Speaker 1: I went to soccer games.
Speaker 2: What sports professional professional like MLS.
Speaker 3: Get this my third LAFC game. Three soccer games. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was. It was super fun. Like soccer is the
Speaker 3: only sport that I really enjoy watching. I don't keep
Speaker 3: up with it, but I do enjoy watching it. And
Speaker 3: I guess it's maybe because I played it as a kid.
Speaker 3: You know, up until I was like, up until Boyne's World,
Speaker 3: like twelve or thirteen, I played soccer every year. My
Speaker 3: parents actually coached my team and stuff, so I was
Speaker 3: really into it. But yeah, so I saw about like
Speaker 3: two years ago, a friend invited me to an LAFC game,
Speaker 3: and it was so much fun. They have like a
Speaker 3: whole cheering section which is basically like a permanent dance
Speaker 3: party going on. They never stop moving there, and they're
Speaker 3: drumming and they're chanting. They never stopped moving the whole game,
Speaker 3: and it keeps the audience's energy up so high. And
Speaker 3: the stadium where LAFC plays is it's very small, like
Speaker 3: compared to most stadiums, so you can no matter where
Speaker 3: you're sitting, you can see their players' faces in the game. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so so yeah, So a friend took me a couple
Speaker 3: of years ago, and then I took some friends after
Speaker 3: that and then yeah, I had friends in from out
Speaker 3: of town and their kids love soccer and they play
Speaker 3: all the time.
Speaker 4: So we were like, let's go to l A f C.
Speaker 4: What does l a FC stand for?
Speaker 3: Sorry, La Football Club Los Angele Football Club.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So it's a team, it's an MLS team, and they're great.
Speaker 3: They're really good. They're like probably one of the best
Speaker 3: in the MLS. I think, I'm told. But anyway, it
Speaker 3: was so, it was, Yeah, it was super fun. India
Speaker 3: was not into it, still still not into sports. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so I was like, maybe maybe you'll get into soccer. No, no,
Speaker 3: but you know, I guess he just takes after me.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was. It was super fun. So I
Speaker 3: went to a sport a sports ball event. Wow, that's
Speaker 3: really great again, Yeah, do you.
Speaker 5: Stand in the cheering section? Are you part of the
Speaker 5: cheering section?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: Know, how you get in that? I mean they're like
Speaker 3: they're all wearing like yeah, no, they like know these chants,
Speaker 3: they have all these rituals and they're like so into it,
Speaker 3: and but god, I would be exhausted. They're like for
Speaker 3: ninety minutes, they're dancing the entire time, like you know, everybody,
Speaker 3: it was. It's really fun. It's a great one. It
Speaker 3: was a draw. Yeah, it was a really exciting game.
Speaker 2: Like why they got to play for ninety minutes to
Speaker 2: go and nothing happened and nothing happened in ninety minutes.
Speaker 4: It's like, what the hell was the point of that?
Speaker 2: It should be like quidditch, just play until somebody scores.
Speaker 4: If it takes a month, it takes a month.
Speaker 5: It looks like that LAFC might be in the eighth
Speaker 5: team like out of nine noe. So what does that
Speaker 5: mean like ratings? Yeah, like where they following the raidings?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Ok, no, it looks like it looks like Vancouver is
Speaker 5: in first place, Portland second, third is Austin, fourth, Minnesota fifth,
Speaker 5: Colorado FC, Dallas is sixth, San Diego seventh, LA FC eighth, ninth, Seattle, ten,
Speaker 5: Salt Lake, eleven, San Jose, twelve, Saint Louis, thirteen, Houston,
Speaker 5: fourteen Sporting CAC and fifteen the LA Galaxy.
Speaker 4: So no East Coast teams, Well, those.
Speaker 5: That's the Western Conference in dot you got in the
Speaker 5: Eastern Conference.
Speaker 4: Okay, so there are there's.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I guess I don't know about, like how like.
Speaker 3: The see this has when my eyes start lacing over
Speaker 3: and I go, I don't have time for sports because
Speaker 3: now I would have to like investing keeping track of
Speaker 3: the stats and who's traded for what. And I'm like, Nope,
Speaker 3: too much time, too much mental energy.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but going to a Gabe showing up and watching
Speaker 3: them kick the ball around super fun. I had a
Speaker 3: good time.
Speaker 4: They're also incredible athletes.
Speaker 2: I mean I I joke that you nothing happens in
Speaker 2: ninety minutes, but they run essentially for an hour and
Speaker 2: a half.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's crazy to watch. It really is crazy to watch.
Speaker 5: We went to a King's playoff game, King's hockey game.
Speaker 5: I got to I got to bang the drum. So
Speaker 5: at the end of every period.
Speaker 3: Wait, wait a minute, wait, like what do you mean
Speaker 3: what is banging the.
Speaker 5: Drum the end of every period or at the so
Speaker 5: I think they do it before the game too, So
Speaker 5: before the game and after every period there's a big
Speaker 5: drum and somebody gets to bang the drum, going, go Kings, go,
Speaker 5: and to get the whole crowd fired up.
Speaker 4: And you got selected because your topanga. Of course, of course,
Speaker 4: because ever go.
Speaker 3: To anything and have a normal experience. She goes to concerts,
Speaker 3: She's on stage within thirty seconds exactly.
Speaker 4: I was playing drums for Rolling Stone this weekend.
Speaker 3: Just picked up the guitar and jam to the sphere and.
Speaker 5: It was It was a lot of fun. Mostly it
Speaker 5: was fun because Adler was very excited about going with
Speaker 5: me to bang the drum. And my kids then were like,
Speaker 5: why do you get to be on the big TV?
Speaker 5: Why can't be on the big question?
Speaker 2: I've been asking since two thousands.
Speaker 5: My kids had so much fun. Adler is such an
Speaker 5: athlete and such a jock. He doesn't care what the
Speaker 5: sport is. He's just in it and he wants to
Speaker 5: know all about it. What are they doing now? And
Speaker 5: why are they doing that? And so what's that? What's
Speaker 5: a power play? And why is he in there? And
Speaker 5: like we taught him about time out, the timeout and
Speaker 5: the penalty box and uh, and he just sits there
Speaker 5: the whole time, watching the entire entire thing. It got
Speaker 5: to be pretty late and I was like, you know,
Speaker 5: we have to go, and he was really bombed. He
Speaker 5: didn't want to go, but it's a school night and
Speaker 5: I'm like, you can't be out until eleven New Yours,
Speaker 5: not even six.
Speaker 2: It's such a change, though, from when he used to
Speaker 2: bring in places and he like even sporting events, where
Speaker 2: he was like, it's seven thirty, we gotta go.
Speaker 4: We gotta go.
Speaker 5: Is it getting dark?
Speaker 4: I need to go now.
Speaker 5: Now he thinks he's like real mister independent and he
Speaker 5: didn't want to leave. But we got home. The game
Speaker 5: still wasn't over, and I woke him up the next
Speaker 5: morning for school and he went did the Kings win?
Speaker 4: Just immediately needed to know.
Speaker 5: It was so much fun.
Speaker 4: So you guys had fun at sporting events. I had
Speaker 4: like the best sandwich that was great?
Speaker 5: Where from?
Speaker 4: Oh I made it? Okay, okay, I wasn't gonna leave.
Speaker 5: What was in it?
Speaker 2: Peanut butter and jelly, no complicated ham, A little bit of.
Speaker 4: Ham from new hot honey, uh swojo. We got it,
Speaker 4: We got it, We got Is he not the best,
Speaker 4: it's the greatest.
Speaker 5: It's it's incredible, the hot honey sour dough.
Speaker 4: Yeah that was my night. So okay, pretty happy, good for.
Speaker 5: You, Pretty happy. Welcome to pod meets World.
Speaker 4: I'm Daniel Fishel, I'm right or Strong, and I'm Wilford.
