Lex Fridman Podcast #382 - #382 – Bert Kreischer: Comedy, Drinking, Rogan, Segura, Churchill & Kim Jong Un Machine transcription by Qwen3-ASR 0.6B (MLX, local, Apache-2.0). May contain recognition errors. The following is a conversation with Bert Kreischer, a stand-up comedian, podcaster, actor, and a man they call the Machine. I've been a fan of his comedy and podcast for many years, and I highly recommend you watch him on Birdcast, Two Bears One Cave with Tom Segura, his cooking show called Something's Burning, and finally the new movie that tells the story of the man, the legend, the Machine. And now a quick use second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast. We got Eight Sleep for naps, NetSuite for business management software, and ExpressVPN for privacy and security on the internet. Choose wisely, my friends. Also, if you want to work with our amazing team, we're always hiring. Go to lexstreaming dot com slash hiring. And now onto the full ad reads. As always, none of these ads in the middle. I try to make them interesting, but if you must skip them, friends, please still check out our sponsors. I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will too. This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep and it's Pod Three mattress. As Bert and I talk about in this episode, naps are the portal to happiness and joy in this life. He talks about naps on the tour bus. And I have to say I've taken quite a lot of naps on buses, Greyhound buses, public transportation. I've taken so many buses in my life. So much of my life I spent being completely broke, and public transportation was not just the only means of transportation I could afford, but really. I found joy in it, the simplicity of it, the waiting in the cold and in the heat, the camaraderie that you all in it together. There's a way of being with strangers on a subway or on a bus. That all the diversity of humans are all right there, you get to kind of people watch, like subtly, like this is what's possible in this world and it's beautiful. Anyway, as he talks about taking a nap on a cold tour bus and me taking a nap on a hot Greyhound going from Boston to New York something like that, it's heaven. But what's truly special is a nap on a cold mattress at home, which is what I do with Eight Sleep. Check them out and get special savings when you go to eightsleep dot com slash lex. This show is also brought to you by NetSuite and all in one cloud business management system. They manage everything, all the mess, all the complexities of running a business, the financials, the human resources, the inventory if you do that kind of thing, e commerce if you're an internet business and all the many messy business related details. Running a business is tough. 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Everything's super fast, works on every operating system. Yes, including Linux, all the different flavors of Linux. As I talked about with I think Jimmy Wales on a podcast about Wikipedia, we talked about that there is every single Linux distribution has. A Wikipedia page, maybe I'm misremembering that, but the point is, they're all beautiful in their own little way, and on all of them, ExpressVPN works. It's wonderful and it works fast, simple thing done right. Go to expressvpn dot com slash lex pod for an extra three months free. This is the lex Friedman podcast to support it. Please check out our sponsors in the description. And now, dear friends, here's Bert Kreischer. I read somewhere that you like Ernest Hemingway. Love him. There's a quote: "There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." Do you agree with that? I agree. I agree. Well, I agree with that with journaling because I can't write. I can't write stand up like I can't write a bit, but if I journal, I find something that I go just write. Kind of writing where your the pen's moving faster than your brain and they're kind of like doing it together. The thing I liked about Ernest Hemingway, this is so stupid. I'm a little dyslexic, so I'm not a good reader, and so he wrote very simply. And it wasn't until after I read a bunch of Ernest Hemingway, I was working at Barnes and Noble, and this person said, "Don't you love his titles?" And I was like, "Yeah, sun also rises." And they're like, "Yeah, but." No, the sun also rises, and I was like, "Yeah, sun also rises," and they're like, "No, the no, the sun also rises," and I went, "Oh, oh, yeah, that is fucking badass. Yeah, and then I'm like always late to the party with anything." And then that night we were all doing coke, and it was like five in the morning and we ended up on the roof of my apartment in Greenwich Village. And the like I'm a sunset guy. I grew up in Florida, but sunrises in New York are electric blue, like electric blue. And I was like, the sun also rises. Yeah, he was so good with just a handful of words, the simplicity, the choice of words like basically his process is carving down. Right drunk edit sober. Right drunk edit sober. Yeah, but he was good at like at like a small amount of words to to get a point across. I'm the exact fucking opposite. Well, he's also said the first draft of anything is always shit. Is that is that true? For you, think so. The best one I have because downhill from there. So for you editing is destroying the original. The first time I tell it, the first time I tell it, it's perfect. It's perfect. It