Ep. 36 - Jay Weingarten

this is synchronicity, this is synchronicity, this is synchronicity, this is synchronicity. [music] Welcome to episode 36 with synchronicity. My guest, I almost said that weird, my guest this week is Jay Weingarten. I'm going to get to Jay in just a second. You know the deal. I got other stuff to talk about first. Congratulations to Unown, I've reached out to you for this week's book giveaway. You have a copy of Hazrat Ineot Khan's The Mysticism of Sound and Music. One of my absolute favorite books is Coming Your Way. As soon as you write back and give me your address, congratulations to you. This week's book giveaway was recommended to me by the wonderfully awesome, amazing David Silver.

David told me, he was reading a book called Mind Beyond Death by Zogchenponlope Rinpoche. Don't worry, I'm going to have a link on this episode which you can check out at synchpodcast.com, S-Y-N-C, Podcast.com. When you're there, you can join the community too. And then in case you're like, what are you talking about book giveaways? What is this nonsense? What it is is every week I give away a book. All you have to do, join the Synchronicity Community, a very light-hearted, easy, hopefully helpful community where I send you an email basically once a week and you get these book opportunities. So if you want to join that, feel free to do it.

This book though, Mind Beyond Death, I haven't started it yet. I just got it today, downloaded it to my iPhone, doing an iPhone book. I have too many physical books. It's becoming a real kind of hoarding sickness, I don't know that it's healthy in any way. But I usually go back and read the books. I won't say always. I haven't read every book I've gotten, I'll confess. But this one looks really interesting. Mind Beyond Death, if you're not interested in what happens after we die, then please write to me, Noah@synchpodcast.com and let's talk because I want to get to your level of awareness. Okay, the next thing is Synchronicity Generosity.

I wrote down in my notes here, it says Experience, but it's really the Synchronicity Generosity Experiments. What these are going to be, I'm launching this on July 7th, there's the official date, July 7th, 2016. So right now that's in the future for me, if you're listening, it will likely be in the future. But if you're listening to this and that data has already passed, then I guess it's in the past. Time is weird in podcasts, it's very non-linear. But July 7th, 2016, what this is going to be is essentially, we are collectively as an audience and community. We're going to raise some money for an individual, as yet to be determined, that will be determined by July 7th, rest assured, we're basically going to raise money, put it into an account, and then send all that money to a person, which I think will be really cool.

And hopefully it's going to be a person who will really have a positive impact in their life. Like who wouldn't? You know, let's say we raised 500,000 bucks, right? Maybe more. Imagine if it was you. Maybe in the future, we'll just do it for listeners of the podcast, right? We'll just pick someone to send it to, and that's how we'll do it. Who knows? But I think it's going to be cool. The purpose behind these experiments or experience is essentially, you'd be surprised what happens when you're generous with various parts of yourself. Came out weird, didn't mean it to sound like that, generous with parts of yourself.

I don't know, that means. With your money, and there may be your time and attention, you'd be surprised what can kind of flow back to you. That's kind of the purpose of this, but I think it'll be cool. That's July 7th. That'll be next week. I'll have all the details on specifically where you go, how you do it, and I think it'll be cool. Okay, next thing. I'm going to do a little bit of a different thing here. Also excuse the abruptness of me. Like I said, I think a couple weeks ago, I started writing down what I want to do for the intro because I like the freewill most of the time in life, but I found when I do take the time to write things down, sometimes I covered the stuff I actually wanted to cover.

So bear with me on this. So the past six months from me have been awesome, right? I've had my baby Eli, he's seven weeks old now, he's fucking amazing, super cool. One of the best things about a baby you don't really think about, but when you're angry or upset and there's a baby near you, you can either choose to be an asshole and angry and upset around a baby or you can be like, oh my God, there's a baby near me. Like maybe I should calm down. So that's a nice centering thing and he's super cool and chill. Just a great kid. But I've also been going through some troublesome times, troublesome times.

Again, I don't know about my word choices here, but difficult points in my life. I think serious to the extent, no major horrible catastrophes, but professionally I've been going through some transitions, trying to figure out what I want to do, dealing with difficult people sometimes and I only need to go into specifics here, maybe at a later date. But I've had to deal with not being comfortable and stressed out, normal common everyday things that people have to deal with and I don't want it to seem like because of the subject matter of this podcast, it could maybe, you could get the impression that I'm like a happy go lucky all the time, everything is great and I am a very positive and optimistic person.

Don't get me wrong, but shit happens in my life and I get angry and I get cranky and I spaz out and I'm a normal human being. So I've been trying to actively think about what helps me when I get like that. Sometimes I'm inconsolable and just a nightmare to be around, ask my wife, she knows, or ask anyone who's closer to me, you know, I can be a real pain in the ass. But I did find at least a few things that I found actually really help when things are going kind of shittily and I think this is going to potentially apply to anyone's lives, which is why I'm trying to share it and if it doesn't, you can be like, well, you know, that didn't help.

You don't know what you're talking about. That's fine. I accept that. So the first thing is when I'm going through a shitty time, I think if you can talk to your friends, your family, someone you feel comfortable with, not necessarily to get a solution out of something, but just the kind of vent and maybe hear someone else's perspective on it, but really just to have someone listen to you, that's fucking super helpful. I can't tell you how many things I've gone through over the past six months, a year, where just getting some added perspectives and talking it out with people who don't have a vested interest and then what's going on is so helpful and it can validate what you're feeling.

It can give you a different perspective. Change your mind. There's a whole bunch of other things. I just find it to be incredibly useful. Another thing, you can just try to tune in to what you can be grateful for in your life. There's always something to be grateful for, even if your life seems totally shitty. You can go through everything. You can go through family. There's no family. You can say friends. If there's no friends, you can say your health, that there's no health. You can say that you're breathing. There's always, and now with the internet, I don't think anyone has an excuse to not be grateful.

The internet is crazy. You can find something on the internet you should be grateful for, even if it's porn, something. You can find something you can be grateful for. What happens mentally or psychologically when you form these kind of gratitude loops or outs, whatever you want to do it, it's such an antidote to feeling shitty. Sometimes it's hard and even if you force it sometimes, that can be okay until you can actually genuinely feel it, but just really again, I find being grateful, gratitude, set reminders on your phone, they go off, timers, it's really, really useful. Third thing, take a step back, zoom outside of yourself.

