Addiction, Comedy, and Trauma with Brittany Schmitt

Introduction

when you're drinking and using it's like driving a station wagon and throwing every problem in the back seat it works until it doesn't you know but it's like when you get sober it's like slamming on the brakes and all that shit comes forward so you have to get ready to deal with it I was great I was confident I was successful I was happy healthy Mar like it was like I was great and then it I got to and I was like oh I'm not okay now we're in an era of Comedy where there's a lot of sobriety because we've seen like the generation that came before us right like burning out dying in like really crazy ways and a lot of it is tied to addiction we're confronted with the choice of like do we want to live long lives or do we want to burn out Britney Schmidt welcome to my podcast thank you for having me so happy to be here yeah this should be fun so you're on tour now I'm on tour right now and what shows are remaining so I have Phoenix tonight and then I have DC and then I have um God what do I have Chicago Milwaukee Appleton and then I'm done okay cool yeah so I guess before we jump into things for people who don't know who you are can you give a brief background about who you are and what you do sure yeah I'm um a comedian I've been a comedian for professionally only for actually four years which is kind of crazy I prior to that I worked um in advertising and Recruitment and um I have a podcast and I've written a book and yeah I've just been pouring my energy into being creative for the last couple of years which has been a nice change wow so what made you switch out of advertising so when I worked in advertising I started as a copywriter intern and I would always present my ideas to the client and they would be like no no no and I would be like I think it's fucking great you know I was like I think these ideas are great and so I knew I couldn't be a creative in the capacity of somebody who was told what they could and couldn't do and so while I still needed to like make money to stay afloat in La I transitioned into creative Recruitment and advertising and then I um did that for a long time but on the side I started doing comedy I actually started doing comedy because I got a DUI in Arizona I know I know and I literally just came to LA from Wisconsin Wisconsin DUI laws are like very chill they're like you can get three of them before they call you a landline and they're like hey stop it you know like it was very chill then I went to Arizona got my first DUI ever and then my lawyer was like yeah you're going to jail for 30 days oh my gosh I was like no I was like are you sure you know I was like can we run that back and she's like no you're going to jail for 30 days or you can just never come back to Arizona and I was like I could do that like I don't think I ever need to come back here and then like a little voice in my head said you're going to need to come back here for work you have to go to jail and so holy shit yeah I went to jail but I was so depressed during that time I was a pretty bad alcoholic and I wasn't accepting of that so I was so depressed and I was working at an ad agency and the guy that I sat across from at the agency he was quitting comedy to go do or quitting advertising to go do comedy full-time and I was in a bad place and he's like listen comedy is just like therapy except it's free he's like you're really funny you should try this so that's actually how I got into comedy wow and then yeah and then I did it and the first time I ever did it I was like oh this is what I was born to do and it was probably the best night of my life but I was still such um in a dark place with my alcoholism and I couldn't like there was no world where I was like oh jump in the net appears like I'm sure that would have happen but I was just caught up in drinking and I was like I need to like work this day job and then you know I got to pretty much the top of where I could go in Recruitment and advertising and I hated it like it was just just soul sucking so I kind of just saved my money and I was like I'm going to make enough have enough that if I don't make any money in comedy for two years I'll be fine and um I decided at the end of 2019 I was like I'm going to do comedy full-time and I was literally in London what a year yeah exactly I was in London um doing shows with Chris red and then like the pandemic started trickling in and I was like no fuck fucking life no way no way and then I I still kind of refused to go back to advertising because I could have fully worked in recruitment during the pandemic that would have been very easy for me to do but I was like no I told myself I'm doing this so instead I just you know there were secret shows going on in LA and I wrote a book and I just like kind of followed it that way and then when everything opened up I filmed my first special in Austin and um put it out a year after that and it did really well so that's like kind of I got very fortunate very lucky wow mhm wow yeah okay that's quite a story yeah why did I decide to build an online university well there is a crisis now in higher education the president of Harvard University resigned today weeks calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn's code of conduct we have a problem of affordability and cost spiraling student loans we have a group think emerging and that warps the entire academic Enterprise I experimented with putting my lectures online and found that I could teach far more people at very low cost than I could at the University and I thought well why not scale that what I'm hoping to do is to find the best lectures in the world and to bring them to as wide as possible an audience he came to me and he basically said I want you to do the best course that you've always wanted to do we want to bring you the highest quality education possible at the lowest possible price it's extremely high level content that anybody can use to educate themselves and it's available to everybody well that would be [Music] good I think it's funny as I got celled at the University so I could try to return the [Music] favor so what was your book about um my book is about it's like did you ever read any of Chelsea Handler's books no okay well she no it's okay um she it's literally just like dumb stories and sexcapades it's just like a little Memoir but like comedy kind of memoir yeah yeah yeah Memoir yeah cool and that did well yeah so is that when you started social media and everything or did you get that started beforehand that started um no I wrote the book before social media the Social Media stuff started really when I put my first special out it went very viral um so like the clips kind of blew up and I was fortunate in that way cool yeah okay wow well good for you thanks I mean that's that's quite a switch yeah and I'm sure was that hard your first show like how did you prepare for that my first special yeah well say you you started doing comedy before the special right so no just just a show in front of people oh it was terrifying the first one I ever did was terrifying but when I got through it and I did it I was like oh that's the best feeling and like as an addict and a person who likes to get high on stuff there's nothing better than like the high of being on stage yeah which is get why you'll see a lot of addicted Personalities in comedy yeah okay that makes sense so did you prepare did you have a set you to memorize and everything or did you play off the crowd yeah no I don't do crowd work that's that's a thing that's become really popular with like kind of Matt rif I feel like Matt R is to Comedy what T pay it was to music where it's like he introduced this thing like Tain did the autotune you know and it kind of was like but that's not what we were doing and it's not good or bad cuz people love it and he's brilliant he's literally like a psychic when he's doing that crowd work I think he's so smart and skilled but it's just a different thing you know when I started doing comedy my I learned from a teacher and he always said that um crowd work was just a lack of preparation and so that kind of stuck with me where I just really wanted to be a writer you know I wanted to write like tight great jokes where I knew where the setup was I knew where the punch was and it was just like formulaic in that way so then were you always I mean you got into adver I can also kind of see how like advertising and marketing and things plays into the comedy element you know vaguely but did you always have an interest in in writing like were you always funny what made you funny you went through a bunch of traumatic experiences there you go yeah yeah yeah I wasn't I wish it was funny when I was a kid you know so many comedians are like oh I figured out if I made people laugh when I was young that they would like me and I didn't have that unfortunately I was so I really just wanted everyone to like me but I couldn't figure out how and then honestly when I started drinking I finally was like fuck all of you and then like I got like this personality that was attracting people because I didn't care you know there's like that desperate energy in people when they like want to be liked and it makes you go like that's like what I was my whole life until probably like 16 and then around 16 I started you know I really do think drinking helped me with my personality and then it you know started killing me but did some good and some bad I didn't see that I got rid of anxiety and like in inhibition and everything yeah and like that just like deep want to be liked I was just like oh I don't need to be liked I'm okay interesting yeah that makes sense mhm what did you think of uh the Tony hinchcliff roast that the Trump on Trump um I it just thought everyone really overreacted you know I knew what he was doing but you have to know Tony like I've known Tony not personally but comedically forever and that's who he is you know he's a little shit stir and you know everyone was going crazy being like oh he's going to lose the election I was like don't worry he's not it's fine I like I don't think you guys realize how many people don't want KLA in office like like you'll be fine yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I thought it was what did you think of it I thought it was okay so I've seen his like I've seen him live and I've watched kill Tony MH so I think I'd heard that joke at Joe Rogan before and I was like it you know it's not exactly he's rough like he it's called kill Tony he kind of goes in for the kill so it was like that's kind of what his jokes are like and they're funny and like he's very popular people like him he sold out Madison Square like people like him I was like it was whoever picked that for a rally I was like that was risky it was risky because obviously in politics anything is going to be taken anything you say is going to be like cut out and like oh how dare they do this but I mean I don't know I thought I thought it was entertaining I suppose I mean listen yeah you do have to and that's the thing is a lot of people don't have a sense of humor about politics especially like people are so serious about it so it's like yeah maybe that was the right venue for him but but you live didn't didn't do anything anyway yeah no exactly yeah he's skated he skated through that yeah so what's it like has it what's it like living in La you like it um it's like a post-apocalyptic nightmare okay so you don't or is that a good thing no no no it's not a good thing I mean here's the thing I'm really excited about the new DA cuz we just got a new DA in there who we had before gas gone just was letting crime go completely rampant on the heels of you know the BLM and all those protests and everything like that um they really leaned into defunding the police which I knew from the start was going to be a mistake um because the first unit that they defunded was the gang unit and I'm like okay I guess politically I can see why they chose that seems like a bad idea but seems like the most important unit in La it's