Speaker 1: Comedy Saved Me.
Speaker 2: Comedy subjective. Some people object to some things that we say.
Speaker 2: I have a saying stop global whining. Let's shut up
Speaker 2: and stop global whining. As oh my, I feel like
Speaker 2: Yoda a friend, did you are a crap? I do
Speaker 2: not care.
Speaker 1: I'm Lyn Hoffmann, host of the Comedy Save Me podcast,
Speaker 1: and if you like this podcast, thank you. I'd like
Speaker 1: to recommend another podcast I host, which is called Music
Speaker 1: Saved Me, a podcast that explores the healing power of music.
Speaker 1: On Comedy Saved Me, we delve into the lives of
Speaker 1: comedians and explore how laughter has transformed their journeys. And
Speaker 1: today I'm so excited because we have an incredible guest.
Speaker 1: Dare I call him the Godfather of comedy. He's been
Speaker 1: making us laugh for decades. Craig Shoemaker is here. He
Speaker 1: is a legendary comedian, an actor, and author, and he's
Speaker 1: also been a pioneer in using comedy as a tool
Speaker 1: for healing and growth. Right up my alley. He also
Speaker 1: has some very cool projects that he's working on right now,
Speaker 1: and he's also been doing for many years that we're
Speaker 1: going to discuss. Welcome Craig Shoemaker to comedy saved me.
Speaker 2: I'm just excited to talk to you again. We used
Speaker 2: to hang out in Boston when you were you were
Speaker 2: the big cheese on the radio in the morning.
Speaker 1: Yes, so John Lander brought you into my life many
Speaker 1: years ago. And then subsequently, every Friday that you would
Speaker 1: perform at the Comedy Connection, you would come to the
Speaker 1: studio and inevitably I would end up on the floor
Speaker 1: in tears laughing, and I couldn't even have to go
Speaker 1: to a commercial break.
Speaker 2: I just love that. I had it happen. The other
Speaker 2: day I did TV in Vegas and she was crying.
Speaker 2: So my face hurts. And that's one of my favorite
Speaker 2: things is to hurt people in that way. I do
Speaker 2: a ninety minute show and they say, I have Bell's palsy.
Speaker 2: If I give you Bell's palsy by the end of
Speaker 2: the show, I know I've done my job.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that is for sure.
Speaker 2: And you know, you laugh, it's a release, it's a
Speaker 2: pain relief, and and it's wonderful to see that. I
Speaker 2: don't understand if laughter is the best medicine, why is
Speaker 2: it not being deployed as such?
Speaker 1: Exactly?
Speaker 2: Why do we see these commercials constantly? You don't see
Speaker 2: any comedy commercials. It's all about some drug. It's like
Speaker 2: they give you the fear, they get you scared, and
Speaker 2: then they have a commercial that handles the fear that
Speaker 2: they just gave you the anxiety. We got a pill for.
Speaker 2: What we just sold you was some anxiety, some stressor,
Speaker 2: And now here's the pill for. It's something you can't pronounce.
Speaker 2: It's all the stuff you can't pronounce either. You don't
Speaker 2: even know what you're putting in you.
Speaker 1: It comes up with the names for those things to
Speaker 1: begin with.
Speaker 2: I think they get stone too. How about zimbalfin. I
Speaker 2: don't know, sounds too much like a dolphin. I don't know.
Speaker 1: You gotta wonder, you gotta wonder, but they should know.
Speaker 2: I don't know how they come up with these things,
Speaker 2: but they don't sound very you know, I started my
Speaker 2: work and laughter heels and a cancer facil and I
Speaker 2: don't know if you knew this. It can't what they
Speaker 2: put in them, Like timo, they call it the red death. Now,
Speaker 2: what kind of a thing is that? Yeah, you just
Speaker 2: went ooh. I mean now you're trying to live right
Speaker 2: with this cancer and trying to survive and heal and
Speaker 2: you're putting something in you called the red death. I mean,
Speaker 2: why don't they call it Santa Claus come on something
Speaker 2: or bashful? Yeah, something in your body. We feel like,
Speaker 2: oh wow, this is a positive energy. It's a positive vibration.
Speaker 2: And that's what laughter is. It's a positive vibration.
Speaker 1: Well, that's exactly why I'm so excited to have you here,
Speaker 1: because you know, like you just said, wouldn't it be
Speaker 1: great if a commercial came on TV and said, hey, laughter,
Speaker 1: we figured out a way to put laughter in this patch.
Speaker 1: Just slap it on your face and you'll laugh all
Speaker 1: day long, you know, the laugh patch, the laugh patch.
Speaker 2: I've always said that they should have you know, they
Speaker 2: have a fit bit. How about laugh bit count your laughs?
Speaker 1: Oh my godness, that's a great idea.
Speaker 2: That'd be great. And then have Well, we actually have
Speaker 2: a business. We're pitching it today. You should come to
Speaker 2: our pitch meeting. We have laughter Works. We go to
Speaker 2: companies and corporations and give wellness a sense of humor.
Speaker 2: Corporate wellness certainly needs that. Oh yeah, and I teach
Speaker 2: something called guided laffitation and chuckle chatter.
Speaker 1: Wait, guided laffitation.
Speaker 2: Yes, instead of meditating I'm not a great meditator, and
Speaker 2: I'll bet you're not either. You have add it's like
Speaker 2: I do right exactly, I know you even though it's
Speaker 2: been twenty years. I know you're not a great meditator
Speaker 2: and I'm not either. Because we had something going on,
Speaker 2: I'll be going, oh, I forgot to put the Washington dryer.
Speaker 2: I mean, whatever it is, it's oh my god, the kids.
Speaker 2: So I just I came up with this laffitation. It's
Speaker 2: something we all love to do. It's really great for
Speaker 2: you to laugh. So there's no jokes. You don't need jokes.
Speaker 2: The whole premise for me is in all my study.
Speaker 2: I've been studying this for years. I have the nonprofit
Speaker 2: All Laughter Heels, and I worked in a cancer facility
Speaker 2: to develop this program. And I I just laughter is
Speaker 2: a choice. It's not like you need a joke. Just
Speaker 2: like you, you don't know if you're on a staremaster
Speaker 2: or on a hill. Your body does not know the difference.
Speaker 2: It's getting the benefits of whatever that workout is. You
Speaker 2: don't have to have something that even you don't even
Speaker 2: need a trainer necessarily. I'm not saying anything against your
Speaker 2: trainers out there but working out is working out, and
Speaker 2: so is so now you're just doing silly squads or
Speaker 2: laugh lunges, you know, whatever it is, it's a choice.
Speaker 2: And then the thing is about comedy. I know yours
Speaker 2: is called comedy, but comedy is subjective. Some people object
Speaker 2: to some things that we say a lot these days.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, everyone's complaining. I have a saying, stop
Speaker 2: global whining. Let's shut up and stop global whining.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I feel like Yoda offended. You are
Speaker 2: a crap. I do not give. I mean, I'm so
Speaker 2: sick of everybody's a victim. Now let's take charge of
Speaker 2: our lives and start laughing more and stop looking for
Speaker 2: people to effect you and it hurt you because they're
Speaker 2: not really hurting you. You're just putting it on them.
Speaker 2: That's on you. So it's the same thing with laughter,
Speaker 2: is a comedy is subjective. You remember Patch Adams, Remember
Speaker 2: that movie Oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, with Robin Williams.
Speaker 2: Yeah, remember that was a true story about Patch Adams.
Speaker 2: I think he works out of Baltimore. He would go
Speaker 2: to hospital rooms dress as a clown to make kids laugh,
Speaker 2: make people laugh. That's subjective. If a clown shows up
Speaker 2: in my hospital room. I'm pulling the tune. I might
Speaker 2: pull the plaga heard the clown in my room and
Speaker 2: a clown it'd been shoes in my room. Come run
Speaker 2: take this rath car. That's what I would be doing,
Speaker 2: because it's not funny to me. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 2: it's quite sad. This guy's got shoes that are too
Speaker 2: big and he thinks it's funny. Now there's nothing against him.
