0:02

This is a HeadGum Podcast. What's

0:08

up, shitheads? Welcome

0:13

back to another episode of High

0:15

and Mighty. It's me, your boy,

0:17

the number one fuckboy, Johnny G,

0:20

from the South Shore of Nassau

0:22

County, Long Island, standing 6'2", 299

0:24

pounds, from the South Shore of

0:27

Nassau County, Long Island,

0:32

John Gabrus. All you got

0:35

to do is trust me. Jackson Maine,

0:37

what are you doing here? Abortion is

0:39

healthcare. Holy shit. Topical

0:41

message, not a topical actor. Thank you very much

0:44

for coming in. Also joining me tonight, is

0:46

my nearly silent co-host, Arthur Gabrus. Arthur,

0:49

give him a shout out. Arthur in

0:51

the living room. Arthur also nearly fully

0:53

deaf, so he does not hear his

0:56

name being shouted multiple times. If

0:58

anyone's listening for the first time, Arthur

1:00

is a dog, not my actual co-host

1:02

or sibling, so don't you worry.

1:05

Also joining me in the High

1:07

and Mighty Studios, first time guest,

1:09

long time friend, we got Joey

1:11

Clifta. How's it going, everybody?

1:14

Every time you do this intro, I'm always so worried you're just

1:16

going to scream your throat out. I

1:18

can't believe I haven't. I'm going to knock on wood when

1:21

I say this, but the amount of

1:23

times I've lost my voice in life is like

1:25

one, considering I am not professionally

1:28

trained and I'm always talking and

1:30

yelling. And smoking. I

1:33

got to say, we're recording this over Zoom, so

1:35

you can't see this, but a little bit of

1:37

blood is dripping down Gabrus' lip right now. He

1:39

for sure is ruptured. Yeah, I know. Something

1:42

is definitely wrong too. My teeth fell out

1:44

when I was screaming at that point. But

1:46

I don't think that's about volume. It's

1:48

about malnutrition. Joey,

1:52

what's up, man? Long time no see. We

1:55

haven't gotten on the pod since the

1:57

Gina Lombardo days when you ... We

2:00

did some characters over there on the Gino Lombardo

2:02

show back in the day. Oh,

2:04

yeah. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, that

2:06

was that was good times. I feel like that was

2:08

like deep pandemic when it was just like we kind

2:10

of forgot how to do comedy like with other people.

2:13

Yeah, it's weird how like how

2:15

normal Zoom is now for me

2:18

considering I'm

2:20

like, we're gonna do this whole show over

2:22

Zoom. Holy shit. Now they're like TV shows

2:24

somehow being shot over Zoom. And I'm like,

2:27

okay, my podcast was not as difficult

2:29

as I thought. Like at the time, I was like,

2:31

how do we even do this? And now it's like,

2:34

why even bother getting in person? Oh,

2:36

yeah, I'm wearing Zubas right now. I'm very

2:38

comfortable. It's like, I feel like it's, it's

2:41

a mix. It's like nice to do it in person, because

2:43

you can kind of like bounce off each other's energy a

2:45

little bit better. But it's also just like, yo,

2:48

I took a nap five minutes ago, like I will go

2:50

from a nap five minutes ago. I'm very much like, relaxed.

2:53

Well, just

2:55

from home is chill. Like,

2:57

also, like if you don't can, like if you're not making

2:59

enough money to afford a studio, it's like, I don't

3:02

need to have people in my house. They don't

3:04

want to necessarily be in my house. Like for

3:06

the longest time I recorded in here and it's

3:08

like, Phil Rosenthal had to sit

3:10

in my like tiny little fucking office

3:12

and like, on my couch that I

3:14

play video games on and be like,

3:16

thanks for coming by. What's your favorite

3:18

lunch? You know, it's like, this,

3:21

this feels a little better. People are

3:23

frequently more comfortable in, in their homes,

3:25

too. And if someone's

3:28

running late or someone cancels, like, this

3:30

is where it really flourishes in the

3:32

flakiness of LA where you're like, if

3:35

I texted you at 230 and said, shit,

3:37

sorry, man, something came up, that

3:39

would not undo your day. Like if

3:42

you were already in your car. Yeah, you

3:44

lived in Santa Monica or something. Exactly. Exactly.

3:46

And when someone cancels up, when someone's like,

3:48

I can't make it anymore. I'm like, great.

3:50

Okay. I'm in the place. I'll have a

3:52

second lunch. I'm

3:55

on that Hobbit diet. Yeah. I

3:57

think it's so funny. This just reminds me of like, I feel like early

3:59

days. of podcasting where you'd have

4:01

to sit in some comedy guy's trash

4:04

living room where he's got a

4:06

Zoom recorder sitting on a

4:08

cup, just a glass of Miller Lite

4:11

that has clearly not been touched or

4:13

cleaned out in two weeks. Yeah, as

4:15

a guy who coached improv and taught,

4:17

coached improv groups for a long time,

4:19

got to see a lot of apartment

4:22

living rooms, where it's like,

4:25

hey, I have the biggest apartment

4:27

out of the six of us, or I have the least

4:29

roommates, or I have the most

4:31

centrally located place. So

4:34

it's weirdly something that

4:36

never really happened in my New York times because we

4:38

always be like, no one had the space. So we'd

4:40

always just get space. Then moving

4:42

here, you spend a lot of time

4:44

inside other people's apartments. And that's always,

4:47

especially if you are in a 20

4:49

something or a 30 something struggling comic, you're

4:51

not like, ah, yes, my

4:53

improv room. No, it's like. Yeah.

4:56

Or it's the thing where you get into somebody's

4:58

apartment and they do have roommates and the person's

5:00

just like, the group game's got to be real

5:02

quiet. My roommate works in the morning. Right, right.

5:08

But instead of doing zip, zap, zap, zaps, can

5:10

we just do zip, zap, just like the third

5:12

one? The zap is super loud. Yeah. My

5:15

roommate's boss hates the zap. We gotta do

5:17

some stuff. That's what I really

5:19

miss is doing improv and you're doing just

5:21

silly make them ups. And then

5:23

somebody's roommate who you didn't know live there walks in

5:25

just in their pajamas and they walk through the room

5:27

to go to the kitchen and you're just like, you

5:30

just don't think pretending to be a cop afforded too

5:32

much. Well that's what's

5:34

really, like coaching improv is

5:36

one of those worlds I love where it's

5:38

like, it's

5:41

as low stakes and as low

5:43

status as it gets. But

5:45

by design of the framework, the

5:48

coach has slight status. Yeah, you're

5:50

the teacher, yeah. You're the teacher,

5:52

you're a veteran, maybe the team

5:54

has seen you perform a bunch,

5:56

you're kind of vouched for by the...

6:00

like by the community. It's like, oh, Gabriel, he's

6:02

a real impirite. He's coaching our team. Oh, cool,

6:04

that's really good news. And then it's like, I'm

6:06

sort of in the high status. And then like

6:09

a 22 year old with like their

6:11

clothes and a plastic bag come

6:13

in the front door to their own place. And

6:17

in any other interaction, I might have high status on

6:19

them. In this moment, it is, I am

6:21

so sorry I'm here with these, for like,

6:23

you are immediately like, oh, what am I,

6:26

I'm in your house I'm realizing, and I'm

6:28

getting paid my $20 an hour to be

6:30

here. And you're like, what

6:32

the fuck is going on? She's like, I'm sorry, I told

6:34

you Sunday mornings is when we do it. Oh,

6:36

Christ, okay. She's like, oh, I'm sorry, you know, I

6:38

can come back. We can just bill me for an

6:40

hour, it's fine. Honestly, we should

6:42

all just quit improv now. Let's just go home and

6:45

start writing. Yeah, we could all

6:47

be doctors. That's like what I say all the time

6:49

whenever I was like coaching sketch groups, is just like,

6:51

yo, we could just be doctors. Like we don't have

6:53

to do this. Well, the amount of

6:56

time when you like, do like the 10,000 hours thing

6:58

where you're like, man, seven years

7:00

of medical school to be a doctor,

7:02

that seems insane. Now I'm like, I've

7:05

done improv now for like 19 straight years

7:07

and I am not making anywhere

7:10

near what a doctor. You probably spent

7:12

more money than you would going to

7:14

medical school on like improv coaches, like

7:16

renting spaces, buying like beer for indie

7:18

shows to give to the audience. Yeah,

7:22

and none of that is, I can't get a loan for that,

7:24

which I guess is good, because I can, I

7:27

just did not have money. I blew

7:29

all my money at IO West. You're

7:33

explaining that to your loan officer, that's why they're taking

7:35

your car away. You're

7:37

like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I had to take

7:40

a character workshop multiple times. I'm fucking toast.

