Episode 154: From Soldier to Stand-Up: Jason Vest's Unfiltered Journey of Resilience and Humor

Ever wondered what it takes to leave a life of military service and charge headfirst into the world of stand-up comedy? That's exactly what Jason Vest, affectionately known as Poopy Turds McGee, did. With his unfiltered humor and sharp wit, Jason takes us on a roller coaster ride through his life's most pivotal moments. From the discipline instilled in him by his military past to the roaring laughter he elicits on stage, his tale is one of audacity, resilience, and the pursuit of unorthodox dreams.

Be sure to follow, share, like and subscribe to all of Jason's Channels so you can follow his journey AND laugh your ass off!
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

let's go with an expert, with a man who's the best with guns, knives, with his bare hands a man who's been trained to ignore weather, to live off the land. Job with disposed of enemy personnel to kill period win by attrition. I always tell people not to sleep on the zoom equipment. That's where I started with my first little handheld to go around getting extra sound yeah, that's exactly what I did when I started comedy.

Speaker 2: 0:42

I use a handheld to just take notes. And then we moved on to the 32 float systems and it's pretty funny well, welcome back to another episode of Secure Out Podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:55

As always, I am your host in a cabrera. Today, with me is none other than Poopy Turds McGee, aka Jason Vest, a hilarious comedian and veteran, and today we're gonna dig deep in you, my man. Your content is amazing, hilarious. There's not one single video or sound bite that doesn't hit me and bring me back to a point in time where I was traveling somewhere with my team or with my boys and engaged in some of the bottery well, thank you, and that's kind of like the premise that I got.

Speaker 2: 1:28

So I started staying on comedy. The whole idea behind what I do on the internet is a lot of it's based off of a relationship I had with somebody I served overseas and he was always that dude that can make people laugh. You know what I mean. In the worst of situations like the world could be burning around you and this guy would say some dark shit and that would make everybody laugh, and so when I started getting into comedy it wasn't working out for me and I'm like man, if I can just kind of be that guy, I think this might, I might be able to turn the trajectory of whatever it is I'm trying to do, and that's exactly what happened he was your debauchery whisperer it was.

Speaker 2: 2:11

It was like man, you know. Everybody kept telling me and everybody kept telling me that I've been doing entertainment with for a little while. Jason, you need to start talking about some of the stuff like you need to. All the stuff you say here, you need to say there. So I hired a coach. I hired a writing coach from LA her name's Jessica Michelle Singleton, comedy store regular, and she like gave me some time and I paid her for a while and she helped me, like put together some of the stuff that's awesome and so it worked, like you know.

Speaker 2: 2:42

I mean, that's what happened when you invest in yourself, though I guess, like so true. I wasn't real. I'm broke. I'm broke.

Speaker 1: 2:52

I've put all my money into this and that's the beauty of living your dream, living your goal, and that's part of the overarching theme of today. It's when I left, when I was starting to even just formulate the idea of leaving the team, walking away from SF, I wanted to cling so desperately to what other people were doing, what was successful, or contracting or going into sales, and everybody had an idea for me. Everybody had something for me to do that was their friends plan or their friends dream or something. It was always somebody else's dream. It was never my dream. It was never that one individual's dream. It was somebody else sold them on this idea and one of the few things I did right before I got help was I realized that I needed to get a little bit of time and space and figure out what my own dream was.

Speaker 1: 3:41

And, jason, you're living proof that when we actually look inward and think about what we are passionate about, it can take us in a very non-standard path, and that's the beauty of it. We belong in every space. Veterans aren't just supposed to be doing one thing. They are. We are human beings, brother. We should be allowed to explore, and what better thing to do than to make others laugh, man like, tell me about this dream. How did it start? Because I have to think that within you is the same scared person that was within me of like I don't know what to do. Maybe I'll follow the same path, but others found successful.

Speaker 2: 4:18

I think what happened for me was like I went and I did like the standard thing people do when they get out of military. I went to work for the government as a civilian and that's what everybody does. And the whole time I was in man like I gotta get this federal job, yeah, I gotta get this GS job. I gotta go work for the government and do the same shit I was doing, just as a civilian. And then you'd see, all those people are bitter as shit. They're bitter, they're not happy. And then, man, I became one of them. I became super toxic. I was actually toxic to the mission. I was. I was not helping the regreting effort when I was a civilian.

Speaker 2: 4:54

I was like, fuck you, I could say what I needed to say without a filter. And so and then I'm like man, I gotta get an outlet. Because I had none. Because when I left I left the military I was an addict and I was a drunk and I was at the lowest point of my life like when I say low, I had. I didn't know how I was gonna pay for shit. I had to tell my wife it was the most embarrassing shit ever. I'm fucked. I fucked us, like I fucked us. Mom, laura, we got, we got, we got real bad credit and we don't have any money and like I can't afford shit. So and I don't have a job.

Speaker 2: 5:34

And so when I came back as a civilian, they weren't ready for the sober version of me and I had to do something with it because I had all this like creativity and aggression. And so I just the pandemic hit and I'm like man, I'm gonna be stuck behind this fucking cubicle, yeah, and I'm gonna be like all these other people that are like miserable in their 60s working for the government. And so I said I'm gonna try the standup comedy thing. And it did not work out right away. I mean, it did a little bit, because I had long hair and I was wild looking and I was I'm.

