EP 8 - From Standout to Stand-Up: Giulio Gallarotti on Tennis and Comedy

Gerard (00:11): Welcome back to Spin the Racket, the recreational tennis pod covering everything from the pro tour to the everyday league player. I'm your boy G.

Spin The Racket (00:19): And

Gerard (00:22): Today we have Giulio Gallerotti joining us on the pod. He's not only a super funny comedian, but he's also really big into tennis. Giulio, welcome to the pod.

Giulio (00:31): What's up boys, good to be here, good to be here.

Spin The Racket (00:34): Yeah, so we're gonna hit you, Julia, with our number one question we hit every single guest with, which is, would you rather have no serve or no forehand?

Giulio (00:45): No surf, all day.

Spin The Racket (00:48): Yes. Yes. Why is that?

Giulio (00:51): Because like, just practically speaking, like as I get older, my body's so fucked up that like I can't like play at all anyway. So like if I were to be able to play, like if I, like the idea that I'm gonna get to a place where I'm like serving regularly feels like it's not even possible. So I might as well have a forehand so I can like play ground stroke games and hit around because at some point something's gonna start hurting again and I'm gonna have to take another six months off.

Spin The Racket (01:03): You .

Giulio (01:21): So that's why. I'm not even thinking about in the terms of like competitive tennis. But that's also like also ultimately what my game is like anyway. My serve is

Spin The Racket (01:40): Nah, that's good, man. I think so far we're split. We got a big camp for no forehand. Everyone wants to just be a serve bot. And I'm like, yeah, that sounds cool. that's like, I mean, that's like, I don't know how realistic that is, right? ⁓ So I'm kind of in the same camp. I'd rather have no surf. I'd rather grind out these points and get somewhere and fight for my points.

Giulio (01:49): Hmm.

Spin The Racket (02:06): Yeah, it's been interesting so far to see ⁓ some people in the camp.

Giulio (02:13): Nice there.

Gerard (02:14): I know as you talked about your game, you played tennis in college, I saw at Boston. Like as you kind of think about your own game and kind of how it's evolved and changed, like how do you describe that?

Giulio (02:29): Uh, well, you know, the, it's interesting. I, so in high school, I used to play with like an oversized racket for whatever reason, like Andre Agassi used one at the time. So to give you guys an idea of what I am. So I was like, whatever. I'm going to use an oversized racket. So I used this like big Ti radical that was like a hundred seven inches or something. And yeah, I was good in high school, you know, didn't exactly play in the most competitive conference, but you know, I was a good, pretty good junior. I, I most certainly played regionally in new England. Like I grew up in.

Gerard (04:08): Fair enough. Well, I

Giulio (04:25): Thanks, man.

Gerard (04:45): Yeah, yeah, it was super cool. What's kind of ⁓ on your radar right now? What are you focused on? What are you doing?

Giulio (04:53): I make these ⁓ travel videos that are pretty polished. They're kind of like docu-style. It's like multi-format sort of. I guess calling it a docu-style vlog is sort of appropriate, although I don't think it quite captures what it is. anyway, they're pretty solid cinema quality videos. I've been putting them out once a month. They've been doing pretty good, but I'm trying to really ramp that up and get those to rip. So I was actually deep in an edit before I hopped on here with you guys.

Gerard (05:33): That's awesome. Yeah, I saw you post a lot about the US Open the last couple of weeks. So you still follow the game pretty closely?

Giulio (05:42): yeah, big time. I mean, it's just, fun cause it's like an easy thing to follow because you you can watch without like fully paying attention. If that makes sense. Like it's one of those things you can kind of just check in periodically. I actually follow the entire tour calendar, like very closely. And just because a lot of time I'm at home, like working on videos, whatever, I just throw it on and like whatever tournament's happening. And I'm just kind of like OCD about like.

Gerard (05:59): Okay.

Giulio (06:08): Following it so I followed the tour very very closely. I actually I keep a list of every person who's won every tournament I've been doing it for like six years because I just it can be like it can be a hard thing to find not that it even matters or I'm like who won Stockholm in 2022 not that like that matters at all, but like I'm that on top of it. So like I'm very very on top of

Gerard (06:12): Okay.

Spin The Racket (06:26): Ha ha.

