232: #232 - Christmas Traditions feat. Derrick Stroup
01:38:15 Share

When you're part of a military family, you understand sacrifice and support. So at American Public University, we honor your dedication by extending our military tuition savings to your extended family. Parents, spouses, legal partners, siblings, and dependents all qualify for APU's preferred military rate of just $250 per credit hour for undergraduate and master's level programs. American Public University, value for the whole family. Learn more at apu.apus.edu slash military.

Hello, folks, and hey, Bear. Welcome to the Nate Land Podcast. Merry Christmas. Today's a Christmas day. I'm Nate Bargatze, Brian Bates, Aaron Weber. Dusty's out. We brought in...

Much louder, Dusty. But Alabama. Yeah. Yeah. Dusty got to prove it. Yeah. Hey. Thanks for having me. Which is fun. You know what? They would have seen you on the Christmas special now. Yeah. That's why he's here. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. That's why Derek's here. That's how he got the gig. We got some good and some bad, but we'll get to you in a minute. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Merry Christmas. We hope you guys are having a wonderful, you either had a wonderful Christmas whenever you're watching this, hope you're unwrapping presents and having a wonderful time.

All the stuff. You got your first Christmas with a kid. Yeah. She's not quite old enough. I mean, next year will be the first real one. Yeah. Where she's like aware of it. She's more aware of it. It's going to be like a few. Yeah, yeah. Well, it just depends on what you mean by aware. I don't even know if she knows. I mean, she can only see like a foot in front of her. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think next Christmas she's going to be doing it. Like a deer. Yeah.

Because she'd have trouble crossing the street. She would. Yeah. She would, for sure. Yeah, I understand that. This is Eleanor's first Christmas knowing who Santa really is. Oh, yeah. Okay. So much fun. Does she know that you're older than Santa?

He's talking to you. For sure. Do you show pictures of you and Santa in high school? That short beard. He's got a short beard, but it's brown. He goes, yeah, well, you look good. We called him Chris. None of us thought he was going to make it like he made it. The Kringles weren't a great family, but he really... He wasn't always into just milk, you know what I mean? He was young at one time. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, yeah, this will be a fun thing. I think we're supposed to. So if you're watching it, the Christmas special would have aired. I've seen a cut of the Christmas. There's no reason to even. It looks awesome, but I've seen a cut. You could be watching this now. I should be like, guys, I want to apologize for what happened on CBS. There's a chance. We'll record both just in case. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Hey, I didn't know what was going to happen on that day, and I'm sorry about everything that aired on CBS on December 19th. I apologize. Does that represent my family? I stand alone in this. So either way, we'll play both. Yeah. No matter what. Perfect. Yeah. But it's been out now almost a week. Yeah, so I probably already made a statement. Yeah. So listen, coming back. Mm-hmm.

This is your first public appearance. Oh, yeah. Since it happened. Hey. Hey, everybody. Those reindeer, I didn't know they were real. No one told us that. Well, also, your special came out last night. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, you've got a lot going on at the moment. Once again, I want to apologize. He said, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I want to apologize for the special. Right now, I am at the Christmas, I'm at the game. Steelers, if you're watching this,

On December 25th, I'm at the, uh, at one o'clock. I'm at the, I'm going to the Chiefs Steelers game. Oh, wow. Mm-hmm. Okay. That's exciting. We just talked about them on DraftKings. Uh, yeah. So I'll be going there. Uh,

In doing stuff. Yeah, we're recording this story. I guess there's no real point to talk about all this stuff. But again, I'll apologize for what happened. I do not know Travis Kelsey. And what he did was awful. So I'm sorry. I don't stand for it.

I pray for his family, his brother, Jackson, just start going through all. I don't know what the every scenario. Taylor feels safe. I don't think Jason knew about it either, but you know, it's all Patrick's fault.

I don't know. Eric Stonestreet. I don't know Russell Wilson. I do the Steelers. Whatever. Burt Kreischer will be there. I definitely did not. I don't approve of Burt. No, Burt's. Burt, I have another thing coming out with Burt this same day. It's like something burning.

Oh, wow. The cooking episode. Yeah, me and Dusty are on it. Oh, really? That's fun. Yeah, and I think it comes out on the day that you're watching this. That's exciting. That one, Bert, you know, he tried to calm it down with the language intentionally on that day. He did very good. It's really nice. It's not perfect. Kept the shirt on. Yes. Wow. Cooking seems like you need a shirt on. Yeah, you don't want that stuff bouncing back. That grease. So, all right. Yeah. So that's where I was.

And this is our last episode of the year. Last episode of the year. Yeah. Last one I'll ever do. How's your year been? My year? I'm joking with that. I know I haven't been on every one. The year's been very good. It's been a very good year. That's how you suggested you should greet people. Oh, yeah. How's your year going? It's going great. Tell you that. It's going great. Pretty good year for you.

Yeah, pretty good year. This time last year, you were doing the Manning cast, which was my favorite moment of 2023. Yeah. I thought your career was over, but... Kept going. You showed me. Plugged along. Yeah. Kept plugging along. That's all you got to do is keep showing up. Keep showing up. Are you all serious about asking people about their year? Yeah, because instead of saying, how's your day going, which is everybody's day is always good. No one's going to...

be like really no one really tells you how their day was going if you ask someone how's your year been going it's a little more of a inquiring question that seems terrifying that seems like it could be way more loaded i feel like i have a better chance to escape if you just give me the next 24 hours i think 12 months i could be here for a minute but i know but if i'm just in generalities okay how's your year going man

and you're like, oh, it's going great. I did this. You would have more to say if I say, how's your day? Yeah. I clearly don't even, none of us care. True, true. And you feel like that you could break down a day in conversation. A year is too much, so you just go one word, good, bad, indifferent. Yeah, he goes, great. Great, yeah. And I mean, I could be miserable.

Okay, all right. And I'm going to go, great. Don't ask me. I'll have some health issues. Oh, it is what it is. Well, I went to the doctor. Yeah. I just got a new one. He's like, the gout's touching, though. No, but you know, on my- You see your doctor more than you don't. I don't-

I don't have to explain that one. I have a parking spot. Do you have a plaque? Do you have a plaque? Employee and patient of the month. Yeah. No, you know, when three years ago, when I thought I was having a stroke, I just had to go do a three-year follow-up where they did another image scan. The old three-year follow-up. I've never heard of that. Yeah, I don't know. Your doctor's really... Should we do it every year? Come back in three years. He goes, I don't know.

It's like an apple come back in three years. 36 months, nothing bad could happen. For sure. And he's like, everything looks good, but you have a couple nodules on your lung. He said, but it's nothing to worry about. He said, most people in this part of the country have this. It's called chondroses.

or something. It's basically, he says, bat poop. Yeah. Bat dung. Guano. Creates fungus that we, in this part of the country, get on our hands, especially as kids, get in our mouth and it gets in our lungs and Wow. It goes away. So I have bat poop lungs. That's COVID. Yeah.

Yeah. That's COVID? Well, COVID was from bats. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. I don't know. Sounds like it was described to you by a gypsy doctor. Like, you got bat poop in your lungs. This is the new doctor. It's COVID-14. It's different, but the same. It's one of them. Yeah.

Can you look up bat poop in lungs? Yeah, I'd be happy to type this in and see what comes up. Oh, that'll pop right up. Bat poop. It's acute pulmonary histoplasmosis. There you go. A flu-like illness characterized by respiratory symptoms, general malaise. That fits you. Yep. Fever, chest pains. What are you doing down here? Is yours down? Yeah. Oh. You inhaled fungal spores from bat droppings.

Absolutely crazy. I've never heard it. Can't hear anything? Now I can. All right, we got it perfect. Nate's playing God over here. Yeah. I just had to. Yeah. Well, anyway, I have histoplasmosis. I've never heard of that. Histoplasmosis. You start calling Nashville Gotham City. Can you hear? You need to turn it up more. Now it's too loud. Why are you messing with mine anyway?

So elevated risk of exposure to histoplasmosis fungus include workers who perform demolition. That's not you. Gardeners who use bird or bat droppings as fertilizer. Excavation workers who uproot trees or persons cleaning fireplaces. How did you get this, Brian? Look at Tennessee. I mean, I'm right in the heart of it. I'm a blue collar guy out there doing the thing. It's highly endemic to Central Tennessee. Where's Dusty at? I mean, Dusty would be all over this.

Yeah. Wild stuff. Well, are you feeling okay? Well, I thought I was. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, all those animals I've been around. Dogs, cats, rats, skunks, possums, foxes. You've been around foxes.

There's foxes in my neighborhood now. Okay. Yeah. But are you around them? Well, I'm not really around. I mean, I see them. A fox doesn't hang out. Yeah. I don't think any of those things you're hanging out. The squirrels are the only ones that you get. They're amongst your things. I think I've told this story. My dog got sprayed by skunk and-

and I put it in my car. We weren't at home and drove it home. You drove the skunk home? And I was just so, like, my mom spent all night, like, spraying and doing all this stuff, and I had a summer job, and I thought it was past, and I went to work that day. As soon as I walk in, this woman's like, somebody smells like skunk. Yeah.

He just reads for days. Yeah. Did you check out on that story? Yeah, I checked it. I was with you, Brian. You said you might have told it before, so I figured I'm like the – I'm going to assume that he did. Yeah, I'm like the listeners. I just thought, all right, I'll just check. I'll use this time for me. Yeah. I'll use this time for me. I got my thoughts. Well, I have histoplasmosis, guys. Yeah. All right. Keep an eye on it for us. Is there a cure? The doctor didn't say. I didn't think to ask.

How's it treated? Mild disease. Resolves without treatment. Yeah. I'm going to call the Illinois Department of Public Health. How do you know this is even a disease? There's no disease. It's a mild disease. It usually fixes itself. You're like, well, now I believe you're making this up. I've got it. How much stuff, but this is probably made up.

Because someone kept coming in because they just go like, I feel like something's not up. And they're like, hey. You have histoplasmosis. Golly, does it kind of take something? No, it eventually just works itself out. Oh, you don't want me to come here anymore is what you're saying? That's what I think that is. Is that not crazy if you were a doctor and you go, it's a mild disease? How many times would a doctor probably use a disease like that?

Just to get out of the situation. A few. Yeah, I mean, if you didn't have any answers. Because he's a regular person. Yeah. Our doctor's busy. He has stuff going on. He gets this guy walking in. Yeah, I was about to say, you got to read your patient. And you go, well, this guy's going to believe bat poop. I'm going to send it. Yeah. I mean, because he gave you something that there's no way. Yeah.

