Speaker 1: Now, I understand some people are against the appetite suppressions.
Speaker 2: You know, that's cheating. It's cheating. I'm not playing Major
Speaker 2: League Baseball.
Speaker 1: I'm just a fat guy trying to not die.
Speaker 2: You have it.
Speaker 3: He is my next guest. He's a three time Emmy
Speaker 3: Award winner, an eight time Grammy nominated comedian, actor, writer
Speaker 3: and producer, and a two time New York Times best
Speaker 3: selling author. He is out with his eleventh stand up
Speaker 3: comedy special called The Skinny on Hulu. Please welcome to
Speaker 3: the Steven A. Smiths Show. They're very funny. Jim GAFFICKT
Speaker 3: what's going on, Jim?
Speaker 2: How are you? Man? How's everything good? I'm good. Thanks
Speaker 2: for having me, man.
Speaker 3: Please, the pleasure is all mine. I have to tell
Speaker 3: you something right now. I mean, I've watched you, and
Speaker 3: I know how funny you are, but you took it
Speaker 3: to another level when you were imitating the vice president,
Speaker 3: the the Democratic nominee for vice president of the United States.
Speaker 2: Tim Wolves. What was that like for you?
Speaker 3: What has that done for your career? In your estimation?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 1: So it was, Uh, I don't know what it's you know,
Speaker 1: XNL is hard to kind of calculate what it does
Speaker 1: for your career really, so it's like, has it uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just the awareness that is so enormous,
Speaker 1: Like when you're on SNL, it's not just people watching it,
Speaker 1: it's the clips. And so it was kind of the
Speaker 1: fact that everyone saw that I was playing Tim Walls.
Speaker 2: That was the most wild thing.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if it contributed to ticket sales
Speaker 1: or or you know, my IMDb number.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't think it affected any of that.
Speaker 3: I guess what I'm asking is this, when when when
Speaker 3: when they first went When when it was announced that
Speaker 3: Tim Walls was going to be the vice the Democratic
Speaker 3: nominee for Vice President of the United States.
Speaker 2: Does place like.
Speaker 3: Saturday Night Live come to you? Do you and your
Speaker 3: agent go to them and you say, hey, look me,
Speaker 3: I look just like the God. Oh I look a
Speaker 3: little bit like the God could pull us off. How
Speaker 3: does that work exactly?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, it's it's it's all kind of Lourene Michaels, right. So,
Speaker 1: and it's SNL has this tradition of you don't really
Speaker 1: campaign for things, it's you let the process play out.
Speaker 2: And I was aware of that.
Speaker 1: So I was very kind of hands off, and you know,
Speaker 1: obviously I wanted to do it, but I knew that,
Speaker 1: you know, me posting impressions of myself doing Tim Wallace
Speaker 1: wouldn't move the needle and might annoy some of the
Speaker 1: people trying to make the decision. So but it was
Speaker 1: weird because I, you know, there is my manager and
Speaker 1: my agent were pitching me. And there came a time
Speaker 1: when I was in the UK, I was working on
Speaker 1: a movie, and I got a call at eleven o'clock
Speaker 1: you know England time, and they're like, hey, so we've
Speaker 1: been telling the SNL people that you've been sending us
Speaker 1: funny videos of you doing an impression of Tim Walls
Speaker 1: and I hadn't. And I was like, well, that's that's
Speaker 1: an interesting approach, I guess. And they're like yeah, and
Speaker 1: now SNL is asking for those videos, so if you
Speaker 1: could pull some of those together, And I was like, you.
Speaker 2: Mean now, and they're like yeah now.
Speaker 1: So I just essentially went back to my hotel and
Speaker 1: kept changing my code. You know, my Tim Walls impression
Speaker 1: is essentially me pretending to be my brother, you know,
Speaker 1: my brother Mitch, because I'm the midwestern guy. My brother
Speaker 1: Mitch like Governor Wallace is a very sincere and energetic
Speaker 1: and sentimental guy.
Speaker 2: So I was just kind of doing my brother Mitch.
Speaker 3: Well, you did a great job, no question about that.