Giulio (06:34): what's happening in the tennis world at all times. And I'm deep on tennis Twitter too. Like I'm always ⁓ combing through that to see whatever the drama is.

Gerard (06:38): Wow. Okay.

Spin The Racket (06:42): What do you think of the drama at US Open?

Giulio (06:46): What get like what specific thing?

Spin The Racket (06:47): Let's see. Taylor Townsend across his haircut. ⁓ I mean, the list goes on. It feels like every US Open. There's something right?

Giulio (06:52): Great. No problem.

Spin The Racket (07:06): yes.

Gerard (07:07): was crazy.

Giulio (07:21): You go from being on center court and like tennis TV and in the tour, I always want to interview from you. Like everybody's following up on your gossip. Everybody cares about your shit. And then like, if you're not in the top 10 anymore, it's like, it's not, it's not a thing anymore. So like, it's gotta be hard for these guys. And you can tell when people start caring a little too much about like the extracurricular stuff. And like, you see these guys thinking that they like deserve more or something. It's just like the wrong way to approach it.

Gerard (07:54): Yep.

Spin The Racket (08:13): Yep.

Giulio (08:15): You know, and now it's sort of like more obvious some of the things from that, especially because he's been posting photos of himself fucking tuned up, hanging out with Jimmy Balvin, like hammered the... Dude, legend. I've never seen a guy publicly celebrate winning a grand slam like this. Mostly because I think it would put pressure on you because like, God forbid one thing goes wrong, everybody's gonna be like, he's not serious, he doesn't this, he doesn't that. But in that documentary it showed, he's like, dude, like...

Gerard (08:24): I saw that, yeah.

Spin The Racket (08:24): Yeah!

Gerard (08:31): Yeah.

Giulio (08:41): I sort of am fine winning five grand slams and having balance and being able to have fun. I like going to Ibiza and partying occasionally and I want to do that stuff. And you kind of watch that and you kind of start hating his team. like, well, if he doesn't want to be the greatest player who's ever lived, we're not interested. It's like, OK, that seems kind of shitty. So like.

Gerard (08:58): Yeah.

Giulio (09:02): I have really enjoyed watching him in the aftermath of that victory. His photo dumps are fucking legendary. The guy really speaks to the generation. He doesn't give, he kinda doesn't give a fuck. maybe it's just because he's innocent. There's something going on that I can't quite put my finger on, but I like.

Spin The Racket (09:18): He's still just

Giulio (09:28): I know, know, yeah.

Gerard (09:58): Right, yeah.

Spin The Racket (10:09): He's... Well you just saw it.

Gerard (10:14): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (10:18): No, you, I mean, you saw it. I think it was like back in 23, right? Where the guy like really just climbed up and in like, he like was on the scene. He had won a US Open and, and it feels like with, with that fame comes all this pressure and now every tournament wants you. And so you're playing like almost every tournament. And at some point, I remember hearing somebody on a tennis channel saying like, Carlos is at this moment, Carlos's biggest challenge.

Giulio (11:06): Right, right, yeah.

Spin The Racket (11:15): ⁓ jokovic is doing it

Giulio (11:15): Is that his thing?

Spin The Racket (11:21): No, but I'm saying like, you know, like Italian cuisine

Giulio (11:46): Well, Carlos, I mean, Carlos and Sinder, neither of them played Canada. So like that was a good scheduling move. ⁓ And Djokovic, I he's just old, you know what mean? He can't play every week. But you you saw what happened to like Dominic Thiem to me is the good example of a guy who literally actually played every week. Like he played every 250. It was like weird. And then he just sort of started getting hurt, started whatever happened. Like, and then he ended his career ended early. So I think these guys are like, you know, aware of that and

Spin The Racket (11:50): Mm-hmm. Yeah. He doesn't have a choice.

Gerard (11:51): Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Giulio (12:16): Yeah, it's interesting to see who plays more and who plays less. But you're right, like yeah, Carlos, he's gotta stay healthy. And I would argue that these party weeks, they become tougher to sort of sustain as you get older. we'll see what ends up happening with all that.

Spin The Racket (12:32): He'll

Gerard (12:35): Yeah.

Giulio (12:35): I think the Osta Penko, Taylor Townsend thing. mean, Osta Penko has always been sort of like a,

Gerard (12:39): Yeah.

