Comics turning detours into running jokes.
Public Figures puts Brian Bates, Aaron Weber, Dusty Slay, and occasional guests into a fast, familiar comedy conversation. The show runs on live-show details, venue stories, food detours, mock status games, and friends trying to make each other break.
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Public Figures is a fast, loose comedy-panel show built around the chemistry of Brian Bates, Aaron Weber, Dusty Slay, and the occasional guest. It does not behave like a tidy celebrity interview. It behaves like three comics arrived with show stories, half a plan, and just enough mutual familiarity to derail each other immediately. The recurring pleasure is the pileup. Someone mentions a sold-out weekend, a strange venue perk, a restaurant, a jersey, or a difficult crowd moment, and the room starts turning it from a detail into a running joke. The show is casual, but not lazy. Its structure is the kind that comes from comics listening for angles rather than from segments being announced. A recent weekend can become a conversation about personalized jerseys and hospitality. A trip can drift into barbecue, brisket, restaurant names, and how badly a phrase can sound when said out loud. A grocery-store episode can open with Dusty Slay holding a knife at the table and instantly become a group negotiation over how much of that image should be treated as normal. The Olympics episode treats current sports as permission to wander through old memories, mixed-up references, mailed-in curling gear, and a proposed spring version of the Games. The show is especially good at letting a small awkward moment sit there long enough to become funny. Audience interruptions, ticket plugs, regional rooms, and ad-read energy all become material instead of background noise. Greg Warren’s appearance slides into the same rhythm, with the panel using him as part of the room rather than pausing for a formal guest spotlight. Public Figures suits listeners who enjoy stand-up comics talking shop without sounding like they are teaching a class on comedy. It is quick. It is friendly. It is messy in a way that feels intentional once the callbacks start connecting. The best moments come when the topic nearly disappears and the group finds the joke hiding in the detour.
Made for: For listeners who like stand-up comics in a loose room together, especially when show stories, food talk, crowd weirdness, and small social annoyances become the whole joke.
What sets it apart: Public Figures stands out through its ensemble timing: bits are interrupted, corrected, repeated, and sharpened in real time. The show’s best material often comes from the sidetrack rather than the planned topic.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Three hosts turn verbal mistakes, stubborn opinions and routine podcast business into steadily escalating conversational comedy.
Public Figures turns housekeeping into material before the stated subject has much chance to settle in. Aaron Weber, Brian Bates and Dusty Slay can derail a tour-date plug, an ad read or even a greeting by checking one another's wording and pressing a small mistake until it…
A curling T-shirt arrives, and soon you're considering Tennessee's spring Olympics.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Sold-out Rochester shows, a persistent Whopper offer, and three public figures enjoying the detour.
Public Figures gets its easy comic push from a reunion that keeps turning into a story. Brian Bates, Aaron Weber, and Dusty Slay start with a loose riff on "see you guys again," then Bates pivots to his Rochester, New York shows at Comedy at the Carlson, where even a sold-out…
Aaron Weber, Brian Bates, and Dusty Slay spin Olympic memories, a curling shirt, and Tennessee allergies into an easygoing comic detour.
Public Figures turns Olympic recall into a loose test of memory, with Aaron Weber, Brian Bates, and Dusty Slay drifting from curling diagrams on a T-shirt to the Winter Olympics, the 1996 Atlanta Games, and athlete names that arrive only halfway intact.
Dusty Slay and the group turn shaky impressions into the episode's best running joke.
Dusty Slay's weekend in Syracuse gives this loose episode its shape, but the real engine is an impression that keeps slipping out of reach. The conversation moves from barbecue to a dog in a restaurant, his refusal to eat pork, and the odd little mystery of a friend's forgotten…
False starts, "Figurines," and a Harry Potter debate show the hosts' comic rhythm.
The first Public Figures podcast takes a few tries to begin. The hosts test greetings, float "Figurines" as a name for listeners, and keep interrupting one another. Their jokes come quickly, including a bit about Brian teaching Dusty and Aaron.
A live Nate Land send-off returns to a verbal slip before closing with thanks.
At a live Nate Land gathering, the hosts look back on five and a half years without letting the occasion get too solemn. A question about live podcasts sends them into a debate over how long someone could keep talking alone. Then they return to the "civilian stations" slip.
Nick Novicki turns one missed celebrity greeting and a second party setup into the night's strongest stories.
Nateland takes a special-night detour as Nate Bargatze, Brian Bates, Aaron Weber, and Nick Novicki move from a California Vanity Fair party back to the studio, with the lack of sleep becoming part of the rhythm.
Fast banter, dumb arguments, sharp comic instincts.
One minute, then the room bites back.
Barstool comedy for a strange weekly world.
Low points, told straight and funny.
A comic's road journal, mulch and all.
Complaint comedy at full speed.
The Nateland podcast episode features a humorous discussion about sandwiches and high school photos, with guest Ben Roethlisberger.
Nateland #242, "A Special Night (and A Little Friendship) with Nic Novicki," moves from a California Vanity Fair party to road stories about Orlando, Spokane, and Knott's Berry Farm.
Dusty Slay, Aaron Weber and Brian Bates open with touring updates: Dusty plays Pullman, Washington and Cincinnati's Commonwealth Comedy Club, and Aaron played a Canton, Ohio outdoor show next to a cotton candy booth.
Public Figures #10, Babies, features Brian Bates, Aaron Weber, and Dusty Slay talking through Dusty Slay's newborn son Sonny Ray Slay, who was 6.1 pounds and six days old.
Comedian Greg Warren joins the Public Figures Podcast to discuss his recent sold-out show in St.
The hosts of Public Figures Podcast banter about a knife and introduce the episode on grocery stores.
Three comedians introduce their podcast and discuss upcoming shows and a restaurant called Meat.
Comedians Aaron Weber and Dusty Slay discuss their upcoming shows and joke about the Poughkeepsie Tapes.
The Nateland podcast reunites for a special episode discussing cruises.
Aaron Weber, Brian Bates, and Dusty Slay frame Public Figures #3 around a Nate Land at Sea cruise with 2,300 people, a trivia contest, and a reunion show.
Aaron Weber, Brian Bates, and Dusty Slay spend much of Public Figures #2, "Love," arguing about airport etiquette, moving walkways, and noise-canceling headphones.
Public Figures opens with Brian Bates, Aaron Weber, and Dusty Slay introducing a new podcast set before discussing Nashville’s ice storm, which left Bates’s family without power and forced them to stay with Nate and Laura Bargatze.
Nateland’s live finale reunites Nate Bargatze, Brian Bates, Aaron Weber, Dusty Slug, and Greg Warren to revisit the podcast’s five-and-a-half-year run.
The Nateland podcast crew discusses their love for Thanksgiving, its history, and controversies.
Comedians Brian Bates, Dusty Slay, and Aaron Weber introduce a special episode featuring a conversation with Yakov Smirnoff about his experiences in Russia and America.