Speaker 1: Welcome to Access Podcast, the podcast about podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Mattie Stout, and this week I'm really happy to welcome
Speaker 1: an old friend of mine, Emmy and Peabody Award winning
Speaker 1: comedian Paul Mecurio. Now, Paul, you might know him from
Speaker 1: The Daily Show, where he was a writer for many,
Speaker 1: many years, but he's also got a podcast, The Paul
Speaker 1: Mecurio Show, where he interviews a less guests from entertainment, media, sports, music, politics,
Speaker 1: and science. Let's hear a little taste of that right now.
Speaker 1: We just we're waiters who were nauseated by the concept
Speaker 1: of food and we're reading a specials list. That's it,
Speaker 1: and we just are going say we have a cop
Speaker 1: sell with a and I'm happy to having him on
Speaker 1: the show. Paul, I think I met you fifteen years
Speaker 1: ago at a bar after the Opie and Anthony Show
Speaker 1: in New York. Wow was it? Oh? Yeah, you picked
Speaker 1: me up. We had a great night of sex. It
Speaker 1: was awesome, It was great. Yeah, you're gentle, gentle lover.
Speaker 1: Uh So, Paul is uh one of one of the guys.
Speaker 1: I'm really happy to say that I've as I've known
Speaker 1: for a while that I've watched uh kind of jump
Speaker 1: into podcasting and and do it and do it well.
Speaker 1: And since the first one you've done, you've got to
Speaker 1: inter interview all kinds of people since then. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been crazy. Like I try, I like to do
Speaker 1: the one I want interviews, you know, in long form
Speaker 1: and uh and you know, kind of just go wherever
Speaker 1: it goes with people. And so I've been lucky to
Speaker 1: get some really cool guests like Brian Cranston, Stephen Colbert,
Speaker 1: Neil Legrasse, Tyson Sugar, Ray Leonard, this up and coming
Speaker 1: musician Paul McCartney. Um, and uh so it's been pretty insane.
Speaker 1: Like people are they? I think they like being able
Speaker 1: to go long form and talk more than like the
Speaker 1: five minute sound bites that they normally get on like
Speaker 1: a stand on a on a late night talk show.
Speaker 1: You know. Well, I'm gonna say the Paul McCartney story
Speaker 1: for a little bit later because it's a good one.
Speaker 1: But the folks who maybe have not um heard you before,
Speaker 1: I have not seen your stand up, they should know
Speaker 1: who you are. But your introduction into comedy is very
Speaker 1: much unlike anyone else that I know. I love this
Speaker 1: story of how you got into comedy, and I just
Speaker 1: was wondering if you could relate that to folks that
Speaker 1: haven't heard you before. Yeah. Absolutely. So I have a
Speaker 1: big drug habit, and uh I needed extra money, you know.
Speaker 1: Uh I was on I went to law school and
Speaker 1: then I ended up in New York City. Uh I
Speaker 1: grew up in Providence, Rod Island, middle class family, don't
Speaker 1: have money. Ended up on Wall Street as a lawyer
Speaker 1: and an investment banker, doing these like huge merger deals.
Speaker 1: And then I started writing jokes as a hobby. And
Speaker 1: uh I was making short films and one of my
Speaker 1: short films got into a big festival and I met
Speaker 1: like like Woody Allen and Albert Brooks and all these
Speaker 1: filmmakers there. I lied, I told it firm that I
Speaker 1: I might I had to go help my brother move
Speaker 1: or something, and I was. I was in Colorado with
Speaker 1: a big festival with all these people. So I started
Speaker 1: to live this like secret double life on Wall Street.
Speaker 1: And then I started writing jokes and I'm Jay Leno
Speaker 1: was a private entertainment um at this private function that
Speaker 1: a client had and they invited us from the firm,
Speaker 1: and I almost wasn't going to go and I just
Speaker 1: as I was leaving, I said, what the heck? And
Speaker 1: I printed out like a like twelve pages of jokes
Speaker 1: that I had been writing and I don't know what
Speaker 1: I was gonna do with them. And I went up
Speaker 1: to him after the performance and I said to Leno
Speaker 1: and I said, I'm a lawyer. I'm never going to
Speaker 1: use these jokes. I don't know if you need jokes,
Speaker 1: but here you're going. He's like, okay, man, he really
Speaker 1: does talk like they letting helium out of a balloon
Speaker 1: very very slowly, you know, like like like like whenever
Speaker 1: you talk to you just want to go breathe, breathe
Speaker 1: and uh. And so I he takes them and then uh,
Speaker 1: I get a few feet away and he goes, hey,
Speaker 1: come back here, I go to go. You might want
Speaker 1: to put your name in your phone numberrun here so
Speaker 1: I know how to reach it. Like that's how that's
Speaker 1: how nervous. I was like, I'm here, I am Mr
Speaker 1: wall Street, M and a deal and I can't even
Speaker 1: put my name on a document and just complete idiot.
Speaker 1: And I thought, he said, okay, I'll take a look,
Speaker 1: and then I thought I got a nice blow off.
Speaker 1: And then Two days later, my phone rings and he goes, uh,
Speaker 1: hies paul Er, it's Jay Lenno. I'm like, uh And
Speaker 1: I told my friend David, who does good impressions, about this,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was him punking me. Then I go, yeah, David, right, stop,
Speaker 1: I know it's you. I think, goes, not really a
Speaker 1: j Leno. I go, David, you do alousy jay Leno.
Speaker 1: I said to Jay Leno that he does allowsy jay Leno.
Speaker 1: He does, yeah exactly, he goes. He goes, I think
Speaker 1: I do a pretty good Jay Lenno. I'm Jay Lenno.
Speaker 1: I'm like, nah, the voice is not right, so it
Speaker 1: was out it was Jay Leno. When he goes, I
Speaker 1: read the stuff and I'm gonna hire you to start
Speaker 1: sending jokes in for the Tonight Show monologue. You don't
Speaker 1: have to leave your job. He said, you just send
Speaker 1: me stuff and if I use it, I'll pay it
Speaker 1: per joke. And I'm like, are you kidding me? He goes, no, no,
Speaker 1: He goes, I need jokes for the monologue. I can't
Speaker 1: you jokes from my tonight show act. I mean from
Speaker 1: my regular night cluback, because people feel ripped off if
Speaker 1: they see it on the Tonight Show. And then they
Speaker 1: see me doing the same joke that they paid on
Speaker 1: under bucks to see. So and he goes, by the way,
Speaker 1: what do you do for a living? I go, I'm
Speaker 1: a lawyer, and he goes, I knew it. He starts
Speaker 1: laughing at me and go why. He goes, you're right
Speaker 1: like a lawyer. You're way too worthy. He goes, get
Speaker 1: to the punchline. He goes, you don't need to give
Speaker 1: me stage direction when to make a funny face. I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, right, do you? Then a week later he
Speaker 1: called me go ahead, sorry, I'm sorry. Do you remember
Speaker 1: one of those jokes? Yeah, the joke he did. He
Speaker 1: called me a week later and he did one. He said,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do one of your jokes on the
Speaker 1: Tonight Show. And I went and got some champagne with
Speaker 1: my girlfriend and my girlfriend and my wife and another
Speaker 1: couple and we watched it and he did my joke
Speaker 1: and it was the most powerful thing that I had
Speaker 1: ever seen in my life. He paid me fifty bucks
Speaker 1: for this joke. So here I am like this, you know,
Speaker 1: middle class kid from Italian neighborhood and Rhode Island doing
Speaker 1: big m and a deals and that's not impressing me
Speaker 1: as much as a silly fifty dollar joke on the
Speaker 1: Tonight Show, right, because it was this box that I
Speaker 1: had been watching where comedy came out of, and now
Speaker 1: my comedy was coming out of. It was just weird.
