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Speaker 1: You're listening to Ruthy's Table four in partnership with Montclair.

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Speaker 1: I may not know what makes a good comedian, but

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Speaker 1: I do know what makes a good father. And last night,

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Speaker 1: when I met Judd Apatow in the West End production

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Speaker 1: of Cabaret in London, where his daughter Maude is playing

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Speaker 1: the lead role of Sally Bowles, he told me this

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Speaker 1: was the eighth time he'd seen it in three weeks.

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Speaker 1: And if I may not know what makes a good comedian,

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Speaker 1: Judd certainly does. His advice to kickstart your writing process,

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Speaker 1: come up with a topic and write down as many

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Speaker 1: jokes or one liners as you can think of. Don't

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Speaker 1: be scared if your first draft doesn't want to make

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Speaker 1: you laugh out loud, or if you don't find your

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Speaker 1: own writing funny. I think they are definite parallels in

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Speaker 1: comedy and cooking, and I can imagine paraphrasing the second

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Speaker 1: sentence telling an aspiring chef not to be scared if

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Speaker 1: the first attempt doesn't taste right. Comedy and cooking children

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Speaker 1: and acting and laughing and eating movies and restaurants. Today

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Speaker 1: we're here in the River Cafe, and Jed and I

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Speaker 1: will cover them more for after all I said and done,

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Speaker 1: life is a cabaret. I agree with that eight times.

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Speaker 2: Times this weekend too.

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Speaker 1: So lovely, yeah, why not? So I want to talk

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Speaker 1: to you about cabaret. But for the moment you've just

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Speaker 1: come from the pastry kitchen or the recipe you chose,

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Speaker 1: pistachio ice cream is being made.

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Speaker 3: I'm Bellatups, I'm the head past chef at the River Cafe,

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Speaker 3: and these are our ice cream machines and they've actually

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Speaker 3: got quite a small drum make like roughly two liters

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Speaker 3: of ice cream. Here is our lovely pistachio base, which

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Speaker 3: is essentially plain custard that has had the pistashia paste

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Speaker 3: stirred through it. We do churn. It makes a delightful

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Speaker 3: noise probably, I mean for this amount, it will take

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Speaker 3: like four or five minutes, like nothing crazy. So you

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Speaker 3: can have a look on the topic. You can see

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Speaker 3: it's sort of lightly creasing. We know that it's nearly there,

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Speaker 3: but I'll turn it to churn. Then this will just

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Speaker 3: go into the freezer until it's frozen fully. And in

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Speaker 3: the restaurant what we do is just before service, we'd

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Speaker 3: get the ice creams out to temper you mean like

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Speaker 3: you would do at home, so that you can get

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Speaker 3: a lovely scoop from it, but that it only takes

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Speaker 3: like five minutes, but just make sure you're using a

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Speaker 3: cupful of hot water and dipping your scoop in every

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Speaker 3: time so you get a perfect scoopy.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much, pleasure jost.

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Speaker 3: Lovely to meet you too. I hope you have a

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Speaker 3: lovely meta.

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Speaker 1: What did you think?

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Speaker 2: I'm always impressed by people who know how to cook,

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Speaker 2: because as much as I like food, I don't have

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Speaker 2: enough interest in making it because I always feel like

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Speaker 2: there's someone who makes it better, fair enough. So why

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Speaker 2: would I make myself mediocre food? I can go to

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Speaker 2: you and get great food. Like it's been eight hours

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Speaker 2: doing the bad version of what you do.

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Speaker 1: Well, would you like to start by reading the recipe

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Speaker 1: for the pistachio ice cream?

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Speaker 2: Okay, this is the pistachio ice cream recipe from the

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Speaker 2: River Cafe. It serves ten or me alone. One thing

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Speaker 2: I learned during the pandemic is it is possible to

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Speaker 2: eat a pint of ice cream, finish it, and then

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Speaker 2: start another one and finish it. Okay, here's what you need.

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Speaker 2: You need two hundred grams of unsalted, shelled pistachios, four

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Speaker 2: hundred grams of castor sugar, plus an extra eighty grams,

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Speaker 2: seven hundred milli liters of full fat milk, no oat milk,

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Speaker 2: the real stuff, three hundred milliliters double cream, and ten

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Speaker 2: large egg yolks. You know, in every performance of Cabaret,

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Speaker 2: it's a scene where Mode has a crack open an

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Speaker 2: in a cup and eat it on stage every night.

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Speaker 1: That's acting for you. That is disciplined. No, it's to

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Speaker 1: do that.

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Speaker 2: It's like that movie with a Nick cage where he

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Speaker 2: I think it was vampire's kiss and he ate a

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Speaker 2: bug in it like a cockroach in a scene. That's

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Speaker 2: Mod's equivalent.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, i'd ag a day is quite a lot.

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Speaker 2: It's a very method. Okay, here we go. Roast the

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Speaker 2: pistachios in a dry frying pan over medium heat. Blend

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Speaker 2: roasted pistachos in a food processor with eighty grams of

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Speaker 2: sugar and mix to a fine paste. Heat the milk

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Speaker 2: and cream to just below boiling. In a bowl. Beat

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Speaker 2: together egg yolks and four hundred grams of sugar. Add

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Speaker 2: warm milk and cream into the egg and sugar. Return

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Speaker 2: this custard mixture to a thick bottomed pan and cook

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Speaker 2: slowly over heated and low heat until it reaches eighty

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Speaker 2: two degrees. Remove from the heat, stir in the pistachio

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Speaker 2: paste and then or through a fine sieve.

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Speaker 1: Or what do we call it in our country? We

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Speaker 1: call it a strainer.

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Speaker 2: A strainer into a bowl and leave to cool. Cool,

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Speaker 2: then churn in an ice cream machine. You gotta get

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Speaker 2: an ice cream machine.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I do have one.

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Speaker 2: No, I don't dangerous so to be for me to

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Speaker 2: own my own ice cream machine and.

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Speaker 1: Making pints and pipes. So when you are making a movie, okay,

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Speaker 1: you're on the set of forty year Old Virgin, one

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Speaker 1: of my favorites, or Knocked Up? What do you do

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Speaker 1: about food for your.

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Speaker 2: Crew on a movie? Every day lunch is basically a buffet,

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Speaker 2: and I have trouble not taking too much from any buffet. Yeah, Like,

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Speaker 2: that's one of my issues is like this, you know,

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Speaker 2: fried chicken there, I'm not going to get like one wing.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I'm gonna like it's hard for me not

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Speaker 2: to take full advantage. So when I make movies, for

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Speaker 2: the most part, I don't I can't go to where

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Speaker 2: the food is, like there's usually a tent. I have

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Speaker 2: to just have someone tell me what's there and have

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Speaker 2: them bring it back. And because I'll just go to

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Speaker 2: like the cheap lemon cake, you know, like I'll have

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Speaker 2: ice cream Sundays, and then I fall asleep in the afternoon,

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Speaker 2: and I told, like, I get really.