like run by gangs like you cannot like you know I was moving in I wasn't moving I was I was shopping for a house and um one of the houses was like you know for La it's it was underpriced it's still for anywhere else in America it's overpriced but for La it was really underpriced and I went to go see it and it was stunning and I was like what is the deal and they're like and my realtor's like I'm going to tell you this cuz I love you but like the the Latin Kings are like rampant here and I was like okay so like as a single woman I'm not moving into a neighborhood overrun by like you know a Mexican gang that's not that's not for me um and it actually lowered the price of the house yeah wow yeah um but yeah I mean La they just got to get their shit together they decriminalized way too much stuff I remember I was shopping um at a Bed Bath and Beyond and this woman just like filled her cart up and walked out the front door and I was like are you guys not going to do anything they like you're actually seeing that I saw it I remember I was stunned I was like why is oh but I'm supposed to pay like you know it really was like really confronting and it's also really sad but I was like I I don't know the the decriminalizing theft I think that's it's already hard enough for Brick and mortars to stay it's also such an obvious thing it's like if you decriminalize it people are probably going to steal cuz it's not like is it even stealing if it's decriminalized yeah so in LA I think it was like if you were under 18 it wasn't you know you could just go do it so people were sending their kids into the stores to do it and I was like this is dark but you know it got really bad after the pandemic too I used to live in Venice Beach and like they um removed the ordinance where they could move encampments off the beach because it just I don't know what happened but they're like oh now they can just live there but it's like that's the most expensive property these homes are like18 to20 million and they have people in tents cook meth and like starting meth fires and their and I'm like that's not sustainable it's not going with the vibe yeah it's not and you know some people that live in Venice are like you know it's grimy and that's part of it but I lived there for eight and a half years and I was like okay I have to leave now because I'm not safe there's a guy named Raven on my front Forge cooking math I'm like that's that's that wow but then what so then I know that there's a big influx like I know a lot of people especially I've heard at least people in Tac to moving to Scottsdale from Cali California why are people just hanging on to see if things change politically cuz it's not sustainable right yeah I I don't think it is sustainable I think there's like the dream of LA and then the reality of LA and I think they're very different and I think they keep getting further and further apart especially as Hollywood starts to struggle with you know everything they're not really making a ton of movies the industry is kind of struggling right now um so I think like the dream of like oh all the industry is here is is not really real anymore um I I love La cuz I do I love the weather and I like I live in Beverly Hills so I'm like in a I'm in a like little protected bubble because they have their own police it's very safe like there's nothing crazy going on and as like a single woman I just need to feel safe so I'm in a pocket where I do feel safe and I I'm from Wisconsin and I would never go back there so like I don't know where my next move would be but I was driving around here and I was like this is nice this is really nice we we moved from Miami last year and we looked at cuz California weather is just I don't know there's like nothing better than that and here it is hot in the summer and you kind of adapt you actually kind of adapt to it but no one really adapts to 115 120° heat so I was like okay there's like four uncomfortable months I'm from Canada and was like there like six uncomfortable months there and it's at least there's Sun here um but I was wanding around Beverly Hills I was like this is nice but as soon as you go outside it it's like yeah maybe not yeah Beverly Hills though is like tiny little Haven yeah it's nice but there's also no culture there you know it's very um it's a lot of the same it's a lot of just Persian Jews and like there's not a lot there's like shopping and good food and there's but there's not a lot else yeah but consider New York too but it's cold and I don't know New York I just feel like it's soul sucking like I go there and the energy is crazy everyone's so angry I'm like at least in La everyone's on anti-depressants and they're just like you know York people are like actually mad yeah yeah yeah I see that I feel like people in Toronto are like that too to a lesser degree yeah so then when you're performing I know like a number of your jokes and sets are pretty personal mhm what was it hard to start doing that like is like I guess the question would be like is it harder to be vulnerable on stage well yes and no I would say no because all I know is my lived experience so it's all I really can talk about honestly so that's like my way in um yes it's harder when I'm like here's my soul and then they don't laugh or they don't think it's funny or like so my mom when she committed suicide side I tried to start making jokes about it before before I was ready and I have to you know what I mean like here's the thing about crowds is they're really smart they're smarter than we give them credit for and they know if you're okay so if you're talking about something and you're not okay yet they can feel that you have to be okay and you have to stay from like a place of power but I remember I did it both with my um with my mom's suicide and with my divorce I tried to get on stage and be like H and I'm like but they're like oh she's not okay and that's when it's devastating but those are the times where I've been like okay I just need to take like a month or two off and go like take