Speaker 1: Taking a walk.
Speaker 2: If you think you're fundy, there's only one way to
Speaker 2: find out is to go up on stage. The audience
Speaker 2: will let you know right away if you're find you
Speaker 2: you know, if you're a singer, even if you're not good,
Speaker 2: they'll deploy politely. Put your done. In comedy, no one's
Speaker 2: laughing to be polite. Either you're funny or you're not well.
Speaker 2: This is exciting. So I'm at Jeffrey Gurian's place in
Speaker 2: New York City.
Speaker 3: Jeffrey is on Comedy Saving with Lynn Hoffman, So I
Speaker 3: can't wait to walk through Jeffrey's comedy museum taking a walk.
Speaker 2: It is this the house of Jeffrey Gurian. Come on,
Speaker 2: it's gracious. This is the coolest thing ever. Welcome to
Speaker 2: my comedy museum, jeff balloon and make yourself help. I
Speaker 2: love a good balloon time at the time good. I
Speaker 2: have plenty. I got enough balloons for everybody. How often
Speaker 2: do you have to refurbish these? Well, when they get
Speaker 2: to be like this, you see these little ones, they
Speaker 2: lose their air, then they become balloon soup. So I've
Speaker 2: been on my stove. I got a whole pot of
Speaker 2: balloon soup. That's where they go. You never have an
Speaker 2: old balloon, right, You never have enough balloons, and you
Speaker 2: never have enough. But it's like too much tuna. If
Speaker 2: you know my thing with Nicole and John mulaney. There's
Speaker 2: never too much tuna. There's never too many balloons. I
Speaker 2: love it. Balloons are a symbol of happiness. You never
Speaker 2: see balloons in a funeral. Balloons signify fun times, and
Speaker 2: that's why I'd always have balloons. Well, thank you for
Speaker 2: having me here, Jeffrey. It's my pleasure of buzz. I'm
Speaker 2: really happy that you're beta and this is you know,
Speaker 2: where do we start? Well, it's an ego monument to myself.
Speaker 2: You'll notice that in some of the pictures I even
Speaker 2: let someone else be in the picture. It's not just me.
Speaker 2: But these pictures go back more than thirty years and
Speaker 2: they're all very special to me. It's me and Milton Burle,
Speaker 2: who is my sponsor in the Friars Club. Milton, this
Speaker 2: was a night teen eighty five Los Angeles at the
Speaker 2: La Friars Club. Milton was you know, I grew up
Speaker 2: watching him on the at Sullivan Shaw. I couldn't believe
Speaker 2: that we were friends and he sponsored me for membership
Speaker 2: in the Friars Club, and I got to write from Milton,
Speaker 2: you know. And there's George Burns and Red Buttons and
Speaker 2: Tom Bosley and Jackie Mason who I wrote a movie for,
Speaker 2: and Sammy Davis Junior. Wow, and I mean just the
Speaker 2: mister Lewis. Yeah, Jerry Lewis. I got the honor of
Speaker 2: writing for Jerry Lewis and we became friends, and I
Speaker 2: went to Las Vegas to see him with Pat Cooper,
Speaker 2: the Great Pat Cooper. Now here's Jerry Stiller, Ben Stiller's Pinots,
Speaker 2: Jerry Stiller and Anne Mirror and Tovah Felcher. By the way,
Speaker 2: that's me with the eighties portal muster just then. Can
Speaker 2: you wonder who that guy was with the big mustache?
Speaker 2: You know, here's another picture from Jerry. He said, well,
Speaker 2: thanking me, I wrote his roast. I was the main
Speaker 2: writer for the Friars Club roast for twelve years. So
Speaker 2: when Jerry was roasted, I had the hour of working
Speaker 2: with him.
Speaker 4: And one of my favorite movies of all time is
Speaker 4: King of Comedy Ivan. Would you agree with me that
Speaker 4: Jerry's kind of play it himself a little bit a.
Speaker 2: Bit, yeah, a bit, but you know, he had a
Speaker 2: reputation for being hard to deal with, let's say that.
Speaker 2: And when I met him he was so nice. I mean,
Speaker 2: it depends on how you meet people. They sent me
Speaker 2: to his hotel. I think he was staying at the
Speaker 2: Waldorf Towers. A man named Bob Sachs was producing the
Speaker 2: roast in those days and I was his main writer
Speaker 2: for twelve years. So he sent me to the hotel
Speaker 2: and Jerry was so gracious and we sat together for
Speaker 2: two nights, just he and I alone, working on material
Speaker 2: for the roast. And while I was with him, he
Speaker 2: got a phone call that they discovered the gene that
Speaker 2: caused the Duchen form of muscul in this trophy, and
Speaker 2: he started crying and tears were running down his face
Speaker 2: and it was just me there to share that moment
Speaker 2: with him. Very special. That's amazing, Yeah, truly an amazing thing.
Speaker 2: And we had stayed in touch for a while. As
Speaker 2: a matter of fact, there's a picture on this wallow
Speaker 2: out of me and Jerry that was taken in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: Oh wow.
