Speaker 1: If I could like walk into a house in the
Speaker 1: Midwest unannounced and just just sitting down with regular people. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: here's here's a nine foot insecured you coming to your
Speaker 1: home and you just knock on the door. What's that smell?
Speaker 1: You could be that boy, I smell meat loafing aim.
Speaker 1: You have to be like Allen, you know? Can I
Speaker 1: come in?
Speaker 2: I love talking to comedians because I feel like to
Speaker 2: be a really good comedian you have to be really
Speaker 2: self aware. And I think my least favorite people to
Speaker 2: talk to are people who can't see what everybody else sees,
Speaker 2: like do you know yourself at all? And comedians know thyselves.
Speaker 2: There are no pretenses or veneers. And my next guest
Speaker 2: is so funny but also so thoughtful and lovely. You
Speaker 2: know him from Everybody Loves Raymond, the Emmy nominated film Gleason,
Speaker 2: where he played Jackie Gleason till Death the Night at
Speaker 2: the Museum Movies. He performs regularly at his own comedy
Speaker 2: club at the MGM Grand because he's a baller who
Speaker 2: has their own comedy club. It's Brad Garrett. Welcome to
Speaker 2: off the cup. Brad. How are you good? I'm better now?
Speaker 2: That you're here.
Speaker 1: Great to be here. I feel a little self aware.
Speaker 1: Is it okay?
Speaker 2: Your hair looks great?
Speaker 1: Thank you. Part of it's mine and part of it
Speaker 1: was donated to me.
Speaker 2: It was a gift.
Speaker 1: Actually, I took the hair off my dog before I
Speaker 1: ate it. So it's Alicia. It was time. It was
Speaker 1: time for him. He was ready, had a shelte. Good
Speaker 1: to see you, honey, Good to see you.
Speaker 2: I'm so happy to talk to you because we've been
Speaker 2: like Twitter or Instagram friends for a few years now.
Speaker 1: Have you been getting my dms and everything? You're okay
Speaker 1: with the pictures?
Speaker 2: Nothing untoward was sent. Just want everyone to know.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 2: There's so much I want to get into with you.
Speaker 2: I want to start. I want to start with your childhood.
Speaker 2: Were you funny as a kid?
Speaker 1: You know? I think, yeah, I was? I was. I
Speaker 1: think I you know. I was raised by uh, loving
Speaker 1: parents that really struggled mentally, okay, and my mom suffered
Speaker 1: from extreme depression. My father was a wonderful man and
Speaker 1: really really my hero growing up, but he was bipolar
Speaker 1: and we didn't know that until much later in life.
Speaker 1: We just thought he was eccentric and yeah, fun and
Speaker 1: you know, wanted his son to be his wingman and
Speaker 1: all great things when I was growing up. But I
Speaker 1: think when you're raised with parents that struggle no matter
Speaker 1: what it is, I think we feel like it's our
Speaker 1: job to entertain.
Speaker 2: Them or make them happy, make them laugh.
Speaker 1: Them happy, fix the problem.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. It is. And you know, my mom
Speaker 1: was very critical, and it was like she didn't even
Speaker 1: want me in the home movies, which every time she
Speaker 1: would think she always said, you know what, good audition,
Speaker 1: We're going another way. And she would try to cast
Speaker 1: other children in my room growing up, which she heardened
Speaker 1: me made this armor. No, but I think you know,
Speaker 1: my father was incredibly funny and I got a lot
Speaker 1: of that from him. But I was bullied a lot
Speaker 1: growing up because I was like six feet to twelve.
Speaker 1: I had no athletic ability. I looked and this is
Speaker 1: a compliment, I looked like Liza Minelli as I was
Speaker 1: growing up. No, I really did. I'll send you some
Speaker 1: picture they're touching them please. But I had, you know,
Speaker 1: I had eyes that looked like I was crying off
Speaker 1: my mascarra every time I went to school. I just
Speaker 1: I had that looked like when I look at the pictures,
Speaker 1: there's only three pictures of me from my childhood. One
Speaker 1: was in court. I look like I have three jobs.
Speaker 1: I looked like I could be making iPhones in China.
Speaker 1: When I look at the small, small pictures of me,
Speaker 1: I look at I go what was I going through?
Speaker 1: But it was a lot of people really trying hard
Speaker 1: to do their best. Yeah, and you know there was
Speaker 1: there was a lot of you know, dysfunction.
Speaker 2: But did you have siblings?
Speaker 1: I had two older brothers, quite a bit older than
Speaker 1: I'm the youngest of three, and my oldest brother was
Speaker 1: nine years older and then the middle was six years older.
Speaker 1: We have the same mom, different dads, okay, and we
Speaker 1: were as close as we could be. You know. The
Speaker 1: key was to get out as soon as we could
Speaker 1: of the house and kind of do our own, our
Speaker 1: own thing and it. You know, it's so difficult when
Speaker 1: people you love and you're closed with struggle and the
Speaker 1: refuse help.
Speaker 2: Oh, is that what happened? They didn't want to get
Speaker 2: They really didn't want the help. That's of a generation,
Speaker 2: I think it is.
Speaker 1: That's why I love talking about this stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: because of people like yourself and you know it's now important,
Speaker 1: you know, and that it's okay, you know, to not
Speaker 1: be okay as they say, I know that's so clich Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's true, and it's good to know that people do,
Speaker 1: you know, face a lot of challenges, and I think
Speaker 1: more so than ever because of this crazy world word
Speaker 1: I guess.
Speaker 2: And I want to talk about mental health a lot
Speaker 2: with you because that's the point of this. But so
Speaker 2: you you go to college but you drop out right
Speaker 2: to do comedy.
Speaker 1: Yes, well I was. I was also encouraged to leave. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the school was like, you're you're not cut out for this,
Speaker 1: and I you know, I busted my behind to be
Speaker 1: like a strong B student. And growing up I really
Speaker 1: didn't have friends, you know, a lot of them. Some
Speaker 1: I paid and they were right by the house and hunk.
Speaker 1: But my teachers were kind of like my See. I
Speaker 1: knew early on that if you if you make the
Speaker 1: teachers laugh when you're the class clown, they have something.
Speaker 1: It's easy to make the other kids laugh, especially in
Speaker 1: public school because you know, so I think when I
Speaker 1: made my teachers laugh, I knew that there was really
Speaker 1: something there. And early on my teachers really went like
Speaker 1: you got to get in the theater. I mean I
Speaker 1: was doing stand up at like sixteen, I was doing
Speaker 1: bar Mitzvah's and it was really you know, it's horrific.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever tried to make rabbis laugh,
Speaker 1: but it's it was hell.
Speaker 2: You had encouragement and people recognize that you were talented young.
Speaker 1: I had encouraged it. My parents were incredibly encouraging. You know.
