The Benevolent Comic: Mike Goodwin on Making Everyone Laugh (and Think)

21:18Jon McLaughlin:That's BowlinBranch.com. That's B-O-L-L-A-N-D branch.com slash dadville. Code dadville to unlock. 15 % off. Exclusions apply.

21:32Jon McLaughlin:it makes me uh it makes me think like when i was listening to your yesterday i listened through uh it was like live in texas or something like that i was listening to yeah yeah i know exactly what you're talking about and i was thinking like i think part of the reason why i mean obviously it's just funny you're just a funny comic but part of the reason it's like that original sort of like the role of the jester you know is like he's the only one who can kind of tell the truth to the king right because he packages it in comedy and i feel like there's some of that at play like you're saying where you're like hey i you know i grew up i'm 50 years old i grew up during this time let me remind you white folks you know there's a little bit of like there's a tension there there's some things that aren't spoken yeah outwardly in in society and you get up there you're hilarious and you touch upon some of these things there's like a release i think that happens yeah yeah you know i i think the way that i approach my comedy i think i i write so that a hundred percent of the people can enjoy the the joke so i'm never I'm writing from a place of love versus a place of malice or a place of anger.

23:00I legitimately, if I'm saying it on stage, I want you to laugh. I think that's something that may be unique to me. I'm not necessarily trying to split the room. I'd much rather people come and say, man, we had a great time. Mike Goodwin's funny guy and go get your political opinion somewhere else. Go get your theology from somewhere else. Go get your parenting advice from somewhere. Now, I might give you some of that stuff, but I'm not up there to give you that stuff. Like I'm just sharing what I have experienced. Right. But my goal, I'm like a chef and I want the plate that you are, that you have in front of you.

23:46I want that to be one of the best meals that you've ever had. Right. I don't want you to walk away like, ah, the meat was kind of tough. You know, it's like, nah, man, this is great. I would love to do it again. Let's do it again, right? Let's do it again, yeah. Well, I've found the older that I get, the comedy that I think is really profound to me, that's not just funny, but is really profound. It's sort of benevolent comedy. You know, like comedy that it's exactly what you do, but it's that thing where it's like it never quite takes aim at anyone. It's very invitational. It's very hospitable, but it's still really funny.

24:28And so it can be a little snark. It can be a lot of things, but you can feel when you're in the audience or when you're watching it that the mood of that thing, you know, like, you know, like this is a guy that's just really trying to make people laugh. Sure, there's some profundity to it. There's a lot of humor. There's heartfelt thoughts. but like it's not meant to, as you said so well just then, to like divide. And it's not like showy. It's not check me out. It really is this sort of benevolent posture, you know. And I think that that comedy is really hard to do because it's so easy to either be profane or mean or, you know, over opinionated or whatever.

25:07Right. And I think one of the things that you do so well in yours is you kind of always, as John said to you kind of keep this really interesting line of like doing what you do. But overall, I don't think anyone ever leaves feeling like, God, I got a little weird. Like he must have had a bad day or something. And I think it's really hard. I think the other side for me is I lead with is this funny? Like when I'm evaluating it, when I'm putting it together, I'm saying, hey, guys, is this funny? So if you're on the right, if you're on the left, is it funny, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I don't care what the, like, I want it to make you feel good.

25:50But if it calls you to think about something, if it calls you to see something from an angle that you never thought about it before, that's great. But it's really just an outpouring of the way I, I mean, it's really how I see life and how I've navigated it. Yeah. And I'm just sharing, hey, guys, you probably never thought about this before because you're a white dude from Ohio, right? Like, yeah, yeah. Think about this, man. Yeah. Not that you need to even do it. Like, like it's a I think the other side for me is like I and I just recently came to this conclusion. I move in life like a pastor, but I'm not a pastor in terms of like I'm collecting inspiration.

26:34I'm reading. I'm I'm I'm thinking about people, but I have a church. Right. Like, I don't know. Nobody's telling me to read this book that I'm reading. Nobody told me this. I'm watching Gilded Age. Right. So I'm like, what would be something I probably wouldn't watch? Gilded Age. OK, let's go watch it. Let's go see what's going on over there. Right. I have this profound curiosity that really, on a human level, connects if you come with an open mind and an open heart. Right. It's like, oh, man. Don't you feel like as a comic, that has to be one of the tenets of being a professional comic, right?

27:14It's just curiosity. It has to be. An ever-open mind to the world, right? It has to be. Just kind of always scanning the horizon, right? Man, I'm like, I don't know if it's funny. Like, I'm not at the point. I've been doing this. I've had great success. But I still got to go to open mics. I still have to run new material. I still feel uncomfortable. when I think about my bits like players on a football team. So I'm like, I got to start this freshman, man. And I don't want to. But I got to start. Like, I won't know. Yes. I don't know who he is unless I'm a kid. Oh, my gosh. That's so good. So that begs this question, which is a little on the nose, a little insider baseball.

27:56But like John said, like, you know, when you're up there and, you know, I think as we were talking about before, like you're doing that corporate event, right? Like, are you, and obviously you've done this so long, but you know, your, your sets are changing, right? Because like, you got to kind of introduce new material. You got to get the freshman in the, on the field. Do you have those moments where you're like, cause you just sort of said this about that, you know, the two things joke. Do you have moments where you're like, man, this is bombing. I got to bring in, we got to bring in, you know, Tom Brady.

28:25He's got to like, and I know who Tom Brady is. I was going to use him later, but I got to get everybody back. Do you have those jokes? A hundred percent. Really? 100 % I think of it more in the pitcher Pitcher lineup like I got to get

28:37Jon McLaughlin:This guy's getting He's getting knocked all around the field I got to get some strikes I got to get ahead of the count Like I'm not The bases are loaded It's no out It's no out So when you are Working on a new bit How Often do you or how long will you kind of tolerate to stick with the metaphor like you you play the freshman and it doesn't go super well yeah how often do you play them because i was thinking about this yesterday when i was listening to your special and you had this bit about um how white dudes can have nicknames oh that and they can have them their whole life like chip can be a ceo and I forget what it was, Pookie or something like that.

