WEBVTT - SYSK Distraction Playlist: How Rodney Dangerfield Worked, Live From LA 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to stuff you should know from house stuff works 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:13.600 dot com. Hey, and well, hey, I guess I want 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:15.440 to say hey and welcome to the podcast. But this 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:17.520 is a little different because this is a this is 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:20.720 the intro to the podcast. That's right. We recorded a 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:24.400 live episode at the l A Podcast Festival and uh, 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.200 this is it. Yeah, this is it. We did one 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:32.800 on Rodney Dangerfield. It was September nineteen fifteen. The Sophie 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:36.000 Tell and Beverly Hill. Very chic, very che and it 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:37.760 was a lot of fun. So greed. We hope you 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:41.479 guys have fun listening to it and stick around after 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:43.960 the credits roll, so to speak, because we have a 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:51.760 little bonus track at the end of this one. How 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:55.000 are you guys doing? Thank you very much for coming 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:58.560 to our show. We do this normally, but um, it's 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:00.520 usually just two of us and Jay are you sitting 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:05.480 here on Facebook while we record like eating me so soup? 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:09.520 She loves me so soup? Um, and then you know, 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:11.600 we do live shows too, but normally there's like a 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:14.240 gulf of a stage between us and like, you guys 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:19.080 are right here, so we're watching YouTube. I guess that's 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.160 what I'm saying. She's got one of our shirts. Nice, 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:28.240 nice shirt, and she's the only one. Oh I like that. 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:32.120 I oh there, of course they are, he says, I 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:38.640 listened to podcasts before Cereal burn. Yeah, and on the 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:43.360 back it says, but I love serially right we should. 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.440 We should also say hi to everybody in lives Oh yeah, 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.720 streaming folks Hello, and of course thanks to Audible and 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.880 square Space and the rest of those people don't sponsor us. 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:57.320 So I don't feel right then anything? Does that count 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:01.520 as a mid role land? Sure? Okay, check out with 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:09.240 a stack of money waiting outside, Mr Monopolies hanging out outside? Okay, So, um, 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:11.280 what do you got anything to start with? I've got 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:13.400 nothing to start with. I usually don't drink this early 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:16.519 in the day, but coming the nerves and is U 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.959 felt it would be fitting as a tribute to our 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:22.440 our topic, which we're gonna get into. So I decided 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:26.480 to work up a heavy sweat because Rodney Dangerfield is 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.960 known for drinking and sweating. Yeah, you're basically missing the tie. 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:33.480 Got everything else covered? Thanks you guys familiar with the 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:37.480 one Mr Rodney Dangerfield. Yeah that's good. I'm glad to 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.919 hear that he's a an increasingly underappreciated comedian. Like I've 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:44.000 talked to it at least a couple of people who 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:50.040 have not seen Back to School? I know boom And 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:52.080 I was actually talking to someone who works here at 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:56.800 the festival who said, is he dead? And I said, yeah, 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:58.600 that happens a lot to that, because she said, why 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:03.040 don't I remember that? Al it's no respect, no respect. 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.000 That's the cool thing about the guy like he that 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.440 was his whole stick, that was his whole um hook. Right, Well, 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:14.359 we need to start in the traditional way. Okay, you're ready, 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:19.080 very nice, hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:22.680 There's Charles W. Chuckers Bryant, and we are here at 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:26.560 l A Pop Fest and uh all you lovely people, 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:34.920 give yourselves a hand. Thank Is that better you feel 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:41.040 a little more? You guys happy with that too? Okay? Um, well, 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:45.880 now we have to start over people. How many people 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:51.000 have seen Back to School? Great start? So, as we 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.800 were saying, um, the weird thing about Rodney Dangerfield is that, 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:59.600 um he was his whole, his whole stick about um 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:03.360 no spect. It was actually really really close to accurate 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:05.760 as a matter of fact, and and not just while 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.560 he was growing up. He had a really tragic, terrible childhood, 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.160 but also as he got older and older, and even 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.560 after he blew up, um, he's still people just kind 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:17.120 of took what he was saying and ran with it. 