Simon King (comedian)

Simon King is a Canadian comedian and actor. He has released several comedy albums and specials. His latest is titled “As Good As Or Better Than” and was directed by Rory Scovel. It’s available for free on YouTube. Simon and I discuss his career in comedy, the entertainment business, doing impressions, the Royal Family and more!

0:00:00 - Intro
0:00:48 - Problems With "Furious" Special 
0:04:10 - Comedy in Canada Vs. U.S.
0:06:28 - Latest Special & Finding Audience
0:09:45 - Impression,  Getting Exposure & Comedic Style
0:17:05 - Clips & Relatable Comedy
0:20:50 - Editing the Special & Releasing It
0:25:50 - Comedian Growth & Going to the U.S.
0:30:10 - Podcasts & Guests
0:33:50 - Simon's Story
0:44:35 - Comedians, Age & Comedic Growth
0:49:25 - Being Unscripted & Thinking Processes
0:52:44 - Monarchy, King Charles & Class System
1:04:11 - Innovation, Competition & Universal Income
1:18:50 - People's Purpose, Helping Others & Wealth 
1:22:40 - Covenant House
1:25:20 - Outro

Simon King website:
https://www.thisissimonking.com/

Covenant House website:
https://www.covenanthouse.org/

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

Transcript

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Chuck Shute: 0:00

I'm very excited to have Simon king as my guest today. And if you've never heard of him, you're probably not alone, because I just discovered him a week ago, but I've been binging his standup. And it's great stuff very funny and very smart. And I watched a lot of stand up, and a lot of it is somewhat recycled and regurgitated. But I feel like Simon King stands out to me at least. I love that he does impressions too. They're very good. And we have a great chat in this episode about stand up comedy, the entertainment business, people's purpose in life, poverty, wealth, and so much more buckle up because it's a crazy ride

Simon King: 0:48

I had a poster behind me it's like a frame thing. And it was like reflecting really harshly. So I was like, I'm gonna take it down. Otherwise, it just looks like and now just looks like I'm in a prison cell. Just it just looks like he's like first 48 or something. It's like,

Chuck Shute: 1:03

like a like a mental hospital with a white padded walls or whatever. Yeah,

Simon King: 1:07

exactly appropriate for who I am. And my cell accommodate. So

Chuck Shute: 1:12

yeah, no, I love you. I just watched the one of your specials. And you you had a great line in there. You said the only difference between me and a homeless man is that I have a microphone.

Simon King: 1:20

Oh, yeah. That was furious. Yeah. And actually that I wrote that joke. Because I recorded that in 2015. Actually, I had originally recorded in 2013. And then the audio was screwed up in the entire special, absolutely nightmare. We had a theater we had like, I'm so glad it didn't work out because I prefer the way it looks now. But we had like, on the Early Show, we had like 400 people or something like if the boats that ever sold tickets in my entire life. And I was like, so excited. And they forgot to turn on the audience mics. So I had no audience response off the early show very little. And then on the Late Show, which was a better show, they left the house music playing through the master feed. So I was livid. And so I kind of I threw away that material. I was like, I'm not going to do it. And then right before I flew to England, I was just about I was like three weeks before I moved to England two weeks before I moved to England. And a guy I know was a music video director. And he's like, I'll shoot if you want, I got cameras, you want to just do it. And I was like, well, we're doing a show anyway, might as well shoot it. So we just added a second show. And it came out great. I'm really happy with it. But you know, I had to learn to edit to do it because I didn't know how to edit. So I just moved to England like immediately afterwards, didn't know anybody and edit it. It was I shot on red, and I edited it all on like a MacBook Air from 2014

Chuck Shute: 2:40

to edit it yourself.

Simon King: 2:41

I edited it I did the sound editing I did all of it myself because I didn't know anybody and I was broke. So

Chuck Shute: 2:48

it looks professional to me. I mean the same with this one. Both of them are great. I mean, I guess well for for me like a comedy special. I mean yeah, I guess that does kind of make a difference. Because if it's really shitty it's noticeable but as long as it's like pretty good like you don't really notice a problem.

Simon King: 3:05

Well with the first one so with furious what we wanted to do, which is the one with the symbols on the wall. So if we wanted it to look like a punk rock, like bootleg thing, that's what we wanted it to look like really hard. Yeah, just that had that feel of like, Oh, we're just which is kind of what it was like we paid for that special off the door off the door tickets. So even it cost nothing to shoot because we got free cameras and people helped out. The last one we did that one we threw some money out because that we did with a live like the furious city by myself. No label, this last one we did with a label called comedy here often up in Canada here. And they were like, What do you want? And they came to me and asked me what I wanted to do. And they want to do like a web series or something. And I was like, Well, I have a special ready to go. I just don't, I want to throw some money at this one. And I wanted to bring on my friend Rory to direct it. And a few other things like that. And so it just all worked out. And they gave me they gave me complete creative control. They just left me alone. They're like, here's some money away you go. And so you can't ask for a better deal than that. Especially as a nobody in comedies. It was a pretty good deal.

Chuck Shute: 4:06

Yeah, explain that to me. Because I'm just so confused. I found a couple clips of your comedy on Instagram. I think it was I was like, holy shit. This guy's good. I was like, Oh, he probably won't do my podcast and then you said yes. And I was like, Oh my God. I was so excited. And then I because comedians are hard to get as podcast guests because yeah, they usually typically do so many freaking podcasts. And I'm trying to fight you haven't done a lot of podcasts like you're kind of like a hidden secret like what's what's going on here? Why are you not more well known because your your specials are brilliant.

Simon King: 4:35

Thank you. I really appreciate it and thank you I think I think part of it is because Canada is this weird wasteland of like so it's it's so I've worked in the states and I've had experience in the States but it's extremely expensive for Canadians to come down there and we have to get oh one visa some things and they're quite expensive. They take a long time to get you need sponsorship to bring it down so you need like an American rapper or some sort and so I had visas and everything and right before Are COVID My visa is expired, but there was no point in re upping my visa during COVID. It didn't make sense because I didn't know how long you know, I couldn't even get to the states. And I got rid of my management and stuff. But it was like just ended up being transitional for me, I got rid of that stuff. And so I just really didn't focus on it. I mean, I come back and forth to the States, but the kind of comedy I do specifically and I know that like someone wants described me as a high degree of difficulty comedian like, I'm not, I don't play clubs very much. I'm not that kind of comic because I'm the kind of comic where like, if, if I want to do what I do, the way I do it, unleashing me on a stag party on a Friday nights, probably not the best. So I've cultivated this little fan base up here, and I've been able to, you know, like I said, at essentially haven't played comedy clubs in you know, 13 years, really, maybe 1112 years, because I just kind of started doing this thing where I build this fan base slowly. But I do realize now and that's one of the reasons we we licensed this to release on 800 pound gorilla was because the American market is really where it needs to be. And the response has been fantastic. So it has made me think, okay, I need to go back down there. So that's one of the reasons I don't appear on too many podcasts and stuff like that. It's because I've just not too connected to that seemed like I'm, I think I'm well known enough by quite a few comedians in the States. And I think if I pushed to, I could probably go on some of those podcasts. But up until now, I haven't had anything really that I wanted to push. I mean, this one, I might start doing it because like, you know, I think this is something I really want to get out there. It's a good I think it's I think it's I'm really proud of the work, I'm really proud of the special, the response has been insane. I was not expecting it. I mean, we got more, because when we released in Canada, it went out to basically my fan base, which was you know, about 20,000 views, that's about what we got, and maybe a little bit less a little in about a year. And then we've had I think 36,000 Since last Tuesday now. So the response has been remarkable. Yeah, it's

Chuck Shute: 7:00

an honor. It's on American market now or something or

Simon King: 7:03

Yeah, so the America so 800 pound gorilla media is an incredible label. And they they take a lot of interesting chances with comedians, and they do a lot of great stuff. And they, they approached us and they were like, really like this special and and, you know, would you be interested in us releasing it? And, you know, at first I was like, Well, I mean, I don't know what what's, what difference is it going to make, and they're like we believe in it, we will push it, we want people to see it. And 100% They've come through I mean, it's it's a I really cannot believe the level of support. It's just, Canada is great for comedy, it's great for talent, it's great for becoming a comedian. But in terms of exposure in terms of just the ceilings real low. I mean, I've done as much as you can do in this country, I've done national television a dozen times in this country, and even then you go to places that people don't know you are anything about you. Whereas if I had the same resume,

Chuck Shute: 7:55

so like LA or New York or I mean, really, you could move anywhere in the States. Or you say you don't want to tour because you don't think that your comedy fits well for doing like a Friday or Saturday night club shot?

Simon King: 8:07

Well, I don't mind. I mean, I don't. So it's like, it's not that I don't want to talk, it's just that I, you know, it's as a comedian, you can only kind of get as big as your fish tank. So your audience has to get to a point where they like right now I'm working in new hour. And I'm well known, I'm in Vancouver, and I'm well known in this city, I can drop in and do what I want. But even then, I like I did a Monday night mic. And you know, there was a lot of comics doing regular things was great. And then I dropped in and I opened up with this huge rant about late stage capitalism, and it's like, quite dark. So it's like, you can do it. But when you're drafting and doing a five minute spot, and you know, you open it up with good Good evening drones and

Unknown: 8:45

because they

Chuck Shute: 8:47

kind of warm up to you, you're not the one liners and just like okay,

Simon King: 8:52

now I'm not I'm not easy. And the thing is that you can do that. And I do have that stuff, obviously. But for me to create the way I want to do what I want, I really am relying on having, you know, people in the audience that I don't have to explain who I am to before I start. And so I don't mind touring to the States, I don't mind that we thought that, you know, because I did live in Los Angeles in in the mid 2000s. And, and I have had a relationship with the United States. But it just seemed to me to be like, everything is more decentralized now than it ever was, you know, I mean, even this, like, you know, you found me through Instagram. This is kind of I think the way to do it for me, I think I'm a very grassroots, kinda like, kind of punk rock II sort of comic and I think the people that find me, I mean, the people that find me hanging on, which is great, but I just am also I'm not going to be one of those guys. That's going to be like, you know, I don't think I'm going to have a viral video that's gonna go off with me, you know, getting attacked by Heckler or I'm not that sort of dude. I'm the kind of person where like the people that like it like it, and they'll share it with other people like it but it's a slow growth,

Chuck Shute: 9:53

but you're impersonations the bill burr one I think the bill burr one won't be the first one that I saw. And then you had like a you did like a Marty McFly and you did Bernie Sanders like Yeah, and it's not only that you do an impersonation and that it's accurate. It's that you, you actually mix in a funny joke with which I feel like is a lot of impersonators problems is they can do the impersonation, but they're just doing an impersonation. There's no joke that goes along with it. We're missing in a joke with it, like putting them in funny situations and things. Like what was the Bill Burr was like, you know, he tells why the chicken cross the road like, yeah,

Simon King: 10:29

I would like to think is I think so to me, like, I've always done impressions and stuff I was able to do. I don't do that much in my accents, because I sometimes I'll do there was an encore piece like if the greater I think I'll do it because it's fun and silly, because I've already got through what I want. But I was always the mind of like, it has to be the joke first. Like, I remember one of the first impressions that I ever did on stage. This is like 2001 was because I wrote a joke I couldn't even do at that time. It was an Arnold Schwarzenegger impression. And I couldn't do it the time I couldn't do it. But now I can do it.

