Aaron Branch Loves Being Alive

0:00Wave. I go, how do you square this like very Eastern kind of like karmic reincarnation belief that you have with like your belief in like heaven and Jesus Christ and God. Yeah. And she like takes a sip of her beer and goes, I'm never thought about that a day in my life. What's up dude? What up, dude. Good to see you. Good to see you. I'm good. Talk to you. Now I do one with the truth. Well what you guys miss was I literally just said that I almost canceled. I'm good. Yeah. I'm good. I'm I'm good. Okay. I'm good. I just think that it's it's you know everything is so good. Yeah. Which is great. So a lot of cool opportunities are popping up. Yeah. Having fun in life. You told me you're looking out of your car. No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's just some clothes and some dishware. No. Everything is good. I so basically like I well first of all

1:04this is going to sound sad. So I'm going to say this one first. My dad had a stroke. I found out. Damn. I'm sorry. It's okay. We have a weird relationship but also like it's still a parent. So it's like you know what I mean. These are like two things dads are obsessed with by the way. Having a weird relationship with their kids and having a stroke and then like you be in like, oh, I need to drop everything. Yeah. And like do something about it also. But he's he's doing fantastic. Which is great. Good. But then the second thing was is like so basically it was my girlfriend's birthday last weekend and we did like a staycation thing. Which I feel like people don't do an LA. Maybe that's like a like a Midwest thing. It's very Midwest. Yeah. And LA it's like let's go to Ohio. Yeah. Exactly. So I was like I want to do a staycation. So we like got a really cool like hotel room. Which like a bar of like a bunch of her friends. And then my roommates face times me after we all leave the bar. And there is a man in my kitchen wearing which is kind of funny. My best friends production company shirt. But he's wearing our clothes. Like socks from like head to toe with like a knife in his hand for protection.

2:10And it's just making food. Maybe the knife was for the food. No. No. It was he was wielding. You would know by the face time. It was like a very much like a face time. How long are we seeing this guy? So basically my roommate came home with a friend and a friend and they and so they get there. And then he's like he was about to go in. Then thank God she was there. Yeah. Because she was like don't do that. He for whatever reason in his mind thought that was me. Yeah. I don't know. What's the close and the being in the house probably. Yeah. Like why would you assume it would be anyone else? And so but she stops. She was like we shouldn't go in. Yeah. And then he looks and I guess I guess the guy looked over and was like what are you gonna do? Well, if you have a knife, not much brother. Yeah. And then just went right back to making his mac and cheese. Which to be fair that could be what the knife was for. I don't see their way good for him. I guess. Wait. So what did we find out? So your roommate doesn't go in? Yes. My roommate doesn't go in. He faced times me from like a side window in which I get to see what's happening in real time.

3:11It's got looking over and like making food at the same time. It was a lot. So I end up leaving the staycation left my girlfriend there and I felt really bad about that. But I left the staycation. I go home and then all the cops had just arrived like right when I get there. Good. And so surely they'll make it all better. Yeah. And so they did. No, they didn't actually. They were super nice. But they basically arrested the man and then we had to go in. This guy trashed our place. Like I mean, like left like a bunch of stuff. I was like I can nasty like Cheetah blanket with like a bunch of hair on it. Like all my bed is underwear was everywhere. He was in fact having a staycation himself. He was still. Yeah. He was definitely. It's good for him. Yeah. Good job for him. And so he didn't steal anything. He didn't steal anything. And so in the middle of me trying to like assess the situation, the cop was like, Hey, I don't want to bother you. But like are you from YouTube? And I was like, this is not. Not now. Not now. This is not the time to be doing that. And so yeah. And so it was a homeless individual.

4:15We didn't press charges. And I think everyone's mad that we did. But he didn't steal anything. Yeah. You get in my house with him. I don't know. I'm as lucky as the next time you can't be in my house. It's a boundary for me. It's a boundary for me. You go in my house with a knife and put your Cheetah blanket on my bed. It would really got me was the fact that he was boiling water in a skillet. Yeah. And I think he's not been in the kitchen. Yes. And I have a soft place in my heart with people that have schizophrenia. And so just a weird thing to say on a context. Do you know that he does? Yeah. Yeah. Like if you're boiling water in a skillet, I mean, what's going on? He might just be really not up on kitchens. Yeah. That's a really good point as well. Yeah. It's not a crazy to jump to schizophrenia. Yeah. To be like, no, he has a different personality inside him that told him skillet is for boiling. I think it's like he might just really not be up on kitchens based on his. Yeah. Maybe a little ableist to be. I don't know. So I, um, yeah, we let him go.

5:16I didn't realize that process. Like he just got out of the cup car and walked away. You did a catching release. I think I was kind of hoping that like maybe like that meant like he fuck with me. Like now that was going to fuck with you. So come back in that house and make some more mac and cheese in the skillet. Yeah. So that was that. So like, I don't know. There is like a feeling of like your, your safety and like also just kind of like, you're like safe space just like being like, and I don't know. It made me feel weird. And so we also had, we had, we had, we were taking a trip to New Hampshire the week after. So I was like, I haven't even packed for that trip. That was like a day later. And so I just grabbed a bunch of stuff from my house and then like, I couldn't even assess like the mess. Like I couldn't do anything. So I just, I literally just got back two nights ago than filmed all day yesterday. And then I'm just now kind of dealing with the situation. Does anyone clean the house? Yeah. Yeah. Thank God. Our landlord did a really good job. We got like cleaners in there, which was good. Yeah. But yeah. So I'm kind of still like going through my stuff and like, this is because there's things

6:18that cleaners, this now now sounds like me being a dick. There's some things that cleaners can't touch. And so I was like trying to like get all of that together. Also, but everything's good now. And now I'm going to unclean my car when I leave here and it's going to be good. There's no doubt that you should have canceled on this. Yeah. To this podcast. It's all I would have supported you. It's so crazy. I'm really, you need to know. Yeah. You need to know about me that I'm always happy to get canceled on. I'm nine of the things in the world. You're awesome for that. I'm thrilled to be here. I love talking with you. I love talking with you too. I'm good. Like everything is good. I'm very lucky in that sense. Also, my mom's also, I'm going to Cabo also next week. So there's just a lot of work I have to do. So I was like, this will be a good thing to do. Plus we tried to do this in Kansas City and it didn't happen. So I was like, I want to make sure this happens. It's true because you're a Kansas City legend. I know. I was thinking of you the other day actually because you did the our benefit show last year. Do that was you were so great. I'm still talking to people about it. It's so fun. Right. It's so cool knowing what you're doing for that city. I think that it's one of those things that I really am like just proud to one know you.

7:18And to also know that we had a similar kind of like comedy training background. But I don't know. I think that what you're doing for the city and also to know there's someone in Kansas City besides tech nine. That's great. Mr. Nine. Have you met Mr. Aaron? Dude. Aaron Yates yet. Dude, he told a friend of mine once we were at the same event. I there was a tweet years ago that was very formative to chance and I that was like nobody fucks with tech nine like white boys from the suburbs of Kansas City. And I was like, it's correct. Yeah. I fucking love tech nine and I we met him in an event and they my friend go. I don't remember what they said exactly. They're like, uh, Mr. I don't do I call you tech nine or tech or he was like Mr. Nine is. He's the man. Dude nine fucking ribs for anyone who doesn't know look up tech nine's music. He's a Kansas City rapper. He's a fucking legend. Yeah. He's actually doing so much for the city. I do nothing for the city. I throw a one benefit show that basically just showcases what people are actually doing in the city. But it is so fun to do every year. I love it so much. It's our next one's coming up soon. It's so so. I love it. It's really fun and it's it's so fun to get to like bring people in for it.

