Saratoga Comedy Festival Brings 64 Comics to Saratoga | Buying Local #87

00;00;00;00 – 00;00;14;13
Speaker 3
Welcome, everyone, to buying local. I’m your host, Mike Nelson from Five Towers Media. Excited about today’s podcast. We’ve got, Travis Stele from Saratoga Comedy Festival that’s coming to Saratoga. What is that, Travis? Is that September?

00;00;14;15 – 00;00;18;15
Speaker 2
Yep. September 11th and 12th at the Saratoga City Center.

00;00;18;17 – 00;00;33;13
Speaker 3
Very nice. So, Travis, before we get into Saratoga Comedy Festival, we should probably hear a little bit about you, about how funny you are. I know we talked about that before we started. Go ahead and give us, the broad strokes.

00;00;33;15 – 00;00;56;12
Speaker 2
So kind of it started, like, comedy wise, how I just got into it kind of by accident. And, there was some random kid that I was friends with on Facebook because, you know, I will accept any friend request because it always could be an adventure. And, he was posting assets, and, one night, I may or may not add, you two made a drink, and I left a comment and was like, that really wasn’t that good.

00;00;56;15 – 00;01;05;26
Speaker 2
And he responded right back and said, oh, you think you can do it? Come on out. So I went, did my first open mic and.

00;01;05;28 – 00;01;06;05
Speaker 1
I’m.

00;01;06;10 – 00;01;23;20
Speaker 2
Like, no laughs for the longest five minutes I’ve ever had. And I realized I was like, oh, I should probably learn how to get good at this. And, took a bunch of years. I still don’t think I’m funny, but when people book me, I’m like, okay, if you want to waste your money, but, no, I keep getting books.

00;01;23;20 – 00;01;36;02
Speaker 2
So I’m like, all right. And I mean, know there’s a bunch of people I could thank for, like, helping me and all that, but then, I started traveling more with comedy. I’m like, it got to the point. I was doing Hawaii every year.

00;01;36;04 – 00;01;48;13
Speaker 2
Done a couple festivals, just traveled a bunch and then started producing my own shows to, just to kind of give the capital area or Saratoga everyone around, like a really good show, like, for their money.

00;01;48;16 – 00;01;49;16
Speaker 1
What?

00;01;49;18 – 00;02;09;28
Speaker 3
What is it? I’m sure I think most people can attest to what it feels like to bomb, in front of, you know, not necessarily with with the humor in anything. Right. If you’ve ever done any kind of public speaking, especially when you think you’re funny. But I have to understand, like you’re getting ready for your first open mic.

00;02;09;28 – 00;02;22;29
Speaker 3
You obviously you wrote some jokes for you, so you you prepared and you thought it was going to be good. What what makes it bad or good? Like you’re writing something that you think is funny and then it ends up not being funny. Well, it’s.

00;02;22;29 – 00;02;46;29
Speaker 2
Weird too, that this is something that I’ve noticed that I think, like a lot of comics might relate to this is if I find it hilarious, chances are nobody else finds it funny. That’s something I’ve noticed where I’m like, haha, that was the funniest thing I wrote. It’s kind of like when you’re showing your buddies something hilarious and they have that awkward stare, like they don’t want to hurt your feelings, but they’re like, this isn’t funny, but sure.

00;02;46;29 – 00;03;09;18
Speaker 2
Yeah, but that was how I was in the beginning. And, because I was like, yo, this story is hilarious. It’s going to be the greatest thing I’ve ever told. I’m going to make them all die. I’m gonna be at Madison Square Garden by Friday. Like, that’s that was my mindset. And you go up and right in the beginning you realize, oh, wait a minute, this is just a long story that no one’s going to pay attention to.

00;03;09;21 – 00;03;29;10
Speaker 2
And, by the end of it, you’re like, and that’s what happened. And everyone’s just looking at you’re like, so are you getting off stage now or what’s up? Like, are you done with us? So yeah, it at this point now it’s, you know, writing is a lot I, I say easier, but it’s also different than what it was, you know, ten years ago when I was writing.

00;03;29;10 – 00;03;49;06
Speaker 2
So, it gets to the point now, you know, you write about your life, you write about things that happen. You could be a political comic if you want. Not really my thing. But, you know, it all depends on what you think will make the audience laugh. And then you just keep working, keep working and keep working to finally get it.

00;03;49;09 – 00;04;00;13
Speaker 3
It’s interesting. Now, do you do you find that, like, do you change your set when you get in front of a room, depending on how things are going or who you’re in front of?

00;04;00;15 – 00;04;20;01
Speaker 2
Sometimes it depends. Like, for example, I did a room, about a month ago, actually, and I was headlining it, and we had two shows that night in two different spots. So we, you know, we went into the early show, and then we got in the car and drove another 15 minutes to the headlining spot, and there was only eight people there.