care of myself because I'm not ready for this right now yeah I'm sorry to hear that that's a lot to you handle yeah yeah it was yeah she killed herself three days before my wedding um and but it was honestly I it was it had it had to happen like she was just she had borderline personality disorder and schizoid at the end and she was that is so heartbreaking yeah and she was miserable like I never knew somebody who's been unhappy every day of their life except for my mom so it was like you know I we're we were as stranged them but like not that she's gone we're very close so a that's yeah that's hard mental illness is like I get that it's yeah it's just and I feel like too we're more aware of it now we're so fortunate to be more aware of it and paying attention to it but our parents generation especially from like where I'm from like small small town Wisconsin they just like they ignored it or they drank about it and that was the only two options you know um so you know her family just kind of her whole life I was like Hey guys she's not okay is are we going to do anything about this and they're like d it's just Gail being Gil you know and I'm like okay and then when she died I was the only one who wasn't surprised everyone was like shocked and I was like yeah no that's like how this was going to end oh man yeah yeah that's rough yeah it was hard see that divorce mhm how was that and was that in the public eye I mean is Ish you know I remember actually I don't know I don't remember how we started following each other on social media but I remember one of the first things I saw from you was your announcement about your divorce and I felt like so connected to you cuz I was like oh my God this just helped me so much cuz it is so scary to like go through a divorce with people watching you yeah I know making an announcement about a divorce is not something you expect to do yeah it's not great first of all getting divorced is not something you expect to do oh that's for sure and then making an announcement and then having people's opinions about it I remember so I didn't announced mine for a long time NE neither did I yeah cuz it's like you have to heal before you're going to like open the floodgates of everyone else's opinion about what you're going through and I probably didn't heal enough I I did what I could but like at a certain point it was like I was dating other people and like people then started like gossiping about you know what is she you know and so I was like okay I have to I have to say that I'm divorced and um yeah that that fucking sucked like he and I are still really good friends um it just like you know it wasn't working and there's there's nothing worse than that just to love somebody and be like we have to go separate ways is is so hard but I remember I just am so grateful that I saw you do what you did with so much grace because I was like okay there's like a high road to take here we don't have to like get in the weeds of like what went down we can just leave with our dignity you know yeah I appreciate you for that thank you yeah yeah that's shitty it yeah it sucks I know you you have such a like nice I don't know about you I had I don't even know why I had this I guess every little kid has this like view of how their life is going to go yeah and you're like when I'm this old this will happen when I'm this old this will happen and there's certain things that'll never happen cuz I'm not that type of person type of thing and that's just yeah that's just yeah I mean that's also a child's thought right you know it's like I I when I got married I was like I'm never getting divorced like my parents had the most acrimonious divorce they spent eight years divorcing they lost everything like they had a ton going into it and then at the end they both had next to nothing and and um I remember just being like I will never get divorced and I think here's the thing I think anytime you say I'm never going to do X that like puts a Target on your back for the universe to be like you need to now go through that cuz it's like when you're that adamant that it's not going to happen yeah for some reason it needs to happen I I completely agree I'm so careful with that now yeah I used to this is so you know my diet I just eat meat right for auto an autoimmune disorder and psychiatric issues like a host of problems but I used to be the person that was like gluten-free stupid that's like California dit's yeah like jumping onto a fad that doesn't make any sense and I don't don't even know why I was emotionally like charged about it and I was young this is probably when I was like 16 17 but I was like that's for stupid people and I feel like that just got me cuz I remember as soon as I was like oh I'm really I can't eat gluten at all and I was like Oh no I got my face well so what do you do when you need like a little snack cuz I was just eating a banana on my way over here and I was thinking of you like what would she eat a slim JY like what's like the to go food for so like the lower carb you get the less you snack okay you just don't you just kind of stop snacking so when like I first started the diet I was eating three times a day and snacking because that's kind of what I was used to and I actually started gaining weight cuz if you're just eating meat that is a lot of calories and I was like I didn't know if I was hungry or not cuz I was used to like eating and snacking all the time basically and so after about a year of floundering around was like oh I I only need to eat twice a day and I never really skip I know people skip breakfast all the time now but I never really skipped breakfast I'd eat late but I'd still eat three times so I don't really snack if I do snack I usually eat jerky okay which I like like prior to dieting so it wasn't the end of the world and and they have so many healthy things you can do now now meat wise like there's so many people eating paleo and keto diets and things that they're actually making snacks now so mostly jerky okay got you I used to bring bring meat