And then I listened to Jeremiah's podcast and I found it, man.

There's like a hat that's like, it says just hey on the front. And then like, if what will you marry me? Yeah, totally. Keep your pose with a flip cap.

I don't know how it was weird. The bottom brim said I'm single. And then he flipped it up and said, taken. DTF, then take it.

DTF. And then DT cuddle. Yeah, DT cuddle. Oh, man.

That's got to be a shirt. Someone sells on Cafe Press. I haven't thought about Cafe Press in a long time. Oh, I think about it every day.

Yeah, yeah. I'm always checking Cafe Press. I've always seen them out. The next avenue where I can make $1,000.

I'm just trying to see. People are putting up new mug designs every day. And so I'm just checking on there to see what my next mug is going to be. Yeah.

You have a big mug guy, huh? You got a mug of mugs? Yeah. I don't.

I don't have. You have pins or anything like that that you're a collector of. You have a collector's items, anything? Not really.

I mean, sort of. I have like, from back went. Like basically all I did in high school was go to punk shows. And back then I would sort of.

Oh, what were your bands that you followed? It was like basically all pop punk, big and local. So my favorite band, I used to with big wig. Do you know what I mean?

I don't think I do, actually. They got pretty big and like punk and pop punk. And they don't really every now and then they'll play a show now. But they don't really exist.

They're just like a New Jersey punk. They're more wig than big. Yeah, exactly. They're just wig now.

And you know. I had to say it. I should have my head immediately. I'm like, I want to do that.

Oh, god. It's a guttural thing. I just had to get it out. Don't worry.

I'll bring it up every few minutes. OK, cool. That's nice. Hey, remember that wig referencing?

Yeah, that was a pretty lame joke, man. Honestly, anytime I say a joke to Tank, so I'm just going to bring up that to make myself feel better. That's what we do in Jersey. Yeah.

Just shit on each other to prop ourselves up. And I'm not kidding. Have you ever been there? It's very fun.

You know what? I've only been there like one time. Jeff Ross' family is from there. And I was hanging out with him one week in New York.

And he's like, do you want to come with me to see my family? I'm like, yeah, I'm just hanging in New York and doing shows. And I don't know the spot tonight. And we just went and had a nice dinner in Jersey with his family.

Sounds great. Yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, that's the thing, man. I'm not actually from Jersey.

I'm from New York, but my town is right on the Jersey border. So I spent a lot of time in Jersey. Yeah. That whole area, like downstate New York, northern Jersey, western Connecticut and the city, it all has a very similar vibe.

It's all like very, very kind. And very, there's so much love there, but it's tonally so aggressive. And it's so rooted in shit talking, just in general. Like just day-to-day interactions at the grocery store.

The person at the grocery store will just talk shit to you about what you're buying. And if you're not from there and you're not used to it, it really feels awful. It's like, it's truly like, like, why are you getting a lot of deodorant today? Jesus Christ, what are you doing with your life?

You know, how bad do you smell? Let me give it a smell. Wow, disgusting. You're gross.

That's a bad example. Did you try to bring that mentality out to California and backfired it at you ever? Yes. Right when I moved here, I went to school at USC.

And I very much remember, like the day of orientation at USC, I was waiting in line outside of like, I don't know if some billionaire's a parking structure nearby. It's when Karl Arm went off and I'm in a line of like 100 or 200 kids. And I just turn and yell, hey, shut the fuck up at a Karl Arm. Which like, any one of my friends would have done and we all would have laughed.

I just thought it was so crazy and funny. And everyone was like, what is happening? Oh, wow. Granted, hey, shut the fuck up is not much of a joke.

Like, inherently, not really that funny anyway. So I was already playing with fire. But yeah, I turned it at the top of my lungs, yelled, what the fuck, shut up or whatever. Now, you've been from upstate New York.

You didn't really have like an accent or anything coming out here. Did you still talk the same way or did you feel like it shifted a little bit after you moved? Well, I moved a lot. I was in my dad's in the Navy my whole life.

