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Tyson Popplestone is a Comedian from Melbourne Australia. Join him for a brand new interview each week.
phil (00:00.206)
we appear even before the other person appears, because you're going to be mumbling things to yourself. You want to capture that.
Tyson (00:05.322)
You were just asking about the, so I told you in an email that I had made a mistake and I'm sorry again, about the time that we were supposed to be catching up tonight for everyone listening. I thought we were catching up at 10 .30 PM my time. And then before I left the house, a voice in my head said, you got the time wrong. And I was like, cause I checked pretty carefully the other day and I jumped on and I double checked Eastern time in the U S and I was like, yep. I'm two hours out.
And I was in a sticky situation, Phil, because I was either, do I say I can't make Phil or do I tell the guy who's booked me for comedy that I can't make comedy? And so thank God my wife was like, figure out to make it work for both. And thank God you were so understanding.
phil (00:48.942)
take the comedy all the time, you take the comedy because that's how we stay young. We'll talk about that in a minute. So how long have you been doing stand -up?
Tyson (00:57.802)
It is true. So I'm a little over five years in and I've got the bug. I mean, I'm completely obsessed. Since I finished distance running competitively in 2014, there was a couple of years there where I didn't really feel as though I had any place to filter or funnel the energy that used to go towards trying to race.
phil (01:06.382)
Wow.
Tyson (01:26.41)
into, and so I felt a little stagnant. And then there was something about the comedy world that just kept grabbing my attention every now and then I would hear someone speak. And I actually heard Joe Rogan speak a long time ago about how he comes from a martial arts background and the discipline of martial arts really worked well for him in comedy. And I thought, that's interesting. Like I would love to, I would love to have some kind of structure that I used for running to apply to something else. And I mean, that was me dipping my toes in the water and.
Yeah, as I said, five years later, I mean, I'm fully in it. And I think that's part of the reason I love hearing you speak about music. Cause a lot of the time when I hear you speak about music, I go, that's how I feel about it. Yeah.
phil (02:07.534)
You laugh.
Well, what's great is that everything in life is so funny. And I should tell you that I've started doing standup just in the last few months. And it's, you look shocked. I'm shocked too. I'm still shocked. I haven't gotten over it. And it's...
It's partly because I've always when I've lectured, I would sometimes say funny things. And my humor was so dry that I'd be lecturing and I'd say something really funny and a few people would get it, but it wasn't enough. And then like 30 seconds later, I'd be on to a different topic and then people would start laughing because they'd get it. I'd say, take your time.
Tyson (03:01.258)
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.
phil (03:06.382)
And I never thought much about it. It was all improv. I didn't plan anything. There were some things I talked about on repeat that I had mentioned in previous lectures that I would say again, like can vegetarians eat animal crackers? And that got a lot of laughs wherever I was, except in England. I was in England and I said that.
at a lecture. And it was like, I think it was the second time I said that I had said it in Chicago a few months earlier. And and I just came out with it again. And I thought, you know, and and they just looked at me like, like, well, I guess that doesn't really work. And then they started talking among themselves like, what are they doing? They're ignoring me now. And then somebody said, do you mean biscuits?
I said, yes, biscuits. And then everybody laughed. So you have to be careful where you are, but my venture into music opened up not so much creativity because in my work as a clinician, I was very creative. You have to be creative. I was creative in developing things like the two week test and the.
Tyson (04:08.938)
Yeah.
phil (04:33.902)
the MAF test for writing, which we talked about in our last podcast. But then the music, the parts of the brain that got really revved up from writing music and then recording and then hearing, improving my hearing, improving this concept of flow. You wanna...
create something, you've got to, it just has to flow out. And people often ask, well, how did you create, you know, the, the, the MAF test or the two week test? And I'd say it just came out and that's how creativity happens. It just flows out. And, when I went to LA to, to, to become, you know, a songwriter, to learn music and, figure all that out, I,
I met a lot of singer -songwriters, some great singer -songwriters, and it was amazing, it was wonderful. And I didn't realize how many funny people I met, how many comedians, well -known comedians, and really, truly funny comedians I met, and I never thought much about it. And last year, sort of the end of last year, and because of COVID,
my lecturing had stopped, my music performance had stopped. And when I would perform music, I would say funny things in between what I hoped were funny and some of them were. But then COVID kind of put an end to everything and I was helping a friend at a local fitness center here in St. Augustine and...
And after the second lecture, somebody came up to me and said, I didn't know you were so funny. And I realized that, okay, I'm funny. So, so what? It's part of me. That's my personality. It's the dryness. And sometimes I say to people when I'm lecturing, you know, here's what I'm going to talk about. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. And I'm going to use a lot of dry humor. So I see most of you have your water bottles. That's good. But, but.
Tyson (06:43.018)
You
phil (07:01.614)
I realized that the funniness was getting better and it was this long process of doing music which triggered more of that part of the brain or those areas of the brain really when you're doing standup, when you're thinking about something funny or when you write out some funny ideas that you think are going to be funny.
Even when you're doing improv, there's different parts of the brain that communicate in different ways. And it's really, to read that in the neurology journals is fascinating and hilarious when you say to someone who doesn't really know about the brain, how many things are going on. So I started thinking about it and I started thinking, well, maybe I could really write down what...
what I'm thinking from an improv standpoint. I started doing that and I started studying what comedians did. How do they prepare for a show? And then in my music gigs, which I started having more of, I started doing funny things and I did a thing on Valentine's Day over the winter.
And I didn't realize and I had thought about it. I had written out some lines and I realized that you have to say things very precisely. And I did this like this two minute Valentine's Day thing in between songs. And it was and there were people there was a woman at the bar snorting, laughing and it was just.
Tyson (08:54.742)
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.
phil (08:57.038)
It made me feel so good. I forgot about the fact that I was there to play music. But so I started doing some stand up and I've only done three or four.
Tyson (09:10.667)
Wow, you're in the best part of the world for it, aren't you? Are you in New York? You say in...
phil (09:14.542)
No, actually, I'm in the worst part of the world. No, worst part of the world for it. I'm in Florida. Right now, I'm in Florida. I've been here for, it's coming up on 10 months, 11 months. And it's a long story, but I've kind of been on the road for, you know, for five years since COVID. I sold my house early in COVID and thought, okay, I'm going to move here and then go there.
Tyson (09:18.761)
Where are you?
Okay. Okay.
phil (09:44.878)
But the market panic caused me to be unable to do that. And I would go from place to place, from state to state. I was in Europe for a while. And so I'm kind of coming out of that. And one of my daughters lives here. And I have a bunch of grandkids here. So I get to try my humor on them. And so I'm here.
