Why We All Hunger for Meaning: Spiritual & Political Awakening with Dave Neal
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Unleashing your inner child just may be the most radical thing you can do in our current culture.
Join host, Reese Brown as she sits down with comedian, creator, and political commentator Dave Neal to discuss his path as a gritty creator, passionate father and husband, and spiritual meaning maker. Neal discusses everything, from inner child work to politics to the deeply human need to live authentically. We start with the moment Dave almost quit everything. Living in Hollywood, getting by with his then girlfriend (now wife), when we lost his job due to the pandemic. A seeming rock bottom allowed Dave to rediscover his spark that changed the trajectory of, not just his career, but his life.
Dave opens up about growing up without a father, becoming one himself, and the ways parenthood brings old wounds forward for healing. We also dive into the rise of bold progressive politics, why people feel unseen by both major parties, and how justice, compassion, humor, and courage can coexist. If you’re a fan of Dave, The Rush Hour Podcast, creative living, political commentary creation, resilience and self growth, or becoming the most authentic, Coherent version of yourself, you’ve found the right episode!
A huge thank you to Dave for his time, energy, and vulnerability during this conversation! Follow and Support Dave Neal and The Rush Hour Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/dnealz/
https://www.facebook.com/dnealz
https://www.tiktok.com/@dnealz?lang=en
https://www.youtube.com/@DaveNealComedian
https://www.rushhourwithdave.com
https://www.patreon.com/daveneal
Follow The Cohere Collective:
https://www.instagram.com/thecoherecollective/
https://www.tiktok.com/@thecoherecollective
For more information, head to www.thecoherecollective.com
To support The Cohere Collective, head to https://www.thecoherecollective.com/support
Follow Triston Morgan, the creator of Making Meaning's theme music: https://www.instagram.com/tristonmorgan/
Follow Nicole Oesterreicher, the creator of Making meaning's art and podcast cover:
https://www.instagram.com/nicoleocreates/ https://www.instagram.com/nicoleodesign/
Resources and References:
- Grit by Angela Duckworth: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27213329-grit
- Learn about Dr. Annie Andrews’ Senate Campaign: https://drannieandrews.com
- Learn about James Talarico’s Senate Campaign: https://jamestalarico.com
- Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49000/lady-lazarus
Thank you for being here!
Smack,
Reese
Chapters:
00:00 Preview
01:04 Intro
04:03 Conversation Begins
06:03 Unleashing the Inner Child
08:03 Becoming a Father & Healing Old Wounds
11:33 Hitting Rock Bottom in Hollywood
14:43 The Moment Everything Shifted
17:23 Discovering Creativity & Early Wins
21:03 The Standup Life: Truth, Humor & Humanity
23:06 BREAK
24:17 Political Awakening: From Bernie to Bold Ideas
30:03 Talking Politics Without Losing Yourself
34:33 Populism, Progressivism & What People Really Want
38:43 The Power of Talking to Real People
42:03 Faith, Spirituality, & Purpose Beyond Religion
48:03 The Law of Attraction, Grit, & Inner Alignment
54:33 How Dave Built His Channel
1:00:03 Creating a Family & Becoming the Parent You Needed
1:07:03 Why Joy, Play, & Community Are the Future
1:10:03 Closing Reflections & Takeaways
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Reese Brown (00:02.028)
Well, Dave, thank you so much for being here first and foremost. I really appreciate your time and coming on. I've been really looking forward to this conversation.
Dave Neal (00:10.636)
Yeah, me too. I'm excited to chat.
Reese Brown (00:12.58)
Yeah, absolutely. So the first question I always like to ask just to hopefully set a good tone for our conversation is what is one thing that you're grateful for?
Dave Neal (00:20.99)
my gosh. You know, I gotta go. Boy, it's so cliche to say health, but I, you don't realize until even, even if, even if you have like a one week of being under the weather, when you're in the podcast game and you got to speak out loud, I had, my voice was gone last week and I was doing standup shows like, like barely getting anything out. So it's, don't know, you don't realize till it's gone. I'm getting a little older, trying to keep that health in order now that I have a child.
Reese Brown (00:41.116)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (00:50.508)
you know, trying to go, boy, I'm going to be an old dad. I better, I might as well have my joints working. So hell that's it. I'm grateful for grateful for, you know, the fact that my knees don't crack too bad when I bend over.
Reese Brown (01:02.284)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think, you know, cliches are cliche for a reason, right? It's like, it's a beautiful thing to be grateful for. And we'll round back to some other things about health and healthcare as well. And that it's a good segue into some of those questions. But I did also just want to start with what is your story? I always like to ask guests that question just because this is what it's all about, right? Your story, everything that brought you to here.
I know that's a really big question, but whatever you feel called to speak to in this moment is wonderful.
Dave Neal (01:35.598)
The most delicate pursuit I think in my life is trying to unleash my inner child, trying to overcome the feeling like people care and the feeling of needing to behave. And I think that was a product of growing up single mom, the old New England Irish Catholic upbringing. Absolutely nothing my mom ever did was meant to, to keep me from expressing myself. It was just.
Reese Brown (01:43.58)
Hmm.
Reese Brown (01:56.87)
sure.
Dave Neal (02:04.728)
That's how society is. You get to a certain age and it's like quit goofing around. I'm 40 years old. I want to find new ways to goof around. So that's kind of everything I'm trying to focus on doing is, is finding ways to dance and not feel dumb in the process.
Reese Brown (02:21.752)
Yeah, I love that. That's really beautiful. And I think one, you've already mentioned that you're a dad. And I think that that is a way that a lot of people, I mean, I'm not a parent, I don't have kids, but I would have to imagine, please correct me if I'm wrong, that that awakens this new dimension of a relationship to your inner child as well. That is, there's this little being that I'm responsible for that I want to show up for as my holist truest self.
but also seeing Auggie play and enjoy life, I'm sure is like, wow, I also need to tap back into that.
Dave Neal (03:00.908)
You know, he just got good at walking. He's 18 months and he takes these short steps and he runs to me. And then I started taking short steps on my own to run to him. And then he started mimicking me and doing shorter steps. And so we have this game we play where we make eye contact and we just start running at each other with these tiny little steps. And it gets to a point where we just start to start like kind of like doing the running man. And you can't like, look, I loved my life before I had a baby. I'm not one of those like, you gotta do it.
I'm glad we brought a life into this world when we had all of the resources to like really focus on being great parents. one thing I see, and by the way, anyone who has a child that's over the age of 18 months will tell me I have no idea what I'm talking about because parents have this like parent measuring contest that they do where they go, wait till they're five, wait till, and it's like, okay, fine. Well, I'll get there. Okay. So just let me enjoy this amazing bliss that I have. And it's
Reese Brown (03:49.606)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (03:57.457)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (03:59.712)
It's like I'm my job. What I feel like my job as a dad and as a parent is, is I'm not like we brought this soul into our world. He chose us is our belief. Like his spirit chose us. And I'm sure he's a little pissed because we lived in California when he chose us. And then we moved to the terrible weather of, you know, middle America here. I chose you when you lived in the near Venice Beach.
Reese Brown (04:25.637)
Right.
Dave Neal (04:26.488)
But he, our job is to bring this beautiful boy into this world and introduce him to the challenges of the world. And I think what's gonna be tough is I'm trying to live my life now reaping the rewards of overcoming those challenges. And I'm gonna have to make sure that I don't buy his access to overcoming them. And I think that's what's gonna be tough is
Reese Brown (04:45.734)
Hmm.
Dave Neal (04:56.256)
realizing like, I'll help you get up, but I'm going to need you to try to get up before and whatever that looks like. And I think a lot of people want to protect their kids from that adversity. But I do believe the number one key to success in life is grit, perseverance, hard work, whatever you want to call it far, far more than any intelligence or IQ level. It's, it's, it's passion. And it doesn't matter if he wants to be a passion in, in
Reese Brown (05:01.659)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (05:26.03)
art or whatever. I want him to really get exposed to that feeling that we have inside that makes you feel alive and then give him whatever resources I can to help him use those tools to achieve that.
