The Comedian Who Moved to LA with $2,000 and a Dream

How many times a week do you think to yourself, "Am I crazy? Like, am I the only person that's ever experienced this thing?" It's about my life, but it's about all our lives collectively. Car accident. You get $2,000. You moved to LA.

Now, this is the sign. I was waiting at my audition outside with Seth Meyers. He was offered SNL that same week. [music] There you're sitting there and it's like, you're close. Yeah. Where do you start when it comes to putting together a 60-minute standup routine?

From South Bend [music] to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hooser State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for [music] today's conversation. Today's episode is brought to you by our friends at Bloom Rank. They told us to tell you that Chat GBT is likely recommending your business's competitors. Test it out, and if you don't see Chat recommending you, it's time to call Bloom Rank. They've helped dozens of Indiana businesses like yours [music] make sure they're the business AI recommends when someone needs what you sell.

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Now, let's get back to the show. My guest today is [music] Chris Ryan. He's a Westfield-based comedian with more than 25 years of professional creative experience. [music] From standup, improv, sketch comedy, and drumming. He is just a creative guru. After stepping away from comedy for 20 years, he returned last year with his first fulllength show, Thermometer.

Selling out both runs in Indianapolis and Chicago. He's back. his allnew hourlong show, Nothing Means Anything, dives into the chaos of parenting twins, the awkwardness of adolescence, and midlife reinvention. And we're going to be talking about midlife reinvention. You're never too old. Whatever you are thinking there, dreaming that you want to do, go out and do it.

We're going to be diving into that today. Chris, welcome to the show. Thanks, Nate. Great to be here. Okay, man. This is this is going to be fun.

So, everyone will remember I uh Ryan Allert, you know, we talked about uh Straight No Chaser. Your journey into creative and comedy starts a little bit in Bloomington. Obviously, you know, talk about journalism camp and some other things while you were in high school, but you were part of an improv comedy group at IU and Straight Noaser was your opener. Take me there to Bloomington for a very brief time. So, I don't want to oversell what we were, but yeah. So, um, I was part of the second generation of a group at IU called, uh, full frontal comedy.

It was like a sketch improv kind of thing, uh, before every single campus on Earth had five of those. Uh, you know, it was kind of an original thing back then, 30 years ago. So, I was in the second generation of that group. Uh, joining about 1995ish or so. So, we, uh, were one of the biggest, uh, non-sports events on campus every week. We had a contract with the union.

We'd bring, you know, few hundred people in on Thursday nights to see our show. What does that look like? Like you show up on campus, you're a freshman, you're like, "Yeah, I can't wait to go out and get freedom." And the number one thing you do is like, "I'm going to go join the improv comedy troop." Well, originally, uh, I didn't even know that I wanted to do that. Uh, standup was kind of where I was focused.

I wanted to do talk radio. That was like the thing back then until talk radio went absolutely insane. Um, and there's no market for that anymore. But, uh, when I got to campus, I was out of state. Um, you know, about 3 weeks before I left for college, my dad said, "Oh, I forgot to mention I lost my job. You're on your own.

You got to pay for this." So, that was uh a little bit crazy. So, when I got to campus, I was a little bit in a panic. Got through the first semester, uh, went to register for second semester. They were like, "You owe money and you can't register until you pay." So, uh, my student loan debt journey began there.

Um, so, uh, swiped the credit card to to get enough, uh, on there to, uh, register and ended up staying. And I was, the reason I mentioned that is I was really questioning like, should I stay here? I can go to Illinois and pay instate and it'll be like $4,000 a year. I'm paying like 12 or 15 here, whatever it is. And right about that time is when the auditions came uh, for the group. And I got in and I I remember thinking to myself after I got in, I was like, there's no way I'm transferring no matter what.

No matter how much it costs, I don't care. This feels like the right place to be. Wow. Yeah. So, what do the audition What's the process look like and how many people are vying for how many spots? Um, a lot of people I think when I tried out there were maybe two slots.

So, they would replace people as they graduated and and the group is still going now. They just had their 30-y year anniversary last year, I think. So, yeah. Or the year before. 24. Wow.

Yeah. So, um I don't remember my audition. I just remember it's like trying out for anything. you go in and you're like, "Uh, that probably didn't go well." And then they either call and say, "You got in or you didn't." Um, and I got in and it was fantastic and, uh, made lifelong friends out of that.

So, as we evolved and got bigger and bigger, um, their first show before I joined the group was in like a dorm lounge at like Teeter or something like that. And, um, so they really grew it into something uh, special and I was part of that, too. And so once we got to the union and got that going, um, Straight No Chaser, they were doing their thing. I don't know exactly when they started but we started uh doing kind of joint shows with them where they would come and and you know I say open but we were really on equal footing at that point but then obviously they took off and went crazy and like you know they're singing for their Obamas and you know all the stuff that they did over the years. So um it was just really cool to be on the ground floor of something uh we knew we had something special. We knew they had something special and it was really crazy to watch them uh turn into what they became.

Well, and who would have known that, you know, this is the mid90s in Bloomington, Indiana was a hotbed for creativity. Like, that's pretty cool. So, take me through what it felt like. Did you guys have practice? What What even does an improv show for anyone that's never been to like an improv comedy show? Yep.

What is it like? What goes on and how do you practice for that? You know, if you want to get academic about it, I guess there's there's kind of there's short form improv, there's long form improv. So short form is like quick fun games, you know, where um you tag in, you tag out um you know, you take suggestions from the audience and then you get into more of the long form like Chicago style improv and that's what um I grew up around and that was uh what the whole group was really into. When you say Chicago style, take take us through what does that mean? So like Second City, so Dell Close uh the late great Dell Close, rest in peace.

He was kind of the the pioneer. So he was in the original um you know time era I guess of Second City. They started in like 1959 on this is like Jason Sedakus, right? Like he I feel like he's he was my improv coach on my team at Improv Olympic in Chicago, which you know there's kind of a feeder relationship between Second City and improv. He's from like Kansas. Kansas, right?

Which is so funny. Ted Lasso, right? Oh, even back then he was uh doing John Wooden quotes and stuff like he is obsessed with basketball. I remember that about him. And I also remember we um I know I'm jumping a little bit, but we were going around in a circle one practice uh for our Chicago improv team and he was like, "Well, where do you see yourself in five years?" And we were all going around saying what we were going to do.

And he looked at me and he goes, "You know, I see you more behind the camera than in front of it." And I was like, "All right, you know, whatever." No way. [laughter] Yeah. So, to answer your original question, practice for improv seems kind of counterintuitive because you're making it up on the spot, right? There's, you know, anybody who does improv knows this, so sorry if you already know this, but if you don't, if you're a stranger to it, um, there's a book called Truth and Comedy.

Everyone who ever does improv, who goes through the official, you know, training program at Improv Olympic, you read this book. And the idea generally essentially is that comedy at its root is about truth. And so, if you can articulate something um, that is true that people can relate to but never were able to articulate really, um, you've really got something. And so, what's the book called? Truth in Comedy. I like that.