Giulio (12:43): I she was almost having like a rebirth where people were starting to like appreciate her quirks, but then she had to have this like outburst just to remind us all that she just like is a sore loser and kind of sucked. what mean? The other Townsend's like rough response was ⁓ like pretty solid, I thought. Like she definitely like,

Gerard (13:24): Yeah, for sure. And so obviously you follow it super closely. You got your you know, your book, you're writing things down, you're tracking it all. ⁓ So you think about the tour today, obviously you have at least on the inside, you got Alcaraz center top two clearly. Is there anybody else that's going to come up and challenge them, you think, or is it going to be these two for the next two, three years just dominating tennis?

Giulio (13:48): There's just like, it's funny, there's no real way to like be able to say. It's hard to predict right now. It's kind of like hard to imagine a world where these guys aren't playing each other in every Grand Slam final, which would be kind of, which I think would be great. Like, you know, people are like, it's like, there's people complaining about it being like, it's boring. Here we go. another, but like tennis, there's always for whatever reason in every generation, like there's usually a couple of guys who dominated the generation. It's kind of since the open era, like it's pretty much always been like that. There's little pockets where like,

Spin The Racket (14:27): you

Gerard (14:43): Yeah, right.

Giulio (14:45): At a moment, those guys were all like, kind of like even Steven being able to like, you could just tell they have the game. Like Sasha, he sort of like the forehand for whatever reason, you know, it seems like he struggled with it. I know people say he's like not clutch, but he's has like the best career of anybody who's never want to slam probably. I think you could argue that on the men's side. ⁓

Gerard (15:02): Mm-hmm, for sure. Yeah, mean, it's

Spin The Racket (15:02): Thanks.

Gerard (15:05): back ends like beautiful. It's just so solid. ⁓

Giulio (15:06): Backhand's amazing, he the big serve. And he's the one guy of that group who's like stayed at

Gerard (15:24): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (15:28): ⁓ yeah.

Gerard (15:31): Yeah. Right, Cultural differences or

Giulio (15:35): Yeah,

Spin The Racket (16:08): Yeah.

Giulio (16:53): Right. Yeah, can't,

Spin The Racket (17:19): Yeah.

Giulio (17:20): And the thing, I mean, I think the thing that's interesting about the rivalry to me is that Sinner is so solid and like, you watch a Sinner match and you're just like, there's no chance this guy's gonna have a problem with whoever he's playing. And like, you can't say the same thing with Carlitos, you know what mean? You don't know if he's gonna like, kinda turn it off for a couple sets and like, who knows what can happen. Like he obviously had a weird year last year. So, and then it's so interesting to me that once they do play, like, Carlos is like razor sharp, like.

Spin The Racket (17:31): Yeah. Yeah.

Gerard (17:34): No.

Giulio (17:48): super focused.

Spin The Racket (17:56): Yeah.

Giulio (18:15): drinking champagne out of the bottle. And when Sinner wins the slam, he's like in bed by nine o'clock. So it's like a completely different approach.

Spin The Racket (18:19): Yeah, he just like this face palm push.

Gerard (18:19): Yeah. ⁓

Giulio (18:23): I'm pumped about this battle of the sexes. Have you guys seen this?

Gerard (18:24): interesting.

Giulio (18:28): Yeah, Sabalenka

Gerard (18:32): And what did Nick say that he get like win what six two or something like that

Giulio (18:36): He says with

Gerard (18:40): This is...

Spin The Racket (18:42): That's so Nick, here it is.

Giulio (19:05): Maybe kind of interesting, but I do also think it would be interesting for just like, you know, fucking Benjamin Bonzi to play Savalanka or like, I mean, that's not even a good example. Like fucking ⁓ some random guy who's like 250 in the world versus Savalanka. I'm like, see that. Like that would be fun. That would be good.

Gerard (19:13): All right.

Spin The Racket (19:19): Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Giulio (19:31): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (19:36): Let's let's get this going. Like, let's lock it in.

Giulio (19:39): The famous example is

Spin The Racket (19:59): Yeah,

Giulio (20:35): Yeah, we'll see. like, I think that there's no reason why he shouldn't be able to win that pretty easily. mean, you know, it's a big, it's it's the best, it'll be the best serve. Like there's nobody who serves like that on the women's tour. Like I can't imagine her being able to break him. You know what mean? Like, even if serves at like six, if it's like halfway there, it's still like better than any serve on the women's tour. So like that in and of itself, like I don't see him getting broken, but like, dude, if she's able to win that, like good for her. And like, that would be crazy. But like, yeah, I, I, that would surprise me.

