Bumpercar talks about shows and opportunities and stretching thin and stuff on this week’s episode …
Do you stretch? Let us know by sending an email to bumperpodcast@nattybumpercar.com.
The Bumperpodcast is an oftentimes hilarious weekly romp around Headquarters, in Coffee-Can Alley, with Natty Bumpercar and his entire gaggle of pals!
About This Episode
In episode 289 of Bumperpodcast, Natty Bumpercar returns solo after the popular Ollie episode to share tales from a wild comedy weekend. After accidentally putting flour in his tea instead of sugar, Natty recounts performing three shows in three days, including hosting at Pennsylvania's oldest operating movie theater and bombing at a show with only three people in the audience. He celebrates finally connecting jokes that have been in his act for years and discusses exciting opportunities to develop kids' shows, though he's struggling to learn guitar for the performances. Natty hilariously wrestles with balancing family life, show business, and whether his multiple creative pursuits are spreading him too thin.
Memorable Quotes
“Let me be the tester, let me take the heat, let me take the bad stuff and you stay away from it. You don't need that flour tea at all.”
— Natty Bumpercar
“There were three people in the crowd and I'm like, is it a good dream? And I'm like, I don't know. Yes it is a good dream, you know why? Because I get to talk and make people giggle giggle giggle.”
— Natty Bumpercar
“I've been trying to figure out how to play guitar for decades. I can't even say the word 'guitar' – that's how bad off I am.”
— Natty Bumpercar
Topics: #comedy #stand-upcomedy #performing #kidsshows #guitar #work-lifebalance #parenting #theater
Featuring: Natty Bumpercar
Full Transcript
Natty Bumpercar: good morning bumper podcast that was so fresh and happy and energetic good morning it might not be morning where you're listening i don't know hey good day to you bump good evening to you this is hard this is harder than i expected it was gonna be good good good good times do you bumper podcast it's me natty bumper car and it's the bumper podcast and hooray for that unfortunately there's no ollie here today because everybody loved the ollie episode episode they're like oh give me more of that ollie give me why isn't he there every week i wish it was the ollie podcast well it's not it's still the bumper podcast and i'm natty bumper car and today today i was making some tea some lovely tea and uh the containers were switched and i accidentally put two scoops of uh of flour uh all-purpose flour ap flour they call it into my tea two scoops and uh instead of sugar and no no no no nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope not good i mean i didn't taste it i mean i knew immediately like the second i was like and i looked at i was just like like for a tenth of a second in my brain i was just like maybe it's powdered sugar maybe i've maybe i've invented some sort of powdered sugar tea thing because it's weird powdered sugar to me does taste different than sugar sugar how can sugar taste different it's all the same thing how can potato chips taste so different from mashed potatoes i don't understand oh what's that potatoes on grass oh that tastes totally different than my french fries my friend what about those pierogies or those latkes huh potato pancakes oh well those taste totally different than my uh my uh hischbruns i couldn't think of any other potatoes no but so uh yeah it it it just tastes like flour tea it's just it's not it's bad don't do it don't make that mistake let me make bumper podcast here's the thing i feel like we've been friends for a long time and i feel like i share and i feel like you know you listen which i appreciate and uh here's the thing let me be the uh the tester let me you know take take the heat let me take you know the bad stuff and you you stay away from it you don't need that you don't need it at all just let me you know do it and then complain about it and then it's a shared experience and you can go and you can talk to your friends and you can be like bro i totally blur blur blur like that um and then you don't have to worry about it so good good made your life easier that's what i'm doing that's what we're here for to do for do that's what we're here for do we're here to make your life for easier i um i had such a great weekend man i had man i did uh i had i had show friday and uh it was at a hotel like in a room and like 70 people it was just it was good it was fun and then the very next night um i opened i was uh but i was hosting at a theater in pennsylvania and it was like this old theater uh someone told me it was the oldest operating movie theater in the country it's called the new town theater and there's like i don't know the seats 320 and i think we had around 270 to 300 something like that i don't really know um and i mean it was it was great i don't get to do a lot of theaters and so it's a totally different experience like you go on stage and you're i don't know 10 12 whatever feet away from the crowd and you're elevated and the lighting is different and the sound is different and sometimes it's it's hard to hear them uh the the laughs come in if there are any which unfortunately yes fortunately uh there were there were laughs thanks for laughing uh and then um you know it was just it was a great night the rough part it was about an hour and a half away uh so to get there was i was just like oh tired and then you got to go up and do a show and then you got to drive home and it's late like i pretty i think i got home at around two and then uh i think i slept until like six so that's a big four hours of sleep for you and the night before uh i think the kids had gotten up at like 5 20 or something like that why uh and then sunday night had another show so it's three in a row boom bam boom and uh sunday night no it didn't work out so well there were