around in a bag yeah this is when it was just like oh whatever like all I I just I give up like what are you bringing on a plane me in a bag I don't even just like look at me if you want to look at me I don't care it was steak in a bag it's like whatever you know I give up I ate like I was also so annoyed at the I was thrilled that I didn't have an autoimmune or psychiatric issues mostly anymore but for the first couple years I just ate off of a cutting board in the kitchen cuz it takes like if all you're eating is steak it takes like eight or nine minutes to eat a steak Yeah takes like no time and I was like I'm not going to like set the table and sit down and like Pretend This is a thing I'm just going to eat the steak and continue on with my life yeah no I do the same thing I mean I'm not full carnivore but I'm trying to eat more meat and I just cook myself steak pretty much every night and I just eat off The Cutting Board I'm like like is this depression or that's what I thought I was like is this insane or is it like Fast yeah and I was decided it's no it's a life hack and it's speedy and you have other things to do exactly yeah there you go precisely yeah uh so what is it like being you know do you know what the percentage of females are in comedy I have no idea but like way lower way lower yeah so what's that like um or does it matter well I I I I do think it matters I've only ever experienced comedy as a female so I don't know what the experience would be like differently if I were a a male but what I can see from like outside or looking in is the the boy club is alive and well you know it's like um they all do favors for each other and like you'll see them all go on each other's podcast a hundred times before they have one female comedian on and um some of them are just scared of having women on of them don't think women are funny um that's like the the main fe uh piece of feedback that Fe any female any female comedian will get which is we're not women aren't funny women have never been funny will never be funny and um I for that I just have to remember it's just like an incel in his basement commenting that you know what I mean I'm like and how funny are you Chad in your mom's basement you know like you don't seem like a blast either but um I think being a woman it's hard in the beginning when I was like doing it and I was drinking and I was partying and I was like kind of treating it different I was doing it wrong and guys will take advantage of like a sloppy girl at the party you know what I mean it's kind of the same thing but when I came back and I was sober and I was married it was so much better because it was like you don't if you don't like my comedy we don't have to talk you know what I mean there's no like you're not hitting on me you're not going to get something out of me so yeah guys you know more earlier and like when I started in 2013 or 2012 um guys were worse but now it's like they're my peers and we have like mutual respect for each other but um yeah still not a ton of favors are being done so that makes sense that makes sense what was um like your journey to getting sober are you still sober yeah I'm still sober um so I I was just an alcoholic my whole life it was like kind of the Crux of my relationship with my mom right like my mom so my dad drinks a lot you know and my mom called him an alcoholic and she always just said like you're going to be an alcoholic just like your dad you know that was like the thing and so because my mom and I didn't get along I drank at my mom like when I first started drinking I was like I'll fucking show you an alcoholic you know so I was drinking at her like to spite her because she was such a kind of negative force in my life and then I also liked it I also really enjoyed it and I you know partied for years and then when I got to La it really changed like I graduated Marquez in 2011 and I moved out here right afterwards and you know drinking in Milwaukee is just drinking like sure people are like maybe doing coke here in there but I was like cocaine's for losers like this is you know whatever and then when I got to La it was like Molly cocaine like it became a more intense party with like lower lows like the lows got way way lower like that's a lot different than just drinking yes it's it's way different and I I do think it rewired my brain because I don't I don't know that I was ever depressed when I was just drinking but I know that when I started doing hard drugs I like found it's like living in a house your whole life and not realizing there's a basement and then once I went down there I'm like you can never unkn know that it's down there you know so it got kind of dark and then my ex-husband and I when we started dating he and I were like drinking buddies we like partied you know and then honestly when I got the call that my mom killed herself I it was like a mon just like off my back where I was like oh my God I don't have to do this anymore like it was I didn't even realize how much of it was connected to me living to spite her while killing myself oh my gosh and so we were going away for our wedding in Nicaragua and all of our friends were coming and you know close family and I knew that was going to be like my send off I was like this is it we we partied we had honestly I think everyone would there everyone there would say it was like one of the best weekends of their life like it was just great it was perfect I mean yeah my my dad was really sad when my mom passed my sister was obviously really sad um I think we were there was like a a a layer of sadness that actually made everyone like rise up and and you know make it really wonderful and then when I went home I was doing this thing with my therapist where she's like let's see if you're in control of your drinking you know she's like you know every day when you wake up decide in the morning whether you're going to drink or not and she's like and it doesn't matter like you can you know wake up on a Wednesday and say I'm I'm going to drink today and that's it