Have you ever felt like your life is too messed up to ever be meaningful? In our latest episode, host Ken McMullen and nationally recognized comedian, actor, and author Jeff Allen dive into this very topic. They explore profound truths from Ecclesiastes, discussing how life can sometimes appear meaningless but finding true meaning in learning to enjoy the journey when on the right path.
Drawing from Jeff's autobiography, 'Are We There Yet?' they share insights and personal experiences that resonate with anyone seeking purpose and joy amid life's challenges.
Tune in for an inspiring and thought-provoking conversation that promises to leave you with a fresh perspective on life's journey.
Learn more about Jeff Allen at jeffallencomedy.com.
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Counted among the outlaws, he said.
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Come follow me. People from all walks of life
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since, but then becoming outlaws.
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Long time comedian Jeff Allen is currently on his Are We there
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Yet tour. He must be doing pretty good.
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I looked at his tour schedule, he's booked all the way through
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I think spring of next year and he released last fall an
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autobiography, Are We There Yet? My Journey from a Messed up to
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Meaningful Life and Welcome Jeff.
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Hey, thanks for having me, Ken. Yeah, I am booked through
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spring. God willing, I'll live that
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long. I am.
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Old. Yeah, that's, that's crazy.
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Yeah. You're booked all the way to
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through April sometime. Yeah, we it Drybar changed my
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life. And anybody who's alright my
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age, I don't know how old you are, but you're probably close
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to that. Remember The Tonight Show back
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in the 70s? If Johnny Carson tapped on the
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shoulder and said you're, you're really good, then your life
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changed overnight. And Drybar released one of my
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videos in March of 20, 19. And by May I think I had hit
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over 100 million views. And I said to my wife, I go I, I
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know nothing about the Internet. I'm a, I'm, I am a technological
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moron. I'm a moron in a lot of areas of
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life. You know, it's funny.
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I years ago, I was 31 when I got sober and I started reading.
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I never read a book up until I was 31 years old.
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Outside of the Willie Mays story, I loved Willie Mays.
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I played a lot of baseball and I read Willie Mays.
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That was it. I never read anything and I
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started reading and I thought, you know what, maybe I should
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educate myself. I'm really a borderline
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illiterate human being and I make my living with words.
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It'd be nice to have more than 7 words.
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Carlin talked about the seven words.
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That's basically all I ever used on stage.
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So I thought I should educate myself.
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And I realized the more I began to educate myself, the more
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ignorant I realized I was. Isn't that funny?
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You're trying to educate your, you I and I look back on who I
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was at 31 years old. I said the only thing that
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exceeded my ignorance was my arrogance.
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So great combination ignorance and arrogance.
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So anyway, I and I was usually, we were the most loud at the,
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the, the, the, the more ignorant someone is and the more arrogant
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someone is, the, the louder they are.
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You know, they, it's, it's on full display for the world to
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see. So anyway, I realized I will
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never be an academic. I realized academics, a lot of
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them devote their entire lives to the study of 1 field.
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That's how diverse and wonderful this universe is, that God
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created, that a human being, in the short time they have here,
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have to devote their entire life to the study of one thing.
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Ants. I want to study ants.
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Right. And we still don't have them all
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figured out. Not.
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At all. Not at all.
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You know, you say that not to be an academic, but I got to say so
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I listen to your book. I love listening to books,
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especially when it's an autobiography voiced by the
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author. So especially George they.
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Wanted to hire a professional to do my book.
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I said if you, if anybody but me reads the book, then I'm not
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going to promote it. That's all I'm telling.
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You, oh, it adds so much. Someone could read.
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You're just someone else voicing somebody else's life.
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But to have the person who experienced it, you know where
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the emphasis is. You know, even where they're
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tear jerking spots are you feel the emotion in it.
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So you say you're not an academic, but what I got, what I
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brought out of it was. And I'd like you to talk to you
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for those who haven't read the book yet or know about your
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past, kind of what brought you to where you're at and where you
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came from, But that you always seemed to have a lean, I would
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say, to philosophy. Or at least you were questioning
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what's this about? What's life about?
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Even if it was coming from a life sucks perspective, that's
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very profound. Life sucks.
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It has no meaning. Or does it?
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You seem to be asking those questions early on.
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Yeah, if God exists, then OK. Yeah, I, I, I was open to that.
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But what does that look like? And it's interesting.
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I've been doing on stage now I take an opportunity, you know,
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to kind of I call them hit and run jabs at the culture.
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So I say at the end of my show when I'm promoting the book, I
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go, look, I'm a simple minded human being.
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So I read Genesis 11 in the beginning.
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God created the heavens and the earth.
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That's enough for me. You know, I I don't need a
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fatisse. I don't need a you know, that's
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enough for me. So you pick up the theory of
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evolution and it's a 3 inch thick book and I read about 40
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pages of it, realized I would never finish the book.
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And I said, if you, if your theory takes a couple million
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words, you're really kind of hoping nobody reads it.
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And I think that we're at a point where the theory of
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evolution has been accepted and it becomes an orthodox that if
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you question it, then you're mocked and the the eyes roll.
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But I was a true skeptic. I said, OK, if this theory is is
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real, what makes it true? And again, when I heard that,
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that there are four questions that every worldview has to
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answer. Origin, meaning morality,
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destiny. So you begin with origin.
