Creighton Bayer: Becoming a Standup Comedian

Chris Albert 00:00:00 (link to this point)

What is up, everybody? Welcome to the Warrior Soul podcast. This is Chris Palmitessa here, and I am back at you with another episode. I've been interviewing comics from around South Florida who also happen to be veterans, and and the gentleman I'm I'm joined by here today is an awesome guy. I've gotten to know him over the past couple of weeks.

He's a US army veteran. Really, really funny dude. I'm also told he's a musician musician as well. I almost said magician. Maybe you are a magician.

I'm not sure. But fucking

Creighton Bayer 00:00:39 (link to this point)

Not not quite there. I feel you're working on it. Hey, everyone. How you doing?

Chris Albert 00:00:46 (link to this point)

Awesome, man. Awesome. So, dude, for for the audience out there, maybe give them, like, a two minute background of who you are, where you're coming from, and and your experience in the military.

Creighton Bayer 00:01:01 (link to this point)

Okay. So real quick, I was army brat growing up. My dad is a West Point grad class 84. And because of that, someone's car alarm is going off right now. You guys have to forgive me. I'm at I'm at my night job.

I work in the bartender in Miami. But I was born in Fort Benning, and then my dad got PCS to Germany for four years, and then he got PCS to Virginia for four years. And that's where I did high school and moved to middle school. And then from there, I took it upon myself to enlist. Went to Fort Leonard Wood, got stationed in Fort Carson.

And then I selected to... After going back to college, I selected to become a Florida veteran. To say the least, it's had a couple of ups and downs, but altogether, I really appreciate Florida for what it is. It's been basically the Australia Of America. Yep.

And I've been down here for five years and been doing comedy for about four, and it's been going pretty well.

Chris Albert 00:01:59 (link to this point)

That's awesome, man.

Creighton Bayer 00:02:00 (link to this point)

I should also mention the family business because my dad was in the army. Both of my brothers are currently serving. My older brother is in the Air National Guard. He just won airman of the year, and my younger brother is a 11 bravo out of Hawaii. He got the dream posting.

He doesn't know what to do with himself because everything in Hawaii is expensive, and he's putting on drunk pay. So he definitely had this moment for him.

Chris Albert 00:02:28 (link to this point)

That's that's awesome, man. Like, you know, I I I know a lot of veterans. I mean, obviously, this... Doing this podcast and having been in the Marine Corps and and everything. And and I have to say some of the funniest people are the people I served with.

When did you start thinking about doing comedy? Like, when did that come a thing... Become a thing for you?

Creighton Bayer 00:02:49 (link to this point)

Honestly, for me, it was right around AIT. I noticed that as far as everyone else is concerned, since you can basically base it off the fact that any experience they have in the military, any branch, they have to have a sense of humor with it. But otherwise, you're not gonna laugh. And it was put upon me to be the jokester, especially with my first unit because I've always had a good sense of humor based off my dad, because he's former artillery. So, you know, you just have to have a sense of humor with those guys, especially the fact that they sometimes can't hear what you're saying.

So you gotta say it loud and proud. But I got into it based off the fact that I was always I was always trying to make sure that everyone around me was at least had some levity to it and wasn't, you know, having the worst time with it. I think the best example I can give you is right before the gas chamber. I was doing my Will Ferrell Harry Caray impersonation for everybody as to how exactly this is gonna suck, but the Cubs won, and that's okay. And ever since then, I've progressed it into different avenues as far as comedy is concerned, especially in Miami, but also in Boca and West Palm and Jacksonville and Tampa for a year.

Charlie mentioned the whole move to Florida was initially based upon a woman, and we're no longer together, but I like the weather so I stuck around. And through that, found comedy and it's been a been a really good rewarding experience for me. I've been lucky enough to find myself employed by one of the improv down here for a year. I worked at Miami Improv. Got a lot of really good experience out of it.

Just observing and, you know, being around comedy and they have one of the best staff I've ever worked with as far as, you know, either being in or out of the service. And it's just a really good appreciation for for humor in this in this neck of the woods, especially to the fact that everyone kind of piggybacks off of Miami to go to LA or to go to Texas or to go to New York. But I think that we have a pretty good blend of people that are all working as far as comedy is concerned. So it's always good.

Chris Albert 00:04:55 (link to this point)

It's awesome, man. How long have you been out of the military?

Creighton Bayer 00:04:58 (link to this point)

I've been out since 2013.

Chris Albert 00:05:00 (link to this point)

Nice, man. And and what was it like when you first got out? Like, did you have a plan? Did you did you think you were gonna do something? Did that change along the way?

Creighton Bayer 00:05:11 (link to this point)

The plan was when I got out is to go to college and finish up my bachelor's. And I was in pursuit of that when I joined the college rugby team. A lot of concussions and a lot of keg stands and a couple of further steps from that. I decided that my body would be better used if I wasn't so brutal on it. But my game plan initially was to be a teacher, and then I looked at the pay grade for that, and I just said that's probably not the world's best idea for me due to the fact that I have a hood rich sensibility to myself as to where...

