His newest special, Posehna Non Grata, is out on Moment.co right now and while the pandemic shook up his original taping date, Posehn used the time to rewrite his hour and to eat some Taco Bell. Hey, we all did some stuff. I’m not sure what the material was going to be for Posehna Non Grata originally, but what came out of his revision is relatable, a little nerdy, and profoundly hilarious. When it comes to Brian Posehn, his resume might be one that hopes and dreams are made of, but off paper, he’s just like us. A junk-food-eating, TV-watching stoner.

Watched and loved Posehna Non Grata. You were all set to tape it, and the pandemic hit. How much of your material did you end up changing between then and now? 

Brian Posehn: Oh, it all got thrown out! The special is all brand new, with the exception of one joke. I do this joke where I talk about weight loss, and this really happened—I scared this woman at one in the morning at the hotel gym. The lights were off where this woman was working out and I walked in, but there was this motion sensor so it turned the lights on. The lights flash on and she sees me in the doorway, and I actually said this to a stranger, “Don’t be scared.” That was the only joke in the special that had been around pre-COVID. Everything else is new. 

The part about The Rock, that just happened recently? 

Yeah, that was the first time I went on stage after COVID, and it just happened that day, where The Rock responded to an old thread from six years ago. The first time I went on stage I brought the phone up like, holy shit! You guys are not going to believe what just happened! The joke just wrote itself from there. I have tags I change with it, but it’s just one of those things where I really have fun doing it, so I just add more jokes to it.  

Have you and The Rock stayed in touch? 

No, not really at all. That was the last response I saw. It could have been just a random person responding or it could be two people because he fired the last guy. I like to think it was really The Rock. 

I like to think that too. Whenever tweets are extra funny, I hope it’s actually him. I like that you kept the screenshot as a trophy. 

The most embarrassing thing is the only reason it became a screenshot for me is because every night before I did the joke, I’d have to go on Twitter before the show and find the old thread. Then I had a younger comedian go, “Hey, you know you can just screenshot that, right?” I was like, yeah totally. How do I do that? I’m so old.

Did you learn to do anything new during the pandemic? Not mentally, but skill-wise. 

No, I just gained weight and watched TV. I watched the same shit I watched my whole life and binged movies. You know, comfort movies. That’s what I turned to a lot, old shows. So no, nothing.

I heard you mastered delivery timing and I think that’s pretty impressive. 

Oh yes! The key is ordering the weed first. Some days the weed guy must be close to me though because sometimes, it gets here in 15 to 20 minutes. I mastered it pretty fast though, like, on the first time. 

Do you think there is any correlation between this skill and some fat shaming you mentioned in your special? 

For sure! I grew up with garbage fast food stuff so I eat more Taco Bell than I care to admit. It’s not even Mexican food, I don’t know what it is. I think it’s Soylent Green. I think we’re eating people! Now I’m losing weight, but I still smoke. People ask me how I get super high and walk and it’s like, I just do. 

You mentioned getting high with strangers and some people are so sketchy…

I think I have a pretty good sketch detector and I’m pretty streetwise. I figure I made it this far. Post-COVID I don’t really smoke with people anymore or if I do, it’s my own stuff. I’ll usually have my own pre-roll with me. It feels like people across the country are reluctant to pass joints, or that’s been my experience. Back then, everyone had something and it was cool. Now people are like, do you wanna suck this? And I’m like, not really. 

Are you doing any mushrooms? They’re all the rage these days. 

I’m not, but it’s funny because I’m finding out that all of these parents are. I wasn’t even aware that it was a huge thing. One of the dads I know microdoses and it changed everything for me. Now I’m looking at him like, dude this guy is high as balls right now! 

He’s probably a better dad. More tolerant like, sure, draw all over the walls; you’re as great as Picasso. 

I’ve never done what everyone is doing so this one is like, ehhh. I got too in my head with acid and shrooms back in the day. I feel like it was more available in California than anywhere probably. Practically everyone I knew tripped in some way. The nerds, the stoners—I would just get too in my head. One time I was at this party and a girl turned me down at a party. So I just walked all the way home, in San Francisco, tripping balls.

I think it’s an age block because we grew up with weed and mushrooms being illegal. Now there are weed stores everywhere, and it’s so great, but mentally I’m like, this is nuts. 

Yes! At first those places would get raided and shut down so even when it went completely legal, I still had this fear of it being raided when I was in the store. I don’t know why but I do think it comes from growing up with it being illegal your entire life. 

I blame Nancy Regan. 

I blame her for a lot of things. I get diarrhea and I blame Nancy, but it was really Taco Bell. 

The post Brian Posehn and The Rock Sitting in a Tree, T-W-E-E-T-I-N-G appeared first on High Times.

From the outside looking in, Johnny’s life may seem charmed, but that life came along with ups and downs within relationships, within the sports industry that his father, Dr. Jerry Buss, helped cultivate in L.A., and most recently, with purchasing The Ice House Comedy Club in Pasadena, slated to open early 2023. When it comes to depression and anxiety, it’s never a game of “who you know” or how kind you are. Depression and anxiety don’t discriminate, they just torture.

