Transcript
Speaker: I'd like to kill Lou Santini.
Speaker: Kill them all!
Speaker: Woo!
Speaker: Here's another review.
Speaker: Hey guys, what did I miss?
Speaker: Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaker: The Honor and Remember Flag is a nationally recognized symbol that sends a message of appreciation for the sacrifice made by our fallen heroes and their families.
Speaker: The flag flies at many NASCAR races around the country, and you can help honor our nation's fallen military members and remember the eternal sacrifice of their service by flying the flag too.
Speaker: Text FLAG to 71777 or visit honorandremember.org to learn more.
Speaker: Together, we remember them all.
Speaker: Warning, the podcast you are about to hear is often based on true events and people.
Speaker: It chronicles the dialogue and actions of random, anonymous, obnoxious, self-entitled, unintelligent, self-centered idiots, attention whores, ignoramuses, dolts, clods, nimrods, douches, weirdos, drama queens, overly sensitive crybabies, and people who think they are better, more important, and special than the rest of us.
Speaker: In one word, amateurs.
Speaker: Amateurs.
Speaker: It's Amateur Nation with Lou Santini.
Speaker: And yet I don't need a whole month to brag about it.
Speaker: We call attention to and call out the amateurs.
Speaker: The people who are doing life wrong.
Speaker: The speed bumps of life.
Speaker: The people that are in your way every day.
Speaker: The unintelligent, obnoxious, attention-horing, self-entitled, drama queen victim types who chip away at the moments of your life due to no self-awareness, common sense, manners, or social skills, and are disturbing the flow of the pros.
Speaker: Hi, Mom.
Speaker: Oh, hi, Lou.
Speaker: Amateur Nation.
Speaker: It's not just a podcast.
Speaker: It's a movement.
Speaker: And this is episode 236.
Speaker: This podcast refuses to get with the times.
Speaker: Pro Nation first.
Speaker: Shouts out to The Landscapist.
Speaker: Sarah Fleetbur, Ventacular Nashville, Jones Bones, Maria C. Perez, and Molly Fratz, a fellow comedian from Cleveland who I met at Freedom Fest in Memphis a couple weeks ago, also following me on Instagram.
Speaker: And also Summer0819 on Truth Social.
Speaker: Here is your post of the week by at Nashville Tea Party on Instagram.
Speaker: I love this.
Speaker: Dear government, after a nearly 40-year-long war on drugs, you can't keep drugs off the streets, you can't keep drugs out of elementary schools, you can't even keep cocaine out of the White House, yet you want me to disarm myself and trust that you can keep guns from criminals?
Speaker: About this episode's title.
Speaker: Recently, I was talking with a group of friends, and one of them mentioned the Major League Baseball team, the Cleveland Guardians, formerly known as the Indians, the name of the team I grew up watching, having been raised in Northeast Ohio.
Speaker: One person in the group asked if I've been to a Guardians game, and I said, I've been to dozens of Indians games.
Speaker: You'll never get me to a Guardians game.
Speaker: I don't do woke communism.
Speaker: I was met with the response, oh, Lou, get with the times.
Speaker: Want to guess the approximate age of the person who said that?
Speaker: Yep, a millennial.
Speaker: I believe the person is between 23 and 27 years old, so I'll split the difference and say this person is 25.
Speaker: Is that telling or what?
Speaker: I'm a millennial.
Speaker: I go with whatever the times dictate.
Speaker: I go with society, what the crowd does.
Speaker: No critical thinking, no individuality.
Speaker: Was this person's life terrible when the team was called the Cleveland Indians?
Speaker: Is it better now that they are the Guardians?
Speaker: The answer is no to both, to which amateurs will say, so what's the difference?
Speaker: What's the big deal?
Speaker: Get with the times.
Speaker: The difference is woke equals communism, plain and simple.
Speaker: Woke is just communism rebranded.
Speaker: And when communists change the little things, like the names of sports teams, knowing that many people will still attend games and give their money, well, then they won't mind so much when the big things happen, like indoctrination in schools.
Speaker: Drag shows in front of children.
Speaker: The sexualization of underage kids.
Speaker: Social credit scores.
Speaker: Cashless societies.
Speaker: Eating bugs.
Speaker: Going electric.
Speaker: Step by step.
Speaker: Little by little.
Speaker: Little inconveniences here and there.
Speaker: Wearing a mask.
Speaker: Standing six feet apart.
Speaker: followed by the things you hear and see and read that you can't escape.
Speaker: Movies, TV, social media.
Speaker: Followed by the things that you have to change just to get through the day.
Speaker: Getting an untested gene experiment so you can keep your job.
Speaker: Getting rid of your gas stove and gas-powered car.
Speaker: Being forced to only use government-supplied electricity.
Speaker: Giving up your freedom to move freely if you don't say the right things in person and on social media.
Speaker: Getting with the times.
Speaker: That should be Amateur Nation's communist slogan.
Speaker: I hate communists.
Speaker: All they do is boss people around.
Speaker: Let's see if she gets with the times when she's 45 instead of 25.
Speaker: And she wants to go on a vacation but can't because of something she posted that some other amateur, one amateur, found offensive and got her flagged.
Speaker: And thus her electricity is cut off and she can't get where she wants to go.
Speaker: Forget vacation.
Speaker: Try getting to work with those restrictions.
Speaker: Let's see if she's getting with the times when she is limited to an all-bug diet so we can save the planet while the elite eats steak.
Speaker: Get with the times.
Speaker: Join the Nazi party.
Speaker: Get with the times.
Speaker: Enjoy segregation.
Speaker: Get with the times.
Speaker: Get an electric car that tracks and traces you.
Speaker: Get with the times.
Speaker: Have everything your house reliant on electricity so that way you can be controlled.
Speaker: Just because certain times are the times doesn't mean you need to get with them.
Speaker: I will never and have never gotten with the times.
Speaker: I and this show rally against the times.
Speaker: There's a world of difference between embracing something that makes your life easier and nodding your head in agreement without a second thought and an effort to belong, to survive, to get with the times.
