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" In this series, we ask comedians to name the comedians they enjoy. Then we ask those people, too.  Last week, Nate Bargatze chose Gary Vider, a New York comic with a weekly show at Irish Exit. Below, Vider talks about his friend Dave Smith \u2014 complete with an anecdote involving mushrooms and Uncle Sam. Check back next week to read about Vider&amp;#039;s pick.       When I first met Dave, I actually saw him performing at Eastville Comedy Club in New York. There was a room packed with people. He was killing. He is always a bit political and he has a good point of view about things. He has a joke about the national debt, but he makes it so that even if you&amp;#039;re not into politics, it&amp;#039;s funny. He&amp;#039;s not saying his point of view is right, just that it&amp;#039;s interesting to everyone. He doesn&amp;#039;t, like, drop it down people&amp;#039;s throats. He&amp;#039;s like, &amp;quot;This is what I think. Everyone&amp;#039;s entitled to their own opinions.&amp;quot; He&amp;#039;s not Jon Stewart or Bill Maher. Dave&amp;#039;s in his twenties. He&amp;#039;s speaking from someone in their mid-twenties. That&amp;#039;s his perspective and a voice you don&amp;#039;t hear much of.  We ate mushrooms together. Can you say that? We were at this place in the city and we basically ate mushrooms and just walked around. Dave has these observations about things and on life. So we were walking and he was like, &amp;quot;See that statue of Uncle Sam?&amp;quot; We were tripping, so the statue seemed way huger than it was. He was like, &amp;quot;That guy is going to take over the world.&amp;quot;  I think his act is like him off the stage as well. He&amp;#039;s the same person. For comics that are really good, a lot of people don&amp;#039;t find their voice right away, but when he performs, it&amp;#039;s like you&amp;#039;re having a conversation. He&amp;#039;s kind of like you&amp;#039;re just talking to one of your buddies, but your buddy&amp;#039;s also the smartest guy in the room.  He has this joke about New York City and seeing a guy doing crack in a phone booth. He says, &amp;quot;A phone booth? Really? Dude, get a cell phone. Join the rest of us.&amp;quot; Then he sees that the guy is actually doing crack in the phone booth, and he&amp;#039;s like, &amp;quot;Oh. That&amp;#039;s actually kind of smart.&amp;quot;  \u2014As told to Julia Carpenter  PLUS: Meet the Other Comic&amp;#039;s Comics   Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a17905/dave-smith-comic/>