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Where'd we come from? And if you're going to tell me
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that something came out of nothing, I'm going to at least
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push back on that. So in the beginning, what in the
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beginning, what was the question?
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And I, and I, and it was interesting is in hindsight,
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looking back, you know, I wrote the book 30 years, you know, the
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whole first six chapters. I was in my 30s and I wrote it
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for millennials. I really did because the
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publisher always asked who you're writing this book for.
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And I said, for my sons, they're millennials and they go, why
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would a 68 year old write a book for 30 somethings?
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And and I said because I was never more skeptical and
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nevermore at lost than in my 30s, I had a beautiful wife.
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I checked the boxes, beautiful wife, beautiful kids, job I
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loved. I mean, check the boxes and you
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know, and the culture says you should be happy and content and
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whatever. I did the new age thing where
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you stand in front of the mirror and you affirm yourself.
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And then it was very funny. I had a guy tell me, you never
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smile. I go, what do you mean?
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Because you're a comedian, you never smile, you know, and I go,
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wait, you know, and I of course, what are you talking about?
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So anyway, he said you should work on your smile.
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That's your that's your calling card in sales.
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They call it your calling card. And he says you're, you're an
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intimidating guy. You're 6 two, you're you know,
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so it would be nice to relax your audience if you just walked
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out with a smile. So anyway, I'm not lying to you,
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Ken. I sat in front of the mirror of
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my bathroom and I tried to smile and it was so painful.
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It was like, and I would go, this is BS.
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I'm leaving. I'm not going to do this.
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I'm just not going to do this. So I realized I couldn't even
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smile and, and naturally, I mean, I couldn't even force
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myself to smile. I was the ultimate skeptic and
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cynic. And it was interesting.
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After I became a believer, I heard the word nihilism and I,
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and I go that that was me, that there was a name for it.
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I ran in and I told my wife there was a name for my early
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30s. I was a nihilist.
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So it's nice that they have a definition of of what you're
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going through and. Where does that come from?
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Were you atheist? Were you or you said you always
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believed some? Were you just agnostic?
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You never thought about it when you were a kid?
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Did it come from, well, I, I read your book so I know tell
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the specific story of like the Little League game and then your
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dad kind of kind of preaching you the anti gospel.
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Right. My father gave me his view on
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the on the universe. I was standing there with an MVP
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trophy from an All Star baseball tournament and he walks in, he
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sees me with the trophy. He goes, you proud of that?
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I go, hey, I'm dad. I'm really proud of that.
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He goes, well, at some point in your life, somebody's going to,
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if you, you know, the, the plan was that I would play
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professional baseball. That was the only plan I had.
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You know, in, in hindsight, you might want to give your kids one
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or two outs, you know. So anyway, he said if you
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advance through the ranks and become a professional baseball
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player, somebody's going to come to you and say God gave you that
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talent. And this is what you tell him.
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And he said you can tell him to kiss your ass.
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It's not going to there is no God.
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And he says, what bothers me about these God people is they
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never see the hard work. They didn't see all the leagues
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you belong to, all the times you practice, all the blood on your
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hands from hitting baseballs and all this stuff.
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And and he said, there is no God.
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And I bought it. I just said, OK.
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And I, and I, I openly verbally threw that back in God's face.
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I would, I was so proud of myself that I had this talent
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that I developed on my own. And in hindsight, I say God did
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not take if, if it's true that the, the word inspiration
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literally means God breathed, I believe God breathed the desire
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and love for that game into me. So what my father said was hard
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work wasn't work at all. It was a joy.
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And I can tell you this as a 68 year old man, I have never
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experienced that kind of joy in my life since the the
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unadulterated, uninterrupted, unpolluted joy of just going out
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and playing a game. Yeah, I always look.
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Forward to it. I, I.
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And again it's gone. I mean it.
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It's never been back. I agree with you.
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Don't you think that you know, people try to find what their
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God-given gift is and it's really what brings you joy.
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And I I ain't no theologian either, but it seems to me that
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sin I hate these words sin. It sounds so Bible Y, but you
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know, not living for God or just like sensual desires and things
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that can make you feel happy. They don't bring you joy.
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No, joy is it is an is an internal way.
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It's it, it's with you. Yeah.
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It's like somebody once said that to the believer.
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To the non believer, joy is peripheral, Suffering is
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central. To the believer, suffering is
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peripheral. Joy is central.
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So to me, even in the time when my wife went through breast
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cancer, we tried to find the value in that.
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Why are you going through this? Why, you know, and not for a
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minute, maybe a heartbeat, she believed it would be fatal.
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Now, that doesn't mean it wasn't wouldn't have been fatal.
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But in her mind, because she was a believer, she said, God's not
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done with me yet. I have grandchildren to meet.
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I haven't even met. She was 38 years old.
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So again, I I go to the Pascalian Wager and I share this
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on stage in my club shows all the time.
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I said I'm a Pascalian Wager guy.
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If I'm wrong for my faith, who's been harmed?
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I'm a better husband, I'm a better father, I'm a better
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citizen, I'm a better comedian. I'm better at life for my faith.
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And if in the end I get plunked into the dirt and I'm worm food
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and nothing after this life happens, who's been harmed?