8:22Mm hmm. We did it around Thanksgiving in the first couple of years and it was so hard to get you. That lineup. Dude, that lineup like Japanese breakfast. Yeah, she was great. Yeah, I'm a shell of her. That was one of the coolest things also just witness and like the movement. I forget the organization's name enough. It really bad about that also. But even who it was for. I mean, I don't know. The entire night was absolutely incredible and I don't know. I'm just really I'm really proud of you, man. Thanks dude. And freedom affair. Who fucking rips? They're awesome. They played last year. They're playing this year. Yes, yes, yes. They're so good. And then freaking Taylor Thompson. Dude Taylor is great. I know. Taylor was so great. I love that girl. She I basically texted her and was like, hey, I looked at it because I always look at anybody who has like a public calendar. Yeah. I checked before I asked them anything. I don't want to bother you if it's like public information that you're busy. I'm not sure. And I checked her touring schedule and it said she had like two nights off between like Milwaukee and Phoenix or something. And I was like, well, fuck. I mean, I'll ask it. I'd be nobody deal if she said no. I was like, would you want to spend one of your nights off coming and doing this benefit show for no money? And she was like, absolutely, I'll be there.

9:22That's so sick. And I was like, dude, that's the coolest thing ever. That's so sick. Taylor fucking rocks. Yeah, the industry, the entertainment industry gets a bad rep. But there are a lot of really good people. Yeah. I'm just like, I'm trying to collect all of them like Infinity Stones. I think you're doing it. Yeah. Seems like you got people around you. Yeah, I feel really good about like our wave of entertainment, like trying to be less problematic and trying to create good spaces for people to have fun and be able to showcase their creativity. That's kind of just really all I'm about as I age into an old man. How old are you? I'm 30. Where are the same age? How old are you in your spirit? I feel like I am 27. But that's because of the pandemic. Yeah. You know, like I do feel like- Yeah, I didn't get- I didn't get any experience. I just read and watched like YouTube videos. So I feel like maybe I learned more, but I didn't get to experience. So like post that, I don't really feel like a 30, a 30 year. I'm 31 actually, and that's sad that I just realized that as well. That's beautiful. Yeah, I guess. That's completely beautiful in 31. 31 is the perfect age. It is.

10:23Until next year when I'm 32. No. But why does 31 feel older than 32? Do you ever get that feeling? There are ages like this, where it's like this age feels older than the, like 40, somehow feels younger than 35 to me. Yes, it does. It makes sense. It does. There's just something, something happens with the years. Is it an even number? Do even numbers feel younger than odd numbers? Maybe. And also, are you talking about COVID and just like watching YouTube videos and reading books is like, don't you find it funny? The people who always want to talk to you the most about how hard COVID was. They're like, never ICU nurses. Yeah. They're always like people that were gardening. Yeah. Like it was so hard I couldn't go to dinner. It's like, well, it was hard. A lot of people died. That was the house. You know, well, you have a house. And I'm one of those people, by the way, when it was happening, I was like, this can't happen to me. Yeah. I got to get out. I'm young. Yeah. I thought it was a very good thing. Because we were like, we were mid 20s. Yeah. We were mid 20s, we're like the time where you would like experience a lot. You would go out. You would meet new people. And then like, I just got out and was with the same people. Dude, if you ever hear me complaining about COVID, feel free to beat my ass because I had

11:24it good. That's right. Wait, what was your say? I had just, I had spent the first half of my 20s working shit day jobs that I fucking hated. In Chicago. In Chicago. We're reworking. I everywhere. I had every job. I worked at a finance firm. I worked at a nonprofit. I walked dogs. I did social media. I like everything you could think of. Yeah. Which is to say I got fired a lot. Which is to say I usually quit before they could fire me. They'd be like, can we see you on Friday at 4 p.m. and I'd be like, no, because I quit. You can't see me Friday at 4 p.m. because I quit, bitch. Nice try. But yeah, it was COVID came at this time where like, I was, I had just stopped working day jobs. I just got in my first writer's room. Oh, wow. And so I had moved to LA during the very first part of COVID and then I worked in remote writers rooms for all of COVID. So I was like doing my dream, making more money than I'd ever made. Oh, sick. No, I got crazy lucky. And I made new friends because I was in LA and we could do outdoors shit from distance. Yeah. And yeah, it was COVID came at the time. I feel bad for like teenagers. Me too. For me, I was like, I had worked enough and been in the real world just long enough that I was like, I'm break sounds.

12:25I'm breaking. Kind of good. Yeah. And you got like an intermission. Yeah. It's kind of what we got an intermission. Stretch out a little bit. Yeah. Come back to it. In like process, all the mistakes I made in the previous five years. Now let's come back a better person. Did I? I don't know. I don't know. But at the same time, it, the teenagers definitely had it the worst because they didn't get those formative years, like those years of like trying to figure out who you are. All of that being inside I think will be really hard. If you were 12 to 22, I feel the worst for you about COVID. Mm-hmm. That's what I feel. Yeah. I feel like I'm the worst for the people who passed. Yes. RIP. Chance. Stop laughing. It's not funny. Chance is laughing at that. Chance is horrible. See the kind of stuff he gets away with off camera. Oh my God. That's crazy. It's not, I don't like that kind of stuff. And people do think he's like a benevolent magnanimous like, oh, chances are, I love his laugh in the back. That's the kind of shit he's doing over there off camera. Yeah. It's giving me level. He's not a good guy. Yeah. He's not a good guy. I don't like that. Sorry. Thank you, Chance. That meant the world. We accept that and we welcome you back into the community.

13:25We welcome you back into the fold. Do you like being alive? What you take on being alive? You enjoying it? That's a hard question. I think I... Because I was thinking on the drive over here. I'll give you the context. Yeah. I was thinking on the drive over here about life was actually low key way easier when I didn't care if I lived. Yeah. And now that I'm like, I love being alive, it actually sucks. You have to pay attention to so many things. I like worry about vitamins. That sucks. It does suck. Because I want to live. It does suck. That's crazy. I really want to get dark. Who gives a fuck? I do love being alive. Yeah. But I think I'm really in realizing that people are the reason why I love being alive. Yeah. Like I love relationships. I love connecting with people. And I think that that's... When you're an artist, it's very easy to kind of get into your own bubble. But even like with the production that you have. I mean, it takes a village. Like it takes a team. It's mostly me. But there's people around. But for the past like few weeks, I have just been a lot more curious about death. Yeah. And watching like all these really strange videos about like what actually happens. Because no one wants to talk about that.

14:26So like what actually happens when you die? What do you find out? Well, what they say is that you know, your brain does a really good job of allocating which organs need to go first. And then there's just like a slow fade in which all of your memories then begin to start plank. Yeah. And so then that got me in my head and I'm like am I dying right now? Yeah. And this is a memory that's being played in my brain and I'm rewatching that. And then I was like I need to stop watching this and I want to walk. One of the yeah, one of the biggest things you can do is stop thinking about death and go for a walk. Yeah. That's one of the biggest things to do. Yeah, you got to break. Let me go get a little nice little matcha. Yeah, get a matcha about it. Get a matcha and then I went back to my apartment and then I rewatched the video. But I don't know. There's something about death that I find both like terrifying. But I remember pre pandemic in 2019. I made a short film with a friend of mine named Kendall and he had a notification on his phone. I'll never forget this. We were we were doing like one of those like 24 hour like film festivals.

15:27Yeah, super fun. And he had a notification on his phone while we were editing said movie and it said remember you're going to die. That comes up every day. Yes. And then he took a second. He looked at and he goes. And then just went right. And I was like what the actual book is this? Not the deep breath. And also who programmed that app? Yeah. I don't I don't I am so curious. Note that if anyone watching knows that this app exists, I'm so curious to know what it is. But that I think is what started my fascination. But I've been scared to fully dive into it. It's actually helpful though. I do think I sometimes am moving through the world and hearing myself and hearing people around me complain about stuff or have been tied to shape about stuff or worry about stuff that I'm like, we all do forget a little too often I think that it's going to end. You get wrapped in the rig of a roll. If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, you, which is like silly because you can't live like that. But it's like you simply wouldn't give a fuck about this at all. That's a thousand percent. Even if you knew you were going to die in six months.

16:28A thousand percent. There's stuff that you just be like fuck, I don't give a fuck. It's like do I want to spend all of my time like watching all of these reality shows on peacock? Or do I actually want to go outside and actually make something happening? And when I realize that it's a little bit of both. I still, and I do feel like that is a part of existing. Like the part that I get to live in a universe in which below deck exists, I think is actually kind of cool and kind of magical when you think about the grand scheme of life. So I do want to appreciate that. But at the same time, I also need to appreciate the natural, the natural. Yeah. Get to earth maybe. The earth. The earth. Yeah. Do you want to explore space? Not, let me tell you something. No. Not even close to it. You don't fucking ever. You're not curious a little bit what that would be like. Fuck no. Really? Why? Fuck out of space. And another thing, fuck the ocean. Wow. Do you understand that when, do you have you ever listened to or read interviews of people who come back from space? And I'm not talking like when they sent Gail King up there with Lauren Sanchez.

