Hey, everybody. Welcome to my guest tonight. I'm Jeff Revilla. I've got a great
guest tonight. We're talking dude ism, personal journeys, the big
Lembowski. Let's hear that theme song.
He wears a robe, officiates with
flair at the altar
with bedhead zero cares
Ordained by the church of the latter day
Dude. He's bringing good
vibes and a chill
attitude for
Ian Webb. Yeah. He's taking the mic with Jeff Revilla
on my guest tonight. From 100 hours of
silent retreat to saying I doing flip
flop fe. He.
Abides, he vibes he's our priest in a row.
Tune in tonight
and take it slow.
All right. Welcome Ian Webb to the show. My guest tonight. Ian,
welcome. Tonight. What's up, Dude? Thanks for having me, man. I
am so excited about the show. This is one of those things where I had
no idea that something existed, and then I find
out there's 800,000 of you out
there as of as of the last check. So a lot
of what we're going to learn about is based on a movie. Can you tell
us about what that movie is and maybe the first time you saw it?
I didn't realize there was a movie. There's a movie.
No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, it's called the Big Lebowski.
It's directed by Coen brothers, sometime in the 90s, I want to say, like,
97, something like that. Sounds familiar,
I think. Yeah, 98. Okay. Starring
Jeff Bridges as the Dude. And,
yeah, it's. It's a good movie. It.
It's. It's a favorite
amongst a lot of people who are
very similar to that character, the dude, who look
at this movie and they think of, oh, that. That movie,
like this guy, this character, this dude, he
reminds me of myself. He is me. And
so, yeah, it's developed quite a cult following
to the point that it's developed its own religion,
AKA philosophy, which is called
dudism. And apparently he get ordained as
a Judas priest. And I was like, why not?
And so I did, and I've officiated two
weddings because of it, so that was beyond your question.
But, yeah, it's a. It's a movie.
And did you see it at a younger age? Was there. Was there something that
really influenced you or inspired you? So I
saw it, I think, about 20 years ago. I was in high school,
so about 2004, 2005,
my dad showed it to me. He rented it, and I. I
enjoyed it. I. I didn't. It didn't really speak
to Me at the time. But it be very quickly
became one of the best movies I've ever seen. And
then I bought it a couple years later, and I was just like, watching it
all the time, and I was like, I. I really
relate to this character, the Dude. And I had friends of
mine who were like, dude, you are the Dude. And I'm like,
yeah. And. Yeah. So, yeah, like, high
school. Is there, like, a scene in the movie that,
like, it's always like, your scene. Like, every time you see this one part of
the movie, you're like, that's just like the greatest moment in cinema history
or, you know, or really resonated. It's nothing like that.
I mean, the Coen brothers are my,
like, top five favorite directors. I. I guess both of them together.
But no, like, I. I love,
like, movies like 2001 Space Odyssey is my favorite of all time,
but Big Lebowski is, like, top five cinematically.
It. It's definitely not near the top like
Godfather or Apocalypse
now. So, you know, like, it. It definitely doesn't come close
to, like, the best, but it's just a very well
made movie that is just enjoyable.
Like, you could watch it many times over and it
never gets old. So it's just. It's just very
enjoyable. But
I. I do just relate to the character. I think that the
screenwriting is top notch. Like, it's one of the best
scripts, I think.
But yeah. And after you've seen the movie, have
you connected with other friends or other fans that, you
know, kept pulling you back into this movie? Or is there something
that you just relate to when you see other people who. Who really even follow
the philosophy or. Or just really relate to
the character? I haven't as much. I. I have
met a couple Walters in my life,
and we. We get along. Like, I. I have an old
buddy from high school who. He. He's like the main one who
is like, you're the dude, and I'm. To him, I'm like, you're a Walter.
Like, he's kind of an. But for some reason we're friends, and
he's like, just like, not that great, but
we get along really well. That's the best
I could come up with that.
I. I know we're kind of jumping ahead here, but my buddy
Sloan, he just got married, and he
wanted me to officiate as the Judas Priest.
He's kind of dudist himself. Like, he. He
definitely didn't jump far into the philosophy as
I did, but I don't know. He was Just like, he.
He's kind of that similar vibe, pretty
much. And how did you find out about.
Yeah, dude ism and. Because, you know, let's start there. Like, was
it just a casual conversation? Are there, you know, people that go door to
door recruiting? How did you come across it?
