Travis Nelson is headlining Jokers Comedy Club in Richland, Washington, this Friday and Saturday, February 2-3.
As I sat down with the towering Cerebral Comedian himself, Travis Nelson, we couldn't help but trade stories that ranged from the heartwarming to the downright hilarious. The high seas of cruise line comedy, the ebb and flow of personal well-being amidst the grind of professional hustle—our conversation had it all. We unpacked the resilience it takes to navigate life’s funks and the robust lifeline that a comedy community can be. Travis regaled us with snippets from his visits to fellow comedian Tyler Boeh's family, and we drew the curtain back on how cruise ship entertainment is sailing into a new era, post-pandemic.
With a comedic style that skips the shock and goes straight for the intellect, we reflect on the adaptation required to captivate audiences across cities like Nashville and Denver. And with social media changing the game, we discussed staying relevant and relatable in the digital age.
To cap off, we peeked behind the curtain of comedy venues, from the legendary Comedy Store to the intimate buzz of a dispensary-sponsored gig. Oh, and we had a good laugh about the varying potency of weed from state to state—because what's comedy without a bit of controversy? Wrangling hecklers, piecing together a killer set, and orchestrating tours that leave the crowd in stitches—it's all in a day's work for a stand-up comic. So, whether you're a comedy connoisseur or just looking for a good chuckle, this episode is your ticket to the insider's world of laughs.
Instagram:
@travisisjoking
https://www.instagram.com/travisisjoking?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Linktr.ee
https://linktr.ee/travisnelsoncomedy?fbclid=PAAabSzdfrX4Rewk03ANLHdT_O-MwX2mhIem7YUGEa2hJfc_4iPGNil10m8BY_aem_AZZ5Abw9i4I-mH_mvSYUzfTcawKGIayD8DLlLPMt3tB45UdUWU3gtm4diBDKW646oos
Shoutout to:
Travis Nelson
Jokers Comedy Club
Tyler Boeh
Lynette Manning
Max from Jokers
Alter Ego Ambassador: https://alteregorunning.com/
Miles & Mountains Promo Code: MMyr2
Travis Nelson is headlining Jokers Comedy Club in Richland, Washington, this Friday and Saturday, February 2-3.
As I sat down with the towering Cerebral Comedian himself, Travis Nelson, we couldn't help but trade stories that ranged from the heartwarming to the downright hilarious. The high seas of cruise line comedy, the ebb and flow of personal well-being amidst the grind of professional hustle—our conversation had it all. We unpacked the resilience it takes to navigate life’s funks and the robust lifeline that a comedy community can be. Travis regaled us with snippets from his visits to fellow comedian Tyler Boeh's family, and we drew the curtain back on how cruise ship entertainment is sailing into a new era, post-pandemic.
With a comedic style that skips the shock and goes straight for the intellect, we reflect on the adaptation required to captivate audiences across cities like Nashville and Denver. And with social media changing the game, we discussed staying relevant and relatable in the digital age.
To cap off, we peeked behind the curtain of comedy venues, from the legendary Comedy Store to the intimate buzz of a dispensary-sponsored gig. Oh, and we had a good laugh about the varying potency of weed from state to state—because what's comedy without a bit of controversy? Wrangling hecklers, piecing together a killer set, and orchestrating tours that leave the crowd in stitches—it's all in a day's work for a stand-up comic. So, whether you're a comedy connoisseur or just looking for a good chuckle, this episode is your ticket to the insider's world of laughs.
Instagram:
@travisisjoking
https://www.instagram.com/travisisjoking?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Linktr.ee
https://linktr.ee/travisnelsoncomedy?fbclid=PAAabSzdfrX4Rewk03ANLHdT_O-MwX2mhIem7YUGEa2hJfc_4iPGNil10m8BY_aem_AZZ5Abw9i4I-mH_mvSYUzfTcawKGIayD8DLlLPMt3tB45UdUWU3gtm4diBDKW646oos
Shoutout to:
Travis Nelson
Jokers Comedy Club
Tyler Boeh
Lynette Manning
Max from Jokers
Alter Ego Ambassador: https://alteregorunning.com/
Miles & Mountains Promo Code: MMyr2
Travis Nelson. How are you, man? I am good. How are you, nick? I'm good man. Thank you for getting me out of the funk. You know don't want to talk too much about it, but you're the second guest this year, believe it or not. Normally I'm like doing five or six by now. Right, but it's a much needed break.