Unknown: 10:57

The whole time and traitor to this joke, and I didn't hear it. Wait until I come up with it. Like it's great. So

Chuck Shute: 11:06

it's almost like a whisper like, you've got like, yeah,

Unknown: 11:09

yeah, he's old. Now. It's why

Simon King: 11:13

that's still a fun one to do. Oh. And the funny thing is, so I wrote this joke about it. And I was like, oh, it'd be so much funnier with the impression and then I had to get them and then so I just kind of, I just do that, right? Like, it's like so, to me, my voice is similar enough to Beliebers because I was born in England and raised in Canada. So I have an English accent underneath a Canadian accent, which means I pronounce certain words at speed, or whatever could sound almost Boston. And so it wasn't that hard to do. Like, it's

Unknown: 11:42

really pretty easy to do just go like two steps over. Like, right there.

Chuck Shute: 11:50

Has he heard that? Or do a lot of people do suffer? I don't know.

Simon King: 11:54

I don't think so. Nia. I haven't heard

Chuck Shute: 11:55

too many Dober. Like, I feel like if he saw that he would think it's funny. I don't know. So many comedy, too. I feel like that's I think so. Is that a thing where you could like if Bill Burr sees us and says, Hey, that was really funny. Then you could get like an opening spot on it? Because he's playing big places?

Simon King: 12:14

Oh, yeah. Well, the thing is, I think that I think with comedy too, is it's like, so much of stand up. Stand up comedy, like all of showbiz, this is not a meritocracy, is you do the best you can, and hope that things work out. I mean, the dumb thing about, particularly comedies were all two or three viral videos away from selling theaters, it's just the way it works. I mean, and so the best you can do is keep pulling the slot machine, but just work on the craft get as good as you can do do it for the right reasons, which is I do it because I want to be a stand up comic, I'm lucky enough that I haven't had to have a real grown up job in nearly over 20 years. So I'm lucky that I've been able to survive doing this. It can be exhausting. It can be tiring. And yes, you definitely do want to get to the next level, because there's more security, you can reach more people, I wonder about what I could do if I had the freedom to just play everywhere I go play people who kind of knew what they were getting before they came in. And then you know, it would I would be able to do something. It's like having a conversation with a friend as opposed to a stranger. Right? Like when you have a conversation with a stranger, they don't know you, you don't know them, you can't make the same jokes, you can't talk about the same things you don't know. And then, you know, if you put people together who've known each other for 20 years, it's just it, you know, you can be so much more free and so much more relaxed. And I think for comedians, that is the next step. And I'm on the precipice of that. So the hope is that, yeah, I mean, anybody who can, you know, help out getting exposure and it's always good. I mean, I, to a lesser extent, because I'm obviously not a famous person, but I do it for people, you know, sort of my contemporaries and people below me, I help them out when I can, because I believe that you know, what's good for comedy is good for comedians. So if it can be if it's the good comedian gets successful, or a comedian who does good things or does interesting things get that's just good for all of us. I never understood this whole being angry that comedian or upset at someone else in the industry for getting something you can be mad at the industry, you can be mad at the way the industry operates, because they're, they're usually pencil pushing accountants, they have no soul. But the actual talent how they go.

Chuck Shute: 14:12

They tell their parents are both accounts.

Simon King: 14:15

Funny. But are they Hollywood accounts? Are they? Are they? Because I've had this conversation when you go in and pitch a show and they're like, oh, it's such a great show. How many Tik Tok followers do you have? And you're like, Okay, here we go. This is literally

Chuck Shute: 14:29

this conversation with a musician yesterday is the same kind of thing where they go through the same thing. Okay, how many Tik Tok followers do you have? And it's like, yeah, but can't you see talent like, that's the thing for me is like, I when I saw you right away, I was like, Oh, this guy's fucking good. And maybe that may be part of your problem, too, is that you're not. It's not dumbed down. Like this is a comedian for people who watch a lot of comedy like, Okay, this is smart, whereas other people, I mean, I don't want to name names, but there's some comedians that are more mainstream that it's like if you don't watch a lot of calm You're like, Oh, that's funny. But like, Dude, I've heard a joke like this 1000 times I don't need to hear the same joke recycled. So

Simon King: 15:08

yeah, that's what I said like high degree of difficulty, like, I'm not an entry level comedian, and I never had. And, and the funny thing is, is like over time, I've slowed down a bit. And I've tried to try to not make the leaps that in it, because I always just look at the audience as though they are as smart or smarter than me, I just always assume I'm talking to someone who knows everything I'm about to say. And you don't have to explain things. But the thing is, is it's not that audiences necessarily aren't smart they are, they can be very smart. It's just that they don't have the time to spend thinking about the minutiae of all these little bits and pieces, they're thinking about snow tires, and get the kids to school and mortgage, but whatever the hell else they've got to do in their life, they got work in the morning. And, you know, I get to sit here all day and be like, what if I said this, about this, and what if I made this spin this way and, and to me, it's like a logical jump. But if you're just, you know, if you've had a few beers, and you're in a club, and everything, I gotta remember that I'm like, You're not thinking that way. I'm trying to the bigger, heavier, harder points I try to push, the more I have to work on figuring out how to adapt that to and that's why sometimes voices and characters and weird stuff does come in, because it's a really great way to kind of like, present the big, heavy point, but also be like, and there's some goofiness in here. So if you didn't catch that, you're still going to enjoy this. But then maybe that you'll kind of laugh about it. And that'll kind of seep into your head that Spoonful of Sugar theory, right. And I think that, that you're right, that is something that's for people who watch a lot of comedy, I think, are people who understand comedy, or at least people who are kind of their brains work that way. But it's like styles of music, right? Like, not every style of music is right for every person. And even if you love, you know, country music and you go out to see music and you get punk rock or whatever, it's not going to be what you want. It doesn't matter how good the musicians are just not going to work for you. And so that's what comedy is to we just don't see it as as genre specific. And we should.

Chuck Shute: 17:00

Yeah, no, it's just interesting to like, because no one clicked on your Instagram. Usually, when I'm looking at a comedian, like I have, like a bunch of mutual followers and stuff. I'm like, How do I not have anybody in common? And it may be just because all your comedian friends are Canadian, then more. So you don't have a lot of American comedian friends or?

Simon King: 17:17

I have a few. Yeah, I mean, it's also like, I mean, I'm very, like I said, I'm kind of an underground dude. Like, I mean, I've been really pushing Instagram and social media since before the special report came out. But in in January, I think I had 2000 Instagram followers, and I'm just old to like, I'm 45. So for me, it's like, I'm not really a, like, I think I had 3000 Tiktok followers until February until end of February. And then I started to finally catch, but even then stuff that sometimes you put something out and you think, well, this is the one that's going to catch, and it gets to like 800 grand, and it stops, or, you know, or whatever it is. And I go what is it that stopping me from making that next step? And I think some of it is, is I require a bit of work? You know, like, I mean, I have a clip right now on Instagram. That's the most views I've ever had on a standard clip. And it's something like 1.2 million. It's not a lot, but that's Well, which one is that? It's the one about slavery still happening. They're just, you know, the numbers. Yeah, yeah. So that's, that's one of those ones where people watch it. And they're just like, oh, okay, I got to think about that.

Chuck Shute: 18:19

Because I think that's the thing about your comedy way I relate to because, like, it's the same things that a lot of the things that I think about, like that one, and then the, the I swear even like, thought of like, I don't do stand up, or you know, but I write stuff down. So I'm like, if I ever do this would be a good bit. And it's the same thing about like, your fear of being around black people, and it's not, you're afraid they're gonna hurt you more that you're afraid that you're gonna say something stupid. Yeah, it's like thinking the same. It is kind of like, as a white guy, like you just go. Things are a little tense right now. Like, why? Okay, like, it's like, probably five years ago, what something we wouldn't think about as much. But now, there's a lot of stuff going on the world and you're kind of like, okay, I don't want to, like say something stupid. was really brilliant.

Simon King: 19:02

So that's, that's one of the things that actually came from a conversation with a black comic friend of mine, and we were talking this is a few years ago, and we were talking I'm like, you know, the whole time, you know, the whole time my brain is telling me not to screw up and he's like, that's the whole time. And he's like, that's he's like, that's how you know you're not you're not a dickhead is that you think that he goes because, yeah, racist and stuff. Don't think that it goes, but people who think that are people who actually care the whole time, because my brain is like, Oh, my God, don't say and it goes both. you've screwed up so much. Stupid. It's just my neuroses.

Chuck Shute: 19:34

I know. It's like the same thing. Like Were you ever like worry? Like, oh my god, like, what? Like, even watch the murder shows? And you're like, I'm a murderer. What if I What if I kill my family? And then you worry like, you're gonna be a murderer, which is like ridiculous, but it's the same. That's like the neuroses. I think, yeah. Like,

Simon King: 19:50

I have a joke about that. And I go, this is how I know I could never be either a CEO or a serial killer is sometimes before I go to sleep at night, I think about an email I sent 20 years ago and I get real sad and like, oh, screwed up. I was 20 years ago, I sent this email. I like killers are like he's under the bed right now. I got feet on a necklace. Like, Oh no, what if I bumped someone's car? Like I'm just I would never be like, you don't want to hurt people. Yeah, I'm terrible at it. I'm terrible. I'm just so insecure, I wouldn't have such impostor syndrome as a murderer, you know, or serial killer. I'd be like, I bet other serial killers are better. I'm not even really good at I mean, I'm gonna kill you. Like, I don't know what I'm doing. You know? Like, I mean, I do watch YouTube and like public scrutiny. So yeah, I'm not very confident murderer.

