Deece Casillas Quit the Sure Thing to Chase the Impossible—and It Worked

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacey Lauren. Well, you guys, I am so excited because I met my next guest through my really good friend Sue Anderson, who hosts the podcast and the Community Entrepreneurs Gone Wild. And she introduces me to the most amazing people and his name is Deece. Wait till you get a chance to hear his story. I just talked to him for a few minutes right before turning on record, and he is basically doing standup comedy for a living. And he actually has just produced a comic book series in a really cool way. And we were just talking about the power of telling stories and having different mediums to be able to do that. And so it's so cool that he's doing it through comedy and now he's doing through comic books and being able to chat about this. I can't even tell you how excited I am to hear more about him and you get to as well. So I am welcoming Deese to the show. Hey, Deese.

Hey, how you doing, Stacey?

I'm good. I'm so excited to meet you. Just even in the few minutes that we just already talked, I feel like you have a good lever point on how important it is for us to get our stories out and having different mediums in different ways that we're able to tell these powerful stories.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, writing is literally, since I could put pen to paper, it's all I wanted to do. And I've done it in a lot of different mediums. I've been fortunate enough to be able to do that. And I think it's. Yeah, it's just one of those things you can really tell.

I think getting it out there and then consuming people's art and being able to dissect it and what it means to you personally and so many things is just. It's one of the fundamental, I think, communication points of life that we are maybe missing out on today in the instant gratification, Instagram likes and 30 second videos, content, bite sized life we're living.

Yeah. I'm trying to figure out where to start because you have so many things going on that I'm really excited about. I feel like we should just start about what you're doing now. I want to hear your do the Thing story. You're doing stand up comedy for a living.

Yeah, yeah, I have been for. I mean, I've been doing stand up for about 17 years. I've been doing it full time for probably close to 10.

Okay, yeah, let's talk about that. So how did that happen? Where did that start? What?

Yeah, I think the usual way. Bad parents, teenage angst, a genetic propensity for alcoholism, those type of things. That's usually how it starts. No, I mean, I just always loved comedy. Even as a kid, I just. I was a funny kid. I loved consuming it. When I was little, I used to fake falling asleep on the floor of my living room because my mom would go to bed, then my dad would watch TV and I would pretend like I fell asleep on the floor. And I would wait for. Cause he'd always fall asleep on the sofa. So I wait for him to fall asleep and then I could pop back up and then I could watch a Tonight show or Saturday Night Live, or there used to be this standup comedy showcase on VH1, which is such a antiquated channel now. Back when they still showed music videos after, late at night, they'd have this standup showcase, right? And I'd stay up and watch those. After my parents went to bed, I would pretend to sleep so I could. They would just leave me on the floor of the living room for a while and then I could get up and watch them. So I just always loved comedy. And when I was in my early 20s, I was. I actually had my own marketing company. I had a independent marketing firm living in la. Everything was going well, it was very successful, but I just hated it. I had no passion for it. Financially it was great, but.

Spiritually it was crushing me because I just didn't care about it at all. And I went to this little bar I hung out at in Long beach and they were doing open mic nights on Tuesdays and I used to go just to watch. And then one night after the show, the guy who ran it, we started talking. He's like, hey, man, he's like, you're really funny. He goes, why don't you. You should try this. Come, I'm gonna put you up next week. And I'm like, okay. And I tried it and I liked it. And I just kept going. It allowed me to get into comedy writing, sketch comedy writing for some shows, websites, some stuff. And yeah, eventually it became doing comedy full time. Stand up comedy full time.

Wow. It's always amazing to see someone now, right? And then to know there's this whole path that kind of has you doing what you do now. So I do stand up comedy, but I pay to do it. I pay for a class, and then when you pay for the class, you get to perform. And so that's my level of stand up comedy. But what my Coach, he says, and I'm sure this is a comedy thing. And I thought we could talk about this for a minute. Cause it is true. It's like comedy is really a tragedy plus time.

Yeah. And so maybe just talk about that because you were saying how you were doing this soul sucking job and then it sounds like comedy might've just brought out your life. Cause you're tapping into who you are even more.

Yeah, I mean like I said earlier, I always wanted to be a writer. I loved writing. I mean if it was in a perfect world when I was a kid, I just thought I would be writing, writing books, writing movies, writing comic books, just writing stuff like that, fiction. Just. Cause I didn't know. I didn't have any frame of reference of how I would ever get into comedy. It wasn't an option for me because I grew up in South Central LA in the 80s, bad neighborhood. And comedy was so far away for me. I had no clue how you would even do that writing. I could write stuff, pen and paper, I could write stuff down, I could put a book together. So it's what I always wanted. Then you grow up and I had this career, I had my own business, it was very successful financially and everything like I said. But yeah, I just hated it. I hated every second of it. And when I found comedy and that I could do it and that I could do it, often it was like, oh well, I'm going to do this. This I enjoy. And essentially I just bet on myself. And I've closed my marketing firm and just started focusing on writing and creative projects. And yeah, it took some time to make it all work. But I think humans are more resilient than we realize. If you put yourself in a corner where you really have to make something work to survive, you'll find a way to do it.

I bet on myself.

So what had you, when that guy asked you if you would do comedy, did you just immediately just go on the stage and just perform or did you train or what was that like?

No. So he's like, you're going to do a set next week. And I go, okay. I'm like, sure. Because I'd always fantasized about it. But I again, I never knew how. Even when I was going and watching this open mic, I didn't realize it. It still didn't dawn on me that, oh, you could stand up there, you could sign up and do this. I would just show up and there were people there doing it. And I'm like, I don't know, maybe he Asked them to. I didn't even know how it worked, Right. So when he asked me to do. When he said, yeah, next week you should do this, I'm like, okay. So I went home and I started going through notebooks I had because I always wrote funny stuff down, stuff that I thought was funny lines, funny observations. And even if it didn't have any context or they seemed like non sequiturs, it's stuff that I'm like, oh, I have this book that I would use for reference for dialogue in a show I'm writing, or dialogue in a book I'm writing. Like an idea. This is a funny thing a character will say. Right. But what I started realizing as I'm reading it, I'm like, oh, I've been writing jokes. These are jokes. And so I had pages and pages and pages of material. There was some finessing that was involved to kind of truncate it, make it more stage ready, which I did. But then also, over time, you do it more. You do more stage editing. But, yeah, I just realized I'm like, oh, I have jokes. I've been writing jokes. I'm not a blank slate. This is something I've been preparing for. I just didn't know that I would be using it in this forum.

