EB 13: Nice Peter: How I Got Here (Dec 2013)

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squarespace.com offer code are a and DL now it’s time for your biscuit welcome to ear biscuits I’m Rhett and I’m link this week at the roundtable of dim lighting we have mr. peter shukoff known internet wide as nice peter he is the co-creator of one of YouTube’s most popular series maybe you’ve heard of it epic Rap Battles of History in our conversation we get into clearing the air about the fact that we released our video entitled epic rap battle a few months before epic Rap Battles of History number one did we clear the air line I discussed it we you know yeah we I Pete also chronicles the 8 years of struggle before gaining traction on YouTube including performing and airport hangars nursing homes and McDonald’s restaurants and we get into the details of how he invented the epic Rap Battles of History concept and how his success nearly led to a nervous breakdown ah so we’re gonna get in that into a few minutes but you know we’ve recorded this a little bit in advance and as you are listening to this rhett and I are both back in our homeland of North Carolina celebrating the holidays with our loved ones hope you’re doing the same celebrating the holidays of your choosing with the people of your choosing no pressure you know just just do what you can and we’ll do what we can and this has kind of become our you know tradition a lot of people when you when you live in Los Angeles as we have done now for three years a lot of people ask well so are you going home for the holidays because no one is home that’s the thing that you learn is that no one is home now here you meet a couple of people who were born and raised out here but the vast majority of people go home for the holidays and then we’ve heard we’ve never experienced it but we have heard that Los Angeles becomes like a ghost town there’s nobody on the road tumbleweeds on the highway everyone just evacuates and goes home to their respective places across America and the world or whatever so we and then the elves come in so when you come back to LA in the new year there’s wooden shoes at your at your at your bedside for every person they leave wooden shoes for all of the los angelitos mmm Los Angeles mmm Angelina’s Angelina’s angelitos that’s like a Taco Bell dish dish the angelito it’s a tasty one so what are we doing right now while on holiday Rhett well I like to take my time when I go back home to eat at the various places that I don’t get to enjoy because you know me I like to eat it’s one of my favorite things to do I know you so I mean one of the things that we do is we almost always have our first meal at Bojangles you know famous in consist kits and cuz there’s just not you know an interesting thing is you have told me recently that you like Popeyes or that you think Popeyes is like yes well it’s pretty much like Bojangles I’m not I’m not saying I don’t like Popeyes but I don’t West Coast imitation I don’t think I think that that I don’t know how they get that stuff up under the chicken skin like they do but it is the red stuff and they got a new sauce yeah well it’s funny because I got a friend back you North Carolina be seeing while I’m back there Lance and Lance good friend and he likes to text Lance is the voice in the as of the director in the first spanner commercial we made oh he sure is yeah so he texts me and he says things like takes me a picture of the new sauce from bodings like Bojangles has a special sauce fYI I started a new job next week like it’s like you know by the way should have just been and PS I started job is basically the important thing is the sauce the less important thing is the rest of my life in my career yeah and so I text back and like gotta try that when we’re home what’s the new position so the first thing is like yes kind of like a tangy honey mustard and then he goes on to describe his new position that is new job so well and you kind of reflected that I told you what are you gonna do spit when you’re going home presumably the answer is well I’m linked I’m gonna spend quality time with my family that I haven’t seen all year and your answer is I’m going to go to Bojangles and eat fried chicken and dip in the new sauce I’ll be with my my parents I mean they’ll be at the boat yeah they like it – it’ll be a family affair now what about you because you have I’ll go to Bojangles – absolutely I might see you there I sadly I have had a lot of my family members that have passed on I don’t have a lot of people left you know there’s pretty much just my parents and then you know why spirits and you know brothers and sisters that kind of thing but you I’ve got ways of living elderly people got like a great-great-great grandfather that’s still living 182 and all eats is bacon that’s right no but you seriously need a lot of people are doing pretty good and my mom’s mom nanny is doing pretty good we’re gonna spend a lot of quality time with them let the great grandchildren get them in the holiday spirit and your mom has a husband and your dad has a husband Ted has a wife right they are not each other so you so I mean this this is quite a situation that you go back home to oh I’m liking I’m like an i10 I’m like a gypsy when I go home it’s like me my wife and my three kids and we just like itinerant move them from house to house spend a little bit of time here a little bit of time it’s really exhausting I’m not complaining it’s it’s a blessing to have all of these loved ones to to want to see us but it’s I mean it’s exhausting the one thing we did to help simplify things this year I’m very excited about is we rented a car hmm now you know the gmm episode that I told you it was probably last January about how I borrowed my father-in-law’s truck and I told the whole story about how I messed it up but you can you can I don’t I don’t want to do a repeat of that so I’ve rented a car and so now we’re gonna be we don’t have to go through the logistics of car handoffs when you have three children and there’s five of you I mean it is it’s a challenge to get picked up the airport get moved around yeah you want to have your own transportation it’s weird when you become excited about renting a car oh I love her in the car I feel like I’m God I got a new car for a little while smells new almost sometimes sometimes it smells like the guy that was in there before you but smoke now here’s one questions go you’re like Bojangles when you’re done with it you go to all these different houses who has the best food where’s the best food what cast is that at every place has like a sucker a signature dish really we’re going to Christy’s parents house first and they mr. Bobby that’s my father-in-law he fries the shrimp that he gets on mr. Bobby it gets from the coast he wants me to call him mr. Bobby so I just I don’t sometimes I call him that but I think it’s kind of weird so I don’t call him anything you can just like I just call him a hey would he be upset if you called me Christmas I yeah I think so you need a listen you’re a 35 year old man this is this is a year this is not about this is the year this is when you see him shake his hand and call him Bobby I just say it now you can do it call him Bob I can’t do it I can’t do it but they Bobby it it’s not about me if it was about me that’s what I would do but this is something that he thinks he doesn’t need to hold that over you though a 35 year old man it’s a sign of respect he calls all the people mr. and mrs. so-and-so really yeah he still does well you need to change that so it’s it’s respecting your elders then so so what does he mate what’s this fine shrimp mr. Bobby makes fried shrimp get over it guess what well there’s no getting around it is that the best food of all the relatives nanny makes great fried chicken my mom makes some country-style steaks you can that you could die for make you want to slap your mama eggs unless if she made it you want to slap her unless is the thankful slap my dad makes ribs because we only come home once a year they all make something that’s like Maisie doesn’t even have to be related to Christmas room from me in that rental car how big is it SUV it’s not that big you know you got you got a car seat for me if you call me mr. link then I’ll take you anyway I’ll call you mr. linky all right let’s get to mr. nice Peters conversation his personal channel has over 2 million subscribers that’s nice Peter but his er B channel that he shares with epiclloyd co-creator of the series has over 8.5 million subscribers and this series has garnered over 1 billion views people that’s 1000 million last time I checked that’s a lot of views and it’s been a lot of epic guests on the series including Snoop lion key and Peele it’s best Snoop Dogg and maybe somebody that you’ve heard of rhettandlink rhettandlink we’re on there they played the Wright brothers freshers the Mario Brothers remember they happen so here we go our time with nice Peter [Music] feel like I’m picking a punk I feel like the same guy but sat down on a lunch table with you guys and the same lost lost person so the first time we met at the first VidCon you’re having flashbacks to that right now I’ve been having flashback to that all day yeah yeah yeah what’s your memory of our first meeting my memory of our first meeting is I had been watching and seeing you guys online for a while then and I had seen I had gone through a dark period where I instead of aspiring or like being inspired by people I was jealous and I saw things and it was like why aren’t I doing that and I now look back and realize oh because I’m because I wasn’t doing it it wasn’t that I could write I don’t know what I expected it for magically just open up to me or something I realized I had to create my own opportunities and create my own work and then I could do anything but at the time I was I was really lost with what I was doing I was playing I think just before a few like months or weeks before that I had been playing a show in Iowa and the whole front row had their back to me and I was just like I was trying to me I was trying so hard but I wasn’t trying hard at the right things so I saw you guys as two guys who are trying hard at the right things definitely trying hard you but that’s a big difference from what I was doing you tried you tried to have a very popular and successful video on the internet that focused on music and comedy and I was wondering how come I don’t have any very popular videos in the internet that focus on music and comedy but I wasn’t really trying to do them I was just wondering why I wasn’t doing them yeah you had at it you had a few picture songs that were floating out there at that point yeah it started to gain a little momentum and I was starting and that’s what was such a great time to meet you guys because I was like I’m gonna do this I’m gonna do I’m gonna do I’m gonna follow kind of this path of just like doing great work and I saw you