Tom Rhodes Radio Smart Camp

Stay cheerful because there are enough bitter turds on this earth try to see the beauty that exists among all the ugliness.   JT Habersaat is a comedian, author, artist and my dear friend. He is also a Charles Bukowski enthusiast, so much so that he has Bukowski's face tattooed on his leg. In this episode JT and I sit down and talk about the poet Charles Bukowski and why he is meaningful to us. This conversation was also filmed as a part of a secret project I have been working on for the past year and parts of this talk will be puzzle pieces put into that project. Now with all of the hatred and violence set loose on the earth it is a good time to be reminded to stay cheerful because there are enough bitter turds on this earth and why you should always try to see the beauty that exists among all the ugliness. Special thanks to my friend JT Habersaat for flying all the way to California to be a part of my project. Friendships are the greatest treasures to be found on this earth. Hooray for humanity! Glory to Uk

This episode is a repost from September 2014. --------- Recorded at Johnathan’s house in Las Vegas, September 2014 I want to pay tribute to the Amazing Johnathan before he drops dead. We all avoid the thought of death and superstitiously try to avoid the topic but that dirty whore will strike each of us. The Amazing Johnathan has a heart ailment and his doctors have told him that if his medicine doesn't work he only has one year to live. Imagine what you would do if you were told you only had one year to live.   After years of touring relentlessly he wants to stay at home, maybe buy a new big screen TV, maybe do heroin, maybe a demolition derby in his back yard? I drove into his swank neighborhood, gated community with plush lawns and green trees in Las Vegas. Rich people can make it green anywhere. His house is a large sparkling palace with classic cars parked all over the front yard and back.  The 17 year old boy in me can't help but smile to see sitting in his drive way a 1967 midnight blue convertible GTO

In the USA we had a war on drugs, we had a war on terrorism, and now I think we need to declare war on anger. Each one of us should fight to keep that poison out of our lives. Listening to Curtis Mayfield helps. Another sure way to perfect joy is by  listening to this warm and lovely conversation I had with Zainab Johnson. She is someone I love and would always makes laugh. Let some light into your life and rejoice now that the new episode of TRR Smart Camp is here! It is my please to introduce you now to the one and only Zainab Johnson! Joy to you!   Patreon.com/tomrhodesradiosmartcamp

Happy love day February 14! Today I want to introduce you to the bright ball of sunshine, intelligence & hilarity that is my good friend Monique Marvez. She is a fire breathing dragon on the comedy stage and a possessor of great pearls of wisdom from a life fully lived. Get happy with this glorious conversation that we recorded for delight of your brain & all of humanity. Joy be upon you!   patreon.com/tomrhodesradiosmartcamp

Danny Fingers & The Thumbs have a new album coming out on February 22 & he has flown himself down from Bend, Oregon to tell me all about it. Danny is a fellow world traveler and artistic soul and that is why it is my pleasure to present him to you now. Joy be upon you!

My heart took a solid punch of sadness when I learned of the recent passing of Jonathan Atherton. He was a pioneer on the international comedy scene for nurturing and helping to develop the comedy scenes in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. He was a beautiful lunatic with a golden heart who made me and so many others laugh through the years with his all loving comedy in defense of the underdog. It was my pleasure to share many stages with him throughout South East Asia and I am forever grateful to him for introducing me to black pepper crab in Singapore which to this day remains one of my favorite things on this earth. I'm happy to have known him and even happier that I recorded this conversation with him in Singapore in 2013. Rejoice in his stories of a life fully lived and his rich voice full of expression. Performing stand up comedy and passing on the flame to the next generation were his greatest passions in life and it is my pleasure to honor him here and now by reposting this conversation that we recorded. My

Enjoy this conversation I recorded with my wonderful & amazing mother in Mount Dora, Florida. Joy be upon you!     * Become our patron and receive podcast goodies! www.patreon.com/tomrhodesradiosmartcamp   * Sign up for a conversation with Tom! www.patreon.com/tomrhodesradiosmartcamp

This year has been rough and I have been on a mission to cheer myself up. Comedy, baseball, rollerskating and music have been my tools to repair my joy but most of all, friendships have been my glue holding it all together. I am blessed to have so many good true friends in my life and in this episode I review the many strange and joyous experiences I've lived recently. Hooray for humanity and hooray the many beautiful human beings who populate my life.   Are you interested in future podcast episodes? Support by sharing, donating and enjoying extra's on Patreon.com/tomrhodesradiosmartcamp