Speaker 2:How to take care of the business. You can't beat yourself up over that man. And, by the way, if there's two things that I'm good at, it's funks and getting out of them. Equally, it really evens out to nothing. But those are my two skills is being in a funk and getting out of funks.
Speaker 1:Right. So when Travis Nelson, mr Cerebral Comedian and the tallest comedian that you'll ever meet in your lifetime, hey. Hits you up, you're like I can make room. I will get out of my funk as best as I can and meet the Travis Nelson. So welcome back, man. I love it. I love that you're back. I like the fact that when you think of Richland, you think of Nick Coleman on Miles Mountain's podcast. So thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is the. You know, this is, this is the one. In fact, I don't know if you know this, but everybody, if you're going to Richland, you know I'll have like four different comics reach out and be like oh dude, you should hit Nick up and do his podcast. No way, it's a thing. It's a thing. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh man, I know, I know Tyler Bowes been on Love. Tyler the hero. Tyler Bow, yeah, he's good man. I like his little acapella man that. There's nothing like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was literally just texting him earlier this morning. He's a great comic and a really funny, just the perfect like thing you're not thinking of for every weird little scenario. He's so like analytical that he can just go in and just like surgeon, just like cut out the perfect chunk and hand it to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you guys are both dry bar man. You guys are all clean. It's like you guys hang out together and just have a good old time, without the shock value. I do hang out with Tyler a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, without the shock, I will say like I go back and forth, like I have a dryware special but I, you know I work clean and dirty. But then I would like I go visit Tyler in Portland a lot, stay with him and his family and just, oh, what a wholesome, just a beautiful home and family he is cultivated. I love going and staying with them. It's amazing. That's kind of why I gave him like the nickname the hero Tyler Bow is. I don't know any of the comedian that's like as prolific as he is in terms of writing and putting out content and albums. And then also just like, also just like being so on top of it when it comes to just like home, life, family, just like everything just seems like it's and I'm sure he's listening to this just being like, oh dude, you don't know, yesterday it was a nightmare, but to me I'm like this guy's figured it out, you know yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, he's the first guy I've ever met that in real life was part of a boy band. I mean, come on, come on.
Speaker 2:That's a good point. That is a good point. I always forget about that because he'll help try to push more towards. Like you know, it's kind of like a B boy at times and like he. Really only in the joke will he admit to having been a part of an acapella group, right?
Speaker 1:So shout out to Tyler Bow. Tyler was on earlier last year or in the summer, and we talked about the dreadful. Not so much dreadful, but the coming back of the ship line man, the cruise line comedians dude, something that you're you're in tuned. You've done that quite some time. You've met him on a cruise line, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, me and Tyler got to work together. It was a blast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but he basically solidified that that it's not mostly where comedians fall. Now they've made a shift to where comedians want to go on and they've put more money in the entertainment business, I guess in the comedian entertainment, yeah, in the cruise line, is that true?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really funny the way it seems to have worked out, and this is all from my perspective.
Speaker 1:So I'm sure there's some older.
Speaker 2:If there's like an older cruise comic listening to this, I'm sure they have a bunch of corrections for me. But I got in around like 2017, 2018. The ships hired me on because they were trying out having Hosts for the, the comedy shows. So I would go up and it was awful. I would bomb for ten minutes. It was always a bomb, no matter what material. I did the first ten minutes and they would introduce you as a host. And there's a weird thing about I don't know what it is about sometimes cruise Com comedy audiences but they have to not like one person in order to like another person. They have like a zero-sum Love of comedy where, like, they would hate me and then they would love the headliner. Or sometimes I'll be on with another comic and a lot of times It'll be a really good friend of mine and I'll have people come up all the time Just like yeah, I like you better than that other guy and it's like you could like us both. We're both like you know but, Anyways.
Speaker 2:So I did that until the pandemic and then and I didn't really enjoy it, and then during the pandemic they bumped me up to headliner, which doubled my pay, and when they did that I noticed they were trying to get in a bunch of, like, younger talent and they're trying to kind of turn over Some of the comics that had been working for them for a while, which has been really interesting to watch, because we're in this weird bubble of it's really hard to book comedy right now If you're not, like, really in tune to comedy because everyone's basically just looking at social media numbers, which is a good measure of like yeah, yeah, it's complicated.
