As a comedian, Drew Beekler can find comedy in most situations. His student loans are even part of his comedy set. But there’s nothing funny about the burden of student debt from two unaccredited art school experiences. Like 72,000 other borrowers in the United States, Drew was defrauded by the education he pursued to be a commercial visual artist. In this episode, Drew describes his experiences confronting his student loan payments, like working with H&R Block to complete his taxes, commuting from Philadelphia to NYC for job opportunities, and seeing his old school on an episode of Queer Eye.

As a self-described lover of being scammed, Drew fell victim to a third scam in his student loan journey when he tried to refinance. And to take the comedy a step further, Drew may have been taken by a fourth scam during the pandemic! Listen to his comedy of errors.

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Transcript – 

Nikki Nolan: Welcome to the podcast. It’s good to have you here. I’m really good at this.

Drew Beekler: It’s the best intro to a podcast I’ve ever heard.

Nikki Nolan: I brought you on here today to talk about student debt. So, how much student debt do you

Drew Beekler: Well, first, that’s a very personal and forward question right upfront.

But no, no. No, okay, okay. As soon as you told me you’re doing a front and back, that’s a hundred percent what I’m going to say anyway. No, I am a; I’m about $130,000 in debt, I think is what the total ends up being. Yeah.

Nikki Nolan: Are those private or federal loans?

Drew Beekler: Part federal, part private. Loads. A small majority of them are, are private. And then, the bigger majority is federal loads.

Nikki Nolan: Okay. And do you know the interest rate on your loans?

Drew Beekler: I think they all hover around 11 to 12%.

Nikki Nolan: Shut the front door…

Drew Beekler: the front door is not shut. It’s open. It’s it’s, they’re bad. They’re, they’re, they’re all the, the only time I ever heard my mom yell about interest rates was when I was talking about these loans and stuff like that.
But, it’s the option I had, I guess, at the time. And they were, they were just, they’re very, they’re very high-interest rates from what I know, I don’t know very much, I went to school twice. I went to, I did, I went to two, I, I went to art institutes twice, because I was like, I’m not getting scammed yet. You know, like that’s, I want to get scammed again.

I was like, I just want to draw, let’s do it.

Who cares about money? It’s arbitrary… It’s not arbitrary.

Nikki Nolan: Fun fact, when you let young people make choices that is going to impact a significant portion of their life, they might not make the best choices.

Drew Beekler: Well, it’s, it… No, funny. Cause it’s like, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re used to making minimum wage and your paycheck every week is like a hundred dollars, $200. And then you’re like, they’re like, okay, so you’ve got to have to borrow over a $100k. You’re like, that’s a made-up amount of money it’s made up.
It doesn’t matter. That’s not real. That’s not a real amount of money. I saw it on Jeopardy, but they just wrote it. It’s not real, like at all.

Nikki Nolan: Yeah. I feel like that’s actually how the banks and the federal government treats it too. They’re just like, whatever. It’s just like a fake made-up number that people owe us.

Drew Beekler: Yeah. And it’s, it’s weird. Cause it’s student loans are weird too, because all other loans you can, you can take out from your taxes and all this kind of stuff. And then, like student loans are like three, like, hey, only $2,500. I think it’s the cap to claim on your taxes, there’s like, at least in New York they had, there’s like a, there’s like a certain amount that if you go over, it doesn’t matter.

You can only claim a certain amount. I think the last time I heard it was like $2,500, but it might be more now. I’m not sure. They, they treat it like, it’s like, Oh, it’s only a little bit of your paycheck. It’s like, All of it. It’s, there’s so much of it. They didn’t talk about taxes one time at, at school, the only time I heard taxes when it was referred to in the Boston tea party when they’re like, we’re not paying taxes, your tea goes in the river. Like that’s, that’s it.
That was the only time I ever heard taxes.

Nikki Nolan: Yeah. I do know. I think I filed taxes once when I was young. Cause I had like a thing and they were like, oh, you make not enough money. You don’t even have to file taxes. Besides that, like I remember my first time doing taxes. I was like, I don’t why don’t they teach us how to do taxes? Like other people in other countries know.

Drew Beekler: Well, the thing is, I, I love H&R Block. I talk about it all the time. I know it. I know it’s the thing is, I know it’s just me watching someone fill out TurboTax. That’s what I’m paying someone to do, but, no, it’s, but the thing is I do it because I’m like, I’m going to make a mistake.

I know I’m going to make a mistake, and I’m also going to be too annoyed to fix it, and then I’m going to be screwed. And I know that about myself. I know, and I also have a fun time at HR block. I have the best The first time I went in New York City, I went to an HR Block. There was an old woman standing in the middle of the of the store, looking at the ceiling, going, what happened here? Where’s the music. And like, and I’m like, I’ve never gone anywhere else. That’s…

Nikki Nolan: You got to like your entire comedy routine, just like go to H & R Block and material.

