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Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to Bob left Such podcast. My

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Speaker 1: guest today is Carol Weafer, who has a new book,

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Speaker 1: How to Write a Funny Speech. Carol, why this book? Why? Now?

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Speaker 2: Well, Bob, here's the situation. My co writer Rick Mitchell

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Speaker 2: and I it was doing the writers strike, so we

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Speaker 2: couldn't write any TV. We met for coffee. Rick had

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Speaker 2: just been to an event where someone gave a real

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Speaker 2: clunker of his speech at a wedding, and I had

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Speaker 2: just come back from a wedding where the father of

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Speaker 2: the bride gave a speech that was so bad people

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Speaker 2: were talking about it as they were leaving at the

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Speaker 2: valet Parker. So we both said to ourselves, as professional

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Speaker 2: comedy writers, you know, it's not that it's really not

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Speaker 2: that hard to tell your average person how to do

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Speaker 2: a speech, how to do a funny speech. And we

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Speaker 2: felt like we could walk people through it a to Z,

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Speaker 2: make it simple, make it easy, and do it as

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Speaker 2: a public service so nobody else has to sit through

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Speaker 2: another god awful speech and an event. Even more so, Bob,

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Speaker 2: because now, back in our day, a bad speech was

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Speaker 2: a funny story sitting around a Thanksgiving something like that.

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Speaker 2: Now it's being recorded, it might go up on the

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Speaker 2: web and haunt you for the rest of your life.

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Speaker 2: So that's why we felt we needed to do this.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I have to ask you. You do a lot

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Speaker 1: of public speaking. The book is brief in for such

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Speaker 1: a short book. I was sort of stunned how constructive

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Speaker 1: it is. But it seems like preparation. You're a pro

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Speaker 1: okay sopose to the person who has a speech a

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Speaker 1: year or a speech of lifetime. You do a lot

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Speaker 1: of public speaking. Do you prepare and write out a

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Speaker 1: speech to this degree or do you do it off

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Speaker 1: the top of your head?

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Speaker 2: Well, I prepare very intensely. I mean the uh, when

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Speaker 2: you're especially when you're paid to speak to a group,

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Speaker 2: you want to give it your best shot. So that

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Speaker 2: doesn't mean you're kind of winging it up there and

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Speaker 2: being loosey goosey. I mean you want to be in

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Speaker 2: the moment. But I prepare very much, but I don't

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Speaker 2: write it out. And this is what we tell people

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Speaker 2: in the book to I have kind of bullet points

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Speaker 2: of where that I want to go, so that I'm

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Speaker 2: not only you know. Another big mistake that people make

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Speaker 2: that we found in doing speeches is that they look

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Speaker 2: down and are reading the whole time, and you know

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Speaker 2: that it is not good. You've got to be in

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Speaker 2: the moment connect with people. So we recommend bullet points

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Speaker 2: for a person speaking at an event, and for me,

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Speaker 2: I do the same thing. I go up there and

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Speaker 2: I have a very clear idea of what I want

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Speaker 2: to do with each of those bullet points. But it

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Speaker 2: is bullet points.

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Speaker 1: Okay. Do you have a couple of greatest hits? Do

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Speaker 1: you have memories like a golf player or a baseball player.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I remember this hit in this game. Whatever.

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Speaker 1: Do you have a couple of times where you have speeches?

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Speaker 1: We go, man, I really hit it out of the park,

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Speaker 1: use another sports metaphor.

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Speaker 2: You know where I really feel where you know. I

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Speaker 2: like to give speeches, Bob. I don't know about you.

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Speaker 2: If someone asks you to speak an event, whether you

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Speaker 2: enjoy that invitation or not. As a comedian and more

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Speaker 2: so as a person, I like speaking at events because

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Speaker 2: I find it's very cathartic for me to share my

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Speaker 2: feelings about a couple that were celebrating a person who's

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Speaker 2: having a big event. But especially I liked I find

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Speaker 2: it especially cathartic when I'm speaking at a celebration of life,

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Speaker 2: because it really helps me heal in talking about the

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Speaker 2: person with people that loved this person as well. So

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Speaker 2: I'll give you an example of something that really was

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Speaker 2: good for me to talk about at this memorial because

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Speaker 2: I knew that all the other people there would understand

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Speaker 2: what I was talking about. My cousin Jay sadly passed

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Speaker 2: away from cancer at fifty five, and he was an

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Speaker 2: amazing person. He was an amazing people person and everybody

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Speaker 2: that knew him knew that about him that quality. So

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Speaker 2: I told this story about how about when he was

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Speaker 2: still well dealing with his cancer, his wife and my

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Speaker 2: wife we all went together to the Greek to see

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Speaker 2: the Beach Boys, and I know you had the great

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Speaker 2: Mike Love on as well. So not only was I

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Speaker 2: excited to see the Beach Boys loving their music, but

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Speaker 2: we were invited to the after party. And I was

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Speaker 2: very excited to see Mike Love because I opened for

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Speaker 2: the Beach Boys back in nineteen eighty two at Harrah's

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Speaker 2: Okay in Tahoe. This is like one of my first

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Speaker 2: big gigs, and I wanted to see if he remembered me.

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Speaker 2: So we watched the concert. It's great. We go to

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Speaker 2: the after party and there's Mike Love and you know

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Speaker 2: when you're at a party and try to make your

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Speaker 2: way to somebody, and I saw an opportunity and I

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Speaker 2: missed it. And it's another opportunity that I am missed it.

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Speaker 2: And I go to the bar to get a drink.

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Speaker 2: I turn around. My cousin Jay is talking with Mike G.

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Speaker 2: Love like he's known him for a million years, so

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Speaker 2: much so that when I walked up, my cousin Jay

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Speaker 2: was actually, hey, Mike, do you know my cousin Karrols?

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Speaker 2: She opened for you three thousand years ago at Harris.

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Speaker 2: So I love telling that story because it encapsulated so

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Speaker 2: much of my cousin Jay, and sharing that with everyone

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Speaker 2: who knew that story was pitch perfect in the kind

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Speaker 2: of person he was. So that kind of thing always

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Speaker 2: makes me happy to share what I love about this person,

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Speaker 2: but also sharing with everyone what we loved about this person.

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Speaker 1: Okay, you also tell that story in the book, but

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Speaker 1: you leave out did I'm sure I know the answer,

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Speaker 1: did or did not? My glove remember you, I have.

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Speaker 2: To say I don't think he did.

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Speaker 1: I would assume he didn't.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think he was polite however he reacted,

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Speaker 2: but I don't remember him going oh right, from forty

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Speaker 2: years ago, Yes you, Carol Leefer, Now that didn't happen.

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Speaker 1: Okay, wherever you are today, what was the dream back then?

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Speaker 1: What did you want to have happened? Or did you

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Speaker 1: stumble into this when you were a little girl, you'd

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Speaker 1: just say this is what I want to do.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, since I was little, Bob, I've always

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Speaker 2: loved to perform. I mean in our basement downstairs. I

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Speaker 2: made it into a makeshift kind of stage and would

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Speaker 2: get up on it and lip sync Barbara streisand albums

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Speaker 2: or whatever. I just always loved the spotlight and the attack.

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Speaker 2: And I always loved being funny because I got really

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Speaker 2: good feedback ever since I was a kid from being

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Speaker 2: funny doing impressions or whatever. So I really feel like

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Speaker 2: I am living my dream and have lived my dream

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Speaker 2: for so many years because I just wanted to be

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Speaker 2: in show business really bad.

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Speaker 1: Oh, Okay, you definitely are in show business. When I

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Speaker 1: certainly became aware of you first, you were a stand up.

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Speaker 1: In addition that you've written TV scripts, some of which

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Speaker 1: are legendary like Seinfeld and the Marble Rye. You've written

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Speaker 1: for the Academy Awards. All of this is fantastic. In

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Speaker 1: the back of your mind, you say, well, I really

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Speaker 1: wanted to be going back to our generation. I really

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Speaker 1: wanted to be as big as Alan King or Joan Rivers.

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Speaker 1: You know, as I say, have you followed the ball

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Speaker 1: where it bounced or is there still some dream you

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Speaker 1: wish to achieve?

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Speaker 2: Well, that's a really good question. Well, I'm very happy

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Speaker 2: with where my career is at. I mean when you ask,

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Speaker 2: you know, becoming Joan Rivers or becoming Rodney Dangerfield, I

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Speaker 2: don't know that I wanted to be a full time

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Speaker 2: stand up comedian. And I'll tell you why is because

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Speaker 2: what I love about comedy writing is what I loved

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Speaker 2: about being funny growing up. You know, when you are

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Speaker 2: stand up, you travel by yourself and you go here

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Speaker 2: and there and you work on your own act by yourself.

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Speaker 2: But when I'm in a writer's room, I really feel

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Speaker 2: like that's my nirvana. I'm with other funny people and

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Speaker 2: the synergy and the chemistry of that. I'm kind of

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Speaker 2: with my favorite people that people that speak my language,

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Speaker 2: and that makes me really happy. So I'm really happy

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Speaker 2: that I developed a writing career. It's funny when I

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Speaker 2: was offered my first writing job, which was on Saturday

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Speaker 2: Night Live in nineteen eighty five. I remember my dad

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Speaker 2: was really important figure to me also because he dreamed

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Speaker 2: of being a comedian and a comedy writer. So the

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Speaker 2: fact that I fulfilled his dream was something that he

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Speaker 2: felled about and I was certainly happy about. But I

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Speaker 2: remember my father saying to me, and I was like,

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Speaker 2: I don't know, Dad, I still love doing stand up.

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Speaker 2: He really pushed me to take the writing job because

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Speaker 2: he said, Carol, in any business, it's always good to diversify,

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Speaker 2: and I think, looking back, that's very very good advice.

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Speaker 2: I think my only regret would be, you know, I

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Speaker 2: had my own sitcom, my short lived sitcom in nineteen

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Speaker 2: ninety seven to ninety eight on the WB network called

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Speaker 2: al Right Already, and it was kind of like my Seinfeld.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I wasn't a comedian or anything in it,

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Speaker 2: but I really wanted that to take off. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I'm sorry that it didn't, but that was really a

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Speaker 2: dream that I fulfilled. I just wish that it had

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Speaker 2: been more successful.

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Speaker 1: Well at this late date, twenty five years in the

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Speaker 1: rear view mirror. Okay, there could be many reasons why

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Speaker 1: it was not as successful as you wanted to do.

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Speaker 1: It could be timing in the schedule, it could be

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Speaker 1: lack of promotion. It could be the audience didn't get it.

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Speaker 1: Or you can look back and say, if I'd just

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Speaker 1: done this or that, there would be a greater chance

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Speaker 1: of success. So where does the lack of success of

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Speaker 1: your personal show lie.

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Speaker 2: That is a very very good question. I look, I

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Speaker 2: know you can't control everything. And by the way, to

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Speaker 2: this day, the guy who was in charge of the WB,

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Speaker 2: who ran the WB at that time, whose name I

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Speaker 2: will not mention, still comes over to me and says,

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Speaker 2: I'm so sorry I canceled your show. I'm so sorry,

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Speaker 2: which I still enjoy. I still enjoy his apology. But

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Speaker 2: there's one small regret I have, and I don't know

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Speaker 2: that it would have turned the tide. But I do

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Speaker 2: think about this one little element, Bob, which was when

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Speaker 2: they were deciding about renewing my show or not. It's

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Speaker 2: a bit of a more complicated story than I thought.

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Speaker 2: I remember Bill Carter, you know, the at that time,

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Speaker 2: the media writer for TV writer for The New York Times.

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Speaker 2: He liked my show, and he said, I'd like to

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Speaker 2: write a piece on it, but if I know that

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Speaker 2: it's coming back. So this was relayed to the big

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Speaker 2: wig at the WB and he said, we're ninety five

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Speaker 2: percent sure it's coming back. So I kind of believe

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Speaker 2: ninety five percent. So they had a big meeting that

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Speaker 2: I was, you know, should have been at about whether

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Speaker 2: they were going to pick it up or not. And

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Speaker 2: I was on vacation in uh Hawaii, and I just thought, well,

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Speaker 2: my people will handle it. Ninety five percent, We're good.

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Speaker 2: And they did wind up the five percent canceling the show.

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Speaker 2: So I just had that one small regret that because

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Speaker 2: my philosophy of being around in show business for almost

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Speaker 2: fifty years is on my end. I have to do

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Speaker 2: everything I can to make sure things are successful. That's

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Speaker 2: my responsibility. So I'm just a little so worry that

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Speaker 2: I didn't go to that that meeting, but I yeah,

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Speaker 2: I still don't think they would have picked it up,

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Speaker 2: but I do think about that.

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Speaker 1: Let's go back to the beginning. Would your father do

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Speaker 1: for a living?

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Speaker 2: My father was an optometrist and his name was Seymour Come.

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Speaker 1: On Bob Listen, I got it, isn't it With comedians

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Speaker 1: you're not supposed to laugh out loud and just go yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's a good run or something.

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Speaker 2: He was an optometrist by trade, but he was the

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Speaker 2: master joke teller of joke tellers. He was literally like,

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Speaker 2: give me any subject, whatever subject you have, I have

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Speaker 2: a joke on it. And you know a couple of

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Speaker 2: things he told jokes when I look back now, as

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Speaker 2: good as any pro that I know. You really had

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Speaker 2: fantastic timing. He had an appreciation of But I saw

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Speaker 2: how he connected with people through humor, and he was

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Speaker 2: called the tumbler of the family. If you're familiar with the.

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Speaker 1: Course from the Mountains.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, he was always entertaining people with his jokes,

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Speaker 2: and he was funny personally, but he also loved comedy.

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Speaker 2: Like we listened to the two thousand year Old Man

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Speaker 2: record in my house growing up. We could all practically

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Speaker 2: lip sync it, Vaughan Meeterer albums, Alan Sherman. So I

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Speaker 2: think not only watching him connect with people through being

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Speaker 2: funny and his love of comedy, you know, watching the

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Speaker 2: Ed Sullivan Show and watching the great comedians, you know

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Speaker 2: Jackie Mason, and Ronnie Dangerfield and Alan King. I mean

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Speaker 2: this was like my comedy education through him. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: he just, you know, he was never able to be

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Speaker 2: professionally funny. And whenever I asked him, like, Dad, how

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Speaker 2: hung you didn't pursue this yourself, I think he said

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Speaker 2: something that a lot of men of that generation would say,

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Speaker 2: which was you know, he said, Carol, I had to

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Speaker 2: make a living. You know, it was a far off

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Speaker 2: dream to his generation to take that leap, that risk.

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Speaker 2: But there's one story about my dad, you know, seeing

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Speaker 2: that he was never able to make it professionally, but

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Speaker 2: one story that gives me so much solace and happiness

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Speaker 2: hearing about it. So my mom was a psychologist and

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Speaker 2: every year she would go to the APA convention, their

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Speaker 2: meeting or whatever. And one time they went to one

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Speaker 2: of those psychological events and the person running it said, oh,

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Speaker 2: our entertainment dropped out, and my father said, well, I'm

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Speaker 2: happy to go up and tell some jokes if you like,

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Speaker 2: and they were like please, great, and I wasn't there,

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Speaker 2: but apparently my father went up and he slayed them,

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Speaker 2: I mean, just tore the room apart. And my mother

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Speaker 2: was just so happy about it, and everybody was coming

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Speaker 2: over to them afterwards, and that made me so happy

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Speaker 2: that he did have his moment in the sun. And

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Speaker 2: the other thing that makes me feel good about my

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Speaker 2: dad of him never getting to have a career in comedy,

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Speaker 2: is that when my father passed, the first thing everybody said,

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Speaker 2: and you know, you sit shiver for several days, you

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Speaker 2: see a lot of people. The first thing everybody said

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Speaker 2: was your father was so funny, and if he could

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Speaker 2: know that, even that would would make him so happy.

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Speaker 1: Okay, where do he get his material?

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Speaker 2: That's a very good question. I don't know. I think

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Speaker 2: over the years he just would hear a great joke

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Speaker 2: and then remember it. I remember he had a list

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Speaker 2: of jokes that he kept in his wallet, bullet points

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Speaker 2: of what the jokes were. I think that's how he

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Speaker 2: called all these jokes over the years.

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Speaker 1: Okay, my father told jokes too, you know, it's sort

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Speaker 1: of a Jewish tradition. Do you remember a couple of

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Speaker 1: his jokes.

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Speaker 2: I do remember a couple of his jokes. Yes, Oh,

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Speaker 2: he loved telling this one for sure. So I don't

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Speaker 2: know if you've heard this. One guy goes to the

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Speaker 2: ticket window of a movie theater with a chicken on

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Speaker 2: his shoulder and asked for two tickets. Particularly he asks

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Speaker 2: who's going in with him. The guy says, my pet chicken. Here.

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Speaker 2: Ticket lady says, I'm sorry, but we don't allow animals

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Speaker 2: in the movie theater. So the guy goes around the block.

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Speaker 2: He stuffs the chicken down his pants, goes back to

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Speaker 2: the ticket window, buys his ticket, and goes into the movies. Now,

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Speaker 2: once the movie starts, the chicken starts to get a

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Speaker 2: little hot, so the guy SIPs his pants so the

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Speaker 2: chicken can stick his head out and get a little air. Naturally,

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Speaker 2: woman sitting next to the guy sees this, and she

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Speaker 2: is understandably appalled. She nurges her girlfriend. She goes this

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Speaker 2: guy next to me just and zipped his pants. Woman

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Speaker 2: says back, hey, look, you know you've seen one. You've

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Speaker 2: seen them all. And the woman goes, I know, but

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Speaker 2: this one's eating my popcorn, all right. I got Bob

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Speaker 2: to laugh.

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Speaker 1: Sounded like yeah too, Do you have another one?

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Speaker 2: I do have another one that Yes, Jewish women love

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Speaker 2: this joke, as I hope you'll see. So this Jewish

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Speaker 2: mom is out on the beach with her little toddler,

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Speaker 2: having a great time. They're playing in the sun and

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Speaker 2: the sand and the surf, having a wonderful time. All

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Speaker 2: of a sudden, I don't know where, this huge wave

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Speaker 2: comes up, picks up the toddler and shoots him out

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Speaker 2: to sea. You know, the Jewish woman is beside herself.

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Speaker 2: She looks up at the sky and she says, Oh,

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Speaker 2: my God, God, please, I'll do anything, anything, just please

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Speaker 2: please bring my little boy back to me, Bring my

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Speaker 2: little boy back to me. Next thing, you know, another

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Speaker 2: wave comes up deposits the little boy back on the sand.

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Speaker 2: There he is safe and sound. The Jewish mother picks

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Speaker 2: him up. She squeezes her sun like she's never squeezed

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Speaker 2: him before. She looks up at the sky and she says,

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Speaker 2: he had a hat.

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Speaker 1: Ah. That is good, that is good. Okay, your father

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Speaker 1: were his parents born in America?

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Speaker 2: No, they were, I believe somewhere of Poland.

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Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, did you know them?

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Speaker 2: I knew my grandfather, Well, I didn't really know. I

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00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:36,080
Speaker 2: was four when he passed away, so I did not

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Speaker 2: know them. And I wish I really should find out

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Speaker 2: where exactly they're from, because I did that ancestry thing

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Speaker 2: and it came back just one hundred percent Jewish.

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Speaker 1: That's actually kind of rare. Really, there's usually three or

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Speaker 1: two percent whatever, Bob, I have not done it, but

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Speaker 1: I'm just talking anecdotally what I've read.

