In this episode of The Funny Muscle Podcast, we welcome Pete Schwaba — veteran comedian, screenwriter, actor, and radio host — to prove that comedy isn’t just about punchlines; it’s about endurance, caffeine, and creative chaos. Pete shares war stories from the road, how writing a two-hour daily radio show feels like prepping a stand-up set that never ends, and why curveballs and misdirection are his favorite tools for building jokes. He even drops a heckler-handling trick that uses just two words — and no, it’s not the two you’re thinking of. Tune in to find them out.

Ever wonder what a stand-up is really doing onstage while you’re laughing? This episode breaks down the invisible gears turning inside a comic’s brain — the quick rewrites, subtle pauses, and instinctive callbacks that make a joke feel alive in the room. Mike and Chris explore how great comics read an audience in real time and adjust every beat to create something unrepeatable — a shared moment that feels spontaneous but is secretly engineered like a Rube Goldberg machine that dispenses laughter instead of marbles.

“You never see…” — it’s one of comedy’s favorite springboards into the ridiculous. In this episode of The Funny Muscle Podcast, Mike and Chris grab the metaphorical coach’s playbook and diagram how pros turn that setup into laugh-out-loud gold. Along the way, they break down three humor heightening devices — Uncommon Worlds, Unlikely Scenarios, and Incongruity — showing how comics bend reality, collide worlds, and twist expectations to squeeze every laugh from a premise.