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:19.159 Like he he had this one story where, um, he 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:22.159 opened a club which we'll talk about called Danger Fields, 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.960 so it's very obviously his club, and he was on 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:28.279 his way up to the stage. He'd just been like 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.320 called up there, and on his way some guy stops 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:33.960 him and says, Rodney, can I have your autograph? And 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:37.520 can you also give me some more butter? And like 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.200 this this happened to this guy quite a bit. Actually, Yeah, 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.400 so it does turn out that you will see even 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:47.120 after death, the guy got no respect. But um, as 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:51.320 Chuck will assert later, I predict um he he is. 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:54.960 He's a comedians comedian and very actually well respected by 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:57.960 the ones that count. And Uh, I don't know if 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:00.480 you guys know this, but a lot of can medians 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:05.400 have inner pain, uh, which is the reason a lot 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:07.880 of them get into comedy and a reason that many 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:12.200 of them drink until they black out on many nights. Uh. 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:14.839 Interer pain is no secret to the comedy world. But 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:18.360 you'd be hard pressed to find someone who was as 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:23.440 legitimately depressed and sad as Rodney Dangerfield. He was like 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.080 a crying clown for real. He was. He often talked 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.640 about the heaviness he felt every day when he woke up. 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:30.520 He said he would wake up in every day and 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:35.080 there it was, lingering above him, was his heaviness. Yeah. 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:37.200 And if you've ever if you ever want to go 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:40.160 down to YouTube rat hole, just look up some interviews 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:42.600 with the guy on YouTube from like the eighties, and 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:44.359 you know, he does a lot of interviews that just 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:47.840 like local TV stations promoting movies and stuff. And when 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:51.000 he's out of his stick element, it's one of the 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:55.080 saddest things you've ever seen. Man, it's really depressing. Uh. 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:57.159 He's he just had this air about him. You could 0:05:57.160 --> 0:05:59.279 tell he had the weight of life on his shoulders 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:03.320 and at all. Pretty much stems from his awful, awful, 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:09.000 awful childhood. Childhood. It is hilarious so far, everybody. Uh, 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:11.600 so we should start at the beginning with him. Um 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:16.240 he was born in n on Long Island. Not in 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.680 Long Island, Chuck tells me. Um, And uh, he was 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:23.160 born to a Vauvilian father who took off with one 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:27.560 of Rodney's brothers to go hit the circuit. And that 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:29.279 was that. Like he I think he saw him like 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:31.360 once or twice a year for a half hour, an 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:33.040 hour or something like that. Yeah, he said he saw 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.159 his dad literally like twice a year growing up. And uh. 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.800 He was born Jacob Cohen. Uh, and his dad was 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:43.599 a juggler and a comic who, um, apparently hit the 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:47.719 road because of his wife, Um, who was. You know, 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:49.479 we were talking about what an awful person she was, 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:52.160 and we were going over this stuff and that she was. 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:54.599 But the more I thought about it, Um, she she 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.400 had a serious problem. It was you know, back in 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:00.440 the nineteen twenties. He didn't diagnose things like they do today, right, 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.560 you just ran off to the vaudeville pretty much. But 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:09.120 she was clearly depressed, like profoundly depressed and uh sadly 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:14.480 completely abandoned emotionally and neglected a little rot or I guess, 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:19.480 a little Jacob. Uh he was. He was left on 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.200 his own from the time he could remember. His mom 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:25.360 literally never hugged him once, never kissed him once. He 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:29.480 swore up and down, Yeah, and never complimented him or 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.000 like tried to build him up. She Uh, she was 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.360 a bad lady. And Um. At starting probably around age 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.840 eight or something like that, he um realized that if 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:42.000 he was going to eat dinner on a regular basis, 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:43.880 he was gonna have to go get a job and 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.440 go grocery shopping himself. Right, So he basically raised himself 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:51.360 storrying about age eight or so. Um and uh, speaking 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:53.200 of grocer's one of the one of the great things 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:56.400 that stuck out to him about his childhood. He was, Um, 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:58.960 he had to get a job, and after after school job, 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.520 he was still in school. Um. And he lived in 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.040 a fairly wealthy neighborhood, but he was not wealthy, so 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:08.200 he used to deliver groceries to his classmates UM home, 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:13.280 which is kind of demoralizing when you're like ten, you know. Um. 