Reese Brown (05:36.572)
Hmm.
Reese Brown (05:43.569)
That's so powerful. And honestly, it really reminds me a lot of how my parents raised me growing up. And a few years ago, I read this book by Angela Duckworth, it's called Grit. And it really was kind of a paradigm shift for me in thinking about how we as a society consider hard work, because I think so often it is this like nose to the grindstone, do whatever you have to do to just make it through. But in this
book, she really frames it as how can you find joy and levity and play, like you mentioned earlier, in the midst of grinding it out, right?
Dave Neal (06:21.934)
And you'll be such a better version of yourself. I've been every version. I've had the guy whose light was completely dimmed or extinguished by my career. I've been that bitter guy on the verge of breakdowns. I actually, I had the funniest moment. it's painful to think of, but I was doing this side gig. You know, I've been in the Screen Actors Guild for 20 years. I didn't really start making money till like five years ago.
broke as hell living with my wife, girlfriend at the time, then my fiance in our 500 square foot studio apartment. And I was doing this side gig where I drive these golf carts around and I can't, it's like there are these little electric cars, touristy town and you work on minimum wage plus tips. And then, so when it's bad weather, you don't get any tips and you're just kind of like, whatever, you're just there. And it gets cold, like on the West, like Southern California on the coast gets cold. Some of the coldest I've ever been.
Reese Brown (06:57.564)
course.
Reese Brown (07:19.312)
Yeah, you get that breeze off the water.
Dave Neal (07:21.428)
so cold and you're not ready for it, it comes in out of nowhere. And I'm from New England, I know, you but it comes in and it's windy. My sister called me and there was like a whole bunch of people back home and I'm like on a bad place. doing like minimum wage gigs with my college degree and all of these other things. And she called me and one of the kids, there's a lot of like cousins in the background and they're like, who's on the phone? And then my sister was like, your uncle David.
And then one of the kids was like, who? And then the other one said, it's the one we don't know. I'm telling you, nearly, not their fault, I go, what is this all for? I am literally, I didn't feel like a loser so much as I didn't see light at the end of my pursuit. I didn't see, and that was probably very close to.
Reese Brown (08:00.805)
Right.
Reese Brown (08:12.796)
Mmm.
Dave Neal (08:18.862)
the darkest in the night before sunrise came. Shortly, I mean, I'm not kidding, within months, I can tell you the day where I was like, I could feel that vibrational change where a lot of things I had put into place started to like, you could start to see the seedlings come up. And I had faith, but even with faith, at some point you're like, how does my girlfriend even believe in me at this point?
Reese Brown (08:22.769)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (08:35.556)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (08:45.454)
Yeah, it's the period of time where like you've entered into the dark tunnel and you don't see the light at the end of it yet. So it's pitch black behind you and it's pitch black forward and all you can do is just faith, keep walking and like one day I know I'm gonna see that light, one day I know I'm gonna see it. And it's like that is the grit that you're talking about. And I love...
Dave Neal (09:06.914)
And you need the doubt. If you don't have the doubt, you don't keep walking. Like if you're not doubting, you're like, well, I guess I'm fine where I am. There was never any complacency. There's just this thing, anyone who's done art knows you don't get paid. No one gives you a book advance until you approve an author, Everything you have to do is on your own time. And I was on my lunch break writing scripts and editing things and left and right.
Reese Brown (09:11.024)
Mmm.
Reese Brown (09:25.147)
rate.
Dave Neal (09:33.406)
And I was, mean, I'm not kidding, like watching Mr. Beast videos, because at the time Mr. Beast videos were like handing a hundred dollar bill to a waiter. They were like very, not as big as they are now, but he was bringing joy to people. And all these YouTubers were making videos about how much money they were making. And I was so aware that if, I started to make money, having ownership over what I was doing, you know, the, the phrase don't rent out your time, I knew that there's so much
Reese Brown (09:45.232)
Right?
Dave Neal (10:03.008)
in return when you do that. But the sort of the trap a lot of people fall into is did you take the first job out of college? Did you take the first offer? When you did get fired or laid off, did you take the first thing back? And I do think that the world provides us these little opportunities and they're not always meant to be taken. Sometimes we're meant to say that's below what I need to do. And other times you take the gig and you learn something, but
I think in this minimum wage job, which I ended up getting laid off during the pandemic, when they called everyone back to the job, they didn't call me back. I was probably so unlikable to them because it was like, I didn't want to be a minimum wage person. But when I showed up to that job, I gave them the minimum wage version of myself because that's what I was, I wasn't giving them my business degree or my artist. I was giving them like whatever. But I think,
Reese Brown (10:34.012)
Mmm.
Reese Brown (10:45.027)
Right.
Dave Neal (10:58.518)
I think what I learned was even though I had to do what I had to do to pay the bills, I didn't consume myself with jobs that would rob my creativity. I like protected that so that I could continue to do that until I found an avenue that started to make money. As soon as that happened, it was like all hands on deck. Like we got it. The thing works. Just gasoline on top of it. And it really hasn't stopped since then.
Reese Brown (11:09.008)
Hmm.
Reese Brown (11:22.148)
Yeah.
Yeah, that's so exciting. And one, congratulations. Seeing the like meteoric rise of your channel in the post like lively Baldoni situation, it's really been cool to watch and... Sure. But it's, yeah, it's all relative and it's...
Dave Neal (11:42.082)
I wouldn't use meteoric, but sure. mean, it grows, I guess. It's all relative,
Reese Brown (11:52.381)
It's always inspiring to see a success story, right? Even if that success is just finding the thing that makes you like, oh, this spark that I felt inside that now is a flame and I have something to pour gasoline on now and we're just gonna go. It's just so inspiring. But I do wanna ask you about, because of course, like you said, you've been in SAG for 20 plus years, you're a standup comedian. What was the thing that made you realize you were an artist, a creative?
I think so many creatives now were so lucky to have social media and the internet to be able to have ownership over our time and our creative voice. But what was that first, I think you called it that, that piece inside of you that makes you feel alive. Do you have a memory of the first time that you felt that and what gave you the confidence to pursue that?
Dave Neal (12:43.296)
It's, know, it's, it's a lot of, for me, yeah, the, like, I mean, Facebook came out when I was in college and it was still just like a status update thing. There wasn't the sharing of content that there is now. So the idea that I could get into standup was not, I was so far out of that reality that it took so many, wrong turns and getting lost, truly getting lost. was working at, in, out of college, I worked in an advertising firm.
And my job stunk. It just sunk. And again, I hope, I hope the message here isn't me complaining. It's just that when you're not doing something that you're supposed to do, it is so much harder, so much harder in this job. was like, ugh, but there was a creative side to the job that other people had that I didn't. And that creative side was the ones that did the design work and they, they worked on the floor where they had open concept desks because they were the creatives. I was on the business side.
Reese Brown (13:35.217)
Mm-hmm.
Dave Neal (13:42.446)
which is the soul sucking, it was, I was on the wrong team and I became friends with these creative folks. And then one day, even though my job wasn't creative at all, just being exposed to people that had bold ideas. There was like this 48 hour film festival and we're gonna make a project, we need actors, we need it. And I was like, I wanna act, I wanna do something, I wanna perform. It was my inner child wanting to play in a world that
Reese Brown (13:47.835)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (14:10.106)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (14:12.182)
was a dress code, you don't get to do that. You didn't go to art school, so you don't get to play. I think a lot like a lot of comedians, the comedian lawyer crossover is big because I think a lot of people getting get into law because I could be wrong, but I think they get into law because of the performance aspect where you want to you're debating and it's and it's a sign of IQ and we learn and we go back and forth and and then they realize that
Reese Brown (14:36.412)
Totally.