Speaker 5: Doe Oh, Welcome to today's episode. We are very excited
Speaker 5: about our guest today. One of the more confusing parts
Speaker 5: for us while recapping the show so intensely weak after
Speaker 5: week has been the surprising string of additions and subtractions
Speaker 5: from the writer's room in the later seasons, a musical
Speaker 5: chairs of sorts. And because of this, we've heard a
Speaker 5: bunch of names we don't remember, forcing even Will to admit, uh, nope,
Speaker 5: can't place him, which is very hard to do. Before
Speaker 5: the podcast, we would have thought we knew everyone who
Speaker 5: wrote an episode, but now we know we are wrong,
Speaker 5: which happens a lot like when we didn't remember that
Speaker 5: episode that Love is Blind guy stole his quote from
Speaker 5: We Got Your Many Many Emails. We have already recapped
Speaker 5: that episode back in season three, so.
Speaker 4: We got to the podcast.
Speaker 3: Weirdcast every week will just be us listening.
Speaker 5: To and then god, I think it was season three
Speaker 5: episode one, and okay, so the trainy episode movie Theater
Speaker 5: I'm Exploding your Head part five, that's that's season.
Speaker 4: Three episode one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, wow, jeez, there we go.
Speaker 4: Get the big brain on, Brad, you know you.
Speaker 5: Know, Okay, Well, enough of that. This week we are
Speaker 5: introduced or maybe reintroduced to a writer with two very
Speaker 5: important scripts to his name, season two's I Am Not
Speaker 5: a Crook and season four's Uncle Daddy. He started his
Speaker 5: career in the world of stand up comedy, surrounded by
Speaker 5: some of the biggest names in the field, and then
Speaker 5: transitioned into TV, writing not only for Boy Meets World,
Speaker 5: but Sybil, Smart Guy and Michael Jacob's less known title.
Speaker 5: Maybe this time he'd also end Jay Leno's Tonight Show
Speaker 5: Writer's Room, a gig suited for his on stage experience,
Speaker 5: all as he was still also performing stand up and
Speaker 5: even owning his own legendary club in Philadelphia where he
Speaker 5: booked some of the biggest legends to ever tell a joke.
Speaker 5: The former professor and radio host also now finds time
Speaker 5: to be an author, releasing a handful of books, including
Speaker 5: his newest, a meta novel about Larry David with a
Speaker 5: main character apparently different than the Larry David we all know. Okay,
Speaker 5: that's just one of the things we need him to
Speaker 5: explain the other. Why do we only kind of remember you?
Speaker 5: He may not have ever won a super Bowl, but
Speaker 5: today he's our Pod meets World MVP. It's time to
Speaker 5: talk to Steve Young.
Speaker 4: I can't wait to talk h about the Super Bowl.
Speaker 5: I know he's gonna love him.
Speaker 4: Amazing Number eight, number eight.
Speaker 5: I did hear that? He there's another writer named Steve
Speaker 5: Young and their checks used to get crossed. Oh my god,
Speaker 5: I want to ask him about that. I want to know.
Speaker 5: Did you ever you know, wouldn't it be great to
Speaker 5: get your checks mixed up with Steve Young?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: The quarterback?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it wasn't Steve Young the quarterback.
Speaker 5: Darn it. I know you said it was Steve. I
Speaker 5: listened to another podcast you did, and I heard that
Speaker 5: story and I thought, Man, if only it could have
Speaker 5: gotten mixed up with the quarterback.
Speaker 1: Huh, yeah it was. It was Steve Young who wrote
Speaker 1: for Letterman and I wrote for Leno, and so it
Speaker 1: got switched a lot, and hid, believe me, I would
Speaker 1: rather have his checks.
Speaker 5: Oh how are you?
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm wonderful. I just took my mother to breakfast
Speaker 1: and I couldn't get back to my place fast enough,
Speaker 1: So I'm now at my lovely daughter's house doing this.
Speaker 1: And right away, by the way, you would know the
Speaker 1: name of my daughter if you watched any of the
Speaker 1: shows I wrote, because anytime you brought on a character
Speaker 1: who is not a regular cast character, I named them
Speaker 1: after my kids.
Speaker 5: Tell us your kids' names Kelly.
Speaker 1: And Casey, until Bob Young, the executive news here at
Speaker 1: the time, said stop, you cannot dan for your kids.
Speaker 4: That's right, Uncle Daddy. Wasn't her name? Her name was Kelly,
Speaker 4: wasn't it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And Kelly is here today.
Speaker 4: Oh that's so cool.
Speaker 5: Okay, well, thank you so much for joining us. We
Speaker 5: are collecting Boy Meets World writers like Pokemon, so you
Speaker 5: got to catch them all first. Let's get a little
Speaker 5: into your origin story. How did you find yourself doing
Speaker 5: stand up?
Speaker 1: Oh? Stand up? I can't. I couldn't do anything else,
Speaker 1: I mean really, yeah, that was it. I started actually
Speaker 1: when I was twenty twenty one standing in line at
Speaker 1: the troupe door. That was the only place you could
Speaker 1: do comedy at that time. And later on, when I
Speaker 1: there was no comedy club, I came back to Philadelphia
Speaker 1: and there were no comedy clubs, but there was a
Speaker 1: group of people who were doing comedy, me included, and
Speaker 1: I was the only one that could wear a three
Speaker 1: piece suit and talk, and so I opened up a
Speaker 1: club where actually I met Bob Young and Bob Meyer,
Speaker 1: and I ended up managing them at the time, and
Speaker 1: we all did stand up for years at that club.
Speaker 4: What was the name of the club?
Speaker 5: Tell us tell us.
Speaker 1: About the club, the Comedy Works. It ran from about
Speaker 1: eighty to ninety three, and we were fortunate enough we
Speaker 1: came out at the time where I could book on
Speaker 1: a weekly basis. Leno, Jim Carrey, signed Felt, Eddie Murphy,
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody who they were, the young Gun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and at the time, although I will tell you that
Speaker 1: Bob and Bob, Bob Meyer and Bob Young were is
Speaker 1: good or better than any of them, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Mostly your familiarity is with them on you know, just
Speaker 1: on a set. But actually, if if you look on
Speaker 1: the wall or the outer wall of the Comedy Store,
Speaker 1: there's Bob Myern, Bob Young.
Speaker 5: So you you did you own the club or you
Speaker 5: were just running a club?
Speaker 1: I owned it, Okay, So you.
Speaker 5: Owned a club and then you were also a manager.
Speaker 1: I was also a manager, and I couldn't see. The
Speaker 1: thing is I couldn't do anything well. So what I
Speaker 1: tried to do is a little of everything right.
Speaker 5: And you were also a comedian, so you owned a club,
Speaker 5: you managed other comedians, and you yourself then performed at
Speaker 5: your club.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming yes, yes, yeah, they wuldn't allowing me you
Speaker 1: to perform. There's a restraining order at other clubs.
Speaker 2: My favorite thing in the world is going through the
Speaker 2: list of the big comedy clubs what they're called. They're
Speaker 2: always like Chortle and the Haha House, right and all
Speaker 2: like so just to hear comedy works is yeah.
Speaker 1: So let's well, let me let me backstory. When about
Speaker 1: a week before we were going to open up, a
Speaker 1: number of people, uh, we were at a restaurant trying
Speaker 1: to decide on the name of the club, and we
Speaker 1: had had a few extra Uh. We were loaded dollars
Speaker 1: dollars and we were we were uh, we were sitting
Speaker 1: around and I came up with I thought the best
Speaker 1: name would be Comedy Shmamedy. And the reason would be
Speaker 1: if people would call information for the name, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: to the club, what's the name, and the person would
Speaker 1: say the operator when they had operators, would say what's
Speaker 1: what's the name? Uh, and and the person would have
Speaker 1: to say Comedy Shmamedy, And it would be pretty hard
Speaker 1: not to laugh, right, right, just for saying it. And
Speaker 1: the radio person who was at that dinner, who's going
Speaker 1: to promote for us, thought we stuck with that name.
