Episode 140: Nathan Macintosh

Nathan Macintosh

[00:00:00] Scott Curtis: Nathan McIntosh has been on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Colbert Conan, and all the other late night shows. He's performed on just for laughs so many times. And hailing from Canada. His debut album, I wasn't talking, was featured in exclaimed magazines. Top 10 hilariously good comedy moments.

[00:00:21] Scott Curtis: And his TV show trapped has gotten some great critical acclaim, and I'm hoping he can hook me up with some bootleg copies because I'm not on the network that can watch it. I loved what I saw as far as the trailers. He's one of my favorite performers and his special money Never Wakes, which came out just last week, already has over 27,000 views.

[00:00:45] Scott Curtis: Which, which is very good for our YouTube debut, and it's also available as an album on all your streaming services. So that's pretty cool too. Let's bring 'em out right now. It's Nathan McIntosh. Nathan.

[00:00:59] Nathan Macintosh: Oh God.[00:01:00] .

[00:01:02] Scott Curtis: I was waiting, I was just waiting for you to have a drink in your hand, .

[00:01:07] Nathan Macintosh: Oh yeah. I thought there might be like half more, like I waited right.

[00:01:10] Nathan Macintosh: To take a sip and I go, okay, I'll probably talk for another half a second. And I took a sip and that was at the exact long time. Hi Scott. Thanks so much for having me, man. This is, Yeah. I

[00:01:19] Scott Curtis: really appreciate you being on the show. A, as I told you before we started taping you're one of those comedians, when you're a comedian, you don't get all that excited about going to see other comedians cuz you're really just studying instead of just.

[00:01:33] Scott Curtis: Enjoying yourself and having fun. And you're one of those guys. If you're ever within a hundred miles of me, I will make a trip to come see you because you're that good.

[00:01:45] Nathan Macintosh: Man, that really means a lot. Seriously. I don't even know what to say to that. And e except for that.

[00:01:50] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. That really means a lot. Thank you, man. I really appreciate

[00:01:53] Scott Curtis: that. One of the things that I've noticed, , and I don't know if this is true or not. [00:02:00] I feel like some people are just compelled to go on the standup. It's just one of those things that you have to do. There's nothing else you can do.

[00:02:09] Scott Curtis: And you seem like one of those people. Is that a true statement?

[00:02:14] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. I was kicked out of many classes for talking. I was expelled from school for talking. , I'd be doing this if I had some, if I had a job, I would be the funny guy at that job. So Uhhuh . Yeah. There, there was not much else that was gonna happen other than stand up.

[00:02:37] Scott Curtis: Yeah. And when exactly did you start like when was the first time you got on stage and did a. .

[00:02:44] Nathan Macintosh: Man, the first time I did a mic, I was 19. Okay. But the first time I ever did stand, so I decided to start doing standup at 10. I saw a yeah, my mom always had standup in the house. So the first community I ever saw was Sam Kenon.

[00:02:58] Nathan Macintosh: And I, [00:03:00] I loved him. I saw my mom watched Nesson Carlin Dangerfield. Stuff like that. So I ial, when I was a kid, I always just thought standup was the coolest thing ever. So I decided at 10 I'm gonna do this stand up, which is so stupid. And 10 year old, Nathan never helped adult Nathan again. Yeah, he decided, pull him into this insane life.

[00:03:27] Nathan Macintosh: But so the first time I ever did a mic was, I was 19, but the first time I ever did standup legitimately, I was 16. in a in a drama class. Okay. Our drama teacher had given us a list of things that we could prepare for a presentation, a sketch, a play a whatever. And one of the things was standup.

[00:03:46] Nathan Macintosh: So I wrote a few minutes of standup and performed it in front of 12 people in my drama class. But the I gave, so she wanted to. I don't know why she [00:04:00] wanted to do this as if it was like a one man show or something. So she's give me your jokes and if you forget where you are, say line and I will tell you where you are.

[00:04:10] Nathan Macintosh: Uhhuh . So I would do a setup, man, and then I'd be like, I'd forget it all. And I'd go line, and then she would say the punchline and then I would have to repeat it. It was a, it's miserable. I, I. Fully bombed in front of these 12 people in my class, to the point that I thought at that time, at 16, I go, you know what?

[00:04:31] Nathan Macintosh: I'm not gonna do standup. I'm gonna, I'm gonna be an actor, as if that's an easy thing to do, like I'm . But then the, anyways, to answer, long-winded answer here, but to the first time I ever did today, Mike. Mike, I was 19 years old and in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I'm from.

[00:04:47] Scott Curtis: Thinking about doing that mic and the mics you did like in the first year, how different are you as a performer and a writer than when you started?

[00:04:57] Nathan Macintosh: Oh pretty different. [00:05:00] I when I first started doing standup I decided that I wasn't ever gonna swear Uhhuh . I had a dress shirt and I was like a little so when I was a kid, When I was in grade two and three, I was very like yeah, me quiet. I gotta be on time. Yeah. And when I started doing standup, that, that thing came back.

[00:05:21] Nathan Macintosh: So I was on stage in a little sweater, and I was b ba, not swearing or anything, Uhhuh. . And then one day you just go, what am I doing? I, this is not who I am offstage. I hope you're okay with these long-winded answers because that's

[00:05:35] Scott Curtis: exactly what I want. So my goal Yeah. For this podcast, and the reason why it's doing well is I don't talk much so

[00:05:43] Nathan Macintosh: funny.

