From Open Mics to Comedy Specials with Ryan Lina

Sponsored by WHFC 91.1 FM

In this episode of Conversations with Rich Bennett, Rich sits down with local comedian Ryan Lina to discuss his journey from open mics to headlining shows and recording his first comedy special. Ryan shares the hilarious story of how he got into stand-up comedy, the meticulous process behind crafting a great joke, and the challenges of building a thriving comedy scene in Harford County. With insights into handling hecklers, writing new material, and the importance of community support, this episode is both inspiring and filled with laughs.

Sponsored by WHFC 91.1 FM, the voice of Harford Community College, supporting local talent and creative arts in Harford County.

Big Timing Comedy Presents Ryan Lina The Silliest Goose Comedy Special - Big Timing Comedy

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Transcript

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Rich Bennett 0:00
Comedy back in the day. Oh, my God. I used to laugh my ass off watching the greats. And when I say the greats, I mean people like and going back some time now, but. Well, Richard Pryor, of course. 

Ryan Lina 0:15
Sure. Sure. 

Rich Bennett 0:17
Henny Youngman. 

Ryan Lina 0:18
Mm hmm. 

Rich Bennett 0:19
You're. You're probably too young to remember him. 

Ryan Lina 0:21
I've seen I'm a I actually really enjoy like kind of watching older stand up so you'll be shocked at the names that I know or the bits at least that I know. 

Rich Bennett 0:30
Okay. 

Ryan Lina 0:30
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 0:31
George Carlin, You can know it's funny. The funny thing is, if George Carlin I kind of got upset when I saw him as the train conductor for Thomas. 

Ryan Lina 0:45
It is a weird moment when you you're. 

Rich Bennett 0:47
Yes. 

Ryan Lina 0:48
You know. 

Rich Bennett 0:49
The seven words you can't 

Ryan Lina 0:50
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 0:51
say on Thomas the Tank Engine. Now 

Ryan Lina 0:52
Which would be. 

Rich Bennett 0:53
say, Holy cow. 

Ryan Lina 0:55
All would enjoy its. 

Rich Bennett 0:56
Oh. 

I actually have a comedian on Ryan Lionel, who is from Harford County, John Carroll alumni, and decided to get into this field of comedy. But why? 

Ryan Lina 1:12
Because it's fun. You know, I. 

Actually, the first time that I did stand up, I was actually just trying to impress a girl, which is kind of funny. That's kind of like my my origin story. It was like the arrows, but it was the thing that I always wanted to do, like growing up. Like I, I would watch I watched stand up comedy all the time. Kid. I mean, like when I remember Comedy Central had the the stand up month of January and I would just watch that like religiously every night I knew. 

Rich Bennett 1:43
Mm. 

Ryan Lina 1:44
Two or three comics on. Yeah. And then, you know, I saw it a shout out to the probably the best comedy. Actual club in Maryland Mugabes joke house they had an. 

Rich Bennett 1:57
Oh, yes. 

Ryan Lina 1:58
They had an open mike competition there, and the girl was telling me about how she wanted guys who are willing to try something new. And I was like, Oh, I to try stand up and that didn't end up working out. But stand ups were. 

Rich Bennett 2:14
Was she at the show? 

Ryan Lina 2:15
No, she didn't. I invited others, didn't go, which is one of the reasons 

Rich Bennett 2:17
Oh. 

Ryan Lina 2:17
I work. 

Rich Bennett 2:21
How long ago was that? 

Ryan Lina 2:23
About eight years. Eight years? 

Rich Bennett 2:25
So you've been doing this for eight years. 

Ryan Lina 2:26
Yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah, it's. 

Rich Bennett 2:27
Wow. 

Ryan Lina 2:28
Yeah. I kind of can't watch some of my older tapes because, you know, I've. 

Rich Bennett 2:35
Yeah, but you. 

Ryan Lina 2:36
Better. 

Rich Bennett 2:37
But you learn from them. 

Ryan Lina 2:38
Well, that's the thing. I mean, like I, I record every single set that I do, 

Rich Bennett 2:43
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 2:43
and I'm. 

Rich Bennett 2:44
Good. 

Ryan Lina 2:45
When it comes to like, I believe in, like the science of joke writing, I'm very like, I'm meticulous. Like, I, I any time, like a new comic talks to me and says, like, how do I get better at this? I. The main thing that I tell them is I know exactly the amount of seconds there are between every single one of my punch lines. And. 

Rich Bennett 3:05
Oh, wow. 

Ryan Lina 3:06
Yeah, that's important to know because you want that as short as possible and you want to be able, if you want to keep energy high in a room, you want to be delivering bam, bam, bam, bam. 

Rich Bennett 3:16
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 3:17
Possibly can. And obviously, there's other stuff that's important, too. But like, I'm I'm meticulous when I write a joke. I'm really like I'm very much on, like, the word economy and stuff like that, 

Rich Bennett 3:30
Right. 

Ryan Lina 3:31
which is based. 

Rich Bennett 3:31
How did you learn? How did you end up learning how to do stand up? Because to me, it's an art. 

Ryan Lina 3:37
I completely agree with you. It is honestly, it was it was a combination of watching it. And, 

Rich Bennett 3:43
Right. 

Ryan Lina 3:43
you know, when I performed, I was the I was the nerdy kid who asked the people that I saw who did well to watch my 

Rich Bennett 3:51
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 3:51
set and, you know, tell me different critiques. And actually, the the first guy who told me about, 

like the the amount of like, you want a short amount of time between jokes was I actually he's he's become one of my closest friends in comedy his name's Dan Kapor and he's we work we actually have a podcast too. We talk about philosophy fun time. 

Rich Bennett 4:14
Really? 

Ryan Lina 4:14
Yeah. Think smart. 

Rich Bennett 4:15
Wait a minute. Two comedians talking about philosophy. 

Ryan Lina 4:19
The entire premise is that, you know, we're very underqualified to talk about this. 

Rich Bennett 4:27
What's the name of that again? 

Ryan Lina 4:28
Smarter, not harder. 

Rich Bennett 4:30
Oh, God. Okay, I'm gonna have to give that 

Ryan Lina 4:33
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 4:33
the. 

Ryan Lina 4:33
we actually that's brand new. We had a podcast for a while where we would watch bad movies with like with like very heavy religious themes and kind of make fun of them a little bit. That was called Bad Faith Media. We had a there's a bigger library of that. That was a lot of fun, too. So. 

Rich Bennett 4:51
Oh, God. 

Ryan Lina 4:53
Yeah, but he's. 

Rich Bennett 4:53
So. 

Ryan Lina 4:53
He's a great guy. 

Rich Bennett 4:55
So how did you. So just from him watching these others. 

But you write your own comedy. 

Ryan Lina 5:04
Only 100%. 

Rich Bennett 5:06
So how did you learn that? Because, I mean, that's got to be hard as well. 

Ryan Lina 5:09
I mean, a lot of it is kind of, you know, figuring out because the thing it's not like any other art form. Like if you want to get good at guitar, you sit alone and you play guitar as much as you. 

Rich Bennett 5:21
Right. 

Ryan Lina 5:22
But if you want to be good at comedy, you kind of have to fail in front of people for a long time before you get, you know, anywhere close to being good, which that I like what I did. I was lucky because the first time that I did it, I did okay. You know, it wasn't like. Fantastic. There are definitely better comedians than me, but I did decently enough that I kind of knew, you know, the things that I could improve on and 

Rich Bennett 5:47
Right. 