Speaker 1: But we did get sober. And when we got sober,
Speaker 1: I actually I actually had to get sober because this
Speaker 1: is a true story. I walked into an Olive Garden restaurant.
Speaker 1: I thought it was an Italian restaurant.
Speaker 5: Well, I guess we could say goodbye to Olive Garden.
Speaker 4: Endless breadsticks and laughs. That's what I'm telling you.
Speaker 5: I mean, so out of everyone who came by comedy works,
Speaker 5: who do you think had the funniest set? I know
Speaker 5: you said Bob Young's pretty great. Who who had the
Speaker 5: funniest set?
Speaker 1: There were? First of all, Leno was you have to
Speaker 1: see Leno in the club, not uh Leno. There was
Speaker 1: a comedian named Bob Nelson who's still around and a
Speaker 1: killer act. Mac and Jamie were a comedy team and
Speaker 1: and wonderful. But I could go down, Oh, Jim Carrey,
Speaker 1: the microphone went out and we it was sat three
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty people. The microphone went out. He ended
Speaker 1: up doing the set where he would tell the joke
Speaker 1: and then the audience would roar and then shut up
Speaker 1: immediately because they knew they had to shut up to
Speaker 1: hear the next joke. He would tell the next joke
Speaker 1: and roar and then shut up immediately.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: It was a brilliant night. Jim Carrey as no one
Speaker 1: is better. There might be people that say, but no
Speaker 1: one was better in terms of the guys that came
Speaker 1: through in the last forty so years. Wow, man, except
Speaker 1: for Buddy Hackett. Because he just saw that Buddy Hackett
Speaker 1: was one.
Speaker 5: Another world alone.
Speaker 4: He was exactly That's what I know.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, because he could not get Sandy. And the
Speaker 1: thing is, the thing is I didn't know that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I love Buddy Hackett. I saw that. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I was ready to show that Buddy Hackett actually appeared. Okay.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So as a manager and then club owner, did
Speaker 5: other comedians start to see you as a suit Was
Speaker 5: it hard to stay like one of the boys.
Speaker 1: Yeah? Actually, when I went out to Los Angeles and
Speaker 1: I auditioned for Mitzie Shore at the Start Start. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my friend and comedian who started our club, Judy Toll.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember.
Speaker 4: I loved Judy so much.
Speaker 1: She was so so I mean, Judy was the best
Speaker 1: and I, you know, from from Philly, and I still
Speaker 1: think of her whole time. Uh. So Judy sat with
Speaker 1: Mitzi and kept Mitzi's head pointing towards the audience because
Speaker 1: Mitzie could care less about what's on state. I mean,
Speaker 1: she was looking at uh the stage with her help,
Speaker 1: Judy's help. And it was a night that I actually
Speaker 1: I just blew the audience away. And Mitzi said to Judy,
Speaker 1: how come I don't know about him and all? And
Speaker 1: she would not tell him that I was a club
Speaker 1: owner because her and over at the improv. But Freedman,
Speaker 1: it was bad to say you were a club owner
Speaker 1: because we're in fact. Marjorie Gross, who was a brilliant
Speaker 1: comedy writer and a comedian, Yeah, uh, she sat was
Speaker 1: sitting on the balcony of my club one one night
Speaker 1: during the show, and she turns to me and she said,
Speaker 1: you don't seem like a club owner. And it was
Speaker 1: the nicest thing anybody ever said to me. I really
Speaker 1: took that as quite a compliment.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you're like, thank you. So when does the idea
Speaker 5: of TV writing cross your mind? How does how does
Speaker 5: that enter your world?
Speaker 1: Oh? I guess we all we all wanted to be
Speaker 1: writers like on SNL or Mad TV not Mad TV,
Speaker 1: well yeah, Mad TV, or or as the second Citty,
Speaker 1: you know, you know the great sket shows. And I mean,
Speaker 1: I love I watched Johnny Carson every night. I fell
Speaker 1: asleep to Johnny, you know. And the first person on
Speaker 1: the show was always a comedian at the beginning, and
Speaker 1: I lived and died with every comedian that went on there.
Speaker 1: If he did good or bad, it was I mean,
Speaker 1: my mother had a stack of comedy albums that I
Speaker 1: would listen to, the ones I was allowed to listen to. Yes,
Speaker 1: back then, you weren't allowed to listen to until they
Speaker 1: went out, and my sister and I would listen to them.
Speaker 4: So wait, so it was Is it true?
Speaker 2: There was an entire like a system on Johnny Carson
Speaker 2: if you were a comedian of how you were treated
Speaker 2: by Johnny would dictate how your career would go or
Speaker 2: how you did that night. Where it was like if
Speaker 2: he invited you over to the couch, you were made
Speaker 2: right after yours.
Speaker 1: Absolutely that was a different time. If you did Carson,
Speaker 1: it was a big deal number one. But if he
Speaker 1: called you over to the couch or he gave you
Speaker 1: a wink and did this, Yeah you were you were
Speaker 1: made Stephen Wright his first, his first set there. He
Speaker 1: wanted him back within the week. We booked Steve Wright
Speaker 1: that week because his agent called me up and said,
Speaker 1: he just said Carson and he just killed. We have
Speaker 1: no place to put him. So I ended up putting
Speaker 1: them on for ten minutes in Philly. I paid him
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty dollars for four shows after he
Speaker 1: killed on Carson and I couldn't. I had already Professor
Speaker 1: and Corey uh Wayne Cotter, the legendary with another the
Speaker 1: show was full of people who kill them and so
Speaker 1: to have him come on, but because the point is
Speaker 1: like Paul Prevenza, Blue Bleu, Boway.
Speaker 4: Freddy Prince, Freddy Prince when he went to his whole life. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean that was incredible.
Speaker 1: If you if you had a good set there, everybody
Speaker 1: in the industry knew about you.
Speaker 2: Stephen Wright has one of my favorite jokes of all
Speaker 2: time where he just says, I have a decaffeinated coffee table.
Speaker 4: You can't tell by looking at it. That's such a
Speaker 4: good joke.
Speaker 1: Actually actually did one the other day I met. I
Speaker 1: actually gave him credit, but it was, Uh, you can't
Speaker 1: have everything where we did put it right.
Speaker 5: So what are a few of the major differences between
Speaker 5: the LA and the Philly comedy scene.
Speaker 1: Well, back then, the philadelph comedy scene was great. I
Speaker 1: mean those people who were Tom Wilson, they they were
Speaker 1: amateurs basically when we started, and they were good when
Speaker 1: we started. And Myron Young and Mike and Dwayne Cotter
Speaker 1: and these people. When New York Comics or LA Comics
Speaker 1: came in, accustomed to be the headliner and just blow
Speaker 1: everybody away, had to work really hard because when you
Speaker 1: were working every night at the three hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: night seat theater, you had to be good. And it
Speaker 1: was quite a mixed audience, so you can't just walk
Speaker 1: in like Dennis Miller I had the middle Eddie Murphy,
Speaker 1: I middled because the Philadelphia acts were better than the
Speaker 1: headliners were good, really good, but just the laughter would
Speaker 1: bounce off the walls and just sound like a roar
Speaker 1: every night. That's what the FULLY comics expected and pretty
Speaker 1: much that's what they did.
Speaker 2: And did you discover anybody, did you? I mean, in
Speaker 2: your in your club? Is there anybody from Philly that
Speaker 2: you were like? This is the guy or the woman
Speaker 2: that then became somebody huge.
Speaker 1: Oh I guess the closest that is Tom Wilson. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, but I mean Tom did it on his own.
Speaker 1: But Tom what Uh? He worked my steps. So we
Speaker 1: were on the third floor and he his big job
Speaker 1: was saying stay to the right, stay to the right. Stay.