7:44

That's why, so when

7:46

you were talking about

7:48

coming on the pod, you were throwing out some ideas

7:50

of stuff to talk about, which is kind of like

7:53

the normal buildup to do in the show, but

7:55

you had also tweeted something

7:57

like, I just RDL'd. More

8:00

than you know, I just like P PR

8:02

my RDL some variation of I just did an

8:04

RDL heavier or a stiff leg a dev Like

8:07

whatever you want to call it as then I

8:09

have ever done before and I'm like, oh

8:11

shit Cliff is in the gym. And then when

8:14

you sent the email of like I could talk

8:16

fitness stuff that I was like bing Yeah, let's

8:18

go. Let's talk about lifting weights Cuz you as

8:21

if I'm profiling you as someone who's knows

8:23

you and knows what you look I can

8:25

as met you in person I wouldn't go

8:27

there's a guy I know who lifts weights

8:30

Off the rip, you know what I mean? So that's

8:32

why it's fun to hear Especially

8:34

like, you know, you're not a college kid

8:37

So hearing when someone gets into it that

8:39

appeals to me so much so I'm so

8:41

cuz it's something in my life

8:43

being from Long Island and Growing

8:46

up watching Arnold and sly and

8:48

Van Dam that the

8:50

gym was a huge The gym was like

8:52

a big part of my community like people

8:55

joined a gym in high school Even though

8:57

your high school has a gym. You don't

8:59

join golds or powerhouse cool

9:01

and the older kids did as well and

9:05

So it's funny like it's not funny, but it's I'm always

9:07

curious that I want to hear people's perspective that come at

9:09

it later So talk to me a little bit about your

9:11

history with lifting weights what what inspired you

9:13

etc. Etc. Yeah,

9:16

that's right. I do have a weightlifting

9:18

catchphrase and that catchphrase is Joey cliffs

9:20

got a Joey live Yeah Put

9:23

in the lift and cliff over here

9:25

Yeah, I say that quietly to myself in my

9:28

gym and I hope nobody hears me But it

9:30

makes me feel real cool. I write it down

9:32

on a sheet of paper burn it and then

9:34

go into the gym Yeah,

9:39

so I would say that my yeah, so

9:41

the the the tweet was I Last

9:45

week did an RDL lift over

9:48

my body weight for the first time like heavier than what

9:50

my body weight is And right when

9:52

I was about to lift up these weights I

9:55

worked out in this this really small gym that's

9:57

owned by this like professional bodybuilder guy the

10:00

bodybuilder just kind of said to another

10:02

bodybuilder like, whoa, look at what that

10:04

little guy's doing. And they just like

10:06

smiled as they watched me through the

10:08

audio lift. And it's

10:11

like, they weren't saying it loud enough for

10:13

me to hear, but just hearing that was just like, oh,

10:15

this is the coolest I've ever felt in my life. Well,

10:18

that's something that a whole other topic to

10:20

get on is that there is like this,

10:23

for novices, there's this like

10:25

intimidation factor of like, well,

10:27

I don't want to go in there and look like

10:29

I don't know what I'm doing or anything like that.

10:31

Or, but if you, if you've been coached enough to

10:33

not hurt yourself, there

10:36

are not many more supportive people than

10:38

other people in the gym, like gym

10:40

bros, I know, on paper sound like,

10:43

I mean, anything that is modified

10:46

with the word bro sounds shitty, movie

10:48

bros, comic book bros, like they all

10:50

sound like nightmares, frat bros,

10:52

but gym bros, it's

10:55

the, the exception is the

10:57

prick. Most people want like, they

10:59

know, exist. But like, you're right.

11:01

For the most part, like, I

11:03

feel like whenever I'm at

11:06

the gym, people are always so

11:08

like supportive and nice. And, you

11:10

know, if ever anybody gives me some advice

11:12

on something, it's never coming from like a

11:14

malicious or like show offy place. Yeah, like,

11:16

I remember I some kind of

11:19

my history with like weightlifting and stuff is that

11:22

I'm a very string

11:24

bean of a man, I like to think that

11:26

my body's basically made out of like dried spaghetti.

11:28

And you are a tall, thin gentleman.

11:31

Your voice, your voice does not say

11:34

what you actually what you're afraid you have. Listen,

11:36

I'm trying to catch up. I want my body

11:38

to be that I want when I get on

11:40

the phone. You must

11:42

be Joey Cliff. Oh, Brock Lesnar,

11:44

Joey Cliff. Got it. Same, same

11:47

body type. It's Joseph now. Yeah,

11:50

there is gonna be a certain point when like when it's

11:52

tough for me to like, when it's tough for

11:55

me to touch my back and like, because my muscles are so

11:57

big, that's when I would be like, I call me Joe. Yeah.

14:00

right all day. And I remember there

14:02

was like one time when I like woke

14:04

up and like was in bed

14:06

and I was just like stretching as you do

14:08

in bed and like something in my knee popped.

14:11

And then I like walked with a limp for like probably

14:14

a week after that and I was like I like

14:16

hurt myself literally stretching in bed.

14:18

I should like do something. Then I like got

14:20

really hard into yoga for like probably about a

14:22

year did it like you know, six times a

14:24

week or whatever. And then you know you just

14:26

get busy, you start a job, or you like

14:28

start working on a new show or you just

14:30

get into something else and you stop. So

14:32

I kind of go through this like period of you

14:34

know getting really into fitness because of like

14:36

injuring myself for like some really dumb reason

14:38

like while sitting in a chair or something.

14:41

And I'm like oh I gotta like turn

14:43

this around so I don't like you know

14:45

break my leg while I'm literally in the

14:47

shower. This is probably a really common path,

14:50

common narrative for a lot of people in

14:53

the world of like yeah you know

14:55

I used to be in pretty good shape then I got to be

14:57

in my late 20s where you can't just live off of you

15:00

know. And so you're like I got into jogging and then I

15:02

would jog a few days a week for a couple years and

15:04

that was working then I fell out of that but then

15:06

I got my knee started and like. So I was

15:08

like oh I should get back to jogging yeah yeah.

15:10

And you have and you have another thing

15:13

that I think is common for a lot of people

15:15

too is that you don't have weight issues. So

15:18

like if you if you're not considering a

15:20

person some people who are you know overweight

15:22

their whole lives have always it's always been

15:24

a struggle. But for a long

15:26

time there was no like well like

15:30

my mom would say to you well what do

15:32

you have to exercise and my mom's a nurse

15:34

what do you have to exercise for Joey yeah

15:36

yeah you lean you know and it's like you

15:39

learn eventually like that that can fly

15:42

you for a while whereas like oh yeah

15:44

I knew I had to get on the

15:46

treadmill because people would comment about my weight.