Gerard (20:49): Yeah. Yeah.

Spin The Racket (20:49): Yeah.

Giulio (21:05): I hope it happens.

Gerard (21:06): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (21:13): Yeah.

Giulio (21:35): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (21:36): So there's gonna be a few exhibitions on the off season. he's recruited a few people. He's recruited Tiafoe, he got Sabalenka, think Naomi Osaka's coming to Atlanta as well. It's a few people. Pretty star-studded.

Giulio (21:49): Nice. Yeah, I mean, they complain about not having enough time off and then they all play and they all say, I don't get it.

Gerard (21:57): was literally going say that. Yeah.

Giulio (21:59): They all play, all of them play during the off season and do like the crazy, that like Mumbai tennis thing. They all play that. The Six Kings Slam. mean, bro, look, like they're getting all this money. I loved the Six Kings Slam last year. That thing was sick. I love it. was awful. Lever Cup, Six Kings Slam. It was really funny to watch them all like be all deferential to the king.

Gerard (22:02): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (22:08): That's coming up, yeah.

Gerard (22:09): That was big money.

Spin The Racket (22:13): That thing was

Giulio (22:26): They were like, oh, His Majesty, like Alcraz forgot to do it. And he's like, oh, also, like, His Majesty, like, I was like, this is hilarious.

Gerard (22:26): Yes.

Spin The Racket (22:27): Dude.

Giulio (22:53): Right, right, right.

Spin The Racket (23:03): ⁓

Giulio (23:15): Yeah,

Gerard (23:19): Yeah,

Spin The Racket (23:21): I mean, it's the same thing as like golf taking a bunch of people like Saudi Arabia taking a bunch of people for golf and just, hey, here's a huge paycheck. Like, why wouldn't you go, you know?

Giulio (23:31): And it's also weird that that tour doesn't only it's like all over the world. When it first came out, I thought it was just going to be Saudi Arabia, but apparently that tour is like worldwide. That's like interesting. Whatever. Good for them.

Spin The Racket (23:39): Yeah.

Gerard (23:44): ⁓ I didn't know that.

Giulio (23:53): I don't travel often to go to tennis stuff. I did not go to the US Open this year. And it was actually the first year that I haven't gone in like 25 years or something. I usually end up going every year. I either go to Qualies or like I get invited because I'm like people's tennis friend typically. So people will always invite me. Somebody asked me to go this year. I was just like, I don't fucking feel like going. It's too crowded. And to be honest, like Arthur Ashe, like not to sound like a brat, but like if you're not sitting

Gerard (24:02): No,

Spin The Racket (24:22): I understand that. I compare that to like, if you go watch like, ⁓ I'm not a big like concert person just because like most of the artists I like are already too famous and so the venues are like gigantic and so for you to like, same thing if you're like, if you're not sitting right in front of it, you're like in the nosebleeds.

Giulio (24:23): on the bottom level, it's like unwatchable. It's like the worst place to watch tennis in the world. I'd rather watch it on my couch. So yeah.

Gerard (24:25): Yeah, yeah, it's not worth it.

Giulio (24:51): Yeah, yeah.

Spin The Racket (24:52): not really

Giulio (24:57): Right,

Spin The Racket (25:09): tennis. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Gerard (25:11): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (25:22): Yeah. It's brutal. That's why

Giulio (26:00): Right, right, right. No, that's sick. I've been to like a few tournaments. I used to go to Newport when that was a tour event. I it's a challenger now. And then there was a tournament on Long Island for a couple of years, like an indoor tournament that is not there anymore. I went to that. I always say I'm gonna go to the DC Open. I never ended up going. But I always like to do this game. I always like to decide like what is the worst...

Gerard (26:05): Yeah.

Giulio (26:26): stop on tour like as far as a city like what's the worst city that they go to on tour all things considered whether it's like signi like lack significance and charm because the places are either usually big cities or like really sick places but and every year man cincinnati is in the conversation for me because winston salem what is winston salem like i've never been is it not great

Gerard (26:41): Right, that's true.

