I heard so much about you guys, man. Yeah? It's very nice to meet you all. Or see you again. Yeah. And then, yeah, because I did... Dropouts? Oh, my God, I'm so sorry. Oh, no, you're good. I've been doing... I'm like eight hours, and this is my first thing I'm meeting today. So I didn't mean to not remember that. They were so cool. And they sang your praises. They said, You're the best people.

That's right. Yeah, that's right.

And they said, Definitely do it. I was like, I am doing it. Actually, I tried to reach out. I couldn't get in touch with you guys for a minute.

Call him out.

Wait, no, no. He's in charge. I'm really bad at emails. Wait, when did you try to reach out?

I had my publicist reach out three times.

No way. I'm so sorry. No, I usually catch that. No, no, no.

There's no apology. Not believe me. I get it.

No, I'm tired of these guys.

No, no. I'm tired of these guys. No, no. My team is fired. No, No, really?

I'm usually pretty good, right? Every time we get somebody, I hit you guys up immediately. Oh, my. I don't know where that went.

I even knew that you guys wanted... Because my dad, months ago, told me, Oh, my friend's daughter, they love you. Come on. And I said, Where are they? And he said, You're out here. I was like, Well, when I go out there, I'll reach out. My dad's cosigned you. Matt is so confused right now.

What's the connection between you? Can we roll the intro?

Yeah, let's roll the intro.

We didn't start yet. But we did.

It was like a little intro.

It was like a little intro. Got to tease him a bit.

It's Cava Tal, baby.

Let's go. We just dance.

Just feel the vibe. A little party. All All right.

Welcome back to Zane & Heath on Filter, baby. I'm Zane. I'm Heath.

I'm Matt.

I'm Mariah. And today we have a very, very special guest. We have Sal Volcano here with us today.

Sal in the house.

I feel your energy, man. No, thank you. I feel it. Turn it on. You got me buzzing.

So, yeah, so the backstory, Mariah's dad is best friends with Sal's dad. No way.

Yeah, he's one of his dearest, oldest best friends.

They work together.

Our dad's worked together, New York Sanitation for many, many years. Sal's sister used to babysit me.

Had you said this before? Okay.

Briefly, I was just like, We have a connection, but I haven't gotten into it.

I think it must have been on an episode, Matt. You weren't on it because I think it was like, Zack and Jared were here, and that may have been when you were out of town. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so you missed that one.

Isn't that crazy? What a small world. Small world indeed.

I will say this is crazy, but one of my earliest memories in my entire life, I think I was three. You know how you see pictures and videos of yourself as a kid? You can't tell if it's a memory or if you just saw pictures. I have no pictures and videos of this. It's my earliest memory of your dad teaching me how to do this.

Oh, that's his signature move. I saw him do that two weeks ago.

Really? So it's still does it. It's not like a fake memory. It's an actual...

For the people listening, it's a classic...

He's like, Your finger is coming off. Watch the video.

Scarred you for life.

I lived with him. I was like, He's got to pull his fingers off. Every day, Good morning. I will say, when I was on the dropouts, they said, Oh, you got to go on the... And I said, I am. And they said, Is it true that you babysat Mariah? And I just was like, Oh. I was like, I don't think so. I'm not quite the babysitter. But I could be wrong. So if she said that, then I probably did, but I don't remember. And I felt so guilty.

Yeah, I don't remember your sister babysitting me.

I may have actually fucked that up. I think I said that he babysat you on the podcast, and I don't think anybody ever corrected me. All of it's wrong. She babysat me.

Yeah, right. Did you have babysitters as a kid? Yeah. You still remember them all?

Yeah, I remember a bunch of them, sure.

Did you have a favorite one?

Were they hot? Let me think of them in my head.

No.

Yes, twins.

So It's two ways.

At the same time. At the same time. It took turns. I guess that's all I'm calling up right now.

Was babysitting back then where… Because I feel like now…

It was safe. Now you have to worry.

Yeah, now you have to worry. I feel like it's really expensive now, too. You can't just get a babysitter. Not anyone can afford that.

Once they put an app on something, prices skyrocket.

Okay, because I feel like back then, it was everybody had a babysitter.

Oh, yeah, everybody. I don't even think the barrier to entry was that big. I feel like if you were 11, you could babysit.

I was 11. I was babysitting. When I first started babysitting at 11 or 12, I was watching four kids under the age of five. I'm like, Yeah, I can do it. But my mom said I wasn't allowed to take the money until I was 16. She was like, You're doing it for the goodness in your I'm like, All right.

So they collect interest?

Yeah. No, your parents were pocketing the money. Yeah, we'll give it to her.

Our daughter costs $5 an hour.

No, your mom would be like, It's going straight to Jesus.

Yeah, that's going to the church. Sunday Mass, you're putting that in the basket.

The baskets coming around.

I do that thing when someone makes believe they're going to also chip in for the bill. When the baskets come in, I'm like, No, no, no.

They need an Apple Pay. They're like, Then I'd really do it.

I guarantee you that's coming. It's genius, actually.

The church I went to, they're actually nice about it. They just sent the baskets down the row. So you just send the baskets down the row, so nobody's really watching you.

But if you had your phone, I would just try to be like, Just showing off this screen doing 20 this time. Because people can tell how much cash you're throwing in. It's a mystery on the phone.

Some people throw in an envelope, though, and they leave it anonymous. That means you have a good heart.

Yeah, that's good.

Are you an anonymous giver? I feel like I...

I'm an anonymous giver. If your friend is having a go fund me for one of their friends.

Then they public their name to show how much they get. It'll be the biggest amount.

They'll put 500 bucks and name is on.

I've only ever done anonymous. Yeah, me too. I give a lot. That's good. Let this be known. If you see a really nice anonymous, it most likely was me.

It was good. It's so funny because we've seen your dad so much recently. We've to so many weddings.

Yeah, he was at my sister's wedding.

He went to a wedding very recently.

Yeah, two weeks ago, we went to a wedding, and he was still with my parents.Oh, so that was the one?Oh, wow. And he said, Come here. Tell your friend to contact Sal back because he hasn't heard back from anybody. All right? I was like, Okay.

I went the extra step because I didn't want to let you guys down. I knew that we had this connection, and I knew that you guys had asked me a while back, and I'm not going to get here often. So everything aligned. So when the publicist didn't hear back, I went to my dad and I told him to contact your dad. Yeah, he did. To go through that way. Still didn't hear anything. Sometimes you got I truly, after that conversation that you told us that you had, I didn't think it really got anywhere.

I'm so surprised that you've contacted us three times.

No, our fathers are so embarrassing, right?

It's really funny because her dad was sharing stories. I'm sure you know, but he was talking about your dad during the sanitation days. Oh, boy. It was so funny because I guess he was known as Don't Get Me Dirty, Sal.

Never heard that in my life.

Apparently, he was like, Don't Get Me Dirty.

Yeah.

He was like, didn't want to get dirty, didn't want to touch the trash or anything like that. The apple doesn't fall far. He was just always spotless. He said, your dad, instead of riding on the back and tossing the trash in, he would pick up homeless people on the street and give them cash to I said that, he did do that. And then throw it over.

And then he would give the homeless guys his Christmas bonus.

Every time he would get a Christmas bonus, he would go back and find them and he would give them all the cash.

I've seen him do it. Anonymously.

I thought that was so cool.

As a little kid, maybe not garbage, but when it snowed and he had to use the salt trucks, sometimes it was late at night or earlier. I don't really think they paid too much attention to the salt trucks because it wasn't a company. It's probably completely illegal, but I used to go with him to work. I used to see a lot. I've seen him interact with people, giving money. Anybody of any type of older age, he never made them put their garbage out. He would go into their yard all the way and then come back. Yeah, good doing. He's a very sweet guy.

He's a very sweet guy.

Yeah, he's the best. It's so crazy that sanitation was such a respected job back then. If you had it-Especially in New York. It still is now. Yeah, I can get sanitation.

I have mad respect for anybody who is doing it.

No, I'm not saying-It needs more respect.

Just a respectable job. It probably goes like fireman, cop. If you're thinking of the city jobs.

But the new generation coming up, when they hear Garbage Man, this is what happens. My eight-year-old cousin, my dad was going I'm going to work, and he goes, Where are you going? And he said, Oh, I'm going to work. He thought it'd be cool to tell an eight-year-old kid, I drive a dump truck.

Kids would be like, Trucks are cool.

That's awesome. I drive a truck. You know what he said back? Oh, so you didn't go to college? Oh.

Eight years old said that. That is cold. What in the world? And what do you say when it's true? You're like...

It's only if it's not true.

Crazy. Kids know too much.

That assumption is also that there is not one college-educated sanitation. It's pretty broad. He's also a little rolling.

