Last Things First: Billy Wayne Davis

Episode #415

Billy Wayne Davis is a comedian who has performed on Conan, Last Comic Standing and Comedy Central, lent his voice and producing skills to SquidBillies, hosted a travel doc for CMT, Morgan Spurlock Presents Freedom! The Movie , opened for Sturgill Simpson, and worked with Sacha Baron Cohen on both Who is America? and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. Davis has just released his second stand-up comedy festival, Testify, which premiered exclusively on the Moment platform in November 2022. He sat down with me to talk about taking risks in comedy, his previous experiences in and around Seattle, fatherhood and his new special.

Here’s an extended clip from the special!

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This transcript has been edited and condensed only slightly for your convenience.

You joked over on the old bird app that you couldn't get Peacock to pick up Testify, but they would stream Casey Anthony.

I mean, when they passed, I wasn't like, you know, that's part of the whole game. But then when they started promoting that, I was like, ‘Hey! Y'all!’ That’s hard not to take personally, you know what I mean? Where it's like, I'm really good at what I do. And I worked really hard. I think I wouldn't present this to you guys unless I was like, You should buy this. Like, it's good. And then they're like, Yeah, we got this lady who killed her kid. We're gonna give her some money. Damn!

Not only do you have a talent in stand-up, but you also have not killed your kids yet.

None! Neither! None! I love them both. I never thought about it. And they’re annoying. I tell ‘em to shut up sometimes. That's the worst. That's my worst, every now and then I’ll just be like, just shut up.

Do they know that their dad is a stand-up comedian?

I mean, I have a 13-year-old that is becoming quite aware of it, I think. And then the three year old: He knows we're funny. That's what he says.

With the teenager, has that changed the dynamic? Where they're like, oh, I know what you really like.

Probably in a good way. I've never hidden who I was or any of that kind of stuff as a dad. I've never been like in your face about stuff either. But it was never like if he was curious, here's what this is. No, I think he's more interested in it. I think he has a natural taste. He has good taste in comedy naturally. Like he was into The Simpsons and some some of that stuff that I didn't necessarily influence. So he watches all kinds of stuff, but the things he gets into are really good. So that's nice. Not all of the things are really good.

But does that mean that the 13-year-old has or has not yet watched Borat?

I haven't shown him any of Sacha’s stuff, because there's an adultness and a social awareness that I don't think — maybe Bruno? I could show him Bruno. But I mean, everyone's gonna laugh because he's a clown. A very talented clown. So it's really funny anyway, but the context… But he watches South Park all the time. And that's pretty fantastic.

Specifically, because, of course, you got involved in the Subsequent Moviefilm.

When it came out, he was at his mom's house. And I think she showed it to him, because I wouldn't.

Did he know that it was you?

She told him. She was like, ‘hey, your dad's in this movie’ kind of thing. But no one knew! I think she watched it. Because like everyone was watching it, and then at the end people were like, Whoa! Because you know, I can't promote. You can't tell (anyone). Like my current wife knew, but his mother didn't. No one knew. Outside of our little immediate family. He didn't even really know.

How did you get involved in his hijinks?