No I.D.
Comedian Jerome Davis hosts No I.D. Podcast — the show where real conversations meet raw comedy. Each episode dives deep with comedians, creators, and culture shifters, exploring everything from life and career to art, mental health, and surviving the grind — all with sharp humor and zero filter.
If you’re looking for real stories, unfiltered interviews, and laughs that hit different, this is your podcast. No scripts. No fluff. No I.D. required.
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No I.D.
Craft, Bombs, And Building A Comedy Career W/Charlie Cantrell
A high school writer with jokes that didn’t fit the rubric found a mic, a room, and a path. Charlie Cantrell joins us to pull back the curtain on how a careful craftsman became a working New York comic—without losing the nerve to bomb, pivot, and grow. We talk about the early days at the venue on 35th Street, where five-dollar Thursdays and honest tags turned rough ideas into real sets. From there, Charlie walks us through Hampton Roads to Manhattan, why comics often commit to a few rooms instead of chasing every stage, and how the right environment accelerates timing, cadence, and confidence.
The craft talk goes deep. Charlie once timed every joke and kept binders with a table of contents; now he mixes that structure with improv to work premises live and find the laugh in the moment. We compare “good laughs” that survive weekends to “bad laughs” that only pop in smoky bar chaos, and we trade war stories about hecklers, empty Sundays during football season, and the weird humility of having your dad drive you to a hostile open mic. It’s the unglamorous part of comedy that builds a resilient voice: data from failure, trust earned onstage, and a thicker skin for the next rep.
We also explore influence and evolution. Conan O’Brien’s silly-smart elasticity, Gary Shandling’s authentic introspection, Chris Rock’s sharp angles, and Bill Burr’s shifting POV inform how Charlie structures bits and paces stories. That leads to today’s big question for working comics: when do you burn an hour? We dig into specials, 30-minute formats, and the strategy of building a second hour before releasing the first. Along the way, Charlie shares what acting and improv added to his toolbox—listening, presence, and the freedom to stop chasing a laugh every ten seconds.
If you’re chasing stand-up, curious about the New York scene, or just love hearing how jokes become sets that actually work, this one’s for you. Hit play, then tell us your favorite comedy special and why it still holds up. Subscribe, share with a comic friend, and leave a review so more folks can find the show.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the No ID Podcast. I have here actor, writer, producer, comedian. This man has been killing the game since I met him before, and one of the most organized comedians I ever met. The one and only Charlie Cantrell. How you doing, bro?
SPEAKER_02:Good, good. I think there's like no no one's organized. I think I'm not really organized. It's more of just everyone else is just like, you know, like just a degenerate alcoholic, just non-foot. And I just show up with like a notepad and they're like, wow, this guy's really got his shit together.
SPEAKER_01:I knew you were organized when you gave me a table of contents for you to do that. Oh, yeah. Okay, I do have that. Yeah. Yeah. And you had them time. Yeah, yeah. This one's three minutes and 58 seconds. This one's four minutes. I'm like, okay, Charlie, I see what you're trying to do, bro. It's a bit over.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's all good, man. How's everything been in NY, bro?
SPEAKER_02:Good, good, good. I yeah, I got there in late September, moved from Hampton Roads to New York. It's nice. It's kind of I got a few spots going that went went well. I I I like it. It's it's sort of different than what I thought. It's kind of like, you know how in Hampton Roads we have to kind of work a variety of different rooms, you know? Like there'll be you'll do one show and another show. In New York, it's kind of like new con there's a lot of different options for shows, and comics kind of just pick one room and do that commit to those few rooms, you know? Which is it's just a different mentality. I I like both, both are interesting, but it's yeah, yeah, I think it's a different form of game in different places. But I like it, it's nice.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, man. I've been seeing your stories on root in four years. See, every time I turn around, you gotta show a flyer. I'm like, damn, like, okay, Charlie.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. Thank you. I uh and for for we we met at the venue a while a while back. How uh when did you start going there? That that's the spot in Hampton Roads, yeah?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, man, I started going 2019. Okay. What about you?