Speaker 2: I went to visit him backstage. I got to write
Speaker 2: for him and Sammy Davis Junior. They have been friends
Speaker 2: for forty years, and it was the first time that
Speaker 2: they performed together. And we got this picture with Sammy
Speaker 2: at a friar's roost. But I got to write for them.
Speaker 2: They were performing together in Las Vegas and Jerry called
Speaker 2: and asked me to write material for that, and then
Speaker 2: Sid Caesar, you know, the great since c of course,
Speaker 2: and Norm Crosby, doctor Rumathine. You know, Oh, I got
Speaker 2: an important one here, important part of my life. Here.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go to the very top there. Joey
Speaker 2: had the talk. She was my crush. Oh Joey, that's
Speaker 2: her there. Yet that's her too. I remember the ad
Speaker 2: that she did for Perfect Sleeper. Yes, that's you know
Speaker 2: that I had permission for my wife? Are you so silly?
Speaker 2: I was married. I kept a picture on my desk,
Speaker 2: never thinking I would even know her, and we wound
Speaker 2: up hanging out home one day to take my kids
Speaker 2: out for the day, and I introduced her to my
Speaker 2: ex wife. I thought she was gonna faint now. Her
Speaker 2: father was quite in the merry mailman. That's right, very Heatherton,
Speaker 2: and she was so gorgeous, unbelievable.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So did you start capturing your life and pictures?
Speaker 5: At the beginning of your comedy life, or were you
Speaker 5: capturing pictures when you were in your dental part of
Speaker 5: your life.
Speaker 2: I captured pictures all the time, but you know, years ago,
Speaker 2: people didn't have a camera with them all the time.
Speaker 2: These were taken by other people. I didn't have a
Speaker 2: camera with me. It was amazing how I got these.
Speaker 2: And you know what I always like to explain, I
Speaker 2: never I never got one autograph in my life. It's
Speaker 2: not it was not interesting to me. The reason I
Speaker 2: took pictures was because I admire people that are successful,
Speaker 2: that accomplished things in their lives. And it's like, if
Speaker 2: you meet somebody in a group of ten people, they'll say, Hi,
Speaker 2: how are you guys to meet you, But there's a
Speaker 2: very good chance they're not really aware of your presence
Speaker 2: when you're alone with them, when it's just one on one,
Speaker 2: unless they're insane and they have to know you're there.
Speaker 2: That's when I would take the picture, me, just me
Speaker 2: and them in a picture, and I would like, I'm
Speaker 2: actually meeting all these people, and I don't even know
Speaker 2: how I did it. People say, I do meet all
Speaker 2: these people. You haven't seen this wall yet. There are
Speaker 2: many walls here, but in this war there's a well
Speaker 2: here's me and Pat Cooper. Buddy Hockett, I was just
Speaker 2: with his son last weekend at the Borschvell Festival. Sandy
Speaker 2: Hackett came over to me, great Buddy Hacket story. The
Speaker 2: Friars Club asked me to call Buddy Hacke. He was
Speaker 2: the roastmaster her big roast and they said, cold, buddy,
Speaker 2: I'll offer him your assistance in writing jokes. Well, I
Speaker 2: must have got him on a band day and was
Speaker 2: in a bad mood, and he was very insulted that
Speaker 2: the Frigles Club thought that he would need help write jokes.
Speaker 2: So he was very angry and I was appealent. I said, look,
Speaker 2: it wasn't why I didn't get your number out of nowhere.
Speaker 2: They told me to call you right the day of
Speaker 2: the roast. He came over to me and we sat
Speaker 2: down together and he apologized. He said he was very sorry.
Speaker 2: He was just in a band mood that day and
Speaker 2: he didn't know who I was. And we took this
Speaker 2: picture on Sandy loved that story about his dad. Just amazing.
Speaker 2: Paul Sorvino, Oh yeah, we not to be very good
Speaker 2: friends at Rich Little I got to write for his
Speaker 2: roast with them, George Siegel, Mike Douglas, Douglas, Mike Douglas.
Speaker 2: On this wall there is me and Bill again at
Speaker 2: an event in his honor. He was honored as Man
Speaker 2: of the Year. There's Henny Youngman and Tony Orlando and
Speaker 2: just another Jerry up there too. Yeah, and then the
Speaker 2: Jerry Lewis thing and at the top Myron Cohen and
Speaker 2: body Gunty. Oh wow, at Dick showing if you remember
Speaker 2: Dick showing, sure, Jan Murray. Yeah, I got to write
Speaker 2: from all those kinds. Just so amazing to me. This
Speaker 2: one looks like I created it with CGI if you
Speaker 2: remember the Woody Allen movie Zeleg Yeah, it's Henny Youngman,
Speaker 2: Sid Caesar, Jean Bayliss, Jan Murray, Norm Crosby, and what
Speaker 2: the heck am I doing? It's like amazing. Oh I
Speaker 2: love it. I created Oh my god, one, I have
Speaker 2: a house full of toys every place you look. You
Speaker 2: know what I lecture on happiness, I tell people to
Speaker 2: create their own happiness center, And what that means is
Speaker 2: that the only place you can control your envirable is
Speaker 2: where you live. Once you leave the house. At the
Speaker 2: mercy of whatever the universe has in store feed you.