After “trying it all” to help relieve an internal clock that seemed to always be ringing and a pandemic sending him sinking into a deep depression, he decided to try ketamine under a doctor’s care, and found the experience to be a miracle cure. Riding that trip but moving into an all-natural lane this year, right before his 66th birthday, Buss got on board with psilocybin when he heard it provided the same relief. Minus the IV. 

High Times: We can read all about your sports background, so let’s talk comedy. How did you and The Ice House Comedy Club come to be? 

Johnny Buss: My dad and I loved watching live comedy and going to variety clubs, so that was our thing. We talked for over 40 years about opening a club together and when he passed in 2013, we never did get to live out that dream of ours. When I saw that The Ice House was up for sale I thought, now this is the place I can honor that dream. It’s a legendary club and I plan to honor that legacy as well. It’s been slow moving getting it open because of the pandemic and unforeseen obstacles, but it’s rolling along now and it’s going to be the place to be when we open it back up. It looks incredible.   

I can imagine that’s been stressful. Is that what led you to trying ketamine? 

Kind of. A lot of people developed depression during COVID, and COVID came at a very difficult time in my life. I was just getting over grieving for my parents, my father died in 2013 and my mother passed away in 2019, just prior to covid. When COVID hit … it made me think, where are my parents? Why can’t I talk to them? I had all of these emotions and it felt like nothing could go right in my life, except for the comedy club. I was happy, but at the same time, when the city comes and shuts down your business– this is really serious. People are dying and getting sick and now you have to hunker down so, I hunkered down at home with my kids and their mother. We were never married, but we had a relationship so I felt really happy being a family again. It was nice, but knowing that relationship was never going to rekindle, I started feeling lonely and upset, like everything was going wrong with my business, how was I going to explain a pandemic to my kids—I felt like I lost love. It was a horrific period of time for everybody in the world and it just seemed like life was lost. So, I’m feeling all of these things and I’m walking down the street from having coffee. I see this little Medi-spa and it says, “ketamine treatments here.” I’m thinking, OK, ketamine sounds very familiar, but I didn’t quite remember what ketamine was. I did remember thinking it sounded like an illicit drug. 

The first time I heard it my mind went to, is that what some people dip joints into? It’s not by the way. 

Yeah, I was never big into trying much, but I looked it up and it said Special K and I remembered that as “a nightclub drug.” I’m thinking, what is this ketamine treatment at a Medi-spa? What could it possibly do for you? I did some research and found a doctor who had a ketamine treatment center, had a consultation with him, and he explained to me that ketamine treatments are being used to treat depression. I thought, I need this treatment because I’ve never felt this kind of depression before. So I get hooked up to this IV, it takes about an hour, and I went on one of the most incredible journeys that I could ever imagine. Slightly scary, because what ketamine does is, it takes you away from reality. At least for me, it made me believe that the world was actually digital. That everything and everybody was really digital and that we are all some kind of technological creation rather than a natural creation. Until you come back down off of it and you’re like, is the world real or not? Now that is quite a trip for a first time experience. I would’ve suspected I’d see people or animals, the pink elephant idea, but not one natural subject was in this trip that I took! 

So after you completed the sessions, did you feel like it helped you deal with your depression or is it just in those moments? 

I cannot tell you enough about the incredible benefits. Not only did it relieve me of any depression, but it also took away any anxiety, it took away anger from road rage or anything like that, and it just gave me all of the patience in the world. All of the sudden, I didn’t feel angry anymore. Not only did it get me out of depression, it got me out of an impatient anger that I’ve had for years and years. My life changed. It reset my brain.  

That’s incredible. Since the phrase “better late than never” exists for a reason, how did trying mushrooms for the first time this year happen?

I’d been telling everyone my ketamine story and someone said, “It kind of sounds like you’re telling a story about psylocibin.” I was thinking, mushrooms do the same thing? They told me, “Well, kind of!” They suggested I try some to see how I felt after it. My friend gave me some mushrooms in chocolate, which I guess is the common way to microdose. I took some, didn’t feel much. Took a little more, still didn’t feel much. So I ate this whole chocolate bar and I’m like, OK, I’m starting to feel something here that is very similar to what I felt with ketamine. Not the same trip, but the body experience. My brain started relaxing and I thought, I’m going to take a little walk outside. The wind was blowing through the trees and it looked like slow motion. I looked up at the clouds in the sky, and the sky itself, and the sky was so blue and the flowers were brilliant. I was actually on a trip and I didn’t notice it because I didn’t overdo anything. I had that same euphoric feeling where now I  didn’t care if someone said something mean to me or honked at me or a tree fell in front of me—everything seemed funny and interesting. It was a trip of beauty, peacefulness, and incredible tolerance for all of the problems that were in my life. It was amazing. 

How did you feel afterwards? 

There were no side effects! There was no “coming down” like you have with alcohol and hangovers. What I was thinking was, I’m liking these mushrooms and I’ve got to get some more. Someone told me about this little mushroom farmers market were people set up their stands and sell psilocybin. So, they bring me some and these are actual mushrooms. I had gotten myself to a dose where I thought, OK, this is where I want to be, but now I have real mushrooms. I’ll tell you what, it was a little bit stronger than the chocolate, but it was right where I wanted to be. It was a lot of fun. It took me back to where ketamine took me and I thought, wait. You can do this without having an IV?

