Comedian SAM TRIPOLI, joins me in a talk about the power of comedy and laighter to heal, educate adn enlighten. We discuss how we both came to standu-up comedy and why it has been such an important part of our lives. originally published in November 2020.
THE EXPLODING HUMAN with Bob Nickman
SAM TRIPOLI: HEALING WITH LAUGHTER: EP. 237
What I think humor is it's like a way to kind of express yourself and also talk about issues in a way that isn't dry. Like, you know, it's like there's some deep stuff being talked about one of my, you know, there was this famous, it wasn't famous at all. It's this HBO show that lasted two seconds, but they had a trailer for it. And the trailer, the guy, you know, in the trailer, it had this line that always stuck with me. And it was like, get them laughing, slip them the truth. And that's really what humor is about is it's not, it's not necessarily making fun of, but it's illuminating. Are you curious about discovering ways of making your life better? Then welcome to my podcast. I'm Bob Nickman, and this is The Exploding Human. Listen in. While I talk with all kinds of people in the fields of personal growth, health and healing, alternative therapies, psychology, spirituality, environment, and the future, I'm looking for those answers that make life better for everyone. You'll meet cutting-edge practitioners, doctors, artists, filmmakers, business people, and those who have overcome challenges. The brave, curious, anyone who's out there helping us humans to explore, expand, and explode. Hey, welcome to The Exploding Human. I'm Bob Nickman. My guest today is Sam Trippley, and we are going to be talking about humor and spirituality. But first, I'd like to invite you to visit my website, theexplodinghuman.com. You can see photos of all my guests here, all the episodes, read the synopsis of the episodes, little bio on myself, and a donate button if you'd like to support the show. As I said before, my guest today is Sam Trippley, who is host of the Zero podcast with Sam Trippley, saying his name a lot. And we're doing a swap cast, so we just decided we wanted to talk about humor and spirituality, so that's what we're doing today. We're both stand-up comedians, we're friends, and we're both very interested in body, mind, and spirit to those topics. And, you know, we wanted to delve a little deeper into what humor's all about and joy and laughter, and really what's going on underneath that, and there's some anecdotes about the stand-up world that we've both come from, and some thoughts on what humor is and the different types of humor. It was a really fun podcast, because, you know, there's a shorthand in the way we speak to each other, because we've known each other a long time, and having been in the same profession, you know how that is. So let's listen in to the first swap cast between the exploding human and the Zero podcast. Please welcome my guest, Sam Trippley. I want to say that you're a very important person to me, and I mean, all seriousness, you, I owe you an apology also in a weird way, because when we first met, man, you know, you were from a generation of comics, and trust me, I'm old, so I'm not trying to be like, you know, but you were from a generation of comics that I always felt I got judged by for my crudeness and my dark comedy. But, man, getting to know you over these last, like, especially during this whole, uh, pandemic that's going on, you know, whatever we're dealing with, and you and I have, I have, you know, a relationship in another situation. I don't know how much you want to talk about that, but, you know, to get to know you through that, man, you have a wonderful, dark sense of humor that I really love, and I really respect it. And I always want you to, I just want you to know that I have a lot of love and respect for you. So, I really do appreciate you coming on my show. It means a lot to me. You're very important to me. Well, again, I love having you on my show. If we're going to be doing this one together, I never judged your comedy. Maybe people, my peers, oh, I'm about 10 years older than you, I guess, but I never had that. I, I always loved the, I love anybody that pushes the limits and is a little dark that I enjoy that. That makes me laugh. Well, I get your, I get to hear your humor almost every night. And it's, it's always such a wonderful thing to hear because, you know, we're going through this chaos right now. Sometimes it's really hard to laugh. And like, you are great at just saying the right thing at the right time. And, you know, it's, it's, it's wonderful to hear because I think some people don't realize that, you know, spirituality, sobriety, all that stuff doesn't mean you got to be like walking on water and suddenly be like the King's speech cadets and all that stuff that you could just really be wrong, real. And just like also be like one with the universe. And I think it's wonderful. I really do appreciate all your jokes all the time, man. Thanks, man. I, you know, I, I, I love to laugh. And it's my favorite thing. I've always been, you know, I have a dark side, obviously, and a sad side and that serious side. But I think that there's, you know, you can't have dark without