It only affects... No, it doesn't say only. It doesn't say only. Extremes of age. The ones that get it the most, infants and the elderly. It doesn't say... It just means anybody. No one gets it in the middle. That's a word, quote, from the doctor. No one gets it in the middle.

Yeah, you have a weekend immune system probably. A weekend immune system? Yeah, you don't do it during the week. Yeah, only during the weekend. Yours only works on the weekend. I'm immune from weekend shows, I know that. Somebody's looking at my calendar. Easy to drive tour, see you on Wednesday. It's called Weekday Warriors. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah.

Brian's the only comedian that works a nine to five. Doing standup? As a standup comedian, he's really Monday to Friday, MF, nine to five. What do you do? I'm a standup comedian. Wow. You really, you only work in the regular hours. That's it. Yeah. With my family every night. Yeah.

It's the most wonderful time of year for getting in on all the hoops, football, and hockey action at DraftKings Sportsbooks. It's the season of giving. We've been gifted college football, basketball, pro football, pro basketball, and pro hockey 24-7. Bowl season is here. Derek, the Cure Bowl.

Can't wait. Jacksonville State versus Ohio. Big game. You're a Jacksonville State guy? Yeah, yeah. That's where I went to school. Yeah, that's what I thought. Ohio's currently a two and a half point favorite. So you take Jacksonville State, buddy. I will. Notre Dame, college football playoffs. Do you know the line? No, I don't. Seven and a half. I don't think it matters. Seven and a half. It doesn't matter. I think we're going to underperform. So you're going to take Indiana. Bottom line is you can do all this on DraftKings Sportsbook, Vandy Georgia Tech.

Georgia Tech's two and a half point favorite. Sorry, John Crest, you guys are going down.

And today, Christmas Day, there's NFL. Christmas is usually, you think about NBA basketball, but this year we got NFL football. Amazing. The Chiefs and the Steelers are playing. All this, you can go have some fun on DraftKings Sportsbook. Don't spend time with your family on Christmas. Spend it in front of a TV betting on sports. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code NATELAND. That's code NATELAND for new customers to get $150 in bonus bets if your bets win when you bet just five bucks. Wow.

Happy holidays from DraftKings. The crown is yours.

Eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bet must win to receive reward. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG.co slash bball. I just got my driver's license renewed. And you go in there, went in there, and she's like, she pointed, she's like, you just go to this kiosk. So I'm at the kiosk and I'm doing it.

And it doesn't give you, I mean, it kind of gives you a heads up. But then next thing you know, it's time for the pitcher. And there's an oval that you have to put your face in. And it's like eight, seven, six. And I'm trying to get lined up. And when it gets about three, she comes out of nowhere behind me. She goes, look up, look, look up. And I'm like, what? What? She's like, look up.

And I think she meant like lift my whole chin to fit in the thing. But I thought it was like at the eye doctor. So I just do this. And it snaps. He looks up with his eyes and snaps. Yeah. So she wouldn't let me do it again. Do you have your driver's license? Why wouldn't she let you do it again? She said that I got to move it along. It looks like...

Like an old Forrest Gump. Oh my gosh. Can we get a zoom on that? Oh my goodness. Maybe we can do it in post, Aaron, or not at all. With his short hair. Gosh, that picture is unbelievable. We got another movie.

Because what was it? We had a movie from last week. Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown. Forrest Gump, where has he been? Yeah. Right there. Right. Bates plays the Forrest Gump now. It's pretty solid. So that was my week. Merry Christmas, everyone.

Good to see you, man. And this all happened on Christmas Day. You're going to get pulled over and a cop's going to look at your license and go, are you driving alone? Yeah. Like there's nobody in there with you? You're doing pretty good. I'm going to let you go. Look at me, son. It's like Kevin from The Office. All right. I'm trying to have somebody set this.

This guy, GS Artworks, who draws pictures of episodes every now and then, this is Drew Bates as Charlie Brown. Well, Aaron, you're Lucy, so... Well, yeah, but you look funnier. Well, it kind of looks like the license. Kind of does, doesn't it? His tongue sticks out. Look at Dusty back there. Aaron looks like Captain Cook. Yeah. Captain Hook?

I was like, who's Captain Cook? I was trying to think about who that was. I think there was Captain Cook. I don't think so. I think there was. I thought I did a story. I think he was a comic in the 80s. I'm pretty sure it was Captain Cook. I'm almost positive. That sounds like a guy on TikTok that does grilled chicken videos. James Cook. That's no way you were thinking that. That's what I'm talking about, James Cook. No. Yeah, yeah. You could put in anybody and it would...

There's somebody. Nate was thinking about British explorer and cartographer Captain James Cook. Captain. And we'd all called him Captain. Captain James Cook is what it says. I know. Captain James Cook. That was exact. Man, I know a lot about that guy. He found Hawaii. Mm-hmm.

First one to find it. There's Captain Cook, an episode of the British. Okay. Yeah, there's a lot of Captain Cook. Samuel H. Cook. I mean, Captain Cook was Jesse Pinkman's alias in Breaking Bad. Yeah, maybe that's right. That I could see you. I have a feeling you were thinking about that and not the British cartographer from the 18th century. I don't think Nate was thinking about it. I think he said it wrong. Yes. I think he said Captain Cook and he meant Captain Hook. All right.

I don't know whose podcast this is. Derek. Derek Land. Derek Land. Oh, gosh. Yeah. All right. Well, that was fun. Yeah. So Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody. If this is Christmas Day, where are you at on Christmas Day?

On Christmas Day, I'm home, but the next day I'm in Tampa at Side Splitters for the weekend. Right back into it. Right back into it. That weekend. It'd be a big night. I think a lot of people would go out on the 26th. Yeah, yeah. I think so, too. That weekend after Christmas is usually a pretty decent weekend. Yeah. I had a show here on the 26th, and Zany's canceled it.

Yeah. Is that real? They said they wanted to spend time with their families. Yeah. Did you? I really did. What was the show? That's the only time J.D. has ever done that. Dorfman's are like, we're really into Christmas now. Yeah. They're Jewish. Yeah. Yeah. It was December 26th and I was fouling. She said, would you be okay if we cancel the show so we can just have- Spend time with our family. Yeah. I was like, what about all the tickets sold? She's like, don't worry about that. Yeah.

Oh, man. They usually do that in email. They went right to your face with it. Do you care? We're going to cancel. Yeah. I don't think it mattered if I cared, but yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Well, usually it's a good day. I think in Tampa, it's a better day for comedy. Yeah. They don't have families in Tampa. They don't have families in Tampa. Aaron, your first Christmas. First Christmas with a baby. We're going to Atlanta. I'm in Atlanta right now. Oh, nice. Just for fun. First little road trip. Lucy's brother moved out there. His wife. So we're at their place.

First road trip with the baby. That's exciting. How'd that go? Yeah. How'd that go? Hopefully okay. Yeah. I guess I should say it'll be my first Christmas in New York City. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, my first one. But you won't be there. I'll be there on Christmas Day. I won't be there on the 26th.

I thought you said I'll be home. I thought you meant home like... Home's Alabama. Harvest Alabama. Yeah, home is Harvest Alabama. You celebrate Christmas? Yeah, I do.

I enjoy it. I'm a longtime fan of Christmas. Now, you're a big, you decorate where you live. I've heard you talk about this. Yes, yes, I love it. Halloween, you'll put pumpkins in the apartment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love decorating for seasons. Like our house, like Christmas, there's all kinds of candles. There's a tree. I mean, there's Christmas stuff wall to wall, and I like it that way. But do you go home earlier?

You told me earlier how in Denver you'd go to Waffle House on Christmas Day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'd go to Waffle House on Christmas Day and listen to Alabama, Christmas and Dixie. But, you know, in New York there is – But why are you never home for Christmas? Oh, well, I just – I mean, I'll go back sometimes. But a lot of times, you know, when you travel so much – Mm-hmm.

And, you know, you live so far from home, sometimes it's better just to stay at your own place and take it in. A lot of times on Thanksgiving I'll go to my folks or to Alyssa's folks, but on Christmas I'll usually hang around the house. Just have a lone, sad Christmas? No, man, try to get Alyssa under some mistletoe, you know what I mean? Yes. This is a clean podcast. Yeah.

My fiance, I was just talking about kissing her. That's why John Chris kicks up the door. So she's someone that doesn't travel and you say you can't visit your family either? No, she can. She can. It's just, I'm not coming with her. Yeah. Honey, what are we going to do this Christmas? We'll sit here alone and stare at each other. Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly. And we're going to learn. Your boy has been traveling. That's how you talk to her. About you. You go, your boy has been traveling. Yeah. So tonight we're going to sit right here. Yeah. And those dogs are barking. Yeah. So I'm going to. Yeah. So we're going to sit right here. Can we put some on TV? No. No. We're going to sit here quietly. No, we're going to look at each other. We're going to decorate.

For just me and you, no one sees it. Well, in New York, that's pretty true. Yeah. Nobody is going to see it, but it feels good. Y'all don't like to sit around a lit Christmas tree and have some coffee and listen to some- Yeah, but I got to- Yeah, we got to- Yeah. We have families. We have families. We have families. Listen, this guy gets a kid at 52, and now he's like, I live a different life, Derek. Yeah. 50, thank you very much. Excuse me.

I've got a whole decade to catch up. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's start. We're kind of in it quick, right? Is there anything else that we... No. Well, no. Oh, no. Let me start with you guys. This is your first time on the podcast, right? First time here. Yeah. Welcome. Yeah. Welcome. Thanks for having me. Feels like you've been here before. Maybe we should learn a little bit about you. Maybe. Maybe. From Alabama. Yeah. From Harvest, Alabama, right outside of Huntsville. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's get into the comments. Played football. I'm just kidding.

Yeah. Break football, obviously. Yeah, yeah. See a big boy like that. Obviously. I think we all know where. Yeah. I think the line was included. Okay. Right next to Aaron. Sorry, where did you play? I was a tight end.

Oh, yeah. That's a little movement. Yeah, I had some hands and feet. They were in the wing tee, though. You weren't running routes. Come on. No, man. A quick little dump pass. It was right there. You ever play a little fullback? I did. I did. My sophomore year, I played fullback on varsity for five games until they realized that I was not blocking anybody. And then I didn't. Film sessions are tough because it is the reality of the game. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, I played fullback. Fullback's a pretty wild position. Yeah. The film was the worst. Yeah. When you mess up in the game and you're thinking about, I got to watch that tomorrow morning. Exactly. In front of the whole team. Yeah. The accountability during a football game is 10 because you're going to watch it. Like he said, you're going to watch it with your buddies, and your coach is going to pause it, and he's going to single you out. He's going, hey, Stroop, everybody in this room seems like they care except for you. Can you tell us?

why you don't care, and then he'll just keep running. Tell us why you don't care. No, right here. No, we show up every day. We got coaches that their jobs depend on you just caring a little bit, so show us why you don't care. And then you learn to care or quit. I got blocked so bad by this kid from Ensworth. I made his highlight. He played at Tennessee. I was like the star of his highlight reel. It was embarrassing looking at him.

