EITM interviews Dusty Slay

EITM interviews Dusty Slay

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Dusty Sligh. All right, what'shappening? What happened at the time?
How are you, sir? I'mdoing great. Hey, how are you?
I'm doing awesome. Thank you.I'm gonna tell you right off the
bat, dude, your special isgreat. Well, thank you. I
appreciate that. It is very fantastic. And I'll tell you this, Western

(00:23):
Sizzling brings back some memories. That'sa hot spot. Western citizens is one
of the best. I just remember, like as a kid, I remember
going there with the family. Ican't tell you the last time I thought
of Western Sizling, but man,did I enjoy hearing about it. Well,
that's a great spot. I mean, I love a Western Citizen.

(00:45):
I guess I said some bad thingsabout them. But I'll go in there
and eat those green beans right now. Also, can I tell you what
made me laugh really hard? Iwon't give the whole special away, but
the and you do talk about youlearned a special technique there, if you
will. But I love hearing howmuch you talk about how much you love
smoking. Oh yeah, well smokinghurts my body and I can't keep doing

(01:10):
it, but I love doing it. I'll be honest with it. Did
you ever when you were when youwere smoking? When did you quit?
By the way, I haven't smokeda cigarette in twelve years. I smoked
cigars here and there, and Ilove those, but it's nothing like a
cigarette. It's the real in thehaale of the cigarette that makes it so
special. Dusty, I couldn't agreemore. I couldn't. You're preaching of

(01:34):
the choir, sir? Did youwhen you were like when you were smoking
the did you did you smoke onstage when you were doing like? Would
you do stand up and smoke onstage? No? Unfortunately I never lived
in a place that would allow that. Why And you know I lived in
Charleston, South Carolina. They bannedsmoking inside long ago. And also it's

(01:57):
a real I'm not going to sayI never had a cigarette on stage.
I may have, but I wasnot where I'm at now. You know,
I wasn't at a real confident levelwith comedy. Right, just be
up there smoking? Now? Wereyou? Were you doing stand up?
Or or or was it had italready been stopped? When? Because I

(02:20):
remember talking to some comics like whenthey when they stopped doing when you couldn't
smoke in DC anymore? Right?And I felt horrible because I would go
to like the improv here, andI'd go see comics and I'd sit I'd
smoke out in the in the inthe crowd, but you would hear comics
go like, yeah, I meanit's weird, but man, is it
nice not to have four hundred peopleblowing smoke in your face all night?

(02:43):
Yeah? Wellllll I've done Yeah,I mean, I've for sure done comedy
in places where you can smoke inthere. But like I was, I
wasn't smoking anymore. Like I didn'tstart working the road until about ten years
ago, and I quit smoking cigarettesabout twelve years ago. I got right.
So I've been in places where youcan smoke in and you know,
it's like it's like this and that. It's like, you know, I

(03:06):
love smoking inside. I love walkinginto a place and there's smoking going on
in there because there's just something thatfeels old school American about it, you
know. At the same time,I like, you know, wearing the
same shirt for four or five daysin a row. Walk. Now,

(03:29):
you say you gave up smoking,at the same time you gave up drinking
and then you use then you starteddipping and that's done. Like what are
your like, do you have anyvices left? Well, I'm losing them
all. I'll tell you that Iwas into cigars for a long time,
but I haven't had a cigar inabout two months. And uh yeah,

(03:50):
I mean I was. I wassmoking and drinking like like I loved it.
I was just doing it a lot. And one day I just felt
really bad. I was just like, I'm gonna take a little break.
So so I stopped drinking. Andthen that next day, I was hungover
and I was smoking a cigarette inthe hallway of my apartment complex, where
you probably weren't allowed to smoke,and I was having like I was having

(04:13):
a hard time pulling on the cigarette, Like it's like I didn't have the
lung capacity to pull on the cigarette. And I'm like, what am I
doing? And then and then sobut I still craved the nicotine. So
I went and bought a can ofdip, which is what I used to
do all the time. Anytime Iwould smoke to my lungs herd, I
would dip till my lungs recovered.And uh and I dipped for about two

(04:42):
days, two or three days,and then something was just happening to me.
It felt like the dip. Iwas driving in the car and it
felt like somehow the dip was likepulling me into the car and I could
just feel every bump in the roadand I and I just I just threw
out the dip and never look back. Oh wow, I and I love

(05:03):
dipping too. I mean, man, is it. There's nothing more fun
to me than putting a dip inat the beginning of the long drive.
Oh man, it's beautiful. Itjust feels good. Now, Now,
Dusty, let me ask you thisand again, I'm gonna try not to
give away too much of the special. Is the hand washing stuff legit?

