058. - Whitmer Thomas

All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Stateside with Kai and Carter, a new podcast from The Guardian. And they are using this podcast to slow down the news and wrestle with the questions that we all have about what's happening in the world. And they do it three times a week. Jason, does that sound familiar to you? We don't really talk about, you know, a lot of international global news items and climates and cultures and sports and things like that. We do talk about fashion and wellness, but for everything else, Kai and Carter are a great place. All right, so who couldn't use more news? Listen wherever you get your podcast. or watch on YouTube. Want to make a podcast? Spotify's got a platform that lets you make one super easily, then distribute it everywhere, and even earn money. We like that. All in one place for totally free. It's called Spotify for Podcasters. And here's how it works. Spotify for podcasters lets you record and edit podcasts right from your cellular telephone or your computer. So no matter what your setup is like, you can start creating today. Then you can distribute your podcast to Spotify and everywhere else, those other places that podcasts are heard. Video podcasts are also available on Spotify. And when you want to take conversations with your fans to the next level, Q&As and polls are the best way to get them talking. With Spotify for podcasters, you can earn money in a variety of ways, including ads and... And podcast subscriptions. And best of all, it's totally free. Zero catch. We've been using it ever since we started How Long Gone. And ever since I discovered Spotify for Podcasters, I feel like having the option of turning off the Q&As and the polls on the user dashboard has really helped boost my creativity and take it to another level. I highly recommend giving it a try. Download the Spotify for Podcasters app or go to www.spotify.com slash podcasters to get started.

Hello! What's up, bro? Dude, don't fight me first, second in this podcast, please. I usually like to give you some time to do it to yourself, but today I'm feeling spicy. How are you, man? Today is Sunday. High noon. I'm pretty good, man. I'm a little torched, to be honest. This Cali heat has been torching me, that's for sure. But do you like the torch? I mean, it's more the Cali lifestyle for your boy, but yeah, I do. The Cali lifestyle is torching you? I don't think anyone ever gets torched by the Cali lifestyle. Well, I mean, some of them aren't. Well, people like me don't do kickbacks, bitch. We wake up every day and tackle the day physically and spiritually and mentally. Right, right, right. So when you go to one of your taxing... saturday night air one outdoor dining meals that one that really hits hard for you it yeah jason because you have to go and you have to wait in the line and then you have to pick out the food that you want and then luckily the line the line is not what it usually is but the fashion is and that is the the real key to that awful but wonderful hell hole so the fashion has stayed the same at air one even though we're in quarantine people are still dressing air one's one of those places where you actually see somebody wearing sporty and rich you know what i mean it's like you actually you actually see girls your explore page comes alive exactly multiple women wearing bike shorts to have dinner you know what i mean it's it's it's it's not normal but for la it is and is this like a fun little side thing that is starting to grow a little old for you or are you embracing it and maybe even thinking that it's better than the way other people dress in the world um i mean the the awful dressing in la is truly demented and eye-opening um because i mean it's the same thing as the guy that has a g-wagon lives in a one-bedroom apartment and and it's the same same idea you know what i mean it's just like does new york have that person

No, because we're out in the streets, bro. You got to have your fit right once you leave the house because you never know who you're going to see. You know what I mean? Luckily, I look crispy when we ran to Bill Clinton that time. What if I was wearing fucking Lululemon joggers? You know what I mean? That picture would have never done the numbers that it did. Right, right, right. And thank you for that. My followers are still coming through to pay respects to that post. It's just crazy. People dress crazy here. But also, the heat is oppressive in a way that it's tough. I wore pants last night because the sun had gone down, but that's the first time I'd worn pants in two weeks, probably. Not to change the subject, but fan of the pod, Casey Weisenbecker, sent me a very interesting video this morning. He's a known fingerboarder and worked with Braindead on a fingerboard. He sent me a clip. from your favorite rapper, Chief Keef Sosa's account, of his new video where he is fingerboarding in the new music video. Man, Chief Keef is the best guy ever. What the fuck, dude? I mean, the world, when fingerboarding first came out, Tech Dex, I believe, that was a pretty big thing. A lot of people had them who were not children. Adults had them. Young adults, I guess. Obviously, you didn't. No, because I'm a smart person, but continue. But then it kind of went away, and now it's sort of having a little bit of an underground renaissance. Is fingerboarding the new indoor rock climbing? oh my god i'm gonna kill myself jesus christ dude i can't deal i gotta log off is indoor rock climbing a thing that you would do fuck no i mean honestly probably because it's like fitness related and it's hard but yeah that's why i'm asking the culture of it i don't know if i could do it man i think the culture of it has improved greatly in the last year

Whereas before it was really, I did not have any patience for it. And now a lot of people I know who are cool seem to be enjoying it. That's the problem. Yeah. And there's also those little bags that you get to, I think Louave makes a bag for the chalk, which that interests me quite a lot. So that is cool. Yeah. If I could spend $700 on a bag to hold chalk for my hands, cause I could repurpose that for the rings. You know what I mean? They found a way. Well, that, that makes me. That makes me wonder if maybe that is the future of your career and life in the future is to be the person who is the consultant for when brands need to figure out how to make the really, really expensive, dumb thing. I would love to. That's like a perfect, you know, like Chrome Hearts would hire you instantly. I just saw a video on Hypebeast of a guy skateboarding in his Converse Chrome Hearts. big big fire what is big fire big big fire because bro destroying expensive stuff is cool when it's skateboarding related okay so what if somebody's doing that in some some like yeezys or something not not cool because you could argue that i mean as as much as we love chrome hearts you could argue that they're collaboration with Converse might not be the coolest shoe of all time. I was hoping you were to say, as much as we love Yeezy, I would love, do they make Yeezy? I feel like they probably make Yeezys in your size because ballplayers like them so much. Yeah, they exist in my size. There's a few that you'll see. If I'm doing my eBay bulk search, I'll see a lot of that. I might be in the market to get you a pair as a little prank. That reminds me when I bought the feel of disruptors for how long gone friend Tom, how to dress well. That was a, that was a joke that did not land at all. Well, because it's too close to something he would actually wear. It could be that. I think what, what I learned that day is that the prank gift.

is something that is really not for everyone i think damn i would have died at that that's funny as fuck i know it is but then it's just kind of like well now i have a pair of feel it you know yeah do you how long do you keep them do you just throw them away do you don't is is it a little it is a little wasteful but ultimately worth it i would say speaking of oh my god jason we you know before we get to our guest did you see gg hadid's apartment i did see it bro what the fuck are you how surprised are you i mean i'm not that surprised like you forget better taste you know because look you know she's a lot of her a lot of the appeal of her is is is things that are chosen and done by other people you know what i mean so it's like but man the pasta shells and the fucking cabinets yeah that were painted different colors absolutely insane Some of the choices were actually mind-boggling. Some of it's just classic bad. But putting up New Yorker covers in your bathroom, that's literally some weird Taylor Swift shit is what that reminds me of. She's not too far away from that. And that type of stuff makes you – I like it because it reminds you that these cool, hot celebs who are out here living these lives that everyone dreams for. they also can have really really bad taste and and that i don't know if that's a deal breaker for somebody like you in terms of you know jason i'm probably with physical relations i'm per i mean her pregnancy is probably the number one thing that would stop me from that but i mean i i you know it's a turn off for you pregnancy zane's little bitch ass because you know i mean that motherfucker ain't stopping anybody um Overall, the apartment is shocking, though. I guess I don't expect much from most people, but it was aggressively bad in a way that was in your face. Do you think this is the first time in her life that she's going to be online bullied? Oh, no, I'm sure. When you're that famous and you date anyone that was in one direction, your life is kind of fucked online, I feel like. The directioners come for your ass, you know what I mean?

