The logging of a reality show is such an important part of it because those moments and conversations are a lot of times very manufactured.

And then he’s like, “I didn’t know what this was gonna be like, and then I talked to one of my people and they were like, ‘Think of this as a conversation. And the 7-year-old saw me talk about him on [Stephen] Colbert, and he was really kind of fascinated, just staring.

He co-hosts a pair of popular podcasts — Two Bears One Cave with pal and fellow comic Bert Kreischer, and Your Mom’s House with wife/comedian Christina Pazsitsky; penned a bestselling book of humorous essays; sells out stand-up shows across the country; and just released his fifth Netflix stand-up special, Tom Segura: Sledgehammer, which is one of the best of the year. But a big part of it, too, honestly, is that I have toured so aggressively that I just haven’t been available. Obviously, it didn’t play like, “Hey, this is a real serious thing I’m gonna talk about,” but it was definitely something that sat with me. I would find out after some of the shows when people were like, “I had a great time, but that joke… I didn’t like that. I don’t know where this trend of comedy podcasters seeing themselves as philosophers/political pundits began, but how do you feel about it?

I wrote this book that was a collection of essays and short stories, and it was a New York Times bestseller and did well. I was going to ask, as I have many comedians, do you feel like Hollywood executives know what to do with you and your talent?

I moved to Los Angeles to become a comedy actor, and stand-up was just working for me, and obviously I enjoy it, so I kept doing that.

Because you know there was a camera operator like, “Oh…” and then someone went, “Cut that shit, now!But I tried doing the joke and attributed it to my current three-year-old, but it worked better saying it this way [about his six-year-old]. But my mom has seen me do the closing bit [which is in the special about her getting very high off edibles] and she came up to me after and she goes, “You’re a piece of shit. And of course, the joke I say is wildly inappropriate — and is not what happened in real life — and people go, “You can’t joke about that! Segura also co-hosts the podcast Two Bears One Cave with best friend and fellow comedian Bert Kreischer. That was a really interesting one because what I figured out from doing it is that that man is universally loathed.

He graduated from Saint Edward's School in Vero Beach, Florida, and from Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina.

But a lot of comedy podcasts nowadays seem like they’re leaning into this edgelord territory, almost like knockoffs of Joe Rogan’s pod. Segura closes with a joke that gets a huge laugh — it’s a perfectly constructed opening to reel you into the special. Like if I’m at that airport, and he has a beard and needs to lose 20 pounds, I’m like, “Oh, this guy’s about to say something to me. I did my last show in Iceland and then flew back and, yeah, at that age, you miss a month, and you’re like, “Whoa, dude, you’re like a different person. Segura has described interning at Kopelson Entertainment and then having his first paid job in the industry as a logger, producing transcripts of reality shows such as Extreme Makeover and My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss.