Who you are and what you're offering to the world around you -- Yeah. -- is where your value is set. Alrighty folks.

 

Welcome back to transacting value where we're encouraging dialogue from different perspectives to United over shared values. Our theme for 20 22 is the character of your character. So who you see when you look your values in the mirror?

 

Today, we're talking our October core values of vision, authenticity, and responsibility with mister Scott Edwards. Now if you're new to the podcast, welcome. And if you're a continuing listener, welcome back.

 

Without further ado, folks on Porter, I'm your host, and this is transacting value. Scott, Edward, what's going on, man? How are you? Man, Porter, I'm so excited to be here. The I was going crazy.

 

Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Scott, on Porter's Show. We're talking about transacting value. I'm so excited. I don't know what values I bring to you in your audience, but damn it. I'm gonna try. Dude, you have more idea than I do.

 

I promise. Great to be here. Yeah. No. I appreciate it, dude. Especially coming in from Cali. I'm sure you got a lot going on this afternoon. It's evening here East Coast, but you're still getting through your workday slugging it out.

 

Right? And is podcasting your full time job? No. It's my full time hobby. I'm actually an insurance broker on an insurance agency for the last 15 years.

 

I've kinda semi retired. I sold, but I'm still working for the company. So I'm always happy to be involved in anybody in the podcast community, and you're bringing something special to podcasting.

 

So thank you for what you're doing. Oh, yeah. Definitely. And I appreciate you saying that. Now before we get too far into these other topics that you and I discussed previously, nobody can see you, except for me, obviously.

 

And so Lucky audience. Yeah. No. Don't get me wrong. My eyes are closed. But But now let's work a little relatability, Scott.

 

So people know who they're listening to and, frankly, so I have a better idea. And maybe even you'll learn something. Who are you? You know, what major perspective? Where'd you grow up?

 

How did you become who you are today? Thanks for asking, Porter. It is a long and very story. Let me start off by saying that I'm a lifelong entrepreneur. I started my first company when I was 17 years old, a small construction company.

 

I went in to an audio visual company after that. And then in 19 80, the real successful 1 was I opened a comedy club that was the 12, count them 12, Comedy Club in the country in 19 80 when I opened.

 

I operated that for over 21 years. I sold it, but that club is still operating today in it started off as 1 of the first clubs in the country. Now it's 1 of the oldest comedy clubs in the country.

 

But my values have changed over the decades because of the growth and maturity, I think, that just comes naturally with age. You know, I got started younger than most in starting at my first company at age 17.

 

I was the boss. I was making decisions. I was taking responsibility. I was hiring and firing people. And when you're interacting with both customer service and personnel, it really sets up who you're gonna be in the future.

 

So now flash forward 40 plus years later. I am owned a insurance agency. I was a fleet director for a Ford store. I had a travel agency order. I even owned a submarine in a beach shack in Hawaii.

 

So I've done a little bit of everything. Yeah. I'd say so. Now first of all, if your number 12 comedy club in the country in the eighties, which is now 1 of the oldest comedy clubs, how does to be 1 of the oldest comics in the country.

 

Well, let's be clear to your audience because they'll note right off the bat. I'm not particularly funny. I'm a comedy producer, so I was wise enough to hire the funny people.

 

I'm not funny myself, except for funny looking as we've already covered But it is interesting that when I opened my club in 19 80, I was 24 years old, it was really business driven.

 

I think was some ego involved, to be honest. I was the king of my world.

 

Whatever happened was based on my whim on that particular day or moment. That has matured over the decades so that I'm more aware of those around me and a little more thoughtful and patient with decisions being made.

 

When you're young, you tend to kinda the seat of your pants making decisions. Despite how it might affect those around you, you're making them as you go. And you feel that's a need for survival.

 

And when you get older and you have a little wisdom that comes with maturity, you realize that there are people around you and your universe that are affected by your decisions, and you realize you can take more time to make the decisions that affect everybody.

 

You may still screw up but at least you have more time to screw up. Yeah. Well and then, ultimately, recover too. Exactly. So 24 years old, you're running a comedy what was the name of the or is the name?

 

I have unlimited -- Lapse and all -- comedy showroom. Yes. Well, for Lapse Unlimited then, at 24 years old, you're effectively running the show, so to speak.

 

Right? You've got employees, but it's yours. So to me, now this comedy club is in California? Sacramento, California, right, in the center of nowhere.

 

I always say that I've been 40 years on the fringe of show business because even though I got a chance to work with people like Jay Leno, Robin Williams, Dana Carvey, Jerry Steinfeld, and go on and on and on name dropping.

 

They all worked for me over the years, but we were in Sacramento.

 

So what was great about my club is that big name acts and no name acts could come in and try out and work on material and not be afraid that some producer or some director sitting in the audience that will judge them forever off their performance.

 

There's a lot of clubs in Los Angeles and in New York and in Boston, but you never know who's gonna see you in those cities.

 

In Sacramento, you're pretty guaranteed nobody important's gonna see you. That's sort of like the mix that we've gotten now.

 

I mean, look at podcasting. Right? You've got people that have been doing this for a decade, maybe 2 decades in some cases almost. Or then like me. Like, I haven't even hit really a year yet almost.

