Stand-Up & Laugh with Michael Gelbart

Today’s special guest is comedian/writer, Michael Gelbart. Michael has appeared on The Late Late Show on CBS, Comics Unleashed and Comedy.tv. He’s had two prime-time specials on CTV and CBC, which have both aired on Comedy Central. 

Michael was a writer and later head writer of the Canadian Screen Awards (formerly the Geminis), wrote dozens of sitcom episodes and animated series that have aired on Disney, Nickelodeon, Teen Nick, Starz Kids, and Cartoon Network. He wrote and co-starred in the holiday movie "A Very Cool Christmas" which airs annually on Lifetime.

Michael performs all over North America, dividing his time between the US and Canada. Michael’s new one hour special,  “Michael Gelbart: All New Smash Hits” is now streaming globally on Amazon Prime.

I was extra excited to have this chat with Michael because Michael is one of my all-time favorite comedians. It was surreal and such a thrill to hear how he got into stand-up, his advice to those interested in getting into comedy, and his amazing memories working with fellow comedian Norm Macdonald. I also loved hearing Michael’s take on how we create our own reality, the power of laughter, and finding the fun in the journey.

And I had so much fun doing an impromptu laughter exercise with Michael. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to keep a straight face in traffic again.

Watch “Michael Gelbart: “All New Smash Hits” on Amazon Prime

Follow Michael on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realgelbart/

Transcript

0:00

<unk> Welcome back to the law of happy podcast, where together we crack the code on feeling good and allowing more of what we want into our lives. I'm your host Lauren tat. I'm an attorney, author, wellness, arts teacher, and inspirational clown. I'm so excited for you to meet today's special guests, comedian and writer, Michael Gilbert. Michael is appeared on the late late show and CBS comics, unleashed and comedy.tv. He's had two primetime specials on CTV and CBC, which have both aired on comedy central. He was a writer and later head writer of the canadian screen awards formerly the geminis wrote dozens of sit-com episodes and animated series that have aired On disney nickelodeon T Nick stars kids and cartoon network He wrote and co-starred in the holiday movie a very cool christmas which airs annually on lifetime Michael performs all over north america dividing his time between the us and canada And michael's new one-hour special michael gilbert all new smash hits is now streaming globally on amazon prime I have to tell you that i was extra excited to have this chat with michael because michael happens to be one of my all time. favorite comedians So it was surreal in such a thrill to hear how he got into standup his advice to those interested in getting into comedy And his amazing memories working with fellow comedian nor macdonald I also loved hearing michael's take on how we create our own reality The power of laughter and finding the fun in the journey. And i had so much fun doing an impromptu laughter exercise with michael i don't think i'm ever going to be able to keep a straight face in traffic again So please join me in giving a warm welcome to michael gilbert

Michael: 1:42

Okay, I'm gonna leave the meeting,

Lauren: 1:44

Michael. That's funny. So listen Michael, welcome. I'm so happy that you're a guest on the Love of Happy Podcast. Thank you so much for being

Michael: 1:52

here. Hello, happiness lovers. It is great to be here. Thank you for having me, Lauren. This is a real treat.

Lauren: 2:01

I'm so excited. I don't even know where to start, but I'm going to just start and it's gonna unfold in a fun way. So Michael, you are a comedian and a writer.

Michael: 2:10

You are correct about this. I am both of those things, for sure.

Lauren: 2:14

I was at one of your shows, in Toronto several years ago.

Michael: 2:17

No, Niagara Fall.

Lauren: 2:18

I've been to Niagara

Michael: 2:19

Falls. I remember Lauren Montgomery Tatar. That's your middle name, right? No, I just made that up. I remember looking out in the audience and I remember you being in the front row or close to the front row with someone, and I believe that was the Niagara Falls yucks. Is that possible?

Lauren: 2:40

I you live in, I'm from Montreal and I'm back in Montreal right now, but I was living in Toronto for several years and that's where I saw you at the Yk, at the downtown Toronto location. And I went with a couple of times.