Speaker 2: You go left or right, your whole life is different.
Speaker 2: You go left, you could win the lottery. Go right,
Speaker 2: you could trip me forward. Who notice, you go the
Speaker 2: way you're supposed to go, because if you overthought it,
Speaker 2: you would become kind of tonic. You wouldn't go anywhere.
Speaker 2: So the only place you can control your environment is
Speaker 2: where you live. And some people live in dark apartments
Speaker 2: and they wonder why they're depressed. As you'll see, I
Speaker 2: need brightness. I'm like a plant. So my carpeting is white,
Speaker 2: and my piano is white, and my car is white,
Speaker 2: and I have bright colors all ground, and I have
Speaker 2: toys and crayons and balloons. And you would take little
Speaker 2: children live to it, but I do it for me.
Speaker 2: It's first me, my inner child. It is my best friend.
Speaker 2: I walked in. I wasn't necessarily feeling that great. I
Speaker 2: got stiffed with an earlier meeting. But you know what,
Speaker 2: it's all forgotten because I'm in a good space here.
Speaker 2: That's so when.
Speaker 6: I'm in your your comedy museum, our comedy museum, and well,
Speaker 6: what I've learned is that things work out the way
Speaker 6: they're supposed to, not necessarily the way we expect them to,
Speaker 6: with the way we'd like them to, but we were
Speaker 6: supposed to do this today instead of you doing that
Speaker 6: other thing, you know what, And that's why it worked.
Speaker 2: Out this way. If you haven't done that another thing,
Speaker 2: we might not be doing this. And I've had to
Speaker 2: learn to think that way. I've been studying spirituality for
Speaker 2: about thirty years and it's changed my way of approaching
Speaker 2: the things that happen in your life. It just it
Speaker 2: leads you to be more comfortable. I believe I sent
Speaker 2: you Teek, not Han. You know, yes, sir, I wasn't
Speaker 2: sure who sent That's me, And that.
Speaker 5: Was because of your spirituality and the importance on taking
Speaker 5: a walk of mindfulness. And it's a little gift that
Speaker 5: I pass on to people because I so love it.
Speaker 2: It so connects you with a moment, and so much
Speaker 2: for sending that. You're very welcome to my pleasure. Well,
Speaker 2: I instantly connected with you.
Speaker 4: While we spoke on the phone that I knew this
Speaker 4: was going to bring greater things and greater joy.
Speaker 2: Tell it's what I write about, you know. I write
Speaker 2: about happiness, mindset and changing negative thinking to positive thinking.
Speaker 2: And overcoming obstacles. All of us are given obstacles to overcome,
Speaker 2: and you can either be crushed by them or you
Speaker 2: can draw on some inner strength, sometimes that you didn't
Speaker 2: even know you had to overcome them. I always talk
Speaker 2: about it myself, you know, I was a very severe stubber.
Speaker 2: I started through my twenties and behind. I couldn't even
Speaker 2: say my name. I can never say Gourian. And now
Speaker 2: as an avocation, I work with stubborers a local world.
Speaker 2: As you can see, not only don't I stutter, but
Speaker 2: you can't even shut me up. I haven't I talk
Speaker 2: a lot, but you know, but I'm very grateful that
Speaker 2: I don't stutter anymore. And I helped to cure myself
Speaker 2: because no one was able to help me. And it
Speaker 2: has to do with thought controlling your mind. There was
Speaker 2: nothing wrong with me. I realized what day I didn't
Speaker 2: sturvey what I was more. I always stunded when I
Speaker 2: was trying to talk to somebody else, and just told me,
Speaker 2: you can't have a true disability based on your location
Speaker 2: or who was in the room with you. You know,
Speaker 2: for a man has a limby limbs and everyone of
Speaker 2: his house, you can't go into a room and close
Speaker 2: the door. I walk perfectly. But if I can speak
Speaker 2: fund alone that theoretically it means there's nothing wrong with me,
Speaker 2: and so I use that information to cure myself.
Speaker 4: That's why you were perfect for being on with Linn
Speaker 4: Hoffben on Comedy Save Me. We also have the other podcast,
Speaker 4: Taking a Walk and Music Saved Me. You told me
Speaker 4: a story about what.
Speaker 5: Music means to you in terms of connecting with it
Speaker 5: and the power of it that I think related to
Speaker 5: The Beach Boys.
Speaker 2: Can you tell that story? I have two powerful music stories. Yeah,
Speaker 2: The Beach Boys saved me in high school because I
Speaker 2: was very depressed in high school. It's a strange time
Speaker 2: to both through and as a kid, I'm an EmPATH.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that word of that. I think I
Speaker 2: knew it, but I feel things more deeply that I
Speaker 2: want to and I have no choice. So it means
Speaker 2: that there was a time if I was with you
Speaker 2: and you were said, I was saying with you that
Speaker 2: you were ill. I overfelt my feelings and it's very
Speaker 2: hard to handle that, especially as a boy. As a guy,
Speaker 2: you know, men don't like to talk about sensitivity. It's
Speaker 2: another thing that I write about because I've learned sensitivity
Speaker 2: is a great strength, it's not a weakness. So the
Speaker 2: Beach Boys helped me get through it. I put on
Speaker 2: their music Don't Worry Baby, and helped me around all
Speaker 2: the songs and it always made me happy. And years
Speaker 2: later I got to meet them on the Rank carpet
Speaker 2: because besides everything else I do in comedy, I'm a
Speaker 2: comedy journalist Comedy Matters TV. And I had well with
Speaker 2: six hundred and fifty videos that I've shot with people
Speaker 2: in the comedy world, not that they're in the comedy world,
Speaker 2: but they showed up at a friar was Roast and
Speaker 2: I got to interview them and I got to thank
Speaker 2: them for saving me, for helping me get through through
Speaker 2: high school. And my other thing, how comedy saved me.