SPEAKER_02:February of 2019 is when I started.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, man.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I love seeing you come in because you went straight to work and then you wouldn't stay around. Like, yeah, I'm focused. I'm gonna spend the night at the dorm, and I'm like, okay, Charlie, you got it. Yeah. I always respected that about you, man, and your hustle. I ain't never heard nothing negative about you, and you always was putting in work. So that's something I really admire and respect about you, bro.
SPEAKER_02:Likewise, I've I love showing my material on Thursday nights to you and your tag. It's always pretty solid information that's helped a lot.
SPEAKER_01:Like I told you, the day you headline a theater, you get on SNL, just like, you know, I know somebody in Virginia.
SPEAKER_02:Of course. Likewise with you, when something that that's that that's a two-way streak. You can't put that on me. It's going back at you.
SPEAKER_01:For sure, man. So how did you get your start in comedy, bro? How did you like decide to do it?
SPEAKER_02:I I started when I was a junior in high school. So I was like doing a lot of r comedy writing before then. And you know, I would write funny stories, and I would kind of submit it into either school things or festivals, and it wouldn't really work. Like my writing was compared to like dramatic work. Like other people would be saying writing very serious stories about you know their childhood trauma, and I would just be, you know, talking shit and all that, and and it would never do well in those competitions. But someone turned to me and said, Hey, you know, if you put did this on stage, you can really do well as a stand-up. So I I kind of felt like, okay, you know, uh that's an avenue I should explore. And I I w saw the venue. I went to one of the venue shows when I was like 16, and I saw it, and I was like, oh, you know, okay, they have this is where I can do stand-up. And I just started writing an idea of a stand-up set. And February of 2019, when I was a junior, I did my first stand-up set with at the venue. And that it's been I graduated college in May. There was a year where I just didn't go to college because of the apocalypse of the pandemic. So one year behind, but still happy with it. And yeah, and it's always been nice to head back to the venue to iron out material. But yeah, yeah, so that that's how I got my start into it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, definitely. For people that don't know, we go to Iron Sharp. We met at Iron Sharpens Iron, the venue on 35th Street. Thursdays from 9 to whatever time, for$5. We got to work on our material and get critiqued, not just from our mentor James Cooper, but from other comedians. And that's how me and Charlie became close. And yeah, that's that's that that spot changed my life because my stand-up used to suck back in the day. So yeah, you know what I mean? You know how that, you know how it is when you first start. You just like you think you're killing it, but then you really not, and then you get humbled at that one show, and it's like, okay, yeah, yeah, man. So who were some of your like inspirations in comedy? Like, who are some of your favorite comedians that you watched? It was like, yeah, I want to do this.
SPEAKER_02:I would say for me it was Conan O'Brien. I would watch the late late night with Conan, you know, like all old clips of that and the show on TBS. I liked him probably the most as far as a comedian. He wasn't a stand-up, he kind of started off as a comedy writer and doing a little bit of improv, which is a different route, but I still I felt like I that that inspired me the most. And him, Gary Shanling, the stand-up Gary, you know, I loved his the Larry Sanders show. And I there was a documentary Judd Apatau did on him called The Zen Diaries of Gary Shanling. And it was kind of like just talking through the processes of stand-up, like how the stand-up, you know, he was a writer who you know did well as a writer and then translated that into stand-up. And I was like, okay, that's kind of I can see a path for myself to get the courage to go up there as a writer. And I I liked his Gary Shanling. I thought he was interesting because he did he he he used stand-up as a way to be authentic, to like channel his authentic self in front of a a wide group of people, which I always thought, you know, was really interesting. And Conan was very smart. I mean, he went to Harvard, but he was never pretentious, which I loved. And it was like he it was very silly and dumb material, which I was like, oh, okay, it works on many different layers. Like you can be smart and you can also just do whatever and enjoy it, you know. I that's why I liked Conan a lot. Chris Rock is great. I love just I think he's maybe the smartest comic stand-up of all time. I I would put him in the top five stand-ups of all time, in my opinion. I uh yeah, so I think those are the things. And Bill Burr, I would say, but those the that group uh inspired me the most, I think.