It's so funny. What did you want to be when you were a kid?A.

Comedian.a.

Comedian? All right. Six years old, you wanted to be a comedian.

Yeah.

Wow. Congrats on the special, by the way.Thank.

You so much.Terrified?Phonomenal, right?

Where's it on?

It's on YouTube on 800 Pound Guerrilla, which is a stand-up comedy channel. But just Salvocano, Terrified, you'll find it. It just came out. Actually, my first full-length special this.How nervous were you?How nervous were you?

That's a huge accomplishment. This is the first one where you're obviously-So nervous to film it or nervous to release it?Release.Release it.

Yeah, there's anxiety there. It comes with nerves. It's not so much like it's a lot of different things banging on at once. It's like, okay, I felt the only barometer of what I could think is funny, I have to go through my own filter, and I felt it was funny. I worked on it so hard, and I meticulously and I really poured everything I wouldn't put it out if I thought that it was short somewhere. To me, I was like, I feel like I have something good. I have no idea how anyone else is going to react. Also, it's like, I'm educating a lot of people that I am a stand-up because there's so many people know me from this. I have people that follow me, but people beyond that have no idea. I could never bring them in because I didn't have anything to show for it. That was a big thing. There's a lot going on here. Look at this. Then also, that's it. You never say those jokes ever again. It's retiring them. You know what I mean?

Yeah, it's like a farewell. But you go out with a bang. What city did you-Chicago. Oh, nice. Any reason for Chicago? Did you have a connection where that was like, you've had shows in the past, you're like, I always love their energy.

Yeah, they're a well-known crowd. It was really theater-based. I wanted a venue that was a theater but played like a club. There's a few of those in the country, the Wilbur, Boston's like that. The Vic is where I shot mine in Chicago. It's like this balconies and everything, but they're right on top of you. Dual music venue. Comedy, you got to be in close quarters for it to be the best. They came out, too. The one thing I was worried about is I want this special that I'm finally putting on tape to be at least representative of some of the best crowds I've ever had. If I'm showing you it, I want to show you the best experience I have. You do wonder because on any given day, you get a dud crowd. It It doesn't matter. Not that it would be a dud special, but in my mind, knowing what when I do my best versus this is fine for everybody, you want to get that. That was the nerves going into it, and they showed up, man. I think they were two of the best crowds I've ever had. Good. That's great. That's great.

That's great. That's great.

Could you do two nights and then just mash it all into one? Mm-hmm. Okay, that's how it works. And Ari Shafir produced it?

Executive produced it.

So how does that work? He gives you money to help make it happen, or does he have a say in any of it?

Sure. Any of it? Yeah. No. Money, I've self-produced it. Okay. I have a production company I started. I put up the money. I had a partner in my promoter. Shout out to Outback. The Steakhouse? The Steakhouse? The Steakhouse.

I was like, Outback, that's sick. They get into Santa. Okay.

I mean, a live events promoter. Outback presents, they're called. That's so funny. I should have just went with Outback.

They'd have been down for it, too. Yeah. I love that. By the way, I love that it's on YouTube. It's so easy, especially when you're doing PR runs, everyone can just go quickly to the YouTube. People can share it.

It's really great. The biggest benefits, as you guys probably know, it's instant access. It's free. What I want from this is the most possible people to see it. Yeah. This has been proven now. This is really one of the top players in stand-up comedy. We get stats on all this stuff, and Last year, the top 50 most watched stand-up comedy specials, one on Amazon. I think it was 38 on Netflix and whatever the rest of the math is, it was on YouTube.Wow.Yeah.

Youtube's good. There's no barrier to entry. It's accessible to everybody, which is so good. There's no paywall or anything to click on people.

Click on people, anywhere, right? Netflix includes all the Chapelles and the birds. If you take all those out, and you compare it to just the same type, it's just as good a platform.

Yeah, right. That's so sick.

I love the typography on it. It's like an old-school... It's giving like, goosebumps.

Yeah, goosebumps. Absolutely. When I conceived this, I didn't just want to do random jokes. I wanted to have something cohesive that had a beginning, middle, and that was like, can be looked at as a hole. I didn't know what that was. I had all my material for it over the years, and I just sat with it, and I started to just try to find where the connections were. Because when I go on the road, it's like, I'll just plug and play anything I want. I go by the crowd. It's never from beginning to end. I didn't even know if I had it within all that. But then I started finding connections that a lot of my stories had some fear-based stuff in it. Something clicked one day. Also, my personality and my character was an exaggeration of my real personality, but I am a little bit…

A scaredy cat.

Yeah. I was like, Oh, that really resonates. Also, it's an interesting name, Terrified. Then I was driving with my buddy on the road, and we came up with the idea to take the inspiration from the old horror pop movie posters from the '60s, a creature from the Black Lagoon, Invisible Man. We brought all those up, and we just started getting ideas on it. We lifted the font directly from that.Oh, perfect.Yeah. Then the creature from the Black Lagoon, the esthetic, the colorway on the poster is what my backdrop was. It's just a subtle nod to it. No one knows, but we know. It just harkens to that poster and that thing.

It's really eye-catching, and then the green really ties it all in together. It's such a pretty thumbnail.

Thank you. Yeah, the green was a choice, too. Yeah. Thanks, guys. Of course.

Before we continue, we want to give a big thank you to our sponsor of this podcast, Better Help.

Keith, this year has gone so quickly, baby. What's something you're proud of in 2024 so far?

Baby, this show.

And what's something you still want to accomplish this year?

Fixing my mental health.

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I just don't want to be sitting in a waiting room waiting for a therapist to come see me. I don't want to have to sit around people. I don't have to be in this cold space that I don't really know. I'm not comfortable there. I want to be in the comfort of my own home. That's where I'd like to take my me time.

And they make you read old magazines.

Yeah, no. You know what I want to be doing while I'm talking about that? I want to have a face mask on. I want to I want to be eating popcorn because I want to hear the good, you know what I'm saying? I want to be in the comfort of my own home. I want to have my Jammies on. I want to have my hair slick back in a bun. I want to be in a blanky. And that's why I love Better Health.

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Again, that's betterhelp, H-E-L-P. Com/zaneandheath.

Thank you so much, Betterhelp, for sponsoring this podcast, helping us and helping everybody watching.

Also, you have a new season coming out of Impractical Jokers, right?

It's wild. Yeah, we just signed for two more.Un Unbelievable.Yeah. I can't believe it either.

What season are you on right now?

Right now, we're filming season 11, which we'll begin on... We're on TBS now, so that's cool. July 11th starts season 11. Very cool.

You guys started at what? In 2011, 2010?

2011 is when this show began to air.

Now, I think I heard this on another podcast that you said, you opened and You started a bar, and you were like a bartender at your own bar at the same time, was it this show that was on TV? You were serving at your own bar while that is playing on the TVs in the background. No way. How did that... Yeah, you It started a block.

It was terrible. I have a degree in finance, and when I got out of school for four years, I worked at Prudential Securities. It was never really for me. I worked with some really cool people, old people my age, made some good friends and stuff, but I I wasn't going to stay there. I left and I started bartending because I wanted a flexible schedule for comedy. As I'm bartending for all those years, too, I'm also like, Let me really learn this business because I have to have plan A, plan B, all that stuff. Actually, this wasn't planned. It's really I have to have plan A and that's plan B. But I learned the business. Then after nine years at this place, I took a leap with a couple of friends and I bought a bar. One month later, I got the television show. It was so crazy. Now, even I poured most of my life savings into the bar. When you start a business, you have to be there 24/7. There's no getting around that. Likewise with the show, it requires full dedication if you want to succeed. I was in a scenario where I had to do that for both.

It wasn't until Season 3 that I felt comfortable enough to say, I'll sell my share of the bar and I will become an entertainer full-time. For two years-ish, I would film from 8:00 to 5:00 and then go to the bar from 7:00 to 4:00. Wow. That's amazing. Four days a week, not seven, but it took a toll.

I would imagine.

But I wouldn't change anything.

Were people sitting there looking at you, ordering and then looking up at the TV and doing one of those?

It was on because of my friends and the staff. They made me put it on. It's also such a unique experience. I'm working with them for a decade, and now I'm on TV. It's just wild. I would have asked the person to put it on. But it's also I'm on TV and people are like, Bro, where's my Shirley Temple? I was like, Yes, sir. Action cherries. It just felt weird. That's you? All right. I'm sorry. I don't know who you are. I'm like, I know it wouldn't be weird if you did. It's like people don't know how to react to it. I don't like watching myself, even just alone. I won't watch myself with other people. I focus on things I don't like. I really am a shy person, save for when I am performing. So that whole scenario wasn't ideal for me at all.

Editing your own special, though, were you in the editing room making sure it's all good? Or you're like, I trust you, just put it out?

