Dave Neal is Keeping it Alive Transcript

Parenting is a Joke

Dave Neal is Keeping it Alive

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Hello, it's all up in smoke.
I think it's still fun. Parenting's a joke. Hello, listeners, this is parenting is a joke. I'm a shame spiral that just keeps spiraling. Named Ophira Eisenberg. And on the show, if you're new, welcome. If you've heard us before and you're a subscriber, thank you. And I'm going to explain what I do on the show once again. because that's what you do as a podcaster.
On the show, I talk to stand-up comedians, comedy writers, professional funny people, creatives, because I love talking about what it's like to try to balance that kind of intense work while raising kids, and it doesn't matter if they're little kids, teenagers, newborns, does not matter what age. It is very difficult. How to manage these two words worlds that seem so mutually exclusive. How the fuck are we doing it?
And my guest today is an awesome stand-up comic and a very successful YouTuber and podcaster. He has a twice a day show, a news, pop culture, and interview show called The Rush Hour with Dave Neal. And he is a brand new dad. He's got a newborn. And so he's trying to figure out how to do that. twice a day creative work and go out at night to do stand up while having this brand new little baby in his house. He's fully in the keep it alive phase.
I feel like it was very, you know, nine year old just seems vastly different from the keep it alive phase. So now I was telling him that it will change because currently we're in the how should we keep it alive phase? Or maybe it's how are we all staying alive phase? Dave Neal is coming right up. But first a little story. And you know what? A story. I obviously love telling stories.
Trying to get a story out of my kids' mouth, like the actual what happened at this age, you know, fourth grade, nine years old, is hilarious. It's like trying to crack the most stubborn, covert operative. Always trying to get these details is amazing. So I pick up my kid. And, you know, elementary school, I am finding, this is very dramatic. There's a lot of drama going on all the time. So I pick my kid up, I say, how is school?
And he goes, pretty good. And then he goes, except Gabriel, not his real name, but go with it, Gabriel organized his whole class to beat me up. Yay! And he says it like that with this sarcastic, excited tone. And immediately I'm like, what? What? What? What happened? You know, I'm trying to get the story out of him. I'm coming at him from all these different angles. I'm like, what happened? Did you get hurt? Did this happen? Does a teacher know about it? Should I talk to Gabriel's mom? Should I organize a meeting? And the best I can get out of him.
is that this kid and him have been, you know, having some drama, I don't know what, maybe even a scuffle or two. It's the first time I'm hearing about it. But problems in the schoolyard seems unresolved. And then there was a long weekend. And we all came back and I guess this kid said to my son, they're in different classes, that he has organized his class to beat him up. Mm-hmm.
And then I guess some teacher got wind of it. Someone got wind of it and stopped the whole thing. Or Lucas says he also said he made some threat back and the whole thing kind of dissipated. But I was like, what are you talking about? I was like, I need to talk to your teacher about this or find out what happened because this is no one should be organizing a group of kids of any amount. No one should be talking about beating up other kids. And my son laughed and said, no, no, no, mom, don't talk to him.
Don't talk to him. Don't get involved. Please. And then he goes, I respect Gabriel. Because you know what? That's exactly what I would have done. Because you know what? People love to belong to something. And if you can just give them a reason to be part of a group that sounds interesting, they'll do it. And that's what he did. So I kind of respect that kid. That's more, I'm, you know, kind of paraphrasing here, but that's more or less what he said to me. And I'm just staring at, I'm like, are you a mob boss in training?
What the hell is that? Where do you get this from? Sometimes I'm really like, I... I do not know the kid I am raising. I think I know him. And then he throws all stuff like that and I'm like, where are you getting this kind of step one back, objective perspective on the drama of all of this? And I know it must be somewhat influenced by the comedy he watches on television.
That is, by the way, kid appropriate and the books because I think the comedy is really meta. that they give kids. There's a lot of meta stuff, and it kind of has this thing where they are stepping back and commenting on it in a way... that I don't remember that kind of comedy being fed to me as a child. I don't think we had that sophisticated stuff as a kid you had to search for it. So I don't know if I'm scared of this kid that I'm raising a little bit or impressed.
That's the little razor edge that I walk on. When he says things like this to me, should I be impressed or scared? Or should I do what my mom did and ignore it? Just ignore it. Oh, goodness. Hard to say, hard to say. Yeah, let me know. Maybe you have perspective.
It is funny, you might have perspective because you have an older kid because my guess that you're about to hear, Dave Neal, has a little kid, a newborn, and, you know, it's just amazing because I have perspective. He's talking about... sleep sacks and knows Fridas and try to get this kid on a sleep schedule. I mean, I just sank into a whole nostalgia moment about sleep sacks. Man, do I miss sleep sacks? I loved that piece of clothing.
I wanted that piece of clothing. It was brilliant. So anyways, here we go. Let's get right into it. Dave Neal. What a great person to talk to. And we talk about going viral with his work and how that influences when he talks about parenting, how he has to deal with that, what it was like to be raised with a single mom that worked really hard. And they definitely had to scrape by what it was like moving from L.A. to Nashville.
and what it is like to be a newborn dad. A newborn dad. He's newborn as well. I think that actually makes sense. So here you go. Check it out my conversation with Dave Neal.