guys as guys who were already doing that and so it was just a cool time to me well it’s interesting now the tables have turned because now we have to be jealous of them the most successful musical series in the history of the Internet one of the most successful series if not the in the history of the Internet I think that’s where maybe where I was lucky to have all that pent up like I free I refer to all the sudden for me to remove my own blinder of like the reason it’s not happening so I’m not doing it and then I was like oh my god I gotta I gotta make up for this fast right it’s my last chance I felt there was a lot of desperation I was like I was really broke I was I was about to I was about to sign up for a job valet parking cars which no you know no one sold to anyone the valet parks cars but I knew that was like kind of tragic I knew I have something better to offer and better to do but that’s just where I was I was just desperate and I think that desperation was really good for me too to finally get an opportunity and it was it was a very fateful conversation with Danny that changed my entire life when tiny diamond nanodiamond uh-huh i sat down with Danny diamond and he asked me pretty pretty straight he was like why aren’t you successful I think you’re talented and I said well I I’m working this job I was working like for a bakery delivering medicinal baked goods around town okay a lot of green Baker a little green bakery and that was that was my job and I had to wake up at 9:00 and drive around till 4:00 p.m. what was it called he kidded the Venice cookie company baby excellent products they made vegan medicinal cookies no one was doing gluten-free things okay so they didn’t have marijuana at him they did you know I’d be proven in this yeah yeah aspirin laced they had they had medicinal properties but they also they tried to make a gourmet treat that wasn’t like over sugared it was like these for people who want just the medicine they want to eat it they don’t wanna smoke because that’s bad for their health mmm and it was guide like the company was cool but that was what I was doing from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. so by the time I got out 4:00 p.m. it was hard to have that like extra energy reserve to really push myself creatively so I told that to Dana he was like all right well that’s ridiculous so I’ll I’ll give you a salary that matches that and then you won’t have that so all right now I use why aren’t you successful because I mean all the cookies because I mean all the cookies no as I said well my you know I my computer’s it’s just not I don’t have the tools that I need my computer is not I’m not able to edit Pro Tools is barely running it’s like alright I’ll get your new computer why aren’t you successful this is a good conversation yes and what point did you start calling him sugar daddy I never did we were it was a very casual stay I barely knew the guy was at I’m like I just joined you know I don’t even know what was called maker at that point it was called the station to me right I thought the fine brothers owned it and I thought Danny was a janitor he was this like this guy with a scraggly beard the better during meal sitting in the back corner is he authorized to do exactly I didn’t I didn’t I had he was so mysterious I I didn’t understand what he was and then he was he was really revealing to me what to me what he he does and what he does it so different is he he sees people he believes in things without there’s like there’s nothing that’s gonna stop you there’s nothing that’s gonna stop me there’s nothing he’s gonna stop us everything is surmountable so once he removed those two challenges I said well I just feel like I need like some exposure to people like I think I feel like I can entertain any room that I get up in front of if people are listening I like that I used to go to the post office and try to make the grumpy back ladies at the post office laugh because I thought they were the hardest people to make laugh in the world tough crowd toughest yeah and I would go there like I won’t make these look I’m gonna crack this lady up and I don’t do it I was like I can do this man no video cameras no idea okay just put your you just figuring out what what do they need to feel entertained what what kind of what kind of performance is gonna amuse these ladies and that’s something I developed over the years of joy it could be a great web series though how to amuse grumpy black lady at the post office but he gave you there’s audience he gave me no easy put me in in some videos that were like just you just connected me people connected me with casts I mean connected me with che and he just he just put me in front of people and he was like all right people are watching you got you got momentum you got your computer you don’t have that day job why aren’t you selling you know 25,000 songs a month right and I was like I guess it’s cuz of me I guess that’s you just removed everything that isn’t me I guess I’m the only person to blame and that just did something to me the idea I had stopped performing live and focused only on making videos okay I was gonna do a rap show a live rap show with Lloyd and another one of our writers who played Einstein Zach cherylin and I had to pull out of it at the last second but they did it and one of their segments on stage and this improvised rap show was to get suggestions from the audience and do a rap battle between those two people oh wow and so you know they’d get whatever some Winston Churchill versus you know Marvin Gaye and and write improvise a free style of rap I’m not easy to do not easy bail amazing yeah and and and they’re both pretty good freestylers so and Lloyd came over my apartment and mean Lloyd just used to work on music that was something we had in common and we were working on something maybe a rap song of his or something he told me about I was like how’s the show going you said uh did this segment this segment is pretty cool we get to people and I was like oh that’s that’s really good and I I said we should we should try some ways to lay something down that’s really cool and we we freestyle the battle between Michael J Fox and Chucky from from the movies and it was horrible like just the two of you just the two of us in my apartment and and it was horrible it was really really bad but but I just I was like this is so cool and I was I was searching for every kind of format I could mmm that was part of my new I was determined to make good videos and make popular videos and make a living off of making videos and I was like I need things that are refillable and like picture songs are unsustainable they’re too hard to recreate I don’t know why because they’re just weird magical moments that happen but this I was like this is cool and at maker I had these resource days where I could get a camera guy and a green screen and and and get to use their production machine I was really doing everything by myself at home I was making all my videos in my bedroom etc but I got to use these days to work with their machine and I was like I’m gonna use him on this and a that night I I may or may not have had some vegan cookies and I just saw this this whole world of of taking these two people and putting them in this Mortal Kombat universe this like transdimensional universe and and having these two people from history and and just going out and having this announcer that announcer came from the movie idiocracy you know in the rehabilitation scene or he’s like I haven’t seen it oh my god it’s amazing and they have this announcer and it’s this otherworldly voice that comes from nowhere and that that I was like and it’s gotta have an announcer and um I don’t know I told the idea and we were gonna do it we were going around to different directors and didn’t know where we’re gonna go it almost got shot like in a grimy brick you know with like a grimy brick background and I’m you see that not green screened you know and uh I I got for some reason I got assigned to Dave from Carrie who’s now directing on Saturday Night Live which i think is a testament to how talented he is and I I told him the idea and he went oh yeah and he got it and not only did get it but then he took it another step further so it was like it was just this collaboration between me Lloyd and Dave and how did you pick the first one you did the audience still O’Reilly yeah the audience did that and now you you posted a vlog where you asked people yep I posted a vlog and I asked people I said I didn’t call it epic rap battle at that time I went back and watched it and I was like we’re gonna do this incredible rap battle of history so who would you want to see and we got maybe four maybe fifty suggestions maybe a hundred and Bill O’Reilly burst John Lennon just stuck I stood out for me and Lloyd I think it was like I’m excited to play John Lennon and Lloyd was excited to play Bill O’Reilly and that Bill O’Reilly freakout video was really circulating right yeah I was like this is it we’re gonna make fun of this video so we’re referencing the Internet or being self-aware John Lennon it’s gonna be cool and John Lennon was originally gonna be in this in that New York City t-shirt and I remember shaycarl was was on Venice Beach and I called Shay I was like hey man can you look for a New York City t-shirt and everybody was everybody at that time was so collaborative we were all just so much and he touch in touch with each other’s dreams and ambitions and aspirations all working together and it’s not it’s not this it’s not the same as that anymore I don’t think I could call Shay Carl and ask him help me find it t-shirt for a costume I’m sure I could but it’s not that culture now well and we want to come back to the you know what it’s like to now have this series that is so successful and obviously it’s it’s all almost all your time okay yeah it’s not but we want to go we want to come back to that but we want to go all the way back okay to little Peter and by that I don’t mean your Peter I mean sure young yeah young you were born where are you boom where were you born I was born in Rochester New York okay it’s cold there it is cold yeah it’s cold right now but it’s it’s it’s all right it was it was great I lived on a dead-end street that was nice okay who’d you grow up with you bedded mom and dad mom and dad I have an older brother um how old are five years okay uh and that’s it you and the older brother that’s it yeah mom and dad I had a grandparents that were they were very cool my grandma my grandparents on my father’s side from our from Russia so they were they were cool they were friendlier than I remember my grandparents on my mother’s side being as a child and they lived in a greenhouse and my mother’s parents lived in a white house so they were my green green grandma and my white grandma growing up that’s what you call that’s what I called them and green grandma and grandma and white grandma