Speaker 3: And I got to ask you about this. You had
Speaker 3: a tongue in cheek segment on CBS this morning recently
Speaker 3: that seemed to be about the election, but then ultimately
Speaker 3: it was about the Jets losing season. Okay, first of all,
Speaker 3: are you a Jets And secondly, how are you feeling
Speaker 3: about them damn Jets, especially since you talked about them
Speaker 3: with a CBS this morning.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I take these CBS Sunday Morning things,
Speaker 1: and you know, I take that a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: where it was it was more insightful, It was more raw,
Speaker 1: the reality of the Jets with this you know, compiled
Speaker 1: team that should really be unstoppable, the reality of them.
Speaker 2: Not making the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Now it's like a foregone conclusion, but it was pretty
Speaker 1: raw a couple of weeks ago. But you know, some
Speaker 1: of it is I don't have control when they Eric,
Speaker 1: and I just thought it was interesting the contrast of
Speaker 1: the kind of you know, people processing the election and
Speaker 1: people processing the reality that the Jets weren't getting in
Speaker 1: and yeah, no it is. But it's I've lived in
Speaker 1: New York for thirty five years. I you know, I'm
Speaker 1: I am also a Colts fan. I grew up of
Speaker 1: Bears and what was then called the Redskins.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I but like the Jets, it is it's a really
Speaker 1: brutal existence rooting for the Jets because every at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the season, there are so many elements where
Speaker 1: it might work out, and then there's a cruel ending, right,
Speaker 1: and so it seems a little sato masochistic really being
Speaker 1: a Jets fan.
Speaker 3: Do you find yourself in a situation as as a comedian,
Speaker 3: as somebody that's paid to make people laugh and being
Speaker 3: quite successful at it? I might add, do you find
Speaker 3: yourself in a situation looking at certain things, Let's say,
Speaker 3: for example, let's use the New York Jets example comedic material.
Speaker 3: What a team like that provided for you? Or are
Speaker 3: there some teams that you doesn't this so said, this
Speaker 3: so pathetic. I'm struggling. I'm struggling on figuring out how
Speaker 3: to laugh at them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I well, yeah, it's just I mean, well, what
Speaker 1: you do is kind of find some of that too right.
Speaker 1: It's some of it is like the tragedy of the
Speaker 1: Panthers is almost it's so heavy, right, and versus like
Speaker 1: some of the the drama of the Cowboys or even
Speaker 1: the Browns is is more palpable. Right, It's more interesting
Speaker 1: from a storyline standpoint. But I don't know, you know,
Speaker 1: like it's with sports.
Speaker 2: I mean, I love it. I'm I'm not.
Speaker 1: Nearly as informed or up to date on some of
Speaker 1: the knowledge of it, particularly compared to even some of
Speaker 1: my brothers. So it's I definitely, you know, I would
Speaker 1: I wouldn't necessarily include it in my standout back because
Speaker 1: it's also it's it's it's not evergreen, so it's kind
Speaker 1: of like if I'm writing jokes about you know. And
Speaker 1: then there's also kind of people are very protective, so
Speaker 1: like we might be able to laugh about the Jets,
Speaker 1: but there are some people it's a very raw mode
Speaker 1: ocean where you know, I wouldn't want to make them
Speaker 1: feel bad.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I have to admit you, I have
Speaker 3: to confess I totally agree with you, except for when
Speaker 3: it comes to cowboy fans have no sympathy.
Speaker 2: For them whatsoever.
Speaker 3: I love seeing them misery I love seeing them miserable.
Speaker 3: I love seeing them crying and.
Speaker 2: Stuff like that.
Speaker 3: But it has gotten to a point where I look
Speaker 3: at Cowboy fans and I'm like, Damn, y'all are taking
Speaker 3: all the fun out of this because y'all ain't even competitive.
Speaker 3: You're not in a playoff picture. I like them to
Speaker 3: sit up there and rise and tease their fan base
Speaker 3: before they come crashing down. And they've taken that joy
Speaker 3: away from me. Jim, how can I get that back?