So, the long form improv that Delclo pioneered, um there's this um format called the Herald. And basically what you do, it's about a 20 or 30 minute thing and it's got a structure to it, but what happens within that structure obviously is completely unknown when you begin. And the idea is to do all these unrelated scenes, like truly unrelated. So, like two people come on, have a whole scene about a job interview or, you know, at the hospital, you know, whatever. And then another uh couple people come on, they do their thing, and then over that 20 minute time, those three stories begin to weave and interate and come to a really satisfying ending. And it is absolutely amazing when it comes together.

How big is a group? Like, let's say if we were putting together one of these, an improv 20 minute uh it's called the Herald. That's the style. Like the guy's name. Yeah. Oh, Harold.

Not like H. Okay. H A R O. Yeah. Okay. If we were putting one of those together, how many people do you need?

I don't know the minimum, but it's usually about six or eight people. So, you'd have like a group of three, group of two, group of two, group of two, and then so we're sitting there watching. First group goes on and does their hospital seed and we're like, okay, how do you how do you know? Do you just walk out there or are there like seeds planted ahead of time? No, you just walk out there. So it may start with a suggestion from the audience and that's the real key to improv which I think uh made me more successful uh comedically later is you have to be completely open meaning you have to take anybody's suggestion they have this whole thing called yes and you've probably heard of that and that's the whole point is um you take care of everybody else and everybody else takes care of you and if you trust in that and you give each other gifts and if you get a gift you take it and you try to give as many gifts as you can on stage.

So, like for example, like Michael Scott in the office, Steve Carell, like he'll be holding a broomstick and and be like uh somebody will be like, "Sweep the floor." And he'll be like, "No, I'm not sweeping the floor. I have a gun. I'm going to shoot you." You know, and so that like it slows down the scene. It takes you out of the reality of it.

So, really, it's about it's not about telling jokes. It's about finding new things. And there's almost always something funny. And sometimes it's not funny, but it's still so good that it doesn't matter if it was fully funny the entire time. You know, you're not going to fall out of your seat every second of every minute of that 30 minutes. But watch something that you have like when you're in the room, you're like seeing this come to life.

Like do you remember a show that you've been in the audience for that has just like stuck with you where you're like, "Oh my gosh, you just you had to be there." and you and you can't go and explain it to anyone because it won't make any sense to anyone that wasn't there. And it's never the same twice. So, there was another show um and it's loosely based on the Herald and Chicago people, forgive me if I if I don't get this exactly right, but Monday nights at improv Olympic back in uh the late 90s, early 2000s, there was a show on Monday night called the Armando Diaz Experience and Hoot Nanny. And it was, you know, a group of, you know, the best people around like, you know, Tina Fey was in it, Rachel D. I remember seeing um the Sudakus was I mean all these people were there and there was this one scene I'm trying to remember what it was but this guy Ali Faranaki and I remember him clear as day he he was this huge guy and like there was this scene I don't remember what the scene was about I wish I could but like he was so in the moment and so intense that him and this guy got in this like argument like a fake acting argument on stage or whatever and it was so intense that Ali took this guy and basically like threw him across the stage where the audience like gasped like audibly like, "Oh my gosh."

But it that was the guy gave him a gift, he gave him a gift, the other guy a gift, and um it worked and the guy wasn't mad or anything, but it was a total surprise to everyone on stage, but it served the story. It it advanced the scene. It did all the things. Um but, you know, when it's good, it's surprising and satisfying. That's the best way to put it. Satisfying.

Yeah. And so, you were doing that while in college. You guys were, you know, hosting shows at the union, getting hundreds of people there. Y where did you get the idea that you wanted to make this your career and start to try to pursue the creative avenue? Yeah. So, when I was in high school, um I wasn't sure what I wanted to major in in college.

Like I was, you know, I was the guy in drama club. I didn't play sports. Um I was that guy. And so I remember filling out the financial aid forms and and my dad was like, "You're majoring in business, right?" And I was like, "No, I think I'm going to major in theater." And he's like, typical parent, you know, of that generation.

Well, why would you do that? that's, you know, stupid. And in hindsight, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I don't know. But I knew that I knew how to talk and be funny. And I was a good writer.

So, I was an editor on my paper. I had mentioned to you before we started here that uh I went to journalism camp in high school at Ball State. So, that was fun. But I knew I wanted to write and I knew if I had a basic understanding of business that I could kind of do whatever I wanted. And when I first got to college, I really wanted to do talk radio. That was where it was at for me.

I would listen like an old man. and I'd listen to WLS in Chicago like late at night and like I became friends with one of the hosts on there and he had me in and I got to sit with him like I'm sitting with you now and you know to be 16 and do that and I made him laugh and it was I was just the hooks got in me there and so when I got to school I originally thought I was going to major in theater but then I um became an editor at the high school paper and the teacher of that class Linda Kaine still remember to to this day and she came to my first wedding and all that um she changed my full perspective and I became obsessed with uh writing and specifically journalism. So just really took to that. So when I got to IU um and the reason I wanted to go to IU, I wanted uh first of all to be as far away from home as reasonably possible without uh with still being able to drive home. Uh but the Ernie Pile School of Journalism there is second to none.

I mean it's it's a fantastic school and um I was really excited uh to be part of that. And so I just knew that if I continued to get my education but tried to do this other stuff um as I went, maybe somehow someway it would all come together later, I didn't have a specific plan, which is probably why it kind of fizzled out for a while after, you know, a few years out of college and and moving back to the Midwest after Los Angeles. You end up graduating and then moving out to LA to pursue this like creative career. Take take us through what year do you graduate from IU? You go out to LA. What is that lifestyle like?

Yeah, LA is a strange place. So, I graduated from IU in 1998 and I moved very briefly to Detroit, which is a great city. I love Detroit, but I didn't know anybody there. So, I was super lonely. I went to work at an ad agency. There was this really cool um creative professional development program that it's like an 18-month thing that you can get in if if if they hire you.

I was going to be a copywriter. That was kind of the the thinking then, like I wanted to, you know, work on Bud Light or, you know, something, you know, amazing, some beer account or something. And so anyway, I was there about 6 months and I just couldn't take it because I didn't know anybody. It was really, you know, stressful. I was going home a lot. So, um, after that, I moved back to Chicago briefly for about 6 months.

So, I went through the entire, um, improv Olympic training program. It's like six levels. It takes a few months. I can't remember the exact schedule. Got on stage there. Started to, uh, to do okay with that.

That was where Jason Stakus was our uh team's coach. And I look back on our name. This is horrible. I did not come up with our name, but um it we were called Five Chinese Brothers, which is insane. You would never name anything that now, but it's named after some children's book from like the 40s or 50s or something. Somebody in the group came up with that name.

I don't know how we got to that, but anyway, we performed and did that. And um while all that was happening, Detroit and Chicago, my friends from Full Frontal comedy who had graduated were slowly um trickling out to LA, starting to move there. And I would talk to them, they'd be like, "Oh, it's so awesome. You got to come out here. There's so much stuff going on." You know, that's where it was at back then.