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What do I miss? But if you're wrong, if you're
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wrong and you may be a great human being while you're on
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earth as a non believer, but if you're wrong and you get plunked
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into the dirt, you miss eternity.
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And I'd really like to see my mom again.
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I really would. There's so many things I want to
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say to her that I didn't get a chance to say too, because I was
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so self-centered. Where do you think this is?
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An odd question, I guess, but being philosophical, or maybe
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it's, I thought of it because you're mentioning evolution and
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stuff. I, I tend to think of things
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like what separates humans or what's called sometimes a human
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animal from the rest of nature. And I had this conversation last
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week with a guest regarding death.
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But in regarding laughter, there doesn't seem to be the emotions
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on animals that they have a need to laugh or to have joy.
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They function and they survive and they have instincts.
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Why do you think humans have the capability to have joy and
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laughter and the need for it? Because it heals us.
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It's it I, I do this all the time in my promos for my shows.
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I go look, man laughter is the body's natural morphine.
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It releases endorphins, which is the body's natural healing.
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I said, So my goal is to get you to come out, laugh, release my
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get you stoned out of your mind legally and leave.
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That's my goal. I want you out of your gorge
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that there's too many benefits for it to not be by design.
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And like you said, every animal would do it if it was designed
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to heal them. We need to, I mean, and a laugh
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at ourselves first and foremost. My gosh, you know, you look
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around the culture and you think you're most humorless generation
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of people. I had a video pulled a flag.
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It wasn't pulled by Instagram. And the joke was bactine.
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The, the, the my mother would squirt my wound.
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And anybody who grew up with bactine knows it hurt worse than
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any cut you ever had. The healing part of it was
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worse. So to take my mind off the pain
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of the bactine, right before she squirted my wound, my mother
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would stab me in the eye with an ice pick.
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And that was the joke, right? So Instagram flags it for
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violence. My wife, I said these, you know,
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those are 20 something, you know, and they're looking at
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this and it's texting. I told my son this.
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I said, stop texting me important things.
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Call me. I need to hear the inflection in
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your voice. I need because there's a
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difference between saying yeah, right and yeah, right, you know,
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and you can't pick that up. So we, we have a a generation of
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people who take everything literally, the written word
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literally. They don't understand nuance.
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They don't understand tone. They don't.
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I, I do a joke about I couldn't wait to introduce my children to
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Monty Python. It was my goal.
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I mean that I figured 1314, I couldn't wait till my oldest was
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a teenager so I can show him Monty Python.
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This is what real comedy looks like.
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Real sad. And he got it.
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He got it. We had a blast.
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I do a Christmas Eve. Those are my Christmas movies,
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Wonderful Life, the the the Christmas Story and then the
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Holy Grail. Your mother smells of your
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mother smells of elderberries. Elderberry.
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Well, anyway, you remember the Britain scene, right?
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. My youngest comes along four
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years later and we're all, we're all waiting for him to get, you
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know, the Monty Python. And we get to the bridge scene
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and he goes, that's stupid, Dad. They called that a flesh wound.
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His whole arm came off. Go to bed.
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I can't. I can't take this.
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He's just a stumping ahead. Of me.
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You're lucky you look like me, buddy, because I'm telling you
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that really cut. That hurts.
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That really hurts. You're right about laughter with
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endorphins if people don't know is it releases serotonin,
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adrenaline, different adorphin, it makes you feel better, it's
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stress relief, it literally is pain relief and.
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Which is why comedy explodes during the hard times in
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America. Always interesting the
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depression. Vaudeville did great with
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comedy. Every, every, every time we hit
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hard times, comedy explodes. Coming.
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Out of Vietnam War, coming out of the Vietnam War, 70s comedy
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boom man Pryor Carlin. Yeah.
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Steve Martin, you know. Yeah, they send Bob Hope out to
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the troops during the wars, lighten things up, give a little
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stress relief. Absolutely.
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I was going to say I was. I was looking online about just
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laughter and stuff and 15 minutes of laughter.
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Now if you laugh for 15 minutes, that actually sounds like
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torture, like someone tickling you.
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So I hope this is more like off and on laughing like when you're
00:16:39
watching a comedian. But 15 minutes of it burns 40
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calories. So I was thinking, I don't know
00:16:45
if this will help your promotions or not, but if they
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go in an hour show for you that's like a mile and a half
00:16:49
jog and they just sit there. It is.
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I didn't even think about that. I do hear, I do hear AB core
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work. So laughter works your core.
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Apparently, yeah, that makes sense.
00:17:00
Yeah. You want people laugh till their
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stomach hurts? That your that your abs working
00:17:04
out there. Yeah, that's a compliment to a
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comic. I laughed till I puked.
00:17:07
You know. Really.
00:17:09
Right. So what in in a brief kind of
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way for people who don't know your story, what is it?
00:17:20
So if I we back up, we already talked about is your dad
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obviously wasn't a believer and he instilled kind of anti
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thoughts like, you know, don't be a dumb dumb and believe,
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believe in God. So what did that?