Speaker 3: Can you give me some advice on how I control
Speaker 3: Cowboy fans moving forward? Could you do that?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 1: It's yeah, no, I mean I it's just well, some
Speaker 1: of it is also that cowboys are kind of like
Speaker 1: they're like the good looking people in high school, so
Speaker 1: like their downfall is a little bit more enjoyed. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm in the you know, I've lived in New York
Speaker 1: for thirty five years. It's how people feel about the Yankees, right,
Speaker 1: So when the Yankees don't make it, you know, if
Speaker 1: you're you know, a Mariners fan, it's a little bit
Speaker 1: you know, the Yankees losing is in some ways a
Speaker 1: victory for you. So it's like, I don't know, people
Speaker 1: sports are weird, right, I mean, it's just and then
Speaker 1: you know, it's just it's just one of those things
Speaker 1: where we go into it just to and we end
Speaker 1: up feeling these raw emotions.
Speaker 2: It's like, all right, I'm just.
Speaker 1: Gonna ruin my Sunday, or like, you know, just rooting
Speaker 1: for a team, you're inevitably going to be disappointed.
Speaker 2: You got to shake it off.
Speaker 3: You know, Fox NFL Sunday I forgot. I didn't forget
Speaker 3: about this either. I remember Fox NFL Sunday. They had
Speaker 3: a series of hilarious segments of you as a therapist consulting,
Speaker 3: and I wrote the teams down here consulting the Saints,
Speaker 3: the Raiders, the Bears, and Jets fans on being playoff delusional.
Speaker 3: I don't think anybody will accuse the Jets fans of
Speaker 3: being playoff delusional because that ship is sealed. Nobody's gonna
Speaker 3: accuse the Raiders of that, Saints and the Bears.
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts about that?
Speaker 1: Well, the idea of that actually came from a friend
Speaker 1: of mine, Matt Owens, who is He's from New Orleans
Speaker 1: and he is a huge Saints fan. And so the
Speaker 1: Saints winning the first two games and by you know,
Speaker 1: ninety eight points. That's an actual quote of him, you know,
Speaker 1: what he would say, and so that kind of inspired
Speaker 1: some of it. And then also, you know the Bears,
Speaker 1: it's just that division's just too hard, you know.
Speaker 2: And so but like even when they.
Speaker 1: Were, you know, really doing well, the Bears, I was like, there,
Speaker 1: it's just not likely.
Speaker 2: It's just too hard of a division. Man.
Speaker 3: Listen, I got to transition to you and what's going
Speaker 3: on with Hulu. You've done ten stand up comedy specials.
Speaker 3: I believe You're eleventh is coming up on Hulu and
Speaker 3: it's called The Skinny. I'm told it was inspired by
Speaker 3: you losing fifty pounds fifty pounds using a weight loss
Speaker 3: drug Monegero.
Speaker 2: Is that true? Yeah? Yeah, I mean well it's also
Speaker 2: the Skinny.
Speaker 1: Of like kind of my take on what it's like
Speaker 1: being a parent of teenager. I mean, that's what it's
Speaker 1: so fun about stand up is it just it's kind
Speaker 1: of this chronicling of your.
Speaker 2: What's recently happened in your life.
Speaker 1: And so I did, you know, like a lot of people,
Speaker 1: I went on these appetites of pressants and it worked,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's I mean, but it's not like
Speaker 1: earth shattering. I just now I just eat like a
Speaker 1: normal pig, as opposed to like an out of controlled glutton.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: So it's now I'll just have one box of triskets
Speaker 1: instead of three, you know what I mean. It's but
Speaker 1: you know, I you know, I eat like I'm an
Speaker 1: offensive lineman, you know what I mean. But on Manjarro,
Speaker 1: I eat like, you know, maybe I'm a quarterback.
Speaker 3: So you don't change your taste buds, don't necessarily change
Speaker 3: the things that you want. Like, you don't stop liking.
Speaker 3: You just don't eat as much excess as you used to.
Speaker 3: Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that that notion of Well, they have some kind
Speaker 1: of peanut butter chocolate cake on the dessert menu. I
Speaker 1: have to try it. Then I'm like, all right, you
Speaker 1: know when I'm on an appetite suppressed that, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't need that. So it's like I'm normal, I'm
Speaker 1: like a human.
Speaker 3: And you talked about being a dad to teenagers, Well,
Speaker 3: guess what you're talking to somebody that's got two of them.
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, we could share stories all day long.
Speaker 3: Let me see if there's anything that we got in
Speaker 3: common with one another. What's one of the things that
Speaker 3: you're gonna you're gonna illuminate with your stand up comedic special.
Speaker 3: I mean, when you're talking about your teenage children, what
Speaker 3: are you gonna say?