This is not necessarily like take a beat, breathe, think about it, but try to just understand that there's a lot of other perspectives to what's going on in any given situation. Most of the time, and I fall prey to this every day, I look at it from my link. I'm limited, my own limited perspective. This means when there's a difficult situation, maybe between you and someone else, obviously put yourself in their shoes if you can. Put yourself in a friend's shoes who'd be looking at it objectively. Put yourself in their, this person's friend's shoes, and how would they look at it? Put yourself in the perspective of a bird who's chilling and can understand English and it has no vested interest, but just listening to the conversations or the situation.

Why as many as you can get, because when you cultivate this multi-perspectable, not a word, multi-perspect-tival, again, I'm pretty sure that's not a word. When you can cultivate multiple perspectives, you're going to feel a lot better when you make a decision on how you react, and it also can give you this spaciousness that I talk about a lot, which is non-reactive, more allowing time to make a wise or clever or smart decision spaciousness is huge, so taking a step back, zooming out of your situation, another really helpful thing. Then if you can take a walk, preferably in nature, I haven't been the most active person in my life, but I can tell you if you can get outside, especially with good headphones, invest in some good headphones if you can, because walking around listening to music is like an instant mood changer and totally, totally helps me so many times when something's going wrong.

Those are my tips. I offer them in the spirit of hopefully if you're hearing them, maybe these things can help you. If not, please just disregard my unsolicited advice. Okay, now on to Jay Winegarden. Jay, I laugh thinking about him because he's one of those people who is just really genuinely hilariously funny. I got tuned in to Jay, he's a part of Two Wet Crew, and you may remember an earlier guest, Mikey Campman, is another third of Two Wet Crew, with the third third being Doug Lesson Hope or DJ Doug Pound. You may know him as. And Two Wet Crew is amazing. For more on Two Wet Crew, check out Mikey Campman's episode.

I'll have links on this podcast page, which you can find on this website, minepodnetwork.com as well. You can watch the videos. They're like these cool existential, spiritual, just deep, dreamlike vignettes. They're really awesome. Vignettes. I don't know. Man, I got some really weird words today. I apologize for that, but Jay, I really got tuned in to Jay after watch. I went to his website, which is jwinegarden.horse. And if you go there, you'll see a video of a stand-up set that he did in Omaha, Nebraska. And you'll get it. It's funny. He uses PowerPoint. He uses this kind of pseudo-shaman, spiritual, new age, amalgamation type character.

Really, really funny stuff. And I just, he's a really funny guy. And in this conversation, we talk about a ton of stuff. But one of the things, I don't know if you've noticed this, but I have a lot of comedians on this show. I don't know that it was actually intentional, but the third episode was Jack Carroll, comedian from the UK. I've had Dunkin' On, I've had Mikey on. It's just, I don't know, it's just, there's something about comedy that I think is, there's this insightful-ness that comes from comedians that really emerges into a lot of the "spiritual" or deeper consciousness exploration stuff that happens on this podcast or stuff that I'm interested in.

But here's some content. I don't want to listen. I don't want to ramble on. I gave you tips. I talked about books. I talked, but Jay, I want to communicate. What a nice guy. What a really funny guy. I have no doubt he's going places, going good places. He's incredibly funny. He's got a really unique sense of humor, but in the best possible way. And his outlook on life and what he tries to bring to life and how he tries to make people feel, which is good, is awesome, right? And he realizes the importance of laughter, the real importance of using comedy to make people feel good, but not in a superficial way.

It seems pretty deep. There's one point in this conversation where he just, out of the blue, starts talking about multidimensional realities and living simultaneous lives together. And I was like, "Jay, how did you get tuned into this?" He's like, "It's common sense." I'm like, "Oh boy, Jay, I wish it was common sense, but I don't think most people think like that." We delve a little bit into the LA comedy scene, which I find fascinating, not living in LA, but knowing a lot of comedians there, and it seems pretty awesome. And really, the last thing I'll say about Jay is he's got a bit in his little Omaha thing, and he said it in the podcast, "His whole thing is reducing fear and increasing love, and not in a sappy way in like a cool, genuine, funny, awesome way."

So I love this episode. I'm definitely going to have Jay on again. Thank you so much for listening to this incredibly long intro. This has got to be some type of record for me. I apologize. Rate and review this podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, wherever else you consume your podcast. If you want to donate to podcasts, this two podcasts, donate to podcasts, you can do that too. You can go to websites, syncpodcast.com. You don't have to. No worries, if not, without further ado, dear listeners, I love you so much for staying through this. Here is Jay Winegarden. Maybe let's go with no video for the first half, and then he looks ready.

Yeah, we can do that. That'd be interesting. That's pretty cool. Let's see what that is like. I don't know. Yeah, I didn't really do my hair. That's all right. I'm slowly, I'm not like a particularly vain person, but I really like my hair throughout my entire life, and my dad was balding, lost his hair, my grandfather, so all signs were pointing. Then a year ago, I just started noticing it, oh my god, my hair is starting to go. I still got a few years before it's anything weird, but it's a really frightening experience. Really? It's good to go soon? Well, I don't know how soon my dad had already lost his hair.

I'm about to be 33. He had lost his hair pretty much well past my point when he was 27, 28, so I've made it past him, but I don't know. It never was a problem. I had dreadlocks for six years. I loved my hair and it was awesome, and then I was like, "Oh, it's never going to go. I used to bleach it and dye it into all this shit." Yeah, it's going, so I'm sorry you didn't do your hair. Enjoy it. No, my hair is fine. I was just joking around. Yeah, I'm joking. There's my first joke. Nice. Yo, hey, thank you also for coming on and doing this, man. I'm really... Thank you so much for having me. This is an honor.

Oh, no. Like, I know that's true. I love the work that you're doing. I think you're doing a great public service, and I really appreciate it, and I'm excited to be a part of what you're of your body of work. Oh, man, I really appreciate that. I'm excited to have you on, because... So I had Mikey on, and then I spoke to his dad last week. I think the day before I spoke to you, setting this up, and I was just tremendously impressed. I met Mikey on Duncan's tour bus when he came down to DC, and I was like, "Man, he was just a really cool guy. I didn't even speak to him that long, but it's like a cool guy.