[00:05:43] Nathan Macintosh: Cause I could just be like, how different are you? I'm different. Yeah. . But then what does that do? Yeah. What is that? I will be as detailed as I can with every one of these answers, but I'm definitely d. Writing wise and all that sort of stuff than when I started for sure.

[00:05:58] Nathan Macintosh: And there's things that I just don't even [00:06:00] care to, I don't know, man, adhere to at this point in time or again, when you first start doing comedy, everybody's you gotta work clean. Do you, I mean, it's such a I get it. Yes. If you wanna own a Ferrari and drive it with another ferr, Yeah, it'd probably be in your best interest to be as clean as you possibly can and be as broad as you possibly can.

[00:06:25] Nathan Macintosh: But as far as like just doing comedy, you don't have to.

[00:06:29] Scott Curtis: And. It's funny because, I didn't start stand up until I was 52 and I had the same notion as you when I started, and some of it had to do with just the way I look. I look like some sort of a professor or Lux Luther or something like that, and I it looks like.

[00:06:49] Scott Curtis: I should be a clean guy on stage. And so I put together an act that was pretty good and pretty clean. And I had this, crisis[00:07:00] when I moved from South Bend to Huntsville, and I decided, you know what? It's not me. I, I swear a lot and I don't, yeah. And I don't get into sexual stuff or anything like that, but, I talk about, weed and and all the drugs I did when I was a kid and stuff like that.

[00:07:18] Scott Curtis: And those are good stories and, but they don't fit into my clean persona. And I'm also an angry boomer. I'm angry at my generation for fucking everything up for your generation and the ones after. So I want to insert some of that too. So I've completely changed what I do. Yeah. And it's exactly like starting over.

[00:07:37] Scott Curtis: It's okay, I have to go back to open mics again and run this stuff because I don't have any timing. I don't know what's gonna hit and what's not gonna hit and . And it's difficult, and I'm sure you probably went through that too, when you decided, Hey, I'm just gonna be me, but then you don't know how to present me.

[00:07:59] Nathan Macintosh: [00:08:00] Yeah. I used to go to these shows in Toronto that didn't really have, they didn't really have any sort of they're, they weren't mics necessarily, I guess you can call them mics, but there was a couple of people that would be there, but there was no stakes at all. And I would go to these places and I would just say, I'd have a piece of paper, and instead of doing super written jokes at the time, I'd be like what's a.

[00:08:22] Nathan Macintosh: What's the thing that's on my mind? I don't know. Bank cards, I don't know. And I would go up and talk. So I would just try to be as much me as possible on a stage and then get back into the writing part of it. But I had to go up with yeah. Basically nothing and just try to be myself.

[00:08:38] Nathan Macintosh: . And even sometimes now I'm like, I find myself on stage. I'm like, what? What am I doing? What is this? . What the fuck is this? Yeah. What am I doing? Yeah, so that, I don't know that ever I think it does go away at some point in time maybe but I still find myself in that sometimes you're in certain rooms where you feel that you should be a certain way or blah, blah, blah, but the whole thing is [00:09:00] such a fucking mind fuck

[00:09:03] Scott Curtis: It is. It really is. And so when you get in those situations where you feel like you're. Fitting the tone of the room or whatever. Do you just do a switch right there and go into something else? Or do you call an audible? How do you handle things like that?

[00:09:22] Nathan Macintosh: I'll just address it.

[00:09:23] Nathan Macintosh: Sometimes I'll just be like, guys, look, I get it. I walked up here doing this, and this is not I, the vibe in here is terrible and I understand why, and we're out of it. Like I can't, I've done things before too where I'll go up and I'll. and it's more to get me into kind of the moment, but I'll go look man, I go, nobody in here is liking me right now and I think it's cuz of this jacket and I'll just take my jacket off and then do whatever or I'll stop using the microphone. Something that puts me into the, that that being in the room and feeling what's going on. . Fuck, man. There's almost no worse feeling than [00:10:00] standing up there and doing your bullshit and it ain't working, but you're like, I'm gonna still do my bull. For what? For who?

[00:10:07] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. Yeah. Why? Yeah, because we feel that we have to for whatever, and then people will come off stage and be like, these people suck. They don't suck. They don't suck. Yeah, you gave them a terrible vibe. . The whole energy here was fucking brutal. You had it in your head that this is what standup is? This wrote like A to B bullshit.

[00:10:30] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. And I'm saying this again because I'm, I've been guilty of this so many times, and you just go, get out of that, get the fuck out of that and try to be as much you as you can. And that might be with A to B stuff, but not in the way that you presented it, not in the, how you walked up, not in how you are addressing these people.

[00:10:49] Nathan Macintosh: None of that Uhhuh .

[00:10:51] Scott Curtis: Now you're well known enough that I would say in most cases, the audience knows what they're gonna get with [00:11:00] you. You're definitely a unique performer and they know what they're going to get. And I would say a good percentage of 'em are fans at this point.

[00:11:10] Nathan Macintosh: Some places sometimes.

[00:11:12] Nathan Macintosh: And then other times there's people. you have no have no. Anything. . They, I'm just a guy screaming and either they're in or they're not. But I do try to get people like we were talking about grand Rapids, Uhhuh, and Dr. Grin before we started. Yeah, I was there in December and I had a show the Saturday late, I think there was, Maybe 40 people in the room.

