Chad Riden Is An OG AFL’er Who Coulda Been A Letterman Scholarship Kid

you're watching the Letterman podcast with Mike chisen endorsed by the hello Deli yeah welcome once again to the Letterman podcast my name is Mike Chisum all right today we got comedian Chad Ryden uh Chad has been a standup he's he's so much more than a standup again we go into this near the end of the episode he's like a performance artist in in in many regards he is a standup but he is so much more and very much cut from the cloth of the audience the people who were felt like we were in the clubhouse of of uh of David Letterman and Company and the and the Productions that they would put out there we in the audience who just uh were inspired um you know this guy has has Mischief um hardwired into him and at the beginning of the show like we talk a lot of Letterman in this show but it's a long episode and the beginning is just me shooting the bowl with a standup comic and I love stand-up comics I I I I'm involved in the scene locally where I live I really really have always appreciated the art of stand up but people who do it and The Eclectic nature of them I compare them all to Fab eggs near the end it's it's true they are um he's got a lot of great stories of things that he has done in his career including his the way that his very first encounter with David Letterman happened um it's nothing short of astounding and it's one of those things where where there's Whimsy involved with it but also a lot of hard work a lot of effort on his part to make things happen in his life um he's talked about his his his uh career in standup uh both um putting on shows but also being uh you know how he got into it what he did you know he's had many many many um connections with standups Through The Years uh including guys like Ralphie May and and and Nate bergi um and and and many other I'm not even doing Justice to uh the adventures that Chad Ryden has been on if you want to see what Chad is doing go to Chad ren.

comom um and that'll be a gateway to everything else that is doing he lives off the grid very very um I would almost say eccentric he's an eccentric Adventurer he really is I just appreciate Chad so much and he was a member of AFL the early AFL alt.

fan.

Letterman this was the group that I didn't know existed that I wish I knew existed um if I was not so technologically challenged growing up um you know and these people who had this a very special connection to the show you know um they would go once a year or or once every couple years to the show uh Tony Mendes would welcome them in and and and they would many times be part of the be part of the Tony Mendes Show um and and I've said this I've been uh privileged to be part of some of the reunions that some of the AF lers have and um open invitation anybody who is a part of the early AFL has an open invitation to be on the show here Chad is just a guy that I've connected with um immediately as soon as I met him I enjoy every encounter that we've had uh so without oh you know what the letter podcast is one sponsor one sponsor only that is Rupert G's hellodd deli.com go to hellodd deli.com for one of your only official places to buy Late Show with David Letterman merchandise hats and mugs and shirts and all that sort of stuff you can also go to the official Letterman store as well they have different stuff at each store so I highly recommend going to hello.com also go to the official Letterman store this baby here arrived last week I've got a a barber Gaines baseball tea I love baseball te's I'm an child of the 80s uh coming as well um but anyway without further Ado please enjoy uh this very expansive fun conversation that I had with comedian Chad Ryden all right Chad right off the bat I got to tell you uh dogs Trend well on the show uh we got who's who's who do we got with us uh you know that's joining us today this is my dog Riddle's best friend Denver Denver come on say hi to the people am man uh he he is actually uh placed in dog competitions oh he yeah he number one in shedding number one in fur production every time and I'm covered with dog hair head to toe always am not just him there's there's so many other dogs my daughter was being critical of me and uh I was like listen I think this protects Me From Evil it's nice seasoning these different dogs every dog I meet wants to come meet me because they smell the other dogs on me it's it's a nice social thing and we're having fun what's why are you so critical she's like I was like I think this protects Me From Evil and my daughter said Dad it protects you from women and I didn't think that was true or nice at all but she I don't know who knows I defer to her on every issue she's the Next Generation knows what they're doing I don't and I did the best I could raising her and she's better than me she's honestly perfect and awesome and that's all you have to do with your kids to make them if you if you want good people sometimes you have to make them and by just you control their world it's like our parents were restricting NWA and screaming about public eny meanwhile those groups were 100% correct all along yeah but like I just take advice from my child I'm like you're in charge of everything you know you run the whole ship uh because she's an artist she's a cartoonist and an animator she's brilliant she went to nationville school of the arts she had a great education different High School experience than me uh just surrounded by artists and then and she was like Chad ab's dad father she calls me Father she's a father very for and she's like Father I've seen your starving artist [ __ ] life and I don't want that I don't ever want to make art for somebody I don't like or respect for money because I have to I want to make art for my heart and if people like it great and if not who cares it's something I made for me and not for money for some corporate [ __ ] that doesn't respect me or ever give a crack uh take money and half to do it for the money she's she's 21 now she went to and she was looking at art colleges and instead she went to merary school uh gupton in Nashville which is a historic school and she she wanted she's like no matter where I go around the world people will need care and their families will need care death is a Recession Proof job and uh she's like I can do this and then uh do my art and I'm not pressured to live in a school bus in the desert like you and so I was like yeah you're in charge of everything dude take over she's like I'm smart enough not to do that I'm not I'm not going to be liable for your non she is 21 years old you have imparted wisdom on her simply by the example that you set she just kind of went the other way and the crimes the crimes I committed directly in front of her with her as an accomplice and sometimes you know an alibi like I've I've trained this child and like you know I couldn't I hated the neighborhood kids you have kids you start talking about kids no I never liked anybody else's kids my child is great and her friends are usually great but normal kids just out feral in the streets no they're not all and I can't kick their asses but I put my daughter into Taekwondo so she could go out into the yard and just kick their asses so she would do that and she was my little Hitman she still to this day she could K she could start kicking my ass when she was about nine and uh she started belting and going into tournaments in Tao and uh you know she still can to this day handily like no problem I put it up against anybody that's that's really why I'm on this show is yeah because I'm I want to battle my daughter in your children in an arena let's dig a pit I've got a pit I've got a pit prepared yeah yeah a pit okay yeah a pit is way better than an octagon that's that's more metal that's more metal than an octagon there's no question mine is 22 square feet and it's this perfect circle and uh you bring your children I'll bring mine that's all I'm saying to anybody oh the circumference of violence I love it this is going to be great um it's funny you know rert G and I have bonded over I've got a granddaughter and my grandaughter is in MMA and she just how how was rert G first of all oh Rupert's awesome he's doing great and your granddaughter I'm so sorry to interrupt no don't be no are you kidding me no no no but we've bonded over this because Rupert's a big he's a big UFC fan and uh and and so my granddaughter has been doing MMA for four years and she just had her first tournament and she AB iend my offer 100% it's off the table she's only six see I I talk all the [ __ ] and then other people do my dirty work how's your kid she it's my granddaughter she's six your your your daughter's spinning back kick will still handily kick my granddaughter across the circumference of Doom and it'll be it'll be fine but uh she 300 pound bodies into uh incinerators all day long she is she's she'll she's she's a Bruiser dude I wouldn't put anybody against her um but we bonded over that like I I just I I put up on the social medias um you know my my grandaughter just had our first tournament and and and and rert has been basically hanging on tell me how your granddaughter is doing how is she we we've done FaceTime calls with her and and it's just he B we he loves the fact that she's in mixed martial arts at six years old um your everybody should do it everybody should do it she was always a good kid but she and she always had discipline and she was was great I I I barely ever had to Pat her on the butt maybe two times in her life and she was screaming probably just that that the idea that she had disappointed me but she there was a Bruiser in the school and he was going around kicking kids asses and threatening everybody and he he kicked her in the face on the school bus he was clo kids on the playground like you know consistently and then I went and audited the class and you know teacher says bring out a pencil everybody brings out a pencil except for this kid who is fighting somebody for their pencil and chewes on it and then throws it across the room and it's like they I was that kid okay I I understand what that is yes you know that that is you you know a lot of stuff it's warning signs for a lot of things yep I think abuse and my case and I would guess that kid's too and uh you know they act out in this way and I but they they have them in the classroom they're integrated and they can't get them out I I got sent to the special ed room in first grade like as soon as they like within 10 days of school and I'm sitting there with kids that have severe problems and I was very insulted but I understand what they were doing to me too they're trying to break me yeah I was at the principal's office every day no matter what also swing the seats for you to be a stand up comedian well I mean that's it I think it's like the the defense mechanism of being funny and then having to laugh at stuff that's so horrible and and stupid and like the most frustrating thing to me is I know exactly how dumb I am and that is extremely frustrating and that's been a problem my whole life and I can't stop saying the thing so it's like my my grandfather was a preacher my great-grandfather was a preacher and there was a lot of pressure on me my my parents are in a religious zealots and a cult and so there's a lot of pressure on me be a complete dirt bag and that's really working out so but yeah my defense mechanism was always comedy you have to see how funny it is this is crazy everything every every everything I've ever encountered in my life that would be if I was a meme on the internet you you know just like none of this makes sense and it's stupid and then they got me reading the Bible right these crazy religious people right so I got in trouble at bible camp for reading the Bible too much because I would say it back to them and I would have something funny about what they're doing wrong and three Biblical scriptures like my grandfather taught me and they don't like that they don't like when you read their book to them because they don't read it they just wave it around yes and as soon as I realize that the the biggest fakest Christians in my family and in my world we're all Hypocrites this guy's drunk and he cheats on his wife 100% of the time she's on pills to fight the pain and she's you know bangging everybody in town too and then they get old and they're all seile and everything's falling apart and that lie falls apart because their brains have fallen apart and they can't hide it anymore and they're just screaming wearing diapers full of their own poo that's my family and so it's like how you know it's all and it's been like that for generations and I am not supposed to talk about it they don't like it when I talk about it but that's where I come from that's my DNA my my father's a crazy person he made national news headlines in 2015 for talking to Mother Jones magazine and telling them that they're just Trump calling uh cold calling Trump uh candidate uh uh what are they call delegates yeah Trump they were cold calling Trump delegates trying to find a crazy one and uh they found a ringer in my dad he picked up the phone right away and he said a lot of crazy stuff that made Prince immediately um and I among them he said anybody who stay away from the constitution in all three Federal branches of government uh should be he said the nice word is removed or uh but the the reality is we want to kill those people with guns bombs and tanks anybody in any branch of government who straight away from the Constitution uh he he advocated the assassination murder of the people you can't say you want to murder and with guns okay yes those are very popular very effective bombs where are we getting bombs but tanks I like tanks gun bombs and tanks specifically well it's like the local police are armed with tanks that's I forgot about that you know but whatever those are the people that rais me uh you know by my when he made that national news head I've got Google alerts set up for everybody in my family so when my nephew runs a race and he gets number one I hear about it I see the photos in the newspaper when my dad says to brother Jones magazine your dad goes off the rails the judicial the legislative and the executive branches of the government his Google alert started blowing up so like getting all these alerts and and then I I look at it and my dad has said this in this magazine and so I I call him I call the house he picks the phone right up and he's like hey Chad how's it going I was like hey uh Dad how are you and he's said oh I got a couple beans out of the a couple buckets of beans out of the garden uh corn looks good okay dinner's almost ready here's your mom and uh like noad no no no no no I have questions for you and he's like oh how what's that how are anything going on in your life he's like oh your brother fix that oil leak on the truck that's about it like Dad I've been getting alerts about you on the internet oh yeah send me the link I'll send you the 75 links I've compiled so far like this is blowing up how are you the first person how are you the first person asking about this oh he was like Chad don't you know those are liberals in California who who are trying to take my words out of context so people won't vote for Mr Trump and I like that's who they are uh and yes taking a the most interesting quote anybody's said in their lives out of context is the story and by all means publish your full diet tribe that's the part that everybody's mad about I was like yeah why dad turn off your phone delete your Facebook page stop talking to the media and he's like well they've already told me that I was like who the voices you hear from Heaven no he's like the Republican Party called me and they said you know all those things he just said I was like well why are you answering your phone why is your Facebook still up what why are you talk he's like Chad they don't tell me what to do I do what Mr Trump says and that's it and that's what he told the Tennessee Republican party and so they escalated the call to Trump's uh headquarters and they called the house right and they told my dad the same thing this is back in 2015 this is 2015 he's like I only take you know orders from Mr Trump so Donald Trump himself called my dad's house yeah well his assistant did when dad picked up they connected and it's Donald Trump and he said Mr Ryden you need to tone it down bring negative attention to the campaign I assume he said it in less coherent ways over the course of two hours but uh essentially he the craziest person no matter what you believe about him he's the craziest person in all of American politics that's Donald Trump and and I always knew he was a piece of [ __ ] because of the Letterman show uhhuh I have been watching David Letterman since 1983 I had a babysitter I was upset my parents would let me watch The Tonight Show monologue and then I would have to go to bed on Friday nights only and so I understood Johnny Carson and I knew all the jokes and I loved it and I could not watch the show if those people didn't die or go away and so my favorite babysitter was like of course watch the entire Tonight Show and then David Letterman comes on and I was like holy [ __ ] what is this yep what is this yep because this is not Johnny Carson Yep this is something completely different yep and he doesn't give a [ __ ] about anything and every the joke is Show Business and the joke is the show and the fact that they have this room full of equipment and they can do whatever the [ __ ] they want with it and it's chaos and it's Chris Elliott popping up the walls and God knows what else going on in that program from all these amazing brilliant people who went on to basically change comedy take comedy and [ __ ] it out just eat it out eat out everything that was ever comedy before them and then [ __ ] out the greatest show they could and if it didn't work [ __ ] it we try