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I don't know what it's like. I live in a bubble and not being
00:17:37
surrounded by people that believed in God or family and
00:17:41
friends. I always had friends that
00:17:42
didn't, but I don't know what it's like to begin a life in
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adulthood feeling like there's nothing really to live for or it
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all ends and it's it's over. Well, you know what, the thing,
00:17:56
I never thought about it. I never thought about it.
00:17:59
I mean, I, I was an uneducated atheist.
00:18:02
I mean, I really, you know, I didn't have a, a position on it.
00:18:06
I just, I just, there was no God and I had Christians approach
00:18:09
me, give me tracks, I'd crumble them up and throw them in their
00:18:12
faces and laugh at them. I mocked Christian from the
00:18:21
Moose Lodge. I don't know why I don't even
00:18:25
know. So anyway, I I never so all of a
00:18:29
sudden I'm 31 years old and I crawl into Alcoholics Anonymous
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and they say pray. I said to what?
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So that was the first time anybody that even I'd even
00:18:39
thought about praying to what I don't know, I don't know.
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So that was really the beginning of the the seed, the germ that
00:18:47
created. OK, pray to what?
00:18:49
And they gave me the third step prayer in the big book of
00:18:52
Alcoholics Anonymous, which was God removed me from the bondage
00:18:57
of self so that I may better do thy will, take away my
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difficulties so that victory over them others may bear
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witness to thy strength and power and their way of life.
00:19:05
And I prayed that every day like they told me to.
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I want to stay sober. I did what they told me to do.
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I wasn't I wasn't anti God by that point.
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I was just like, I'll do anything.
00:19:14
Was it more? Yeah, it was more like a mantra
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to. Just to do this, that was and
00:19:18
that is Serenity prayer. Grant me the serenity to accept
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the things that cannot change. There's so much in the Serenity
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prayer. Grant me started to accept the
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things I cannot change, the courage to change, the things
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that I can't change. To know the difference.
00:19:30
So you got to realize that wisdom to me, you know, if you
00:19:32
read the prayer comes from God, you know, and I read a proverb a
00:19:36
day, every day. And it's interesting to me how
00:19:41
much Solomon pounds home. Chase after wisdom, seek wisdom
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and knowledge. Wise people fear God, you know,
00:19:52
So I was, I was an uneducated ignoramus who walks into this,
00:19:59
these meetings, just wanting to stay sober and they say pray as
00:20:03
what? And then find something in the
00:20:06
universe. That's basically what they told
00:20:08
me. And that's, and in the book I'll
00:20:10
talk about, you know, it's seven or eight years into that.
00:20:13
I still really had no understanding of that.
00:20:16
I went through new age, I went through Buddhism.
00:20:19
I I was reading a Rand when I met the guy who put the Bible in
00:20:23
my hands. Which was humanism.
00:20:26
And I realized that, OK, I loved a ran.
00:20:30
If I was not a Bible believing Christian, I would be an A ran
00:20:33
objectivist. I love the way she, she actually
00:20:36
structured her philosophy to make it a livable life through
00:20:43
reason and logic, you know, But to me it was like Buddhism, you
00:20:48
know, I mean the joke I always made about Buddhism, you know,
00:20:50
for a heartbeat in my life, I tried to be a Buddhist.
00:20:53
And he said that your desires are causing all your misery.
00:20:57
If you can get rid of your desires, you wouldn't be
00:20:59
miserable. And I said I never could get rid
00:21:02
of my desire to get rid of my desires.
00:21:06
I kept coming back to that one thing.
00:21:08
I, I desire things I can't. So how do you live a life that
00:21:11
where you have desires and still not be miserable, you know, and
00:21:16
in the material world, there's always more better whatever, you
00:21:20
know. And that was the gerbil story I
00:21:21
told in the book where I was looking at the gerbil and my
00:21:25
wife comes by after about 1/2 hour.
00:21:27
I was just sitting there staring at the gerbil for him in my kids
00:21:30
room and she says what's with you and the gerbil and go look
00:21:33
at it. It gets stick on what sticks on
00:21:35
one side of its crate, brings him over to the other side, and
00:21:38
then when they're done doing that, he brings them back to the
00:21:41
other side. And every now and then he spins
00:21:42
the wheel for entertainment. She goes, So what?
00:21:45
It's a gerbil and I go, no, it's us, it's us.
00:21:49
She goes, what are you talking about?
00:21:50
I go, we buy things, they wear out.
00:21:52
We take them to the landfill. We buy more things, we take them
00:21:54
out, they wear to the landfill. If I'm lucky, I get a sitcom or
00:21:57
movie deal. We make a lot of money.
00:21:59
We get really nice stuff, but we take that to the landfill as
00:22:02
well. And every now and then we go to
00:22:04
Vegas or to Disneyland or whatever.
00:22:06
That's our that's our wheel. We spend it.
00:22:08
We're living the life of gerbils.
00:22:10
And I don't want to live this life.
00:22:12
And I told her if this, and again, I believe the devil wants
00:22:15
us living in the past or in the future, God wants us in the
00:22:19
moment. And the devil, if he can't beat
00:22:22
you up enough with with the mistakes you've made in the
00:22:24
past, he'll sit you down and he'll have you project how
00:22:27
miserable your life will be in the future, 5 or 10 or 15 years
00:22:31
from now. And that's what I was doing.