Speaker 2:It's a good measure of seeing like how, how popular you are, how many people will come out to see you. But on a cruise ship, you know, these people aren't gonna know who you are, no matter what, and then you really just have to be able to like put on a good show. So it's been really funny to watch that happen. There's a lot of new clubs opening around the country that are kind of going through the same thing, where it's like you see a lot of like Wild and out comics getting booked to headline and I don't know. I was just texting my buddy where I was like I don't know, I've never really watched Wild and out, but I just know that's a thing at clubs where if there's a weekend where it's a Comic who has a wild and out credit, it's gonna be bad shows. And I don't think it's. I don't think it's their fault. I think a lot of times it's just because those are like younger comics who are newer to like working the road and they just have More industry experience. So it's like, yeah, that's gonna be, I don't know. I I get into the weeds with all of it because I like thinking about like the intricacies of it and stuff.
Speaker 2:But it's been interesting to see as the cruise clientele has kind of gotten a little younger You're the people in actual theatrical and entertainment departments on the ship are the ones who see it all, and what they've kind of Relate to me is there's like, you know, the older guys who are killers and they're always good to have. But then you also have some guys who just kind of Got comfortable during the like 90s and 2000s and haven't updated their acts and stuff. And that's what it's like and it's brutal, I guess, from their perspective. But it's for someone who's like trying to come up and like establish a career in comedy, it's kind of nice just to see like, oh, like there is, you know there's consequences, but there's also like Incentive to keep writing new stuff and to like get better and improve, because nowadays you just need as much Content and jokes and everything you can make as possible just to get noticed, you know yeah, so you said you moved to San Diego.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. Yeah, I moved down here in like December I, and then I just went on the road again Like the second half of last year for me. I moved out of my. I was living in an apartment for seven years and I moved out in April and then I Was lucky enough to be able to crash with a. Really my best friend just bought a house in Bellingham Washington. So I was going between crashing with him and work in the road.
Speaker 2:So I was really traveling a lot and just kind of like, alright, I'm gonna live out of hotels for a while, since I don't have a lease, and then, once that slowed down, I, yeah, I got a spot in San Diego and I've been down here since January 6th and it's been really fun, man, it's been a blast.
Speaker 2:I've got to work with a lot of new comics, got to meet a lot of people. There's like a killer scene down here because there's oh yeah, there's like six clubs and there's a ton of independent comedy shows and so far everybody seems really cool. So I'm really enjoying being down here. But I am coming up, yeah, this next weekend I'm coming up and I'll be up for two weeks doing stuff in Washington and then Oregon and then I go on a cruise for two weeks and then I'm gonna. I got another like two or three week Worth a road work up around I5 up and down the West Coast. So yeah, just kind of like trying to find a medium between being in San Diego and making connections and then also making money touring and doing shows moving on up, man.
Speaker 2:Trying to try and do awesome dude. I'm proud of you, man. Thanks for that.
Speaker 1:I do appreciate it and good to hear. And man, I mean San Diego, you got LA, you have Vegas. I mean, did you're gonna be in that pyramid area, dude?
Speaker 2:So yeah, I mean, yes, it's been really, it's been really fun so far, because it's like you know, the hard thing being down here is getting noticed and so far everybody's like Jesus Christ, you were the tallest comic I've seen. So it's easier for me, I think definitely just because everyone remembers me and I don't have to like show my face as much just to get noticed, which is nice.
Speaker 1:Right, but I mean, did you are the, the tallest, that is pretty tall.
Speaker 2:I don't know on the tallest I met a comic who was taller than me. In Little Rock there's a guy who works the loony been there in Little Rock. He hosted the weekend. I was there and he's uh, I think he says 611. I think he's seven feet tall. He's extremely tall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, so they exist out there. They're rare. You're saying that. I believe you. Yeah, yeah, I'll send you a photo. I'll send you a photo, okay, all right, so You'll be at Joker's February 2nd and the 3rd this next weekend. Who's opening for you, man?
Speaker 2:I got Lynette Manning opening for me. She's a really good friend of mine from she's from the Olympia area, I believe, and we've worked together a bunch. She's just kind of like I don't know how long she's been doing it. I wanna say, like you know, I'm not even gonna try and say, but she's gone really far in a short amount of time. She's getting like really good and I really like watching her. I really like watching her work and I like having her open for me.