00;04;20;03 – 00;04;34;22
Speaker 2
So I’m like, all right, we’re just going to acknowledge this right off the bat. And I did 57 minutes on stage and I’d say about 55 of it was crowd work. I learned basically their Social Security numbers at that point.

00;04;34;24 – 00;04;51;22
Speaker 2
So but I mean, you could also have a full room and just your first word, the crush, and you just keep going with your set. So it really depends on the audience, depends on the crowd. A good comic will work with anything. But yeah, you can say it depends on the room.

00;04;51;24 – 00;05;06;29
Speaker 3
The what? When you now you say work the crowd. So like, you know, I see reels all the time of comics and they’re interacting with the crowd and and is, is that like a useful tool to, like, just start. And I mean, at some point you basically start making fun of them, right? As far as the crowd goes.

00;05;07;01 – 00;05;09;18
Speaker 2
You can. Yeah. So.

00;05;09;20 – 00;05;10;21
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;05;10;24 – 00;05;28;00
Speaker 2
So I guess the new trend is, crowd work comics. And it’s like, I’m not bashing. I’m looking, you know, Matt Rife, that’s how we got famous, and he’s killing it. Can’t be mad at it. I’m. You know, I’m more jealous of the fact that he could sell out stadiums doing it. But, you know, I always.

00;05;28;00 – 00;05;47;26
Speaker 2
I guess I’m a little more old school. I look at it like you got to have material. You got to have material, because sometimes the crowd won’t give you anything. And then you’re like, oh, okay. I said, hey, what do you do for work? And the person’s silent and you’re like, okay. Or the person’s like, I work in construction and you’re like, oh, well, we’ve heard everything about construction.

00;05;47;26 – 00;06;04;25
Speaker 2
Okay, that’s not going to make the audience laugh. So how am I going to be different? You know, all their buddies have made the same construction jokes I’m going to make. So it’s like, you know, you got to move around. But I’m a I’m a big proponent of have material. You can always go to crowd work, if that makes sense.

00;06;04;28 – 00;06;08;24
Speaker 1
Okay. Yeah.

00;06;08;26 – 00;06;27;18
Speaker 3
57 minutes of trying to be funny sounds. Sounds like an eternity to me. Like, if it goes bad and there’s crooked, you know what I mean? Like, but you still got to stay up there. You can’t just run back behind stage at, like, how do you deal with that?

00;06;27;21 – 00;06;51;15
Speaker 2
So when we got there, me and another comic, we did the road trip, and even the promoter was like, hey, not a lot of sales tonight, which I’m like, okay, I’m thinking not a lot of sales hasn’t. I’ve done this room before. I’m thinking not a lot of sales. At least it’s going to be halfway filled. And we get there and there’s this two older ladies, which I have a funny story with them about that room sitting towards the front.

00;06;51;17 – 00;07;09;06
Speaker 2
And then there was, two tables in the back. But so it was like that awkward, you know, Thanksgiving dinner where no one wants to sit near you except grandma, and the rest of the people are all the way in the back. So I started I acknowledged it right off the bat. I’m like, give it up for this sold out room.

00;07;09;06 – 00;07;29;20
Speaker 2
You know, like, I’m really excited that the town had so much to do tonight that you decided not to come here. And, you just, you know, you have fun with it. You mess around. You do. Cause, like, it’s kind of like, you know, the seven foot comic who doesn’t make a tall joke, or the 500 pound guy who doesn’t acknowledge his weight.

00;07;29;20 – 00;07;54;24
Speaker 2
You have to acknowledge it at least once, you know? Yeah. So I acknowledged it, and then I played around with it, I had fun, turns out there was actually a blind guy in the audience, so I had fun with him for like, 20 minutes. And, of course, like, in his family brought him. And I’m like, so, did your family tell you you’re going to like, you know, the sold out Jerry Seinfeld room and then just brought you here because you can’t see anything, and, we just had fun with it.

00;07;54;24 – 00;08;07;03
Speaker 2
So you just if you’re going to have fun with it and, you know, make it work. The time I could have probably. I think I did, like I said, about two minutes worth of material. The rest of it was just having fun and just moving around the room. So.

00;08;07;05 – 00;08;08;18
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;08;08;20 – 00;08;22;18
Speaker 3
Do you ever I always wonder, like when I see comics doing what what you say is called crowd work. Like, sometimes they say I’m like, ooh, like they’re going too far. Like, do you ever worry about going too far in those situations?

00;08;22;20 – 00;08;22;29
Speaker 1
In the.

00;08;22;29 – 00;08;43;23
Speaker 2
Beginning, I worried about it. Now, I mean, I believe me, you could tell when you went too far. But now I look at it like if I went too far, I can bring you back. Like, I’ll bring you back. Sometimes you can’t bring them back. Which, yeah, that happens. And as a comic, watching that from the side of the stage is hilarious.