Speaker 2: But that's the moment where I went. That was my haha,
Speaker 2: one of my haha moments. So I said, what if
Speaker 2: we do laugh atation where it's a choice, just like meditating,
Speaker 2: you breathe, laughter about breathing, breathing, so good for you
Speaker 2: and all of that. And so it's been working. It's awesome.
Speaker 2: I take people through these guys, the laffetation retreats and
Speaker 2: things like that.
Speaker 1: It must be so, I don't know, fulfilling when you
Speaker 1: know that you're helping someone heal with with laughter just
Speaker 1: by being yourself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you want to you want to do a little
Speaker 2: little meditation lafittation right now?
Speaker 1: I do. All right, that's that's a great idea. Let's
Speaker 1: do it. But I don't have any tissues, and I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm soon going to look like a big
Speaker 1: mess on this.
Speaker 2: But whatever you you're going to cry? Is that what
Speaker 2: you mean? Well?
Speaker 1: I cry when I laughed. Do you remember when you
Speaker 1: used to make lander and I laughed so hard? We
Speaker 1: were both crying and you thought we were crying, but
Speaker 1: we were.
Speaker 2: He was another one. He had big tear dunts. It's
Speaker 2: both of you.
Speaker 1: I never met anyone like that. It was we had
Speaker 1: to have tissues in the room whenever you showed up.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll do a short one that so you don't
Speaker 2: get into full tears. But just as this is really
Speaker 2: great for work. When we're at work, it relieves stress. Ready,
Speaker 2: just take a big breath through. Everybody do this along
Speaker 2: with I was just.
Speaker 1: Gonna say, can everyone at home do this too?
Speaker 2: Everyone do this? Ready, take a breath for your nose
Speaker 2: and let out a hob. Listen to the hob, the
Speaker 2: sound and the resonance from the ha. It's a very
Speaker 2: spiritual word. It's cleansing. Allow it to cleanse you. You know,
Speaker 2: in Church's Hallelujah is aloha. In Hawaii's a ha is
Speaker 2: a beautiful word. Anyway, here we go, breathe in ah,
Speaker 2: is gonna feel better already you let out that ha.
Speaker 2: That's a hat sound. Let's do one more. Breathe into
Speaker 2: your nose and a hah. Good. Now we're gonna giggle
Speaker 2: at the end and giggle until the gas runs out
Speaker 2: in the car. Ready and do it with me. It's contagious.
Speaker 2: Here we go, look at it. Here we go.
Speaker 1: Killing me.
Speaker 2: See that's a really short version of guided laftation. And
Speaker 2: when you're ready, towards the end of the interview, I'm
Speaker 2: going to take you upper level to chuckle chatter.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: By the way. How are you feeling right now? A
Speaker 2: little stress less stress right, no pressure.
Speaker 1: I feel less stressed. But to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: I was so excited to see you again after all
Speaker 1: these years. I'm a little nervous because I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that I do everything right by you, because
Speaker 1: you know you're my people.
Speaker 2: But laughter does that though. It takes you out of that,
Speaker 2: out of your and puts you more into presence awareness.
Speaker 2: It's mindful to laugh. We rewire, we rewire the brain
Speaker 2: when we do this, and it's amazing the results that
Speaker 2: have happened. Your oxygenating, your body, healing and endorphins are released.
Speaker 2: Stress is being relieved, which is a huge, huge cause
Speaker 2: of illness. So people don't realize this. That really is
Speaker 2: the best medicine. Here's the way to deploy it is
Speaker 2: the laftation. And we'll get to the chuckle chatter later.
Speaker 2: But even if you are nervous, it takes away to nerves.
Speaker 1: Need to be a professor at a college and teach
Speaker 1: this as well.
Speaker 2: But what you're saying it don't make enough money with me.
Speaker 2: I got to make a lot of money.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: Well, I have a few ex wives. By the way,
Speaker 2: all my shows, my comedy shows, are benefit shows and
Speaker 2: all proceeds go to my ex wives. I just thought
Speaker 2: I'll let you know that if you pay a cover
Speaker 2: for my show, it goes to botox and pilates class.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, the client and the cult.
Speaker 2: Of my ex wife join. She's in a cult, so
Speaker 2: it all goes to the cults.
Speaker 1: Hopefully it's a good cult.
Speaker 2: But I got to laugh about that.
Speaker 1: You have to. I love the One of the things
Speaker 1: that you do is you're like, well, first, let me
Speaker 1: just say this laughter. It does have what you just
Speaker 1: did that exercise When I was looking at you and
Speaker 1: we were doing that together. I can imagine being in
Speaker 1: a business place and everyone looking at everyone and just
Speaker 1: bursting out laughing, and stages when Lander and I would
Speaker 1: do something with you on the show and we'd start laughing,
Speaker 1: and then he'd have to go go to break, go
Speaker 1: to commercial because we can't even talk. No one could
Speaker 1: even talk. People would call us in their car, have
Speaker 1: to pull the car over on the highway and say,
Speaker 1: I don't even know why you're laughing, but I had
Speaker 1: to pull over because it made me laugh too.
Speaker 2: That's it right there. You got the that's the magic,
Speaker 2: that's the secret. Yeah, it's so contagious. We're so busy
Speaker 2: being angry with one another, projecting our resentments and going
Speaker 2: in our fear. Everybody's afraid and know how to deal
Speaker 2: with their fears. Laugh through it, and then you'll be
Speaker 2: You'll become a better person. Wouldn't we want to spread
Speaker 2: spread that contagion around is laughter and joy and be
Speaker 2: in joy?
Speaker 1: Do you have to laugh at yourself?
Speaker 2: That's what I do all the time. And you're you
Speaker 2: know the title of your program, that's I've had to
Speaker 2: do that my entire life. My dad left when I.
Speaker 1: Was born, right away gone, oh yeah, gone.
Speaker 2: Gone, yeah, and then he became a cult leader. And
Speaker 2: it's a long story, but geez, I've had a really
Speaker 2: really difficult time in life and the only thing that
Speaker 2: saved me was laughter. We would get we would watch
Speaker 2: television together. It's the only time we bonded. My mom
Speaker 2: was always working, trying to make a living in a
Speaker 2: secretary's whether she's a secretary or a law firm. And
Speaker 2: I was alone alone a lot, and I was, you know,
Speaker 2: really tiny, so I was picked on and beaten. I
Speaker 2: was kidnapped when I was thirteen by a serial pedophile.
Speaker 2: What yeah, what. I'm not going to be a victim
Speaker 2: to that, though. This is where I learned resilience is
Speaker 2: really really important in life, not to be a victim.
Speaker 2: Everybody's like a hashtag this and ribbon this, like we're
Speaker 2: supposed to get on to your whatever you think you're
Speaker 2: a victim of, and a lot of times they're not
Speaker 2: even a victim of it. They're choosing who else is
Speaker 2: the victim. He's treading as a victim. I say that
Speaker 2: none of us are. None of us are. We need
Speaker 2: to really really own our lives, have take ownership of
Speaker 2: our lives and The one way you can do this
Speaker 2: is look more to laughter and not to the news,
Speaker 2: which is all negative, and they keep you in that condition.
Speaker 2: It's an addiction. So you know, I'm a long time
Speaker 2: sober now. And all of those things happen because of
Speaker 2: those difficult circumstance, says, I learned how to live, and
Speaker 2: a lot of it had to do with laughter. We
Speaker 2: my my mom. I wanted my mom married so bad.