But you know, there's something about certain parts of the world, certain parts of the US are different, they're funnier. And this is, you have to be careful what you say here. And I already knew that because I knew there were certain songs that I wrote that I couldn't play here, I couldn't perform here, because people were too sensitive, that political...
correctness thing, that political incorrectness thing, which I, I'm not going to tell you what I call it because you probably have a general audience. We don't want to, you know, we don't want to be blue here. I don't think. But, but so anyway, I applaud you and, and I'm a newbie, really a newbie at this. And in fact, later today I'm recording a,
Tyson (10:55.082)
Hahaha!
phil (11:07.854)
a comedy thing, a little three, I don't know, three to four minute skit on Happy Birthday. I read last year that the traditional song Happy Birthday, the copyright was ended.
Tyson (11:29.066)
Hahaha!
phil (11:30.062)
And I thought, here's my chance. So I rewrote the song and it's very much me. And I don't, you know, there are certain comedians who do things well. They combine things really well, like politics, political commentary and comedy. And I'm combining.
combining whatever comes out really, but I'm combining health related things and comedy in interesting ways. I'm hoping they're unique ways. I do have some gigs coming up. I'll be going up north in a couple of weeks and I'll be in that New York area, that Northeast area, which is a really great hotbed for comedy. So I'm hoping to...
to do more of the things that I wasn't doing here. But we can do my happy birthday thing here. I just can't play the song because music doesn't come across very well on certain things. But I mean, I'm gonna probably record this today. It'll probably go out. I don't do much, I don't really do much editing. I'm kind of straightforward me. I don't.
Tyson (12:43.882)
I'd love to see it.
phil (12:57.582)
I don't wear makeup. I do look in the mirror to make sure my shirt's not on backwards. And sometimes I'll comb my hair if it's an early morning recording so that you can see my eyes and stuff. But I'll probably do some minor editing. I have an editor, and we'll probably release that in the next.
couple of weeks, I'm thinking. But if you want to scoop, I'll do the happy birth, the text, it's a lead up to the song. The song is, I'm not going to tell you, I'm not going to let the proverbial cat out of the birthday box. But I've always talked about this topic.
Tyson (13:33.258)
Give me the scoop.
phil (13:55.374)
in a serious way. And so if you want, I'll give you my three minute spiel here.
Tyson (14:03.338)
It's such a funny premise.
phil (14:07.934)
I think so. So here we go. Hi everyone. We're getting old again. So I don't really understand birthdays. We celebrate the loss of our youth? Yeah, that really makes us happy. It's a paradox. We hate aging yet love the reminders. Friends used to call me on my birthday. It was like a red alert reminding me how old I was. So I changed my phone number.
haven't aged much since. Baseball's satchel page asked, how old would you be if you didn't know how old you were? The only people happy about being older are children. Kids can't wait. But soon enough, they get to that day and it's, no, you remember, right? So the real birthday question is, how old do you want to be? You can actually choose to be a younger you. Back to that in a minute.
In some cultures, we're one -year -olds at birth. It's great for kids, but adults, we get older even sooner. To celebrate aging is ageism. Well, we don't want to do it. Commercialism does, you know, the social police and ageist birthday cards, gifts, and cake. That's the big draw. People really show up for the cake. The traditional hap -
Happy birthday song is bad enough. But then they sing, how old are you now? That's like twisting the knife and the candles burning down like our life. Then you blow them out and make a wish. A wish is something we don't ever get. Like a young version of ourselves. Actually, if we got that, we might not really like it. What we should celebrate every day is life.
That can help our brains grow younger. Just not with cake. Sure, our bodies slow down, but our brains? They don't have to. We could have a better brain every year until we die. That's not a wish, it's a reality. But only when we truly take care of the brain. You can't tell that to a kid. The fact is, we can influence our biological age, how old or young we function, despite our chronological age.
phil (16:36.494)
in years. Here are three ways. Avoid all refined carbohydrates, including sugar and all junk food. Be moderately and physically active. And mentally stimulate the brain each day, especially with music and comedy. And by pursuing your passions, they never retire. Bob Dylan summed it up well. If we're not busy being born, we're busy dying.
Tyson (17:02.986)
Yeah.
phil (17:04.878)
Try singing that at someone's birthday party. So I wrote this new song, rewording it, kind of replacing the old over the hill happy birthday using different lyrics. It's a satire and a minor key. So it'll be on my video when that comes out in a couple of weeks. And at the end of that video, I say, yes, I am available for birthday parties.
Tyson (17:07.69)
Yeah.
Tyson (17:32.09)
No, that's awesome. That's really good. It's funny. I've got such a I love the little finish as well. For what it's worth in this cultural moment, what you have as your Instagram description says a lot about you, or at least what you're responding to her as a person and he not busy born is busy dying is on there right now for me. I'm a huge Bob Dylan fan. In fact, that's part of the reason I often have to try to
phil (17:36.75)
Thank you.
Tyson (18:00.938)
rid myself of jealousy about comedians on the East Coast of America based not just on, you know, the access to rooms, but also like I've gone down the rabbit hole of documentaries of, of people like Bob Dylan, like Cafe Wah back in, what was that? We're probably going back to the sixties and fifties maybe. Yeah. And there's still like that.
phil (18:20.91)
Yeah, early 60s.
beginning in the late 50s. And it was a trend from, it was a European trend where these cafes would have people that were kind of rebels of the time. And they were doing poetry and singing traditional folk songs, many traditional folk songs, especially the ones from England were songs of social injustice. And there were some that had comedy and...
you know, and it filtered in the US, it filtered into the beatnik generation of the 50s, which were the intellectuals, a lot of them from college campuses, and they became the hippies of the early 60s.
Tyson (19:08.298)
It's yeah, it's such an interesting scene. I mean that underworld or underground kind of whether it's music or comedy. The interesting thing I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. It's probably really similar from what I can tell in the music industry as well. There's such a broad range of people who go under the umbrella of comedy or music or creativity. And we meet there from such different parts of the world. Like you've got your drug addicts and alcoholics who are using comedy as
just an attempt as a crutch just to stay alive. And then you've got people coming from an obsession discipline -based fitness world who are using it more as a creative outlet that also doubles as like what I tried to explain at the outset of, you know, just like a structured practice towards improvement. And I often love, I'll be sitting at a room sometimes with 15 comedians and have a look at who's in the conversation.
And I just, I'm often just mind blown at the diversity of the group that we have. I'm like, who would think that a comedian, that a fitness freak and a drug addict could sit down and have such an incredible conversation, but it happens on a regular basis here in Melbourne. And I mean, it looks like it's even more magnified based on sheer numbers of comedians in the States.
phil (20:22.894)
I think so, I think so. The open mic format in comedy clubs is very, they all have open mic nights where somebody can get up and from what I'm seeing is you do, you do, you know, they give you five minutes and if somebody really is good and they've been good a couple of times, three or four times, they're now asked to.
open for another comic, do a five minute thing for this other comic who's going to do an hour. And then if that improves, you get more time. And it's just, I don't know. The bottom line is, it's like in music, you know, people make the mistake of thinking, well, I'm going to, I'm a good musician. I'm going to write songs. I'm going to make it big and make a lot of money. You're doing it for yourself because you love it.