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Speaker 1: Tired, and you like eating because it makes you feel

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Speaker 1: such up, but you have to go back to work, right,

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Speaker 1: So then so you are careful. I mean, well you

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Speaker 1: don't go to thee But then I mean.

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Speaker 2: I get weak. So usually about like two thirds through

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Speaker 2: a movie, I lose my will and then by the

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Speaker 2: end I'm just gaining weight and binging. But but for

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Speaker 2: a while, I'll try to control myself. Although when we

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Speaker 2: shot The King of Staten Island, we were shooting in

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Speaker 2: Staten Island. We were there for months, and they got

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Speaker 2: good pizza and Staten Island, so it was pretty hard

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Speaker 2: not to flip out for pizza. But if I could

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Speaker 2: like lose weight before a shoot starts, then by the

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Speaker 2: end of the shoot I am overweight, but not insanely overweight.

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Speaker 2: I have to like get a lower baseline to start,

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Speaker 2: so I have to pretend I'm like Christian Bale playing

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Speaker 2: a skinny person and I like lose weight to begin

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Speaker 2: and then it falls apart.

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Speaker 1: What are you writing at the moment?

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Speaker 2: I'm trying to write a movie right now to shoot

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Speaker 2: next year, which is you know, it's a little bit

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Speaker 2: about like what's happening in the world of comedy at

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Speaker 2: this moment where everyone doesn't know what they can say.

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Speaker 2: So I'm trying to write about people not knowing where

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Speaker 2: the line is.

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Speaker 1: Do you do you know where the line is?

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Speaker 2: Well, for me, the line is never that complicated, because

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Speaker 2: I think if your heart's in the right place, people know,

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Speaker 2: and if your point is reasonable and kind, you can

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Speaker 2: get away with all sorts of things. I think people

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Speaker 2: can tell when you're being outrageous with no real point

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Speaker 2: to it, and some people love that, and I think

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Speaker 2: that's fine. I think it's fine for anyone to enjoy

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Speaker 2: anything like It's like music. You might like heavy metal,

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Speaker 2: you might like country music. Everyone picks their flavor. I

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Speaker 2: think it's hard when people feel like they're getting force

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Speaker 2: fed the flavor they don't want and then suddenly like

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Speaker 2: why you have to say, well, you don't have to

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Speaker 2: listen to that or watch that, but it's definitely a

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Speaker 2: tricky time. So I'm trying to.

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Speaker 1: Find it be a movie about a comedian.

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Speaker 2: Not a comedian about a writer. And so I just

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Speaker 2: finished the draft of that. Hopefully I'll get to do

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Speaker 2: that next year.

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Speaker 1: One of my favorite movies of a long, long time

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Speaker 1: ago was King of Comedy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah you like That Jerry Lewis and Robert de Niro

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Speaker 2: and Sandra Bernhard one of my favorite movies. Loved it

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Speaker 2: when it came out, wasn't a big hit. It came

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Speaker 2: out after the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, so the

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Speaker 2: whole plot line of kidnapping a celebrity freaked people out

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Speaker 2: a bit and also obsessed fans freak people out at

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Speaker 2: the time. But as the decades have passed, I think

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Speaker 2: people realize it's one of Martin Scoressy's best movies.

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Speaker 1: I haven't seen it again, I have so many times

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Speaker 1: I'd like to see it.

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Speaker 2: In fact, it's one of the movies I watch to

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Speaker 2: pay attention to the cinematography and the shot selection because

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Speaker 2: it's very alive, but it's covered in a way that

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Speaker 2: really works for comedy. So seeing how Scorsese shoots humor

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Speaker 2: is really helpful, so I always watch.

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Speaker 1: It for me. What was interesting about that was the

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Speaker 1: movie was the idea that comedians had to be funny,

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Speaker 1: And you know, is Steve Martin funny? Is Meilbrooks funny?

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Speaker 1: As I think when I did my talk about Mailbrooks,

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Speaker 1: I said something that people we always think about as

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Speaker 1: a man who makes us laugh, but I also think

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Speaker 1: about the man who talks about bankroft and what happened

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Speaker 1: when she died. There is the pressure, as someone who

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Speaker 1: writes about funniness or humor to be funny. Do you

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Speaker 1: feel that people expect you?

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Speaker 2: I mean, it is a weird pressure to try to

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Speaker 2: be funny in your work all day. It's kind of

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Speaker 2: an unnatural state. You know. Most people don't try to

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Speaker 2: be funny that often. So imagine sitting in office and

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Speaker 2: trying to be funny for ten straight first. I mean,

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Speaker 2: it's you're kind of a weird person to like just

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Speaker 2: be in that gear all the time and looking for

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Speaker 2: it all the time. So it does get a little

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Speaker 2: exhausting to be in that headspace looking at life through

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Speaker 2: that lens. Ye, what's weird about this? What's funny about this?

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Speaker 2: The good part about it is that when you're in comedy,

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Speaker 2: when bad things happen, you don't go oh, no, a

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Speaker 2: bad thing happened, You go, oh, this would be a

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Speaker 2: great story. And so sometimes when things go really bad,

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Speaker 2: like I threw out the first pitch at a Mets

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Speaker 2: baseball game, and I thought, well, if it goes bad,

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Speaker 2: it's a good story, and if it goes good, it's

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Speaker 2: just good. And so there is a way of looking

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Speaker 2: at life.

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Speaker 1: How did it go?

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Speaker 2: It wasn't in the middle. It wasn't bad enough to

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Speaker 2: be a good story, and it wasn't good enough to

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Speaker 2: not be a triumph. It was just like, that's a

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Speaker 2: big deal.

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Speaker 1: That's a big deal getting to to I mean again,

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Speaker 1: for the listeners who may live in some other country.

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Speaker 1: That's where was it.

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Speaker 2: It was a city field in New York and it

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Speaker 2: was the Mets versus Yankees, so it was sold out.

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Speaker 2: There were fifty two thousand people there. Yeah, and was terrifying.

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Speaker 2: And I always joke that the worst part was when

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Speaker 2: they announced me throwing out the first pitch. I didn't

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Speaker 2: really get more than a very small smatter of applause,

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Speaker 2: and I thought, I think I'm more famous than this.

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Speaker 2: I mean I'm from New York, aren't I a beloved

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Speaker 2: son of New York? And I realized that no one

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Speaker 2: cares about me.

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Speaker 1: It was they just wanted the game to start.

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Speaker 2: It was like a politician was doing it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe they don't do it for anyone. Absolutely, did

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Speaker 1: you grow up in New York?

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Speaker 2: We lived on Long Island where siast would bury. Area

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Speaker 2: of Long Island. A lot of bagels being eaten there. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's a big bagel town. At midnight, you'd go to

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Speaker 2: the bagel place while they were cooking him and get

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Speaker 2: them right out of the oven.