Michael: 2:53

I, remember it differently, but that's fine.

Lauren: 2:55

That's fine. You know what, I don't believe in chronological times, so that could have been another reality, but that's a whole other episode.

Michael: 3:02

No, I agree with you about chronological time in my 25 years on the planet. I have never gone with the natural chronological numbers.

Lauren: 3:14

No, it's a made up. It's a man, it's a human made Things so people can keep track of, things. So it, it's all good. So I could have been in Niagara Falls. You were right.

Michael: 3:23

You could have, but maybe you weren't. I don't know.

Lauren: 3:25

Yeah, who knows. But I do recall being at the Toronto YY location, you were the headliner, and I had never seen a show like this before. It was so funny. Your, style is very unique and I just loved it. I didn't want your show to end, literally. You just wanted me to keep going, getting up on stage and doing Yeah. Going, because you're very personable it doesn't feel like you're in a public venue. You feel like you are

Michael: 3:55

talking directly to each person.

Lauren: 3:57

Yes. Just like this. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, why I felt comfortable inviting you here, that's one of the reasons why I really loved your show. You're so funny, and I just wanna ask you so many things where you draw your inspiration from, how you got into comedy, and where do you wanna start?

Michael: 4:14

I wanna start with that. Where did I get my inspiration? There was this podcast called The Law of Happy. Is that's the name right? What's the name of this podcast? Yeah. Yes. And I heard it and I'm like, I want to do comedy now. And, I started that and that's, not how it happened, but okay.

Lauren: 4:36

I wanna go back to that after, because that's interesting that you said that. But please continue

Michael: 4:41

Okay. What, inspired me to even start, or

Lauren: 4:43

what, Exactly, how did you get into comedy?

Michael: 4:46

I was 17. And I was attending high school and a secondary school. Some people call it and I was attending school and there was a, class, a English class, and we had to choose something from popular culture and get up in front of the entire class and talk about that subject. So I, was very interested in standup com comedy, so I wrote five minutes of standup. To do in front of the class. So I even offered to go first. No one wants to go first when they do oral presentations, but I said I'll go first. And I did five minutes of standup and then I talked about standup for maybe another 10 minutes after that. But I did really well in front of 30 17 year old kids or whatever. I know I should have gone later because it was really hard to follow that for anyone else in class, being a normal teenager. So the teacher said, I'm not expecting anyone to be as larger than life as that was right. So that was the first time I did stand up. In a week later, I decided to do the new talent night at a local comedy club and maybe 70 kids from school came to see me and. It went very, well. So I continued to do new talent night after that, and it blossomed into greater things. So I was already being paid as a comedian while I was still in high school, but I guess I was just inspired by always wanting to be in show business when I was a kid and loving seeing comedians on daytime talk shows, or anytime my parents let me stay up and watch The Tonight Show or whatever. I loved standup and I thought this is the part of show business where I had the most. It. It's the easiest one to start from scratch because if you wanted to act in a movie, you would have to go to classes and then eventually get an agent and then get cast, and then hope it all worked out for you. A lot of things, a lot of steps or an instrument. Musical instrument takes forever to learn how to be good, but with standup, it's you and a microphone, and there are opportunities in almost any city. To do five minutes somewhere. So you like, if someone's dream was to be a standup, they could make that dream to some degree a reality that same week if they wanted to. It's just you, your thoughts and a microphone.

Lauren: 7:07

That's interesting. I never heard it presented like that before cuz I have a love of the performing arts and I did theater and film stuff and improv and I always found that standup seemed to me the most intimidating one to do. Because like you said, it's just you, the microphone and your thoughts. And I feel that there's this pressure that people are like, make me laugh and. You're literally on almost. It's the hardest.

Michael: 7:30

It might be the hardest one to get great at or do well, or develop your own style, but in terms of having access to it you won't need to take years of classes. You won't need to. Hope that a lot of things go your way to even get to try it. With standup, you can find a, an open mic in your city, sign up and go up. You, might not do it well, you might be horrible, but you can find a place to do that if you're so inclined anytime. Yeah,

Lauren: 8:04

it's, yeah, it's a good point. And so

Michael: 8:06

getting good is a whole

Lauren: 8:07

other story.