Isn’t nature just the coolest? 

It’s really good. It’s something that I’m so truly pleased that I found in my life and it was only because I told the ketamine story to others. This might be the key to us going back to being a productive society again. I really believe that. At 66 years old, I’m not doing it to get high. It’s fun and I’m enjoying the high, but that’s not why I’m doing it. I’m doing it because I’m in a high stress situation and ketamine taught me something, and mushrooms are carrying me further. 

The post Johnny Buss Opens Up His Mind to More Than Comedy appeared first on High Times.

High Times: When did you start doing comedy and do you remember how much your first paying gig was?

Mike Cannon: I started doing comedy in 2008 in New York, which I wouldn’t recommend. I got paid way too much for my first paying gig too, which never happens. I got $300 for doing an hour of comedy for LIM College in Manhattan when I was a month and half into stand-up.

$300? Some people get a drink ticket! You must’ve thought you were hot shit.

Yes! I thought I was going to be Katt Williams! I thought, this is the beginning of becoming a millionaire soon enough!

What’s your history with weed? First time?

The first time I smoked weed, I think I was 15 because it was at a soccer party when I was a sophomore. There was a long tradition where the seniors forced everyone to smoke weed at this “pasta party.” The pasta party was where everyone loaded up on carbs and smoked weed the night before the game. Everyone was loading up on carbs, meanwhile, everyone was shitting out alfredo sauce the next day instead of playing well. I ended up smoking weed in my friend’s room with him for my first experience. I didn’t get high, but I did eat a lot.

It seems like a lot of people think they weren’t high the first time, maybe because they had expectations, but then you throw in the “I ate a lot…”

I always eat a lot! In my heart of hearts, I feel like I didn’t get high because there was nothing happening. I know that my eyes felt more closed, but I think I was doing that myself.

OK so when did you actually get high for the first time?

I never smoked again after that first time until I went away to college, and it was my junior year. I played basketball and I was going to be a professional athlete. Meanwhile, I was not even close. I ended smoking pretty regularly in college at Geneseo, where I hung out with a bunch of “jam band” guys. Whenever they would tell me about Phish or Grateful Dead, I would immediately walk out of the room and not participate at all. I’m more of a movie guy than a music guy.

What’s your go-to movie that always hits? 

Ace Ventura 2. Not the first one, it has to be the second one. It’s one of the craziest comedies ever because it’s like, give the ball to the star and let him fucking go. I remember being absolutely in awe that they just kept the cameras rolling and basically made Jim Carrey write the movie on the spot. It’s my favorite comedy sequel of all-time. I love something that routinely delivers. It’s like security, like laying down and having your parents tell you a story before bed.

Well that’s adorable. Let’s make your parents proud, sativa or indica?

I lean indica because I have a lot of rage issues. I need to be slightly tranquilized throughout my day to even be slightly above normal rage. I smoke blunts constantly. That’s how we all started, with Dutch Masters putting 5 on it. My entire experience with weed has been a mental “get past the hurdle” thing. I was really affected by being high initially. So much so, that the people who had been smoking regularly were annoyed to be around me. So, I had to learn to be chill and basically stifle my joy. It’s the same with edibles where I felt like I needed to be glued to the couch, or that was my compulsion. As soon as I started forcing myself to move around and get things done, it was almost like beating sleep on Ambien. It makes it that much better. You feel euphoric, you want to have sex—it’s an awesome feeling.

Starting with blunts goes hard. Who or what influenced that? 

Oh yeah. In the movie Kids, which is a remarkably fucked up movie, the blunt rolling scene in Washington Square Park kind of served as a tutorial for my use. We took that scene very seriously and perfected how to roll them up.

Was taking 150mg of edibles before your new special the plan or did you just start eating them and were like, wow these are delightful and I can’t stop eating them?

It was the plan really. The highest dose I’ve ever taken was in the 400-500 range. I remember the way I felt and there was no way I could’ve possibly performed like that. The idea came from the stress of putting together my hour of material. I put a lot of effort, time, production, and money into my other two specials and felt good about doing all of that, but I knew next time I pretty much wanted to do the exact opposite. I wanted an “I don’t care what this is, let’s have fun” kind of thing and that’s what came out of it. Nicole Lyons directed it, and she’s incredible. So, I knew 100mg gets me very high and I figured that 150 was above my regular dosage, but still below what would probably put me into a mental institution. I wanted to be super high, but also have the ability to verbalize what I was experiencing. I didn’t want to be completely comatose because I figured that wouldn’t be entertaining, so 150mg seemed like a perfect middle ground where it was a lot, but still manageable. The mission was to have a good time and it was a really a good night. Of course, there’ll be people like, “150mg? What an absolute pussy! I do that before I pick up my daughter from school!”

Did you have a plan for if you passed out on stage?