I'm from I'm from Miami, you know, the car is not paid for, but the rims are. But that being said, I I found a greater appreciation after getting out of doing comedy because it's something I've always been interested in, and bartending allows me a chance to be able to do that and also have, you know, a lifestyle where I can still go out and hit mics and do shows. You know, most times... Most jobs will let you go on a Saturday night and do two shows, but that's what I'm doing tomorrow night. So Mhmm.

It's really rewarding. And if if you work for it, you can get somewhere good with this. That's what I've noticed, especially in my experience in the last year and just observing all the comics that have come through the improv is that's the one thing that I take where you gotta keep coming back to it. Even if you have a bad set or if you have a bad interaction with the comic, find another mic, find another place to go, keep working at it. Just like every...

Just like breaking down a weapon. It gets better with repetition. That's how it is.

Chris Albert 00:06:42 (link to this point)

Yeah. Yeah. That's definitely something I'm finding. Was was there a time when you weren't so certain, like, bef... Before you found comedy?

Were... Was there a time when you were like, oh, man, what the hell am I gonna do? And and what was that period of time like for you if it did exist?

Creighton Bayer 00:07:00 (link to this point)

I can tell you the exact moment. Was working at the Chipotle at the International Mall in Tampa, and I was throwing up burrito bowls and making burritos and just not getting rewarded the way I wanted to get rewarded as far as, you know, being passionate about it. I mean, I do love Mexican food. Don't get me wrong. But it's not gonna be the rest of my life.

And that's kinda wanna take the assessment, take a step back and go, there's gotta be something else that I can do here that allows me to, you know, fuel my creative passion, but at the same time, you know, go towards a a better indication of what I'm doing as far as, you know, being able to bring levity and being able to bring joy to people. At the end the day, that's what the comics is supposed to do. It's supposed to be able to lighten the mood, but also highlight the issues that everyone is facing and make it funny and get people talking about it. And I think George Carlin said it best. The duty of this comic to find the lines and repeatedly cross it.

And I agree with that 1000% just because of the fact that I'm a conflicting personality. And I've noticed in comedy that if you're a conflicting personality, you may not get on with everybody, but you'll get on with the right. You just have to look for them.

Chris Albert 00:08:11 (link to this point)

That's cool. That's cool. When... If you wanna... So for for the guys who listen to this, a lot a lot of them, the guys and gals are are are Marine Corps veterans or army.

And and whether they're going... Thinking about going into comedy or not, you do have any advice for them who might be in that position where they're looking at their life and they're like, you know, I don't really wanna be doing this right now. Like like, what what would you tell them?

Creighton Bayer 00:08:36 (link to this point)

I would say that if you have an interest in something along those lines... Can you help us out with this? I can. Please. Thank you.

I got you. Raspberries, limes, brown sandals. Raspberries don't know what they're asking. Don't worry about the raspberries. Okay.

Sorry about that. As far as what to do and in order to find your creative passion and and and feel it, I was just talking with Emilio earlier today about going to a mic and trying out new material. It's built in for us to be able to always try to work on stuff. But if you wanna pursue that, my best advice to you would be to hit a local mic, get on the list, and bring some friends, have some beers, and just try out some of that makes you laugh and take it from there. And if it makes you laugh, it's gonna make other people laugh and snowball effect.

It'll just build up from there.

Chris Albert 00:09:31 (link to this point)

Cool.

Creighton Bayer 00:09:32 (link to this point)

Cool. Mhmm.

Chris Albert 00:09:34 (link to this point)

So so let me ask you this too. I mean, like, what about for the for the guys out there who who who might not might not wanna try comedy? Like, is there anything else that you'd you'd tell them, like, if they were trying to move forward and they were trying to figure the way?

Creighton Bayer 00:09:52 (link to this point)

If it's not comedy, I feel like it's basically, you know, built into most of the veterans that I know that you're doing something and it's not going the way you want it to, you gotta embrace the stuff. You gotta get through it, and then you gotta figure out what's important to you and what makes you feel like it gives value to your life, whether it be comedy, whether it be acting, music, magicians, whatever it may be. And to really dig into it and to really, you know, as far as try to find something that, you know, is the reason why you get out of bed every every day. And for me, that's... It's a little bit narcissistic to say, but it's the approval of getting on the same wavelength with others going, yeah, man.

I agree with that. That's true. Yeah, man. That's really funny. Yeah, man.

How how can you know that they were set up before? And sometimes it comes about in ways where it's accepted by everyone, sometimes accepted by some people, sometimes accepted by just you. And as long as you're happy at the end of the day, I mean, if I wasn't doing this, I'd probably be doing UFC fighting or snowboarding, something along those lines. But I need to make money off of my face because I'm a bartender, so I can't really do that. But that being said, I think the...