Drew Beekler: Yeah one year a guy told me that he hit, so his son. So I do visual effects for a fulfillment TV during the day. That’s my day job. And that was so that was on my taxes. And this guy’s kid was going going to be an audio student or something and he thought I could help him.

And I was like, Oh yeah. You know, like, whatever, like, I guess like, just guess send your email, his email and all that’ll help him out. But I do think I can, if we don’t do audio, but like, whatever. So, though, he goes, I got this new job and I could hook you up, but I can’t tell you what the job is.

And I was like, okay, that seems weird that you got that. But, so after, I walk out of H & R Block, the guy follows me, tells me that he gave his son my email from our documents at H&R Block, but seems illegal. And then he hands me a card. He goes, this is my new side job, it’s a really nice embossed card that says the federal secret service. And I was like, what’s part, your part-time job, is the Secret Service? Can you even do that part-time? Like, it’s, doesn’t make any sense that like it’s like during the day I fill out tax returns, at night, I stopped the president from getting shot.

What?

Nikki Nolan: Sounds like a really cool, you know, movie.

Drew Beekler: I, it could be ma maybe I’ll maybe. I’ll write a screenplay about it.
Anyway. I love H&R Block. Not because they’re good at taxes because I love the people who worked there and everyone who, part of the experience. I love the experience at H&R Block.

Nikki Nolan: Did you go this year?

Drew Beekler: Yeah, I, yeah. I went I went into, I went in, I wore a mask the whole time, and I listened to a lady. Tell everyone what they did wrong, she was like in the back, just going, you only made this much money. You gotta pay that money. Like you there’s, you could have done something like two months ago, if you would have done something about that money.

But no, you didn’t do nothing about that money. Like just, railing into people where they should have done. It was, it was fun. The thing is like I, so I try to do TurboTax once myself. And this is again, why I don’t do it. I, I, it said I owed like, like seven grand and, and I was like, I was, I lost it. I was like, I’m going to, I owe this money. I’m going to have to, I have to move back to, I’ve moved back to my parents’ house in Lancaster, PA.

And I got, have to work at Ruby Tuesdays for the rest of my goddamn life. And it just, I, I had like a breakdown and my friend was like, okay, clearly something’s wrong. Like, and also you don’t have to pay it all at once. You could pay it over time. And it’s like, and they said, do you make more money as a server?
Then what do you do down? And I said, no. And they’re like, they’re like, then you’re like, why would you go back to a lower paid job?

Nikki Nolan: Cause that’s my logic.

Drew Beekler: Yeah. But the logic is that it goes to the worst-case scenario. You just go to these preposterous sides of the world. The logical thing is just like one step over. You’re like, oh, this makes sense. If I think about it. Cause I, you you’ll lose yourself in the emotion of what’s happening. I think so. Yeah.

Nikki Nolan: So let’s transition into what has been the impact of student debt on your life?

Drew Beekler: Well, obviously financial is like definitely a thing. And when I first got out of college, even that six months, grace period, they give you is like, you know, it’s coming. They don’t, I never really got any information about, I probably just didn’t read it, but I didn’t get really any information about, or really understand how much per month I was gonna have to pay. And then you’re like, they’re like, okay, six months over, give us a $1,200 a month or something like that. I had multiple loans, so I had a lot of information. Everywhere. Like I, and also like I was, I originally got them through Sallie Mae. They switched to Navient. I’ve had people sell my debt before too. This. I actually, this is a real messed up thing for a private loan to do. I got a private loan for one point.

And they, I, I had a co-signer in that loan and I was trying to get that co-signer off the loan. And they said, you have to have a certain amount of, payments. And, and in order, I was two months away from getting that co-signer off the loan. They sold my debt to another company and I called them and I said, Hey, I was trying to get a co-signer off this loan.

And they said, I had to do it in a certain amount of payments. And they said, well, since we bought your debt, that number has now gone back down to zero. So I have to go through a whole nother stretch of that thing to get this co-signer off my loan. Also they like, I didn’t, I didn’t get any paperwork about this.

The, the, the, the costs. I went to go pay my loan one month and, it said zero. And I was like what I was like did I just win the lottery? Like I was I thought it was like I was like I’m out of debt I didn’t even have do anything. I don’t know why people don’t do this all the time. And then I had to call like four people to, to them find out that my loans were sold to another company.

So there, the thing is the information is just spread out in a lot of places. And that stresses me out because I would rather be in one place, I’d rather have one lump sum thing and, and all that kind of stuff, but it was, it was a thing that was overwhelming.

