BraveMen S4E122: Mike Goodwin - Humor brings Healing: Here’s Mike!

You know, Proverbs 17 says laughter is a medicine, and he was a broken in a heart that's hurting. And it does. It can heal us when we're dry. It can heal us when we're just stressed. And so today, my good one is on, and this guy is fantastic. I saw him. In fact, the first time I saw him was on dry bar comedy, and he's one of the comedians. That's a big, huge global show. And to be on there is a big deal. So Mike was asked to be on there, and he just, he killed it. Absolutely killed it. And so in fact, so much so I, I remember a bunch of the things. So in the interview today with Mike Goodwin, I said, hey, tell the one about this. Tell the one about this. And he goes, dude, you're not going to do my whole act. Are you? It was great. It was great to be with Mike. He is really a refreshing man. Really uses humor in a way that's so powerful. To not just make us laugh, but to bring us to a new place and our following of Christ. And he really does it in this arming way. You're going to hear about how he had to use humor as his way of dealing with this function of his life as he was growing up. So today, I'm brave men. You're going to meet Mike Goodwin. Remember, as always, at Christminsnetworkcmn.men. And this is a, this podcast. Brave men is a production of the Christminsnetwork worldwide with ministry and over 100 nations around the world. Go to cmn.men to get the tools to help disciple your family in your church as a leader. In your own life to be able to pull things down that you know will help you to become the man you desire to be and the man God you designed you to be. cmn.men. cmn. Not cmn. That'd be the wrong one. cmn.men. And so here's Mike Goodwin with humor brings healing. You're going to love this today on Brave Men. It's Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole. Wisdom encouraged for the journey. Talking with Mike Goodwin and Mike Goodwin is a, is a humorist and a comedian and a man you're, you says on your, on your site, Southern gentleman with a curious mind, Mike, as if that's actually more on some sort. Well, you know, stereotypes, right? So, right. Southerners aren't deemed to be very curious in their mind. Well, you know, I came to the South of late, you know, Texas. But my family came out of here in the 1800s, grew up in Cali, but there's a whole Southern thing going on, man. Right. Appreciate taking the time, Mike, but yeah, Southern gentleman with a curious mind. And it's funny, man, I listened to your stuff the other day, Mike, and I was like, seriously, was sitting on my back porch laughing so loud that I thought my neighbor was going to say, hey, I'm on a phone. Like, you know, and it was like, you know, it's like I came to the South. And I started learning words. I'd never heard in California growing up. Right. Fixing. Right. Right. Fixing and we've created our own language. And I've never heard anybody explain it as well as you did, Mike. We just, we just make a words, you know, fixing is really preparing to. Okay. Yeah. Right. Right. I'm getting ready to. I'm fixing it. Now you don't need all those other words. Just fix it. It's like y'all. Everybody. You all. Y'all. You all. No, we don't need all that. Y'all. The whole group of you. This whole gather everybody that's in the room. No, y'all. And then the plural though is actually all y'all. All y'all. Not just y'all. All of y'all. You see, y'all. You think I'm just talking to y'all. No, I'm talking to all y'all. All y'all. Yeah. Yeah, y'all and paying attention. But I'm talking to y'all too. I'm talking to all of y'all. Shoot, dad. That was funny stuff. And I thought now you've got some tea. You'd made some t-shirts. Yeah. And you got a phrase on that that kills me, man. Tell me about that about some of the words you, because you're from you're from where? I came to South Carolina. South Carolina. Yep. And I live in Columbia, South Carolina. So my favorite word is like you mentioned this is made up word is five syllables is one word. Say it slowly for the listeners. What you're not going to do. So that's that's you should say it faster than that. But I want you to hear all the all the syllables. That's all one word. What's your not going to do what you're not going to do? You say you say it quickly because you were trying to make a point. So that when I was in the military, there's a there's the preparatory command and then there's the command execution. So it's like put on. So they grabbed your attention. And then what comes next is what you need to do. So what you're not going to do, that grabs your attention. And you say, keep running in and out of this house. So keep running in the house. It's not the man of executions. So that's the part that you need to listen to. But I need to get your attention first. I need to say what you're not going to do. And then you're like, whoa, what do you have it? It's touched my radio while we drive. And that's what you're not going to say. You need to grab their attention. That's what the what you're not going to do a grabs the attention of the audience member. So, uh, so that's those are phrases. What are some of the other phrases that we've made up on the side? I'd say we now because I've been here 30 years in Texas. And I think I've started. I've heard a whole bunch of them. Right. You just adopt them. What had happened was that's that's one word. That's a whole. What's not going to do. What you're not going to do. What had happened was fixing. Um, what's what's another good one? Uh, uh, let's see. Like, um, rent rent rent rents this out. Like so, so what someone says rents. This means go and put water. Yeah. There's a lot of there's a lot of southern terminology. Yeah. That, you know, by virtue of just being here, you know, you know, I'm thinking about it. It just it just comes in language. Like that. Like that. You had when you were talking about when it's when it's raining and the sun is out. Oh, yeah, the devil's beating his wife. That's a, uh, that's a common expression in the South. That's, I'm telling you, I was a young boy and people with, I've been put my ear to the ground trying to hear the argument. Because the sun was shining and it was raining outside and folks said that the devil was beating his wife. I was like, what, what? And it led me to so many other thoughts. It's like, who would marry the devil? Oh, it's Mary and Satan. Who is that person? What do they meet? What in the world? You should know not to marry Satan. Like out of all the people, not to marry. Lucifer. You should know this. You should, that's