Every geography was everything then. It was New York, it was Chicago, it was LA. That's it. And so, um, I sold everything I had and anything that would fit in my little black Honda twodoor Civic with crank windows. Um, I got on the road and went out there and my best friend, who to this day is my best friend, uh, Dave Sole, he put me up on his couch and I remember he he took my head shot and made copies of it and he like taped it all over his apartment in the places like where I could put stuff in drawers and like here's where you're sleeping, here's where you keep this, here's where you keep that. and he asked me to autograph each one.

He still has them. I think that's funny because I was nobody then. And I wouldn't say I'm nobody now, but I'm not an autograph person. Yeah. You know what I mean? So anyway, uh that's So I stayed on his couch for a couple weeks and I ended up the building we lived in.

It was kind of cool because it was full of comedians. So the building manager, this guy named Dave Cox, he was like, and he's probably still doing this, he was like a comedian and a magician and he was like a Foley artist. Like and you meet people like this all the time. like everybody's got some strange way they make their income and it's really interesting. But he was nice enough to give me a lease. Uh because I had good credit even though I didn't have a job yet.

I had nothing. I had like $2,000 that I got from a car accident where I almost got killed. This truck driver hit me. I took that money and I was like, "Okay, that's a sign I need to move to LA now." Um what? That's [laughter] You got into a a truck accident, a car accident.

You get $2,000 and you say, "This is a sign." I thought it was a million dollars back then. Um, yeah. And, you know, not to deviate too far off the path, but what's really interesting about that accident, that accident was at the intersection of Central Park and the Eden Expressway uh, in Highland Park. And my wife, my I'm I'm on my second marriage, but my, uh, wife, the woman I remarried, her childhood home and her um, stepdad's car dealership are at that intersection. So, that's crazy.

I mean, obviously I didn't know that at the time, but that intersections really had an effect on your life. It has. And you know, the cop that worked the accident. So, I had uh an old Beetle and um I was sitting at the stoplight and that intersection is notorious. It's really dangerous because it's right when the highway's ending. And so, I'm sitting at this stoplight and I look up and all I see is truck grill in my rearview mirror.

I remember I had a coffee in my hand. I was holding it. I had just enough time to throw the coffee and grab the steering wheel. I got hit so hard that um my car went up under a limousine that was the car in front of me and my airbags didn't go off because none of the sensors got hit because the angle. So basically the the trunk of the limo was about a foot or two from my face. So miraculously I was not injured.

Like everything was destroyed other than me. And the cop that worked the accident said I've done you know 10 or 12 or whatever he said over the last 20 years. And every single time the person either died or was paralyzed. So, oh gosh. So, a few months later, got a lawyer a few months later. Um, you know, he was like, the lawyer was like, "You need to go get a bone scan and get like run up all these medical bills."

And I was like, "You are crazy. Like, I can barely pay my $400 a month rent." He's like, "It's an investment. They'll pay you more." I was like, "Just get something." And that's it.

And so, got my 2,000 bucks. You had 2,000 bucks and you headed west. And I headed west. Yeah. And so, um, I lived in Korea Town. So, I lived in a Spanish-sp speakaking neighborhood in Korea Town, full of comedians.

This building I was in was full of comedians. And my my friend Dave and I, we would walk next door. So, there was the Ktown Plaza, the Korea Town Plaza, and it was like any mall except it was Korean. So, everything was in Korean. There was no English anywhere. And we would go to the food court there and just point at things and order them and see what happened.

And so, sometimes, most of the time, it was amazing. Other times you'd get a fish head in a bowl of broth and like maybe not. Um so anyway, yeah, so that's how it started. So So what did you do to make money while you were out there? So I like most actors and comedians went to the the old temp agency and um I got really lucky. So my friend Dave had temp uh briefly at Paramount uh the movie studio and he put in a good word for me.

So I got hired as a temp at Paramount and it turned into a full-time job. And so I worked there the whole time I was there. It was literally the easiest job I've ever had. So I worked in the television department syndication. So I had um five TV shows that I was in charge of um keeping track of. So you know there's like 210 or whatever media markets.

And so if somebody buys um Spin City or Moisha or you know Star Trek, one of these shows in syndication and they they pay Paramount a contract to to run that show and they'll say, "Oh, we're going to run it at 1:00 in the morning." So they pay the license fee for like the one in the morning time. Well, Neielson put out reports of like when it actually aired. So I had to find those discrepancies. And so I would say, okay, in Sou Falls, South Dakota or whatever, um they're, you know, uh running it at 9:00 p. m.

in prime time instead of at 1:00 in the morning. And then that would go to our legal department. They'd get a nasty letter and then they'd either fix their time or correct out there. So you're you spend every day you're looking at the Neielson like which is so crazy to think about like you couldn't just like go back and look on on like the guide you know but you're looking at what time things ran and then looking at the contract of like they well they weren't scheduled for the 9 p. m. Not even the kind this is how easy that job was.

It was a full-time 40hour a week job. I could do my job well in four hours a week. No kidding. So on Monday I would get this report spit out. It'd be, I don't know, 30 pages thick and it would show time supposed to run, time actually ran, and then I would just send my emails to the legal department and then that was it. The AI definitely does that now.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So, but it was a great job because my boss was a wonderful man. His name is Rob Harvey. Um, he passed away in uh 2017, but he was so great. I remember one time uh he would let me go audition and go to stuff and one time we went out, so I was like 23 years old.

We were out all night. Like I got home at like 5:30 in the morning. Ridiculous. Probably smelled horrible. Whatever. So I come into work and he's like, "You look terrible."

And I was like, "Yeah, I know." He's like, "All right, at lunch today I'm going to leave for a couple hours. You take my office and just sleep." Like he was that kind of guy. He was awesome. And he and I think they know that like no one at a job in LA is there for that job for their career.

Everybody's on their way to something else. So he recognized that and he was just such a sweet guy and he really helped me out a lot. So were you still performing while you were out there or you auditioning? Like what were you what were you aspiring to be? Definitely standup, but I I thought, you know, back then it was be a standup, get noticed, get a sitcom. Like that was kind of the model back then.

And I think I was delusional, not in the good way because there's the delusional of like believe in yourself and it'll happen. And then there's the delusional of like you just sit around and like I was under this illusion and which is why it's so much better now to be doing this because I have some age and some experience and and some wisdom hopefully a little bit. You know when you when you start out you just think or I just thought like oh I'm funny so people will just know that and just come get me and and say here you go be famous here's a lot of money go do your thing. It's a grind. It's like anything else. The talent is only your key to get in.

The rest is hard work and and a little bit of like creating some luck, you know. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Like, and I think some people, oh, you're lucky. And it's like, well, the best the best creatives or the best people that are, you know, successful like put themselves in the position to get lucky, you know? And so, how long did you stay out in LA?

I was there for right right on the dot. Three years. So, three years out there. Was there ever a time where you felt like you were about to break through? Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. So, I auditioned. So, a guy in my group named Derek, um he was dating a cast member on the show Mad TV on Fox. We always called it the uh the the step sibling of of Vessanel, like we derided it, I guess, that way, but we shouldn't have because I look back at the clips now, and that show was so good and so ahead of its time. But anyway, um he was dating a cast member of the show and was also friendly with um the casting director and that got everybody in our group an invite to come audition. So, I don't know how many people auditioned in total.

