SPEAKER_01 0:00

What's going on y'all? Uh Jesus uh Jesus Ladio of Nandes here back with the Corpus Christi Originals podcast. Uh today we got a special one. Darryl Felsberg, uh comedian. Out of Corpus, I I don't know too much about you, Daryl. Uh you're from Corpus originally?

SPEAKER_03 0:14

Yeah, I was born and raised there, man. I uh I'm I'm a uh a Ray Texan and uh I was I was uh born and raised uh right around Collier Park and and uh lived there my whole life till uh I became an adult and then moved out. So but my family's there, my mom's there, and and uh uh sister and her family and all my friends and so I'm back here quite a bit.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

That's cool, bro. Uh yeah, so Collier Park, Collier Park, we usually go there to go uh go swimming, my kids and I.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

Yeah. That's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I live. We live the we lived right there. I didn't mean to cut you off, but talking about corpus I'm in. So like always, so right where Collier Park is, uh I lived on the corner of Mistletoe and Redwood, okay? I mean, literally like right there on the corner. And um, so every Easter, okay, uh, everybody would flock to Collyer Park because uh uh Johnny Canales was doing a show there live, you know, Domingo, what have you. And we used to have to go get groceries or ice or whatever, like on Thursday before Easter, because everybody and their family would come in and they would block our house in for like three or four days. And yeah, it was such a mess. But I have great memories. You talk about the pool. Um God, we spent every day there every summer because uh uh Corpus Christi Parks uh department would give you like this uh season-long pass, it was like two dollars, and your mom would god, this makes me sound old. Holy shit. Um and they would sew it under your bathing suit, bro. So you had this like patch. So you went up to the gate, they were like, okay, this this kid's he's cool, he's one of us, and then we would go and swim like all day long until they would throw us out and uh yeah, for forever, man. Yeah, call your park was it. I learned everything about uh about drugs and music and and and sex and trash and uh in you know uh infidelity and anything else you could think of because of Call Your Park. I mean, I've got stories on stories on stories about shit we would see. Oh, by the way, I don't uh I'm sorry if I'm swearing.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

I don't uh you're you're good, bro. If somebody swears, I'll yeah, if somebody swears I'll just put the E on the bottom there, no problem.

SPEAKER_03 2:37

Okay, we'll we'll back it, we'll back it up a little bit, but yeah. No, uh, a lot of great memories about Call Your Park.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Yeah, do you remember uh who's it, Gus and Goldie or something like that?

SPEAKER_03 2:47

That was the the mascots of the pool. They came running a little longer. You gotta remember, hey, sis, I'm I'm probably a little older than you. Uh okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

I didn't want to bring it up, bro, but uh, it's up to you.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

I'm not I'm not 25 with white in my beard, okay? Uh uh that's just because you're Hispanic, right? You you guys age a little quicker. Uh my shit is uh I'm I'm I'm just over 50, so yeah. So Gus and Goldie were uh part of that, but that was a little after my time was there. I mean, like if you get to Cauer Pool, I'll tell you, I'm I'll tell you the the lady that I when I got my swim lessons when I was like three years old was at Cauyer Pool by a lifeguard named Teresa, okay. About five years ago, before they remodeled the Caurier Pool, I went back to go check it out, you know, and go see who I was there. That lady Teresa was still there, man, giving out swim lessons. And she was like, Yeah, she goes, I've been watching you, and I was like, Oh, is that good or bad, man? But uh, yeah, it's yeah, and I've got tons of Caulier Park stories that are that'll uh that'll blow your mind.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

So that's what's up, bro. So so for the people who don't who don't know you or know of you, uh uh can you introduce yourself a little bit?

SPEAKER_03 4:01

Absolutely. My name is uh Daryl Felsberg, I'm a professional comedian. Um have been uh since 2001-ish, something like that, full time since 2008. Oh wow and uh been doing it a long time and uh a producer, we I produce a lot of shows. We own a comedy club in East Texas. Uh but my main my main source of income is performing.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Wow, that's amazing, man. Uh 2001. So what what so how come you decided like comedy? Were you like in in the comedic scene beforehand? Like what's up with that?

SPEAKER_03 4:36

No, no, dude. When you're when you're growing up around Collier Park, and and and and you're you're a fat little gorito, you know, you've gotta you gotta learn to either fight or make them laugh. And wow, uh I did both, but uh making them laugh was a lot more fun. And so I started doing it in school, and uh I was I moved in I was moving stuff into my office and we were going through like old like uh oh god dang what's it called? Uh report cards and what have you. And there would be comments uh about my conduct, and uh there were several of them where I was a class clown or cut up or whatever in third, fourth, and fifth grade. I always loved comedy. It was something my dad and I shared growing up, man. And uh uh he he introduced me to so much of it that uh you know Sunday Live in the late 70s and early 80s and all the movies and and when my my dad worked on offshore rigs, so he'd be out in the Gulf for you know two weeks at a time, and I would go into the garage and find his eight-tracks and his cassettes and his pot. And uh I was that didn't mess with it, I was just I was a kid, but I would take those eight tracks and plug them in, and I would laugh so hard because I would listen to Richard Pryor or Chichin Chong or uh George Carlin and all these over and over again, and then that just became part of it. And then when I was an adult, I had a sales job that kept me traveling and the whole entire time, just tons of road time. I would just listen to the CDs. This is back when we had you know CDs, and uh, I would listen to comedy CDs over and over again. I thought, how I mean, you can you can't go wrong making people feel good, you know, and after everything else there is to do in life and all these other things, you know, I had a um a rather successful business and we did fairly well. But when I started, I entered comedy late in the game professionally. I didn't start till I was uh probably 28, something like that, 29, you know, and I already had uh uh one, no, I had two kids when I started and uh had been married and had a home. And I I did it very unconventionally, you know, but I prepared for it though, so that when I would when I was ready to go full time, I was ready to go. You know, but it was uh it was a tough haul, you know. But but I learned all that being raised in corpus in in that you know area and in school and my friends and stuff, and that's what we did.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Wow, that's amazing, man. You when you said you were prepared for it, meaning like you felt prepared because you had heard all those records up until that point, and you're kind of like, I can, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 7:19