and I I find it I wasn’t raised with any knowledge of race I I remember being in like first or second grade and realizing that the fact that the person sitting next to me was a different color had deeper meaning than that and I’m really grateful to my parents and my grandmother because of that because the rest of my family has that weird like racism but kind of like kind of those people kind of vibe you know okay not not derogatory but and in in that I’m not being fair to them because that they’ve all the younger people that generation have gotten rid of that but my my my grandparents my grandmother’s brothers and sisters had that classic I don’t know that classic Middle America like we’re different and for some reason I was just raised without that completely I took a black girl to the prom actually a black girl took me to the prom my parents didn’t bat an eyelash at it they didn’t it was it wasn’t even it they didn’t even go out of the way to say this is okay with us it would just wasn’t an issue yeah they didn’t talk about it didn’t even talk about it wasn’t even weird and I’m I’m always grateful for that is it true once you go black you never go back I I know that’s not true I’ve met your yeah it wasn’t it was old friend it wasn’t true in this case but it was white I don’t know if you’re still dating her but I am yeah okay that has been that has been tricky with with what I do everything’s been tricky dating a white girl dating away no but so I grew up I grew up just with I think an open mind and I was encouraged by my parents to be creative and we took piano lessons and were they musical people no hope there’s not a no there’s no what do they do they’re both lawyers really yeah are they still together yeah yeah they’re actually coming out here to visit for Christmas and they’ve never been out really yeah never been out to visit two lawyers married all these years yep well there is hope in this world I know but they thought that for whatever reason that you should be exposed to music yeah we had a piano or were you self-motivated were you like I want to learn to play but no kid says I want to learn to play piano or I was always man I was I was making songs on my teeth when I was a kid I know how weird that sounds but I would I would sit in the car and like and just tap out my teeth that make different pitches I can make different pitches and I just I since I was a kid I’ve been messing with anything that makes noise to translate things that I hear that are just simple just little bird and button you know and so that was something I always did I don’t I think he was all more I was more into detention and acceptance than I was in like musical knowledge I think I found I felt I felt left out and strange as a kid as a young kid for whatever reason or for what were the reasons left out of what school like friends yeah I think friends and just like I don’t know I just always felt strange and I think part of those reasons are things I’m still discovering about myself and things I’m still understanding things I’m maybe not not ready to like talk about our microphones but I just for whatever reason I felt always different and I felt always I’m not necessarily in a good way I felt I felt like I didn’t belong and I felt like I didn’t fit in and I felt just uh yeah just like I felt like everyone was gonna laugh at me or make fun of me and so I very early on was like I’m gonna do this on purpose so I’m gonna if people are I’m gonna feel comfortable feeling left out cuz I’m just gonna turn into a thing of I’m performing I’m I’m making people laugh and that that way I’m controlling how how I might get so kind of a class clown scenario kinda are we talking grade school yeah that young yeah yeah do you remember anything that you did like strip naked and run through the school or no not really I was just always aware I was always from I can remember being aware at a young age of just how people react and just like reading people and seeing where I can push lines and seeing where I can get laughs out of people or get amusement out of people get attention from people I was just hooked on attention and I was hooked on approval probably to a potentially damaging level and but it is the kind of thing that kind of propels you into it it don’t read entertainment it does I never expected to be successful ever I always expected myself to be the guy that people thought well that guy could have been something and that was something I carried into my 30s you know 30 I’m 34 years old right now and at 31 I was that guy I was like that guy could have been something but he kind of just kind of fizzled up and the girl I was dating at the time kind of was starting to ask me questions like so what are you really gonna do and that is disheartening um so even back then you had that sense did you get in trouble a lot for being the center of attention talking for yeah I mean I got in trouble with my mom a lot I I was constantly I don’t know I don’t know I don’t know how to explain it I was constantly I I grew up in an Irish dancing troupe what yeah when I was six years old I got tricked into joining and I arse dancing troupe because my mother told me my cousin was going to join it and my cousin didn’t end up joining it but this other dude did and for two dudes in an Irish dancing troupe is rare so more dudes joined the Irish dancing troupe so we we had a dude heavy Irish dancing group it was like 12 guys and as this this is like the dancing one that when the arms now I was in a kilt and all like rain dance sort of situation right River River it’s all in the legs all in the legs and it that haunts me to this day I can I can move my feet like James Brown but I dance like a brick up top and so I grew I grew up in that environment of school was like school but then my my life was in this Irish dancing thing and I went to classes and that was where that was where I felt the most like I belong to a group and also the most left out I felt I felt weird I don’t know I don’t know why I just felt like I didn’t really belong to this group but I could belong as long as I was funny and and so that was that was something I just started and they I was lucky man these guys some of these guys had the best laugh the world is a guide Tim I just saw him he’s got the best laugh in the world and I think if I hadn’t been friends with him as a as a younger kid I don’t think I’d be doing what I did today so you’re keeping in touch with the Irish dance troupe yeah I said I think more than my more than my high school acquaintances they still taurine know they’re all I mean there are a lot of them have kids and stuff but the troops are still going so that that got I didn’t have stage fright ever because when I was eight I was in front of my third grade class and it killed dancing at my elementary school yeah that all that’ll knock the dust off yeah so and I we should abyssion I guess and all of March we would go into nursing homes and perform and shopping malls those good crowds nursery we thought we had performed in a nursing home I’m not kidding you remember that no in the band now like the youth group like a church thing yeah it’s good for society yes great girl I want to do more stuff like that if like just making people who really need to be entertained giving them some energy right instead of the people who you know I don’t know Darth Vader and Charlie and yeah at a nursing home exactly I love it so I I just didn’t I didn’t have stage fright I did feel weird about myself I was very motivated to learn how to be funny and I kept I think I’m relatively smart and I just kept learning about how to entertain people at the same time were you thinking about okay because we talked about this just where we’re from yeah we were being funny but we didn’t know that being funny could be a career so there was never any oh this is what we’re gonna do for a living necessarily it was like we’re gonna get real jobs but let’s always be funny were you thinking about what you were gonna do at that time I don’t know I was always performing so I think so I think so cuz then just after that you know with the lack of stage fright and an ability to entertain people inability to be funny I’d started doing plays and like getting more into it okay so I think I was always it was oh it was the only option for me ever and then in high school my friend Ben he said man you gotta you’ve got to do something with this you’ve got like if you if I doubt if 20 years from now I don’t I don’t see you on stuff I don’t see you on TV or something I just don’t know what I’ll do to myself I don’t know how I feel it would be so let down and so was that conversation with Ben that got you off the dime it was huge as I was in high school and it was huge it’s stuck in wrong in my head it’s allowed me to never been able to give up because of because of little things like that so what did you do anything could I found it I discovered the guitar in my junior year in high school and still in New York yeah and I I went to an arts high school a public arts high school so that was great I got to be in musicals and plays and I was always a I look back sometimes it the hard time I gave our choreographers or our directors I was such a bossy little know-it-all and I feel so bad but then I feel like I might have actually known some stuff I don’t know this these instincts might have been there and I might have known that that piece of choreography was stupid yeah right and it’s not my place but I still think I was right she had us jumping up and down when we sang the final big note of a song and it was like we can’t sing we’re jumping up and down yeah and I gave up I put up a big fuss in front of this hole I mean who was I to do that as a junior in high school you didn’t get your way though no you lost I lost I was like and I thought it was so stupid like a War Chant exactly for a big note so I I feel like I’m meandering a little bit playing guitar I started playing guitar because it was a great way to get attention and acceptance and that I got not I’m not gonna deny that that was my primary motivation I was like I like to make people laugh and I like they haven’t approved this is good for everyone attention exchange I imagine you immediately moving into learning Queen covers and things like that yeah I was just has more piano bass but it was instantly – all right the only reason I learned car so I could sing songs that people liked and I wasn’t even the lyric writer I worked with another guy named Jason he wrote all the lyrics I wrote all the music and he was brilliant man he was a much better writer than that was but this was all comedic songs all communiques and all originals originals yeah we’ve been writing new originals about what kind of stuff poop you know masturbation right classic junior your high school stuff yeah our first song is called dump a dump dump it had a key change which was I thought Oh getting out that last Turkey yeah yeah it was