Comedy Saved Me.

What happens when a musician decides that making people laugh is just as important as making them move.

Today's guest proves that sometimes the best performances are the ones that don't take themselves too seriously.

As I'm watching, my guest, Jeremy Devardi, is the frontman of Steel Beans, a band that's as much about entertainment as it is about music.

And while Jeremy may not have a Netflix comedy special yet, Jeremy brings a comedic energy to the stage that transforms every show into something unpredictable and joyful.

And he's a performer who understands the connection happens when you're willing to be playful and spontaneous, but most importantly, completely yourself.

Today we are talking about how humor shapes his performance, the moments when laughter pulls him through, and why sometimes the best medicine comes from a killer guitar riff.

Welcome to Comedy Save Me.

I'm Lynn Hoffman and this is Jeremy de VARDI Jeremy from Steel Beans.

Welcome to the show.

That intro is puts a lot of pressure on me, but I appreciate it.

That's amazing.

I don't know if I've already won articulated like that, but yeah, absolutely, Well you're very special.

You are a man who's most known for a song called Malotov Cocktail Lounge, which I just love rush, and you once referred to yourself when you are completely solo and playing every instrument yourself, which I have such mad respect for.

You are a self indulgent, arrogant, one man band comedian.

You do know I have a music podcast as well.

So this is a little confusing because we're going right down the middle on music and comedy.

Ah.

You know, yeah, I would say that's an apropos description of what the solo show is for sure.

But I think it just comes down to people that some people are on when they're on on stage, and some people are always on.

And I think that's just my case is It's like it's just my personality.

Yeah, a lot of the things that people will compliment me on I can hardly take credit for because it's I'm just like, oh, I'm like that in the van driving to the show.

You know, that's really special though, really special.

And also the fact that you're so I mean, you don't even know what it is, you just do what you do and people love it.

Yeah, that's just it like half of the stuff, Like, you know, I like to think I'm a you know, I'm a funny person, but also with me, there's this blurry line of what I'm doing to intend to be funny and what is just funny by the sheer absurdity, Like people will get the laugh and it's not even the joke.

It's just the fact that I happen to be going so far out on a limb.

And that's what it's like to be in the band is the band is constantly in some situation where like, you know, the first take is funny, the tenth take it's not as funny, and then the twentieth take it's like, all right, what are we doing?

Like people are sweating and going, okay, we're doing this again, and I'm like yeah, and then it becomes funny again because you're wearing like a child size Telemundo superhero outfit and you're in public in front of people doing something dangerous or illegal, or there's like cars honking and I'm actually blocking traffic to get this take where I'm like pretending to hit buy a car or something.

It's like it's never short of it gets absurd really quick here.

You know, the band doesn't know that when they sign up, because it's not like I pitch it to him, like, well, it's a band, but it's also you're gonna be doing like theater, performance arts.

Sometimes there's also some sketch comedy.

They just show up and then I put them through hell, and you can't help but laugh in the end because I don't know what he's doing, but he's doing it.

I love that, and any chance that you could do that for a living is going to be like a dream come true.

And I would love to be a band member, even if it was just shaken a tambourine.

I want to get into this more detailed with you.

Oh thank you.

Let's find out what my job will be when we come back right after this with Jeremy de Barti from steal Beans, right after this Comedy Saved Me.

Welcome to Comedy Save Me, Jeremy de Barti.

For people who haven't experienced Steal Beans your incredible bands live, how would you describe what happens at one of your shows and what is the energy like not just from the stage but also the.

Audience for for almost twenty years.

When I get up with the band behind me, it's kind of an it's more of an orchestrated thing.

With the band, it's song after song, and there may be a theatrical bit I have planned or I don't have plan that ends up happening.

But in my solo show, where I'm by myself, it's completely you know, like sometimes thirty percent, sometimes sixty percent of it is totally free form and anything can happen, and there's just this like one of my favorite things in the last couple of years has been taking the solo show in front of audiences that only know me from the internet and then finding out really fast, like, damn, this is such this could go off the rail that any second, and it does.

I take enough risks that it does fall on its face, and you know, I'm not doing just solely stand up, but there are times where I'm improvising long enough that it's riding high and then it kind of it kind of starts to volom a little or drag, and then I win everybody back by twisting the energy and bringing up the tempo or doing something.

And I feel like there's this constant balance where anytime something goes to it gets a little too deep or emotional.

I have to offset that by doing something silly or something's funny to take the light.

It's almost like getting everybody to go there's Honestly, the solo show, I think the presence of it itself is like kind of a It's confusing and uh, almost intimidating because I get into it, I'm slamming the drums and then when I'm done, I'm like, so anyways, and that's like, that's the dynamic I'm constantly playing with and I avoid toying with people.

The nervous system for sure.

Oh absolutely, because you know that the audience feels for you while you're up there, so they want to support you.

But if they feel like that you're seemingly bombing or going some a wry place that they when you give them the okay to laugh at it, they feel like, oh, thank goodness.

It's like watching somebody on a tightrope.

You're so worried for them.

You're like, oh, this is going to go wrong.

He's going to drop a stick, he's going to do this.

But really I'm just I'm making it look harder than it is because it's what I do, and it's actually pretty effortless for me or pretty you know, I'm locked in, I'm in a flow state.

But if something does go wrong, they find out that I'll just make that part of the show no matter what.