Speaker 1: It was surreal, and the joke was about something to
Speaker 1: the effect of, you know, it was watching one of
Speaker 1: these modeling shows like this Old House, and he goes up,
Speaker 1: you know, they're always a contractor's very neat well, kept
Speaker 1: these polities on time, he's under budget. He goes to
Speaker 1: these people exist in real life, every contractor, I know,
Speaker 1: you know, he's showing plumber crack, hitting on my wife, drunk,
Speaker 1: stealing stuff from my house like that kind of thing, Right,
Speaker 1: And the joke did well, and then he yeah and
Speaker 1: I and I started sending them stuff and and he
Speaker 1: started kept doing it. And then I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: but I didn't have any plans to leave or whilst
Speaker 1: you or anything. So he said to me, little, you know,
Speaker 1: you could try the jokes out before you send them
Speaker 1: to me. And I go, how do I do that?
Speaker 1: He goes, well, you can get a sense of the jokes,
Speaker 1: are any good? You go to some go to some
Speaker 1: open mic nights and like you know, bars and stuff.
Speaker 1: So I did, and I that's where I truly started
Speaker 1: to live this secret double life where I was a
Speaker 1: lawyer by day in a comic by night. Now I
Speaker 1: want to ask you a question, as I've heard this
Speaker 1: story a few times. Did you have to hide that
Speaker 1: you were doing comedy? Was it that frowned upon as
Speaker 1: being a lawyer, that that you would be out, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of doing that on the side at this kind
Speaker 1: of firm. Yes, it was one of these big, big,
Speaker 1: international white shoe law firms, like it would not be
Speaker 1: considered proper. They would have they would have like they
Speaker 1: expect a certain level of the quorum and behavior and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. It wasn't like a solo practitioner one
Speaker 1: guy I was working for. UM. It wasn't like bigl
Speaker 1: you weren't you personal. It wasn't like a better call sault,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Yeah, it was like it
Speaker 1: was like you know when you see I don't know
Speaker 1: a movie that's about corrupt big law firm. Not that
Speaker 1: this law firm was corrupt, but that like that those big,
Speaker 1: big law firms with like five hundred lawyers all over
Speaker 1: the country and in Europe, like that's what this firm was.
Speaker 1: It was one of the biggest firms in the world.
Speaker 1: So they just, you know, they don't want their people
Speaker 1: to be acting like a buffoon, I guess, like you know,
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, and they have their clients see
Speaker 1: and then go, hey, I got a guy who was
Speaker 1: telling some dick jokes doing my deal. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I feel comfortable with that, right like, so that
Speaker 1: was why I had to do it. And I was
Speaker 1: also embarrassed, to be honest with you personally, like I
Speaker 1: felt like it was I don't know, silly, frivolous, not
Speaker 1: going to be taken seriously by these people. Like you
Speaker 1: gotta understand, these are like really intense, kind of serious,
Speaker 1: almost to the point of you know, taking themselves too seriously.
Speaker 1: Do you think you could have gone away with it
Speaker 1: if in today's world with social media? Do you do
Speaker 1: you think that like your story would even be possible.
Speaker 1: I mean no, I I'd be willing to bet that
Speaker 1: the social media stuff with those firms that you you,
Speaker 1: I'm sure that they have the people who work at
Speaker 1: those firms no sign stuff. And the firms look at
Speaker 1: what they're doing, Like no, I mean, I mean maybe
Speaker 1: I could do some like joke, you mean, like write
Speaker 1: some jokes and put it on social media that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Well, I mean just even as far as
Speaker 1: you know, people capturing your act and and putting it
Speaker 1: out and hey, look I saw doing common and I
Speaker 1: think that would be a problem for them, Like I
Speaker 1: think it would be like, you know, that's not what
Speaker 1: we do, this is not who we are. It just
Speaker 1: it just it taints the brand, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And I think that that I know that that would
Speaker 1: have not flown. Like if you wanted to do comedy,
Speaker 1: go do comedy, but you gotta quit. And I wasn't
Speaker 1: prepared to do that. But I didn't want to stop
Speaker 1: doing the comedy because I was getting something out of
Speaker 1: it creatively, Like I really connected with it, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's like, well what do I do here? You know,
Speaker 1: I was kind of between a rock and a hard place.
Speaker 1: But but that was that was That's a good question.
Speaker 1: But I don't think I could have. Also, I was
Speaker 1: embarrassed personally to say something because I just, like I said,
Speaker 1: I just felt like I was with these heavy hitter,
Speaker 1: like very serious people and like I'm gonna. I just
Speaker 1: think it would have I felt at the time it
Speaker 1: would have compromised me with the people I worked with,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And and so I would
Speaker 1: sneak out of work and it did a break and um,
Speaker 1: I would go to these like dive bars around New
Speaker 1: York City working open mic nights, um and literally lead
Speaker 1: like I would get in a car and all the
Speaker 1: other associates, the young lawyers were going to, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: get dinner and I'm I would go down to this place.
Speaker 1: One of the places were called Downtown Bay Route too
Speaker 1: and I and I I always loved the two because
Speaker 1: I see that they were franchising these hell holes or
Speaker 1: somebody somebody blew up one, you know, I don't some
Speaker 1: some bomber. Uh. And it was literally like it was
Speaker 1: a dysfunctional cheers. They had hookers there, They dealt drugs
Speaker 1: out of there. There was a sign on the men's
Speaker 1: room door that said the toilet seat is only to
Speaker 1: be used to go to the bathroom, not to cut coke.
Speaker 1: Thank you the management, And it literally said thank you
Speaker 1: the management. Which is always my favorite part of this
Speaker 1: is like they were so polite in their debauchery, you know.
Speaker 1: And and I would go and I pick a number
Speaker 1: in my little Brooks Brothers suit with a bunch of
Speaker 1: people that looked either homeless or where hookers or drug addicts,
Speaker 1: and I'd wait to go on stage. And the end
Speaker 1: of the story is one night, one one night, I
Speaker 1: go on stage and there's a scuffle just before I
Speaker 1: go on stage, there's a scuffle at the pool table
Speaker 1: and this guy grabs his neck and another guy runs
Speaker 1: out and he and the guy grabbed his next start screaming,
Speaker 1: he cut me, man, he cut me. And it was
Speaker 1: like a drug deal gone bad. And he cut him
Speaker 1: right there at the bar by the pool table with
Speaker 1: a knife cutter, with a with a box cutter. And
Speaker 1: and I'm next. But I think the show's over at
Speaker 1: this point because it's complete mayhem. He's screaming, his girlfriend's crying.
Speaker 1: We're at my boyfriends. The cops are there now taking
Speaker 1: a police do you hear their walkie talk and sex
Speaker 1: or nine rink? And then all of a sudden, I here,
Speaker 1: all right, you guys ready for some comedy. I'm the
Speaker 1: next guy up. And I'm not doing it long enough
Speaker 1: to know that I don't really have to go up.
Speaker 1: So I go up, and I remember thinking, even then
Speaker 1: when I had no experience, like I gotta say something
Speaker 1: about what's going on in the room, would be weird
Speaker 1: not to say something, So I say, nice to be here.
Speaker 1: I always at the Downtown baby route to I always
Speaker 1: wanted to follow a slap, which I thought was a
Speaker 1: pretty good line, you know what I mean, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And then but the guy who got his neck cut
Speaker 1: heard me say it, and I don't think he thought
Speaker 1: it was very funny, and he said, you make it
Speaker 1: fun of me. He's drunk. He goes, I don't need
Speaker 1: to take this, and he takes all these bloody napkins
Speaker 1: and he wants them up and throws them at me
Speaker 1: and they stick to my shirt, to my like white
Speaker 1: Brooks Brothers shirt. Right now, a normal person says, I'm
Speaker 1: getting off stage, but I'm determined screw this. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I'm gonna. I'm gonna see this to the end. So
Speaker 1: he turns back to me and he goes, so I'm trying.
Speaker 1: I'm getting no laps. He's wandering around the bar screaming
Speaker 1: about this guy. I'm gonna get him. I'm gonna and
Speaker 1: he goes, what are you doing anyway? He yells at me.