Speaker 2: 6:13

My act is a lot different than the content, and so I got a lot of attention right away because I know, like with the military, it's repetition, whether that's shooting a gun or telling a joke or doing anything, it's shot at the target. And I just took that same philosophy that I learned in the military. I learned all those little stupid skills and I just applied it to the comedy thing with the discipline, right, like I'm saying, I'm gonna do this every day, I'm gonna force myself, just like PT and all that shit, and it worked and like and like you applied yourself to a craft and you honed it, and honed it and it works and I mean you're still honing it and it's funny because, like, I'm blessed man, like, and I'm not religious or spiritual, but man.

Speaker 2: 7:03

I'm lucky because I've got a huge head start and not a lot of people have that, and so I'm super like, every day I'm thankful for the people like you, anybody that follows me, supports me, because I wouldn't be doing this. You know what I mean. So it's like I'm very lucky to have what I have at I hit. This July will be four years.

Speaker 2: 7:29

Dang in comedy. That's it. I'm a baby, yeah, and so to have what I have at four years you know what I'm saying Like it's a gift. It's lucky I can't, and you can. You can fuck that up, just like you can fuck up on the military career, you can fuck that up, you know. And so I don't know, man, I think that, um, we are all cut from a different cloth and it doesn't matter if like your special forces or Combat arms, because I'm not. You know what I mean? I'm not. But the people that reach out to me on the internet are all the SF.

Speaker 1: 8:04

It's the humor, I it's the one thing that we always had, bro, we've you're a bad spot and I tell this to people when you're in a bad fucking spot, the one thing that brings you back because you're human and when chaos is happening, when your face would like life or death party, you want to just fucking like Okay, this is it. But the part that brings you back into the fight is the dark fucking humor when you can look at your friend. I think if we die right now, this is gonna look so fucked up the way. If we were to get fucking. We just shwacked right now Just three dude Just fucking hugging for cover this will look really fucking suspicious right now.

Speaker 2: 8:44

So when I deployed to Iraq, I volunteered, right, and so I wasn't like I was in the National Guard and I was recruiting and I had a real problem with like I wasn't. I was recruiting people and I hadn't done it. So I got tired of the when did you go shit from dads and I'm like you know I'm gonna do this and I volunteered, but I was recruiting for a National Guard, like a long-range surveillance unit, so a lot of those dudes are bad asses, and so they actually got me hooked up with a medical unit and that's how I met, like my buddy Bobby, and I thought I met a lot of the community is like a lot of the community in Michigan and that before that unit disbanded, all of those guys like hooked me up with that dude because I'm like alright, they're a go volunteer with this guy, go as a bunch of our people going with them. We didn't die. But it's funny because those guys like all come out to shows and shit and it's fucking insane support.

Speaker 1: 9:48

It's family, it's you you build and it doesn't people think that it's so divided within the military. Like I will tell you right now, some of the greatest dudes I served with, some of the greatest assets, were support guys. They weren't they weren't tabbed guys, but they fought right next along alongside me. They brought some critical to the team that we didn't have.

Speaker 2: 10:07

They were right there with it like the truck drivers yes, you were a truck driver in Iraq using some shit. You know what I mean. Like you've seen some shit. I recruited for a transportation unit and these dudes were battle hard.

Speaker 1: 10:23

Everybody forgets about the early, the early years of Iraq, like when dudes with like no up armor, like welding scraps of metal to their vehicles, trying to survive through IED alley like it's. It wasn't just a happy-go-lucky time if you were soft-skillin.

Speaker 2: 10:40

Oh, I talk a lot about my boy, bobby, in a lot of my videos, right and so, um, he's there. He was over there during that time, so, like we, I was getting like email messages. He's like, well, welding shit on vehicles, yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:54

I have to give a shot to my buddy. Jolly same thing dudes dudes been in. I mean, he was a young kid, wet behind the ears, as a mechanic in early Iraq and People this. They just don't understand. A comprehend how dangerous it was Running supply lines, running convoys back then. But until this day some of the most dangerous and horrible things that dudes been through, like After all the deployments that were super kinetic in SF, that dude had nothing but violent Deployments during the early years of the GWAT it's like fuck, dude, you're an anomaly, you made it through this shit Like you need a retire.

Speaker 2: 11:31

It's like my best friend man. He'd been mobilized six times. He spent six years, years at war and he loved it. Love that, he loved it.

Speaker 1: 11:46

Oh my gosh, when you look back at that, that transition period, looking at that early years of when you started the comedy, what got you into that? What was the first thing like got you into that stage for the first night?

Speaker 2: 12:01

I Think what it was is. My wife and I were like are we gonna do this or you're just gonna talk about doing it? Cuz I'm been talking about and it was a I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this.

Speaker 2: 12:11

And then I went once and I lasted like a minute and then I go back for like fucking three or four weeks and then I went. I finally went back, I got through it and I just sat through a night and I said I'm gonna go dead last and I sat through Three hours of open mic comedy, went up, did my thing and I didn't do that bad. Like everyone was pretty supportive, believe it or not. Everyone was really cool. I'm like nobody was a dick and I met. I met that night.

Speaker 2: 12:38

I met like I drew a tour a lot with this kid, this guy cerebral palsy, it's things Ronnie Rohrback. He's in a lot of my videos. He's in the butthole contest. He was there. He was like one of the first people I met. So like the first dude I met is like the dude that's like my coolest friend now. Like I met in comedy and I just kept doing it and I just kept getting up, getting up, getting up, getting up, and I said I immediately started talking about doing it, even when I wasn't ready to have people come see me.