just it works, and then I go great and then I take it and I try to fix it and make it better and jazzy. I just joke and razzle dazzle about my daughters and I drive past a deaf child sign. And I just told it on stage. It just happened and Louis was in the audience. He goes, "I love that joke." I said, "Really?" He was, "Yeah," and I just told it. I went, "Done." Louis C K says he likes a joke. It's fucking it's in the special. And I tried to fucking razzle dazzle that joke into like a fifteen minute bit. It got to the point where it was so not it was so bad that I I told him I did a podcast with him. I said, "What did you like about that joke? Because I can't get it to work anymore." He goes, "It was just simple. It was simple that your daughter didn't know how they figure out where deaf kids lived." I went, "That's it?" He's like, "Yeah." I was like, "Nothing about gun control." He was like, "Huh?" I was like, "Oh, fuck man, I really fuck that joke up." And then I had I had to go back to the beginning of it, but that first time, that's when that's when the joke comes out purest for me, and then it's always chasing back to get that get that first telling. Some jokes are different, like the Machine, obviously was a much longer story and like and like escape room for this one. The longer stories take a little work, but the the simple ones. Like like the deaf child in pajamas and those first times are perfect. What do you think is? Is it about the machine story that works? That was so captivating for people. I think it's a, I think I don't know. I really wish I I don't know. I think it's a good story. I think it's a good story. I think everyone has something similar that happened in their life where they had a crazy night and that no one believed and they told their friends and their and and or they experienced that with a friend like that and and. And I think, I think that's got to be it. I really don't know. I think there's a part of I think there's a part of the like our community of of comedy fans that were that early deaf squad that was fun to watch. Someone take something from the podcast and turn it into a bit on stage. I think there was a lot of that, but I think people identify with a wild crazy night that got out of control that they've probably had too. I think I don't fucking know. Do you think Putin knows who you are because of that story? I hope so. I fucking hope so. I hope so, but there's there's a part of me that that you got to understand is like I'm not. I say stuff like that. I'm sure there's someone hears that and they go, "Who is this fucking narcissist?" You're like, "No, that's not it. I'm just telling the truth." Like I understand what I'm supposed to say. You know I don't know. I you know I I don't know that's hard to say, but I don't fucking give a shit about that guy. I'm not that guy. I'm telling you everything that comes out of my mouth the second it comes out. I'm going to be one hundred percent honest. I don't know any other way to live. I kind of hope so. That would be fucking cool. And I look I know he's a bad I guess he's a bad dude. I don't follow politics, don't but it would be cool if like one day someone's like he's he's on his computer and some guy goes strelita and he's like yeah yeah machine and he's like da konya da paydium and he's like and shows it to him and and then he's like fucking this guy huh. It's not out of the realm of possibility that Putin has watched it. I mean this this podcast has kind of made me realize how like small the world is. I've gotten to me some incredibly oh like especially the interesting people. Like that's I mean that's the thing where I go. Like it's gotten really crazy, the internet's really insane and Netflix is really insane and the reach of like people that like this is really simple. But like I'm a big fan of the show Drink Champ. So I didn't think in a million years Nori would ever know who I was. And then he offered me to come to his podcast, and then when I got there, he told me he was a fan of mine, and I went like I remember moving to New York, listening to you and Capone like I'm sitting there going wow. Like and and then and the phone calls I've gotten since the movie came out and since Razzle Dazzle came out have been really insane when you realize. As much as I know about people and I like there's people I'm fans of that don't know who I am that like that are like they're like some pitcher in fucking Florida that I follow the kids I like I I is fun to watch and pitch. There was a softball player in Tempe that she do catching drills and I was really into softball with my daughter and we watched her catching girls. There's a girl D Glazer who me and my daughters would watch her dance videos and then I hit her up she's like you know who I am and you're like oh yeah that's the way the world works. What world leader would you drink with if you could? You mentioned Putin. So Putin doesn't drink much. Yeah, Zelensky drinks more, but also not much. Boris Yeltsin would have been a good one. He would have been a fucking good one. I mean, like I I go Hitler was a pussy like he he drank wine with a with a with a spoonful of sugar in it. You never drank what Churchill. That's my whole and that's my guy. Yeah, you know that's my guy right. No, I don't know that's your guy. So he he did champagne. Well, you don't have to tell me a thing about Winston Churchill. He I found out