Gabe Gibbs Shares Personal Stories of Comedy, Resilience, and the Healing Power of Humor in Challenging Times

Comedy Saved Me. I'm Lynn Hoffman and welcome to Comedy Saved Me. I'm so excited you're here. Also, one's let you know, I host another show called Music Saved Me, very similar to Comedy Saved Me, but with musicians. But today is a huge twist of worlds. My guest today has done it all. Broadway, network television, viral social media. And somehow, he's managed to make all of it funnier than it probably ever needed to be. He is starred in as the elder price in National Tour of the Book of Mormon. He had a recurring role on ABC show, Schooled, and has also guest starred numerous times on shows like Grey's Anatomy. But what really sets him apart is his incredible gift for creating original music-driven comedy. Yes, I said music-driven comedy. This is why I'm so excited. From his musical comedy podcast called Musicals That Never Made It, to sold out original shows in Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles. And if you ever saw his viral music parodies of Britney Spears or the Backstreet Boys, Jonas Brothers, you already know this guy is something very special. He just released his first special on Veebs and Lucky for Us because he's coming up next right here on Comedy Saved Me, the wonderfully funny and absolutely adorable, ridiculously talented Gabe Gibbs, next. This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Don't move. ["Singers In The World"] Comedy Saved Me. It is the one and only Gabe Gibbs. I'm so happy. Welcome to Comedy Saved Me. It's so great to meet you. I'm very happy to be here. I do have to say, listening to the intro, it was lovely to hear and you have one of the nicest speaking voices in the world. Are you a singer? Thank you. Do you sing? I am not, although I did do musicals when I was in junior high school, but I do voice work for a living. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's very well calculated, very well placed and hearing your own little accolades, they sound fancier coming out of your mouth. So it was a nice little way to start the day. Thank you so much. What a beautiful compliment. I appreciate it. My parents used to say that I talk so much that one day I would have to find a way to make money with my mouth. Well, here you are. So there I am. And you've done it. Well, Gabe, it's so great to have you here. You're just, your energy just, I actually felt it when I watched some of your YouTube videos and your specials and stuff. You really have a way of just really making people feel like you're talking to them. Oh, whoa, thank you very much. Yeah, I tried to do that. I think coming from like the musical theater kid world, there's a lot of talking at you in the theater world. You know what I mean? It's all very big and very whatever. And so something clicked when I started doing more like comedy comedy. Well, I don't do real standup. I'm like a musical comedian as we've talked about, but something clicked when I started doing that. My sister came up and she was like, hey, that actually felt like you. The first time I started doing it, my sister was like, feels like you're actually talking to me. Do more of that. Wow. So I just hit it right on the head. You totally did. Now, when you grew up with your sister in Detroit, the son of a pastor, is that correct? Yes, yes, yes. OK, so when did you first realize that making people laugh was something that you needed to do, not something that you were just maybe good at? Totally. That's a really good question because those are two different things. I think because my sister and I were very similar to you, it sounds like, in that we were doing a lot of talking. There's a lot of noise making in the house. My two younger siblings are a little more well-behaved in the audio department. But my sister and I were making a lot of noise, and it felt like we had no choice but to figure out how to make that a big part of our lives. But yeah, I grew up a church kid and was singing in church. But I was at hip church, so we were also doing more contemporary fun songs and sketches and things. And so I got the bug there and then was doing theater in high school. And then at some point, it clicked doing that that I was like, oh, uh-oh. I kind of like, I have to do this. I have no choice. There's nothing I think about more. There's nothing I feel more at home and suited for than to do this. And so I was kind of juggling a love of music because I had always wanted to be in bands and stuff because all my friends were like cool music guys. But I felt like I was a good enough musician to hang with them sort of. But really, all I wanted to do is make people laugh. And so then it was like years of trying to figure out how to combine the two. And I do feel like in the last few years, I've started to go, oh, OK. Really? There's a world where those two things can touch, yeah. And most people looking in from the outside into your world would think, oh, my god, you've already become so successful. You've already made it to network television and you've already toured with Broadway. But you're saying that you feel like you've just come into your own in the last couple of years. I feel that way, yeah, because I think like actor Gabe, the actor version of me is servicing other people's things, which I