So I was a Navy kid. I really only lived in New York for five years. But it was like the four-minute of years. So I feel like I'm from there.

Before there, I lived in Tennessee, before that Chicago, before that Italy, before that San Diego, and before that Hawaii. Italy, wow. How long were you there? Three years from when I was three years old to six years old.

So a lot of girlfriends, right? A lot of girlfriends. Oh, yeah. Really, the Dayton game was pretty intense in Italy.

Yeah. Lost my virginity at four years old. The playtime, little crazy. It's too little crazy.

I was stolen, actually. I'm glad we brought this up because it's traumatizing. You know what? The gypsy that took Dave's virginity is actually calling into the show right now.

Oh, my God. Yeah. I haven't seen her in months. Hello.

It says, Madam, something is calling in. Hello? Is this my precious Dave that is on this program? Hi, Madeline.

Yeah. I'm coming for a second, Dave. Yeah. I know, well, again.

You remember the first time? No. You don't remember? No, I was just told about it by you every time you've called since.

I don't know why I keep giving you my new number, quite frankly. No, I was four. I don't remember anything from when I was four. Also, I blocked it out because, well, I just liked it too much.

Also, I should say that this riff is a little horrifying. You will forever, forever, forever replay this in your mind, and you will remember every second of it, Dave. I just realized that what we were joking around about was sex trafficking and pedophilia and assault. You know what I mean?

Like, you know when you... I will leave. I will leave now. It says, I will, I will leave.

OK, Dave. Goodbye. Goodbye. I miss you.

I'm sorry that I tanked that bit. But now that I was starting to make jokes about it, I was like, I don't feel comfortable saying any of these things. Leave it up. Leave it up to Jeremiah.

The ultimate, yes, Andrew. Be like, and the gypsy is calling in the touch when you were a room mechanic. That one was on me. No, David and I are both sweating right now, if you're watching on video.

That riff caused us to... Is that what made me sweat? Oh, it did. I definitely.

Because we started looking at each other like, are we going to keep going? We went down a wrong path here. As soon as I said that gypsy is calling in, I was like, is that one of the words that we're not allowed to say anymore? I don't remember.

No, that is a real thing. Yeah, that's a real thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they're still calling someone a gypsy.

Yeah, like a gypsy is a thing you are that's bad, I think. But like, ethnically, if you refer to someone because of their ethnicity as a gypsy, that I think is insulting. There's so many fine lines, man. Yeah, well, I certainly don't want to.

I mean, it's funny too because I joke around about evil fucking shit in my standup. And I'm definitely a proponent of joking your way through anything for real. Yeah. But podcast, I don't know, man.

It's all, it's hard. Especially in podcasting, it's hard. There's something about, even in my own podcast, man, my podcast is the suicide podcast. We tell some of the darkest jokes.

And there's something about that relationship where I have to very often be like, you know what? You know what, I'm putting my foot down here with this gypsy calling in. Yeah. So now that I brought an awkward halt to the podcast, you know, this is actually a first on the show where I've made a call so awkward where we have to be like, let's rewind a second here.

Oh, man, no, I think it's good. So let's get back to New York. All right. Sure.

Now you are living and you live there for like five years. Did you do any comedy whenever you were out there? Hold on, I think the priest who fucked your brother is calling. OK.

Hello? Oh, I guess the call dropped. I would have taken it. Oh, man.

Oh, wow. The zodiac killer is kind of like, oh, weird. I think we got Harvey Weinstein on the line. Let's just OK.

Hello. It's me, Harvey Weinstein. Hey, Harvey. I've been hugging right now.

Yeah, good. You fuck. I didn't know you were the zodiac killer, too. Yes, me and the zodiac killer I wanted to say.

And also Batman. Also Venom. Oh, Venom. OK.

Wow. Well, god damn it, you just keep making movies. You fucking garbage. That's right.

Yes, nobody knows that I produced the movie Venom. And also multiple murders through the zodiac killer. Well, I hope you kill yourself soon. You trash can.

Good one. You're really shot. You don't think I've heard that one before? Call that the tape Ross.