There we go. Hey, everybody. Joining me, stand-up comedian who I recently performed with in Nashville, Tennessee. Actually, we were at a suburb of Nashville because we were trying to hit the places where the parents go out, I think, a little bit. He is the host of multiple projects, but let me tell you that he is... It does a twice daily podcast called The Rush Hour Podcast. That is also a video. And it gives you all the pop culture news you need. Also current events news.
Everything for your rush hour ride. It's comedian Dave Neal. Hello, Dave.
Hi. Thanks so much for having me.
Pleasure. And I know you're a new dad. You have a eighth month old baby who just won a baby beauty contest.
He literally, my son won the Tennessee State Fair baby contest. No, come on. Zero to three months division. After shitting his pants, we had to go to the replacement tuxedo. And he's adorable. He's just so cute and he's so loving. We're so lucky because our biggest worry was like, all we want is him to be happy. If he's not happy, it's because he's got some, you know, feeling, you know, whatever, discomfort or colic. And he's just been happy. Like, yeah, he doesn't sleep great at night, but he wakes up. The baby.
Yeah, he's happy. That's all that matters.
Okay, so you decided to enroll or submit into a little baby beauty contest?
Yeah, so we moved to Tennessee in May. No, I'm sorry, we moved here one year ago. Okay. And we had the baby in May. We moved from Los Angeles. And we had every sort of like hesitation. You know, as a comedian performer, leaving the major cities of New York and LA feels like brutal. Brutal.
Yeah.
And it's like, and that's, and so you meet me in some tiny little suburb in Nashville and I have to do the thing where I'm like, I've lived in the city. You know how it is when like, you know, because when you, anyone who used to live in New York says that when you meet them. Oh, I used to live in New York. Like we have this thing where we just want to hold on to, we were cool at a time. And, and, and so anyway, well, anyway, yeah, we, we just, we moved here and, uh, My wife, she has dumb ideas and I go with them for the comedy.
And she's like, we got to bring him into the baby beauty pageant. And I was like, I never knew this existed and I've never wanted to win something more. And, you know, you dress him up and he, like I said, poops his pants when he's not supposed to. And then two weeks later, you kind of present him like Simba. And by the way, if you're a... female baby, it's much harder to win because the female division is, there's way more competition.
Oh, I can only imagine. I hope they don't put fake eyelashes on those little babies.
Spray tan. Who knows? No, I mean, they are cute, but at this age, you can tell the parents haven't messed the kids up yet. You start getting to the 12 and 13 year divisions and you're like, okay, you're, you're going to have to pay for the whatever, whatever the prize is better go straight to therapy. But you win, we won 15 bucks. And I got to tell everyone at the state fair that my son, and I literally tell everybody that he, you know, he's got this little trophy he won. And I'm, he's retired. He's an undefeated. They're a champion.
Okay, so it's interesting that this is zero to three division because a, I don't know who decided to put like a six week baby in like you should, I'm not even sure you're leaving the house at that point depending on what your situation is. But that is a big age range like that is a big age range with little kids.
zero to three. Well, I always said this. And he was three months old. So he was the oldest. Like so he looked haggard compared to the newborns. Because you know, like when you're newborn, you're not even there. Like you drop newborns up and they have the veins in the eyes. And he looked like, huh. I've seen some shit, baby. You know what's interesting is the show we did, there was a lady in the audience who had a baby like seven days earlier.
That's, I mean, when she said that, I had to believe her, but part of me was like something else is going on here. Like literally I was like there was a surrogate involved. Like I was like there. How is this possible?
Like show me your diapers. Like what you? It might have even in like four days. We'd have to watch the tape. It was like.
It was so everyone gas. Yeah, like maybe someone should put a nice blanket around her shoulders and let that let her go home. And she was drinking a wine or like she was having a real normal adult night out. I was not in that state. So I applauded her, but I was like someone else is going on. I don't know what it is.
You know, these kids, these 20 year olds that can have babies, they can just go play pickleball after.
Maybe. Then again, I was like, I'm in Tennessee. Anything could happen. There was the New Yorker in me. I was like, I'm in Tennessee.
Who knows what these ladies are up to? Did Tennessee, did it live up to like, you know, you hear things on the news, but Nashville itself is a pretty like blue. I mean, cities themselves have more culture. Not that there's no culture in the red areas, but, you know, farmland, you know, it's a little different than vibrant, you know, arts and stuff. Yeah. But you were in the suburbs. Like, was it what you thought it would be? Was it, I mean, it's kind of.
So that particular trip was so quick. But I have been to Nashville and to some of the suburbs before. We were in Mount Juliet, right? But I've been to Lebanon.
Yeah.
And another one that I'm just spacing on right now. And I will just say the obvious thing, which kind of kept coming up. It was different in Nashville, but definitely when I was in the suburbs, I was like, oh, yeah, no Jews. Yeah.
You do get our suburb, everybody knows you move here from Los Angeles. Like a lot of Californians have moved here. And they don't understand. It's almost like how people don't understand what a billionaire really is. It's like, you know, it's like a thousand millions. You know, it's like a lot of money. And people don't understand how big California is. So when they hear, oh, everyone from California is flooding Nashville, it's like, that's a drop in the bucket. Like it's just a little bit of people moved out of L.A. And it seems like a lot.