Speaker 1: I go, I'm trying to tell jokes. He goes, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he goes, I like jokes and he turns back to
Speaker 1: the bar. He goes, hey, everybody, shut the hell up.
Speaker 1: This guy's trying to tell jokes. And the whole place
Speaker 1: shuts up. And I finished my set. It was like
Speaker 1: the best two minutes I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 1: Upstand up. And I go back to the firm with
Speaker 1: this like blood stain on my shirt, and I think
Speaker 1: I'll just put like a like you know, like when
Speaker 1: you're twelve and you break your mother's face, You think
Speaker 1: you glue back together and she'll never notice. But the
Speaker 1: minute she sees that, she notices. Let's that was me.
Speaker 1: I turned into a twelve year old. I started walking
Speaker 1: around the firm the rest of the night with a
Speaker 1: file folder up against my rib cage, thinking nobody will
Speaker 1: notice the big, grapefruit sized blood stain on my shirt.
Speaker 1: And I walk into the I walk into the meeting
Speaker 1: with his like seeing your partner of the firm, They
Speaker 1: couldn't find me. He's screaming at me, where have you been?
Speaker 1: What have you been doing? Why do you have a
Speaker 1: blood stain on your shirt? Right? And I'm thinking, okay,
Speaker 1: my secrets out, this double life that I was trying
Speaker 1: to hide is going to be revealed. And I didn't
Speaker 1: know what to say. And another lawyer goes, what kind
Speaker 1: of shirt is that? I go it's a Brooks Brothers shirt.
Speaker 1: Why he goes, oh, I know how to get blood
Speaker 1: out of a Brooks Brothers shirt. He goes close out
Speaker 1: and lemon juice and another guy goes, not no, now,
Speaker 1: ARMANI that's the shirt you want when you want to
Speaker 1: get blood like that. Literally they were arguing about and
Speaker 1: I'm what's sure it's better when you get put And
Speaker 1: I just blurt it out, as are you guys really
Speaker 1: making American Psycho? What's going on? And and that became
Speaker 1: my life. And I did that for a while until
Speaker 1: I almost had a nervous breakdown and I'm like, I
Speaker 1: gotta either, you know, should to get off the pot here.
Speaker 1: And so I decided to go for it full time
Speaker 1: and and I did, and I sold my apartment and
Speaker 1: unraveled my life and started over again. You know, it
Speaker 1: was crazy. Moved to a rooming house with um, I
Speaker 1: lived below a three pound phone sex operator who sold
Speaker 1: Herbalife diet product story Door that was that was one
Speaker 1: of my roommates and this in this house. It was
Speaker 1: really crazy. So from those days until now. We had
Speaker 1: how Magical on last week and I was talking about
Speaker 1: how social media is changing comedy and in some ways
Speaker 1: that are good, in some ways that are bad. How
Speaker 1: do you feel about comics sharing so much of their
Speaker 1: personal thoughts and let's just end political beliefs on social media.
Speaker 1: Do you think that sometimes will turn an audience off
Speaker 1: to them? Um? Well, especially political stuff. We're so divided
Speaker 1: in the country right now. I do think it's really
Speaker 1: hard to kind of have a have an honest, open
Speaker 1: conversation without you know, somebody getting piste off, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's a shame because you know, if you look
Speaker 1: at political comedy going back to the sixties, people in
Speaker 1: the room may not agree with you, but they were
Speaker 1: all laughing at least because they will laugh at the
Speaker 1: absurdity of it. But people, this is do or die.
Speaker 1: I mean there as we're speaking, the President endorsed Roy More,
Speaker 1: you know, alleged pedophiles, So clearly politics is more important
Speaker 1: than pedophilia. Like it's crazy. Um so I do think
Speaker 1: that it can hurt you if you do that. But
Speaker 1: the other thing is, I personally, if I weren't a comedian,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be on social media. I'm I go on
Speaker 1: and I give my opinions about things that will make jokes.
Speaker 1: But I really feel like it's a chore and I
Speaker 1: don't really like doing it because it doesn't feel organic
Speaker 1: to me. It feels like something I have to do
Speaker 1: to stay in touch with fans and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and I'd rather have it be like have them see
Speaker 1: me on TV or see me live or in a
Speaker 1: movie or whatever. But it's I think that, um, I
Speaker 1: think exposing every aspect of your life is not something
Speaker 1: that I'm necessarily particularly interested in. It's like, I think
Speaker 1: that you can kind of be entertaining in ways that
Speaker 1: are more creative than that. But there are some people
Speaker 1: that like to live every aspect of their day. So
Speaker 1: you know, like saying, hey, I just had a really
Speaker 1: great grilled cheese sandwich with munster cheese. I like munster
Speaker 1: cheese better than American cheese. I kind of want to
Speaker 1: put a bullet in my head. But like, sometimes you've
Speaker 1: got to do that kind of stuff. So I feel
Speaker 1: like as a performer in the in the comedy clubs too,
Speaker 1: like they rely on it, you know, they want you
Speaker 1: to have a following, so the following knows about what
Speaker 1: you're doing and comes out and all that stuff and
Speaker 1: Facebook and you know, you know, putting you know, putting
Speaker 1: posts about your weekend. You know, like I'm you know,
Speaker 1: where I'm gonna be in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: I got to do that. But it's just it just
Speaker 1: doesn't for me anyway, It just doesn't feel And I
Speaker 1: also again again also I feel like it takes you
Speaker 1: out of the moment. Like there's this one comic I know,
Speaker 1: and he's constantly like taking pictures and posting them on Instagram,
Speaker 1: like constantly, like we'll be in the middle of talking,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll look at you a little there, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take a picture. It takes a picture, post something
Speaker 1: you know, funny about it. Whatever. But it's like it
Speaker 1: just it just becomes a job and not it just doesn't.
Speaker 1: It's just not something that I have fun with, but
Speaker 1: I'll do it, and it doesn't really play into your
Speaker 1: strengths as a comedian. So if not seeing Paul live,
Speaker 1: go see him live. In fact, you can see him
Speaker 1: a Tampa at the Tampa Improv December seven through tenth,
Speaker 1: and the fourteenth or the seventeenth, it will be at
Speaker 1: the Omaha Funny Bone. The thing I like about your
Speaker 1: stand up, Paul is that it's it's never the same.
Speaker 1: And I mean I've I've gone to see you two
Speaker 1: or three times when you've been in San Francisco in
Speaker 1: the same stretch because you do so with the audience
Speaker 1: and that you know you're not you're not gonna go
Speaker 1: up and hear the same jokes every time because you're
Speaker 1: coming up with them as you go. So I think
Speaker 1: that that's something that you do that are not a
Speaker 1: lot of comics. Do Do you find that to be
Speaker 1: hard today with the climate? Do you find it some
Speaker 1: people don't want to play as much as they used to. No,
Speaker 1: that's not a problem. I do think that, you know,
Speaker 1: I like to do that because it's just it's just
Speaker 1: weird for me to walk into a room and not
Speaker 1: and they just start launching into material. It's sort of
Speaker 1: like walking in just like it's like you're walking into uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know, a dinner party and just like start
Speaker 1: just making a speech, you know, it's like it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, you go hello, how you do It's just
Speaker 1: weird for me not to. So I've come to the
Speaker 1: point where I do what I do and stand up
Speaker 1: a lot of times. I do for me because if
Speaker 1: I'm enjoying it, then they'll enjoy it. I mean, I
Speaker 1: want them to enjoy the show. But I got to
Speaker 1: enjoy the show. And so I find that talking to
Speaker 1: people in the way that I do it anyway, they
Speaker 1: don't see it a lot. I really engage. It's not
Speaker 1: like some people will talk to the audience as a
Speaker 1: way to get into a bit, like oh, I see
Speaker 1: you got a plaid shirt, and make a quick joke
Speaker 1: about the plaid shirt, and then the guy's got a
Speaker 1: five minute bit about plaid shirts. That's kind of obvious
Speaker 1: why he's talked to the guy with a plaid shirt.