29:33Jon McLaughlin:And you were like, sort of like the punchline was branch manager. And I thought, I was like, branch manager is the perfect title to use there. And I'm thinking like, let's say that's your freshman that you're putting in. And you try that and it goes kind of well, but you say Pookie can't be a CEO. right and then are you like wow i think that that could be a little better i use ceo twice i need to use a different like what made me laugh extra hard was actually branch manager that's it's like there's a like how often do you stick with the bit you know what i mean where you're like i think we can tweak this slightly to get people to laugh more so that bit is wrong right in terms of technicality if like if you were to set it up pookie should be the last word that you hear for the punchline.

30:28Like I said, the branch manager can't be named Pookie. But that doesn't feel good, right? Even when I say Pookie, I don't even know if people hear branch manager because they laugh so loudly at that point. When I'm like, yeah, Pookie can't, and man, people immediately laugh. Be a branch manager.

30:51To your point, man, one of my biggest jokes is what you're not gonna do like that is yeah joke is just that that has done man i was about to i was about to scrap it i did it for about a year and i was doing it like most bits that are new inside of the set right it's somewhere i do my set i'm doing these jokes then i'll come up with this i you know hey man i'm from the south and i know what you know southerners have these words we make up and my word is what you're not gonna do and my mother set and I did all that right but it was like in the middle of the set I had it at the end and it just wasn't working like it just was not working but I felt like it should be working right like I felt like this is something that I can call back and I can use more so I think the more I looked at it I was like let's move it to the front like I let's just try because it's it's you don't That's how I started.

31:51I was so bad my first two years. I was very bad. So I started doing stand-up at my church on a New Year's Eve service. Had the Hollywood-type scene. I go up. It's a surprise. I do seven minutes. I get a standing ovation. First time I get a standing ovation. People high-fiving. I'm thinking Hollywood is going to send a limousine to my front door. I like just Hollywood in general. This is Hollywood. Hey, man, this kid just got on stage last night. The mayor of Hollywood.

32:27Jon McLaughlin:What a miserable ride in a limo from South Carolina. I call it Hollywood. It's terrible. Two hours in, you're like, this is awful. How am I doing this? Why did y 'all sit on a flight? I gotta go to jail. Hollywood's cheap, man. Hollywood needs to get control of itself. They're out of control. So what happens, I bombed for two years, right? So I'm just banned. And one of the reasons is, I'm talking about habitually, this is what I would do. If I had a gig, and during this time, all of my gigs were driving distance. Like there was no flights. Every gig was an hour away, two hours away, whatever.

33:08So in the car, I'm thinking about bits. So on the way to the gig, I'd come up with three bits, three to five bits. I'd get right out of my car get on stage and do those three to five bits that I came up with in the car. I didn't run them by anybody. I never tried them out. I just would just go right up. And so when you do that and you're not funny initially they don't think anything is funny. So when I get to the good stuff my A players are now B and C players. Not this guy.

33:46Jon McLaughlin:They already feel uncomfortable for you. It was bad. That is unbelievable. I was really acting as if I had a hobby versus if I was a craftsman working on a studio. That simple tweak of moving, hey, just stop doing that. Just cut that out. Don't ever do that again. Now, I do it now, but I'm more seasoned. I can say, oh, that's not working. Let's move. I wasn't doing that before. Did you feel it immediately when you moved that? Immediately. Because I was this guy. This was another interesting fact about I started when I was 28. I started doing comedy at my church. And I was under this internship.

34:35I was like an apprentice. Because we got this guy that went to my church. Akintunde, who was a comedian. But he was a secular guy. and he wanted to like give his life to the Lord. He was not happy about what he was doing on stage. So he joined our church. He cleaned up his act. And I basically connected with him and he had like two other guys. And he basically just took us with him on his show. So it's like, everybody would book him for a show. But he got three bonus comedians. And we didn't even have to be good. Like, out of the three, the one guy was phenomenal. Like, there was one guy that 10 out of 10, on his worst night, he was an 8.

35:16Dang. He was always good. But he was pure talent. Like, he didn't really write. He didn't really hone. Like, he just was a funny guy, man. And he was a stage. He was charismatic. He had riz, as the kids would say. Like, he just full of swag, man. So he would just rock it. Then the other guy, he was a tactician, tactician. So he had good material. Yes. His stage presence wasn't great, but his material always was either he was an eight at best, but he was nothing less than a six. You know, he was probably a six to eight. And I was a wild card. You just never knew because my words were funny, but my performance was bad.

36:04Like, I was not a performer. I was not even close to it. And I was super casual because I'm like, I'm a professional. I have a master's degree. I have a family. This is something I'm kind of doing. Like, yeah, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going out. I got a free weekend. I'm in the reserve. Like, I got stuff going on. I'll go out here and mess with me. I got a free weekend. Yeah. Hey, man, I'm good. I'm going to bless you all with my talent. I don't need this 50 bucks that you're going to give me. So I'll come out, get out of the house, give my wife some time to herself. You know, I had that type of arrogance, right?

36:44Oh, my gosh. So I'm going to these shows. But in the car, I am decimating. Like, in the car, I'm the funniest person. I mean, people are falling. When we pull into a parking spot, they're falling out of the car laughing. It's just like, please make my good one stop. But I take 50 steps from the car to the stage. And with each step, all that comedy, all that laughter, all that joy just seeps out with each step. So by the time I get on that stage, I am dry. I'm talking about dry.

37:25Jon McLaughlin:I mean, Mike, how did you survive? Why did you survive two years of bombing? That's what I tell people when they say they want to do stand-up. I'm like, you know when you're not doing well. If you want to do it again, you probably want to do this, right? So I had enough success in there that kept me encouraged. It's like the analogy I use is like going to the driving range, right, and you got 50 balls, and you shank 49 of them. But you hit that one ball straight and you're like, OK, I know I can do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how to do it regularly. Right. Like, oh, yeah. That's how I felt about the comedy.