Michael: 8:07

If you really want to be a comedian, you're gonna make all your mistakes and figure out how to get good at it. By going, every chance you get to a place where a microphone and an audience, that's the only real way to become a comedian is find a room full of people where there's a microphone. Yeah,

Lauren: 8:26

You bring so much joy and laughter to so many people, what do you do or practice in your own personal life to feel good and to bring joy to,

Michael: 8:35

yourself? There's sometimes I'll go on the Love of Happy podcast and that'll fake me happy. But that's only one time so far. So, far, yeah. Other times I go to the gym every day and I do my cardio and I do my weights and I try to eat things that make me happy and I try to write every day. I don't always succeed at that. And those are things I love. Going to the movies. That's one of my, happy places. A movie theater's like my church or my synagogue, that's my favorite. I'll probably go to the movies a couple times a week. What else makes me happy? I like to go to a, thrift shop from time to time and find a rare item and go, why is this here? Do they know how much this is worth? And then I'll buy it. That's a little hobby of mine.

Lauren: 9:24

Okay. I like to re remind myself and people that it's not about being happy all the time. It's not possible. We're human in life. They're ups and downs and we experience all the different emotions, but I just, I get so excited and passionate about the different tools that we can. Use in practice to feel better or feel good and raise our energy and just bring more fun into our lives. And so laughter is one of those tools that I love to practice. That's why I'm so excited we're having this conversation because you are. A comedian and a writer and you bring laughter to so many people. Like those laughter, is involved in your work I hope it is. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I couldn't breathe during your set cuz I was laughing so hard. And we'll get into that in a moment,

Michael: 10:11

but ok. Yeah, I look forward to hearing more about that.

Lauren: 10:13

There's something that I wanna mention about that. So yes, I wanna go back to that. But, laughter in general is is such a great tool to just feel better. There's so many benefits to laughing. And so on my end, I teach laughter as an exercise and we call it laughter yoga. So we're choosing to laugh on purpose. We're not relying on our mind to find something. It's funny it's not relying on humor, but what I find interesting is that even though I'm simulating laughter at first through the laughter exercise it, really works the quote unquote laughter muscle so that I do find more things funny. Can we do a laughter exercise together just so that we can experience it together and people ca who are tuning in can laugh along with us, see what it's like. Absolutely

Michael: 10:57

not. I, will never do a laughter. Of course. I'll do one. What okay. What I know of about 70 or 80 different laughter exercises. Can you think of one off the top of your head that you'd like to try?

Lauren: 11:10

I was going to ask you if there's one that we can make up or come up with on the spot.

Michael: 11:15

I really don't know any laughter exercises. I was lying.

Lauren: 11:19

Let's be crazy and make one up on this spot.

Michael: 11:21

Okay. Alright. You do it. I don't, I Okay. You make it up and I'll do it. Okay.

Lauren: 11:25

Is there a scenario that can happen in, a typical day that is annoying, but we can turn it into a laughing experience? Let's say we're driving, okay. We're driving. And we're stuck in

Michael: 11:37

traffic.

Lauren: 11:38

Yes, That's a good one. Cause that can be frustrating, and I think so. That's the worst. Yeah, exactly. And then we're human. And the frustration and some anger or rage can just start bubbling up and and then it's. We don't wanna go there. It's okay to acknowledge that, okay, we're feeling frustrated, but then we wanna move through that energy and, let it go if we can, and move up and away from that at a certain point so we can pretend we're driving. Okay? We can pretend we're in traffic. We can hold the wheel. If

Michael: 12:06

people are, you behind the wheel and I'm, next to you. Or who's driving? Or we can both be driving wait, we're in different cars. How are we gonna hear each other's laughter. Okay. So that's a good point. We'll be in the same car. Yeah, we'll be in the same car. And I'm gonna be the

Lauren: 12:22

passenger. Okay. So I'm gonna be driving, so I'm holding the steering wheel however, I like 10 and two like, how we're taught

Michael: 12:28

why the hell did you take this route in the first place? I gotta start from a place of anger. And then we'll find the happy part. Why the hell look, I told you before that if you take this way, we're gonna get stuck. And guess what? Here we are stuck. What do you think of that?