Speaker 1: I'd rather just I just don't care. I don't have
Speaker 1: a plan, and they'll convict something. And woman could have
Speaker 1: a set of period pair of earrings on us. It's
Speaker 1: just sitting a certain way with her arms fold and
Speaker 1: she looks like she's a little piste off, and I'll
Speaker 1: say that and it becomes a real conversation So I'm
Speaker 1: trying to transform the show from a from a presentational
Speaker 1: experience where they're sitting taking you in and you're presenting
Speaker 1: something to them, to a more um engaged um conversation
Speaker 1: where like we're all hanging out in somebody's room and
Speaker 1: everybody is saying something funny here and there, and I'm
Speaker 1: kind of leading the charge. And but I find like
Speaker 1: people are frying with talking. The one thing that has
Speaker 1: changed is the PC thing has gotten to the point
Speaker 1: where it's a real pain in the asthmtimes, Like you
Speaker 1: can't even like I'll say to somebody, so you're so
Speaker 1: you're black, and they'll go like, I'm like what the
Speaker 1: guy's fucking black? Like I can't say, like, what are
Speaker 1: we supposed to do now? Like you just what happened
Speaker 1: last night? So then I go there, oh, sir, your Asian? Right?
Speaker 1: I go, yeah, I go stand up, he stood up?
Speaker 1: Turn around, I go everybody that's an Asian guy, okay, everybody, okay,
Speaker 1: we're all still alive, right, our heads that explode, And
Speaker 1: and so I just go at it. I go right
Speaker 1: at it because I think otherwise you're then giving into
Speaker 1: this power that's inappropriate. Like I This happened to me
Speaker 1: four days ago. Five days ago. My wife and I
Speaker 1: were in Central Park. We live in New York. We're
Speaker 1: walking our dog and it's a law you have supposed
Speaker 1: to have dog on a leash. And so we're like
Speaker 1: at a point where people want to literally create controversy
Speaker 1: when there is none, like and I think that ties
Speaker 1: into the social media thing you were talking about, Like,
Speaker 1: I think people are empowered by social media, so it
Speaker 1: gives it just because you have an opinion, it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean I give a shit about it, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Like there's just some people like that shouldn't
Speaker 1: be putting anything out on social media because they're idiots
Speaker 1: or they're racist or whatever. But everybody can do whatever
Speaker 1: they want. So it empowers people not just on social
Speaker 1: media but in life. And they and they feel like
Speaker 1: the voice that they have on Twitter, I give a
Speaker 1: ship about in the park, or I'll tell you another
Speaker 1: story in a minute that happened to me two weeks
Speaker 1: ago at a club. So people have more opinions and
Speaker 1: more and more boisterous and forthcoming and about them than
Speaker 1: I think than they used to be. And I think
Speaker 1: because social media has in bold in them right. So
Speaker 1: this guy goes to me, I, uh, there's a guy
Speaker 1: in the park our dogs on a leash. There's a
Speaker 1: guy whose dog isn't on a leash and the dog
Speaker 1: looked aggressive. So I said, excuse me, so your dog
Speaker 1: it really it should be on a leash. And he goes,
Speaker 1: why because it's a pit bull, like said it away,
Speaker 1: like implying that I was racist towards pit bulls. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, because it's got a baby in its mouth, right, asshole,
Speaker 1: that's why. So so, And I'm not doing a bit.
Speaker 1: I mean, I really liked said something sarcastic to me,
Speaker 1: and I like, and that's kind of what happens. Like
Speaker 1: I was talking to a couple in the back of
Speaker 1: the room. You know, I like to talk and you
Speaker 1: know me, you've seen me like, I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: I'm not a jerk. I'm not like, hey, your boy,
Speaker 1: you're fat. I just talk like in a real way
Speaker 1: and just see wherever it goes. And we're talking to
Speaker 1: this couple and the guy was answering all the questions
Speaker 1: like you know, how long you how did you meet?
Speaker 1: What did you like him? And then I said, how
Speaker 1: long you've been married, and the woman blurted out twenty
Speaker 1: five years and the way she said it was funny,
Speaker 1: the place laugh and the fact that she jumped on that.
Speaker 1: I made some mark remarked like, oh, maybe the guy
Speaker 1: couldn't remember how long. And there was a woman young
Speaker 1: like goes, uh, what a man can't speak in public?
Speaker 1: I go, what? She goes, a man and only me?
Speaker 1: Only men are allowed to speak, women are allowed to speak.
Speaker 1: And I go, it was so outrageous. I thought she
Speaker 1: was joking. I got you're kidding, right, She goes, now
Speaker 1: what man arely? And the place starts going come on
Speaker 1: like everybody who was like, and I go, oh, I
Speaker 1: see what this is? I said, okay, I said, I'm
Speaker 1: only up there like three minutes. I said, here's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be here for fifteen minutes. You're gonna walk
Speaker 1: out that door and sit at the bar, and there's
Speaker 1: a window. You can look at me through the window,
Speaker 1: and when you see through the window that I'm off stage,
Speaker 1: you can come back in and sit. I said. But
Speaker 1: if you think that you're gonna come in here and
Speaker 1: create some false non PC situation, that never happened, because
Speaker 1: you have some agenda. It is not gonna happen. You're
Speaker 1: gonna sit there and shut the funk up, or you're
Speaker 1: gonna get out, I said, because I know what you
Speaker 1: know what you need. I said, you need a march.
Speaker 1: You need to leave here and go find a march
Speaker 1: in march and say what you want to say. But
Speaker 1: you have some agenda that doesn't fit in this room.
Speaker 1: And if you want to say something in this room,
Speaker 1: I suggest you go out and leave your secure career
Speaker 1: and spend ten years honing your act as a stand
Speaker 1: up and shoot gigs all around the country and earn
Speaker 1: the right to be up here. But until then, you're
Speaker 1: either out or you shut up. And she stayed. But that,
Speaker 1: but that's a real thing, and that that that sentiment
Speaker 1: of like, we'll be careful what you say, be careful
Speaker 1: you talk to be careful how you say it is
Speaker 1: is kind of out there right now. You know, the
Speaker 1: key to a good comedian is is being observant, telling
Speaker 1: and telling a good story. And I think that's also
Speaker 1: what makes a great podcast. You know, you know my
Speaker 1: my quote I always say is when when podcast build empathy? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and so have you found that the skills that
Speaker 1: you've owned as a comedian and a writer all these
Speaker 1: years make you that much better of an interviewer and
Speaker 1: a storyteller, you know when you have these guests on
Speaker 1: on the Paul Mercurio Show. Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean
Speaker 1: I think, especially the way I talk to audiences, I
Speaker 1: think it's just kind of made me a natural interviewer
Speaker 1: because you know, with a podcast, I do research, I
Speaker 1: get you know, publicists send me reels and books to
Speaker 1: look at and blah blah blah. So I go in prepared,
Speaker 1: but when I go out and do stand them, I'm
Speaker 1: completely not prepared. It's funny because sometimes people say to
Speaker 1: me with those people plants, like when you've seen me
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, I've had people come up to me,
Speaker 1: what do you mean as well? It always you talk
Speaker 1: to them, and it just always worked out, and it
Speaker 1: was funny. Go yeah, I call ahead and I say
Speaker 1: I need a black guy and Indian guy, two women,
Speaker 1: and the fact that no, I said, I just talked
Speaker 1: to them and I'll speak to that. That And if
Speaker 1: you know someone in the crowd, like when you've seen
Speaker 1: me there, you you specifically make sure you don't talk
Speaker 1: to people you know in the crowd, you know, because
Speaker 1: it'd be weird to be like I'd have to either
Speaker 1: pretend that I didn't know you, which would be weird,
Speaker 1: or I'd have to be like, hey, Maddie, that was funny.
Speaker 1: And then suddenly, like you and I are talking, everyone's like,
Speaker 1: why do I give a shit about this guy? Maddie?