No, we were way too laid back for that. Like, that's a lot
of work. I. I can't really recall, to be
honest. It's. It's been a long time. Like,
it also not. It doesn't go back 20 years ago as far as
my thing into it. I just. I really
relate to the character, and I'm just like, yeah, I'm laid back. I'm
Dude. And then, you know, when people tell me to
describe myself to them, I'm like, watch Big Lebowski. And
then you got it. But
I think of Judaism when I first heard about
that, maybe it was on Reddit or like a Facebook group or something.
I. I really can't say. It was probably about 10, 15
years ago that I. I heard about it.
I don't. I. I really can't recall how, but
I did follow a Reddit page and I did follow
a Facebook page, and somewhere along those lines,
I found out that it's a religion. It's not. It's definitely
not like, people getting together
and on like a weekly basis and reading scripture
or anything like that. Although there is an annual festival, but
that. That's about it. It's really just a bunch of people who are just like,
yeah, we relate to this character. We. We like bowling and White
Russians. And it's about that. That's about the
furthest extent that people go. It's like a super
fan club, really. It's. You like the movie, you like the character, you relate to
the character, the lifestyle. Is there any kind of like.
Like creed or any kind of, like, way of life that
you try to follow because of this? Yeah, you know, it's.
It could be kind of similar to Taoism
or Buddhism. Mostly Taoism, like, kind of just
going with the flow of the world. Try not,
you know, just pretty much, yeah, just go with the flow and
try not to get upset about things that are beyond your control.
There is a book on dudism, which is pretty much.
Yeah, it's just Taoism just kind of
changed certain words around. But I haven't gotten that
far into it.
But, yeah, that's. That's about it.
And, you know, when you started to get into it and then you saw there's
maybe this other level to it. Where you could get ordained as a
Dudas priest. What was. What's that process? Kind of like,
it's gonna. I'm gonna have to disappoint you
here. It's. It's nothing like really crazy. It's.
So there's a website. I think it's just Dudas or dudism
dot com. And you enter your email address and
bam, you're ordained minister that can legally perform
marriages and. Yeah. Weddings or
funerals or just any other spiritual
stuff that you need a priest for. And that's it.
Like the state of Texas where I live, at least. I mean,
many other states. I'm not sure which one is specifically,
but at least in Texas, they recognize that. Yeah. You can
officiate weddings. Sure. Just by entering my email address.
With great power comes great responsibility. What
are other things that you can do besides weddings? What other powers do you have?
His funerals.
Hold on a second.
I have my letter of good standing right here.
All right, we're going to the COVID For those of you listening to the. To
the audio, we went into the cupboard. We got a big box out.
Sorry about that. I. I will mute my. Well, actually, you're good. You're too
late to mute my mic because I've already got it right here.
Okay. So my letter of good standing says. To whom it may
concern. This letter is to certify Reverend Ian
Webb as an ordained Judas priest on February 1,
2015. That's when I. That's when I
signed in my email address to be a member and good
standing in the holy order of ministers of the church of
Latter Day Dude. As a minister, preacher, and official
representative of our worldwide faith, we ask that you recognize
reverend's authority to preside over any religious, sacred,
or ceremonial ritual, including marriage, funeral
services, religious counseling, christenings and
blessings, or consecration
ceremonies. So you got the
document handy in. Case of
emergency, in case anybody's like,
no, you're not doing this. I don't know who you're trying to fool. And then
my certificate is right here.
Is there any feed that you have to pay or you just. Is it just
an email and you're in. That's it. I had to pay for my
certificate and my letter of good standing. But
no, just to sign up. That's totally free. Yeah.
And so, you know, now you have this year's
ordained as a Dudas priest. And one of the things.
I don't know if it was your first goal, but was to officiate your
friend's wedding, and it happened. I think Pretty recently.
Recently was the second time. The first time was the same
year that I got every day in 2015.
That was. They were both almost
to the month. Like 10 years. Exactly.
It wasn't anything I. I really had a goal set
in mind for it was. I. I got it, and I was
like, this is cool. Why not? And then I just told my
friends about it. I was like, isn't that cool? And. And
then my best friend happened to get married later
on that year, and they asked me to do it for them, and I was
like, awesome. Yeah, that. That's better than best man. Of course I want
to do that. And so they just asked me to do that. And
then 10 years later, another friend of mine, Sloan, who I mentioned earlier,
he asked me to do it. So it. It's
just. Oh, I. I've also been asked three other times.