Speaker: The next three topics on this show are part of the times.
Speaker: See if you want to get with them.
Speaker: Here's what's happening in Amateur Nation.
Speaker: Perhaps you had better start from the beginning.
Speaker: Step one.
Speaker: Topic number one.
Speaker: California's just not a safe place.
Speaker: Oh, I know.
Speaker: It's in the top five reasons why I fled Los Angeles after I had lived there for 24 years.
Speaker: Oh, I know.
Speaker: I lived in four different apartments over the course of those 24 years, all centrally located in the San Fernando Valley, just a half mile over the Hollywood Hills to Los Angeles City proper slash Hollywood.
Speaker: My first apartment was in Toluca Lake.
Speaker: Super nice neighborhood full of old Hollywood money at the time.
Speaker: I'd often see Bob Hope riding around in his golf cart driven by his butler or assistant.
Speaker: It was 1997 when I moved there.
Speaker: It was safe, clean, friendly.
Speaker: Then I moved literally less than a mile west to North Hollywood.
Speaker: Not quite as nice, but convenient to everything.
Speaker: And for California, cheap.
Speaker: My third apartment had me move about a half mile south, this time in Studio City.
Speaker: Great location.
Speaker: I love the landlord, the neighbors.
Speaker: I was in a real neighborhood, complete with sidewalks and light posts.
Speaker: I never had that in any other neighborhoods that I had lived in.
Speaker: Then I moved literally down the street to the nicest place I'd lived in Los Angeles since I was making more money and was more established.
Speaker: Crazy expensive, but I could afford it and the landlord was great.
Speaker: It was very private and secure and the views were fantastic.
Speaker: But by around 2008, I noticed not so much a decline in the quality of living in the greater LA area, but more of a neglect, which turned into certain areas you should avoid, which turned into, by around 2016, filth.
Speaker: Then around 2019, squalor, gross, smelly, even ugly,
Speaker: And along with that visible blight came all the stuff that goes with it.
Speaker: Not homelessness, but rather vagrancy.
Speaker: Squatters.
Speaker: Lazy asses living off the state and handouts by virtue signaling amateurs.
Speaker: Begging.
Speaker: Panhandling.
Speaker: I remember seeing a guy holding a sign, why lie, I want to get high.
Speaker: And people gave him money.
Speaker: Then in March of 2020, the shutdowns happened.
Speaker: Trash service was a joke.
Speaker: Beaches were disgusting.
Speaker: You don't dare walk barefoot in the sand unless you want a needle in the foot.
Speaker: The stench was everywhere.
Speaker: Human feces stench.
Speaker: I watched busloads.
Speaker: of Antifa and BLM riders get off, unmarked, window-blacked-out buses parked in the tourist bus zones in Universal City, a tourist attraction with an eyeshot of my top floor balcony, followed by the tent cities, filled with barbecue grills, iPads, laptops, complete furniture sets on the sidewalks and spilling out into the roads to the point where the city set up cones and barrels around them, rerouting traffic to accommodate them.
Speaker: Drug use was in your face and everywhere.
Speaker: Not the results and effects of drug use, drug use.
Speaker: I watched addicts tie off and shoot heroin on the doorsteps of $5 million homes that were right up on the sand in Santa Monica while couples still walk their babies in strollers.
Speaker: My last time at the beach...
Speaker: was in Venice in June of 2020.
Speaker: Now, despite people supposedly having to stay safe indoors, the beaches were busy with the dregs of society.
Speaker: I parked my car in a side street within 100 feet of the beach, exited my car and saw a man in a t-shirt but had no pants or underwear on shouting, everyone needs to do more drugs, while a woman sat on the hood of a random parked car topless drinking out of a liquor bottle.
Speaker: on the same street where a friend of mine was assaulted by one of the homeless a year prior.
Speaker: Supposedly in the good part of Venice, which connects to the wealthier Santa Monica and Marina del Rey on either side.
Speaker: I performed and auditioned in Compton and East L.A.
Speaker: in my 24 years there, many times, and those were always the areas I was warned to avoid.
Speaker: I walked to and from my car and hung out with crowds after shows in those areas for nearly two decades without any issues.
Speaker: Maybe I got lucky, but I simply never had any problems, nor was I really worried.
Speaker: It doesn't mean I was careless.
Speaker: You have to keep your head on a swivel when you live in a big city, but it didn't interrupt my life or my fun or my work.
Speaker: But after going to the beach in June of 2020, I remember getting into my car alone and saying, nope, done.
Speaker: That was the day I went from contemplating and being on the fence about leaving Los Angeles to finalizing my plans.
Speaker: I actually looked over both shoulders many times when walking from my grocery store to my car with my cart.
Speaker: My daily morning and evening balcony meditation moments ground to a halt after smelling drugs, barbecue smoke, burning trash, and human feces on a daily basis.
Speaker: Despite the fact that I was on the top floor and hundreds of yards away from the tent cities where drug deals were made, literally like in a fast food drive-thru with Lamborghinis and Ferraris pulling up to buy drugs from these people.
Speaker: Not to mention, my last week there, while I was on the balcony, I heard machine gun fire.
Speaker: Police helicopters patrolling or giving chase, something I was used to in L.A., became a real nuisance and a constant interruption during the day and when I was trying to sleep at night.
Speaker: I was feeling unsafe because it wasn't safe.
Speaker: It was gross.
Speaker: Throw in the sexualization of children that became more prevalent and obvious in billboard ads and seeing how Hollywood behaved.
Speaker: I went from, well, you know, that's Hollywood.
Speaker: There's a lot of weirdos, to, oh, no, that's not the exception.
Speaker: It's the rule.
Speaker: The conservative, morally-centered Hollywood types, both famous and not, were not the norm.
Speaker: And in fact, they were ostracized and silenced.
Speaker: I learned that many, and I do mean many, of the famous people got famous because they sold their souls.
Speaker: I saw the writing on the wall.
Speaker: I made the decision to be the architect of my life.
