Bobby Slayton, Don Friesen, & Jeff Jena "Great Standup Comedy" Show #256

In the world of stand-up comedy, Bobby Slayton, Don Friesen, and Jeff Jena each bring their unique perspectives to the stage, offering a rich tapestry of humor for their audiences. Bobby Slayton, often referred to as the "pit bull of stand-up comedy," is known for his edgy and relatable material that pushes boundaries and captivates audiences with his incisive take on everyday life. In contrast, Don Friesen embraces a hyper, self-deprecating style, humorously exploring the trials of midlife, such as turning 40 and grappling with unfulfilled ambitions, while also satirizing the quirks of societal expectations and financial struggles. Meanwhile, Jeff Jena intertwines his witty observations with Midwestern charm, reflecting on the realities of aging and marriage, ultimately creating an engaging comedy experience that resonates with audiences through shared laughter and introspection.

(00:12:34) "Comical Reflections on 40-Year-Old Milestones"

(00:13:17) "The Relentless $40 Expense Cycle"

(00:13:17) "The Lottery's Quirky Career-Keepers"

(00:16:58) Diverse Comedic Styles Showcased in Podcast

Transcript

Announcer: 0:04

This is another episode of Stand Up Comedy. Your host and emcee celebrating 40 plus years on the fringe of show business stories, interviews and comedy sets from the famous and not so famous. Here's your host and emcee, Scott Edwards.

R. Scott Edwards: 0:21

Hi and welcome to this week's podcast. Man, I have a great lineup of stand up comedy for you. I hope you like to laugh because I got some really funny stuff coming up later on in the show. Show a very funny comic, good friend of mine. He's out of Ohio, Jeff Jenna has a great perspective on life, marriage and getting older. Coming up before him, out of Los Angeles, the very funny Don Friesen, you may have heard his name. He's doing one man shows all over the country, has a couple albums out. Very talented standup comic. But right now, let's jump into it with some edgy comedy. Our first act is also out of Los Angeles. He's done a couple movies, lots of tv, but is known as the pit bull of stand up comedy. That's Bobby Slayton. Very funny guy. Was a regular at my club for over a decade. Why? Because even though he was a little edgy and harsh, he was so, so funny. In fact, we'll find out right now. So, ladies and gentlemen, let's jump into the show with our first comic, Bobby Slayton.

Bobby Slayton: 1:29

Thank you. I wasn't prepared for that introduction. I was going to come up here and do nice TV material, but now that I have, I feel like I got like an image to live up to and. Okay, now this is sort of off the top of my head, but this is. I was driving here tonight. Now, there's a line around the block on Hollywood Boulevard for the new Muppet movie. Okay? Now, Miss Piggy is also on the COVID of TV Guide this week. Now, I hate to make fun of it, a revered institution in America, especially because so many people love the Muppets, but let me tell you something right now, Number one, I never found the Muppets to be funny. I don't like these little creatures, okay? I don't. I don't see what the redeeming value is. I mean, stop and think about it for a second. What exactly are Muppets? Mutant puppets. Muppets, okay? Puppets exposed to some kind of disease or radiation. Muppets.

Don Friesen: 2:09

Right.

Bobby Slayton: 2:12

See, I'm living down in Hollywood now. I've been living in New York for a while, San Francisco. And I actually moved down here a while ago with my girlfriend. And my girlfriend went this week to the Schick center to quit smoking. You've seen the ads on TV for the Schick Center. They shaved her lips off. Not smoking anymore. Hey, you know, it's, like, amazing. Anybody here? Okay, now, either you live here in LA or you're visiting. You've been to Hollywood. You've been to Hollywood Boulevard. I'll tell you something. New York, San Francisco. Kooks, lunatics, weirdos all over the place. But I have never in my life seen a collection of people that walk the streets of Hollywood. I mean, you think it's like a giant outpatient clinic here? You know, it's like the Elephant man could walk down Hollywood Boulevard and realize, well, maybe life isn't so bad after all. I could be like these people over here. You know, it's like the movie industry doesn't help things because they come up with these sick horror movies. The guy with the axes, Prom night, you know, don't go in the house. He knows you're alone. Don't pick up the phone. Don't look in the basement. Don't go in the attic. Don't open the door. You know, he's walking on the beach. Don't go in the water. Sounds like my mother. Don't chew your food so fast. You know, don't go to the prom with the boy down the street. He's killed before, he can kill again. Don't do this, don't do that. And these sick horror movies, okay, now we go see these movies. We know this stuff's not real, but where do they show these films? They show them on Hollywood Boulevard to these people walking around and to these lunatics. These films are documentaries. Oh, so? Well, they said political. See, I don't like to get political because that, you know, it touches a lot. And Reagan, everybody makes fun of him, but, you know, there's one thing, and this has to go on record, I gotta say this. You take our president, Ronald Reagan. Look at this man. Why does he have a haircut like Gumby? You know he looks like Gumby. I've never seen a haircut like up and down. It's the stupidest haircut I've ever seen in my life. I don't know, but I hear Reagan's coming out with a coin to honor black women in America. You hear about this? Susan B. Anthony and the Imperials. So make sure to read that one. True. And while I'm on the subject of music. You heard it here first. Could just be a rumor, but I hear Bob Dylan might be getting back together. So you heard it here first. Oh, what else going on well, like I said, I moved down from San Francisco. You know what's great about that city? I lived there with my girlfriend for a year. And they've got a pooper school, you know, Just put it down anywhere. That's fine. That's good. Wait till I get to the punchline next time and then drop the glass, okay? Anyway, we were living up there. San Francisco, the pooper scoop of law. You're all familiar with it, the $25 fine. You don't clean up after your dog. They actually enforce the law up there. Now, my girlfriend left town, leaves me to take care of her dog. And I didn't mind cleaning up after the dog. What I minded was the fact that I had to clean up after her dog, which was a Chihuahua. Okay? Now, the most vicious animals that have ever walked the face of the earth, okay? I've tried to be nice to this dog for years. It's a horrible creature, okay? You ever know anybody of the Chihuahua? I don't know where these dogs came from. It's like some Nazi scientist doing experiments in Brazil. You know, Mengele on acid, you know, one day he decides we'll cross breed a rat and a piranha. And that's what they're like. Anyway. The point of the story, I'm walking my girlfriend's dog. I didn't clean up after it. Cop comes up, gives me a ticket for not cleaning up after the dog. Now, number one, the cop is on horseback. Okay, all right, he's on horseback, this is true. And he's giving me a ticket for not cleaning up after this dog. Then you had to be there for this. He gets off the horse, starts riding me out the ticket. The horse right there breaks the exact same law and smothers my girlfriend's dog.