If I die trying, doesn't matter if I ripped my pants or I mess up apart, or something goes terribly wrong.

I'll just turn that into the part of show, flip it on its head, and then make that the joke.

And it's like that's just worked for me, and it's from like, you know, going on twenty years of stage time.

I did these shows with Tenacious D and then Tool a couple of years ago.

First I went from playing to twenty people or one hundred people to like sixteen thousand, and Dude, that never once phased me.

I just walked out there and I felt as comfortable as I would have here in my room at my house.

Yeah, that's what you're making me.

You made me feel comfortable like I was at your house immediately when you popped on the screen.

And I've never met you before, and you also have a very playful energy about you with comedy and with not just with your performances, but just in your personal interactions.

So it's very disarming.

So I can only imagine, because I haven't seen you live, what it's like in that type of setting, and you painted quite a picture.

Was this always your plan or part of your musical identity or did this develop for you over time?

You mean because you started with music very young, right, You started like when you were three playing.

Well, I was banging on pots and pans, and my grandparents put you know, buckets in front of me, and then when I played the buckets, they put a little drum set in front of me.

And I never had any lessons.

I wasn't no prodigy.

Like now on the internet you see kids that are three and they're like, but I don't know about it.

I wasn't like that.

I was like boom tat, boom tat.

I was having dinner with these people a few weeks ago, and my grandpa was there and I was just I ah, just being the sixteen year old, thirty seven year old that I am, and they looked at him and they joke, as you always been like this, and he goes, yes.

I would go through my grandma's closet and put on like these little I called it my tappy shoes.

I don't know what they were, but they're like these elactic ankle band shoes, and I would tap around and like, I'm always trying to put on a show or something, but not into Like I was never an attention horror.

I just I'd be off in my own world, doing my own show by myself.

Anyways, So did.

You like making people happy and feel good?

Is that sort of a podect?

That that is one of the meanings in life if there ever was one.

But also again, like so much of so much of my story is like inadvertently doing things, you know, Like I feel strange to say this, but no one else is here to say it for me.

But I have changed some people's lives in the local you know, art community, and the people that have been in my band now, which is almost fifty people.

I've seen some of those people go off with a fire under their ass to really get their thing together, and people that used to be in the band have gone and formed their own bands years later.

And yeah, I feel like it has brought some people up.

You know.

Well, that's very very cool that you're not only you're doing it, but you're inspiring others to do it as well.

Yeah, I try not to soak in it too much because it'll choke me up.

It puts a lump in my throat to think I'm having a positive impact on anybody, because I've just been sitting in a bedroom writing song as a totally self serving addiction for so long now that when anybody messages me or like I met a guy at a show in Boston.

I met a guy in London.

He's lost his leg in a motorcycle accident and sold his drums, and then he saw my video.

He started watching my videos and he said, I finally got a prosthetic and bob drums again.

And I'll cry just talking about it.

But that's the craziest thing.

You never when you're sitting in your bedroom just going that you'll go out and somebody will hit you with that bomb.

You know, that's not an easy thing to take.

I mean, when someone tells you that, what do you even say?

I mean, I try not to tear up, and I don't know, I don't know.

That's such a that's such a heavy thing to say that.

Man.

You know, I can only feel this shift in what was the thing that I do in my basement or whatever is now the people to some extent, and if somebody somewhere is in traffic and I make them smile, it's like, damn, that's just such a higher purpose for all of this, rather than just amusing myself.

It's pretty awesome.

You know, a lot of musicians take themselves very seriously.

I've interviewed many of them over the years, but on stage mainly even more so, what made you decide to lean in on the humor part and entertain payment side of performing, because I've really never witnessed anything other than maybe like a weird awl or you know, a tenacious d that much.

I think that's an interesting question because for me, I've never like, I've made some silly songs, but really I've kind of like separated the or at least over time, i've separated the songs aren't inherently silly.

I'm just silly.

And I think that in the early stages, like two thousand and five and the early two thousands, I was playing house shows or my first shows playing in bars.

It kind of takes the pressure off of like, oh what if I fuck up?

Yeah, everybody, I know, I got everyone to come out my folks are here.

You know, I think that you just kind of start to you gotta lighten it up, and it's if you mess up, it's not the end of the world.

And having a sense of humor on stage really bridges that.

But it's a lot of people never get that comfortable, you know, no, and.

That's extremely comfortable.

To be able to show your weekness is like just but it's it's got to be so inspirational to see someone almost appear to fail but then turn it around and rise like a phoenix.

It's it's like that old story that but you do it all in one show, as opposed to an entire movie where the good guy wins.

The dally, you know.

I mean, here's a major shift for me is that when I had a trio in two thousand and six or seven and I was first doing these shows, I would tell jokes and joke with the audience, and my talking between songs and the rest of the band would be kind of like adjusting their their knives and kind of like al right, we're gonna play a song, and they'd get frustrated, and that would really piss me off because I'm like, it's like, come on, just let so the pressure of them like, come on, let's play a song.

Well, when I started doing the solo act, I was like, oh, I can just do whatever.

I'll stop in the middle of the song because someone's doing something distracting and then just rip on them or whatever feels like it's going to be.

And I felt that freedom, like, Oh, in the solo show, I can just do whatever I want.

There's no pressure of the band going come on, man, let's play a song.

