#299 Deanne Smith’s Comedic Journey

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:28

All right, Carly, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get this show going each and every week, and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody, to Episode 299 of classic conversations. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for what's sure to be a side splitting episode with comedian Deanne Smith. We are talking all about Deanne's Netflix special Deanne's new album, so much to get to and that's coming up in just a few seconds. And in these few seconds. Rhonda hansome was here last week, Rhonda shared so many great stories working on the movie Pretty Woman, her time with the Muppets and being on the first episode of Saturday Night Live so many great stories. Do not miss that. But right now, do not miss my conversation with DeanneSmith. We're talking comedy and more, and I'm gonna be a reference to a tiny pineapple. You're gonna have to stick around and find out. Enjoy. All right, everyone. I'm excited to introduce my next guest, comedian, writer. Troublemaker, please welcome to the show this super hilarious Deanne Smith. Hello.Deanne

Deanne Smith 1:38

Oh my god. Hello. How's it going?

Jeff Dwoskin 1:41

It's going great. And you are super hilarious. I was watching a bunch of your specials and like your online stuff, and you are hilarious. And while I was digging around, I accidentally came across the fact that you're going to be in my town in January. So at Mark released? Yes,

Deanne Smith 2:00

I can't wait, actually. Man. I love that place. Is it January? Yes. It

Jeff Dwoskin 2:04

was January 2024.

Deanne Smith 2:06

Yeah, let me make a note. I have ADHD. It's been a minute since I've been there. I love that place. Do you know that as a comedian who lives in New York City at the moment I am, I got a bit of a zillo problem. I am constantly looking at houses in Detroit, because Detroit is lovely. And it's so much more affordable than New York City.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:27

I think everywhere is more affordable than New York City perhaps?

Deanne Smith 2:32

Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:33

So what type of houses in Detroit? Are you focused in on via Zillow? Because I know that's a thing getting addicted to Zillow, and oh my

Deanne Smith 2:40

god, it's so fun. I'm just dreaming around. Like, I'll go I'll go pretty far with it, too. Like, I'll be looking at the house. And then I'll like get on the Google Maps and be like, what would the walk to the grocery store look like? I think it's I think it's a fantasy thing more than anything else. But what am I looking for? I mean, let's put it out there. We're looking for two to three bedroom one and a half bath. We want a nice yard we fly. Cute neighbors. We want a tree lined street basement.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:04

How important is the basement? Yeah, sure. We

Deanne Smith 3:06

got we got to put the body somewhere.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:10

That is true. So maybe when you come in January, and you just fall in love again with the place and you'll you'll just stay. I

Deanne Smith 3:17

mean, truthfully, if I fell in love with Detroit in January, then I meant to be there. I mean, that's that's real love.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:24

That is true. And Detroit is I don't know when the last time you were there, if you've ever, ever actually made it to Detroit proper, but it's getting pretty cool down there. Pretty awesome. Yeah. I love it. I love it. It's so great. New York. You know, everyone always fantasizes New York. But New York always says like, every time I've been in New York, there's just tons of garbage on the streets like you can't walk up and down. I

Deanne Smith 3:45

mean, there is a fair amount of garbage on the street at all times. I'm also I was just in Toronto doing a comedy festival there. And Toronto is so clean by comparison. I think it's the main thing that people know when they go to Toronto. They're just like, Man, this is a city. What? How was it so clean?

Jeff Dwoskin 4:01

I know because I'm in New York. I love being in Times Square. Like to me like that. Sensory overload is like the greatest thing ever. But even

Deanne Smith 4:10

the only one I know that's ever said such a thing.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:12

Oh really? Yes. I don't mean the fear of being you know, knifed by some guy in a homemade Elmo costume charging I don't mean like that part. But like just the all of it. It's just like, I get mad. I'm just a tourist too. So it's not like I don't live there and yeah, so I don't have to deal with on a daily basis. It's in short spurts but I don't know listen, it's

Deanne Smith 4:34

not nothing but it does. I find it stressful like to emerge from the subway in Times Square. And then there's so much light. To me. It's super disorienting to be like, is it day to day like I'm never sure exactly like what time it is. It's a yeah, there's a few ways to look at it. It's an incredible technological feat. It also really makes me feel like we're for sure in the end times like this sort of thing is not sustainable. There should not be this many lights Send this many hot dog vendors we this is not sustainable.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:03

That is a lot. It is a lot. My I think my favorite thing I ever did in New York in the Broadway area was hunt down Jeff Goldblum, like I bumped into him and then realize I should have asked for his photo and then chased him like three blocks really?

Deanne Smith 5:18

Like was it a was it a fast walk like a fast pace walk?

Jeff Dwoskin 5:22

You know, because you know how they walk around after the place that they're in and stuff. But you were trying to be subtle about it. Jeff Goldblum, yeah. A certain level of subtlety is needed.

Deanne Smith 5:32

Did he accommodate your request? Oh, yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 5:33

I got a photo. My biggest claim to fame. I met him on the streets in New York and Ben Vereen. They were the stars of 10 speed and brown shoe at some random show. They both started way back probably in the 80s or something, which was my favorite thing to tell them when I met them. Like, oh, now I have photos with the whole cast. Oh,

Deanne Smith 5:51

that's really fun. That's very cute. Did you try to bond on a Jeff level as well?