R. Scott Edwards: 6:07

That was Bobby Slayton, a very, very funny stand up comic. As you could tell by his material. A little edgier than most, but always really funny. Keep an eye out for him. He's still out there in a couple movies and TV shows. Very funny guy out of Los Angeles, Bobby Slayton. Hey, let's jump into our next act. Good friend of mine, I've worked on a couple of the one man shows he produces. He's got a couple albums out, one of them recorded right here in Sacramento. And one of my favorite stand up comics. Let's listen to some stand up comedy by the very funny Don Friesen.

Jeff Jena: 6:46

Finally got it all hooked up, got home, my next door neighbor actually helped me hook it up and started getting instant messages right away. You guys tried that? I am. I am a very slow typer is what I found out. If you don't type fast, don't even bother, man. Your friends will roll over. No mercy. You know, it seems real friendly. It's got that cute sound that makes you think you can do it. Bling, you know? Hey, Don, how you doing? Oh, I am doing very Sawyer online. Thought I'd give you a call, see what's going on. Well, then he asked me like seven questions at once. I gotta pick one and hope it still relates to the conversation. If he's even online by the time I get back to him, when he be in Vegas.

Don Friesen: 7:30

How's the family?

Jeff Jena: 7:30

Everyone doing well? I will be in Vegas. You still there? Did you leave the room? Where'd you go? Hello?

R. Scott Edwards: 7:36

Hello?

Jeff Jena: 7:36

Hello? Hello? Slow down, you bastard. I'm not even looking at the screen now. I'm looking at my hands to keep up. You know, I'm in the weeds. All I hear is bling, bling. It's mocking me.

Bobby Slayton: 7:58

Bling, bling, bling, bling, bling.

Jeff Jena: 8:00

It sounds like I'm in Vegas. Bling, bling, bling, bling, bling, bling. I know you're not still talking about what I'm talking about, bling. But I'm going to finish this sentence if it kills me. Now they're working on the next phase. Voice instant messaging. You'll talk to your computer, turns your voice into text, sends it to their computer, turns it back into voice. Is that cool or what? And they're even working on the next one where they're going to take out the text altogether. It's going to be like a phone. Oh, yeah, I am all over that one, man. I'll be the idiot with a laptop strapped to my head. Can you hear me now? Can you hear me? I heard we're gonna have talking appliances in the next couple years. You'll be able to talk to your kitchen. Is that gonna help our lives? Lights on, coffee perk, Microwave.

Bobby Slayton: 9:05

Look alive.

Jeff Jena: 9:08

When I say cook, you say, how hot. The blender and the toaster will keep you up all night. Was that well, yeah. Well, you losing weight? Nah, the fridge is pissed. Told him chill out. He took it wrong. Now we're going to couples counseling. That's all I need is a blender with issues. You know, End up sitting with your toaster on the Dr. Phil Show. So you're Just saying, you just want to come home, have your bread all hot and ready to go, all buttered up. Hey, no, I understand. I'm a man. The guys never see that coming. Like, yeah, that's pretty much what I do. Who do you think you are? Like a Dr. Phil alarm clock? Wouldn't that be great? You know, cuz seriously, how can you sleep through that everywhere? You need to wake up. You need to wake up. You need to wake up. You need to wake up. Hit this news more than twice. It says, what were you thinking? I mean, what in the Jiminy Jack Christmas did, Did I miss the turn off to crazy town here? You can put wings on a pig, but that still don't make it a chicken. All right, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if. Sometimes he's so exasperated he can't even get his words. Like, now, now, how, how, how, if now, how, how now. Brown cow cooking. It's the Dr. Phil remix. You need to, you need to break it down. If, if you're trying to line up your ducks, your chickens have flown the coop. You got, you got a gopher by the tail. You don't know which way to swing it. You can't milk a donkey if, if you don't have a bucket. All right, guys are crying too. Like, he's right, man. I think we just had a breakthrough here. Like, so now am I the donkey or the bucket?