Also a good A good side note here, and I think that every comedian can relate to this is that I struggled to get the band in front of audiences and to get us gigs for so long that when I started doing the solo show, it was kind of immediately really loved, like twelve years ago, and I kind of hated that even though people I liked that people liked it.

I was like, well, I've been trying to do the band, what the fuck?

So then I leaned into that and abused that, and I kind of went Steve Martin like asshole alter ego, like, oh, you guys didn't pay enough to see me.

And I kind of leaned into that, and it was kind of funny because I could get away with anything.

I could get away with murder.

I was late.

I was having balloons on stage and some of them were heliums, some of them were nitrous, and I'd huff those and then play a song.

And there was this show at Tim's Tavern Seattle, I'll never forget.

I go and everybody be sure to tip me.

Be sure to tip the bartenders, but tip me first, because I'm playing drums, guitars, singing at the same time.

They're just pouring liquid into a bottle.

I could do that.

I could do that all day, So tip them, but not before you tip me.

And the people at the bar were like, I love this guy.

I was like, God, I could get away with any of it.

That's so fun.

I'm jealous.

That is the coolest thing ever.

Do you see comedy as music as separate skills that you're combining because of what you sort of created, or they totally intertwined for you at this point, music and comedy, I don't know.

That's a good question for me.

They're inseparable.

I don't even really think about it.

But sometimes there's just huge there's so many different kinds of humor, and I really love all of them.

There may be a couple that I lean into or something, but I really I like all the different forms of comedy.

And sometimes the joke is within a song, like if you get into full nerd level, like like Steely Dan, for example, or Zappa, the jokes aren't always literal or verbal.

There'll be a joke in the arrangement or the notes and they're like, oh man.

Wait, wait, wait wait, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Hold on, I'm interrupting.

Steely Dan is one of my all time favorite bands, and you're telling me there was comedy mixed in with Steely Dan.

It's it's very dry.

Yeah no, I think that Donald is throwing in little uh dry sardonic kind of you know, what's the word.

What do the British fuckers say?

Cheeky little things all over the place.

And if it wasn't in the yeah, yeah, I'm the lead.

Now we're gonna listen all over again.

Man out as songs like Everyone's Gone to the Movie, which is like dark humor.

I never knew, never even picked up on it.

Not one, it's just love, the melodies, the harmonizing the song.

Yeah, they've they've got all kind of shit.

I mean, the more you dig into it, he's kind of he's a funny guy.

But I think those guys take themselves pretty seriously, and that's fine.

They should, they're incredible.

But I've always really gravitated towards I'm a person.

I totally separate the art from the person.

You could be the worst person in the world, but if you make art, I'll be like, ah, that's great, because they're totally different.

You know.

Yeah, I love Zappa because he's a guy that's so qualified, but at the end of the day, he doesn't take himself seriously at all.

And he'll do something jazz and then two minutes later he'll do a doo wop song, and then he'll do he'll do a heartfelt like love song vallad and then something extremely silly right after that.

And that's like that kind of steered me into direction.

It's like, Okay, I don't have to.

When I was in high school just learning how to write songs, I looked into like Echoes by Pink Floyd, and I go, damn, how do I overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air.

How can I ever be that deep or poetic or that's so cool, and it just kind of stunted me, like I don't know what to do now, because I'm you know, this is like that's so good that it actually kind of it fucked me up.

But then I downloaded I downloaded some Zappa songs and I just heard how like serious the music was but unfurious the lyrics were, and I was like, oh, I don't have to be that deep or serious all the time.

I can just have fun with this and not, you know, not every song has to be some tear jerker with crazy level lyrics.

So that was very freeing.

Two Lost Souls swimming in a fish bowl.

Yeah, and that's so yeah, that's insane.

You're not the first person to blend music and comedy, but the way you're doing it is very rare and unique and fun.

And I can't wait till you come through town so I can come your show.

I have a lot of songs out there that are released that are silly, but i'd say now as I'm like, you know, approaching forty, I've never written more mature, heartfelt songs in my life.

But if you see me live, you're getting those songs.

And some of those songs are I hold very dear And I'll choke up and try not to cry during some of those songs.

But you're getting the songs, but you're getting me.

And that's like, I'm gonna dick around and do something silly.

I can't help myself.

I've had critique over the years from so many people that'll see the show and go, you know, maybe you should just do songs, and I'm like, yeah, but I'm not doing a It's not that I'm trying to do a bit.

I'm just being myself up there and it comes out silly.

Sometimes that's all right.

Yeah, Jeremy, I ask a lot of comedians this question, and you just hit on it.

I'm going to ask you the same one.

Do you think more of us need to laugh at ourselves?

Is that an important thing for us to be able to do as humans, to not only look inward, but to laugh at ourselves.

Yeah.

Life is so silly, and no matter how hard your times are, it's like, that's kind of my thing.

And I think that I saw that from my dad and some of the people that inspired me, is that you could be having the worst day of your life, you have to be able to laugh at it.

Otherwise you're done because sulking about it and all that it's not going to do anything for you.

And that's my way.

And if I'm ever around the band or anybody that gets to see it firsthand, I'm kind of proud that they get to see fucking how to really do it, because I'll be with the band or anybody in the wheel fucking come off like could be literally and how I go, yeah, we're making damn good time though, or whatever.

You know.

It's like, And I'm gonna work with a lot of like I'll work with people five ten years younger than me, and I'll see them get so work up and go, oh man.

