Episode #415
Billy Wayne Davis is a comedian who has performed on Conan, Last Comic Standing and Comedy Central, lent his voice and producing skills to SquidBillies, hosted a travel doc for CMT, Morgan Spurlock Presents Freedom! The Movie , opened for Sturgill Simpson, and worked with Sacha Baron Cohen on both Who is America? and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. Davis has just released his second stand-up comedy festival, Testify, which premiered exclusively on the Moment platform in November 2022. He sat down with me to talk about taking risks in comedy, his previous experiences in and around Seattle, fatherhood and his new special.
Here’s an extended clip from the special!
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This transcript has been edited and condensed only slightly for your convenience.
You joked over on the old bird app that you couldn’t get Peacock to pick up Testify, but they would stream Casey Anthony.
I mean, when they passed, I wasn’t like, you know, that’s part of the whole game. But then when they started promoting that, I was like, ‘Hey! Y’all!’ That’s hard not to take personally, you know what I mean? Where it’s like, I’m really good at what I do. And I worked really hard. I think I wouldn’t present this to you guys unless I was like, You should buy this. Like, it’s good. And then they’re like, Yeah, we got this lady who killed her kid. We’re gonna give her some money. Damn!
Not only do you have a talent in stand-up, but you also have not killed your kids yet.
None! Neither! None! I love them both. I never thought about it. And they’re annoying. I tell ‘em to shut up sometimes. That’s the worst. That’s my worst, every now and then I’ll just be like, just shut up.
Do they know that their dad is a stand-up comedian?
I mean, I have a 13-year-old that is becoming quite aware of it, I think. And then the three year old: He knows we’re funny. That’s what he says.
With the teenager, has that changed the dynamic? Where they’re like, oh, I know what you really like.
Probably in a good way. I’ve never hidden who I was or any of that kind of stuff as a dad. I’ve never been like in your face about stuff either. But it was never like if he was curious, here’s what this is. No, I think he’s more interested in it. I think he has a natural taste. He has good taste in comedy naturally. Like he was into The Simpsons and some some of that stuff that I didn’t necessarily influence. So he watches all kinds of stuff, but the things he gets into are really good. So that’s nice. Not all of the things are really good.
But does that mean that the 13-year-old has or has not yet watched Borat?
I haven’t shown him any of Sacha’s stuff, because there’s an adultness and a social awareness that I don’t think — maybe Bruno? I could show him Bruno. But I mean, everyone’s gonna laugh because he’s a clown. A very talented clown. So it’s really funny anyway, but the context… But he watches South Park all the time. And that’s pretty fantastic.
Specifically, because, of course, you got involved in the Subsequent Moviefilm.
When it came out, he was at his mom’s house. And I think she showed it to him, because I wouldn’t.
Did he know that it was you?
She told him. She was like, ‘hey, your dad’s in this movie’ kind of thing. But no one knew! I think she watched it. Because like everyone was watching it, and then at the end people were like, Whoa! Because you know, I can’t promote. You can’t tell (anyone). Like my current wife knew, but his mother didn’t. No one knew. Outside of our little immediate family. He didn’t even really know.
How did you get involved in his hijinks?
Who Is America? was the first thing I did with him. And then, do you know Adam Lowitt?
From The Daily Show and stuff like that.
Yeah, he was an EP on Who Is America? And he called me one day all weird — and we just kind of knew each other like, from my short stint in New York City or when I would visit because he knew me as a stand-up and stuff — he just reached out through, I think Brendon Walsh is who he got my number or something through. And that’s why I was like, I don’t trust this because Brendon was involved because he was just a prankster. So and then Adam was being kind of cryptic. And he was like, listen, Are you available tomorrow? It’s for Sacha Baron Cohen thing. I was like, yeah man. You should lead with that. I’ll do whatever that dude needs. I’m a huge fan and then, it was months before we went to shoot or anything. It was just one day in LA at this hotel. They were working with the character and stuff. And so I like literally, it was just like one of those LA days or a New York day where you’re just like, that’s why you live here because weird shit like that happens. That was a fun day. I met this dude and worked with this dude who I really love and admire, and I got to see how it works.