SPEAKER_01:You got a lot in common because I think Chris Rox is genius when it comes to everything. He's meticulous about how he puts together a set. Did you see the thing with him and Kevin Hart with like on tour with each other?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's like headliners only.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, man. It was like you saw how he was structuring his jokes and everything like that, is it's real meticulous. You know what I'm saying? It's just like like I said, I gotta give you a flower because you're real meticulous about yours because you would come with your with your binder of jokes. I don't know. And you would just have them in order and you you knew how to make the cadence and make it flow. And I actually respect that. So you are a writer, I think you writer first and comedian second. So like CNA growth was like that, and you said Conan, Conan wrote the simp for the Simpsons, didn't he?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Simpsons and the the the uh SNL for a little bit.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:I I can be a little bit too extreme in the right. I'm doing taking improv and and exploring that because I think that I feel very comfortable when there's a script, but I feel like I want to try to take that away. And I've been this year I've been working really hard on going up there with just kind of a simple premise idea and work talking through it with an audience. I'm not doing that on a weekend show, you know, where it's like, okay, you have to be good. I during the I'll find the open mics and be like, okay, here's this simple premise and talk it out and trying to get better within that and explore that route. And I I felt like that this year I've been working in that, pushing myself away from the the countless binders. Of course I still have them, but you know, pushing myself a little bit away from it. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, alright, man. Everybody can have those those binders. I actually started trying to do like write one word, that's my premise, and then I'm gonna go ahead and talk myself through and see if it works. Yeah. And I've been doing okay. I've been doing okay. Do you remember the first time you bombed Charlie?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I I did well my first stand-up set, and I was happy with that. That was me in high school. I did the second time I did well. I think the third time I went to the Pin Boys bowling alley, which I think that, yeah, so it's a bowling alley in Virginia Beach where I drove, and by the way, I was 17, 17, you know, junior in high school and all that. My dad was driving me to these shows. So I would get into the room, these comedy rooms, being like, Hey guys, it's me. I'm here, I'm real tough. And my father's with me as well, you know. So, which I'm thankful for my dad for driving me. In hindsight, I'm like, especially to bring someone to an open mic, you know, a family member to like have to sit through. I mean, open mics are great, but also they're terrible, you know. It depends on the spot, but a bowling alley, it was a bowling alley, Pin Boys in Virginia Beach, and there was a bar there. And no disrespect, I'm sure everyone that runs that place is an Eagle Scout. But that night was a kind of a it's just a bunch of comics in a room heckling other comedians. So I just like went up there and just nothing hit. It was just other comics heckling me. And it was like the smoke, everyone was smoking, and it was just hard to breathe. And I remember that being one of the ones where I was like, all right, all right, you know, that was a tough one. And it's tough to like, especially when your like relatives are there watching you, and you're like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like, okay, you know, you gotta you gotta sit through it, which builds the leather of like, okay, I can do that. And also, it was just a bowling alley, which is a weird, just a just an odd combination. There's like a lot going on in that room.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I went in my I had a couple of bad ones when I first started. I went to a bar which is down the street from my house, which is Southern Flare, and you could not cuss at this bar. Like you could not cuss on the mic. And they tried to run it like a show, yeah, and I got a chicken bone thrown at me. Oh that's funny. So like I did another one at Tropical Delight. I brought my family. Yeah, it bombed. And then I think my last bomb was long shots. You had a pool hall. I had a pool hall. You know, long shots in Virginia, in on military highway, that we're part of like Virginia Beach, just being north of connected. And I was there, a bar fight broke out. Oh in the front, smoking bar, they had a room for us. In the back, they had just straight pool. Like pool smoking drinks, and a bar fight broke out, and I was like, damn, I I think I'm I think I'm about to retire from comedy for a little bit.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. How did the chicken bone being thrown at you? What would you like irritate someone and they threw it at you? Like how what what went down with that one?