I'll go, hey, it's fine, it's fine, and they're like, oh no, but this went wrong and that's fucked and we're laying I'm like, we'll get there.

It's gonna be the best show you've ever played, or it won't.

It's still gonna be fun.

I just tell people have fun.

I work the band and I go, they'll go, hey, all right, So I'm leaving at ten, Well, midnight comes and I go, you got one more in you?

And these guys are like falling over sleepy, and I go, let's run in two more times.

I build it all up, but then when the show actually comes, I'm like, whatever, do it doesn't matter, you know, Like I just I want them to do their work and feel comfortable so that when they're on stage, they're not thinking about everything they do and it just they get in that flow state and just do well and they're not stressed about it.

But it's the hardest switch to turn off for people, I think is to not worry.

If you're self aware enough to not take yourself seriously and be able to laugh at yourself, I think that's the thing that will really carry you, especially in comedy.

Is like, although I think that there's nothing funnier than like guy that thinks he's the shit kind of comedy, I think that like Kenny Powers is like a good example of that kind of brain of comedy.

Is somebody that doesn't laugh at themselves, They take themselves seriously, they don't have that awareness, and then you watch them fall in their face.

It's like that's a timeless device right there.

You know.

Sometimes we're all that guy and you know.

What you're saying is you're an optimist eternally and also looking inward doesn't just help you as a musician or a comedian.

It can help you in life, Yeah, in anything in.

Life, absolutely really yeah.

And I think that where I rest in like the craft of songwriting, which is truly my life.

You know, I consider myself a writer before anything else.

I write songs every day, and the science and the craft of that and the spiritual nature of that is like I live for it.

I'm like a junkie for it's it's literally it can be problematic, But I think that a comedian or a writer, the line between these two forms of art is that you're figuring yourself out all the time, and then you put her under a glass case and you move on to the next thing.

And I'm finding out all the time that the better I get at my craft, the more I can articulate something that maybe I never vented, that was from thirty years ago.

And I think the comedy is the same way.

There's a certain vulnerability to it, all that vulnerable vulnerability.

Nice job.

I'm not usually I'm not usually awake at this hour.

That's why this is my seventh shot of espresso.

Well, that makes sense.

Comedians usually are working late into the night, especially musician comedians, you got a lot going on.

You don't just walk on stage.

You got to bring all the instruments and the tech and the gear and the aw the whole thing.

Oh, let me tell you, that's a lot.

It's crazy.

It's crazy all these years.

Like sometimes, the best idea.

I don't want to discredit all the stuff I do that I plan out and put a lot of work into, but some of the things that people still bring up the memorable moments of past shows was an idea that I'm an hour late to the show I forgot I even have one, or I'm driving there, I open the trunk, I start to unload the gear, and I see a mannequin head or rubber iguana, an all deflated birthday balloon, and some a bag of novelty canoes.

And in the time that I've carried my stuff in, I go, I'm going to bring the iguana out to the audience and it's going to be his birthday.

We'll have the birthday balloon, and then I'll have everyone play Happy Birthday with those cheap kazoos while petting it.

And then I always go, I'm gonna need those kazoos back by the way, because I got a AIDS clinic I do on Thursdays where we use those or something that was that was the thing I used to do.

But you just came up with that when you pulled that out of the car as you're walking in every day.

Like I had some jumper cables, jumper cables in my trunk and some mannequin head and I did a show that like I have no setlist, a love of the time in the solo show, and so I was like, I'm gonna hook the jumper cables up to the front of the bass drum and then to this guy's head and then at some point in the show improvise a bit where I don't know.

It's like, yeah, it's what can I make out of what I have with me?

And I think that if you expand on that, that's kind of the perspective of like, that's how I see the world, is that you become an executive producer for everything around you, every single thing in this room, every human This is my world.

You're just living in it, and you're all in my play.

It's like, what do I decide is art?

It's not just paint and a palette and a canvas.

It's like that iguana head, this melody I've been kicking around, and a catch phrase I learned on a construction site ten years ago.

It's like, all of these are all elements and odds to be combined into something, and that's how abstract people should look at art.

But instead they're like, well, I got to watch a how to video and I got a buy a guitar.

I gotta do open mics.

It's like, no, you don't just quit being inhibited and just fucking get weird.

Do it?

Do it?

Get in touch with your weird side.

Everyone has to be a little bit weird.

You will be right back with more of the Comedy Saved Me podcast.

Welcome back to the Comedy Save Me Podcast.

Now I'm going to change the subject a little too, a little more serious.

Can you think about maybe because you seem so happy and fun loving, but I can't imagine that there hasn't been strife in your life.

There is in everybody's life at one time or another.

Is can you think about a time in your life that was a little bit difficult and how humor helped you get through it, Or when you're going through something heavy, like you know, how do you process it?

Does it through music?

Is it through writing?

Is it comedy?

Is it going for a bike ride?

Oh?

I think like any American man, I shut it down and not face it whatsoever.

But that's where art comes in, because ten years later I can make a song about it.

And as I'm getting older, I feel more and more comfortable with talking about anything and kind of venting, and I'll sit down at the piano and make something and then when it's done, I'll go, man, like, I can't believe I wrote that.

Like I I think the reality is is the way that my body works is my defense mechanism is Like it's like self numbing to a point where I may be still figuring out how terrible my life actually was through writing songs about it.

You know.

I think that's the thing is all of my strength are built out of weaknesses, whether I realized it or not.