Speaker: I never moved to LA for fame.
Speaker: I knew a certain amount of fame would come with whatever I did on stage, on camera, and in print, the same way I had a certain level of fame or celebrity status having worked in radio and TV when I lived in Northeast Ohio initially.
Speaker: But living in LA means waiting for someone, usually of high power, often scummy, to decide if you're in the club.
Speaker: I didn't want to be part of that club.
Speaker: I didn't even want to be around the club or live near the club.
Speaker: I moved back to my home state of Ohio and haven't been this happy in a long time.
Speaker: I'm in a solid romantic relationship.
Speaker: I'm closer to my mom who is pretty much my only family and certainly the person to which I'm closest.
Speaker: I'm reuniting with old friends.
Speaker: I'm making new friends.
Speaker: I've established more contact with the people I should have been hanging out with when I lived in LA now that I don't live in LA.
Speaker: I've lost some friends.
Speaker: But I didn't lose much sleep over it.
Speaker: I'm still performing stand-up here in Ohio and elsewhere, corporate events, comedy clubs, but it's now on my own terms.
Speaker: I'm still doing voiceovers and seeking hosting and acting work.
Speaker: I'm producing my own comedy shows.
Speaker: I'm creating pitches for not one but two game shows that I'm shopping to production companies.
Speaker: I'm working on a fifth book.
Speaker: I'm traveling easier.
Speaker: I'm not walking on eggshells worrying about woke, easily offended audiences or friends.
Speaker: It's a lower cost of living.
Speaker: It's better air.
Speaker: Less traffic.
Speaker: A more optimistic future.
Speaker: And frankly, my podcast got more pointed and popular as it has been taken on by a podcast agency now in an effort to grow and gain sponsors.
Speaker: Here's what I miss about L.A.
Speaker: the food and restaurants, and the ability to perform at multiple venues nearby, often a few in the same night.
Speaker: But make no mistake, that's the old LA.
Speaker: That's not how it was right when I left.
Speaker: That hasn't been LA for about five to six years.
Speaker: Once crowds were waiting to pounce on a comedian for content, and when I started seeing shows only being stacked with comedians who would toe the woke company line, fail, why would I stay?
Speaker: A dozen or so of my friends left LA before me and about 30 have left since.
Speaker: It's a small drop in the bucket overall considering hundreds of thousands, maybe even million plus have left California.
Speaker: Some were even raised there.
Speaker: I'm just saying like the 30 or so people I know personally.
Speaker: Some of those friends have spouses and kids.
Speaker: It's not easy to leave, but it's not easy for me to stay where I literally hate and or fear my surroundings.
Speaker: And since I left in September of 2020, L.A.
Speaker: has gotten infinitely worse.
Speaker: This is not news, but this is Los Angeles is so bad.
Speaker: How bad is it?
Speaker: Well, let rapper 50 Cent tell you.
Speaker: From the Daily Wire, but found everywhere.
Speaker: Here's your headline.
Speaker: Watch how bad it gets.
Speaker: 50 Cent says Los Angeles is finished.
Speaker: I don't want any of that California bullshit.
Speaker: Here's the article.
Speaker: If you think Los Angeles is bad now, just wait.
Speaker: Sure, drug addicts are shooting up on the streets, aggressive homeless people are everywhere, and violent crime is soaring, but rapper 50 Cent said the worst is yet to come.
Speaker: 50 Cent took to Instagram to post a video clip of a news report about a federal judge's decision that holding inmates until they can pay cash bail is a violation of their constitutional rights.
Speaker: The article says, starting at midnight tonight, the sheriff's department will no longer detain people for crimes such as theft, shoplifting, drug use, vandalism, battery, and a whole host of other non-serious, non-violent crimes that affect the quality of life of people here in Los Angeles County.
Speaker: Deputy District Attorney John McKinney says in the clip, oh, I didn't realize battery was a non-violent crime.
Speaker: The article says the news anchor then says LA Deputy DA John McKinney explains that due to Judge Lawrence Riff's ruling, many people arrested will be released immediately without having to pay bail before their arraignment.
Speaker: 50 Cent posted, LA is finished.
Speaker: Watch how bad it gets out there.
Speaker: During the height of the COVID pandemic, Los Angeles County did away with cash bail to ease overcrowding in jails.
Speaker: Since then, the crime rate has soared.
Speaker: In the downtown area in 2022, there was a 25% rise in violent crimes such as rape compared to 2019.
Speaker: Violent crime in one neighborhood, Rancho Park, rose 114% between 2019 and 2022.
Speaker: LA police say mental illness, rampant drug use, and homelessness are to blame.
Speaker: Every day, people out in the neighborhoods or community people are working in local businesses have been victimized, whether by assaults or armed robberies.
Speaker: It's pretty commonplace, Councilwoman Tracy Park told USA Today.
Speaker: No, I will not get with the times.
Speaker: Have you seen Sound of Freedom yet?
Speaker: While you may think that seeing this on the big screen doesn't bring anything to the table and you can wait until it comes on Netflix or Amazon or whatever since it's not full of special effects, but here's what seeing a movie of this magnitude does bring when you see it on the big screen and in a theater.
Speaker: And that is this, a sense of community that is seeing it with people who get it.
Speaker: The sense of reverence for what these brave men did in saving children.
Speaker: The sense of gravity in having your eyes opened to the largest slavery ring in the history of mankind.
Speaker: To say this movie is powerful is an understatement.
Speaker: This is the first movie I've seen in a theater since 2019.
Speaker: I don't need to see it again.
Speaker: But it is the must-see movie of the last, what, 10 years?
Speaker: Certainly the most important.
Speaker: 2,000 Mules made me mad.
Speaker: Uncle Tom and Uncle Tom 2 opened my eyes wider.
Speaker: I still haven't seen What is a Woman yet, but I plan to.
Speaker: But Sound of Freedom opened my eyes, reaffirmed why I left Hollywood.
Speaker: It made me mad, it disgusted me, and it stayed with me.
Speaker: If you're a parent, go.