Ryan Lina 5:48
the things that worked, the things that didn't. I actually still have one joke from my original set that I still tell to this day, which is it's the first joke that I wrote. It's a it's an incredibly stupid joke, but it. 

Rich Bennett 6:01
Well, you know, you got you got 

Ryan Lina 6:03
Well, it never works as well in a podcast form, but the 

Rich Bennett 6:06
Right. 

Ryan Lina 6:06
the joke is basically, you know, that I've, you know, I'm single and I've been single so long that, you know, my mom is trying to set me up with every person in existence, you know, like, like she comes up to me now like, Oh, she works at wah wah. You like wah wah. And then I you know, I'll play with the timing of that a little bit. And my favorite is when I have somebody sitting in the front row, I'll lock eyes with them for a long time and I'll kind of like shake the mic and, you know, get it really animated with it. Yeah, it's, it's, it's a fun bit. That's like, that's the first joke that I ever wrote. So I'm happy that that's in my performance still. 

Rich Bennett 6:45
Still in there. 

Ryan Lina 6:46
But I'm pretty sure everything else was just like, completely thrown out and, you know. 

Rich Bennett 6:51
All right. So one thing that baffles me, I want your input on this because, you know, before we start recording, I love comedy. 

Ryan Lina 6:59
Sure. 

Rich Bennett 6:59
Just laughter is the best, best medicine. 

Ryan Lina 7:01
Hundred percent. Hundred percent. 

Rich Bennett 7:03
But one thing I never understood when people go to see bands. You know, I mean, the Rolling Stones still play the stuff that they played a hundred years ago. 

Ryan Lina 7:13
Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 7:14
You know, on stage singers, all these musicians play their own music. How come with comedy any to say 

Ryan Lina 7:22
It's weird, right? Like you would 

Rich Bennett 7:24
yes. 

Ryan Lina 7:24
think because, like, when you watch somebody, you kind of expect them to play the hits. Which that's that's kind of the fun of stand up to me is like, you know, I forget who the comedian who said this was, but they pretty much said, you know, like if somebody comes to see you a second time and it's the same show, they'll still laugh, but they'll never come to see you a third time. So you pretty much have to always have at least a couple new things in your act when you're, you know, performing in front 

Rich Bennett 7:57
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 7:57
of, you know, which that's kind of one of the cool things about like I run the show at the Aberdeen Grill every last Saturday of the month. But it's kind of a fun opportunity because we have a lot of regulars who come out to multiple shows and I'm like, Well, that means I have to write at least a couple of new jokes and have them, you know, ready to be performed at the very least. You know, for the people who've seen me tell that stupid wah wah. 

Rich Bennett 8:23
Right. 

Ryan Lina 8:24
And times, you know? Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:28
I mean, that's just something that always baffle me because I remember I think the last person we went and saw was Larry the Cable Guy. 

Ryan Lina 8:36
Yeah, sure, sure. 

Rich Bennett 8:38
And he did. You know, when we saw him, he didn't do any of his old jokes. I mean, I was laughing at his new stuff. 

Ryan Lina 8:45
Sure. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:46
Sometimes you look forward to hearing that old joke. 

Ryan Lina 8:48
Yeah, you know. 

Rich Bennett 8:49
Take somebody that never heard of. 

Ryan Lina 8:50
Yeah. Which that's what's kind of that's, that's kind of like the interesting thing about comedy is because like, you do kind of have to keep some of your old jokes, like the ones that, you know, are going to get people to laugh every time you want to keep those around. And that's that's what's kind of like the the interesting thing about developing material in general is, is like when you see my set, I very much a lot of my jokes are tied together in some way 

Rich Bennett 9:17
Right 

Ryan Lina 9:17
like. I like my performance to kind of come off like a conversation. 

Rich Bennett 9:21
story. 

Ryan Lina 9:22
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. 

Rich Bennett 9:23
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 9:23
And 

it's kind of fun because, like, I've developed kind of a technique where, like, I have multiple jokes that can be strung together and also, like, if I don't tell a couple of those, I have other ones that I can throw in and kind of like move stuff around a lot. So you really have to like, yeah, if you want to be good, you have to be writing constantly. 

Rich Bennett 9:43
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 9:44
I mean, the, the performance element is really, you know, probably just a third of all the work that you do as a stand up. 

Rich Bennett 9:53
A show with comedians. How many different types of comedians are there? 

Ryan Lina 10:00
Are all. Yes. As many stars in the sky. 

Rich Bennett 10:04
Well, because not everybody can do. Not 

Ryan Lina 10:06
Sure. 

Rich Bennett 10:06
all comedians can do standup. 

Ryan Lina 10:08
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 10:09
Then you got people like Jeff Dunham. Then you got your political comedians. 

Ryan Lina 10:14
sure. 

Yeah. I mean, there's. 

Rich Bennett 10:18
Is it always playing? Yeah, it's just. 

Ryan Lina 10:19
Yeah, there's I mean, there really is a large gambit because there's, you know, there's like you said, there's political comics, there's 

Rich Bennett 10:26
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 10:26
comedians who. 

Rich Bennett 10:28
Religious comics. 

Ryan Lina 10:29
Religious comics. There's storytelling comics. There's, 

Rich Bennett 10:31
Mm hmm. 

Ryan Lina 10:31
you know, there's there's thousands of different types. And that's kind of part of the fun of booking shows for myself because, like, you know, 

Rich Bennett 10:41
Right. 

Ryan Lina 10:41
on top of performing, I also bring in other comedians to perform, and that lets me kind of I get to kind of like, okay, what kind of comedian do I think would still work in this situation? Like, do I do I think the guy with the puppet is going to be funny here 

Rich Bennett 10:58
Right. 

Ryan Lina 10:58
or, you know. Will they will they go along with a person who's, you know, incredibly raunchy and, you know, telling, you know, all kinds of like really, really, you know, dark humor and stuff. 

Rich Bennett 11:09
Uh huh. 

Ryan Lina 11:10
You know, there's so it's interesting. There's a lot of give and take in the industry itself, even on the small level of just Harford County comedy. You know, 

Rich Bennett 11:20
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 11:20
there's all kinds of things you have to think of to put on a good show. 

Rich Bennett 11:24
Huh? 

Ryan Lina 11:25
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 11:25
I know. So what do you like doing better? Getting up on stage or the producing? Putting together a show? 

Ryan Lina 11:30
It really depends. Performing is definitely the most fun. 

Booking is very stressful, but it also has some really cool rewards to it too. Like. Like this month and last month, the guys that are going to be headlining are local guys who are from Hartford County who haven't really done it for a while. Last month it was Bailey Stauffer who runs another show, and this one coming up is Bam Jacobs, who he runs. He runs the show at Market Street Brewery up and having a grace on the third, I think it's the third Fridays of the month, I want to say. 

Rich Bennett 12:11
Realize Market Street and Battery Island, those comedy nights. 

Ryan Lina 12:15
I mean, it's they're kind of new. And it's one of the things like, honestly, like any time that I talk about shows, people are like, I didn't know that that was a thing. Like, I want to come to see that. And a lot of that has to do with just marketing in general, like the restaurants can. 

Rich Bennett 12:31
Oh, yeah. 

Ryan Lina 12:32
Do a. They can put up signage. But you know, my old saying is of signs work. They'd be wallpaper, you know. So. 

