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Nick Mirisola | Musician and MEDITATIVE ANIMAL
Manage episode 356764750 series 2980695
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Nick Mirisola is a Duddist, and what that means is really up to you. Take some philosophy from Buddhism, and some from “The Dude”, mix them up and you get some sense of what it means. It’s wonderful and I think I’m a convert.
When not not preaching Duddism, Nick is a musician who goes by Meditative Animal and recently released his latest album “Alternative Phenomenon“, which if you are a fan of Jack Johnson, you will absolutely love.
When not not preaching Duddism, Nick is a musician who goes by Meditative Animal and recently released his latest album “Alternative Phenomenon“, which if you are a fan of Jack Johnson, you will absolutely love.
This episode’s sketch: “Duddatation”
For more episodes, information, and apply to be on the show, visit: http://sketchcomedypodcastshow.com
Sketch Comedy Podcast Show is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
© Copyright 2023 Stuart Rice
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MORE ABOUT THE GUEST
Meditative Animal is singer songwriter Nick Mirisola's music project. It is indie alternative folk rock with jazz, blues, hip hop, funk, and reggae influences that come together in a timeless original sound. Frequently featuring other artists, Nick plays guitar, harmonica, hand percussion, keyboards, and bass in addition to singing, and writing the songs and lyrics. Nick also does the artwork. He is a lay Zen monk, shaman, ordained Dudeist priest, and self dubbed Duddha.
Nick has been singing for his entire life, and writing songs since 2000. Meditative Animal has been in SoundCloud's top 20 for their Folk/Singer-Songwriter genre, and has appeared on ReverbNation's national chart top 100 for singer songwriters, and is frequently in their top ten for the Portland Maine region. The songs Echoes Left In My Head, Timed Temperance, and Telescope eyes got over 50,000 spins each on global FM radio. Meditative Animal also had two top ten songs on the official international indie music chart IndieTop Chart.
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TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Stuart: In this episode, musician and meditative animal nick marisol and I came up with a few sketch ideas, I like the idea of just someone so chill, so in tune with uh not being flummoxed that no matter what the situation is there a okay with it? You know, we were talking about dealing with feelings and using meditation for that and what if the, what if the feelings were like um I'm hungry, like how do you deal with the hunger? I'm thirsty, like how do you deal with the thirsty? I'm horny, like how do you deal with the horny nous? And then the last one would be, I gotta, I gotta poop and like how do you deal with it while you're meditating buddhist glam, like like using the bragging, using all of that type of stuff, but in a, with a buddhist tilt so it's like you're not like you're bragging about how enlightened you are or whatever it is, which one did we pick? You'll find out on this episode of, it's a sketch comedy, Welcome to sketch comedy podcast show. The one of a kind show where I Stewart rice invite interesting people to have intriguing conversations and then improvise a comedy sketch based on what we talked about. It's the only show like it on the internet, nick maris ola is a dude ist and what that means is really kind of up to you take some philosophy from buddhism and some from the dude, mix them up and you kind of get a sense of what that means, it's wonderful and I think I'm a convert when not preaching dude is um Nick is a musician who goes by the name meditative Animal, and recently released his latest album, alternative phenomenon, which if you're a fan of Jack johnson, you are going to love without any further ado, let's get right into my conversation with the meditative animal himself. Nick maris, Ola. Hey, Nick. Yeah, thanks for being on the show.
[00:02:18] Nick Mirisola: Oh, you're very welcome. Thanks a lot for having me Stuart.
[00:02:21] Stuart: Absolutely. Have a really quick question to ask you. All right, What makes you interesting?
[00:02:29] Nick Mirisola: What makes me interesting? Well, let's see, maybe. Hm
[00:02:36] Stuart: jeez, I told you it's not an easy question,
[00:02:42] Nick Mirisola: you know, I could have a lot of answers to that or I could I could uh I can play kind of coy and be like, well my relationship with nothing, this might be the most interesting part. So technically nothing makes me interesting. Alright, that was my kind of buddhist monk style response. Uh but yeah, I don't know, I'm I'm kind of a renaissance man. I guess I have a few different um skill sets or talents or gifts whatever you wanna call them. Um artist, musician, philosopher. I don't know. I I personally think my take on religion might be one of the most interesting parts of me though. Well
[00:03:27] Stuart: let's let's start there now, you I don't want to be presumptive here. But did you start a religion or is this? No? Okay, tell us about, Tell us about that though.
[00:03:38] Nick Mirisola: Alright. Uh, okay. So the only religion technically that I'm uh, legally and officially bureaucratically associated with is uh, this religion called Judaism. It's actually a parody religions based on the movie, The Big Lebowski and the character of the dude. And originally I had gotten ordained because one of my best friends and his, his wife who was also a good friend, uh, they wanted me to be the minister at their ceremony and conveniently enough in the cool state of maine, they let you register as a judas priest and conduct the ceremony legally. So I hopped on that real fast because it fit me like a glove. It's, it's, it's, you know, uh, you can take it as seriously as you want to, but it's supposed to be at least taking itself light lightly enough to still have a sense of humor about even itself as a religion because the character of the dude in the movie, if you, if you've ever seen it is kind of an anti hero, like what you'd expect from a heroic lead man, you know, in a movie, but he's like this welfare uh, tai chi alcohol drinking marijuana smoking guy and he's a bit of a pacifist to uh, gets himself in trouble. And it's just funny the way it all works out. Um, so I don't know if you haven't seen it, I would. Big, big recommendation from me. The Big Lebowski. Check it out sometime. You'll probably understand the religion of Judaism a lot better than I could ever explain it, but it's a little bit of a blend of kind of zen buddhist ideals mixed with some kind of Taoist ideals. The tao te ching for those of you who don't know, just translates as the way of virtue. It's kind of like this asian philosophical poetry book of wisdom, um, that even shoots itself in the foot on purpose, which I like about it. I always tell people my favorite thing about being a Taoist is not being a tattooist.
[00:06:04] Stuart: Sure. Yeah.
[00:06:06] Nick Mirisola: Tell anything about tao ism makes perfect sense. Yeah,
[00:06:09] Stuart: that's great. I love it, I love it now. How does, how does that affect your like day to day life? Do you, does it does it change your perspective on things? Do you look at things through a different lens? Because of the big Lebowski, which I totally understand,
[00:06:26] Nick Mirisola: I personally can relate to a lot of things about him. Like I, I, I like a responsible kind of casual, low key uh consumption of alcohol as a recreational or medicinal or sacramental whatever. Same with my, my cannabis use, I use that. I'm into shamanism too. So I also use tobacco, which I don't think he, he does in the movie, but that's my own kind of spin on it. But the the whole, I try to have a sense of humor. One of some of my biggest heroes in religion are the ones with a sense of humor, like the laughing buddha and uh I don't know if you've ever heard of this modern day buddha named Osho who was out in India, but I've read a couple couple of his things and I've I've I've heard him speak and at the end of one of his books, uh I think it was called the Book of Wisdom or the Book, a Book of Wisdom or something like that. Anyways, the last chapter, his grand finale was the title of it was be a joke unto yourself and I thought that was one of the most enlightening things I have ever heard.
