1 00:00:01,240 --> 00:00:08,400 Speaker 1: You can't playground. If you're new to the Taking a 2 00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:11,520 Speaker 1: Walk podcast, welcome to our sampler. It's a way to 3 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:13,680 Speaker 1: get a flavor of some of the guests. Buzz takes 4 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:17,799 Speaker 1: a Walk with the comedy Sampler, poem Mercurio. You're just 5 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:22,400 Speaker 1: back here. In terms of your work on the Stephen 6 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:25,959 Speaker 1: Colbert Late Night Show, Yeah, it must feel great to 7 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:27,960 Speaker 1: be bad. It is. Yeah, we were dark for a 8 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,320 Speaker 1: week and you know, every I don't know, every seems 9 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:33,400 Speaker 1: like six to eight weeks we have a dark week 10 00:00:33,479 --> 00:00:36,279 Speaker 1: and it's basically so everybody on the show can going 11 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:38,840 Speaker 1: to rehab. A lot of drinking on the show, and 12 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 1: they try to just do it and Moss, you know, 13 00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:44,960 Speaker 1: just everybody in one time, as opposed to piecemeal it. 14 00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:48,239 Speaker 1: Now you're in the edsel of the theater, which is 15 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:51,919 Speaker 1: you know where Elvis the Beatles. It's insane and I'm 16 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:54,760 Speaker 1: standing on the same stage as they are, right and 17 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,040 Speaker 1: then you know, of course I'm wiping my brow with 18 00:00:57,160 --> 00:00:59,240 Speaker 1: napkins and throwing them to the women and the women 19 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:01,480 Speaker 1: are like, why are you throw this at me? And 20 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:03,480 Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, I'm Elvis, aren't I And they're like, no, 21 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:07,960 Speaker 1: You're just some Italian kid from Providence throwing your sweaty. Yeah, 22 00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:10,679 Speaker 1: I handkerchiefs at me. John Tobin, Now it's showtime. My 23 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:14,200 Speaker 1: heart is beating out of my chest. And I get 24 00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:18,160 Speaker 1: up on stage and I grab the microphone and I'm 25 00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:20,720 Speaker 1: so nervous. I'm holding onto the back curtain with my hand. 26 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:27,160 Speaker 1: And I heard two things. I heard my aunt Mary say, oh, 27 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:30,320 Speaker 1: look at him, he's adorable. I heard that before I 28 00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:31,800 Speaker 1: can get a word out of my mouth. And then 29 00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: and then a guy that I left says to know 30 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:36,240 Speaker 1: one probably to his wife, but it was he says, 31 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:38,679 Speaker 1: is this a kid who just sat us, you know, 32 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:40,759 Speaker 1: like just petrified that I'm gonna go up and start 33 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:44,600 Speaker 1: doing comedy? You know, I love telling jokes and sometimes 34 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:47,640 Speaker 1: I'm my own best audience. I love when people don't laugh. 35 00:01:47,720 --> 00:01:52,200 Speaker 1: I find that to be hilarious something crazy about it. Yeah, 36 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:56,160 Speaker 1: I think it's great. Bethany van Delft, So when did 37 00:01:56,160 --> 00:01:57,800 Speaker 1: you first know you were going to be a comedian. 38 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:01,000 Speaker 1: What was the moment that you knew you were going 39 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:05,200 Speaker 1: to be a comedian? Oh? Boy, I always wanted to be, 40 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:09,120 Speaker 1: but I didn't. I mean, it just wasn't in my 41 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:12,520 Speaker 1: world of possibility. So as I knew someone like me 42 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:16,920 Speaker 1: cannot be a comedian. I was debilitatingly shy. But my 43 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:21,040 Speaker 1: family we loved comedy. My mom was a huge fan 44 00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:24,760 Speaker 1: of Freddie Prinz and Richard Pryor and George Carlin. So 45 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:27,360 Speaker 1: we grew up watching all of that stuff. So we 46 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:33,600 Speaker 1: very unhealthily handled all of our big emotions by being funny. 47 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:37,520 Speaker 1: We handled nothing in a mature way. We were a 48 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:42,240 Speaker 1: whole family of Prince of Tides and Steve Sweeney. When 49 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:47,440 Speaker 1: I was nineteen, my brother called me. I never acted before, 50 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:50,720 Speaker 1: and my brother was an actor up at Smith College. 51 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:55,520 Speaker 1: And I went up and I got on stage, and 52 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:57,840 Speaker 1: so it's like you're doing Macbeth, and I got that 53 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: horrible Boston accent, you know, is that a dagger that 54 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:05,960 Speaker 1: I see before me? You know, it's like you got kids. 55 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:08,160 Speaker 1: Have you ever had to go to a school play? 56 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:14,079 Speaker 1: Or it's just awful? Usually yeah? Usually, yeah, agree, yeah 57 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:18,440 Speaker 1: I do. But I loved the the whole thing of theater, 58 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:20,320 Speaker 1: being a part of it. And then I became a 59 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:23,840 Speaker 1: doorman at the Schubert and the Colonial, and it was 60 00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:28,240 Speaker 1: such a wonderful world. You know. I loved being from Charlestown, 61 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:32,000 Speaker 1: but theater really opened up this whole world for me. 62 00:03:32,160 --> 00:03:35,280 Speaker 1: Frank Santo Padre. So let's start first of all with 63 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:39,600 Speaker 1: the late Gilbert Godfrey, and you did a lot of 64 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:42,200 Speaker 1: work with him. How did you first meet him? I 65 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:44,400 Speaker 1: became a fan. I was a kid. I was maybe 66 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:47,000 Speaker 1: eighteen or nineteen, and I went to the comic strip. 67 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:49,080 Speaker 1: I just fell in love with his comedy. I was 68 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:50,480 Speaker 1: a kid, I was in film school. I was a 69 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:52,480 Speaker 1: little bit of drift, not sure what I wanted to do. 70 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:58,320 Speaker 1: His humor, his obscure references, everything about him spoke to me. 71 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 1: I think our first official meeting was me kind of 72 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:03,760 Speaker 1: being a fanboy and approaching him at the bar and 73 00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:06,200 Speaker 1: just talking about Baila le Agosti and all the obscure 74 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:10,120 Speaker 1: stuff that he loved to talk about. Then the joke is, 75 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: over the years, I would meet him time and time 76 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: again at functions I wrote from on a show called 77 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:18,920 Speaker 1: Caroline's Comedy Hour. I went to a I gave him 78 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:24,360 Speaker 1: a lift to a nostalgic convention in Burbank, and it 79 00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:27,680 Speaker 1: was like the gag on The Simpsons where mister Burns 80 00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:30,520 Speaker 1: has met Homer hundreds of times and has no idea 81 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:35,760 Speaker 1: who he is. Every time Smithers has to explain that's 82 00:04:35,839 --> 00:04:39,160 Speaker 1: one of your globs from seven Secret g Gilbert Never 83 00:04:39,279 --> 00:04:42,200 Speaker 1: Knew who the hell I was. Find all episodes at 84 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:43,840 Speaker 1: taking a Walk dot com.