Let me tell you about the time I smoked pot with Jack Nicholson at Dodger stadium during a Rolling Stones concert   I blew it! I have been dating an amazing woman and I broke up with her only to find out that my love is stronger than my pride and my principles. In this episode I talk about how I'm afraid to listen to music now because the right song could destroy me. I talk about the death of Charlie Watts and the time I smoked pot with Jack Nicholson at Dodger stadium. Also I remember the best lines from the movies of Jean-Paul Belmondo who also died recently. Special thanks to Erick Urquidez who produced this episode. Joy be upon you!   patreon.com/tomrhodesradiosmartcamp

It is best to stay a bus length away from a bison and a football field's length away from a bear.   Hear the story of my epic trip trip to Montana, from the best place to see bison, to where you can take bubble breaks along the highway and why mounted deer heads on walls all have the same facial expression. Come ride along with me to learn amazing animal facts and to hear stories that will make your belly quake with laughter. Joy be upon you and hooray for humanity!   patreon.com/tomrhodesradiosmartcamp

Never become a bitter turd, no matter what happens to you.   For the first time in 37 years I had to cancel show due to illness because I got Covid 19! I am fully vaccinated so I felt bullet proof and hugged way too many people at the shows in Las Vegas last week. Fortunately I was about to perform at Brad Garrett's comedy club in Las Vegas when I found out that I had it. Brad Garrett is one of the most loving & generous people in show business & the glorious humans who work at his club are like family to me. I was allowed to stay at the MGM Grand hotel & quarantine here. The first few days I felt like a truck had run me over & the big jacuzzi tub in the room was a great relief to my body aches. Las Vegas is currently a hot bed for the Delta variant & it got me. Now this is just one more thing that I have survived. In this episode I talk about how the last 8 days of quarantine have been, the beautiful memorial celebrating the life of Carl LaBove that I spoke at that was held at Brad Garret

Comedians are not fixing the world, we are making fun of it.   Bassem Youssef was a successful heart surgeon in Egypt before he left his career in medicine to become the Jon Stuart of the Middle East. His version of The Daily Show became one of the most controversial shows in the history of television. He was arrested, interrogated and had his life seriously threatened as can be seen in the documentary about what he went through called Tickling Giants. Bassem is one of the bravest comedians who ever lived in my opinion and when his life was being threatened by every kind of fanatic every day in Cairo he told me "I never feared for my life, I would fear the reaction on Twitter. If people tell you you are not funny, that is worse than a bullet." "In the history of the world, people have always done atrocities in the name of God, and they always give a justification for it." After leaving Egypt he started doing stand up in Boston and now he is crushing audiences in Los Angeles. See him this weekend June 25 &

Laughter literally began in our species as a gesture of shared relief at the passing of danger.   The state of California just lifted the restrictions that have been in place for the past 15 months and a big collective sigh of relief along with hardy laughter is ours for now. I celebrated life getting back to normal by seeing the Dodgers at Dodger stadium and it felt so good to gather in a large group of humans again. In this episode I talk about visiting my mom in Florida and the loud Mustang that I rented that was so embarrassing to drive I took it back to the airport to get another car. Because California has so many natural disasters my mom gave me a "Life Straw" and even though I make fun of its concept it just might save my life one day. The three documentaries I recommend you watch in this order are 'The night James Brown saved Boston', 'Soul Power' and "When we were kings'. I talk about how Japan has the longest life expectancy in the world and how in Japan the birth rate is so low that they sell more

Peron means bad ass & other things worth knowing. Last week I was contacted by a listener named Big John who wanted to trade me his baseball cards for anything I could think of. I decided to trade him something that I loved greatly for his cards and to introduce him to my favorite tacos in Los Angeles. Enjoy this conversation I had with a new friend and if you are in Los Angeles, head straight to #tacos1986 as often as you can. Joy be upon you and hooray for humanity! patreon.com/tomrhodesradiosmartcamp.com

Life is like a butterfly... One minute you are floating along and then the next... thummppp! Windshield.   This past week two men that I love dearly dropped dead. Gerke Nauta was the director of the first two seasons of the Kevin Masters Late Night show that I did in Amsterdam. He taught me how to be a television host and how to look into the cold black lense of the camera and speak warmly to the people watching at home. Gerke Nauta changed the course of my life when he and Jason Tegelaar chose me to be the star of their show. Another great loss to me was the death of Carl Labove. Before I ever met him he was my hero for his mastery of stand up comedy and then in the course of our friendship he was a never ending source of positive energy and an example of someone who never let hardship rob him of his joy for living or diminish his sparkle in any way. Both of these men are heroes to me in the story of my life and I praise, remember and celebrate them in this episode. I also talk about how I fell in love with