Chuck Shute: 20:36

You know, exactly. No, it's, it's one of those things. That's, yeah, that's to me. I related to that part. Like, there's a lot of that stuff in your comedy that I think would probably be relatable to a lot of people really. So that's what so I hope so rising that I think maybe this podcast will help but I hope people see your stuff. Like I think it's great.

Simon King: 20:54

I when it comes to podcasts and stuff, too. It's like, it's like my schedule is a bit weird. And it was like, you message me and I saw what you do. And I was like, this looks fine. This looks like it'll be a good time. And then also, it's like, because I enjoy this stuff. And and I have some time. And I was like, because because the last couple of weeks have been just nuts. Because you know, you're doing all this press, you're doing all the things you're doing. And then we finally got this kind of like little bit of downtime, and like, oh, I can enjoy the fact that this thing is out now, because we shot this in 2019, the end of 2019 right before COVID. And so what happened was, we shoot it right before COVID December 2019. We start going to post in February, because we had some time. And then I couldn't even go because my editor melancholy Sharples, who also CO produced and executive producer and executive producer. He's in Toronto, I couldn't get to him. So then the editing process because he couldn't fly because he couldn't go. So the editing process turned into, I was going back and forth with notes. And we had six cameras over two shows. So we had a lot of footage to go through. And he and I are both perfectionist to the point where we used mostly the Late Show, but there are some times where like halfway through I flubbed the second part of a word. And I'm like, that's gotta go. That's gotta be The Early Show. We got to switch it. He's like, really? Yep, that's got to be. So it's like, it's got to be right. And because of that, once it was done, we had some issues, technical issues that we ended up getting solved. Once it was done, then we're like, Okay, well, now let's look to distribute it. And when the distribution came around, it was like, a lot of people like, oh, Netflix, or Amazon or whatever. And some people said, No, and then the people that said, Yes, it was like one of those things where like, if you hand this to Netflix, or Amazon or something like that, they own it, then and they can do what they want with it, and you can't cut it up or put clips out or anything. And yeah, that's it unless you like you can't do anything with it. So if they if they take it, and then they go, Okay, well, we own this now. Maybe they will push it really hard. And you might, it might be their golden ticket. what will probably happen, particularly with some of these unknown, is that they'll take it, they'll air it for maybe a month, it'll fall down the roster and disappear, and then it's gone forever. I can't do anything with it. I can't I can. If I license the audio separately, or whatever it may be, I can do that. But when it comes to the actual video, I couldn't cut up clips like this and put it out. And so I'm talking because I

Chuck Shute: 23:06

thought I had a comedian on for him. And he his special was on seeso, which is like it was it was like there for like a year, you know? Yeah. So he had a special on sees. And then And then he's I think he's somehow got it on Amazon. But he's posted tons of clips. So you maybe that's as a part of the deal where like, it

Simon King: 23:23

depends on the deal. It depends on the deal and how you do it. And I think maybe in that case, because it was on seeso. And there might be some sort of difference. But I think people like Netflix and stuff are particularly picky about it. And

Chuck Shute: 23:36

promotes the special,

Simon King: 23:38

right? And case, the clip has done more. I think clipping it out and promote and using it as promotion pieces has done far more for me. Because I am the kind of comic I am. Yeah. And because of the kind of comic I am because I am that sort of grassroots guy.

Chuck Shute: 23:53

Turn on a special of a comedian. I don't know the only way. Comedians is usually through clips.

Simon King: 23:59

Exactly. So you'll see like a minute clip and you'd be like, I'll give this guy another. And what I found

Chuck Shute: 24:03

you watch the other clips. That's what I did with yours. I watched a bunch of them. I was like, Oh, I binged it. I was like, This is hilarious. And yeah.

Simon King: 24:10

And then he find this special. And I think that's what's happened with me. What I've noticed is that, so I was talking to a friend of mine who does social media, and he's trying to help me figure out this because I'm like, so analog, it's not even funny. And then he's like, he's like, looking at my numbers. He goes, he goes, Yeah, he goes, your numbers aren't crazy high. He goes, they're growing slowly he goes, but if you look at it, he goes, people go through and they watch like 10 1215 clips and he goes and then they share and he goes in so he goes, you're getting actual people who care about your work and you're not So case in point like I'm not losing you know how your numbers fluctuate, particularly in Tik Tok. They go up and down quite rapidly. Mine don't they seem to slowly you know, I'll only add maybe 1000 fans a day or 800 fans a day but those people seem to stick around and so not a ton though.

Chuck Shute: 24:57

Comedians are big on tick tock and stuff.

Simon King: 24:59

Yeah. And that's the thing, too, is like, and I look at what like, and one of the hardest parts and one of the pitfalls in this, and I think any industry, particularly comedies really bad for I can only speak to what I know. But is that you see what other people do that successful? And you you don't understand why and you can't see what like, Why is that guy got 2 million followers, what has he done and you look at his clips and you go, I don't understand it because they are different from you. So the whole idea of Santa comedy is to be individual and to be different. And yet somehow, the business part kind of pushes into trying to be the same thing. And I think that's dangerous. I think that that, you know, kind of waters down the art form. And then hopefully, if you get successful enough, you can then be yourself. Again, I want to skip that part where you've got to kind of be homogenized, I want to just get better as I mean, I've been doing comedy for 23 years, I'm probably about 10,000 shows, and I'm 45 years old, I am at If I'm lucky, the midpoint of my career, I probably got another 20 years left, or whatever it may be, and maybe more who knows, but I want to continue growing, I don't want to take steps back, it took me a long time to get where I am. And to learn how to do what I do. And to be confident in saying the things I'm saying and pushing the way I'm pushing and I don't want to take steps back just for numbers on a computer screen. I'd rather leave good work than leave a follower count. You know what I mean? Yeah, you know, that's kind of is like, as long as the bills are paid, which you know, he's hard in Canada too, because we just don't have the population, right, like so for me, the next nearest town to me, for me to drive to that has a decent population is four and a half hours away from Vancouver for hours. And so that's the next know that in Canada, I mean, if I stayed in BC, and so the whole population of Canada fits in California and Texas, more people in California than Canada. And so you got to think about just the simple lack of numbers of how to get and it's a massive country to its to yours.

Chuck Shute: 26:49

You go to Seattle a lot though, because I used to live in Seattle, and I used to drive to Vancouver isn't like two hours like the thing again,

Simon King: 26:56

yeah, Seattle's great Bonanza visa, you can't even do really free shows. As long as someone paid to get in, you're breaking the law if you do the show. So it's unfortunate, because the views are expensive. It's about five grand. But that's not the thing that's so hard that the thing that's hard about it is finding representation. So like I don't have an American manager agent right now, for various reasons. And also, because managers and agents, they have to also kind of be on but they have to believe in you, they have to believe what you do. You know, if they're going to push you in the right direction, and make the right decisions for you and help you get where you need to get. They need to really understand who you are and what you do. And so I've had some managers and agents that didn't quite get that and nothing against them. I'm just, I'm a unique guy, I'm that weird. And so they didn't quite know what to do with me. And then the industry kind of pushed away from dudes like me for a while, which is fine, understandable. It has to equalize, I get that that's, I'm not upset about that at all. But it also means that it's harder and harder to find the right people that match. And so you talk earlier, we talked about something like Bill Burr or something. Anyone who reps someone like Bill Burr or something that's probably going to see someone like me and be like, Oh, that's the kind of thing I like. So you just look for the comedians that have that whose you look for comedians who are similar to you who have similar styles to you have similar kind of appeal to you. And then you look at who grabs them and you go, Well, that might be a better fit. And so that's the next step is to start approaching. Once I find that I'll get I'll go get my papers again. And then I'm back in the States. But I don't know if I'll ever live there again. I have a child. He's six and you know, my wife up here and everything. I don't want to relocate them.

Chuck Shute: 28:28

I don't think they need to, but I think touring, especially I'd love to have you come down to Arizona here where I am now.

Simon King: 28:35

Oh, yeah, I'd love to go to Arizona man. I was just actually speaking Arizona just just saw Doug Stanhope on Saturday he spent down from Bisbee. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 28:47

I've heard people just show up at his house in Bisbee. And he's like, yeah, come on in like,

Simon King: 28:50

yeah, I guess if you make the trip to Visby, because it's not like you can fly in.

Chuck Shute: 28:54

So it's a fun town. If you've ever been there. I've never

Simon King: 28:58

been I want to go. I listened to his podcast, and I was just talking to him. And I was like, you know, yeah, I got it. I got it. Because I realized too is like, I'm missing out these opportunities to see people who have right friends and that I like and stuff. Like, I have to go to LA soon to do some promo for this. And I just realized I'm like, Oh, these are all these comics I'm gonna see that hadn't seen in years, you know, because like, I used to live down there, and they've all gone on ahead their careers and stuff and everything and but it's still you miss them, right? It's like, oh, man, because they never come up here. Because why would you? I'm so stoked. It's like, you know, I guess it's just sort of a thing where you like, I can go down do the stuff I need to do and come back. But I definitely definitely want to start working the American market. Well, because I think that if, you know if there's in Canada, if there's 36 million people and if I don't know like, you know, 10% of them like what I do, that's three and a half million people if 10% of people in the states like what I do, that's 35 36 million people 32 million, you know, so the difference for me and being able to get my point across because I know that the UK like I do well in the UK and that translates well to when I did live there for a while. And things went well for me there. But I think ultimately, unfortunately, the way our business works, it all just comes down to numbers. So if we were having this conversation, and I had 400,000 Instagram followers, it will probably be different conversation because it would be,

Chuck Shute: 30:13

we wouldn't be having it with me, it would probably be

Simon King: 30:16

100% Would I 100% Because I have a podcast too. And I used to never have guests on, it used to be just me. And then I started booking guests to the beginning of last year, because I was just got bored of doing it by myself. And I know how hard it is to book and how hard is like, and when you get someone on, you're like, I've been lucky. I've had people who were like really cool. Um, but every time I booked someone were like, Oh, I don't know, like it's. So I always feel like whenever someone approaches me, I'm like, I will do my best to make it as good as possible. Because I know how hard it is to do that.