17:29I'm talking to people. Real astronauts that have really been to outer space. I can't say I have no. They're interviews or fuck, they come back and they're like, I saw everything for what it was and I can never go back to the way I felt before. I don't need that shit. Kind of cool though. Just a little bit. Just a little bit. Dude, I can't. I'll have a panic attack. Not right now, I hope. Oh yeah. But like, when you really think about how small we are. Yeah. And how little we matter. It's crazy. It doesn't matter. None of this matters. It doesn't matter. There's this thing that comes that gets searched me all the time online. Instagram, fucking feed. It's like really cute illustrations actually. But it's like in 100 years, all of us will be dead. In 200 years, everybody that you, like anybody that your kids or whatever will also be dead. And it's like in 300 years, nobody will remember your name or what you did. And I think all the time about like, whoever the most famous person alive was, or the

18:31most talented writer, or the funniest guy, in 1700 something. Not only do I not know who it was, I don't give a fuck. Thanks for truth. And that's gonna happen to us too. This is true. So I'm like, I just am like, do I need to like go outside of the earth, my home, which I love, and see for sure how small we are. Yeah. And how fragile. Don't get me started thinking about asteroids. Because they come around. Anxiety, they do come around. I was just, I actually just got to see a meteor shower. Actually, this past weekend. They come around. They come around. And the entire time I was thinking about the man that broke into my house. And I was like, that's not fair. Of course. Because I was like, trying to take in the beauty. But then that was just like a reoccurring thought. And I'm like, I can't even enjoy this. You got a little bit of PTSD, yeah. Oh, for sure. He was in New York. Anxiety is weird like that. Like there's like weird things that will like trigger my anxiety. It's crazy how that's your thing. Like I have a friend back home named Ben, who recently told me, and it was, I was pretty proud of him for like revealing this to me, but he told me that his anxiety was the entire time in high school.

19:31His anxiety was his mom was paying us to be his friends. Was she? No. Oh, okay. It's like, like, where did he come up with that? I don't know. But that's why I'm like, that would never give me anxiety. Like if I knew that my mom was paying my friends, I was like, what's fucking go? There's a trust fund coming up. I tried to do a bit with these guys last night. Nicole, Chantamishel, we were driving home from dinner. Yeah. And I was like, you know, I was going to do like a bit where I was like playing like, I don't know. I was like, when sometimes when we're all having fun, I wonder if like you guys are having as much fun as I am or if you're just pretending because you're at work. And I was like, I was going to like try and turn it into some sort of like joke. I got sad. Well, I didn't get the chance. I didn't get the chance to play because the three of them all immediate were like, oh, kill. That's really fucking funny. Like each like it was like, it was like a little wave. It was like, I didn't get the chance to like play a character like do this guy. I guess I was going to play like some sort of like CEO guy or something, but literally

20:31a first Nicole goes like, oh, that's not. And then Chantamishel is like, fuck, man, that's so sad. And then Michelle in like quick order was like, oh, that's not really good to hear. Like, and I was like, fuck, okay. But let me cook. Let me cook. I thought we'd come up with something. Yeah. I don't worry about that. I know we're having fun. That is so funny though. But this, that's this guy's actual thing all day every day. That's fucked. This is the same exact thing. I didn't, I will say I didn't like the way the reaction felt to me saying that. Yeah, I know. So I can't imagine what the actual feeling feels like. Or does that mean it's true that they're that they're all on the payroll and they pretend to have fun with me. I don't know. I don't think so because none of them are like super nice or talented. So it's like, they're not kind enough to do that performance. And if they were, they don't have the goods to pull it off. You're right. You're right. You're right. The three of them. The room is silent. They all three have their heads in their hands. No, no, no, I love them. Yeah, the death stuff comes up a lot at work because when they ask for like fair treatment or better hours, I remember. I remember.

21:32Yeah, exactly. You will fucking die before you get this. You will die in 100 years. No one will know what time you showed up for work today. Yeah, so why are we talking about this? So much to show up. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, they have it pretty bad, but you're going to kill in it right now though also. Yeah, I'm happy to, and it's nice to abuse. I'm using my power to abuse these people and it feels good. But see, this is also making me, I, I again, going back to where super small. This is one thing that gets me the majority of people, I feel like not you, but the majority of people in positions of power in a lot of sectors are mentally unwell. More than 100%. And I, I, even like the GM of like a bask in Robbins. Yeah. Almost certain. Yes, that was just too many or it's, it's a weird phenomenon that I feel like no one is talking about enough. Yeah. Like any like small business sometimes like the person at the very, very top, I'm talking about like the manager, even if they're just managing like a few stores, they're just mentally unwell, but it's a broken system and it's not putting enough care into how we can mend that. How do we make that better? Or can you not make that better?

22:32I don't know. What better? But that's a thing that I have. Employee relationship with employer, what better? I think the idea of like being able to leave that, what's making you so stressed? Is it the amount of work? Is it also your bills on top of that? I mean that you're also experiencing a whole new wave of problems that no one can ever fathom? Like it's just an interesting thing. Does that mean that your human experience should actually be to not achieve? Like it puts you in a weird head space of us wondering like what is the point of all of this? Like what is the point of taking on all these different responsibilities and stress? And maybe this is me justifying being lazy and I have no idea. You know? But why not? Why not be lazy? Yeah. Or do or don't. I don't know. It doesn't matter. I mean there's just no rules to it and that's just what it is. Like love people and being love and being loved and show love. I think the point is to make this as I really think the point of being alive is to make the experience for some reason. I don't know if there's like a person who wants us to do this or what it is. For some reason I think the point is to make it as enjoyable as possible.

23:34I think so too. For as many people as possible not just for yourself. Yeah. To just make it as nice to have as many pleasant interactions as you can to just kind of create heaven on earth to the extent that you're able. And that's it. I think that's the point. That's a beautiful sentiment. I hope it's true. I don't know what happens when we die. I don't know if that's going to be good. Can you imagine getting to heaven and God's like did you get the flag? You're like oh there was a flag. Oh! That's what it was a flag. I was supposed to capture the flag. Are you kidding me dude? I was just hanging out. That was being so nice to everybody. I brought you some kind of capture. Yeah. I could have captured the flag. I couldn't have captured the flag. I didn't know it was there. No one gave me that rule book. Dude. This episode is brought to you by Hinge. Look, dating can be a goddamn nightmare. It can be a daunting and difficult thing to navigate. But thankfully our friends at Hinge are here to help. Hinge is the dating app designed to be, you guessed it, deleted. It's for people dating with intention. Going on dates, putting themselves out there. Hinge is designed for finding connections. What makes Hinge the ideal dating app is its user friendly layout and its interactive

24:37prompts feature that allow you to ask potential suitors questions or pick topics to get the conversation going without the awkward ice breaking phase. What we hear is so true. The whole team love the most about Hinge. And we're always bringing this up. Has got to be the signals feature, which allows you to see what profiles thoughtfully engage with their matches. I mean, who doesn't love thoughtful engagement? For anyone who might need a little assistance when it comes to making their profile pop, Hinge is just released their new friends take feature that lets you invite the people who know you best to contribute short, authentic reflections directly to your profile via text voice video and photos. Chance, why don't you give them a reflection for me for my Hinge profile? For you? Yeah, well, you know me best, give them a reflection of me. Oh, wow. Great smile and he always picks up the check. That's actually, yeah, that's actually really nice. Are we actually in the cold clip, doesn't that? Next time you're looking to make a connection, do us a favor and give Hinge a try.