15:48

But if you're not physically overweight you're like

15:51

oh what why exercise then then you start

15:53

to stumble into these things of like your

15:55

knee popping in bed or your back hurting

15:57

or you going like you know I. sleep

16:00

better when I exercise or whatever it

16:02

might be. You find these things because

16:04

most people's motivation is like, I don't

16:06

want to look fat or

16:08

I want to look a certain way. But if

16:11

you already look good, that's not going to be

16:13

the thing that gets you off the couch. But

16:15

yeah, 100%. For me, a lot of what this recent getting related

16:18

to fitness thing is, over

16:22

the past couple of years, I've started to

16:24

just get flown out for shows and panels

16:26

and talks. And I'm traveling for comedy a

16:28

little bit more. And whenever I travel,

16:31

I'm always just like, all

16:33

bets are off as far as where I'm going to eat. I'm going to go

16:35

to the nicest restaurant in the city. I'm

16:37

going to go nuts. I remember

16:39

I was a Native

16:41

American. My tribe has a really nice casino

16:43

that's about 20 minutes north of Portland. And

16:45

we have this steakhouse owned by Michael Jordan called

16:47

Michael Jordan Steakhouse. And I remember I was there

16:50

and I got a filet mignon. And

16:56

they had some fondue cheese dip that they

16:58

had with the bread. And I told them,

17:01

you'll leave the fondue dip. And I dipped

17:03

filet mignon in this fondue dip, which was

17:05

great. But it also

17:07

kind of doing that so many times

17:10

when you're working a job where they're giving you a per

17:12

diem or whatever for food, so you can spend it on

17:14

whatever. I'm

17:16

somebody that wears really tailored

17:19

button-up shirts. So it's because I'm a thin guy, I

17:21

like to wear stuff that's a little bit more

17:23

form-fitting. And it just hit the point where it's like

17:26

the belly on the shirts was just like, really, really

17:28

those bottom cut, those bottom

17:30

few buttons were really just stretching

17:32

and stressing themselves out. So I was like,

17:34

I need to start working

17:36

out just so I can fit

17:38

into my button-up shirts

17:41

again. And also not

17:43

turn down fondue dipped

17:45

filet mignon. Which is fantastic. Hey,

17:47

you're preaching to the choir here.

17:49

Yeah, it was great. But it's

17:51

also like, I can't do that,

17:53

like for two meals a day

17:55

when I'm traveling. Right. And

17:57

so, and so that was kind of the idea for me. probably

18:00

the past year or two of like, oh, I should really like, you

18:02

know, it's not like losing weights, not necessarily a thing, but just like,

18:04

you know, lose a little bit of fat off my belly. And

18:07

then the really big push for

18:09

me is that a friend of mine

18:11

reached out in January of this year, basically

18:13

asking if I wanted to wrestle my first

18:15

ever pro wrestling match on one

18:18

of the big indie shows that was happening around WrestleMania

18:20

in Los Angeles. And yeah, yeah,

18:22

yeah. And I'm like lifelong pro wrestling fan.

18:24

And like, you know, it was me, like

18:26

our mutual friend Matt Mazzani and another friend

18:28

Nick Liger, wrestling a bunch of like real

18:30

wrestlers who like wrestle on TV, they wrestle

18:32

for AEW in this match. And

18:35

like, you know, as a dream come true opportunity, but

18:37

I was also like, Oh,

18:39

I don't want what's funny about this to

18:41

be like, Oh, that guy looks really breakable.

18:43

Like, it's like, like, I

18:45

didn't want to walk into the shirtless and

18:47

have people be like, Oh, no, you know,

18:50

please don't hurt him. Yeah, yeah. Just like,

18:52

Oh, you so such a little guy. So

18:54

I, you know, so I found a

18:56

personal trainer and started working with a personal trainer,

18:58

like three times a week starting in January. Smart

19:00

way to do and yeah, yeah. And he's like,

19:02

he's really good. His name is Brian. He's a

19:04

really dope personal trainer. And basically,

19:06

he takes me through like strength conditioning. And he set me

19:08

up with like macros and like different kind

19:10

of things that I'm supposed to follow as far as like the

19:13

amount of cardio I'm supposed to do a week, the amount of

19:15

steps I'm supposed to get. And I feel like

19:17

since then, I've basically been on this, like,

19:19

struggle to try to make fitness, not

19:22

my entire personality. And I am losing

19:24

that struggle so badly. Well,

19:26

that is, I mean, that's part of like the

19:28

kind of personality types of like, because I'm like

19:31

that too. When I'm in the zone, that's like

19:33

what I want to like, I'm like my cat,

19:35

my iCal has like, lift, sauna,

19:37

run, swim, like, like, and all of a

19:39

sudden, I'm like, Yeah, now I'm cooking with,

19:41

cooking with gas. And I mean, I'm into

19:44

it. It that is, that

19:46

is a drawback. And, but

19:49

that that goes again, back to the

19:51

earlier conversation of how like, Jim bros

19:53

can be really supportive. It is because

19:55

everyone kind of gets obsessed, and

19:58

to live vicariously through other. people,

20:00

especially novices, because you get the novice

20:02

bump of like, things come

20:05

fast, you know, like, if you are if

20:07

you're completely new to weightlifting,

20:09

and you take the bar and start

20:12

benching, you start benching 45,

20:14

just the bar on Monday, and

20:16

then the next Monday you come back and do 50. Next

20:19

Monday you come back and do 55, you

20:21

will in one year be up to 200

20:23

pounds, you know, yeah, and it's like that

20:25

is just something that can happen. And

20:28

if you're already at 200 pounds, and you've been

20:30

lifting for a while, there's a lot more that

20:33

goes into so there's a little bit of that

20:35

excitement. And then also because it's fully your

20:37

there's only so much you could do. So if someone's

20:39

like, Hey, man, I mean, for the longest

20:41

time, I was coming up with friends programs for them.

20:43

And I have no experience except Wow,

20:46

that's all years of listing, reading.

20:48

Oh, I didn't know you were like that hardcore to fitness.

20:50

That's dope. I want I mean, I guess I that's

20:52

the thing. I'm like, I'm like a mechanic whose

20:54

car is a piece of shit or like a

20:57

landscaper who has weeds all over their lawn. I'm

20:59

a fat bastard. But I'm a huge fan of

21:01

like lifting weights and fit. I've been like, quote

21:04

unquote studying it since I was like 14. So

21:06

I got my first muscle and fitness magazine. Hello.

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VPN. So

22:45

it's cool. And so you've tried, you

22:47

said you tried yoga. What

22:50

drew you to lifting weights this time? I guess if

22:53

you want to get into professional

22:55

wrestling, the performance

22:59

sport art that is wrestling,

23:03

lifting weight, that's where I

23:05

came, growing up watching that, I

23:07

wanted to be Hulk and Macho Man and

23:09

Goldberg and all these people and the Rocks.

23:12

And so is that what drove you towards

23:14

lifting weights for your fitness

23:17

goal or because of your

23:19

frame and you were like, it would be nice to

23:21

have muscle because you could probably just go

23:23

for a couple of jogs and stretch too and

23:25

that would be good for you. But what made

23:28

you choose lifting weights, which I'm fully in support

23:30

of and I think everyone should do

23:32

resistance training of some sort. But

23:35

yeah, what drove you there? Well, it's dope

23:37

to like what you're talking about a second

23:39

ago about like just supportive like fitness environments.

23:42

There is something that's just like I remember when

23:44

I was starting, we do like we do a split. So we do

23:46

like leg day and then a push day and a pull day. So

23:48

it's like one day is just lower body than one

23:50

day is like just chest and other days just back basically.