SPEAKER_01:It was so for about three or four weeks, it was one lady, and you know, when you had these bars with these bar open mics, you're literally performing two, three feet from the bar. Sure. So every day, this every Monday, I would go there, and this lady just heckled, heckle, I need her breath, like we can't hear her. And she was just going in. So I just snapped. Yeah. And then she said, You went less and whoop, chicken bone, thrown right at me. I said, Alright. What else can I do? And then they cut the microphone off on me because I went in.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I think I'm a long way from that one.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I I enjoy I'm I'm I'm very proud that I've bombed, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because it's like there's very few failures like that in life that you like, if you can get through that, you're like, okay, everything else is fine. And most of the time when I mean, there's sometimes it's you know, you're working out some new material and it's not quite working, and sometimes you'll have a joke that's good, but it won't connect with that exact audience, and it's like, okay, there's a disconnect. But a lot of the times it's like these are just weird rooms that we're doing, especially in the open where it's like, okay, it's just like psycho like if you're at a bar on a Wednesday night at 7 p.m. listening to me tell jokes, you've got a lot of issues, you know. So it's like I don't really trust you as a like a focus group of this material, you know, so it's already a weird situation to begin with. But yeah, yeah. I'm trying to think of what else. But yeah, though those were I think once I got through that first year, I feel like your first year of stand-up is just surviving it. Like you come away with a few good jokes, but you're mainly happy that you just dealt with like the craziest forms of society, you know? And then you can slowly build. And of course I'm still growing, learning and stuff. But yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, I think like when it comes to bombing, it's different levels of bombing. Like, your jokes can be bad, the hosts can be bad, the comedians before you could have been bad, or you could just be in a room, and this is no shot at no comedian, but a room of full of comedians, they're just not paying attention. They focus on they set or what went wrong on they set prior. So there's nothing you could do. So, like, I know it was a um a room I used to go to on Sundays, and I was like, bro, football season is here. Why are we doing open mic comedy on a Sunday football season, and they just weren't paying attention at all. I was like, dang, like you couldn't. It was what that one, and I think I went to one on a Tuesday or went jam cafe. Boy. Kevin Hart could have came out there and said, Yeah, I'm shooting my new special.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. A hundred percent. I I I yeah, I always think of like stuff that would work on a Netflix special, and some of these rooms are so bad that it's like, oh, that would bomb in this aesthetic, you know. Like the top tier comics would like, yeah, there's no there no one's surviving this. And then of course, there's like sometimes it's like if you say the most screwed up stuff imaginable, the jerks at the bar would laugh. And but if you could do a weekend show that's a nice show, that same material wouldn't work on those weekend shows, you know? Nope. So it's a lot of wisdom and trying to figure it out on like what's a good laugh, what's a bad laugh, that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you get those, like you get some jokes sometimes that be like they just really push the envelope, right? Like when I I started 2019 like you did, right? Right. So when I first came on, I would hear a lot of jokes that would push, like really I'm like, what the hell is wrong with them? They need a hug or something. Yeah, I was like, no, what are you talking about? Like, what did you do you need to like yeah? I'm like, but then they will I seen them do it on like a paid show too. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I understand that. It's it's it's also one of those where it's like whenever I audiences will kind of correct you in what they want of you, you know? Like, I I I I remember I would do these shows, especially when you're working out the new new material. It would be like a bunch of jerks at a bar, and one comic before me would go up and say, like, you know, I do all this terrible things, and I'm a terrible person, and the audiences would laugh real hard, and I'd go up and I'd start to say, you know, one time I did this wrong thing. And then like they would, because I was a child, like audience members would not laugh, and like afterwards, they'd like lecture me, like, you know, you should stay in school and not do that kind of thing. And I'm like, this guy, I saw the stuff you laughed at. You what's up with that, you know? So it was like kind of I remember that being, you know, they'll correct you if you go too far out of uh out of what they want of you, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I got a lecture one time. Probably what? It was either it was last year. Because you know, I'll do crowd work if I feel like nobody's paying, you know, I'll go straight at them. Yeah, and the guy was like, man, ease up on us white people for a little bit, man. Like this good gosh, it's it's funny, but God, you you turn us white folks up. I'm like, I'm I'm just talking. You again, man, because you kissed the dog, not me. Yeah. So yeah, man. Now you act as well too, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, I was in the a little brief scene in a blowback movie with Clifton Powell, which was neat. That was cool. And improv doing a lot of that, which is nice. I I like, I mean, stand-up is always my favorite, you know? Yeah. And it's kind of like, okay, let me, and I think through doing stand-up, you kind of learn a little bit of performance skills, you know. Like that's a pretty high pressure environment. So it's like, oh, okay, I'm not having to go for a laugh every how many seconds, you know, when you're in act when you have to act, so you're like, oh, I can kind of use the skills I learned, you know, through stand-up into the performance, which is nice. And improv is a lot of fun as well. Have you done improv by chance?
