My Teamsters President - Sean O’Brien

Daniel buckles up for a conversation with Teamsters President Sean O’Brien about driving trucks, fighting with congress, and all things Boston.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are the teamsters affiliated with the mob or were they ever?

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Well, I'm sure back in the day, the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, Yeah, eighties,
there's no more organized crime. There's there's no organized crime
in the team scision.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
In Pashasha Shush show. Uh, welcome to Tosh Show. I'm
your pilot, Captain Dan Tosh with me Eddie Gosling. Hello, Dan,
You guys are in capable hands today. If you look

(00:37):
out your window, you'll probably see another car. Give him
a honk, let him know you're a toshakle. Two toshakles. Toshakles.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
That should be the thing.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Oh man, what am I doing with my hair? I'll
tell you what I'm doing my hair. Nobody asked, but uh,
I just haven't gotten it cut in so long. I'm
scheduled for Tuesday next week. So that's big. That's big.
I had a great week. I went out to Palm
Springs as I do every year, for the Indian Wells.

(01:16):
Did they say Indian Wells anymore? Would you say Indigenous Wells?
Doesn't matter. The tennis tournament it was great now. Sadly,
Djokovic had gotten knocked out in an early round, so
he wasn't there when I went. I was gonna heckle,
I was gonna boo, but he had he had took
the cowards way out and lost in the first or

(01:38):
second round. I believe I took my father in law
and my mother in law. My father in law was
it was like it was like bringing my grandma. Didn'tan wells.
It was it was cold. I'm not gonna lie. I
was in the fifties. In the evening session, he's bringing
a blanket from the Airbnb. I don't know if you're
supposed to take blankets off the property, but he did.

(02:02):
He's he's bundled up. I'm taking photos of him just
half asleep. He's like, I wasn't sleeping. I was a cheering.
I'm like, looks like you were half asleep there, buddy.
It was it was fun. Went to a Nobu one night.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
They have a Nobu restaurant at Indian Wells and it
overlooks Court too. Now, if you sit right on the
edge those seats, which I do every year, you get
to watch a match. This year there was a little
mix up. Pete. Pete messed it up. He doesn't he
doesn't admit it, but they're like, oh, we got you
close to the window, and close to the window you

(02:41):
can't see anything. That doesn't matter anyway, long story short,
they kick some people out and we got to move
over to the window. And then I ordered my drink.
Had had an alcoholic beverage, Eddie. This is big. Yeah,
some passion fruit margarita. It's delicious.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Are you hooked?

Speaker 2 (02:59):
No?

Speaker 1 (02:59):
I have it once year. That's my drink.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
You're hook buddy.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
I drink one drink a year. That's great that I
actually look forward to. That is Draper. Draper was on fire.
Didn't really Nobody could really hold a torch to him.
I saw Alcarez. Gosh, when you look at Alcarez's thighs,
it's hard not to be impressed. You're like, that is
those are some Those are some strong legs and quick

(03:28):
as a cat too. And guess what else made the
Jumbo Tron the big screen. That's that's your dream, you know.
And it wasn't for the cool reason like where they
go around, you know, show the celebrities. No, they had
no idea. It was me. They were just zooming in
on my daughter. There you go, Yeah, she was doing

(03:50):
something funny. It was. It was making everybody laugh. She
was taking a yogi. You know what yogis are. Oh yeah, yeah,
they're disgusting. But anyway, she was putting yogi's on my
lip and then biting him off. And then next thing
I know, we're on the big screen. I'm like, listen, guys,
I have to I have to do this yogi thing
or she's gonna start screaming during points you don't else

(04:13):
said it. Eddie went surfing in Palm Springs you believe it,
not even near the ocean. Now. We went to the
Palm Spring Surf Club. Pierre came out for the day. Brian,
my friend from Sunny Day Coffee. He came with me
and and Lochlan. Lachlan Patters say. Lachlan was he was struggling.

(04:35):
That was fun, always watching him panic. It makes me laugh.
But yeah, we surfed the wavepool, you know, put on
the slab setting, getting fun little barrels. Believe it or not,
that wave can actually hold you down under water for
quite some time. I didn't. I didn't get any bad holddowns,
but uh, Pierre had a couple. It made me it

(04:55):
always be Pierre got sucked into the machine at one point.
That was a stare he got. He got to He
said that I distracted him because the waves coming like little,
these old three wave sets, and and he uh was
getting in position, and then I started messing with him.
And anyway, next thing I know, he's getting sucked into
this machine and his boards banging around. He was he

(05:18):
got really scared and I was crying laughing. Might have
been my favorite part of the day, not even surfing,
but just watching him get swallowed by a huge machine,
eaten by the machine. He was so scared. Oh god,
it was funny. Yeah, that was cute. I enjoyed my life,

(05:38):
you know, get out there, spend time with the family,
do stuff like that. I don't get these people that
want to be the hardest working person in show business.
That's that seems like a horrible way to live. I
didn't get into the show business because I have a
good work ethic. Eddie, do you ever have a real job?

Speaker 3 (05:56):
I did?

Speaker 1 (05:57):
What kind of job did you have?

Speaker 3 (05:59):
I always say I audited at a meat plant, like
they're a meat production company, and I would audit the
orders to make sure they were in the margins. What
you just said, words, Well, That's what I did as
an auditor at a meat processing.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
To see if they were in the margins.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
If you ordered a bunch of cheese and there was
like it was outside of the plus seven percent, they
wanted to make it too low, you'd bring it over and.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Payer basket to stop Eddie. I mean that you couldn't
have described. How long did you work there?