Spin The Racket (26:47): Dude, some Salem.

Gerard (26:47): Really?

Spin The Racket (26:52): Dude,

Gerard (26:53): It's really small.

Spin The Racket (27:14): is such a stuck in the middle sort of like the ugly child of the the like the US Open run, right? Because you've got since you've got you got Toronto since you got DC and then all of a sudden you've got this like Winston-Sillman tournament, which I've never been and it's it's drivable for me. But I feel like it's not even significant enough because every time like for a 250, you really don't have like a lot of big names because everyone's prepared. Anyone worth their salt is already preparing for the US Open.

Giulio (27:43): Well, but so that aside, like agreed, like the only thing though is that you have to have already gotten into the US Open. So it's like a bottom heavy draw. It's like all people in the top hundred, you know what mean? And like everybody else is like trying to get into qualities or is like too good to play, but true, like the top seed usually is not that highly ranked or whatever. But I've never been there, but that's a good question. Like I don't know what it's like. it, yeah, like I love it. Let's throw it right onto the list.

Spin The Racket (27:55): Yeah.

Giulio (28:13): ⁓ Then a couple of these like random China cities, like there's one in India, there's like that Pune tournament. I'm always like, what's that place like? But yeah, I'm fully willing to accept that when some Salem belongs on that list.

Gerard (28:19): Yeah. All right.

Spin The Racket (28:27): Maybe next year,

Giulio (28:35): Yeah.

Gerard (28:41): yeah, probably four hours.

Spin The Racket (28:49): I don't know, Dallas, which I think it's now like a 500 that kind of ate up the, yeah, it ate up the Atlanta open. think that's the, the, the Atlanta open was the sacrificial lamb for it. So.

Giulio (28:53): The house is now 500.

Gerard (29:07): So that's where Wig Forest is, know. out to the Deeks.

Giulio (29:31): thousand level tournaments happen. It's like in the world's greatest cities. It's like, or like the most beautiful destination of Monte Carlo, like Palm Springs. The Miami tournament was sexier when they used to do it in Key Biscayne, but like still Miami, like great city, like and then Cincinnati. It's like.

Spin The Racket (29:34): Yeah.

Gerard (29:49): So,

Giulio (29:58): I don't really play. This summer, I was having a disc issue in my neck. I don't know if you guys have gotten there yet, but not fun. And I would hear it. I'd hear discs, I'd hear, and it meant nothing to me. And I hope for both of you that it never means anything to you because it's so unpleasant. So anyway, I started hitting around a little bit. At some point this summer, I was feeling better.

Gerard (30:04): Okay, yeah.

Spin The Racket (30:05): ⁓ There it is.

Gerard (30:09): Yeah

Giulio (30:23): and then I was feeling all good and then I started having like new symptoms like on the other side of my body and they kind of like freaked me out a little bit. I would probably start hitting a little bit right now but like it's kind of tough to play in New York anyway so like I usually only play when I go out of town. I never play in the city. I used to teach gift lessons when I was like coming up in comedy to kind of stay alive but now yeah I don't play much.

Gerard (30:38): Yeah. Right.

Spin The Racket (30:54): It's very romanticized.

Giulio (31:00): Yeah.

Gerard (31:30): Really?

Giulio (31:30): which is

Gerard (31:58): Yeah.

Giulio (31:58): And then

Spin The Racket (32:02): So, so like, no, go ahead. ⁓

Gerard (32:02): Yeah. Yeah.

Spin The Racket (32:08): I was going to ask you. So like, I'm out of state. I go to New York City. Like, I'm not allowed to play because I don't have a seasonal pass. Like, how's that work?

Giulio (32:15): You can

Spin The Racket (32:18): Dude, I have to get a day pass.

Giulio (32:41): Mm-hmm, it's a real deal. So yeah, I mean, especially with guys like you who have like normal schedules, like you'd be trying to play during the worst times and everyone was playing. So you'd have to like, you'd really have to try really hard. I'm not willing to do that. So I just don't.

Gerard (32:50): Yeah.

Giulio (32:55): Yeah, I've heard that Atlanta has a great my buddy for

Gerard (33:03): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (33:07): Very

Giulio (33:39): Interesting.