Speaker 1: My dad really got it. And I think my mom
Speaker 1: was hoping that, you know, if if I got famous,
Speaker 1: that maybe she could get a job. You know, I
Speaker 1: think it was kind of her thing. You know. It's
Speaker 1: like when I started opening for different acts in Vegas,
Speaker 1: I would have my parents, you know, would I would
Speaker 1: have my mom and her third husband, my stepdad. I
Speaker 1: would have him in the audience. I was opening for
Speaker 1: Sinatra for a while and last part of his life,
Speaker 1: you know, when he was God bless him, I mean,
Speaker 1: the greatest, but he was like does summer Win does
Speaker 1: a tray up? Bob Bob? So now, yeah, I was
Speaker 1: just so happy for the gig. And I grew up
Speaker 1: on that music, so that was like it was incredible,
Speaker 1: But less Frank, he had bigger things to remember, and
Speaker 1: he called me Greg Barrett for two years while opening
Speaker 1: for him, you know. And Frank isn't the guy you
Speaker 1: stick down and correct.
Speaker 2: You don't correct Frank, you don't.
Speaker 1: You know. And I went to his buddy Julie and
Speaker 1: I went, you know, we've been on the road five months.
Speaker 1: Maybe you can tell Frank that I'm Brad, you know.
Speaker 1: And he's like, you want the gig or not? You
Speaker 1: don't like working with Frank. And it became that. So
Speaker 1: I was Greg, and my mom from the audience was like,
Speaker 1: his name is Brad?
Speaker 3: His name?
Speaker 1: This happened in Vegas, okay? And I would take her
Speaker 1: and I would talk about my mom and my aunt.
Speaker 1: She would say that isn't true. His mother I never
Speaker 1: you know. So there was eventually a restraining order at
Speaker 1: the Desert Inn to keep my mom from and then
Speaker 1: she hit on Steve Lawrence when I opened for Steve
Speaker 1: and Edie.
Speaker 2: And she's like a character.
Speaker 1: Oh, she was wonderful. She told Sammy Davis that not every.
Speaker 3: Night is bad Duke my god.
Speaker 1: Yeah it was, I gotta tell you, but but I
Speaker 1: felt better if I did an invite her. Yeah, was
Speaker 1: a wonderfully complicated woman.
Speaker 2: So at twenty three, you go on Carson, one of
Speaker 2: the youngest comedians ever to go on that show. What
Speaker 2: how did you take all of that in?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, it was, you know, it's it's kind
Speaker 1: of hard to explain. I mean it was you know,
Speaker 1: you're behind that curtain you grow up watching, and you
Speaker 1: know it was, you know, my stand up until I
Speaker 1: really found myself. It was very you know, pedestrian and
Speaker 1: really kind of hackey and just nothing really where you're going,
Speaker 1: wow this, you know, and uh, it was okay. But
Speaker 1: I had one Star search and Ed McMahon hosted that
Speaker 1: winning star search, and you know I would always get
Speaker 1: ice for Ed and sneak it into his trailer and
Speaker 1: I would open up the salve and he would tell
Speaker 1: me stories. And so he helped, I think, get me
Speaker 1: on the Tonight Show. And I did a handful of him,
Speaker 1: and you know, it really really helped because in those days,
Speaker 1: you know, there were five channels and if you did
Speaker 1: decent would you know, I think my key was timing
Speaker 1: in cadence over material.
Speaker 3: Suit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then I just like when I was opening
Speaker 1: for the big acts and they never want to see
Speaker 1: the opening act. I left my material and I just
Speaker 1: started to roast the crowd.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, a lot of.
Speaker 1: You know, rejection anger. And then Frank's audience, you know,
Speaker 1: you take went to the melon if you roast the
Speaker 1: wrong guy. John Gotti in the front row in Atlantic City.
Speaker 1: I didn't know who John Gotty was. This was ninety one.
Speaker 1: He was in the front row in a top hat,
Speaker 1: dark glasses and like a white shirt and tails. And
Speaker 1: I went, oh, my god, it's mister peanut, you know,
Speaker 1: just joking around. So I go backstage and.
Speaker 2: You said that to his face.
Speaker 1: Well he was in the audience. I didn't know it
Speaker 1: was John Gotti, you know. And I go backstage and
Speaker 1: Jilly was like, you have to hide. So they put me,
Speaker 1: you know, they said, don't come out until we let
Speaker 1: you know. John Gotti went backstage, and I'm sure there
Speaker 1: was gunplay and him Frank played I don't know crazy
Speaker 1: eights or whatever they did. But the point is I
Speaker 1: started busting the balls of Frank's people that were in
Speaker 1: the front row, and they loved it. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like Rickles on steroids. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: now in this, you know, and this what I do
Speaker 1: at my club is just you know, mostly crowd work
Speaker 1: and improv, which I love and.
Speaker 2: That's my thing, and that's really come back, Like crowd
Speaker 2: work is so popular now.
Speaker 1: You know, it's all I've really, I mean, I mean
Speaker 1: never done, you know, And yeah, yeah, like Gray, you know,
Speaker 1: Ray and I worked together for a while and he
Speaker 1: would say, why Kurt, you suit down for five minutes
Speaker 1: and right, just right, and I'm like, look you right,
Speaker 1: and I'm great. Now. He's really amazing. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: really funny. He's a great writer. That's never been my thing.
Speaker 1: I'd rather go out without a net and I get
Speaker 1: moored easy. And you know, we spent many many years
Speaker 1: on the road together and having a great time and
Speaker 1: working the casinos together. Yeah, but I think there was
Speaker 1: a time where the casinos were really worried, especially during
Speaker 1: the cancel culture, and I went, you know, this is
Speaker 1: what I do and this is what it is, and
Speaker 1: you know you're not going to change at sixty four
Speaker 1: and I love doing this. And yeah, that it did
Speaker 1: a whole full circle. And now people seem to really
Speaker 1: want the edge because they're so tired of hearing what
Speaker 1: they can laugh at what they can't laugh at. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, you have to have a career to
Speaker 1: get canceled. So thank god I can't get canceled.
Speaker 2: You've had a career. Stop.
Speaker 1: I'm working the food court, Essie. I love to have
Speaker 1: you and the kid come by. We got balloons. He
Speaker 1: can color the menu.
Speaker 2: Okay, So you mentioned Ray is landing a sitcom, especially
Speaker 2: a successful one, the dream for comedians or do you
Speaker 2: prefer stand up?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I always felt that acting was I mean,
Speaker 1: I was always doing stand up. But to me, acting was,
Speaker 1: you know, the holy grail. That was the brass room
Speaker 1: for me, you know, and get on that show. I
Speaker 1: mean I auditioned and a couple times, and I knew
Speaker 1: how lucky I was, you know, a halfway through the
Speaker 1: first season you go board. The chemistry of the cast
Speaker 1: was so organic, and that's really the key. After you
Speaker 1: have great writers. You got to have the writers. And
Speaker 1: this group was just about, you know, as good as
Speaker 1: they get. And there was that synergy of just everything popping,
Speaker 1: and Ray knew what the show is about, and Phil
Speaker 1: knew how to create it around Ray, and it was
Speaker 1: just one of those things. And I got lucky. You know,
Speaker 1: you got to you gotta be lucky too. You got
Speaker 1: to work hard, but when that audition comes, you got
Speaker 1: to be prepared. I was never some I mean I
Speaker 1: could have done stand up my whole life and been
Speaker 1: happy because I still love it. You know. It wasn't like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to try stand up and maybe that'll get
Speaker 1: me a sitcom because you know, like for a while
Speaker 1: they were giving people on TikTok that had two million
Speaker 1: followers a pilot, and yeah, you know what happens with
Speaker 1: that because they don't have a skill set, they just
Speaker 1: have something that went viral. Right, So back in those days,
Speaker 1: you know, we really worked on our craft. I was
Speaker 1: an acting class since I was eighteen, So it was
Speaker 1: something that I always, you know, felt I wanted to do,
Speaker 1: not something that would necessarily crack for me.