autobiographical and true is what a real guy is what a real scenario of poopy of pooping yeah what was this scenario we walked Jason walked in and there was still a poop left in the toilet from this guy I know Christmas was so big it was so um it was so unbelievable that inspired this this mythic story with a key change with a key Chad need it was so such a big dump it need a key change those type of songs yeah but then you would just sing to friend just sing a French singer lunchroom sing to my Irish dancing troupe and you know and and singing in Nick is keys barn and and and just uh he was a bit he was the best dancer in the group he started out I got him into it late he came in late he quickly became the best and now he designs buildings that are energy if like self-sufficient that was his thesis project it was a self-sustaining yeah okay like connected that Irish dance only connect Irish teens but that was that Irish dancing thing I got a I got to thank my mom for tricking me into that cuz that definitely put a serious trajectory of my life I was performing with abandon from a very young age in a group that encouraged and fostered my sense of humor mm-hmm so what was the next point after the guitar writing the funny songs on this trajectory of to where you are now what was the next point on that like what happened next that oh that’s one point you started doing stand-up I don’t know yeah I do my college I went to college I left my guitar at home the first year I went to college cuz I wasn’t really a songwriter I was where what college uh state school in New York called Fredonia it was whatever it was whatever I think that’s what their brochures say yeah it Sonya it’s whatever whatever and I went to school I didn’t take my guitar I wasn’t really doing that I was hanging out dorms and going to parties and not really performing or doing anything like that and I was gonna become a teacher I was gonna become a history teacher and so which I find ironic now yeah Wow and and then sophomore year I audition for this improv troupe and I got in and I got my guitar back out and I started started just performing and we had cool theater it was once a month it was like a five and seat theater it was it was actually a good college improv show and that changed that changed my life again so that was cool so you you you broke out the fart songs no then I started getting deeper with the comedy songs I’m the first first song I wrote of this new era in my life was about one of the cast members was leaving and so I wrote this really heartfelt song about her leaving but it was funny and that’s that’s where I started to discover that voice of like talking about something whose real I mean the poop song was even real right yeah it had some heart that’s a poop at some pets move had some heart but now I started I started learning how to write songs that dealt with emotions and dealt with feelings and and just letting a feeling in spot and then the writing process is so much easier than instead of like what am I gonna write about I was like I have to write about this I feel so much about this I have to write I’m gonna use my abilities in melody construction and humor to make it more palatable to people but it was more of I’m listening to this musing my head and that improv troupe yeah I the a lot of the older members left and me and two other members kind of became the creative directors of it and we started choreographing these big dance numbers and and it was great it was so you it was your influence that made it more of a musical musical thing because that’s it you know when you talk about stand-up which we want to hear about how you did that I know that there is a well improv you still my improv right well when we get to get to stand-up though you kind of carry that into stand-up like you you’re a musical comedian is something I didn’t really know that you weren’t a musician first and then kind of made it know when you when you started looking at music it was for common for comedy and really but but it was for attention and an approval and when someone laughs you know they liked it you know you did you know you did it right I don’t have the balls to to take silence as approval and like that was really good man that’s not enough for me I’m too hooked on like hahaha okay I know you like this I can keep going keeps me fueled it keeps me you know feeling good so what about after college after college opt out of college and the improv troupe the guy who started that was gonna start an improv theatre out in Long Island in Riverhead Long Island which if anyone is familiar Riverhead Long Island it’s a so you had not been there you thought this was like coming out to check it out I was like this is great this perfect is I thought house for 14 people I live in a room with two other guys it’s a dream I was like a commune it was a common it was an improv commune the theater when I was there never got off the ground and I spent one summer there I learned how to wait tables I learned that was that I don’t know if you ever had that depressing stretch in your life where you really learn guitar you know there’s nothing else to do see really learn how to play the blues kind of thing you learned how to play just stuff you actually sit down new charts and new chords and new fingerings and like take your skills a step up instead of just like doodlee doodlee doodlee doodlee got it I had been noodling I learned I learned Weezer’s Blue Album that was obviously very influential on me I learned just I just learned how to play the guitar and I don’t think I got much better since then now right you made a choice to drop out of college in order to do this what did the parents say I called my I called my parents I was on acid when I told them that I was dropping out of college I don’t know if that’s something I should say Thank You familias literally does that make it easier no I was just already that just shows how seriously I was taking school I was just not I was failing out of school miserably the only guy would let me get away with anything was my history teacher and I think I don’t know why I think is if we had nice conversations if I would show up to class but I was just failing everything I had a 1.67 GPA which I don’t got a low rule oh I think it takes extra effort at Fredonia yeah and-and-and Fredonia’s not exactly a place where people excel anyway so I was just really doing bad and so you’re taking a lot of acid no or notice occasionally I was smoking a lot of pot I’m smoking a lot him and then the occasional my acid I’m sorry it’s my story right well I’m trying to I that’s the other things I felt like I used to be much more honest about talking about all this kind of stuff and when I started making YouTube videos I felt this responsibility that there were a lot of younger people watching me and I felt like I can’t talk about this kind of stuff well I mean we want to hear the real story here and I think people appreciate the real story of where you came from okay you don’t people don’t want to draw conclusions about the the sensor story alright well I was doing a lot of drugs and I wasn’t I was I was doing a lot of drugs and like staying in my room a lot and like just just putting everything off I was just like looking at a lot of porn and smoking a lot of weed and not really not challenging myself not pushing myself and and so the opportunity to do so all I cared about was performing I didn’t care about school so I just dropped out and went to go perform and then I’ve had a pretty good track record of okay so I want to go back to the conversation with your parents what was the what was it like in that moment talking to your parents did it make it like this is not really happening or kind of and I’ve kind of been in that days ever since of just not this is not really happening it makes it hard it makes easier for me to deal with reality if it’s just a little askew acid is just ending it just encourages you to relax your guidelines of what’s real and what’s not and then you could sit here and imagine that bass walking across the room and even see it in your brain you could watch it walk across the room but you know it’s not real acid does gives you a little push cuz you’ll see this glass going wobble wobble wobble wobble wobble and you’re like I know that’s not moving but I do see that so you’re not kind of digging yeah and you relax your inhibitions your suspension of belief just relaxes and it encourages you to here three breathing because you’re like I think I and everyone around you is like oh my god and so you just go with that I know you never had a bad trip I did know later in life once I started to learn more about the anxieties and the dark parts of the world I think acid was a great thing to do when you’re young when you’re old you know about bills you know about poverty you know about the famine you know about death and it’s all you see and it’s like an acid amplifies that if you’re if you’re stressed out in life or anxious in life and you try and take a drug like that to escape it it’s not it’s gonna backfire it’s gonna enhance that so how did the call with the parents go at that point you were you’d even though you were hearing trees breeze I was hearing treated where you were like I’m gonna drop out of college this is gonna be great I I knew I was gonna drop out cause I was excited about it I didn’t like failing you know I didn’t like doing someone wasn’t good at night I did feel stupid about myself just for just not succeeding at something that I probably could if I put my mind to it so I think I think my dad called me I was like hey I’m dropping a school I think did we just made the conversation very brief very confident and very this is just what’s happening and I think my dad understood my dad I think dropped out of school at one point and went back later my dad took charge of his own life he enlisted in Vietnam which I was like that’s that it’s always been wild to me and I’ve always kind of admired that so he I think he got it I think they both got it that was one thing I’m grateful my parents for they never really you know when I was 31 I was like hey can I borrow 200 bucks my mattress from the garbage needs a pad because I was sleeping on a mattress that I found in the garbage right even up until dr. Seuss versus William Shakespeare was released I was still sleeping on a mattress that I found in the garbage which I always think this morning well because at that point it gets you had it you’re sleeping on I was sleeping on it I had it I don’t mean it ain’t broke exactly so I just drop out of school flat and I went out but then I also dropped out of that and went back to the the school my school town and I worked at an Applebee’s you dropped out of the improv yeah I didn’t feel it I didn’t feel like it was going in the right direction and that’s something I yeah I think I mentioned I have a good inner sense of like this ain’t gonna work I’m out yeah