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Speaker 1: There's nothing like a bagel that's Also, West Coast isn't

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Speaker 1: as good? Is it that New Yorkers always say it's

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Speaker 1: Some people have said it's the water that makes it good.

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Speaker 1: Then we heard that theory that they say the reason

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Speaker 1: you can't have a good bagel outside of New York

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Speaker 1: is the water in New York?

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Speaker 2: Is that true? You understand how the bread works?

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Speaker 1: Because also I think that maybe i've had bagels. It's

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Speaker 1: really hard to insult a country's bagels.

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Speaker 2: When someone has a good bagel.

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Speaker 1: But we know. But they took me once to the

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Speaker 1: East End to what's that street? Do you know Bricklay

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Speaker 1: Brickday bagels And they're bagels and the British are really

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Speaker 1: really proud of them. So I have got a podcast

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Speaker 1: that I would like to go on and on. So

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Speaker 1: I won't say I think that, but when you have

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Speaker 1: a New York bagel, it makes all the difference, you know,

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Speaker 1: I think that. But I don't know about La bagels.

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Speaker 1: How are they? Theyre pretty much the same.

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Speaker 2: There's some people who seem to have cracked the code.

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Speaker 2: I don't know, they're bringing some water from New York

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Speaker 2: or maybe the whole water thing is a mess.

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Speaker 1: That the whole thing is a mess. Yeah, rightly and everybody.

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Speaker 1: So you grew up in Long Island eating bagels and

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Speaker 1: smelling bagels, and what was the food like in your house?

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Speaker 2: Uh? Not impressive. I can't say my late mother was

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Speaker 2: a master chef. We had a very small rotation of chicken, chicken, cutlet, salmon,

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Speaker 2: sometimes like a pot roast. Our. Vegetable was usually peas

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Speaker 2: and corn. I don't think broccoli got cooked in my house. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I think I refused to eat a salad till mid twenties.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe you didn't know, but we didn't grow up

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Speaker 1: on salads.

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Speaker 2: There wasn't a lot of salads, A lot of Chinese

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Speaker 2: food happening.

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Speaker 1: There was going out for it.

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Speaker 2: Going out fair amount of McDonald's happening. But then my

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Speaker 2: parents opened a restaurant.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so just going back one step, your mother

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Speaker 1: would cook the pot roast of the chicken.

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Speaker 2: Did she work well? They owned a restaurant.

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Speaker 1: And then when she was doing the restaurant, you come

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Speaker 1: home and have supper. How many in the family There.

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Speaker 2: Was five, five of us children. And at some point

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Speaker 2: I think my mom made all the cakes for the restaurant.

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Speaker 2: She started cooking the desserts for it, and I was

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Speaker 2: a dishwasher.

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Speaker 1: Was a restaurant.

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Speaker 2: It was called Raisins, and it was like, I don't

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Speaker 2: know what you would call it, American continental. It was

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Speaker 2: like steak, lobster, chicken, parmesan. It was it seemed like

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Speaker 2: some Italian some hamburgers. And I you know, they bring

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Speaker 2: in a big bag of muscles, Give me a brush.

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Speaker 2: I'd have to clean the muscles and pull the hair

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Speaker 2: out of the muscles. What a nightmare. No one, No

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Speaker 2: one's paid enough money to rip hairs off a mussel.

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Speaker 2: I have nightmares about someone going can you do the

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Speaker 2: muscles today?

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Speaker 1: We'll go check it the way we could have set

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Speaker 1: up pistachio ice cream. We could. Well, we don't do muscles.

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Speaker 2: Actually, I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I don't like muscles that much. I like clams, but

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Speaker 1: I'm not a big muscle.

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Speaker 2: I'm not. I didn't mind peeling the potatoes and give

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Speaker 2: me a fifty pound bag of potatoes. I'm happy to

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Speaker 2: feel them cut them into French fries. Myself. I got

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Speaker 2: no issue with that.

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Speaker 1: So let's go back to raisins. Your father, he wasn't

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Speaker 1: a chef, so they just did it as a business

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Speaker 1: as a business.

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Speaker 2: So before that he was he was working in the

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Speaker 2: record business. And well, my grandfather was a jazz producer

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Speaker 2: who produced Charlie Parker and the first Janis Joplin record.

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Speaker 2: His name was Bobby Shadd.

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Speaker 1: What was the first Janis jop record?

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Speaker 2: It was called Big Brother in the Holding Company, which

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Speaker 2: is her first album.

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Speaker 1: My generation. Yeah, and that I can remember the cover

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Speaker 1: of the the Big Brother. Yeah, hold on take a

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Speaker 1: little piece of My Heart right, that's right.

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Speaker 2: That was on that record that dad produced, that my

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Speaker 2: grandfather did, Your grandfather, it had that song down on

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Speaker 2: me a song of hers. And so my father worked

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Speaker 2: for him when I was a kid for a while,

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Speaker 2: and they had some friends and owned a tennis equipment store,

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Speaker 2: and then they all went into business with this restaurant.

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Speaker 1: In your local town.

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Speaker 2: My local town. I remember, well, I was getting four

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Speaker 2: bucks an hour. I was so excited. I started working

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Speaker 2: there at fifteen, and then I became the salad man.

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Speaker 1: Oh I see, so you were actually right in there.

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Speaker 2: And then my friend Ron Gardner started. He was on

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Speaker 2: the grill making the steaks and the burghers. How old

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Speaker 2: was he He was probably seventeen. And then at the

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Speaker 2: end of the night, you know, we'd steal a lobster

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Speaker 2: and head home.

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Speaker 1: Wow. And this went on, but then you'd go to

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Speaker 1: school the next day.

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Speaker 2: I hope we went to school. But we loved making money,

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Speaker 2: is the truth. You know, to be sixteen seventeen and

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Speaker 2: have a little pocket money was was fun. And we

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Speaker 2: put in a lot of hours, like we really worked there,

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Speaker 2: you know, three or five nights a week, and they

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Speaker 2: so you can go to.

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Speaker 1: School, come home, eat, do your homework, and then go

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Speaker 1: to the restaurant or not.

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Speaker 2: Do your homework maybe sometimes sometimes no homework.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And did they do that because it was hard

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Speaker 1: to get stuff, or was it that they wanted you there,

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Speaker 1: or was the incentive of having your kid just kept

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Speaker 1: me out of the house and they were out of

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Speaker 1: that Your mom.

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Speaker 2: Was what did sheep me out of trouble?

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Speaker 1: What did she do there?

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Speaker 2: My mom?

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Speaker 1: Did she cook in the kitchen? Uh?

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Speaker 2: No, just just at some point she started doing the cakes.

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Speaker 2: I don't know if anyone wanted her to do the cakes.

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Speaker 2: It's also the key. Was it a good Maybe she

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Speaker 2: was forcing the cakes on everyone. I'm not saying she

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Speaker 2: was good at it. I'm just saying she did it well.