Speaker 2: So Raymond Goes ninety six to two thousand and five,
Speaker 2: Seinfeld was eighty nine to ninety eight, Fraser Is ninety
Speaker 2: three to two thousand and four, Friends ninety four to
Speaker 2: two thousand and four, Will and Grace ninety eight to
Speaker 2: two thousand and six. King of Queens ninety eight to
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven. You were airing concurrently with the
Speaker 2: biggest sitcoms on the planet, including yours. Yeah, well, what
Speaker 2: was that? I mean, it's such a high time for sitcoms.
Speaker 2: What was that like? And were there like any rivalries?
Speaker 1: You know, there really weren't rivalries. I mean to be honest.
Speaker 1: You know, Friends and Seinfeld they were the juggernauts. You know,
Speaker 1: we were very different show. Those shows were really pushing
Speaker 1: the envelope and friendship super sexy and really funny and
Speaker 1: yeah and Frasier was you know, that was such a
Speaker 1: high bar. We were doing something really kind of different.
Speaker 1: That kind of went back to, you know, that old
Speaker 1: vibe of what sitcoms were.
Speaker 2: Like all in the family.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean to me, that's, you know, nothing
Speaker 1: better than that shob right in my opinion, But I
Speaker 1: think that's what, you know, that was what I think
Speaker 1: everyone wanted to strive for that family unit that you know,
Speaker 1: had no choice but to be together and how do
Speaker 1: we navigate that? And you know, Phil ran the show
Speaker 1: where like when he would break a story literally the
Speaker 1: writer's room every Monday, he would go around the table
Speaker 1: to the writers and he would go, you know, what
Speaker 1: happened this weekend? What happened this weekend? And almost all
Speaker 1: the time something would be hatched in that room it's
Speaker 1: it's like the luggage episode. It was a big, a
Speaker 1: big episode for the show where you know, Ray and
Speaker 1: Dever just argued over who's going to put away that
Speaker 1: last piece of luggage?
Speaker 2: Are you referring to the suitcase that you haven't moved
Speaker 2: in three weeks? Is that the suitcase to which.
Speaker 1: You are referring?
Speaker 2: Why couldn't you move it? Why couldn't you move it?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: You are not going to the airport with a grocery bag.
Speaker 1: Take the suitcase. You know, that little pettiness of marriage
Speaker 1: and those kind of things. You know, it all happened
Speaker 1: the thing with my my lucky suit you know when
Speaker 1: I went to interview with the FBI. You know, this
Speaker 1: is something that happened to one of the writers fathers,
Speaker 1: you know, and it just it just comes from a
Speaker 1: good place. That being said, you know, we knew who
Speaker 1: the big boys were, you know when we watched Seinfeld
Speaker 1: and Friends the way anybody else did, But there weren't
Speaker 1: the real you know, a real satisfaction of airing during
Speaker 1: that golden era and be able to hold our.
Speaker 2: Own Oh totally yeah, And you very memorable part on
Speaker 2: Seinfeld the mechanic.
Speaker 1: There's really nothing wrong on the inside. Well, the ship
Speaker 1: Nove is loose. You know about that?
Speaker 2: No, I haven't noticed.
Speaker 1: Have you been picking at it?
Speaker 3: Have I been picking at it?
Speaker 1: No? You know, just wear and tear, wearing tear.
Speaker 2: I see love it. But I've heard tell me if
Speaker 2: I'm wrong. I've heard that that was a tough set
Speaker 2: because they were so big and coming on for an
Speaker 2: episode or two was tough. How did you find that?
Speaker 1: You know, I found it incredibly easy. Actually, we shot
Speaker 1: on location. I read for Jerry And.
Speaker 2: Did you know Jerry before?
Speaker 1: No, No, no, I didn't. I didn't even know Ray before.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, but no, Ray, yeah, yeah, and we heard
Speaker 1: when I was up for his brother. You know, Ray
Speaker 1: was like, not the guy from Star Search. And you know, honestly,
Speaker 1: you know I get it because you know, I'm on
Speaker 1: Star Search going you know, what if Cosby was a pilot,
Speaker 1: you know, give me this stuff. You know, obviously before
Speaker 1: the yeah right, obviously before he found out he really
Speaker 1: wasn't a pilot. Now, yeah, so I was doing stuff
Speaker 1: like that. You know that scared a lot of comics.
Speaker 1: It scared me, but you know I needed the money.
Speaker 1: So you know, My point is, it's you know, I
Speaker 1: had to find my way physically and really every other way.
Speaker 1: I wasn't the character they were looking for for Ray's brother,
Speaker 1: you know, because Ra's brother, really, you know, was an
Speaker 1: NYPD cop under cover. They kind of wanted like a
Speaker 1: Danny DeVito type of scrappy, smaller guy that wasn't intimidating
Speaker 1: to Ray because the line everybody loves Raymond is what
Speaker 1: his cop brother said in real life to him when
Speaker 1: Ray won the Ace Award. You know, he came home
Speaker 1: and he looked at the award and he said that line.
Speaker 1: When did he get this?
Speaker 2: Oh, that's an award your brother got for his sports column.
Speaker 1: Never ends for Raymond, Robbie, Everybody loves Raymond. I go
Speaker 1: to work, people shoot at me. Why goes to work?
Speaker 1: People do the wave? When he sits down, has a
Speaker 1: hot dog, doodles on a piece of paper, they gimme
Speaker 1: a trophy. So I knew the writing was so great
Speaker 1: when I read the pilot, and I had trouble getting
Speaker 1: in because they didn't see me as and I got that,
Speaker 1: but I said, just let me read. I have a
Speaker 1: different take of this guy, and it was, you know,
Speaker 1: I had to go against my size by not playing
Speaker 1: him too e or I mean like from year one
Speaker 1: a year two. I had to bump it up a
Speaker 1: bit because and you know, pivot a little because it
Speaker 1: was able two beaten where you're two. You know, it
Speaker 1: was like it was like, you know, he's got to
Speaker 1: be a contender. It's he's a contender, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we didn't find him at a carnival, you know, rightful
Speaker 1: way of putting things. So as an actor, I use
Speaker 1: the thing is like in my head, I was raised
Speaker 1: an only child, and they forgot to tell Robert. So
Speaker 1: this is something I tried to carry.