And then, but not, not just financially, but like, like, you know, emotionally, you’re just sitting there going. All right. I have to pay this. I know I have to pay this. And then sometimes there’s so much, and I was freelancing when I first started out and I was making like, all right. But when I graduated, I got a freelance job right away, worked for nine months.

This was in Philadelphia. They didn’t have any more work and there’s not really a lot of work for, I do visual effects for film and TV. There wasn’t that in there. So then I had to, move to New York City, but I didn’t move, I couldn’t move because I had a lease in Philadelphia. So I actually commuted from Philly to New York ,on a bus every day for 10 months.

And, and I did Megabus cause it was the cheapest thing I could get. It was a two-and-a-half-hour bus ride every day, one way. So it was five hours total during the day of commuting. And I would’ve got to, I would’ve gotten Amtrak, but they were like so expensive and I was barely making enough to, to rent, pay rent, student loans and then travel to a job.

That was, I, I, it was, that was, that was hard. That was, that was definitely a harder point. And then, you know, I had some friends that moved up and I ended up getting to stay over the week and only had to commute once or something like that. And then, then I slept, then I finally, my, my roommate was like, oh, he’s moving up too. So we just moved up together. So that was better. So that was good, but it was, it was, that was, that was rough. That was, and the thing is like, due to that student loan burden. Like obviously we, we, we take out loans and all that kind of stuff. And you know, you want to get the thing and I understand that you can’t, you got to take stuff out to like pay for things and you do owe that money back. It was just, it was a, it was a lot, and there’s not really any wiggle room in any capacity. For it, like, there is like, you know, I feel like in the money I was making, I feel like they wouldn’t, they were not going to adjust my payments very much. And I think talking to one person once about it and they kind of were like, that’s kind of the same.

So, if anything, you’re going to maybe pay more by doing this, like, you know, based, your Yeah. So I just didn’t do that. And I was just trying to keep up with the payments and there was definitely moments where I didn’t pay them a couple of months because I was just trying to like, have any sort of savings to have anything to fall back and I couldn’t take another talk. You can’t always like, after a while, like asking your parents for money, you get that talk of like, well, you need a burner spot.

I just couldn’t have that conversation and be bored. So I just was like, I’ll just not pay something. And then that, that, that, that, and that will get me out of that, the whole thing. And it was it, you know, it was. That’s that’s tough. That’s tough for everybody. And I think everyone can relate to that whole thing of dislike of financial, but also stressing out about it.

Cause you stress out about your, like my payment and you’re also like on your own for the first time. And you know, you’re trying to figure that out and, and it’s, it’s, it wasn’t like a small amount of money. It wasn’t like a, a hundred dollars a month. It was like, I think it was like, I think my by loans in general around $1200 a month or something like that, they’ve gone down a little bit since I started to try to like talk to the federal thing about the whole Art Institute thing that that’s gone on for brands.

So that’s got down a little bit, so that’s helped me out a little bit in that regard, but there’s still like $800 a month or something like that. If not, that’s like the minimum of paying.

Nikki Nolan: And are you paying right now? Federal loans or paused? Are you still paying money on your federal loans?

Drew Beekler: No, not right now. Cause I found this, this place and I guess their whole thing is that they specialize in, these like for-profit school loans, trickery stuff, whatever, whatever you want to call it, scam things, that they kind of make your case for you and they put it.

So I’m actually, I did that. I did that at the beginning of the pandemic. So we’re hitting about the 12-month place. And they said that my, my loans are in review for either dismissal or, and possibly whatever. I hope to cross my fingers for that. Yeah. Like reimbursement for the stuff, I had paid. So like, that’s that, that would be cool.
And what’s also cool about that is that they said that it also would, they would, they would, it would go. It would kind of take it off of your credit score too. Cause that’s, which is which it would be amazing. Cause like I also, yeah, it’s just there. I also got a credit card, young, young, and didn’t get that whole thing.

We all know that I was like that. I, and the thing that I wanted to do for the thing about tutorials for software, that that’s, that was my credit card buy. I was like, I want to learn how to push these buttons. but yeah, before YouTube and all and all that stuff was like more free, but no, yeah, it’s, it’s obviously stress that like is stressful, not just financially, but emotionally as well, because you’re just.

It’s not like, I was talking to my dad. He said he had to, he left college with like $5,000 worth of student loans. And he was like, and he was whatever. But it’s like that, that money is so different now. And it’s so much more. And I think that’s what people are like, oh, people complain about student debt.

I’m like, yeah. Cause it’s, it’s like a, it’s a lot of money. It’s a lot. It’s not it’s, it’s a good percentage of my, my monthly paycheck. Monthly income is, is student loans for sure.