00;08;43;25 – 00;08;45;20
Speaker 1
I felt as if being the.

00;08;45;20 – 00;08;50;20
Speaker 2
Comic on stage, though, you’re like, oh, I just we’re doing this room real quick.

00;08;50;23 – 00;08;51;22
Speaker 1
Wow.

00;08;51;24 – 00;09;00;19
Speaker 2
I’ve been on both ends of that spectrum. You know, I, I’ve one time I had a bottle thrown at me, which was hilarious to me.

00;09;00;21 – 00;09;18;22
Speaker 2
One time I had someone tried fighting me after the show, and I was like, I didn’t say anything that bad. I don’t think, And, you know, it’s just everything in between. I had a lady one time, actually, one of my first shows that I ever produced. I was at a firehouse in Latham. Sold out room.

00;09;18;22 – 00;09;38;28
Speaker 2
I was beyond happy. I wasn’t expecting it. So it’s, you know, everything’s good. And I noticed there was a nun in the audience. Now, I really I was maybe four years into the game, so I really wasn’t. I don’t know, there’s some people that might be better than me in four years in. That’s fine. But I was like, I’ll let someone else acknowledge it.

00;09;39;00 – 00;09;56;18
Speaker 2
So I did a joke about Tinder, like all the hacks do and all that stuff. And then I see her on her phone and I’m like, all right, I got to acknowledge it. And I was like, ma’am. I was like, are my jokes that bad? You’re getting on your phone and you’re bored. And she goes, no, I want to see what tender’s like.

00;09;56;20 – 00;10;04;23
Speaker 2
So I got a nun to get on Tinder and I’m like, I’m not religious, but I feel like even Jesus is like, that was a good one. That was a gun.

00;10;04;25 – 00;10;06;21
Speaker 1
Well.

00;10;06;24 – 00;10;24;26
Speaker 3
You know, I guess I was thinking about, like, you’re saying the bottle flying that in, guy wanted to fight you. I mean, I guess, you know, at it’s, rise form, right? Comedy. The the objective is to get someone into an emotional state. Right? So I guess maybe, maybe not always that emotion, but.

00;10;25;03 – 00;10;43;07
Speaker 2
No, I mean, I’m not trying to get them to throw stuff at me or to fight them, but, you know, it just, you know, one time it happened. I mean, one time, this guy’s girlfriend just wouldn’t be quiet, and I, you know, I have. I give him the rule of three where it’s like, by my second joke, if you’re still talking, I’m going to acknowledge it.

00;10;43;10 – 00;11;06;02
Speaker 2
And, eventually, I just was like, sweetheart, either you’re going to get kicked out or be quiet. You decide. I know it’s the podcast, but I did say a few choice words about her. And I got the whole audience. Now, this was up in Toronto on the Super Trouper tour. I got the whole audience to raise their hand and say the one word that women don’t like towards her.

00;11;06;04 – 00;11;11;08
Speaker 2
And, yeah, then her boyfriend was not too thrilled with me after the show.

00;11;11;14 – 00;11;11;28
Speaker 1
I bet.

00;11;11;28 – 00;11;13;18
Speaker 3
Not, I bet.

00;11;13;20 – 00;11;14;11
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;11;14;13 – 00;11;33;22
Speaker 3
I know we want to talk about the comedy festival. I just I got one more question about call because it just it fascinates me, and and I, you know, like we were talking about before the show, like, I, you know, I think I’m funny sometimes. And most of the time I think I’m being funny. I’m not, the.

00;11;33;24 – 00;11;52;02
Speaker 3
Idea that like, do you do kind of like the same sets and kind of get better at them. Like, that’s something I’ve heard about on like other podcast where they’re talking about like, yeah, I’ll do the same set 20 shows in a row and it’s like the 20th time, but by the time it’s actually funny, like, is that something that you do as well or.

00;11;52;04 – 00;11;52;17
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;11;52;17 – 00;12;23;20
Speaker 2
So not every single set is going to be word for word. Exactly. You know, 53 minutes and 17 seconds long or something like that. But you try to do so, you know, you start off, you write the material, then you you test it out. Not one joke is perfect the second you write it, it may make it a lot of laughs the first time you say it, but then, you know, the next night you’re like, oh, I got a new word I need to add in there, or I need to move it around to a different spot of the set.

00;12;23;22 – 00;12;40;04
Speaker 2
But like, yeah, I mean, there’s times where, you know, I know what my clothes are going to be. I know that when I start doing my closer, I have seven minutes left. And then, you know, there’s a new bit about the girlfriend that like, I know that’s going to be ten minutes and I know where I’m going to put that.