I had two sprained ankles. I was outmatched, dude. You got pancaked? No, he basically just like picked me up and ran 10 yards backwards. I mean, it's like, it looks like I'm on roller skates. It's incredible. You got the ball? I was the center and he was lined up at nose guard and just the ball snapped. He just like picked me up and he was toying with me. Anyway, I'm on his highlight reel. And then when that happened, I remember thinking like, dude, I got to watch that in front of the whole team tomorrow. And it was just as bad as you expect. Like,

Yeah, I thought the coach was going to move on. And he goes, oh, run that back. Yeah. Hey, Weber. Exactly. Yeah. It's humiliating. Who is it? It was Anthony Richards. Jason Kelsey. I think his name was played tackle for Tennessee. I almost don't want to say because people go find that. Oh, yeah. Well, we'd like to see that. All right. Did he make it a pros or anything? I don't know. I haven't looked into him in a while. I'm going to find that out. Yeah.

Yeah, he was a big-time, you know. Antonio Richardson. Antonio Richardson. Yeah, yeah, he played for the Vikings. Wow. My goodness, 6'6", 338. My goodness gracious. Yeah, Mount Pleasant, Tennessee. Antonio Tiny Richardson. Golly. How long is he still playing? Is he still playing?

He played college football. Former. Made it to the league, though. Look at that. That's pretty good. You're on a something. Yeah. And he was humongous. Yeah. Yes. Was your team any good in high school? No, my high school has gotten very good since I left. We were kind of the sacrificial lambs of our league. We had like the five or six best high school football teams in Tennessee. We had to play every year, and they would just annihilate us. Yeah.

But we played with a lot of grit. Yeah, I heard that. We had heart. Yeah, played for the name on the front of your jersey. I heard that. Did you play in college? For about 15 minutes. Yeah. And then I joined a fraternity. I was not built for that.

And I mean, our high school team was terrible. I mean, we were, I mean, absolutely a lot of one in nine, two and eight. We went five and five my senior year and I'm pretty sure we had a parade. Yeah. We were bad. We were real bad. What, uh, what college did you go to? I went to Jacksonville state. Oh yeah. That's right. Yeah. Uh,

Which is now Conference USA. When I was there, I mean, we were one level up from flag football. And now, I mean, you got Rich Rodriguez there. We just won a conference championship. Yeah. A lot's changed. Yeah. They're in a bowl game. Yeah, they're in a bowl game. They're in the Cure Bowl. Played in the Cure Bowl.

playing the Bobcats yeah playing Ohio yeah I mean that's wild Jacksonville such a quaint little town is this it you find it we tell you something there's a lot of plays from this game that's me 52 that's me 56 right there yeah yeah so is this it no this isn't the playoffs thing I mean he's just manhandling us yeah I'm

I'm trying to find that specific. I'm putting up a fight, dude. I'm putting up a fight. Look at you. Look at you. And he just, golly. There it is. Oh, my God. Oh, he had you on roller skate. Look, right? Yeah, they showed it from a different angle. That's the only highlight. Hold on. Let it play because they go back to this again, and they go, let's show it from a back angle.

Oh, my. They didn't have to do both angles. Every play looks like a screenplay. Yeah. Even though it's a run. Yeah. That is wild. They were not screens. I'm trying to pass. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, dude. Someone online goes, screen!

And he's like, nah, man. Nah, man. He's just got Aaron back. He goes, it's a screen for Aaron. Oh, my goodness. I mean, he got back. Right there is an insane one. He just goes through all of you. Yeah, I mean, like five of them. Right there. Right there, dude. That is the one. I remember this play being like, dude, I just felt myself. I go, I'm going to have to watch that. I don't know.

Well, this is one of those football, such an interesting thing, right? Because there is something to be said about hard work, determination, all that kind of stuff, right? Yeah. But there's also a level of that's an NFL lineman. For sure. In front of me. Absolutely. There's basically zero chance I have of stopping him at all. Yeah. Could I have done better than that? Yeah. Yeah. Just that position right there has done more with the degree. You or him. That's.

That's fair. Yeah. That's a tie. Yeah. Tie goes to the runner. Brutal, man. Because you were running backwards. Yeah.

Yeah. His education was free. But you were annoying to him that you were there. Oh, yeah. He moved you like, ugh. He's like, just don't be here and let me just get the quarterback. Yeah. Here's what happened. I think Ensworth was number one or two school in the state at this point. First quarter, we were beating them. And then they were like, okay. And then they just put him in a nose guard and it was just like game was over. Yeah. What was he doing before?

They were like taking it easy. They go, let somebody else play defense. Oh, he was just out. It's like the blind side. They just put him in. I mean, you can see who the guy is. That's the problem. I mean, it looks like a picture of Bigfoot. Like, it's like kind of blurry, and he's like mid-stride. I mean, it's the fact that no one can, like, you can't, no one can tackle him, the person. And then he just always comes in and just pulls them down. He's so big. Like, he's so, he just kind of,

There you go. That's a different... There's flags all over the place. It's good to see some other schools in this. Yeah, I mean, that one, he just went through two people. Yeah, he did. And it was... Yeah, I mean, it looks like a man playing with kids. Wow! No, he... I mean... It looks like that video with the mascot...

running in football and hitting all those kids. Yeah. You ever seen that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It looks like that. Like, it looks... That's what it looks... If you can't... If you're listening, picture that and Aaron was the kid and that guy was the mascot. You know, you'll know this, Derek. You do have this little moment because you're so... When you light up in a three-point stance, you are like...

this far from a dude's face, right? So I do remember him lining up and I remember going, what's up, man? He goes, I'm good. That's all I remember. I thought I was going to have a human moment with him. What did you weigh at this time? God, 215. I was about to say, you looked thin. Yeah, that was the best shape of my life. I didn't know it at the time. That was the best shape of my life. Yeah, you looked thin. I was way undersized. He was...

And you also make some business decisions in high school football playing against these type of guys. I mean, I can remember being on kickoff return, and me and Ellis Burns had our hands locked, and there was a guy from minor high school who looked like one of the guys under the Under Armour commercial. And right when he got to us,

We let go of each other, and we watched him erase our teammate who had the ball. And Q got up, and he had a concussion, and we had to watch on film. I mean, back to film, Coach goes, hey, fellas, you want to see two guys who don't care about a teammate? Hey, watch Ellis Burns and Derek Stroop make a business decision together. And, I mean, right as he gets there, we go, oh.

And we just let him, and Q disappears. And we just jog off the field, you know. But you had to make those, you know. I mean, high school football in Alabama, I really believe, is a different breed. This was in Tennessee. It was in Tennessee. Yeah, yeah. Well, I was talking about Alabama. I don't care. This looks like all these people are terrible. Yeah. What is this? They all look like 74 in Alabama. Yeah, yeah.

No, but I do have a quick, fun story about in high school, my senior year, I had a falling out with the coaches and I wasn't getting much playing time at the end of the season. And so we're playing muscle shoals. We're up 48 to nothing. My best friend's the holder, Jeremy Williams.

And I'm the wing guy on the field goal team, 48, nothing against Muscle Shoals. We go out there. I go, Hey, Jeremy, give me a fire call. And a fire call means that's when you get a bad snap. The holder will roll out and he'll hit the guy in the end zone. And Jeremy's like, I'm not, I'm not giving you a fire call. And I, and I've been, Jeremy's like, we've been best friends since we were like third grade. And I go, Jeremy, you're going to give me a fire call and you're going to hit me in the end zone.

And so it was a perfect snap. 48-0, we're beating this team. Jeremy takes it to the chest, and he's like –

Fire, fire. And he just rolls out and hits me wide open in the end zone for a two-point conversion to make it a clean 50-0. And the coach for Muscle Shoals had to be stopped because he was trying to cross the field to get to my head coach because he thought he called it. He didn't realize that I had called that in the huddle. And you should have seen everybody looking. I didn't care. I knew I was never going to, you know, this coach wasn't ever going to put me in again. And when I said, Jeremy, give me, you know, the whole huddle looked around like,

we're up 48-0. Yeah, what are you doing? And I'm like, no, we're going to get this two-point conversion. Like Hinder Rudy. Yeah, and I mean, they had to hold back. Coach Henderson, you ever see, you remember the first time you saw a man really lose it? Yeah. I mean, he was, I mean, he was insane. I mean, he's like, he wanted to kill me. And I was holding up the ball, you know, and I was jogging off the sideline. But,

We never really spoke a bunch after that. But, yeah, I wanted to be part of the game. And that Muscle Shoals coach, I mean, could not believe it. I mean, couldn't believe it.

I was wide open. They never saw it coming. Yeah, they're down 48-0. I released off the line. I go, this is going to work. I was like, they didn't touch me. They're like, well, they're obviously not going for two. Up 48-0. Jeremy threw a dime. I was like, my goodness, Jeremy. Yeah, but that's what best friends. I mean, he's always been smaller. I mean, he had no choice. I go, you're going to throw me the ball. I was like, you're going to throw me the ball in the end. He goes, all right. And I'm like, fire. Fire.

And we rolled out. You yell fire right when it snapped? Yeah, yeah. So the fire call knows, like, say if I'm blocking and I hear fire, I know that there was a bobbled snap. And so then I'll just release as the wing guy. And we'll all release into the end zone. So we just gave a fire call without a fire. You know, just a dry fire call.

And, yeah, man, Coach Henderson. I mean, every coach was holding him back. There was just snuff flying in there. He's like, I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill him. You know? And it worked out for me. That was the last game? That was the last game of the season. Yeah. We went to the playoffs the next game. We played Tuscaloosa County. We lost. I mean –

we got, we got the tape beat off our cleats. I mean, we were, we were terrible. You should have done another fire. Could you imagine down 48, nothing down for fire. He doesn't care. He's still going to do it. I had the wildest career with this coach. When I was a freshman, I got moved up to JV because I was the freshman captain. We're playing Mountain Brook down in Mountain Brook. We played them all four years. I was in high school, probably one of the best teams in the state outside of Birmingham, outside of Birmingham. Yeah. We get, we get pounded. And after the,

After the game, my buddy David Brown throws some Gatorade on me. Well, I go to retaliate on him, and I go to throw Gatorade on him, and he ducks, and I hit Coach Henderson's wife in the chest with red Gatorade. Lose my team captain position, and the whole way home, they talk about how I don't care about anything. So anyways, it was a long career of mishaps. Yeah, but...