[00:07:47] Stuart: Yeah, I mean I should probably, I kind of adopt a similar thing, but I'm kind of a joke to everybody, which
[00:07:55] Nick Mirisola: yeah, I actually to tell you the truth, I can relate to to that stuff, but in all honesty, I'm trying to even up the ante a little bit and I figure if there's already a laughing buddha, why can't there be a comedian, Duda? That's my own spin on it. I love
[00:08:14] Stuart: it. I love it. Um now how do you, is there a way you kind of like share your message of dude is um um
[00:08:23] Nick Mirisola: most I try not to really be preachy about it, that's kind of part of the motif, It's almost like uh take it if it's if it drives with you type of thing. So I kind of try to approach that and be sensitive of all the diversity and um, you know, individuality and uniqueness of everyone's subjective perspectives. So I try not to like shove my, my anything religious necessarily down someone's throat with my music and my lyrics. That's probably my biggest way. I may actually, I write some philosophy papers as a hobby and I may write a philosophy of religion or maybe even try and intersect science and religion in a philosophy paper later down the road, but I haven't done that yet
[00:09:11] Stuart: yet.
[00:09:13] Nick Mirisola: So it's all my, it's been on my agenda for a while.
[00:09:18] Stuart: Oh absolutely. Um, so it does not make its way into your artistic endeavors. Oh
[00:09:25] Nick Mirisola: no, it should, it should write the dude is um is almost um, let's see, uh I wouldn't say that's necessarily, I, I only take that sort of seriously, you know what I mean? Um for me, I'm, I take my zen, I try to take it as seriously as I should is how I would put that. Um because I'm kind of a lazy monk. I've, I've taken a uh like a vow I'm not part of like organized sangha or monkhood necessarily in a stereotypical fashion. I kind of see the world as my temple and my house is my little, my little own personal temple and uh um I'm very every day and like, you, you might, you probably wouldn't realize I take it that seriously if you just saw me on the street, you know, I probably, you probably think I'm just another stoner um but
[00:10:35] Stuart: I think anybody who's achieving like some sort of a zen like peace with themselves kind of comes off as a stoner, like I just feel like there's a little bit of that that happens where you're just okay with everything, you're not trying to fight, yeah, you're not trying to fight what's happening around you, you're just observing it and that's, that's where, I mean, not to share too much, but that's where I start to get into my space of being able to be okay with things is when I, maybe it is a substance that I'm taking and it just gets me to wrap my head around it a little bit and not fear it and I think that's the, that is that the big thing with like getting to that point is just not fearing, fearing everything, not feeling that fear, I don't know, you
[00:11:27] Nick Mirisola: know, honestly there's a couple, there's different perspectives on that because sometimes fear can come along somewhat naturally psychologically if you're in a really awful situation, you know, or presented with some awful potentials, it's not necessarily un's n to have that fear sweep through your mindset, but the zen part to me is more the keep staying staying in your own kind of zone and not letting it overpower you and and raining and back in your own control, whatever little degree that is so that you do whatever you should about that fear and I mean if you look at the Shaolin temple, the original zen temple that they're known for their martial arts, even though, you know, they're probably the least likely out of anyone to start a fight,
[00:12:27] Stuart: right, but they can finish a fight, which is yeah,
[00:12:32] Nick Mirisola: because they, they also know that it's not all about sitting under, under a bodhi tree,
[00:12:37] Stuart: right? Yeah, and I um I think it's, it's important to realize like feeling those feelings like getting that fear, getting that anger, getting that whatever it is, is not having those feelings is very human, like we have them for a reason and it's what you do with that energy, it's what you do with those feelings and I think having those things passed through me, that's been the thing that has really helped me as an adult is just feeling the feeling, let it pass through and then at the end of it, like you can go have a sandwich and feel okay about it again, you
[00:13:10] Nick Mirisola: know? Yeah, that's, that's kind of like um I would say there are, I would be uh maybe concerned enough to clarify that there are some kind of advanced tactics within zen and even just the science of psychology and stuff where you can kind of transmute things as they come instantaneously so that maybe you don't feel the fear in the same way, maybe you're aware that you could be deathly afraid, but you're so busy dealing with it constructively that you don't want to waste your own psychological space on fear. Instead you'd rather use all your resources with the help of that kind of zen being in the zone, mental optimization thing. Uh, with the help of that, you can, there are advanced tactics that might be why you associated like the fear with maybe not being as then, but that can be very zen in the beginning, sometimes the beginning of the path, if you will, if, if someone's on a path can be facing those fears correctly instead of running from them, sometimes you're supposed to run away from a fear and maybe you're scared of yourself for a reason because you shouldn't be that way. And that's what it teaches you and it was actually a good thing even for that person.
[00:14:35] Stuart: Yeah, yeah, I I completely agree with you. Um, those advanced tactics would be, I I think everybody has a perception of like buddhism as someone sitting on a rock with their legs crossed with their, you know, their fingers like this and just totally at peace with everything. And it's like, yeah, that's the end goal. But the journey there is being able to handle all of those things and being able to use like those things that you're talking about, the tactics that you're talking about, where it's like how do you get your mind into that space where you can start to process those things. I think it's, it's remarkable. I think buddhism is probably one of, or dude is, um, is probably one of the, one of the most misunderstood things. Like people think it's a full on religion and it's, it does not compatible with so many different things.
[00:15:28] Nick Mirisola: It's really more of like, if you look at the theme of it, like the point of it is do the right thing. Same as taoism the way of virtue. Like sometimes you can read a book by its cover. Um, and really it's almost more like the kind of the unified theory of all the different religions because you can be buddhist, I personally consider I was raised christian, my dad was like raised roman catholic and uh, I can, I try and take the good in that I see in every religion. So I'm even hesitant necessarily call myself a zen buddhist to someone who doesn't understand that about buddhism. Like it's kind of like we're the ambassadors to all the religions were like the theme song, uh, symphony, you know?
[00:16:21] Stuart: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. But um, so you do, I could talk about that all day, but let's get into some of the other things that you do. So you are an artist and you do music and your, your music is incredibly good now if, for, I like it a lot and if you're into more of like, um, I don't even know how to describe it is, it's sort of like, it's it's a rocky folksy. I don't know, it's kind of like, it's a better version of Jack johnson if I can say that. Yeah, I don't know if you wear shoes, but I don't know if that makes the difference, but it's
[00:17:02] Nick Mirisola: good. No,
[00:17:04] Stuart: no, no. I mean I I everybody likes Jack johnson, everybody is in a Starbucks at some point, Jack johnson comes on and everybody kind of bobs their head. That's what happens. Um, I kind of like yours. It's a little bit more the lyrically more interesting if I can say that. Yeah. So, um, and of course right now on the thing, I've got the meditative animal, If you go to Youtube type in meditative animal, one word, you'll go and see all of mixed stuff. But
[00:17:34] Nick Mirisola: what lyrics, there's some lyric videos up there right now that are kind of cool, I think.
[00:17:40] Stuart: Yeah, that's why it was so nice because I could watch the video, get the lyrics and I could do both. I could enjoy the music and get the lyric density as well.
[00:17:50] Nick Mirisola: Yeah, I tried to make it visually interesting too. I figure if it's going to be in video format, you might as well try and take advantage of that.