 

So nobody's really I mean, people are judging you. Let's let's be real. But nobody's really holding it against you. Right? Like everybody sort of expects you to progress from where you started period full stop.

 

Well, Porter, I don't wanna interrupt, but you may be miss guiding your listeners because in reality, the difference between an a personality like me that will survive or succeed or die based on what he does, a lot of people fail to follow through So you and I have been podcasting.

 

It's for me, it's 2 and a half years. It's you. It's almost a year. But if you've got more than 10 episodes under belt and you've got an audience whether it's 10 people or 10000 and you keep going.

 

You're consistent and persistent in what you're doing. You're a podcastor. So many of the millions of podcasts that Apple and Spotify put out there, they've done 235A certain number, and then they it's called pod fade.

 

They just fade away. They don't keep it up. They're not persistent. They're not consistent. They don't run it like a business.

 

And they fade away. And they're still out there. I wish Apple and Spotify would get rid of some of the let me be implied, the riffraff of podcasters and people that did it on a Lark and did 2 shows and then disappeared.

 

Mhmm. They're getting the same exposure I am on Apple, and I've been around 2 and a half years and have a hundred and 85 shows under my belt.

 

So it is something that you have to work at and I thought you were being generous with the idea that anybody could do it.

 

I think the defined position is that anybody has the opportunity to do it but it takes a certain character to follow through.

 

Alright. That's a fair point to delineate. But more what I was getting towards was the fact that you had mentioned even it laughs unlimited.

 

You had some let's just say professionals and some amateurs that will get up and sort of share a stage, maybe not at once. But over the course of a night, let's say, digitally, we're really just recreating the same trend now.

 

I don't have your insight, your experience, your even business savvy to whatever degree. Right? But we can still same airwaves and platform.

 

Right. So what you're saying, Porter, is I totally missed your point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so taking your point, in that regard, yes, I think any Tom Dick or Harry can get on a comedy stage and think they're funny or give it a shot.

 

And just like podcasting or Twitter or Facebook, anybody and everybody wants to share something about them on those vehicles of communication.

 

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty bad. Sure. We comics that, you know, have all the heart in the world and they're just not gonna be funny.

 

And then you have others that know how to write comedy, but they don't know how to formant, and you have others that are great at getting attention and grabbing the audience, but then they have nothing to say.

 

So there's always a -- No. -- expectation but where they fulfill that expectation. Yeah. I could see that. I've listened to, well, more than just my podcast. Right?

 

And you can hear it whether it's overall quality or the ability to tell a story or to hold an audience for the duration of an episode or or anything in between, you can almost hear what's coming from the host or from the guests that's able to sort of enrapture listeners to whatever amount or scale compared to there's definitely some more unpolished even podcasts out there just like stand up routines or anything else, actors, musicians, it's all the same.

 

But there is a definite difference between Raj bands and main stage acts, for example, not to realize that, but you can tell there's a difference.

 

Right. Right. And everybody's getting a great example of that on television in the last 11 years with America's got talent. Sure.

 

And they make a good point of showing the people that wanna get on stage that shouldn't be there and the others that maybe we're timid or afraid to get on stage but actually have earned the and have the entertainment value to be there.

 

And so much like podcasting or a comedy stage or any like you said, musicians, actors, it has to go beyond the willingness to try. You have to actually work at it.

 

But what's great about all these vehicles of communication is that if you put in the effort and put in the time, you can succeed, you know, even if you don't know what are doing like me starting off a podcast, quick side story for your audience and for you, Porter.

 

Sure. I wrote a book, spent 2 years writing a book based on my 40 years on the Frinja Show business.

 

I've gotten a chance to work with many famous people, many unfamous people, had lots of stories. And I wrote this amazing book, and I showed it to my wife and she said, no one's gonna read your stupid book. Well, thank you, honey.

 

She goes, you wanna do a podcast? And I'm like, what's a podcast? Now I had heard of a podcast, but I'd actually never listened to 1. So I had to study what a podcast was, how to put 1 together, and this is back in thousand and 19.

 

And researched it, and I realized with my volume of content because I have audio and video recordings of all the entertainers that have crossed my stage, that a podcast was really a great way to share my story, and it has proven to be that much better than book.

 

She was absolutely correct. I might have sold 10 copies of my book, but at this point, I've had over 70000 people listen to my podcast.

 

So -- Oh, well. -- I'm getting my story, but more importantly, the stories of all these professional entertainers, famous and not so famous, out there for people to enjoy.

 

And in my interviews and my shows, we try to keep it humorous and there's funny stories, but it's interesting Porter how, just in having a good conversation with a guest, true insights in history come out.

 

It's been very eye opening. Yeah. And that's what's cool about this.

 

I think what's difficult about a topic like values or character development is generating the amount of enjoyment or entertainment that comes with comedy or that comes with action or that comes with just regular pop culture.

 

Topics like values and character development.

 

And then my own relatively monotone sound tend to make it a little bit more difficult. But in saying that, to your point about relation or relationships with an audience that I can't see let alone guess that I can.

 

The amount of perspective an experience in life in business and whatever industry you wanna attribute to that we're able to share and discuss. And in my case, specifically unite that over value systems is crazy.

 

I've had 40 some guests to this point, all with totally different walks of life than mine. And there's always something to learn or deepen your perspective or broaden your critical thought.

