Category

Comedian

Steve Treviño

By Comedian, Personal Growth No Comments

This episode sponsored by:

From driving headliners around to being successful in his own right, comedian and “America’s Favorite Husband” Steve Treviño joins Gary to discuss his journey. While his financial status has changed, Steve shares how working-class values and feedback from his wife have kept him grounded over the years.

In This Episode:

  • The Two Kinds of Comedians 
  • Depression Among Comedians 
  • Steve’s Blue Collar Approach to Stand-Up
  • The Importance of Knowing Your Brand and Worth in the Entertainment Industry. 
  • Steve Shares Why He Values His Wife’s Perspective 

Quotations:

  • “My dad would always say, have pride. You need to have pride. I’ve just taken that to stand up, you know?” ~Steve Treviño 
  • “The question is not what you’re gonna do for me. It’s what can we do for the fan?” ~Steve Treviño
  • “These beautiful women pulled us out of the dumpster and dusted us off and made us good men. That’s the brand.” ~Steve Treviño
  • “How can you sit back and watch your wife do everything, and you go, ‘yeah, I’m just gonna catch this game? That’s what I’m gonna do.’” ~Steve Treviño
  • “It doesn’t matter if somebody killed a deer and the other one killed a bird. We’re all eating. Let’s go!~Steve Treviño 

Watch the video version:

Bio:

Comedian Steve Treviño is “America’s Favorite Husband.” He can “speak wife fluently,” he never calls “the guys” for help on a home project, and he knows better than to “make his own decisions” since decision-making is a privilege reserved solely for his wife, Renae.

His relatable approach affirms his status as one of the country’s fastest-rising comics, viewed over 223 million times, selling out shows coast-to-coast, amassing over 2 million total social media followers, and headlining specials for Amazon, NETFLIX, Showtime, and more. 

He started cutting his teeth in Dallas, Texas, working as a door guy at the Improv and earning himself a spot to open the iconic 2001 Three Amigos Comedy Tour. He quickly earned his stripes and an audience on the comedy club circuit, and he began headlining on his own by the age of 25. He delivered side-splitting performances on The Late Late Show and Comics Unleashed and produced and wrote for international GRAMMY® Award-winning superstar Pitbull’s La Esquina. 

His first Showtime special, Grandpa Joe’s Son, staked out a spot in the Nielsen Top 20. He funded, produced, and shot his 2014 runaway NETFLIX hit Relatable. To promote the special, he uploaded a clip titled “When Your Wife Comes Home From Shopping.” It exploded, generating 56 million views on Facebook alone and paving the way for heavily shared clips such as “When You Ask Your Wife If She Wants McDonald’s” (21 million views) and “When Going to Vegas With Your Wife Goes Wrong” (4 million views). Co-produced by Nacelle, the follow-up special, Steve Trevino ’Til Death, arrived in 2018. Steve maintained his momentum by broadening his social media presence through fans redoing bits of his comedy specials and posting them to TikTok. In less than two years, that grassroots effort helped him build a worldwide fanbase on the platform from the ground up, amassing 4.8 million likes and over 50 million views on the platform while also changing up his entire social media game. 

In 2020, he and his wife, Renae, unveiled a joint weekly podcast entitled “Steve Treviño and Captain Evil,” which has generated over 1.5 million views/streams and is now in Season 3. He also filmed his fourth self-produced comedy special, My Life in Quarantine, which was picked up by Amazon Prime. The once-in-a-lifetime pandemic special was shot in front of a masked, socially distant crowd focused on the ups and downs of getting through quarantine.

He regularly raises money for Helicopters for Heroes, an organization benefiting veterans, for whom he helped raise over $1.5 million in the past two years.

Steve’s self-produced fifth special filmed in Waco, Texas, entitled I Speak Wife, independently released on Friday, October 21, for free exclusively to his global audience on YouTube.

Dylan White

By Author, Comedian, Fun, Movies, Sci-Fi No Comments

You know how big of an audiobook fan I am, and I know many of y’all are, too. So, I had to bring Dylan White on my podcast! He’s an author, actor, comedian, and even played the Genie in Disney’s Aladdin musical! Plus, I’m sure you’ve heard his voice on national commercials.

We talked about a variety of things, including Will Smith and aliens. This conversation was so interesting, it flew by! If you’re a fan of Sci-Fi, be sure to listen!

Also in this episode:

  • Being an odd kid
  • Knowing your audience
  • How he came up with the idea for his first book The Orion Abduction.
  • The art of narration (where he would project his voice from to change the sound for each character)
  • Why he didn’t watch the version of Aladdin with Will Smith in it
  • Aliens
  • His writing process
  • Having a teenage girl’s insight
  • The biggest secret skill a man can use when arguing with a woman
  • The technicality of comedy
  • Offending people during comedy shows
  • Looking at the universe from our limited perspective

Quotations:

“I wasn’t like a normal kid.” ~Dylan White

“You gotta know your audience.” ~Dylan White

“The technicality of comedy; you wanna get more laughs per minute or per set as you can. And if it takes you too long to get to your next punch or your next laugh line, you’ll lose an audience.” ~Dylan White

“I didn’t see it [Will Smith’s Aladdin].” ~Dylan White

“I’ve always been fascinated with aliens and UFOs and abductions.” ~Dylan White

“What if we’re the weird ones [instead of aliens]” ~Dylan White

Bio:

After over 10 years of playing the Genie in Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular at Disney California Adventure, Dylan is “out of the blue”—but only in terms of the costume and makeup. Dylan has been on the standup scene for quite some time and uses his snarky Gen-X sensibility to share his unique perspective on divorce, dating after fifty, depression, and everything in between. He is also a successful author and voiceover artist so be sure to follow him on his social media. But not on the street. That’s creepy.