00:22:33
I was projecting 5/10/15 years. If this is my life, I'm checking
00:22:37
out. And my wife looked me dead in
00:22:39
the eye and said, you checked out years ago, pal.
00:22:42
You're not even here now. I'm talking to you and you're
00:22:44
not even here now. My head was always somewhere
00:22:47
else, always. So that was the book that the,
00:22:53
the reason I wrote the book. Those first six chapters were my
00:22:57
30s and I always tell audiences if you can get through the 1st 6
00:23:02
chapters without killing yourself, it's actually an
00:23:04
uplifting tale. Yeah, you know, at my age, at
00:23:11
your age already, the seemingly meaningless of life.
00:23:16
It becomes so apparent when, you know, when I was younger, you
00:23:19
had the people seemed like they had it all.
00:23:21
Whether it's politicians, authors, movie stars, TV stars,
00:23:26
These were the epitome of what's like successes.
00:23:29
And then I work with people as colleagues and peers that have
00:23:32
never even heard of these people.
00:23:35
Like they're the, you know, scripture will say that, you
00:23:38
know, generations come and go, a couple generations, you're just
00:23:41
going to be forgotten. It happens in like 2 decades.
00:23:45
It's like these people that seem so like this is what life's
00:23:48
about. They're they're dead or they're
00:23:51
forgotten or they're just, they're just like everybody
00:23:54
else. And that's what I really liked
00:23:56
about that. What caught you was Ecclesiastes
00:23:59
'cause I hardly ever hear that. Ecclesiastes is my favorite book
00:24:03
in the Bible because it's so most people don't like it
00:24:07
because of the reasons I like it, 'cause it just tells you the
00:24:10
truth. Like Ungarned?
00:24:11
Well, I heard that when I first became a believer.
00:24:14
It's such a cynical book. I go, well, you didn't know me
00:24:16
like he knew me, you know? And it's right in the center of
00:24:19
the book, the Bible, you know? Yeah, besides Christ, I mean,
00:24:24
Scripture says Solomon's the, you know, wisest man that ever
00:24:27
lived. He was given a gift of wisdom
00:24:30
and the first thing he says is everything in life is
00:24:33
meaningless. And then he goes on to elaborate
00:24:35
to drive the point home to. Right.
00:24:38
Well, yeah, it's funny and and it's basically what he meant was
00:24:42
that there's no meaning in this life.
00:24:44
It's just that life is a vapor and it's futile for you to
00:24:48
attach anything, life for your life attached to anything of
00:24:54
this earth because it is a vapor and it will pass.
00:24:57
So if you think about the purchases you've made or all the
00:25:00
things in your life that have brought you joy, which is why
00:25:03
it's important for man to take a wife, I believe this in my
00:25:07
heart. That doesn't mean, you know,
00:25:09
Paul was single. I mean, it doesn't mean that.
00:25:10
I'm just saying that when Genesis says a man will take a
00:25:15
wife and together they become one flesh, you become one.
00:25:19
She offers things to me that I'm unable to get as a man.
00:25:22
I really, I believe this in my heart that we are there to help
00:25:29
each other, to grow with each other.
00:25:32
And when I love her, I love myself because we are one.
00:25:35
So when I treat her with disrespect, I'm literally
00:25:38
treating myself with disrespect. And it, it, there's so many
00:25:43
really cool things. But when you were talking about
00:25:47
this life, I think Mark Twain said at your funeral, they'll
00:25:51
lament you for an hour and forget you for a lifetime, you
00:25:54
know, and that's it. So this life is a vapor.
00:25:58
What am I leaving behind? Became a real issue to me when I
00:26:02
hit 60. I told Tammy, I never thought
00:26:04
I'd think about this. But really, what is what is my
00:26:07
legacy going to be? And if it's not an inner circle
00:26:11
of close family friends, then what is it?
00:26:16
You know, my comedy will, you know, again, Belushi died and
00:26:19
they didn't stop making comedy, you know.
00:26:22
And, you know, as much as people missed what he was doing, it was
00:26:26
forgotten about and moved on to, like you said, name an
00:26:31
entertainer from our generation that you thought.
00:26:34
I they're, they're all a, a distant memory to some of us,
00:26:40
but they're certainly not in our day-to-day lives.
00:26:43
And I, I have no illusion when I'm done telling jokes, the only
00:26:48
thing that matters that I leave behind is my sons, my
00:26:53
grandchildren. If I die early, I, you know, I
00:26:56
want my wife to be taken care of financially, but I want them to
00:27:02
smile when they think of me. You know, Tommy Nelson, the
00:27:06
pastor I love, said he does a young guns program.
00:27:10
He takes young men and mentors them for years.
00:27:12
A whole bunch of young men are around this country, all
00:27:15
mentored by Tommy. And I said, why do you do that?
00:27:18
You got, you know, you're a senior pastor.
00:27:20
You got all these services. You got all this stuff going on,
00:27:23
he said. Because when I die, I want a lot
00:27:25
of young men carrying my casket. I want to know that I poured
00:27:30
into the next generation something that will last way
00:27:33
beyond my life. And that's, that's pretty cool.
00:27:37
You know, that's a nice legacy. I don't know if I'll ever get
00:27:40
there, but that's the goal. Yeah, for sure.