 

It is pretty interesting. And then to be able to showcase that there is still an important value in being able to carry a conversation and dialogue and then share a story or tell a story through that.

 

It just So important communication is, but going back to 1 of the things you asked me to talk about, it was interesting at age 24 and I'm I'm running comedy nightclub that also served food and was a bar.

 

So you have waitstaff, you have food customers, you have drink customers, and then you have the audience for the comedy, and then I ended up taking the wealth of that success and opening a couple other restaurants.

 

So that's a whole another level of customer service a couple art galleries, which was to express my appreciation of artists.

 

And at the time, my values were all focused on financial success and personal enjoyment. And I had a lot of fun, did a lot of crazy things, and was financially very successful.

 

What is interesting is that I was kind of focused on that survival and myself, and I've been explained to me by other people, especially ex employees, and friends and family that over the decades, I matured and learned and realized that the value wasn't really about me.

 

It was about the people around me.

 

And I'm reiterating myself from the opening of the show because I think young people, especially it's feels even stronger in today's generations, are so self indulgent and so self interested that I think their value system needs to be mature, needs to be expanded, and we all need to understand that our actions and what we do aren't necessarily about us, it affects everybody around us.

 

And I'm sharing that with you because that's what we said we wanted to talk about and I'm an older gentleman now, and I would not be able to live with myself if I'd stayed so selfish. If I'd stayed so self motivated, you know.

 

It was me becoming more philanthropic and helping those around me over the years that made my life as successful and as valuable. You know, I've been pretty rich a couple times. I've been flat broke and bankrupt a couple times.

 

I always made sure I had a lot of fun because you never know when you're gonna die. And I just wanted to enjoy life as I went. And I've really been blessed. I've had a a really exciting life.

 

And I share that to audiences like yours because I think it is important to have those values, to understand where you are in your world and what you mean to the where they call it, Porta, when your universe, your community, to try and round you.

 

You know? You you see family, but it's not really family. I have very little connection with my family. It's my friends.

 

It's my coworkers. It was the people that I was doing business with were much more important to me than my family at the time. And that world, that orbit around me that I became more and more aware of and more and more supportive of.

 

And if we could pass that on to a younger generation, I think we'd all be better off. Yeah. I totally agree. I think there's a difficult threshold there to try to cross or a fine line to toe, I guess, depending on your analogy.

 

But in the superficiality of social media and how it's getting across to kids or let's just say the next generation beyond mine.

 

And then balancing that with there is still a relative civic mindedness and a need for civility and a need for understanding who you are and your values to be able to carry that across.

 

Now I've got a question for you though to Hello. I'm ready. There we go. To reel it back to the eighties though, you didn't just start a business and say, fuck it.

 

I'm just gonna roll the dice and see what happens. You had some kind of a plan you understood what you were getting into, I assume, or was it just by the seat of your pants if it happens?

 

Oh, no, Porter. I'm 1 of those a personalities that I jump in with both feet, and I've failed many, many times.

 

But on the comedy club, I succeeded in both the construction company, the audiovisual company, the comedy clubs, my future travel agency, which by the way, crashed and burned, I never had clue what I was getting in on, but for future entrepreneurs that might be listening to your show, the secret is There's no new mouse trap.

 

The wheel's already been invented.

 

So if you wanna open a comedy club or a restaurant or a construction company, Go ask the people that are already doing it. People love to talk about themselves and their success, and that's what I did. When I just it open a comedy club.

 

I went to other comedy clubs in Southern California and in the Bay Area, and I talked to the owners and I talked to the managers and I talked to the employees, and I talked to the comics and I took copious notes, and I'd learned and trained myself what was gonna be expected, going into an industry, I knew nothing about.

 

But that was already my third time doing that. I did that with the construction company, with the audio company.

 

I ended up doing it with the travel agency, and any business you're gonna go into, why recreate the wheel? There's somebody already out there making a living, doing it. So go talk to them.

 

Pick their brain, find out what works, what doesn't work, learn their values, how do they treat their customers, what made them a success, or what troubles they've had, and people love to share that and why not take their years of experience and their wisdom and at least give you that rolling start so going into the comedy club border, I really had no clue what I was doing.

 

But by listening to other people, when I did open the doors, I had some momentum in kind of a path. Yeah. But it was you don't listen to everybody.

 

I would talk to 20 people, and you might garner 1 little gem of information from each. You can't listen to just 1 person or 2 people because that's not you. Alrighty. Folks sit tight and we'll be right back on transacting value.

 

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You can't listen to just 1 person or 2 people because That's not you. You have to create the business the way you see it in just using this other influences as a guide. And am I going too deep Sorry. No. No. No. Not at all.

 

I mean, what we're talking about vision, it's important to understand that you've gotta have some semblance of a direction in mind that you want to accomplish you've gotta balance that against reality and account for your own ignorance in the process and sort of temperate.

 

And yeah.

 

And you were saying that I know what I was doing and I absolutely did not But when I did open the doors, because I'd opened other businesses previously, I kind of have an idea of what was going to happen, But just to share a little bit deeper on the story, when I opened my club, I didn't pay lease.

 

I I traded for a space I didn't have any employees.

 

I was the only employee. I would set up my club, m c my club, feed the people, and then clean up my club after because I was in a banquet room of a restaurant, and I did that for over a year.