Come on, give me your words. You're representing White Street males everywhere right now. This is your chances there. Well, I don't like you.

You bad guy. That's what I thought. Yeah, you're right. Well, I definitely can't burn you as much as the entire world has in the past.

Yeah, man. I'm not doing very well. No, you brought up the world. I have to go.

I can't believe Harvey Weinstein just called. OK, I have to make a disclaimer. Harvey Weinstein, I hope he's not a fan of this show. I hope he doesn't listen to this show.

I'm not really sure how he got the number. And he really came at you just now, David. Yeah, no. What sucks is he got me.

Another victim. Another victim. Oh, man. Dude, I really feel that.

Yeah. The reset. It's a reset button. It's good.

It's good. It's good feeling. It's reset to zero. You know how originally I think how I met you, Dave, was through the open mic scene out here in Los Angeles.

Totally, man. And we used to go to this place that I mentioned on this podcast here and there with some other guests. But this place called Westwood Brewing Company. Oh, man.

Yeah. A lot of us cut our teeth at. That was a spot. There was a Tuesday, Mike, first.

Did you go to that? I went to it some. I mean, it was horrifying. It was like there was so many.

It was so intimidating. Yeah. And I actually, you know what's funny is I think a lot about how that sucked a lot. And it made me not go there.

But also, one of the first big things that happened to me in comedy, from my perspective, was them thinking I'm funny. Like when they first validated me. Huge. Huge deal.

Huge deal. It does make me think that we maybe need a little bit more of that in comedy. A little bit, not that level of harshness, but a little bit more like, I don't know, making it difficult on young comics. Because it gives you a point of achievement.

It makes you proud. It lets you know that you're doing something right. It makes the stakes higher when you touch the stage. So that way, what we would do, we do the Wednesday and Friday night shows there.

Mainly the Friday nights. That was like the big night. Yeah. Dude.

Yeah, that's the thing. The Tuesday Mike was the first thing I knew about. And then that Friday Mike that Gil Garibaldo ran. Yeah.

That Mike, I think, I wish I could take people who are fans of comedy to that Mike five to eight years ago. Yeah. Because I even knew it then. I remember we probably even talked about it.

Because you and I weren't really a part of the same Mike circuit. You were more on the club side. I was more weirdo, alt rooms. But it's not alt, just non-club rooms.

But that Mike was Friday night, 11 PM. He wouldn't let anyone advertise it anywhere. So you had to hear about it. And there was no sign up.

He just picked. So you had to be so dedicated to comedy that you gave up your entire Friday from 11 PM to 2 AM to do a set. And so everyone there were the comics in LA at that level who really fucking wanted it. And it's funny because now, five or eight years later, all the people that did that, Mike are the people that are doing well.

Yeah. It was like you, me, Oflanigan, Jack Robisha, Jake Weisman. Ahmed would give me priceless tags. He would give me priceless tags.

I'm a Virgil. That room was also where I learned to do a lot of touring now. Dude, to deal with rowdy crowds and stuff. That's where I remember one time I did a, yeah, because the way that it would work is that it was like the fourth room in this huge UCLA bar and Friday night.

So during college being in session, there would be a fuckload of people in the bar. So you never knew what you were going to get as far as crowd goes. It went all night. Sometimes it would just be empty when you got on stage.

Sometimes there would have been 50 college kids who walked in together and they're wasted and they're screaming at you. Sometimes we had to bark for stage time. But yeah, people in the room like, hey, this guy's on. Come on, come on.

He's real funny. Yeah. One time I started my set with two people in the crowd. And then halfway into my set, the door opens.

And 30 people came in. And the first person in this huge group of people opened the door literally doing this. Ah! Ah!

Ah! All of us were like, what the fuck is happening right now? And she walks all the way to the front and sits down. And every time I told a joke, right about it, the punch line.

Again, she would go, ah! And to the point where I lost my fucking mind. And I got a foot from her face and just started. Ah!

Ah! Ah! I need so much fucking attention. Fuck you.