I'm a bartender community. But that being said, it definitely adds an effect to it as far as finding what you're passionate about, whatever it may be. For me, it's based on the fact that I was really big into creative writing when I was in high school and when I was in college, and I found that I was a really good writer. And I took it from there as far as, you know, based on how to tell stories, how to make those stories funny, and then taking the funny bits from those stories and peppered it into my comedy, a little dash here and there and then building up from there. And I was always told by my friend, know, coming up like, hey, man, you should really try comedy.

Hey, man. You should really try comedy. And it wasn't until I think it was like posted on Facebook, Facebook, but one of my drill sergeants liked the... Like, the picture of mine where I spawn an improv scene. Like, that's exactly where I think you'd be.

That being said, OPSEC being what it is, you're not supposed to try to do drill sergeants on Facebook, but I'm out of the army now. There's nothing you can do about it.

Chris Albert 00:11:59 (link to this point)

Forget... So what makes what makes for a good set? Like, you mentioned George Carlin quote about that line. Right? Like, you gotta be constantly trying to cross that line.

And, like, I was at an open mic the other day, and and this girl, she wasn't, like, heckling, but she was just constantly, like, hey, I don't agree with that. Or, hey, I don't agree with this. One of the things I tried to explain to her during that is that there is that line, and and our job as comedians is to constantly go up to that line, and there's gotta be some trust between the comedian and the audience that says, okay, we might be talking about something really fucked up, but we're gonna we're gonna try to make you laugh. And there's there's a joke here. Right?

But, like, it seems like so many people are freaking getting pissed off about where the line is right now. And and what do you think about that? And and how can a comedian still create good comedy in this time and place where people wanna get pissed off about everything?

Creighton Bayer 00:12:56 (link to this point)

I think that people are always gonna have something to complain about no matter how you do it. You could try to play it as safe as possible. You could be really signed up with it. You have clean set where you're just making observations about everyday stuff. But in my opinion, the best comedian is not the type that relies on crowd.

Best comedian is the type that relies on themselves and knows within themselves. I could go up there and do crowd work deployments, but at the end of it, I'm not gonna feel rewarded because fact that I'm not doing what I meant to do. And it took me a long time when I started off because for about a year, was doing things that played it safe and, you know, I never really, you know, pushed the envelope as far as my comedy was concerned. But I think the best set is when you're being yourself. And that's unapologetically, unedited, completely yourself.

Yeah. And if people don't agree with it, you can explain to them, hey, this is my point of view. It's different than yours. That's what makes this country great. We have different opinions, we could still get along.

And if it upsets you, there's a door. Because we're not gonna be able to progress in society. Everyone keeps complaining about every single thing that, you know, comes up, and they have to be sensitive about it. Right. And speaking as a member of the generation of participation trophies, I can tell you that a lot of people nowadays need to have the reality check of, no, this is different from your opinion.

You may not agree with it, but that's okay. I feel okay. As long as we agree to disagree on that, we can move ahead peacefully and, you know, amicably to the point of where we can all agree that that may not be your brand of comedy, but maybe someone else. And I would never ever allow myself to to, you know, become someone that walks into the crowd and relies on just going off of the people in the front row and making fun of them for fifteen, twenty minutes because Right. You're not you're not doing anyone in service at that point in time.

You're just doing proper. Okay. Right. Right.

Chris Albert 00:15:02 (link to this point)

Cool. So, yeah, we got cut off for a second, but you were just talking about comedians, like who go into the front row and and and just do crowd work and and how that's kinda not being themselves and and getting away from from why they're there. Right?

Creighton Bayer 00:15:19 (link to this point)

Mhmm. You basically you basically what you're doing at that point in time is just bullshitting with an audience. And Right. That's fun. And it's a great way to, you know, at least enjoy yourself when you're on stage, but you're not really you're not really doing the due diligence as far as, you know, discovering how to get better at your craft.

I've been doing this for five years at this point in time and four and a half, let's be honest. So about four and a half at this point in time. And I've noticed through a progression that, you know, starting off, it was a lot of based off my inspiration between Robin Williams, Demetri Martin, Bill Burr, all those guys. It's a weird blend, I know. But I base it off the fact that, you know, each one of those guys are individually unique to their own brand of comedy.

And this past year, I saw a lot of comics come through. I saw Mark Normand, I saw Andrew Schulz, I saw Tim Dillon. But pound for pound, the best comedian that I saw this past year was DeRay Davis. And the reason why is because he was booked back last February for five shows of improv, and those sold out within a day. So we added three more shows, and those sold out within ten minutes.