00;12;40;07 – 00;12;51;11
Speaker 2
I like doing a lot of callbacks. So like if I say a joke at minute eight, I’ll make a callback to it later on at like 15 and it’s like, haha, so you’re paying attention, you know, things like that.

00;12;51;13 – 00;12;52;14
Speaker 1
So yeah.

00;12;52;16 – 00;13;10;29
Speaker 2
If you write it out and you know, you do it the right way, a lot of your sets are going to be similar, you know, show to show. They’re, you know, eventually once you just want to burn all the material and start over again, you know, then the next night is like, all right, brand new. And that’s the more exciting part, I guess, if that makes sense.

00;13;11;01 – 00;13;14;15
Speaker 3
Yeah. Is that are you burning it because you’re just. You’re bored with.

00;13;14;15 – 00;13;17;12
Speaker 1
It? You think? Yes and no.

00;13;17;15 – 00;13;35;14
Speaker 2
I’m not, I don’t know, I, I’m very, I guess I what’s the term? I guess I’ll never say I’m funny and I’ll never say that I’m like a headliner, but, I mean, if someone wants to book me more than welcome to, And then sometimes I’ll be doing jokes and I’m like, yeah, I did that like six months ago.

00;13;35;17 – 00;13;55;19
Speaker 2
And I’m like, you know, I should just film it. It may be a terrible special. I’ll just film it. So then I don’t have to do it anymore. Like, that’s a way that I know a lot of comics do that they go the second that it’s on tape, it’s done. I won’t do it ever again. Interesting. And I kind of like that mindset because it’s like a crutch.

00;13;55;21 – 00;14;03;25
Speaker 2
You’re like, all right. It forces you to write better, forces you to get better. You know, it forces you to actually put in the work and grind and do.

00;14;03;25 – 00;14;05;26
Speaker 1
All that stuff. Yeah.

00;14;05;29 – 00;14;12;12
Speaker 3
And how do you test jokes? Like, do you get your buddies on the couch and, and start delivering material to them?

00;14;12;15 – 00;14;13;20
Speaker 1
Well, the downside with my.

00;14;13;20 – 00;14;20;16
Speaker 2
Friends is they’ll laugh at anything. So I think that’s where that that, you know, that all their self-confidence came in.

00;14;20;22 – 00;14;21;20
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;14;21;22 – 00;14;42;01
Speaker 2
Because I’m like, you know, I am pretty funny. And then I actually got around funny people, and I was like, I’m not funny at all. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you can test it out, in the beginning, you know, you’re right, you’re right, you’re right. You can test it out with buddies. You go to open mics, you know, you test it out there, usually get five minutes at an open mic to test out.

00;14;42;04 – 00;14;43;26
Speaker 1
And then.

00;14;43;29 – 00;15;04;08
Speaker 2
You know, now I’m doing it where I’m, I’m working every weekend, pretty much. So if I’m doing anywhere from 20 to, you know, an hour, if I have a new five minutes, I’ll throw it in there in front of an audience. And I’m not saying do this for all comics. I’m saying there is that level that like once you get to that, you can do that because then you’re testing it in front of a real audience.

00;15;04;08 – 00;15;19;06
Speaker 2
You can see how it sounds, see if it works. If it doesn’t, okay, cool. You can go right back to your actual stuff that’s already written and ready to go. So it really just depends on where you want to test it. There’s many different options to test it out.

00;15;19;08 – 00;15;22;15
Speaker 3
All right. Last question about being a comedian.

00;15;22;18 – 00;15;26;17
Speaker 3
I’ll get one and then we’ll move on to the onto the comedy. But I’m talking about myself.

00;15;26;17 – 00;15;29;02
Speaker 2
Come on now, I don’t mind.

00;15;29;05 – 00;15;42;15
Speaker 3
So, like, how long did it take you before you felt like you were actually being funny and started to get like, that first open mic was a bomb. Nobody laughed. It was crickets. You kind of just limped off stage.

00;15;42;18 – 00;15;43;13
Speaker 1
What? Yeah.

00;15;43;15 – 00;15;53;16
Speaker 3
Where does it go from that? Like, do you just you keep at it and keep doing it until you finally get someone to laugh, and that’s your small validation to keep going or what does that look like?

00;15;53;18 – 00;16;18;25
Speaker 2
So I’ll be honest, my first six months at open mics were terrible. Like I thought, like, you know, the offensive jokes were great. I thought, you know, all the trash stuff was great. All the stuff that like, you know, teenage you was funny, you know, and like, you know, stuff that you see on the dark side of the web that you can only share with, you know, those certain friends, you know, so I’m like, you know, this is cool.

00;16;18;27 – 00;16;35;15
Speaker 2
And I honestly, I was about to quit because I was like, I’m not doing anything with this. This hobby is not you know, it was frustrating because I couldn’t get laughs. Two things help me. One was a book called The Comedy Bible. And then another thing was a comedian in the area named Rich Williams.