I want to get to know him better." And it's just the amount of depth there with his father, and I'd been a two-wet crew fan for a while, just from YouTube and watching the videos, and it always struck me that there was a tremendous amount of substance behind what was going on. I hadn't tuned in to you, but then I went to your website and watched the comedy horse thing, the Omaha set you did, and was fucking dying, man. It was the funniest. I was laughing the entire time. I showed my wife... Wow. Yeah, no, no, but truthfully, really, really funny, and again, you're weaving in all of these different spiritual neo-shaman character, but actually talking about cool...

It's really interesting. Can you talk to me a little bit about how did you get to the point where that is a routine you're doing up on stage? I know that's a big question, but I'm fascinated by that. Yeah, man. Thanks for that really thoughtful question. I guess it started because I really wanted to do comedy. I just loved comedy so much from the time I was a young child, and I was laughing at all sorts of things on television and movies, and my dog, all sorts of stuff. And then I just wanted to do comedy, but then I started doing open mics, and I don't know. I just didn't think it really made sense for me what I was seeing and what I was doing.

I felt like a classic comedic story of fish out of water, and although I would say that that expression has flaws because I was just thinking about this, I mean, not that long though, I saw a few... Have you seen flying fish before? Yeah, like they had the little wings and they fly for a little bit outside of the water. Yeah. It's so cool. Yeah. They're super cool. I love them. I saw... Yeah. No, really. Like because they jump, I mean, and then you see like a little bit of a... I don't know, some sort of reflection off their wing, and it's incredible. It's really cool looking. Yeah, totally. So yeah, anytime somebody is telling me about a fish out of water, I'm just like, "Sir?"

You know, like there is a fish out of water that looks really cool. So anyways, I just wanted to make comedy, and I... Orman. I said, "Sir, but it could be sir or man." So I just wanted to make comedy, and then I... And I didn't think stand-up was, I was able to express myself, and also I just had no interest in expressing myself in a way that is personal. Right. I have basically no desire, because I don't think I'm... I have gained enough wisdom. I feel like I... I love it. None. I'm a new person. I feel like I became, I'm still obviously evolving every single second, you know, but at the same time, I don't feel ready to share my true self to the public yet.

I totally feel you. And I just don't... I don't have that desire at all, and I think it may happen at some point, but I don't feel ready. So... And I've always gravitated towards mysteries, things that are, you know, they keep you guessing. You're not sure what's going on. And I... And so, anyways, I also had a job where I worked on PowerPoint. I spent a lot of time making PowerPoint presentations, and I've also loved PowerPoint for a very long time. That's awesome. Yeah, my grandpa introduced me to PowerPoint, I think on a six or seven. Oh, that's cool. How old? I'm 29. Okay, cool. Yeah, I was six, seven years old.

It was such a... It was cool. I remember loving it. I love... Yeah. I love all of these features that... There's some features that have been around for a long time too, you know, import images, all sorts of stuff. And so, then when I was older, when I was working at a job, I worked at a hospital and I made PowerPoint presentations and I said, "Okay, maybe this is a way I can start to express myself." And it's not perfect. That's something I did... Yeah, that set you're talking about it in Nebraska was about a year ago, and I don't know. I don't even really like it anymore, but... It's just you're being too self-critical.

I do the same thing with the stuff I make and do creatively. I'm telling you, it's like I watch a lot of shit on the internet, and it's legitimately hilarious, seriously. Like, it's... There's the concepts in it are really funny. I just... It's really good, man. It's... Obviously, we're always our harshest self-archo on critics, but there's a lot... No, I don't know. I appreciate some work that I create, though. I know. Of course, I do appreciate, but to me, it captures sort of a moment of time, and now I think I have new priorities and it's like, "Ah, I don't know." And also, yeah, that was my first character, and I have zero training in performance or anything like that.

That's awesome. So, like, not even a character, you know, it's basically just me, but it's more just about the spectacle and... Right, right. No, I get... It's really... Creating a sensory overload experience, and I would love to enter other senses of... I just... That's kind of where I got to in May 2015 or whatever, but... Well, you know what it is, man, is... I think one of the reasons I really like it is it's authentic. You know, like you're not being something that you're not comfortable being, like your hesitancy to even say, like, "I'm not comfortable sharing, like, fully my wisdom or what I've gained."

Like, I totally understand what you're saying. It's something that I always think about with, like, spiritual teachers. Like at what point are you like, "Okay, I got this. I'm going to now tell people what's up," and to what degree you're going to do that. I feel like building in your own sense of who you are into a stage presence or what you're trying to express is something like... I think it's good that you're, you know, aware of that and how that factors into what you're trying to do. But just from the set, like, I just saw, like, conceptually, like, the thing, like the Mazda thing, that's hilarious.

That's like an incredibly... That's like a great bit that makes like a shitload of sense and it's just funny and the whole neo-shaman thing. And I was listening, so I was watching a lot of the videos that are on two-way crew, some that I hadn't seen, but I also listened to the podcast just before we got on the call here that you did with Esther. And that was like a really interesting... Like, I got a very good sense, it seemed like, of who you are or were then. And it just seems like you're speaking the truth most of the time, you know what I mean? I don't want to label you a certain way, but it seems like you're being yourself and how that manifests is through your passions, which sounds like it's comedy.

So what were you doing at the hospital? Well, thanks for all this. Everything you just said. It's really nice. So everyone, if anyone wants to see what Noah's talking about, you just go to JWineGarden.horse and then you... I'm going to link to all your stuff, don't worry. Yeah, yeah, I got you, man. I trust you. So yeah, what was I doing at the hospital? I mean, yeah, it's kind of boring to talk about, but I mean, I was basically... My job title was Project Manager, so I was managing projects, I was on Excel and PowerPoint and all sorts of stuff, trying to organize things. And I don't know, I guess.

Yeah, I can be really good at that sort of thing, I think. But at the same time, I had other priorities at that time in my life, so I don't think I was as good as I could have been, but I used a lot of the skills today in my own for myself because I have new priorities, so I'm able to channel into those skills. Right. What are your new priorities? Well, I mean, I have a lot, but I guess number one is to learn as much about myself as I possibly can, number two is to just be to beam light out, you know? Totally. Number three is to love anyone around me, you know, and I'm around my dog, I'd say the most.