you can drink that day she like but if you wake up and say I'm not going to drink today just make sure you don't drink that day and I remember so that was the seed that was planted because it was probably like about a month before my wedding and I it was like a Wednesday and I woke up and I was like I'm not going to drink today and then I was like at lunch with my ex-husband and before I knew it I was on my second beer before I even realized that that I had made a pack with myself and I was like oh that's not good so that was kind of like the thing and then you know my mom passed and I was like okay I'm going to I'm not going to get drunk at her funeral like that's a good time to not get drunk and um I didn't think I did and the next morning I woke up with my cousin and my friends and I was like oh last night like it was pretty good right and they're like looking at each other and I was like what and they're like well you went back to the bar and like cried on the bar for like 3 hours and I was like I'm done I was like I'm done with people telling me about my life like I need to know what's happening I don't want to be offline in a bar crying for 3 hours like so literally that morning I drank a mimosa to take the edge off and I never drank again and um wow yeah so that was December 11th of 2017 wow yeah did you have to like change friends or anything or friends will fall off that like you'll realize who your drinking buddies are right you realize that I thought I was very social and what I realized in my sobriety is that I just didn't want to drink alone so people will be like oh I haven't seen you in so long you know and I'm like oh yeah I don't drink anymore and they're like well I don't need to be drunk to be around you and I'm like well I need to be drunk to be around you like we have nothing in common you know what I mean other than we used to drink so yeah friends kind of fall out and then you know I went into the program and you'll meet people there that have like similar experiences and you get friends that are you know fewer friendships but more meaningful which I think is something that happens as we age anyway yeah you know definitely yeah interesting well good for you thank you I had um I had alcohol issues I I don't even know if I would classify it as alcoholism I don't know I don't know how to you know I was in my this is in like early 20s and things but I started drinking pretty young because I was miserably depressed and it was like I had a bit of alcohol and I was like oh my gosh the cloud is gone and I think that I knew my dad my dad had quit drinking but I knew it was a thing for him cuz my mom was always saying like he used to drink like heavily and then he stopped and he stopped when he was like 27 or something like that or 28 um and he just quit and I was like okay so it's like okay I kind of had it like it's okay that I'm drinking this is in like when I was a teenager too um and it made me feel so much better I don't think I really slowed down until I got like the depression like I got mentally better I was definitely using it as a crutch Yeah well yeah that's the thing so they say like in the rooms when you're drinking and using it's like driving a station wagon and throwing every problem in the back seat right yeah it's nice kind of yeah and then when you get it is it works it literally that's the thing too I never judge anyone who's an act of alcoholism or addiction cuz I'm just like it works it works until it doesn't you know but it's like this the station wagon analogy is like when you get sober it's like slamming on the breaks and all that shit comes forward so you have to get ready to deal with it cuz before I got sober I didn't think I was depressed I never had any suicidal ideation I literally if you would have asked me I was great I was great I was confident I was successful I was happy healthy Mar like it was like I was great and then it I got to over and I was like oh I'm not okay turns out I was drinking for a reason so yeah that was that was a reckoning that was like probably the hardest one of the hardest six months of my life yeah oh that totally makes sense yeah it's an absolute Reckoning wow well good for you especially to have a career where you're going on stage like I and I don't know I'm not involved in like the comedy sphere but I would assume people drink like you're on stage in front of a bunch of people takes the edge off and things so yeah it's interesting I think now we're in an era of Comedy where there's a lot of sobriety because because we've seen like the generation that came before us right like burning out dying in like really crazy ways and a lot of it is tied to addiction and it's like you know we're confronted with the choice of like do we want to live long life like do we want to live long lives or do we want to burn out you know like Sam Kennison like it's that makes sense so yeah there's a lot of um camaraderie and sobri there's a lot of sober Comics now which is nice there's definitely a few amazing Theo talks about it too yeah yeah okay that's great yeah yeah no um yeah there's a there's a there's a handful of them so it's it feels like a more of a safe space to be sober now good MH good well what are your future plans are you going to continue touring you like touring m I don't know I I'm really enjoying being on the road and figuring out this hour I don't like traveling like so much you know I'm a real homebody so I don't love that aspect of of it but unfortunately I have to um this is part of the job you know what I mean so it's I I have to um I don't know what my future plans are I honestly am just kind of like whatever God has planned I'm like done making plans that don't work out totally reasonable yeah as much fun as that is yeah I'm like I'm just going to let go and see what happens I'm writing a few things I'm excited about so we'll see I don't know cool yeah my I went um my parents Tour all the time my dad tours all the time yes and I went with him just to open his shows for a month and it was exhausting