Speaker 2: And I thought my dad's name was doesn't pay the
Speaker 2: child support. I thought that was his name because he
Speaker 2: didn't pay any child He would pop around every few
Speaker 2: years and I would try to fix my mom up
Speaker 2: with with comedians on television. There's a show called Hollywood Squares. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so Center screening Paul Lynde. Right, he was Uncle Arthur
Speaker 2: and bewitched.
Speaker 1: He set mom up with Paul land I did.
Speaker 2: I wrote him letters, Dear Paul Lynde, you should meet
Speaker 2: my mother because I read an article he was saying.
Speaker 2: I didn't know why he was saying. I thought he
Speaker 2: was happy Oho, I love oh wow, right, And my
Speaker 2: mom would laugh at her. She goes, he's adorable. My
Speaker 2: mom would say he's and he's handsome. And my mom
Speaker 2: never got who was gay. She didn't. She thought Liberaci
Speaker 2: is just flamboyant. My mom could never admit that anyone was.
Speaker 2: Like the word gay wasn't even used back in her time,
Speaker 2: right right, And it's like a woman who was a
Speaker 2: lesbian was a spinster or whatever she would call it
Speaker 2: would never be. Oh they were together like sexually, Oh
Speaker 2: my god, God forbid. But my mom loved Paul Linz.
Speaker 2: I wrote them letters. I said, you should meet my mother.
Speaker 2: Here's a picture in a belly dancing outfit. That's a
Speaker 2: true story too. And he never wrote me back. But
Speaker 2: my goal in life Lynn, honest to God, when I
Speaker 2: was a kid is how innocent I was. I wanted
Speaker 2: to be. I wanted him to adopt me and marry
Speaker 2: my mother, and we would be the first father and
Speaker 2: son team on the Hollywood Squares. What like they would
Speaker 2: go be in the box together, you know, like Waylon
Speaker 2: and Madam always had their own box. I was picturing
Speaker 2: them going, I'd like Craig and Paul Lynn for the wind, please,
Speaker 2: and we'd be in the box. Don't take it signed,
Speaker 2: it's a sports questions there. We'd wear double asscots. So
Speaker 2: that that was my visual of life. I really wanted
Speaker 2: to be guess what Lynn the law of attraction? I
Speaker 2: ended up on Hollywood Square seventy five episodes seventy five.
Speaker 1: How did I miss those episodes? Was that when Whoopee
Speaker 1: was producing was hosted.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, And but the only problem is I'm not
Speaker 2: at big celebrities. I was always Craig shoemak Shoemaker to block.
Speaker 1: They used only to block.
Speaker 2: They only used me as a block, but they would
Speaker 2: never pick me first. I was always Whoopy or some
Speaker 2: big star. Like one time I'm looking at a monitor,
Speaker 2: I'm like, the only way to go she goes. I'll
Speaker 2: take Antonio benderis for the loss. They try to pronounced Shoemaker,
Speaker 2: but everybody goes to be Shoemaker.
Speaker 1: That's anyway. I was on the Hollywood Squares too, by
Speaker 1: the way, just say you know wow, I was. I
Speaker 1: played the game and then I had to cover behind
Speaker 1: the scenes for Channel four in Boston. Oh okay, so
Speaker 1: I got to go in the chair in the center
Speaker 1: square where you wanted to go with Paul.
Speaker 2: Oh you were doing you were doing a piece?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was doing. I was doing a piece for
Speaker 1: the local news.
Speaker 2: Oh, but they let you sit in the square.
Speaker 1: So they let me tour all around and then I
Speaker 1: did my whole intro. But you know what they had
Speaker 1: to do. They tape five shows and five shows like
Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday as you remember, or at least ten
Speaker 1: shows on weekends, like right in a row. So they
Speaker 1: kept the audience in there, and they're like, okay, Lynn,
Speaker 1: get Lynn, it's time for her to work. I'm like,
Speaker 1: you mean, I have to do this thing for Boston
Speaker 1: in front of the entire audience waiting for me to
Speaker 1: finish so they can get back to tape another episode
Speaker 1: of Hollywood Squares. I thought I was going to poop
Speaker 1: my pants. I really, I don't know how I did it.
Speaker 1: I don't even remember what I said. But those boxes
Speaker 1: are really uncomfortable and cramped, and they are not luxurious
Speaker 1: at all on the inside.
Speaker 2: No luxury. They have new Hollywood Squares. I don't know
Speaker 2: if they do have luxury anymore, but or if they
Speaker 2: made that fix. But they call it the Linn Hoffman
Speaker 2: chair as a matter of fact, that yeah, they have
Speaker 2: plush chairs now they call it the Lynn Hoffman chair.
Speaker 1: So I had an effect that's pretty good.
Speaker 2: Inspire you inspired the Hollywood squares that shift a little
Speaker 2: bit so with they're production designed by Lynn Hoffman. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean my life was all about this. Really is
Speaker 2: difficult for me to deal with being beaten or whatever
Speaker 2: it is, or kidnapped. What am I going to do
Speaker 2: about it? You got a lot, you got a few choices,
Speaker 2: and I'm not up for the other choices of being
Speaker 2: a victim. I'm not up for being felt sorry for
Speaker 2: any of that kind of stuff. I'm up for Let's
Speaker 2: make a difference with each other with a vibration of love,
Speaker 2: light and laughter. Let's bring that and we and the
Speaker 2: rising tide floats all the boats.
Speaker 1: It does. If we lift each other up, everybody wins.
Speaker 1: You're you're a pioneer using laughter as healing. As we're discussing,
Speaker 1: you've also had an incredible career in movies and television.
Speaker 1: You had roles in Parks and Recreation, one of my
Speaker 1: favorite shows, and Matt Locke. Last time I saw you
Speaker 1: were going to work on a movie with Pharah Foss.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, yeah, wow, that's a long time ago. That's
Speaker 2: not the last time I saw you. That movie was done.
Speaker 2: It was fair Foster did my movie The Love Master.
Speaker 2: You know, my character the love Master.
Speaker 3: Obviously, right, that's right, baby, Yeah, yeah, you see naked
Speaker 3: and afraid I get naked, you'll be afraid baby. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: the love Master. Baby.
Speaker 1: I wasn't even going to bring it up, but here
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 3: I put my pants, thought it looks like a giraffe
Speaker 3: getting in a Mini Cooper.
Speaker 1: The doorb the doorbells.
Speaker 2: That was the scene with Sarah Pharah was doing the
Speaker 2: movie they call The Love Master, directed by my friend
Speaker 2: who were going to get to Michael Goldberg. She was.
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe it. She was doing my movie for
Speaker 2: like one hundred dollars. So we're in a car rehearsing together,
Speaker 2: just alone. I was. I think they called her miss Fawcett, like,
Speaker 2: thanks for doing my movie, Miss Fawcett, and she goes, oh,
Speaker 2: shut up, I'm here, but I just want to know
Speaker 2: if that love Master is real. She reaches over and
Speaker 2: there was there was no horne in my crotch. I'm
Speaker 2: not Cara Top, but anyway, you get the idea. She
Speaker 2: reaches over for my junk. Really now, oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Full on, Fara Fawcet groped you.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and I was not gonna sue. I was gonna
Speaker 2: actually ask for what's the opposite restraining order? I was
Speaker 2: gonna ask her to I was gonna ask her to
Speaker 2: stalk me.
Speaker 1: Thank you, ma'am. Can I have another exactly?