No! I went into it thinking it might be a 10-minute “fail video” though. Like, Mike Cannon tries performing on edibles and fails miserably! It turned out that everyone was there for the right reason. It was on 4/20, people were the right amount of stoned, and it was just a good time.

If you could pick a comic to eat 150mg and remake your special, who are you going with?

Joey Diaz. I have such reverence for him. He probably should’ve been the star of it in the first place, but hey, sometimes the availability doesn’t work out! I would love to see him, with whatever milligram he takes, just rip for a full hour with no plan. He’s one of the best doing it regardless, and then you add in all those edibles that he routinely takes? That would be insane.

The post Comedian Mike Cannon Doesn’t Want To Talk About Phish appeared first on High Times.

Her newest step into the reality world puts Jade in the host and judge seat as the heat gets kicked up the Scoville scale on Hulu’s Hotties, a dating/cooking show hybrid that gives you cottonmouth just watching it. Could there be a marijuana element added to the next season? We talked to Jade about that, her special jaded. and the musical version coming out next month, and of course, her love affair with marijuana. 

High Times: Did you get the gig at The Comedy Store because you wanted to be a comedian or did having a job there turn you into one?

Jade Catta-Preta: Kind of both. The first time I went to The Comedy Store, [comedian] Sandy Danto brought me there. I had got a job for National Lampoon doing a clip show and he was like, I think you have a comedy cadence. I didn’t really want to go, but then we got super high. It was actually one of the first times I had smoked California weed. We went to The Comedy Store and there was this crazy sense of familiarity like I’d been there before or something. I was so drawn to the building itself and the history of it all. I just knew I had to be there.

Grateful you felt that pull because it all led to your special jaded., which is so damn funny. How are you feeling now that it’s out?

I’m glad I’m done with it! I’m ready to graduate! I did it in the middle of COVID and there are a lot of jokes within it that I don’t feel as connected to anymore, so I can’t wait to make the next one a little more personal. I had it so memorized though; I was like, it’s never gonna be this good again. I also had a full band and did a musical version so I’ll be releasing that special on a website called Moment.co on October 20^th. I’m so excited and after I release that, I’ll never release anything again! I’ll just do podcasts forever.

You say that now, but that’s probably how people feel when they push out that first baby.

True, and now I get to kind of focus on myself and what I actually want to say. Like, how do I actually wanna feel? I would like to share a little more of myself.

Then it’s settled, you’ll release more. Glad we talked this through. In your special you sing a song about what’s not chill, but what is chill after you hit a joint?

I think everything is chill after you smoke weed, especially after you eat a great meal. If I didn’t have weed, I would just be a manic freak. Weed makes me feel normal. Weed makes me not overthink everything and it gives me a break from myself. I love the community and bonding aspect of weed too. The only thing I don’t like to do when I’m high is perform, which is funny. I think I get off on comedy because there is this sense of control. Even if it’s a false sense, I love that.

You also mentioned in the special that when your parents smoke weed, you get named Jade. Joke or fact?

It’s kind of a joke. My dad was an artist, so he had a lot of other artist friends that were always around. He made holograms and was one of the pioneers in the 80’s. There were always a bunch of crazy dudes around who loved rock-and-roll and weed. It’s funny because they did everything they could to keep it away from us, obviously, but my dad had those roach scissors and my sister and I knew what it was. I think I romanticized Pink Floyd and Cheech and Chong, just that era of potheads that were cool and doing creative shit. That is kind of always what I aspired to be.

What’s your preferred method of marijuana intake?

One hundred percent, it’s a spliff. I hate cigarettes, but it’s just a tiny bit of tobacco. I love the act of rolling it, it’s like a little weird thing I enjoy. I like blunts too because I’m from the east coast originally. It’s funny because in L.A., you smoke a blunt and when it’s almost done, you toss it out. In New York, you get it down to the point where you can barely hold it and people are like, “Don’t throw that roach out!”

What strain do you go for or do you switch it up?

Sativa. I can’t do a Jack Herer though because I will clean my whole house with a toothbrush. I’m not really a big fan of indica because it makes me sleep on the couch and I hate getting sleepy from weed. I like when I feel a little pick-me-up when I smoke. I like right when it hits you because it’s like, ahhhhh. I feel like if I’m home and it’s after 5 pm, whatever I’m doing after that, I’m usually stoned. I should cook more but I’m like, how do I get this condiment in my mouth? I’ll just grab turkey and put mustard on it like, I cooked this! The stuff I get into is ridiculous and mostly just grabbing a bunch of stuff and putting it in my mouth all at once. Then chewing.

What if someone was like, we want you to name a strain. What would you call it?

I’d name it something Brazilian like, Alegría, because it means happy, but it’s also like, what is that word? In Italian it means “cheerfulness,” so I love that. I saw that [Seth] Rogen was doing a weed strain and it’s like, I want to do a weed strain! What a cool space to be in, even though I guess I don’t know strain names anymore. I used to be like, give me that Blue Dream or lemme do that Lamb’s Breath. Lamb’s Breath, by the way, is my favorite strain of all-time. It’s an old and perfect strain that was hard to find even before it was legalized. I think it’s a very expensive to produce because it’s the perfectly balanced hybrid. Something like that. Can you also put somewhere that dispensaries can send weed to me whenever they want? That’s more chill than a stranger that’s like, “Hey I like your butt photos, here’s some weed.”