23:53

And I remember like pretty early on,

23:56

I found out that like my lower body is really

23:58

strong. So I like maxed out. the leg

24:00

press to the point where it's like they

24:02

couldn't put more weights on it. It's just

24:04

like so awesome seeing like an entire gym

24:07

being like, whoa, look at that guy's leg

24:09

press, you know. Yeah, especially as somebody who's

24:11

just not like used to getting kind of

24:13

that kind of feedback. Well,

24:15

you get into like, I

24:18

don't know what your history with athletics is. Did

24:20

you play any like organized team sports in school

24:22

and stuff like that? No, man. I played video

24:24

games, watch pro wrestling. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I

24:26

was could have guessed that. I just as a

24:30

proper hoe. No, I couldn't know. There's like

24:32

there's a world where like there's a world where

24:34

I'm like a crazy track athlete or something. Yeah,

24:36

exactly. Yeah, I was a Washington State high jump

24:38

champion. But I

24:41

think for a lot of

24:43

people and I think that's why CrossFit popped off

24:45

in the cities because

24:48

a lot of those people who

24:50

missed that kind of team,

24:53

that kind of like push yourself

24:55

energy that comes from practice, not

24:57

just the gym. I think

24:59

and I think for some people who didn't have

25:01

that, the gym can provide

25:03

that training can provide that of like

25:06

someone going like, hey, you're actually getting

25:08

better at military press. You

25:10

can feel that six

25:13

months ago, you were doing 20s

25:16

on inclined bench press. Now you're doing

25:18

35s. You are mathematically,

25:21

biologically stronger than you were. And

25:24

like, I think

25:26

also I'm gonna throw out a bunch of

25:28

psychological shit at once here. I think also

25:30

in our industry, there is

25:32

sort of no like feedback,

25:36

like true feedback loop because you could be

25:38

like, everyone says I'm funny, but that doesn't

25:40

translate to actual career success.

25:43

You could be super successful financially.

25:45

And a lot of people might

25:47

not think you are funny or

25:49

like there's no true but

25:52

with like the iron as the kids say,

25:54

if you were benching

25:56

100 pounds last year, and now you're benching

25:58

140. you are

26:01

objectively stranded. I'm

26:30

like, oh holy shit, the people I notice

26:32

are like, yes, it's just like, yeah,

26:35

and it's like, I'm not like jacked, but it's

26:37

like, it is just a, it's like

26:39

a feedback. It's like a type of feedback that I

26:42

feel like just a lot of, you

26:44

know, just like a better term, just like a lot

26:46

of dudes, we don't get like compliments, you know? Right.

26:48

Well, also, and move

26:50

the exterior feedback, the interior feedback of

26:52

like, when you like, look at yourself

26:55

in the mirror and you're like, is

26:57

that, do I have like a trap? Yeah, no, no,

26:59

yeah, totally, totally. Yeah, no, a hundred percent. Yeah. And

27:01

it's like, it's like, you know, I'm not like, I'm

27:03

not like Camille non Gianni jacked or whatever, but it's

27:05

like, there are sometimes where I'm like shaving and I'll

27:07

like look in the mirror and I'll be like, oh,

27:09

is that like a back muscle? Well, you know, like,

27:11

or it's just like, oh, it feels like, it feels

27:13

like my, my fucking great, right? Like that. Or it's

27:15

just like, oh, my shirts are like a little bit

27:17

tighter on the chest. Do I have like pecs now?

27:20

And then it starts to explain to you why you

27:22

know, like jacked people walk a certain way. Cause all

27:24

of a sudden you find yourself being like, oh

27:27

yeah, my upper back is like a little sore

27:29

from working out. And when I go, shoulders look

27:31

good. And then you find yourself kind of like

27:33

walking like that. And you're like, oh, and then

27:35

you understand why like you'll see dudes who have

27:38

like, Oh, I definitely walk out with my arms

27:40

just completely at my sides at all times. It

27:43

feels, it feels really

27:45

good to be a little sore.

27:48

And then there's also like deep down

27:50

inside, there's something that feels a little good

27:52

about being like a

27:54

famous strength coach Mark Rippet. Oh, he

27:57

always said stronger people, strong people.

28:00

are harder to kill and more

28:03

useful in general. And

28:05

it's hard to argue. I

28:08

don't disagree. I mean, look, people are trying to kill

28:10

me all the time and it's getting a little tougher

28:12

for them this year. Yeah,

28:14

but no, it's just like little dumb stuff where

28:16

it's just like if my girlfriend wants me to

28:18

like open like a jar or something, it's like

28:20

it used to be something where I would like

28:22

have to get like a towel and like really

28:24

try my best on it and like get a

28:27

knife and try to pry it free and now

28:29

I can just do a brute strength baby. See,

28:31

that's yeah and like shit like that too where

28:33

you're like, oh now I'm carrying

28:35

something up a flight of stairs and it's

28:37

absolutely killing me. And more

28:39

importantly, I'm not getting injured throwing

28:42

something in the overhead compartment on my

28:44

trip up to Washington, you know, like

28:47

those moments that you realize you're like,

28:49

like my dad was a crazy fitness, not

28:52

like interlifting weights in martial arts and he

28:54

when he was dealing with brain cancer

28:57

before he passed away, doctors

28:59

were like, this would be so

29:01

much worse on someone who wasn't in shape.

29:04

Yeah. And, and you hear that enough

29:06

from people that you're like, here's

29:09

an example of something I read recently

29:11

in Dr. Pita Atiyah's book called Outlast

29:13

or Outlive or something like that. It's

29:15

kind of like the science and behind

29:17

fitness and longevity. And just something he

29:20

said was like, if that,

29:22

if you can imagine it 70 years old, you

29:24

have or I'm going to make up all the numbers

29:26

here because I can't remember the numbers, but the spirit

29:28

of the conversation will be the same. If

29:31

you if at 70, you have

29:33

half the capacity you had at

29:35

40, like say you could walk

29:37

two miles easily at 40, you could

29:39

probably only walk one mile at 70. But

29:43

if you could walk 10 miles at 40, you

29:45

can walk five miles at 70. And like that,

29:48

that like he's like, you're gonna fall

29:50

off no matter what. But wouldn't you

29:53

like to fall off from higher up?

29:55

And I'm like, Oh, that like that hit

29:57

me in a way I've never ever

30:00

I've always looked at it from what

30:03

I'm physically capable of. I'd

30:05

love to get stronger so I'm better on the rugby

30:07

pitch. And then also elements of like,

30:09

I want to look better. But now

30:12

in my early 40s, it's about I

30:14

want to be around here later and

30:16

more importantly, able to do shit.

30:19

I want to be 68 and be able to walk upstairs. You

30:22

know what I mean? Well, that's honestly, that was a

30:24

huge motivator for me. It's like, you know,

30:26

part of it was just like fitting into my shirt. Part

30:28

of it was like wanting to like look

30:31

at least like a human being in

30:33

this wrestling match, which was nuts. I

30:35

put on like 20 pounds in like two months. Oh,

30:37

yeah. Yeah. How'd it go? We lost. But

30:41

we had a lot of fun. It was great.

30:44

The audience cheered. Our names real loud.

30:46

It was great. That's all that matters. Yeah. A wrestler

30:48

walked up to us afterwards and said, like, I think

30:50

you guys have the match of the night. And I'm

30:52

just like, oh, thank God. Oh, that's so cool. Congrats,

30:54

man. That's pretty awesome. Yeah. So, you know, part of

30:56

it was getting ready for this match. Part of it

30:58

was like wanting to fit into my clothes a little

31:00

bit better. But like part of it was

31:02

also kind of this feeling of like, you know, I'm in

31:04

my in my late 30s and this feeling of like you

31:07

kind of like numbers often thrown around. I'm not sure

31:09

the science of it, but it's like it's a

31:11

lot harder to get in shape once you're like older than 40.

31:13

Like it gets it gets harder once you get into your 40s.