Speaker 2: Unfortunately I wasn't ready for my close up though, so
Speaker 2: I had an inny, it's my regret in life that
Speaker 2: I go, Okay, I'm ready now because I was. I
Speaker 2: had like a soprano voice talking. She just grabbed me. No,
Speaker 2: I was not ready. Now ready, baby?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you might need two hands to handle the
Speaker 3: whopper baby.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, but she was so sweet and yes, the
Speaker 2: doorbell was in the scene she asks for the love Master. Actually,
Speaker 2: maybe she was getting in the character. She asked to
Speaker 2: we on a date, and you know, allegedly in the
Speaker 2: scene and I said, oh, thanks, because I'm always like
Speaker 2: a nice guy and stuff. And she goes, oh shut up,
Speaker 2: and where's the love master' Oh that's this character my act.
Speaker 2: And she goes, she hangs, she shuts the door in
Speaker 2: my face, her door, and then her doorbell rings and
Speaker 2: she answers that, yes.
Speaker 3: That wasn't my hand that rang the door bill. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: And then she goes, come on in.
Speaker 2: Because that's what the women the women. That's why the
Speaker 2: love Master came about. Because the girls in high school
Speaker 2: would all use the F word with me, you know,
Speaker 2: the F word.
Speaker 1: Uh, fun friend.
Speaker 2: I was always doing a good friend. I was so
Speaker 2: tired of being the friend. I was really tiny and
Speaker 2: I'm six to two now, but I was like five
Speaker 2: to one in high school and really tiny, high voice,
Speaker 2: and uh, they would go to the bathroom together, you know,
Speaker 2: girls go to the posse p. Yeah, they took me
Speaker 2: with them. That's what a geek I was that took
Speaker 2: me with them on the posse p. Come on, Craig,
Speaker 2: let's go.
Speaker 1: What did you do while they were using doing the
Speaker 1: makeup and the I just.
Speaker 2: Sit on the tub. You know, everybody's smoking cigarettes back
Speaker 2: then and everything. Oh then they go Tommy's hot, George's hot,
Speaker 2: and I'm going, yeah, I'll fix you up. I know
Speaker 2: those guys. Yeah, yeah, because they were always bad guys.
Speaker 2: And that's when I'm there.
Speaker 1: You were a professional wingman when you were a kid.
Speaker 2: I was a wingman before there were wings on my side.
Speaker 1: No wonder you went into comedy.
Speaker 2: That's exactly why. Another thing that again, that was a
Speaker 2: pain point for me. You know, I wanted girls and
Speaker 2: they didn't want me. I asked thirteen girls to go
Speaker 2: to the prom. I actually had a funny thing happen. Again,
Speaker 2: these are a law of attraction things I want to
Speaker 2: tell people. Just be patient with your life, you know,
Speaker 2: just you know, it will unfold the way it's supposed
Speaker 2: to unfold. So I'm on I was on a TV
Speaker 2: show with Cindy Crawford to be That's great advice.
Speaker 1: By the way, what you just said really great advice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean just wait, you know, be patient. Grand
Speaker 2: Canyon is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen, but
Speaker 2: it was not created in three days. Sometimes these creations
Speaker 2: need to take their time, you know, in the pace
Speaker 2: of a higher source, not our own pace with our
Speaker 2: own fears. So I'm on this NBC show with the
Speaker 2: Cindy Crawford she got They gave her a week on
Speaker 2: NBC to have her own show, late night show, and
Speaker 2: I was one of her guests. She was that she
Speaker 2: went to the premiere and she's talking to me. She goes, Craig,
Speaker 2: you must have had a lot of girls because you're
Speaker 2: the love master. I go, oh, no, Cindy. As a
Speaker 2: matter of fact, I asked thirteen girls of the prom
Speaker 2: and the one who went with me, Linda Scott, she
Speaker 2: made out with Ricky aldemer in the corner, even though
Speaker 2: I paid for her corsage and all that, and I
Speaker 2: looked in the cant of I go, well, Linda, I'm
Speaker 2: sitting here with Cindy Crawford suit card out. So then
Speaker 2: it turns out he was watching, and so is Ricky
Speaker 2: Aldemayer's wife. The emailed me. I got a little revenge
Speaker 2: for that. She was the thirteenth one I asked out
Speaker 2: because she would look good for the photos. I didn't
Speaker 2: wasn't dating or anything, but yeah, she made it up
Speaker 2: with Ricky Aldemier. He was there with someone else and
Speaker 2: I saw them in the corner. But you know, those
Speaker 2: things will cause comedy, and comedy is truth. If you
Speaker 2: can tell the truth out there, that makes for the
Speaker 2: best comedians. And the truth is we all have pain,
Speaker 2: but sufferings the choice I choose not to suffer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's for sure, and you share that with people,
Speaker 1: which is like the best part of all. How do
Speaker 1: you navigate though the challenging landscape, if you will, of comedy,
Speaker 1: especially with the way society has sort of evolved in
Speaker 1: the last I don't know. Decade. It's a really interesting time.
Speaker 2: It's funny. It's what do you use that where it's devolve? Yeah,
Speaker 2: this is evolving. It really is. When you're playing the
Speaker 2: victim role and finger pointing and taking somebody's words of
Speaker 2: like maybe two hundred and eighty characters and make that
Speaker 2: their entire character and attack them for that, and it's
Speaker 2: amazing to me. This is another paradigm I'd like to
Speaker 2: switch is let's embrace the comedians. Let's lift the comedians,
Speaker 2: and let us have that voice that is going to
Speaker 2: expose the people that are corrupt. We are the curtain polers.
Speaker 2: We have no money behind us. You know, there's no union.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: I have a friend who did comedy for years. My
Speaker 2: opening act with Godfather my son. He's almost homeless because
Speaker 2: he can't work. He has no residuals. We have nobody
Speaker 2: to support us. I'm not playing a victim either, But
Speaker 2: that's just the fact. Comedians are out there literally giving
Speaker 2: you your medicine, literally making you happy. That's our goal,
Speaker 2: it's our only goal. Yes, we're going to make some money,
Speaker 2: but there's not that many multimillionaire comedians. Definitely not very
Speaker 2: few billionaire comedians. But the billionaires get away with everything
Speaker 2: because the lemmings that follow them do their bidding for them.
Speaker 2: But what part of the bidding is, I'm going to
Speaker 2: attack the messenger, the comedian who's trying to expose these
Speaker 2: things in a funny way. That's what's really odd to
Speaker 2: me is how many people are attacking and canceling comedians.
Speaker 2: Go cancel a congressman. You can cancel a lawmaker, Cancel
Speaker 2: a lobbyist. Cancel somebody poison poisoning your crops. Cancel somebody
Speaker 2: who's making drugs that are really really bad, they're fentanyl
Speaker 2: and stuff to go, cancel them. Not a comedian who
Speaker 2: for one joke. If you don't like the joke, I say,
Speaker 2: move on to the next one. There's another one common
Speaker 2: that you're gonna like.
Speaker 1: It's like New England weather just wait a minute, yeah.
Speaker 2: Or New England clam Or you might not like the potatoes.
Speaker 2: I don't like the potatoes. I love the clamps.
Speaker 1: Well, it's just so easy if you're laughing, because that
Speaker 1: coming through your nose is not and it will with me.
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time, Craig, I live in
Speaker 1: this world of television commercials, advertising, and things, And I
Speaker 1: try to tell the close people in my world that
Speaker 1: I speak to being victimy that you talk about, it's
Speaker 1: sort of just being lazy. And also, if there's so
Speaker 1: much thing like you said, if they can keep you scared,
Speaker 1: they can control what you do, and there's no use
Speaker 1: in arguing about it. It's more like, you know, you're
Speaker 1: just willing to follow the pack as opposed to kind
Speaker 1: of blaze your own trail. And that's not easy for
Speaker 1: people at all to understand.
Speaker 2: I've always liked you, and now I'm realizing why you
Speaker 2: have a wisdom about you that you even had when
Speaker 2: you were twenty two years old. That is absolutely so wise.
Speaker 2: What you just said.