Putting that all into the universe right now. Hotties definitely pairs well with a sativa. It also really takes your mind off of everything but laughing at people.

That’s the best part, you can get super fucking high and watch my special and Hotties and it’ll be even better. That’s the kind of TV I like. People make fun of me because I love reality TV, but it just puts me in such a calm spot. I’m also voyeuristic so I love watching people that know they’re going to be watched. I like seeing what happens to their personality and how they portray themselves. I read somewhere that Hotties is all fake, but honestly, it’s the least fake thing I’ve ever done. Everything happened as it happened. Everything I said in the moment, they kept. There’s editing, but they didn’t take things out or create some “dating moment.” We’re hoping that if we get a second season, it gets even hotter and weirder and maybe people are drinking. Or maybe, there can even be a weed aspect added! You never know!

Do you think you have more burning butthole jokes in you?

I always have more butthole jokes, but I don’t know if I have any more hot pepper jokes. My friend J. Chris Newberg, who’s an incredible writer and comic, wrote on the show too and we were definitely running out of pepper puns by the end.

The post You Bring the Spliff, Comedian Jade Catta-Preta Will Bring the Fire appeared first on High Times.

Traveling across the country on The Berty Boy Tour while also recording his popular podcasts Bertcast and 2 Bears 1 Cave (co-hosted by Tom Segura), Kreischer is partying and puffing the whole way. Before his stops in Colorado and Canada, this insanely busy bear made time to chat with High Times about his weed preferences, high hobbies, and cringeworthy cannabis memories. Spoiler: You’re gonna want his life.

High Times: How old were you the first time you smoked weed, and how did you get it?

Bert Kreischer: I was 15 years old. We went to a pool hall in West Tampa, [Florida] and we bought weed from a big Native American dude. It’s so funny because nowadays, I look back and think it was so hard to get back then. We walked to a pool hall, and my buddy Sal went in. I don’t even know how we knew that we could get it from that guy. Back then, it was almost like panning for gold. You go in there like, “Does anyone have weed in here?” It’s that fucking crazy.

Oh yeah, back then, it was like my friend’s third cousin said if you “ask for Earl,” you can get a 40 and a dime bag. So we’d drive an hour away for “Earl.” Do you remember the first song that you got high to?

Yup! Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb. We planned it! We went to my friend’s house and turned on Pink Floyd because we were told that’s what you get high to. So, we smoked weed, and I waited for the song to get better. All I knew was that the song was supposed to get fucking good! I didn’t get high the first time because it didn’t work. Everyone was like, “Yeah, you don’t get high your first time. It’s your second time or third time.” My buddy came in and was like, “It’s my third time, and I’m really high.” I was like, “Oh man! I can’t wait until I’m three times in!” It’s so crazy because we did all the stereotype things you “should” do if you’re smoking weed. It was all stuff someone’s older brother had done. My buddy was like, “Hey, if I put this jar over my head, you won’t hear me speak.” Then, as he pretended to put a jar over his head, he’d stop talking, and we’d all laugh at the dumbest fucking joke because we thought, I guess, we’re supposed to laugh.

When did your “third time” finally hit?

I smoked weed a bunch from freshman to sophomore year. It wasn’t until my junior year of high school that I got really fucking high. Like, really high where I had a panic attack and thought, “Oh fuck. This is a drug.” I was like, “Oh shit, it’s working this time. I can’t feel my face.” We rolled the joint out of the back pages of the bible, and I was like, “God’s getting even with me! Fuck!”

Good God. Literally. What’s the highest you’ve been as an adult, and how did you get there?

I was pretty high last night! There’s a club in Toronto that you can do stand-up at, and Doug Benson told me, “Write your set down because you will forget your set just from the contact high.” The smoke was so thick that five minutes into my set, I was high, and my throat was burning.

Edibles are the thing that fuck me up the most, though. Joey Diaz gave my dad edibles one Easter, but he didn’t know it, so I took them too, so he wasn’t high by himself. We had one of the best conversations. We were drinking whiskey, high as fuck sitting in my backyard having a cigar. I said to my dad, “I feel like you don’t like me at times.” He just goes, high as fuck, “You make me uncomfortable.” My dad was high as shit, and he goes, “You know, I lost my dad at a young age and I’m afraid I’m going to lose you because your lifestyle makes me uncomfortable.” I asked what I could do to fix it and he said he wanted me to go to a cardiologist of his choice to have the tests that he felt like needed to be run. I was like, “Of course! I want a better relationship with you.” He was like, “This is the greatest night ever!” Two weeks later, I went to the cardiologist and had everything scanned and tested.

And then did you roll up some weed in the cardiologist report and smoke it?

I should have! I should’ve been like, thank God marijuana was here the night Joey Diaz roofied my dad!

What is your go-to weed on the road, and what’s it like when fans bring you any type of drug these days?