I think it was like 30 or 40. It was like kind of a cattle call, but a a called down invite only cattle call. And I was one of those. And I got through I think I got through two or three rounds and then it was down to um just a few people and you know obviously someone else got it because I didn't but of that small group. But I do know um here's something very interesting. I was waiting at my audition outside with um Seth Meyers.

So he was like a chair like a few feet over and I was sitting there. He went in, did his thing, came out. I went in, did my thing, came out. I later learned that he was offered SNL that same week. So, I think he was probably offered MAD TV. I don't know if he was or wasn't.

He probably was because he's amazingly talented, but um yeah, he joined uh SNL uh straight away from there. You're sitting there and it's like, dude, you're close. Yeah, that is it was hard and and that was really the turning point for me where um that's the moment where you're supposed to grit your teeth and keep going, but it was I won't lie, it was devastating. I was so um disappointed and you know, you question yourself and you know, you go through this whole thing and I was finally like, you know what, I'm done with this. Um so um I got engaged uh a few months after that happened and we made the decision to leave LA. I I think I was kind of done with it at that point.

So, um Yeah. school and then ended up here. I was going to say at that point you are 26 25. Yeah. 27. Yeah.

And you're kind of like, you know, I gave this a good effort, the old college try, but it's kind of time to start finding the career. Y and you end up moving back to Indie or No, moving back to uh Illinois, right? Yeah. So, I went to Champagne. Uh it's so funny like I went to Indiana out of state for undergrad and I went to Illinois out of state for grad school. I I think I did everything backwards.

Um, luckily I got um, you know, full tuition ride at uh, Illinois for grad school. So, it was a it was a two-year program mashed into a year, which is one of the reasons I wanted to do it that way. Horrible year. So, like Illinois is like in the final four. I don't even I have no allegiance to Illinois whatsoever. It's like I spent 12 months of intense just writing papers, being indoors, and being miserable and totally stressed out.

We made like $22,000 that year. like we were eating canned peaches like the whole thing. It was horrible. Um but it I mean it was a good springboard to next thing. So got a two-year program done in a year. Um came into town perfumes.

I was say at that point had you given up all creative performance things like that? Not entirely. So I entered a standup contest in Champagne. Um so I there was a stand-up contest all four years at IU. Um I won it every single year. Um my sophomore year the prize was a trip out to New York and I can tell you that story.

We got to open for David and some other people at Catch a Rising Star. That was fun. In Champagne, I entered a stand-up contest my fall semester and I won that. And um yeah, so I did that. But then after that, it was kind of, you know, put to bed for a bit, I would say. Yeah.

And then you graduate with your masters in in what? Journalism. Okay. And my undergrad's journalism. So where do you where do you land your career? So originally I was resistant to moving to Indianapolis.

Like I had I had Indiana experience, you know, I had my four years in Bloomington. I had, you know, that that week at journalism camp where I met a girl and fell in love and had a pen pal for a summer and and all that. Yeah, we love that. Got my heart broken. Um, but I was really I bet it was broken and beautiful penmanship. You know, you meet you meet the girl you meet the girl at journalism camp, you know that she's writing some ele well-written breakup note.

Yeah. just, you know, sentence combining. Uh, yeah, really active verbs. Um, yeah. So, uh, anyway. Yeah.

So, we really didn't have a choice. We had no money. We were on fumes. Um, I was engaged at that point. Um, I really wanted to move to Chicago. I won't lie.

And it was a very, very tough adjustment coming here, but I'm glad we did because my ex-wife's parents had just bought a house. They had just moved to Indie. um her dad worked in the trash business and he ended up in Indie like a month before I was done with grad school. We had no money. Chicago was not realistic at all um for us. We needed to kind of plant roots and and and save and start over.

So, we ended up staying at their house and that that's the beauty of the whole thing. So, Indiana was a tough adjustment. But staying at their house that summer, uh the room that my computer was set up in, I would sit there in my underwear looking for a job unemployed and um probably the most ironic thing that happened of all was uh Indiana Alumni Magazine ends up calling me that summer um when I was job searching after grad school and they're doing a 30 under 30 to watch list of people. So you've got um and two people from Full Frontal comedy were on that list of 30 actually. So Nicole Parker was number one. She was the one who ended up on Mad TV.

She was on for about I think six seasons. So anyway, they call me and they're like, "Well, we're doing this 30 under 30 thing and we know you do comedy and blah blah blah, so we want to feature you." And I was like, "Great." And they interviewed me and I'm just sitting there thinking like, "Oh my gosh, like this is it. I'm unemployed. I'm looking for a job.

I'm I guess I'm back in Indiana." But that same room where I did that interview um before I had a job and where I was looking for a job ended up being my son's my twin son's uh bedroom five years later because we ended up buying that house from her parents when they uh moved and built a different house. So Wow. And that kind of that kind of put us uh put us uh in Indie uh for the long haul. And I'm really glad I stuck it out because um it changed my life in really great ways. Yeah.

And so you you end up settling down and honestly you give up performing and you give up the creative dream for 20 years. Yeah. Like you kind of do the dad, you do the corporate, you know, the whole nine yards there. But then you know I how how old are you or how old were you when you got the the urge to go and perform again? Well, it's always been there but the urge to actually do something with it and have the discipline. So, like a lot goes into that, right?

Like my kids were about 15 at that point. So, this is about 2 years ago. I turned 50 this year. So, um I was 47, 48, whatever. So, 48. Yeah.

Let's say you're 48 years old. You're in a career. You're like, you know, doing your thing. You're a dad. And you decide like this is the time. I've got to get back out there and continue to pursue your dream.

What was the final domino that led you to actually getting back on the horse and pursuing your dream? Yeah, I think the final domino honestly um without getting into too much detail, but the company um I worked for uh for 13 years at that point. It was a small independent um healthcare marketing agency based in Carmel and just a really great experience. The woman uh who ran that company, Deborah Woods, she's retired now, one of my favorite people on earth. um you know she was a very very successful businesswoman but she um she had a bent for theater and and all things fine arts and that was what her original degree was in. So it's kind of interesting that she ended up in pharmaceutical healthcare marketing but she was very successful and so every year I would be the creative director of our annual meeting.

So I would produce it and I would host it and so I got a little bit of a taste from doing that but it was just like with the company the creative director of the annual meeting. Yes. Yes. Yes. And so, um, two years ago, and I'm I'm so happy for her, she, uh, sold the business and retired. Um, and so we were sold to a larger company, much larger company.

And at that point, you know, it just when something that radical happens and changes kind of everything, it makes you look at everything. And so, I just remember thinking to myself, okay, um, what am I going to do now? Am I going to stay here? Am I going to do something else? Am I, you know, you just question everything? And and so I had remembered that um Deborah's husband owns a theater in Carmel.