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Speaker 2: Huh, because did they other people's don't come back one

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Speaker 2: hundred Lutheran? Like, what is with that? I don't get it.

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Speaker 1: And how about on your mother's.

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Speaker 2: Side, my mother's my grandparents, I think are they're from Russia? Yeah,

335
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Speaker 2: so they're all from the Old Country as we call it.

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Speaker 1: As my grandparents were too. So how did your parents meet?

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Speaker 2: My parents met at City College, obviously in New York. Yes.

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Speaker 1: Do you know any more specifics of how they met

339
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Speaker 1: at City College?

340
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Speaker 2: I don't, Other than this story was that my mother

341
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Speaker 2: was the club cutie of some club she was in.

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Speaker 2: And I just remember my father telling of a funny

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Speaker 2: story because my mother was one of six kids, that

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Speaker 2: the first time he went over to my grandparents' house

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Speaker 2: to meet them, my uncle, her younger brother, opened the

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Speaker 2: door and said to my father, we don't like your

347
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Speaker 2: type and slammed the door.

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Speaker 1: That was a humorous thing, or was that real?

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Speaker 2: It was humorous these twenty years later, I'm sure right

350
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Speaker 2: at the time, not very humorous because I'm sure my

351
00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:30,160
Speaker 2: mother opened the door back up and was my little

352
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Speaker 2: brother doing. But I remember that being part of the

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Speaker 2: family lore.

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Speaker 1: And so how many kids in the family?

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Speaker 2: There were six in my it was.

356
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Speaker 1: On your generation, your brothers and sisters.

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Speaker 2: Three?

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Speaker 1: And where are you in the hierarchy?

359
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Speaker 2: I'm the youngest. And I don't know if you've heard

360
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:54,400
Speaker 2: this or not, but a lot of comedians are the youngest,

361
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Speaker 2: the attention hogs.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's funny. My younger sister prides herself a comedian.

363
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Speaker 1: You have the wherewithal to go as far as you did.

364
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Speaker 1: What are the two older ones up to?

365
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Speaker 2: Well, the two you know, it's a family very entrenched

366
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Speaker 2: in the mine world mind world. My brother's a psychiatrist,

367
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Speaker 2: and my sister has a degree, she has her PhD

368
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Speaker 2: in linguistics, but she is also a therapist as well.

369
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Speaker 1: Well, it's funny they're both in their field. Who ran

370
00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:33,760
Speaker 1: the house? Who are the peants in the family, Your

371
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:34,600
Speaker 1: mother or your father?

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Speaker 2: I think my father, my father. It's funny though, when

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Speaker 2: my mother, my mother became a PhD in psychology in

374
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Speaker 2: the seventies, and you know, that was sort of unusual

375
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:58,800
Speaker 2: at that time for women to pursue their career like that,

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Speaker 2: and I give her a lot of credit. But I

377
00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:04,720
Speaker 2: remember that when my mother started to really embark on

378
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:09,520
Speaker 2: her getting her PhD, my father kind of took over

379
00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:14,919
Speaker 2: a lot of the family chores, like he did the

380
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:18,280
Speaker 2: grocery shopping, and he always had a funny story about that.

381
00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:20,600
Speaker 2: I still remember to this day, Bob. He would talk

382
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:23,159
Speaker 2: about how when he went grocery shopping, some of the

383
00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:26,879
Speaker 2: women would, you know, congregate in the aisles, and he

384
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:30,320
Speaker 2: would go around them with his cart and say under

385
00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:42,760
Speaker 2: his breath, totally oblivious. But and then he started he

386
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 2: did the grocery shopping. Then he started baking. He got

387
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:51,399
Speaker 2: my aunt Ellie's recipe for ruggluch and he started making

388
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:53,520
Speaker 2: it at home. And I'm telling you, I haven't had

389
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:58,280
Speaker 2: a piece of ruggloch that good since my father's, so

390
00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 2: I think he's sort of when he retired. When he

391
00:26:01,880 --> 00:26:06,840
Speaker 2: retired and my mom started to really pursue her education

392
00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:11,479
Speaker 2: her PhD, that he sort of took over in that

393
00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:13,399
Speaker 2: way and he did well with it. But he was

394
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:20,399
Speaker 2: also very very handy around the house. His father was

395
00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:25,239
Speaker 2: apparently a landlord, so he learned so many things to

396
00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:28,560
Speaker 2: do around the house. I know you're a big music

397
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:31,399
Speaker 2: lover as I am, because I listened to your pod.

398
00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:37,560
Speaker 2: And when the Mamas in Papa's album came out and

399
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:41,720
Speaker 2: the song Monday Monday, he had such a jones for

400
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:46,679
Speaker 2: this Monday Monday. He figured out some contraption Bob on

401
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:51,240
Speaker 2: the record player that it would keep it just the single,

402
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:55,760
Speaker 2: this contraption with string, that it would somehow keep playing

403
00:26:55,840 --> 00:27:01,080
Speaker 2: Monday Monday over and over. So he was very inventive

404
00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:04,680
Speaker 2: that way as well. But I think he certainly ran

405
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:10,320
Speaker 2: the house. He you know what Dad wanted, We we

406
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:13,600
Speaker 2: went along with. But it wasn't in a, you know,

407
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:17,359
Speaker 2: in a dictatory way, but I think he did. He

408
00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:18,720
Speaker 2: did wear the pants.

409
00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:20,240
Speaker 1: And where did you grow up?

410
00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 2: I grew up on Long Island in East Williston, Okay.

411
00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:28,080
Speaker 1: Where exactly is that?

412
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:31,600
Speaker 2: Are you familiar with the are you need?

413
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 1: I'm gonna find out how familiar I am right now.

414
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:40,480
Speaker 2: Okay. East Williston is a little town near Roslyn, Minneola.

415
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:41,440
Speaker 1: Okay.

416
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:48,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I just found out recently that my George

417
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:52,800
Speaker 2: Santos was the congressman from where I grew up, which

418
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:57,840
Speaker 2: I could not believe, could not because it was so

419
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:01,360
Speaker 2: democratic and when I was growing up, and to hear

420
00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:05,639
Speaker 2: that it, wow, it flipped the other way was a

421
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:06,960
Speaker 2: bit eye opening to me.

422
00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:08,679
Speaker 1: So did you go to public school?

423
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:14,560
Speaker 2: I did go to public school. I went to the

424
00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:17,880
Speaker 2: school system where I grew up. I think it's still

425
00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:21,000
Speaker 2: in the top one hundred, if not, like maybe number

426
00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:25,240
Speaker 2: one of the public schools. People really wanted to live

427
00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:28,160
Speaker 2: in the area I grew up and because the schools

428
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:32,320
Speaker 2: were so great, and I did get a great, great education.

429
00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:35,440
Speaker 1: So what kind of kid were you? Were you a

430
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:38,600
Speaker 1: smart kid? Did you do well? You know, how did

431
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:40,480
Speaker 1: you fit into the school hierarchy?

432
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:46,560
Speaker 2: I like to think I always did well in school.

433
00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:50,880
Speaker 2: I have my own son now and this doesn't apply.

434
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 2: When I was growing up, it was like, of course

435
00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:54,360
Speaker 2: I had to do well in school. My parents would

436
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:54,800
Speaker 2: have killed me.

437
00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:57,120
Speaker 1: He you know, this came up just yesterday. Looked like

438
00:28:58,040 --> 00:28:59,880
Speaker 1: and they literally would have killed us.

439
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:01,760
Speaker 2: Absolutely exactly.

440
00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:02,400
Speaker 1: Yeah.

441
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:05,880
Speaker 2: And it was I think a healthy fear that we

442
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:07,600
Speaker 2: had of being killed.

443
00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:12,520
Speaker 1: I can remember. I remember came home on a freshman

444
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 1: year with what my father considered to be a bad

445
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:18,479
Speaker 1: report card. He started to lose it so much, was

446
00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:24,600
Speaker 1: so angry that it was less me say, feeling the

447
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:27,000
Speaker 1: blow of his being eager, saying, this guy is so

448
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:28,840
Speaker 1: out of control it is weird.

449
00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:33,880
Speaker 2: I get it. I totally get it. It does not

450
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 2: sound a strange at all to me. Yeah, So did

451
00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:42,080
Speaker 2: I did well in school? And you know, in high school,

452
00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:46,840
Speaker 2: I think I was part of a good crowd. I

453
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:51,400
Speaker 2: played sports in high school, I was a cheerleader, So

454
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 2: school was always good and fun for me. I did it,

455
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:57,720
Speaker 2: was in a lot of skits, and did a lot

456
00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:01,600
Speaker 2: of comedy in high school. So I you know, like

457
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:04,760
Speaker 2: I told you earlier, early on, I knew that I

458
00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:09,280
Speaker 2: wanted to perform and be out there on stage.

459
00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 1: Okay, so you graduated from high school and you go

460
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,120
Speaker 1: to Binghamton to college. What was that like?

461
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:22,200
Speaker 2: Well, Binghamton was great and I really credit it now

462
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:28,680
Speaker 2: looking back with a sort of serendipity of where I

463
00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:32,160
Speaker 2: am today, because well, I went to Binghamton because my

464
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:36,800
Speaker 2: older sister Jane had gone there and I visited and

465
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:41,680
Speaker 2: I really liked the school. Also, maybe you can relate

466
00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:44,600
Speaker 2: to this too, Bob. Growing up, you know, my father

467
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:46,520
Speaker 2: is like, can go to any school you want, as

468
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:51,920
Speaker 2: long as it's a state school. So Binghamton was the

469
00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 2: school for me. But while I was there, I was

470
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,840
Speaker 2: in a theater group with a guy named Paul Reiser,

471
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:02,840
Speaker 2: and he was the one who told me that there

472
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:06,560
Speaker 2: were these comedy clubs springing up in Manhattan. This is

473
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:11,040
Speaker 2: all really new, this is like the late seventies. And

474
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:16,160
Speaker 2: he told me about how anybody could go on an

475
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:18,800
Speaker 2: open mic night and do five minutes. He had done it,

476
00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 2: and I did it with Paul. You know, went to

477
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 2: an open mic night. I look back now, I can't

478
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:30,480
Speaker 2: believe that it, you know, twenty and twenty one. I

479
00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 2: had the hutzpah to go and do this in a

480
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:37,240
Speaker 2: New York City nightclub. But that's also the beauty of youth,

481
00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:42,880
Speaker 2: having this freshness. And I passed the audition at two

482
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:47,080
Speaker 2: comedy clubs, one the Comic Strip where Jerry Seinfeld was

483
00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:50,280
Speaker 2: the MC that night who put me through, and I

484
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:54,080
Speaker 2: passed the audition. Another club, Patchurizing Star that's no longer there,

485
00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:56,720
Speaker 2: and the MC that night was Larry David who put

486
00:31:56,800 --> 00:32:00,000
Speaker 2: me through. So I literally go back to my first

487
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:02,640
Speaker 2: stay of show business with these guys.

488
00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:08,880
Speaker 1: Okay, you grow up on Long Island, you go to Binghamton.

489
00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:13,000
Speaker 1: Although you meet Paul Riser is it weird being in

490
00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:17,360
Speaker 1: a large population with many fewer Jews.

491
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:22,960
Speaker 2: Wait, what do you mean like when I left? Wait,

492
00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:25,040
Speaker 2: he asks me, what you mean?

493
00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:28,000
Speaker 1: Okay, I grew up in the suburbs in Connecticut. I

494
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 1: went to college. You know, just you're talking about when

495
00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:34,440
Speaker 1: you're in the suburbs. It wasn't that the Jews were

496
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:37,000
Speaker 1: the dominant population in my town, or there were plenty

497
00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:39,680
Speaker 1: of Jews, but their parents scared him into doing well

498
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:42,520
Speaker 1: in school, such as there were a lot of Jews

499
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:46,320
Speaker 1: in the top classes. Then I went to college, there

500
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:50,160
Speaker 1: were very few Jews, and it actually made me more Jewish.

501
00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 1: I was wondering if you had a similar experience.

502
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:57,200
Speaker 2: No, No, In fact, I grew up I think in

503
00:32:57,200 --> 00:33:01,280
Speaker 2: a very Jewish area was one thing. But you know

504
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:05,280
Speaker 2: Roslyn Heights, I mean it was almost all Jewish. But

505
00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 2: when I went to Dampton, it was very, very big

506
00:33:08,840 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 2: Jewish population of students. So I think even more so

507
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:13,200
Speaker 2: than where I grew up.

508
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:17,120
Speaker 1: Okay, how did you literally meet Paul Riser?

509
00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:25,520
Speaker 2: I literally met him. I had auditioned to be in

510
00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:31,840
Speaker 2: this our dorm. Our dorm section was doing you can't

511
00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:36,560
Speaker 2: take it with you to play, and I auditioned and

512
00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:41,280
Speaker 2: I got it, and Paul was in the ensemble. Of

513
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:44,960
Speaker 2: course he was hilarious, and that's how I met him.

514
00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:48,680
Speaker 1: Okay, you meet him, you like him. You're you know,

515
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,560
Speaker 1: a couple hundred miles from the epicenter of culture in

516
00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:56,160
Speaker 1: New York City. Do you say to yourself, Oh, this

517
00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:57,959
Speaker 1: is just a funny guy, or do you say, wait

518
00:33:58,040 --> 00:34:00,440
Speaker 1: a second, this guy is pretty funny, more funny than

519
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:03,320
Speaker 1: the people I grew up with. You know, maybe I'm

520
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:05,640
Speaker 1: in college now, maybe this is going to turn into something.

521
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:11,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I skipped one part. Boy, this guy is

522
00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:15,080
Speaker 2: really funny and he's really cute too, And I dated him.

523
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:20,160
Speaker 2: I mean, we quote from mel Brooks's two thousand year

524
00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:27,920
Speaker 2: Old Man, I vented him. So yeah, I just I

525
00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:32,520
Speaker 2: just could tell from going to these nightclubs. This to

526
00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:38,880
Speaker 2: me felt like a shortcut to Hollywood and fame, because,

527
00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:44,120
Speaker 2: you know, when I came up and my open mic nights,

528
00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:48,480
Speaker 2: this was happening to comedians. Freddy Prince would go on

529
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:51,600
Speaker 2: the Tonight show Boom the next day he had a sitcom.

530
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 2: It really was the stepping stone to big, big things

531
00:34:57,080 --> 00:35:00,920
Speaker 2: for people. So I felt like, instead of doing acting

532
00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:04,280
Speaker 2: and an agent and an audition and all this stuff.

533
00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:09,799
Speaker 2: I can kind of control this, uh, this path myself,

534
00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:13,000
Speaker 2: and that always appeal to me. And also I can

535
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:18,440
Speaker 2: control my own comedy, which I've always loved over the years,

536
00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:22,759
Speaker 2: like win or lose. I'm still driving the car here.

537
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:28,239
Speaker 1: Okay, let's go back to Paul Riser. I got a

538
00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:32,120
Speaker 1: reason I'm going here. So how do you end up

539
00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:34,879
Speaker 1: dating him?

540
00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:38,759
Speaker 2: How do I end up dating him? Well, how does

541
00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 2: anybody want to do?

542
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,960
Speaker 1: Well? Okay, wait, okay, you and me both know it

543
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:48,640
Speaker 1: is very, very difficult to make it to have this

544
00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:56,160
Speaker 1: level of success, and talent is nowhere near the major

545
00:35:56,360 --> 00:35:59,560
Speaker 1: percent well, it is is nowhere near the percentage of

546
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:02,160
Speaker 1: the wes. And somebody makes it as people think they do.

547
00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:05,319
Speaker 1: There are people who have drive and have opportunity. I'll

548
00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:10,160
Speaker 1: give you an example. You emailed me, which I was thrilled.

549
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:13,080
Speaker 1: I've known who you are for decades, and then you

550
00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:17,680
Speaker 1: mentioned being on the podcast. I was going to ask you, okay,

551
00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:21,600
Speaker 1: but you threw it out there, not in an aggressive fashion.

552
00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:27,800
Speaker 1: So I am interested in the personality. I mean, okay,

553
00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:30,400
Speaker 1: I was dealing with somebody who was a radio consultant

554
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:32,719
Speaker 1: the other day when they became a music supervisored. So

555
00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:36,719
Speaker 1: the opportunity came up, I had no idea what I

556
00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:40,200
Speaker 1: was doing. I said, yes, I know this person. You know,

557
00:36:40,239 --> 00:36:44,040
Speaker 1: he sort of puts himself in the mix. So are

558
00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:46,879
Speaker 1: you saying, I mean, let's say Paul Reiser is there

559
00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:49,640
Speaker 1: very verbal person, You're a very verbal person, and you

560
00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:52,920
Speaker 1: meet him whatever. You know, there are people waiting at

561
00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:55,839
Speaker 1: home for the phone to ring, and there are other

562
00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:59,200
Speaker 1: people saying, hey, we should go get a pizza. Hey,

563
00:36:59,320 --> 00:37:03,120
Speaker 1: you know pushing it forward? Is that your personality?

564
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:10,760
Speaker 2: Oh? Completely? And you know I keep talking about because

565
00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:14,080
Speaker 2: it still stupefies me that I'm doing this for almost

566
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:14,920
Speaker 2: fifty years.

567
00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:17,040
Speaker 1: Yeah.

568
00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:22,680
Speaker 2: I have always been someone who it's very simple equation

569
00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:28,480
Speaker 2: to me. You know, I enjoy your podcast. I enjoy

570
00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:32,560
Speaker 2: your emails every day, and when I am a fan

571
00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:36,239
Speaker 2: of someone and I feel like I would potentially be

572
00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:39,239
Speaker 2: a good mix with someone. You know. I had a

573
00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:42,359
Speaker 2: publicist for my book. I told her way back when

574
00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:47,840
Speaker 2: to go after getting on your podcast. Nothing ever happened.

575
00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:52,920
Speaker 2: So now that I'm not working with her, well, it's

576
00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:56,719
Speaker 2: not all that hard. You ever an email? I email too,

577
00:37:57,719 --> 00:38:00,880
Speaker 2: I'd love to be on your show. I'm glad you

578
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:04,200
Speaker 2: pointed out, and not in an aggressive way, because I

579
00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:08,040
Speaker 2: really feel when you take that step of approaching someone personally,

580
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:11,319
Speaker 2: you have to be delicate because if someone feels like

581
00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:16,120
Speaker 2: you're steamrolling them, you know. I'm on the other side

582
00:38:16,160 --> 00:38:18,560
Speaker 2: of that. Sometimes I feel like no, no, no, no, no,

583
00:38:18,640 --> 00:38:22,319
Speaker 2: not interested, and I always go into it. If you

584
00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:25,759
Speaker 2: had not gotten back to me or gotten back to

585
00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:27,880
Speaker 2: me and said I'm sorry, I don't have room right now,

586
00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:31,040
Speaker 2: or whatever your way of saying no was, I would

587
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:34,200
Speaker 2: have been fine with it. I mean, I've learned along

588
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:37,840
Speaker 2: the way to go after things that I'd like to do,

589
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:43,520
Speaker 2: but at the same time, if they don't happen, it's okay, It's.

590
00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:47,400
Speaker 1: Okay, okay. Jumping forward, how do you end up writing

591
00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:48,880
Speaker 1: for the Oscars?