Speaker: Make plans this week.
Speaker: Make no mistake, this SAG-AFTRA actor strike is directly in line with the release of this movie.
Speaker: This is the bravest movie I've ever seen.
Speaker: What the actors, producers, finance people, directors all put on the line to get this message out.
Speaker: You'll forget you're watching a movie and feel like you are witnessing the true story and true account on which this movie is based.
Speaker: Which leads me to this next point about the demise of California.
Speaker: When I was traveling to and from Freedom Fest in Memphis, both directions, included layovers in the Atlanta airport.
Speaker: No joke, no exaggeration.
Speaker: While I waited during my two and a half hour layover, about every 10 minutes, an announcement came on over the PA system to the effect of, if you see suspicious behavior around children or anyone else, please report it to airport security.
Speaker: The Atlanta International Airport is doing their part to stop human trafficking.
Speaker: It's sad that that even has to be announced in America.
Speaker: How bad is it getting in California?
Speaker: California Democrats actually resisted a child trafficking bill until they couldn't.
Speaker: As recently as mid-July, human trafficking of a minor for purposes of commercial sex under current law incurs a sentence of up to 12 years in prison.
Speaker: Up to 12 years in prison.
Speaker: If the crime involved force, fear, fraud, deceit, coercion, violence, duress, menace, or threat of unlawful injury to the victim or to another person, the sentence is 15 years to life.
Speaker: When would human trafficking not involve force, fear, fraud, deceit, coercion, violence, duress, menace, or threat to the victim?
Speaker: If the person is convicted of inflicting great bodily harm on a victim while trafficking them, a judge can add up to 10 years to a prison sentence.
Speaker: Again, when would that not happen?
Speaker: But for California, that sounds about right.
Speaker: What better way to signal that you are part of human trafficking than to minimize or trivialize the punishment for it?
Speaker: Shameful.
Speaker: Disgraceful.
Speaker: Throw in no-bill policies and you got yourself anarchy.
Speaker: If he gets up, we'll all get up.
Speaker: It'll be anarchy.
Speaker: So let me get this straight.
Speaker: In California, the crime committed over 200 years ago for which amateur nation wants reparations, that is slavery, is the same crime currently not worthy of life imprisonment automatically.
Speaker: Got it.
Speaker: Okay, well, that explains basically nothing.
Speaker: If you sell people in California, it's around 12 to 15 years prison.
Speaker: Maybe less.
Speaker: Maybe you get out on good behavior.
Speaker: Human traffickers and pedophiles are known for their good behavior.
Speaker: To make things worse, the Department of Justice's child sex trafficking webpage removed three sections, international sex trafficking of minors, domestic sex trafficking of minors, and child victims of prostitution from its areas of concern.
Speaker: The Department of Justice not even concerned about
Speaker: So if the people who make the rules, who decide what crime should be looked at and enforced, say it's of no concern, that tells me quite simply they're in on it.
Speaker: What other sound logical reason would there be not to be concerned about the biggest slavery industry of all time?
Speaker: If you were working as security in loss prevention for Walmart and you knew for a fact that your store is a victim of rampant shoplifting, costing your company hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and your boss told you, don't worry about it, wouldn't you assume it was an inside job?
Speaker: No, I will not get with the times.
Speaker: And now for step two.
Speaker: Topic number two.
Speaker: Well, just a couple weeks ago, I attended Freedom Fest in Memphis, Tennessee, where I performed stand-up comedy alongside other like-minded, free-thinking comedians, as well as attendees.
Speaker: And I also spoke on a panel with other comedians regarding censorship and comedy with the title, Punching Up to Power, Let the Comedians Speak Freely.
Speaker: As a comedian who has had two Instagram accounts trashed and continues to restock followers, so to speak, that sounds so sterile, and having heard phrases from fans, comedy audiences, and people who respond to posts on my social media with things like, you can't say that, or you can't say that anymore, or you better be careful, the panel discussion that I participated in was right up my alley.
Speaker: You know, this whole humor fad is pretty much on the way out.
Speaker: In fact, as I say these words, I'm wearing my free speech makes free people tee that I got from one of the vendors at Freedom Fest.
Speaker: I can't wait until next year's event.
Speaker: Here are some of the talking points I mentioned while on the panel with three other comedians, two of which have been harassed and even jailed for their words, both spoken and written, the latter from Sweden.
Speaker: These points I'm about to make are the things I've mentioned in my book, Amateur Nation, The Decline of Common Sense, Manners, and Social Skills, and on this show many times.
Speaker: You can download my book on Amazon.
Speaker: Let's start with the basic premise and foundation of Amateur Nation's attack on comedy, and that is the general statement, well, that joke offends me.
Speaker: Okay, let's go back to basics.
Speaker: Webster's Dictionary defines joke as something said or done to provoke laughter, especially a brief oral narrative with a climactic humorous twist.
Speaker: Well, it didn't make me laugh, so it's not a joke.
Speaker: I didn't find it funny.
Speaker: So let me ask you this.
Speaker: Is a sad movie like, say, The Notebook, not sad if you don't cry?
Speaker: Is a movie billed as a comedy that doesn't make you laugh now not a comedy?
Speaker: Are you offended if its intended purpose didn't strike a chord with you?
Speaker: Art is subjective, and the sooner people understand that comedy is art, then maybe they'll get it.
Speaker: By the way, this is important.
Speaker: A joke also is funny to the joke teller.
Speaker: whether they're a professional comedian or not.
Speaker: It simply doesn't matter if you, the listener, doesn't find it funny.
Speaker: The teller does.
Speaker: That's why they're telling it.
Speaker: The same way a singer likes the song they're singing, even if they're just some person doing karaoke and not a professional singer.
Speaker: It's a good song to them.
Speaker: They just hope you like their singing and or song.
Speaker: See also authors, screenwriters, models, dancers, painters, public speakers, anything where art is subjective, where the take is
Speaker: is opinion, not fact.
Speaker: You know, like science.