What kind of dog do you have? I guess a chihuahua, I don't know. She looks like one, but people say maybe not. I don't know, but she's four years old and yeah, she's so nice. It's awesome. What's her name? Her name's The Baby. It's awesome. I heard you got a baby though. Yeah, I have an actual human baby now. It's so cool. We both have a baby now. Totally. I have a three year old mini golden doodle too. Both. Yeah, and he was great and, you know, we always like, he's the baby, he's the baby. An actual baby. You know what's freaky to me? If, you know, like a puppy at like eight weeks old, 12 weeks old, like they're doing a ton of stuff.

Like, I'm just grateful that human babies take longer to develop because if a human baby was running around and doing this stuff, that like a dog does, it's six months, it would be terrifying because this thing, it's just totally nuts. How about, in all sorts of wild animals, they literally plop out, you know, you've seen the vids. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm watching right now in Netflix, like, because I got kind of tired with a lot of Netflix stuff. I've been watching a lot of Hulu and like TV things, but there's an Africa documentary that David Adamborough did and they were showing some crazy, there is this, oh, it's heartbreaking.

This is actually really sad not to change the tone of it, but there was like a certain type of bird and she had two kids. And one of the bigger kids was like bullying the little one and like taking its food and water. So then the mom came back and then the little baby, you know, the one who's getting picked on was all like fucked up, walked to go get like comfort from the mom and protection and she just ignored him, walked over to the, I was insane, I know, I know it was totally nuts, walked over to the other one and just gave water and food and like they left the other one to die. It was fucking nuts.

Most of the stories were happy there. Yeah. It's nature. Nature is not always pretty. It was definitely pretty in our human way of looking at things. Totally right. We're all, you know, there's some really good reason. Well, I always, I used to say this like, you know, karma and reincarnation is like a, it's a really, it's a big concept, but who's to say, and I'm not saying this is what happens, but who's to say the rich Wall Street person who is actively fucking people over. I don't have anyone's particular in mind, but let's say this person exists, fucking all these people over selfishly and greedily.

Let's say next time around, like he's born into like a shitty situation where it's terrible in Africa. Like we currently, you know, like that, explain that, explain that theory. Oh, I don't know. I mean, I guess just that people are alive and different people's life source and energy is present in multiple physical bodies. And I mean, I think it's extremely likely that there's, I don't know, maybe an infinite number of other lives happening right now or in the past or whatever, depending on like how you define time. So maybe it's possible that there's even microcosms within that within our idea of existence.

How did you tune into those type of concepts? I think I agree with you. So how did you tune into that though? Like where did that come from? I don't know. I guess that's just sort of common sense like, I know it's not what you look. I mean, maybe now it is. I remember saying not dissimilar things like 10 years ago, 15 when I was taking a fair amount of hallucinogens and you know, and I do not think it was common sense for most people. It feels like it to me. I don't know. Just the idea of that isn't the case seems psycho, but you must lock somebody up in a mental hospital and throw away the key.

I don't necessarily disagree at all, but like clearly you can look out at the reflection of society and see that most people are not operating in that parallel, right? Right. I mean, like that's like, look, Donald Trump has a fighting chance to be president. That does not indicate that people are understanding their multi-dimensional microcosm within microcosm from infinite, continuing beings, you know what I mean? I guess so. Yeah. That always surprised me. That's one of the reasons I love technology so much and I think that's another reason why I use PowerPoint in my comedy is because I just think it's funny.

It's absurd to use these tools that have only existed for a very short period of time on whatever reality that we're all living in, you know, right now and whatever this podcast is on. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I think that's one of the other things I wanted to talk about is the use of like these multimedia, because you were talking about how we were doing open mics and, you know, like the regular get up there, tell a joke, you know, premise based thing or however people are doing comedy, which is not say it's bad at all. I love a ton of stand up comedian. Of course. I love Tim Heidegger's take on a stand up comedian is like one of my favorite things.

Very inspirational. He's an incredible person, luckily gotten to know him a little bit recently, went on a camping trip and he's just so such an incredible. I mean, one of the maybe the funniest person and definitely the funniest person I've ever interacted with, I think, I mean, that's so great to hear it zudes creativity and also just such a sweet guy. Such a great guy. So that's the impression I get. I'm glad and I mean, I've seen so many things come out of just him and Eric's production company, just amazing stuff that like really resonates and like truthfully, Tim, like one of the reasons I loved him so much is I don't know, like four years ago, three years ago, he retweeted something by Vic Burger and I immediately was like, this is like one of the funniest things I've ever seen, like this is brilliant and I'm so thrilled I had Vic on earlier on the show.

Oh, my God. He's like the nice. Yeah. Oh, because I've been a fan of I love everything that Vic does too. I mean, he's just so, I mean, he, I feel like we haven't met yet, but we have very similar values. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Life. And so he's very, I mean, he's just one of the best and yeah. So I wanted to get to know him a little bit. So I listened to that podcast that you had of him. Yeah. He's like the nicest guy. I know. So nice. Well, it's interesting. I mean, and that's why I was saying about the stand up comedy, but the use of multimedia and technology, I hate using these are like really shitty terms to describe really funny things, but the juxtaposition of like how to use these and like I know people call it like absurdist humor, but I don't, I don't, I don't, I get it, I get it, but it's just to me, it's just like really funny poignant takes on things in a variety of different ways.

Like, how can you talk a little bit about how the two wet crew and it's a live show you do as well? Sorry. It's a live show, monthly show that satellite, which is a rock club in Los Angeles, Silver Lake and wait, so what was your question? I know I was, I was spiraling up there. I was wondering like with two wet crew, how, how did those concepts like come about? Like, how did you dug in Mikey get together? Like, what's the genesis of it? And then, well, yeah, it started with just the two of them actually. And Mikey and I became friends, or we were friends, but then like we, he moved into my village called Virgil Village, and we became close, very close and also I think Doug started to become familiar with my work a little bit and Doug ended up asking me to join the group and it just made so much sense because, you know, Mikey and I were becoming very close and yeah, it just seemed like really natural, nice fit.