My parents split up when I was two, so my inner voice is still intact from being a child.

Because I'd be off dancing to jungle Book or something, listening to my inner voice and creating and making life fun.

I didn't realize what I was doing, but I was creating this independence that it's still what I live by, you know, and I've never lost, at least not in the last ten years or so, because music and art always guides me back.

You know.

It's a really roundabout long way to answer the question.

But you know, I look at a lot of people I know and people that I see out there, and I go, my life has been way harder than that guy, and he sure complains a lot more.

I just I feel like I try not to talk about it because I don't want to be a downer, but it's you know, people got to see the other side of the token, like I'm such an optimist and I'm such a I want to be happy because my shit has been so rough, honestly, you know.

And there's a lot of people that grew up in a suburb in the middle of nowhere that their life has been perfect.

They all write the status music because insand they want the pain.

But me, man, I want to write happy music.

I've already I've already seen sad shit, Like there's already enough sad music in the world.

So whenever I write something deep or emotional or kind of sad ish, I wanted to have an impact in a meaning that's that's not shallow like it has to be.

It has to be timeless in a way that I can feel like.

It's not a woozy saying it.

You know a lot of emotional music out there, they're just woosies.

And I want to write stuff like I was sitting here in this room and I just thought a few years ago, I thought, man, there's gonna be a day where I die and my son is left without me.

And that just is like a paralyzing thought.

So you know, I wrote some songs in that mindset.

You would never know because they don't sound as sad as that would imply.

But that's the whole thing is is finding you a way to put sugar on the medicine of life.

And that's where comedy brings all this stuff together.

It's like if you can't laugh or you take stuff so seriously.

I live like I could die next week.

So what am I gonna do?

Save my money?

No, I'm gonna buy that guitar, I'm gonna buy that keyboard.

I'm gonna drive around with no real aim of where I'm going, just to listen to music.

And I think that the only way to really live is to live by that you know.

It's a great It's first of all, it's very selfless the way that you attack writing songs.

But I would like to coin a new phrase with you.

Maybe you can use it the Steely Dan effect.

You hear something you think is so serious but you don't realize it, or the opposite comedy and it's actually really telling the job.

Well, I think that it speaks volumes to the fact that Steely Dan were masters of music and their craft and of jazz, but as people they were silly.

So it's like, where does the personality peak through in the music?

What we go as far back as Cheech and Chong and then Fire signed Theater and then for me in the nineties in grade school, I was listening to the Adam Sandler records were amazing.

I just went and re listened to They're All Gonna Laugh at You.

Honestly, some of those bit hit way harder.

Now.

The thing is, there are people that write really heartfelt songs, but I'm never I'm not always convinced that it's sincere and if they take themselves really seriously, that's kind of a giveaway.

Like, well, I'll listen to Mark Lanagan and when it's a really deep, profound emotional song.

I really feel it, and I'm like, I believe it.

And when somebody's singing on stage, like I like to know that guy's been through hell.

You know, I think there, you know what I mean?

Like, I think the emotional music, emotional music that's written by like a diverse person, Like I think that the future.

I think the future of of man on Earth is going to be a guy that can run a chainsaw and kick your ass and is masculine, but it's also completely emotionally like I feel you.

Yes, the soft muscleheads.

I don't know what it is, but I've never felt more in touch with that in my life.

And it's like, I'm an artsy fend me weirdo, but dude, I also mill lawns and pick up a mower.

The older I get, the more comfortable I am with being masculine, it's like that's okay, but never, but never, just don't be a dick, you know.

No, it's you know what, You're so right?

I think it's like you're going at it from the opposite way, but it makes perfect sense either way, because women do need some type of depth in there, so that you can have a conversation because we like to talk about deep stuff, but we also want the guy who can pull the chainsaw and go take care of business.

So you know, it's a wonderful combination and funny enough.

Now in twenty twenty five, it's actually okay to talk about your feelings if you're a guy, and it's not a turnoff.

I don't think from women.

Not of the construction site.

I think there's still maybe a little behind out in the general world of man.

But I always live this dual life because that'd be at home writing songs and like I'm practically shakes here in my basement and I'm a I'm like a I've been with like ten people in my life, and I've always just been in relationships, and I'm like this romantic I want to shove all this stuff on the counters of the kitchen, shove that under into the cupboards, make it look nice, and then go use my food stamps to get like some kind of a pasta thing.

And then I'm like playing acoustic guitar, you know what I mean.

That's the life I'm I'm leading.

But then I also go to work on a construction job site.

In a flannel and I'm lifting this shit and you're like kind of with the boys and everyone's really vulgar, and I can connect with that.

But there's also part of me living this dual life where I'm like, yeah, I know what you mean, but I don't at all, Like you know.

You have no idea, but you just but it looks good and it relates.

I mean, if people think that you hear.

There's a point of man show where I'll connect and then it falls off where it's just like kind of you know, SARTs and woman and I thing something and then I'm like, all right, that's but I grew up with a single mom and and a little sister and a you know, so it's like there's there's also that side too, you know.

Well, what can I ask, what was the most ridiculous thing that's ever happened during a Steel Beans show?

Oh?

Oh, you're rubbing your hands together.

You've got a good one.

It's so it's so vast and nebulous.

I honestly, god, the most absurd thing to happen in my show is like, what's the windiest wind at a hurricane or something?