common knowledge. That's like, don't play an interstate. That's just like this common knowledge. Like you should not do those things. Should not marry Satan. Why are you marrying Lucifer? That he is not a good groom. That's party stuff, man. Man, we do come up with all those phrases, don't we? Right. Man. And then, uh, you know what, uh, the one, the phrase that you just killed us on was, uh, was about the cat. Don't let the cat out of the bag. Don't let the cat out of the bag. He has a bag of cats who's right here with bags of cats. How do you even get cats in a bag? How do you get in a bag? You cats are not, I've never seen a group of cats together. Whoever had like more than like 10 cats, unless you like the cat lady or something, but there's not a bunch of cats. That you could just scoop up and throw in a bag. Why is it in the bag? How long has it been in the bag? How many bags do you have full of cats? What is this? This is strange hobby. It's a funny stuff, man. And there's more than one way to skin a cat skin a cat. We got all these cat phrases. We got the cat is raining cats and dogs. Don't be a scary cat. You a big cat. What's the, I mean, there's just so many living like a fat cat. There's just so many expressions that we have around the cat. The cat got your tongue. Look with the cat drug. It just keeps going goodness. Why are we obsessed with these cats? What is what? We are messed up with cats. And the dogs will be like, what's the way? I'll get no love. The dog's life. Don't let the dog out the bag. Nobody else said that. You put a lot easier to put a dog in a bag. Yeah, the bag dog will be like, yeah, buddy. You want me to go in the bag? I'll go. Yeah, you said if you saw a man with a bag of cats. The first thing I would say is, hey, man, you need to let those cats out the bag. That would tell them to let those cats out the bag. Why are we trying to keep cats in bags? Don't let the cat out. Yes, let them out all of them and put the bag down. And you say that bag and pick up trash with it. That's what you need to do. You should know better. Go pick up this bag. That's what you need to be putting your money. This is funny. Stop talking with Mike Goodwin. And it's spelled away. It's, you know, pronounced goodwin. And, and so you can, we can see his stuff. You're on YouTube. You're on Vimeo. You're all kinds of places. But where did humor come up in your life? Mike, when did that start? Paul initially started from a very dark place initially. The first time I realized that I had the ability to make folks laugh was, I noticed where my parents would give these arguments when I was young. And they would argue. And then basically what would happen, my father would stay in his room and then my mom would come out and start preparing dinner. And it just would be this tension. It would just be such a tension in the air. And I just was thinking like, man, what can I do? You know, I'm probably six, you know, six, seven, you know, I'm the oldest of three. And I just started doing jokes, right? I just started saying some little funny stuff to my mom. And she started laughing. Like it, you know, and it just broke the tension. So basically what happened, my dad would be in the room and then my mom would come and the kitchen, me and my brother and sister would already be in the living room area. And I would go into my routine. And I mean, we would be laughing. And my mom would be laughing to the point that my dad was like, what's going on? It was all the noise going on in there. Call the noise out. You know, and so that's when I knew I was really, I was really doing well when we were dead would be like, what are you doing in there? Call the noise out. Okay, that's like a, that'd be like a standing over something, right? That's what I'm like, man, I'm, I'm cooking the night, buddy. But I mean, basically, you know, if you will, you had a sense that you had to do something. You're six year old, dude. Right. That's incredible, man. Right. I just felt like that's tough. I had some men, I like, I had to do something in this moment. And there was a lot of moments like that. Why just felt like even though I was little and I was small, that's, I mean, you know, I would probably want to go there because this is about dads and sons and fathers. I made a pledge when I was maybe eight years old, I mean, same right as same 7, 6, 8, yeah, that I would not play football. The reason was my dad was a huge football fan, love football, watch football, every Sunday. And I knew that he wanted his sons to play football. Like I, he just, he was grooming me to play football. Like I had the Minnesota Vikings helmet. We watched football every summer, every Sunday. Yeah. And I knew I said, okay, I can't physically stop him from doing some of the things he's doing. But I want to hurt him the way that I feel like I'm being hurt. And so I made a vow that I would never play serious down a football. And I did. Oh my god, you did that when you were eight years old. Like a kid, I just said, okay, I can't physically do anything to him. I can't stop what's happening in this household, but I can do something that would, I guess, you know, yeah. I mean, that's kind of, and I'm a thinker like that. So I'm constantly, I'm looking at the long game. And so that was one of those. But even before I knew it, like I just knew that, okay, if I set my mind to accomplish something, I could do it. And unfortunately, that was, you know, because I probably would have been a great for my athletic guy. You know, I'm a pretty nice guy. People always ask me, you know, where did I play ball? And I'm like, nah, I didn't play ball. And that was why though. Yeah, wounds of the father. And, and a value make when you're eight years old, it's stuck with you for a couple of years. I really didn't start really like being interested in football until like graduate school, like I wanted to hear first. That's Carolina for graduate school. And that, that's when I first saw like, a football tailgating. And so I started going to the games, but before the original USC, right, right, we don't get the credit. We don't get great coacher for a while. What was his name came out of was that Steve Spurrier? Yeah. He had some, some, some real players come through there. So yeah, I mean, yeah, but we just not been consistent, right? It's hard being a South Carolina game. It's hard being a leader into where you're at. Right. No, to recruit, right? Right. So, uh, but let me go back on this father thing now. And this, because here you are, uh, this is fascinating to me because, because you made