Yeah, no, I got you. No, what I mean by prepared was I was I was here. You get a lot of comics that get up on stage now, young guys and gals who really are funny and they have something going on. But hey, Seuss, they don't they haven't experienced life yet, so they're up there talking about stuff that they can't really even relate to, and their audiences are not relating to it. The audience is like, this doesn't make sense to us. So once you've kind of those comics usually, once they've kind of been around for five or ten years and they've had some, you know, you're late on mortgage payments, or you know, your your wife's had little miscarriages or whatever, or these events in life that you lose somebody, now you've got something to really talk about. But if you haven't done those things and then you're talking about them, I don't want to hear it. Nobody else does either. They don't believe you. The audience doesn't hear what you say, they feel what you say. And if you can't get behind the material and it's not real, then it's not good. It's like, you know, I'm I've been married for since '98. I'm not good with math, but but a long but you know, a long time. Uh I have two kids that are that are adults. Um, I'm not gonna get up there and talk about dating and uh banging around and that kind of stuff. And I see a lot of older comics too that I'm like going, no, dude, that's it's gross. It's not gross that you're doing it, it's gross that you're lying about it. You know, people don't they don't see that. There's no question about it. Stand-up comedy is an act, okay? But there's a core of truth. And when something happens, you you find this little bit, and I always like to refer to it like a like a like a piece of dough, you know. And when you get that little piece of dough, you start kneading on it, you start pushing it out, you start, you take the truth and you stretch it a little bit, and okay, this is how we can make that funny, and then but it all comes from something, and that's when it's real, that's when it's good. I lost you.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Sorry about that. Yeah, no, that that's yeah, no, that's a lot of useful information, man, for sure. Uh, yeah, that it's an act. That's interesting that you say that it's an act, but at the same time, you're still giving real life stories. Uh so it's like, how do you turn those stories into the act to make someone laugh? You know what I mean? Uh if you like because uh yeah, it seems like you've you've already dove into like maybe the psychology around it and stuff like that. Uh, do you like deal with that type of stuff whenever you're whenever you were starting out or even now?

SPEAKER_03 9:46

Yeah, you know, when I first started, it was about the obvious, which for me was my weight, my size, my height, you know, my build, all the things that everybody recognized when I walked into a room. And I, you know, I after time I said, I don't want to be the quote unquote fat comic. That's not what I wanted to be. I didn't want to have that that marker on me. So then I started realizing, okay, if I start telling these people about some of the things I've been through or some of the things I'm going through, then they can relate. And if I can make them laugh about it, the whole adage of, you know, uh uh agony or or uh tragedy plus time equals comedy, you know, okay, then we can do it. It's kind of like when when are we ready to okay, just in the broad scope of things, when are we ready to start making fun of 9-11? That's something that I always kind of I I kind of just it's not something I want to do, it's not something that I think that was necessarily funny, but when are we when are we ready for that? Are we good with I mean think about it? The Civil War. We have reenactments of the Civil War where we have men and women get on a field and play cosplay and shoot each other and until they die or whatever. Okay, are we ready to do that with World War II? The Korean conflict, the you know, 9-11, you see what I'm saying? It's these things that happen over time. When is it okay to start making fun of that? Well, it's when like somebody has a death in the family, you know, you lose your parents or you lose a sibling or a spouse or whatever. Therapy for a performer is getting to share that and getting that up and out, and then connecting with the audience, and the way we connect with them is through laughter, and and that's where a lot of that comes from. So it's got to come from some sort of truth. You can make it up, you can make up whatever you want to, but it's got to have that core, that's just that little piece of truth to it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Wow, man, that's amazing. Yeah, so when you how did you come to that conclusion? Like, because it seems like when you first start out, you just there's other things you're worried about, like getting on stage, right? And then getting past like having stage presence, and then eventually, like, okay, now I I'm actually funny, you know what I mean? Because I think a lot of us deal with that too, you know what I mean. So how did you how did you come to that conclusion? Is it a conclusion or are you still learning?

SPEAKER_03 12:08

Oh, I think you're always still learning. You know, the old adage of if you stay green, you grow, if you get ripe, you're rot. That's something I've had to learn because you know times have changed in the industry where you know, before COVID, it was pretty easygoing, you know. Um, then COVID happened, and then everything stopped, and then we all tried to get back into sequence, and everything was out of whack, nothing spun the same, and social media became a big part of that. Then we started losing work to people on social media. So you had these people who were influencers or whatever, who had thousands and hundreds of thousands and even millions of followers, were now looking for another stream of revenue, and they started coming to comedy clubs, and then they they didn't have the material to back it up, so they would get one or two comics to kind of open for them who would do 30 minutes each, and then they could still do it, but they would fill the rooms because the the social media followers wanted to see them and be a part of that. And you know, that's kind of that was kind of painful to somebody like me who'd been in it for a while, who didn't have to rely on social media, and now all that's changing, and and that's what I'm having to do. So I used to do a lot of club residencies where you go in on a Thursday or Wednesday and you stay through Sunday at one comedy club, you do five or six shows and wrap it up. Those days are becoming harder to get. So now I'm booking a lot more independent individual one-nighters in these little theaters or these uh wineries and what have you, which we never really had to do before, uh, and then rely on my social media for people to come in. And uh so we've learned a lesson from those people. The good news is that if the comics can learn to do that, the comics have something to back it up because they see it. Yeah, they see it. They see these people who go out and they do their social media, they're an Instagram influencer or whatever, and they do a lot of funny skits, and they parlay well on video because they're easy to edit, they're easy to see, and they're finding they're finding an audience that wouldn't come to a comedy club. You know, I used to always think that when you see like an uh and and corpus has got them too, these Facebook groups where people get in there and you just see the level of stupidity, the responses and how people act. And I I thought for sure, Jesus, that social media was making people stupid. And then I realized that it wasn't making them stupid, it was giving stupid people a voice. They didn't have it before.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Ah, wow.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

They they they had no nobody would listen to them. Now they're all over the place, and they're influencing elections, they're influencing marketing, they're influencing how you live. They're they're it, that's it. So these influencers, if they're they're playing down to this lower denomination, this low-hanging fruit, and um unfortunately that's what's coming out. So comics are learning how to adjust to that and meet it somewhere in the middle, and that's probably the hardest part, and that's something I just really personally realize in the last 24 months.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Okay, so wow, this is this is interesting territory right here. So you're saying, from what I'm understanding, is that okay, does that change how you write? Does that change how you write jokes? You know what I mean? Like, do you have to dumb your jokes down? Like, what what's the what's the uh that that's like aside from the social media aspect of having to have clips and all this other stuff on there, but how does that affect your craft? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 15:44

Oh, on stage it doesn't it doesn't change. It stays the same online it changes because you're look you're you're fishing, you know, you're dropping a you're dropping a trot line, you're trying to gather up all these followers, all these fish. Okay, so you're gonna have to do some fart jokes, you know, you're gonna have to do some stuff that you wouldn't normally do. But those people that invite them into your world. Now they're like, okay, let's check this dude out, and they're like, oh you know, shit, he's funny. Or this guy's hilarious, or this guy's at, you know?