Speaker 1: What did I say?
Speaker 2: Want to you know what I said?
Speaker 1: I don't even know what I said.
Speaker 2: You're onto the formula that get you in fear, and
Speaker 2: then the masses follow and so on. That's paraphrasing what
Speaker 2: you were saying. But that's that's exactly what It is obvious.
Speaker 2: But we just fall for it.
Speaker 1: If you But people don't believe me. And I'm I'm embedded,
Speaker 1: like I'm here, I do imaging and marketing and commercials
Speaker 1: and things, and so I understand how they're and now
Speaker 1: it's really scary Craig because it's literally like one to
Speaker 1: one advertising, Like you say something, your phone hears it,
Speaker 1: and you turn on the TV. Bam, there's a commercial
Speaker 1: specifically for you, not the next door neighbor.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: So it's gone to the days like did you see
Speaker 1: that hilarious spot on TV?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: No, I didn't see it because I was watching the
Speaker 1: same channel. But something else came up for me.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping that it comes up. You want a billion dollars.
Speaker 2: I'm thinking that's going to come up on my screen sometime.
Speaker 2: You one a billion dollars. It's amazing to me. I
Speaker 2: actually said, Ioner, if my hair is being lost here
Speaker 2: and then boom every day, yep, here's transplants coming across
Speaker 2: my phone. It's insane. I'm trying to figure out.
Speaker 1: I think I work on my house. He's I got
Speaker 1: to go. So why are you gotta go?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: My dad called me and he told me, did you
Speaker 1: see that commercial for shingles? You better go right now?
Speaker 1: And and I was like what what? What?
Speaker 2: And here like you're working on my house? No, I
Speaker 2: met the shingles on my roof. But yeah, start hammering it.
Speaker 1: Was so weird. But but I but I saw that
Speaker 1: that fear in his eyes, Like, well, if I see
Speaker 1: it and they're and they're scaring me, it's easy to
Speaker 1: control when people are scared. It's easy to control what
Speaker 1: you do, what you buy, all of it.
Speaker 2: I'm just amazed how people aren't listening to their true sense.
Speaker 2: But I speak, and when I I, you know, I coach. Now,
Speaker 2: I do a lot of coaching, executive coaching.
Speaker 1: That's why I wanted you to come on here, because
Speaker 1: I know you're an expert at laughter and healing. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I love.
Speaker 2: I love some of the work that I've done to
Speaker 2: have people have personal transformations. And none of it happened
Speaker 2: from pop and a pill. It all happened from some
Speaker 2: changes and shifts that they needed to make, some mindset shifts.
Speaker 2: And it's amazing to watch how they transmute this paint
Speaker 2: into pleasure and happiness and joys. And it's an easy choice,
Speaker 2: but it's amazing how we don't make it because all
Speaker 2: they're doing is feeding us that crap. And now they're
Speaker 2: literally feeding us crap. We are the most obese country
Speaker 2: in the world. We're the first world country, but we
Speaker 2: have these third world problems of diabetes and heart issues
Speaker 2: and everything else. And then they get mad at somebody
Speaker 2: for saying you're fat shaming or whatever it is. Well,
Speaker 2: how about trying your do your own inventory on this,
Speaker 2: watch what you're eating, and really be conscious about what
Speaker 2: you're eating. But not only that, be conscious about protesting
Speaker 2: comedians as opposed to protest to people that are making
Speaker 2: this crap that you're addicted to. It's so people whose
Speaker 2: processed foods. Of course, it's hard. Everything is hard. It
Speaker 2: was really hard for me to deal with no support
Speaker 2: when I was kidnapped and I came back from being kidnapped,
Speaker 2: I was thirteen, really really hard. I was suicidal, by
Speaker 2: the way, talk about laughter. So my mom raises by herself,
Speaker 2: and you know, and I told my mom what happened,
Speaker 2: and she said, ever telling you of this again, which
Speaker 2: I would never do to my children. You cannot keep
Speaker 2: secrets like that, Oh no, because that's a point of shame,
Speaker 2: and you know you're gonna shame. And I started drinking
Speaker 2: at thirteen and stuff like that. Well, then I suicide.
Speaker 2: I wanted to kill myself. I had no reason to live.
Speaker 2: And this was a guy I empowered to be like
Speaker 2: a father figure, and he took me away, and it
Speaker 2: is a really bad situation, my god. But so I
Speaker 2: put these neckties. I tied these neckties together, and I
Speaker 2: threw them over the closet door, and I tied them
Speaker 2: on the doorknob, and I made a news that I
Speaker 2: learned in boy Scouts, and I started dangling and choking,
Speaker 2: and my mom comes in, just, oh, my god, what
Speaker 2: are you doing? She goes, that was her new neckties.
Speaker 1: Get up, Only you would turn that into a comedy situation.
Speaker 2: He did say that, wow, And I could get up
Speaker 2: by the way I was on my knees. I just
Speaker 2: got up, you know. I mean, I wasn't really doing it,
Speaker 2: but there was some part of me that wanted to
Speaker 2: be checked out instead of now and check in all
Speaker 2: the time and just you know, be who we truly are.
Speaker 2: We're meant to be love, light and laughter. It's what
Speaker 2: we're meant to be. You know, let's do a laugh bit.
Speaker 2: You know, children laugh three hundred times a day and
Speaker 2: adults laugh twenty We need to you know, catch the
Speaker 2: kids here, you know what I mean. Like, that's why
Speaker 2: we need a laugh bit. We need we need to
Speaker 2: laugh that much where instinctually, it's I call it the
Speaker 2: seventh sense, our sense of humor.
Speaker 1: Ooh, I've never heard of that before. That's awesome.
Speaker 2: You're so right. It's the seventh sense. We all know
Speaker 2: the sixth senses, intuition and things like that. We all
Speaker 2: know the five senses, our seventh sense, which we ignore that.
Speaker 2: We don't even call it that. I'm starting to call
Speaker 2: it that with my business. It's something we ignore. But
Speaker 2: we need to have that sense of self, our sense
Speaker 2: of humor, because it goes away. We're born laughing, right,
Speaker 2: Peek a boo makes you laugh. Yeah, it's simplest thing
Speaker 2: in the world. We don't analyze them all that stupid stuff.
Speaker 2: I three stooges, honey, it's you're just laughing. It's the
Speaker 2: silliest crap ever. There's no punchlines or anything. But it's
Speaker 2: so simple. Then we make it complex because we indoctrinate
Speaker 2: children to believe you must follow and regurgitate. You regurgitate
Speaker 2: the information we give you. I can still tell you
Speaker 2: fourteen hundred and ninety two Columbus Saale, the Ocean Blue,
Speaker 2: Nina Penta Sentamury I can live right.
Speaker 1: Wow, Yeah, that was good.
Speaker 2: What purpose does that serve me?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: And it turns out he wasn't such a great guy either,
Speaker 2: like took the holiday away. We grew up a Columbus,
Speaker 2: Columbu this Italian day. Now they're going, who wha, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 2: He annihilated entire cultures. I mean literally.
Speaker 1: Anyway, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 2: Not gonna to get into the politics. People get upset.
Speaker 2: To My point is, I'm just regurgitating what they tell
Speaker 2: me to learn. And that's what school is, yep. And
Speaker 2: for your compliance, you get an award, an award, whatever
Speaker 2: it is. Even if you go to war, you get
Speaker 2: a little metal, get a little metal. Here, do your job.
Speaker 2: We're gonna tell you who to hate, We're gonna tell
Speaker 2: you who your enemy is. You're gonna go fight for us.