Spin The Racket (33:43): Yeah, it's very competitive, but there's like a there's basically like a it's all letter based and there's like a double double a which is like open and then you can find like the most random people there. That's the only thing is like it's not as clear cut as like USDA where like you've got a ranking. You can only play that or maybe a half level up like no it's like you can be in like that double a and all of a sudden you find like an X ATP player. I think there are some regulations to that, but you find some random.

Gerard (34:17): Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Giulio (34:19): Yeah, crazy. That's sick.

Spin The Racket (34:36): And then I'm like, I started warming up. He's like, how's it feel? I'm like, all right, I don't feel it. And then like second set we're in and I just, I don't know, maybe a serve or something like that. All of a sudden I tweaked the left side of my neck. And so I couldn't turn to my left side for like maybe two days. And literally I went to the chiropractor like two days before. So regular visits, I'm already on regular visits to the chiropractor. I have a wrist issue. Yeah, I hear you, man.

Giulio (35:04): So we're gonna get worse, dude. That sounds like child's play to me. We're gonna get worse.

Spin The Racket (35:05): Yeah.

Gerard (35:09): ⁓ You

Spin The Racket (35:11): twice my

Giulio (35:16): Yes.

Gerard (35:22): What are your thoughts on pickle balls? Is that something that you've dabbled in at all?

Giulio (35:26): Yeah,

Gerard (35:40): No way.

Giulio (35:53): So find that fun. also it's like, you know, a little, a little less cumbersome in my opinion than tennis. I know that there's like people like, Oh, well, you know, there's like, it's a crazy workout, which is true, but it's like more contained. Like I find it more approachable. Like if I have issues, like swinging that fucking paddle, like doesn't bother me as much. So I like it. like to play. Yeah. I don't feel like threatened by it or anything the way that a lot of tennis people do.

Gerard (36:04): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (36:13): Nice.

Gerard (36:16): No.

Spin The Racket (36:18): You just feel goaded every time you show up. You're like, yeah, I mean business.

Giulio (36:21): Exactly. Exactly.

Spin The Racket (36:23): So, Julio, we've got this section called Quick Hands. It's basically a rapid fire question segment. We're going to hit you with some stuff. You've got just a moment to answer, so we want to get your thoughts right away. You feel free to kind of expand on it once you give your answer. So we're going to start. We have seven questions. Number one, we're going to hit you with the goat debate. Who's the goat? Roger, Rafa, or Novek?

Giulio (36:48): the goat ⁓ no

Spin The Racket (36:56): I mean, yeah, unless you want to say like why, but you don't have to.

Giulio (36:58): I mean, I could say more. like, you know, I think the numbers don't lie. Like,

Spin The Racket (37:37): Yeah.

Giulio (37:57): Hard true dude, option four, the old person.

Spin The Racket (38:00): Ha,

Giulio (38:03): Yeah, it's the best. Red clay is great, but it's just a little slow. Like, hard true, it's nice on the body, you can slide around. It just feels nice to be out there and you can hit the ball through the court still. I used to give lessons in the summer and I would teach on hard true and it made me a way better player playing on clay those couple summers. I know it's not like red clay, but yeah, it's my answer.

Spin The Racket (38:27): I'm getting used to it. I've got a club that basically has five courts only one hard court and that's for like mainly lessons. So I'm like I got no choice ⁓ I'm getting there. All right number three should coaching be allowed during matches at all levels? Yes or no?

Giulio (38:45): Uh, no, but like whatever. I like don't feel that strongly about it. I do think there's something like annoying about like, I was watching Ry Bikina play and that like abusive coach of hers just like wouldn't shut up. Like he was just, he would not shut up. He like would not stop talking and like he would hear it it was so obnoxious. I'm like granted they could turn that off, but I'm like, I don't know. There's something like it's so the whole like you're out there alone thing is so sexy to me that like.

Gerard (38:54): Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Giulio (39:11): Allowing coaching to me makes it less interesting. I know that they would like coach on the low anyway and like get in trouble, but to me I prefer without coaching.

Spin The Racket (39:21): I hear you. Yeah, that's why I got into tennis to begin with. Number four, is the rise of underarm serves genius as a strategy or is it disrespectful?