Yeah. Wow. So what do you think gave you the courage to be able to do it where you're on the stage and just putting it out there?

I don't know if courage is the word I'd use, but thank you. Maybe delusion might be a better word.

And, I mean, honestly, I'm going to tell you, if you want to do standup comedy and you want to have any modicum of success at it, you have to be a little delusional. A little to medium delusion. Any more than 65% delusion, you're going to be a crazy narcissist and not understand when you're doing terribly. But you have to have 30 to 65% delusion, I think, is the. Is the range to be good at comedy, because it's a crazy thing. I'm going to stand up here by myself on this stage and demand these people's attention. And I'm going to say things that are so provocative that they are going to not be able to withhold this burst of laughter. That's an insane proposition. And so, yeah, a little bit of delusion goes a long way. I just knew it's something I wanted to do. I knew it's something I. I felt it was something I would enjoy. And when I started doing it, I was pretty good at it and enjoyed it. I also don't have a lot of kind of wired in a weird way where not much really.

I don't wanna say dead inside, but yeah, it doesn't bother me. I'm not excited, I'm not nervous, I'm not pensive, I'm just kind of there. I grew up fighting. I was a boxer. I did MMA kickboxing stuff. I've done car racing, a lot of high adrenaline things. And in those things I have this weird wiring where when I was fighting where things would actually slow down for me a little bit. And I think it's a lot like that with comedy where I can just. I have a friend who used to always tell me that the crazier things got, the cooler I got. So as life around me is cranking up, I notch down and get more even keeled. So it really was kind of pretty seamless to get up there and do it.

What do you think helped you do that? Get to that point? You've obviously been conditioned to be able to handle things like that.

Yeah, to be perfectly frank with you, I think it's a lot of desensitization probably. I had a pretty wild childhood, saw a lot, did a lot very early on and had a lot of need to be self reliant. So I think it just kind of made me very resilient to anything going on around me. So again, adversity coming at me quickly and sharply does not really shake me that much.

Yeah, it's amazing because I mean everything that we've gone through, right. It shapes who we are now and who we're gonna be. But it's almost like the muscle, whatever that muscle happened from being a kid now has carried on with you through life where you're able to handle where you see problems or you see things and you're like, oh, I obviously know I can get through that. So then it's not even a big deal where someone else who hasn't dealt with that, or maybe they dealt with it poorly like you had. See, it's coming up now. I think it could be your boxing background from when you were younger helped you flex that muscle to condition you to be able to handle anything.

Yeah, yeah. A combination of all those things really just kind of nature and nurture made it so I think I was just equipped to deal with what someone might perceive as the pressures of performing standup comedy. But again, I mean, comparatively to some of the other things that I'd seen and done in my life. It was, it was pretty, pretty mellow. It was like after you spend calendar months of your life getting punched in the face or trying not to get punched in the face or kneed in the head. If you're kickboxing stuff, you just kind of things really, everything else is a lot more relaxed.

Yeah, it's true. What do you think is the lesson here from this part where you're able to do that? How can someone else kind of listening that maybe hasn't done boxing or, or hasn't had the experience you've had, learn how to flex that muscle?

It can be learned too. And it can be. Some of it's just experience. Some of it is also. I mean this kind of maybe will roll into the comic book and writing pretty seamlessly, but a lot of it is. I also spent a lot of time really reflecting inwardly. I've spent a lot of time in my life confronting the.

Deepest, darkest things that people have to confront or should confront. And I think a lot of people avoid them and then they just gnaw at you forever. My thought process is always like, no, no, I'm going to dive into that. It's going to get dirty and ugly for a while, but when I'm out the other end, I will, for the rest of my life things are going to be infinitely easier to do and better.

Yeah, it's that self reflection and the awareness of learning who we are. Right. And you're helping. This is really good. It's like when you're so tapped into who you are because you've kind of dealt with all of that, then almost like the noise from outside, it doesn't bother you anymore because what you're here to do.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, like I said earlier, I think it's really easy for people to kind of zone out and not take any really accountability or responsibility for their lives or just kind of get hands off the wheel and not really take control of what's going on around them and tune out. And I work, I come home, I watch X amount hours of tv, I eat dinner, I go to bed and like no one's doing anything for themselves. No one's getting in their own head, no one's trying to understand why they feel the way they feel. No one's trying to change what's going on in their circumstances. And it's hard and it's uncomfortable, I get it. But man, what's harder and more uncomfortable is living an entire lifetime of misery, like low grade depression that you've never Truly experiencing what you want to do or how you really want to feel in life.

Yeah, yeah. It's like by telling them to become more self aware and be more introspective so you can learn about yourself. And then the more you learn about yourself, the more convicted you are and who you are and what you stand for and what you care about. So then when you're on the stage and someone's not laughing at a joke or is like, I don't know if anything happens, but whatever happens with that.

Or a troll on the Internet or whatever it is, you don't care because you're so tapped in to that message that you're putting out and believing in yourself. And so it's funny, when I started this podcast, my whole goal was I wanted to help people do the thing. That was what it is. I had owned a staffing company, I sold bookstore to door. I did all these things that do the thing was kind of the, kind of the reverent thing. But as I was doing the podcast interviews, I started to realize, oh, it's not just do the thing, it's actually finding your own voice as you do the thing. And so, and that was something I wasn't doing. And so that was kind of the next journey of 80 more episodes was me kind of discovering my own voice. And I did it through the podcast. But now I have a challenge. It's a 17 day challenge where I give people dares and each dare is a self reflective question question where it helps them discover who they are, but then they do it in a group so the group actually sees them in a way that maybe no one has seen them before.

Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, it's, it's. What you're saying though, is exactly why I think I'm so obsessed with this kind of work is because you're right, a lot of people don't take the time and it's not until they get woken up from a death in the family or a divorce or a major tragedy that happens. It's like the feather brick or the semi truck. We don't need to wait for the semi truck to come. Right. To make the change. But, but a lot of times we're waiting for that.

Yeah, I just think it's. Again, like I said, it's hard because familiarity is very easy for, for, for people. And humans are very adaptable by nature. So when we get into a rhythm, even if it's a very uncomfortable rhythm, it's like fucking Stockholm syndrome for life. Right. You just become a Hostage to your own shitty life you set up instead of trying to escape what this. This gilded cage you create, or not even a gilded cage, just this cake created.

Yeah.

Is you just become comfortable and the unknown is scary for people. So it's like, well, if I quit this job and pursue my dream, I don't know, X amount of dollars that are come in every two weeks. Every two weeks, I get $2,500 right now, or whatever you get paid. And it's like, that's. I know that happens and that covers my bills. And I don't really get ahead, but I don't get behind. And so people, they become complacent and it's out of some necessity and survival. But again, I think if you. You're willing to buck that a little bet on yourself, be willing to take some chances, people would be really surprised themselves as to what they're capable of doing.

What do you think is on the other side of that? Because I see you now, right? You're telling your story because you're not afraid to show who you are. You're doing it in different ways. One way is through comedy, and then the other way is through the comic book. And it sounds like with the writing as well. But on the other side of that, it's freedom, right? Freedom to be who you are. Is there anything more there you want to add? Cause I feel like there's a lot there that people can understand when you get to tap in more.

Yeah, I mean, freedom's a great word for it. Freedom, liberation. And I guess that's kind of encompasses so much else though, because it gives you, like I said, the latitude to feel like you can do anything. It gives you the room to not worry about other people's judgment about what you're doing. It allows you the grace to fail and understand that those failures are learning and mean something. It again, those are all freedoms. So freedom is probably the number one thing, but that it's all those things. It's understanding that you're living the life you want to live and with a purpose. And yeah, it's never too late to jump on and do that. You can do it at 20, you can do it at 50, you can do it at 70. There's still time and opportunity to get to that place you want to be or do as much of it as you can. I mean, the reality is. I mean, the biggest obstacle is, is yourself. Just get past yourself and then, yeah, you can find that freedom.

Okay, so I'd love to talk about now where you're like, okay, I'm doing this comedy thing now. I can make money doing it because that's a whole kind of finding your voice in now being able to make money from it. What did that look like for you?

Yeah, I mean I. I did it for probably.

Gosh. So my comedy careers kind of took a weird arc. So most people do like stand up comedy. They do open mics forever and then slowly they rise up. I kind of did stand up comedy for a bit and then I was working on publishing a book, a fiction book. And as I was doing that, I was looking for writing gigs that were paying and actually found some comedy writing gigs. So I started doing that pretty early on, getting comedy writing gigs first for a website and then some other stuff. And so I did a lot of comedy writing and sketch and some film and stuff like that for a long time and did some standup. And then I moved to the Pacific Northwest for a while in Washington state and a really big comedy club opened up. They actually reached out to me to start producing some content for them because I had a still do a weekly podcast, the Social Hour, do episodes Most Wednesdays on dscomedy.com, shameless plug. And so I'm like, oh, if I'm. I'm like, I should start doing more standup again. And I did that and it just kind of really took off pretty quick for me again. But also I was experienced. I was older than most of the younger comics. I kind of was secured myself financially, pretty secure. I just had some advantages to it. But I'd put the time in of doing it. And eventually you're just, at first you're like, oh, I'm driving three hours to make $20 in a hot dog for five minutes of comedy. And you just kind of take any gig you can get. And I did that for years. And then eventually it was just like, well, I don't have to do anything else. I was still doing I. For a long time I had a sales job. I worked a couple days a week to supplement some income. And then eventually it was just like, I'm not going to do any of that anymore again. It's kind of went back to the marketing job I used career I had. I was like, I hate this. And the time that I'm spending doing this, I can put into comedy and I will make the money up. I don't need the safety net anymore. I'm just going to do it full time. And yeah, then I went into just doing standup full time. I quit all the writing and stuff too. Comedy writing. Because I was just. The touring was going so well. I was getting a lot of bookings. I'm like, yeah, let's just hit the road. I just started going on the road. I was gone more than I was home for probably six, seven years. I mean, I would be died sometimes. I think my biggest year, I did almost 200 dates on the road. So yeah.

Wow, that's so cool. How did you get most of your bookings?

When you start doing comedy, a lot of it's networking. So you go to different areas and do some shows people see or you meet people at shows. You go to different clubs to showcase. When you can start sending out your epk, your press kit to other clubs and bookers. And then really a lot of it though, I just started doing it myself. So I just started calling venues and being like, hey, you guys want to do a comedy show? Venues on the road, whether breweries, anywhere with people in them. Yeah, I was getting these weekends at clubs to host and feature at the time, before I could headline a club. And then I would have the weekend at a club. So my is usually on Thursday through Sunday, right. At a club. So I would pick up Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I would call other venues in the area and I'd be like, hey, you want to do a comedy show? And I would set up a deal with them, some sort of financial deal to get paid for it. I'd bring a sound system and I would do the shows. And then I started doing that in between. And that got me a lot of stage time very quickly and allowed me to. I mean, I. I mean, I think I wrote. I wrote a whole hour inside of about six months because I was doing a show almost every night of the week somewhere. So. Yeah. And then eventually it built to the point where I own my own production company now. I produce comedy events at venues across the country. Comedy clubs, theaters, other venues. You've got about 40 venues in 20 states now. So it got to the point where the shows I would, I would go do these one off shows and then the venues would be like, that was great. How do we keep doing comedy? And I'd be like, well, I can bring you more, I'll send you more comedians. And it kind of started that way. And then next thing I've got all these rooms that want to do comedy. So I just started a company and started putting people on tours and then I'll do those rooms once a year. And yeah, I really just kind of became my own agent and Now I pretty much. I've got a couple clubs that reach out to me to book me still. But most of what I do, I produce and book myself. Because I can make more money producing a show myself than I can working for most clubs these days.