[00:11:37] Nathan Macintosh: Uhhuh, not, it is very empty. And there was a lot of pe the vibe in there was just like late Saturday fucking whatever. . And I just went up and started talking and you could feel, I could feel that this side here really thought something else was going to be happening. Okay. They were like what?

[00:11:52] Nathan Macintosh: And I had to keep addressing them to bring this this in and them together. That was the type of show that if I would've went up [00:12:00] with just material, it would've been horrible. I had to, involve people and bring people in and try to connect with people. But anyways, again, another long-winded thing.

[00:12:08] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. But no, there are definitely a lot of people who show up and are like, oh, okay, I guess this is this is who this guy

[00:12:17] Scott Curtis: is. You've got, it's funny that you said that you're going on stage now with just more ideas and you don't have 'em fully written out sometimes, but it seems, and I get it from listening to your albums and watching the specials, like the latest special, it seems like when you are at least taping that, you put a lot of thought into the words that you say.

[00:12:44] Scott Curtis: And Yeah and I just want to give you an example. It's, it is from the special, it's when you're talking about college loans and it's a very small part, but you said I need money for a horse literature degree. , I, I [00:13:00] snorted at that and and I can see a million other things that you could put in there.

[00:13:05] Scott Curtis: Yeah. Did you try that with different phrases and then come to the horse literature degree? Or did that just come in your head while you're recording?

[00:13:12] Nathan Macintosh: I okay. I do write a lot Uhhuh what I was talk, what I was talking about at the time. I would go up without really any sort of ideas so that I could try to find more of myself.

[00:13:23] Nathan Macintosh: . And now that I've been able to do that, I do have like pretty written things, but yeah, the horse literature degree, I think I wrote that. I was just trying to find something that would be as useless as possible. Yeah. Human, a horse literature degree honestly, might be more of.

[00:13:39] Nathan Macintosh: Might be more helpful than a fucking business degree. Yeah. . Because it's more niche, yeah. How many people know about horse literature? Yeah. and there's equestrians have a bunch of goddamn money. That might be a, that might be more of a thing to do than definitely than social sciences or whatever the hell.

[00:13:56] Scott Curtis: Yeah. Yeah. , I just, [00:14:00] it's funny because. When you're a comedian and you watch this stuff through, so I have to make myself just enjoy it the first time through. Yeah. And then I watch it back and take notes or whatever. Just at the funny stuff. And for some reason that horse literature degree, it just seems like something that it, you had to have put some thought into it to find totally tho the three words that were gonna get.

[00:14:24] Scott Curtis: The biggest laugh on that particular.

[00:14:28] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah, no, I definitely the that there's a lot of writing in that in Money Never Wakes for sure. I had it in my head before the pandemic to do a special that was related to finance. . And after the pandemic I was like, oh, I could still use a lot of this stuff because money doesn't really.

[00:14:45] Nathan Macintosh: Changed too much. . But no. Yeah, man I, there was a, there's definitely a lot of writing involved in that. And then but at the beginning, there might've just been thoughts, I might've just walked on with whatever the fuck, some stupid thing about going to Mars or whatever and tried to talk it out and then [00:15:00] piece it together from there.

[00:15:04] Scott Curtis: Now you've got about, I think that special's like pretty close to an hour. How much time do you have in putting everything that you put in the special in?

[00:15:18] Nathan Macintosh: Some of those things are from over the years, and then there's stuff I wrote specifically for. special. . So there was a couple things that I had for a while, but I didn't have anywhere to anything to do with them.

[00:15:32] Nathan Macintosh: Like the the talking about cheering for your college sports team if you owe money to your college. Yeah. I had thought of that when I first got to the States, because Canada doesn't have that. We don't really, there's not really big college sports things. We don't. Huge football games on at 9:00 PM on a Friday.

[00:15:51] Nathan Macintosh: I thought it was crazy. Yeah. I was like this didn't make sense to me. Yeah. And then I just thought, again, cheering for a school to you owe money to is wildness, but but I had that thing a while [00:16:00] ago, but I never had anything to do with it. It just I don't even know how many times I said it, not a ton, but I didn't have anything to, I didn't have anywhere to put it.

[00:16:08] Nathan Macintosh: I just p put together, a lot of stuff that I had about money from from over, a bunch of time. And like I said the, me talking about the Rockefeller guy and how he had six heart transplants. Yeah. ,

[00:16:18] Scott Curtis: I, that was

[00:16:19] Nathan Macintosh: fantastic. Thanks, man. I wrote that specifically for this Uhhuh

[00:16:24] Nathan Macintosh: I only. Joke, like fucking four times , which is uhhuh ridiculous. I, but I wanted it for this thing I had, again, long story short, my God, you gotta, there should be a button that you can push that a hand will come outta my screen and hit me. Either way, by the way, there was a lot of, there was definitely a lot of writing involved in this.

[00:16:46] Scott Curtis: and how many times did you run it before you taped it?

[00:16:52] Nathan Macintosh: The entire thing. Straight through. Maybe. Maybe once. Wow. But again, I've done some of the things enough times [00:17:00] and I would do a lot of sets in the city for, 10, 15 minute sets and I would just piece it together that way. , to like the first 15 of it or whatever, and then work on stuff in the middle, but, the entire thing.