But yeah, it started with them just, I mean, basically like wanting to put on this live show and they, you know, also wanted, or they wanted to make videos I think and they like thought the live show would be a good place to show a video. I don't know. I'm not good at this because I wasn't even part of it, but yeah, I mean, two wet crews really fun. And I wanted to say that when I said earlier that, you know, how I don't want to, I don't feel like I'm ready to showcase my truth, I guess I misspoke there because I don't, I definitely want to showcase my knowledge and my wisdom, but just not in an explicit way that I was talking about earlier where people literally say like what they're thinking, things like that, that to me, I don't think I'm ready for that.

And I definitely, everything that I do, I want to be, I mean, I don't even know if the right word is truth. Right. Right. It's just based in some sort of feeling that I want to convey or some beauty, you know, that's it. I don't care about anything else, but I definitely don't feel like I'm compelling enough as an individual to just say things from my perspective. Why not? I just don't, I think I can do better in just by pretending to be somebody else or whatever, rather than just say like, Oh, ha, I, you know, it was, I like, you know, tuna or whatever, like, that's something I like, but I don't know.

I don't want to tell people about it because I think that'll just be boring, you know? Yeah, but you have the ability to be, you have like a unique perspective on things. And I think you're, you're naturally, I'm, again, I'm basing this on the limited stuff I've heard and seen of you, but it seems like you can synthesize kind of abstract and like symbolic concepts, but in a funny way, which I think is really fucking important. That's, that's also, you know, one of the reasons I'm thrilled to have you on here is I think it's a really important thing not to get too serious about some of this stuff.

And I think that naturally is something that happens when people begin a quote unquote spiritual pursuit or a path or they read about this person and it's all austerity. And I think laughing and being able to laugh at ourselves and just some of the shit that's going on is like super fucking important. That's like a huge, huge part of being like, I think a full person. Definitely, I think it's so important and I never want any of my comedy to be anger based or fear based. I just want everything to be, I mean, my life last out, my first album that I just came out with. It's not actually an album.

I just call it that because I think I want to release like tons of albums. Yeah. Yeah. Like every few months, I just want to release what I call albums just to put things out there. Yeah. Anyways, yeah, it's called big laughs because I think, yeah, I mean, laughing is like the most fun thing to do. Yeah. Right? Yes. And also, I just, I don't know. Yeah. I guess there's a lot of different forms of humor and I'm, yeah, I guess what you're talking about earlier is I'm interested in and I think you are as well on the wavelength of humor being a novel, a wonderful experience and not even necessarily based on the concept of escape, but more just this like feeling, this place that you can enter and it's just like a beautiful meadow, you know?

I know exactly what you're talking about and it's actually what you're describing is the barometer that I use. I guess, you know, naturally to determine what I think is really funny and it's awesome. It's like, I think why we both tune into Tim and to Nick and, you know, stuff that. Were anything possible? Yeah. It was magical. You know? Yeah. And I think it is. It's like to me, this is kind of a weird analogy, but when, if you've taken mushrooms before a psilocybin, right before you really start tripping, there's like, it's like, you know, 30 to 45 minutes after you start giggling. Everything just becomes hilarious and like, I would just remember walking with my friend once and we were like a bag of potato chips was like, the funniest fucking, there was no real wammer reason and maybe we weren't really laughing at the potato chips per se.

We were just laughing because that's the thing that happens. And I think there's a huge relationship between being able to laugh at almost anything and in the face of like, you know, we're laughing on one hand, but we also know that there's a lot of shitty things going on in the world too. But I think it's a hugely important and often overlooked component, especially with spiritual. You know, I use that word a lot, but you know, spiritual, like, it's a weird hard word to pin down, but people, I use it as a term for like consciousness exploration, people who are interested in like concepts like compassion, generosity, you know, diligence, things that you can pin down to various traditions like Buddhism and Vedic scriptures and stuff.

But I think when it comes a lot with a lot of that, it gets so fucking serious like I was saying. But I do, I really think it's important and that's why I was like, that's why your character in the Omaha set, and I'm sure you're in a different place and you have a lot of other stuff that you're going on. But it was just like a very funny snapshot of something that was relatable, but also hilarious too. Thank you. Yeah. No, I think maybe one of the reasons to me that when I came up with the idea, it was so I guess a reverent or whatever is because to me, spiritual leaders are, I mean, there's really like nothing more incredible.

Like when there's a great spiritual leader speaking or exuding energy, like, that's, I mean, that's it for me. So like the idea of being a bad one was like, funny to me, you know, it's like, exactly because it's so absurd, but I mean, I guess a lot of people have really cynical views of religion or whatever and so to them it wouldn't make sense. But so then that's why I incorporate a lot of other elements that can get other people on board, musical elements, and all sorts of technology, things that are influential to me. So that's, I don't know, and then yeah, I don't want to alienate people. So I just want people to feel like a certain energy when I'm performing, you know, right?

And you're using the tools of either comedy or video or PowerPoint presentations or music. Like Mikey did that when I saw him open, be the host of the Duncan thing. He was using this Twin Peaks thing and we were in the back there. Also like the DC crowd for that was so fucking weird. Like DC is such a weird place for comedy. Like it's just they're, they're just like in another political weird world and no one was really laughing at anything. And Johnny and Mikey were fucking hilarious and people I think were just like tripped out and we were just dying in the back. But being able to use these different tools to convey energetically what you're trying to do.

And if the good thing is what it sounds like, J is your intention is very clear and you're clear about what your intention is and you want to come from a positive place and you want to make people feel good and you want to make them laugh, not necessarily ensure for everyone there's some level of ego fulfillment but really you just want to share that feeling which I think is fucking great man. I don't really even enjoy the feeling anymore. I mean when I first started stand up, I mean of course I do but okay let me explain. Yeah yeah. When I first started all I wanted was to be able to create a laugh period like you know just one laugh and just see how it felt and of course you know it was, I don't even really remember how that first one was, I mean kind of do but it was it was a nice relief but like that's not what it's all about, that was just like I had to get it out of my system just to see what it felt like but now I don't really, I don't know that's such a result swift base way of looking at life that, yeah I don't want it to be about me you know.