The Directioners. Is that really what they're called? I feel like I picked that up somewhere, but maybe not. I don't know. It sounds cool, though, huh? It sounds really bad. It reminds me of Directioneer, which then reminds me of the Lumineer, and then it sounds like a band that has a fiddle in it, but they're also kind of punky. Yeah, that sounds cool. Okay, I guess. Don't say that sounds cool, Chris. You're already going deep. The fiddle, I mean, okay, we don't have to get into the fiddle and how it's a great piece of modern country music, but that's fine. We're going to wait. We didn't get to talk about Taylor Swift, the album yet, so we're going to have to do that with our guest. I don't know if he has any opinions on it. Well, you know, he is a musician. His name is Whitmer Thomas. He's a comedian musician. He had a special on HBO a few months ago that was really interesting. uh his whole his whole childhood growing up his mom was in like an 80s kind of interesting dance band he grew up around music his whole life and he's a he's a weird ass comic so i'm sure he has something to say about i would i would hope so and also i just want to point out that um you know As much as we talk about comedy and awful specials, this is on HBO, so it's different. This is not Netflix. This ain't a little budget special. This is an A24-produced HBO Max special. Yeah, man. And the album came out on Hardly Art, which is a label that I remember from my youth. So this guy, this fellow, Whitmer, really seems to be hitting it out of the park right now. I agree. And when you're from Florida, Bama, I instantly respect you for making out the slums. You know what I mean? Absolutely. Because that is a feat into itself. All right. Let's give him a call. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Squarespace.

Obviously, Jason, you and I spend a lot of time on the World Wide Web, so do our peers, our listeners, our friends, our colleagues, maybe even your parents if they're freaky. And if you're doing anything in the world... writing, taking pictures. I do topless boxing. You need a website. Exactly. A website that works, that does what it's supposed to do, that allows you to be creative, but also business-minded. Jason, there's one place to go for that, Squarespace. Yeah, Chris, I'm over here. I'm modifying calculators and putting Claude inside of them so you could cheat at school. And I just want a place where I could have everything all in one place. I can have the SEO tools. So those future graduates can find me and, you know, I'm able to accept quote unquote donations for my services that might be gray area. You know what I mean? And then email campaigns. Hey, I got a new, you know, 2.3 version upgrade. Boom, boom, boom. Get the analytics going. Raise some money. Show your investor all of your cool analytics of what's going on. They're going to want to get in early. And we can use Blueprint AI to make your website look as professional as your competition, if not more. So head to squarespace.com slash howlong for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code howlong to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain. Oh, this is huge for me personally. This episode of How Long Gone. It was brought to you by TaskRabbit. Oh, baby, let me tell you something. This is not a joke. I use TaskRabbit a lot because I can't do anything. You need some art hung? TaskRabbit. You need a fucking something put together? A cabinet? Got to reach that cheese grater on the top shelf? TaskRabbit. Anything you need, TaskRabbit can take care of it for you. How it works, TaskRabbit connects you with skilled taskers in your area. They can help you move. They can assemble furniture, repairs, yard work, mounting, and more. You can search for a tasker based on cost, skill set, availability, and past client reviews so you know exactly who's showing up and can have confidence that they know what they're doing because taskers have assembled over 3.4 million pieces of furniture, completed 700,000 home repairs.

handled 1.5 million moves, and the numbers are just going up, Jason. Yeah, throw a little money at the problem. It's not so expensive. And that job that you really don't want to do is something that another person out in the world is very good at doing and would gladly do it in exchange for a little bit of money. So when life happens, your to-do list grows. Get ahead of it now and get $15 off your first task at TaskRabbit.com or grab the TaskRabbit app using promo code how long taskers book up faster, especially for same-day tasks. So book trusted home help today. That is $15 off your first task using promo code howlong with the TaskRabbit app or at TaskRabbit.com. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by a new podcast from The Guardian stateside with Kai and Carter. This is covering a lot of our bases, Jason. It's trying to slow down. the news and wrestle with the questions we all have about what's happening in the world and i know you particularly have quite a lot of questions a lot of questions but how often because we do this podcast three times a week and that's a sweet spot how many times do they do three times a week and i i have a feeling just based on the platform and these talking points that they're maybe going to be covering different stuff than we do that's just a guess the guardian is not some billionaire owned They're not afraid to say what they want to say, brother. Yeah, Rupert ain't sniffing around in what journalists Kai Wright and Carter Sherman are up to over there at Stateside. But yeah, listen wherever you get your podcasts. You can watch it on YouTube. It's three times a week. And who couldn't use more news? Especially when it's not from here, let's say. Give it a listen. Give it a listen. Oh, yeah. What up? Hey, guys. Damn, this motherfucker got a ring light. I got a lamp. Okay. Every second you waste is the less second that we can podcast, so dig your own grave. It looked like he was... It looked like an 80s movie police interrogation going on. Yeah, it did, actually. That's why I thought he got the Amazon budget ring light. He's curious to know my whereabouts last Thursday night.

Nice cans. Thanks, man. I was just listening to Bowens. Y'all do it usually where I can't see you, huh? That's motherfucking right. That's the game we like to play, which is somewhat accidental and now on purpose, I think. You can absolutely turn your video off if you just want to go audio and reflectively look at the wall or something like that. No, it's cool. This is cool. So what's up, man? How are you? I'm good, dude. I'm just, you know, it's a Sunday in L.A. I'm 32, just begging all of my friends to go skate, but everybody has businesses or something like that. And so nobody wants to go, which is my every weekend. Where are you trying to go shred, fam? Today, well, you know. I really want to go to this new spot that I'm trying to find a pin for. I think it's a secret. They don't want anybody to know where the spot is, but I just saw it in a video on Thrasher. And my friend who's in the video is being kind of coy. He's like, let me see if I can find a pin. It's like, come on, you know where it is. Yeah, he knows where the pin is. Now, what kind of skateboarding are you doing? Are you doing, like... light load 32 year old man skateboarding? Are you going for it and possibly injuring yourself? Um, I am doing skating. I like to, I'm not, uh, I just like pretty chill, you know, like I like to grind. Uh, if I, there's like a picnic table or a bench in a schoolyard in LA, that's my ideal. Classic Cali skating. Really? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Did you skate? Did you skate growing up? Oh yeah. Big time. Were you good? Uh, not super good. No, I mean, I was like good enough to be sponsored in Alabama, which is, you know, I'm, I'm from Georgia. Okay. So I'm very familiar with Alabama. So if you could walk me through what city we're talking about, that would be great. Okay, cool. Let me just clap real fast. Sinking sounds. I don't know if that's going to help y'all. Okay, cool.