Chuck Shute: 30:45

Yeah, didn't you say I was listening to one of your episodes? podcast called What's wrong with Simon king? And you're seeing that you have some some bigger name friends that you could have on the show? Yeah. And so are you kind of saving that though? Or if you kind of have some of that? Well,

Simon King: 30:59

no, I haven't had them yet. And I think part of it was to is like, I think I really wanted to get kind of a bunch of episodes on him, you want that back catalogue, it's always important. And then also until I had, because I think that the mistake sometimes people do is especially if they have people with profile they can put on their podcast, I think sometimes they they do it all at once in the beginning and try and kind of get everyone on. And I think that's a dangerous thing to do. Because I think you're going to you may get listeners for that one episode, but then you don't get them for anything else. Whereas I think what you probably should do is if you have guests that have a good profile, everything, maybe every other episode, you put one of those people on, so that it helps continue with that. And I mean, I know that a lot of them are like more than willing to do it and more than happy to do it. And I also, you know, I want to go down to where they are. And I want to kind of you know, make it easy as easy as possible for them. And like I said, these are people I want to hang out with anyway. So it's a good excuse to go visiting. So I think I'm going to try and work on that in the next few months. And then we'll start putting, putting some more guests. I mean, we're going into studio next. And we had studio problems too. And that was the other problem I didn't have my studio went and then I didn't have any studio and I can't kind of be like, hey, come to my living. So now I can I can kind of like I'm more mobile now. And I can do that. So I think I'm going to start doing that and focus more on my podcasts. Now the specials out. I can focus more on the podcast. And that's another one of the things slow growing, you know, we have, we have a good amount of listeners very, they don't watch it on YouTube, do they? Listen, I don't know how to get them. I feel like they're old.

Chuck Shute: 32:34

Because I feel like it's the opposite YouTube. Because well, you'll have some that on YouTube won't get anything and then you'll have some that get 1000s. Like, it's just like it's all over? That depends for me. It depends on the guest. And it's not always the big names. It's sometimes it's people, it's people that haven't done an interview in a while. Hungry for but sometimes the bigger names do so many podcasts that like nobody cares.

Simon King: 32:56

Yeah, it does get to a point that too. And I think that's the other thing, too is like, what did they say that? What is it? What What's that expression? It's scarcity is value, right? So it's like, the less the less you're around, the more people want to see you. Right. So like if you know case, case in point, if someone like Jim Carrey does an interview, you're probably like, I wonder what he's up to? I haven't heard from him in like, eight years. And so you watch that. But I think you're right, I think if someone's on every and that's the other thing about, I think putting out like because with this when you when you release something like this, and then it's always like, Well, how do you keep the momentum going? I think if you do it all too much at once you just kind of burn people out. They're like, Oh, this guy's on another podcast. This guy's doing another thing. It's like, there's only so many times you can talk about a project. There's only so many times you can say the same thing. I actually have a joke in my act about how like, you know, you'll do 15 interviews in a row. And they'll all they don't they haven't seen it. I mean, great because you've actually watched what I do, which is awesome.

Chuck Shute: 33:49

Yeah, well, I tried to watch like more interviews and things. I couldn't find stuff. So I definitely don't know. Like, I don't know your story other than you're born in England, Canada, I guess you've been doing comedy for 23 years. So yeah, yeah. So you started in Canada?

Simon King: 34:04

Yeah. So I was so I come from a showbusiness family. So my parents weren't abandoned in the 60s and 70s. And what band was it? They weren't? Yeah, no, they were bankfull the silhouettes and it was in England, and then in Europe, in like all through Europe. So these to Toy the American bases during the Vietnam War and stuff like that, as the USO type stuff. And then my mom had a solo career in the late 70s, early 80s in England, and she got tired of it. And England was a real rough place at that point, like I was about five years old. It was like 1982 and England just beat up it was just burned out. And so they decided to either move to I think it was Tasmania or move to Canada and they chose Canada, which was probably pretty lucky for me because I don't think that worked for my accent.

Chuck Shute: 34:49

I never would have been interesting. Yeah, right.

Simon King: 34:51

Just yelling about the government. So we moved to Canada and and my mom got back into acting theater. And my dad was an optician, he got out of the show business basically. And then kind of came back into it here and there. But I started I did my first ever performance on stage when I was seven, I was gonna play and then I kind of dabbled in live theater and stuff and did all that here and there. And then when I was in my late teens, I did some sketch comedy, and I really loved it. And then I went, I didn't know much about standup at all, because it was the late 90s. Like, wasn't, there's no social media. And so I went to a comedy club, and I was like, that is what I want to do. And then I did my first set. And I was like, that is what I do. Now. I don't care why it was so good. It was so like,

Chuck Shute: 35:34

the first time here's the first time you people bomb. I loved it. I

Simon King: 35:38

loved I had a great time. And I was I go to school people said they like, oh, you had a good first set, you're gonna bug for a month, I was like, I don't know. I just enjoy. It was really fun. And I loved it. And, and then it's just been. And then I did it for like six months or so. And I had to take a bit of a break because I had a real grown up job. And so I would only do comedy once a month. And then it got to a point where with the support of my lovely lady friend, she was like you need to you need to focus on this. And I was like, I need to focus on this. And then I just became a full time comic. And

Chuck Shute: 36:05

it was so hard. What was the job that you did what was the grown up,

Simon King: 36:09

I worked in, in basically cable technical cable services and technical management for a cable company up here for like a short cable. So like a Verizon type idea. And I was like a phone technician. So I would help people work through which based on the way my brain works is ridiculous because I just do voices and be silly the whole time. But they like talking to me the text like talking because I just didn't. But then then I just focused on being a full time comic. And in 2004, the end of 2004 I did the San Francisco and then the Seattle comedy competitions and at the San Francisco comedy competition. I made it to the semis I didn't get out of that. But I got seen by the scout for the HBO, Aspen US Comedy Arts Festival, which I didn't know what it was. Because I'm Canadian. No. And I also had been seen by Scott wood Just For Laughs which I knew what it was. And I thought Just For Laughs was the thing I wanted. And then HBO called me in the December offered me the festival. And they offered me like six or seven shows including opening for Dane Cook and a bunch of stuff. And I was like this is great. It's a trip to America. And Just For Laughs I think offered me like a one show. And I was like, Well, I didn't know you had to choose. But I was like I'm definitely going to do the HBO one. Little did I know at the time that not only is that a credit that I think only two or three other Canadians have Dave Nystrom, who I went with who's an amazing comic as well. He's very few Canadians have it. And it's a festival that's now defunct, but was also the hub for industry because everyone wanted to go to Aspen to snowboard and you know, ski on the on the studio is done. And so I got picked up by some reps there. And then it was kind of surreal I was I had been a comic for about five years, I'd only been a headliner for like, two and a half, three years, I was very new to comedy. And then all of a sudden I was in this Hollywood machine. And you know, like you were in meetings, and you're doing this stuff. And I had no idea of my place in the world. And they just kind of got I got really exhausted with the industry. After about three years, I was just like, this is brutal. Like I was living in LA. Yeah, this is when I was living in LA. So I got so I didn't have papers at first, and then my my agents paid for my papers, which was huge. They did that because like there's no way I could afford because I was a broke comic. And they did that. And then once I got my papers, as I got my papers, the financial crisis in the states happened where you know, the huge economic crash, there were writers strikes, there's everything. So everything just the wheels fell off. It was the worst timing possible. So there I am sitting in the States with these papers with no work, no nothing going on, no books working or not. They just like doing nothing. And and I would come back to Canada. And, and I would do work I would do stand up and it would just be brutal. It would just I would just do stand up just to make money to go back and feed my Los Angeles habit. And I got to a point after a few I had a really close call I almost got when they rebooted mad TV, I was down to me and one other actor for that. And he got it well deserved. Very, very funny guy, but I did not. And I remember thinking at that point, I'm like, that's a good place to put a bookmark in this. Let's go back to Canada. Let's see a comedian, I recorded an album at the end of 2009, which I had never done before. I recorded it. And then I was like, You know what, I think I'm done with standup like, it's just beat the hell out of me. I hated myself. I hated what I was doing. I did a show. And so I had all these dates to finish out. And I was like, I just don't want to be a comic anymore. I hated how I just, I just needed it to make money. And even you know, killing is just killing for the wrong reasons is bad. Like when you're doing jokes, and you're getting lashed for the wrong reasons. And I was doing a show up here, this little tiny bar run by a buddy of mine. And it was one of those nights where like, the comments were amazing. And the audience sucked. They just hated everybody. And I was closing up. And I went up and I started doing the set that I was doing at the time. And I was killing it was murdering and about 10 minutes in I stopped and I was like I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to do this for you. I hate it. I just like, I hate me for doing it, I hate you for laughing at it. And then I spent the next 2530 minutes, just talking, like, just being honest, who I was, for the first time really fully. I mean, I was kind of

Chuck Shute: 40:13

what was the material you were doing that you didn't like, it was probably a material?

Simon King: 40:17

Well, no, it was just it was I put on an album called unfairness back in like 2010, beginning of 2010. And that was basically the culmination of that style, which was like a lot of like, much goofier much silly, I still had political stuff and everything, but not like I do. Now I just didn't have the confidence in who I was. So you know, it's like, it's almost like, instead of comedy, you have to get really, really good. So you can start getting good, like, you have to be able to control the room and do everything, you have to be able to kill all the time, have that confidence, all that material before you can start taking risks and getting good at it. And so I was at the point where I was gonna quit because I was like, just exhausted with comedy. And then I did that set and, and it went well, and it went poorly, like, people were happy and not and it was good, it was bad. And I left to this kind of applause and this feeling of like, oh, I don't have to do. I don't have to dance like a monkey to get through this. I can do what I want. And I came offstage and my buddy who ran the place, and I said to him, I was like, I'm so sorry, like, I was not very professional. I mean, he goes, if you do that every time, you might be a good comic one day. And that was what kicked off the next phase of my career that threw away every bit every joke I had, I stopped doing voices, characters and impressions and put them away, didn't touch him for years, to the point where a lot of comments didn't even know I could do, it didn't touch him. I went straight into everything, like that special, furious, it was all like that it was an I wrote hours and threw them away. And I just didn't, I just didn't do anything other than just be a comic. And luckily, I had established a reputation for myself where I could continue to get work, even though I had drastically changed styles. And I found that like if I wanted to learn, so I knew that I wanted to do that kind of comedy. But in order to do that, I had to forget what I already knew. Like, it's like learning a new martial art, you have to forget all the muscle memory, learn again. And then when you put them all together, you'll have everything. And so I did that for 567 years, develop this style got this material became, you know what I consider a much better writer much more confident. Then I started putting everything together, which is what you can see and as good as or better than, which is the last special I put out. I'm starting to combine all the things. So you've got a little bit of goofy, you've got a little bit. So I'm confident enough in how to say what I want. But I'm also I'm also gonna get people silly as well. So

Chuck Shute: 42:33

you drop in the impressions. Like that's funny.