Giulio (39:35): It kind of sucks. Like I get that like it's allowed and like, okay, if you're like doing that and it's working, congratulations. I get why guys are pissed about it at the end of the match. I think if I were playing, my challenge to myself would be not to let it get in my head. Cause I think that it's as much of a tactic to get in someone's head as it is to like, if somebody's standing way back and you snuck sneak one in, like you happen to win the point, like whatever. I don't think it needs to be this thing. I do like fully agree with saying you're sorry when the ball trickles over.

Gerard (39:55): All right.

Giulio (40:05): I think anybody who plays knows that like that's how it goes and that you should do that. But yeah, the underarm serve, it's fine.

Spin The Racket (40:12): Yeah, think of Stefan of Sisyphus when didn't he like have like a whole thing at the US Open? Was was the US Open where like he was like, yeah, he hits under yeah, yeah, if he hits underhand, like that's what you get. And I'm like, all right.

Giulio (40:18): Yeah, with all my art.

Gerard (40:25): Yes.

Spin The Racket (40:28): I think I think

Giulio (40:32): the underarm?

Spin The Racket (40:42): Well, have to, yeah, you're expecting it, right? Like if you're playing public, you know you got to work on your underarm serve return. Cause it's going to come. All right. Number five, biggest pet peeve on court. Is it bad line calls, slow play or something else?

Gerard (40:43): Yeah, it's like his thing.

Giulio (40:49): Yeah, right, right.

Spin The Racket (41:19): That's a pet beef.

Giulio (41:28): You know, I don't like it, but it's fine. So I don't know if I have like a proper pet peeve, but yeah, I don't like cheating, obviously.

Gerard (41:39): I was going to ask, did they play let's when you played in college? Because I know they don't do that anymore. They didn't. Yeah, they just like, hey, if hits the net, you keep going.

Giulio (41:42): Yes.

Gerard (41:55): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (41:56): Yeah, just a guess double clicking on that question. What are your thoughts on grunting?

Giulio (42:03): Again, fine with it. think it's like,

Spin The Racket (42:22): part of the game. right, so. Yeah. If you could steal one shot from any pro, whose would it be?

Giulio (42:23): Yeah, mean, people grunt when they hit the ball. It's like a thing. like, if you're doing it in a way where you're like still grunting when the other person's hitting the ball, like maybe that's not cool. But like, again, I think you should be able to deal with it on the other side of the court.

Gerard (42:48): Pretty smooth.

Spin The Racket (42:49): Yeah, yeah. Most people, wouldn't.

Giulio (42:49): Like, again, I don't care.

Gerard (43:06): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (43:07): Yeah. I think that's the most common is either his service or his forehand. And then lastly, dream doubles partner, past or present.

Giulio (43:18): better.

Spin The Racket (43:19): Yeah

Gerard (43:20): Hehehehehe

Giulio (43:21): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (43:22): think we're seeing a little bit of a pattern here.

Giulio (43:25): Yeah, mean, the guys like poisoned all of our minds. We all love him. ⁓ He's the fucking man. Yeah, dude. I mean, he just seems like a chill hang. Like, it just be fun.

Gerard (43:25): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (43:28): Dude, yeah.

Gerard (43:29): you

Spin The Racket (43:35): Yeah, he'd be so sick, I agree with you on that one. Now we move on to, we want to ask a little bit more about ⁓ the comedy career.

Gerard (43:45): Yeah, I guess kind of what got you into doing comedy, like how do you think about it these days? What's the approach there?

Giulio (43:54): Uh, yeah, I just started doing it one day. I like signed up for a show. They're these shows where like anybody can do them as long as people buy tickets. Uh, and that's how the audience fills out. So there'll be like 10 comics who bring five audience members and then you have a show. So, uh, yeah, so I did one of those. It was fun. I did another one and then, you know, slowly but surely I went from doing like a show a month to one show a week to two shows a week. And then

Gerard (44:57): Mm.

Giulio (45:16): Prioritizing spending time making these videos and sticking on the schedule see if I can get that off the ground and being like my one of my main things at least but yeah for now I'm gonna keep touring I did a special that came out at the beginning of the year. I probably will shoot another one to the end of next year, And yeah, dude, so it's kind of like I guess the approach is like You know, how do you make it sustainable because it can be tough the lifestyle can be tough, you know, there's you know people

Gerard (45:32): Nice.