[00:17:12] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. Probably once or twice. Like I said, there's some stuff written specifically for that. The special itself. I made it around 40 minutes, but when I did it, it was about 55, I think. And then, and the album itself, I think is around that 53, 54. But I cut out stuff that didn't necessarily have to do with finance.

[00:17:31] Nathan Macintosh: I really had it in my head that I was like, I'm gonna make a thing all about finance. So anyways, I probably ran it one time. Again, push the button with the hand. No, I

[00:17:39] Scott Curtis: You're doing great. Like I said, the less I talk, the better.

[00:17:44] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. That's funny. now way too goddamn much.

[00:17:47] Scott Curtis: Anyway, now a lot of a lot of comedians are doing the straight to YouTube specials. Was there a was there something that motivated you to do it that way rather [00:18:00] than pitch it to Amazon or something like that? Did you just want to put it straight out there or, what's the business reason?

[00:18:07] Scott Curtis: Pop something right on YouTube.

[00:18:11] Nathan Macintosh: For me, this thing was less of a business decision and more I want to start putting things out. And I've gone through the channels before and things take time and they might not be able to get done and whatever the case may be. . So I, in all seriousness I put all of the other stuff aside cuz people were like, why don't you pitch it to this?

[00:18:34] Nathan Macintosh: Why don't you pitch it to this? I'm like, I don't wanna do that. I literally just want to start putting things out so that I can continue to make more things. , if I, there's a chance that maybe I go down the road and try to pitch this and I'm not a famous person. So they go, okay, two, three months from now, they've, I find out this person doesn't want it.

[00:18:52] Nathan Macintosh: This person doesn't. and then maybe by that time I get depressed that nobody even wants it. . So I go why would I [00:19:00] even put it out? And then I hate the material anyway. And I'm like no. Stop. Get a Nope. We're making the fucking thing Uhhuh . We're putting it the fuck out so that I can work on the next fucking thing.

[00:19:11] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. It was less business and more me just stressed out with myself. God, man, I've thrown away so much material over the years for zero reason, no nothing. Either I get sick of it or I did it on some obscure Canadian fucking TV show. It was watched by one moose and a goddamn hockey stick, , and in my head, Everybody saw it.

[00:19:35] Nathan Macintosh: I'm an idiot. So literally I, the business side be damned, I will not become rich off this fucking thing, but I don't care. Yeah. I'm happy that I made it. I'm happy that I sat down and did the fucking thing and it's out and now I can, tell people about it and make little clips from it and all that sort of stuff.

[00:19:53] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. And and mostly get this material outta my head so I can work on other things. The next.

[00:19:59] Scott Curtis: The [00:20:00] thing I really like about your special is there's no pretenses. It goes right into the special. And then right into the credits afterwards. It's all based on your show that night and the talent involved.

[00:20:14] Scott Curtis: And I really that cuz some folks they play around, they'll do a little skit before the and I like some of those too. They'll do a little skit before and then they'll do outtakes and stuff like that. . And I just liked how you just put it out there and said, go for it.

[00:20:28] Scott Curtis: People just, ?

[00:20:30] Nathan Macintosh: That, I mean that I don't wanna say business decision, but that was a business decision in the way that I think, I don't know. I don't know anything. This is just my own thought. You, I think on Netflix. Okay. Let's say you're a famous person, you're afforded a lot. If you're on Netflix or H B o, those type of things, and you're not a famous person, you're still afforded a lot because Netflix, you, it's easier to have a, an.

[00:20:56] Nathan Macintosh: because when you click on a u a Netflix [00:21:00] video, that's it. That's the only thing on your screen, right? And people are, maybe they'll tune out. But there's nothing else for them to look at right now, right? , YouTube, your thing is sitting here with seven other videos. Yeah, right here, like the second you turn this.

[00:21:18] Nathan Macintosh: why don't you check out this guy building a canoe? What about this mother back flipping into jello? , what about this other club? So I just thought I'm going to just make it as quick as possible so that it's less of a chance that somebody can get the fuck out. If you. as a non-famous person, do somebody need to see me in a sketch where I get out of a car and some, Hey, who are you?

[00:21:41] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah, I can't get into the building. Who get, I just went and I'm not, I'm with you. I'm not against those. And I'm hoping to have them, maybe one day on a thing that's. When, again, when I'm afforded a little bit more time , but in this, I was like, Nope, it's going right. The fuck in? You know what the joke that I opened with in the special is not how I [00:22:00] opened the album.

[00:22:01] Nathan Macintosh: Ah-huh . I put that at the front because it's quick. It sets up what I'm doing. and bam, we're going in. Get the fuck. Yeah. One person messaged me about it. They go, buddy, where? No intro you got? No, there's no time. Yeah. . We're doing it. Yeah, we're fucking going. That's

[00:22:18] Scott Curtis: it. Yeah. I found it refreshing it. It is funny because I was listening to it.

[00:22:23] Scott Curtis: in the background while I was working this morning and it ended and I was still working. So somebody else's special came up. , and I'm not gonna say the name of it I don't even know who he is, but it was so bad. He went, he was in, into rape jokes three minutes in and yeah. And I'm.