and sometimes you got to do that and so I was out and I went back to school there was a girlfriend there there were friends there we and I learned how to sing and I learned how to make music but you didn’t reenroll no no I worked at Applebee’s okay that was also good I let me turn it back to this I went back to that town it was a cool town cool college town and we hung out and I used to sit it literally sounds like a dream to me but it was my life for a while we I’ve just meet up with this group people sit in a field and like drink a little bit smoke a little bit and make up songs and I would sing with this this guy Greg who taught me how to harmonize and taught me we would sit and do these vocal exercises where you’re like all right let’s hit the same pitch and then you go down just a little bit and we’ll hear it warble and I feel it in your bones that that note is is not right but it’s what we’re doing so it is right we’re meaning to do it was meaning to do and I started to learn about harmony session and I started to learn about like all this stuff and just okay and I started to really improvise songs and like seeing boldly and and not know what I was gonna sing next but it didn’t matter because it was like it had momentum and people were laughing and my girlfriend the time at this great laughs and she loved to listen to music and it was just a great time in my life and then I left it all and moved to Chicago to to follow another dream what was this dream the Chicago’s like the mecca of improv comedy okay and a friend to a couple of friends of mine who had written songs about leaving the cast of our college improv show had gone out and they were like laying the foundation of moving to Chicago so the three people that that we were running that improv show sort of the creative directors all three of us moved out to Chicago together got an apartment together and we all just started hitting the ground on the improv scene in Chicago and joined improv Olympic and and just started pursuing that and then that became our world and I was I was working at a restaurant during the day lunch shifts and just doing improv seven nights a week you know and while you were doing that what was the the goal what were you trying to con no idea I was just aimlessly following this thing in my head that Ben Houser told me in high school that I had to be on TV or else I’d let him down and he was like my best friend at the time and and he him and I for some reason my friendship with him erased that that feeling always had a like feeling left out and feeling like I didn’t really connect with male friends my best friend as a kid it’s just weird there’s something weird in there that I I haven’t even quite figured out but I felt just weird and alienated and with this friendship I felt not like that and so it was always in my head too did not let him down and so I had to just keep talking I’m just keeping going people go in a second city to do comedy I gotta go people are there performing on Thursday night I gotta go I got a who knows on me you know who everything’s possible I have to do it and so I was always doing it and how long did this Chicago thing last until I met Lloyd I met Lloyd it was also out in Chicago in the improv team he’s my partner in the rap Al’s now Sheila and we met at a party rapping on a back porch and you met rapping alright back porch at a party in Chicago yeah so he was like doing a freestyle yeah there was a freestyle circle going on and I and I joined it and I had because of my experience in college I’ve I had this boldness to just write just say stuff and I might not be able to get it to a rhyme but if I sell it right it doesn’t matter you know if you go out with like me I don’t know I can’t think of an example now I’m so out of practice but I just I I got a job with Lloyds touring improv troupe and that’s when I got my first taste of getting money for doing what I love and I was hooked I was like I can’t do anything but this this is great and where where were the tours all around the Midwest primarily at colleges the NACA circuit and we would show up some shows would be sold out not sold cuz they’re free tickets but a huge audience like dying to see us love it some audience would be a lunchroom in Dubuque at noon Oh in a cafeteria well but we’d have to make them laugh for an hour and so we did it now die on a Starbucks the Double Shot and get out there bike yawol sees a funny and and there was one show in particular in Detroit where we were opposite of McDonald’s it was like imagine just showing up and doing an improv show in a McDonald’s in the McDonald in the McDonald’s and it was my favorite show ever I had to Starbucks double shots and I was like I’m gonna do this I’m gonna get this crowd these are my black ladies at the post office yeah this is the grumpiest crowd they don’t want to see us they don’t want to be here they don’t want us to make them laugh and I’m gonna do it they won’t eat Nuggets and that was the spirit of the whole group it was like we’re gonna do this this is our job we’re getting paid for it work we have to do this show so let’s try our hardest and you are you are singing songs no songs no that was just there’s a short form improv so it’s kind of like whose line is it anyway just games wacky characters just that kind of stuff just getting in the audience’s face flat you know if somebody sneezes over there this whole sketch is about this about a sneeze if a you would use that french fries those look delicious all six of us will get around you talk about delicious a little further and then everyone starts to get like oh this is this is about us this is real this is actually happening these guys are not giving up so we might as well listen and that just built up my chop so much and Lloyd was there on this tour that was Louise company it was him and him in a group of six guys started this company very independent they were like this is that nobody gets paid doing improv we’re gonna watch can we get paid and so they they got paid and they and they went out and made their own way and uh yeah and inspired me a lot and like you were like all crammed into a van driving around in to avange cracking jokes and that was it for help have a long year and a half I did that and what year are we talking about so we can kind of get a bearing ah – mm – that’s good 2002 2003 and I again I’d kind of put down my guitar a little bit and I was really focusing on on comedy improv starting to do well starting to get recognized and then I got cast as Luke Skywalker in a Star Wars musical spoof of course and that’s where was this that was at ImprovOlympic upstairs guy named Jason chin it was great directed it wrote it and this musical director named Stephanie taught me how to sing and got me there was no microphone so I had to project oh wow this booming voice I had to get it I had to find it and with her found it and that changed everything and then I started playing open mics and I had one funny song I wrote in high school about a dildo and a cover of baby got back of course uh-huh and I went to an open mic and I played those two and people went nuts sing us a little bit of the dildo song you want the guitar to tune it that’s fine all right oh that one’s in tune over there the seagull the seagulls in – yeah all right he’s like I asked him to sing this song is his eyes are darting around like he’s he’s three guitars it’s awesome we’ve never had a performance on your biscuits uh I’m a few on the spy here a lot two minute time so I would show up in a room and I would look real innocent still at hair at the time and I wouldn’t like I wouldn’t know no one knew was gonna do anything funny it’s my tie it might not even be funny anymore I look at everyone and just like I’m gonna sing a sweet song and then I build it up and build other than also night just like the dinosaur was replaced by the alligator Daniel the boyfriend was replaced by a vibrator little boy just say little boy because I look like a little kid I didn’t start growing up until about three years ago I mean this is why and I yeah exactly I lived for that moment that moment of you know I build up noise built noise nothing gets a room quieter than silence and just before I start saying I go and everyone will go and then I go vibrator and then go and and that just changed my life that experience I love touring with the improv troupe but I was just a little bit too selfish of a performer cuz I loved it more when I was just I got to conduct this room of energy and just like get them all out get them all quiet but I wanted to songs so that’s right right so this this guy came up he was like man you gotta come back next week I was great ya gotta play more songs and I was like I don’t know any more songs so then I started writing songs and then I just it was a time my life when I was single and I was the only time in my life on a single and I just that’s all I did I just wrote I learned how to use Pro Tools and I start going to open mics and I found this one Wednesday nights at coils tippling house and that’s in Chicago I went every Wednesday and that’s just where I workshop everything and I just you know ten minutes you only got 10 minutes so every time every week I’d have to new songs and I became great friends the bartender I’m still friends of them still visit him his family Minnesota sometimes so okay so how did it go from this to the converse the story you told us the beginning of meeting Danny Diamond and then at this world of YouTube opening up to you because you said he introduced you to cast them and yeah well I’d say there’s a little bit in between that I did start to become a little successful at that and I started touring regionally I pulled back out of the improv troupe because again I felt it’s getting a little emotionally intense the guys that some of the relationships were combusting a little bit I was like I’m out I’m gonna focus on music I got up I’ll put a band together I met this girl played drums for me we ended up dating I met this guy I play bass for me and we put a little three-piece together and we would tour and play shows with these funny songs I had about 15 of them at that point and I just I stopped myself I put this I put this invisible barrier on myself I never really strived to become a real success and I don’t know why and I don’t know what it did I I don’t I just was either stupid or lazy or not focused or I had nobody helping me the right kind of way I had guys help me get shows and stuff and there there was a guy in England who kept me going for years after I would have given up because I would go to England and those audiences were awesome but people just stopped listening and I expected I did I expected the world to give it to me and I didn’t realize that I had to get it and so by the time you know I did that for eight years and I played every every every place you can I used to play an airplane hangar and they would pay me in parachute jumps like