Lauren: 12:48

You know what? I hear the frustration and the, a bit of anger, but I'm going to just breathe. So we're, because we incorporate breathing exercises with with the laughter, so

Michael: 12:59

Okay. I'll do it, but I'm still mad at you.

Lauren: 13:02

Okay. And I'm gonna keep my eyes open cuz I'm

Michael: 13:04

driving. Okay. Yeah, keep your eyes open. Okay. So I

Lauren: 13:08

can breathe. You can join me if you want.

Michael: 13:11

I listen, I'm too mad at you right now to join in. And I'm not joining. Wait a second. What you're doing looks really interesting. I might wanna join after all in.

Lauren: 13:24

We'll breathe in.

Michael: 13:26

Oh, I'm breathing still

Lauren: 13:30

really bad. I know. Yeah, so just You can, you're the worst. That's normal. It's normal. We can just, we can feel frustrated. Now. We're gonna breathe in again. And on the exhale, we're just gonna laugh. We're gonna let the laughter just flow

Michael: 13:41

already. Wow. I wanted to. And so funny how we're never getting where we were supposed to go,

Lauren: 14:05

but look, it's clearing, it's moving a bit. Now, don't you find the the traffic is, seems to be moving a bit. The more we laugh it, it moves.

Michael: 14:14

The cars are moving. I don't, I believe that laughter has the power to change a lot of things in your life, that it will not change the movement of other vehicles in front of You

Lauren: 14:25

That I was at a Raptors game. Wait, was when they won the what do you call it, the

Michael: 14:30

NBA finals? They

Lauren: 14:31

won the Yes, exactly. And I was coach. I was you

Michael: 14:39

would've read about that

Lauren: 14:42

people I was with in our area on the We were watching the game, so I was just guiding the people, I was talking about the players, but the people from work who I went to go see the game with, yes, it was getting tense at a certain point in this game because it was very close the score and I said to them, you know what, if we laugh, It's going to help the energy and it's gonna raise the vibration and the raptors are gonna win. So we were laughing and then things were improving and people were getting excited around me. So it's, amazing what the benefits so many benefits to to laughter. Yeah.

Michael: 15:19

How do you, okay, so are you saying, are you implying that the games outcome had something to do with your laughter?

Lauren: 15:27

You know what? I don't know. I'm, I believe anything is

Michael: 15:31

fucked. There's a chance, right? There's a chance that, you know it's possible. I do believe this. I, believe the outcome of the game will would've been the same. I also believe that if it's, better to laugh and be happy than not, and it, if it takes away your personal attention and those around you, then it was a, it. The, night was so much better than if you sat there tense. Because you could watch that game in complete, utter and utter tension or laughing and smiling and the outcome's the same, but you're, it's not the same for you. You didn't enjoy it as much, so you exactly what you did was you changed the outcome for the people in the room. For, everyone in that box, they had a better night.

Lauren: 16:17

It was a lot of fun. It was a great experience It's amazing the power of laughter. And thank you for participating in the laughter exercise

Michael: 16:25

Oh, I don't even consider that an exercise because in my mind that al that actually happened I, like, if anyone ever asks me if I was in a car with you and that took place, the answer is yes, because I really feel like that was real.

Lauren: 16:40

It's amazing how that works, eh? The power of the, mind. And, I believe that everything starts off with a thought or an idea. And I wanna ask you about this makes me, my mind is, jumping around cuz there's so many things that I wanna talk to you about, but it's connected. I, read and it's, incredible that for two years performed in theaters as the feature act for fellow comedian nor McDonald, right?