[00:22:44] Scott Curtis: Wow. So if you like Nathan McIntosh, you might like this asshole. I don't understand , how the algorithm made that happen. ,

[00:22:53] Nathan Macintosh: yeah. The fucking scary algorithm. Who knows? Yeah, it's special. It says it sees [00:23:00] comedy special and then just oh. Can I tell you this, Scott, real quick? Nobody really cares.

[00:23:03] Nathan Macintosh: I guess we're gonna say it to you. I didn't wanna call this a comedy special. I wanted to call it a project Uhhuh because it's all material about one thing, but I thought if I don't call it a special random, people who are covered in butter at home aren't gonna know what the fuck is. Yeah. . So anyways yeah.

[00:23:22] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah, man, I don't know. And I've watched a lot of those intros as well. And again, not that I don't like them, but when you are on a machine that you can watch every single pornographic fucking image that's ever existed, there's no time. For intros. Yeah, . Especially these three minute sketches where guys are just blowing themselves and talking about

[00:23:48] Nathan Macintosh: Oh man, look at the crowd. The crowd. People even come out. . That's the other thing I noticed too. And again, this I'm not against anyone. Great do it. But there's a lot of also people I cut the, I cut my intro in [00:24:00] terms of announcement. I cut my intro of me walking on stage. I cut all of that. Yeah.

[00:24:04] Nathan Macintosh: Because I thought who gives a fuck? Yeah. You know it on stage? Did you have to see me fucking get there? Yeah. Know . But again on a different platform. I I might not do that, but for YouTube specifically. , there's just so much stuff on there, man, that I thought, I'm just gonna get to it.

[00:24:21] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. .

[00:24:22] Scott Curtis: So I'm getting a vibe from you that you're a lot like me and the, you love to talk about things that matter, but you hate small talk is,

[00:24:33] Nathan Macintosh: I guess it depends on who I'm talking to. Why, what? What was the small talk thing here that I

[00:24:36] Scott Curtis: No I think about myself cuz I'm going back out to the mics and stuff like that and I'm getting to know new a new comedy scene and all that kind of stuff, and I just want to go up and do my thing and.

[00:24:49] Scott Curtis: I don't want to hang, , I, I did a mic Sunday night and a couple guys came out from Nashville and somebody liked something I said, and it's, I [00:25:00] guess it's like midnight and he's still talking to me about punk bands because I'm a punk aficionado. And I'm like, yeah I just don't know.

[00:25:07] Scott Curtis: I I just want to do my thing and go. Do you ever feel like that, that you just you just wanna do your reps and not do the hang,

[00:25:18] Nathan Macintosh: Sh Yeah, but the hang as crazy as it is at the beginning is probably the most important thing. Yeah. It's not the most important thing, but it's a massive, massively important.

[00:25:31] Nathan Macintosh: These are the people who can help you one day. And these are the circles where people know about what's going on. So at, you can't just do your comedy and bail. We're also, I was saying this to somebody the other day too, cause they told me, what was it, man? They were like, somebody came up to them and said, oh, you must be so happy with your late night set.

[00:25:53] Nathan Macintosh: And they were like, don't say that now. Now it puts pressure on me. And I just, I was like, man, you know what, as [00:26:00] comedians we're fucking pricks, man, lot. Like in a lot of weird ways. Somebody's just talking to you. They're trying to be nice, they're trying to connect, and we're in our head of oh, I hate small talk.

[00:26:10] Nathan Macintosh: Get fucked, man. Walk in the ocean then. This is a . This world is this way. For reasons. Yeah. Someone might be, somebody's just trying to connect Yeah. In a way but. I do try to not just be around constantly. Yeah. If that makes sense. Like just sticking around, just stick around.

[00:26:28] Nathan Macintosh: And also those people are probably younger than you and this is what they're doing. Yeah. This is what it

[00:26:32] Scott Curtis: is, right? Yeah. And I do it, it just takes a tremendous amount of energy, and Yeah. And when you're 58, you don't have that much left, so is

[00:26:42] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. No I get.

[00:26:44] Nathan Macintosh: But it's it's, yeah. I don't think people are trying to be malicious about it. It's fuck man, when you start comedy's awesome. Yeah. And you wanna be around it as much as possible, and you wanna talk to the people that are doing it as much

[00:26:54] Scott Curtis: as possible. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, can we talk about trapped a little bit?

[00:26:58] Scott Curtis: Because No. Okay.[00:27:00]

[00:27:00] Nathan Macintosh: You can Matt . Yeah.

[00:27:02] Scott Curtis: Yeah. Because I watched a few clips and this. Absolutely hilarious. And t tell me what's behind that because it's about you and Yeah. And I know it's semi-fictional, but I can see a lot of you in it from what I'm seeing on the clips. Tell me about it.

[00:27:19] Nathan Macintosh: So I wrote that during the pandemic, just something to do and was lucky enough to be able to get this show made. So it's basically. . I go home to visit my mom and my old boss blackmails me into working at the store that I walked out of years ago. To, to be a comedian. So it's basically just me, my mom, my cousin, and that guy.

[00:27:40] Nathan Macintosh: And yeah the, there's a lot of back and forth with me and my mom and the woman that plays. My mom in that is incredible. She's great. Trina. Trina Coram is amazing. And she has no, so if you watch that, any of those little clips and you're like, oh man, that is my mom. That, that it's not [00:28:00] exaggerated.