Let's see. Walk you through what part of Alabama I'm from? Yeah, I want to hear the whole – I feel like I saw a picture of you in a Gulf Shores hat, which really did something. Yeah, that's where I'm from. Oh, you're from Gulf Shores? Yeah. Why don't you explain to people what that is? Because I'm very familiar, but I think most people that aren't from the south will not recognize that. Yeah, Gulf Shores is just – it's a tourist town down in the southeast in Alabama on a little island called Pleasure Island, which is a man-made island. in between florida and alabama and it's it's sorry it's kind of like uh where everybody from the southeast goes on vacation yeah i i always think it's fascinating when someone grows up in a place where other people go on vacation yeah man it was wild i mean i would always make a pal over the summer um and then their whole thing it took them a full day or two to get over that i lived there like live here? I mean, yeah. They all leave and I'm sure you had some romances. It's really like a... It sounds like a TV show to me. Yeah. Oh, tell me about it. Actually, tell Hollywood about it. Please. Yeah, no. I think it allowed me to develop some real extreme boundary issues. Expand on that, my brother. Falling in love with girls who I knew would probably be gone out of my life in a week. Yeah, they got to return to suburban Tennessee and leave you in the dust. Some fellas might consider that to be a blessing, though, Whitmer. I think I started to think of it as a blessing the older I got. But when I was a kid, it was younger in high school. It wasn't great. Yeah, but now as a touring, well, not right now, but you tour doing stand-up, right? Yeah, I do. Well, I did, yeah. Well, see, you already know the fucking vibes then, don't you? Well, no, because the whole time I've ever been remotely successful as a comedian, I've had a girlfriend, so I'm not, you know, I'm going to... Also, the types of girls who... Whitmer, it ain't a crime to look, am I right, brother? Hey, you got that right. There's nothing but checking out a hot girl.

Usually if somebody's like, because of my dumb ass standup comedy, people will come up to me and I'm like, wow, look at this. Here comes a smoking hot girl to talk to me, probably to compliment how cool I am or something. It's always, oh, my mom also threw herself to death or something. It's never, you know, like just some. horny person or if it's a guy is about to come up to me I'm like oh yeah this guy probably gonna tell me how he loves my commentary on emo music and no it's usually just like he also has a hard time getting a boner. I mean, fans are the worst. Am I right? I mean, you know, I don't, I can't deal, but I don't know. Did you do the standup tours? Were you doing like weekends? Are you doing a tour like a band? I did it all. I, as I, like in the last couple of years, I started to just, I started to just go do shows. Like I would do Portland, Seattle. in a weekend, you know, but I would just do like rock and roll venues. Cause I started playing music when I do standup a couple of years ago. So that made more sense, but I used to do clubs. I would go for a weekend and often opening for somebody. Yeah. So tell us about opening for Chris D'Elia. What was that like? Well, I made sure that everybody texted me. So, like, I took the number. I basically said, yo, if you want to hang with Chris, you got to text me first. That's smart. That's smart. Great. You're more than an opener. You're a friend. Yeah, because I'm just a friend. Yeah, so I'd be like. Chris, this girl definitely looks way too young. You should talk to her until she's 18. Just talk really slowly, and she will eventually get old enough. Yeah. Now, how long is an opening set in comedy? What are we looking at? A tight 30? 20. 20. Yeah. It's a hot 20. Damn, all day for 20 minutes, and there's no encores or anything. Are you selling merch?

Back then, I was not selling merch. As soon as you picked up a guitar, you saw that t-shirt revenues. Yeah, man. That guitar changed the game. It felt less cheesy to sell merch. That's why I'm asking. Do you feel weird selling merch? Oh, yeah. It's still embarrassing. I've only had a record out since the pandemic, so I haven't experienced that. part of selling merch, but selling a t-shirt, I've had that for a while. That feels so embarrassing. So, like, what I decided to do is make the most embarrassing headshot shirt, which is a shirt with my actual headshot on it. And I would just sell that and say, like, you know... It was your way of coping with that. What are your reservations or what is your reasoning behind being embarrassed to sell merch? I think... My group of comics, like my generation, people around my age, I feel like there's a lot of shame around self-promotion. It took me until meeting the group of people right below me who felt more comfortable with it. You can just say Brandon Wardell if you want. Yeah, just like, come to this show, do this. Really shoving it down people's throats. Buy this shirt, buy this album, whatever it is. Honestly, I feel like I might have done better in my career if I would have been more cool with doing that kind of stuff. Cool with not being cool. Yeah. The reason they might also be comfortable promoting themselves more is because they're more talented. I don't think I really got anywhere as far as the talent department went. But you do feel that now that you have enough talent to not be embarrassed to live. Yeah, I think now it's okay for me. I'll still definitely be embarrassed no matter what, but at least people are showing up sometimes. That's good. I might be doing something right. Yeah.

Yeah, I've struggled with the same part of shameless self-promotion with my life and career as well. It's a little tough to get over, especially if you're kind of from a little bit of an older generation. It just wasn't really the vibe back then. You looked cheesy. Yeah, no, man. I mean, I look at all my old Instagram and all that kind of stuff, my old Twitter. It's so stupid and pointless and like, yeah, why the fuck would anybody want to come see me? It's like, Clay just ate another taco or something. Who's Clay? What, a taco? Yeah, we've talked about that a couple months ago when I would go back and look at old Instagrams and I would be like, why did I post taco for the win as here's a picture of a taco? Right, dude. My first post on Instagram is just a photo of Carrie Mulligan. And I don't know why. I have no idea. You don't remember why? No. So you guys aren't friends? You're not like a big fan of her work or anything? Not really. I mean, she's great. Look, she's a cool chick, but this is before stories existed where like that. If they came out with Instagram stories, that's probably where Carrie would have lived and died 24 hours later. But we only had the grid, so you had what you had to work with. So don't beat yourself up about Carrie. Thanks, man. I really appreciate that. I need that. Thank God that I was too much of a freak to ever fuck up the grid like that because I'm obsessed with my important aesthetic and how that reflects on my personality. Yeah. You were an early adopter for that. Yeah, yeah. You were talking about skating earlier as an activity, and I've been thinking about what the perfect COVID activity is, and Chris and I have been playing a lot of tennis, and I think skating is probably equally as great for a COVID activity because you can get exercise, you can have socializing at a distance.