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Okay. So so it's like you're you're getting that's the hook, that's the hook, have those types of jokes to get them in there, and then eventually they become a fan and then they start understanding comedy more.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

Would you say I think so? I think what happens is you online, that's how you get it. Okay, when they're in a live show, they're gonna fall in love if you do it right, okay. Um, but it's it's getting them to that live show because the live show's been taken away by Netflix, by Hulu, by YouTube. You can see anything and everything you want streamed to your television right now, this second. You know, it's like albums, you know. I mean, I had a I had an album that we put out in 2017 that killed that I couldn't put, I think I could put one out, but I don't know if it would do very well. You know, and this was post-COVID.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Yeah, for sure. What's up, Mitchell Finesse uh tapping in from DC. Appreciate you, bro. That's another Corpus Christi native right there. Oh, right, yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, yeah, that's that that's interesting, man. Uh, so it wouldn't, this was post-COVID. You put out that show. If you was to put it out now, it wouldn't work out because everybody's online now.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Well, it was yeah, it was pre-COVID. It was in 2017. Pre-COVID, there you go. Pre-pre-COVID. 2020, yeah. I know it's it's the landscape's changed. What I would probably do um is put out another uh video special, which I did year before. Actually, I shot it three years ago and it didn't come out until last year. Uh, but I would shoot another one and then strip the audio from it because people still do listen to it. They listen through Spotify, they listen through Apple, but it's not the same as video uh clicks. I want more clicks online, video clicks.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

That's what okay, that's kind of what you're working for to keep your comedy career going. That's what we need. It's amazing. To put people in the seats. Yeah, that's that's that that's your money right there. That's that's the money that's coming in for. Man, that's that's amazing, bro. You put out a special, that's not like an easy fee, bro. Like, how did you how did you come about doing that?

SPEAKER_03 18:11

Well, I've shot four of them and didn't put any of them out to this last one because the last one I signed with a company called Open Bar, and we shot at McCurdy's Comedy Theater in Sarasota, Florida, and they're responsible for putting it out. They uh it's their well, I I get I get royalties off of it, you know, if you will, residuals, but it's their they own it right now. They don't own the material, but they own the special. Uh the others I've shot, and I have them, and um there's probably one, I'll bet you there's one on here. Um I've got about three hard drives up there that are full of them because as soon as you shoot them, you hate them. As soon as you're done, you're like, oh, it's trash. And it's not oh, dude, there's one, I have one from probably 2010, maybe 2011, that is really shot well and really good. Uh, it was done at Hyenas uh Comedy Club in Dallas, and it was a three-camera shoot. And as soon as it was done, I loved everything the way it looked, but the material, in my opinion, was already dated. See, the same same thing happened with that one in Florida when I shot it, because it was based on COVID. We were just coming back from COVID, and uh I wrote so much material about living through that with the family, and it was good, but it was already aged. And see, it took them a year to produce it, edit it, and get it out. And so now it's already three years old. It's already old? Dang. In my opinion, it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

So I'm saying yeah, no, I'm saying like you have to worry, you have to think about that when you're writing your jokes. Like the times change really fast. So do you focus on trying to write material that's not uh that can be timeless? You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 20:00

Yeah, evergreen, absolutely. That's the the next one I write will be entirely evergreen and it'll be about me, which the first couple were, but that one wasn't that one that we shot in Florida. So, yes, yeah, I want evergreen material that and it's and if it's by the way, if you write about you and you do jokes about you, then nobody can really steal them. You know what I mean? Yes. I I I've heard that a lot where people are like, oh man, this dude stole my bit. This dude's still well. If it was about you and you wrote it, nobody can steal your voice, nobody can steal your essence, if you will, uh that kind of a thing, except you know, Dan Cook and Steve Byrne, but that's another inside joke there.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

So it seems yeah, and it seems like if they tr they can try to steal it, but at the end of the day, they're not you.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

They're not me. Absolutely right. They're not you. Yeah, if I'm telling you a story about my family and my kids and what my whatever, you can't you can't be it. That's not you, it's me. And it comes from that core truth, and since I experienced it, that's why it works better for me.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

You know, wow, that's amazing, bro. So, like, so how do these new comics I guess they have to do observation type material since they haven't really lived like a lot of experiences? Do you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 21:13

Because we meant Yeah, yeah, you have to listen to them. Hey, Susie, you have to listen to what they're doing, and I'll watch them and I I'll see the way they're writing about their their their lives. They are doing it, they're talking about dating or they're talking about going out, they're talking about things that are relatable to them, and then you watch them grow and develop as they get older, you know, and then it changes. And so, yeah, yeah, you yeah, at first you just kind of it's a tough go at first. You know, I watch comics, I've gotten bitter, and I have to be careful about that. I've I as I got older, you know, I get mad at that certain things, whether it be bookings or whether it be uh performances or whatever, and I'll watch um these these other comics and and what they're what they're doing. And if they've got if they're young. You know, and they're just trying to to to kind of get by. Yeah, I can feel it, but I also forget that I see their joy. You know, I see how happy they are thinking, hey, I I came up with this bit, I developed it, I saw I got it out there, people laughed. The me in the back of the room is going, Man, you didn't write that right. That that didn't land. You could have done so much better with this. You're weak, you know. And then I realized, dude, you did the same thing. So stop, you know, stop getting so bitter about it. Enjoy it. Yeah, enjoy their joy, you know.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

That's hard to do sometimes. Yeah, it's kind of like listening to like a kid that's learning how to play trumpet or something. You're like, ah, you know what I mean? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 22:44

Like a guitar. I play a lot of guitar, and and uh my daughter just uh that's that's a such a valid point. It's just just watching her and just in my head, just losing my patience, going, give it to me, you know. This is me. And you can't do that.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

You can't take it from them, yeah, because they're learning, yeah, yeah. Let them go for sure. Yeah, that's amazing, man. Well, what's the number one question that the that comics ask you in terms of like advice, like asking for your advice?

SPEAKER_03 23:11

When are you gonna leave? When are you done? Yeah, what are you getting out of this room, dude? So we can know. Um, you know what? They asked the wrong thing, and that's okay. I get it. They asked, um, they always the first thing they always want to know is how can I get into this room? Or can you tell me how to get an agent? Or, you know, I'm thinking about getting a manager. And it's like, how about you go writing some jokes? You know, you need um hours and hours and hours of material before you even can get to that point, you know. And I I think I tell them that, and they just some of them just don't they don't listen. And I don't physically write much anymore, but like um this was my first journal. Okay, it's it's it's probably 18 years old, something like that. Here's an here's another one. Um here are you know two, three, four more. Um here's another one. There's like uh three or four more here. Um I've got some smaller ones that are uh you know, there's a pile here of a foot and a half high. And then I got a bunch more, you know, that it's go do that first. You if you want to have if you want to have 45 minutes on stage legit, you really need to have a good two hours legit. You know, and that takes a lot of time, you know. Um my hats off to people that can do it sooner than later, but truth of it is, man, it just doesn't, you know, if you don't put the time into it, it just doesn't come out right. And so people, well, what about what if what if I do crowd work? Yeah, if you're good at it, you know, but let me tell you something. Um there's a lot of misconstrued definitions of crowd work. It's not it's not what it what people think it is, like uh, so what do you do for a living? What do you do for you know that's the that's a uh that's a Nielsen poll. You're you're trying to gather information to find something to work off of, and then you're trying to capture lightning in a bottle. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, unless you're really, really good at it. And then if you if you don't have enough material, then how do you get out of that shitty situation? You know, you can't get out because you don't have enough time. I've seen a lot of guys do that where they want to be a headliner and they're not ready yet, and uh they're they got 20 minutes and then they do 20 minutes of crowd work, but they can't get out of it because it never had any legs, and the show just starts to go like that. And so does their their opportunities. Then people people see that, people hear about it, you know. Very soft, wow, that's stuff.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