[00:28:00] Nathan Macintosh: Uhhuh , that's who she is. And Trina just fucking nailed it. . Yeah. I've always like some of the conversations I've had with my mom over the years oh, this is ridiculous. This is, I can't, I don't know why this is, but it's funny it's just funny to me that this woman would be this cold or this fucking sharp about something that doesn't even make sense.

[00:28:20] Nathan Macintosh: Uhhuh . Yeah. Yeah. But yeah it's, right now it's only able to be streamed in Canada. I just did the second season of it I got sun be, that'll be in Canada too, but I'm hoping to get season. Somewhere here in the States and then season two as well. So hopefully I'll be able to get you to see the whole thing at some point in time.

[00:28:39] Nathan Macintosh: But but it's really fun to do man, and it's fun to do another thing that's comedy but not standup. Yeah, it was really fun to write. Whatever situations.

[00:28:47] Scott Curtis: Yeah. I really love the concept of it and I'm just gonna start writing all the streaming services as a, as an angry old man and say, I need that Nathan McIntosh show.

[00:28:59] Nathan Macintosh: [00:29:00] Please no, I wouldn't stop you. But they. They would literally get a letter and they don't open those fucking letters. Yeah. , they don't care. Everyone of those streaming services owes like 10 billion. Somewhere they got, there's a whole stack of letters of the of, why did you cancel this show, bring back whatever.

[00:29:18] Nathan Macintosh: And then over here, bills. Yeah. . These are the ones that they look at, this shit over. Whatever we got. The IRS is coming after us for fuck's sake. We . We've never made a dollar . We've been open for 10 fucking years and we've never made a dollar .

[00:29:38] Scott Curtis: Oh man. That's great. One of the things that I like about your act is the energy and.

[00:29:47] Scott Curtis: We all say that, you know where everybody says that when you're a comedian, you're bringing one part of yourself that's a little bit amplified on the stage. Do you feel like that's the case with you, [00:30:00] that you're taking you're taking your own angst on stage and it's, that's what we're seeing.

[00:30:05] Scott Curtis: We're seeing you pretty much.

[00:30:08] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. Yeah. I'm yeah, I'm right now I'm fucking swinging around in shit. Yeah. It's who it's it's what I do. It's who I am off stage. Yeah. It is me. I don't know why. And I'm, again, I'm not against anybody that does it.

[00:30:21] Nathan Macintosh: I find it very hard to just stand there and quietly say jokes in a microphone. It's not me. It's not how I wanna do it. It's not it's just. I don't, it doesn't, it's not my

[00:30:34] Scott Curtis: deal. Yeah. And it wouldn't work with you? It, it wouldn't work with the material. Yeah.

[00:30:39] Nathan Macintosh: It doesn't, it just doesn't. It's not who I am.

[00:30:41] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. But so yeah.

[00:30:43] Scott Curtis: Do you use, that was the shortest answer I think I've given. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought that's what you'd say. Do you use social media to help write your stuff because you write some really good little. Facebook posts and Twitter posts and stuff like that.

[00:30:58] Scott Curtis: Do you use that to get [00:31:00] feedback and energy and then read it back later and decide if that's gonna be part of your act?

[00:31:05] Nathan Macintosh: The Facebook stuff, I use some of that, or sometimes I put up stuff that I am working on and I'll just see what, if people like it or don't or whatever. . But Facebook, I just sort.

[00:31:17] Nathan Macintosh: I was like, I'm not putting anything over here, and there's people over here and I like writing, so what am I doing? I'll just start every day trying to write something or again, yeah, work on something that I'm working on and see and just see if it works. If it works, it doesn't. It doesn't, but if something works on Facebook or whatever the hell, I will probably try to use it, but if it doesn't work, I might still try it anyway.

[00:31:40] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah, because it might be a different thing in front of. Regular people. I just like writing things. So in the morning I get up, I get a coffee, and I try to put something on that thing. .

[00:31:53] Scott Curtis: . That's great. What, you've been around long enough. What would you say is the best advice you [00:32:00] ever got from another comedian and what's the worst advice you ever got?

[00:32:05] Nathan Macintosh: The best advice is a weird one. So I met this guy years ago. His name, he, everybody called him crazy. That was his, they'd say he's crazy. And then his name, okay. . Everybody's he's fucking crazy. So I was doing some show with him in wherever the hell it was, and they go, you're gonna work with that guy.

[00:32:22] Nathan Macintosh: He's crazy. He's fucking not . And I'm pretty young. I get there and he goes hi. We do in. I go four years. He goes, let me tell you something. And he stands up and I go, here we go. He's gonna say some fucking bananas. He's gonna, tell me one of those things of make sure you always wear a suit and a thing and whatever the hell.

[00:32:43] Nathan Macintosh: But he stands up and he goes, save 10% of everything you make. And I go, what? I go, what are you talking? I just did not think that was going to be the thing that he said. . And he goes, . He goes, yeah, save 10% of everything you make. He goes, nobody cares about you [00:33:00] in this fucking business. He goes, if you shatter your leg, if you whatever, nobody's coming, and if you can't work, you're fucked.

[00:33:08] Nathan Macintosh: So he goes, I'm telling you right now, hang on to some money. And I went, thanks. . And since that time I have done that, I also, I went to get a bag of chips and I'm eating it, and he ripped it under my hand and he goes, stop eating the shit . He, and he handed me , he handed me a bag of trail mix.