you know you're outdoors it's it's kind of all there are there any other and the cops cops aren't fucking with you right now either oh really yeah um no if anything the other day me and my buddy were skating under a bridge and cops are so desperate to be like seen as cool right now that a cop pulled up and we're like oh shit we're about to get kicked out and the cop went do a kickflip God damn it. We just ignored him and he goes, come on guys. Do a kickflip or your ass is going downtown. That's what I would have said. It would have been better if they said, get out of here. That happens to me sometimes too when I'm walking around and you'll see a gaggle of motorcycle cops go by and they'll give you a what's up nod. you know hey just checking in kind of kind of energy from them and i don't it's it's not something that i feel comfortable processing no no way but yeah skate skating's been good in in the pandemic uh you know like i've got a couple skate pals that i go out with usually our rule is like we have we find a cul-de-sac or a spot where you have to hop a fence that way nobody can come near us they have to like really go out of their way to oh come to us and that way we don't like i don't wear a mask when i skate because right yeah so you quarantine yourself in a certain way yeah so and then you can let your hair down and really be free yeah i can let my hair down yeah what kind of uh footwear are you wearing uh while skateboarding dude i'm really happy that you brought this up i was actually gonna this was one thing i wanted to talk about Because I, before doing this podcast, because I'm hopefully going to go skate after, I put on five different pairs of shoes. You mean you were testing, you just couldn't make a decision? Couldn't decide. Was this like a fashion reason or is this like a... Fashion. Fashion reason only, not performance based. Have you made a decision or do you want Jason to help you?

Well, so I decided to go with some red suede bands. They're called the Era. Yes, I'm familiar with the Era. But the suede model would be like an LX, I would think. Yeah, these are a little bit nicer. They're made for skating, so they have better insoles and stuff. They have the good technology on the inside, so your heels aren't crushed. Totally. Yeah, because vans are the coolest looking, but they're not the best for your feet. You got that right. The best for my feet are probably Converse. They got that Nike technology, baby. Yeah, man. But I don't feel comfortable skating in anything that isn't Vans. So you don't wear Osiris? Oh, I did. I bet you did. In fact, I got something for you if you want to look into the screen. Yeah, sure. Please. I'll let people know what's going on. Did Virgil send him a version three of the Louis Vuitton? Yeah, wow. Shit. Those are crispy as hell, too. Are those unworn? Yeah. Did you buy those to wear for fun or to skate in, or you just bought them because they're funny? So I did my comedy special that came out, or we filmed it last, sorry, we filmed it last summer. In it, there is a joke. where I say I'm an angry skateboarder with thick bangs and Osiris D3s. And I'm talking about when I was a kid. So in the behind me, I project this video that I found from a long time ago of some guy walking around and he's like really proud of his D3s. Right, please. But I couldn't get the rights to that video. So I just found some brand new Osiris D3s and just filmed. my feet walking uh and then projected that and i was able to get the rights osiris was down with that but like anyways damn i didn't i didn't realize you'd have to get rights to show a pair of shoes you bought on tv uh you well it's the logo like that big yeah true true yeah i guess hb hbo max i figured you know hbo max handles that for you you know what i mean

Yeah, dude, this was before HBO Max. I'm old school HBO at this point. That's even better because I was saying, you know, I hate Netflix. So I was really happy that your special is on HBO, a premium network, not that little budget Netflix shit. A legacy network. Legacy. Home box office. I've been really desperate to remain relevant. You know, I've been sort of bummed out because I had this whole tour planned and stuff and I had to cancel it. And I'm like, shit, I thought this was like my big moment. Whatever, I'll just promote. my special as much as I can. And so anytime I have a tweet on Twitter that does well, I, um, comment, if you like this tweet, go, how can I get you to watch my comedy special? And then most of the time people respond, uh, put it on Netflix. Yeah, that's pretty funny. It is tough. I mean, it used to be that HBO was the creme de la creme for having your comedy special on there. And now, you know, Netflix, it's just kind of like, it's like Amazon. It's just easier. Everyone has it and it's kind of stupid and maybe not the best, but it really is just the way that we all do it now. Yeah, everybody's got it. I still think HBO puts out. less stuff but probably more quality but like everybody's got netflix yeah i mean i think down the road you know you'll be you'll be grateful for the fact that you you had an hbo special thanks man i think so too i sure as hell hope so did you uh were you like a comedy head growing up or were you just like into skating and music and then found found comedy later i was into skating and music and and i really liked films like i would go like seek out whatever uh you know like as a kid it would be like the new wes anderson movie or something like that but uh but really like and then i liked blink 182 so much and they were sort of comedy adjacent and then jackass too so that that was like my my comedy as a kid um and then my buddy clay got really into todd berry and um dimitri martin and and uh

And all senior and junior year of high school. And then Zach Galifianakis. And then, like, that was my introduction into stand-up. Like, the comedians of comedy on Comedy Central. And Stella and stuff like that. Where did you go to shows? Like, what city did you see shows in? Music or comedy or whatever? I never saw a stand-up show until L.A., but I would go to Pensacola, Florida, and then Birmingham and Atlanta to see shows. Wow, I wonder if we crossed paths. I wonder if we were at the same, you know. What kind of music did you like? Probably all the same shit you like, bro. Did you ever go to see Bright Eyes or The Faint? Yes, definitely. 100% definitely saw that. I probably saw that three times in my life. I would go to the Masquerade in Atlanta. Yeah, I used to manage a band called Cartel. Oh, my God. Please don't mind what I'm trying to say. Me and my buddies are always singing that song. Wow, thank you. I don't see a dollar from that. But we had a long-standing relationship with the Masquerade. That was like a place that, I mean, I went there growing up, but then also like professionally we had this relationship. So, you know, they've turned that into now offices, which is so strange. I just noticed it's very weird. And they moved the venue, but it's not the same. But I saw a lot of like pretty legendary stuff. I feel like even I've been there. You have. It's like, it was there forever. And it was owned. The funny thing about that place is owned by this weird, like band called the impotent sea snakes that are, that are kind of like a guar light. Whoa. Whoa. Yeah. Very weird. You would think that Whitmer would, would be familiar with this band. I see bad. That does seem like something he'd be into. I agree. I went to Pensacola a lot too, actually. They had a little scene going on there. They did, yeah. That was my scene. That was where my band would play. Oh, I'm sorry. We didn't know you were. What was the band called? We were called Say Your Last.