Speaker: Science, you crazy bitch.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: One of the panelists mentioned how most of her material is dark material, that is, subject matter that is generally taboo or depressing or covers topics that are dark and depressing.
Speaker: She had mentioned how her brother, now deceased, had been suffering from a rare form of cancer and died very young.
Speaker: She said she joked with him all the time, especially as the cancer...
Speaker: progressed, and she joked with him about his cancer to him, to him and on stage, about him.
Speaker: And despite the context of her dealing with a loved one dying from a horrible illness, she was met with much scorn and ridicule.
Speaker: The most common comment, well, you don't have cancer, so you can't make jokes about it.
Speaker: She also mentioned how joking with him and about him to him and in front of others really made him happy.
Speaker: It took his mind off his troubles and his impending doom.
Speaker: I've never been married, so I can't make marriage jokes?
Speaker: Even coming from a single man perspective?
Speaker: Can married comedians no longer do material about being single?
Speaker: They're married now!
Speaker: Do amateurs not understand that making fun of terrible things is a stress relief?
Speaker: We've all heard the phrase, too soon, but is it?
Speaker: Telling a dark joke or a joke made at the expense of a tragedy or in the aforementioned case a sick person doesn't mean the joke teller doesn't care about the issue or people or that person or humanity in general.
Speaker: In fact, and I say this with absolute certainty, that it is indeed the opposite.
Speaker: They love humanity.
Speaker: They care about people dying of cancer and maybe that person if they're doing a joke about that person.
Speaker: Also, have you ever teased a loved one, a friend, a significant other?
Speaker: And when I say tease, I don't just mean like, you know, hey, who picks out your clothes type teasing.
Speaker: I mean the harsh go for the jugular verbal assault that you reserve just for loved ones, your closest friends and family and significant other.
Speaker: How about that phrase, you always hurt the one you love?
Speaker: Amateurs take the teasing or joking leap straight to hate.
Speaker: If you did tease them, I guess that means you hate your friends, family, and significant other.
Speaker: Now, to be clear, this doesn't mean I don't understand when a comedian would make a joke about, let's say, cancer and someone in the audience who may be battling cancer or has a close friend or family member doing the same wouldn't feel uncomfortable, hurt, saddened, angered, and yes, maybe even offended.
Speaker: Where it becomes a problem is when that same person tells the comedian or a civilian, a non-professional comedian, that they aren't allowed to say something because they got hurt.
Speaker: saddened, or angered.
Speaker: You see, the rules don't change because it's happening to you, or because there are more than one of you hearing it.
Speaker: We got a thing called freedom of speech, and a man can say any dumbass thing he wants.
Speaker: Would you go to a movie without researching the types of movies?
Speaker: or it's filmed by your favorite director, starring your favorite actor, it's your favorite genre or type of story, do you go to a movie theater, cover your eyes, and say, two tickets for that one, please?
Speaker: Why do comedians have to work dirty?
Speaker: It's more skillful to work clean.
Speaker: Okay, comedians don't have to work dirty or clean.
Speaker: It's a choice.
Speaker: As much of a choice as choosing what kind of material to write and perform.
Speaker: As I tell my corporate clients when discussing show parameters before an event, look, I can work rated G, PG, PG-13, PG-18, or anything goes.
Speaker: I generally work in the PG-18 spectrum, but...
Speaker: mainly because most comedy audiences are over 18 and have heard dirty words and subject material.
Speaker: I can only write about what I've experienced in my take on experiences.
Speaker: And if I get riled up and swear, so be it.
Speaker: I've also done an entire true story about the time I walked in on a roommate who was masturbating without one single dirty word, gross analogy, or even a euphemism about bodily fluids and genitals.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Because the bit was about his embarrassment and my uncomfortability.
Speaker: That's called listen before you make a knee-jerk reaction to words or premise and then decide.
Speaker: But again, as a professional comedian of 26 years and counting, by the time I wrote that bit, I was only about two years into stand-up comedy.
Speaker: I already knew which audiences that material would be okay for and which ones wouldn't.
Speaker: A professional comedian understands which type of comedy works in certain audiences, venues, times of the day, week, month, and or based on the region of the country.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, sure, a rebel comedian could have the mindset of, well, this is me, man, take it or leave it.
Speaker: But make no mistake, a comedian like, say, the late, great Sam Kinison, when he first started out, wasn't letting it fly with foul language and screaming at every show he performed, no matter where he was performing.
Speaker: No way.
Speaker: Not when he first started.
Speaker: But eventually, he found his audience, the people that got him.
Speaker: And then others came to him.
Speaker: The same way a comedian like squeaky clean Brian Regan, when he first started out, wouldn't be able to play a bar gig where the language is saltier and the crowds like it bawdy and lowbrow.
Speaker: I've played comedy clubs sold out with all Hells Angels in the audience.
Speaker: A Wednesday afternoon show for 12 board of directors of corporations.
Speaker: Colleges, military bases, bar gigs, clean comedians-only comedy clubs.
Speaker: I've performed on Playboy TV in front of a live audience with two naked female hosts sitting right next to me.
Speaker: And of course, as you hear in my show during the commercial breaks, my Drybar comedy special, known for being squeaky clean.
Speaker: Just because I can work dirty, he said in quotes, or uncensored, so to speak, doesn't mean I have to.
Speaker: Nor does it mean I feel oppressed or censored or restricted when I perform at a corporate event or my dry bar comedy special and am told that I have to work clean.
Speaker: It's called being respectful to the people who are paying you and honoring the rules of the room.
Speaker: That's professionalism.
Speaker: But if I were to do a clean show and a club restricted by subject matter, even if it was void of foul language or euphemisms to soften the blow and they wanted to monitor my content, well, that's a big fat no.
Speaker: Every comedian has to live with him or herself as to what they will and won't do, sacrifice, and or tolerate when it comes to the rules of the room.
Speaker: I know some comedians who simply won't play clean clubs or clean shows because it's usually because they know they can't or it won't be received well or they simply don't have enough clean material.
