Chuck Shute Podcast

Dan Wilbur (comedian, writer)

April 10, 2023 Dan Wilbur Season 4 Episode 330
Chuck Shute Podcast
Dan Wilbur (comedian, writer)
Show Notes Transcript

Dan Wilbur is a comedian, actor and author.  He has a hilarious new stand up special titled "Husband Material" that drops April 12th.  We discuss the new special, life in New York, opening for Patton Oswalt and more! 

0:00:00 - Intro
0:00:38 - New Album "Husband Material"
0:03:40 - Crowd & Material on Special
0:06:13 - Depressive Realism, Cures & Anxiety
0:09:40 - Mania, Depression & Anti-Depressants
0:16:05 - Bad Thoughts, Weed, Edibles & CBD
0:22:00 - New York Life
0:27:42 - Celebrity Encounters
0:30:48 - Playing Guitar & Musicians 
0:37:45 - Long Island Vs. New York City
0:42:54 - Opening for Patton Oswalt & Scott Seiss
0:52:10 - Exercise, Diet & Food
1:12:30 - New Album & Tour
1:14:20 - Bard Prison Initiative
1:18:20 - Outro

Dan Wilbur website:
https://danwilbur.com/

Bard Prison Initiative website:
https://bpi.bard.edu/

Chuck Shute website:
https://chuckshute.com/

Support the show

Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!

Chuck Shute:

Well, it's always great to have a guest come back and comedian Dan Wilber was one of the first guests that I ever had on the show way back on episode 13. He's got a new comedy special out titled husband material. It's an audio recording. It'll be available April 12 on all streaming platforms. So we're going to talk about the special plus we discuss mental health food and dieting, opening for Patton Oswald and so much more coming right up Yeah, so new my husband material, the new album, this is the first comedy special comedy album that you've ever had.

Dan Wilbur:

Yes, this is my very first comedy special. And let me tell you, I'm so happy. I took two full years off during COVID. I didn't. But what a great time to put out your first album. Why did I start there? It's a great album. I'm very excited.

Chuck Shute:

Is there? No, I listened to it. I listened to it twice. But now is there going to be video because I've seen clips where there is video. But is there a full special that will be on video? Or is it only

Dan Wilbur:

there's no, there's no full special it's just the audio. So if you're listening to this, you know you gotta go old school. You got to buy it on iTunes or you got to stream it. The the chunks that we got are good. And I want to release them as clips. But but they're in service to promoting the audio. One day, one day I'll do a full YouTube special.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, I think that's what like vehement did that I think Mark Norman did it that way. I think Ron and Hershberger thought his was his first one was on YouTube. I'm not sure I know he has a new one coming out, too. But

Dan Wilbur:

yeah, the label said we could do it. And then we only recorded the second show for just because that's when my my video team decided to do it. Because we're like, well, we'll get the first one we'll get this. We didn't record them both. And then we never had planned to release it on YouTube. And we didn't really have a budget to pay somebody like a big production company. And since since promoting it people have reached out to be like, Why don't you do it now. And I'm like, what? force everybody to hear the album and then just do like the same set plus to dirty jokes. And then I mean, I've written a lot of stuff, but not enough that I'd wanted on an album at this moment. Like I've spent the last like five months just being completely free. And doing as much new materials I want. And I feel really good. And I get why people might put out a special a year. Now because you get really like a fire lit under you when you can just work on whatever you want. After you've just been honing one set for months. So I don't know, we'll see maybe by next December, I'll have thought of Enough jokes to put into a YouTube special, but I doubt it. Because this one, this one took 18 years. So that's I was just saying, Yeah, I didn't mean to start by saying like I quit I I was just doing. I wish I had done maybe in 2016 the first album, and then it's like, well, there'll be time to do it. And then 2019 2020 Some stuff happened. And then screwed it up for a little while. Right? So

Chuck Shute:

when you do this, the latest one? How do you get so because you said you had to hold it for months. So like a lot of your friends and family have probably already heard these jokes. So do you try to invite people you know, to the recording of the special or is it totally? People who have never seen you before? Because then the jokes are all fresh?

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah, so most of the time in the recordings or special shows, I've found it's people I know, whenever I released a book and we did a comedy show. It was just a bunch of familiar faces in the crowd. And I was just listening to Amy Hawthorne, who is a very great, she's great Booker. And she was a great producer of comedy shows and she has a podcast now she helps comedians understand, you know what they're doing right and wrong, mostly what they're doing wrong, which I like. It's a lot of tough love. If you're if you're interested in listening to that kind of thing. She put out this, this video where she was saying like nobody cares if you repeat jokes because it was sort of in tandem with why are we releasing all these crowd Work videos? And the answer is, well, you don't want to burn your material. And you still want content out in the world. So what do you do? Well, you you share something about like, oh, you can only see this at a live show this organic thing that happened it's it's not a bad strategy to post crowd work clips and get people interested in coming to live shows, but then they think that's all you do, or they don't know your jokes. And my favorite albums are the ones that I can really listen to, even though I know the jokes. And so I just tried to put my best stuff on an album. Knowing that, well, people have probably scrolled past the NBA Jam bit a couple times. But when they hear it in the context of the album, they'll, they'll enjoy it and nobody's mad at you. They'd be mad at me if there was no new material on it. That would be upsetting. But I don't think I did that. I think I, I so much happened in the last year that I had a lot of stuff about moving and a lot of stuff like old stuff that nobody's heard that I've never put on a video. So my hope is that Amy Hawthorne is correct. And that people love to hear your best jokes. So it's a mix

Chuck Shute:

of your best stuff and new stuff, best stuff.

Dan Wilbur:

And then stuff about getting married stuff about moving stuff, and you all you've listened to it twice. So you know, there's, there's I would hope there's a couple things that you had not heard before.

Chuck Shute:

Oh, definitely. Yeah, I thought the part about a depressive realism. That was really interesting. Like where it was, like depressed people have a more realistic view of the world. I remember learning that in psychology classes when I was in college, and I was like, Huh, that's kind of an interesting viewpoint. So it's like it because the other side of that is would be happy people have a fake view of the world. Right. And I think

Dan Wilbur:

that's, I think it's absolutely true. For me, at least, it's funny, if you bring up depression, any in any context, you'll just get comments about people telling you what caused it, when you know, probably better than most people, especially if you're in therapy, you you know yourself a little bit. But people will I was just, yeah, I just posted a video about it that like, if you just say, Hey, I'm depressed. And I think it's because the World War me down. And like, I got so much rejection and have like a weak spirit at the moment. And I'm not exercising enough to counteract how bad I feel like all these things. You could list all the reasons and all the reasons your therapist told you and people will still come out of the woodwork and be like, it's that you're not taking vitamin D. They're not taking like, you need to work on your gut health. You need to fix your chakras, you need to just go outside and drink water and suck it up, which is like, Yo, suck it up was still around when I was in high school. I remember a Spanish teacher telling me to drink my orange juice and shut up and because that's talking about how bummed I was in like a poem I wrote in Spanish, you know, like a clear cry for help. And wow, he was like, why don't you stop being a dork anyway? Why did that come up? Because you asked me one question. And I decided to bring it all, why not bring the entire volcano of sad feelings up on a podcast? But yeah, life has changed one side of it. Yeah, I would never begrudge anyone, their, their genuine happiness is what I wanted to say. And if somebody told you like, the reason I'm happy is, and they listed a bunch of stuff to me. I find that really depressing. And it makes me sad or so please don't send me any of those videos. But anytime someone tells you like, what does it for them, they're like, you know, I was feeling bad. And then I had a pumpkin spice latte. And I talked to three of my friends on the phone. And then I watched a one episode of 30 rock and it cured my depression. And I'm like, that sounds like a good day for you. I I can't get out of this. Thinking that I'm a failure for the last 18 hours. So I've been watching I watched 18 episodes of 30 rock. Yeah, isn't it working?