How screamo was it? Yeah. It was really screamo at first. Really like spoken word kind of. Yes. Singy, screamy. Loud, loud, fast, like spoken word. Yeah, it would be like, it would be like, I stared at your broken eyes as the wind blew your hair behind your face. And I thought to myself, why are you walking? You know what I mean? Just like. Yeah, I do know exactly what you mean, actually. The ashes of her September never left my mind. And then trying to sing, like, suddenly belting out, like, You're ungrateful! But just not, like, I never would be like, gotta warm up to sing. And then I'd be screaming. And then I don't think I ever want to sing in key, live. as a kid, as a teenager. You didn't even know what it was to do it. I don't think I did. That's not a priority at that stage. That is a very specific style of music and no offense, but that is sort of when I stopped listening to that type of music. That was a little tough for me, but only because I'm a little older than you. Can I ask you who the leader of that genre for you would have been? What are the real... the innovators of that style for you well being from the south so you know it was like it all hit at once but you know for us it was pop punk it was it was like regular punk then blink 182 came and you know fuck the game up but i i love blink 182 and so like from there though it shifted for me into saves the day and cooler bands like uh and then um it evolved to be more like I got really just into mosh kind of in, you know, like Norma Jean and all these like Christian hardcore. All right. Well, Whitmer, thanks for coming on the podcast. It was great having you. Sorry, man. We have an embargo on Zayo on this podcast. Zayo was good. Zayo was good. No, they're not good guys.

Zeo, the first time I ever heard Zeo, I remember it because I got chills. It was Splinter Shards, The Birth of Separation, the very first song. That was the Lord moving through your blood. That has nothing to do with Zeo. Brother, you never forget your first Zeo, I'll tell you what. Wow, cool. I'm happy y'all know about all this stuff. I mean, I guess that stuff does feel very Southern to me, even though I'm not sure if it is. Well, I know that, like, I mean, Norma Jean was. Was from Atlanta. Yeah, and then. But let me explain something to you. As an Atlanta OG, Norma Jean got no respect. Okay. Because that was like, Atlanta was very anti-Christian. That's cool. Yeah, we were not at all, but we would always have to play at churches. And we were like. Yes. We were, in fact, I'd say the opposite of Christian. Did you tour? Yeah, we toured a lot. Oh, so this is like pretty real. Were you on a label and everything? Right when we got an opportunity to sign in quotes, I guess, we had recorded our track to be on this compilation album from this record label that was getting started in Central Florida in like Opelika, Florida or something like that. Yes. Called Stab Here Records. So we recorded our song for that compilation, and it was really exciting because we had a deal at Best Buy and all this stuff, and we played their festival, which was held at a skate park. Sounds great so far. Yeah, and we toured. It was great. But then what happened is everybody got cool, except for our drummer. So this was the height of... At this point, we were more of like a mosh band, just like... really heavy into breakdowns and two stepping and shit and not really any singing anymore. But then everybody got cool. Like I'll, and, uh, this is only something that I just recently realized with all of my buddies, um, who a lot of them live in LA now, but, uh, we all got like, I got more into like saddle Creek records and shit like that. And, uh, I can tell that by your look actually.

Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. I can tell you're a Saddle Creek disciple. Yeah, I loved it. It really changed the game for me. So when you say they all got cool, what exactly do you mean by that? We just got out of a... We were no longer seen. We just kind of started to develop our own kind of individual thing that wasn't based on what the older kids in the scene and the bands were doing. I guess, like, we got faster internet, really, is what happened. Sure, sure, sure, sure. Like, I got into Elliott Smith and Bright Eyes and The Cure, and then my buddy Clay, who was also in the band, got really into, like, pavement and built the spill and stuff. Damn, you guys did glow up. I love where this is going. So everyone went in their own direction and then that kind of... Well, so, like, our drummer, we were all 17 when our band broke up. And this was, you know, we had just gotten this opportunity with this record label. But we didn't care. We had toured all through high school and we were totally over it. Just so over it. Having to tour and play shows to nobody or open for some Christian band called This Day Will Burn. Which is the truth. And getting paid $40. Yeah, being forced to pray before a show. We were just so over it. But our drummer was 23. And he was like super scened out, like really loved it. But all of the rest were 17. And one day we were about to have to go to band practice and we were all looking at each other. We were driving away from high school and our drummer was waiting for us at the rehearsal space. And we looked at each other like, what do you want to do? He didn't have band practice. And we were like, oh, I'd go skate or like, oh, I'd go see a movie in Mobile or something like that. And then we all just were kind of like, do you guys not want to be in the band anymore? And we were like, yes, we can do that. We can just not be in the band. And we were like, yeah. So we call our drummer who's waiting for us. He's 23. And we just got an opportunity to sign to this little label. And we call him. We go, hey, man, we all quit. And so we all quit the band. Then a bunch of us move out to L.A. Now me and my buddy Clay, who.

We're like writing partners together. And my other buddy, Jeremy, he owns a business out here that he supplies canvas for artists. He's doing well and stuff. We went on to go to Hollywood and find our dreams and figure it out. And our drummer, he hanged back. I'm just realizing this. He hung back. He just laid low. In that moment, we stripped him away from everything. That was his future. We fucked him over so bad. What is he doing now? Which piece of place does he work at? I mean, we still talk. The truth is, he moved to Orlando and started doing stand-up there and that's how he got me to do stand-up but now he lives back in Alabama and I'm not I'm not exactly sure what he's up to but yeah it's crazy how life works out like that but I'm glad that you came to Tinseltown and made it though welcome to Hollywood baby it was meant to be I don't live here but I'm on the welcoming committee so it's it's a it's a weird thing we figured out I appreciate it. Whitmer, when I was watching your special a while ago, it seemed that you had some real honest-to-goodness hometown pride. Has that changed as the last few months have gone by? Or are you still proud to call yourself a Floribamian? I'm proud to be from Alabama. Honestly, when I was filming my special, it was like... for those of the, for whoever, you know, it's like the special, it has a lot of documentary elements to it. And there's like, you know, it was really hard to, to not film all of the Trump paraphernalia and all of the crazy Confederate flags. It was like, we were trying really hard to kind of represent the nostalgic version of my hometown that I have. I have like, cause it used to not be so conservative in that kind of way. It was,

When I was a kid, it was mostly like hippy dippy black sheep. People from the South would move there to get away from their overbearing families or they got a divorce and they would. It was kind of a place where runaways would go to raise their family. All the chillers would go to. Yeah, but then really the oil spill happened in 2009 or 10. And it kind of in a similar way to the pandemic now, it kind of like. It brought out everybody's true colors. Like, do we hold off on tourism for a second and rebuild the environment? Or do we say, fuck it and just keep selling, keep buying, ignore it, bury it. And I think it brought out like some unevilness to it brought more evil from the rest of the South to kind of this little chill island town. And then Donald Trump has been elected. And so everybody just is kind of like, cool, I can be lazy. I don't have to care about the world. And now with the pandemic, I mean, everybody's just, you know, it's getting bad. Like my brother just got a promotion at his job because everybody in the entire office got COVID. Yes. Where does he live? Does he live there? Yeah, he lives there. He just moved there back home. So like he, he was looking for a job and they were like, we only have one job to offer you and it's a big one. And he was like, oh shit. All right. Wow. It's fucked up. Yeah, I mean, I've experienced a little bit of a similar situation. I'm from Orange County, California. So a lot of similar vibe used to be like kind of a sleepy, cool town where, you know, some long hair bros would live and they just care about burritos and surfing and stuff. And now the same vibe. And I always really yearn for that nostalgic version of it from my childhood to when it was a really a special place before it got fucked up. Oh, yeah, dude. I still have hope, but I think it's going to take people starting to become concerned with the environment, at least in my hometown. And then once people start to become aware of that, hopefully they'll do the other research. Yeah, I guess for a place like that, if the environment itself is fucked up, then the tourism is kind of screwed up. Right, yeah. I'm assuming I've never been there. Do you go back? You hadn't been back in a long time, right?