Rich Bennett 12:40
To advertise. 

Ryan Lina 12:41
Yeah, Yeah. So that's one of the reasons that I'm big about. Like I feel like if the more comedy that we have, you know, Rising Tide raises all boats, i.e. we all eat, you know, I'm always trying to market other people's shows as well. And that's what's really neat about the Harford County scene is like we have a group chat and we all share each other's shows and it's more about like, you know, producing things together than it is about, you know, just trying to have one of us be able to talk all night in front of people. So. 

Rich Bennett 13:17
So I'm sitting there thinking, because you do Avenue girl, the state theater. State theatre holds what, nine? Not even 300, is 

Ryan Lina 13:24
Yes, 

Rich Bennett 13:24
it? 

Ryan Lina 13:24
it's about that. 

Rich Bennett 13:26
300. 

Ryan Lina 13:26
I only know that because I am going to be recording my special there, which I'm sure we'll talk 

Rich Bennett 13:30
Okay. 

Ryan Lina 13:31
Later on. 

Rich Bennett 13:32
The Verge. Have you guys. Have you done anything at the Star Center yet? 

Ryan Lina 13:37
I don't know what that is. 

Rich Bennett 13:39
That's the old the old Havre de Grace High School. 

Ryan Lina 13:42
No. 

Rich Bennett 13:43
Yeah, it's got. 

Ryan Lina 13:44
They've given me a lead that I will pursue. 

Rich Bennett 13:46
Yeah I think the almost a thousand seats. 

Ryan Lina 13:51
Really? 

Rich Bennett 13:52
Oh, they they and they get a lot of a lot of good acts there. Melissa Etheridge has played 

Ryan Lina 13:57
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 13:57
there. Nelson. Member Nelson. The two boys. 

I took my daughter there to see Mr. Speed, which is a KISS tribute. 

Ryan Lina 14:06
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 14:08
But I don't. 

Ryan Lina 14:10
They probably haven't done. 

Rich Bennett 14:11
Think they've ever had any commie. 

Ryan Lina 14:12
Interesting. I'll reach out to them for sure, because that's like I said, one of the things we're just we're trying to grow as much as we possibly can. And, I mean, we are doing we are growing well. I mean, it's 

Rich Bennett 14:23
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 14:23
successful. It's you know, I've been running shows at the Aberdeen Grill for about two years, and back then it was just me and the Battery Island brewing. We were pretty much the only shows in town. And now we have, you 

Rich Bennett 14:36
Right. 

Ryan Lina 14:36
know. Two other booked shows and we have three open mics, which is like, you know, like I said, that's bigger than the Baltimore scene right now, which is pretty cool. 

Rich Bennett 14:46
There's I think there's before we started recording I mentioned is there are too many restaurants, bars, whatever you want to call it, that are missing the boat on. 

Ryan Lina 14:57
100%. And it's a weird thing because, like, it's a thing that I explain, like, I try to explain I have like a pitch that I go into every time I'm 

Rich Bennett 15:06
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 15:06
talking to restaurant owners. Is that like, it is it is different. And it's it's probably harder to run than just having a band up. But people are going to stay longer and they're going to be more engaged and they're going to end up, you know, purchasing more stuff from you. If you have a comedy show, you know, it's it's it's basic math of you're getting somebody to stay there for 2 hours. You know, they're going to be there for 2 hours, you know. 

Rich Bennett 15:35
Right. 

Ryan Lina 15:36
And most of the time they're going to come earlier because they're going to get their food first and then, you know, try to watch the show. And it's you know, it's definitely a thing that when it's done well, it's fantastic. Now, I will put a caveat on that because there's definitely. There's bad comedy. Let's be real. I mean, there is. There's bad. I mean, there's bad bands. There's bad every. 

Rich Bennett 15:58
Right. 

Ryan Lina 16:01
But like, you know, I think that too many people are worried about what bad comedy is. 

Which I get because, you know, you're you're putting your restaurant and stuff out there. They're going to be judged by it, too. Which is why when I when I talk to restaurant owners, owners, I'm very much like, hey, you know, I put a lot of pride and effort into what I do. I'm only going to put good talent on the stage for you. I'm going to get people who are going to come back, you know, because that's you know, I know a lot of comedians who are really good at getting booked once, but then never again, you know. 

Rich Bennett 16:37
There's a reason they're only booked. 

Ryan Lina 16:38
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 16:41
I do. You actually go scoop out the police before you poke them? Because, I mean, okay. Because I know some places they. Age, which you don't always need, 

Ryan Lina 16:51
I mean, mean a girl doesn't have a stage, 

Rich Bennett 16:53
right? 

Ryan Lina 16:53
but it has the set up. Like, the most important thing that I tell restaurants is you really want a place that can be private, You know, like you want a place that can be walled off. That way you can still do your regular business and have people go into the show. Because one of the things that's kind of weird is like, if you don't do that, you have a lot of people who are just getting a free show and then, you know, people might come on the comedy night again, but they're not going to buy tickets. They're going to sit in the back. 

Rich Bennett 17:24
Right. 

Ryan Lina 17:25
You know, and it makes it worse for everybody involved. 

Rich Bennett 17:30
I never thought about that. 

Ryan Lina 17:31
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 17:31
Because you've got to have the ticket sales and all. 

Ryan Lina 17:33
Yeah. I mean, that's kind of thing. Unless you're doing a free show, which you can do a free show. 

They don't tend to be as good because I always say, you know, even if you're charged with something small, you are taking a commitment from people. 

Rich Bennett 17:46
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 17:47
That's how you're getting people, you know, that they're going to be coming are they're going to be staying for the majority of it. 

Rich Bennett 17:52
Hmm. 

Ryan Lina 17:54
There's a lot of science involved, man. 

Rich Bennett 17:58
Yeah. Now I got the gear because one of the things that I mentioned is before, like our Lions Club, we did a spaghetti dinner slash comedy night. 

Ryan Lina 18:05
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 18:06
And I was in charge. I had a blast. 

Ryan Lina 18:08
Yeah. Hey, man, I'm. I'm 

Rich Bennett 18:09
From 

Ryan Lina 18:09
the. 

Rich Bennett 18:09
what I know. Well, that's. Oh, I'm going to be getting a here to. I think it's is something. I mean, it's number one, spaghetti dinners easy to do. It's cheap. 

Ryan Lina 18:21
It's literally spaghetti. It's. 

Rich Bennett 18:22
And I, depending on what the hall wants to charge us. I know the perfect place Where. 

Ryan Lina 18:29
Awesome, man. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 18:30
A lot of people in their. 

Ryan Lina 18:31
Yeah. Let's do it. I guess I'll. I'll have. 

Rich Bennett 18:33
Oh, I'm going. I am. I'm definitely going to do it. I just got to figure. 

Ryan Lina 18:36
Fantastic. 

Rich Bennett 18:37
When and if the club doesn't want to do it, then I'll pick a non-profit and do it for her. As a Harvard Kennedy living thing. 

Ryan Lina 18:44
Awesome, man. Yeah, that. That's the kind of stuff you know, we do. I love doing charity shows, too. I mean, they're. They're. 

Rich Bennett 18:50
Oh, yeah. 

Ryan Lina 18:50
Is a blast. People turn up for them. When I first started, I was working with a dog charity. That's how I kind of got my foot in the door. It was a it was a it was it was called Kennel to Couch. I don't even know if. 