That's so crazy, man. And so you're talking like you mean putting in the work, basically, right? You're putting in the chops, say, for instance, learning the guitar, you're learning how to pluck the strings, where to put your fingers, like because I'm a guitarist, that's that's in terms of the way I look at it. Uh, so you're learning the chops, you're learning the scales, chords, all that other stuff. You need to learn that first before you can go and play a solo from Metallica or something like that, right? Uh did you start like that? No, not even. No way. Like, I tried, like, I'll be like, okay, yeah, I'm gonna try this solo, but 16, where the hell is 16 on the guitar? 17, I don't know where the hell that is, you know what I mean? Like having to re-tab and all that stuff. Um, heck no, dude.

SPEAKER_03 26:46

You start doing like chord progressions and you start listening by ear, and it sounds pretty close and it's fun. Okay, that's crowd work. Wow. Where are your scales at? Do you do you know the scales? I mean, if you don't know the scales and you didn't can you can you play, you know, the the harmonics? Can you do you know all these different things? And that's it's the same thing. It doesn't it doesn't change. Uh oh. Is somebody chiming in?

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Nah, yeah, yeah. No, that was my that was my uh they got open mic tonight. That was my schedule. The schedule telling me, hey, you got you got open mic tonight. Yeah, uh, needed to take that, turn it down. Uh, but yeah, man, uh that makes me think of like you're gonna be in the practice room hours at a time by yourself. Yes. By yourself, the you and your instrument, and nobody there to critique you, to look at you because you are practicing. Is that is that what it's like similarly in comedy?

SPEAKER_03 27:42

Yes, and I grew and I started in comedy in a market that didn't have backup. We had a comedy club and an open mic, and this was in Amarlo, Texas. We had a comedy club and an open mic, and then it closed. And then we would kind of force what we could do. Then I moved to East Texas, where my my in-laws were at, and I had no open mic whatsoever. So my open mic, unfortunately, was windshield time between wherever I was at and wherever I was going. So if I was on the road to go to a show in St. Louis, driving there was working material out in my head, writing it down, thinking it through, and going, okay, how would this work? And it worked well for me, you know, and then I would work it out on stage, and because I had the chops to do so, if I worked something out and it failed or it didn't quite get the response, I was able to dig myself out. I was able to get out because I had enough material to do so. But if you don't, then how do you how do you get out of the hole? You know?

SPEAKER_01 28:47

It's yeah, and it's and it seems like at that point, at some point, like for myself, like people can use try to use their charm or whatever to like like fake it, you know what I mean? Fake it out of whatever jokes they thought they had, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 29:01

Fake it till you make it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Yeah, exactly, bro. And that and that can only go so far. It if you don't got the chops, people can see, and people can definitely can hear it, I think.

SPEAKER_03 29:10

Well, it goes back to what I said earlier. People don't hear what you say, they feel what you say. They they know when you're running, you're running scared on stage. It's it's like they say dogs smell fear. You know, people talk about the one of the questions you get from the general, I call them civilians from the general public, is well, what what what about hecklers? Don't have a problem, don't have a problem with hecklers, you know. I had people do that'll step on punchlines or try to become part of the show, and then I just abruptly handle them, and then they go, you know what? This this this mofo, he's in charge. This is his gig. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna lash out at him because he's going to handle me in a manner that I don't want my wife to see, I don't want my boyfriend to see, I don't want my girl, whatever. And then they just kind of quiet down, and then they and then it stops because then they they know I'm not on the run, you know. But you see comics do that when they get on the run, they get scared. But no, and I'll tell you if you've got I mean if you care. Um how I learned how I learned to do that was I got a ah, it was outside of Longview, Texas, somewhere. This lady, this is during MySpace days. This lady sends me a message. She's like, hey, do you want to come and perform at my bar? And I was like, Well, okay, you know, what what are the terms? You know, and it was like $500. This is 16, 17 years ago. I was like, okay, $500 one night. Yeah, let's go do this. So I get there, and they don't have it's it's in a bar. And I walk in and there's TVs playing, and there's people at the bar, and uh, I meet the lady, she's the owner, she's a real nice lady, and she says, uh, well, okay, um that that's where you're you're you're talking from. And like in the middle of the room, there was just like a space, and uh there was no microphone, nothing. And I said, So I'm just gonna stand right there. And she's like, Yeah. And I said, Okay, who's the opening act? She goes, Well, I nobody, you. I was like, Okay, what about these TVs? Can you turn them off? You know, and she said, Well, the game's play and we'll turn the sound out. And I said, Okay, you know what? I said, I'm probably not gonna get paid if this turns to shit. So just expect that just in case. And if that's the case, you're okay, you can move on. But let's see what you can do. So, with no introduction, no nothing, I get up in the middle of the room, I do one opening bit to get their attention, and then after that, I started working the room just a little bit to get them to turn around. And then afterwards, when I got done, I did right about 45 minutes to an hour. I got paid, hung out with them for a little bit, and then realized I walked into a room where people they didn't even know comedy was happening. I assaulted them with comedy. And when I when I got the confidence out of that and said, shit, I can go anywhere and do a show with anybody, anytime, any place. I'm not, I don't get nervous when I get on stage. I I don't get that. People say you still don't get the butterflies. No, and I'm not bragging about it. It's just like I'm gonna do it anyway. You know, it's not that big a deal. I've been in worse situations. You know, the only time I ever really got nervous that I ever really um, and it wasn't even nerves, it was just excitement, was um there was a a brew ha ha brew fest slash wingfest in corpus at the um the civic center, which used to be the Selena Auditorium, and then they had the the rest of the civic center, they had all these booths set up, and they were doing a comedy show, and um they'd hired me as the headliner to perform in the Selena Auditorium. I thought, okay, all my friends and family were gonna come out. The place seats 2,500 people, 3,000 people. This is gonna be a pretty big deal. And um I show up and Juan Villarreal is there, uh, who's a comic out of Houston, and Juan's been in the game for 40 years, 30 years. He's been on you know BET three or four times, he's done this, he's done that, and he is in the opening spot. And so I'm like, whoa, if this is I was like, bro, you don't if you want to flip-flop, we can. He's like, no, no, no, man. He goes, This is yours, it's all you, you got it. And I was not nervous because of going out on that stage, but just I had this enthusiasm, these butterflies. It would to come home, you know, and and walk out on that stage, the biggest stage in town, made me feel like a hero for an afternoon. And Juan made me feel that way by saying, Hey, no, this is not a mistake. You're you're the headliner, you know. That's the only time I ever really feel kind of nervous, you know.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

So like imposter syndrome, like uh like you're just uh not really just that's interesting, man. Just fear seems like okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 33:55

Fear because it's it's my it's not bad fear, not like a oh, I'm scared I'm gonna mess up or I'm scared they're not gonna like me. It's just like this is this this is a full circle thing. You know, my career didn't I didn't explode. I've you know done some minor things on TV and I've worked some big thingies and get to you know mingle with some big comics on some big projects, but coming home to the biggest stage in town almost signals the end.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

Okay, wow.