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:16.400 And he also, while he was out there running around 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:18.880 on the streets, there's a he wrote an autobiography the 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.200 year he died in two thousand and four, and um 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:26.320 he called this chapter male Prostitute because he was like 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:30.240 ten and he was so unsupervised that they were apparently 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.120 at least one or two local molesters that were like Hey, Rodney, 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:36.000 come on up, I got a nickel for you. And 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:37.800 he swears up and down that it was just uh 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.839 that it was it was just kissing. Everybody, don't worry. 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:44.400 The child was just kissed by the grown man for 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:47.280 a nickel. Um. But he and it happened a lot, 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:49.720 and he was doing it because he needed the money. 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:55.360 So anyway, Rodney danger feel, let's fast forward out of 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.280 this horrible, horrible funk. And by the way, we're gonna 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:01.360 Pepper in some of his bets boakes here and there. Uh. 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.360 And I debated on whether or not to try and 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:08.080 do it as him, because it's I've already promised certain 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:10.559 people here there. It's hard to do that. It's hard 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:12.880 to tell a Rodney Dangerfield joke without kind of doing him. 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:14.840 And I took a little informal pole last night with 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:17.839 some folks and they're like, yeah, you sort of have to. Yeah, 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:19.800 I think that's not like it's a good impression. But 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:23.720 plus it makes me delivering it my flat weirdo affect 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.440 where I'm not even trying it all the weirder, So 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:29.480 prepare for that too. But one thing that he did, 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:31.080 and that, of course a lot of comics do is 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:33.320 They turned that pain into funny, and he really relied 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.760 on his uh. His jokes is a way to uh. 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:38.520 I mean the only time he was happy was when 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:40.960 he was on stage performing, and as soon as he left, 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.319 that heaviness would come back. But he often joked about 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.240 his mom. He would say, uh, my mom never breastfed me. 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:52.080 She told me she always thought of me as a friend, 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:53.959 which is a funny joke. But when you know the 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:56.680 real pain behind it, it's it's just like the saddest 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:58.600 thing you've ever heard. It takes a dead bit of 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:01.720 the funniness away from it. I've got a good parent one. 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:05.000 You're ready. So I remember the time, and this is 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:09.439 my writing danger, Phil. I remember the time I was kidnapped. 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:11.240 They sent a piece of my finger to my father. 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:16.240 He said he wanted more proof. That probably did not happen. 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:19.480 But it gets the point across, you know, And plus 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:22.920 it's funny, and so if you're a one more parent joke, Okay, 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:25.480 So I tell you my parents hated me. My bath 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:31.960 toys were a toaster in a radio funny. All right, 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:35.600 that's going over better than I thought it wouldn't. So so, 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.720 starting about age fifteen, he starts, he realizes he's actually 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.040 kind of hilarious and that he has a talent for 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.960 taking all of this horrible, tragic stuff and turning into 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.600 funny stuff. Um and uh, he started writing jokes and 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:50.560 he got good pretty quick. He started selling jokes age 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:54.079 fifteen or sixteen to establish comedians, right, yeah, and he 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:56.040 kept them. He had the stuffel bag. He would write 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:57.920 jokes by hand his entire career and put him in 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.560 the stuffel bag. So he literally had a suffel bag 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:04.080 full of like thousands and thousands of jokes. And apparently 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:07.120 I think, uh you said that. During a typical performance 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:09.680 later like once he hit the big time, he would 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.480 tell like over three hundred jokes in a set, like 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.959 three fifty Yeah, in an hour. He ran at their 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.560 quick jokes, but still, but he remembered them all and 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:21.680 he knew which one's fit best. Like the guy was 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:25.840 a comic genius. Hopefully that's coming across here or will 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:27.840 by the end of this, right. So he gets this 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.200 big break at age nineteen. He's written jokes for a 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:32.920 few years and he's gonna try this out, and he 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:36.400 gets a job at a cat skills resort for twelve 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:40.360 bucks a week, ten weeks, including room and board, thin 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.240 dirty dancing, that kind of scene very much. So. Yeah, 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:46.679 but he's like the up and coming comic on stage. Right. 