SPEAKER_01:Only at the Vingue on Thursdays.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I I enjoyed I did it through push comedy a little bit in college and through the Citizens Brigade in New York. And I like it a lot. I mean, I enjoy stand-up more. The community of improv is that you try to make your scene partners look good, you know? So it's a little bit more collaborative, which is nice. Stand-up, you're just kind of by yourself alone, you know. Which I I enjoy it the most, but it's also it's like you can go crazy doing that too much, you know. Like it's an isolated experience to a degree, you know?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. One man show literally. Yeah. And I love that. But you work with Cliff did you meet Clifton? Did you get to have a conversation with Clifton Powell?
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I met him. He was nice. He was kinda like I I I think I like saw like a little bit of his work. I wasn't super familiar with it. And I was on set. I think Lamont Ferguson, he was acting in it and they needed someone to like play an FBI agent. It was just a really small scene. So it was nice to be a part of that. Very grateful. That that was cool. He was I mean, I spoke to him like limited, you know, but he was very nice. He spoke to me at the premiere. He's like, oh yeah, you know. But that was kind of it. But it was fun to be in a scene with him. I was just like, he's he's very like theatrical, to put it mildly, you know.
SPEAKER_01:I think he's like one of the most underrated, versatile, range actors out there. Like you he could do drama, do suspense, he could do comedy. I don't know if he's done horror yet, but I know he has mad credits. And I like the fact that he works with established actors and directors, but he also gives shots to those that's trying to come up and get to that established part. You feel me?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was really, he was really nice. I I went to like the premiere in Hampton, Virginia. Nice to be a part of. He he showed up there, which was nice. It that was like a cool memory to have. I was like, all right, that's nice. It'll be a good reel for auditions as well.
SPEAKER_01:Charlie, you don't be popping your shit for real. You be like, you be doing all this stuff, you don't be popping your shit. You'd be like, yeah, all right. I've worked with Clifton Powell.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you like it sound it sounds bigger than it is, you know. It sounds like a big deal, but it's it's just a bunch of little things building up, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I yeah. Yeah, bro. You you always been humble though. Organized. I'm gonna keep calling you organized, but organized and humble. So like you you're up in New York, right? Yeah, and you've been there since what, September?
SPEAKER_02:Late September. So and then I got back a few days ago for the holidays.
SPEAKER_01:And you go right back up there, man. Yeah, yeah. So what is the goal of New York? Are you trying to get on SNL? You trying to become the next Jimmy Kimmel and fight for our rights, or are we Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not planning on no not not really fighting, yeah. Not not a lot of fighting, just more just going up there. It kind of just, I would say continuing to grow. Like, if you look at it from the artist standpoint, continuing to grow as an artist, doing good work, I'm proud of. Like, you know, I've gotten a lot of material that I've built over the years and continuing to build and to grow through. I think improv is really nice because you know, taking the classes, you feel like you learn a lot, and it makes me stronger as a stand-up as well. There's a lot more options for shows. I always I I the venue on 35th Street is my favorite place that I've ever performed at just because it's my it that's a home base where I'm like, okay, that was the first time I ever did stand-up there. I, you know, I I I performed there the most out of everywhere. When I was in college, I would drive from Williamsburg. I went to William and Mary. I would drive there like almost once a week to iron out stuff on Monday nights. So that was always nice. But yeah, yeah, New York, just you know, doing work I'm proud of. I think is the first thing. And whatever opportunities open, the right doors open at the right time, you know, that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01:For sure. So you wait when we get this Netflix special, this Hulu special, or my favorite, this Tubi special, because I didn't send you some Tubi clips.