Speaker 2: 13:08

But I'm like, if I can get comfortable Saying hey, I want you to come see me, and just being comfortable with that, because that's awkward, is it like, hey, come watch me do this thing that I may or may not do good at tonight? It's probably not gonna do good because I just started doing it, but if you, and then people, people would do it. Yeah, and so I got comfortable Going well, hey, they bought the ticket, or they came to or not even bought the ticket, because I wasn't even getting paid to do it at that time, but they were coming to watch me and I was just like. That pressure has always been there, so I'm used to it. It's like. It's like working, working with bullets.

Speaker 1: 13:48

I Would say this I think it's. It's even more scary, it's it. I think of just just thinking of getting up on stage and trying to perform. Fuck that. That, that is some scary shit.

Speaker 2: 14:07

David Dawkins it, though, because, like, I look at that shit and I look at these younger kids that are talking about these shit and I'm like fuck you. No way, dude, you're 25. He's like you know, I eat these chicks ass. And I'm like no, no, no, dude, you live in your mom's basement, you do stand-up comedy and and you scrape together money to buy the mandatory to drink minimum. That's what you do, you don't?

Speaker 1: 14:34

you're not, no you're not alive, timothy.

Speaker 2: 14:37

So for me, almost 90% of this for me is a competitive. How far can I take it, how far can I push it, like how far? And then watch people that are younger than me that should do better because they know the internet? That's another thing. I have these like kids coming up to me like, hey, hey, jason, how'd you do that shit? I'm like bro, this is your generation, I'm.

Speaker 1: 15:05

Live this dog.

Speaker 2: 15:08

I'm my space run. They don't I mean like when.

Speaker 1: 15:13

Um, now, and and let me know if it's it's too close for uh, for comfort, or it's too private. But you mentioned Having to go into recovery, having to admit that you had addiction. How does that play into your comedy?

Speaker 2: 15:30

Oh, it's every bit a part of it. You know, and it's funny because I talk about all this shit was from the past. Nothing is from current day and so none of it is like even probably in the last 10 years, nice. So a lot of 90% of what I say there's elements of truth to it. There is. I wouldn't say it if there wasn't. There's out, but it may not always be.

Speaker 1: 15:53

What are your storyteller?

Speaker 2: 15:54

you can weave it in you can weave it in, you make it work. It's part of the character, because poopy turds Mickey is that guy that makes everybody laugh in really bad situations. Right, yeah, and and so that that that is the the concept. There's is a concept, there's a method to this shit stories, you know, but? But the thing is, is that allows me to be able to tell other stories? Yeah, because you know, man, come in the military. You sitting around a bunch of dudes, it's even the chicks, even the chicks got some shit. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean you can't. I've, though some of the nastiest stories I've heard have been from women in the military.

Speaker 1: 16:34

It's so true. It is so true.

Speaker 2: 16:37

We don't hold a candle compared to no women can tell us that will make Arge degenerate women if they got on a stage would crush me Like I'm just waiting for the female poopy turds. Mcgee, some retired master sergeant that's just gonna get out and be like you know what I'm talking about? Everybody I had sex with. I'm telling this buzz. He's telling all.

Speaker 2: 17:15

Oh, but you know but that the motivating factor, when you could, you know, you've asked me a couple times like what, what is it? And I literally think it's this competitive, like I just have drive because I just want to see how far like that's. Like, all right, we got 53,000 followers, let's go for a hundred, yeah, I guess. See what can happen.

Speaker 1: 17:36

Yeah, it's the. The way that it hits you, like I could be driving. I could just be Scrolling across the moment it it lands on your comedy. It sucks you right in, like Regardless of what, what is going to come out of your mouth. The way that you hook the audience is like okay, you've got my attention, sir.

Speaker 2: 17:59

But a lot of like what's on the internet. It can't be done at comedy shows. Nobody would hire me like there. But there was one time I did a comedy show at this winery in Michigan and they they did not tell me that it was a clean comedy show.

Speaker 2: 18:14

Oh no, and I wrote this song called butt stuff and one of the lyrics is do but stuff. You can call yourself a lady. Sticking it in your rear won't make no babies. And so I get on stage and I tell the whole crowd is a cries, a bunch of people like three or four hundred people. I'm like you guys want to hear a dirty joke and they're like Like the crowd is asking for it. So I deliver the song and it gets a huge laugh. But the owner of this winery is just done, she's done, she's just not having it. And so I'm out back having it, smoking a J out back, and she comes up to me and she's like you know, you're, you're disgusting. She's like you are the most Disgusting human that I've ever heard. And with what was coming out of your mouth wasn't comedy, it was vile filth. Oh.

Speaker 1: 19:16

My gosh.

Speaker 2: 19:17

It was hilarious, but, man, I'm telling you what the crowd loved it. It wasn't, it was. It was one of those. Not, I wasn't used to that because I'm still I mean, you know, I'm not used to like everybody liking it. Yeah, one person just really like fuck you, but it was the link. It was the lady that booked the show and, and like I, that guy, my guy, I worked for the headliner. He's never been booked back there. Sorry.

Speaker 2: 19:51

Laurie, oh my god then I blew up on the internet and he knocked some chick up.

Speaker 1: 20:01

Oh, my god, now you recently moved to Austin. Right, I did what with them. Is it the comedy scene down there that drew you?

Speaker 2: 20:22

It's a comedy scene that I drew me. Um, I'm really interested in like doing more stand-up comedy. I am, I haven't. I did when I was in Chicago. It's a super liberal city, and I mean Austin's pretty liberal too, but there's a big difference. It's a difference, it's a different vibe, it's a different scene, and so I decided that I wanted to come down here and try to eventually get to a point To where I could work with the mother ship.