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27:42This is limited time offer. So don't wait. Again, that's fabletics.com slash show true for 70 to 80% off everything as a new VIP. Yeah, I don't know. Whatever with whatever with the fiddle happen, I guess. Did you go up religious? Sure. Yeah, we grew up around the world. Sure, church. Yeah, I will say I was lucky though, because my mom, you know my mom said the other day, this was really funny. This is a really interesting person just in general. I find her so fascinating and brilliant. And she, we weren't lunch the other day. And she was like, we were talking about, we sometimes we'll go to lunch in Kansas City and we'll just kind of get into life and like, you know, the big questions. And we were talking and keep in mind we're at a sports bar. And we're at sports or a theater. I don't have to, I don't have to code with you. You know what the fuck I'm talking about. Hey, you have to. Dude, we were at fucking the peanut. That's awesome. The peanut is sick. Shops and the peanut there. Yeah, right there on Brookside. Yeah, it's like we were at the peanut by a table of 16, like finance, pros that there's ever internship. That's a funny.

28:42And my mom were cutting it up about like faith and the what happens when we die. Yeah. And I go, she somehow comes up and she goes, do you ever think that like, maybe this is your last time on earth? Hmm. And I go, what do you mean? She goes, well, I sometimes I think that we get sent back when we die, we get sent back to until we like learn whatever lesson we were supposed to learn. Like we didn't learn it in our first five lifetimes. Yeah. And I think that's the next lifetime you come back, you're just keep getting sent back until you learn the thing you're supposed to learn. Wow. And I was like, no, I've never really thought about whether or not it's my last time. I thought about a lot whether or not it's my first time. Hmm. Because I feel that I've been on earth many times before this lifetime. Yeah. I feel so old. I feel like I've got a little soul for sure. Yeah. And anyway, we're talking about that. And the funny thing is I go, okay, how do you square to my mom? She's Christian. Never been a big church person. Never been very like dogmatic. She's always just like, you're supposed to love everybody. But you're a good person. I love the same way too. And I go, how do you square this like very Eastern kind of like karmic reincarnation belief that you have with like your belief in like heaven and Jesus Christ and God?

29:46Yeah. And she like takes a sip of her beer and goes, I'm never about about that a day in my life. And can I just say legend? The legend. The legend. The legend. And I was like, what do you mean you never thought about it? Because if you believe in Christianity, you believe that when you die, you either go to heaven or hell. Yeah. But you don't have to believe in that. But that's like the traditional. I was like, that can't be true if you're getting sent back. And she was like, so, so me. Yeah. She's like, I don't care. That's cool as fuck. That is the, you have a cool mom. Legendary shit. It's like cool, cool mom. I'm a Christian and a Buddhist. What's next? There's nothing wrong. I think that there's nothing wrong with it. A lot of people we met about this. Like I try to, I treat religion or like beliefs kind of like a buffet. Yeah. Like you want to mean I'm grab a little bit of this. Yeah. A little bit of that. Yeah. Yeah. This is a little bit like what makes me feel good? Like what fills me up? And I feel like I've kind of have like my own personal beliefs. It's like this is fine. Like even what you're saying about feeling so connected that you've been here before, there is a weird philosophy.

30:48And I don't know the name of it. I don't know it's like a long time ago. But it's this idea that you individually re-incarnate as everybody. What? Wow. And that your role, your role is to literally come back as everyone. So you would take on a show. I was perspective also again, that means you're not getting benefits either. Yeah. So you're taking on chances. You're taking on every single person on earth that has lived or ever lived and you live their entire lifetime until you're finished. So that's just like what the fuck? And then you're able to move on to the next phase. So you don't move on until you've lived all 8 billion people's lives. But it's more than 8 billion. Because you got to do all that. Everyone that's ever lived. But then what about the people after you? You don't have to live like them? You live like them as well. You're everyone in the history of this simulation of earth. And ever. Which I'm trying to break away from the simulation theory because it was created by Elon Musk and I don't like that kind of stuff. Elon Musk created a theory. He said that like a press conference. And I remember him saying the simulation thing and then like everyone in the mom was like,

31:49what if we're living in a simulation? And like at the time it was cool. What if he's an evil fucking moron and that just benefits him? But we didn't know that at the time. I knew it. Do you remember when he was put it? We were also so ADHD right there. I'm with him. I never liked him. Because in this also that means you have to live like Elon Musk. So we're taking this on. But there was a time when he was trying to put this like put on this whole like billionaires are cool. And like when I die, I'm also going to be able to give away all my wealth. So you guys should like me. And like in the 2010s I feel like we were very much like, you know what? Some billionaires are kind of cool. And then that just took a sharp turn at the start of 2020. You shouldn't get, yeah, you shouldn't get the money in the first place. No. Shouldn't be dispensing it at you. It doesn't make any sense. Doesn't make any sense. You should be, yeah, I, I've never liked that guy. And the fact that they all want to be funny drives me fucking crazy. I do. You don't do this. So just Carolyn Levit that stupid bitch. Dude, these people are not. She just did an interview where she was like, what's something, they're like, what's something people don't know about you? And she was like, probably just that I'm silly when I'm not at work. And I'm like, you are not silly bitch. Shut up.

32:49No, you are not fucking silly. You know damn well you are not silly. Your husband is 16,000 years older than you. You work for Hitler. You'd get up there in these, your face work is horrible. That's not important with silly, but like it's just a thing to say. It's not a billionaire being like, I'm kind of quirky. You are not silly bitch. I'm not like other girls. You are not silly. You're a fucking, oh my god, you're a foot soldier for the Gestapo. Literally. Ew. I'm just like goofy. No, you're not. No, stop it. Leave that to us. We're silly. Dude, I can't, I know you're not silly. I'm not that silly. No man, if I was a billionaire, I would be doing the craziest things. I would be truly I think so silly. What would you do day one? Day one of being a billionaire, Brewsters Million's type shit. I would do like a statue, but like in a really inconvenient place, that would affect other billionaires. You're okay. You like something that is just like so provocative.

33:51And like I can't even think of what the exact thing would be, but I would just be, I think messing with others within my immediate group. Sure, you're fucking with the other billionaires. I think that group chat is sending crazy shit. Yes, if I just accidentally just like got a billion dollars, I would be doing that in a second. I think I would just be like messing with them. I do want to statue of myself. That's just another problem. When I die, I think just throw a statue of me in loose park. Ooh. I saw a statue of Jacob Lewis in loose park the other day and I say he can't be the only one who gets a statue. No, right next to it. I don't even know what he did. Keep it loose, dude. I, the amount of memories I have in loose park, that's like the first place I ever smoked weed. Well, no, is it? No, the first place I smoked weed was in Waldo and then was in loose park all the time. Like I don't know if you remember, but like loose park was the place. It's still the place for me. Tom in there. It's so much, but like there was a time period when I was in high school where it was just like hundreds of kids would be there on a Saturday night. And would just be drinking and would just be doing like all this stuff that I just remember being like this.

34:52I don't think anything gets better than this. Yeah, it was a lot. It was good. We used to have fun on the plaza too. Yeah, the plaza too. It's actually kind of not as good anymore. No, it's not tough. Well, since they crack down, they don't want teenagers. Whatever, I get it. You don't want teenagers like drunk driving at the plaza. Yeah. Toad of farts. Kill the vibe, I guess. I totally get it. That having been said, there's some beautiful memories. I guess so. I was there for one of those accidental riots on accident. Yeah. I think I had literally just left to go to I Spy with who was in that? It was Steve Carell and Tina Fey or no, most of McCarthy. Yes, whatever. Was it most of McCarthy in I Spy? No, I think it was from Princess Diaries. What's your name? Anathaway. Was it Anathaway? Oh, you're not referring to the 2002 version, right? Steve, no, no, Steve Carell and Anathaway. It was just spy, right? Maybe it was just spy. It was just spy. Drop the eye. Chance, Google Spy. It's clear. Spy 2015 film, this would have been, most of McCarthy, Jason Staeff. Oh, wow.

