Welcome to Episode 1 of our podcast! In this show, we talk about how Phew destroyed Unc’s comedy dreams , Unc’s being named Michigan State’s #1 basketball fan, Phew’s unemployable dual major in college, how maybe we need to start being nice to each other and and a bunch of other stuff. Thanks for checking us out!

Show Notes

• The origins of “Uncphew” [1:00]
• Unc’s semi-viral experience with a podcast in a narrow business niche [1:30]
• Unc jinxes Uncphew before it even gets started [1:55]
• That podcast ran its course [2:10]
• Not biologically related [4:10]
• We’re just friends [4:30]
• We found each other on OK Cupid [5:08]
• Majored in Philosophy and Creative Writing – “why not just become a panhandler” [5:28]
• Started doing improv at 14 [6:23]
• Started doing standup at 16 and quickly slayed the king [6:33]
• Worked at NPR in college [7:30]
• Interned at US Embassy in Paris for six months, worked inside State Department [7:40]

• On GW Bush’s reception team a the US Embassy in Paris [8:37]
• Moved to Boulder [9:17]
• Moved to Chicago and now does standup almost every night [9:42]
• Phew’s entree into the comedy scene at age 16 [10:15]
• Ridley’s Comedy Castle, the only comedy club in Michigan that really matters [11:05]
• Phew takes standup prep course taught by Gilda Hauser, who questions his talent [11:40]
• Unc is the emcee of Phew’s first real standup performance [13:13]
• Phew walks out and just kills it [13:50]
• Phew is offered a comedy contract on the spot [14:40]
• Unc’s comedy career: over [15:09]
• Phew passes on the opportunity of a lifetime [15:40]
• Unc has degree from Michigan State [16:13]
• Worked for #1 accounting firm in the world, aka, “the suicide watch decade” [16:22]
• Graduated from Second City School of Improv (Key of Key & Peele was one of Unc’s instructors) [16:40]
• Met J Chris Newberg, who moved out to LA and has toured with Russell Peters and Dane Cook, and produced a TV show for Jay Mohr (that’s J Chris below, on The Tonight Show) [16:50]

• Co-authored some tech books, started a Facebook group that now has 18K members, have a large Twitter following, toured nationally speaking [18:00]
• Named #1 Michigan State basketball fan in the world by AT&T (that’s us hanging with Shaq at one of the many events we attended at the 2015 Final Four, which we attended because Unc was asked to help AT&T promote the event, and a Tweet Shaq was kind enough to write about Unc following our little game of hoops with him) [18:08]

• Inappropriate, but not for the sake of being inappropriate, but for the sake of being candid [18:37]
• We’re sick of America’s fear of speaking the truth any more [18:54]
• We disagree on a lot of things, we have two different worldviews [19:53]
• None of what we do is planned – in a world that’s too scripted, we’re trying to be open, honest and organic [21:17]
• Can you imagine how different the world would be if politician’s words had to be THEIR words? [24:40]
• We can’t even have honest conversations around divisional boundaries – between gays and straights, between blacks and whites, etc. – anymore [26:20]
• “Gender discord” didn’t even exist two years ago [26:55]
• Given the amount of cultural change that has happened in the last year, the American population needs to be reminded to JUST CHILL [27:15]
• My grandparents lived 70 years and never heard of “transgender” – give them a second to catch up before immediately calling them “transphobic”
• We’re political opposites, but we are not absolutists [29:28]
• Americans receiving assistance is outrageous and unsustainable [30:35]
• I’ve seen you post things on Facebook that made me want to literally fight you [31:40]
• A really wise man knows how little he knows [33:00]
• I have a lot of horrible personal characteristics and traits…but one of my strengths is that I know that [33:45]
• Worked for a time in Austin, Texas [34:08]
• Without being asked, I put together a seven-page, single-spaced analysis of my weaknesses [34:38]
• “You are one of the most unusual people I’ve ever met” [35:15]
• Everyone is doing “virtue signaling” [36:50]
• Thinking you’re doing something good by changing your Facebook profile picture to something with the colors of France after the Paris attacks is worse than just not caring about it [37:55]
• Not everyone is walking around with this Instagram filter on everything they say and maybe it’s OK to start treating people decently and giving them the benefit of the doubt [38:55]
• Social media has intensified everything and the level of scrutiny on everyone [39:50]
• I’ll scroll down a person’s Facebook wall – and not very far – and make a judgment about who they are [40:15]
• My personal Facebook page is not an homage to myself – but there are plenty of people’s Facebook walls that are [41:27]
• The dreaded couple’s selfie [42:00]
• Unc on his way to the glue factory [45:20]
• If we didn’t offend you in this episode, give us a minute [45:50]

US Embassy in Paris image courtesy of fr.usembassy.gov.

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