 

Practically, by myself, I mean, luckily, some friends came in and helped me, and they eventually became early in employees when I built up saved up some money in an open mountain building, but it really was trial and error and taking the advice of others adding it to my own expectations and just really kinda going for it.

 

And but not everybody can do that. I mean, I'm kind of a strange beast. And I've succeeded a lot doing that, but I've failed a lot too. So it is like anything in life.

 

It's a crap shoot. You just have to have faith in yourself. Well, say And like you said, have a vision. I mean, I I'm an egotist. I always thought I was gonna succeed. I'm a golfer. So every shot's gonna be a hole in 1.

 

Yeah. Right? In my mind, you have to envision the shot. So I'm envisioning the perfect shot. And in golf, as you know, it never freaking happens ever. Yeah. But you have to have the ego that that's what's gonna happen.

 

And so as I open each of my businesses, I thought, oh, man. I'm gonna I'm gonna be a freaking millionaire from this. And it only happened once. And and I've had over a dozen companies.

 

I owned a submarine in Monterey Bay, and invested millions and had no clue what I was doing, but I was just so excited about the idea of owning a submarine in opening this mega tourist attraction in a beautiful bay called Monterey -- Mhmm.

 

-- and it absolutely bombed. I mean, I lost crap load of money.

 

It failed miserably. It wasn't my fault really. The the water in Monterey Bay is too cold, We had a problem with algae blooms so that people couldn't see the fish and the sea otters and the kelp forest.

 

And we had to pay divers to clean the windows all the time, and it was a huge failure. But I sure had a lot of fun, and I don't regret it.

 

Yeah. It was just 1 of those things. I I thought, oh, this would be great. And it wasn't. You know until just this moment when you said submarine earlier in the beginning, I was fully 100 percent on track to hear about a sandwich shop.

 

Oh, really? No. I had a submarine. No. You totally just rewrote me with it. Yeah. Well, the beach shack in Hawaii, same thing. I had that for over 5 years. But I put way more money into it than ever got out of it.

 

But I was a single in my twenties male and owning a beach shack where we rented you know, we sold sunscreen and rented towels and kayaks and stuff, working that and having all the pretty ladies on the beach in their bikinis, very self driven man.

 

Oh, yeah.

 

I'm telling you Yeah. It was a lot of fun. I met some amazing people, but financially, huge financial, mistake, and loss. But I kept it going 5 years because I was having fun. Oh, well, yeah. It'd be worth it in the 5 years. Sure.

 

Now going through all these different endeavors like in your case you had done or have done, how do you recommend, I guess, or in hindsight how did you balance all of those things while still actually being true to yourself and not losing yourself in the process.

 

Well, that is probably a little bit deeper question than has a simple answer. We probably need to call in a psychologist to figure that out. But I think that And I'm trying to be honest with you and your audience.

 

I think that it was ego and I was the king of my kingdom. Right? And whatever I said went, and all my employees knew it. When I was on stage, I controlled the audience. I won't say I'm a control freak, but my wife would say I am.

 

And the early days, when I was in my twenties and thirties, I was really very egotistical, self driven, motivated win or lose, that's 1 of the things that other people can't do.

 

I have the type of personality that I'm gonna make the decision. It may be the wrong decision. I've made lots of mistakes in my life, but you know what?

 

I own up to it. Okay. I made a mistake. Now learn from it. Move on. So many people are afraid to try anything because, oh, what if I make a mistake? And the reality is mistakes are the stepping stones to success.

 

You have to fail to succeed. Does that make sense? Yeah. 100 percent. So in all of my businesses, I went into them with no history, but I did my research. I worked my butt off at each of them.

 

I'm a hardworking guy 6, 7 days a week, which ruined an early marriage. But my ego and my type a personality and my vision that I was gonna succeed and that I was doing what was right for me and my family was what drove me.

 

Now in hindsight, I was a little too self engaged I was a little too selfish with my time because I put my business before my family, made mistakes there.

 

And I've learned and matured over the decades and hope and feel like I'm better now. But I'm still jumping into things with both feet. I still make mistakes.

 

I'm just a little more patient little more aware of how it affects people around me, but probably still just as crazy. It takes a little bit of crazy. Right? It has to. It has to. But that's sort of the point of vision.

 

Right? Otherwise, you just see. I think that's the threshold there. Yeah. And those that are afraid to have the vision, those that are afraid to take risk. I think can be successful in their own right, but it's not the same.

 

Porter, when when you or I or somebody thinks that we're gonna do something like you envision doing this podcast, You didn't just go into it, do it once or twice and go, you're sticking with it.

 

You're being consistent. You're being persistent. You're gonna make it a success because of your drive and your vision. Not everybody has that.

 

Oh, I appreciate you saying that. But before we get more into analyzing my drive and deviating from yours or comparing with anybody else. Let's take a break for a couple minutes, and we'll be back on transacting value.

 

Alrighty, folks. This is Porter, host of transacting Value, a podcast showcasing real people with different perspectives uniting a conversation over shared values.

 

Develop a willingness and a confidence to be vulnerable can be scary for anyone. But no matter the inherent beauty of each culture or the drastic differences among them, Everyone has a unique perspective to offer.