Guest’s Contact Info:

https://www.dylanwhite.com/

Instagram username
@itsdylanwhite

Amazon page

“Irish Dave”

By Author, Comedian, Fun, Travel No Comments

Comedian “Irish Dave” joins Gary Scott Thomas this week to share hilarious stories about being an Irish comedian in America like how he accidentally put some tourists on top of a Tiger Shark.

Also in this episode:

  • Why he thinks it’s weird that Americans introduce themselves with what they do
  • How Ireland differs from America
  • How America still uses a term that’s technically a racial slur
  • Going for the laugh no matter what
  • How he got into comedy
  • His thoughts on English people
  • His strong stance on peanut butter and America’s obsession with it
  • Why there are no Irish restaurants 
  • How he and his buddies tricked their neighbor into calling the police on himself
  • Waking up wrapped up in an Italian flag
  • Working on a whale-watching boat

Quotations:

“The whole country [Ireland] is just magically funny.” ~Dave Nihill

“If I can make fun of someone I will.” ~Dave Nihill

“I only ever got into up comedy because I was trying to get over a fear of public speaking.” ~Dave Nihill

“You can get away with not knowing about whales, but when you’re trolling people in the water with sharks of any variety, you should probably should know about them.” ~Dave Nihill

“We get very busy in March when everybody cares about Irish people for one month. And then after the year, it’s not quite as hectic.” ~Dave Nihill

Bio:

David is the author of the best-selling book Do You Talk Funny? and the Founder of FunnyBizz Conference. His work has been featured in Inc., Lifehacker, The Huffington Post, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Forbes, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The Irish Independent, TV3, Newstalk, TED, and The Irish Times.

“One of the best speaking coaches out there” according to Forbes.com, David’s program with over 34,000 students has been featured by Prezi as one of the best training courses for presenters. His book remains one of the highest-rated in the world on the (usually not so wildly exciting) topic of public speaking and his content has been read by over one million people.

A sought-after international business speaker, David also performs standup comedy and was the winner of the prestigious 43rd annual San Francisco International Comedy Competition. As a storyteller, he finished runner up in NPR’s the Moth’s largest US storytelling competition. As a lecturer, he has taught at Stanford Graduate Business School, UC Berkeley, University of Oxford, and University College Dublin. (Told you this was random). 

A graduate of the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School he calls San Francisco home when immigration officials permit. David was named on the Irish America 100 List, which recognizes the accomplishments of the best and the brightest Irish-American and Irish-born leaders, and the Top 30 Global Guru’s List for communications professionals.

A big fan of travel and languages David has lived and worked in 12 countries and visited 74 and counting.

Guest’s Contact Info:

https://davidnihill.com/

Instagram username
@davidnihill

Thompson Square

By Comedian, Fun, Music, Personal Growth, Philosophy, Politics No Comments

Shawna and Keifer Thompson of country duo Thompson Square join Gary Scott Thomas this week and let me tell you. This is a juicy conversation!

In this episode:

  • Why they moved so far out of Nashville
  • Their song “Are You Going to Kiss Me or Not?”
  • Their new song “Country in My Soul”
  • The peaks and valleys of being an artist
  • The odds of “making it”
  • Losing family & friends along their journey to the top
  • Their new team
  • Parenting in the music industry
  • Parents’ responsibilities to teach equality
  • Racism in America
  • How to judge someone
  • Defining what success looks like to them
  • Why they’ll never play 270 shows in a year again
  • The root of Country Music
  • The problem with appealing to the masses
  • The evolution of award shows
  • Why a show got canceled
  • Championing people who show value
  • Comedy and Country
  • Being divided as a country

I told you it was a juicy one! Dive in!

Quotations:

“I don’t feel famous.” ~Shawna Thompson

“We don’t feel like we exude the ‘famosity.'” ~Keifer Thompson

“You always feel like you’re clawing and scratching.” ~Keifer Thompson

“The crazy ride continues.” ~Shawna Thompson

“In the eyes of God, we’re all equal.” ~Keifer Thompson

“Anytime you force something, it’s not real.” ~Keifer Thompson

“People seem to be more open now.” ~Keifer Thompson

“There are some great artists you’re never going to hear, just because that’s the nature of the industry.” ~Keifer Thompson

“We have to continue to check ourselves and say, ‘I’m not better than anyone.'” ~Keifer Thompson

“I hate social media for all the hate it spreads.” ~Keifer Thompson

“He’ll pull a Will Smith real quick.” ~Shawna Thompson

Bio:

Thompson Square is an American country music duo composed of husband and wife Keifer and Shawna Thompson, both of whom alternate as vocalists. They’ve won awards such as the Academy of Country Music Award for Duo of the Year and the Country Music Association Award for Vocal Duo of the Year. Their new single is “Country in My Soul.”

Guest’s Contact Info:

https://thompsonsquare.com/