Speaker 3 (06:26):
A couple of years?

Speaker 1 (06:27):
While you worked there a couple of years? Yeah, you
just you just kept them in the marching. Were you
good at your job?

Speaker 3 (06:33):
I mean if it was out of a margin, I'd
highlight it and put in a basket.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
I don't know, you don't know if you were good.
Did you ever? How much did you get paid?

Speaker 3 (06:39):
I mean enough to have an apartment in San Antonio?

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Do you think it was over over twenty dollars an
hour or over ten dollars an hour?

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Over ten?

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Not over twenty, No, maybe around fifteen. Did you have
to have a college degree for this job? Oh?

Speaker 3 (06:52):
No, you just had a no shotgun. He'd be a
bass player in a band and his mom worked there.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
Oh literally that was you and you worked there for
two years? And how and when you quit there? What
did you go to just comedy folks. That was you
went from from that auditing this meat packing place to comedy. Yep,
you think you're the only person that's.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Gone that route from a Pelly Brothers, Yeah, I do.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
See. I always think that that one of the keys,
uh to my stand up was that I never actually
had a real job, So I never quit something that
provided me any quote stability, so I wasn't leaving anything
on the table. I always admired people that like went

(07:41):
into comedy that I had a like, like an actual job.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Oh yeah. When you hear like this guy used to
be a lawyer or doc and they leave that profession
to become comics, I'm like, what is happening?

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Well, your job? I mean, I just can't imagine having
the confidence to go from that to be, like, you
know what I could I should entertain people.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
I really took a leap.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Well all this good stuff. Yeah, yeah, I mean I've
never I've always been fascinated, uh with people that have
quote real jobs. I don't really have any blue collar
people in my life. When I was growing up, it
was all it was all white collar and that that
probably doesn't surprise anybody when they look at how fancy

(08:27):
I am. I tell you what what confuses me about
blue collar is, Hey, they're really not collar people right
for the most part. They're more in tease. They're the
crew neck boys. Boy. But without blue collar workers, this
country would fall apart. In today's guest, oh this guy.

(08:51):
This guy cares more about the working class than anyone
I've ever known. Enjoy Pasha, break or breaker? Do you copy?
My guest today is from Boston aka being town ak
my favorite city to shit on that I secretly love.
He is the general president of the one of the

(09:11):
most powerful unions in this country, protecting the hard working
men and women trucking up and down the roads, keeping
our shelves stocked, our tanks full, in our economy. Humming,
Please welcome Sean over. That was mantro awesome. First question,
do you believe in ghosts?

Speaker 2 (09:27):
I'll put it this way. There's been people put on
this earth I believe to haunt my life daily.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
I mean, probably the best answer I've ever heard one
agree with that. I'll be honest with you. I almost
believe it's almost a majority that people put on this planet.
We're here to do just that to me. You group
in Boston I did. Oh man. I mean, if if
you were to write Boston and then show a photo
of some it is you.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
You are Boston. Am I that handsome? I mean it's
a we are a good looking city.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
No, you're nodding. I mean you look like you could
take a two by four to the neck and it
wouldn't bother you.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
You know, I do have failing sir.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Are you a softie?

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah? You know, I like long walks in the park
and I'm on aries.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Did you grow up fighting?

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Ever? I always tell people, I mean I grew up.
I have two brothers. My dad was My dad was
a big guy, a well respected guy, you know, and
we were always taught and my mother brought us up
pretty much. She was grew up in the projects in Boston,
raised her three younger brothers. She is the toughest O'Brien.
She's probably one of the toughest women I've ever met

(10:34):
in my life. Very classy, but she always made certain
that two things. One that you have two brothers and
you always got to protect each other and have each
other's back. And I expect that if one to use
in a fight, both use better be and all three
is better be in that fight. So we were always
brought up to stick off for each other. Was violence promoted? No,
but wasn't an occurrence. Absolutely, I get.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
It, and it's not. I mean, it's probably technically some
of those circumstans this was probably wrong. But I mean
I just fled, fled conflict my entire life, like, Nope,
time to leave here. I think my mom would be like,
if your brother's getting beat up, just run. I don't
better than better than both of you getting.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
My mother used to say, if your brother comes home
with a black guy, you both better come home on
the black guy.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
No, my mom would be like, well he wasn't fast enough,
was he? And listen, it's not like I grew up,
you know, I grew up poor. I lived in Saint Louis.
That's as a kid, I just didn't have it in me.
I just wasn't that kid. I didn't know how to fight.
I didn't have it. And my dad wasn't you know,
he wasn't. He's a big man. He's six foot he's
mean to people.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
My mother had a presence of being six foot five
and she's about five foot two.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah, well, no, my my mom was sweet. I'm not
gonna knock my mom and how she raised pussies, but
she did have You still live in Boston.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
So I live in Boston when I'm I'm home, but
primarily I live in Washington, d C. Because that's where
my day job as the international president of the Teams
This takes me.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
So you like d C.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
I've been there three years. I love the city. The
people were Uh, it was tough to adjust to the
people down there because you know, I was brought up
in an area where you're pretty direct. What you see
is what you get. And when you are dealing in DC,
whether you're dealing with politicians or whoever, you know, they'll
say one thing and do another. So I had to
kind of navigate through. I remember the first three weeks