After I was roofied by Ari Shaffir, I started becoming very skeptical about everything. I never once thought about it before. Now I’m very specific. I have my own weed, and I have a certain strain that I like, which is Blue Dream. It makes me feel very comfortable. It makes me feel relaxed, so I can sleep better too. I also have a couple vape pens in rotation and some Durban Poison and Jack Herer, a couple strains that are good creative ones.

Even though I don’t think everyone can pull them off, I want to support your passion for Speedos. Mostly because I hear they make you “swim like a fucking dolphin.”

Water is fucking fascinating when you’re high. I always end up in a Speedo, high, and in the pool every time I get high when I’m home. Every fucking time. I end up in my Polar Plunge, or I end up in my pool—it’s my favorite thing. The first time I realized how great water is when you’re high was when we were having a pool party, so there were a bunch of kids there. We also hired two lifeguards, so everyone felt really comfortable. One of the dads was like, “Hey, you wanna get high?” I said, “Yeah sure, we’ll get high.” I just ended up in the pool playing sharks and minnows with the kids laughing hysterically like, this is fucking awesome! And I was in a Speedo, so you know I was like a dart in that water!

I don’t understand how you became the coolest human alive. Your promos? Also cool. Do you come up with those, or are they a group effort?

I wish they were a group effort! We have a drone and it’s literally about turning on the camera and figuring something out. We just made one for Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado in the middle of nowhere. I had some ski pants that I just bought, and we grabbed the drone to make it look like I had just got done hiking. Red Rocks is going to be the best because they tell you that you can either leave the venue right when you get off stage or you can hang out. But if you hang out, you have to stay for three hours while traffic leaves. Three hours? You get a caterer there and you plan a party there! Why wouldn’t you stay in Red Rocks and party? There’s no one there!

Because people don’t think like you. Please refer back to “you being the coolest.”

Yeah, people are like, “Get me the fuck out of here,” and I’m like, “Keep me at this venue!” Last time I did Red Rocks, we were having a party, and everyone is backstage. Around midnight, no one is in this venue, so I go out to the stage with a joint and a cocktail. I lit the joint and sat there and looked up at the stars and rocks thinking, “Fuck, I just did this!” It was the greatest. I’m looking forward to that moment again after the show.

Any thoughts on uninvited party crashers?

I’m so unaware of everything that’s going on. I played The Greek [Theatre in Los Angeles], and it was so fucking fun, and the security was slam-packed. People were coming up to the stage to give me joints, and I was like, “Yeah! This is great!” I was just oblivious to all of it and why there was so much security. I was like, “Don’t charge me for the extra security! That’s on you!” I also think if you’re one of my fans, and you come rushing the stage, you’re gonna get winded. If you do that and get past security, just give me a hug.

bertbertbert.com

This article appears in the August 2022 issue of High Times. Subscribe here.

The post ‘The Machine’ Keeps the Party Going appeared first on High Times.

She recently entered the world of microdosing psilocybin and credits it for helping her deal with grief and recognizing and releasing past trauma. It’s been an epiphany-filled journey for Peluso, and one she vows to delve further into in order to work on herself. Before heading cross-country on her “Gyrl Tour” with fellow comedian (and ex-castmate on Girl Code) Carly Aquilino, Peluso talked with us about her BFF MJ, her intentions of slowing down with the help of microdosing, and how she learned to breathe again thanks to a little magic mushroom.

High Times: Let’s start at the beginning. When did you pop your Mary cherry?

Jessimae Peluso: The first time I remember smoking weed, I was a freshman in high school and it was a “second-hand scenario” because I was in the back of a Geo Tracker with about 32 people. I’m not sure if that’s the exact number or a result of being second-hand high and my brain’s inability to count, but one of the people weighed north of 250 pounds and I was inside of him somehow. I was engulfed in his lovely mass. That was the first experience I ever had with weed. In a car, filled with friends, clearly stoned, and driving the streets of upstate New York listening to The Notorious B.I.G’s Ready to Die. It was amazing and I didn’t even put a blunt to my lips. I just felt something that made me want to go further. I still had my hymen and those days were great! A hymen and a blunt? I’d kill for that and I’m almost 40!

It’s sometimes still mind-blowing that weed is everywhere and I got grounded by my parents for it.

I experienced those things back in New York where you are like, oh, this is illegal. But then you take a hit and you’re like, let’s talk about legality of the soul. And it’s still a topic that’s divided only by people who haven’t realized the medicinal value of the plant. They seem to be the ones who make the biggest judgements about it. I’ve realized its value as a medicine in my healing with letting go of trauma and being able to process trauma and grief. It’s been an amazing tool for me.

The irony is that the people screaming the loudest could probably benefit from it.

Yes! There’s plenty of science now! We know what it’s good for and we know that it’s being used to help people with PTSD. I mean, men and women from the military who are sent home with terrible PTSD are being administered marijuana as a medicinal implementation into their healing. It’s so interesting. Look at alcohol and what it does to people, it’s an outward expression. There’s a lot of anger that can come out and you can express yourself in a way that can be regretful the next day. I mean, you’re calling exes! You’re just belligerent! On weed, I can’t lift my fingertips to press send on a text that is literally all t’s. Just one big row, TTTTTTTTTTT. Alcohol takes, and medicines like marijuana and psilocybin give. They even teach you to give because of how insightful they are. I’ve had some of the most life-changing epiphanies on a blunt. Oh my god, the irony of it all.