Speaker 2: 20:48

That's just a big goal of mine. That's kind of cool. Something I'd like to do. Um, that's something. I don't have anything in stone yet, or anything I have to work towards that, but that's what happened with me at the laugh factory. I moved to Chicago and then I did laugh factory, yeah. So it's like you just sometimes got to put yourself in those environments and then just White it out.

Speaker 1: 21:07

Yeah, no, I know nothing about comedy, but I do, you know, listening and being able to observe Podcasts and other media. Is there a method to the madness of cycle count? I need to get booked at this specific club. Work it for a significant amount of time.

Speaker 2: 21:27

Someone like me. I don't want to travel a lot, I don't mind maybe doing like like in Texas for our military fam. There's all sorts of pieces for me to perform for them here. Right, I'm a lot of big bases. You got Fort Hood, I think, fort Bliss, all the Air Force stuff. I got stuff. If I people want to see me in the military, they can do that.

Speaker 2: 21:46

That was one of the reasons coming down here. So, like if, because a lot of people visit San Antonio, a lot of people visit, you know, the big bases, so I wanted to be able to have a home to perform close to my audience and there's just a lot of people that served around here. You know, like in Chicago, how many retired veterans are living in In Logan Square? You know I was like the only one, yeah, but but here in Texas I've met like a bunch of people that serve that stayed here for, like the tax break Is, you know, income tax and stuff like that. So I think for me personally, um, I want to tackle one of the big clubs and that was either going to be comedy store. Um, and I can't afford to live in LA, um, and I can really kind of barely afford to live here because it's pretty pricey, but it's not as bad as Chicago.

Speaker 2: 22:36

Yeah and so, um, I can come here and try to tackle the giant the second, the second largest giant which is Rogan's club, and I have some friends that work for him now, and so I, uh, that's what I'm doing.

Speaker 1: 22:50

Yeah, I, when I I don't see it being a matter of of, it's just a matter of when, not if.

Speaker 2: 22:58

Um if you do the work, you know it's like anything. You know, I was at an open mic last night till midnight and I didn't get up. I didn't get to perform because there was too many people. You know, that's the shit people don't see. And I got a boot put on my car last night.

Speaker 1: 23:17

So I was in just a showy.

Speaker 2: 23:20

Austin Texas sucks like okay, the Austin Texas comedy cool, austin Texas food amazing, but the people of Austin fucking garbage. Oh, absolutely Just. I mean, it's just a garbage. Have you got any garbage? It's like it's like a dirty Nashville. It's like I was walking around downtown. I'm like what the fuck is this Like? No, there's just bars packed of people. They're like that's rainy, it's cold, and like the bars don't serve anything but booze. So like, hey, you want to grab some fried no, my fucker beer and like the beer people drink here is some shit called Lone Star.

Speaker 1: 24:10

Oh yeah, yeah, they're proud of their Lone Star.

Speaker 2: 24:13

I drank that. When I did drink that shit was disgusting.

Speaker 1: 24:17

It's. I'm the same way. Don't drink anymore, and if I had to, I certainly would not reach for a fucking Lone Star.

Speaker 2: 24:26

No, that was going to be the thing that made me trip over.

Speaker 1: 24:33

I'm like, oh, it's like fucking Texas people, they're water burger and Lone Star, it's like but I fuck with water burger.

Speaker 2: 24:42

I do, I'm nasty, so I'm white trash, right, I'm like white castle, I fuck with white castle. And then the first thing I got, when I first got to Texas, I felt my wife were getting a fucking water burger. She's like shut up, you shut up. And she's like this is like OK. And then she took me to In-N-Out. Yeah, have you ever had In-N-Out? Oh, yeah, yeah, I never had that shit before and we had it. And I'm like what the fuck is this? I was so angry. Those burgers are so tiny. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 25:12

Thank you and it was like this would be really good if it were, I don't know you didn't have to order four of them. Like and I'm not saying I don't have a massive appetite, like I've lost a ton of weight, I don't eat fast food like I used to, but even I was like fuck this, like I'm sorry, like I can get a triple water burger and it's delicious.

Speaker 1: 25:36

Oh God yeah, but when?

Speaker 2: 25:37

I did that video yesterday. We had to go. We had to go in there and use the bathroom. What are you doing? I'm like don't worry about it.

Speaker 1: 25:48

Have you gone recognized in any of the as you setting up for a scene, have people been like oh shit.

Speaker 2: 25:54

So the weirdest place I got recognized is I used to hang out at this Korean bath house it's called Kings Spa and you're naked, like completely naked. Completely naked in a room full of dudes. It's all dudes, nice. And like I had a lot of naked guys, come up to me and go hey, are you on, are you the guy from TikTok?

Speaker 2: 26:17

And I'm like I'm the guy from TikTok and like like, I follow you and it's all gay men, right, all gay men. And I didn't know that that was like the hangout for that. Yeah, I thought that that was just a everybody's relaxing. I was like I'm not checking anybody out, no, that's the spot. And so I had to like have this dude basically like so you're not? And I'm like no, and he's like, well, hey, people that hang out here typically are. And I'm like I don't know, and I just kept going because I liked going to that place it was funny. So that was the weirdest place, completely naked. And then in the comments, some of my videos are like we've seen your dick. I've had a few people like come back and be like I've seen this man's dick. And then last night I got recognized as at the open mic and there was open mics for people that don't do. Typically, if you're doing open mics, you're not booked on shows. I'm not booked on shows, I'm in the minors.

