WEBVTT - Comedian Paul Reiser on New Show 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:04.640 This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser from Bloomberg Radio. 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:08.160 You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser. Excited 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:10.239 to wrap up our day in our week and to 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:12.360 have back with us. I kind of say I kind 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:14.560 of needed this this week. It's been a little crazy 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.360 back with us. Uh. It's comedian, actor, writer and author 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:19.639 Paul Riser. He joins us once again on the phone 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:22.160 from Los Angeles. Hey, nice to have you back with us. 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:26.440 How nice to be back. I have my mug, I 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:28.360 have my Man About You mug still on my desk. 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:30.880 I'm just gonna let you know, well, we have a deal. 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:34.040 You know, I know. I'm really sorry about the emmy. 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:37.720 Yeah what I That's why I'm calling, okay, because that 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:39.720 was that was your doing. That was your fault. No 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:41.400 it wasn't. But we had a deal. Let you win. 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:44.479 We're gonna do a picture. I'm gonna I'm gonna be 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:46.000 able to hold your emmy and you're gonna get to 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:48.600 hold the Man about right. That's right. I'm so sorry. 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:51.960 It is my fault then for not having one. All right, Well, 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:54.800 I'll try and find some sort of reasonable substitute. Well, 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:56.800 I think you might win for this next project. I 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:58.800 gotta tell you, I looked a little bit at it. 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:01.640 Um tell us about what you're up to you right now? Well, 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.840 this is an interesting little journey. UH. I created with 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:08.120 a buddy of mine, my friend David Simon. We created 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:12.959 a show called There's Johnny, which is UH debuting on 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:17.400 on Sunday on Peacock and it's a weird thing. Well 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:19.039 I'll talk about the show, but it's weird because it's 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:22.320 it's not quite debuting. It was on another platform. We we 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:24.119 we did it two years ago and it was on 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:28.520 very quietly so to not disturb anybody. Was not particularly promoted. 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:32.080 Just a hint, don't do that. You want to disturb people. 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.080 You want to make sure you know. You know. That 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.320 wasn't my decision. They decided they didn't want to bother anybody. 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:40.440 But um, you know, I had always thought that once 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:42.800 the show was on streaming, well let's just be there 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:45.000 and people will get to it whenever it's always there. 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.120 And then I found out a few months ago, I go, hey, 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:50.880 There's Johnny is no longer up. I want it just 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:53.000 because they had apparently a two year of contract of 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:56.360 UH deal. So anyway, So it sort of fell into 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.919 the ether. It was nowhere, and it was this summer 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:02.280 Peacock was launching, and I said, well, this is a 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.240 show that if any show belongs on Peacock, this is it. 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.720 It takes place, there's Johnny takes place in nineteen seventy 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.440 two behind the scenes of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.800 So literally, the Peacock is in our opening credit. It 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.639 takes place, it's it's in NB shot in NBC hall 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:22.760 NBC hallways and stuff, and uh, extra icing on the 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:26.200 cake that since we shot this two years ago, uh, 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:30.000 one of our wonderful, wonderful stars, Jane Levy, has gone 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:32.120 on to become a big star for an NBC show 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:35.880 called Zoe's Extraordinary Playlist. So we call the people a peacock. 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.639 We said, you know, you have this wonderful star and 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.520 Jane Levy, she's also in this show. I'll bet you 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:44.200 people would like to see it, and luckily they went, 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:47.160 yes they would, So they're putting on which you know, 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:49.919 it's one of these sometimes when the shows die, they 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:51.959 just die. But this was so good that I it 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.520 felt it was worth the extra effort to fight for it. 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:56.480 I have to say in our planning meeting when we're 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:57.680 talking about and that you were going to come on 0:02:57.720 --> 0:02:59.480 and talk about it. We all watched the trailer and 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:02.160 and caught some clips of it, and we all were like, 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:03.959 this is really good. I mean, first of all, it 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:05.959 takes us back to the seventies, which was such a 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:08.160 kind of iconic era. There was so much going on. 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:10.880 But it's also and you must have loved working on 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.600 it as a comedian. I mean, Johnny Carson is you know, 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.560 kind of the gold standard in terms of, you know, 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:18.239 what we thought about when it came to comedy or 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:20.720 really created the world that we live in today. Yeah, 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:24.240 very very much. And I'm all, you know, my class 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:27.160 of comedians, my generation, we that was the goal to 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:29.440 get on Johnny and for all of us getting on 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:32.680 that first time was like the huge reward and it 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:36.080 was also the currency that everybody else could understand. So 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:38.520 you know, your parents went, I guess my son's not 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:41.520 a total loser, and because we just thought he's staying 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:43.040 up late and making no money, but he was on 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:45.080 the Tonight Show and Johnny liked him, so he must 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:47.480 be okay. But what we did, it's very You're right, 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.360 it's a very interesting time. Seventy two was, first of all, 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.920 just when Johnny Carson moved the show from New York 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.000 out to Burbank and it took on. It's almost like 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.160 it became in color. Then