create things that I thought were funny and that were good. Okay, now I have this audience. Now it's about keeping them and growing it, right? At 15,000 followers, you're like, "Yeah, I I'm done." Your potential could tap out way up here if you just keep at it. I think I will keep at it.
Like, what was the the point where it was like, "Oh [ __ ] now we got something here." From South Bin to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. All right, folks. If you're in the mood for some seriously good eats, let me tell you about the HC Tavern and Kitchen in the heart of the Fischer District. It's the spot whether you're grabbing a business lunch, brunch with friends, a romantic dinner, or just hanging out and enjoying some cocktails.
They have huge culinary classics like the world famous St. Shrimp cocktail and fillet sliders, as well as dishes you can only find at the HC Tavern, like the lobster cargo and the Spanella steak. I mean, come on, does it get better than that? And you know what's awesome? It's right near all the action, close to the Fischer's Event Center, IKEA, and Topgolf. So, no matter what your day is looking like, a stop at the HC Tavern and Kitchen just makes sense.
The vibe is super welcoming with a touch of class. Perfect for any occasion, whether you're out with friends or making it a date night. So, whether you're in the area looking for a fun night out or looking for a place to grab a bite after shopping, swing by the HC Tavern Kitchen, you'll see what I'm talking about. Good vibes, amazing food, and amazing hospitality. Now, let's get back into it. Today, I'm joined by the man, the myth, the legend, Joey Molinro.
Man, you got the man the metal legend intro. That's very nice. Come on. I love it. Now, Joey's a Southside Indianapolis native who gained national recognition for his spot-on sports impressions. Most famously, Nick Sabin, Andrew Luck.
After working behind the scenes in sports radio, he skyrocketed to viral stardom, eventually landing a gig at Barstol Sports before going independent in 2022. Now with millions, yes, millions of viewers across YouTube, Instagram, X, Twitter, we still call it Twitter around here. Joey continues to craft comedic sketches, collaborate with major brands, and represent the Hoosier spirit on a national scale. Today, we're going to be talking about the journey from the South, the Ron Ki Royals to uh to what he's doing now on a global stage at this point, man. Welcome to the show, dude. Thanks so much for having me.
I know that I had to reschedu two or three times. Uh, so I apologize, but super psyched to be here. Turns out when you're doing big things, traveling all around and and you know, working with some of the biggest brands that people know about, you uh nailing down scheduling can be hard, but we're pumped to have you here, dude. Thank you, man. Yeah. And really, most importantly, it's the two kids.
It's the two under two that really messes with my schedule, makes it difficult. Well, a dog, three cats, and two under two. That will uh that'll take a little bit of time there. But but it's cool to balance that, right? talking about, you know, being a new dad with 202 while also continuing to like live out this I mean crazy life of being a creator, right? It's awesome.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Man, I guess not 202 technically anymore. My son's two and a half, but I still like to I mean, when you have two of them, I feel like you chop off and make it sounds better.
Time doesn't seem to exist as much. It's like, are they two? Are they 10? You know, somewhere in there, right? They all run together. I told you before we got on here, they've been sick for like 4 days, you know?
got the the note from the doctor of just ride it out. So, we're just hunkering down and riding out for however long this thing lasts. I don't know. But, uh it's been a week and uh yeah, man, it's uh the the life I live um I think is definitely a unique one and uh one I hope that you and and your listeners uh enjoy. Well, I I think we will cuz uh the career path is non-traditional, especially in the state of Indiana. you know, like the uh the idea of posting content and getting, you know, millions of viewers and finding out how to monetize that and be but also be authentic.
Like there's just a lot of puzzle pieces that go into it. But it's like when you were coming up, you graduated back in 2012 from Southside. Like was the idea of being an internet creator just like that's what I want to go do? No, dude. It doesn't exist. I mean, when you're in 2012, uh 2011, right?
I'm in the process of looking to where I want to go to school. What do I want to do? Right? And when I'm 16, 17, 18, in my mind, I'm like, yeah, I want to be Jimmy Fallon, you know? I want to be David Letterman. I want to be Adam Sandler.
Not really any straight pathway. Yeah. Where do you go to school? Like, I'm I'm coming to Ball State and I'd like to major in David Letterman, please. I mean, that was essentially what I did. Like, I I I eventually sat down and was like, "Hey, um, I'm good in speech class.
I saw in the speech book that David Letterman said the same thing and he wasn't good at math and science. I'm not good at math and science. You know, I like to do like characters and stuff. I would love to like be on SNL one day or host a show like David Letterman one day. I guess I'm just going to go to Ball State and go to the David Letterman building and maybe I'll go in there Joey Molinro and I'll come out transformed as David Letterman 2. 0.
You know, like that was essentially my thought process and it was one that I could sit down with my folks. I mean, they've always been supportive, right? They've always wanted me to chase what I wanted to do and thought that I had the talent and you know they're they're very much like oh d you know you're you're you're great you're great you know you're hilarious you know right they're very much like that kind of parent and you know I'm sure that is a detriment to me in a different way but it was never like what do you mean you want to Hollywood you're crazy but at the same time I had to show them that I was had a plan of some sort so my plan was go to Ball State as starting off Right? Study media, get on TV, get on the radio, and then, hey, if I'm on the radio and TV talking about sports or weather or whatever it is, maybe I can get into a character, and then people pick up on that, then all of a sudden, boom, there we go.
David Letterman. Now, Saturday Night Live's calling. Like, we heard you on channel 6, channel 8 with Anthony Calhoun. You did that funny weatherman guy and we really liked it, you know. Yeah, we definitely saw that. That hit us.
I'm 17 years old. I'm like, I mean, it makes more sense than just saying, "Hey, I want to beat David Letterman." It's like you're at Thanksgiving with grandma and she you're like, "Grandma, David Letterman started as a weatherman, too." Like, it's okay. Pretty much. I mean, yeah.
And he did. I mean, David Letterman did I think it was like 10 months or something like that or like a year or two maybe. We had uh Jeff Simoleon who is the founder of MS Communication and he's the one who found him. Oh, yeah. Oh my gosh. So there's a lot of overlaps of like you did explore like the traditional route to start, right?
Because I the way I always say it when people ask me about it is, you know, for people around me even still even some of my best friends who you understand Catholic school and like I've gone to school with these guys since I was in first grade. They were all my wedding. We all still talked on a daily basis. So you know, like to them even still they're kind of like I don't know what Joey does exact. You know, it's crazy what Joey's doing. It's cool.
But the way I always say it is when I was 16, 17, 18 and looking to do that, you know, me saying that I wanted to get into entertainment and comedy as a career may as well have been saying to all those people that I want to go to Mars. Okay? Like they the people that I grew up with and the world that I grew up in that at least had more of a like, well, I mean, you go to Purdue and then you study uh you know, whatever engineering and everything that's a that's a pathway. Maybe you could go to Mars. That's a more realistic thing than being like Saturday Night Live, right? Uh so my thought process was like I said, if if if I go to be on TV and radio, even if it's talking about sports, being in entertainment and comedy for a living is Mars, well then being in front of a camera talking about whatever it is, that at least gets me to outer space.
Yeah. You're on the moon there. I'd at least try to get to outer space. You have a better shot of getting to Mars if you're in outer space than than still being on Earth, right? Yeah. And that's kind of how that was my thought process and kind kind of how I've always used as a parallel an analogy and fallback, right?
Like there's a safety net there. It's like you know if you you could host a radio show like even now let's say I don't know both of us if Instagram you all social media turned off. We could go downtown to Hank 103 whatever uh 971 Hank FM. Sorry about that. 971 Hank FM and be like hey you're entertaining like throw me on the radio. like I give me the the lunch spot and there's like a established career that's like that's safe, you know.
And so you go through the school, you have a degree, you finish at Ball State, right? I didn't. No, I I Oh, I do have a degree. Yeah, but I left Ball State after my freshman year. Okay. Uh because this is such a firstborn uh mama's boy thing.
