Are You Garbage? Comedy Podcast · Kevin Ryan & H. Foley

Gary Owen!

·1 hr 13 min·4 clips

Gary says the Comedy Store kicked him out after he threatened to call the cops on the room.

1. Are You Garbage? talks with Gary Owen about Cincinnati, the Navy, and how he got started in stand-up. 2. H. Foley and KJ Ryan host Gary Owen, who matters here as a stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster with credits on Wayans Brothers, Daddy Daycare, and No Hard Feelings Tour. 3. The episode asks how a kid from Cincinnati, Ohio, moved from trailer parks and Navy service into comedy and television. 4. Gary says he grew up in Cincinnati proper at first, then moved to a trailer park in Hamilton, Ohio, depending on who his mother was dating. 5. He says his mother worked at a factory called Connectors, and Rodney worked there too before quitting after they met. 6. Gary describes living with his mother, Rodney, and three younger children from that marriage, while he was 19 years older than some of his siblings. 7. He says the family took one vacation to Cocoa Beach, Florida, and that he saw his first hooker there at age 10 or 11. 8. He describes Rodney as white and says Rodney carried every stereotype Gary associates with bad behavior, including trouble with jobs and jail. 9. Gary says he was an average student, graduated around the middle of a 250-person class, and was prom king and class clown. 10. He says he did not get "most likely to be famous," and later joked to Chris Jones that "pilots are only famous when they wreck." 11. He says his first job was picking strawberries on a farm, where he used elbow pads and knee pads and could pick 32 quarts an hour. 12. Gary says the farm paid 35 cents a quart, gave out lunch from the farmer's wife, and handed workers a Payday candy bar on Friday. 13. He says he never took the SAT or ACT and joined the Navy through the ASVAB after his best friend and his friend's father drove him to the recruiting station. 14. Gary says he chose the Navy because it sounded safer, had more bases near California, and seemed like the best route toward becoming a comedian. 15. He says he started as a Navy Presidential Honor Guard in Washington, D.C., where he made it through background checks, earned the nickname "Smiley," and performed at the Clinton inauguration. 16. Gary says he later became a Master-at-Arms, went through Navy police training in San Antonio, and worked in San Diego while keeping up his stand-up plans. 17. He says his first San Diego open mic at the La Jolla Comedy Store ended with him getting kicked out after threatening to call the cops on the room. 18. Gary says he regrouped at karaoke nights at El Torito, where he told jokes instead of singing and built an audience that started expecting his sets. 19. The tone stays loose, personal, and profanity-heavy, with the hosts pushing follow-up questions while Gary answers with specific memories and punch lines. 20. Listeners who like military stories, family chaos, and comic origin stories will get the most out of this. 21. People looking for polished structure or a short, topic-focused interview may skip it.

As heard by us

Military life, stand-up beginnings, and a steady stream of trash verdicts.

Gary Owen moves through military life, a stint in San Diego, and the first steps toward stand-up with an easy comic rhythm. The episode lands best when it keeps returning to the show's trash-or-class frame, because even the practical details keep feeding the bigger judgment.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Gary Owen's Navy-to-stand-up origin story gets the Are You Garbage? treatment.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Are You Garbage? Comedy Podcast