about his daily routine. Yeah, so his daily routine was a big breakfast, cigar, coffee, eggs over egg sunny side up, toast, bacon, sausage, tomato, beans, fruit, orange juice, soft scotch, cigar in bed and he'd sit there for three hours and he'd hold morning breakfast and that's they'd come in and he'd run through his day and then he'd get in the bathtub for fucking an hour and drink champagne and then he'd go to lunch and have some goose or whatever the fuck they ate back then with more champagne and then. And then and then I mean and then he take a nap and like I love that so every year on the day of his death thing is January 24th I celebrate Winston Churchill's life by living the way he did and so I have breakfast in bed with a soft scotch and I just party all fucking day that would be the guy to drink with that would be the guy if you could pick anyone to drink with. He drank every day throughout the day. He lived like 94 and was one of the most heroic figures in human history. Never, never surrender. I mean, what a fucking badass thing. You know he taught he taught the queen. The queen was like like a like a window looking idiot, right? Like she was she had a third grade education. So like, her dad dies and she's like 10 or 12 or whatever. The first thing they do is they pull her out of school. They're like, you've done learning. You're just going to be the queen. You got to know this is what you need to learn. Don't make let people make eye contact with you. Put your hand out like this. Don't let people touch you. So she like she had like a really I saw that by the way I didn't do this research I just watched the crown okay and Winston Churchill kind of taught her about world politics and was they like coming and she'd be like Winston what did we do in Africa and he's like this is going to be a tough one. And so yeah so but Winston Churchill's the badass. But if I had to drink with someone living like drink there's like there's a two obvious one like obviously it's fucking Kim Jong Un right you kind of want to he drinks no he does. You think my IVs are good in the morning? You know Kim Jong Un's IVs are next. You're like I feel up and he's like it's on front. I mean, he would be a badass to drink with. I think he drinks hard liquor. I think Scott Johnny Walker Blue. I so I've heard, I don't know where you heard this, but I like this. Okay, so I say things like that, but then I'm sure I I I I don't know if you ever party with someone who just parties a little different than you and then you notice like like sometimes celebrity like athletes. And then like you're at a strip club and then they they talk weird to a woman. You're like, oh, that's not me. I'm so sorry. So that would be the thing. The atrocities would be hard to get past with him. Not just the atrocities, but the way of being. I agree with you. I actually don't like drinking with rich and powerful people often. There's something weird about them. Yeah, not not all of them. And I don't like I don't like a drinking meeting. Like when someone goes, like drinking meeting. Like when people go like, Hey, I'm taking you out tonight. We're drinking. Yeah, and then I go, Oh, that's not the way I like to do it. It gives me anxiety. Like our lives are very different. You and I, yeah, we're in a fraternity. We could start there yet. No, I was not. And the differences continue from there. I'm sure. So when you get your pledge pin, they take you out and their whole thing is you're gonna we're getting you fucked up. Yeah, that energy is not my energy. I don't like that. Like it's I just go why don't we just get drunk and feel really good about ourselves. Like I never like took mushrooms to see Jesus. I just wanted to enjoy Rayne X on a windshield. Like so like that that for me. Uh, is like one of my things. So if if Kim Jong Un flew me to North Korea to drink with him, I'd be like I'd have to start really getting blackout drunk on the plane to enjoy drinking with him that day. What's your favorite like different occasions? What's your favorite drink? What's your favorite way of drinking? It's it's I've got, it varies. So what are the different contexts here? It's like one on one, one on one. Like you sit down with I don't know Rogan invites you like it's a godfather to sit down and finally have a talk about something. It's going to be whiskey. It's going to be like a nice whiskey. Neat. No, I like it on the rocks and I like lots of rocks. It won't be something expensive because Rogan is not he's not a fancy boy, you know like he's a real regular he's a really regular dude. He's gotten less regular the more millions of dollars he has. There are parts of him where you're like, like where you're like, oh wow, we can do this. Yeah, um, but he's a he'd be like Jack on the rocks or like Buffalo Trace or one of the maybe a whiskey he's buying. Rogan be whiskey rocks. And then like that's a good. I haven't hung out with Joe by ourselves. I take that back. I was with him the other night, but like it would be cool. My times with Joe's are always on podcasts. Yeah, and his I miss the times where it was where you just have you and him at at the store late night. Yeah, I'm okay with podcasts. Like I used to think this is like performative or something like this, but it's not really. No, it's just a chance to really sit down. I enjoy it because of the people I could never sit down with. Ah, like David Cross, I