Chuck Shute:

It doesn't usually just happen like snap your fingers. And when you start spiraling down like that, sometimes it could you just start getting in your head and it's like, and then you know, it's like not realistic. You but you know it's irrational, but you just stick with it anyways. And you can't you can't get out of it.

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah. Are you a depressed person?

Chuck Shute:

i Oh, yeah, I've dealt with stuff. I mean, yeah, then anxiety too. Like, that's the worst one. It's like you have depression and anxiety because you're like, wait a minute, these should like counteract each other. Like if I'm if I have anxiety, I should have all this energy and I should want to go out and do things. But then when you're depressed you have no energy. So you're you have no energy and you're worried about shit. It's like it's a bad combo.

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah, well, as you know from the album, I I know that the actual opposite of anxiety is mania. Right? And I've never felt better in my life. I have to you know, I have to tell my wife that like yes, our our wedding day was the best day of my life. I hope of hers too, but close second. That is the four weeks That was on Wellbutrin and just losing my fucking mind. Yeah, that's correct. I didn't know if we're allowed to swear. Yeah, if

Chuck Shute:

I can swear I don't care. But now that's kind of scary with the, the antidepressants like, I don't know, there's like theories about some of these mass shooters took those and stuff, but I mean, they can cause weird thoughts and stuff and did that did you just went off and completely they didn't try to just lower your dose, because if it's working it made you happy, it could have just taken a little bit less. And then

Dan Wilbur:

well, they I think the the jury's still out about whether or not that means you're bipolar. Like, if you have drug induced mania, it means you're like, there's like some placeholder or something called BP three. And it's, it's like, I don't think it's true. I think I've unipolar depression. And like, if I do cocaine, I will just have a very good time for maybe a couple of days, instead of just 20 minutes or whatever, whatever cocaine does to other people. I just like, No, not to mess with drugs, I was spending a lot of time like not really even touching alcohol, because I felt that I woke up with a lot of anxiety. And then I would sort of spiral up if I took an extended break, sort of experiencing it right now because the weather's finally nice again. So I didn't like just the fact that I feel like I'm on MDMA, just because it's spring, and like I've, my allergies haven't kicked in yet. So I have nothing to complain about. And I'm getting a ton of sunlight. It's like, I've been thinking about this because I have a sad lamp for the winter that you look at in the morning. And you you sort of I mean, like I read the news, or I write the morning pages, as soon as I get up and I'll use the sad lamp. And it says like, if you're feeling jumpy, if you start to feel manic, like lower your time spent with the lamp. And so I'm just convinced that I've just been like mainlining sunlight, go out with my dog and like, all of a sudden, it's not cloudy anymore. And I just get insane. I don't know why my voice did that. Probably because I'm so excited. And anyway, I'm so glad we could start here. You know, great small talk. No,

Chuck Shute:

I love Yeah, we've already covered that. If people listened to our other episode, we got like your whole life story in there. Now we're getting well, the deeper shit, this is the fun stuff.

Dan Wilbur:

And if you're not enjoying this, I'm going to tell you, you're not going to enjoy the first 10 minutes of the album because it is just about those. They're one liners. They're just things that I sort of rift with my therapist at times. And then there were things that just happened to me and I don't even think I've dug really deep enough into my thoughts on Wellbutrin. I mean you brought up violence, which I don't like to attribute to because so many people take these pills and nothing happens. So many so many people take the pills and they don't work. They become worse. They become suicidal, they become even more depressed and in introverted are like pointing that lens back on themselves. It doesn't say introverted, but like, they become more depressed. After taking the pills there. There are many things and that's why you know, don't just don't just take one without a doctor's advice. And then don't do what I did, which was to experience like switching on a dime, my mood, like needing to sleep for four hours. And being really driven for about a week and writing a ton. I finished reading the last 200 pages of Infinite Jest. I was like, crying from being so happy like I was at a wedding. And and I just went out and did shows and hung out with people and really just embraced a whole new life and then didn't tell my doctor that that was happening, which you're supposed to tell them like, even if you're having positive side effects. So yeah, what was other people's

Chuck Shute:

reaction when you were on the the mania? It seemed a little different or?

Dan Wilbur:

Well, it was all fine. And then I was on week three and on vacation and I just had racing thoughts. I couldn't stop. And so and my mom was like, let's all we're all gonna have some wine. You're gonna call your doctor you're gonna like because I couldn't stop thinking like it wasn't violent thoughts. It was just like, almost a OCD level couldn't shut it off. Where? Where I was saying stuff like, oh, man, what if I'm, what if I'm dangerous? Oh, what if I like hurt somebody in my house? Oh, what if I'm thinking that I must be a dangerous person. I must these these drugs must be doing this. And then I had my friends voice and I told her this. My friend Olivia. I was like your voice came in and it was like, Don't tell them the pills are bad because they'll take them away and you feel so good. And then so I was having a conversation with my friend and my head and I could not Don't turn it off. And so I had to tell them. And I mean, when they said, when they took me off it two days, I was back, I was just back to normal. And it sucked, because I was, you know, I was like, Oh, I'm depressed again, like, immediately. Oh, but I felt better, because I didn't feel like a danger to myself and others. Just, that's sort of the big, the big problem. And again, I know plenty of people who have taken it and it just doesn't even work. I know, people who took it to quit smoking. Wild, just a wild drug, a wild drug to get people to quit smoking. But just in general, like, I have known people that took it since their teens, and then it stopped working when they were 30. And they had to switch. And, you know, just go with God, if you take any pharmaceuticals. And now I'm on, you have two different things that they mostly give to bipolar people. And now I'm able to and I'm able to do a podcast. Well, there

Chuck Shute:

you go. I think it's the same with with weed. It's like, you just never know how it's gonna affect some people smoke weed all the time. I do like one like, square like, corner of an edible. And I'm like, I'm like you. I'm like having those thoughts where I'm like, Oh, my God, I'm gonna, what if I hurt somebody? What if I do something? Like, what if I'm an evil person, like, and then you start freaking out? And then like, why did they take that? It wasn't?

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah, yeah, that's close to it. Because we does have if you have ever been paranoid on weed, yeah. On weed, what I say, if you've ever been paranoid, especially on an edible, that's pretty close to the racing thoughts, except anytime I've been on edibles, I'm like, Well, I'm not going to do anything. I'm just in my own head, I just want to leave whatever party I'm at. I don't want to talk to anybody. I don't want to see anyone I don't know. So I like to have edibles. And then have a plan, like, especially a movie, like we're no one's gonna bother me. And there's snacks. And that's a good space for me. But if I ever take them and like, go to a social function, I really hate that. And I've always hated that. And now that I Please don't tell my doctors this. But now that I'm sort of, at a, on an even keel, I can hit like, vaporizers I get, and especially now that you can buy them in a store, you can like find sativa is instead of indicas, you smoke a sativa and you're sort of an upper and just a mood elevator, and then, you know, you sort of feel buzzed. I have no problem with people who smoke marijuana. I got a problem with people who like drink and drive from people who like destroy their body with other drugs, but like, we doesn't seem to do much of anything. Even though I think if you are an unmedicated bipolar person, it is very dangerous. And like there's sort of, you know, Fox News jumped on weed psychosis and I don't see that as like a big danger because sometimes it's just somebody took an edible and they had some bad thoughts and they had to go to the hospital and it's like well it's almost kind of funny conviction outside of when you have real mental illness and marijuana can sort of exacerbate it and that's or trigger it Yeah. trigger it. Yes. trigger it.