So when we moved here with like our California Tesla and like now my wife drove in the Prius and I was like, oh gosh, everyone's going to hate us. Right, because they're driving in their big trucks and stuff like that. Oh, these the ego of the truck, the road rage that we've seen here of just men in these big trucks. It's like, go to therapy, bro. You like work in sales. What are you driving a four door pickup truck for?
That is hilarious, too. I mean, I even see that whatever. I live in New York City. And the same thing happens here, by the way. Everyone's like, oh, New York. Oh, New York. All the New Yorkers. But New York City is just one small part of New York State, which is rather large. And the rest of New York State can be very rural. And there, you just drive a little outside of here, and there are no hybrids. It is people in big trucks. Hudson Valley, which is obviously all these New Yorkers go there for their little vacation.
But I remember being and we're going hiking, driving through there. And these guys in their truck like literally yelled out of their window, go home.
Oh, I've gotten that from literally everybody. Go back to California. I'm like, I'm from Rhode Island. So which coast do you want me to go back to? You know, I got asked. I got in. Wait a second.
You get that? They literally yelled that at you?
Well, I get it online because whenever I post things political. Go back to just. Well, I did get the guy who set up my internet in my home was like, remember why you moved here. And I was like, Bubba, my wife's eight months pregnant. What are you trying to say in my living room? Like I moved here because I could afford a home, sure, but like, what are you talking about? Like, it's almost like I came here in good faith, but there's a lot of people that I don't know. I don't know what they want. And then what I've learned about Tennessee is that no one here votes and their politicians don't even do debates.
like Marsha Blackburn, the senator here, she doesn't do debates or town halls. So like people are just letting themselves get robbed blind. And then when I go, hey, are we okay, you know, selling our farms here to private equity groups that are going to rent the homes out at a higher price? Are we cool with that? Hey, get out of here. I'm like, well, I just think that's a bad thing for all of us. You know, Americans, not Tennesseans or Californians or Rhode Islands, like America.
Yeah, and for a place that, well, I mean, I think that the standard pursuit of happiness in America is just money. That's what that equates. So you're like, but don't you just want to make the money?
It's like people are getting robbed and they just don't know in which direction. And then I think people don't assume that when I lived in California or in New York, like Californians and New Yorkans, they'll call it out with their own state too. You know what I mean? It's like, yeah. We don't need the boundaries of which state, in which colored state we are as better. It's like, why can't we all just? So I noticed that now. And I got invited to speak at the local Democrat chapter here. Really? Oh, my God, you and three people? By the way, I said speak. They asked me to do stand up.
Now, normally you would say no, because it's at a chili cookoff. And I'm going to. This is amazing. It's going to be terrible. I'm sorry I'm othering you right now like you're talking about an exotic land. Okay. And I'm like, is this a trap? Are they trapping me? They're like, oh, come speak at the Democratic chili cook. I get there and they're like, we got them. And they just send me out. But I'm like, you know what? For whichever direction this goes, they'll be a bit attached to the story. Yes.
So for that reason, I'm going to do it. But I'm like, this is, you know, family-friendly political talk in a red state. This is not going to go well. And? It's next month. I don't even know. Oh, oh, yeah, right.
Got to report back, report back.
You're just going to dump me off in Brooklyn.
So, you know, based on all this, and I'm just going to ask you, I'm making, I'm joking around here. Don't take this too seriously. But, you know, I have a nine-year-old. You just said your son is eight months. Is that right? Yes. Eight months. Okay. So I have a lot of guilt. And sometimes I even get asked the question about like, how, you know, how do you feel about bringing a kid into this world and to this moment of a timeline? And I'm sort of like, listen, I got pregnant 10 years ago. You know, like Obama was president.
El Chapo got captured. Twitter was like mildly toxic. Farrell's Happy was the number one song. Like it was a, it was a different, it was a different moment. Like we were worried, but we still had that like, you know, it could all just turn around. I like it. Yeah. So I drink a lot of water. And I'm always saying to my family, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. So because of that, I want the best water possible. I don't even have to want to think about it.
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What a wild 10 years.
What a wild 10 years. So here you are. So my two questions are, first, did you always want to be a dad and have a family? And second is, how did this become the moment and how you feeling about it?
Good question. Well, my wife and I are older, right? 39, 37, as far as like we're geriatric as far as pregnancy. Me too.
I'm with you.
Yeah. And we were just living the good life. I mean, yeah. You call it what, dink, dual income, no kids? Now, for the most part, we've been together for over a decade. There was a lot of struggle in L.A. And the economics of having a kid, like, would not make sense until... So it was more so we kind of started flirting with the idea of having a kid when... when money got right. So like when my channel started taking off and I was not Uber driving, I was like, okay, maybe this is the thing.
When you're driving Uber, you know, you're kind of like, I don't know. And then, you know, with comedy, you know, you're so hyper competitive with trying to like get your stage time and your hours in that it is very selfish. And there could have been a scenario where you have a kid early and then your success pays off later. I look at like Bert Kreischer, right? He's having this like career like this pinnacle. He's making a, millions and millions. And his kids are like late teens and like, wow, what a cool time. Kids can ride the private jet with them. That's really cool.