Speaker 1: 27:34

I'm in the minor leagues, still in the trenches.

Speaker 2: 27:36

Yeah, in the trenches. So this kid comes up to me and he's like you're the butthole guy. He's like you're the butthole guy and I'm like, yeah, I'm the butthole guy. And then he starts bringing people over. This is the butthole guy and so, yeah, it's funny. When it happens, it's probably actually the coolest. Anybody that says that's not fucking cool is so full of shit, they're fucking liars.

Speaker 1: 28:06

It's ruined friendships.

Speaker 2: 28:08

Really, my guess. I used to do comedy with this future comedy show, right, and I never. I don't think that that guy thought I was very good at comedy. I do not. I think that I sold tickets and he put me on his shows because I sold him. I mean, I do not think that he really liked me that much because I always had that like very animosity.

Speaker 2: 28:29

I've been doing this for ten years. No, you know. You know I always felt not my wife's at the same stage like this guy does not like you. And so I started like going to shows and like he's the headliner, and so we go all the way the fuck out to Wyoming, to the middle, nowhere, where no one should know me. They do. No, this fucking 16 year old kid looks like he's seen a ghost. It's the prettiest bottle in Michigan. He's running and he's like I'll see you May 20th and he starts repeating back my video. So we're, we're literally downtown Cody and this teenage kids like that bitch shit all over your face at that waffle house. And meanwhile now imagine this headliner guy is squeaky clean, like I've been doing this, you know, like he's not dirty. And here we are on his tour and I'm the one that gets and after that like the dude, like we don't.

Speaker 1: 29:48

Oh man, you don't want to work.

Speaker 2: 29:49

I mean you don't want to work. I mean, oh, that sucks Like.

Speaker 1: 29:52

That's like you're supposed to be able to uplift each other, but I would imagine not the same.

Speaker 2: 29:58

That's not like even in the military dude, like I'm like supportive of anybody, but if you do what I do and you do this comedy thing and you're at all of that, I fucking got you. If I can, if I can, if there's anything like I got this guy out of Georgia. He's real funny. You look him up on Tic Tac. He's an infantry guy or an artillery guy from Atlanta and his name is called soldier turnt artist and he's got some pretty funny shit Like his shit's pretty. He's another degenerate guy that I've connected to the internet. He's a stand up comic and I'm like yo, you want to come do kill Tony or one of the big podcasts or something, stay here, I don't give a shit Like yeah, and I've started to see there there's a.

Speaker 1: 30:44

There's a lot more popping up on social media. A lot more veterans are taking that bold step and that's fucking beautiful.

Speaker 2: 30:52

I I.

Speaker 1: 30:53

I've run into so many veterans or guys in service from like dude, you don't belong here. You literally belong on stage. You belong in a craft where you're able to create like some of these dudes are quick man.

Speaker 1: 31:07

Quick so good. But it's such a scary thing to be a creative. It's such a scary thing to say I'm going to put myself out there and I'm going to, I'm going to put like, I have to tell you like what you do, being willing to get up on stage, that's that. That is a different kind of courage. You're committed to a beautiful process of honing these skills, honing these jokes. You try them out and then you go out there and you go live. Fuck, dude, it's, it's. It's courage, a different kind. But people are just just they're willing to, they're not willing to give themselves the ability to go out there and try and see it.

Speaker 2: 31:44

And I think people too, honestly like I don't know what people want. I don't you know, I don't really try to make something that somebody wants. I make something that maybe I would want, yeah, and then I like I saw this video a couple years ago from this ex CIA dude Scrolling on tic-tac right and he talked about looking at the world Perception versus per sat perspective. Yeah, so I always try to put myself like even no matter what, like even with a joke or story or anything. I try to put myself like somebody else's shoes yeah, you know what I mean like the listener, I guess, like it's so true.

Speaker 2: 32:22

Yeah and I think when you look at that, like when I was a recruiter and I was in the military, I was like perception based, you know, and I wasn't really looking at the bigger picture, and I'm like man, I had been such a butter. I was so bad at that job.

Speaker 1: 32:38

It's a hard job of people. Shit on it all day, but fuck, I have a friend right now. She's a recruiter and Trying to reach out to kids or young adults to join the military is not an easy thing.

Speaker 2: 32:51

But I will say this much there were elements of it I was so good at as a recruiter that is applied to me now. So on social media, I was like one of the first recruiters to pop on social media. Oh shit, when it, when it came out like Facebook really started, you know, in the 2000s, like early 2000s and stuff like that I was one of the first people to do that. So it's funny, when I got into comedy the first thing I did is go. You know what I got to take this internet thing, because if I don't do this internet thing, I ain't gonna do the stage thing. Because of someone like me at 45 years old I'm older than everyone, I have a, I'm a veteran everybody's immediately gonna throw me in the political bullshit. No matter, I don't even talk about it, but you just do.

Speaker 2: 33:35

You know that's another thing with us too is our culturally we get tied to politics 100% and it's bullshit because it's like you know You're a special forces dude and just because maybe that's just what you wanted to do and I know a lot of people that are left right and it, yeah, all facets and like your community we're. You guys got a weird group.

Speaker 1: 33:56

We're. That's what makes this amazing. That's what makes us able to understand. Like I have views on so many things that are way different than what people expect, and like I open up my emails for Q&A and it's like I I'm like, hey, dude, ask me anything I'm gonna be able to put on the podcast, and for every wonderful question I get that's about Transition or overcoming mental health issues, I get 15. Right. Where are you guys gonna come up and help us overturn the government? Where have you been? This is your country too.