Speaker 1: Who is this guy? Like they don't care? Right, So,
Speaker 1: like it doesn't work, And but the point is in
Speaker 1: sort of just sort of talking to these people over
Speaker 1: the years, Um, it just kind of naturally kind of
Speaker 1: prepared me to be able to, I think, be a
Speaker 1: good interviewer, which I think the key is hopefully I
Speaker 1: am people think I AM is doing a lot of research,
Speaker 1: trying to ask questions that other people haven't asked, and um,
Speaker 1: letting the conversation go where it's going to go and
Speaker 1: not be stuck to your script, you know. Like, um,
Speaker 1: And I think that's the same with my stand up, right, So,
Speaker 1: like I might have a decide, I might make a
Speaker 1: decision that I'm going to do some jokes about my
Speaker 1: crazy Italian mom, But then I get the sense that
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe it's a younger crowd or something,
Speaker 1: and they're just not gonna go for I do a
Speaker 1: mom joke and it doesn't do well, I'll shift, I'll
Speaker 1: shift out of it and go to something else. And
Speaker 1: that's the same thing with an interview where the podcast
Speaker 1: is Like what I love about the podcast and the
Speaker 1: long form and the and no interruptions is that you
Speaker 1: can start down a strain of you know, talking to
Speaker 1: you know you about your career and radio. But then
Speaker 1: you have this great story that kind of veers off
Speaker 1: that says, have something else about you that I had
Speaker 1: no preparation for, that I I didn't read about. And
Speaker 1: that that to me is when you know, you get
Speaker 1: goose bumps and it's like a great conversation because now
Speaker 1: I know the guests is comfortable because I'm they're taking
Speaker 1: me places that they normally don't go, and interviews they're
Speaker 1: less guarded and it becomes a real conversation as opposed to, Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna answer these four kind of questions that always
Speaker 1: get asked to me, like what's it like to kiss
Speaker 1: George Clooney? And well do you have a big trailer
Speaker 1: around the set? And all the same questions that they answer,
Speaker 1: and when you start asking questions that they don't normally get.
Speaker 1: They go, oh my god, this is so much fun.
Speaker 1: I can't believe you knew that, and research that and
Speaker 1: and so I think that there's so much that comes
Speaker 1: out of it, out of podcasting, just as beyond just
Speaker 1: the entertainment factor. I like. I I like to have
Speaker 1: people on my podcast. I have two kinds of people,
Speaker 1: people that you know, a list you know, good good
Speaker 1: celebrity name people from different walks of life, who you
Speaker 1: think you know, but you don't really know, and this
Speaker 1: is gonna give you a chance to really get a
Speaker 1: window into them because it's a long form interview, or
Speaker 1: people you don't know who I think you should know,
Speaker 1: Like I did to two Emmy specials right around the
Speaker 1: Emmys with my acting coach, who's one of the who's
Speaker 1: probably the best acting coach in the country and a
Speaker 1: big director too, and he talked about the history of
Speaker 1: the Emmy's, what they really mean, why they don't really
Speaker 1: mean that much, and it was so fascinating. And I
Speaker 1: think that's what podcasting for me should do. It should
Speaker 1: sort of expose people to things that they haven't been
Speaker 1: exposed to before. I tell my class at the university,
Speaker 1: the class one of the classes I teached that I
Speaker 1: always feel like the podcast goes best when I only
Speaker 1: get to maybe two of the questions I wrote down.
Speaker 1: And when they go badly is when I keep forcing
Speaker 1: it and trying to ask the questions that I think
Speaker 1: I want to ask and I think people want to know. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and never those never sound as good, right. But the
Speaker 1: thing is, like, that's what some people will do. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're so great that people should know, Like, like you said,
Speaker 1: we've known each other, You're you're probably the best person
Speaker 1: I've been with on radio because you are prepared. But
Speaker 1: then you throw the script out and you're you're engaged
Speaker 1: and you care and you like you make the guests
Speaker 1: feel like what they're saying really matters if somebody wants
Speaker 1: to hear it. But when someone like is so tied
Speaker 1: to their script that they like, I'll listen. Sometimes, not
Speaker 1: just on podcasts, the TV or whatever, somebody will say
Speaker 1: something that's grab I'm yelling at the screen or whatever.
Speaker 1: Grab sake follow up on that, like instead, they they're
Speaker 1: walking to the next freaking question and the guy or
Speaker 1: the woman just gave him a piece of gold and
Speaker 1: they missed it, and they missed it because they weren't
Speaker 1: in the moment. They weren't listening, you know. And it's
Speaker 1: kind of cliche, but it is about all. It is
Speaker 1: about the listening. It's the same exact thing with my
Speaker 1: stand up. Like if I if I go up with
Speaker 1: a prepared thing where I'm going to talk to you
Speaker 1: about your plaid shirt and into a plaid shirt, you
Speaker 1: might say something like, yeah, it's plaid, and my wife's
Speaker 1: cheating on me. So anyway, I got a plaid shirt too,
Speaker 1: and I missed my wife, and like I should be
Speaker 1: drummed out of stand up if that happens. Believe me,
Speaker 1: there are people to do that, like they'll miss it
Speaker 1: because they're so fixated and they're not listening. And uh
Speaker 1: and so you know, I think that for me anyway,
Speaker 1: And you know that in my podcast it's funny. I'm
Speaker 1: a comedian, but like it's not me doing my bit
Speaker 1: on a podcast. If you want to see me to
Speaker 1: stand up, become to see me to stand up. This
Speaker 1: is like another part of me that I and I
Speaker 1: just always like wong form interviews, so I figured it
Speaker 1: why not. You know, what's a couple of the surprising
Speaker 1: moments that you've had so far on the show, Neil
Speaker 1: the Crosse Tyson telling me that he was almost gonna
Speaker 1: be a male stripper to make extra money. No ship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was at the University of Texas. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think everybody knows who he is. Who he is, but
Speaker 1: he's the head of the Haydon Hayden Planetarium here in
Speaker 1: New York and like a genius uh astrophysicist, like you know,
Speaker 1: he's but a great personality too, and he was getting
Speaker 1: his PhD. I think at the University of Texas. Any
Speaker 1: was you know, hard up for money, and he was
Speaker 1: an athlete, like he was a he was a wrestler
Speaker 1: and then um, I think he was a dancer too,
Speaker 1: Like he's quite an athlete, and some of his buddies
Speaker 1: were like stripping from extra money at the local strip club.
Speaker 1: So he went down and was considering it. So he's free.
Speaker 1: He came. He went down with one of his friends
Speaker 1: and he sits down and the first guy comes out.
Speaker 1: It's not his friends, just the guy, and the guy
Speaker 1: like tears off his pants and he's doing the whole
Speaker 1: dancing stuff. And now he's down there his thong and
Speaker 1: he takes light of fluid and squirts it on his uh,
Speaker 1: you know, his growing area and then lights it on fire.
Speaker 1: It's a great balls of fire. And so at that
Speaker 1: moment Neil goes, I think I got up and I
Speaker 1: walked out and said this isn't for me, right, so
Speaker 1: um or you know, like it's just well, you know,
Speaker 1: we talked about Paul McCartney and yeah, that story is
Speaker 1: great because I know how excited you were to get
Speaker 1: that interview too, and how you got it's pretty interested
Speaker 1: it it was crazy. Yeah, well he's got a great
Speaker 1: story of just they used to tour around in a
Speaker 1: van when they had no money, and that the van
Speaker 1: got broken into one night and it was freezing and
Speaker 1: they had to like all sleep in the van and
Speaker 1: what he calls like a Beatles sandwich and they all,
Speaker 1: like the four them, like huddled up against each other,
Speaker 1: and I could just picture that, like these are guys
Speaker 1: that are, you know, bigger than anybody on the planet
Speaker 1: and that but to see that side of them in
Speaker 1: your mind, I think is really fascinating. And he was great,
Speaker 1: like I. He was at the Colbert Report and he
Speaker 1: was he was going to be the special musical guest
Speaker 1: and uh, don't ask me why I think the guy
Speaker 1: is just average. No, I'm kidding. Uh and uh and
Speaker 1: and he had just finished rehearsal and I was working
Speaker 1: at the Colbert Report, and I was running downstairs to
Speaker 1: go into the studio. And I round the corner and
Speaker 1: Paul McCartney standing in the hallway like all alone. And
Speaker 1: I mean like all alone. You didn't have anybody with him,
Speaker 1: which threw me more than anything else, because you'd expect
Speaker 1: the guy of that stature, you know, to kind of
Speaker 1: have all security and a helicopter hovering above his head
Speaker 1: all the time time, you know what I mean, like,
Speaker 1: but nothing And uh. And I'm like, should I say hi?
