Drawing D*cks With Light w/ Troy Conrad - Gorcast Podcast | Ep 64

Troy Conrads is a photographer, filmmaker, stand-up comedian & creator of the show Set List.

Follow Troy here: https://www.instagram.com/troyconrads/

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Tune in as Taylor Gorman, vocalist of the touring metal band BYSTANDER, brings his unique perspective and passion for deep conversations to this engaging discussion. Whether you're a fan of music, comedy, or just love hearing from people who do cool sh*t, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways.

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Listen to full episode : https://youtu.be/EG1Tdns3gPc

Transcript:

if someone asks me now how to get started in photography I'm just going to say first thing you do draw a dick with a sparkler and shut if you can do that you come back and see me I'll give you I'll give you level two I'll give you the next Quest now add balls now now you know you are listening to G gcast you idiot yeah he looks cool he's rocking the sunglasses you've done this a time or two I feel like uh I have but I I don't know if I've ever done a podcast with sunglasses but it's bright in here so I just kept them on smart smart um Troy Conrads is it Conrads with it is actually no it is Troy Conrad Troy Conrad okay cool nice to meet you man thank you for coming on the pond dude thank you um so uh I I I have a lot of different people on here like I I have comedians on musicians on all different kinds of people but when I've had uh like my photography friends on in the past I just kind of like to ask like you know what uh kind of go through the story because to me it seems like a lot of people want to do photography for living you know but they don't necessarily know how to so I mean you know that's kind of like the first thing I wanted to get into is just like when did you like pick up a camera at first you know what I mean we'll get into a bunch of different stuff but like what's the story on how you got a camera in your hands that that's what I was really interested to know yeah well it's a weird story I was uh this was u a long time ago gosh I forget which year this was but I went to see Steve Harvey at The Improv and I was an audience member and there was a photographer there he was shooting he was shooting the show and about halfway through not even halfway through Steve Harvey's set he had a stroke right next to me and fell partially onto me Steve himself did no no no the photographer photographer was like right next to me and he collapsed and we didn't know he was dead at the time um but they took him out his camera they left his camera there and it was just like right there so I just picked it up and just kept I I didn't really know how to use it but it was already like the settings were there yeah and I just started shooting pictures of Steve Harvey you're like somebody's got to do this yeah somebody and I afterwards I just like gave him the camera and he goes I appreciate you doing this and he took out the memory card and then he gave me the camera and then he I gave him my info and he called me the next day and he said you're really good you're better than this other guy even like this is this is really great do you want to come on the road with me and so I ended up doing a few gigs for him and then that's how it all started no way so just putting yourself in that situ that just kind of happen stance yeah oh by the way I made up that entire story oh okay cool um that was I uh you got me dude no holy [ __ ] that would crazy I was just messing around that would have that would have been crazy that would have been crazy that would have been crazy I mean that's that's actually like uh that'd be a good movie that'd be a good origin story that'd be a good origin story for sure like this guy stroked out next to me and then one faithful day yeah someone had to do the camera right it's a photography version of School of Rock yes exactly um yeah exactly he goes to a job that's not his yeah no I have I think I have to do this from now on I just just this just I've never done it I think I have to do this from now on in interviews because I get talking about photography can be very boring yeah it's kind of like imagine if like NPR that'd be the genre like NPR on photography like it's like well there's a radio show on something a visual medium yeah one of the very most one of the most boring uh uh radio shows ever I guess would be yeah but I mean how I got into it was I mean I I started in standup a long time ago and I did I did the road for many years and then I uh I started creating shows for television needed uh I just needed photos for there were there were no comedy photographers but I needed photos for our publicity so I started taking photos and it was literally just for that I mean I have a background in photography and film making but I didn't think photography was even interesting like you went to school for it had a backgound dad was a photographer and got me into it early and then um I trained myself in film making early when I moved to Los Angeles so um so basically I just needed photos that we could send out to the press for the for the show and my partner on the show Paul provenza he goes oh man he's like dude these are really good and it just kind of I went really I mean they're just photos and he's like no no no this is really look at this look at this and it just got me thinking like oh okay well I'm going to keep doing this a little more then and I kind of it just made me enjoy it I think just having feedback up up top and that's really how it happened and then everything else was just very organic uh people started um saying hey will you come take pictures of this show we and then I went to The Comedy Store um my buddy Paul provenza calls me and goes hey you got to come see this show called roast battle nice at the at the in the belly room at the comedy store and I go okay and I came and watched it and I went oh my God now people might know that listen to your show might know roast battle as what it is today but it was a different show okay at that time um there were elements of that show that it's kind of like Tropic Thunder like you can't make it today yeah he couldn't get away with it anymore exactly like except way more extreme than Tropic thund yeah oh I can only imagine I mean there was um so Jamar neighbors is now well known here in Austin but he was part of a three or four uh three or fourman group called The all negro wave it was him um uh Willie or so sorry it was him and uh uh Jeremiah Watkins and they and and some other guys and they did they would run out on stage and do a one or two second mini sketch when someone had a great roast so that was the exclamation point and just as an example of how awesome this was um things that come to my mind one time Jeremiah Watkins runs out on like again someone has a great oneliner right uh Jeremiah Watkins runs on stage pulls his pants down Jamar comes with an electric razor shaves his pubes this all happens within and they the pubes fall on the stage this all happens within two seconds now they're back in their seats cuz they're they're sitting right to the side of the stage this happened throughout the show when someone had a good line they would do something random and [ __ ] up so it wasn't even based off of the line like had nothing to do with that it just had to do with a a organic ridiculous celebration of that moment in whatever [ __ ] up way they could think of one time um you some famous porn star runs on stage and lifts up her shirt and they're both sucking on her titties like that that crazy things happened and then there was the racist haters table which uh a great comic named Earl skakel sat to the side of the stage and he was sort of an independent he was independent from the judges and he would roast the [ __ ] out of people but always from a very racist angle he was a designated racist so he got away with everything I mean he would a white guy yeah he's a white guy yeah he got away with everything cuz you expected and there's a sign next to him that says racist haters table that was the character that's his character so he he said things that you would just go today you