Yeah.

All right.

Good.

Great question.

And for us, and I guess my family, my wife and I, and our little boy, it started with us.

We spent six months of our life in the Ronald McDonald House.

We lived there for six months while our son was being treated and before we could bring him home when he was born.

thing year-round, but what does it kind of look like on the ground?

Only by terms of maturity.

Yeah, we are very immature.

But yeah, I mean, those in attendance, you had people there who were you know genuinely just kind of interested in the subject and wanting to see what the you know creators of the musical did with the subject and yeah in a way it's kind of like uh you know Sondheim had uh assassins right and it's like how is an artist going to treat right so it's like how is an artist going to treat you know depicting murderers or attempted or attempted murderers so uh So there's the challenge there of like, oh, is this going to be good? I want to go see it.

And then you had people who...

I had a number of people who I interviewed who said, I don't agree with the murder, but the health industry is just so evil and corrupt.

So there was a lot of those people waning.

Are there even fence sitters? I don't know.

Sorry about it.

Lou, are you paying attention to this at all? What's your take?

I guess I'm paying attention to it in that I keep seeing all of these women dressed in pink who are getting together in solidarity with Lindsay Clancy and It's a thing where I think the more details that I learn about the case or specifically what she did to her children, the harder it is for me to, I think, be unbiased.

It is truly gruesome what she did.

And it seems like...

A lot of the commentary, at least in her favor, seems to not want to talk about that.

And I think there was actually a interview, kind of a post-trial interview with some of the women on the jury saying that I guess the guy who was holding out or kept bringing up, what she did to the kids as if, well, that's why you're here.

That's exactly why you're here.

I mean, what do you think as the day comes up 25 years later?

Are you seeing something similar there? Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, my book came out a few years ago, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore, on the death and rebirth of comedy.

I think that's the title.

I forget.

It's a long time ago.

But the book is... was very much a one of hope and a positive book and looking at even being in you know in the belly of the beast the eye of the storm of i guess what might be called what woke woke 1.0 um i thought it was a fantastic time for comedians um i think if people spent most of their time getting their comedy from network television uh and you know late night comedy you know you might look around like man this is this is scary like comedy's dead but you know all you needed was some wi-fi and you can be able to you know go out there and find all of these you know independent creators and comedians who were uh able to you know show their stuff and um well what i found was definitely at that time there seemed to be a lot of new sacred cows you know that you know suddenly out of nowhere uh you know they were given this you know You know, you dare not blaspheme against these things.

And I was commending you on the title of it because it's just a great

Are you seeing something similar there? Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, my book came out a few years ago, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore, on the death and rebirth of comedy.

I think that's the title.

I forget.

It's a long time ago.

But the book is... was very much a one of hope and a positive book and looking at even being in, you know, in the belly of the beast, the eye of the storm of, Oh, I guess what might be called what woke woke 1.0. Um, I thought it was a fantastic time for comedians.

And I was commending you on the title of it because it's just a great title.

But just what do you think as far as comedy and speech and freedom making a comeback? What's your take?

Yeah, I think the last three or so years have been really positive when it comes to that.

You know, like you mentioned, we've seen, you know, a dust up here and there, probably most recently with the roast of Kevin Hart.

There were a number of people who were offended by the I guess the George Floyd jokes and the the race jokes that were made.

Yeah.

And something that I found, there was a guy who was pointing out one of the jokes that was made about Kevin Hart that he was so offended by.

And I think it was something like Kevin Hart's ancestors came over on a ship in a bottle.

What have you learned about that process? Is it just wildly unpredictable or what's What are people hungry for these days from a comedic sketch point of view?

[laughs]

Um, I thought, I thought it was like, wow, you're deciding to do this, uh, at a celebration of the 250 years of our country at the White House.

Um, so I think there was, uh, y- one of the issues was was like, uh, I wouldn't have done that there.

I think that was, uh, kinda retarded.

Another thing, uh, that, that got me was it's kinda hack, you know? When people were talking about, you know, comedy, uh, it's a, it's a hacky thing to say.

I think Joan Rivers said it best, uh, when she did it, uh, but Joan Rivers has been dead for 12 years.

So just to put into perspective how long this has been, um, you know, this has been, [laughs] this has been a thing.

[laughs]

in the liberty movement, so.

[laughs] And it was an interview for, for Reason, and I think it was like a 10-minute video where, you know, Johan just debunked everything that, that, uh, the Shock Doctrine was built on.

And I'm like, "Oh, that's...

Okay, so that's bullshit.

All right.

Let me, you know, go down this, this route." And that brought me down sort of the Reason mount- um, uh, route, so Reason Magazine had a, had a big impact on that.

And while that was happening, I was also, uh, a fan of, uh, Penn and Teller's Bullshit.

Mm-hmm.