Speaker 1: Should I not say Hi? And I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: what's screw it? He's he's alone, uh, in a hallway,
Speaker 1: no guards or anything. He's like a gazelle on the
Speaker 1: Serengetti plane and on the line. I'm gonna pounce, right.
Speaker 1: So I just go over and I say, hey, it's
Speaker 1: great to meet you. I'm a big fan. I start
Speaker 1: to walk away and he goes, hey, come back. I
Speaker 1: go where he goes what's your name? I go Paul
Speaker 1: And he goes, oh, Paul, that's a good name. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'll do the joke's asshole, all right, just back off.
Speaker 1: This is all I have. Okay, You've got everything. So
Speaker 1: he goes, what do you do? I'm a stand up
Speaker 1: You start talking. You got a kid? Yeah, I got
Speaker 1: a kid touring, that's all right. Yeah. One thing leads
Speaker 1: to another, and I'm talking to Paul McCartney like, I'm
Speaker 1: talking to you for like ten minutes. If people walking
Speaker 1: by me like great, Paul mecury, Paul McCarty, Like I
Speaker 1: don't know, and I'm waiting for someone that tays me
Speaker 1: for talking to the guy like I don't know what's
Speaker 1: going on. And then and on the outside, I'm all
Speaker 1: smooth and hip. I'm like, hey, I'm talking to Paul McCarty.
Speaker 1: And on the inside, I'm like, I'm talking like I
Speaker 1: was out of my mind right like those girls as
Speaker 1: you see, like from the sixties, screaming at the top
Speaker 1: of their lunge. And so it comes full circle. By
Speaker 1: the way, I just to stand up on the Lay
Speaker 1: Show with Stephen Colbert, which is the stage where Ed
Speaker 1: Sullivan Theater is, which is where the Beatles made that
Speaker 1: famous performance when they first came to America was like,
Speaker 1: so it's a full circle. So I'm standing on that
Speaker 1: same stage a couple of weeks ago. I just doing
Speaker 1: that stand up a stand up set. So anyway, um,
Speaker 1: I say, okay, it's great to meet you, and I
Speaker 1: leave and I call my wife and I'm like, I
Speaker 1: go in the bathroom like hyperventilating, like Paul McCartney because
Speaker 1: why are you breathing heavy in a bathroom? Like now,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that. I'm just calling you because I'm
Speaker 1: really right. So I then hang up the phone and go,
Speaker 1: Paul McCarney should do my podcast, Like that's how my
Speaker 1: brain works. And I'm thinking, look at the guys in
Speaker 1: his seventies even gonna know what a podcast is, right.
Speaker 1: But I go and I knock on a dressing room
Speaker 1: door and I'm like, hey, I know this is crazy,
Speaker 1: but i'd love to talk to you about making music.
Speaker 1: Would you do my podcast? He goes yeah, sure, just
Speaker 1: like that wow, And that's what through me because I
Speaker 1: it's sort of like when you're in high school and
Speaker 1: there's that really hot girl. You want to ask out
Speaker 1: our guy, but their way above your pay grade. Would
Speaker 1: you ask him out? Anyway? But you know, they're gonna
Speaker 1: say no. Instead they say yes and you don't have
Speaker 1: a plan. Well that was me because he goes, yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: how would we do it? And I literally made these noises.
Speaker 1: I'm like uh um, and I'm like rubbing my leg
Speaker 1: like rain man. I was just like completely, I go,
Speaker 1: I go, I go, uh, I'll come to London. And
Speaker 1: he goes, we're in New York City together. Why would
Speaker 1: you come to London? And then he said is it
Speaker 1: easy to do? And I actually said, to the most
Speaker 1: influential musician in the last century, uh yeah, it's really easy.
Speaker 1: You could do it on your phone naked from your toilet.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what am I saying? I gotta get out
Speaker 1: of here. I'm gonna screw this up, so I leave.
Speaker 1: I'm about to leave. I say, I'll go set this
Speaker 1: up with one of your assistants and he goes, now, man,
Speaker 1: he goes, they'll just they'll mess it up. He goes,
Speaker 1: you and I'll do it. I go, what do you mean?
Speaker 1: He goes, let's just exchange numbers and I'll call all
Speaker 1: you and we'll do it. And I'm like okay, And
Speaker 1: then I said, I'm not going to sleep with you
Speaker 1: old man. But then I said, actually, I'll sleep with
Speaker 1: your your beetle, screw it, I'll sleep with you. No.
Speaker 1: So I handed my number, my handshaking, and I'm handing
Speaker 1: my number to Paul McCartney. He's giving me his number.
Speaker 1: And then I thought I got it, like Leno. I
Speaker 1: thought I got a really nice blow off. He does
Speaker 1: the Colbert Show. Now I'm rushing to get to the
Speaker 1: Daily Show. On my phone rings and I don't recognize
Speaker 1: the number, and I let it ring the voicemail and
Speaker 1: this is the message on my phone. Caught me here.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ring you back in five minutes the podcast thing.
Speaker 1: I've got some time now, I'm gonna run out of time.
Speaker 1: So if you're that at five minutes time, you call me, okay,
Speaker 1: fine ship myself. I would I would shoot myself. And
Speaker 1: then I'm just I picked that message up on the
Speaker 1: streets of New York and I started like ranting, like
Speaker 1: a you know, you see these sort of many people
Speaker 1: with mental problems we talked to voices in their heads.
Speaker 1: I was just like, damn it, scream called Paul McCartney.
Speaker 1: H never get him back. I'm just ranting and running
Speaker 1: around the sidewalk. It was a me and I called
Speaker 1: him back and he picked up the phone and some
Speaker 1: actually someone else that he was actually the on the
Speaker 1: toilet and I had to wait for him. So that now,
Speaker 1: well you told him you could do it on the toilet. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So in all capul I go, just keep taking a
Speaker 1: ship and we'll talk and no. So I got him
Speaker 1: on and uh and I could picture him on the toilet.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I must be the most genius ship ever.
Speaker 1: He's a genius. Everything he does his genius right and uh.
Speaker 1: And then I got him on the phone and we
Speaker 1: talked and that was that was I got the interview.
Speaker 1: It was crazy. And by the way, you would appreciate this,
Speaker 1: you know, being creating podcast producing them being on my
Speaker 1: studio at the time was in l A. And I'm
Speaker 1: in New York. So I called him in l A
Speaker 1: and I go, uh, I need a recording line. I
Speaker 1: got Paul McCartney for an interview, and this young guy
Speaker 1: who like was like clueless, goes, oh, yeah, we don't
Speaker 1: have any available to somebody in the studio right now,
Speaker 1: right exa and right, so, I you know, just losing
Speaker 1: go did you not hear me, I have Paul McCartney.
Speaker 1: I said, unless you have Jesus Christ or John Lennon
Speaker 1: in that studio, get him out of there right now.
Speaker 1: And then I was like, oh my god. And then
Speaker 1: I had to stall Paul McCartney for twenty five minutes
Speaker 1: while we got a line set up because they could
Speaker 1: they had to get another different It was crazy. It
Speaker 1: was the most stressful. At one point I just said, sir,
Speaker 1: I'm losing my mind. Can we just set this up?