 

Through which someone else can learn, every person interprets a set of personal values that guides their Cisions, develops their character, and shrouds their sphere of influence. Tell you what, search transacting value podcast.

 

On Instagram, Facebook or Twitter to reach out via social media or listen into our new episodes. Streaming every Monday at 9AM Eastern Standard Time on all your favorite podcast and platform.

 

Like Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Amazon Music, Audious, or Audible. For different perspectives, talk through shared values. Tune in. Check out Transacting Value. You're sticking with it.

 

You're being consistent. You're being persistent. You're gonna make it a success because of your drive and your vision. Not everybody has that. Oh, I appreciate you saying that. So you were talking about something.

 

You said consistency and persistence made the difference not necessarily a stable knowledge base at the forefront or a solid vision in the beginning, but there were 4 things that you brought up in that pursuit of I guess relative success at the time, you said do your research.

 

Ask people, talk to people, learn from other people, but do your research, and then work your butt off in that process, the persistence, the consistency of your effort, more often than not I agree with you is gonna grow into something beneficial.

 

You mentioned balancing out your vision sort of with an authentic sense of yourself knowing who you are to not get lost in the process, better balance your life at home with your life at work, for example.

 

So staying humble, learning to get patient, all these lessons that you've learned along the way started somewhere.

 

And I'm sure there's been plenty of acts, especially at a comedy club where you've seen there's some frozen some amateurs, some famous, some not famous, some not famous that got famous. You know, what what kind of stories do you have?

 

Well, it's interesting because I was very blessed to get work with a lot of people in your audience has heard about. I did several concerts with Jay Leno, but he worked my club many times.

 

Jerry Seinfeld was a regular Mike Club, and then he got his show The Seinfeld Chronicles, which was the first season of Seinfeld and he had to cancel to do that pilot, and he was very gracious.

 

After the first season of the show, he called me up and he said, hey, I owe you a week. And he came in for the same money.

 

I mean, now he's got his own sitcom and he came back for the same money and worked for me and made up the week he had to cancel. Not a lot of guys would do that, but Jerry's a straight up good guy and was wonderful about that.

 

But Ray Romano was working for me. Allen DeGeneres worked for me before she got the Ellen show, Paula Poundstone, Jakob Smirnoff, famous Russian comic, Will Schreiner, all these guys, got a chance to get their start on my stage.

 

More importantly, though, and I was leading up to, the guys that really got me started I I mentioned earlier, Porter, that people gave me advice, and I was leaning on people like Bob Saggot and Dave Courier.

 

Now this is years before they got full house and America's funniest videos and fuller house, all the things that made them a huge success.

 

Yeah. But it was Bob Saggot and Dave Cleier who would sit down with me and say, if you're gonna succeed, you need to do this.

 

You need to treat the comics as real people, not just this week's meat. A lot of club owners in LA take the entertainers for granted because there's so many that wanna get on stage. I'm up in Sacramento.

 

I was lucky to get these guys, and they told me the secret was treat them with respect, give them somewhere nice to stay, I mean, there's some clubs where a comic would show up from an out of town gig and he'd be staying in the club owner's garage or something.

 

You wouldn't believe how poorly the living conditions are for some of these road comics.

 

And I always made sure they had a house or a condo to stay in. We gave them a vehicle to drive. We wanted them to act like professionals, so we treated them as professionals.

 

And that's different than a lot of other competing venues at the time. But it was Bob Saggett, who also was very gracious and wrote and started my first TV commercial in 19 81.

 

He actually hit me with a car, and he threw me off a roof. So those those commercials helped put my club on the map here in Sacramento.

 

But Bob Sagan and Rest of Seoul was such a great, great guy and was always giving back And I think the opposite of that is another very funny guy. He was an opening act the the week I opened, and I don't know if you know his name.

 

If you go to the Googler and put in his name, he's done over a hundred movies at his own TV show, the Gary Sharonling show, the Larry Sanders Show, But in 19 80, when I opened my club making a hundred dollars for weeks' worth of work, his first out of town gig out of Phoenix, Arizona Gary Shandling was my first opening act.

 

Wow. And he worked for me 3 or 4 times a year.

 

Every year for many years, until he got some fame. He got his first tonight show, and that was it. He was often the stardom. And in fact, he was working my club when he was working on material for the tonight show. That's another story.

 

He went up to the audience. He did, like, 15 minutes and kinda proved he was funny. And this is before anybody knew who he was. Uh-huh. And he goes, hey. I'm gonna be on the tonight show next Thursday. Can I try out some new material?

 

Well, the audiences love that kinda behind the scenes peak. Right? Sure. Behind the curtains. And so he stood and wrote red right off of 3 by 5 cards, some things that he was working on for the tonight show.

 

And if something didn't get a big laugh, he'd go, oh, that's out. He'd toss it in the audience. You know, and then if he got a big laugh on something, oh, that's in, you know.

 

And then he put down the cards and he did his closing set and he killed the audience But that was a great example of a professional entertainer trusting the audience, explaining to the audience that, hey, I wanna make you a part of the process and I'm gonna end up being on the tonight show.

 

The fast forward 10 years, and I ran into Gary at a casino, he was working. And let's just say he was less than polite.

 

He had gotten fame. He'd gotten fortune. He'd already had his Larry Sanders Show. He was a big star now. And I saw him, and I was just excited to see what I thought was an old friend, and he was gonna have nothing to do with that.

