#344 Dusty Slay - Moon Landing Conspiracies, Flat Earth, Aliens and the Nephilim

The Shawn Ryan Show

In this episode, comedian Dusty Slay joins Shawn Ryan to discuss his journey from a trailer park in Alabama to national stardom. The convers

Key takeaways

• Dusty Slay transitioned to cleaner comedy after a realization that he wanted his humor to align with his faith and not offend church-goers.
• Slay has maintained sobriety from alcohol since January 2012, moving away from a history of blackout drinking.

Main topics

• Comedy career evolution
• Sobriety and recovery

Notable quotes

I want people to feel good that come to my show... I want them to leave the．show not feeling worse about themselves.

Conclusion

A deeply personal look at how personal values and family stability und

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:04) Dusty Slay, welcome to the show, man. Thank you. I'm pumped to be here. Honored to be here. Pumped to have you. Pumped to have you. I was watching a bunch of your stuff over the weekend and Speaker 1 (0:15) got some awesome laughs out of it. Yeah, thank you. Speaker 2 (0:19) So, yeah, I want to have you here. We've been watching you for a while, actually. And then, so I was stoked when I saw your name pop up on the list. Well, Speaker 1 (0:27) yeah. I mean, I was, when this came to me, I was like, oh, amazing. Good. I mean, I you know, I just don't think about doing a podcast like this and this is great right Speaker 2 (0:39) on Yeah, right on. Well, it's definitely a nice change up for me. We've only had one other comedian on Yeah, my friend John Crist. Oh, yeah, you guys are buddies. Yeah, I love that dude Yeah, John's Speaker 1 (0:50) John's the best. I haven't talked to him in a little bit. How's he doing? He's doing great He's getting married and he's he's getting married. He's getting married and he's uh, you know, he's comedy's great and Speaker 2 (1:00) That's awesome. Speaker 1 (1:01) Every time I see him, he looks happy. Speaker 2 (1:03) I'm happy to hear that, man. Well, let me give you an introduction here. Dusty Slate, you're a stand-up comedian known for your southern, working-class style of observational humor and are currently on the Neighborhood Guide Tour making stops in theaters all across the country. You grew up in a trailer park in Opelika, Alabama. and spent years working regular jobs before building a career in stand-up that has taken you to The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Comedy Central, and Netflix, where you released Workin' Man in 2024 and Wet Heat in 2025. You made your grand old Opry debut in 2019 and have since become a regular performer on the Opry stage. You're also the author of We're Having a Good Time and other stories, sharing stories from your life and career in comedy. And we're just here having a good time. Speaker 1 (1:57) That's right. We're having a good time. Right on, man. I mean, that's what it's all about. Speaker 2 (2:02) So I got a couple of things to knock out here real quick. Everybody starts off getting a gift. Oh, all Speaker 1 (2:10) right. Speaker 2 (2:11) Vigilance League gummy bears. All right. Made in the USA. Speaker 1 (2:16) I love that. Thank you. Speaker 2 (2:17) No cannabis. All right. Just candy. Well, Speaker 1 (2:19) I was going to say, that's what I like. I go, you know, my kids will love these. And I go, well, let's make sure. Yeah, thank you. Speaker 2 (2:25) And then I got a Patreon account, which is a subscription account that we've turned into one hell of a community. And back when I started this in the attic, they were the only ones supporting me. So they're the reason I get to sit down with you here today. And so they get the opportunity to ask every single guest a question. So this is from Stephen Casey. What principles guide your comedy in a way that aligns with your faith while avoiding the temptation to rely on shock value, vulgarity, or sexual humor just to get a reaction? Speaker 1 (2:59) You know, when I was doing comedy early on, I would do some dirtier jokes. And this friend of mine, who I don't think would say he's a Christian, I was talking to him and we were talking about jokes that I was going to do that night. And I go, well, I don't want to do this joke. I don't want to do this joke because I have some people from my church coming to the show. And he said to me, he goes, it's interesting that you care about what people from the church think, but you don't care about what God thinks. And I go, whoa. And I don't know if he was just being funny with me, and I think he was, but I was like, wow, that really hits in a way where I'm like, yeah, I mean, if I'm so worried about what they think about me, then why would I not just clean it up altogether? Not that all of my jokes, you know, I talk about, you know, all sorts of things, weed and drinking stories and this and that. And I don't know that it all honors God, but I try my best to