31:17

So I kind of felt like, OK, this feels like sort of my

31:19

last shot to get in. Not like crazy shape. I'm

31:22

not trying to be like Scott Steiner or whatever. But like

31:25

Papa, I mean, look, do I

31:27

want to be like big Papa pump? Yes, I

31:30

was obsessed with big Papa. Do I have do

31:32

I have freaks and peaks? Yes, I do. But

31:34

that is it. And

31:36

again, as previously mentioned, this is just

31:39

an audio podcast, but Joey does have

31:41

a bleach blonde goatee. Yeah, I'm wearing

31:43

a chainmail coy for you. But,

31:47

you know, part of it was like this feeling of

31:49

like, OK, if I want to get in, if I

31:51

want to just be in like athletic shape, this is

31:53

probably like my last shot to like, you know, really do

31:55

that easily. I remember when I was like

31:57

16, I would do like. downturn

34:00

for a month due to some personal shit going on

34:02

in my life and some travel and I'm like

34:05

I feel worse I Physically

34:07

feel worse and I mentally feel worse So

34:10

at minimum even if there's no

34:12

real results visible or whatever if

34:15

you just feel better doing something

34:18

Then that's it's worth the time. You know

34:20

what I mean? It's like just

34:22

the steps just the elliptical just the

34:24

weights any pairing of that like whatever

34:26

for listeners What like you don't

34:29

have to take on that big of a journey, but

34:31

if you're not doing anything Anything

34:33

is better than nothing and so like even

34:35

getting step even getting steps in is like

34:37

good for you Yes That

34:39

is that easiest one to get into and

34:41

then like once you do X amount of

34:44

steps a day for X amount of days

34:46

And then you take then you go four

34:48

days without taking all those steps. You're like,

34:51

oh my brain and body feel Different

34:54

yeah, I needed this. Yeah when that that's something that

34:56

I I end up having to do a lot is

34:58

like if I'm traveling One of the first things I'm

35:00

doing when I'm figuring out like what hotel I'm staying

35:02

at is like what do they got in? Their gym,

35:04

you know if it's if I'm gonna be out for

35:06

a week I'm like texting my trainer and just trying

35:08

to figure out like okay Can you send me a

35:10

workout based on like what little you

35:12

know? They don't know dumbbells. They'll probably dumbbells

35:14

Maybe you know, like probably dumbbells and like

35:16

maybe like a stair climber or something like

35:18

that Yeah, you know, there's also just like

35:20

as far as hitting macros goes. It's like

35:23

I feel like I'm so opinionated about protein

35:25

shakes now It's like I

35:27

have a favorite brand. I know like what the I

35:29

know what? Oh, yeah I mean I

35:32

make my own at home Like I have like

35:34

a scoop of Isopure a scoop

35:36

of collagen and a scoop of fiber that I

35:38

all like like I'm the same way as you

35:40

are I'm like, I like designed my system after

35:42

years. Yeah. Yeah when it's it's so funny to

35:45

me Like now that I'm like really into you

35:47

know macros and working out and stuff like that

35:49

Like there are times where I'll like go to

35:51

a party and then I'll just like, you

35:54

know Say something like, you know somebody like oh you should

35:56

have a brownie. They're really good And I'll be like, ah

35:58

my cheat meal was yesterday. So I'm trying like like follow

36:00

my macros. And then somebody that I don't know will just

36:02

like come out of nowhere and be like, you talking macros?

36:05

And then like, we'll talk at length. They'll like, they'll

36:07

pull out like, you know, if it's their house, they'll

36:09

pull out like their protein powder from their flow cover.

36:11

And they'll be like, no, this brand has got like

36:14

a good ratio of like protein to carbs. And it's

36:16

like, it's just like, for any

36:18

listeners who aren't sure what we're saying when

36:20

we throw around the word macros, this has

36:22

always been a foundational part of bodybuilders

36:25

diets and fitness diets for the

36:27

longest time. But now there's more

36:29

than ever before is their conversations

36:31

about it. And the macros are fat

36:34

protein carbs and how you- Yeah, fat

36:37

protein carbs and calories too. Calorie, yeah,

36:39

yeah. And how, what percentage

36:41

of your calories come from those three

36:43

categories? Some people, you know, everyone has

36:45

different splits, different

36:48

macros, depending on what their goals are, what

36:50

their vibes are, what their, you know, coaches

36:52

say or whatever. You know, some people be

36:54

like, I do 40% fats, 20%, you

36:58

know, like that's what you're saying when, like

37:00

that's the macro nutrients we are referring to. It's

37:03

like what is the makeup of your caloric

37:05

intake each day. When a lot of that

37:07

is based around like how much your, kind

37:10

of what your like your stasis calorie

37:12

intake is. And then, you

37:15

know, if you have more than that, you're bulking,

37:17

so you're gaining weight, because when you gain weight,

37:19

you also gain muscle. And then if you're

37:21

cutting, you do like less macros, you change your

37:23

macros because you're ingesting less nutrients that

37:26

you're eating as a means to, you know,

37:28

like lose a couple pounds. And like right now I'm

37:30

in like a cutting process. So I'm eating

37:32

like way more protein and like way less

37:34

carbs and fat. And it's like,

37:36

it's such a process to like, I feel

37:38

like I probably have like 12 slim gyms

37:40

every day, which is normally not very healthy,

37:42

but it's like, but it's like, but if

37:44

you're trying to get protein without carbs, yeah.

37:47

Yeah, that's where you get that handfuls of

37:49

chicken breasts and shit that is like kind

37:51

of bodybuilders and, Oh yeah. And

37:53

the freaks made made popular for a long time.

37:55

Yeah. I mean, the amount of times that I've

37:57

like sat in my living room and it's like

37:59

11 o'clock. I'm like getting ready for bed and I

38:01

check my like my fitness app to see my macros and

38:03

I'm like Down 10 grams

38:05

of protein better eat a Greek yogurt before

38:07

I can sleep It's

38:09

like I rip this down before I go to

38:11

bed. Yeah, I'm a cautionary tale Do

38:14

not try to become do not do this. I You

38:17

were talking about in a cut cycle. You got to

38:19

keep your protein high just for listeners to help explain

38:22

that that's cuz When you're in

38:24

a caloric deficit, you do run the

38:26

risk of losing muscle mass as you

38:28

lose body weight but the

38:30

increased percentage of protein

38:33

will do its best to like to

38:35

offset that to buff that to Butch

38:38

wrist that however you want to refer to it. Um,

38:40

wait, I gotta I gotta ask what's your okay? What's

38:42

your favorite lift? We're really good. We're really getting into

38:44

this. Okay, my favorite

38:47

lift is probably

38:51

barbell press overhead,

38:53

although Although I'm a

38:55

huge fan of the squat as well I

38:58

I did crossfit I grew up bodybuilding

39:01

go in classic bro splits chest and

39:03

tries back and by Shoulders legs I

39:05

grew up doing that at Gold's gym

39:08

at my college gym in college I

39:10

played sports So I had a little

39:12

bit more of like I

39:14

should run hills for rugby. I should jog more

39:17

So I was doing more stuff like that post college

39:20

kind of classic just early

39:22

20s, New York alcohol alcoholic

39:24

lifestyle Then

39:28

I got into crossfit which got me and

39:30

I've always been a fitness nut So like

39:32

and and very knowledgeable and that was like

39:34

a wide variety of modalities So that was

39:36

very enjoyable for a long time and

39:38

then through my crossfit gym I got into

39:40

like the big lifts and then I got into

39:43

power lifting and I competed in a few

39:45

events on the Doing

39:47

like yeah, I have like gonna I

39:49

think my total was one thousand one hundred and thirty

39:51

four pounds at the York Bell invitational.