really enjoy doing. I really love acting. And there's a lot of fun in that. But you're there to help get the story from A to Z. But you hop in when the story is already ready. So there's a lot of fun now for me to try to figure out, like, what do I make when it's starting at zero? And how do I? What sort of take do I get to have? And that, I think, has happened in the last five or six years. I've really started to be like, OK, I don't know what it is. But maybe we put this weird Broadway kid in comedy settings and he's the only one doing music at a stand-up show. And what do I do? And so trying to get these two worlds to overlap and do like a and see what version of me is in the middle of that diagram. And that's been happening in the last few years, yeah. Yeah, that is completely horrifying to me to think about what you just said. I mean, it's a little overwhelming because you're really you're out there by yourself, one man show. And totally. And and it's your writing, like you said, you're servicing another client, you know, a job when you're acting. But this is like you and your job at the same time. Totally, totally. It feels very it definitely does feel scary. I describe it as there's no like when I talk to I go back to the college I went to and talk to the students sometimes and I'm like, guys, it's mostly just a lot of drowning. You're just going to do a lot of drowning. And then all of a sudden you catch like a. And that's like your first like, oh, OK, there's something here. No longer just drowning. Maybe now I can tread water. OK, great. But it's like it does. It is like a scary like, you know, people talk about like, you know, taking the plunge and really trying a new thing. And they don't talk about that after you take the plunge. You still have to keep drowning for a few years to like really figure it out and piece it together. And I don't know. I don't know a version other than that, that it is, you know, there's no version that's not like drowning for a few years until you figure it out. I mean, unless you have a version that's like you have an idea and it goes perfectly, then please tell me, Lynn, because I was like, oh, yeah, that was my whole life. It was just perfect. Every new idea you had. Yeah, yeah, it was just amazing. I've never made the choice to go out on by myself. Actually, it's funny you say that because I was so scared of drowning that I didn't even want to do a show. I started on radio. Yeah. And, you know, when I was asked to host a show actually by Buzz Knight many years ago, he called when I was doing traffic reports. That's how I started. No way. And he offered me an afternoon drive show on WZLX in Boston in like in the 90s. Yeah. Early 90s. And I was like, no. And it was such a huge offer. And I'm like, no, I can't I can't do that by myself. I'm putting myself out. I was petrified, you know. So yeah, I get that. I get that feeling. I do think there's a lot of that's the thing that I'm trying to. I think people like us have to spend kind of our whole lives going, OK, am I actually scared of this because it's a bad idea and because it's going to put me, you know, in danger or am I scared of this because it's new and I probably could. But I don't I haven't gone from A to Z in that environment yet. So I haven't seen the shape of it and I don't know how it feels. Yeah. It's hard to know which one it is, because often they feel the same at the beginning where you're like, yeah, hey, do you want this opportunity? And you're like, hell, no, that sounds so scary. Just say yes to everything. I, you know, looking back, giving my old self advice, I would say just I should have said yes, I should have done it. But I was too scared. But even now, wouldn't you agree it's still scary, even though you've had all of these winds under your belt and you're coming up for another breath of air. And it's like everything's still kind of scary. Totally. I think about it right now as like, even though I'm a theater kid, I'll use a baseball metaphor. OK. I think about it now as batting average where they don't. I don't have to like kill it every time. I don't have to like, you know, every decision doesn't have to go perfectly in the way that I thought it would. But is my batting average generally decent? Then we're doing well because you only see the home runs from all the people around you. You don't see the fact that they're also like striking out a lot. You know, like that's if I can feel like my batting average is decent, then I can just keep going in that, you know. That's such a great man. I love that. I hear that is so true. I kind of know. Well, I've got one question for you. But first, when did I want to get into what you're doing now? But I also have a couple of questions from before. Was there a specific moment in your life when comedy genuinely saved you, like got you through something really hard, kept you sane? I think for me, it was like such a wonder. It's always been a wonderful shield of like how to get through middle and high school for me, because I wasn't like I was like athletic ish. I was like smart ish. I was like I was definitely like odd. I think it's like, yeah, totally. Like I like, but but I found that in every setting, if you're funny or if you make people laugh, you can find safety in sort of any environment. And so once that kind of clicked