exhausting was like it it's great and like you know the show part is great but the traveling part is a lot like this is really exha in it's really a lot and if you think about the ratio of show to travel yeah it's all travel it's all travel I mean not this year but last year I remember I was like driving across Oklahoma in like a rental car by myself like going from OKC to Tulsa and I'm like what am I doing with my life like why am I alone in the middle of Oklahoma going to Tulsa like I've taken a wrong turn oh yeah so yeah I don't know I don't know I'm kind of just like whatever the universe has planned for me I'll do that yeah that makes sense yeah so then like how do you come up with ideas for your jokes is this just based on experiences you've gone through yeah it's all lived experience and then you know you have to like elaborate or add little lies to make it funny sometimes but it's like if something if like the meat of something is funny I'm like oh that'll be a joke you know yeah like that the day I had a friend I was at this friend's party and you know I'm dating now I'm not seeing anyone exclusively but I was talking to her business partner and at the end of the party we didn't get each other's information and I um texted her I was like oh I he's cool can you connect me with him and she's like who and I was like your business partner and she's like yeah sure she connects me with this guy and we're like talking and he's like let's go to dinner and I was like totally and um I get to dinner I get to Soho House and I'm waiting for him and this guy walks up to me he's like why do you look so surprised to see me and I was like who are you no no no no no I think I talked to him at the party for like 20 seconds oh no I was like wait what happened so I then in that moment had to just be like okay I'm going to sit down and have dinner with this man I'm not going to be like not you you know so I'm like I'll make that into a joke eventually okay I still haven't told him by the way that is funny did you tell your friend yes I was like how did you fuck this up like realistically how did you fuck this up I was talking to the other guy for 2 hours I think that guy and I maybe said hi for like 20 seconds oh my gosh she's like bitch you weren't specific enough I have two business partners I'm like okay oh that's funny yeah so oh my gosh so how do you think just like switching topics how do you think did you watch Trump on everybody's podcast like Joe Rogan's Theo Von's um or any Clips or anything or JD Vance I listened to JD Vance on Tim Dylan and I didn't know he went on Tim Dylan yes that was my first exposure to him so I'm not like super political yeah um but I I was curious um I listened to Trump on Theo's podcast like half of it I got about halfway through I have a hard time with listening to podcasts I really so do I yeah can you do audio books I do audio books yeah I can't do audio books either I transcribe podcasts and read them okay see I can I can do audio books like one out of five audio books like one out of five will catch my attention but sometimes if an audio book is on I'll just be thinking about something else does that happen to you too yeah yeah I was like is it a brain problem I don't know like what it is people are like yeah I can listen to audiobooks and like two times the speed it's a really easy way to get information like I just instantly tune it out yeah but I can read it that's fine right yeah no I don't know what that is but I can I always listen to Tim Dylan's podcast cuz he's I feel like that's kind of where I get my political point of view I'm like he kind of metabolizes everything in a way where I can like understand it you know um but yeah I listened to JD Vance on that one and then I listened to Trump on Theos yeah do you think that played a role I think played a role in like their I don't know their eventual WI in audience I think it would be silly to undermine the mob that is theon's fans Joe Rogan's fans and also I'll throw Shane Gillis and his podcast in there they never had any of them on to interview but they were very very vocally prot Trump the whole time and I think the dogs like they're they're very loyal fans so I think they're kind of like susceptible to taking on the opinion of the people they idolize that makes sense yeah yeah I think it was silly have you noticed I guess living in California any change in in media since the election I know you're not super political yeah no I still try and like read I I don't know if it's California specifically I think there was so much fear mongering around Trump's return um but that's something that I I sort of try and look past like when the media's I can tell when they're trying to scare me yeah yeah yeah and I'm like I'm not going to read this you know I'm not even going to give it a scroll because I can see the angle they're coming from and it's not objective so I don't know how much if the media's changed I don't know I know California is going to be you know eternally liberal so I don't think a ton will change but on the flip side of that I will also say when I was walking around Beverly Hills there was teenagers walking around with Trump trump Flags is this after the election before oh really that's when I knew he was going to win because I was like I was like oh boy I was like if the kids in Beverly Hills want Trump Trump's winning um but I think there there's a real you know I think LA and California will always be liberal and and I don't inherently have anything wrong with that except when it impedes everyone's safety you know it's like when we're going so far left that we're not safe and the taxpayers you know we're paying you know taxes out the ass and like I mean out the ass and you can't you know you don't feel safe in your neighborhood that's like a that that's a problem but I don't know I don't know what the media is up to I'm not paying attention to them really I'm paying attention to them a bit more yeah I think I think people are getting you know there is there's a little bit of a sentiment