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Speaker 1: Did The question is did the restaurant carry on? Did

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Speaker 1: to have a good?

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Speaker 2: Lasted a little while and then they sold it to

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Speaker 2: someone Those people couldn't pay the money that they owed,

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Speaker 2: and then they got it back, and then they owned

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Speaker 2: it for a few more years and then they sold it.

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Speaker 2: But it was a really fun part of our childhood.

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Speaker 2: And rumor has it Billy Joel ate there once. I

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Speaker 2: know you have a lot of celebrities here and all

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Speaker 2: the doctor Dre's eating here, but we had one Billy

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Speaker 2: Joel sighting in our whole history of the restaurant.

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Speaker 1: I used to have seen him.

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Speaker 2: Do you know I have met Billy Joel a few times?

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Speaker 1: Did you ever come to my caro?

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Speaker 2: I may have?

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Speaker 1: Might say that was the best cake I've ever had.

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Speaker 2: That's a big thing on Long Island is a Billy Joel.

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Speaker 2: You know you had that song scenes from Italian restaurant

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Speaker 2: and so every Italian restaurant claimed it was written about

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Speaker 2: their place.

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Speaker 1: I see, but not yours because wasn't Italian.

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Speaker 2: So it wasn't Italian. Yeah, we thought that our local pizzeria,

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Speaker 2: Christiano's was what he was writing about.

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Speaker 1: Did you know The River Cafe has a shop. It's

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Speaker 1: full of our favorite foods and designs. We have cookbooks, linen, napkins,

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Speaker 1: kitchen ware, toad bags with our signatures. Class is from Venice,

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Speaker 1: chocolates from Turin. You can find us right next door

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Speaker 1: to the River Cafe in London or online at shopth

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Speaker 1: Rivercafe dot co dot uk. Did you ever sit down

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Speaker 1: for dinner with your parents around the table? Yes, for

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Speaker 1: the restaurant or during the restaurant.

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Speaker 2: Well, my parents got divorced when I was in middle school,

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Speaker 2: and then I would do a fair amount of cooking

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Speaker 2: for myself, Like I was very excited to learn how

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Speaker 2: to use a walk. Okay, that was a big thing.

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Speaker 2: To cut up steak and broccoli and just pour an

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Speaker 2: enormous amount of Kikuman's soy sauce. And then I thought

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Speaker 2: that was cooking. It was a three ingredients meal.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, how did you come upon that? I wonder, But

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Speaker 1: I think it was a period when everybody did walks,

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Speaker 1: but for a teenage.

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Speaker 2: Kid to do that, we thought that was fun. And

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Speaker 2: also I remember on my kitchen island at home as

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Speaker 2: a kid, it was a grill on the kitchen island.

395
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Speaker 2: So I used to make hamburgers and I really felt

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Speaker 2: like a chef, just like taking my hamburgers every day

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Speaker 2: and then my comfort food. I would come home. All

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Speaker 2: my friends played sports and I didn't, so I would

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Speaker 2: come home by myself and I'd watch like talk shows

400
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Speaker 2: and I would cook a grilled cheese sandwich. I would

401
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Speaker 2: get a vanilla and chocolate Inimin's cake, and I would

402
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Speaker 2: eat a bite of grilled cheese, bite of the cake,

403
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Speaker 2: little milk, cheese cake, milk, and I would do that

404
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Speaker 2: for years.

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Speaker 1: You didn't understand the concept of dessert.

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Speaker 2: I enjoyed the interaction between the grilled cheese and the

407
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Speaker 2: chocolate cake. And so we did a show called Freaks

408
00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:43,280
Speaker 2: and Geeks, and as a sequence of that, I was

409
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Speaker 2: going to ask about this. So Bill was one of

410
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Speaker 2: my favorite characters. I'm not sure. So that's true that

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Speaker 2: that is based on your upbringing. That was based on

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Speaker 2: me sitting home watching comedians cooking myself grilled cheese. And

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Speaker 2: then then much later in life, people were like, that's

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Speaker 2: really bad for you to eat because there was so

415
00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:03,320
Speaker 2: much butter involved, so much or margarine whatever.

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Speaker 1: I was using the grilled cheese sandwich, more in the cake,

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Speaker 1: in the grilled cheese, and that was your recipe. How

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Speaker 1: did you make a grilled cheese so much?

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Speaker 2: It was it was not fancy, it was wonderbread. It

420
00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:18,840
Speaker 2: was pure wonderbread, Fleischmann's margarine, American cheese, but American like

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00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:22,640
Speaker 2: but like Kraft America already slice that right then, even

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Speaker 2: right now, I'm like, is that the best food in

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Speaker 2: the world? Like, I don't know if any food tops it.

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Speaker 2: I'm going to eat at your restaurant today and I

425
00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:28,760
Speaker 2: could try and.

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Speaker 1: Make your grilled cheese sandwich. Right I have challenging finding

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Speaker 1: the craft cheese and the wonder because Wonderbread still exists.

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Speaker 2: It still exists.

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Speaker 1: It's amazing that they called you know what it is.

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Speaker 1: We used to take a package of Wonderbread, which was

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Speaker 1: sliced white bread, and if you put, like put your

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Speaker 1: weight and squeezed it, it would squeeze it too. You know,

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Speaker 1: something that was about a foot tall to would go

434
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Speaker 1: into about half an inch because it was all air.

435
00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:55,919
Speaker 1: It was just air. You could just kind of squeeze it, right.

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Speaker 2: Only My wife pointed out when I met her in

437
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Speaker 2: my mid to late twenties, that everything I ate was

438
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Speaker 2: unhealthy and disgusting. She also pointed that out, like why

439
00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:09,960
Speaker 2: are you eating wonderbread? You know, there's like good bread

440
00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:13,800
Speaker 2: out there, there's good cheese out there, there's good butter

441
00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:17,679
Speaker 2: out there. But first, on my first date with Leslie,

442
00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:21,600
Speaker 2: I made her chicken parmesan and spaghetti with rag goo

443
00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:28,960
Speaker 2: sauce and wonderbread with the bargarin and she still married you. Yeah,

444
00:21:29,520 --> 00:21:31,600
Speaker 2: the fact that there was a second date is incredible.

445
00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:34,240
Speaker 2: After that meal, she always talks about the madness of

446
00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:34,720
Speaker 2: that meal.

447
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:38,440
Speaker 1: It's funny because I talked to bob Byker and he

448
00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:41,560
Speaker 1: can remember exactly what he cooked. I thank you for

449
00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:44,520
Speaker 1: the first date with his wife Willow. I did think

450
00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:48,760
Speaker 1: about maybe doing a guide to emotional eating. You know,

451
00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:50,880
Speaker 1: so what do you eat or cook when you're depressed?