That's right. So I yeah you have to use it laughter as a tool to kind of gauge how people are feeling but at this time that's not even really, that's not what it's about. That's so fucking interesting man. I listen I have, I like comedy too and I joke around with my friends a lot and I love listening and watching it all but I think there's something remarkable about people who pursue it as you know, a profession and a career and you know just like this is what I want to do as a thing. I think it's like a kudos to you because it's definitely, oh and I have, you say it's not a big deal but I wonder like what, here also I have a question about this because you're out in LA and I think I'm just sensing especially with Dustin what he's doing with Farrell and just there's a lot of really great you know like UCB I'm seeing all of this stuff out there that it's just a lot of good comedies coming out of what is in your estimation like the landscape for comedians out there and just creative professionals in general because you're trying to obviously do something I think pretty important and also trying to be supported by it I imagine which is usually things people want to do so like what's it like being out in LA and this kind of scene that's going on there.

I don't know, honestly I've tried to, I guess isolate myself as much as possible and maybe I haven't, maybe I'm not completely isolated but I really try to do that and so I don't even, I guess I used to feel very connected to a community and now I feel less so and I think that's okay but I think Los Angeles comedy has, can be problematic actually. I think the problem is and I think why other cities may have advantages like let's say New York City which I think pound for pound, I haven't been there in a couple years but I live there for it. Yeah it's awesome. Yeah I mean I love New York City but I'm saying comedy wise I think they're on a, they're much more advanced actually.

Yeah I used to love going to the comedy shows there, they were always, just dropping any random one to comedy seller, it was amazing, comedy seller was amazing. Yeah I mean I think not necessarily just stand up comedians but people, the kind of ingenuity that they have out there is really actually intimidating to me because I think a lot of them share similar values and that is less focused on as we said earlier truth and more focused on maybe like a beautiful like cousin to truth which is to me maybe more interesting and, but Los Angeles of course I have some very good friends out here, great friends, best friends but I also and people are doing really amazing things, of course you know I love to at Crue, I love you know my friend Kyle Mizuno is just incredible performer, she's wonderful, wonderful friend, what's her name?

Kyle Mizuno, okay I'll check her out, yeah and I have, yeah I mean so many great friends out here who are doing really great things but I think there's a problem because yeah and I'm not sure if it's because money is here or what, I think it's probably money based but I think there's a problem and that's one of the reasons why I try to isolate myself as much as possible from a lot of like external stimuli you know, yeah, so I mean it's funny because I look at the parallels to the music industry right like I had a lot of friends who are in the music industry, a lot out in LA actually and it's a weird world out there for creatives in general and I think especially now when you amplify it with technology and you know things like I own Bitcoin and when you own Bitcoin it's like you realize how weird all of this shit is in general like there's something that had no valuation that all of a sudden is worth like a shit load of money and I think we're just in the midst of all these kind of like up leveling across the board and I notice a lot of the times what happens is creatives kind of get stuck in a weird position. What do you think I mean I don't want to push you too much on it but what do you think some of the problems are out?

No I think it's probably just the idea that there's money here and people are being monetized or people are become less, I mean there's always sliding scales but becoming less interested in that pure meadow that we were talking about and more focused on well how do I have the meadow but you know maybe have a couple pillars and some fences and like yeah it's basically the meadow but it's going to be a little different and it's definitely not going to feel like that same meadow but hey we can have some money. So do you think that money inherently clouds that like when we're saying meadow we're talking about that kind of pure feeling magical feeling that we get from just comedy that seems really authentic and amazing. What do you think do you think it's money inherently do you think it's motivations do you think it's ego what it like what's going on because I'm going ego yeah ego for sure and I think that those are all all those concepts that you just mentioned there's overlap and I think yeah it's that's not to say it's impossible to make to be a rich comedian or whatever sure and not be able to enter that place I'm just saying the likelihood reduces and overall when you have a large sample size you know it's going to create some problems in terms of like an area that is truly positive.