Yeah, it's so funny. I'm training. I'm gonna say I'm training. Cause I'm doing it. I'm training by doing to be a charity auctioneer where I'm starting to put on my own events. Where I did one there, I do this thing called my people parties. And my people is basically being with people who have a common goal, bond. And so one of them is a two hour cocktail party style. I don't know if you read that book. It's. I think I even have it here. Nick Gray wrote it and it shows his framework. So I had a two hour cocktail party, then I added a live auction to it. And then I. The other one I did was a. My friend did a one woman show and then I added a live auction to it. And so I'm now like, okay, maybe I don't have to put on the events. Maybe I can just go to other companies and bars and say, hey. And I could make it fun because I can add comedy and speaking and not just have an out of the box charity auction. That's an. I don't wanna say they're annoying, but the kind of the manufactured ones that people are used to, it'd be more like alive. But we're raising money and so. But I hadn't really thought about strategically looking at venues or maybe even partnering with someone like you that's already filling rooms and being like, hey, can I just add a live auction to this? Or even make it a game where people that wanna play, they get to pay money and then they get to win a prize. I don't know, it's just like it's coming alive as you're talking.

Yeah, no, there's a lot. I mean, there's a lot of opportunity out there. I helped manage a club for a while, worked did a lot of booking for clubs, worked with a lot of clubs, really intimately producing shows. And I just kind of saw the writing on the wall as far as the way the industry was going as far as pay, Especially with kind of around the time of COVID really was a big thing too, because all the comedians who were theater in Arena Comics during COVID they lost all those gigs. Right. Because everything closed. So then when things started opening up again, they all dropped back down to doing comedy. Clubs because they just wanted to fill dates they needed to get. There were limited capacity options, and they had lost so much money not touring that they're just trying to fill any dates they can. So they come back down to comedy clubs. Which means when Brian Regan's doing the Chuckle Hut in Poughkeepsie, all of a sudden that's a show he never would have done the year before that, but he's selling out soccer stadiums. So now a guy like me, who's a nationally touring comic, that's a crappy B club I would do. Now all of a sudden, I'm losing a date because they're back down. And those guys, a lot of the bigger comics are bringing their openers. So I don't even have an option to open for these guys. So I just saw this and I'm like, I'm just going to. I think I can just do this. I'm just going to pretty much do it myself. And, yeah, again, I just bet on myself. Hit the phones, start calling venues, work out financial deals that make sense. And, yeah, I mean, it keeps me busy and it pays the mortgage.

Yeah. So what advice would you have for people that are. One of the other things I teach is I help people fill the room for their events, and then I also help them find people like you. Right. That have rooms already, and then they get to put their thing on their thing. What advice would you have for people that are either wanting to speak, wanting to put themselves out there, and then wanting to start to gather people around that.

Yeah, it's really just starting to do it. I mean, it was a learning process at first. There were a lot of places that would offer me a deal that was guaranteed deal instead of a door deal or something. Right. But then the shows would be. They wouldn't do anything to promote it, and the shows would be terrible. There'd be nine people there. I would have a terrible time, and the owners would be mad because no one was there. And it's like at a certain point, I had to realize not all money is green. Right. There's just some. Ask the right questions to make sure the venue's a good fit. Ask the right questions to make sure the venue is actually invested and on board, that they're going to help be a part of this, that they benefit from you bringing people to their venue also. So if they're really not interested, I'm not interested. Right. It's why I stopped doing door deals with venues, Meaning I will sell the tickets and I do it all. They Just provide a space. I don't really do that. I pretty much make every venue at least give me some sort of guarantee, just because then they're on the hook to feel like they should also do something for it. If they have zero skin in the game, they're not going to do anything. Yeah, there's a learning curve, just figuring out the right space, making sure they're in alignment with what you want to do. They're on board, they're willing to do their part, whatever that may be for your event. Gathering people is tough these days, though. It's gotten harder since COVID It's gotten harder just because people are more inclined to stay home. People got comfortable being home and that's continued. I mean, I think we've seen that in live events in general. Everything's dipped a little bit. Obviously it came back post Covid. We got events again and people going out again. But I think the numbers never are back at pre Covid life. So. Yeah, and then it's finding your audience, giving them a reason to be there, making sure what you give them, a reason to enjoy being there and a reason to come back. Collecting information from them so that you can reach them to come back. Lots of things like that.

Yeah. Have you considered doing virtual at all?

Virtual comedy?

Yeah.

I mean, I've thought about killing myself before, but I would.

No, I'm going to say no. It's tough. So I have. I did one. I did one virtual comedy show during COVID and the only reason I did it is because a friend of mine, she released her comedy album and she wanted to do a release party and she asked me to be on the event, and I just couldn't say no to her in general. A lot of people offered me virtual comedy during COVID and I was like, no, no, no, no. It's just not. It just doesn't translate right. You need people in the room, you need energy in the room, you need to connect with them, you need to be able to look at them. You need to be able to hear the feedback instantly. It's like the virtual thing just doesn't. I mean, people do it. It can be done. I just think that you lose too much to make it worth it. Right. It just.

Okay, I have an idea. If you're open to it, it would be so fun because it's different. If you have people virtual and they're not activated and they're not having. Giving you the energy, then I totally agree. But if you have a room full of people that are energetically Giving you love. I think it could be different. I would love to test it in my community, if you're open to it.

Okay.

The.

I.

I mean, I've. I've seen events, I've watched somewhere the sound is on and you can hear them, but it's. There's a delay also with the sound and there's a rhythm with comedy again, you can, people can have fun. Yeah, fun. But I think you lose 20% of it.