592
00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:57,160
Speaker 2: Well, yes, a big jump, but I'm taking it the Oscars,

593
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:03,200
Speaker 2: like many things in show business, I was just kind

594
00:39:03,239 --> 00:39:06,319
Speaker 2: of doing my thing. I think the first time was

595
00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:11,240
Speaker 2: I was approached was ninety seven, maybe Bruce Falange reached

596
00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:12,919
Speaker 2: out to me. He was the head writer and asked

597
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:17,360
Speaker 2: if I wanted to write for the Oscars. I remember

598
00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:21,080
Speaker 2: passing the first time because I was in the middle

599
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:27,200
Speaker 2: of doing my then sitcom, and then after that I remember,

600
00:39:27,239 --> 00:39:30,400
Speaker 2: he asked me another time and the next time, and

601
00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:34,040
Speaker 2: I jumped in and since then, you know, I've done

602
00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:36,880
Speaker 2: it many times, many many times over the years. And

603
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:39,719
Speaker 2: of all the things I love to do, and I

604
00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:45,520
Speaker 2: do love to do many different things involving comedy, award

605
00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:49,759
Speaker 2: shows are one of my favorite, absolutely, and especially the

606
00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:54,160
Speaker 2: Oscars because it's the big kahuna. It's the award show

607
00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:57,279
Speaker 2: that all the other award shows bowed down to. So

608
00:39:57,440 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 2: I'm very honored to be a part of it.

609
00:40:07,480 --> 00:40:10,160
Speaker 1: Okay, when Bruce calls you, do you have a relationship

610
00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:13,600
Speaker 1: with Bruce? Do you know Bruce at that point? Yeah?

611
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:16,920
Speaker 2: I think I think we probably if we didn't, if

612
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:23,160
Speaker 2: we weren't friends, we certainly would see each other at things.

613
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:25,640
Speaker 2: I mean. Another thing that I love about being a comedian,

614
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:30,680
Speaker 2: about being a funny person is that, uh, you know

615
00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:34,560
Speaker 2: other funny people. We're all one people. So when I

616
00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:38,000
Speaker 2: meet another comedian, I don't have to know what his

617
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:41,080
Speaker 2: act is or what her shpiel is or whatever, just

618
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:45,880
Speaker 2: knowing that they're professionally funny, there's instantly a bond. I

619
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:49,040
Speaker 2: find that people sometimes have this misconception. They asked me

620
00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:53,120
Speaker 2: about my career where people cutthroat, people competitive and yeah,

621
00:40:53,520 --> 00:40:58,399
Speaker 2: you know, trying to derail. It's the complete opposite. When

622
00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:03,440
Speaker 2: I find I'm with funny people, it's the most supportive,

623
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:06,839
Speaker 2: fun group of people I could ever be with. Like

624
00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:10,680
Speaker 2: I said earlier in our conversation, we speak the same language.

625
00:41:10,719 --> 00:41:14,800
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm with people who have the same

626
00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:20,560
Speaker 2: a similar personality to me in certain ways. So, yeah,

627
00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:22,799
Speaker 2: Brews gotten in touch with me. I don't know how

628
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:25,840
Speaker 2: well he knew me, but he certainly we knew. I

629
00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:28,879
Speaker 2: knew of him, of course, but you know he knew

630
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:29,200
Speaker 2: of me.

631
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:34,560
Speaker 1: Okay, So a lot of you grew up in New York.

632
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:37,000
Speaker 1: You mentioned the clubs, you know, catch a rising star,

633
00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:40,920
Speaker 1: et cetera. At the same time, does every comedian know

634
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:41,800
Speaker 1: every comedian?

635
00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:48,799
Speaker 2: Well, not to sound like an old timer, but back

636
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:53,759
Speaker 2: in the day, he pretty much did. I mean, I

637
00:41:53,800 --> 00:42:00,239
Speaker 2: think younger comedians are really just surprised when I tell them,

638
00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:04,399
Speaker 2: Like when I started, you knew the comedians that were

639
00:42:04,440 --> 00:42:07,480
Speaker 2: in New York it was probably twenty five people, if

640
00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:14,680
Speaker 2: that female wise, there were probably four or five. And

641
00:42:14,719 --> 00:42:18,120
Speaker 2: then out on the West Coast, I got it was

642
00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:25,879
Speaker 2: very prestigious at that time. Someone came in from oh

643
00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:27,799
Speaker 2: I should remember the club's name, but it was like

644
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:31,040
Speaker 2: a club in Claremont and one in Newport Beach, and

645
00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:33,200
Speaker 2: they would fly you out there and you could perform

646
00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:37,560
Speaker 2: these clubs. And then when I went out to California

647
00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:41,320
Speaker 2: and I saw the scene out here, there are literally

648
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:44,839
Speaker 2: twenty people probably that were doing stand up. Now I

649
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:48,359
Speaker 2: can't even begin to tell you how many comics there are.

650
00:42:48,440 --> 00:42:50,840
Speaker 2: I go on a lot of times at the Comedy

651
00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:53,160
Speaker 2: and Magic Club, which is in Hermosa Beach, and I

652
00:42:53,280 --> 00:42:57,160
Speaker 2: like it because they do a lot. It's ten comics.

653
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:01,439
Speaker 2: They call it ten for ten, ten comics each doing

654
00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:05,080
Speaker 2: ten minutes. And I just went this past Saturday. I

655
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:09,320
Speaker 2: meet all these great new young comments and every Saturday

656
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:14,520
Speaker 2: it's like a new crop. So, yeah, we did know

657
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:16,680
Speaker 2: most of the comedians back then.

658
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:22,480
Speaker 1: Okay, you know Netflix was doing a stand up a week. There.

659
00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:26,840
Speaker 1: There's a plethora of comedy. Forgetting the comedy bloom of

660
00:43:26,840 --> 00:43:29,279
Speaker 1: the eighties and nineties, let's just talk about now. There's

661
00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:34,120
Speaker 1: a plethora of comedy. Comedy is a broad swath, but

662
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:38,600
Speaker 1: let's just start with stand up. There's more than ever before.

663
00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:42,879
Speaker 1: It's more available than ever before. I'll use music as

664
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:46,919
Speaker 1: an analogy, it's more than there ever was before. It's

665
00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:50,080
Speaker 1: big business, but I've been around since the Beatles. It

666
00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:52,879
Speaker 1: doesn't represent what it used to be, and the acts

667
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:55,880
Speaker 1: are in as good. What would you say about comedy.

668
00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:03,600
Speaker 2: I would actually say about comedy. I don't. I still

669
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:07,759
Speaker 2: think people are doing it and doing it well.

670
00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:10,480
Speaker 1: I just.

671
00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:15,040
Speaker 2: You know, I think I also feel like I have

672
00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:19,000
Speaker 2: to watch my old person ness, my boomer ness and say, eh,

673
00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:21,920
Speaker 2: you know, the new crop they're not as good as weird.

674
00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:26,160
Speaker 2: And then there's a lot of great comedy out there.

675
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:29,880
Speaker 2: And what I think is great about comedy, And you know,

676
00:44:29,920 --> 00:44:33,560
Speaker 2: by the same token music is if you don't like it,

677
00:44:33,640 --> 00:44:38,360
Speaker 2: don't listen to it. But you know where I feel

678
00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:44,200
Speaker 2: like there's certainly a dearth of new rock stars per se. Boy,

679
00:44:44,239 --> 00:44:48,000
Speaker 2: there's just a shitload of comedy that's out there and

680
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:52,600
Speaker 2: really good. I mean you start to think, you know,

681
00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:56,920
Speaker 2: is there one more airline joke that that's funny? Yeah,

682
00:44:57,280 --> 00:45:00,279
Speaker 2: I just heard one this past Saturday night. There you know,

683
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:04,120
Speaker 2: still mining out there, you know, we're their heads with

684
00:45:04,239 --> 00:45:08,680
Speaker 2: the lamps on it and finding very good stuff. I

685
00:45:08,680 --> 00:45:09,400
Speaker 2: think it's great.

686
00:45:09,719 --> 00:45:12,880
Speaker 1: Okay, to what degree do you feel the competition.

687
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:21,719
Speaker 2: I don't feel the competition, and I'll tell you why,

688
00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:28,560
Speaker 2: for a couple of reasons. One is I noticed that

689
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:33,080
Speaker 2: when I go up as an older person, I mean,

690
00:45:33,239 --> 00:45:37,000
Speaker 2: I don't think I you know, I'm a boomer, but

691
00:45:37,840 --> 00:45:43,120
Speaker 2: I think people people like it. I would say, you know,

692
00:45:43,239 --> 00:45:46,719
Speaker 2: people my age like to hear from someone of their generation,

693
00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:50,200
Speaker 2: but I think younger people like it as well. I remember,

694
00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:54,239
Speaker 2: you know, watching older comedians when I was young and

695
00:45:54,320 --> 00:46:01,520
Speaker 2: enjoying them. But I don't feel competitive because nobody is me.

696
00:46:03,239 --> 00:46:06,799
Speaker 2: Nobody is me Bob, and I have my own take.

697
00:46:06,880 --> 00:46:10,319
Speaker 2: I've always had my own individual take on things that

698
00:46:10,400 --> 00:46:15,000
Speaker 2: connect with audiences. I'm pleased to say, and the more

699
00:46:15,080 --> 00:46:18,680
Speaker 2: that I keep writing, I don't feel like I'm ever

700
00:46:18,719 --> 00:46:22,560
Speaker 2: in anybody's class. And the great thing about comedy is

701
00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:25,960
Speaker 2: it's all about what you're putting out there, and if

702
00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:29,040
Speaker 2: what you're putting out there is good, you're not really

703
00:46:29,080 --> 00:46:32,600
Speaker 2: in competition with anybody else because it's your own thing.

704
00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:36,560
Speaker 1: So how would you describe your own act in your

705
00:46:36,600 --> 00:46:41,840
Speaker 1: own sensibility?

706
00:46:42,160 --> 00:46:49,520
Speaker 2: My act, Well, i'd like to I think it's I'd

707
00:46:49,560 --> 00:46:55,279
Speaker 2: like to think it's whimsical. It's not aggressive or attacking

708
00:46:55,760 --> 00:47:01,480
Speaker 2: or anything like that. I feel like it's just it's whimsy.

709
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:06,160
Speaker 2: But the great thing about I think being a funny person.

710
00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:11,279
Speaker 2: And I heard this from I was flying back, no

711
00:47:11,320 --> 00:47:14,480
Speaker 2: airline joke to come. I was flying back from somewhere

712
00:47:14,520 --> 00:47:21,239
Speaker 2: and they had a masterclass by David Sedaris and I

713
00:47:21,320 --> 00:47:24,879
Speaker 2: watched it, and I thought he said something pretty profound

714
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:27,600
Speaker 2: that I hadn't realized for all these years that I

715
00:47:27,680 --> 00:47:32,600
Speaker 2: do comedy. And he was talking about how funny people

716
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:37,800
Speaker 2: have the advantage of having embarrassing or terrible things happened

717
00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:43,640
Speaker 2: to them and then making humor out of it. I like,

718
00:47:43,719 --> 00:47:47,480
Speaker 2: for example, what he talked about was, I'm paraphrasing, but

719
00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:51,080
Speaker 2: he went to the doctor for something and they asked

720
00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:53,040
Speaker 2: him to want dress and put on one of those

721
00:47:53,080 --> 00:47:58,279
Speaker 2: horrible robes that open in the back, and they had said,

722
00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:00,400
Speaker 2: and then go to this room and wait. And he

723
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:03,200
Speaker 2: went into this room where there were all people dressed

724
00:48:03,239 --> 00:48:05,920
Speaker 2: and waiting, and he sat there for a couple of

725
00:48:06,000 --> 00:48:09,560
Speaker 2: minutes before he kind of realized, oh, I'm apparently in

726
00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:15,959
Speaker 2: the wrong room, and he left. But he was talking

727
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:20,600
Speaker 2: about how too, you know your average person, that's a

728
00:48:20,640 --> 00:48:23,520
Speaker 2: horrible thing and you just kind of Grin and Barrett,

729
00:48:23,520 --> 00:48:25,960
Speaker 2: you go off to the other room. But funny people,

730
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:28,200
Speaker 2: we can take that story and make hay of it

731
00:48:28,560 --> 00:48:32,000
Speaker 2: and make it humorous. So the terrible things that happened

732
00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:35,200
Speaker 2: to us can become fodder. And I found that in

733
00:48:36,320 --> 00:48:42,400
Speaker 2: my own life, you know, Like I was walking my

734
00:48:42,560 --> 00:48:47,080
Speaker 2: dog recently in my neighborhood and I got to a

735
00:48:47,160 --> 00:48:52,920
Speaker 2: crosswalk and instead of stopping, this car of young guys

736
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:58,080
Speaker 2: came and barreled through the crosswalk, almost hitting me. And

737
00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:00,560
Speaker 2: so what did I do. It was kind of stupid.

738
00:49:00,600 --> 00:49:05,600
Speaker 2: I flipped them off, so big mistake. You know, they

739
00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:10,560
Speaker 2: did a new turn. They're following down the street, honking

740
00:49:10,600 --> 00:49:14,520
Speaker 2: their horn. I was really scared. And then one of

741
00:49:14,560 --> 00:49:17,480
Speaker 2: them rolled down the window and he said to me,

742
00:49:18,120 --> 00:49:29,279
Speaker 2: you're a fat whore. And he also said, and your

743
00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:35,680
Speaker 2: dog is ugly. But anyway, so I tell this story

744
00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:39,440
Speaker 2: now on stage of what happened minus the dog, you know,

745
00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:42,600
Speaker 2: and he said you're a fat horror and yeah. It

746
00:49:42,640 --> 00:49:45,560
Speaker 2: was really shaken up. And I went home and I

747
00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:52,440
Speaker 2: said to my wife, yeah, fat, And the audience loves

748
00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:55,520
Speaker 2: the story. You know, I've taken something that was really

749
00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:59,920
Speaker 2: upsetting to me, and now it's part of being funny.

750
00:50:01,080 --> 00:50:05,560
Speaker 1: If you went back and looked at your early material,

751
00:50:06,160 --> 00:50:09,280
Speaker 1: would you cringe or you say, no, that's my act.

752
00:50:10,920 --> 00:50:17,680
Speaker 2: Oh, now I'm very Someone recently sent me my first letterman,

753
00:50:18,239 --> 00:50:21,759
Speaker 2: which was in nineteen eighty two. I mean, it's like

754
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:24,840
Speaker 2: watching my daughter. It's like that far back, and I

755
00:50:25,280 --> 00:50:27,200
Speaker 2: just get a real kick out of it. I really

756
00:50:27,640 --> 00:50:30,839
Speaker 2: even sort of miss I have. I had this kind

757
00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:39,160
Speaker 2: of joyful, you know, uncratered enthusiasm going out there that

758
00:50:39,760 --> 00:50:46,759
Speaker 2: I sort of miss now, this youthful exuberance, No, I love.

759
00:50:46,960 --> 00:50:52,640
Speaker 2: I love watching my old stuff and remembering what I

760
00:50:52,719 --> 00:50:55,040
Speaker 2: was thinking when I was doing it, and what was

761
00:50:55,080 --> 00:50:56,520
Speaker 2: going on, and all.

762
00:50:56,400 --> 00:51:01,640
Speaker 1: That tell me about your state of mind today visa

763
00:51:01,719 --> 00:51:06,200
Speaker 1: the yesteryear. That youthful exuberance you say you wish you had,

764
00:51:06,640 --> 00:51:08,640
Speaker 1: you say you don't have it, tell me about that.

765
00:51:12,480 --> 00:51:18,000
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think that I look back at

766
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:21,759
Speaker 2: that youthful exuberance and I just look at it as

767
00:51:23,400 --> 00:51:27,800
Speaker 2: being young. I mean I miss it justin in being young.

768
00:51:27,920 --> 00:51:30,239
Speaker 2: I don't miss it in terms of oh I wish that,

769
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:34,920
Speaker 2: wish I had that today. It's just to me, watching

770
00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:40,560
Speaker 2: your younger self is fulfilling in a certain way, because

771
00:51:40,600 --> 00:51:42,640
Speaker 2: it's like, oh, that's who I was back then, and

772
00:51:42,680 --> 00:51:45,279
Speaker 2: look at me. I was really acting young because I

773
00:51:45,400 --> 00:51:53,239
Speaker 2: was young. So I do miss the like when we

774
00:51:53,239 --> 00:51:55,600
Speaker 2: were talking about when I went on those open mic

775
00:51:55,719 --> 00:52:01,680
Speaker 2: nights at twenty and twenty one, I do miss the

776
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:07,080
Speaker 2: I would say recklessness, but it's not the jumping in

777
00:52:07,120 --> 00:52:10,840
Speaker 2: to anything when you're young, because you're young and maybe

778
00:52:10,880 --> 00:52:15,320
Speaker 2: in a way clueless of the consequences, but you're ready

779
00:52:15,360 --> 00:52:20,080
Speaker 2: to jump off that cliff. And certainly now as an

780
00:52:20,080 --> 00:52:23,640
Speaker 2: older person, you know, I'm not going to go hang gliding.

781
00:52:24,280 --> 00:52:26,920
Speaker 2: I'm not. I know you ski. It's like, what what

782
00:52:27,000 --> 00:52:32,239
Speaker 2: are you thinking? I don't want to fall. I've had

783
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:36,440
Speaker 2: too many friends at this age fall. I have to

784
00:52:36,440 --> 00:52:39,960
Speaker 2: get a good pair of sneakers. Maybe I'll get sketches. Bob, Yeah, right,

785
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:46,840
Speaker 2: spoke so highly of them. But yeah, there's a certain

786
00:52:46,920 --> 00:52:50,960
Speaker 2: caution being older that I respect a lot.

787
00:52:51,440 --> 00:52:55,880
Speaker 1: Well, I'm less worried about that aspect then more the

788
00:52:55,920 --> 00:53:01,479
Speaker 1: state of mind, of career and then mixing and aging. Yes,

789
00:53:01,600 --> 00:53:06,160
Speaker 1: when you're nobody from nowhere, you have this incredible desire

790
00:53:06,760 --> 00:53:11,560
Speaker 1: to push walls down and make it by anybody's standards.

791
00:53:11,600 --> 00:53:15,280
Speaker 1: In comedy, in Hollywood, You've made it. I'm not saying

792
00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:18,320
Speaker 1: that reads a complacency. It could in some people, but

793
00:53:18,440 --> 00:53:22,359
Speaker 1: certainly not in your case. But you know, you look

794
00:53:22,400 --> 00:53:24,759
Speaker 1: at the game and say, well, what are the targets

795
00:53:24,800 --> 00:53:29,600
Speaker 1: out there? And even if I achieved that target, would

796
00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:32,440
Speaker 1: it mean enough for me to do it? You know,

797
00:53:32,480 --> 00:53:33,600
Speaker 1: once I achieved it?

798
00:53:34,560 --> 00:53:41,319
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well. The good thing about stand up comedy is

799
00:53:43,280 --> 00:53:46,839
Speaker 2: I know that there's more for me to say, there's

800
00:53:46,880 --> 00:53:50,239
Speaker 2: more jokes for me to write, There's more things I

801
00:53:50,440 --> 00:53:53,759
Speaker 2: like to say and talk about. So I always look

802
00:53:53,800 --> 00:53:59,040
Speaker 2: ahead optimistically in that way. And as we've been talking

803
00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:03,600
Speaker 2: a lot before about this, nobody has will ever have

804
00:54:03,719 --> 00:54:07,120
Speaker 2: my act or my jokes. So to me, that's always

805
00:54:07,280 --> 00:54:11,960
Speaker 2: been a big advantage in the SHOWPI Is World, because

806
00:54:12,800 --> 00:54:16,560
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to write a show for somebody. I'm not.