a comment once that I heard where you said, you're a professional comedian, but your dad doesn't think you have a job. Right? Right. Right. And you know, it was interesting. Like when I decided to do it full time, like I never seen my father really concerned about my decisions. You know, but when I made that decision, he was like, Hey, man, are you really thinking about what you're doing? Like, I mean, I'm like, where's this concerned being? Like, I would have loved to have this concern years ago. Like, this was probably, man, I've been doing stuff eight years ago. Like I've been doing the full time comedy for the last eight years. So he showed up like a dad, like, wait, man, son, let me tell us. Let's have a couple like, where have you all these decisions I made, sir? It's like, like, it's like my son's gotten into a cult or something. Right. Right. I got to get in there. This is serious. Yeah. Yeah. Everything was cool. I didn't have to do anything. But now this is serious. It's like, it's kind of like when we pray. I have a friend of mine. One time I said, well, let's pray over this. He goes, oh, it's come to that. Has it. Is it serious? So tell me about the relational healing or process. Yeah. So I grew up a very angry young man. I mean, I just very, and it was seething anger. Right. So I didn't act out upon it. But I physically felt made of like two degrees warmer than my natural temperature. I used to tell people it was kind of like, you ever like had a dog. And when a dog first, you know, it's a young little pup. Yeah. You feed it. And it's just like you go and stand close to it. And it's like, uh, make it angry. Right. That's even a Bible talks about fathers. Don't, um, don't provoke your children. Don't provoke your children to rap. Right. Yeah. My dad didn't read that scripture. Right. So he was, he was, he must have read it the wrong way. He, he must have thought it said, for others, please provoke. He read that part where Paul's on the Timothy says, uh, throw it up. He said, uh, throw this thing. But hey, let's get the proper Rika, get the solid. It's like, uh, the old dog cast on the brand name too. I just was, I just was an angry little guy. And I was, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't intimidating. Like I wasn't a big figure. So like I had all this anger balled up. Jesus. And it, uh, it infected me in a different kind of way, you know, because again, I didn't act out. Yeah, I wasn't very rebellious. But I was seething. Like I just, I just was walking time bomb to something. Right. And so I just kind of, uh, you know, low key kind of kid. I really, you know, I wasn't really, uh, notable. I wasn't, wasn't a great athlete. You know, I was funny, but I wasn't like no one. If you would talk to anybody that grew up with me, they would never say, oh man, my goo is going to be a comedian, like a professional out here. Like I don't think that would have been the expectation. And so I just was kind of, you know, going through life, man, and the first decision I made that was separate from my father's kind of wishes was my senior year. I decided to join the army. And my dad was his whole thing was like, you need to go to college, you need to go to college, you need to go to college. But we never talked about how I was going to pay for college. And I went again, I didn't have scholarship opportunities. I didn't have, I went to academic scholar or anything like that. So I mean, I would have been in college, because I got accepted to a school. But I felt I just would have been working and being in college and then I probably would have went for a year and not been able to afford it. So. He, we had this kind of difference, this philosophical difference, like, no, you need to go to college, you need to go to college. And I'm a player dead. How am I going to pay for it? I don't, I don't know how it is going to pay for it. And my dad, he had his last ditch effort, because I kind of started looking around. And I figured, man, I'm going to join the military. So once I had to do my dad brings my uncle over to the house, I'm just sitting in the living room. And my uncle comes in and my dad, you could tell he had like, this is his plan, he had something like this is man, after you hear what your uncle has to say. This is going to work. You go into college, right? So he tells me I'm sitting there. He says turn the TV off. I turn off the TV. And he was like, you know, we've been talking about college. So your uncle's going to tell you why it's important for you to go to college. Now I thought we about to talk about the finances. I thought we about say, okay, I have this account. We're going to get you a car. You know, you don't have to worry about books and you know, room and board. You know, you go for two years and then save your money in the summer. Like I thought he was going to have a plan. My uncle looked at me in the face. He was like, my dad was like, tell a boy why he got he need to go to college. My uncle looked at me in my face and said, you need to go to college because they're girls there. What? That was it. Drop the bike. Girls. Girls. That was your dad's plan. Girls. My God. I signed up with the crew the Monday morning. That was. I'm out of here. I have out of here. Girl. His girls in my neighborhood is not paying me any attention. So I'm going to college for. Have them not pay me any attention. Now, where did you, where did you come to faith in Christ? I came to faith in college. So. Well, you know, I grew up in the church. You know, church kid. Yeah. Yeah, in the south with everybody does. Yeah. But I was a little Pharisee, right? So I was a, I was a church kid. There's a few of those too. Yeah. I was always judging me. I was pointing out what everybody was doing wrong, right? So I was, oh, you shouldn't see where they were on Saturday night. Yeah. I was like, oh, you're going to go to hell. You're going to get in trouble. So I was doing into about the sixth grade. And then I found out cuss words. And I was like, oh, my goodness. I really like saying these words. And so I would say the words like it's cool and stuff. And I was like, well, I guess I'm not a Christian anymore, because I'm using these words, right? So. I got a response, which is right. Helped your pain. Right. And so. You know, I left. I joined the military after high school. And I kind of was out in the world. I was being out in the world, wasn't me raising all the same. Like, you know, I. Yeah. I probably hung out with a lot of, a lot of, a lot of women. That's probably what was my advice in terms of. Well, you were