the same thing tomorrow but change one thing on it and then run this joke into the ground until everybody's so sick of it and it explodes and it hurts and then do it again until it's funny again and I loved that so much yes because kid like my parents are psychos and we did not have pop culture in our home we had two records in the house uh Elvis and uh Tiana brass and this is in Tennessee this is you grew up in Tennessee in Chicago so my father from Tennessee East Tennessee my mom's from North Dakota okay he basically dodged the draft in uh Vietnam by getting Al gor senior to vouch for him in the Air Force and so he got in on his recommendation and was classified as a nuclear weapon specialist um and deployed in M out North Dakota where all the bombs are or the um Minute Man 3 missiles were silos are and uh he he was building and doing those things and and managing and setting up all those little electronics and [ __ ] wow bringing a guy but like this is a because those guys aren't with in allowed within 100 miles of a war zone you know so that's that classification keeps him in North Dakota that's where he meets my mom uh I guess they they were in South Carolina for a while he was working for Duke power after the Air Force and he was a whistleblower there he noticed he was a an inspector a quality assurance engineer is what they call him yeah and so he he goes around and he checks and he he found something that was [ __ ] up and he reported it like he's supposed to it went through the proper channels and they're like no that's not a problem at all and so he went over his supervisor's head and did the same thing like twice and then went to the nuclear Reg atory commission and showed them this thing and and it turned out to be yeah it was a [ __ ] up thing and it was good we caught it but um they blackballed him in the industry for a while so he stopped working in nuclear power sued the United States government for something I don't understand what it was I've seen some of the paperwork and it's all legal garbage I don't understand and but that I'm sure I assure you it did not work out that lawsuit um but you know kind of a crazy uh and then so they get a job he gets a job working for the nuclear Regulatory Commission and they're based in Chicago or they had an office in Chicago I guess it was actually a very small office in Chicago it was him and another guy the local NRC guys I remember that very specifically but uh and then it was just him for a while and then they closed that office and so after that office was closed and so we were in Chicago West Chicago when I was a kid Y and which is so crazy to me okay so we yeah parents were testing in North Dakota now we're in Chicago I figur that's halfway between both their families it's a hard drive for either of their families so they can't just show up I didn't learn that lesson until a lot later in line but uh yeah the these are crazy people so we were latch key kids my mom worked for Scholastic uh the scam company that would set up a book fair in your Elementary School and steal your children's money steal your money hey man I had a Scholastic Return of the Jedi book up until four years ago and I love that book I'm very grateful for this company because she walked home with a 1983 Apple 2E setup and every piece of software that Scholastic put out yeah and uh it was cool it was very it was it's an incredible library of software and it was great for a kid there's typing programs there's gamified things there's a lot of really great stuff and it's all educational and wholesome and whatnot but I was like Mom I want video games and very smart of her she was like no you have to make your own and she handed me a book about programming and so it was Apple basic programming that's why she's like if you want your own if you want video games you have to make them and so that's what I started and I was making these text games and stuff and then got got into like this friend down the street who stepdad I think I don't know guy who showed up a lot he had like some BBC uh connection on his computer he had a modem and he would download games and he would download bootleg stuff so we play Blu slee and Ultima and all these other incredible games for free off bootlegs and then me and my little friends would get together and swap show up with five and a quarter discs and swap our stolen software to each other and laugh and but I I mean as a kid I was a latchkey kid so I would just go down to the Osco Jewel and I would shoplift Mad Magazine Y and uh I was listening to Weird Al yeah so because we didn't really have pop culture in the house I had radio in Chicago and I really enjoyed like everything I heard on the Spectrum but uh as far as media in our house and in our car it was never like anything fun I didn't know any pop music but my neighbor across the street had a a a Nintendo Entertainment System before anybody else so we had Super Mario Brothers at Doc hunt and we would go over there every day no matter what and his older brother from a previous marriage father died in Vietnam tragic story but uh Brad Brad had every weird owl album and he was very funny himself but he I got copies of Weird Al albums from him and I played them over and over and over so my soundtrack to my life is Weird Al on a loop I have not heard the original versions of these songs in my life that secular world we went to church five nights a week and and you know our music was church music we you know and every once in a while you get a glimpse of something on the radio but it's like not exposed to pop culture and not allowed to watch TV either really and so um like I say it was a lot of restrictions so like I set the VCR to record Letterman every night yep you know starting in like third grade because the sound every I'm exposed to TV shows reading the Mad parody before I ever see the TV show yeah that's a very interesting that's a very interesting perspective seeing these things from the comedy um satire before I I think it was a Few Good Men I was the same thing with a Few Good Men I I saw the I saw everything with about A Few Good Men before I actually saw the movie I saw it years later and I love little examples of that but that was your entire uh Spectrum that's exactly what you saw was the parody before the yeah that's that's f i turn on the radio and I hear these songs hit songs by the original artists and I'm like this is a shitty unfunny version of Weird Al why are you guys ripping off weird Ow like the the joke in the weirdo film on Roku which is excellent I think the funniest movie of uh I can remember in decades fantastic the big joke of you know uh I foret what I'm saying hey this is sponsored by Atomic Dog Water stolen by the natives sold by plastic jugs Atomic Dog dog care water Chad you're like a windup toy um this is fantastic sorry I eat I eat marijuana buds in the morning with my coffee chuma and I and it it it gives me um it makes me motivated yeah mom always said like it would make me lazy instead on the couch and eat food that's true but it motivates me and it's legal here and I love my life well I'm from British Columbia so I know a little bit about uh I know a little bit about that uh that that that that subject eating marijuana buds and drinking coffee that sounds like it goes down smooth it really does it's like a it's it's fibrous you know I mean you can mix it into stuff and be a human about it I just I'm very lazy and I live in a school bus so I have to simplify and I have things in containers and everything has to be in a glass jar otherwise the mice are going to get it so I've got I've got nice buds that I grew in jars and I'll just take one out and out of laziness I'll chew up like something I don't know about size of a half dollar and drink my coffee and people are like it's got to be activated by heat I was like my listen I'm H first of all start there uh but like the coffee does a little something and it's a different thing and you're eating the thing and it's not smoking which is painful to Inhale Smoke you know but my brother stumbled Upon A a nice patch in East Tennessee on bow Waterland it's this paper mill that smells horrible halfway between Knoxville and Chattanooga and that's pretty much where our acreage is in Tennessee yeah uh and on there you know they have land that they own hundreds and hundreds of thousands of acres and this little gorilla pot farmer had like nine plants out there that were perfectly beautiful and like crystallized red bud with hairs on them and very well manicured in a time where we we were getting swag weed that was compressed [ __ ] and that's all we ever knew and this is the craziest [ __ ] we've ever seen so like we we it was Harvest Time and I feel bad that we stole this guy's Harvest but the way he was doing it he's a Pro and he's got those little Gill spots everywhere all throughout you know not all the he's not gonna miss one exactly well he will but but boy we each we each walked away three brothers we cut it all down put it in garbage bags took it to the top of the mountain and broke it up sitting on top of my brother's uh Jeep Cherokee 79 Jeep Cherokee yeah and and and we we had like nine pounds of Bud uh and and and we divided that so each of us had a bag of three and we put it in the freezer and we' dry it out cure it and share it with whoever never sold it like people kept trying to buy it and we're like no what would we do take this money and buy shittier weeds this is the best thing I've ever had I took those seeds and I I I I only two of them out of six seeds out of all that stuff was what we got and two of them were viable and I grew them and then I gave them to my brother and he says they got eaten by deer in the woods but I don't believe that but I don't think it'll ever be legal in Tennessee and it sure is here and so like the first thing I did was start because the pr previous owner of my place had a little grow pit yeah like just to beat the 75 mile winds I'm at 7,200 FT elevation T is hilariously 6969 elevation like we're up here and the winds can be like 70 miles an hour at a time so like it's a pit that I've got that will be a walpen someday that I'll build it out with Hyper DOI but uh right now it's just a pit and that's what I grow my crops in and I was always a gardener my grandfather's gner so grandfather's a preacher good guy I didn't like his um fire and Brim Stone sermons and sometimes I would go see three or four of them a week because he was on the circuit in East Tennessee uh United Methodist Church and is a very poor area and he would serve sometimes three or four churches so you'd get up in the morning and You' go do a sermon at 7 AM and you you and they would frontload it so he would do the sermon first at that church and then they would do everything else so he could leave and he would drive to the second church and do a sermon like whatever 8:30 walk into a thing already in progress he show showes up he's the headliner he says his sermon and we do the meet and greet and then we go to the third church and so he would drive around and and you'd be trapped with them to hear the thing over and over and over and then see all these people uh and hear and then but the great thing he did was like if there was road kill and he rode these roads if there was roadkill rabbit he would pick it up and he would throw it in the car and we' take it home and Grill it wow he that kind of guy and he gardened so he had an acre Garden they were on three acres of land in in marville and Westwood Drive so if you take Westwood Drive in marville Tennessee that is my family's driveway and now there's a neighborhood around it the house at the end of the original spiral yeah is the the Ryden house and so that's where my dad grew up and uh but yeah those those people how did I get off on this I'm on no no no it's it's it's okay this you're set you're setting the stage for um why you went down the path of being a comedian but also the path how could you not they're all preatures so all preachers and uh it's just like and I'm in church and I'm and I'm making everybody mad and Scouts right so Scouts is a lot of God and Country propaganda [ __ ] in there I was very interested in the camping the crafting Wilderness survival was my [ __ ] y I want to get out here and see everything I'm really not into hunting but I will fish uh but you know it's like I I want to be out there and I want to dig around and have fun and that was scouts and I never had understand there a lot of problems that a lot of people had and I have not been happy with the organization in general my entire life they have made some changes in the right direction but anyway I was a scout you know everywhere I go I'm getting into trouble Scout Troop making fun of the scout leader or whatever the [ __ ] we're doing that's dumb like so we're planting food menus and every single time I would say let's get spam sandwiches and the you know and the Scott leader would just lose his mind because he hates spam doesn't want spam this is the kind of guy he takes he's he's a lot like my paw where he would take uh my papa I used to call him he would take rabbit he would make stew but he would do venison stew too uh so like this dude was a Vietnam vet he was a medic in Vietnam but he he was trying to get fully automatic weapons at that paper mill plant he was the head of security at the Papermill plant that smells like rotten eggs when you drive by feels the paint off your car they got showers outside of this paper mill plant because uh your car the paint will eat off if you don't rinse [ __ ] off of it and they're right underneath it so what we would do with kids is take our piece of [ __ ] beaters and go down into that parking lot and then do a donut and circle out and get our free little car wash under the thing and they hated us for that but what are they gonna do so like we would do that kind of stuff and drive around and vandalize things but I was writing jokes I'm consuming comedy yeah and so it's like I'm obsessed with I've always been obsessed with Monty Python that was on Nickelodeon it seemed yeah absolutely way sooner than it should have been in my development into my brain but it's perfect timing and then I remember like Howard Stern had a satellite uh show it it was almost like a public access cable looking show but it was on uh cable and my grandparents had cable my preacher grandpa had cable so he'd be laying on his bed in in his bedroom uh working on sermons or in the garden that's where I got started with this tangent part Garden he had an acre Garden on westw drive and this preacher would grow food way more than he could do and he'd sit out there and trap and shoot rabbits and squirrels but then he would take this food and we' drive around to all these poor people's places and his prisioners were very very poor people but they were also proud and they didn't want a hand out but the way he would do it was very tricky he would say you know I grew too much and this is going to rot if you don't take it take whatever you want yep but you would have a box prepared for them and so he would just prepare these boxes like of food he grew and he would just drop them off and that's all he did all day was driveing around with these people and that's how he would reach out to them and I I went on him with a couple of those runs too and this is a different person than the guy that was preaching right this is somebody who is fulfilling a need and doing it a way that respects these people and helps them and they love them and uh that was different than the fire and brimstone preach preaching but like everywhere I'm going I'm like I'm calling [ __ ] on stuff and I can't not say it so I was getting kicked out of the principal's office these are all jokes and they're hitting of course and and it's so crazy to have like you know but but but then they had a psychological drop in like first grade I told you I got moved into the special head room and they they' sent a psychiatrist in to audit the classroom so uh but she had this thing she wrote up and she'd met with me a couple times uh and I talked to her one1 and then she wrote up this report for them and and I ended up stealing it I stole my high school transcript folder I walked to I walked in and just to stole the folder I returned it uh I I all did was I removed any mention of my middle name in it at all I just blacked it out or cut it out and redacted it completely from record and I stole one item uh this psychological review from from first grade it was still in my high school folder it had been passed on physically from school district to school district because we moved to Tennessee when I was 12 this is so crazy but what she said about me as a first grader was uh Chad never ever raises his hand in class to to uh offer answer a question yeah but every time called on he has the right answer uh he appears bored and he is just doing whatever he can to entertain himself and that's literally what she said but it also could be my bio for everything I've ever done pretty bang on at six years old bang on constantly in trouble and it's just me you know using you know rebelling against against my father or the absence of a father uh like my third grade teacher Ronda Brown Jewish woman hilarious and in class of kids screamed out Jesus she would say he's not here and he's not coming back and she denies that I've I've talked to her about this as an adult that she blames her ex-husband joedie Brown she says no that may have been something Joe said but I would never have said that like bu [ __ ] I heard that in class every single time she may not remember it but she that's I loved her so much and she saw in me a problem child who was constantly in trouble and what she gave me was attention and she would ask me to stay after class she was a neat teacher is a neat person uh she would have little Raffles every day where you could win a stuffed animal