Speaker 1: That was it. That was his opening act. And then
Speaker 1: when uh, he wanted to go on stage, I said, okay,
Speaker 1: five minutes, five minutes, I'll give you, and he went
Speaker 1: on stage early, five minutes killed.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: Then within i'd say a month and a half he
Speaker 1: was headlining. You couldn't help but headlining. He's so charming,
Speaker 1: so funny, and and a good looking guy and obviously
Speaker 1: a very good actor.
Speaker 5: Yeah I got to direct him. I got to be
Speaker 5: his director.
Speaker 1: Really.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he was unbelieve the ball.
Speaker 1: And a really nice guy. And are you familiar with
Speaker 1: Ralph Harris. No, Ralph actually had a show on one
Speaker 1: of the primetime networks and he played every character, most
Speaker 1: every character he could do. That was part of his act.
Speaker 1: And Ralph worked on the Steps for me too, and
Speaker 1: then got his own TV show and I'm not sure
Speaker 1: but network, but it was one of the three primary networks.
Speaker 1: So there were a lot of guys who came through
Speaker 1: who aren't weren't necessary that next day they became a star.
Speaker 1: But I would say most anybody who came through, if
Speaker 1: you would ask the comedian that play back there, they
Speaker 1: will say they loved the club. It was. It was
Speaker 1: just the audience was great, the shows were always great,
Speaker 1: the number of acts that were on there, and and
Speaker 1: we were we always were inmates running the aside. We
Speaker 1: never felt like we were the corporate part of it.
Speaker 1: We always felt that we were we were we were
Speaker 1: all comedians too, and in effect we were all comedians.
Speaker 5: So your first TV writing credit is on a show
Speaker 5: called Me and the Boys, which was an ABC sitcom
Speaker 5: starring Madge Sinclair and Steve Harvey. Did you did you
Speaker 5: know what to do in the writer's room or did
Speaker 5: you just slide in and learn as you go?
Speaker 1: Well, this is this is funny.
Speaker 6: I yeah, So I pitched and as an outsider, and uh,
Speaker 6: back then you had I don't still have to hire
Speaker 6: these two freelancers a year and I wrote the script
Speaker 6: and I thought it was pretty good, and uh in the.
Speaker 1: Writer's room where I sat, but I really was not
Speaker 1: part of the writer's room here because I was an
Speaker 1: outside of bringing the script and excuse me. I came
Speaker 1: to the reading and uh, I didn't hear a word
Speaker 1: that was mine. And I actually at the end, you know,
Speaker 1: nobody left, nobody left, and I was sitting there, you know,
Speaker 1: in the network thanking me for writing the script, and
Speaker 1: I was thinking, I'll never I'll never work again. It was.
Speaker 1: It was so bad. And it's not anybody particularly fault.
Speaker 1: This is what it ended up being. And the uh,
Speaker 1: I the next time I came into a writer's room
Speaker 1: or a reading, I would always sit down and say,
Speaker 1: please take a look at a page twenty five, third
Speaker 1: line down, the second conjunction, and is mine.
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 1: Yeah? It was. It was. It was tough, but the opportunity,
Speaker 1: excuse me to do it was wonderful.
Speaker 5: Okay, So I want to get to eventually you are
Speaker 5: in nineteen ninety five. You are now a part of
Speaker 5: Boy Meets World, but you also have credits on another
Speaker 5: Michael Jacobs show, maybe this time with Marie Osmond and
Speaker 5: Betty White. How did you end up in the Michael
Speaker 5: Jacobs orbit.
Speaker 1: I really didn't end up in the Michael Jacobs he
Speaker 1: was great. But it wasn't the Michael Jacobs. It was
Speaker 1: the Bob Yo Bob.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, we keep hearing that more and more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Bob, first of all, he still is. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's a wonderful guy. He's been a friend for years
Speaker 1: and you know we all started together, and just a
Speaker 1: sweet guy. He really did not belong to TV.
Speaker 5: He was too too kind.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, always too kind. And every time I get
Speaker 1: a residual check, especially from Boy Meets World, I always
Speaker 1: hold it up say thank you. Bob.
Speaker 5: Oh, did you know what Boy Meets World was before
Speaker 5: you wrote your first script? How did it work out
Speaker 5: that you so? Okay? I have to know? Were you
Speaker 5: also a freelance writer for Boy Meets World?
Speaker 1: Ah? Yeah, yeah, I think no I knew about Boyne
Speaker 1: was great. You guys were terrific. I always tell people
Speaker 1: the reason Boy Meets World was great, Well, they had
Speaker 1: good writers and Michael Jacobs and all, but this was
Speaker 1: a perfect cast. This the cast makes the show. And
Speaker 1: you guys were easy to write for because the first
Speaker 1: script I ever wrote was a cheers and it uh it.
Speaker 1: I said, I can't write it Cheers It's it's way
Speaker 1: too good. How can I write it. When I started writing,
Speaker 1: it was easy because the characters were so well defined
Speaker 1: that if I put the character's name down, it's said
Speaker 1: that character said, that character would say. And I just
Speaker 1: my fingers just followed the characters. I you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't feel it was me boy meets World, Uh, same thing.
Speaker 1: Although there was a particular point where I felt really
Speaker 1: bad because I'm not going to use your name. Topanga
Speaker 1: started crying on the set because you couldn't get the
Speaker 1: line the way Michael Jacobs want.
Speaker 5: This is what this is what I will remember, Yes,
Speaker 5: you will remembered this. When we did the recap of
Speaker 5: the episode, he was like, Danielle, don't you remember this?
Speaker 5: And I was like, what are you talking about? And
Speaker 5: he was like, you cried in front of everybody.
Speaker 1: I felt so bad, like you know, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like I killed her.
Speaker 7: I they may have been your words, but I don't
Speaker 7: think you were the one insisting I say it exactly
Speaker 7: the way you wanted it, right.
Speaker 1: I think it was Michael, yeah, push pushing it at
Speaker 1: that time. I don't know what you know, he wasn't directing, But.
Speaker 5: There's a fine line between the director and Michael Jacobs.
Speaker 1: But you still you still you're a writer. As a writer,
Speaker 1: you stay back, you don't participate. I remember when I
Speaker 1: did maybe this time, and Marie Osmond is the sweetest
Speaker 1: person in the world. Betty White was just the consummate pro.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 1: I remember standing on seid. I would always write in
Speaker 1: lines for myself that I could do off screen, like
Speaker 1: a radio broadcast or something like that, because I could
Speaker 1: get scale, you know, for just doing it. And Bob
Speaker 1: Yam also told me stop doing that.
Speaker 2: So just doing voice over the whole time, just saying
Speaker 2: Kelly and Casey over and.
Speaker 3: Over again, pretty much pretty much.
Speaker 1: And luckily I didn't have any more kids, because you know,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have to stay writing the Uh. Marie asked me.
Speaker 1: I was standing to the side when I was doing
Speaker 1: during rehearsal where I would I would do. I think
Speaker 1: it was a race. There was a horse race, and
Speaker 1: I was doing the character of the sportscaster. Uh and
Speaker 1: play by playing and uh, Marie come Ben's talks to
Speaker 1: me on the side. She leans over and she said,
Speaker 1: how should I say this LINEH to a writer who's
Speaker 1: working there. First of all, you'd never tell anybody to
Speaker 1: set how to say rhyme. That's really all horrible. But
Speaker 1: the director was watching her talking to me and I
Speaker 1: got and I didn't answer. I didn't answer. I think,
Speaker 1: should you know, uh, you could talk to Bob you know, whoever.
Speaker 5: Whoever was directing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but that was an interesting experience because that
Speaker 1: was a great cast too at that point at the time,
Speaker 1: they really I forget who the young girl's name was
Speaker 1: on that. I love her. She did a lot, a
Speaker 1: lot of work. But the Johnson job.
Speaker 4: I just spoke to Ashley not too long ago. She's wonderful.
Speaker 1: Oh, if you ever run into her again, I love
Speaker 1: her mother or sister. I mean, just you know, great, great,
Speaker 1: that's the thing when you do a show, you and here,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a writer. I'm not down on the set.