And then there's other people who make it. And then once they make it, they have the stability to have kids. And we just got to the place where my wife has worked in Los Angeles as a model. And she's gotten older and she doesn't want to do that anymore. And it kind of just made sense. And we thought it would take longer than it would take because they're like, all right, you're getting on birth control for the first time. It's almost like you're going into the shed and like taking the tarp off this old car and seeing if it turns on. And we're like, all right, let's give it a shot. And then right away, we're pregnant. We're like, whoa. Oh, yeah. So it just happened right away.
And you're like, I guess we're going. Yeah. And we're living in like a small, you know, apartment in Los Angeles attached to the landlord. So it's like literally like a duplex. It was really nice, but very small. And we're like, we can't have a baby crying. Like we can hear our landlord's alarm go off in the morning. Like it's we like, we cannot be doing this. So we said,
That's nice of you to even acknowledge that. Well, I just would feel terrible.
It's like one thing for baby sick, but it's like, you know, I'm trying to use a snot sucker. You know, it's like, how's the kids allergies? So we were like, we either buy in LA or we get out. And I had already done a show in Nashville. And I was like, you know, Nashville's kind of cool. I was like, I'll show my wife Nashville for a long weekend. And by the end of the weekend, we put an offer in. And we're not never make decisions together. But it took a lot, you know, as like a comedian and it's hard to like prove your income.
I got to show Google and YouTube and statements. And you know, it's like it's really hard to buy a home, especially I think I bought it the worst time in the history. I bought it in January of last year. So my interest rates are terrible. The housing prices are through the roof. I paid double what everyone else in my neighborhood paid. But it was like still a deal to get in for you. Yeah, you were still like, this is a great deal. So whatever your personal journey is. You know, it's like, you know what? This is going to be our little cocoon for now.
I mean, we want to, I'd love the idea of moving to New Jersey or New York and being like 20 minutes outside the city, like you were saying. We love the idea of getting back to New York because New Jersey's rated one of the best places to raise a kid, they say, because it's just like, I think of it as you got these really good, like, Italian family values. And I'm not Italian, but I like the values of like, you know, those like, bring the family together and have supper. And then you've got a lot of social programs that take care of people. So I feel like everyone doesn't feel like their boots on their neck.
A lot of states like Tennessee have no social programs. And I think it's because people just kind of live on their own property and do their own thing. And I'm kind of, everyone can have like a different political like ideology, but I'm more for, I'm less for like rugged individualism and more for it. Let's all help each other out. And so I don't think we're going to be in Tennessee forever. But, you know, the price is good, the taxes are low. So maybe until the baby needs to be in school system, we'll worry that later.
I mean, you know, just I don't live in New Jersey. We flirt with it all the time. And so many comics I know that are New York comics working in the clubs every night. They are commuting from New Jersey. And some of them are quiet about it, Dave, because they, in a different way, don't want anyone to know that they are a little bit further out. So, you know, they could pick up more spots if the feeling is that you're just around.
You know, that was Nate Bargatsy. He lives in the town I live in here in Nashville. I don't know him, but I know like he didn't tell people he moved to Nashville. Obviously, he's like a megastar now. Yeah. It's because, yeah, you want to be seen as somebody. And I felt that way. When I moved out of L.A., I felt like a lot of people stopped. I mean, someone told me recently that someone else started doing one of my bits.
In LA?
Because they were like, well, he's gone, so who will know? Wow. I guess they like, it was like, I could explain it off there, but it's very similar. They kind of switched a thing or two around and I was like, it's theirs now. And I'm like, I'm still alive. I'm going to go back there. But yeah, it is. Like, it is interesting, you know? Like, I love the idea of being, I do love the idea of being in the suburbs here. And then I can go do a show and it's like, that's like my mistress, right, the show. And you can go in, do your show, be all rowdy. And, you know, my wife's an introvert.
I can come home and they're just happy to be here. And it's like that's me burning off my creative energy. And you just want to be in a place that you can do it with as most opportunity. I've probably sacrificed a little opportunity here. But I will say in 2024 living in Nashville, I probably made more as a comedian than when I lived in L.A. You're just not going to get paid in L.A. But, and you're also performing in front of very weird audiences there. So I have appreciated longer sets, better paid sets.
And, you know, what I do full time is my podcast. So my own office here has been like really.
Game changer. Oh, that's my dream. That is my dream. I would never use the word manifesting because I know how that sounds. So I'll just go back to the basics. I'm praying. Yeah.
Oh, I mean, but it's like you just get bigger stuff here, right? So like, yes. We went from like a 700 square foot home to a 3,000. Like I never had a driveway. We have storage like, we like I can now buy things that before you wouldn't buy. Like when I lived in New York, I would never get a full carton of eggs because I had to schlep that up five store. You know, you would like shop for like three days at a time.
Oh, it's hilarious. You say that we, I mean, We will buy a whole bunch of toilet paper and a whole bunch of paper towel. And then it's literally stashed all over our apartment because there's no one solid place where we could put like 12 paper towels and like 24 toilet paper. It's like hilarious.