Speaker 2: You know, it's so great. How'd you come up with that?
Speaker 1: It was just, you know, I knew I had to
Speaker 1: find something a fine line of I haven't given up
Speaker 1: in life, I've given up on them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, right, yeah.
Speaker 1: So I was able to celebrate even the small things
Speaker 1: that happened. And then later in the show, I discovered, wait,
Speaker 1: I have something that none of the men in this
Speaker 1: family have. My freedom. That was before I got married
Speaker 1: to the wonderful Monica. So but before for that, I
Speaker 1: had that freedom. And the way the writers wrote it
Speaker 1: is that was something that filled and Ray envied my
Speaker 1: social life, me being able to come home when I want,
Speaker 1: eat dinner when I want. So they found that nugget
Speaker 1: to keep me on life support.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, I get it. I want to talk
Speaker 2: about a movie. I absolutely adore music and lyrics. Oh
Speaker 2: really love it?
Speaker 1: Do you have cable? Oh no, I had, I had
Speaker 1: a lot of That was a fun movie.
Speaker 2: I mean it's got such great heart. I love the music.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a ball.
Speaker 2: It looked fun like first Drew and and Hugh just
Speaker 2: look fun amazing. Yeah, and you play an agent of
Speaker 2: this like aging sort of wham, like the artist just
Speaker 2: like struggling to get him on like county fairs exactly. Well,
Speaker 2: it's just so great. I hope other people have seen it,
Speaker 2: and if they haven't, go see it because it's just
Speaker 2: a great movie. It looked like a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: It was a fun one. When they used to do
Speaker 1: those rom coms.
Speaker 3: I don't know what happened, Yeah, yeah, don't know what.
Speaker 1: Happened to that. You know, I think they can do
Speaker 1: it now, and even you know, they can keep the
Speaker 1: edge that they want to do now. So many of
Speaker 1: the of the feature comedies are just they're not out there,
Speaker 1: which is just too bad. Hopefully that'll come around.
Speaker 2: I agree, there's nothing wrong with a great rom com.
Speaker 2: We all love them, even if we're embarrassed to admit it.
Speaker 2: We all love a great rom com.
Speaker 1: I think so. I think so.
Speaker 2: It's such a great antidote everything else that's going on.
Speaker 1: Yeah it is. Well, are you going to quit the
Speaker 1: news and maybe do maybe a cooking show?
Speaker 3: See?
Speaker 1: Now, have you thought of it?
Speaker 2: I would love to quit the news.
Speaker 1: What a time to be doing what you're doing, and
Speaker 1: you do it so great.
Speaker 2: It's really hard, and as we'll discuss, it's not been
Speaker 2: great for my mental health. Okay, okay, but we'll get
Speaker 2: to that. We'll get to that. Are you big into music?
Speaker 3: You like music?
Speaker 1: I am?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know. My thing is, you know, I love the
Speaker 1: old stuff. I love some of the new stuff. But
Speaker 1: you know, I was raised on R and B, and
Speaker 1: my dad turned me onto soul music and motown. And
Speaker 1: he was a big white guy from the Bronx and
Speaker 1: he just had a great, great taste in music and
Speaker 1: he so, so I kind of like that genre. But
Speaker 1: you know, I went to see Pearl Jam a few
Speaker 1: months ago, and I you know, I love Dave Matthews,
Speaker 1: and and I wish Neil Diamond would come back, and
Speaker 1: and you know, it's I'm all over the place I was.
Speaker 1: You know, I love Tony Bennett.
Speaker 2: Are you a fan of Elo?
Speaker 1: You know it's interesting to say that.
Speaker 2: I think you know why I'm asking?
Speaker 1: Are they there? Oh? Okay, you know it's it's funny.
Speaker 1: I didn't it's it was. It was.
Speaker 2: You can say no, but our listeners should know you
Speaker 2: were on an album. You are on the back of
Speaker 2: an Elo album Discovery from nineteen seventy ninety three.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy? I was?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, how did that happen? How'd that come to be?
Speaker 1: I'll tell you how it came to be. It was
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight and I was doing stand up for
Speaker 1: twenty minutes. This is how different the time. And I
Speaker 1: needed an agent, and like a wacko, I walked up
Speaker 1: and down Sunset with my composite eight by ten. One.
Speaker 1: I'm holding a briefcase because everyone, you know, wants to
Speaker 1: cast a giant Jewish accountant. One. I'm hitch hiking, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, hitch hiking on the road with my shirt
Speaker 1: open and my book hanging out like I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: about to break my water. I will send it to you,
Speaker 1: you know. And I'm walking up and down and I'm
Speaker 1: literally going into agencies. There were no security, there were
Speaker 1: no double locked doors. And I walked into the Beverly
Speaker 1: Hecked agency on sunset and I would do stick, you know.
Speaker 1: I would go up to receptionists and I would go,
Speaker 1: what if Cosby was a pilot and she she would
Speaker 1: press the red button under the desk and the police
Speaker 1: would come. But literally I would walk in. You know.
Speaker 1: It's just I was out. I wanted it so bad.
Speaker 1: So I'm in a Beverly h Heck was in those days,
Speaker 1: in the early eighties, late seventies. She was kind of
Speaker 1: in the middle. She had a little boutique agency. And
Speaker 1: I walk in and I'm doing you know, I have
Speaker 1: a voice like fog horn, leghorn, you know, so everywhere,
Speaker 1: so I hear someone yell from a closed door.
Speaker 3: Who the hell is so freaking loud out there?
Speaker 1: And that was Betterly And the receptionist his name was
Speaker 1: Doug Warner, and he became a manager, and he was
Speaker 1: twenty one at the time, and he said, I'm working
Speaker 1: on it. I'm getting him out. And I opened the
Speaker 1: door like a Waco and she's with the graphic artists
Speaker 1: and the label from the Elo new album and they're
Speaker 1: at that table and they were looking. In those days,
Speaker 1: you couldn't say get me a giant Arab. You couldn't
Speaker 1: or Abdul as your friend calls him. So I opened
Speaker 1: the door and they go, who's that? And I went
Speaker 1: to Cosby as a pilot. I'm really beating that to death.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry, and they said, hey, you know, and
Speaker 1: of course I I was very far from a model,
Speaker 1: but as you could see, the shot is really back
Speaker 1: and they put me into turban like, you know, have
Speaker 1: you ever held the machete? And I was like, of course,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean I was a latch key kid
Speaker 1: in you know, in the suburbs, and believe it or not,
Speaker 1: that is a crazy story and that's that's how it happened.
Speaker 1: And I was on the back of it and there
Speaker 1: was a huge poster on on Sunset and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I was a giant Arab, you know, holding you know,
Speaker 1: next to a lamp with a genie coming out.
Speaker 2: Oh, I know it. Yeah, I love Elo. I'm getting
Speaker 2: the sense you're not an Eelo fan, not not really
Speaker 2: I nor.