No, I got to shout out. My editor was Dan Cotter, this guy, and God bless him. So what happens is I got a file of all of these shows. And then I watched them down and I decided the moments that I wanted to take with the jokes from each one. And then down to the 100th of a second of the time code, I I would tell him where to cut because it's all about time. Even if I tried to do as much work on my end because he's just going to take all my notes and apply them. I don't have the skills. I had to make it as clear. The better document I give him, the better it's going to… I don't want to leave things uninterpreted. I tried really hard. Even if I'm turning and I wanted to cut from one show to another, to find the thing where my hand is here to… It's the continuity. Yeah. This dude just killed it. Everything I could him more. He designed the title card, and that's not even his job. He just went above and beyond.

Shout out to Dan, man. Dan is the man.

Every time I thought I'd go back with him. Because it's like, No. Because it's like, Let's try it this way. And then I watch, I'm like, Let's try it this way. Then I'm like, Can we go back to the other way, but then cut that out? Because you have to. You have to mold it. You know what I mean? I could cut 10 different shows with the same material. Editing is insane. As you guys know. You know what I mean? It's Mariah.

She does all the editing. That's me.

I I always feel terrible just over the editor. Every time, tell him, You know what? Go back. Actually, can you... I feel like the editor wants to kill me, and it's so hard to talk to them.

Every project you guys do, especially, Zane will go to the editor and he'll be like, Can you just send it to us. We'll just do it.

He has a vision.

It's hard to explain.

We can just do it. We're really good at cutting and shit, but when it comes to graphics and like green screen stuff, go right back to the editor. But we love to do just the cutting. The cutting is so boring.

We're good at comedic timing, so we get that. Absolutely. It's very important. It changes everything.

Exactly right. You could make something out of nothing or you could fuck something up. Yeah, exactly. I'm used to it. I edit our show. We all edit the Joker's show. Oh, I've edited hundreds of… That's good. I have a rhythm. I put it up on a document, and he would just check it off when it was done, or give me feedback if he disagreed or had another idea. It was very collaborative. I'm like you. Every time I asked him something that was a second time, I would always lead off of like, Hey, at your own…

Why are we like that?

It's like whenever it's convenient for you, would it be possible if you could... And then it's no worries if not. No rush. No worries if not.

Don't worry about it.

No rush. Like a $100 tip. You could just feel like, here, can you switch that?

And I'm paying him.

I've always wondered, behind the scenes of just TV shows in general.

You film it, you edit it. What's the process of it from getting to your guys' computer to it being there?

How do you upload on the TV?

How do you upload on TV? I always wanted to know the answer to that.

We don't even do that. That gets shipped out. It goes to the distributor. They do that. They distribute it to whatever channel. It's like a finishing process. That process is beyond my scope, actually. That's so interesting. But we give it to them ready, and then they do whatever they have to do to go through the motions of delivering it and maybe stamping it with certain things. I really don't know. Got it. But with us, they'll send us a string out of whatever we shot. And we usually have three rounds. It'll be an internal rough cut, which means nobody's seeing it but us. We go from there to a rough cut, and that's what we send to the network. And then we go from there to a fine cut, and then from there to a picture lock. So we usually have four rounds when we're editing something.

When it comes down to it being air, they still have final approval, Because it's on their network.

We don't deal with that now anymore, thankfully. You know what I mean? Because since we've been there, the whole entire regime has changed four to five times. Now we're there 13 years. We're there. Someone's not going to really come in now and be like, No. Whatever exec is assigned to our show, and it's working already. They just want to be part of the team. We don't really encounter that. If we have an idea that's a little whatever, it's usually like we have to argue with insurance or standards and practices, not really them. If we ever did, it's a give and take, but it doesn't happen often. Really, right now, it's the coolest thing because we get to... In the beginning, we had no creative control. Zero. The guy didn't like it. He cut it out. He had no mercy for anything. He didn't understand how the show was made. He would have us put 5 to 6 bits in a half hour episode. Just to give you, we do three now. Imagine all the stuff half the time. It was erratic. And then we had to shoot six bits. We shoot one bit a day Unless we're doing a double.

So there's so much more to do one episode. But it also didn't allow for anything that wasn't a quick hit joke. We want to live in a space with these people. That's where the magic is. We want to improvise and we want a scene to play off for two, three minutes. In the beginning, we didn't have that. We had to listen to them. Then that person left and the next people had a little more leniency. Then we started to become a hit. With success, we got a little bit more creative control and so on and so forth.

What's that creative process, though, as the group of Impractical Jokers, these new two seasons coming out, and you guys coming up with pranks and bits. Is this just like you all got a group chat? You're like, What if we did this for that? Or do you have a team of people that's just pumping out ideas and they go into a room and they're pitching you ideas and you guys How does it work off that? Where do the pranks come from? How are they birthed?

Absolutely. In just a general sense, just like I'm sure you guys, if I have an idea, I'm writing it down. That's just from me. I don't want to forget it. I'm always thinking.

On Notes app?

Yeah, Notes app. Because anything is usable. So all my experiences are usable.They might inspire something. Everything's causing. Just the same thing with joke writing. So I'm always being observant. In that respect, I'm sure we all jot stuff down, but no, it's a whole... We have 60, 70 person crew. We have offices, we have a writers room, we have locations producers, executive producers, we have a full staff.

Does the filming process take longer as the seasons go on because you get more recognized?

We had none of that in season Then season 2 would start, and it got whatever. But as long as we're filming in densely populated areas, if we're filming in public and we're in New York, it is what it is. It might take a little longer than it did. But at this point, we can write a book on how to make this thing. We've gotten more and more efficient and learned more. When we got this show, we had no idea not only how to make this show, how to make a show. I didn't have anything like that beforehand. To tell you, there was maybe six employees, maybe. It was like one editor, no writers. The first season, I think we were only in the second season, we got two. But we did everything. We sat down with the editor at that time, and we didn't even have an office. We sat in the lobby of the waiting area of the offices of the production company. We didn't have a desk. We sat like this, and we just sat all day long with our laptops on our laps. And that's how we wrote the entire first season, just in a public space.

That's unbelievable. Yeah, I never talked about that. It's crazy.

It's crazy. You have this image that is even first season, like, oh, they're in this big, fancy room coming up with these ideas and editing it and pushing it out. But it's like, you forget.

On a much, much, much smaller scale, We can relate because you're looking at the team. This is it.

This is season one right here. This is one through four. We're in season five.

We still have nobody.

We're not.

We have no sense of what going on.

If you look at Plato in the dictionary, it says Zanine Heath unfiltered. You guys are crazy, man.

You guys are so popular.

That's amazing. How do you find a team? How do you do that?

How do you go about the hiring process of making something bigger and better?

In the beginning, I was calling the location like a cold call Hey, hear me out. I have a show. I'm a decent guy. Can I come to your-Get lost. Can I come to your pharmacy? We were making those calls, which is insane. That's a whole profession and department.

It was no 99% of the time. It had to be 99% of the time.

Yeah, well, yes and no.

They're like, What's the show? It's not out yet. This is season one.

We're trying. You know it.

Now that sounds like a nightmare for businesses.

I feel like because your team makes it. I feel like they'd be excited now.

They're like, Oh, my God, yeah, we would love to have it.

It's two ends of the spectrum. It's, oh, hell, yes, we're fans or we love the publicity, and it's like, Don't come near us. But you guys all started.

The OG moment of you guys as a group was an improvisational group in high school, right? You went to an all boys Catholic high school. You had an improv group group at the high school?

Yeah, well, there was improv as an extracurricular. It wasn't like a troupe. It was like whoever wanted to. We would put on at the end of the season a show with the female-The sister school?

The sister school, yeah. It was a bit of a It was a mixer, huh?

A bit of a mixer. It was nice. Parents came, but it was like 30 people.

Was it clean cut? It has to be good with the church?

It was clean cut. No, but we didn't get it. It sucked. Looking back on it, it's terrible. As a kid's trying, It's really entertaining. Back then, you feel like, Oh, this is amazing. But it was just short form. Once I left and I went to college, I started doing some stand-up. I started doing improv long form, which is the same thing. It's a different muscle. It's just exactly what I said about the show. It's a difference between quick hit jokes to literally building out a scene and having a beginning, middle, and end and have it be cohesive. All of us working on something to make something that works without knowing what we're going to say.

It lives in that one moment.

It's so It's so intriguing to me. You know what I mean? It's just the same thing like being on stage telling jokes. If you just let it fly. It's good because it's really collaborative. You cannot succeed unless you have the exact same help you're giving and receiving. When you do all or on on the same page at something like that, the result, sometimes it's literally magical because the audience knows they're watching it being made up on the spot. There's that extra electricity already. If you do well, I love doing that. We all happen to be We came back from college, and so we started to... We were like, Why don't we try it together? That's so cool. It was like '99. ' That's so cool. Wow. We'd just go to Joe Gatto's Mom's basement, and we would do three nights a week.