00:27:44
And even for me, almost everything I do is for my son,
00:27:50
even if it's futuristically when I'm not around.
00:27:53
And he begins to reflect on his dad or his dad's faith, and
00:27:56
maybe he'll pull up old podcasts that were sitting, you know, off
00:28:00
in the corner on YouTube and listen like, well, that guy
00:28:02
actually had something to say or what would, you know what I
00:28:04
mean? Like, it's, it's really not, not
00:28:07
for the now. It's for the after.
00:28:10
Well, that's it. Tucker Carlson had a a a
00:28:14
European on his show once, and I don't remember the name of the
00:28:18
guy who said it, but I remember what he said.
00:28:21
He said the problem in Europe right now is they're electing
00:28:23
leaders that have no children. You govern differently when you
00:28:27
have children and you govern a lot differently when you have
00:28:29
great grandchildren because now you're thinking a generation or
00:28:33
two ahead. So your policies will have that
00:28:36
kind of impact on the next generation of the generation.
00:28:40
So you look at even someone like Trump, people that why would he
00:28:45
do it? I mean, that's any sane person
00:28:48
looks at what he's been through and look at the life he had
00:28:51
prior to going through it. Why would you do it?
00:28:53
Why would you do it? Well, he's got grandchildren.
00:28:56
And you know, again, if you're looking ahead, it's not, it's a
00:29:03
bleak picture if we continue along the trajectory we're we're
00:29:07
going on. So I agree with you as a father
00:29:11
and a good grandfather, everything I'm doing now, I'm
00:29:13
trying to figure out how does this benefit my grandchildren?
00:29:18
What, what can I do, you know, And I'm not anywhere near in a
00:29:22
position to, to, to, to, to move culture at all.
00:29:29
I, I, I do what I do, I, I call myself a seed planter.
00:29:33
I might plant the seed in a guy or a girl who 10 years from now
00:29:39
does move the culture, you know, the guy that planted a seed in
00:29:43
my head, you know, he's a financial planner, you know, and
00:29:47
nobody will know his name. And he calls me occasionally and
00:29:52
just goes, man, I'm so glad I stuck with you because I was not
00:29:56
a nice guy. I was, I was a jerk, you know,
00:30:01
So, and that's a polite word. And for whatever reason, this
00:30:04
beautiful, loving man just decided, you know, that God put
00:30:07
it on his heart that I was worth salvaging and he stuck with me.
00:30:11
But I was a foul mouthed, bitter, cynical and jaded human
00:30:14
being. And he and he wasn't, he was
00:30:17
just a nice guy. And he, he, he, he took an
00:30:21
interest in my life and prayed for us and did more than that.
00:30:26
So. I feel like we did Ecclesiastes
00:30:30
some injustice for those don't know what it was leaving it.
00:30:33
It just talks about life sucking.
00:30:34
So it has a little more than that.
00:30:37
So you know that really. And you mentioned it as life
00:30:40
here on earth. So it keeps repeating the
00:30:42
refrain under the sun, which is life on earth.
00:30:45
But above what we can see in this earthly toil.
00:30:49
It leaves you with, and I find it super encouraging that it
00:30:53
leaves you at the end with So what do we do?
00:30:55
What do we make of all of this that life doesn't seem to have
00:30:58
meaning? And you're a, a, you know, a
00:31:00
Guinea pig going back and forth and dropping stuff and going on
00:31:03
a wheel. You just enjoy it, make the best
00:31:06
of it, make the best of it, eat, drink, be merry and follow God.
00:31:13
And then it you leave with the implication that life beyond
00:31:16
what we can see has meaning. But just don't worry about it.
00:31:19
You're never going to figure it out.
00:31:21
And that gives me so much comfort because if you skip that
00:31:24
book, you're always trying to figure it out how to become the
00:31:27
perfect Christian and the perfect person.
00:31:29
And it basically says this, how to make the world perfect.
00:31:33
And it basically says it's not going to be just do your best,
00:31:36
follow God, Yeah. Reigns on the righteous and the
00:31:40
wicked. Yeah.
00:31:42
And Tommy Nelson said it best, man.
00:31:45
He said this is it. I'll sum it up right here.
00:31:47
Eat Rocky Road and drink Doctor Pepper and go to go to your kids
00:31:51
Little League game, you know, and again, live in the moment.
00:31:55
Don't worry about the past. The past is the past and the
00:31:58
future is, you know, and that's where I kind of got this, you
00:32:02
know, where God wants you in the moment.
00:32:03
He wants you right here, right now.
00:32:05
And it's, it's difficult, very, very difficult to do,
00:32:09
especially, you know, one of the five questions I ask in my book,
00:32:13
and the last one of the fourth one was what voices do you
00:32:17
listen to? And in this culture that's
00:32:19
important. And I believe garbage in,
00:32:21
garbage out. I tell audiences all the time,
00:32:24
we live in a great, you know, God gave us the Internet so we
00:32:26
could see the world as he sees it and all of its debauchery and
00:32:29
all of its joy and beauty. And whatever you choose to pump
00:32:32
into your heart will come out of your heart.
