Speaker 1: Really now, really.
Speaker 2: Really now, really well, and welcome to another episode of
Speaker 2: Really No Really with Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden. Today
Speaker 2: you'll meet the producer and host of the Naked Comedy Show,
Speaker 2: where the comics are nude and the first two rows
Speaker 2: are clothing optional. You'll find out about the history of
Speaker 2: nudity on stage and why Jason Alexander has been naked
Speaker 2: or mostly naked, on screens and in the restrooms of
Speaker 2: bars and taverns around the world. So, and I can't
Speaker 2: believe I'm saying this, but if you enjoy our show,
Speaker 2: remember till I can subscribe. And now before I get
Speaker 2: any more nauseist than I already am, here are your hosts,
Speaker 2: Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden.
Speaker 1: Really well, Peter, you're of address this one. I think
Speaker 1: you're a little over address. Yeah. This is a It's
Speaker 1: just this is an interesting really no really, isn't it?
Speaker 1: When you heard about this?
Speaker 3: By the way, wait till the ends side of this interesting.
Speaker 3: I love when people because in radio my own assessment,
Speaker 3: I think today is one of the best we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be one of the best shows. I
Speaker 1: can tell it.
Speaker 4: Already that the really no, really is we read about
Speaker 4: in Brooklyn, I think every month. Now there is a
Speaker 4: thing called the naked comedy show.
Speaker 1: Three words. I didn't know it could go together in
Speaker 1: the same sentence.
Speaker 4: And and it's become it's become quite a successful venture.
Speaker 4: And it's naked comanian people get up. They're comedians, that's
Speaker 4: what they do for a living, but they decide to
Speaker 4: do it el buffo and uh, and it's it's become
Speaker 4: all the rage.
Speaker 1: And we heard about this and went.
Speaker 3: And we started thinking, are we gonna hear Dave Chappelle
Speaker 3: one night Medicine Square Garden in the round?
Speaker 1: Is the nude?
Speaker 3: I mean, is this the trend they were going to?
Speaker 3: What kind of comedians go? Is there a cutoff of handsome?
Speaker 3: You're too handsome? You can't do this.
Speaker 4: Harry Seinfeld doesn't even work with the top button.
Speaker 1: So we got on with us.
Speaker 3: Gentleman who's joined us, Billy Proceeder, who's the guy who
Speaker 3: produces the show.
Speaker 1: And you were in there and he as a performer
Speaker 1: in the show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and he's he's a producer of the show and yeah,
Speaker 4: and also, uh, you have a podcast now, the man
Speaker 4: who podcast sex positive conversations.
Speaker 1: Yes, I do.
Speaker 4: So you are a big proponent of all things naked
Speaker 4: and sexual and comedy and positive and again three things
Speaker 4: I didn't know to go together and positive and sexual
Speaker 4: did positive and nude.
Speaker 1: I have not experienced that myself.
Speaker 3: What we're going to get hopefully after after we talk
Speaker 3: to you and you're moving forward, body image. The fact
Speaker 3: that Jason has appeared many times naked.
Speaker 5: I mean, you're one of the most famous half naked
Speaker 5: posters in break I am a.
Speaker 1: Sexual icon from the nineties.
Speaker 5: You pick a dorm room, there's a third of a
Speaker 5: chance you're up there.
Speaker 3: Isn't it amazing? He's like an iconic for Kreischer. We
Speaker 3: will mock you, Jason. Alexander was chef naked before, so
Speaker 3: we want to talk about that because you being my friend.
Speaker 1: You did it in ARCA. I got your naked by
Speaker 1: episode three on Arc you got me naked when we
Speaker 1: first met it. You two are so cute together. I say,
Speaker 1: you two are adorable.
Speaker 3: You know what, We've been inseparable for thirty wow, thirty
Speaker 3: like two years now, which is amazing. So yes, we're
Speaker 3: best friends. Seeing him naked more than more than anyone
Speaker 3: seen you naked.
Speaker 1: I'm sure.
Speaker 3: So you started out as a comedian doing regular stand up,
Speaker 3: closed stand up, I'm guessing correct.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but I mean about a year, year and a
Speaker 5: half into doing stand up, I did start doing somebody
Speaker 5: else's naked show because I was what twenty years old,
Speaker 5: and you didn't have to bring anybody, you didn't have
Speaker 5: to bark anyone in. I just had to be willing
Speaker 5: to take my clothes off. And as Andy said, uh,
Speaker 5: not suck.
Speaker 1: So wait I was it?
Speaker 3: So wow, So that's why you went because you can
Speaker 3: get time on stage.
Speaker 1: Free stage time. Wow. It's tough out there here.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: I heard it's hard to get stage time. So now, God,
Speaker 3: but if you're nervous to stand up anyway, I can
Speaker 3: imagine you're taking the train in, you know, going I'm
Speaker 3: doing this.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do this in front of people.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, but I'd already started experimenting sexually with
Speaker 5: being naked in front of more than one disappointed person
Speaker 5: at a time.
Speaker 1: Craigslist was very active when I was in college.
Speaker 5: I went to n y U, so I was already
Speaker 5: in the city, and you know, I was like sometimes
Speaker 5: going to watch a couple play or doing this and that.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 5: With some group stuff, I don't know what I can
Speaker 5: say or not say for the U two you want,
Speaker 5: we'll cut it out or not cut it.
