WEBVTT - John Henson 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:04.040 The Craig Ferguson Fancy Rascal Stand Up Tour continues throughout 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.280 twenty twenty four. For a full list of dates and tickets, 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:10.240 go to the Craig Ferguson Show dot com slash tour. 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:13.640 See you out there, the Greig Ferguson show dot com 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:18.760 slash Tour. My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:23.520 this podcast is Joy. I talk to interest in people 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:30.320 about what brings them happiness. Lee's welcome today. My friend 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:32.920 for a very long time. He has nothing to do 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:43.760 with the Muppets, but he's still very good. John Hanson, this. 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:46.280 Is a rare thing, an afternoon coffee for me. 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.840 Is that bad? We'll find out you are you health 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:51.760 craze that you look really well right now? 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:56.400 No, it's more of a function of needing to update 0:00:56.440 --> 0:01:01.240 your prescription right now. This is honestly, I nothing could 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:03.320 be farther from the truth in terms of health. I 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:07.199 you know, I get up insanely early. Yeah, but that's 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.200 that's because you're crazy. That's none of it with food exactly. 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:12.520 That's just I've known you for a long time. 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:14.839 I mean, you're you're up, You're you're like a deer 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:18.560 that's going through the forest. And then I imagine you 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:21.040 sleep like a deer sleeps like just it's quite for 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:21.440 a little bit. 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:21.720 And then. 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.400 I always say, like I sleep the way your computer sleeps, 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:28.880 like the screen is dark, but you press any key 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.560 and it's right there, lights right up. But I you know, 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.440 I get, you know, it's it's as if my body 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.800 thinks I'm a farmer. And so I haven't used an 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:40.080 alarm clock in ten years. 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:42.600 I know as I get older, you know, but I 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:47.160 I as I got older, sleep gets harder to mean 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:50.120 an elusive mistress. Well, it's weird, man, because when I 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:52.680 was young, I could sleep like for But now what 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:54.960 I can do and I'm very happy. But i've i've 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:59.760 i've uh entered my cat years. Oh you nap a nap? 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:02.559 I can nap pretty much like if I needed to nap, 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:03.400 not a nap. 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:06.919 See, I'm an abject failure at napping, but it doesn't 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:09.280 stop me from trying all the time. If I can 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:13.079 get just ten minutes of gray zone, I'm good. That's 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:14.880 that's that's that's that's meditation. 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:20.519 Yeah, well in that case, I am freaking Gandhi do 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:23.000 you meditate? I do I do. 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.880 I think, you know, I it's funny. I still words 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.040 like meditate like I think of it as just like 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.600 framing my mindset, stilling my mind. 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.360 I think that's that's what it is. Yeah, right right. 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:38.760 I'm no Eggs, but I'm no David Lynch, but I'm 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:42.839 always I still have the knee jerk fear that when 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.760 you use the word meditate and conversation, people arch and 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.240 eyebrow and you say like, still my mind, and people go. 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:52.400 Well, that sounds very practical. Yeah, But I I I 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:54.040 sleep like a rock. 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:56.320 I just sleep like a rock for like four and 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:58.880 a half hour. I think that's okay. Yeah, I think 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:00.880 that the thing to do is I'll beat yourself up. 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.320 I mean, I've just ankled to it. But the way 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:08.079 I cope with that is I get up at about 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:13.360 four four thirty, yeah, and I drink just enough coffee 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:15.760 to bring me to the brink of a seizure, right, 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:18.280 and then I when I start feeling the jaw lock up. 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:20.960 Oh yeah, I can switch over to water. Is there 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:22.920 a time? And then we'll go into you in a 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:27.160 minute and your life and important things? But is there 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:29.560 can you see a time? Because I know, like like me. 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.320 You don't drink, you don't do drugs. You have them 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:34.519 for a long time at nine or five. But I 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:37.680 don't know how easy it would be for me to 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:39.040 say goodbye to coffee. 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:42.440 Coffee and nicorette, no nicotine. 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:44.600 I'm done. I'm done a long time ago with nicotine. 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:45.440 But those are the two. 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:49.160 I'm like, you will pry those from my cold, dead hats. 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:50.800 I'm not saying goodbye to those yet. 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.360 Well you know it's and well you said yeah though, 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.000 which is good, right, because I would have a hard 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.840 time with call you. I could probably do it, but 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:03.680 I think, well, why why? Because coffee isn't bad for you, 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:07.240 is it? I mean everything in moderation, right, Like I 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:08.160 drink motivation. 