Doing the shows in the basement?

We would just rehearse with each other. Okay, wow. I've said this many times, but not to your audience, but we would film the shows on a tripod, like an old camcorder. Then we'd do like 90 minutes, 2 hours, and then we would immediately watch the footage and critique it. Because when you watch yourself and watch it, you're picking up so much more. It's so much more immediately is resonating in your head. I didn't like that physicality. I could have made a better choice there. Not that you would have thought of it in the moment, but then that is in the back of your mind. Then you start to just like… It's a tool. You have to try to build a skillset. We'd watch it like football players. We did that for probably about six months before our first show.

Wow. It was all healthy, all constructive. You guys were like, Oh, it was so much fun.

Yeah. Our first show was March fourth, 2000.

Whoa. Yeah, good little autobiographical memory right there. You never forget the date, of course. Absolutely. How did that first show go? Did you nail it? Did you get a good laugh?

It was a lot of friends and family, so I think it did well in that respect. I would be horrified if you saw it right now. Horrified. Also in the middle, we tapped the first show. It was two shows. When we let the first show out, we came out of the theater. It was like a black box theater in Manhattan in like Hell's Kitchen. Someone came in off the street, went up there, stole the camcorder.Sole the camcorder?Wow. We didn't get it. We got back up there, it was gone. Then someone's like, I saw someone just walk out. Everybody, friends and family, just filtered into the streets. Then we all split up running everywhere to find someone in the camcorder, and we couldn't find it. That first show is either destroyed or someone has it.

Somebody's just sitting on it.

Wow, just waiting, waiting for the day.

Would you buy it back? How much would you pay?

Part of me wants to be like, I want to see it, and I want to have it. And part of me wants to be like, I don't need to see that.

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Has there been an impractical Joker's documentary, the making of the band of you guys?

That would be really interesting to watch. That would be really cool, actually. Yeah, I'd watch that.

In season one or two, whatever they did, we started doing road on the road, and we took a bus, so we do a bus.

Like, BTS, yeah.

A bus tour to all of our gigs on the road. They were like, Do you want to film this as a special? And so a film crew came with us, and they filmed the tour. I'm sure we had talking head where we spoke about the experience and this and that. I don't know. It wasn't in-depth in that way, but it was that, really. And they did do that. But it's so funny because it was so early on. You know what I mean? But it was still fascinating to people. People were fascinated that you're real. You're really fun. You've known each other for this long, and that really fascinate people.

Yeah, it's a rare situation.

Give them a peek into that.

It's cool that it was you guys' idea, and then you went and pitched it. It's not like you got casted to be on a show and you guys met on it and had to become friends and learn each other. The fact that you guys came up, it's like your brainchild that you were able to put to life.

It's so cool. I think that is more responsible for the success of the show than the conceit of the show. I think without that... Well, look, they made 30 international versions, and none of them lasted more than a couple of seasons because they manufacture.

They don't have that vibe. Yeah. Have you guys done a season international?

We do travel episodes, I've done a London episode, a Caribbean episode, a Texas episode, a Cruise episode, New Orleans, so on and so forth.

Were you guys pulling these pranks, though, as students at your school?

No, not at all. Oh, not at all. No pranks. I mean, not anything. I mean, your normal high school stuff, but we weren't like, Oh, those guys. No, it just was the conceit of the idea for the show. We were together as a comedy troupe at that point for 12 years. We had other pilots We had single camera scripts, and we shot a pilot for Spike TV, which probably guys don't know what that is.Of course, yes.Bite, of course, really.We.

Know Spike TV.Oh.

Is that still out?

Well, we're familiar with it. We were born in '92.It'd.

Be right next to Page One and MTV on the TV guy.Extreme.

Elimination Channel.Yeah. The Man Show.

That's all we watched back then. We'd go up to Disney Town, and we'd go down to MTV.

Girls going wild. We knew Spike. Spike TV.

Yeah, that's it.

When they offered, so did Fox at that time. We thought we had a higher chance to get on air with Spike because Fox is such a behemoth, and they have so many big stars and so much budget, and they're probably producing a lot more content. We felt like we would go to a smaller pond. We just gambled, and we shot that for Spike. They passed. Then we made another one that was really good, and it got into a bunch of festivals, but nothing. Then the thing that... Excuse me if I'm extrapolating too much. No, don't You're good. You ask me one thing, and I'm like, 10 things. No, please. My friend's wife says to us one time, then girlfriend just says, Hey, I saw something online where they're looking for people to upload sketch comedy, and it's a competition. You can win $1,000. We were like, Oh, cool. I went and looked, and the idea was, they give you a topic, and then sketch comedy troops across the country had it one week to film based on that topic, and then they will all be uploaded, and then the internet votes each week.

I feel like I remember seeing something It was called It's Your Show TV, but it was on NBC, and the full intent was to make it into a studio show, a glossy deal or no deal studio.

Carson Dailia was the host. What they were doing was this was their cheap way to find the talent.Oh my gosh. Because they had every… They just got flooded.

But why do I feel like they would take all those ideas and just store them for a later day? That happens a lot. That probably did. I'm sure it did happen. That's crazy. You're signing something which says that-You get super talent mounted people, and then every other skit was just banging. Yeah, wow.

Well, MTV actually stole from us directly.

Really?

No way. It was all in the house.

Did we take them to court?

Anyone there now? No, this is a long time ago. No, but-We'll buy it. When I looked at the categories, I had noticed that there was, I think it was superhero. Whatever it was, I had already filmed a short film that was six minutes that fit the category. I just uploaded it, and I'm like, Let's see what happens. We won that week, won $1,000.Oh, my gosh.We're like, What? $1,000? Then two weeks later, we had another short film that fit, and we put it in, and we won again. Then we're like, Oh, fuck this. Then we're like, Let's just start doing these every week.

This is a full-time job now at this point.

No, really? I mean, and so we-Is this over dial up?

How long did it take you guys to film these?

We'll probably sit down and have writing sessions for a couple of days and then shoot everything out and then edit everything. But it had to be done in that week. So But we were all laser-focused on it because $1,000.

It's just insane. $1,000 a week.

Split how many ways?

Four ways. But you got to account for inflation. Yeah. That was a lot. Yeah, this was 1997.

A thousand dollars in 1997, they were giving out just the- To every time you won.

Then they started putting on more than one topic a week. We started submitting two videos a week.

Is this online or are you sending in a VHS tape in the mail?

100% And... That's a good question. Mail, mail? No, no.

A floppy disk?

It was uploading.

It was uploading.

A carrier pigeon.

That was ahead of it.

Hope it gets there.

It was on a horse.

You just had to just let go and let go out of that corner.

A telegram, sir. They got paged.

No, dude, the amount of good ideas that were getting in and just banking, I can't stop thinking about that. That is crazy. It should be illegal.

But you know what? I'm here because of that.

It worked out great for you. I'm thinking about that poor guy that went second place.

The other 10,000 people, it didn't work out.

His idea is just on the brand new show. He's like, Wait.

After we won 11 times, they then announced that, Okay, the show is going to be produced now. And Carson was the host, and they took the best five from all the talent. So we were one of the five. So we would go head to head with these guys in an episode. So now, they wouldn't show the time-lapse. But in the episode, this two weeks topic was this. These guys had seven days. And let's now watch their live studio audience. Let's watch. And then the studio audience votes It's almost like aOh, my gosh, that's so cool. Yeah. They were going to give away $100,000 to the winner.

It was go time.

This wasn't even supposed to be. Check this out. This wasn't even supposed to be once. This was going to be a series, and they were going to give that away every episode. Back then, I was like, I think Who Wants to be a Millionaire was out. It was like that new model of like, No, we're going to throw... This is attracting people, so money is... I forget what the theme was, but I know what our sketch was. Our sketch was called Time Thugs. You could hire these basically hitmen, rough them up type of guys, to go in time and beat the shit out of your bully. It was like an infomercial for these two thugs. That's really funny. They time travel back, and then you go back. It was funny because they were beating the shit out of children in it. They were like, Oh, a sound effects. It was just the physicality of it. We won. You won the $100,000. We won, but then they didn't pick the show up. They only made that one episode, but it didn't matter. Legally, they had to pay us. We won $100,000.

That's That's amazing.

You're watching the TV with friends and family for this reveal?