Chuck Shute:

I used to work in a mental hospital for like one of my internships and yeah, we had this guy he was like a young kid and I don't suppose what they said he smoked some bad weed and then he went it just triggered like a psychotic and he was like that for like a few days a few days I don't know if he ever recovered but this scares

Dan Wilbur:

Is it funny that that's that's like the end of on the road I think is like one of the guys had some bad tea. And they mean marijuana I believe if I'm remember unless my teachers were lying to me and they were all doing heroin. You could definitely have bad heroin there's there's hot shots and there's fentanyl and cocaine and all these drugs that are actually dangerous. But you look back on the 60s and you're like maybe it wasn't bad marijuana it was just like the wrong person who had been just not sleeping for months and then like smoked a really powerful indica like right off the right after it had been dried and cured. And it just had like a lot of THC and just made them you know, triggered their schizophrenia or something rather than just being like this was a bad batch that's all they could not they could come up with back in the day must have been a bad batch. Yeah, it was certainly couldn't be couldn't be an internal thing that we've never paid attention to. Just beat out of people physically. until they're dead. Yeah, that's right. Must be that marijuana.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, it works. But then there's like the the CBD is like that's the one without the THC. And I've been taken that a little bit. I think it kind of helps. Like it doesn't Yeah, it doesn't. You don't get like buzzed or whatever. But like I take it at night helps me sleep or whatever. And then I wake up and it seems like it kind of like mellows me out a little bit.

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah, I've met a couple of people that swear by it. And I've never, I have had a great recent drug experience where I took some edibles that were supposed to get your real high. And then all that happened was I fell asleep at 9pm and woke up at 9am. And I was like, That was actually pretty good. So I'm assuming that was just the CBD that was also in them. Or it was just like a high concentration of indica and I, I just had like the best sleep of my life and woke up refreshed. And was like, I guess that's probably why people take weed gummies, too.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, I mean, there's, there's different ones. But yeah, there's like, yeah, like I said, though, even if I take a little bit like it just depends, like, what kind of mood I'm in. But definitely it can start leading me down that like weird path of like thoughts where you start? Like, you're like overthinking things, and I don't like that. I don't like that. Yeah. Oh, wait, I don't need help with that.

Dan Wilbur:

Right. It used to be so much better. Like when I was in college, I remember I'd get high and I'd be like, I think everyone's flirting with me. And it was just you couldn't understand social interactions. You you're adding tension where there wasn't any and you're like, Yeah, this guy that sterile. I think they're trying to have a threesome. And they were just like, we just asked if you wanted to, like, have some cereal or something in their dorm room. And I'm like, now I know what's really going on. I'm seeing through the lines. And then. And then a bad night would be like you burned your throat a little bit on a joint and you're like, that's cancer. That's what it is. I've burned my throat and it's over. I need to call my parents and tell them that I I am dying. Yeah, what that was college.

Chuck Shute:

That's not fun. Yeah, but love the special New York you were talking about? I've talked to people from New York that said it's gotten worse with crime, but also like small businesses like this one guy to talk to you. He said, he's like, Oh, my favorite restaurants are gone. And they're all replaced with like a CVS or like a bank, right? ATM. And I'm like, so is that real? Is that a real thing?

Dan Wilbur:

Not for me, except for we lost all these comedy clubs. I mean, we lost the creek. The creek is in Austin now. But well, I remember when Rebecca was sort of like, I'm just not going to reopen it. But I don't even know if she had plans at that point to go to Austin. Maybe Maybe I'm Matt messing up the timeline. And she was gonna have both or something. But basically, it was not that that club was gone. UCB was gone. But where we had our show, our weekly show at UCB east that was closed before the pandemic. And then the pandemic got the rest of UCB? So for me like, Yeah, I mean, my whole life changed. And we went upstate, and stayed near where Anya and I got married, which I also talked about in the special, the New York upstate versus the New York City. And no, I came back and like, Look, I've talked about this a lot, because like, my worst years in New York City, were like, definitely 2008 2009 As far as crime and like people bemoaning the gutting of cool places. Like that exact thing seemed to be having in 2008 2009, but I was also out into the middle of the night, like coming home at four in the morning and seeing couples fight and like, I remember I met a pool shark. Like, like telling me that he makes all his money like hustling people. And then he asked me if I you know, if I had any LSD and then like, some guy came out some other side of it sort of swearing in us and like, like all my bad experiences that have happened on the New York City Subway, were from that era, like, like, I would say, oh eight through 2011 Were like, really bad. That's my friend. That's when my friend Doug got stabbed in the face like other things that I think about like my friends serving on jury duties, or you know, doing jury duty where like, people just got the their life kicked out of them by a bunch of people and then you see all the videos, I just feel like all the New York Post's exports to the world is is fear about a city that nobody lives in. But I remember like, there's so many scarier stories from that time that I remember and now when I'm out, the only thing that scares me is occasionally get onto a subway train. You're like, okay, there's there's more homeless people sleeping on the subway that I've noticed, doesn't bother me. I've gotten on a train. There's four people like laying across The seats but nobody else is here. Who cares? The thing that really scared me was like, during rush hour, one day, I got on a train. And there was a dude just smoking a cigarette. And I was like, That guy does not care. And I'm not going to be the one that tells him to put up the cigarette, and nobody else did. It was like a real New York moment where, you know, the rules you got on the subway, someone was doing something that was like, in clear violation of all rules. It is none of your business move on. Like, they're not hurting anybody, but they do not care. Like what happens to them. So if somebody sees them and tells them to put it out, that's an authority figure, an MTA employee, I mean, I would feel bad because that MTO employee would get his ass kicked, but that guy was that guy was scary. And I didn't even I did not make eye contact with this man. But I knew like he was not homeless. He was just did not care what happened to him that day. And that kind of stuff is wild, where it feels like there's a breakdown of because there's already so many social norms. There's there's a lot of etiquette, you have to follow on the subway and there have always been flashers, and like, you can take videos of them and shame them and make sure they never come. You know, they get their face printed on the cover of the post. And that's all good. But like, the really weird stuff. Yeah, it's it's around, but it's not. Every time I've been I told my friend like someone was roasting me on Twitter for saying like, I'm sorry, so and so made you scared of the subway, but like, don't vote for him. Just because you're scared of something like you live in Albany. You don't even live here. You don't need to worry. Like you live in Buffalo. You don't need to worry about the transit system. In New York City, a place that you've been once to see the Lion King or whatever. You know, some mean, the mean spirited New Yorker attitude thing. And my friend somebody wrote back that was like, the subways are a menace. Like why don't you try going after 11pm You dork and my friends chimed in. My friend Matt. And Dustin was like, every time I've been on the train at 2am There's a literal baby on it. Like, like there's a there's a literal baby in a stroller with their mom at 2am. Like it's not dangerous. It's not scary for the statistically is not a dangerous place to be. Yeah,

Chuck Shute:

I think I went in like 2010 or something. And it was, it was great then or 2011 maybe I don't know, whatever it was, but like we did all the touristy stuff, and we rode the subway. I feel like we were out late. A lot of those nights and I don't ever remember feeling unsafe. Then

Dan Wilbur:

I bumped into famous people. And that's what you told me last time. Yeah, I mean, like, my did I tell you that last

Chuck Shute:

time you were telling me like you saw Maggie Gyllenhaal and Chloe Savannah. I see.

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah,

Chuck Shute:

those are any other new ones. While I

Dan Wilbur:

probably was on the last one, then that that an angry Michael? Michael Cera like, brother. Oh, Ashmont. My mom, I didn't tell you this. No, you didn't. My mom's a sweet woman from Ohio. That makes it sound like she's dumb. She's a doctor. So she's she's just also happens to be sweet. She's smart and sweet. And a blind person was getting on the subway and blind people in New York are very self sufficient. It's actually incredible. There's, there's blind, like deaf mute people who just hand will hand you like a laminated card to tell you that. And they need help getting across like 23rd Street. I've helped several people that have handed me that note. It's very strange. And but that's like such a New York attitude is like, I'm not gonna learn that

Chuck Shute:

trust, though. And I don't know if I Yeah, trust people that okay.