Yeah, like now we can go to Costco. I mean, it sounds so hack, but you can go there and just be like, you know, once the drone started showing up, I was like, let's go to Costco and buy some extra chili. Like, I don't know what's happening out there. There might be a war in the size. So yeah, it's like a different, it's like a different world. But I do, I do feel like I have to work extra hard to try to make it so that I'm getting on the road more and I'm doing things that make me like because with comedy in the end, you just want to find audiences to perform for. Yes.
I like, if we never, if we don't move back to New York, well, then how about once a quarter we get an Airbnb for two weeks and we run the podcast out of that for, you know, like, what can we do to continue having a presence? And to be quite honest, I love New York so much. Moving back to Nashville, I, you know, I got asked to do the New York Comedy Festival. I could fly in and fly out. It's so, it's so quick. I know. And we can get flights for like 80 bucks each way if you book them right. And I'm like, oh, shoot, like I can do this.
Like I'm so much closer to the East Coast now, which has been good for family. Like my wife's family's from Kentucky, which is a few hours we live. Having her family driving distance and my family a close trip, it is so much closer than the West Coast. So for family reasons, this is all working out.
Yeah, okay. So career reasons, it's on the cusp. However, you know, as you said, you know, you are podcasting. I like that you called Stand Up Your Mistress, by the way, very funny. So just for, you know, I was trying to get a sense of the number of projects that you have going on right now at the same time. So I'm just going to list off what I think you're doing. And you tell me if it is, this is how it is. Okay.
So you're doing a podcast twice a day, which is the rush hour podcast, which is your news, pop culture, interview show.
Yes.
And those are like 30 minutes for people to listen to during the rush hour.
Exactly.
Then you have driving with date.
Which is just a segment because that's an interview that I do for the weekend. I realized I was leaving money on the table by not having content on the weekend because I was like, I'm every single day. I was like, well, weekend one. The pay rate was higher because less people make content. So the advertising was paying more. And I was like, oh, I'll just start doing that. On the weekend, and if people want to listen, they can listen. And people kept listening. My loyal audience, like, we'll check out my weekend content. So I was like, the law of diminishing returns is there to an extent.
But rather than, you know, as comedians, we just like, we kind of went with the Joe Rogan, you know, the godfathers are podcasting. Like we talked to somebody. We do it once a week. And it was like, that was fine. But once I started making money on YouTube during the pandemic, my channel took off from solo stuff. And I was like, if I'm doing so long, and I couldn't believe it. I was like, why would anybody care what I have to say for X amount of hours?
But when with YouTube, they call them like meal time length videos, when you make something that's like 10, 20 minutes long, people just want to hit the button and go do the dishes. Yeah, and have it running. And have it running. So that's kind of what my content became. And I just realized as much as I love the collaboration of, I would prefer if I could do everyone else's podcast all the time. But for me, I realized, all right, there's a number.
If I keep on making content, I'll take what was working on YouTube, which was like three videos a day and bring it to the podcast. And it's the same sort of like ad, pay out the same way it works. And it just kind of took off. And I was like, all right, this was an accident. Now I'm doing this. I did a podcast for years that didn't make a dollar. And I think advice for anyone in content, all those years you do stuff that doesn't make a dollar, you're learning stuff, you're building, you're growing.
Developing.
One day you're going to light it on fire. And then when that happened, I was like, all right, this is what I got to do. I had like, and then I was going once a day. And then I remember I was in the car with my wife in L.A. before you were even pregnant. I was like, what if I did twice a day? And she was like, oh, God. Because I was like, Doing a rush hour ride to work. What if I need a rush hour ride home? There's so much in the news that we're only talking 25 minutes each. I could talk, you know, and I started doing that. So doubled like the business.
And then now it's like, okay, let's blow it up so I can hire the people to take care of the stuff we were talking about off air that takes up so much of our time. There is a, there's only so many hours in the day, right? Yeah. So I, I tell you what, this is better than 50 hours a week of Uber where I was like, couldn't keep my eyes open and people.
Oh, God, I can only imagine.
Yeah, they're vomiting in your car and. Oh, driving people to the hospital. Like the 2 a.m. rides, like, you're an ambulance. You're driving hookers home. You're everything. I drove this Coke-fueled, like, celebrity home who was like, all he wanted to do was drive by his ex's house over and over to see if she was with another guy. I mean, And you're doing it for like minimum wage. One of my last days of Uber was when I got into an accident. Someone like sideswiped me 10 a.m. on a Monday. And it took a while to get the money from that. And it was kind of a whole thing. But I just, I got out of that.
And when this thing hit during the pandemic, I was like, I cannot. let this go away. And you know how like with comics are like cockroaches, right? When when something works weird, it's like, on this, this is, you become the hot sauce guy, you sell sandwiches. Whatever your thing is, you just like, that's it. We're all just like hyper-neached with the one skill we have. You know, every comic has like, I know a comic who can change your tires. We're just like a, we live in a commune. And
My comic does taxes, don't listen to that guy, but there's always, you know, something. There's always a comic that knows another guy that does taxes, though. Oh, yeah.