just a guy in the army. Yeah. I was just a regular dude, right? So, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't do it too much. But my mom was constantly, my mom, every time I spoke with her. She was asking me, had I been to church? Had I gone to church? You know, how am I doing? And my, you know, what's going on my spiritual life? And I, so I was never. So far from. The call of God over my life. Like I always knew. That I was going to. Be a man of God and be a, be a person who life reflected Christ, right? But in that, that gap of time when I graduated, kind of even through high school. But again, I was just like a minor offenses. I wouldn't do anything. Yeah. Was, was any of any concern? So you get out of the army year in college and go to college. Okay. So you did end up going to college because they. Because now you got the GI bill and that's right. That's why I went in the army to go to college. I actually had a plan. I had a plan. I'm a plan guy for all like. If. To tell me what I'm doing. I'm a curious mind in a plan. I'm going to create a plan. I'm going to get it done. Just let me know. Go to college because there's girls girls. That is, that is funny, man. And I'm talking about Mike. Like they looked at each other. Like they could have high five each other. Like done. Got him. Got him. Got him. Got him. Got him. So now you get to college. You know where the girls are still there. They were there. When I got there. Before they're after they would they, they're still there. So, uh, so what was the occasion then where you really tipped into faith? So when I got to college, man, I was big man on campus. I was just a different. I was like, well, that's right. I spent four years in the military. So I wasn't an average freshman. So I just came with this kind of different aura. You know, I was a freshman, but people, like, man, who is this guy? Like, what is? And I was serious, man. I was, you know, academically. I was doing well. I was, uh, you know, very sociable on campus. I was hanging out. I was just like a good guy to be around, right. And party and having them. joined the fraternity whole night, but when I came to school, I met my wife, but I didn't know it at the time that that would be my wife, but we developed a friendship, right? But she was a Christian, like she was a legit, seeking after God's heart, like legit in the faith, right? And so we met and we actually went out and I knew that I wasn't good for her at that time. I said, you know, I, I'm not, I'm not living in a, I'm not living in a way that God would be, you know, it's pleasing to God, but I fear him too much to get you off track. Like she didn't really kind of want to hit it at the time, right? Because I basically gave her to, you're a great wife, but you're not a good girl for any kind of speech, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Women don't want to hit that, like they want to be, they want to be with you, right? And so I knew I was like, what I was doing would not cause you to walk in faith, right? So I, and I did not want the response. There's enough people that were not living holding, right? So I'm like, I'm gonna hang out with these people. Yeah, I'm not the person that was like the, the wolf in the, in the hen house. Like I just, I had no respect for, and I mean, I met a guy like that when I first got to campus. He was a choir director and he cut hair on campus. I got the, I got the campus. Everybody was like, hey man, you need to let this guy cut hair. We go bar, you know, first year for guys, freshmen, so like three or four of us. And he basically tells us, hey man, you need y'all need to come out to choir rehearsal because there's a lot of girls in the choir. And I'm like, this sounds like my uncle, man. This is not why you come to choir rehearsal. Choirs are saying to the Lord. So I'm like, I have no, I have no regard for people that say one thing and do a different thing, right? Like, be who you are, whatever that is. Like just be solid. And that's where I was. And so I had this encounter with God because I was going along. I was big man on campus. I was notable. People knew I was, I was doing all the right stuff. Inside I was empty, man. I was just, there was a void. And I felt it and it just kept getting bigger, right? So I just like, okay, I knew what it was. I was like, hey man, you need to surrender. But I'm just like, nah, man, I'm not, it's not, I'm not ready. I'm not ready to do this. And so I would go and let's say, let's go party a little harder, right? And I'll go party and it'll cover up the void for a little bit. Then the void would come back bigger than it was before. I was like, yo, this is not, this is not good, man. And so it got to the point of like, I could not reconcile my lifestyle with what, I, you know, the voice of God, it was just like, you can't outrun God, right? You just can't, it's always arms to two lungs. Yeah. It's just, and I kept trying to outrun my call. And so what basically happened, it was the New Year's Eve, it was the night of New Year's, 99, 98 going to 99. I just broken up with this girl, well, I didn't break up with her, her father broke up. So, my father broke up with her, so, so, and how was that just low point? Like I had the void, you know, I had this emptiness, I had this void. And so my cousin, we were trying to figure out what to do to bring in the New Year, right? And so he was like, hey, man, let's go and hang out at the club. You know, this was a big year too, because we were going into 1999. So we like, hey, man, we got the party, like it's 1999. And so I was like, yeah, man, let's do that. But before we do that, let's go to this watch night service. That's what it said there was. Y'all, it was huge. And I said, let's go to this New Year's Eve service, this watch night service at the church. So we went, he agreed and we set at the next to the last pew at this, just my childhood church church, I grew up in. And the past is up there, ministering. And I'm having an internal war. Like it's just, it's war war 35. Like it's just, I'm clashing with myself. And I'm basically having a conversation, like, and I'm telling myself, you know, similar, like my spirit was telling my flesh. All right, time's up. You've had your run. You know, it's time to hand me the keys. And then we're gonna, we're gonna go in a different direction. And the flesh was like, now, man, no, but we, we got too much party and to do too much whatever. Like what are people gonna say, you know, my reputation? And, you know, and I was just at this point was like, what is all, that means