up like, oh, I'm the funny guy. I'm not the football guy. I'm not the like. I was a little bit also the singer guy because, you know, growing up in in Michigan, if you are a boy who sings, everyone knows it and you get teased. So but to be the singer guy, who's the funny guy, that's like, it's disarming and people aren't worried. You know, you have a space that you can take up and you have a role to play in every social setting. So I don't have like a in this moment, it saved me other than like I hosted the talent show in middle school and was like getting to crack jokes and like, you know, let's bring up the next, you know, whoever. And that for me felt like, oh, this is how I can fit in. I can like make the parents laugh. I can like make the kids laugh and I feel comfortable up here. Whereas like, yeah, you know, there's a version of the story that could be like, I felt, you know, weird walking through the hallways. I was fine, but I definitely like felt way more like myself when I was like, oh, if you get to be funny and you get to find spaces where you get to like entertain and be in those environments, I felt like, oh, that's really how I can see, you know, a shape of life for me. Yeah. And you're describing my high school experience to a T. But I had no idea that any of the comedy had anything to do with it or just being silly or, you know, loving music as well and all that. But it helped you to fit in with everybody, right? I mean, so you didn't have to be your friends with the geeks and the and the theater guys and the like you said, the sports and all that. And and you made it work with everyone. Totally. Yeah. Totally. Which was like a really huge. It's a huge gift because that's like a skill you can take in any setting. I feel like I can find my way in and just about any environment because I can disarm you and I can whatever and I'll and we'll find a way to get along because that's you know, how I had to that's how I did middle school. No, but that it's just huge. It's it's it's for you to know when you were going through it, that that was what was happening. I had no clue. I just thought there was something wrong. I didn't fit in. So I had to be friends with everybody. Totally. I had no idea what it was. So good for you to figure it out and then capitalize on it throughout your life. What an amazing, beautiful gift. And speaking of which, the Book of Mormon is one of the funniest shows pretty much ever written. That's what everyone says. What was it like living inside that material night after night? And did it ever stop being funny for you? No, my joke about it is like I did that show for three years. And if it was Oklahoma, I wouldn't have been able to do it for three years. Like, why? What do you mean? Like old Jud can only be dead, whatever that song is. You know, no, it's it's endlessly funny because I think ultimately what those guys do really well, Matt and Trey and Bobby Lopez and the whole team who made that show. It's like a really smart show, first and foremost, that has a bunch of jokes that can live on top of the bones of something very smart. So it's kind of endlessly funny in that it's not just like something silly for silly's sake. Underneath it, there is like a lot of intelligence. And so that makes it last. And the music's really good. And honestly, I was with the show for so long because I started as an understudy on the road and then they brought me to Broadway to understudy on Broadway. And then they gave me the role. So every year there was like a new sort of graduation. So that combined with like the fact that the show was so good. Did it for I did it for three years out of college. It was like my grad school, I felt like because it was. Yeah, I was on the road meeting, you know, making friends. And then and then by the time I was like leading the show, I made so many dumb mistakes because I was 22 of just like, I don't I don't know how to lead a Broadway show. I'm 22 years old and I just want to sing really loud and make people laugh. And like there are a lot of things to learn that I got to learn doing that show. So I credit that to a lot of my my polishing, my finishing school, if you will. Yeah, for sure. I mean, what when you took the stage in Broadway or even in high school or junior high school, what what was it about the comedy and making people feel so good? You know, do you know exactly what that is? I mean, how did it make you feel when you realized that this was what you wanted to do? That's a good question. I don't know. I think to be honest, a lot of it, like when you're 14, 15, 16, a lot of it is again, just like looking for a place to be. And then like probably the ego scratch of like other guys get to get to make three point shots and feel cool in front of all their friends. And there's like an ego to that as much as they love the game of basketball. Like I got to make people laugh. And I'm sure it was like 15, 16 year old boy ego that loved it at first. And now it's like, I don't think it's as much that as it is like I view it differently now because I do I do see it as kind of an important, like necessary tool for people to keep moving, like to keep going is to like have that have that release. That was what that was one of the things that Book of Mormon taught me was like, it's a show about Mormonism, but it's really a show