just a stupid plushy and she would have like orange juice breaks in the afternoon and you know so you break out the cups you break out the orange juice there's people who serve there's tasks to do she also uh you know managed the school stores this a little cart upstairs the top of the ramp there's a ramp between two floors the first through third graders and then third gr fifth graders upstairs and so top of the ramp big school store she she gave me a job at the school store yep and she would have me do stuff after class and she introduced me to her husband who was an artist a visual artist I drew all the time and this guy Jo Edie Brown uh wonderful man they basically saw I needed a adult male model adult role model that was positive and present a little bit different than an adult male model but yeah mail model is what I do now for a living please follow it's the only way we make money as comedians only it's not a bit everybody laughs when I say it follow me on okay thank no it's so like all these things are crazy I don't know I'm crazy person but like it uh I started writing jokes and I I I have a notebook I've always had a notebook in the back of my pocket Y at all times with whatever I'm writing right now Y and so I I'm I started writing stuff and sending them to the show and I would I thought Dave uses cards I'm gonna write on index cards and drop them in the mail they're cheaper to mail postcards are cheaper to mail than a letter also the letter satisfying action of opening it up but that's wasting people's time Dave's for here is the card mailin [ __ ] on a card that's what they're doing Y and so I started doing that and I'm sure other people had that same idea I don't think that's unique and I don't think that set me apart at all and so I I I I was sitting stuff in but I wasn't getting anything back I certainly wasn't getting letters on the air which was what I was intended hear you want to be on the mail bag yeah viewer mail was the biggest Y where it's like if you could do that like look like um uh what's his name the comedian Todd uh Todd brry so Todd Barry for all of his achievements and I love everything about him and his crowdwork tour and every time I've ever seen him live and had the chance to talk to him beautiful brilliant wonderful man I've always admired on TV but but that's what he said was uh uh getting that letter on viewer mail was his highlight and I believe it yeah I absolutely believe that 100% that's what I wanted and I then I wasn't getting that and uh like I said so these people who raised me I have no boundaries uh I I got arrested for the first time when I was 12 it was assault with a deadly weapon is a long story I won't tell it BB gun and I was a child we were on family property in the Carolina mountains and we had a lodge and the Appalachia Trail was right there through the backyard and people would break into the house and steel stuff and so this as my premise we come back from a hike and there's this lady on the property and people had broken in so I'm like get out of here lady and uh big heavy lady gets up and she pulls out a gun she pulls out a 9mm and I had of course my strap so I I had a a Daisy BB gun tucked into this small of my back and I pulled it out and I shot at her three times and I rolled behind a rock I'm not lying at all my brothers were there they scattered she does not shoot back at me she has a 9 millimeter a beta and she's she she's waving it like this she's brandishing a weapon and that's when I shot her and so I uh and she goes running down the trail she just runs ah and she runs away a couple hours later the cops show up and they arrest me assault with a deadly weapon a BB gun uh bruised her breast it did give her a blister on the boob yeah and I was very proud of that yeah uh but like they gave me community service and so I register I chose to register voters at the local swap meet every Saturday morning in Athens Tennessee and so I just used this opportunity to talk to people who talk to girls and that's where I met you know the first girl I ever went on a date with it's like it was a nice thing for me having a table out in the middle of doing something registering people to vote so like you have the premise of I'm a Boy Scout also a Boy Scout in town you know who happens to get in trouble get arrested for daily weather yeah you're that boy scout yeah I am I'm an eagle scout damn it I'm an order of the a eout wait a second no you're like an eagle scout oh absolutely this was my entire identity we were forced to do Scouts and we were forced to do every single sport so I had to play baseball basketball I had to do it all dad coached basketball one year and was the worst coach I could possibly imagine uh you know he would teach us to defile people on purpose do all kinds of Dick stuff it's like my name's Chad all right I cannot go clowning [ __ ] physically and have this name I if I would have known that my name would be the like the archetypal Teen Angst movie bad guy I would have gone by my middle name Mega Chad [ __ ] you still Chad double Chad no um like it's awful but Michael Michael is my middle name that's what I erased from my school records and it's also what I think I want to change my name to because Chad is the male Karen it's the douchebag frat douche in every movie so yeah I can't be you have to be very careful I'm not that person not all Chads is my hashtag and and and I think this is what led me to start the holy [ __ ] cedarian Church uh all of this things i' so like I I used to run this nonprofit Nashville standup I inherited this website 1999 y uh and I I built this community in Nashville there was there was one comedy club and one open mic a week and uh me and my friends you I my what I told everybody was if you don't like the show if you don't like the way it's being run if you don't think you're getting enough stage time start your own show yes go go ask any bar what's their shittiest night uh and and and tell them you'll bring idiots that'll buy beer and show us all how it's done Y and anytime you have any criticism of me there's a lot but and there should be but like anytime you don't like it if you're not getting enough stage up start your own show every single comedian should have their own show and run it because what is the ultimate job what do you want it's it's the host of the tonight's show that is the best job in comedy hosting the Oscars it's comedian every single time if they're smart yeah um it's the best job is the MC and so many people are like I want MC I want you know one of the best things Brian dman and Z's Nashville told me brilliant man uh who who gave me an entire career but he he he said like if I have a good MC if I have a good host yeah he's like I I I don't book you for your jokes I book you for your personality yes that's not something I can teach somebody you can write new jokes and better jokes and I hope you do but I cannot like what paying for is your personality and yes and that meant that that was an enabler in a way you know where um you're a little more freedom because it's like okay you could relax a little bit but also try harder you're not funny enough get going yeah you know that kind of thing I don't know what I'm even talking about anymore I'm very okay I wanna I wna bring in some Letterman stuff here um and and and we got lots of I was sing jokes to the show right hold on hold on hold before you're sting jokes to the show was AFL a thing because you're talking about being part of this like old tet early early early on AFL was originally apple and we lived in the woods we did not have a modem yeah okay and so my the kids on the hill about three miles away had a modem but not and we got on BBS boards but not enough for me to establish myself as my own presence okay so um I stole I broke into a utility uh in a small town and I stole a personal computer desktop computer in about 1990 five yeah and uh looted that in a xerox machine and uh uh that became my little desktop publishing Enterprise in Knoxville when I moved there yeah and I got on before the university even gave me my login to get tnut access yeah I was on Prodigy uh Prodigy would give out little free trial discs yeah and you could get try Prodigy for nine days or whatever so you would create create a [ __ ] email address hot mail whatever and [ __ ] um account on Prodigy and sign in and use their internet and so there were Prodigy forums about pop culture basically replicating uset I think yes and um so I got on there immediately and it's David Letterman and Gru and weirdal and money Python and my favorite things and literally everybody's like AFL and so I figured out alan.

Letterman by the way that's for yeah alt. fan.

Letterman is that it y i bar I don't really know these people very well but uh it's very fascinating to me their Journey uh but I found that and and I I would type these are [ __ ] internet accounts I'm not using my real name yet and I would type in these stupid uh Capital lowercase combination troll speak uh it's know now well at that time like my handwriting was atrocious but that was literally my handwriting it was graffiti like I turned into a paper handwritten a film class at UT Knoxville like 9 four five five or six somewh around there and like as they're returning papers of the class that inst structures were like some people's handwriting is really something very creative but not legible so if we could all start typing everything instead of handwriting things uh and I know that it was directed at me because my handwriting was that awful but that's how I typed on the internet so I started interacting on the FL forums and I don't remember what that was it was uh probably all from the heart Chad Ryden uh being true to himself and uh trying to be funny but probably very troll uh uh at times but like I burned through those accounts a lot and then I got on the University thing and I signed in as my real name I believe at some point but yeah this was a group of Letterman fans who watched every night or videotaped and watched whenever they got off their shift and uh you know they wanted to talk about the show and there were Recaps and people uh busting balls and certainly trolls and Weirdos and probably a lot of people who are dead uh you know it's just really uh connecting with your people on the internet and my you know my parents would make fun of your internet friends but it's like we started meeting in real life pretty quickly and going to see Dave going to enjoy like wrapping your head around these people don't my parents did travel but the people in these small towns they just don't travel and that is the problem it's because they don't have any perspective that there's no sense of adventure they're trapped in this little bubble of a world yes like my parents are now and everybody else in their cult but they used to travel and if you don't travel you don't see other things that see other cultures have become you know uh appreciative for what you have yeah as critical as I am of it as full of [ __ ] as all those people are sure you know um I'm happy with who I am and where I'm at and so everything that happened along the way I understand is what led to this and so it's like I wouldn't go back in time I love Doctor Who so much but I'd go into the future because if I you know I went to the past I [ __ ] up something worse than I did now like I can't you know I can't do that by the way uh props for the gru reference earlier that makes me that makes my heart smile here's the Letterman here's a letterman Tye in Mark evanir uh wrote grew with Sergio ignon as my favorite Mad Magazine artist Y and I so I loved Mad Magazine I was obsessed with it and this I I walk into an airport and there's a a spiral comic book thing in a Walgreens type store right up front in the airport and I I'm fliping through the comics and I find Sergio's grew uh I think EP uh a Marvel epic issue 32 it's the Pirates and gws underwater and it's a beautiful blue splash and uh I I recognized the art immediately I knew that was Sergio and I grabbed it I didn't know this comic existed yeah and um I ran and I bought it and in North Dakota my cousin also loved grw specifically grew only comic book he had Y and so he just handed me a box of them and I read them all and um and now I'm a grw collector right so immediately I buy everything that he's ever done and I've always been up to do with it and I've had letters that was the first comedy of mine that was ever published was in the letter page of Gru no kidding yeah so I I think that was issue 87 something like that of Marvel epic run and I I've had two or three more published by him because Mark is very very funny and I I thought his humor and Letterman and money Python and then you you look back and all the other things that Mark has written um uh you know the creating the Bible for the advanced legends of dragons TV show which I loved the cartoon he wasn't involved with the DAT production but he did the Bible he wrote the show that cool that was the template for all the episodes so it's like this man is genius level and uh and I loved his work and grew and I thought he's very funny he was active in Altan Letterman on uset no kidding or at least lurking uh but would chime in occasionally yeah um and then there was a grew mailing list so there was stuff on on uset but we quickly went to an email list and Mark was always on that obviously and very responsive always very kind to me and encouraging I would make um I was also writing and sending letters to them yeah so like and I'm very I'm an artist and so I would draw a beautiful dragon breathing fire and their address is in the fire burst color it all and drop that in the mail and I did like that to mark to send my jokes and my letters in for the letters page and so that's how I got his attention with the art and I did that with Letterman too I would draw giant late night logos on the envelope and make it I draw Dave I like pointalism and ink art and so I drove like Drew Dave as best as I could and had him like Sergio little uh Fade Out in the corner and like all this artistic [ __ ] but I wasn't hearing back from the Letterman people okay I'll get it back on track yeah so I started I I I at this point I I uh I wrote a letter I was in high school and so um I was writing I had to do a research paper so I was going to research the life of David lman and I've done this before like the importance of messages in Hip Hop I did that like anytime there's a school assignment I'm writing about something I care about not you absolutely so I paper about Letterman and uh I send a letter to the postmaster in Newan Connecticut and I was like like sir I understand David lman uh lives within your zip and I'm writing a paper about him I'm a student in high school and a fan of comedy and I just wanted to know if any of your male delivery people or staff had interactions with David Letterman because it would be interesting to hear the Viewpoint from somebody who lives in his town and services him versus whatever the tabloids say and he wrote me back a beautiful letter uh well thought out and he was he basically said uh Dave does not receive mail at his house he has a post office box here at the office and he comes in about once a week uh usually on a Saturday and uh isn't you know very talkative but a polite man and he he gets his mail and he he's very genal and we see him once a week and I was like well that's very interesting you know thank you but now I know that Dave has a PO Box in New that's a p right there for where you're at yep absolutely I talked to the postmaster so now I'm taking my postcards and mail and stuff and I'm sending them to David Letterman PO Box question mark new Canan Conneticut zip code and they're going to him and he's getting them and he's picking them up every Saturday so now uh I don't know I I start getting stuff back I started getting like late night hats I got a late night baseball hat one time uh I got I asked for an autographed picture specifically and I got one n 8 by1 8 by1 black and white beautiful uh gold gold Sharpie on it over the face or not over the face no uh well is I'll have to look at it I've got actually a couple autographs I sent him a TV Guide one time and they and and the return postage prepaid envelope and um it was signed and returned to me I've got that in gold as well fantastic kind of badass [ __ ] and I started getting tickets to the show yep and occasionally I would get tickets to the show and I could not go because I was a child and uh I I like sure you could be 16 to get in but um my parents were not going to let me go to New York City but I remember like I was I was I was a senior in high school and I was talking to this one girl and her her father was rich she he was a dentist and uh I was telling her I was like yeah if you buy her plane tickets like I've got tickets to you know and that that was my deal that was how I was asking people on dates when I was in high school um but I couldn't go and uh so then I um I don't know when I turned 18 I got tickets to the show at some point and I was like yes and so uh it was going to be June uh 7th 95 and my brother's birthday is June 8th and I was like we'll have a fun birthday trip we'll go to New York City take Greyhound bus from Athens Tennessee to New York City we'll see the show we'll grab a slice of pizza we'll [ __ ] come home and uh because we don't have any money for hotel we're on a bus yep that's a journey and um he's like yeah let's go so that's what we did and uh like the the bus when after we transferred in DC like somebody in the back lit up a joint and uh the the driver screamed out like you know you can't do that you know you can't do that we just left the St you know and the dude goes oh yeah and they pop out the emergency back window oh no and it goes bouncing down the interstate I I was trying to sleep I was trying to lay down it wasn't that late 900 p.m.