Speaker 4: Out or so nudity was not a big thing for you,
Speaker 4: just it didn't feel uncomfortable for you going in a
Speaker 4: little bit.
Speaker 5: But like I was already starting to get comfortable with it,
Speaker 5: you know, I was already getting okay with the idea
Speaker 5: let me let.
Speaker 3: Me just because I got to know body positive family.
Speaker 3: I mean, because my family would be what do you
Speaker 3: want to take? It would be the dumbest that they
Speaker 3: would just go out of their mind.
Speaker 1: It don't be showered in my underwear until I went
Speaker 1: to cos you know.
Speaker 3: I mean, I remember the first time I went to
Speaker 3: a health club with my dad, like a swim club,
Speaker 3: and you're you're a little kid, so you're genital high
Speaker 3: and I'm seeing things I never want to see again.
Speaker 3: It was so traumatic. Yea, so here you grew up
Speaker 3: that way in a family? How supportive? What what allowed
Speaker 3: you to do that? To be free enough?
Speaker 2: Was it?
Speaker 1: Do you know? I don't know. I think I just
Speaker 1: was cool with it. I don't know.
Speaker 5: It didn't seem to really matter. Also, like I was,
Speaker 5: I looked very different in college. I don't know, thirteen
Speaker 5: years ago. I looked the body was easier to be
Speaker 5: confident in.
Speaker 3: Billy, everybody everybody looked different in college.
Speaker 1: Okay, you know you know what I'm saying. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I looked exactly. It looked like you now minus to
Speaker 1: go to the same body.
Speaker 4: I was basically this short, this fat, and my hair
Speaker 4: was already going.
Speaker 1: Always an icons hair. Other than that.
Speaker 3: No, wait a minute, I saw you when you did
Speaker 3: the McDLT commercial A that stuff.
Speaker 1: You were thinner. I had a jacket, all right.
Speaker 3: So Billy, you take the train, you got clean underwear,
Speaker 3: You get there, you just robe. What do you remember
Speaker 3: the first night? Do you remember vividly?
Speaker 5: I remember the first time. I remember the second time.
Speaker 5: The second time. The chick I lost my virginity to
Speaker 5: came down from Fordham. I was at She's a Form.
Speaker 5: She comes down to the old pit People's Improv Theater
Speaker 5: in Midtown. She brought friends. I said, it's the naked
Speaker 5: comedy show, right, Okay, I'm backstage. Andy the host. He
Speaker 5: goes up, does his ten minutes naked. I go up
Speaker 5: first for the bullet spot eat all the I bombed
Speaker 5: my face off naked in front of her. I go
Speaker 5: backstage and there's a text way for me. It says,
Speaker 5: I didn't know you were going to be naked. I'm like,
Speaker 5: it's the Naked Comy Show.
Speaker 1: So I thought you thought it was just a funny name,
Speaker 1: and you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, She's like I thought it was gonna be raw
Speaker 5: and uncensored, and I'm like, well, and then afterwards me
Speaker 5: in two comics who wanted to sleep with her friends
Speaker 5: went out for drinks.
Speaker 1: No one got laid. It was horrifying.
Speaker 3: So your prospective, your POV from stage is your ex
Speaker 3: girlfriend's face with her mouth wide open, going oh my god,
Speaker 3: Oh my god, oh my god.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if I read served presence.
Speaker 5: I'm bombing that badly, like I do my opener, which
Speaker 5: is supposed to be strong, but I'm twenty. None of
Speaker 5: my jokes are strong, right, and by do that nothing,
Speaker 5: second joke, nothing, third joke maybe a giggle, And I'm like,
Speaker 5: this is a very long five minutes now.
Speaker 4: Was any of that material in that sort of debut thing?
Speaker 4: Was any of it referential to being naked? Or was
Speaker 4: it your act? But I have my clothes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I didn't have jokes written for naked comedy, but
Speaker 5: and there's a lot of you know these like alternative
Speaker 5: comedy shows, they present moments of tension you can play
Speaker 5: with if you want. Sure, So when you're doing a
Speaker 5: joke naked, it just gives you a new opportunity to
Speaker 5: say something different or different tag or like I never
Speaker 5: realized I stand on stage with one leg bow legged
Speaker 5: until I started doing naked comedy because I was like,
Speaker 5: oh my god, I'm presenting to you. You know, it's
Speaker 5: just those little moments you realize, and so.
Speaker 3: The audience, God, this is so fascinating to me. I
Speaker 3: would be intimidated to come as the audience to tell
Speaker 3: you the truth because I would be I don't like
Speaker 3: seeing naked people around other people.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 3: Watching you naked with other people would be embarrassing to me,
Speaker 3: rather than just seeing you naked. What's the audience like,
Speaker 3: are they a regular comedy audience or there's value added
Speaker 3: because they've come for some prurient interest.
Speaker 5: There's a prurient interest because it's like, what are you
Speaker 5: a law from the fifties throwing in prourient interests for you?
Speaker 1: Anthony comstock Man.
Speaker 4: I think Peter's how he phrased the question will tell
Speaker 4: you everything he needs to know. You're uncomfortable being in
Speaker 4: an audience of people who have come to see people
Speaker 4: being naked.
Speaker 1: You have layers of therapy. Oh my god, yes, oh
Speaker 1: my god. Yes.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm fascinated by who comes to this thing?