00;16;35;18 – 00;16;37;13
Speaker 1
And he.

00;16;37;16 – 00;16;55;01
Speaker 2
You know, he he has the credits. I’ll give him that. He’s got a comedy. He’s been on Comedy Central, he’s got a special, he wrote for a bunch of TV shows and movies and stuff. And when he told me that, I was just like, sure, dude, you live in Schenectady and you did all this? Yeah, I bet, and, you know, I saw the proof.

00;16;55;01 – 00;17;06;02
Speaker 2
I saw it all. And his exact words were, listen, you have good ideas. You are just terrible at delivering that. So. And I was like, all right.

00;17;06;02 – 00;17;06;16
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;17;06;24 – 00;17;30;22
Speaker 2
You know, the proof is there. Yeah. You’re right. And, he actually worked with me for about a year. I would send him one liners every single day, which you think in the beginning you’re like, cool it. Just one sentence. Now you actually want to send funny stuff. You don’t just send random things because, hell, he responded back in the way that, you know, I was raised was if it’s not good, I’m not going to tell you it’s good.

00;17;30;25 – 00;17;38;09
Speaker 2
And, you know, it was there was one time he literally wrote back, he goes, do you think this is funny?

00;17;38;11 – 00;17;57;29
Speaker 2
And I was like, I don’t know what he’s like. Exactly. He goes, so send me some actual funny stuff. And yeah, he helped me. He got me on track. And then it definitely changed how I was writing, how I thought, and then now it’s a lot easier to just. Oh, okay, this is how you do it, you know, setup, punchline, setup, punchline.

00;17;57;29 – 00;18;17;28
Speaker 2
Or you could do a story, but you got to make people interested. I could do a five minute story now and have you laughing every 15 seconds. And then at the end that big punchline is, oh, he got me. They all paid attention to where if I tell you a five minute story a minute, and if you haven’t laughed or something’s not memorable, you’re good, you’re not going to pay attention.

00;18;18;01 – 00;18;21;20
Speaker 1
So what what.

00;18;21;22 – 00;18;22;26
Speaker 3
I okay, I’m sorry.

00;18;23;00 – 00;18;24;17
Speaker 1
I say more comedy time.

00;18;24;18 – 00;18;27;10
Speaker 3
You can. I got another question.

00;18;27;12 – 00;18;30;14
Speaker 1
I will get to the festival. No, I, I got that I should.

00;18;30;14 – 00;18;35;06
Speaker 2
Shamelessly promote right now. Saratoga Comedy Fest. All right. Now, anyways, what do you got right now?

00;18;35;07 – 00;18;40;20
Speaker 3
Back to comedy. Well, I just, you know, and this is.

00;18;40;22 – 00;19;00;27
Speaker 3
I’ve referred to this before as the stick to it fitness. Yeah. Staying in it even though and I think every business owner and, you know, most of our listeners are entrepreneurs and business owners. And, you know, one of the things I, you know, I can’t tell you how many times in my career people have been like, dude, you could make so much more money if you went off and did this, or, you know, if you did this.

00;19;00;27 – 00;19;16;22
Speaker 3
And I’m like, no, man. Like, I’m going to keep doing this. I’m just, what was that like for you to to be able to like, six months in, you’re thinking about quitting, you know, and again, I can attest, every business owner, at some point, if not every week, is thinking about quitting their business.

00;19;16;24 – 00;19;24;06
Speaker 3
Like what? What? At six months, you’re you’re thinking about quitting. Like, why did you stay?

00;19;24;08 – 00;19;24;22
Speaker 1
I think.

00;19;24;22 – 00;19;40;02
Speaker 2
It was, you know, like, it’s, you know, at the time, it was rich helping me. He booked me on my first show, and, you know, all my friends came out. It’s your first big show. You know, all your friends are coming out. So at that point, I was like, well, I gotta at least stick to it.

00;19;40;02 – 00;19;44;22
Speaker 2
This. I can’t be like, hey, guys, I’m doing a comedy show. And a week later, no, I’m not doing a comedy show.

00;19;44;22 – 00;19;46;21
Speaker 1
Right? So.

00;19;46;23 – 00;20;09;22
Speaker 2
I stuck to it. I got laughs, they weren’t they weren’t the greatest. I’m not going to sit here and tell you I crush, you know, it was that, city center, I think it was. Or now, the center square in Schenectady, whatever that bar is. Ironically, the show was outside. Everyone set had a train go through it except mine.

00;20;09;25 – 00;20;22;13
Speaker 2
So everyone got to hear all my bad stuff for 15, and I, you know, I think I acknowledged it halfway through. I was like, I would really love a train to go through right now.

00;20;22;15 – 00;20;24;07
Speaker 3
Save yourself a little bit.