Michael: 17:03

Yes. Yes. I, I, Was Norm McDonald's feature Act for most of 2006 and 2007. Anytime he performed at a, theater or something like that or did a few nights at a, in a big venue he would ask me to be his feature act. So I must have done 50 or 60 shows with him over the course of a couple years and got to know him really well during that time. That's amazing. Long Car Rides flights. If I wrote a new movie, we've read it out loud together. If he, had movies he wrote a movie for him and Rob Schneider to star in together, and we read that out loud together. It was great. It was a great experience. And it was a, real loss. I hadn't heard from him in many years, but it was a great time in my life working with him. Wow,

Lauren: 17:52

what an incredible experience. And was this something you had wanted to do? Had you dreamed of working with him or

Michael: 17:58

growing up? My two favorite comedians were in no particular order, or maybe there is a, an order, I don't know. It was either Seinfeld or Norm were my two favorites. Wow. And so when I was 17 and on amateur nights in Toronto, norm was already on his way to becoming famous. He was a good 14 years older than me or so. And I remember getting a phone call from him when I was 17. He didn't know me. But he he doesn't how to, he didn't know how to drive, so he called me up. He had a list of amateur comedians and he was like, Hey could I get a ride from you to a gig and I'll give you some gas money and I'll put you on stage and you do some stage time. And I was like, norm, I have a math test on Monday. I can't do it. That was my fir, that was my introduction to him calling me. Wow. And then years later, once I moved to Los Angeles, we ended up on the same shows at a comedy club called The Improv. And that's when I told him that story. And then we became friends from that and that, and then I started featuring for him for a couple years. And it was the greatest. But one of the things norm had talked about some very dark subjects in his act, but. When we go to if you go to, if you're in a smaller town and you go to a mall with a celebrity, everyone in the mall is very excited that they're seeing a celebrity at the mall. So people would come up to Norm and they'd talk about how much they love him and how much it's making their day to meet him. It was such a wonderful thing to see how nice he was to each of the people that came over and. So they all had a genuinely great experience meeting him in person and that was a nice feeling. Because if you watch his act his act is definitely for a very specific audience. But his way of talking to people was, he was very sweet with his audience. It was incredible.

Lauren: 20:00

That's incredible and amazing that. He reached out to you and that you had that experience with him. And Michael, I'm just wondering cause you're saying that growing up it was Seinfeld and Norm McDonald, who were your

Michael: 20:11

Those are my favorites. Those are the ones I like best as a kid, for sure. Yeah.

Lauren: 20:14

So that must have been like beyond surreal when he reached out to you the first time and then reconnecting with him, connecting with him again and then working with him. Can you recall in your life before that happened? Daydreaming or visualizing? Thinking, wouldn't it be cool to meet him or work with him? Did that ever come into your

Michael: 20:32

mind? Let me think that over for a second. Yeah I'm a big believer in manifesting things. It sounds like you are as well. Yes. But I will say this. Manifestation is deciding for me that you're gonna work hard every day towards something and then opportunities will open up around you based on deciding that you're going to be a person who can achieve those things. But you first you have to do the work on your own and then you'll be ready when the opportunity

Lauren: 21:05

presents itself. Exactly, it's, not about just Hibernating the whole time and just hoping things will just happen. I believe what works for me or flows the best is if I first start off with a fun thought in my mind and then. Getting myself to a good feeling place so that I'm at the right place at the right time. I meet the right people at the right time, and things just flow more in a more fun, seamless way that way, rather than it feeling like an uphill struggle

Michael: 21:33

you're enjoying the process. That's a very important thing to do, right? Because if you're someone who is driven but in an unpleasant way where you're very hard on yourself or any of those kind of things. When you get out in the world, they're not gonna be meeting a person that they wanted to meet. If you approach all of this, saying, I'm doing all of these things every day because I have dreams and goals and, I'm going to be happy about the process. Then people will be meeting someone who's already in a good place that they'll want to be around rather than someone driven in a unpleasant way, which is a, I've seen that, I've seen people look unpleasantly driven, and you can be both pleasing to the eye and the ear and bringing incredibly good energy to the room while working hard every day to reach those goals. You don't have to do it with, A feeling of this is too hard. I hate this. This is a struggle. Struggle is such a negative word too

Lauren: 22:32

that's the key. Thank you for highlighting that it's about appreciating and enjoying the journey and where you are now and having fun with the process and cuz that's what it's all about. Like where are we all running to? the fun is, in the present moment if we can find it. And appreciate it. And yeah, enjoy each part as we go along. And it's a practice There's a special that's out now, right? That's on Amazon Prime. yeah.