but the lights are out you know I'm out and I've turned back in you see cars dodging across nine Lanes of traffic trying to miss this windshield that was the journey to New York City but we got there and uh we showed up at the atsa theater and got in line did the thing they had a questionnaire yeah they were handing out and so like I filled this out and to look I took took a picture of it to look at it now it is the most insane I filled every square inch of it with jokes ideas for the show I I told them the props I'd brought with me uh what we were capable of doing and it was Nightmare of [ __ ] but if you were a line if you were segment produc whatever intern was picking these up this day really blew it because uh I mean I gave them the blueprint but uh wow but but yeah anyway so we go to the show and we enjoy the show was wonderful you remember who was on H the first time we went and saw Letterman yeah I don't I should have probably prepped for this show no no it's okay June 95 we can figure that June 7th 95 we 775 as far as I remember we can figure that out yeah uh so like anyway after the show's over they're like all right thanks for coming get the [ __ ] out yeah you know they open the doors which is what you do at a this is a show this is not a [ __ ] bar we're not hanging up yeah so uh yeah so we go out and we walk around the corner we grab a slice of pizza right at that place yep and sit down we're talking crazy it's fun we have about an hour and then uh you know I'm a psycho and I know Dave's schedule I know that Dave finishes the taping goes upstairs watches the taping and then gets in his car and goes home yeah and uh so I'm like okay it's been an hour I said we settled up our bill I said to my brother I was like all right are you ready to meet Dave and he's he's like shut up and I was like come with me and we walk out and we go down to 53rd Street a half a block away turn right and there is David Letterman standing right out in front of that entrance there's about nine women around them and they're getting autographs and [ __ ] and I'm like my brother's like holy [ __ ] like I know and so I put myself in Dave's shoes and I thought would I want some sweaty little kid who hasn't showered in a couple days who just got off of a bus running up to me and interrupting these beautiful women or fanboying out like a goober no no that's uncool but I saw Lori Diamond standing off to the side yeah and I walked over to her very nonchalantly and I said are you his bodyguard tonight and that Gotta Laugh and uh she's like no that's him here part of the giant enormous man and uh but I got a laugh out of her you know so I um I told her my name and she was like we love your jokes oh oh God how good was that oh okay yeah she's she was like uh Dave thinks you're very funny um and I was telling her my plans of the time which were to go to Ball State and following Dave's footsteps whatever the hell yeah let's do radio TV and then we're writing and doing comedy on television because there's no internet at the time really and at at that point it was still dial up like I say at my friends places BBS boards I didn't there was no Google you could read books from the library but it's all like Milton Burl books yeah you know there's a Steve Allen book which is really wonderful how to be funny and it's very formula joke writing it's like I read that but that's not how to be funny that's how to write jokes yes exact yes so like there really wasn't a way a path but I look at it and I'm like having a been obsessed with Dave's show it's like okay now there's a standup Comm Dave's job is very cool and I thought I wanted to do that job I certainly thought I wanted to write for him um and do that type of Comedy be around those types of people who were creating that type of Comedy because as you know all of our pop culture was changed by these people yes and the projects that they went on to do and their children who are making incredible things now so it's like these are the brains that have been comedy forever and they would present these comedians so would show up Len would show up Bill Hicks would show up and very Shandling and these incredible people would come on and do five six minutes and then sometimes panel and and just see those over and over I was like oh that's the better job yeah they office these dudes are showing up for TV and then they're going back to a comedy club that's what it's about but I'm still like in broadcasting classes whatever whatever getting off track we but Lori loves your jokes Lori loves your jokes like that that must so I was going to go yeah so I was telling her I want to I'm going to follow Dave's footsteps broadcasting school and she was telling me about the internship program she was like Janice Panino and blah blah blah and um so anyway we're just we're in conversation now and as we're talking I didn't notice this until he was right next to me but Dave had been moving closer and closer and closer as these women are getting their autographs from him they're walking away satisfied and the next one gets their turn for an autograph yeah right and um as this is happening he's just inching inching closer and closer to his security blanket Lor diamond and big big enormous Security man literally standing right there watching me watching day very professionally I should say um but you know so now he's shoulder-to-shoulder with me there's another guy he's got a stack everybody else had like a scrap of paper or something yeah you know an envelope and this guy walks up with a stack of 8 and A2 by 11 black and white Letterman yeah and he hands Dave a pen he's like could you sign one for my sister yeah yeah uh could you sign one for my cousin yeah and Dave signs about eight of them wow and Dave says to him you're selling them but he's still signing and the guy goes no no no this is this is for my cousin goes you're selling them not personalizing them though I got two of them and they're both say to mic on me on them like that's a different yeah so this I think I saw something special because he's Dave's signing him but he's he's not ruining them yeah but he's he's signing them and but he says you're selling them yeah and and the guy's like no no no no no and I now I'm standing right there I was like this cheese dick like I I what did I [ __ ] say um oh gosh I don't know I said something funny I was very critical of this man yeah and I kind of went off on him and um and then he walked off after a while like he walked off like uh very quickly he walked off yeah so Dave turns to me and all I have on me for him to sign is my joke notebook in my back pocket so I pull out my notebook and uh I just flip it to the next page and he signs he's like what's your name and I was like Chad Ryden and he just Lo he was looking down at the paper and he just looked up at me and I I don't know if I could do it but he just just a he wasn't writing anything he was processing that he is talking to Chad Ryden yeah and and uh just a pregnant pause and then he signs a two Chad David Letterman yeah and he's starting hand it back to me and I'm non-stop talking I don't know if you've noticed that about me but I was like uh yeah Dave uh you know thank you so much I offered him I was like would you like a root beer I gave him a can of root beer I had with um and he did accept that he wanted that but I was like thank thank you so much uh nobody will believe this uh but um listen i' I've applied for Ball State University and he goes oh good for you and I was like no no no they're not going to let me in I'm a shitty student uh C grades and uh and I'm out of state so I don't think they're going to let me in he's like ah you're nuts they'll take anybody and I said no I'm I'm I'm not gonna make it I'm not that good and uh I'm a I've seen my school records and they're not good and uh but I said with a letter of recommendation from you they'll let me in and so he smiles and he just turns the page on my book and he writes let him in David Letterman and he hands that back to me and I was like all right that's it that's so that's all I needed thank you so much a great move that's such a good move yes and uh as can we get a picture nobody will believe this and he was like yes and so I hand the camera to Lori Diamond she reaches out for it immediately and it's a Kodak instatic disposable you get from Walgreens and um so Dave's trying to get into his car which is a a red Dodge Stealth yeah standing behind the car in the street Dave's ready to open the door and get into that car and he says this is where we're doing the photo and so uh Lor's got the car in in frame somewhat but a really beautiful shot of me and my brother Eric and David Letterman and I am wearing a Comedy Central t-shirt my brother's wearing a worldwide pants tee shirt we wore the shirts of the band of the bar you know so like um but we're cheesing ear to ear and see that security guy's face he's very dark complected man but and it's you know the the theater behind it is poorly lit it's very it's dark at night yeah and it's all dark anyway but you see this man's face if you zoom in it is directly there next to David Letterman eyes bul out waiting for me what grab his ass What's Happening Here listen I understand security he was doing his job it was wonderful but it was also very funny so while we're posing for the photo I say to Dave I was like it is my dream to succeed you as host of this show and he he's like yeah not even a break not even a pause at all yeah be here tomorrow at 5 I thought that was the greatest thing in the world can I can I tell you my my little back and forth with him real quick because that's when I made him laugh yeah I want to hear this stories are the best I collect them like kittens meang yeah no it's the same thing because to me uh my gold standard in in in in the Highlight was the it was the exchange at the the Q&A I'm sorry I've told this story so many so many times but that feeling though of him with the with the with the Gunslinger with the fastest draw in the west of wit and it's it's the best in the world like I said to him I wanted a jacket I was being a brat I was asking about Leno I was asking about Brian Williams this is a month before they retired what did you ask him about Leno I asked him about Leno uh are you going to have him on the show like it was it was April 20th 2015 it was one month before the retirement and and so I said I asked are you going to have Brian Williams are you going to have Jay Leno on the show before you retire and also hey where do you get one of them sharp jackets that everybody seems to have rer doesn't sell okay so I was in communication with Al Shez for a long time I want the The Late Show uh jacket with this logo on didn't I forget what year but there was one jacket that's very beautiful I like Stitch and um and Al like flirted with me about it like he's ready to sell a jacket but had not followed through the transaction so that's all I want out of life that late night logo is my favorite style I I was forced to play every sport and I hate every damn one of them now and those Meat Heads Are the center of my nerd versus jock battle that has fueled every bit of hate in my entire life the people I've been fighting my entire life my dad these Trump cards they are still the problem now I've been right 100% of the time and these people have all been wrong and awful and to see their [ __ ] like my family their belief system it's a house of cards yes you pull out any one of these [ __ ] lies and the whole thing tumbles so those jackets represent yeah that this show was anti [ __ ] from the beginning it was we're cutting through this [ __ ] look there's the guy with the Q cards there's the fat ass on the camera look at him roll this way and bang into something like it's so funny to me to not take it seriously and to just enjoy whatever the [ __ ] is in the room yes and my favorite game now like Doug Stan hope is this great bit about how he would kill himself and it's this crazy elaborate thing that's very hilarious but I that got me started thinking and so now anywhere I go where I'm bored I just look around the room and see what could I kill myself with and that's the game I play right off the bat before we do anything else is using the tools we have around us in this room how would I hilariously die so yes there's an extension cord over there i' St it up over the lights and I do it dangling right in front of this cashier blocking the way knocking Twix bars and [ __ ] Skittles left and right and uh hang myself right there like that and so that's the game I play in my head all the time which is crazy so I don't know so like when I finally I was in Knoxville working in Television right yeah so um as as a student no I was in another school and then I went to transfer to UT so I was leaving hawasi College liberal arts toe Methodist school that gave me money all we did was do drugs and have sex in the woods with other hippie kids and uh get kicked out of that school me and all my friends good gig and I was writing down jokes and we we'll be we'll be on mesculin and I'm sitting there with my joke book writing down jokes and um people people it's like a it's interrupting the flow of being in the moment looking people in their eyes and having fun while you're rolling around but it's like I have to write this down or I'm gonna forget it y you and so like I've always had this book in my back pocket writing these jokes down but then you know okay so I'm I'm off track again so Lori encouraged me to hold I want I want I want to say that the moment of him saying to you come back tomorrow night at 5 for me it was it was um hey how can I get one of these jackets and he's like these jackets are you have to work here it's cold in the studio you have to work here and I said got I said got an application and Letterman immediately laughs like he but then again without that hesitation he goes yeah come see me in a month so so so it's a similar it's a similar deal I understand it and I like at the moment I thought that's hilarious yes absolutely what I realize now is that no that Dave told me what to do and I didn't do it honestly like I so with myself because like we had we had go back to the bus I didn't expect him to say hey come back here tomorrow you know what I mean uh and so stupidly we got on a bus and we headed home because I had a ticket with the [ __ ] am I gonna do I don't have 45 more dollars no uh but I wrote him a letter yeah in the moment I thanked him and I said uh here's my jokes whatever three jokes it was this isn't a letter this time not on a postcard yeah and I was like you know thank you for taking the time to take a photo with me and my brother meeting you uh means as much to me as it would have meant for you if you had met Johnny Carson yeah when you were 18 years old yeah and um he took a photo of you and said funny things yeah and uh I appreciate that because you did not have to do that yeah you did not have to take the time to take a photo with us and um that meant the world to me thank you so much and there's my three [ __ ] jokes about whatever was farting in Rolling Stone or TV Guide that week and and then I I was working at a swimming pool liner job overnight uh shift three people on us in atat Tennessee for that summer it's overnight and so I I came home in the morning and went to bed when I woke up in the afternoon my mom had set a letter or note on the uh place where I eat at the table and it said Chad call Lori Diamond you know 212 975 5300 whatever the hell and uh and I was like what and I'm like holy [ __ ] uh because I I always put my phone number at the bottom of any letter right I want um while I was sleeping my mom took a message from Lori and so I call back as soon as I see this note and whoever answers the phone was like yeah they're taping a show right now I actually know the schedule better than this but I'm so excited I didn't even I didn't even consider it uh I just called back later like whatever an hour later and and Lori picked up the phone and she was like yes uh we got your letter Dave enjoyed uh who thinks you're very funny he enjoyed meeting you and your brother which and he says he appreciates that you are so well groomed which he thinks is rare for your generation and I had a I got a gross beard now I had about a six inch goatee and not a full beard and I was baldheaded and I'd shaved it um baby buttch uh Sheen shaved every day lot of razors and that's what I looked like I L like I belonged in the mosh pit on MTV more than y anything else and but uh that was very funny and she's like Dave told me