So and like this is interesting to me because I've experienced some of this like even in the quote unquote non-profit that's not the quote unquote quote unquote spiritual non-profit sector that should exist too like my premise when I started doing the type of work I do which is like you know conversion optimization and digital strategy I primarily work with like spiritual teachers and I've learned that no area of life professionally seems to be immune from egos and what's going on which was surprising to me in some levels but I think it's not I think it's just people and people have different perspectives and I've noticed a lot that a lot of people where things start to get fucked up unless meadow like can you start putting other things is people operate from like a scarcity model like it's almost like a sorrow some game like only I can what this is the only way to do it and I can tell you like just from direct hard professional experience like there's almost always win win win situations like there's almost always ways to have like yourself succeed your friends succeed the people who are enjoying what you're doing succeed and I think it's getting I'm talking at least to a lot of people who are more kind of on that wavelength with that which I think is encouraging and especially like I bring it up the comedy thing because I'm inspired by what's going on out in LA in a lot of ways like a lot of the stuff I really love I know that's like coming out of LA of course New York to and other places not to rule anything out but I you know I noticed not everything is incredibly pure as you're saying of course but I am interested in like you is like you know being able to support and help the people who are doing cool shit so yeah man that's it's an interesting it's interesting to hear you say that because I know it's something that I've seen across everything and I'm wondering how you know what systems will emerge to kind of support a way to keep meadow like stuff you know propagating yeah that is really interesting I guess there's no safe industry or whatever but you know I think sometimes it's important knowledge that even though these sorts of sources maybe out there that are making us feel you know cloudy egos and weird kind of creepy stuff if you look at people on a more individual level and you see like the true self in each person you realize that maybe it's not as ugly you know it's not always almost I mean almost no one no one like I love this that Ramdas he does this thing where he had George Bush on his little prayer table oh yeah he changed it to yeah Trump to Trump yeah it's so cool it's really cool I mean so I love that I think it's amazing too it's just such a it's such a simple yet effective teaching there to like oh yeah this makes it how did you but like here's a thing where your parents supportive of kind of your outlook on life did it naturally evolve like because you you must realize on some level you have a pretty optimistic and refreshing perspective about the mystery of life and all these other things like how did this how do you read about this stuff do you listen do you just intuitively kind of know it like how did that come about yeah no I guess I read I mean I even a guy like Ramdas I mean he's been very influential to me and I mean that's why I'm a huge fan of of your network because yeah so many of the teachers on there have been helpful to me and yeah I think it's just a combination of reading of you know of just immersing yourself in all sorts of teachings and and and also that includes life absolutely one one thing I mean one of the reasons that I'm so I love comedy is that you get to create I mean in addition to hopefully helping the audience feel better and and creating a nice experience for others you're a yes you can gather you can be a little bit selfish too and you can learn all sorts of new things that in turn will help you fuel the audience and so on and it's just a beautiful kind of like a recycling device you know and and yeah you can create experiences in yourself they're they're really interesting I mean one thing I like to do is create an experience for myself I mean like things like self humiliation I think doing things like that are so important and just creating new pathways in your brain right and like oh I I this is this was a huge fear of mine for a while I'm just gonna do that to myself make myself feel that feeling and survive it and then like I will grow and yeah stand up is cool because you can put yourself in like a spotlight and then create really uncomfortable quote unquote uncomfortable situations for yourself and I think that's also cool thing with comedy because that's something that most performers instinctively would avoid right you can the beauty is you can do anything you want and it's really cool some of the scenarios you can put yourself in it's so true I mean it's it's funny again coming from a musician's perspective you don't usually put yourself on stage to purposely like play the wrong note right if you're right play something but in comedy it does create this dynamic where that can you not only can play it but I mean I guess that's why people make the the connection between comedy and jazz right like there's a way to improvise and still have it work in a perfect way and as a saxophone player I can say there is some magic to that that's pretty cool that's really cool yeah you are like the comedian of the jet of the music world I mean that's that's that's beautiful I used to play a little bit of jazz piano and did some of the problem it was it was so fun and yeah I was way before I started comedy so maybe that was the gen that's good and that's such an amazing feeling when you're just sort of like oh you're tapping into some frequency with others and or even if it's just alone and then you're able to share that energy with others it's just an incredible feeling so that to me I think was what was my original prompt for wanting to originally talk about some of these concepts and then next just talk about them with friends and create a space where people felt comfortable talking about some of these things was those alone periods where you really do make contact with something pretty pretty amazing and then wanting and immediately realizing like wow everyone should be able to feel like this everyone should be feeling like this like as much as possible this is like a really useful and beneficial thing that is a totally like that's that has been a main motivating factor in my life for a long time I can go back to some of the first times I felt something like that and wanting to share it in whatever way that makes sense I just I think it's great man that comedy is one of your outlets for getting this stuff out because I'm telling you and I and I don't mean this lately like I I think it's really really fucking shit and that I usually have a pretty good hip percentage for people who are really funny and do cool stuff so I did yeah who you got did you get whoa Titus did you like Titus Titus oh my god like one of my favorite shows ever so great I never his his whimsical takes on everyday life are you kidding me amazing I just like a style I just like aesthetically how he looks so cool you're supposed to think it's cool when you're a kid I think okay well dude speaking of comedy like what are what are you mentioning your friend but what are you really digging right now like what should I be tuning into that maybe I'm not I stalked your your Facebook video you're not your Facebook your YouTube video thing and I watched some of your videos I watched it to you to mean I don't really posting no no no not anything you posted but it's like my favorite yeah I watched the pumping thing I was nothing had a lot the pump the 3d pumpkins yeah the 3d pumpkin thing oh yeah for sure I yeah anyone can feel free to go through my favorite side there's a lot of good stuff in there yeah I mean cuz I spent a lot of time on on YouTube yeah it's amazing it's really awesome oh my god it's so good like I mean I just love searching anything that I can think you know just whatever pops into my mind I search it and then I look at the most recently uploaded ones that have like zero or one view exactly that's it's just you can do that forever I need that somebody's profile and go through exactly it's so amazing I do that with vines sometimes like I'll go to the real time weird vines and just watch like something with one loop that is me watching just like the weirdest fucking thing ever that's pretty fun too yeah but YouTube's amazing I love I yeah I just love the internet it's really awesome it's pretty great so good I mean really like it's a dream it's it's truly like I don't think people think about it enough that way because I remember what it was like before the internet it's so crazy that it exists now and it's like people have already adjusted to it people already like think that's like the norm you know like my my son is gonna grow up where the internet has already existed for a long time like I also remember like dial tones and like having to go like I remember before cell phones you know I mean like this shit it's nuts so yeah the internet is pretty I mean it's it's I think there's a nice interesting parallel and I use this a lot when I when in my professional life that I don't think the internet is all that different than the not internet and I think the same things work on the internet that work in life there's different obviously technological advantages and disadvantages but it's what you make of it it's an inherently neutral thing sure people maybe trying to color it a certain way with certain flows of information and what we see and what we don't but really you can do whatever you want if you really want it's completely open and free and the stuff you seek out is is much of a reflection I mean that's that's also the thing with mine pod network and you mentioned it like I always wanted it to be somewhat of a I wanted to be kind of an antidote to some of the stuff that isn't really making people's lives better especially on social media feeds or emails or just you know you want shit that's gonna be potentially helping people and be like a little beacon out in the sea of people putting stuff on the internet so absolutely yeah man I'm glad school you dig it I love it I can really do I mean there's so many cool things about the internet I just like there's this one an account on Twitter that's incredible that it's just it's like in Arabic or something and it they post photos of like men without clothes on and they