So he's got an eight week... Eight show weekend coming up. And this is my first real weekend working security, so I got to watch every single show. And they were eight individual different shows. And I can tell you as a comedian, that is incredible to watch, but also in in in awe inspiring to witness.

And I told him I think I like, dude, you have no idea how much I've been trying to speak in just based off watching you. And he's saying, like, he he got me up and he said, hey, man. That's exactly what I do this for is because of guys like you and because of the fact that I wanna be able to inspire people to not keep relying on wrestling on their laurels. I want them to keep pushing the envelope as far as, you know, at least finding a commonality and continue to push forward as far as, you know, what you're trying to get done. And he was working on a special before COVID hit, and he had a camp put up.

He was gonna do it at the gardens and couldn't do it anymore, but he decided to at least take the bulk of his material, take it on tour, and still give people a killer show front to back. And I mean, that's gotta be one of the toughest things I've seen as far as doing eight different shows. But that was that was a that was a real was a real gut check moment for me because I looked at myself, was like, I could be doing a hell of a lot more than what I'm doing because how it happens with most amateur comedians is you're told to have five minutes ready and that's it. And you may have a solid five minutes, but if you never worked at that five minutes and ten, fifteen, twenty, you're never gonna get anywhere. So start cooking some feces spots and like that.

Chris Albert 00:17:51 (link to this point)

So Yeah. It it isn't... Because I'm brand new to this. I've been doing it since November. Right?

So Mhmm. What it seems like there's there's, like, a really, really strong temptation that you're really comfortable with, and you keep doing that. And and and to just keep doing that over and over again. And I... As a new comedian, I go to a bunch of vocal mics every week.

And, you know, for the past two months, I've seen a lot of other new comedians doing the same five minutes over and over and over again. And and I don't see how you get better from that if that's what you're doing. Right? I I can see how you you improve your timing and improve, like, your your your presentation of that particular set, But I don't see how you grow how you grow mentally, how you cut your teeth if that's how you're doing.

Creighton Bayer 00:18:40 (link to this point)

The best piece of advice I got as far as that was concerned is from a comedian called Tennessee Williams, who's a West Palm local, but he's a internationally known comedian. We were talking one night about, you know, how to set up material and set up stuff like that. And he said that his goal is to... At the end of the week, even if it's, you know, just set up in the punch line is to come up with 10 new jokes that you wanna try on stage. You're excited about trying on stage and that you wanna show off to people.

And the way you try to do that is every month, make it a goal to have a new ten minutes by the end of the month. So that way by the end of the year, got a hundred and twenty minutes. You got two hours of material that you can pull off of it and test it that you can go off and do, hey, I can do this, I can do that, I can add this, and I can add that in. And that's a simple goal. Some people, you know, you know, you have to shoot and you can shoot the clock.

But then the year, you still have, you know, a full hour ready to go. But don't rely on the safety of what works and what doesn't work because you know it works already. And I think it's intimidating because comedians are very sensitive people, but at the same time, we're sensitive to, you know, the the audience and what we're trying to do for them. And in this particular incident, in my experience, you have to embrace the bombs. You're gonna bomb at some point.

Everybody's And as long as you can get past the initial awkwardness of it and the initial, you know, foot and mouth thing of it and you're willing to work through the awkward silence, you'll get somewhere really good with it. Reminds me of Craig Ferguson comment that he had as far as, you know, embracing the awkward silence. I mean, it's because it's gonna happen. But if you take it for what it is and you go, okay, well, that didn't work so well, and you get back up there and you try it again. You may find something new.

Chris Albert 00:20:26 (link to this point)

That's awesome. That's awesome. You know, I feel lucky down here in South Florida Florida because, like, we've got a lot of mics going on. There's a strong community here. I've gotten to meet some really awesome people.

I've gotten some really advice... Really great advice from great people like yourself, Hansen Sinclair and and Lee Smith and a few others. And, you know, it's it's been cool, but in a lot of places, it seems like, you know, it'd be a lot harder to do this. Like, if you're

Creighton Bayer 00:21:00 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:21:00 (link to this point)

If you're in some other city or if you're in, like, Central Florida or something like that. Like, it'd be a lot more difficult to do this. What's your advice for people who are in in those areas and maybe they can't move because of their job or anything like that?

Creighton Bayer 00:21:14 (link to this point)

If you don't have a scene, make a scene. That'd be my advice. You just have one or two mics locally. Best example I can give you is I used to be roommates with Sean Long, who's up in Oakland. And Sean and I, when we were starting off with comics, we would go to the same room and we wouldn't be able to get on.

So we, you know, we'd leave Oakland, we'd go to Miami, we'd leave Oakland, we'd go to West Park. And the same thing for where everybody's at. Even if there's nothing you want in your town, check a couple of towns over. You may have to drive for a little bit to grab some buddies, you know, and make a night of it, go out and get some food afterwards. That's the best experience I can tell you as far as being a conflict concern.