Giulio (45:46): doing huge stuff and like you wanna do it too and it's kind of like unclear specifically how to make that happen for yourself. Whereas like, you in a tennis match, you're better than the guy, you win. It's like more straightforward, you know what mean? And with comedy, it's like not like that. So it's sort of like the path is unclear. So you sort of have to self-motivate and it can be kind of like a nasty scene sometimes too. So just like dealing with all that and.

Gerard (46:25): Yeah, I resonate with that. know Lou and I have been talking about this podcast and we're having a lot of fun with it. It's super early days. This is episode eight. So like I said, super early. And I think for me, I'm like, I could see myself doing this. This is like a fun passion for me. Like, I hope I could turn to something else more than that. But I'm kind of waiting to see, like, what is that that sign or signal that says, like, OK, this actually can be something or maybe you should just have this as like your after work kind of thing.

Giulio (46:54): Yeah, mean, you it can, you don't have to decide, you know, you can sort of be consistent with it. I mean, not that you guys are asking for advice, but I think that the key factors are being consistent. You know what mean? Like making sure you have the episodes every week just so you can like grow. then I think there's some sort of like school of thought where, you know, hundred, this may no longer be the model. This might be outdated. In my opinion, I would say,

Gerard (47:51): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (47:56): Thank you. That means a lot. What ⁓ I was curious to ⁓ figure out like what got you into like the docute style of vlog travel vlog like what what kind of brought that about?

Giulio (48:12): I've always kind of been interested in traveling around a lot. Most of my adult life. I didn't travel at all when I was younger. parents are Italians, we go to Italy and stuff, but we didn't travel much. But I always thought it was like an interesting thing. And then I started, went on a couple of trips when I was like in college and I sort of set this precedent where I was like, if I have any excuse to go anywhere, I'll do it. So like if somebody invites me or if someone's like, you can stay with me or if like.

Spin The Racket (49:30): Yeah.

Giulio (49:37): development

Spin The Racket (50:55): Embracing uncertainty. That's what I hear. like, yeah, it's just becoming best friends with it. Knowing that you have all this experience and you've obviously tried different things, has your threshold for knowing when to kind of pull back changed? Have you become a little bit more numb to this? Or did you get more of a sense of trajectory as you have more experience with it?

Giulio (50:59): Yeah, I guess.

Spin The Racket (53:54): Yeah.

Giulio (54:21): ⁓ When in the past I might have been more partial to like wanting at any time to just like get an opportunity from somebody else that would allow me to sort of like keep doing my thing. Like being in the mix, like knowing people, hoping for opportunities and like I'm more committed to like making my own opportunities.

Spin The Racket (54:30): Yeah. Yeah. It's like having

Giulio (54:48): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (54:57): and skill and trying right and showing up and having discipline and I always think of it as like you can have the best strategy possible but if you don't put it into action like that's like multiplying by zero like

Giulio (55:09): Yeah, right. Even a bad

Spin The Racket (55:14): Yeah.

Giulio (55:34): being able to work hard and having a vision or whatever. I think that there's a fine line between what is actually a good vision and what is you just being delusional. And I think that theoretically you can go back and forth between those two things until you either can't hack it anymore. And the thing that typically in comedy at least, it's like the major differentiator between success and quote failure is just giving up. You know what I mean? But that's not to say that I think that

Spin The Racket (56:10): Yeah.

Gerard (56:23): Sure, Well, I look forward to seeing you hopefully in New York at a show or something, checking you out.

Giulio (56:29): I'll

Gerard (56:34): Oh, sweet. Yeah, it's an awesome venue. Yeah, that'd be awesome.

Spin The Racket (56:37): Yeah, here it is up. That'd be cool,

Giulio (57:07): Cool, yeah. Yeah, I mean, Instagram, not Julio is my handle on TikTok, Snapchat, it's not Julio G. I think I'm not Julio on Twitter too, or X, whatever. And not Julio on YouTube, which I think is definitely, please follow me on there and watch my shit and like it all and watch the whole video so that it gives me a good algo bump. I always leave it on in the background. And yeah, notjulio.com for all my tickets and stuff. I have St. Pete coming up 26, 27th of September.

Spin The Racket (57:51): Thank you, Julie. Thank you for joining the pod. This is Lou. Thanks for

Gerard (57:56): GMG.