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:11.200 I can't get to that. I drink Probably this is 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:14.240 for me, assign and progress. This is down for me. 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.960 I drink seven or eight cups of coffee more. Okay, 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.159 I think I got to the root of your sleep problem. 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:21.920 Fucking idiot. 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:24.880 And if you if you saw if I were to 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:27.800 lay out on a table the amount of nicorette gum 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.800 I chew, yeah, you would you would immediately be like, 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:32.400 we're taking you right to seaters. 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.200 Wow? Really, I didn't know you took nicer I mean, 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:36.960 I knew you didn't smoke, But when did you stop 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.080 smoking a long time ago? I was supposed going to 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:43.680 say because I took Nicorette for about a year after 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:44.680 I stopped smoking. 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.400 But that's I didn't even I didn't start until well 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:50.480 after I stopped smoking. I just tried it one day 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:52.600 because I didn't want to smoke a cigarette. And I 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:58.560 was like this, this, this is my brand of Scotch 0:04:58.680 --> 0:04:59.200 right here. 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:02.359 You know, I had a scope done on my upper 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.880 endoscopy scope done earlier this year. I remember that, right. 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:10.960 So they were giving me the propofall before they put 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.280 me out. Sweet my god. So just as we're getting 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:16.400 I'm talking to the anesthesiologists. I'm in the room and 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:18.920 he goes, Okay, you're going to feel a little I'm 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:22.000 gonna feel little wosy for a few seconds and then 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.360 it'll be night night. I was like okay, and then 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:27.400 he said, okay, I'm letting the stuff going now. And 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.359 I was like, oh my god, that's so good. I tried. 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.360 I tried so hard to stay you live in that 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:37.479 spot between ten and nine. Oh my god, it was 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:39.440 so crazy good. 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:44.000 I actually watch the bag, like when they bring it in. 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:45.000 I watched that. 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:48.360 To me, is the drive to the dealer's house. Yeah 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:49.960 you know what I mean, where it's like it's all 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.280 in front of me. It's all I'm just just sweet anticipation, 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:54.000 you know. 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:57.320 But here's the thing though, man, Like we're talking about 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.760 as a couple old druggies. But but here's the thing. Kids, 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:03.280 no or anyone I know these kids, but people who 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:06.360 take drugs. Now that phantoel shit is that there. It's 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:08.400 just like it's a bomb, just goes right off. 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:10.839 It's and if they say this all the time, is 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.279 like it's in everything now, it's in the pot, it's 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:17.160 in It's like, you know, everything is laced with fentanyl. 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:21.599 And I'm thankful because our kids are about the same age. 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:23.599 Yeah, my youngest is the same age. 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:26.400 I mean mine is a lot so mine. Mine just 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:28.840 turned thirteen. And I said, you know, he's seventh grade. 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:32.119 And I thought, all right, he's entering the phase where 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.160 people are going to begin to experiment. And I said 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:41.240 to him, like, do you know anybody who's like vaped 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.839 or tried pot or cigarettes or drank. And it was 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:47.159 as if I had said to him, do you know, 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.520 anybody that uses in travenous drugs. Like he looked at 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:53.719 me and he goes, no good, And I go really, 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:55.360 and I go, do you ever smell. 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:56.839 It at school? And he goes, oh yeah, all the time, 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:59.479 every time I enter the men's room. Oh god. You know, 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:02.640 well that's that's tricky, but it is. 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.599 It feels like, you know, the pendulum swings back and forth. 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:09.039 And I feel like this younger generation, at least where 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:11.400 I am, and this pocket of kids that my son 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:14.960 hangs with is very sort of innocent. 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:18.640 And you know, I think so, I mean, I hope so. 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.280 I mean, Liam's abit the same age as as your boy, 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.320 and he's, uh, he's just you. He done thirteen a 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:29.720 couple of months ago, and he seems very cognizant of 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:33.360 what bad idea is. But maybe you know, I'm his dad. 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:35.080 He's talking to me, you know, I don't know what 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:36.240 he's saying to his buddies. You know. 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.800 All it takes is like one kid in your class 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:41.760 with a peanut allergy, and all of a sudden, marijuana 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.760 seems like playing with plutonium, Like, no, man, we can't 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:45.640 even do skippy. 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.680 Yeah, And I know, I know it's uh it's a 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:51.920 little tricky, but you know what, I'm glad that I 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:57.080 passed through the drug sniper alley before they had loaded 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:00.840 up with fentyl. That's that's terrifying. It's just terrible. 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:03.320 Otherwise there'd be two other people sitting in the You 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:05.920 remember Craig Fergus, Yeah he was. 