We're big on the taxes. We got a lot of, we got a lot of tax needs.
And then you have 90% of my comics who just don't file their taxes, but that's a different set of comics. But yeah, so, so when it started working, it's, you're exchanging your time during the day that I could be writing for something that's ultra lucrative for me. But at the end of the day, I want it to take off to a level where I just become psychotic. From 10.30 a.m. to noon, I make 90 minutes. I sit down. The cameras are already rolling. And I hand it off to somebody else.
Like, that's what you want to take away the thing. But you got to earn that, right? You got to get to the point where you can justify hiring people to do this and that. When I saw Andrew Schultz, like, I don't know, this is probably eight years ago, walking around with his own cameraman, I was like, oh my gosh. You know, and of course he blew up. He literally ruined short form web videos because he was making the, you know, the short comedy heckler videos. And then they just blew up from there. But he had a guy on like a full-time staff.
He did. Nobody was doing that. Right. People like Louis C.K. were like, you're giving this content away for free. And then all of a sudden he's selling out Madison Square Garden.
States.
Yeah. Unbelievable. But you got to get to that point, you know?
So when you started, when you said you're doing a podcast that didn't earn a dollar, was that the one, the dating podcast, the relationship advice? What was it called? Sex, actually, I wanted to make a call.
Yeah. When we started, it was called You Up and we, which by the way, was then, was then two other podcasts. Jared Freed had one called You Up after that. Although I have the time stance that mine came first. And I feel like people think I stole from them, but like we did this like 12 years ago. And we had a loyal following, but. You couldn't make money in the programmatic way. And so it just didn't work. And then when my YouTube took off, I had to like fade that out. So went from the you up and then it became the SAP, which is Sex Actually podcast.
And yeah, we were talking about I've always, I've always been interested in dating relationship stuff. Just I'm like an anxious, what do they call it? Like anxious attachment style. I'm needy raised by a little mom. I'm needy. I want you to tell me why you love me. Leave a comment. And it's sad, but I've realized that those are my stripes, and I try not to let it consume me. But I do have an interest in talking about things like that.
So entertainment news, relationship news, anything that has to do with, like, community, I just find interesting.
Is that what drew you, because your current, the rush hour podcast used to be a little bit more geared to talking about The Bachelor?
Oh, you're good. You did your research. Well, so my channel took off. Yeah, I talked about the Gnachler for years.
Yeah.
And it was because I was like, oh, I'm a comic. No men are talking about this show.
Oh, interesting.
Is 90% women. So it wasn't a strategy other than I knew I could get up early in the morning and actually enjoy it. I could watch a show. Then I could make fun of what people are wearing and, you know, stupid oh you know lingo and it just the all the whole dating game is fun to like pick apart especially now when you're out of the game you can like pick apart lingo like you know uh Netflix and chill like those types of right the hookup culture all the stuff that the hookup culture uses to describe to yeah These bros don't wear socks with their suits.
It's a different world out there, right? And it's dumb. And it's the world of like, it's like Nat Geo where you're watching a couple monkeys beating their chest trying to puff up their ass and look like presentable. You know, like the bird that flocks its feather, the peacocking. So you're watching that and it just found it fun and interesting to talk about. When I started doing that, I started getting like comments from people that weren't. Because before that, if you wanted to find audience, you had to ask your friends to watch. Which is the worst because friends and family are not fans.
You know, I supporters.
Very different.
That's why whenever comedians are like trying to get their friends to watch their special, I'm like, you are, first of all, wasting a click. because they're going to click on it and then not watch it. And then it's going to ruin your watch rate. And then YouTube's going to go, this guy sucks. And it's like, you don't suck. It's that your family doesn't support you because they don't see you as an artist. You see you as the kid that wet his bed, you know? So when I realized that, I started like earning trust with the algorithm. And these algorithms are just companies that want to trust you. YouTube wants to trust that if it promotes me, people will like it.
And after years of doing it, it all popped off one day. And during the pandemic, I was like, you know, making two videos a week, then four. And I was like, what if I did this daily? And people started showing up every day. And I haven't lost them since. And we were getting like, you know, a million views a month. YouTube's come down a little bit after the pandemic and podcasting has come up as people get out of their house. But YouTube is still the number one podcast directory. It's true. I accident. They didn't intend to do this. But it's the easiest way to get searched.
Like, you know, podcasting on the app, it's still word of mouth. It's very hard. So I was like, gosh, I got to get all of my content on YouTube because that's the best way to be found. And you kind of have to ride that game, but also deliver. It's like you have to be.
good at your press but then once you get on stage you can't suck and you know both things have to work hand in hand we all know we all know those comics that are so brilliant on stage but they almost like refuse to market themselves and it's like bro you can be brilliant all you want at this random bar like no one's seeing it yeah i know yeah it's true okay so but was and to that then you also have a podcast with your wife
She used to do the sap with me, but what I learned was the coordinating. It was really good for our communication to like hash things out on air. Interesting.
It was like live therapy. Right.