about religious tightness and finding like a breath within that. And that's what I felt doing that show, which was not of my own doing. I was just singing the songs and doing the role. But I got to see like, oh, wow, like this is like a release for people. Like this is like, like people who grew up in that environment and felt really squeezed by it, got to come see that show and have a night of like, oh man, I get to hold this all lightly for a little bit. And I don't have to like feel so heavy about it. And that was that was a Book of Mormon gift for sure. And I try to have like a little bit of that in what I'm up to. I don't want to get too like, woo, or heavy handed in my work. But Mormon definitely taught me like sort of the importance of like, this is an opportunity for people to like let stuff go even for just a moment. And as woo, as that is, I really, I like, I got to see it and feel it in Mormon. And that was like, I can't shake that, you know. No. And the fact that you want to continue to give it as well, because, you know, it may be fulfilling work for you and helpful to us, the end user who gets to get that release and stuff. But the fact that you want to continue to do that, because that's a lot. You put a lot of pressure on yourself. You have to write everything yourself, perform it, do it. But but then that sense of that feeling that you get giving everyone a brain massage, basically, so they can drop their shoulders. Totally. It's addictive, isn't it? It's addictive. And it's like, I mean, I grew up a pastor's kid. So there is like a lot of like parallels to ministry in that sense of like, you know, you've got like people going to church on Sunday to like recalibrate and people coming to see, listening to music that makes them, them makes them feel a certain way or allows like someone's honest about a thing and they put it in a song or someone's honest about a thing and they put it in a joke. There's like a ministry level ability to give people calm that I think is like super important, which is honestly right now, something I'm struggling with is like that can then get really like self important and heavy. Right. And that's not what I want in the work. I just recognize like how impactful the work can be. And I'm trying desperately to not let it get like I'm I'm like doing comedy to save the world, you know, like, exactly. We can't be having this. We can't we've seen enough of that. I went to college for musical theater. You have a kid now. You're you're like you are not even allowed to go there because your your energy is going somewhere else. I'm too tired. I'm too tired. We're going to write silly jokes and put them to music and hope that they make people giggle at the moment. It's such a gift. And speaking of all of that ministry stuff, one of my favorite songs that I've seen you do is I'm good at sex. I just highly recommend people checking out Gabe's stuff on YouTube right now. Just just Gabe gives just Google him and you will just have the best day after you watch anything he's done. Like honestly, you had me at hello with the opening song, one man show. I didn't even need to see the rest of the show because I was cracking up at the first song. I'm so glad. Let's talk about that. Musicals that never made it is such a great concept, by the way. And it also blew me away because you're mixing two of the most powerful skills and I don't even know what to call them. Things that we need in our life. Where did the idea come from and mixing music with comedy and what's the process of building a musical that is designed to be, shall I say, brilliantly unfurnished? Unfurnished. Yes, totally. Yeah, I call them the stupidest shows ever written. Like purposefully dumb. Yeah, that project was like, I worked on that one with a friend of mine from home who's like a really brilliant music producer and like sound engineer. And this stems from like my beef with I love musical theater under the umbrella of I love musical theater. I'm also mad at musical theater all the time for being like so cheesy and self important and like unapproachable to people who don't know the medium. Like people, people who've never seen a musical before. Most musicals, if you go to see it, they're going to be like, what in the hell are we watching? Like, what are we doing? It's crazy. So trying to lean into all of the ridiculous ideas. So that show is just like, I play a persona of myself who thinks he's the greatest composer alive and has, you know, written fantastic musicals that people need to hear. And he's convinced that like, it's only a matter of time. And the reason he hasn't found success is just because people haven't heard his music yet, not because these songs are terrible. The premise is terrible. This man is terrible. Like, yeah, that's, that's the fun I get to have in, in that project. And that's like a lot of, a lot of what I'm up to online too is sort of like making ridiculous musicals out of things that don't belong in the theater space, but somehow find their way into the theater space. It's awesome, Gabe. I mean, do you have an amount of people that come to the show that don't realize that you do put the music in or is, is it sort of in the title? They know what they're going to get. Yeah, I think, I think it is a lot of, a lot of people who know what they're going to get