Jeff Dwoskin 5:55

I had one second with him. And this was like, the time where you had like the to mag camera, you know? I mean, like, right. Okay. Okay, so it wasn't like with the camera like selfies or anything like that. It was like put the button get it go and let someone else take the photo type thing. It's so it's a little bit more of a process back in the day when everyone's like two meg and like a two meg was such a big deal. But two meg photo files. I didn't bring up the Jeff connection. No, no, no. Which I should have. Because usually I do because it is a bond. There's no Jeff's anymore. Once we die out. We're like the dinosaurs.

Deanne Smith 6:30

It's true. It's very hard to imagine a baby called Jeff. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 6:33

there's it's not it's there. Dun dun it's and when I was in high school, like everyone was Jeff, Jeff or Jennifer. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Or Jessica. Yeah. And so yeah, but All right, well, enough about me and my hunting down with Jeff Goldblum. Tell me a Deann about I know you've had an illustrious career and many many comedy specials and shows and we'll get to we'll get to it. Okay, but you didn't start comedy till you were 25?

Deanne Smith 7:01

Listen, Jeff, I started even later than that. Because my my age is wrong online by a few years not enough to make a difference at this point. But I felt important back when I started when I was quote 25. But yeah, I didn't I didn't start until I guess it would be kind of late. I spent a lot of my 20s evading real life and or I don't know, making the best choices possible. I was living in Mexico teaching English for much of my 20s just hanging out hanging out at the beach writing poetry. And then when I moved to Montreal, that's when I started comedy.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:35

Okay, so where were you born? Let's start. I

Deanne Smith 7:37

mean, it's it's gonna get calm.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:39

Which country? By country? We can?

Deanne Smith 7:41

Yeah, no, I was born in upstate New York. Okay, upstate New York. And then in my 20s when George W. Bush stole the state of Florida. Listen, I thought that's as bad as it was gonna be. I was like, I gotta get out of here. So I went to Mexico for a while and get right over the US and then went back to Canada. Yeah, I didn't move back to the US until 2020. What an incredible time to move back to the United States of America.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:05

So the hanging chads thing got you so rattled, you said, I'm out here. I'm leaving the country.

Deanne Smith 8:11

Honestly, I could see I could never predict that we would end up where we are now. But I have to say that it is as a naive and somewhat idealistic. 20 year old I was looking around going like, oh, democracy isn't real. Turns out

Jeff Dwoskin 8:25

that was a first baby step.

Deanne Smith 8:27

I think my god and at this point, it's like the cute frat boy prank almost. Oh, his brother gave him the state of Florida. How sweet Jeff, I'm freaked out. If you can't tell. freaked out.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:37

I think there's a lot to be freaked out about. It's a scary time for a lot of people. But let's focus on the happy for a minute.

Deanne Smith 8:43

I see you absolutely calculating like who your listeners are, where their political beliefs are. Let me just say this. I think we got to come together guys. I think we're too fractured. There's too many. I mean, I don't know who your listeners are. I don't know. But it's kind of blowing my mind lately how specific everything is like how you can just talk to one group of people that are that already all think the same way. Not it's not ideal. Jeff. And I know I've taken it off the rails and there's something about the look in your eyes. That makes me want to continue to take it off.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:10

I'm fine with it. It's not so much the audience or anything like that. I know. whoever listens, they can listen or not listen, it just weather I just didn't know if I wanted to go down that rabbit hole in the short time we had together. No,

Deanne Smith 9:22

we don't want to listen. I don't have time to incite violent global revolution, but it's on my mind. And I think we need it. Okay.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:29

No, but I'm with you. I mean, I've got folks that look just like me that are voting against what I'm Jewish. And so there's like I can you understand what I'm talking about? I understand what you're saying and like, it makes me kind of really, really upset to even think about it. So that's I just didn't want to

Deanne Smith 9:47

Yeah, another direction. But I do have to say that, you know, my initial move out of the US was somewhat politically motivated. You know, I just didn't know how to exist I'm in a country that I felt like wasn't reflecting any of my values. And at that time, gay marriage wasn't legal, all sorts of things so fled to Mexico for a while then fled to Canada. You

Jeff Dwoskin 10:11

just been jumping all over. I've been jumping all over. So were you always funny? I mean, so you

Deanne Smith 10:17

have I've been funny. Yeah, Jeff. I'm sorry. Let me please, please, please go on

Jeff Dwoskin 10:21

now, but you're deep and insightful. So that's rude basis for for anything that can later up this funny. So you're in your 20s you're disenchanted. You move to Mexico. You're teaching English? Like what's the jump to? Oh, I'm gonna become a stand up comedian. Yeah,

Deanne Smith 10:38

that's a really good question. So I first barely dabbled with it. When I lived in Baltimore. That's where I lived before I moved to Mexico. And all that happened was I prepared a little three minute set, I went to an open mic that I must have found on the internet or something. The open mic was cancelled that night, and then I never went back. I just moved to Mexico. So there was there was a like vague fear field attempt early. Then I moved to Mexico, I was writing poetry. And then when I moved back to Montreal, well, which is bilingual, and I really only speak English, but where it was a culture that I could at least speak one of the dominant languages. I was like, let me try this. Let me try this comedy thing again. Initially, in Montreal, I was on track to get an MFA in poetry. And I was doing like poetry open mics simultaneously with comedy open mics, and then comedy absolutely took over because poetry is lovely. But it's, it's hard to get a read on the room, you know, I would much, much rather hear people's immediate laughter and then okay, did this work? Or did this not work, then to be met with reflective silence? That could really mean anything when you're doing poetry?