[00:17:57] Stuart: Yeah, that's why I try to do this with this. I um, I wish I had more special effects, but um, oh, there, I just had a blur, so there we go, special effects um what is what got you into music and what inspires you for what you do as far as musically like what inspires those lyrics, what inspires the music? Alright,
[00:18:22] Nick Mirisola: that's kind of a couple of questions and a little complex, so give me a sec
[00:18:25] Stuart: parse it out, however it works out
[00:18:29] Nick Mirisola: alright, so I've been singing, like I was in church choir growing up, they made me go to all the church CCD sunday school, all that jazz until it was time to get confirmed and I was like, I think I'll pass, but anyways, I'm all cool with jesus nowadays, but whatever it wasn't, I was too scientific back then for that type of uh whatever
[00:18:56] Stuart: you could be a fan of jesus and not even a fan of Christianity, maybe jesus had all the
[00:19:03] Nick Mirisola: good stuff, this is right now, if I had my guess. But Yeah, so I was, I was doing choirs in school and church all growing up, played a little bit of cello in 4th grade and then we moved and they didn't have a cello program at the next school, so I kinda gave up on that, but um I actually was more of an art kid and uh a little bit of a poet um growing up, um I got really into meditation and shamanism and I was hanging out with all these hippies in college because I went to Burlington Vermont University of Vermont, which I don't know if you know, but it's basically like the hippie mecca, this side of the Mississippi.
[00:19:51] Stuart: So it's the, it's the East Coast Berkeley.
[00:19:54] Nick Mirisola: Uh, I would even say maybe, or like boulder or like Portland Oregon or somewhere in that vein. Um yeah, me too, for the people, I love the school, great education and everything, but that's not why I went there. I had other options, but anyways. Um, so I get to school, I'm hanging out with all these hippies and getting into my zen and my shamanism and I wanted to kinda up the ante with my music. I figured I just felt like I could, it was a different way to express complex ideas that are really hard to express in one piece of art sometimes. Like I just felt like I could get so much done in one well crafted song between the combination of the lyrics and the music. Um, I felt like it at least was a different perspective on it that you could relate to in a different way than a piece of visual art. So I started playing guitar and hand drums and writing songs at about 18 and uh, I decided I wanted, you know, I wanted that to be one of my main focuses in life to kind of try and provide. I was fed up with what I considered a basically pop garbage at the time, it was like whatever made money, the bitches and hoes and bling bling bling stuff was, I mean I get it and everything. I'm not stupid, but I felt like there was, why is that stuff the most popular stuff when there's so much cooler stuff out there to talk about, let alone, uh, sing about, I wanted to put out some, you know, some, some worthwhile stuff, maybe some insightful stuff that people haven't thought of because I tend to be a little bit of outside the box thinker and maybe I've considered things in ways that other people haven't or even if they have, maybe I know for me it's sometimes really validating just to hear someone else validate your own opinion in different words or even in the same words, you know?
[00:22:17] Stuart: Yeah, I agree. I believe that other people have, most of us have the same end goal, right? We're all trying to make ourselves happy and try to live our lives and, and have it be as easy as possible and we do, we just need to hear somebody else. That's, that's why I think people go to church is, I think it's why people go and and listen to people like who's Big Hand guy. Uh, any of the, like God, what's the guy's name with the big hands. Never mind anyway. So it's uh, that's gonna drive me nuts anyway, but, but like we go and we listened to people who are inspirational speakers, we watch ted talks all those things because we want to find somebody that's going to reiterate what we're trying to achieve in our lives out loud so that we can we can be validated. Yeah,
[00:23:11] Nick Mirisola: it's almost like the science of of of, you know, uh of the meaning of life or or of of our personalities, like personality science is not as simple or as objective or sterile as most people's uh perceptions of your average scientist. You know, a personality scientist is probably all about that. That makes I bet that makes perfect sense to some of
[00:23:41] Stuart: them. Oh, absolutely. And
[00:23:44] Nick Mirisola: being human
[00:23:45] Stuart: almost. Yeah, it is, it is the science of being human and I think it's a and it's those, um and we tend to be drawn to people that have the same beliefs as we are. That's why, you know, we we look for those groups, We look for those, those, those tribes so that we can be a part of them. Um and i it's kind of cool when you can get behind something such as Dude Ism or a musical artist. Like my, I wrote a college paper on how world peace would be achieved if everybody was a David Bowie fan, because I felt, yeah, because I felt then that way everybody would have a common ground to like base everything off of and then move on from there, right? Like if you you could have an argument about anything, but you could be like, but you know, daydream,
[00:24:36] Nick Mirisola: Hold on a sec. What with David Bowie think.
[00:24:39] Stuart: Yeah. Well w w t like that's that's exactly what we would have. Um Cool. And so you you make music and that kind of helps you, you know like get out like a lot of those feelings. And what about your other artwork, your other art? Like you do I
[00:24:59] Nick Mirisola: haven't I haven't really done a ton of art in a little while because I've kind of been focused on the the music stuff for a while. Because I actually was kind of one of the art kids not a music kid growing up. For the most part I took every art class my high school had and then some I was I was designing my own classes by junior and senior year in high school. Um And then I went I was an art major at U. V. M. I dropped out of college a million times, went to a million different art schools and school. I even did some Herbal medicine school. Um But yeah my art I man, um I'm kinda like my two artistic heroes, I guess I would say my biggest ones are M C. Escher and Salvador dali. Uh My favorite stuff that I've done of my own is almost like A. M. C. Escher meet Salvador dali. Oh that's very kind of my own style to it.
[00:26:09] Stuart: I
[00:26:10] Nick Mirisola: and sometimes I have this idea for my music, this is one idea I'm gonna be working on in the future. Um I'm thinking I've illustrated poems before in a piece of artwork um in that similar style, you know, where it's almost like a concept map or tells a story um within the imagery, and I'm thinking about doing something like that, at least a piece of art for a song or maybe an album or maybe all of them eventually. And I'm thinking of even doing some uh um some time lapses and video recording of the making of the art as it goes along and running that making videos on Youtube of the actual illustration of the lyrics and the music being made right before your eyes as the music plays. That's one of my big projects for the future.
[00:27:10] Stuart: I think that's awesome. That's sort of like those doodily videos, right? Like where people are drawing on a whiteboard to their talk. But I think that would be really remarkable if the music was playing. And you saw like the piece of art being created that accompanied accompanied that that's that's good. That's good art stuff. Man, I
[00:27:30] Nick Mirisola: think it could be really interesting to consider that. I'm kind of like, it's the same brain doing all that stuff too. So yeah, it's almost like totally fleshed out way beyond, like, totally integrated one area of that artistic venture.
[00:27:46] Stuart: Yeah, totally integrated. I love that concept. Um, your most recent album is alternative phenomena. Yeah, yeah. Um and it's where is where is that available? That available everywhere.
[00:28:01] Nick Mirisola: Um pretty much all the streaming platforms and then it's available at my website for streaming or download. There's actually a fan set the price, anything from zero up. Um Excuse me. Yeah. Meditative Animal dot com.
[00:28:17] Stuart: Yeah. So yes, everybody needs to head there download the album. Um I'm going to suggest the purchase price of $15 for everybody. Yeah, and I mean if you can't pay that, I understand pay whatever you can, but I think it's important to have uh independent artists like you and myself, I think we need to get rewarded for what we do. And I, your music is, it's really good. Like it's incredibly good. It doesn't sound like you smoke a lot on your album. Um um um um and so have you toured, like, I know you're not on a tour right now, but have you toured in the past and
[00:29:03] Nick Mirisola: I haven't done tours. I've played a handful of shows over the years, and I've played a ba jillion open mics and even more for free on the streets. I actually got most of my stage fright or whatever it was out of my system by going to the beach and playing in front of a couple 100 people and trying not to get kicked out.