00;20;24;10 – 00;20;39;00
Speaker 2
Yeah. But now I just I kind of kept pushing through. I had people in my life at the time, too, that were like, are you going to quit it? You know, you everything that you want to do, you usually do pretty well. I mean, or at least try to get to it and do it. And I’m like, yeah, I’ll keep going.

00;20;39;00 – 00;20;55;06
Speaker 2
And then, you know, I started getting booked more. My jokes were starting to get better. Started making friends in the comedy world. And it’s just, you know, and then eventually, fast forward a couple of years later, you know, Hawaii’s reaching out or, you know, going on tour with movie stars is like, hey, you want to do this?

00;20;55;06 – 00;20;57;29
Speaker 2
I’m like, oh, man, I’m glad I didn’t quit.

00;20;58;01 – 00;20;59;10
Speaker 1
Yeah, right.

00;20;59;13 – 00;21;03;26
Speaker 3
And any plans on, being at the mothership any, anytime soon?

00;21;03;29 – 00;21;05;07
Speaker 1
If I can get out to Austin.

00;21;05;07 – 00;21;08;23
Speaker 2
And I had time, I could probably get on there.

00;21;08;25 – 00;21;27;15
Speaker 2
Depends on. Because I’ve had a bunch of friends that work there and do all that stuff, and I don’t know if I mean kill Tony is kind of the luck of the draw unless you know him. But, I mean, it just depends on the situation. I mean, I look at it too, where everyone’s like, oh, the mothership is great, which it’s a great club, you know, everything’s great.

00;21;27;15 – 00;21;45;13
Speaker 2
But I’m also like, yeah, but have you done Vegas? Have you done, you know, New York, have you done Toronto? Have you done to Chicago, which is a great city. You know, things like that. And it’s like, you know, you look around and you’re like, oh, wow, I have done that. It’s like we’re driving out I-90 and seeing all those little towns and being like, I perform there.

00;21;45;18 – 00;21;51;19
Speaker 2
I perform where there’s a VFW. I know a minute off the road and I got booed there, but I perform there.

00;21;51;26 – 00;21;57;02
Speaker 3
I got booed there.

00;21;57;05 – 00;22;00;24
Speaker 3
Well, thank you for feeding my curiosity about,

00;22;00;26 – 00;22;06;14
Speaker 2
Not a problem. I mean, every time you want to do it, I hope you’re right or something.

00;22;06;16 – 00;22;12;29
Speaker 3
So let’s talk about Saratoga Comedy Festival. Give us, give us, the limber up here on that.

00;22;13;01 – 00;22;19;08
Speaker 2
So it’s myself, my other producers, Joe and J.

00;22;19;10 – 00;22;30;29
Speaker 2
I don’t know if you give their last names or not. It’s up to them, I guess. But, Joe works under Rev House promotions, Inc.. I was told it’s Inc., not LLC, so that’s good.

00;22;31;02 – 00;22;52;19
Speaker 2
But, we decided about a year and a half ago, that, you know, hey, like, you know, comedy festivals are fun. You know, you get a lot of people together and stuff. And then I’ve been to a few festivals where what they did was they had the whole festival in one location, so you didn’t have to worry about, you know, getting in your car and going to another place or anything like that.

00;22;52;19 – 00;23;12;19
Speaker 2
Because anyone above the age of 25, we know that if I go to a show and then I have to get in my car and go to another show, I’m probably going home. And so we decided, let’s put it all in the same spot. So we’re doing it at the Saratoga City Center. We’re going to have five rooms running at the same time.

00;23;12;22 – 00;23;32;24
Speaker 2
So on Friday there’s going to be 15 shows starting at 6 p.m., five shows. There’s going to be five more at eight and five more at ten. There’s going to be a food vendor there. There’s going to be alcohol vendor there. We got a whole bunch of sponsors and all that. It’s going to be basically a party.

00;23;32;27 – 00;23;51;23
Speaker 2
And then when the schedule gets out, which, I’ve been kind of lazy and haven’t gotten to I haven’t finished it, I haven’t almost there, but I haven’t finished yet. I’m on the schedule comes out, you’ll be able to see, you know, and you’ll be able to see all the headliners you want to see. You know, we have individual passes for Friday or Saturday or the weekend pass.

00;23;51;25 – 00;24;08;22
Speaker 2
The weekend pass, which I recommend just because then, you know, on Friday, if you only want to catch one show and leave, and then Saturday you can catch 2 or 3 and you’re going to be seeing guys that, you won’t be seeing headliners that are on Netflix, headliners that are on, Hulu. Sorry. Hold on. My dog is checking in.

00;24;08;22 – 00;24;09;20
Speaker 2
I feel like.

00;24;09;22 – 00;24;11;04
Speaker 1
I may have been.

00;24;11;06 – 00;24;12;08
Speaker 2
High by.