Right, but for Who Is America? you can stay behind the scenes on that as a consultant or a writer or whatnot. But for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, you also had to put yourself out there, because you were introducing his fake band that performed in Olympia, Wash.
I was the emcee.
That’s the one event in that film where Sacha says that he actually ran back to his trailer and hid in fear and they drove away.
Yeah, it was…
I mean, obviously people probably aren’t pinning that on you at the time or are they?
Oh, no, I don’t think that — people probably don’t know I was involved. Like to this day. I bet they don’t. Someone would have to like point it out like, there was no way. No, that was funny. Because you know I worked on Who Is America? for a good stint. And then I got a call from one of the producers on it — this was one of those numbers, where, I can’t remember what this is from. And they’re like, Hey, can you come do this thing with him? And, like, it was during COVID so I was like, um, sure? Yeah. And it was like this crazy protocol. They had a machine that was one of the few in the country.
Oh, for testing and safety.
Yeah, it was like a whole thing. They were just like, we need you to host this thing, to do this thing. And I was like, Yeah, I can do that. And then afterwards, some new people on the production, that I didn’t know from the other part. They’re like, wow, they said you were perfect. And you were perfect. I was like, yeah, no, I knew what to do.
So when the event was actually transpiring, how did you feel?
I had a mask on. So there were like a couple parts where I could like kind of giggle, where I couldn’t when I was working on the other thing. But I mean, I’ve said this before: I’ve worked so many big events that none of that shook me. I know how to move in crowds, especially big crowds. I know how to get through stuff, so none of that scared me. And then I grew up around, I’m a hillbilly from East Tennessee, so the gun part didn’t scare me that much. I was aware of it. But I’ve also said, and you’ve seen the special, you know who wants to use a gun and who doesn’t. And none of those people really want — I mean, there was a couple people that I was like, I’m gonna keep my eye on this kind of person. But there was also a bunch of security there with us that I was like, they were scary to me. So I was like, that’s good. When the commotion happened, you know, it was interesting because, everyone was unclear. You can tell what was happening. And then some people had figured it out, and then tje chaos happened. And then I had to come back on stage after that, after they chased him around, and then they got in a thing and left. And then my whole thing was like, I’m the emcee of this event. This is my part. So I went back onstage and there’s like one of the dudes running he had like a pistol on his thing, but he was in a suit and it was comical. The whole thing’s funny. And I was like, Hey, man, do you need me to introduce, there’s another singer? Like a real singer is supposed to be, like a country music singer? I was like, You need me to introduce him? and he’s like, Oh, no, dude, we’re good. This is chaos. We’ll take care of it from here. He’s like thank you so much. I was like, no problem man! He shook my hand and stuff. And in my head as it was happening. I was like, I don’t know if they’ll use this but that’s such a funny like, to me. I was like, that’s really funny. But then I left. And I knew crowds enough that they’re looking at this other thing, this other nonsense. So I just walked right through them and out.
Right, because from your perspective, it’s just like being an MC, or even a feature or headliner
It’s not even that crazy a show.
Right at some weird one-nighter in the Pacific Northwest.
None of it felt out of place except for I was like there’s about to be, it’s good to know that the chaos is coming. Because like you said, most of doing stand-up for a living until you get famous, is just chaos. You’re playing to chaos for a lot of it. So none of that. The most shocking part of it to me was like they needed me to get the crowd closer. You know, because it’s like in this field. People plopped down, there’s speakers all day and stuff like that. And that’s I was worried about, because when people plop down with their blankets or their chairs, it’s like a flag almost. We’re like, this is mine. We’re not moving from here. So I was like, it may take me 10 or 15 minutes to get everybody to come down. And that’s the cool thing that I could see about fascism, I noticed, is like if you’re a leader, it’s pretty great. People just do what you say immediately. I was like, hey, we need everyone just move as close as possible, and they just got all their stuff up and moved closer and I was like, huh! Oh, I guess these are a follower-type people. I was like, oh, so we’re gonna speed things up. Like then I had to stall, so I had to be funny. I started some chants. I watched some speakers before me. They had a political rally for the show in the music part. I watched all those people and I watched how the crowd responded to those people, to see what they liked and what they didn’t like. It was just like watching a stand-up show. Well, this crowd doesn’t like this or they don’t like that.