(12:24):
down there, I'm like, I hate this fucking place. Why
did I take Why did I take this job? But
it's like anything else, you learn to adapt to situations.
And and you know, I think living down there, being
from where I'm from, with the personality that I have,
it's gotten a lot better. You know, it was just
it was a tough adjustment at first.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
I love d C too, I mean it's a city.
I love Boston more I always say I like New
York more just because there's a it's a bigger fan base.
I sell more tickets. So I lie to those people.
I sell them I love them more. But the reality is,
if I had to live in a city, I'd live
in Boston. But not year round. That's nonsense.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yep, Boston. I mean Boston is a great city now
because I'm from there. It's a small city but a
big presence that's pretty and it's clean, very clean, clean.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Now the people I could do without, but fair enough
that that's that's.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
How you want to live in a clean city with
no people.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Oh, now you're talking right, that's a home. Yeah. You
attended U MASS.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
I did.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
How many the other six hundred colleges within the city
did you apply to?

Speaker 2 (13:24):
I didn't apply to any of them, to be honest.
In matter of fact, I got a great story about
how I ended up at U MASS. So I was
recruited to play football for the University of New Haven.
I was a great high school football player. But you know,
I'm not a huge person, so my potential. I reached
my potential, So I wasn't going to go to a
Division one school. I was a running back and a
linebacker and sometimes an offensive lineman, sometimes alongside whatever they

(13:47):
needed me to do. I got recruited by a Division
II school that gave me a full scholarship. So I
ended up going to University of New Haven for about
a minute and it just didn't work out. It was awful.
So I ended up believe in there, and so my
father picked me up and he was like, hey, you
know what's it's tough. Sometimes you're going to make tough decisions.
And I'm like, this is great, Like my father's supporting

(14:09):
this decision.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
Uh huh.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
And next day he says to me, what'd you do today?
You losa? Do you go get a job?

Speaker 1 (14:15):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (14:16):
And I'm like, oh my god. So I was like, yeah,
that was that was something going. I'm going to go
And I was in the Union at the time, so
I'm like, ill, maybe go to Maybe I'll just go
in the Marine Corps. So I was going to go
talk to a recruiter to go into the Marines, and
all of a sudden, this guy in a station wagon
pulls up and I'm going to standing in the corner
aimlessly thinking about my life. It's eighteen years old, and
the guy looks up at me and he says, aren't

(14:38):
you supposed to be playing football University of New Hand?
What are you doing? It didn't work out? He's like,
I coach football you Mass. Mike really goes like Dick,
I graduated high school. Your mother. His name was coach Kent, Okay, goes,
you want to go to your Mass and play football.
I said, yeah, sure I'll do. I'll give it a shot.
So I walk home and I gave him my phone number.
So I walk in and you know, there's my mother

(14:58):
and father sitting there, and my father's like, did you
do today? I go, well, I was going to go
join the Marine Corps, I said, but funny thing happened. Uh,
Coach Kent pulled up in a station wagon. I'm going
to you Mass, Boston to play football. He's like, how
are you going to do that? You didn't even apply
the phone rings. My mother is like, Jim Kent Charlestown High.
I was in your Mass playing football the next day.

(15:19):
So to your question, I didn't apply to one school
in Massachusetts.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
It's pretty great.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. The American American.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
Dream and how that football career end.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
It went great. I mean I started as a freshman,
but I knew I always had a passion and I
always did well in school. But I didn't want to
be in school like I didn't I wanted to be
out working like. I loved the union because it was
around me my entire life for generations. I loved my
father's friends. I loved, you know, the old timers. I
loved going to union meetings, and I knew, like I
want and I worked in the union in high school.

(15:51):
I worked in the theater district in Boston. We used
onload and load Broadway shows UH, and it was great,
And I just loved the camaraderie. I love the the
passion that people showed going to work every single day.
But more importantly, I love the UH loyalty that I
was taught about the organization. So I knew this was
just a shortstop for me, and I knew that I

(16:13):
wanted to I wanted to be in the team stage union.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
And now you're the president of that union that you
once idolized. You're a lot like Mark Zuckerberg in your career,
minus the net worth.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
I gotta be honestoring, no one has ever compared me
to fucking Box I'm.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Just saying, you drop out of high school, boom, big dreams.
I love doing shows in Union cities, to be honest
with you, Like, if I'm in Chicago, of course you
go to a Taylor Swift show, you obviously understand the
just bells and whistles. They're incredible what they're doing. Me,
I'm going out to a microphone. That's it. But yet
still at Union shows it's like, M pete, knock it off.

(16:50):
Don't touch that fucking stool. That's somebody's job to bring
that stool out there instead that That's sure, I have
to pay a little more at that venue, but god
do I love it.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
You probably make a lot more at that venue.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
I mean because it's a better market, right, I mean
it's it's usually the best markets that have those.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
You were in Boston recently, right, M I do?

Speaker 1 (17:06):
I am?

Speaker 2 (17:07):
What did you? What did you perform in Boston?

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Is that bad?

Speaker 2 (17:11):
Those are all team since?