38:11I was like, man, when I hit it straight, it was beautiful. Right. Yeah. I knew it was in there and I took the challenge. So I did get serious about it. So I stopped being casual and I did become more of an understanding that, hey, this is a skill set and I can develop it. I can work. So I have the talent, but it's like maybe John Maxwell had a book out at that time. Talent was never enough. So I heard enough of this professional, personal development stuff that I knew. OK, man, stop messing around. Let's get your act together. Let's get in the lab. And I also felt like when I was in that car, I was like, I wish I could bring the car onto the stage.

38:56Like I knew. Yeah. I knew that I was in there. Like I knew that it's like when your jumper's on and you're like, man, oh, I know I can hit this shot, but I'm in a slump. Like I was in a real slump. And so I think I had enough success away from the group because we would have some like some shows separate from the group. So I would get like a birthday party or a family reunion and I would go and I would do well because I wasn't so I wouldn't, you know, look at me, Mike Goodwin. I mean, I was very arrogant. I was super arrogant. And I remember one day having like a discussion with God because I was bombing and I didn't want to bomb.

39:38I was like, this doesn't feel good. I think this is what you have created me to do. I think that I should be doing this. And God simply told me that, man, you're full of pride. You're not talking to people. So I wasn't even looking at people in their eyes. I was looking over their head. I was really like if somebody went up on stage and pushed play. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, scripted, yeah. I was so scripted. I had every joke. I was going to do this joke, then that joke. I don't care if a plate fell. I don't care if the fire alarm went off. I'm going to do this joke, this joke, this joke. and so before every show my wife texts me she says have fun and bless the people so if i'm doing both of those things wow i'm having a good night yeah yeah it's it's funny and i mean for those who are listening that like comedy it is it or just you know i just think in general this is true to say it's you're saying it so well mike it's really there's so much craft man i think it's easy to watch people do comedy that are really great like you and think man that guy's so funny he's just get up there and rocking it and i think after a amount of years you probably are like you're just you know you're you have to be at that place you're comfortable right you can like if you were hanging with a bunch of people and there was a mic and they were like hey man like just make us laugh for a minute give it to me let's go murderers roll it's just like you're gonna wish you hadn't done this but like but you know i think i think what people need to realize is like man you're saying it so well there is so much craft there's so much nuance there's so much reading of the crowd there's so much like is this joke gonna work here but i think to what john asked earlier too which is really profound you really great comedians are wondering what John said with Pookie.

41:28Like, does Pookie end the joke? Or, like, if they laugh at Pookie, is it killing what I think is the funniest part of the joke, which is six words later? And I think people that just watch comedy, they don't know, they aren't clocking. When you go back to the hotel that night, you're like, I got to move branch manager up and put Pookie at the end. The next night you do it, and you're like, I didn't land either. All right, so maybe I can keep Pookie. But, like, there's so much to the efficiency of words, which you do so well, I think, is also the gate of it. You know, like you have such a way that you communicate.

42:02Yeah, like you're taking me with you and you're actually showing me where to laugh.

42:06Jon McLaughlin:And it makes sense that people wouldn't clock that because you see somebody get up and play cello and they wow you and you're like, well, yeah, I've never even touched a cello. So of course this person has to have their 10 ,000 hours. But everybody's probably made somebody else laugh at some point in their life right so they see a comedian who's done it so often that makes it look so effortless as you do and they're like yeah you know i can make people laugh you should take johnny on the road with you like i mean people yeah that bothers me more than say something funny like the fact i understand i get that hey man make me laugh i get that yeah but take ricky on the road because he just made us laugh at the dinner table right now?

42:49Like, on the road? Sure.

42:54Jon McLaughlin:Come on, Ricky. Are you in hotels and per diem? Per diem. What are you talking about? On the road? Ricky needs to take himself on the road. Oh my gosh. Like everybody else did. Gosh, there's something to do with that. Oh, he's funny. Take him on. Take me on. Ricky's ready. Take me on the road. So Dave and I, you know, have been doing music for 20 plus years and the music world has changed completely. Like from when Dave and I started out, it was like I was burning my own CDs in my dorm room and taking like a box of CDs to a coffee house and selling CDs for 15 bucks a pop. And like you could make a living.

43:39Jon McLaughlin:Do you feel like comedy has changed as much as music has changed? I don't know as much because I don't know how the streaming thing has really impacted music tremendously. You just got so much more respect from us for you saying that, by the way. No, I can't even quantify how crazy that is. But comedy, and I was caught in the transition. I kind of feel like I'm 50, so I started when I was 28. So I was pre-internet. Like, not internet. You know, I had internet in college. But my mentors and the folks that were ahead of me basically said, don't put your material online, right? Don't put anything up.

44:31People are going to steal your jokes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're going to use your stuff. So we were highly encouraged. like kill on stage and that'll take care of everything then the group behind me was putting everything online like it was just just skits and vines and it was just like non-stop and so I think that it's hard to be successful in this day and age and not have an internet presence like which was not the case for comedians 15 years ago like you could still have established your career you've done the late nights, you've done the television spots, so people are going to come and see you from your movies and your TV shows.

45:16Now, unless you are in movies, you won't survive without some type of internet presence. And then you see now where people are like, they've disrespected the internet for so long, and now they're coming in like, hey, look at my skits that look like it's 2000. right it's like hey man what are you doing like stop so so here's my question for you because with john and i familiarity is actually what helps us so when we get up and sing a song people go ah i love this song like play this song every time i see you it's the opposite with you right like surprise is what kills so how do you navigate knowing that you're posting stuff every week of bits you're doing and people know that bit and then you gotta go like you can't write fast enough to outpace your posts and the internet speed right so do you just like how do you navigate going all right i just posted that bit like let's say the two things it's lowest hanging fruit right you know people people want to hear that but also they kind of don't want to hear you know because they know the bit so how do you post keep your fans in in the internet satiated knowing that every night you're probably going to do that bit.