Speaker 2: I use music in my healing work. I spent twelve
Speaker 2: years at VERYU as a clinical professor at oral medicine
Speaker 2: and oral facial pinion. And because of stress, many people
Speaker 2: clench them glight their teeth. It's called bruxism and it
Speaker 2: causes a lot of physical symptoms and it can cause
Speaker 2: what people think of my grain headaches and facial pain
Speaker 2: and neck pain, at shoulder pain and even back pain,
Speaker 2: and people live in terrible pain without realizing that it's
Speaker 2: coming from their jaws. They're not true migrant headaches. In
Speaker 2: this country alone is more than one hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: million people who suffer with what they think of my
Speaker 2: brain headaches that are really coming from their tmj And
Speaker 2: so I wound up. I developed a technique of healing
Speaker 2: called STAR therapy. STAR and starts an acronym for spiritual
Speaker 2: transformational affirmative resonance therapy RESI in it stance for my
Speaker 2: voice because I speak the whole time I do it.
Speaker 2: It's like a guided meditation and refers to music, which
Speaker 2: is what this story is going to be about. And
Speaker 2: mostly it refers to a truth. If I say something
Speaker 2: to you that you need to hear, it will resonate
Speaker 2: inside of you as a truth. So I was using
Speaker 2: music by your man Macked Stephen Helper, who is known
Speaker 2: as the father of New Age music. He is a
Speaker 2: man in the seventies now, and I sent him a
Speaker 2: letter more than twenty years ago telling him that I
Speaker 2: was using his music to take away pain from patients.
Speaker 2: Because music gets absorbed by the second Chapra and I'm
Speaker 2: marrying him to energy exchange. That's a whole other story
Speaker 2: about my life. I've been involved in energy since I'm
Speaker 2: a child. When I was a very little kid, I
Speaker 2: already felt that I could take away pain my names,
Speaker 2: and I would do it up my sister, my little sister,
Speaker 2: and I used it all through my life. When I
Speaker 2: was in practice as a cosmetic dentist, people would come
Speaker 2: to me with headaches and I would take it away
Speaker 2: just through touch. So I wrote a letter to Stephen
Speaker 2: Helper telling him that I used his music, and I
Speaker 2: never heard from him. Twenty years goes by, and I
Speaker 2: come home one day and there was a message job
Speaker 2: by Phoneman. He said, I'm calling you a reference to
Speaker 2: a letter that you set me twenty years ago. He said,
Speaker 2: I never saw it the turn down. His assistant hadn't it.
Speaker 2: Thank god, he didn't throw it away, filed every way,
Speaker 2: put it in a drawer. Steven Is, working on his memoirs,
Speaker 2: came across my letter and tracked me down. My number
Speaker 2: never changed, and he said to me he was so
Speaker 2: moved by what I wrote. He said, I want to
Speaker 2: put music to your words. Write me a guided meditation,
Speaker 2: and I did and he has music. He put music
Speaker 2: to it and it's called Journey to your Heart. It's
Speaker 2: giving me chills. I can't believe it that I have
Speaker 2: a guided meditation with Stephen Helper. And so about a
Speaker 2: year ago, I did a weekend il I land a
Speaker 2: weekend workshop at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, which
Speaker 2: is a very famous institute where Deepak Chopra speaks in
Speaker 2: Kroen mc mace and I did a weekend there and
Speaker 2: I brought that music to U this for my students
Speaker 2: who came for that weekend. You know, very special thing
Speaker 2: for me. Using music. Music is very very powerful. It
Speaker 2: can change your movement and it can change your life.
Speaker 2: And so I use it as my healing work. I
Speaker 2: love it. That's a great that's a great story. And
Speaker 2: here on this wall, so here are some of my
Speaker 2: favorite comedians. Me dancing with Gilbert Gottfree from my Dancing
Speaker 2: with Comedian series. We lost him this past year. Such
Speaker 2: a dear friend. Years us when we were kind of kids.
Speaker 2: I still have my mustache there. This one is a
Speaker 2: crazy one. Okay. It's me, Richard Belzer and Paul Schaeffer
Speaker 2: holding a picture. Oh wait, okay, Okay, hold on a second.
Speaker 2: It's me Richard Belzer, a Poul Scheffer holding a picture
Speaker 2: of me Richard Belzer and Paul Schaeffer holding still another picture, Schaefer,
Speaker 2: that little picture is that one over there? And then
Speaker 2: a few years later I took I brought it with me.