I Mean, there's been some crazy stuff.

The wiest wind of a hurricane.

There's one time when this is not even that crazy, but for the people that were there, it was.

I got a text in the middle of a show that and by the way, this is like a small venue where I get two three hours to do whatever I want, so it's not like a thirty minute set whatever.

But I get a text that like, I thought that my girlfriend was going into labor, and I go, I think we're having the baby now.

So the whole venue rushed up and all grabbed my stuff and we all crammed it into my little saturn ion.

It's like drum set, keyboard, all this stuff, and now ruy thol over and I went to the hospital and it was like a fault alarm.

Oh no, but I've also done here's the thing.

He's like people told me for years back in the day, like kind of remind me of Andy Kaufman a little bit.

Oh yeah.

I didn't really see that at the time, so I was like, huh, I guess thanks.

I love Andy, but I didn't see the connection.

And now years later I kind of get it.

It's pretty in your face that steeled beans or salmonella records, which are kind of like synonymous.

It really is such an inside joke that sometimes it's only inside to me.

And now I realize, like what they meant by that.

Like I've done shows where I responded in the email.

One time, h No, I'm not available.

This guy offered me a gig.

I looked at the bill.

It was like Country America con artists, and I said, I'm not available.

But these guys staying in my house from Nashville are a legit country duo.

I'm sure they'd love to do it.

This is perfect.

So then my friend Zach and I was a great comedian a great songwriter.

We both went as these characters from Nashville and talked in an accident.

We came up with our whole backstore.

We wore our western best and we went in there and like maintained it the entire night, telling everybody there we're from Nashville, the owners of the play, whoever it was, or like, well, thank you kindly, and it's called the We called it the Runny Nose.

Bros.

You are killing me.

Did you come up with that on the spot when the call came in and literally went with it from that minute on.

Yeah, that is insane.

We carried this song the whole time, and there's even a moment that we're talking to somebody, she's like, oh, yeah, I'm from down by wherever, and we we looked up in a neighborhood, so we're like, yeah, yeah, he's actually born in Bowling Green.

But like we were practicing our access three in the morning, we get into his little tiny car and we close the doors and we go and we're just dying because it's like we just have this, you know.

But it's always been something like that.

I'll call the baseball stadium and just make some shit up and pretend I'm some other dude and go, yeah, we really want to get this Steel Beans group in here to just perform something in the center of the field.

It's like the inside joke is it's it's such an onion layer.

I do jokes all the time that are relative to something we've been joking about in the van.

Yeah, I do this all the time, and I'll throw it out there and I know that a couple people laugh just because it's silly, but the band, they're getting it.

I'm like playing to them, and that happens all the time.

Anyways, I'm gonna stop talking about that.

No, it's awesome.

I mean it's like, you know, that's like a letterman.

Uh.

I was trying to figure out was that a Letterman or Seinfeld thing?

Where you can bring it back like the initial joke, and then you can bring it back around in the end too, and everyone gets it.

Right, right.

I think those call those those callbacks are great, and throughout my solo show, I kind of do that a lot.

If somebody, if somebody does something that stands out, or I'll do these I'll build a song from scratch and I'll ask for people to call out the weirdest thing they can think of, and they'll be like centaur, platypus, tits tractor, and I go, what kind of song is it?

They'll go it's a reggae, it's a metal and I'll go, okay, it's a reggae song.

It turns into a metal soone and it's about a centaur and a break and I'll kind of like fire on these cylinders and hammer back all these things they just said, and I'll even impress myself if I can pull it off.

But then forty minutes later, I'll like bring it back around to the centaur and tell a story about them or something.

You know, it's and the plan.

It always feels like bonus points.

It's awesome.

I mean, I've never heard did First of all, can we just rewind real quick from that last question I asked you.

You said they called you to book you, and you said, no, but I have a country band here.

And then did they know that was you coming to the venue?

Who booked you?

Or did they think you were the match fie band?

No, dude, it's always something like that with us.

Let me tell you.

We just recently went on a tour down the West Coast and I go, guys, I took my bassis Sean and a new drummer we've worked with West and I go, here's the thing.

We're gonna wear the reds of our dogs beetle suits every day, not on stage, but on all of our off days.

So we drove fourteen hours to San Francisco from here.

We're wearing black to black tie and aviators walking into a gas station in the middle of nowhere, and we kind of look at each other and people are like, what the who the fuck are these guys?

So every single day off days, travel days and even when we'd load into the venue, we'd be dripping sweat, loading the shit.

But we're in our black ties and our matching black dark aviators, just looking like secret service everywhere we went.

But then before we go on stage, I would change into the other clothes so people like they couldn't figure us out.

Dude, I brought all my fake plants.

So I bring all these fake plants with us a lot of the time, so they can see us coming in with fake plants, a leaf blower suitcase.

We're in the suits.

They're like, what the fuck band is playing tonight?

You know that is so awesome.

I can't even imagine anyone listening to this who's not waiting to find out when steel Beans is going to be playing at a venue near them, because you just don't know what's going to happen next.

I need to know.

Now two questions, and then I think I might let you go.

Now I have three more.

But what do you think music and comedy have in common at their core?

Well, of course, there are forms of expressing yourself, and I think that there's something that it takes a law, It takes a long time to really get good at it.

I see a lot of musicians or comedians kind of learned the beats or the form and they can imitate a song, but it takes a long time to get good at it where it's like, oh, this is real, this stands up there with the greats.