You're doing it to expand your mind. You're doing it because you wanna be healthier and this is a wonderful thing in life to do, to be healthier and have a lot of fun doing it. And if you make money, that's great. If you don't, that's okay too. But it's a wonderful thing. It's just a wonderful thing.
Tyson (21:39.786)
Yeah, it's a really interesting conversation. I catch myself in like a struggle between those two examples you just gave in the sense, I know on a personal level how much I get out of it creatively, how much I get out of it energetically, how much I just love the scene. Like it's a constant ongoing process that you can take the same set to one room and you can tear the room apart and just have an incredible set for whatever reason.
And take that same set with like a slightly different energy to a room that has a different energy the next night and just completely bomb. And like just the mystery of what's actually happening there is, is enough to keep you coming back. But yeah, I often get torn between that and like my love of the creative process and like, okay, well, if you want to sell tickets to a comedy show, you got to have people know who you are. And so I can see how, if you're not careful, you stumble into a world of just becoming obsessed with following and.
fame and whatever else, the stuff that really is just exhausting and like I struggle to find a lot of joy when I get caught in that mindset but when I think about just that pure nature of what you just described that's where comedy really comes alive for me.
phil (22:52.782)
It is and it's and it's and so like music, it's so therapeutic. It's therapeutic for us and it's therapeutic for the people who are around. You're always going to run up against and some of the crowds you mentioned are out there in numbers of people who don't really get it. They don't understand. And there's a variety of reasons for that. It's it's kind of the same in music where people don't understand your
your song. Some of them, I mean, half the people can't hear lyrics and music. And it's not because the music isn't mixed well. Most of it is. And when you're performing, you spend a lot of time setting up so that people can hear what you're singing. But many people are so concrete in their thinking and, you know, they take every word as a word and they don't relate to relate it to the other words and they don't see the humor.
They don't see the expansion of the meaning of these terms. And a lot of it has to do with people being way too obsessive about this political correctness thing, which comes and goes. I mean, if you know the history of comedy, you have to go back, well, you go back to Aristotle really, but you go back to Lenny Bruce, who...
who really opened the door for George Carlin and Joan Rivers and then eventually Robin Williams and all these people, these great comics that are out there. In the US, some of that, George Carlin had this thing of the seven dirty words, I don't remember what he called it, but that you couldn't say in public and he'd make sure he would say them all.
Tyson (24:49.162)
Yeah.
phil (24:49.742)
That he didn't go to the Supreme Court, but that that those lines that he did for years would eventually go to the Supreme Court. And they said, look, of course you can say those things. And so now today, people are not clubs are not saying you can't do this. You can't say that. You can't be, you know, you can't be political. You can't. It's not the clubs. It's not the media. It's.
the audience. There are people who have been attacked by members of the audience because they were so offended by something a comedian said. And when I saw that video, it was like, I got to write a piece about this. So I came up with this little five minute thing about political correctness and the stupidity. I mean, this is, you know, there are some of us in the world that have, you know,
free free free speech stuff we want, you know, and if you can't handle that, why would you go to a comedy club? Man.
Tyson (25:59.53)
For sure. For sure. It's funny you say it's honestly, it was a big part of the reason I wanted to get involved because I used to work as a school teacher and here I'm in Melbourne in Australia and Melbourne is like, it's kind of disappointing how I feel we're starting to be perceived. Like, especially through COVID, I think it was a little bit of an eye opener to the rest of the world that we're maybe not quite as laid back as, you know, the stereotype that we like to portray. But one thing which is so true and I find,
just gross in Melbourne at the moment is just the political correctness, especially from corporations. Like I was watching our main game here is the Australian AFL. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but it's just, it's gotten to a point where like, it's just such a clear, puppet of like corporate, corporate interests. And before, at the moment, this weekend, we're doing indigenous round where we celebrate the traditional owners of the land, you know,
phil (26:51.95)
Yeah. Yeah.
Tyson (26:59.178)
And they spend 15 minutes before the game, just apologizing and acknowledging traditional. And it's just like, just bounce the ball. Like, I don't care what you, I don't care what the Australian bank thinks about the traditional owners of the land. Like I did, I came here to watch football and it's just everywhere you turn at the moment. But I don't know what your thoughts are or what you take. I feel like Americans though I know there's the same conversations taking place. I feel like there's the.
The second amendment is, I mean, I feel as though there's a lot of people there with a passion to speak freely and no matter how much people try, they're gonna be loud and proud about what they believe. And here, I feel like a lot of people are a little afraid to speak openly. And so my introduction to comedy was, hey, I've got lots of things I'd love to say, but then I got involved in comedy and I was mind blown at there's certain rooms that don't want you to talk this way and you can't say that here and you can say that here. And it's like, it's just,
Nothing's funny. Nothing's funny when there's so many scaffolds around what you're allowed to joke about.
phil (28:01.678)
It's terrible. It's suppression. I mean, it's inhibiting free speech, really. And like I say, I can't emphasize this enough. If you're in a club, a comedy club, and it's a late night show and it's going to be blue, they use these four -letter words. If it offends you, why would you go? And so...
Tyson (28:26.122)
official
phil (28:29.198)
But it's like the social police. These people think they're social police and they're going to keep the world clean and safe. For who? I don't know. But for people like them, there's not a lot of them, luckily. Unfortunately, these are the people that the media likes to cover. They're on the news and they're in the headlines. And it's like the funny...
skits that you sometimes see of a weatherman in a hurricane, you know, and they're showing the shot and this weatherman has kind of got an umbrella and it's blown all around, but then they pan the camera and it's like sunny over here, you know. They do it for effect, they do it for entertainment. You know, I'm...
Tyson (29:15.306)
Yeah.
phil (29:23.502)
I'm a minority. We're all minorities. We're all individuals. But we're part of the world and we're all we're all cousins, really. It was one of the funny songs I wrote called Kissing Cousins. And most people don't get it. I've had negative comments, you know, saying, what do you mean? You think we evolved from monkeys? Because I have the word monkey on your back in the in the lyrics. And we're.
Tyson (29:32.778)
Yeah.
phil (29:51.694)
How do they get that? I didn't even think of that and I have a wild imagination. So, political correctness is, you know, it's almost like you have to check, for me, I have to check the area I'm going to. So now I'm gonna be going up to the Northeast. Certain areas are very, very different than others. New York City is very open, but you go out to some of the states like Vermont, where I'll probably be.
Tyson (29:56.234)
You
phil (30:21.678)
for a little while. And they're a little sensitive there with politics. The problem is that COVID created way much more division in the world than we had before. It was already quite divided. We had a lot of division. And when you have division, you can't communicate, you can't talk, you can't resolve problems because there's no communication. People even have different...
definitions of what they're arguing about. So where does that get you? But the political correctness thing, and I've been looking at this, I've really been studying comics, and this is one of the topics recently that I've been looking at. I call it political erectness for the people in Washington, DC. It's...