you know, it's suddenly took 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.040 on a new life. And it also coincided with the 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:03.600 beginning of the comedy scene in the comedy clubs, the 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:09.000 Comedy Comedy Store and the West Coast and what we did, uh, 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:11.640 and you know, it's really kind of unique. And we 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:15.840 have we partnered with Carson Entertainment Company UM for the 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.239 rights to use the clips. We have some way little 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:22.360 clips of episodes of his, of actual broadcasts that are 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.560 in our show as part of our show, because we're 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:27.280 behind the scenes and they're putting us some when you see, 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:30.239 we need to get George Colin, and there's George Colin, 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:32.960 and there's Johnny and so for me, you're it was 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:35.240 absolutely a treat to go into the vault. We had 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:39.640 this wonderful exclusive access to the vaults, and I would say, well, 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:41.560 let's just pick out my favorite. So let's go get 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.600 George Colin, Boom, Albert Brooks and Steve Martin and it's 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:49.400 an interesting thing because for people of a certain age 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:53.040 who remember Johnny fondly, it's a lovely way to revisit 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.680 and see pieces of the show. But it really ultimately 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:58.360 has nothing to do with the show, because it's really 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:02.400 about this eighteen year old kid right Lands, you know, 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:06.360 through some silly accident, ends up working there and he 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:09.119 meets his twenty five year old wonderful Jane Levy, who 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.520 just makes his head explode. Good. She's unlike anybody he's 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.359 ever met. Paul Riser still with us on the phone 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.360 from Los Angeles, of course, comedian, actor, writer, author, author 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.000 of several books, and he's talking about the show he 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:25.599 co created. There's Johnny. Uh and it starts streaming on Sunday, November. First, 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:27.440 forgive me if I called it the Johnny Carson Show. 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:29.640 It's based Well, no, as you said, it's kind of 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:31.880 the backdrop in the in the background, which is such 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:33.800 a cool part of it. I have to say, Paul, 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.400 it's also kind of neat as you do dig back 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:41.479 into the seventies. Uh, the fashion, the sexism, you know, 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:43.520 women not pay the same as men like you have 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.719 some you really get into it. Yeah, you know, it 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:49.960 was it's hard. So many things was so different. I 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:52.960 mean it's forty or fifty years ago, but almost fifty 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.719 years ago. And uh, you know, there's a great scene 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:59.640 where Jane Levy goes into Our Boss with Tony. Tony 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:02.559 Dan's as the only guy who plays an actual person. 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:06.560 He plays Johnny Carson's producer, Freddie Dakordova, and he's brilliant 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:08.159 at it. But there's a scene where she goes in 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:11.040 and she complains that she just found out that her 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:15.200 her colleague, who's a male, gets the has the exact 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:17.279 same job. It makes twice as much and it doesn't 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.799 seem fair. And you see Tony goes it's not what fair? 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.400 What do you mean? And Paul, I'm just going to 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:26.520 never changes. But it was at that moment it was 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.479 so foreign. That's like, I don't even understand the question 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.320 why would it be fair? Like let's start their um, 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.039 you know, and uh so yeah, And it was Vietnam 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:38.760 and our lead character is his young eighteen year old 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.320 whose brother is this all American kid who goes to Vietnam, 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:45.120 and uh, it doesn't go well so that it impact 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:48.000 everything and the part of the fun of the show 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:51.880 was taking this really sweet innocent kid played by Ian Nelson. 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:55.080 He's his eighteen year old kid fresh off of farm 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:59.080 and threw a sort of knuckle headed misunderstanding ends up 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.200 working the tonight sho so for him to see suddenly 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:06.159 Hollywood and sex, drugs, rock and roll, and women who 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:09.280 women who see therapists, and and women who are just 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:13.240 you know, you know, chew chew up men for for fun. Um, 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:15.160 it's a whole new world. So we get to enter 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:20.040 this beautiful, complex world through his uh, innocent eyes, which 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.200 was a lot of fun to write. Listen, what were 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.960 your memories of your first time on Johnny Carson? I? 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:28.360 You know, I did it. I did it many times, 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.080 but the first time I did it was it was 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:33.680 a moment that we had all planned for, you know, 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:35.640 or dreamed of. We didn't planned for it, but we 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:41.520 worked towards it. So it was an interesting, weird feeling 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:44.040 because he got there suddenly. He didn't feel surprising. It 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.200 felt like, oh, okay, I have and I have envisioned 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.880 this so many times, um, but it was it was. 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:53.360 It was certainly a turning point for every comic. Your 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.360 first time on Johnny is such an accomplishment and and 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:59.240 for me I don't remember ever thinking of anything beyond that. 