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:49.840 Have you guys ever seen iron Man meets Dirty Dancing 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:53.320 that mash up? Now go check it out. Actually, it's 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:56.480 so bizarre. It's one of the better things you'll ever see. 0:11:57.559 --> 0:11:59.360 That has nothing to do with the Rodney dangerfield. That 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.040 was just to add on basically. But um, so he's working. 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:06.760 He's working hard. Um the stint and the cats skills. Like, 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:08.679 I don't think he gets read up, but he he 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:10.559 keeps going back to the cat skills. It's one of 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:12.920 his regular gigs. But on the on the side, while 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:17.040 he's working, he's a singing waiter at the Polish Falcons 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:21.200 nightclub where, yeah, where Lenny Bruce's mom was the MC. 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:25.440 He was an acrobatic diver, right, Um, but I don't 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:29.400 know what you're all thinking, triple indy. No, he did 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.319 not do the triple indy in the movie obviously. Uh 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:34.439 for those of you who have not seen Back to School, 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:38.320 that was an in joke. He was a diver in 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:40.640 the movie, a competitive diver. Yeah, well, I was going 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:44.720 to punish them for not having seen it. Okay, sorry, 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:47.760 he's trying to drive him a point. Uh. So, in 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.080 nineteen fifty one, he gets married for the first time 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:55.200 to a jazz singer name Joyce Indig, and he had 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:57.720 a couple of kids and moved to New Jersey, which 0:12:57.760 --> 0:12:59.720 we all know is the death knell for any comedian 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.319 trying to work in New York. Kind of means you've 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:06.400 given up. Um, But he didn't give up just yet. 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.280 He did for a minute, for sure. Yeah, not not 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:11.240 at that point though. He was still trying to work. 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:14.760 But when he turned twenty seven, he quit comedy and 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.800 literally did not perform from the age of forty one. 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:23.160 And at forty one he was like, let's try this again, right, Well, 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:25.360 he and his wife divorced, so he's like, I've got 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.480 a little more time. I think I'm gonna go try 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.480 comedy again. And they actually got back together like the 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.280 next year and stayed married for another ten years or 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:36.240 something like that. But this time around, um, he was like, 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:37.599 let me see if I can figure out how to 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.080 how to balance home life with this. I'm trying to 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.360 break into comedy, right yeah, and let me try and 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:44.640 develop an act. I think the first time, he flounder 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:46.640 because he didn't he didn't know what kind of comedian 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:49.280 he wanted to be. He tried singing, he tried impressions, 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:51.760 he even tried prop comedy for a little while. But 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:53.560 he also I mean, and he had these jokes about 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:55.560 how much his life sucked. Like he used some of 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:58.160 these same jokes his whole life, um, but they just 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:00.800 didn't hang on him quite right, because he had his 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:02.679 whole life ahead of him and he was young and 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:05.199 full of promise. That second time around, he was right 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:07.920 there in the sweet spot, like age forty one ish, 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.800 a little desperate, kind of sweaty, and uh, these jokes 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.960 about how bad is life, these jokes about how bad 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:18.760 his life where it was going, um like really just 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:21.720 kind of hit a lot more. He adopted a persona basically, 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:26.080 and uh, that definitely helped. Yeah, I mean it was 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.720 it was sort of him, but it was also a character. 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:31.480 And when I was researching this, I was like, I 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:33.880 was kind of thinking about the you don't see a 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.520 lot of character comedians anymore. Like that was the sort 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:41.320 of the Heyday with like Andrew Dice Clay and uh, 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:44.960 while Ronnie Dangerfield and Emo Phillips, and it seemed like 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:46.920 there were a lot of characters, but now no one. 