[00:29:24] Stuart: A couple 100 people is a lot of people to do anything in front of. Yeah.
[00:29:29] Nick Mirisola: Right. It's enough to give even a good musician some butterflies. I found that.
[00:29:35] Stuart: Yeah, absolutely. Um, and uh, so any stories like when, when you were playing music, has anybody, has it touched anybody in particular or has it? Oh man. Is there a memorable moment? Like live yes performing anything live is always wild.
[00:29:55] Nick Mirisola: One of my favorite things of all time. I lived right down uh by a beach in Maine and I would go down to the beach and play for free. And uh, it was funny because when I moved away, the cops asked my mom. They were like, where's nick? We got no music at the beach, but they wouldn't let me get paid for it either. They wouldn't let me open my case. Um, they'd call the cops on me and have me arrested if I did it because I did it one time not knowing. And I made about $30 with my buddy in about 15 minutes. But uh, then some, some authority figures showed up and kindly let me know that that was not kosher.
[00:30:35] Stuart: Oh
[00:30:36] Nick Mirisola: yeah, they won't even let you do that. Um, my favorite part, my, one of my favorite memories of all time was I was down there at the beach playing for free. Just my own songs. Nobody knows these songs. That's part of what made it a challenge for me because I don't play cover songs really almost at all. And so nobody knows these songs. So they better be good enough that people are willing to at least listen to them once I figure or at least not throw an egg at me. And uh, so I'm down there playing and there's this little wicked, cute little freaking, I don't know how old he was. He must have been somewhere between, like I would say, maybe four years old and seven years old. Um, he's at the beach, He's, he's listening to my music. I can see him bopping his head and um, he starts gathering these rocks and he assembles these rocks in front of me that spell out the pied piper of maine. And I thought that was so like, I'm like this mythological figure to this little kid. It was, it was hilarious.
[00:31:43] Stuart: It was heartwarming
[00:31:44] Nick Mirisola: stuff like that. Makes it all worthwhile. Another one of my favorites was one of, one of my friends, uh, little kids didn't know it was me, I would show in the album to my friends and their family and they have this little kid who's, he can be, um, kind of tricky to deal with, I will say to be politically correct and everything about it. But uh, if I wanted to be a dick head, I could say he might even like to be compared to Dennis the Menace sometimes or something. Anyways, he's got, he's got his reasons, there's even some medical stuff going on that I don't want to get into. But anyways we're playing it for him and he's bopping his head and he didn't even know it was me. And then they're they're like, did you know that's nick on the radio right now? And he's like, wow, cool. That was touching too, for a little kid to be dancing. See him bopping his head to my music not even knowing it's me. Yeah, totally. Not pandering to anything other than his own sheer enjoyment of it. That was gold.
[00:32:51] Stuart: That is golden.
[00:32:52] Nick Mirisola: That's better than getting paid.
[00:32:54] Stuart: Absolutely. I mean it's also good to get paid. But
[00:32:57] Nick Mirisola: yeah, I don't do it for the money. Honestly, I almost avoid that sometimes on purpose.
[00:33:06] Stuart: Sure because it can get, it can cloud up what you're trying to do right? Like pretty, pretty soon. You're like, yeah, exactly, pretty soon. You're like, well what what famous rapper can I get to work with so that I can get some get paid. Tell us about what's coming up for you. Oh
[00:33:26] Nick Mirisola: yeah, well I don't know if he'd call it working with me, but I got this opportunity to purchase a beat with a feature from uh Killah Priest from the wu tang clan and um I added some harmonica and some hand drums a little whistling and it's gonna be my hip hop debut as uh a bit of an EMC two. So that should be interesting. That's that's probably the next on my agenda of releases. We'll see when that gets done trying to get some more female singers on it. Really kind of rounded out a little.
[00:34:03] Stuart: That's awesome. Yeah, I'm really psyched. Yeah, that, that is something to be very excited about and I'll tell you
[00:34:10] Nick Mirisola: something else. Yes.
[00:34:13] Stuart: Oh my goodness, some of my faves um alright, so let's do something else. That's going to be epic. We need to record a sketch. Alright, nick, this has been great so far. Hey, do me a favor. Tell everybody how they can go listen to your music and find out more about you.
[00:34:37] Nick Mirisola: If you're looking for some music with a timeless original sound, Great vibes, some wise, insightful lyrics, all poetically crafted to let you form your own relationships with it. Check out meditative animals music online. It's mostly online right now. It is a little bit on the radio, a certain independent stations around the world and you might catch it in certain stores in the background. Um, but if you want go to my website, meditative Animal dot com, there's plenty more there and keep your eyes and ears peeled peeled for more in the future.
[00:35:17] Stuart: And now our sketch dude imitation in 32
[00:35:26] Nick Mirisola: enter the doodah.
[00:35:31] Stuart: Oh my gosh, this temple is crazy. Look at all the guitars on the wall.
[00:35:37] Nick Mirisola: It's almost like I'm a musician or something weird. Huh?
[00:35:40] Stuart: Yeah, yeah, they are those sound panels in the shape of a buddha up there. Does the buddha have a shape. Oh you're already starting to blow my mind man. I want to learn more. Can you explain dude is um
[00:35:55] Nick Mirisola: to me, my own special blend of course is unique and rare and uh completely customized technically. It only matters to me.
[00:36:04] Stuart: Can we meditate together? Would that be something we could do?
[00:36:08] Nick Mirisola: We can always meditate together? How do we do this? Don't be a raging douchebag. Okay, Follow that train of thought the whole way through and achieve Judaism.
[00:36:17] Stuart: Okay, don't be a douche bag. Got it. Okay, Alright.
[00:36:20] Nick Mirisola: It's a cardinal sin to a dude ist. Okay, because this aggression will not stand
[00:36:26] Stuart: man understood. Is there any other rules that we should be following? Yes,
[00:36:30] Nick Mirisola: the dude always
[00:36:32] Stuart: abides any other rules that we should know
[00:36:34] Nick Mirisola: about. So I would recommend having a heart metaphorically in every situation because you do
[00:36:40] Stuart: All right, well, I will abide. Okay. Well, I feel like I've got, I've got a lot of feelings and I'd like to kind of address them as we're meditating here? Is that is that something we can do?
[00:36:51] Nick Mirisola: That would probably be the best way to do it while you're meditating.
[00:36:54] Stuart: Okay, Alright. So how do we start? Do we have to make any noise? Do we do an arm or what do we do? Hey,
[00:37:01] Nick Mirisola: silence is golden to
[00:37:03] Stuart: Okay. All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna think of nothing and I'm gonna say the first feeling that I've got All right, hmm, I'm feeling, I'm feeling, I'm actually feeling hungry. What should I do about that? Well,
[00:37:20] Nick Mirisola: there's a famous zen parable kind of starry eyed wannabe comes up to a zen master and he tells him about this amazing miracle worker who's can stand on one edge of a canyon and someone across the canyon will hold up a piece of paper and he can paint a picture on it from across the canyon without even touching it. The zen master responds to him and he says, my miracle is when I'm hungry, I eat
[00:37:44] Stuart: that. Sounds like sound advice. Alright, let me, let me see if I can process any more feelings. All right, Alright, Oh man, this is so weird. I'm feeling horny. I don't know why you're a good looking dude, but I don't know why I don't
[00:38:00] Nick Mirisola: love is love and to each their own and all that jazz. I personally love making love with the right people and under the right circumstances not to rain on your parade. I happen to be straight myself being more horny than you are soulful. Your heart and soul are probably the best to put in control of your pole.