Speaker 2: We stood in the same order and took that picture.
Speaker 2: And a few years later we did that, and then
Speaker 2: we actually got the fourth at the Friars Club, the
Speaker 2: four and one picture and the picture and the picture
Speaker 2: in the picture we took. We got this over about
Speaker 2: twenty years. Oh, his Charlie Sheen. When I was still
Speaker 2: in my dental office with Chuck Zito, who was not
Speaker 2: a famous after in those days. He was Charlie Sheen's bodyguard.
Speaker 2: Hell's Angels Too Yells. He just had a documentary about
Speaker 2: his life. I was there at the premier. Chud Zito,
Speaker 2: an American hero, an amazing guy who's been a friend
Speaker 2: of mine all these years.
Speaker 1: They'll be right back with more of the Taken a
Speaker 1: Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 4: I want to go back to Belzer for a second. Sure,
Speaker 4: so I grew up, I think I told you instance
Speaker 4: Anford Connecticut. He grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Oh, I
Speaker 4: think so, yes, And so I would see him often
Speaker 4: as he would come up to the radio station that
Speaker 4: I worked at in Fairfield County, Danbury, Connecticut.
Speaker 2: And then I see him at you know, when Howard
Speaker 2: Stern would do a Grammy week from LA and New York,
Speaker 2: and I would bring my radio station to that same
Speaker 2: roundtable that Howard was part of. Bells was a big regular,
Speaker 2: as you remember on Howard every time I ran into him.
Speaker 2: What made me.
Speaker 5: Feel so special about Belzer is he never forgot. He
Speaker 5: wasn't like, hey, who were you? Yeah, yeah, like you know,
Speaker 5: looking at you like he didn't know. He always remembered.
Speaker 2: He was definitely like that. And he was one of
Speaker 2: the first once Happening and that live starter. He was
Speaker 2: a host for a weekend because I was up there
Speaker 2: that week must have been in the early days of
Speaker 2: Best NL, which was seventy five, you know, crazy crazy.
Speaker 2: Let me see what Joe Rogan when he had Hangir
Speaker 2: and Tiffany Harsh. Here's me taking away a headache from
Speaker 2: Andrew Dice Clay him I'm in LA. Somebody on the
Speaker 2: camera and got that scene, which was great we were
Speaker 2: sitting Yeah, I'm one of the few people that ever
Speaker 2: wrote for Dice and he says it openly. I'm just
Speaker 2: thinking that on my own he says it. He said
Speaker 2: it on on one thing on Sirius Exam. He shoutowed
Speaker 2: me out three times in an hour. And we were
Speaker 2: sitting there talking about material that we were working on,
Speaker 2: and he said, and he had a bad headache, and
Speaker 2: I said, well, sit down, I'll take it away. And
Speaker 2: we were in the party lot of Mell's Diner and
Speaker 2: someone at a camera and got that picture. It's not cool.
Speaker 2: It is cool this Nibbie Schumer. Yeah, Brus Willis when
Speaker 2: I wrote for him for his roast. You know, this
Speaker 2: was a great honor. I was Patres O'Neill's co host
Speaker 2: on The Black Philip Show. I'm definitely one of the
Speaker 2: only white guys that was ever honored for Black History Month.
Speaker 2: It's the truth. I was honored for Black His during month.
Speaker 2: I had a big event that Huntok College, me and
Speaker 2: Daddy Simmons Russell Simmons brother. Oh wow. And it was
Speaker 2: because I created comedy workshops for inner city kids. Oh
Speaker 2: and I was his colt host. Was if great honor.
Speaker 2: He left us too early, at only forty one years old.
Speaker 2: See if he just flushed me in this picture we
Speaker 2: sent and JB. Smooth, See if you can pick me up?
Speaker 2: I think I can. You think you've I believe so.
Speaker 2: Did you remember the great Phil Hartner? I was going
Speaker 2: to say, yeah, that's him. I met my piano over there.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, I was. I was supposed to see him
Speaker 2: that terrible weekend that he was killed at nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: eighty and I was out in LA and he invited
Speaker 2: me to come out for the weekend. I don't remember
Speaker 2: why I didn't go, but I told my mom that
Speaker 2: I was going to spend the weekend. And when the
Speaker 2: news came out, the initial report was that two men
Speaker 2: were found dead in his house. That my mom called
Speaker 2: in a panic to see if I was all right.
Speaker 2: It's crazy. Who's a dear friend who is just so
Speaker 2: a little hotty? Over there? Victoria Victoria self Stet one
Speaker 2: of the harness models in the world. Yeah, she was amazing.
Speaker 2: Let me see who else? Michael Bolton, great comedy fan,
Speaker 2: love Rodney Dangerfield. Oh wow, we used to do a
Speaker 2: lot of stuff together. Yeah, let me see on this wall.