Speaker 1 (17:12):
Of course? Now I love it.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
I worked on those theatas in high school. Ah, but
they were Broadway theatres. They were either Broadway of Music.
Now there's been such a shift with comedy.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
Uh, that's that's It's so easy comedy like it's that
you don't bring anything to show up, do a show.
Explain what the president of the Teamsters does besides challenge
senators from Oklahoma to fights.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
That was that was unfortunately a defining moment in my career.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
Because it was certainly it was certainly a highlight.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, you know what it is. It's just like we
talked about earlier. You enabled your grown you don't let people,
you don't let people shot on you, you don't let
people try and bully you.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
You would have destroyed that. There's no doubt that you
would have won the fight.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Look, you know what, here's the thing. And I've actually
become friends with Mark Wayne Mullen, and you know, he's
a big strong he's a cauliflower is.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
I mean, it just depends on how serious you take
the fight. If the first part you go for it,
take out what you're willing to do to win exactly,
That's where I'm at. You know, you go to a
kneecap right away, cauliflower ear be damned, by the way,
do you ever think of a million years Bernie Sanders
would be the one to break up a fight that
you were in. I mean, how how's a bizarre world where.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
You like, like that was like and yelled at by
your grandfather. You know, it's like, you know, Thanksgiving, Denny
has spilled something at the table and you Jesus Christ,
you know, and look, that was the first sentate hearing
I was ever in and you know, so I was like,
I was like, look, I just went I wouldn't let
this guy shoot on me in my neighborhood. I'm certainly

(18:45):
not going to let him do it here. So yeah,
that was that was pretty fun.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Did you ever drive an eighteen wheeler all the time?
What I mean all the time? How ill I still
do it?

Speaker 2 (18:52):
You?

Speaker 1 (18:52):
Still?

Speaker 2 (18:52):
I still like him when I every once in a
while I'll be in an event and there'll be a team, subtractor,
trow whatever. In my fact, I'm still on the senioriti
list of my company that I went to work for
at eighteen Shaughnessina Hearn and I went back a couple
of years ago, and I wanted to show people that
I'm still capable of doing the work, because you know,
when you're talking to people and you know, you know,
I've got to advise millions of members and I've got

(19:14):
to give them advice on why they should accept the
contract or why they should reject the contract. I want
to make sure that those people that I'm working for,
the one point three million members, they know that I
can do their job if I have to. Still, so
there's a credibility factor that goes along with that. But
I love driving trucks. I mean I tell people all
the time. When I was in school, everybody would say,
I want to be a doctor. I want to be
a lawyer, you know, I want to be the president

(19:35):
of I Saints. I'm like, I want to drive a
truck for the team's reunion.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
I wanted to be Lincoln Hawk.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, I'm wrestling oh Man.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, Yeah, that was mind.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
You'd be like you'd be going out of a bull Hurley.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
What percentage of truck drivers are Teamsters?

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Probably twelve thirteen percent. Yeah, I mean, UPS is our
largest employer. We have three hundred and forty thousand members
there out of one point three million. And by the way,
our union is just not truck drivers. I always tell
people wear airline pilots to zookeepers and everybody in between.
So me being a truck driver, yeah, I'm very familiar
with you.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
Know, Wheels is the majority of what the teamsters.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Well, no, we represent every mode of transportation. We represent
railroad workers. Train engineers are affiliated with us. The track
men that fix the tracks and keep the infrastructure rolling
their teamsterairs. Then you go into the airline divisions. We
have pilots, we've got flight attendants, we've got ground transportation,
we've got mechanics. We represent fifteen thousand members in Hollywood

(20:35):
throughout the whole country that work on the sets as teamsters.
So my dad was a transportation coordinator that ran all
the movies for our local union in Boston, Local twenty five.
That's what he did for a living. So I know
the industry.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Well, when you say you jump behind the wheels is
to kind of show people that you can still do it.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
What do you know, I'll tell you why I do
it because people, I wear a suit and tie to
work every single day. I might one day be talking
to a Senate hearing where I'm defending workers rights and
I'm lobbying to get things done on behalf of American workers.
Next I may be, you know, in a worksite at
four in the morning talking to rank and file members
and when they look at me, because you know, you've
got the demographic our union, you get the eighteen of

(21:17):
thirty five year olds. They may not know what I did.
They may think I'm just some lobbyist. Right, so when
I'm talking to people, when they kind of get well,
how do you know you could do my job? And
I would pull up the video and said, I just
did this last week.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
You don't need a video, you needed a short sleeve shirt.
Nobody's gonna think you're just a lobbyist.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, yeah, you never know. You know, well, I've been
accused of being a politician recently, and I'm not a politician.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
That's a tough one to swallow. What's the starting pay?

Speaker 2 (21:40):
Ish, No, I'll give you the best example. You UPS
part timer getting hired, part timer, part timer getting hired
off the street to load nonload trucks with the hope
and dreams of becoming full time, which there was a
path to a career. A UPS part timer right now,
starting today, will make twenty one dollars per hour, and

(22:00):
then we'll get free health care and a pension, and
our UPS drivers make almost fifty dollars an hour.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Fifty the drivers make it fit.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
At the end of this contract, they'll be making fifty
dollars close to fifty dollars an hour forty nine something.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
What's the longest haul you're illegally allowed to do? How
long can you drive?

Speaker 2 (22:16):
It's like ten hour shifts. Okay, so you usually six
one hundred and fifty miles a day. Oh. Nice, of
those cabs, they're beautiful now. I mean they've got sleep
of berths and everything else.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
And our truckers masturbating in the trucks.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
I'll be honest with you, I've never had the urge
to rough up the suspect while I was driving or working.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Okay, that's fair. But as a comic. When I first started,
I was driving, you know, twenty year old. I was
driving black Honda Civic ninety one. If anybody ever saw it,
there's a good chance I was doing it. I drove
across this country constantly, but I can't stay awake. I
fall asleep, so I would occasionally. You know, edge, I guess,

(22:54):
is the term you know, you get excited that keeps
you awake for a little bit.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
It's like, so does edge me? And you would actually
finish No edging.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
It's the opposite of that. Kay, You get to the
edge and don't go over because if you go over
the opposite head, if.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
You get then fall, what do you get distracted and
you end up going over?