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:08.840 That was weird. I thought he was gonna get sober. Yeah, 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:10.320 but he didn't. It was a really good guy. I 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:15.120 had no idea. Yeah, well neither did he. And yeah, 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:17.880 because it's one and done right, Yeah, that's just thing 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:19.840 you can't just like, oh, I better clean up my 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:21.680 you've fucked. Yeah he won. 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:24.360 Yeah, it's March Madness, single elimination role. 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:28.160 God. Yeah, it's crazy. Good sport analogy. Thank you? All right, 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:30.880 So listen, you know that you are one of the 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:35.200 few people I know in show business who actually has 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:37.280 is qualified to be in show business. You know that. 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:41.680 What do you mean because you haven't good at anything else? No? No, no, 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:45.120 that that's as everybody else. I know, that's me. But 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:49.720 you are like you've got a degree in acting. Uh well, 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:53.480 and I I studied acting quite a bit. You watched 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:53.959 a couple of. 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:59.200 Movies I went you know I did not finish college, 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:03.600 as I say, you are regular show business. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.800 I always say I went to college the same way 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:10.600 Charlie Sheen went to rehab. We were both physically there 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:13.160 for a period of time. I don't know that any 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:17.040 of us took a lot away from the experience. But 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:20.480 and I've said that joke to Charlie, So no, no, no, 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:21.200 I think it's fine. 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.280 No, I think you're right. I don't know about it, Charlie, So, 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:27.360 I don't know he's got it. I haven't heard anything. 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.600 You're right with that, Yeah, with that tiger bloodshed. 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.240 Yeah, yeah, he's not exactly flying under the radar when 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.560 he's years. Oh yeah, there's usually you know, there's goddesses. 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:41.240 Yeah, you know, maybe not tour he did and all that, 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:43.079 the two and a half man thing and everything. 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.079 I remember I did an episode of Anger Management once 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:47.920 and is that the one after him? 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:48.400 Yeah? 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.600 It was the one that he did on like FX, 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:55.440 and they gave him like a hundred episode commitment, which 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.400 you know, it is like an astronomical amount of money 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:01.480 that they guarantee me. And and so I had done 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.800 the episode and gone back to my trailer, and I 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:11.240 was facetiming my then wife, and while I was getting 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:13.040 changed and saying I'm all done, I'm getting ready to 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:15.920 come home. And while we're talking, there's a knock on 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:18.400 the trailer door and I open it and this guy goes, hey, 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:22.760 Charlie wants to see it in his trailer, and I 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:24.360 go okay, and I close the door and she goes, 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:30.520 don't go at least don't don't did you go of course, yeah, yeah, 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.080 And it was okay. This is the best part about 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:35.640 it was we sat in his room, me, him and 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:39.360 another guy and just shot the shit and laughed like 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.640 there was no care in the world. For thirty forty minutes. 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:47.960 He's smoking cigarettes and then eventually I had like a 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:49.880 joke that got enough of a laugh where I was like, 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.520 I should leave, Yeah, you know what I mean. I go, well, listen, man, 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:54.920 I got to take off, and he like drains the 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:57.319 last of a marlboroughread and goes, yeah, I should get 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:01.360 back to set. And I went there waiting for you, 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:05.240 and he goes yeah, and I go, oh, dude, I 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.680 I would have left, like, you know, after five minutes 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.199 if I had known that the whole crew and he goes, am, 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:13.040 I gonna shoot anything without me and just ambled out 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:14.800 of the set. 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:16.840 I don't know how good it is for you to 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:18.000 be like that though. 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.640 I mean, you know, yeah, but it was I mean 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:25.640 it was delivered like a boss, like like like I 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:28.079 believe it. It didn't feel like, oh, this is the 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:31.240 one time I've done this. Put it that way. He 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:33.520 did not have any compunction about it. 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.120 Yeah, but so you're not you're not a qualified actor, 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:39.120 then you just a stand up. I've done it. 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:41.800 I started acting when I was young, so I did 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:43.640 a lot of you and like. 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:44.720 Mary Popin's or something. 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:48.880 Uh may or may not have done God's Spell, which 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:51.080 you know that's a that's does that. 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:53.560 Say a little prayer for you, say a little prefer you? 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:54.360 Is that goad spell? 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:55.840 Uh? 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:57.120 I don't think so. 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:57.360 No. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.760 I don't know what age of. 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:06.480 That's Jesus Christ Superstar. I can't, honestly, I've blocked it out. 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:10.240 It was high school. But no, I didn't the classic. 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.319 Bullying story in high school because you don't strike me 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.800 as someone whould get No I got. 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.880 I was it was requested that I take my education 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:22.720 elsewhere after my junior year of high school. Really, and 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:26.560 you know you got to really ship the bed to 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.640 be asked to leave a public high school. That's not 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:32.679 you know what I mean, that's not a there. They 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.080 don't keep real tight reins on you. 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:39.360 And do you remember what caused any particular incident that happened. 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:45.440 There were a series of unexcused absences. Okay, over a 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:51.080 couple of years, I had the sales job that I 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:56.880 that needed attending to during school hours. Got it, and 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:59.400 and that that was not a that was not a 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:04.160 well kept secret, And so I repeated my junior year 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:07.040 of high school. I had to go to another school 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:09.720 and do it again. Close the store in that still 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.320 I did it was I went to a smaller private 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:15.480 school that was either for like it was for like 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:19.040 affluent kids who had been in private school their whole life, 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.640 were kids that needed more structure in their environment, and 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:25.959 like the sort of reclamation projects. 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:28.360 And do you ever hear about those ones that like 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:30.720 people send their kids to schools and Utah and stuff 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:31.240 like that. 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:33.280 Where you're like in the fucking wilderness. Yeah, and you're 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:38.120 I don't know, No, that sounds scary. Yeah, that sounds 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:40.559 like an episode of Dateline, you know what I mean? 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:44.760 That sounds like you know where Q the Keith Morrison like, 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.280 but Danny never came home after that. 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:55.520 So do you know the great Ferguson Fancy Rascals Stand 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:58.800 Up To It continues throughout the United States in twenty 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:02.240 twenty four. For a full list of dates and tickets, 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:06.040 go to the Craig fergusonshow dot com slash Tour. See 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:13.560 you out there, Hey, So you became a stand up then? Yeah, 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:15.319 I dropped out of college s to do stand up, right, 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.040 but stand up was stand up like a thing for you, 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.320 like a lot of American stand ups. I know, everybody 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:24.680 says Richard Pryor. Everybody goes, I was Richard Pryor, and 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:27.320 that's what I wanted to do. That Like black guys, 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:29.960 white guys, everybody is like, yeah, black women and white women, 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:31.360 everybody talks about Richard Pryr. 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:33.760 It was so I was the youngest of five boys. 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:38.000 I inherited a collection of comedy album Ah so Bob Newhart, 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:42.720 Bob Newhart, Richard Pryor, Red Fox, George Carlin. 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:44.480 So, I you know it was. 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:48.840 I remember like it all seems sort of dark, but 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:52.880 I became so obsessed with it that I had one 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.120 of those like turntables where if you closed it, it 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:56.920 would just play until the end of the album, then 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:58.640 get up and start at the beginning again. And I 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:01.400 would put on a comedy album and just close my 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:04.440 eyes and listen to it over and over and over 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:06.960 until I could like lip sync with it, until I 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:08.120 had memorized it. 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:09.840 Like I was obsessive about it. 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.760 I used to sit up and like I remember when 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:16.480 SNL started, and I would sit up and record it 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.840 on an audio like on a cassette cassette plan and 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:22.320 just listen to that shit. So and then I was 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:23.960 acting and training and stuff a little bit. 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:25.840 It sounds a little. Look, I'm not a doctor that 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:28.120 has a little spectrum. It was not. It was not. 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:30.800 It was you know, not full on rocking back and 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:32.720 forth in front of the dryer, but it was closed. 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:35.000 Yeah, it sounds like it may it may You may 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:35.840 be in there somewhere. 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:38.880 Yeah, like anyone ever a little O c D, a little, 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:41.200 a little uncomfortable with human interaction. 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:45.000 Well yeah, but you're but you're an affection man. I've 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.120 known you for a while. You're I mean, look, I 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.080 don't know enough of it with al I'm talking about 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:50.560 to know if that is a thing. But I think 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:52.520 it was more O C D O C D. 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:54.840 You know what I mean. It was that, it wasn't. 