807
00:54:18,560 --> 00:54:20,520
Speaker 2: You know, it's a whole different thing when you work

808
00:54:20,960 --> 00:54:24,360
Speaker 2: in one as one, and I always think like there's

809
00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:28,920
Speaker 2: always an audience for I think what I'm doing, what

810
00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:32,040
Speaker 2: anybody's doing. If you connect with whoever you connect with,

811
00:54:32,960 --> 00:54:37,040
Speaker 2: that to me that that's a thumbs up. And more importantly,

812
00:54:37,360 --> 00:54:43,720
Speaker 2: I think Bob I dig being creative. That's my Jones.

813
00:54:44,040 --> 00:54:48,360
Speaker 2: You know, that's my thing. It really makes me feel alive. Really,

814
00:54:49,320 --> 00:54:52,920
Speaker 2: it's what led to writing my book. I mean, I

815
00:54:52,960 --> 00:54:56,360
Speaker 2: was writing a TV I couldn't do it because of

816
00:54:56,400 --> 00:55:01,200
Speaker 2: the strike. Honoring the strike. I always like to be

817
00:55:01,719 --> 00:55:08,160
Speaker 2: that I'm working on. That's I'm thinking about that. Yeah,

818
00:55:08,320 --> 00:55:09,520
Speaker 2: that's that's my fix.

819
00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:13,160
Speaker 1: Okay, let's look at Bill Maher. Let's not get into

820
00:55:13,200 --> 00:55:15,680
Speaker 1: his act or whatever. And he's got a TV show's

821
00:55:15,719 --> 00:55:19,040
Speaker 1: had a TV show for thirty odd years. He says

822
00:55:19,040 --> 00:55:21,480
Speaker 1: he's quitting the road if you look at some of

823
00:55:21,520 --> 00:55:24,160
Speaker 1: his numbers, not necessarily going clean everywhere. But that's not

824
00:55:24,280 --> 00:55:28,240
Speaker 1: really the point. I know Richard Lewis. I knew Richard

825
00:55:28,239 --> 00:55:31,200
Speaker 1: a certain amount, not a lot. Which people don't realize

826
00:55:31,200 --> 00:55:33,319
Speaker 1: about Richard, which I have to throw in, is he

827
00:55:33,520 --> 00:55:36,560
Speaker 1: was that guy. You know, there's so many people you think,

828
00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:40,840
Speaker 1: oh yeah, you know, it's just so hilarious, but you know,

829
00:55:41,239 --> 00:55:44,040
Speaker 1: well he only he unfortunately passed, but he only wanted

830
00:55:44,080 --> 00:55:47,080
Speaker 1: to do so much work. Now, your career is not

831
00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:50,839
Speaker 1: that of the average stand up comedian. But let's say

832
00:55:50,840 --> 00:55:52,279
Speaker 1: the aviad, you know, we look at it. You could

833
00:55:52,320 --> 00:55:57,040
Speaker 1: go book thirty dates of whatever number of tickets you

834
00:55:57,040 --> 00:56:00,200
Speaker 1: could sell somewhere between five hundred and fifty thousand, and

835
00:56:00,280 --> 00:56:03,560
Speaker 1: you can go out and you collect money. You reach

836
00:56:03,719 --> 00:56:06,200
Speaker 1: this age. Is that's still satisfying?

837
00:56:08,280 --> 00:56:15,240
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Absolutely? Yeah. I don't know why. I'm just interested.

838
00:56:15,239 --> 00:56:16,600
Speaker 2: Why would you think it would not be?

839
00:56:16,719 --> 00:56:20,880
Speaker 1: Oh okay, let's use a couple of examples musicians. Musicians

840
00:56:20,920 --> 00:56:23,399
Speaker 1: have hits otherwise you can't play it all. And if

841
00:56:23,440 --> 00:56:25,160
Speaker 1: you go on the road you have to play those

842
00:56:25,239 --> 00:56:27,120
Speaker 1: hits and people find out you're not, then people are

843
00:56:27,120 --> 00:56:29,879
Speaker 1: not going to come. There are a lot of musicians

844
00:56:29,840 --> 00:56:32,640
Speaker 1: who say, hey, yeah, you know, I'm singing my hit,

845
00:56:32,680 --> 00:56:36,440
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about doing the laundry, etc. We live in

846
00:56:36,520 --> 00:56:41,879
Speaker 1: an interesting world where there's so much stuff. Okay, such

847
00:56:41,920 --> 00:56:46,640
Speaker 1: a if you do something live, it's a momentary thing

848
00:56:46,760 --> 00:56:50,719
Speaker 1: for that audience, and then you move on and do

849
00:56:50,800 --> 00:56:53,880
Speaker 1: it for another audience. With a comedian, it tends to

850
00:56:53,920 --> 00:56:57,800
Speaker 1: be a similar act. So uh huh. At what point

851
00:56:57,840 --> 00:57:01,680
Speaker 1: do you say, well, I'm out here, it's fun hearing

852
00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:06,400
Speaker 1: people laugh, I'm getting paid, but it doesn't mean the

853
00:57:06,520 --> 00:57:09,759
Speaker 1: same thing because it's not moving my career forward. Let

854
00:57:09,800 --> 00:57:13,200
Speaker 1: me throw that into the mix. It used to be

855
00:57:14,160 --> 00:57:17,960
Speaker 1: in the sixties certainly the seventies, if you wanted to

856
00:57:18,000 --> 00:57:22,400
Speaker 1: be successful, going on the road was part of growing

857
00:57:22,440 --> 00:57:28,160
Speaker 1: your audience. Okay, certainly for an established comic who's charging

858
00:57:28,280 --> 00:57:33,439
Speaker 1: an admission fee in excess of thirty five dollars, it's

859
00:57:33,480 --> 00:57:36,320
Speaker 1: not really growing their audience. That's not how you grow

860
00:57:36,360 --> 00:57:39,120
Speaker 1: your addies. Not to mention it, it's so hard to

861
00:57:39,200 --> 00:57:42,120
Speaker 1: grow your audience today. So you could be sitting at

862
00:57:42,120 --> 00:57:45,640
Speaker 1: home saying, especially if you have enough in your bank account.

863
00:57:46,040 --> 00:57:48,160
Speaker 1: You know, this is sort of a pass thing. But

864
00:57:48,280 --> 00:57:51,600
Speaker 1: using an example, I could come up with a tweet

865
00:57:51,680 --> 00:57:55,280
Speaker 1: that's so good it could go viral. I could do

866
00:57:55,360 --> 00:57:58,680
Speaker 1: a skit on TikTok so good, I could reach millions

867
00:57:58,720 --> 00:58:02,160
Speaker 1: of people. Whereas, if I go on the road, I'm gonna,

868
00:58:02,480 --> 00:58:04,160
Speaker 1: you know, when I'm all said and done, I'm gonna,

869
00:58:04,200 --> 00:58:07,600
Speaker 1: you know, reach a small fraction of the population. And

870
00:58:07,880 --> 00:58:11,200
Speaker 1: am I really moving the needle forward? You know? Conversely,

871
00:58:11,200 --> 00:58:14,000
Speaker 1: you're talking about playing the Oscars. You know, we can

872
00:58:14,040 --> 00:58:16,880
Speaker 1: debate all day long how many people actually watch the show,

873
00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:20,680
Speaker 1: et cetera, But a shit ton do And you say,

874
00:58:20,920 --> 00:58:24,320
Speaker 1: I'm sure if you're there, and the comedian lands your

875
00:58:24,440 --> 00:58:27,040
Speaker 1: joke and there's a big laugh. You know you're talking

876
00:58:27,040 --> 00:58:29,760
Speaker 1: about velling. This is the greatest thing that ever happened.

877
00:58:29,880 --> 00:58:33,280
Speaker 1: You're on a high for a couple of days. Okay,

878
00:58:33,320 --> 00:58:35,760
Speaker 1: But that's different from saying, oh, yeah, I told a

879
00:58:35,880 --> 00:58:37,800
Speaker 1: joke and Poughkeepsie the audience loved it.

880
00:58:39,960 --> 00:58:43,920
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think you're missing the experience of

881
00:58:44,000 --> 00:58:49,479
Speaker 2: being a comedian because as many times as I've told

882
00:58:49,520 --> 00:58:54,920
Speaker 2: the joke, when the audience laughs at it, it's like

883
00:58:55,040 --> 00:58:58,400
Speaker 2: the first airing the laugh for the first time. But

884
00:58:58,480 --> 00:59:02,600
Speaker 2: it's interesting what you bring up, Okay, Bob, because you know,

885
00:59:03,520 --> 00:59:07,720
Speaker 2: I'm getting a re education on comedy every moment because

886
00:59:08,640 --> 00:59:12,800
Speaker 2: things change, and things changed drastically from when I started

887
00:59:12,880 --> 00:59:17,080
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy seven. For example, Now I've thought a

888
00:59:17,080 --> 00:59:19,400
Speaker 2: lot about, ah god, it would be great if I

889
00:59:19,400 --> 00:59:22,800
Speaker 2: could get a special like on net Felix or Hulu

890
00:59:23,120 --> 00:59:25,520
Speaker 2: Prime one of those. I'm not going to get a special.

891
00:59:25,880 --> 00:59:29,640
Speaker 2: It's just not going to happen. But talking to these

892
00:59:29,720 --> 00:59:33,840
Speaker 2: young comics as I do now, one of them was

893
00:59:33,920 --> 00:59:38,680
Speaker 2: telling me the other night he went on and he

894
00:59:38,720 --> 00:59:41,560
Speaker 2: said to the audience, oh, this is great because I'm

895
00:59:41,600 --> 00:59:44,880
Speaker 2: about to tape my special. And after he got off stage,

896
00:59:44,880 --> 00:59:46,520
Speaker 2: I said, Oh, that's cool. Who are you doing this

897
00:59:46,560 --> 00:59:50,440
Speaker 2: special for Netflix Hulu? He was like, I'm taping it

898
00:59:50,600 --> 00:59:53,320
Speaker 2: myself and then I'm putting it up on YouTube. And

899
00:59:53,360 --> 00:59:56,160
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, like why would you do that?

900
00:59:56,360 --> 00:59:59,160
Speaker 2: He was like, Oh, that's the way to go these days.

901
01:00:00,240 --> 01:00:04,600
Speaker 2: Tell me how a comedian he knows that a Netflix special.

902
01:00:04,680 --> 01:00:07,840
Speaker 2: He did so much better putting his own up on YouTube.

903
01:00:08,480 --> 01:00:10,160
Speaker 2: And then I was like, okay, and then I'm thinking

904
01:00:10,160 --> 01:00:13,800
Speaker 2: about material, how much material I need? What do you

905
01:00:13,840 --> 01:00:16,200
Speaker 2: need to do an hour now and fifteen? He is like, no,

906
01:00:16,520 --> 01:00:19,440
Speaker 2: thirty forty minutes. You can do less than that. People

907
01:00:19,640 --> 01:00:23,680
Speaker 2: only a wived for the first ten minutes. And then suddenly,

908
01:00:23,680 --> 01:00:26,640
Speaker 2: now I seek that I can have a special. And

909
01:00:27,000 --> 01:00:29,800
Speaker 2: do I do a special? I performed for so many

910
01:00:29,880 --> 01:00:35,360
Speaker 2: Jewish groups? Yeah, so surprised. I could do a special

911
01:00:35,360 --> 01:00:37,760
Speaker 2: of all my Jewish material and put it out there,

912
01:00:38,200 --> 01:00:40,720
Speaker 2: and I bet you, Bob, I bet you I'd get

913
01:00:40,720 --> 01:00:44,880
Speaker 2: twenty or thirty groups that hire me, which would be fantastic.

914
01:00:45,240 --> 01:00:50,880
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think there's always that. To me, was

915
01:00:51,080 --> 01:00:54,640
Speaker 2: so exciting to hear that. That made my year hearing

916
01:00:54,720 --> 01:01:00,120
Speaker 2: that thinking about a special, and especially my personality as

917
01:01:00,160 --> 01:01:05,600
Speaker 2: you touched on earlier. I can make this happen in

918
01:01:05,760 --> 01:01:07,320
Speaker 2: three seconds.

919
01:01:07,320 --> 01:01:18,720
Speaker 1: Fantastic, Okay, I had the same experience. I see a

920
01:01:18,760 --> 01:01:22,320
Speaker 1: lot of comedy on TikTok and Instagram reels and they'll

921
01:01:22,320 --> 01:01:25,400
Speaker 1: say my special, and I'll say this person has a special,

922
01:01:25,400 --> 01:01:28,240
Speaker 1: And that's how I found about the YouTube specials. But

923
01:01:29,120 --> 01:01:31,760
Speaker 1: you just laid it out. You speak to Jewish groups,

924
01:01:31,960 --> 01:01:34,800
Speaker 1: you have the material. What's going to take to get

925
01:01:34,800 --> 01:01:36,360
Speaker 1: you over the hump to actually do it?

926
01:01:38,200 --> 01:01:40,720
Speaker 2: You mean to actually get the gigs, no.

927
01:01:42,400 --> 01:01:47,000
Speaker 1: To film, you know what. Listen, ten minutes plus ten

928
01:01:47,040 --> 01:01:49,960
Speaker 1: minutes is enough. Yeah, you stand up there and you

929
01:01:50,000 --> 01:01:53,200
Speaker 1: do ten minutes worth of Jewish stuff. It's going to

930
01:01:53,320 --> 01:01:54,000
Speaker 1: lead to work.

931
01:01:54,680 --> 01:01:55,200
Speaker 2: Yeah.

932
01:01:55,240 --> 01:01:57,680
Speaker 1: So you found out about it the Comedy Magic Club.

933
01:01:57,760 --> 01:01:59,880
Speaker 1: Are you going to do it?

934
01:02:01,200 --> 01:02:05,040
Speaker 2: Of course I'm going to do it. Of course. Am

935
01:02:05,080 --> 01:02:07,960
Speaker 2: I going to do it right now? I don't know.

936
01:02:08,360 --> 01:02:11,000
Speaker 2: I'm promoting my book, Bob. That takes a lot of

937
01:02:11,120 --> 01:02:17,440
Speaker 2: energy and effort. I'm also of the age that I

938
01:02:17,440 --> 01:02:19,680
Speaker 2: am like to be in bed around ten you know

939
01:02:19,680 --> 01:02:25,920
Speaker 2: what I mean? My souted ten twenty. You know, comedy.

940
01:02:26,000 --> 01:02:28,680
Speaker 2: The biggest challenge for me is it's a young person's game.

941
01:02:29,280 --> 01:02:33,160
Speaker 2: In terms of the hours. You know Fraser Smith, who

942
01:02:33,200 --> 01:02:36,880
Speaker 2: was you know, a big DJ on k Los. He's

943
01:02:36,960 --> 01:02:39,280
Speaker 2: out there killing him. I worked with him Saturday night.

944
01:02:39,320 --> 01:02:41,680
Speaker 2: He's so funny. He was like, come on my show

945
01:02:41,720 --> 01:02:44,280
Speaker 2: at the comedy Store. I'm like, great, I haven't been

946
01:02:44,280 --> 01:02:45,880
Speaker 2: on at the comedy store. This is a way in.

947
01:02:46,360 --> 01:02:48,960
Speaker 2: He was like, yeah, I start my show at nine thirty.

948
01:02:49,320 --> 01:02:51,960
Speaker 2: And I was thinking, all right, I'd like to do it, Frasher,

949
01:02:52,000 --> 01:02:53,640
Speaker 2: but you got to get me on early. I got

950
01:02:53,680 --> 01:02:57,000
Speaker 2: to get home, I got to get to sleep. Can

951
01:02:57,040 --> 01:02:59,280
Speaker 2: I tell you another joke that my father told all

952
01:02:59,280 --> 01:03:03,240
Speaker 2: this reminded me of this. Oh my god, do I

953
01:03:03,280 --> 01:03:05,600
Speaker 2: love this joke? Okay, So this guy comes home from

954
01:03:05,640 --> 01:03:07,960
Speaker 2: the doctor. The wife says to him, what did the

955
01:03:08,040 --> 01:03:11,280
Speaker 2: doctor say? Guy says, I can't believe it. Doctor says

956
01:03:11,320 --> 01:03:15,280
Speaker 2: I have twenty four hours to live. The wife is like,

957
01:03:15,760 --> 01:03:18,520
Speaker 2: oh my god, I can't believe it. Well, what would

958
01:03:18,520 --> 01:03:21,720
Speaker 2: you like to do? And the husband says, how about sex?

959
01:03:22,720 --> 01:03:25,720
Speaker 2: So they have sex and then she says all right, honey,

960
01:03:25,720 --> 01:03:28,080
Speaker 2: what would you like to do? Now? He says, how

961
01:03:28,080 --> 01:03:32,760
Speaker 2: about some more sex? She goes, okay, honey. Now when

962
01:03:32,760 --> 01:03:34,440
Speaker 2: they're done, she says what would you like to do?

963
01:03:34,520 --> 01:03:34,680
Speaker 1: Now?

964
01:03:34,800 --> 01:03:38,120
Speaker 2: The husband says, how about sex one more time? She goes, look,

965
01:03:38,840 --> 01:03:44,400
Speaker 2: I gotta get up in the morning. Yes, so I

966
01:03:44,480 --> 01:03:45,520
Speaker 2: gotta get up, Bob.

967
01:03:46,320 --> 01:03:50,200
Speaker 1: Okay, those are a couple of your father's greatest hits.

968
01:03:50,600 --> 01:03:53,320
Speaker 1: Do you have a couple of jokes whether you tell

969
01:03:53,360 --> 01:03:56,360
Speaker 1: them on stage just amongst friends that are just your

970
01:03:56,400 --> 01:03:57,640
Speaker 1: favorites and you whip.

971
01:03:57,400 --> 01:04:05,720
Speaker 2: About, Oh, jokes that I tell hm, that is interesting.

972
01:04:05,840 --> 01:04:07,800
Speaker 2: You mean jokes for my act that I like to

973
01:04:07,840 --> 01:04:08,400
Speaker 2: tell people.

974
01:04:09,760 --> 01:04:12,680
Speaker 1: They can be from your act, but a couple of

975
01:04:12,760 --> 01:04:16,640
Speaker 1: things that you know, you know, we'll always get a laugh,

976
01:04:16,800 --> 01:04:21,200
Speaker 1: irrelevant of context, who's president, whether the you know, the economy,

977
01:04:21,760 --> 01:04:24,560
Speaker 1: who the audience is. You know, you tell this joke

978
01:04:25,000 --> 01:04:28,280
Speaker 1: and you smile because it always works, and you like

979
01:04:28,400 --> 01:04:28,880
Speaker 1: to tell it.

980
01:04:30,480 --> 01:04:36,480
Speaker 2: Okay, well, oh why I you know, talk about when

981
01:04:36,480 --> 01:04:39,240
Speaker 2: I mentioned to you. It doesn't matter how many times

982
01:04:39,280 --> 01:04:42,360
Speaker 2: you've told the joke. If people laugh, that's all you need.