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Listen? Isn't that? Are you telling me that some truck
drivers haven't been distracted before at the wheel? I listen.
I can't speak for that, but that's it's still the
horn this way or yeah, yeah, it's still a rope.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
There's a rope. But there's also this new this new
fad where they put actual train horns under the hood
scarify everyone have a valve down here and you pull
it and it's great, like you're going through a nahbhood.
You don't like people you just hit that.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
Could I learn to drive a truck?

Speaker 2 (23:39):
You know what's funny? We just had this discussion on
our way over here because my girl from partner thinks
she's a great driver. I could going through cones out
a twenty five f you watch, because I could even
drive a track to trailer. I'm like, oh sure, but
yeah to your question, absolutely you could.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
How long is it?

Speaker 2 (23:54):
What's the what's the It's like anything else. It's a process.
Some people learned quick. Some people takes a lot more time.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Okay, without being sexist. Okay, I need you to do
this without being sexist. How why are you already laughing? Sure?

Speaker 2 (24:09):
How that's sure?

Speaker 1 (24:11):
How much harder is it for women to be a
good truck driver than a man?

Speaker 2 (24:16):
I think women a better truck dround sun I do.
I'll tell you why. Okay, because number one, unlike yourself driving,
they're not going to masturbate while they're driving.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
You don't know that.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
I can know that, you know, But seriously, it's proven
women are smarter than men.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Smarter, sure, and they're.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
More focused on tasks. Let's let's be realistic. And I've
got the attention span of a mosquito, and you know,
easily distracted. I check probably three boxes of A D
D ADHD O CD whatever. Women focus a lot more
better than men, I think, And iither argue with that.
I think I think they would to your question. I
think they'd get through a.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
Correct Okay, I've had I'm not going to I'm going
to be sexist. Probably then I've had tour buses, uh
for twenty years that have driven me around this country
to perform I've had one female bus driver and I'm like,
oh so excited about it, and it literally I thought
every night when I went to close my eyes and
end of my I'm gonna die. She couldn't, she couldn't

(25:12):
back the bus into anything. It was Pete vouch for me.
It was horrendous, it was terrifying. I mean, it was
just we just had one bad apple, Pete.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
We got to that's like having one bad date.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
All that I've had a lot of. Are my tour
bus drivers teamstairs or no?

Speaker 2 (25:28):
No, but give me the names and we'll see what
we can do.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Okay, I don't know. I don't know what that meant exactly.
How about the fact that truck drivers are not allowed
in BUCkies? What do you think about that?

Speaker 2 (25:43):
What a BUCkies? You don't fucking know what BUCkies I
don't know what BUCkies?

Speaker 1 (25:46):
And BUCkies is like the biggest, the nicest. They started
in Texas, the largest gas states, and they have the
cleanest bathroom.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
Why don't I know about this? And they?

Speaker 1 (25:57):
I mean, I mean, you go in there. They have everything.
They have a beef jerky section, They've got, I mean,
anything you could ever want. My parents like go to
BUCkies like it's an amusement park. They just love a
bucky anyway, they I think you need to get on
that they don't allow eighteen wheelers.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
Support a nationwide protest over that.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
I would, especially since I've never been yet. Although I
do own a Bucky's truck at my house, like a
little pickup truck that they got my son. I'm not
gonna throw it. Well, I will if if they don't
change their their ways. Have you driven one of these
semis that can drive itself yet?

Speaker 2 (26:30):
No?

Speaker 1 (26:30):
You guys have a name for those people that want
those trucks on the road. Yeah, okay, Gavin Newsom, Oh,
how dare you? How dare you come into this office?
By the way, you ever see those photos of him
with his ex wife sprawled out on on this like
gaudy rug the Trump Junior's wife now right, it's Trump

(26:52):
Junior's wife now, but he used to be married to her,
and there's a photo spread of them laying like. It's
just it makes you hate everything about California. But anyway,
I forget that he looks like Bradley Cooper.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yeah, little, he's like a little Bradley Cooper ish Matthew nice,
Matthew McConaughey, mcconnie, A little bit better than looking like
you look like a young You look like a young
Kurt Russell.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
God damn it, that's a compliment, young Kurt Russell. Do
you worry about AI and everything taking over business?

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yeah? Is the biggest threat to everything in this country.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Okay, so you are worried about it.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
We're fighting automation. The good thing about being under a
union contract you get to negotiate terms and conditions of
automation AI. What's scary is when it, you know, especially
out here. I mean you've got Silicone Valley, right, huge
huge supporters of technology, whose huge supporters of automated vehicles.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
My friend got stuck in a parking lot in an
autonomous vehicle for like fifteen to twenty minutes, and he
didn't he didn't even care. You just thought it was
funny just doing laps around the parking lot. He couldn't
get out.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
Not to fall back earlier, but just think about the edging.
You could do it at a time.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
You know you don't have to edge. And no, no, no,
I'm not gonna ed if you're in a way. Moo, right,
who's edging? I'm giving that camera the money shot. You
ever driven in one of those?