I hadn't been back to that capacity. Usually, when I had come back recently, it had been just for a couple days, and I didn't really leave where my dad lives, which is not even in Gulf Shores. So, yeah, that was the longest I had been back, and that was the most I had seen people, really. But, yeah, I used to go back twice a year, and I would always do a show. But then I kind of found as I got past my mid-20s and I still wasn't doing anything in my career, it became more depressing for everybody from my hometown to go watch me do comedy. They'd be like, eh, he's still doing something. Sure, sure. I mean, I understand that. So going back is normal, but how long were you there when you shot that? Were you there for a couple weeks? No, we were there for a month. Oh, shit, you were there for a month. Okay, that's a long time. Yeah, man, because we shot all this documentary shit, and we really didn't know. I mean, we shot so much stuff. The first cut of my comedy special was two hours long, and now it's an hour. Honestly, most of what we used was two days' worth of footage out of the whole month. It's wild. Has it been hard for you to? to deal with, you know, having releasing this big special and then, you know, having to stop your career sort of because of this, how have you been handling that? It's been, it's been hard. It was, you know, I had a whole tour planned as excited, you know, I've always like struggled financially and then also just trying to get people to be aware of me to buy tickets to shit. And then with the special is exciting because. I was like, wow, I finally get to maybe sell tickets. People are aware. You get an HBO hour or a Netflix hour or whatever, and then that's how you springboard yourself to the next level as a comedian, usually. Right, and now it definitely feels like people have moved on from that. Nowadays, if I tweet like, hey, check out this joke that HBO posted on YouTube, it's like...

A like, you know, man, there's other things going on. So I feel like I feel like maybe it's an opportunity for me to to really think about a comedy special that isn't so much a documentary. It's more, you know, like I'm trying now to just figure out. Like the best next hour that I can so that if I have to rebuild my entire audience, it'll be with something good. Yeah, but I think what you did is pretty interesting and goes beyond comedy. You know what I mean? Which is probably... I imagine reception's been pretty good, partly for that reason. Oh, yeah, dude. The reception is... I mean, I'd never experienced anything like that. People were so supportive and so cool. And so I got so many great messages from people who had kind of had a similar experience. similar upbringing or you know yeah you should explain i guess we should talk about your mom and like how that plays into the story uh for people that don't know for everyone that doesn't know what what happened is my mom died when i was uh just barely an adult and um she drank herself to death and she was a musician who had came really close a bunch of different times in her life to kind of properly making it i guess is what like a big record deal or something like that. I kind of grew up watching her struggle and then she became this, the house band at this bar in Alabama called the floor Bama, which is kind of like really popular, famous bar down there. Um, and then, uh, yeah. So then now I'm 30 when I was shooting it and I am sort of floundering and flailing in my own career. And I just kind of couldn't, um, stop making parallels to my own career and hers. And my mom would always call me the golden one as a kid. And she would say like, you're kind of the one who's going to figure out how to make it in the arts. And so it was just kind of, it's me spinning out. And if you watch it, I go home, I talk to my mom's sister, who's her identical twin sister, who they were in the band together.

I talked to my dad. I talked to all these people who, you know, I had kind of a weird childhood in a way, like a lot of the strange people in my life. And so it's kind of me going back home and reckoning with that. And I perform at the Floor Bama where my mom would always perform to all of my mom's friends and fans. So it was really weird. No, it's crazy. I mean, I think that's what I mean. To me, that goes so far beyond comedy. It's a totally different story where comedy is like a portion of it. I feel like after you completed that whole story, I mean, do you kind of feel like anything else in your career seems easier or somewhat? Like you kind of tackled or you had your first special sort of be, you know, the piece de resistance, if you will. Or like the type of thing that somebody would make maybe at the end of their career, like a big introspective thing where you tie it all together and you kind of did that first. So I feel like, you know, anything after that, I don't know if it will be easier, but. Well, the good news is for me is I don't know if I'll ever make something as far as my state goes that's that personal. And so it's off the table completely. It's like from here on out, I just get to be a comedian and I get to. obviously talk about my own life and trauma and whatever, but the main goal for me is to bring joy and to explore my own life and whatever my own anxieties, but I just want total joy. I don't ever want to film another stand-up special where I'm telling a joke about someone and that person, I'm looking at them. You know what I mean? Dude, I was watching... I was going through YouTube because I'm trying to make a YouTube channel because I just need something to work on right now. We're going to get into that. Don't worry. Oh, sick. So I was going through my YouTube and I found all these videos of me for HBO doing my hour and I was just watching to send this hour out to people to see if I could get a special out of it. And I'm so much funnier than I am in these.

videos because I'm doing it in LA or New York or Chicago or Portland, like where I'm not having to be telling a story about a place while also being in that place. Like, so when I look at me in the golden one special, I'm like, Oh dude, I am not, I am so in the moment that I'm having a hard time remembering my jokes. Like it's pretty wild for me. It's like embarrassing to watch. Yeah, I guess part of the fun of moving to LA and New York is being able to talk shit on the rest of the world without them knowing. And that's taken away. Well, that's one thing I'll say about one thing I love about where I'm from is I've always in my comedy made fun of them, like made fun of Alabamians and they laugh harder than anywhere. Like I even do it. I do a song called Dumb in Love, which is about how like I wish I was a fucking idiot. because I'd be a lot happier. And I talk about, like, I wish I could fuck like I'm not registered to vote and all this kind of shit. And the Alabamians laugh a lot. At first, they always clap in the beginning because they're like, yeah, because I'm like, I don't want to be an anarchist. I just want someone sweet to kiss. And they're like, yeah. And it's like, I'm just saying all this stuff I don't want to be. And then they hear, I just wish I, I wish I was a stupid asshole, idiot, bitch. And then it kind of feels like a little energy of like when Borat does those songs, the fake songs playing for, for the audience and they actually end up liking it and clapping along. Yeah, totally. When did you, how, how did you decide to start integrating the music? uh so i had recorded an album of sincere music just like i'd always written music when i first moved to la i was in a band before i started doing stand-up and and then uh i had just had all these songs that i sort of my stand-up stuff sort of distracted me from making music and so i got a pal to record them and i was just listening back to them and i just felt like totally embarrassed by it and