983
01:04:42,640 --> 01:04:44,680
Speaker 2: I'm not sitting there thinking, oh, I have to tell

984
01:04:44,720 --> 01:04:46,600
Speaker 2: this joke one more time. I'm always like, I get

985
01:04:46,640 --> 01:04:50,440
Speaker 2: to tell this joke one more time. Now. I do

986
01:04:50,520 --> 01:04:53,040
Speaker 2: a lot of you know, gigs where I got to

987
01:04:53,080 --> 01:04:56,919
Speaker 2: fly there Okay, So I love doing this joke because

988
01:04:56,960 --> 01:04:59,240
Speaker 2: people always like to know that you're in the moment,

989
01:04:59,400 --> 01:05:03,000
Speaker 2: that you're in their city, that you got there. So

990
01:05:04,200 --> 01:05:08,680
Speaker 2: many times I start my set by saying, oh, it's

991
01:05:08,960 --> 01:05:11,280
Speaker 2: great to be here. You know, I flew in yesterday.

992
01:05:12,120 --> 01:05:14,120
Speaker 2: But I have a great travel tip for you guys.

993
01:05:14,200 --> 01:05:16,760
Speaker 2: You know how like when you fly on Southwest and

994
01:05:16,800 --> 01:05:18,919
Speaker 2: you want to keep that seat empty next to you,

995
01:05:19,560 --> 01:05:21,080
Speaker 2: I have the best way to do it. Okay, when

996
01:05:21,120 --> 01:05:23,040
Speaker 2: someone walks down the island and says to you, is

997
01:05:23,040 --> 01:05:28,640
Speaker 2: someone sitting here? Just say no, one except the Lord.

998
01:05:32,080 --> 01:05:37,400
Speaker 2: And it always works. It always always works. So once

999
01:05:37,440 --> 01:05:40,120
Speaker 2: I do that joke, I know I'm in like Flint

1000
01:05:41,160 --> 01:05:43,920
Speaker 2: and I can use that expression with my fellow boomer.

1001
01:05:44,360 --> 01:05:46,360
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely a little believe it or not. I never

1002
01:05:46,360 --> 01:05:50,920
Speaker 1: saw those two movies. But okay, let's go back. So

1003
01:05:51,120 --> 01:05:54,160
Speaker 1: how do you decide to leave Binghamton and go to

1004
01:05:54,200 --> 01:05:54,600
Speaker 1: New York.

1005
01:05:57,000 --> 01:05:59,600
Speaker 2: Well, it was a very easy decision for me because

1006
01:06:00,840 --> 01:06:04,800
Speaker 2: I had passed the audition at the Comic Strip and

1007
01:06:04,840 --> 01:06:07,640
Speaker 2: it was the summer of my junior year, finishing my

1008
01:06:07,720 --> 01:06:12,240
Speaker 2: junior year, and I decided I wanted to become a comedian,

1009
01:06:12,520 --> 01:06:17,160
Speaker 2: So I told my parents. It's another thing. I look

1010
01:06:17,200 --> 01:06:20,960
Speaker 2: back now, I go to my Jewish parents, I'm going

1011
01:06:21,000 --> 01:06:24,920
Speaker 2: to leave college. I will finish at Queen's College, which

1012
01:06:25,000 --> 01:06:29,280
Speaker 2: was my mother's alba mater, so I had some brownie

1013
01:06:29,320 --> 01:06:32,600
Speaker 2: points there. But when I look back, and I think

1014
01:06:32,640 --> 01:06:34,560
Speaker 2: I said to me, I want to start to try

1015
01:06:34,600 --> 01:06:37,360
Speaker 2: to become a comedian, and my father says to me, well, look,

1016
01:06:37,360 --> 01:06:41,600
Speaker 2: you got to strike while the iron's hot. You know

1017
01:06:42,000 --> 01:06:44,520
Speaker 2: that was pretty remarkable. I don't know how I would

1018
01:06:44,600 --> 01:06:47,600
Speaker 2: feel as a parent if my kid had done the

1019
01:06:47,680 --> 01:06:53,320
Speaker 2: same thing. So that's how I left Binghamton and finished

1020
01:06:54,000 --> 01:06:59,040
Speaker 2: my education at Queen's. God. I used to do a

1021
01:06:59,120 --> 01:07:03,560
Speaker 2: joke back then Bob about Queen's which was, you know,

1022
01:07:03,600 --> 01:07:06,640
Speaker 2: it's a very tough school, Queen's College, very tough. You

1023
01:07:06,680 --> 01:07:13,120
Speaker 2: need a pen to get in the young people. They

1024
01:07:13,160 --> 01:07:14,200
Speaker 2: don't use pens.

1025
01:07:14,240 --> 01:07:19,160
Speaker 1: Now, Okay, the act that you did to pass the audition,

1026
01:07:20,200 --> 01:07:23,320
Speaker 1: how long did you work on that act before you

1027
01:07:23,360 --> 01:07:24,120
Speaker 1: took the stage.

1028
01:07:26,440 --> 01:07:29,960
Speaker 2: Not long. I just kind of I think I had

1029
01:07:30,080 --> 01:07:33,560
Speaker 2: kind of done a version of it at Binghamton opening

1030
01:07:33,600 --> 01:07:35,640
Speaker 2: for a friend of mine who is a singer. So

1031
01:07:35,800 --> 01:07:38,680
Speaker 2: I had an idea and I'm sure I ran it

1032
01:07:38,800 --> 01:07:44,480
Speaker 2: by Paul, and I'm sure Paul ran his set by me. Yeah,

1033
01:07:44,640 --> 01:07:45,720
Speaker 2: not a long time.

1034
01:07:47,320 --> 01:07:52,160
Speaker 1: Okay, you moved to New York, you know the stories

1035
01:07:52,200 --> 01:07:55,439
Speaker 1: have become legendary. Yeah, I'm working at five clubs in night.

1036
01:07:55,960 --> 01:07:58,560
Speaker 1: What happened to you? First you were in school? A

1037
01:07:58,800 --> 01:08:01,640
Speaker 1: Were you doing that? B? Did you have a day

1038
01:08:01,720 --> 01:08:03,600
Speaker 1: gig after you graduated from school?

1039
01:08:04,920 --> 01:08:08,160
Speaker 2: I did well. First, I was living at my parents' house.

1040
01:08:09,080 --> 01:08:11,520
Speaker 2: I was going to Queen's College during the day, and

1041
01:08:11,600 --> 01:08:14,440
Speaker 2: at night I would drive into the city to do

1042
01:08:14,640 --> 01:08:21,040
Speaker 2: my act. And then, you know, it was a pretty

1043
01:08:21,040 --> 01:08:28,439
Speaker 2: great at Queen's College. I had a professor who let me, Yeah,

1044
01:08:29,000 --> 01:08:31,120
Speaker 2: he let me do this as a course. I would

1045
01:08:31,120 --> 01:08:34,000
Speaker 2: come in and play my tapes of my stand up

1046
01:08:34,040 --> 01:08:36,400
Speaker 2: and we would listen to it and critique it. And

1047
01:08:36,439 --> 01:08:39,120
Speaker 2: I think that was pretty great. Thank you Queen's College

1048
01:08:39,400 --> 01:08:44,920
Speaker 2: for the support. So when I graduated school, I moved

1049
01:08:44,960 --> 01:08:49,799
Speaker 2: into the city and I had to get a job.

1050
01:08:50,160 --> 01:08:54,479
Speaker 2: So for three seconds I worked at this coffee company,

1051
01:08:54,520 --> 01:08:57,880
Speaker 2: a coffee wholesale, and then I remember the boss saying

1052
01:08:57,920 --> 01:09:01,120
Speaker 2: to me, my friend needs somebody at his office. He's

1053
01:09:01,120 --> 01:09:05,400
Speaker 2: a private eye and he needs a secretary and I

1054
01:09:05,520 --> 01:09:07,600
Speaker 2: was like, it was a good typer. I was like,

1055
01:09:08,800 --> 01:09:10,960
Speaker 2: so I met with the guy and it was a

1056
01:09:11,000 --> 01:09:15,600
Speaker 2: private eye. It sounded really very you know, very glamorous

1057
01:09:15,640 --> 01:09:22,600
Speaker 2: and very you know, Maltese falcony. But he was a

1058
01:09:22,640 --> 01:09:27,519
Speaker 2: guy who gave polygraph tests two people who wanted to

1059
01:09:27,560 --> 01:09:36,320
Speaker 2: work at places as varied as burger king and escort services.

1060
01:09:37,439 --> 01:09:43,360
Speaker 2: So he needed someone to type up via dictaphone, that

1061
01:09:43,760 --> 01:09:49,160
Speaker 2: archaic piece of technology writing up the reports. So this

1062
01:09:49,320 --> 01:09:51,960
Speaker 2: is a great job for me for two reasons. One was,

1063
01:09:53,120 --> 01:09:55,960
Speaker 2: as mentioned, I was a very good typer, so to

1064
01:09:56,080 --> 01:09:59,719
Speaker 2: operate the dictaphone, I was asis at that. But also

1065
01:10:00,680 --> 01:10:06,080
Speaker 2: he was very understanding of my stand up situation. I

1066
01:10:06,120 --> 01:10:08,880
Speaker 2: said to him, because I was going on so late,

1067
01:10:10,200 --> 01:10:15,240
Speaker 2: can I work eleven to six with no lunch? And

1068
01:10:15,280 --> 01:10:18,040
Speaker 2: he said, okay, is a lot of the work it's done, okay,

1069
01:10:18,120 --> 01:10:21,439
Speaker 2: So to get to the office at eleven that was nice.

1070
01:10:21,760 --> 01:10:26,280
Speaker 2: That was very understanding of gracious of him. So that's

1071
01:10:26,320 --> 01:10:28,360
Speaker 2: what I did. Until I was seeing that I was

1072
01:10:28,360 --> 01:10:31,880
Speaker 2: making enough money. My first gig, oh my god, Bob

1073
01:10:32,120 --> 01:10:37,160
Speaker 2: Baroque College in Manhattan, one hundred bucks to perform. I

1074
01:10:37,280 --> 01:10:42,120
Speaker 2: felt like I had hit the Vegas jackpot one hundred bucks.

1075
01:10:42,479 --> 01:10:47,000
Speaker 2: Oh my god. So yeah, that was my day job.

1076
01:10:47,120 --> 01:10:51,200
Speaker 2: I just was in Manhattan recently and I just passed

1077
01:10:51,240 --> 01:10:53,960
Speaker 2: by four fifty seventh Avenue just to look at the

1078
01:10:53,960 --> 01:10:59,280
Speaker 2: building again of where I worked. Yeah, it's funny.

1079
01:11:00,040 --> 01:11:03,360
Speaker 1: Okay, how long after college could you give up your

1080
01:11:03,439 --> 01:11:03,920
Speaker 1: day job?

1081
01:11:05,840 --> 01:11:11,320
Speaker 2: I think it was about tak about a year. That's

1082
01:11:11,360 --> 01:11:12,240
Speaker 2: so bad what.

1083
01:11:12,280 --> 01:11:15,599
Speaker 1: Happened within that year financially such as you didn't need

1084
01:11:15,640 --> 01:11:16,240
Speaker 1: it anymore?

1085
01:11:17,400 --> 01:11:22,840
Speaker 2: I found that I was making enough from gigs you're

1086
01:11:22,880 --> 01:11:25,880
Speaker 2: in there to pay the rent and be able to

1087
01:11:26,400 --> 01:11:29,560
Speaker 2: just be a full time, full time comedian. That was

1088
01:11:29,600 --> 01:11:31,760
Speaker 2: another thing that my father said when I said I

1089
01:11:31,800 --> 01:11:33,680
Speaker 2: wanted to be a comedian. He said, you know, it's

1090
01:11:33,680 --> 01:11:37,120
Speaker 2: a cash business, and cash is king Carol.

1091
01:11:38,080 --> 01:11:39,599
Speaker 1: As long as you don't put it in the bank.

1092
01:11:40,520 --> 01:11:45,000
Speaker 1: So yeah, okay. On the West Coast, they weren't paying

1093
01:11:45,080 --> 01:11:48,680
Speaker 1: the comedians at the conventional clubs. Hey, what was the

1094
01:11:48,720 --> 01:11:53,080
Speaker 1: situation on the East coast? And to what degree were

1095
01:11:53,120 --> 01:11:56,040
Speaker 1: there like at Baruke College? What were these other gigs

1096
01:11:56,040 --> 01:11:59,640
Speaker 1: and how did you get them?

1097
01:12:00,960 --> 01:12:05,760
Speaker 2: You know, you got cab fare at these clubs, which

1098
01:12:05,840 --> 01:12:09,040
Speaker 2: was about five bucks, but you also got to eat there,

1099
01:12:10,520 --> 01:12:13,280
Speaker 2: but you couldn't have cheesecake. That was only if you

1100
01:12:13,360 --> 01:12:20,400
Speaker 2: were the empcy, but so free meals. It just became like, hey,

1101
01:12:20,439 --> 01:12:25,200
Speaker 2: there's a club in Jersey, they drive you out, you perform,

1102
01:12:25,479 --> 01:12:28,759
Speaker 2: You make forty bucks here and there, you do a college,

1103
01:12:28,800 --> 01:12:32,240
Speaker 2: you get the hundred bucks's. It was all kind of

1104
01:12:32,280 --> 01:12:36,120
Speaker 2: word of mouth, kind of booking. Somebody did this gig,

1105
01:12:36,160 --> 01:12:38,040
Speaker 2: Oh you should do this gig, and blah blah blah,

1106
01:12:38,120 --> 01:12:42,519
Speaker 2: and you kind of through connections started to make enough

1107
01:12:42,600 --> 01:12:43,719
Speaker 2: money that way.

1108
01:12:44,280 --> 01:12:46,760
Speaker 1: And when you're doing that, you give up your day job.

1109
01:12:47,400 --> 01:12:49,880
Speaker 1: What is the dream? Dev ready to court of a

1110
01:12:50,040 --> 01:12:53,120
Speaker 1: see you? What would you say? This would be what's happening?

1111
01:12:54,880 --> 01:12:59,639
Speaker 2: That was the absolute holy ground to get on the

1112
01:13:01,400 --> 01:13:10,040
Speaker 2: I think in my journey what happened was gladfully David

1113
01:13:10,120 --> 01:13:13,000
Speaker 2: Letterman had seen me. I was in a New York

1114
01:13:13,040 --> 01:13:19,040
Speaker 2: comedy competition and I always talk about it because I

1115
01:13:19,080 --> 01:13:24,240
Speaker 2: came in fourth and Eddie Murphy came in fifth. Okay, yeah,

1116
01:13:24,439 --> 01:13:30,800
Speaker 2: good job, judges right. And then when he got his show, oh,

1117
01:13:30,840 --> 01:13:33,519
Speaker 2: he recommended me to the Tonight Show and they passed.

1118
01:13:34,720 --> 01:13:37,160
Speaker 2: But when he got his late night show, he put

1119
01:13:37,200 --> 01:13:40,040
Speaker 2: me right on. So and then I went on to

1120
01:13:40,080 --> 01:13:44,840
Speaker 2: do it twenty five times, but it kind of marginalized

1121
01:13:44,880 --> 01:13:48,920
Speaker 2: me as a Letterman act. So the Tonight Show didn't

1122
01:13:48,920 --> 01:13:56,599
Speaker 2: really take me seriously. But Bob relentless garral Leifer never

1123
01:13:56,640 --> 01:13:59,439
Speaker 2: say die every time I would no audition for it,

1124
01:13:59,520 --> 01:14:03,599
Speaker 2: audition over and over and over. And then finally two

1125
01:14:03,640 --> 01:14:08,519
Speaker 2: months before, three months before Johnny retired, they booked me

1126
01:14:08,600 --> 01:14:10,519
Speaker 2: on the show, So I got to do it once

1127
01:14:10,600 --> 01:14:11,240
Speaker 2: with Johnny.

1128
01:14:11,280 --> 01:14:17,000
Speaker 1: Okay, when you say auditioned for them as a practical matter,

1129
01:14:17,080 --> 01:14:18,479
Speaker 1: what was that you actually did.

1130
01:14:20,280 --> 01:14:22,400
Speaker 2: They would come to a club and they would put

1131
01:14:22,400 --> 01:14:26,519
Speaker 2: together a showcase for them of comedians and I would

1132
01:14:26,560 --> 01:14:27,160
Speaker 2: be one of them.

1133
01:14:27,560 --> 01:14:31,400
Speaker 1: Okay, you worked with them all. You know amongst the

1134
01:14:31,479 --> 01:14:36,400
Speaker 1: younger generation, Letterman is cakeing. Letterman changed late night because

1135
01:14:36,400 --> 01:14:39,599
Speaker 1: it really became more of a comedy show, whereas with

1136
01:14:39,680 --> 01:14:43,040
Speaker 1: Johnny and his generation or more interviews, you didn't have

1137
01:14:43,120 --> 01:14:45,559
Speaker 1: to come in with the so called funny story like

1138
01:14:45,600 --> 01:14:48,920
Speaker 1: you do today. So what has been your experience with

1139
01:14:49,000 --> 01:14:51,560
Speaker 1: all these late night hosts?

1140
01:14:53,280 --> 01:14:57,920
Speaker 2: Well, the great thing about doing sense well on any show,

1141
01:14:57,960 --> 01:15:00,200
Speaker 2: you know, I did MERV Griffin back then, and a

1142
01:15:00,439 --> 01:15:08,720
Speaker 2: solid gold you know, a cornucopia of appearances on shows.

1143
01:15:09,560 --> 01:15:11,040
Speaker 2: You just had to go out and do your thing

1144
01:15:11,280 --> 01:15:13,799
Speaker 2: and be funny. Let me tell you some MERV Griffin audience,

1145
01:15:13,960 --> 01:15:17,960
Speaker 2: those white haired ladies, you know, with the pocketbooks in

1146
01:15:18,000 --> 01:15:21,000
Speaker 2: their lap. That was not an easy audience. But that

1147
01:15:21,080 --> 01:15:23,800
Speaker 2: toughens you up. You know, you have to really do

1148
01:15:23,960 --> 01:15:27,559
Speaker 2: badly as a comedian to get good. There's no way

1149
01:15:27,600 --> 01:15:30,280
Speaker 2: around that. You have to figure it out, and a

1150
01:15:30,320 --> 01:15:35,360
Speaker 2: lot of that is bad sense. But another thing that

1151
01:15:35,400 --> 01:15:39,720
Speaker 2: I'm seeing now, Bob, with the evolution of time and

1152
01:15:41,080 --> 01:15:46,000
Speaker 2: how things work, you know, with my book now, to me,

1153
01:15:46,120 --> 01:15:48,080
Speaker 2: I'm always like, I gotta get on the tonight show.

1154
01:15:48,120 --> 01:15:52,200
Speaker 2: I gotta get on this show. It's podcasts. It's podcasts.

1155
01:15:52,240 --> 01:15:55,160
Speaker 2: You're in a good business, Bob. You struck while the

1156
01:15:55,200 --> 01:15:59,320
Speaker 2: iron was hot, corning up. When my editor told me

1157
01:15:59,360 --> 01:16:02,519
Speaker 2: the other day, O'Brien, you're doing his podcast so the

1158
01:16:02,560 --> 01:16:06,240
Speaker 2: most books by far. So you know, it's a it's

1159
01:16:06,280 --> 01:16:11,240
Speaker 2: a different it's a different world now. But I don't know.

1160
01:16:11,360 --> 01:16:14,400
Speaker 2: I think it was very good for stand up comics

1161
01:16:14,439 --> 01:16:18,160
Speaker 2: back in my day because it was the pathway to

1162
01:16:19,000 --> 01:16:23,360
Speaker 2: getting your own show, you know, becoming a quote star.