to tell you he wants to encourage you to apply for the David Letterman scholarship in Ball State and and I want to reiterate applying for the internship program and I just thanked her I was like thank you so much you're the greatest like this is the greatest it was all her right it was all her mailing the [ __ ] to me yeah and and seeing this correspondence and then um you bumping it into the next Su D's PO box but you know that was his right hand person oh that was absolutely Lori was his for a lot of years he she was his his right hand literally and she was so kind to me so nice to me and such a delight to talk to and it's like you know you'd seen her on the show as Rose or whatever but then you I don't know um just kind of cool and uh so anyway I go back to UT and I tell them I'm like listen I want to apply for an internship with David Letterman and all my credits didn't transfer like comeing from a [ __ ] Christian School in East Tennessee and you know trying to go to UT where they're trying to make some money yeah um so all these credits didn't transfer these you know classes where you're studying the origins of the Old Testament in the gospels um surprise surprise so yeah they wouldn't let me go and do a letterman inter they're like absolutely not only Juniors and seniors and you're actually classified as a sophomore there buddy and so I was like well [ __ ] and um but I was working in the center for telecommunications and video for the University I just walked in uh I was like who does the video [ __ ] here and so I walked into their office the broadcasting Department was like we don't hire [ __ ] we have classes so I went downstairs to the pp uh PBS station on one side of the hall and um Center for telecommunications of video on the other talked to both of them PBS didn't want any piece of me but telec communications video hired me uh so I met this guy um video producer there and put an application and I did a photocopy of let him in David Letterman um as my cover letter yeah and so this guy wanted to talk to me immediately and ended up being the greatest and hired me to direct four camera classroom longdistance classrooms on video so I'm sitting there punching that eating a sandwich while I'm punching a classroom at College where I also work at the radio station yep and am doing broadcasting classes but I started there with but I got a job so it's like now we're doing the coaches show me and other paid staff in the studio for the Phil fmer Show and on the field for all the football games uh usually doing a parabolic mic but I would volunteer for whoever so like I was part of the Telecommunications crew so like every basketball game I was there on camera you know two up on the side on the right yeah um forever and sometimes with the camera on the floor under the basket I didn't really like that as much I like the big I like to sit down I like to take a drink while I'm doing [ __ ] um so but I did that and then I would volunteer I would walk down to the football games and I would volunteer I would just say whoever Sunshine Network um or ESPN whoever the hell was broadcasting the game that day I would just walk down and say I'm a broadcasting student uh this is the volunteer state I work every single one of these games as a volunteer I'll work for you what are you doing in production what you need help with pulling cables hauling [ __ ] around doing the mic and they were like yep come this way yeah and I would do that every single week no matter who it was contracted and they would always pay me in pay me and make me fill out the paperwork at the end of the shift yep and I would get a check and I'm getting money for that and then they would remember you and you're just the guy who walks down off the hill and helps out for a while goes up to the Press Box eats fills his pockets full of hot dogs and uh walks out and so I was that guy and then a local radio and and then it's like um I I was working for then I wanted to work for the local CBS station right yeah so I wed into their office in the same deal and so they hired me to work in production and I was doing like teleprompter uh and and it was awesome because at that time it was a paper that you tape down and put on a conveyor belt with a camera over it this equipment from like the 70s I was in this old mom and pop TV station and so I ran teleprompter for the shows and I would always put a joke like the end the last page is always something stupid like have a good night this is Sam Brown yeah like I don't he doesn't need the script to say he's at w kxt good night um so I always retyped my own one of those and inserted my own page of copy there and they never ever once said anything I said it it would have always been hilarious but then they would but they would laugh it's like the end they're laughing to we get out of the commercial They're laughing at me but they're not saying the funny thing I wrote for them which is extremely frustrating and I kept pitching like show ideas to the local TV station but they're not interested in producing comedy shows no and I'm trying to get all my friends to do Public Access with me and I couldn't get together enough people I was gonna ask you had their [ __ ] together to do this right yeah you're the perfect prototype for a cable access uh host somewhere you're like a Tom Green type character you're the perfect perfect that I'm so M well because I love Tom and I I I loved him on MTV and then I've seen all the other stuff before that of course I have had the chance to work with him a couple times at Zan's and else swear and um one of the coolest people uh in the world for sure and I I feel very grateful for everything I deserve nothing but I've gotten everything but one of the great gifts in life was to do a week of shows with Tom Green at zany's on a week that it snowed even and so um he wanted to go out every night uh he wanted to go out every night and he would would go to a bar this is I learned something about Fame I've been around famous people before certainly I I to me there's nobody bigger than David Letterman in my mind as far as County royalty and um you know of course respect to everybody else who's alive and everything but this this was my guy this was my guy who I thought who who brought all the cool other guys who were funny and gals who were funny to to to to me and showed me introduced me to all these Incredible Minds and and really brought me into this world of people who I still love to this day yeah and it's the whole world I love it always has been the center of of of all my [ __ ] and that's what's so disturbing is like Donald Trump used to come on that show and uh he was a buffoon it was always a goddamn scam it was always some stupid [ __ ] belt or like a bacon or some garbage he's selling the slum Lord idiot that they've just clowned there Trump Bacon that would be great Trump Bacon tell me there's not if you [ __ ] if you do a Google search for Trump Bacon and you don't find something I would be shocked just the right amount of fact I'm sure it's photoshopped by some idiot by me but if he doesn't have a real product he will you know but but like those people yeah I don't know those I've been fighting those people my entire life it's literally my father and and I don't understand why somebody's so smart who who's done this nuclear engineering [ __ ] who's not a dumb person could be sucked into this [ __ ] up cult because I've seen Trump my whole life and he's a [ __ ] just comes on and Dave makes fun of him and then he goes back on his piss all over the world tour or whatever he's doing yeah and he was never taking it serious and and my parents like like I I realized what happened in my mind is my dad thought Y2K was going to happen yeah he was terrified nuclear engineer guy he knows what guides those missile systems and I'm sorry to tell you but the password the four-digit password to each Minuteman 3 missile in the United States was 000000 Z until they did the fix for the Y2K bug and my dad knew that and he and so he was worried and so he started prepping he built a bunker he filled it full of Provisions canned goods God knows everything else bought a thing to make wine and uh stockpiled bought a a barrel of Jack Daniels they bottle it off for you and make it all special but and a bunch of cubid cigars and this guy does not drink he's never drank in his life he's never he never smokes neither my parents drink or smoke we're tight Christians and I was like Dad why'd you buy all the stuff he's like well we will barter with it in the aftermath of whatever happens you know wow and so the plan as a family was to watch CNN uh 1999 to 2000 and and watching in each time zone as the world ends and people start dying and then here we are and so like my dad was drunk by the time I was at w kxt we did the 11 o'clock and uh we stayed late to see if anything happened and at 12:01 we're like all right we're out and then like uh so I was able to go home team two in just in case and sat there in case they needed to go live I got to go home so I popped a champagne bottle in the control room and sprayed it everywhere I was very very careful not to get equipment I sprayed it on the floor and that's it but that was already too much for people just the action of doing it piss people off but see I used to get in trouble with the TV station because I I did every job in production I worked my way up on camera then your floor director and I'm doing all this stuff and always around the production office and having fun with people and getting high like we did a a 415 p.m.

live cutting and that was me I set up the camera the mic yeah Talent sits down they do the 45 second thing and then we're out I break it all down put it away and then me and Teddy go get high in his car listening to Outcast doing a lap around the block and then we walk right back into the building high as [ __ ] stinking like Funk and um and then we would prepare for the five o'clock news six o'clock news and we didn't have an 11 at first but then we did they're like you're there and we got cut and so I I I take that bottle of champagne in my lap and I go home and my parents are drunk drunk uh the first time I'd ever seen them drink first time they've ever drank and my parents are drunk my dad's got his hand on my mom's thigh at the kitchen table Barry do you want to go upstairs we're like yes please get out of here just you're disgusting W you know um because people didn't die and it was fine and and he thought his world was ending yeah and then that night he had fun I'm sure I'm I'm horrified by every by everything my parents have ever done and I've seen them having sex in the kitchen I walked in on them when it was like eight uh crazy so it's like I I don't want to you know uh so like yes go upstairs and me and my brother sat there drank whiskey and smoked cigars while the world didn't end wow and we smok all that stuff away it took us quite a few years to drink all that and smoke it all but we did but but I think that cracked my dad and broke him and I think his his entire thing he was preparing for the worst he water pumps and uh so I he started going down this Rush new Rush Limba Fox News Wormhole yep and Rush Eber yep Rush was really the thing him and uh you know this house painter guy from our church that I worked for for the summer painting houses doing the trim work and stuff um they they all listen to Rush limbo every day religiously and that's all these guys talked about and it would sit there in real time ripping on Rush limbo and calling him out for [ __ ] and doing whatever well dude's a painter he [ __ ] off and just leave me to my rants alone but um I've been screaming about these same [ __ ] forever it baffles me that these people could love this guy who is against everything that they say they believe in this Jesus [ __ ] and and and integrity and whatnot but like I understand it I understand Pat Robertson and how he co-opted the Republican party and Reagan and and how they've become this psycho Cult of weirdos because it's my dad like I I saw him go down this trip I think he lost his mind at that point and and and you know jokes about clintons were really popular and it's not jokes like this just saying something mean and Incorrect and rude and racist and sexist and homophobic is not that's just saying some horrible [ __ ] and then diffusing it by saying it's a joke don't you get it no the difference is you go up in front of a live audience and you say that [ __ ] and you see how people respond and if you are that hateful you will find an audience and be very successful means everything integrity means nothing Chase your dream and buy your boat um that's not what I want and Tom Green taught me that Tom Green and Ralphie May taught me about Fame I thought it wanted to be David lman and I do not y uh because Tom uh we go into a bar and you'd see the attention of the bar you're just a normal dude and you'd see the attention of the bar slowly turn yeah start and it goes in waves and so I'm hoping this happens to me this fall he and I are going to apparently get together when he comes to town and and and I'm very very hoping to have this experience with with Tom this is all of Fame so all of Fame is it's a ripple in the room where people just a bar where people recognize and then all attentions turn on Tom it's Tom [ __ ] Green in the corner of the bar so now all the Bros are coming up and um every single day everywhere we went at least two or three dudes independently throughout the night would come up to him and say what's it like [ __ ] Drew Barrymore right what's it like you B [ __ ] dude and every day oh God and and uh and I was like Tom and he's like yep everywhere I go and every single day and I was like damn dude because and he all he handled it very beautifully uh he would always get very serious and quiet he did not give them what they wanted oh good he would he would you know be like yeah um you know I I loved Drew with all my heart she was my wife and and it was sad when it was over and it's still sad now and I miss her and it's really painful to talk about or think about fantastic and it would be dead serious this is not a bit Yep this is a human being Yep this is a [ __ ] person yep and to be treated like you're a [ __ ] monkey or uh uh I don't know you don't talk to people like that no and and and every day everywhere he goes and that was heartbreaking to me yeah because Tom's a good guy he's got a big heart yep and he's hilarious absolutely not another [ __ ] who's I mean people have copied him and again it it ripples through comedy and his influences in everybody who does anything for sure but like uh what a great man and beautiful beautiful person I don't know very nice guy so we worked together that weekend everywhere we went it was kind of like that he he would hang out and people would be weird and then um uh you know we we hang out and have a few beers he'd talk to everybody wanted talk to him it was very congenial and very nice and fun and friendly and then he would jump up and sing Journey or some [ __ ] we did that every night and it was so fun such a good guy and then he came back whatever like a a year and a half two years later and I was just standing outside smoke stand outside Z Zan's back door excuse me Y and um like Chad so we remembered I don't always expect people to remember my name but he did and I don't know he's always been very kind and nice and such a wonderful man but I learned something from him from work ethic so he was touring with Sean Halpin that week and what they Tom would do this little thing where he would just have like a tiny little camera smaller than his phone I'm sure he uses his phone now or something better but everywhere he went like we went to the hockey game we went to the Predators game and he would just start recording just click not where you see it not up like this but like down by his side he'd pull his thing out of his pocket and just with his hand by his hip he would hit record and just be holding the thing nonchalantly in a way where you wouldn't notice yeah and so he's got these side view shots of the three of us walking down Broadway and I never saw him do it but I understand what he was doing now because I did catch him a couple other times basically doing just really quick lowkey just clip here yeah not even worded sometimes just sitting this is what we're doing Y and at the end of the night what he does is he goes back to the hotel and they just would s up the phone dump every bit of footage in in order into a timeline Y and then start trimming it up and that's the video