Speaker 3: Is it the same people go to the dining experience
Speaker 3: where they have the lights off, it's like blind dining.
Speaker 1: Just let's do it. Oh, I've heard of that. I've
Speaker 1: heard that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so's it that kind of crowd that it wants
Speaker 3: to do a new adventure or is it somebody who
Speaker 3: really is a comedy audience.
Speaker 5: I think we have a really good mix of audience.
Speaker 5: So we you know, at the core, the place is
Speaker 5: the place we do the show is called Haciendo, which
Speaker 5: is like a sex positive community space in Bushwick.
Speaker 1: But they throw sex parties.
Speaker 5: That's like, that's most of what they do is they
Speaker 5: throw sex parties and in the same basement they clear
Speaker 5: the mattresses and set up eighty chairs for a comedy
Speaker 5: show instead, so.
Speaker 4: Help turning on the black lights.
Speaker 5: So I think the core audience at first was like
Speaker 5: the Hacienda Crowd. I partnered with them to produce the
Speaker 5: show because you know a lot of people go to
Speaker 5: sex parties or sex workshops or whatever would also be.
Speaker 1: Interested in naked comedy show.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 5: Then we started getting some of the newest because we
Speaker 5: started allowing the first two rows to be clothing optional.
Speaker 5: So now we have that crowd a bit. And then
Speaker 5: we got this New York Times piece and and you
Speaker 5: know whoever follows the comedians on the show, So then
Speaker 5: we get a little bit of that crowd in. We
Speaker 5: get some people, you know, fans of my podcasts come in.
Speaker 5: So we've got a mix of like normal comedy audience,
Speaker 5: my listenership, and then like generic comedy audience, which is weird.
Speaker 5: Sometimes we'll be like, oh, how'd you find out about
Speaker 5: the show? Some times the dude will be like, I
Speaker 5: just searched for comedy. No, you didn't know, you dan,
Speaker 5: You search comedy, the seller shows up, Okay, you have
Speaker 5: to search certain words to find this show right on
Speaker 5: event right.
Speaker 3: Well, and anyhow, the thing for me is that Naked
Speaker 3: Is is louder than comedy, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: If you put it that way, So doesn't it overshadow
Speaker 3: the jokes. If you have a really strong set, do
Speaker 3: you ever do a control group and take it out
Speaker 3: and see what it's like clothes versus unclothed.
Speaker 5: I'm not booking just whoever's willing to take their clothes off.
Speaker 5: I mean, I loved Andy and what he created whatever,
Speaker 5: many years ago, but I always felt like he booked me.
Speaker 5: I mean, then what was the bar. I'm booking people
Speaker 5: where if it was a clothed comedy show, it's still
Speaker 5: a great show, you know, trying to book you know,
Speaker 5: people with credits, people with chops, people who are worth
Speaker 5: paying if they weren't taking their clothes off, right, But
Speaker 5: to be honest with you, after like the first thirty
Speaker 5: to ninety seconds, they're like, what do you got?
Speaker 1: Like what jokes? Do you know? Normalize? It really does normalize.
Speaker 5: After, especially later in the say, if you're the fourth,
Speaker 5: fifth comic, they'll be like, cool, we've seen it, We've
Speaker 5: seen some Like do you have material?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 5: Maybe if you're the first comic up there like whoa, whoa,
Speaker 5: it's naked. By the fifth comic, they're like, yeah, you
Speaker 5: got okay, what do you got here?
Speaker 1: But you know, tell me about your mom?
Speaker 4: You know, are you allowed to be a clothed naked
Speaker 4: given a performer given in that show gives Yeah, it
Speaker 4: came out great, didn't it will any performer still perform
Speaker 4: on that show that is not nude. So that's the thing.
Speaker 4: The performer got to be naked. It doesn't matter that
Speaker 4: you have clothing optional.
Speaker 5: When I see the first two shows we did, it
Speaker 5: was there was no nudity allowed in the audience and
Speaker 5: every show. Do you think we could get naked next
Speaker 5: time too? When enough people sold out packed?
Speaker 4: Are we talking like Madison Square Garden numbers or are
Speaker 4: we talking about sixty people?
Speaker 5: I mean, look in in the borough of Brooklyn, a
Speaker 5: seventy five seeded show outside of something at the at
Speaker 5: Barclay or what ever. I mean, that's probably one of
Speaker 5: the biggest comedy once one night a month, an orgy
Speaker 5: Basement in Bushwick is the biggest comedy club in Brooklyn.
Speaker 4: Really, no, really, I promise you there.
Speaker 1: Are two proper comedy clubs.
Speaker 5: There's like two or three comedy clubs, and none of
Speaker 5: them can see eighty I think Eastville maybe can seat
Speaker 5: that many, but I don't think they're they're packing that
Speaker 5: in on any given Friday Saturday night, So like, yeah,
Speaker 5: once a month, we're probably the biggest show in Brooklyn.
Speaker 3: There's a whole world, but we don't know about this,
Speaker 3: the whole hundred stuff that's out there. We're sitting here
Speaker 3: like two idiots. When a naked podcast starting Tuesday and you.
Speaker 4: Much as we tell you, I don't know what kind
Speaker 4: of viewership we got.
Speaker 3: It would be wow wow. So are you at the
Speaker 3: point now? How long you've been doing it?
Speaker 1: One year?