Dave Neal (14:42.048)
most lawyers, it sucks so much that you go to one open mic and you're like, I'm done. I'm doing the comedy. I can do this in a different world. So for me, I didn't even do that film fest. Something didn't work out, but it was enough to see the email to know that that existed, that then they said, all right, we'll join this community. And then next thing you know, I'm like on Craigslist taking like Emerson College or university acting gigs. And I didn't have a headshot. had like a business card and I was just right for a few of the parts.
Reese Brown (15:09.468)
Great.
Dave Neal (15:11.95)
Then that buddy gets me and next thing you know, I'm doing, I don't know, standing in background work and I got cast in this project that became a feature film where I had a whole bunch of scenes in it and they believed in me when they shouldn't have. Like I didn't have anything. But I was like excited and naive and dumb. And it was enough in that community to branch off and that turned into moving to New York and.
taking some improv classes. I remember the moment we had our first Upright Citizens Brigade class. We had our class show and we're behind the wall and there's 10 people in the audience. They're all friends and we're getting ready to perform in this surreal. I'm in New York City. performing, like inner child. Just play, play, play. Someone from that class was a comedian. my gosh, you do standup? Now she's one of my good friends, Katie. And I didn't know she did standup. And how do you get into that? Questions, asking.
just really sinking my teeth into any opportunity, which just led to more and more comedy. And then, mean, to write a joke and perform it on stage, still try to find, like, I'm still, I still feel stiff and rigid, and I'm still trying to like break out, like, it's the Forrest Gump metaphor, like, you know, just getting those braces off. And that'll be a lifetime thing, you know? But that's the journey.
Reese Brown (16:10.661)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (16:30.18)
Hmm.
Totally.
Dave Neal (16:36.172)
you know, not waiting to on my deathbed to really just like, my wife's like, we got to take dance lessons for the first dance. Let's go. Now I was a little resistant, I got us last minute dance lessons. But like, we were in LA, we were like two weeks before we had, you know, to go to our wedding, and we hadn't done a dance lesson. And we ended up getting set up with someone who was on like the Dancing with the Stars, like regional tour. And
Reese Brown (16:36.422)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (17:01.866)
how fun.
Dave Neal (17:02.52)
But they were like, they had studied under Louis Van Amsle, like one of the Dancing with the Stars people. like, so next thing you know, we're like, Viennese Waltz, we did double sessions for two weeks straight. And it was like, I love, I get a chance to perform. We got a chance, like with my wife, and that was the final pre-wedding test, right? The stress of getting married is so like, the wedding industrial complex is just meant to rob you.
Reese Brown (17:29.113)
yeah.
Dave Neal (17:30.238)
And not everyone makes it through it. And that last phase for us to learn how to not just communicate emotionally, but physically, like physical communication, not stepping on each other's toes, unbelievable. And that's like part of the whole racket of why you take these opportunities because it's like, what world would I not want to do that?
Reese Brown (17:43.695)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (17:53.893)
Yeah, there's always the lesson in whatever it is. I grew up dancing and there is something so unique about the physical expression of art and this feeling. And when you do it with someone, especially that you love so deeply, it's like, this is a new level of being in sync. But I did want to ask, I want to go back to
when you said all of these friends and like buddies and friend of friends that see your business card and then you start learning these things and you get the bigger and bigger and bigger role. And you said they believed in me when they shouldn't have because you didn't have anything. And I just want to throw something out there. It's not even a question, but see how it hits you and what you think. I think what you did have is that curiosity, that desire to play, that spark, the thing that you couldn't ignore.
And I wonder if that's what people were seeing that it's like, doesn't matter if he has the right headshot, doesn't matter if he has the right agent, if he has the manager, if he has the sag eligibility, whatever, there's something here and that's the type of people that we want to work with that like-minded people that want to, you want to surround yourself with, right?
Dave Neal (19:06.241)
Yeah, totally. you know, the mic, I think it's Mike Tyson said we all have a plan until we get punched in the face. And like, I hadn't failed yet. hadn't, hadn't, I mean, don't get me wrong. I wasn't nailing every audition, but I got like my first, my first few months into that world, I got cast in an ABC pilot. It's still the most professional thing I've ever been cast in and it didn't make it, but it was still, was a full shoot with a lead actress that as a kid was like the heartthrob. And it was like, I was like, what the hell am I doing here?
Reese Brown (19:12.188)
Sure.
Dave Neal (19:36.354)
But it will, and there's something to, I didn't have theater training. So I didn't have years of professors telling me how high the brick wall was that you needed to get over. So there is like a dumb luck. There is a beginner's luck that comes from not understanding limitation. Once you understand limitation, it holds you back because,
Reese Brown (19:51.932)
Mmm, yeah.
Dave Neal (20:02.562)
The Randy Posh quote, the brick wall's not meant to keep you out, it's meant to show you how bad you want something, right? So some of the best things I've gotten in life is just sliding in the back door. And it happens all the time. I live in Nashville now, so I left LA when we started our family and had a baby just to get a little more space. I get more work in sketch comedy, more paid standup. And there's limitations to not being in that big city, but there's a little bit more freedom to be like,
Reese Brown (20:12.142)
Hmm.
Dave Neal (20:31.51)
I belong here, I've done comedy for a long time and coming up and spending so many years in LA and what made it kind of so dark for me is that you're competing against so many people that are also so good. There's just like, it's like we're all fighting for a limited stage time. I mean, I'm competing, I'm gonna do an open mics with the guy who hosted.
Reese Brown (20:46.395)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (20:56.992)
American Idol season one with Ryan Seacrest before they fired him the guys who won last comic standing like in any other world at any other time period They're all headliners doing their own thing and yet there we are not like so so it took a lot of You know that it ebbs and flows the the believing in yourself and What what my success on YouTube podcasting has given me the chance? It's given me a little bit of that confidence that that knows like I'm not in the deep end
Reese Brown (21:16.152)
Mm-hmm.
Dave Neal (21:27.02)
I'm still splashing in the water, but I have the ability to do things on my own terms. everything I do now with the podcasting and YouTube, it's like parallel to my goals. It's still like there's a lot of ownership to what I do. It's a trillion times better pay, but there's still like, we're not there. And I have to know that I still have limitations and I need to like overcome those so that I can do the theater gigs and I can do the gigs that
Reese Brown (21:33.638)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (21:56.928)
are purely for the inner child's not like, well, we got to make a video because it's a lot closer to the goal, but it's not there.
Reese Brown (21:59.356)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (22:05.518)
Right, but it's taking those steps through the darkness of the cave, right? And it's, like you said, that that journey is the lifetime journey. One thing that I did want to ask about, because like you said, this journey of unleashing your inner child and that just kind of being this driving force in your life, I am really fascinated with your shift into political commentary.
completely agree with your ethos that it's deeply important that we're talking about these things, but to start as a bachelor in entertainment commentary channel and now to be doing something that you got a little bit of lash back for from your community. And of course we know bachelor nation can be a bit conservative and all of that good stuff, but. What?
Dave Neal (22:54.862)
They don't, the people don't like me? What? I turned off the comments. This is the first time I've heard it.
Reese Brown (23:03.44)
But what was it that really pushed you into the need to talk about it? Because I know for me, I have people who love me dearly and support my work that are like, don't touch it, don't touch it. It's going to do nothing but blow up and make people angry. And I'm like, so what? I have to stay true to that. And I have to be speaking about these things that matter. So talk to me about that choice for you. And even though, yeah.
Dave Neal (23:31.34)
You know, I was radicalized by Bernie Sanders, you know, that old Brooklynite got to me. I never had any principles of like, well, we separate these conversations. It was a lack of knowledge. Nothing I ever did in my life. felt like, like the poll, I never felt the politics mattered. I couldn't, if someone was like, Dave, you voted for George Bush, but I don't even know who I voted for in college. If I did.
Reese Brown (23:35.015)
hell yeah.
Reese Brown (23:51.802)
Mm.