for today put it out and they do he does that at the end of the day every day yeah or he did at this time yep I don't know what his production schedule is now I see what he does uh and I would guess it's similar process but whatever it was we shot that day get it off that phone get it in a timeline cut it put it on the website yep and it's that discipline of no this is what we do or it's backlogged my main problem is I've got hours and hours and hours and hours of footage crazy of of everybody I've ever worked with every show I've ever done wow and it's just so I don't have it all archived like Dawn but um but I've recorded every show I've done and whether I still have that recording or it's a good one is questionable yeah but like I have all this media of me and all these other comedians from my years of Comedy I record everything and so many by the way so many people that you have worked with over the years uh at the top of the gang like you've worked with the cream of the crop yep well I mean Z's Nashville gave that to me where it's like this is an entertainment town I was looking I was in Knoxville right so uh College whatever graduate one of the people I really hung out with a lot and connected to in my broadcasting classes was um Jenny Hunter uh who worked at The Daily Show for a while and she produced other stuff and uh worked with Chris Rock and um Sasha bear and Cohen and great resume but got fired from Daily Show uh for bringing lawsuits she brought like three different lawsuits and they were like three strikes in year out but she was uh one of my friends in Knoxville and so when I started going to New York City in college okay so that's where I left off so in college right we met Dave and I'm there and I'm not getting the internship there's these AFL people online and we're all talking and we're gonna meet up and but I've got tickets to the show I get tickets to the show I ride in for tickets to the show at this point yeah and um so I got tickets and I would take I took a girlfriend I was with of time to the show and so she asked Dave a question before the show yeah uh Robin thornett uh we went to see David lman and um Dave always does the question I told her I prepped her I was like uh before this show starts Dave's gonna come out and it's lightning it's lightning fast it'll be quicker than you think yeah but he will ask if anybody has any questions and if your hand isn't up before anybody else forget it yep and uh so she knew that going in and we both tried our hands up of course he called on her and uh she said Dave I'm in uh broadcasting I work in local at the local CBS affiliate I'm a young broadcasting student un Tennessee what do I do how do I be you and Dave said to her quit we don't need anymore we're full we don't need any more broadcasters start the show that was the greatest that was the greatest Mo if I could I don't think they they were recording those there's no Archive of those at this point but what a shame there's not because Dave's interactions The Becoming that thing of the there's a thing that happened before the show and you didn't see it but it's funny and we're going to talk about it all night y very very appealing yes and it's I like the back of the room and I like uh just the the call backs to whatever the [ __ ] in the room and that's 100% that yep um the clubhouse it was the club it so like at Z's that was me that was the clubhouse we we had our bar shows itself and we made more uh but um hanging out at zany and so I would if I didn't have a show on a Wednesday night and chances are I didn't so I would go down to zany I could walk in for free and and see the show and watch whoever it is you know um like I started doing open bikes at BARC car I I got I was in Knoxville working at TV doing all this [ __ ] local you know College radio making funny commercials I I worked for WB I got fired from all these jobs I worked for every television station in Knoxville uh and I got fired from every one of them rehired at Channel 8 um I was I was a commercial I was a master production guy at channel8 and then um I worked my way up into the graphics department where I'm making now funny you on air Graphics but did funny stuff with me and my fat friend Mike dver and and and doing all kinds of crazy stuff but having fun in television but I wanted to do standup and you there was no comedy club in Knoxville this television station didn't want to produce any wacky comedy shows I wanted to do Jennifer had gotten internship with The Daily Show and so she moved off and um I hadn't gone you know and followed up with Letterman uh I could have applied for an internship later you know in my career at UT but I was working in local stuff and I was doing my own thing and what I realized was like I I did not need to follow in his path right going to Ball State University is what Dave did is because that's his State School yes that's his local thing that was the sensible option for him yeah and for me to go jump into his thing is Dick writing more than I clearly had done yes and wasn't capable of understand I I didn't understand boundaries I was raised by I when I got arrested by was 12 my cousin wrote a letter to the judge on my behalf saying he was raised in the woods you know that's the phrase that really stands up to me which is true so it's like I had people didn't teach me boundaries and I'm sending stuff inappropriately to David lerman's private you know mail drop but you know whatever like I I I you know so I had to learn but like uh I got fired from all these jobs rehired and I was doing funny commercials at wb20 for a while and uh it was just me and my friends I would just pitch these crazy ideas whatever I thought was the funniest and some of the clients would do it but whatever it was it was just me and my friends in these commercials yeah and uh so I did that but then it was still not standup comedy and I knew I had to get out of there but now there's the internet and I'm looking at Nashville or Atlanta both had similar scenes at the time Y and I chose Nashville because a cute girl I liked was there and um uh also there's no state income tax and Atlanta traffic is a nightmare so I go I lived on that girl's couch for about three days yep and uh that was over but my friend Jesse was uh also a broadcast major at UT Knoxville Jesse made videos in high school and was on like the the TV show and the close circuit TV and heu a little sketch comedy show so he was already doing this he was very funny and he was friends with me and Robin and uh he was here in Nashville so I met and I lived on his couch for a couple weeks and he was planning uh uh a sketch comedy show that was Public Access with like six other dudes and so like day three in Nashville I attend this thing and I'm not in it they're they got the script and it's setting up their backstory they're going to shoot this magical first episode with all the production effects and [ __ ] um and scenes and work and [ __ ] and uh and uh and then the sketch show that comes later will be very cut friendly tight sketches but first we got to tell our backstory and so one by one these guys all disappeared and fell off the face of the Earth and here I am Mr production boy I can make all this happen on a Sho string budget yeah and so Jesse and I start doing sketch comedy videos together and putting him up on the Internet so he had this website mangi dog.com and uh it was mostly like columns and and funny [ __ ] that original writing he'd done in these videos and so as soon as I moved to Nashville we started making videos together and we uh uh nuns gone wild parody um we had we had this uh crack PSA uh that was uh um not to do cracks it was just us pretending to do crack and it had the Cheers theme playing in the background which was our downfall because we didn't understand music licensing right yeah you know so as soon as we triy to get on YouTube that was not allowed yeah and that's the thing this is all pre-youtube yeah so um we're we're we're producing these things we hire a couple local actors we hold auditions and we hire a couple local actors I when I moved into Nashville I got this job through aquent um this woman it used to I don't know if they still exist but it was a talent agency based out of Boston for creatives so it's writers web developers um video editors uh graphic designers and uh that's it and uh so I I get a job interview with Jennifer Norine in Nashville I drive from Knoxville to there and uh she looks at my portfolio and all my stuff and because I've been doing as soon as there was a website available to be down at the TV station at CBS W BLT now they changed their call letters um I was the web guy I was the Web Master the original guyy because I was already doing websites you know because of HTML class I took at UT Knoxville and I had chadam ring.com right and so like the girlfriend I was dating at the time Robin she introduced me to her parent when I showed up at their house they called me Chad mden.com it was such a hilarious novelty that this person had a website with their name haha isn't that stupid and it's you know you change from Chad M ridden to Chad rid.com because you dropped the M you know you redacted the M again you got to remove the middle name from the record redact that sucker okay what I just buy up every domain name I've got [ __ ] Chad rid.com I've got not Chad rid.com you have to like if you're doing if like listen I took marketing and advertising classes at UT and I just thought this is evil we're selling people trash and sugar and uh this is all disposable garbage it sucks but these techniques for marketing can be used for comedy and so like as a nerd um you know when I'm I I started doing open mics so I I get this job as a web developer I I was working at doing the station website but I was working in broadcasting which is minimum wage in a small college town like that give you a quarter bump every year and so like talking to my buddy Mike and he is making like hoping to make $12 an hour next year you know it's like uh or I can move to Nashville and immediately double my R immediately and so I meet this woman and turns up she doesn't have a job this is a talent agency and she looks at my portfolio it's all news graphics and funny things I've made and um she's like this is great but um you know I I need a more diverse portfolio to sell you to a client right so this is all news stuff and and like surreal funny stuff and uh she's like I can't Market that and so I was like okay and I understood and so I was driving back it was a 2hour drive two and a half hour drive back to Knoxville before my shifted Channel 8 but I thought about it on the way and when I walked in I just walked into my boss's office and with a blank sheet of coffee paper and used a Sharpie to write I quit on his desktop and hand it to him and he goes he just rolls his eyes he's like where you going I was like well I'm selling everything I'm taking my dog I'm buying a laptop I'm gonna go to Jamaica and make art and then uh when I have a portfolio worth of [ __ ] I'll move to Nashville and he's just like whatever and he's like will you give and uh I was like yes and so I did the last two weeks or whatever but I did not go to Jamaica I got a call from that woman and she was like listen if I flew you to Boston could you stay there for a couple weeks and take a couple courses I was like yes and so it was this springboard program where no matter where you were in the web development world I was really good with Photoshop and HTML code but I did not know JavaScript right didn't know PHP my SQL and um so other people were really good at that but not Photoshop you know so a handbag of people put them all through this boot camp and so we were Quest you know put up at some college in Boston and uh ride the subway system around Boston doing stuff and but it was two weeks of training 18 hours a day yeah gonna say yeah yeah and we all got this certification but also we walked out of it with guaranteed work 30 hours a week for a year as a contract um and so they're farming is out and it was at a good rate better than I was doing in Knoxville yeah and so like the assignment first assignment was kind of a nightmare the second one was in this building cing station uh in Nashville a historical train station and it's now Hot Shot offices and uh uh there's a bar downstairs and they come up to the third floor where I've got a web development job and these cute girls have flyers for what's happening in the bar downstairs this week and it's comedy Tuesday night open mic and so I was like holy [ __ ] [ __ ] and so I go down there Tuesday like second day on the job and um and I I just watch so maybe 15 Comics or so and half of them were hilarious yeah and half of them were homeless people who were like there's beer and a microphone hell yeah so but I thought man if I can C right in the middle if I'm I'm funnier than them and this is so I wrote minutes I repeated it over and over and over practiced it hundreds of times and then came back the next week and uh Tim Northern was the host he was on Star Search he's done a bunch of other stuff brilliant uh very arbitrary and cartoony comedian now from Nashville East Nashville now living in Louisville beautiful family beautiful man very funny very I know that name I know that oh he's so funny check out my boy Tim Northern so he was hosting the show and um you know I supposed to do five minutes I did 10 uh if he show didn't get pulled see you didn't get pulled though if he shown the light and I'm sure he did I don't know I didn't see y um my buddy Jesse taped it I saw the video but I should have stopped at 10 minutes for sure I should have stopped at five if we're being honest here but but like uh 10 minutes of it is really good the last two minutes is me going all right well H yeah another your good night everybody you didn't have that moment I'll never play the video is stuff that just didn't work I wasn't stumbling but I could have cut but anyway he walked up on stage got a good reaction I didn't take into account laugh breaks and and Applause and I got both of those and I did not expect that I did not time that yeah and and I'm trying to brag I've not gotten that since like chasing Dragon chasing that Dragon of that first time never recreated how could we ever but like uh but that is that's what got into me so I came back every week three months in a woman uh from moved from New York City Donna Kenny she had done standup in Anchorage and then was in New York City for a while and she walked into zany's with ls black and asked Dorfman if she could do an improv show 45 minutes improv 45 minutes Open Mic get local Comics who would do the open mic involved with the Improv and he was like yes of course and so she came to the bar car and three months in um we auditioned for that because we already had a sketch group that was producing videos before YouTube so the four of us all auditioned other local Comics so it's half local comics and half like theater douchebags in in Nashville and um some of them are great wonderful beautiful people very talented not all them hey you ever want to go to a good karaoke night go on the rap party of a local uh uh uh uh local actors local troop uh you know when they go out and do karaoke they're the best in the world pretentious as hell but it's the best anyway if you're in Nashville go to Santa's Pub everywhere else is [ __ ] anyway yeah I don't know what was I saying no sorry so you you'd uh done your first spot oh so anyway she auditioned us for the improv group yeah and we all got in all four of us got in yeah and it's funny so like it was at the Zanes this wonderful top five of the country comedy clubs and uh so I was very lucky to have a show there every single Tuesday now the open mic we were doing was Tuesday at 8 o'clock yeah and this show was scheduled at Zan for Tuesday at 8:00 and it's kind of a [ __ ] you but whatever we just moved our show start start time to 10: and we would do the show which was very very popular very fast and we'd say hey everybody follow us to the bar car and quite a few would and we would have our other show so I was writing a new five minutes every week and it was like topical Letterman monologue style jokes uh because that's what I've trained myself to do yeah is do your rep that's what I was writing and delivering but I had five new minutes of it every week and so I tried out at the bar car and we'd see what happens and then i' would come back to my show at zany's and I would have to revised version of that if not something else but I had a new five minutes every