Speaker 3: So do you feel totally comfortable going to the club,
Speaker 3: going to the undressing room, taking off your clothes, coming out,
Speaker 3: and just doing your thing. It's not even it doesn't
Speaker 3: even phase you anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm comfortable doing naked comedy.
Speaker 5: The thing I was more uncomfortable about is like I
Speaker 5: normally didn't MC as long as I've been doing stand up.
Speaker 5: No one was ever like, yeah, I have proceede a host.
Speaker 5: So I literally learned how to host stand up comedy
Speaker 5: this year naked, Like that's the only way I know
Speaker 5: how to MC. But like I can MC naked if
Speaker 5: you have a gig and you need a host, if
Speaker 5: I can take my pants off, I'll do a great job.
Speaker 1: Really, Otherwise I'm not too Shore. Let me ask you
Speaker 1: about that.
Speaker 4: So you're here in la if I sent you over
Speaker 4: to the comedy store, yea right, objectively? I mean, I
Speaker 4: know it's hard to be objective about this, but would
Speaker 4: your stuff be just as effective there as Yeah?
Speaker 1: Absolutely?
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I meant like specifically MCing because that's such
Speaker 5: a specific cres like doing normal stand up.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I'm confident in that I've been doing that
Speaker 1: a while.
Speaker 3: So does it bug you though any of the major
Speaker 3: Jerry Sidelet's not going to take his clothes off, Dave
Speaker 3: Chppe's not gonnake the close off because they probably feel
Speaker 3: I don't have to do that to be funny.
Speaker 1: Any of your guys that are the next guys that
Speaker 1: are breaking.
Speaker 3: Through that that you think will escalate out of the
Speaker 3: naked comedy thing.
Speaker 5: We've had a lot of comedians with like big credits,
Speaker 5: people on America's Got We had Jason Williams from America's
Speaker 5: Got Talent and whil'n Out. We've had people from you
Speaker 5: know who've done stuff on like MTV. You've done late
Speaker 5: night sets on the Tonight Show and Late Show and
Speaker 5: Late Late Show. We've had people who've been in just
Speaker 5: for last New York Comedy Festival. I mean, like I said, like,
Speaker 5: I'm not trying to book whoever. There's maybe maybe sometimes
Speaker 5: there's one spot where I'm taking a shot on someone,
Speaker 5: but otherwise it's like I'm booking people where I'm like,
Speaker 5: I'd pay you if you were totally closed, because you're
Speaker 5: worth it. I'm not trying to just I'm not usually
Speaker 5: scrambling for for comics.
Speaker 1: I'm getting good people.
Speaker 4: When you talk to a comic who has not done
Speaker 4: this before but they have some success, right, what are
Speaker 4: their questions, what are their hesitations? Why why do they
Speaker 4: decide to do it or not do it? What's their journey?
Speaker 1: Do you know?
Speaker 5: I know some people have told me that they want
Speaker 5: to do it because of the whole body and security thing,
Speaker 5: and it's a way to tackle it and like tackle
Speaker 5: it head on and come at it and see that, oh,
Speaker 5: like my body it's valid and oh it's not that's
Speaker 5: scary to expose myself to some people, you know. Frankly,
Speaker 5: I mean the people who have been most self conscious
Speaker 5: when they turn me down because of the body stuff,
Speaker 5: usually got like thinner, fitter bodies than me.
Speaker 1: You know, I think a lot of the dudes.
Speaker 5: A lot of the cysts men who do it like
Speaker 5: they're definitely worried about the whole size thing.
Speaker 1: But also like, I don't know, grow up, it's fine,
Speaker 1: No one really cares. It's not what I've heard.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you have to be really confident with your
Speaker 3: body at some point, I mean, to get to the
Speaker 3: more serious issue body shaming and all.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're a culture now.
Speaker 3: It used to do airbrushing on magazines all of the stuff,
Speaker 3: and now it's a big deal. They show like actresses
Speaker 3: Sam's makeup. We say we're more accepting, we're not going
Speaker 3: to fact shame all this stuff. However, body consciousness is
Speaker 3: still a major, a major deal to get over. I
Speaker 3: don't know how Jason does what he did well. He
Speaker 3: doesn't he takes I mean, like you said, you're you're
Speaker 3: okay taking off your clothes.
Speaker 1: I'm not. No, I'm not so so that it bothers you.
Speaker 3: Why don't you say no? What is it with you
Speaker 3: that got you to do that or feel comfortable enough
Speaker 3: to do it?
Speaker 4: I have done it for two reasons. One is is
Speaker 4: it funny? Can I and I am? I I might
Speaker 4: be more comfortable actually in Billie's environment, and not than
Speaker 4: if I was doing a serious, you know, sort of
Speaker 4: a sex scene in a film. I don't think of
Speaker 4: myself as a sexually provocative figure, but I do understand
Speaker 4: that there are more people that look like me than don't,
Speaker 4: so that there's something if we just go If we
Speaker 4: can't have a sense of humor about this, then the
Speaker 4: world is not a happy place. So I am okay,
Speaker 4: or I get myself okay to use my body for comedy.
Speaker 4: There was one film I did called Love alor Compassion,
Speaker 4: when I did a more serious nudity and but in
Speaker 4: that one I was able to get behind what why
Speaker 4: the character was making that choice, and it felt very.
Speaker 1: I really it was.