Rich Bennett 19:01
Yes. Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 19:02
Yeah. Yeah, He's a great guy. We. 

Rich Bennett 19:05
Doing a lot with pit bulls. 

Ryan Lina 19:06
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 19:07
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 19:08
We did. That was when we first started and he got our foot in the door with loonies and stuff like that. 

Rich Bennett 19:13
Okay. 

Ryan Lina 19:13
But yeah, that was it was kind of like all before COVID. 

Rich Bennett 19:17
Right. 

Ryan Lina 19:17
And then COVID was a whole thing with comedy and restaurants, obviously in general. So after that happened, things kind of fell off a little bit. 

Rich Bennett 19:27
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 19:27
Yeah, that was how we started it. I mean, you know, it was great. It was good. 

Rich Bennett 19:32
All right, So who. Who's the your dream comedian that you would like to perform with? Or comedians. 

Ryan Lina 19:41
Can they? 

Rich Bennett 19:41
I'm sure there's more than one. 

Ryan Lina 19:43
Can they. Can they be dead 

if. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 19:47
Yeah, actually. ALL Let's go. Let's go dead first, which I'm hoping they're not dead when you're. 

Ryan Lina 19:52
Yeah, right. That would be a little weird. 

Rich Bennett 19:55
He's kind of. He's kind of stiff. I'll be. 

People are just dying to get in there. Hey. Yeah, Let's go. Let's go to dead ones. 

Ryan Lina 20:06
Yeah, I would say. 

Rich Bennett 20:08
That just sounds so wrong. 

Ryan Lina 20:12
The main two that I would say Ralphie May and. 

Rich Bennett 20:17
Oh, my. 

Ryan Lina 20:17
Ralphie May was I had an opportunity, actually, because he he passed away pretty much like he did. He did movies joke house and. 

Rich Bennett 20:27
Mm hmm. 

Ryan Lina 20:29
It was only like 50 bucks for a ticket and to meet him. And 

Rich Bennett 20:32
Wow. 

Ryan Lina 20:32
yeah, he died like two weeks after that show, and I didn't get to go. And it's forever a thing that I think about because, you know, he was. That was before I started comedy when he passed away. 

Rich Bennett 20:43
Right? 

Ryan Lina 20:45
And Greg Dorados, the other one that I think was one of the most brilliant comedic minds of all time. And he died, died way too young. I mean, 

Rich Bennett 20:53
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 20:53
he would have been an absolute superstar if, you know, because he was on that path. And then, you know, he he he died, unfortunately, of a drug overdose. 

Rich Bennett 21:01
There's a lot of them die way too young 

Ryan Lina 21:03
I mean, it happens, 

Rich Bennett 21:03
but 

Ryan Lina 21:04
man. Mitch Hagberg 

Rich Bennett 21:04
one. 

Ryan Lina 21:04
was another one. 

Rich Bennett 21:05
That's true. I was 

Ryan Lina 21:06
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 21:06
going. 

Ryan Lina 21:06
One of the. 

Rich Bennett 21:07
God, I loved him. 

Ryan Lina 21:09
He's he's one of those comics who it's like every now and then you'll just think of a joke that he says and it just you start laughing because it's so. I always think of his that joke about that bananas are the opposite of red lights. It's like one of the dumbest things. What's so funny? It's so good. 

Rich Bennett 21:27
His comedy reminded me of, Oh, oh, Ganga, forget the guy's name. Just very dry. A lot of one liners, Stephen. 

Ryan Lina 21:37
Vote, I believe, or vote. Stephen Walt. 

Rich Bennett 21:40
Like, Oh, God. Freaky looking hair and all. 

Ryan Lina 21:43
The thinking is that. Hang on. 

Rich Bennett 21:45
Yeah. Oh, my God. He was just great one liners. He was hilarious. But yeah, when I think, if I'm not mistaken. Right. I think Mitch was just about to perform somewhere here in Maryland before he passed, because I remember 

Ryan Lina 22:00
So. 

Rich Bennett 22:00
98 Rock came out and said something about. 

Ryan Lina 22:02
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 22:04
And 

Ryan Lina 22:05
Steven, 

Rich Bennett 22:05
I. 

Ryan Lina 22:05
right, by the way. 

Rich Bennett 22:06
Steven Wright. Yes. Steven Wright. Oh, God. 

Ryan Lina 22:09
It's weird because, 

Rich Bennett 22:09
Oh. 

Ryan Lina 22:10
like, the reason I know, it's like he he played a turtle in this really random cartoon movie called Swan Lake. And I was like, I know if I Google that, I will find the name. 

Rich Bennett 22:22
So people don't get that comedy. I. 

Ryan Lina 22:24
I love it, man. 

Rich Bennett 22:24
Oh. Oh, it is hilarious. Okay, so now living. 

Ryan Lina 22:30
Living. 

Christopher Titus is definitely one that's up there. 

I absolutely love Shane Gillis. He's right now. He's probably the best in my mind. Best touring act right now. He's just hilarious. 

And I mean, stobie is another one because he's a you know, I was from Maryland. Ironically, both of those guys got their start some movies, too, which is really fun. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 23:00
Wow. 

Ryan Lina 23:01
Yeah. They both were in the the Mugabes joke house. New comedian of the Year competition when they first started. So when you walk in, there's a little placard of them. I was in that comic, I actually was in the competition with Stobie, but he won, obviously. Yeah, but I. In that too, I think two or three years in a row. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 23:22
And the good news is actually a. 

Ryan Lina 23:24
It's a club. Club like. 

Rich Bennett 23:26
I mean, it's strictly for comedians. 

Ryan Lina 23:28
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 23:29
They don't have bands there. 

Ryan Lina 23:30
It's actually interesting because it apparently used to be a dinner theater. Like, I was talking to the owner about it one. 

Rich Bennett 23:35
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 23:35
He he said that he bought it and they they rearranged it. I mean, that room is sensational. I mean, there's definitely something special every time you get to perform there. I've gotten to be an open. I've been an opening act there quite a few times. And it's always, always fun. And they, you know, they treat you right. It's it's it's a good time. It really is. 

Rich Bennett 23:53
Are there are there any other comedy clubs in the area besides big movies? 

Ryan Lina 23:57
There's the Baltimore. 

Rich Bennett 23:58
Strictly. 

Ryan Lina 23:58
Yeah, there's the Baltimore Comedy Factory, but I've never performed there and on. 

Rich Bennett 24:02
That's still there. 

Ryan Lina 24:03
Yeah. I don't know of anybody who's ever performed there, to be honest. 

Rich Bennett 24:07
Right. 

Ryan Lina 24:08
I'm sure it's great, but I've never gotten the chance to perform there. But other than that, there really aren't clubs in there. 

Rich Bennett 24:16
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 24:16
No, you can do. If you're like D.C. and like PTA and stuff like that, there's a few, but there's not that many, you know, like really the place to perform now is until you get bigger is just, 

Rich Bennett 24:30
Yeah, 

Ryan Lina 24:30
you know, a restaurant show. And that's one 

Rich Bennett 24:32
right. 

Ryan Lina 24:33
of the reasons that I really I try to encourage these places to let us perform because on top of the you know, on top of the concept of, you know, you got we're all going to make money, it's building that art form back up is so important. It's like because I think standup comedy, when it's done well, is the best thing on the planet. 

Rich Bennett 24:54
Oh, yeah. 