You know.

It's like I see anything comedy a lot now too.

Because of the Internet.

We have so many people getting videos that are on stage and they kind of know the timing and the phrasing, but they're writing just isn't there.

And I'd say the same for a lot of young bands that bless their heart, Like I don't want to discourage anybody, but there are a lot of bands that I'll see and I'll go, all right, I really wish these guys well.

But you know what, go in your basement for another five ten years and come back when you're Hendrix.

You know, that's the self awareness that a lot of people are lacking, because it's that Dunning Fruger effect.

You don't realize how good you are because you're not qualified to understand what the quality is, you know.

And how to even achieve it.

Yeah, I think that's the real correlation between comedy and music is that you have to work on this a lot, and you have to write all the time, you know, like the old saying, and this is one of my favorites is help me with this if you remember.

But it's like if I don't write for two days, I notice, if I don't write for a week, the audience notice, I'm messing that up.

I believe it's Steve Martin.

But like I really think like that.

It's like, you gotta stay sharp and stay up on this.

And I think comedy is really hard because that's like my solo show.

I cannot practice it at home.

I don't sit and play drums and guitar at the same time.

Ever, the last time before this tour was almost two years ago.

I may do it here and there, yeah, but it's never my goal because it's a show that relies on having the people there.

It's like trying to do a stand up set in your bedroom.

You can stand there and practice the things, but you got to the room and like in real time, kind of carry it a little bit, make it, do it for yourself and stick to what you like, but you also have to kind of keep everybody in it.

And it's this perfect, this perfect balance between like selflessness and narcissism or something where you got to believe in yourself so much.

I know I'm good, but then you also have to connect just enough to keep people keep people in.

But it's a slippery slope to be in the arts because everybody is really right on the edge of being called that.

But yeah, one thing that happened to me over the years, for sure, and I mentioned it earlier, is that switching to the solo show and getting a good reaction.

I played to empty rooms for so many years, I started getting a little bit of that loathing for the audience, and so by default I do these shows in the middle of nowhere to pay my rent, like one hundred and fifty dollars for three hours at a bar in the middle of the country, and so many people are just like eating a burger, drinking, they're not even paying attention to the music.

That I kind of learned to like load the audience and the audience of the enemy, and they're the target.

And so that became kind of like the default of the show is kind of not trashing the audience, but like I'm against them.

They're they're the they're the enemy.

Until people are paying attention, there will be three people over here that are paying attention.

I start playing to them and like talking them up, and I'm like celebrating them, and then I'm just ripping like, Hey, I was fucking guy over here.

And then the rest of the audience kind of pulls in with, you know, when they go, oh, wait, something's going on over here.

You said narcissism.

I think it's just a hell you have to have a healthy ego.

Yeah, but I don't think you have.

You don't have to be a narcissist, but a healthy ego.

And also what else did you say?

Oh?

The enemy?

Uh, what a great idea.

You know, if they're the enemy, then how can you fail?

Because that and you also have to deal with all the things that are happening that are unknowns at the same time.

Well, I think that, you know, Bill Hicks and George Carlin two of my all time favorites.

They kind of displayed this for us in such a classy way that like they clearly are exhausted with the human race and they're just over it, yep.

And they have such a good way of painting that, and I like really connect with that because I love people and I'm fascinated by them, but like, god, you know, these days it's like a comment section is what we'll like.

I'll look at my comments on Facebook and it'll be like fifty subtract subtract fifty from the IQ of what the comments would be elsewhere.

Oh and it's like, oh my god.

It's like, you guys are the reason I go on stage, and my default is ripping the audience.

You know, and you deserve it.

The keyboard cowboys who are fearless because they're nameless and faceless.

Ye, in a world that can feel really really heavy, speaking of which, because that really does add to it, which is why I try to stay off social media as much as possible, because I do believe it is really the worst version of yourself.

It's great for business, but not for humans, for people I don't know, But in a world that can feel really heavy, what role do you think entertainers like you play?

You know, people who are deliberately You're deliberately going out to try to make other people smile and heal.

You're you're sure on time, but you're hitting me with these really profound questions that are I can't answer that without giving deep But on a personal level, our role is to fulfill our own journey to be the best artist we can be, and that's the end of the story.

But when it comes to being public and our role is to uplift people, and it's it's you know, I'd love to make some money someday, but that's really not it.

I can make money a lot of ways.

At the end of the day.

It's like, I want to be so I want to be proud of myself and impress myself by coming a long way and being good at what I do.

But I want I want to create something.

It's a tricky question because I make everything for myself, but I know that there is an audience of like minded people where that overlaps and they'll enjoy it.

I think that the role of the artists is the same as it was in the medieval days of jestures and muses or whatever.

Is that I have my problems, you have your problems, and I have these songs I worked really hard on.

And there's these business and all this bullshit of the booking and the loading.

But then once I get on stage, or any band gets on stage, you know, the people in the audience for a good thirty minutes or an hour, they forget all their problems and they shut them off, and you're the distraction.

To you, you're reminding them what life is really about.

It's like smiling like there's no tomorrow and having a good time.

And that's like, that's the deepest end of public performance is that people got a babysitter, they went and sound parking, they slept all the way into your place and did all this stuff, and then while you're on they can forget about their problems if you're doing it right.

And I think that's the role of any performer.