three people in the crowd three people there was talks of uh the show but that's hard to do because all the comedians have come out you know and those three people are there um and so we kind of just turned into a loosey-goosey open mic-y type thing and had fun with it and then two people showed up like halfway through the show and watched um but you know you have good things you have bad things you know things happen it's it's all good fun it's all good times and you know everybody needs a stage time everybody looking at me needs the stage time so it's good to uh to get up there and bibble babble oh and this so uh at the uh the saturday show uh i had done a bit so so i was doing i was hosting so i was up front and then i was in between the comics and so and in between a lot of people got up to go use the restroom or whatever and so i had to um kind of stall for time a little bit to make sure they could all get back and sit down before the headliners start right makes sense so i did some stuff up front and then when i hit the middle i found connective tissue between what i was doing in the middle and the stuff that i had done up front so i could call back to it and i was so happy because i've been doing these jokes for a long time and it's just weird like for they just had never connected and then on this night it was like boom so then sunday uh i think i did i only did like four minutes because i wanted to get up and see if if it worked together and i wish i could i wish i could remember what it was uh but you know so i just quick ran through the setup and then uh the initial part and then went to the second secondary part and then did the little connection and i was like oh i'm so happy it works of course the three people in the crowd were like does it work though and i'm like i don't know they're like this is your dream and i'm like sure this is my dream they're like is it a good dream and i'm like i don't know yes it is a good dream you know why because i get to talk and i get to talk and i get to talk and i get to talk and i get to make people giggle i make them giggle i make them giggle giggle what i make them giggle like it i giggle giggle and the cool thing is lately i've had several people come to me and talk to me about doing kid shows hey maybe you want to do a kid show here hey do you want to do a kid show here and i've done a few kid shows and um in the past but they're talking about like hey it's going to be your show you're going to be the main guy you're going to be the headline or whatever which i don't know if there's a headliner in kids shows i'll take it sure i don't know if it is uh and and so what i gotta do now is develop specific material for a kid show because i i tried some of my normal stuff and it doesn't always work and so i've been trying to learn how to play the guitar i have my guitar and i've been pulling it out and trying to and it's hard i'm not i don't know why ever since college i've had guitars and i've tried to figure them out and i think it's not a figuring out thing it's just a matter of um actually working on it and i've been trying to figure out how to play the guitar and i've been working with it a lot and i've got like i think my fingers are too big or my guitar is too small like i've got it's it's kind of a tiny guitar i can't oh it's upstairs i was gonna tell you what it was and i love how it looks and it's so fun and cute but i think it might be too tiny for me and all the guitar lessons that i look at online the uh there's like a little circle thing that they're using as a uh visual point to a reference point and it's just mine's in a different place and i don't know what to do i don't know i feel like if i uh sat down with somebody who can play and they showed me things then maybe i could figure it out but it's not true i mean i've really for a long time decades been trying to figure out how to play good car good car i can't even say the word that's how bad off i am good car um but i want to so i want to have songs and i want to have visual stuff and like figure out little games because with kids you can't just tell jokes because they're going to be like nope sucker so i need to figure out how to play guitar and i've been trying to figure out how to play guitar now we're doing this now we're doing this and still have it be quick and moving and keep them engaged and here we go over here and now we're over here and now this thing is happening now that thing is happening oh now there's pig and everything oh and now we're singing a song um and i think it'll be great and i think it'll be great fun the only downside the thing that freaks me out is the kid shows are going to be during the day during the day on weekends um i'm pretty busy on weekends you know why because i've got kids okay i've got two kids i don't know if we have them before if i've ever mentioned them but i do i have kids and um so that'll be a bit more juggling um but then i was thinking about it and i was like oh well maybe you know they're getting a little bit older maybe they can come and help out or something and i can quote them a couple bucks but then i was just like oh i don't want them to get involved with show business ah so it's kind of a up and down debate so what i've decided to do Come back after a 10-year hiatus. The cartoonist, animator, that guy's going to be here. The writer, that one's going to be there as well. And, you know, probably the one who goes to the gym so he can look fit, so he can look good. You know what I'm saying? And then there's the one who cooks a lot, like a good cook, cooker. And there's the baker. There's a lot of bumper cars is what I'm saying. That's a lot of stuff. I don't even know if that's a lot. I mean, it feels like a lot of stuff. Is that too much stuff? Am I stretching myself too thin? Is that the whole point of everything?
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