Um I was homesick. I was a little culture shocked even going an hour and 10 minutes away. Muny can do that to a person, right? And you know, going from where I went to grade school and high school, my world was so small that then even going to a school that has what 18,000 20,000 undergrads. It was whoa. And I was away for the first time even though I could come back on the weekends because it was only an hour or so.
I wasn't emotionally mature enough. Yeah. Ready to go for that. And so I went to Ball State and I kind of threw myself out there a little bit like I had a I had a sports talk show on Thursday nights uh for an hour. What uh at what time slot? 7 to 8.
That's not bad, right? That was like right the birth of uh Thursday Night Football being every week in the NFL because remember for a while there they only started doing it like November, December, Thursday Night Football. But that year, my freshman year is when like I think starting after week two or week two they had Thursday night football like 8:00 kickoff too. So, you're giving like the pregame show. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. For the Muny Locals, maybe. The average Joe sports show. That was it right there. You know, I love that. And so, I'm 18.
I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't know about clocks and radio or buttons or anything. I'm just like, I don't know. I guess I'll just get on here and like give my opinions about Andrew Luck, who the Colts just drafted. You know, like just exploring in no ways. I had no idea what I was doing, but it was cool.
It was like, hey, I'm 18. I've got an hourlong show. this is great in the David Letterman building. I'm I'm on my path, right? We're doing it. But I was just a little homesick and it didn't feel something just didn't feel right.
It didn't feel like where I was supposed to be. My mom was like, "Well, if you're going to transfer, like you need to go somewhere that at least like has a good media program, something." Then University of Indianapolis, I look it up and like they have a great radio program, you know? Um and you're three minutes from home or whatever it is. Exactly. There you go.
And it's right in my backyard. Um the moment I stepped on campus and in those buildings there I was like this is where I'm supposed to be. That's good. Yeah. Internally like that's a lot where your path was like get yourself in the sphere of David Letterman, right? You know like there's a path here like someone has at least done it.
I don't know. Speaking of media personalities from you Indie, I'm not I don't know if there's a really esteemed journalist or anyone that has that has come through there. Did you have like a little bit of a conflict of like, oh man, I'm straying from the path that I thought or you're like, no, this is 100%. This is the right move for me right now. I go full speed. By that point, I was 100% just like, you know what, it's not that important to be in the David Letterman.
For me, it's not that important for me to be in the David Letterman building. And UND does have, you know, maybe not nationally in terms of like seen people as like network anchors or anything, but I mean, they turn out a lot of media personalities both locally, regionally, who have long careers. Yeah, I feel like I meet a lot of um and like people that make it all happen. Like I feel like there's a lot of you you indie grads that are like, "Oh, operating cameras or producers or like the real guts that make a lot of media happen." Yeah. Yeah.
Gregor Straw, I don't know if Have you had him? I haven't had him on. He'd be great. Uh he is uh he is awesome. He's everywhere doing all the things. You want to talk about Indiana?
I mean, just sit rake down in here and just say 1992 regional championship and he would rattle off the starting lineups for both teams, the final score. I mean, it'd be great, you know, like it'd be fully Indiana. I mean, through and through. But Rake is a guy that's like, you know, he was he was one that I knew him because I grew up listening to sports radio in town and then I found out that he went to UND, too. So, I was like, "Oh, okay." Like, there's a path, right?
There's there's a you know what I mean? There's a path of somebody who has a career of talking into a mic and on camera and everything, even though he'd say, you know, not bad for a fat guy. And he would, you would say, uh, he should be on radio, but he's on TV, all those kind of things. That's why we love Rake. Um, but again, it was like, okay, this this makes me feel a little bit better. When I went to Ball State, I didn't realize that other high schools across the country, across the state, had media programs, had radio stations at their school, had TV to where I was walking in pretty much fully raw.
Like when I went to Ball State, I did Rebel Media Network with my guy Rob Brown um who's a legend and he's my first mentor really in radio where I was just doing color commentary for boys and girls basketball just to have experience of getting on the mic somewhat right when I was like yeah all like 17 listeners probably when I was a junior senior in in high school and that was it. And so when I went to Ball State, I was surrounded by a bunch of kids who like they went to like the Carmels of the world where they have like full radio stations that they were already doing radio shifts and had the nitty-gritty and I had no idea. Caramel's crazy for like what they produced as a high school from the media perspective. I actually talked to someone I think it might have been at Beef Stake. He hosted a radio show, said that he like DM'd you and that you showed up at the the Caramel radio and like you were only supposed to be there for like 20 minutes or whatever and you stayed for like over an hour just like chatting it up.
I can't remember what the the guy's name he I think he's at IU now. That's so funny. And he was like he was like, "Oh yeah, a guy was on the radio station at Caramel and I got Joey to come in for a day and I was like, dude, that's crazy. He's coming on the show a little bit." That's hilarious that he's old enough now uh to go to Beef Steg and to be a part of that. Yeah.
He's 21. Yeah. Yeah. And that's Yeah, dude. I remember that. That's so funny.
But yeah, I they probably mentioned it. Like I walked in there was just totally flabbergasted. I was like, "You get to do this in high school?" Like, dude, I had no idea at all. And so when I walked into Ball State, it was a bunch of these guys who I mean, they already had like the gym dance type of voice and they knew how to call the games and they knew the ins and outs and they knew and I was just like, "Dude, I just want to joke around about sports on the air. I don't know."
And so then I when I went to UND, it's way more of like they throw you in the fire, but they don't have this expectation of former training. They're like, "Hey, we're going to throw you in the fire to get you experience, but like we're really going to like hold your hand where you're comfortable enough and you're feeling good." You know what I mean? And so it was just a lot more of like, okay, immediately when I got to UND, I was on the air. I was doing shifts on FM station getting reaching 80,000 people or whatever. you know, I had the opportunity to hop right in and do playbyplay for sports, right?
You know, my first two months there, I was doing playby-play for UND football and because Ball State is such a prestigious place and has kind of a pecking order, right? That that those experiences weren't there until later on and you talk about like the radio and like there's a mold. Yes. Right. So it's like the the creativity that you could get at somewhere like a UND like I went to Depal and I was in the I got you got a media program that great John Herrick he's I don't know if you're familiar with John Heric or not there's a WIBC and now the uh the sideline reporter for Indiana athletics. Hey there we go.
There's there's a bunch. I mean well uh fun fact for all the listeners out there that are I mean they love Indiana fun facts. The founder of ESPN went to DEPA. Yeah. Bill Rasmusen was a Depal grad of like 196 something or 70 something graduated. Did you play ball there?
Uh I was on the football team. I did not play football. Uh I saw like a small town of,200 people or I guess 1,600 people. So being good at 1A football in Northern Indiana does not translate. I like got to Dep literally the first day of camp I like got toasted on a one-on-one by like a kid from Cathedral and I was like, "Oh, they know how they know how to play football down here." Um, so I stayed on the team, but my senior year I transitioned to be like the social media guy.
Nice. And that was like the I was I still want to be around the locker room. I still want to do all stuff, but like coach, let's be honest, it was coach Lynch. Uh, he's a Ball State guy, IU guy. And he was like I said, coach, I'm never going to play. Not even special teams.
Like it just wasn't working out. But I was like, I still want to be a part. So I managed Twitter and uh did a bunch of video production for them. And I made my first Mon Bell hype video and it got like 50,000 views and I was hooked from that moment. You're like you're like the modern root Rudy. Like the guys came in and they, you know, lay their jerseys down for you to be uh on the around the team still and everything.
Like it's kind of No, I I don't They always got annoyed because I make them do interviews and stuff and they're like, "Dude, like this." But but it ended up and I was like, "Hey, maybe one recruit saw a video that I made and chose to go there over Waw Bash and we'll call that a win." That's an important thing I think too on kind of a bigger I'm glad you brought that up is just kind of finding those like little wins like that. You know, it's important mindset to keep. My brother-in-law went to Waw Bash, by the way. Yeah.