Don Friesen: 11:54

That's all I need to know.

R. Scott Edwards: 11:58

That was Don Friesen, man. He's a funny, crazy guy and he's so hyper on stage. Really, really funny. I know you enjoyed that. All right, going into our last comic, a little bit smarter comic. He talks about marriage and getting older. He's out of Ohio, originally out of Kentucky. Again, a regular at my clubs. Good guy. He's been on this podcast many, many times. I know you'll enjoy him. Our final headliner for this comedy show, Jeff, Jenna, thank you very much.

Don Friesen: 12:34

Thank you very much. I'm a 40 year old white guy with no goals in my life. I recently discovered I have accomplished nothing in my entire life. When I turned 40 recently. 40 is a tough age for guys. I don't know about women. I can't. I can only speak for myself. But see, 40 is the age when you're a. A guy. You gotta walk right up to that big board that we keep in our mind called the dreams of our life. You gotta walk right up to that big dream board and you gotta start taking stuff off the dream board, moving it over to the never gonna happen.

Jeff Jena: 13:11

Board.

Don Friesen: 13:17

And the first few come off pretty quick. It's like, oh, pro ballplayer. Nope, guess not. King of the whole thing. Guess not. Multi billionaire. Guess not. Then you start getting down. You're going, Jesus, I'm 40. I have done nothing with my life. And that's tough, see? Cause, you know, see, if you're like black or gay or a woman or in some minority group and you have done nothing with your life, at least you got an out, see? But no, no, no, see, when you're a straight white man in America and you have done nothing with your life and you hit 40, you gotta look in the mirror and be really honest and go, you know what? I have every advantage. I must be an incredible loser. I have done absolutely nothing with my life. And how many people. You work hard for your living, right? But sometimes you feel like you don't even have an income. You feel like you're some kind of cash redistribution center, you know what I'm saying? Every payday you're kind of going, thank you very much. Here you go. Yeah, come on back next week. There's gonna be. They have this theory about life that no matter how much money you make, you always need 40 more bucks a week. I think it was actually Einstein who first postulated expenses equals salary plus 40. The famous E equals S plus 40 theorem. Are you familiar with this? See, and here's how it applies to all of our lives. It doesn't matter what you do or how much money you make, you can end up making $100,000 every week. And on Friday you sit going, man, if I only had 40 more bucks, I can pay my utility bill too. You know what, honey? So what do we do to get more money? We all do the intelligent thing, right? Play the lottery? Yes. No, but that's stupid too. You know what? Normal people like you never win the big dough in the lottery. You know who wins? Weirdos. Weirdo. The biggest weirdo of all time lives in Chicago. A guy In Chicago won $42 million. One man, 42 million bucks. You know what this weirdo says the next morning? I'm not quitting my job, coming home going, Whaaaat, 42 million bucks. This guy's walking around the house going, you know, honey, I've been thinking, and we could still use that 200 a week. And if we only had 40 more bucks then, now let's be honest. If you won $42 million, would you quit your job? Not me. I'd be in there the next morning with a completely different attitude about it. I'd be dancing on my way to work. It's gonna be a shit short day today, man. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Jeff Jena: 16:18

Woo.

Don Friesen: 16:21

I'd be sitting at the desk going, I don't think so, fat boy. That's right, I said fat boy. What? Well, yeah, I've been drinking. In fact, I got some beer over here in the filing cabinet. See, I say go in there and kind of fool around until they fire you. That way you can get unemployment too.

R. Scott Edwards: 16:58

That was Jeff Jenna live on stage. Hey, what a great lineup of stand up comedy. We had Bobby Slayton, Don Friesen and Jeff Jenna. We want to thank you for joining us on the podcast. If you get a chance, tell your friends we're still growing. And hey, we also have a website, standup comedy hostingmc.com if you get a chance, check it out. And a brand new video podcast called the tag team talent podcast. You can find that on Spotify and YouTube. All right, I'll let you go. We hope you enjoyed the stand up Comedy. We'll see you back next week with one of our interview shows. Thanks for listening. Bye.

Announcer: 17:37

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Stand Up Comedy. Your host and emcee. For information on the show merchandise and our sponsors or to send comments to Scott, visit our website at www.standupyourhost and mc.com. look for more episodes soon and enjoy the world of stand up comedy. Visit a comedy showroom near.