Pack a Lunch

Dave Stone wants to tell some dumb stories about being a middle-aged goober, avoiding the standard political hand-wringing in favor of Southern food, weird careers, and family. It is an approach that values cheerful self-deprecation over cultural commentary, finding humor in the absurd realities of his past lives rather than trying to fix the present.

Filmed in Atlanta, Georgia, the 2023 YouTube release served as Stone’s debut full-length special, accompanied by an audio album released through Blonde Medicine. Known as the co-host of The Boogie Monster podcast with Kyle Kinane and for voicing characters on Adult Swim’s Squidbillies, Stone had spent over a decade in Los Angeles but returned to his roots for this recording. The hour is entirely autobiographical, steering completely clear of crowd work.

Much of the material draws on the strange resume Stone compiled before committing to comedy at age 29. He details his time working supermarket security in rural Georgia, where he had to decide how to handle catching a childhood friend shoplifting, and his stint as a singing waiter with a penchant for pranking his coworkers. The centerpiece of his storytelling, however, is his brief, disgruntled career as a Cobb County police officer, an experience that yielded absurd tales of high-speed bathroom chases and recovering a severed human head. Other segments focus on his introduction to married life, a deep appreciation for the Del McCoury Band, and his lifelong obsession with food, ranging from regional Cajun dishes to the strict etiquette of choosing the perfect watermelon.