So, he's big uh big little giant. Big little giant, dude. Well, so as you're going through, where did going from working in school media where it's kind of like it's very safe, you know, like if you mess up on a school radio station, it's not the end of the world. You know, a little different at UND though because we own the Diamond. So, that's 887 FM and that goes out throughout central Indiana. Oh, so that's like a real thing.
So it's a real interesting juosition because you have like 19year-old kids on the radio talking about jazz to an audience that's probably the youngest age about median 63 years old. And so these people would call in and they would not be happy, dude. If you mispronounced uh you know George Gershwin or something like that, you know, George Gershwin or something, they would call in and they would let you know. They would email in and let you know. Oh yeah. So it was a little bit different, but I at the same time Yes.
Like there was a lot more avenues where you're like, "Hey, I'm not really getting paid for this. This is an educational experience." Totally. Yeah. Those people I'd like to have a few words with whoever's emailing in there to the student radio station. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Right. So, you're going through there. Where was the first like corporate gig? That was another thing that was really great about UND and I think still is and can set it apart for potential listeners who are trying to make this decision and want to get into this world. Um, something that was really attractive to me about it is that it's eight minutes away from downtown Indianapolis.
There's kind of That's bad traffic. Yeah. Right. Right. There's kind of uh like this factory uh line of UND students who work in the radio station there who also have a part-time job at what now is radio one, what was formerly communications. Jeff Smolon call back.
people would have part-time jobs and get their foot in the door at EMIS, which is 971, 1070, the fan, 93, WIBC, B1057, right? That cluster of radio stations. So, you're at school working, doing getting experience in the radio station there. And then also, you have your foot in the door getting a little bit of coin, a little bit, right? But enough in college, you know, and you're getting experience in there and you're in the building, right? So, for me, I was like, cool.
like I'm getting all this experience here. I'm in the building actually on the radio station. I'm I'm people are seeing my face at the fan, you know, I'm I'm side producing for Grady and Big Joe at the time. Uh or any of those guys. Um doing overnight shifts, anything you could, right? Because you're making a little bit of money and you're also getting experience, right?
Valuable professional experience that can pay off. And the whole time you're doing this, right? starting like you're going down the radio, you know, sports broadcaster type thing. In the back of your head is like is SNL still like or or like getting into comedy still the end goal or is it does the marker start to change a little bit? The market started to change a little bit um because I kind of just fully threw myself so into the world of sports broadcasting of radio and I was a junior at UND. I was a sports director at our radio station at UND.
So, I was in charge of making all the schedules, getting the broadcasts, everything, you know, building the pregame show, postgame show, all that stuff. But then also, I was working Saturday nights, Indiana Sports Talk, doing scoreboard updates, sideline, fill-in producer as well. Bob Levelvel would also be I hate to keep like throwing out recommendations for guests, but Bob Levelvel hosted Indiana Sports Talk for I think 30 years now. It's every Friday and Saturday night from 9:00 to midnight across the state of Indiana recapping all things Indiana sports. Right. So I would come on would do scoreboard updates.
You would do a five minute long one at the top of each hour and then when he was going to break in and out, you would do like a minute long one and it's syndicated, right? So it had to be like on the dot. You had to hit your marks, right? So this is all valuable experience, man. So like I throw myself into that. I'm doing scoreboard updates.
I'm doing overnight shifts downtown at EMIS, right? Where it's like 12 to 6 a. m. or 7 to midnight on Saturday nights. Like anything I can to take those shifts to get some money, get some experience. Holiday shifts, yes, I'll do it.
Because everybody's like, you know, Michael Grady told me, he's like, you know, best way to make it in this business is just say yes to everything. You know, if it's a holiday shift, it's a shift you don't want to do. Be the guy that's always around. It's always saying yes. The best ability is availability. Right.
Exactly. Call back to football. Right. And so that's what I for like two or three years, that's what I really did is just like sports broadcasting, hosting shows, doing scoreboard updates, doing everything I could to get on the fan or WIBC. And you graduate from college. What's the first gig look like?
My senior year, I go from sports director to the operations manager of the student radio station, right? And from there, my uh main radio professor and my adviser at UND, Scott Eker, he always encourages the seniors to kind of like branch out a little bit, try some stuff. Oh, it's your last year. Got the rest of your life to go work and try to be in this profession. Now is kind of your last chance, if you will, to use this time to scratch an itch, to try things where you're still a student, correct? You have like the again the safety blanket of a student.
You're figuring it out. So my first two and a half years at UND, like I said, I was just all in sports broadcasting, playbyplay all the time. You know, for a while there, I was like, man, being a playbyplay would be a pretty sick career. Like, if I could just And even now, I'm still kind of like, if I could just be a minor league baseball playbyplay announcer. Randy Luendowski, come on. The Indians need a playbyplay.
Come on. Like come on. I mean Well, you've done a you've done at least a call with them, right? Yeah. I hopped in the booth last year and uh had some fun for like a half inning or an inning. Yeah, I was in on that and then my senior year I was like, well, I always I still love to make people laugh.
Like I'm in the living room doing impressions, my friends at school, my people that I've grown up with, like you know, and and I do kind of have that still that wonder of like how would I get there? How what does that look like? Um, and so I was like, "All right, I'll try out this route a little bit." So I took this class, unbeknownst to me at the time, I took this class called writing for television. And I thought that it was just going to be kind of a required class in the media portion that was how to write like newscasts and like kind of more boring things like that. And then I took that class and it uh was not that.
It was how to write comedy for TV, like how to write sitcoms, like spec scripts and build out shows like that. It was a one nineweek class, but it was one of those I was like for two and a half hours, you know, those long courses. It was just such a light bulb moment. I literally asked my professor after the second co second class of the semester. I was like like this is a career like people can make money from doing this. And he was like, I mean, if you're good enough, yeah, but yes, it is like writing television and writing shows and building shows and creating characters.
I was like, this is it. I mean, this is this is the greatest thing ever. Like, you're just sitting around creating stories and writing funny stupid stuff. Like, this this is it. From that point on, that was second semester, 2015. Yeah.
So, we're going on like 10 years now. This is it, man. And if I can I I need to be involved in this in some way where I'm sitting around or just sitting by myself and writing jokes, writing scripts, writing stories that are funny and that I mean that's just the best, you know. So, um that's what took me down that path my senior year to scratch that itch and kind of uh go a different direction. Well, I think you're you're doing a great job of like outlining the the piece that's needed to really thrive. I would say the majority of people can't get in front of the camera and, you know, get millions of views if you're doing it to get millions of views only.
Like you have to have an underlying passion or like like writing like like a lot of mine, it's like when I uncover something, some new factoid or history piece or something that just like will make people proud to be from Indiana, I'm like that's it. And it's like it just so happens that like you know thousands and thousands of people love the same thing or like like to learn these things too. And for you, it's like, okay, I found that I could enjoy if if it meant sitting in a room, building characters, writing stories, doing all that stuff. Uh, like that's it. And that's where like the passion there is where you just like got to keep pulling on that thread. People always ask me like, "How do you come up with this stuff?
What do you mean?" It's it's just it's the best puzzle you'll ever do. Like I, you know, there's nothing more that I love than just like having this concept, forming it. How does this piece come into this? You know, how does it fit into here? How can I tinker with that to make it all fit to make something that I think is pretty, you know?
Yeah. And it's it's an art form. It really is like whether you're not you make I mean whether it's travel content to humor content like there's an art form of putting all those pieces together in a way that's going to get people to actually watch your video. Like I mean if if people are Mr. Beast fans out there. He talks through this like how long he'll look at a minute of a video like the first minute of a video and it's like down to the like millisecond.
Every small detail like has to be right in the voice over and this that and the other thing and it's like and there's a reason like he's just obsessed with this thing and that's why he gets you know hundreds billions of views whatever it might be. Totally. Um so you find the passion. Is there like a direct path like hey comedy writers go here do this thing if you're looking at it on a grand scale like probably you know go to New York or LA write every day get on stage as much as you can kind of like do the the second city type route where they go and join like an improv group is that like Sedakus did that he talks a lot about that cuz I think he's from like somewhere in the Midwest I think like I think Kansas City Kansas somewhere in there Missouri and so it's like yeah you go to a big city join this thing and that that's not the route that you chose. I mean, it just wasn't Yeah, it wasn't something because I was so new to it.