I got to skydive for free because I played the night before I’ve actually played in for airplane hangars oh you’re like a skydiving fiend or something no this is a good market it’s a good market there I used to play the acoustics are great the acoustics are great and that the the guys are wild they have a high you know my show got racy got raunchy it got real raunchy and like my mom didn’t like any of my music and I shouldn’t care about that but I know somewhere in the back of my underdeveloped brain I did and I just I toured on that and I became this I had a sweet face and a really dirty mouth and a really shocking mouth and I would say anything about anybody like what was the barrace estate you went in one of these songs I mean I used it as sexual therapy for my own issues of sexuality and I just I would talk about everything I would talk about you know if I was having trouble with a girl in bed I would sing I write a song about it graphically and you know I wrote a song called the mystery of the clitoris and it was this long like it could be helpful it I think it was a little bit helpful I think I’d sex education I did my own therapy for myself and I shared it with people and I think it made everybody feel comfortable is like this guy’s talking about having troubles keeping an erection and I felt like that before I don’t why do I have to why can’t we talk about it why can’t we laugh about it and I think it did appeal to a certain cross-section of people but I was stuck in bars and I was stuck on money and that’s what was stupid that was part of what I did it so there wasn’t like you said there was this invisible barrier against success that you can’t really pinpoint we was it that okay well I don’t know exactly what the next step I didn’t know the next step and I was always trying to pay the bills I would take the gig that paid 600 bucks to play for 300 people that don’t care at a bar in a suburb rather than like the intimate listening room weren’t warning and my fans would show up and really I got to grow as a performer I was always just I was just entertaining groups I was better at audiences never seen me before you were following the money but the money was small money was small limited and I wasn’t developing a following in the I wasn’t playing – if I wasn’t I wasn’t doing enough for the people that follow me to be honest I was I was I was putting them in places with a hundred other people who didn’t care and after eight years of this yeah you kind of get to a point where like you said earlier your girlfriend at the time is like what are you what am i doing do we yeah cuz you’re just barely getting by if you go out and play gigs you know you can go to tour England and I could make 2,000 bucks come home but it doesn’t go anywhere it doesn’t have real growth and like like I said I now I’m realizing I just didn’t do enough for my fans I didn’t do enough for the people who supported me so how low did it get for you I mean I played a Christmas party at a pie lotty’s instructor’s living room and she specialized in senior Pilates and I played an acoustic set in the corner of a living room and this was probably about four months before you guys met me were they doing Pilates at the time no was there Christmas celebration and they were older people seventy tonight and you were singing about the clitoris I was I I sang I did instrumentals of those songs so I can amuse myself I was like if I was singing these words and I sang how much is that doggie in the window like three times they love that what they loved it oh yeah they did I say right low point I get it low point but I still play music yeah it was 200 bucks you know and I was still doing it I was doing every Monday night at a bar in Playa del Rey I was doing every Tuesday night at a bar in Long Beach I was out here I got a job at break com2 right so what what necessitate okay why don’t move Delia cuz I gave I was like should I Chicago was a great place to give up on your dreams and it was a great place to find your dreams and then eventually give up on them and it it just wasn’t there aren’t that kind of those kind of people Danny doesn’t live in Chicago you know he lives in LA you guys don’t live in Chicago you live in LA now and I was I was I needed somebody I needed somebody to help me and there was a guy in England there was a guy in Chicago was helping me book shows and it was great this guy in England that was really helping me so I thought about moving to England I almost got married to this guy so I could stay in England we were gonna we were so close we I mean we didn’t have an intimate relationship but we were like let’s get married just for the legal for the legal Thanks close enough we’ll sell tickets to the wedding it’ll be packed we were we were local we were local he made me a local hero he almost had a fake gay mayor Saturday gay marriage that is absolutely a step and I’m talking we researched it we looked into it and the I England kept me going because American audiences their attention strangers wasn’t great and I like I said I was I was not really paying attention that people really wanted me see me I was just trying to entertain mass because that’s where the money was and so in England they just listen you put a sign out says live music tonight people like let’s go listen and a guy my favorite story about England guy came up to me you know didn’t really enjoy your music I’d like to buy you a beer cheers for playing it’s a fair trade-off it was great he listened the whole time clapped after every song didn’t doesn’t really like what you do but really really proud of you for doing it I’d like to buy you a pint that doesn’t happen here doesn’t happen they’ll start playing darts and and that was one thing that I kept in my arsenal somebody stopped listening I would shred them I would as soon as somebody wasn’t paying attention I’ll just slowly start singing about their hair and their glasses until the people around them back singing about this cannot be a coincidence because he just said blue hair and that guy has blue hair and a turtleneck and put out sing it as if it was this written song you know I wouldn’t really look at the guy and he would have chord structure and melody and and people would start giggling it’s like reverse heckling exactly prob so I would heckle the audience and that was only that only became my staple and that’s not a great way to to grow if I have to be an adverse situation to thrive right I hit the wall on what I can do in entertain bars and but you made a last-minute decision it sounds like to not do the fake gay marriage in England they gave me to LA yeah I moved to LA uh uh a girl I was dating at the time kind of encouraged me to get out of Chicago I’ve always been I’ve always I’ve always had my own issues underdeveloped as a as a man and so I’ve always leaned on girls to make me whole did she say I’ll come out here with you yeah yeah she said you should go not you’re hitting walls here she also she said we should go yeah well she said she didn’t want to go oh she didn’t want to go and this is like 2010 yeah 2009 maybe mm mm okay so I I did that music thing and I kept writing songs I kept trying to do albums I got a new drummer or a different drummer and I just I just never was applying myself as much as I could and that was just that and I was also I was limiting myself by every song I had had an f-bomb in it every song I had and I didn’t know how to write clever stuff I didn’t have the guts to do it I didn’t have the guts to explore deeper emotions again like I used to because he can’t do that in front of a crowded noisy bar in Wisconsin you can’t like explore subtlety of humor and so that’s why when I started singing on YouTube because they’re listening the whole time nobody’s heckling you nobody’s coughing the attention is focused I was able to start exploring that again and in reawakened my creative energy so did you start making YouTube videos first or meet Danny first it’s tough call I don’t know how did you meet Danny I met Danny cuz I got a cousland they were hiring writers and I I submitted as a sketch writer and I had the worst sketches ever but I had made the fine brothers a fine brothers were head writer station were hiring write ups and I submitted sketches I had made that first picture song just cuz I was trying to figure out what to do I didn’t know I was your first youtube video was it pictures no I actually had a hit viral video 2006 I had a song called 57 got 500,000 views in 2006 and I didn’t I had 100 subscribers I had no idea what to do with it I didn’t I was a stupid idiot I look back at I’ve like that was your chance and you just didn’t realize you didn’t capitalize and you didn’t sit down and make another video instead you watch bo burnham videos and got jealous and that’s so stupid that’s so stupid to look at something big why our night wasn’t happening to me and and the answer was in front of me all along it’s like why aren’t I doing that and that’s what I just did just dawned on me so Lloyd had a connection with the station they were looking for writers he has it because of the comedy circuit has a comedy circuit yeah and Lloyd’s just the type of guy that if he sees something can help somebody else he’s gonna pass him along and he saw that and I was I got fired from break I was there I was brought on to make original music content and I got fired and I love that why’d you get fired cuz I wanted to make good things so you told them that the things they were asking you makes don’t know I just we just didn’t work out we did we did I shouldn’t have said that we did we had different sensibilities okay no no I don’t know but I loved it and it was that was that was good for me to just to fail so hard to be at such a low point when I did meet Danny to be so desperate so how we were working for break make it writing songs for other people or for writing songs ready sketches no for break just as a writer yeah I went in front of a camera nope I was writing and I wrote I wrote a song called Santa’s a gangster and I was like we should I got they wanted me to make a Christmas video I was like dude this is good trust me and there wasn’t it so I did it and I made it and I made it with Lloyd and I had that YouTube video and I a picture song and when I submitted to the fine brothers to be a writer my sketches were terrible but they happen to look at my youtube channel they were like you can write songs yeah we should get you to write songs for Dave days and that’s what I’m originally in my that’s in my original meeting that was like what I was gonna do was write songs for other people and that’s what I did for a while and it was it was it was great but I hit I was got hired to write ten songs at $100 a song to write record produce the big bucks doing all that that was to me at the time is awesome yeah cuz I mean we you were flat broke you said oh five broke and I got a check for a thousand bucks and all I had to do was