Speaker 2 (28:09):
No? I look, so I'm the guy. I'm that guy
that I will walk twenty miles in bay feet before
again in something that's going to destroy working people like
I don't even go into If I'm in a supermarket
and there's align with their.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
You don't do self checkout, I will.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
I refuse to do self check out. It's so easy
to steal, it's awful. Yeah, well, stealing is good, but
the challenge is to steal while you're being watched, and
if you're good at it, you're gonna get away, Joe.
But here's the thing, right, Hey, you go into a
self checkout, like I've watched people like at home Depot.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Home Depot self check out, that's really the best.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah, but here's the thing. You have to go to
this checkout kiosk. Nine out of ten times when you're
fucking it up trying to pay for me, a human
per a human comes over and works with you to
get it out. So why shouldn't we just get rid
of the automation because you're gonna bring the human in
any ways.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
It don't make it doesn't make sense. Don't use logic
with me, shying. Here's the problem with the home depot
is now I'm supposed to write down the code of
the bolts that I just took, and I have to
put this ten digit code in when I get there.
That that's complete nonsense. I just said, you love to
stale to the self checkout. I don't know I was shot.
I was joking. You can put those I never steal.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
When's the last time you needed a bolt? You personally
needed a bolt?

Speaker 1 (29:19):
I mean constantly. I've been organized in my garage recently,
and I'm putting all the bolts by the way. I
couldn't want. I want to retire so bad so that
I can just tinker like an old man. I was
born to be a grandpa. Like that's my goal in life.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Like what kind of tanker in would you do?

Speaker 1 (29:36):
I don't know. But right now I'm just putting all
my nuts and my bolts. And I got an organizer
on the guy. One of the workers bought me an organizer.
Now I'm putting all the bolts everywhere.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Like do you do your own home projects and everything?

Speaker 1 (29:46):
I know, but I like to I like to hire
somebody because I like to pay it forward and that
can do things better than me, and then I like
to be their assistant for the day and they just
get annoyed. But they think it's funny that.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
I'm like, hey, I got a bolt, this will work.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
All they're surprised some of the power tools I have.
You got a good garage setup or no.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yeah I got a good setup.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
Nice, I got a good side.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
We have sheds. We don't have garage.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
You have a shed shed? Oh I don't have a shed.
Would you say that it's actually your business is getting
better recruiting younger people, because I feel like people are
less likely now to do like four year college degrees,
where everyone thought that's what they had to do, and
now they're realizing.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah, I mean our generation, you're probably the same age,
the same age, right, everybody was told they have to
go to college. You don't go to college, You're going
to be a rubbishman. Well, a rubbishment that work on
the union contracts. I'm making almost three thousand dollars per
week in some areas. They've got great healthcare, they've got
great pensions.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
I always wanted to be on the back of a
trash truck, and nowadays you don't even get to hang
on the back of a trash truck. They've got the
stupid arms that lift things up, which I've always wondered,
how are they really lining that thing up? Not that
this is in your world, but I was just curious
about that. Do those trucks just automatically stop and know
where the trains is? How are they figuring out? Right now?

Speaker 2 (31:02):
Not right now?

Speaker 1 (31:02):
They don't truckers think long shoreman or assholes.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
No, no, we love the long showman. Okay, we love them,
you know, I said this recently. So where we grew up,
you're either going to be a team star, long shoreman, firefighter,
a police officer, or a criminal, right or both? And
and and the best yeah right, and the best part
is a long shoreman. You know, it's a business that
runs concurrently with with teamsters because you're bringing goods off

(31:28):
of off a ship, put them on a truck and
would deliver them. But it was funny all the kids
and the long shoreman their characters. Hard workers put their
characters right. And they're all related because they passed down
their membership cards from generation to generation. But all the
long shoreman kids in the neighborhood or wherever you were from,
they all get the same ship for Christmas. And I

(31:49):
could never figure out how they did that, you know,
like they would get the same ship.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
For Christmas very where they got it.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
But that was back in the day. It's different.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
Oh yeah, yeah, much different now. By the way, everybody's
on the show gets gifts. Okay, do you ever wear glasses? Sunglasses?
I got your parasite. These are tom for Do you
buy expensive sunglasses or somebody that's like, oh, I'll lose them.
I don't want to be.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
Because of my great union, we have an unbelievable vision
plan where we get high end glasses as well for
the prescription.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
Well here, these these are a little too uh like
I don't know, like shooter range. For me, they're tom Ford.
They're probably five hundred bucks. Okay, but I want you
to have those.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
These are nice?

Speaker 1 (32:28):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
I mean, look, knowing how handy you are at home
and you're into tools, I would think these are like
welding goggles.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
Now let me see. We put them on me see look, okay,
I won't lie to you if they if they look
battles No, they're not bad. They looks scary.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
I like they work. Those those are you're a dead man,
thank you. Now.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
I used to do a show on comedy Central green screen,
and I would a lot of times shoot stuff at
my house and I had my own green screen at home.
And then this is some of my green screen. It's
it's my version of the green Monster. Okay, so I
just point you to have my green Monster there. If
you hold this up like like if they I hold
this up right now, they're gonna put a penis on

(33:05):
it right next to my face. I know it.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
I know I'm not going to hold it up next
to hold it right next your face.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
We'll put something nice. No, you know, you know? Do
you know who Mitch Hedburg was. He was a comedian.
He died in the early two thousands. Yeah. Anyway, He's
always had a bumper sticker of his that I loved
and it said it's a joke. He had it's this
I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.