Speaker 1: Anytime goes no. Man, you got me now, you gotta
Speaker 1: get me now. And I got them and it was crazy,
Speaker 1: you know. I think as listening to that story, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the things that strikes me is is why
Speaker 1: you got the interview, is that you asked and that
Speaker 1: you went up and talked. Because I think today and
Speaker 1: maybe you know, you've you've noticed as this as a celebrity,
Speaker 1: nobody goes up and talks and says hi, and how
Speaker 1: are you doing anymore? They just walk up, put their
Speaker 1: camera up and want to get it fucking selfie. You
Speaker 1: totally nailed it. That's exactly why I think. And I
Speaker 1: heard later he doesn't like it when people ask him
Speaker 1: for photos. I didn't ask him for a picture, and
Speaker 1: I didn't ask him for an autographed and I didn't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't one of those like sycophantic fans, like tell
Speaker 1: me about John and what was true. I didn't talk
Speaker 1: to him about the Beatles. I literally talked to him
Speaker 1: like I talked to you. We talked about his kid
Speaker 1: and my kid, and touring and comedy and the comedians
Speaker 1: that he liked he was close with, like Richard Pryor
Speaker 1: and some of these other guys. And I think they
Speaker 1: just want to be treated like normal people, you know,
Speaker 1: especially him. He's the biggest star on the planet literally,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what ingratiated me to him and
Speaker 1: I and I was honest when I said to him,
Speaker 1: I want to interview because I want to talk to
Speaker 1: you about music and how you make music. And that's
Speaker 1: all I talked about. You go listen to the interview.
Speaker 1: There's not one question about his relationship with Yoko and
Speaker 1: if they still aid each other and you know, getting
Speaker 1: laid on the road, or how drug stories or you
Speaker 1: know what it was like. John Lennon was like and
Speaker 1: none of that stuff, none of the salacious people magazine stuff.
Speaker 1: It was literally about the process of writing music. Like,
Speaker 1: the first question I asked him was, I'm a comic
Speaker 1: and you have a certain style and your fans get
Speaker 1: used to it. But where did you, guys, at the
Speaker 1: tender age of where you had the world at your feet,
Speaker 1: get the guts to change your sounds so radically from
Speaker 1: one album to the next and not worry about losing
Speaker 1: your fan base. And he goes, oh, nobody ever asked
Speaker 1: me that before, and so when they say that, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's always the best I get. I get, I get
Speaker 1: would anytime we hear that that exactly exactly, and you
Speaker 1: get you don't get with that easily. You've got issues,
Speaker 1: I know. And he said, you know, we didn't think
Speaker 1: about that at the time. We just would do something
Speaker 1: and we're like, okay, we did that sound. Now let's
Speaker 1: go and explore and try something else. And it was
Speaker 1: a pure artist's answer. So I think that, yeah, you know, attempting,
Speaker 1: you know, working on these shows, you're around these celebrities
Speaker 1: all the time. There is a sense, like sense sense
Speaker 1: sensibility of like let me see even get something from
Speaker 1: the guy, let me get a picture and show my friends.
Speaker 1: And then this time us back to your question about
Speaker 1: social media, because I'll post it on social media and
Speaker 1: I'll get more followers and people think I'm cool. It's
Speaker 1: like social media creates monsters out of people, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, like it it drives you to do
Speaker 1: stuff that you normally wouldn't do, you know, So that
Speaker 1: I think that was I think you're totally spot on.
Speaker 1: That was the key to that whole thing. All right, Paul,
Speaker 1: Before we go, We've got a little segment we do
Speaker 1: at the end of the podcast called three Killer Questions.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you three questions you're gonna give
Speaker 1: me an answer. The first question is, if you could
Speaker 1: listen to a podcast featuring anybody living or dead, whose
Speaker 1: podcast would you want to listen to? You mean with
Speaker 1: that person on it? Yeah, Like with that person hosting
Speaker 1: it and being the point I think it would be.
Speaker 1: I think the Pope, yeah, because like you never really
Speaker 1: hear much from the Pope except some prayers in Latin,
Speaker 1: and I don't have the time to study Latin and
Speaker 1: uh ie like kind of but like a real, a
Speaker 1: real conversation with the Pope, not one that just is
Speaker 1: like the syrup be like religious thing. I think that
Speaker 1: would be really cool. And then I got to ask him,
Speaker 1: you know, just at d M, like what are you
Speaker 1: wearing under your robe? Are you wearing anything? Are you
Speaker 1: a tidy, whitey guy? You know, I just throwing a
Speaker 1: couple of questions like that. What was the first piece
Speaker 1: of technology that changed your life? Oh, vibrator? Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: and I and I was alone with it. I just
Speaker 1: used it on myself. It was it was I wanted
Speaker 1: to go to prison. I liked it so much. Um,
Speaker 1: the first piece of technology to change my life, I'd
Speaker 1: have to say that the computer, like just the the
Speaker 1: idea that you could just like not have to write
Speaker 1: stuff out, and you know what I mean, Like, I
Speaker 1: think that just totally changed the whole dynamic of everything. Finally,
Speaker 1: what was the last podcast that you binged? Um? The
Speaker 1: last podcast I binged was? It was probably, uh, it
Speaker 1: was probably WTF Marins? But I don't binge that often.
Speaker 1: I mean I did a few in a row, but
Speaker 1: probably probably Marrin's. Yeah. Um. And also MPR. I tend
Speaker 1: to sort of live a lot on MPR too, because
Speaker 1: I think they bring on a variety of different guests
Speaker 1: that I like, you know what I mean that I
Speaker 1: probably say even before Marins m MPR when when they
Speaker 1: um and that the New Yorker specifically with David Remnick.
Speaker 1: He just had Bruce Springsteen on recently about talking about
Speaker 1: his book and it was a really great conversation with Bruce.
Speaker 1: That was the kind of conversation I like to have
Speaker 1: on my podcast because you heard about stuff that you
Speaker 1: didn't really know about until now, Like you know more
Speaker 1: details about his relationship with his father, and you know
Speaker 1: that that he had no drug policy in his band.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that, you know. Uh so that that's
Speaker 1: probably I reworked my answer to say, David Remnick is
Speaker 1: a New Yorker podcast, maybe my number one there right now.
Speaker 1: And the final bonus question, which I feel just get bonus. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this is this is embracing my wacky morning show
Speaker 1: radio roots. If you're if you're a sandwich personified, not
Speaker 1: your favorite sandwich, but if there was a sandwich that
Speaker 1: said you what what? What would you be? Wow? Oh
Speaker 1: I think I'd be like, uh, I think I'd be
Speaker 1: like a really messy club sandwich, Like a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff going on, but it kind of all works together,
Speaker 1: but like a mess you know, like there's bacon, hanging
Speaker 1: out of one side, and a half right tomato hanging
Speaker 1: out of another, the chicken sou then you get that
Speaker 1: bread in the middle, Then you got the you got
Speaker 1: the maybe some lettuce, a little bit of onion. Like
Speaker 1: I'm I got so much going on, like I'm I'm
Speaker 1: kind of a mess, like I'm getting an arguments with people.
Speaker 1: It's the Italian of me. It's like that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: I think. I think that that would be I think
Speaker 1: a chicken cloth sandwich, chicken salad club, that would be it.
Speaker 1: Paul Mecurio from the Paul Mercurial Show. You can find
Speaker 1: it out on I Heart Radio on the app. Also
Speaker 1: check him out December seven through tenth that the Tampa
Speaker 1: Improv in Tampa, Florida, and December fourteenth through the sevente
Speaker 1: that Omaha Funny Bone in Omaha, Nebraska. I hope one
Speaker 1: day I'm a list enough to have you interview me.
Speaker 1: I've been on this end of interviews with you for
Speaker 1: so many years now. I can't wait for that. Why,
Speaker 1: I don't know, have you come on, let's do that.
Speaker 1: I would do it anytime, sir? All right, um, what's
Speaker 1: your name again? Uh? Exactly, yeah, yeah, let's do that.
Speaker 1: You're right, we could do that. Why haven't we done that?