Jeff Dwoskin 11:43

So it's interesting. Like I always thought that the reflective silence is what all these speakers love, your TEDx is yours the all this like, like, because you don't need a reaction. I'm with you, though. I can't be in front of a crowd. I can't even go in front of people at work and go two minutes without trying to evoke some kind of funny comments or something. Because otherwise I just feel like I'm gonna die. But I think it's that silence that like a lot of these professional speakers and stuff that really unless they have that one can joke that they build up. Yeah, it's the silence that it would that works for them because they don't need the reaction. They did the endzone. No, that was brilliant. I took lots of notes, you know, so

Deanne Smith 12:25

yeah, no, I definitely hear you give me a reaction. Yeah, the speakers with the with the canned jokes. It's frustrating man, because at that point, people are desperate people are desperate for a laugh, but they get a lot. They get a lot on those little tiny Kanjo.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:38

Right. But you know, just like I know, you can tell if you're in the audience, you are me what kind of laugh It is like, right? It's an exhausted laugh or the boss's reaction to a boss laugh versus visceral, real laugh, there's a difference. There's a difference. There's

Deanne Smith 12:54

a difference. Your listeners probably already know this. But what do you do? What else do you do for work? When you said you can't go two minutes at work? Oh,

Jeff Dwoskin 13:00

well, right now I'm self employed. But I just mean, like, I used to work at Little Caesars headquarters. Oh, fun. Okay, I used to work for just a bunch of corporations most of my life, because that's what you do when you grow up. And so you know, but I would speak a lot at at the all hands meetings or whatever. And so that's where I kind of actually got my started where people then were like, oh, you should do comedy. You should try it. You should go take. Yeah, cuz I never liked being in front of people. And like you said, the sidelines. But it's a weird jump right to want that, because it's easier to get up there and just deliver a speech. Here's my bullets, here's what you're learning, and no reactions, there's a certain level of it's a whole different level, what you do in terms of being a stand up comic, where you're getting constant constant laughs I mean, that's absolute

Deanne Smith 13:50

vulnerability to have it be clear what reaction you want. And then have everybody in the room know whether or not you've achieved what you are so desperately craving. There's one measure of success, and it's the sound of laughter.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:04

The other way, it's the measure of success is no one booed you off stage. And it's so much harder and more noble to be a comedian. What even going backwards again, made you strive for that, right, because you're writing poetry, right? So people don't need I'm assuming it wasn't joking haikus or something like

Deanne Smith 14:24

that. It was not drying haikus, although I did try to be accessible. I think that I've always been interested in writing and I think that poetry and comedy actually have so much in common in terms of economy of language is important. You know, you're trying to get somewhere oftentimes in the in the quickest way that you possibly can or the most direct way that you can. And both of those things, as you said, poetry, you know, involves a much greater range of expression and emotion than say we allow for in comedy, which is so narrow laughter laughter laughter laughter but with both of those things, you know, you're trying to elicit some kind of emotional response. So I think they have a a lot in common. And I think the seed was planted when I was a kid never went to live comedy shows, I never saw comedy show until my first open mic. That was the first comedy show that I ever saw. But when I was a kid growing up in the 80s, and 90s, just even with basic cable, these comedy shows were everywhere. It was like a big boom. So my dad would always be watching comedy shows. And it was the big names, you know, were people who became big names, but you're seeing like Tim Allen and Roseanne Barr, and Rosie O'Donnell and Ellen and Paula Poundstone. And you're seeing these people do like short sets, I don't know if it was night at the Improv, or whatever it was. But I remember think it just got into my head at that time, just like kicking back late summer nights with my dad watching comedy, and kind of wondering, you know, like, how, how do you get there? Like, what happens? You know, where are those brick walls? And how do you get in front of

Jeff Dwoskin 15:50

Sorry to interrupt, but I have to take a quick break, I do want to thank everyone for their support of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors, you're supporting us here at Classic conversations. And that's how we keep the lights on. And now back to my conversation with Deanne Smith. It is funny when you look back at those evening on the improvs. And it's like every single one is like a huge star. Now, you know, back then, like you said it was just they were just kind of starting out. So it was just kind of in you to to evoke emotion from your writing. And, and they just switched emotions, I

Deanne Smith 16:20

think so yeah, that's all I can really imagine. I mean, not to get no or, or to get super cheesy about it, it just always kind of felt like a calling, I have to say it's the only thing that has really stuck that I've been like deeply interested in, and just intrinsically motivated about, you know, you talked about having a corporate life for a while I could never I just I have no desire or motivation for that that sort of thing. I've never really had a conventional or traditional job, it's always been about stand up. And part of the reason and I will go ahead and get a little emotional and deep here is that early on when I started, and I was still doing open mics, and I had I remember I had my first paid gig, and we can back up in a minute. And I'll tell you how truly horrible it went. But coming back from that night, I was already in my 20s. And it was the first time that it occurred to me that I could beat myself up over what had happened and put myself down and be mad at myself, or that I could radical notion, be a friend to myself kind of objectively look at the situation and decide what to do differently next time. So there was something about doing comedy and my desire to do it and my desire to do it. Well, that unlocked a kind of path to self growth for me and allowed me to kind of look at the things in myself that were blocking me or keeping me from moving forward with comedy, nothing else had inspired that sort of reaction in me. So in that way, I would call it a calling like by pursuing comedy. I'm like growing as a person. That's all I really want in this world. That

Jeff Dwoskin 17:54

is great insight. Thank you for sharing that. It's an interesting profession comedy, because it's one of those things where the best growth comes from literally bombing in front of a lot of people. Right? Totally.