Tyson (30:54.986)
Yeah.
Tyson (31:15.762)
You
phil (31:19.886)
it's gotten out of hand. And so I wrote a little thing about it and you kind of have to ease into it and you have to, you know, you have to say we all love each other. Right, ma 'am? We'll talk later. And, and, you know, Mark Twain said the funniest things are the most forbidden. And
Tyson (31:35.082)
You
phil (31:47.822)
I think the majority of people like it and the majority of people go to these shows and the few that don't like it shouldn't be there and if or if they want to go sit in the back and shut up. Simple.
Tyson (31:59.658)
Hmm. Exactly. It's funny. I can walk out onto a stage and I can tell which people aren't going to like my comedy based purely on the color of their hair, which I feel is a real sign of the times. Do you know what I mean? I go, okay, just rule out that six. I know they're not going to be happy with the next 10 minutes of so -called entertainment.
phil (32:09.262)
Ha ha ha ha.
phil (32:15.758)
Gosh, they're going to have next. When this comes out and they hear it, your next show is going to be people outside saying you're a racist. They're going to be picketing the.
Tyson (32:24.106)
It's so true. I mean, it's a, it's really interesting. I'm not sure what your take on it is, but, there was really interesting Netflix live stream. I'm not sure if you saw it, the roast of Tom Brady. And I, I felt it was a real, it was the first time in maybe 15 years, I'd seen some actual jokes and they were funny and they were wrong. And I couldn't believe that I was seeing it. And I was so happy to see it and hear it because it.
it felt like I was watching comedy from maybe only 15 or 20 years ago. I mean, I'm only 37. So, but I remember a time even in my own life where it wasn't such an uptight conversation. You could say the wrong thing and people go, don't stress. He's joking. It's very funny. And I watched that and realized there was millions of people who tuned in. It was incredible feedback. And I don't know. I sort of was watching it, hoping Hollywood was taking note. Cause I think it's been a long time since we've seen many good movies come out of there as well for.
phil (33:10.03)
Yeah.
Tyson (33:23.018)
some of the reasons that we're talking about.
phil (33:25.966)
Yeah, was this Tom Brady, the football player?
Tyson (33:29.961)
Yeah.
phil (33:31.598)
I, you know, the roasts as a, as an event have been going on forever. I think, I think as a kid, I remember these roasts and I never understood them. And, I didn't understand comedy when I was, you know, really young. and sometimes my parents would watch some of these on TV and I would just sit there and not really understand why they were laughing.
And I thought, wow, they're saying mean things about this guy. I thought this was a, you know, like a birthday party. So the roast idea, you know, the roast event is a it's almost like they've given them a license to to to be politically incorrect. And I was I was looking just last night at a at the.
In Washington, D .C., every year they have a correspondence dinner and they always have a comedian to do a roast -like thing. And the president and the vice president are there and all these senators and congressmen and, of course, all the media is there. And a lot of it's a big event. A lot of actors are there and musicians. And, you know, it's sort of like who's who. But some of the things they say, it's a wonderful...
thing to study to see how far they can go or how far they go and how they make the president of the United States laugh at something that's really it's funny and insulting. It's funny because it's insulting, but it's funny and everybody, you know, so it's a it's kind of a nice lesson to to to see. And so a roast.
But if it's not called a roast, the political correctness police will be looking for you.
Tyson (35:39.914)
Yeah, I watched a, a clip of something really similar to what you just explained. And I'm completely blanking on his name. I reckon he was a really big comedian from, it must've been the, the early eighties or late seventies, but there was a big event. There was a big roast. And it was when I want to say maybe Richard Nixon was a, he was just a governor. Like he, he wasn't yet president. I'm not super familiar with my American president history, so I could have these dates way out.
But it was so funny to watch.
phil (36:09.614)
They're all made up anyway. So yeah, Nixon was a vice president who ran it previously in the Eisenhower administration. He ran against Kennedy and lost. But Nixon is so easy to make fun of because he was such a sleazy politician.
Tyson (36:29.578)
Yeah, see, I wouldn't have even known that. I bet you I'm even telling you that. Yeah, they were roasting him, but I'm now I'm telling you, I'm nervous. I'm telling you the wrong president. I need to go back and see the clip because I'll try and find it and I'll send it to you. But I remember the. It was a governor at the time, not yet president as far as I'm aware. He took it really well. He was laughing and it was relatively tame in comparison to a lot of things you see on the Tom Brady roast that I mentioned.
phil (36:31.662)
So were they roasting him?
Tyson (36:58.666)
This one was very tame. It was, you got your bow tie on crooked. Ha ha. It was a sign of how much things had changed, but gee, it got a great response.
phil (37:07.438)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's interesting, as you know, the audience and the club, you know, the environment really makes a difference. And the big question is, you know, is it a blue comedy where you say bad words, which is a difficult thing to do? You know, what I've seen in...
comedians and the ones that are not great is they just throw out bad words because they they think that's how you get funny. Well, it's not how you get funny. You use them in a proper way, in a funny way. Or you don't. It's a clean thing. And the roasts, the publicly displayed roasts like the Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D .C., is a clean
a clean event. But to see how they could do a clean event and and and still be hilariously funny is is wonderful. Just wonderful. And there are some comedians that just don't they don't like to do the dirty word thing. You know, Jerry Seinfeld just isn't into dirty words. And I never liked him because all I knew of him was his TV show way back when. And I
Tyson (38:14.634)
Yeah.
phil (38:33.646)
I just thought this guy comes out on camera. He just stands there like a mummy and he says a line. And then he, you know, then they they pan to another character who are actors. And I didn't realize it until I actually met Larry David in L .A., one of the guys I met. And and we talked about what, you know, what the show was. And it was it was it was Larry was off camera.
And Jerry would come come over to him after he did his line and they talk about the next line. They'd say, well, let's do this one. no, let's do it that way. OK. And then Jerry would just walk out and blurt out his line. And then and that was the whole show. And it just made me appreciate the the creativity of that. And but I'll tell you one thing I've learned from from Jerry Seinfeld is.
His creativity, he's got some really great interviews about how he prepares. Every day, every day he spends two hours writing out, he physically writes out funny stuff. He just works on his comedy every day. And it's like songwriting and I can relate to that because I would, I mean, I could write a song in three, four minutes, five minutes, music and lyrics.
But now I've got to tweak it. And it could take hours and days and weeks, months, sometimes years. I tweaked a song the other day that I wrote six years ago. And I thought, wow, this is so much better. What was I thinking? In comedy, like in music, the lyrics, they've got to be just right. And sometimes, and it's like you say, there's a...
Tyson (40:10.442)
Man.
phil (40:27.342)
You get up and you try things and some groups don't understand it. I think it's that they don't understand it rather than they don't think you're funny. If they don't understand what you're saying and it's funny, they're not going to laugh because they don't understand. Had that happened, this was my last show here in St. Augustine, which is a college town. It's a tourist town, but there's some college students here now that are the minority.