wouldn't never sit down with David Cross because we don't run in the same circles and but it's nice he has something to promote and then he comes to my house and then we can sit down for an hour and talk and then or Kevin Smith like people I would never really hang out with. Tom, um, I enjoy being alone with Tom more. Off mic, Tom Segura. Yeah, we have a lot of history. There's a lot of things secrets we know about each other and there's a lot of secrets going on in each other's lives that I would never share on podcast that I that I can talk to him about and I really appreciate his and I know this isn't on brand of us beating each other up but like I really appreciate his insight as a as a dad and as a dude and as a son. But but he makes me giggle harder than anyone, so doing a podcast is fun. So there's something on a podcast that's performative for you with him and then there's a part me and him because we're trying to make each other laugh. But I'll tell you if we're going back to drinks. I'll tell you like a great a great afternoon drink is a compari spritz. It's my one of my favorite drinks in the world. I don't even know what that is. Oh, compari spritz. Compari is an interesting alcohol because I think it's a bitter or it's a liqueur and it's got a weird rooty earthy taste. It's red, it looks like Kool Aid. That's why I got into it. I thought compari on ice would be oh so nice. There's an old commercial, but man, it's fucking like sucking the Green Giant's dick. It is earthy. What's earthy? It's like it's it tastes like roots. It's just it's not it's not it's there's a bitterness and like it's just not great. And then someone introduced me to a Negroni, which is compari and gin and a little soda water, and then compari spritz. Compari spritz is compari, prosecco and soda water in like a wine glass and it is. So enjoyable, it's got so many different profiles to it where you get the bitterness, but the sweetness of the prosecco and then it flattens it out with the soda water and it looks like Kool Aid, so I love it. That's one of my favorite drinks to share in what context. Oh, you're in Italy and you've been walking around Venice and everyone went their own ways and the whole family comes back together and you meet at a statue and. And your wife sweating and she's uncomfortable and your daughters are sixteen and eighteen and they're like, "Are what are we going to what are we doing with the rest of the day?" And you go, "Hey guys, it's Europe." Does anyone want a compari spritz? And everyone goes, "I don't know what that is." And you go, "For compari spritz, now it's it's mine or an alcohol, so it's not going to light them up, but it gives them a little bit of a buzz where they're like, 'Dad, these are nice.' I didn't drink hers, so I drank hers. I Georgia had hers, Leanne had hers, and we ordered another round. I ordered and they're." Fucking refreshing, and the buzz is perfect. It's not too much because it's just a little bit of champagne and some compari. If the buzz is perfect, and then a couple of them, and then they kind of disappear, and then you just walking around again. That's a great fucking drink. You have a drink alone. So there's a two kinds of alone. One is alone like at a bar. There's other people, but they're strangers, right? They're kind of like out there. Keep going. Keep going. Tom walked me through all the alone, and then I'll tell you the rest. There's all kinds. There's a alone on a train. We're transporting. I've drinking alone on a train, yeah, train, plane, and then there's just alone in the in an empty home or a hotel room. Hotel. And it's Sunday night. Sunday night, and you're packing your bag, and you got a flight at six a.m. Yeah, but roadhouse is on, and you're like, "Shit." So you go down to the front desk and go, "Is the bar still open?" And they go, "Yeah, can I order some to take to my room?" Sure, how about six Heineken, six Heineken. Yeah, my wife wanted one too. She's not up there. You murdered, and you just say to yourself, "I'm just getting six, so that if I have four, I just know I have two extra ones, and then you go through six and you're like, 'Oh man, I'm not done yet, dude. I've drank in every alone scenario you can possibly think of. I've drank." Ah, I've drank alone in a helicopter with a dude who didn't know I was drinking. He was I was like, "Can I drink in here?" And he was like, "Absolutely not." And then I poured it into a flask and opened it and drank it. And he's like, "Dude, we're in a fucking helicopter. You don't think I smell that?" The best alone drinking you can ever do, in my opinion. Now we're getting into the weeds on it. Is alone behind someone's back? What do you mean? Like when they don't know you're drinking, but you're drinking. Like, like Christmas shopping. Ah, and and your wife says, "All right, let's all split up," and you go, "Cool." And it's like it's like eleven o'clock on a Sunday, and they just open that bar by the elevator in the Beverly Center, and you just sneak over and you go, "Hey man, can I get a double jack on the Rossocks rots?" And they're like, "Sure," and you just have it and you just go, "Let's just," and then you're off and then you're like, "Yeah," and then you just little sneak one, sneak it, sneak it, and then you're then buzzed and nobody knows. And then your wife's like, "Mate, you've been drinking." You're like, "Do I? Yeah, I'm drinking by