Fire. I mean, if you had done it that next game, dude. I know. I know. Just to go. Yeah. What did y'all lose? Do you remember the score? I don't remember the score. It would have been like 48 to 12. Y'all aren't going to believe. It sounds like I'm making this up. They put me in as like a double tight end jumbo set. Yeah. Third and goal. Jump off sides.

I mean, they thought that I was trying to sabotage the team. Like, I was in for, like, one play against Tuscaloosa County. Jumbo said, they're like, jumbo, jumbo, stoop. I get in, cost us the third. I mean, they're all, like, trying to figure out. I was one of those guys that are, is he, does he not care? Is he dumb? Because we want to know how mad we should be. Right, right. You know? That's, I think, one of the more frustrating things is when you can't tell

the reasoning behind it. You know what I mean? When you go like, look, I'm fine either way. I just got to know where is this coming from? Yeah, exactly. Are you, yeah. Do you not get it? Or do you hate it? Yeah. And then you're, and if they're dumb, you're going, I can't imagine you're dumb. So you're doing it on purpose. My line coach used to say, you're going to keep that up. You're going to run a hot dog stand at the Rivergate Mall. That's all he used to say.

Run a hot dog stand at the Rivergate Mall. Which you did for a short time. Offensive line coaches in the South, I think, could probably do comedy. They're all hilarious. I mean, they all have zingers. I mean, there was like a nerdy lineman, and I remember one of our coaches being like, I bet if it was on a floppy disk, you'd get it.

The whole team lost it. Weber, you're a steak eater and a bus rider. That's all you want to do. You just want to eat a steak and ride the bus to the game. He liked riding the bus. Steak eater and a bus rider. He just likes the bus part. Good times, man. Yeah, that was fun. I think everybody knows Derek now. We'll mark that football. Football.

Football. Get to know Derek. Fire call. You sign up for something, forget about it after the trial period ends, then you're charged month after month after month. The subscriptions are there, but you're not using them. In fact, I just learned that over 85% of people who have at least one paid subscription going unused

Thanks to Rocket Money, I can see all my subscriptions in one place and cancel the ones I'm not using anymore. Now I'm saving more money. Rocket Money, as you know, is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. And it's not just that. It's a full-service tool to keep track of your money. It'll show you can help.

Use it to plan a budget. You can see how you've been spending money throughout the month. It's really an awesome thing. I've been using it for a while now. Rocket Money has over 5 million users, so I'm not alone. And it saved a total of 500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year.

when using all of the app's premium features. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to rocketmoney.com slash nate today. That's rocketmoney.com slash nate. Start with you guys' comments. Rachel Odom, I traveled from Seattle to Nashville for the Christmas special taping for my 40th birthday. It was a blast. My question is, with all the ties to SNL, why was the special on CBS and not NBC?

I don't know what a can and can't say. But it's... Is everything to do with Derek?

Yeah, I said, I want Derek, and NBC goes, we've never got it. No, no, it just, it was, I think we were going to go to NBC, and then it was, they were going to put it on. Fallon did one with NBC, too. Yeah, Fallon did one with NBC, but I think they were going to talk about ours being on Peacock, and we really weren't on regular TV on, you know, and so it just ended up going to CBS. But, and NBC was cool, and like, let it all happen.

And they let us – NBC was cool. They let us – if you've already seen it, we had a little cameo with Fallon, or we should have, hopefully. Is there bad blood between these networks, the way that we like to think it is? I think they're all – I don't know. I think they don't – they got to protect their talent. Yeah. So I was going to have Fallon come down, and it was like, you got to put a stop to – you'd be like, well, you can't go do whatever. Yeah.

But I go and do, I mean, my whole career has actually been through NBC. So this is the first time I really wasn't on something. But I've done all tonight shows, Conan's. So I'm all NBC. SNL, like it's, you know, everything that's done anything for me has really been NBC. So, yeah, that's what. Zach Bennett, as a Nashville unicorn, the pre-taped Don't Move the Nashville sketch holds a very special place in my heart.

Yeah, so we – who saw it? I didn't see it. I heard about this video, though. I can't wait to see it. Yeah, very fun video just telling people not to move. You saw it, right? Yeah. And then – It's very funny. Yeah, it's very funny. I think everybody's going through that. I think every town outside of California and New York is – and I bet even the cities surrounding –

You know, it's like L.A. or it's like whatever. People have and don't move there. So that's one that I am curious. I'll be curious to see what the reaction is. So...

But yes, it was a very fun sketch. Jelly Roll was awesome in it. And it was just like, I mean, man, people went crazy in the Grand Opry. Yeah. They were, you know, because they were just like, everybody lives there. But look, if you move here, we're happy to have you. Just be normal.

So I saw you rehearsed the sketch for the nativity scene, which was very funny. And it's kind of a play off George Washington. So that's great. Yeah, that was great. Your line of the children got a huge laugh. It's in there. Oh, it's in there? Yeah. I put it in last minute. Wait, what line? Santa. Because he says Santa is judging people. And I go, Santa only judges children.

It was because it's like, you know, he's the man up at the top of the world who judges people. And they're like, oh, Santa. He's like, no. And they're like, what's the difference? He's like, well, this one only. I'm sorry. I said it wrong. God. Yeah. And then it's like, no Santa. And then the difference is he only judges children. Yeah. But it was like he just there wasn't a line or there was something. Yeah. And then but Bates was there doing children. Wow. And I ended up putting in. Got a big. That's a writing credit, Brian. Yeah. It's a writing credit. Yeah. Got a big pop. All right.

And how did Derek do? Oh, yes. Derek crushed it. It was awesome. And yeah, he did what he was supposed to do, which is...

Murder it. Yeah. Nate went to promote it on the TV station that I used to work at. And when it was over, the general manager was there, my old boss. And she said, I came to the taping and that guy that did stand-up comedy was so funny. Oh, well, I love hearing that. Yeah, it was a cool opportunity. She was talking about Julian, but... No, she was talking about you. Talking about Julian did... Oh, man. Yeah, Julian did the...

like just keeping the crowd like engaged. And during, cause there's a lot of set changes and stuff. I mean, everybody did love Julian. I got a lot of compliments. Lucy was texting me. I cannot believe how hard of a job this is. And he's doing really great. I was about to say he worked his butt off. I mean, he's on and off and on and off and you'd get interrupted right in the middle of his,

But, I mean, Julian, he's got that gift. I mean, he's so good out there. Everybody always loves Julian. He doesn't miss. Yeah, he did wonderful. But, yes, Stroop did wonderful as well.

It was great. Noah Khan, Carrie Underwood. Yeah, have you done the Grand Ole Opry before? I was about to say, first time there. And, I mean, I got done with my set. I'm not scared to say it. I was emotional. It's a religious experience in there. And, I mean, I was wearing a bunch of denim, and I had on some cowboy boots. And I'm going to tell you, it was something. I really enjoyed it. What a night. I mean, just the whole show. I can't wait for everybody to see it.

It's going to be cool. They've already seen it. This comes out after. Yeah. Well, I'm glad everybody's seen it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No one watched it. This could be a... Derek's done. Christmas tradition. Families gathered around to watch the Nate Bargatze Christmas special. I hope so. Yeah. I hope so.

Kent Fairborn. What? Kent Fairborn. Fairborn. You're trying to say it like Melbourne. Yeah. I'm sure it's Fairborn. Fairborn. Will the Netflix special be a spoiler for jokes out here at the rescheduled Las Vegas shows in January? I hope... No. I hope not. I can't promise you it's not going to be 10 minutes. But I'm really hoping not.

I don't think you'll have to be there. Maybe if I do, it might be a couple of greatest hits at the end. But overall, I mean, I've done 45 minutes without anything from the special. Now you might hear the door dash joke. That door dash is only on SNL. It was not on this special. So don't, don't can't, that doesn't count. Right.

But, yeah, overall, I mean, hopefully we'll see. We'll see how, like, you know, I got to see where it's at. But the plan will be that it's all, it's a new hour. You know, but minus, yeah, I don't think, I could maybe see the chance to maybe do 10 minutes if I have to close on,

I think I have my new closer. That's impressive, man. A lot of people have to wait quite some time to see new stuff from their favorite comedians. I mean, that rollover is quick. You're doing a lot of guitar stuff this hour, I heard? Yeah, this is from guitar stuff, and I bring other comics out during my set. That's how I can write so much. Thanks.

I actually only do three minutes. I do a 30-minute Q&A. Yeah, yeah. A lot of Q&A. I still haven't done a Q&A because I tried it a long time ago. It didn't go good. Yeah. I tried it twice, so I was like, no. But maybe I'll get the courage up to do another Q&A. Micah Johnson. I recently found out that Derek Stroop and I are practically related.

I was talking to my wife's first cousin's husband, Corey Adams, at Thanksgiving. He told me that Stroop was his roommate for a while during college. Basically family, right?

uh yeah i know cory cory's a great dude he was a great slow pitch softball player too he could really turn on the ball uh but it's not really that much of a brag i was in college i was in that college town for about a decade so i had a bunch of roommates so a bunch of them got a roster of them uh so it wasn't a unique experience but yeah cory cory is a good dude and i remember him well uh we were we were roommates for a year for sure yeah

how about that your wife's first cousin's husband yeah but that kind of shows you made it when people are claiming you just obscurely they want yeah i get i guess that's that's one of the signs i don't know it's derrick's group i mean you know yeah yeah that's that that's flattering it's real cool man uh no i think it's it's fun corey adams

Did you play slow softball pitch? Oh, I loved it. Yeah. Yeah. I could see you playing. I mean, you played. That's probably what took you so long to get out of the town. Yeah. No, you're 100% right. And guess who was on the rival slow pitch softball team? Corey Adams. Riley Green. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Actually, Riley, we knocked y'all out in the tournament, and then you came back and played for another team through a loophole, and then they beat us and knocked us out of the tournament. But anyways, I forgot about it, clearly. But...

Yeah, we were the Cheap Seats after the Alabama song, Cheap Seats. Great baseball song. And yeah, I was the coach and played first base.