week and they like that a lot um and again it's not the jokes it's the personality and here I am teaching myself to write and continuing to see what works in a real life space and not on a postcard I'm mailing into Oblivion what a gift so like uh that was quite a thing and but the manager of the club had Tuesdays off there was their night off so um I would always show up at the club you could get in for free you know on my local comic I have a show here so they always let me in for free and I'm sitting in the back drinking water hydrating and trying not to touch anything or break anything staying out of the way but watching whoever is on stage that night yeah like I just you know I'm I'm in the club and so I I I just show up and if they if if the comics have different material like I'll watch and laugh and I'm not I try not to be judgmental even I would go to stuff I knew I would hate because I knew that there was something I could learn even if it's what not to do yep like they are headlining this Comedy Club they know something I don't they've got the job I want whether I think they're funny or a genius like I've got something to learn here and why not get FaceTime why not hang out this is if you asked me the the guidance counselor trick question of what would you do if you could go anywhere and be anything right now like I would go to a comedy show I would want to be at a comedy club yeah that's always been the case yeah like since I knew that existed like yes let's go by hang out and do comedy and enjoy it and see these brilliant people who are the funniest [ __ ] on earth like and hang out with them and like you say I've been very very lucky but it's because of zanies so like we we did this very successful show for like 11 months and I built up a following in that town outside of the dirt ball independent thing that they were co-opting to do this show yeah but that we grew as a result of it you know and you know Brian told me he's like I'm investing in people like this isn't you can't just come in here and do one show and make some money and get the [ __ ] out forever like you you have to build a career out of this you're doing with the same people over and over and over so I'm investing in these people and when you're trying to get a spot at a club it's a spot some old's got and he has to die before he get it that's how it works yeah and or be funnier sell more tickets and you know yeah ass and seats that trumps all many times yeah and and that's there's a reality to that but it's like that it works hand in hand you need each other you need the gritty local scene DIY till I die uh people doing it themselves to feed into the system and so that's that was my relationship with him pretty quickly because we did that show and then I was hanging out and and then like after a year um I was I asked to do a guest Set uh on a night that I I wasn't I was talking to the manager we were just talking in in the green room after hours everybody's gone and Rose was like uh Chad I didn't realize you were a comedian I was like wait what and she's like we've known each other for how long I didn't know you were a stand-up comic I thought you were just some improv douchebag and um and I was like how rude of you man like you know me you love me we are hanging out here like I have a show on Tuesdays you've never seen and you didn't know I was a comic [ __ ] you but she was very very funny and she gave me guest sets immediately she scheduled like 15 of them she was like w do five minutes in front of a real crowd on a Wednesday Thursday Sunday and we're gonna work on this together and refine this five minutes yeah and so she worked me and and it wasn't horrible changes she wasn't she was right and shaping stuff up and I had a good type five that killed on in front of those crowds of just randos to see comedy that night and so she put me up in front of Brian Dorfman and uh and I did this set in front of him and it was me and my buddy Jesse Jesse uh kind of audition on the same night as me so uh we'd both been doing standup we' both doing improv he he and I co-hosted and produce this bar car show on Tuesdays which was really popular and fun and like Pro Comics would stop in all the time Tim Wilson would hang out all everybody would come and hang out is fun Y and uh um anyway so like uh we both go up I'm sick I vomit three times before I get on stage and I go up and it's not a big audience it's like I don't know maybe 25 people something like that yeah maybe less 18 and uh and I I do my [ __ ] five whatever and Jesse kind of shits on the room he's like ah you know sold out Arena again good for me he's very silly very very funny but he he was way more critical of the turnout for the room uh than I was at the start I just I went in like a drunk cheerleader and like I was known for my crazy monkey dance at the time if that tells you anything and you're a physical comic yeah no in anime I Tred to be a living cartoon so it's like at that time I was running around going and doing the crazy monkey dance as part of the improv show and you know so it's like a very loose stupid and dumb but um I don't know they liked it I guess but yeah so he after the show D was saying to us he was like Jesse you walked out there you acted like you know there should be a packed out Stadium who the [ __ ] are you who the [ __ ] are you why should people be here why aren't people here you know and and and to me he was like he he he's like you had them in the palm of your hands and then you started talking this Jesus [ __ ] he was like why what's wrong with you and I was like I don't know but I can't stop doing it like that's this is the [ __ ] of the world I'm seeing right now I have to deflate this dumb thing I am intrinsically C IR Roven with my whole fabric is this weird Church cult yeah of trump and uh whatever it's fighting the same people it's fighting the dummies the people who didn't read the book and never will and think you're gay for reading it so you're doing the opposite a lot of people they like to they like to you know take divided people and bring them together you like to bring them together and then divide them well okay so walking into Zan's sitting in watching whoever's there you're learning these lessons yeah I W in one Wednesday and it's uh forget the MC probably Frankie Harris or somebody and uh then Henry Phillips the singer songwriter comedian very very funny had a Comedy Central presents bunch of other stuff done a couple films like punching Henry uh and then there's like a punching Henry to electri boole I don't know what the [ __ ] he's doing but uh very very funny and he's got these viral cooking shows on uh twitch that he does uh Henry's kitchen very funny character but he's also got like El suicido he's got all these different characters he does but the cookie stuff got reposted by Snoop Dog the other day very very funny man Henry Phillips you gotta check him out yeah but yeah anyway what was that [ __ ] so it's Henry Phillips and then Doug Stan hope so Stan hope walks out and this is just a comedy club Wednesday night in Nashville um he he sniffed out the room uh he sits in the balcony he watches people coming in and getting seated and he sees how the interact with each other and their waitress and the door staff and uh the MC and the opener and or middle guy and uh he watches everything W like a hawk and he knows who these people are before he ever gets on that stage because he's seen every move they've all made yeah and I learned to do that but um and it makes all the difference in the world but yeah gotta know your audience know your yep he walked in and he' stiffed out this crowd and the first thing out of his mouth was his abortion is green bit um brilliant hilarious it's on YouTube abortion is green have an abortion Pro abortion um I would do the bit find it yourself do some work yeah but immediately about four tables of people stand up to walk out yeah and head for the door yeah they're not here for this they won't stand for it and they're out yeah well the staff is not going to drop checks for another hour so so you're [ __ ] it up and they're serving drinks to these people over here because they're not [ __ ] who are leaving they are people who are buying drinks yeah so you have to [ __ ] wait there's one credit card machine and that's it and when you get your bill we'll run you out so now they're captive inside the showroom with standing up in line up against this little window little cut wall to the ticket booth and they have to listen to Doug they're captive they cannot leave they have not paid their bill and uh so Doug just tears them apart he was like you don't know who I am you didn't know what you were coming to see you're just like it's comedy so I'm gonna like it and you walk down here like an idiot have you ever bought a ticket at the arena to see whatever the [ __ ] band is playing on a $200 ticket night no but you did that tonight didn't you you paid for a babysitter like he just he's destroying all these people and he already knows the their object they were going to walk out anyway sure so why not get them the [ __ ] out of here and had to listen to him he berated them I wish I had a recording and uh then as the last one's leaving and the door closes he holds silence for a beat and he goes now we can start the [ __ ] show and the go crazy and I'm like I've never seen anybody clear the room like that intentionally like flush in the toilet like let's go you're going to be a problem you don't like it and see that lesson I do that now where you know I'll say like if you don't want to be here obviously you don't want to be here you hate this you hate everything that's happening let me buy that beer that you're drinking if you down it and leave and go do anything else that would make you happy and bring you Joy it's not this that's okay can't be subjective I'll pay your be beer right there if you bounce go do something you love okay I wanna they if they're smart they'll leave if not I'll dump a pitcher of beer on their head you know which I have done spring I got to I got to interject I I hate that we've gone two hours already because it doesn't feel like two hours I hate this down or cut it and no I no no I don't cut them I don't cut them number one because I'm lazy but number two uh I like long form I'm a fan of long form and and and screw anybody who who doesn't like the long form I'm sorry that's what I do but but I got a I got a comment here because it's this Alchemy those of us who loved being part of the clubhouse those of us who love this stuff this is this this is the thing that I love so much the Alchemy of is it broadcasting yes but no is it standup and is it comedy yes but no is a performance art yes but no like the Andy coffins of the world or the the the people like these are the what you're talking about here is exactly the sensibility of the tribe that I'm trying to find these people who elicit reaction does it have to be cookie cutter laugh no it's not it's not just the standup comic stuff it's performance art it's it's some of this other stuff that's there as well and that's a huge part of this alchemy that that you're talking about you again Tom Green I watched Tom Green before he got his MTV deal he was in Canada he was thrown across Canada before he went down to the States right was it was it was mocking it wasn't it just like Letterman it was deconstructing the talk show yeah he's such a huge Letterman fan and that's one way we bonded was talking about Dave yeah he he loves Dave uh and he like he he really does and it's h it's it's neat talking that's that is one way we bonded very quickly yes um uh love of Dave for sure yeah but but he's not like he's a performance artist it's not his standup is good like he's going on he's on tour right now his standup is really good he's supporting these two docs that just came out his standup is very very very good but Tom Green is way more than that he's a performance artist and and that's what Letterman collected you know the Harvey PE cars of the world uh were were were were just as big as the Jay lenos of the world uh oh did are you are you there yes yes oh you are okay there we go yeah I think I am okay no you're here you're here sorry you're right yeah you're right like this that that's the whole fun of of of alt fan Letterman it's like here's people who love this thing and they're all over the like I never would have met them like you know in real life stumbling into them on the streets but maybe you would um but we started hanging out and going to see the show so Tracy and whoever Renee would go get a block of 30 40 tickets and there was a limitation and it was an honor to be there um they couldn't always just just walking and get 80 [ __ ] seated so like more more often than not it was like 20 to 30 but they would go to see the show and um Tony Mendes was very kind and would wave us onto the stage and put us in skits and um give us [ __ ] like I stole a bunch of cards off of Allen's desk he's like take them and you know and I've got a bunch of C cards you know not me rooting to the dumpster although I have done that and I am not ashamed at all don't throw away this [ __ ] this is all memorabilia um but you know uh yeah we were very lucky and they treated us really nice and they would let us walk through the control room so it's like having had contact with people on the staff and uh like in the context back and forth with Janice about internships or whoever y um but by this point we're interacting with Mike mckinty all the time uh and His Brilliant Wu w what is it what is he call wazu it's Mike no I never I never quite got us a hold on the name but Mike was a great guy and he uh would put give shout outs to my shows so in this like the Cameo mentioned of an NFL whatever post the freaking flyer to my show in Chad nooga and so you know very quickly I had this credit being on the Tony Mendes Show uh on Late Show with David alman's website and like and people loved that people thought it was cool and like Walter was very cool to give me the a CD of the clips and stuff like that like it's all you know nice positive reinforcement so like my routine became like I I'll go to New York City for like a week try to get tickets to lman uh try to go see Conan go see Jenny at The Daily Show and I got to sit there backstage at The Daily Show like me Jos Stewart like when he walks off the stage he walks over to two chairs right next to the stage where it's the writer of the piece and me and so like he walks so it's like all these experiences and then going up in New York City like I got I got to do legendary face boy Open Mic at uh what the [ __ ] was that Legend uh uh I forgot the room's name um but face Boys open mic in New York City and I met Christian finigan there and like so everybody went out to breakfast at the end of the show I stayed for the whole damn thing is me Christian finigan and like maybe any other people that had breakfast with lunch fa face boy so this is my you know I'm I'm trying to weasel my way into New York City Comedy just doing open mics which you have to have a consistent presence and do five six shows a night to to make a dent in it our our local genius Matt Sterling used to do these Mr show style uh presentations with live and taped stuff interacting with his partner clay wacher their writing partner um uh brilliant guys he Matt moved to New York City and he was expecting to show up and be a genius at all these shows and he is but nobody gives a [ __ ] if you're not there all day every day hammering you go to New York City to be great not to pop in once a month yeah and um so he wouldn't do that pace but he ended up bringing his beautiful family back to Nashville so like they've got a beautiful house recreating their experience as a family in Nashville and Brooklyn's crazy but they move back anyway I don't know I'm off it's okay now I'm going to New York City and I was crashing at Jenny's couch and I was going to see Letterman shows and getting up at night and that was all like awesome because you could go into the City and after getting shows on my own getting into it more then it's Comics putting you on their stuff and connecting you and and Bazi when he moved to New York work like I would just get into a car with him and he would take me to eight different rooms in a night and we would do two sets of Carolines run down to Broadway Comedy Club do 20 minutes there he runs back I close that show I run back to Carolines he's finishing that one we go down to like uh L uh [ __ ] comedy seller or the thing around the corner uh whatever the