nothing. Like all of that mean, everything you just said is irrelevant to how empty we are right now. Like just, yeah, you wrestling, no. I'm wrestling, like I'm seriously wrestling. And he hadn't even made the invitation to the all to you, right? And I got to a point where I just like, I'm going to the all to, like in the discussion, like we can't rationalize this. Yeah. Let's go down to the all to and I get up and I make my way to the all to, right? And, and I guess, you know, the past was gonna, going into his invitation. I mean, it just was one of those moments of like, I just came up to the all to and like, collapsed, like on the floor, I just surrendered. And before what made me stand up, I heard, you know, the conversation to wrestling was like, so what are people gonna say back at campus? And I said to myself, I don't care what people gonna say. And as soon as I said, I don't care, I stood up and I walked to the front of church. And I gave my life to Christ at a New Year's Eve service in what's amazing. That's when I started doing stand up. It was at a New Year's Eve service. Like, so New Year's Eve services, I like, really, really much now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, that's, that's an amazing testimony. And then that had to have started quite a process in your family situation then. Oh, yeah. So, so back to in terms of like my dad, right? So before, you know, I'd given my life to Christ. When I joined the military, I was an angry guy. And so I was serving with this guy. He was, he was my sergeant at the time I might have been like a specialist, like at E4. He was like at E5. So he was one of the leaders of our unit. And we were, you know, I wasn't feel artillery. So we spent a lot of time out in the field. We just were always in the field. And so I was always complaining and about my dad. I was going on, you know, I'm just angry to do about his dad. And Sergeant Harrowick is the guy's name. He looked at me one day and he said, you know what, good one? Alicia Dad was there. Why? I didn't have my dad to grow up with and it caused me to say, you know what, my dad wasn't a perfect guy, but he's right. Like, and he, you know, he said, like, I wished my dad would have been, you know, me and the media. My dad did nothing. I had no relationship, zero. So he's basically saying, I mean, cherish what you have. Like, you know, I know it wasn't the best. I know there was a lot of flaws, but man, I appreciate the fact that your dad didn't leave. And so that changed my paradigm, like, man. Wow. And then it started getting me to think about, well, what happened to my dad? Like what led him to be this way? And like, he just wasn't an angry guy because he wanted to be an angry guy. So my dad, man, lost his parents at the age of nine. He ended up his oldest brother brought him into his home and his older brother already had four children. So imagine bringing a child into a home with four, like, that's an impossible scenario, right? Yeah. And so that made me have compassion. That made me be more considerate of, oh, man, my dad probably didn't have the childhood. This is strong because so you're compassion for your dad. And then your following Christ caused you to begin that perspective and then probably moved you to a place where you for David. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. And we've reconciled since and we, you know, and we still, you know, we still, because my dad's probably 65 now. And, you know, he's aged, right? So he's not the guy that I remember with the heavy fists and the, you know, domineering. He's a kindler, gentler. You know, he, he had kind of a health scare within the last two years. So he's not drinking at the rate that he drinks that he used to drink. Yeah. And he's even confessed Christ, you know, his, his consistency of his steps. And, you know, we're all that way. You know, I'm talking with Mike Goodwin, comedian Mike Goodwin and talking about, you know, he's coming to Christ and his family and his dad. But, you know, when you talk about dads and that thing, Mike, we all have stuff, you know, none of us are perfect. Right. You know, in the intimacy of families, sometimes we have a tendency because we're negative by nature, which is why negative advertising works so well in the political campaigns. Right, right. And we easily believe in negative. I think we easily see the negative. And so it's easier to see that and forgiveness when you forgive your dad, it began to open up a whole new relationship. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And then here's the other thing too with our relationship. I stop holding him accountable to my expectations, right? So, so I created these expectations that he would never been able to be like, that's unfair. Because your expectation created disappointments and it were false expectations. False expectations, right? And so now I got these real anger, these real disappointments over something that wasn't a real expectation. And disappointments aren't based on where you are, but where you expected to be. Right, right. So that gap, you know, I look at it, Mike is the value of the shadow of death, you know, in Psalm 23, it's not the value of death, it's a shadow of death. Shadow of right. And I think disappointments like a shadow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it can follow you around. And you know, that's where we have to begin to the Bible says, you know, to praise the Lord, confess the Lord, worship him. Why? Because sometimes that clouds there, man. That's what it takes. That's why I appreciate it. By the way, how did you work in the army? That go well for you? Oh, not at all, man. That's all I ended up probably being super strong. Like, I was a little faster, a little stronger. I spent a lot of time in the same pit. Oh, that's funny. You missed a good one. Yeah, yeah, coming, you're over there. Right, lean in resposition, move. Like that's what that's basically started to push up. Yeah, so now you get a master's in education, University of South Carolina. Right. And end up in secondary and primary education. And what teaching administration, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, so my goal was to work as like a administrator in a college campus. And so I was trying to become a dean of students, but then I took a job at this private school as the director of college counseling. So I worked with families, helping them to navigate the college admission process. Now, how did, so where did this humor come back into the point that where you don't have a job? So here's the