Speaker 2: And that's how the world operates. I'm saying, listen to
Speaker 2: your true sense of self, and if wants none of that,
Speaker 2: it doesn't want violence, it doesn't want to fight or
Speaker 2: be angry or raging or hate. That's not what your
Speaker 2: true self wants. But we've been taught that. So I
Speaker 2: have a program literally when I coach groups individuals to
Speaker 2: recondition to be who we really are reprogram through a
Speaker 2: programming that I've developed and including what you did earlier.
Speaker 2: Just a little bit bit of it is shifting your
Speaker 2: vibration through the power of laughter.
Speaker 1: There's something about vibration that is scientific. Like you would
Speaker 1: mention upfront.
Speaker 2: The other thing you're wise about. That's exactly right. We
Speaker 2: are all energy. Yeah, yeah, that's what we are.
Speaker 1: We are electricity in us, Like we don't plug into
Speaker 1: a wall. That's always baffled me.
Speaker 2: And now we have false electricity guiding us. These smartphones
Speaker 2: that make it idiots.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, dumb phones.
Speaker 2: I mean it's making it's it's making me into an idiot.
Speaker 2: You know what's happening is, yeah, I scroll. I'm guilty.
Speaker 2: I scroll, okay, and I late night scroll, which is
Speaker 2: not good. That's bad for it, Like give the insomnia.
Speaker 2: I mean I boom. Now what's happening is my hard
Speaker 2: drive in my head only has so much space, right,
Speaker 2: we only have someone space, so valuables have. Stuff has
Speaker 2: to leave my brain, so crap like what you have
Speaker 2: for dessert on Instagram goes in. That's what is everybody
Speaker 2: so self obsessed? Oh, let me show you what I
Speaker 2: have my life, how beautiful. It is so now it's
Speaker 2: like now that's being programmed into me. So now everybody.
Speaker 2: So there's a new custom probably the last twenty years.
Speaker 2: I'm in the restaurant. It comes up. He goes, my
Speaker 2: name is Kad, I'll be your weight. I go, do
Speaker 2: I have to memorize your name?
Speaker 1: Is there gonna be a talent?
Speaker 2: You just you just replaced myself. This is a security number.
Speaker 2: Don't don't give me the specials. I'll lose my Gmail password.
Speaker 2: Gmail password pisses me off, by the way. It's always
Speaker 2: fighting with me talking about fighting. It's not strong enough.
Speaker 2: They're called me a wuss over here. They're arguing, that's
Speaker 2: my password, and they go, try a symbol, try a number,
Speaker 2: Try how's this pound pound pound jackass? But yeah, everywhere, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that one gets right through. Yeah, of course I all
Speaker 2: know my Gmail password.
Speaker 1: Is this the classes that you're teaching? Is that part
Speaker 1: of Laughter Heels the Laughter Heels foundation that you started
Speaker 1: that a while back?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that was inspired because I will tell you
Speaker 2: positive and I don't want to call anything negative, but
Speaker 2: you know I was. I've been doing comedy for years
Speaker 2: and all these people come up to me, especially Detroit.
Speaker 2: That was the first time it happened. I'll never forget
Speaker 2: Kim and say, hey, thank you so much. I just
Speaker 2: thought they were saying thanks for the laughs that night,
Speaker 2: and I said, no, really, we were told we couldn't
Speaker 2: have a child. We tried in vitro every then we
Speaker 2: gave up. We saw your show, went home. My husband
Speaker 2: pretended he was a love master. I had a wonderful time,
Speaker 2: and we had a baby girl nine months later, right,
Speaker 2: And that's when I thought to himse, wow, that laughter
Speaker 2: is good medicine. And I thought, wow, you're not trying
Speaker 2: to have a child, You're just allowing. You're creating space,
Speaker 2: a laughter space and all that. So then I had
Speaker 2: all these other people set up, like one, I have
Speaker 2: a photo. I should show it to you, conceived in
Speaker 2: the parking lot of the Brave Improv minutes after my show.
Speaker 2: They couldn't even wait till they got home. And there's
Speaker 2: this little girl who came out laughing. It's the funniest
Speaker 2: little picture that they sent me.
Speaker 1: How does that make you feel when that happens?
Speaker 2: Oh, I just love it. I love it. I embrace
Speaker 2: it because I'm saying it's not an ego thing. I go, oh,
Speaker 2: laughter works, not Craig works. Now I happen to be
Speaker 2: the messenger of the laughs. That's great, But I always
Speaker 2: tell people go wherever he needs. You might think I stink.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter to me. Just go somewhere else and
Speaker 2: go get the laughs or do a guided laffittation. It's
Speaker 2: your choice. So and then my my child, Jared, was
Speaker 2: adopted and no breast milk. Guess where his breast milk
Speaker 2: came from? Breton. Mindy couldn't conceive. I said, come to
Speaker 2: my show. They did. They had sex and they had
Speaker 2: baby Cooper, who was born one week different from Jared. Yes,
Speaker 2: one week. So we would go to the farmers farmers
Speaker 2: market and get Mindy's breast milk like a drug deal.
Speaker 1: Did she ever fridge all stocked up?
Speaker 2: She's frozen for us.
Speaker 1: This is Jared.
Speaker 2: This is oh yeah, because I gave them life and
Speaker 2: they give they give Jared life of you know this, uh,
Speaker 2: and it's this twenty years ago. I mean, so anyway,
Speaker 2: all to get to the story of Michael Goldberg, he
Speaker 2: wrote Cool Running His Little Giants. One of my best
Speaker 2: friends from Philly with Eagles parties everywhere. I mean, we
Speaker 2: just were bonded. He directed the Love Master movie with
Speaker 2: Farah Faws and we're in Arizona filming some of it
Speaker 2: and his wife they wanted to have a baby, Karen,
Speaker 2: who actually was my blind date at first. He married
Speaker 2: her and so Karen says, I'm ovulating. We're in a
Speaker 2: condo about to watch our eagles actually, and I said, hey, man,
Speaker 2: do the Love Master. It works for a lot of people.
Speaker 2: It's a fertility clinic over here. They said, yeah, it's
Speaker 2: a great idea. So I said, I'll go get sandwiches.
Speaker 2: And I went and got sandwiches, came back. They were
Speaker 2: already done. I guess Love Master did his job.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Baby Kayla was born nine months later. What yeah, So how.
Speaker 1: Many kids is this? How many kids is this? Now?
Speaker 2: I can't well? I five? I count five for sure.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Conceived by guys doing the Love Master.
Speaker 1: Do you keep in touch with them?
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you the story with Golds. His name's Golds.
Speaker 2: Michael Goldberg. Oh again, a comedy guy. Really funny dude.
Speaker 2: We bonded through laughter, which is another thing we bond
Speaker 2: with our kids. I talked about this when I coaches it.
Speaker 2: Who do you bond with from your childhood people you
Speaker 2: laugh with, right, you share laughter together. That's the You
Speaker 2: don't want to hang out with some miserable gloom and
Speaker 2: doom person, right, Yeah, although misery loves company sometimes. But anyway,
Speaker 2: a year and a half after Kayla was born, he
Speaker 2: was diagnosed with brain cancer. In the game three Months
Speaker 2: to Live. That was my moment why I'm on your show,
Speaker 2: because that was the moment I went, ah, if laughter
Speaker 2: is the best medicine, let's prove it. And I started
Speaker 2: this program in a cancer facility in the valley. He
Speaker 2: showed up for all of it. I just was making
Speaker 2: it up as I went along. I did a lot
Speaker 2: of research. There's a lot of science that backs this up.
Speaker 2: On my new business of Laughter Works, we actually have
Speaker 2: the top neuroscience from Harvard. He's on our board now
Speaker 2: and this is all backed up. This is this serious.
Speaker 2: Take laughter seriously. I mean, it really is what it
Speaker 2: does to you for your healing process, and if anything
Speaker 2: it does, it gives you a will to live. The
Speaker 2: more you want to laugh. He took all my prescriptions.