(33:30):
It's a smart joke. It's a good joe. You'll you
keep that.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
It's a classic nobody. God rests Mitch's soult.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
By the way, the funny thing about Mitch is is
Mitch hedburg dot Net. He didn't have dot com. Might
be the funniest thing about Mitch Hedburg here's a I
don't have this trucker hat is my buddy sells mobile
homes in Malibu, you know, two million dollars mobile homes.
But this is his hat his company had. But no,
it's a great hat, but it doesn't fit me because

(33:57):
my head's too big.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yeah, it's a great have like we are a mobile
home that look like that.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Well, that's just it.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
Could be like strange of danger, like there'd be some
that's some guy coming out in a clouds food asking
a piece of candy. This is crazy here.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
I don't know this escape. This is from my tour,
the Great Nor'easter Tour. I did this in twenty fifty.
Its just in Boston. It was everywhere. That's a sign.
You give that to one of your kids if they
escaped for so much.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
My oldest son is is trying to do stand up
right now. He's just going to stand up.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Well, by the way, the thing can't. Let's just throw
all this on the floor. I don't like to show
my desk. Don't scratch my desk, for God's sake, Sean.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
I feel like you're cleaning ship that you don't want anymore.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
Own, Sean. That's what I do every episode. Okay, that's
the bit.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
Do you have like a car or something you don't want? No?

Speaker 1 (34:39):
I love my car. Just checking where are you at
on electric cars?

Speaker 2 (34:42):
I don't like electric cars at all?

Speaker 1 (34:44):
I mean you don't think they're fun to drive.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
I have a drove one. Like. Look, electric cars, the batteries,
all this shiit, they're gonna put people out of work.
We're about combustible engines. We want that power.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
You know, I got power, got to hit eight hundred
and twenty five horse power.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
I mean, look, you know you talked about, you know
how you edged well driving a vehicle. Listen, one time
I focus on one you it's the A D D
kicking and I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
You're focused on your lasers.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Right, so you know you think about your edging, right,
you have this, you can't stop thinking about it. A
powerful motive like just you're thinking about like a scene
from Danny Zuko in Greece. Right, I'm racing, not grease lightning, right,
all right, and that's gonna go. That's gonna get your
juices flowing.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
I'm just trying to stay away. Kill my hill.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
You're pulling a hill in a tesla, right, I mean.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
Is that I don't ride. I'm a Rivian man.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
All right, So you're a Rivian Uh huh even even better,
thank you the fake version of a super rul. But anyways, right,
so anyway.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
Japanese American American design.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
Pulling that big hill and you're not hearing anything. You're
not hearing any engine combustion. How does that?

Speaker 1 (35:48):
How is that going to help you with the music?
Oh yeah, we go, I'm rocking out the music. What
kind of music do you listen to?

Speaker 2 (35:54):
I like church music? What now, I'm only knning. I'm
a hot cosch listen. I love Snoop Dogg. Snoop Dogg's
invest Well, okay, I listened to all the music. I
listened to Van Halen Snoop Dogg.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
You know, that's all the music from Van Hammen to
Snoop Doggs and everything in between. Did you like the
halftime show at the Super Bowl this year, Jack Kendrick Lamar?

Speaker 2 (36:13):
It was good. It was decent there, all right.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
You care about Boston sports. Your whole life is still
mad about it.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
I love it growing up, you know. I tell my
kids this all the time. They're twenty three and twenty.
They got the opportunity to see all of our sports
teams win multiple world championships. They were born in two
thousand and one, two thousand and four.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
His kids have it too good growing up.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
The only team that won the championship, National championship with
the Boston Celtics eighty five, eighty six, whatever it was
with Larry Bird and that crew. Otherwise, our teams were
awful until you know, the last decades.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
I have a theory that the next generation of Boston
kids that went through all this winning, there're gonna be
nothing but huge busies.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
Probably, yeah, manic depressants. Yeah, there's no doubt they've been
winning too much. Let me prove to you that I
don't hate Boston sports. I took my father, who's a
diehard Saint Louis Cardinals fan, grew up we were we went.
I took him to the World Series in two thousand
and four against the Red soft This was this was

(37:20):
the year you finally guys didn't fuck things up.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Bucknuart Buck. I didn't let a ground ball go between
his lifts.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Well, the first game I took my dad, we had
tickets to games three and four, and the first game, uh,
we lost, and he was he was like, hey, thank you.
You know, he grew up poor in Saint Louis and
now he was at the World Series, and he thanked
me for giving him like a dream come true to
go see the Cardinals in the World Series. But he goes,

(37:45):
this is not this is this is Boston's time. Let's
let's sell the tickets for tomorrow's game.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
He was. He was right, and we found some Boston
guys sold in the tickets and we stayed home and
watch like, yeah, it's their time. As somebody that grew
up in Florida and cheered for Florida teams, I've always
I'm I've never hated Boston teams.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
You definitely have.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
I here's the thing, I'm gonna be honest with you. Sure,
but whatever, I I hated Tom Brady, I never hated Belichick.
I thought he was playing. Sure, I guess for if
you're into giraffes, uh not my cup of TEA favorite
favorite Patriot football player of all time?