Speaker 2:So we just did the infinity room it's a club in Salem and we just did that one and she knocked it out of the park and if you wanna see, her if you look up her social media, most of the clips she's put out recently are all from that infinity room show, which was like it's a great room, it's a great show. So yeah, I'm excited to have that. I don't know who our host is gonna be, but yeah, I think it's gonna be a really fun couple shows and I'm looking forward to hitting my old Hans in Richland again.
Speaker 1:Okay, speaking of moving up, man, you just moved to San Diego and everything else, but last year was different for you too. You traveled more than the past. I mean, how did that come about? How did it feel? Do you feel like you're moving up in the ranks? You know you're moving onto the East side.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of tough man, it's hard to gauge and I always try to keep myself humble and just remember that. It's like you know, in terms of the posturing and like the politics of it and stuff. I just try to ignore all that and focus on the work and it's like let me just keep doing shows, keep getting better, keep working on the things that I have, the weaknesses of mine or whatever. But yeah, so last year I started out the year with this big like oh I'm gonna, I gotta start doing my social media again. And that went really well until maybe, like I think, april, I had like a viral. I had that truck buttholes sketched. It went viral. And after that that like killed my momentum because I was like, oh dude, if you just have one go viral, that's somewhat like why am I doing this every day when I just need one to go viral, which is not the way to think about it.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, and I'd spend a bunch of money on having people help me out with the social media stuff and trying to figure it out and just kind of like learning the ropes of that. So then I felt like I needed to go make the money and I also was kind of feeling like there's a bunch of clubs and new stuff opening out there now, like comedy is having a little boom, which is really exciting, and I used to really travel around. I didn't get to do a lot of cool shows, but I used to travel more. So I know I can do it and I know I like doing it and I just started reaching out to clubs, just looking them up and kind of networking with comics and new and finding ways to get spots. And then I wound up putting together like it goes out there. For like two months straight I was doing like a two month run of like a bunch of clubs in the Midwest and South and man it was so much fun yeah.
Speaker 1:I hung out in Nashville a lot. Nashville was really.
Speaker 2:I really love Nashville. I don't think I could live there. But why I couldn't live there, to be honest, is really just like it's more of a music town than a comedy town. So I think I want to live somewhere where comedy is at least like music's always going to be more popular but like I think if I moved now I would go to Denver would be my move because there's a really big comedy scene there.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I'm just kind of trying to get out there and meet all these new people who are excited about comedy and like just kind of bask in it, because I've been doing it for like 13 years and it's easy to kind of feel like you're plateaued or you're hitting like a you know you're getting stale and you're not really having those experiences that used to really like energize you. So for me it's just all about getting out there and like having new experiences in comedy and like trying to find new situations. And also it's just fun to get out and like do the old proven material in front of people who have never seen it before. Because if it's the people who've been watching you your whole career, they're like, oh, I guess that joke did get better. But if it's like people saying it for the first time, they're like oh, that's a great joke. You know, you don't have the, you don't have a little ramp up of like no, that joke doesn't suck anymore. He actually figured it out, you know.
Speaker 1:Outside, looking in myself. I love your comedy. Like I said, it's cerebral because it's not shock value and it's like you know the comedy, the comedy is within the words. It's not like cuss words and everything else. And the people that I go with that's never heard of you, never looked you up. The one thing that they always say is Pleasants, funny as heck. It's pleasant because you don't cuss. I know you do cuss, but a lot of people don't want that in their comedy. They're nice and it's just. You know you feel dirty after a while, but you it's a pleasant surprise of comedy and you actually have to use your brain to get the jokes that you're saying you know presenting.
Speaker 2:So I mean it's funny you say that that is a double-edged sword. Like I'm about to go do Chadwicks in Medford and it's kind of the opposite crowd there where they do just want you to like yell obscenities at them. But what I do is what I do. So I like to think of it as like I was always like a big Norm MacDonald fan and when I watched Norm MacDonald stuff he will, you know, he will swear and he'll say inappropriate things, but there's a playfulness about it and there's a way where it's like a part of what he's trying to do inside of the joke and that kind of stuff I really appreciate because you know it's just like another level of what you're doing. It's like being a little bit more playful instead of just trying to like beat people over the head with you know vulgarity, which you know there's a, there's a time and a place, but like especially watching like a lot of comics.
Speaker 2:I guess in California that's nice to say, san Diego is there's a lot of longer sets here, so the comics get to stretch a little bit more.