I remember when I got the call, I was outside. I was on the street outside my house, and James Murray called me, and he was basically... Imagine the happiest voice you could possibly muster. Like a trembling voice. I think we were almost like we're crying out of joy a bit a little, too. He just said it to me, and I was like, I couldn't even comprehend it. First of all, to win that amount of money. But for something that we did, there's a validation there. But also, I don't have any money. I had no money. Now, I have $25,000. That's insane. I was like, the relief it takes off your chest. At this point, I'm 20 years old. It's like, Oh, my God, I finally have something that can give me a little security. It just was mind... It was just life-changing at that moment to me. The producers on that show came to us and said, We want to do a project with you. We pitched that show to Spike with the producers from the NBC show. We didn't have a great experience with them, and we went our separate ways after It's different.

But their agent offered to be our agent from that connection and from that experience. So all of a sudden, we had an agent at a boutique, and then he left and went to CIA. Now, all of a sudden, we made these internet videos, and within six months or whatever, we are meeting and pitching ideas, and then we get picked up. It was just like, it was just insane. That's awesome.

That's so cool. It was like exhilarating. What a good story.

Just to keep climbing.

You're like, Yeah, just the back to back progression.

Then you put that money into the bar. Pretty much.

But it was just like, sorry, my ADHD is going today. It's all good. Don't worry. Ours is, too. Yeah, do you guys have any choice?

Are you kidding?

Okay. Can you tell?

Heavily medicated.

Me and this girl.

Heavily medicated. Are you medicated? I wish.

I'm too scared to take pills.

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One of the other big things was that YouTube and MySpace were the things, and there wasn't a lot of fresh content. We made an account on both, and then we just started uploading two videos a week, consistently for weeks. I think all told, we did 32 videos. Oh, my God. We won 11 times. But all of a sudden, within three, two, three months, we have a page that has 32 produced sketches on it. They both would feature us on the homepage.

You could post MySpace videos.

Yeah. They had comedian accounts, and they ranked them by engagement.

Dane Cook was always at the top of it.

I just remember we knocked them out. We became the number one on MySpace had a 23,000 comedians. What was it called?

Was it impractical Joker? Or wait, what was the-No, this was just when we were the Tenderloin.

This was before the show. This is what led us to be able to do it. It was like, and it was We stayed there because they kept putting us on the homepage.

I bet if I look back at some Tenderloin sketches.

I'm a MySpace slut. I don't get how I didn't see. I don't know what you're talking about, but I was a MySpace fanatic. I was like,. It With the emo kid, you see the real emo. I was in that world on my space. That's all I did. I guess I never clicked the homepage.

You weren't there for a comedy. You were there for God.

Just to express yourself.

Just expressing your emotional side.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's like it. In tandem, we were getting all these views and getting every comedian that's a comedian is on there. They're like, Who the fuck are these guys? Who are these guys? The top 20 was the biggest comedians in the world. They were like, Who the hell? All these people. It was cause of engagement. Because we kept pumping out that content, they kept featuring us. We were able to glean more, whatever it was, followers, whatever, than anyone else. We kept it going because we kept up that pace. That made everyone know at least the name of who we were. Then that's it. We had to stop me. No, this is fascinating.

No, I love it. Are you kidding? This is everything That's so cool.

We got the agent from there, and they would set up general meetings. The general meeting is basically, you're not necessarily going to pitch something specific. You're going to meet the people at this network and meet the people at this network, say hello, get a vibe, talk about something, just see if maybe there's anything there, or they keep you in mind. It's a hand job meeting. Nothing ever really comes of them. We didn't want to do that. We were like, Well, if we go with pitches, they'll listen to pitches, right? Yeah. We were getting these general meetings, and we had week's worth of meetings, maybe six networks or whatever it was. It was not even five days before those began, and we didn't have any ideas. We went to lunch, and we thought of three ideas at one lunch, and one of them was impractical jokers. We went the next night, only the four of us, with our cell phone cameras into Times Square, and we recorded five different bits. Okay. Just with our own cell phones, and we it together, made our own sizzle, and then three, two days later, walked in with a sizzle of a thing that wasn't even conceived.

Do you have that sizzle? Do you have that?

Yeah, we have it somewhere. Because we used to show it at one of the live shows, so I know we have it.

That's so cool. Wait, what year was this?

2010.

I know on the show, you guys get scared always when you're doing bits, but how do you push through and do it that much all the time? Were you always like, Joker, pranksters as kids or No, improvisers.Improvisers.

That's where it's coming from.Improvisers, sketch, comedy mind.It's so hard to do something in public. Writing jokes all the time, writing sketches, doing improv, that's where we flourish. That's how we got the idea. We said, How can we showcase our friendship and our skill set? We got to play ourselves, and we got to be able to improvise, and we backed in from that.

What makes it so good is the improv background because you guys are so good at knowing what would get a reaction from somebody, like what to to say, to tell somebody to say what to do. It's just everybody being on that same comedic wavelength is what makes it.

I feel like having anxiety makes it even funnier.

Yeah, putting yourself in a situation. Putting yourself in that situation and feeling uncomfortable makes it even funnier, too.

Do you guys rehearse what you think the moments may become? I don't know. Just like, okay, I know that this is the bit, but just roll with me in. They're improvising just as if they were a stranger. Like normal-Just for you to get your sea legs going to be like, to get some banter out. I'm not saying you have lines already in your back pocket. Yeah, no.

It's a wonderful question. It's really hard to write what you think any permutations would be. But we do it often. I'll explain. We know when a bit is going to work. At this point, we've done almost 300 episodes. We know, Oh, this is going to resonate. This This is a home run, a layup, or, All right, this is good enough. We know that right away. Now, in the whole pitching process, everybody writes, and then we all get together, and then they pitch us. They'll send us a packet of ideas. I'll go and I'll note everything. And then we'll usually have a pitch meeting. This is ongoing because we don't write everything before we begin filming. We're five weeks prior. You know what I mean? I'm writing something. We're thinking of something right now that we'll probably film in about a month. We're writing the whole season. It's not like you write an episode and you're done with it. You know what I mean? The pitch process a lot of times, especially now, we want to evolve the show. We've done so much. We don't want to tread the same water all the time. We're always trying to push through and figure out different ways, different angles, different games.

A lot of people, because it's the easiest way to do it when they describe the show to someone, they say it's these friends, and they have an earpiece, and they have to do and say what they tell them. Because it's the easiest way to get people to understand. But in reality, that's maybe a third of our show. There's no joke, like 100 other different things that we do. But I get it. In that process, if I remember, it's three, four, Four of us, three of us. If we disagree, it's comedy by a committee here. Sometimes if I really believe in something, they'll give me it and vice versa. But sometimes we're just not on the same page. Sometimes we are great. We all love it great. We all hate it great. But when we're not, then that has to open up this conversation. Let me tell you why I don't think it's going to work. Let me tell you the issues I have with it. But this is actually the part, to tell you the truth, that one of the parts I love the absolute most. It's the puzzle. There's nothing better than feeling like you solved an issue.

You know what I mean? We have something here. Now the challenge is to get and make it something. All the back and forth and debating and everything, that's my That's where I live. No pun, my space. I overthink, but it's a blessing and a curse. I challenge... I'm the one that won't approve the most stuff because I want to-You won't approve the most. I'm the hardest, and they're always like, Oh, fuck, he's not going to... They're always like... I like this one. For my own filter, it's not that if I think something's not funny, it's not funny. You know what I mean? But for my own, just my own filter on my own island, I have really high... My own standards of what I think it is. You know what I mean? It's got my name on it. You know what I mean? I make this show.

Yeah, you need to be picky.

Also, it's not I want it to be the best it can be. This is the goal. Why not? I'm also learning and striving to become better myself. The nuts and bolts of that part is what really gives you more writing chops and acting chops. You're turning over no stone. I will say, pitch me, and they'll pitch me and I'll go, Okay, this is If you said that to me, I would say this. They're going to say either this or this, so it's not going to work. Then tell me how you're going to get them to go this route. Because if not, okay, maybe you get one more, but then it's going to shut down right here. We have to toe a line of believability, credibility. A lot of times, you want a mixed bag. Sometimes we're just like, this is a batshit one. We don't care. You know what I mean? If they suspect something and start laughing, everybody's having fun. Everybody's on the joke. There's those versions. Then there's the versions that I love the most, which is it's meticulous and it's a dance and it's a high wire walk when you have a vision and you are trying to get it to play out, improvise with someone that doesn't know what's happening and where you think you could take it to.

If that gets achieved, you know what I mean? It's just this puzzle on these things. Even if it ends up, we kill it because I don't like it, You still glean something from that process every time. That's what I love about comedy. That's what I love about writing my own jokes. I sit there and do that myself, but I have to do it with them. But yeah, we'll just challenge each other.

It sounds like a blast.