Speaker 1: I'm in the writer's room. But there still ended up
Speaker 1: being some sort of familyness that forms with everybody. And
Speaker 1: you know that show that that show had, you know,
Speaker 1: it was quite the family. Even though we you know,
Speaker 1: the first of all, the title was horrible. It was
Speaker 1: made for critics. Maybe this time, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: just it was we tried to change beforehand. Can we
Speaker 1: get up with a better uh name? But that's what
Speaker 1: we ended ended up with. And you know, I mean
Speaker 1: this show. I mean it was going opposite Jack and
Speaker 1: you know, I I don't know if it would have
Speaker 1: lasted anyway, but it was a really nice experience because
Speaker 1: people friends of Betty would come in all the time,
Speaker 1: and you know, Carol Channing calling me over. Oh man,
Speaker 1: I still have the script. They all signed it. She
Speaker 1: knew that I wrote the script and she started talking
Speaker 1: to me about, you know, the script, and it was
Speaker 1: funny and all that. And all I'm thinking is Carol
Speaker 1: Channing sounds just.
Speaker 5: Like herself, so much like Carol chan Yeah, I couldn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was so I never got over being
Speaker 1: in awe of these great people who were around. There
Speaker 1: are plenty of people I have disdained for, but I'm
Speaker 1: talking about just the experience, experience that you know the
Speaker 1: people when you run into these people. And Betty became
Speaker 1: the reason that I published my first book.
Speaker 5: And which was what's the name your first book?
Speaker 1: Great Failures of the Extremely Successful Why. I interviewed many
Speaker 1: high profile people on the traumas they went through in
Speaker 1: their life, and overcame them, uh Arn Brockovich, Teddy Pendergrass,
Speaker 1: uh Tony Curtis, John Wooden, I mean, but but it
Speaker 1: was her, Larry, Larry Gilberts exactly. He became a mentor
Speaker 1: of mine. He sent me over to his publisher and
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go into the long story, but
Speaker 1: it was something I wrote, wrote for Written by magazine
Speaker 1: that he thought was a book. I said, and I'd
Speaker 1: never written a book. I don't know how to, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about He said, I'm sending you
Speaker 1: over to my publisher. And I did not have a
Speaker 1: what I wrote. They said, well, we're looking for something
Speaker 1: that's a little more uplifting and you know, hopefully some
Speaker 1: you know, that can help people. And I said, I
Speaker 1: have an idea, and I interviewed Betty White. I said, Betty,
Speaker 1: would your mind if I would interview the subject? And
Speaker 1: they bought it right on her chapter. And so I
Speaker 1: became an author, you know, basically, you know, because of
Speaker 1: Betty White.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I have to so my friends here, my
Speaker 2: fellow co hosts, know how addicted I am to mash
Speaker 2: It's one of It's basically the reason I became an actor.
Speaker 4: So can you just what was it like working with
Speaker 4: Larry gelbart.
Speaker 1: Well? First, of all, I wrote an article. It's written
Speaker 1: by magazine still out there. You know it's the Writer's Guild.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, magazine, I think ye. Actually, okay, I was.
Speaker 1: I was contributing editor there and I wrote I wrote
Speaker 1: a story. Uh you know, as I was getting older
Speaker 1: and you know, there was ages, and so I wrote
Speaker 1: an article that, uh, I'm not a young television writer,
Speaker 1: but I played one on TV. It was all. It
Speaker 1: was a chapter from a book called You'll Never Write
Speaker 1: in This Town Again, And in it I gave examples
Speaker 1: of how to fool executive producers into thinking that you
Speaker 1: were younger. And I would say, like, when you pitch
Speaker 1: an idea, and make sure you do it laying on
Speaker 1: the floor so the moose skin from the front of
Speaker 1: your face would fall to the back of your head.
Speaker 1: And always always be close enough to the desk that
Speaker 1: you could sit like this as you're discussing, so they
Speaker 1: don't see your neck. The idea, the idea was. It
Speaker 1: was all farce. I put nobody's name in there except one.
Speaker 1: I said, never put any award that was prior to
Speaker 1: two thousand on your resume, Oscar, Emmy, Tony, whatever, unless
Speaker 1: you're Larry Gilbert. I did that because I knew Larry
Speaker 1: would read it, and he did get in contact with me.
Speaker 1: And let me just tell you, I teach a lot
Speaker 1: of business classes and leadership and all. I talk a
Speaker 1: lot about mentors. So I talk a lot about Larry
Speaker 1: because I heard him speak at at a w G
Speaker 1: A thing and I went like, he's great and I
Speaker 1: want to get to know him. Uh. He gave his
Speaker 1: time to me all the time. It was such, he
Speaker 1: was such a manch so and the fact that he
Speaker 1: was here, I'm going to age it out here because
Speaker 1: he was part of the Sid Caesar legacy. Your show,
Speaker 1: Your show shows and and and all the brilliant writers
Speaker 1: that were on that show mel Brooks and and Neil
Speaker 1: Simon and uh even Woody Allen was writing there one year.
Speaker 1: To me, it was like, oh my god, that's you know,
Speaker 1: I'm so close to genius here. Uh. Not not that
Speaker 1: I was getting closer. I just meant I was physical proximity.
Speaker 1: So yeah, he's a wonderful He was a wonderful person.
Speaker 4: Amazing.
Speaker 5: Getting back to your time on Boy Meets World, you
Speaker 5: were on set for the tape night where I burst
Speaker 5: into tears in front of everybody. Did you get to
Speaker 5: spend the entire week in the writer's room, because we've
Speaker 5: we've interviewed some other writers that were freelance writers and
Speaker 5: they never even made it to set at all. Did
Speaker 5: your relationship with Bob give you the opportunity to be
Speaker 5: inside the writer's room?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I got to be in the writer's room. I've
Speaker 1: got I got the pitch during the show, I cheated
Speaker 1: and Bob cheated. That's so great and letting me be
Speaker 1: part of it, and down for the table read and
Speaker 1: the and the end going up for the rewrites and
Speaker 1: you know, you know, even you guys did the show,
Speaker 1: uh that I wasn't part of, and I was on.
Speaker 1: I came in and I just you know, was on
Speaker 1: the stage and there was one discussion and I mentioned
Speaker 1: the line to Bob. I said, why don't you try this?
Speaker 1: And he actually put it in the show, and you know,
Speaker 1: and so I didn't get paid for.
Speaker 5: That should retroactive.
Speaker 1: But the line was, oh, I can't remember what the
Speaker 1: line was, but I was going back to if you're
Speaker 1: talking about line uh the book that I wrote about
Speaker 1: learning from failure and mistakes, etcetera, etcetera, And and if
Speaker 1: you want to do something, If you have a passion
Speaker 1: to do it, you should do it, no matter what
Speaker 1: parents say, no matter what coaches saying. Oh, this is
Speaker 1: a true story. When Beethoven was just a young child,
Speaker 1: he was told that he could never play music because
Speaker 1: he was deaf. But did he listen? I feel like
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm on your couch. I don't know
Speaker 1: if he listened. It was a long time ago.
Speaker 5: I did writing for a family sitcom hold any weight
Speaker 5: among your comedy peers? Or did you try to hide
Speaker 5: that job?
Speaker 1: You know, it seems like I'm kissing up here constantly.
Speaker 1: But you guys, such a It's a great show and
Speaker 1: a wonderful cast. And by the way, I thought Ben
Speaker 1: Savage was going to become the next Albert Brooks. I
Speaker 1: really thought his delivery and a lot of deadpan and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. He seemed to have that sense that
Speaker 1: Albert Books was one of my is one of my idols.
Speaker 1: So you know that it didn't feel like a family show.
Speaker 1: It felt like a classic show. So I mean, what
Speaker 1: did I watch? I had to watch a lot of
Speaker 1: shows because I was going to end up writing, because
Speaker 1: I wrote a lot of family shows, and that would happen.