1163
01:16:24,200 --> 01:16:29,639
Speaker 2: It's not that now, even you know, writing on shows

1164
01:16:29,680 --> 01:16:33,200
Speaker 2: like Seinfeld. When I the Marvel Why which was my

1165
01:16:33,240 --> 01:16:36,240
Speaker 2: episode when it aired the next day, everybody was talking

1166
01:16:36,240 --> 01:16:38,559
Speaker 2: about it was a water cooler show. I hadn't explained

1167
01:16:38,600 --> 01:16:43,720
Speaker 2: to our son what water cooler show means. People you know,

1168
01:16:43,960 --> 01:16:51,839
Speaker 2: we're on mass would watch these shows and could reference them. So, uh,

1169
01:16:51,960 --> 01:16:55,240
Speaker 2: that was a special time. That's not happening anymore.

1170
01:16:56,960 --> 01:17:00,360
Speaker 1: Okay, But you would go on Letterman, you would riff

1171
01:17:00,560 --> 01:17:04,920
Speaker 1: with him. How much of that was one hundred percent

1172
01:17:05,040 --> 01:17:10,400
Speaker 1: in the moment And what was the essence of Dave?

1173
01:17:10,520 --> 01:17:11,679
Speaker 1: What made him special?

1174
01:17:14,760 --> 01:17:18,160
Speaker 2: Well, you certainly didn't. You sat down and you knew

1175
01:17:18,200 --> 01:17:20,519
Speaker 2: there were bullet points of things he was going to

1176
01:17:20,600 --> 01:17:24,360
Speaker 2: talk about, but so much of that was spontaneous, just

1177
01:17:24,479 --> 01:17:27,800
Speaker 2: to people talking. I always had a great connection with

1178
01:17:27,880 --> 01:17:30,840
Speaker 2: him in those days. He was so supportive of me.

1179
01:17:31,240 --> 01:17:35,320
Speaker 2: I mean, he executive produced one of my specials at

1180
01:17:35,320 --> 01:17:39,400
Speaker 2: the time. So I always felt going out there, which

1181
01:17:39,400 --> 01:17:41,840
Speaker 2: is important, that he was an ally, that he was

1182
01:17:41,880 --> 01:17:47,640
Speaker 2: a friend, so that that made it easy. And he

1183
01:17:47,960 --> 01:17:52,760
Speaker 2: is really, and back then, especially a master interviewer. I mean,

1184
01:17:52,840 --> 01:17:58,559
Speaker 2: any any artifice, any bullshit that comes his way, he

1185
01:17:59,240 --> 01:18:02,040
Speaker 2: you know, will not have it. You know, he takes

1186
01:18:02,080 --> 01:18:06,200
Speaker 2: out the knife and cuts away the bullshit fat. So

1187
01:18:08,280 --> 01:18:11,040
Speaker 2: that also made it fun because you knew you had

1188
01:18:11,080 --> 01:18:13,240
Speaker 2: to be at the top of your game certainly talking

1189
01:18:13,280 --> 01:18:14,519
Speaker 2: to him, that's for sure.

1190
01:18:15,520 --> 01:18:19,280
Speaker 1: Okay, this is a classic question. Anybody in the New

1191
01:18:19,360 --> 01:18:22,719
Speaker 1: York scene who didn't make it big, who you thought

1192
01:18:22,800 --> 01:18:23,559
Speaker 1: was going to.

1193
01:18:26,200 --> 01:18:31,200
Speaker 2: Oh, there are always lots of people like that. Wow,

1194
01:18:32,000 --> 01:18:35,440
Speaker 2: I hate to say their names just because I don't.

1195
01:18:36,120 --> 01:18:38,280
Speaker 1: Let me ask a different question. Are they still in

1196
01:18:38,320 --> 01:18:38,719
Speaker 1: the game.

1197
01:18:39,840 --> 01:18:44,360
Speaker 2: No, No, A lot of people had to make the

1198
01:18:44,479 --> 01:18:47,600
Speaker 2: decision at a certain point when it wasn't working of like,

1199
01:18:47,720 --> 01:18:52,719
Speaker 2: I've got to find something something new to do. And

1200
01:18:53,840 --> 01:18:56,719
Speaker 2: I've found out with actors as well that I've worked

1201
01:18:56,720 --> 01:19:01,200
Speaker 2: with along the way, you know, se la Vie, but

1202
01:19:01,800 --> 01:19:06,560
Speaker 2: I you know, but know that there were some incredible

1203
01:19:06,560 --> 01:19:09,360
Speaker 2: people who people had their eye on and said this

1204
01:19:09,600 --> 01:19:15,200
Speaker 2: person is going to skyrocket and for whatever reasons, And

1205
01:19:16,080 --> 01:19:20,520
Speaker 2: you know, along the way, there are self defeating reasons,

1206
01:19:20,560 --> 01:19:25,920
Speaker 2: self sabotaging reasons, some people that just didn't try hard enough.

1207
01:19:28,000 --> 01:19:32,519
Speaker 2: Because as we were kind of touching on before, you know,

1208
01:19:32,560 --> 01:19:37,920
Speaker 2: there's no coasting. I mean, in this business, you always

1209
01:19:38,000 --> 01:19:40,960
Speaker 2: have to advocate for yourself. It's like a shark. You

1210
01:19:41,040 --> 01:19:45,920
Speaker 2: got to keep swimming because if you don't, you'll go

1211
01:19:45,960 --> 01:19:49,200
Speaker 2: by the wayside. I think quickly. So I think people

1212
01:19:49,240 --> 01:19:54,360
Speaker 2: who are successful and have stayed successful have really put

1213
01:19:54,920 --> 01:19:59,200
Speaker 2: the work in to keep themselves relevant and happening.

1214
01:20:00,560 --> 01:20:04,479
Speaker 1: Did you ever contemplate giving up going straight? As they say?

1215
01:20:05,520 --> 01:20:11,080
Speaker 2: No, I mean maybe I did early, early on, because

1216
01:20:11,080 --> 01:20:16,919
Speaker 2: you have so many bad stuffs and so much horror

1217
01:20:17,080 --> 01:20:20,000
Speaker 2: when you start. And my mother did confess to me

1218
01:20:21,080 --> 01:20:23,240
Speaker 2: a few years later. I thought you were going to

1219
01:20:23,320 --> 01:20:25,320
Speaker 2: be a lawyer, you'd get it out of your system.

1220
01:20:26,080 --> 01:20:31,360
Speaker 2: But I never did for too long. I mean, I

1221
01:20:31,400 --> 01:20:34,680
Speaker 2: don't mean this in a big headed way. I just

1222
01:20:34,800 --> 01:20:38,320
Speaker 2: mean it in an honest way. I've always believed in myself, Bob.

1223
01:20:38,520 --> 01:20:46,799
Speaker 2: I just I've just always felt like I have something

1224
01:20:46,840 --> 01:20:48,920
Speaker 2: to say and I think it's good and I think

1225
01:20:48,960 --> 01:20:53,120
Speaker 2: it's funny, and if people don't get it, I'm just

1226
01:20:53,160 --> 01:20:56,760
Speaker 2: gonna keep doing it. That's my attitude.

1227
01:20:57,040 --> 01:21:00,880
Speaker 1: Okay. Seinfeld gets his show with Larry Day. The average

1228
01:21:00,920 --> 01:21:03,440
Speaker 1: person doesn't know lyric except the guy in the background

1229
01:21:03,439 --> 01:21:06,920
Speaker 1: on the Friday show. At that point in time, it's

1230
01:21:07,040 --> 01:21:10,559
Speaker 1: called the Seinfeld Chronicles. It was the initial order, I

1231
01:21:10,560 --> 01:21:15,320
Speaker 1: think four episodes. Whatever you hear that they have a

1232
01:21:15,400 --> 01:21:21,120
Speaker 1: show needs say iconic looking back, But when they got

1233
01:21:21,120 --> 01:21:25,680
Speaker 1: the show, did you say, oh, good for them, or

1234
01:21:25,720 --> 01:21:28,679
Speaker 1: one of us is finally broken through, or they're on

1235
01:21:28,720 --> 01:21:31,599
Speaker 1: their way, or you know they're doing what they're doing.

1236
01:21:31,640 --> 01:21:32,879
Speaker 1: I'm doing what I'm doing.

1237
01:21:34,960 --> 01:21:39,160
Speaker 2: Well. Of course, being friends with both Jerry and Larry,

1238
01:21:39,240 --> 01:21:41,760
Speaker 2: I was thrilled when Jerry got the show. I thought

1239
01:21:41,800 --> 01:21:46,160
Speaker 2: that was great. I thought they were totally onto something,

1240
01:21:46,880 --> 01:21:52,759
Speaker 2: and I thought, that's fantastic for them, That's that's great.

1241
01:21:52,840 --> 01:21:56,120
Speaker 2: I was heavily into doing my stand up at the time,

1242
01:21:56,160 --> 01:22:00,439
Speaker 2: but you know, I thought it was fantastic. Like I

1243
01:22:00,520 --> 01:22:04,120
Speaker 2: was saying, comedians love other comedians. I would be nothing

1244
01:22:04,160 --> 01:22:09,120
Speaker 2: but happy for two of my good friend's success. What's

1245
01:22:09,160 --> 01:22:13,160
Speaker 2: interesting about my writing on Seinfeld? As many times I've

1246
01:22:13,240 --> 01:22:18,760
Speaker 2: touched upon in our conversation my being a fan and

1247
01:22:21,680 --> 01:22:27,519
Speaker 2: pursuing avenues that I'm interested in, Actually these guys came

1248
01:22:27,560 --> 01:22:30,080
Speaker 2: to me and asked me if I wanted to write

1249
01:22:30,120 --> 01:22:33,760
Speaker 2: on the show. So that was very lucky for me

1250
01:22:33,880 --> 01:22:38,320
Speaker 2: because I was lucky that Larry David didn't want to

1251
01:22:38,439 --> 01:22:42,479
Speaker 2: hire any writers that had written for TV before. Because

1252
01:22:42,520 --> 01:22:45,160
Speaker 2: he felt like they had been poisoned by the system.

1253
01:22:45,760 --> 01:22:48,320
Speaker 2: So I was lucky that they reached out to me

1254
01:22:48,439 --> 01:22:53,360
Speaker 2: because we were friends. They liked to work with people

1255
01:22:53,400 --> 01:22:55,439
Speaker 2: that they already had a good rapport with, you know,

1256
01:22:55,920 --> 01:22:58,040
Speaker 2: sitting in writing rooms and being on a show as

1257
01:22:58,080 --> 01:23:01,560
Speaker 2: many hours of being with people, so you got to

1258
01:23:02,080 --> 01:23:05,600
Speaker 2: like hang. It be an easy hang to work at

1259
01:23:05,680 --> 01:23:10,719
Speaker 2: these jobs. And I was very complimented that they felt

1260
01:23:10,760 --> 01:23:17,040
Speaker 2: like my style of writing would compliment the show. But

1261
01:23:17,200 --> 01:23:19,839
Speaker 2: when I did get the job, and that was thrilling

1262
01:23:19,960 --> 01:23:23,240
Speaker 2: to be hired as a writer over there. You bet

1263
01:23:23,320 --> 01:23:27,320
Speaker 2: I went in the first day with three pages it's

1264
01:23:27,360 --> 01:23:30,519
Speaker 2: got to be sixty ideas of things. I wanted to

1265
01:23:30,560 --> 01:23:34,360
Speaker 2: be ready when I showed up for the first day

1266
01:23:34,400 --> 01:23:38,479
Speaker 2: that you know, I wanted to make sure they knew

1267
01:23:38,600 --> 01:23:39,719
Speaker 2: they made a good decision.

1268
01:23:40,600 --> 01:23:43,200
Speaker 1: Okay, so drill a little bit deeper. You show up

1269
01:23:43,240 --> 01:23:44,599
Speaker 1: the first day. How did it work?

1270
01:23:47,240 --> 01:23:52,880
Speaker 2: It worked rather well because I pitched. I know, I

1271
01:23:52,920 --> 01:23:56,360
Speaker 2: definitely pitched one of the ideas that eventually became.

1272
01:23:56,960 --> 01:24:00,240
Speaker 1: Let me change it. Your first day? Was it us

1273
01:24:00,280 --> 01:24:02,880
Speaker 1: with those two What was the first day the whole

1274
01:24:02,960 --> 01:24:04,280
Speaker 1: so called writer's room.

1275
01:24:05,080 --> 01:24:09,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, the first day was just the writer's room, just

1276
01:24:09,760 --> 01:24:16,200
Speaker 2: meeting everybody and people had some writers had been there before,

1277
01:24:16,640 --> 01:24:20,759
Speaker 2: so kind of giving us a lay of the land

1278
01:24:20,920 --> 01:24:23,599
Speaker 2: of how it works and being with Larry and Jerry,

1279
01:24:23,680 --> 01:24:26,960
Speaker 2: and it was a bit of a getting to know

1280
01:24:27,080 --> 01:24:28,679
Speaker 2: you time.

1281
01:24:30,920 --> 01:24:35,600
Speaker 1: Okay. So in terms of scripts, did everybody come with

1282
01:24:35,760 --> 01:24:38,519
Speaker 1: ideas and then they sifted through the ideas? How did

1283
01:24:38,560 --> 01:24:39,599
Speaker 1: they split up the work?

1284
01:24:42,200 --> 01:24:45,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, at Seinfeld, it was really all about the ideas,

1285
01:24:46,280 --> 01:24:50,560
Speaker 2: and so how it worked was you would go in

1286
01:24:50,560 --> 01:24:56,479
Speaker 2: individually and pitch to Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld in

1287
01:24:56,520 --> 01:24:59,719
Speaker 2: their office. They shared an office and took a seat

1288
01:25:00,000 --> 01:25:03,280
Speaker 2: and gave it your best shot with ideas and they

1289
01:25:03,400 --> 01:25:09,120
Speaker 2: would either spark to things that's great. Especially Larry David

1290
01:25:09,120 --> 01:25:14,760
Speaker 2: would get very very excited and animated when he liked

1291
01:25:14,800 --> 01:25:18,160
Speaker 2: one of your ideas. It was just thrilling to him

1292
01:25:18,320 --> 01:25:22,240
Speaker 2: to seize upon something that he could see he could

1293
01:25:22,240 --> 01:25:26,040
Speaker 2: make hay out of. And then there are cluckers along

1294
01:25:26,080 --> 01:25:28,879
Speaker 2: the way. But you know, like you'd get that nah,

1295
01:25:29,000 --> 01:25:32,120
Speaker 2: I don't know, I could see that on another show.

1296
01:25:32,320 --> 01:25:34,760
Speaker 2: I don't know. But if you hit on something that

1297
01:25:34,800 --> 01:25:40,799
Speaker 2: they liked, it was, you know, a howl Loujah moment.

1298
01:25:41,000 --> 01:25:43,720
Speaker 1: Okay, so you hit on something light they like. Do

1299
01:25:43,840 --> 01:25:47,559
Speaker 1: they then say, go write the script. No.

1300
01:25:47,880 --> 01:25:53,599
Speaker 2: What they would say then is come back with a

1301
01:25:53,680 --> 01:25:59,519
Speaker 2: sort of outline of what that would mean for each

1302
01:25:59,560 --> 01:26:05,000
Speaker 2: of the other characters. Like when I pitched Lane thinks

1303
01:26:05,080 --> 01:26:08,960
Speaker 2: the Korean manicurists for talking about her behind her back

1304
01:26:09,080 --> 01:26:12,760
Speaker 2: in Korean, and they liked that idea, then it's like,

1305
01:26:12,840 --> 01:26:16,640
Speaker 2: go back and try to think of George's story, a

1306
01:26:16,720 --> 01:26:20,160
Speaker 2: Kramer story, and a Jerry story. So you would work

1307
01:26:20,200 --> 01:26:24,320
Speaker 2: on that and once they felt that you had something

1308
01:26:25,080 --> 01:26:28,519
Speaker 2: workable there, then you would go off and write a draft.

1309
01:26:29,680 --> 01:26:34,759
Speaker 1: Okay. Seinfeld had a very specific but not conventional layout

1310
01:26:35,160 --> 01:26:37,639
Speaker 1: with the A and the B story and things usually

1311
01:26:37,640 --> 01:26:41,000
Speaker 1: coming together when you went to write the first script,

1312
01:26:41,560 --> 01:26:43,360
Speaker 1: did it already have that structure?

1313
01:26:47,160 --> 01:26:50,680
Speaker 2: I think, following what you kind of outlined of what

1314
01:26:50,760 --> 01:26:54,559
Speaker 2: was going to happen in each scene. Yeah, that kind

1315
01:26:54,600 --> 01:26:57,880
Speaker 2: of structure was there. But I think it's very important

1316
01:26:57,880 --> 01:27:01,840
Speaker 2: for me to say we're looking at Seinfeld why it

1317
01:27:01,960 --> 01:27:06,840
Speaker 2: was also such a learning experience for me, and I

1318
01:27:06,880 --> 01:27:10,200
Speaker 2: can speak for every other writer there is. I would

1319
01:27:10,240 --> 01:27:13,759
Speaker 2: turn in a draft as other writers would. Then Larry

1320
01:27:13,760 --> 01:27:18,040
Speaker 2: and Jerry would do their pass on the draft, and

1321
01:27:18,080 --> 01:27:21,880
Speaker 2: so every Seinfeld that you see, you're seeing their version

1322
01:27:22,400 --> 01:27:26,840
Speaker 2: of whoever's draft that was. So I learned a lot

1323
01:27:27,520 --> 01:27:30,599
Speaker 2: seeing what they kept of my drafts, what they threw

1324
01:27:30,640 --> 01:27:34,360
Speaker 2: out of my drafts, what they changed of my drafts.

1325
01:27:34,439 --> 01:27:40,479
Speaker 2: So their presence is really all over the show.

1326
01:27:43,040 --> 01:27:46,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, and to what degree with Seinfeld was their conventional

1327
01:27:46,920 --> 01:27:50,080
Speaker 1: writer room stuff where you're sitting there with a script

1328
01:27:50,439 --> 01:27:52,920
Speaker 1: and people are throwing out jokes and you're saying no,

1329
01:27:52,960 --> 01:27:53,960
Speaker 1: and you're building from that.

1330
01:27:56,360 --> 01:27:59,439
Speaker 2: Well, Seinfeld was a different show in terms of how

1331
01:27:59,640 --> 01:28:02,760
Speaker 2: it worked, in terms of it was more kind of

1332
01:28:02,880 --> 01:28:09,599
Speaker 2: individual study sort of model in that you worked one

1333
01:28:09,640 --> 01:28:12,240
Speaker 2: on one with Larry and Jerry with your idea, with

1334
01:28:12,320 --> 01:28:15,479
Speaker 2: your script, with your outlines, all that kind of thing.

1335
01:28:15,800 --> 01:28:18,720
Speaker 2: They would and then we'd all meet for lunch. We'd

1336
01:28:18,760 --> 01:28:21,599
Speaker 2: all eat lunch in the office, and that was when

1337
01:28:21,680 --> 01:28:24,640
Speaker 2: all the writers were together. I mean, they would occasionally

1338
01:28:24,640 --> 01:28:27,120
Speaker 2: call us together if they were looking for a certain

1339
01:28:27,240 --> 01:28:30,519
Speaker 2: joke or a certain idea for somebody's joke, But that

1340
01:28:30,680 --> 01:28:34,800
Speaker 2: was more the exception than the way that it worked there.