Deanne Smith 18:08

Yeah, I can back up and tell you that story. But I've always thought it's so interesting, because it's like, I can't think of another thing. There may be another thing, but I can't think of another thing where your failures are so public, right? If you're a musician, you can you can work on. I don't know, your fingering your tabs, whatever musicians work on your scales, you know, you can get to a certain level of competence on your own in your bedroom. But when you're a stand up, you absolutely need to be public. You can't do it on your own. You can't can't practice alone in your bedroom, you need the crowd, you need the back and forth. And so all your successes are public, all your failures are public, and you only get better by failing. So you have to come to terms with that pretty early on that you will fail, and people will watch it happen. People will be there for it. Yes,

Jeff Dwoskin 18:55

I remember, like starting out. And there's always some people that would come to you multiple times. But as long as you did pretty good the first time they could understand and empathize with you when it got bad because they know Oh, well. Jan was great last time and this was an audience and this happened and they can understand with you how it happens. But those folks that just show up that first time and you bomb there were people that Oh, Jeff and his hobby. Yeah, I mean, like and they just they never come back.

Deanne Smith 19:25

Yeah, that gig but I did the first one I got paid for. I had been doing open mics in common. Excuse me. I had been doing open mics in Montreal, the little town outside of Montreal called Shadow gay that I had no experience with, you know, I was just used to a certain type of Montreal crowd. We go out to this tiny town. I felt like I had traveled back in time. Like, just everything about the place styles were different. People were different. And also they're just people. They just want to laugh, but I had been maybe developing in kind of a narrow way. Plus, I mean, I wasn't good yet. I had barely 10 minutes I was meant to do too. 10 minutes, that was an absolute stretch for me. I got on stage, they were polite, you know, nobody booed me nobody interrupted. None of us was having a good time. My bullshit was not resonating with them. And I was so green that then of course, I was just like getting nervous and probably looking uncomfortable and making everybody else uncomfortable. There's a you want to at the very least be having fun and invite people to come have fun with you. But probably after about minute three, nobody was having fun. Oh, by the way, also, I want to I'm sure first it was like the host and then me, the Midler that absolutely destroyed and then the headliner absolutely destroyed. There was nothing wrong with this room. There was nothing wrong with these people. It was all me. And at the end, this woman came up to me and said the opposite of what you want to hear as a comedian, the absolute opposite of what I'm trying to do. And she had love in her heart. She meant this in a good way. But she came up to me after and she goes, Oh, honey, we felt so bad for you up there. was like she said score eyes. And I was getting a ride from the Midler. I think I had to stick around. I mean, the other people wanted to stick around and like celebrate their success. So I'm just there now in this bar with all these people that feel bad for me, just, you know, trying to smash back a drink with these guys that had killed and just sitting there taking it trying to figure out like, what is the lesson here? What are we doing moving

Jeff Dwoskin 21:21

forward? The lesson is sometimes just don't make eye contact after the show and leave. Yeah, get the hell out of there.

Deanne Smith 21:29

But I have to say it was my first paid gig. I did 10 minutes. A Boehner slapped $100 in my hand as soon as I got off stage, and it soothed the burn. That $100 was like again, all right, okay.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:41

Well, in a way to it's like, everything's a learning experience. And if they hired you, they likely have seen you. So they they know, I think they're willing to invest in probably young talent that they know just needs to get slapped in the face from the audience a couple of times to build up those chops, because it's the only way and right yeah,

Deanne Smith 22:00

and this was a while ago. This is and this is the club system. I have no doubt that there was probably some perverse pleasure that everybody took in giving someone an opportunity a little bit before they're ready. Just to see what happens

Jeff Dwoskin 22:12

as you evolve and you work with people there's nothing better than watching one of your friends who you know normally could crash just suffer. I do not agree with that. I'm just being silly. Oh, honestly,

Deanne Smith 22:27

everybody when although it is funny, like when overall when a friend is doing well and then they maybe have a line or two that doesn't work. And then you kind of see them like melt down a little bit. That part's fun if you if they can recover, you know, and if it's kind of like oh,

Jeff Dwoskin 22:42

that's more like what I met enough fun.

Deanne Smith 22:43

I can't watch anybody just bomb I'll leave room. I can't I can't do it.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:47

I remember like when I first started first couple times, I killed the third time just to kind of parallel your story. It was but it was my wife. I did so bad. The third time. My wife was like, I was you I'd be crying right now.