I don’t know too much about being a fascist, but I spent my early years in comedy in Seattle. And I remember people telling me that even more than being funny is your confidence, because they can sense your stage presence. If they sense weakness in you onstage, they’re not going to laugh, even if you are funny, but if you project a lot of confidence, they’ll be willing to go along with half-baked jokes.
100%. That’s any public speaking. I Tweeted probably a month ago: Where I grew up, people thought that I knew more about the Bible because I didn’t have a fear of public speaking. You know what I mean? Like, what does that have to do with each other? Nothing. It was just that I didn’t mind speaking in front of people and I could make stuff up and they were like, OK, sounds good.
I think that describes too many of the most popular people on social media.
It’s all cults right now, it is all cults of personality. It’s fascinating,
I also brought it up because I wanted to know how you found yourself in Seattle.
I had met my now-ex wife. We had just started dating. I was touring the South, with a couple comedians as an opener. And then we met, started dating. She got a job offer in Seattle. And she was like you want to come? I had hung out and met Mitch Hedberg about three weeks before he had passed. And he spent a lot of time in Seattle and we talked about that and he was like — I knew that I needed to leave Nashville, but I knew I didn’t need to go to New York or LA next, but I needed, because of my accent and my name, I was getting pushed in certain directions where I was like, this isn’t who I am, it is never going to be what I do. And I knew leaving the South, I had to. If I wanted to develop an actual voice, I knew that I needed to leave the South. And I thought about Houston, a little bit. It was getting hairy down there. And then she was like, let’s go to Seattle and I was like, OK, and then went up there and I mean, my experience was like, I will be candid about it.
What year was it?
It was the end of 2006. And we moved. So start of 2007.
I left Seattle in 2001.
Even in my six years there, it changed. The scene changed in drastic ways, which was fascinating. But when I was first there. It was, like really exciting. There was a lot of People’s Republic of Komedy. The alt thing was popping off in a positive way. In a very creative way. It was in the beginning where it wasn’t really political. It was just like, be weird and funny. But be funny. So that was really fun. And then what I recognized because I was also touring, I was still opening with people. So I would fly out. What I recognized that I didn’t anticipate was Seattle has this, the Northwest has this incredible scene, like comedy thing. There’s a kid Chase Mayers that moved from Louisiana up there and I told him I was like, I gave him the secret was like, here’s the thing: It’s a great place to go develop because you can if you live in the city or near the city, you can get up every night of the week. And most places you can’t do that. Like outside of the big cities. You can get up every single night. There’s also tons of like casinos and bar gigs, and all these things that are totally different types of stand-up. But if you work them all, it’ll just make you amazing. If you get through it.
It toughens you up in so many different ways.
Yes, I recognize it, and I think I had the advantage of already touring when I moved there.
Were you touring with Ralphie May at that point?