[00:38:18] Stuart: Alright, well, I feel like I've got more feelings. I'd like to release and let me just feel what I'm feeling. I feel like I gotta poop
[00:38:27] Nick Mirisola: interesting dude is um, respects all religions and the first thing that comes to mind is all these monotheistic religions claim that man was made in God's image. Then I would just let you know that God poops my friend God poops everybody
[00:39:00] Stuart: thank you for joining us for sketch comedy podcast show. We hope you enjoyed listening as much as we enjoyed making it sketch comedy podcast show is protected under a creative commons attribution, no derivatives 4.0 international license. Now I'm rushing through this because nick's got a great message for you and if you wait till the end, you'll actually get to listen to some of his wonderful music, make sure you click on that in the link below. If you're enjoying it, go listen to more of his stuff. It is great.
[00:39:30] Nick Mirisola: I love you man, much love and many blessings for everybody out there, which inspired me to come up with uh, my own name from myself, which is a Duda, which might fit that one if you wanted me to explain that or you wanted to run with that a little, maybe you could work that in like uh I can explain what being a Duda means because I feel weird about that. It's almost like, you know, you hit a point of spiritual evolution and you can't help but notice certain advanced properties. But some of these same advanced properties are like trying to suit themselves in the foot because you're like hot, what are you supposed to do? Make humble pie like at the same time, what are you supposed to do? Just shoot yourself in the foot. Yeah, that's part of why I named myself a duda. I'll call myself and ask before they can money because in Sanskrit it actually means milk or milk, which is also interestingly Lebowski. But I think every american would assume that it means due to.
[00:02:18] Nick Mirisola: Oh, you're very welcome. Thanks a lot for having me Stuart.
[00:02:21] Stuart: Absolutely. Have a really quick question to ask you. All right, What makes you interesting?
[00:02:29] Nick Mirisola: What makes me interesting? Well, let's see, maybe. Hm
[00:02:36] Stuart: jeez, I told you it's not an easy question,
[00:02:42] Nick Mirisola: you know, I could have a lot of answers to that or I could I could uh I can play kind of coy and be like, well my relationship with nothing, this might be the most interesting part. So technically nothing makes me interesting. Alright, that was my kind of buddhist monk style response. Uh but yeah, I don't know, I'm I'm kind of a renaissance man. I guess I have a few different um skill sets or talents or gifts whatever you wanna call them. Um artist, musician, philosopher. I don't know. I I personally think my take on religion might be one of the most interesting parts of me though. Well
[00:03:27] Stuart: let's let's start there now, you I don't want to be presumptive here. But did you start a religion or is this? No? Okay, tell us about, Tell us about that though.
[00:03:38] Nick Mirisola: Alright. Uh, okay. So the only religion technically that I'm uh, legally and officially bureaucratically associated with is uh, this religion called Judaism. It's actually a parody religions based on the movie, The Big Lebowski and the character of the dude. And originally I had gotten ordained because one of my best friends and his, his wife who was also a good friend, uh, they wanted me to be the minister at their ceremony and conveniently enough in the cool state of maine, they let you register as a judas priest and conduct the ceremony legally. So I hopped on that real fast because it fit me like a glove. It's, it's, it's, you know, uh, you can take it as seriously as you want to, but it's supposed to be at least taking itself light lightly enough to still have a sense of humor about even itself as a religion because the character of the dude in the movie, if you, if you've ever seen it is kind of an anti hero, like what you'd expect from a heroic lead man, you know, in a movie, but he's like this welfare uh, tai chi alcohol drinking marijuana smoking guy and he's a bit of a pacifist to uh, gets himself in trouble. And it's just funny the way it all works out. Um, so I don't know if you haven't seen it, I would. Big, big recommendation from me. The Big Lebowski. Check it out sometime. You'll probably understand the religion of Judaism a lot better than I could ever explain it, but it's a little bit of a blend of kind of zen buddhist ideals mixed with some kind of Taoist ideals. The tao te ching for those of you who don't know, just translates as the way of virtue. It's kind of like this asian philosophical poetry book of wisdom, um, that even shoots itself in the foot on purpose, which I like about it. I always tell people my favorite thing about being a Taoist is not being a tattooist.
[00:06:04] Stuart: Sure. Yeah.
[00:06:06] Nick Mirisola: Tell anything about tao ism makes perfect sense. Yeah,
[00:06:09] Stuart: that's great. I love it, I love it now. How does, how does that affect your like day to day life? Do you, does it does it change your perspective on things? Do you look at things through a different lens? Because of the big Lebowski, which I totally understand,
[00:06:26] Nick Mirisola: I personally can relate to a lot of things about him. Like I, I, I like a responsible kind of casual, low key uh consumption of alcohol as a recreational or medicinal or sacramental whatever. Same with my, my cannabis use, I use that. I'm into shamanism too. So I also use tobacco, which I don't think he, he does in the movie, but that's my own kind of spin on it. But the the whole, I try to have a sense of humor. One of some of my biggest heroes in religion are the ones with a sense of humor, like the laughing buddha and uh I don't know if you've ever heard of this modern day buddha named Osho who was out in India, but I've read a couple couple of his things and I've I've I've heard him speak and at the end of one of his books, uh I think it was called the Book of Wisdom or the Book, a Book of Wisdom or something like that. Anyways, the last chapter, his grand finale was the title of it was be a joke unto yourself and I thought that was one of the most enlightening things I have ever heard.
[00:07:47] Stuart: Yeah, I mean I should probably, I kind of adopt a similar thing, but I'm kind of a joke to everybody, which
[00:07:55] Nick Mirisola: yeah, I actually to tell you the truth, I can relate to to that stuff, but in all honesty, I'm trying to even up the ante a little bit and I figure if there's already a laughing buddha, why can't there be a comedian, Duda? That's my own spin on it. I love
[00:08:14] Stuart: it. I love it. Um now how do you, is there a way you kind of like share your message of dude is um um
[00:08:23] Nick Mirisola: most I try not to really be preachy about it, that's kind of part of the motif, It's almost like uh take it if it's if it drives with you type of thing. So I kind of try to approach that and be sensitive of all the diversity and um, you know, individuality and uniqueness of everyone's subjective perspectives. So I try not to like shove my, my anything religious necessarily down someone's throat with my music and my lyrics. That's probably my biggest way. I may actually, I write some philosophy papers as a hobby and I may write a philosophy of religion or maybe even try and intersect science and religion in a philosophy paper later down the road, but I haven't done that yet
[00:09:11] Stuart: yet.
[00:09:13] Nick Mirisola: So it's all my, it's been on my agenda for a while.