Deanne Smith 23:02

Excuse me. Wow, that's so intense. It

Jeff Dwoskin 23:06

was bad. It was bad. It was like you know sometimes I think like you ever watch that Matthew Perry show? They did after friends the studio 54 Oh, I never even heard of it. Okay, so there was like when 30 Rock came out, the guy who did the West Wing did like studio 54 or something which was like a behind the scenes Saturday live type show. There's a really cool scene where they're like, I don't get that joke killed and dress rehearsal. And they're like, Well, the difference was, it was like the reaching for the assault or something was something some joke at a table. And as well and dress rehearsal, you asked for the salt. And when you were alive, you asked for the laugh. Oh,

Deanne Smith 23:40

that is so interesting. I love that to me, like that was

Jeff Dwoskin 23:43

such a kind of a great way to understand like the difference and how your own delivery of something can alter how the audience reacts to it, even though you don't necessarily do it on purpose. But that's like you said, that's part of like, it doesn't work. And then you kind of learn from it, and then adjust for the next time. But yeah,

Deanne Smith 24:02

I think that's initially what really hooked me with comedy, too is the infinite variables. I think it's kind of impossible to perfect because every night there's so many variables like obviously, there's like the script. And if you're sticking to that or not, there's your delivery. There's your own energy level, there's the energy level of the audience. There's kind of meta things at play in terms of like, what day of the week is it? What time is it? There's like the physical conditions of the club, like the lighting the microphone, like all these little things and like how interruptive or not is the waitstaff and there's just all these variables and that's really like what I find so fascinating about it and so interesting.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:39

It is I agree with that 100% there's just there's so many little nuances or even just like you leave one word out when you're saying like, and I get just changes the way someone will react to something or that's one of the reasons I never love doing two shows or something in a night is because if something magical happens in the first show, you know it's not gonna happen in the second show, just because it was a moment, you know, like something happens.

Deanne Smith 25:05

Oh, that's interesting. I like doing two shows in a night or three. It's like you're already there. Let's keep it going, you know, but I hear you and I have had to learn to let the first show go, whatever it was good, bad, magical, you absolutely have to let it go. Because you can't be comparing on the next show. And it's so easy to do. Like, you're up there telling the jokes and you're doing little metrics in your head. Well, well, the first audience that said it today, but the thing is, the second audience has no idea. They don't know that at all. So it's not useful, but it's very easy to do.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:34

Right. It's one of those things you have to train yourself. If it was going good, fine. Yeah. But you know, it's like one of those things. So you kind of blew up comedy wise in the Canada scene. Yeah,

Deanne Smith 25:45

kinda. I mean, I don't know. Yeah. Is what it what is blowing up anymore? What What does any of it mean? Like,

Jeff Dwoskin 25:52

I can memorize all these things. You're like, Montreal's top 10. Comedians, over five years in the 2000 10s, you've been on like, a million shows Last Comic Standing. I want to hear about that. Everyone seemed like you a lot. I mean, there's a lot. Well deserved to watch. Yeah,

Deanne Smith 26:10

yeah. So I started in Canada. Early in my career, I started traveling to Australia, which has been great to it, which is a great place to develop and meet other comics and just start doing one hour shows as opposed to like, you know, the club 45 Just kind of recently come to the US and I'm still kind of getting my foothold here. I first few years of the pandemic, I was not comfortable going out. So I really didn't do live comedy for quite a while just kind of starting to get back into it.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:36

Tell me more about Australia, or New York girl you've been.

Deanne Smith 26:41

But yeah, Australia has an incredible scene that I think more people are aware of, you know, obviously, Hannah Gadsby came out with the net in 2018 2019, on Netflix absolutely exploded, and in many ways, like started a big conversation about what comedy is. But Hannah, for example, is someone that had been on the Australian scene at that point for over a decade and someone that was like on the airwaves over there someone that you would see there's so many great comics coming out of Australia that I think the world will get to start to know sooner than later to very unique scene because it's so isolated, it's small, and they have the US influence, obviously, like everywhere, does, they also have the UK influence. And then they have their own unique, weird sensibility. And they're used to the kind of one hour show circuit. So even even their greenest comedian is expected to put together an hour show, you know, in the first year or two of doing comedy, and then create a new hour every year, it's not impossible to do. But when I started comedy, certainly coming out of Canada, the main idea, then you know, that the grizzled old club comics would tell me is like, you know, they thought you had to be working on your 45 for 10 years to like, get it perfect. And I was like, Oh, I don't know about that. So it's interesting, like, what am I trying to say? What people expect from each other in a certain scene? Right. And I think in Australia, people expect a certain high quality level of new material every year. And so they kind of hold each other to that standard and achieve it as opposed to the old model that it took you 10 years to get 45

Jeff Dwoskin 28:15

Right. That's a that's a very American comic model. Yeah.

Deanne Smith 28:20

And it's from its pre internet, right? It's from the days where you could have your traveling 45. And just you could work that on the road for years and years and years.

Jeff Dwoskin 28:28

Yeah, cuz then it kind of like I can think of like, it's harder to like, if you spend 10 years honing that and you put out that album, and everyone listens to it as Oh, that's classic. And then like, Dane Cook, and then he kind of year later, kind of while Yeah, well, I'm just saying but then like, within like a year later, he comes out with an album. And it's like, is it possible to be at the level of something that you had just honed for 10 years? You know, I'm saying like Carlin seem to knock stuff out every five minutes. And there's a lot of people that are prolific enough to do it. But maybe you're right, maybe it's just the mindset to how many one hour sets do you have?

Deanne Smith 29:01

I haven't counted them up. But I've done at least I'm sure at least eight to 10 One hour shows looking back on them now. Like would I take everything out of my first hour and absolutely stand by it. Probably not stuff get kind of remixed and repackaged into albums or various specials starting to put or have put like a fair amount out there. I have two albums at the moment. I have a like our special on a Canadian streaming service called crave. So not everybody has access to that. I have the half hour on Netflix, and then just kind of various television sets that I've done throughout the years that that material gets kind of burned. And what was I saying about this? Let me ask you that it's good to put stuff out there. And not all of it not all of it always hits the mark that you wanted to I'd say well

Jeff Dwoskin 29:47

I figure if you have 10 hours if you've done 10 One hours even if you're like some of this I grew out of or some of this is what was I thinking you probably got a good five hours in there somewhere that you could just pick it up Here's where I'm at a given moment. Yeah,

Deanne Smith 30:01

probably do have a good chunk, although, you know, things also just kind of become dated sometimes, too. Right?