because, yeah, especially in like the comedy settings that I'm in, like on, on the road as comedian Gabe, I'm, I'm performing in like performing arts centers and like comedy venues. So the people showing up to those are not expecting stand up for me, which is good. Because if you expect stand up for me and then this, this boy goes and sits at a keyboard, it's a whole, it's a whole different vibe. So I have had those moments, obviously, you know, I end up on a lot of stand up shows as the musical comedian and there's always a keyboard. I have to set up early. So all the comedians are doing their stuff and there's just a keyboard sitting there and everyone's like, when are we going to get this keyboard guy? Who's he about to be? You know. Yeah, yeah. And then you just totally take him off guard, which is just awesome. I think it's just so cool. We'll be right back with more of the Comedy Saved Me podcast. Welcome back to the Comedy Saved Me podcast. You said Boston. You said Buzz offered you a job in Boston. Are you from Boston? My wife's from Boston. Yeah, I am. She's my wife's from Canton, like South. Canton, I'm from Newton. No way. Newton mass. Oh my God. We're like so close. Like one of my oldest dearest friends is from Canton. My ex-boyfriend used to have a baseball card shop there on Main Street. And I go down there. No way. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. I was just in Canton. I went to, oh no, what's her favorite pizza place? Town Spa, pizza? Does that mean anything? Shut up. No way. Liv. My friend, my friend Sean, who lived in Canton grew up there. He moved to LA and he craved the Town Spa pizza. So we sent them, we shipped him par-cooked pizzas from there to LA. And he was able to cook them off in the stove up there. No way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, that's crazy. I didn't know I should probably do that for my wife, huh? I feel like that would be so cute. That would when you major brownie points. Oh, we're always seeking brownie points as husbands. As goofy little husbands, we're always seeking brownie points. It's good. OK. Town Spa, wait, that's crazy. Yeah, shut up. I hope they're still open. I think they are. I hope they are. I think they are too. I don't know. I do feel like we would have, word would have spread had it shut down. The alarm would have gone out like, ooh, ooh, board of the last pizza. Yeah. All right, we're getting a little off topic here. And I want to get back on the road, though. But that is shocking to me. We have to talk after this. Yeah, great. You wrote the book, Music and Lyrics for Silly Songs at Sad Songs. Yes. That's quite a solo mountain to climb. What was the most terrifying process of part of that process? Because, I mean, you really like to scare yourself. Yeah, Silly Songs, Silly Songs, Sad Songs is like the early version of what turned into my special that's out now. So it was like, it was originally called Silly Songs, Sad Songs, and wrote that whole show. And that was like, I started that before. Honestly, I just like was writing songs and didn't know where they lived because what is now, of course, it's easy to like draw the path now that I've seen how that project netted out. But at the time I was like, I have these dumb, dumb, dumb songs and I have these kind of serious songs that are popping up. And I don't know like what to do with them. So my director friend who like directed all the versions of that show, which then turned into the special Picolain, he was like, just call it Silly Songs, Sad Songs. And let's just do like a version in somebody's living room where you just like see what it feels like to play Silly Songs and Sad Songs in the same show. And so the writing of that whole project was like, it was kind of an accident. I just had this like folder of like, I don't know what these are. You know what I mean? Like I keep making these things and they keep getting dumped into this bucket, but I don't even know what the bucket is. And then it was just a friend who was like, what if that's just what it is? Just do what you have, put it in front of us and see how it feels. That's kind of the only way, certainly in a comedy world, but in most creative worlds is just to kind of have to show it to see even what you have because you think you know what is funny or you think you know what is landing or what's going to land. And like, I feel like even the pros, like the old pros who've been at it for decades, they're still like the one truth of comedy is like, you don't actually know. The audience knows and you, and even they don't know and you don't know until you get it in the same room together and in my case, play the song out loud and say the bits out loud. But that one was like, yeah, it took a friend being like, I think you already have it. You're just scared of it. Just do it. Well, the fact that you listen because I have some tremendously talented friends who are so Uber talented, they have no idea, but they get in their own way. I'm sure you know people like it. They're so talented that they're so scared their fear gets in the way of their success. 