[00:33:26] Nathan Macintosh: Clearly what had happened with this guy. He's a guy who had been doing comedy for a long time and gotten to this point where he looked at some of the mistakes he had made. . G generously, it might have been like I didn't find it harsh. I don't, whatever. But he was like, I'm gonna tell this fucking kid, , he didn't have to, he didn't have to say anything to me. He, I, I wouldn't have been upset if he had literally said zero words to me. Yeah. But the fact that he in his way was like, hang on some money and don't eat garbage. Fuck, man. Those aren't bad. That's not bad advice [00:34:00] for a comedian when you travel all the.

[00:34:03] Nathan Macintosh: and yeah, if you're not working, you're not making fucking money. Yeah, for sure. And then the worst advice I ever got, oh God. There's there's been some I don't know, stuff that just might not work for me personally. If I'm doing a TV taping or a comedy competition or something, people will be like, do the fucking hits.

[00:34:21] Nathan Macintosh: Do the stuff that fucking I just can't I need to put in some new-ish type thing, or I can't really perform it well, and I'm not I envy the people that can just do the same stuff. I really mean this. I'm not trashing , I envy the people who can do the same thing the exact same way for years and years.

[00:34:39] Nathan Macintosh: I find that fucking so hard to do. Yeah. Just like crazy. I need to change something about it or do add some other stuff to it. I can't, I, I can't find the energy for it if it's, if I'm not feeling it, and there's some people. Who are like, yeah, it's, I do it the exact same way for years and years.

[00:34:58] Nathan Macintosh: I really find that to be a pretty [00:35:00] fucking commendable

[00:35:00] Scott Curtis: thing. Yeah. I agree with not doing the hits and it's not like I have hits or anything, but if I go on stage and I'm doing just my best stuff that I know is gonna work, I don't put near as much. Yeah. Energy into it as if I'm doing tried and true bookending tried and true bookends around something that's new.

[00:35:24] Scott Curtis: , I do better at the stuff that I know is good if I know that I'm gonna try something new in the middle of it.

[00:35:31] Nathan Macintosh: Yes. Yeah. And that's kind, that's what kinda what I'm talking about. That's not even like the worst. But it's just advice that doesn't necessarily work for me.

[00:35:38] Nathan Macintosh: I can't even, I can't think of any horrific advice that's been yeah, I don't know. I'm sure there's a lot of just bad, it's mostly just stuff that wouldn't necessarily work for you. Sometimes when comedians are talking to you and they're telling you to do something, it's because that's how they would do it, right?

[00:35:58] Nathan Macintosh: Even with jokes, they'd be like, I'd add [00:36:00] this tag, and you'd go yes, you. You would. I wouldn't. That's it. That's it. If you had this joke, this is where you would go with it. That's not where I would

[00:36:08] Scott Curtis: go with it. Yeah. Yep. Dig it. Dig it. So we are, we're at my favorite part of the Podcast where we do something cool that I don't have a sound or anything for yet.

[00:36:18] Scott Curtis: It's called Is this anything? Is this anything? And that's where we each bring a joke, our premise, and we just talk it aloud a little bit and okay. Maybe give some tags and say if it's a winner or a loser. Since you're the guest, you get to choose who goes first,

[00:36:35] Nathan Macintosh: Be of you.

[00:36:38] Scott Curtis: I gotta bring out my notes cause I haven't done this one in a while.

[00:36:40] Scott Curtis: This is like an old joke that I'm gonna try to bring back. Yeah, so the the world's definitely a strange place these days. We used to make fun of Doomsday Preppers. We don't do that anymore. It used to be. Did you hear about Jeremy? He's got a bunker. He thinks it's gonna be, he thinks we're gonna have World War III or something.

[00:36:58] Scott Curtis: He's got like three. [00:37:00] Food in there. Now it's, did you hear about Jeremy? He's got a bunker. He's totally ready for World War iii and he lost custody of his kids. So we've got two spots available. Let's have Jeremy over for dinner. That's it.

[00:37:15] Nathan Macintosh: That's funny. There's definitely there's definitely legs to this in terms of.

[00:37:20] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. Man, the world seems to be every once in a while, it seems to be, it seems to be ending more now than it did years ago. Yeah. . And there's people now more talk about the world. There's always been, people talk about the end of the world, but it seems to be more now and for more reasons.

[00:37:35] Nathan Macintosh: , as opposed to just Hey, we reached a number on a calendar. Now there's like war, water, heat. Yeah. Fucking viruses b lots of stuff. Yeah, I definitely think there's fucking legs to that and you should keep working on it. Good. Good. .

[00:37:51] Scott Curtis: Yeah. I appreciate that. That's, and that's one I did.

[00:37:55] Scott Curtis: It's, it may be I had hair the last time I did it, so it's been a while. That's, [00:38:00] but I think it's something that I just put away and I'm like, eh, I could probably fit that cuz it's fitting my current theme a little bit more,

[00:38:06] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. Yeah. And I think legitimately before I got on here, I looked at Twitter.

[00:38:12] Nathan Macintosh: and I think doomsday was trending. Doomsday clock. Okay. Trending currently right now. Doomsday clock. There

[00:38:22] Scott Curtis: you go. I'm doing a mic tonight. I'll bring that one out tonight then since it's trending. .