Speaker 1: But my my thing satire and political humor and and
Speaker 1: you know, really things that you I wrote. I wrote,
Speaker 1: was it me and the boys? Oh no, it was
Speaker 1: the smart guy. I wrote a smart guy. And every
Speaker 1: time I would come into a show, I would pitch,
Speaker 1: usually that the one of the kids got drunk, or
Speaker 1: one of the kids was found with a gun, or
Speaker 1: one of the kids. I always always pitched basically.
Speaker 5: You wanted to write a very special episode.
Speaker 1: Exactly, And I pitched this one where Taj, Yeah, Taj
Speaker 1: got drunk at a party.
Speaker 5: I mean, here's the episode.
Speaker 1: Never too young, Yes he was either twelve or thirteen
Speaker 1: years old and all that stuff. And everybody went, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we're not going to put Taje in that situation. I
Speaker 1: get a phone call at the beginning of the next
Speaker 1: season that's remember that pitch that you made, come in,
Speaker 1: We're going to do it. And it was. It was
Speaker 1: because the I don't know if it was a Biden administration,
Speaker 1: but whatever they wanted ANTII drinking, anti gun type messages
Speaker 1: and they would pay the networks for it. And uh
Speaker 1: so I got called in to write the script and
Speaker 1: an actual edgy script, and I won the not the
Speaker 1: amount I was nominated for you man a tanas You
Speaker 1: didn't pronounce it right, okay, but you said, but you
Speaker 1: used all the letters there exactly humaniti something like that.
Speaker 1: I was nominated for that, and I and I won
Speaker 1: another award for writing that because it was you know,
Speaker 1: real life uh stuff, So I got to write, you know,
Speaker 1: other things than just faun and I wrote for Sybil.
Speaker 1: And I don't think that was a family show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was more of an you know, adults get to
Speaker 1: watch the shows too.
Speaker 4: Can I.
Speaker 2: When you were doing Moreman World, how old were your
Speaker 2: kids were they of of t G if watching age?
Speaker 1: No, they were younger than that. That's why I could.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I once put them and my whole family on eBay, uh,
Speaker 1: to sell the family. Yeah, and I took them, by
Speaker 1: the way. I pitched that as a show too.
Speaker 5: But we actually the dad sells his family on eBay.
Speaker 1: Yes, I did that too, And it was back when
Speaker 1: people weren't doing that, and they were like four and
Speaker 1: five at the time, so they couldn't really figure out.
Speaker 1: And that's about this time. Uh okay, they they didn't
Speaker 1: know except today it's like there's a picture of my
Speaker 1: daughter when she was an infant in Betty White's arms
Speaker 1: and she never thought anything about it. She said, when
Speaker 1: she went to college and she showed it, everybody went crazy.
Speaker 1: It was a great conversation starter because I think Betty
Speaker 1: ended up doing SNL and they did that commercial where
Speaker 1: she changed into another person by eating a certain candypark. Anyway,
Speaker 1: so they were younger. But believe me, she can't wait
Speaker 1: to tell all her friends I'm doing this.
Speaker 8: Oh oh, So as a big comedy nerd growing up,
Speaker 8: you watched Carson's Tonight Show religiously and then you end
Speaker 8: up writing the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Speaker 5: That must have been quite a moment for you.
Speaker 1: It was kind of cool. First of all, Jay worked
Speaker 1: for me for a number of years, so I guess
Speaker 1: it was a little bit of you know, payback.
Speaker 5: Yeah, a little full circle swittering exactly.
Speaker 1: And the thing is it was monologue writing, so it
Speaker 1: was really what happened that day or whatever, and you know,
Speaker 1: you give about you pitch about five hundred jokes and
Speaker 1: they go that one's good, you know. So it wasn't
Speaker 1: exactly where you sit there and go, hey, this is
Speaker 1: just a wonderful environment where my creativity is looked on
Speaker 1: as broken it was. And as I said before, what
Speaker 1: you had to write for Jay is nowhere near as
Speaker 1: funny as he was. And yeah, in the club person
Speaker 1: you would be double over for an hour and a
Speaker 1: such a mechanic. He just knew. He still knows how
Speaker 1: to make it work. On the tonight show, he was
Speaker 1: working to a very watered down audience. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 1: what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 4: But you're still doing.
Speaker 2: Man, you're starting just I'm thinking comedically, every single night
Speaker 2: is a new five minute bit. Yeah much for them
Speaker 2: on I mean that's oh yeah crazy, that's when you're
Speaker 2: you're thinking about it from a comic standpoint, that's just nuts.
Speaker 3: And how big would the writing stuff be? How many
Speaker 3: how many writers would be sitting around right now?
Speaker 1: Well, there are a lot of inside outside writers. When
Speaker 1: when I was writing, I was an outside writer, and
Speaker 1: I would, you know, every day, be sending the stuff
Speaker 1: in and he would go over his house with a
Speaker 1: bunch of people and go through all the material and
Speaker 1: see what they would use. So you know, they were
Speaker 1: about twelve writers. Twelve writers at any time, I mean
Speaker 1: with you guys, there were about ten writers. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: and still you figure all those writers and all those rewrites,
Speaker 1: you would figure something good would come out of it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, such a shame.
Speaker 1: By the way I looked, I did a little cheating.
Speaker 1: So I went back and looked at shows, and then
Speaker 1: I looked with somebody had put I think you guys
Speaker 1: did one hundred and fifty six shows something like that,
Speaker 1: and I think Uncle Daddy is like twelve or something
Speaker 1: like that rated. So I felt really good about that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, people loved it.
Speaker 5: People love that episode. It's a great one.
Speaker 1: It was so real, and it was based on I think,
Speaker 1: you know, in part about my life. You know, you
Speaker 1: date somebody with kids, and you know you have to. Hey,
Speaker 1: so how you doing there, buddy Pale? You know, right right?
Speaker 1: And so you tried to in this case, you tried
Speaker 1: to write it the way it should be, not the way.
Speaker 1: But it was wonderful right up to the last second
Speaker 1: that the kid could have been murdered. But you know,
Speaker 1: everything up to that was just so sweet, just so right,
Speaker 1: exactly what you should do. And I really did, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't get along. I like the kids better than
Speaker 1: I like the girl, you know, I mean, when you
Speaker 1: meet them, it's kind of it's kind of fun to
Speaker 1: play with the young kids and all. And yeah, I
Speaker 1: made a lot of a lot of it. I had
Speaker 1: a lot of experiences with children as part of a
Speaker 1: you know, a family that wasn't your family.
Speaker 5: Did you end up also, did that relationship end and
Speaker 5: you decided that it wasn't for you to have kids
Speaker 5: at that time?
Speaker 1: Oh? At that time, Oh yeah, I mean I I
Speaker 1: was not taking so off. I was stressed over everything.
Speaker 1: I've been sober for thirty five years. Not that I was,
Speaker 1: you know, it's horrible drunk or anything like that, but
Speaker 1: I drank and it wasn't doing any good. And so
Speaker 1: at that time I was not making commitments to anybody.
Speaker 1: I could be charming, or at least I thought I
Speaker 1: was right. You know, when you're drinking, you don't exactly
Speaker 1: know if you're charming, right, you think you are. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, later on I stopped drinking, you know,
Speaker 1: and everything, and that's when I ended up getting married
Speaker 1: in and and reversing the visecond.
Speaker 4: And then you had children or you just bought your
Speaker 4: family anybay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I would have done that if I would
Speaker 1: have known. That saved a lot of money.
Speaker 5: So when did you decide to start writing books?
Speaker 1: Well, it was when when our show Maybe This Time
Speaker 1: was we got the word that it was going on
Speaker 1: affair and and uh, I said to somebody. Somebody said
Speaker 1: you should write a book, and I said, I do
Speaker 1: not write a book. They said you would write what
Speaker 1: you know, and I said, well, I'm really good at failure.