46:33Right. And is that good or bad? How do you do that? So I'm in a very unique spot where I started trying to sell tickets in 2023. So because I know for musicians, touring is the lifeblood of success, right? You have to do it. Or you're writing or you're doing something. But for comedians, you can be booked and busy, but you might not have the career you want, right? and have the career you want, I believe you've got to sell tickets. You've got to be able to get tickets. Have your own shows. Yeah. You've got to be able to control your schedule. This is when I'm going to be out. This is when I'm going to be home, those types of things.

47:15So I was with – I didn't have management, but I had somebody that was working with me as a booker, and they were really like – they want their commission. So you're not getting commission on 70 tickets sold at a comedy club, right? I can much easier get a commission on this corporate event I book you for. And we know they're going to book you because you've been booking. And let's just keep doing that. And I'm like, no, I don't want to just keep doing that. I want to sell tickets. So I went out 23. I probably did eight dates. And I probably sold on average 120 tickets, 80 to 120 tickets, which I think the number that clubs want you to be at is more like 125, 150.

47:57so it really didn't you know people weren't really super excited about booking mike goodwin because clubs right now aren't advertising they're not doing a lot they're really bringing in artists that already have an audience like you bring in you got a million followers we'll book you we don't care about your talent right so i had that 23 24 and 24 i was doing better so i came back a year later and got but i guess in terms of my social media from 24 to 25 my social media is just like i'm everywhere like if you watch clean comedy i'm in oh yeah like yep right yep so a year later i'm having people i'm selling like this year i just did this a week ago i sold out greenville south carolina but i sold out greenville south carolina a year ago but if I looked out in the audience 75 % of the people were people that I knew that I had some kind of connection with this year I sold it out there was about 15 % of people that were in there so now I'm confronted with I've been here I sold this out and I did my like the best of last year so I can't yeah yep yep and do the best of but I got a whole new group that's not seeing the best of, right?

49:21That's right. That's right. What I realize is seeing comedy live is much better than the clip. It's like playing LeBron James. You know he's going to come and dunk, but there's nothing you can do about it. He's just going to get to his spot and you're just going to have to deal with it. So seeing it live, even though you know the clip, there's something about being in the room that makes the joke better. It's just and I'm a better teller of the joke than the one you saw me on the clip. That's right. That's right. Same joke. And I probably have a couple of wiggles in it that you didn't. I didn't have a wiggle.

50:02You thought I was going this way and I went that way. Right. That wasn't on the clip. Didn't see that coming. So that's a treat. Then the other thing that allows great to have a great experience is I just dropped my daughter off at college. I spent a bunch of time in the shows this past week talking about me and my wife got this argument I got in trouble we don't have a dog house in my marriage but what I said started her building a dog house she got the materials I don't know if she built it but she went online she just leaves them in the corner of the room she started ordering things for Amazon they were boxes she has sketches of dog houses There was a couple of expert doghouse builders calling the house, sending emails.

50:55Hey, take a look at the specs, right? I did that on stage, right? And I'm just sharing something that really happened in a very funny way. And it was personal, and I got better telling the story. So now I'm doing material that ultimately is kind of like the start, like the freshman. But he's thrown in the game because somebody is hurt, not like we plan to play him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, that guy got hurt. He's out. You got to get in. And so he gets in and performs well. He's like, oh, okay. We got something there, right? So it gives me a little bit more freedom to do the jokes I want to do. And that's so that's why I am kind of constricted in the church world, because I don't use language, but I'm talking about content that I don't want children in the room.

51:49Right. So if I'm in a church and people are like, oh, it's a comedy night. They got their whole family there. It's like the 14 year old kid, the nine year old kid, mom and dad. But if you come see him in the comedy club, it's mom and dad. And so when I talk about colonoscopies or I talk about my starts building a doghouse, I don't have to like be crafty around topics. I got this Diddy joke and that I, oh, my gosh, it's such a good joke. But I can't do the Diddy joke at the church, man. And it is not even that. Like you say P Diddy and people are already like. But the joke doesn't even do any of that But it's still a great It's a great joke Yeah, yeah, absolutely Okay, so let me ask you this I feel like y 'all won't say something about Diddy Y 'all won't say something about Diddy joke before we leave He does, he's right He's got a Diddy tattoo He's got a Diddy tattoo It's on the chest He had Diddy sign his chest And he got a tattoo Yeah You did.

52:55There's a lot of jokes.

52:57Jon McLaughlin:Now, I want to talk about the dropping the daughter off in college. Tell me about this. This is big. Yeah, John and I are a few years from that. But how was that? What was it like? She's at college. You leave her. She's stayed away now. How are you doing with all that? It's gut-wrenching. It's absolutely gut-wrenching. I was talking to my buddy. I have a buddy who just dropped his daughter off in Alabama. this weekend. So he called to check in like, hey, man, I'm not good. Like, it's not good. So I think I made it worse for myself because when my daughter was in the ninth grade, I was like, OK, I have four more years with her.

53:40Then she's a sophomore. I'm like, I have three more years with her. I have two more. So now I'm senior year like, oh, this is it. And I really haven't thought about my daughter's life post high school right I didn't yeah yeah think about what does that look like how do we how do we function and what are my goals and my aspirations right so everything was around the countdown to graduation so then she graduates now we got this little bit of time before she goes to college and so you like trying to savor every moment and And you just know, like, again, it's similar to like LeBron James is coming at half court.

54:20And he's like, I see him, but I can't get out of the way. Like, I got to try to defend. But I'm going to get dunked on like Jason Terry. And everybody, and here's the bad part about it. So it's bad. It's all bad. I don't like it. It doesn't feel good. But everyone sees you and be like, how's that dunk, man? I saw you on the SportsCenter. you doing all right did you ice that hand that got jammed into the rim no i'm not doing all right it sucks so yeah i think that for us man it was slow because we got up at like five in the morning we're like six and a half hours from nashville yeah we got up we loaded my truck and and and the other bad timing i had shows that whole thursday friday saturday sunday so i literally left Charlotte that night to drive back home to get up at like five in the morning.