00:32:35
And you know, I want to be informed, but a boy, I'm not
00:32:37
dwelling on that at all. Breitbart has a great thing
00:32:40
called be inspired news. It's on Instagram and it's all
00:32:43
these great stories from around the country of people stepping
00:32:47
out and doing great things. And it is inspiring to know that
00:32:52
outside of the people who lead this country and the news media,
00:32:55
they want you to see, you know, we we live in a culture.
00:32:59
What did I say? The paradigm, the news paradigm
00:33:01
is if it bleeds, it leads and it's 24/7.
00:33:05
So what could go wrong with that?
00:33:07
You know, what could go wrong with pumping?
00:33:11
If it bleeds, it leads into your, into your household seven
00:33:14
days a week, 24 hours a day. It wouldn't give you a lot of
00:33:17
hope in humanity, but there's, there's some wonderful things
00:33:21
going on out there, man. And then there are people with
00:33:23
ministries that are just doing great work.
00:33:25
And I choose to focus on that. It was like my dad, my dad had
00:33:29
his, you know, my brother choose to focus on the parts of my
00:33:32
father that were not pleasant. And I I choose to focus on those
00:33:37
times we sat in the living room and listen to the Cosby albums
00:33:40
on the hi-fi where I heard my father laugh and gag, gag,
00:33:44
laughing. He was laughing so hard.
00:33:46
And that's what I choose to remember him for, you know?
00:33:48
Yeah. So is that really the meaning
00:33:52
for you behind Are we there yet? I mean, we get the image in our
00:33:55
head of, you know, sitting in the back seat on a trip with mom
00:33:58
and dad. And are we there yet before
00:34:00
movies in the car and video games?
00:34:02
Of course. But is it really the journey,
00:34:05
the journey in life, that really doesn't have an end that well?
00:34:09
That's it. I mean, that's, that's the
00:34:11
picture I wanted. When you're on that journey as a
00:34:13
kid, there's somebody else driving the ship, the car, your
00:34:17
parents, they know where the destination is and you don't.
00:34:21
You're a kid. You're just impatient.
00:34:23
I want to get there. I want to.
00:34:24
And when I got into recovery, that was me.
00:34:27
I mean, I was like, when am I done with this recovery crap?
00:34:30
I mean, I'm, I'm tired of, I'm tired of recovering.
00:34:34
I want to be recovered. I wanted to be that perfect
00:34:37
husband. I wanted to be the perfect
00:34:39
father. I wanted to be perfect.
00:34:41
And at some point you just realize that you're never going
00:34:46
to get there. I mean, if that's your goal, I,
00:34:48
I, I pity you. I really do.
00:34:50
I mean, it's like one of the questions I ask is where does
00:34:53
your hope lie? Well, if it's in the next
00:34:55
election, you know, I feel sorry for you.
00:34:58
I really do, you know, and my hope lies in the fact that Jesus
00:35:02
was who he claimed to be. So I'll, I'll live with that and
00:35:05
I will live my life accordingly, then I'm going to be accountable
00:35:08
for. And it doesn't keep me from
00:35:11
messing up, screwing up sinning, you know, I believe me, I am.
00:35:15
I was five years into this and I realized I would never be the
00:35:18
perfect Christian. And I was, I was ready to
00:35:20
abandon my faith. I really was.
00:35:22
I was because I couldn't live it.
00:35:25
I couldn't live it perfectly. I was the hypocrite.
00:35:28
My father kept pointing out to me because every time a
00:35:31
Christian cost or every time a Christian did whatever they did,
00:35:35
he would point it out. He made a point to point that
00:35:38
out, you know, And his father was a pastor and his brother was
00:35:42
a pastor. So my father was raised in the
00:35:44
faith and for whatever reason turned his back on it and had a
00:35:48
very deep animus towards anything Christian.
00:35:51
Which leads me to believe something really bad happened to
00:35:54
him at church as a kid. I don't know what it was, he
00:35:56
wouldn't talk about it, but he chose to look at all the
00:36:02
negative that came off of us. And I try to tell people all the
00:36:07
time that, you know, the prerequisite to becoming a
00:36:11
believer is that you admit you're imperfect.
00:36:16
So I became I became a legalist five years into a faith that
00:36:21
nobody put legalism in me. I wasn't raised in a church.
00:36:24
I wasn't I came out of it with complete neophyte.
00:36:27
And within five years I was a legalist to myself.
00:36:30
I couldn't. I kept condemning myself for the
00:36:33
fact that I couldn't live it. And finally a friend of mine
00:36:36
said, so God's grace isn't enough for you.
00:36:40
And I see what are you talking about?
00:36:42
He goes, it says, right there in Scripture.
00:36:45
Paul says God's grace is sufficient.
00:36:49
Yeah, I. Mean, I mean, it sounds simple,
00:36:51
you know, but. He's throwing it.
00:36:54
Back in his face by by by saying that you need to live a a better
00:36:58
life, a a more perfect life. God doesn't expect that from us.
00:37:03
He just expects you to show up and and love him and then love
00:37:08
your neighbor. Well, that's it.
00:37:10
I think when most people reject Christ, they're not.
00:37:13
They're rejecting what they know of Christianity, the people, how
00:37:18
the people have behaved culturally, the negatives, the
00:37:22
religion part of Christianity has brought to the world.
00:37:26
But I think very few reject when they actually find God's grace
00:37:31
through Christ. That's that's irresistible.