Speaker: The same way certain clean comedians that I know won't do bar gigs because they know they'll struggle.
Speaker: You see, there's something for everyone in the world of comedy.
Speaker: The same way there's something for everyone in music, art, literature, movies, song, dance, and even businesses and sports.
Speaker: Not one in particular are right.
Speaker: They're right for you, the viewer, listener, reader, participator.
Speaker: But to say that your feelings, whatever they may be, are as amateur nation often says, are so strong that you must be right.
Speaker: Feelings, they're so much easier to control than fast.
Speaker: Why are your feelings to hear or see something more important than my right to say or show something?
Speaker: Do you go to a restaurant with no idea of what food you want to eat?
Speaker: Or even a type of restaurant?
Speaker: No, you do your homework.
Speaker: You have a hankering for Mexican food, you seek out a Mexican restaurant.
Speaker: You know you must have ribs.
Speaker: You find a barbecue joint.
Speaker: If you want a good cry, you go to a vegan restaurant.
Speaker: You just ruined a perfectly good comedy routine.
Speaker: You can like and dislike whatever you want.
Speaker: But no human has a right to tell someone what they can or cannot laugh at, read, see, or say.
Speaker: Have you seen a movie that you liked most of it, but one element bothered you?
Speaker: Like the movie was good, but maybe one actor sucked.
Speaker: Did you complain to the manager, ask for your money back because you didn't like the whole movie?
Speaker: Someone in the audience at Freedom Fest asked the panel why live stand-up comedy is under such scrutiny.
Speaker: And this is my opinion.
Speaker: The reason stand-up comedy is under attack is because it is live.
Speaker: And not only that, some stand-up is in quick response to what is happening around us.
Speaker: Topical comedians get harangued more because something is in the papers now.
Speaker: Something is in the headlines.
Speaker: Something is water cooler talk.
Speaker: And within a week, they're live commenting on it before the general public has had a chance to process or dig deeper.
Speaker: It's also one of the few remaining things besides live music and plays that is not like social media in that you can distance yourself from it, ignore it, delete it, block it, and detach yourself from it and then complain about it, sometimes from somewhere else.
Speaker: You can see a movie and it's not live.
Speaker: You can yell at the screen all you want and the screen won't talk back.
Speaker: Same with TV, same with social media.
Speaker: It's the one time in an amateur's life where they feel, and forgive me for the overused term, empowered.
Speaker: But it usually just results in them feeling embarrassed and is a cry for attention because, as we all know, amateurs thrive on attention, and when they see someone else getting that attention, especially when it doesn't align with their feelings, they snap.
Speaker: Amateurs have knee-jerk reactions to words more than subject matter.
Speaker: Think about it.
Speaker: If a comedian just went on stage and said the word, gay,
Speaker: The average amateur would assume that this is somehow going to be hate speech without knowing anything about the comedian.
Speaker: Their take on homosexuality, their life experiences, their sense of humor, their timing, their writing, and the material itself.
Speaker: Comedy is not just words put down on paper or said randomly on stage.
Speaker: Comedy, well, good stand-up comedy, contains the following elements in no particular order.
Speaker: Context, timing, wording, delivery, pacing, and subject matter.
Speaker: Comedy is not just a string of words put together recklessly.
Speaker: Good comedy is crafted and purposeful and yes, sometimes designed to get a reaction out of you besides laughter.
Speaker: Some comedy is silly.
Speaker: Some make you think.
Speaker: Some make you mad.
Speaker: You might want to ask yourself why a joke or comedy routine is making you angry.
Speaker: Have you not thought it through?
Speaker: Was a point made that you hadn't thought of or chose to ignore?
Speaker: Maybe it hits home because it affects you personally, but even so, does that alone make it hateful, mean,
Speaker: Also, have you considered that you don't know the joke slash comedy deliverer, that is, the comedian, personally, and or his or her past, their struggles, their take on the world?
Speaker: We each see the world through our own eyes.
Speaker: We can't put ourselves in the other person's brain.
Speaker: Why is your reception and feelings about a joke more important than the right of free speech of the comedian saying it?
Speaker: Do you write and complain and censor every musical artist that has offensive lyrics?
Speaker: Small business owners that have different politics and or social and religious beliefs than you?
Speaker: then you need to realize this is a you problem.
Speaker: You are the common denominator.
Speaker: I remember the quote of the movie Jerry Maguire, you can't sell anyone unless you love everyone.
Speaker: Tolerance.
Speaker: Acceptance.
Speaker: It doesn't mean you have to like all comedy, but you have to be tolerant of it and accept all of it.
Speaker: It's fine for you to say, after all my explanation, I don't care.
Speaker: I still don't like it.
Speaker: I don't find it funny.
Speaker: I don't like dirty or dark comedy.
Speaker: And as a comedian, I applaud that sentiment.
Speaker: As long as that's where it stops and there is no censorship.
Speaker: But if you're an amateur nation and you don't want to hear comedians talk about or more specifically against the things you hold near and dear to your heart, then you need to question your own tolerance and acceptance.
Speaker: The whole world of comedy is wrong.
Speaker: That means you have somewhat of a God complex in that your thinking, your beliefs are paramount to societies.
Speaker: What, you think because you have friends who feel the same way?
Speaker: Great, but plenty of other people in the world feel the way of the comedian too.
Speaker: Notice how the bigger-name comedians aren't getting canceled despite their ruffling of feathers.
Speaker: Bill Maher, Joe Rogan, Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle.
Speaker: Why is it okay for Bill Burr to say one controversial thing, but a less famous or new comedian is not allowed?
Speaker: It incenses me that any comedian would say, well, you can't say that.
Speaker: On stage or off, their job, their calling is based on the First Amendment.
Speaker: Without George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks, and in present day, Bill Maher, Dennis Miller, Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, and many more, and even the comedians who aren't political or don't have social messages, edgy, thought-provoking, clever, social commentary-type comedy does not exist.
Speaker: edgy comedy might have come from other comedians if it wasn't for them.
Speaker: Yes, it might have been someone else, but the bottom line is it was them.