Speaker 1: Did the photo shoot help me with the ladies? It is,
Speaker 1: you know, more and more lonely years and a lot
Speaker 1: of banking.
Speaker 2: Well, I just love that little that little fact about
Speaker 2: you in front of you. Okay, so you will never
Speaker 2: guess where I had my first job. I promise you'll
Speaker 2: never guess Vose art gallery. No, yeah, so tell me
Speaker 2: the story I.
Speaker 1: Should have gone in earlier. When were you there?
Speaker 2: This would have been nineteen ninety seven. I was home
Speaker 2: from college and I wanted I was an art history
Speaker 2: major at Cornell. I wanted a summer job. I worked
Speaker 2: there sort of like cataloging.
Speaker 1: I do believe this, I know.
Speaker 2: I couldn't when I saw this. I couldn't believe it either,
Speaker 2: because I don't know if you know this. That gallery
Speaker 2: is never visited, like it's always empty. We would get
Speaker 2: maybe a visitor a day.
Speaker 1: Ye you know.
Speaker 2: It's the Family Owed Gallery. It's the oldest art gallery
Speaker 2: in the country, but it's very small, precious. It's on
Speaker 2: Newberry Street. It's beautiful, but it's it's not like heavily trafficked. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so how did you meet your wife there?
Speaker 1: Oh? Gosh, it's I love art and I was I
Speaker 1: was on a layover from doing a comedy tour in
Speaker 1: in Boston. And I was on my way to the tents,
Speaker 1: you know, the melody tents right out like in Cohasset, Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: and and I was I was working with Joan Rivers
Speaker 1: that week, one of my heroes. And I was walking
Speaker 1: around and I really like art, and I'm not that
Speaker 1: much into American folk art. I like the ones, you know,
Speaker 1: the big woman eating fruit. That's kind of I think,
Speaker 1: whatever whatever category that would be. And so I walked in,
Speaker 1: and you know, she's quite a bit younger, and I said,
Speaker 1: is your daddy here? And uh? And I started walking in,
Speaker 1: you know, doing my ridiculous stick.
Speaker 2: So she works there, she was.
Speaker 1: She was working there, she was, yes, I'm sorry, okay,
Speaker 1: the facts. And she was working there, and you know,
Speaker 1: I was hacking it up. You know. There was like
Speaker 1: an original a picture, a painting, a portrait of George Washington,
Speaker 1: you know, and I like, I love Barbara Bush, really hacky,
Speaker 1: hacky ship, you know, stuff for she.
Speaker 2: And did she know who you were?
Speaker 3: Oh no, she did not.
Speaker 1: She thought I was Kramer.
Speaker 2: Stop it, are you serious?
Speaker 3: Do you know?
Speaker 2: I want to show you this right now? No, have
Speaker 2: you ever been mistaken for Michael Richards.
Speaker 1: Yesterday? Yes?
Speaker 2: Okay, con continue, continue this.
Speaker 1: This is amazing and uh so uh that So I
Speaker 1: played it. I played it like I was because it
Speaker 1: was a much bigger show. I'm not gonna lie. I'm
Speaker 1: so I'm so lonely, see so lonely, you know, Yes,
Speaker 1: you know, I went.
Speaker 2: I went right into it the door.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, we talked a little bit, and
Speaker 1: you know, it all felt and sounded cliche because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm the older guy and she's young and lovely and
Speaker 1: there's a brain. And I was like, I have no shot,
Speaker 1: and she went, you're absolutely right, you know. So I left.
Speaker 1: I took a brochure and I said, maybe I'll buy
Speaker 1: the milk can next to the lavender. And I went
Speaker 1: up the street. And I was going through a little
Speaker 1: bit of a of a head case at the time
Speaker 1: in my life with relationships and you know, just got
Speaker 1: out of a divorce and really struggling emotionally. You know,
Speaker 1: never wanted to repeat how I grew up and and
Speaker 1: I you know, I fell into it. That's okay. So
Speaker 1: I was going. So I went up the street and
Speaker 1: I bought this other big portrait that is really when
Speaker 1: I look at it now, it's really oddly depressing. It's
Speaker 1: a woman lying in bed, not naked but covered and
Speaker 1: her she's it's not a great position where you know
Speaker 1: she's either blissfully aware or she's odeed.
Speaker 2: Okay, I can't.
Speaker 1: Because the eyes, you know, one eye is a little
Speaker 1: it's a little sammy, you know, it's a little like that.
Speaker 1: And she's holding a communion wafer.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: Interesting.
Speaker 1: Then there's a glass of wine next to her. So
Speaker 1: it's all the things that put my issue with women,
Speaker 1: how I don't believe, I don't like religion, and how
Speaker 1: I've stopped drinking. It was all in one picture. So
Speaker 1: instead of buying you know, the Confederate flag with a
Speaker 1: guy with no teeth holding it at vose, I buy
Speaker 1: the uh, you know, my demise, and and it hung
Speaker 1: in the in the club forever, and you know people
Speaker 1: would go, God, what, that's such a donner, and he's like,
Speaker 1: he bought that the day we met. Yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what I got to put in a time out and
Speaker 1: back in the ball pit. But we met, and you know,
Speaker 1: we were both kind of you know, in a relationship
Speaker 1: at the time, and you know, we we just kind
Speaker 1: of we we were texting. It wasn't right, but it
Speaker 1: had to be. And here we are, almost sixteen and
Speaker 1: a half years later.
Speaker 3: Believe or not.
Speaker 1: She just got her driver's license. But she's forty, you know,
Speaker 1: but I'm sixty four. So it's you know, it's but
Speaker 1: it works. I mean, it's what I you know, I
Speaker 1: had ten minutes of material about it in the beginning,
Speaker 1: which was my way of dealing with my uncomfortableness about it.
Speaker 1: But she's got an incredible sense of humor, and I've
Speaker 1: never felt more comfortable in my life. You know, if
Speaker 1: it was ten years earlier, she would have put up
Speaker 1: with my shit for five minutes. And there was still
Speaker 1: stuff that she helped me get through and deal with,
Speaker 1: not by holding up a mirror, but by you know,
Speaker 1: holding my hand through some of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I went through a lot of loss when I started
Speaker 1: dating her. I lost my brother, my best friend, and
Speaker 1: my father within like a two year period, just out
Speaker 1: of the blue. And then I lost my other brother,
Speaker 1: and then my best friend's wife passed ironically, And I
Speaker 1: have seven incredible god children in my life that live
Speaker 1: in Vegas and helped me at the club and work
Speaker 1: at the club. So it's been a full circle. But
Speaker 1: it was just a real ship storm, you know when
Speaker 1: I had met her, and it was one that wasn't
Speaker 1: created by my doing like it was in the past.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that I was just like, wow.
Speaker 1: You know, this is tough stuff to get through. Luckily,
Speaker 1: I'm not using because so many people need me and
Speaker 1: I need me, and you know we're very different and
Speaker 1: scary similar as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I got very lucky.