[00:38:27] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah. That's not a, that's definitely a thing that you can work on, use, do whatever that you could, there's so much stuff you can add to that, there's so many ways you can build on that.

[00:38:37] Nathan Macintosh: No, that's definitely something you should keep working on for sure.

[00:38:39] Scott Curtis: Yeah. Yeah. And I've been thinking about like I'm talking to my wife about it and she's what kind of food do they have? What kind of freeze-dried shit do they have because , I don't know if I even wanna live if I have to eat pork and beans for three years, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I've got a few more tags that I'm thinking about. I appreciate that

[00:38:56] Nathan Macintosh: stuff they have down there too, like entertainment wise. Like what are they gonna do for the [00:39:00] next Y Yeah. 20 years, all that stuff. Yeah. What is in the bunker and yes.

[00:39:05] Nathan Macintosh: Is it worth? Is it worth it? Yeah. Or should you just go, I had a good run, . Let me check out. Yeah. Yeah that's funny. There's a lot of stuff there for sure. Do you see me as a red-haired person, avoiding the sun while it comes in? . If I stay right here, I'm viciously burnt. I have to go right

[00:39:27] Nathan Macintosh: It's so

[00:39:28] Scott Curtis: ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. So you have anything?

[00:39:32] Nathan Macintosh: Yeah, a thing that I didn't get enough time, whatever I didn't figure out enough in time for the special. . But the idea that like there's a stereotype about older people that they love the bank cuz they're just always in the bank.

[00:39:43] Nathan Macintosh: . And I don't think that's true. I think older people hate the bank, but they're the only people that have the time to. The agreement that they signed for this checking account, savings account, whatever. And they see how bad they're being fucked and they have the time to go down there and [00:40:00] that's why they're in there early waiting to get to the teller to tell this person, you've been stealing from me for 25 fucking years.

[00:40:08] Nathan Macintosh: And I'm wearing, I will sit here until I talk to any manager. I got a pocket full of Worders. I'm wearing two diaper. I will be here until somebody answers these questions, , and I could do more stuff with it. But anyways, it was a thought I had that I didn't get, I didn't get fully worked out to put into this

[00:40:25] Scott Curtis: thing.

[00:40:26] Scott Curtis: Yeah, I like that. That's definitely got legs and you can, that's another one you can build on about. Yeah. How old people are always taking up other people's time like you. Writing a check at the grocery store and telling their life story during the whole writing process and, , and you could you could add all the institutions that old people go to, like they always go inside at McDonald's.

[00:40:53] Nathan Macintosh: I do, I always go inside of McDonald's. Yeah. And I never go through the drive through. Fuck the drive-through. I go in, I [00:41:00] park in a spot and I walk in the building. I'm not gonna eat my fucking food in the parking lot like a seagull, . The only difference between you and a seagull is you have music. Yeah.

[00:41:11] Nathan Macintosh: It's the same deal. I'm going into the building. I hate the drive through. Most of the time it's not faster.

[00:41:20] Scott Curtis: No. It, a hundred percent isn't. That's funny. That, that, that's good.

[00:41:23] Nathan Macintosh: You guys have a bathroom in the building for God's sake. There's a bathroom.

[00:41:31] Scott Curtis: Oh, I love it. Yeah. Yeah. That's definitely got legs. You could you could do five minutes on that one. I think you could thanks, man. Yeah, you could really take that a lot of different ways just. What old people do and how they act.

[00:41:45] Nathan Macintosh: . Yeah. I actually, it's funny that you say that cuz I'm, I am working on this thing about how we hate the elderly and I find it disgusting and I could even talk about that.

[00:41:54] Nathan Macintosh: Cuz I like the idea of them writing a check and telling their life story. , what the fuck? What is the big rush that everybody's [00:42:00] in to get where to do what? So we can all sit at home covered in butter. , let this talk sucker still keep some sort of humanity going. Yeah. Either way I'll work on these things today.

[00:42:10] Nathan Macintosh: And you do

[00:42:10] Scott Curtis: the same. Yeah, I will. So the special is money never wakes and it's available on YouTube. It's very easy to find. I searched it several different ways, but if you type in Nathan McIntosh, it's the first. Video that pops up. So folks, awesome. I asked you to watch it for homework, but if you haven't watched it yet, watch it or watch it again because it's really good

[00:42:33] Nathan Macintosh: Watch it again. . It's like the Batman. You have to see it twice. That's right. . Get the no, I, I appreciate it, man. Thank you so

[00:42:41] Scott Curtis: much. I really appreciate it. Yeah, it was really good. Where can folks find you on all the socials?

[00:42:46] Nathan Macintosh: If if they check in there, all the links are in there, but Twitter, Instagram.

[00:42:50] Nathan Macintosh: And Facebook. It's all at Nathan McIntosh. Okay,

[00:42:54] Scott Curtis: excellent. This is a big one for me. Like I said at the intro you're one of those guys that you're always in my [00:43:00] top five and I appreciate that and I think that you're one of the best ones working around and I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me today.

[00:43:08] Scott Curtis: It's been really good for me.

[00:43:10] Nathan Macintosh: Scott, it's been great, man. I really thank you for reaching out and I'm happy I could do it. And, Thank you, man. Seriously, thank you. I really appreci.