Speaker 1: I've practiced it for years, I know. And and that
Speaker 1: became you.
Speaker 5: Know, that became your first book, Yeah, Betty.
Speaker 1: Then there were a couple of children's shows I pitched
Speaker 1: and did not sell. Oh when I saw the Disney channel. Uh,
Speaker 1: and they gave it back to me after they ruined
Speaker 1: it by giving it to an executive producer who didn't
Speaker 1: get it. It was about a boy who could go back
Speaker 1: in time, but only fifteen seconds. That's all he could do.
Speaker 1: And sometimes he would go back in time the watch
Speaker 1: he was where and would do it without him. No,
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, I'm sorry, fifteen minutes, go back in time.
Speaker 1: And I wrote it as a book, sold it to
Speaker 1: HarperCollins because we weren't able to make it there. Then
Speaker 1: I wrote another book for HarperCollins, and then I had
Speaker 1: a thing with Larry David and U show. No. It
Speaker 1: was a conversation with Larry David that we were I
Speaker 1: was going to do an article on him, and it's
Speaker 1: too long the story to tell. But I ended up
Speaker 1: writing it into a book and it's called the Larry
Speaker 1: David Code, and it's how Larry Saves the world.
Speaker 5: But I mean, and that's the Larry David we all
Speaker 5: know and love, or is this a different version of
Speaker 5: Larry David.
Speaker 1: That's interesting because if you would read the preface of
Speaker 1: the book, it does explain that there is a Larry
Speaker 1: David who was very successful, very popular, very attractive man.
Speaker 1: This is not this Larry. Uh. This Larry David is
Speaker 1: very similar to that Larry David. But it's not that
Speaker 1: Larry David. And I have written notes to all of
Speaker 1: my attorneys to let them know.
Speaker 5: Let them know it's a totally different.
Speaker 1: And I didn't. I didn't. I put in my drawer
Speaker 1: for years, and I showed it to Richard Lewis, who
Speaker 1: was a friend, and he said, you gotta you gotta
Speaker 1: publish it. I said, well, Larry might get upset it
Speaker 1: screw Larry, you know.
Speaker 4: And wasn't he Larry's best friend too?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Richard Lewis.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, it wasn't different. Richard Lewis too, Yeah.
Speaker 5: Very another very good looking, very successful.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, there are there are. There are plenty of
Speaker 1: them in the book, and coincidentally, all with similar names to.
Speaker 5: Some very I mean, we've named three Steve Young's on
Speaker 5: this podcast alone, and there are others.
Speaker 1: My son represented Steve Young, a country singer. Oh and
Speaker 1: I got a check of his at one time too.
Speaker 5: And did you want to be you or did you
Speaker 5: want to be him?
Speaker 1: He was better than me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you wanted to be him.
Speaker 1: They're all better than me.
Speaker 5: So you have also taught writing at Temple. You were
Speaker 5: a political radio host. You are a bit of a
Speaker 5: renaissance man.
Speaker 1: I was a political on air America. And keep in
Speaker 1: mind how well America did so I'm sure that both
Speaker 1: of my listeners were devastated when we ended. But yeah
Speaker 1: I did that. I was political editor of National Lampoon
Speaker 1: for a while. That was fun. That was because National
Speaker 1: Lampoon was a big deal for me when I was
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. But yeah, I told you,
Speaker 1: I did as much as I could because I couldn't
Speaker 1: do anything well. And it was really you know, as
Speaker 1: it came in front of me, because like, I flunked
Speaker 1: out of four different colleges without ever getting a credit,
Speaker 1: so that was a lot.
Speaker 5: How does one do that?
Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting. I flunked out the first year and
Speaker 1: then I went and they said, you have to go
Speaker 1: back to night school to uh to get back into
Speaker 1: the day school. And people said, you can't flunk night school.
Speaker 1: That's like a possibility. So I took it as a
Speaker 1: challenge and I ended up flunking out.
Speaker 4: Were you just not going? I mean, that's the only
Speaker 4: way to flunk out of night school.
Speaker 1: I went and I took a public speaking course and
Speaker 1: I funked it there. I I found out later that
Speaker 1: I had a learning disability and so I couldn't retain
Speaker 1: any information and that that was it. Then I went
Speaker 1: in the army and I and I flunked out of
Speaker 1: the army. They said, I think we would be better
Speaker 1: if you would.
Speaker 3: You would not be here anymore, and so I went
Speaker 3: back to the surge country by getting out of the army.
Speaker 1: So yeah, So, by the way, that's why the book
Speaker 1: learning you know, Great Failures, That's what popped up in
Speaker 1: my mind because there were so many times that things
Speaker 1: didn't work, and then it led to something else. I
Speaker 1: mean even that. I wrote a movie that some very
Speaker 1: heavyweight producers took around town. Did not sell, but my
Speaker 1: agent called me up and said, there's a scene in
Speaker 1: there that I think would make a great, uh sitcom
Speaker 1: for kids, and we sold it to the Disney Channel.
Speaker 1: So there it is. The movie didn't work, but we
Speaker 1: sold the TV show. TV show then didn't work. They
Speaker 1: gave it to me. I wrote, it is a book.
Speaker 1: The book. The actually book worked, and somebody bought it
Speaker 1: as a play, you know. I mean, it's just what happens.
Speaker 1: If you're just doing and doing, you end up running
Speaker 1: into something that you would have never expected if you
Speaker 1: didn't take the action. Oh look, I'm lecturing.
Speaker 4: That right, and I already funked out. I already flunked
Speaker 4: out of your fund.
Speaker 1: I'm going to send a magnet that put on your refrigerator.
Speaker 5: Our last question for you. You have had a very long,
Speaker 5: fulfilling career in so many different fields. Is there still
Speaker 5: anything out there left that you want to do?
Speaker 1: Oh? Let me tell you, I discovered a stand up
Speaker 1: approach after all these years, about eight or nine years ago,
Speaker 1: nobody at the club owners tell me. Nobody has ever
Speaker 1: done it. I've never seen that I've done. Many other
Speaker 1: comedians have told me. But it's something that I do now,
Speaker 1: and I'm better than I ever was. So I'm in
Speaker 1: my seventies and yet I now can get on stage
Speaker 1: as a headliner and literally kill because they're not. What
Speaker 1: I do is I watch every other comic and then
Speaker 1: I do their material again because I say, I say
Speaker 1: at the beginning, I wrote material for tonight, but theirs
Speaker 1: is so much better than mine. I'm just going to
Speaker 1: do theirs again. And what I've done during the night
Speaker 1: is watch them and change their the jokes. I change them.
Speaker 1: I make them really absurd and just totally off the wall,
Speaker 1: but I use them as the starting point. And I've
Speaker 1: only gotten I've only gotten beaten up a couple of times.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was gonna say that. Said that, I bet
Speaker 4: comedians love that. That's what they're known for. It's like,
Speaker 4: you know, my favorite thing is when I tell a
Speaker 4: joke and then another comedian tells the same one.
Speaker 5: A little bit better and different than somebody.
Speaker 1: You know, what I like to do is tell it
Speaker 1: before they go on. That's smart. There is only a
Speaker 1: couple comedians who I've ever said, Uh No, it's it's
Speaker 1: because I think it's a fun thing. And it's because
Speaker 1: I'm not making a lot of money on their material.
Speaker 1: And I tell them, if you like what I did
Speaker 1: with it, you take that that's yours. Oh you know,
Speaker 1: it's just so fun to do. And I sit there
Speaker 1: and I sit there every night and I'm writing, and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm at the beginning it's like it's not
Speaker 1: gonna work. It's not gonna work. And then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, but I spend most of the time turning
Speaker 1: them my girlfriend and saying, what do you say?
Speaker 5: I can't hear.