35:52I don't think Steve Carell was in this. Really? The movie I saw was Steve Carell. You're thinking of Couples Night. No, you're thinking of Get Smart. Get Smart. Get Smart. Get Smart. That was the one. So me and my cousin, Carl, we're leaving to go see Get Smart. Who was in it? It was Steve Carell though. Anathaway. It was not Anathaway. It has to be Anathaway. It was an adaptation of a 60s TV series. These are people's. Here we go. It wasn't Anathaway. No! It was An! Yeah. I remember that night so perfectly. Went to the McDonald's. I don't think it was Nudles and Co. yet. I think it was to the McDonald's. I don't know. Anyways, then we went to... It's Kansas City, that's the episode. Getting teeth on the Nudles and Co. McDonald's transition. Let's go. So then we went outside and it was just chaos in the streets. People on top of cars, people running the streets, like cops everywhere. Freaking like pepper spraying people. And we were like, oh, we're in... We just like booked it and just ran. People were hiding in canoes like in that little... Yes. Like it was a wild night and I will just never forget that. But I remember being like, this was fun.

36:53Dude, I was in Wuspark the other day. Yeah. I haven't been off weed for a while. Yeah, nice. Usually when I'm in there, I'm stoned out on my mind. Yeah. I'm on a walk, I'm so stoned out on another planet. I've been off weed. Since I got off weed, I've been more emotional. Wow. And that's not, by the way, I wasn't crazy on weed before. I was only smoking like two or three times a week. For sure. Like I don't know, I've been way more emotional. Had your dreams become more vivid? Not that I've noticed, but I'll try to check in. Okay. But I was in Wuspark and I was walking and I was down by the pond. And I saw, I looked over, it was like sunset. And I looked over and I saw a big heart made out of flowers. Like a huge one. Like maybe like seven feet tall. Oh wow. And then it had like glowing letters on it that said, will you marry me? And right as I looked over, I saw a guy getting down his knee and proposing to his girl. And there's like probably 50 people around in the park like walking. Everyone has noticed it and turns and starts cheering and clapping. Oh my. I'm going to cry again. So I immediately start weeping. Oh wow. I really sobbing. I'm clapping, I'm cheering. I'm clapping.

37:53I look like shit. I'm like, I'm trying to just laugh. It's like 95 degrees and I'm going to work out clothes. I'm like clapping and cheering. And then I'm weeping. No one else is crying. So then I walk past this bench and there's two older people on it. Yeah. And they see me crying and they I shit you not. I looked down at them like kind of smiling and crying being like, I'm like, we're all part of this moment. I looked down at them smiling thing and they'll be crying too and they go. The shade for no reason. They just side-eyed the fuck out of me. That's crazy. And they were like an old couple. And I was like, what you're too good to know. No, it moved by this. No. That's in there from the next. I can't believe it. That's insane. It was extremely hurtful. That's yeah, because that doesn't feel validating. I was right. I mean, I was right. You are right. They should be crying too. They should be smiling at me. It's a beautiful thing. I had the exact opposite thing in loose park where I'm like 15 or 16. Me and my friend Ben, same to with the anxiety, are literally it's also funny and hard to think he thinks it's my own thing. You're at the park of Ben, you're on the clock.

38:53Yeah, literally. I'm like, oh, man. I was late last week. We're in and people, they probably still do used to do weddings in loose park. Yeah. So it was a huge wedding. We got high by, I believe the tree was called Tarzan. That's what we call it. It's the one that's right in the middle and the leaves kind of like hang over. So we're about Tarzan. Is it the big racists looking one? Probably. One that looks like it's from all the racist movies with the willows. Yes. And it's supposed to have all lives matter on the top. Yeah, 100%. It's insane. So we are like, there's all these people at this wedding and we're blaze out of our mind. We walk over and sit in the back row of this wedding. Don't have your wedding in the park. Amazing moment. We see the bride and groom kiss. They get married and him and I start crying. Oh, yeah. Right at the, we're like 15 or 16. We stand up with everyone. We clap. Such a beautiful hit of the basic moment. Our eyes look like Satan's penis. Yeah. Just red. Yeah. But no one questioned us being there. Of course not. They're in the park. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's so beautiful.

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43:01Oh my God. Yeah. It's their news. Oh my God. It's one of those things too, like knowing, especially like at this point, like you've just you have creative friends that are like also not like your best friends. And you kind of know what they've been through and you know, like what they've overcome. And like, and so when something like this massive happens, it's one of those things. It just like, it just makes you just just like utterly just start crying because I can just feel like that pain, but you stuck with it. Your comic friend? Yeah. Damn. That's crazy. I can't wait to hear the news. That's really, really exciting. I'm very happy and I don't know. I just I just love that type of stuff. Yeah. We love that kind of stuff. One of my favorite moments in comedy, it happens every year is when the SNL announcements start happening. Wally. And people, I don't give a fuck about that show where it gets on it, but I do like how much everyone, everyone else, everyone in comedy knows like two a month or so before the announcement. For sure. It's really fun when people are like, they got a good one. For sure. When it's someone that everyone's like, that person is really funny.

44:01Yeah. And I feel that way about Cam Patterson. Yeah. I feel that way about Cam Patterson. Like I met Cam when he was kind of in like the throes of like Killtonian stuff. And like I think with anyone from like that platform, I think you have like a certain air. But like the nicest and one of the kindest humans that I think that I've ever like done shows with, interacted with. And like him getting that just filled me with so much joy. I love that. I think Cam is so funny. He's so freaking funny, so naturally talented and like I think his future is so bright. Yeah. And so like that really made me happy also. And I know that and also now being like a new environment for him to be able to learn and be able to grow. Like I was like, that's really sick. Yeah. Yeah. That's not like rooted in Austin Texas. Yeah. Which is not actually, I don't want Killton to be the representation of Austin Texas. But you know what I mean? It's not. There's an actually good comedy series. There is. There really is. Yeah. Fuck Killtony. I can't stand those fucking losers. Yeah. There was a time when like Killtony, I feel like also I feel like some of it is like subsided. But there was a time when people were looking at it like kind of like America's got talent.

45:03And so comics were just kind of like, are you going to go do it? And I was like, no, I'm not going to go do it. It's dinner for schmucks. Yeah. He's a talentless fucking loser. No. And he gets off on bringing up people that he knows are not mostly not going to be very good. Yeah. And then we all laugh at them and isn't it funny that they tried this even though they're not good at it? Not really. Yes. I fucking that whole crowd of people, I'm so just like. Over it. I got a bunch of hate messages kill yourself type shit recently because I said, I told a story about some straight guy to bar asking me if I was, if I had ever been on Killtony. Oh, what? And I said I'd rather fucking die. And people came after you for that? Oh, yeah, because the Killtony crowd, they all have this weird, a lot of these fans of that have this weird like belief that they're like some true defenders of comedy or something. That there's some like last bastion of free speech when they're all actually just a bunch of like ignorant talentless pussy. And low hanging fruit. That's all they're going through. It doesn't matter what you think of me because I'm an actual comic and you're not. Yeah. And like, it doesn't matter.

46:03It doesn't matter. You're like a fan of Killtony, but yeah, they're in my DMs like, you know, that's crazy. That's crazy. And at the same time, it's like, you guys, you have so many other things that you could be doing. So many other things. And even if they just took a second and just watched the comedy on your page, I think their minds thought that one would also just be blown. It's like, hey, while you're here, watch just take a second and just peruse. Hey, don't DM me privately to come myself. Put it in the comments. Yes. Share it. Maybe share it and say I wish this guy would kill himself. Yes. Let's run the numbers though. 80 promo is good promo. All press is good press. I'm down with it. Is that true? So let's push each other out, family. Let's build together. Yeah. Let me let that be known. Let people know what you're about. Yes. But my stuff out there. That's all it could be a beautiful partnership. Yeah. People aren't community minded like that. Kind of like what Andrew taped it. I'm sorry. I'm not going to keep talking. Did he get arrested in Chino's recent? Oh, yes, he did in that. His fit. You see his fit. He was wearing like, gougeos. So frick it funny. He was real. He has the trashest fits of all time. Yeah.

47:03But it's got to be the worst thing about it. No, yeah. I think my kid. He was wearing capris. He was wearing capris. He was wearing capris. He had trash shirts and he's like, I'm an alpha male. It's like, dude, you're not. You look like you went to Anttaylor. You look like a manager at Morises. Exactly. It's not good. What are we doing? Yeah, I'm not big on the tape, brothers. My hot take. You know what? Not into it. Loki hates ex-trafficated allegedly. Allegedly. Just in case. I'm sure they have good lawyers. I hate alleged sex trafficking. It's so... It's like... It's so... It's like... Ooh, Chanshis pulled up the fit. Look at this fucking loose. Insane. And these are the guys that they're like, I should want to be like him. They're like, you're fat. I'm like, yeah, I would take it over this any day. Have you ever seen me look that trash? Actually, I've looked worse than that. But I've never looked bad in that one. No, but it's giving Lindsey Lohan an O6. It's like it's not... It's giving Jamie Lee Curtis as Lindsey Lohan in Freaky Friday.