Yeah. I'll send you. I'll send you something I've done because before I did the one woman show in person with Allison that I was telling you about, we did something. We actually didn't do it on a zoom. It was just her live in my group. But it was so fun. So I'll at least send it to you and then you guys will get to see potentially the virtual event that we. I think here's the thing.

I've done like live podcasts.

Yeah.

Live interactive comedy events, but not stand up. I think stand up via virtually is hard. I think you can do comedy stuff where it's a little more interactive or it's a little more like improv.

Yeah.

Game shows, that type of stuff. That stuff I think is very doable and works really well. But seeing people during COVID I watched people have a green screen brick wall behind them and stand in front of it with a microphone that didn't. Wasn't plugged in and they're talking to no one.

Like that is a nightmare.

No, I'm talking about just on zoom and we're just like this and it's just a bunch of people on there. But it sounds like that's different. Yeah, it sounds like you're open to that. That's what I'm hearing. Okay, cool.

That type of thing totally is a different story because there's you and there's other people and you're talking to people and interacting like that. That I love. That's cool. But yeah, just the one man standup in virtually. I'm like this. So.

So will you. Are you saying yes. Are you going to come in?

That's any detail. I'm open to that. I'm open to that.

Obsessed. Oh, yes. We're doing the thing. We're doing the thing. All right, so let's hear about what you're doing now at the comic. You've mentioned you have a comic book coming out in a couple weeks. I'd love to hear about that too.

I do. It's actually the second issue of a ten issue series. The first issue came out in November. It's been really great. It's been. As far as independent comic books go, it's been very successful. We've sold out of our two first print runs. The retailers that are carrying it are selling out of it, albeit we have limited shelf space. We're on. But they are doing very well with it. People who read it seem to be loving it. The second issue, yeah, should be coming out middle end of March, so something like that couple weeks. And yeah, it's called Kill Stan. It is about a guy who wants to end his own life. So he decides to do it through vigilantism. It's really. It's kind of a character piece about loss and trauma and the crazy things we do when we feel like we have nothing left to live for.

So what has that been like for you to write that and then now sell it?

It's been amazing. I mean, literally lifelong dream come true. Since I was a little kid, I wanted to write comic books. I love the medium and it was, yeah, to actually finally get one out there and go through with it has been amazing. I mean, the whole process of writing it, scripting it, finding a artist, getting the artist.

Getting my vision into his hands, working on the color to make it colored exactly how I want it, and then getting the physical copies in my hand and getting it to people and then those people giving me stellar feedback, all those things have been really remarkable. Yeah, I mean, it's literally a dream come true to finally have it out and in people's hands. And not only that, but really impacting them. A lot of people are understanding what the story is about and what the real story we're trying to tell here, which is, it's the main character is a vigilante. So people would be like, oh, comic book vigilante. And you're like, yes, but him punching, he punches people sometimes. But that's not the story. The story is him. The story is his depression, his why he wants to end his own life, what got him to this point. The things that impact people to make you feel that way that we don't even realize are going on with people that you may not even realize as a reader is going on with you. And that kind of takes us back to what we were talking about earlier, where humans are just resilient and have this low grade depression pressing them down a lot of the times. And we never stop to even realize that we are unhappy. It just is. Right? So, yeah, to be able to get in people's hands and have them.

Feel, resonate with and understand. Be able to get into Stan's head. People have told me, oh, I, I feel like I'm in his head. I understand what he's saying. It makes sense. This has been really great.

Yeah. And I loved what you said before we got on where it's like having a medium like this to be able to tell the story. Do you wanna talk a little bit more about that?

Yeah, I mean, that's one of the great things about comic books is again, people just think superheroes when you think comic books. But superheroes is really a genre inside a medium, albeit probably the largest genre of comic books. But you can tell any story inside comic books. And it's kind of like movies with an unlimited budget. Right. Because you don't need to make CGI dragons, someone just draws it. So the budget is as big as your artist will put up with fiction, but it allows for this room to explore really interesting in depth.

Topics in stories, using fantastical vehicles to tell them. So it's part of why I like the medium because there's a challenge. You're like, okay, I'm selling you this neo noir thriller. If you just breeze through it, you'd think, oh, it's like kind of a crime, action crime, neo noir thriller. But then you read it and it grabs you and you don't even realize. You're like, oh, I'm reading. Not that. That's not what this is about. That's the wrapping paper that we put on this much deeper story. And I like that because it can appeal to a broader audience. You can get to people who may not pick up a self help book about why someone may want to end their own life, but you can get them to think about these deeper topics because you hit it. It's like putting a dog's pill in a piece of cheese, right? You gotta fake em out. So you can tell these really great stories with this world around it that you've created and it gets to a bigger audience or people who may not ever pick it up normally.

Yeah. And then you mentioned it selling out. How did you get it to the point where it could even sell out? How did you get it in those places that you mentioned?

I just started knocking on doors. You know, I just went around to. I just go to comic book retailers, comic book shops in my area and other areas within a couple hours of me and I will bring them copies of the book and be like, hey, this is the book I just put out. This is what it's about. Here's a copy most of the time, they read through it, they like it.

I really spent a lot of time making sure that the quality was really good. So the paper stock we use is really high grade. Cost me a little bit more, but it ensures that when it sits on a shelf, it looks as good or better than most mainstream comic books out there. So it pops because of the quality. And I want to do put that extra time and money into it because again, I doing comedy for a living. A lot of comedians make merch to sell after a show, right? Shirts with some joke or whatever on it. And when comedians make shirts that are cheap, a hundred percent cotton, cheapest shirt they can get. I'm like, yeah, yeah, you're selling a shirt, but you're selling a shirt nobody's ever going to wear, Right. Spend a couple extra bucks, get a nice shirt that someone wants to wear. And then someone's wearing your merchandise all the time. They don't. I mean, I get it, they bought it, you have the money, but don't you want them to wear it and enjoy your shirt? So I wanted something that people liked and had a high quality feel to it. But that's also a selling point when we go to these retailers is they feel and they're like, oh, this is substantial. It's nice. That's the first thing they see and feel. Then they read it. And I email shops, send them PDFs to read it. I'm like, you want a physical copy, let me know, I'll get your copy. We sell online and do a lot of online advertising and a lot of direct to consumer sales. So yeah, any way I can to get it out to people.