light and light without dark and positivity without negativity. And there, there is a, there is a joy in finding humor inside or within something that's a little darker, don't you think? I think that's life. It's survival. How, how we deal with the darkness is finding the humor in it. I think people, you know, at some point, somewhere being offended became this like felony that like it just we had to like, it was like that it had to be stopped at all costs. And I'm just like, man, if you're offended, that's a that means an emotional reaction happen. That's a beautiful thing. It doesn't always have to be positive. It's okay to be angry at something. It's fine. That's an emotion. And I think we've just kind of looked at it the wrong way. And also, if I, in my opinion, if you get offended by jokes, you're, you know, your life is going too good. And you're, you're probably pampered, in my honest opinion. Well, you're probably right about that. And I'm also, you know, the only jokes that, and I wouldn't even say the word is offended. If they're poorly executed and not that funny, they're offensive in that the art form has been bastardized and not performed well. That's a different issue than, than certain subject matters. And certain subject matters can be if they're definitely executed, you can really enjoy almost anything. I mean, I agree with funny shit about rape, which is not a funny thing. But I've seen them take it and it's and take something that horrific and make it into something where you're like, it's not really about that. It's something else, you know, and they totally agree. I totally agree. And, you know, it's like George Carlin said anything could be funny. It's like, it's like, someone will rape. Well, what if, what if Daffy Duck rapes Mickey Mouse? He goes, that's pretty funny. And he has a point there. Now, it doesn't mean it also, you know, I think people, the thing about humor is, and that people who, who don't do it, see it as this kind of patty cakes thing. It's like meant to be like, Hey, happy time. It's all good. Yeah, and it's like what I what I think humor is, it's like a way to kind of express yourself and also talk about issues in a way that isn't dry. Like, you know, it's like, there's some deep stuff being talked about one of my, you know, there was this famous, it wasn't famous at all. It's this HBO show that lasted two seconds, but they had a trailer for it. And the trailer, the guy, you know, in the trailer, it had this line that always stuck with me and it was like, get him laughing, slip him the truth. And that's really what humor is about is it's not, it's not necessarily making fun of, but it's illuminating situation, a way of discussing it, bringing it out to the open. It doesn't have to be mocking, not making fun of something. You know, just because you're talking about something doesn't mean you're degrading it or we're talking down to it. It's a you're discussing the issue. Exactly. And the truth is the truth. And a good, to me, a really good stand up or any type of humor is really it's a safety valve for society. Society gets pent up and it gets tense about these things. And a good performer will be let off the steam by getting to the truth and finding something that is elevating about it or so true that you can't help but have an emotional release with laughter. And that is, you know, that's the healing part of it. I think, I mean, it makes me feel good to laugh at something that is so goddamn true. You can't deny it. I, you know, my belief was that the only person that could really talk truth back in the day, when we had royals and all that was the jester. He was the only one that was allowed to say any criticism to the king because he could make everybody laugh. And that's always what I believe has happened. And I do believe that is why when you see censorship, it's really going after comedians for a couple reasons. One is like, they tend to talk to truth and the powers that be don't necessarily like that. And like, let's face it, man, stand up comedy can be done for nothing. You don't really need a microphone. You really could just stand and have a bunch of people around you. And you could be shouting your jokes and still people laughing. And you don't need anybody's money to produce it. And that's another scary thing. That's another podcast there. But it's, Sam, comedy is one of the, I think it can be limited in the sense that we have to elicit a certain response. And I want to get into that too, with you, because, you know, we just saw the county store doc, but, you know, that it could read so many people and you don't need anybody's help. And I think that scares a lot of people. It does, because the freedom that's involved in that, there's no, you're, you're basically can't control someone else's mind and their voice, you can't do it. It's, you know, there's no money. The person can just get out there and say that, say what they got to say. And it's like, Oh man, it's out now. You can't stop it. It's, that's what's so beautiful about it. And it's, you know, the power and you don't want to misuse that power. It's kind of like fire, you know, fire can be used to cook and to heat a home or, you know, do