[00:09:18] Stuart: Oh absolutely. Um, so it does not make its way into your artistic endeavors. Oh
[00:09:25] Nick Mirisola: no, it should, it should write the dude is um is almost um, let's see, uh I wouldn't say that's necessarily, I, I only take that sort of seriously, you know what I mean? Um for me, I'm, I take my zen, I try to take it as seriously as I should is how I would put that. Um because I'm kind of a lazy monk. I've, I've taken a uh like a vow I'm not part of like organized sangha or monkhood necessarily in a stereotypical fashion. I kind of see the world as my temple and my house is my little, my little own personal temple and uh um I'm very every day and like, you, you might, you probably wouldn't realize I take it that seriously if you just saw me on the street, you know, I probably, you probably think I'm just another stoner um but
[00:10:35] Stuart: I think anybody who's achieving like some sort of a zen like peace with themselves kind of comes off as a stoner, like I just feel like there's a little bit of that that happens where you're just okay with everything, you're not trying to fight, yeah, you're not trying to fight what's happening around you, you're just observing it and that's, that's where, I mean, not to share too much, but that's where I start to get into my space of being able to be okay with things is when I, maybe it is a substance that I'm taking and it just gets me to wrap my head around it a little bit and not fear it and I think that's the, that is that the big thing with like getting to that point is just not fearing, fearing everything, not feeling that fear, I don't know, you
[00:11:27] Nick Mirisola: know, honestly there's a couple, there's different perspectives on that because sometimes fear can come along somewhat naturally psychologically if you're in a really awful situation, you know, or presented with some awful potentials, it's not necessarily un's n to have that fear sweep through your mindset, but the zen part to me is more the keep staying staying in your own kind of zone and not letting it overpower you and and raining and back in your own control, whatever little degree that is so that you do whatever you should about that fear and I mean if you look at the Shaolin temple, the original zen temple that they're known for their martial arts, even though, you know, they're probably the least likely out of anyone to start a fight,
[00:12:27] Stuart: right, but they can finish a fight, which is yeah,
[00:12:32] Nick Mirisola: because they, they also know that it's not all about sitting under, under a bodhi tree,
[00:12:37] Stuart: right? Yeah, and I um I think it's, it's important to realize like feeling those feelings like getting that fear, getting that anger, getting that whatever it is, is not having those feelings is very human, like we have them for a reason and it's what you do with that energy, it's what you do with those feelings and I think having those things passed through me, that's been the thing that has really helped me as an adult is just feeling the feeling, let it pass through and then at the end of it, like you can go have a sandwich and feel okay about it again, you
[00:13:10] Nick Mirisola: know? Yeah, that's, that's kind of like um I would say there are, I would be uh maybe concerned enough to clarify that there are some kind of advanced tactics within zen and even just the science of psychology and stuff where you can kind of transmute things as they come instantaneously so that maybe you don't feel the fear in the same way, maybe you're aware that you could be deathly afraid, but you're so busy dealing with it constructively that you don't want to waste your own psychological space on fear. Instead you'd rather use all your resources with the help of that kind of zen being in the zone, mental optimization thing. Uh, with the help of that, you can, there are advanced tactics that might be why you associated like the fear with maybe not being as then, but that can be very zen in the beginning, sometimes the beginning of the path, if you will, if, if someone's on a path can be facing those fears correctly instead of running from them, sometimes you're supposed to run away from a fear and maybe you're scared of yourself for a reason because you shouldn't be that way. And that's what it teaches you and it was actually a good thing even for that person.
[00:14:35] Stuart: Yeah, yeah, I I completely agree with you. Um, those advanced tactics would be, I I think everybody has a perception of like buddhism as someone sitting on a rock with their legs crossed with their, you know, their fingers like this and just totally at peace with everything. And it's like, yeah, that's the end goal. But the journey there is being able to handle all of those things and being able to use like those things that you're talking about, the tactics that you're talking about, where it's like how do you get your mind into that space where you can start to process those things. I think it's, it's remarkable. I think buddhism is probably one of, or dude is, um, is probably one of the, one of the most misunderstood things. Like people think it's a full on religion and it's, it does not compatible with so many different things.
[00:15:28] Nick Mirisola: It's really more of like, if you look at the theme of it, like the point of it is do the right thing. Same as taoism the way of virtue. Like sometimes you can read a book by its cover. Um, and really it's almost more like the kind of the unified theory of all the different religions because you can be buddhist, I personally consider I was raised christian, my dad was like raised roman catholic and uh, I can, I try and take the good in that I see in every religion. So I'm even hesitant necessarily call myself a zen buddhist to someone who doesn't understand that about buddhism. Like it's kind of like we're the ambassadors to all the religions were like the theme song, uh, symphony, you know?
[00:16:21] Stuart: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. But um, so you do, I could talk about that all day, but let's get into some of the other things that you do. So you are an artist and you do music and your, your music is incredibly good now if, for, I like it a lot and if you're into more of like, um, I don't even know how to describe it is, it's sort of like, it's it's a rocky folksy. I don't know, it's kind of like, it's a better version of Jack johnson if I can say that. Yeah, I don't know if you wear shoes, but I don't know if that makes the difference, but it's
[00:17:02] Nick Mirisola: good. No,
[00:17:04] Stuart: no, no. I mean I I everybody likes Jack johnson, everybody is in a Starbucks at some point, Jack johnson comes on and everybody kind of bobs their head. That's what happens. Um, I kind of like yours. It's a little bit more the lyrically more interesting if I can say that. Yeah. So, um, and of course right now on the thing, I've got the meditative animal, If you go to Youtube type in meditative animal, one word, you'll go and see all of mixed stuff. But
[00:17:34] Nick Mirisola: what lyrics, there's some lyric videos up there right now that are kind of cool, I think.
[00:17:40] Stuart: Yeah, that's why it was so nice because I could watch the video, get the lyrics and I could do both. I could enjoy the music and get the lyric density as well.
[00:17:50] Nick Mirisola: Yeah, I tried to make it visually interesting too. I figure if it's going to be in video format, you might as well try and take advantage of that.
[00:17:57] Stuart: Yeah, that's why I try to do this with this. I um, I wish I had more special effects, but um, oh, there, I just had a blur, so there we go, special effects um what is what got you into music and what inspires you for what you do as far as musically like what inspires those lyrics, what inspires the music? Alright,
[00:18:22] Nick Mirisola: that's kind of a couple of questions and a little complex, so give me a sec
[00:18:25] Stuart: parse it out, however it works out
[00:18:29] Nick Mirisola: alright, so I've been singing, like I was in church choir growing up, they made me go to all the church CCD sunday school, all that jazz until it was time to get confirmed and I was like, I think I'll pass, but anyways, I'm all cool with jesus nowadays, but whatever it wasn't, I was too scientific back then for that type of uh whatever
[00:18:56] Stuart: you could be a fan of jesus and not even a fan of Christianity, maybe jesus had all the
[00:19:03] Nick Mirisola: good stuff, this is right now, if I had my guess. But Yeah, so I was, I was doing choirs in school and church all growing up, played a little bit of cello in 4th grade and then we moved and they didn't have a cello program at the next school, so I kinda gave up on that, but um I actually was more of an art kid and uh a little bit of a poet um growing up, um I got really into meditation and shamanism and I was hanging out with all these hippies in college because I went to Burlington Vermont University of Vermont, which I don't know if you know, but it's basically like the hippie mecca, this side of the Mississippi.
[00:19:51] Stuart: So it's the, it's the East Coast Berkeley.