I woke up April 5 at 4:44am to a 4.0 earthquake. Some days the world just tells you to wake up early. The meaning of Easter  is that Jesus rose from the dead and I like that we can use that as inspiration to rise from back from the dead in areas of our own lives. If you have been defeated, beaten down or immobilized for whatever reason in your life you can still rise back up as long as you have breath in your lungs. In this episode I give you rollerskating news and the hummingbird update. I'll teach you why those old knives might not be as bad as you think they are and why driving a Toyota Camry hybrid is so fucking hot. I will tell you about the moment of enlightenment I achieved last week in Las Vegas and explain to you Georgia voting restrictions caused me to purchase the entire Dodgers 2021 season from mlb.com. I will watch every delicious pitch this year as an act of political defiance. For educational purposes I will teach you how to properly use the phrase: "Stand down whitey! This is not the slave mar

A Sapiosexual is someone who is attracted to intelligence. After listening to this episode you will become more intelligent & therefore more attractive to Saposexuals.   After months of not putting out a podcast I am finally joyful enough to record a new episode. This episode is called Mostly Sunny because it is mostly about happy topics. Here I give you the knowledge of the orange Rufous hummingbird that spends its entire life in a constant state of migration. Also you will learn about the snuggly curious facts about sloths to the disturbing pervert tendencies of the Borneo moth. I rejoice in the story of how a movie I once tried to make years ago and the footage that I owned but did not possess for 15 years, a story that once brought me grief, now makes me happy because I am now posting this entire movie one vintage short clip at a time on social media. You will also hear the story of the 12 year old boy in New England who wants to be a comedian and has been seeking my advice.   As Spring arrives with t

The best thing that you can do with bad memories is to pave over them with good ones.   Have you ever had your brain completely fucked by something that you witnessed? It happened to me last week and I now see that I have been misusing the word traumatized my whole life because I was truly traumatized by what I saw. If you have a weak stomach for harsh stories then this episode might not be for you. These are very hard times for a lot of people so I tried to pack a lot of sunshine in this episode as I always do but there is a doozy of a head fuck story coming your way here. My girlfriend experienced this trauma with me and she shares her side of this story with me and how we have been caring for each other since. I also share the philosophy of Seneca and the Stoics, my thoughts on the passing of Diego Maradona, Trump being the biggest snowflake of them all, how to deal with angry pick up trucks in rural areas, what not to do when driving through a blizzard and the mating habits of frogs. There is also the sto

Not being dead is the number one reason to remain cheerful.   My girlfriend and I fled Portland last month because of the fires and unbreathable air. For the past month we have been in Los Angeles finding the simple things in life like miniature golf, the zoo and the beach to combat the fear, confusion and uncertainty that dominates life at this moment. There are still many reasons to be cheerful and in this episode my girlfriend and I take you on a stroll through some of the recent joys we have experienced in spite of the fact that we had a near death experience while playing in the Pacific ocean. There are so many things that beat you down in life and disturb our fragile little minds so it is essential to be reminded of the good things in life once in a while. So put on your happy pants and let's get giggly with Tom Rhodes Radio Smart Camp. Joy be upon you!

Let me tell you all about Oregon & why you should be listening to Bootsy Collins & Curtis Mayfield right now. Praise be to the plum wine man! I was playing the Rick James song 'Busting Out' when I crossed the border from California into Oregon. My girlfriend lives in Portland and for the past month we have been going on driving adventures all over Oregon. I had planned on exploring France this year but that got canceled so instead I am enjoying all of the best that there is to see in Oregon. This episode starts in Whale Cove, then on to Ona Beach then back to Portland. I have circled Oregon and I have some stories to share with you. From Crater Lake and Cannon Beach to the Last Blockbuster in Bend and seeing 'The Outsiders' at a drive in movie theater in Newberg I have been squeezing joy out of this last bit of summer. I went to Plush, Oregon just because I loved the name and slept in a grocery store parking lot in Lake View. On the news Portland looks like a lawless hellhole right now but those skirm