So, I didn't want to fully go. And then again, it was like the whole like how do I make money? How do I balance doing both of them? You know what I mean? Professor, that adviser, he got me an internship in the Bob and Tom show my second semester of my senior year, which was great. Local obviously, again, Bob and Tom, legend, still going.
Um, but yeah, I mean they like I sat in a room and like looked up news stories for Tom and them to talk about on the air and I like would write my two or three like crappy jokes in there that maybe he could use, you know what I mean? And just to get an idea starter, but you know, um, so I was doing that, you know, so then I'm interning with Bob and Tom. That's like 2015. So still like the rise of like short form video sketches and stuff like aren't hasn't like totally engulfed the world like it is today in 2025. No, no, no. You know, you had, you know, Jimmy Tetro was a big one.
Things seem to work out for him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally.
I mean, he's acting, writing, like doing it all, but I mean, he was a big one. I remember. And it was all just YouTube and it was just like the same kind of like sketches. Were you putting Were you putting sketches out on YouTube? No. No.
So, you weren't putting out independent like on your own platform content at this point. When did you start doing that? I just graduated from college, you know, and all that stuff that I mentioned I'd done in college, you know, I'm thinking I'm going to walk out of school. I'm having employers lining up to hire me, man, with all my internships, all the stuff that I've done. And uh wasn't like that. And so what I did was just kept working part-time doing everything I could at the radio station downtown at at EMS, whether that's a fan, IBC, any of those.
Uh then actually I I was driving a truck delivering chips. So you're driving a truck delivering chips. Yeah. June of 2016 to October of 2016. So you're like getting on like maybe there's a radio slot late at night or something. Like you're driving the truck all day and then go over to the radio station.
Not technically all day because it was so early. You know, the route would start at like 5:00 a. m. and then hopefully be done by like 10:30, 11. And then from there I would try to go create, be on air, do whatever I could. that if there were shifts I had to take that night would do them.
Um was still working a lot of weekend a lot of weekend shifts, you know, a lot of weekend shifts. And that's just like I'm just sitting there pressing buttons, making sure the legal ID plays. Nothing fancy, but I'm picking up hours. It's money. The and the easiest thing to do would have been like, okay, you know, you're facing some adversity. Maybe media is not going to pay the bills.
Like maybe I gotta go, you know, like maybe people were right back in the day of like that engineering degree would be I would have the employers lining up the door. Yeah, dude. I tell you what, when I was 22 and 23 and all my friends, you know, they just graduated and they're, you know, working at various XYZ company and you know they're they have health insurance and benefits and 401k. They're buying the most random stuff just because they can for the first time in their life. You know, I'm walking in I'm like what what is this stereo that you have here? They're just like, "I don't know, dude.
I just wanted to buy. I thought it was sick." I'm like, "Man, must be nice." Like, "Must be nice. I'm hoping to be able to get six beers tonight while we're out in Broadripple." Yeah.
Only Only if they're on sale. Right. Exactly. Only if it's Rock Lobster before midnight and they're doing dollar drinks or whatever it was. That's where I was living. I was like, "Man, I don't know.
Maybe living that lifestyle seems pretty nice." But then it's you're lucky. People along the way, like one of my great friends I've known forever who took me under his wing back then when he he's a financial adviser. I don't know why he took me under because I had no money to be advised, but he just that's what great friends do. And I remember venting to him about this a little bit and he just like, "Hey man, those guys might be like right here right now and you're like right here when it comes to finances. I believe in you, man."
And like if you keep at it, your potential, their potential might be right here for what they do. Your potential could tap out way up here if you just keep at it. I don't know why you're saying that. I appreciate it because I haven't shown anything to be able to have that belief, but I think I will keep at it. Have you like had that conversation of like, dude, you know, you you were like such a huge inspiration. Yeah.
Yeah. And it's just little things along the way like that, you know, um that you have to kind of really hold on to and go back to. And it came with at least, you know, here I am thinking I'm gonna talk to my financial advisor, which he makes money off me when I bring in more money for him, right? So, he has every right in the world to be like, "Yeah, you know what? Why don't we uh why don't we wrap this up and get a real gig so we could get some actual money coming in and he didn't do that." Um, you know, so just one of those things, right?
And so, uh, I'm I'm I'm delivering chips in the morning, you know, to make extra money, like livable type of money, then staying at the radio station, doing what I can there. Um, and then one day then walks old Benny Pelitzy and we're both working at the same radio station together and me and Ben grew up together. Uh, we went to the same grade school in high school. He's three years older than me. Okay. So, you guys weren't like boys, like totally boys back in the day.
It was weird because like I always looked up to him like an older brother, you know, because he was the man. He was the running back. He was the good-looking dude. All the girls liked him. All the guys wanted to be him, right? He's the senior.
I'm the freshman. And like I played football, he was like, "Yeah, you want to be Ben?" Uh, did he go to UND? He did. His dad was the coach at UND for a long time. Oh, there you go.
Jo. Um, yeah. Joe Pelitzy. He always had that little brother kind of thing. And I had that big brother kind of thing. And like one of my best friends, his older brother is Ben's best friend.
And so we would kind of like randomly be at the same like houses every now and then. And always had a good we would always have a good laugh about stuff. But then yeah, he walked in and he he picked up a gig because he wanted to start getting into media. he didn't like what he was doing and he wanted to start getting into media and all of a sudden me and him are like overlapping on shifts. One day I was just like, "Dude, why don't we just why don't we do something together? Like we both want to like make it in this media world.
We both want to like do cool stuff and be funny. Like why don't we just start doing stuff?" He's like, "All right, yeah, why not?" So we started brainstorming and then that's where we came up with espresso. And that was just our way of being creative and our way of like having an umbrella to put out videos and sketches and stuff that we thought was funny and trying to make a name for oursel. Wow.
Just by stand he like cuz you didn't know he was like coming in to pick up shifts or start to work in there. No, that wasn't like he didn't walk in and then immediately was like that like we kept overlapping at the radio st station at like these these crappy hours, you know. It would be like 11:00 p. m. on a Saturday. You know, he's 26, I'm 23.
All our friends are at Wild Beaver having fun and we're like at this radio station pressing buttons. That's what we wanted to do because we wanted to have down the road success. That is an interesting piece too because in a world today where it's like well I could you could post one TikTok and it get you could be the Rizler, right? And it's like you post a few videos. Love the Rizzler. No RZ.
Nothing but respect there. But it's a lot quicker of a journey it seems. Granted, like I'm not I don't know how many videos they had posted. I'm just like the potential has Yes. Yeah. Versus like I know for a fact the wrestler didn't have to like be on the radio for 5 years or whatever like at 11 p.
m. on a Saturday night. So like the the like delayed gratification of getting your goals. And I think that's a big piece especially if there are are you know maybe young creators that are watching this that are like oh man I want to make. And it's like you got to pay you still got to pay some dues. You still got to like put in the effort and the work.
I think it also works because it helps like you know you're going to you're going to fail. You know, we me and Ben went through a three-year time frame where like nobody cared. No, you know, put out stuff. We'd be psyched if it got like 10 retweets. You know, we'd be psyched if it got like 20 comments or, wow, this one's really taking off, you know, like we were pumped when we started Espresso and it had 450 followers on Instagram. We're like, wow, 450 people follow this stupid thing that we do.
This is crazy. And so it helped to be able to let us explore without the pressure of like this one goes super viral and now you got this audience and everybody's like and you don't know what to do with it. I don't what am I doing? I don't know. They don't know what to expect. I don't know what to do.
Um so it was a great playground for us. Big news for my friends over at Hope Plumbing. Now Hope Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling. You heard that right. They are now your one-stop shop for home services. Offering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical.