Dave Neal (24:00.502)
I don't remember voting till like Obama in New York, which was funny because I remember walking back to my apartment in Harlem and I remember like this, this black dude rolls his windows down and he's like, Obama won F you. And I was like, Hey, I voted for the guy. Like it was just like exciting. And he just saw me walking, but it was like, can in New York city is amazing. And it's so you can feel the magic of like, of like movements and this idea of the big P politics. It's like,
Reese Brown (24:17.916)
You're like, I'm excited.
Dave Neal (24:30.39)
I covered bachelor because of the social dynamic, because I enjoy humanity and love and seeing people fall in love or say the wrong thing and fall out of it in the fights. Like I covered it because it was a, it was a simple common denominator, the number one, you know, water cooler show that covers all of that. So that made perfect sense. My shift into other things is really the same framework, which is if
Reese Brown (24:37.489)
Right.
Reese Brown (24:44.133)
It's fascinating.
Dave Neal (25:00.47)
Like as a comedian, you're supposed to tell the truth, right? If I have a take like, man, like, you know, I got this joke about love is blind and I'm like, I don't think it is. Like I have a strong premise about why love's not blind. And it's like, if you believe it, talk about it and you know, make it funny and all of that. Patrice O'Neill, the late great Patrice O'Neill is comedian. And he says, if you're not walking half the room, you're not doing it right. Now maybe, you know, I've never walked half the room. I'm not like really.
You know that but but in politics you you risk the chance to if you take an opinion I'm telling you why I do comedy and one of the reddest states now and I have a hard time finding somebody that like is upset with my opinions We do get triggered by the left versus right, you know, it's so simple to like it's so simple for people to say I'm pro-life I don't want to that's it and like I've got family members that they don't dive deeper into that and
Reese Brown (25:42.716)
Mm.
Dave Neal (25:56.844)
Now you're seeing like the Pope who's like, listen, pro-life doesn't end just on conception. Like there's a lot of other things you got to do. And I think that's the point with a lot of people that have my shared beliefs, which is like living in a system that spreads out the wealth to a point where the basement's not as dark and the basement being like affordable, basic minimum wages that people can live off of. Like we're talking reasonable stuff. You know, like this art,
was just sold, I covered this on my show yesterday, this art piece just sold for $236 million. That person's not paying enough in taxes. It wasn't even a Monet. It was like a weird piece of art. They're just doing it to money launder. the excesses and everybody agrees with that, whether they know it or not. It can be described in ways that everyone agrees with. So there's a ton that's wrong with the Democratic Party. The majority of them take
Reese Brown (26:43.782)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (26:56.564)
money from sources where they're not looking out for people's interests. And they've learned that that people would rather vote for Trump, you know, in, you know, someone that they know of in, regardless of what their opinions, they've rather voted for him. won the popular vote. Even if he didn't win the popular vote, the symptom was big enough that people weren't being listened to. The fact that unions no longer support the democratic party do some work on that. And I'm interviewing
Dr. Annie in South Carolina running for office. She's a pediatrician. She's an expert in childhood care. Those are the voices we need experts, not experts for any other reason than they put the time in, they're well-respected, they're vetted in their communities. And whether you're that or an oyster fisherman who like knows his people because he's up at dawn and works with the God given world around him or
Reese Brown (27:34.812)
Totally.
Reese Brown (27:42.18)
Yes.
Dave Neal (27:53.846)
someone like Zoran Mamdani, who's an immigrant, who sees all of the real issues that New Yorkers face with affordability. Like these are such common things that Trump spoke to, but didn't deliver on. He goes, I'll drain the swamp because I know him. He just replaced the parts. So talking about it's not hard. And for those that do have a problem with it, I have to give them permission to exit the conversation. And so many people
Reese Brown (28:10.501)
Yes.
Reese Brown (28:20.71)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (28:23.278)
My peers are afraid to talk about it because that exit is loud. They'll let you know They'll let you know that they're leaving and I just try to focus on those that have stayed and and mind you I haven't I haven't had a ripple of a loss in my audience. I just keep on growing So you have to be okay in With like I look at the Mormon the Mormon wives the show real
Reese Brown (28:30.427)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (28:49.986)
yeah, yeah, The-
Dave Neal (28:50.978)
They're all, they're all of these terrible mental health issues for a lot of different reasons. And, a lot of it is they all get hate. They all get hate and shame because their religion, they have like this high purity test and no one can live up to it. And you got Whitney, she's like seemingly like everyone hates her. And my, my like advice I would give her is that if, a million people are exposed to you and even if 900,000 of them hate you, maybe a hundred thousand love you. Like you have to,
I look at it like if you're mining for gold, you could have a whole beach of sand, but that's sand, there's gold in there. And if you can find that gold, that's yours. Just ignore the rest. So for me, couldn't be the best version of myself for a lot of the haters. I'll always be whatever version they want me to be. And I heard this saying, and I love it, that it's like, if you think I'm an asshole,
Reese Brown (29:32.955)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (29:49.454)
or if you think I'm a great guy, you probably got the version of me you deserved. Not always, sometimes you're having a bad day, but a lot of times someone wants to leave me a rude comment, man, I'm gonna give you the shittiest version of me. And again, I know an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, but sometimes I give people a taste of what they sound like and they go, oh, he's absolutely crazy. can't, and I was like, no, I literally just turned the mirror on you. And I know I'm not unreasonable because if I did that live in a standup show,
Reese Brown (29:54.511)
Mmm.
Sure.
Reese Brown (30:11.612)
Who's about to say it's mirror?
Dave Neal (30:18.018)
the rest of the room's cheering for me. Like, you know when you've flown too close to the sun and not all comedians are like, are good at this, but I think we battle test and sample our attitudes on a stage in front of our peers. And if you're unlikable and you don't bring the jokes and you don't do and you're mean to somebody for the wrong reason, you lose the room and you can never get them back. That set is over. And so anyway, so like, I don't have a problem with it. I try for my own sanity, I try not to engage with too many people, but once in a while,
Reese Brown (30:19.695)
Exactly.
Reese Brown (30:38.863)
Yep, they're gone.
Reese Brown (30:46.929)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (30:47.554)
someone might have a gripe and they seem reasonable and I'll give them response.
Reese Brown (30:51.406)
Yeah, you have to kind of measure which ones are like, okay, there's a real question and there's somewhere that I can maybe have an intellectual dialogue with. And then the other ones that are just like complete ad hominem, you suck. It's like, okay, well, we're not gaining any ground there. But I completely agree when you step into your authenticity, you're never gonna be everyone's cup of tea, but you magnetize yourself. Like the same way a magnet has the North and South poles,
You're gonna push away the people that do not vibe with what you're putting out, but they weren't meant to be there anyways. But you are going to attract the people who completely get your frequency, who are on that same page. And like you said, you didn't see a dip. It's just been continued growth because even though it may push away some people that weren't 100 % aligned with whatever you're doing,
It's bringing in the people that are, that want to hear what you have to say and that are excited about these conversations you're having. And I adored the interview with Dr. Annie. I had not heard of her and now I'm like, I want to go, following her and like all of that great stuff. I, Kid Care is like one of the most brilliant, beautiful ideas. And I actually wrote down a quote that you had, cause I think it's so powerful. You were talking about how the problem with Democrats,
Dave Neal (31:58.761)
Thank you.
Dave Neal (32:03.534)
I think she could be our president. I think she could be our president in 15 years.
Reese Brown (32:18.3)
has largely been trying to meet Republicans in the middle. And you said, we're starting to see how having strong, bold choices is better than being anti-Trump. And I found that so refreshing because yes, there is a laundry list of things we could talk about to be upset at Trump about, right? Like know you're covering the Epstein files and all of that that's going on right now is.