452
00:21:51,320 --> 00:21:53,159
Speaker 1: When you want us to do? Somebody what you read

453
00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:56,960
Speaker 1: her cook you? Because eating is not just hunger. It's emotion,

454
00:21:57,200 --> 00:21:57,520
Speaker 1: isn't it.

455
00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:01,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a Deepak Chopra book. I think it's called

456
00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:06,760
Speaker 2: What's Eating You? Or Why are You Eating? And it's

457
00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:12,159
Speaker 2: about emotional eating because way too much of my eating

458
00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:18,480
Speaker 2: is reward eating or sedating myself because I love to

459
00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:20,680
Speaker 2: be stuffed. I love to be stuffed, so all the

460
00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:23,560
Speaker 2: blood goes to my stomach and I am half conscious.

461
00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:24,240
Speaker 2: I enjoy that.

462
00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:26,000
Speaker 1: What do you do about that? Just that makes you

463
00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:27,000
Speaker 1: sort of wanted.

464
00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:29,760
Speaker 2: To It's just like it's like being stoned, but on

465
00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:34,840
Speaker 2: eight pieces of pizza. What's better than that? Well? I'm

466
00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:36,959
Speaker 2: not that fit thin. I'm riding two hundred right now.

467
00:22:37,119 --> 00:22:39,159
Speaker 2: Two hundred is my line. If I go above two hundred,

468
00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:42,280
Speaker 2: I know we're in trouble. I should be at like

469
00:22:42,359 --> 00:22:42,679
Speaker 2: one eight.

470
00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:46,560
Speaker 1: Will you ever overweight?

471
00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:47,159
Speaker 2: Like?

472
00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:47,560
Speaker 1: Really?

473
00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:49,840
Speaker 2: Over? What? I think the worst I got I almost

474
00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:53,920
Speaker 2: got to two ten in the early pandemic era, and

475
00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:57,800
Speaker 2: then I started walking several hours every day. And then

476
00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:00,680
Speaker 2: I went vegetarian for a couple of years. And do

477
00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:02,320
Speaker 2: you think it helped a bit? Because I think I

478
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:05,560
Speaker 2: eat bad things with the meat. Is that just the meat,

479
00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:07,760
Speaker 2: it's what you put on it? Or shame eating? A

480
00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:09,560
Speaker 2: lot of shame eating. When I was a kid, we

481
00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:11,840
Speaker 2: used to hide things, right, So my parents would buy

482
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:14,399
Speaker 2: like a box of like yodels or ding dongs or

483
00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:17,520
Speaker 2: something like that, and as soon as they brought it home,

484
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:21,639
Speaker 2: I would hide like half the box around the house.

485
00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:25,240
Speaker 2: You know, So there was a lot of secretive eating happens.

486
00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:26,600
Speaker 1: Did your mother noticed that she.

487
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:29,120
Speaker 2: Was busy eating an entire box of chip wich ice

488
00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:30,920
Speaker 2: cream sandwiches alone?

489
00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:34,560
Speaker 1: When you then started? You went out to us sate?

490
00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:37,119
Speaker 1: And so what was the food like? There was that

491
00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:38,600
Speaker 1: different from I got it?

492
00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:40,880
Speaker 2: Well, I had no money, so I got a job

493
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 2: making burritos in the cafeteria of US. That's how I

494
00:23:45,119 --> 00:23:49,520
Speaker 2: paid for my beer. And when I look back at

495
00:23:49,560 --> 00:23:53,480
Speaker 2: what I ate, it's amazing. I'm alive. Why because I

496
00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:56,360
Speaker 2: think we just went and had like Tommy's cheeseburgers at night.

497
00:23:56,560 --> 00:24:01,040
Speaker 2: And I don't even think I thought then. I don't

498
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:04,720
Speaker 2: even think I understood what nutrition was. I never once

499
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:09,639
Speaker 2: thought you would eat for energy for health. Food was

500
00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:12,960
Speaker 2: always for fun. When I was a kid, we were like,

501
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:15,560
Speaker 2: let's go to beefsteak Charlie's. There's an all you can

502
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,160
Speaker 2: eat ribs. I mean, it was always food for fun.

503
00:24:18,240 --> 00:24:22,480
Speaker 2: It was never like, oh, that'll really keep your head clear.

504
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:26,960
Speaker 1: So USC and making burritos and eating.

505
00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:31,520
Speaker 2: Badly and studying what studying cinema and writing? You know,

506
00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:33,760
Speaker 2: then that was the I didn't want to do that.

507
00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:35,280
Speaker 2: I wanted to be a stand up comedian, but I

508
00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:37,520
Speaker 2: couldn't think of a major at college.

509
00:24:37,560 --> 00:24:38,879
Speaker 1: I don't teach that in college.

510
00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:41,639
Speaker 2: Well they do now, my friend Wayne Vetterman teaches it

511
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:45,399
Speaker 2: at USC, but they didn't then. So I just thought, well,

512
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:49,520
Speaker 2: what's kind of like comedy? I guess movies and writing.

513
00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:53,680
Speaker 2: But I wasn't dreaming of making movies. I just wanted

514
00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:57,040
Speaker 2: to be like Jane Lenno or Jerry Seinfeld. I didn't

515
00:24:57,440 --> 00:25:00,920
Speaker 2: care about movies, and so I was great at school.

516
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,399
Speaker 2: Then later when I got some opportunities to write movies,

517
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:06,480
Speaker 2: I realized, wait a second, I think I learned how

518
00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:07,439
Speaker 2: to do this at school.

519
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:09,160
Speaker 1: Did you learn at school?

520
00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:10,600
Speaker 2: I think I know how to do this.

521
00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:13,320
Speaker 1: Education does have a point.

522
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:16,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe it bubbled back up, and it doesn't mean

523
00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:18,720
Speaker 2: I knew how to do it well. But I think

524
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:22,760
Speaker 2: maybe I had some irrational belief that I could. So

525
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 2: I had some confidence from going to school, but it

526
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:29,240
Speaker 2: was completely unearned. But it did get me to sit

527
00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:31,600
Speaker 2: my ass in a chair and write, yeah, because I thought, oh,

528
00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:35,119
Speaker 2: I guess I could maybe do this solitary.

529
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:38,560
Speaker 1: Or did you go to the famous writer's rooms? Where

530
00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 1: did you start?

531
00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:40,359
Speaker 2: Where did I start writing?

532
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:40,760
Speaker 1: Yeah?

533
00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:43,280
Speaker 2: Well I did stand up and then slowly my friends

534
00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 2: started getting work. So Adam Sandler was on Saturday Night Live,

535
00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:49,680
Speaker 2: so we don't try to help him write sketches, And

536
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:53,120
Speaker 2: then as he did better, you know, we would help

537
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 2: out on movies and different capacities. And I was writing

538
00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:59,200
Speaker 2: sketches with Jim Carrey for a Living Color. I wasn't

539
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:01,120
Speaker 2: a writer on the show, but I would just help him.