myself in a fucking mall. Yeah, on Christmas. How sad do you think I am?" And then you go, "Yeah, I am." Ah, what about mood? Do you have a drink in a dark place? So I broke. I had a chick break up or a chick cheat on me. When I was when I came back from Russia and she saw my best friend, and I didn't know how to deal with the emotions I had, and my buddy Mike Osborne said, "I can tell you this: if you drink, they go away." And I went okay, and that was the first and kind of last time I ever did that. Because I did it, I've done it, I've done it a couple times, but I try to avoid, I try to avoid if there's emotion going to alcohol, like meaning I not when it's anxiety, but like depression. I kind of sit in the depression because or anxiety. I lean towards alcohol, like anxiety, like about flying or or. Or just like getting worked up on over something, but with depression, I try to avoid alcohol and just sit in it. Um, because I because I've gone there before, but anxiety is I land I land all the time. But depression, heartbreak, all that you just sit in the feeling. Yeah, heartbreak's a weird one for me. So like the last time I got my heart broken, Leanne dumped me. We were dating for like four months and she broke up with me, and my instinct was to have a drink. My friends went to this this Middle Eastern restaurant and I told them what was going on. My buddy Corey's like, "Let's get a cocktail," and I was like, "I don't want one. I got to figure this out because I want this chick and if I start drinking, I'll be like, 'Ah, fuck it.'" So I got to figure it out. Like I wonder, I'm gonna find out my dad dies one day or my mom, but my dad will be the rough one. My mom will be equally as rough. My dad and I are really close, and I wonder if I thought about this a lot. If I'll have a drink, dealing with that. Like I think about that a lot. I keep saying everything I get with my dad is extra. My dad, my dad had a a hundred percent blockage in his Widowmaker twice, and both times they saved his life and they got a stint, I think twelve or thirteen years ago, and then he just got a stint this last year. But so everything I get to do, I feel like it's extra, and so you know he was just at the premiere of my movie and he got to see that and he had a very emotional response. And I got I got that from him, and I was like, "Dad, that's a little icing on the cake." I did, you know, the arena in Tampa was the first time you ever saw me do stand up. That was like a little extra. So all these things I'm getting with him are all extra. So I have you know, I need seventy four so. Yeah, that'll be a tough one. At the premiere, he was what proud. Yeah, he came out. He was sobbing, crying, and he goes, "I've underestimated you your whole life." And I was like, "What?" And he was like, "And he just and he was shaking." He goes, "I just underestimated you. I didn't know I didn't know that you I didn't know you were this I didn't whatever it was really hard to understand him to be honest with you. I don't know totally what he said. He might just not like the movie." I think you were hearing what you wanted to hear. What did you learn about life from your father? Ah, it's not going to make sense. I want to feel like sometimes I'm like a professional fucking wrestler, because all I care about is you come and see me do stand up. So whatever I got to do to get you there, but the number one thing, my one takeaway from that man's humility and. I applied. I've applied it in different ways throughout my career. On my twenty-six birthday, he gave me a really aggressive speech. He, I was hungover and I just thought he was going to say, "Happy birthday." So I picked up the phone, and I was like, "Hey," and he was like, "You are a tremendous piece of shit." And he broke me off. You have no humility. You have no this. You've never succeeded anything. You you you're lying to yourself. You're lying to everyone around you. You're not doing what you're going after your dream. I broke you. I failed you as a father. This and that. I was like, I thought you're going to wish me happy birthday. And so in that speech, he told me if I wanted something, I had to go at it and I had to go after it as as hard as I could. And I had to do whatever it could I could do to achieve that. In this case, it was working, offering to do anything at the comedy club to get on stage. He told I told him, "Man, that's not how it works." And he said, "No, that that's how it works for some poor kid from Harlem because that kid needs it." He goes, "You've grown up with privilege or life. You don't need it. You think you're going to be fine." And so I went and I ended up getting a job at the door. But I, it was it was it's humbling. It's it's really like it it makes me feel it made me feel uncomfortable. And so that humility, ah, is it's the first time I really understood humility and I've applied that in many respects in like. In like getting to be a paid regular at the comedy store that happened late in life for me, which I think most people would give up and be like, "Fuck that, I'm already a touring comic. I'm on TV. I don't need that." But it's something I wanted and I knew I wanted, so I I just humbly went after it. And then I think I I still apply it when when it comes to selling tickets or or selling a project to to fans. Or even to doing podcasts, I try to be as honest as I can about whatever I'm going through