Dave Neal (32:41.548)
It's like being a food critic. Like you're complaining that the food sucks. Make me a dish. Give me something else to eat. The lasagna, like the lasagna is burnt. It's probably got E. coli, but I'm hungry. I need something and just give us anything that's edible. That's better than that. And instead they're like, how about burnt bolognese? And it's like, the answers are so simple. So yeah, so it's like, it's, they they've done this thing where they can rest on.
Reese Brown (32:46.768)
Yeah! Give me something to be excited about!
Reese Brown (32:58.607)
Yes.
Reese Brown (33:04.337)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (33:09.56)
being anti-Trump and it's like the reason he exists and will continue to exist in other iterations is not a good alternative.
Reese Brown (33:16.292)
Right. And like you said, people are hungry for revolution. People are hungry, period. Right. And that is the universal, like common denominator. That is the equalizer. Like when people feel unheard and unsafe, they're going to let you know. And being in the pockets of billionaires is not good for anybody.
Dave Neal (33:40.162)
Yes, you know, you know, it's funny is I get I got a lot of people that that think, AOC, she's got no chance. And I'm like, you don't understand how if presented in front of the whole Republican Party, she steals a lot of votes. Like, you don't understand that to speak as a populist, the left calls it progressives. And then like you have true progressives like Bernie, who really wants to have like aggressively tax the billionaires. And it is like
Reese Brown (33:55.504)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (34:04.38)
Mm-hmm.
Dave Neal (34:08.504)
tax the ultra, ultra wealthy to ways that they used to work. And then you've got the fake populace like Trump, who's like, we're going to drain the swamp and then they don't actually do it. And everything's like a carve out. And you know, it's like, it's not a, it's not a system that works longterm. The people that voted for him, like I have a lot of family that went Bernie to Trump and a lot of people don't understand how that works because on the, on the flat line, you can't see how someone could leap from a mid to far left position.
over to a mid to far right position. And it's because we're not looking at it right. It's three dimensional. And this large group of people, they want, you know, safety and the economy and affordability and all these things. And I've been there because I've been in situations where I've had a social safety net, whether it's through unemployment, growing up when my mom had to get on food stamps, during the pandemic, when we got paid to kind of sit on our ass for a few months while we figure things out. Like those, that pot,
Reese Brown (34:41.297)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (35:04.768)
needs to be there and be reliable. We need farmers that feel confident if they need to upgrade their barn that they'll be able to. living here in Tennessee, how many people started upgrading their barns and were building things because they had this infrastructure act and then it got taken away from them? There was literally like loans were taken away and people's and it's like, I'm not in this. A lot of people online want to say, this is what you voted for.
Reese Brown (35:07.654)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (35:33.826)
That doesn't get us, like if you look at our country as a big family, people will understand they were duped when you stop telling them and let them kind of get out of the quicksand. And it's like, someone's in the quicksand, you're like, you stepped in that, you deserve this. It's like, bubba, we all gotta get out of this so that we can be a part of a coalition that actually demands, you know, some aid for the middle class, the lower class.
Reese Brown (35:45.489)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (36:01.774)
Yeah, well, and it goes back to the basic humanity piece, which is, think, exactly what you're talking about in the framework that connects your work with The Bachelor and with politics, that it ultimately is about human beings and this human experience. And if you drill it down to the simplest one-on-one human interaction, no one likes to hear, I told you so. Don't, like, you back a dog into the corner.
and they're gonna bite you. know, it's like, think about these simple pro-social things that we understand. And there's this difficulty in expanding those out to this higher level. But I absolutely agree with you. That's like, let's take a pause and really assess what it is that people are yearning for in this. And I just love the push that you've had in your content to be about that.
underlying cause, that underlying humanity. And what do you think it is that tapped you into that? Because of course, I'm obsessed with these big questions. Like, what is that underlying root that unites us all?
Dave Neal (37:10.702)
I think I'm justice oriented. I have an uncle who's a priest. I have a family that's very religious. And I could call them tomorrow and be like, hey, 200 archbishops all just said what ICE is doing is wrong. They'd go, well, blah, blah, blah. When you see how strong the resistance, certain people just have their radios in their car tuned to a frequency.
And that that frequency of hate and fear takes a while to deprogram. It really does. And that's okay. You know, like that's okay. It's as much as we would like some some political leader to have a speech tomorrow that changes everybody's minds. That's not always going to happen. And the find out stage of FAFO right now is a time that's important. Like Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because it's a
Reese Brown (37:54.406)
Right?
Reese Brown (38:03.31)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (38:07.906)
We're just going to say what we're grateful for. And, you know, don't forget the meaning of that. Like what's, what's, what's with this gratitude? Like, where are we today? We're with our families, like, like the things that really matter. But I hope that a lot of people will have conversations and they'll see that uncle that's, you know, didn't harvest their soybeans this year. They'll see so-and-so, you know, the families that lived in fear for that one week, they didn't get snap benefits or, whatever the case may be. And, and I think I have faith that
Reese Brown (38:33.809)
Right?
Dave Neal (38:37.674)
With all of that deprogramming comes a country that sees this whole culture war around, you know, doge getting rid of USAID because we were sending peanut butter to some countries in Africa, you know, for emergency famines. We were getting so upset about that. We didn't get a dollar back when it was all cut. The person in charge of it just became a trillionaire. And I think people really will understand this. you know, it's a lot.
tie in like the Epstein files are about so many different things. But when it all comes together, you start to see the picture getting painted. That's like, at some point, the curtain does get exposed on the Wizard of Oz. And you see a exploitative billionaire from Queens, New York, who doesn't care what's happening to your kids in Alabama. And at that point, every single person whose mind is shifted, you never see the polling go back.
Reese Brown (39:10.652)
Totally.
Dave Neal (39:37.198)
Trump will never get the toothpaste back in the tube. But like I said, he's serving up some shitty sloppy Joe. Who is gonna serve something better? And a lot of that's happening. We're seeing it pop up in different ways. James Tallarico is the perfect Christian alternative to the fear because he's saying, this is what God actually said. This is why he believes in separation of church and state. He has walked that walk.
Reese Brown (39:50.533)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (39:56.517)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (40:05.686)
and he can speak to those people in that way. That's why Dr. Andy can speak about why the medicine is so important that we bring faith back into that. So all of these people are emerging and yet the Democratic Party, the leadership still didn't want Zoran Mamdani. So whether it's Democrat, Republican, old guard, right? Old guard is gonna do old guard things. Bernie Sanders would have been president
Reese Brown (40:07.963)
Yes.
Reese Brown (40:23.878)
Yup.
Reese Brown (40:29.944)
Yes.
Dave Neal (40:34.998)
If he might've had six more months, like he was surging when Hillary Clinton had already locked down all of her delegates and he was on top. And that was the answer. That radical, bold ideas that like, you know, like why does a banker who pushes numbers around in New York City, why is he worth $1,700 an hour when a farmer working with their hands and knees and bleeding, you know,
Reese Brown (40:47.578)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (41:03.98)
You know, why is that, you know, we're never as, you know, we're never worth as much or as little as these pay discrepancies are. But that doesn't mean like, well, everybody gets 30 an hour, that's it, no matter what you do. you could like, like if the minimum wage is raised to a livable place where you don't need 17 jobs, you inject that money back into the economy, you still work hard because everyone,
Reese Brown (41:15.249)
Yes.
Reese Brown (41:29.809)
Yeah!
Dave Neal (41:31.872)
I prayed and prayed and prayed for opportunity to have a job that paid me like enough money to continue doing standup. Like all I wanted for my YouTube, like my nut, my break even was so low about eight months into the pandemic. So I've been laid off for eight months, not eight or nine months. I saw a little blip on YouTube. I was making like three bucks a day.
Reese Brown (41:41.571)
Yes.
Dave Neal (41:59.854)
Maybe less, but when I released a video, I'd get three bucks the next day. It's a little blip. And then I covered a story and then it kind of like took off and then it kind of like plateaued. And then a day later, YouTube started recommending it again. And I was like, we've never done the second plateau. We've gotten through that first door, but not the second one. And then when it hits YouTube's like, hey boys, bring this one in. then the next thing you know, it's like, whoa. And I was in Malibu with my wife, my girlfriend at the time.