Speaker 4: It was I didn't have a sense of, oh, Jason's naked. Now,
Speaker 4: I had a sense of but.
Speaker 5: When you actually did it, how did it feel when you, like,
Speaker 5: literally were doing that in front of the crew and
Speaker 5: the cast?
Speaker 1: Not great? Not great?
Speaker 4: I mean the moments between the shots were excruciating for me.
Speaker 4: But that has more to do with me. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm I'm weird here. I have this very gregarious, extroverted persona.
Speaker 4: I'm in the public eye, I'm arguably celebrity, and I
Speaker 4: don't feel that most of the time.
Speaker 1: Would I'm much.
Speaker 4: Happier being not as visible and not as scene and
Speaker 4: not as so it's it's very uncomforted.
Speaker 3: But you do it, and you did it in our series,
Speaker 3: and you were a great sport about it, and watching
Speaker 3: you do it and getting the less was interesting for
Speaker 3: me because as your friend. It also bothered me a
Speaker 3: little because I thought, Wow, he's really got to put
Speaker 3: himself out there that way, and I'm really self I'm
Speaker 3: self conscious. I don't I have mirror I'm like a vampire.
Speaker 3: I have stuff on mirrors in my house. I don't
Speaker 3: like to see me naked at all. There's nothing appealing
Speaker 3: to me about seeing me, And I wonder Bill if
Speaker 3: this is something for you too.
Speaker 4: When I was doing those scends, a part of me
Speaker 4: was also going, well, if I'm uncomfortable, this is uncomfortable
Speaker 4: for everybody. It's uncomfortable for the crew too, So I've
Speaker 4: got to make it okay. I've got to make it
Speaker 4: something that we go, okay, we're all doing our jobs.
Speaker 4: We're fine, Let's just do this and have fun with
Speaker 4: it and move on.
Speaker 1: So part of my.
Speaker 4: Attitude, my projected attitude in those occasions, was trying to
Speaker 4: put everyone else.
Speaker 1: At eat You're comfortable and I got But is.
Speaker 4: That any part of your your audience is coming out
Speaker 4: specifically for this experience. But do you feel like you've
Speaker 4: got to even get that audience over the hump a
Speaker 4: little bit? I mean, I don't even care.
Speaker 5: I'm like I said, I'm booking a good show, so
Speaker 5: I know the audience is taking care of I'm most
Speaker 5: protective and want to take care of the comics. I
Speaker 5: want to make sure they're okay, they're comfortable, they're confident
Speaker 5: to go out there and kick ass, because, like, like.
Speaker 1: You just describe, you're the leader of that mood.
Speaker 5: So if if Jason is out there and confident and fine,
Speaker 5: then everyone's like, I guess everything's fine.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: I try to foster an environment at that show of
Speaker 5: like you know, I just try to create like a
Speaker 5: safe space for everything going on, which is weird because
Speaker 5: the green room is technically like a storage room, so
Speaker 5: it does not look like a safe space.
Speaker 1: But it's it's yeah, it's about the environment the culture
Speaker 1: you foster.
Speaker 4: Do you find that the women have any more of
Speaker 4: a challenge or do they respond even more? Is it
Speaker 4: do they have a different experience than the guys doing it.
Speaker 5: I don't want to speak for them right anything like that,
Speaker 5: but you know I will.
Speaker 1: I will say this, Like you see, you know, we.
Speaker 5: Talk a lot about like I think there's a lot
Speaker 5: of discourse about like stand up comedy lineups and diversity
Speaker 5: and lineups and whatnot. And I go like, I always
Speaker 5: have usually like two or three you know, women or
Speaker 5: fems on the Naked Show. So any time I see
Speaker 5: like a comedy poster and it's got only dudes, and
Speaker 5: it always has only dudes, I'm like, what's your excuse
Speaker 5: because I'm I'm getting them willing to take their clothes off?
Speaker 5: You won't, you won't even are you even trying?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Because I always yeah, you know, I think they can
Speaker 5: also face a different type of backlash from say, audience
Speaker 5: members potentially.
Speaker 1: I think there's a little extra risk there for them.
Speaker 5: But again, I just try to do whatever I can
Speaker 5: to help to assist to mitigate anything. You know, you know,
Speaker 5: someone there was one guy who like sent some d
Speaker 5: MS to a few female comics on an upcoming show.
Speaker 1: It's maybe a couple months ago, and I banned them.
Speaker 5: I refunded his stick I was like, you know, you're
Speaker 5: good because he's hitting them up, and he's only hitting
Speaker 5: up female comed You remember the Chris rock Jokes joke
Speaker 5: where he goes like you think the cops would shoot
Speaker 5: a white kid just to make it look good once
Speaker 5: in a while, right, It was like that. It's like, dude,
Speaker 5: this is blatantly you're trying, you know. So I was like,
Speaker 5: you're not welcome here, because like, I don't need I
Speaker 5: don't need creepy dudes making the female comics uncomfortable because
Speaker 5: them being comfortable as why them and their friends are
Speaker 5: willing to do it.
Speaker 1: I think he's much healthier than I am. Oh, for sure,
Speaker 1: we are.
Speaker 4: I am part of that world that that nudity to
Speaker 4: me is a thing. It's it's a threshold that that
Speaker 4: I always think there has to be a very good reason.
Speaker 3: To cross it. Making this is loud. Yes, it's making
Speaker 3: a statement. It's a thing.