or whatever I'm dealing with. But when it comes to like selling things, I don't I don't have a problem. Trying to make fun of myself or or get it in front of people so that they know that that I have a show because the thing I'm good at the. The one thing I know I'm good at stand up, and and I I say that humbly, but like I want them to come there. So like I've heard people make fun of me like before, they're like, "Yeah, I'm not some I'm not some clown in a speedo who's one is going to I'm a real comic and I go okay." But I want I want them at my shows and you can be that guy and I'll be this guy, yeah, the clown in the speedo. Yeah, it's like what are you gonna do? Funny people make fun of me for taking my shirt off. Like I guess behind my back, no one ever does it to me. Like no one would ever. Comics aren't comics aren't comics aren't that manly. Yeah, yeah, but I always go like I always go like, what do you care? What am I? What do you care? And you love taking shirt off more than anything. You know when something becomes meme and becomes super popular, it it becomes easy to not love the thing anymore to get tired of it. You still love it. Well, more than anything, I like being shirtless more than having a shirt. I'm very uncomfortable in a shirt. Yeah, like right now and I've tactile issues. Like I have legit tactile issues. I'm most comfortable in stretchy jeans with a loose fitting belt, and then these shirts exactly. But I don't I like more like a V neck. I can feel this on my neck right now and I can feel it on my arms. And so I'll sit a certain way because it it just rubs me wrong. But I'm more comfortable shirtless. I can never wear what you're wearing. Yeah, well, this is my shirtless. Each of us have to find our place in this world in terms of fashion. I would love to be able to wear what you wear. Yeah, because it looks good, it feels like an escape from convention. You or me, both of us. Yeah, because this nobody wears this unless you work security for somebody. Yeah, but it looks good on you, doesn't it? I don't know. You know, I think people think, I don't like they would say like what what if you lose weight, you can't take your shirt off anymore. Go no, I can fucking take my shirt off. You fucking out of your mind. I take my shirt off all the time. You mentioned early on heartbreak after the Russia trip with a girl who slept with your friend. Let's go back to Hemingway quotes. The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them. So to go all in with the trust. I love Hemingway so much. Have you been betrayed in your life? Yeah, what do you think about trust? It's an interesting question. I've been betrayed in my professional life a couple times by really close friends, and I'm not someone who can like I have a mantra that I mean I'm. I don't know if people have heard it or not, and I hate I hate sharing it, but it's but it's true. The mantra is, so you think I'm weak. Like you think it's like that's my thing. So I feel like people take advantage of me, and I go, so you think I'm weak. You forget everyone that like and I'm name the the people that have betrayed me. I'm a larger man than all of them, and and but I and so that's what really fucks with me is I go, so you think I'm weak. Like where I grew up, when you do stuff, there was physical consequences. I grew up in Florida like I've I've been beaten up a bunch. I'm not saying I can fight, but like I'm not scared of getting beaten up. And the the times that I've been betrayed, and and and even I know even like by Ari, whichever people see that drugging as a betrayal, and I did for a period, but it was it was only because it was Ari and he was one of my best friends, and me and him had to work through that because I I couldn't not love him. Like I couldn't not have him in my life. He he means a lot to me. He really does. He's a great friend to have. But he's also I don't know what was going on with him at that time, but he made a bad decision and I had to forgive him for that because I knew he he knew my mantra. I think I'm harder to trust people now. I'm I'm not as apt to trust people at all. But there was a moment I don't know if I've ever shared this and I don't know how this will sound, but there was a moment that information got leaked about a thing and all my managers and agents. Both both Tom and my Tom and our managers and agents would like to separate either separate us or one of us one of them get both of us. It's just more lucrative for them, so they have always kind of pitted us against each other a little bit and they do it subtly. Um, they'll do it to me and my team and then his team will do it to me and then my team will do it to him and his team will do it to him. And there was a moment where information got leaked about this thing I was doing, and my team was like, "Just so you know, your your boy Tommy is is the rat." And I had to. It was the one time, and Leanne said, "Do you think Tom would do that?" I said, "I don't know how faith works. Like I'm not a super religious person, but I will tell you that I believe in Tom and I don't think he did it, and I will stand by that ignorantly." And and I will and I will ride or die with him because I cannot live in a world where I don't trust him. If I don't trust him, then I am so fucked. And and it wasn't him, it wasn't him, and it was it's a cool feeling to know that you could like that you could blindly