It just sounds like so much fun. If you like that thing, it's a dream job. My writing staff who have been with me now for many, many, many years, we always say that if you're a comedic writer, it's the best job you could possibly have because we have no limitations. It's not one character, one joke, whatever. We're in hundreds of scenarios and different moments and levels of like, the sky is the limit for the jokes you can write. It's not one thing. All I want to do is write jokes. It's just we want to be a joke machine. But it's always so different that it stays exciting to write for. You know what I mean?

How long were you writing for to come up with your full set for your new special?

Sure. I have Jokes there that go back about eight years. Then the newest one when I take it was about four months old.

Yeah. Do you sit down and write with your jokes like pen and paper in front of a computer, just iPhone notes, and just work from that? Yeah.

I have handwritten notebooks and then notes in my thing. I mean, hundreds of pages because I tell you, I just write down something. I might forget about it. I always just go to it as a resource. Maybe it'll inspire something, maybe it won't. Some things are more It's fully baked than other ideas. Something like, This is something here. When it's time for me to write new material, I will go through that because I'm always adding to it. The thing that just is resonating the most at that time will probably theoretically be the thing that will be easier for me to write because I'm excited about it. Or if I think of something happens to me or I'm telling a story, I really like that. I'll tell you why, because I don't have to remember that because it happened to me. I could tell a funny story right away. I'm going to refine it and write clever jokes in there, but I could tell a very confusing story if it was confusing. I could then have the liberty to get on stage with something that is fairly new. I know because I experienced it, tell it funny, and then write out on stage like that.

When I'm having observational things, which I try to mix them both in, I will write down bullet points, ideas, and I'll know where I want it to begin in the middle and the end. I'll make sure I have that funny and that done. Then I'll just keep connecting the dots every time I get on stage.

Now that you have one out, are you excited to come out with another one even sooner?

Are you great now? I'm trying to exercise, though.

Are you thinking about writing new jokes just for your next one because you got one out finally already?

I'm so excited because it's some of those jokes that was eight years. Not that they're the same. I would jump off a bridge if they were the same, but they just expand. A joke's never done. If I wanted to keep working on a joke for 20 years, it's going to keep evolving. You just have to know this is ready to be shown to people. It's there. Sometimes we'll do it, and I can't do that anymore, but maybe I'm in a place where, I don't know, I know they didn't see it. Then I'll do it, and it's better than it was because I added to it. That happened in this special. I shot it in December, and so a lot of times on stage, I was like, when I knew When we had it, the last show, I was like, I'm going to let this fly. I'm not going to say, do or say anything the same. I'm going to be completely in the moment if it works, if it doesn't. Ten of those moments are in this special. I've never said the joke before being in this special. Then it's like, oh, man, because when you add something and it gets a laugh, it's like, hi.

When you're like, oh, I'll never get to say those jokes again. In between filming it and it coming out, I had five months. So wherever I was these last I would sometimes add a bunch of tags to those jokes just so I can be more excited about them. But I've been writing... My new tour is on sale right now. It came out the same day as the special, so it's called Everything's Fine. I love that. Terrified and everything's fine. That is great. It's at savilcantocomedy. Com. We have 30 cities up right now, but that's just the first leg. I'm going to do 100 cities.

Are we doing Los Angeles?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

All right, we'll be there.

Yeah, I would love you guys.

A hundred %. Is your wife a good audience member, too? Does she think you're funny? Are you ever in bed with your phone going, Babe, what about this? And is she like, Okay, yeah, that works. All the time. And your daughter, does she think Daddy's funny? Yeah.

She's your best audience. She's the funniest person I've ever met in my entire life, effortlessly. But Yeah, our entire relationship is... All I want to do is make her laugh. That's from when I saw her pop out to yesterday. You know what I mean? And so that's what she knows. That's her universe is me trying to make her laugh. And she's She's now about to be 22 months, and she has her own personality, and she is developing into her own person. When I tell you no joke, she is a fucking comedian. All she wanted to do is make people laugh, and she understands. I do it so much that she gets comedy. If someone reacts, she follows it. She doubles down on it. She's got it. She knew people. I don't mean just making a face and running. She got jokes.

Her timing, she's got it.

I'm sure it makes her eyes light You're not in your head like, she's going to be a comedian.

That's your little mini me.

She's going to be a comedian, too.

Oh, my God, light up. If I tell you guys how much I cry, it's just overjoyed. You can't hold it in. This girl, I cry every day. Every day. I don't know if any of you have kids.

We know we're going to be like that, though.

We're emotional about everything.

Our cat makes us cry. We'll just be like, it's going to be brutal. It's going to be so bad. Are you scared of cats?

Yeah. Interesting. I don't like them. You can't trust them.

What's your most irrational fear that you're I'm embarrassed to talk about it.

I got it. Perfect. It's a point. I have an OCD, and I have it in at least one way, and that way is crazy. I don't like anything pointed at near my eyes. If we were eating and if When you put this right here and we were talking, it's annoying because I don't ever want to make it about me, but I can't turn this without you thinking I'm a lunatic. I have to say, if you don't mind, I don't even want to get into it. I had just always said, Can I do this?

Are you worried about getting poked in the eye?

Yeah, something. I get over stimulation. I have ADHD.

I can feel that straw on my ear right now. Yes. I know exactly how you feel, and now I need that cup over there. That's right.

Okay, so you know.

You got to even it out.

This has been forever. Now I'm a little wide. How do you feel? I'll do it. I'll save it. No joke.

How do you feel about cameras then? Because cameras, I feel like they're pointing at you now.

No, it's not something facing in my direction. It's something that's pointy, pointing at me. Phallic. No, this corner. So if I someday Sunday's are worse than on the Sunday's. It doesn't even cross my purview, and so I don't think about it. Then some days, if I am heightened or sensitive that day, everything bothers me. Those leaves behind you right there would bother me, especially if I'm close up. But if I was really at it, it would bother me. Now, I can't really say anything. You know when it manifestsates itself a lot, when I'm in a situation like this, maybe I'm on late night television or I'm in a job interview or whatever, and I get this heightened sensitivity. I'm sitting there trying not to show that. I am I'm skin crawling inside. I'm bawling my feet and going like this and blinking. It just makes me very tense. You can't explain. It's irrational, but it makes me anxious and tense.

You can't say it at the moment, too, because it sounds crazy.

My friends and family The only person I try to explain myself to is him, and he's just like, Do what you got to do.

That sucks. In that moment, you wish you could just out loud just say it and it just be taken.

It just doesn't make sense.

I'm going to go to a hypnotist and see if I can do that. Trying to break It can be. At times, it can be. It sucks. It sucks. This is my whole life. There's been times I was laying in my little studio bedroom apartment, and it was in overdrive. In order to go to sleep, I had to get up and cover every single point that was facing me with a sheet. So it basically erased it. If this was bothering me and I didn't want to have that, and I don't want to tell you guys, I would do that. Yeah, muffle it. Now I don't have a point facing at me anymore, and it literally dissipates.

Is it like it seems brighter to you?

I have light sensitivity, but it's also like my eyes are just hypersensitive. When I am going in a DHA, when I am stressed or anxious. Everything gets heightened and my eyes get so sensitive. It doesn't hurt that my sister hit me in the face in the eyeball with a Malibu Ken doll when we were younger.

Okay, well, that could probably do it.

You see this? There's a red scar right here, my red dot. Fourth grade, Malibu Ken, right in my face. Way to go. I don't know if that's what did it, but it didn't help. I still have that. I remember the feeling. Maybe that's what it came from. Maybe it's just an OCD tick. I don't know.

You see a therapist, right? Yeah. Often every week? Say, how long have you been seeing that one?

One right now, I've been seeing over a year. One, maybe a couple. I see two.

Oh, two? To work on two different things? Yeah.

I focus on my life and childhood in one, and then the other one, I focus on the ADHD and the OCD.

Nice. That's really good. That's healthy.

Is it helping?

Yeah, it's whether you understand if it's helping or not it's helping. I have breakthroughs, and I also have stagnant times, but I would recommend it to anyone. I think everyone should be in therapy. Even if you think you're well adjusted, you're crazy if you don't think there's something you can't take away from that, and you're crazy if you don't think that you can improve yourself and learn more about yourself.It's like a mental gym.It's learning. It is.

I love how telling somebody to get therapy could be really nice and really mean. Get therapy. Or you should see a thing.

Get therapist.

Do we have better help this week?

I think we did.

I could do that. I could do that one for you. It's the dome.

We probably do. I actually don't know. I need to look at the phone.

You have psoriasis, too?

I have it because It doesn't go away.

Let's just point everything at... You got OCD?

How do you know that?

I think you talked about it on Whisky Ginger with Andrew Santino. I talked about it, yeah. I have psoriasis, but I've gutate. It only happens if I get strep throat in it. It happens for six months, and I'm on Humera, and that tones it down. I don't have it right now, but if I get strep, I get it. But do you have chronic psoriasis? Your skin looks so clear.