Not the mics, but people that you get to do them. And the story that you have is an afterthought. Two of my best buddies in the comedy game are Ryan Scott and Danny Fallon. And I laughed harder hanging out with them after a show than I did during the show or during the night because of the experience that we talked about. And, you know, things that we're working on, how our families were doing, all that stuff.

And that's where it really is, connection with the other comics that I think is really important. You can connect with another comic, you could tell them, hey, this is what I'm trying to do. It's not really going on over here, but I have an interest in this. You can make it happen. It may take some, you know, trial and tribulations to get it up and running, but if you're passionate about it and other people are passionate about it, form a group, form a team, get it going, and and take care of business.

And I'm sure in today's creative day and age, if you can't do it in person, you can do it online. You can find someone, you know, is willing to collaborate and go, hey, we can't all meet up at this spot. We can all be on a Zoom call and take it from there. Even though Zoom call, comedy shows do stop, I'll say that for the record. But, yeah, there's a there's a definite there's a definite give and take to it.

As long as you're willing to take your lumps and give it a chance with others as far as, you know, it may not be popping off where you're at. I could tell you my whole foot in Williamsburg, Virginia. There is two comedy clubs in Williamsburg, Virginia, but Richmond's an hour away. And there's eight to nine comedy clubs in Richmond for DC three hours away. Well, three and a half.

So you go from DC, you check out DC. You know? So if it's not happening where you're at, make it happen. And if you can't make it happen where you're at, get in the car and and hit the road. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. That's cool. Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:23:35 (link to this point)

You mentioned Danny. Danny's a really, really funny dude, and I I like him a lot. He's he's he's super nice, super... Willing to give advice. He's been really great.

And there's been a lot of great people down here as far as everything goes.

Creighton Bayer 00:23:51 (link to this point)

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:23:51 (link to this point)

Think part of this is just being vulnerable too. Right? That's is... Listening and having not not point your ego at the

Creighton Bayer 00:23:57 (link to this point)

I think that's the other thing I give as far as the takeaway is if you're not humble about it, you will be humbled at some point by it because you're... I can tell you, I I can I can list off three or four comics that I know that need a reality check because they have an opinion that the shit doesn't stink? But at some point in time, it's gonna hit them. It may not be next week. It may not be next month, but the next foreseeable future, they're gonna be hit with the reality check of problems as far as, you know, whether or the studies that they're pursuing or the, you know, know, kind of show that they're pursuing, they may not be able to get.

So they may have to take a step back and go, okay, well, can't do that right now, but I can still do this. And Miami is weird like that as far as, you know, I've I've seen people that have absolutely no support system or anything at all go on stage and actually crush them. I've seen people that have, you know, 10,000, 20,000 followers on Instagram, you know, they're they're up there and they're doing a complete and total participle act as far as, you know, what their problem is concerned because they're taking different pieces from everybody else and they're not being true to themselves. So that's really the way to humble yourself as well. As long as you stay true to yourself and you're willing to admit that you're not always right, you're not always gonna have to write the actions, but you're willing to learn from that, you go far in life.

Chris Albert 00:25:12 (link to this point)

That's awesome. That's awesome.

We're... So new media is a pretty big deal for people. Right? Because you see a lot... And you mentioned people who go on Instagram, and and they might call themselves comedians on Instagram, but they can always go on stage.

And that's one thing. But but I think comics have been really used social media pretty create... Creatively, and, you know, you do your your Twitter dumps, and I posted one on the Warrior Soul account. Got they got a lot of traction. Like, people love that.

It was the the 3M earplug joke. That was freaking hilarious. But but you finding you finding that that stuff helps, do you use social media to test things out?

Creighton Bayer 00:25:52 (link to this point)

Or... I do. I do. I I use that as a platform to kinda test out some stuff that I wanna put online versus stuff that I wanna stay on stage. But it's a good avenue to use it use it correctly.

For example, I have a TikTok account, but I'm never gonna post TikTok videos in my sets. I believe it's especially recorded. So that's just that's just... It depends upon where it's supposed to be closed. Because you can make a million on Instagram for a sense of legs, but you can go on stage and eat a bag of dicks.

And it really depends upon what your comfort level is and how you express yourself. I love Twitter because it's 240 characters to get the joke out. And that's a premise, set up, and punch line. And sometimes it doesn't leave you the premise. It just needs to set up and punch line.

And that's why that's why I gravitate towards the writer because it limits me to what I can do, but it allows me to work within those... That framework to make sure that I can, you know, at least provide for myself the creative endeavors to, you know, push myself a little bit harder for what I'm trying to do next. Because I've I've been on stage where I've been told that I'm way too intelligent. I need to dumb down my humor and not be so wordy with it. So that's a good...