48:03Bitch, you are so busted. Don't you have like a trillion dollars from alleged sex trafficking? Insane. All alleged. Ugh, let's... That tight ass shirt, his nasty little sunglasses. No, man, I find him to be so... He's just so skis, dude. The fact that young men actually look up to guys like this? I think some of it is ironic, though. Like, I had a roommate who would always call him daddy. Pardon? Yeah. See... Sometimes the gay shit gets so... Yeah, there's the lines get blurred. The ironic gay shit gets so confusing so fast. It's very, very confusing. It's really weird. Because I'm telling you, it starts as ironic and then... You don't have to tell me. You just start to a gay shit. I went on that journey. What'd it be crazy if we took another day? Yeah, you think I wasn't doing ironic gay stuff in the 10th grade? You're like, damn, it's crazy. We're all naked at the sleep over right now. Dude, if we jerk off, that'd be hilarious. Yeah, it was a gateway. It was a gateway drug to getting laid.

49:04And it was awesome. That is so funny. Yeah, it's a dog. Gay irony is like the fucking... Yeah, it's the precursor. It really is. And so now that's like a part of the culture also. I don't know. I think people are slowly getting tired of it also. Because it's not right. And it's... It's... It's... Othering a lot of people. But then what's... It's confusing me as like, I have like some gay friends that are also doing it. But I'm like, you can do that. Gay friends are doing what? Gay friends that are like using... Gay friends that are using like the irony of like gay jokes. Yeah. But I'm like, are you like changing? Because like I'm straight. But like I... I don't know. It's confusing. But maybe that's just the culture right now. Everyone's making the jokes. Gay people are the most homophobic people I know. Man. That's reality. And we are allowed to. Yeah. But it is interesting. You have to wonder if it's for the best. Because I feel like, am I like too much of an hour? Then I'm like, don't talk about yourself like that anymore. I don't want... Yes. You're too much of an hour lying a beautiful way. And so I am like sometimes like, but I need to like sit back and I'm just going to listen. And they're just talking so bad about themselves.

50:05I'm never talking bad about me. I do think with the queer community we need to be... We need to get back in touch with. Well, I don't... I feel like the tender queer thing kind of took over for a minute. Yeah. I don't think it's the time for that. I think it's the time to have a bit of an edge. I think it's the time to take a joke. Yeah. I think it's the time to be like, I think we need to toughen up a little bit. Yeah. Everything got a little too soft for me. Yeah. I don't like it. Everyone's too soft about the... Specifically about... I like softness in general, but specifically the inability to take jokes about ourselves. I'm just like, I don't know. I think it's kind of more fun to do that. Yeah, for sure. Let's just be into it. And it opens up like the landscape to like kind of... I don't know. It opens up the landscape in my opinion. It's like equality almost all the way also. I don't know. Well, that's the thing. If you're not joking about people, if there's a group of people you won't joke about, my feeling is that you don't respect them. Yeah. That you think that they're like... You think that they're too like... They're too kind of empty or sensitive or stupid to be in on your joke. For sure. I will joke about anybody. I don't think that that's... I don't ever want someone to feel like they can't joke about me. Yeah. I want a joke about me. They are great jokes about me that I love.

51:06For sure. Sometimes I see a mean joke about me that is genuinely rooted in mean spiritedness. A thousand and a half percent. A thousand and a half percent. Good show. How do you handle... That's really fun. How do you handle that though? Do you feel like... I am happy with like... The idea like getting like a lot of views on clips or like the idea of getting like a lot of views on clips. Like the idea of getting like a lot of followers. I'm happy that I'm getting that now at the age that I'm at. Yeah. Because I feel like I'm able to... Like I don't take anything seriously that I see for the most part on anything. Yeah. And so it doesn't ever really bother me. But I think that if I was probably about 10 years younger, I think that I would be like damn near almost suicidal. Of course. Yeah. I'm so glad I didn't get successful when I wanted it. A thousand percent. I'm glad I got it when I had already kind of made peace with the idea that it might not happen. And it didn't take a... I'm not... Somebody who's like I was embattled for years. Yeah. I had a very lucky journey. I'm on a very lucky journey. I love my life. I feel so grateful. But yeah, I'm glad I didn't get success when I first wanted it. The first viral moment I believe I saw of years with the astrology video. A astrology video. You were like what time? Like ask your parents. That was the first viral moment that I remember saying.

52:07Oh my god. I know. That was the first one that I was like this is one of the... I probably said like 10 people. I was like this is one of the funniest things in the world. Damn dude. That's so nice. That was Twitter. Yeah, I remember that. I remember like 2019 or something. Yeah. Yeah. That was really funny and I'm so happy to see that the way that everything is grown. But you're right though. I just feel like so much more grounded in like knowing who I am that like nothing could really kind of like... I don't know. It doesn't hurt my feelings I guess. Yeah. Anything in your mind? Yeah. That's really interesting. Yeah. What why are you doing all this? What do you want? What's the big goal? What's the big idea? I think I just want to make good art. Yeah? I think it's really that simple. Like I... I think like the Y that I think that I learned in like college. I think it's really just I want to make people laugh. I want to meet people laugh. Yeah. What is really anything else? What is that? If someone walked in here right now, I was like, Aaron, here's $5 million, you can make one thing. Yeah. What is the thing you would make immediately? I want to do entertainment on a high level. Yeah. But I want to meet people laugh on a high level. Yeah. So like whatever that encompasses. Like right now, it's stand up. And also it's definitely like YouTube.

53:08And so being able to continue to do that really is just like the mission. There's no like, there's no like, hey, are you what I mean? Yeah, you're not, I can't just script. You're like, it's more like I just want to continue. I just want to continue doing this. And then eventually be able to fund other people to be able to do the same thing. I could definitely see myself like when I'm older, having like a management company of sorts, or like just kind of like, and maybe that's like a production company. But not even like that. Like just to be able to help in being able to build other artists up that might not have the resources. But I think like it's just as simple as I like me people laugh. It's fun. I love writing. Kind of just like that. Who are you heroes? Who are the people you love to when you were starting? When I was sorry, I think every young black male will say Dave Chappelle. So I think like no matter what, that's like square one. Like just how that came into my life. I was like in freaking Branson. Yeah. Not Branson. Was it in Branson? I think it's in the midway. Yeah. And we're at like a time share. And it's like, you know, it was like one of those things where you're like, my mom has to go like a meeting

54:09just to make sure that she can have this entire like nice as condor for like a week. And that was fun. But like my cousin like put in like a Dave Chappelle DVD. And like watching this Chappelle show, I think like maybe like this is what I want to do. Like I want to do this. And then I actually literally, I would have been in middles. No, I would have been in elementary school and that happened. And then I got into his standup in the seventh grade and I watched killing him softly. And at that point, I was like, I'm going to do this. I actually started like two years later. Hey, did you first open like in New York 16, right? 15, yeah. At Stanford and Suns. Did you ever go to Stanford and Suns? Do you have any relation to Stanford and Suns? I believe I went one time. I did my first open my Kinzah city when I was 18 at Artbar. Yeah. I miss our bar, man. Dude, that was an era and a half, dude. I bombed in a way that like isn't even understandable. I bombed in a way that like those walls have actually not seen before. I bombed in a way that I didn't do standup again for like two more years. Are you serious? Oh, I was like, this is not for you, but.