Speaker 1: It's definitely, you know, I'm way way out of my league.
Speaker 1: And I told her, I say, I tell her all
Speaker 1: the time, and this is comforting. I say, when I
Speaker 1: pass on and I go to the big casino in the.
Speaker 3: Sky, because that's how I think is up there.
Speaker 1: I always say, you'll have your whole life ahead of you,
Speaker 1: which is great. You'll be able to, you know, find
Speaker 1: some when you really want, and you'll have a little money.
Speaker 2: So I've also interviewed for this podcast Kelly Rizzo Okay.
Speaker 2: She was she is the widow of Bob Saggatt okay,
Speaker 2: and they were several decades apart. Yeah, and it was
Speaker 2: something apparently he talked to her a lot about like
Speaker 2: I'm gonna you know, you're going to be single at
Speaker 2: some point, Yeah, because I'm so much older.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want you.
Speaker 2: To prepare for that. She didn't realize she'd have to
Speaker 2: prepare for that, like's years into her marriage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, such a wonderful guy. Yeah, And I talk about
Speaker 1: it a little too much, and I think it's a
Speaker 1: downer for her. You know, I said, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to be here forever, and then she leaves the room.
Speaker 1: I check out where she is on my phone. She's
Speaker 1: at party City. So I think a lot. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of it is really is really perception.
Speaker 2: She's planning.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, but it's like, you know, it's like I
Speaker 1: want to talk about it. You know, it's weird. It's
Speaker 1: like when you find someone that you love so much
Speaker 1: that you've never been that that you know, having that.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is, and I don't want
Speaker 1: to overanalyze it, but it's like you always you know,
Speaker 1: it's like your children, you want them, Okay, that's all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all you care about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, I talked.
Speaker 1: About it a lot, you know, before we got married.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, you have to understand, you know,
Speaker 1: you're going to have to reintroduce yourself to me every
Speaker 1: week eventually, you know, because it's it's not pretty, you know,
Speaker 1: it is it and I'm you know, and I'm.
Speaker 2: Well, I love the story of how you met. I
Speaker 2: love it.
Speaker 1: She will not believe this about VOS.
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe it. I've never met anyone who even
Speaker 2: knows that place.
Speaker 1: That's so amazing. It makes it even more special. Were
Speaker 1: you fired for stealing or what?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: No, I went back to school. I grew up in
Speaker 2: andover Massachusetts. I grew up dancing at Boston Bala, so
Speaker 2: I was in the city all the time, and I
Speaker 2: thought that's where I'll just get my summer job. And
Speaker 2: then I went back and I was just back at VOS.
Speaker 2: I had a birthday in February, and I brought my
Speaker 2: husband and my two best friends my son Gunkles to
Speaker 2: Vose just to show them, like, really these were.
Speaker 1: It's a cool little street and a cool little building.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 2: I love that story.
Speaker 1: How were you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's get into it. Let's get into mental health.
Speaker 2: I'm better. I had a break down, a nervous breakdown
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one, and did not know I had
Speaker 2: been living with severe anxiety, okay, for about twenty years,
Speaker 2: compounded by the news, compounded by my job and politics.
Speaker 2: But really, I mean I had always been very anxious,
Speaker 2: and then when I had my son, it went to
Speaker 2: eleven and I didn't know that I was doing this,
Speaker 2: but I was catastrophizing on a loop all day long
Speaker 2: about the worst thing that's going to happen. It's going
Speaker 2: to happen, and I would vividly see it in my head,
Speaker 2: and it would always involve my son, something awful happening
Speaker 2: to my son. And it got to the point where
Speaker 2: I felt like, if I do it, that will prevent it.
Speaker 2: If I don't do this ritual, it's going to happen.
Speaker 2: So my anxiety was keeping me safe, I thought, but
Speaker 2: obviously it wasn't and it wasn't rational, and it was
Speaker 2: actually really really unhealthy. So when I had this breakdown,
Speaker 2: it was like my body said, stop doing this to me,
Speaker 2: stop doing this to us. And then I got therapy
Speaker 2: and I went on medication, and so I've only been
Speaker 2: learning about what I was doing for about four years,
Speaker 2: and I am better, but I still struggle. I'm always
Speaker 2: going to struggle with anxiety. And sometimes when I think
Speaker 2: I'm great, it'll come back and be like, Hi, you
Speaker 2: haven't beaten me. You can't beat me. So it's hard.
Speaker 2: It's hard, and the news doesn't help. Yeah, yeah, because
Speaker 2: this is the other thing someone would tell me, you know,
Speaker 2: the odds of like something awful happening in this way
Speaker 2: are really low, and I'd say, really, I just covered
Speaker 2: four of them, like sure, you know, so I had
Speaker 2: this other effect of thinking there were only bad things
Speaker 2: because that's all I.
Speaker 1: Cover, Yeah, exactly, which is.
Speaker 2: So messed up. And you know, obviously had had a
Speaker 2: big effect on my brain, and my brain feels a
Speaker 2: little broken now. But this is why I talk about
Speaker 2: it because I wish, I wish I knew what I
Speaker 2: had been doing, and I wish someone had given it
Speaker 2: language that would have alerted me to get help earlier,
Speaker 2: because twenty years in it's really hard to unlearn some
Speaker 2: of these habits.
Speaker 1: Now, did you you know I never heard that turn catastrophizing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so God, that like rang a bell for me, because
Speaker 1: I've done a ton of that, and my anxiety, you know,
Speaker 1: quadrupled when I became a father, and that's all I
Speaker 1: really ever wanted, And boy, I could, I mean it's.
Speaker 2: Just I can you know you know what I'm talking
Speaker 2: about you for?
Speaker 1: Did you have a lot of that? You must have
Speaker 1: had it as a kid, right, I did. Were you
Speaker 1: with the ballet?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was at Boston Ballet. Ballet was tough because
Speaker 2: it wasn't like the fun dancing where you wear the
Speaker 2: costumes and like. It was really really tough. But I
Speaker 2: also moved a lot, and I was constantly waiting for
Speaker 2: a change. What's going to happen to disrupt the stability
Speaker 2: of my life in the moment? Yea, my parents have
Speaker 2: gotten divorced remarried. I moved like eight or nine times
Speaker 2: as a kid, so I was always the new kid, introducing, auditioning,
Speaker 2: becoming whoever they needed me to be. But I was
Speaker 2: also on tenderhooks all the time. What's coming next?
Speaker 1: Oh my honey? Wow?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, but.
Speaker 2: I thought all of this was normal, Like imagining some
Speaker 2: driving my car, right, and I'm driving next to train
Speaker 2: tracks and I'm thinking, Okay, if a train comes and
Speaker 2: derails and comes into the road, what would I do?
Speaker 2: These are absurd things to think about. But if my
Speaker 2: brain isn't doing that, I would think I'm gonna be
Speaker 2: surprised by something awful, and at least I can avoid
Speaker 2: the surprise part of it.
Speaker 1: So you can't win.