That's that's how I use it. But nowadays, social media being what it is is, you know, I'm also looking at perspective of the the metaverse and also the whole thing with crypto as far as, you know, I I look at it creatively from from taking your jokes and possibly turning them NFT. That way, you have ownership of your jokes in some form or another and allowing your allowing your humor to at least, you know, be monetized and and make money out because you really don't make a lot of money. Some of them do, but not a lot of them. So I base it off the fact that a lot of people are trying to explain this.

I'm just trying to get paid for this because bartending is nice, but it'd be really nice to, you know, pick up a Netflix special or an HBO special at some point in time for sure. But if you can't do that, you can still express yourself and monetize it, whether it be TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, whatever it is. And I think that's a really great way to, you know, at least allow yourself to be expressive, but at the same time, introduce a possible revenue stream at some point in time. Because you may not be the funniest person on stage, but you got 8,000 followers on Instagram. You can still sell merch for your shows.

You can still sell tickets for shows. You can still sell, you know, you know, other people on Pound or something. I'm not good enough for this show but this guy, which I think that's probably my biggest downfall is I always try to support the scene and I don't really support myself as much as I need to, but I'm okay with that because I think that's a better way to be about it.

Chris Albert 00:28:34 (link to this point)

Yeah. Yeah. I see that a lot. I came from the fitness industry, was do... Had a fitness presence for a long time and saw a lot of the same thing going on there as far as, you know, people needing to monetize themselves and and trying to get that that stuff out there.

Alright, dude. We are back. And, yeah, we were talking about areas where it's it's harder to find places to to do comedy. You know? What what can guys do if they're if they're not able to find a place?

They're not in a place like Miami or or South Florida where there's tons of open mics and things like that.

Creighton Bayer 00:29:16 (link to this point)

So good example of that that I will offshoot from is a friend of mine, Jason Stockton. He's out in Texas. I'm very passionate about comedy. He's down here. He's got Texas.

He noticed things kind of a theme, but not really. I'm sorry to be doing... Do some dumb shows. Think he wants to be a baby better. But it's a good example of taking initiative and do a lot of things to make the same.

Even if it's not special, it's always important, which I could say a good example of that. But no, the the thing is that there's... A good example is locally is Alex Tarno and Sergio Mendez. That's what we're doing. Start it off locally. People that email, play with basic work, build up from there. If you think about some basic work, you don't want to reflect probably on you.

You have a bad taste in comedy based on people that you book. It's definitely a source. But I feel like people nowadays, especially if you're in a few months, can't do it online. And even if there's not the outlet of being able to go to a show or go to a mic, you have to you have to wait for the monthly showcase, and you have to email and you have to send in a ten minute clip, not like the stuff you put. It's still worth it.

Still do it. I can say to myself that I've working at the for the past year that my passion as far as working in the company, it's something that we desire because of the fact that I worked at one. So I didn't really have the same pressure everyone else does whenever they do show up in the process. I've been around it for so, you know, for so long at this point in time that I'm kinda used to that level of professionalism whenever I go and do something. And it's a little selfish because a lot of people don't pass that for the day.

The nearest spot in Virginia, for example, for comedy is Richmond, and then there's DC. Now I've been living for... I can say right now that there's probably one or two comedy clubs playing. So the local mic scene is probably off the charts because you had a couple of people that are really passionate about something in the same area and you coordinate with them, you know, hey. We've all got one day at office, do a show, feel like we'll do something.

We can make some money for the restaurant. We can all have good punch. It's not just this great one. There's enough young entrepreneurs to come in a thing. Should have like going or show going or couple on those times without too much of a hassle.

Chris Albert 00:32:21 (link to this point)

That's cool. That's cool. Yeah. I think... I don't know.

I... Like I said, I feel lucky to be down here and and and being around a great community. But, yeah, if you wanna do something, you gotta kinda sometimes go out and create it if you're gonna do it. I mean, kinda the same thing with podcast. I didn't do shit about podcasting, but I just went and looked and created it.

Right? What's your what's your main goal? What are you what are you looking to do with comedy? Do you have an endgame in mind?

Creighton Bayer 00:32:53 (link to this point)

My push is to be a writer for somebody.

Whether or it'd be working in a writer's room like a tank out in LA, a spot like Texas, or even here in Miami. All the way up to working for a late night comedy show and just working on a, you know, five to 10 segment. Thank you so much. Then you can... Yeah.

We're good. So anything that's spicy, Fucking, like... No. The great thing about this food, I'm also eating bread. Shout out to the.

Oh, nice. It is half hour, two rolls for for $7. That's awesome. I'm a a I'm a millennial. I know where to find a decent.

They're they're not sponsored in the cycle. But... So thank you so much. So the the the question to be a writer, ultimately, either for late night shows. What I would like to do is I'd also like to put in somebody and start doing the podcast around.

