I got to speak to the hilarious storytelling stand-up Tommy Buns for Esquire on the eve of Abu Dhabi Comedy Week. Check out the full article here.
Bonus Questions
There’s this bit that I believe is your closer for the hour now which started as a chunk that you cut out of Disgraceful and Ball Hog because of some level of doubt in it being ready. How do you know when a bit is ready and how did that section develop into what you’re working with today?
TS: It really is like a feeling. It’s hard to describe but it’s like when you’re done with something. Sometimes you’re on tour, and somebody saw you let’s say, in January. Then they see you again in May and ask what happened to that bit and you’re like, “I just dropped it, I don’t feel it anymore. I’m tired of doing it”. And that bit, I don’t think I was tired of it. I just wasn’t in love with it.
Now, the upside of that is that when you bring it back- especially if you leave it alone, it’s marinated for a while and now the new version has added layers. The thing about having something take years to do is a couple of years go by, and now you’re adding even more to it- more tags, more jokes, more meaning. There’s more value and substance to it.
And now it’s in this really polished place where you go, “This is actually the finished product that I didn’t know could get in much better shape if I hadn’t taken six years”, but it definitely has.
I think we put too much [pressure] on “turn it over quickly”. If you take your time with it, if you’re not rushing it, you get to these places where the bit can actually grow and tighten in a way that you can’t force. It’s because you’re not forcing it. It’s like it’s naturally evolving into better form.
You say in your book I’d like to play alone please that you wouldn’t trade your formative trips to Peru for the world, even when faced with a decision against your dream of playing college football. Have you been able to take your sons out there and experience what you did as a kid?
TS: My kids have not been to Peru yet, only because I’m not big on tons of international travel when they’re super young. I’ve taken them to Disneyland and seen what a disaster that was.
I think a few more years from now, that’s definitely in the plans to take them there. My wife is of Hungarian origin and we want to take them to Budapest so they see kind of their countries of origin. It just hasn’t happened yet.
Two young boys are a handful for any couple, let alone ones with world tours and joint business days on your podcast together- are you two able to make time for date night? If so, what does that entail?
TS: You can, but it takes planning. It’s like anything else; you have to make an effort. So we do try to get nights where we go do stuff. A lot of times honestly, we’re just like, “let’s just stay in”. We’re always tired.
We actually just took a trip to Rome. We left the kids with family and we got on a plane, it was crazy. We went for three nights but it was still fun. Most of that was honestly sleeping and walking and eating. But it was a great, awesome date experience.
She told me, “You know we can just do that in Austin, we don’t have to go to Rome. We can just go to a hotel and spend the night” and I was like, “Yeah, we’ll do that more”.
Starting at a small apartment in Burbank, the empire that you and your wife have built is impressive to say the least, and YMH Studios has really hit a new gear in the past couple years. Can you talk to me about what made you want to produce a whole network of shows that are separate from you and Christina?
TS: We didn’t want to be one of these places that put our name on fifty shows. For us, it was more exciting to think about what we like, what resonates with us, what we want to put our name behind, and then we find those, develop those shows, put time, put energy, put love into those shows, and support them.
We’ve been able to do that. We have another couple in the pipeline, but we’re never going to be you know, 50 podcasts. It’s all about us figuring out what the seven to ten shows are that we can can produce well and make good content that somebody would enjoy.
It’s been a process figuring it out. Now, we’re in conversations to do the same kind of thing for television and film and that’s something that we’re really excited about getting into. But it’s just the process of being creative and having collaborative partners and figuring out what it is you want to do. I think that having the team that we have is what makes it awesome. We have such a good crew there and people are super passionate about podcasts and about comedy. So we just tried to pursue the ones that we feel like fit well with us.
When getting your first Comedy Central hour, you were excited about the opportunity to perform for people who are actually your fans. I’ve heard your Two Bears One Cave co-host talk about what having fans means to him with tears in his eyes but what does it mean to you all these years after that first hour?
TS: You do feel this immense sense of gratitude that there’s enough people that believe essentially what you believed when you started, which is- “I think I can do this” and they support you.
They support you in a way where they’re reaffirming it. When you start doing stand up you’re like, “I believe I am funny enough to entertain a group of people” and these are people who are essentially saying, “We believe you too”.
To have that is extremely humbling. Honestly it’s an exciting thing, where you get to pursue your dream. It sounds corny, but when you get to perform comedy for a living, that was my dream just to be able to do it. So it’s the people that make your dream come true.
You’ve said that your greatest passion will always be in music, I know you love real OG Boom bap stuff but what are you listening to right now?
TS: Here’s what I’ve added recently- Teach me how to Dougie, Robi-Rob’s Boriqua Anthem by C+C Music Factory which is Spanish, Nas and DJ Premiere’s new song Define my Name, Gary Clark Jr.’s new album, Marvin Gaye’s Got to Give It Up, Culo which is another Spanish song, Bootsy Collins, Arthur Verocai which is a [self-titled] album from 1972.
I really do try to mix it up with everything from Soul, Hip-Hop, Italian music, Latin music. It’s just a mash-up of all different things. I try to listen to music as much as I can.
I’ve heard you say you always cared about how you looked but do you know when you really started to switch how you present yourself?
TS: It’s not something I really talk about but I’m like a straight-up clothing hoe. If you walk me by a clothing store, there’s zero chance that I’m not at least checking it out. So I guess I’ve always liked clothing or fashion or whatever, I’m a fan of it.
I think there’s something fun about the fact that when we perform, I’ve really done it up but it’s a feeling thing. It’s kind of like music. Clothing is a thing where it is how you choose to represent yourself. Some days it’s very casual in t-shirt and jeans. Some days, it’s sporty, or some days, it’s very classy and sophisticated.
Some days, it’s suits- when we did the Roast of Tom Brady they said “Hey, you can go with a suit, you can go for a tux”. I was like, “I’m going tux”.
They said, “We have this velvet dinner jacket” and I was like, “Yeah, I’ll do that shit”. But it’s all tied to your emotion. I do like classic Menswear, I just have always been drawn to it.
You’ve said that “Stupid bits are the most fun to do”, but as someone who sometimes gets singular gloves thrown at them on stage and is blocked on Instagram by Garth Brooks, do you ever feel like you have to be careful with what you throw at the YMH fans?
TS: You don’t want to abuse it in the sense of attacking someone. The Garth thing is funny because it’s nonsense. And you’re also saying, “target somebody who is almost like out of the stratosphere”. If you did that to somebody who had no power then yeah, you’re kind of abusing somebody.
It’s silliness. What I’ve learnt with the YMH audience is that when something really takes off, you tell an audience, “this is the formula, here’s the ways you can do it”. Then they actually make it way more imaginative and creative than you even suggest because they run with it. So I think your only responsibility is identify who you target with it, but after that it kind of is out of your control.
You’ve talked a lot about who your Comedy GOATS are but I’m curious as to who you’ve been watching recently. Can you tell me what your favorite specials are from the past couple years?
TS: I’m a big Brian Simpson fan he’s very, very funny. First time I saw him, I thought that dude was really fantastic.
Shane Gillis, who everyone’s grown to love now, I’m a huge fan of his. I don’t watch that many specials so I try to watch people do spots when I’m around.
Who I’ve seen do spots recently are Geoff Tate, Kirk Fox who I take on the road with me is really funny, and Amy Miller who I just had on the road with me, she was fantastic.
Bobby Lee is one of my favorite comedians and he still hasn’t put out a special- very funny guy.