Speaker 1: We'll do podcaster Maddie Stout right after Judd Apple, Brian
Speaker 1: Cranston and Stephen Colbert fit right. Yeah, absolutely, we're gonna
Speaker 1: have you definitely. I'm sorry I didn't even think of that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll do it like next week of the week after
Speaker 1: you let me know, you know, i'd love you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm booked up till, but I'll catch you in. I'll
Speaker 1: work in. No, I would love to do that. That That
Speaker 1: would be so awesome if you've got such a great
Speaker 1: story yourself. All right, done, all right, it sounds good.
Speaker 1: You know. I love you. I love you too, buddy.
Speaker 1: You know why I like that interview the best. I
Speaker 1: didn't have to do very much. Yeah, he does a
Speaker 1: lot of talking. He's got some good stories. I love Paul.
Speaker 1: And Paul tells a great story. And and he's just
Speaker 1: he's easy. And I'll tell you what though, that guy
Speaker 1: works in hustles a lot, like when he comes to town.
Speaker 1: You know, he's always you know, trying to you know,
Speaker 1: you know, hustle to get folks at the show. And um,
Speaker 1: and I think that we didn't talk about it during
Speaker 1: the podcast a lot. But the thing he's best known
Speaker 1: for is being a writer for The Daily Show and
Speaker 1: the colbar Rapport, and that's where he won the Peabody
Speaker 1: Award was for being a writer for The Daily Show.
Speaker 1: So he is one of the top comedy writers out there.
Speaker 1: It's so crazy to see, like hear his story from
Speaker 1: being a lawyer and living that double life and then
Speaker 1: making like switching career so drastically and then going to
Speaker 1: the level he's at. It was really cool to see that.
Speaker 1: I mean, getting to The Daily Show is like a
Speaker 1: pinnacle for a lot of comedians. Oh yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: And and he was there from the day one, so
Speaker 1: oh yeah, he was part of the team that built
Speaker 1: that show. That's awesome. Yeah. So anyway, we're gonna run
Speaker 1: through this because that interview went a lot longer than expected.
Speaker 1: So z is in, by the way, to tell us
Speaker 1: about some podcasts that you should be listening to. Yes,
Speaker 1: So my first one is The Ezra Client Show. And
Speaker 1: I was already a fan of him because he's the
Speaker 1: editor at large at vox dot com, which is one
Speaker 1: of my favorite websites, and it's a political interview podcast.
Speaker 1: But he's just so well thought out, and he's so
Speaker 1: well researched, and he just makes the guests go the
Speaker 1: extra mile with his follow up questions, and I really
Speaker 1: like that it's educational. There is a pretty interesting series
Speaker 1: of debates about impeachment if you go back into the
Speaker 1: constitutional connections, and at some point there is a version
Speaker 1: of the impeachment power proposed that enumerates what you can
Speaker 1: be impeached for and the ideas for bribery and treason,
Speaker 1: and that's it. And someone comes back and says, blats ridiculous. Um,
Speaker 1: there's much more. And there's another version that has mal administration,
Speaker 1: which is much closer to to the argument I'm making,
Speaker 1: by the way, about Trump, and that is also to
Speaker 1: be fair rejected. I'm a big fan of Fox's I
Speaker 1: pull a lot of prep really good content, really good
Speaker 1: content if if you're looking for a content place, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Next one is the Joe Rogan experience. He is a
Speaker 1: stand up comedian and he also does like color commentary
Speaker 1: for UFC. I don't want to take credit for Joe
Speaker 1: Rogan's career as far as podcasting and radio, but when
Speaker 1: I did the Alice Morning Show, we had when comedians
Speaker 1: came in, We let them just hang out and talk.
Speaker 1: That was my philosophy on on comedians. And Joe would
Speaker 1: come in and he was so happy. He never had
Speaker 1: a place that let him come in and spout his
Speaker 1: craziness and talk about going into his his immersion chamber
Speaker 1: and the drugs that he took and all of that,
Speaker 1: and we gave him an open for him. So when
Speaker 1: Joe would come in, he'd sit in for two hours,
Speaker 1: so I know he got a good taste of that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I know, like you know, when Kevin Smith came
Speaker 1: in a lot, he said the same thing that those
Speaker 1: guys um felt like that's where they actually got to
Speaker 1: spread their wings and and and get into that kind
Speaker 1: of talk radio. So I'm not taking credit for but
Speaker 1: but you're a part of its credit. But I really
Speaker 1: like his podcast because it's it varies from comedy to
Speaker 1: like he has great people on, Like he can talk
Speaker 1: to Jamie Foxx in one episode and then like a
Speaker 1: psychology professor about mental illness and you know, inequality and stuff.
Speaker 1: So it's super it ranges. Rogan is wicked smart, yeah,
Speaker 1: and he really is. He really is. You can't do
Speaker 1: a talk show if you're not super smart. Let's check
Speaker 1: out a little taste of it. You also get humbled
Speaker 1: a lot as a comedian. Yeah, you gotta get those jokes.
Speaker 1: You're performing in front of a live audience. It's all live.
Speaker 1: He's gotta work, and it doesn't work, you gotta go
Speaker 1: back to trying boards and act. Just don't get a
Speaker 1: lot of that. That's one of the reasons why the
Speaker 1: kind of shaky more shaky, all right, what you got now?
Speaker 1: The last one is Fresh Air with Terry gross That
Speaker 1: the the ultimate pineticle of Pinnacle, Pinetic Pinnacle, Pinnacle of
Speaker 1: interview podcast as opposed to mine, which is kind of
Speaker 1: a down stop. Hey uh yeah, I mean Terry Grosses
Speaker 1: is as the legend and I I've been listening to
Speaker 1: her for years, but I used to make fun of
Speaker 1: her a bit because sometimes your questions, she's so well researched,
Speaker 1: should be like, so in third grade you wrote a poem.
Speaker 1: Now last year you did a movie. Uh, in the
Speaker 1: and in the main scene where you talking to your lover,
Speaker 1: there was no tree in the background. Now, I couldn't
Speaker 1: help but put those two together. Is there anything to that?
Speaker 1: And she'll bring those guests to that mile right, and
Speaker 1: then the guy and then the guys will be like,
Speaker 1: absolutely right, Terry, that's the same tree as in the poem.
Speaker 1: And the thing is like you did her personation and
Speaker 1: that's what I love most about her. Her voice eases me.
Speaker 1: So I could be like cooking or like cleaning, and
Speaker 1: I'll just put it on that. Yeah, exactly. It's always
Speaker 1: it's always nice when you're listening to Terry Gross. She
Speaker 1: never gets too excited about anything like that. All right,
Speaker 1: let's hear Terry. You had to basically study everything that
Speaker 1: makes the room weird and unintentionally funny, the right acting,
Speaker 1: the edits, the use of music because you had to
Speaker 1: reproduce some of it in addition to telling the behind
Speaker 1: the scenes story. That was wonderful. See you've done a
Speaker 1: great job today. Hey everybody, it's been another fantastic show.
Speaker 1: It's been Access Podcast. I'm your host, Mattie Stout. Access
Speaker 1: Podcast is been brought to you by the fine support
Speaker 1: of the Wilcox family, Katie will Coxon family at I
Speaker 1: Heeart Radio, San Francisco, and a stand of wonderful donation
Speaker 1: from the Peterson Group, Chris Peterson and I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: Special Thanks goes out to Dalton run Burke for doing
Speaker 1: the artwork and Casey Franco for the wonderful music that
Speaker 1: we've heard today on Excess Podcast. I want to specially
Speaker 1: thank our guest today, Paul Mercurio. Go look him up
Speaker 1: at the Paul Mercurial Show on I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: Z I just want to say to you, you're doing
Speaker 1: a fantastic job today as our producer. That's gonna do
Speaker 1: it for now. If you'd like to hear more about
Speaker 1: our show, go to access Podcast on Facebook or access
Speaker 1: podcast one on the Twitter. I hear all the kids
Speaker 1: are into the twittering. Go check us out there. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and don't forget Go find a podcast on
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and tell your friends about it by
Speaker 1: backh