be funny without being crude. When did that happen? That was probably 2009 or 10, something like that. Oh, wow. It happened a while ago. Yeah. And I would say, you know, I don't think that moment did I go, all right, everything's clean now. Speaker 2 (4:22) And it took some Speaker 1 (4:23) time, Speaker 2 (4:23) but. It stands out to you. That's cool. Sounds like a significant moment. Speaker 1 (4:28) Yeah, I mean, and there's, you know, there's been a few, you know, but I just think I never really been that dirty of a person, you know, when I was drinking, I, you know, I would, you know, my mouth was more foul. But, you know, I just try to, I go. I want people to feel good that come to my show. I want them to feel good about themselves, which is kind of why my comedy's never been offensive. It's not that I'm necessarily worried to offend, but I just want everybody to feel good. I want them to leave the show not feeling worse about themselves. Speaker 2 (5:00) Yeah, I'll bet that takes a new level of creativity to navigate through the... Speaker 2 (5:08) your own guardrails that you've set on yourself. Speaker 1 (5:10) Yeah, and I think it helps you to be more creative because you go, all right, this is, you know, maybe you're like, this is the obvious word that I would use here, but what's a word that's not cheesy, but that would also convey the same thing? Do you, do you swear at all? Not on stage. I feel like there is, in wet heat, I say ass, because it was a homeless guy in San Diego that said to me, he goes, would you like me to whoop your ass? And I just, I didn't know how to replace it. And I thought, well, that's not so bad. And I am just quoting the guy. Speaker 2 (5:50) Man, I'm trying to stop that right now. That is funny. Speaker 2 (5:56) It's this may be the one of the hardest things I've done Speaker 1 (6:01) But not to cuss? Speaker 2 (6:02) Yeah, I'm just trying to stop saying F Speaker 1 (6:04) -bombs. Oh, yeah. It's hard for me to stop it. Like, real hard. Well, I have a buddy, you know, and he has a joke about that where he talks about that. He goes, you know, when's the last time you said shoot? You know, he goes, whoops-a-daisy doesn't really cut it when you hit your hand with a hammer. You know? Speaker 2 (6:23) Oh, man, how did you quit? I mean, it's, I've been. Speaker 1 (6:29) Well, my everyday filtered Speaker 2 (6:30) since 12 in my 40s now, probably earlier than 12. Well, Speaker 1 (6:37) I think, you know, sometimes I think it depends on where you come from and where you grew up. Like I have friends in the Northeast. They say F-bombs every, you know, every other word. And it almost doesn't even feel dirty. It feels natural coming out of them. I have a comic friend, you know, Jordan Jensen, and she she's, you know, doing very well in comedy now. And she opened for me one time years ago, and I asked her to be clean. And, you know, she said, you know, she said the F-bomb like 40 times. And she comes off. She goes, how was that? And I go, well, you said the F-bomb like 40 times. And I don't think she knew. I don't think she knew. Speaker 2 (7:16) That's how I am. Yeah. I can't even. Yeah, it's tough. It is real tough. I just, yeah, I'm trying to think of like a punishment to give myself every time I say one. So it's somewhat of an inconvenience. Yeah. But did you just stop it? Like, was it just, you're just like, I'm not doing it anymore. Well, Speaker 1 (7:36) I think every time you become aware of something, then when you do it, you think about it. And then maybe over time, it just becomes less and less because you're now aware that you're doing it. I think, you know, it's like, If you weren't aware, then you would, you know, you'd never be stopping, right? It's like with Christianity in a sense, like, you know, you repent, and the reason you're doing that is because you recognize that you're doing something wrong. Speaker 2 (8:06) If Speaker 1 (8:06) you're not, if you never recognize you're doing something wrong, and not that cussing is necessarily wrong, but you recognize it, and then change happens. Yeah. That's what I think for me is it's like when I... realized that I wanted to be a cleaner comic. It didn't happen overnight because my mind already, like I wasn't thinking that way. I was still thinking of dirty jokes. But once you go, oh, okay, well, I don't want to do that joke because I'm not trying to do that. Then slowly you start to, you just don't think that way anymore. And then, you know, I still have some that pop up. Zany's here in town has a dark and dirty comedy night. And I did that show one night and I was doing my dirty jokes, but I still, you know, I seem like the Christian guy trying to do dirty jokes. Gotcha. Like it just, it doesn't seem natural coming from me. Gotcha. Now, if you're in the car with me in traffic, you go, who is this guy? Speaker 2 (9:05) I can relate. I can relate. You haven't, how long have you been off booze? I