But I swear these kids were 14 years old. And I'm thinking, this is a bar, they're drinking alcohol, can you drink here at 14? And I thought, well, I don't know, I'm gonna do my thing. And they didn't know anything I was talking about. They didn't know what homeopathy was. And then when I got a...
Tyson (41:03.37)
Yeah.
Tyson (41:17.834)
Yeah.
phil (41:24.718)
you know, a bunch of blank stirs, I thought, well, okay. Any homo sapiens here? How many homo? You know, they didn't know what homo sapien was. So, you know, you almost have to study the comedy people who are, who have a higher intellect. George Carlin, you know, has some pretty good intellect. Robin Williams.
And there's some good health. There's some there's some not a lot, but there's some good health care people, some good doctors out there that I have watched that. That are pretty good intellectual, you know, a lot of them do the convention circuits, so now you're with a group of people who have doctorate degrees or people in health care. They're all educated, well educated. So. It's fun, yeah, and you're right, reading the audience.
That's a scary, I mean, this is, you know, I remember being at a...
I don't remember which marathon it was. I think it was one of the marathons where they picked Olympic Canadian and American. It was a qualifier for the Olympic marathon. I don't know. And it was a marathon and I had been talking to this Canadian runner who was really good and he was one of the potential winners of this event. He was really, can't remember his name, but he, I was talking to him the night before and.
he was talking about this injury he had and he's feeling okay. He's hoping he can get through this marathon without the problem coming. And I was standing at the, about a couple of miles from the finish line. cause the athlete I was with, was, was, going to be coming around soon. This female, she was the first female, but, but he's.
phil (43:30.254)
Here he comes. He's like third behind two guys, just a few meters ahead of him. And he was, he looked really bad. And here's me with my analytical brain and I'm studying him. I'm looking at, he's got a gluteus medius weak on the right side. It's causing his left gluteus maximus to contract. And so he's, you know, and I'm doing this analytical thing.
And all around me, these people are cheering him on because he's limping and, you know, they love it when people are limping so they cheer harder. Come on, you could... And I'm just looking at him and he goes by. And I saw him after the race and he said, I saw you near the finish line and you wouldn't even cheer for me. I said, well, let me tell you what's going on with your body. You didn't even cheer. You didn't clap. You didn't...
Tyson (44:07.21)
Yeah.
Tyson (44:22.058)
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Tyson (44:30.666)
it.
phil (44:30.702)
So you read your audience. We do it all the time. And, you know, that's what humans do. We have these mirror neurons in the brain so we can see people, we can observe their intentions, we can interpret their meanings, not so much...
Tyson (44:36.554)
Yeah.
phil (44:57.326)
always not always how they not always what they say, but how they say it. There are all kinds of interesting things that color color color their hair.
Tyson (45:06.57)
For sure. So funny. I mean, that's the thing my wife and I argue about most. I'm like, no, what you said was lovely, but it's just, it's just the tone made it like you said, I love you. But the way you said it was like, I don't want to be around you. It's amazing how much you can pick up. Is there much of a, so I'm really fascinated by the world of songwriting as well as joke writing. In fact, before when you were speaking about the song that you'd tweaked from six years ago, I was thinking of Leonard Cohen.
phil (45:18.126)
Ha ha ha!
Tyson (45:33.642)
I'm not sure if you've seen his documentary on hallelujah, the song that he wrote, but it was like a 12 year process where I think each morning he got up to coffee and a cigarette and he just sat there and he wrote and he did a different verse and he screwed that up and he crossed it out. And I actually, yeah, I was listening on Spotify a while ago just to the different versions of the song. And I had absolutely no idea just the story behind.
just one song. And obviously I was gonna say, but behind one simple song, it's not a simple song, but it's a, like it's a profound song that just seems to hit a part in everyone's heart.
phil (46:06.03)
It hugely profound, yes. And it emits anybody who listens, unless you're a zombie or a robot, and they're out there. Anyone who listens to that song will go into an alpha state. And, you know, or if you're an extrovert.
And all you're doing while you're listening is talking to someone else or talking to yourself in your brain. It's like the runners, you go out for a run and there's always somebody that's just babbling away, blah, blah, blah. Shut up. I want to, I want to enjoy this run. I want to cure my body. but, but.
Tyson (46:41.226)
Thank you.
phil (46:51.086)
The song is amazing and it has a simplicity that, it's a great example of a simple song, but obviously, as you say, the process for Leonard was not simple. And even this simple, you know, simple songs, you know, these simple two minute songs, and no doubt,
Leonard had hallelujah written in a few minutes, but it was the tweaking. It was the, you know, this, this line doesn't flow into that line. They're both great lines, but they don't fit together. How about if we do, you know, and you, it's an obsession and it's a healthy obsession because we're, we're not into perfection, but we want to strive toward it and we want to make something the best.
it can be. And when we hear ourselves or when we read a line that we're trying to write that's supposed to be funny, there's often something that goes off in our brain. There's often a flag that pops up that's red, bright, bright red. When something isn't right and we don't even know what it is sometimes. you send this red flag up. Tell me what it is.
Tyson (48:18.122)
Yeah, yeah, I heard you.
phil (48:19.118)
I remember with songwriting when I was in LA working with Rick Rubin and I'd play my new songs for him and he'd say something like, that transition from the verse to the chorus, it's not quite right. And I'd say, what should I do? How do I fix it? He'd say, I don't know, but figure it out and then we'll listen to it again. And I thought, well, he's just doing that.
Tyson (48:43.818)
Hahaha!
phil (48:48.558)
to me because, you know, he doesn't take me serious. But then I heard him do it with Bono. I heard him do it with Neil Diamond. And I thought, this is what he does. And it's a way to bring our creativity out even more.
Tyson (49:09.642)
He's a guy, he's a guy I'm really fascinated by. I actually just heard that story about you two last night and for everyone listening, it's probably worth bringing up again. Cause I sat there just with my mouth open. Cause he's a guy that I look to for a lot of inspiration when it comes to creativity, but particularly comedy. He's just got that unique ability to put words to the things that I know, but I didn't know that I knew in a lot of instances. And he does it with such a calmness and a...
phil (49:33.39)
Yeah. Yeah.
Tyson (49:37.642)
I've heard him describe his job as he's not a producer, he's a reducer. And I go, that's interesting. Cause that's the image that you portray when I hear you speak. I just feel like, everything's going to be okay. But, where was I going with this? The, the Rick Rubin story. So you'd started to fall in love with the idea of songwriting and you decided that to do this at the level or the amount that you'd like to do it. You needed to step away from some of the math stuff.