Simon King: 42:36

Yeah. So that's the thing is like, so you could do that. Because you can do that. It means that you can say these incredibly, you know, hard things, like, for instance, is a good example of like, there's a bit I talk about how we lie to ourselves about who we are, we don't live genuine lives because we compare ourselves all the time and we manufacture existence. So people pretend they're, you know, they the I'm not normal, I'm different, but they don't actually do things to change their lives, they do things to appear to change their lives. But then that ends with a goose noise because

Unknown: 43:05

I find the perfect goose. Goose knows it's

Simon King: 43:09

funny. And it's also like, it's also a great so you hit people with these heavy things, right? It's like a roller coaster, a roller coaster always growing up, we're always going down is no fun. It has to do this. If it doesn't do this. It's no fun. So I'm going to backfoot you with all this stuff about like the end joke about is anybody stupid, and do all that. And then they do Stephen Hawking, we change the arms because it's like, okay, that's the, that's the release. But isn't it so funny when I said, Thank God, Stephen Hawking was a bundle of sticks in a wheelchair. The amount of times people go, Oh, I'm lucky. It doesn't know it isn't gay would have liked it. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 43:44

that's a joke. That's

Simon King: 43:45

that. I like that. I like makeup people just a little bit back footed and weird. And when someone comes up to me, and it goes, I liked almost all of it. I'm like, that's perfect. Because if you like, you know what I mean? Like if one or two things throws you off, I'm like, I feel good about that. Because like, you know, and you definitely define your fan base. Like with Tik Tok and Twitter and Instagram stuff. You get people who are like, most people have been super complimentary. It's been remarkable, like the special the comments on the special Nevermind the views, the actual comments are so flattering and so wonderful. And I'm so grateful. But every so often you get someone who's like, another white guy apologizing for being white, and I just put a noose and like, I'm just like, if I appeal to you, I'd be doing my job wrong. So off you go. Like, I don't want those fans, you know? So it's, it's good. It's like, I feel like I'm doing the right thing. As long as I'm upsetting the monsters and making the smarts happy. I feel like I'm doing okay. I feel you know,

Chuck Shute: 44:37

no, I think you're doing great. Yeah, that's what I'm just like, kind of surprised that you're not bigger, but maybe you're gonna be I mean, when you look at like Bill Burr, I mean, he really didn't blow up until he was in his what? 40s or 50s?

Simon King: 44:48

Oh, yeah, he was in his mid mid to late 40s. About the same age as I think he put out because he had had some success. That's the other thing too about the American system that is different from ours. A lot of the comics that you see now in America that are successful are big are people who have already had one good go at it? Like, Bill is a good example. He's an incredible comedian. There's no I remember seeing

Chuck Shute: 45:08

him on Conan for years. Like he was a both those guys. And then they both didn't blow up until like way later, but I remember Yeah, yes spots repeatedly.

Simon King: 45:18

I think Louis was like 41 or 42, when chewed up and shameless came out. And he'd been in the system a long time Bill, I think was in his 40s. So I think that also I think that's a good thing for stand up to is because comedians, mostly we're not, we're not pretty boys, or, you know, we're not here for our looks, or whatever, we're here for the material. And it doesn't really matter what you look like. So age doesn't really work as manufacturers, it's a benefit to be older, I can sell material now. I can say things now with more gravitas and more reality to them than when I was like a baby face. 25 year old because I mean, I'm 45 Now don't quite look 45 You can imagine without a beard. what I looked like when I was 25 years old. I just looked like I was like a teenager. So I couldn't say the things I want to say now, even if I wrote them, because people, someone said to me once like you can't complain about the word unless you look like you spent the night in the Mexican prison. Like that's the plan. I have to have a little bit of sadness to me, and it works well. And I think those comics too, I think you look at Louis look, I mean, Doug Stanhope is a great time flux Thanos a genius. He's a genius comic. He was on the man show and everything in the late 90s, early 2000s. He put out No refunds, which I think was his first and really incredible work when he was 40 years old. And then since then, I think his 40s and 50s. I saw him on Saturday, and I think it's his best work yet. And Carlin is a good example. Carlin. Really? I mean, yeah, he put out great stuff and everything, but he was in his 50s before, you know, playing with your head back in town, you know, those things came out. And I'm like when those came out, you're like, Okay, this is a guy who's found his feet. And so I think that you thought

Chuck Shute: 46:57

he was totally different. Like a weatherman. Did you watch that Carlin documentary about him?

Simon King: 47:02

I haven't seen it yet. No, I keep forgetting to watch it. I gotta watch it. I love it.

Chuck Shute: 47:06

So that's a perfect example of what you're talking about. He, he was very straight laced. And then he realized one day is like, I gotta be myself. And he totally changed the style and everything. Because you still, if you look at like the black and white, he's wearing like a suit and stuff and yeah, totally different. So

Simon King: 47:20

I think a lot of that I think a lot of comics make that step. And I think that's the what you're talking about the you know, you're getting good stuff, you can get good. Like, I think Carlin had a great career. He was like guest hosting. I think it's tonight show but either way, he was like making a lot of money for seniors. He was had this clean cut comedy. And then he just kind of snapped one day when he was like in his mid 30s. And he's like, I'm just gonna do what I do. And then he released am FM, which is like, this is the old stuff. This is the new stuff. And then he was like, I'm making a very clear point. Now I am George Carlin who I want to do same with Richard Pryor. Richard Pryor was essentially, like Bill Cosby rip off when he was young. He just would show up in a suit. It was really like friendly stuff. And then one day, just snapped. And then Richard Pryor showed up. And I think that this happens with communities. I mean, you know, even if you look at like, look at Louis C, KS early stuff, like his live in Houston album, a lot of it's much more so like, I have a peach have a peach, it's all absurd stuff. It's nowhere near what he came out with. When chewed up and shameless came out. I think he had been through the wringer enough that he was like, I am pissed, and I need to express it. And I think that real emotion, if you're going to be that kind of comedian, or if that kind of comedian is who you are, I think you sometimes need that push to get over the edge. And for me, it was, I think I'm not putting myself in that category, obviously. But I'm saying my evolution came from when I was just, I was like, I'm either going to, I'm either going to quit, or I'm going to do it my way until I have to quit. So I'm just going to do it my way till I have to quit and then talk to me or

Chuck Shute: 48:49

Yeah, no, I think that's it. Also, I think it's kind of like what you're saying earlier, where when you give the creative control to someone else, like if you look at Louis, I don't know if people know, but he did a sitcom. That was like, terrible. I think I ever saw I don't think anybody saw it. And it was like something that you know, the network said all you got to be like a family man. And then he did a show Louis, which I think is brilliant, because it's exactly what you were saying earlier about the roller coaster. And that's kind of how I tried to do my podcast. I'm like, I want to do a podcast where I'm talking about like, super serious, like sad, depressing things. And then the next minute we're like laughing our asses off like that show. I love that. I

Simon King: 49:24

love that that's that's that's what I do with mine. I think that like you know, we'll get into like even I actually did my first yesterday I did a I did. So mostly in the studio had guests I couldn't get into this week. So I did one just by myself like old school style, because it used to be like a diary of like a working road comic and it got a bit deep there because life was really rough before I moved to England and kind of got myself sorted out. And so I went back to doing I did one yesterday, but I did a live stream on tick tock while I was doing it. So I recorded the podcast and did a live stream. And it was funny because we were having a fun time. It's just basically doing a podcast to say thanks to everyone it was so special and you know talk about some stuff and then some I want to mention something on Tiktok. And I got into this discussion about, like one person discussion, which is really weird. This sort of monologue about what like, what can't what it means to comedians, when you see things like heckler videos and stuff become the norm and crowd work stuff become the norm. And what it means to us to see that like, you know, the actual art form, that work of comedy is maybe not being as appreciated and everything and what and not necessarily negative against the comments that do that. I'm just saying that like, from how we feel about it, and it turned into this kind of thing about comedy as an art form. So it started out with like, me asking, you know, which kind of insect if you have to punch an insect, which would be the most reflective like most most comforting, like, can you get if you punch the murder Hornet, you get some real feedback on it, you feel good, you know, but if you punch a fly, you're not going to notice. So that's how it started. And it ended up with this big deep thing about this. So I think following where your brain is going, I think being as unscripted as possible and allowing it to happen is one of the most refreshing enjoyable things to see. Because you get a real insight into how someone's brain works as opposed to the regimented these, like whenever I go on a podcast, like I love stuff like this, where we just chat. Whenever I go on a podcast, and it has, we're doing this section, and then we're doing this section that would do this. It just like okay, but then the whole time we think, Well, this is coming up now and I gotta do oh, what's my favorite hot wing sauce? Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 51:19

No, you're right. That's how I used to do my PA was very chronological. Yeah. And I would tell people story, which I think sometimes is interesting. But also, I've learned to just try to listen a little bit more to the guests and follow because sometimes the guests gives you something you're like, if I don't go down this rabbit hole, like I'm missing out.

Simon King: 51:35

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think that's the thing, I think, especially when you're dealing with creatives, as well, because I think a lot of creative people, you know, they get into the fields, because their brains don't necessarily work in exactly the same way. Like, I have some friends who are who are like scientists, and like doctors and stuff like that. And the way they think is incredible. They think like A plus B equals C, which equals this, which does this and their process is remarkable. They're able to stay on task focused and everything. I'm all over the place, like I have, like, it just, it's just and this is how I write like, I don't even sit down and write comedy. I go on stage with an idea. Yell about it. Remember it. I don't record my sets. I don't write stuff down very much. I rarely ever write anything down. Everything you see that I do, has come from me riffing on stage and ranting, and then just somehow remembering the feelings of where it's supposed to go. So I, you know, I got asked to teach a comedy course once, which I won't do. I mean, I'm happy to give tell people, whatever I know, but I'm not gonna, I don't even know how it works. And then I realized I'm like, How can I, if I can explain that to anybody? What how I write, I can't explain that. Like, it doesn't make sense. Like, it's just kind of like, I go up. And I like, had this, like, I went up to talk about the monarchy, incarnation of King Charles on Monday, I had one joke in my head, I want to say, and then I ended up ranting for three minutes about it.