Speaker 2:But like that's a big thing when you come down from like work in the road in the Pacific Northwest or around the country and you get into more like showcase scenes like Los Angeles and everybody's got five minutes.
Speaker 2:So everybody gets up and they're they're they're filthy or they're really dirty and they're just kind of trying to go like there's a lot more shock to it where it's like that's all been beaten out of me because I realized like if you have to be on stage for more than 30 minutes, you really don't want to like waste that shock value stuff because you're going to just like blow the the audience is like energy just with that one thing where you can instead just kind of like play with it and kind of like lead them on here and then cut here and then move over here and just kind of like you know there's a little there's.
Speaker 2:It's all about like building up attention and breaking it, and a way to do that is just, you know, say something filthy, that's like you know more socially inappropriate and that's just going to like just going to make people laugh. But it's like, if you take the time to kind of like build layers to it, you're just I don't know, I don't know that it works better in the moment, but to me it's a better product and I like doing it more because it just feels like it's it's, it's better. I guess I don't know what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1:It's like the craft, and so have your friends that you surround yourself with. I'm not climbing master yet.
Speaker 2:I'm aiming for master, but I always got to keep that like an inch or two above my head, just so I don't get to jump it lazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've always got work to do, all right, so in your travels man name two to three comedians that surprised you. That I mean you never heard of, but was like wow. So basically, who should we check out?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had heard of him, but Sam talent I got to work with him recently for the first time and he's originally a Denver guy. He just put out a new special called the Toads morale on YouTube and Sam is filthy but I really appreciate the way that he does it because it's all very like silly and tongue in cheek and he also has a couple of fantastic books out. He wrote one called Burning the light which is about stand up and it's just truly like a really good read and it's a good novel. So he blew me out of the water because I'd seen his stuff before. But it's like certain comics are just different live and he's definitely one of those guys where I saw him live and I was like, wow, this guy is next level.
Speaker 2:There's, let's see I'm shuffling through my head of, like new people I worked with, I guess, um Dayton Bissett. Yeah, I met this kid named Dacin Dayton Bissett in um, I guess I met him in Nashville. He lives in, uh, new York now, but he's from Kansas city and I saw him again in Kansas city and I think, uh, I think he's a guy to keep an eye on. Uh, he's, he's definitely a lot younger but I think he's got like a really good trajectory because he's, uh, he's really smart and he writes like really dark jokes, but they're very interesting. And I would say the same thing about, um.
Speaker 2:There's a comic named Fiona Collie in Nashville that's worth looking up. Um, she's also very funny. Lizzie Wolfson out of New York Uh, I've really liked her stuff on social media and let's see, I got one more. Who was I thinking of? Oh yeah, I saw this dude um named Chance Willie uh, and he opens for Theo Vaughn on the road, but I did a weekend with him and this dude named Nate Abshire out of Minneapolis, and I thought both of those guys were fantastic. I thought they're both really good comics. So you know, hopefully that's enough of a list of people to check out.
Speaker 2:And you know, obviously gay Brett Lage, Tyler Bow, all the, all the guys I always normally say but those are the.
Speaker 1:Those are the guys I just met in my last year that I thought were really cool. Okay, what venue are you hoping to hit up, man? I'm all living down there.
Speaker 2:What's the uh?
Speaker 1:the pinnacle place for you to just headline.
Speaker 2:That's a good question. There's a lot of people trying to push me to the comedy store because there is a comedy store here in San Diego and I've been to the one in Los Angeles and I have a lot of friends who who work there and like to work there. I don't, I just don't know that I'm a comedy store guy and I feel like a snob saying this the first time. I've said that out loud but I just keep thinking about it because people keep trying to get me to go there and I'm like I don't know why I don't want to go there. I just it just it's a different vibe. But um, mic drop comedy club here I've heard is a really cool one, that in Madhouse comedy club. Um, I just got spots at Madhouse and I keep not going. I just need to go to my drop. I'm so bad about like.
Speaker 2:I've been doing a bunch of book shows down here, just networking and uh, I I have this whole.