39:53

Yeah, I squatted 430. I've squatted

39:58

430 something I deadlifted

40:00

for 20 something and I bench 307 Competition

40:05

bench I will say is very difficult because you

40:07

have to pause on your chest unlike any you

40:09

know Yeah in training. Yeah, we're doing that on

40:11

we're doing that on like bar Dumbbell

40:13

squat or dumbbell press right now. It's like it's like

40:16

I'm pausing at the bottom just yeah More you know

40:18

so I'm not using momentum you lose the rebound effect

40:20

that you get from like your muscles Like

40:23

because you can drop pretty hard into a

40:25

squat and kind of rebound out of the

40:27

bottom if your body is built to handle

40:30

But if you pause at the bottom of a

40:32

squat and you don't you lose all that like

40:34

rebound energy That's very you know

40:36

that's like jumping from a seated position rather

40:38

than jumping after land But

40:41

so my favorite lifts all focus around

40:43

like the big famous barbell ones. I

40:46

the beach although I guess

40:48

my My secret

40:51

answer is if I have to choose something that isn't

40:53

like one of the four foundational lifts with and when

40:55

I say that I mean Squat

40:57

deadlift bench and press yeah the four

40:59

lifts that Jesus did when he was

41:02

on the cross. Yeah, yeah Well,

41:04

you know there's 12 stations of the cross one of them

41:06

is Look

41:15

But I think he could have done more legs you might have been Get

41:18

the mail out But

41:22

I really like shrugs or I guess

41:24

I should say my favorite muscle group

41:26

is traps Like I

41:28

think traps are like the meat

41:32

Neck right. Yeah. Yeah. No party. Yeah well Yeah

41:34

No You could you feel it when like that

41:36

muscle because it like that muscle is I think

41:38

the easiest to have people notice because it Like

41:40

it just makes your shirt like sit a little higher,

41:42

you know, and also Most

41:44

body types no matter how out of shape

41:46

you are. This is a low

41:49

fat area of your body So

41:51

putting any muscle Mass

41:54

in there is noticeable. Like

41:56

if I put muscle on my chest, you might not

41:58

notice it because I have some boobage

42:00

on top of it. Yeah, for sure. And

42:02

if you build up your quads, you might

42:04

not feel it because you have some fat

42:07

around there. But that, this is, your shoulder

42:09

and your traps are sort of, it's lean

42:12

from just the beginning. So

42:14

throwing on some weight. And I always

42:16

consider traps the meathead's beach muscle. Like

42:18

everyone, when you think beach muscles, you

42:21

think abs and bice. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

42:23

Which just makes total sense. Bicep is the classic show me

42:26

your muscle, you show your bicep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But

42:28

if you have big traps, that's what makes

42:30

you look big. You know what I

42:32

mean? Well, no, I don't understand. Like I think chicks, I don't

42:35

know, like, and not to make this heteronormative, but that's only been

42:37

my majority of my experiences

42:39

in romances. I

42:42

said a majority. Yeah, I fucked a

42:44

few guys my day. But like

42:47

me. And all of them did it because you had big

42:49

traps. Yeah, well, traps are not

42:51

necessarily something that I think draws women in,

42:53

but it is something that when you see

42:55

it on another guy, you're like, damn, look

42:57

at this fucking guy's traps. Well, no, like

43:00

that was, I would say, the first kind

43:02

of like muscle that I've, because I'm still like a

43:04

pretty thin guy. I don't like look super jacked, but

43:06

like my traps getting a little bit developed was the first

43:08

thing that I noticed of like, oh, I'm like, I'm in

43:11

the gym, I'm working out. I'm like starting to see some

43:13

progress. Yeah,

43:15

and it feels really fucking good. Like, you know,

43:17

you just do like one set of shrugs and

43:19

all of a sudden you're like, ooh, I'm getting

43:22

that. Like, I'm feeling that up there. Yeah, and

43:24

that, what's

43:26

your favorite lift? So this

43:28

isn't a lift, but I think that my favorite

43:30

exercise is like just like a good pull up.

43:33

Like I'm somebody where when I was, like

43:35

when I was in like high school, for most

43:37

of my life, I was like probably around 120

43:39

pounds. Like I was like a

43:42

very thin guy and like five, 10. So that's a very,

43:44

very like underweight body weight. And then

43:46

now like, you know, my peak weight,

43:49

when I was like doing my pro wrestling match was around like 170. So

43:53

like I could do pull ups pretty easily

43:55

at 120 and now

43:57

they're kind of a struggle. So I have to use like resistance bands

43:59

to kind of help. give me a little bit of a lift. But

44:02

it's like it's such a nice process that

44:04

like every time that we do it like

44:06

I'll lose a band or like the with the band that I

44:08

use will get like a little bit less strong so I need

44:10

like a little bit less help. So I'm not

44:12

totally there to do like unassisted pull ups yet but

44:14

I'm like getting closer every week and

44:16

like that is just such a cool like progressive

44:18

feeling but like you can like literally see that

44:20

like you know I did like a big green

44:23

band which is really thick and now I'm doing like two

44:25

like purple bands which are like a little bit thinner

44:28

and you know it's just you can like track your

44:30

progress and seeing that like oh eventually I'm going to

44:32

be able to do like unassisted pull ups and that's

44:34

going to be really cool you know. Right and pull

44:36

ups are that's interesting you chose that.

44:39

I would say pull ups are one

44:41

of my favorite exercises

44:43

for other people. I have a

44:47

historical issue with pull ups because I

44:49

was a fat kid going to elementary

44:51

school and you're like we're doing

44:53

chin-ups on the bar we're climbing the rope and

44:56

I could just never ever do pull ups

44:58

like that's in my in in my uh

45:00

crossfit days I got to be able to

45:02

do some pull ups and uh a couple

45:04

years ago I was in I got a few

45:06

chin-ups in a row now I'm on a path

45:08

to get those back doing a

45:11

lot of uh accessory work and uh

45:13

the banded work and I

45:15

think funny you

45:17

chose pull ups because yes that's a

45:19

great fucking workout on your pull day

45:21

because it's like your whole upper back

45:24

your your lats your rhomboids your traps

45:26

your biceps your forearms your grip all

45:28

that and and it's

45:30

a skill and like

45:33

we always talk I always talk about this shit with my

45:35

dad growing up he's like if

45:37

you could bench being able to bench 500

45:39

pounds versus being able to do a bunch

45:41

of pull ups in like

45:43

crazy emergencies or life-saving situations

45:46

or life threatening situations pull

45:48

ups will be the thing you wish you had more

45:50

than a 500 pound bench you know what I mean

45:53

I think about that a lot when you watch like

45:55

the rock hanging from the building you're like if this

45:57

dude was 160 and he

45:59

would be much better off. Okay, but

46:01

you're forgetting. What if you got trapped under a

46:03

bar with weights on either side? Shit,

46:05

yeah, that would be, well then hopefully you could

46:07

pull yourself out of it. Oh yeah, fair, fair,

46:09

fair. But yeah, that's like, that's not

46:12

to always bring it back to like what could save your

46:14

life in real life, but pull ups

46:16

feel like something that would be more helpful

46:18

of a skill to have than a super

46:21

high bench press, you know? Right,

46:23

right. Uh, did we just become a

46:25

terrorist sect? Are we going to storm the Capitol now talking

46:27

about as much fitness as we're talking about? No,

46:30

hey, look, I could, you need pull ups to

46:32

fucking climb that wall. Oh yeah, we're sticking. Yeah,

46:35

everybody, everybody's from the Capitol, real good at pull

46:37

ups. And you also think

46:39

that like having a high bench would be good

46:42

for seven back like riot shields and stuff, but

46:44

that's really a leg thing. You want squats and

46:46

lunges and isometrical, isolateral

46:48

leg movements so that you are

46:50

strong with one leg forward, one

46:53

leg back with both legs pushing. You

46:55

want, you want to be able to get,

46:57

and you'll need your posterior chain work, like

46:59

your deadlift work and shit for,

47:01

to help prevent injury from getting

47:03

pushed back. And

47:05

also you probably want to loosen up your anus

47:07

so you're able to shit immediately upon getting into

47:09

Pelosi's office. Yeah, all

47:12

those guys really got

47:14

their shit ripped soon beforehand. All

47:16

those guys were for sure on a

47:18

refeed day. They had a lot of

47:20

carbs beforehand. We're going to need a

47:23

long day of energy, boys. Today's a

47:25

cheat day. We're pushing. God fucking, that's,

47:27

like it's so funny how

47:29

like fitness, like fitness

47:33

is like such a toxic community. So

47:36

many communities and things that I

47:38

love eventually have such

47:40

a toxic streak in them. Like

47:43

I grew up liking lifting

47:45

weights, comic books, Star

47:47

Wars, comedy.

47:52

Now all of those communities are like

47:54

rife and, and I'm

47:56

a man and a heterosexual white man,

47:59

no less. And other

48:02

heterosexual white men are like ruining

48:04

a lot of these communities. Right.