always are good everything like you can just find accounts and everything they do is good because you know it's there's no wrong nothing wrong with it you know everything that they do that so many people do online is perfect and I love it so much I mean that's a huge like that's the thing I don't want I try to avoid certain things that are like you know when too much time is put into something I don't want I don't necessarily even I'm not interested but if something is yeah like as I said something that's uploaded like on YouTube and it has one or two views and all their videos get one or two views ego is a hundred percent removed from the situation right right there's some other thing compelling them to do it exactly yeah you can tap into some of the most incredible stuff really I mean like okay I mean one of my favorite things that I've watched I mean he's no and you know I know Vic is actually a fan of this guy too and he's not like this is a guy not Timmy no okay Daniel songer now who is that okay so he is definitely my favorite comedian on earth he is this man in Georgia or whatever I think he lives in Georgia or South Carolina and he would yeah just record himself doing stand up in his backyard and I know I know Vic's a fan because I was on his Facebook recently and actually Cole Kush do you know Cole Kush yes yes yeah he is oh my god I mean he's just such a I'm such a fan of his work and he's this brilliant animator in lives in Edmonton and everyone should look him up who's listening to this and anyways we he stayed with me for a couple weeks recently and we tried to watch as many as part of this guy Daniel songers videos I mean I've done that before I've watched almost all of them there's 253 I believe all about six eight minutes long or whatever and some have some you know have these like crazy titles and have been shared like you have to watch oh I've already googled him I haven't queued up ready to go as soon as this is done don't don't worry you can just watch like 10 in a row that's the beautiful thing I'd say he's the biggest influence to this character that I created which is what my album was called Big Laugh so it's basically I tried as hard as possible to channel Daniel's energy and to me that's the most fun thing you can do in the world is just be completely free and childlike like that come up or that when the mushrooms are like just starting to kick in like that that sense and being able to channel that on stage and projected out to an audience Daniel songer does it to thousands if not millions of people and he is incredible he's an incredible person I gotta check him out I gotta check him out that sounds awesome dude this is something so cool about just being like almost like a child on stage that's what Daniel does that's what I try to do it's like you know like dancing like a kid does you know like I'm trying to do more dancing I have this song called Who Let the Laughs Out yeah yeah in the album and I've been playing it on stage with the karaoke track so I want the crowd to sing and dance and you know it's just so fun to be able to dance like you're like you did when you're a child well I it's funny I tweeted yesterday I was like you know dancing like an idiot by yourself is like a top 8 activity in life it's just like one of the most fun things you can do and if you don't do it especially if you can share that with people yeah it's so much fun yeah it's not just you enjoying it because it almost do it when you're doing it alone I mean yeah that's very important to do things alone but and when you're able to do it publicly and truly convey like hey this is a fun choice then that's a cool that's just a cool thing to share with with humanity yeah man I I really dig it Jay this is I I have one question before we go but this has been really awesome I'm really happy we got tuned into each other yeah but we never went on video you're talking about oh my god well let's do it right now I'll ask you the last question hold on I totally forgot do I just click start video yeah hey nice to meet you man am I what you thought I yeah I mean I've seen I've seen you okay so last question we'll do this again because this is like I just want to stay stay in touch and tell me what you got going on because I want to help promote it like I'm really like I said I don't take it like I'm very impressed with what you're doing and I think it's it's really fun I want to help support I support everything you do not just saying that no I feel inspired that's awesome and so okay the last thing if you had like a practical tip to give to the listeners that have that's helped you in your life what would it be I guess just this is just such like a simple concept and it's it's so easier said than done but I mean really just reduce all fear from your life whether it's from meditation or exercise or eating healthy or just selfless service or yeah just writing down a list of everything you're afraid of and and making it a point with with a timeline even to do every single thing on that list when you're able to eliminate fear from your life you just that'll just completely change the way you view the world the way you view fellow man and woman you know what I mean it's just incredible feeling it well that's what I'm saying it's it opens you up to a degree of freedom which I don't think people are enough accustomed to feeling in their regular lives a lot of people feel trapped like your you and I are living relatively alternative lifestyles than the majority of people in this country and in the western world like most people still get up and go to a job like that's most people maybe in our friends not me and not everyone we know so that kind of reinforces a degree of conformity and just like what's going on but I think what you're saying is so fucking true right if you can get over fear if you can and not only get over it but inject love and acceptance and other things and it really sound like kind of mushy concept sometimes but if you can really do that the things that start to happening you don't sound mushy to me but to you they don't to you they don't I'm always reinforcing it because as much as I know they don't feel mushy to me and I don't feel mushy to you a lot of people like I was reading an article where someone was talking about work compassion was like people think that's a mushy word which is insane to me because that's like a word that really expresses I think something pretty wonderful yeah that's like one of the most beautiful concepts right ever and it's mushy I don't like that so but I think that was that Lewis black just shaking that's my Lewis black is really good great it's like constipated basically just shouting just shouting shit dude thank you so much for coming on and we'll we'll definitely stay in touch and figure out other cool way thanks so much for having me it's truly an honor oh let me just show you my dog really yeah yeah please do it once I'm sorry this is my dog baby oh gee that's how many to all right I think so but the paper said mixed or whatever so I don't know eyes are beautiful yes she's really an amazing animal wow I love her so much that's so awesome that's so awesome you have your dog that I could see he's down sit here yeah let me let me get him let me get him hold on oh hey Alicia is already said his name's maceo oh maceo maceo maceo like James Brown saxophonist maceo Parker oh I see I don't always understand musical references no no maceo maceo Parker is something like just to be clear every vet appointment he's never gets called the right name is see it's like a baccio it's tough for people but you look it up though maceo maceo Parker he was on Spotify he's got like basic he was James Brown saxophonist so like are you still doing sax right now no man I sold my saxophone why well this is a great question I sold it originally because I wasn't playing it that much I so when I went to music school you had to play an instrument to get into my college and which college Berkeley college music in Boston so I I played saxophone because you had to play an instrument and I had been playing saxophone my whole life and then I basically started really falling in love with electronic music like like underground house stuff at the time and just like experimental stuff and so I started getting less and less interested in playing the saxophone so I got through college had it afterwards never gigged with it never played with people so I kind of lost interest in it and I sold it and I can't tell you how many times I'm like damn I wish I didn't sell my fucking saxophone so I'll get another one yeah you could buy one probably a good deal - probably for a good deal oh and not to mention like I sold the saxophone I sold I think I sold it for like shit like three grand I think it's worth like eight nine thousand dollars oh whoa so just like a total next I don't sell musical instruments anymore I'm holding on to all of them so yeah yeah exactly yeah well I do a lot of this stuff on the computer but I'm gonna start but I don't have like a really good space to do my music stuff because I'm in I'm actually in the house I grew up in Ireland because my mom has a house in upstate New York and we came back here because I pay like five hundred dollars in rent and the utilities you know to live here relative to living in Manhattan when it was like three thousand dollars for our one bed so we're raising the kid here we're gonna move back probably to the New York area and then I'll have like an actual space to make music again because this is like a converted office and there's a bed in here and it's like like that but yeah man dude thanks for coming on and like seriously I I know you mean it to open door whatever you need I'll try to think of some cool shit but if you want cool ever talk cool yeah man really nice awesome I'm excited for a start of a friendship it was really nice to meet you yeah nice to meet you too man bye peace.

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Thank you for listening past the music as always if you're new to the show thank you so much for tuning in I hope you liked it you're listening to this point I'm assuming that you did if you don't like the show and you're listening to this point what are you doing I mean come on turn it off by now if you're returning listener and staying past the music awesome always you guys for the best rate and review synchronicity on iTunes or Stitcher or wherever I really appreciate that doesn't cost you anything easy to do.

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