New name, added services, but same trustworthy, loyal company. They treat your home like their very own. And now that includes HVAC as well. Book your next home services appointment with Hope and mention Get Indiana and Hope will give you a free membership for a year. A membership includes important services like whole home plumbing inspection, a free mainline drain snaking, two seasonal HVAC inspections, and so much more. That's a deal you can't miss out on.
Go Hook Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling and start saving today. Now, let's get back into the show. Where was the turning point? Like what was the the point where it was like, "Oh [ __ ] now we got something here." Yeah, it was a few different things doing this on the side espresso for a while, couple two, three years, and then the fan 1070 the fan started, they were like, "We we want to have more of like a digital presence, and you guys are like perfect, we think, like young guys." So, we started like kind of side contract work doing stuff for them.
And we kept at it. We kept at it. And you know, one for me was like the Andrew Luck. That was one of the first like, "Oh, wow. Okay. Like maybe this is a tool that I can use because that was the first impression that I had ever put out.
Yeah. When did you start putting videos out on Twitter? Early 2017. 2017. Okay. Early 2017.
So, and you were not on YouTube, not just on Twitter from predominantly YouTube. And then we'd post I think Ben had like 1,600 followers on Instagram at the time and we'd post on his because I had like 700. Yeah. You know, so we we just post on his. What about uh I think the the one thing that holds a lot of people back is like making that transition and posting stuff because your friends are going to make fun of you. Tough.
When you want to go on the content creator journey, it all starts and people are like, "Bro, what are you posting?" Yeah. Yeah. What is this? What are we What is this coffee thing you guys are doing? Are you like, "Is it a brand?
Are you, you know?" Yeah. Basically had like a whole lot of girls who were obsessed with Ben. They were just like, "What? I just don't get it. Like, it's not that funny."
Like, you know? Um and I was just like kind of over there. But my friends are always very supportive. Um, and Ben's friends too. Like we both have had very may not have understood it, but it wasn't ever like they were giving us a hard time or anything, you know? They're like, "Yeah, man.
Go for it." Like you always want to do this. Like, you know. What would you say to the aspiring creator that has that uh the reservation and like is almost just a worried to get started. I mean, you can live with that worry forever. You can let it fly and see what happens.
You're never going to know until you do it. And like if it's not funny or if it doesn't hit like the algorithm will just bury it and like it'll be a here today like obviously like within reason but it's like if it's if it's not good like the the algorithm does pretty good job of telling you if your content's good or not. Remove yourself and think about how often you see a video or see something every single day and you don't even register it. But to that person who posted it, they're thinking it's the biggest deal. But to you it's just it's a scroll. Yeah.
And it doesn't it doesn't you don't even think about it 10 seconds later, you know. So I'd say that too is like I've heard uh from different people 10 seconds is it going to affect me in 10 seconds? Is it going to affect me in 10 minutes, 10 days, 10 years? Yeah. You know that that's a great way because it's like you never like swipe through and like see like a video that's not funny or not good and be like, "Oh my go." And like maybe you do, but you know, you just send it in the private group chat on Instagram and you know, you know what I mean?
Like that's just that's just the nature of the beast, you know, and you just got to accept it as hard as it is to say. Yeah. So then as as time keeps going on, you guys are doing this, you're starting to pick up some steam. You put out a few the impression, right? The Andrew Luck impression was the first one. Yeah.
Uh what year was that? Do you know like roughly March of 2019? 2019. So now you're, you know, you're four years out of uh out of school. You've been working no longer delivering chips. Y So like, are you full-time just like doing different media stuff?
Not even at that point yet, dude. I was I mean, I guess I was full-time because of the amount of work that I was doing, but I wasn't like a technical full-time employee. I was splitting hours doing digital work at the fan. I was splitting hours still doing stuff for the radio, producing, scoreboard updates, fill in shifts, all of that. And altogether, it would work, it would equal out to be about 40 hours a week. But I didn't have like that official title, that official full-time thing where it's a salary and it's the benefits.
That didn't come until I think the summer of 2019 where I got like the brand manager gig for the fan. Um, so I was in charge of running the YouTube channel, keeping up the website, keeping up all the social channels, like all the sponsored things that we do digitally. That was my job. Okay. And at that point, it's like, okay, I got a full-time gig in this. I have one thing to worry on.
Were you still like was part of it like, I still want to put out this fun content with Yeah. Yeah. Luckily, my boss at the time, she was she had a really good understanding and was super cool about like knowing that was important to me, knowing that me and Ben wanted to keep doing knowing that that job wasn't anywhere like where I wanted to end up eventually. It was a nice it was a nice gig, but I had bigger aspirations and she understood that. So, like she was like, "Yeah, as long as you get your work done and your stuff done, like go ahead and you know, run wild and create and do what you need to do with you and Ben." Which was cool.
Was there like a specific video? So you put out the Andrew Luck one like one that just like catapulted you where it's like if there's a turning point where where you talk about like back in the day engineering net worth all this stuff and it's like where you're like h one day I'm going to get there that like started to get you on the inflection point of like making this thing happen. Yeah. So, it's funny like the Andrew Luck one in the spring of 19. That one that one got me from like going to Colts open locker room media sessions and the only person in there who would know me as Kevin Bowen and everybody else would act like I didn't exist and wasn't even there. That went from that being my life to then now I could go to like a cult media session and people would be like, "Dude, you Andrew Luck guy, you I saw that.
That's hilarious." And you know, I was like, "Oh, okay." like people. Oh, they actually I'm not invisible. This is nice to know. They've seen your video.
Yeah, this is good. Which is cool in of itself. I mean, yeah, absolutely. The the turning one is Nick Sabin Thanksgiving 2019. It was just honestly like a throwaway kind of video. I mean, it was one where creators out there, people are holding reservations or holding fears.
It was just like and I was just in the the point of my career, my life where I was like, I think this is funny. I think it's a nice little hook. I think it's relatable. I like it. I'm put it out there and see what happens. And that's the one that got me from 800 followers on Twitter to 15,000 in one day.
And and like as that's going on, like what's your immediate reaction? You're like, "Holy [ __ ] this is cool. I can quit my job. Uh I'm going to make it now. This is this is everything that I knew, right? At 15,000 followers, you're like, "Yeah, I I'm done."
You're like, because I mean, my entire life, everything that I've done in my career and school and everything, no matter what I no matter what I put out, nothing would ever connect, right? May maybe some people got like a little enjoyment out of what me and Ben did or what something I put out, but nothing where like ESPN and uh Sports Illustrated and and Fox and all these different brands were like reaching out, hey, can we post this? Can we use this on our TV show? Can we post it ourselves? Followers just like continued to to rise. I think by I posted it the night before Thanksgiving 2019, and I think by Thanksgiving night, I had like 20,000 followers on Twitter.
I had never seen growth like that. Like I didn't, you know what I mean? It didn't compute. So I'm thinking like here we go. You know, obviously I wasn't gonna quit my job, but it just felt like it's like we're starting to take off, man. It's happening.
Let's go. Hold on tight cuz here we go. Right. And and but then there's also the pressure of like, okay, now I got to put out another one. And when a video that like you think it's like, oh, it's a I think it's funny, but like at this point, you've been doing it for so long, like waiting for one to break through, you're like it's like a little bit in the back of your head. like it's probably going to get another like three retweets and my grandma might comment on it.
Yeah. But at the same time, I mean, I had been doing it for so long and always had like stockpiled so many ideas and had been scratching, you know, flexing that muscle, working that muscle of like coming up with content ideas, concepts, writing them out, acting them, putting them out with Ben, whatnot, that like I knew that I was still going to be able to create things that I thought were funny and that were good, you know? It was just like, okay, now I have this audience. Now it's about keeping them and growing it. Yeah. So then you started to just put out more and like people were resonating with it and and you continued to grow there.
Yeah. It was like a crazy synergy too because like that year LSU was on their magical undefeated run and coach O was like the biggest star in America, right? I mean six years ago at this point it's crazy to think about but like Coach O was the story. Coach O was the guy. And so then from sabin, you know, people like were like, "Oh, he does a sabin." But then, you know, coach O, uh, I also found out that I could do a pretty good coach O, right?