all kinds of great stuff. And it can also be extremely destructive. If anything is like that, a gun could be a great tool for, you know, protection or it could be used as a murder weapon. It's like, but it's, it has no form. It's like, who is, who is the person using it? It's like, when I was coming up doing martial arts, my seafood one says like, the thing about martial arts is even quote, quote, bad people can learn it. So it's all that whoever is wheeling the tool is the person that really is the whole thing right there. You have to look at intent. That's, that's the most important thing. I think if you, if you realize that someone is being, their intention is to evoke a joyous response and to point out the truth and, and elicit laughter, that's very different than someone who's going to wield comedy to be hurtful. I don't think that is in some people who like to be offended, they're going to get hurt because they like it. They get something out of it. No, I totally agree with you on that one. For me, it's like, how can you, how can you deal with what's going on in your life right now? And how can you turn it around and start like walk into your dreams? Man, that's really what this is about. Like, where do we live? Who are we? What are we about? And I think the, I think the person that is going to step into that kind of space that Richard Pryor had is the person that's going to be able to unite everybody in terms of like getting away from, I'm this kind of, you know, I'm a black comic, I'm a white comic, I'm a gay comic and being like everybody that we're just people. That's why I really think it's going to happen is that there's going to be a unifier that comes out there and gets everybody going, you know, man, you're right, we don't have to be fighting over scraps or with each other and all that stuff. And we're all just, you know, my opinion that we live in a very special place and we're all gods having a human, human experience. And that's kind of what I think is going to unite a lot of people. And that's the comic that does that. And maybe that's a lot to ask from somebody, but I think that's who does it. That's really beautiful. I mean, this, this idea that somebody's going to come in and connectedness is going to be the premise of their entire act of like, let's, you know, I guess sort of Will Rogers was supposed to be that guy, you know, he was the good nature kind of never met a man I didn't like. Remember that Lenny Clark used to have the best joke, he goes, Will Rogers said that I never met a man I didn't like. Man, I could introduce him to some assholes. That is a great joke. That is a great joke. But it's such a, you know, but there that I think you might be right about that. You know, I have a I have a statue out in my yard of the laughing Buddha. And I'm not a Buddhist, but I just I've always loved that image of this chubby, laughing spiritual teacher as, you know, humor was humor was the essence of it because the spiritual path, in my opinion, is there's a lot of dichotomy and a lot of irony. And that's where the humor comes from that you're pursuing this very godlike thing, but you're stuck in this human form. Yes. Inherently hilarious, because it's a dilemma. 100%. And that is it. And like the boo say, there will be suffering. And I think that is that is exactly what you're talking about, those moments of like, you're like, what the fuck is going on? That's where like the God in you and the and the human life you live in kind of come into this conflict right there, man, it's like, why is this not working the way I wanted it? So I don't think I don't think this person is going to be like kumbaya. I think this person's going to be like really real and raw and have everybody relate to it in a way that brings people together. Because I think we're heading that way as much as it's so diverse. I mean, so much friction between everybody right now, that eventually people are just going to get tired of it. Yeah, I sort of see like the earth and societies as like breathing. And there's in breaths and out breaths where society gets pretty tight and dark and not comfortable. And then just just by the nature of the way things work, it breathes out and grows and becomes lighter. And I'd like to think that we're going to be coming out of that darker period, because we've been in it for a while. I don't know. I mean, I don't obviously, I don't know. But I do notice when I if you ever watch little kids play like a room full of kids, it gets real real quiet, real real quiet, you know, here and then all of a sudden there's this big cacophony of noise and activity. And then it gets quiet again. If you ever get a chance, you'll see when you're when your little girls go to school, watch when they're an even nursery school in kindergarten, you'll see the classroom itself breathe with noise and activity to quiet and nonactivity. It's a really interesting thing to see. And you can see that on stage as well. You can see that when you're performing this, like when you first walk up, it's kind of like, you know, it's like when Bill Burr says when you're famous, every every show is a home game. And when you're not famous, every show is in the way game. Hold