Ryan Lina 24:54
I mean, it's it's better than it's better than anything when it's done well. Obviously, there's a lot of crap out there. But, you know, when it's when it's it's done. Well, it's it's you know, you can you can laugh at anything. Anything can be funny if it's done correctly. You know, That's what's. That's what's. Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 25:09
Feel good? 

Ryan Lina 25:10
exactly. It's what's beautiful about it, you know. 

Rich Bennett 25:12
Who was? There was a comedian that had cancer and he still went on to perform. 

Ryan Lina 25:16
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 25:16
Snyder something. SNYDER Think. 

Ryan Lina 25:18
I don't know, Snyder. I know. 

Rich Bennett 25:21
I might be thinking of the guy for salmonella, 

Ryan Lina 25:22
Yeah, I 

Rich Bennett 25:22
but it was 

Ryan Lina 25:23
know. 

Rich Bennett 25:23
not Rob Schneider. 

Ryan Lina 25:24
Norm MacDonald was the one recently who. 

Rich Bennett 25:27
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 25:27
Yeah, he had cancer. He was another just fantastic. 

Rich Bennett 25:30
Was he still performing with? 

Ryan Lina 25:31
He was. He didn't tell anybody. 

Rich Bennett 25:32
Okay? 

Ryan Lina 25:33
That's why when he died, it was shocking because he didn't let 

Rich Bennett 25:35
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 25:35
anybody know that he had cancer. And he just, you know. 

Rich Bennett 25:38
Just went out there and did. It's what he loved to do. 

Ryan Lina 25:40
Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 25:41
I'm sure made him feel good. 

Ryan Lina 25:42
I mean yeah I like 

some somebody I, I can't remember who told me this but it's and they'll probably listen to would be mad that I didn't namedrop them but I. A comedian once told me that telling a joke on stage is is like getting ready to ask out a girl. You know, like, you get that like that feeling of like, you know, like, oh, man, like it's what's going to happen. And then when you do it and they say yes and they go well and they laugh, it's there's no better feeling on the planet. 

Rich Bennett 26:13
Right. 

Ryan Lina 26:15
It's so cool you get that You can really control the emotions of, you know, 50 to 300 people just with the sounds coming out of your mouth. It's amazing. 

Rich Bennett 26:25
How hard is it to deal with hecklers? 

Ryan Lina 26:28
I'm lucky I don't get heckled very often. I have a very. 

Rich Bennett 26:31
Okay. 

Ryan Lina 26:32
I have a very like my my act is very kind of like Chuck C Italy and very like I this audience is on my side most of the time and 

Rich Bennett 26:40
Right. 

Ryan Lina 26:40
like I have a whole bit about like I have the opposite of rb f resting bitch face I. 

Rich Bennett 26:46
Right. 

Ryan Lina 26:47
Nice guy face and like. Yeah. Like my people don't want to heckle me because I'm adorable, you know? Oh, yeah. 

Yeah. I mean, I've had. I've had a few hecklers and I normally have, like, my thing is, like, I normally just like, for me, it's just be quick. Put them down and meet. 

Rich Bennett 27:07
Right. 

Ryan Lina 27:07
Don't give them the satisfaction or, you know, if they say something really stupid, make sure you draw attention to how dumb what they said was. 

Rich Bennett 27:16
Right. 

Ryan Lina 27:17
Those are the most important thing. I mean, you don't want to get because, like, I try, like if I can, I'll ignore it because 

Rich Bennett 27:24
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 27:24
like I said, for the most part, people are the worst type of heckling that I get is people trying to add on to my jokes or like trying to say another punch line or something like that, which is really annoying because like, like I talk about the flow of a show. Just drives me up a wall. Yeah. So it's kind of like to me, it's like, have a couple of lines in your head that you can use to shoot them down and hope for the best. I guess. I mean, 

Rich Bennett 27:52
That's that would be hard for me because if I was doing stand up and I'd have a heckler 

Ryan Lina 27:57
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 27:58
on the tape, I would just walk offstage, take the microphone to them and say, Here you go. 

Ryan Lina 28:05
No. 

Rich Bennett 28:06
You know where you want to be. The show. Go ahead. 

Ryan Lina 28:08
No, I totally get that. And like, there's that's one of the things where it's just like. It's like. Like, I think heckling is like the grossest thing you can do as a person. 

Rich Bennett 28:17
Oh, yeah. 

Ryan Lina 28:17
People are there. People paid money. You're ruining it. Like, this is like the thing that I have. Like, I've went on like a tirade to one of the few times that a heckler has gotten under my skin. But I literally am like, I'm like, You are like. Like people paid money to experience this. You're the biggest asshole in the room right now. You know, 

Rich Bennett 28:36
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 28:36
like you're ruining. You have found a way to ruin 50 people's nights just by being a prick. Like you should feel bad about yourself. You know, that's like the. 

Rich Bennett 28:48
And those people. Those people are about to meet you in the park. 

Ryan Lina 28:53
Which that's that's kind of the fun is like most of it most of the time the crowd is on my side, you know, not going to what I have. 

Rich Bennett 28:58
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 28:59
Bad issues with that. So when I address something, most of the time they're like, Yeah, you know, they're not. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 29:07
So with this the state theater in having great. 

Ryan Lina 29:10
Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 29:11
Which actually. When did they open that back up? 

Ryan Lina 29:13
Oh, gosh, I know. They just went through renovations and stuff like that. 

Rich Bennett 29:16
Oh, God, I. I. I've only been there for Russell. In which I. 

Ryan Lina 29:22
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you ever come to. 

Rich Bennett 29:23
They have wrestling there and I was blown away. 

Ryan Lina 29:26
Did you ever come to a comedy mania? 

Rich Bennett 29:29
Now. 

Ryan Lina 29:30
Dude. It's literally it's it's it's standup comedy. It's it's it's very silly, but it's very fun. It's it's. Comedians and wrestlers kind of working together to, like, tell the story of a of a standup comedy wrestling show. I'm I'm one of the commentators I'm good old Earl ryan line instead of J.R. It's it's it's a it's a fun time man. They're yeah. They put a great wrestling shows there, too. 

Rich Bennett 29:57
I can't remember. One of my co-hosts may have performed there. Doing stand up there? PENCE He he goes for standup. I don't know if he goes by his name or by because he also does the the what do you call it? 

God, I can't believe this is slipping out of my. 

Ryan Lina 30:21
Her look was. I don't know. I couldn't see what you're. 

Rich Bennett 30:23
No, no. 

Ryan Lina 30:24
I didn't know you were doing, like, a puppet 

Rich Bennett 30:25
No. 

Ryan Lina 30:25
signer. 

Rich Bennett 30:26
Well, through the. The whole thing. Drag queen. 

Ryan Lina 30:31
Oh, okay. 

Rich Bennett 30:32
He goes by. Zenobia. Zenobia, darling. 

Ryan Lina 30:35
They do 

Rich Bennett 30:35
But 

Ryan Lina 30:35
a. 

Rich Bennett 30:36
he also 

Ryan Lina 30:36
Drag 

Rich Bennett 30:36
does. 

Ryan Lina 30:36
shows up there. I've never seen one act. I've heard the. 

Rich Bennett 30:39
I don't think he does. Then there. 

Ryan Lina 30:40
Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:41
But he does. I think he has done his standup 

Ryan Lina 30:44
Interesting. 

Rich Bennett 30:44
there. But he doesn't he doesn't dress as he doesn't do it in drag. 