Speaker 4: You and I know that we in this country in particular,
Speaker 4: we're accused all the time of having real problems, you know,
Speaker 4: with nudity and sexuality.
Speaker 1: And I get that.
Speaker 4: And I think the whole movement of our younger generations,
Speaker 4: as we become more and more open and available to
Speaker 4: people with you know, redefining themselves with gender and sexuality.
Speaker 4: We're becoming more and more open to the discussions. But
Speaker 4: but I'm you know, I'm still thinking. You know, someone
Speaker 4: drops their clothes, I go, I look the other way, because.
Speaker 5: Y'all are from a generation in between, right, because like
Speaker 5: a generation above you a little bit more of that
Speaker 5: free love, say sixty seventies stuff, and then my generation's
Speaker 5: kind of coming after all that, and there's like another
Speaker 5: one in between with a little bit more age.
Speaker 3: As I went to a spa with my wife in
Speaker 3: the desert, I go and they say, the the mudbands
Speaker 3: are outside over there, and I go, can I give
Speaker 3: you road?
Speaker 1: They tell you that they put on the robe.
Speaker 3: In it, and I put on the robe in the
Speaker 3: frigging slipper thing, and you know, it's all of that
Speaker 3: with the world. And I walk outside and there is
Speaker 3: a client from the radio station lying there completely naked.
Speaker 1: I mean in the mud in the mud.
Speaker 3: No no, no, no, we haven't gotten in the mud bed.
Speaker 3: This is on the road to the mud Beth. There
Speaker 3: should have been warning signs up. You may see, like
Speaker 3: they say, you may see a lot like an animal park.
Speaker 3: You may be see across. So I'm going and there
Speaker 3: she is. This is somebody I know that I've worked
Speaker 3: with it And she is as naked as you can be,
Speaker 3: and like like spread out for to get a ten
Speaker 3: and I don't want to look.
Speaker 1: And she goes Peter and waits and to this she
Speaker 1: calling you see what I did.
Speaker 3: To this day, it's ingrained in my head because that
Speaker 3: was one of the most uncomfortable moments.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you something else about that place.
Speaker 4: My friend David Crane, who's the co creator of Friends,
Speaker 4: had the best line about that place. I won't I
Speaker 4: won't name place, but he said, I guarantee you at
Speaker 4: some point there were four millionaires sitting around the table going.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'll bet you have five million bucks. I
Speaker 1: can get people to plan to pay the lion mud.
Speaker 1: I was going, what kind of mud?
Speaker 2: It was?
Speaker 1: So, what kind of mud?
Speaker 4: Way just steaks and leaves and and what And do
Speaker 4: you clean the mud out after each person?
Speaker 3: No, so it's exactly what you said. So I'm naked,
Speaker 3: my wife's naked, and we get in the mud. If
Speaker 3: you've never done that before, within three seconds, you know
Speaker 3: you've made an awful error, an awful mistake. And I
Speaker 3: don't know why it's not this, but they are twigs.
Speaker 3: There's all kinds oftuff and then ready, I don't know
Speaker 3: why this name came to my head, but I thought
Speaker 3: if Don Delawise was in here before me, I'm sitting
Speaker 3: in Don Delawi's and I literally hot mud. I'm claustrophobic, right,
Speaker 3: it's up to my neck, and.
Speaker 1: I got it's heavy mud. So they started.
Speaker 4: I got, I'm I'm mildly asthmatic. I don't know if
Speaker 4: I could breathe it.
Speaker 3: I got out of there as soon as I got in,
Speaker 3: and I went help me out. So your public public,
Speaker 3: publicly speaking, naked, and I give you, I do give
Speaker 3: you credit for that, because you are healthier than the
Speaker 3: both of us put together.
Speaker 1: I couldn't do it. I couldn't. In a hostile situation,
Speaker 1: I would just say me. I'm also willing to bet
Speaker 1: you're funnier than us. Yeah no, no, no, no, no problem.
Speaker 1: Now there's more Emmys at that table than mine. There's only.
Speaker 3: And it's complete, it's completely we don't have the display
Speaker 3: case yet. Well, thank you, be safe, thank you for
Speaker 3: coming in me. Should we just we're just gonna chat.
Speaker 1: We're gonna chat with you here and you can jump
Speaker 1: or not again.
Speaker 3: He is healthier than we are. But you have a history.
Speaker 3: There's been a history of nudity in the theater, which
Speaker 3: is really kind of interesting, A long history of nudity
Speaker 3: in theater. And we started talking. I said, talk about
Speaker 3: this on the air with it during the podcast. Because
Speaker 3: there's Equis, there's the Blue Room, there's Confederates, there's full Monty,
Speaker 3: the Graduate, Killer Joe and Butterfly. As I said, o' calcatta,
Speaker 3: Reefer Madis, the Vagina Monologuns, and on and on.
Speaker 4: And so, living out puppetry of the peafaetry.
Speaker 1: Of the penis. And some of those is interesting.
Speaker 3: Some of those were plays that originated with nudity, and
Speaker 3: some of them are plays that the director then decided
Speaker 3: to make a choice to add nudity to a scene
Speaker 3: or whatever that wasn't in the original et cetera.