Wow, it's so cool. Cause I'm right in the middle. Day one of this disrupt the market with your voice challenge that I'm doing with Eileen Wilder right now. And you're showing you're like a living example of how to do that because you tapped into who you are, you tapped into your message. You're not letting anyone's noise get in your way. And you're also not scared to reach out to people directly and tell them what you have.

Yeah, I mean, you have to believe in your product, you have to love your product. It's like. So I do a lot of conventions also. I was just up in Oklahoma this last weekend doing a convention, you know, selling my comics book all weekend to people. And I talk to a lot of creators or I watch a lot of creators and I see these people, like, I'll ask them about Their book. And they're like, it's kind of this and that. It's Star wars meets Winnie the Pooh. And I'm like, oh, well, what's it about? It's about this bear and he's in space. I'm like, okay. And they don't really have a connection to their work even. They're just making a thing. And then they kind of don't. They're always the ones that don't really sell it a lot, and they didn't really have a good weekend. And when I talk to people, I'm not trying to sell them my. My book. I'm trying to let them. I'm trying to express to them why I love this book and what it means to me. And hopefully that's the connection they can resonate with and that we make a connection as people. Because I believe in my art. I believe what it is. And you have to have that connection with your art and believe in it to get it to other people. I mean, if you. You can be a tortured artist that makes your art and sits around and laments that no one cares about your art. But I don't know, what are you doing to get your art in people's hands? No one's going to knock on your door one day and be like, hey, do you do art? You have to care enough to foster it and spend the time and effort to go get it to people and tell them why you believe in it.

Do you have any fun way to get through the no's when the people say no to you? Or is there something that helps you do that?

I think it probably for me, a little bit, it goes back to the resiliency thing where it doesn't really bother me. A no doesn't really bother me. I mean, again, doing comedy for a living. Also, like, sometimes you bomb and it's like, okay, I know that I'm good at comedy, right? Most nights I do good to gray. Some nights I bomb. It happens. Sometimes it's the audience, sometimes it's me. It's okay. I know that in general, my batting average is good. It's the same with the comic book. There's going to be no's, and that's okay. It's not for everyone. Not everyone's ready to dive that deep. Not everyone is into that genre. There's a lot of reasons. Some people might just be broke and that's okay, really. It's just focusing on the next one. That's okay. Moving on, next person, let's try to get it? Let's talk to them like they're. It's the first one of the day.

Okay. So it's so cool because when I started this podcast, I think I mentioned the whole I wanna do the thing and then find your voice. And then it ended up being about this formula that I was dissecting to help people achieve their goals so that they could do the thing. And so every interview I did in the first hundred episodes was me dissecting a formula. And I did. It's cool. It's an acronym. It's called I'm game. And each letter stands for a piece of the formula. And that's when I discovered my people, which is the M. And I'm game is the most important piece, which is being with people that share your goal, not just your friends, family, support, network. And then all the other pieces of the formula go inside that my people group. So the I is identifying your why do it in a group mindset. That's something like, what's your excuses? Being open, vulnerable, sharing all that stuff that holds you back that happens in a group. And then the G in game is goals, which is I do dares. That's kind of the way I do it. But then A is accountability. And then in the group, they're holding each other more accountable is my people. And then the E is educate. And educate is educating. What we're doing now, people are learning from you on how to fill a room, on how to put their voice out there, how to monetize their voice, and then you educate others. So when you're in a group, that really kind of makes you feel alive because you're actually educate other people. So now I dissected this formula. I haven't been as excited, no offense, guys, at my podcast lately, where the first year when I was dissecting it and I was in this experimenter mode, it was. I mean, I hit 200 episodes in, I think, a year. It was so fast. But now I have a new where I do more my stuff in my community. I go live in there, and then I'll put that in my podcast. So it kind of just. I work it a little bit differently. But what you showed me is. Thank you. I think I'm going to get obsessed again because you're a living example of my new thing that I've uncovered through all this stuff. So can I show it to you? And I can. Yeah, I hear your. Okay, cool. Thank you. And thanks for kind of lighting me up again because basically, this is kind of my new and for those of you listening, it's okay, watch the YouTube show, but I'll also talk through it so you guys can see it. But basically, this is like a person. This is you. What you just told me about stand up comedy. And then also about the comic book where I don't know what your horse is yet. We'll kind of talk about that. But the horse. Oh, tell me, tell me.

That's just the horses I like. I don't know what that means anything. I don't know if there's a difference. If it's a fail or a buzzfeed quiz I have to take find out what kind of horse I am. Just know I like palomino horse.

Oh, my gosh, this is so funny. You just told me I need to do a quiz to help people identify what their horse is. But yeah, so the horse is like you just had this trauma thing. Moment where you were. Or maybe not trauma, but the thing, the brick, the feather, whatever made you want to make the change. And you're not ready to talk about it yet, but you're just kind of feeling it. You're like, okay, I'm aware I've got to do something. So this is when you might join a group or go to an event or get help. Right. And the horse is a representative of. I don't have words yet. So it in. Right now I'm helping a organization create a movie, Saddles in Service. And they help veterans and military overcome PTSD and they're combating suicide through equine therapy. And so that was how I discovered this whole thing was just a couple months ago because they meet them with the horse and they don't want to talk yet, nor would they do therapy. But the horse, they don't. With the horse and community, they don't need to talk. And so that's them. But there's other people. There might be someone that does it through sailing or there might be someone that does it through gaming. And so, yeah, I don't know what your horse is.

What is my horse like? What's the most riding?

Maybe it's the writing.

Yeah, I think, yeah, riding is definitely my. My horse.

Yeah. And then all of a sudden, then you're finding your voice. Right. And this is when you start to what then maybe talk about that more. Is there anything there that after the writing, when you started just talking about it more?