Speaker: It wasn't someone else.
Speaker: They did it.
Speaker: Not all comedy is the three stooges slipping on a banana peel.
Speaker: Attention, new comedians.
Speaker: And by that, I mean four years or less.
Speaker: Those comedians I just mentioned made and make your job possible.
Speaker: Your level of fame has nothing to do with the amount of free speech to which you are entitled.
Speaker: Boy, you sure know your comedy.
Speaker: As I said in the last episode, if you laughed at something five years ago, you should be laughing at it now.
Speaker: You don't change your sense of humor to bend to woke slash commie pressure.
Speaker: You keep doing your little comedy show.
Speaker: You just have a good time with it.
Speaker: Oh, I will.
Speaker: And no, when it comes to censorship of any kind, no, I will not get with the times.
Speaker: Check out all my social media links on my main page website at LouSantini.com and you can check out Sneak Peek Thursdays every week.
Speaker: Email Lou at LouSantini.com.
Speaker: Leave a review about this show wherever you listen.
Speaker: 10 Symptoms of the Woke Mind Refuted on topic number three next.
Speaker: Hi, pros.
Speaker: Lou Santini here, host of Amateur Nation.
Speaker: My Dry Bar Comedy Special, Amateur Nation, is now available.
Speaker: And just like this show, if you're allergic to a lack of common sense in today's world, and you like your comedy delivered with uncompromising talent like it is bite, then check out my half-hour comedy special, Amateur Nation.
Speaker: Go to drybarcomedy.com slash Lou S. This is my way of saying thank you to the pros who listen to this show every week.
Speaker: DrybarComedy.com slash Lou S. Amateur Nation is not just a podcast, it's a movement.
Speaker: The honor and remember flag is a nationally recognized symbol that sends a message of appreciation for the sacrifice made by our fallen heroes and their families.
Speaker: The flag flies at many NASCAR races around the country, and you can help honor our nation's fallen military members and remember the eternal sacrifice of their service by flying the flag too.
Speaker: Text FLAG to 71777 or visit honorandremember.org to learn more.
Speaker: Together, we remember them all.
Speaker: There's been an odd shift in human behavior over the last 15 plus years.
Speaker: A sense of entitlement.
Speaker: A constant need for attention.
Speaker: Ironically coupled with the need to be left alone.
Speaker: A desire to be treated the same as everyone else.
Speaker: Stupidly combined with the mindset of, I'm special, so treat me accordingly.
Speaker: Introducing the book, Amateur Nation.
Speaker: The Decline of Common Sense, Manners, and Social Skills.
Speaker: The second edition.
Speaker: Inside, you'll read the amateur mission statement.
Speaker: The 30 truths about amateurs.
Speaker: The four stages of being an amateur.
Speaker: Amateur habitats and history.
Speaker: Social media plus me, me, me equals amateur.
Speaker: Technology and amateur behavior.
Speaker: With dozens of real funny photos, weird signs, and laugh out loud real life accounts and actual conversations vividly showing how us pros are surrounded by amateur nation every day.
Speaker: Download the expanded second edition of the e-book, Amateur Nation, The Decline of Common Sense Manners and Social Skills.
Speaker: The second expanded edition of
Speaker: Available now.
Speaker: Be a pro.
Speaker: Go to Amazon.
Speaker: Type Amateur Nation.
Speaker: All right, now step three.
Speaker: Topic number three.
Speaker: Hit me!
Speaker: I recently saw this post that made me laugh out loud put up by Women's Rights News on Facebook.
Speaker: And it was entitled, 10 Symptoms of the Woke Mind.
Speaker: Let the refuting begin!
Speaker: Number one, you read books and don't burn them.
Speaker: Woke Amateur Nation does exactly that.
Speaker: And remember when they banned Dr. Seuss?
Speaker: But here's an instructional book on how to give and receive anal third grader.
Speaker: And I don't remember seeing footage of conservatives burning any books.
Speaker: And Pro Nation never had a problem with books that contained explicit sex.
Speaker: They just aren't for underage kids.
Speaker: But apparently, that has to be said now.
Speaker: Number two, you embrace science.
Speaker: Except when it comes to vaccine safety, mask effectiveness, the climate change hoax, the EV hoax, and being able to describe and define what a woman is.
Speaker: Also for the woke, embracing science means regurgitating whatever the mainstream media tells you without using independent thought, critical thinking, or asking for a source and research information.
Speaker: See, anything said by Dr. Keebler L. Fauci and Greta, I'm zero for a hundred in climate statements, Thunberg.
Speaker: Number three, you are willing to change your mind when new information becomes available.
Speaker: Translation, the science has changed and that translates to science changed its mind.
Speaker: So go you.
Speaker: Number four, you understand that most issues are not black and white.
Speaker: Except the issue of black people and white people standing no chance of peacefully coexisting because of the white people.
Speaker: Are you sure it's the white man who did all that stuff?
Speaker: Also, this is false because woke amateurs have their feelings, which are strong, which proves facts and science.
Speaker: Number five.
Speaker: Once again, the 10 symptoms of the woke mind, according to them.
Speaker: You believe in true equality for all people.
Speaker: Except straight people, white people, males, and especially straight white males.
Speaker: And if you don't believe in this limited equality, you're a racist and thus unequal.
Speaker: Number six, you like to share.
Speaker: As in, share my post.
Speaker: I need the likes and follows.
Speaker: It also means share your stuff with me even though you paid for it.
Speaker: Number seven, you embrace cooperation.
Speaker: See the George Floyd riots.
Speaker: Number eight, you respect each other's rights.
Speaker: As long as they're the right to censor, cancel, riot, and deny service to those with whom you don't agree.
Speaker: Number nine, you believe culture and the arts have value.
Speaker: Unless it offends you.
Speaker: And by culture, you mean drag shows in front of children or a statue of lifetime criminal George Floyd.
Speaker: And number 10, you care for the planet and all of its life.
Speaker: Even pedophiles?
Speaker: Even the pretend bat that started COVID?