As soon as it comes to enough of the takeaway from show like reading your carts and coffee. I don't know that kind of budget nor do I have those kind of those kind of nice cars. Best I can just probably walk through a parking lot of ship club and just be on the car and seem like we're talking about it. But I need a tacos. Yeah.

I can talk for it. And so I've been considering doing a show, probably have to pick up the winter taco spot and and have any guests on and try out some tacos and tacos to comedy, which is an attainable goal for me. But you have to have your five minute target, tell me your target for twenty five minutes. And in this case, at least, comedy wise, writing is where I get most enjoy of it just because we need to keep testing myself, keep pushing myself as far as where I can take the joke, turn the joke or find the joke. What's funny about it, made the joke descriptions, set up punch lines.

Sometimes I send the punch line with the number, but it's not the funny part of the joke. It depends upon where you're at. It's a long way of saying writing is what I'm passionate about as far as copy is concerned. So a job being paid for that. Even if it's something that's simple being a ghost writer for rappers diss tracks, you know, hit my inbox, anybody.

Feel free. As far as, you know, you need help writing up a dissertation, something like that, I'll see what I can do. I'll use I'll use Wikipedia. I'll give you my questions. No.

I'm kidding. No. That's that's part of it. It's definitely writing aspect. You know, that's what I get passionate about is because I like seeing people do original content more than here.

And I like it when that little content comes a lot of where you sat down, you wrote it out, you worked it out, you went through, you did it, and, you know, I've seen some terrible greetings Have some of the honey of jokes just because of fact they stuck to their gut, and they kept working at it until they had something that is polished in theirs to make new... At the drop of a hat, it's instantly recognized for as one of their, if not, you know, send ups, then definitely a a... An original type thing, which is the is the big thing for our family. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:36:12 (link to this point)

No. That's cool. I think with the podcast thing, you don't need much of a budget to do a podcast at all. Like, you you you just start it with, like, Libsyn and, like, you know, doing a mic or, like, you know, get get a get a phone and things like that. I think you'd be good at it, though.

I told you that.

Creighton Bayer 00:36:30 (link to this point)

Yeah. Steven Soderbergh style. Yeah. Shoot it all in our eyes. No.

I I definitely I definitely have the push for it. I'm gonna talk with a a friend of mine as far as reading something on those lines.

Chris Albert 00:36:43 (link to this point)

That's cool. That's cool, man. Well, awesome. What's... How do you how do you balance everything?

You know, you got you got a job, you you you do comedy and things like that. How do you balance everything out?

Creighton Bayer 00:36:58 (link to this point)

I'm gonna take a take a mention real quick. Bloody Fox. He gave me a pretty good note. I'm two years into doing this. He said, hit the gym and hit a mic.

If I can't do a mic, then I try to go and get on someone's show. Someone's not available, I show up. I'm trying to do some time, get a lot of help out taking pictures, make sure that everybody, you know, gets video of their sets. Remember that the next time I'll be here, that's probably do it. So from staff, plus the fact that I work for three to four nights a week, and that's from, you know, which, you know, hours important.

So, you know, 4PM till 3AM. Sometimes 4AM. So that's kinda how I gauge it is, you know, I'm lucky. I'm trying to be lucky. Have a job that I do is work hours that I work and to make money that I make and to still be able to do comedy.

Because there's only people that work from Miami Barsley that don't have it, but are still able to, you know, work around it. One of them, for example, is Danny Bonavante, a great comedian, also works at Better Days, and he's able to still go out and do comedy and work in the bartender, which in the table things, the hours are safer, especially in downtown just because of the fact that you have all sorts of personality. I think it's very true that I could use somebody's melting pot, especially near the airport, which is just a note that I have for the year as far as I'm working. But I've worked in and around the comedy scene for long enough to know that don't want it to become a point of where you feel obligated to do it. You wanna enjoy.

You wanna get excited about doing So you have to have that built in period where you take breaks for a little bit where you just feel like, yeah. No. I don't do that like this week. But then then like, let's take a And I just wanna take it out. I'm not doing it.

Even I get to see my friends. They'll understand that my friends are taking taking it... Taking the hiatus for the next couple weeks, which a lot of people need to do. I have taken a hiatus twice. I was doing this.

One of them is kinda four times when everybody was in the depths of COVID. But that was, you know, March to March to May time frame. You see the thing if somebody was having a mic back in five, six miles away. Who's in balance with? Let's have a look for it.

Chris Albert 00:39:14 (link to this point)

That's cool. That's cool. Is there a point... So, like, I guess, I'm new. Like I said, I see, like, different levels out there.

There's, like, people like me are hitting every mic they can. There... There's people who were doing shows quite often, and then when they're trying to work something out out, they'll hit a mic. Like, is there a point where people stop doing so many mics and things like that or or, you know...

Creighton Bayer 00:39:41 (link to this point)

There is. Thank you so much. There is a trade off, I think, for when you overexpose yourself and you get oversaturated with it to the point where you're doing too many mics. I used to be a five mic, you know, a five mic a week kinda guy. And after six months of doing that, that's all I was doing.