When I started talking about writing, how I kind of expanded my.

Yeah. Or maybe this is when. Yeah. So your comedy and the comic books that goes under Sharing your voice, if this helps. So now you're ready to start doing it with people, so there's something in between. Unless there's a deeper layer under writing. Because maybe writing is under find your voice. There might have been something you did before that.

No, I mean, I think writing, expressing. I just want to. I think it's. It's expressing ideas and provoking thought. And is thought that. Provoking thought that is meaningful, that gets you thinking and digging in yourself is what I want to do with my writing. And even comedy and stuff like that. And not always there's dumb dick jokes in there, too, because there's room for that. But sometimes you want to talk about things that really evoke thought in someone. So.

Yeah, I wonder, and maybe you could tell me later if something comes up, if there was something before the writing that helped you, before you even maybe had the words helped you kind of.

I don't know. I mean, honestly, literally, since I could put pencil to paper, all I wanted to do was write. I've been writing since I went. I mean, I have when I was a little kid. I barely remember this, but I took these. All these pieces of paper, and I stapled them together and I drew these pictures and I wrote a story. And it was, to be fair, universal. Don't sue me. It was kind of a King Kong ripoff. I'll be honest. At four years old, I was. I guess I wrote. I kind of maybe infringed on some trademarks, but I broke this thing and I drew these pictures and I demanded that my mother send it to my grandmother. Her mom. And, yeah, my grandma had it till the day she died, but the. It was just. I mean, literally, that's all I. I mean, that's what I wanted to do.

So. Yeah. And that was sharing your voice, right? You wanted to. You wrote it, you expressed yourself, and then you started sharing it. And so, yeah, and then you kind of go through the next one, which is you started comedy and being able to share your voice that way. I don't know if there's other ways that sharing it with your grandma, if there's other ways that you shared it at that point.

Yeah, I mean, shared comedy. My comedy.

Well, just anything that you were doing. So kind of. And it could be. Yeah, it could be specific to one thing where it was just your comedy, because it. Like, I have all these circles. I have different areas of my life. There's some stuff I don't talk about because it's still too painful. I'm waiting for my Daughter to graduate, and then I'll get into the deep, dark trauma that way. I'm not dealing with it yet, but there's pieces of the story that you still kind of go through each thing. So technically, yeah, it could be whatever got you to start comedy. And then you're kind of going through the circles with that one thing.

Yeah, I mean, I shared the voice with comedy. Doing. Standing up in front of people, doing it, going to open mics. I started my podcast because I wanted to do talk.

Every podcast?

Yes, everything. It was kind of a comedy talk podcast with guests and stuff. So I wanted. But I wanted to share my ideas on what was happening in the world that day and jokes and things like that. I had a writing website for a long time where I would do a serial of the week. I would just start writing a story, and every week I would add to it another few pages. And I never planned ahead. I would just sit down and whatever came out of my head, I would write on to continue that story. So it wasn't this thing I plotted out. It was just what I was feeling. A lot of it was just what was flowing out of me. And I would use those whatever characters I created in the first edition and just keep it going.

And then under monetize your voice. That's when you started getting gigs, right?

And that's when I bought my yacht.

Yeah, I started getting gigs with comedy. I published a book, was selling my book, getting advertisers for the podcast. All of that was. Yeah, monetizing that.

And do you have a yacht?

Because we're about to talk about that.

Something is not that comedy doesn't big. Not much. Stacey.

Yeah.

So my show on the yacht.

I'm coming your way.

No, Yachty.

And I'm just gonna tell you guys, listening. You don't have to do all these circles. You can stop at a certain circle. It's just. This is what I've noticed is a path for the person that wants to go all the way until now, creating a movement. So that's the next circle. Would you say you have a movement with the people that are kind of listening to your stuff?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's dedicated fans to everything. I. There's people who are dedicated to just fans of me. There is not one of them. But she's not in that. But there's others.

And then there's people who are probably dedicated to certain aspects of it. Some that only know me through the comic book, some who only know me through comedy, some who only know me through the podcast and things like that, which is also great. That's fine. Whatever they're. Whatever I do that they enjoy. There's people who only know me through when I used to write for the website, comedy websites and stuff. So. But yeah, there's definitely people who are, who are involved in, in what I'm doing.

Yeah. Where you say you're doing something and they're like, I'm all in. You don't even have to give them details. Probably they're just excited to be a part of it. Yeah. And so then the other thing I help people in it with now is that now you create a private space for those people to gather. So it's not just you getting to inspire them. They're actually having the conversations with each other. It's almost like a fan club. But you're running the fan club. But it's better than the fan club because it's inspired by your own kind of internal ignition which then those people, then they start over. Now they are the horse and now they're finding their voice. They're sharing their voice. And so anyway, wow, that was so helpful. Thank you so much for going through that. Now I get to see I have a job now in my podcast again. So that, that really helped. Well, I'd love to. Yeah. Maybe just share any reflections you have on that because I just finished the last circle. Oh, I didn't tell you because I make movies now for people and anyone with a heart centered mission. We basically start with people doing these grassroot level movements and then the movie represents. Now we're going global now everyone's ready to see what it is. So anyway, any reflections that you have just because it's helping me tap more into what I'm even doing.

Oh man. I mean it's, it's. I will say it for me personally, it was a journey going through those as not over time those layers and have vision, have a long term vision to know that of where you're headed. But be pliable, be understand that things may change and you have to sometimes course correct or you may not be. It's not always just a straight line and it's going to be consistent. Sometimes it's going to be all over the place and that's okay as long as you're still moving towards that thing you want to do. And the thing could be here originally and it becomes this over here and that's still okay as long as it's what you want to do. But having that long term vision to know that it's not instant gratification. It is incremental in that setbacks are okay and changing course is okay, and altering that vision is okay as long as you're still going towards again what your. What your goal is.

Well, I'd love to hear what your number one piece of advice is for people on doing the thing.