Time of my life. You couldn't have – if you asked someone to guess what you did on a softball team, I think they're going to say coach and first base. He's probably first base coach. I loved it. I wish I'd have had y'all. We'd have had a good time. Brian – but, yeah, I wish I'd have had – Yeah, yeah. We saw Brian play. Oh, I did. Wait, did you play with us in Des Moines? No, no. I did, and yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I pulled a hamstring early on. Couldn't run. Yeah. No, I mean, I did too. We both were severely injured. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a tough look for us. We were beat up, man. Yeah. Beat up. But you and Riley Green have a long time rivalry, right? We do. Yeah. I've known Riley since, I mean, he was probably a freshman in college, and then all of a sudden,

All throughout our years at Jacksonville State, we were kind of rivals and went back and forth. And as you clearly see, I won. Nice try, Riley. But, yeah, we know each other very well. He's a great dude, and I'm really proud of him. But, yeah, we –

It was a small town, a couple of egos running around. Only too many loud people can be near each other. Is he loud? I don't know. No, he's not at all. So you're just, it's really all you. Yeah. Seems like it's, I would be on Riley's side.

Maybe. I mean, he used to try to avoid. I would open for him before he would play music, and he hated to watch my comedy. And one time he would come in after he knew I was off stage, and one time I waited on stage for about 50 minutes until he walked in, and we came through the door. I went, hey, everybody, Raleigh Green. I go, I'm going to go ahead and start my set if you don't mind. And I will never forget the look on his face. He was 10 out of 10 mad. Yeah, like that coach. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I waited for him and he still didn't watch it, but yeah. Oh, he's just like be done. Yes, for sure. Pretty crazy for y'all in that scenario though, for y'all to, to kind of be, that's always neat when like, uh, something like that happens where. Yeah. Two people do make it. Very small town. Yeah. Into a thing. Does he live here now? Uh,

Uh, yeah, for sure. Uh, I mean, I, I mean, I know he's got like a, a bunch of land, uh, he's from Jacksonville and like his family has been in that area since the beginning of time. And I think he bounces in between Jacksonville and, and, uh, and here. Yeah. He's a good dude. He's a country singer, right? He is a country. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a Riley green. I was like, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, look at that. 6'4". Yeah. Big dude. Oh, that's wild. Two big dudes, two big guys like that. That's too much. There's no... No. Well, he was skinny as a beanpole when he was in college, and then he started working out, clearly. Is that what you think you look like? Me? No, no. I don't. I don't, man.

I don't at all. Because, man. No, he's doing well for himself. We clearly eat different stuff. I eat different stuff, too. We can tell. Riley Green. Got a girl's name. Yeah. Sorry, I was just trying to— Yeah, you were just talking about how big he is. I know. I was just trying to defend our boy's troop. I appreciate you.

he's from jacksonville oh yeah oh yeah do they yeah he's a couple years younger than me he played he played for jacksonville state for like a year he's a good he's a good athlete oh and so oh so when he played that softball he was he was the stud yeah yeah and then he showed up on a team that he didn't start out with and everybody acted like it was okay and then he dropped like two bombs and they beat us yeah and uh you know um

I haven't drank in a long time, but that night I did. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, he's a quarterback. Yeah. Yeah, of course. And he plays the guitar. They don't, they're, you know, they're not slot receivers. You know, they're, they're, they're lead. Yeah. Yeah. Uh,

All right. But yeah, that's enough about Riley. So what else y'all got? Riley Green wrote in. He walks in. We've got him as a guest. Where do you get off having Stroop on? I go, golly. Julian Turnwich. Dip has been mentioned a few times during the history of this podcast, and I now know you're referring to chewing tobacco. But as that is banned in Australia, I honestly thought you were talking about dip you'd put out at a party.

On an early sowed, Aaron said he knew a guy that part of his fraternity duties was always to have cigarettes and dip on him. And I imagine just walking around with salsa. What do you need, Marlboro Lights queso? I got you. Yeah. Yeah. It's probably better for you. Matt McCraw. Last week, I was at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Anaheim, California.

The urinals in the men's room had no dividers and the line was ridiculous, as we had over 11,000 people at the meeting. I will sometimes joke that men need to double up on urinals when the line is that long. On a scale of no big deal to worst day of my life, how terrible would it be to have to double up on urinals? Oh, it'd be worst day of my life. I couldn't do it. No. I would leave. So, I mean, it wouldn't be the worst day of my life because I would leave. You could do it, right, Derek? Never. Yeah. Yeah.

What kind of urinals are there? I'd like to know a little more. Well, it's just a matter of could you... I can think of some setups where it'd be... You wouldn't even think about it, but...

You know, I think of it as normal urinal where your streams are meeting in the middle. Oh no. That's a normal urinal to you. So what's an abnormal, like, no, very normal where the streams, you know, just like a ball game. That's how you're supposed to do it. It would be, I'll wait for people. Could you pee in a trough? You know, when I hate when I walk in and there's a trough. Yeah. I'm like, but you can pee with no problem. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's not my favorite time of the day, but I'll do it. Yeah. Yeah.

I couldn't even pee. No, I can't either. Really? No, I'm just going to stand there. What about where it's just a drain in the ground, like a shower? Have you ever seen those? I think so. If I can get up against a wall or something. You go to a stall, right? I'll go to a stall. I'll go to a urinal on the corner. Usually, if no one's there, I'm like, if I can get started before anybody comes in here, then I'll be all right. Then I'll come in and talk to you. Yeah, tons of times I've had to...

fake it I had security once I had a security guy with me once and I didn't know he did he came into the bathroom when I went in there to go pee but I and I didn't yeah because it's I think it's I'm good man I got well I didn't realize it at first and then I'm sitting there and I'm like I could just you know he wasn't like on top of me but he's like kind of back there and I'm like what's going on and but you know a security detail I guess the job is to make sure you know back to where it's going to happen yeah oh maybe yeah

But they would need to go in before you. Clear the place first. Make everybody get out. You think you have trouble peeing then, Aaron? In the middle of your peeing? Just here. Nate's got to go. Everybody's got to get up. Wrap it up. Zip it up. Zip it up. No washing hands. Zip it up. He'll do a picture afterwards. People are like, I don't even want a picture. Bry Goss.

I think I liked his name. Brygos. Oh, gross. Oh, Gos. Brygos. Brygos or Brygos? Gos, I think. Brygos. And he has to explain it every time. I think you go by Brian Gos at that point. I'm guessing his name's Brian. And he goes by Bry. That might be a woman. Oh, then that would be Bree. Breegos. Breegos. Well, she married into that.

I definitely, she definitely married into that name. Uh-huh. Braga. Braga. Braga. Get on out of here. Braga. Braga. $200 for a flipper? We found a Larry Bird card that recently sold for $15,000. I think it's a dude.

Apparently, my stepmom... I just never heard a woman... Talk about Larry Bird card. I don't think a woman's ever mentioned Larry Bird. No, no, no. Could that be one? They've mentioned Michael Jordan. Sure. They've mentioned Steph Curry. Yeah, yeah. I don't think a woman's ever mentioned Larry Bird. We're talking about Larry Bird now. They don't bring up Larry... Larry Bird's not on top of mind when they talk about basketball. You're going to get a spicy email from some lady in Indiana. She's going to be like, oh, yeah, we do. Well, Indiana...

That's a great idea. That's a caveat. We found a Larry Bird card that recently sold $15,000. Apparently, my stepmom is a big Larry Bird fan. That's a woman. And wanted to keep it, but my dad is trying to liquidate

She took it to work in her purse, photocopied it, and brought it home. That's all she wanted to do with the card. I was dumbfounded and angry all at the same time. There's a photocopied sheet of paper of Larry Bird card taped to the wall at my stepmom's office. That's so funny. Yeah.

She just wanted a picture of Larry Bird. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. They both win. Yeah. They won. Yeah. Now they can sell it. It's funny. I said no women's ever bought Larry Bird. This whole thing is about a woman. Yeah, it is. And Larry Bird. Jason Staub.

Stump the Stob. Stump the Stob. Stob family. He died. Did you see that? The Schwab? I didn't see that. The Schwab died. Did you ever watch that show? Absolutely. Stump the Schwab. So good. Was he old? He wasn't that old, right? I don't think he was that old. He had some health problems. My family's going on vacation over Christmas break, and we're going to be in Alabama on the 27th.

We decided it would be fun to see the Birmingham Bulls since it fit into the time and place where we were going to be. When I found out Vandy was picked to play in the first game, the thing I said to my kids was Nate Bergetze might be there. We were excited for the game, but now I'm more excited we might get to see Nate

probably Brian, in person. There will be no go jackets from us. Well, I love that. I'm not positive I'm going, but I'm going to look and see. I might try to go. I think I might try to go. You want to go? That's one of the hardest shows I ever did.

As I did. Let's make this about you, Aaron. Yeah, I will. They do every year at Birmingham Bowl, they do a show at the Stardome the night before. Oh, no. And I did. The year before me was the Raging Cajun did it. And they said everybody loved him. He murdered. And then I was the next year. And it was tough, dude. It was a tough gig. It was like, it was Cincinnati versus Boston College.

All of Cincinnati on the left, all of Boston College on the right. I remember Boston College liked me way more than Cincinnati. I thought it went really well. I thought I remember it going really well. I had moments where I was, but it was tough, dude. I remember thinking like, I'm old now. Because I was like 27. These kids are 18.

Oh, it's for the kids. It's for the teams. Yeah, yeah. And they're in the same room. Oh, the teams. Yeah. It's for the teams on that either. Oh, my bad. My bad. It's for the two teams playing in the Birmingham Bowl. They do it every year. Got it. Yeah. So it's all this 18 to 20-year-old kids. And Bruce, the owner of the Stardome –

I got brought up cold. There's no, they're just there to eat dinner. Then I get brought out and he goes, this guy, you know, he's going to give you the energy that you give him, gave him like that whole spiel. So as I got brought out, they're like pretending to give me a huge. Yeah.

They're like, they've never heard of me. And then I had some good moments, but it was like tough. It's one of those gigs that's on your calendar. You like worry about it. I was thinking about it for weeks, too. Wasn't there video during the bowl of the... I'm on ESPN for like four seconds. They came and filmed it. They're like, dinner and a show. And they showed me for like two seconds. That's a credit. Yeah, ESPN credit. Oh, yeah. I'm on ESPN. That's where people go, well, that's why I'm here.

It's those credits when you're just barely on something. Oh, yeah. I came because I saw that you were in the background. I'm on your Tonight Show for a split second. The one you did during COVID. Remember, you taped it opening for Leanne Morgan. Yeah. You see me come on the stage. It's Tonight Show credit. Oh, wow. Yeah, Tonight Show credit. Been on Tonight Show. You know what we all need to get more of? Get off our butts and get into some action. And it's fun to do that.

with a Mountain Dew. Check that out, Derek. With bold flavors and a refreshing citrus kick, Mountain Dew will get you off the sofa and have you feeling like you're charging up the side of a mountain. A mountain where the weather's perfect, your friends are ready to hang, and a full day of epic games are happening. Can you imagine, Derek?