on, I can be there in a couple minutes. Okay, baby, should we tell the audience what's happened? Or do you know, basically my daughter just, you know, was eaten and she was sleeping and she had a throw up. And now mom has been nice enough to help me, let me finish this out. And I'm gonna have to go clean it. But I just love this conversation so much. I just love it, man. How old is she now? I have two nine month olds. Yeah. So yeah, we didn't want the audience to think that they were 40. So I have these children that somehow I'm eight years older than and it's listen, and they'll want to be about I just want to end on this. And then I would love to follow this up maybe at the sometime either later in the week or next week and we could do a part two on this because yeah, let's talk comedy forever. But the thing I've noticed too is the darker the comedy comic on stage, the nicer he tends to be off stage. Why is that that is so, you know, I've noticed, I used to have this discussion with a friend of mine when we were in college about people that come off kind of gruff and difficult. And then you kind of meet get to know them and they're very kind and they're just sort of wounded by the harshness of life. But once you get past that those wounds are really people. We left off with you having to end because your daughter threw up and you had to clean it up. And I love the idea of talking about this sort of expansive spiritual world and consciousness and the universe in juxtaposition to the daily tasks of cleaning up vomit making a living. Yeah, dressed going to the grocery. I mean, that stuff is, is, you know, I always wonder how do I make that stuff that those tasks a spiritual thing, you know, because like when you think about like the Japanese tea ceremony, that is actually about and probably the British started that way too. But, you know, fuck them. But the, the, the idea of being mindful was what that tea ceremony was about every day to make tea in a mindful way. So you're doing a simple task with being present. Yeah, I, you know, and I think I'm trying to do that more. I'm not the best at it. I'm really trying to get off my phone. I'm not the best at it. And I'm trying to like get on my knees and pray every day. I'm not the best of that. I am trying. I'm trying to do little things like that. And I'm trying to be in the moment with my children. That's the biggest thing, because if I'm not, they will shove something in their mouth that they can swallow. And I can't have them on my watch. That's basically when I'm watching my kids, it's just like, get them through to mom gets here. Once mom's there, everything's gonna be fine. But dad just got, get them to when mom's there. That's not exactly if the dads can keep alive till the moms get home, you don't want to be the person responsible for them wrapping a cord around their neck. Yeah, for sure, dude. You know, there's something about, and your, your twins are nine months, they're still very little. They're their babies. And when you, when you look at a baby, a newborn, or even nine months, or even throw up to like, you know, four and five, even I'm pushing it here. There's a, there's a feeling that you get that is very beautiful, because they're, they seem to be closer to this spiritual thing than the rest of us who have been worn down and sanded off by life. And, you know, I think you can take the hardest, most, you know, hardened criminal, and who's been, you know, abused and treated horribly and put a baby in front of them. And they would smile. Let me tell you something, man. You know, obviously LA has gotten a little crazy with, you know, the homeless situation. I feel for them, you don't know what they've gone through in their life, but the homeless, the mental illness situation. But when I watch my kids, I don't care how crazy somebody is. When they see two little girls in the stroller, they, they just chill. They just chill. Nobody wants to pop off when babies are around. It's chill. There is this herd must protect the youth, kind of instinctual thing that goes on that, okay, we got everyone, no popping off right now, no being a crazy person. There's baby, no matter how mentally hurt they have been in their life that's causing them to have problems. They still recognize that one universal thing, which is the purity of just the life force. I think that's what it is. People respond to that. And that's who we are underneath all the nonsense and the characters we play and the belief systems we develop and all that stuff. There is something, and I think that's where humor, since we are, you know, historically, we're comics, that's where the humor thing comes in, because that to me, when it's not like done cruelly or anything like that, but when it's done with that inner laugh that's so joyful that that can be one of the most healing things that there is. And I, and here I was talking about this with our mutual friend, Karen Wurontowski, about the dark side, the shadow side, and that comics are very in touch with that side. We're not afraid of it like a lot of people. We are willing to look at it and treat it with the same equality as the lighter side. And to find the humor in both of those places