that people are sick of the like far far left yeah I don't think people are even going to go like Ultra I don't even think so I've been to a couple of I went to a couple of rallies I guess I went to one rally I'd never been to a rally I'm and I'm also Canadian but so like went to one rally and I went to one Tucker Carlson show and I was just like wow this is crazy just to like see what it was like I don't I didn't even get the vibe from people there that they're hyper conservative like I don't think at least the people who swing conservative that I know their beliefs aren't conservative like I used to think a conservative was 10 years ago like I I went to like the show with Tucker had Russell Brand on stage with like no shoes on cross-legged and it was just the weirdest combination of people it was a bunch of like it was pretty much middle-aged women like a lot of women MH watching like a conservative and a hippie talk on stage it was just the I don't know what's going on it was conversation like really open it like I think coming from a more liberal background it's been I always had this view of conservatives like they were conservative so like not as open kind of Stuffy pretty rigid like that type of thing and so watching a conversation with Russell who's like a I don't know he's one of the most open people on the planet like he he's I don't know even know how you would describe him like hippie-ish like just out there um and talking to a conservative it was just it was weird it was like a couple of universes collided and it just popped up into this reality did it feel like anywhere they were meeting in the middle on stuff and agreed on things yeah see that's what I'm picking up on is it's we're melding more into like I know it feel can feel very separate but I do feel like most people that I talk to are melding more into the middle you know I think so too yeah where it's like you know even my dad who's hardcore conservative like his whole life and you know he had he had really rigid beliefs about certain things that he no longer holds and part of it's probably from raising two daughters but um you know he was very homophobic and anti-abortion and racist and like there was there's like all those things I kind of associated with being super conservative but I think everyone's kind of just coming more to the middle and like I see it literally with my dad where he's like he's like women should have rights to their own bodies like that's not the problem he's like the problem is like the countryes in shambles you know and we're spending yeah we're spending too much money overseas and there's trillions of dollars going to Ukraine you know what I mean so it's like I think everyone's kind of starting to get closer to having the same beliefs even if they don't know it yeah I agree yeah maybe Co was so Random for people and things got so dicey and unstable that they're like okay what do we really care about right these things yes people are looting cities where we live we don't like that nobody likes that right yeah yeah yeah I completely agree where can people find you online if they want to follow you and where are your specials available and where can people get your book okay so my book's on Amazon um it's called stop talking about sex and other advice I didn't take and then my first special is on Hulu um that one's called from Hoda housewife my second special is on YouTube that one's called horny and um I think that's it I'm on Instagram at Britney Schmidt It's s cmit TT uh no D I took all of those in college and um people always spell it wrong I have to I had to come up with something it's not bad so um yeah that's where I'm I'm there on Tik Tok and Instagram and it's really not me it's my social media manager but and your podcast SP my podcast yeah this is the worst and yeah and then I also have scumbags of History do you like podcasting uh do you like touring yeah you know I'm kind of on everything I I re I'm grateful that I can make money just like yapping um but also sometimes I feel Overexposed you know what I mean like I'll do you ever have that well I don't go out a lot like so maybe because you're like out and about on tour and meeting people it's different I'm pretty like I don't go out a lot so I don't I don't really feel Overexposed I think when I was going out more it probably felt different but now I'm just like in a house but I think yeah no I I get it um I I think more Overexposed in like I'm like o should I have said that oh who's going to be you know there's just like always an angry mob behind every door yeah okay that's fair that's what I'm saying where I'm like even on this podcast I'm like so excited to be here but I'm like oh can I say that oh can I say that you know what I mean like everything I say because I've just had so many people get mad at me for saying stuff that I'm like why would I podcast if I can't have a voice if I'm like not allowed to have a voice you know what I mean who cares about those people I know I know but those are people you don't have to worry about in their basement being angry at anybody who has any sort of success yeah yeah yeah so yeah and also you know the podcast I do with Britney fana is like a dating podcast but she's married so it's just my dating life I'm like this is this is nice this is nice um so yeah that's how I mean Overexposed but we'll see okay we see if I keep doing it that's fair yeah well good luck with everything good luck with your shows thank you so much for coming on [Music] n [Music]

From Advertising to Comedy

DUI Experience and Starting Stand-Up

Writing, Memoir, and Success

Brittany’s First Comedy Show

Matt Rife, Crowd Work, and Comedy Trends

Life in Los Angeles

Crime and Gangs LA

Being Vulnerable Professionally

Writing Jokes About Difficult Topics

Coping with Loss and Mental Health

Divorce and Public Perception

Journey to Sobriety

Life After Getting Sober

Dating Misadventures

Trump, Politics, and Media

Merging Political Perspectives

Overexposure and Podcasting Challenges

Closing Thoughts