Yeah. I mean, it was because we had to, we had to present our argument in a way knowing that there'd be a judicial audience. And so like she can't just be like, fuck it. And it kind of worked until at a point it was like every Sunday night became like, all right, we got to get one up. And then I realized I don't need to work with my wife. I actually prefer not to. And so almost all she's she's almost like this infamous character that'll randomly pop in here and there.
But no, we don't we don't really collaborate much in that way anymore.
Well, yeah, because you're collaborating on the high-risk project of a lifetime, which is raising a child.
Yeah, we're trying to get that kid to survive and be happy.
Oh, yeah, you're in full survival mode. Right.
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I can say to my new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, hey, find a keto-friendly restaurant nearby and text it to Beth and Steve. And it does without me lifting a finger. So I can get in more squats anywhere I can. One, two, three.
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Okay, so from actually looking at one of the podcast on YouTube, as I will say it that way, you know, You talk to your mother. There's an episode of driving with Dave where you talk to your mother, which a lot of stuff. You guys covered a lot of fertile ground. And I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about that because so you were raised as a with a single mom.
Yeah, my mom, like, she's been through it in the sort of like Catholic culture, New England. You don't really talk about things. And that's probably my itch. Whenever there's something not being said, family-wise, friend-wise, I just want to address it. I want to call it out. And I grew up with just this cloud of, you know, kind of depression. Single mom, my sister and my mom always fought. My mom left my dad when she was pregnant.
So for the first 18 years of my life, I never knew about them, and I never asked more than maybe one question. It wasn't until I was 17 that I found out I actually had half siblings in Missouri. Now, it's so easy to wonder, how the hell could you never have that conversation? Well, one day at a time, you just don't. And then all of a sudden, you never ask. I found out... I understand that. Yeah. And so now to have these conversations as an adult and to give my mom the sort of to say, hey, you did your best.
Like you got us out of a situation with, you know, he was a Vietnam vet, PTSD. And she just felt and her, her brothers and siblings while she was on vacation, she went home, she went home with my sister, who's an Irish twin. She's 11 months older than me. So she was pregnant with me with an infant and went home and my family didn't convince her not to go back.
Like an intervention.
An intervention. They said, you're not going back. And, you know, I think my mom probably had a lot and probably still does have a lot of guilt about that. But she ended up finding my stepdad and he's amazing. And their life's been fantastic. But she was in her early 20s. And I think, I think at the time point had no idea what she was doing. They had no money. And my father, who has since passed away, just was like, you know, never graduated psychologically from his time in Vietnam.
He would go back to Vietnam every year and he ended up marrying a Vietnamese woman here, his last wife. He had like five wives at different times. And he couldn't, he was a charming guy that couldn't capture stability, which is so sad. It reminds me a lot of, you know, comedians, but it's so sad to have seen that because I ended up meeting him in his later years and he was on a breathalyzer. You know, he was on like an oxygen tank and couldn't walk.
Well, a real tragic, sad story of a man that never lived up to a potential because of a war and because of his own tragedy of kind of like the self-fulfilling prophecy where his own neediness and anxiety from probably losing people in Vietnam led him to probably cling on, at least emotionally, if not physically abuse and try to hold on and control what my mom was wearing to the point where he ended up pushing her away. And it's so sad. And yet...
you know, that was it. So I don't have any guilt that my life is so much better than his, but I think I learned a lot from a guy that never taught me anything, if that makes sense. Like, I never got the dad conversation for him, from him. But as an adult, when I got to meet him three or four times, I just saw the struggle of somebody who could never be their true self. And that's kind of what, like, if you can't be your true self, what are we even doing?
Yeah, so, I mean, you just alluded to it a little bit, but, you know, as I hear this, I just go, so what was it about him that your mother's family was like, you cannot go back there? I mean, it sounds like, things like post-traumatic stress disorder and a lot of these things. We didn't have words for probably back then, so he just seemed fucked up maybe. But you said there was a controlling aspect to it. Like, here's what you're going to wear. Here's how you're going to.
Yeah, like my mom couldn't see people like men, like if a delivery guy came to the door and they'd be like very jealous. Like it was just probably a fear of losing or fear of abandonment. So it's like your own fear caused what ended up happening, which is she comes home to my relatives and they just see her being a shell of who she was. I think my mom struggled with that her whole life. And what's very beautiful about my mom is that since the pandemic, she's lost over 100 pounds, probably 125 pounds.
She lives like a very holistic life where she has a, I think a Hindu life coach. Even though my mom's Catholic, she's got a hint. My mom's always been. Interesting. cultural map. So, like, she's, she's, you know, Catholic, but because she was raised that way and that's where she goes on Sundays. But she's also, like, very spiritual. And I think I, I think that rubbed off on me. I'm way more spiritual. I'm not religious. I'm definitely spiritual. I do believe we're all connected.
I do believe, like, we'll, we'll try every, every, every trick in the world to kind of disconnect from each other. But when push comes to shove, I always said this about New York. Like, you never, no one. If no one falls in the subway, right? Like, someone's always there to catch you. You stumble, it's always, like, crowded enough that somebody's there to help you. And when you look at community as helping strangers, we do when we know we need to help. And sometimes you move to some house and you hide your problems and you only put your best, your brave foot forward.