He has a a community theater where they do um you know local shows and and local people come and audition who some are actors, some aren't. And it's just a cool space. And I remember I I was in therapy too. So and advocate for therapy by the way like absolutely do it. Um I I think that was a huge uh pivotal pivotal part of doing this. But I think two, I just worked up the courage.

I was really scared to do it. I remember sitting I remember exactly what I was doing. I typed her like a two sentence email. I was like, "Hey, hope you're good." I hadn't talked to her for like two months at that point. I was like, "I have this idea I want to do.

I really think I want to do standup again and I want a friendly audience for my first time out just to build my confidence and I know you guys have the theater. Like, I don't know. Can we talk about that?" She replied, "She's retired, super wealthy, like doesn't need to worry about anything or anyone. She's got all these grandkids. She has all these wonderful things going on."

Within five minutes, she replies to me and she's like, "Meet us for breakfast next week at this place in Caramel and her husband, Willie, who who runs the theater. He's the artistic director. They own the theater. Sat down with them for breakfast." And they were like, "Well, what do you want to do?" And I kind of like laid it out.

And I had nothing written at that point other than, you know, I've got my note file in my phone that, you know, I write things down as I experience them and see them or think of them. And I just gave her this loose idea and she's like, "Here's what we're going to do. We're going to give you the theater two times. So, first time is on us. You can uh have one of our open dates." So, picked a Friday night about 3 months out because I still needed to write the show.

Yeah. And she said, "The second time out, um, you can rent the theater, but we'll we'll support you and and help you." And those were my first two shows at the theater in Carmel. And so that really became my home base. So no matter where this ends up going, um, and hopefully it goes uh somewhere great and bigger and better and all of that, I will always consider that my home base. That caramel 100 seat Theater.

It's a great space. Um, just right in the heart of Caramel next to Sun King in Midtown there. And um, just it was wonderful. So, you have that first show. Yep. Talk to me about putting together a a 60-minute show.

You talked about doing some three minute open mics, some this, some that. Like, everyone that's probably online has seen like what's really hot right now is like the kill Tony, like really quick, like you get a minute or whatever. You're putting together 60 minutes. Where do you start when it comes to putting together a 60-minute standup routine? You get time to reflect as you get older. And I think for me it was like, why did I even do standup when I was 23?

Like, I had nothing to say. I had done virtually no living. I had, you know, no real experience to speak of. I mean, I had quite an experience growing up, but I don't think at that point I was ready to talk about that or viewed it as uh comedic in any way, but you know, as they say, it's kind of a cliche, but it is because it's true. Uh, comedy comes from tragedy. And so, comedians are like broken people by and large, a lot of them.

I I would put myself in that group. Um, I've put myself back together again, but certainly was a broken person for a long time. But for me, it was just I have all these unique experiences and I was thinking of standup as jokes and jokes per minute and say funny things. Um, and it's kind of going back to the improv thing. For me, it was more like I don't need jokes. I need stories that no one's ever heard before.

Um, because I've lived a very unique life. Not better or worse than anybody else's, but certainly some experiences you would absolutely not believe if I told you about. And that makes you stand out a little bit. And so for me, um, having twins, I mean, that has been the dominant aspect of my life. Uh, getting married, getting divorced, getting remarried to my wife. Uh, now I've been with her for 10 years.

Um, she's Jewish, I'm not. So, there was like a learning curve there. Like, um, just all kinds of different, uh, things that had happened. And I So, I had all these notes with all these jokes, too. And I I just sat down and I started writing. Yeah.

And that was it. So, I had I started out just, you know, you barf on the paper and and see where you end up. But then I started to subdivide things into topics and I'd go to this topic, put it to bed for a little bit, get this topic, that topic, etc. , etc. , and then um started to it's really like stitching together a quilt like because for me everything's got to have a payoff. It's got to be and and I overthink things too, I think.

So, that's part of the reason it took me 3 months to write because I wanted it to really truly have bookends and be perfect and have the end be Are you like writing a script or are you just putting an outline together? Like, is it word for word? It was. And it's funny that you say that cuz my wife and I have talked about this a lot. My best friend Dave, who I kind of consider my um comedy consultant because I run things by him all the time. I trust him exclusively.

I don't like to share material with people before it's ready to perform. Yeah. Well, that's like a little bit of like cuz you need the whole like theatrics of it. Like if you're a performer, I've given uh my my level of performance in standup is through best man speeches. I've given like a decent chunk of those. It's a great way to test the material.

I've also been the officient of two weddings. Also a great time to practice the material. I have one coming up and I'm like in the middle of like writing this thing and it's like I get nervous cuz I'm like and I don't want anyone to just read it. Like you have to hear me deliver it. Yep. Cuz that's like the vibe, right?

And that's the struggle that I had too. So, I did I write in pros. I don't really take notes. I like write things out. And so, it was a script, but the struggle is, you know, you don't want to come up on stage and sound like you're reading because otherwise it's just like a book reading at Barnes & Noble or something where you're like, and then the night came out of the forest and, you know, it's it's a little stilted. But words are important, too.

So like Seinfeld, you know, study him and his process. Like every word you hear on stage is a word that's intentional that he's written out, that he's rewritten out. And he's famous for being such a fastidious, to use a journalism word, stickler for things being perfect. And I think with my OCD and some other things, I I think I have that um inclination, but you know, it needs to be fresh and sound um authentic. I mean, it is authentic, but the delivery has to feel and hear authentic, too. And so I think that was something I was working through in those first uh couple of shows.

And so, you know, my wife is like, when you riff and get going, it's so funny. She's like, leave that leave some of that open. Like just see what happens. And you have to trust yourself and the audience to to be able to do that. And it takes time and comfort. So that's why So what So what did you put together for the first one?

Like imagine like is it all friends and family in the audience or in the very first show? So you have a room of a hundred of your closest friends family. You're getting back on stage for the first time in 20 years. What's the What do we talk about? The first two shows and I did it different for my uh three shows following that. But my first two shows I actually thought oh come out and win them over with a quick oneliner like a joke.

And both times um those first two shows I used jokes from like 20 years ago. And I was like okay just come out win them over and then pivot. cuz I had watched all these specials. I'm like, what are people doing that come out? Like, what does Sebastian do? What does Seinfeld do?

What does, you know, David Tell do? Like all these people. And so for my very first show, I came out and said, it's so random and I would do it different now, but you know, you learn from it. I think the joke's good, but it was in the wrong place. Um, if Robert Downey Jr. ever has a son and names him Robert Downey Jr.

Jr. , then Robert Downey Jr. will become Robert Downey Jr. Senior. So that was like that's the very first thing I said after 20 years when I came out. That's it.

Do we get laughs or was it like oh what? It got laughs but it was so out of nowhere. Robert Downey Jr. scene. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. No context, no nothing. That's what you you come out first thing you say. Yeah. Yeah. And then the second time I came out, what did I say?

It was um Oh, I read somewhere that Charles Schulz once said that the kids in peanuts were from Henipin County, Minnesota. I'm no alarmist, but uh shouldn't somebody look into the fact that there's an entire town of children who are either bald, dirty, or parentless? Like just wandering around like what is happening? Like okay, that's I mean it's a good joke, but like does it belong there? So uh my my new show and um you know, maybe I can I can reveal this a little bit. Um I really look back on those um it took me like a month or so to even watch the video of my show.