Ryan Lina 30:48
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:48
I don't think he does. 

Ryan Lina 30:49
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:50
Because I know he's performed out in Vegas at all. 

Ryan Lina 30:52
Mm hmm. 

Rich Bennett 30:52
I'm pretty sure it's what. I kind of get up there for that. And you're doing your special. 

Ryan Lina 30:58
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:58
You're going to be recording a special up there. 

Ryan Lina 31:00
Yeah. Yeah. So I'm doing March 15th. I specifically picked the Ides of March because I thought it was fun. 

Rich Bennett 31:07
Surely by Carli Lloyd. 

Ryan Lina 31:08
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 31:10
Two days before St Patrick's Day to all, but never say St Paddy's Day to an Irishman. Two days before St Patrick's Day. Very good. 

Ryan Lina 31:19
Yeah. So it should be, it should be a blast. I I'll, I'll send you the ticket link if you don't mind. You know putting that on 

Rich Bennett 31:25
Yeah, 

Ryan Lina 31:25
the. 

Rich Bennett 31:25
definitely. I'll put it in the show notes. 

Ryan Lina 31:27
Yeah, yeah. But we're going to I got a couple of the local guys opening for me as well, so it'll be a nice little touch of the local flavor and it's going to be a fun time and I'm doing a full four hour, so 

Rich Bennett 31:38
Wow. 

Ryan Lina 31:38
yeah, that'll be. I've done 45 minutes of headline a bunch of places before. I actually 

Rich Bennett 31:44
Right. 

Ryan Lina 31:44
just recently got to do the Otto Bar, which was like a. Like 

Rich Bennett 31:47
Oh, yeah. 

Ryan Lina 31:48
my dream set because it's like it's such a it's such a fun venue and it's. That's the longest running comedy show in Baltimore right now is the auto bar. 

Rich Bennett 31:57
Really? 

Ryan Lina 31:57
Yeah. The second Saturday shit show run by Mike Quinlan, who's a fantastic person. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 32:02
You just say 2 seconds said. 

Ryan Lina 32:04
That's what he calls the second Saturday shit show. You'll never forget the name. 

Rich Bennett 32:11
It just sounds so much like Second City, Tel Aviv. 

They were so second Saturdays should show. I love. 

Ryan Lina 32:20
It's on the second Saturday of every month they do it. I mean, he gets all kinds of great. 

Rich Bennett 32:26
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 32:27
Come in. So, yeah, we are. But yeah, I just just got to headline up there, you know, in a couple of local spots too. So, yeah, it's going to be a fun time. I mean, I've been kind of. By the time that show rolls around, I'll have been doing this for nine years, so. 

Rich Bennett 32:42
Wow. 

Ryan Lina 32:43
Pretty much crafting the special since I started. 

Rich Bennett 32:48
Now, is this special going to be strictly for like YouTube or are you going to pitch it to networks or. 

Ryan Lina 32:54
That's kind of the plan, is I'm going to put it on YouTube first, but then I'm going to I'm going to use it as a thing to pitch to people. I have a I have a demo tape right now already. That's pretty strong. But then, you know, it's gotten me booked in, you know, Canada. It's got me booked in a bunch of. 

Rich Bennett 33:10
Oh, wow. 

Ryan Lina 33:11
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I feel like if I also have proof that I can do an hour, hopefully that 

Rich Bennett 33:19
Yes. 

Ryan Lina 33:19
will help me with some stuff and, you know, and also, like, I'm going to, I'm going to send it to people if, if there's ever a higher power who wants to put a little, you know, better production quality on it. 

Fantastic. But. 

Rich Bennett 33:32
Actually who is who is doing the video production for it, 

Ryan Lina 33:36
Yeah, we're blue. Jay Media is going to be recording it. They're also a local Harford County group. 

Rich Bennett 33:41
Right. 

Ryan Lina 33:41
Yeah they and they they've come out to a couple of the abandoned and grill shows and taken photos and stuff like that. They're really, really nice group of folks so I'm looking forward to it. There is going to be at least two cameras and then I I'm hoping we're going to be able to patch in because the state theater also has their own camera system in there, too. So, yeah, I'm hoping we might be able to do some some cool stuff with that. And, you know, we're going to make up the crowd a little bit. It's going to be it's going to be a good time. It's going to be. And the other thing is like I doing this because I want to I want to make it a big event. I want to kind of 

Rich Bennett 34:20
Right? 

Ryan Lina 34:20
draw. Tension to, you know, hey, we got this really cool comedy scene in Harford County. You know, there's multiple shows here. You know, 2 seconds up the road at Battery Island Avenue Grill has them, you know, trying to get people to see like, you know, hey, this is a real thing in Harford County and it's going to 

Rich Bennett 34:39
Mm 

Ryan Lina 34:39
be 

Rich Bennett 34:40
hmm. 

Ryan Lina 34:40
here and it's going to be gangbusters for a long time. So, 

yeah, that's that's kind of my my idea. It's it's a combination of a lot of things, but it's it's something I've wanted to do for a long time, and I'm really excited for it. I think it's. 

Rich Bennett 34:54
Oh, I bet. 

Ryan Lina 34:55
It's going to it's going to be fun. It's going to be fun. 

Rich Bennett 34:57
Who's opening up for you. 

Ryan Lina 34:59
I'm going to have a story and then Bam! 

Rich Bennett 35:01
Okay. 

Ryan Lina 35:01
Jacobs are both local folks, and I'm trying to get my friend Dan Caper out of retirement, but I haven't been able to yet, so fingers crossed I can get him to because he'd. 

Rich Bennett 35:11
Quest is all. 

Ryan Lina 35:13
He originally said he would do it for me, but I was like two years ago, so I haven't asked him yet. But yes, 

Rich Bennett 35:19
Oh, well, there you go. Just when 

Ryan Lina 35:20
he 

Rich Bennett 35:21
you 

Ryan Lina 35:21
owes 

Rich Bennett 35:21
race 

Ryan Lina 35:21
me. 

Rich Bennett 35:21
to say, Look, you told me you were going to. 

Ryan Lina 35:24
Exactly. 

Rich Bennett 35:25
So you can't go back on your word. 

Ryan Lina 35:27
I also kind of do run of the problem that I think he's like a little funnier than me. So I need to tell him, Hey, man. 

Rich Bennett 35:34
Having been the host. 

Ryan Lina 35:35
Yeah, well, that's like I'm going to be like, Don't go too crazy. Just. 

Rich Bennett 35:43
Oh, God. Actually, have you looked and looked at doing anything possibly to college? 

Ryan Lina 35:48
I have 

Rich Bennett 35:50
Okay. 

Ryan Lina 35:50
the. Their main thing is they just want to charge to rent out the space. And it kind of requires a pretty heavy down payment, which. 

Rich Bennett 36:00
Which space are you looking at? 

Ryan Lina 36:02
Just. 

Rich Bennett 36:02
Not the arena. 

Ryan Lina 36:03
No, no, no. They have the smaller one on the. 

Rich Bennett 36:06
The aim is. 

Ryan Lina 36:07
Yeah. The Amos Center. 

Rich Bennett 36:08
Okay. 

Ryan Lina 36:08
And it's a similar thing where they won. 

Rich Bennett 36:11
Right. 

Ryan Lina 36:12
I mean, I would love to do it there. I actually I put my flyers up for every show that I do at the college all the time. And it normally does attract folks. So. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 36:21
Get a hold of Brad Cox. He has a podcast called Mouth Full of Graffiti. And he loves talking to local artists. 