thing. So, I mean, so I was funny, you know, I was a funny guy. I just always had these kind of insights and ideas. So I did this presentation. I did this leadership presentation at the school, because I was working with these student groups. And I was noticing that kids were having a difficult time transitioning from campus to corporate. So they would, as they were looking to get interviews, get internships, they would have their emails that would be like, juicy kisses at 995 and Gmail. You know, just weird, like, hey, man. Or you'll call a, you'll call an answer machine. This is an answer machine at the time. We didn't have voice mail. So you had call an answer machine. It was like the latest R&B song. It was like, yeah. Thank you for calling Justin, but I'm sorry. I was like, hey, man, y'all can't. No, we'll speak today. And then going to the job. So I did this whole workshop around professionalism, like how to prepare yourself to transition into the real world, right? And so I talked about all that. Your email address, your cover letter, your appearance, all this stuff. So I'm doing this presentation, but it was hilarious. Like I'm doing this, and I didn't mean for it to be funny, but it was just funny. Like my examples were funny, I was funny. And so there was a group that went back to their college because there was a few different schools that came. And they went back to their college and was like, hey, man, we saw this guy. We got to bring him to campus. He was so great, he was so funny. And so I get a call from their dean of students. And he was like, hey, man, I want to bring you to be one of our Black History Month speakers. And I'm like, what? Like I wasn't doing the Black History Month presentation. Like I don't know. It's because I'm black. Like, why am I doing the Black History Month? So I went, and I was, you know, I was honored. I was like, I would love to, you know, speak. Man, I went up there and bombed that speech so bad. It was the worst. I was terrible. It was, it was the worst. Because I started doing my presentation. I wasn't speaking. I was just doing my presentation and it was good. So I bombed and I said, and I'm never doing public speaking again. Like you won't ever find me. You won't ever find me in front of people. Never, ever, ever. This is it. I ain't open microphone. Ever, right? So I put away any kind of thoughts about being this circuit speaker. So then at my church, so I'm serving at my church in the media ministry. So I'm serving at the media ministry. And we have a comedian that joined our church, a guy by the name of Ockentunde. He was a secular comment who had given his life to Christ. And he's like, okay, I got to change my act. I got to change my life. And I'm, you know, I'm gonna get serious about the Lord. So he came and joined our church and we were serving together. And we were just, I would always kind of run ideas. Like, hey, man, you have to talk about this. You talk about that. And he let me do that for about 30 days. And then finally, he said, hey, man, you telling me some really funny things. He was like, if you want, I can go on stage and tell you jokes and you won't get any money. Or you can go on stage and tell the jokes. And then, you know, you will be paid. And so he basically bullied me on his stage. He just, and that's why I did the New Year's Eve service. That was my first time going up. You know, that's, that's an amazing story because it is about brotherhood, isn't it? It is mentoring. It is about helping somebody else along. He didn't, you know, in that sense, he was, you know, just a little while into his faith in Christ. Right. And it was somewhat more Christian than a lot of people who've been Christians for a long time. A long time, right? We were just taking that stuff. And just went in, yeah. That's incredible, man. Yeah, so he pretty much like mentor with me, you know, my first, you know, four or five years, just gave me the opportunity. So I kind of leaked from some of that early challenge that you have getting on stage. He just took me into other guys with him to his shows. Wow. And let us, you know, be the openers. And we kind of, we kind of cut our chops in that way. Yeah, so you'd get up to seven, eight minutes. Right. And it could be terrible. But he's going to come up and clean up the mess. Cause he, he's the guy. I mean, but, you know, you've worked at it. And it's obvious because these things don't happen unless you've worked at it. I, we were talking about, I was reading about Paul the Apostle the other day in the book of Acts, where these guys Barnabas and these guys, you know, and an IS, these different men had to be created. This guy's a killer, right? Paul's a killer. Right. He's killed these people. He's, he's, he's pulled people out. And now he gets knocked off his horse, but I told a group of pastors the other night in, in Latin America. I said, you know, he didn't get disciple when he was on the ground. Right. He got discipled when some men came alongside him with courage. Right. They're walking into a guy's house. It's like, this guy could pull me out right now. And I could go to jail the rest of my life. Right, right. If this deal isn't real. Right. You can't have courage. But then Paul had to do the hard work, man. It's 14 years of discipleship. So you had to do the hard work. In other words, if you're going to be professional, no matter what it is to anybody listening right now, you got to do the hard work. You got to do the stuff. You got to write things down. You got, God's not a magician, right? Well, it's miracles, right. And you have to accept personal responsibility. I think of Joseph, you know, the biblical character in the book of Genesis. When he's in prison, this is not where he ever expected to be. He's sold into slavery. You know, 26 years he had to hold on to his dream before the last 26 years. Right. When he's in prison, he accepts responsibility for where he's at, what he has and does it to the excellence of God. Right. And, you know, that's what we have to do as men. And you've done that, man. There's stuff you've worked up. And I got to have you do this one because it just slays me. I've probably watched this half a dozen times. And it's different between white guys and black guys in nickname. Right, right. It's awesome. Yeah, it's just how I, you know, it's the thing that, you know, the way I talk about it, it's being from the south. We just love nicknames, we just love nicknames. And I realized there's some people I've been knowing my entire life. I don't know their real names. And my brother called me the