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:58.640 It wasn't. That was my rain man box of matches 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.440 on the ground. I just look and you know, but 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:04.800 I would just comedy was. I think being the youngest 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:08.800 of five and being the youngest by seven years, I 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:13.480 had to learn to defend myself verbally because I could physically. 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:15.120 Yeah, what were you and your mom? 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:20.240 Like, my mom was a like first ballot Hall of 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:24.160 Fame alcoholic m They sent her jersey to Cooperstown. Yeah, 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.280 second sports reference. Yeah, scoring a good one. Thank you 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:31.120 feel good about it? Yeah, but yeah, So you know, 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.320 my parents divorced when I was eleven, and my mom 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:39.360 cratered and I was living alone with her because all 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:41.400 my brothers were in college and out of the house. 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:45.080 But so it was like four or five years of 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:49.720 that's pretty traumatic, John, dude, it was. I have realized 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:54.760 since you know, you kind of synthesize and naturalize what 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.320 you've lived through, right, like all of a sudden, you've 0:16:57.400 --> 0:16:59.560 just sat with your own story for so long that 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:03.080 it's not big deal, right, And I think recently I've 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:07.919 had that experience where like I went back to therapy 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:10.800 years ago, and I you know that there's that first 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.800 week or two where you're kind of just vomiting your story. 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:15.200 And bringing them up to speed. 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.720 And I went through this era of living with my 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:22.400 mom and the years that there was like no hot 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:25.240 food and no clean clothes and nobody getting up for school, 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.479 and you know, she just was a functional and and 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:32.359 I just watched the mask of horror come over my 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:36.280 therapist face and she goes, you know, like the state 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:40.240 takes kids away for that, and that was a big thing, Like, 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:46.400 oh my god, she's right, Like in modern times there 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:49.320 would have been some sort of intervention where it was. 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:53.760 Connecticut, you're from, right, yeah, yeah, so and then so 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:54.359 that you. 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:58.480 Know that that was quite a left turn. And then I, 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:04.400 you know, I exhibited itself in running with you know, 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:10.080 wanting to having sort of a compulsive desire to to 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.840 break rules to you know, well. 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:14.359 Yeah, I mean, look, if you get no structure and 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.679 then suddenly you had much, you start like thinking it 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:20.600 doesn't apply to you. I mean, it just was. 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.600 It was not a man, I need to bang out 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:26.320 this book report today because I don't want to do 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:28.640 it at the last second on Sunday. It was more 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.040 of a hey, if I just don't go to school 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:32.679 on Monday, no book report. 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:35.800 Yeah, you know, So when did you do your first 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.119 stand up? Then? How did you like? We freshman year 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:41.280 of college? Really that young? I take that back. Second. 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.240 It was freshman year at college. I was in and 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.080 I started. I didn't start it. I was a founding 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.719 member of an improv troop at Boston University, right. And 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:54.640 then sophomore year, I did my first open mic night 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.119 with another guy, a guy that I loved dearly that 0:18:57.160 --> 0:18:58.720 I went to college with his past now, but he 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.800 and I did a two person thing and at an 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:05.679 open mic night, and I was I mean, it went terribly, 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:08.280 but I was just fucking hooked. And he never did 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:09.880 it again, and I just couldn't. 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:12.680 I couldn't. I was always obsessed with that, yeah, because 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:16.240 I remember doing stuff guys none of them stayed at it. 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:17.600 I was like, oh, this is my thing. 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:20.920 Yeah yeah, and I just I you know, I think 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:24.600 I'd only done twelve or fifteen open mic nights. When 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:27.560 I was like, I'm out of college, I'm leaving after 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:31.160 my sophomore year, and I'm start earning money. I went 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.359 to New York and I was, you know, it was 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:37.600 sort of a process of putting in the FaceTime, you 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:38.080 know what I mean. 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:40.800 And I had a social media then used that you 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:43.960 couldn't do your your tiktoks and no, it was just 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:46.679 that it was just pledging the frat, you know, just 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:48.160 being around. And there was a cup. 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:50.600 There was a club Boston Comedy Club, which is now 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:55.520 you know people know and Boston Comedy Club in New York. Yeah, 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.840 and I was. I started working there and then over it. 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.400 I took probably two or three years before I got 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:04.800 passed in all the clubs and was able to cobble 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:09.760 together enough of a living just on set pay to 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:11.640 not have any other job. 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:14.880 All right, did you ever do the comic strip up 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:17.200