And so then, uh, I added that into the to the arsenal, if you will. And then that just really like along with LSU's taking off in 2019, uh, the O and everything that I was able to do, that was going along with it. So, it was like this crazy synergy like magic, uh, hurricane for my career that was happening. Yeah. And then that winds up getting you in with bar stool. Yeah.
Right. So you lead the fan to go to bar stool. And at the time I mean 2019 bar stool. I mean it's been this is 2020. This is 2020. So it's combine week 2020 when the combine's in town.
Is that before the pandemic? Right before. So right before combine week. That's your first official. That's my first contact. as I'm putting out more stuff, fall of 2019 up until early 2020, starting to get more, you know, it was such a wild time, you know, even for like my family because like I said, my parents, they're super into it, right?
And so they'd be like, "Do you see Kirk Herb Street followed you?" You know, like whoever, right? And so like it was like it felt like every day, every week that like somebody who had grown up just like worshiping whether it's an athlete or somebody on TV or whatever would like retweet something I did or or or follow me and it was like what the hell is going on? This is so crazy. Are you making money from that? No.
No. That's what I think people think. Oh, you get a ton of followers all of a sudden like Twitter is just writing you a check. You're like, no. No. Working at the fan.
Yeah. Still making 35k, you know. You know, still working there. But continuing to go, continuing to put out content and it's I mean it's a lot I mean it's it's always enjoyable because you love doing it but it's a lot more enjoyable when you're winning too you know like when when good things are happening. Totally. So then combine week comes around I get a message from BigCat and and you know just like hey I'd love to meet up and uh know you're in Indie and we talk like yeah absolutely.
So we get together I do a video with him and PFT. It's great stuff. Yeah, it was awesome, you know, because I'd been listening and following those guys obviously forever. And then that night I was on the I was on the phone with uh Dave Portoi and um he was asking me, you know, about what what I'm doing, what my what I want to do, asked me want to come out to New York to see the office and stuff. And so I go out there uh me and my wife go out there and we we see everybody and everything. And and then um by the time that we left there, they had they had offered me a job.
And do you have to move to New York? That was the plan. And The plan was to pick up and go. Yeah. The plan was to pick up and go. And then the first day officially that I started and announced that I was working there, the world shut down.
Yeah. And like that was the day, not when like everybody was kind of like, "Oh, you heard about this CO thing?" That was the day when everybody's like, "Don't go outside for two weeks." And had you already like got all your stuff for New York yet or like No, we were just looking cuz they were very they were very understanding of like make it out when you make it out or whatever. you can stay if you want, but if we if you want to come out, we'd love to have you, whatever. And um so me and my wife, we just we had been married six months.
We had no kids. We had only one cat at the time. Uh so we're like, "Yeah, let's go to New York for this fun, you know, it'll be this fun adventure." And then the pandemic happened. We never made it out. Uh it just changed everything because I signed a two-year deal there in March of 2020.
And so by the time in early 21 when things were like kind of, you know what I mean? It was still in the back of everybody's head, but it people could actually like live again, you know, do stuff. I got one year left. I don't know what the future holds. I don't know if we want to pick up and start over completely in New York with that. And what does like a deal like as a creator for someone like a bar stool or any of these like, you know, there's a ton of big orgs like these media companies.
What does that look like? Like is it like hey now you're like you got to post x amount of times per week or this that the other thing like what what does that entail? Not for me when I work there just like hey you know do just do what you do and like we'll use it on our platforms and hopefully try to throw you in different shows and get you involved and whatnot and it is like a dream for me because one it's an awesome you know it was an awesome company that I've followed forever. This is what I've always wanted to do is just like be able to have rain to make sketches and do what I want and be creative but then also get paid for it and I didn't have to worry about like upkeeping a website or like answering emails from salespeople that you know my position as a brand manager like I had to do all this like technical tedious nitty-gritty stuff that like took me away from creating videos and and and making characters and all that kind of stuff and that that's not what the deal was.
So, no, I mean for me it was Yeah, it was just like, hey, just like do what you've been doing, like keep pushing stuff out, you know, and um Yeah, that's sick. Yeah. So, at that point, you got to be like, yep, this is living. Yeah. Uh end of your two years comes out and um you end up going out on your own. Now, you do have the nitty-gritty and you got to figure out, you know, how to build a a lifestyle and how to build, you know, a career out on your own.
How was that transition? Scary but exciting. You know, like I said, my two years was up. Wasn't moving to New York. Yeah. I think for various reasons, like it just wasn't the right fit for me or for them.
And so, we just shook hands and was like, "Thanks for the time." And my manager, Anna, she's the best. She's been with me for close to five years now. And um so, just like me and her taking on taking on the world, right? I mean, obviously, my wife was there to support and everything. And at this point, still one cat, three cats.
Uh March of 22, we were up to No, we were up three cats and a dog. We had gotten we gotten happy. We got happy. So we had three cats and a dog. Uh we had just bought a house. Um or we're in the process of buying a house, one that we're currently still in.
Um no kids yet. Actually, my wife, we didn't know my wife was pregnant. Um so there's a lot going on. And so you're going to be a dad at that point. And it's like you have to figure out how to continue to grow this career to support a family. Totally.
So like initially off that jump like what are you gonna do? Maybe like a day where I was just kind of like a day of doubt, a day of Yeah. what's going to happen? But then like that was what was exciting about it too is like I was in a good spot like companies were reaching out to me, you know, it was exciting because it was like kind of like being a free agent, you know what I mean? when at this point the like creator lifestyle is definitely more established than it was in 2016, you know, like there were there were people that were making independent creators there there were people that are making careers off of this. Like you go look at them and be like, "Okay, even if you're not with a big company, you know, like a big media company, like you could go make videos and there's a there's a way to monetize this and make a lifestyle out of it."
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And so from that point it was just you know me and Anna and she would receive emails from different companies that worked with me, different brands.
And so now that's over three years ago, three and a half years ago almost. People reach out. Is it a good fit? Do I want to do it? Do we want to do it? All the while that, you know, I've made more money than I ever thought I would from doing this, you know.
And um I provided a life to be able to have two kids and and a wife and a and a mortgage. That's always a funny question that I get from older people, even some people out at the bar. They're like, "Really? You can live off that?" Yeah. No, we're good.
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Like, you know, you I saw you do that one thing. That was pretty cool.
I'm like, "Yeah, and they pay me for it, too. It's great." You know, and it's like, "Well, those are the best though, too, when you can work with brands to make content and then the people that are on the other end like don't even know that that was a paid G because it's just such good authentic content. That's like the best the best possible way to be a creator I feel like. Or like people will I'll get some people that are just like so like how do you I'm just I'm like it's kind of confusing to me like how do you make money? How does that I'm like okay you watch TV right?
Yeah. What happens when your show is not on or the game goes to a break? They go to commercial. Yeah. People make money from that you know like that's the whole point. Oh yeah.
So, I'm like, when I have a brand that I want to work with or a company that I'm getting paid to post about something or create something to promote one of their products or whatever, it's a commercial. It's an ad. Are there any, you know, brand deals or videos or that you were like ultra proud of? You're like, "This was art." A collab with Madden, EA Sports, Madden, NFL. Yeah, that's pretty.
Um, both of them I had a lot of fun doing. It was two years in a row. One of them was like they had the Madden Hotline. uh where you could call in and do ratings like make a case for a player to get rated higher or whatever. And so I did like four or five impressions calling the Madden hotline um to promote that which was a lot of fun. And then the next year it was like what I did was like a dad mini camp because I had just had my baby boy and so I was doing all different things of you know like what you would think of Oh that's what it was.
They were promoting the return of mini games. Do you remember on like Madden04? Oh yeah. You'd sit with mini games and you do uh like the coffin corner if you wanted. You do the running back drills through the bags, all that. Uh they're promoting the return of that.
And so I did like dad mini games. And so it was me like practicing my handshake and like small talk and like putting a diaper on a football, how quickly I can do that. And that that was really fun. And I felt like, you know, those are like really organic things that I would post that I would think that were a funny hook or a sketch on my own. But now having Madden with it, too. Yeah.