Speaker 2: 34:33

And and the thing is is like yeah, people like you out here trying to help on the community and stuff like that, and it's like it's because people aren't doing it. Yeah, and it's like people like and people aren't doing it, and that is people that don't know that they can work in entertainment and and have worn the uniform.

Speaker 2: 34:48

We just talked about this the other night, you know, um, it's just like there's a. The max's mom from stranger things is a retired Navy chief, really. Yeah, um, I should know her name, I should, I should have wrote it down, but she had that's. That's we're talking for how to say so. She immediately thinks I'm a disgusting human, right. But but she supports me Because we're from the same cloth. So it's like you. I didn't, I didn't know that, I would have never known that, you know, unless she would have said that. And so it's like. So it's like retired Navy. And then she's touring the country, she's doing some shit.

Speaker 1: 35:29

No shit.

Speaker 2: 35:30

Yeah, yeah, I'll send your stuff. I just got to look it up, um, but I'm just saying, like that's just one person, yeah, that you know of, yeah, you know, and so I think that there's a lot of people that have served, but they're afraid to talk about it.

Speaker 1: 35:45

There are 100%. It gets to the point where it's like I don't know if I want this badge. I it almost like you have to kind of distance yourself. And it's like, no fuck that. It's a great stepping stone. It was an amazing chapter. It should propel you to the next thing. Like I look at guys that have retired and then sat down and just, oh, the greatest years are behind me. It's like, no fuck that. No, we survived all that shit. We made it through. That's gonna prop. That should be your fucking rocket booster to push you into the next thing. Like look at, oh yeah, the next endeavors. Like fuck, dude, that everybody wants to think that. Like okay, I'm 38, 39, 40. It's done. Now I'm gonna get that office jobby job and sit down.

Speaker 2: 36:31

It's like fuck that dude. You could go start that business, start a podcast, do something with that time, and you know what it is, though it's that culture that's ingrained in you and you're in that. If you leave this, you're gonna be a piece of shit. Yeah, and that and that, and maybe that's not always directly like that, you know, for soldiers and service members, but that's, I tell, I felt when I was in. I always felt like, if I didn't do this, I'm gonna be a piece of shit, and that my career started that way.

Speaker 2: 37:02

Like I joined the military, I wasn't a very good in school and I'm like I don't do this, I'm gonna be a piece of shit, and that always kind of stayed with me, I guess, even when I get in trouble, because I got a lot of trouble.

Speaker 1: 37:17

I.

Speaker 2: 37:19

Should not have retired as an E7. It was the only rank that I hadn't held twice. Oh my gosh dude but there was like a voluntary rank reduction to like there wasn't always. I got reduced once and then I took a Voluntary rank reduction to go do something else.

Speaker 1: 37:40

Yeah that's, that's fucking tough.

Speaker 2: 37:44

Yeah, I've earned it. I Five three times.

Speaker 1: 37:50

Okay, some of the best fucking NCOs were E5s three or four times.

Speaker 2: 37:56

So when I was, when I was and this is the funniest shit about it, man so like I was when I talk about my boy, bobby, he got promoted and he was an E4 and I was an E6. I took a rank reduction to E5 and then we deployed to go overseas. At one point I ended up like basically working to my boy. Bob, oh man, and he's like yeah, when, when you get to fucking my level, bitch like it was this funny.

Speaker 1: 38:24

That is such a crazy thing. Oh fuck, oh yeah, you guys still say friends.

Speaker 2: 38:31

Oh no, you know he's dead. Oh fuck, no, no, you're good, it's okay. I know he died in a fiery car crash. It was actually a pretty funny story and I can talk about it with a veteran right. So he's a raging alcoholic and this guy's a big raging. He's one of these guys. That's done. Six deployments come home cocaine and he is drinking and those are the and that's it, and and laying tile. So like a job that supports doing cocaine and drinking.

Speaker 1: 39:02

And lots of European techno music.

Speaker 2: 39:04

Yeah, they calls me up one night he's gonna have a real bad night. I do a real bad night. I need to somebody come hang out with me. And I had a big recruiting thing the next day and I'm like, bro, if I go out with you I'm gonna get fucking hammered and I'm not gonna go to work. So now you're on your own for this one. So he he crashes his car, which is tragic, but he has about a thousand dollars and fireworks in the back, no, and the. When he hit he threw a cigarette and it flunked back and lit the fireworks in his car. So this guy's like in the, in the thing you know, and crashed into a tree and People can't get to him because bottle rockets are getting shot like out of the fucking vehicle and so and light up the sky and Everything, and like so when I heard he died, I was really upset and I'm like, well, how to happen?

Speaker 2: 39:56

and and, and then I'm just like no fucking way. Hey, no fucking way. And then I went to the scene, cuz you know we're more of a military guy. I gotta see. I get to the scene, everybody's a mess. But this old man comes out and he's like I was good here with bottle rockets and I Died laughing Because I'm like man, if this would have happened to anybody else. Bob would have been talking about this shit for fucking weeks. I mean, it made the news.

Speaker 1: 40:31

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2: 40:32

And so no, it was probably one of them. I mean, it was sad but it was fucking kind of funny because it was just like James you're right, it's the closest thing to a biking funeral. And all the degenerate should I talk about in my videos, or some video evidence of some of it, and some of it I can edit and clean up. Well, we thought that those files were destroyed in the car accident. No, we found them.