is really, to me, a spiritual task when done properly. I couldn't agree more. And it's almost like a badge of honor, where it's like outside of rappers, I don't know anywhere, where it's like you wear your defects more. Comedy, it's mostly misfits. You know, I mean, you see a lot of female comics, a lot of, there's a lot of lesbians who are hilarious, because they just never fit into your typical high school life. They knew they were different. They probably didn't want to come out at that moment. Maybe now they are, but back when they were growing up, it wasn't as acceptable. So the only way they could find attention and the fit in was being the funny girl. And that later on went on to, you know, help them in their career. And also the other part of it, then when you make, I know somebody makes me laugh, I like being around them. It makes you feel good. There is a very, I'll use the word healing again, aspect to humor, which to me is a spiritual thing, that if a group of people are laughing, there's an unspoken camaraderie that's going on in the moment and an understanding and an elevation of that group of people. And so if someone who is disseminating comedy is really doing, you know, at its best, and I'm not, you know, this is a little lofty, but spiritual work in one way. It doesn't have to be this sort of guru kind of, you know, woo, woo meditative moment with profound sayings. I mean, there's a lot to be said for just that moment of people enjoying life. What do we, when we look at comedy now, what do you think is going to happen with it? I mean, like, there's a lot of doom and gloom out there. I think, you know, just watching like kind of what's serenite live has allowed some of these big name comics to talk about that comedy store doc, we saw, you know, Brian Holtzman doing some pretty politically incorrect comedy on there. I have a feeling the tide is slowly going to turn. You'll always have a group of people on the internet calling for your head. But I think the movement behind that is slowly going away. And I think, because for me, man, I'm not sure if we talked about this last time, but, you know, for me, man, I think when you don't want to make, you can't make a joke about a group, that's kind of like looking down at them that they can't handle it. That, you know, it's like, and I'm not talking about hate speech, obviously hate speech is wrong. But it's like everybody does something funny. I think you should talk about it. And some people don't think and I think we're kind of entering this place where people are more open minded to it, to hearing it. And I think this next generation, because everybody zigs, whatever the generation before you did, you want to do the opposite. Exactly. You want to burn it down and do something new. I mean, every, I read something about art. And they said each, each new art movement should destroy the one before it. There's, there's, and there's anarchy in comedy. That's really what it is. It's, you know, you're tearing something down and disassembling it and putting it back together in a new way to point out where it's working and where it's not working. And I think that's important for, you know, new generations to take a look at things and say, you know what, this is kind of stupid or this doesn't really work anymore. And with the way social media has become, I think that that's opened up even more for people to experiment, comedically. And you know, the society, you know, once you take a lot of these arbitrary rules off, the society will decide what works on its own. You don't need these, these artificial rules to say what's right and what's wrong. People, I think myself, most people are pretty damn decent. And they really, you know, the people I know one to one, even if I don't agree with them, they're, they're all right. You know, they want the same stuff. They want a nice place to live and some food and, you know, little sex job. No, do I say that about the whole world, man, I've traveled the world. I did USOs all over the world, and you meet the locals and if they're everybody's saying they want to laugh, they want to feed their family. Yeah, and that's what, and I have to say, I think travel now that you're saying this, travel is one of the greatest ways to eliminate prejudice and people digging their heels in on these narrow ideas. The more you travel, the more you say we are so much more the same than we are different, especially when you go to other countries. It's just, you know, I mean, you go to another country, you don't even have to speak the language. You can see who the serious guy is, who the comic is in the room, who the, who the trashy chick is, you know, you can see all that stuff in any group of people. Yeah, dude, I'm with you, man. I'm with you, dude. You go around the world, you just see that we are more, more similar than we are different. And it's very interesting. That's one, that is one thing that's somewhat limiting about comedy and why music, you know, cold play can play anywhere they want. Yes. Even if they don't speak English, the crowd still sings the words to the song, because they like it. Standups very interesting because before things like Netflix and Amazon Prime and