Speaker 4: Well, when you and I were talking, I basically said,
Speaker 4: for me, ninety percent of the time, when nudity is
Speaker 4: done on stage, particularly but certainly even in film, I
Speaker 4: always go it's it's absolutely gratuitous. It wasn't necessary to
Speaker 4: tell the story or for the audience to feel the
Speaker 4: intent of the scene. It was absolutely not necessary, and
Speaker 4: I believe most of the time when it's employed, it
Speaker 4: is done for prurient purposes. It's to go, hey, we
Speaker 4: got somebody who looks great and they're naked in this
Speaker 4: thing and wait and come and see. So the perfect
Speaker 4: example for me. And again I'm not this sounds like
Speaker 4: I'm throwing shade at something. I'm not because I've never
Speaker 4: talked to any of the creators of the productions that
Speaker 4: do this.
Speaker 1: But if you look at the play Equis, if you.
Speaker 4: Don't know the story, it's based on an actual event
Speaker 4: where a young man, a teenager, blinded six horses, and
Speaker 4: the playwright started to try to write a play about
Speaker 4: why would somebody do that, and he came up with
Speaker 4: a scenario where the boy had equated horses with a
Speaker 4: sort of a christ like religious religiosity. So in the
Speaker 4: end of the first act, the boy in therapy reenacts
Speaker 4: a experience where he takes a horse out of the
Speaker 4: stable at night, rides him nude, and has a masturbatory
Speaker 4: experience on the horse. And that scene is always performed
Speaker 4: with the actor clothed. Now he's supposed to be naked.
Speaker 4: He supposed to be a sexual act and he's totally clothed.
Speaker 4: But in the second act, the scene where he is
Speaker 4: taken by the stable girl to the stables where he's
Speaker 4: going to lose his virginity, and that's where he freaks
Speaker 4: out because the horses are there.
Speaker 1: That scene is always done with the boy and the
Speaker 1: girl now nude. And I go, why.
Speaker 4: Why if we were able to experience the first act
Speaker 4: scene and we totally got the story and we totally
Speaker 4: got the experience, why are we asking these two actors now?
Speaker 4: And I go, because there's a girl. There's a girl there.
Speaker 4: And I always thought from the time and the first
Speaker 4: time I saw it, I was a teenager, and believe me,
Speaker 4: you know, seeing a naked girl was heaven to me.
Speaker 4: But even the first time I saw it, I went,
Speaker 4: that's really weird.
Speaker 1: That's weird.
Speaker 4: And that's how I feel most of the time when
Speaker 4: I see nudity on stage or.
Speaker 1: Short scenes or even non.
Speaker 4: Sexual scenes in films, I go, why is it important
Speaker 4: that that actor be exposed to me in this way?
Speaker 4: So maybe we're moving toward that kind but you know,
Speaker 4: you also have a show that I really enjoy, which
Speaker 4: is Minx, and Minx is all about basically the creation
Speaker 4: of playgirls, right, you know, stuff like that, but it
Speaker 4: is done with an attitude towards the nudity and the sexuality.
Speaker 4: That is, I do not find that show gratuitous. And
Speaker 4: that's the atmosphere this would have been in. And they're all,
Speaker 4: it's nothing to them, And.
Speaker 5: Look to see who the creator and maybe some of
Speaker 5: the directors or writers of that is, like, are they dudes?
Speaker 1: Are they women? It's a it's a mixed bath, right.
Speaker 3: I also think I also think because I knew people
Speaker 3: involved in those areas at that time. Yeah, how they
Speaker 3: treated that was really interesting. They didn't treat it's purient.
Speaker 3: It was it was content yea, they were doing And
Speaker 3: then they were also hiring some of the best writers
Speaker 3: and for the magazine this after they wanted to get
Speaker 3: out Hearrott with some really good content.
Speaker 1: But that's the thing.
Speaker 4: The whole thing about Minx is she she's writing serious
Speaker 4: feminist right, you know, and that was her pieces. And
Speaker 4: the guy who plays the photographer is portrayed as a
Speaker 4: very serious artist. He actually would like to be doing
Speaker 4: other things, but he's doing what.
Speaker 1: He's wanted to do.
Speaker 3: A lot of the biggest writers in the sixties and
Speaker 3: seventy started in the point with Larry Flint. Yeah, started
Speaker 3: in that world. For a lot of those one it's
Speaker 3: it's well to me. I basically, what do you think
Speaker 3: next episode?
Speaker 1: You want to do it? Nigga? Do it? Shut up, Billy?
Speaker 1: Is he's still here? I heard, let's go to Google.
Speaker 1: Let's wrap this up.
Speaker 4: Yes, shut up, Billy.
Speaker 6: Well, here's the big thing, because when you make the
Speaker 6: decision to go out there and do your naked comedy,
Speaker 6: you have decisions to make. And I wanted you to
Speaker 6: be equipped with what you need to know before you.
Speaker 1: If I was equipped, I'd be a lot happier doing Yeah.
Speaker 6: But see, it's not just what God gives you, it's
Speaker 6: how you put it together.
Speaker 1: Sure, in twenty.
Speaker 6: Twenty three, what are things supposed to look like downtown?
Speaker 1: Well, I know we were supposed to be hairless. Well,
Speaker 1: I think we're past that. I think we're coming back
Speaker 1: around with hair You know, wait a minute, that point
Speaker 1: You know what I got to tell you? Really I
Speaker 1: have not.
Speaker 3: I mean, we're good friends, we have condens you know,
Speaker 3: I never had a manscating conversation to say, and I
Speaker 3: honestly don't know what things should be like downtown.
Speaker 1: I have some I have some options.
Speaker 6: I have sure because I know you know, Jason, you
Speaker 6: don't have a lot of options in certain areas, but
Speaker 6: other areas, I'm sure you could.
Speaker 1: You have the whole regia.
Speaker 4: Very too much, David pursue.
Speaker 1: Well, let's see.
Speaker 6: You can start out with the lion's man. Oh, sure,
Speaker 6: I will describe them, but only at your inquiry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I got the lions man. You got
Speaker 1: the lions made okay. The landing strip.
Speaker 3: Popular, very popular, Like the lines made for you have
Speaker 3: to have a considerable amount of hair to do to
Speaker 3: pull off the.
Speaker 1: Peter.
Speaker 5: When was the last time you trimmed down man?
Speaker 1: Rather than what is that? Yeah?
Speaker 6: And again these are for men, because you too, obviously
Speaker 6: are men as far as we do we are, so
Speaker 6: these are styles for men.
Speaker 1: The landing strip, landing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's just some continuity from the flesh to the hair.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is an interesting one.
Speaker 6: The brief encounter what don't know, no grief encounter now.
Speaker 1: Like a crop circle like the night I lost my virginity? What? Well?
Speaker 6: No, simply trim all the areas of pubic hair that
Speaker 6: would stick out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, Sorry, I have we have calls now.
Speaker 6: This is this is my favorite because this one takes
Speaker 6: some Gojones.
Speaker 1: The billiard balls. I don't want to know what that is,
Speaker 1: you know what I I can't even imagine. I'm already seeing.
Speaker 1: Uh no, probably not. We'll have to remove it.
Speaker 3: A lot a lot of blood on the floor and
Speaker 3: stipptic pencil.
Speaker 1: Just say, you.
Speaker 6: Pretty much leave everything alone, but a couple of things
Speaker 6: you really don't.
Speaker 4: I draw like a number on one of the one
Speaker 4: of my song the other one I paint white.
Speaker 1: Is that what that is? Yeah? Would you play with
Speaker 1: four stripe a little more? Yeah? By the way, is
Speaker 1: it Dale Earnhardt fans? So you have eight on your
Speaker 1: your balls? Is that is that one that's in there?
Speaker 1: If you're a NASCAR fan? Oh? Peter, would you ever?
Speaker 5: Would you ever trim up to just mimic this facial hair?
Speaker 5: What about that for a lot?
Speaker 1: David? Yeah, just bring that Downtown Browser. Mark. Well, thank
Speaker 1: you for that research. It was in value. I'm so
Speaker 1: glad we included your segment. You went to you always
Speaker 1: elevate you you say, how can I elevate? And you
Speaker 1: always do? Today?
Speaker 4: All right, Peter. I can do now is sit here
Speaker 4: and think of what you must look like naked. You've
Speaker 4: seen me naked? Where would I see you naked? We've
Speaker 4: gone to spring looking at you. You can't avoid.
Speaker 1: It, Jason, Did that knight mean nothing to you? Nothing?
Speaker 1: He's threatened by my nudity? Oh you bet? There you go.
Speaker 1: And it's always doing this my health. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean?
Speaker 3: Every single time I've ever gone on his places, it's
Speaker 3: you getting changed in me.
Speaker 1: Going, I gotta find the guy. I forgot my locker
Speaker 1: number every time, every time, and me go and ask
Speaker 1: the kid, find the kid that I had to get naked.
Speaker 3: And I'm always going, where's my excuse me, where's my
Speaker 3: locker number? And you go, I'll meet you with the
Speaker 3: thank you. Everybody run away while you can't really.
Speaker 1: Well now, really, really no, really, that's another episode.
Speaker 2: If really no really comes to a close, you're probably
Speaker 2: wondering what was the first time nudity was seen on
Speaker 2: the theater stage. Well, before I tell you, let's thank
Speaker 2: our guest, Billy Persida. You can check him out on
Speaker 2: Instagram at at Billy EA's Persida, on x and TikTok.
Speaker 1: He is at the Billy Persida.
Speaker 2: If you ever really No Really, let us know online
Speaker 2: at reallynoreally dot com. We're also on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok,
Speaker 2: and threads at really No Really podcast. Our full episodes
Speaker 2: can be found on YouTube, where we would love you
Speaker 2: to hit that subscribe button, tick that bell so you're
Speaker 2: updated when we release new videos, which we do every Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Make sure to follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you get your podcasts. And thank you for listening, subscribing,
Speaker 2: and sharing the show. And now, the first time nudity
Speaker 2: appeared in the theater was in the early nineteen hundreds,
Speaker 2: when naked models posed on stage at one Didn's Windmill
Speaker 2: Theater and New York's Zigfeld Follies. Now, at that time,
Speaker 2: the laws didn't allow nude or topless performances, but they
Speaker 2: did allow naked performers to pose absolutely motionless.
Speaker 1: As works of art.
Speaker 2: Now, obviously that wouldn't have helped naked Jason Alexander at all.
Speaker 2: He could be still as a stone and Nolan is
Speaker 2: going to confuse him with a work of art.
Speaker 1: And I am nauseous
Speaker 2: Again really to release the production of iHeartRadio and Blase entertainment,