Check out all these flavors. Original, this is a Baja Blast right here. They also got cold red voltage. I'm getting excited just talking about it. My personal favorite is right there, that Baja Blast. Nate is always playing golf. I like to play every now and then. I like to sit in the cart and do what I can to contribute nothing to the day, but just hanging out. That's what it's all about. And the best thing about it, having a delicious Mountain Dew while we're out there on the course.

You know what I mean? The mountain is calling. You should answer. Grab your friends. Grab an ice cold Mountain Dew wherever refreshing beverages are sold and say it with me. Do the do. All right. Benjamin Royer. Royer got back in the car after driving to a destination to propose to my girlfriend. Turned on Waze to head back home to hear Nate say, welcome back to your car. Hope not too much has changed.

I said, confidently, a lot has changed, Nate. She said yes. Whoa. Oh. We haven't talked about ways. Yeah. Congratulations. That is a lot to change. Yeah.

Yeah, doing Waze, doing voice on Waze. You had a very funny, Derek was mean to me on Instagram. Yeah. What was it? I said that I was using Nate's voice for my Waze and he talked so slow I missed two X's. Yeah. There's a lot of people commenting their car took them to McDonald's. Yeah. Oh, that's great. Yeah.

And one person pointed out how last week's episode about acting, you talked about how the important thing is you just don't want to be everywhere. Yeah. That's what you strive for. The next thing you know, you're announcing ways where you're literally everywhere with them. Yeah.

Because I'm promoting stuff. That's right. That's right. That's part of a press tour. There's a lot coming out. You can be, you're everywhere when you're supposed to be everywhere, and then you go away. I wish it had like your dry sarcasm in it. Like when you missed a turn, you'd be like, well, okay, just do whatever you want then. There was, it was a little more fun. You're a little catty. Yeah, there was a little more fun. Okay, cool. Like there could be, I mean, you end up going through a lot of things, but not as long as, we did it in about two hours.

Which, I mean, I thought, you know, when someone's like, you're going to do The Voice of Ways, you're like, so I guess I move there and do this for a month. They had blocked out four hours. We did it in two hours. It was, I thought it was going to be so much crazier. I really did. And it really wasn't. It was like, I mean, you say a lot of the things over, but they do really good. They're kind of telling you how to say it. So I haven't heard it yet. It will be...

I don't know if I've... Throw it all on the way out. I think my parents have done it. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like... That's weird. Yeah. Thank you for using it. I would like all of y'all to keep using it. Yeah. Cat Rockwell. Nate mentioned that Alan Carr's book to help him stop drinking. You might want to check out the author's book on eating and weight loss as well. Yeah. Dang, Cat. Okay. Well... Why talk about it? Yeah. He just got to talk about how he has real issues with food out of nowhere. I have crazy issues. Well, I had... You know, it's... Yeah. I was talking to a lady today about it.

She had the store. Brought it up to her. Therapist? No. No, she said, ma'am, I want this kind of cereal. Yeah. No, I actually read his book about sugar. It was, you know, I have to want to stop eating this stuff. There you go. So I know that. And so I have to get it figured out. But we're, I think, doing better.

But it's like, yeah. Thank you, Kat. That was very right. Nick Holden, just waiting for Aaron to start making fat jokes on Nate. That's the opposite of Kat. That is the opposite. Nick. Yeah. But could be as effective as that book. Yeah. It could be. Yeah. It could work similar. Aaron's going to. Yeah. Aaron Tubbs. Are you saying that I probably would have stopped that guy in that video? Yeah. That big guy. No.

The size I am. Aaron just starts tying your shoes when they're untied because he doesn't want to see you turn red. Yeah, yeah. He's like, no, dude, let me just do it. Yeah, I'll do it. I'll do it. I'm younger. Yeah, I'm younger. I can...

uh bradley walters four years ago my family and i went to a tree farm to cut down our tree it was a fun experience until christmas morning when a hundred little praying mantises hatched out of an egg sack we didn't know was in the tree i proceeded to pick up the tree lights ornaments and all and all and threw it out the front door crazy i wouldn't even know that could happen i didn't either

I don't like a praying mantis. I don't care for it. I don't like the way they look. Big dumb eyes. Big dumb eyes. They can eat a hummingbird.

Did y'all know that? No, I don't know. Did you know that? They can. Yes, they can. I don't know if I believe that. They can eat a hummingbird. They could maybe kill a hummingbird. Run it, Aaron. Run it, Aaron. I'm looking it up. Yeah. Can attack and eat hummingbirds, though it's rare. It's rare. The one I saw do it had a do-rag on. This thing was about that life. But they'll do it, though. But its stomach would be huge. Yeah, I mean, you know.

Oh, no. I don't want to see it. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, but like, let me see. I know, but he doesn't swallow it. It just eats. Well, it doesn't swallow the whole thing whole. That's what I'm picturing. It just chews it apart. There's just a mantis on its back. That's what I'm picturing, like a snake. No. I think they just eat little bites. That's so crazy. Didn't this other hummingbird not helping out at all? No. Yeah. It's like Stroop watching film. So I guess they eat bugs, right?

They're meat eaters. One gets a hummingbird, that's got to be a big day. I bet that goes around. Oh, dude. Are you kidding me? That guy's a legend of meat eaters. Yeah. I mean, I think everybody, I think hummingbirds are like, yo, this neighborhood is not what I thought it was. Praying mantises eat insects, moths, crickets, grasshoppers, flies. Sometimes hummingbirds. How about that? I'll tell you what, how do you get caught?

As a hummingbird by a praying mantis. Because they look like sticks. No, I know, but you just go like, you're a lot bigger than it. Yeah. So do something. I agree with you. I think it's just a lot of camouflage and they blend in. But he's saying even if they catch you, they shouldn't be able to hang on. Yeah. I mean, do they have poison in them? No, I don't think they have poison. So once they bite you, I guess they can't let go. But you're like, look at that. The thing is terrifying. I cannot. That is terrifying. Oh, my goodness. Yeah.

That truly is tough. But I mean, you could flick it and his head might fall off. Yeah. I'm saying if you're a hummingbird, you're buzzing real quick. You got a sword basically on the end of your bayonet. Yeah. You're like, just use that. You never know. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

All right. Well, it's Christmas. So we talked a little bit about some Christmas traditions. Derek, we know you like spending Christmas alone, but when you were a kid, were you guys Christmas morning and all the gifts? Did you open any on Christmas Eve? Oh, well, I think it's the classic tradition. You do one gift on Christmas Eve. Hmm.

And then your parents choose it, and then you go, oh, it's a pack of boxers. Y'all really did it this time. And then you open up the rest of them. Even as a kid, you were in the boxers? Hey, Brian, that's weird. Yeah, I wore boxers as a kid. But no, the one present on Christmas Eve and the rest of the presents on Christmas Day, and then we ate Christmas dinner at my grandparents' on Christmas Eve.

And then on Christmas Day, we had Eggs Benedict every day for every Christmas for breakfast. But we didn't have like a big meal. Is it to go with all the other days? You walked into that. Come on. Y'all just also do it on. That's the only time. I'm not joking. The only time of the year my mother made Eggs Benedict and still does is on Christmas morning. I feel like Eggs Benedict is hard to make.

I don't know how to cook. Yeah, yeah. I mean, she uses the... The sauce she uses is like out of the packet, which she's not going to love me saying that. But if a poached egg is... Yeah, ham... I don't know. Maybe it's not a hard egg. Yeah. A poached egg is what's going to throw me because the rest of the stuff just comes in... Comes as...

It's already there. I didn't have an Eggs Benedict until way later in life. I don't know if I've ever had one. Yeah, I had one within the past five years was the first time I ever had one. Yeah, and you got to – it's a very unique taste. I remember one time me and John, Chris – Y'all make it because your family comes from money. No, no. Apparently, if you're eating Eggs Benedict your whole life. No. I thought Aaron comes from money. No. The Stroop family eats Eggs Benedict – Yes.

Their whole life. Once a year. I mean, this is big money. Yeah, right. No. No, you've never had poached eggs and cigarette ashes on them. Y'all eat them poached eggs. I learned how to do them off YouTube. Eat them. It was not easy.

My mother does not talk like that. I imagine you just telling someone that at your school. What did you eat for Christmas? Eggs Benedict. What? Eggs Benedict. What? I don't even know if I would have known what that was. No, I'm from a... I feel like a normal family. All my best Christmas presents my grandparents bought. You know, like I was one of those families like if I really wanted something nice, you know, my mom would be like, well, you better...

Go talk to grandma and see if we can get that figured out because me and your dad ain't got it. You know, I mean, I asked for, I remember, I remember I was like. You go, but we're eating eggs Benedict. I think we're doing fine. And she goes, no, we ain't. It might look like it. We pawned your daddy's gun to eat this. All the money is being spent on eggs Benedict, on poached eggs.

Well, if we go back and look, you got some pretty awesome stuff. If we would have just waited. Yeah. No, we did. I remember one Christmas I asked for golf clubs. I want to go like a whole golf set. I was like a seventh or eighth grader. And my dad bought me golf balls and a golf bag and tees.

I'm not joking. And I ran out to, I'll never forget. I ran out to the garage because I was like, the clubs are out here somewhere. I go, he put them out here. He put them, he hit them. And I went back inside and I was like, hey, where's the clubs at? And he's like, I figured I'd just get you kind of started and then you'd get the clubs. And I remember even being like an eighth grader thinking, no, we did this the wrong way. Like you get me the clubs and then I'll buy the bag and the

tees and the balls. You put me in a position to where, so for all of high school, I just had a bag and like, he bought me like 36 nitro balls. And I'm serious. One time I was so upset. I went to the range with Jeremy Williams, a buddy from the, from the football story. And I was just standing there on the range and I threw a couple of balls as far as I could. And I was like, is that what he wanted? Like, I mean, no club,

And to my dad, that was kind of like, well, I figured I'd get you going in the right direction. But anyways, great Christmases. Eggs Benedict really saved it. Who needs a pitching wedge when you've got poached eggs?

That is maybe the breakfast you eat when you want to look like you got it all together. Yeah. You go, no, we're fine. No. We're doing great. I bet he is because you would go, if you saw a family eating that and their life could be in shambles, but you walk by and they go, they're eating an eggs Benedict, you definitely would go, they're fine. For sure. They'll figure it out. They'll figure it out.