1341
01:28:35,000 --> 01:28:38,960
Speaker 2: I mean, when I went on to write for the

1342
01:28:39,080 --> 01:28:44,719
Speaker 2: Larry Sanders Show, that's where I experienced the classic writer's

1343
01:28:44,840 --> 01:28:50,719
Speaker 2: room of a sitcom, where pretty much every day you're

1344
01:28:51,240 --> 01:28:54,679
Speaker 2: starting and finishing all in a conference room, sitting around

1345
01:28:54,720 --> 01:28:59,400
Speaker 2: a table and coming up with ideas, maybe even you

1346
01:28:59,439 --> 01:29:02,760
Speaker 2: know what is called gang writing a script. They just

1347
01:29:02,840 --> 01:29:05,599
Speaker 2: put it up on a monitor and we all kind

1348
01:29:05,600 --> 01:29:08,280
Speaker 2: of write it together. I actually like writing like that,

1349
01:29:08,960 --> 01:29:13,840
Speaker 2: and that's more classic writers whom I actually enjoy that

1350
01:29:13,960 --> 01:29:18,200
Speaker 2: style now more, and when I've had a show, that

1351
01:29:18,400 --> 01:29:20,800
Speaker 2: is the style that I like to use. And it's

1352
01:29:20,840 --> 01:29:24,479
Speaker 2: also the way the thing that I was talking about

1353
01:29:24,479 --> 01:29:27,519
Speaker 2: at the beginning of our conversation about I love being

1354
01:29:27,720 --> 01:29:32,400
Speaker 2: with funny people. It just, you know, so much so

1355
01:29:32,960 --> 01:29:37,360
Speaker 2: that I kind of call it a profession. You know.

1356
01:29:37,439 --> 01:29:40,120
Speaker 2: To me, it's like a thank God it's Monday kind

1357
01:29:40,120 --> 01:29:42,360
Speaker 2: of thing because I have so much of a good

1358
01:29:42,360 --> 01:29:44,599
Speaker 2: time in the writer's room that opposed to like maybe

1359
01:29:44,600 --> 01:29:47,200
Speaker 2: going to a party on the weekend or some you know,

1360
01:29:47,400 --> 01:29:50,880
Speaker 2: snore event. It's like that's my favorite spot.

1361
01:29:58,760 --> 01:30:03,200
Speaker 1: Okay, the heat of the writer's room. You know, a

1362
01:30:03,320 --> 01:30:07,840
Speaker 1: Jewish family, you tend not to hold back. Somebody comes

1363
01:30:07,880 --> 01:30:10,920
Speaker 1: up and say that's a terrible idea, and you march

1364
01:30:11,000 --> 01:30:14,639
Speaker 1: forward and everybody you know the bruise is no one

1365
01:30:14,640 --> 01:30:20,240
Speaker 1: sits there says, how dare you say that to me? Okay, yeah,

1366
01:30:20,280 --> 01:30:22,559
Speaker 1: in the heat of the writer's room, in the style

1367
01:30:22,560 --> 01:30:26,080
Speaker 1: you're talking about with Larry Sanders, does anything go or

1368
01:30:26,120 --> 01:30:28,200
Speaker 1: do you have to be aware of the politics in

1369
01:30:28,280 --> 01:30:29,439
Speaker 1: your choice of words?

1370
01:30:31,000 --> 01:30:34,080
Speaker 2: I don't think so. I think any good writer has

1371
01:30:34,200 --> 01:30:38,400
Speaker 2: learned way back when you got to go for broke,

1372
01:30:38,840 --> 01:30:43,360
Speaker 2: because sometimes the thing that you think, oh, everybody, this is,

1373
01:30:43,400 --> 01:30:46,559
Speaker 2: this is so out of left field. This is such

1374
01:30:46,720 --> 01:30:49,760
Speaker 2: a wild idea and if they don't like it, I'm

1375
01:30:49,760 --> 01:30:51,639
Speaker 2: going to be laughed out of the room. Turns out

1376
01:30:51,680 --> 01:30:55,479
Speaker 2: to be the best idea that anybody's ever heard. So

1377
01:30:55,520 --> 01:30:57,599
Speaker 2: you have to know you got to go for broke,

1378
01:30:58,120 --> 01:31:03,000
Speaker 2: and somebody got on, you know, the head writer going, boy, no,

1379
01:31:03,520 --> 01:31:06,360
Speaker 2: that's a terrible idea. You just you really have to

1380
01:31:06,400 --> 01:31:09,519
Speaker 2: have a teflon back to be in a writer's room

1381
01:31:09,560 --> 01:31:14,120
Speaker 2: because there will be so many ideas that are not good.

1382
01:31:14,640 --> 01:31:19,679
Speaker 2: But you know that one that flies so many times

1383
01:31:19,720 --> 01:31:22,000
Speaker 2: has been me, I don't know if I should say

1384
01:31:22,040 --> 01:31:25,120
Speaker 2: this one, and it turns out to be incredible.

1385
01:31:25,479 --> 01:31:28,680
Speaker 1: Let's go back to Seinfeld for a minute. So I

1386
01:31:28,760 --> 01:31:31,879
Speaker 1: knew Jerry from his late night appearance is his famous

1387
01:31:32,000 --> 01:31:37,799
Speaker 1: checkout line routine. So I'm watching from the very beginning. Okay,

1388
01:31:38,479 --> 01:31:43,360
Speaker 1: Ultimately the show becomes a gigantic kit. Jerry's on camera,

1389
01:31:44,800 --> 01:31:49,360
Speaker 1: Larry puts out this special that is really uneven as charitable,

1390
01:31:50,080 --> 01:31:52,439
Speaker 1: but then he has krubed your enthusiasm and all of

1391
01:31:52,479 --> 01:31:56,840
Speaker 1: a sudden, wait a second, that was more his show.

1392
01:31:57,680 --> 01:32:01,439
Speaker 1: Let me put it this way, what did Jerry bring

1393
01:32:01,560 --> 01:32:04,360
Speaker 1: to the show other than being on camera?

1394
01:32:05,400 --> 01:32:10,840
Speaker 2: No, No, Jerry brought you know. It's really important for

1395
01:32:11,240 --> 01:32:18,080
Speaker 2: people to know and remember that every Seinfeld they see it. Yeah, yeah,

1396
01:32:18,200 --> 01:32:21,760
Speaker 2: Larry David, but Jerry is in there. They were partners

1397
01:32:22,479 --> 01:32:25,600
Speaker 2: to the end. I mean, you'll appreciate this analogy. I

1398
01:32:25,600 --> 01:32:30,760
Speaker 2: think as a music person, Bob, but I really compare

1399
01:32:31,080 --> 01:32:39,040
Speaker 2: their their comedic partnership as Lennon and McCartney, Larry David being,

1400
01:32:39,160 --> 01:32:44,640
Speaker 2: of course the more Lenin of the twosome, the more cynical,

1401
01:32:45,880 --> 01:32:50,080
Speaker 2: you know, the unfriendly maybe, and Jerry being the pop

1402
01:32:50,320 --> 01:32:55,040
Speaker 2: light sensibility of a McCartney and together, I think it

1403
01:32:55,200 --> 01:33:03,679
Speaker 2: fused this beautiful partnership and show. So yeah, don't count

1404
01:33:03,760 --> 01:33:07,400
Speaker 2: out Jerry for a second, for.

1405
01:33:07,439 --> 01:33:13,880
Speaker 1: Sure, Okay, when you worked on Curb, which legendarily was

1406
01:33:13,920 --> 01:33:17,840
Speaker 1: builled as improvisational because Larry didn't want to work that hard,

1407
01:33:18,320 --> 01:33:21,440
Speaker 1: what was it like working on Curbs opposed to Seinfeld?

1408
01:33:24,600 --> 01:33:27,639
Speaker 2: Well, and I don't know about that. I don't think

1409
01:33:27,680 --> 01:33:29,880
Speaker 2: it was that Larry didn't want to have to work

1410
01:33:30,040 --> 01:33:32,439
Speaker 2: too hard. I think what he felt was he had

1411
01:33:32,479 --> 01:33:38,120
Speaker 2: such an incredible ensemble of comedy players around him that

1412
01:33:38,240 --> 01:33:43,400
Speaker 2: he knew he was going to get the best of

1413
01:33:43,439 --> 01:33:48,880
Speaker 2: that show, letting these people do their thing, which it did.

1414
01:33:50,439 --> 01:33:52,760
Speaker 2: You know, what was funny about Curb was I went

1415
01:33:52,800 --> 01:33:58,360
Speaker 2: from Hacks over the Curb. Hacks. The writer's room was

1416
01:33:58,439 --> 01:34:05,280
Speaker 2: all on Zoom, so you were not together with people.

1417
01:34:05,320 --> 01:34:09,479
Speaker 2: You were together with people virtually. But I think, as

1418
01:34:09,920 --> 01:34:13,679
Speaker 2: people can tell, you can't write a good show on Zoom,

1419
01:34:13,800 --> 01:34:17,160
Speaker 2: and Hacks is the proof. But then once the writer's

1420
01:34:17,240 --> 01:34:21,720
Speaker 2: room is over, the writers are not on set, the

1421
01:34:22,240 --> 01:34:25,559
Speaker 2: three show writers are on set, and the writer's room

1422
01:34:25,640 --> 01:34:27,960
Speaker 2: is gone. So when I went from that, then I

1423
01:34:27,960 --> 01:34:33,559
Speaker 2: went over to Curb, and Curb my whole job, which

1424
01:34:33,640 --> 01:34:39,599
Speaker 2: was this is my favorite of everything, is I had

1425
01:34:39,600 --> 01:34:44,040
Speaker 2: pitched show ideas earlier to them, some of which they

1426
01:34:44,160 --> 01:34:46,400
Speaker 2: took But then my job when I went over there

1427
01:34:46,520 --> 01:34:49,679
Speaker 2: is I was just there when they shoot it, and

1428
01:34:50,080 --> 01:34:52,040
Speaker 2: it was just me and a couple other writers. You're

1429
01:34:52,080 --> 01:34:56,320
Speaker 2: just there for an idea or a line for someone,

1430
01:34:56,600 --> 01:34:59,640
Speaker 2: or is mostly lines, like we need a line for this,

1431
01:34:59,680 --> 01:35:02,800
Speaker 2: we need lines for that, because when you improv sometimes

1432
01:35:03,280 --> 01:35:06,599
Speaker 2: it's not a script. Something isn't working or you need

1433
01:35:06,640 --> 01:35:09,320
Speaker 2: a better line. And then you sit on set and

1434
01:35:09,400 --> 01:35:12,960
Speaker 2: you just come up with lines and ideas while you're

1435
01:35:12,960 --> 01:35:16,400
Speaker 2: shooting it. And to be there while Curb was shooting

1436
01:35:17,160 --> 01:35:22,880
Speaker 2: was amazing and to watch the synergy of these you know,

1437
01:35:22,960 --> 01:35:24,920
Speaker 2: so many times when I worked there, I thought, Gee,

1438
01:35:24,960 --> 01:35:27,280
Speaker 2: the next show that you know, I'm lucky to have

1439
01:35:27,360 --> 01:35:30,080
Speaker 2: where I'm the executive user, maybe I should let people

1440
01:35:30,439 --> 01:35:33,000
Speaker 2: just improv and have an outline of what happens. Let

1441
01:35:33,000 --> 01:35:35,960
Speaker 2: them improv, and then you see quickly it's only you know,

1442
01:35:36,000 --> 01:35:39,200
Speaker 2: the show was twenty five years. They had a rhythm

1443
01:35:39,360 --> 01:35:43,400
Speaker 2: and a comfort with each other that that kind of improvisation,

1444
01:35:44,240 --> 01:35:46,960
Speaker 2: you know, was unique to that show. You can't kind

1445
01:35:47,000 --> 01:35:49,240
Speaker 2: of throw people in there and hope they'll come up

1446
01:35:49,280 --> 01:35:53,720
Speaker 2: with a brilliant show. That was Curb's genius.

1447
01:35:54,240 --> 01:35:59,120
Speaker 1: So if I saw a script of curb before they

1448
01:35:59,240 --> 01:36:02,040
Speaker 1: shot it. What would it look like? How fleshed out

1449
01:36:02,200 --> 01:36:02,439
Speaker 1: was it?

1450
01:36:04,400 --> 01:36:08,000
Speaker 2: Well, it was they worked off a very detailed outline.

1451
01:36:08,080 --> 01:36:12,000
Speaker 2: It would probably be about twelve pages of what the

1452
01:36:12,040 --> 01:36:15,200
Speaker 2: scene was, who was in it, and kind of what

1453
01:36:15,560 --> 01:36:18,719
Speaker 2: needs to happen in that scene, and also some lines

1454
01:36:19,360 --> 01:36:25,080
Speaker 2: potential lines for it. But you'd be holding an outline usually,

1455
01:36:25,120 --> 01:36:27,799
Speaker 2: like I said, about twelve pages.

1456
01:36:28,960 --> 01:36:36,080
Speaker 1: Okay. Gary Shandling, who got great inside Press, died before

1457
01:36:36,200 --> 01:36:39,760
Speaker 1: his time. Never wanted to be a permanent late show host.

1458
01:36:40,080 --> 01:36:41,759
Speaker 1: What was Gary's special sauce?

1459
01:36:44,520 --> 01:36:49,280
Speaker 2: Oh? Gary? I mean I still miss him to this day.

1460
01:36:51,360 --> 01:36:56,479
Speaker 2: Just as a sidebar, so interesting to me. He came

1461
01:36:57,080 --> 01:37:00,240
Speaker 2: to my wedding to my wife Lori, which was ten

1462
01:37:00,320 --> 01:37:07,240
Speaker 2: years ago in December, and for some strange reason, after

1463
01:37:07,280 --> 01:37:10,160
Speaker 2: the ceremony, beginning the reception, we talked to Gary, my

1464
01:37:10,240 --> 01:37:12,080
Speaker 2: wife and I. It had to be at least twenty

1465
01:37:12,080 --> 01:37:15,559
Speaker 2: five minutes. And you know, when you're getting married, you're

1466
01:37:15,680 --> 01:37:18,000
Speaker 2: mixing and you're talking to people for two seconds here

1467
01:37:18,040 --> 01:37:20,559
Speaker 2: and there and blah blah blah. We must have talked

1468
01:37:20,680 --> 01:37:24,960
Speaker 2: for twenty five minutes. And then that following March she

1469
01:37:25,040 --> 01:37:31,680
Speaker 2: passed away unexpectedly and I just I feel so grateful

1470
01:37:32,000 --> 01:37:35,680
Speaker 2: that that weird thing that happened at the wedding of

1471
01:37:35,720 --> 01:37:37,920
Speaker 2: talking to him the most of any guests that that

1472
01:37:38,080 --> 01:37:42,839
Speaker 2: happened before he passed. But anyway, what was amazing about

1473
01:37:42,920 --> 01:37:49,840
Speaker 2: Gary was not only comedically spot on, you know, had

1474
01:37:49,880 --> 01:37:55,400
Speaker 2: that thing that Larry David has that Jerry has. He

1475
01:37:55,560 --> 01:38:03,000
Speaker 2: knew when he had agreed since of scene structure, kind

1476
01:38:03,040 --> 01:38:05,599
Speaker 2: of like a director of a play. When I worked there,

1477
01:38:06,000 --> 01:38:08,320
Speaker 2: he could be in a scene, he could be watching

1478
01:38:08,360 --> 01:38:12,840
Speaker 2: a scene and know when something was not working or

1479
01:38:12,920 --> 01:38:17,719
Speaker 2: working well, or need to be changed slightly. His sense

1480
01:38:17,960 --> 01:38:23,840
Speaker 2: of story and scene structure was really something to behold,

1481
01:38:25,280 --> 01:38:30,880
Speaker 2: and I think that was his special sauce. He also was,

1482
01:38:32,600 --> 01:38:37,000
Speaker 2: I think, like most great comedians who become stars, so likable.

1483
01:38:37,240 --> 01:38:40,680
Speaker 2: I mean, he was so neurotic, you know, his persona,

1484
01:38:41,640 --> 01:38:46,599
Speaker 2: but I think it was so endearing that people really

1485
01:38:46,680 --> 01:38:54,400
Speaker 2: latched onto his neuroses and him. But I really feel

1486
01:38:54,680 --> 01:38:58,040
Speaker 2: like with his passing, we just lost such a great

1487
01:38:58,600 --> 01:39:01,240
Speaker 2: comedic voice.

1488
01:39:01,600 --> 01:39:06,519
Speaker 1: Okay, you know, there's been a number of controversies in comedy.

1489
01:39:06,560 --> 01:39:09,240
Speaker 1: When this is released, there may be a few more

1490
01:39:09,280 --> 01:39:12,280
Speaker 1: on the EVB in the rear view mirror. What is

1491
01:39:12,320 --> 01:39:17,519
Speaker 1: your position on this first threshold is you say, I

1492
01:39:17,520 --> 01:39:21,880
Speaker 1: don't want to weigh in Republicans laugh too. We have

1493
01:39:22,000 --> 01:39:25,360
Speaker 1: the situation in ri Odd, we have the situation with

1494
01:39:25,479 --> 01:39:31,160
Speaker 1: Jimmy Kimmel Colbert before is your first major thing? I

1495
01:39:31,280 --> 01:39:34,640
Speaker 1: want to stay out and what does it take for

1496
01:39:34,680 --> 01:39:35,839
Speaker 1: you to take a stand?

1497
01:39:40,920 --> 01:39:44,280
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't really like to get into it

1498
01:39:44,400 --> 01:39:51,000
Speaker 2: because I feel like, what's what's out there, what's going on,

1499
01:39:52,360 --> 01:39:56,200
Speaker 2: is beyond my control. I mean, obviously Jimmy Kimmel, I

1500
01:39:56,200 --> 01:40:01,559
Speaker 2: mean I don't know anybody personally who could say, oh, yeah,

1501
01:40:01,560 --> 01:40:04,720
Speaker 2: he should have been taken off the air. I mean,

1502
01:40:05,360 --> 01:40:10,439
Speaker 2: free speech is incredibly important, and he had every right

1503
01:40:11,320 --> 01:40:15,400
Speaker 2: to say what he wanted to say about the situation.

1504
01:40:16,320 --> 01:40:23,439
Speaker 2: I'm not the only person that's going to say it wasn't.

1505
01:40:24,880 --> 01:40:27,360
Speaker 2: I don't think it was that controversial it was. I

1506
01:40:27,400 --> 01:40:31,439
Speaker 2: think they lit on something that they thought was a

1507
01:40:31,439 --> 01:40:34,439
Speaker 2: bigger thing than it was. But more importantly than that,

1508
01:40:35,280 --> 01:40:40,960
Speaker 2: it's a free speech issue and that's important. Yeah. But

1509
01:40:41,640 --> 01:40:44,840
Speaker 2: and I sent Jimmy an email that I congratulated him

1510
01:40:44,840 --> 01:40:48,720
Speaker 2: on his comeback to the show and his monologue that night.

1511
01:40:48,800 --> 01:40:53,519
Speaker 2: I thought it was brilliant. But I don't like to

1512
01:40:53,520 --> 01:40:59,479
Speaker 2: get into political things because you know, social media, Bob,

1513
01:41:00,439 --> 01:41:04,440
Speaker 2: I call it the yentification of the world.

1514
01:41:06,800 --> 01:41:09,120
Speaker 1: Right, everybody's got good description.