They didn't work out. But. Yeah,
nothing I set out to. To do, but just people asked me to
and. Yeah, kind of depends on the situation. So,
like, with Sloan. Well, with Jake, 10 years ago,
his fiance was also a really good friend of mine, so I was totally on
board for it. We were roommates for a while. I. I
completely agreed with it, so I said, okay. Ten years later, Sloan
asked me to. We. We're both from Austin, Texas. We
both moved out. I moved to Houston. He moved to,
like, Wimberley area, which is like, small town,
30 minutes south of Austin. And
I hadn't met his fiance yet, so I was like, I'll
do it, but I have to meet her first.
Because in order for it to really seem
legit, in order for me to, like, I. I don't want to
just go about it and just be like, I don't know this person. I'm just
doing it for the hell of it. I want to actually, you know,
have it mean something. So I went and I met her, spent
the weekend with them. And. And
yeah, again, that's not really what you asked me, but.
Are you permitted to. To charge for your services or do you just kind
of do it out of the. The goodness of your heart? Both of
these. I did it for free. Just pretty much as
like a wedding present, I guess. I didn't want to charge
my friends. I could charge. If somebody wanted to offer me money,
I'd do it. But one person, it didn't work
out because of scheduling issues. They
wanted to pay me and a six pack of beer.
You remember how much it costs to get the certificate? You probably broken even mate
with two wedding gifts and a six pack of beer,
right? Yeah, yeah, it was like 15
bucks, I think, for the certificate. Oh, you're way ahead.
Yeah.
Like it's something that it's, it's a fun lifestyle. It's a
fun way to just think about things. And if you really relate to the character
and you can bring that to other people's lives, that's,
that's a good time. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, yeah. You know, it was fun.
The first one was definitely more serious. They just, they wanted a non
religious wedding. And JQ was like,
you're not gonna come in with a bathrobe or anything,
which if you haven't seen the movie, he wears a bathrobe and
that's his thing. And most Judas weddings, they
wear bathrobes. That's, that's just like the sign of, of the dude or
the cool, snazzy jacket that he wears in the movie. But usually a
bathrobe. But so that one
was, was serious and heartfelt. This more recent one,
they were like, let's have fun with this. And
so we were discussing it and I was like, you know, I'm probably not
going to wear a bathrobe. And they were like, no, you need to wear a
bathrobe. Like, you have to. And so I did. And that's what I'm, I got
on right now is my bathrobe. The colors were black and
purple. So. And how is it received, like, if the, the,
if the guests don't know what's happening and is it, is it.
Are there some awkwardness sometimes between the guests and,
and what they're expecting and what they're seeing? Like, this is different than what I've
ever been to. Right. Yeah, I know that. That's something
that I, I had to mentally prepare for ahead of time.
So the first one ten years ago, again, that was
more serious. So I, I had a
suit. It was nothing like that. I was just
their friend who officiated them.
So other than not religious, it was pretty
formal and traditional for this one.
Yeah, they were like, you gotta wear a bathrobe. And then I decided
on like the loose tie with the unbuttons. And I
was wearing shorts and flip flops. And yeah, I was like,
people coming, they're gonna have no idea what's going on.
I was just like hoping, like, I hope I don't offend
anybody. I hope that they're not too weirded out
by it. And then there. But also this is what
they wanted me to do for them, so, you know, I'm gonna
fulfill their wish. This is about them. So,
you know, I.
So, yeah, the time came, and Sloan actually just went on Facebook, and
he was just like, everybody coming? This is a dude, this wedding.
So just so you know, it's like a big Lebowski themed and. And
that let me relax a little bit. I was like, okay, people
will now. If they've seen the movie, they'll get it.
And so I drive over there, and I'm like, I
kind of look ridiculous. And then I get there, and the
funny thing is, it Sloan's kind of a weird guy.
Anna, his now wife,
again, I don't really know her that well, but she.
She's a little more on the normal side. I think her side was
goth, actually. So it was goth dudism. And
so it was like, people were like. Like dark colors
and then, like, weird on the other side. So
it was already a weird wedding and really fun. And
then so they see me and I'm like, people are
just going to be like, what is going on with this guy?
But, like, knowing Sloan,
people who didn't know that I was the minister, I didn't get any
weird looks. They were like, yeah, this guy belongs here. Not
even knowing that I was officiating, I was like. I went
from being weirded out that people are going to look at me strangely
to. I'm weirded out that people are completely
accepting me. And then the time
came, I go up to the altar, I start
going down my spiel. I. I have, you know, I'm.
I'm. I've got my. My script that
I'm reading, which is pretty normal, basic
ceremony script with, you know, my
heartfelt things I added in, like, saying,
you know, like how. Talking about them and how much
I. I appreciate someone's friendship for letting me do this and everything.
And they. They make a great couple. And then I also added
all the dude stuff. So, like, I'm calling them dude. I.