Ryan Lina 36:30
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 36:32
And. 

Ryan Lina 36:33
Oh, 

Rich Bennett 36:33
Drop my name, tell him. Say, Hey, 

Ryan Lina 36:35
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 36:36
the part. The Godfather told me to talk to the Mog. 

Ryan Lina 36:39
I will write down part for. 

Rich Bennett 36:44
That's. That's what he calls me, The Godfather. And he I, I gave him the nickname the Mog Father. Mouthful of graffito. 

Ryan Lina 36:52
I love that. That's so fun. 

Rich Bennett 36:54
But he is. He's also a hell of a musician, 

Ryan Lina 36:57
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 36:57
too. 

Ryan Lina 36:58
Very cool. What's. What's the name again? You said Brad Cox. It sounds. 

Rich Bennett 37:00
Brad Cox. 

Ryan Lina 37:01
Sounds familiar. It might have. Might have. 

Rich Bennett 37:04
He. If you look just look at Spotify. He's under. Well Brad Cox Schizo, Calypso Veteran Avenue. So some of the projects he's done as far as bands or just look up his podcast band for. 

Ryan Lina 37:21
Yeah, absolutely. Well. 

Rich Bennett 37:22
He's. He's on there all the time. 

Ryan Lina 37:24
Fantastic. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 37:25
So after this show that you do. What's the next big thing? 

Ryan Lina 37:31
Well, the next big thing is going to be trying to keep selling myself and just, you know, trying to, you know, the the as much as I can try to tour and get more, you know, different. 

Rich Bennett 37:43
Are you allowed to do that? 

Ryan Lina 37:45
Sure. What do you mean, like. 

Rich Bennett 37:46
So really, are you allowed to sell yourself? 

Ryan Lina 37:49
Yeah, it depends. It depends. My only fiance has not taken off yet, believe it or not. 

Rich Bennett 37:59
Hey, look, years ago, that's what I wanted to do. But I was going to charge by the pound. 

Everybody want a refund? 

It didn't work. 

Ryan Lina 38:13
But 

Rich Bennett 38:13
So. 

Ryan Lina 38:13
yeah, just trying to get myself out there. I mean, the dream obviously, is to become a being able to do this as a living before, you know, it's a side job right now, but obviously everybody wants to do it for a living and I'm not the only one. But, you know, there's we're in an interesting time with comedy in general right now because. 

Rich Bennett 38:34
Oh, God, Yes. 

Ryan Lina 38:34
Yeah. It's not so much like the amount of clubs and stuff like that is smaller, but the amount of mediums that are out there now is truly infinite. I mean, there's there's start ups popping up all the time. There's all kinds of websites and stuff like that that will promote you and put you out. 

It's different than it used to be, but it's 

Rich Bennett 38:57
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 38:57
not necessarily worse, in my opinion. I think it's harder. 

Rich Bennett 39:00
Well, I think at one point, I mean, a lot of comedians were afraid of being canceled. 

Ryan Lina 39:06
Sure. Sure. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 39:07
But I think that's changing now because, you know, a lot of people are like, screw you 

Ryan Lina 39:11
Yeah. And I, 

Rich Bennett 39:12
doing this. 

Ryan Lina 39:12
I think the thing that a lot of people have realized, cause I talk about the concept of cancel culture in general. 

Rich Bennett 39:18
Yeah, 

Ryan Lina 39:19
Not necessarily on stage, but I think the thing that people have realized is there was a lot of when this whole thing kind of started of people who their entire act was going up on stage and just saying something gross, offensive, 

Rich Bennett 39:34
right. 

Ryan Lina 39:35
horrific, and not necessarily turning it into a joke. But I think the thing that people have realized is those people have rightfully kind of been moved out, but people are still able to create jokes out of things. You can't necessarily laugh about, but they're able to do it because they put the work and the time in. And since the the barrage of the people who were kind of just doing it, to say a horrible thing on stage has diminished. And now the percent of people who are actually taking time to craft and create the joke, I think that that has. That has taken over more. And we see that with like, 

you know, like I mean, Shane Gillis 100% pushes the envelope. He does, but he does so tactfully. And his jokes are really, really well-written where, you know, I don't like to disparage people in a public forum, but there's some comedians out there who they just say, you know, a slur or a mean thing just to just to say it. 

Rich Bennett 40:39
Just to say 

Ryan Lina 40:40
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 40:40
it. 

Ryan Lina 40:40
I get that like, ooh, reaction from the crowd. But that only works for a certain amount of time before you get more caught out on it, you know? 

Rich Bennett 40:47
And it only works for certain people. 

Ryan Lina 40:49
Absolutely. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 40:50
I think the one that was the best at that insult comic. It was 

Ryan Lina 40:55
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 40:55
done? 

Ryan Lina 40:56
I was going to say Don Rickles was really, really good at that because he was. Yeah, he 

but he was like, again, he was a person who wrote those jokes 

Rich Bennett 41:06
Yes. 

Ryan Lina 41:06
he didn't like. If he just went out there and said, like, you know, you're smelly, you're fat, I'm out of here. Like, he would have never you know, he would have never sold anything. But like, he he insulted people in a creative way and actually, you know, took time to, you know, be good at what he did. 

Rich Bennett 41:23
Uh huh. Yeah, because not anybody could have gotten away with saying. 

Ryan Lina 41:27
No, not at all. 

Rich Bennett 41:28
He would say especially. 

Ryan Lina 41:29
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 41:30
Sinatra or somebody. 

Ryan Lina 41:31
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which that's a. 

Have you ever heard that the Don Rickles story about Frank Sinatra? 

Rich Bennett 41:39
Which one? 

Ryan Lina 41:40
Where he went 

Rich Bennett 41:40
Oh, 

Ryan Lina 41:40
to. 

Rich Bennett 41:41
where he was at dinner? 

Ryan Lina 41:41
Yes. Did such. 

Rich Bennett 41:42
Yes. 

Ryan Lina 41:43
Such a good store so funny? Yeah. One of my favorite. 

Rich Bennett 41:46
God. 

Ryan Lina 41:47
Comedy tales out. 

Rich Bennett 41:49
And the thing is, when you look at, Don, there's a lot of again, a lot of great comedians. Don Rickles was a standup comedian. One of the other ones I loved, who I think she started in standup was Carol BURNETT. 

Ryan Lina 42:02
Carol BURNETT is one of the. I was. 

Rich Bennett 42:04
Oh. 

Ryan Lina 42:05
My friend, about the the Nazi interrogator sketch, which is, 

Rich Bennett 42:10
Oh. 

Ryan Lina 42:10
in my opinion, one of the funniest thing that's ever been written. And like, I was like, I was crying, explaining this to my friend. And like that every single sketch on that show is just like. Fantastic. 

Rich Bennett 42:22
Classic. 

Ryan Lina 42:23
Yeah. They're 

Rich Bennett 42:23
Yes. 

Ryan Lina 42:23
so good. Like they used. 

Rich Bennett 42:26
Tim Conway, Owner. Oh, my God. 

Ryan Lina 42:29
Was unbelievable. I mean. 

Rich Bennett 42:31
Did you did you ever see the blooper of the elephant story? 

Ryan Lina 42:34
So funny. What? Yeah. Where? He's. 

Rich Bennett 42:36
But what? Vicky Lord's is fucking. 