 

Oh, well. So you just don't know how fame's gonna affect people. There's other entertainers like I mentioned Seinfeld and Leno and Sagett and Paula poundstone. There's been many, many others that I'll give you a story.

 

Dana Carvey was a regular at my club before anybody knew who he was, I was actually sitting in a Jacuzzi with him right after he got the phone call from Lauren Michaels, asking him to go on Saturday night live, which is what made him famous.

 

Yep. And fast forward 10 years, I was at the ice house in LA, and I had my son with me. And I went to the club because Dana was there. And we watched Dana set from back in the sound box.

 

And then after the show, we're just sitting waiting for Dana. And Dana from across the room, there's a hundred other people there. You know, Scott, Scott and comes running over like we were brothers. Well He gives me this big hug.

 

I gotta tell you, I've never thought my son was more impressed with his dad at that moment. David Carvey's actually, you know, giving me a hug and saying hi, because we were old friends, but that's the 2 stories.

 

You got Gary Shannon that kinda changed with fame, didn't wanna remember or respect his past, and Dana Carvey who liked me felt we were all friends that have gone through the same crucible of entertainment together, and this is how we'd come out on the other side.

 

We're still acquaintances.

 

And what's amazing, Porter, is with my podcast, stand up comedy, or host in MC, in my semi retirement stage, I'm now reengaging with these entertainers and telling their story, sharing funny bits, road stories about back in the eighties and nineties And not only has it been just so much joy for me to do this, but I have a pretty large audience that seems to enjoy it once a week.

 

Already folks sit tight, and we'll be right back on transacting value.

 

STAND up comedy, your host, an MC IS A CELEBRATION OF 40 plus YEARS ON THE fringe OF SHOW BUSINESS. Stories, interviews, comedy sets are from the famous, and not so famous.

 

The interviews will be with comics and friends from the world of comedy. Stand up sets you can hear by Dana Carvey, Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Paula poundstone, Ray Romano, and many, many more.

 

SO CHECK OUT THE PODCAST ST STAND UP COMMITY YOUR HOST AN MC TODAY. BEEN JUST SO MUCH JOY FOR ME TO DO THIS but I have a pretty large audience that seems to enjoy it once a week.

 

Then just so much joy for me to do this but I have a pretty large audience that seems to enjoy it once a week. That's such a crazy story.

 

I saw this one's celebrity, but I was in the background of a picture that was a selfie from somebody across the street. And you could see the celebrity's reflection that's the stories you hear. But years are like, no.

 

We shook hands. We were in a hot tub. Both of us shirtless hanging out. It was a great time. What's interesting about my personality and again, I think I've made it clear. But I'm an 8 personality, a bit of a negatist.

 

I am not affected by fame. You know, I don't get starstruck. We went to a baseball game and after the game, there was a famous football player quarterback waiting in the same area as us to meet. We're there to meet a ball player.

 

And my wife saw him and just froze and couldn't move. And I walked right up, introduced my stuff, and started a conversation. And I went to wave my wife over to introduce her, and she was frozen in Starstruck.

 

But what's interesting is that the reason I brought up the story is is that some people don't handle fame the same as others. And I think that comes to character.

 

And what is important is to anybody listening that you know somebody that's famous or gonna be famous, that they have to stay real to themselves and realize that they're where they're at because of their past.

 

I end, Gary Shannon didn't necessarily want to acknowledge me because I was a part of his past when he was a nobody. Mhmm. But if it wasn't for him working my club and a dozen other clubs, he wouldn't have had that fame.

 

Now I'm not saying I caused his fame. His own talents did that. But I gave him an opportunity to work his act, work his set, and become who he became as a star.

 

And the opposite is true that Bob Saggart, Dana Carvey, and a number of the people that I've interacted with, Yakov Smurnoff Will Schreiner, Bobby Slayton, after the fact, that they understand that, like Dana, that we all came through the same time zone together and worked hard together and that it was the opportunities I gave them on stage that helped them to develop to where they were in their careers.

 

Now I could also say, order for your audience, that I also if you listen to my podcast, there's many, many more people you've never heard of.

 

They have no fame, but they've made a huge career in comedy. You know, they didn't always stay on stand up stages. They went to cruise lines. They were doing TV. They were doing corporate work.

 

And those guys are always who they were. They're true to themselves because even though they made a great career out of comedy, and they respect and appreciate the fact that I helped give them that opportunity.

 

They didn't get the fame, what I call the golden ticket. I'm a lot older than your audience. But if you say Leno or Seinfeld, you know who I'm talking about. They got the golden ticket. They're 1 named famous people.

 

It's like Oprah. But even Bob Sagan had that kind of fame. But there are hundreds, if not thousands of entertainers that make great careers make good money, have huge success, and nobody will ever you know, they're not famous.

 

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THE PLACE WITH ABOIL PENOTS. There hundreds, if not thousands of entertainers that make great careers, make good money, have huge success and nobody will ever you know, they're not famous. Yeah. So there's lots of talent out there.

 

Oh, definitely. And my podcast allows me to share that. Yeah. Well, we'll talk about your podcast specifically here in just a second so people know where to find it and they're able to track you down and follow along.