SPEAKER_02:I I have a hunch it's gonna be Netflix special first, and then I think I think that's how it usually goes. I I think that there's the there's the net hopefully I can skip that route, you know. But you know, you're you're like, okay, I maybe some at some point, whenever it's ready. I I I also feel like having a special out must be pretty tough because it's like I've worked so hard for this material over the years to come and just give it away, you know, and then you never get to use those jokes again, really. And I'm like, oh okay, I kind of want to be able to make how do I say, if you do one special, I'd like to have enough material to where I could do a second one, you know? Like so you're still safe and you you're not you don't burn all the material.
SPEAKER_01:No, I I've I noticed that too. I noticed now I've noticed that Max or HBO Max, whatever they call themselves now, now doing the 30-minute specials. Which is dope because you know you gotta think about man, we spend what hours and weeks and months. How much time do you spend just to get a good 10 minutes?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know what I'm saying? So I don't know. I would I would go to Tubi route before I went to the you know what I'm saying? Like I would do the Tubi route because nobody gotta pay for Tubi. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Did you watch Chappelle's special? Yeah, I did. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:What were your thoughts on it? You you go first, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Greatest storyteller. Sure. Next to Dick Gregory. Here's the crazy thing about this, right? Chappelle released a special, no promos, no ads, no nothing. Just came on the mic during the Anthony Joshua fight and said, Yeah, I got a special dropping after this. I said, Oh. And I think Chappelle, Chappelle is more of a storyteller, but he's also a thinker.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I'm not gonna say too much for people that haven't watched the special or whatever the case may have you, and I don't want to get cancelled on here because you know I haven't made it yet. Sure, sure. But he's a thinker, and the way he puts stuff together is amazing. Yeah, the only thing I say when Chappelle drops a special, I don't know about you, but sometimes in this comedy community, you get the next person that feels like they're the next Chappelle, and they go off the rails and does the same shit. And I'm like, alright, so we had Chappelle on Friday, right? Then Sunday, we had Ali Sadiq special come out. And I think this is fifth special this is fifth special this year. Okay. And then Christmas Eve, T.I. dropped his special, which I have not watched, and I don't think I plan on watching it. But I think Chappelle and I'm gonna put Ali Sadiq and I like the greatest storytellers next to Dick Gregory, and I know he is a horrible person, does some horrible things, Bill Cosby, and you got Chappelle and Ali like fighting for that third spot, but they're like on Mount Breshmore, those four are like the greatest storytellers of all time. What did you think about the special?
SPEAKER_02:I I thought it was, yeah, I mean, he's proficient. I as like I my favorite joke of his wasn't in this special, but it was the one where it was about Anthony Bourdain and his friend growing up in Foot Locker. And I want to say it might have been the opening of Sticks and Stones, where it was a five-minute long setup to a punchline. And I thought that was when I was like, oh wow, like at our, you know, I think at the time I was just doing like little five-minute sets here and there, and I was like, for your whole set to have just one big punchline at the end is insane, you know. But he's I always feel like storytellers do well in longer settings, you know, like there's some comics that aren't storytellers. They're like like Rodney Dangerfield, it's just bang, bang, bang, you know, just short little one-line, or like a Mitch Hedberg type comic, you know. And then there's those, I I think I'm a little bit more in I mean, in the storyteller realm, you know, where you know, longer setups, longer punchline. Not not I'm not doing five-minute setups yet, you know, because I I don't want to like walk a room, you know. I don't think the audience trusts you that much to go that much. I yeah, he he's nice. I I I like the special. I did enjoy, I think uh my favorite of his Killing Them Softly is still really good, but he he has an interesting arc of his career as an artist, you know, where even though like I might enjoy Killing Them Softly the most, he's still done very interesting work and can grow as a person. He's like every special you watch, it's a different person than the last time you saw him, you know. So it's like you know, he he changes. I think Bill Byrd does that a lot, where it's like every special is kind of a different person, and over the years he changes it. And that's kind of why what I