Celebrity strains are all the rage so I know you’ve tried at least one. Name drop.

I have! A friend of mine, Jaleel White, and one of the greatest companies in California, 710 Labs, did a collaboration called, Its PurpL. Jaleel’s an amazing human, a really great friend, and if you know, you know. I mean, it’s fucking Family Matters. Hello? I’m a supportive friend regardless, but I gotta tell you, the weed is legit. He sent me a welcome gift when he launched his product and it came with a fucking cast iron waffle maker and infused syrup!

No part of me hated that story. Shout out to Stefan. Now tell me the story about how you got into mushrooms. It was pretty recent, right?

Oh, let me tell you, I did mushrooms in high school and they were the shitake! No, it wasn’t that long ago. Microdosing psilocybin was introduced to me through the process of grief. I dabbled a little after my dad passed away, and then shortly after, my mom died and I microdosed almost daily after that. It was almost like that door that Rose was greedy with in the movie Titanic. She had enough room for Jack! Rose was a greedy bitch, but shrooms offered me the door. Shrooms were like, you’re drowning in this cold ass water, just come on out of the water for a minute and catch your breath. When it comes to microdosing, it’s such a gentle introduction into what psilocybin can offer. From my experience, I entered low and slow. I always go low and slow with anything in my life now. I realize the value of just slowing down and letting things inform me. That’s the thing about psilocybin, it’s a very informative medicine, especially if you let yourself be introduced to it on a microdosing level.

Did you take a tour guide with you on your first walk with psilocybin?

My friend Jackie, who is like one of my soul sisters, has been somewhat of a psychedelic guide for me in helping introduce me into that world and to enter it with caution while being mindful. I’ve been really fortunate to be introduced by people who have a lot of experience and understand its value as an evolutionary tool for an individual. I’ve also been mindful of its implementation into my life and done a lot of research because I’m a fucking Virgo and I like to know things. I like to know what I’m putting in my body because if it’s a dick I’m like, ok. But a mushroom? Wait a minute now! 

Guilty. And we’re light years away from shrooms dipped in ranch in high school. What were we even doing?

I feel like it’s a great space to get into after your brain is developed and you’re an adult. Being experimental with something that can provide a real holistic and honest experience, that would add to your life. With psilocybin, your feet are on the ground. You’re just allowing your mind to pixelate a little. You’re allowing your mind to unravel those tethered vines that are ancestral, traumatic, and consequential. We have such a hold on ourselves. We’re functioning from a place of survival and most of us have a story that has a traumatic experience or event that we haven’t fully healed from. Although we’re able to navigate life beyond that, it doesn’t mean that the effects of it haven’t been detrimental. Emotional stress causes physical stress in our bodies, and mushrooms are the key to healing from our emotional Pandora’s box. That’s what I truly believe, and that’s just from a microdosing experience. I haven’t gone fully into the void, but I am for my 40^th birthday this year. I wanted to make it special and be with certain people who have helped me through the hardest times of my life. I got a whole bunch of shrooms, I got a whole bunch of avocados, and I got a whole bunch of teddy bears. We’re hoping for the best.

Wait, is that a thing to have avocados and teddy bears?

Bitch, I don’t know! But they’re all mushy and soft and that’s what I need to hold on to! I need healthy fats! This is my journey!

Follow Jessimae Peluso on Instagram.

The post Unlike Rose in Titanic, Shrooms Offered Comedian Jessimae Peluso a Door appeared first on High Times.

Kevin may have become a stoner later in life, but the wisdom he carries regarding it reads like a positive affirmation we should all ingest. Turned on to using cannabis for a higher good by his pal Seth Rogan, Kevin’s take on living a stoner lifestyle gives us one more reason to admire this multi-talented, ordinary name having man.

Coming off the heels of Comic-Con, and before Clerks 3 makes it’s anticipated debut on September 13^th, we attempted to get some spoilers (Spoiler: we didn’t), discussed the sweetest currency, his strains with Caviar Gold, and cannabis being a running theme in his life, even when it was just for show. 

Do you ever sit there at Comic-Con and revel in your head like, oh my god I did this?

Kevin Smith: Like, literally. Revel is the right fucking word. I’ve been going to Comic-Con since 95’ and when I first got there the dream was like, this is where I wanna be accepted. I wanna be as integral to this institution as Stan. This is worth all the effort. Some people got lucky early, like I did with my career, and all they wanted to do was party, do drugs, and get fucked. All I wanted to do was become the King of Comic-Con. It took decades, and I don’t know if I’m the king, but I’m definitely Comic-Con royalty. So, I do revel in it because I think back to the conscious effort I put into getting here. The kids today would call it, “thirsty.” I’m sure the kids would also say that was cringe, but whatever. I do revel in it. It’s so gross to admit!

Come on, you put in the work in. You deserve the love. 