Nikki Nolan: Yeah. And, and it is actually a pretty new thing. If you look at charts and things like that, it’s increased in the last 10 years, I think it’s increased a hundred percent in student debt. So like you’re not alone. Also that I heard you say something that was interesting that like, you know, I hear this too.

A lot of people are sort of like, it’s your responsibility. You should pay it back. But now actually in a lot of other countries, and even in our country up until fairly recently, education was free or affordable. And so a lot of our shame comes from this idea like, oh, I made this choice and like this personal responsibility thing, and it’s just not factual.

As education should be something that is accessible and it shouldn’t be an upward mobility tax for people who just don’t have the funds to go to it.

Drew Beekler: And, and just like, you know, like the whole, like Trump University and the Art Institute, they were, they were targeting people that are this wasn’t, they’re not doing it to people who are well off, they’re doing it to poor people. That’s like they’re specifically targeting those poor people.

And the thing is like, I, and I also follow, I feel like we probably feel the same way as I feel. I feel like I don’t want to complain too much. Cause I feel like everyone’s like, Oh, these kids are complaining about all the stupid stuff. And then, and then in my, in my mind, I’m like, I don’t want to be that person.
I’ll just kind of like be quiet about it because I’m just like, ah, like student loans. Like, I don’t know. It’s it’s yeah, I definitely get that.

Nikki Nolan: I mean, it’s, it is really hard. Cause you do have a lot of people who don’t understand the situation and just see it as people complaining. But no, it is student loans is a debilitating experience to go through like. I have paid off my student loans and I have so much trauma. I know, but I have so much trauma from the experiences, different loans that I’ve now dedicated enormous amounts of resources into understanding how we got here, why we’re here trying to help people, connect them to this company called the Debt Collective, which is a debtors’ union, where they’re unionizing to get people, to like actually be able to have like collective power over a bunch of these things.

And hopefully, we’ll get student cancellation, like federal cancellation and they’ll go for private and then free college for all. And that should be

Drew Beekler: Yeah. Cause like my, my, my friend got into a bike accident and she, like, she got doored as in like person opened her door and she flipped over and she had, she messed up her shoulder. She had surgery on it, but she like ended up settling, getting a settlement from it and paid off her student loans for it.

And there was points at me. I’m just like, I I’m, was like, I think I was looking for doors. I was like, let me find a door. I will, I will go pro Progressive Progressive will take care of my student loans for me.

Nikki Nolan: So, so that is not the first time I’ve heard that. . I have a really terrible story. I had a friend who both her parents died of COVID and so she got a settlement from the insurance company. All of the money from that went right to her student loan. So it’s sort of like. It’s ridiculous. It’s so ridiculous.

Drew Beekler: Yeah. And it’s the fact that it’s like one of the first things that comes to your mind when you hear someone paid it off in this way, you’re like, Oh, well, maybe that could happen. Like, it’s like, it’s like, let me have something horrible happen, but then it will come out like, and that will have this stress in my life because it’s, it is a hundred percent stressful.

And the thing is like, if you don’t make like one payment, they call you every moment of the day I had to play. there was one, I think the times where I was in pain, that I didn’t pay one month and they called me every hour, every day for that next, until I, until I like like caught back on the phone with them and it was, and I, and I think as I get, I get their whole need to get the loans.

And like, again, like we said, I’m not trying to duck the responsibility of something. I just like legitimately. I was like, I can’t even afford to do this. I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna do that.

Nikki Nolan: You can actually if you can answer the phone and say, I need everything, you need to stop communicating with me through a phone and you have to write to me. So I will only accept communications through handwritten, not handwritten, but you know, through letters through the mail. So there is ways that like, you can stop harassment things.

Drew Beekler: Yeah, no, it, it, again, like it’s, it’s, it’s frustrating. Cause you have to think about that stuff and there’s and you go and you think of extreme. I already think of extreme logical reasons anyway, but like. But it’s, it’s, it’s a hundred percent a thing that’s burned on you anyway.

And you know, you’re not paying it. It’s, you’re just, you’re just stressed out about it all the time. Even if it’s like quiet stress, it’s there for sure. And it does feel nice to, to, to call them and just get you back on track like that, that euphoria is a little nice, but you know you’re still paying and you’re like, and I don’t know.
It’s it’s yeah, it’s crazy.

Nikki Nolan: A really terrible situation. The Debt Collective is actually has a hundred people who are not paying right now. And then they also are like, that’s through the debtors union. So they have a people not paying, on purpose to be on strike. It’s not for everybody, but the more people that we have, like doing this action, we can put more pressure on politicians.

Drew Beekler: Yeah. Yeah. It’s all about numbers. It’s that? It’s a, it’s a numbers game at that. And that thing, like, that’s great. That’s great to have people organized and that’s what you need. That’s what you need to get anything done because there are people that are lobbying for other stuff, because they’re doing things like to, to get us, to make money on people in that way.

Nikki Nolan: So you’ve been waiting 12 months. You haven’t heard anything back about like, loans are going to be canceled-

Drew Beekler: I just called them, because I, I feel like I was, there was a suspicious amount of time that I wasn’t being contacted and I know it was going to be a thing. So like they see the initial, the initial thing is that you have to pay, you have to pay like money for them to like, do the proceedings and stuff like that. So there’s like an upfront cost to it.

I think, I think it was like $1,600 or something like that. I paid over a couple- I know it’s a, I just keep giving people money.

Nikki Nolan: I was like, Hey, wait, is this a scam? Like all of a sudden-
So the thing

Drew Beekler: is I actually tried to refinance my loans at one point. And I got in contact with a scam place, like a place that, that actually just took money from me.

And they called Navient called, they called me and they’re like, Hey, you haven’t been pulling your wallets. I was like, I’m pretty sure I refinanced them. And then the place was like a scam. It was, they just took my money

Nikki Nolan: Drew!

Drew Beekler: I had a credit card. It was not good. It was not a credit card but like a debit card get a whole new thing. But it was that, that was scary. But this one, I looked up a little bit and they seem, they seem to have a, like a, somewhat of a following. And also they were a lot more professional and kind of stuff for that kind of thing.
But, they, I call, I contacted them. They said it was in, in, in like, you know, in it’s in review. And I called the Department of Education too, I, I, and they got back to me. They said that it’s in review. So that makes me feel better about it. And so we’ll see, they said it usually takes between 12 and 18 months. And they said the situation of just the art institutes in general are, usually are, are put through. They said they’re, they’re, they’re pretty optimistic about it because they, because of, because of just like, there are known, it’s a known thing that they weren’t, that they were targeting people, but also they’re like my school wasn’t accredited.

It turns out, another, none of my, none of my stuff that I said I was getting credits for actually meant anything. even between the two art institutes that I went to, cause I went to two because you know, let’s do it, you know?
Those two- stuff didn’t transfer over. Like I had take classes to make up for things I’ve already taken in other ones because they, they said they didn’t that the accreditation and I’m like, you guys are in the same network.

Also, it’s fun to say that my school that I went to is actually now closed. It’s no longer working. if you ever want to see it, you can watch the newest season of Queer Eye on a, on Netflix in Philadelphia. There’s an episode where they go into an Old Navy and that’s where my school was, is an Old Navy now. And that was the gallery. That was the gallery of my school that I went to. It was, is there now, they sold most of it to, when they got sued and all that kind of stuff. But, yeah, they, that, that that’s, that’s. So that’s in the works right now. So hopefully that I just called them and they said that, you know, they’re going to, the Department of Education will contact me.

Nikki Nolan: Fingers crossed. I’ll have you back on the show once you haven’t canceled, because they’re going to get canceled because they are starting to actually do this, like the, the borrower’s defense process, basically like you were defrauded or your, if your, college did something illegal, you can have your loans canceled. So people should definitely look up the borrower’s defense process, fill out the forms, start like getting your stuff ready so that hopefully get them canceled that way.

Drew Beekler: Yeah, for sure. And the thing is like, like, it’s good to have a pretty public lawsuit happen on your school. If that’s, that’s pretty helpful. It makes you feel good about it, but, it’s like, uh, it basically you feel good that you, that you chose the right school. You know, like if people are like, oh yeah, I go to Harvard like, well, go to one that like, will not give you a good education.

How about that? But the thing is like they had, it was, yeah, th th th that whole, that whole thing was more than that. I just wanted to do what I wanted to do that kind of stuff, but it was like the school, like very much didn’t care. And, and you could, there was, they, they were trying to get accreditations where they couldn’t, they were doing reviews.

They tried to do [accreditation] and I remember them not getting them, while I was in school, and all this kind of stuff. And then that made me feel like I, like, I was like, I was like, I didn’t go to a good school, but, you know, I made the best of my situation. And the people that I be- friended were just about learning.
So we did our, we did it a lot of our own education in that way, but, so that was good. That’s a good part of the thing. Not to be all Debbie Downer on the school, but this yeah. But…

Yeah, if it’s really, it’s really that’s, that’s like, it doesn’t matter. where we really, really go is if you have the right mindset and you have the, you can find some people that are in a similar mindset, you can do whatever you want.
And everyone in my friend group is pretty successful in that, in that state of things. So it’s cool. It worked out for that way, but there’s a lot of people that it didn’t work out for. And they, and, and the fact that also that they were selling a product that wasn’t real, that wasn’t what they were actually trying to sell you, they’re telling you they were selling you, is the problem really more than anything?