No. It came out of nowhere 20 years ago, and I had it for a few years. I remember when I got diagnosed because I didn't even know what it was. He goes, Oh, did you have psoriasis? I'm like, Okay, so what do I got to do? He's like, I'll give you a medicine. I was like, Okay, how long do I take it before it goes away? He goes, It doesn't go away. I'm like, What do you mean? He goes, It's a lifelong thing. It'll come and go, Flaren, not your whole life. I was like, I was looking at him and he goes, He said it so flippantly. I thought it was like, I was like, Whoa, this is a commitment. This is a huge thing you're telling me. He just looked at me like, he was like, I know, I know. It's probably I'm like, Yeah. Then it went away after a year, whatever it was, and it didn't come back. But who knows? Is it coming patches? I should talk lower because it could hear me. Can you hear me? Can hear me? Yeah. Patches would come just right here.

Mine are like raindrops, and it looks like I have syphilis. It takes over my body. It does. The doctor was like, Have you been tested for syphilis?

It's a stress thing, though, right?

You get it when you're-Autoimmune. Autoimmune disorder, and they don't know what causes it.

Yeah. Well, for me, mine, once the strep goes away, my body still thinks that it's fighting something that's no longer there, and then that's where it goes.

It manifestsates itself to fight off. It's reproducing cells faster than it needs to or something like that.

It's working too hard.

We actually had a game we wanted to play with you real quick. Oh, yeah, please. One person in this room was just diagnosed with cancer yesterday. Can you guess which one?

I get why it's cold unfiltered. Oh, my God. I can't do this because all I'm guessing wrong. Then not only am I How would you not only mind neglecting the person that has it, but I'm positioning the other person to be able to possibly get it.

One person was diagnosed with cancer. Who was it?

It's so terrible.

It is literally horrible.

I'm hoping It's like the good cancer. I'm hoping it's like a... I'm hoping it's like a what cancer.

It's a good cancer.

Yeah, because you guys... Because I would have never been able to tell by your energy.

It's Matt.

I got diagnosed as skin cancer.

But it's very minor.

Basal cell carcinoma. I had a spot on my back, and I found out an hour before we recorded last episode. That was a big shock.

But we've been talking about the whole time. We're like, imagine he comes in and we just bring it off first. To get you worked on.

I'm like, Don't give it to him. He's going to be like, Why are you putting me on the spot like this?

Can I tell you something? My dad had it five times. Five times? Yeah, on his face. He was a sanitation guy, worked outside, never put on any block. All those years in the sun, and they had to go, and I always go with him. They had to cut a little piece here. But you can't really tell. But he had to... I remember finding out and not really knowing what the scope of that was. Just the word to see where it is, whatever. In my head, the first thing I hoped is when I said good, I was thinking skin.

Oh, good.

I know. But I wanted to keep it ambiguous still. Now that the cat is out of the bag, I can say to you, I was going to say Matt.

I don't know.

It's giving-We played it out in our head. The only thing we planned was that question, and we were just like-He's giving skin cancer. He's giving skin cancer.

It's giving melanoma.

Okay. All right.

That's all.

Yeah, we can wrap it up.

But bud, thank you so much for coming on. This has been so great.

This is so awesome. Thank you.

Really awesome.

Thank you so much.

You guys are such kind. You deserve all your success.

Youthank you as well.Thank you. As to you as well. Make sure you guys check out Terrified on YouTube.

Yes. Also, Impractical Jokers is coming out very soon. July 11th.

July 11th, TBS.

And buy tickets to the tour. Yes.

As a matter of fact, on my tour with them It's through August. I'm still touring with them. It's like the last 20 cities, and that tour is retired. Then my tour begins in September, but everything's on sale at savilcountercomedy. Com.

Okay, well, I know we'll be there. We better see you guys there, too.

Thank you, Sal. Just reach out two or three times, and maybe I'll get back to you.

Yeah, thanks for being consistent on that. I know. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Want to close that up?

Hi, dad.

You're happy?

Finally. Hi, dad.

That's so funny. All right, guys. Thank you so much for watching. We love you. Also, make sure to check out our on Patreon, patrion. Com/zaneandheath. We do a bonus episode every single month. We also keep these cameras rolling as an extended cut of the podcast. We also do a live Q&A every month. Again, patrion. Com/zaneandheath.

You can check out these episodes every Monday, audio form on the podcast platforms and every Tuesday, video form, youtube. Com/zaneandheath. All right.

See you guys. Love you.

Tudels. Ciao.

That was easy. I trust him with my life. Yeah. He's so nice.

It's crazy.

He has-It's like my uncle.

He has so much anxiety. I think he's worse than me and you.

Oh, no. I feel like I felt it.

I look at him like he's amazing at what he does. I can't believe I can't even get through an hour without being like... But yeah, he's really inspiring.

It really is. Should we? We test it. Should we? We frame the straw.

We clone him.

Knowing that he has the OCD-He's very shy.

Yeah.

Yeah, very shy, and still is able to be so successful and motivated and still stand his ground on what he-It's so inspiring. Why am I just the complete fucking-It's crazy.

It over powers you when he has the same amount of-Yeah.

It's Sorry.

What did I miss?

We were just saying how he has so much anxiety and OCD.

The way he can cover it up or power through it.

But then it seems like he's able to get so much work done, too. On top of that is just amazing.

You know what question I wanted to ask, but it would have been too dark, but I just feel like he would have an interesting story is where he was on 9/11.

Oh, no.

I don't think-He lives in Staten Island?

Yeah, but being that age, though, in proximity to it, I don't know.

I was just like-Is that like a... I feel like that's a very-Being in proximity to it.

But it would have been like, I just knew we were crunched for time, and I'm like, Why I'm going to ask? Because who knows how serious it is.

Before we let you go, I have a question.

Before you go right up to the cancer question.

If I had all the time in the world, I would have asked that. Just like, Where were you on 9/11? Because I just think-I'm interested in that, too. Also talking to someone who was at that age, he was probably younger than us over like, 2001. Oh, definitely because I was-early 20s, probably for him. For those people that age, living in proximity, have such a vivid sense of it versus our parents we were with them.

What was your first thought as a kid seeing that? Were you scared? Were you confused? I didn't understand it. Yeah, I didn't really understand what was going on.

We were in the classrooms.

We were all in a classroom because I watched it in a classroom. Yeah, it was on our TV. The news was on the TV.

I don't remember them showing it to us, but I remember them pulling kids out of class because their parents were in the city. Oh, especially New York. Well, I was in Pennsylvania. Or Pennsylvania. Their parents worked in the city.

I remember a kid at lunch saying a plane crashed into a building, but that was like, I thought that happened weeks ago or months ago. It was a crazy lunchtime story. They never showed us. Then right When I got out of school, everybody's parents were there to pick up their kids. I was like, Is this a holiday? Why my mom's picking-In Texas? Because everyone got off work, so everyone's parents were there. Normally, that day is a half day.

Oh, wait. All parents were off work when that happened?

Well, yeah, a lot of people got dismissed out of their office places because it happened early in the morning or don't come in. A lot of people just got off work. Everyone's parents were there picking them up.

I remember with-They were scared because it was a terrorist attack. They go, I just want to get my kids.

You just never know. It's the United States.

You don't know. That was just the first time they saw it.

Because it wasn't just the Twin Towers. It was the Pentagon.

They didn't know if it was going to hit anywhere else.

My mom, I remember walking to our car in the parking lot, and I was like, Is this a haul? Why is everyone's parents here? This is weird. She goes, I'll tell you when we get home, but you're going to remember this day for the rest of your life. She said that to me. That's crazy. My dad was in the air when it happened. My dad was flying from Dallas to Chicago. Then in the air, the pilot said, This is the first time this has ever happened in my 30 years of being a pilot. We talked about this.Oh, yeah. He had to land in St. Louis, Missouri. That's when they had the phones and stuff. Being on a plane during it is crazy. Yeah.

Crazy.

I remember it didn't click until I got home.

I think the reason why they were showing it in class is because teachers, I think, wanted to watch it because it's not like they had phones to watch the news immediately.

I remember not knowing the severity of it because you're a kid and you're like, A plane just hit a building. It's like, okay.

You're like, Oh, there's people above that whole area and those people all… That was It's weird from my brain.

You don't know what a terrorist attack means.

I thought it was tourist. I was like, yes. I was like, tourist? I remember trying to put the pieces together.

I never heard the word terrorist before.

Same.

Then I just remember being in chorus. It was my chorus class, and we just sat there and then... A choir?

What's chorus?

No, it's called chorus.

What did you do? Chorus, like singing.

Oh, so singing. It's a singing class. Okay, chorus.

And then we would play like... Wait, are you sure it's choir? It wasn't choir.