SPEAKER_03 34:22

Yeah, it's almost like, okay, it this is you know, does it get any bigger than this for you? And if it doesn't, this is it. So go enjoy it, you know? And it was hard. It was hard to do that. And uh, but it was so it was so good because it was I had my wife and my kids there, they'd come with me and they manned you know my merchandise stand, and uh my my mother was in the audience, and my brother and aunts and friends from school and what have you. That was a good that was a good thing. Yeah, that's the only time I ever really felt any like anticipation, butterflies, etc. That kind of thing. That's really bad.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

Man, that's awesome, man. So did you started, did you start in Corpus comedy? Comedy in corpus?

SPEAKER_03 35:00

No, I started in Amarillo, Texas. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Okay. Oh wow. So you had moved out and then started it out to out of town.

SPEAKER_03 35:07

Yeah, I well, I moved out of Corpus when I was 17, 18 years old. And I went to work, and then uh work took me to Lubbock, and then Lubbock took me to Amarillo. And when I got to Amarillo, uh I put roots down, you know, married my wife, a couple of kids, and then not as a uh midlife crisis or anything like that. I was I guess I was 28 or 29 when I started standing up, but I was like, let's go. I'm gonna uh this is something I want to do. Everybody's told me to do it. Um go give it a shot. You know, I love the game. So I went I went to uh the comedy club we had, there was the Emerald Comedy Club, and they had uh it was owned by Kelly. I can't remember Kelly's last name off the top of my head. Such a great guy, too. Uh, but they had such a a warm and inviting group of comics there. Kristen Key was is probably the most successful one to come out of that club. If you ever get a chance, look up Kristen Key. She's a she's a killer. So I went to the open mic every week for about six weeks and never went on stage. I just sat in the back of the room with my journal and I just wrote. I wrote jokes, I wrote what not to do, I wrote what to do, I watched people go up and come down and said, okay, that person's a professional, that person's not, not based on what they did on stage, but how they handled themselves on stage. Because they were going up to test material, they're gonna fail. So I'm gonna see who's doing what. And then I started to realize, okay, you you can do this. So about six or seven weeks in, the the local, the local weatherman, uh Tony Durda was his name, uh, had gone up and had like five or six friends there, and he was he was hacked. I mean, it was just low-hanging fruit, you know, it was just dumb fart jokes. And he did it and he killed with his little group of friends. And while he was up there, he had I think we had seven minutes, it was a lot because it was a short night. I went to the guy who was running, I was like, Hey, I want to go ahead and go up. He goes, Okay, well, you're you're right after him. It's okay. And I went up and I did my five minutes. And when I came down, uh, that guy, his name was Aaron Baker. Aaron pulled me aside and said, Uh, where where are you from? I said, I'm from Amarillo. He said, Um, how long you've been doing stand-up? I said, This is it, this is the first time ever. He goes, No, seriously, dude, how long have you been doing this? I was like, No, this is it. He goes, Okay, let me uh he goes, let's uh hang out afterwards if you don't mind. I was like, Okay. And so we started talking. He kind of took me under his wing. And to be honest, we were like like polar opposites because like at that point in time in my life, I was a you know, pretty staunch conservative, and uh he was uh an extremely uh uh well he was he's an excessive liberal, he went the other way, and um we had we had very little in common, and we became like like best friends through comedy. And we when I was at the point where I could open up, he would take me on the road. In fact, my first paying gig, the first gig that I ever got on the road where I actually got money from, was at the Crazy Times Comedy Club and the Sunrise Mall that used to be the Chelsea Street pub. Um, in fact, I think I still have my very the flyer from it somewhere. I'll have to look around. Heather uh put it up somewhere. Um, anyway, the headliner was Tommy Drake, and Aaron Baker was the feature, and I was the MC. And I remember driving from Amarillo, Texas to Corpus Christi, Texas to do three shows in two nights, and I got paid $50 and uh thought it was the greatest thing in the world.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 38:45

And that's how it all started, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

That's a man, that's an amazing story, dude. I like that you I like that you sat in the back for however long. Six weeks. Observing six weeks for observing what to do, what not to do, how to work on this. So it seems like you were pretty prepared for that first initial was the open mic.

SPEAKER_03 39:06

Yeah, that was an open mic. You remember at the beginning of this when we talked, uh, I told you that I was better prepared than a lot of other comics. That was part of it. The other part of it was getting my life in order. Just going, okay, this is not gonna make money, so I better get myself in a position where my family is not going to suffer too much. Because that's a big jump to go from a career in you know, with a shirt and a tie, and then into you know, stand-up comedy where you know there's no rules. And that's what you have to remember about stand-up comedy, is that yeah, there's rules to perform or rule, whatever, but there's no rules on how to make it. There's no rules on how to do it, and that's what's that's what makes it hard. That's why, you know, we're looking at these influencers, these people. I'll give you a good example. Um, there's a guy, his name is Sean Fogelson. His his stage name is that one male man, and he is a huge uh influencer on TikTok and and Instagram and what have you. And I have a little comedy club in Paris, Texas. It seats 100 people, it's only open one week in a month, uh, every month. Um, and that's about it because that's all the market can endure. It's a town of 25,000 people. And uh Sean's agent had reached out to me and was like, Do you are you have any interest in having him? I was like, I don't know anything of him, but let's see what what kind of response we get. We did we did five shows with him. We seed 100 people, we sold every show out at $35 a seat. Uh that was 500 people over three nights, and uh it was it was phenomenal to to watch it unfold. And that uh to see these guys and gals that uh again have that social media, if they don't have that comedy to back it up, that material, then you know, they're they're at a they're at a loss eventually. And I've learned a great deal from watching them. And uh I'm in that I'm in that observation role again. You know, I'm watching what they're doing quietly. I took it I took an opening gig for Shellybelly at the mic drop in Plano, Texas. Shelly Belly, she had a that room seat's 350 people. She sold it out two shows that night, and uh I I was her opening act. I got this is this isn't like a year ago. I only got I only got paid a hundred bucks for the opening act. That's it. Okay, that but I took that on purpose because I wanted to observe, I wanted to watch, I wanted to see what are these people doing that are are gaining this kind of ground, you know? Yeah, there's there's there's a different way to approach this business, and most comics don't ever see it, and I'm not there yet either, but I I I put the I put that time in to learn, you know.

SPEAKER_01 41:53

So that's interesting. Yeah, so is it is it is comedy like a thing where like either you have it or you don't?