 

But there's fine line. I don't know much about fame, just that it exists. In a relative sense or in an actual sense, I I haven't experienced what you've described.

 

But defining yourself by your career, defining yourself by your accomplishments, defining yourself by your awards, your accolades, is a very quick way in my firsthand experience to lose sight of who you are if you even figured it out first.

 

I know. That's true. Yeah. And I and I think that sort of almost cognitive dissonance creates a lot of problems in other relationships, and it trickles down from there.

 

But exponentially grows in impact, the further away from you it gets. Like you mentioned, your initial marriage wasn't as well balanced as it could have been.

 

Ultimately then didn't work out. It was the same thing in my case. The first marriage that I had, I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know who I was, and I got married.

 

Trying to figure out somebody else before I knew who I was, and then I couldn't figure it out. I was too late at that point because I was trying to account for somebody else, and I didn't know how to balance it. Right?

 

So The point being that your character who you become as a result of your decisions or who you become as a result of what you allow your decisions to be is probably 1 of the most important things in my opinion in life because it's really the only thing that you have control over as long as you are aware of it.

 

Exactly who you are and what you're offering to the world around you -- Yeah. -- is where your value is set. There's a lot of famous people that don't give anything back really to the public and there's others that do.

 

And it just fame doesn't make necessarily success or virtuous. In fact, it could be it really can take you down the other path.

 

But it is important to realize a great analogy might be porter than in my first marriage, I had had a couple kids, and I thought my job was to work as hard as I could, every day, every night, and bring home the bacon as they say.

 

Yep. And I first wife finally said, you know, I want you to get up and mow the lawn. And I worked all night. In the night club business, I would get home at 2 and go to bed at 4.

 

And she would wanna wake me up at 8 in the morning to mow the lawn. And I said, hey, I make enough money. I'll pay someone to mow the lawn. I need to get up sleep so I can go back to work and make more money to put food on the table.

 

And I wasn't necessarily wrong at the time, but my vision of work my responsibilities and value to the marriage was different than what she thought.

 

She was enjoying the money I was bringing home, but she envisioned this white picket fence I would go to work at 8 in the morning and come home in 5 and help with the kids and have dinner. No. I was a night club owner.

 

At that point, I owned 3 comedy clubs, 2 restaurants. I work every night, every weekend, I rarely took a vacation because to me, my success and the family's financial success was based on that persistency and keeping it all going.

 

But trust me, my second and current wife, who often says that if I'm out line, there'll be a third, missus Edwards.

 

Understands a little bit more about me, and then I've matured, and so I understand more about my values in what I need to bring to a relationship.

 

So it's all a matter of growth. And Porter, if you've gone through the same thing like a lot of people in your audience, you know, it's just what's called life.

 

Things happen. And, hopefully, the smart ones learn from it and do a better job, their second chance, or third chance. You start getting to your fifth or sixth chance, it might be you.

 

Yeah. Yeah. That's a fact. If there's enough people. Right? Well, that actually brings us to our last segment of the show then while now we're talking about character. This segment's called developing character.

 

Developing character. Ready play? Oh, developing a character I've been prepping myself whenever you say Porter, just give it to me. Yeah. Alright. Well, here's how it goes. I'm gonna ask you 3 questions.

 

They're all from your present perspective, but past present and future. Those are the questions. K? So first, you now how do you view your values from 20 years ago? Well, I've tried to share that in the podcast.

 

I think that 20 years ago, I was really focused on myself, image, you know, what I thought was important, and what I thought need to happen, and it was a lot about me if you're picking that up.

 

It was a little egocentric. At the time, I didn't realize it. I just thought I was in charge and I needed to act that way to succeed.

 

But in hindsight, I was definitely a little too focused on what made me happy. Fair enough. Fair enough. And it's easy to do, honest mistake, at least you've learned from it. Which brings me to question 2 then.

 

Currently and you've touched on this a little bit as well too, but currently, what are some of the values that you prefer to try to embody now? Well, again, learning from the past is important. You know, it's okay to make mistakes.

 

It's even okay to make mistakes a couple times. You try to avoid making the same mistake too many times, but I've tried to learn from mine, and I'm a little more aware how my actions affect those around me.

 

I'm a little more patient. My wife would say not enough. Mhmm. And I'm a little I gotta be careful how we say this, but I'm a little less driven I think in my twenties and thirties, I felt it was my job to take over the world.

 

Yeah. And now I'm happy if I can pay my house payment and spend some quality time with family and friends on the weekends. I've brought my vision down a little bit more to reality. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's a natural progression too.

 

You know, once you start realizing that you sit down and stand up and make more noises out loud than you used to, it sort of tempers a lot of that. Yeah. So third question. Same set of circumstances.

 

You now, how do you view your values changing over the next 20 years? Oh, I don't know. Porter right now, I'm perfect. I I don't think I could get any better. So so I might still have a small issue with my ego. No.

 

I don't know. I don't even know if I have 20 more years left, but I want to what I hope for and what I pray for is that I'm able to continue to enjoy life as I want I don't like being told what to do, but I like to control my happiness.

 

And as long as I can continue that and take my bride along for the ride, you know, I think I'm in a good place.

 

Can I improve? Well, hopefully, my mistakes are less and less severe, but hopefully, the learning curve is a little quicker and a little sharper.