Like I'm I'm one of those people. I don't like like when this comes out I'm going to have trouble for like 3 or 4 days before I listen to it cuz I hate the sound of my own voice. I hate seeing myself on video. I'm just I don't know. It's like this weird thing that I have. Well, and I feel like if you are uh like I'm very critical.

So like I'll listen back to my episodes sometimes and be like, "Oh, you dummy. Why didn't you say it this way? Why didn't you deliver the punchline a little bit better?" And it's like you kind of got to watch the film a little bit and it's hard. Oh, I got there, but yeah, it takes a while to get there. Um, yeah.

So, my my newest show uh that I did uh this Nothing Means Anything show when I come out and and I was proud of this. It's got a huge laugh. So, I I'm very particular as a musician. I have this house music. I have this list of songs like it every song has some relevance to something and no one would know or not know what those are, but it's important to me that they're in this certain order and create this vibe. And so, the very last song before I come out on stage is Alanis Morris.

That's all I really want. And so this announcement comes on that's like, you know, turn your phones off, blah, blah, blah. No recording, whatever. And then you hear this like opening guitar chord of All I Really Want, the first song on her, um, Jagged Little Pill album. And so that starts to play and then I walk out on stage and my wife's looking at me just shaking her head. And I go, uh, my opening line is, uh, that's a song I lost my virginity to.

And so I go into this whole thing and I did not lose my virginity to my wife. So that alone is funny. And so get into this whole thing about how on earth my wife could ever have found me attractive. Like when I was a freshman, my OCD was like off the charts. I still have it. It's manageable.

But like there's a picture of me and um I'll show you a little bit later picture when we're off air, but um one of my friends in my dorm got a picture of me. I went to the grocery store. Now keep in mind, remember I said it was like 12 $15,000 go out of state. I was in huge student loan debt. I had no money. I was like working four jobs, full class schedule and still behind.

Could not catch up. Somehow managed to scrape together 20 bucks to go down to Kroger and rent a rug doctor. And I rug doctorred my dorm room floor because I needed it to be cleaned somehow. So, somebody uh on my floor got a picture of me uh in a tuckedin Cosby sweater in mom jeans uh using the rug doctor. The rug doctor on your dorm room floor. Yes.

And so I could tell you a million stories like that. Another night, uh it was a Friday night. We were going out. Um I looked in the mirror. For whatever reason, I didn't like the the t-shirt I was wearing. And I was so afraid of messing up my hair, which is ridiculous.

I used scissors to cut that shirt off because I didn't want to pull my shirt over. I mean, crazy. I know. I know you're looking at me like I look at myself now, bro. That's crazy. So, for someone to find a person like that attractive just befuddles me because my wife's beautiful and like everybody hits on her all the time and like I'm, you know, I totally got the deal.

Um, so anyway, I feel like self-deprecating humor always smacks. Like it's so natural for me because no one is more critical of me than me. Well, you know, I'm sure there's people out there. Again, a lot of people's experience getting up to perform is in the like bachelor uh best man speech or the maid of honor speech or sometimes being a fish or some things like that. What advice do you have? If I'm putting together one right now, I'm putting together a ceremony and a best man speech simultaneously.

What advice what should I do to put into the ceremony? How should I do the best man speech? What advice do you have for me about this live performance I have? Yeah, that's a great question. My instinct is to treat it as a reporter journalism assignment. So talk to everybody, learn things.

It's just like doing a roast or um you know, giving out an award or some other thing where you try to learn as much as you can about a person and then um much like you do very naturally with your interviewing, you're going to hear something that's going to stick out and then you kind of take that branch and go down that branch and then you'll hear something else. And so you you get all these notes and then you come back and try to figure out um just a way to um you're the vehicle so not making it about yourself but also on top of that somehow connecting those interesting things you heard to the event at hand. So whatever that might be. So I I would say collect as much information as you can and keep distilling and distilling and distilling until you have like there's an art in weaving a great story where you know where one story ends in uh you know buying a new car or whatever and then it suddenly picks up on they're in the car on their first date and then like you know if you can really weave those all together I think it can just be that's like the true magic of not just three separate story very much like improv right not just three separate scenes means they're all sort ofly like weaving their way into each other to bring you to one final payoff.

And I always uh try to do that and that comes directly from that Herald experience. I try to bookend everything I do. And so, you know, my criticism of I was obsessed with SNL growing up, like absolutely obsessed. I could do every scene word for word. I knew it all. Um but they were terrible at ending scenes.

Like they were notorious for like how do you end this? It's a great premise. It's a great idea. got tons of laughs, but the ending is never quite um what you expected it to be. And so for my standup show, I really wanted to make sure that I had a satisfying ending to the show that you could put a bow on it and say, "Okay, even without him saying thank you, good night, I know this is the end of the show." And so, um I've done that.

I guess I could reveal it perhaps. Oh, I I don't want to I think we have to keep it a little bit of it still tucked closely because um you're going to have some shows coming up that I want Are the the shows that are going to be coming up the same show or is it going to be a different show? It's going to be largely the same show. So, with the two um the Thermometer show that was kind of my comeback show and then Nothing Means Anything after that, my writing process for the second show was, "Oh, I'm just going to take the best from thermometer and just maybe swap in 10 or 20% of what I didn't like or what I would have done differently or whatever." And that again, that writing process, it became the flip. So, it was 90% new and like 10% what I had before.

and the classic you get started and you're like, "Well, I could change that. That could be better. That could be different." Yeah. And and so for me, I my answer right now is that it would probably be exactly the same. But at the same time, um my favorite band, Rush, they're getting back out on the on the uh on the stage this year.

Uh Neil Pier passed away and six years ago. I'm a drummer. Uh he was my hero. And so anyway, going to see them fourth row center in Chicago. But one of the criticisms they always got is that night, same exact set. they were not the Grateful Dead.

So, the Grateful Dead would come out and play like a completely different show every night. Like you might hear completely 100% different songs. And so, what I really like um that they're going to do this time around is you play most the same and then you swap in a few things. And so, I think that's kind of going to be my MO going forward now that I have 150 minutes of material. Yeah. What can people expect from from your show?

a lot of self-deprecation like we talked about and just a lot of unique perspective on parenting and mental illness and growing up in a very strange uh family and just that idea that like how many times a week do you think to yourself, am I crazy? Like is this am I the only person that's ever experienced this thing? And that's what great comedians do. they tap into whatever that thing is and they say it in a way that no one's ever said it before or bring up something that no one's ever brought up before and really um take you to a new place with it. So for me it's just um it's storytelling. It's not machine gunning jokes.

Um yeah, and that's it. It's about it's about my life, but it's about all our lives collectively like parenting and having parents and just the weirdness of of life really. Yeah. I do feel like the best comedians do I think you said that very eloquently. The best comedians say relatable things in a way that you haven't heard before. Yeah.