Speaker 2: Let me see behind you. Here's right here, Ben Stiller,
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Michael ian Black, that's me in there is
Speaker 2: another Phil Hartman and Dana Carvey, John Lovitz. John Lovitz
Speaker 2: introduced me on TV on my national comedy debut on
Speaker 2: Access on Access TV, Gotham Comedy Live. Here is me
Speaker 2: and Paul Shower, Lauren Michaels, the founder and producer of
Speaker 2: Saturday Night Live, and Pete Holmes. And there's another picture
Speaker 2: with me and Patrese. He was so big, and Dan
Speaker 2: de Niro was the second co host that I was
Speaker 2: the third co host on the show on Exam Radio,
Speaker 2: Robert Wooll. I haven't seen him in a long time.
Speaker 7: Oh, and what a good guy on this wall this
Speaker 7: one here, yeah, oh see, here's me and Woody.
Speaker 2: He almost smiled, not quite that night. I actually made
Speaker 2: him laugh that night. I hadn't seen him in many years,
Speaker 2: and his best friend, John Domania was going to reintroduce us,
Speaker 2: and I was about to say that, you know, Woody,
Speaker 2: I'm a good friend of Jack Rollins, and I don't
Speaker 2: know what made me change, but at the very last
Speaker 2: second I said to Woody, I'm a very good friend
Speaker 2: of yours, and he just struck him so funny, and
Speaker 2: he started to laugh and he said, really, how long
Speaker 2: do we know each other? They decade? We're very close.
Speaker 2: Oh and he just left. I'm like, I can't believe
Speaker 2: I'm making Woody On left, you know, Oh, oh great.
Speaker 2: It is Seinfeld and Kevin Horror. That's why I produced
Speaker 2: the benefit Kradi and Kevin Hort was the star. And
Speaker 2: may Pan May Penn, the one that John Lennon left
Speaker 2: Yoko for about a year or so, Hassan Minaj, Jimmy Fallon,
Speaker 2: of course, one of the nicest guys in the business,
Speaker 2: Bill Boston guy, Yeah, Bill burh when he had Rainy,
Speaker 2: Joe Piscoopal before he started working out, Ken Jong, another
Speaker 2: doctor in show business. Another and then on this wall.
Speaker 2: This was my cover story in the New York Times.
Speaker 2: They did a story about me and this was backstage
Speaker 2: on Broadway with the stares from the Catskills on Broadway.
Speaker 2: It's so funny. And I just did the Borsch Belt
Speaker 2: Festival this week. Dick Capri was the first comedian I
Speaker 2: ever wrote for, and I got to meet his son,
Speaker 2: who's also named Jeffrey. Jeff Capri is a comedian who
Speaker 2: was performing at the festival. I never knew him. I
Speaker 2: knew of him, and we find him that Dick also
Speaker 2: passed away this past year in December at ninety three
Speaker 2: years old. I see one baby Jade out here. Oh
Speaker 2: this joe Mlady. Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah. I wasn't
Speaker 2: aware of who you meant for a minute. Yeah, Nicole
Speaker 2: and Joey Mlandy. And that's them in character. That's the
Speaker 2: jacket that they made me. That's an exact replica of
Speaker 2: the Guardian Angels. But mine, says Gurionade my greatest piece
Speaker 2: of memorabilia because him in September of Boston. Yeah, he's amazing.
Speaker 2: And there's Amy Poehler and Joan Rivers. That picture there
Speaker 2: is when I brought Michael Bolton to meet ray Romano.
Speaker 2: We were out in LA and they were both fans
Speaker 2: of each other, but they have never met. So I
Speaker 2: brought Michael to the set where everybody loves Raymond. And
Speaker 2: there's my dear friend Danny a Yellow and mat Dylan.
Speaker 2: And let me see Peter Max, the great artist, Joan Rivers,
Speaker 2: Katie Perry's comedy debut, and Jaded Appatoo, the Great Charles Broden.
Speaker 2: Charles Broden was amazing. His daughter, Marian is a great
Speaker 2: comedian as well. Really yeah, she she hosts a lot
Speaker 2: of shots.
Speaker 4: You know what, I think Charles is one of his greatest,
Speaker 4: if not his greatest role.
Speaker 2: In a movie. I hope it's an old one. That
Speaker 2: Midnight Run. Yeah, yeah, great, Midnight was amazing. Yeah. Is
Speaker 2: that Mariah carrying you is? Yeah? Look at you.
Speaker 7: Harry Jeffrey and all the girls love you. Brooke Burke
Speaker 7: and Denise Rich Denise not personally and uh, Brittany, you
Speaker 7: got no what's her name? Leasa guest too with high Voltage. Yeah,
Speaker 7: my old friend high Voltage. Now I'll show you inside.
Speaker 7: There's there's more I believe than in that.