Speaker 1 (9:11) quit in 2012. late January 2012. Right on. How was, how did you, Speaker 2 (9:18) was Speaker 1 (9:18) that easy for Speaker 2 (9:19) you? Was that Speaker 1 (9:19) tough? Well, I think it's similar. I wanted to quit for years. I enjoyed it. I was having a blast. Like, I never was like, you know, I had this, I had a mental image of what an alcoholic was. I had a movie image of, you know, he's a guy, he's beating his wife, he's hiding liquor, he's drinking in the morning. And I go, well, I'm not doing those things, so I must not be an alcoholic. And then I read that Alcoholics Anonymous, the blue book. Speaker 2 (9:49) And Speaker 1 (9:49) I go, oh, there's a couple of guys in here that are like me where I'm fine really to not drink. But the moment I have a beer, then I'm like, it's like something comes over me and I'm fueled and I'm ready to go. And then I can just drink all night. Speaker 2 (10:06) And Speaker 1 (10:07) I've had throw-up moments, but I'm more of a blackout guy. It's like my body just holds it all in and my mind shuts down. My eyes get glossy and there's a different person in there. That's how I was. So you're what, 14 Speaker 2 (10:22) years? Is it 14 years? Yeah, 14 years. I'm four years. Speaker 2 (10:29) And yeah, that's how I was, blackout. Speaker 1 (10:32) Yeah, my buddy used to- You Speaker 2 (10:34) ever Speaker 1 (10:34) seen a video of yourself blacked out? Yeah, I mean, I've done my, I used to carry a camcorder because I thought it was fun. And I got many videos of myself. It's hard to watch. Yeah, I know, man. I know. Thankfully, it wasn't someone else's video showing me, you know, that showed up on the internet. Yeah. I'm very blessed to have done all my drinking before the internet became too popular. Speaker 2 (10:59) Good point. Good point. Well, let's do, so like I said, I want to do a life story on you. So where did you grow up? Speaker 1 (11:08) I grew up in a town called Opelika, Alabama, which is next to Auburn University, if people are familiar with the SEC. But I was, my parents divorced when I was two or three. I always said two, and then later after I did two jokes on two different albums, my dad told me it was three. So I go, I don't know. I don't know why you let me keep doing those jokes. But so I lived in Chambers County, Alabama, a town called Lafette, Alabama, until I was two or three. And then my parents divorced, and I moved to Opelika. And then I went back and forth. Speaker 2 (11:47) Close with both of them? Speaker 1 (11:49) I am close with both of them. Yeah, we have a good relationship, you know. I fight with my dad some, but we have a good relationship. Right on. What were you into as a kid? I always, I was always, you know, a bit of an artist. I loved drawing. You know, and I... I almost feel bad for kids today because when I was a kid, I drew because I was just bored out of my mind. My mom would take me to my grandmother's house. My grandmother lived, you know, in Alabama. She had no air conditioner. She had no cable. And we just sat down there. My grandmother crocheted. It'd be, you know, 100 degrees in the house. She's got an afghan on her lap and she's crocheting away. My mom works third shift, so she's passed out down there. And I'm just sitting there with my grandmother. And I, you know, I've made many jokes about my grandmother being mean, but she just was not nice. You know, she grew up in the Great Depression. She lost, I think she lost her first husband, maybe in World War II. And then, you know, and then my grandfather, I think, was injured in training. So, you know, they just grew up poor. And then my grandfather died at 65 when I was four or five. So she had a hard life and she just wasn't nice. This niceness wasn't in her. So I'm just hanging out with an oscillating fan occasionally hitting me, giving me a little relief. And I'm sitting on her floor drawing pictures because that's all I have to do. And I became very creative, I think, because of that. Speaker 2 (13:27) Right on. Why did your parents get divorced? Speaker 1 (13:31) You know, it's tough to say. My dad's a diehard Alabama fan. My mom's a diehard Auburn fan. I don't know if that played a role, but I just, I think about my parents and I wonder less about why they got divorced and more about how they even got married to each other in the first place. They're just different people. My dad is, You know, my dad's like me. I think probably I'm a little controlling. I got a way. I sit around and I think about the way things should be. And I feel like I figure out the best way. This is how I should live my life. If everybody lived their life this way, it would be better. Is that right? I don't know. But in my mind, I've worked it out that it is. And I think my dad is like that. And then my mom is like, go with the flow. We're having a good time out here. We're living paycheck to paycheck because that's what money's for. Speaker 2 (14:23) I read something about a car in a pond. Do you thought maybe that could be a potential reason? Could be Speaker 1 (14:29) too. You know, my parents had a, they said that was the, my dad said it was the newest car he had ever owned. And back then there were no car seats. At least that's what they tell me. I wasn't in one. I was 21 months old. It was a bench seat car with the gear shifter on the throttle or on the dash, you know? And my mom. Says she checked the mail and needed to run it inside. So she just pulled the car up next to the house. My dad lives a little on a hill. And while she was in there, I walked over. I don't remember. This is what they tell me. I walk over. I pulled it into drive or at least neutral. And those cars, those old cars, they go. And the car started going. I drove it down. I crashed through a fence, apparently turned it. It went through between two trees where the door was still open and it closed the door. They said if I'd have hit one of those trees, I probably would have smashed into the windshield. And then I went through another fence and crashed into a pond. My mom can't swim. She goes running down the hill. She catches. She goes around to the driver's side. It's already sank down enough to where she can't open the door. She goes around to the passenger side. It won't open. And then she's able to get the back door open as the car's sinking. And she grabs me out of the front seat. Wow. And they towed the car out of the water later. And as the insurance adjuster's there, he's trying to decide if they're going to total the car. And he says the windshield wipers just came on on their own. So they totaled it. Wow. And you were how old? 21 months old. Jeez. My mom said I never cried. That said when she opened the door, I go, Mama, you know, and I'm just like, I'm Speaker 2 (16:24) just, Speaker 1 (16:24) you know, I'm having a good time in there. Wow. Wow. And, you know, my dad later said my dad used to own horses. I guess he still has some now, but we were riding around and. He would go, you know, he'd go cow, and I would say cow, and he would go, you know, barn, and I would say barn, and he goes pond, and I said car. And so I associated car with crashing in the pond. Sheesh. And then I've had a lot of wrecks since then. I mean, it's, you know, I just, I love wrecking a car out here, I guess. Speaker 2 (16:55) Right on. Right on. So what kind of stuff were you into as a kid? Speaker 1 (17:00) Well, you know, as I got older, I mean, I loved drawing. I loved insects. I loved, I was always catching, I still am to this day. I'm catching tadpoles out of a five-gallon bucket at my house. I'm raising them into tree frogs and letting them go in a tree in my yard. But as a kid, I was always, you know, I was always collecting insects and putting them in jars and watching them. And, you know, I was a little mean to insects. You know, I used to. catch worms and I would stomp on a fire ant bed and throw them in there. I don't think it was serial killer stuff because I wasn't doing it to animals. They say serial killers do it to animals. Speaker 2 (17:37) I've Speaker 1 (17:38) always loved animals, but bugs, I don't know. I loved, you know, you could say I was torturing the worm, but I was really feeding the ants. Good Speaker 2 (17:46) point. You know? So you still catch tadpoles, raise them into tree frogs and let them go? Yeah. Do you do that for your kids? This is a... Speaker 1 (17:56) Well, I like that. I say that I'm doing it for my kids and they do like it, but I think I enjoy it more than they do. I really just love it. I love, you know, these tadpoles were in a five gallon bucket and I thought, well, they're going to die if I don't get them out of here. So I collected them and I put them in an aquarium. And then over time, I, you know, I bought a filter and I put rocks in there and I get, I get really into it and I feed them. Speaker 2 (18:22) Do Speaker 1 (18:22) you live out in the woods? I mean, the part of Nashville I'm in, there's a million houses, but I happen to have found a spot with three acres. Nice. So I have a little garden and I got an oak tree that's probably 100 years old. It's a huge oak tree. I Speaker 2 (18:40) love that Speaker 1 (18:40) stuff, man. I do too. And I collected acorns last year and I grew a bunch of little oak trees. I'm not doing a great job keeping them alive, but I probably still have 50 little oak trees that next year or maybe even in the winter of this year, I'd like to plant them out and try to grow them up. No kidding. I have some land in McMinnville, Tennessee, where I have a little... I almost moved to McMinnville. Oh, yeah? I love that town. I do too. Like nobody goes there. Yeah. I have a little Mennonite built cabin and we go out there and hang out and I planted fruit trees and... I mean, I'm all in. I want to buy. I mean, I really would like to buy an excavator. I want to dig my own holes. I want to, I