Chapter 1: What humorous parenting experiences does Joe List share?
I think I'm a good dad. I felt like the universe was testing me leading up to being a father. I kept having run-ins with other people's children, which is always awkward. Last year, I was in a hotel, like a really nice hotel, like a high-rise hotel. And I got on an elevator, and it was me and a dad and his little boy, who was probably two or three. And then the doors closed. We were going down.
We stopped at a floor. The doors opened. Nobody got off or on. Then the doors closed. And so I said, hey, it must have been a ghost. Classic elevator humor. That's not my joke. I didn't write that. That's just an old elevator gag. You guys didn't really laugh. They did not laugh at all. The kids started crying immediately. I was like, hey, it must have been a ghost. The kid was like, what?
And I felt bad for the kid, but then the dad goes, hey, come on. And I was like, pal, your kid is a little bitch. I'm sorry. This is not my fault. You're raising a dork who's afraid of ghosts. It was a joke.
On this episode of the Commercial Break.
So I've... My wife and I in our old apartment, we live in a nicer place now. We haven't had a mouse yet. But our old apartment, we would get like an annual mouse visit. We'd have a single mouse once every 18 months or something. And the way we got it... The first time I caught one in a humane trap, which is like the tube with the holes. And then you go and let it out.
But I did not realize you have to go a mile from your house. Yes. So I just went outside and let him go. And he just shot directly back into my house. Like he was home before I was. And it was it was raining out that night. So it felt like Shawshank Redemption. Like I just gave him a shower. I guess we just rinsed him off. And so then it took me a while to find him again. And I took him.
I finally went a mile and released him really close to a friend of mine's apartment. Maybe he'll live there.
The next episode of the commercial break starts now.
Oh yeah, cats and kittens, welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Greene, this is my dear friend Chris and Joy Hoadley. Best to you, Chris.
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Chapter 2: How does Joe List handle anxiety in his comedy?
That's prolific. Honestly, that's a lot of comedy to write in just a short amount of time. special is out on YouTube now. So I'm going to put links in the show notes. Please go watch it. Also, he does the Tuesdays with Stories. I keep on forgetting the name of this podcast, even though I've seen it.
So instead of like Tuesdays with Maury's? Yeah, that's right.
Tuesdays with Stories instead of Tuesdays with Maury. Yeah. And every time I want to call it something completely different. Anyway, with Mark Norman, also a very popular and funny comedian. They have been doing this podcast since 2013, Chrissy. Say what, Chrissy? Almost as long as, you know, Mark Maron, the other guy that's leaving podcasting. Let's hope this one keeps up.
You can find that podcast. Links in the show notes also. And I had to write a list down because he's on so many podcasts. Ready? Mindful Metal Jacket podcast. And the Joe and Renan Talk Movies podcast with Renan Hirschberg. He's also a regular on Robert Kelly's podcast, You Know What, Dude? So this guy is on five different podcasts.
And I think I saw him on Howie.
He was on Howie Mandel. I watched that part of that episode. And wow, Howie is out there, man. Howie is a wacky motherfucker.
I want to ask him about that.
I want to ask Howie to be on his podcast. I think I'd have fun. I couldn't touch him or be near him. But, you know, he's like, you know, he's like he's OCD germaphobe. And when he touches people, he gets all upset about it. Apparently, that's what that's the thing that he says. That's his whole that's his whole thing. Anyway, he was also a touring comic with Louis C.K.
when Louis was doing his thing before he was doing his thing. You know what I'm saying? Before Louis C.K. became kind of a persona non grata for certain indiscretions, let's put it that way. But, you know, whatever happened to Louis C.K. and all that jazz? He's back. He's touring.
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Chapter 3: What challenges does Joe face with sobriety and comedy?
There's a blue little link. And directly after you listen to the show, click on that and listen to his new special. We'll be back.
Okay, you're probably wondering why I, Rachel, have taken over the voice duties at TCB. It's pretty simple. Astrid asked me to shut Brian up, even for a minute. Well, lovely Astrid, your wish is my command. Do you want to help Astrid too? You know you do. Leave a message for her or me or Chrissy at 212-433-3TCB. That's 212-433-3822. You can be on the show too. Just call and say something.
Anything. Or text us and we'll text you right back. Promise. Then head over to tcbpodcast.com and get your free sticker. It's your constitutional right to a sticker. And we must abide. You get the point. Follow us on Instagram at The Commercial Break. And watch all the episodes on video at youtube.com slash thecommercialbreak. Best to you. And Astrid. Especially Astrid.
And Joe's here with us now. Hey, Joe, thank you so much for joining us today, Mr. List. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. You guys look great. You look very tan, both of you. Well, I look tan because I go to the tanning bed. Chrissy looks tan because that's the lighting we set up for her.
I've been at sports events for my nephews.
Yeah, we get a lot of sun down here in Atlanta all the time. Oh, beautiful. I have small children, and we just happen to have a pool, also known as a death trap, in the back of our house. And so every day I get to spend an hour and a half out there desperately trying to save them from dying in my death trap in the back of the house.
Joe, I saw on your Instagram, were you on the Howie Mandel podcast? I was. I just was there a couple weeks ago. Yeah, I had a great time. I'm so fascinated by Howie Mandel and his podcast and his thing. He's like, you know, a germaphobe, but then he loves to play pranks and get dirty and get involved. What was your experience on the Howie Mandel podcast? It's a big podcast, too.