I keep, that's like a through line for all of this whole. Yeah. I was going to say the embarrassment thing really keeps coming up. Yeah, dude. Just so absolute. Cause it's like very, it was just vulnerable and so sincere and like earnest and it's like kind of G in a way. And so like, I was just listening back to all the music and just thinking like, this is fucking cheesy. Like, what am I talking about here? Like, and, uh, at that same time, my agents dropped me. And I had been trying really hard to do stand up on like Conan or something. And I because I no longer had that anymore, like someone trying to push for me to get on Conan and submitting the way it works is you just keep submitting five minute tapes until they hopefully say, all right, this is the one. Yeah, I just started to jokingly go and take that those demos that I had recorded with my friend. onto stage and sing them but i would change the lyrics to be like if i was singing a song about like how i miss my dead mom i would i would change it to be more like oh i would just say like i miss my dead mom or something like that you know what i mean kind of take out the metaphor sure sure live and direct just live and direct yeah yeah um and it started with this song called party to death that i sing and like And then I just found that it was really fun. It was like fun to do bits and jokes and tell stories that were maybe sometimes sad or whatever, but then sing a song that kind of doubled down on all of it. Yeah. And yeah, so that's where everything sort of came together. I'd already been doing my show called The Golden One, but then when I added music to it is where I felt like it started to make more sense. Daddy Comes Alive. Who do you have in your life that kind of helps push you through these situations where you might be feeling embarrassed to put some of this stuff out? My girlfriend, Mitra Jahari is her name. She is just encouraging and cool to me with all this kind of shit. And all of her friends and stuff. And then I have my other pal, Anna, Sarah Gina.

Yeah, I mean, it's difficult. I don't know. I hope that there's a moment in my life where I'm finally just at peace with it. But no matter what I do, I always feel ashamed. I mean, I think with everything that you put out there, it has to get a little bit easier or more comfortable. But you might have a longer road than other people, sure. Yeah. Yeah. You know, any growth is positive growth. Well, what, you know, how has your relationship been affected during this, during our quarantine going on? Are you guys, is there anything that we can learn from you too? We're moving in together. So I think it's been good. It's like, I think we kind of, thanks. I think if anything, we sort of learned how to give each other more space. Like we don't need to be around each other all the time. We found that out, I guess, at the beginning of May or end of May. Do you schedule that type of time apart or does it just happen kind of organically? Not really. It just kind of happens organically. Basically, if either of us have anything to do the next morning, then we just don't stay there at night. We go back and forth between our places. She's busy, though, man. She works two jobs. Bro, you skate every day. I know, I know, I know. You're working just getting in the way of my skating. Don't discount that, okay? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's your version of playing golf, I guess. Right. Gotta get into golf. Since comedians are not able to do any live shows, obviously, that's hurting things. You kind of seem like a very creative person. What are you doing? I know you mentioned the YouTube channel. What are some ideas that you have for getting out there and sharing your comedy with the world? I'm all about that YouTube. So I tried TikTok. People don't like me on there, man.

I posted a fake video of me making something called a burger dog, which I know I didn't make up, but I say in the video, I made this up. This is something I invented. It's part of a larger video that's on YouTube of whatever. I'm just cooking in it. It's like a workout. The video is a 30-day fitness challenge video. Yeah. It includes fitness as well as health and diet. In the video, I am on an all-protein-only diet. And so I make a burger dog, which is just, I don't even break up the ground beef out of the package. I just toss it into a pan and cook it and then put it on hot dog bun. So like when you get, when you get ground beef in the store, it's in like the plastic tray with the wrap on it. And then you just take that and dump it straight into the pan in that kind of rectangle shape. Yeah. Do you put salt on it? No, I didn't. Well, for the video, I didn't put anything on it. I maybe put some butter on it so it wouldn't stick to a pan. But anyway, yeah. People are like, this is bullshit, man. Well, on Instagram, people are like, ha, ha, ha. And on YouTube, people are like, ha, ha, ha. We get it. You're making a joke. TikTok, no, no, no. They think it's like, it's so worth checking out the TikTok comments because everybody goes, bruh. No seasoning? Bruh, that cheese isn't even melted, bruh. Bruh, yeah, nah, bruh, I'm good. I don't know what that says about TikTok, but. It sounds like a generational difference to me. It sounds like a younger crowd. Yeah, for sure. Younger who like. I don't know what is technically funny on TikTok, except for, like, little kids doing funny stuff. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Or, like, an animal doing something that they're not supposed to be doing, whatever that's funny. But, like, human-based comedy on TikTok is very, like, low-level intelligence for me. It's, like, pranks that are not actually pranks. You know, it's, like, very obvious that both people on both sides are in on it.

yeah it's it's i mean the dancing stuff isn't funny really right that's impressive though it's just yeah i mean that's skill based but it's not funny that's not the point though i guess yeah and then there's like dudes like e-boys making girls horny i feel like you could i feel like maybe you could do an e-boy thing and that would work for you yeah i was thinking about really i have a wig that is e-boy Kind of adjacent, so I was thinking maybe I could do just a full-on e-boy. My TikTok is exclusive to me being an e-boy. That'd be pretty cool, actually, if you just paint your fingernails. What makes a wig e-boy style? It's like Devin Sala haircut. Yeah, that'd be really cool. Actually, I really like this for you. You might need a pseudonym, though, you know? Yeah, maybe Woody T. Woody T. Witty T doesn't sound like an e-boy. Witty T sounds like a bartender in Florida, Bama. Oh, yeah, you're right. Damn. I want you to be named Charlie, but with a Y or something like that. Yeah, that could work for sure. For sure. Damn. Yeah. Okay. Okay. It sounds like you've been sitting on Witty T for a while, though, and you're anxious to use it. Well, Witty T is a fake YouTuber character. I already did. So I thought maybe I could just transition that into. Have y'all ever watched those YouTube like t-shirt reviews where it's like, it's usually British guys who are like, today I'm going to teach you how to find the perfect white t-shirt. And it's just like some super handsome guy trying on a bunch of, and he goes, I got this from H&M, from H&M. It was six pounds. And it's just like a long excuse for them to take off and put on different shirts. Yeah, and this same guy does how to take the perfect photo for Instagram. What you want to do is go ahead and get yourself a nice Nikon digital camera. He goes, find a perfect place with a plain background and use depth of field. I love depth of field. And he goes, my favorite part about my new camera is adjusting the camera's iOS settings. He says iOS instead of ISO. Damn, that sounds good.