Jeff Dwoskin 30:07

So my best jokes are dated.

Deanne Smith 30:09

Can you do you? Do you have any in mind? Like, are you able to tell us one? I'd love to hear one.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:14

I don't know. There used to be a thing, some call thing you could say money on called 1010 to 20 that don't remember the joke at all. I had a whole joke on it. Because it was like the biggest thing for a while. It was like every you couldn't go five minutes without hearing a commercial for this long distance. Because long distance isn't even a thing anymore. Right? Oh,

Deanne Smith 30:31

I see what you mean. Yeah. A week or so ago. I mean, really? Recently in New York, I heard someone do like a Monica Lewinsky joke. What are you doing? But I think it was kind of ironic, I think it was like, Hey, here's something from way back. When but wow. While while I mean,

Jeff Dwoskin 30:50

when I worked with Gilbert Godfried he was still making iron side jokes. Like a battleship. No, no, like a TV show of a starring Raymond Burr from the 60s.

Deanne Smith 31:00

Oh my god. That's actually great, though. Because it's like, if you're gonna go back, go that far back because no one. It doesn't even feel that dated. It just feels like what did you even doing? Like? Yeah. Avant Garde?

Jeff Dwoskin 31:12

Yeah. Sometimes like the references are so like, I had a deal or no deal. No Deal or No Deal joke that I did. But I had to like repurpose it or make up a version to try and make it seem relevant because it was a lead into a different show.

Deanne Smith 31:24

Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, the things get complicated. You build a little like, domino path. Sometimes with the jokes. It's like, Ah, how do I get into this one now without this other one?

Jeff Dwoskin 31:34

Sorry to interrupt, I have to take another quick break. And now back with Deanne Smith. We're going to talk all about Dan's Netflix special and new album. Let's talk about your specials. Let's talk about the Netflix one, then we can talk about your new one as well. So gentleman, elf, I watched that I watched this special, it was great.

Deanne Smith 31:52

I'm happy to see you smiling. I stand by it. You know, we recorded it in 2018 came out in 2019. And I was really proud of that little half an hour. I think it's I think it's pretty sweet to anybody listening. You can not search my name on Netflix, which is so frustrating. You have to search the title of the whole series called comedians of the world, and then go to Canada, and then check it out. So this was his new thing. They were trying they released like 47 specials on January 1 2019. No, of course, it got buried. There were 47 specials that said at the time, I did get a lot of really lovely emails and kind of feedback from people that were like, Oh, I came across this. This is really cool. And like the tiniest bit of hate, I think that unfortunately is inevitable with the Internet. And like I said, kind of our fractured communities and yeah, people just kind of ready to see something different from them and get upset about it. Just on the face of it. You

Jeff Dwoskin 32:46

know, they say if you upset someone, then you're right on the path. You're doing great. Because it's like, at least I'm glad you know it's buried because it took me a minute to find it. I did search. I didn't want to bring that up since you did but yeah, so it's worth everyone listening. It's worth finding. I'll put directions to it because you do yet to find this thing. And then Canada saw my friend Dave Mark Mirage was in there. Yeah, that's great. He actually was from Windsor, which is right outside Detroit. Yeah, he used to do open mics together. Really?

Deanne Smith 33:18

That's so exciting. I had no idea Yeah, Dave's awesome super funny guy. Super funny

Jeff Dwoskin 33:23

and Yucky. Yucky acts together. That's so he try and sneak over the border. This is pre 911 When

Deanne Smith 33:28

was it easy enough for you to sneak over to yuck? Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 33:31

it was easy. Yeah. Cuz it was it didn't care. And we weren't getting paid, right? Yeah. Once we started getting paid like some of the clubs then you could still do it because you were going to a comedy club. Adele depended if the person at the border and you know those folks, they control your life at that moment. Whether you go or don't. And so it was always I had paperwork. I'm like, Look, it's okay. And you know, yeah, but yeah, I loved it. The little letter you read at the end? So funny. Oh,

Deanne Smith 33:58

so silly. Yeah, I just I wanted to I wanted an ending you know that maybe coming from the world of doing the our shows. It's like I just wanted I wanted something that felt like an ending. And not just like last joke, and I

Jeff Dwoskin 34:10

it resonated with me because it's like, when you spend time with someone you do kind of feel like you got to know them. And so that was a very creative ending was I'm not going to spoil it but everyone should go watch it. Watch it. It's great. And it's hilarious from start to finish. It actually

Deanne Smith 34:30

is and I I'm pretty hard on myself. But that turned out I'm happy with it. I

Jeff Dwoskin 34:34

liked it. I liked it a lot. You got a new special chiweenie and a tank top. Did I say that? Right?