Now, you got two siblings? Yeah, I got a younger brother and a younger sister. Did y'all take turns opening gifts? Yeah, we take turns. And I mean, just like the classic family, I mean, my dad's sitting there with a trash bag, and he doesn't really care about much except the stuff going in that bag immediately. Did y'all ever do... Did y'all take turns?

You and Derek and Abby? Yeah, I think so. Or did everybody just die? No, I think we take turns. Yeah, we go off now. We take turns. Yeah. Well, I know now maybe, but when you were kids. I know, but I'm trying to think. Then I blink when I think about when we were kids. I don't know. Well, you're, what, 12 years older than Abby? Abigail might know. 10 years older than Abby. Oh, yeah, so you're kidding. Yeah, yeah. So we would, yeah, we took, yeah, I think we took turns and...

uh yeah we had we always had a big breakfast woke up early you know we could always get up early and we play with santa's toys and then we had to wait to open the rest of the presents yeah that's yeah that's pretty much how it went for us too did y'all do anything christmas eve uh we did uh we could open one it was usually a game it was like you could open a family that's way better yeah yeah yeah that's yeah yeah yeah

They went ahead and gave you the big present the night before. The boxers. Flannel pants. Yeah. And I'd put them on and go, boy, I can't wait for tomorrow. Well, this was the big one. Remember ex-Benedicts tomorrow. Got you 36 golf balls. Just a bunch of stuff that goes with it. A bunch of golf accessories. Yeah. That's like buying you a PlayStation controller with no console. That's exactly right. It'll get you started. Yeah. Yeah.

next thing you know you cut a few yards you'll have the whole thing no i won't man clubs are the most expensive it's like that's what i need your help i'm 13 man anyways i hope he watches this episode what about you aaron

My mom's family and my dad's family did it very differently. Mom's family, Santa Claus came Christmas Eve night, and all the presents were open Christmas Eve night. And then Christmas Day was all about church. The presents were all done the night before. I don't know why they did it that way, but that's how they did it. Still do it. I've never even heard of that. Yeah. It was Santa would come. They'd all go in a room.

Right here, staying outside, getting all the presents out. Then they come out and open them all up. Yeah. And then my dad's family is just... We did the one present the night before, which I thought was just like...

I didn't know other families. I thought that was just because we wouldn't shut up. They're like, all right, y'all get the open one. I don't even know if there's a reason behind it. No, I don't think so. What about you? Were you like that for Christmas Eve, one present? Christmas Eve, we'd go to my mom's mom's house. How long was the carriage ride? Jeez.

Look at Brian. Brian's looking at me like, Derek, you don't know me well enough. Well, it's your first time on this podcast. You've really gotten comfortable. Yeah.

And it'll be your last. Welcome. No, no, sorry. We did go down some dirt roads. She lived in the dead end. And then we'd open the gift from her as kids. And then Christmas Day, we would do the rest. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah. But thank you for asking. Yeah. Did y'all go to church Christmas at all? Not like Matt. Not like if it was Sunday. Oh, okay. But not just on its own? We were Baptists.

The Catholic, I think, goes... Midnight Mass, right? When I got older, we went to Midnight Mass, but we'd either go Christmas Eve or morning of.

So there's not just a normal service on Christmas Day? I don't think so. I mean, there might be Wednesday Christmas this year. Wednesday? Oh, it's Wednesday. Today. Yeah, I don't think there's a – I think it'll be Sunday. They're doing a lot more services because of Christmas. Okay. Yeah. Interesting. What about Christmas tree? Real or fake?

Um, I grew up with a real tree. I prefer a real tree. I've got a fake tree right now, but I had a real tree. I mean, my mother was just talking about it the other day. It's a big deal to her. She couldn't believe I didn't have a real tree. And you know, what's interesting in New York city. I don't know if you noticed this, Nate, but real trees are a big deal in New York city. It seems like a lot of people buy them off the street.

and take them back to their apartment. It's like, I guess being in that concrete jungle, having a real tree seems more important just for, you know, there's no nature or anything. It seems like people go out of their way to have real trees in New York City. I mean, I'm not speaking for everybody, but that looks like the consensus. I think we did not have a real tree, but we would also spend Christmas with our family at home. So...

Yeah, true. That's the difference. That is. We wouldn't buckle down and go, I'm getting all out of New York. I'm going to be here for everything. Derek commits. He goes to New York City. He's going to be there. He goes, you want to see everything? Yeah. I want to see what's it like. I've been to two Christmas markets already. Yeah. Are you going to go to the...

Christmas Day lighting? No, the tree lighting? Yeah. I miss that. It's just too hectic. The amount of people that they said were around there. But yeah, I mean, I'm all about the festivities. I mean, I love it. I'm down with hot chocolate walking around. I'll buy a nice wooden ornament, you know? I mean, I'm...

Y'all are, I'm being dead serious. You like a candy cane? You do a candy cane? Oh, I love it. There's a candy shop I follow on Instagram and they've been making candy canes. Y'all need to watch them. They're unbelievable. They make them homemade. They make them like in shop in Los Angeles.

I've never been so serious in my life. But yeah, I'm a huge fan of the holiday season. Yeah. I mean, my birthday's at the beginning of this month. My birthday's December 10th. That's why. It gets kicked off. Oh, happy birthday. What is today? It's tomorrow. Tomorrow? Just saying, oh, we're recording. Oh, yeah. I said it correctly. I was saying it in the moment. I know, I know. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You did it. You did say it right. But then you said it, you're making us acknowledge it because it's...

It's like, I thought it was today. No, you did. We're recording this the day before your birthday. You could have not brought it up. There was no reason for you to even bring it up. What?

Because we go, we weren't even asking. You just go, yeah, dude, I love Christmas. My birthday's at the beginning. It is part of the reason why I love this month. But most people don't like their birthday to be near Christmas. Yeah, well, it makes the whole month just fun. That's far enough away. That's far enough away. It makes it pretty awesome. It is awesome. It is. I look forward to this month the whole year because it's like, I mean, I've got my birthday at the beginning, and then there's a couple fun weeks, and then we do Christmas. Usually, as a man, you don't look forward to your birthday as much as you do.

I love, I'm excited. Yeah. I'm all about an ice cream cake. Yeah. Uh, uh, what do you do? What do you do for your birthday? Just sit at home alone. Yeah. You go sit in the closet. He travels a lot for work. So he just likes to sit. Yeah. No, we do what, what everybody, you know, I mean, if I was not in New York city, I'd go to Texas roadhouse and, and eat rolls until I fell asleep. But, uh, but you tell people at the restaurant, it's your birthday. Um,

No. They can tell. No. I think just when he walks in, the vibe on him. Yeah. They go, God, it feels like that guy. The smile on his face. Because I've never, I just feel like it's his birthday. Yeah. And I don't know. And they're like, what makes you say? And he's like, well, he's got $1 bills pinned to his polo. Yeah, look at him. Yeah. He comes in there pumped. Yeah. He's excited. He's the only one that's excited to be here. That's excellent.

He asked for extra rolls. Always. You ask them before they even go, we'll take rolls and I think you know what to do. Yeah. Go ahead and bring. Yeah. No, they do that. They definitely know. Before they set the rolls down, y'all go ahead and you can go ahead and take that basket. You can go ahead and take that basket. Give me this back. Yeah.

We don't need it. Oh, my God. They go, I understand the basket is just so we live in, because we live in a society. Yeah. But we don't even need the basket. It's uncalled for. What's your go-to Waffle House order? I mean, go. Scare chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk. Mother covered, chunk, flipped over, bed squirrel. I went to Waffle House with them. Yeah, we did. After the, what was it, after? The night before. The night before. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I was with y'all. No.

No, it was me, Julian, and they went again after you left. We stopped at a Waffle House on the way back in Biloxi from the casino and picked up Waffle House. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's when Nate couldn't figure out where the Waffle House was. Oh, yeah. Multiple Waffle Houses. Yeah, multiple Waffle Houses. Yeah, we drove a crazy long way. No, my Waffle House. And there was one across the street. Oh, there was. There was one that was. We went over the river. We did go over the river. Yeah.

Several times. Yeah, that was. But no, I'm a huge fan of Waffle House. I always have been. The All-Star Special would be my go-to. And I'm going to get a pecan waffle. I'm going to do grits and hash browns, smothered, covered, chunked, scrambled eggs. You know, I mean, Waffle House is such a, I have a framed picture of Waffle House in my dining room that I've had for several years. That's cool. Yeah.

Picture you took? No. Bought it online. You have a dining room in New York City? Someone had to ship it to you. I should say, no, it's no longer in my dining. I have a framed picture of Waffle House inside of my dwelling now. There's just one wall in my home now. Domicile. Is it so... Yeah.

Your lady knows what she's up against. Yeah. You go, don't forget, I got somewhere else I can go eat. Yeah. Don't get too comfortable. That's exactly right. Yeah. Do you cook or does she cook? I cook the most. I enjoy cooking. I mean, I really do. I have an old bit about using crockpots, and I really do use them a lot. But I love to- I don't think anybody denies it. Hey, guys.

I just keep saying it. Like, yeah, no, I really do cook. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Slow cooker, fast eater. What? No, but I enjoy, I've always enjoyed cooking. I've done it since I was a little kid, but not like complicated recipes. I don't get online and try to test my skills. Just like regular stuff around the house, I'll throw together some BLTs or a casserole or something. Poached eggs. Poached eggs, yeah. I think I'm going to cook soon. I don't know how to cook at all.

It's fun. You don't think I'm going to cook? No. What? You'll never do that. I'll cook a meal. What? Cook what meal? HelloFresh meal. I'm going to... Not HelloFresh, but you can go find a recipe. Yeah. Like what? What are you talking about? Spaghetti? Recipes allowed to be found. Of course. Yeah. No, not spaghetti. I think I'll do... I don't know. Maybe... I don't know. I'll have to... You know...

I'm going to see. Doing Bert's thing on the cooking, I do get that it's like the- What does y'all make? A Jewish meal. So roasted corn hen with a big onion in the middle of it. Like mashed potatoes with a bunch of onions in it. Latke. Latke. Yeah. And then-

I forget what else. This seems right up Dusty's alley. Well, it was, yeah, but it was funny because I was like, right when he set it down, then I was like, well, I don't like onions. And it's all it is. It sounds like it. It's only onions. But I was like, but the corn and cheese was very good. And I ate the other mashed cheese with it because you fry them. Frying helps.

So it wasn't bad, but I get the idea of cooking. I could see how you could kind of zone out and just mind your own business. It'd be comforting. It is. I agree with that. Do you ever watch any chefs, or do you ever watch cooking shows or anything? No. Yeah, no. No. So I don't think cooking was a big, giant thing, part of my family. So I don't... Yeah. Like, we don't... I mean...