Number one piece of advice on doing the thing is say yes more to things. So I used to do improv a lot and also taught improv. The first rule of improv is yes and meaning you agree and you add on to it. So I used to live my life like a giant improv game where I instantly always said yes and then added on. Now that has gotten me into trouble a couple times. So there are. There are some. Have some stipulations around this. There's little asterisks at the end of that. But say yes and be willing to do things that you may not normally do. Do things out of your comfort zone and be willing to put yourself out there for what you want to do. It's gonna. You'd be surprised. Most people don't find success in what they're doing, but they never change their patterns. I had a friend who for years, he worked in the service industry. He was a bartender and he would always complain about he couldn't find a girlfriend and he wanted to meet someone different. It's all the same girls hanging out the bars. They've all dated each other, all the bartender, this and that. You're just in the same circle. You haven't changed that. Yes, I go, go take a cooking class. You're a whole different group of people you didn't know existed. I'm not saying you're going to meet your future wife at a cooking class, but you're going to meet different people who you may meet other people from and like, who knows? I just say find something that gets you out of your normal rhythm, especially if your normal rhythm is not bringing you what you want.

I have this dare in one of my programs and it's go to an event. Because when you can go to a class, go to whatever. Now you're opening up a spider web to meet all these people and all these. Actually, that's what happened when I met sue, how we got connected. It's a whole spider web of people opened up for both of us, which has been amazing.

Yeah, A hundred percent. You can't complain about your circumstances and also never actively do anything to change your circumstances. It's like at a certain point you're Just you're more in control of what is going on with you and around you than people are willing to be accountable for. And it's like grab the wheel back and say, I'm driving. And you. Yes. Take control and drive it where you want to drive. You might get some flat tires. You might have to call AAA occasionally, hopefully not aa. You never know, depending on how off the road you go. But you gotta crash a couple times too. That's okay.

And then I'd love to get one more big piece of advice from you on when we talked about filling the room, because I think a lot of people right now I'm helping people who are doing masterclasses and different things and they're trying to fill the room for those kinds of things. And what I try to teach them is have these my people parties which then can draw the people in. Right. It sounds like you're really good at that. Where it's kind of. You don't always have to draw people in with the thing that it is. It could be something else that kind of activates them to come towards you. I was just curious if you have any advice on that.

Yeah, I mean, that's. That's interesting. It's certainly trickier than ever. I will say. I'll be the first to admit that grabbing people's attention is harder than ever because, I mean, I scroll through Facebook and I've realized that 80% of what I'm seeing is sponsored ads or suggested follows or so it just becomes a blur instead of actually seeing the things you people you're actually following and stuff. But I think it's really focusing in on the people who want to be there or need to be there and finding that audience. Maybe sometimes casting a smaller net can create a bigger catch because you're talking to the people who are already interested as opposed to wasting your time kind of shouting into the void. So maybe distill down, find some specialized Facebook groups or things like that, online pages, groups that are more specialized towards what you're doing and just be, I think, be as raw and.

Genuine as you can. People, if it's genuine, people are drawn to it. No matter what it is. There's an energy about it when it's really. When there's not any kind of tergiversation or BS around it. Yeah.

Please share where people can find you and follow along on your journey.

Yeah. As for comedy, you can go to dscomedy.com, check out everything going on. Social hour, new episodes. I say every Wednesday it's most Wednesdays. I'm a little behind because I've been do promo ing for the comic book but we get all sorts of different guests on. So check that out. That's a fun show. If you go to my website also we've got a deal going on. You can get my latest special, not yout cup of Tea. The whole video one hour download special. Just click the not yout cup of Tea link and you get to pay what you want for it. You pay whatever you want. We'll send you the link to the video. Most people pay like $200 but you wanna do like five or ten, that's fine. You can even do a dollar. It's a dick move but you'll still get it. And no, hey, whatever you wanna do people. We'll send a link to your email. You can follow me on Deese Dot comedy on Instagram. Social hour comedy on Facebook. Deese Casillas on Facebook. I'm on tour somewhere near you probably soon. Wherever you guys are. And so that's the comedy stuff. As for the comic book, it's all Inferno Earth. Inferno Comics is the name of my publishing company. So Inferno Earth on Instagram, infernoearth on Facebook. Inferno Earth is our website. When does this come out?

Soon? Yeah, next week maybe.

Depending on when this comes out. The Kickstarter runs for number two is running until March 5th I believe. Yeah, I think March 5th. So you can donate to that if you want to get number pre order number two. We do direct to consumer so you can order it after the fact. We've got number one is out also. If you like comic books, check it out. If you don't. A lot of people who have never read comic books before have really enjoyed it also. So yeah, give us a follow on Inferno Earth. We've got previews of number one and number two out there you can check out. But it's a really important story that means a lot to me. It means a lot to a lot of people. It's a 10 issue series. So number three, we're going to start working on number three in next couple weeks and just keep it rolling.

I'm going to throw this out there just since we have all the things. You're coming to my community now. I'll volunteer because I mentioned I'm training by doing this charity auction thing and if you want to raise some money for your comic book, I could always come and do a little charity auction style event where you do comedy and then I can add a live auction and it could raise money for your book.

Where are you at?

Well, I'm in San Diego, but I'm gonna be an auctioneer for another. I'll be like, wherever your people are, I could go. So I'm gonna be at another one in Houston. I think you're in San Antonio. I could always make it a double trip, but anyway, just.

You're coming to Houston?

Yeah.

Oh, nice. Right on.

Yeah. Or we could do it there. Yeah, when I'm there, I'm coming in. I think it's April. I'd have to check, but. Yeah, I mean, I'd be totally interested.

Yeah, yeah, let me know. I. I do. I gotta go to Houston this Friday, actually. I go out there pretty regularly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll talk about. See if we can fit.

Yeah, sounds good. All right, well. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much. Thanks for revitalizing the podcast, too. I feel so alive, and I think it's really cool hearing your story, so thank you so much.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Yeah. And thanks, you guys, for joining do the Thing. Don't wait for opportunity. Create it. And, hey, guys, have you checked out my Facebook group yet? Go to do the thing, collaboration.com.