other day. He was like, Hey, man, you know, Mark Davis is mom passed away. And I was like, I don't know, no, Mark Davis. He was like, thank you, man. Thank you, mom of pass. I was like, why you ain't said that from the start? Like, I know a bunch of dudes that had like these real weird nicknames. We call it people nicknames by food. I know a cornbread, a pork chop, all the green. I know his one dude, his nickname is Boston. He ain't got no job, but I think white dudes have the coolest nicknames because white dudes nicknames go with them. Their entire life, white dudes have nicknames like Rusty. Yeah, chip. Like your nickname could be chip. You could be the CEO of a bank. Yeah, you could have chip on your business cards. Yeah, brothers can't do that. Pookie can't be a branch manager at the book. Oh, you can't put that on a business card. You can't have James Pookie green on your business card. You won't close deals. It won't happen. Yes, got to speak with Pookie, please. I have a 12 o'clock appointment. Well, yeah, that's the observational thing. And you made a great point, Paul, in terms of I call it similar to when David was serving as a shepherd. He was on the back side, right? He was out and he learning confidence with the bear. He was leading learning confidence with the lion. Like you have these experiences. And me and his other thing too, you have to fail. People don't want to fail. And I don't even call it failure. I just call it learning. Just have to care. Yeah, it's, I think my Maxwell called it failing forward. Failing forward. And people are so terrified. Like people, you know, I have a conversation with them. So what do you do if you had a Heckler? I keep doing comedy. I happen to figure out. And the only way I know what to do with a Heckler shows up is I need a Heckler to show up. So I need to be in that circumstance. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So when David fought Goliath, you know, the Bible says that he had already beaten the lion in a bearer. Right. He had already suffered the rejection of his father who said, you know, one of you sons is going to be the king. But it won't be you, David. You can go back out to the field. Right. So it deals with the rejection of his dad. And then he starts writing, you know, songs. Right. So he deals with adversity and practices intimacy. That's good. And the practicing of intimacy and the facing adversity is what gave him the character and the courage to stand there with Saul who we already knew because it'd been playing like a guitar or whatever it was to help the guy sleep. And says, I can go, I can beat this guy. Right. And Saul's like, Saul says, you know, put my armor on you. Right. And the thing is Mike, just the thought about that is that when Saul said, put my armor on you, one of the things that you had to do is you came to become a follower of Christ is you had to develop your identity in Christ because identity produces definition, definition, decisions. Right. So when David, when Saul said, put my armor on you and the Bible says that David looked at him and said, it doesn't fit. See, I went to a Sunday school. I was a preacher's kid. So I went to a Sunday school. And they always taught me David was this little guy. They even had songs about it. Right, right. This little guy with a slingshot. But when you study history and you look at the Jewish writers and you study back to the writings of the rabbis and so forth, they talk about the size of David, how he was a strong man. Guys followed him because he had a presence about him. Right. And if you look at it that way, then when David looked at Saul and Saul said, put my armor on you, what was on the armor was the identity markings of Saul. And David looks at Saul and says, I'm not putting your identity on me. I'm not your negativity. Right. I'm not taking this lower esteem of yourself. I'm not taking your doubt of God. I'm not taking your faithlessness. I'm not putting that on me. He said, it doesn't fit. And he goes on to defeat the enemy. So man, this is this is the kind of thing Mike and I'm talking with Mike Goodman. So comedian, you can find him on YouTube, Vimeo different places. You've been at the Comedy Zone on TVN, USO and in this dry bar. Yeah, yeah. Fantastic piece. And you know, it's amazing what the Lord has enabled you to do. But you had to work it, man. You've had adversity times of intimacy. I'm sure there's been moments for God just drops in your heart. Hey, here's a bit. Right, right, right. Here's a thing. And I love the fact, here's what I love. Here's the here's a deal. Because I asked Chris, our producer, I go, I'm watching your gig here. Drive. And I'm laughing at seriously laughing out loud, okay? And I'm thinking, so I call Chris. I go, is this guy Christian? He's pretty funny. He's like, you know, it's like Christian movies. You know, it's like, that's a great point. That's a great point because he's like, but he's actually funny. That's that's what that was one of the things I told God when I started. I want it to be excellent in Christian, like, so when you put Christian in front of something, it's like an inferior brand, right? Yeah. And the thing I noticed with some of my peers, Christian comedians, when it starts going bad, they want to share their testimony. They didn't bring you in here to share your testimony. They brought you in here to be hilarious. I don't need you. I didn't meet. We didn't fly you in here to share your testimony. But nobody's going to tell you not to share your testimony. So I have seen that. I have seen that too many times. It's like, it's like everybody's sitting there. And the thing is, it's kind of like, you know, it's a tough deal to be a comedian because it's like, hey, go out there and be funny. Now, the setup has to be, I mean, there has to be an expectation of people walking in going, okay, this guy's going to be funny. But now you're leaning into that, it's right. Okay, so they've already given you that. They've given you the expectation of, all right. This is going to be a fun night. You guys are comedians. And it gets out and it does a bunch of stuff on you know, and then it's like, well, you know, that's what's wrong with America. And we didn't get right, you know, in all of a sudden, I'm like, I thought this was supposed to be funny. Who, what are you doing? And that's, so I made that commitment at the beginning. I said, you know what? If I was in the audience, I'm going to give people what I would want to receive. I'm not going to get up here. And if you brought me in here to be funny, I'm going to be funny. And