55:18And so we drove to Nashville. We got the spot. We got the stuff out. And I was pretty good in terms of just staying focused, you know, helping do the heavy lifting and all that type of stuff. They had another student that was, they had some upperclassmen, because my daughter's in this program, the scholarship program. So they came up before the whole rush, like the whole. She's in the scholarship program at Philly? Yeah. Yeah, she's like, I don't have to worry about Social Security, I think.

55:54I think I'm going to have some good living accommodations.

56:00The finest of adult facilities in the land. I'm going to have my own go-kart.

56:14man about the facility man like dave said i mean we we have time like my oldest is 12

56:25Jon McLaughlin:she's in seventh grade she's going to be 13 here in a couple months i got a 10 year old daughter as well but i just i think about what you just did the weekend you just had i think about it all the time. I think my biggest fear is that I'll be blindsided by it. You know what I mean? I want to see LeBron James coming. I want to see him on the sideline getting ready. Yeah, he stepped off the bus. He's got his headphones on. There's a chop. You know what I mean? He's coming. He's coming fast. I know. And the thing is that I know, I'm curious what this was like for you. I'm like, I just, I look back on my own childhood and I'm like, yes, she's in seventh grade my oldest so you know i've got like five more years five and a half more years but really those five and a half years are not all made equal like those last couple years when i was in in you know still living at home quote unquote i was like a roommate to my parents i was so busy i had a car i was you know i was gone already is that how it was for you guys is that how you felt she does i mean my daughter started driving her her calendar was busy like She was a weight.

57:35She would go on Decker trips. She would go on dance trips.

57:40Jon McLaughlin:Yeah, you don't get into a scholarship program at Vanderbilt by sitting at home. By sitting at the house. Watching Young and the Restless, right? Linear, baby. That's a throwback. Thank you for that. That dated all of us. Didn't see that coming. Yeah, oh, yeah. I know that. So, yeah, kind of watching her evolve and develop. You know, I think so. Here's the interesting part for me that is different for my wife. Most people graduated from high school, went into college. I went in the army. Right. So I'm similar to a person that got out of prison and then went to college. Right. So when I think about college, I get very happy.

58:20Like I really because I remember getting out and going to college. So if somebody knew me as a freshman, I was the happiest dude on the campus. Like, oh, my gosh. I had 8 o 'clock classes Monday through Friday. And people are like, what's wrong with you? I'm like, dude, that's sleeping in late.

58:40Jon McLaughlin:You're like, I've been up for three and a half hours already. That's exactly right. What are we talking about right now? I get up at 5 in the morning. I'm working out. I'm having my lunch. I had breakfast. I've assembled weapons. it's just 755 so i do have that great like memory of my child like me going to college that kind of you know combats a lot of the sadness of you know missing my daughter and having her so i do have that unique perspective uh as it relates to college and just i know how of a good student she is and how bright her future is. I think Vanderbilt's like a perfect place for her to go and just like dive into academics, find a new tribe.

59:33You know, she lives in Nashville where, you know, we grew up in, she grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. So now you're accessing a legitimate city with all the perks that comes along with that. So I think I'm, I'm more excited about that. And we really like Vanderbilt's the great fit. Like she had multiple schools. I mean, you know, she did a full ride at Vander. You can imagine the other options that were. That is amazing, Mike. That's insanity. They basically just gave you a half a million dollar check. Dude, when we go into the portal, we see the amount of money. Like it's 96 ,000 a year. Oh, my God.

1:00:14I see it and it's gone. That's just two gigs for you though at those corporate. So, I mean, a daughter that smart, that's an, that would be intimidating to me as a dad. Right. Like that's not normal. That's not just like, like, but I see her, the room's not clean though. And she doesn't put the top back on the Tuesday. So like I'm seeing stuff. Hey, Hey, I feel like that would put a different,

1:00:40Jon McLaughlin:just a slight different spin when you're like, Hey, put the top back on the toothpaste and she's like sorry what did you say full ride? I'm sorry what's the money? How much is Vanderbilt? Why don't you put the toothpaste back? She's still a child I don't think she's realized her superpower yet So here's a question too so you have your son is he 9th grade? Yeah he's in the 10th grade and he's not as impressive Okay so here's So there hey look

1:01:14so let's let's slow down so here's here's a question i have for you what is y 'all's life gonna look i mean i know you're just now in it for a weekend but like that's got to be a trip when you know you've gone from four to three you know like that that's gonna all of a sudden logistics change pretty significantly attention for you know just him is now on him and right Like what is that going to be like to navigate now? What I think we would do a lot more because he's a guy that loves video editing. So he's editing videos, sports clips on his own accord. Like nobody is asking him to do anything.

1:01:54He's trying to get more followers on YouTube. He's trying to get more views. So he's like at the table cutting up these videos that no one has asked him to do. Right. So instead of him sitting in a room.

1:02:09Jon McLaughlin:That's a great skill to have. Yeah. And he's at the table in the kitchen. So like we're all close versus if he was in his room. Yeah. Yeah. That vibe would be different. Like we were very like, you know, so I didn't have a great childhood. And I we've created, I think, a great home for our children. And within probably like the last year and a half or so, I found myself getting upset, especially my daughter. because she was always at home. She was at home. And I just was remembering my childhood, I was always trying to not be at home. So I remember talking to her and saying, hey, I think it's very important for you to go and kick it.

1:02:51I'm like, hey, you and your friends don't kick it. You can go to the mall. Y 'all can go to move. I want you to do that. I want you to have some experience kicking it so that you don't get to Nashville and you want to catch up on all this kicking it time that you didn't have. Right. And so in communicating that, I realized that, oh, she likes being at home. Like, this is not home because her friends don't have anything to do and they're not doing it. Like, she enjoys the environment that we create. So that was like close to me. Like, I mean, that did something to me that I didn't know I needed as a dad.