100%. If we could just get that out of the way and you know, I keep thinking that all of my talented friends who do this, they shelve all of this stuff. And as long as it's evergreen one day, maybe they'll get out of their way and the world will be able to, they'll be able to share it. But truly you have to admit putting that stuff out there Gabe, it's like, it's like birthing a child, which you just recently went to, well, your wife. She did the hard part. Imagine like, here's my kid. Now everybody judge my kid. Totally. And I have nothing to, I can't, I have no recourse. Totally. I think, I think what's helped, what's helped me is working on things with a director and with friends who are in the community. To me, it feels a little, I try really hard to get it to a place where it doesn't feel like, here's my thing. Am I good enough? Try to get it to a place of like, we're all looking at the easel together. I'm the one who made the first brushstrokes, but we're all looking at it over here in a separate space. Like I'm just the one who got it on its feet and let's all look at it together and decide, oh, that doesn't actually look great there. That doesn't do that. Do you have something you want to add? Do you want to put some like stickers over here or whatever? As opposed to, because I literally can't move forward if it is like, here's me and my art and my, all the stuff I worked on, I have to get myself in the headspace of, hey everybody, let's all look at this little thing to get there and see how we feel. Like an observer. You're an observer. You created it, but you're also an observer, which is, it's a lovely thing that you're able to do that. Not every day. Not every day, not every time. No, it's hard. I give you a lot of credit. And no, and sharing your story right now, not just your art with all of the shows that you have in the books and stuff, but just doing shows like this and sharing the inside of yourself. Yeah. It's tremendously selfless, but it helps so much and it also probably is something that you want to do because the way that you're describing your life, it's like, you're not doing this to be some famous. No, no, no, no. You just have to get it out. So I got to get it out. I got to get it out. I got to get it out. And it's like, yeah. And because you can, everybody can smell it when you're trying to be, when you're trying to be a big, a big wig. Yes. Everyone can smell it. Some people can pull that off though. There are some people that you can smell that like, oh, it's a funny smell. Yeah. Yeah. But I actually like this guy somehow anyway. I don't think I have that. I think I have to make sure I maintain the spiritual practice of I'm here. Let's do this together because, you know, There is something so much about that though, being, being in a team. And that, I think maybe that's why I never took that job was because I, you know, from Buzz all those years ago, because I, I always wanted to work with a team of creative people, even if I had a good idea, but brainstorming was so much fun because nothing was ever wrong. You stick everything on the wall and whatever stays you go with, no one's offended that they didn't like your thing. Totally. But we're speaking of all these projects that you have to get out. You have a holiday show with Alden Derrick. You sold out Dynasty Tire Prider. What does that co-creation look like for you? I mean, how do you two comics and your voices become one show? I'm interested. Yeah. That, that one, we have similar tastes. So it's like fun. We set out to write like, what is a really campy, silly, like if Rocky Horror was a Christmas special, what's the crazy musical that we would write together? And he and I both have a lot of the same sort of like touch points in, in taste. And so that makes it, makes it easy for both of us. But I really like writing with a friend because I feel like you're just trying to make each other laugh. Yeah. And I'm like, what's a good idea? You know, like when you're sitting alone, you're like, come on, brain. You know, but when someone says something, and especially because I'm wired, like I'm an extrovert. So I'm wired to like, want to make people laugh. So we have an idea and I'm just in there trying to make Alden laugh. And we're writing down what we're saying. And of course it, you know, you don't use most of it, but there's stuff in that, that it doesn't feel like digging in the trenches to get an idea out. It's like the process feels a lot more teamworky and just kind of shooting the shit, which is like way, way more fun. And I think a better result at the end, because you also end up having to agree to things that you wouldn't have written and then watch how they do well. And it stretches you to be like, oh, I would not have done that or thought that would have worked, but I saw it from the beginning and I'm seeing it work. And like, it just allows you to release a little more, I think, when you're working with other people, because I've been wrong a lot. Hey, but that's the price of tuition, though. Mistakes are always the price of tuition. So they're never really bad. No, all learning for sure. Even when you have egg on your face in front of an audience, but that's for another time. Many Spears, Backstreet Boys, Jonas Brothers, the music was blew up online. They're hysterical. Do you write those things thinking this is going to hit or does the virality always surprise you when you put them out? They are hilarious. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, now I'm at a place with those where I think I've done almost like a hundred of those. And now I'm at a place where I'm just trying to keep making them because I enjoy them and because people enjoy them. Who's next on the plate? And you want to do like a pop star today? I need to do a pit bull one. I haven't done. I might have done a pit bull. I was just laying in bed thinking because I'll be in Miami soon. I'll be in Miami soon for a tour date. And I'm like, do I have a pit bull one? I got to do the pit bull one in Miami. But anyway, yeah, I think pit bulls on the list. Yeah, those are those. I just like doing them because I like taking ridiculous lyrics from pop songs or rap songs and going, OK, what context in the world of musical theater could we put this language in that it would somehow still make sense to me? Those feel like doing like a Sudoku puzzle in front of in front of people online where I'm like, hey, today's today's challenge is pit bull plus some weird like Dear Evan Hansen song in my brain. Like, how do we combine the two? And can we find the connective tissue that makes it work? And it might not at all. It's amazing. What a skill that is, honestly. Imagine doing that every day. I think about people who have to write comedy every day. And like you said, not every show from doing morning radio, I know not every show is going to be a winner show, but you just show up every day and do the job. And you do end up having those nuggets that just stand out. But all of those song parodies and things that you do, I wouldn't call them song parodies, though. So they're like, I don't know what to call them. I don't know what to call them either because because in a way they're like, they're sort of covers, but not covers. And they are not like your weird outings. Yeah, I don't know what I don't know what they are. They're they're scenes with song scenes inspired by song. I love that. That's great. If I come up with another one, I'll call you back up. Yeah, please. For it because that there's something to that. You have you have a musical comedy series in development for kids and family for kids and family network. I don't know if you can talk about which one it is, but makes kind of sense because you just had a kid yourself. So what drew you to this space? I'm thinking maybe that is writing for kids easier or harder than writing for adults. I think it's definitely in my experience, which is quite limited because we're still just like shaping the thing. It's harder because I care about it more. I think with adults, you have a lot more freedom and wiggle room to just be like, hey, well, we're having fun, whatever. I think with like, I actually do get a little paralyzed in the kids space because I'm like, I care a lot about making sure that we're being thoughtful with like what we're what we're doing. Ultimately, what we're saying even though not necessarily even like moral of the story, but just like what vibe are we putting out? What are we signaling to kids? I just think like I'm a huge Mr. Rogers fan. Oh, come on. Who is it? Oh my God, just the best. I think like his, I mean, talk about a guy who like his work was his ministry. That is sort of my North Star of like people who have like chosen to entertain, but also to really take care. To be honest, I get really trapped and anxious about the kids space because I care a lot about it and I don't think it should be done flippantly. I guess especially depending on age, like teens, tweens, you can have a little more fun and a little more fart joke or whatever. But like depending on what age you're at, I'm like, this has more of a responsibility to it than other things do. As you can hear in my general vibe, I'm constantly fighting how much I care leading towards self-importance. I'm constantly clawing my way away from like, well, I care so much so it has to be, you know. No, but you're not coming off that way. It makes sense. I mean, it maybe scares you a little bit. Totally. And it seems as though that's what your MO is. Like you just do everything that scares you and it works. So what are you worried about? I mean, do you get at least to try comedy on your one-year-old and see if it works or is it too young? I'm getting some good, what am I getting some good laughs from? Oh, today I did like a cha-cha dance move that was a big hit. So there's a lot of physical comedy that's working really well. Right now I'm sort of scooping her up and chewing on her belly and that's getting a giggle. I'm not sure how that translates to my live shows. Yeah, that wouldn't be good. I don't think. But if you just grabbed a baby from the audience and stuff. Yeah, yeah, or a grown adult. Maybe we can have people sign waivers because it really seems to be working with my daughter. That's so special. I love that. But I love that you're tackling something new like that for kids and good luck with that. Thank you very much. What's it going to be called? Do we know? It's called Nana's Super Radio. It's a show about these kids who go to their grandma's house and they think she's boring, but they find out that she's been time traveling through the power of a radio that sets her to different eras and every era has new music because if it's me, I have to be writing music for it. So we'll see what shape it takes, but that one's been fun to work on. That's cool. What else do you have going on that everyone needs to know