SPEAKER_03 42:00

Or can somebody scale their way up to their oh I think it's no, I you have to have funny in the core and the bones. There's gotta be just a little bit, and then it has to be mind out, you know. And one thing we have to remember, this goes back to the idea there's no rules, and that's kind of where I was going with that one male man and Shelley Belly. They got to the end, um, the end result a different way than the rest of us did, and that's okay. There's no rules, okay. So on that same token, you know. I think it's um what was the original question? Hang on, because I size I was thinking of two different things just now.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

No, it's all good. Uh, real quick on TikTok. Hey Jay Bustos, thanks a lot on TikTok. Appreciate you. I forgot we were live here, man. It's a good conversation. Everybody else on Facebook and YouTube, appreciate you guys. Uh no, the question was is it one of those things where you have to is comedy one of those things where you have to have it, or can you skill your way uh right into it?

SPEAKER_03 42:55

Okay, so you have to have a little bit of funny in the bones, then the rest of it's got to come out. Now, what we have to remember is that comedy is subjective.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

What's funny to Jesus? What is that? What does that mean? I I hear I hold on, let me stop you real quick. I hear that a lot. Comedy is subjective. What does that mean?

SPEAKER_03 43:12

Okay, tell me, give me your top three favorite comics right now.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

Uh I like Lavelle Crawford. Uh-huh. Uh Dave, Dave Chappelle. Okay, I guess a comedian that's a podcaster, Theo Vaughn.

SPEAKER_03 43:26

Okay. Alright. So uh okay, that's that's pretty varied. Dave Chappelle, Lavelle Crawford have a similar style, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

I like Lavelle Crawford because yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:37

Yeah, okay, so they have a similar style. Uh Theo's a Theo's a little well, no, Theo's got a similar style, too.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

I threw Theo in there because I couldn't think of another comic, and I and I haven't really heard any of his specials like all the way through, and I feel bad for saying that. But I say that because I listened to his podcast. Let me try to think of another comedian.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

Uh well, I think you're okay with that. Those those two comics. Because Theo is he's kind of got that a little bit of a streak to him, you know, and and Lavelle Crawford definitely does. Lavelle Crawford's got a lot of energy to him, and Dave Chappelle's got they can get loud, you know. Okay, so those are your three favorites. Here here are here are my three favorites: Jimmy Pardo, Rory Scovel, and I'd have to say Adam Ray is the third one. Okay, so my three comics that I think are terrific, and the three comics you think are terrific are on polar opposites.

SPEAKER_00 44:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 44:36

That means you're you have a you have a different theory of what comedy is than I do. And that's not good or bad. It's subjective, it's art. It's like what movie do you like? Well, I like you know Star Trek. Well, I like Star Wars or whatever, you know? It's uh it's what you like, and so when it becomes subjective, it's it's based on the the uh whoever's receiving the art, if you will, the viewer, what what they like. So there we go.

SPEAKER_01 45:05

Okay, so like in so like I guess in mu if we're thinking music-wise, it's like genre.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

Yes, like absolutely, absolutely. So give you give me your top three bands that you like right now.

SPEAKER_01 45:18

Uh uh Black Dolly Murder. Uh uh shoot, I can't think of any right now. Black Dolly Murder, uh Pantera, Deft Tones. I like the heavy stuff.

SPEAKER_03 45:28

Oh, okay. I'll get I'll I'll have a good uh Pantera story for you uh later. Nice. Um okay. Uh I like Jesse Wells. Um I like what he's doing right now. And uh Lito Cortez. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:43

Yeah, that's a buddy of mine. Hey, what's up, Lito? Also, Keon can Canyon Stone. Thanks a lot, you guys, for joining. Also, uh Jay Busto says Ralphie Ralphie May is the GOAT.

SPEAKER_03 45:54

Okay, yeah, if you're if you're yeah, and then people would okay, that's a good point. People would assume that I would love Ralphie May because I'm a big comic too. You know? Yes, okay. But but he's closer to Laville, he's he's like Laville Crawford, but why? He really is. If you listen to him, and and by the way, Ralphie was brilliant. Ralphie was brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 46:15

Oh man, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 46:16

Um unbelievably just watching the way that unfolds and the way he his clinic, he has a video um where he does a clinic on working with comics that is just unbelievable. It's hard.

SPEAKER_01 46:27

I think I know which one you're talking about. I think I know which one you're talking about, and I I watched that one. Uh, an interesting part that he talked about in there was no facial hair. Do you remember that part?

SPEAKER_03 46:37

Yes, yeah. I do remember him telling that because it hides your face, it hides your expressions. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 46:42

Yeah, and he's like, if you look at if you look at politicians or news people, whatever, they're they're clean shaven or whatever, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 46:48

That's right. And and you know what? Is he wrong? Wrong? Uh no, I don't I don't know. I mean told 20 years ago, do not not wear shorts on stage. Wow. Wear shorts on stage. We heard that till about five years ago. Well, probably about seven years ago. Why? Well, because Gabriel Iglesias, he never could wear pants. All right, Sam Tal doesn't wear pants half the time. A lot of these guys don't, but that's where comedy rules is say you don't wear shorts on stage. Now, why do you think they say don't wear shorts on stage?

SPEAKER_01 47:21

I don't know. They see your legs.

SPEAKER_03 47:23

That's right. It gives it's a distraction. Then they look at your legs, and not everybody's legs are perfect, you know. That's why if you ever like um George Carlin always wore black, and he wore black from from toe to to to wrist, nearly. He once in a while he had a short-sleeved shirt on, but it was always black. And I'll tell you one thing uh I used to wear a lot of logo type of stuff on stage when I first started. And I had a t-shirt for the DeLorean Motor Company. Uh I had a DeLorean, and so I was into it, and so I had that shirt. And people would get distracted by it. And every once in a while you'd have a dumb drunk that would go, that's that's a I like DeLoreans or whatever. And it's like, well, that's fine. That's not what I want to wear on the shirt. So I realized I was like, you know what? I gotta remove those distractions. And then until I got better, as I got older in comedy, it wasn't such a big deal because I don't wear them all the time.

unknown 48:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 48:19

Top five uh that went away.

SPEAKER_01 48:21

Oh, sorry, sorry about that.

SPEAKER_03 48:25

Yeah, Canyon Stones, yeah, Canyon Stones says, yeah, five.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

His top five are Rafi May, Bernie Mack, Tom Segura, Eddie Griffin, and uh Joe Joe Coy.

SPEAKER_03 48:36

Okay, and you know what? Joe Coy, Eddie Griffin, Bernie Mack, and Ralphie Mae are very, very similar in style. Very, very similar in style. They've got a bit of a little bit of a street edge, and they got a bit of a punch, you know. Tom Segura is a is more laid back, you know. He's kind of kind of he's he's very kind of melodic. He tells his bits. That's interesting. Uh, but yeah, Tom is terrific. Listen to Tom tell the story about going to New Orleans and dealing with the cable uh Lafayette and my buddy's club, and uh it's such a great, such a great bit and story. So anyway, sidestep sidetrack there.