Speaker 1: You know, I mean, I don't even the material just
Speaker 1: is non stop when you're the parent of a teenager, right,
Speaker 1: it's and I essentially have well I have three teenagers
Speaker 1: and one twelve year old and a twenty year old,
Speaker 1: so I'm essentially living in a mental ward right.
Speaker 2: And they are just it's just chaos. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like this isn't even in the special, but like
Speaker 1: you know, I'm essentially I'm like a repo man for Verizon.
Speaker 1: All I'm doing is just trying to get phones and
Speaker 1: take them and then I return them. It's just bananas.
Speaker 1: But like anyone who has a teenager, it's just they
Speaker 1: kind of look like they've just walked away from a
Speaker 1: car accident. You know, they're just always kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: a little shaken up. Everything a parent of a teenager
Speaker 1: says kind of sounds like a lie. They're like, we're great,
Speaker 1: things are great, you know, like they're in a hostage video.
Speaker 1: The kids are treating us. Well, you know, it's just
Speaker 1: it's insane. But we signed up for this, right.
Speaker 3: But I don't know if we did. Jim. I mean, listen, man,
Speaker 3: you know, as a dad, just sitting up there and
Speaker 3: you go like this, you're gonna have beautiful kids and
Speaker 3: they're gonna go up and they're gonna be teenaging. They're
Speaker 3: gonna love you so much, they're gonna worship the ground
Speaker 3: that you wore card. They're gonna listen. I mean, none
Speaker 3: of it, None of it's true. Now maybe it's gonna
Speaker 3: be true, damnit. But when they're teenagers, you're the worst
Speaker 3: person in the world. You don't know anything.
Speaker 2: You need to listen to.
Speaker 3: Them because they're always right. You're just a parent. You're
Speaker 3: never wronged, and your only purpose in life is to
Speaker 3: provide them with their wants and needs, and damn it,
Speaker 3: you're gonna do it because it's your responsibility. They didn't
Speaker 3: ask to be here, You brought them here. That's what
Speaker 3: I got at home?
Speaker 2: Is that similar to you? Absolutely? I mean I talk
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: It's it's even made more cruel because when you know
Speaker 1: you have this sweet twelve year old and then boom
Speaker 1: they become satan. You know, you can literally witness the
Speaker 1: curiosity and wonder transform into poor judgment, right and body odor.
Speaker 2: It's I mean, you.
Speaker 1: Love them, but like there's you know, there's a reason
Speaker 1: why alcohol exists, right, and that's because the teenagers.
Speaker 3: Because they sued, They sue the emotions and everything like that.
Speaker 3: And I remember you got something here your father, tim Bourbon.
Speaker 3: I want you to talk about that. I mean, how
Speaker 3: much of an inspiration were.
Speaker 2: Your kids to that? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: I mean that's you know, like the bourbon thing is
Speaker 1: really and I you know, I know I'm considered a celebrity,
Speaker 1: but it's not really. Some of it is just like
Speaker 1: a hobby that I wanted to undertake. And I've gotten
Speaker 1: into bourbon since the pandemic, but yeah, I mean it
Speaker 1: was during the pandemic my wife and I would have
Speaker 1: the occasional bourbon every night and it really kind of
Speaker 1: helped us kind of get through it. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's weird because my twenty year old she was like,
Speaker 1: you're never even drag for fifteen years and it's like
Speaker 1: I never really did. And so all the time bourbon,
Speaker 1: that's just like a fun project because that's in the bourbon.
Speaker 1: You know, you just want to aft and come up
Speaker 1: with your own story because there's just so much history
Speaker 1: and story behind urban So it's just so fun.
Speaker 3: By the way, when you and your wife are drinking
Speaker 3: the bourbon that night, did you find a private place
Speaker 3: to do it where the kids wouldn't bother you or
Speaker 3: couldn't find you or anything, or would they constantly interrupt
Speaker 3: just because they could?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think they constantly. And that's the thing.
Speaker 1: It's like when people have younger kids. Those younger kids
Speaker 1: will eventually go to sleep, but when they're teenagers, they
Speaker 1: sleep during the day. They essentially are owls, right, so
Speaker 1: then they're awake all night, so you have no privacy.