1:03:33I would have loved to have had that as a child. God, dude, that gets me all choked up. Yeah, man. So that was something. But I did communicate that I do want you to leave. This is nice. This is a great place to be. But you got to go do things, right? Like go be a teenager, right? You know what I love too, Mike? It's your two reference points for a place to kick it or the mall and the theater.

1:03:59Jon McLaughlin:you were you were two seconds away from saying malt shop i'm 50 i'm 50 man come on we're going to the video arcade man go down there hey go in my top drawer there's a uh i got a sleeve of quarters don't root around in there too long just grab the quarters and get it matter of fact let me go get the quarters you stay here play some pinball play some Atari some Pac-Man some Donkey Kong well you know what's so funny you say that too though Mike is what we're seeing is like talking to other like professionals that come on and talk about like you know what childhood development looks like now and you've seen this first hand with your daughter and your son ours are kind of getting to this but like they're really seeing where kids are just not as social.

1:04:55Like they're on their phones or on their, you know, they're on their computers and whatever. And so it's gotta be a trip. Again, you think about your childhood, me and John think about ours. And it was so much more social because that's the only way I got to interact with my friends was to be in physical presence of them or like on the phone, catch them at night. You know what I mean? Talking to your girlfriend or whatever. Like I had a girlfriend, but, uh, you know, now it's like they can keep up any way. you can keep up a million ways without having to see somebody and so it's got to be such a trip to be a parent like you said where you're like hey y 'all like you said let's go y 'all watch our kicking it and like well i'm texting them i know what they're doing yeah right now i mean like yeah we are right now yeah i just started with them like no no no no no yeah that doesn't count yeah i am trying to as much as possible infuse the old school way of like making connections with people Like I really, you know, I tell my son's in like a mentoring group through my fraternity.

1:05:53We had a vet yesterday and I'm always telling him like, hey, man, go and talk to these other kids. Like, like go and speak. Say, hey, man, how's your summer? Like, what have you been up to? Like, yeah, you should be doing these things. But yeah, that is. And but I think that that children that have the ability to do that, they're going to succeed because who has the authority? The positions like it's us. It's like Generation X and, you know, baby boomers. So they're going to hire or they're going to seek out young folks that have those same traits that remind us of us when we were young people.

1:06:31Yeah. So so here's one more one more thing. And then we got the speed round, Mike. OK, because this is hard hitting information that's going to leave your hair blown back. But one last question I have for you. I did have something to add. Oh, go. Please. I had something to add when we were talking about the craft of comedy, similar to the audiences. So I don't like so that when everybody's together, if I'm in a white crowd or if I'm a black crowd, I am super strategic of what jokes to start with and place it. Because there is a rhythm to the audience that you're in front. So I don't start what you're not going to do in white audiences because they'll be like, oh, OK, yeah.

1:07:16All right. Really? Yeah. But in white audiences, as soon as I say what you're not, it's like, boom, like it's three jokes before what you're not going to do in a white audience, because it's just not going to generate the type of energy I need at the beginning of the show. But you learn that by trial and error. So sometimes I remember like being in front of one audience and like starting with the other audience is set. I'm like, oops, wrong audience. Let me make it, you know, my bad.

1:07:46Jon McLaughlin:Can we bring the lights up for a second? Now you can put them down. Did you say lights or lights? No, bring the lights. I'm sorry, the lights up for a second. Like, oh, okay, I'm good. I'm good. Yeah, that makes sense. Here's the thing about parts of the country. Oh, I'm sure. I can't imagine. I can't imagine. so so so being a funny dad this is this is one last thing to want to ask you yeah yeah yeah do your kids think you're i mean i know this is like the lowest hangout question no no no but like do your kids no my daughter has the best sense of humor ever like she thinks everything is fun like she's easy man my daughter what a gift there's nothing man hearing my kids laugh is like a treat But I feel like she has a comedy palette.

1:08:36Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I feel like she is. She's not her arms are not folded. She's like, man, that's funny. And I'm going to salute you with a laugh. Like, good job. Salute you with a laugh. That's the least kind of person that you love just being around. Like, she's going to laugh. She's goofy. She's silly. She didn't take herself too serious. My son, I think he has that sniper mentality. He's funny, man. I don't think he's comedian. I don't know. I wish this life on no person. But this is not the life I would recommend. But he has that really refined. I mean, I remember when that kid was, my son used to draw comic books.

1:09:20Oh, wow. When he was like five times I used to mess up paper, like computer paper, just like stacks of computer paper. And he's drawing these comics. and he would do things that was so funny on paper. I was just like, oh, man. These kids. These kids have something here, man. So, yeah, they think I'm funny. My son catches the brunt of my comedy. You know, I give him a lot of love. I saw the bit about his stinking. But it's true, too. So I will stop doing the jokes if you start cleaning. Shower. Yeah. That's your deal. give me something else to talk about right yeah yeah yeah that's on you son so did they like do they ever um well like will your kids ever come home and have a sense of pride because one of their friends saw a bit of yours in their instagram reels yeah my uh so when i went i was on america's got talent my daughter oh yeah the ninth grade when i when it happened and like i think she said it in class and people like no your dad's not on america's got talent she's like yeah there he is like pull it up and like the teacher pulled it up and it's like so yeah they they really yes it's been cool for them i think they've uh they've had a good time with it i think they they they love my material i think they uh yeah i don't i don't they're not like what but i'm i'm goofy at home so i'm at i'm at home like using slang out of out of out of uh I'm using it out of context.