So choir.

And we would learn the recorder and the Wiro. Yeah. We just called it music class.

But yeah, it was different.

But they called it...

No, they called it Chorus. That's why I was like, Jordan, was yours called Chorus, too?

He's not sitting there.

He left. He left to self. Was yours Chorus? When you said Chorus, immediately in my head, I was like, Chorus.

My cousins have a class called Chorus, but it's dancing. Interesting. Yeah, it's They do a whole performance. Our chorus performance is-A chorus line.

Yeah.

I wonder what the definition of chorus is.

A chorus is a groove.

It's like a groove.

A Greek chorus is like-I said groove.

Yeah, a groove. It's like a groove.

I think I automatically think it's singing.

It's an ensemble. It's the witnesses. It's the storytellers of a show. It's the chorus. You're in the cast, the chorus. Ms.

Greg's.

But do you think that is a little fucked up? I would have a problem. I'm glad they didn't show it to me, but as a parent, though, if there was a national terrorism attack, and you're... I get if my kids were in middle school or high school, if they wanted to bring it up and show it, but bringing in a TV to show a bunch of second-graders, a building burning, I would, as a parent, I'd be like, Sorry, that's something I need to expose my kids to. You're showing that to my kid in a class saying that there's about to be all these people who are dying. You're showing it collapsing.

The thing is, I think it was just such a crazy moment where just all the TVs were on and just like, Guys, this is happening right now.

Because you guys were... You all were on Eastern time zone. I was on Pacific, though. So you guys were in a bit different time zone. You guys reacted to it different ways because by the time school started, for me, it had already happened.

We were in class.

So you guys were already in school and it happened. That's what it was.

Yeah, no, no. They weren't. Yeah, sorry. They weren't replaying it. It was in the...

They were watching, too, because they were learning it for the first time with us.

They were like, We had... There must have been talks at our school going, We're not showing it. That has to be the reasoning.

You saw that clip of George Bush telling him he was in a classroom full of students. Pretty weird. And them telling him that the attack is happening and he had to just keep it cool.

And then right before that, it was them learning to read with George Bush. It was like, plane, crash, building.

And he was learning to read, too. It was like, Do you know what clip I'm talking about?

They were teaching them how to read. It was like, plane, mast, Skyscraper. It was like the words that they were learning in class.

Is that true?

Get ready to read this word the fast way. Get ready.

Yes.

Sound it out.

Get ready. Sound it out.

Get ready.

What word? Kit. Yes, Kit.

Boys and girls, sound this word out. Get ready.

What word? What? Yes, steal.

Read these words the fast way.

Get ready.

Yes, playing. Shut up. There's no way.

Let's read these words the fast way without making a mistake.

Get ready. Kite. Yes, kite. Get ready. Kit. Yes, get. Get ready.

Steal.

Yes, steal. Get ready. Yes, playing.

Get ready.

Must. Yes, must.

That was the morning of it when he was in the class. That's weird.

Why those four words?

They were random words, especially for that- Plane, kite, must, hit, steal.

What? We got two verbs in one I truly think it was a coincidence because it's the teacher.

Bush did 9/11.

But no official was like, Read these words to the kids today. That's impossible. That's such a quiz, but that's crazy.

That is still plain hit. Must. Must.

That's too random.

Let's interview that teacher. Let's bring Bush off.

I've never seen that.

I've never seen that, too.

Is that real?

Yes.

Because that's the same.

The video is right there, and it wasn't voice over.

It's the same video of the guy whispering in his ear that it happened.

But it could have happened 30 minutes before. It doesn't matter. I know, yeah. That's just so we'd steal.

Plane, hit, steal, must. Yeah, the must and kite, throw it off.

No, I think that makes it even weirder.

They're very random words. But what about kite? What about the word kite?

When kids are learning in school, you learn the nouns together.

I just learn a It's the same. Like apples, cherries, pick, grow, seed.

You don't do adjectives with nouns. It's just for that age, too random.

Arrest them all. Arrest them all. Busted.

The kids did 9/11.

The kids did it. There are kids. They're probably our age out there who are like, Yeah, I was in the room with Bush when he found out.

That's so interesting. That was probably...

I was second grade. They looked second grade.

Where are they now? What are they doing now?

And what do they think about it? Now, I want to get invited to the White House so bad now. I just want to find who's going to be President and donate them. But get behind somebody before they get big. And it's like, you invested in this politician. That's actually the most dirty form of politics.

I can see you working at the White House for a month. You should see the text I tell my brother where I'm just like, I want to be there so bad, but be the worst employee. What do you think you'd be good at doing? If you had one job at the White House?

I guess public... I think public relations and predicting how the public, our generation, will react to things and giving them social media strategy, them showing me stuff and consulting on it going, This looks way too contrite and not sincere. We need something that is-We need more of those people for-Get us to the house. Invite us to the ball.

Mariah, I feel like me and you are good at that, too. It's like they need to hire people like us to really look at videos before putting it out. I want to work for a ton of people. I want to work for brands, important celebrities, politicians. I don't even need to know much about politics, but I can tell if a video does not look good to post online or not.

Remi would be really good at it, too.

Remi, yeah.

I think the reason why I'm getting so interested in it is because I'm about to turn 32 in a month. Knowing that the world is going to be run by our generation and that that generation will die off, we are the adults now.

We are We are the world.

Sometimes I'm like, You're telling me there's people going to be my age being pilots, running the air traffic control? I know, I still can't believe it. All the surgeons are our age.

The other day, we were in the city, and I told my brother, Hey, let me know when you're off from work, I'll just pick you up and we'll go somewhere. He was like, Cool. And he's 26, but it feels weird. I went to go pick him up and he was sitting with everyone he was working with. They were waiting and they were having a beer outside this bar and stuff, but they were all dressed in their button ups and stuff. I was confused. I'm like, these kids... To me, they're kids, and they're in finance, and they're... What is he? An accountant? An accountant? What does he do? They're accountants, and they're all just sitting in a circle. I'm like, You guys are so young to be doing that. No, they're not.

They're adults, full late mid 20s.

I think our generation just looks really young.

Yeah.

Compared to this, we didn't have just lead in all of our food.

But I just hope that I have faith in the future.

You would think we would look older, just like with all the shit that's in our foods now and everything. You would think that like-That's why we look so young because we have weird growth hormones that are counteracting our shit. Well, that's good for us then.

Okay. Okay, so since our episode was a little bit short with Sal, this is what a Unwind looks like. We do these every single episode on Patreon.

It's an extended cut.

We crazy.

Smoking, we drinking, we fucking, we doing all crazy.

Sometimes It's all the time it's better than the actual conversation. It really is.

All the time, it's better than the actual conversation.

We hit a whole new groove when we feel like we don't have to be so on for the YouTube. We shoot the shit. It's very casual and natural. It's a really good time, and you just get that nice little fix, a good send off from all the enjoyment that you've had on the YouTube. It's worth every penny. You get not only access to that, you get access to the Patreon episodes all the time. We have been high out of our mind, rambling and a bambling all about this world. It's a good time and it's worth a penny.

Because for some reason, it just feels better when you're talking not to the public. Just conversations are better, they're flowing better, and I don't feel like I'm saying something that's going to get me absolutely correct by the public.

How much is it, you all?

Five dollars a month.

That's right. How much are you going to be spending on that beer tonight? How much are you going to be spending on that cappuccino at your local café? Just put it a little-8:49. Yeah, put a little mental note and go, You know what? It's just another cappuccino that you would be doing every week. And this is another access of content. You know what you like. You've already been loving it.

And we're giving away Sal's smoothie.

That he didn't finish drinking. And also-Put it up by the fireplace. Also, he has asphyxiation on the end of the straw. You mean a fixation?

A fixation.

That's like choking. What does he have?

Just an OCD about. Yes.

So not only this is his drink, but he has asphyxiation to the straw. Can we take a sip of it?

No, Max. I got I'm getting cancer.

I showed it. Matt, and you want to wine. No, no, no, no, no.

I would take it off and I would drink.

No off. All right, yeah. So that's an unwind. If you want to see more like that, go to patreon. Com/zaneandheath. Now we're actually going to jump into another additional unwind. For the Patreon. If you want to see the extended cuts, extended cut, again, patreon. Com/zaneandheath.

If you want to see more of this, you know what I'm saying?

Zane, you lost your jiggle. It's just muscle now. It's just hip moving.

No, really?

There's no jiggle anymore. It's all right. It still looks good. Try. Oh, no. No, Zane. It ain't it. It's just stiff. You still got the hip. You lost the charm.

His shirt saying damage control is so funny.

We love you guys. Zane gets a. Say, Get some BBO. See you over there. We'll see you over at the Unwind public episode. Out. Peace and blessings.