00:37:33
But it's hard to get to that and penetrate through the people of
00:37:38
Christianity. Right.
00:37:40
And again, if you believe Satan exists, you know that author of
00:37:43
lies, he will beat you to death on your inability.
00:37:48
You know, I believe me. I know that.
00:37:51
And if he can't beat you up in the past, he'll have you project
00:37:54
in the future. You're never going to change.
00:37:56
You're never going to change. You're a loser.
00:37:58
You'll always be a loser. That's what you were born and
00:38:01
this is the way you're going to die.
00:38:03
And believe me, I had that mantra for years.
00:38:06
And now I, I laugh when that starts.
00:38:09
And I asked the devil. I asked the devil.
00:38:11
I name him. I go, Satan.
00:38:14
What is your source of information?
00:38:16
You know what, who's, what authority?
00:38:20
By what authority do you tell me that I'm going to amount to
00:38:24
nothing and be a loser, right? Whose authority?
00:38:29
And that ends it for me. Jeff, where would you prefer
00:38:33
people find your book, your tour dates and the like?
00:38:38
Well, the, the book is on Amazon and This is why people hate Jeff
00:38:42
Bezos. It's now on sale for what I pay
00:38:45
for it. So, so, you know, you buy it at
00:38:48
my show for $25. I, I prefer that if you come out
00:38:51
to the show, I love meeting people, I'll sign them and
00:38:56
otherwise just order it on Amazon again.
00:38:59
You you listen to the audio. I recommend the audio just
00:39:03
because you can listen to it in the car as you drive along and.
00:39:07
Yeah, I enjoyed the audio book. And there were a couple of parts
00:39:10
where I did break off and give some context to some things.
00:39:13
And there were a couple points where I got emotional.
00:39:15
I thought they'd edit those out, but they didn't.
00:39:18
And I, I send my boys the audio. I wanted them to hear my voice
00:39:25
and I did write it for them. I and then hopefully my
00:39:27
grandchildren one day we'll get an idea of who their Mimi and
00:39:30
Papa were. And and then by as far as my
00:39:33
tour dates, if they, if they go into my Facebook page and signed
00:39:36
up the fan page or Instagram, we we post calendars or they can go
00:39:41
to the website jeffallencomedy.com and
00:39:43
everything is there. You can connect and link.
00:39:46
I don't spend a lot of time on on X Twitter just because it,
00:39:51
the nature of it is just hostile.
00:39:53
And that means to grow it, to grow it, you have to, you know,
00:39:57
and I'm, I'm not into all of that.
00:40:00
I did post pictures. I was at the Republican National
00:40:03
Convention. So I lost a bunch of followers,
00:40:05
you know, as if that was if as if that was news to anybody who
00:40:09
followed me. Yeah.
00:40:10
Oh my God. You know, So again, I, I, I, I
00:40:14
dabble in the culture, but I my goal and, and I want your
00:40:19
listeners to know this, that if I'm going to do anything on the
00:40:22
culture. I'm, I'm, I looking for the
00:40:26
laugh, I'm looking for the joke. I'm not looking to change your
00:40:29
harder mind. I, you know, I feel you're smart
00:40:32
enough to figure all this out on your own.
00:40:34
You don't need me to give you my opinions that much.
00:40:36
But but I do talk about my wife and my family and and my life a
00:40:41
lot. And what's your Nashville?
00:40:44
Something I had to draw on something.
00:40:46
What's your Nashville event coming up in October?
00:40:49
October 11th, the Fisher Center at Belmont University, they put
00:40:53
100, over $100 million into this venue.
00:40:56
I tell the audience the venue has a lot more class than me,
00:41:00
but they were kind enough to book me there.
00:41:02
I'm working with Steven Burgazi, one of the funniest comic
00:41:06
magicians in the in the country. It's a great night to come out
00:41:09
with your family. So if you're thinking of
00:41:11
spending money at Cirque de Soleil, which is way more
00:41:14
expensive than my show, I'm saying bring your family up to
00:41:19
my show. There's something for everybody.
00:41:21
It's a huge venue. It's a big ask.
00:41:23
We've I've, I've never done a venue this size.
00:41:26
So we put our faith in God and we said, and, and the, the guy
00:41:30
that hired me is a believer as well.
00:41:32
He runs the place and he said, we'll give you a shot man, and
00:41:36
we'll see if we can sell the tickets.
00:41:37
So October 11th, if you were ever thinking of coming to
00:41:40
Nashville, it's a Friday night. You can stay for the weekend.
00:41:44
The fall is beautiful. Nashville's beautiful in the
00:41:46
fall and you get a night of comedy entertainment, man, an
00:41:50
hour and a half. It's just releasing endorphins
00:41:53
and. Burning calories.
00:41:55
Burning calories, that's right, AB work, corn work and it is
00:42:01
it's going to be a great night again.
00:42:03
We're we're we're looking forward to that.
00:42:06
So thank you for helping me promote that.
00:42:08
I thought, Ken, I appreciate. It sure.
00:42:09
Thanks for being on, Jeff. Thank you man, Calvin, to move
00:42:13
the outlaws, he said. Come follow me.
00:42:17
People from all walks of life since have been becoming alloys.