I mean, I don't want my plumber. I'm a Christian plumber. Right. He's broken. Hey, man. Just, you know, he fixed the pipes, but he left you with two or three good, good servants, good, good, good scripts to look at or he gave, no, man, no, let the spirit lead us, lead us to fixed the pipes. I mean, I need a professional plumber. I need his drip to stop. I don't need you to drip me with the annoyance in. I need you to stop the drip in my bathroom. You know, because, and that's a real thing, Mike. And, and that's why I appreciate it to your humor, because I go, dude, this guy's, this guy's actually funny. And then, you know, part of your whole piece is the bowtie. Right. Yeah, where'd that come from? And tell me about the bowtie. Because this, I love everything about it. You know, my whole thing has been, I follow rules, but I'm just a little bit of a rebellion, a little, a little rebellious. Just a little bit. Like, I'm not out here doing a bunch of some firsts of things. But if everybody's wearing a tie, I got to do something different, man. I got to wear a bowtie. If everybody's going right, I'ma turn left a little bit. I was in the military. So, I mean, it wasn't like I'm out here doing, and you know, I'm just like without lawlessness. But I just got to do my own thing a little bit. I got a bounce to the beat of my own drum. And so that's what the bowtie was. And I've always been, I've always thought the idea of your parent says something about you, you know, when you show up, man, and the way that you look, I want to communicate the folks that, man, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm professional. But you said what time you said you were wearing, you were on stage, you were wearing a bowtie and a sweater. Right. Right. And you pointed to it and you go, you're going to tell my whole act. You can't do the whole act, Paul. We can't do all the jokes, Paul. Later, say some of the jokes, okay, okay, okay. You got to go on YouTube and watch that. It's the drive-bar version. Because it's fantastic. Nursery rhymes, great stuff, weird phrases. We're just about the south. I think it starts the south beat. Made up words from the south. Right up on the south. Yeah. South with an F. With an F and not a TH. The south. Hey, you know, Michael, and the other thing is, I want everybody, all the men, particularly, who are listening right now. You know, this is a man we need to pray for. This is a tough time during the COVID stuff, where you're not traveling as much, trying to do a lot of stuff online. I know you're doing virtual stuff. Right. We had a corporate thing, business deal, where they're, you know, they're going to do an hour in front of their company. You could do a 15-minute piece for them on Zoom. Right. Right. Right. You could be part of their opening piece that would, I mean, and you do this for corporations. You do leadership conferences. You do all kinds of stuff. How do we find you, Mike? Yeah. You did go to my website, comedianmygoodwood.com, and you have all my information there. I do some keynotes, I do corporate clean. I'm clean, you know, I'm a man of, you know, here's the two things I wanted to do when I, because I was a Christian when I started doing comedy. So I'm glad, because there was no telling what I would be saying had I not. But the first thing I wanted to do, you learned swear words when you were, oh, I was, oh, I had them down to you. Some of the first comics I was exposed to, the guys that they'd be like, oh, no, he was listening to that guy. The first one of the two things I wanted to do, the first thing I wanted to be excellent at it, regardless of Christian, like I wanted to get in the any room, whether it was club, yeah, regardless of who I was, what audience I was in front of, I wanted them to walk away like man, this guy is hilarious. And the other thing I wanted to do was do a set of present my material and awaited on it. God, you know, the way that I felt proud of what I was saying, you know, I come, comedy comes from a dark place and you know, a lot of times we take comedy and we make it light. But what I come from a place of love and not malice. So even if a joke offends a person and some jokes have the ability to do that, I'm not coming from a place of malice. I'm coming from a place of love, I'm coming from a place of, yeah, from kindness and caring. But what was still folks and people love still? Yeah, love man. Yeah, somebody you don't want to stay that way, right? You know, the attitudes they have or misunderstandings or wrong perspective and the other thing you've got, you've got two children, they're 10 and 14, right? And you got to be able to go home at night and sit down with your kids or comedy, you put them to bed and then go to your gig, you know, but you know, you got to be able to sit down with your kids and for them to be able to honor you as their dad. Exactly. And they have the opportunity to come to the shows, they work the tables. If you before this, you know, Kelvin, I had the whole family working to merge table. This is a family enterprise. We do it together. Fantastic. Talking with Mike Goodwin and you're on all kinds of stuff and we can find you on YouTube and then I would encourage pastors, churches. A lot of churches are doing in person now, they're doing a combination in person online and you'd be the perfect guy to come in. You're willing to travel now, is that right? Yep. Yep. And I love doing, I'd love doing couples to like marriage nights, date nights. I would be a perfect date night guy. That would be fantastic. I love date nights because when I started, I said, man, I want to be the type of act that I would take my wife to, like I want to be in the audience for this because there's nothing funnier than marriage stuff. Oh, man, I got so much, that's so much. How can married? It'll be 21 years in all year. 21 years. Wow. So you probably don't do any Rodney Dangerfield wives, no, I get no respect, no, I, you know, I would do the, I hate my wife jokes, any woman, please, take it. Yeah. So that's fantastic. Well, I just pray, you know, our prayer for you, Mike, is that God would, would prosper you and that God, that every place you put your feet would be holy ground, that everything you put your hands to would prosper and that God would keep you and your amazing family deep within the grip of His grace and love. And we pray a great success for you, Mike. We receive that. Youth just experience brave man with Paul Lewis Cole. Paul is president of the Christian men's network, connect with Paul at cmn.man, or write to him at Paul at cmn.man.