Speaker 1: 40:57

No way.

Speaker 2: 40:58

So I found the legend files and so I posted about it and so we're editing them now. Pretty funny shit. It's a pretty funny shit from a dark time that validates a lot.

Speaker 1: 41:13

Sacred, sacred humor material.

Speaker 2: 41:17

Yeah, it's like this is. This is the original files.

Speaker 1: 41:25

Oh, my God.

Speaker 2: 41:27

I'm like telling my wife, I'm like listen, you're going to see some shit with an inflatable sheep. I just need you to fucking just need to get along and just deal with it.

Speaker 1: 41:36

This is going to make us a cool $1.5 million Netflix.

Speaker 2: 41:41

Possibly Somebody hustler.

Speaker 1: 41:51

Oh, my God, I have to ask how has your relationship with your wife been after chasing this dream, after committing 100%, because that's the other factor that a lot of us are always looking at and hesitant to like pull the trigger on dreams. It's like, well, I have a wife, I have kids, I have this family. How am I going to sit down with my partner and say, hey, I want to do X, y and Z?

Speaker 2: 42:22

Man, if you want to get your spouse to go for some crazy shit, I'll tell you what you're going to probably have to prove to them that you can handle some crazy shit first, and so that's just some realistic shit for the vets out there. You want to go? Hey, I want to go pursue that dream of entertainment? Right, and you're 40s, then you better have maybe tried to do some shit. So like I had done some things, and so my wife had seen I could do some things, yeah, Like I early on, where she was supportive, but I had to prove that.

Speaker 2: 42:55

You know, I had to still go to my significant. I think I can do this and I think you could do this too. You know it was a mutual agreement versus hey, support this dream, I'll tell anybody, especially because a lot of people that are come from our cloth. They're for their, our marriage or in a relationship or something like that, and if you want them to support that dream, you're going to have to maybe do a little bit of work first to prove that you really want?

Speaker 2: 43:19

Yeah, and so we do this together. So she edits a lot of our videos. 90% of our videos were edited by Melissa and, to be honest, some of the videos were edited by AI. I use AI to kind of streamline some stuff to make it a little easier so we can do more content and have a life Absolutely, because sometimes the shit can get pretty time consuming Holy shit, yeah, that is the podcast.

Speaker 2: 43:49

That's why I don't do that many episodes. It's because right now I'm still trying to figure out my time. Shit you know, yeah.

Speaker 1: 43:56

Yeah, I go into this like a bad out of hell. I fucking stay interviewing, stay plugged in and try to learn the latest and greatest things. Um, I mastered audio first. That's the one thing I learned about and dove deep into that Cause I knew like, hey, maybe if my shit sucks, I can produce other people's shows, so I better learn how to produce and learn how to turn audio really fast. That's what I dove into big time and that's what. That was the thing that, like, I needed to prove to my wife like hey, this isn't just hair brain bullshit, like I can do this and having that first getting hired to produce that, that first podcast was definitely helpful. So shout out to Dan Rayburn Thank you, my home of humble boss. But it's one of those things where it's like, if you really want to do this, if you want to commit the time, you got to do the work and you got to be willing to fucking prove to your family that, like hey, I'm not just bullshitting. Like this is what a passion about yeah.

Speaker 2: 44:55

And I'm like, cause these kids, they're going to grow. Some of these motherfuckers are going to grind, some of them, not a lot of them, but but there are some of the younger people that will grind. You know what I mean, that have that really good work ethic and that's your competition and they will grind harder. They, you know they. They have no attachments to shit. They don't have health insurance. You know, like, you know, I, I I'm probably like when I'm rich in comedian money, yeah and uh, and it's funny, but I'm just saying like that's.

Speaker 2: 45:29

I think that that's what people don't really understand. It's like I go, well, I was up till four o'clock this morning, holy shit, working on shit. Dude, that's how crazy it gets. Sometimes it's sometimes, and sometimes it's a 24. Sometimes I don't go to bed, fuck. Because you know, when you get in a grind, you get something done. And if you stay in the process but whatever that process is, it doesn't have to be like entertainment, whatever, that is carpentry, anything If you bury yourself in some shit in a process or system and create it, you're going to be successful.

Speaker 1: 46:08

Yeah, let me ask you this then what do you do to unwind?

Speaker 2: 46:14

I really don't. I mean, I think this is kind of it. You know, like this is kind of like my unwind stuff. I exercise, I go to do like a sauna stuff. You know the hipster shit I. You know I really watch my diet. You know I try not to eat like shit, like I did when I was in the middle of that. I'm in better shape now than I was when I was in Dude it's crazy, fucking crazy. My last, like it's.

Speaker 1: 46:41

It's funny when you are you know, you're like I'm like I, I, I had to go through a lot of surgeries, a lot of physical therapy, in and out of treatment centers, and then you get you get told that like hey, these are your limitations, and it's easy to buy into that. It's really easy to say, okay, fuck up, that's it, I can do it. But when you're out and you're done and you realize, like I don't want this to be a limitation, I'm going to fucking, I'm going to work through this, I'm gonna find people or doctors or specialists that can show me an alternate, different way of working out, a different way to overcome these hurdles. Because, dude, time and health are two most precious fucking things. Man, like I don't care if people laugh at me, I go to bed as early as possible. Sometimes I go to bed by 8 pm If I ain't got shit to do or if the other thing can wait in the morning, I go to sleep because that's the number one thing my brain needs. That's the number one fucking thing.