all that, we all had our own little culture and we had our cultural references and you go somewhere else, they wouldn't necessarily get it. You know, I remember going to China, like 15 years ago, would Steve Byrne, and nobody got any of my references. No, and then not, then I went back there a couple of years ago, they got everything because of Netflix and all these streaming services. And I do think that is one thing that's kind of cool about the internet. It's allowing us all to kind of connect down the same thing. Yeah, it's just the shrinking of the planet with, with, you know, the new level of contact that we all have with each other. Although, you know, I, I was in, and maybe this is a while ago, it's almost 10 years now, I was in Russia working for Sony International. And there was guys I work with, they were Russian, but they spoke English, not, but they, and they wanted to see my stand up. So I showed him some stuff. And they were like, I, I don't understand the references. You know, it's like, and their joke technology was maybe 20 years behind ours and their sitcoms and the type of humor they found funny, they were more clown, vaudeville type oriented. Maybe it's gotten more sophisticated since then. But I do have to say, they were because of the restrictions that they were very clever with their torrent sites and they turned me on to so many great TV shows from England and other countries that I didn't know about because they had to be resourceful. Here's a weird question for you. Do you remember your very first joke, even as a kid, you know, or a, or a something you did to get a laugh? Oh, okay. My first as my first just being a kid joke. Yeah, yeah, just something you did where you went, oh man, this feels good. I remember mine. So I'll tell you that's what I wanted to hear yours. No, no, I don't remember what I just knew I like to get laughs, man. That's all I knew. I would make, you know, this how I'm aging myself, but I would have like, I would have like when my mom would let door to door salesman come into that's how long ago this is door to door salesman will come into your house and they would try to sell your mom a vacuum or banger one or the other, right? They would try to make something happen, right? The fuller brushman. And I would just try to make them laugh so much. One time I was throwing down a banana peel acting like I was slipping. I think I was like, Okay, kids, funny, I don't think your mom wants you to fuck up her carpet with the man. What was your first joke? I was all right, I was in a Hebrew school. And I was about, I think it was first or second grade. So what are you at six, seven, eight somewhere in there? Eight? Yeah. And they for some reason there was a problem with, they didn't have enough teachers and they weren't sure what was going on. So they put three classes into one classroom and left. There was no adult and the kids were going crazy. They're on desks and they're yelling and they're throwing things. I mean, it was it was pure mayhem and I was scared because I didn't know the most of these kids and they seem to ever have this where you go. How do these people know how to act this way right now? Like they're so confident. I thought that was confidence and some sort of insight that I didn't have. They were just idiots. I didn't know that. But I was somewhat, I'm watching this. So what did you say six years old seven years old? Yeah, like seven, but I was scared. I was sort of scared because it was it was mayhem and chaos. And I'm in the back and this and the teacher comes in and she went nuts. She was so angry. She was this tall bony woman. And she goes, noise and the misbehaving. I won't stand for it. And I'm in the back and I go, so why don't you sit down? Oh, steps. So she went, who said that, right? And it was like, and I just got real quiet and I sort of disappeared behind a kid and I didn't get caught. And kids were laughing and she was like, she and she was like, who said that to somebody and so that nobody, nobody ratted on me. So after the class, these two or three guys came up to me. They go, hey, man, was that you that did that joke? And I was like, no, you know, I went into trouble. And then they're like one guy goes, yeah, it was man. I saw you do it. It was great. And they go, that was and so they started giving me all this like positive for him. I became like a the guy. I remember instant friends and I was like a hero to these these kids. And little did you know that would become your life? No, I had no idea. It was so hilarious, man. That's so hilarious. Were you a big kid, a little kid? Little. Yeah. So you had to learn that, dude, you had to learn to make people laugh or else you were going to get your ass beat. Thank you, Bob for coming on. Thank you, everybody for checking out zero. We love you guys very much. And a big thanks for me to Sam Tripoli for participating in our swap cast. Hope you guys enjoyed that show. I did. I enjoyed doing it. The ExplodingHuman.com is my website. If you'd like to visit that and please subscribe to my YouTube channel, which is the Exploding Human with Bob Nickman. Much appreciation for you listening into the show. Thanks so much. Have a wonderful day.