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:01.120 Like that was a far as I could picture down 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:03.560 the road of whatever success might look like, get on 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:06.480 the Carson Show and then I don't know. Um, but 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:09.000 you know, Johnny was such a big part of our 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:11.840 lives as comics, but as America, just for America. He 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:14.400 was in our living rooms, you know, and and in 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:17.600 our bedrooms at eleven thirty at night for thirty years 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:20.880 in a way that as great as Jimmy and Jimmy 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:25.280 and and and Steve and and Conan are um, it 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.520 wasn't the same. He Johnny was singular. He sat on 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:32.880 that throne by himself and uh and we also it 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.840 was when in the very beginning, when you couldn't record it, 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:38.800 you had to stay up right, so it became it 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:41.080 became part of your life and and like and you 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:44.000 remembered it. So when we were doing this show, there's Johnny, 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:46.120 and I was pulling up clips of George Carlin and 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.000 Albert Brooks. I remembered them even though I hadn't seen 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.800 them in forty fifty years. Whatever I was gonna I 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:54.200 remember this because I stayed up late and it was 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:57.360 important to me. So it was really a different time 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.760 in culture just and how people watched uh television and 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:04.199 how we related to people in the stars. And there 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:06.559 was a reason Johnny was on top for thirty years. 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.880 He was singularly talented. Well, it's interesting that you say 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:11.920 that to like, I mean, it's an era where there 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.600 were three networks essentially, right, three major networks, and you 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:16.360 were you know, you watched one or the other. I 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:18.400 was just quick googling. And I think they said at 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:21.000 that at the Peaky it's something like fifty million viewers. 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:24.240 Like to get your head around that, and everybody the 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:27.400 next morning would talk about what Johnny talked about. Yeah, 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:31.080 and he also, you know, he had so many skills 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:33.880 and attributes, and he was a host, a really a 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:37.199 genuine host in a way that it seems almost antiquated now. 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:41.240 And he also he avoided politics. You know, he was 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:45.920 very comfortable. He straddled straddled the world in a great way. 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.360 I mean he was hip, you know, hip people liked him, 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:50.920 and very conventional rural you know he was he was 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:54.559 Nebraska and he was also New York. He was um 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:56.360 and you never knew his politics. We would have an 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.280 episode where somebody does you know, slips in an anti 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:03.160 Nixon Joe and the producer gets incensed and said, how 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.200 dare you you know you don't know Johnny, Johnny, do 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:07.360 you have any idea what Johnny Carson actually thinks. No, 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:09.520 that's right because he doesn't tell you, and it's not. 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.400 But nobody's a business and he that was part of 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:15.200 his appeal that everybody came to the tent um. He 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.840 would poke fund and you know, a Democratic and Republicans, 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:22.079 but gently it was never really um pointed and that 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:27.880 level of um diplomacy that kind of is really does 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.600 feel like a bygone era and it's it's refreshing to 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.840 see when you watched Johnny go, oh, do you remember 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.880 when things seemed simpler and and he kind of did 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:38.360 you know, he kind of did put you to bed 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:40.560 every night you took, you know, whether you were watching 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.160 or just had it on the background. Johnny was how 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:45.160 you round it off your day and the world seemed 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:46.720 a little better and you had a couple of jokes 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.679 to start your morning. And remember Johnny joke last night, 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:52.200 and uh, it was a big deal. It was a 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:54.120 big deal. So I'm thrilled the show is getting in 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:56.559 a second life. Well, like I said, we've been talking 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.400 about it, uh here at Bloomberg because it really just 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.400 seems like such a nice, what a great piece of 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:04.360 content to like kind of come out of this time, 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.040 Like you said, it's a different, different era, but it's 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:09.520 just it's really fun and to see somebody come from 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:11.640 like you said, somebody who wasn't used to the big 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.040 cities and then be on a show that he would watch, 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:16.080 it's just a really cool thing. How much did you 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.079 do did you need to do research into the show 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:21.160 to kind of put it together, kind of understand the 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:23.719 behind the scenes, and we just have about a minute left. Yeah, 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:26.920 we well, we partnered with Carson's Company and which is 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.040 run by uh fellow named Jeff Sting who was a 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.120 producer on the original Tonight Show and was Johnny's nephew. 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:36.120 So he got us access to you know, the blueprints 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:38.680 to the set and so and you know what cameras 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:41.240 were used, and we would check everything, did they where 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:43.480 would a guy stand? Where would Johnny saying? Where would 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:46.200 the producers stand? So we we kept it as authentic 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:49.520 as we possibly could, and and uh, we we wanted 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:51.800 to be vigilant and we were all sort of reverential 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.680 about keeping it real. Well, I have to say we 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.840 wish you good luck with it, and um, I hope 0:11:57.880 --> 0:11:59.640 you come back and let us know how it's all going, 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:02.120 and you're working at you come by and I will 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:04.440 hold up your coffee log, give it up any list, 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:06.679 Okay deal, I'm going to hold it to it. You'll 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.839 get that and you deserve it, all right, Be well. 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:13.360 Paul Riser, comedian, actor, writer and author. Check out coming 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:17.400 to Peacock on Sunday, November one. It's called Theer's Johnny, 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:19.480 and check out the trailer because it really looks like 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:20.600 a fun show to watch.