Speaker 1: And so that's where you know, you got to break out,
Speaker 1: you know, a cocktail. And some of it is just
Speaker 1: it's like it's you know, you're struggling to like, you know,
Speaker 1: this life partner who's you know, going through hell herself.
Speaker 1: It's just nice that you can share and kind of regroup.
Speaker 1: I'm an advocate for everyone to become an alcoholic. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that's politically correct thing.
Speaker 2: It's not, but who cares? Who cares? You know?
Speaker 3: I was almost suggested you should give it to your
Speaker 3: teenage kids. Maybe that'll make them go to sleep.
Speaker 2: That's what I was doing just but I don't want
Speaker 2: to do that.
Speaker 3: But listen, I got to ask you about Jerry Seinfeld
Speaker 3: and you hitting up y'all, y'all set to hit the
Speaker 3: road in twenty twenty five. Talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 3: How did that materialize on what your expectations?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I met Jerry when he had me as a
Speaker 1: guest on his show, Comedians and Cars getting coffee, and
Speaker 1: we are very like minded in our pursuit of stand up.
Speaker 1: We really loved the mechanics and the nuts and bolts
Speaker 1: and just nerding out and talking about structure and philosophy
Speaker 1: surrounding it. So this tour, which is amazing, and we've
Speaker 1: done it, you know, I think we did like six
Speaker 1: cities before and we're doing ten cities this time.
Speaker 2: Some of it it's great for the audience, but it's
Speaker 2: also selfishly.
Speaker 1: I get to just hang out with a friend and
Speaker 1: talk comedy, you know, because that's what happens with comedians.
Speaker 1: The more successful you get, the less you get to
Speaker 1: hang out with some of your friends. So when you
Speaker 1: can do you know, a dual headline set, you know,
Speaker 1: with Seinfeld, it's great.
Speaker 3: How's he feeling about comedies these days? And how are
Speaker 3: you feeling about comedy? In light of how times have
Speaker 3: changed and a heightened level of sensitivity this society seems
Speaker 3: to have adopted to the point where I imagine it's
Speaker 3: far more difficult now for comedians than it was in
Speaker 3: the past, and in my estimation, far more difficult for
Speaker 3: comedians than it should be. Damn it, you're supposed to
Speaker 3: make us laugh. So what if it's that.
Speaker 4: Other people's experience from toime to toime that happens all
Speaker 4: the time, It's always happened in my estimation, how are
Speaker 4: you guys feeling about the comedic world in the comedic
Speaker 4: industry at this particular moment in time.
Speaker 1: You know, I can't speak for Jerry, but I could,
Speaker 1: I would say that, you know, for me, it's you know,
Speaker 1: each comedian has their own point of view, which and
Speaker 1: and that point of view is you know, unique to
Speaker 1: each comedian. So like some people pedal in kind of reverence,
Speaker 1: some people, you know, it's just like you have some
Speaker 1: bodies that you know that will pick on you, that's
Speaker 1: how they show affection.
Speaker 2: And but like some.
Speaker 1: Comedians, I don't really kind of like, I enjoy some
Speaker 1: you know, roast comedy, but it's not really my cup
Speaker 1: of It's not in my wheelhouse. I mean, I've done
Speaker 1: it occasionally, but I'm much more of I don't particularly
Speaker 1: like topical stuff.
Speaker 2: I'm much more of.
Speaker 1: You know, and I'm not you know, like there is
Speaker 1: always some surprise in all comedy, but I'm not all
Speaker 1: about the shock. I have friends that are really good
Speaker 1: at it. But and you know, I tried to do
Speaker 1: that when I first started to stand up. But you know,
Speaker 1: with stand up you have to kind of be authentic
Speaker 1: to who you are as a comedian. In the end,
Speaker 1: I'm just a guy from a small town in Indiana.
Speaker 1: So if I tried to, you know, curse like I'm
Speaker 1: from Brooklyn or South Philly, it would just be anauthentic.
Speaker 3: Listen, man, all the best to you. You were absolutely hilarious.
Speaker 3: I loved watching you on Saturday Night Live. I'm looking
Speaker 3: forward to seeing you with Seinfeld. I'm definitely gonna take
Speaker 3: my eyes on the Skinny to night. I'm gonna watch
Speaker 3: that tonight. I can't thank you enough for