[00:19:54] Nick Mirisola: Uh, I would even say maybe, or like boulder or like Portland Oregon or somewhere in that vein. Um yeah, me too, for the people, I love the school, great education and everything, but that's not why I went there. I had other options, but anyways. Um, so I get to school, I'm hanging out with all these hippies and getting into my zen and my shamanism and I wanted to kinda up the ante with my music. I figured I just felt like I could, it was a different way to express complex ideas that are really hard to express in one piece of art sometimes. Like I just felt like I could get so much done in one well crafted song between the combination of the lyrics and the music. Um, I felt like it at least was a different perspective on it that you could relate to in a different way than a piece of visual art. So I started playing guitar and hand drums and writing songs at about 18 and uh, I decided I wanted, you know, I wanted that to be one of my main focuses in life to kind of try and provide. I was fed up with what I considered a basically pop garbage at the time, it was like whatever made money, the bitches and hoes and bling bling bling stuff was, I mean I get it and everything. I'm not stupid, but I felt like there was, why is that stuff the most popular stuff when there's so much cooler stuff out there to talk about, let alone, uh, sing about, I wanted to put out some, you know, some, some worthwhile stuff, maybe some insightful stuff that people haven't thought of because I tend to be a little bit of outside the box thinker and maybe I've considered things in ways that other people haven't or even if they have, maybe I know for me it's sometimes really validating just to hear someone else validate your own opinion in different words or even in the same words, you know?
[00:22:17] Stuart: Yeah, I agree. I believe that other people have, most of us have the same end goal, right? We're all trying to make ourselves happy and try to live our lives and, and have it be as easy as possible and we do, we just need to hear somebody else. That's, that's why I think people go to church is, I think it's why people go and and listen to people like who's Big Hand guy. Uh, any of the, like God, what's the guy's name with the big hands. Never mind anyway. So it's uh, that's gonna drive me nuts anyway, but, but like we go and we listened to people who are inspirational speakers, we watch ted talks all those things because we want to find somebody that's going to reiterate what we're trying to achieve in our lives out loud so that we can we can be validated. Yeah,
[00:23:11] Nick Mirisola: it's almost like the science of of of, you know, uh of the meaning of life or or of of our personalities, like personality science is not as simple or as objective or sterile as most people's uh perceptions of your average scientist. You know, a personality scientist is probably all about that. That makes I bet that makes perfect sense to some of
[00:23:41] Stuart: them. Oh, absolutely. And
[00:23:44] Nick Mirisola: being human
[00:23:45] Stuart: almost. Yeah, it is, it is the science of being human and I think it's a and it's those, um and we tend to be drawn to people that have the same beliefs as we are. That's why, you know, we we look for those groups, We look for those, those, those tribes so that we can be a part of them. Um and i it's kind of cool when you can get behind something such as Dude Ism or a musical artist. Like my, I wrote a college paper on how world peace would be achieved if everybody was a David Bowie fan, because I felt, yeah, because I felt then that way everybody would have a common ground to like base everything off of and then move on from there, right? Like if you you could have an argument about anything, but you could be like, but you know, daydream,
[00:24:36] Nick Mirisola: Hold on a sec. What with David Bowie think.
[00:24:39] Stuart: Yeah. Well w w t like that's that's exactly what we would have. Um Cool. And so you you make music and that kind of helps you, you know like get out like a lot of those feelings. And what about your other artwork, your other art? Like you do I
[00:24:59] Nick Mirisola: haven't I haven't really done a ton of art in a little while because I've kind of been focused on the the music stuff for a while. Because I actually was kind of one of the art kids not a music kid growing up. For the most part I took every art class my high school had and then some I was I was designing my own classes by junior and senior year in high school. Um And then I went I was an art major at U. V. M. I dropped out of college a million times, went to a million different art schools and school. I even did some Herbal medicine school. Um But yeah my art I man, um I'm kinda like my two artistic heroes, I guess I would say my biggest ones are M C. Escher and Salvador dali. Uh My favorite stuff that I've done of my own is almost like A. M. C. Escher meet Salvador dali. Oh that's very kind of my own style to it.
[00:26:09] Stuart: I
[00:26:10] Nick Mirisola: and sometimes I have this idea for my music, this is one idea I'm gonna be working on in the future. Um I'm thinking I've illustrated poems before in a piece of artwork um in that similar style, you know, where it's almost like a concept map or tells a story um within the imagery, and I'm thinking about doing something like that, at least a piece of art for a song or maybe an album or maybe all of them eventually. And I'm thinking of even doing some uh um some time lapses and video recording of the making of the art as it goes along and running that making videos on Youtube of the actual illustration of the lyrics and the music being made right before your eyes as the music plays. That's one of my big projects for the future.
[00:27:10] Stuart: I think that's awesome. That's sort of like those doodily videos, right? Like where people are drawing on a whiteboard to their talk. But I think that would be really remarkable if the music was playing. And you saw like the piece of art being created that accompanied accompanied that that's that's good. That's good art stuff. Man, I
[00:27:30] Nick Mirisola: think it could be really interesting to consider that. I'm kind of like, it's the same brain doing all that stuff too. So yeah, it's almost like totally fleshed out way beyond, like, totally integrated one area of that artistic venture.
[00:27:46] Stuart: Yeah, totally integrated. I love that concept. Um, your most recent album is alternative phenomena. Yeah, yeah. Um and it's where is where is that available? That available everywhere.
[00:28:01] Nick Mirisola: Um pretty much all the streaming platforms and then it's available at my website for streaming or download. There's actually a fan set the price, anything from zero up. Um Excuse me. Yeah. Meditative Animal dot com.
[00:28:17] Stuart: Yeah. So yes, everybody needs to head there download the album. Um I'm going to suggest the purchase price of $15 for everybody. Yeah, and I mean if you can't pay that, I understand pay whatever you can, but I think it's important to have uh independent artists like you and myself, I think we need to get rewarded for what we do. And I, your music is, it's really good. Like it's incredibly good. It doesn't sound like you smoke a lot on your album. Um um um um and so have you toured, like, I know you're not on a tour right now, but have you toured in the past and
[00:29:03] Nick Mirisola: I haven't done tours. I've played a handful of shows over the years, and I've played a ba jillion open mics and even more for free on the streets. I actually got most of my stage fright or whatever it was out of my system by going to the beach and playing in front of a couple 100 people and trying not to get kicked out.
[00:29:24] Stuart: A couple 100 people is a lot of people to do anything in front of. Yeah.
[00:29:29] Nick Mirisola: Right. It's enough to give even a good musician some butterflies. I found that.
[00:29:35] Stuart: Yeah, absolutely. Um, and uh, so any stories like when, when you were playing music, has anybody, has it touched anybody in particular or has it? Oh man. Is there a memorable moment? Like live yes performing anything live is always wild.
[00:29:55] Nick Mirisola: One of my favorite things of all time. I lived right down uh by a beach in Maine and I would go down to the beach and play for free. And uh, it was funny because when I moved away, the cops asked my mom. They were like, where's nick? We got no music at the beach, but they wouldn't let me get paid for it either. They wouldn't let me open my case. Um, they'd call the cops on me and have me arrested if I did it because I did it one time not knowing. And I made about $30 with my buddy in about 15 minutes. But uh, then some, some authority figures showed up and kindly let me know that that was not kosher.
[00:30:35] Stuart: Oh
[00:30:36] Nick Mirisola: yeah, they won't even let you do that. Um, my favorite part, my, one of my favorite memories of all time was I was down there at the beach playing for free. Just my own songs. Nobody knows these songs. That's part of what made it a challenge for me because I don't play cover songs really almost at all. And so nobody knows these songs. So they better be good enough that people are willing to at least listen to them once I figure or at least not throw an egg at me. And uh, so I'm down there playing and there's this little wicked, cute little freaking, I don't know how old he was. He must have been somewhere between, like I would say, maybe four years old and seven years old. Um, he's at the beach, He's, he's listening to my music. I can see him bopping his head and um, he starts gathering these rocks and he assembles these rocks in front of me that spell out the pied piper of maine. And I thought that was so like, I'm like this mythological figure to this little kid. It was, it was hilarious.