Yeah, I had a great time. I mean, he has like a, he's like a big business entrepreneur guy. Like he has a huge space. It's massive. It's similar to like Joe Rogan's thing. And he's got, he's invested in these, I don't even know what you call them. I should know because he told me, but it's like, what do you call it? Like Tupac when they did... You know what I mean? The hologram.
Those big hologram things. Yeah, he's got like 20 of those.
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Chapter 4: What insights does Joe provide about touring with Louis C.K.?
I can't even remember. Dublin, London. And had like a lady with a little, you know, rectangle hat on the flight bringing us drinks and steaks. It was... It was wild. It was like the most unbelievable experience of my life.
That is insane to be like a young comic. I'm sure this is the dream of every comic is to literally land in the lap of luxury with the world's biggest comic. I don't think there's too many comics that fly around on... None that have been here at the commercial break that fly around on private jets and have a waitress inside of the airplane and get to do the world tour. Do you...
When you have that experience, when you're like, oh my God, we're staying to the Four Seasons, we're flying around the world, we're doing all these experiences, and then you have to kind of fall back to then going and doing the on-your-own journeyman type thing, I bet that's kind of a kick in the balls.
It's definitely weird. I mean, one time I opened for him at Madison Square Garden, three times I did actually. And then you just get on the subway and you're on like the C train in New York and nobody has any idea that you've just, you know, performed at Madison Square Garden. So it was weird.
And I do remember doing Madison Square Garden and then doing a bar show, like in a basement bar, like two blocks from Madison Square Garden the next night. It was called Mustang Sally's. It was like a...
crappy bar gig and just in the middle of it being like i was at msg a couple days ago so it's but it's fun it like adds to the romanticism of uh comedy i guess yeah it's it's kind of put some lure to the history of of what you're doing but that does have to be a strange sensation to be in front of what is it 20 000 25 000 people and then 15 minutes later no one knows who you are you're like i just played meredith square garden and i'm sitting next to the homeless guy
It smells like booze.
Yeah, literally. It's definitely a weird thing, but it was an awesome experience. I loved it. Where'd you grow up? I grew up in Whitman, Massachusetts, which is about 40 minutes south of Boston and is where the chocolate chip cookie was invented.
Oh, really?
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Chapter 5: How does Joe List describe his experience with mice in his home?
Yeah, I know Brian Moses. So Brian came on and then he says, he comes up with an idea during the interview. He's like, you guys should roast each other. Come on out. we'll put you up, we'll give you a couple minutes, and we'll help you write the roast battle jokes together. And so I was all about it. Chrissy said, no, I don't want to do that. I don't want to be mean.
I don't want us to get into some kind of discourse because of the roast battle. And I said, but we get to write them and choose them. It's not like... It's not like we're just going to blindside each other with a bunch of insults. We're going to talk this out before we go on. So I think I don't think that happens in every roast battle. I think it happens when two people know each other real well.
And like you said, you don't want to be known as the two pump. Like you don't want your wife to come up and say you're a two pump chump. And then you're like, did you have to say that?
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, so we went over them together.
Because one time I was on a roast years and years ago, and there was like eight comics on the day. It wasn't a roast battle, it was just a regular roast. And there was one guy, and everybody did a joke about how his breath smelled horrible.
Oh!
And he was like, we did it individually. It's not like we got together, like, let's all talk about this. We all just, that's what we came up with. And he was like, I had no idea. I had a breath problem. So that's like the worst thing that can happen on a roast to me.
Yeah, roasts are, it's a certain flavor of comedy. I find some of it funny, but then sometimes I watch some of those roasts and I wonder just how emotionally stable that person is after the roast. Because, you know, you take it like a tough guy, but everybody, something's, there's some soft in everybody, right? There's a soft middle in everybody.
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Chapter 6: What is the story behind Joe's new comedy special?
well first of all i was smoking cigarettes at the time and i could not for the life of me stop smoking cigarettes the second i put alcohol to my lips i needed to smoke a cigarette and i hated the fact that i was smoking cigarettes at my age i'm like fuck this you're gonna die like clearly this is terrible for your health right you gotta stop so i said why don't you stop drinking for three months that'll get you over the hump and within a couple of weeks of not drinking i
Life started to change in ways that were very unexpected. Nothing I was looking for, but all of a sudden started to happening. Some clarity, some perspective, some understanding. And like you said, my hangovers were getting worse. My drunks were getting more kind of sloppy, right? And I just felt like...
after a couple of months, after I stopped smoking cigarettes, and then after a couple of months, I was like, wow, I don't want to be the old guy at the bar, sitting at the corner, drunk like an idiot, sloppy as I can be, because that's just not a good look.
But then that guy doesn't have, I mean, I'm sure there are some people who drink alcohol well into their existence and are very smart and self-aware and all that. But, you know, I haven't met too many of them, right? They're always just kind of, they can be a little sloppy sometimes. So I said to myself, wow. And then years into it, I had children.
And I cannot imagine for the life of me being hung over with small children. Can't even imagine it.
No, it's crazy. And it's hard enough being tired all the time and all that stuff and running around chasing them. So dead, dead, sober, healthy. So I just I just can't imagine. And yeah, and that's the other thing is like in comedy, at least I think most fields, there's not a lot of people that are like really, really successful who are blacking out at night. There's a couple.
That's true.
We know them. We don't need to say names. We know them. They're just alcohol and comedy go hand in hand for them. And some of them are really funny, by the way. Some of them are really funny. Some of them we've had on the show. They're really funny. Was that a crutch for you when you would go on stage? Did that help you? Was that like bravery juice?
I mean, that's the way I would have to do it.
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