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah, so that's a lot of trust. But blind people are very, they're just very efficient when it comes to riding the subway. They, they? I don't know. It's it is kind of incredible. And so you see it, it just becomes commonplace. And so one thing you don't do, which is what my mom did is like she saw a person trying to get on the train and they hit the side of the door. McCain, they can hear the the chime for get on the subway now. And they're trying to get on first and my mom decides to like, help, like, guide her, like, grabs her on, a woman started screaming. And then this like, Guy was right behind my mom in a huff. Like, we're supposed to be getting off the train first. To the right, while this person comes on who can't see and just leave them alone. And so I was saying like, Mom don't like don't help her. It's okay. And I was off the train already. Like I was like, just come through the don't. And behind her was just like, in a huff trying to get around my mom and this person like, was Michael Cera trying to get to his play that he was in and he was clearly like in a hurry. And I just remember him, you know? So he brushed past my mom. You know, crotch first gets asked I gotta kick his ass. No, he was. It was just so funny like New York thing. And if you're a tourist you don't know. That's funny. But just to help, it's to help no one that's what you're supposed to do in New York. Oh, help no one. Yeah, apparently

Chuck Shute:

they get to know that's good to know about the etiquette with the blind people don't help them. They know how to do it

Dan Wilbur:

sincerely like it's it's it's just sort of incredible. Like how how people can get around New York. With with any disability it's, it's wild.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, though the subway system and it's just so easy. You don't even have to Uber, you can just take subway and walk everywhere. It's amazing. Yeah. Talking about, oh, I want to ask you about guitar, you kind of mentioned this a little bit, and you're special. And then I saw a picture of you playing guitar on stage. You don't play guitar on the special though. What what do you do when you play guitar on stage, you do original songs or is like weird out kind of a spoof song or what

Dan Wilbur:

I've done. If I was playing guitar on stage at my show, it was mostly to get people in the room to sit down and open the show. So I was just playing covers of songs, I was just showing off. Because I have gotten pretty proficient at guitar. And so sometimes I would just close out the show with a song like as if we had a musical guest or sometimes I would open the song open with a song and I'll do some goofy stuff. Like I have a three second song that just goes like if you're thinking of starting a podcast, don't. And it's but it's too, you know, right and finger picking. I wish I had my guitar in this room, but I don't. So I've written like very short things that are funny. And it's always fun to just like finger pick and talk over it. But I haven't really incorporated it into my act of written. I wrote a song about Law and Order SVU. And it was maybe the first year I had been playing guitar and I had not played a single live show. And Joe Firestone was like, You got to play that at my show that we're doing like a fake script for SVU. And you got to open it. And I did this like sold out show at Union Hall. And that was my first like, musical comedy events. And I was so nervous. I practice it with my this guy, Matt, who is mentioned by name in the album, mash ladder, great musician, great teacher, worked on it with me for like, a month to get it in shape. And I was about to throw the whole thing out and cancel it and he was like, No, you got to do it. And so God bless him. That was my first and then I never really returned to it. I post them on. I post them online because like, tick tock seems sort of obsessed with musical comedy. Tic TOCs basically just vaudeville. I know another comic is set. I think the guys I know what a time to be alive. keep mentioning that that it's basically like you could go on and juggle. You could do well. I mean, I guess there's dark sides of vaudeville. Don't do that part. But you can do like, basic. You could do like contortionist stuff. You could do anything that's visually intriguing. Anything that's musical anything that's comedy sketch, like that stuff's just killing on tick tock. So I, my friend, my friend, Kim Deniro told me to just keep posting music as I come up with it that I didn't need to play it at the show. So I honestly like have not played live that often. I'm not even comfortable enough to busk on the street, you know, I'm not comfortable enough to open my guitar case. And like, ask people for money, even if I was playing covers, which is my dream. All my money that way, way more lucrative than comedy.

Chuck Shute:

Seriously, like those people do make. And now you have like, we go and see the live music and we'll be some somebody with an acoustic guitar. And they'll have the guitar case open. But also they'll have the Venmo now you can just Venmo from your seat. You don't even have to get her you could just tip them five bucks or whatever.

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you're in the right mood, like especially if you had like two beers, Lower East Side, you go down to the Second Avenue Station, there's this girl that will be playing an accordion. And I just, I'm ready to drop, like five bucks in that bin that I don't have. And she was you know, I wish I knew I wish I remembered her tag or whatever. But you know, it's if it hits you and then there are other people that I see and this is what keeps me for busking is that you see other guys like screaming with a, an acoustic and they're doing like a Third Eye Blind song or something you know, like please stop this. Bad Dylan cover like playing a Dylan cover. Not making it sound better than Bob Dylan. That's sort of a feat. You know, like, Good job man. Couldn't couldn't find the melody to that song. That same talk song. Yeah, sir. You couldn't you couldn't hit the range of Springsteen in your voice. I would love to do it.

Chuck Shute:

Have you ever been to Nashville or Austin? Where there's like so much live music there? There's a lot of Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You see, like amazing musicians like that's what's kind of cool about those places, because people go down there to make it in music. Sure. I'm saying that LA in New York when people go to make it an acting and modeling comedy.

Dan Wilbur:

I know I was walking from this, I think it's true in New York to is that I was walking from the train to some spot, and I was like, Man, I'm, I'm pretty cool. Like, I'm going to do the thing. I'm going, I got two spots tonight, whatever it was. And then I just saw this guy playing prints on an electric guitar in the middle of Times Square or something, you know, like in the subway. And I was like, Man, the most talented person I'm gonna see today is like a street performer. Like, that guy. That guy is like, really incredible. That guy should have been onstage like, I should have just asked him, you know, if it was a different time and be like, Hey, man, I got this spot. Why don't you just come and do that Purple Rain? Solo? For all of them, I think they'd be really impressed. So yeah, I think that is fun. That's the fun thing about New York or Austin or Nashville is that there are these people who are just sort of doing it. Like, it's like, they don't deserve money. Like they don't deserve attention. They're just trying stuff out in the street or at some local bar and, and you have the, the joy of being able to just walk in on it. That's a cool spot. That's not happening everywhere. In Cleveland. I mean, that with all like, Cleveland is an endearing place with a lot of good musicians in it also. But anytime I've been to a good show in Cleveland, it's because someone told me I should go to it. They're like, please come to the show. It's my band. And then I'm like, sorta on the fence. And I'm like, Well, I know this guy's crazy. And then I go to the show, and I'm like, actually, they are pretty good. This is a good rock band or whatever. But they're not just the guy on the side of the street is usually like a high schooler.

Chuck Shute:

Okay? Under biblically, I still got a It's on my bucket list. I actually do want to go.

Dan Wilbur:

It's a good place. It's a great place to visit. It's a great place to live. I can't go back. But I wish everyone the best of luck.

Chuck Shute:

Do you love it? Do you still love it? Or I love New

Dan Wilbur:

York. Yeah, I love New York. I mean, I live in Long Island now, which we didn't talk about yet. But it's,

Chuck Shute:

again, from like Manhattan. I.

Dan Wilbur:

So if you drive it sometimes it's like 45 minutes. And if you take the train, it's door to door it gets a little long because you're beholden to the schedule of the LIRR, but the LIRR is like, really cool. Is there, is there an unexpressed, I have to deal with traffic? Yeah, there's an express now to Grand Central from. So I live in Huntington, which is north shore. And it's about an hour long train ride from here to there, but you have to drive to the train station, and then you have to, and then you're once you're at Grand Central now it's like in the depths. It's really cool. It's they just added this. I'm excited about it. And I think everyone else on Long Island is excited, or should be there complaining about transfers and all the stupid stuff because they're soft. But it's like the first time in the history of the rail line that it goes to Grand Central, I believe. So they've always been going to Penn Station. And now all of a sudden they go to Grand Central and it's great. So I'm, I'm sorry, this is like such a middle aged man thing to talk about. But like, I love trains, I guess the sudden middle age that's four year old. guys heard of these trains.