go oh my God the city would come in and shut the building down yeah exactly you know it'd be all over the inter it' be all over the Internet and imagine the travesty of watching something like that and no one's recording anything no one's no one's taking pictures of these amazing moments yeah um and and I went oh my God this is ter I left going this I I had like this like sick feeling in my stomach I went this is terrible like no one's capturing no one just the people in that room get to see it I mean that's cool and everything other people should see this it should be documented it should be documented so I I just came in there I was not welcome at The Comedy Store I was what do you what do you mean I was not in that circle like The Comedy Store is click you know it's it's a it's a group that you have to be invited into after years and years and now I'm this dude that hard well I knew some people there but most of the like the store Clan I wasn't in that group and so I was this Outsider and they were like there's no pictures allowed at the store right it would have been weird for you to walk in there and try to take pictures of everything yeah there's no it was like there's no photography allowed here and and all this stuff and I just went I get it but I still think the worst thing would be to not photograph it so I just kept coming in and shooting that show and then I started taking pictures of other places and comics in the in the store and uh people the the regulars there a lot of like the newer comics and stuff they hated me and they would talk [ __ ] about me online this [ __ ] guy coming in with his camera bull house yeah like this is a Sacred Space man and I and I just I get it yeah oh no dude I do too yeah and I was really torn because I'm like oh I mean I feel bad about this but needs to be done sorry um so I kept doing it and uh and then eventually those same people were like hey will you take a picture of me the the the the uh the table started to turn a little bit the yeah the tone of the conversation started to shift it started to shift and then people realized like oh I can put this on my social media and it's cool and so and you know again there was no photography at any of the clubs in LA and mean just didn't exist cuz that's a that's a normal thing now I mean every if your place doesn't have a photographer you got to figure it out right yeah yeah yeah that was I mean it was unheard of so um I just kept doing it and and now we had uh The Improv had a guy named Mike kanano who shot people on stage uh and he's legendary and if you go to pretty much any improv in the country his work is up on the walls he's amazing and I've known him for like 25 years and he's he's incredible uh he doesn't do it anymore but you know he sort of did all that onstage stuff and then when I started doing it again I'm just Reinventing the wheel for myself right for me the backstage stuff was more important than the onstage the on stage is great but the hang and the those moments backstage that you kind of Wonder like what's it like with you know all these Legend like what's like when Joe Rogan and Joey Diaz and Ari and all these guys are just like smoking weed in the back and having a great time and nor McDonald and like all that stuff was important to me you know yeah well and not only that but they talk so much on podcasts and stuff about and interviews about how important that is to their creative process too yeah you know what I mean and so it's definitely I think an important thing that people you know that somebody's documenting it right they might even remember where they came up with a certain joke oh I remember that night it was me and Ron White you know what I mean or whatever yeah exactly and it's like you know nobody's documenting that then that's the problem yeah like I remember Ron White coming in with it when he drank uh and he would come in with his award-winning tequila tequila number Juan and he would bring in a bottle and just into the bar in the back and we would all just he would just pour drinks for us he's just guy coming in with a bottle of great great uh tequila just everybody's drinking and and I just went this is a [ __ ] great moment too like all this stuff you know so I always had a camera with me and you know made sure to document everything I could tried to just be aware yeah of everything but I does it does seem like a weird thing for an outsider to try and do though and so you had to be you had to get the relationship with those people I imagine right that like yeah Troy's always here if he's got the camera you know he might point it like they don't even think about it you're just there taking a you know what I mean so you can get those moments kind of like candid and organically you know what I mean or or like because they wouldn't want it'd be weird those moments probably wouldn't even happen if there was just some weird guy in the corner that they didn't know with a camera oh dude yeah yeah so everything is built on trust if if uh you know if people know the work of um photographer Rock photographer named Jim Marshall who started in the 60s he's like one of the most legendary founding fathers of of live rock music photography this guy was a Savage uh he has a book called trust because and he named it that because that's what is required to be a photographer you can't you can't if you're not emotionally regulated you're not going to you're not it's not going to work right if you throw Tantrums even in the slightest way or or you have demands of people or you misuse an image you're done yeah it's trust is everything yeah so it's fragile the whole thing is fragile yeah and so so Rogan uh uh was the first person to buy a print from me and he trusted me and you know and that was like that was like that first acknowledgement of like oh I'm in the right place in the universe so um so I just kept doing it you know and uh you know the best moment was when one of these guys who was kind of you know I would say I mean kind of bullying me like you know talking [ __ ] about me all the time there's a lot of people but this one guy was the worst he was instigating everybody and he came up to me maybe like three months in and he's like hey man I was kind of unfair to you and I I just wanted to apologize I was like w what a cool thing man got you're like I've never forgot that like that was one of my favorite moments ever at the store because I this guy hated me and he would just see me and you'd see him turn to somebody and say something and and I [ __ ] gu you know and he's like ah he goes I I misjudged you and all stuff and like that was like another good vote from the universe you like I'm in the right place all these little W's kind of add yeah yeah so it made me realize it was in the right place and you know and that's how it happened and then when Joe open his Club here he's like I want you to come out and so I've been coming out for a year and a half and uh and uh you know flying out shooting and now I got a place here oh you live here now or you have a place here now part I have a place here now and you know I'm still on the road and and all that but I'm here enough I'm here for almost for most of the time three weeks a month you know yeah some give or take yeah how do you like it dude I love it you been having fun getting some good shots that you love at the mothership yeah yeah I I absolutely love it um I didn't think I would ever I didn't think for sure I would ever live here and then maybe maybe yeah yeah and maybe about 6 months ago I was like like yeah this is it's this is going to happen I waited for the right place to open and yeah it's like when you're coming here all the time to have fun you're like wait a minute maybe I should live near more near near some of that fun that's how it was for me when I moved here anyway yeah and there there's a need for it so um so I got a place that I'm turning into a photography studio as well it's a amazing space for that right downtown and and uh you know I'll be able to shoot a lot of stuff there yeah so was there like a moment where it shied I imagine at first you were doing like you had like a part-time job and you were trying to like kind of build whatever this was that's happening