Speaker 2:Like in comedy sometimes first impressions are so important. I would much rather meet everybody through doing book shows before I go out and start hanging out at open mics, so everyone knows beforehand like, oh, this is a guy who's been doing it before they see me at an open mic and I don't want their first impression of me to be like, hey, who's this giant new guy? You know what I mean. So maybe that's just in my head, but that's what I've been trying to do. So I've just been doing a bunch of like um bar shows and there was a ton of like dispensary shows down here. Like it's been like two or three shows I've done where it's just all sponsored by the weed companies, which is kind of cool that there's, like you know, companies sponsoring comedy, um and uh yeah, and also, just you know, you get handed a bag of weed at the end of the night. That's always helps costs and uh everything at the end of the month, like, oh, I didn't have to buy that, uh, that bag of weed, I just got it for free.
Speaker 1:Yes, stay away from the Vegas weed man. I went to Vegas, uh, for 24 hours, uh in December, uh for a concert and man that weed, it smells different, so bad. I've read the smell sewer. It's to the point that you know when you smell it, you taste it and it's in your like senses all day and night and I tell you what. I rather smell skunk weed than the Vegas weed man. For some reason it is bad. Have you had the Vegas?
Speaker 2:No no no, you know it was funny as I'd never had it, but I uh, last last time I was in, maybe last time I was in Vegas I had a taxi driver and I was chatting with him about visiting and he asked me if I tried the weed and then he gave me like a five to 10 minute lecture on how bad the weed was. I'm just I'm just now remembering that I had that conversation. I was like, oh yeah, I forgot that. That guy told me that, wow, I didn't realize. You think that it would have figured?
Speaker 1:it out. No, man, I I don't know if they get it from Mexico or water, you know Pacific Northwest, get it from Canada, I'm not sure, but that weed man, it just ah, what is it, man? You know skunk weed, you know how skunk weed is. Right, yeah, think of skunk weed, but throughout the day. If you smelled it once, you'll have a whiff of it all day, every day, in like just in your mouth, on your clothing. It is, it is bad man. I just yeah, that's one thing I hated about Vegas man, because, no matter what you smelled it, because people just you know, all out in the open with their weed and I'm just like God, you guys are doing this like it's a delicacy man and it's you know it's funny and this is a total bias on my part, but I, if you ask me to to rank like how good different states of weed was going to be, there's no way I would have had Nevada at the top.
Speaker 2:I think, it's just because it's like a tourist, more of a tourist economy. But I would have just assumed it wouldn't be good because I would assume that it'd be mostly sold to tourists so they don't need, like repeat customers as much. But that's just my brain spinning Like that's I think. Oh yeah, you know what? I did buy Nevada weed one time. I didn't buy it but my, my brother-in-law, lives in Salt Lake City and I'm going to out him right now. We drove like four hours one time round trip to Nevada and back just to stock up and I don't I don't think I smoked any of it. I think I think I missed out on smoking it, which now I feel like I really won over.
Speaker 1:You did, you did, and I'll tell you what man I drank. I don't smoke, but just that smell alone made it seem like you smoked all day, every day when it came around and, man, I would rather smell sewer system a skunk weed.
Speaker 1:I rather smell something that is just sewer water than that, because it gets in your system and it just stays and it's gross. So I don't condone smoking weed. If you guys want to do it, do it. But yeah, that's my, my take on Vegas for 24 hours. Now you said the the comedy store, right? Yeah, if and when you do do that, give me a notice. I want to see you there, man. Okay, cool, I want to see you there.
Speaker 2:Like if I become, if I become a regular or something like that, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let me know, I'll keep that in mind, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying I travel, I've been traveling. My wife doesn't really like it, but hey, I will travel to see you with the big dogs and be like, start from the bottom. Now you're here. Okay, I'll keep that in mind. Yes, yes. So Richland, richland, this Friday, saturday, coming up first. The 49ers have to play tonight. Yes, I am not beating a dead horse, but the 49ers, please, god, please win, right, please win, all right, all right. You're your headlining jokers. Richland, washington, february 2nd the 3rd. What's different? There's something different about that. What is different?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, I got a sweetheart deal from them. So I've been working that club maybe almost longer than I've been working any other club, and I was talking to them and they always pay us a guarantee. But then I asked if I could do a door deal because I've been trying to kind of game like I don't have enough of a. It's this funny thing where I have a good enough reputation that I can get booked at, like I work a ton. I think I worked 21 comedy clubs last year and it's like you know they all want me to come in. Some of them will headline me, but a lot of them are just honest where it's like well, hey, you don't have the social media following, so we can't, we don't, we don't know that you'll be able to bring enough people in, but we can have you feature. And they all realize like I'm a great person to have come feature because I'm a professional, It'll be a good show and they don't have to worry about me at all. Like I'm going to do my time and and that's fine.
