Duncan Trussell joins Nikki for a dialog on comedy, spirituality, service, Ram Dass, confidence, being your self, and beginning the place you might be.
Welcoming new buddy, Duncan Trussell, to the New Progress podcast, Nikki shares the string of synchronicities that introduced them collectively, earlier than diving into Duncan’s current second expertise of traversing fatherhood and worry amidst the pandemic. From there, Nikki prompts Duncan to discover his lifelong journey into comedy, podcasting, the Midnight Gospel, spirituality, Buddhism, and Ram Dass.
Get up once you get up: Be part of Nikki for a day by day morning podcast dharma collection: Go(o)d Mornings with Curly Nikki
Begin The place You Are
Starting with a mild curiosity, Nikki invitations Duncan to open up about what his non secular observe appears like at this time. Along with his household having covid, he shares that a lot of his present observe has flowed into one in every of service, of caring for his spouse and youngsters. By way of this lens, they illuminate knowledge from Pema Chödrön’s Begin The place You Are, focus on the best way to work with worry and anger, and uncover the threads of how Duncan discovered comedy, podcasting, and spirituality.
“So now, after I’m getting afraid and I see the anger coming, I attempt to simply get actually susceptible.” – Duncan Trussell
Pema Chödrön discusses worry & fearlessness in Concern because the Vangaurd of Braveness from our Woke up Coronary heart Weblog
Assembly Ram Dass (21:08)
After diving into Duncan’s profession and early non secular life, Nikki prompts him to inform the story of going to the Ram Dass retreat whereas in a depressed malaise from his Mother dying and receiving a life-changing transmission from Ram Dass at his residence on Maui. From right here, they focus on how we are able to transfer from the top to the center, and discover the deep non secular which means behind Ram Dass’ resonant and releasing out-breath mantra, “Ahh….”
“We will all experience that elevator down from head to coronary heart, after which it’s simply the observe for the remainder of the life is staying down within the coronary heart, as a result of we bounce proper again up.” – Nikki Walton
One other spirituality considerate comic, Pete Holmes, discusses his time with Ram Dass, on Ep. 363 of Mindrolling
Confidence, Comedy, & Being Your self (37:37)
Understanding the sort of confidence it takes to talk in entrance of reside audiences, Nikki asks Duncan how he was capable of finding his energy as a humorist. Sharing a lesson he realized from Mitzi Shore at The Comedy Shore, Duncan displays on the significance of being your self; earlier than he and Nikki ponder residing concurrently on numerous planes of actuality from the relative to absolutely the. To shut, Duncan reads the Zen, Track of the Grass-Roof Hermitage
“On the Comedy Retailer, the place I realized to do comedy, proper above the place they promote tickets, the proprietor, Mitzi Shore, had positioned an indication for the open mic’ers. The signal mentioned, ‘For 3 minutes, to not be humorous, however to be your self.’ Wrapped up in that’s her philosophy of humorist usually: The earlier you’re in a position on stage to only be you, after which inform your jokes, versus being another person and attempting to inform tales, the funnier you’re gonna be.” – Duncan Trussell
For extra Nikki Walton, be a part of her and Krishna Das for ‘Chanting Faculty,’ on Ep. 10 of New Progress