want to get into it. Speaker 2 (19:29) There's nothing more frustrating than putting in the work and still feeling like your body is not responding the way it used to. You're training. You're trying to eat right. You're trying to sleep. But energy still drops off. Recovery takes longer. And you don't have that same drive that you used to have. That's why I started taking Mars Men. What I like about Mars Men is that it's not forcing hormones into your body. It's designed to help your body. use more of what it's already producing. As men get older, SHBG can bind up testosterone. So even if your levels look fine on paper, a Speaker 1 (20:07) lot of it may not be available for your body to actually use. Speaker 2 (20:11) Mars Men uses Speaker 1 (20:11) clinically dosed Speaker 2 (20:12) ingredients to help free up bound testosterone, plus vitamin D and zinc to support healthy T levels, energy, stamina, and recovery. And since taking it, I've noticed steadier energy and better recovery. It's not like a caffeine spike. It's more consistent drive throughout the day. Mars Men is made in the USA, third-party tested, and backed by a 90-day money-back guarantee. For a limited time, our listeners get 50 % off for life, plus free shipping, and three free gifts at mengotomars.com.srs. Once again, that's mengotomars.com.srs for 50 % off and... three free gifts when you check out. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them our show sent you. Speaker 1 (21:06) Are you a prepper? Well, you know, I like to be prepared, you know? I mean, I won't say that I don't have some food at home, and I won't say I don't have an entire room at my house filled with things that, if something happens, we could eat for a little while. Nice, nice. I just like to be, I don't like the idea that... You know, you even hear about towns where they have a, you know, they'll have a flood or they have something happens. And even just recently, we had the ice storm here. And if, you know, the power went out, we would have been okay for a little while. We would have been, I have heaters and, you know, sub-zero temperature sleeping bags. I mean, we would have been good to go. I don't want to freeze to death in my house because I go, I don't want to be called crazy. You know what I mean? Oh, I know what you mean. I mean, I don't Speaker 2 (21:59) care if people call me crazy or not. I love prepping. Speaker 1 (22:03) Yeah. Like, the word prepper comes from preparation, and somehow we've made being prepared a weird thing. I Speaker 2 (22:13) don't even think it's that weird. I think it used to be weird. Yeah, maybe. That's probably true. And Speaker 1 (22:16) then COVID Speaker 2 (22:16) hit. Speaker 1 (22:17) Yeah. And then, Speaker 2 (22:18) I don't know. I mean, COVID created a lot of preppers. I definitely stepped my game up after that. Yeah, Speaker 1 (22:27) I mean, in the Bible, you know, in Genesis, we have, you know, there was a dream that was prophesied by Joseph. And he said, hey, this is saying you're going to have seven years of feast and then seven years of famine. So be prepared. And they got prepared and they survived. That's why I'm like, let me be prepared. Yeah, man. Yeah. How often do you go to McMinnville? I don't go as often as I'd like, but we get out maybe once a month, maybe once every two months. And we go out there and I've built, it was a bit of a hilly land, so I built some swales so that I planted fruit trees on there. So when the rain comes, it builds up in the swales because I'm not out there to water them. So it keeps the trees growing and I got just about every kind of fruit tree that will grow. in this climate nice and i got a little creek down there my kids love to go down and play in the creek and what Speaker 2 (23:21) a great way to spend time with family you know just totally Speaker 2 (23:25) separated from, you know, everything. Yeah. Speaker 1 (23:30) And I, you know, I don't, we don't have internet out there and we don't have great phone signal, which I like. We have it. So, you know, we can still make calls, but, you know, we're not, you know, we have no wifi at the house and it's, it's nice because we, you know, we have a TV if we want, we'll watch a DVD. But we, you know, we can't just scroll YouTube all day Speaker 2 (23:50) out there. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. So what else were you into as a kid other than tortured insects and stomping on worms? Speaker 1 (24:01) You know, I liked, you know, I was, you know, I loved to play. Like in the trailer park I lived in, there was woods on either side of us. So me and my friends, we would go, we would just spend the day in the woods. We had creeks. And even back then I was collecting crawfish and little salamanders and tadpoles. And we would just, you know, run. I built a rope swing out in the woods. And then my dad lives on a farm. And so he had land all around him. And we would find, you know, we would find vines, you know, like Tarzan out there. And we would swing on the vines over creeks. And my dad had four wheelers. And we would ride and we would go down to the Tallapoosa River and we would. You know, my dad was always like, never swim in this river. And the moment we could get down there without him, we were swimming in the river. And we loved it. I mean, we're just real country kids. I mean, before we had four-wheelers, we were riding bikes down dirt roads. And it was just like being outdoors was where it was at. There was a store up the way from my dad's house where he had a charge account on there. And we would just go up there and we would get ice cream. microwavable hamburgers and you know we just were living a real country life man Speaker 2 (25:22) i feel like that that's similar to how i grew up i just feel like that doesn't that rarely it's a rarity now like it Speaker 1 (25:29) almost doesn't exist i don't i mean i'm i'm paranoid enough to where i would never let my kids just disappear the way i used to disappear and Speaker 2 (25:40) i Speaker 1 (25:40) want them to but at the same time If I'm in a store with my kids and they go on the other aisle and I'm not on there, I'm like yelling at them almost. Like, don't leave the aisle that I'm on. Yeah. Because it's just, I don't know if it is any scarier today than it used to be, but it feels like it. I think it is. I think it is too. I think, yeah. Yeah, I think it is. We'll go and we'll have fun, but you stay with me. Speaker 2 (26:11) There's just so much more you have to worry about nowadays than you did you didn't yeah Speaker 1 (26:16) back Speaker 2 (26:16) that not that they did that our parents have to worry about stuff, but Now there's just a whole new slew of things. Yes. And everything's so accessible too. You know what I mean? And people have much more access to your kids through internet, social media. Oh, yeah. One of my best friends, Ryan Montgomery, was saying, when you give a kid a phone, you don't give your kid access to the world. You give the world access to your kid. Speaker 1 (26:43) So true. Yeah, it's so crazy. It's like... Yeah, I mean, it's wild. But my mom worked third shift, so I probably stayed at home by myself way earlier than I should have. But in the trailer park I lived in for a while, my sisters lived there, but my sisters are 9 and 11 years older than me. We have a different dad. So as they got older, they moved out, and then my other sister and brother-in-law lived next door to us in a trailer. So I would stay alone in my trailer, but they were next door. And I remember, you know, the old collect calls you would get where it would be, you know, this is AT &T, you have a collect call from, and then they would say their name. I remember once I woke up and the phone rang and it said, you know, this is AT &T, you have a collect call from, I know where you live, you're dead. And I go, and I, you know, I jump up and run across to my sister's house and bang on the door. And then I stayed at her house for a long time, but they smoke cigarettes inside, you know, so I'm, you know, I'm getting, I'm smoked up all night and then I'm going to school and probably all my clothes, probably my hair smells like smoke. Yeah. You know. Were you a good student? I was a good student. I, you know, I made A's and B's, you know, growing up. I remember in second grade, I was in classes and I got, I got, they took me out of the class I was in. to move me to a more advanced math class. So I think I might have been the only kid, you know, there were other kids that were in the advanced class for all subjects, but I might have been the only kid in second grade changing classes. And, you know, and I always did, you know, the advanced classes as I got older, you know, but, you know, once I, you know, I hated homework and I never was much of a reader. So, We had summer reading, and those were always the – and then when you get to school, you take two tests on the books that you were supposed to read. And those were always the first two tests that I would fail every year because I had no idea. I loved an essay question because I'm a bit of a rambler. And an essay question, I can just write and write and write until the teacher goes, all right, I know you don't know what you're talking about, but I'll give you a couple points for this creativity here. Speaker 2 (29:05) So did you – you primarily lived with your mom? Speaker 1 (29:08) I did, yeah. My mom had custody, and then every other weekend I went to my dad's. And Speaker 2 (29:12) your dad had a farm. Speaker 1 (29:13) My dad had a farm, and my dad got remarried when I was roughly five, and his wife had two kids. So I had two stepbrothers for 10 years of my life, and then they got divorced. Gotcha. And they were older than me. I went from, I was almost like, I felt like, maybe the other kids don't feel like this, but I felt like I was king of the trailer