Just barely, just a little bit. Enough that we were like buddies. We had become friends, but not like I’ve done like one long tour with him at that point like a couple months. It was like the beginning of it, I guess is when I moved there. But Nashville, being that Zanies was my home club, I had a different type of education than most people get because of the showplace aspect of it’s a true A room where there’s just every type of headliners coming through there, big acts, and I was a house MC there, so that like that sped up my comedy knowledge of how the business worked, than what these scenes will make you think the business is, so I had that advantage like going into Seattle. I recognized there were these cliques happening, and that happens in any city or any scene. But then they would stop doing each other shows. And I was just like oh no, this is not, OK, so I’m just gonna keep doing every room I can. Then I had my own drama with my relationship so that helped stay out of their drama, but it was like as far as comedy. It also can be very toxic. That’s why I was like, I’ll be candid about it. Because of what I’m talking about, because it gets insular. And some people don’t want to leave. So they get in their own thing. And then they get territorial about it. It is what it is, but it is like I’ve never understood that part of comedy, the territory part.
I think even with with social media and right now it’s TikTok. But before that, YouTube or podcasting, you can do comedy from anywhere. But back in the early 2000s and before then, these scenes can be great because they’re outside of the industry, but then at the same time, they can be too far outside of the industry. And they kind of operate in like a little echo chamber or an umbrella.
In Houston, that’s the first place I met people that, these brilliant comedians that I’d never heard of — and I was like a comedy nerd. Even stuff I didn’t know about because of Zanies I’d find out about because they would bring in, like I understood a lot of the Black acts and stuff because of Zanies. And then I was like: Who are the some of these Texas comics? Like who are these people? And they’re like, oh, they only do shows in Texas. And I was like what? And then they just start naming cities. Oh! They don’t have to leave Texas and they don’t want to. I was like, huh. Now it’s harder to do that now. But then when comedy was like a booming — not Boom Boom industry, but like there were more clubs operating. It was before they started looking reality show people. Let’s be honest, that’s what it was. And then it kind of took a dive.
Well, reality show wasn’t a thing then to make people think that they could be a thing. When I was in Seattle the only person I ever had to deal with like that was Kato Kaelin but he had a comedy background before his OJ connection.
I did a show with him in LA, of course, at a health club. And he’s delightful. My wife and I left and I was like, I can totally see where like, they do just a good hang. Where you’re just like, I mean, just stay in the house. Hey, what’s up, man? You want to?
I take care of things when The Juice isn’t around.
Yeah. He was like so delightful. I could see him being like, this is, this is not fun, what’s happening, you know, with his whole life. But then in the Northwest I met some guys that kind of did that in a similar way
Because they can.
Yeah, but their act would get, and Texas comics, too, I guess to a certain degree would get so specific to those regions. Pretty funny, but like that would just that so mentally, I couldn’t.
Yeah, there’s some old Boston comics who are the same way. Like they don’t need to leave and also, their act has become so regional and parochial that they can’t translate that to a wider audience.
In New York City too. That was an interesting part of New York is like, you meet some, like it was like Texas where I was like, man here’s some really great comics I’ve never heard of, and really been working for 12 years and they’re like, Yeah, but they don’t leave this like 20-mile area, and you’re like, whoa. I was equally fascinated with that. That’s kind of cool.
But like you said, you’ve had the grace or the wherewithal to keep breaking outside of whatever bubble people might want to put you in and also, when you were in Seattle, you were touring. And it strikes me. You know, we’ve mentioned a couple of these names Sacha Baron Cohen, Mitch Hedberg. Toured with Ralphie May, also worked with people like Morgan Spurlock. You did stuff with Third Man Records, with Jack White. You’ve collected all of these kind of iconic and eclectic infamous people along the way of your journey. How has that all rubbed off on you?
I’ve never thought about all those people together like that.
Right because you probably would never would have seen them all in the same room.
I’ve actually never met Jack, which is very fascinating. But I think there’s a quality aspect to all that, that’s more important than quantity. If we’re looking at all those people’s body of work. They’re artists, too. Does that make sense? They’re all artists. They’re not entertainers. per se. That was an interesting part, as a former jock, even when it was like in a lot of nerd classes too, because my mom’s an English teacher.
But most people don’t combine college athletics with also being a radio DJ.
Like no, they don’t
Your background kind of like allowed you to be kind of like a floater and floating and all these different worlds.