Speaker 3: I think this is really that's really cool. It's it
Speaker 3: makes it that it has to be live. That's what
Speaker 3: I like about it, is like, that's why the audience
Speaker 3: on the audience must love it because they are you
Speaker 3: clearly couldn't have written this ahead of time. And so
Speaker 3: it's like getting back to what stand up should be,
Speaker 3: which is a live experience. And we do this with
Speaker 3: our live shows too. The less we play, the more
Speaker 3: we just walk out on stage and engage with our audience,
Speaker 3: the better at night.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 3: So that's such a cool it's like a cool tightrope
Speaker 3: walk that you're doing.
Speaker 1: I really and thank you And isn't it when you
Speaker 1: do things live when the audience is with you, don't
Speaker 1: your minds move faster?
Speaker 3: And doing this is why you go out and you know,
Speaker 3: that's what we want from comedy. In today's world, everything
Speaker 3: is you know, online or you know. We're all isolated
Speaker 3: in our own little doing meetings like this, you know,
Speaker 3: so the idea of like getting out into a room
Speaker 3: and listening and being a part of a group is
Speaker 3: just getting lost on us.
Speaker 1: At the same time, I cannot send out a tape
Speaker 1: of mind and anybody would know what I was doing, right, right, right.
Speaker 1: I have my own too, and that's fine too. But
Speaker 1: the thing that makes me different is doing the other
Speaker 1: people's material, and unfortunately that puts me in a hole.
Speaker 1: But you know what, I'm at a point in my
Speaker 1: life where I'm not sitting there and going, oh, let
Speaker 1: me get on failing, right, right.
Speaker 3: Right, get invited to the couch.
Speaker 4: That's the best.
Speaker 2: Well, when you when you also when you when you
Speaker 2: write your book about failing part two, I hope you
Speaker 2: start with us.
Speaker 1: Well, I will agree the show that Danielle did and
Speaker 1: thank you got for the tears. I wish I could remember.
Speaker 1: I know you were making a speech.
Speaker 5: It's at the very end.
Speaker 3: It's the tag running for class president or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, it's like Corey is running for president. You end
Speaker 3: up taking over the debate or something. I forget what.
Speaker 1: Everybody was running for president.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's the tag. It's the very last scene of
Speaker 5: the show. So if you go back and watch it,
Speaker 5: and Will even I mean I said I wanted to
Speaker 5: rewatch it because Will said he could even see it
Speaker 5: in my eyes.
Speaker 4: I can't. I can see that I've been covering.
Speaker 5: Yeah, my husband said he could see it too.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's great. It's not so great, but.
Speaker 5: No, it's great. I love it. Steve, Thank you so
Speaker 5: much for coming and spending your time with us. Thank
Speaker 5: your daughter Kelly for letting us use her house and
Speaker 5: her name, and Casey, I really have enjoyed spending a
Speaker 5: bit of time with you. It makes sense now that
Speaker 5: we didn't really get to know you because you were
Speaker 5: only on our set for two weeks, so it's been
Speaker 5: a pleasure to get to know you a little bit now.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I'm glad, you know. I'm so pleased that
Speaker 1: I was part of it because when people talk about
Speaker 1: what are you show? I wrote something for Hbolay is
Speaker 1: very proud of for little kids. But your show is
Speaker 1: the one that I always think when I get introduced
Speaker 1: it is a writer for Boy Meets World. That's the
Speaker 1: first credit that they give. And now a lot of
Speaker 1: the audience is, I don't remember that show.
Speaker 5: I'm too old for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yes, my parents told me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's where we are.
Speaker 2: Ye.
Speaker 1: I give you as the credit. I'm tolled that I
Speaker 1: could have been part of it.
Speaker 5: Where can people find you so they know where to
Speaker 5: go see you in a city near them.
Speaker 1: The Larry David code dot.
Speaker 5: Com Great the Larry davidcode dot Com.
Speaker 2: To find Steve David, I'll find a different Larry David
Speaker 2: different by the way.
Speaker 1: I do not. I'm really that on up keep, so
Speaker 1: a lot of my appearances in two thousand and fifteen
Speaker 1: and sixteen may still be on there. So I don't
Speaker 1: know it. You know, Okay, check the date.
Speaker 4: Check the date.
Speaker 5: Okay, before you buy tickets, check the date at the
Speaker 5: Larry davidcove dot com. Thank you Steve for being with
Speaker 5: us today.
Speaker 3: Guys, appreciate good to see you.
Speaker 1: Bye bye.
Speaker 5: It's so great that he for doing when he did
Speaker 5: the two episodes, actually got to spend the entire week
Speaker 5: on zet unlike a lot of other freelance.
Speaker 3: Are funny because he actually has more memories than some
Speaker 3: people who are on multi.
Speaker 2: How about some confirmation for you, Birsty.
Speaker 5: Well, I didn't need it. I knew for sure. If
Speaker 5: we'll remembered it, it happened, and writer remembered it vaguely right.
Speaker 3: It was like, yeah, once you pointed out, I was like,
Speaker 3: that's right, and I can tell you because I remember
Speaker 3: the fact that we changed the credit and all that
Speaker 3: was in a way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's also the people that he's worked with, I mean,
Speaker 2: just the names that he's spouting out there. I would
Speaker 2: also officially like to ask that we try. It'll never happen,
Speaker 2: but we try to get Jim Carrey to come on
Speaker 2: the podcast.
Speaker 5: Why would you Carry come on our podcast?
Speaker 2: Let's find out why would My dad always says the
Speaker 2: worst thing people can say is no, you might as
Speaker 2: well just ask.
Speaker 5: Then find him.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know how to find Jim Carry come
Speaker 4: on the podcast.
Speaker 5: The Jim Carrey dot Com to the Jim Carrey Jim
Speaker 5: Jim to a.
Speaker 3: Very interesting moment the last couple years on Well, then
Speaker 3: let's find out if maybe it's interesting in this sort
Speaker 3: of like Buddhist present tense constant. He's like a very
Speaker 3: interesting guy lately, so let's try to get him on one.
Speaker 5: My favorite, my favorite recent Jim Carrey quote was they
Speaker 5: asked him why he was coming back for Sonic, and
Speaker 5: he was like, I spend a lot of money.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we can get it. I'm telling you, we can get.
Speaker 5: We can get them.
Speaker 3: Okay, I just know how hard so many of our
Speaker 3: writers had to work like these stories. It's just the
Speaker 3: constant hustle. It's like, yeah, and like you have to
Speaker 3: manage the club or own the club, even to just
Speaker 3: get your own five minutes, and then you have to
Speaker 3: just hang out. Like I mean, the way that he
Speaker 3: must have spent every night of his life backstage with
Speaker 3: a group of comedians trying to make each other laugh,
Speaker 3: trying to maintain enough of an impression to get paid
Speaker 3: to get hired the next It's like such a hustle.
Speaker 4: It's so much work. He's also running a business. He
Speaker 4: also owns the club. That's what you got that so
Speaker 4: much work.
Speaker 3: I just you just have to have that, like I'm
Speaker 3: always going to be making people laugh and I can't stop,
Speaker 3: Like I just always you know, like what an engine
Speaker 3: to always have inside of you. I just it's crazy.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, it's so cool.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
Speaker 5: of Podmeets World. As always, you can follow us on
Speaker 5: Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us your
Speaker 5: emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com, and
Speaker 5: we have merch.
Speaker 1: We hear it.
Speaker 2: Podmeats World would like to personally apologize to the Olive
Speaker 2: Garden merch.
Speaker 5: Also a reminder, we the kids still want to jump.
Speaker 5: We are on tour. You can go to podmeetsworldshow dot
Speaker 5: com for merch and tickets and to see the calendar
Speaker 5: of all the dates. So we hope to see you
Speaker 5: out there. We love you all. Pod dismissed. Pod Meets
Speaker 5: World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel,
Speaker 5: Wilfridell and writer Strong Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman.
Speaker 5: Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor,
Speaker 5: Tara sudbachsch producer, Maddie Moore engineer and boy Meets World
Speaker 5: superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton
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