Michael: 22:57

There's an Amazon Prime special. I'm gonna say the name now. It's Michael Gelbart. All new smash hits and it's free with your subscription to Amazon Prime Amazon Prime is probably the second best streaming service, so I'm pretty happy about that. The best one's probably Netflix, but if you think about it, Amazon Prime should be the best one because you can order groceries to your home, and you can't do that with Netflix. You can't, if you decided to contact Netflix and ask them for, to send you toilet paper, they'd think you were crazy. But Amazon would send it to you so they're better.

Lauren: 23:34

It's actually my favorite streaming service. That's, what I use. And actually watched your special recently and realized I was there. I was there, was it recorded in Toronto? You were at

Michael: 23:44

that special Yes.

Lauren: 23:46

Yes. Wait a

Michael: 23:46

minute, you watched it. I didn't know you watched the special. That's really nice.

Lauren: 23:49

Yeah. Your comedy, your work is so unique and special I believe you are AIC genius. I've never heard this type of style and Way of seeing things and, doing comedy. It's really it's really special. Every time I go to see your show, I just feel amazing. I'm, laughing hysterically and I'm not somebody who normally laughs out loud that often. It's gotten better with my, I've gotten my laughter is blown more now because of the laughter exercises, but I do, but all this is, say you're very talented and. Unique is a comedian, and I just absolutely love your work. And actually, Michael, yes. I don't wanna spoil any jokes for people who are gonna be watching your special and, going to see you. But there is one joke that's on the special that you do that I. Can't get enough of, and I can just say the title, right? It's, the, I don't know if you know it's i'll,

Michael: 24:44

do it. And I'll tell you now, cuz you've mentioned this to me before. The title of this joke folks is for, he's a jolly good fellow now, and yeah, it's about a three minute bit about the song for He's a Jolly Good fellow. Now I wanna talk to you about that bit for a second. It's brilliant. When I came to Toronto to shoot that special. Now picture this, what I did was for about a month, I went around, I was in Los Angeles the month before, and I went around doing guest spots around town to prepare new material, trying new material, getting used to the material I was gonna do on the special. So a week before I went, came to Canada, back to Toronto to headline a club, to do four shows where I ran the material every night on the first night, which was like a Thursday. While driving home, I was like, the sp the special is lacking one bit. I don't ha I need an, I need one more joke that I haven't even written yet. And as I was driving the jis, a jolly good fellow bit was, I made it up in my head as I was driving home. And then I was the next night in front of, while I was doing material I knew would work, I hopped for, he's a jolly good fellow for maybe seven or eight minutes. And. When you got a not finished premise, And you're doing seven minutes. It, was whittled down to the three that you know, but at the beginning, seven minutes of for He's a jolly good fellow. I did, I talked about every possible thing I could come up with about for He's a jolly Good fellow, and some of them worked and some of them didn't. And then for the next two shows that I did, some of them worked and some of them didn't. And you whittled it down and by the time you, by the time I did it on the special, it was probably the fourth time I ever did it in my life. So the, whittled down version to three minutes didn't exist. The, joke didn't even exist about three or four days earlier. It was just, it was prepared, came up with and prepared within three days of that. And this is a very interesting thing because obviously a joke like that takes place in the past cuz it's about the guy who wrote for, he's a jolly good fellow. So the joke takes place over a hundred years ago, whenever that guy who wrote it is debuting it to people. So one of the original attempts at making it funny cuz you're try, you try 15 different things and some of them stayed and some of them didn't. But one of them, I told my mom the joke before I recorded the special and I said, okay, one of them is gonna be where the guy goes. I know that it's for, he's a jolly good fellow, but women don't matter anyway. So what's the difference? We can and my mother's I don't like that part. And I go, but mom, The joke is basically that the guy who wrote the for he's a jogged fellow, was on the wrong side of history. He thinks that he, for he's a Jogged fellow, is gonna be a more popular song than Happy Birthday to you. He's wrong. So he also thinks that women's place in the world is gonna remain terrible like it was hundreds of years ago. He's wrong about that also. And she said no. But that part, the audience isn't going to, isn't going to be like, Isn't gonna remember that it takes place hundreds of years ago. They're, you're just gonna, they're just gonna be upset today. So I'm like, okay, that line is not gonna be in the joke. But it's an interesting thing where if you say something, if you're making a commentary about how terrible things were hundreds of years ago but you're still speaking to a contemporary audience. They're not gonna make that leap for you. If they hear something they find unpleasant, they're not gonna go, oh, he is talking about 200 years ago. They're just gonna hear something. That makes them unhappy now. So it's a very interesting thing about the delicacy of the words you choose and how you say them. And your intention can be lost. You, might think you're being incredibly clever, but it doesn't matter if the audience, if you lose the audience, was your cleverness really that, did it really matter that much if no one under, if you if, you now, Cease to be someone who says things that they like. Does it matter how clever it was in the first place? No. You have to convey something that the audience understands,