People don't realize you need help. But every time I've needed help, someone's there. And my channel kind of became that during the pandemic when everybody was... stuff. I mean, I got audience now. I'm trying to help out with stage four cancer because I understand the healthcare system is so messed up. Broken. They have a better shot at living if they start telling their story on TikTok, even though TikTok's going away or Instagram. So you just understand, like, we got to help each other because no one else seemingly...
you know, on a sort of on a bigger level has your back. So community has been big. And my community, because of all that I think I've been blessed with, we do like a single mom wish list every Christmas season where we pick all the single moms out from our community. We get them presents there. It's so emotional and positive. And I mean, it sounds, it's, it's heavy to be to, to have that burden where like, my audience isn't that big, but it's big enough to help some. That's amazing.
You try to stretch that along because my mom had people, she'll tell you my middle name's Coleman. And there was a guy named David Coleman who like was a long lost relative. He gave my mom like 500 bucks when she was pregnant with me. You know, he was wealthy. And again, this is in the 80s. And he, I mean, imagine what 500 bucks can do for you when you've left your financial anything and you've got nothing. You've got nothing.
That's your food for a month maybe.
Yes. Oh, yeah. And so my mom named me after him. And I was like, my, the boring white to me was only 500 bucks.
Thank you so much. Everybody obviously, subscribe to Dave Neal's channel on YouTube where you can download the podcast if you would prefer that. So you can hear all of his contact, but also twice a day you get to hear the Rush Hour podcast with Dave Neal. Also, you can follow him on just the socials that still exists, like Instagram at D. Neal's, that's D-N-E-A-L-N. Z or Z, if you're in the British part or Canadian part of the world, which many of you are. And also at the rush hour with Dave Neal.
Thank you so much.
Thanks for having me. This felt like therapy.
I'm here for you, my friend, always. All right, I'll talk to you soon.
Okay, bye.
Thank you so much for listening. I know that kind of cut off quickly. I had to end it there. Dave is such a great talker and the conversation was flowing, but I didn't want to make it too long. So I have a snack for you on Thursday where we pick up this conversation talking about how he dealt with a stepdad actually coming into his life when he was 12, how he rebelled for the very first time, and how all of this has been front of mind as he is thinking about who he is as a dad now.
since his idea of father figures was very complicated. So look forward to it, very fun. And you know what? Check out his podcast. It's fantastic on YouTube, which is where you'll find a lot of his work. You can also listen to it as a audio version. It's The Rush Hour with Dave Neal. Also, he was telling me in this just how important YouTube is. So guess what? You're going to find this pod up on YouTube. Well, it's on my YouTube channel, Fear Eisenberg, and then just... Find the playlist. Parenting is a joke.
You could follow that. You can follow us as a audio podcast because a lot of people like doing that while just wandering around their life and listening to something in their ears. Please subscribe and follow. If you want to just check out some very funny short video clips, you can find us on the socials. You know, stop your doom scrolling and enjoy them on Instagram and TikTok and Facebook. We are at Parenting as a Joke. I throw out tons of comedy, clips of my own everywhere.
I am at Ophira E, except for TikTok. I am at Ophira, NYC. That was a mistake, but I live with it. Live performing this month all over New York, and I'm adding new dates around. But I just want to point out that at the end of the month, I will be in Las Vegas joining Pete Dominic and a bunch of brilliant podcasters at Podjam in Las Vegas. You can get tickets to join that. It is two fun-filled, smart, intelligent, Smart and intelligent are the same word. I understand that.
And slightly political. Look at the world and culture around us. Talks, shows, hikes, socializing community in Las Vegas. That's March 28th and 30th. You can find all the information at Ophiraisenberg.com. And a little memory from my mother. You know, this actually came from my kid as we were walking to school this morning. It's strange weather out. It's like sleeting. It's sleeting. A mixture of rain and snow.
Unwelcome. You really just want one or the other. The sleet is problematic. And I was saying, he's like, oh, yeah, when it's harder and balls, it's hail. And I was like, that's right. And I said, we don't get a lot of hail here, but where I grew up in Calgary, Alberta, we used to get a lot of hail storms. And my mom hated the hailstorms because they would ruin her garden. They would just chop it up to bits. And sometimes you would get them in while you had a full garden in bloom, you know, and she was this incredible, incredible gardener.
Our garden was. The most beautiful thing was a botanic garden would come and take photos of it. You know what I'm saying? And the hail balls would be sometimes little pels, but they would literally be the size of golf balls. People would have to get their windshields replaced depending on what happened. And it was common yearly all the time, something you could count on and it would ruin her garden. So I'm telling this to my son how much my mom hated hail because of that. And he goes, you know what I remember about your mom?
And, you know, she died when my son was three and a half. So any memory is amazing. But he goes, you know what I remember about your mom? And then he goes, oh, no, I can't believe it's been so long. I forget her name. And I said, well, it was Astrid. And he goes, right, Astrid. Even though, you know, we don't really have that relationship where we say, oh, call these people by their first name. But anyways, he's aware of it. He goes, I remember being on the swing in her garden and looking at all the flowers.
They were so beautiful. And then he goes, I miss her. Ah, kind of broke my heart. So there you go. At least my son has a memory of my mom. Have a good week, everybody.
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