Speaker 2: I said, hey, let's all exchange our favorite common movies,
Speaker 2: even saying the name of the movie is funny. And
Speaker 2: fun or a quote from the movie if I say
Speaker 2: those aren't pillows, planes, trains, automobiles, and then people laugh
Speaker 2: just at the thought of that scene. If those aren't pillows,
Speaker 2: Uh huh. Anyway, how about the Bears game housekeeping? See
Speaker 2: what I mean? So you're laughing just at the thought.
Speaker 2: That's the vibration that's being exchanged between us right now.
Speaker 2: He shows up for all of it, does all the prescriptions.
Speaker 2: I say, go to comedy shows. He was so many
Speaker 2: of my shows. He came three months to live. He
Speaker 2: lived fifteen years past that product. Fifteen years.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Craig, I'm gonna cry and I don't
Speaker 1: have any tissues. Now you're making me cry. Holy crap.
Speaker 2: And he had a team of about five of us
Speaker 2: would like you know, look, he went through the chemos
Speaker 2: and stuff like that as well. But he had his
Speaker 2: will to live. You can't coach he really did, and
Speaker 2: he showed up for all of it. And then, if
Speaker 2: I may get a little people can tune away if
Speaker 2: you don't want to hear a semi crude story. But
Speaker 2: it is funny. Okay, it's a little risque. But how
Speaker 2: about you just take those things out of what you
Speaker 2: think is riskue, and just listen to this story for
Speaker 2: what it is, the true story. He was in hospice
Speaker 2: and it was the end. Who's actually living in an
Speaker 2: old folks home at fifty years old? That's so sad,
Speaker 2: you know, to go in there. By the way, if ever,
Speaker 2: I'm in need of a self esteem boost, I can
Speaker 2: get laid in these old people's homes. I'm a studying there.
Speaker 2: They would just walk up and go, I'm taking a closet.
Speaker 2: I have no teeth, I'm perfect for you. It was unbelievable.
Speaker 2: I will I never felt like such a stud I
Speaker 2: mean wow. So anyway, that's rightly you say.
Speaker 1: Venereal diseases are up in retirement homes and old age
Speaker 1: homes and stuff, so that is true.
Speaker 2: Let him have fun. What the hell exactly? What else
Speaker 2: are you gonna judge them? They don't even judge anymore.
Speaker 2: Who cares anymore? At that point? While I go in
Speaker 2: there and we film this actually for a movie called
Speaker 2: Laughter Heels. I have a nonprofit called Laughter Heels, which
Speaker 2: I formed for him, and we go to hospitals, after
Speaker 2: care facilities, wounded warriors, first responders. We help people find
Speaker 2: this joy and this laughter in their lives because they're
Speaker 2: dealing with difficult circumstances and this will shift them in
Speaker 2: no other way, no better way. So he shows up
Speaker 2: off it and then he ends up in a coma.
Speaker 2: He's literally in a coma we have where we filmed it,
Speaker 2: and I said, well can I I said, old, what
Speaker 2: can we do for you? He's just staring, literally staring
Speaker 2: in this. I was like waving my hand in front
Speaker 2: of him. What could I do? Man? What can I
Speaker 2: do to help you? I leaned in, I said, want
Speaker 2: me to give you a handy. I never done anybody
Speaker 2: but my own. I'm really good with my own. I'll
Speaker 2: give you a handy. He came out of a coma
Speaker 2: and he goes and he laughed, shut up. I told
Speaker 2: him I was going to whack them off.
Speaker 1: I believe that's called no. I shouldn't say it. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I'll say it.
Speaker 2: Say it.
Speaker 1: I think that's called handj He left off the j
Speaker 1: for my crew comedy friends.
Speaker 2: And I didn't know that. From now on, when I
Speaker 2: tell the story, I'll make it up that I didn't
Speaker 2: say Jay. I actually said, I'll tell you what I said.
Speaker 2: I said, you want me to jerk you off? Because
Speaker 2: that's a photo. It it got put off. That's that's
Speaker 2: the big They'll call you a jayo with the accent.
Speaker 2: You're a jay o. It's the worst thing.
Speaker 1: But he woke up. He woke up and laught, laughed,
Speaker 1: he laughed. Were there's doctors in the room that saw
Speaker 1: this happen?
Speaker 2: Well, it was definitely one of our friends was in
Speaker 2: the room because he was filming it. And whoa Mark
Speaker 2: Ben He was a director and he yeah, he was there,
Speaker 2: and yeah, I think there's a there was a nurse
Speaker 2: there that saw this. He was just a wave in
Speaker 2: my hand. There was no way he was. And he
Speaker 2: he had been in a coma before. I remember, like
Speaker 2: years before, and when he came out of a coma,
Speaker 2: I actually said, you could hear us, couldn't you. He goes, yeah,
Speaker 2: I can hear you in a coma that they act
Speaker 2: like they can't or they don't or whatever the case is.
Speaker 2: But anyway, he heard me and he laughed because you
Speaker 2: knew that was And he died two days later. But
Speaker 2: I'm happy and proud that it made him laugh. Oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, you know, And that's a great legacy. I'll
Speaker 2: take that one all day long. And by the way,
Speaker 2: I didn't go through with it. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I wasn't even going to ask that, but thanks for
Speaker 1: letting us know, because I know.
Speaker 2: Your mind, your promise, you maker, no no Jayo.
Speaker 1: Well you know, it's interesting that you bring that up
Speaker 1: because this was leading me to my next question.
Speaker 2: I can't imagine where Jao goes to your next question.
Speaker 1: Don't you love that this is called the Jao segue?
Speaker 2: Is a first? I guarantee it's a first.
Speaker 1: How can Lynn take that and roll it into.
Speaker 2: Something I'm waiting, I'm sitting back. Where's Lynn going with?
Speaker 2: I know she's a genius on the microphone. Let's see
Speaker 2: where this is going. Go ahead.
Speaker 1: Well I wouldn't go that far, but thank you, I'll
Speaker 1: take it. Looking back on your career, which has been
Speaker 1: long and less curious because I don't even know if
Speaker 1: that's a word less curious, but I found stuff from
Speaker 1: you from like the early eighties and stuff. So you've
Speaker 1: been at this a long time. And if you look
Speaker 1: back on your whole career, especially with everything that you've
Speaker 1: been through, we didn't even touch on your relationship with
Speaker 1: your dad when he came back into your life. I
Speaker 1: do believe. Yeah, yeah, there was a But what do
Speaker 1: you hope for, especially with all of these foundations, What
Speaker 1: do you hope that your legacy will be? And how
Speaker 1: do you want to be remembered in the world of comedy.
Speaker 2: It's funny us to say that there's a difference between
Speaker 2: comedy and laughter, and that's something I feel like me
Speaker 2: finding that difference is important for the world to understand
Speaker 2: because we're divided on what makes us laugh. We're not
Speaker 2: divided when we are laughing. That's a good quote, isn't it.
Speaker 1: That is You should put that on a T shirt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, write that down right.
Speaker 1: I only have a sharpie.
Speaker 2: It's not going to come up with all these quotes.
Speaker 2: The other day it came up with seven cents.
Speaker 1: Actually, I love it. But we're recording this so it's
Speaker 1: in there.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I want my lega see to be For instance,
Speaker 2: I have a legacy business. Now laughter works. We're we're
Speaker 2: going to change corporate wellness and turn it on its head.
Speaker 2: And it's a huge business. And look, I've found out
Speaker 2: in life that's not about awards and rewards. I was
Speaker 2: a community or at American Comedy Awards. It's like the
Speaker 2: big it's the Oscar of Comedy. It's on ABC. It
Speaker 2: was presented by Lily Tomlin. You know, do you know
Speaker 2: it was the loneliest night of my life? Really yeah,
Speaker 2: because I got there and I'm going, wow, first, there's
Speaker 2: no there there. Then I see people backstage. My contemporaries
Speaker 2: are shining me off. You know that night they did.