Speaker 2: Why I ran out of frames and I ran out
Speaker 2: of I ran out of war space. This is a
Speaker 2: Peter Max right here? Is it it? Yeah? Oh, this
Speaker 2: is something that Peter Max made for me personally. I
Speaker 2: was honored by with a film I wrote, the first
Speaker 2: interactive film that Sony ever made, and Peter Max was
Speaker 2: my guest at the party in my honor nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: three and he drew this on a dinner nap gun
Speaker 2: for me. Oh fa, and I have it. It's personalized
Speaker 2: because I used to teach him to say words in
Speaker 2: a different way. So instead of wild, I told him
Speaker 2: to pronounce it willed because he was an artist and
Speaker 2: he was conceptual, and he understood that you don't have
Speaker 2: to pronounce words the way they're supposed to. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: he called me doctor Wild and he wrote WI with
Speaker 2: two dots over it, so you did know to pronounce
Speaker 2: it will. So that's another fun piece of memorabilion that
Speaker 2: I have more pictures, believe it or not. These are
Speaker 2: all the sobran Ellas starting with James or Feeding at
Speaker 2: the top and greatest TV show ever, Greatest ever. And
Speaker 2: I did a movie. I wrote a movie called I
Speaker 2: Am Woody. And the guy that played Johnny Sack, who
Speaker 2: was not allowed by the HBO. He was under contract.
Speaker 2: He couldn't play a gangster, so he played a doctor.
Speaker 2: And it was about a violent mob boss who was
Speaker 2: obsessed with Woody Allen and he survives a mob hit
Speaker 2: and he comes out of it with amnesia and now
Speaker 2: he thinks he's Woody Allen. But he's six foot five
Speaker 2: and three hundred pounds, so he's a huge Woody Allen.
Speaker 2: And it won some words. That post was called I
Speaker 2: Am Woody this movie I'm Your Man is the first
Speaker 2: interactive film. That was epper Mania that I wrote with
Speaker 2: Michael mean Black.
Speaker 8: And then Ground with guys that went on to form
Speaker 8: the State on MTV, and then so Many paid a
Speaker 8: half a million bucks to outfit the theaterre on Nineteenth
Speaker 8: Street with buttons and the audience who pressed the buttons
Speaker 8: and changed the direction of them.
Speaker 2: Wow, yeah, it was really I was live there with
Speaker 2: first one. There's a movie I wrote with Scott Mayo
Speaker 2: or Face to Face that's Being of Stockwell. Yeah, Stockwell.
Speaker 2: I had a bunch of book stars, Jovin Relli, Alex Wroppo,
Speaker 2: a bunch of book stars were in You. That's My
Speaker 2: I Am what You Will Be. That's the first book
Speaker 2: I never wrote. Filthy, funny and totally offensive. It was
Speaker 2: based on my writings for the Friars Roots and they
Speaker 2: asked me to get celebrities to tell them their favorite
Speaker 2: nasty jokes. So I got two hundred and fifty CELEBRITI
Speaker 2: used to tell me the nastiest jokes. They ve horrible,
Speaker 2: horrible men. There's me Scott bo at the premiere for
Speaker 2: our movie at Peter Dinklice. Whoever knew that Peter Dinglish
Speaker 2: would go on to be one of the biggest stars
Speaker 2: in the world. Right here, that's when we first met,
Speaker 2: and then back here you can follow me through its
Speaker 2: Jim Gaffigan when he first came to New York. I
Speaker 2: was just with him the other night, Jim Gaffiican he
Speaker 2: and Mark Marin my my favorite. Then a thing at
Speaker 2: the ninety second Street y from Mark's new special called Panicked,
Speaker 2: So I was there as a guest. But that's Jim
Speaker 2: when he first came to New work. He looks younger
Speaker 2: now than he did then. Oh yeah, you know. Now
Speaker 2: here's another Me and Mill Burrow and Me at the
Speaker 2: Friars Club. Howie Mandel holding my book Filthy, Funny and
Speaker 2: totally Offensive. Lewis Black, Russell Peters, David Cross, John Cleese.
Speaker 2: I was very excited to meet John Cleese because I'm
Speaker 2: at Big Biddy pythe up there. Yeah, yes, and here's
Speaker 2: Mitch Hedberg. This was taken shortly before he passed away.
Speaker 2: My dear friend, Richard Lewis. A lot of people think
Speaker 2: we have similar hair. Talk about that. Jackie Mason again,
Speaker 2: Colin Quinn, Jeffrey Jeffrey Ross, who will be opening up Broadway.
Speaker 2: So look you had there. I knew all of these
Speaker 2: guys when they had here. Amazing Yet Jeffrey Ross is
Speaker 2: opening a long Broadway thinking in the next month or so.
Speaker 2: Really Yeah, David Steinberg right to the right, David Steinberg. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Also used to be a dear friend. Haven't spoken to
Speaker 2: my one pid Another Gilbert picture, Russell Peters Tracy warning
Speaker 2: when you had a Musturs. Yeah, another Howie Mandel picture. Yeah.
Speaker 9: So it goes on along amazing on a long Jeffrey yeah,
Speaker 9: crazy right, yes, So what do you what are you
Speaker 9: working on these days?
Speaker 2: Jeffrey, Well, I have a huge potential project. When we
Speaker 2: turned off the cab, I'll show you the sizzle real thing.
Speaker 2: I don't think we can shoot it, okay with with
Speaker 2: Dale Hughley.
Speaker 10: You know Dale, you of course I do the original
Speaker 10: Kings of Comedy. There's men dil and it's a huge,
Speaker 10: huge project that DL will be producing it. That's as
Speaker 10: much as I can say right now.