I always say that like with brands where it's like it's got to start with a video that I would do even if it wasn't it wasn't like a partnered contact. Yes. Like it's like I got to be excited because if I'm not and all you're like you just want to like give anyone some money to say they're going to tell this is the greatest fish sandwich that the world has ever seen, right? like a Michigan brand reaches out like come on, you got to know the brand. Come on. Like a big portion of content that I did for a while that wasn't just the impressions was like I was doing those boyfriend conferences, boyfriend press conferences where I'd do like post first date, I'd do like after meeting her parents or whatever that like went crazy.
And so I did that with Applebee's on one of them and it was like not a boyfriend but it was just like the the big game pregame interview. It it was just again it was one of those that like I would have done. I thought it was a solid concept, you know, ended up being successful for Applebee's. But yeah, you know, going out on your own. When did you put up you and Ben start putting up videos? First one was the day after the Super Bowl 2017 or no, the week before the Super Bowl 2017.
Week before the Super Bowl 2017. So eight years later. I mean, you've been in some right and like in creator years it's like you're you're like nearing your pension, right? Yeah. Um, you've been in some crazy crazy cool experiences. I mean, I just saw you met David Spade and you're like taking a picture with it.
Like out of all of those, what's been the moment that just like, holy cow, this is cool. Oh god. I've been really lucky, man. Every time that I think that like it's holy cow, this is the one. There's something else, you know? I mean, I like I got to be an episode of Family Guy.
Wait, what? Yeah. Yeah. It's ridiculous. Probably. I mean definitely top three top five over the last they just reach out like hey you want to come Alex Sulcen uh is the executive producer one of main stays I think he's been there from the start with family guy still is there he followed me on social media because he found me through the sabin interview sabin impressions and all that stuff and we formed a little friendly you know relationship online where we'd banter back and forth about things he'd comment on my videos we'd kind of have brainstorming sessions through DMs things like that great guy all of a sudden one Hey, I get a DM from him and he's like, "Hey, would you have any interest in playing Owen Wilson on Family Guy?"
It's like, "Yeah, I mean, you Pope Catholic, like that kind of thing. Like, let's go. Are you kidding me?" I got cast to be French Owen Wilson in an episode of Family Guy. This is ridiculous. This is the craziest thing ever.
That's pretty sick. Yeah, it was two lines. And but I got to Yeah, I got to go in the studio and they had the script for me. Family Guy episode title episode is the Stewa away. If anybody wants to pull up Stew Away and it had my name and it had the the scene that I was doing and I was there with the producers and the director of the episode and uh did my thing. Where's a where's a studio for them with me being in Indie?
They just hooked me up with one downtown earshot. So So you roll into the studio here but there's Family Guy like they're flying their people out here. Oh no, they just had them up on this post pandemic. Yeah, you just zoom, brother. So, you're zooming and you get in there, you read your two lines. How many times you have to read two lines?
I think I did it. I think I gave like five or six variations. Eight minutes. And then how long from the time that you read the lines that till the episode got pushed? That's what's funny. That was awakening into television, everything.
I was like thinking I was like, "Yeah, so this be out like next week." And they're like, "Oh, no. This is we're looking at a bit like Yeah, this will be out uh by the time your kids hit college. Yeah. Uh so I recorded that November October November of 21 and then the episode didn't come out until November of 22, man. Yeah.
Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's a while. And I got the you know, I was on there and then I got my name in the blue credits at the end and it's so sick. That's pretty sick.
And then meeting Payton, uh, doing that video with Payton a month ago, that was another really surreal thing. Um, really, really surreal moment. Just you I'm a Steelers fan. Sorry Indiana. Sorry Indianapolis. But still, when you grow up in Indianapolis and the golden era of Colts football, Pton Manning runs everybody's life.
And so being able to do that was just insane. Yeah. I mean, that has to be like just so cool. and what he's doing with Omaha Productions. Like that whole thing is sick. Oh yeah, it's it's the best.
And Omaha's great. I'm lucky enough to be able to I've collabed and partnered with them on a bunch of different things and they're awesome. But yeah, Payton's just like everything that you read and hear all the stories about them. It absolutely he comes off that way. Dude, don't you love it when someone that you've like seen is as good as you hope they are? Oh man, it was because Payton didn't I mean they were doing this for me.
like they reached out to me because they like what I do and I've done stuff and Payton and Eli think that my Manning cast videos are funny. So, they knew they were having that event in Indie. They know that I'm in Indie. They're like, "Hey, would you want to do something with Payton?" Pton didn't have to I mean, the guy is the president. Like, they have his every move.
Like, they know when he's coming from upstairs to downstairs, when he's coming down the hallway. Like, he didn't have to do this, right? Um but he he took five minutes to do it. the separator from Payton from everybody else. So, it's me, guy named Jack who works for Omaha in this side room down this side hallway at Old National Center waiting for Payton. Peyton comes in.
Most guys in his stature, I believe, would just like kind of not really pay much attention to anything, just like hear what they have to do, do it, and then leave. Payton comes in. Hey, pal. How are you? You know, he's talking to me. He compliments me because Jack's like, he's done some stuff for us.
He's like, "Oh, you do you've done the Collinssworth Mann and C." "Oh, yeah. I like it, buddy. I like it." You know, and super cool. But then I'm explaining to him kind of this little idea for this 50-second sketch to post.
And Payton is like locked in and he's like asking questions about when do you want me to enter? Do you think this line would be better than this line? Do you want me to really harp on Eli here or is this more of a me thing? Like he's actively invested. He cares in this 50-second throwaway sketch that's just being done as a favor to me. So he's locked in.
We do it in one take. Dude absolutely crushes it. Like comes in at the perfect time. Goes above and beyond what my expectations ever would be. And then we're walking out and this is the best part. We're walking out down the hallway and I'm thinking, "Yeah, I'm not going to bother him because I've already he's given me enough time."
Then he starts asking me about like where I grew up because I told him I'm from Mindy and he asked where part I grew up. Then I'm walking out the door and I'm walking past Marvin Harrison, Dwight Freeny, Jeff Saturday, and Payton from behind me calls out and he's just like, "Hey Joey, you know these guys?" I'm like, "I don't know. I don't know. I know them, but I don't know them." Payton brings me over, introduces me to all these Colts legends, you know?
He's just like telling Marvin Harrison and Jeff Saturday, he's like, "Hey, this is Joey. He does a real good job. He does a really great Collinssworth. He's done some stuff with us before." like Pton Manning's giving me giving these guys the rundown of me and what I'm doing, right? And so it was just totally insane.
But that's just speaks to the kind of guy that Pton Manning is is that like he actively is just that invested in everybody and everything that he works with. Like there's a reason he's as successful as he is, right? That's the reason right there. I was uh somehow this week I got like somehow the gig of uh social media like I was videotaping for Miles Teller and I Bloomington. That no way. So, I got to go down, me and and a few Austin, Katie, Will, my team.
We got to go down with Miles uh through Long Drink. Evan Burns is the founder co-founder of Long Drink. He's an IU guy. He had seen some of my stuff and was like, "Hey, we're doing an IU bar takeover. We're bringing in Miles. Would you guys come down and capture content for us?"
And I was like, "Yeah, absolutely. We'll be there." So, we go down there and I was like, we're sitting in this green room in the upstairs down in Bloomington and Miles Teller walks in. Yeah. And like my number one thing I prepped her. like, "Hey, if we want to have cool opportunities like this, don't be fans."
Like, you just got to be you just got to be normal. Like, I was like wondering, it's like he's coming over. He was in Toronto, I think they had done before, like the night before. So, from Toronto down to Indie and down to Bloomington. And I was like, I don't know. Like, he was as authentic as you'd hope to be.
And he, kudos to this dude. So, one, he walks into these bars and obviously all the college girls go absolutely insane. And I'm just like back there by the bar like with my like my gimbal like recording all this stuff. And he signed no less than a thousand autographs. Wow. Like and like had energy.