Chuck Shute:

You don't have like one of the train sets with the hat and stuff. And yeah, I

Dan Wilbur:

don't, okay, I don't, but I just appreciate not being in traffic. And that there's an alternative. If you are willing to give up like an extra 30 minutes of your life. You can read a book and like, not have to worry. And then I stay out like I went saw my friends. One person show and then I went to my friend's birthday party. I had a drink with him. And then I went to do a spot at 1am and then I just got in my car and drove home one nights. And then another night. It's like, I leave. I get on the train. I do one show I turn around and I come back to my house in the suburbs. And I'm sort of just treating New York the way I've always treated it except instead of living 20 minutes away in Brooklyn. I live an hour and a half away. So

Chuck Shute:

do you still do most of your comedy there or can you do some slobs in long I don't know.

Dan Wilbur:

Yes, I do most of my stand up there. And then I have, there's a good scene in Long Island. There's on Long Island. That's how you know, I'm not from here. It's on Long Island, not in Long Island. So there's a good scene. It's a lot of like, independently produced shows. And then there's three clubs that are all owned by governors in Levittown. They own brokerage, and I think, a place called McGuire's and they their clubs where Liz, who's whose book you have in the background, Liz Meili headlines it or, or Brendan sag Hello, and like these guys that are sort of all over New York, come out. And so I'm going to do I'm going to open for moody McCarthy, who have opened for before at brokerage at the end of April. And then I hope I've done a handful of times I've done those clubs. And I'd hope that eventually I get to have a weekend there and they trust me to come do it all the time, because it would be convenient. So yeah, that's why I'm saying this in case they're listening, I'd really like to do more spots at the brokerage. But honestly, it's I don't have enough spots out here. That would justify me staying out here as a just Long Island comic. And it's not for wishing that I weren't out here. It's just the fact that I just don't know that many people. I just don't know all of them. But a couple of my friends left. When we got here. They moved to the south. Nice

Chuck Shute:

to break it up. And at least do some of your shows closer not have to go to Manhattan. Oh, there's

Dan Wilbur:

there is a great show. That is one minute drive from my house. And that guy calls me day of sometimes two hours before and it's like, do you want to do a spot? Yes. Take? I'll take a minute long drive. Yeah, for those. And I'm not used to that. Where because New York was such a pain. And you're always trying to do three things in a night. And I'm still basically doing that. Like that is the lifestyle of a New York Comic is not to just do one thing. In fact, anytime I and now what I do go out and if I just do one thing, I feel dumb for having wasted that commute. So even though I occasionally just swing in, do my spot and then just get out.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. That's New York, Pa if you like three or four. I think that's what Liz said that she did. I feel like did she even say like maybe five or six at night one time? I don't know. Yeah.

Dan Wilbur:

I mean, that's great. If that's that's great work if you can get it. I love it.

Chuck Shute:

Well, what tell me about this show, though, that you did the this was crazy. You open for Patton Oswald and I don't know if I say this because last sys is that I say

Dan Wilbur:

this is my Patton poster. Point it yeah, this Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. of him is to face I was. I love that. I love that poster. No, it's the sky. Okay, pants. I don't know his real name. But he's from Cleveland. I think he's a Cleveland guy. So there was a lot of connections where I was like, it's Cleveland is Pat. And it's the shows I did. And yeah, okay, pants is his handle. He makes some great stuff. And yeah, sorry, was the question. Was that fine. You want to

Chuck Shute:

hear about the show? How did you what was that?

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah, I did it. I just didn't even hear the question. I just wanted to show off my poster.

Chuck Shute:

No, just like how did you get hooked up with that? And it because it was multiple, I noticed at the Orpheum theatre but there was also some shows on the road that you did with him and Scott face is that is it. CeCe piece, I believe? Yeah. That guy is. He's like the IKEA. He does those IKEA tiktoks that are hilarious that.

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah. He's great. I think he's really funny. He's He's, uh, I don't know where he lives right now. I thought he was in Baltimore. So he's sort of close. But yeah, he's come and done. He did our show. in Park Slope. That's every week. He visited New York a couple times. He's a very sweet, dude. And he's very funny. And saying, bear Did you see that using cocaine bear and I haven't seen it yet. Please don't share this with him. Because a bunch of people keep telling me how good cocaine bear is when they come into this bookstore. Start talking to me about cocaine bear and and I was like, Well, I get the trump card. I'm friends with Scott.

Chuck Shute:

He follows you on Instagram. That's pretty big compliment.

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah, I mean, we're friends in real life now. At this point. Not just Instagram friends. Yeah. So the the reason the patent thing happened It was because I had this funny and I'm sure we talked about it last time, I had this funny blog about books, where I made fun of a book every day. And it's called better book titles. And yeah, so it was like a hyper viral internet thing Tumblr blog back in 2010 2011. And I still run it as a website, and we have like, merch and stuff. And we have, I try to post memes that have something to do with books, or at least our my funny friends on Twitter, and share that kind of content. Because it, it never slowed down, like, people discovering it and, and liking it. So we have like 800 covers on it. And so if you've never heard of it, it was like, The Great Gatsby is drink responsibly. And The Very Hungry Caterpillar is eat until you feel pretty. And there were all these like funny names for books. And so Patton was my first Twitter follower, like I posted, hey, we have a Twitter now. And Patton was like such a rabid fan of this blog. And he was sharing it me he's like, one of the reasons that went viral was he discovered it and just started posting about it on Twitter before I had a Twitter. And so we just sort of kept up, like, you knew I was a comic. And we had met a couple times. But I never really asked him, you know, for anything other than to check out the book. Like I was trying to get him to write a blurb or something. And I don't even think he remembered the connection of why we were Twitter friends, other than he knew I was a stand up. And we would like talk, we would like complain about the same thing pieces or something we just sort of had like some fun back and forth. And then one day, I saw that he was doing a casino in Jersey, sorry, this is way too much detail. Now, if I could do it, and he was like, sorry, I remember it was Michel balloon was doing it, who I also love. Because Patton just like loves helping comics, I think. And I went to an event where like I saw him. And he was he's promoting his late wife's book. And there were like four people there that I met who I'm like friends with now, who are all saying the same thing, which is that like patent helped their podcast, get off the ground patent helped these video essays that I'm sure are niche, get to a wider audience just because of like, patents, obsession with finding cool stuff, and helping the people who make the cool stuff. So I think he's just genuinely interested in things. And He's genuinely interested in helping people get it to a wider audience. And I honestly do not know why that is. Because he owes us

Chuck Shute:

nothing. But if he's actually I mean, that's like me with my podcasts like, I want to help some of the guy I mean, obviously most of the guests I have on are bigger than than me, but like I just had this local girl on from from Tucson and I was like trying to connect, she's like, I really want to sound like Avril Levine, I go, Oh, actually, I had the guitar player from Alpha Levine on your want you message him and there's some now I'm like, This feels great. Like it feels good to help people.

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah, it feels good. And I do it. Like I just helped connect to friends who like already knew each other. But it hadn't occurred to them to work together on this thing that I saw them both basically doing similar storytelling shows. And there was a very specific show that my friend was doing. And I was like, You got to workshop it with this other person. Because like, I can only do so much like I can help you with all the jokes and stuff. But I don't really know anything about structure. As far as one person shows, I've never done one. I can't direct it. I can't do and like hooking those two up like I know, they're going to have a positive, collaborative experience. Mark my words, if they hate each other in a month, I'll take it back. But I Yeah, it feels good. And you're helping support like good work. I mean, it's the same as shows. Like, we love our show. Zach and I have this weekly show that sort of down and dirty, free. Free weekly comedy show. Sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's awful. Sometimes it's canceled. And it's in the back of a bar. And the only reason we do it is so that we can work on new material without necessarily having to go to a mic. Or Or if we can't get booked at like five shows like Liz is doing. We we have to do our five or 10 minutes every week on our show, and it keeps us honest and all this stuff. But then the added bonus is that like we get to give a bunch of comic spots. And it's not about spot trade. Like there's sometimes just comics I want to see. And comics like we have to think about like who will get some Butts in the Seats occasionally. But for the most part, I'm just like, I'd like to see a good lineup. And I'd like to help those people out when they ask so we always get comics asking when they have something coming up and so Yeah, it feels great to have a whatever nominal platform. Yeah, I literally wouldn't

Chuck Shute:

did that for you though. That's pretty awesome. Yeah. Oh,

Dan Wilbur:

yeah. So I sent I sent him a message being like, hey, I'll do this casino. I feel like that's the right level for me. I can do a I can open for a casino. And he was like, No, you're gonna do the beacon. And I just like, My palms are still sweating, thinking about it, because that was just like the best show that I think. I mean, it was the best show before or since I think, even though the Orpheum was really fun. And I did this show with Scott and Patton in Huntington, where I now live. And that was really fun, because I'll still bump into people like, especially comics who are at that show. And I'm like, Yeah, that's yeah, that was me. And it's exciting. Because I get to be, I was hoping I'd be famous at like Home Depot or whatever. But it's, it's better to be famous, like walking into a club or whatever. And to comics, like, because I'm new to this scene, like already know who I am. And that feels really nice and rough. Matteo was there and that was fun. Yeah.