Speaker 2:But I've realized like I've kind of hit a ceiling on that, where it's like, well, if every single club is featuring me, I'm never going to make enough money to kind of like move on up. So I've been trying to work on this, doing door deals, places, and trying to figure out how to promote my shows myself so I can make a little extra money. And that's what I'm doing in Richland. So I'm doing a guarantee versus door deal, which is either if I, if I get enough people out, then I get paid a split of the ticket sales and if I don't, I just get the guarantee I was going to get anyway. So you know, thanks to jokers for that sweetheart deal. But yeah, I've been, I've been trying to find new ways of promoting. I got some paid posts out there. I know a lot of comics who are just like marketing executives, basically working for themselves, and they know everything and I just can't wrap my brain around it. So I'm really trying to kind of get better at that this year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you did pretty good last year, man.
Speaker 2:I noticed I did a lot better than I had in the past.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean you found it. You found it the algorithm I saw you everywhere.
Speaker 2:Oh, really, that's good to know. I didn't realize that I always, I always get down to myself and you know cause. You see, some comics will have. You know, there's a lot of comics who are kind of in the range I'm at where it's like I think I'm almost a 4,000 on Instagram, but like a lot, of, a lot of comics it's like that are headlining, like it's almost like they want you to have like 30 to 50,000 at least, like 100,000 maybe, depending on the type of followers. It's all like so weird and complicated and I hate that. I have to know all of this instead of just write jokes. But whatever, I like a challenge, I guess.
Speaker 1:So that? And your the opener? Oh yeah, lynette.
Speaker 2:Manning Lynette. Look Lynette up. Actually, let me make sure I say her, my social media is just at. Travis is joking, yep, but Lynette's is. Lynette laughs. So that's L Y N E T T? E laughs. Yeah, follow Lynette. She's kind of a rising star in the Pacific Northwest and I like working with her. It's fun to watch somebody kind of you know putting it together on their own and you know taking their own path with it and stuff. So yeah, come out and support. It's going to be good shows.
Speaker 1:I've said my piece and I'm kind of biased on my comedy. A lot of people know. But what do people expect when seeing your show, man? You've said a bit, but in Richland Jokers, what do people have to expect when seeing you live man, I guess it's going to be.
Speaker 2:You know, I really do this like like smart, dumb style I feel like, where I have to be clever to put these jokes together, but a lot of times they're just like really goofy, silly jokes, and that's the type of stuff I love is, you know, I'm trying to work on writing not necessarily for like stand up, because I think this is my voice and stand up is just to kind of be like a goofy absurdist, like lighthearted type guy. But I've been trying to write more serious stuff and about more serious topics and what I'm realizing is that I, just I, when it comes to comedy, I just really like that like absurd, like pivot, just make sure everything stays silly. We don't need to take any of this too seriously. Let's just all have some fun, let's have some laughs. Like sometimes I will increase the tension just with some topics, but I'm always careful to make sure that I'm I always have like a release valve if things get too. So yeah, just just really fun show. Hopefully I can tickle your funny bone.
Speaker 2:I got a lot of twists and turns.
Speaker 2:You know you have to actively listen. I think to me is like the one thing I would say is like a lot of times I struggle at shows when people are either too drunk or they're just kind of trying to kind of like sit their table and chat like it's a lounge act. It's like no, you got to, kind of, because everything's like interwoven with each other and I always, I always love when people come up and they're like hey, I noticed that like that part actually tied into like this part later on, like yeah, it's the structure of all of it, that that's like what keeps me doing it night in and night out, is it's like you know, I don't go crazy telling you know, it's not that I tell the same jokes, but it's like you have, you have all your jokes and you don't go crazy with them because you're constantly switching it up and finding interesting ways to kind of Put them together and use them to tell different stories and stuff. So that's a long way to answer, but that's me.
Speaker 1:That's great man, and plus, with the hecklers or with the lounge, act as people just want to talk. You're great at putting those people on.
Speaker 2:We had a wild one last time. I have a bunch of friends who come up to my shows, richland, and we had this table and I felt really bad because Oftentimes, you know, there's that whole like destroy the heckler and I you know every once in a while, sure, but for me that they have to be like in bad faith trying to mess up the show Before I'll turn that and I think part of that is just no one wants to see a really big dude be mean.