Chuck Shute: 52:54

What is your thoughts on that? I see. I don't really follow that my girlfriend's kind of didn't do it, though. But I'm curious what you thought about that?

Simon King: 53:02

Well, to me, monarchy is antithetical to equality, like you cannot have equality when you have the head of a class system. When you have someone spending 230 million pounds on getting a funny hat on and there's people starving in the streets. I'm like, if that's if the if every problem solved, and you want to wear a funny hat, and you want to spend money on that, that's fine. But it's also like, to me the idea that, you know, some group of people are more superior based on who their mother was, seems ridiculous to me, the idea of a class system like that, and so I am very, I'm, I'm a Democratic socialist, I'm, you know, anarcho syndicalist. Like, I'm this kind of person where I like, I really believe that people can we, if we don't learn to rule ourselves, we're not going to be able to it's always going to be people pulling us around. And so the monarchy is the last vestige to me of people. I mean, I said on stage, I'm like, Look, if he killed his mom with a broadsword and took the crown, I'd be like, Well, fair, you know what I mean? Like that's how they used to do it.

Chuck Shute: 53:59

Thing is like, you're they're rewarding. Like you said, who their father is like the blood there's no achievement there. I mean, it's not like he didn't even run it's all just this like weird system that's like and and typically they don't even really do anything isn't at all symbolic. They have a real they have a real people who run the country anyways.

Simon King: 54:17

They that's the thing. So it basically it's just, they're essentially welfare queens who live in, you know, state housing, and they're spending millions and millions of pounds. And the funny thing about it, too, is like, it's like to me, I think that like, because someone said to me, because I'm very like, I have a real problem. I look, I don't have any problem with wealth. I don't have any problem with people having money that never bothers me. I have a problem with greed. I have a huge problem with greed. I think greed is a mental illness if you're willing to harm other people knowingly to enrich yourself, if you're okay with other people's suffering, so you have more? No. If you have more and you do what you can to help, I don't care if you want to have$150 billion, but you help people and you got that ethically if it's possible, go go down. I don't care, do what you want. Um, whereas to me, it's like, suppose people like you shouldn't you be anti billionaire? I'm like, it depends on the billionaire. I mean, the general idea that someone would have that much is a bit ridiculous in such an uneven society. But there's, you know,

Chuck Shute: 55:13

what are some, you know, some of the times people are just really good at doing something and they created a product. And it's like, yeah, yeah, and give away their their money. But what are they supposed to? They're bringing in, like, these billionaires that are like, I love Amazon. I love I love the products that they're creating. But yeah, you look to like, then kind of feel like a hypocrite, because it's kind of like what you said, with the child slavery, you're like, well, we all on iPhones. And it's like, we don't really want to talk about how the iPhones was made. But

Simon King: 55:44

well, our our society is a society of convenient remembering, like, we try to forget the things that are terrible, because it's not our thing is to is like, I don't blame consumers. And I don't blame people for living in this you are in the society you're in, you have to adapt and live in this society you're in, it's not like you not getting an iPhone is going to stop it. What you can do, is you can like with billionaires, you can say, Maybe we should elect governments that, you know, attacks them appropriately. That's the first step. And maybe that tax money can go to helping people who are in the sweatshops or whatever, that's the next step. And so, you know, you can kind of triage these things and move it along, no one's expecting you to build a guillotine and solve the problem everyone's expecting, you know, we need to kind of move in the right way. But what bothers me the most, is that, it's sorry, let's just go. And what bothers me the most is that is that, you know, people will say things like, you know, like, somehow like, like, billionaires not paying their fair share is somehow like, oh, well, they just achieved it. No, no. Most people who have that level of wealth, most people, there are some people who invent things. But most people have that level of wealth come from privilege and come from where we're given that generational wealth or debt ability, because the system doesn't tax them properly, and everything. So if we imposed appropriate regulation on these people, that would probably be that billionaires would be slightly less wealthy. Do you need 190 billion can you have 110 doesn't really make that difference. But the one thing is, at least, there is still a chance to become a billionaire. No one's saying you can't, you can never become a royal family member, unless you marry one of them. You know what I mean? So it's like, so it's like, even the billionaire class, however much, it's perverse, and it's weird, and all this other crap that's going on, on the majority of billionaires, you know, take advantage of a system and it's antisocial and all the other shit it is, at least there is still technically an open door to get into it. You could invent something, you could do something you can never, ever be in England, you can never be a royal quiet. So you would see it as people in England who are broke, who were high class, and they think they're better than everyone just because of their dad was a Baronet or something. It's insane. It's insane to me, that you would take any value of merit and effort out of the system and just basically give people preferential treatment by birthright. That's just nuts. I just don't see why. In 2023, we allow that to happen. Unless like I said, it's trial by combat. If Prince Charles is like anyone wants to fight me can be king, and he just defeated people if he did that. You know what, fair enough man is fight.

Chuck Shute: 58:16

You people think that that's so great, and to be in the royal family. But what's the girl Kate Middleton or whatever, like she's like, this is so terrible. I think it'd be a little dramatic. But also it's like, I don't know that I'd want to be in the spotlight. But that doesn't seem like that. Great. That sounds like you're kind of being exploited in my opinion. Yeah,

Simon King: 58:34

I don't think I don't think anyone boy. Wow, it is because

Chuck Shute: 58:38

they like it. There's people that are fans of this that? Again, I'm not I think it's silly and ridiculous. But some people are really into that stuff. Yeah. And I think that's why we allow it.

Simon King: 58:48

I think it's also like people want this is weird thing in humans, where they always think that it used to be better. There's this weird thing where it used to be better? Well, I mean, it used to be better because you were younger, that's part of it. And it also didn't necessarily used to be better. Hindsight is is, is you know, 20 not 2020 Hindsight is 5050 for me, because I drank but hindsight. Hindsight always paints things rosier than it is in those situations. And when in reality, this idea of what England for instance, was like with the monarchy, it's like, well, if you look at the people that are pro monarchy, there are also a lot of them pro Brexit, and they destroyed their own country, they just they just flattened their country into the ground. So they do these things where they think that it's makes Britain stronger or more traditional or whatever. And it almost always people don't realize that the reason progress is progress is because things used to be a certain way and we and we move on we get better we, you know, we you know this whole you see it a lot with a lot, a lot of right wing conservative Raticate at rhetoric where they say stuff like going back to the way things used to be the good old days, the good old days sucked for 99% of people. You know what I mean? Like Good Old Days weren't good old days, because how far back you want to go, like you want to go 60 years back when kids were dying to polio how far back You want to go and so we're seven years back. And so I think that people have this thing where change scares them. And so holding on to something that reminds them of a dream they had about what might be the royal family in this case, gives them comfort. So if you took away the royal family, a bunch of people would think it affected their identity, they wouldn't know who they are. The Next Generation wouldn't care. You know, the French did it. They I mean, the French, they pulled it, I can't believe the English let the French beat him in that. Come on.

Chuck Shute: 1:00:27

Let's get the French used to have that thing today. When did they get rid of it?

Simon King: 1:00:31

They got rid of the French Revolution in the late 18, late 18th century, they got rid of

Chuck Shute: 1:00:35

it a long time ago, not in my lifetime. Yeah.

Simon King: 1:00:39

They were way ahead of the curve. They were like, you know, what? When did?

Chuck Shute: 1:00:43

When did Britain make it? So they still had it? Obviously, they've had it forever. But when did they make it so that the king really didn't have any power was awesome power? What year was that? Similarly?

Simon King: 1:00:53

So that kind of Yeah, that kind of passed. So there was a Yeah, there was kind of like a series of events. So England had temporarily a republic, it didn't have a royal family in in 17th century for a little while, Oliver Cromwell and all that. But the Kings power the King of Queens power was diminished. Before that there was there's been parliament in England since don't quote me on this, my mum would know this. It's believed 12, something 1213 has been polarized. The King and the royal family still maintain massive amounts of power over the last sort of like, well, I would say, Queen Victoria was probably the last really powerful monarch they had. But hers was more cult of personality than anything else. She still had power, she still made decisions. I think when you get into the 20th century, Edward and onward, I think you're starting to look at like, that's when it diminished. I think the world wars made a big difference in that too. You know, I mean, if you look at how drastically different the 20th century, even the latter half of the 20th century, compared to the first half, the first half of the 20th century to the latter half of the 19th century, things changed so drastically in Britain. And, you know, because they were the top of the world globally, I think that it really just became something that, you know, a royal family can't run a country like that it's too big and too powerful. There's too much going on, you're relying on someone who didn't get elected and doesn't know that job to make decisions regarding millions of people's lives, you know, and in state of the world, billions of people's lives. So I think the only logical thing to do is move away. And so what I don't understand is we made that far of a leap. Let's just count it all together, keep the buildings everyone can go visit, you know, get get Prince King Charles or Java subway, people go see.

Chuck Shute: 1:02:36

Well, they would have a wealth or whatever, I'm sure, right. So

Simon King: 1:02:39

he's got he's got half a billion pounds, and yet the people of England paid for his carnation. So he spent 230 20 40 million pounds, which is why that $350 million on getting a hat put on and yet they're happy.

Chuck Shute: 1:02:55

Do you think he's he's a happy person? No,

Simon King: 1:02:59

I don't think I don't think any of them are happy. I honestly don't think I think Harry and Megan, I think escaping probably was the best possible thing. I think that. I mean, if you look at just how screwed up that entire thing, I think that when Queen Elizabeth died, she was the longest serving monarch. She was beloved that should have been they should have been like, Alright, we're done here. We did a great thing. Everyone's happy. She was the last vestige of the old Royals. She was the last vestige of the 20th century Royals. She's done. I think in 2020 I think in the 21st century, you have a royal family and if something's really screwed up with your, you know, and also I'm an atheist, so define right? If Divine Right of Kings makes no sense to me. My goodwill, none of it makes any sense. And I'm like, Okay, we're gonna do this. Why can't Why don't have a pharaoh bring a pharaoh back. They were fun. You know, plagues crazy shit. chariot races, and Emperor Come on. Pyramids were cool. How great would that be? If they're like, look, we're building a pyramid ever. Like you know what?