Yeah, I think yeah. If I’m gonna be interested in something, it’s like let’s figure out how it works, the best way to do it. Because if I want to show it to somebody I don’t want to waste their time, too. Which is why it takes me a while to release stuff. But I’m very proud of everything I’ve released, like everything. And I don’t know if many people can say that. They shouldn’t say it.
I mean, usually the conventional wisdom for comedians is to always look back at your old work with a little bit of horror.
Oh, if you can’t tag nine jokes when you listen your old stuff then what are you doing? Yeah, but it is like, it’s surprising to listen to like some old bit and go hey, OK! Yeah, you know what? People were right. Yeah, this is funny because sometimes, you know, like, when you get tired of jokes, and you’re just like, don’t want to do them anymore. I was talking to Tom Papa. And I was like, when you’re getting ready for any special or something like that. It’s like, you know you’re ready when you’re like mad at the audience for laughing at the jokes a little bit because you’re like, I’m just so tired of making this so tight, and then you’ve heard it so many, so you know where things are, and yeah, there’s a part of you, that’s like, why are you all laughing at this? You have to like consciously because it’s like a human thing to be like, I’ve just done this so many times. It’s like insane. And I’ve always had a hard time as a comic. I think it’s a hard time when I want to. I can do it, but I don’t because of that. And I’ve been always amazed by like comics that do their act the same way every night. And I’m not knocking it like it’s like Seinfeld does it, like it’s amazing. Regan to some degree does that. I can’t do it. Like I’ll do the same bits but never in the same. Eventually, you know, when you’re working to do something for TV or something like that, it comes together but like, when you’re on the road, it’s I just I feel like you’re just kind of playing every night with the room and what you’ve got. So that’s when it’s really fun. I think.
On of the things that makes Moment different, and that’s where you released Testify first is the new platform Moment. One of the things that makes it different is they try to create, as in the name, a moment where you have a live premiere even though it’s prerecorded, and the fans are all in the chat room. So what was that like for you to experience your own special with fans in a chat room?
It was interesting. I didn’t fully grasp what we were doing, if I’m being honest. So I didn’t promote it great. I think what when people figure out what it really is, it will be cool. And we’re the early part of it. But the neat thing was like we did a q&a afterwards. And that was really. I’ll be honest, the introvert in me was not excited about that part at all, because you know, you release this thing and then they say, people are gonna ask you stuff about — I don’t know. Is anyone emotionally ready for something like that? But everyone was like so cool. And they were asking fun questions and it is like the thing, like any of your artists self doubt and stuff where you’re like this is not a good idea. But everyone liked it. So was really fun and we did it for like 20 or 30 minutes where people have to say stuff. So that was really fun. And it made me realize like, I might do some kind of Twitch streaming show like that because I did enjoy it.
It had like a Local Access feel to it where people were just like saying stuff to you. Man, I liked this and then someone on that was like you’re talking about Twitch and I was like, OK, I’m an old man. So sure. OK. And he’s like, you should do a Twitch and I was like it would be fun. Because I used to love to watch those shows and listen to those shows. Those old like AM-FM low dial, local two old puds, sitting there talking, and then they’re like someone’s trying to sell an S-10 Chevy. That’s what it felt like, which also felt like very communal, which I really liked. To answer your question in the longest way possible, Moment was pretty cool if I would have used it correctly. I think we’re it was really really work well is if you have a popular podcast and you want to do live stuff.
You also recorded this special with 800 Pound Gorilla Media. I bring it up because we’re at the one year mark of when their efforts to get more residuals on behalf of comedians has led to a spat with Spotify that’s lasted over a year now. So I didn’t know how you as a comedian, who’s been thrown into the middle of that, feel about that, like a year removed from the whole thing popping off.