00;24;12;10 – 00;24;14;03
Speaker 1
It’s, That’s a big.

00;24;14;03 – 00;24;14;10
Speaker 3
Head.

00;24;14;10 – 00;24;17;17
Speaker 2
Man. Yeah, yeah, he’s a he’s a big boy that’s falling for you.

00;24;17;17 – 00;24;19;02
Speaker 1
Hey, everybody now.

00;24;19;02 – 00;24;39;00
Speaker 2
Is half lab, half pit full idiot. So, but now he heard me talking too much and not about him, so he was like, let me just interject. You gotta make a comment. Yeah. So the festival, like I said, it’s going to be, Friday, September 11th and Saturday, September 12th. We’re going to have, like I said, a bunch of vendors.

00;24;39;00 – 00;24;42;16
Speaker 2
We’re going to have live podcasts as well.

00;24;42;18 – 00;24;59;29
Speaker 2
So then, you know, they’re going to have special guests coming in. There’s going to be regular comedy shows. There’s going to be a couple different ones. We have a show called interrogation. That’ll be, I believe, Saturday. That’s where a bunch of comics tell stories about how they had a run in with the law or something like that.

00;24;59;29 – 00;25;16;22
Speaker 2
So it’s a lot of relatable, and it’s pretty funny. Cory, David’s run in that one. But, overall, like I said, it’s going to be a two day party, basically. I’m going to perform, I think, if I have time, I’m one of 64 comics.

00;25;16;24 – 00;25;18;15
Speaker 3
That are there for.

00;25;18;17 – 00;25;41;10
Speaker 2
64. Yep. I thought we had 62. And then I forgot about two more and I was like, oh yeah, I forgot about you guys. So yeah, we’re going to have 64 comics, spread out the two days. The big headliners are going to be there all weekend, so you don’t have to worry about missing that. And then, there’s a bunch of local guys on there too, so you’ll be able to see that.

00;25;41;12 – 00;25;41;27
Speaker 2
And now that’s.

00;25;42;02 – 00;25;48;16
Speaker 3
That’s what I was going to ask was like, are there that many comics locally or you’re you’re pulling from other markets?

00;25;48;18 – 00;25;49;10
Speaker 1
Both.

00;25;49;13 – 00;25;56;17
Speaker 2
I’m pulling from other markets, but I’m also bringing in a bunch of locals too. So we have if I had to say locals wise.

00;25;56;17 – 00;25;57;00
Speaker 3
I think.

00;25;57;00 – 00;25;59;19
Speaker 1
We have 15, maybe 20.

00;25;59;23 – 00;26;12;14
Speaker 2
Give or take. And then another, you know, 20, to 15 that are, you know, in the middle guys that, you know, either headlining that aren’t famous yet, that should be.

00;26;12;16 – 00;26;12;29
Speaker 1
Or.

00;26;12;29 – 00;26;28;19
Speaker 2
Like, you know, a bunch of guys that are, you know, killers that you’re going to love the second you see them and you’re going to be their biggest fan after you see them. And then, you know, we got guys that are names like, you know, Kyle Kinane who’s been, you know, Comedy Central, Netflix, Bobby Kelly, he’s been a writer.

00;26;28;21 – 00;26;33;17
Speaker 2
He’s been torn with Dane Cook. You know, when Dane Cook was popular.

00;26;33;20 – 00;26;36;13
Speaker 3
You know, I happened to Dane Cook. Is is he still alive?

00;26;36;20 – 00;26;37;24
Speaker 1
I think he’s still alive.

00;26;37;24 – 00;26;50;03
Speaker 2
I think he just got old. And, I don’t know, I, I think he’s still around. I think he’s still kicking, and, like, I can’t be mad at him. The guy made, you know, millions of dollars and was in a bunch of movies. So it’s like, you know what? Good for you, buddy.

00;26;50;10 – 00;26;51;07
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;26;51;09 – 00;26;54;06
Speaker 2
We got, you know, the show tires on Netflix.

00;26;54;08 – 00;26;55;12
Speaker 1
I do not.

00;26;55;14 – 00;27;12;00
Speaker 2
So that, I believe it’s when it comes out as, like the number one comedy of, like, the week on Netflix. It stars Shane Gillis, which we did not get him. I can’t say that we have him because I had said we did not. Shane. I know he cost a little bit because. But more power to him.

00;27;12;03 – 00;27;32;18
Speaker 2
But, we do have, a couple people that are on that show, like reoccurring characters that are in here. So, they’re, they’re going to be killers. We got Karen Feehan, who’s on there, and Chris O’Connor. They’re they’re going to be hilarious. I got Ian Finance, who is a mad man. That’s the nicest thing I could say about him.