over here with The Comedy Store and with taking photos of Comedians and stuff right like were you okay so you didn't have like any starving you were starving okay starving starving like can I afford water today or am I going to go into 7-Eleven and get a free water cup that kind of thing yeah because in the you were punk rock about it about photos yeah like look the the model for success is same thing with comedy same thing with anything today especially in the Arts is you do it for free then you or sorry you pay to do it then you do it for free then you get paid and that's exactly what happened yeah you know that's a good way to put it I've never heard I paid to do it in terms of I paid for the amount I paid for parking in West Hollywood just at The Comedy Store alone and the parking tickets broke broke my bank um I had no money coming in um there were certain shows where they' give me like 50 bucks to shoot the show and you know that didn't cover my my expenses just to come out there you know what I mean yeah so I was paying to do it and I'm buying all this this gear and lenses and everything and then then I start breaking even you know right and then and then uh you get some money for it once you're like oh yeah people are getting paid for this yeah and I remember I was sitting at a cafe and and I was I I would go to this Cafe and just work from there on my laptop and edit and stuff all day I would order a side of scrambled eggs and then I was there all day that was my rent for the day like my office yeah not bad I'd keep that plate on my table all day so it looks like oh he must have just finished was there N9 to5 and and I got a call from randomly from Tom sagor and he's like hey man I I I I I really love the stuff you're doing will you come shoot my Netflix special in Austin and I was like yeah yeah that was great and he shot it I think this was this show was at um I I can't remember if it was at the Paramount or if it was at ACL live but that was kind of recently no okay this was like 20 this was the one in 207 okay probably yeah yeah so um and that was like that moment where all right now I'm making money right you know now I'm in now I'm in somebody's call people are calling me now yeah like it's different I'm not like hey can I shoot this hey can I shoot this whatever and now the clubs are starting now they realize the value and they realize like now when I'm busy they would rather pay me to be there than just have me not be there because I'm busy doing another paid G so that that demand it was kind of organic you know like I didn't ever demand money or whatever I just did good work and that's if if you ever have you ever read the da ding no you're giving me some good stuff dude fantastic short book it's the book of dosm and it's translated beautifully by a guy named Steph Mitchell and uh there's a great uh part of that book it says do your work and then step back and that's really been My Philosophy like you just do good work and will come to you things will happen if you're an MMA fighter you bust ass you do work you don't go in and demand you know um a title fight right you you earn it and people go how can I not have this guy you stay so far in your own lane that people want you in theirs kind of thing right that's a great way to put it right yeah yeah i' I've kind of dealt with some of that too it seems like a weird uh psychological flip happens where you become the guy that people are trying to hire and that you know you're then you're like too busy and then you're like sorry I can't you know unless you you know want to pay me a deposit or something you know what I mean or what however you structure your your business but it's like I've I've kind of dealt with that too because I I do so full-time I do photography for uh a living videography photography for for barbecue restaurants for that's why I want that's why it makes sense to talk about photography here because there are people that there are people that listen um but yeah I do I I kind of do a lot of different things in that same way I've never heard it explained like that like the Dao ding um the Daoism explains it but that's a that's a good it puts it in perspective I guess it's like uh they say in relationships like relationships are about not just finding the right everyone's focused on finding the right person and that's such a stupid external way of viewing it you know people say it's about finding the right person and more so being the right person right so you work on yourself on the inside and that's why I mentioned earlier emotional regulation if you don't have that you are not the right person to work with nobody wants to work with you if you're even if you're a comic if you look at like the most success like I work with the best comics in the world and they have that's one thing that they have is they don't throw a fit like you hear about like you know like rock stars backstage and all that stuff it doesn't work that way in comedy you you if you make in standup it's usually a humbling experience you know you live in your car you're you're grinding and grinding you're working for free you're working for 20 bucks then then you're working for 50 you know what I mean yeah so it's the same thing with a career it's not finding the right career it's also being the right person for that career and a lot could be said about being just a good hang right in in in comedy and and in and even in photography I've noticed because you know i' I remember kind of meet meeting a lot you know meeting a lot of photographers especially where I'm from I'm from Portland Oregon okay so it's kind of like everyone in their mom is a photographer everybody's got a camera it's a hard place to do business because everyone's got a buddy with the camera all the restaurants ah my wife does it you know what what the value of of what we do is much lower in a place where everyone everyone's doing it and I came out here and it's like everyone's like dude I need pictures I don't know anybody I'm like let's go you know but it does did seem like a lot of those people that I would meet I'd go to Meetup sometimes or whatever Instagram meet let's meet up and let's go that helpful no why not well I because I already had my like buddy who's like my my rock that we always would go around and take photo you know it's like really brought out that Creative Energy in me you know what I mean he's back there in Portland still but um a lot of these guys I would meet it was all kind of like they were trying to you know get something from you or or or they were just weird and just kind of like like I feel like the typical photograph for personality typee is more introverted artsy right and it's like you're not going to have that guy in The Green Room at the Mother Ship you know what I mean or something you you got to be a good hang if you're going to be you know getting called back constantly and I think there's a lot of people that are like you know why am I not getting booked why am I not getting why why am I not getting called back and it's like well how'd you do how are how were you acting you know keep work on being the right person not on uh giving societal pressure for somebody to hire you like you if you just it's like that um the artist Chris Rogers has this big painting in the mothership and it says be undeniable and he's quoting Rogan because that Rogan always says that like if you're uh if you're trying to be the best at something you just keep keep grinding at it and then you get yourself to a point where you're under now where you're what Seth Goden was great author another one if you don't know sure I'm actually looking for books and stuff to read so I'll tell you a lifechanging book called The Dip okay Seth Goden Goen Gio all you have to do is Google Seth he's the first person that comes up if you put Seth in Google um you know he talks about being a lynchpin so you make yourself so valuable that people can't not have you so how do you do that you do it by competing with yourself and never feeling good enough if you ask me what level I feel like I'm at I'm at level four with everything in my life you know I wake up and I go oh you [ __ ] up you're only at level four what are you going to do yeah you piece of [ __ ] those are my positive morning affirmations and that's made me a better person yeah there it there people do go down kind of an unhealthy road with that though don't you think sometimes we the only the only thing you're never giving yourself flowers ever I mean I know you should shouldn't give yourself flowers all the time but it's okay to be like hey I did kind of we did kind of good okay on that one I I disagree with that although I would agree with you if you have mental health problems which 70% of of our society women have a lot of um no but I it just does seem to be more prevalent um so yeah if you already have mental health problems sure then but if you're if you're ahead of that aall then you have that room to to work with and say hey what are you going to do you piece of [ __ ] yeah I don't I don't look down on myself when I say that right but I have a couple that I was born with one of them was low self-esteem and another one was boredom and those two things have been the most instrumental parts of my life and my career and being better at anything I want to get better at getting bored easily yeah I remember Doug Stan hope had a great bit about boredom and he was like boredom is a disease worse than cancer and all that stuff and I I for some reason that bit stuck with me cuz I was like is that the worst thing in the world or cuz I have that but then I went I think just looking at it factually for my life it's maybe one of the best things could driving Factor yeah because if you're bored you can be a victim and you can go ah man I'm just so bored this this isn't for me you're of course you're going to get bored with anything with a career relationship something that you've got good at and you're doing it again any anything or anything you're not good at you get bored but that's the dip that's why that book Seth go the dip is so good um because when you start a project it's exciting you're up high on the um you know you're you're up high riding this wave on the mountain and then you have to do this work it's like I'm gonna make a movie your way up here I'm going to shoot this movie we got the budget your way up here we got the budget holy [ __ ] and the actors and the this is so [ __ ] fun now let's wrap the movie where does it go all the way down you got to edit that [ __ ] you got to work or you got to stare at it for hours or you got to pay a bunch of money to somebody to edit it and you got to work with them and you got to argue with them and you have to creatively work it out and that sucks and most people quit a at that point because now they're at the dip so you either quit before you make that movie or you not at all you ride it out right because if you quit after that you just wasted Life Energy time resources all the things so you go through that dip and then you come up now you're editing oh my God we're finished it's looking crispy and now on the other side of that dip is an even higher Peak which is oh my God we're putting it out there we're getting feedback getting into festivals blah blah blah wow yeah I couldn't imagine making a movie right now just like what do you mean I just mean I couldn't imagine like with with uh what I know about doing camera stuff and how much work it already is for what I do and I don't I'm not even close to making movies it just seems like like making movies it's not something that I really want to do so that's fine you know what I mean but um but I just it seems like so much work like once you really start thinking about it and you're like oh you got to pay actors you got to pay makeup you got to find location you got to you know what I mean you got to have snacks for everybody there's all this like [ __ ] there's all this other [ __ ] that you don't even think about you know coming from an a Very disorganized person like myself it's you're right it's a very complex thing all the things you said are true there's a other factors that you have to all these details and at the same time if you want to do it it's incredibly easy you just go and make it right you just go hey let's just go out here and shoot some stuff and that I I made this sketch um about with a comic named Eddie peperone he goes hey I want to I want to do this sketch where I climb up runan Canyon but it's like we treat it like it's Mount Everest and ran Canyon is a uh is a half hour hike in Hollywood in the middle of Hollywood um that actors do at lunch okay okay so it's comical and it's people texting while they go up and down this little Hill but he wanted to climb it as a thing and so I said all right let's do it we and we just show we just show up and we do it no permits we did it illegally and this little 2hour of shooting turns into we gotta come back right in a couple days and do and then it's day after day after day we're hiring other actors and it's just snowballing at this point snowball is supposed to be a five minute thing and it turned into a uh like a 30 or 40 minute Jes film yeah and it was the dip of it was absolutely insane like I mean I mean talk about emotional pain of the dip of like I don't I want throw all of the hard drives out the window and never deal with this again yeah it was that bad but why we dude editing plus working with an editor which I eventually had to do and the arguments of the conflict of like no no no I I want th this is an important thing to have in there oh no man it's not going to work it's stupid I go okay I see what you're saying let's put it in anyway and you know you have to do all these things with it when you're when you're working with an editor if you're directing something you have to do this process you don't just leave it to the editor to direct everything you know what I mean right so um so I hated it and we finally got it and Funny or Die it was alive at that time and they featured all these things then we put all the um five episodes together into a film submitted it to I just submitted to two festivals out of I'm lazy so out of it was thrown in my lap hey submit for these and I submitted the film and it got in both and it won at both whoa so I was like I should have [ __ ] submitted to more festivals um and it's a great it's a great film what's it called I look at it's called Rion just above Sunset Eddie pepone who is a one of the most brilliant comics of Our Generation he um he climbs this half hour hike it takes him 5 days a sherpa an expedition leader um he has 100 pounds of gear and a backpack cooking utensils everything and it's just a short little it's just a okay so that's but he's a fat guy and and it takes him a while and and so imagine five days to get up a half hour hike that people are doing at lunch between auditions it's like naked and afraid but on a 30 minute hike yeah that should be the sequel yeah um that should be a sequel yeah naked on naked running above running just above yeah so um yeah that's free out there on YouTube that that thing but you know that's the process that that's so hard but you come through that dip and now you have something you've you've made something you've completed something and that is the best do you do you ever like struggle with burnout at all with with doing what you're with doing what what you're doing is that basically how you do another gift right like like burnout just comes from um accepting boredom you know you're like oh I'm so bored I'm burnt out if you're really burnt out in like it's different if you're working in a cubicle job that you hate you're burned out well you either accept your fate or get the [ __ ] out and do something you know the only way out is through is what you're saying basically you just got to push through it and then you get and then you come out on top the only way out is through the only way out of the burnout out of the boring stuff is if you just kind of keep pushing through it and then and then you'll get another Peak again when you get when you get it finished when you get that puppy out or when you you know what I mean Whatever Whenever yeah you don't do the same thing every day I know people who um have thrown darts at a map and moved there and they had a good life I know I know at least three people that I've met that have done that and they've had amazing change in their lives from that