Speaker 2: I was driving around in a limo with my big
Speaker 2: award and you get imposter syndrome. And it was a really,
Speaker 2: really lonely night. But it also became a point where
Speaker 2: I could go, Okay, what is this about? Is this
Speaker 2: about my ego? So what's the legacy? The legacy is
Speaker 2: if I can teach people and guide people into a
Speaker 2: new realm of possibility with the power of laughter, then
Speaker 2: I'm doing my job. It's not about me being rewarded.
Speaker 2: Like I know, I have a trophy next to you.
Speaker 2: I don't want to brag, but I do. I want
Speaker 2: to brag about let's see it. So I've got a
Speaker 2: couple of EM's back here, and I've got the Comedian
Speaker 2: or American Comedy Awards Supporting Actor and all this kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. But here this award right here, keep it
Speaker 2: next to me. I won the horses ass Award and
Speaker 2: I actually reunion.
Speaker 1: That's an ass of a horse made into an award.
Speaker 1: Holy mode.
Speaker 2: I won this trophy the horses asked of my ex
Speaker 2: wife's family reunion from by the way your area, Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: I won that award and I deserve and I deserved
Speaker 2: and earned that reward an award.
Speaker 1: Wow, are you still friends with your exes?
Speaker 2: No, on one of them, for sure.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: I don't know that that could ever be repaired unless
Speaker 2: something happened with her like a lightning bolt, understood, wake
Speaker 2: her up into I've done my job with both. I
Speaker 2: have done my job literally, all the forgiveness, all of
Speaker 2: the amends, everything that I need to do to clean
Speaker 2: up my side. Some people I don't think are capable.
Speaker 2: You know. I used to say to to my son's
Speaker 2: I say, she puts her head to the pillow. Does
Speaker 2: she really believe those things? Because she would accuse me
Speaker 2: of these things like a lot of women are doing.
Speaker 2: This is very sad. Whether they work the court system
Speaker 2: and they don't get punished for bringing up false things,
Speaker 2: they do not get punished whatsoever. And that stuff sticks
Speaker 2: to a guy when you hear the stuff that she
Speaker 2: would say about me costs me like a million dollars
Speaker 2: to prove my innocence. That would have gone to my children.
Speaker 2: That's all everything I do ever do in life, call
Speaker 2: goes to kids, my kids, and that yet wives are
Speaker 2: preventing that from taking place because they take it through
Speaker 2: in this revenge system that we're in, in the family
Speaker 2: court system. It's not built for the man because we're
Speaker 2: still paying for the you know, for the nineteen fifties
Speaker 2: fathers said get my slippers, bitch of co'se. Still they
Speaker 2: think that we're still that guy. Yeah, and so if
Speaker 2: you get something attached to you, your bully, abuse her
Speaker 2: and oh it's done. You know, that's it. I believe her.
Speaker 2: It is literally a statement you'll hear out there. Well,
Speaker 2: it's a bad situation to be in. So I can
Speaker 2: only bring my kids who I truly am. So if
Speaker 2: you say I the one, I definitely don't speak to
Speaker 2: the other one. She joined a cult, and so.
Speaker 1: Are you serious when you say that, like, oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: a literal cult.
Speaker 2: She was literally just completely brainwashed. My kids say it too,
Speaker 2: they spoke to the police about it. Yeah, she's completely
Speaker 2: enamored with this cult leader. This woman, she just follows
Speaker 2: everything that she does. She has a podcast. It's just
Speaker 2: it's really it's heartbreaking though, to see somebody with this
Speaker 2: kind of you know, it's mental health, which again that's
Speaker 2: what I'm helping people with his mental health. Her mental
Speaker 2: health is so far compromised by giving all of her
Speaker 2: power over to somebody where I'm saying, you have the
Speaker 2: power within you. It tap into that potency, that potency
Speaker 2: which is filled with joy and laughter, happiness, gratitude, grace.
Speaker 2: That's who we really are. And she went down this
Speaker 2: other path of greed and selfishness and you know, blew
Speaker 2: the whole family up for no reason. But in that case,
Speaker 2: there's a much better chance because first we have two
Speaker 2: young children. It was really close. And during the fires,
Speaker 2: again my highest source and highest good, we evacuated. I
Speaker 2: invited her to the beach house that I rented, and
Speaker 2: she moved into the beach house. So there we were,
Speaker 2: you know, still divorced and still you know, in alleged battle,
Speaker 2: and we walk in the beach together and laughing and
Speaker 2: going on dunes and cartwheels and making fun of me.
Speaker 2: Of course, that's always.
Speaker 1: Part of a that's part.
Speaker 2: Always as Dad's always the brunt of the joke. It's
Speaker 2: great about comedies. I can think of reverse that on
Speaker 2: a stage with a microphone. But it was really beautiful
Speaker 2: and in the moment, not to say it stayed, you
Speaker 2: know there's But that's where I'm going to keep returning to.
Speaker 2: I'm going to keep returning to that true essence that
Speaker 2: I really am. My true seventh sense is my sense
Speaker 2: of humor. I'm going to keep returning to it. And
Speaker 2: with sense of humor comes love and light. And that's
Speaker 2: that's where I hope that we could all get to obvious.
Speaker 2: All is never going to happen, but more people if
Speaker 2: we do follow this indoctrination, if you will, we're indoctrinated
Speaker 2: to be in fear. Why not be indoctrinated to look
Speaker 2: for more joy, look for more laughter, keep your laugh bit,
Speaker 2: pay attention to whoa look at how many times I
Speaker 2: laugh today. I guarantee you're gonna feel better, right.
Speaker 1: I think that we need to call Apple immediately after
Speaker 1: this call and pitch them on the idea, because I
Speaker 1: think that is genius. I also think that you're genius
Speaker 1: because of what you're doing with your craft, because it
Speaker 1: helps so many people. And the question I have for
Speaker 1: you is you know, you're giving of yourself and people
Speaker 1: want to get what you're giving and have it work.
Speaker 1: And I've had so many people tell me through my
Speaker 1: life when when I would say to them, you know,
Speaker 1: happiness is a choice, and you have to force yourself
Speaker 1: and teach yourself. You have to learn behavior. And if
Speaker 1: you learn a different behavior and you've been doing it
Speaker 1: for so long, yeah it's hard, but you can't. The
Speaker 1: old saying people don't change is I think it's bullshit.
Speaker 1: I think people agree with you hard on something.
Speaker 2: And here we can hang out more. For God's sake,
Speaker 2: we need to hang out more. You're in complete alignment. Actually,
Speaker 2: one of my books is called Get Out of Line
Speaker 2: and Into Alignment.
Speaker 1: Well, that's a chiropractor, you know.
Speaker 2: This is alignment with your true self. You're out of
Speaker 2: these people's lines, right, And that's so important. Even the
Speaker 2: topics of your podcast, it's out of line. That's I'm
Speaker 2: not in line with them telling you to pop a
Speaker 2: drug for your answer, right, or eat something bad for you.
Speaker 2: That's you're in alignment with yourself, your true self, which
Speaker 2: is probably why you still look twenty two years old
Speaker 2: and you're not twenty two anymore, I know it. I
Speaker 2: googled Craig.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for being on Comedy Save Me, and
Speaker 1: thank you for the joy of laughter and the therapy
Speaker 1: that you continue to spread and give everyone. Because I
Speaker 1: think you should be a doctor of laughter.
Speaker 2: Life has changed, but you and I haven't. Can't wait
Speaker 2: to hang with you when I come back east. There
Speaker 2: you come out west, all right, Greig.
Speaker 1: Thank you