Like it's like the literal opposite of a cliche but the same meaning. You know what I'm saying? Like if you can take something that everyone says it this way but you share this lesson in a totally new way. Like I think that's so Yeah. And I I talk with people at work about this. Like we have medical people at work and then we have creative people and we have a lot of people in between.

But the medical people think in numbers and fact and literalness and and that's great. I I can't think that way. My brain doesn't work that way. I think in uh letters and words and really it's not it's the fact that we all have thoughts and they're raw, but we can't always say them how we're thinking them. And so to hear someone else say it, not just say it, but say it in a way that's interesting, that's what people love. And so that's what you go for.

Amen. I love that, man. If you had one piece of advice for listeners out there that maybe are struggle with public speaking or getting in front of crowds or getting like again the the best man speech, the made of honor speech or just standing up for a for a presentation at work. What advice do you have for public speakers and and how to turn that from terrifying and you know not very good to wow this person knows what they're doing? Yeah, that's something I struggled with too because, you know, when I was younger, I had the look, but like no material really in hindsight. And now I have a lot of material, but you know, I'm trying to hang on to the look as long as I can.

Like I said, I'm almost 50. But for me, the thing that changed is I even though I had no material 30 years ago, 20 years ago, I was fearless. Like I would go on any stage, say anything, do anything, whatever. And now, um, I don't know if it's stage fright or just my anxietyy's changed over the years or or what it is, but there's a real nervousness that creeps in that you have to manage. And that's something I've learned, um, getting back into this. And the best advice I ever heard, and you know, radar's steel.

um they don't uh invent necessarily, but this advice I thought was really great and that is um embrace the fear and try to do jiu-jitsu in your mind to get to a place where you love bombing, which is so counterintuitive because, you know, I had a freeze moment on stage uh in Carmel. I completely lost my spot. I didn't know where I was. I And then, you know, you get in your own head and you panic. Audiences smell fear. Like, it just it's a perfect storm of like, "Oh, shoot.

How do I get out of this? And um that would have been a great moment where I would have been like, I'm bombing. Who cares? You know, and I did snap out of it, but it it's just it's a complete mind warp where you get I was convinced that night when I got off stage that I had cut out half my show that I'd only been on stage for like 20 minutes and I I was on stage for like 60 minutes. It was like 5 minutes shorter maybe, but it felt like it was a half hour, 40 minutes shorter. Um, so to me I would just say or to someone else I would just say my advice would be um don't overthink it.

And you know it's that idea that like every single person in that audience is in awe of the fact that not me just anyone would be the focus in front of a group like that. It's terrifying to people. Like it's like the old Seinfeld joke like people are so afraid of public speaking that they'd rather be the person in the coffin at the funeral than the one giving the eulogy. And that's really true. um not my joke his but like that encapsulates it perfectly which is you know don't overthink it and try not to be too nervous and I need to constantly remind myself that because um the hundred people looking at you they're not writing jokes on stage well and think about like how often have you for years or decades talked about like oh that person giving the public address about whatever it might have been like they just were no good like no one lingers on like if if you don't put your best foot forward people will remember like if you do a great job, they're like, "Oh yeah, I love that."

But like no one is ever like dragging the maid of honor, the groomsman through the mud. Yeah. Saying like, "Oh, that was the worst thing I've ever experienced." Blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And I think you just made me think of something.

Like comedy to me is almost the opposite of the consumer world. So in advertising, we always hear like if somebody hates your product or if somebody loves your product, they'll tell one person. If they hate it, they'll tell three people. I think comedy is the opposite. If they don't like it, they may not say anything to anyone or they may be like, "I went to the show. it was okay, whatever.

I wouldn't go again. But if they loved it, they're going to tell everybody. I mean, when I first found out, I found out about Sebastian Maniscalo from um Jerry Seinfeld's uh Comedians and Cars Getting Coffee. In his final episode, they interviewed him and flipped it around and they said, "Who's a comedian that's out there that you love that people haven't really seen yet or maybe heard of yet?" And he said, "Sbastian." And I went, there were like two specials already.

And we all know what he's turned into now. He's uh he's an impression on SNL, but he was so good the first time I saw him. All my friends got super tired of me saying, "You got to watch Sebastian. You got to watch Sebastian." He just had that much of an impact on me. And a lot of comedians are that way, too.

Um Letterman's like that for me. Um few others. Dana Carvey is one of those. So, yeah, we've come to the end of the show where we have some rapid fire Indiana questions for you. So, this question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond.

Check them out at homejart. com. My question for you, why do you call Indiana home? There is so much opportunity here. Um, and I think people outside of Indiana have that whole like flat corn boring like you know perception. We're a flyover state, whatever.

But we're also kind of a drive through it state. Like that's where all the cool stuff is. And and I call it home. uh because like I said I was resistant to coming here initially and I can't imagine not having lived here the last 20 years. I found more creative outlet and more uh places to share you know whatever it is I have to offer artistically here than anywhere in LA, Chicago, New York, Detroit combined all of that. I was in a band for four and a half years when I first moved here.

I worked at um Angie's List and I met a guy there uh who is to this day the best guitarist I've ever played with. Mike Ashley if you're listening. Um, you're amazing. So, wrote 40 songs with these guys, original songs, gigged out almost every week. Um, you know, the standup thing, uh, has happened here. I've, uh, had a very, uh, successful, in my opinion, career.

Uh, worked at the same place 15 years. You think, you know, marketing agency, ad agency, whatever you want to call it, you think, oh, everything's in Chicago. And that's true. Um, but we are doing a lot of great things here, too. So, I think Indiana is a little more um interesting than people give it credit for and there's a lot more opportunity here than maybe people give credit for because of our relative proximity to other big cities like Columbus, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis.

Absolutely. Okay. What's been your funniest parenting moment having twins? Comedy comes from tragedy. So, the first thing that comes to mind is just um at this age, you know, my kids are 17 now. just the idea of like being at home with them but feeling like they're not there and they probably feel like I'm not there either because they just barricade themselves in their bedrooms and that's all they do and they'll come out like once a day and it's like clockwork every night.

Um I'll hear a door open. They'll come out and be like when is dinner going to be ready? And I'll be like I don't know uh 5 to 7 minutes and they'll say you know oh you said 5 to 7 minutes 10 minutes ago. And I'm like all right well then it'll be 15 to 17 minutes from 10 minutes ago. What do you want me to say? And you know, so they either come out of their room to ask me when we're eat, ask me when we'll eat, um to tell me that they're hungry, or to accuse me of lying when it takes longer, you know, than I anticipated.

So, um I think the funniest thing about being a parent of twins is just all of the interesting uh things they do and say because my boys are identical, but they, you know, they couldn't be more different from each other. I don't think they look the same. Um, that's probably that twin parent snobbery. But just those little moments over the years, like I remember one time we were driving around in the car around Westfield, and my son Finn, who's going to be an engineer, who's like way high up in his class, him and Cal, my other son, were in the back seat. And Finn's like, "Hey dad, why does that car have a math problem on it? What are you talking about?"

And he's like, "Four* 4." And I was like, "That's so cute." And then I try to start explaining like four-wheel drive or whatever. He completely interrupts me. He's like, "The answer is 16, Dad. [laughter] That is They're very funny.