park, right? I had all these other kids, but they all came to my house because my mom was asleep. She worked third shift. So we brought all the trash from the neighborhood to my house and we would build things out of it. I remember we had a cat one time. We would build a cage obstacle course for the cat. We were just trying to see. Can we trap this cat in here with all this wood? And the cat would always find a way out and we would and they would build a new thing. We weren't hurting the cat. I think the cat probably loved it. But we were always building an obstacle course. And but when I was at my dad's, you know, I had two older brothers. So I went from, you know, king of the trailer park to now I'm being picked on all day, you Speaker 2 (30:13) know. So you like being with your mom more probably. Speaker 1 (30:16) Yeah, I like that. I mean, I liked my parents, you know, but, you know, my dad had all these cool things. My dad had a pool. My dad had four wheelers. And, you know, but with my mom, you know, I was, you know, I was the king. I was, you know, we didn't have the same things, but, you know, I, you know, and I love both my parents, but it's, yeah, I mean, it was a little more free when you're, you know, allowed to do basically whatever you want. Did you start getting into trouble because you could do whatever you want? I didn't really start getting into trouble because we lived far enough out to where there was really no trouble for me to get into, you know, but as I, once I got a driver's license. That's where the world opened up to me. And I was like, oh, now I can hang. And by the time I got a driver's license, me and my mom had moved out of the trailer park. And now we lived in a house just a mile away from the high school. So that's when, and then my mom was still working. My mom got a boyfriend that she was staying with a lot and her mom got sick. So my mom was gone all the time. And so my house, became the party house. So Speaker 2 (31:26) you Speaker 1 (31:26) went Speaker 2 (31:27) from a trailer park to a house. Yes. How Speaker 1 (31:29) was that? Well, for me, it was amazing. I mean, when I was a kid, I loved the trailer park. I didn't think anything about it. I had a bunch of friends and we had all the woods to play in. But as I started to get older, I started to get a little self-conscious about living in a trailer. I was like, oh, I feel like I'm the poor kid all of a sudden. And I don't know where it came from. I don't think anybody was calling me poor. But it just kind of seeped into me this, like that, oh, no, I feel like now I'm the poor kid and I don't want anybody to know that I live in a trailer park. How old were you when that started, when those thoughts started coming in? I would say about eighth grade. We had Hurricane Opal come through, which, you know, in Alabama, where I was at, you don't get a lot of hurricanes, but it kind of spawned up some tornadoes and some trees fell on our trailer. right so we had so then kids are starting to tell their stories about what happened to them and opal and i you know and i'm suddenly revealing that i'm living in a trailer and that our house is partially destroyed even though we're living in it with a tarp over it right now and uh and i don't know i just think it started to occur to me and then ninth grade i moved to high school that was probably uh the hardest year for me just Speaker 1 (32:48) Internally. I don't think anything was going on. But my best friend had moved away. And I was just starting. I had a ton of friends. But just internally, I was starting to feel this kind of self-conscious, I'm poor thing. And I don't even know where it was coming from. Just a lot Speaker 2 (33:07) of insecurity. Yeah. Self-induced insecurity. Speaker 1 (33:10) Yeah. Tommy Hilfiger was the cool clothes. All the wealthy kids had Tommy Hilfiger. I didn't have a single Tommy Hilfiger thing. And I just started to feel weird about the way I dressed. And style was becoming more of a thing. And I felt like I didn't have any of that. And, you know, just, I don't know, different things happen. Where you're like, you know, your parents aren't together. And so you don't have, not that I didn't have a support system, but you feel like, you know, my parents don't get along. They're not agreeing with each other. So that's why I think, you know, if you have kids, I think marriage is so important because it just, you know, you keep in the, you're always this safety net for your kids. Speaker 2 (33:58) How long have you been married? Speaker 1 (33:59) I got married in 2017. So nine years. Right on. Right on. Speaker 2 (34:06) What do you think is the secret to Speaker 1 (34:08) a successful Speaker 2 (34:08) marriage? Speaker 1 (34:09) I don't know that I have any idea, but I, you know, I don't even, you know, like I've, I have two older sisters and they've been married, you know, for a long time. They have successful marriages. But