Speaker 2:You know it's like it's just a little too much and it also like that's not me, so I don't like having to do it, but I, last time my opener had a lot of trouble with this table because this woman was getting up and she was walking around and just seeing it. I, you know, I have a lot of friends who have different Issues with mental illness and so it's like I'm kind of watching, because you don't want to go after somebody who's just Like struggling with something, right, so you want to kind of you know it's be respectful, sure, but if somebody's got something else going on, you kind of have to like watch out for that because you're dealing with a different beast. And I was watching her kind of like manically walk around the room and talk to people and then go back and sit at her table and her table was trying to like calm her down and she was just acting very strange and my opener tried to have it back and forth that they're trying to do the destroy the heckler. And she really owned him. Oh, he's brutal to watch because he I don't know, I think he said something like oh, you're a you're, would you come from?
Speaker 2:Like a circus and she was like shut up, bitch. Okay. Well, she immediately took that like you can't, you can't play around with that person, like she's not allowing any middle ground. So yeah, he's. And then I got on and I just, you know, I just treated her like a child because that's how she was acting, and I talked to the table and it turns out there was this wild backstory where they all worked together and then one of them found out that they had Terminal cancer, like that day or the day before, and they just had told her and the other co-workers at the comedy show before it started.
Speaker 2:So she was kind of having this like breakdown, because she said she was also like off her meds and she had some issues and yeah, and very drunk, and so it was like, well, you know, if I'm trying to be fun and zinger, that's not gonna go anywhere. I just had to kind of like hey, can you kind of To her table? I was like you guys are with her, can you just like? You know, let's be reasonable about this. Yeah, it was really frustrating and I had to keep going back, but we made it through and then, you know, they came and apologized after the fact when I was like, well, what you guys really needed to do is not come to this show.
Speaker 2:If you had like a big thing, like a momentous thing, like that happened. It's pretty heavy. Like I don't. I can see how you thought that comedy Was gonna be, but it just it was not the right time and I think you guys just needed to leave the situation. But yeah, this time I'm trying to kind of just I got an Instagram. I was like personally inviting people who just seemed respectful and cool, and so I'm really trying to cultivate like a good audience Situation there and yeah, we'll see how it turns out.
Speaker 1:I'm feeling good about it. I'm sure since last year worked well with you, traveling and social media. I'm pretty sure your method to this madness of getting people on not Not stalking them, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna work in your favor.
Speaker 2:Also it's funny this year, like what I realized from last year is where I fell apart was I was like I, I can go really hard and I can just like, oh, I'm gonna brute force do all this work, but unless that's, what I'm realizing is like the so between the social media and the creative parts of it and the traveling Like, unless I'm more organized, I'm just gonna wind up. You know if you can work really hard, but I'll wake up the next day exhausted and I won't remember what I did the day before because I didn't write any of it down. So now I've got this insane like Google sheet document with like all these different topics that I work on throughout the day and I'm having to like put it all in and everything and yeah, I'm going like I'm going all a hundred percent like Organization and have it forming this year and we'll see what difference that makes.
Speaker 2:It's gonna work out, man, I got faith. So if it doesn't, there's always next year, right? 2025?
Speaker 1:2024 is this year, man. You're gonna get it. You're gonna get it, you're you already have it, believe it or not? I mean, you move into San Diego. Bigger and better outings for you, man. I See it. I see it, man, but dude jokers next weekend.
Speaker 2:Yes, february 2nd, 3rd.
Speaker 1:Gonna be there. Hopefully you guys are too. You guys have to see this guy. He's the mastermind of cerebral comedy and one of the tallest guys that I've ever seen on the stage. I am very big Travis. Did I miss?
Speaker 2:anything? I don't think so, man. I think we really painted the corners here.
Speaker 1:Good, good man and you know I appreciate you helping me get out of my funk and being a guest again and I caught the you know the thumbs up, the you know people will say, hey, hit up, nick. I appreciate that that shout out dude. So I thank you, wish you the best man. I hope the best for you, not just because you're you're my guest, but, dude, you're an awesome person and an incredible comedian. So keep up the good work. See you Friday or Saturday, I don't know. I think Friday is more like it, because I like to Just unwind right after work week.
Speaker 2:So I got you cool. We're just seeing you man. Yeah, it'll be good to kind of chat in person and see you. Yeah, heck, yeah, until next time. Yeah, man, till next time. Thanks for having me.