So I was so excited. So I was talking to you. I wasn't really doing, you know, anything. Hang on one sec. My commuter brother is an eleventh series and he's activated.

So he's... Oh, shit. Optics here. He's sleeping. He's calling me a few times.

No. It's it's... Got a great environment the next two years. I'll do the cover. The thing about it is that there's a trade off between getting it to the point of where you enjoy it, then the phone number becomes kinda like a chore doing it.

I feel like some of the best mics I've had have been in a room with six, seven people. I know I really heard a joke, but I'm able to just get what I need to get out of my system, work the jokes where I wanna work them. Recorded sounds is if you're still starting off with this, you don't have to go to a mic to get some humor out of your day. Just carry a notepad and pedal. And something funny happens, you're sitting in traffic, write it down then.

And it could be something very simple. It could be something everybody can laugh at. It's, you know, just an observation based off of. What I love doing is I would mention, you know, driving to a show, especially playing in the fact that, you know, I've been in traffic to the point where I can be five minutes just starting off. It's the stuff that I've written down in traffic while I'm on my way to the show right now, dressed by sat because, you know, you have you have to take you have to take with with the day.

First, don't wanna... You don't want to come to the point of where it's expected to see. Stay at the spot. People are gonna see. I can tell you that first experience three times though.

But it is different when you're not excited about, for example, I think you're a fan of companies, but you're you're still you're still doing this. However, you're pretty much pretty sure you get excited for the improv show, you're still excited to go whoever it is. You don't wanna lose that. You know what I'm saying? Right.

You know, working in professional comic, I'm seeing that if there were certain degrees that I got from, I was like, oh, we got this guy going. Oh, that's great. Well, in fact, you work here in a comic club, you got a, you know, national park screening coming through. Even though, you know, numbers may not be what you want them to be. You're still making money.

There's still a lot of people still out there in comedy. Enjoy yourself. Yeah. Maybe I'm more grateful about being become, you know. I think that's what it's made for that community, it's unexpected.

People that host the micro coach show, hey, I'm gonna be there, man. I wanna go up here at number five, number six. And undercut the whole reason why we do this in the first place. You don't wanna get to that point. You wanna you wanna get to the point of where you have your friends, you have your mics, you have your beers, you have your late night food runs, You know, pasta tasting, know, late night hot runs, whatever the space may be.

And you enjoy it. You get to this one where, you know, I'm still very close to Danny John and Ryan Scott based on the fact that there was, like, a six month period in that run where we were all just doing mics and coffee pots with the. That's the thing. Is... You got a bunch of good people that you want with which comedians are, you know, not the best looking social community, but Cool, man.

I...

Chris Albert 00:43:52 (link to this point)

Man, I I I really appreciate you coming on here. I appreciate all the advice you've given me. And, yeah, I think it's it's exciting being new in this, and and I'm excited for anybody out there who's... Who wants to try it out. For for everybody at home, could you just run through, you know, your...

You... How they can follow you, get in touch with you, that kind of stuff?

Creighton Bayer 00:44:17 (link to this point)

Yeah. Hang on a second. This is my kid. It's one of these things that inspired me. I don't really play this iPhone.

I look like I'm coming at you from Android. It's Creighton underscore Bayer on Instagram. Creighton underscore Bayer on Twitter. There's also TikTok things that I have. I'm not for TikTok.

I have got this, but I do have the available platform to reach me. Sorry. I'm really talking to you. Feel the same way with I do Fireball though. Another joke just for the audience.

Yeah. And take me there on Please feel free to give me a call. And reach out to me if you guys have any more questions as far as comedy, my ties, or the topic about yourself or your concerns. I'm always here available to help. Outstanding.

I had a lot of fun by this. Is this this time. Especially in the past. I a... I got a third shot of the week.

My schedule is insane. Jeez. We had, like, 80 people this week. New York is killing. I have to say, appreciate the fact that behind this is fake.

Behind me is at face because, like, everyone's coming to bar to, like, you put more sugar on this. No. Why? Because it's... Otherwise, getting diabetic at this point in time.

Like, there's there's three out of your simple syrup in there. You don't need me. Alright. I think I need some... There you go.

There you go. There you go. There But I appreciate the hours, though. It's a lot of fun. Awesome, man.

Chris Albert 00:45:52 (link to this point)

Awesome. Well, thank you so much, man. I'll let you get back to enjoying your your happy hour there. And to everybody else out there, like I said, I I hope that if you guys are considering this, you do try it out. And I'll put all the links up to find in Creighton on the show notes for this episode.

Get out there and live your best lives while you can. This is Chris and Creighton. We are out.

Creighton Bayer 00:46:16 (link to this point)

Bye, guys.