yeah think of how much that tastes by the way a dart yeah in a city you don't know you just oh God what are you aiming toward one that you like and then you're trying and then you hit something around there like you know you're aiming at Austin but you hit Tulsa you're like d Detroit oh [ __ ] I'm in Detroit but like and they they it worked you know so it's like you change if you change want to change your life do something extreme and not one of the top things is to get out of your current environment any psychologist will tell you that if you want to change your life change your environment you know I guess you could do that with taking pictures of different [ __ ] like for me I do a lot of food so anytime there's any you know I love it and I get stoked on it still every day but then there's some days where I have a lot of [ __ ] to do and I've already been doing a lot of food stuff and I'm like dude you know what I mean I don't want to look at another piece of brisket today but then but then you know I'll go out and just take some pictures of buildings or something that that's what I like to do that's what that's what gets me kind of stoked that's how I started was just walking around Portland during the pandemic when there was no nobody around taking pictures of the empty streets and the buildings and like kind of that street photography L you know what I mean yeah you found a way to get out to change your environment yeah exactly yeah and so the cure for boredom is to find a different way to do the thing you're already doing that's making you crazy so let's say you got board taking pictures of buildings you haven't taken every angle no you haven't taken every focal length you haven't taken every configuration of are there people here in front of it or like there's a million things you're missing you know what I mean yeah go to a new city and take pictures of different buildings exactly or you know I love I love seeing created there's this guy follow on Instagram who's like took took uh photography to a level I didn't even think about um his name is Andrew skivington and he takes these pictures you have no idea what the picture is of but it looks like almost like an acid trip and then then he might say in the caption of like this is just a closeup of glass on a building that's reflecting a thing and you go what the [ __ ] it looks like you put like a frog in a blender cool macro [ __ ] that's like yeah but it's everyday average [ __ ] right but it's not always even macro it's sometimes it is but it's just brilliant stuff and then you want to know like how did you how did you do this cuz it's just a different level you know stacking and all that yeah is anything like that that really gets you stoked that's not taking pictures of Like Comics and stuff that is is uh or the backstage you know anything involving that that you like to take that's just like completely different that kind of gets you stoked reignited like buildings for you or not the comedy yeah yeah CU there anything that you are just like man I'm G to like or when you're going through your Lightroom or whatever you edit with you're like you're like oh [ __ ] like you see something that's not a comedian picture and you're like oh that [ __ ] gets me stoked yes there yeah totally so I love uh uh taking pictures of skateboarding oh um I love it like people mid a and doing tricks and stuff yeah yeah like skat parks and stuff I haven't done that in a while but when I was starting it got me like on fire like and and my old old early Instagram has a bunch of stuff I used to go to Venice Beach and just shoot these these guys and there's always a million photographers doing it but I just always tried to get something different and it was so exciting I can't skateboard at all I also love uh taking pictures of motorcycle like dirt bike stuff I haven't done a ton of it but I'm passionate about dirt bikes um and um so that's a fun thing yeah it is about like finding you know yeah the the other things that that excit is that is that your Muse no that's not the that wouldn't be a muse well your Muse would be why you create anything that inspires you right um I always get confused on that word and then I love I mean so love light painting that's that's probably the number one thing um that and it's one of the reasons like I'm one of the reasons I'm really excited about about um getting a place here is having all this gear that I don't have to have in a suitcase every single time I travel and I can't bring enough stuff so now I have all this stuff and I love light painting and I'm going to be doing a lot more can you tell me more about what that is because I I'm I don't know everything about photography I pretend to know long it's long exposure oh okay so with the trails with light trails that you cre yeah I like that Stu so and you you actually are using light to paint uh an image in that you take like a like one of those lightsaber looking things or some kind of lighting gig like rig like that the shutter might be open for like 15 seconds and now you have that time to paint yeah so you're just using that digital frame as a canvas and it's really cool stuff that's when you see people write their name in a sparkler or some [ __ ] like that right exactly exactly love that shit's fun yeah that's how you could draw a dick doing it if you're quick enough right that you can draw a dick absolutely that's how you start that's how you start level one that's level one is is drawing dicks with sparklers drawing dicks with sparklers is absolutely sounds like a [ __ ] good time if someone asks me now how to get started in photography I'm just going to say first thing you do draw a dick with a sparkler and 20 second shutter if you can do that you come back and see me I'll give you I'll give you level two I'll give you the next Quest now add balls now now you know yeah exactly now add hair on the ball yeah no that's the way to go man like that's the first thing I did is I went uh when I started I went to Joshua tree with um uh those those candles that are you know little battery operated little votive candles like the ones they have at the mother like in the yeah like on tables comedy clubs that aren't a real candle yeah yeah and I just like stood in the middle of of the desert at night and was trying to write nice things and it was it was a total fail I think I wrote my name I wrote the word love and um I should have drawn a dick now that I think about it like that would have been such a great how I [ __ ] miss that would have been a good tie in for the for the funny you right yeah and also another cure for boredom drawing dicks drawing dicks with light you're like I know what I'm doing tonight that's going to be my first book by the way yeah drawing di drawing di with light and it's like real serious cover no yeah it's like you just just an up close head shot a really nice Studio it's well lit yeah um but yeah that's that you know that's the that's the kind of thing that takes you out of out of that um that orbit you know yeah um so you you educated me today and I'm sorry I didn't know that you were a standup too and so when did you did was standup before photos M okay yeah Mine mine's flipped I started basically getting in integrated and meeting people by going and shooting photos I was already making money off of the restaurant stuff and then I was like I was like I these guys don't have money to pay me you know so I'm just going to go take photos and try to help and just I want to be at the show and I love comedy and I've been going to the shows anyway so you know let try to get in with my camera take pictures and give them to people and so I was doing that for a while and then somebody finally do you know Yonder yeah so Yonder came on the podcast and told me uh to go try standup cuz I'm do music stuff already and he kind of exists that same coming from music to go to standup and so I started doing it like that haven't taken photos at a comedy show in a while maybe I should maybe that's maybe that's what maybe that's my drawing dicks with light there you go maybe I need to go back and try to take some photos of people at Creek and stuff and just to help just to flex those muscles again but that's today's lesson