SPEAKER_01 49:13

Yeah, yeah, no, yeah. So you were saying comedy is subjective, and then we got into the rabbit hole, like who's your favorite comedians? I forgot where we were where we were at.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

Uh we were we were comparing the music, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:27

Okay, and then uh if the comedian, if the if the person has to have be funny naturally, or can they skill their way into being a comedian?

SPEAKER_03 49:37

That's those, and by the way, that that can happen, but there has to be a little bit of funny in the bone. You have to be funny, you know. It might be different, it might be subjective how it gets out, but you have to have enough. Then you skill your way out of it.

SPEAKER_01 49:53

Oh wow, and so okay, so how do you know you're funny? Like people tell you you're funny, like uh with you always crack jokes, and or you're trying to be the class clown, you know what I mean? Because it seems like I think right, right, right. And I'm thinking in terms of like maybe comedians that have had trauma in the past and they somehow make it funny, and it's like, how can you that has so much pain from the past be funny with all this? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 50:23

There's again, they have to have that little core of funny too. Bad things how many people just deal with it differently, you know. It's you know, I I had a uh a heart attack and like a TIA stroke about a year and a half ago, two years ago. No, it's right about two years, and it was uh it was terrifying. I mean that's bad, and um it didn't take for the you know two days after treatment and realizing that life was gonna go on that I already started putting this story together. I already had this great 10-minute bit telling, explaining what happened because when I first went back out six months later on on the road again, you'd have to have like a care to me. I would have to uh oh wow, somebody would have to carry stuff for me because I can lift anything. I had a walker, and so I would go up on stage with either a walker or a cane, and then I say, Let's talk about it. Because then I would sit down. I had to sit down, I couldn't sit, and so I would do that, and then I started telling the story about what happened, and just started poking that fun out of it, just grabbing those those little pieces, and then I had that that ball of dough like we talked about earlier, and just kept make Dory bigger and better. Made a shit ton of money off that situation, so I had to pay.

SPEAKER_01 51:44

Holy smokes, that's awesome. Yeah, definitely, man. That's awesome. So so uh you're based uh where are you based at now? Uh somewhere in Texas?

SPEAKER_03 51:53

Paris, Texas in Paris.

SPEAKER_01 51:55

Okay, yeah, yeah. Was that uh before Dallas? Not really.

SPEAKER_03 51:58

Uh at uh north northeast to Dallas. Uh my home 20 metal club of water.

SPEAKER_00 52:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 52:07

Near the butter.

SPEAKER_03 52:08

What's that? Red River?

SPEAKER_00 52:09

What's up there?

SPEAKER_03 52:10

Uh yeah, it's it's another it's another down south. There's no water on this one, uh, or fence if you kind of wish local. But they have leak they have legal legal weed. So we we want to keep that door open so we can cross the river and uh go and score some stuff.

SPEAKER_01 52:33

So that's what's up, man. Hey uh I wanted to go into what like you were into. Man, do you think people okay, you're talking about weed, right? And and it's like some people go on stage under the influence. Um do you does that affect your like your act? I mean, do you think people should get in for it's like what's your take on that, I guess, as as a comedian, maybe being under the influence while doing comedy?

SPEAKER_03 53:02

There's there's no rules. Good enough if you at home at at 10 o'clock at night, and I have two dummies by 11:30, I'm a different Daryl. And if you're a different Daryl on stage, um, you know, then then so be it. But most people control the same. Alcohol. I used to drink. Look at that when comics first, we get very little money, and we're often paid in free drinks. You know, every comic gets two drinks. So we teach them how to get drunk. And so I think that was part of the problem. But I would go out and work and do these these open nights or these open minds like and get three, four, five, six drinks at me, and come home. And my wife says, Is that all you do is go just drink six? Yeah, I guess so. And then I used to have to go on some beer thought, and then uh and then I then I stopped. I d I don't I don't drink hardly anymore. I thought I do it's very socially, and then I want to. Uh, but I don't do it to get on stage. I don't have to. I thought I used to have one, but I haven't taken a drink on stage and not even a bottle of water in probably 12, 15 years. Just don't have to watch become chair buff, and then you have to. I've seen comics. I've also seen comics just get ripped, like, and then ruin the show. You know, they don't think they are, and but you can tell, like they're not on their game. You're only up there for 45 minutes if you're ahead. Get smashed after. You're good, you're going to, so just get that hour out of the way.

SPEAKER_01 54:51

Wow, bro.

SPEAKER_03 54:52

Man, some of those openers that do go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 54:56

Nah, I was just gonna say it's been an amazing conversation. I was gonna say just say it's been an amazing conversation. Uh yeah, it seems like you got a lot of wisdom in this stuff. Yeah, it seems like you got a lot of wisdom and you want and you you want to share what you have with other comics because you care about the scene, you care about comedy altogether. It seems like you have to have like an obsession with it to be to want to do this like full time, you know what I mean? Uh and to be able to change from I guess what you were doing in the past, like like before you were doing comedy, to this. Is it's uh you have to have a certain level of discipline, I guess you can say, to to get to the point of where you're at, you know what I mean? And it makes me want to yeah, yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 55:41

No, I was gonna say, well, do you do you uh I'm checking your hands. Are you married? Do you have a wife and kids? Oh, somebody's married. Okay, so the kids are coming in. Tell her to take a hike or tell her tell her daddy's friends are talking to you. Um yeah, dig it out, go play with some arch squishies or whatever. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 56:00

All right, she brought me some she brought me some snacks. She brought me some snacks, bro. Star Bur. Oh, hold on. We're not sponsored, guys. We're not sponsored.

SPEAKER_03 56:10

Damn. Damn, somebody's somebody's gonna get diabetes. All right. Hey. Oh, I know, I know, gotta keep it, you gotta keep it on download. So, you know, when you when you have responsibility, you know, and so I don't think I necessarily want to share so much with comics, maybe, but more importantly, I think I've kind of gotten to that point where it's like these are obvious things to me that you learn, but I'll tell I'll be really honest with you too. I hear it.

SPEAKER_02 56:44

They just okay.

SPEAKER_03 56:47

I didn't either. I still don't know. You know, um, it's hard, it's hard to swallow that. You know, you're you're told, yeah, this is something there, there's no rules until somebody tells you how to do something. The reason why comics become comics is because we're we're we're used to being the Lone Ranger. You know, I'm not afraid of being on stage by myself. I like it. I don't need a band, I don't need three other people with me. I don't need a group of people, a group of people in front of me to to be against but the entire time to me. And it's the same thing you leave. Um so I think that I'm I don't I don't have that's a big thing amongst comics is you know hang after a show or whatever. I'm not I want to go back to the hotel and sleep, or I'm gonna get something to eat or do whatever. So I tend to to kind of hang out with other like comics that are like that, you know, that that want that want to do that. And uh I'm changing that too because that's that's a habit habit that it's it's out of some networking that I'm missing on some of these opportunities that some of these newer comics have put together because I don't hang out with them, I don't go to open mics, and um I don't go drinking afterwards. So I'm I'm learning how to slice them a little bit better, kind of like I did when I was younger. But my number one responsibility was that I got so my merch stand was set up, my related, I did I always did very well with my merchandise and making a bunch of money off of it, and I had to because I had a a house payment, I had car payments, I had a wife kids, I had one kid through college, I got another one in college that we were able to pay for with stupid comedy money. So I had a little different attitude, but now my kids are and I don't have as many responsibilities back to almost being like I'm 21 again, you know and uh become more fun.