I don't know if a successful marriage is anything other than just staying in the marriage no matter what. It's just like things, there's times when things are like the happiest and you're like, oh, this is wonderful. What a great family. And then there's times where you're fighting and you, it's like, I don't think anybody says that marriage is supposed to just be happiness all the time. I think it's just like. You just, when you go, like, that's why the vow is, you know, hard times and good sickness and health where it's like, it's going to be hard. Life's going to be hard sometimes. But I don't. You know, it's like as far as marriage, like I'm like, I never give marriage advice because I'm like, I always feel like I'm new, even though I'm saying nine years now. But it's like, I don't know. I mean, my mom was married twice. My dad is married four times. Now, his latest marriage, you know, is over 20 years. And so I think that's a success. So over Speaker 2 (35:33) 20 years? Over 20 Speaker 1 (35:34) years. Right on. So, you know, he needed some practice runs, you know? But I'm like, I don't know. To me, it's just like when you have the fights, you don't think, I want out of this. And I think that's, to me, that's the key is it's like you go, yeah, we're fighting, but, and yeah, I'm mad, but this is what it is. We're going to move past it. And we're just going to keep working and things are going to be good again. And it's like, and they always are. You know, I've had many fights with my wife. Even before we were married, we were having married type fights where we go, what are we even doing? But, you know, you love each other and you keep going. And, you know, I mean, you know, I could be divorced by the time this podcast comes out. I hope not. No, but it's like, you know, I love my wife and I don't want, you know, I don't want to ever be divorced and I don't want my kids to ever go through that. So you just, I think the key is going, I'm in this for the long haul, no matter what. Speaker 2 (36:42) Yeah, that option doesn't even, it's not an option. Right. It doesn't even pop in my head or my Speaker 1 (36:50) wife said, but I know. And I think as long as you're both. As long as you both believe that, then you find a way to work out every situation. Do you feel like you Speaker 2 (37:02) learned a lot of lessons from your parents' mistakes in marriage? Speaker 1 (37:07) Well, I don't ever remember them being married. Okay. So I don't know, but I think that I just, you know, I learned that, you know, even though like both of my parents loved me. being divorced was hard on me. So I think I learned that I don't want to do that no matter what. Because even now it still affects me in life. I'm 44 years old. And if I want to go visit my parents, I'm still, if I have four days, I spend two with my mom, two with my dad, rather than four with my parents. And I go, well, I don't want my kids to go through that. I don't want my kids to, you know, and even if my parents weren't doing it, It's always growing up, it felt like I was making a choice between my parents. And I never want my kids to go through that. I never want my kids to feel any guilt. I go, if I ask my kid, do you want to go with mom to the store or do you want to stay with me? I want that kid to freely go, I want to go with mom. And I go, cool. I'm not going to act hurt about it. I'm not going to be like, oh, I wanted you to hang with me. I go, if you want to go with your mom, go with your mom. That's cool, man. You know, because it's like my problems are not my kids' problems. That's tough, though. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, but I just always wanted to be like, hey, whatever insecurities I'm dealing with in my life, I don't want that to be your problem. You're a little kid that I chose to bring into this world. And you should just be free to go, hey, this is how I feel. This is what I want. And it's up to me to deal with it. Yeah. How did you meet your wife? My wife used to do comedy. Really? Yeah. And my wife is Canadian. Speaker 1 (38:56) I was living in Charleston, South Carolina, where I moved to when I was 21. And I was visiting New York City for a month because I wanted to, my buddy was living there and he had a room come open. And I go, will you see if your landlord will let me rent that apartment for a month? I go, I want to keep my apartment in Charleston, but I want to see what New York is like. I want to get a real feel for it. So I went there for a month and I was just doing the open mic scene. And my wife was just visiting for a week, sort of doing the same thing. And we met at an open mic. And from there, we just started hanging out. And then I wanted to move to New York. She wanted to move to New York. You wanted to move to New York? I wanted to do it. From Alabama to South Carolina to New York? I felt like that was the way. Right on, man. And so... At the time, there was a couple of