540
00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:03,399
Speaker 1: See what I once said, I told all the stuff.

541
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:07,320
Speaker 1: I was really really excited because Foreign Secretary John Kerrey

542
00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:09,840
Speaker 1: was coming in to dinner at the River Cafe and I,

543
00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:11,719
Speaker 1: this is going to be a really important night. At

544
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:13,680
Speaker 1: the end of the night, I said, what's up you

545
00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:15,800
Speaker 1: don't seem really excited, And they said, well, we thought

546
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:18,560
Speaker 1: it was Jim car They.

547
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:21,119
Speaker 2: Preferred Jim carry to John Carey. I think we all

548
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:24,680
Speaker 2: still do you all still do There's no moment where

549
00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:29,800
Speaker 2: someone's like, oh, man, I preferred John Carey to Jim.

550
00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:35,240
Speaker 1: Carrey, but to Jim Carrey. Did you work on SNL?

551
00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:39,600
Speaker 2: I never could get a job there, So I was

552
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:42,480
Speaker 2: helping out comedians with their act. They used to write

553
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 2: jokes for Roseanne bar and people like that. And then

554
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:48,440
Speaker 2: I met Ben Still and we created a sketch show

555
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:51,200
Speaker 2: called The Ben Stiller Show, and that was my first

556
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:55,200
Speaker 2: TV job. And then that you stayed in LA.

557
00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:58,720
Speaker 1: I just stayed in LA and you were in your twenties.

558
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:00,880
Speaker 2: Was in my twenties doing stand up at night.

559
00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:04,160
Speaker 1: Were were earning the money for that just by the work.

560
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:08,280
Speaker 2: My rent was very low. I got a very crappy

561
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:11,960
Speaker 2: apartment with Adam Sandler, and I mean the rent was

562
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 2: so low it was like we weren't stressed to pay

563
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:17,399
Speaker 2: the rent because it was just a few hundred dollars.

564
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,040
Speaker 2: And so I was writing jokes for people and working

565
00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:22,280
Speaker 2: at the American version of Comic Relief.

566
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:23,680
Speaker 1: Oh really, what was it?

567
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:26,440
Speaker 2: What was the version. It was for the homeless in

568
00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:29,840
Speaker 2: the United States. Robin Williams and Billy Crystal and Whoopie

569
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:32,520
Speaker 2: Goldberg hosted it every year for a long time, and

570
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:35,600
Speaker 2: that was my first job. So between writing some jokes,

571
00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:39,359
Speaker 2: doing stand up, and working in comic relief, those three

572
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 2: things was enough for me to pay my rent. Oh

573
00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:48,720
Speaker 2: my god, I found a receipt the other day. So

574
00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:51,359
Speaker 2: when Adam Sandler got Saturday Night Live, he just left

575
00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:54,920
Speaker 2: and he left everything at the apartment, including his wallet

576
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:57,600
Speaker 2: and driver's license. He literally just left. I don't know

577
00:27:57,600 --> 00:27:59,480
Speaker 2: how he was able to get on the plane to

578
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:02,280
Speaker 2: go to New York, because I still have his wallet

579
00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:04,240
Speaker 2: from then. So then the other day I went through

580
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:08,440
Speaker 2: and I went through it the other day as I

581
00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:09,879
Speaker 2: was going through some stuff and there was like a

582
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:13,560
Speaker 2: receipt from a supermarket, and so I took it out

583
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:16,200
Speaker 2: to read, like, well, what is this receipt? And it

584
00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:18,600
Speaker 2: was like what Adam would want to eat, which was

585
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:25,240
Speaker 2: frosted flakes cupcakes. Maybe it's like milk and spaghetti, but

586
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:28,200
Speaker 2: it was just so funny, like that was our life

587
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:29,720
Speaker 2: and what we ate. And I took a picture of

588
00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:31,359
Speaker 2: it and sent it to Adam.

589
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:33,600
Speaker 1: Would you still make cheese sandwiches?

590
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:37,000
Speaker 2: Yes, I was still heavy in the rotation, but for

591
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:39,400
Speaker 2: the most part, I mean, you know, there was a

592
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:42,840
Speaker 2: real Hamburger World. There was a place called Jerry's Deli

593
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:45,240
Speaker 2: in the valley and we would eat there all the

594
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:48,680
Speaker 2: time and have their Matza ball soup. And that place was,

595
00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:52,000
Speaker 2: you know, right on Ventura Boulevard by Cold Water Canyon.

596
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:54,200
Speaker 2: It's not there anymore, sadly, but a lot of our

597
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:55,800
Speaker 2: life was based out of there. And then night we

598
00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:58,280
Speaker 2: would go to the improv and do stand up and

599
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 2: try to get our career is going after very heavy after,

600
00:29:04,120 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 2: not before, never before. But at midnight I would have

601
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:09,680
Speaker 2: fetichini alfredo, like four nights a week.

602
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:20,320
Speaker 1: If you like listening to Ruthie's Table four, would you

603
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:24,440
Speaker 1: please make sure to rate and review the podcast on

604
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:29,480
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get

605
00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:39,400
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Thank you. So where'd you live?

606
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:43,080
Speaker 2: We live in Los Angeles, Yeah, and we spent some

607
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:47,840
Speaker 2: time in New York as well and in LA kind

608
00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:50,040
Speaker 2: of hard to find the great restaurants in LA. I

609
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:55,520
Speaker 2: can't say I'm happy about because where we live in Brentwood,

610
00:29:56,320 --> 00:29:58,520
Speaker 2: there's so much traffic at two o'clock. You can't go

611
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:02,160
Speaker 2: east where all the good restaurants, and so you're just

612
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:04,280
Speaker 2: stuck in your house because there's like an hour traffic

613
00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:05,040
Speaker 2: to move a mile.

614
00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 1: And I went to a place called I was in

615
00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:09,520
Speaker 1: LA last week and I went to place called The Grill.

616
00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 2: The Grill is I really liked it in Beverly Hills,

617
00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:16,840
Speaker 2: excellent show business lunch spots for the.

618
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:21,080
Speaker 1: Girl coming from England and being in LA because people

619
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 1: always want to take you to the best French restaurant

620
00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:26,640
Speaker 1: or Italian restaurant. Actually we want to eat American food. Yeah,

621
00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:28,320
Speaker 1: And that was the kind of I don't want if

622
00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:30,440
Speaker 1: they had a grilled cheese sandwich there. Where can you

623
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 1: get a really good grilled cheese sandwich in a restaurant.

624
00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:38,160
Speaker 2: I've rarely gotten a great grilled cheese sandwich in a restaurant,

625
00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:41,160
Speaker 2: but that could be because they don't have the wonderbread

626
00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:42,600
Speaker 2: and the craft cheese.

627
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 1: Is there any place you can walk to?