Nikki Nolan: I feel like this is a good point to transition. I want to know more about you.

Drew Beekler: Okay. Is it, was it, it was a lot of, a lot of different turns,

Nikki Nolan: tell me about the twist and turns.

Drew Beekler: I, I actually found, I it’s, it’s funny. So I, I, when I would watch movies, I would want to do stuff that the people that I saw Jurassic Park, I wanted to be a paleontologist. And I read all the books on dinosaurs and all that kind of stuff.

And I guess everyone’s done that. But then I – I saw twister, I wanted to do to chase and study tornadoes, for a while. I thought it was really cool. I didn’t really know what I was doing, and honestly what set me on the track of something was, so I was in learning support all through school. Third grade is when I was in it to a 12th to 12th grade kind of, and it was for reading, writing. And you know, you go through that whole thing. They’re not really about you finding what you’re good at. They’re really about getting you through school. They’re not really you. I had to take a graded study hall in high school. Cause they, they were like, you need this structured time. And I’m like, I had a study hall right before this like essentially they wouldn’t take, let me take electives. I had to just take these graded study halls that they would just check your agenda book if you wrote it. And you would do like an assignment in there, and then you got an eight out of eight for the day. It was, it was, and it was supposed to be an easy A, so you could, so you could pass or whatever. And that was, that was also, that was so rough.

The last year, cause I was like, I want to get into college. I don’t want to just be another thing I know I have to take, I was my, I was going into my junior year of high school. I was like, I want, I need to take a language. I need to take a language. I know English hasn’t worked out, but maybe Spanish will be better, you know? And but I was like, cause that’s all I heard is like colleges, you know, you’d have to have well-rounded this, that’s all you hear in CA in movies and so that’s all I knew. I was like, I want to take this. I don’t want to be in an especially. I want to, I don’t want to be, I want to be at my level English class.

I want to make sure that I can do it. And they, they kind of were like, eh, like, but they, they let me do it. So next year I take Spanish. I had the hardest time in the world. I studied for five or six weeks ahead of time for the midterm. I got a 27% on the midterm. I was like, Hola and adios. You know, like, so I dropped, I dropped out.
Of that class. And I took an art class, which I again was, I wasn’t allowed to take any sort of elective, so I didn’t know anything else besides just the standard education stuff. And I had the best time I had the best time doing that. And I felt so like, it felt good. Good. I was kind of okay at it, like at first, like, and then the next year I went to a vo-tech for commercial art.

So it’s like a, so it’s like a, it’s a technical high school kind of thing. So they, they, they do a lot of the stuff is like, teaching trades. So like, they have like plumbing, electrician. They have like a, there’s like a cosmo- a cosmetology school, but then they had stuff for like photography. And the one thing I did was called commercial art.
So it was supposed to be like graphic design kind of stuff. And I remember I just got there and I just was like, boom, like, this is like, I knew I was in it. I knew I was like, like, it’s like something in this realm is something I’m going to be good at. Cause I was like, I, you know, I was. It was just, it was doing stuff and opposed to having to like, and I just, it was, it was easy.

It was not easy, but like it came, like you kind of got the concept of it right away, which has never happened in the, in school. I was like, okay, I’m going to go for some sort of graphic design, like graphic design. But I like this kind of, I like making things too. I also like editing. I did a little bit of editing there too. And so I went to, I found a school for, it was called what was, it was like digital design or something like that.

But it was a cross between graphic design, web design and interactive design, and all this kind of stuff. So it was like, Oh, cool. So we, the whole part is like, you use the graphic design stuff to make templates and you could do motion graphics, things, but also have cameras. It was kind of the best of all worlds, the kind of a generalist kind of look at it.

Loved that it was cool. I went through, I went there for, a sped-up associate’s degree, which was a, I think it was a year and a half or something like that.

Nikki Nolan: That was your first stint in art institutes?

Drew Beekler: Yes, that, and it was funny cause it was called Bradley Academy for the Visual Arts and then they, they got into the Art Institute thing as I graduated and I was the first graduate of the art Institute of York, Pennsylvania, and I had to call it that I was so mad. I was so bad cause I called it Bradley all the time, but it was not that anymore. So I, then I worked in a graphic design place for four months. It was kind of an intern. It was kind of, eh, I didn’t like it as much as I thought I was gonna like it.

And it was kind of, and I was also, I was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I was like, it was nothing. It was like suffer like mini-marts and, and I, and my boss was kind of mean at the time too. So I was kind of looking at other stuff to do. And I went to, toward the Art Institute of, of, Philadelphia. And I was like, okay.