00;27;32;20 – 00;27;55;23
Speaker 2
He is hilarious. He is great. And he is just. It’s nonstop action and entertainment when he’s on stage. And, yeah, it’s kind of like a rock show. You’re not. If you could stand the whole time, you would for Ian. So and I got a bunch of other headliners that I’m probably forgetting. I don’t have the list in my name or in my hand, but, yeah, it’s going to be fun.

00;27;55;25 – 00;28;13;18
Speaker 2
The good thing about it is another thing that I wanted to bring the festival to the area is because we haven’t had this, I don’t I don’t think there’s ever been this many comics in one spot. I know comedy’s blowing up. Everyone loves the funny bone. The other clubs in the area and stuff like that.

00;28;13;21 – 00;28;19;02
Speaker 2
You know, you got the egg, you got, you know, the Times-Union, center of the palace, all these places.

00;28;19;04 – 00;28;25;29
Speaker 2
But at this point, if you can see a bunch of people that you would normally go to go see in one day, I mean, what’s stopping you, you know?

00;28;26;02 – 00;28;27;08
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;28;27;11 – 00;28;29;02
Speaker 3
People need to laugh more, man.

00;28;29;04 – 00;28;40;26
Speaker 2
Yeah. Especially with what’s going on in the world and yeah, I’ve got it. That’s another reason why I don’t watch the news. It’s like I just don’t want to be sad today, so.

00;28;40;29 – 00;28;45;27
Speaker 3
Do you guys trans? Do you guys have a website or how do people buy tickets and get more info?

00;28;46;00 – 00;29;05;04
Speaker 2
So we have the website at Saratoga Comedy Fest. Com on there we have we have a good chunk of our comics listed on there. I got to get on my, website, got up, make sure we updated more. But, we also, you know, we’re on Instagram. We’re on Facebook. We’re always updating that as well.

00;29;05;06 – 00;29;05;13
Speaker 1
But.

00;29;05;13 – 00;29;24;03
Speaker 2
The website is where you’ll get tickets, I know, for this next week, ending August. Well, it’s August 1st on Saturday, so August 2nd on Sunday. We are running a promotion on tickets, just to kind of, you know, help you guys out and then, you know, prices do go up a little bit just because it’s getting closer.

00;29;24;05 – 00;29;39;17
Speaker 2
But, still, I mean, the original price that we’re going to have, you’re underpaying. Really? And I don’t mean that as a humblebrag. It’s just you’re underpaying for the amount of comics you’re going to see. If you break it down, you’re paying $2 a comic for that many.

00;29;39;17 – 00;29;43;11
Speaker 1
Comics that love it.

00;29;43;14 – 00;29;58;17
Speaker 2
It’ll be fun. Like I said, hopefully I’ll have time to, jump on stage and actually relax and do comedy. I’m going to be the guy running around like the Backstreet Boys with the headset and the clipboard and just being like, all right, who’s this guy here? Is this guy here? All right, let’s go.

00;29;58;19 – 00;29;59;12
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;29;59;15 – 00;30;06;15
Speaker 3
The logistics of of that many people performing in and all the other things that’s got, that’s got to be.

00;30;06;16 – 00;30;07;12
Speaker 1
Oh, yeah.

00;30;07;14 – 00;30;11;11
Speaker 2
It’s, I’m a glorified babysitter. That’s pretty much what it is.

00;30;11;13 – 00;30;14;13
Speaker 3
Making sure everybody gets to where they need to be when they need to be. And.

00;30;14;16 – 00;30;24;25
Speaker 2
Yup. Yeah. And then, making sure the rooms aren’t over packed or anything like, my luck, it’s going to be oh, the light went out in one room and I’m like, oh, here we go. Yeah, now I know that.

00;30;24;26 – 00;30;27;15
Speaker 1
But, well, I.

00;30;27;15 – 00;30;35;04
Speaker 3
Hope it goes swimmingly. And, no lights go out. And I appreciate you coming on the to talk about it, man. And of course.

00;30;35;04 – 00;30;46;20
Speaker 2
My I appreciate you having me on, man. I just, like I said, we’re trying to get it, make it a fun event. Because, you know, it’s the weekend after track season ends, so we’re going to need something to do in Saratoga.

00;30;46;23 – 00;30;48;18
Speaker 1
So. Awesome.

00;30;48;21 – 00;30;50;23
Speaker 3
Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it, man.

00;30;50;26 – 00;30;51;23
Speaker 2
Thank you. Mike.

00;30;51;25 – 00;31;12;00
Speaker 3
Yeah. You’re welcome. And of course, thanks everybody for listening. You know, you can find our episodes on Blu. No sorry. Wrong podcast. Buying local.us is our website. You can find this episode and all of our other episodes. You can also find them on YouTube, Spotify, Rumble, and Apple Podcasts. Thanks everybody for listening and thanks again, Travis. Appreciate it.