48:07

It is fun. I mean, I

48:10

don't know. It's like the yoga

48:12

community in LA got like real

48:14

anti-vax real fast. Yeah. It

48:17

does feel like you kind of, you know, and ultimately like I've

48:19

had a great experience with this and everybody's super nice in my

48:21

experiences. But it is funny where it's like

48:23

if you get really into fitness, you start to like, I don't

48:26

want to say understand the appeal of Joe Rogan,

48:28

but you start to get like, Oh, I get

48:30

why his why, like I get why some of

48:32

his listeners are maybe like how they are. You

48:35

know, I was I was a long time listener

48:37

of Rogan up until back

48:39

when it was more like this guy is a

48:41

bow hunter of elk. This guy

48:43

is a martial artist. This guy's a

48:45

crazy fitness freak. This guy's a professional

48:47

arm wrestler. Those are the and then in

48:49

like the last, you know,

48:52

10 years or eight years, it's been like, this

48:54

is Jordan Peterson. This guy measures,

48:58

you know, minority skulls or whatever. I'm like, okay, all right.

49:00

This is not my I was here for the meathead stuff.

49:04

And unfortunately, when meatheads get

49:06

full of themselves and think

49:08

they went once you think

49:10

you know as much about life as you

49:13

do about the gym, you're fucking toast. But

49:15

yeah, you've done something a little bit real.

49:18

I'm sorry. I'll just jump on one more thing. You

49:20

said you start to understand the appeal. There

49:22

is an element of when you feel like you

49:24

know what's best for your body, which you only

49:26

learn from. Like now

49:29

I know what's best for everybody's body. But

49:32

specifically, you honed it by years of training and

49:34

years of research and trying this and it didn't

49:36

work for you trying this and it did work

49:38

for you. And so you've got it in your

49:40

head where you're like, I've actually got things kind

49:42

of figured out. Someone's like, she

49:44

take this vaccine. You're like, I'm more of like

49:46

a branch chain amino acids guy. You're like, it's

49:48

just like what's macros on that vaccine? Sorry,

49:51

bro. Yeah. I mean, I guess throw

49:53

it in the smoothie, but I'm not. I

49:56

don't do legumes. Yeah. Just drop

49:58

some of that Moderna into my smoothie. Yeah,

50:01

I've heard someone refer to

50:04

that world as conspiratuality. Yeah,

50:07

it is weird because I think that there is... I

50:10

really like the act of fitness, but it

50:12

does feel like there's this... Sometimes you'll watch

50:15

fitness motivational videos. Those

50:18

often play on the TVs in the gym that

50:20

I work out at. And it's like

50:22

a lot of them are like a Jack Dude

50:24

shirtless in the desert talking about how you don't

50:26

know yourself until you know your weights. And

50:30

it's the sort of thing where it's like,

50:32

okay, I guess that I'm on the level

50:34

of the rabbit hole where I'm just a

50:37

really big fan of protein shakes with high protein

50:39

value or something like that. But it's like, oh,

50:42

is there a world where I'm just like, ladders

50:44

are just got to figure it out, brother? Well,

50:48

there is something

50:50

about setting goals and

50:52

meeting them that makes you feel

50:54

unstoppable. Like once you're like,

50:57

once you're doing pull-ups with no bands and you

50:59

do one, you're like, holy shit, that was awesome.

51:02

Then two weeks later, you do two. Holy shit,

51:04

JFK Jr. seems like a good presidential. I know,

51:06

I know. I

51:09

don't fully understand that turn, but I do

51:12

fully understand the getting full of your own

51:14

decisions. Like that kind of gets in your

51:16

head because you're like, I'm

51:18

unstoppable. I set my goal to do

51:20

pull-ups and now I can do them.

51:23

I'm literally indestructible or whatever. And then

51:25

you're like, okay, hold on.

51:27

Because you get, I see that with

51:29

a lot of people who become experts in something

51:31

that like they'll either try to tie it back

51:33

to that. You're like, well, you know, in comedy,

51:35

it's kind of like, and it's like, no, this

51:37

isn't like comedy and, you know, vaccine

51:40

science are not the same thing. There's

51:43

something I can, it's like this,

51:46

it's not undue confidence. You are deserving

51:48

of that confidence, but it's, you

51:51

don't fully understand your confidence in that you're

51:53

like, well, I should get a

51:55

room full of people and tell them how to live

51:57

their lives because I've got pull-ups. now.

52:00

It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah, it is this

52:02

thing. And I think that you're right. And

52:04

this isn't like in a thing that's exclusively with

52:06

weightlifting. But I think that if you get really,

52:10

really, really, really good at something, or you perceive yourself

52:12

to be a master of something, there is kind of

52:14

a natural jump to be like, maybe I'm the master

52:16

of everything. You get to the

52:18

point of who's the former

52:20

New England Patriots quarterback, Brett Favre. Tom

52:23

Brady. Yeah, Tom Brady. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

52:25

Yeah. Didn't Tom Brady start a cult

52:27

or something? They all will eventually. Well,

52:30

that's the other thing too, is that

52:33

you could be right. You could be

52:36

like, wow, I really focused on fitness and I

52:38

pulled it off. What if I focused

52:40

on solving world hunger or

52:43

whatever? And then you're like, actually,

52:47

you need a little distance from

52:49

yourself, a little self analysis to go like,

52:51

that's not my department. But

52:53

a lot of people just ride in

52:55

that direction of like, I've sorted it

52:58

out. I look, I bench man, 400 pounds, I

53:00

squat 500. And you see my abs

53:03

now see my theories about the election.

53:05

Right? You see my abs great. Now

53:07

you know why horse paced is the

53:09

way to go. You're like, yeah,

53:12

well, and I think that like, that is the thing

53:14

about fitness is I feel like so much of it is

53:16

I don't want to say like home brew, but there's like

53:18

so many things where it's sort of like, oh, you're kind

53:21

of figuring out what works for you. And you're figuring

53:23

out like, you're figuring out while you're doing it, what, what

53:25

like is the thing that works for you. And that's for sure science behind

53:27

a lot of the stuff. But I could see

53:29

somebody who's like, you know, like,

53:32

Oh, I figured out like what my key

53:34

macros are and what's my best like lift

53:36

and pull split. Like, so of

53:38

course, now that means I can just figure

53:40

out a COVID vaccine using horse based or

53:42

something. Right, right. Yeah. And you

53:45

said you said something there that

53:47

that activated me of like, you

53:50

dedicate your time to it. And then

53:52

you're like, Got it. Cool. I

53:54

can do anything now. And you're like, yeah,

53:58

not exactly not exactly. but

54:01

I appreciate where you're coming from

54:03

with that. It's like, yes, yes,

54:06

that's a good energy to have, but you

54:08

have to stop it at like, I

54:11

will actually start telling. And people

54:13

will, I guess what we should

54:15

say is you don't have to

54:17

listen to someone about everything if

54:19

there are only, like I say yes. Listen

54:23

to Joe Rogan in

54:26

reference to hallucinogens,

54:28

fitness, jujitsu, martial arts

54:30

in general, bow

54:32

hunting. I think you

54:35

can stop there. Posting

54:37

fear factor, podcast

54:40

success. Or maybe the categories that you

54:42

should listen to Joe Rogan on and

54:44

you don't have to, but that would

54:46

be if Joe's like, I'm going to

54:48

start talking about my anabolic cocktail I'm

54:51

on, I'd be like, I'm

54:53

going to listen. But if Joe's like, if he's

54:55

like, I'm going to start talking about car

54:57

design, I'm not going to listen. So

55:01

I think a lot of people need to understand that

55:03

too. Like it just because you're a hero or the

55:05

person, the podcast you're listening to is someone who knows

55:07

a lot about this. That doesn't mean

55:09

they know a lot about it. They

55:11

may believe that, but you have to keep in your

55:14

head. Call them on that. You don't have

55:16

to say anything out loud, but just remember that. I

55:18

would say that that doesn't count us that we're experts

55:20

on everything. Please. High and

55:22

mighty is literally me pretending to be an expert

55:24

every week. Whatever the subject is like. Okay. So

55:27

you're you're here from Taiwan to talk about

55:29

Taiwanese food. Now here's what my favorite thing.