I'm like, sloan, dude, do you take this
chick to, like, beat your special lady
and stuff? And you. Do you
take this buckaroo to be your special man? And,
like, do you, like, repeat after me
with this ring I put on your hand? And,
you know, it symbolizes our marriage and, well, you know what
I'm trying to say. And I made them, like, repeat, you know what I'm trying
to say? And it was just getting laughs the whole
time. Like, it kind of felt like I was doing stand up comedy in a
way, which Sloan was like, pretty much, that was
what he was going for what he wanted. And he was
like, this is going to be hilarious. And so, yeah, the
reception was pretty good. Like, everybody seemed
to really enjoy it. I think that there were some people who
didn't know what was going on, but it was kind of explained to them
and I got lots of compliments after. So it, like,
you definitely couldn't do this for most weddings, but for this
one, it worked perfectly. Like, in between the
ceremony and the reception. Are you drinking White Russians or. Or
is the open bar? That. That was, of course,
the goal. That's what I'm supposed to have right now. But the
colors don't really. It's kind of dark.
I. I actually put in oat milk instead of half and half. And it is
not. Not working out. It's. I'm
really regretting it, to be honest. But that day there was actually
no alcohol. Loud, actually, so
I couldn't have my White Russian. And I
was kind of thinking before I found this out, like, yeah, I would have my
White Russian. And I was kind of thinking about doing, like, the kind of sand
thing that they do, ceremonies where they put the two different color sands
together, and they're like, this represents your married life
together. But I would be like, so the kua represents
you and the half and half represents you. And you put
it together and it makes a great beverage. And I'd like take a sip of
the beverage, be like, yeah, this is pretty good. But, yeah, they
didn't have alcohol there, so I. I ended up not doing that.
Well, not too bad in into the future, you know, looking past
these two events that you've done, do you see yourself doing this again?
You think it could work out for other weddings? I had a
lot of fun doing it, and I would love to do it again.
I've only done it for good friends of mine. Only good
friends of mine have asked me to do it the other three times. Except for
one. The. The one who asked to pay me in beer. That. That was like
more of an equating spouse. I was like, sure. But
to be honest with you, now that, like, I had so much fun with this
last one, I wouldn't mind starting the business, doing it.
Like, getting started would be the hard part. But I've actually kind of looked into
it a little bit. Like, if anybody listening is from,
like, Central Texas or Houston area,
like, hit me up. Like, I'd be down to do another
wedding. Yeah. Don't forget those destination weddings. They'll pay for your
travel expense, too. Yeah, right. Yeah. Okay. Anybody
where? Yeah,
Well, I guess flipping a Little bit, you know, from the, from the Dudas, the
Dudas priests and, and the dudism. You went to
this retreat. It was like a, I think it was a 10 day retreat and
you spent a hundred hours of meditating. What
was kind of the, the twist and turned to going to something like
that. And that was a trip.
Yes. 10 days silent meditation retreat. Vipassana
was the, the establishment.
It's crazy. Like it's a whole thing.
So what it is is there's this guy,
H.R. i think it's H.R. grenka. It, this
was back in 2019 that I did this. So
parts of it are kind of hazy in my memory. I think
I got his name wrong. But he's from India
and he came to the
west and he was, he was really into this Vipassana
meditation, which is a specific type of
Buddhist meditation where you
meditate for hours, like pretty much forever. And
you scan down your body, like mentally. You
start at your head and you just scan down and you just
kind of take note of all the feelings you're having.
Like, like my nose itches, my back starting to hurt,
I'm hungry. And you just kind of like notice it. You take a,
you take note of it and you're like, okay. And you don't react. You have
like zero reaction to it. And so basically the idea
is to kind of come away of more.
What's it called? Just like
I'm blinking on, on the term for it. But you pretty much have
no emotional reaction to pain
basically, or, or happy emotions really. And
some of that I, I can vibe with some of it I, I
turned out, I, I don't quite agree with necessarily. But
anyway, he came to the west and he started up all these retreats.
They're 10 day retreats or you could do a month straight. And yeah,
there's some really hardcore people who, who will go in there for a
month at a time and like do three consecutive months in a row and stuff
like that. But I, I heard about it. A friend told
me that she did it and I was like, at that point in time
I was kind of doing a lot of soul searching, just trying to find
out who I am. And I
was kind of getting into meditation. I was kind of like becoming one with the
universe or trying to at least. And
I, I just felt myself being called to that. And I was like,
I'm, I'm not a Buddhist. I'm a dude. Is to. I'm not a
Buddhist. I don't really have any intention to be.