Chuck Shute:

Nobody got a selfie with him. Like even Patton Oswald was too scared to approach him.

Dan Wilbur:

No, I don't think he was too scared. I think they just he's, I think he's a genuinely shy, dude. Macho is okay. And to the point where like, our friend had come backstage, and we're all just talking. And we're just talking about movies. And my wife. And I like, I was trying to get a picture with Patton to just post about the show, and me and Scott and all the stuff. But we didn't really want to ask, Ralph, and that's when we all left. Our friend was like, Who's that guy? Like, who's that guy was like chatting with his son. We're like, Donna's fucking Macho. What do you do? And she was like, Why didn't anyone say it? Why did anyone like, get these photos? But I met him. You know, I lived in Long Island for like, two more months. And I met him somewhere else. So I have a picture with him. Oh, really? We finally Yeah, we did it. That's awesome. He looks like a you know, like a statue, a statue next to me because I look like I'm, I look hammered in every photo, but I'm actually just kind of chubby. So if you're trying to picture I run five miles a day.

Chuck Shute:

So you're really down? Yes. I hate renderable. I walk on the treadmill walk. But that's like with the incline. So I think it does something.

Dan Wilbur:

No, I've I've done this. I did this to myself.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, or how are you doing with that? Like, are you do you? Are you trying to diet or anything are you just, like, ask her at all run and burn off some.

Dan Wilbur:

I have lost about 25 pounds since we recorded the album. So all of my fat jokes, by the way, were written when I was this weight, and I went to a doctor and they were like, You need to lose weight. So I just want everyone to know who's listening. I am still technically obese. And so that's, I have not changed that. But I you know, I don't know how you do it. But like, I just like can't drink without eating. But it's a New York thing is like yeah, without if you have

Chuck Shute:

a couple, you're trying to stick to a diet and then you have like a couple of beers or something, then all of a sudden you start craving junky food and you're like, oh, I can eat there.

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah. So that that needed to go. But now I'm like running all the time. So I I do something about it just makes me want to drink. Like the endorphins. Like I just feel invincible. And so since Christmas, that's when I started like Christmas, I just started to do suck. So sad. But all I did was I decided I was going to count calories. And it didn't matter if I went over, I wasn't gonna like punish myself if I go over or whatever. But I was going to try with everything that I ate, continuing to eat the same things, but eat what the actual serving sizes, and you find out like, what's not worth it, like cereal is like a third of a cup or something of Frosted Flakes and you like look at it, like if you if you take a picture of it just to see, after you've measured it, you're like, That's the saddest thing I've ever seen in my life.

Chuck Shute:

All those serving sizes are it's like oh, here's six potato chips like yeah, eating six potato to

Dan Wilbur:

my gut ruffles. It's like 11 So I've been working on the same bag of ruffles for like a month. They're disgusting. Because

Chuck Shute:

you're so following that with a light follow

Dan Wilbur:

it, I follow it and I just say like, you know what, that's what it's supposed to be. I don't need any more food than that. That's not it's not even good food. It's not even like a correct, you know, but rather it's the only thing that's worked recently and that I've been able to stick with big As the other option is to do something like the Mayo Clinic, which I started doing, where they basically just tell you to eat the food pyramid, and instead of counting calories, you just, you sort of eyeball what you need. And they'll say stuff like, alright, well you need is every day to softball sized servings of leafy greens like you need like to eat like a handful of spinach and a salad. And then when you want to eat sweets, it should be the size of like, a big dice, like two dice, like eat to basically like chocolates out of a one, which is the correct amounts. But like, I could not stand doing that. And there were all these rules that were like don't like if you're gonna watch a half hour TV, you have to like earn it through exercise, it was a wild, wild diet. But if you do it, you will lose weight, like, immediately, because you are just doing the doctor recommended, like, this is what foods you're supposed to eat. And I just can't live like that. I need ice cream sandwiches. I need I needed to say on the label, like how much is in it? And what's in it. And then I can look at that and be like, Well, that's all I'm supposed to eat. I'm not supposed to eat three of them. I'm not supposed to get stoned and eat three of them. I need to eat one of them. And like the rest of the day focus on, you know, eating the softball size of spinach or whatever. This is so boring. I'm so sorry. It is all I think

Chuck Shute:

the best foods always like restaurant food. Like that's, that's when I always fall off the wagon is when I go on vacation and I go out. Yeah, cuz then like, what are you gonna do? You're gonna bring like some like a salad and a bag on vacation. Like, you're not gonna buy groceries when you're in a hotel and stuff. So yeah,

Dan Wilbur:

no, but I do think if you do it long enough, because there's some great food out in Long Island, by the way, do it long enough, you can bite into something like especially like a good sandwich place. Like there's a lot of good of Italian restaurants and a lot of good Italian sandwich shops. Like, first of all, you should go, Oh, I'm only going to eat half of whatever they give me. Like, I'm sure that's what the actual serving sizes. But you can like, eventually bite into something and be like that tastes like probably is 500 calories and not 200. Like, it's probably not what I would have made at home. Like I can taste the butter and this and you sort of like have to do that calculus. It's not calculus, it's arithmetic, of counting much and subtracting it from what your goal was. And then just like not hurting yourself mentally, or physically, when you when you screw it up just just keeping track because I can't imagine. Every time I've dieted where I was like, I'm cutting out this, all I do is think about that thing. All I do is like go like, Oh, I would kill someone to eat cheeses, and then you go back to it and you feel good. And then you're just eating bags of cheeses all day. It's embarrassing and sad. But it's like, Well, it's because you cut it out and said, I'm never gonna touch it again, when you could have just said like, I'll eat it when I need it. And I'll eat what it says to eat. And it's truly like, What a bummer. 25 cheese. It's counting 25 You know the numbers? I know. But that's what I'm saying. I don't do it every time I just I look at it enough times that I go like, Oh, okay, it's this size of a handful or it's this. Like especially like pistachios is like one big giant handful. I think I'm like, pistachios, right? Yeah. Wild. Yeah. And Pistachios are like, not the healthiest of nuts, but they're extremely satisfying.

Chuck Shute:

So better than I think they say suppose yeah.

Dan Wilbur:

Versus like, what a regular diet would tell you to do is like, okay, ignore all that other food when you're hungry, like just eat like bell peppers with little dip. And you're like, you can only do that so many times before you're like so bored, that you just want to die. So I got Girl Scout cookies this year, and I just ran and earned them and only ate, you know, four or two servings of them instead of the entire box in one sitting. Which, you know, maybe that would have been healthier. Just have one day of Girl Scout cookies and then never touch them again. But I decided I was going to stick to this and it's and I've stuck to it pretty well. I'm going to have to take a walk after this podcast if I want to eat dinner but

Chuck Shute:

All right, that's good. Well, yeah, everybody got to find something that works. I think my the people my gym say do the 8020 rule like 80% you eat healthy and then 20% is like, no, and these guys are like Trump.