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Go? My favorite football player had to be John Hannah.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
I was going Aaron Hernandez, No, oh, you kidding me?
That guy was great on the field and off just
loads of fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah, fuck Mary killed. You
know the game.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
I've heard about it, never played it.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
All right, I give you three people. You have to
f one, you have to marry one, you have to
kill one. Here you go, Larry Bird, Tom Brady, Big Poppy.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Larry Bird will probably you're marrying him. Marry Larry Bird.
F Tom Brady, oh, and probably kill Big Poppy or Poppy. Yeah, an, listen,
not because I dislike him. I mean that was the
only choice left.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
I always worry about interviewing, uh, like powerful people like yourself,
that that one day something's gonna happen and there's gonna
be horrible skeletons that come out of your closet, and
then they show us being all buddy buddy, and I'm
gonna be like, I didn't know that about him. Do
you have any skeletons in your closet that I should
worry about? There's my question.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Conversely, I could pose the same question.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
To you exactly. I'm none any of that. I mean none, Listen.
I'm an open book. I'll tell anybody anything.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
I mean. I think one of one of the clarifications
that we got right out of the way is I've
never played with myself. Always driving a track to trail,
so you don't have to worry about the you don't
have to worry about that coming out.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
All right, How would you fix America? Assuming you think
it's broken?

Speaker 2 (39:49):
There's room for improvement with everything, and I think you
can see it right now, and we've seen it in
previous administrations. And for the last twenty years, there has
been such a line drawn on the sand and there's
been such an attack when people have difference of opinions.
And I think, or the way I was brought up,
that you can have a difference of opinions, but we
should respect each other's difference of opinions, have respectful debate

(40:11):
and dialogue and find solutions to problems. So I think
that's the biggest problem right now.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
How does anyone win an election without being pro labor?

Speaker 2 (40:19):
I think people need to be transparent and inclusive, whether
you're a pro labor or not pro labor. We want
everybody to be pro labor. We want everybody to embrace
American workers. But I think if you're going to be
a politician running for any any office, you know what
you say you need to deliver on and what you
can't deliver on, you can't make promises that are unattainable.

(40:41):
And I think summing that up, people that run for office,
regardless of anything, need to have credibility.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
Do you have big aspirations down the road.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
I've met my biggest aspiration, I know.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
But are you going to go bigger? You're gonna swing bigger.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
I don't think there's anything bigger than this.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
You don't think you're going to run this country.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
I don't know if I could pass the background check
to run.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
Let's be clear that that ship is sailed.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
You know, good point, Good point. I just threw you
the biggest softball in the world, didn't I.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
You're gonna be You got the whole You figured life
out good for you. Are you a happy person? I am?
I am.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
I'm the happiest person in the world. I'm gonna be honest.
I wake up every day and I try to make
a conscious effort not to complain about anything, and I
do complain.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Well, don't bottle that out.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
I'm I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I got
a great Greek kids, I've got great partners. My mother
is still with us, I've got two great brothers. Look,
I'm living a dream to be honest with me. I'm thrilled.
This time is trying, and I've got the best job
in the world.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
All right, Sean, you've done everything. I appreciate it. Thank
you for being on the show, and good luck fixing
our country forever.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Thank you. Psha. I want to thank Sean for being
on the show and for keeping this country running smooth.
I appreciate Also, if I if you would never have
me killed, you think you could have me killed? Yes?

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Like that?

Speaker 1 (42:02):
Right? Yeah? Oh man, that's pretty neat. Anyway. How you doing, Carl?
You look fresh, You got hair in front of you.
It worked you in the union. You can't answer that, right,
how long you've been in the union? Answer me?

Speaker 3 (42:24):
He's walked, Carl walked, strike, he's on strike.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
Jump Carl. Sorry, I startle you was pretty good? You
didn't You didn't like that, did you? I hit the
table and You're like, whoa, I'm out of here? All right? Well,
happy to have you back. We got some plugs. Put
a toss show store dot com. Check it out, get

(42:50):
your Carl shirt, Eddie's tour, check out his dates and
come see me on tour. All right, hit the free
plug music. Oh man, how's your bracket? This week's free
plug is for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Not to be

(43:10):
confused with Southern Illinois University, which is in Carbondale, but
they don't include the town in the name of the
school at that location. Anyway. Fuck SIU. Now they didn't
make the NCAA tournament, but you know who did, SIUE.

(43:31):
That's right, baby, the Cougars. Now you might be saying
I've never heard of SIU. E Well, neither had I
before the free plug. But with over twelve thousand students
enrolled at ninety eight percent acceptance rate, whoa, they're turning
no one away. You imagine getting that rejection letter. That

(43:55):
is that is a bitter pill. It's only fourteen thousand
tuition after financial aid? Is that a semester or a year? Year?
They still have financial aid. I'm guessing that's drying up soon.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
Of their degrees are registered nursing.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
A lot of nurses. Twenty one percent of their degrees
are registered nurses. The other registered sex offenders. Oh my god,
that's you know, you don't have to be a registered nurse.
It's good to register. It's like when you buy something
and they're like, oh, go to our website and you know,

(44:34):
register your product. I was like, I never do that.
But some of these nurses when they graduate, that might
be something different.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
Notable alumni here Kathleen Madigan.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
Kathleen Madigan, funny comedian, graduated from SIUE. Kathleen's from Saint Louis.
That makes sense. She just jumps over the river there.
Goes to s i u E. A lot a lot
of famous the lums, Bill Gates went there, drove through there,

(45:08):
it doesn't matter. You can say anything. Frank Sinatra took
some classes there. I'm pretty sure Sharon Stone audited a
class once there. Andy Garcia, Andy Garcia, no ship, Yeah
yeah yeah, he went there for a bit. S i
u E. The Cougars s i u E. What's that spell? Success?

(45:38):
Congratulations s i u E on one hell of a
Cinderella run. See you next week