Chuck Shute: 1:03:56

Lux? Are you ever been to Vegas? That's pretty cool. Yeah,

Simon King: 1:03:58

that's it was pretty cool. They got that light on the topic and blind aliens.

Chuck Shute: 1:04:01

No, but so do you think? I cuz I don't want to disagree with you that I think that they're the greed is an issue. You're right, like people making money. Okay, that's fine. But like the greed. That's fine. But the greed is an issue. But what about the people that are not achieving their potential? Because to me, I feel like that's a bigger issue. I think that's how you knock down all these billionaires. You create competition there. Yeah. Who's competing with the iPhone who's competing with Amazon like, and granted, I'm sure some of that is, again, like you said, the system is kind of, you know, set up for some of these people that once they get on the top, it's like, it's hard to compete. But yeah, like there should be more. We used to have more innovation in this country. I just feel like there's no, there's so many issues I have with my computer and my phone. I'm like, Why can't someone come along and create some competition that's better than this shit?

Simon King: 1:04:49

Well, there's a couple of reasons for this. And this is a reason I'm a big proponent of universal basic income because one of the problems is that people are so pushed to their limits most people, most people, the average middle class person, and the working poor, can only just get by, they're exhausted, we work ridiculous, you know, work days, 4050 6070 hours a week, you go, you get two days off, when you can maybe spend time with your family or do whatever the hell it is, if you have, you don't have time to do these things, you don't have time to innovate and create you don't use exhausted, it's just, and also the ideas, it seems there's so many roadblocks in the way of creating these things, that we lose so much potential in individuals, because they can't go to the schools they need, they can't do the things I mean, education in the United States is, is a disaster. Higher education is cost so much money, and it's so exclusionary, and it's exclusionary for a reason, right. I mean, it makes the competition to top lower and lower, lower every single hurdle you put in the way if someone on the bottom and wants to get up, makes it easier for the people on the top to stay on top, and their families and their people around them. And that's what it is. So I think that if you introduce something like universal basic income, what you allow people to do is you allow people to, I'm going to take a chance to start a business because if that business fails, I don't lose my house, you know, I mean, or I'm going to go to school, because I know the school is paid for, or, you know, if you get people out of medical debt out of out of school debt, if you start giving people some money in their pockets, two things are going to happen. One, they're going to spend that money. Most people who don't have a lot of money don't have a lot of money, because they spend a lot of money. So that money is going to go back in the economy, it's going to fund its own system. But there are going to be people who are going to be able to use those opportunities to take the next step and the step after step after. And so, you know, like, even in my case, people go, Well, why aren't you playing more theaters? Well, it costs a lot of money, I gotta, you know, it cost me $3,000. to rent it, it cost me $2,000. To promote it, I've got to come up with a grant to do one of these, like, I'm a working comic, and I'm doing fine. But I can't do that like two or three times a year. If I fail, I gotta move, you know what I mean? So like, you can't take those chances, you can't make those steps, unless you have some sort of safety net that allows you and I'm not talking for people who are already wealthy, I'm talking to people who are like, trying to climb out, you know, it has many benefits. If you look at things like safe to take like someone in an abusive relationship, it gives them the ability to get out someone who's raising a child by themselves or a couple of children by themselves. It gives them the ability to provide those children with the chance to get education get after school, but maybe you've got a kid who could be a piano prodigy, but you can't afford piano lessons, because you're just getting by, we lose a piano prodigy. And so I think we have to as a species, we have to get our emotional intelligence and evolution up to where to next technological evolution is capitalism the way we're doing. It doesn't work. It works for a few people. It destroys everything around it. I mean, look what's happened in the last 200 years. We don't have to live like this, we don't, we could be a lot better. And I'm not saying people can't be wealthy, of course, they can be wealthy, but they need to do it inside a system that allows opportunity for others. And so that's the part that frustrates me. And I know that Canada, you know, I know that a lot of American media says Canada is the socialist paradise. It's not at all there's very little, we're quasi socialist, we have some socialist programs, but even things like I don't pay for medical insurance. So if I get sick, I go to the doctor, which means if I if I need medical care I can get it means I'll probably live longer, I'll be healthier, I can contribute more. The money, I don't spend, I go to the doctor, I buy a car, I buy a TV, I do these things. Those are little tiny things. So imagine if every doctor that came out of university or every lawyer, everyone didn't have a student debt, what are they going to do with that money? They're going to buy things right back into the economy, that money gets filtered down. People who maybe, oh, if I could just get this, if I had a little extra money, I can build this new computer, they can do it, they can do it. So that's I think the step who's gonna make the

Chuck Shute: 1:08:39

cars if if I have a universal income, I don't want to go and make cars. Well, the thing is, it's not. That's my fear with something like that. It's like, we're just goes, well, fuck it. I'm just gonna watch tick tock in smoke weed.

Simon King: 1:08:50

Well, the thing is, is that the thing is, it's it's true, they've done pilot work, and some people are going to do that. But those people are probably already in a system where they're, what what it is, is if you do a job you want, you want to do it. People, people don't want to work the jobs, they don't want to work. Not every but look, I have friends who love cooking or love being chefs and everything. Like I can't, I couldn't imagine doing it twice. couldn't imagine doing it. It's insane to me. People can't imagine doing the job I do. So I think everyone just needs to find and I'm not and people in these pilot programs for this, which we've had a few up here and in other countries, it actually increases employment. People go to different jobs that they never thought they could do before they take a chance. They try things they tried for promotions. It actually yeah, and automation is coming to take away the harder jobs anyway. Yeah. And so it's going I mean look look at the job the cashier job someone doesn't want to go that's pretty much gone now. That's that's and it's only a few years before we are those jobs are replaced anyway. A lot of jobs that people don't know I think

Chuck Shute: 1:09:50

electric or self automated cars. Yeah. Hard time I think I can't be doing that much longer. I hope the podcast takes off. Good luck. Just driving cars here. Have you seen those? Yeah, yeah, it's there's nobody behind the wheel

Simon King: 1:10:06

freaked me out. It's a little bit like, Ghostbusters or something like who's driving the car, like,

Chuck Shute: 1:10:11

totally Terminator, like, like sci fi things where the machines take over. It's kind of freaky.

Simon King: 1:10:17

Well, and that's the thing, too, is as we as we move towards this technological revolution, where we're about to undergo a medical revolution, where people's lifespans will change drastically, probably the wealthy but their lifetimes lifespans will change, people will live longer. So having 234 I mean, when I was young, having two or three different careers in your life was unheard of. And now people do it all the time. They change careers all the time. I mean, you know, your productivity changes, you can do more things with your life, as robots and as automation comes in and take away the jobs that I mean, you don't need humans to build cars, you don't need humans, this specialty cars, the stuff that you know, the Ferraris, whatever. But to build it, you don't need humans, we already don't have humans doing most of it. As soon as those jobs are replaced. Those people who have to put headlights in a Ford Focus, that's their job, and they hate it. All of a sudden, they're like, maybe I'll just, maybe I'll do this for different and then create it the people take chances and create more jobs. I think ultimately, there's always going to be people who don't want to work. There's always going to be people who don't want to do things. But there's people who have jobs, you don't want to work, they just show up and they do nothing. Well, that's

Chuck Shute: 1:11:21

a problem to hear. We're a lot there's a lot of people that just I'm noticing that we're the people that just don't give a shit. Like, in so many jobs, like everything, like I'm gonna get my car fixed. That guy doesn't go to a restaurant, the waitress doesn't give a shit. Or they do give a shit. If you ever been to Mexico, holy. I mean, you get treated like royalty down there like, yeah, come on in like they just like, Yeah, awesome. Like, this is great. Like, I wish we could be more like in America, like, have more pride in our work, no matter what you do. I just think you know, yeah.

Simon King: 1:11:53

Well, that's the point. I mean, I think if you do what you love, or if you do what you do, there'll be I mean, and this, like I said, there's always going to be people who I mean, anytime you have a population, you have groups of people where the accountability goes down, when there's when you have the anonymity that comes with massive population. You know, if you've got 50 people in a room, they're all accountable to each other, if you're not pulling your weight, the other 49 people, like do your job. But when you've got, you know, 50 million people, no one knows, and no one can tell. So what happens is, workers and people are in are told that they are expendable, that they can be replaced, that what they do is not that they're treated without value by the companies a lot of the time. And so what happens is, the series of resentment sets in and discouragement sets in and I think that's a portion of those people. I'm not saying it's right, I'm saying that people just have had enough, they're exhausted. And I think that, you know, when you get people saying, well, you know, I mean, I know it's your weekend, you should still be working for the company. I mean, there's absolute madness going out there like that, then there's a certain group of people who just don't want to work and aren't interested, those people will always exist. But in a lot of people, it's just like, they have to separate their lives into this is the robot part of my life where I do the job thing. And then this is where I get to have my own life. And I think that that's the problem, I think, I mean, you know, there's been studies where they go down to four day workweeks, and it's been so much better for not only men, I think, Oh, brilliant.

Chuck Shute: 1:13:16

I don't know why they haven't done. And in fact, like, I mean, you could almost do like three, if it was just you're working all day. Yeah, you're gonna put in about the same amount hours, I think. And all the studies say that you'd be more productive and happier.