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:50.160 Now it's just like, look at this thing that happened 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:52.560 in my life, and how funny it is. Look at 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:57.920 all these witty observations about my life. I'd like to 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.960 see some good character comedians come. I can't think of it. 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:03.880 There any out there. I guess Brent Winback. That's kind 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.160 of a wait. Wait, what about like Larry the Cable Guy. 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:10.640 He's total I assume a character because he started out 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:13.120 as as a completely different kind of comedian and then 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:16.080 adopted that persona. But I don't count him as a comedian. 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:23.000 So yeah, he's not watching. Don't worry, he's not. He's 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:29.560 writing bad jokes and start a flame war with Larry 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.400 the Cable Guy. I'll totally take him up on that 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:36.320 flame war. Uh, although kids squashed me with his sacks 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:41.000 of money. Um, so he adopts his character. Uh. He 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.640 changes his name legally at this point to Jack Roy, 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:48.640 which was that his father's name. His father's stage name 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:50.800 was Phil Roy. Yeah, and so he changed his name 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:53.160 legally to Jack Roy and that was his real name 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.600 till the day he died. Uh. And he was performing 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:58.800 under that name for a while until he tried this 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.400 second go and decide, I don't want anyone to remember 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.120 Jack Roy. So um, he told this guy that was 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:07.120 booking him at a club in Manhattan, could you just 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:08.680 make up a name for me and put that on 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.840 the on the I guess it would a marquee, but yeah, 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.200 or you know, in any ad they took out. So 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:17.520 the guy who ran this place, the Inwood Lounge, I 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:20.760 think um came up the Rodney danger Field, right. But 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:24.400 the weird thing is um he had actually lifted the 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:26.720 name from a Jack Benny character, Like there was an 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.680 original Rodney Dangerfield and it wasn't Rodney Dangerfield, right, were 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:34.240 the giant twist of of the podcast. It's all downhill 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:38.480 from here. So the the Jack Benny came up with 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:40.640 his character and I think the forties maybe or something 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:45.400 like that, Um of this grade Z Western hero named 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:50.320 Rodney Dangerfield, and um, I guess the the lounge owner 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.000 remembered it and came up with that Rodney Dangerfield had 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.960 no idea about this. So he's walking around like using 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.320 this name for years And apparently he met Johnny Carson 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:01.600 once that one of his shows and Johnny Carson was like, 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.160 you know where your name came from? Right, and he said, 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:07.879 what are you talking about? Yeah, he explained that the 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:11.000 whole Jack Benny thing, and later on he uh saw 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:13.480 Jack Benny, and Jack Benny wasn't like Matt or anything. 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:16.320 Actually said I really love what you did with the character, 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:18.960 and you really you know, you did it just right. 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:21.960 So no harm, no felt, and they hugged it out 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:27.880 from that very famously. So on the second go round 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:31.359 he was he was making a living doing okay. But 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:34.159 he got his real big break in nineteen six seven 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:38.040 with Ed Sullivan. He was, um, he couldn't get booked 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:40.760 on Ed Sullivan, but at the time they would book 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:44.880 other comedians for the run throughs as like just placeholders 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.040 for dress rehearsal basically, And so he got a spot 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.960 booked on that and apparently did so well and dress 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:53.639 rehearsal that Ed Sullivan, you know, took note on the 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:55.320 side of the stage, which means he went like this, 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:00.640 you know you're funny. That's how you knew Sullivan thought 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:08.120 you were funny. It works for Nixon to do that. 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:12.200 Nixon actually that was the result of a huge long shot. 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.280 He told his agent like, just get me on Ed 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:18.200 Sullivan and it it played out, panned out very well. 