1:10:56I'm saying stuff like, hey, I had a lot of ribs when I was a kid. They're like, dad, stop. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, hey, man, let's get lit. Let's get lit, right? We lit? We lit-y? We lit-y? Show me that dance you do. Do the dance. Let me do the lit. Baby girl. So I'm doing that kind of stuff at home that is aggravating. so they appreciate comedy

1:11:24Jon McLaughlin:that's the natural role of the dad I find myself just it's like it was God ordained yes it is taking the slang of the day and butchering it I'm just tearing it apart don't let me find a new word yeah there is something that I think is so interesting about all of our careers having kids there are few things that make me happier than when I see that my kids are like proud of what I do it is the greatest feeling and I think for all the quirks of doing what we do and us being in front of people whatever man one of the payoffs to me is that my kids go yeah I told my friends that you did this thing the other night or you know I got to meet so-and-so because I was hanging out with you and I'm like that's it for me like that's it is I just find so much joy in uh and And then, because, you know, I mean, like, you know, and I've done stand, I've always wanted to work this bit up, but I'm not smart enough to figure it out.

1:12:26But I want to do a bit where I ask people in the crowd, like, how many people actually know what their dad does for a living? Because nobody does somehow. That's fun. You know, which is a whole bit. But I think it's fun to do something that my kids absolutely know. Like, oh, this is what dad does. Like, there it is. And if you want to see it, you can actually listen to it. You can watch whatever. And that's a really weird thing, because I think, you know, probably 95 % of the men in america do these great jobs that their kids like yeah it's like he's he he does money something with these people you know it's like it's always like this even in the i mean like i have friends our age that i'll be like what's your dad doing like man like real talk it was something it was something he traveled managed managed people or computer software it's always it's always

1:13:11Jon McLaughlin:something with software it's just like six words that people just kind of say in different orders Yeah, and then everybody loses. You know, I had a cool thing happen recently. Like, you saw him texting my daughter. And, oh, I say, oh, man, this is so gut-wrenching, too. So I dropped her off, all the things. One of the hardest things I did was every morning when she was at the house, I would say, good morning, buddy. Like, that was our good morning, buddy. So the next morning, I guess I'm like, I got to text her good morning, buddy. And that was hard. It was like typing that in was like, oh, this is rough.

1:13:47So I send it. So I've been sending good morning, buddy, every morning. So I was flying back from Tulsa on Saturday morning. And so I said good morning, buddy. And she was like, are you back from Tulsa? And I was like, oh, you know I was in Tulsa? That's so great. Oh, wait a minute. Are you paying attention to me? You know, I was out and then winning the world doing business. So that just kind of, that was like a little Easter egg to me. The fact that you still in Tulsa, I was like, oh. Oh, that makes me so happy. She's also so smart. She just knows. Yeah. Somehow with her intellect, she was like, I can feel that the cells around my body have changed in a way.

1:14:32I actually just landed in a letter.

1:14:37All right. So now, Mike, we are at the hard-hitting speed round. Okay. And I just need you to buckle up because these are going to be. Listen, John. Yeah. I have to get this off my chest. Do it. Yes, it's August now, but it's going to get chilly. And this feels like a time. August feels like the time to hit reset before the autumn rush begins. And honestly, I can't think of a better place to start than my closet. Dave.

1:15:03Jon McLaughlin:same page. That's why I love shopping at Quintz. You always say that. Yeah. And here's why. They're all about fewer, better pieces made with premium materials built to last and designed to become the things that you reach for every day. Like the ultra soft organic cotton. I was hoping you would see a Mongolian cashmere sweater. I wear them all the time. Almost every day. They have the fit and quality you'd expect from a luxury designer brand. You know, Quintz works directly with ethical factories and they just cut out the middleman. They're like, get out of here. So you're paying for exceptional quality instead of brand markups, you know, and keeping everything priced 50 to 80 percent less than similar brands.

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1:17:13You might want to call your daughter just to have her because these are really some hard-hit questions. Call in a friend. Call in a friend. Call in a friend. All right. So, all right. Here we go. I'll ask the first one. Who is your favorite comedian of all time?

1:17:27Dave Chappelle. Yeah. Yep. Why? I just love all the versions that he's given us. I'm talking about Dave Chappelle, Robin Hood and tights. We're talking about Dave Chappelle, Half Baked. Half Baked. Dave Chappelle, The Chappelle Show. you got dave chapelle with all the netflix i mean it's just yeah it's never ending like if you get on the dave chapelle wagon man you can yeah go for days yeah yeah yeah our favorite joke to tell my favorite joke to tell oh so now it that changes yeah i think yeah i think the one that i'm really enjoying now. I enjoy the Diddy Joe. I'm enjoying the Diddy Joe right now.

1:18:17Yeah, it's killing.

1:18:19Jon McLaughlin:Probably a little bit of it is the fact that you can't tell it everywhere. Exactly. When I get to tell it, that's my favorite. And I tell it in a way that is so funny, but it's not gross. It's not what people are thinking. But it's, man, I like it. It's good. It's true. You know the bit, by the way, I'm not going to get off sidetrack. You know the bit that popped up in your feed that got me so good? It's the Navy SEAL workout joke. And you say, can we just do an old Navy workout? Can we do an old Navy workout, please? Bro, I was crying. That's good. Crying. And then you end the bit with, like, because he's so oiled up, you slide off the machines.

1:19:00Dude, I was losing it. Okay, we're not going to get sidetracked because I'm going to keep going. There's another portion that I don't get to tell everywhere either. oh yeah it's one of those there's so many layers to these jokes it's like ah yeah how much can you tell so let's say you're on a bill doing a comedy like a night of comedy who are three other comedians you would want to be on that bill if you got to put the night together and they could be dead or alive oh wow Chris Rock Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle man I think I would also Bernie Mac I need to slide in there and Bill Cosby I could go on and on but if they're living I'll do Dave Sipril and Bernie Mac but if I get guys that's not here Bernie Mac and Cosby yeah I see there's no white people and I'm not going to say anything Seinfeld he's in the stratosphere Seinfeld man I love what's my mind he just noah mcdonald man oh my gosh that guy so good so good who's your favorite person to make laugh between dave and i i gotta say my wife man yeah that's a good feeling isn't is she a hard laugh she's not she you know what i what i enjoy when she comes to shows people watch her yes yeah yes watch her yes well i i will say i love it when i see uh a spouse make another

1:20:40Jon McLaughlin:spouse laugh there's something really sweet about that like whenever i see annie genuinely crack up at dave it happens so rarely it's very rare it's every two years we had something happen in my house we got time we got time oh yeah come on come on so my son gets in trouble like we didn't get in trouble. His buddy gets in trouble. We about to take my son to hang out. The buddy that he supposed to hang out with at the mall. His parents call at the mall. We're going to play pinball. So they call and say, hey, you know, this kid, he's acting out. He's carrying on. He's not going to have any visitors.