55:31

Like I just talk over my guests like

55:33

I'm more informed the whole time anyway. I

55:36

think that that's true of like, I feel like improv

55:38

is like that a little bit too, where it's like

55:40

there are people that get really, really, really good at

55:42

improv and they're just like, I can just kind of

55:44

improv through everything in life. Oh, I honestly am one

55:46

of those people. I just refused. I

55:49

truly believe I can like get through

55:51

almost any. I happen to have

55:53

like a polymathic level of knowledge and I'm a

55:55

little bit of like, one

55:57

of those people who can like teach auto die back.

55:59

I teach myself, I can learn pretty easily.

56:02

So, but I

56:04

do think being so good and

56:06

doing improv for so long has led

56:08

me to believe, like, I can walk

56:10

into any situation and figure my way

56:12

in and out of it. It's like,

56:14

yes, on stage, you dummy. Not in

56:16

real life. But not like heart surgery.

56:18

No, exactly. And I'm sorry about this,

56:20

Mr. Johnson, but your father is dead.

56:22

Yeah, you can't like, yes, and which

56:24

artery is the one you should get.

56:27

Vinacava, my ass, I got

56:29

this. Back off. He's

56:32

going rogue. Tag

56:34

the neurologist. Yeah,

56:36

you do a tag out on the neurologist.

56:40

Start immediately drilling into the brain. And

56:42

then you're like, swing Dorsine. Now do it

56:44

like you're a dog. Anyway.

56:50

Joey, I appreciate you coming on High and

56:52

Mighty and talking, and I wish you luck

56:54

in your... You know what, before

56:57

we get out of here, besides the

56:59

pull-up, do you have any fitness

57:02

goals or nutrition

57:04

goals or appearance

57:06

goals that you're pushing towards

57:08

so that I have something to root for you? Oh,

57:11

yeah. So this is all kind

57:13

of a personal journey for me. So it's like what my

57:15

goals are doesn't necessarily have to be like... Yeah,

57:17

exactly. Everyone's goals should be whatever they need them

57:19

to be. Yeah. For me,

57:21

it's like my goal is to

57:24

get to like a 30-inch waist. I was

57:26

like a 29-inch waist, 30-inch waist for a

57:28

while, and that's kind of around what all

57:31

of my shirts and stuff are tailored to. Right

57:33

now, I'm like around a 33-inch waist. So it's

57:35

to lose like three inches or so off my

57:37

waist, which is like a really specific goal, but

57:39

I think I can do it. I'm kind of

57:42

hitting that point where I'm

57:44

losing maybe a pound every week, which is like

57:46

a very healthy amount of weight to lose. I

57:49

think I'll hit that goal by like January. And

57:52

then after that, my goal is to vote

57:55

for JFK Jr. as much time as possible in the election

57:57

or RFK Jr. as many times as possible in the election.

58:00

Yeah, once I get my bench press up to

58:02

185 and then once I get RFK jr. Yeah,

58:04

then I'll start doing brain surgery. Yeah But

58:08

yeah, you know, so it's just it's a really practical

58:10

goal I'm just like losing a couple inches off my

58:12

waist so I can you know fit back into my

58:14

like button up You don't have to buy all new

58:16

shirts Yeah Who knows if the bulk keeps trending upwards

58:18

and you get a 33 inch waist but you get

58:21

40 something inch shoulders Starts to fucking

58:23

make make sense a little you know You can you can

58:25

put two inches on your waist if you put five inches

58:27

on your shoulder But I think it's

58:29

like okay I think that like if I were to like

58:31

incredible Hulk out of a shirt Like I

58:33

want to I don't want it to an incredible

58:35

Hulk from the gut It's like if I should

58:37

first out of a shirt that looks dope if

58:39

like belly explodes out of a shirt That's not

58:41

a good look. Yeah. No, yeah, that makes total

58:44

sense All

58:46

right, so now we know your fitness goals Where

58:48

can people find you and I know you have

58:50

a new web series or a new series out

58:52

that you want to talk about and

58:55

some interesting Awards-based news, why don't

58:57

you throw some of this shit out for us? Oh,

58:59

yeah for sure. Yeah, so you can follow me on

59:02

Twitter blue sky and tick-tock at

59:04

Joey tainment Then you can follow me on Instagram

59:07

at threads at Joey cliff with five or six

59:09

eyes the reason for that That

59:11

12 year old took Joey cliff with one eye and I

59:13

wasn't muscular at the time So I couldn't beat him up

59:15

and take it now Try

59:20

to stop Joseph And

59:24

then yeah, you can check out my my

59:26

new Comedy Central digital series gone native at

59:28

gun native TV It's a series of animated

59:30

comedy psas about weird microaggressions a lot of

59:32

Native American indigenous folks experience in a regular

59:35

basis One of my favorite

59:37

gun native shorts is called Dear

59:39

legendary horror author Stephen King instead of

59:41

using Indian burial grounds in your books

59:44

Have you thought about using European burial

59:46

ground a lot of

59:48

people are buried and it is fucked up

59:50

to build anything on any burial Oh, yeah,

59:52

like Paris is made out of a mountain

59:54

of human bones You

1:00:00

can check those out at gonnative.tv. And

1:00:03

then I was a writer, consultant producer on

1:00:05

the Netflix Kids fantasy adventure series Spirit Rangers,

1:00:07

which was just nominated for seven Emmy awards.

1:00:09

So that's crazy. I'm an Emmy nominated producer

1:00:12

now, which is dope. And that's, oh yeah,

1:00:14

dude, congrats, man. Yeah. Awesome.

1:00:17

And that's a show that's really cool. It's the first kid

1:00:19

show in the history of US animation, like created by a

1:00:21

native person, the genius Shumas TV writer, Chris Valencia, with like

1:00:23

an all native writers room and native characters played by native

1:00:25

actors. And you know, it's genuinely a show I'm like really

1:00:28

proud of. If you've got like, if you've got kids, it's,

1:00:30

I think it's like a good show to show your kids.

1:00:33

Normally saying something like this might be considered a dig,

1:00:35

but I think for Spirit Rangers, it's not every

1:00:38

screen grab and clip I've seen from the show

1:00:40

is so fricking cute. I

1:00:42

agree. I wrote an episode called

1:00:44

spirit kittens about the kids learning

1:00:46

how cute kittens are. So freaking

1:00:48

adorable. It's for kids. So you're allowed to

1:00:51

say it's cute. It's not like, I love

1:00:53

your cute little show on FX little Dicky.

1:00:57

It's condescending, but what is the cute little

1:00:59

fashion show? Yeah. I love

1:01:01

your adorable show. The last of us on

1:01:03

HBO. It's so adored. Precious little thing you

1:01:06

got going on over there. Um,

1:01:10

uh, Joey, thank you so much

1:01:12

for coming on. I appreciate it. Good

1:01:14

chatting with you about fucking weightlifting. Hell

1:01:17

yeah. Dude. Uh,

1:01:19

I'm, uh, at Gabriel's everywhere. You can

1:01:21

check out my other podcasts, action boys

1:01:23

dot biz. We just launched some new

1:01:25

merch. I should have. That

1:01:29

was a hit them

1:01:32

podcast. Holy

1:01:39

shit guys. I'm

1:01:43

so pumped. I

1:01:49

definitely have not watched this since I've

1:01:51

rendered it on VHS in 92 strangers

1:01:53

united by the threat of death. We

1:01:55

got all the fucking major players. So

1:01:57

golf, Vladimir Putin is a good man.

1:02:00

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1:02:25

have to do almost all the work yourself

1:02:27

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1:02:41

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is now the 20th ending of the movie

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