And you decided to take a few days or a few weeks off and in the interim, you get a call from Rick Rubin who says, Hey, I need help with my health and fitness. Was that the story of where I butchered it?
phil (50:18.414)
That's pretty good. Yeah, I woke up as a songwriter and it was so powerful. It was a passion that was... It was a moment of insanity, but I knew it was real and I knew I had to become a songwriter. And I paced for four days wondering what am I going to do? And I concluded I have to quit my job. I need to do this. And that's when Rick called.
Tyson (50:20.906)
testing.
Tyson (50:44.906)
And had you guys been connected at all before that? Did you know who he was at that time?
phil (50:50.798)
You know, I actually I didn't get a call directly from him. I got a call from one of my editors at one of the publishing houses that publishes my book, one of my books. And he said, he said, this guy, Rick Rubin, keeps calling to get your phone number.
And he wants to consult with you. And I said, look, I didn't I didn't say anything to you yet, but I'm I'm not going to be doing any more of this book writing stuff and lectures because I just became a songwriter. And he laughed. He said, well, he said, then you should contact this guy, Rick, because he's in music. And I kind of knew the name. I never really got into who the producers were, who the behind the scenes guys were and.
Tyson (51:30.122)
Hahaha!
phil (51:42.638)
and ladies in the music world. It was always about the band. It was always about the singer songwriter. And so he said, you know, so I said, look, you know, give him my phone number. And he called me like that day, I think. And and. And as I would find out quickly, you know, if you decide to be a songwriter and you can work with anybody in the world.
The first person would be George Martin, the Beatles producer, but he was not taking on songwriters anymore. And then Rick would be second. And so this was, it's what happened. And I went to LA and lived with him, him and his girlfriend in this huge mansion for five years. And it was just bizarre, doesn't approach.
Tyson (52:20.266)
Hehehehehe
phil (52:43.118)
you know, the, you know, what happened over those five years with the people I would meet and the...
phil (52:53.038)
So that's the story. That's the rest of the story as Paul Harvey used to.
Tyson (52:53.418)
That is, yeah. That's a mind -blowing, I had no idea you lived with him for five years. It's funny when you're reminded that a person that you've spent a lot of time just reading about or learning from from a distance is actually a real person. Like you go and live with him for five years, that's just out of a movie for me. So what was that? So it obviously took on far more than just like you were mentoring each other. Like what was the...
phil (53:23.022)
Yeah, we on that on that first phone call that that I had with him. We talked for two hours and we're both, you know, you hear me talking and babbling in my podcast, but I'm I'm a very quiet person. I'm an observer. I like to I like to see things. I like to hear things. I don't like to say much about them. It goes on in my mind if somebody asks a question or from lecturing, you know.
Tyson (53:23.146)
How did that come about?
phil (53:53.014)
But, and Rick's a very quiet person too, and very much in the same way. And here we get on the phone and we talked for two hours. It was crazy. And so at the end we decided I would help him with his health and he would help me with my songwriting.
And we're really still doing that today. I mean, we still respect each other and we still kind of follow each other in different ways. And he gave me a great quote from my book, my Music and the Brain book. And he'll call me and we'll, I mean, it's been a great relationship.
Tyson (54:21.706)
That's incredible. I -
phil (54:44.686)
And it's evolved like relationships do and.
And I often will sit there looking at these lyrics and thinking, you know, what is, why can't I, you know, should I put an apostrophe S or, you know, and I think, what would Rick say?
Tyson (55:07.818)
And what would you say?
phil (55:10.766)
Sometimes that gives me the answer. And it's not that Rick is up there floating around, we all are, but it's that I'm thinking of the issue at hand in a different way within my brain and I'm getting the answer that I wanted from myself, but I'm thinking about...
Tyson (55:14.25)
Yeah. Yeah.
phil (55:40.494)
what would Rick do if he was confronted with this? You know, the thing in music, like in comedy, like in life, really, we have to be ourselves. We can't try to be someone else. And early in the very beginning of my career, in my lecturing part of the career, I tried to mimic other, there were a few speakers that I heard over the,
Tyson (55:43.69)
Yeah.
phil (56:09.486)
course of my years in school, that I really loved this, you know, this person is really smooth and cool and, you know, intelligent and says some funny things and, you know, really makes you sit up and want to be a better practitioner or whatever. And I learned, I learned the hard way that
You can't do that, you need to be yourself. And so I would focus on that mantra, be yourself. Every time I go to speak somewhere, I'd be walking up to the podium and be yourself was the reminder. And I still do it. I do it when I perform in music and now I'm doing it in comedy because I can't help thinking of, I can't help think of the,
the great comedy acts that I've seen and this idea of trying to be someone else never works. And we all kind of know that, but it's a mistake many of us have made and beware.
Tyson (57:30.154)
For sure. Yeah, I've always got to be careful. If I find myself watching a particular comedian for too long, I'll feel like I'm taking some little bit of his energy onto stage. And I'm like, what are you doing to us? Like, just relaxed. Yeah, be yourself. It's a, it's, yeah.
phil (57:41.582)
Yeah, yeah. And next next thing you know, you're you're you're you're telling a joke that you stole from from someone. It's OK to borrow stuff. But I I have always enjoyed in the short lived, really, really short lived comedy world that I've gotten myself into. Writing my own my own humor. Because it's.
It's being yourself. And you hear, you know, I've looked through the YouTube videos of comics and, you know, and you often hear the jokes you've heard someone else tell. And sometimes it's, sometimes you can get away with it. When I, when I,
if I'm doing a health related comedy thing, especially on the brain, I mean, God, this is how much, it's an endless comedy gig is talking about the brain. And I'll talk about, I'll have these truisms. I'll say, you know, in psychiatry, humor is sometimes used as an assessment tool. We wanna know.
Are these areas of the brain? This is after I talk about the neurology journals that talk about, you know, how do we how do we laugh at humor? Well, first, you know, it comes into the auditory cortex and then it goes here and then, you know, I mean, it. And then I'll say, you know, psychiatrists sometimes will. Will use humor to to to enlist a response from a patient, either no response or.
you know, a mediocre response or a hilarious response. Because some people, some brains do not laugh at humor. Schizophrenics don't laugh at humor usually. In autism, it depends on where they are on the spectrum. And so now you could use humor to kind of say, they're here on the spectrum. They understand that, but they don't know to... And then I'll give an example. And I'll say...
phil (01:00:02.094)
Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll sit in his boat all day and drink beer.
Tyson (01:00:12.234)
Ha ha ha!
phil (01:00:14.99)
Now that's an old joke. I don't know where it came from. I heard a piece, I heard a piece I guess on that joke from George Carlin when he was younger. And I don't know if he made that up. But even though people who have heard the joke,
Tyson (01:00:17.034)
Yeah.
phil (01:00:44.59)
And for a while, I would say, like, I used that in my lecture on the brain a couple of months ago. And people laughed. They loved it. And afterwards, people would come up and ask questions like they always do, because they're embarrassed to ask them during the lecture, which is OK. And they'll ask a question and I'll talk. And then I'll say, by the way,
had you heard that joke before? And I'd say half of them said, yeah. And yet they thought it was funny. So there's something, you've gotta be careful with that. And if you are gonna take it from someone else, you reference them and I've done that. But that's a, you know, and you know, I don't know if you're familiar with the Jerry Seinfeld pop tarts thing.