That's that's the best part is just the things they say without trying that are actually very wise and witty for their age. I love that. Favorite venue to see a show in Indiana? That's a great question. So, back in my gigging days, I remember we played a show at Radio Radio, I think, down I think it's in Fountain Square. It's been about 20 years.

But I just remember that night the sound in there was so good. So, so so good. I'd never heard better live sound than at that place. I don't know if it was the acoustics of the room, the guy running the board, or some combination thereof. And I also remember, and they've probably remodeled since then, but they had this like resin bar that was like all bottle caps under resin, which was pretty cool. Um, so I think I think probably radio for me.

That's a good one. I love that. Okay, these are the same three questions we ask every guest who comes on the show. First, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana? We're a little bit weirder and a little more unhinged than people give us credit for. So if if the Midwest is Midwest nice, Indiana is like a sub of that that's even nicer.

Um, but what's what's really great is when you meet people or hold a door for somebody or you're waiting for coffee with somebody, like you know, they'll they'll be polite and make small talk and then it gets really weird if you ask like literally one follow-up question. So, like, you know, you'll be standing in line waiting for coffee or whatever, and some guy will lean over and tell you the craziest story ever, and then you'll just I mean, the only thing you can say is, "Yeah, what are you going to do?" Like, you don't really know like what to say. Um, for me, it's it's just um Indiana's very understated in a lot of ways and misunderstood in a lot of ways. And so, I think that creates a lot of opportunity in a lot of different ways to meet people, business ideas, whatever it might be, stand up, you know. Absolutely.

Okay, this is your opportunity to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? Turkey Run State Park. So, like when you think of, you know, you think, oh, state park. Like, everyone thinks that no matter what state you're in, it's like, uh, it's not a national park. What?

Well, I think like Turkey Run, like Indiana loaded the wrong screen saver or something because it's like this island in the middle of Indiana that is so unlike Indiana every way. And I remember the first time I went there, I was like, "Oh, it's going to be fun. do a little hiking, nice little fall day, see the foliage, and brought my dachshund. Uh, and I ended up carrying him almost the entire time because I'm finding myself climbing and there are steps that are so steep and it's like it felt more like Yoseite almost to me than Turkey Run. So, that would be that would be one. Uh, not exactly hidden, but I don't think uh I hear enough people talking about Turkey Run as I think through the years because it's such a great place.

Um, it's a little far away, but it's worth the drive. And then it's not too bad. Yeah. Um, my other thought was restaurants. And so this actually happened this past weekend. So there's a place um in Westfield called Big Hoff Barbecue.

I don't know if you've heard of it. Tons of people have. I am familiar. So the first time I went there, I think was six or seven years ago. And I remember going in and I went through this little line. It was like this little place and um I took it to go and went home and I was like, "Oh, this that's really good."

And I hadn't thought about it or been there since. I had a good impression of it. This past weekend, I randomly was like, I really want ribs. And I was like, oh, I'm going to go to big office. Like my boys had mentioned they had gone there a month or two ago. So, I go there Saturday at like, it wasn't even that.

It wasn't prime dinner time. It was like 5:00 or something. The entire parking lot, hundreds of cars, literally hundreds. And the line was out the door. And I went in and the place is like five times the size it was the last time I was there. And it was amazing.

Like the ribs there, they're they're moist, but they're dry rub. The marinades like a dry rub. They have these uh cayenne potato salad. It was just awesome. And a totally welloiled machine because a place that busy can be a disaster and people will never want to come back if it's not run right. These guys had the t-shirt bags and they could do the knot and like a second flat and like they had all these code language and microphones and just reminded me of portillos in the old days where like it's just like they're on it.

They know what they're doing. Yeah. They've they've slung some ribs before. Yeah, for sure. Okay, final question. And this is where we get new guest ideas or just learn about other people doing amazing things.

Who's a Hooser we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. Person I would say never ever until the end of time take off your radar would be David Letterman because I love that man to my core. He is my hero in life, but he's already on all of our radars. Um, thinking closely, I thought of a guy and you may have heard of him. Um, there's a guy named Scott Smester who lives here and we were RAS together down at IU and this guy is the most generous, nice, wonderful person you'll ever meet.

He was on Jeopardy. Um, I can't remember if he won or not. He was on Jeopardy. He sings cabaret. He does all this great stuff. He's one of those people when you find his post on Instagram or Facebook, you stop and read it and read all the comments because it's so interesting.

He is such a warm, empathetic person. And I'll very quickly tell you the most Indiana story ever that involves Scott and that's that's what made me think of him. So back in 1997 I was a senior at IU. So Letterman did uh over the course of four weeks he instead of traveling to cities brought audience oh no sorry he was traveling to different cities I think but for the Indianapolis show he got three uh charter jets and flew the audience in from Indianapolis and put them up in a hotel and had them be the audience of the show. And what's super cool is Scott Semester, my fellow RA, he um knew how much I loved David Letterman and I was in class. The union for like an hour had first come, first serve.

They had a batch of those tickets to do that. He went down to the union, could have kept them for himself, went down there knowing that I loved Letterman. And here's why he's so great. Because I told him this story recently. He didn't even remember doing this, but he did it because I'll never forget. It was one of the nicest things anyone's ever done for me.

goes down to the union, gets the tickets, doesn't keep them for himself, then gives them to me. So, I end up just by happen stance, by how they put us into the studio. I was center balcony, first row. And so, before Dave uh starts the show, his warm-up guy comes out, back then it was a guy named Eddie Brill. Look him up. He was really funny.

And then Dave comes out for a minute and takes questions from the audience. I raise my hand. I didn't know what I was going to ask him. Improv, right? Miraculously, he calls on me cuz everyone has their hand up. And I I remember exactly what I asked him and I said, "Um, are you ever going to have any kids?

Are we ever going to see any gappy teeth little Letterman running around?" I remember exactly how I phrased that. Doesn't answer my question. Runs off stage. It was very strange. Then the music starts, comes up and he comes out and he goes, very first thing he says, "You can find this clip online."

He goes, "Ladies and gentlemen, I learned something very interesting about Indiana University." Cuz he asked me where I went to school. I said, he goes, "Uh, the guy in the balcony from IU asked me a twopart question." and so like just made fun of me for asking a question and made fun of Indiana and that that encapsulates to me everything about Indiana. Understated, self-deprecating, but always in the game, always trying hard, always doing fun stuff. So, I love it, man.

This is great. Well, hey, Chris, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your journey and give the the motivation to anyone out there. Don't give up. Don't give up on your dreams. Even if it takes 20 years to get back to it, like the time the time to act is in the present. And I think that you are a testament to that.

I'm excited. He's you're going to release some new uh show dates coming up soon, correct? Where can people find you at? Uh my website, yourpalchris. com. Um so head on over there and I'm uh Chris Ryan comedian on Instagram and Facebook.

Heck yeah. All right, man. Well, hey, we'll talk soon. All right. Thanks, Dave. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater.

Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hooer [music] State great. We'll see you next time here on Get