Reese Brown (42:13.349)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (42:18.863)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (42:28.966)
And I had plans to propose. think I ended up proposing several months later, actually. So it was all in the works. And I'm in Malibu. And I was like, yeah, know, Internet's really bad on the beach. I check my YouTube, you know, three, four or five bucks a day. And the previous day kicked in and I was like, I got a good bump this day. Let's see where it's at. Eighty one dollars. And I was like, I was like, where I was like, I can live off of that. Like we are getting and I spent it all on dumplings that night.
and then honey, we're getting dumplings. she's like, she's heavy handed with the way she orders foods. She's like, give it all to me. then, you know, she's got, she's got the inability to choose what she wants. So there's a lot of, well, she's the girl math, right? Well, that'll be good for later. So I'm like, all right, honey, chill out. And then, and then we're back at, what's it called? A smart and final. It's like a grocery store in LA. And we're waiting in line, you have to write the lines.
Reese Brown (43:01.307)
Love that.
Reese Brown (43:11.526)
try it all.
Dave Neal (43:27.118)
during the pandemic at least this place, you had a bouncer to get in and then the lines wrapped all the way around like the produce, like a big, so we're like a 15 minute line. And this is a couple of days later from that first initial blip and I check and it's $450 that day. And I go, honey, I mean, memories exist because of like the adrenaline rush that you get that like imprints it. I go, honey, we can, this is, whoa. And she's like,
Reese Brown (43:49.54)
Yeah, the feeling imprint.
Dave Neal (43:55.734)
And she's always been supportive, like, great, honey. She's supportive when it's three bucks a day. She's like, God damn. Like, what? And that happened for like two or three days at that $450 level. then, and then it, and this was like August of 2020. And then, and then it kind of like went away, like YouTube, something happened and the money kind of went away. But I was like, but it's there. The business model is there. And then come Christmas time,
Reese Brown (44:02.425)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (44:20.368)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (44:24.972)
some stories broke out that were a little bit different than things I normally cover. Cause at the time I was covering, here's what happened on The Bachelor. Now I'm starting to cover, here's what happened off the show, like the parasocial relationships. And it was Claire Crowley, Crowley and Dale Moss breaking up. And I was like, honey, I think I gotta make a video right now. And I didn't normally do that. I need to make one video week. so I made this video and this is like the time between Christmas and New Year's.
Reese Brown (44:38.011)
Mm-hmm.
Dave Neal (44:51.746)
And that takes off. I was like, and again, it sounds so dumb, but I was like, well, if that did well, what if I just made another one? I was like, what's the law of diminishing returns? And I just started making, and then come January 1st, I was like, let's do this every day. And my January was like $6,600. My February, 20,000. My March, 25,000. It petered off a little bit after that. But it was like, and my biggest concern,
Reese Brown (44:58.267)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (45:17.35)
sure, there's the peaks and valleys.
Dave Neal (45:21.326)
Not because I was trying to dupe the system, but my biggest concern was, I, but now I won't be able to get unemployment because I was so, I was so broke and jobless in the pandemic that I was so focused on making sure that that unemployment check came through, not realizing that on the 21st of every month, starting that day, all the way till now, five years later on the 21st of every month, Google sends me a direct deposit for a lot of money. So that was the moment where I did.
Reese Brown (45:36.995)
Right?
Reese Brown (45:47.825)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (45:50.552)
shift my and go, fuck the unemployment. Like we're done with that. We're done. And I never, and that was the last time I ever needed it. and now, now my wife, you know, who was the breadwinner, she was the one who was making more. Now she's at home raising a family and it's like the family business. And, and it's all because I, I was, I attacked when I saw like it's starting to work.
Reese Brown (45:54.672)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (46:15.076)
Yeah, yeah, exactly like you said earlier, like, the spark is now a flame, pour all the gasoline on it that we can, like, find what works and replicate it.
Dave Neal (46:25.582)
Every tool that I had bring it in. In the written and I had bought this cord. I still have it. It's attached to something here. It was $104. It was the cord that connected my nice camera to my computer. This cord made it so that I didn't have to have a memory card that I shot something and then put it on the computer so I could see what I was doing, hit play and and I sit in.
that my wife, my, you God bless her, she's like, do you need a hundred and it's a core, but it was a special cord. was, and there was no cheaper version of it at the time. I was like, I think I got to get it. And, and, and then, and then that became, well, I got to get the $800 mixer. And I started investing in things because I could. And this is, this is kind of like why when I talk about, you know, you know, having the, having an infrastructure that helps people.
Reese Brown (46:54.072)
Right, right.
Dave Neal (47:13.358)
new businesses, tax write offs when you're starting, oh, I can write this off. I got to get that in this. And it just, all the tools were there to help me now that I knew how to use the tools. Like, it's like, the whole band was there at all the instruments. I just didn't know, oh, now that does that. And then next thing you know, I got 17 monitors and lights and neon and it all in one, like I just bought this teleprompter. It's this big, it's this, you know, it's a couple hundred bucks, but now I'm getting these ad reads.
Reese Brown (47:25.617)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (47:30.917)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (47:43.266)
And I really felt like by reading the ads off to the side and not directly to camera, it was just like not giving that connection that I normally have. And that immediately pays off because I'm now really being more authentic, you know? it's just, when you do all the right things, even though you don't even know what the recipe is, the dish you're making is gonna, it's gonna work out. We just don't know what all the ingredients are because we're all unique.
Reese Brown (47:48.759)
Mmm. Yeah.
Reese Brown (47:57.274)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (48:08.132)
It's compounding.
Yeah, yeah. Well, and I want to go back to what you said about really praying for this. And like, this is what you're working towards. And as soon as you see it, it's like, yeah, jump on it. But you also mentioned having a lot of religious people in your family, that that's their livelihoods. And at the beginning, you said that you believe your son chose you and your wife. I want to hear more about the spiritual aspect of all of this too.
dreaming and wishing, also believing in this grander plan perhaps. How would you describe what's really going on here? And how do you think that fed into this journey that you're on now?
Dave Neal (48:56.526)
I believe that we are meant to challenge ourselves. Like I believe our souls come to this human existence to overcome. And I believe when we avoid the thing we're meant to overcome, we keep getting shown that same level and it's shown in different ways. It's groundhog's day. And that level can last a week or 10 years or your lifetime. And that's what like for me, spiritual evolution, it's
overcoming that level, learning how to respond to adversity, then learning where the adversity is, like sidestepping it completely and then like different ways to leapfrog over it. And what might have been the biggest hang up in my life 10 years ago is done by sunrise. And then you get presented with the new. And this is why when people like really make it, they always go like, you know, money's not everything. And it's like when you're broke, you're like, yeah, shut the hell up.
Reese Brown (49:53.36)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (49:53.618)
And there's truth to both sides where money provides you time and opportunity, but so many people that hit the lottery and I argue with my wife over this. She's like, she's like, I'm perfectly fine. If we win 700 million, I'm like, let me tell you something. If I win $700 million, I'm waking up with 700 million in my bank account and I'm wondering what the hell I need to do to make my life happen. Like I don't, that's not like there's, there's a, there's a curse.
Reese Brown (49:58.342)
Exactly.
Dave Neal (50:20.834)
that people receive when they're provided everything, whether by their parents or whatever, there's a curse. And I think the world needs to be hard enough that you get the value when you overcome something, but not so hard that you don't even get off your starting blocks. And so for me, spiritually, I think my mom was really spiritual. She used to say stuff like, you know, before a baseball game, she'd be like, you need to visualize getting a hit. And I'm like, mom, shut, what are you talking? I need to...
Reese Brown (50:33.948)
Mmm.
Yeah.