everyone needs their drawing dicks with light yes that's the title of the episode is drawing dicks with light yeah light up your life with dicks uh uh but so so you got you were doing standup first and then started taking photos at the show yeah I started standup and um and I did years on the road and um and I loved it and I never wanted to stop but then I started making these shows these standup shows that were fun and creative and that took me it it it took me so far into that producing role right where it was kind of stressful um and I I had to pick like am I going to keep am I going to devote myself to this and really make it work or am I going to also do some standup and let this thing kind of maybe it'll happen maybe it won't so I decided to stick with it and so that that took me like 99% out of standup um and some of the time I was just hosting but that was really just to get keep the show moving kind of thing like I was like I'm done with I I don't have time to write I don't have time to go do sets everything was devoted to this show called set list and um and it it worked out really well um it became a TV show overseas most people don't know it here except as a live show in the states um what what is it so it's you walk on stage as a comic and behind you is a projection screen and you have no idea what your set is going to be so instead of your set list I'm writing weird [ __ ] as a set list really weird [ __ ] that no one's ever always you it's always you writing it okay no one's ever had any of these topics on any set list ever and it makes no sense until you decide what it means because life is meaningless until you decide what that means you create the meaning in your life right same thing with standup you see some words it's like a roar shock test you you decide what that is no one ever looks at a roar shock and goes well what is it what's the right answer what is that again is that the ink plot test yeah where it's like weird pictures of something like no one's like well what's the answer like that's not the point the point is what do you see it as so this show is like a ro shock test so you have these weird topics you turn around you see it behind you and you look at at the audience and you confidently go into that as if you've been doing that for 5 10 years okay and that's set list so that became a TV series on Sky Atlantic in the UK uh and it was sounds awesome it was awesome um this was in 2012 and um and it starred um I mean it was Gilbert godfried Robin Williams wow um uh you I mean the lit Drew Carrey it was half American comics and half British Comics um and it was Ricky J was he on it no we did want him to do it he would have loved doing it um and uh uh it was just the most amazing special thing and the comics love doing it and you know you're not burning material you're creating material and uh I've always been a big believer in improvising standup uh because that's how you can generate material and I and people don't put enough pressure on themselves to create and that's the only way you can really create is by putting that pressure 100% yeah do you still do that or is it does it still H does it still go on the the pandemic kind of killed everything for now anyway the last show we did was I hate saying it was on Zoom oh no and it was it was just before he passed away Gilbert godfried did the show he did the long I think the longest set that's ever been done on the show which is about 45 minutes that's a long improvised set usually it's 10 to 10 to 15 minutes max because then there's like this kind of burnout feeling of like okay I've done everything I could do um and uh it was I remember running the show you know Zoom so I'm running this thing from my office on a laptop and I could I could hardly see the screen because I was crying laughing so hard because it Gil Bert became more Gilbert than anything on that show yeah and he start you know he starts into his Hitler thing but he's making all this stuff up and it was just magic you know so bring it back in Austin dude what they said bring it back in Austin people would love that do Creek I talked to uh I talked to Red B we did at the creek in the cave in New York um a long time ago but I've talked to a red band about putting it up and that's a that's a possibility so um yeah so that may happen it's just a matter of like getting everything settled here and all that but I think that would be a killer show yeah um and uh yeah it's a ton of fun it's a blast um the other thing I wanted to talk to you about was just because I was kind of like learning on the Fly how to take pictures of comics you know like when I was first starting to do it and I was like wow this is actually kind of weird cuz it's like a combination of like it's not quite music photography but but it's also not quite portrait cuz people are moving you know what I mean so it's isn't it kind of like a blend or like I don't know like how do you pick the right moments I guess it's harder than it's much harder than music photography it's harder than it looks yeah it's much harder than music photography because when you're taking pictures of a band you have these smooth movements of their their mouth and it all looks cool and they you know a lot of times they have these cool lighting packages and I mean oh man it's like Rockstar [ __ ] great shooting fish in a barrel yeah even if it's just a band in a club with the same lighting as a St it's still going to be better because you can get um better facial expressions and the problem is is that if you take pictures of comics you can't get you can't capture them mid sentence where they're like and their their mouth is all contorted sideways all they're doing is talking but you're capturing the wrong moment like no one wants to see their mouth all twisted right um um so that makes it harder you have to catch I mean I just I think it's just about catching the joy yeah of of that moment and you just find it you know you got to catch them when they're not like this sucks like in their head you know what I mean like in like when they're not like cuz some some comedians will be visible I guess about how when their set's not going well you know yeah you could catch that probably an inexperienced but as long as they look as long like that could be an iconic look they're like bummed out they're like you know that would be that could be cool it just yeah so so when I say capture the joy it might be it might be the what what do they say in the UFC when they show these little um Recaps it's like the it's like the glory and the defeat it's I forget what the wording is but glor and defeat or I don't know it's like it's something like that it's it's like let's just say glory and defeat that's what you want to capture right one of the one or the other but you don't want to capture in between where they're like stroke look like you're having a stroke right yeah comes full circle like that comic that was next to you the first time you ever picked up a camera EXA exactly it's how I started dude you scammed me right out of the gate dude I I you had me in the palm of your hands I was like no way should have kept that going Steve Harvey you know the the photographer fell over and you you should you should clip that like do you do clips of this pod you should just that and then leave it as a stand alone and not give the part where I that you were [ __ ] with me yeah yeah like that would just be legendary story of how legendary comedy photographer fck cuz now you're now everyone gets trolled and there's nothing more fun it'll be Troy Conrad lore it'll be it'll be lore dude if you're a good person you enjoy being trolled yeah I believe that I believe it everybody wins on a on a good fun troll like oh man you [ __ ] that's a win-win if you're a bad person you're like what yeah oh look you made me look dumb yeah like that's stupid like there are people like that those are generally bad people who have serial killer brains well it must be a low IQ thing cuz I think everyone like you're saying who's a good person they know what it's like to to get somebody like I got your ass I made I made you believe that you know what I mean and so you want so when someone else has that like you when you got it the