Tyson (01:01:37.386)
I know I've heard it before, but I can't.
phil (01:01:39.054)
It's the recent movie, his new movie called Pop Tarts. I haven't.
Tyson (01:01:42.154)
sorry no, I thought you were referring to an old joke you did. Yeah.
phil (01:01:45.71)
Well, it is an old joke. In fact, it's an old joke and that's how they decided to do this movie. They were sitting around one day and some of his writers were saying, you know, hey, maybe we should do a movie on Pop -Tarts. And Jerry said, that's a stupid idea. What can we say about Pop? Well, now they made a whole movie about it. Supposedly funny, you could look at the trailer. I don't know when it's available.
I don't know if it's available only on, like it might be available only on Netflix. I think Jerry's things are on Netflix, but I don't know. I'm unable to see it, unfortunately, but I remember.
as a kid, and I've only, you know, this humor thing has caused me to go back and think about things that I never thought about much or not at all, or even remembered. And one of them was this idea that my mother would say, now I'm, I don't know, 10 years old. You know, I...
I'd grab a box of cereal and I'd have a second bowl because I was so hungry and now my blood sugar was really screwed up and I needed more. And she'd say, you know, you should eat something that's healthier. Why didn't I say buy stuff that's healthier? But I didn't. And she said, you know, there's there's more nutrition in the box if you tear it up and eat it than in the cereal.
Tyson (01:03:15.114)
Heheheheh
phil (01:03:25.134)
And I didn't think anything of that until way, way later when Jerry Seinfeld said that.
And how did that happen? Well, somebody said it. And I don't know, back in the days, you know, when my mother was, you know, when I was a kid, I think they listened to record, they had albums, comedy albums. And so she must have heard it from somebody on a comedy album, and it kind of filtered its way through generations of comedians.
Tyson (01:04:00.81)
Yeah, it'd be a similar process with writing a song and writing a joke, is it? Because I'm often fascinated by the story about just how comics write their material. Because for me, I wish I could pinpoint it because I love the idea of saying, okay, I sit down at nine o 'clock each evening and I write jokes and that's where my jokes come from. And sometimes that's true. Sometimes they do come from there. But nine times out of 10, they don't like the other.
All the other times I'm in a conversation with someone on the phone and they'll say something and I'll respond and they'll laugh. And I go, that's a way better joke than anything I would have written in that half an hour period in the evening. But it's so, I find that so frustrating. Like people say, how do you think of jokes? And I'm like, you just, I don't know. They just, they're everywhere and they're so hard to, you've got a mind for them. And it.
phil (01:04:36.75)
Yeah.
phil (01:04:47.118)
Life is funny. Life is funny. Death is funny. I mean, come on. We've got to celebrate life and we celebrate life by enjoying it and and laughing. I remember the first time it was probably in the in the early 70s. For the first time, I went to an Irish wake.
And I didn't let go into funerals, but I went anyway. And I was shocked. I was really shocked that the wife of this person who had died, the kids who were now young adults, and the cousins.
you know, the close family. They were sitting around smiling and happy and laughing and, you know, and and I said to somebody, what is this? You know, I thought you wore black veils and everybody would be speaking. And they said, this is an Irish week. And this is what the Irish do. And and I found out that the.
The tradition came from way, way back in Ireland, supposedly, when they didn't know if somebody was dead, you know, because you pass out and sometimes your breathing really slows down and you're kind of, and you don't know. And so they had this idea that, well, if we just sit around and get drunk and we're really loud, we might wake this person up. And in fact, that is a way to wake people up out of a coma.
But that's where the tradition came from. And I thought, wow, this is what life should be. We should celebrate everything because everything's worth celebrating and everything has got a lot of humor. And yeah, you're right. Things come out when you're having a conversation with somebody. And that's a lot of my lines and songs.
phil (01:07:11.566)
come that way, my ideas from songs come that way. And then with the comedy, it's become the same thing. And when I taught songwriting, it was, what do we do? Do we wake up and between eight and 10 o 'clock every morning, we write music? No, that's how the industry writes music. It's a corporate thing.
but for a real singer songwriter, for a real comedian, for a real creative person, there is always stuff there. And sometimes it comes out and it often comes out during the night when we're sleeping. It's often in our subconscious mind. And when we wake up in the morning, before we even open our eyes, now we're conscious, but we're in that theta state.
which is like a deep, deep meditation. And we're aware that we're awake, so we're not asleep. And we can scan our dreams in that state really well. And there's just so many funny things there. It's like being at a comedy conference. And I've often gotten up and, you know, I'll tell you, one thing about my mornings is I love my coffee. And, but...
Tyson (01:08:32.234)
Yeah, me too.
phil (01:08:36.078)
But I've gotten out of bed with these crazy, funny things in my brain and I've gone out and started writing and started laughing. And next thing I know, it's like two hours later, hey, where's my coffee? You know when you're writing good comedy or good music, when the time goes by so fast, you don't realize it.
Tyson (01:09:04.394)
Yeah. Was your entry into the, yeah, that's really, it's really true. I noticed that in myself. Was your entry into the music world, it wasn't anything to do with brain health. It was just a curiosity. Like, did you have a background in music before you woke up with this, I'm going to be a songwriter?
phil (01:09:06.094)
So that's a good test.
phil (01:09:23.63)
No, you know, I grew up in the 60s. So in the 60s, in order to graduate out of the 60s, you had to learn three chords on a guitar. So I did. I thought I was hot shit and hey, this is I'm a guitar player. Well, it's not how it works. But I was a consumer of music. I mean, the 60s, how could you not be a consumer of music in the 60s? And.
Tyson (01:09:31.914)
Yeah.
phil (01:09:53.294)
And I was a huge consumer through my life. And so, but I think I think what happened was I realized that humans were were musicians. We all have music. We all sing to each other. And while it's a it's a it's a an indication that we are, you know, I'm going to tell this person how great I am, how sexy I am and how smart I am with my music. And if this person thinks.
Yeah, he's okay. They'll sing back to me. And if I like what I hear, then...
and so music was such an integral part of humanity. And I woke up that morning and I thought, I'm a human, but I'm not a musician. I'm not a songwriter. That's now I'm embarrassed to be a human. And so that was really the, the, the, I think the stimulus for me, it was, I am a songwriter because I'm a human.
Tyson (01:10:47.594)
Yeah.
phil (01:11:00.11)
And so that's how important it was for me to catch up and make up for lost times. We have this hang up modern humans. We got to make up for lost time. I've got that in some of my songs and some of my comedy things. It's kind of funny. It's silly, but it's real. You know, what I like about comedy is that it's much more real than music.