Simon King: 1:13:30

Looking after COVID COVID showed is really briefly links up here in Canada, for people whose whose job was directly affected by COVID, they were given $2,000 a month, which is essentially a universal basic income cipher. And it allowed people to continue to because otherwise those people would have not been able to stay in their apartments, they would have been able to so all of a sudden, those landlords aren't getting money, the government's not getting money for that. It just helps the system to pay. It's not like much of money. But the

Chuck Shute: 1:13:56

inflation thing that we had here, though, because we're still feeling the inflation for matters global,

Simon King: 1:14:01

right, like, I mean, we got that. I mean, that's, that's just a general, I think that there's a lot of lack of, there's just people who twist the numbers for their own agendas on both sides left and right. But there's also a general lack of understanding of the system of economics and how it works. And, you know, people go on and on about, oh, we're in debt. Well, that's how countries operate. They operate in debt and who they owe that money to, they owe it to themselves and they bought you know, it's, it's a big, long, complicated thing. What we did do here was we a huge amount of people started working from home like they did everywhere else. productivity went up when people were allowed to not be in this regimented. So so many companies up here, have, including government, like departments have started letting people work from home because they're more productive. Now imagine if we took it one step further and be like, oh, you know how you've exhausted all the time? What if we gave you one extra day, so you were a little bit well rested, your mental health will be better, which means you're not taking mental health days and it's not a tax on the system. That's the other thing about UBI or something like that. For us up here with socialized medicine. Um, it's, it's expensive. It's not as expensive as everyone says, but it is expensive, it's our most expensive program. A lot of that is mental health stuff, a lot of that is people are, you know, they need help, because they're exhausted and worn out. And money is the number one stressor in most people's lives. You take that out of the equation, you release that pressure, you can save money on policing, you can save money on mental health, you can save money on health care, I mean, these are things that can happen. If we take the chances. It's just that it's such a big thing, because a lot of people don't really understand how it works. And it doesn't matter how many studies you do practical applications, the there needs to be a country of a decent size that steps forward and goes okay. And I think it's going to be one of I think it's going to be like Denmark, or Norway, or Sweden gonna be one of them, it's going to be one of them, because they're essentially democratic socialists, that accepts word and go, Okay, let's try this. Let's try this for three years, let's see what happens to the country in three years, I'd be very curious to see I want to I want to because I know that in the small because we did test it in Canada, in a small in one of our provinces in Manitoba. And the results were fantastic. And this was in the 70s. And then they change governments and the government came in and took the took, you know, shut it down. And, and so, I think that if we were able to implement, you know, I mean, we've got to try something, because people are people are miserable. You know, you see it when you go to shows people are tired, people are our

Chuck Shute: 1:16:20

you know, they have the you have the homeless issue up there to our homeless is getting really bad in the States, especially where I'm from Seattle. I mean, I'd never assumed that 10 or 15 years ago, I remember driving in and seeing these blue tarps everywhere. I was like, What is going on? Like, it was just out

Simon King: 1:16:35

here. It's bad here. And that's the other thing too, is I had a joke about that. And I was like, I was like, cuz I have this thing about homeless veterans. And I go, and I talk about homeless veterans a bit and the audience gets uncomfortable. I go, you know, what's great about this, you didn't think about homeless veterans until the big bag comedian brought it up, you're gonna go home to your apartment with no homeless veterans and don't write a letter to your politician about homeless veterans you weren't going to write because until I mentioned it, you didn't think about it, and it's not your fault. It's because you can't think because it's too heavy. It's too much. You drive by a food bank. Canada is one of the richest countries in the world, the United States is, is the richest country in the world. There are lines for food, what are we doing? Children are are starving to death in the richest countries in the history of the world? What the hell are we doing wrong. And so we need to really examine and that's why I said about emotional evolution, we need to as a species, evolve enough emotionally, that all of a sudden, altruism isn't rare, it is the default, that all of a sudden, empathy isn't rare, it's the default, that instead of get yours, it's get everyone's get everything for everyone, let's the American Dream is a great idea. But it turned into a dream of collecting things, what it should be as a dream of community and individual achievement, and growth as a person. And you know, as as a country becoming better because each part is good. But you cannot have a successful country when the foundations are starving children and broken people who are you can't you can't, it's an artificial, it's a balloon on a string, and the people holding the string are running out of energy, and that balloon is gonna fly away. And so I really think that, I really hope because like I said, my son is six, I really hope that his world is going to be so very different than the world. And I think social media will help with that. It's terrible right now. But it will help because I think all of a sudden, accountability is coming back. All of a sudden, the sea of anonymous people has changed. It's like, oh, no, I, I may have never been to Iran. But I've seen what people live like in Iran now in because I have a friend who's a streamer there. And I see. And I'm like, oh, that changes the way I perceive things. Those small incremental changes, and the way we educate ourselves, will slowly but surely, I think move us to the next step. That's my hope. That's my Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 1:18:51

I agree. I think that for my in my philosophy, it's that I feel like everyone has a purpose. And you're right at the top. When you get to that level, when you're very successful. I don't think it's to collect a bunch of things and be greedy. I think it's okay, I figured out my purpose, I'm good at something I'm doing. I'm successful. Okay. Now, the next step is to, you know, the growth of a human being would be to help other people do doing that as myself, and a couple 1000 subscribers as a podcaster. podcasters only have a couple 100 subscribers. Yeah. And you actually make you feel better. I know.

Simon King: 1:19:27

And that's the thing that I don't understand. It's like, it's like, if you said to me tomorrow, you could have $100 million, but you can't ever do comedy again, I would have to say no, because the 100 million dollars, great at first love. I mean, I would give that money away as much as I could. I mean, obviously you provide for your family and everything, but then you go, Well, I got this money, I can help people. But then ultimately, at the end of it, I'd be like, Well, I've done some good with this money. But now I'm empty because I can't do the thing I do. I can't. This is my purpose. This is what I do. I'm way

Chuck Shute: 1:19:55

more important. Exactly. I'm sure you've done this too, but I've eaten it. really nice restaurants. I've eaten at restaurants. I've stayed in fancy hotels. I've stayed in shitty hotels, you know, I've been in really nice cars have been a shitty cars. There's not that big of a difference. It's the hotel, and you're like, oh my god, this is like, I mean, yeah, the only thing that I think would be different would be if I was rich, I would want a private jet because I hate flying commercial.

Simon King: 1:20:20

Well, you know, I mean, that's the thing. And that's the thing, too, is like I always said, this is like, it's like, if you were a very wealthy person, and you want to have the trappings of being very wealthy, no one's gonna look it. Elon Musk does a lot of weird shit and says a lot of strange things. And he's got a bit odd,

Chuck Shute: 1:20:32

but doesn't he live in like a tiny like, trailer or something? Who knows? I mean, he doesn't live in a mansion. All little.

Simon King: 1:20:40

He's a strange man. But the thing Oh, totally. But the thing about this is like, so say you had someone who has $100 billion. And everyone's like, billionaires are the worst and everything. But every year that person like because Elon Musk, they said this, like Elon Musk, you know, cure world hunger. And he's like, give me the numbers. I'll do it. He's actually a bunch of money. He but he didn't actually he could have solved the problem with the stroke of a pen. But imagine if he did. So all of a sudden, you're going like Elon Musk's a real dick. Did you see what he said? You're like, Yeah, but like, he also cured world, like, you know what I mean, it's such a Get Out of Jail Free card, where you can be like, I am a maniac. And I say crazy things. But think of all the people who aren't dead. And you have to do like, he's got five private jets, but also he cured malaria. Whenever you know what I'm gonna do the good thing, so you can do way worse things. You know what I mean? It's like, everyone's gonna be like, I don't care that you have $100 billion, and you're not paying as much tax because you spent $6 billion on wiping out all the all the medical debt. So I mean, go go go get it. You know what I mean? Fair enough. I don't understand what they don't do. And I think that's the that's why I'll never be a crazy billionaire. Because I don't understand why you wouldn't just give it away. Just to have like, just because imagine being mentioned the shit talking you could do at a bar. If you're sitting there, and everyone's asleep. Good. You think you're so tough. It's like, oh, I'm not tough. But you know what, it's tough. All the people who now have good nutrition because I paid for their food for 20 years, and no one can

Chuck Shute: 1:22:07

talk shit. Imagine how we need to change it. Society is, is instead of shaming people for other dumb stuff that we do. Let's shame the people who are selfish pricks. You know?

Simon King: 1:22:19

It's like, it's like, if you've got I used to joke and I go, we should treat greed like we treat every other mental illness. We shouldn't we should we should throw people in jail because we don't understand it. Like if you see someone if someone's got a $30,000 watch on, I'm like, No way you go. To a cop shows?

Chuck Shute: 1:22:36

Exactly. Well, um, well, one thing I always do on my podcast always in promoting a charity or cause it's something that is near and dear to your heart. I mean, clearly a lot of things. But is there one that you want to shout out here that after people watch your special they can go maybe donate a few bucks if they haven't?

Simon King: 1:22:51

Yeah, absolutely. Um, there's a place called Covenant House. And yeah, Covenant House. Yeah, helps homeless, street youth and people who get opportunities, not just people who are unhoused children around the house. But it also gives them an opportunity for programs and everything to and so we do some fundraisers for them, which I think is, you know, I just think that that's how it starts, you got to help because, you know, some people end up on the streets because of mistakes. But most people end up on the streets because they don't have a choice. And they and they get stuck. And we hear like we talked about the homeless problem, we have a really bad homeless problem in Vancouver in the Downtown Eastside and stuff like that. And it just makes me so sad to think of all the people that should have got a chance. And so Covenant House, they started when, you know, especially when people are young, and they're the most vulnerable, and they help them climb out and get the resources they need. And they have a great track record. And we actually, they just put up a brand new facility just down the street from us, and it's fantastic. And you can see, you can see every day that you because I walked by on my way home, and you can see the changes on people's faces every day. And so I think that to me, you know, that that's just something that really resonates with me is like that's how we change things. We change things for the next generation, the generation after we teach them that you're not going to be forgotten about and caring makes a difference because maybe they go on to do because those people do they you know, give people a chance. You know, and that's that's you give people a chance to make a change and they'll surprise you hopefully,

Chuck Shute: 1:24:18

I agree I think like I said before everyone has a purpose everyone's got something to do and we just need to help people find that so that's a perfect start to you know, if you're homeless you can't eat then you're just worried about trying to get you know figure out what your next meal or whatever so yeah, yeah, definitely a huge issue here that we can help out so people could donate to that and then special it's free on YouTube watch last night make sure as as good or better than as what it's called

Simon King: 1:24:42

as good as or better than

Chuck Shute: 1:24:44

Yeah, that's great. On social media, you got great clips in your YouTube everything.

Simon King: 1:24:50

And I'm there and yeah, and if you follow me on Instagram at this is Simon king or tick tock. This is pretty much this is Simon King across the board. There's links to everything and then And yeah, come say hi. So I'm always glad. And thank you so much.

Chuck Shute: 1:25:04

I really, thank you. And if you ever come to Arizona, let me know. Definitely come see or if I'm in Seattle, I have to make the drive to Vancouver.

Simon King: 1:25:10

100% 100% Absolutely. Yeah, I do. I do. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 1:25:15

I'll probably be in Seattle this summer at some point. So I'll try to find Yeah. Yeah. All right. So Simon, the very funny and very smart Simon King, definitely check out his stand up on all social media and YouTube. There's lots of clips on there. Just watch a few of those clips and you'll be hooked. And of course, as always liking sharing, commenting on social media and YouTube for the guest and for this episode can help us both out and I appreciate that. I appreciate all your support for my guests and the show. Have a great rest of your day and shoot for the moon.