(05:28):
Well, you know, I meanmaybe maybe it's a little exaggerated. I'll
say that because you know, Iam washing my hands out here sometimes.
But this is what I'm saying.I just think it's out of control.
It's just like everywhere. It's likeI'm not performing surgery out here, I'm
not serving food, and we're actinglike I'm supposed to be some scari human

(05:48):
being out here, and I'm justlike, I pee a lot, you
know, I drink a lot ofwater. I pee a lot, and
I'm like the inside, you know, I'm not trying to be graphic here,
but the inside of my pants staysprotected by two layers of clothing at
all times. I mean, itis not dirty in there, you know.

(06:11):
And I'm not peeing on my handsout here. So I'm like,
I just don't understand what I'm washingoff all the time. I just love
when you getting the whole thing ofjust I'll get the water running, but
that's it. Yeah. Well,I'm like, you know, I've told
people before I go, the onlyreason I'm washing my hands is because you're
in here right now. I don'tknow why I tell them that. They

(06:36):
don't need that information, but Ijust there's something about it. I just
feel like I'm being I feel likeI'm being brainwashed if I'm just washing my
hands all the time, big soapis and I will tell you that.
So I'm watching the special. Ishould mention it's called Working Man. It's
streaming on Netflix. And I literallypaused the special to fire up YouTube to

(07:03):
go see if you were being honestabout your ted talk, and by god,
you were being honest. Yeah,well it is true, and I
realized. I realized after telling thejoke for a while, actually I started
telling this joke in DC at theDC Improv and I realized, as I
was after I told the joke forabout six months, that I was a

(07:25):
little off on what I said aboutpooping into David's bridle with the sentiments to
say that kind of stuff. Thatkind of stuff bothers me. It bothers
me when I say I said this, and then I go watch it and
I go, oh, that's notexactly what I said. But I didn't
want to change it because I likedthe wording. But yeah, I mean
I just went out. I wasjust trying to ride away, just trying

(07:46):
to be funny off the last personthat was on stage. And then I
couldn't believe that they left that in. I was like, come on,
my eyes, who's your editor here? Now? Does the the the Special
the Special? Working Man? You? You you taped it in Knoxville?
Uh, now Nashville is home.Why? Why how did you end up

(08:09):
choosing the VJU Theater in Knoxville?Well, I wanted to, you know,
everything I film. I you know, I do so much comedy in
the South, in the Midwest,and then every time I need to film
something, I end up going toNew York or LA to film, and
I like those places, but I'mlike, this is just not where I'm
doing most of my comedy. SoI wanted like a southern or Midwestern place.

(08:31):
Uh, Tennessee's really right there inthe mix. And I live in
Nashville, but I do comedy inNashville, like at least once a month,
I put on a show in Nashville. So I was like, I
don't really want to film in thecity where I'm doing comedy all the time
because I want these jokes to befresh. And I never really get a
chance to do comedy in Knoxville becausethere's no comedy club there. So I

(08:54):
thought, this is perfect. Andthe Vju Theater, friends of mine,
LeAnn Morgan, Henry Cho, they'vedone the They're from Knoxville, They've done
that theater a bunch of times.They love it, they spoke highly of
it, and so I was fortunateenough for them to let me do it
there and I sold out two showsand it was it couldn't have been better.

(09:15):
I mean, I'm so happy withhow the special turned out, and
I'm not happy with how everything turnsout when I filmed things, but this
one is, Yeah, you know, you film something and you go,
eh, Eleviashoda said this, howI would have done it this way?
I wish this looked like this.But everything is perfect to me with this
special for me the way I wantedit to be. I love it.

(09:37):
You know what's weird to me?How does Knoxville? My kid goes to
Tennessee. So I've been to Knoxville. I don't know a handful of times,
right, how is it? Howdoes Knoxville not have a comedy club?
Well, they used to have acomedy club. They had a club
called Side Splitters, and they haveSide Splitters in Tampa, very successful.