Dave Neal (50:50.21)
take batting practice. And it's like, you need to do batting practice and you need to visualize. need muscle memory so your brain can properly execute the commands that the soul wants it to do. And there's a book, it's not, I'm trying to remember what it's called, it's about healthy habits. And it's book about, your muscle memory is you harden the neuro pathways so you make these super tunnels
Reese Brown (50:51.654)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (51:19.938)
that are direct connections between what you need to do. And that's why when you see a pro baseball player take a curve ball to the opposite field and they have a split second to change the whole physics of their swing in order to succeed, it's because they have been in this situation time and again. Tom Brady was a student of nonstop studying his opponents. He knew the defense better than they knew it. He knew where they were gonna go based on the color of their knuckles because when they had their knuckles down,
Reese Brown (51:23.184)
Mm-hmm.
Dave Neal (51:47.768)
hard, meant they were going to attack versus when they were soft, it meant they were going to pull back into a different coverage. Like these are the things that no one else would know if they weren't as hadn't spent years learning that. And as a comedian, you learn about the energy of the room in a lot of cases before you get on stage. And it's still hard because it's still so many variables. Right. So for me, I try I try to tap into the spirituality and I try to avoid the religion.
Reese Brown (51:59.858)
Right.
Reese Brown (52:04.857)
yeah.
Dave Neal (52:16.642)
because religion has failed me in so many people in so many ways. And I'm not an anti-religion guy. I had it easy. I had New England Catholicism, show up or don't, they don't care. I didn't have Southern purity culture. I didn't have evangelical like, we got to wear t-shirts in the pool. I didn't have any of that. We had it so, I really, and maybe women had it differently, like dude growing up insulated, not a big deal.
Reese Brown (52:16.785)
Mm-hmm.
Dave Neal (52:45.75)
My father, my stepdad, very conservative, very Catholic, and I think he's a product of what worked for that generation. And I think now it's like, go to church, do whatever the hell you want to do. But if a church is preaching something that like completely contradicts what Jesus' message was, which is to help the poor, you know, in all of the other ways that we help humanity out, I have no problem calling that out.
Reese Brown (53:13.872)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (53:13.95)
And I'm glad to see real Christians do that. And people like Zoran Mamdani, like he's not a Christian. And yet he does more Jesus Christ-like things and has pledged to do more Jesus Christ-like things than so many people that put the cross on and say, you know what, I'm pro-life, so I'll take the rest of the week off. And then me, I'm just going, well, that's bullshit. You all sold me on this moral direction.
Reese Brown (53:17.307)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (53:35.355)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (53:43.99)
And now I feel like, I'm like, hey, I thought we were protecting the first amendment. thought we were all about taxing the rich and doing this. now all of a sudden, because you're on the winning side, you're like, no, whatever. So it's calling out people that aren't living up to whatever they claim to be, I guess.
Reese Brown (53:58.011)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (54:04.74)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and as a Texan, you you mentioned James Tallarico earlier and it's, I don't consider myself a Christian, but it was certainly raised. That's the water we swim in, one in the United States, but especially in Southern Baptist Texas. And it is so refreshing to see people that are like reading the red text in the Bible and saying, okay, what did Jesus actually say? What are the things that were actually
going to implement here. And it makes me have this change in how I hold myself that it's like, sure, I don't consider myself religious anymore, but I'm proud that there are people that are fighting for the good that can be found in these sacred texts and in these sacred moments.
Dave Neal (54:50.958)
You know you find a lot of in Christianity is you find a lot of, know, well-meaning people, but that shirt is tucked in so tight, those dress boots are laced up, and it's like, and then on the other end, it's kind of like on the Titanic, right? Yeah, the socioeconomic level. Like, what do you want to do? You want to dress up like all of the stuffy people? You want to go dance with the Irish? And Kate Winslet wanted to go dance with the Irish. She was shackled by this like identity of who you make.
Reese Brown (55:07.558)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (55:14.811)
Yeah.
letting her inner child play by dancing with the Irish.
Dave Neal (55:20.886)
Yeah. And that's what it all is. Right. So I get into acting. I, I get into standup. I'm, know, I'm at a gay bar or just a normal bar that, you know, people express their sexuality and you see so much of, you know, you know, gay is supposed to be happy. Right. It is, it is like the court jester or Shakespeare. It's, it's, it's play. And, and for whatever reason, a lot of the gay community can play in a lot of
Reese Brown (55:30.779)
Yeah, yeah.
Reese Brown (55:43.27)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (55:50.434)
And again, I know I'm generalizing, so people go, no, that's not true. There's plenty of like, you know, straight churches where you're sure. Okay. But I'm coming from like the stiff Catholic church where like the incense comes and you bend your knee and like, well, we'll peace be with to you. And it's like, okay, fine. Yeah, sure. Great. But like dance, play, laugh, be merry. And, and the gay and the gay community like was a welcoming home to that. so like, it was so great when I moved to New York city and I'm like living in a Dominican neighborhood.
Reese Brown (56:01.413)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You
Reese Brown (56:09.105)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (56:20.902)
And the energy there was like Friday nights, roof, the trunk of the cars popped open, music's blasting, people are laughing. It was so vibrant. then you go and then you take the one train down and you're right there in Chelsea. it's like, I grew up in a very quiet suburban world and I just craved that music because it does allow you to kind of dip into it and not feel like the security cameras are on you.
Reese Brown (56:31.376)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (56:50.746)
Right, yeah, absolutely. And I'm like, that's the joy of human experience, right? It's experiencing all of the dimensions of what it means to be here in this life. And that's what needs to be protected by all of these other things that we're talking about in a more governance sphere. And I completely agree. There is a certain level of like acceptance because of the freedom that...
certain minority groups have had to curate and generate for themselves in community. And it's so beautiful. I also want to ask, when did you first kind of land on the language of letting your inner child play? Because I know that like inner child work and shadow work has recently become more popular in like self-development, self-help, and spiritually spheres. But when was that click for you?
Dave Neal (57:43.362)
You know, that's a good question. I don't know. But I do know, I do know when I was in college, there was like, the secret was popular. And I I and I felt like it I needed. I need I needed evidence of the law of attraction. I needed a little bit more science involved. And I think I got that from Wayne Dyer, his power of intention. He explained that like we are all kind of like a light tower where we give off or like a radio tower. We give off this
Reese Brown (57:52.049)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (57:58.406)
Totally.
Dave Neal (58:12.042)
energy and we'll get whatever back we give out and and that for me I've just been aware and it maybe it was brought more to light by being on stage that I'll look back on and I'll just I'll kind of feel unlikable if I don't walk on stage with a smile and I just have to remind myself maybe my like base neutral it doesn't feel welcoming and present to the world this positivity and then they lighten up and
That's like you're a single guy. walk into a bar, smile, come on, like have fun, laugh. What are you laughing about? Doesn't matter. Just say, ha, it's great, we're having fun. Like be, like there are ways to sort of fabricate it, fake it till you make it so that you can kind of get going. You know, my audience, I have my private community and I'll be like having a bad day. And then when I hit record, I try to just like bring some better energy because I do not need to pull anybody down, you know?
Reese Brown (59:07.846)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (59:09.46)
And that and it doesn't mean it's toxic positivity. We all have rough days, but like there is it's not like there's a limited amount of like abundance in our soul. You can just choose to see situations in a better light. And in every day is a challenge because we can be the worst version of ourselves or the best. And in really taking a moment to like harvest that and warm up that that internal temperature.
Reese Brown (59:13.084)
sure.
Dave Neal (59:39.38)
really can can help expand that. So inner child, I think I probably heard that term and I was probably like, yeah, like, that's a good way to physically think of, I can see my childhood photo. And there, trust me, there are so many moments with having my own son, that I think of how much trauma I had not having a dad. Just natural stuff like, you know, my my, you know,
Reese Brown (01:00:01.757)
Mmm.
Reese Brown (01:00:06.236)
Sure.