Dan Wilbur:

Right? Right. I would love to talk to I mean, I used to live in a building with a trainer. And we were mostly focused on like, getting me back to working out because I used to run a lot and I used to do I was played football and all this stuff. And we got to like what What's the bare minimum I could do in a week. And that was really fun that he was like, you really only have to be here two days a week. You know, if you'd like walk, like if you're walking and doing stand up every night and like in the city, it was like you could get away with running like, four days and lifting twice. And you would you would be in like, way better shape. And I was surprised. Wow. And then he just was like, and here's all the steroids you can take night.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, but supple. Yeah, whatever. God I

Dan Wilbur:

hope. I hope I'm certain everyone has turned off the podcast now. Guiding tip. I mean, I guess there's a niche for this. It's like dieting tips from like a normal, you know, hoodie wearing, middle aged always

Chuck Shute:

interesting to hear what people are doing. Yeah, cuz it's one of those things like it's a middle aged thing. I think my middle aged, everybody who doesn't like think about that? And it's like, trying to figure out what do you do? Like, do you exercise more G better. Some people just say screw it. I'm gonna eat whatever I want. And I have friends like that are like, I don't care. Like, I'm just gonna eat whatever I want. I'm like, I don't think we can do that anymore. It was great when we were in our 20s. But

Dan Wilbur:

yeah, well, that's what was so damning about my 20 years and my teens was that if I ran like three days a week, I could eat McDonald's every day. I could just do anything because I would lose weight. And I don't think it was like a metabolism thing. I think I was just maybe I was just a little more active than I am now because I started gaining weight by the end of high school in a serious way. But yeah, I just the idea of eating, eating whatever you want means such different things to different people like because if you meet up in person and like I just ate whatever I wanted yesterday and you find out they ate like a bag of Lay's potato chips. And like, half of sandwich No, like I ate carbs. I can't believe it. You're like okay, well, that's not what I do. When I get like a cheat day or whatever, it's it's a nightmare. Like eating until I'm sick. It's a it's a Roman, you know, so orgiastic amount of food like that movie The whale. Have you seen that? I honestly like I saw why people thought that was problematic. That's scripted is so corny. Like the most boring ball. When a cornball script or like my daughter's nice, I did it. But when he ate, like when he was eating to kill himself, I was like it was like not that. I was like, I've eaten an entire pizza over like about two pizzas in a sitting. I've eaten ice cream after I ate pizza. I never like squirted mustard and sour cream on it or whatever. But like, it wasn't far off. I have I've definitely had a drawer of candy. I've definitely eaten I in college for sure. I was stoned one night. And as I was convincing myself that if I played Wii boxing, I would burn enough calories that it was okay for me. After a full day of eating to eat an entire like, box of intimates donuts, and which is like 2700 calories. Yeah, like it's like two days of food. What are those? Those those chocolate covered doughnuts? You know what I mean? They're not even that good. I ate the entire box. While I was ripped, and I was probably drinking too. I mean, like, I did this on Maria Hynix podcast once when I was talking about basically disordered eating. And that's the sad thing is that we are discussing disordered eating. And it's just that I have the funny version of it, that I binge and don't purge. I just consume, you know, was frankly greedy, and awful. But an honest like this when we had like an honest discussion about the addictions. That's what the I think it was like an addictions podcast, I wrote down what I ate in a day, and how much food I ate like off my wife's plate. And like, if I really tracked it down with beer, added onto it, it was like 5000 calories a day. And that is like, that's not good. Now should not be consuming that. And then I was like, but I was walking six miles a day in New York. And I was I was gaining weight. And I was going like, why am I gaining weight? And then I look at it on paper and I'm like, oh, because you're eating in excess of like, like 3000 calories more than you need as a man. So don't do that and seek help. And I'll be in Overeaters Anonymous. Someday, I'm sure. And I'll take back everything I said on this podcast.

Chuck Shute:

No, I think everybody has those days, where you just eat two days. was a week, month, month, whatever. Yeah, there's so much good food, especially in New York, I can't imagine the variety in this, like, you can eat something different every day, a different restaurant.

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah. And it's so embarrassing, like, comedians, because you keep late hours, and you're trying to kill time, like New York just eats up your wallet, too. And you're, and like, the best feeling in the world is to do a show the best feeling in the world. Yes, I said it, the best feeling is that you can do like a bunch of shows, or you do one big show. And then you go to a diner with a bunch of comedians afterwards, and you just talk for you. And maybe you have coffee, and maybe you have, but like, it's really easy to eat, like a plate of like french toast, or like waffle fries or something. And like, just be in that moment, even though you've already eaten three meals, and you probably been drinking during the show. And then you get to the diner, and you're like, I'm going to eat my fourth meal. Because this is I'm going to keep the party going. And like that is that's the danger of, of New York, too. It's just, it's always open. And the timing is always off.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. And I'm like, I'm always a late night eater. Like, I'm always like craving like shitty food, like late at night. Like when I wake up I could I know that's a big thing now that people do is like, like, oh, like you fast in the morning. I'm like, I used to do that all the time. Just not eat breakfast, I'd wake up be like, oh, like go to work and just have a cup of coffee. And that was like, and then I like but but dinner late at night. You're like, Oh, I'm so hungry. And that's when all the junk food comes out.

Dan Wilbur:

Right? Yeah. I mean, that's, I think that's a really common error. And they can't, I mean, they're constantly studying it, because people keep screwing it up. So well, that's never know what's the healthiest? Yeah,

Chuck Shute:

I mean, that's just like the whole, like this whole podcast about, like, you're talking about just things that are normal things for most people like mental health, like getting sad and getting eating too much junk food. Like, who doesn't suffer if somebody was like, What is wrong with these people? They eat too much food and they get sad. Like, you know, no, that's like being a human.

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah, I mean, that's yes. I think that some people have it worse. Yeah, certainly, a lot of people have it worse than I am. I than I do. And I there's reality

Chuck Shute:

shows for that. Yeah, I've seen those. Right. It's like sad, because those people are like, they have no clue like, yeah, I don't know. Like, I wake up in the morning, I brush my teeth with soda. I don't know what the problem is. I don't know why I'm gaining weight, like, and you just see what they eat. And it's like, it's like, sad, because they clearly were like, raised on just and that's a problem with the kids. Like, I'm sure your parents probably made you eat your vegetables and like, probably taught you some sort of nutrition.

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah, but like, think about how tied to your personality and your growing up, like food is like, I think about that all the time when I was thinking about dieting, and oh, I got to get rid of pasta. And I was like, I've eaten pasta my whole life. Like, pasta is like part of my identity, like, and I'm not even Italian. But you can you can definitely get rid of McDonald's or whatever. But but to say like, I'm going to get rid of, I'm going to stop eating this specific kind of food that is just like always existed in my life. That's like, wild, wild thoughts. And so I understand when people feel bereft of those things, because it's your whole and then, you know, when I talked to my mom about it, because we all have food issues, like she's like, Yeah, I mean, I had to occasionally bribe you guys with food. I think everybody just does it. You have to, you have to bribe a child with them. Egg McMuffins or french fries at some point. Yeah. And there's no like, there's no real way to get out of it. I guess you could dump money on your child, and then he'll just go spend it on candy.

Chuck Shute:

Oh, the new thing is like, the new thing is electronics like parents give her like an iPad or something like here, if I give you the iPad, we shut up.

Dan Wilbur:

Right? And that's a whole new kind of thing. But I've hung out with my nieces long enough to know that foods still in there. They're they're these you know, these skinny children, but they're, they're just, they're like in a constant want of to reward themselves with food and I can just see it, but I think that's just kids being kids. I just see see, I'm just thinking about like how often I ate cereal out of a cup dry. Like into my teens. Just like just like I'm drinking lucky charm. Really? Which

Chuck Shute:

one which what's your favorite cereal?