Speaker 2: 47:37

No, I'm 100% with you man Like you know like that's.

Speaker 2: 47:40

I didn't take care of myself at all, yeah, and I let myself go real bad. When I got out and I gained, I got it close to 300 pounds, holy shit. Nah, I'm five foot three. Holy shit, I'm sure I'm a little guy, I'm a short king, right. Five foot three, 300 pounds so some of those pictures with the long hair people see on the internet. I was sick and I was sober. I was, that was sober, you know, but I was still. I was probably the same. I almost died. I had a dive reticulitis episode that damn near killed me, holy shit, yeah, I became septic. I got real sick and then when I got out of the hospital, I ended up going to a VA hospital. I almost fucking killed me. I was there for 15 days and I got out and I am never allowing food or anything to have control over me like this again and I just treat. I treat food like I do alcohol and I do. I do not fuck around anymore, thank you for saying that right there.

Speaker 1: 48:40

People have always heard of food addiction and emotional eating from the lens of this older fucking work from home or like a home caregiver, a wife. It happens to men too, to everybody. Emotional eating, overeating, having the capacity or the being trained as a kid to seek comfort in food happens to a lot of people. Like it is something that affects our community. As soon as you get out, if you've had bad relationships with food, what's the easiest thing to do? Comfort eat, eating fucking sweets, eating chips. I don't want to be diabetic and once I realize how easy it is to sit down and be like I'm just going to munch on some snacks like fuck, dude, get away the hell, and it's what makes me fucking crazy, though, is like, man, when I got my nutrition kind of dialed in.

Speaker 2: 49:33

it's not perfect, but I got what I need to do to maintain this number. You know I got that. What the fuck can the military not figure that shit out, Right?

Speaker 2: 49:42

You know, like I mean, I'm reading, I'm researching, I'm doing the research on my own, Should have done that when I was in the military. You know a little bit on me, but I'm just saying, like you know, the military is an organization designed to make you not fail. It's supposed to not fail. We do not tell these guys how to eat, you know. That's one thing. We fuck that up. We show them how to work out, but we don't really show them how to Like. If you read any of those manuals, that's not a that shit.

Speaker 1: 50:11

And the food court, fucking churches or Popeyes, chinese food? Oh Charlie's Burger King. There's no, there's no healthy option. The kid, kid coming into the military is screwed a few things. He's going to get the best nutrition.

Speaker 2: 50:26

Yeah, and the thing is and that's why I'm like, I'm like man, I got like it took me about a year to get my nutrition stuff figured out. But I'm just saying like man, we need to really put, they need to really invest more money in that. And I think that that might fix a lot of the problem because, man, when I got my diet dialed in, the weight just fell off. I wasn't even having exercise that much you know, so I don't know.

Speaker 1: 50:55

Yeah it's easy. It's easier to look at what you're putting into your body and realize that if you just shop on the outside aisles of the grocery store, never dive into the process. Shit, you're going to be good. And then the drink the frigging sugary and all college drinks.

Speaker 2: 51:16

And I had the military diet. So my days I would start. I worked at the maps for recruiting. I ran that. That was my job. I get up in the morning, I go to 711, I get three taquitos, three taquitos, three taquitos, two orange monsters, and I would get a banana for five.

Speaker 1: 51:36

That's pretty healthy.

Speaker 2: 51:40

Yeah, that was like my breakfast. That's how I started my day. Lunch rolls around. I'm getting one of them recruiters to give me some food, so I'm like, all right, somebody's going to get me food, I'm not paying who's? Buying and I was at Burger King and then I'd go on my way home. I'd stop by 711 and I dropped down a couple of taquitos on the way home. It was bad man. Yeah, I started my day.

Speaker 1: 52:07

It's easy, like eight, nine thousand calories right there.

Speaker 2: 52:12

Yeah, three taquitos, a banana, two orange monsters. Oh yeah, throw down some cigarettes.

Speaker 1: 52:21

Vitamin, nicotine.

Speaker 2: 52:22

Yeah, and it was usually camel crushed cigarettes. Oh, fuck. Yeah, a little bubble With a little, yeah.

Speaker 1: 52:31

Yeah, I used to smoke and I too enjoy those, because you get to crush it in.

Speaker 2: 52:38

There's nothing more white trash than a camel crush cigarette or marble smooths. And whenever I met a woman, a young lady, and she loved the camel crushers, like you know, but that's not like.

Speaker 1: 52:54

Hello my lady. May I pop your mental crystal ball?

Speaker 2: 52:58

Yeah, yeah, whatever. And I was like you pull that camel crushers, like, oh, we have a lady in the room, might I light your camel crush.

Speaker 1: 53:19

I can't wait to the Netflix special that comes out man, I honestly I can't thank you enough for being here today, man.

Speaker 2: 53:28

This is awesome, thank you, I needed this man. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 53:32

You know it's my pleasure, dude, it's. If you're listening out there, you're a veteran, or hey, not even a veteran, you're one of the followers that just happened to come across the show. Don't spend your life living somebody else's dream. Listen to that again. Don't spend your life living somebody else's dream. Have the courage and the audacity to dig deep and find out what you want to do. So, jason, thank you for being here today. Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for making millions of us laugh and think back to our days in the military. It is an absolute pleasure. I hope to have you back on again someday, so please, yeah, I'll see you again, man.

Speaker 1: 54:14

Yeah, take care, everybody, and we'll see you next time.

Speaker 2: 54:17

Take care, Danny.

Speaker 1: 54:47

Yeah.