1:21:18Right. So before they get off the phone, he said, I need to tell you that my son and your son have been gambling at church. And so what? This is what they tell my wife. What does that even mean? On what?

1:21:31Jon McLaughlin:Also, are you immediately like, oh, this is good. I'm not even in the kitchen. This is my wife telling me this. So she's getting the call. All I hear is my wife giving my son the business in the kitchen. Like, she's in there. I'm just hearing cold words like poverty. This is dangerous, you know. So I'm on the phone. I'm like, hey, man. Poverty. I'm like, hey, man, my wife's going off, and it's not on me. Let me go see what's going on in here. So I go in the kitchen, and she's giving my son the ride at. So she explains that him and the dude's been gambling. And so she's steady, like, yo, what are you?

1:22:13And my son, like, it wasn't a game. Like, we didn't bet on a game. Like, we didn't bet on a game. So I'm like, what did y 'all bet? My son says they had an altar card church. One of the little boys got up. He started walking to the altar. His friend leans over and said, I bet you$10 that when the pastor lays his hand on him, he's going to fall down.

1:22:41The way my wife started laughing. So she's like, she's getting, like she's on the verge. And then I say to my son, dude, y 'all betting on altar calls at the church? What are you doing? She loses it. Like I've never seen her laugh. She had to leave the room. She had to leave the room. I was offended. Like I've never seen her laugh this far. That is hilarious. And this is what I love about life. What a gift God has given us in these moments. Because she is laying in the second before. Giving him the business. Talking about the dangers of gambling. And I know it looks casual. You see these commercials.

1:23:24It's online. I'm like, is he down$5 ,000? I'm like, what's happening? And then she's laughing so hard. She has to leave the room all in a minute. And I'm the only one left parenting here. I'm like, hey.

1:23:37Jon McLaughlin:You're like, what's my move here? Hey, what are you doing? I need some support. Are we changing course here? Am I supposed to stay? You're like, well, hold on. Am I on or something? Should I see you keep going? Because that worked. Babe, get in here. I got some more stuff I want to try. I got some more stuff. I'm just crying. So, yeah. To see my wife. We had a moment, like John said, Annie never laughs at me. If anything, what she gives me, will you please stop so we can move on? That's her vibe with me. It's like, this isn't amusing to me, which is infinitely more interesting to me than someone who would laugh a lot at me.

1:24:09But we were in the car, and I just did this accent. I didn't even think about it. We were driving to this thing a couple weeks ago, and there was a street name, and I just did this accent, and she laughed so hard that my three kids leaned up and we're like, Dad, look how hard she's laughing. And I literally turned to her, and she was like, she couldn't get it together. And it was like just the bellows in my soul. Someone was pumping them, and I was just gaining strength. And so then I doubled down. She laughs even harder. The kids are laughing. But the funniest part of it was the kids were all so amazed.

1:24:45They were like, they had never seen her laugh at me like that. And I was like, we've been married 20 years. These kids have been alive starting at 13 down, and they're all like they couldn't stop saying like dad look at her keep going look at her i was like this is so sad you got her like you did it dad after all this time i must say the best laugh of the day was this is that ai no it's just i that's what john that was

1:25:19that's in my head i'm gonna take the rest of the day off

1:25:25okay last question for you mike that's what we call a callback i'm sorry that's a callback that's exactly right that's exactly you know what's funny when i was doing a bunch of my stand-up bits and my manager got so when i was doing stand-up shows there for a minute he would get so mad at me because i would obsess with callbacks during the show like he would see my brain i'd be like oh god i gotta get that back in and it was just like he'd be just do your show and i'm like no man like they they bit at that one so i gotta bring it back i mean there is something about one One of my eyes would just wander to the right because it was just trying to figure out, like, how can I get, you know, shark back in the callback?

1:25:59And I'd be like, no, you're never going to do it. And I was like, no, I can't. I can't. It was obscene. OK, so if you wrote a book on being a dad, what would it be called?

1:26:12It would be called Tough Love. I gotta have something like Tough Love Soft Landing Ooh Hey Call the book agent That is good man That is good Did you just come up with that Gracious Hey that's alright My good one's writing a book I just want it to be known that they got launched here With us in Deadville when it's the next Rick Warren book in the Christian world. Yeah, self-love, self-lander. I like that. That also sounds like a great Young and Restless episode. And that, kids, is what we call a callback. There we go, Dave. There it is. Thanks, guys. I knew I could do it. Mike, we are such big fans.

1:27:05So question for you. Because I feel like you got a million things you're doing. Anything you want to talk about before we let you go is coming up. Anything fun? Well, my My 2026 date. So I think this will be the first time we're going to allow like multiple dates because now it's kind of it's kind of pit like patchwork. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. 2026. If folks just go to Mike Goodwin dot com. I'm sorry. Mike Goodwin dot com and get on the email list. Do we even call it that anymore? Let's serve. I don't know. Newsletter. and just sign up so that you can stay abreast of the upcoming dates. I'm excited about the national touring dates that I'll have.

1:27:49That's so exciting. Well, man, we love you. We love what you're doing. It's so, so, so funny and you are such a hysterical gifted dude. Man, thanks for having me on the podcast. Yeah, thanks for doing it. You're the best, Mike. Be good, man.

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