628
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:48,000
Speaker 2: No, it's not walking. We like it here because we

629
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,480
Speaker 2: could walk everywhere and there's an amazing restaurant every like

630
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:53,880
Speaker 2: eighty feet. And people don't like when you pop by

631
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 2: in La if you just show up at their house,

632
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:58,440
Speaker 2: They're like, why are you in my house here? You know,

633
00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:00,920
Speaker 2: in New York, it's a a little easy. Although I

634
00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:03,479
Speaker 2: did get to spend time with our friend mel Brooks recently,

635
00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:03,760
Speaker 2: I know.

636
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:04,600
Speaker 1: Tell me about that.

637
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:06,680
Speaker 2: Well, I like to visit my friend Norman Lear, who

638
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 2: just turned one hundred and one, one hundred and one.

639
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:13,120
Speaker 2: So I said to Norman, let's let's hang out with

640
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:15,280
Speaker 2: mel because I'm always looking for any excuse to just

641
00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:19,160
Speaker 2: be around mel Brooks. And then he said, Mel's gonna

642
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:21,000
Speaker 2: come over next week. And then I came over and

643
00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 2: it was mel Brooks and Dick Van Dyke were there.

644
00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:26,000
Speaker 1: Did it make you feel incredibly young?

645
00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:28,560
Speaker 2: Like, well, sometimes when you hang out with people, they

646
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:30,880
Speaker 2: treat you like years old as them. Oh I see,

647
00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:32,719
Speaker 2: you know, so just by hanging out with them, they

648
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:33,800
Speaker 2: assume you're one hundred.

649
00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:37,200
Speaker 1: So let's just go through that. Mel's ninety seven.

650
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 2: Mell's ninety seven, Dick Van Dyke is ninety seven, okay,

651
00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:45,640
Speaker 2: then Norman's one on one that's two hundred ninety five years,

652
00:31:46,240 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 2: and then you add mine in three point fifty. It

653
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:52,080
Speaker 2: was just a hangout session for fun. It was, you know,

654
00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:53,880
Speaker 2: a lot of talk of World War Two. Let me

655
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,440
Speaker 2: just say, when you sit with three gentlemen who fought

656
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:01,360
Speaker 2: in World War two, the Battle of they're going to

657
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:03,120
Speaker 2: tell you about it, whether you like it or not,

658
00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:05,080
Speaker 2: You're going to get deep into World War two talk.

659
00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:07,080
Speaker 2: But I also thought that's amazing because how many people

660
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:07,960
Speaker 2: can you speak with that?

661
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:11,680
Speaker 1: So normally it was in World War Two he.

662
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 2: Went on bombing missions. He did fifty missions. Norman Lair

663
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:21,600
Speaker 2: and he said, no one lives past twenty five missions.

664
00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 2: So he did a lot of He survived a lot

665
00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:26,560
Speaker 2: of a lot of missions. And mel Brooks said that

666
00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:29,560
Speaker 2: he part of his job was he was in the

667
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:32,560
Speaker 2: Army Corps of Engineers, so they would build little bridges

668
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:35,680
Speaker 2: so that the vehicles could get over bodies of water

669
00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:39,720
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. But he also had to defuse bombs.

670
00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:43,640
Speaker 2: If you can imagine mel Brooks defusing your bomb.

671
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:44,240
Speaker 1: Maybe.

672
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:49,600
Speaker 2: Dick and Dick van Dyke. I forgot exactly what he did.

673
00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 2: But he also got pulled into performing because I think

674
00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 2: when people showed they were good performers, they really need

675
00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:57,880
Speaker 2: people to entertain the troops so that they wouldn't get crazy,

676
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:00,800
Speaker 2: because without entertainment they're in trouble.

677
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:03,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, did they glamorize war?

678
00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:05,680
Speaker 2: Did you say? No, No, not at all. I asked

679
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:08,239
Speaker 2: mel Brooks in my interview. I said, when you were

680
00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:10,760
Speaker 2: diffusing bombs, did you think you were going to blow up?

681
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:14,760
Speaker 2: And he said every day, every day. But I interviewed

682
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 2: him for the Atlantic magazine and I wanted to do

683
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:18,640
Speaker 2: an interview where we just talked more about life and

684
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:21,400
Speaker 2: not so much about work and comedy and just what

685
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:24,640
Speaker 2: he had learned over his many years because he's the greatest.

686
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:26,080
Speaker 1: What did you glean from it?

687
00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:28,960
Speaker 2: Well? You know, his philosophies are very simple. It's just

688
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:32,880
Speaker 2: like be nice and I could I like that? You know,

689
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:36,640
Speaker 2: that's you know, my religion is you know, very Dolly

690
00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:42,400
Speaker 2: Lama ask It's just kindness. My religion is kindness, and

691
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:43,840
Speaker 2: I think it shows in your work.

692
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:47,000
Speaker 1: So we haven't talked about is your family and cooking

693
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:50,200
Speaker 1: and what happens in your household. I assume you're not

694
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:52,400
Speaker 1: going out for McDonald's and.

695
00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:57,160
Speaker 2: No, McDonald's killed all fast food, all fast food.

696
00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:00,400
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's your secret. But what about food in

697
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:02,000
Speaker 1: your house? How do you feed you? How many children

698
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:02,280
Speaker 1: do you have?

699
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:06,960
Speaker 2: Oh, well, two daughters. Iris is twenty and mad is

700
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:10,799
Speaker 2: twenty five, and how do we feed them? Is the question?

701
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:13,560
Speaker 1: Growing up? Did you sit down for dinner most nights?

702
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:15,000
Speaker 1: Were you away most nights?

703
00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:15,200
Speaker 3: No?

704
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:17,600
Speaker 2: We sat down and ate and went out to eat

705
00:34:17,640 --> 00:34:21,600
Speaker 2: and in La, in La, and I think, I think

706
00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:26,000
Speaker 2: you know they've grown up. They they're healthy. I think

707
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:28,360
Speaker 2: we did Okay. We didn't feed them the way I

708
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:30,600
Speaker 2: would have fed them. I would have fed them badly.

709
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:34,000
Speaker 2: Leslie was like, let's not do that. And so there

710
00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:35,960
Speaker 2: was the house was pretty healthy. He was in a

711
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:38,759
Speaker 2: house field of like cookies and stuff, although we were

712
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:42,400
Speaker 2: eating our fine ice cream at night. But other than that,

713
00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:44,880
Speaker 2: I think it was it was pretty good. And Leslie

714
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:45,959
Speaker 2: is a very good shot.

715
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:47,000
Speaker 1: What does she cook?

716
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:50,880
Speaker 2: Well, she can kind of cook anything from a cookbook

717
00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:54,680
Speaker 2: if she wants to. And so it's just she gets

718
00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:58,240
Speaker 2: in little jags where like she's cooking for a period

719
00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:00,520
Speaker 2: and then other jags where that's slows down.

