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Speaker 1: Podcast playground. Well, this is Buzz Night, and later this

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Speaker 1: week on the Taking a Walk podcast series, we're going

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Speaker 1: to have a really cool episode with a guy who

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Speaker 1: has got an amazing career of writing and stand up comedy,

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Speaker 1: Paul Mercurio. It's so nice to see you here in

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Speaker 1: New York, New York City. How you doing, Buzz? I'm

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Speaker 1: doing awesome. I couldn't be any better. I'm here, I'm

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Speaker 1: outside the Ed Sullivan Theater. Life is fantastic. It's crazy,

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Speaker 1: and we're technically just some people know we're not really walking,

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Speaker 1: we're standing, but I think it counts as walking. We

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Speaker 1: could saunter, We could saunter. Yeah, No, it's great. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I love New York. I grew up in Providence, Rhode Island,

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Speaker 1: you know, but I've been here since I graduated law

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Speaker 1: school and started working here on Wall Street as a

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Speaker 1: lawyer and investment banker, and then decided to quit to

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Speaker 1: go into comedy and acting. And it was really to

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Speaker 1: just give my mother a heart attack and just say, okay,

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Speaker 1: what can I do to really twist the night? Now?

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Speaker 1: I met Jay Leno in an off chance meeting at

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Speaker 1: a private function that my firm went to, and I

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Speaker 1: had been writing jokes and I gave him some of

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Speaker 1: my jokes and that's how the rest is history. Well,

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Speaker 1: it's funny because I gave him to him and I

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Speaker 1: just said, I'm never going to use it. You can happen,

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Speaker 1: and he was like, uh, like he really does. Like

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Speaker 1: I started laughing because I like, he just talks like

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Speaker 1: they're letting helium out of balloon very slowly. That and

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Speaker 1: then I was so nervous. And here I am, I

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Speaker 1: work on Wall Street and you know, supposedly you know,

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Speaker 1: got my act together, and he goes, hey, wait, come back,

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Speaker 1: come back. He goes like, you might want to put

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Speaker 1: your name in your phone number on here so I

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Speaker 1: know how to reach I didn't have, like, and it

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Speaker 1: was a lot of jokes. It was like ten pages

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Speaker 1: of like jokes. And about two days later, my phone

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Speaker 1: rang and it's like a jay leno was falling there

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Speaker 1: and I thought it was I mean, you dude, you

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Speaker 1: have that encounter. You know, you've been working in this

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Speaker 1: business for every There's no way that guy's ever gonna

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Speaker 1: call me. He's just being nice. And then I pigey

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Speaker 1: throw them out And I have a friend who likes

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Speaker 1: to pull pranks on me. So I thought it was

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Speaker 1: my friend pretending to be Jay Leno because I told

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Speaker 1: him I met Jay Leno. And he's like, I go, uh,

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Speaker 1: yeah right, it's jay Leno goes, now, really it's Shane Leno.

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Speaker 1: I go, yeah, right, yeah right, David, stop it's not

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Speaker 1: He goes, now it really is. And I actually said

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Speaker 1: to Jay Leno, you do allowsy jay Leno and he's like,

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Speaker 1: I think I do it pretty good me. I'm like,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, it's jay Leno. And he goes, I'll uh,

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Speaker 1: I read this stuff, and I need stuff for the

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Speaker 1: tonight s your monologue. So I'll hire you to send

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Speaker 1: the jokes to the tonight your monologue, and if I

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Speaker 1: use something, I'll pay you fifty bucks a joke. And

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Speaker 1: I go okay, and then he goes, by the way,

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Speaker 1: what do you do for a living? I go, I'm

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Speaker 1: a lawyer. He goes, I knew it. I go. He goes,

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Speaker 1: you're right like a lawyer. You're too wordy. He goes,

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Speaker 1: he's a jokes and I'm writing contracts. Get to the

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Speaker 1: punchline already. Oh my god. Well, because you're so used

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Speaker 1: to writing so detailed as a lawyer, that I was

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Speaker 1: like writing, you know, make funny face here. Yeah. In

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Speaker 1: Parentist He's like, and I know, want to make a

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Speaker 1: funny face. I've been doing this for a while. Think

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Speaker 1: oh I love it. I love it, well, you know what.

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Speaker 1: So later this week we released the episode with Paul

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Speaker 1: Mercurio and the Taken a Walk series from New York

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Speaker 1: and I can't wait for you to hear it.