Dude, you've got to watch this guy. That sounds really good. I didn't know you were so well-versed in YouTube. Well, the 30-day challenge video I made is a parody of YouTube videos, and then me and my buddy Kaylee have also made a parody of a YouTuber before, so we've done a ton of research watching all these YouTubers. Yeah, there's a lot of YouTube 30-day challenges and things like that going on. I love watching those things, man. Have you ever done any of those? real actually done those i've done a few things like that no i mean i i've started intermittent fasting since the quarantine just so i don't like eat a bunch of bullshit all the time but uh no i've never really done anything like that what's your what's your fasting time frame that you're eating noon to eight classic yeah classic are you getting fat you're losing weight what's going on with it I'm staying the same. Sometimes maintenance is key, bro. Let's not put a lot of pressure on ourselves. Yeah, when I was watching the 30-day body challenge video, you were kind of talking about how you can have the mentality of being able to eat even worse food once you start working out. And that's a real thing. It is, yeah. I mean, that's probably what I would do when I was younger. I think I would eat whatever I wanted all the time because I was like, oh, I lifted a weight today. But nowadays, it's very different. Very different. What's the workout looking like for you? In real life? Yeah. In real life, I ride a stationary bike for 20 minutes and then I lift weights for like 10 minutes. That's it. And then I try to skate a couple times a week. That's good. Not bad. Not bad. I watch Batman the Animated Series while I do it. Okay, well that takes away from it a little bit. You watch it every day over and over again? No, a new episode every day. There's like 300 episodes. Honey, I'm home. So you use that as your timer? Yeah, I do. I see. Interesting method. Any port in the storm, brother. Yeah, what do y'all do? You don't want to know.

Okay. Tennis? Yeah, we play tennis together. He works out a lot more. He runs a lot. That's a big thing of his. I'm more of a bicycle man myself. Cool. Cool. Oh, yeah. I saw that the satellite closed down where you guys used to do shows all the time. Yeah, it's crazy. What do you think is going to happen with live music and comedy venues? Dude, I don't know, man. I think we need the world to sign a petition or something saying we're just comfortable paying $30 a show for a year or something like that. I know that people will want to go to shows. I don't think people will be scared. I agree with you on that. I think there are going to be freaks that stay at home for the rest of their lives, but overall people are chomping at the bit to get out there. Yeah, dude. I am, and I go follow the rules pretty well. You seem like a pussy. That makes sense. Yeah. I'm a total COVID pussy. Yeah, I think that's a good... People will talk a lot about the restaurant world, about how they just have to be okay. Everyone has to be okay with the fact that you're going to have to pay more money and it's going to become a luxury thing that you don't do all the time and live music and comedy. It's the same shit with fucking COVID, with the lockdown and shit. It's like, okay, for the next year, everything is twice as expensive. It's the same shit with lockdown. If everybody would have locked down, If it was, like, you know, ordered by Trump to, you know, stay inside for two months, we wouldn't have a pandemic right now. We'd be fine. But, like, you know, it's just people just need to accept it. Well, I'm sick of you stamping on my rights, brother. You're right, sir. You know, I'm going to do whatever the fuck I want. No one can tell me. What are we going to do about it? Fuck masks. Yeah, masks are annoying because they're hot. That's number one.

Yeah, I mean, I... What kind of mask do you rock? I'm doing this just classic surgical paper mask. That's the only one that I can co-sign. Yeah. I don't like personality. I don't like personality via mask. Same. It's good for breathability. The best breathability going on. Yeah, you got to have that paper if you want to breathe, yeah. Damn, that's true. That's the commentary on society. You're right. You got to be rich to breathe. I see what you're saying. Yeah. Whitmer, what part of LA do you live in? I live in Highland Park. Oh, no. Oh, no. What's going on? Norma Jean, now Highland Park? Oh, you're killing me, man. Highland Park is the Norma Jean of L.A. neighborhoods. It's true. What's Cartel doing? That's what I want to know. Well, not much. They've disbanded, but I feel like they did the Warped Tour cruise, which I'm sad to say I didn't go on. When was the war tour cruise? Jesus. I wanted to pitch a story about it where I go reunite with them on this cruise. You know what I mean? That's cool. I don't know when it was. A couple years ago? Maybe a year and a half ago? Damn. I know they got paid a pretty nice sum of money to reunite for some fan's wedding. Whoa. Which is funny. But other than that, I don't really know. I keep in touch with some of them, but they're all still like... The one Kevin, the drummer, I keep in touch with the most is he owns bars in Nashville. He's not in the music business at all anymore. Okay. Were you working with them when they did that MTV album in a bubble thing? Yep. Yeah, it was. That was prime time for him. I am on it. Yeah, we orchestrated that whole idea. Whoa. Well, I mean, it was a previous. It was a show that existed in Australia, which doesn't really count. It ruined their career. Why? because people thought the album was actually recorded in the bubble where it was all faked so they judged it accordingly oh shit all right so they were pretending that it was all recorded in the bubble but it was actually just in a normal studio yeah it was recorded the same way the first album everybody loved was and and i don't i mean i i actually think it held up better than i thought it did like at the time i i was like oh

This could have been better. And it still, I think, could have. But overall, I think it was judged unfairly because of the circumstances. Gotcha. But you know what? That bag hit had to do it. You know how it is. You're a Hollywood guy. Yeah. When HBO calls, you answer the phone. You're damn straight, man. And you buy buffalo wings right away. That's what I do. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, what did you spend your big fat check on? Vans. Did you buy new cool musical gear? Oh, yeah, I just did. In fact, I got a new bass and a new nice mic, a new interface. It's all stuff that I can write off, I think. And I got a car. I drove my car down to Alabama, and it was literally held together with tape. So which Prius did you get? I bought a Subaru Outback. Oh, yes. There we go. The crunchy Prius. Great. Did you get a funky color or just regular? No, I got black. That's fine. I could see Whitmer pulling up in that Advil-colored Subaru. You know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah. I was just talking about that terrible color. Who wants that color? It must be cheaper. It's got to be cheaper. Yeah. I think about cars that are in terrible colors a lot because once you have it, they're really hard to get rid of because I assume nobody would want to buy them on the secondary market. Yeah. It's the kind of shit that keeps me up at night, I guess. Jason really tackles the important stuff when he's alone. I do. Well, Whitmer, thank you so much for potting with us, buddy. Yeah, this was really fun. I feel like I want to interview y'all. Well, let us know when you start a podcast. I'm sure it's going to happen soon. Yeah, it actually already did happen. Okay. Well, is there anywhere that you want people to check out? Any new vids or anything online that we should look for?

Go watch my comedy special on HBO, and if you don't got that, then just look for clips. If not, then look at my Instagram and comment on all the nicest stuff on everything. Oh, and on YouTube, on my YouTube videos, because comments are important, apparently. For the algorithm. Yeah, that's what I learned on watching How to Be a YouTuber videos. But yeah, his special on HBO really is truly special, so I would recommend it. Thanks, Whitmer. We appreciate it. Thanks, y'all. I'll see you soon. Later.