720
00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:03,000
Speaker 1: Do you have friends over, do you entertain or do

721
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:04,440
Speaker 1: you go you entertained?

722
00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:09,560
Speaker 2: Well? Will we cook for other people? Occasionally? Not that office,

723
00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:11,759
Speaker 2: but you go out and then we do go out.

724
00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:13,279
Speaker 2: We go out to eat too much. And there's not

725
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:15,360
Speaker 2: that many great restaurants.

726
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:16,239
Speaker 1: You're saying you have to dry.

727
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:17,560
Speaker 2: But every once in a while I'll try to cook

728
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:20,520
Speaker 2: and I'll go, wow, that worked. Yeah, but I always

729
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:22,400
Speaker 2: think i'd rather lay down than put the time in.

730
00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:25,319
Speaker 1: Okay, that's fair enough. I have respect for people who

731
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:26,399
Speaker 1: don't cook.

732
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:30,799
Speaker 2: It requires patience. Fine, it's meditative not to cook. To cook, Oh,

733
00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:31,359
Speaker 2: I think.

734
00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:34,319
Speaker 1: So, I think there is something that whenever I used

735
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:36,040
Speaker 1: to come back from work and people say, I'll just

736
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:37,880
Speaker 1: sit down and relax, and actually I found it more

737
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:41,040
Speaker 1: relaxing to kind of make a result of just see

738
00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:43,839
Speaker 1: the process and to go sully and all that kind

739
00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:44,120
Speaker 1: of it.

740
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:48,040
Speaker 2: Shows good mental health because most people they don't like

741
00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:51,160
Speaker 2: being alone or alone in their head. You know, you'll go, oh,

742
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:52,800
Speaker 2: I want to take a walk for two hours, like,

743
00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:55,880
Speaker 2: but then I'm with me. And I think cooking is

744
00:35:55,960 --> 00:35:58,600
Speaker 2: like that. So I feel like when I like myself

745
00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:01,760
Speaker 2: more than I'm going to go want a cooking binge.

746
00:36:02,040 --> 00:36:04,600
Speaker 2: And then because I'll be comfortable in the quiet.

747
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:07,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then when you want you're feeling fine, you

748
00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:10,080
Speaker 1: can go for a walk exactly.

749
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:10,640
Speaker 2: Yeah.

750
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:12,080
Speaker 1: What's Iris doing now?

751
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:15,760
Speaker 2: What is Iris doing now? She was going to also

752
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:19,840
Speaker 2: screenwriting and directing school at usc.

753
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:22,440
Speaker 1: So all four of you in this family are.

754
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:27,360
Speaker 2: She's been working. She just worked on a film acting.

755
00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:29,440
Speaker 2: And you know, we shot a movie out here called

756
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:32,160
Speaker 2: The Bubble during the pandemic. So in the middle of

757
00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:34,960
Speaker 2: the pandemic, no one was really making anything because it

758
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:38,000
Speaker 2: all seemed kind of dangerous, and so he said to Netflix, like,

759
00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:40,800
Speaker 2: I think I could find a way to make something safely.

760
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:44,160
Speaker 2: So we made a movie called The Bubble about a

761
00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:47,600
Speaker 2: group of actors in a hotel trying to complete a

762
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:51,800
Speaker 2: dinosaur action movie during the pandemic. And it was a

763
00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:54,640
Speaker 2: little bit like a mel Brooks or Christopher Guest movie

764
00:36:54,719 --> 00:36:57,399
Speaker 2: about all the actors having a nervous breakdown because they're

765
00:36:57,400 --> 00:36:59,640
Speaker 2: stuck in the hotel and the studio won't let them

766
00:36:59,719 --> 00:37:03,800
Speaker 2: leave till they finished their dinosaur movie. And uh, Pedro

767
00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:06,920
Speaker 2: Pascal was in it, and Leslie and Keegan, Michael Key

768
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:10,560
Speaker 2: and Karen Gillan and Fred Armison and a lot of

769
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:16,000
Speaker 2: it's on Netflix. And so we were here during the

770
00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:22,560
Speaker 2: pandemic when everything was closed other than grocery stores and pharmacies.

771
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,040
Speaker 2: The whole time we were here like nothing was open.

772
00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:28,320
Speaker 1: So have you moved to England? Is going to be

773
00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:29,600
Speaker 1: going to be with us for a lot.

774
00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:31,160
Speaker 2: I like to spent a lot more time here.

775
00:37:31,239 --> 00:37:34,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, are you here now just to stay or no

776
00:37:34,560 --> 00:37:37,480
Speaker 1: return ticket? Just good? You know that's good.

777
00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 2: I'm just hanging out here and joy.

778
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:42,000
Speaker 1: So if we're going to wind up, I will ask

779
00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:44,279
Speaker 1: you one more time now that we've talked about the

780
00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:47,360
Speaker 1: girl cheese and the ice cream and the pop tarts.

781
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:50,839
Speaker 1: But you mentioned comfort food for but is there one

782
00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:51,600
Speaker 1: special food?

783
00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:56,040
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I'm a sucker for a good eight

784
00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:59,600
Speaker 2: ounce burger, Okay, for sure. When you find the place,

785
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:02,040
Speaker 2: it's got the fresh French fries and the great burger.

786
00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:08,680
Speaker 2: There's a place called Lunetta all day in West Hollywood

787
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:12,560
Speaker 2: near my office, and I think it's the best burger

788
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:14,440
Speaker 2: I've ever had. I have to I have to try

789
00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:18,359
Speaker 2: to trick myself in into not remembering it's there. Oh okay,

790
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:20,320
Speaker 2: or I'll just do it all the time. So in

791
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:22,040
Speaker 2: my head, I just like lied to myself, like I

792
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:25,719
Speaker 2: place closed just what I'm ordered every day.

793
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:28,160
Speaker 1: Well, maybe if I come to La we'll go and

794
00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:31,360
Speaker 1: have a burger. Yes, Thanks about Jed, Thank you, Thanks,

795
00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:39,440
Speaker 1: thank you for listening to Ruthie's table for in partnership

796
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:40,200
Speaker 1: with Montclair.

797
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:52,480
Speaker 3: Ruthie's Table four is produced by Otome Studios for iHeartRadio.

798
00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:56,280
Speaker 3: It's hosted by Ruthie Rogers and it's produced by William Lensky.

799
00:38:57,080 --> 00:39:00,160
Speaker 3: This episode was edited by Julia Johnson a mixed by

800
00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:01,080
Speaker 3: Nigel Appleton.

801
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:06,000
Speaker 1: Our executive producers are Fay Stewart and Zad Rogers. Our

802
00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:09,440
Speaker 1: production manager is Caitlin Paramore, and our production coordinator is

803
00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:10,280
Speaker 1: Bella Selini.

804
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:13,239
Speaker 2: Thank you to everyone at The River Cafe for your

805
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:14,480
Speaker 2: help in making this episode