Deanne Smith 34:40

You did okay, so this is an album okay? It's an album I named it this I named it this based on one of the tracks about gender so essentially it's just like listen anything goes with my agenda, call me whatever you want. Failed woman weird man. chiweenie in a tank top, whatever, whatever. I wasn't sure what to call the album. There's another track called think that Track is called we're all fags and that's what I wanted. But I was dissuaded because we were like, listen, it's not gonna get airplay and no one knows what you're talking about. Alright, fair enough. But this is an album you can find on 800 pound gorilla or anywhere that you find albums and you could just buy it at a price that I must say is insulting to everyone on every side of this interaction. It's insulting to you as a consumer, it's insulting to me it's insulting to everyone involved in the production merely $5 Less than a cup of coffee.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:30

I think we can blame Louie CK for that he when he started selling his stuff, he sold them off for $5 when he started doing that way back when not to evoke Louie CK, but the but when he started created his first Yeah, especially on selling

Deanne Smith 35:42

he has a fan base to like generate a lot of income with $5. I mean, mine should be $5,000 Considering the work that went into it.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:51

What's, what's your Venmo? And then everyone if you could just Venmo Deanne the difference? We would greatly appreciate it. And don't be don't be a jack don't say it's for a business transaction. Know that she's a friend.

Deanne Smith 36:07

Like never say business transaction

Jeff Dwoskin 36:09

now, right? Do they set the price? Is that how that works? Oh,

Deanne Smith 36:13

yeah. And I'm just being cheeky about it. I have always felt nuts, invoking money and commerce. I know it's what we do. But honestly, I really, it feels antithetical almost to like doing comedy like I'm there to connect. I'm there to make people laugh and bringing money into it always feels so weird to me. So that's just my fun way of being like, hey, you could buy the album for $5

Jeff Dwoskin 36:35

for $5 to support Yeah, somebody's a creator. This

Deanne Smith 36:39

is this is growth for me. Because years ago, I would be like, Yeah, whatever or don't or it's free or just message me. Yeah, who cares?

Jeff Dwoskin 36:47

Everyone can have it forever.

Deanne Smith 36:50

I used to like get merch and then just give it away straight up. Like I didn't even get back what I paid for the merch. Someone be like, can I buy that T shirt? And I'm like, you could just have it just have it. Thank you so much for your support.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:03

I made bumper stickers once and I was just like, I just could not bring myself to sell it because it was like, you know, $3 or this or that? Yeah. Oh, you know, you know what I ended up doing? Which is kind of funny. I had this joke in the beginning, where I tell people I'm Jewish. And then I'm like, Oh, if you never met a Jew before he came up to me after the show and give me a hug of Jew hug. Hello. Do you brace? $5 $5 right? gets that cute. I'll insert the big laugh that it would have gotten in front because then they're like, oh, did you win the money. So after

Deanne Smith 37:34

God, I didn't even put that together. I was like, they should pay That's rubbish person.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:40

And so and so after the show, it was just a joke. People some people will come up to me and hand me $5 Someone wants handed me 20 They they give me a hug. Or they take a picture. And then as a joke, I created one of those old Venmo things, you know, like where you can scan the Venmo and so it's just about hugs under it and they as people walked out so they could just scan

Deanne Smith 38:02

smart I mean why not let them do it then I

Jeff Dwoskin 38:05

didn't have to create any merch just me lovable me. Yeah,

Deanne Smith 38:10

if you want interact give me money.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:14

It was only one time that somebody walked by me and kind of gave me this look and went No.

Deanne Smith 38:22

Perhaps a fellow Jew that was like listen, I am also one of God's chosen people. I don't need to give you money to be near you.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:29

Sometimes people would scream out from the anyway. Okay, so a couple of things I wanted to make sure we covered everyone's always talking about Firefly you know the show Firefly Yeah. Oh, just a bit. It's like one sees is like the one show that has one season everyone's like, Why isn't there more Why isn't there more so what I wanted to ask you about the adventures of tiny pineapple.

Deanne Smith 38:49

Oh my god I forgot about this. Oh, wow. Completely forgot about this. Yes, this was nine years ago, but it was only nine years ago kind of feels like feels like 25 Well, when

Jeff Dwoskin 39:03

you post it it's been nine years since maybe you posted it but it's always shit. Okay. Something you do with Carly Euston and Robin Romer.

Deanne Smith 39:12

I mean, the thing about Carly Carly's like a very famous director now Carly has gone on to win awards directed drag race. I mean, I'm not even sure what projects they're working on right now. But yeah, robins a therapist

Jeff Dwoskin 39:26

a while ago Wow. Any greater out there as he's sitting at home with a pineapple and googly eyes and they're like planted inspiration, The Adventures of tiny pineapple.

Deanne Smith 39:36

Oh my god, thank you. I'm gonna have to rewatch we did some fun stuff. I mean, those guys were I did the voice of tiny pineapple and I think we came up with the stories together stories as they work those two were like very skilled director and photography people. Brought some high quality to this tiny pineapple we found at the grocery store.

Jeff Dwoskin 39:58

There's one where the pine tiny pine Have a walks a dog and then the dog is eating the pineapple which I imagine is what drove Robin into becoming a therapist. Yeah to deal with the trauma, a lot of trauma there that a trauma, and then you ever gonna bring your podcast back? Oh

Deanne Smith 40:13

my god, this is worth asking questionable at best. I would say, Well, no, it's not coming back. My self sabotage got in the way of that project. It was a great project. We're all having a good time. Well, two things happen. self sabotage the deep question of Why would anyone want to listen, even though lots of people were listening and enjoying and my mom died in 2015. And the podcast was so vulnerable and open and just kind of talked about my real life that I did not know how to do both of those things. So I put that aside grieved. But I do have a new podcast project coming back soon. similar in tone. I guess. It's called Bad boundaries. I don't even have the teaser up yet. But um, if you guys want to just keep your eyes and ears open for bad boundaries. It's gonna get weird, and it's gonna be fun. That

Jeff Dwoskin 40:58

sounds delightful. All right, we'll keep keep an eye out on that. And then I'll just, I just found my list. We were talking about you blowing up in Canada earlier? Yeah. 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival amused moose top 10 shortlisted ratable. Who cares?