Speaker 2: You can win where exactly constant. It was constant at
Speaker 2: its worst, it was twenty four seven. I'd go to
Speaker 2: bed doing it and wake up doing it, and then
Speaker 2: I would do these rituals, like where I'd have to
Speaker 2: to be able to send my kid to school, which
Speaker 2: is down the street he walks. Yeah, I'd have to
Speaker 2: look him in the eyes. I'd have to make sure
Speaker 2: we had eye contact. I'd have to say I love
Speaker 2: you to him. He'd have to look right, like good
Speaker 2: enough for me to feel okay. If something was off,
Speaker 2: I'd have to do it again.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So there's some like compulsions that were created out of
Speaker 2: this anxiety as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a little bit, a little bit. Yeah, yeah, boy,
Speaker 1: that's tough. Does any of that stem from not ever
Speaker 1: feeling good enough or the anxiety that you were You know,
Speaker 1: sometimes the dysfunction we're raised with is our comfort zone.
Speaker 2: Yes, and that's all we know. And my therapist, I
Speaker 2: have great parents, but my therapist is like, just because
Speaker 2: we're talking about some of the traumas of your childhood
Speaker 2: doesn't make them bad parents, like because that was hard
Speaker 2: for me exactly. I didn't want to think of them
Speaker 2: that way. But listen, they weren't perfect and I went
Speaker 2: through some stuff. Yeah, of course, and it's important to
Speaker 2: look back at that. That's why therapy is so great
Speaker 2: because I never would have told told you that I
Speaker 2: was doing anything based on my childhood. And of course
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 1: We all are, well, well, we all are. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's always that thing. Is that nature or nurture? You know?
Speaker 1: How much is chemical? How much of it is my wiring? Yes,
Speaker 1: and it's I think sometimes it's both or one is
Speaker 1: greater than the other. I mean, you know, I had
Speaker 1: a lot of love from parents that despised themselves.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what kind of love is it? You know?
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's.
Speaker 1: Far greater than a lot of people, I know, you know,
Speaker 1: and not near the trauma that you hear about her
Speaker 1: or anything like that. But it's different when you're taught
Speaker 1: how to love by people that don't love themselves, because
Speaker 1: it's very superficial. It's given, you know, in ways that
Speaker 1: may not be the healthiest because they're not in that spot,
Speaker 1: you know. But once I became a parent, and you
Speaker 1: know I was a helicopter parent trying to make up
Speaker 1: for all the stuff that I felt, you know, wasn't
Speaker 1: done correctly. And I you know a lot of my
Speaker 1: parenting was grounded in fear, you know, and I so
Speaker 1: relate to that.
Speaker 2: And so what do you do? What do you do
Speaker 2: about about your anxiety?
Speaker 1: Well, you know a lot of my anxiety is depression fueled.
Speaker 3: OK.
Speaker 1: So I'm on meds for depression that I've been on
Speaker 1: for a long long time that have helped immensely. That
Speaker 1: I didn't get on until after I had stopped using,
Speaker 1: which is twenty seven years. And it wouldn't have worked
Speaker 1: anyway if I was using and on the meds that
Speaker 1: doesn't work even though people think it does, it doesn't
Speaker 1: as well as it could. And I know it sounds corny,
Speaker 1: but I had to get to a place of trust
Speaker 1: within our little village. You know. It's like I can't
Speaker 1: explain the world to my kids. I know you can't.
Speaker 1: There's no explanation. It's so out of control. But I
Speaker 1: know my anxiety will just hinder them from dealing with
Speaker 1: it better than I am, right, and I'm honest about it,
Speaker 1: and I'm really out about my emotions, you know, and
Speaker 1: I was my whole time with my kids. I think
Speaker 1: the honesty of when I was struggling or I wish
Speaker 1: I could do better, or it's important they see a
Speaker 1: parent fail. Yes, they see a parent have to start over.
Speaker 1: It's like what I always say. I always wish that
Speaker 1: my kids could have seen me in the days where
Speaker 1: I struggled artistically or career wise, wherever I saw, you know,
Speaker 1: I was I. You know, I didn't always have this house.
Speaker 1: I didn't know things. I started out in apartments much
Speaker 1: smaller than yours. And I wish they could have seen that,
Speaker 1: just to get a better idea of what life is
Speaker 1: really about. So you know, anxiety runs through this family. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of it is I really believe wiring and
Speaker 1: chemical and hereditary and uh you know they were raised
Speaker 1: by two parents that that both had anxiety too. There
Speaker 1: was a little cleanup I think where that's where that's concerned.
Speaker 1: And and I try to you know, try to be
Speaker 1: you know better at it's it's it's funny how a
Speaker 1: lease in my case and I can tell in your case,
Speaker 1: how children and when you love being that parent and
Speaker 1: not everyone's wired for it, you know, I have buddies
Speaker 1: that I talked to them about parenting. They look at
Speaker 1: me like, you know, I'm from another planet, because not
Speaker 1: everyone's wired that way. Yeah, this is really what you want.
Speaker 1: But look how it's made us really deal with our
Speaker 1: own crap that we've had for so long because we
Speaker 1: don't want to pass it on because they.
Speaker 3: Don't totally, you know, and it's it's still a stroke totally.
Speaker 2: It's why I'm doing the work.
Speaker 1: So clud of that you can do this because you know,
Speaker 1: you're so admired, you're so looked up to. You're such
Speaker 1: a force in journalism, and a lot of it is
Speaker 1: what you bring to it. I love that you that
Speaker 1: you you're really your own voice in what you have
Speaker 1: to say, and there are things you have been said
Speaker 1: that you have said, what I've watched you. That's that's
Speaker 1: made me go wow, okay, yeah, and you know I
Speaker 1: didn't look at that before, and I really just in
Speaker 1: what you do.
Speaker 3: So thank you.
Speaker 1: Just you know, I admire that and we need people
Speaker 1: like you talking about stuff like this. Thank you because
Speaker 1: we always feel alone.
Speaker 2: I know, and I did too, because I'd always looked
Speaker 2: at my colleagues at the news and thought how are
Speaker 2: they doing that? How are they so healthy? And I
Speaker 2: thought maybe they're not. They're I don't know what they're right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm going to tell you who's really sick
Speaker 1: over coming? No, no, but I mean, I mean yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: But that's what anxiety and depression does. It wants us
Speaker 1: to fill alone. Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's a liar and it lies to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like I would beg my parents. Let's try help,
Speaker 1: Let's try this. If you don't like it, you don't
Speaker 1: have to do it. But when the depression and the
Speaker 1: bipolarity and the shame and the guilt, the more infesters,
Speaker 1: it makes your decisions for you. You have no voice,
Speaker 1: and depression is like sleep another forty hours, you'll be fine.
Speaker 1: You now pick up that drink or that thing.
Speaker 3: What's the big?
Speaker 1: What is there to be clear about? You don't need clarity,
Speaker 1: so it's right. The longer you wait, the more it
Speaker 1: just becomes your being, you know, it's that alien thing.