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:21.280 He ended up being on Ed Sullivan like seventeen times 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:22.720 or something like that, and it led to all these 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:26.480 other late night appearances. He was on Carson, like I 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:28.520 think a record. He holds the record for being on 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:33.560 Carson the most seventy times something like that. Merv Griffin, Dino, 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:35.680 like all the dudes who are running late night and 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.240 basically where the taste makers for all of the comedians 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:44.399 were suddenly promoting the sweaty, weird, coked up uh pothead, 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:49.600 booze hound, huge potha Rodney dangerfield, right, and he took 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:51.840 it and ran with it, like right when he hit 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:55.280 the nineteen sixty seven he got to work like that. 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.280 He was such a big pothead. Actually, the original name 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.760 of his biography was going to be My Love Affair 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:03.800 with Marijuana, and he was serious he wanted to call 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:05.960 it that because he smoked potty, said for you know, 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:10.440 sixty something years. Uh, but well up until the day 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:13.639 he died. Really, I think from on like he was 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:17.080 smoking pot in I see you in the hospital. Because 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:21.119 he had an early medical marijuana exemption long before anyone 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:25.000 even knew it that way. I don't even knew what 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:27.240 that was. But if he flashed it in your face, 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:32.119 you didn't ask questions. So, uh, he got his big break. Actually, 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:35.800 Carson had blackballed them for a while because he accused 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:37.960 Carson in a letter of stealing or one of his 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.880 writers of stealing one of his jokes. So Carson famously 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:42.600 wouldn't have him on the show for a long time 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:46.760 until they eventually right, until they eventually met um and 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.520 worked it out, and then Johnny became like the biggest 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:52.240 fan ever. And if you want to enjoy yourself at 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:55.560 home on the YouTube's just go look up Johnny Carson 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.159 on Rodney or Rodney Danger Build on Carson. There's a 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:00.959 lot of clips where I mean Carson was just like 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:04.159 the ultimate set up dude. It just let him do 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:06.159 his thing. Yeah, and he would laugh until he was 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:09.200 crying because he couldn't believe that Danger Fields Getting Away 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:10.879 was saying most of the stuff he was saying on 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.800 TV on Carson's own show, it was good. So he's 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:17.880 he's married, he's working a lot, and uh, he decides 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:21.120 that he doesn't want to happen to his own kids. 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:23.600 What happened to him, which was to be neglected. So 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:25.960 he said, you know what I'm gonna do, Um, even 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:28.600 though no one's ever done this. I'm gonna borrow a 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.200 bunch of money of a million dollars and I'm gonna 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:33.520 open my own comedy club in New York City so 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:37.120 I can stay home with my children, Brian and Melanie. 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:38.960 I think, right. And it's not like he had any money, 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:41.640 right then, you know, like this is a huge, huge risk. 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:43.919 He's doing okay, but he had to borrow off not 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:46.919 that okay, right, so um, everybody tries to talk him 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:49.160 out of it. He goes ahead with it, and it's 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:50.960 such a success. He has a loan paid off in 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:53.280 like eighteen months. Just a huge success. And this this 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:56.360 club actually became venerable in its own right. Yeah, still 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:59.199 there today, run the Danger Fields in New York And um, 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.359 it had this HBO special that broadcast out of in 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:05.080 A bunch of comedians got their big breaks on that show, 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:10.359 like Seinfeld, Um, Chris Rock I think, yeah, Jim Carey, Uh, 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:15.120 what's his face, saggot, Jeff Foxworthy, Yeah, Jeff Foxworthy, fans 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.640 in the room, Rita Rudner of course, Sam Kennison completely 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:21.960 made Sam Kennison's career and that was what he uh, 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:24.040 and that's why comedians love him so much, because it 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:26.680 meant more to him to play father to these young 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.879 comics and to give them their start than almost anything else. 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:32.439 He really that was sort of his life's goal, was 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.199 to seek out talent that he thought was original and 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:38.800 really kind of boost them up. He was a huge Freudian. Yeah, yeah, 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:44.760 the whole father son thing. And I wonder why, so, Chuck, 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:49.359 where were you at? Uh? We are at danger Fields. 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:54.760