like most about comedy. And Gary Shanling kind of said he's using stand-up as a way to grow as a person, it's a vehicle to be his authentic self that he's always growing and chasing. And I I think that's a really interesting thing. Of course, sometimes I'll have a joke that I wrote at 17 that I'm still using today, you know? So I'm not really in some ways you're not growing because you're just keeping a few of the same old material. But yeah, it is also hard to do it complete when you burn all that material in a special, it's hard you you gotta go back and grab, you know, new jokes, which is tough. And I I always feel like, okay, you know, I I I'm curious as to how much how long did that take for him to create that special Chappelle? Because a lot of the events happened over the summer. So it's like, okay, let's say July is when he first created those jokes till now. To come up with an hour from July to now, I'm like, that's a you know, that took a lot, you know. Yeah. And it's I I it's like, okay, that's a lot of energy. Because it takes me uh, you know, much longer time to come up with an hour than three months, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Amen. Um I think softly was dope. And that's one of my that's my favorite special of Chappelle. And the reason being because in one hour he told four jokes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So in 16 minutes, that man did four jokes. So you can't Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I do like Chris Rock a lot. I I think that he might be he he is a guy who I feel like you know the there's a difference where I feel like Chappelle can kind of talk about a general year and synopsis. Well, I feel like Chris Rock is different in that he can kind of pinpoint specific events and talk about those events. What like I feel like what happened Chappelle, I think, is trying to do something different where he always wants to do a special that takes over here's what's going on in society right now, and kind of a general synopsis. Well, I feel like Chris Rock will pinpoint one angle and talk about that one angle a little bit more within his specials. Do you think you can disagree? Do you do do you agree with that?
SPEAKER_01:Or I definitely agree. Yeah, yeah. Uh Rock is a is a legend, and uh my favorite special is Bigger, Better and Blacker, Bigger and Blacker. Did you see that special?
SPEAKER_02:I you know, I've seen all of them, and then it becomes to the point where it's just individual clips of bits, you know? Yeah. Like I can I can divide Chappelle's specials into like, okay, this was on this special, that special, that one. Rock just kind of becomes specific jokes that float around in your head, you know?
SPEAKER_01:Mm-hmm. He's a goat. Yeah, goat. Charlie? I know we kept rescheduling and stuff like that. You know, I had some home repairs going on. Yeah. So, you know, no complaints. One, I appreciate you not just for giving me this time and being patient, but also just appreciate you for your work and stuff like that. From the venue to seeing you at Cosies and doing your thing, and I'm very extremely proud of you for being over in New York and taking your gumption and just seem like weekend shows is your thing, man. You just like he's at Westside Comedy Club somewhere. I'm like, all right, you know, you kind of motivate me a little bit. I wasn't a junior starting, I was 30 when I started this with this thing. But I'm I'm extremely proud of you, Charlie, man. I just want you to keep going. Thank you. And if they want to get in contact with you, man, they want to see your stuff, what can they follow you at?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, Instagram, Charlie F. Cantrell. And there's a website, Charlie Cantrell Comedy. I have to add comedy to it because there's two more famous Charlie Cantrells than I. One is a one of them's the guy who owns the smallest horse in the world. So you're gonna if you look up Charlie Cantrell, you'll that guy will come up first, and then just ignore him and you'll find me later.
SPEAKER_01:On all social media platforms, at no idea podcasts as well too, on all social media platforms, no ideas the podcast, at comedian Rome Davis on YouTube. You'll be able to see everything. Podcast interviews, stand-up comedy clips, this interview as well, too. And we're gonna go ahead and sign off. I really appreciate you guys. And when you guys as you do follow Charlie, repost, like, share, comment, and subscribe to all his stuff that he's doing. He's doing some great things over in New York.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks, Rome. I appreciate it. Very proud. I I I I you're a good friend. Thank you for for being there for me. And keep if you're ever in New York, let me know. Let me know. And I'll I'll see you next week at the venue. Ironing out. Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_00:My God, let me go ahead and stop.
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