If someone's going through a rough patch right now, what would you tell them about the power of laughter?

Go ahead?

I feel like it's a game show all of a sudden there on the East Coast.

Yes, you said go ahead, go ahead.

Good And I'm from Boston originally, so I'm surprised it didn't.

You know.

I love Buffalo sixty six where goes one two tree Tree, and now I love counting to Tree.

Remember to be able to laugh at yourself, you know, it's like yep again.

There are some moments where I'll be like, I'll be committing to some premise that is so ridiculous.

And not worthwhile, or wearing something hideous and ridiculous, and I'm dragging the band or the audience along with me to make this big leap, and it's like I could take it so seriously, but then at some point I laugh with the audience laughs, and it's not even because of the joke.

It's because of how far I'm trying to go to make this thing work.

That is just such such a long shot that's not really worth it.

And it's like being able to find the humor in anything is That's always been one of the things for me, is you don't you don't always know where the joke is because sometime like I put on you know, like for example, the silver spandex onesie the silver face paint in that wig, like that's not that crazy where I come from, Like infant, that's my go to when I can't think of what to wear.

I have those, and the silver is like a metallic powder and it takes two minutes.

I go, I don't know what to wear, so all default to that, and I kind of forget what I'm wearing, right, I'll forget that I'm even wearing that, And I'm up there and I'm doing a drum solo and a guitar solo at the same time, and then when it sits over, then I'll make a joke and then I'll remember what I'm wearing.

And it's just layers of not taking yourself seriously upon layers.

It's like the I take the craft of music really seriously, and I take the uh in the face of music and and all who stand before me.

I want to create something that stands up to that and honor the seriousness of the craft.

But I never take myself seriously.

No.

I mean, I think I look pretty cool, but I'm not really trying.

Well.

If you want to know what he looks like, go to silvertone guitars dot com, because there's a picture of you.

Oh really in.

That outfit you're describing online there.

Yeah, so you did you didn't know?

Oh yeah, Oh thanks guys, it's silvertone.

No problem.

Did Did comedy save you?

Oh yeah?

Comedy has saved me, and it saves me over and over again.

If you can't laugh, then you're down bad.

You know.

At this point it is really hard to get me to physically laugh.

I feel like a stone, you know.

I mean, I've just like seen a lot or something, but it's got to really tickle me in the right ways.

I'll make little I'll make a comedy sketch or a promo video for a show that's funny.

It doesn't physically make me laugh because I'm experiencing my own thing, but as soon as I show it to somebody else, I'll kind of laugh when they laugh for some reason.

It's like contagious like that.

Yes, it's strange about your own thing that you're creating, and then like studying where people laugh and what they find funny about.

You know.

I think that every comedian probably suffers from that because you can't You can like be aware like oh that's funny, but it doesn't like make you laugh gut laugh, you.

Know, totally.

I mean, And can I give you a quick example.

My best friend Scott would tell me a story about something that happened to him in his childhood that was horrific with like his dad or his mom, and the way he would tell the story, I would burst out laughing in the end, and then he would laugh, but then he would go, no, but that was serious.

You know, yeah, if I love that, Like.

You know, I was climbing up a tree to get away from my father, and you think this is funny.

This scarred me for life.

You know, that's the thing.

That's the that's the key right there, is being able to laugh at all of that stuff.

It's like, you know, everybody when they grow up, they reach a certain age where they take mushrooms and they think about everything their parents ever taught them, and they go my parents were literally like, I'm in my twenties and my parents had me what I was like me right now, like they hardly know what the fuck they were talking about.

That's just shit that other people told them.

And you kind of reevaluate everything you've been told and you're like, all right, half of the stuff is maybe not correct.

So I'm gonna rebuild and be my own person and just kind of take the good and then you know, filter out the shit that maybe people were just making it up and going along.

You know, yeah, that that is, in a nutshell, what we're supposed to do, right, take all the best qualities and then leave all the worst.

And there's no book written, so everyone's practicing.

Most people do the opposite.

They're like, okay, so I'm gonna drink heavy, and that is.

Smoke copious amounts of marijuana.

Oh my goodness, Jeremy DEBARTI I don't want to let you go.

Give me one more, one more question.

What's next for steel beans?

Where can people find you?

See you experience you immerse themselves in all things.

You well, you do yourself a favor.

Follow me on all platforms.

I'm mainly on an Instagram, but I'm trying to get people on the YouTube channel, YouTube dot com, slash Salmonella records, I'm on Twitch or whatever.

I'm not really good at it.

Get them on socials and see me do something over the next month before I smash my phone and get back on the road.

You know, I just I just head on an album.

I'm working on the next one.

We're going to be getting back on the road soon, trying to get out to the UK and Europe and the East Coast as soon as possible.

So really, right now, we're just waiting for the time where it's safe in my rear wheel drive van because in the you know, it's it's kind of random.

The mountain passes will get snow, so I want to be safe.

Thank you so much for having me.

It's been such a pleasure.

To have you here.

Really, I mean, what a refreshing conversation with like just such a real human being, but who's also going out there and actually you're saving people with your comedy, not just yourself.

Oh, thank you, I hope so yeah, and if that's okay, but I think anybody paying attention it'll find the right people.

And yeah, man, thank you so much for having me.

I will keep talking forever.

So Jeremy Debarty, Steele Beans Comedy, save Me, Thank you and all the best to you and yours.

Thank you so much,