Speaker 2: Totally. Well, I'm really I'm glad we had this talk
Speaker 2: and me too. Yeah, I really did really enjoyed this.
Speaker 2: I have a quick lightning round to end on a
Speaker 2: lighter note.
Speaker 1: Okay, it's not math is it.
Speaker 2: There's no math.
Speaker 3: Okay, there's no math.
Speaker 1: Who are people at the Bible? Okay? I should probably
Speaker 1: wait for the question.
Speaker 2: Well, first was have you ever been compared to or
Speaker 2: mistaken for Michael Richards? And you answered that yes?
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: The second is Matt Rife or Nate BARGHETSI.
Speaker 1: Boy, this is tough because I hate to ever that
Speaker 1: I'm not that familiar with Matt.
Speaker 2: Okay, he's not for you, he's for like young women.
Speaker 1: Oh you don't mean to like live with I thought
Speaker 1: we were. Boy, this is tough. I have to say
Speaker 1: I'm not that familiar with with Matt, though I know
Speaker 1: the kid's on fire, and I know.
Speaker 2: He's he does crowd work.
Speaker 3: That's his things, A.
Speaker 1: Lot of crowd work. Yeah, more sit ups than me
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 3: Ye.
Speaker 1: Cute, but uh, you know, I mean I don't know
Speaker 1: Nate's You know, Nate's a very very special talent.
Speaker 2: He is, right, I really like his his stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's just is he nice?
Speaker 1: I've only met him once? Okay, And the only thing
Speaker 1: he said, ish could you please pull my car around?
Speaker 1: I was I wasn't dressed great. I only met him once,
Speaker 1: super kind, super nice and everyone seems to like you.
Speaker 1: I'm happy and I'm happy for Matt and these. You know,
Speaker 1: I know how tough it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: So anyone that's doing it, I uh, you know, kudos.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Albert Brooks or Billy Crystal.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, that's brutal.
Speaker 2: I know, I know it is.
Speaker 1: I love the boy. These are tough. Quick go back
Speaker 1: to rife. Boy, Well, I would say, Billy God, I
Speaker 1: don't know. They both had such an influence on me.
Speaker 1: You know, these are guys that coming up I would
Speaker 1: see and I you know, I'd want to put my
Speaker 1: head in the oven.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, because they're just like, well.
Speaker 1: Why am I doing this? Boy? Can I say a tie?
Speaker 2: You can't. It's intentionally hard. I love them both too.
Speaker 2: I'm a big Albert Brooks fan, but but Billy too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no question. His documentary of Brooks wasn't that great?
Speaker 2: Defending My Life? Oh my god? Oh so good? Yeah,
Speaker 2: and so rich with little details and the rhiners and.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, so good, so amazing.
Speaker 2: Everyone should go, that's a tie for me, I get it.
Speaker 2: Roast or stand up special.
Speaker 1: Boy, You're you're really hitting my insecurity. I love that,
Speaker 1: uh for me or for other things for you for you, well,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think I should do either. No,
Speaker 1: nor should I be involved in either. You're a yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, you know my you know, my thing was
Speaker 1: just to have a talk show and just sit down
Speaker 1: with people and kidd its and into it and just
Speaker 1: you know, like like like a hundred years ago, I
Speaker 1: stood in for Rick Dy's I don't know that that
Speaker 1: had a little in the nineties, a little talk show
Speaker 1: and uh and it took a week off and I
Speaker 1: went in and I was you know, I pushed a lot,
Speaker 1: and I was much too, you know, because I was
Speaker 1: so desperate to land that that would have done it differently.
Speaker 1: But my thing is just to get out with real people.
Speaker 1: And so I guess I guess the roast and then
Speaker 1: I was on one of the roasts. But I you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't love what I did and it wasn't that great.
Speaker 1: But and a special you know, it's got to be
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's got to be really I think
Speaker 1: material driven more than that. That's up my strength. You know.
Speaker 1: If I could like walk into a house in the
Speaker 1: Midwest unannounced and just at the like, like my thing
Speaker 1: was having dinner with America. Yeah, just sitting down with
Speaker 1: regular people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, and go and you know, letting that
Speaker 3: would show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just wanted to do it. You know, here's
Speaker 1: a here's a nine foot insecured you coming to your.
Speaker 2: Home, what do you announced?
Speaker 1: What do you make? And you just knock on the
Speaker 1: door and you know, you hope they don't hurt you show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to do something like Yeah, I just
Speaker 1: thought it would be good just to just and I
Speaker 1: mean literally put me, you know in the mix. That's
Speaker 1: that's where I that's where I thrive. You know, I've
Speaker 1: never been a Hollywood person. I've never been the yick guy.
Speaker 1: You know. I've always worked so so hard and loved
Speaker 1: what I do, but always knew my territory and and
Speaker 1: that to me, I mean, if I could just unscripted,
Speaker 1: you know, that's that's my round. You know, roast battles,
Speaker 1: all that stuff. That's that's all great, but it's not this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think we need to make this
Speaker 2: show happen. Okay, Brad, Brad Garrett's coming for dinner?
Speaker 1: How about breaking Brad?
Speaker 2: Love? It even better? Even better with Brad?
Speaker 1: What's that smell? It could it could be like, boy,
Speaker 1: I smell you know, I smell meat loathing and sim
Speaker 1: you know, to be allan. You know, can I come in?
Speaker 2: You know, we need to make this show happen. Okay,
Speaker 2: last question, This question is a very important to me culturally.
Speaker 2: When is iced coffee season?
Speaker 1: Iced coffee season?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Fucked twenty four seven for me?
Speaker 2: Yes, correct answer? Congratulations? Oh yeah, correct answer.
Speaker 1: Coffee is my last advice And you know, I just
Speaker 1: I just love it perfectly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, anyway, I liked you. Brad Garrett's coming up in
Speaker 2: a new Pixar movie called Elio saying that right, Elliot.
Speaker 1: You said it exactly right.
Speaker 2: He's in the new Jason Rightman SNL film Saturday Night.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see that. Thank you so much
Speaker 2: for coming on. This was really I loved this.
Speaker 1: Thank you meant a lot to me.
Speaker 2: Next week on Off the Cop, Kelly Rizzo, this guy
Speaker 2: messaged me and was like, hey, Bob Sagat's.
Speaker 4: Gonna send you a DM and I was like, oh why.
Speaker 4: I was just not interested at first, like it was
Speaker 4: not my type, too old, but I was It's like,
Speaker 4: that's just weird.
Speaker 2: Off the Cup is a production of iHeart podcasts as
Speaker 2: part of the Reasoned Choice Network. I'm your host, Si Cupp.
Speaker 2: Editing and sound designed by Derek Clements. Our executive producers
Speaker 2: are me Si Cupp, Lauren Hanson, and Lindsay Hoffman. If
Speaker 2: you like Off the Cup, please rate and review wherever
Speaker 2: you get your podcasts, follow, or subscribe for new episodes
Speaker 2: every Wednesday