We weren’t getting much money from them anyway. It took so many, it’s not like music where people might play your stuff like a zillion times, and even then those dudes aren’t getting much money either. Where we make most of our plays, is from SiriusXM. They pay a decent thing. Because my parents are teachers and I have an interest in like history or whatever is like I kind of understood what they were doing. I understand the numbers game we’re trying to play with somebody like that. When they pulled all the things out, that was a fascinating move but to me it just showed that they knew people aren’t coming here for this so it doesn’t matter. They wouldn’t have done that. I mean, it was like just kicked them out. This doesn’t make much sense.
They wouldn’t do that if you were Taylor Swift or Harry Styles.
Oh god, no. But it’ll get people’s attention, I think and then it’ll have to take somebody like a beginner like Taylor doing the thing with Ticketmaster. She’s doing it now. You know, Congress and stuff is involved in all that but she’s pushing that now because her fans were like, Hey, what the hell?
Right, why pay $1,000 for a concert ticket.
Yeah, but she knew going in. But it’s also like they make everything easier. They own everything and then they own all the venues so even someone like her kind of has to do that for just like, it’s easy, unless you want to create a whole corporate like nine corporations, hire a bunch of people to do it for you. Which she could do.
Who could do that in comedy? Do you think?
I think Kevin Hart’s all in house. Pretty much.
Would it take someone like Kevin to push the needle for Spotify, not just Spotify but Apple and Amazon and all because most of those platforms don’t really pay that much per stream so is there are a comedian who can change that argument on behalf of comedians or no?
No, because Kevin’s stuff is all in-house and he has his own network, right, the LOL thing and all that but he’s an impressive businessman. So he has his own industry that they’re not even. I think people just come to him anyway now. So they’re not going to Apple from that way to get him like unless it’s his movies or something like that, like all that stand up stuff is through Netflix or whatever. Rogan is interesting. He could leave Spotify after his deal. And then if he started dogging them or whatever he has some kind of pull there to make a dent.
It was Rogan all those years ago, pre-podcast who pushed the Comedy Store on Carlos Mencia and got people thinking about joke thievery for the first time in a long while.
I don’t know if Joe set out to have all this power.
I don’t think he did.
I think it’s a responsibility he doesn’t care to have but I do think he could like, the same reason they wanted him in that space. Same reason they wanted Last Pod in that space. Once they let him go, I am interested to see what happens there. And musicians could take their music off there. Like that’s another thing like Neil Young do and stuff like that. What he did, what Neil Young did was just bringing up this conversation. This needs to be talked about and it’s not talked about. So here I’ll talk about this. Threaten this thing. Whatever. And that worked. It’s like he understands the media, Neil Young does, to a certain degree. But until there’s antitrust stuff, this is not gonna be solved until the government comes in and like you guys can’t do this.
You mean even Billy Wayne Davis and I didn’t solve it right now?
We could solve it.
You mean this podcast right now didn’t solve it?
I just get frustrated, with the execution of these plans I keep making.
Yeah, well, I know you said earlier that don’t feel like you did a solid enough job promoting Testify. But hopefully, this podcast is popular enough to get people looking it up.
Get that McCarthy bump.
Yeah. Whether it’s, even if it’s no longer on Moment, it’ll be on a platform near you soon enough.
After that, yes, wherever you platform, it will be. I don’t know. I don’t think it’ll be on Spotify. I don’t think my label has a great relationship with them right now.
Well, who knows. Maybe this is the time for 800 Pound Gorilla Media and Spotify to roast chestnuts over an open fire and kiss under the mistletoe.
At least someone’s looking out for us. Which is nice for a change. Because we don’t look out for each other a lot.
Not nearly as much as we should.
No. But we’re all mentally ill so it’s tough.
Well, Billy Wayne Davis, thanks for at least being mentally ill with me.
Of course. Anytime.
So I’m not alone
Because you never are.
Yeah, we never are. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Thank you. I gotta go pick up the kids.
Go pick up the kids. Don’t be a Casey Anthony.
Well, she’s got special out on Peacock.
Don’t watch that. Watch Billy Wade Davis: Testify.
Yes, yes.
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