just now I was like oh nice you know that [ __ ] got me dude no it's it's super fun you were straight face trolling me with sunglasses on the sunglasses yeah I'm just like dude I'm I don't know who this guy is you know what I mean it's I'm happy to have him in here and you're like yeah so this crazy story I think every time from now on that that someone ask me that I'm just going to make up a different answer on the spot because again that's a cure for boredom I I really do when I said I was like I kind of get bored talking about photography such a weird thing to I know I'm sorry this has been great this has been great I'm just saying like generally it's like you know you're saying the same thing over and over it's it's good to have fun to me I'm just so I'm interested in why people get into it cuz I feel like somebody who shouldn't have been allowed to be a photographer because I have other skills that help me like I'm I'm good at talking to people and and I'm you know what I mean a natural people person and I'm a good hang and then and then I also got this skill so it's just like been a weird thing for me where where like I feel like uh everyone's story to how started as so different unique that it I'm I'm interested in that and then how everybody gets to a point where they can you know like live in their car and and and ask for uh forgiveness not permission to go in and shoot right that's something you hear in photography all the time like instead of asking can I get in here with my camera just [ __ ] walk in there and if somebody says no then you're like all right Sor right you know what I mean right but but everybody kind of has a different story of like how they got to doing it full-time and for a lot of people that I know a lot of my friends and peers and stuff that are in the music world or whatever trying to take pictures at shows the idea of doing it for a living is a joke like it's so far away from because they work at they work at a restaurant and they nobody pays them to do stuff and they're you know what I mean they don't feel like they're good enough and it's like that that that self-worth thing is huge you know what I mean you start working on your craft and having fun with it and then set your sorth you know what I mean yeah yeah and so that's why I like to get people on here I know it's photog talking about photography on a podcast can can can be boring to some people but for me it's important to for people to hear like other people's version of how they got to be doing it for a job because there's people out there that shouldn't be at the [ __ ] Olive Garden that should be doing photography fulltime because they're good at it you know I mean that's the that's the story of life right there there are people who are at the Olive Garden and they're wondering how to get out of the Olive Garden and you know it's it's taking that first step and who knows what that is but it could be [ __ ] up like it could be going out and bombing a photo shoot and being like f i you know I got my first big big gig and I and my the the lens cap was on something dumb happened you know what I mean my memory card was full or it's battery died and then you learn from from there you kind of you kind of bottom out and like Nuke yourself in the beginning and then from there you're like okay now I know what to never do again and then you start to rebuild like that I feel like that that's H that can happen too the when people a lot of people like write to me hey what what what advice do you have for I'm starting out in photography and I always say number one try this week to to go out there just make as many mistakes as you can take some kind of chance so it puts you at risk of [ __ ] it up do something wild who knows what that is because the more mistakes you make the better that's how you get good and I try to do that all the time I'm at level I'm at level four still making mistakes just trying to get better and make mistakes I'm keep making mistakes I'm going to make more mistakes this year than I did last year and next year I'm going to really top that I have a thing right now where I'm doing um arm wrestling and I'm arm wrestling people way bigger than me and my goal is to lose 100 matches this year against bigger people here's my [ __ ] plan in 20125 I'm going to be a monster you're going to be jacked I'm going to be I don't know how jacked I will be but I I'll tell you this I will be stronger and I will it I will not look like I'm as good as I am you're going to be just as jacked as you are now but with popey arms you're only going to have you're just going to have popey arms popey arms but I would like I will be wrestling you know I'm gonna I'm GNA put a table out on Sixth Street and I'm going to [ __ ] just wrestle bodybuilders and I'm going to beat them left-handed cuz I'm left handed yeah so 2025 is is a is going to be a success year but I'm trying to lose Championship Reign and so go find your thing go find your arm wrestling and make your goal to lose as much as possible there's here's another great book A book I've read 30 times on audio book and it's by the world former World chess champion Gary Kasparov and it's called how chess imitates life great [ __ ] book it's and if you do it on audiobook it's the best narrator that's ever done Audi books this guy should get a [ __ ] award and um that book he talks about lose as much as your ego can take it that's the that's great advice lose as lose as much as your ego can take it some people like so so Gary Kasparov he I mean that that dude is legit um and he one thing about him is he hates losing he does not have good emotional regulation if he loses so he's not one of those guys we were talking about that doesn't throw temp potential he's one of those guys who if he loses he's going in the back and he's going to kill a puppy not a good hand with his bare hands right but he knew that about himself that in order to get better he would lose and so he has this he he has this story about how he was on this role in chess where he was just like beating every Grand Master boom boom boom beating the the guys that he grew up watching in like that he looked up to these legends that were unbeatable and he goes I know I'm about to lose in the biggest way and I'm going to be depressed like I'm gonna I'm setting myself up because I'm winning and winning and winning there was no losing and so now he's not learning anymore he's just riding these victories and he goes oh no it's coming and it and it did you know so and then he got better that lesson you were putting off for a while yeah it's like it's like this like a chart where you're going up and then you go you lose you go down down down and now you go up a little higher the next time because you're learn but if you just keep going up you're setting yourself up for a bigger fall and it's harder to take that and you kind of brainwash yourself like like I'm I'm good at this I'm good I'm done right there's no more to learn and then so it hits even yeah it hits even harder once you once when you do fall down for a second you're like oh [ __ ] I thought I was the [ __ ] right right yeah man yeah so uh lose as much as you can take it absolutely what what time are we at right now dude we're cruising two to what minutes two minutes to an hour we can wrap on this I just wanted to touch on the boredom thing real quick one more time um you were um that got me thinking about something with my own life where like I'm I I have that same boredom with like the normal 9 to-5 life like I can't that's why I've chosen this like weird path you know what I mean for you it was like living in your I wondered if you shared that same boredom too like if you had some before you decid to live in your car and go and and be poor for a while while you chase this this comedy photography dream or whatever you know it's like what what were you doing before then and and did you you know hate that enough to be like I'm going to do whatever it takes to not be that bored again um I mean no I was doing standup before then oh you were doing standup okay yeah I guess before all of it I'm talking about um oh before all of it I guess yeah I mean I mean I had like a million weird jobs I mean when I moved to LA my