Speaker 2: We like teasing people. Chris Rock, Chris Rock, Nick Cannon,
Speaker 2: Cedric the entertainer, Eric Andre, the craziest man in Colmedy. Yes,
Speaker 2: Tracy working backstage at one of the shows in Brooklyn.
Speaker 2: I went out to visit him there, so there's a lot.
Speaker 2: It's amazing, Jeffrey, they did these articles about me. So Jeffries, though,
Speaker 2: what would you tell somebody who might be listening and watching,
Speaker 2: who is thinking about getting into comedy and it isn't
Speaker 2: quite sure.
Speaker 11: They don't have self confidence maybe, and they don't understand
Speaker 11: the depth of the work and what the art of
Speaker 11: the work is. Give them some reality and some encouragement.
Speaker 2: Well, interestingly enough, those two things don't really go together.
Speaker 2: If you're meant to be in comedy, you know it,
Speaker 2: you can feel it inside. If you think you're funny,
Speaker 2: there's only one way to find out is to go
Speaker 2: up on stage. The audience will let you know right
Speaker 2: away if you're finding or not. You know, if you're
Speaker 2: a singer, even if you're not good, they'll deploy politely.
Speaker 2: Could you have done in comedy? No one's laughing to
Speaker 2: be polite. Either your funny or you're not. You know.
Speaker 2: And it took me many years to get the courage
Speaker 2: to go out on stage because I have been writing
Speaker 2: for famous people, because I was a dentist. I didn't
Speaker 2: want to look like a novelty and I wanted people
Speaker 2: to take me seriously, so I didn't even tell them
Speaker 2: about my day job. You know, Joe Rivers figured it out,
Speaker 2: which she saw something that my nurse had strict instructions
Speaker 2: to never interrupt me when I'm with a patient, unless
Speaker 2: it's for show business. So my nurse would come in
Speaker 2: and she'd say, you know, doctor Lewis is on the phone.
Speaker 2: If it was Jerry Lewis or Richard Lewis, she'd say
Speaker 2: doctor Burle. The only one no one believed was doctor
Speaker 2: danger Field. So she comes in one morning and she says,
Speaker 2: doctor Rivers is on the phone. Can you take the call?
Speaker 2: I said, sure, okay, So I go and it's Jones
Speaker 2: calling from Las Vegas, and she is, what do you
Speaker 2: do during the dinner? I said, I work? She said, well,
Speaker 2: obviously you work. What is it that you do? So
Speaker 2: I knew she knew because the Times article had come out,
Speaker 2: and then there was the TV shows. We're doing stories
Speaker 2: about my multiple careers. So I said to her, is
Speaker 2: this concerning the vicious room of going around that I'm
Speaker 2: a dentist? I said, Joan, you know, I've heard of
Speaker 2: accusing people of a lot of things, but that's really low,
Speaker 2: and she just laughed, and she goes, why didn't you
Speaker 2: tell me I think it's great, And I said, because
Speaker 2: no one hires you in show business because you're a dentist.
Speaker 2: They hire you in spite of the fact. You know,
Speaker 2: it's not exactly a prerequisite to go to dental school
Speaker 2: to be in show business. So what I would tell
Speaker 2: people is like, look, it's a very hard field to
Speaker 2: make a name for yourself if you think you're funny,
Speaker 2: and there's only one way to find out, and you
Speaker 2: go up on stage and an open mic and see
Speaker 2: how people respond to you. It's any different being funny
Speaker 2: with your friends and being funny in front of strangers
Speaker 2: and trying to convince them that what you think is
Speaker 2: funny is actually funny, you know. So it's a good
Speaker 2: way to find out. You go up at an open
Speaker 2: bic in front of a whole room full of bitter
Speaker 2: comics who think they're funnier than you, and see if
Speaker 2: you can make somebody laugh, you know, and if you're
Speaker 2: meant to be in comedy, you'll know it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It takes a lot of perseverance. It's like anything in
Speaker 2: the entertainment world. You have to believe in yourself. And
Speaker 2: if you really think you have talent, you know, there's
Speaker 2: a saying talent finds a home. If you have talent,
Speaker 2: somebody will notice it. There comes a point where you
Speaker 2: have to be honest with yourself. If you're not funny,
Speaker 2: you just have to admit to yourself, maybe this is
Speaker 2: not for me.
Speaker 4: It's a perfect way to end this wonderful episode of
Speaker 4: Take a Walk Here in New York City with Jeffrey
Speaker 4: gury In. Also check out Jeffrey on the Comedy Saved
Speaker 4: Me podcast with our dear friend Linna Hoffman.
Speaker 2: But Jeffrey, it's an honor.
Speaker 4: To meet you in person, and thanks for all you
Speaker 4: continue to give us, sir.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Buzz It's an honor for me
Speaker 2: to be on your show with you. And if people
Speaker 2: do like happiness, go to Amazon and check out my books.
Speaker 2: You know I like books. I have eight books now,
Speaker 2: five one comedy one with Chris Rock. I'm Free on Happiness, mindset,
Speaker 2: overcoming obstacles and changing negative thinking to positive thinking. So
Speaker 2: you just have to look up Jeffrey gury In on
Speaker 2: Amazon and all my books will come up. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much, Thank you, Jeffrey, are very welcome.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
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