Tyson (01:11:05.994)
Yeah.
Tyson (01:11:19.146)
Yeah.
phil (01:11:28.27)
Music is quite fictionalized. I've written autobiographical songs, but most of them are fictionalized. They might start out as something true, but I'm not a heavy whiskey drinker, but I've got songs about drinking whiskey and waking up when the sun is going down. And that's not me, but I saw this, I felt this, it came out.
I don't know who it is. I don't care. It's a great song. With comedy, you sort of, I think you're sort of better off.
Tyson (01:12:01.77)
Yeah.
phil (01:12:09.39)
being true and bring in the humor of that truth out. You could make it with a background of fiction, which I do. You know, I talk about, well, I won't tell you what I talk about, but I talk about things that are just not true as a buildup to some funny things that are true and they're so true. And if you say them in a funny way, they're hilarious.
Tyson (01:12:38.09)
It must be so interesting for you because you've obviously got such a big following in the, like I discovered you firstly through the running method. And that's how I knew you. I knew you as the Maffetone method man. And I didn't really know that much about this other side of your life or this other side of your focus or whatever you want to call it until more recently. And I thought, what, it's so interesting. Cause I feel very attracted to that.
kind of personality where it's like, I thought you were this, but wait, hang on a second. But you're also this. And it'd be very strange for, for a lot of people who meet you not. Do you feel like you're recognized mostly as the Maffetone method guy or like, how do people, how do people perceive you or take you? Yeah.
phil (01:13:19.31)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, after after 20 plus books and years and years of being in sports and I was in I was in all sports. So runners think I'm the running guy, you know, but in motor sports, they think I'm the motor sports guy. You know, in the in the in the in the corporate world, they think I'm the CEO, corporate.
Tyson (01:13:38.378)
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.
phil (01:13:48.878)
you know, performance guy. I don't know who I am, but I keep having fun with what's unfolding. But I was I was surprised when I became a songwriter and I had I had what I thought were some good songs and then I recorded them and I thought, wow, these these are these are pretty good. I'm I'm actually impressed. And Rick liked them. So I thought, well, I'm going to
I'm going to release some of them as music. And I thought, wow, this is going to be great because all of the people who follow me under this MAF umbrella will jump on these songs that I'm now making. They didn't. I'd say, I mean, my music following today is...
mostly exclusive music followers and most of them don't know I have this other life over there as a, I don't know, whatever it is. And I often, you know, I often talk about wearing different hats. And, but we all, that's the human brain. We all have different hats to wear. And that's how humans evolved into such amazing...
Tyson (01:14:56.49)
Yeah.
phil (01:15:13.358)
amazing creatures. We are so creative and we are so effective. Unfortunately, there's so much bad stuff in the world. There's not a lot of it, but there's big, big time greed and, you know, hatred and so forth. And so we've ruined our planet and our species. But and speaking of that, it's interesting how some of my hats really
I pile them up and we're the same ones. And I'm in the middle of writing a scientific paper right now about the brain and food and social, you know, how we have created our society and how we've gotten ourselves in such a mess. And it's really joining, it's crossing the comedy and the music stuff that I do.
It's very interesting. It's all sort of like one big thing or one little thing when it when it comes to my brain. It's one little thing and there are different pieces of it and we all have that ability and I I can't help but encourage that in people to to to see what's inside their brain.
Tyson (01:16:35.274)
Yeah, it's so interesting. I love that. Yeah, it's interesting watching some people as they get older, their world gets smaller and smaller. They become adamant that they know what they want and how they like it. And I feel like I catch myself going into that at times. Like, I yuck. Like I don't want to, I mean, at the moment I'm raising a couple of kids and I feel like every one of my spare moments is, and spare element of patience and stress is given to that. And so I feel a lot of the time, the,
phil (01:16:36.494)
It's wonderful.
Tyson (01:17:04.202)
the patience or the enthusiasm I have for the things I love can be diminished because I'm just like so focused on that. But it's interesting when you actually take a time to set back and see it from the perspective of what you just explained. It's like it's a bigger and I don't know, I feel speaking to you, it's a lot more of a joyful experience than speaking to a lot of people over the age of 30 who are just convinced they know what they like and what they hate and that's the end of the story.
phil (01:17:32.494)
Yeah, it's kind of sad. The paper I'm writing is about how we get into that trap, how we do things, especially unhealthy things. You know, we drink way too much alcohol, we eat way too much junk food. And people will say, well, yeah, I have to do that now because I'm focused on my career.
And when I retire.
You know, that's just a cop out. I'm sorry. We want to stop. Like my happy birthday song. We want to have fun while we're living. And...
And I wrote a song which I just recorded called Beware Mediocrity. You know, this is, I mean, I remember the 1960s. This is what we battled against mediocrity. We battled against this is the norm and it's not healthy. Hey, don't be normal. You know, let's increase our awareness of ourselves and each other. And that wasn't happening. And that was sort of a
a mantra, one of the many. And, you know, love and peace, it hasn't changed much. And so it's in here, get it, get it all out and you'll be a happier, healthier, more fun person to be around. And if you're with children, it'll even be better. And I have grandkids now and so I'm, I'm, I'm
phil (01:19:20.014)
I'm using my, I'm trying my humor on them. And it's interesting because, you know, the, the parts of the brain that I talked about before that, you know, you have to do this and then that part of the brain thinks about it and then it goes to that part of the brain and they concur or not. And then that development in young children takes place over a period of, you know, the early years and some kids don't have it yet. So you can't say something funny.
that they're gonna understand, but a kid that's two years older suddenly laughs out loud because it's funny, because now they've developed those parts of the brain. So it's kind of fun to see that in my grandkids now.
Tyson (01:19:56.81)
Yeah.
Tyson (01:20:04.906)
It would be Phil. I could talk to you all night or in your case all morning, but I know you've got plenty of things to do and I've already, I've already put you back an hour, which I, or two hours, which I really appreciate your flexibility, but Hey, always, always great to sit down and chat with you for everyone who's interested. I'll make sure I, I linked to your website and, and the B sharp book, which was sort of part of the fuel to the fire of coming here. We didn't end up talking about it that much, but I mean, it was a better conversation than I was ever in expecting. I was coming in with high expectations.
phil (01:20:13.454)
Not a problem. not a problem.
phil (01:20:33.934)
Yeah, I know people always have a list of questions and I somehow steer them away from that. But it often turns out better. I mean, we sort of talked about a lot of what the book is about. Creativity and how to get the brain being creative and what that's all about. And so it's been fun. Yes, these are the best ones, the ones that are improv.
Tyson (01:21:04.106)
That's how I feel. That's how I feel. Yeah, I've heard enough interviews now to know that I'm not necessarily interested in an interview. Conversations are a lot more fun, but Phil, yeah, really appreciate it. Thanks again.
phil (01:21:17.294)
Thank you, Tyson.
Tyson (01:21:19.146)
I'll cut that off there. Such a great...