Deanne Smith 41:15

Thank you, Jeff. But who cares? I

Jeff Dwoskin 41:17

know. But these I'm just saying there's you got you. But you were recognized a lot of times. That's all I'm saying. So which is great. I mean, it's cool. I love it.

Deanne Smith 41:25

You need that stuff. You need that stuff to like, where I did at least to know that you're on the right path, but it matters a little bit what you're doing and that you're not maybe 100% delusional maybe just 49% delusional it's a good push.

Jeff Dwoskin 41:37

It's a good question. It's a good the universe letting you know you're on the right path for sure. I one last thing and then I know I've kept so long talk to me about straight man step your game up. I watched this your viral. Yeah,

Deanne Smith 41:51

that went crazy. I think that one came out in like 2016. It came out of the Winnipeg Comedy Festival. It was a little four minute set. I think they called it straight men step up your game. I don't think that's what I called it. But essentially, it was about I'm dating this girl. She's only dated men until now. And it is so easy to impress her. So I just kind of go on about that. And it really resonated with people at the time. I mean, I think the the idea of the quote, you know, mediocre white man that we've heard so much about since and the bar being low. I think at that point, people weren't really talking about it. So it went crazy viral, definitely among like straight women that kind of wanted to hear this, and definitely among lesbians and queer people that had had similar experiences to mine, or the opposite experience of starting to date in the queer world and being like, Oh, my God, this is so different. What's interesting about that, and I brought up self sabotage a little bit earlier. And being hard on myself Is it was a good lesson. I'm trying to keep it in mind. But I don't always that I didn't consider that bit finished yet. Like I thought it was I knew that it was getting good responses from audiences, I could read how audiences were feeling about it. It came out like relatively fully formed. Like there's always tags, there's always new lines. But when it came out, it came out in a way that was like, Okay, this is its own chunk, I felt positively about it, and positively enough about it to put it on TV and Canada. You know, I knew it was good. At that point. Winnipeg had never released videos online. So that was like, whoa, what? So it was very, very surprising that that went viral. And I didn't expect it to. And honestly, I thought I was giving it to a tiny little festival and it would live and die on Canadian television. And then I would be able to keep working on it and make it better. So it was a good lesson. Sometimes in me not thinking something is good enough. And it being perfectly good enough. For most people that aren't me. I felt it was a little too one sided, honestly, like I never I felt guilty to my male friends when I was doing that bit because I'm kind of putting straight men down and I was like, the actually the straight men in my life aren't like this. And I feel like I should give a little credit or bring it back around. But I never got a chance to bring it back around because the internet went no, this is this is right. Stream no need to step out. It

Jeff Dwoskin 44:01

was great. It was great advice. My wife says thank you.

Deanne Smith 44:08

Generally, it's just about giving the bare minimum to your women men just care about their days. littlest bit.

Jeff Dwoskin 44:15

Oh, this has been fun. I appreciate you hanging out with me. I've had a great time. We didn't know each other before this. No. And now we're like besties So is it fair to say yeah, we just got into it. Yeah, yeah. Where can everyone keep up with you on the socials? I

Deanne Smith 44:29

mean, listen, good luck to you all. I've always had a bit of a push pull with this old career thing. google Deanne Smith and the most successful one out there or the loudest at least Deanne underscore Smith, most places, I think

Jeff Dwoskin 44:41

right now on YouTube, the real Deanne I'll put links in the show notes. That's so

Deanne Smith 44:46

sweet. I don't think I personally I haven't looked at my YouTube in like 10 years or so. So but I'm sure there's stuff up there I'm sure. Alright, so

Jeff Dwoskin 44:53

links in the show notes. Everyone's homework everyone's Deanne homework is follow the adventures of tiny pineapple check out I got a gentleman Elf on Netflix and Dan's latest album chiweenie and a tank top are $5 just $5 dollars, you guys. I mean, if you just spend $5 on something that you'll never get back, but now you can spend it on this and enjoy it for a lifetime. Yeah. Lifetime. Oh, lifetime. Dan, it was a pleasure hanging out with you. Thank you.

Deanne Smith 45:26

Thank you. Maybe I'll see you in January at what's it called?

Jeff Dwoskin 45:30

Release comedy guys. Oh, yes, I will make I'll make sure that we connect there. That'll be fun. Thank you.

Deanne Smith 45:37

Thank you see ya.

Jeff Dwoskin 45:39

All right, how amazing with Deanne Smith. I know so amazing. All the links to all of Dan's comedy goodness is in the shownotes. Dan is hilarious. I encourage you to watch all of it. And I'll even put a link to tiny pineapple. Well with the interview over can't believe it. Another episode has come to an end episode 299. That means three hundreds next week. Can't wait. special show. One more. Huge thank you to Deanne Smith. And of course a huge thank you to all of you for coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

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