Lauren: 29:15

So that was really a great conversation that you had with your mama. You guys were very wise to workshop that together

Michael: 29:21

I don't know. She, didn't have any great insights about it other than just saying, I don't like that part. No, that's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, that's all I need to know is Right. Yeah.

Lauren: 29:33

And actually, Michael I love that. Bit or that joke so much that it comes up every birthday. My family, we would always sing for he's a Charlie good fellow and we actually get more excited singing that song versus the happy birthday. And, now we get even more excited cuz we all then start trying to retell your joke and we're just laughing. And it also helped me At a Second City comedy class that I did they told us to bring in our favorite joke. And of course that is honestly my favorite joke. So that was what I brought in. Did you

Michael: 30:04

bring it in? Did you write it out so you knew how it went? Exactly. I.

Lauren: 30:08

Yeah, I wrote it out. I tried to deliver it. I did my best delivering it to my class, and, but I couldn't get the all of the words out. I was hysterical, just trying to. Repeat the joke and you were laughing

Michael: 30:24

throughout the joke and

Lauren: 30:25

couldn't do it. I was crying, laughing. Yeah, exactly. They heard bits when I was able to to get certain parts of the joke out in between my crying, laughing I gave them your name and your how to find you You're very, talented I'm really excited for you and everything that you're doing and everything that's unfolding for you. And so honored that you agreed to be a guest. So I wanna thank you so much for being here and sharing your gifts the way you do. And Michael, how can people, or, we talked a bit about it, but I just wanna mention again how people can find you and we'll have the links in the show notes.

Michael: 30:59

Let's see here. Of course, on Amazon Prime, they just type in Michael Gelbart, all new smash hits. And if they're a Prime subscriber, it's right there. It's free for you if you want to. Follow me on Instagram, it's real gelbart, r e a l, Gelbart, G E L B A R T. Between those two things I think will be fine, but. That's it,

Lauren: 31:23

sounds good. Thank you so much for, your time and for being a guest, And we'll say goodbye and laugh and wave.

Michael: 31:32

Can we do a crying exercise before you

Lauren: 31:34

go? Yeah. So how, do you wanna do that? You wanna turn crying into laughing or you just want to cry, laugh.

Michael: 31:41

I don't know. I was only kidding, but I'll do it. Oh, okay. Let's do it Anyway. I can't believe we're still stuck in this traffic jams. Hilarious. That was great. Oh, thank you so much. I I'm glad we did that. Thank you for having me, and it was a great time. Thank you so much, Michael. Bye everybody.

Lauren: 32:11

Bye.