Ryan Lina 42:40
Because he got her to crack so many times 

Rich Bennett 42:42
Oh, 

Ryan Lina 42:43
like. 

Rich Bennett 42:43
God. 

Ryan Lina 42:43
That's like one of my one of my favorite things about him was like he went in where he's like, I need to be funny enough to make the people on stage. 

Rich Bennett 42:52
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 42:53
And that's like when you deal with professionals, that's really tough to do. 

Rich Bennett 42:57
Oh, it is. 

Ryan Lina 42:58
He did it so, so often that it was just I mean, the dentist sketch as well is one of the best things that has ever been put on TV. And. 

Rich Bennett 43:07
I. 

Ryan Lina 43:08
Yeah. So. 

Rich Bennett 43:09
I had the opportunity to go see him in Harvey Korman. 

Ryan Lina 43:13
Really that that had to be a major. 

Rich Bennett 43:15
I think it may have been at the lyric. 

Ryan Lina 43:17
Wow. 

Rich Bennett 43:18
Because yeah, for what? We went and saw them. And then another time we went and seen Penn and Teller, which. 

Ryan Lina 43:23
Yeah, that was that was probably great to hear. 

Rich Bennett 43:26
Yeah, but. Oh, my God. The stuff. Yeah. Tim Conway was just close and a lot of that. Well, I mean, his stuff you could still do today. 

Ryan Lina 43:36
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 43:37
But you look at somebody like Mel Brooks. 

Ryan Lina 43:39
Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 43:40
Some of that stuff today may be kind of hard. 

Ryan Lina 43:43
Yeah, I think it's it's it's you know, it's interesting because, like, I think Blazing Saddles is one of the funniest 

Rich Bennett 43:49
One of 

Ryan Lina 43:50
ever. 

Rich Bennett 43:50
the best of all time. 

Ryan Lina 43:52
And he he makes a point when he talks about that in interviews 

Rich Bennett 43:55
Yes. 

Ryan Lina 43:56
where he talks about like the the people who say that the the truly offensive things are slurs. They're never posed as the good guy or, you know, like they're shown to be evil and ultimately stupid. 

Rich Bennett 44:12
Right? 

Ryan Lina 44:13
And I think that's one of the reasons he was able to get away with it the way that he did. Is 

Rich Bennett 44:17
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 44:17
he really he he made them look like morons. I mean, that's that's the classic line, you know, salt of the earth. 

Rich Bennett 44:24
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 44:25
Morons. 

Rich Bennett 44:28
So something very important. 

Ryan Lina 44:30
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 44:30
Let's say somebody wants to put together a charity event 

Ryan Lina 44:32
sure. 

Rich Bennett 44:33
or they want you to come in and perform at their club. How do they get in touch with you? 

Ryan Lina 44:38
Yeah, absolutely. My Facebook is is pretty open. But for like professional booking and stuff like that just reach out to me at. Ryan liner is funny at gmail.com. That's where my that's like my professional booking thing. That's where I'll respond to that very quickly. Facebook messages. I will get to as well. But for the most part those and you know my my Instagram handle, pretty much everything is either real Ryan liner or Ryan liner is funny. You know, both of those just just reach out and we'll talk. I'll give you a you know, I've done this for a long enough time. I can give you a pretty straight numbers and I can give you a, you know, I'll shoot straight with you if I think if I would never put on a show in a room that I didn't think would be successful, I think that that's that's a really key thing. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 45:28
I guess some of those rooms, especially if it's just I mean, if there's some tables in there, but it's more. More bar and tables would be hard, 

Ryan Lina 45:36
Yeah. I mean, it, it, it 

Rich Bennett 45:38
maybe. 

Ryan Lina 45:38
takes a specific type of thing for it to work. 

Rich Bennett 45:41
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 45:41
And a lot of times it does require a little bit of leeway from the restaurants as well. 

Rich Bennett 45:45
Right. 

Ryan Lina 45:46
You know, that's the kind of key thing. Space is important because, like, people need to be able to see the show. That's something that I love about the Avenue Grill show that we run is we have it set up and we warn people ahead of time that, you know, it's going to be what I what's called comedy club seating, which is you might be sitting at a table with somebody who you don't know. But that's because it's a limited space. And, you know, there's only so many spots that show the stage. So, you know. 

Rich Bennett 46:21
I love that idea, though, because now you got strangers meeting. 

Ryan Lina 46:24
Well, that's I mean, people are always a little bit hesitant, but at the end of the night, they always have a great time because it's, you know. 

Rich Bennett 46:33
When you go to a concert, you don't know who you're going to be sitting next to. 

Ryan Lina 46:35
And that's what I tell people all the time. If you go if you go to a comedy club, you're going to be sitting next to people you don't know. But, you know, that's because part of the economics of this is we need to be able to fit as many people as possible into. 

Rich Bennett 46:46
Right. 

Ryan Lina 46:47
Space. You know, if I sell two less tickets at each table and you know that you're talking about 20 less tickets that we were able to sell, that's 20 less meals. The restaurant was able to, you know, provide 

Rich Bennett 47:01
Right. 

Ryan Lina 47:01
for people that's, you know, 20 less dollars worth of, well, you know, math off the top of my head, I don't know it, but it's less money that I can pay out the comics and that I can, you know, make for myself. So 

but at the end of the day, like you're all there for the same purpose, you know? 

Rich Bennett 47:16
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 47:18
You're all there. 

Rich Bennett 47:18
A laugh and have a good time. 

Ryan Lina 47:20
You're all there to have fun. And you know, it'll be. It always ends up being a good time, man. I mean, I. 

Rich Bennett 47:25
Yeah. 

Ryan Lina 47:25
I've never I knock on wood, I haven't had a bad show where every single comic just ate it and nobody had fun. Everybody always has a good time when they come out. 

Rich Bennett 47:35
I got to get out there. 

Ryan Lina 47:36
Yeah, man. Come on out. I'll. Yeah, it'll be fun. 

Rich Bennett 47:38
And I definitely wouldn't make it March 15th. 

Ryan Lina 47:41
Awesome. I appreciate. 

Rich Bennett 47:42
And yeah, now I'll put the semi the ticketing 

Ryan Lina 47:46
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 47:47
shownotes 

Ryan Lina 47:47
Fantastic. 

Rich Bennett 47:48
as well. 

Ryan Lina 47:48
Yeah. Do you know when this will come out? 

Rich Bennett 47:52
What? 

Ryan Lina 47:52
This podcast. 

Rich Bennett 47:53
Oh, I haven't even started recording yet. 

Ryan Lina 47:55
Oh, no. 

Rich Bennett 47:59
Hey, I could be a comedian sometimes 

Ryan Lina 48:01
Hey. 

Rich Bennett 48:01
to just stand up on stage. 

Ryan Lina 48:02
You ever want to come to an open mike, man? You can come on out. Well. 

Rich Bennett 48:05
Oh, 

Ryan Lina 48:06
We'll 

Rich Bennett 48:06
God. 

Ryan Lina 48:06
get you out there. We'll give you 5 minutes. You can perform in front of a bunch of comedians who will be courteous at the very least. 

Rich Bennett 48:13
I'll bring my own rotten tomatoes. That way we I could make sure that their Nerf balls. 

Ryan. Thanks a lot, brother. 

Ryan Lina 48:23
Absolutely. This was a blast. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. 

Rich Bennett 48:26
My pleasure.