Yeah, like I said, Laura cooked, but I haven't cooked. I've cooked one meal for her. Regan has a great bit about the cooking shows. He's like, yeah, everybody would like to cook if all the ingredients were in prearranged glass bowls. Put a little bit of that. He's like, the realistic cooking show, come back after the break while I find out I don't have any eggs. Yeah.

I'm back after the break. I don't have any eggs. Aaron Weber here. I recently moved, and buying a house is such a big purchase. So, of course, we were saving up and building our credit to make the move. Now, on top of a new house, it's the holidays. A lot going on. But with the Chime Secured Credit Builder Visa Card, you can still make financial progress during the holidays. Start building credit with your holiday purchases and regular on-time payments, all with no annual fees, interest, or credit checks.

at Chime.com slash Nate. Building your credit opens up more opportunities like family vacations, lower rates on loans, and like me, buying a new house. The Chime Credit Builder Visa Card has no annual fees, interest, or credit check to Apple. It's amazing because you can build your credit using your own money. Another fun fact, you can get paid up to two days early with direct deposit through Chime. On top of that, the over 50,000 fee-free ATMs. Is there anything worse than

than paying a fee to get your own cash out of an ATM. Hate it. Turn your holiday purchases into steps towards your financial goals with Chime's secure credit card. Get started today at Chime.com slash Nate. That's Chime.com slash Nate. Chime. Feels like progress.

The Chime Credit Builder Visa credit card is issued by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. Chime checking account and qualifying direct deposits required to apply. Late payment may negatively impact your credit score. Results may vary. Early access to direct deposit funds depends on payer. Out-of-network ATM withdrawal and OTC advance fees may apply. Bank ranking and number of ATMs according to U.S. News and World Report 2023. Did you ever do Christmas movies like...

Oh, for sure. Christmas night, go see a movie? Yeah, I mean, no. The movie theater is open Christmas night. Yeah. It was the biggest night of the year. Yeah, the last time we did that, I think it was like,

maybe like five or six years ago when we saw that movie where he's like, I'm the captain. What's that? Captain Phillips? Yeah, we went to the movies. I've never seen that. But I don't like going to the movies at all. Captain Cook? Why not? I do not enjoy it. It feels like such a waste of time to me and like I'm just so antsy. It's really hard for me

to enjoy the movies. It's never been my, I think I get it from my dad. I mean, I grew up with the man that raised me. We never went to the movies hardly. He'd go, it'll be out, you know, you'll see it on HBO in 11 years. If you're patient. Don't practice with that golf swing. No, I mean, my dad, I mean, he walked in like 12 years later and he's like, have y'all seen this movie about this ship sinking? He's like, the Titanic's unreal. And I mean, and he was late, but yeah, I'm not a big movie guy.

Y'all had HBO growing up, huh? Yeah. That's crazy. Eggs Benedict and HBO. Oh, my gosh. Y'all were like a motel. Yeah, those were nice. Eggs Benedict and free HBO. And it smelled like cigarettes. At the Stroop House.

Do you watch movies at home? No, not really. I'm really not a movie guy. I mean, it's embarrassing how much I just watch sports or the Weather Channel. I mean, like my list of favorite movies is about too long. I mean, you know, it's not very long. Well, Goodfellas would be number one for sure. And then after that, probably Forrest Gump. Okay. Well, I hope you check out my movie I'll be making. Yeah.

The breadwinner. Yeah, the breadwinner. Breadwinner Bates. Breadwinner Bates. What if you get asked to make a movie? I mean. You're going to say, no, I don't really care for them? No, no, that sounds exciting. I mean, that doesn't, I wouldn't think that that would affect. So you're only the in movies. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, I don't think, I mean, yeah, I'm just not a big movie guy. I would be more. You can't sit still. Your brain's going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sitcoms, I would be much more likely to watch.

something in you know a 25 30 minute segment where I can get up the commitment to a two hour if I look and see that a movie is over two hours it can be the best movie I'm discouraged before I get there yeah I look have you seen Shawshank Redemption great movie yeah I've never seen it that's ridiculous yeah no that's you got I mean I'm not gonna use bill yeah yeah he knows he knows yeah uh

Yeah. What's your favorite movie of all time? Scream. I wish I'd asked somebody else. Yeah, I think. I know what you did last summer. I think I remember I was talking about this on the bus. Your favorite actor is Vince Vaughn? Yeah, I love Vince. Yeah, I think he's the funniest guy ever. Yeah. I mean, his humor is just super relatable. He's, you know, real sarcastic, real fast. I love to watch him. You do have the same kind of cadence.

I didn't even think about him talking fast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, I'm a big fan of Vince. Y'all do movies on Christmas night? Not go to them. I mean, I don't think we even watch them, but I went to one on Thanksgiving. A Christmas Story on Loop on TBS. That's what y'all do? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, great movie. That is a great movie.

yeah I mean I would yeah I could watch they always my parents always The Wonderful Life yeah yeah it's Wonderful Life is so good it's almost you don't even think of it as a Christmas movie I don't I mean I do but it's like it's so good it can stand on its own I had someone tell me they were like maybe top 10 all time of all movies of all movies but they say every movie is just It's a Wonderful Life every movie is that

What do you mean? The structure of it and stuff? The structure of every movie. Every movie is a wonderful life. It's a very long movie. Is it a long movie? I think so. Oh. Time flies when you're having fun. Yeah. Christmas Vacation would be my number one holiday movie. You know. Just real bonehead stuff. Yeah. I mean, Cousin Eddie's real relatable. Golly. Never seen a character where I felt so close to him in my whole life.

I hate that Aaron's laughing that hard at that. We keep it light. We keep it light. Yeah.

I remember at the John and Chris roast, you hosted. Yeah. And when you introduced us three to come up, you made a very funny joke about our podcast. Yeah. Just the formula for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was it you said? I really, I can't remember. You know, Brian? It was basically like, they'll talk about something, then Nate makes fun of Brian. Yeah. And then they just rinse and repeat or something. You have a few zings at Brian's expense. Yeah, exactly. I can't remember how you worded it.

Yeah. No, and that's exactly what I'm doing. The recipe works. Yeah. I mean, I totally get it. I was making fun of it. Now, I mean, it works. It's hard to get out of it. Yeah. It feels good, too. I'm still a guy in the carriage joke. Yeah. It's like crowd work. It's like you go, you know, you shouldn't be doing it, but you're like, it's just easy. Yeah. And you get used to it. Yeah. Well, I think we probably got to be wrapping it up. Yeah. Any New Year's resolutions you want to share?

I guess the food thing. Let's hope we get that under control. I think I'll get it. I did see one comment. Someone said I had ADHD. And like, so... And I don't know. That could be true. I don't know if that's true. But...

I do get the idea of it like being I'm bored. If I get bored and then I just go, I'll go to food because I'm bored. Like I need, I like need stuff going on. Like I want, like I want to be doing a lot. So I do that, you know, I stored that in. I was like, that's kind of interesting. Like, uh,

maybe I need to just find better things to do but I uh you know I think I'll get it I think I'll get it under control I got all the brain power on it I think about it every waking second yeah it's a good time yeah uh

Yeah. So hopefully, but that, yeah, that would be my, it's like, you know, it's always that. So I guess it's a boring one. I hope we make, I hope everything for Nate land. I hope Nate land makes a giant, giant leap. Yeah. Yeah. Outside of just me, but just all of us as a company. That Aaron Weber special comes out. Aaron Weber special comes out. I think that might take it to the next level. Aaron Weber special comes out. Nick Toon special comes out. We got a lot of, we got a great things.

So I hope as Nate Land, as a group that I consider everybody is a part of the Nate Land family. But I think we can make a hopefully a big, big leap.

You know, a big, big leap forward. We're doing great. And I look forward to the new year. Yeah, maybe make a movie. Or two. Maybe make a movie or two. I got Christmas presents for you guys. All right. You know, I collect sports memorabilia, stuff like that. I got this for you, Derek. That's an old ticket. Look at that ticket. That is a ticket to a comedy show.

That's Jeff Foxworthy and Jeff Dunham. Oh, wow. That's unbelievable. That's 1994. From 1994. It's a $5 show in 1994. Look at that. Arizona State Fair. No, that is cool. Yeah, it's cool. That's super cool. That's for you, Nate. That is a ticket. Wow. 2014. Wow. The Tabernacle. That's Bill Burr's, the taping of his black and white Netflix special. Yeah. Where's the Tabernacle at? In Atlanta. Atlanta, yeah. Oh, that's 10 years ago. Did you buy a ticket?

Yeah, people collect that kind of stuff. So that's a ticket to that Netflix taping, which is one of the best specials ever, I think. Brian, that's a baseball card for you. It's Julio Franco. Yeah. Do you know a lot about Julio Franco? I mean, he played when I was really following it close. Yeah, he played when I was following it, too. He is the oldest player in the history of baseball to hit a home run.

Oh, wow. Well, he played until he was nearly 50. That's right. He played into his late 40s, but that's a Julio Franco autograph there. It was my favorite old player. Oh, that's awesome. And I'm going to give Aaron what we kind of got him to do together. Thank you. It's from all of us. It's from all of us. Oh, that's so nice. That was the second Baja Blast ever made. Do the do. It's like I'm charging up a mountain.

Thank you, guys. Merry Christmas. Thank you. Merry Christmas. Thank you. That's very nice. Yeah. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. We will see you next year. Hope you had a wonderful year. And yeah, right? We're done, right? Yep. All right. We love you. See you. Nateland is produced by Nateland Productions and by me, Nate Bargetzi, and my wife, Laura, on the Audioboom platform.

Recording and editing for the show is done by Genovations Media. Thanks for tuning in. Be sure to catch us next week on the Nateland Podcast.

Visit Safeway.com for more details.

When it's PCS time, you know the drill. Pack, research to new base, get the kids in school, because family supports family. At American Public University, we support military families with flexible, affordable online education that moves with you. As a military spouse, your tuition rate is the same as your partner's, just $250 per credit hour. American Public University, education that moves with you.

Learn more at apu.apus.edu slash military. Hey guys, it is Ryan. I'm not sure if you know this about me, but I'm a bit of a fun fanatic when I can. I like to work, but I like fun too. And now I can tell you about my favorite place to have fun. Chumba Casino. They have hundreds of social casino style games to choose from with new games released each week. You can play for free and each day brings a new chance to collect daily bonuses. So join me in the

fun. Sign up now at ChumbaCasino.com. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus. Terms and conditions apply.