 

Yeah. And Did I have put it on my notes? No. You're fine. Maybe it will be. But if it's not, Going through the journey as gradual or a general of a slope as it might end up being is half the fun anyway.

 

That's where the cool stories come from usually. Well, and if anything has been shared with their audience in this podcast quarter, and I appreciate the opportunity to share the story, is that you do have to work for what you want.

 

Nothing's gonna be given to you. If you're expecting life to be handed to you, you're gonna be miserable. And not only do you have to work for what you want, you have to enjoy the path, enjoy the journey.

 

So a great exam told would be that I had high school friends that went off and worked with the county or the state, and I'm not saying those are bad jobs but they spent the next 30 plus years sitting in a cubicle doing something they hated, and then they retired, and they had to kinda, okay, now what am I gonna do?

 

And I was a little more crazy. And I know that that sounds bad, but I believed in having fun along the way. You know, I bought the beat check. I own the submarine twice now.

 

I've chartered a learjet and took women off to Vegas or Hollywood, and just crazy waste of money stuff. But you know what? The memories in the in the moments that I've had and shared with people that I'll always have.

 

So if I die tomorrow, I've had a full and happy life. I'm not like some people think you and I both know that work their whole lives and then they're retired thinking now they'll have fun and then they get sick or die.

 

Yeah. You know, you have to enjoy life as you go. So I'm 67 now. I'd like to think I have 20 more years to enjoy life with my bride.

 

But for all those people that are in their twenties and thirties and forties listening to this, Start having fun. If you don't put some enjoyment and and pleasure into your life now, it may not happen later.

 

Because I've had plenty of friends that have gotten sick or passed on, and they never had that experience. And I'm just blessed to have all those crazy things happen in my life But the almighty dollar it's so funny.

 

I have some people that have saved and saved and saved and and they're way wealthier to me. You know, they got a million dollars set aside.

 

And I go, great. What are you gonna do? I don't know. You know, they they at this point in their life, they can't even imagine using that money to go to Europe or travel buy a boat or do something crazy and stupid and have some fun.

 

Yeah. Oh, no. I gotta have that money there. What the freak? It makes no sense. For what? You know, enjoy life. Yeah. Well, and it's like you said in the beginning. There you go.

 

It's like you said in the beginning. Temper what you want to accomplish with what you're able to do. But it's not always in a business sense. You may want to be rich and famous and successful but for what enjoy it along the way.

 

Just be smart about it. Yeah. I totally Yeah. The journey is as important as the end result. Because in the end, we're all gonna I mean, I wanna sound morbid, but we're all gonna turn to dust.

 

And it's what you do with the time on this planet that is your legacy, your life, and what do you want that you wanna not only have experienced for yourself but be able to have shared with the world.

 

And I think it's really important with transacting value porter that you're able to bring something special to not just you and your listeners, but your podcast will be out there forever now and gets an opportunity to touch so many different people.

 

It's a great value that you're bringing to humanity. I mean, I'm I'm overstating it a bit, but the point is everybody's opinion is meaningless unless it's shared. Yeah. Well, Speaking of sharing.

 

If people wanna hear more from you, if they wanna check out stand up your podcast, if they want to reach out on social media, How do people do that? What are your outlets? Well, I'm sure at this point, they're done with me.

 

But if those that aren't or have been heavily drinking and want more excitement, Go to my podcast. Stand up comedy, your host in MC. It's available on all platforms, Apple, Spotify, iHeart, you name it.

 

And there you'll find a combination of freight a stand up comedy by many of my friends in the industry, and then every other week, I'd do an interview with a professional entertainer, and they get a chance in the interview to share their story and share their humor and the ups and downs of their lives, and both are very entertaining and if you get a chance, it's stand up comedy hosting see, and it's all focused around a website called scotts comedy stuff dot com.

 

Very fancy name. On Porter, Scott's comedy stuff. But if you reach out or you can contact me through that website or through that podcast, I'd be happy to hear from you, and I really appreciate the opportunity to share that porter.

 

Thank you, sir. Man, Scott, you're on a totally different level, man.

 

I love this interview. I love opportunity. I love being able to sit here and actually talk to you face to face sort of kinda. It was a great time. So I really appreciate it and to everybody listening.

 

Thank you for tuning in as well. Especially to listen to our core values for October of vision, authenticity, and responsibility. So Hey. Had a great time. There you go. It was great.

 

It was great. And to everybody that you named from sort of arbitrarily to, you know, like Oprah, I guess, if you can say those 2 words in the same sentence, to all of the guests that you had in your club over the years, Dave Coolier.

 

And, obviously, rest in peace, Bob saget as well that their inspiration like you said about podcasting still continues to live on through your stories and so it's a huge service that you're doing by promulgating that and their stories and their experiences.

 

Man, I I can't understate that enough.

 

But for the time being and for the sake of time, I'd also like to thank some of our show partners, Keystone Farmers Market, the be in the bear creations, and obviously, anchor for your distribution as well.

 

So Anybody listening, if you're interested in joining our conversation or want to discover our other interviews, check out transacting value podcast dot com.

 

And remember you could follow along on social media too while we continue to stream new interviews every Monday at 9AM Eastern Standard Time on all your favorite podcasting platforms. Until next time. That was transacting value.