Cause I also looked at, Full Sail University Florida, they had a campus. And I remember the one guy was because I was looking at filmmaking cause I was like always interested in film and I, and, and like honestly all the examples of what I wanted to do when I was younger, just all came from film.

So I was like, Oh, that makes sense. And I love it so much. And so I was looking at that and they wanted me to go down there, like they’re like Full Sail. I was like, you know, Amanda Bynes walks around the, the campus all the time. And I’m like, I’m like, okay, like that’s not really an education thing, but that’s kind of cool, I guess. And also like at that time, like Amanda Bynes is like in the, like the kind of lull before no one really heard from her for a while. And like, I guess she’s still making stuff. But, but before I went to tour there, I went into the Arne suit and I was wearing a Flash Gordon t-shirt cause I left the movie Flash Gordon and as well, walking down the hallway and a guy, I just went to the seminar for the film thing.

And it was essentially like, they’re like, Oh, you we’ll train you to film weddings is kind of like what their, what they were kind of doing. So I walked down, this guy says, oh, hey, that’s, shirt’s awesome. It’s like Flash Gordon is the greatest movie ever. And I was like, yeah, it’s so cool. Right. Like I love it.

And yeah. He’s like, are you going to come into this presentation? I was like, oh, I didn’t, I didn’t even know what there’s a presentation. And he goes, oh, this is for the visual effects, motion graphics, major here. And I was like, oh, cool. I’ll check it out. And I went in, I left, I was like, shaking. I was like, this one, freaking do it.
Like I was, I was like sold at that point. And I like, and I did, and I went through there. But that’s what good friends. We all did things. We had, you know, ups and downs through there, left, got a freelance gig, doing, working on.

Nikki Nolan: And just up, were you that happened at the art institutes,

Drew Beekler: These all the art institutes no Yeah I was like, I don’t want to move, take out more loans that because I think it’s when I went to the Art studio in Philadelphia, I was commuting from Lancaster, PA to Philadelphia, did a lot of commuting in my day.

Nikki Nolan: I was about to say, seem to like scams and commuting.

Drew Beekler: Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s my two passions in life, are both of those things. And the thing is, so I do, I went to a place, started working on a show for NBC called Do No Harm that no one will remember because it was one season and it was bad. And then worked on the M Night Shyamalan movie, After Earth, is the it’s the one with it’s a bad one Jane Smith faced with for an hour going yeah, I dunno. yeah. But he, so, so then I went to New York, and was where I worked at a company there for, for three years. Did a bunch of stuff. Then moved to another company that I’m at right now. here for four, four or five years. Now we worked on like Marvel’s Iron Fist and Defenders and all that kind of stuff.

We did all the glowing fist effects for the first season of Iron fist and Defenders. We didn’t do a second the second season, but, it was cool. So yeah, we worked on all that. Cool. Cause it was like, it was like, it was awesome. I was feeling good. It was like, it was like, again, like you’re saying like I’m saying it, I feel really good about that. And then all of a sudden midway through that whole experience, I started doing comedy, because people told me I was looking for something outside to do another kind of like, you know, creative thing, you know, to just kind of keep my, you know, juice, flowing because you got to have outlets because even in creative fields, you’re kind of doing someone else’s stuff.

You’re not really doing your own stuff. And a couple of enough people told me I was funny and that I, I was at an open mic once and I went there and tried it and was like, I’m in this. Cause like we were talking about how we were talking about earlier. I think even before the podcast is just like how we, we, like, we were like, I like, writing’s really hard and I write so much more now because of comedy and I have to like actually do it to figure out the words it’s actually helped me get over that a little bit. I’m still really bad at it, but it’s like, it’s a thing that if I have to like force to write it down, to get the word economy down and stuff like that, and it’s kind of a weird place that I thought I would never think I would be in writing anything and I’m writing a lot now and it’s, it’s it’s cool.

And I love doing it. I’m only like I’m only like three or four years in and and just trying to do everything I can for that and working and I, and what’s cool is that they’ve overlapped a recent, a little bit ago. Like the last two years I hosted the New York Visual Effects Society A wards, and I got to write jokes for that and I, and it was cool cause it was all inside jokes about our jobs that I don’t get to do anywhere else because no one else gets them.
And what’s cool about that is the LA one is hosted by Patton Oswald and this one is hosted by me. So that’s my connection to him. If I ever meet him .

You’re, you’re going to, it’s just going to happen. You’re going to be like the next , I I was going to name someone and then I’m like, it’s scary to name comics because people are getting picked off for doing things. So I’m like, I’m not going to name someone.

Keep it very vague I’ll be that person.

Okay. Hopefully well, so now you’re doing comedy and visual effects is your day job.
So what we’re getting close to the end. So what advice would you give your younger self knowing? Oh, this knowledge that, you know now.