55:10Oh, that's crazy. And I still don't think, I mean, I love standup and I love the craft of it and the art of it. And I love a lot of jokes that I've written. I still don't think standup is my most natural thing. I love it. Your special was really good though. Thanks you. I appreciate it. I love doing it. But I still am like, I have to work harder at standup than I have to work at other things. I feel like. It's not the most natural thing to me. There are people that it's just like, I feel like they're like right away. They're just like, yeah, it's immediate. Yeah, for sure. And I don't think that's necessarily my vibe. But I think that's what's cool about right now. It's like the multi-highfinite artist. I think it's like a cool concept. I love the idea of being able to like, to be able to like make the art bigger. Like right now, like my obsession is soundtracks. Yeah. So like, yes, I've been having a fun time with the project that I just released that was like, it was like 10 episodes, like a YouTube series and then I had like a soundtrack on top of that. And it kind of all connected. But I'm like, that's my shit. Now, we didn't get that many views, but it was, but I'm like, that the fact that I'm even in the position to be able to like even make those things.

56:11Like that is like, oh, I want to, all I want to do. You made the music? Made the music. Yeah. I mean, with like other actual musicians, but that's what I mean. Like, writing, I can write a great song, I think. I can write a, I think a good script. And I can write stand up. Like, writing is really at its core of like what I really, really enjoy doing. And then I think that everything else kind of like adds to that, right? So like the acting adds to that. The music adds to that. But it all is able for me to be able to use that specific medium in different ways. Yeah. Do you feel like a positive person? I think for the most part, I think that sometimes I feel really negative. And then even when I'm being negative, everyone's like, you're being too nice. I'm like, I feel like shit. What are you talking about? I just say, I feel like you're an extremely positive person. Yeah, I think you radiate good energy. Yeah, for sure. I think that like, yeah, I think some of that is like my midwestern roots. Like definitely like I come from the product of like like flower children, like ask like everyone's like, God to the world, like be a good person. And so I think I try to carry that with me on the flip side of that too.

57:13Like I can be a dick at the same time, you know what I mean? But only when it's warranted. What's your mom like? You said your mom was like spiritual, but in the way that like same, not the same vibes as your mom, but like my mom would definitely classify herself as a Christian. But like it was never like, although I will say the church home that I have in Kansas city was dope. Yeah. And anyone that was there at that same exact time will reiterate that same phrasing. It was actually Emanuel Cleaver's church. Yeah. It was legend. Yeah, legend. Like it was, he is so dope. He has done so many great things for the city. Him and his family are incredible. Evans at UCB. Just I really cherish like those moments. But like that environment and that vibe, different from other denominations of Christianity. I just feel like nothing was ever like force. And at its core, it was really always about just being a good person. And so I think that I really, as I've gotten older, I'd never feel like there were like strict rules that I've had to adhere to.

58:15It's always been like find yourself within like what you've also gotten from that lesson. And so I think that I'm really happy that I had that experience. Yeah. What made it so different? Like as you've gone out into the world after that and gone to other churches or seen other churches, like what do you think was the thing that made your church in? Kansas City like so different. I think it's just the vibe of like just being a good person. The ease of it and the next. The ease of it. Like I never felt like anything was ever like forced upon me. I never felt like there was like any belief that was like you have to get this. Like you have to understand this and you have to be like this. It was very much like we showed up and it's like hey, you know, this is a nice little tidbit for you to be able to take away as you go through your week. And that's really nice. Now I will say it was hard transitioning for me and I'm curious if you had the same thing. It was like especially coming from like what I would consider like an insular environment. Chicago was very turbulent for me. And I don't ever feel like I was able to find my footing just simply because it was such a major culture shock. Does that make sense? And like kind of actually it's so crazy because me and my girlfriend were watching your

59:17special. We have a lot in common. And although it wasn't on like the level that I feel like you experienced, my mom is a bit of a hoarding problem also. So growing up within all of that, I found it, I didn't, wasn't processing enough. So Chicago for me in those five years was all about just like processing like what I had been through and what had actually just happened and meeting other people that have a completely different perspective than what I have. And that was tough I think for those like few years that I was there. But did you experience anything like that or like was it a pretty ease like a easy transition? My biggest thing like that was I worked in political organizing like when Chanson I were in college, I was like doing political organizing and doing like volunteer training and working for Senator, the Senator and Missouri Clemacastical at the time, you remember? Shout out there. Most centrist Democrats who's ever lived. And I worked, yeah I worked for a lot of campaigns and did stuff like that.

1:00:19And I found the organizers that I met. The politicians were all centrist and I had disagreements with them about a lot of things but I felt like you in a place like Missouri you take what you can get and it's better than the Republicans. Because when the centrist Democrats fell in line, they actually feel now that we have an opportunity to replace them with more radically left people because I think that so much has changed in the last 20 years. But when they fall in line, they fall in line on the side of abortion being legal and weed being legal and gay people being able to get married. And when the Republicans, even if they are centrist fall in line, they fall in line on the side of all those things not being true. Keeping in mind that both of them ultimately just the answer to corporations the whole time. But I was cool with that. But the activists that I knew and the organizers that I knew were some of the most radical and about it, like people I've ever met to this day. And when I moved to Chicago and started talking to like organizers and political people, I was shocked at the laziness and I was shocked at the entitlement. And I couldn't believe the, I just couldn't believe what I was hearing.

1:01:23I was like, oh, we have like a super majority. We could do anything. We live in Chicago, Illinois. Exactly. We could do anything. And you're in the lack of imagination I couldn't believe. Like there are people, there are organizers in Southern Missouri that were like straight up like radical Marxists like leftists. That's so wild. Left of me. And they believed that we could get shit done there. That's crazy. But then I moved to Chicago and there was no political imagination about a better world. There was no political imagination about desegregation of the city or there was no political imagination about redistributing wealth or making life better for working people really at all in the circles that I was talking in. And I was not in, it's not like I moved there to be an activist. I moved there to be a comedian. There's plenty of places I could have looked that I didn't look. It's not to say anything about Chicago. But that would be shocking though also just giving the political history of Chicago. Chicago, which is why I'm saying this. Chicago people do not fucking come from me. I don't want to hear it. Great. There are brilliant, amazing, very about it. Serious activists in Chicago. Yeah, they definitely are. And I learned so much. I didn't know anything about prison abolition before I moved to Chicago.

1:02:25I learned everything about it in Chicago. They're putting you very serious activists that are way smarter than me, way more about it than I am. I'm saying in my circles, which were similar to my circles in Missouri, which were like young artists. Yeah. I was surprised by the lack of imagination and laziness. That's wild. Now, had I been hanging out more in like around you Chicago, on the south side, like in high parking things like that? I'm sure I would have met more serious activists. For sure. But all that is to say, in my circles, it was a little accident. That was the big shock for me. That's really interesting. I can't believe this. Yeah, that's really interesting. That's really crazy. And I think you're right. For me, it was exploring outside of the comedy scene and then starting to meet more people that were really about it. Yeah, that's really interesting. That's really crazy. Where'd you go to college? I went to Missouri State. In which Missouri State? In which Missouri State? I met him there. Yeah. That's a little cool, man. It's, I would call it a double-edged story, a blessing in a curse, meeting chance. Why do you say that? There are beautiful things about it, but there are horrible things as well.

1:03:27There are horrible things as well. Like when we lived together in Chicago and he slept walk and would wield a knife. Are you serious? Well, that was one. I did. Scary bitch. Were you in my house last week? No. No. I did remind me of a chance when we said that. That's really wild. I found two. I found them once. I found them unkind neighbors and I was going to let them know how I felt about it. And that's all I'll say. In his sleep, crazy. Wait, do you still sleep walk? Not to my knowledge. I live alone now, so I might. So you might. That's a new thing for me. I've like never now like being in a relationship for two years. I'm learning. I recently popped up from my sleep. My eyes wide open and this has been happening a lot. It's just like an example. I said, do you see the portal? No. I'll tell you what you wouldn't be doing. If you were dating me, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Yeah, I don't know. There would be no portal. Another night, another night, I was like, look at all these kids. No. Yeah, I'm really putting this girl through hell. I don't feel really bad.