first job was um H it was like an ad for making balloon animals for kids at parties no way and I took it I didn't know how to do that but I took it because it paid like at that time this is 20 years ago it paid like it's like 30 bucks an hour or something like wow I didn't know balloon animals was a trade balloon animals man that was considered a trade and dude I nerded out on that [ __ ] like I got so into I wasn't amazing at it I say but but I but I was like okay enough where I can start making things and I was like this is so [ __ ] fun like it's stupid but it's so fun every time you popped a balloon you were like lose as many times as your ego allows you to I view that I get real I start doing motivational seminars on how to make balloon the key to life uh is the dog yeah so I but dude I would like be drunk and I would go like I was working the road uh at at at clubs and I was bringing Balloons with me and you know we go out with the staff and drink and I was bringing balloon animals out at the bar pretty sick yeah it was pretty [ __ ] wild we went to this bar in um Tucson Arizona and uh it was a Hell's Angels a real Hell's Angels bar not a biker bar a Hell's Angels where people murdered people and I brought balloon animals because I'm a little bit oblivious and that's the key to my success is I'm stupid and that has led me to where I am ask for forgiveness never never permission yeah and I made this big mistake because it was karaoke night and I did some song and then I I said at the end of it I go hey at the end of the song Go free balloon animals for all the Hell's Angels now I didn't know the M the grave mistake that I had made someone comes up to me afterwards when I walked off stage I was kind of quiet in the room and they said Big John wants to talk to you in the back and I go okay now of course nothing's wrong so I'm not that scared but then I walk into this room and it was like it was like those movies where there's just a single light hanging in the middle and two chairs like a like an interrogation room where probably people have where they take you in your counting cards where where you're just talking and then someone comes behind you with a plastic bag over your head and now you're dead so I'm I'm sitting across from him and this goty this gigantic 6 foot five 300b dude named Big John goes he says nothing he just stares at me and he goes we don't talk about what we are and now I have no idea where this is coming from so I go okay well that's cool and and then he just looks at me again long pause no we don't talk about what we are and I go yeah well that I can I'm down with that you know I said and then I was like um did is something wrong and he goes you just said what we are and I still don't know stupid I still don't know he goes we don't say Hell's Angels We Have narcs looking for us 247 we don't announce that so that was like it was supposed it was like an underground thing but my friends are like Hey we're going to this Hell's Angels I didn't know that you don't talk about that that's the first rule said it the fourth time you went oh we don't oh that oh yeah I did say that on stage didn't I I said Hell's Angels didn't I I'm like I son of a gun you're talking you're sitting across from a [ __ ] person I don't know anything dude like I and then so I I was like I didn't know there was anything wrong with that and he goes don't ever do it again and I said oh dude I will never I promise you that I would never say that again and he goes and one more thing I want you to make a balloon animal for for me and I go okay what do you want he goes 81 and I go okay like the number yeah I go why 81 he goes because that's our code H is the eighth letter of the alphabet and a is the first letter of the alphabet nice it's pretty rad so I made him 81 and then all the other Hell's Angels asked for 81s oh I want one see these [ __ ] tough bikers with long beers got blood on their Jack and [ __ ] and they're [ __ ] each other's uh uh like the ones are [ __ ] the eights yeah they're they're drunk walking around and their their balloon animals are [ __ ] the heads of other Ballo yeah it was the wildest thing dude that is hilarious that's a that's a skit that needs to be [ __ ] recreated that's that needs to be turned into a movie or something dude you're right cuz the whole thing was cinematic to me like number one was that that light in the middle of the room in this dim it was like that yellow yeah you know and just like big Angry bearded like Hell's Angels guys like just like glowing just like like you know [ __ ] the the the balloon animals just stoked on a little childish thing that's [ __ ] awesome the contrast there it's perfect yeah dude it was [ __ ] Wild Well you survived Troy thank you for coming on the podcast dude I appreciate it maybe we'll have to have you back if you had a fun time uh I hope hopefully you'd come back I'd like to have everybody on every once once every once every once in a while once a year check back every week man yeah come back every week um you know what can we do the can we do since you said you clip up the show can we do a fake story real quick just a quick one and then you can clip that and it looks like there's some crazy [ __ ] up story and they have to wait till the end to find the story that find out it's fake yeah yeah yeah okay so ask I don't know what this whole thing's going to be but ask me about uh say you might have had an encounter with the Rainy Street killers and then that's where the clip would start right so I heard you might have had an encounter with the uh the Rainy Street killer guy oh [ __ ] he told you about I didn't want to talk about that but it was because it's it was kind of a traumatic thing uh I was I did first of all when I uh started coming out here I did had no idea about this I'm not a local I don't know all this stuff but I didn't know there was a guy doing this I don't know if it was the guy I definitely didn't see him but um I was just walking that like this is like 1: in the morning after show I went up and this guy grabs me from behind to choke me and he drags me into an alley and now I know a little bit of jiujitsu so I was able to get out of it but he had a knife and he stabbed me like he he tried to stab me in the [ __ ] but he hit my thigh and I mean no believe me it's funny that he's try to stab me in the [ __ ] right but it's also traumatic could have lost my dick on that yeah um and this it was was dude it was the scariest thing and I was able to escape but I let like it was like a blood I had blood gushing down I had to go to the ER they stitched it up I still walk with a with a little bit of a limp it's still hard but that's Jiu-Jitsu saved me in that and I never got to look at the guy because it was dark um but it was [ __ ] up man like that was my introduction to Austin Jesus well I'm glad you made it okay that's I think you I and by the way I think you clip it at that was my introduction to Austin you stop it right there yeah exactly they'll be like no way dude you're you're helping us make viral content for the Pod by the way if you're mad if you got to the end of this podcast and then you're mad you're a bad person like it's fun to be trolled yeah you can either be offended by something when when those feelings come up or you Cann not be a [ __ ] right you know me there you go uh but yeah uh Troy I a blast man I loved having you here dude thank you so much um you want to plug anything or let people know where they can find you um um yeah uh I mean just my Instagram's pretty much the only thing I use Troy Conrad with a S at the end so Troy Conrad's on Instagram and uh yeah I don't think I have anything else to plug right now dude there was so many good one so many good Takeaway on Liners in this pod so definitely uh uh hopefully got stok uh Stoke some people out and get some people you know get their flame going right get them out there go out there and fail yeah thank you so much for coming on dude appreciate it yeah we'll see you around um guys thank you for watching and listening um follow Troy uh check out his photo work on his Instagram and uh please like And subscribe and everything we'll see you in the next [Music] oneast you are listening to G gcast you idiot