I think it helps that it’s never been obscene amounts. Ben Affleck is worldwide famous. I’ve seen that shit up close and it’s nuts. He goes to a mall and he gets fucking swamped. I go to Comic-Con and can be with the general public. It really comes down to a series of knowing smiles. I encounter people who maybe don’t come over like, I wanna take a picture or can you sign this? Instead, they give you eye contact and then a smile crosses their face. That feels fantastic. That means they’re associating me with some pleasant fucking memory enough to give me the grin. I love that shit. That’s the sweetest currency that spends the absolute most in my world.

You started smoking weed pretty late in life. What kept you away from it? Nancy Regan?

Yes! That was it! I was raised in the era of “Just Say No” when drugs were stigmatized. And that’s fine when you’re talking about cocaine or heroin, but they stigmatized weed pretty hard. I had an internal bias from childhood that went along with becoming a stoner. I was like, oh my god you’re going to become one of those lazy people who eats food and watches TV. I made this commitment like, hey, obviously you like this stoning thing and obviously at age 38, it’s doing something for you. If you’re going to do this, it always has to be tied to productivity. So you can smoke, but you always have to be creating. Smoke and record a podcast, smoke and shoot a movie, smoke and write—never just smoke and watch things unless you’re watching a thing you’re editing. Sure, sometimes you need a little inhale to invite joy. But kids, it’s not just for parties. It’s for progress, for productivity, and it clears away the inhibitions and allows you to think about dreams in a very real way.

Where did you adapt this “productivity only” mindset from?

Seth Rogen turned me on to being a middle-aged stoner. I worked with him on Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Seth is one of the most stoned individuals I have ever met. I may have him beat now though. He was always productive and even though he was smoking weed, he wasn’t “the stereotype.” He was shooting my movie, adlibbing three funnier versions of my movie in-betweens takes, and working with his buddy Evan Goldberg on a script that he was working on for after Zack and Miri. That dude was empire building and introduced me to the notion of “the productive stoner.” There are a bunch of us in Hollywood that smoke weed and get shit done. Seth shattered the stereotype so I decided to move forward with it even though I had a built-in bias like, if you do this, you are fucked! I had to make peace with it and slowly came out as being a stoner. Which is so weird because I made all the Jay and Silent Bob movies that had so much weed in them. It wasn’t until I became a stoner and watched all my movies again that I was like, now I understand why stoners like these movies!

Welcome! Let’s talk Caviar Gold. Word around town is it’s pretty potent.

These joints will knock you the fuck out but I rail it into my heart and lungs, multiple per day. The brands I make with Caviar Gold are packed full of distillate so periodically, I’ll give somebody a joint and three days later they’ll be like, did you fucking drug me? Like, oh I should’ve warned you they’re pretty high in THC. I was just a massive fan and when we were making Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, that’s what I was exclusively smoking. They did this “Caviar challenge” where it was something like, smoke a Caviar joint in 15 minutes we’ll give you 1k in product. I’m not too rich to be like, no way! I took the challenge and failed, but I then met Caviar Mike through a friend and he’s a genius. I sat down and said something like, in the movie Jay and Silent Bob we make three strains of weed: Snoogans, Berzerker, and Snootchie Boochies. I love your product, would you make weed for me? And he did. We’ve been in business since 2019, the product is sensational, and it’s allowed us to travel around to weed legal states to do exhibits and stuff. It’s great for me because I never run out of weed. It’s also great because when people come over I can be like, hey, have a joint with my face on it!

Staying with joints, in the trailer for Clerks 3, you and Jay are hitting a giant ass joint and I’m trying to imagine, how much weed?!

Raw makes those papers and props to Raw because they’re not just a great stoner company, they’re one of the greatest American companies in existence right now. The guy who runs it is a perfectionist and artist. So, they made those giant ass cones. Did they work? Hands down they fucking work. Is it a wise use of weed? If you’re one of those people that grows and has access to copious amounts of weed, I would say it’s a once in a lifetime party experience. Great visual for social media, and it was phenomenal for our fucking flick. It looked ridiculous like you’re in Willy Wonka’s factory for heaven sake. If you’re going to try it, I say save it for a special occasion. A birthday or a shindig where you’re going to have 30 people around you trust. Talk about a communal smoke!

Becoming a stoner kind of rewrote it all for you.

It really flipped the perspective for me. It allowed me to wear my heart on my sleeve. I would do the work but I felt like I had to be the “Kevin Smith” they thought they knew, or suspected I was based on the movies. When I go back to old interviews, I just want to punch the shit out of that kid. The whole world is a burden and he’s projecting this insouciance to try to match the vibe of the first movie he made. But that first movie he made phased him because it made all of his fucking dreams come true. How do you sit around and still maintain that the world is a shitty place when it’s not? Because you and your friends took a step towards art, all of that changed. That storyteller is incredibly self-conscious and worried about what he’s put together. This storyteller is a stoner and realizes that “worry is interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due.” I stole that from David Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner, but it’s absolutely true. I was really happy that becoming a stoner allowed me to be, me. In person, in public, when I’m working or not.

The post Kevin Smith: The Art of Productive Stoning appeared first on High Times.