1:04:27You were in a script. No. So be garage. How do sofie? She what? Her and Claude wrote the script. Oh, I love that. And they loved the notes that you gave them. It was so great. It was so great. So great. Well, you took the time to do that. I felt, you know, I feel sometimes when I give, when someone asks me to give notes, I always say, are you sure? Yeah. I don't hold back. If I'm giving you notes, I'm going to give you the real notes. And that script is great. And I had a lot of notes because I had a lot of thoughts about it. My notes are almost like more involved when I actually believe in something. If I read something that's really bad, I just go like, yeah, here's the things I could give you to make for sure. For sure. But when something actually has so much potential, I'm like, this is what I think. And I'm just like, I'm one guy. It was just really nice if you just like take the time even. But that script is great. Yeah. That's so cool. I'm really excited. I'm really excited. I'm really excited. Yeah. She should leave you. That's some scary shit. She did not. Yeah. Because that week I was making a children's puppet show, like an adult children's puppet show. And then all I was thinking about was puppets. So I guess I was like sleep talking, but I get up. Sometimes I stand up. But then I only talk to her. I don't talk to anyone. It's really weird. It's a strange thing.

1:05:28I've got to figure it out. You certainly do. I promise you, if anyone's ever sleeping in my bed and... I just buy it open and says, do you see the portal? It'll be the last time they go to sleep in my bed. That's crazy. There's no portals. I'm afraid that there's no kids. That's really wild. That's crazy. I'm worried about you. That's crazy. Yeah. I had a friend. Oh, I actually shouldn't say that. Aaron, tell me what's so true to you. Oh my gosh. I thought for a long time about this. Oh, you're one of the first guests to ever do that. Oh my gosh. I really did. Because I have so many opinions that I feel very strongly about. I want to say before I say this. I have said this opinion in front of rooms that some people would only wish to be in. And all of those people probably think less of me now. I have to say. But I'm standing 10 toes on this. The movie Zoe 102 that was released in July of 2023.

1:06:33I believe had some of the best cinematography of the year. Now you might be wondering why am I pointing this out? Well, if you remember Caleb, that was the same summer of Barbanheimer. And I'm willing for anyone to challenge my thought in opinion, one of the most, they took so many risks. They took so many chances, some would say chance. And they made a very, very beautiful piece. And I just believe that it never got the love that it deserved. It was shot so well. The D piece name is Matthew Rutsen. And that man is a young prodigy. And I hope that he is still working in this town because he can honestly, he can move water. So I didn't see the film. And so I don't have a leg to stand on here. I'm going to watch it. You should. It's beautiful. I'm going to at least watch enough of it to get a sense of the cinematography. Bro, they did like a bird man thing where they didn't cut for like three minutes.

1:07:36Zoe 102. Yes. That was like you, there was no reason for them to go this hard. And it just looks just utterly beautiful. Did you watch Perfect Days? No. Came out the same year. One of my favorite movies of all time. I can't speak on Perfect Days. I can't speak. Here's the assignment. Okay. You're going to watch Perfect Days by Vendus. Absolutely. And I'm going to watch Zoe 102. Done. And we're going to compare. We are so damn, we're going to compare notes. Absolutely. We're going to do like that thing that long distance couples do where we press play at the same time. Instead of the same movie, it's these two. Let's talk about it. I'm so damn. Yeah, let's do it. I love it. That's crazy. I've not seen it. I wish I had. Man, that's fucking crazy. You're going to love it. And I want to watch the huge swing that you've taken on the podcast. It's the truth. And I was I'm standing tentos on that. Now, just so I'm clear, this is Zoe 101. This is a reboot. But it was just a movie. They didn't do a TV show. It's like an hour and a half. The story is boring. Yeah, but it's it's absolutely just it's beautiful. Yeah, it's beautiful. All right.

1:08:36I'm going to look into it. I'm going to watch Perfect Days. Zoe 102. Yes. That's so interesting of you to say. I know. I'm scared. I shouldn't be. I shouldn't be. You shouldn't be you're prepared. Just be prepared. I'm prepared. The way they used light. Like I'm telling you. It really is insane. It really isn't saying no one talked about it. Yeah. But it makes sense though. I've done research on the DP. And by the way, do not know this man. Yeah. I have no reason to glaze him as much as I am. But the truth is, is like he films a lot of commercials. Because I went on his IG obviously after I watched the film. And I think that you can see it in the film where like there's some commercials like a K-Jewlers or like some of that like like is trying to show you like light or like a beautiful product. It shows throughout the entire piece. Yeah. So it's just shot in a really pretty way. Some of our best directors and DP's come from commercials. Exactly. A lot of great directors start out doing commercials. Yeah. And their stuff is fantastic. And they're also used to like doing super tight stuff with small budgets in a quick turnaround.

1:09:41Yeah. Like it's just kind of like, yeah, it's hard work. And it makes sense. Yeah. So I'm happy that they gave them the opportunity to do that. Hell yeah. And I hope to meet you Matthew one day. I shout out Matthew. This will get to him. If I've learned anything about this stupid podcast, no matter what gets set on here, I have had people, I've told stories from my childhood. That's crazy. And then someone's third cousin and I'll get a fucking text. It's like, hey, that's really wow. The easiest thing a girl that I work with brought up that I was mentioned on your podcast. So what the fuck is up? I'm like, what the fuck? It didn't used to be like this, but I promise you this DP will hear word of this. That's so sick. And I hope you get a reach out from it. Oh, I absolutely love that. Zoe 102. And I hope you get a reach out from the screenwriter as well because a little bit of a straight was called. No, Zoe 101. It was great. It was great. What about 102? Yeah. Nice. You're going to play a game? Let's do it. All right, cool. I'm going to read you 15 statements. You're going to tell me as quickly as you can if what I just said was true or false. OK. If you get 10 or more correct, I'm going to give you $50. You. Are you ready?

1:10:42Let's do it. Hugh Jackman is older than John Stamos. I'm going to say false. It is false. A bushel is 64 pines. I'm going to say true. It is true. Creed, the band, has won exactly one Grammy. I'm going to say true. I just true. The founder of White Castle Burgers was born in 1880. True. That is true. Yeah. Bishop Meijes, high school girls basketball team, has won state 26 times. True. False. Why did they have it? 24. They're really good. The film Oppenheimer made $1.1 billion. What are the chances? True. False. What? 983 million. Oh, I started off strong. Austin Redsox mascot is Wally the Green Monster. I think he's red. So I'm going to say false. It's true. The mathematical symbol for division is called a divisible. I'm going to say true.

1:11:43It's false. Tangus. It's an obelisk. Obelisk. Lock in. Lobsters can live to be 100 years old. True. That's true. The Kansas State motto is to the stars do difficulties. I'm going to say false. I don't. True. True. It's true. It's like Add Asperper or something like that. I'm a Missouri boy. I think you shout out for sure. GPS was originally developed for use in hospitals. True. False. The military. Lake Michigan is the largest Great Lake. False. False. It's Lake Superior. Yes. Shakira is 4 foot 11. I'm actually going to say true. It is true. Yeah. She's small. She's very small. Little tiny. Great performance. I'm testing in 1979. True. False. 1993. Dang it. Columbia College Chicago's mascot is the cosmos. False. It's true. No, it's not. It's true. That's what it says on here. What do you think it is? No, we don't have a met. I don't. I think it's like a, um, it's, uh, the, we're the renegades.

1:12:44Chance does get these wrong sometimes. I think we're the renegades. I have, I have news for you. It changed the last year. Oh. Chance. Oh. You're a sick fox. Okay. He's right. Technically you are. But you see what I'm saying. Look at the way he's acting right now. Oh, that's like jigsaw. Crazy. He acts like fucking jigsaw from the movie series saw. No. He's so scary. He's so scary. That's fucked up. That's crazy. Give him that and then tell me how many he got. Oh, nine. Nine. He got eight if you don't count the cosmos. Yeah. So close. Dude, you were close. So close. You were really close. You didn't trust your god on a couple of those. I just should have just gone with what I, you know what I mean? But I'm going to study in the next time I got you. Yeah, just come back better. Yeah, I will. Come back better. Next time better, faster, stronger, harder, et cetera. That's all I can do. Aaron, this was such a delight. This was so much fun. Do you want to tell people how they can support you? Where they can find you? When is this coming out? We don't know when this comes out. It's such a beautiful and special process that all folds. I'm probably on the forehead XXL tour at the time this comes out. So you could go to the forehead tour.com for those tickets other than that.

1:13:46Instagram at branch at Aaron Branch World and then TikTok at Branch Boy Comedy. Oh, yeah. Yeah, man. Rock on, dude, thanks for doing it. Kale, you're the best. Thank you so much for having me. You're the best.