Dan Wilbur:

I liked well now. I mean, the thing I liked when I was growing up was Cracklin. Oat Bran which has saturated fat. Remember that? That's a deep fried cereal and I always thought it was healthy when I was I thought it was Don't be too and then I looked at the site was like there's like trans fat in this. This is wild. How did they get like animal fat? And

Chuck Shute:

I always thought that was like, I did love it.

Dan Wilbur:

I thought I think it is healthy. I mean it has like, Bran, it's fiber fiber and stuff, but it's not good for you and now I eat Frosted Flakes because they're low on the glycemic index. They're like better for you than plums. Even though they're sugar frosted cereal, look it up and drill.

Chuck Shute:

That's interesting. Yeah, I used to love. I love the Cookie Crisp, but my parents would know. Yeah, like, I think like one time I bought it. Like my mom was like on vacation. He's like, here. Yeah, well, yeah, we'll get this and I was like, oh my god, this is they're just cookies. They're literally just now they've changed the recipe. I feel like it's not the same, but

Dan Wilbur:

now it feels it feels like cookies still. Isn't? I don't know.

Chuck Shute:

I think it's different. I feel like the old one was like literally just cookies. And now that they just they look like cookies, but it's like fake. And

Dan Wilbur:

yes. Yeah, I would eat. I mean, we could just list a bunch of cereals I knew. I was a big fan of cocoa puffs. I was big fan. I like anything that anything that's like chocolate. Yeah, or just anything that sounds like Cocoa Puffs, but they changed it a little bit if they had like Reese's puffs or whatever I need all that kind of stuff.

Chuck Shute:

That's funny. I haven't even had like, I'm trying to think of last time I had a bowl of cereal like it's been maybe like a decade. I just never am in the mood for that. Yeah,

Dan Wilbur:

they've had like, they have healthier choices. Now. If you eat rice checks, it's not actually that bad, but they're not good. Yeah, it's not I guess it just kind of, I'm trying to have fun at all times. Yeah. And so I better be there too.

Chuck Shute:

I feel like carbs are like bad or whatever. So then now if I'm like, if I'm gonna eat carbs, like I'm gonna go all in I want like a cinnamon roll or I want like, yeah, pasta with garlic bread. Like I want like, like, not just a bowl of cereal. That's not.

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah. Yeah, that's, I don't know how or why we all did that. It's not good. They had to keep showing the balanced breakfast around it to remind you that it wasn't food. You needed to eat all this other food for it to be healthy. So

Chuck Shute:

yeah, we got off on a hell of a tangent. This is fun. But yeah, I'm so sorry. No. Oh, it was so fun. This was like I knew that we're just gonna go down a rabbit hole. But yeah, new album comes out in like two days if people are listening to this, I'm gonna try to get out tonight. So April is probably going to be out by the time people listen or right.

Dan Wilbur:

Yep. Yeah, yeah, it's it's everywhere. Spotify and iTunes and you can a title I think it's on and then hopefully it's on Sirius. You can hear it if you have that.

Chuck Shute:

And then are you do you have any like a you never tour you never come down here. Never come to Arizona. You never come to Vegas or somewhere like it like

Dan Wilbur:

I know. I'd love to bring more. Yes, I have. I mean, for the most part, I've just been opening for other people. So that just takes me wherever someone wants to bring me but I should probably start doing it with my own face as the headliner. And I'll come to I'll come to Arizona. Yeah, people will say to you told me about some club that

Chuck Shute:

there's a bunch of codes. Yeah, there's sir crazy there's Tempe improv there's standup live there's the what's the one that the one up north that I just Rick Bronson's house of comedy. Yeah, so there's a few of them that you could get like Ronon and or like a couple other New York people. Can you is that a good idea to do like a like two people like a dual headlining thing like yeah,

Dan Wilbur:

splitting the bill is, is a good idea. And yeah, I think it makes sense. I've done it with Gabe and Gabe Pacheco and Zach Sims and I all went on, like a little tour on the East Coast. Before COVID But yeah, I haven't really tried to just like, fly do a night. Come back or that's when it gets kind of expensive. If Yeah, I think usually do not doing a weekend

Chuck Shute:

weekend. Yeah, you do like they do Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I think usually is what? I think I would assume they'd pay for your hotel or whatever.

Dan Wilbur:

I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I'll hit him up. Yeah, hit him

Chuck Shute:

up and and then I always end up promoting a charity. I think last year on you promoted the the Bard Prison and the

Dan Wilbur:

only that's my only charity. Yeah, that's a charged prisoner initiative. Yes. It's

Chuck Shute:

like, I feel like that's something that people don't really, like, everybody could get behind that because like, yeah, even if you like, Oh, I hate these damn criminals or whatever. But it's like, okay, well, if they're out of jail, like what do you want them to do? Like you like you don't want them to go back to jail. So you want them to have a job and be able to learn and have skills and be people in the real world?

Dan Wilbur:

Yeah, so yeah, I mean, I've only doubled down. I read The New Jim Crow recently. And it's basically You that just just that like the the prison industrial complex is stronger than it's ever been. And when it gets destroyed, it will be replaced by something just like it. So you have to stay, stay look alive out there. I know there's

Chuck Shute:

scary that the prison gets like for profit, isn't it like run by corporations or something that scares me? I don't know, like

Dan Wilbur:

the federal government said they were going to stop working with on for profit prisons, but it didn't end. incarceration rates, I believe is one of the arguments. And it's never been focused on strictly violent crime. Even though there's like a really cool logic thing in The New Jim Crow that was like, well, there's more people in jail for violent offenses, because violent offenses carry longer terms. So you have a one side of the prison that's just full of rapists, and murderers. And, you know, then they're there for 25 to life. So it seems like the prison is full of them. But it's because they fill half the prison and the other people are coming through or like doing a year and change for a drug charge. So it seems like well, we need prisons because they're so full of these violent, these violent crimes. And you're like, well, that's just like a numbers game. There's always going to be some violent crime. And you need some way to deal with it, but you'd like don't need to be incarcerating people for marijuana anymore. That's legal,

Chuck Shute:

legal, legal here. It's legal in New York. It's legal. And like most states now, yeah, no, I

Dan Wilbur:

think they should grant amnesty for crack to so I mean, genuinely like, like, let's just be done. Let's be done with drug offenses, and replace it with something else. So the Bard Prison initiative is like one step that you can take to rehabilitate anybody. And it I think it stops recidivism by like, 97%. So exactly what you were saying was, it's a

Chuck Shute:

thing where they get people go in and teach, and they can these prisoners can get degrees and learn skills while they're in prison. So then when they leave, they have something that they can go do. Yeah.

Dan Wilbur:

And if you've ever read like a self help book, you know, that just people thinking of themselves as having value, it changes your whole mindset. And so even if the person never got a job, doing something with their GED or their college degree, it's like that, yeah. But somebody took the time to tell them, they were valuable and smart, and that they could do it. And then they did it. And they did it from prison. And I and then they have education that they're, they can function and, you know, enrich their souls. So if you care about human beings, you know, you should donate to the Bard Prison initiative.

Chuck Shute:

That's the best sales pitch. I think I've ever heard you care about human being. Yeah. Cool. Well, thanks so much for doing this. Dan. I'll get the pleasure. Yeah. And, again, husband material out over 12 on all the streaming platforms. And hopefully we'll see do a show soon. Thank you all come to New York. Yep, please. Okay. All right. Thanks. My thanks again to the very funny Dan Wilber. Check out a special husband material and follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok all that stuff. He has a lot of very funny clips on there. And check out his website in the show notes for more information. And remember liking, sharing and commenting on the episodes and on social media. And YouTube helps out the guests and the show. So make sure you're also subscribed wherever you watch or listen, preferably YouTube, but the show is everywhere. And if you're on iTunes or Spotify, you can give us a five star rating. And we'd really appreciate that. So thank you so much for listening. Have a great rest of your day and shoot for the moon.