(09:58):
It's one of the best clubs inthe country. So I don't know why
it didn't work in Knoxville. Butsomebody told me this. They told me
that during football season they could notget anyone to go to the comedy club.
I believe that. Yeah, yeah, no that I actually on Saturday,
no one would go, right,Yeah, no, I could see
that. I could see that.Hey, So let me ask you this,

(10:18):
going back to the special. DidI read correctly that Netflix didn't And
I hope this doesn't come off offensive, Dusty, But did I thought I
read Netflix didn't come to you andgo, hey, Dusty Slay, we
want you to do a special thatyou went and you filmed it on your
own and said, I'll do thismyself and then I don't know where it
ends up, but I'm going tocontrol it. I'll do it, and

(10:41):
then if it ends up at Netflix, that would be top of the mountain.
If I end up having to releaseit, you know, just little
itty bitty little bits out of timeon YouTube, I'll do that also.
But you went in and did thewhole thing on your own. Well,
that's exactly right. I mean,that almost sounds like your quoting need directly.
I mean, because yeah, Imean, it's like things changed with

(11:03):
Netflix to where it's like, youknow, unless you're like Dave Chappelle,
they're not really coming to comics sayingwe're gonna give you a special. It's
kind of like you film it andthen will buy it. And with some
people they kind of guarantee it.With some people they say we're gonna will
buy your special, we just needyou to film it. I wasn't given

(11:26):
any of that. I wasn't givenany guarantees, but I knew I wanted
to record a special. I had. I knew I had a great hour
that I really liked, and Iwanted to get it filmed. So I
said, you know what, I'mjust gonna do it, and I'm gonna
make sure that it's good enough qualitythat Netflix will buy it if they like
it. And then that's what Idid. And I said, you know,

(11:46):
if Netflix, I mean, obviouslyNetflix is who I want to buy
it, but if they don't,we'll try somebody else and if not,
I'll just go to YouTube. RightBut and I wasn't in the room when
it was sold to Netflix, butI imagine they said something like, well,
this is one of the best specialswe've ever seen, so we have
to buy it. Although I willtell you this, I read a review.

(12:11):
I was reading a couple of reviewsof the special. Here's my favorite
one. They called it an instantclassic. He tells the audience we're having
a good time, and he isgoddamn right they are. Yeah. I
mean I thought that was you know, I was like, whoa, I
mean, they're really dropping a GDright in here like that, and uh

(12:31):
but I was like, you know, normally I'm not for a GD,
but I was like, this actuallyfelt powerful, it felt good, you
know. I know, I loveThat's one of my favorite reviews that I've
ever had written. That was thePaced magazine. One h Yeah, that's
one of my favorite write ups I'veever read. I mean, I was
like, Wow, this is sogreat. I was very appreciative of them.

(12:52):
I even tried to find that writerand send them an email, but
I couldn't figure out how you dothat. I'm sure since I just was
so happy with it. I waslike, this is so nice and yeah,
I mean, well, the thingabout it is is a lot of
my stuff is kind of you know, I feel like it's got a nineties,
eighties, nineties vibe about it,so we wanted to bring it.

(13:13):
We had that curtain brought into theBJU Theater because the director and I talked
and he's like, I never seena special with this color. And he
said to me, when I sawthis curtain, he said, I just
this just it felt like your jokes, your material, And yeah, I
feel like that curtain really gave ita super unique look, right, and

(13:35):
I love it. I mean,yeah, nobody's ever had a curtain like
that. In the background. Peopletold me that, they said you shouldn't
say this, but I said tome, it looked like a curtain or
a wall in a trailer that hasa lot of nicotine stains. And I
said, that's exactly what I want, all right. Last couple of things

(13:58):
and I know I'm gonna lose youhere real quick. Number one, I
saw something you posted online. Itmade me laugh so freaking hard, Dusty.
The Christmas letter addressed to the peoplethat used to live in your house.
Oh yeah, dude, you canget those all the time. I
mean, I've been living in thishouse for like four years now. I

(14:20):
mean we get these letters all thetime, and it's to the people that
but it's like their whole story oflike what's going on in their world,
and you and your wife just sitdown and read through the whole thing.
Yeah, I'm told that some sortof federal offense to open. Feel like,
I feel like if it's coming tomy house over and over again,
I feel like that's free game.I mean, it's like you're giving out

(14:43):
personal info about yourself and you don'teven know that the people you're sending it
to haven't lived here in four years. And I don't know what side of
your house your driveways on. Butis that your big ass Sanda inflatable.
Oh no, I went to uhyou know, I fanked it a little

(15:03):
bit there so people wouldn't know exactlywhere I lived. Oh, he lives
close to that big ass inflatable.Well that that guy. Now, we
were like, we gotta get thisguy'st I mean, like, it is
unbelieved that guy has the smallest yard. He's in the cul de Sac.
So just the way his yard.I'm not criticizing his yard, just the
way it's shaped. He has thesmallest front yard in the neighborhood and he

(15:26):
filled that thing up with him play. I mean it is unbelievable. All
right. Dusty Slaves Working Man isnow streaming on Netflix. Dust People be
at the Richmond Funny Bone July nineteenthand twentieth, Dusty, the special is
great. I appreciate the time,my friend. Thank you very much.

(15:46):
I appreciate it, and you gottathanks. Dusty