write writing record ten songs which I was gonna do anyway and I learned how to I’ve learned how to make parodies I got off my high horse and I was like I’m gonna learn how to do this and during that course I you know during that I learned more about production and like alright how do I make something sound like that on the radio now I know it so what’s one of the songs you wrote for Dave days you said yeah I didn’t I didn’t end up writing any songs for Dave days but there was there was that just I just remember that conversation I had a management company that was tied into the Improv Theater here in LA so I was doing shows at The Improv and I I remember one night I did a show and I crushed it and it was great and then the next morning I was polishing silver we’re at the restaurant job I had and I got yelled at for not doing it right and that I quit I was like this is so stupid I can do that and I’m getting yelled at for polishing sporks wrong and like no offense to anyone who polishes Forks but this is not for me this is not what I should be doing so I quit my job so I had no idea offing and where does that leave me too I was just desperate God somehow I don’t know that time gets a little murky around that time because everything happened so fast I was super desperate it was my I saw it as my last chance I was really about to give up on everything then I got this I got this gig delivering weed brownies through my friend Corey who I haven’t talked to in ages and I hope I get to talk to him again soon because I lost his phone number so Corey if you’re out there oh he’s listening so I I just threw my whole everything everything I’ve ever known how to do ever I threw into making videos and it was all I did okay and so we covered at the beginning about you know the conversation with Danny and then the conceptualizing the epic Rap Battles of History yeah seeing that initial success following it up and then all of a sudden you’ve got this expectation yeah I freaked out I got it I gotta keep coming up with a sad nervous breakdown I got a nervous breakdown yeah I turned off my phone I chain him a phone number I didn’t call anyone at what point how many battles in started maybe about four or five battles in oh wow I moved right there’s another guy missing from the story and I hope I’m not just making it too boring and full-on until is Dante who became my co songwriting partner I never had you know you guys have a songwriting partnership I never I’d never had that before and I just hadn’t hadn’t met the guy and I met Dante and we you know we worked on that shaycarl shaytards song together we worked on Superman talks together and he was just willing to go man we did 60 takes of that shaycarl shaytards song to get one that worked from top to bottom and he was just every tape he was like all right do it again let’s do it again let’s do it again let’s do it again let’s do it again and he was just right that was your writing partner I was my writing partner and he actually he called me to help him with the project he was doing we wanted to make music for a documentary about hot-air balloons don’t we all you know and so maker started throwing more songs at me and and been at maker through a song of me that was that got me to go out and visit Dante again he wanted us to make something that sounded like Love Hurts but wasn’t Love Hurts and so we did that we pulled this song out of our asses and and we tracked it and we were getting we were me and Dante we’re becoming tight musically and we would record in his garage out out in Pacoima and that’s where we did shaycarl and that’s better huh and then it’s uh so all this stuff is happening I’m just getting excited people you know I did that song about Shane his family he put it in his blog all of a sudden I was at a 4th of July party and I just my I used to get an email every time I got a subscriber uh-huh and all of a sudden all of a sudden my whole life changed and I changed on a blackberry and I just like new subscriber news and then also nine ten thousand people watching me so I went from 150 people to ten thousand and that’s that was big to me and I knew this is all I’m doing I cancelled every gig I canceled everything I just and Danny gave me the salary and I think Danny Danny wanted to get me out of writing and into being me I do know that part of the reason I really freaked out is because I got I got a level of adoration an ADD ulation that I wasn’t ready for and I didn’t feel good about my sister’s a nervous breakdown yeah I didn’t feel good about myself I didn’t feel like I deserved a 150 tweets every morning saying I was really great I felt awful my relationship was falling apart my relationship with my brother had hit some real like just had fallen apart what do you mean my ELISA my brother just hit because of some issues left in me from my childhood I I just had a falling out with my brother so I was disconnected from him I was disconnected I was pulling back from the whole world as far as real interaction and just hiding behind a keyboard and a camera and I’m pulling back from the microphone as I do it except that’s how I felt I just felt like I was behind this thing and I didn’t talk to people I I just I edited also my own face every day and that’s just not good for you I did my own voice through editing and and I took out any part that I thought was weird I took out any part where I thought I looked weird or I thought I sounded weird and that just it started taking too long me is that why you are sunglasses I wore sunglasses because mystery guitar man wore some black and I wore sunglasses because it was sunny the day I was brought to drive the van to Las Vegas on a maker trip maker had a big brain deal in Las Vegas that’s where I met che met Qasim I was wearing sunglasses that was my job I was the driver and it was bright out and I was in some videos and someone left a comment that guy in a sunglass that guy in the yellow and green sunglasses are really funny who’s he and that told me who I was gonna be I was gonna be that guy in the green yellow sunglasses always and it made it easier for me to look at the viewfinder instead of so I could make sure I was always in the shop do the shooting stuff myself and it just it gave me a look it gave me something so you weren’t hiding behind sunglasses and the process was you were kind of I mean the nice person that you now are as a result of your interaction with your audience I think so I think I just I just grew up a little bit and and I just took more emotional risks a little more the breakdown yeah how far did the breakdown go anyway what was this like don’t talk to me I’m not making any more rap out of no all I did was work okay all I did was work don’t talk to me about anything else I didn’t I just I just had no real connection with people and I had no real connection with my family and just like I freaked out on my family I just had lost I turned off my phone stop calling my friends and I stopped I just I don’t know what happened I just freaked out I just wasn’t ready I was not ready to go from 150 subscribers to a million and a half subscribers in like six months but did you keep the inner circle intact but Lloyd and Lauren – yeah Lloyd and Dante yeah yeah yeah absolutely and did they say hey we’re worried about you mm no because they’re they’re both I mean Lloyd is his work obsessed designer I think he was like welcome to the club bro yeah a work is all that matters so are you still there are you out of it I don’t know I think I’m much more balanced the return to your phone back on it started my phone back on I start reaching out to people and I had some apologies to go around I mended my relation with my brother I think I mentioned I was just talking to me today so I the relationship that I’m in now the personal relationship I’m in now encouraged me to make amends and grow more than like turn my back on everybody and just focus on work yeah and also I think I did it I did what I always wanted my sir mix-a-lot and baby got back was my career aspiration if I could have one hit that everybody knows forever forever I could just cruise on that I could just like be that guy who has that one hit and once I did that I felt like Vader Hitler was that hit and I did it again with like a couple more rattles it became big hit I was like I’m I did it I did what I said I have to do I’m I’m done right so I just chill out now I can I can I can look inward and kind of develop myself as a person because I spent 12 years doing nothing but trying to get here and now I’m here and I’m miserable and that’s so stupid because I have everything I always thought wanted why do i why do I go to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy myself things to feel better because I have money but I feel terrible now it was so stupid so where are you at now in that process what’s going on inside Prime Minister nice Pete’s head ah right now I it’s we made some videos that are so cool it’s so hard to keep up with them it’s so hard to keep up with what we what we’ve already done and it’s also physically so taxing it’s such a it’s such an obsession it becomes these songs becomes such an obsession and the videos become I know every frame and every tick of every peek of everything and it just it just loops over and over again in my head as I try to get to sleep so I started drinking too much to get to sleep and it which obviously makes it next morning you drink too much coffee and then just this wound up thing and it’s just right now I feel good cuz I think we just put out one that is of the of the level of where we wanted to be which we just put out Michael Jordan versus Muhammad Ali we’re talking about a little bit and I was like this is this is this is it I’m so proud of this I like it’s hard it’s hard to it’s hard to continue because I don’t want it to suck ever and it’s because it can be so it can be so cool that we can just keep working on it until it gets there I don’t know it’s hard so it’s just this building pressure of it’s got to be as good or better than the last one yeah yeah well and it’s sort of the you know it’s the we have a little taste of this just having a YouTube channel and making a rank on YouTube not having that one thing though but there is this the indefinite never-ending season of epic rap battle history like that doesn’t that you know that’s not how the world ever worked in entertainment right there was a gatekeeper who gave you another season there was a company that financed another movie you know but I guess the TV series is a better thing to use as a comparison because it was the same thing but they just never last I mean you know the best shows cancelled right right right but now you’re the gatekeeper right for epic Rap Battles of History and you can just go on indefinitely that’s it’s just a weird place to be and like you know from a psychological perspective you’re kind of establishing what the psychology of that situation is because