about before I let you go because you have your hand in so many different projects? Yeah. Yeah. I think, well, the special, which you've done a very great job of pushing people to. Thank you. It's live. It's on Veebs. It's also on my YouTube. If people want to see it, that's usually an easier way to find it. That I'm touring a little bit right now. I'm on hold for maybe another network TV gig that we're waiting any day to hear about. We shot the pilot of it and we'll find out who knows. Wait, this isn't a recurring role. This is you actually selling something to a network? No, this would be a recurring role. Actor Gabe will have gotten a job if this goes. Yeah. That's really... You'll do that too sometime. I'd love to. I'd love to. I'm working on 150,000 things at once because as you know, that's the only way to keep things going is to keep trying and keep doing all kinds of things. There's no such thing as doing one thing anymore. You got to have all kinds of irons and all kinds of fires. That was my very big long answer to say, mostly right now, it's a special. I did just put out an album a couple weeks ago that's just like a couple of fun songs. Yeah. What's that called? It's called Mommy Mommy. Okay. And it's a bunch of ridiculous songs that I wrote with a really wonderful music producer friend of mine who's... He's a genius and I got to taint his genius with my ridiculous songs. So that was a fun experience. Something tells me he didn't mind being tainted, but can we give him a shout out so that he's not just some anonymous dude? I will. His name is Areza. Areza, A-R-I-Z-A is his artist name. Awesome. And he's like a total savant. One of those Berkeley College of Music kids who can play every instrument and write everything. And I'm like, what if we write a song about me being in love with a beta fish? And it would if it's a romantic R&B song. He's like, yeah, no problem. Starts shredding. It's amazing. He's amazing. That's awesome. Can I ask you one last question, Gabe? Of course. What's your time? I believe we only were going to have a half hour and I've completely monopolized your time. I'm good. What song or album, comedian or moment of comedy that genuinely you go back to when you need to be reminded why any of this matters in life? There's an old Jamie Foxx bit that he used to do where he sings the Brady Bunch theme song, but he makes it sexy. Have you seen this? Was it when he was in living color or is it during his... Oh, it was in one of his stand-up specials. I forget which one back when he was like, it was like him doing something live in some venue and it's him talking about how he wasn't allowed to listen to secular music because he grew up in a religious household. You're seeing the parallel. He said so his, the whole bit is like when girls came over, I didn't have like, I could play piano and I could sing, but I didn't have like cool sexy songs to sing to them. So I had to take unsexy songs and try to make them as cool as I could. And he does a whole like bit of him singing and playing the Brady Bunch theme song as if it's like the most romantic song you've ever heard. And it's so funny and it's so skillful and it's so just like talent. That dude is just dripping in talent and it's like, I saw that and was like, oh, you can do anything because I think, you know, when we say comedy, at least for me, I think stand up and that's the shape of it. But like when you really zoom out, you're like, oh, we have like Zach Galifianakis used to be a musical comedian like early Sarah Silverman was music. Like Steve Martin, Tenacious D, like Flight of the Conquers, like all these people, I'm like, oh, this thing that I've been wanting to do and feeling like I could do, I'm not the first person to do it. It's like a well-tread path and seeing that Jamie Foxx video, it's like one of my early like YouTube videos saves from when I was like 17 or 18. I was like, no way, you can do this and people will like actually choose to watch it. It's amazing. I can see it already. I can see the duet coming, Jamie Foxx, Gabe Gibbs. Oh, please. That would be amazing. I would love it. If it happens, you have to call me. I totally will. Yeah, we'll have some tea spa pizza and we'll chat about Jamie Foxx. Shout out. I love that so much. Oh my God. Gabe Gibbs, it's been such a pleasure talking with you, getting to know you. You are exactly like you are when you watch Gabe on YouTube or television. That is who this person is. I mean, you really are the genuine article and you're so happy and obviously you're in your element and doing what you're doing and you do it so well. So thank you for coming on and talking with us and sharing your thoughts and wisdom and hopefully we've inspired somebody to do something because it's obvious you're a perfect example. And I suspect another reason why maybe you came on the show was to talk about that. So yeah, so thank you for that. I love it. No, thank you for having me. A lot of fun. I'm Buzz Knight and thanks for listening to Comedy Saved Me with Lynn Hoffman. And do check out our other podcast, Lynn Hoffman's Music Saved Me podcast. Also, Sarah Harrelson and Take In A Walk Nashville. And don't forget also about Take In A Walk hosted by yours truly. All shows are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and are part of the I Heart Podcast Network.