But this Sounds like, really interesting. I think that would
be a crazy experience. I think I learned a lot
about myself. I can explore inner space
and just, just go with it. And so
after, I don't know, maybe four or five months of
mental preparation, I signed up.
I didn't just jump to it, you know, it wasn't just like a thing that,
like, I'm going to do this. Like, I actually
thought about really hard about it. And so
I went and I meditated for 100 hours. That's 10 hours
a day for 10 days. And yeah, that.
It just, it definitely opened me up to,
like, to many
mental experiences and thoughts
and. But to be honest, I, I was all meditated out of
that. I, I, since 2019, since I left that place, I have not
meditated. Once I'm done, I hit
my threshold. You mentioned it was the time of your life. You're trying to
find yourself and see who you were. And meditation,
finding that inner peace, traveling the galaxy and
calming and relaxing. Do you see any parallels between
ten days of meditation and becoming a dudas
priesthood or, you know, the dudism lifestyle? You know,
I, as I was talking and I did all that. I was saying
all that just now. Yeah, I was like,
wow, this sounds a lot like what I was just talking about before.
And, you know, when I reached out to you, you were looking for guests for
this podcast, I was like, you know, I did this thing and I did this
thing, and in no way was I was thinking that the two of them were
related. I just, like, I just came up. I just, like had that
realization, like, just now as I was saying that. So it's funny
that you pointed it out as well. Well, I have paid. I have like
seven pages of notes on you. I do a lot of research, and
I like to draw these or thread these lines through the storylines. And that
was one. I was like, there's some similarities here that I think maybe
there's some overlap. And I'd like to, you know, just kind of. And see what
you think. But, you know, you think you got to this. You unders.
That's the way you see it now, too, which is really cool. Yeah. The
thing about me is what I like to tell people
is I'm very full of. And I,
like, I'm, I'm not full of myself. I'm full of, but I'm not full of
myself. And like, I don't take myself too seriously, and I'm not
like, this leads to. This thing changed my
life, you know, took me to this thing. I'M just.
I'm just going with the flow. I'm just, you
know, I'll do what. What sounds good. And both
those things sounded good. And yeah, they do seem to
philosophically be pretty
similar. Well, I got one final question, and it's
about me first. Anything I like doing is talking about
myself. But about three or four years ago, I created a
religion. This is a true story. And I wanted to develop it, but
I never knew what to do. Maybe you can help me or push me in
the right direction. It's called the Church of Be excellent to each Other.
It's based on the teachings of Bill Esquire
and Ted Theodore Logan. And I have. I have a 10
Commandments written out I could show you, you know, but there's one rule to
the church. It's just be excellent to each other. And when I start telling people
about it in the Ten Commandments and I usually get a pretty positive reaction.
So do you think this is something maybe I should pursue
or do you think I could get. I don't even know what you would call
the type of priests that would be excellent to each other. But
that's. It's a simple. It's. It's as simple as being a dude
this, not, not that. Yeah, I'm not taking away from dude ism, but
sure. The only rule to the church should be excellent to each other is you
just have to be excellent to each other. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty much
the same with dudism is more like, I guess
personal, like, just take it easy, man. And
Bill and Ted, be excellent to each other is
more outward to your fellow human. Like, be excellent to
be excellent to each other and be excellent to
yourself. So, like, they're like separate but
equal in a way. We could merge the two worlds and the
world will never be the same again. Yeah. Oh, Ian,
this has been a ton of fun. Thank you so much for joining me on
my guest tonight. If people want to connect with you, find you,
get you to officiate their weddings, how can, how can people connect with
you? They can't. That's. That's the interesting part.
I don't have Instagram or
definitely not X or any of that.
I have Facebook. You could try to find me on Ian Webb
on Facebook. Yeah,
I guess that would be the difficult part. Like in the case of this interview,
I didn't find you. You found me. So maybe. Right. That's how you
get in touch with Ian. He'll find you. Yeah, exactly. You
know, just. Just like let the universe. Just do the work, and
you just have to. You have to trust the process.
Ian, thank you so much. We're gonna send it out one more time with the
theme song. Here we go.
He wears a robe, officiates with
flare at the altar
with bed, head and zero cares
Ordained by the church of the Latter Day Do.
He's bringing good vibes and a chill
attitude for
Ian Webb. Yeah. He's taking the mic with Jeffrey Villa
on my guest tonight from 100 hours, a
silent retreat to say and I doing flip
flop feed. He
abides, he vibes, he's in a row.
Tune in tonight
and take it slow.