you’re one of the only people that has that to experience you can’t have a mentor there’s nobody who did this right in 1975 I had a lot of mentors getting into it and now we’re all I think all those mentors and me are all like I don’t know man I don’t know how this works you know I I really admire grey and and still do and and he I think he’s easiness he’s in a similar place of like I did it I became the number one subscribed YouTube channel now what do I do mm-hm and it’s like I could do this forever I want to do other things he’s making a movie he’s doing other things and I I don’t want to what I admire about you guys and when you do is that you have such a great relationship with your audience and you’re so you’re so trustworthy with them you say you’re gonna do something you do it I feel like I just let my down let my audience down over and over again I feel like my core audience who really cares about the music that I make and they know what my dog’s name is hmm I haven’t been there for them or in that audience performer relationship since I started doing the rap battles again it’s I just can’t I can’t I was faking it for a while that was another thing that was bad for me was I would be miserable put on a very happy face make a very happy video edit it so it felt great and we’re talking your second channel yeah like your Monday show yeah exactly vlog yeah and based and I love doing that stuff and it’s I love the connection and it got that connection got me through everything it became an that became my form of therapy but it’s it’s it’s not it’s not healthy so if there’s a sense that where you’re at right now is not sustainable so that’s what I’m hearing you kind of say yeah what where where do you think you go from here I have no idea you know I’m I’m currently like I’m currently in a contract to make a lot more rap battles and I’m kind of in a contract with myself to make a lot more rap battles but I’m definitely in a contract with with a company to make a lot more rap battles or that they’re gonna be made and and III could sometimes I get tempted and wonder about like stepping away from them more but I feel such an emotional connection to them I feel like they’re my babies and there are a lot of people’s babies we all there’s a lot of us at work on them I’m not the only person works on them but I I do I have a real deep personal connection to them and the way they get come out so you’re not willing you’re not able to shift your gaze from that I don’t think so I don’t think I don’t I think I just care about them too much to let them go a different direction and I’m and I’m just I don’t that’s maybe my own problem that I’m enough trust in people but it’s tough it’s tough call I don’t know what I think I’m just gonna keep going so you find yourself staying up all hours of the night learn teaching yourself After Effects well I’m trying to catch up our After Effects guy’s a wizard but he’s only one he’s only one guy right and we we have had people we did we a very valuable member of our crew I don’t know if I mentioned this on the show already went it went to Saturday Night Live yeah our director and main editor went and he was like he’s the guy who made Rap Battles look the way they did he made that logo I was there with him and I was like can you move that part a little higher yeah but but he he he he nailed it and he was he’s gifted he’s a gifted guy and to anytime you try and you know replace that it’s gonna be a challenge and so it is I learned from him I know how to do what he does effortlessly I know how to do through a great deal of effort and me and the rest of our editing team are I think we just got to a place there was three of us edited Michael Jordan Merce Muhammad Ali and I think we it’s as good as anything we ever made with Dave and that we’re really proud of that our after effects guy has grown to great lengths but then it’s just to having more people in there working on it is always better so from a so how does all this apply on a on a personal front you know things fell apart with your family at some point are you are you setting yourself up for a second breakdown no that’s what I want I want to avoid that at all costs I don’t think I’ll ever get there again I think you know I’m just because I’m aware of it being possible I’m never gonna get there I’m not I can’t I worked myself too hard before and I gave up my humanity and I can’t do that anymore I just don’t want to do that anymore I’d rather work on stunt work right and maybe work a little healthier and learn from you guys how how to sustain an operation in a way that doesn’t sacrifice your family I could you guys have kids I could never I could not possibly even begin to have a child right now and and and it’s something I want to do with my life at some point so I got to figure how to get well it will change things so that’s the thing you know sometimes just having the kid it’s like oh okay well I’ve got to make some adjustments now I’m not saying you should have a kid to make my little better right I’m just saying that you know I’m not saying anything you do whatever you want to do but if you have a kid it just it it did it for a forces change yes we’re not saying have a kid to make your life better but have a kid and put it in the line of fire no he’s not saying that okay well let’s bring it back in closing – Ben what’s his name your your friend dozer Ben Hauser and he lives in South Korea now you keep in touch with Ben not as much as I do in my head so in your head what do you think Ben is saying I think he’s proud of me it’s kind of funny how we’re talking about it like he’s like he’s a dead relative no I what do you think Ben is he’s Saint looking down from heaven I think he I think he’s proud of me and I feel like I’ve satisfied that part that part of my life journey and now it’s exciting because I’m I have a reputation I have a body of work that’s really good and I can and I have some money and I could I can I know how to do things right now and so I could I could put that energy into into another project in the future when when the epigraph of the history does reach its conclusion which it has to someday I’m excited about the rest of my life because I don’t know what I’m gonna do I might just raise chickens but I’m gonna raise good chickens and you have Snoop Dogg’s cellphone number I don’t have Snoop Dogg’s cell phone number but I know the dude yeah yeah you can get into almost cool we’re cool in Snooper cool and that that could that could last you a few years just that Yeah right just and the amount of things I’ve gotten to do I’m so grateful that’s why it’s so hard to feel down cuz I’m so lucky and I’m so grateful that it’s so stupid to not feel good and but sometimes I just need to take a step back and talk to people sometimes you got to shake somebody’s hand to remember that there’s actually human interaction in the world that he’s not through a computer but we thank you for taking the time to talk to us now you need to sign the round table of demonstrating and that was our conversation with nice Peter nice pete shook off shook off prime minister pete nice you you you remember prime minister pete nice yeah third base he was not the guy with the cane he was what no he the guy with the cane he wasn’t the big guy right he was the slick guy with the slick pair the shorter yeah did have a cane he kind of wrapped like this kinda okay yeah yeah the thing that surprised me about Pete was he wasn’t always nice I mean really like I told him we’ve had conversations after talking with Pete and the takeaway is always this guy is so nice and that’s why they call him nice Peter yeah but that was that’s what we thought it’s funny that that’s not the case I yeah I I was convinced that that’s what he was gonna tell me well I just had this reputation of being really nice actually he had the reputation from his stand-up musical improv type approach of being mean professionally mean and I mean the way he presented it to us was the Internet and his complimentary audience gave him the confidence to be who he really is which is a nice guy well as opposed to a stage act in it well because I mean I think you know not that not that being an Internet comedian versus being a stand-up comedian is is necess easier one it’s not necessarily easier than the other I don’t think I think that one is just more you know you more demanding of people’s attention you have to say okay this guy is actively heckling me or turning my back to him so I’ve got to point this out in order to gain control like we don’t have to worry about the person who’s thinking negative things about us during you know while they’re listening to this or watching a internet video because right now it’s happening I’m not going to respond to you sir they’re in the blue shirt yes you listening to ear biscuits right now you’re lying in your bed right now you’re about to go to sleep you’re about to nod off yes you with the brown hair and the blue shirt you’re a jerk why are you sleeping in a blue shirt you should be sleeping in pajamas you look like nothing Punk I’ll wake up and finish listening to see you were a real man you’d be sleeping in the nude it does attest it well that is also true but that doesn’t really work you know he’s singling somebody out yeah I mean you that people just click away yeah they’re like I’m not the guy in the blue shirt you can’t even make fun of them as they’re clicking away because it happened so quickly I mean it happens in the instance that you’re gonna click the way already they’re gone there they go they’re gone by they’re gone what you see but but you’re still here and you’re the only one that really matters for this ear biscuit so I mean Pete is truly a nice guy I mean after we we stopped the recording he was going through people that he wished he would have shouted out I wish I would have said that I was influenced by the fine brothers to to always give him a best and to be excellent did I mention them because I meant to and you know he’s extremely grateful and humble and I it’s not an act it is who he really is so I think it’s great that the Internet audience allowed him to become the real him and still be as funny and entertaining as he has but not have to to deal with the hecklers and be shaped by that right so why don’t you air biscuit ears I’m gonna keep trying to sell that by the way keep you do the nice thing go over to nice peter’s channel is epic Rap Battles Channel maybe it’s Twitter whatever you want to do go telling you enjoyed his ear biscuit and you wanted to keep being nice and keep making rap back yeah his Twitter is twitter.com slash you guessed it nice Peter let them know yeah and another in a brisket coming your way very soon hashtag ear biscuits I think we’re skipping a week for the holidays that’s the recipe with the family and then we’ll be back two weeks from now so we won’t be gone that long don’t you worry happy holidays stay warm [Music] [Music]