[00:31:43] Stuart: It was heartwarming
[00:31:44] Nick Mirisola: stuff like that. Makes it all worthwhile. Another one of my favorites was one of, one of my friends, uh, little kids didn't know it was me, I would show in the album to my friends and their family and they have this little kid who's, he can be, um, kind of tricky to deal with, I will say to be politically correct and everything about it. But uh, if I wanted to be a dick head, I could say he might even like to be compared to Dennis the Menace sometimes or something. Anyways, he's got, he's got his reasons, there's even some medical stuff going on that I don't want to get into. But anyways we're playing it for him and he's bopping his head and he didn't even know it was me. And then they're they're like, did you know that's nick on the radio right now? And he's like, wow, cool. That was touching too, for a little kid to be dancing. See him bopping his head to my music not even knowing it's me. Yeah, totally. Not pandering to anything other than his own sheer enjoyment of it. That was gold.
[00:32:51] Stuart: That is golden.
[00:32:52] Nick Mirisola: That's better than getting paid.
[00:32:54] Stuart: Absolutely. I mean it's also good to get paid. But
[00:32:57] Nick Mirisola: yeah, I don't do it for the money. Honestly, I almost avoid that sometimes on purpose.
[00:33:06] Stuart: Sure because it can get, it can cloud up what you're trying to do right? Like pretty, pretty soon. You're like, yeah, exactly, pretty soon. You're like, well what what famous rapper can I get to work with so that I can get some get paid. Tell us about what's coming up for you. Oh
[00:33:26] Nick Mirisola: yeah, well I don't know if he'd call it working with me, but I got this opportunity to purchase a beat with a feature from uh Killah Priest from the wu tang clan and um I added some harmonica and some hand drums a little whistling and it's gonna be my hip hop debut as uh a bit of an EMC two. So that should be interesting. That's that's probably the next on my agenda of releases. We'll see when that gets done trying to get some more female singers on it. Really kind of rounded out a little.
[00:34:03] Stuart: That's awesome. Yeah, I'm really psyched. Yeah, that, that is something to be very excited about and I'll tell you
[00:34:10] Nick Mirisola: something else. Yes.
[00:34:13] Stuart: Oh my goodness, some of my faves um alright, so let's do something else. That's going to be epic. We need to record a sketch. Alright, nick, this has been great so far. Hey, do me a favor. Tell everybody how they can go listen to your music and find out more about you.
[00:34:37] Nick Mirisola: If you're looking for some music with a timeless original sound, Great vibes, some wise, insightful lyrics, all poetically crafted to let you form your own relationships with it. Check out meditative animals music online. It's mostly online right now. It is a little bit on the radio, a certain independent stations around the world and you might catch it in certain stores in the background. Um, but if you want go to my website, meditative Animal dot com, there's plenty more there and keep your eyes and ears peeled peeled for more in the future.
[00:35:17] Stuart: And now our sketch dude imitation in 32
[00:35:26] Nick Mirisola: enter the doodah.
[00:35:31] Stuart: Oh my gosh, this temple is crazy. Look at all the guitars on the wall.
[00:35:37] Nick Mirisola: It's almost like I'm a musician or something weird. Huh?
[00:35:40] Stuart: Yeah, yeah, they are those sound panels in the shape of a buddha up there. Does the buddha have a shape. Oh you're already starting to blow my mind man. I want to learn more. Can you explain dude is um
[00:35:55] Nick Mirisola: to me, my own special blend of course is unique and rare and uh completely customized technically. It only matters to me.
[00:36:04] Stuart: Can we meditate together? Would that be something we could do?
[00:36:08] Nick Mirisola: We can always meditate together? How do we do this? Don't be a raging douchebag. Okay, Follow that train of thought the whole way through and achieve Judaism.
[00:36:17] Stuart: Okay, don't be a douche bag. Got it. Okay, Alright.
[00:36:20] Nick Mirisola: It's a cardinal sin to a dude ist. Okay, because this aggression will not stand
[00:36:26] Stuart: man understood. Is there any other rules that we should be following? Yes,
[00:36:30] Nick Mirisola: the dude always
[00:36:32] Stuart: abides any other rules that we should know
[00:36:34] Nick Mirisola: about. So I would recommend having a heart metaphorically in every situation because you do
[00:36:40] Stuart: All right, well, I will abide. Okay. Well, I feel like I've got, I've got a lot of feelings and I'd like to kind of address them as we're meditating here? Is that is that something we can do?
[00:36:51] Nick Mirisola: That would probably be the best way to do it while you're meditating.
[00:36:54] Stuart: Okay, Alright. So how do we start? Do we have to make any noise? Do we do an arm or what do we do? Hey,
[00:37:01] Nick Mirisola: silence is golden to
[00:37:03] Stuart: Okay. All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna think of nothing and I'm gonna say the first feeling that I've got All right, hmm, I'm feeling, I'm feeling, I'm actually feeling hungry. What should I do about that? Well,
[00:37:20] Nick Mirisola: there's a famous zen parable kind of starry eyed wannabe comes up to a zen master and he tells him about this amazing miracle worker who's can stand on one edge of a canyon and someone across the canyon will hold up a piece of paper and he can paint a picture on it from across the canyon without even touching it. The zen master responds to him and he says, my miracle is when I'm hungry, I eat
[00:37:44] Stuart: that. Sounds like sound advice. Alright, let me, let me see if I can process any more feelings. All right, Alright, Oh man, this is so weird. I'm feeling horny. I don't know why you're a good looking dude, but I don't know why I don't
[00:38:00] Nick Mirisola: love is love and to each their own and all that jazz. I personally love making love with the right people and under the right circumstances not to rain on your parade. I happen to be straight myself being more horny than you are soulful. Your heart and soul are probably the best to put in control of your pole.
[00:38:18] Stuart: Alright, well, I feel like I've got more feelings. I'd like to release and let me just feel what I'm feeling. I feel like I gotta poop
[00:38:27] Nick Mirisola: interesting dude is um, respects all religions and the first thing that comes to mind is all these monotheistic religions claim that man was made in God's image. Then I would just let you know that God poops my friend God poops everybody
[00:39:00] Stuart: thank you for joining us for sketch comedy podcast show. We hope you enjoyed listening as much as we enjoyed making it sketch comedy podcast show is protected under a creative commons attribution, no derivatives 4.0 international license. Now I'm rushing through this because nick's got a great message for you and if you wait till the end, you'll actually get to listen to some of his wonderful music, make sure you click on that in the link below. If you're enjoying it, go listen to more of his stuff. It is great.
[00:39:30] Nick Mirisola: I love you man, much love and many blessings for everybody out there, which inspired me to come up with uh, my own name from myself, which is a Duda, which might fit that one if you wanted me to explain that or you wanted to run with that a little, maybe you could work that in like uh I can explain what being a Duda means because I feel weird about that. It's almost like, you know, you hit a point of spiritual evolution and you can't help but notice certain advanced properties. But some of these same advanced properties are like trying to suit themselves in the foot because you're like hot, what are you supposed to do? Make humble pie like at the same time, what are you supposed to do? Just shoot yourself in the foot. Yeah, that's part of why I named myself a duda. I'll call myself and ask before they can money because in Sanskrit it actually means milk or milk, which is also interestingly Lebowski. But I think every american would assume that it means due to.
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