And then as I was leaving, I'll never forget, as I was leaving, I was just so pissed. And I'm walking through the crowd and her friend who was sitting right behind her holds his hand up and goes, hell yeah dude, gutter. Dude, like thanks man. People loved a good heckle take down at Bruco.

You were like, you were like revered if you made that happen. Because there's a lot of us. There's a lot of us. Well yeah, I mean that was one of the hot spots that we had for the entire week.

So so much was riding on it. Yeah. I remember having, like at the time, this was years ago at Bruco. I had just started dating now my wife.

Luckily she didn't leave me because of things like this. But she was like having a housewarming for her apartment. And she was having all her friends over and stuff like that. And I was like the first one goes, I gotta go.

And she's like, where are you going? I'm like, I gotta go to Bruco. Oh wow. And I remember her friends being so mad at me that her boyfriend would leave the party before everyone else.

I'm like, I got a spot. Dude. This is what I do. Totally man.

Yeah, I mean I, that entire time I didn't keep a girlfriend for very long. And I... I mean, I would tell them like this is, it was tough because I was so straight up about it. I would just be like, I have probably one night a week to hang.

And if I get booked that night, I'm gonna reschedule. And for anyone else, that's so shitty. That's so shitty. But the deal is that you, it's impossible to get good at standup, especially in this goddamn town where there's literally 10,000 comedians.

So I like, when I started, I was like, I'm not taking a day off, I'm not taking a day off until I feel like I have a grasp of this. And I didn't do it. I was in Prince Livin' Pueblo, Colorado. And I, but I'm not from there.

They moved there after college. And one Christmas, I was visiting them. And I really wanted to do sets. I had never done sets there.

I hit up some comics in LA. I knew we're from Denver. And Rob Gleason, who is another one of those guys at those mics, told me about this mic on whatever day was Christmas Eve that year. And they were still doing it.

And I was like, nice. And Pueblo is two hours south of Denver. And there was a snowstorm. So I drive my mom's station wagon, two hours north to this mic.

I have told the host that I'm coming. I show up. And he cares that I'm there. He's like, oh cool man.

So cool, you came. Yeah, you're going to be up in a few. And there's no one in the bar except for five comedians. And they are sitting at the bar looking forward away from the stage.

The host goes up and says, hey, this next comic is from LA. He drove up here from Pueblo. It's so cool that he's here. Yeah, give it up for Dave Ross.

I go up. No one turns around or even looks over their shoulder for a second. I eat shit on Christmas Eve. Walk up to the host, thank him.

Walk out into snow and just burst out laughing. And I call Jake Weisman, who's like my best friend in comedy, to tell him that I think I'm a real comedian because it did. I think it was that not hurting my feelings that maybe like, oh yeah, I think I'm definitely in this. How long have you been doing comedy?

Like a year. Dude, honestly, that's pretty cool that you were able to laugh about it that early in the comedy because some people, it is the reverse effect for them where they end up quitting because of something like that. But you laugh at it and you're like, no, this is so ridiculous. This is the only thing to do.

Yeah, it's the only thing to do. Like this such like you're analyzing the situation. How far you drove. It's Christmas Eve.

They give you a nice announcement and everything and then still nothing from the bar. Yeah, the other comedians who are waiting to go. That's how comics are. They're waiting to go themselves.

They're like, yeah, I'm not going to get this guy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Screw it. I will say too, like I always remember the comics that when especially when I was young who were like really overly kind because the thing is those guys, I don't expect them to watch me depending on the day. I could have been like that. You know what I mean?

Because like I don't think it's even that they don't care about supporting comedians because they're in their head or whatever. It's just like on a day to day basis. If you're doing mics every day, you don't know who this fucking guy is. It's your social life.

So if you're going up, if you're going to these mics every day, you're just going to hang out with your friends some days and you're not even thinking about it. But the people that go out of their way, like man, I actually did quit first. I tried stand up a few times in 2006, got scared, didn't do it that much after that. But one of those times, for three years, I was just like, I don't know, I can't.