but he's taking you all over the place and then you end up in Brooklyn at some bar show but he's doing like seven reps a night Y in spot and driving around man happen to do it and so it's just like you like yeah whatever you're doing and then um and you would see him write a bit and then do iterations on it all night have a fully developed bit that has everything solid within three days Y and then put it in the book and have new material in the rotation and that's how he worked very disciplined very driven and just going along for the ride it's like Jesus uh crazy how happy are you about his uh like I got to watch uh in La uh blast may I got to watch Dave interview Nate Nate I wish they would put that out as an episode I want to see that they didn't I could all three of them uh Nate Sarah Silverman and um uh Tim Robinson uh none of them none of them were recorded I was I was I couldn't believe it and it was it but but how happy like Nate seems like that guy where it's like okay that guy put in the work but also just a genuinely like nice guy I'm so glad that he's getting the props that he he deserves he's the best he started showing up at the bar car like we were running the show and he was in Chicago coming up and he would come home for holidays and birthdays and [ __ ] like that and he would pop into bar car he would always pack the place out his his family and friends uh would come out to see him and you'd see the room rise and um from the beginning now the first time he did it like I thought like oh who is this guy like he had the the delivery was the same the writing was brilliant but it's not what it is today of course yeah but uh but it was uh very very funny from the beginning and I loved him and so he would you know and then you got a friend in Chicago right yeah who knows all the other comics in Chicago at that time and you could drive to Chicago and do shows and that's what I started doing is like I'm I'm producing all these shows around Nashville so I'm the guy and so you call Chad so I was the first person to book Nate and Rory Scoville and um Jared Harris and uh [ __ ] uh out of New Orleans damn it'll come to me tomorrow um but the first to book those guys on one of my shows in the alley yeah and then I was booking them and like Rory and Nate at Zan before Zan knew who they were they're just on my shows yeah and um but they but people love them you know and so and eventually that's the guy became for for Zan where like he would be like you know you're the dirt bag who who who should we pay attention to and I just pitched Nate to the CMT comedy stages show on uh that was filmed with the bellt and they loved immediately they thought this is a superstar and I saw I was at all those tapings and I'm in the audience of every single [ __ ] comedian thing on that but um Nate was my one of my pitches I pitched like 15 people to them and they picked Nate and they were 100% correct and they loved him and they treated him like a superstar from the start and so after that recording I said to Dorfman I was like you gotta book Nate and he didn't know who he was but he he booked him to open or middle for uh um Aries Spears and of course Nate destroyed and he sells out Bridget arena in Nashville now but um but Nate like you know then he moved to Chicago he got moved to uh New York and he got great and you go see him he'd come back down and you just put him up on whatever and I and I tried to teach this people to to open mic Runners is like no this is uh a HomeTown boy coming home but anytime there's a celebrity and somebody who credits say when do you want to go up Spike them in whatever the hell they want let them do their spot and get the [ __ ] out or or they can hang out it's up to them but give them that respect yeah and a lot of people bristled with that and so Nate got stiffed he went to an open mic in Nashville he was already on TV tonight show multiple times he got stiffed or they're like they made him wait or whatever it's so funny like some people it's so weird but you know he would drop in and like he moved was in LA for a while and then they realized very expensive they're pregnant they're going to have a kid y they wanted that National Life they wanted to be closer to family which you need when you have a kid and you're doing comedy or not comedy um but she had her family and his and so they bought a house back in n but they were secretive about it he didn't want people to really know that he wasn't in La that's important to have FaceTime y you know and he but he decided I can fly in and out for meetings and not tell anybody [ __ ] and they don't know there's not big barbecues I'm missing where everybody's like where's Nate yep um so you know uh he did that and he was kind of secretive but when he was gonna go run a set for tonight show I've got stage time for him so you you can't always say like his name you just say special mystery guest comic is what I say like makes AES built a whole brand around yeah yeah for Georgia beautiful little Comedy Club run by the guy that started the Atlanta punch line and they had this little Brick Church that they rent a room and I I got booked there and um they were really wonderful to me but like Ron White lived right there and that those waitresses also worked for Ron so anytime Ron wanted to pop in they would just send out a text and email saying special guest tonight and everybody understood what that was and everybody bumped Ron's going to do a but mostly Ron was very respectful he would come in on a weird night and do some [ __ ] like that or or your show might be co-opted and turned into that you know yeah unfortunately I I never got to be there but I whenever I was in that town I was always joking I was like I'm crash at Ron's Place it's fine you know but uh yeah you just you just go and you have fun and like Z's introduced me to all these Comics I got to work with everybody I had ever dreamed I could of and met the others so it's like I met Louis CK but I didn't work with him I was scheduled to one night he was going to do the third show that's why I got the show I thought I was going to work with CK but I met him you know and uh but everybody El by the way by the I got to say this go to Chad rid.com and and Chad rid.com will say it shows a lot of the people that that you have worked with um and it's not a it's not an exhaustive list by far but I mean it's a who's who there's one name on there that I didn't notice and I've got to I'm curious about this you ever bump into Norm uh as you were as you were going through your career yeah so he came and did zy one time when I was there and I bought ticket uh I can get in for free that show is going to sell out my policy is if I think it's going to sell out I'm going to buy a ticket and support this artist and go have lifetime experience I'm not gonna be standing there like a scrub can I come in can I I don't want to ever be in that position as a comedian it's disgusting you're a good this is my club this is my home base and I will respect the art form by paying for something so I've paid for Chris Rock I've prided for George Carlin and I uh whatever and you paid for nor McDonald I PID for nor McDonald and it was a wonderful it was a magical experience uh just they loved him I'm sure everybody always has uh just it was really incredible I did not get to hang out I think he took off pretty quickly or was sequestered I wasn't trying to jump in the way and be a weirdo um but uh yeah that that I got to see him live and I'm really grateful for that I I'm grateful I got to see Carlin at the Ryman Auditorium just a few months after 911 and uh he came out out you know of course standing o and people calm down and uh he's got papers in his hand he's got 8 and 1 half by 11 paper and he like usen I have to apologize because something big just happened and I've got new stuff about it and I'm pretty particular about words I don't want to screw this up I want to get it right I think I've got it but these are my security blanket and with your permission I'd like to have notes on stage as I run through some new material and of course everybody's like whatever the [ __ ] yeah and so he does his special he does it and it's he knows it all he's got the Rhythm and everything but he has the pages in his hand and that was very educational to me I was like okay that's I think the greatest living legend in comedy at the time and uh this is pretty crazy everybody's told me I'm lazy for having notes [ __ ] and I know you don't do it all the time but look at this guy doing this and then I saw Mitch Hedberg come time so Mitch Hedberg had come through town four or five times and I was always on the road and I missed him because I'm I'm a I'm a parent I've got a mortgage and Dorfman paid my mortgage for a good 15 years or so but I'm on the road busting my ass yeah and um so I missed Mitch and then I saw him scheduled and I immediately blocked that off of my calendar I was like I'm not going anywhere yeah I'm gonna go see Mitch Hedberg Y and so I did that and he walked out on stage and he's like you know he's got a legal pad yellow legal pad and and uh well first of all we're in the Green Room uh Frankie Harris is mcing and so Lyn shoft is there and um and Mitch is sitting in the big chair in the corner oh [ __ ] was B to happen water uh I think my phone's shutting down hold on I may have to call you back on another phone looks I'm so sorry he's back he's back kid so sorry don't be sorry we're all good man yeah good no no no we're all good uh we will we will need to wrap up soon and I feel bad because you're on such a an amazing uh you're riding the wave of verbiage and it was delightful and you're you're sideways now so can we change you back to there we go all right good can I hear you can you hear me yes I'm so sorry don't be sorry I love I love how uh your final words there where we're going to do the cut is oh this was bound to happen and and yeah I guess that charge cable is not what I thought it was so that's on me um sorry about no that's okay I uh well basically we're we're you're we're getting you back on here to to shoot the outro is basically what we're doing um that's Chad I cannot wait to have you back here I love I I love standups I love uh uh talking and connecting with standups and and it's just you're all like Fab eggs you're all these unique beautiful um you know pieces of art that that cannot be replicated um that's what human beings are and and anytime we forget that we're [ __ ] because uh we're all unique snowflakes melting our asses on the fire and it's beautiful and uh yeah and that's the vibe in tal New Mexico where I'm building an Off the Grid structure for me and others a comedy club a comp found a weird cult uh it's all owned by my church The Holy [ __ ] cedarian Church you could get me on worka away.in or on my website [ __ ] texas.org um and come hang out man we're building we built a house for a homeless lady uh and her son my neighbor they lived out here for nine years in an adobe um loan to them by the owner who went to Hawaii to die and his family wants that house back so they booted them Mountain we built them a hyper Adobe two-bedroom two-story house in four months with volunteers and uh donations and we still need more money to finish it and there's a GoFundMe I'm doing the same thing for me but much smaller 2200 2,000 two 1222 square feet is mine very very small one story one room and that's what I'm building same style but that's what I'm doing out here is I'm building a comedy club that's tea but I'm also trying to build a scene in t the way I did in Nashville and trick my friends into to come in here to see me instead of me coming to see them uh while I'm building so it's working and a bunch of comics have popped through out of curios if nothing else and they love it the crowds here love them and they always ask him like why are you here why are you in the middle of nowhere in a little Mountain ski town right Chad and we have a great time um so Stan Hope's coming May 6th at Dolly at K here in ta he said he wanted to kick off his Mountain Times on tour here and yeah I was like you're drunk but um we were hanging out on bis a year ago when I did a show down there and uh did a podcast and stuff that's on my [ __ ] but in his but um yeah uh he was saying he was going to come and do this it's like yeah whatever but then he you know I got that call whatever it was a month or two ago and he's like let's book it and so that's nice that's how that's why like you build these shows I just you just do an open mic start it wherever you're at and invite any come and do five minutes and it's my favorite thing in the world is seeing somebody go up for the first time ever I love it uh I'll I'll pay them with a $2 bill tell them they're professional comic now buy him a beer and and tell them that's the most money they'll make in the next 10 years but um I I encourage them to come back and it's a fun time and people love it and so we're creating comedians we're creating Community we're building houses we're building community and this is what I love to do I'm out in the middle of nowhere there's not as much trumpy stuff it's not there's nais marching in the street of Nashville and elsewhere country and they are not doing that here they would get shot um but there's conservative people here uh but it's not crazy uh inyour face Trump Flags and [ __ ] happening like it is in Nashville and so I'm very very happy and uh it's a lot of fun and I'm happier than I've ever been it's kind of crazy you're doing the Chad Ryden version of what Joe Rogan did I've got the chadar Rosa I I'm modeled it more after Stan Hope's compound and bsy yeah um it's not quite there yet there's a lot of trash piled up in pallets and dogs um but we're we're having fun I do the Chad by Chad West Festival every year come hang out uh but we'll do other stuff too uh yeah I don't know uh I have uh I've I've really enjoyed all of our interactions and I can't wait till we do it again I knew this was going to be one of the shows that I would just just absolutely be able to sit back and just enjoy um the process and be present the whole time that's how I feel I can't wait till uh our next interaction whatever that looks like I certainly want to uh to come down and see what you're doing and and uh I'm just grateful that that that guys like you in the world chat I really really am I just thank you for coming on today and I can't wait to have you back thank you so much this is an amazing thing like you say you are building that community of weirdos who love this thing and I mean I like it when people commit to stuff they love and do it uh and you do that and this is a beautiful thing I've had Comics ask me to do Letterman podcast with them because I recorded all the shows I had you know shittier database than Don and mine was on note cards stuffed into the VHS box but um you know knowing that these people still exist and they remember and uh it's just uh it's kind of an amazing thing to be and it's just being a fan that's all it is is loving something and then uh chiming in about it and [ __ ] out your version of whatever you think is funny um I just think everybody should everybody should do stand up for the first time ever everybody's got five minutes in them beyond that it's up to you but everybody's got five minutes in them and it's up to you to put in the work to do that and then get your ass on stage if you're not willing to do that shut the [ __ ] up at the show and listen to the people to Talking Stick yeah and uh but people like you are bringing together other people who respect this and love this there's nothing better if first date take him to an open mic or meet people there look around the room see who else is laughing at the same stuff you are and hates the same stuff you do and you found a partner every woman on every dating site says they want somebody funny go to a local comedy show you're supping supporting local artists and you're meeting the people you will see on Saturday Night Live I promise you you will see people who end up on The Tonight Show HBO you'll say I saw that kid I saw that kid and you'll be that's the beauty of this is you can be a lifelong fan and support these people when they really need it it's nice thanks for having me dude oh Chad I appreciate you so so much um this is exactly why we do the show to the collection the community is exactly the reason why we started this thing uh this has been another episode of the Letterman podcast with Mike Chisum coincidentally I am Mike Chisum thank you and good night over coat and Underpants