Speaker: Even the strip mines in China, the Congo, and Afghanistan worked by child slaves to get the rare earth minerals for your Prius?
Speaker: That planet?
Speaker: Even the land and air decimated by saboteurs in East Palestine, Ohio?
Speaker: Even the chicken farms and cows killed in terrorist attacks?
Speaker: That life?
Speaker: Even the unborn babies?
Speaker: What about that life?
Speaker: Even the plastic-smelling air blowing into the U.S. from China to?
Speaker: You care for all that life and planet, woke amateurs?
Speaker: All right, it's time for A La Carte.
Speaker: Actually, if you're using pronouns, your pronouns are I, me.
Speaker: Pro-nouns?
Speaker: More like amateur nouns.
Speaker: I was watching the zombie movie World War Z when there was absolute panic and pandemonium as passengers just stormed the plane and quickly took off.
Speaker: I think they were in Israel.
Speaker: Somehow, people, in a panic no less, with zombies chasing them, managed to get in the air without several hundred intelligence insulting announcements and protocol.
Speaker: I'd be down with a simple, everyone who is a pro, feel free to board, and I'm willing to bet people could get it done.
Speaker: As long as there isn't one amateur getting on board, it could happen.
Speaker: I mean in the movie, besides the zombies, everyone got on the plane quickly and in the air.
Speaker: Uh, sidebar, from that scene, what kind of person brings their tiny yappy dog onto a crowded, panic-filled, space-limited, zombie-fleeing plane?
Speaker: An amateur.
Speaker: Disney's Bob Iger is putting Freeform, ABC, and FX up for sale and possibly Disney Plus.
Speaker: And they may sell all of Disney to Apple.
Speaker: Because you know who knows all about having fun outdoors with others?
Speaker: Computer nerds!
Speaker: In other news, Microsoft is looking into buying the lesser Knott's Berry Farm.
Speaker: I wonder if that means Disney will update their parks and networks every single week.
Speaker: Possible slogans for Disney if Apple takes over?
Speaker: Disneyland, it's the appiest place on Earth.
Speaker: Or, or, Disneyland, it's the appley-est place on Earth.
Speaker: Or, Disney, think woke.
Speaker: Disney think broke.
Speaker: Oh, this just in.
Speaker: Cryogenically frozen Walt Disney has awoken and he's fucking pissed.
Speaker: Well, I'm not getting with the times.
Speaker: What about you?
Speaker: Time now for three pro things.
Speaker: Three things that are done right.
Speaker: Number one.
Speaker: This brilliant post from at James Bradley CA on Instagram.
Speaker: He said, I've noticed a pattern among the Biden family.
Speaker: That's not my laptop.
Speaker: That's not my gun.
Speaker: That's not my cocaine.
Speaker: That's not my child.
Speaker: Is it any wonder half the country says that's not my president?
Speaker: America doesn't skip out on its responsibilities.
Speaker: Neither should its leaders.
Speaker: This is America, dang it.
Speaker: We know what we're doing.
Speaker: Number two.
Speaker: Listen to this audio from native Chilean Axel Kaiser talking about how he witnessed a Marxist revolution overtaking his homeland, reversing decades of prosperity.
Speaker: The country once enjoyed thanks to a free market and leaders who enforced the rule of law.
Speaker: Listen to what he says, especially at the end.
Speaker: For us in Chile, we lost our country because we were not able to appreciate where we had.
Speaker: We really even created a myth that this was the most unequal, the most unfair country in the history of Latin America.
Speaker: And in the end, we hated our country so much that we put in charge of it.
Speaker: people who destroyed it.
Speaker: It happened so fast.
Speaker: This is the part that's most disconcerting.
Speaker: So it's heartbreaking to see the place you grew up, you know, being completely destroyed by these ideologies and these ideas.
Speaker: And I hope that's something that doesn't happen to people here.
Speaker: And that's why I like the United States, because I see more people willing to fight for this country than I saw in Chile, people willing to fight for ours.
Speaker: If you don't fight back then, that's when you lose.
Speaker: He went on to say, if we lose the United States, we lose the last best hope for Earth, for freedom.
Speaker: USA!
Speaker: USA!
Speaker: USA!
Speaker: Number three.
Speaker: Let's lighten things up to close with this clip from the late, great Johnny Carson, who even back in 1986, 87, called out Joe Biden for who he really is.
Speaker: One of the Democratic candidates is Senator Joseph Biden.
Speaker: Have you seen the problem he's been having?
Speaker: He went around and made a speech.
Speaker: And apparently he quoted a, I think it was a British politician, took his speech and kind of paraphrased it as his own.
Speaker: And then the press got on him, and then he was charged also with taking part of Bobby Kennedy's speeches.
Speaker: And Biden says, not to worry.
Speaker: He reassured his staff.
Speaker: He said, we have nothing to fear, but fear itself.
Speaker: Ask any comedian, there is nothing worse than a hack stealing material.
Speaker: And can you imagine if Biden had been elected president in the late 80s?
Speaker: You'd be hearing this podcast in Chinese.
Speaker: Well, actually, you wouldn't be hearing the information and viewpoints I dish out on this show at all.
Speaker: Catch my Drybar Comedy special, Amateur Nation, drybarcomedy.com slash L-O-U-S.
Speaker: My email, lou at lou santini dot com.
Speaker: Copy the link from whatever platform you listen on and paste it to someone who needs to hear this show.
Speaker: And feel free to leave a review.
Speaker: More information on this show and me, lou santini dot com.
Speaker: Give me something I can use.
Speaker: You can snag a free No Amateurs t-shirt because Amateur Nation is not just a podcast.
Speaker: It's a movement.
Speaker: Remember, amateurs, we see you.
Speaker: You're not at home.
Speaker: Don't do life wrong.
Speaker: Go pro.
Speaker: Don't be an amateur.
Speaker: For Amateur Nation, I'm Lou Santini, and this has been a Big Major Production.
Speaker: Okay, show's over.
Speaker: We're going home.