He did a full hour of autograph signing basically like handing out drinks, autograph signing behind the bar. Everyone's going like it was like the loudest room I'd ever been in. Wow. From there goes over to Kilroyce. Does the exact same thing for another hour and a half. Was he boozing at all?
I mean, he's drinking, having fun, but like nothing crazy. But it's like he the easy thing to do would just be like go out there, dance around a little bit. Like the soundtrack, Top Gun comes off and Yeah. But it's like he's working the entire bar, handing out drinks, signing all the stuff. It was high energy the whole time versus like it wasn't like a I have to be here and do this. It was like I get to be here and do like these people are changes the game, man.
He's signing girls phones like like no phone case. Just like they're handing him an iPhone. He's signed in the back of that. Wow. It was nuts. It was But it was one of those moments where it's like, you know, as as big as you get, whatever it is, it's like if you're still like taking the approach if I get to do this, like you're going to continue to have success.
Yeah. Totally. And he gained a lot of I mean, especially when you're in Indiana, it's like not a ton of Hollywood comes here, but when they do, it's like I think that a lot of Hoosiers maybe even assume like, oh yeah, they're going to be super not Hollywood. He was like having great conversations. like he was just very genuine especially with even when he was off like in the place that you know it's just the worker type the crew he was still very authentic there and not like what night was that uh Tuesday now I know where my wife was that makes sense she was out that night she made her way down to Bloomington to see old Miles she loves Miles Tiller wait was she really there no I was like whoa dude yeah that that checks out dude I love it we're wrapping up the show I appreciate you giving us the time. I guess I want to end.
I have just a few like kind of more rapid fire questions. Number one piece of advice for young creators out there that want to make it. One, if you don't have the job that you want, make the job that you want. Uh then in terms of, you know, like you know, if you want to be really into coffee, do coffee videos, start doing coffee videos. If you want to do comedy, start putting sketches out there. And then two, have the baseball mindset.
You know, probably gonna fail seven out of 10 times. The three ones that hit, great. And uh got to have a quick quick mindset to get over that. That is um I mean spectacular advice and it's just shoot or shoot, right? You just got to keep going. Is have there ever been a video that you thought was going to crush that just like didn't pan out the way you wanted it to?
Always. Every all the time. Is there one is there one that sticks with you? Yeah. Me and Ben, we talk about this one pretty regularly. We had this idea.
Uh we were making fun of like uh like these robot husbands that you see on your timelines, you know, that like they have if you go to their page, it's just them and their wife or their fiance in the same pose throughout the entire thing. And like at every wedding, at every event, no matter what it is, and they have the exact same smile. And so we're like, "These guys are not real. They're like robots." And so we came up with this sketch. Um and it's called Robot Hunty.
Uh because we were talking about how like there's these guys that that's what they are. They're robots and these girls want these guys who are like these robots who uh who just are at their every beck and call and are like the perfect picture perfect husband or partner or or or boyfriend. It was kind of like an infomercial to be able to like get yourself a robot, honey. And it just flopped, dude. It just like me and Ben were we like we still talk about it and laugh our ass off about it uh to this day. But it was one of those where like you check the comments and it's like can't all be winners.
Swinging a miss like dang. All right. Everybody's uh I guess those were the robot hunties right there. They're mad about it. Yeah. Uh I mean the stuff you'll find in a comment section on the internet is crazy.
Yeah. No, I just avoid, you know, I'm just I just saw your one sketch uh or like it was a standup bit. Oh, I don't even want to know. Don't even tell me. It It was good. I No, no, no.
Not a comment, but just Well, it was a it was a sketch about a comment about uh losing weight. And I thought that was just like, "Oh, dude, I'm feeling good about myself." Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
That's the whole that's the whole bit is you can't win, you know? It's like you get, you know, you think that uh you get a rude awakening and that wakes you up to it and then all of a sudden you think you're good and then people still find a way to knock you down. Yeah. Right. Exactly. The the comment section of the internet is wild.
All right. Final three questions that we ask everyone who comes in, sits in the chair. first one. I mean, they're those are all going to be near and dear to you because I mean, you could go even now, you could go to New York, you could go to LA, you could go move, pick up and go. Uh, but you're here in Indie, right? So, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana?
For Indiana, it's home to the best city in the world. Um, the best host city in the world, especially, uh, that being Indianapolis. for everything that you get to do here. I mean, everybody talks about it all the time, but the accessibility, the way that um people can go about and have 350,000 people at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but then also have 20,000 people at Gamebridge Fieldhouse for a playoff game in the same day. Uh you can do all that. That that that's pretty much it is that like I'd say that Indianapolis has to be the most underrated best city that still doesn't get enough credit nationally and worldwide in my opinion that it should.
It is the who's your hospitality, right? Like let us host you. Needs to be another Super Bowl here. Yeah. 2012 a whole lot of stuff started in the NFL based off what Indianapolis did in 2012. Come on.
Reveal a spot that more people need to know about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? Dugout is like one of my favorite hangouts to just go get a bunch of beers and hang out with pe hang out with the the fellas, you know, especially in the summer night or whatever. And they keep expanding which is great. Nick's awesome over there. Uh, love the dugout.
Geraldines is a phenomenal restaurant experience. The food's great. They got like piano playing, a little bit of soft light music. It's like a very it's it's just one building that's an old building. It's like a sliver of a building almost. Um, and you sit in there and they do coffee service after and they got great creme brulee.
Um, oh, and it's just a great dining experience with awesome food. And then, uh, one of my favorite spots too is Binkley's just down the road from here. Oh, no. That's a great spot. It's like right Yeah. I know that it's not especially people around here.
It's not, but like I feel, you know, maybe statewide or even some people in India or people who are certainly traveling here, uh, you go to Binkley, you're going to get a a good meal and a good drink and a good time. Heck yeah. I love I've heard really good things about Gerald Deans and I've never ventured down there. We're gonna have to do that. Uh I also love a supper club. I don't know what a supper club is, but I'm intrigued.
This has a little bit different feel, you know. We're having a um final question for you. This is how we, you know, learn more about other Hoosiers, get potential guest recommendations. Who is a Hoosier that we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. Got to be Ben Pitzy, right?
There are a lot of Hoosiers that have interesting lives. He might be at the the top of people in from Indiana or in Indiana. Does he still live here? No. No. Oh, he's full on Hollywood now.
Full on Hollywood. Full Hollywood. But he's back. Is he back a decent? He does. He comes back a good amount.
I mean, his whole family's still here. Um, you know, he he'll come back and forth in between shows and stuff for the holidays. Uh, so I'll have to shoot you over next time he's around or or going to be here for a bit. Uh, I'll have to shoot you over because Yeah. you want to talk about and then it would be interesting honestly for me to be able to hear because I'm sure you probably run through a lot of the same stuff that he ran through with me to hear his side of it and the the opposite side of it uh for when we started to work together and yeah and that thing. So, uh, I mean, yeah, when you have a dude who is a nationally recognized comic, million plus followers on, you know, most of his social platforms, reality TV star, three seasons over, three seasons over, dude, he's just running that thing.
It's It's like uh It's just so cool, especially when you see I remember like some of his early videos, too. Well, I mean, both of your guys' early videos of like the evolutions of just like figuring out what the career in entertainment looks like. I I think it's super cool. Yeah, he's got to be the one, man. I would love to hear his side of the like you're like yeah you know he was he was a senior like all this the running back the girls wanted him yada yada yada that'd be it'd be funny to hear his perspective there uh man this has been awesome we appreciate you coming two of you Indy's finest that's what I both like both no he was a Marian grad wasn't he I think he technically he he claims you two of the finest uh greyhounds that the city has to offer man keep up the great work appreciate you coming in and uh and we'll talk soon thanks Nate appreciate the time and uh thanks for everybody out there and uh love ending up.
Yeah, appreciate you. Thank you for listening to this episode of Get In. If you like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcast. 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 of my gear recommendations at sweetwater. com.
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 part of what makes the Hoosier State great.