Dave Neal (01:00:07.882)
I would I can like carry him into the shower and and then I can like hold him and like wash him and and there was one time when he like fell asleep he was so tired he like fell asleep in the shower was like honey look at this and I and then I think like my gosh like it might sound crazy but like my I never I never had a dad so I didn't even know what what my body would look like when I got older versus having a son now who gets to have all of the abundance and there's a comedian I like Robert Kelly he he had like
couple of steps and my stepdad's great, but I was like, you know, I was developed my inner child was kind of already a lonely kid by that point. And Robert Kelly, you know, his therapist, you know, would say, Hey, look, here's the deal. You don't get to have a father, you get to be a father. And I can apply the lessons I've learned from my stepdad and other men in my life. And I can try to apply that to my son to be to be something he can look up to. And also all of the other things that come with it. I think my
Reese Brown (01:00:50.492)
Hmm.
Dave Neal (01:01:05.144)
parents generation did the best they could. always say everyone tries the best with the information they have. They had like a pamphlet and we have the internet. So I'll scroll dad talk and in one minute I'll get better advice than they ever got in their entire lives. And you see like the best advice is always like encouragement and letting them know you see them for their effort. And you know, there's a reason why you're not like trying to, you know,
Reese Brown (01:01:10.172)
Absolutely.
Reese Brown (01:01:20.272)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (01:01:27.633)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (01:01:33.676)
judge a seven year old by whether they scored the goal or not, because you're not going to score the goals all the time in life. Like my adult life has been a majority failure and yet I'm doing okay now. so all of those lessons, and again, you know, we're still, he's still a baby, but like all of those lessons, I look forward to the moments where I can try to apply them in ways that teaches that, teaches those values to him, which is going to be tough because like,
Reese Brown (01:01:36.934)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (01:01:45.189)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (01:02:01.916)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (01:02:03.906)
I'm gonna want to shower him with money and opportunity. And I'm just gonna have to, know, that's the codependent. Like all we wanna do is be like, you need that, here you go. And then, and it's like, okay, that, you know, you gotta teach them the skills, not just provide them the outcome.
Reese Brown (01:02:22.414)
Right, absolutely. I just, in that encapsulation of this, I'm just also so much hearing the way that this gift of being a father is not just being a father to your little one, but it's also practicing what it would have been like to be a father to yourself, right? There's this really beautiful healing that it sounds like happens there.
Dave Neal (01:02:45.23)
Let me tell you something. You don't even know your wounds until sometimes they emerge and it's almost like Expelling like a sickness. You're just like and I'm not talking like I don't know if I've had an experience where I've like had like a shudder cry, but I do remember My mother Sundance on my wedding. My mom had that just Just lost it
Reese Brown (01:03:07.516)
Mmm.
Reese Brown (01:03:12.827)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (01:03:13.356)
And she's always, this was so funny, it's always embarrassing, but you know, every Thanksgiving, she's the one who's gonna cry. And she's always been good at sharing her gratitude for everything. But when I was young, she left my father when she was pregnant with me. So she has tremendous guilt for a lot of those life choices. James Tallarico was just on a podcast talking about how his mom left his abusive father when he was just a baby. And that I see,
Reese Brown (01:03:32.38)
sure.
Dave Neal (01:03:43.318)
I see our parents that are there and those that weren't, see that they all tried their best. I have like nothing but love for my biological father who passed away. He was a Vietnam vet. He was rejected by society. He was sick from Agent Orange, which messes up your brain. He had all of these issues at an age where I was playing baseball with my friends. So like, I have so much empathy for that. And
Reese Brown (01:04:01.522)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (01:04:06.374)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (01:04:10.414)
part of, know, when you talk about like, why talk politics? It's like, because there's nobody in office who would put their kid into a situation that they're letting happen, whether it be the war they're trying to start in Venezuela or bombing someone and you know, so it's about like, it's about knowing what's right and wrong. And with my son exposing myself to how lonely my inner child was,
every feeling I have now, even when I'm in tears, it's gratitude. It's like I already had everything I wanted in life and it's still an expanding, unwrapped layer of new moments of gratitude. What my son, he's about to wake up from his nap and I'm gonna open that door and it makes this little creaky noise. I could fix that creaky noise, but when that creaky noise, he...
Reese Brown (01:04:45.318)
Yeah.
Reese Brown (01:04:56.859)
Yeah.
Dave Neal (01:05:07.052)
Dad, he turns around, he patters over to me. Like we had these old child locks. He broke them from shaking the door down. Like that's a kid who wants to hang out with me.
Like that's, that's, can't, there's no $236 million painting that could buy that.
Reese Brown (01:05:24.89)
Yeah, yeah, wow. Thank you for sharing that. That really is just, again, it taps back into that underlying humanity. And it's like, isn't that feeling, whatever that looks like for anyone, what we're all wanting and being able to cultivate that is just so special. I do wanna be respectful of your time. So we'll go into my ending two questions.
Firstly, for everyone that's listening and watching, please go support Dave and the Rush Hour Podcast. Links to check out his work, the podcast, his standup, all of the important stuff, social media channels will be in the description box down below wherever you may be listening or watching. So please, please go support Dave. Is there anything else that you would like to specifically promote? And in light of our conversation, is there anything we missed that we didn't talk about that you're like, you know, I really want to throw this out there too?
Dave Neal (01:06:18.392)
Well, I'll just say this, like, it's always easy to hear a story from someone when they found their light. But I just, I just got to remind people it's like it's fresh. It's fresh in the rear view mirror. You like, you keep digging, keep pulling like in whatever direction feels good in your heart. Like just keep saying yes to opportunities and asking questions and going to places where the experts are that do the thing that you have any curiosity about. I mean, like I do this.
Reese Brown (01:06:29.585)
Hmm.
Dave Neal (01:06:47.118)
I don't even promote it, but I do this private YouTube membership where I just audit people's YouTube channels and respond to questions. It's totally not worth my time. I always feel good after because I'm like, man, we got a vegan chef. We got a lady who's doing sing-alongs, like Miss Rachel. We got people that want to do all these different things. I'm like, how cool is it that we all live in a world where we can pick up our phone and connect in that type of way? That's the beauty of the internet is it'll be
it'll be your biggest enemy or it'll lead you to the biggest success. And I think when you tune the frequency and like really harden like your boundaries, you'll go, you'll go in the right direction. You just have to like, you know, everything else is sort of disappear. That's why like, you know, now it's like, yeah, I don't get the alerts when like, if I think I said something that will get unnecessary hate, I don't need to hear from people because like I've thought about it and I've made, and I've
And it doesn't mean I'm in an echo chamber. just means even when you try not to be, like even when you try not to hear anything, you're still gonna, shit's still gonna get through. like, I see a lot of people dealing with so much pain and it's all because they can't put that phone down. the key is find out how to use it as a tool and find out how to regulate that so that it doesn't take away the dopamine and the happiness.
Reese Brown (01:08:12.538)
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's such a beautiful note to end on, but I do have one final question to hopefully put a bow or a button on this beautifully expansive conversation. What is one word to describe how you are feeling right now?
Dave Neal (01:08:30.968)
man, that's not fair. Well, let me work my way to the word I feel I feel I feel I feel happy content gratitude. I feel all those things I feel I also feel like a burning desire. And to to achieve more with with like a I feel like my window of opportunity is is there and I'm just finding new ways to attack it so that that the second half of my life
Reese Brown (01:08:33.084)
You
Reese Brown (01:08:38.949)
Absolutely, please.
Dave Neal (01:09:00.76)
can be like in a teacher dad role. I don't know how to, in one word, that's, I mean, happy, super simple, just I'm happy.
Reese Brown (01:09:11.088)
Yeah, I love it. Dave, thank you so much again for being here, for sharing your story with us. It really has been such a privilege.
Dave Neal (01:09:18.872)
Yeah, I appreciated talking to you today.
Reese Brown (01:09:21.073)
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much.