SPEAKER_01 58:45

So that's so cool, man. Wow, that's amazing. Uh yeah, is there anything you want to share, uh Daryl, specifically or uh you things I want to plug?

SPEAKER_03 58:56

Uh of course you can find me on all my social medias at Berg on Facebook, Instagram, and uh TikTok I think is five live because some from China hijacked my TikTok and locked me out and was selling like uh vitamins and dildos or something, and um they were I guess they did well with it. So I had to start a whole new one about uh two months ago. Uh but yeah, you find me on the social medias, my special uh so that stuff one of them started doing um was called Cracker Daryl when Cracker Barrel itself started going through that transformation where they were like taking all the stuff walls and what have you. White people were losing their mind. And so um I came up, I came up with this. They were gonna take down like all those antique stuff. So I started like photoshopping um my face under these antique photographs, and then put in these little five by seven frames. And as I traveled around the country, I would go in uh with I have the I would put one in and then uh go inside, and then when nobody's looking, I would stick it up on the wall, and I'll send you some videos and some wings. And uh that's I've got about 60 of them or so right now around the country and put them together. So uh we have merchandise for it, and these graphs are great. The man and woman, it's my face on both of them, and then we want to watch to see when people see them to react to them. So that's a fun breakfast fun. That's and then here's it, here's a this is a corpus Christy originals uh uh exclusive this yet. There is a Facebook page um called Caroline Shopping Center, and I'll send you the link to it. Caroline Shopping Center is a pseudo uh fictitious shopping center with these fake bits, and it's so obtrusive. And I'm not gonna tell you who I want to hide behind it. But uh go on Facebook and look for the Caroline Shopping Center because that shit is absolutely bonkers, and uh so fun AI and it's all just crazy stuff. And we we somebody who put that together uh took the elementary school that they went to that's no longer there, and that's what they named the shopping center. Um it was originally gonna be the Hamlin shopping center. Uh yeah, but uh we realized that uh people would I mean other people would realize that they figured it out, so uh we went with or they went with Yeah, dude, that's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:46

That's so funny, dude.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:47

And also the the uh crocodile stuff, I'll send them the pictures too, because we did them in series. Like the first five or six were pretty they were like family photos. I would find these actual like the earths, just Photoshop my face and all of them, and then put them up on their walls, and then I started doing like series, like I started doing during the holidays. I did like Christmas ones and started putting those up, and then now the next series are pets, they're they're pets from the late 1800s and early 1900s, and so it's just a bunch of pictures like me with dogs and chicken. And uh we'll start putting those up for the next month or so, and then we'll do another series, and it's just it's a dumb hobby that I started doing, and people love it, unfortunately, and they love the videos, and they send me messages, and they're hijacking them now. Hey, Sears. People are going into cracker barrels, taking them off the wall, and then taking the cracker barrels and sticking them up on the wall. And uh it's like dude, don't do this. And I got caught. Uh I've had yeah, I have three of them. They call them the the hanky bucket of the honky bucket. Come on, can you you're better than that? The honky bucket. No, I'm just kidding. That sounds funny. I like honky buckets, so yeah, it's it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:02

So the crack the crack and bear call you what they what did they tell you? That's so funny.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:06

Um there's an eat around the management group in Texas. They're like, hey, keep an eye out for this guy. He's putting them up. We don't know what he looks like, but they're really guys enjoying. They're really cool about what I've been told. Wow. So I got caught in Texas Hannah. I put one up on the wall, and sometimes I'll leave a card, uh comedy card on table, and then I I left. And when I was at the park line in my truck, this money out and I unrolled, yeah. You're like what other like three other waitresses in the manager and they go, is it him? And they go, Yeah, and I go, and they're like, Oh my god, these are so funny. We've been uh told to keep an eye out for him, and we were waiting to see when you were gonna come and do our our restaurant. I was like, Yeah, it's up there. She goes, Yeah, we saw that's so good. And she said, uh, yeah, there's an email going around management in Louisiana and Arkansas to keep an eye out for you. And uh, not a bad thing, it's a good thing. So uh maybe something will come of it. But in the meantime, I can tell you the menu fourth up and down at the cracker. Holy shit. Oh my god, it's it's it's it's nuts.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:20

Wow, that sounds amazing, dude. That's how that's that's Corpus Christi original for you, baby.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:28

Thanks so much for having me. And I'm happy to come back anytime you'll have me.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:34

Cool, yeah, yeah. Man, man, maybe next time in the studio you can come by if you're down here. Yeah, if you're down here, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:39

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I I do Mesquite Street quite a bit, and I come home to see my mom. I'll uh I'll give you a shout. This is uh is this a garage uh uh or is this the other bedroom? Yeah, it is my living room.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:58

It's it's portion, it's it's a portion of my living room.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:02

See it decoration on the wall. I saw your kids running by uh one of the just don't look that way. Yeah, not going to, so you just drink for a water burger cook.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:13

Yeah, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's a it's a yeah, I got water burger here.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:20

Okay, there we go.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:22

Yeah, no, it's uh I ran out of studio downtown uh uh produce sound studios. It's a really nice studio, bro. You'll love it. Okay uh unless yeah, because uh at least people can can see you a little bit better because here the the the internet messes with our with our faces, so yeah, but other than that, man, it's really really converse good conversation, and people that really want to hear about comedy, I think they would muddle through the image of us and to listen to the audio because I think the audio is good. Uh definitely. Sure, we're good, glad to hear. But yeah, we'll have you back. Daryl, well, thanks a lot, Daryl. If nothing else, man, uh uh thanks for coming on the show. That you plugged yourself already where people can find you, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:00

DarylFellsberg.com that's Roma Showdate. I'll be in South. I think I'm doing Laredo sometime in July. Uh something close. I was just at Mesquite Street last September. So it's usually about every year and a half I go back to Mesquite Street and do a weekend there. So yeah, we'll be back. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:18

Yes, sir. All right. Well, thanks a lot, you guys, for watching the show. Thanks, Christy Originals, everybody, everybody that joined the chat on uh TikTok, Facebook, and it's and uh YouTube, Lito Cortez, Canyon Stone, uh Jay Bustos. Thanks a lot, you guys. We'll see y'all in the next uh episode. Catch you later.