Figure out a better student loan thing. But, I would say, I would say that, you know, don’t change much, just, you know, know that you do follow what you want to do. Do you research, like you’re doing, it’s gonna pay off eventually? I feel like I did a lot of stuff. Right. I did a lot of the wrong stuff, but I don’t know if I would change the wrong stuff because it made the right stuff better.

And in that way, like, I’ve kind of like. The mess-ups of life. Cause they, they kind of reflect, do you appreciate the better times and your hard work through the whole thing? Cause I, I, I think, I don’t know about you, but like just having dyslexia and various disabilities, it’s maybe a lot harder of a worker.

And I think that’s because I, you know, you had to, you had to work harder and I know the way I learn is I engross myself in whatever I is doing. And then I cut. Like, it might, it may take me longer to get to the end result, but I’m going to get there. when I get it, I get it. And I go hard on it because I use my time, all the stuff I’ve because I don’t think a lot of people do as a lot of large amounts of research about things. But I research a lot. And then I, and when I’m doing the thing I’m doing, I can pull on that research a lot more.

And I, and I think I’ve always kind of done that. And I think I stopped doing that at one point. So my only advice to myself would be don’t stop doing that. Always kind of go at it.

Nikki Nolan: Love that is, there anything you want to pitch?

Drew Beekler: I guess my podcast is, Drew Want to Know, we talk about comedy and it’s kind of, I’m going to change the format up a bit because I’m going to start talking about comedy and anything else. I think it’s very, and honestly it, you said you’ve watched it, but anyone who has not watched it, I really just started it because I had a good name and a great theme song.

Nikki Nolan: It’s a great theme song. It’s this morning, it was stuck in my head and I was just like, Oh God, Drew.

Drew Beekler: Exactly. And my friend did it had a good Alanis Morissette impression. I was like in it. and then also, I guess, check out Judah Freelander shows that he does follow him on Instagram. I, I host those shows a lot and we also do our own, I have my own zoom show called Chirping Bird Comedy. We do on every Monday, at eight on, on zoom, or you can watch on comedy hub on Twitch is, is there too.

And Judah is on there every week. So, you know, you get a little, a little piece of Judah there, and then you can watch his full, his hour and-a-half stuff that he does privately, which pays what you want. It’s like as low as a dollar. So it’s, it’s a good deal. And I host those a lot and I think I’m doing a couple coming up soon, so yeah, check out his cause.

He’s great. And he’s a cool guy anyway, so.

Nikki Nolan: I’ll put everything on the website, to all your stuff. Yeah, because I think, especially now, like the comedy has really gotten me through things like Judah’s show looking forward to like seeing Judah’s show every week, which I go to like almost every week, it just like makes this pandemic experience feel a little more human and it, and if I hadn’t gone, I wouldn’t have met you.

Drew Beekler: Yeah, exactly. And the thing is it’s, it’s weird how many people get connected and that kind of stuff. And also like, I’ll tell you this. I didn’t know. I didn’t really know Judah before the pandemic and now I know him a lot more and that’s like a huge thing too. So some the pandemic has been really good and, and in that way and all that kind of stuff, but he like, I’ve very much, been pumped about all the pluses and bummed about all the negatives, but- But no, it’s a, it’s a, they’re great shows and they definitely help people.

And there’s a really fun community with his shows too. Cause it’s like, there are a lot, I feel like when you were, at the end of the show and when I was talking to you about this podcast, when you had mentioned this podcast, I feel like you were talking to people that you knew from the show and you’re like, you’re like, how are you doing girl?
And you’re like, this. She’s like, Oh, cool.

Nikki Nolan: I bet. Yeah.

Drew Beekler: Yeah, no, they see, everyone seemed to know like if the chats in those, in those shows, are really cool and it’s a cool community of people and it’s like all over the world and it’s just like, everyone seems to know each other. And it was, it’s fun to be a little bit of a part of that, to be honest.
It’s, it’s cool. And, it’s fun to do them and, hopefully, keep doing them more be cool.

Nikki Nolan: Well, we’ve come to the end. Thank you so much for being here.

Drew Beekler: Oh, thank you so much for having me. And it was, this is fun.

Nikki Nolan: Matter of Life and Debt is produced by me, Nikki Nolan.

Special thanks to Efe Akmen for creating the music and mastering the audio.

Additional support and thanks to Emma Klauber who writes the information and transcripts about each episode.

This podcast would not have been possible without them.

Visit our website for more information matteroflifeanddebt.com, where you can listen, read transcripts, get additional context of the subjects you just heard about, and subscribe- absolutely for free. That website again, matteroflifeanddebt.com. Thanks again for listening.

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