1515
01:41:10,720 --> 01:41:14,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I don't know. I don't want to be

1516
01:41:14,479 --> 01:41:18,719
Speaker 2: a part of it. I just don't. I mean, look,

1517
01:41:19,360 --> 01:41:23,920
Speaker 2: I'm happy that what happened with Jimmy Kimmel, that he

1518
01:41:24,000 --> 01:41:26,400
Speaker 2: got support and he's back on the air. I think

1519
01:41:26,439 --> 01:41:28,400
Speaker 2: that was important. I think we'd be in a very

1520
01:41:28,400 --> 01:41:32,559
Speaker 2: difficuent different situation if he was permanently taken off the air.

1521
01:41:32,600 --> 01:41:36,600
Speaker 2: I think that would be a signal an even scarier

1522
01:41:36,680 --> 01:41:43,160
Speaker 2: time that we're maybe living in now. But yeah, I

1523
01:41:43,200 --> 01:41:45,920
Speaker 2: don't know. I don't like to get into it.

1524
01:41:46,479 --> 01:41:48,680
Speaker 1: Well, let's go a different direction. If you wanted to

1525
01:41:48,720 --> 01:41:51,960
Speaker 1: know which way the wind blew. In the late sixties

1526
01:41:52,000 --> 01:41:55,920
Speaker 1: and early seventies, you listened to a record. FM radio

1527
01:41:56,080 --> 01:41:59,200
Speaker 1: was the heartbeat of America. We live in a world

1528
01:41:59,280 --> 01:42:03,640
Speaker 1: now where the guy who runs Ukraine is literally a comedian,

1529
01:42:04,920 --> 01:42:09,479
Speaker 1: and the power of comedians has never been greater. To

1530
01:42:09,640 --> 01:42:16,000
Speaker 1: what degree can comedy change the mindset of the population.

1531
01:42:18,840 --> 01:42:22,000
Speaker 2: I think it has a great, great power to do that,

1532
01:42:24,920 --> 01:42:30,960
Speaker 2: you know, I know he's a comedian, but it's I

1533
01:42:30,960 --> 01:42:33,640
Speaker 2: don't I'd like to see his act, you know, uh,

1534
01:42:35,040 --> 01:42:37,080
Speaker 2: I don't know. I know you say he's a comedian,

1535
01:42:37,120 --> 01:42:41,160
Speaker 2: but he doesn't really use his comedy right to political effect.

1536
01:42:41,760 --> 01:42:47,800
Speaker 2: But I know how important a comedy is, and you

1537
01:42:47,840 --> 01:42:50,760
Speaker 2: know this regard. I also know that if you're a

1538
01:42:50,800 --> 01:42:54,960
Speaker 2: political comedian, now, half the audience is going to like it,

1539
01:42:54,960 --> 01:42:59,000
Speaker 2: and half the audience isn't. But people do what That's

1540
01:42:59,000 --> 01:43:02,400
Speaker 2: why I stay at a poll in my act. You know,

1541
01:43:02,479 --> 01:43:06,160
Speaker 2: A great compliment that I feel like I get now

1542
01:43:06,360 --> 01:43:09,599
Speaker 2: is you know I was happy to just laugh for

1543
01:43:10,040 --> 01:43:12,040
Speaker 2: as long as you were on and not think about

1544
01:43:12,040 --> 01:43:15,880
Speaker 2: what's happening in the world in politics, and that that

1545
01:43:15,920 --> 01:43:19,120
Speaker 2: compliment resonates with me. You know, I'm happy about that.

1546
01:43:19,840 --> 01:43:24,400
Speaker 2: But comedy is still important. It will always be important.

1547
01:43:24,520 --> 01:43:29,920
Speaker 2: It can change some people's minds. It cannot change people's minds,

1548
01:43:30,400 --> 01:43:33,320
Speaker 2: and I think every comedian who's a political comedian knows that.

1549
01:43:33,400 --> 01:43:38,960
Speaker 2: But just having that voice is really what we have

1550
01:43:39,080 --> 01:43:39,639
Speaker 2: to protect.

1551
01:43:41,160 --> 01:43:45,559
Speaker 1: Okay. I have a friend who says all the great

1552
01:43:45,600 --> 01:43:49,680
Speaker 1: songs are written in collaboration. I don't happen to agree,

1553
01:43:50,120 --> 01:43:54,160
Speaker 1: But if you're writing for yourself, if you're writing for

1554
01:43:54,200 --> 01:43:57,280
Speaker 1: a show, there are inherently other people there. But if

1555
01:43:57,320 --> 01:44:02,519
Speaker 1: you're writing for yourself, do you doing it solo is

1556
01:44:02,560 --> 01:44:04,240
Speaker 1: the best way? Or do you want to be able

1557
01:44:04,280 --> 01:44:05,600
Speaker 1: to bounce it off somebody?

1558
01:44:07,439 --> 01:44:09,160
Speaker 2: Oh you mean writing a TV show?

1559
01:44:09,880 --> 01:44:12,439
Speaker 1: No, writing like stand up stand up joke?

1560
01:44:12,520 --> 01:44:16,679
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I even with my stand up. Well,

1561
01:44:16,720 --> 01:44:19,360
Speaker 2: first of all, for a TV show, bouncing it off

1562
01:44:19,400 --> 01:44:26,600
Speaker 2: other people is absolutely a must, because especially the you know,

1563
01:44:26,640 --> 01:44:29,320
Speaker 2: the beauty of a writer's room is somebody will have

1564
01:44:29,360 --> 01:44:31,720
Speaker 2: a good idea, somebody else will take it to the

1565
01:44:31,760 --> 01:44:34,760
Speaker 2: next level, somebody else does that, and then bam, the

1566
01:44:35,760 --> 01:44:40,719
Speaker 2: last person has the best incarnation of whatever that thought

1567
01:44:40,880 --> 01:44:44,360
Speaker 2: or joke was. So there is this. It's kind of

1568
01:44:44,439 --> 01:44:47,719
Speaker 2: magic to me, and I love that about a writer's room.

1569
01:44:48,080 --> 01:44:51,120
Speaker 2: So for a TV show, absolutely, But even for my

1570
01:44:51,200 --> 01:44:54,800
Speaker 2: stand up I will get together with a friend or

1571
01:44:54,840 --> 01:44:58,760
Speaker 2: two and say this is what I'm working on. What

1572
01:44:58,800 --> 01:45:02,559
Speaker 2: do you think of this punchline? What do you think

1573
01:45:02,560 --> 01:45:05,720
Speaker 2: of this tag to the joke? And sometimes they'll, you know,

1574
01:45:05,960 --> 01:45:09,280
Speaker 2: we'll give each other. They'll do that, you know, with

1575
01:45:09,360 --> 01:45:12,559
Speaker 2: me with their material, and it's always fun to bounce

1576
01:45:13,000 --> 01:45:14,560
Speaker 2: things off somebody.

1577
01:45:15,280 --> 01:45:19,800
Speaker 1: Okay, going back to the Oscars, Can you ever have

1578
01:45:19,920 --> 01:45:24,120
Speaker 1: a victory at the Oscars? The Oscars are hosted and

1579
01:45:24,320 --> 01:45:30,680
Speaker 1: pretty much all the time the critics come down on

1580
01:45:31,080 --> 01:45:34,800
Speaker 1: the host. You know, you have people who bring in

1581
01:45:34,840 --> 01:45:38,120
Speaker 1: their own writers room lettermen. Did it got some of

1582
01:45:38,120 --> 01:45:41,439
Speaker 1: the worst reviews ever. Bob Hope used to do it,

1583
01:45:41,479 --> 01:45:44,920
Speaker 1: but it was bland. Is it something that you can

1584
01:45:45,000 --> 01:45:48,759
Speaker 1: never achieve or is there a holy grail such an everyone?

1585
01:45:49,080 --> 01:45:53,160
Speaker 1: Even Chris Rock did it and didn't completely succeed. Can

1586
01:45:53,280 --> 01:45:55,160
Speaker 1: anybody succeed at that gig?

1587
01:45:56,040 --> 01:45:59,920
Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely? I mean look at the reception then Conang

1588
01:46:00,080 --> 01:46:01,559
Speaker 2: got this past year.

1589
01:46:02,800 --> 01:46:04,000
Speaker 1: Did you work on that show?

1590
01:46:04,920 --> 01:46:08,160
Speaker 2: I did? I did, and I think it raised him

1591
01:46:08,360 --> 01:46:11,960
Speaker 2: unlike many other hosts, raised him to an even higher

1592
01:46:12,080 --> 01:46:16,840
Speaker 2: level hosting the show because so many comedians, I think

1593
01:46:16,880 --> 01:46:21,240
Speaker 2: that job is like there's no upside to hosting mak Oscars.

1594
01:46:21,280 --> 01:46:24,960
Speaker 2: I think with Conan and with Jimmy Kimmel even it's

1595
01:46:24,960 --> 01:46:27,759
Speaker 2: a big upside because I think they did so well

1596
01:46:29,000 --> 01:46:33,960
Speaker 2: doing it well. Conan's coming back this year that I

1597
01:46:34,000 --> 01:46:39,360
Speaker 2: think it's enhanced their comedicness to people.

1598
01:46:40,960 --> 01:46:45,000
Speaker 1: And circling back to the book, So this book about

1599
01:46:45,040 --> 01:46:50,160
Speaker 1: writing speeches, giving speeches. Yes, you couldn't write scripts because

1600
01:46:50,200 --> 01:46:53,360
Speaker 1: his union was on strike. Who came up with this

1601
01:46:53,479 --> 01:46:54,680
Speaker 1: specific idea for.

1602
01:46:54,640 --> 01:46:58,479
Speaker 2: A book, Well, my partner Rick Mitchell and I because

1603
01:46:59,240 --> 01:47:02,880
Speaker 2: sitting there and talking about these bad speeches that we

1604
01:47:03,800 --> 01:47:11,160
Speaker 2: witnessed and were horrified at, it just became you know,

1605
01:47:12,520 --> 01:47:15,280
Speaker 2: Bob's stand up is like a speech every night. It

1606
01:47:15,320 --> 01:47:19,840
Speaker 2: is you have to have a good start, and you

1607
01:47:19,920 --> 01:47:22,040
Speaker 2: know what your middle is going to be, and you

1608
01:47:22,120 --> 01:47:23,760
Speaker 2: have to wrap it up in a certain way that

1609
01:47:23,800 --> 01:47:25,920
Speaker 2: wraps the whole thing up. And that's what a good

1610
01:47:26,000 --> 01:47:29,680
Speaker 2: speech is. I mean, the biggest piece of advice we

1611
01:47:29,800 --> 01:47:33,160
Speaker 2: given our speech book that I think is very consoling

1612
01:47:33,240 --> 01:47:35,640
Speaker 2: to people right off the bat, besides the fact of

1613
01:47:35,680 --> 01:47:39,559
Speaker 2: what you mentioned that it's small, it's handy, it's not

1614
01:47:40,360 --> 01:47:42,880
Speaker 2: threatening when people pick it up. It's not like a

1615
01:47:43,000 --> 01:47:47,120
Speaker 2: tone like an Encyclopedia Britannica that you pick up. It's

1616
01:47:47,160 --> 01:47:51,000
Speaker 2: something that you know you can digest. But anyway, the

1617
01:47:51,040 --> 01:47:53,519
Speaker 2: tick that we give is keep it five minutes and under.

1618
01:47:54,000 --> 01:47:57,280
Speaker 2: I mean, what a simple piece of advice that is

1619
01:47:57,560 --> 01:48:01,559
Speaker 2: that needed to be in a book because most people

1620
01:48:01,880 --> 01:48:04,360
Speaker 2: don't know that. How many times have you gone to

1621
01:48:04,400 --> 01:48:07,920
Speaker 2: event the person goes on and on, they think, oh,

1622
01:48:07,960 --> 01:48:11,040
Speaker 2: I love this pruson so much. So more is more.

1623
01:48:11,360 --> 01:48:15,479
Speaker 2: There's a reason more is more did not become the same. Also,

1624
01:48:15,640 --> 01:48:19,040
Speaker 2: not realizing I just went to a memorial this happened,

1625
01:48:20,400 --> 01:48:22,760
Speaker 2: you keep it five minutes an under because many other

1626
01:48:22,840 --> 01:48:26,840
Speaker 2: people are speaking and people don't realize that. So we

1627
01:48:27,040 --> 01:48:32,879
Speaker 2: just felt like having a whole book of duh things

1628
01:48:33,280 --> 01:48:36,240
Speaker 2: for people when they write a speech. What's important and

1629
01:48:36,280 --> 01:48:42,000
Speaker 2: what's nice is I'm getting feedback from people on Amazon

1630
01:48:42,360 --> 01:48:45,720
Speaker 2: or whatever. I read every review. It's like this book

1631
01:48:45,800 --> 01:48:47,920
Speaker 2: really helped me. I was afraid to write a speech.

1632
01:48:48,120 --> 01:48:50,000
Speaker 2: It wasn't that hard, and then when I did it,

1633
01:48:50,080 --> 01:48:52,720
Speaker 2: I got some nice feedback. And that's really all we

1634
01:48:52,760 --> 01:48:57,360
Speaker 2: wanted from the book. The other thing, Bob, is we

1635
01:48:57,439 --> 01:49:01,840
Speaker 2: looked at, of course, before we pitched this, publishers other

1636
01:49:01,880 --> 01:49:04,880
Speaker 2: books on the subject, and there are subjects about writing

1637
01:49:04,920 --> 01:49:07,719
Speaker 2: a speech and if you about writing a funny speech,

1638
01:49:08,080 --> 01:49:12,280
Speaker 2: but they're written by Thornton, how Max you know people

1639
01:49:12,320 --> 01:49:15,719
Speaker 2: you've never heard of. We are two bona fide Emmy

1640
01:49:15,960 --> 01:49:22,080
Speaker 2: winning writers. So we feel like we can take a platform,

1641
01:49:22,880 --> 01:49:27,640
Speaker 2: excuse me, in telling people, giving them an idea of

1642
01:49:27,680 --> 01:49:28,280
Speaker 2: what to do.

1643
01:49:28,920 --> 01:49:32,000
Speaker 1: Well, I guess what I'm really asking. Were you sitting

1644
01:49:32,160 --> 01:49:36,040
Speaker 1: riffing with your partner and say, whoa, there's a book here,

1645
01:49:36,520 --> 01:49:39,479
Speaker 1: or were you saying we can't work we should write

1646
01:49:39,479 --> 01:49:41,920
Speaker 1: a book. Oh this is an idea.

1647
01:49:44,640 --> 01:49:51,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, it wasn't the latter. It was certainly the former.

1648
01:49:51,200 --> 01:49:56,000
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, I never kind of come up with something, well,

1649
01:49:56,040 --> 01:49:59,840
Speaker 2: what the hell will do this? You know, it really

1650
01:50:01,560 --> 01:50:04,960
Speaker 2: was a nice timing of things that as buddies just

1651
01:50:05,080 --> 01:50:07,439
Speaker 2: meeting for coffee, Hey, I just went to this event.

1652
01:50:07,520 --> 01:50:11,639
Speaker 2: Yeah I went to one too, and just sitting there thinking,

1653
01:50:12,200 --> 01:50:16,400
Speaker 2: you know, normal people need this advice, let's do that.

1654
01:50:16,560 --> 01:50:20,640
Speaker 2: And it was convenient that it was during you know,

1655
01:50:21,560 --> 01:50:26,120
Speaker 2: I told you so early on in our marathon discussion,

1656
01:50:26,240 --> 01:50:29,840
Speaker 2: which I am adjoining. You know, being creative makes me

1657
01:50:30,000 --> 01:50:34,080
Speaker 2: feel alive. And I have a project and to pitch

1658
01:50:34,160 --> 01:50:38,439
Speaker 2: this to publishers and see if somebody buys it, and

1659
01:50:38,880 --> 01:50:44,360
Speaker 2: deciding between the people that were interested that is I

1660
01:50:44,400 --> 01:50:46,720
Speaker 2: can't tell you what a thrill it gives me. And

1661
01:50:46,760 --> 01:50:50,559
Speaker 2: to be doing it at my age and this many

1662
01:50:50,640 --> 01:50:55,720
Speaker 2: years in show business to still be taken seriously and

1663
01:50:55,760 --> 01:51:02,719
Speaker 2: embraced that way is it's just you know a wonderful part,

1664
01:51:03,040 --> 01:51:04,439
Speaker 2: a big part of my life.

1665
01:51:05,840 --> 01:51:08,800
Speaker 1: Okay, you read a book like this, you know you

1666
01:51:08,840 --> 01:51:12,800
Speaker 1: can't work writing scripts and it's fun. Can you make

1667
01:51:12,840 --> 01:51:14,280
Speaker 1: any money?

1668
01:51:16,960 --> 01:51:21,640
Speaker 2: Well, you know, book writing. It's really the luck of

1669
01:51:21,680 --> 01:51:24,759
Speaker 2: the draw if you kind of hit it or you don't,

1670
01:51:25,640 --> 01:51:29,360
Speaker 2: but you know what you can. We had to reach

1671
01:51:29,400 --> 01:51:33,639
Speaker 2: a certain number of books sold where we're starting, where

1672
01:51:33,680 --> 01:51:38,200
Speaker 2: we can start to earn a profit. And I believe

1673
01:51:38,680 --> 01:51:43,120
Speaker 2: that in seven months we are very close to the

1674
01:51:45,240 --> 01:51:48,519
Speaker 2: profit margin, which I am looking forward to. Yes, yes,

1675
01:51:48,640 --> 01:51:51,599
Speaker 2: you can make some money if your book hits. And

1676
01:51:51,640 --> 01:51:56,759
Speaker 2: what's nice is it's connecting with people and I'm happy

1677
01:51:56,800 --> 01:51:58,080
Speaker 2: about that. We're happy about that.

1678
01:51:58,880 --> 01:52:01,559
Speaker 1: And is there another book cooking on a burner?

1679
01:52:03,479 --> 01:52:07,000
Speaker 2: I don't have one yet. No. If you have some ideas, Bob,

1680
01:52:07,040 --> 01:52:09,960
Speaker 2: if you have coffee with a friend and you both

1681
01:52:10,720 --> 01:52:13,640
Speaker 2: experienced something, pass it along to me and maybe we

1682
01:52:13,680 --> 01:52:16,120
Speaker 2: can make a book out of it. Now I'm gonna really.

1683
01:52:18,240 --> 01:52:21,479
Speaker 2: When I have a book, I really like to sit

1684
01:52:21,560 --> 01:52:23,720
Speaker 2: with it a while. Because I bring it to my

1685
01:52:25,439 --> 01:52:28,800
Speaker 2: speaking events, to my stand up events. I do some

1686
01:52:28,920 --> 01:52:31,640
Speaker 2: things for gratis, but then I say, hey, can you

1687
01:52:31,680 --> 01:52:34,599
Speaker 2: buy can you buy a book for everybody who's intending.

1688
01:52:35,200 --> 01:52:39,200
Speaker 2: You know, my wife teases me that I'm Wilma Loweman,

1689
01:52:40,200 --> 01:52:43,040
Speaker 2: that I'm out there every day selling my wares. So

1690
01:52:43,400 --> 01:52:46,240
Speaker 2: you know, I'll give it it's best shop, but you

1691
01:52:46,280 --> 01:52:49,360
Speaker 2: know it, I might just come out there with one other,

1692
01:52:49,439 --> 01:52:53,880
Speaker 2: another idea, because you know what my jam is, Bob.

1693
01:52:54,160 --> 01:52:58,800
Speaker 2: I love doing what I do and thinking and producing

1694
01:52:58,920 --> 01:53:03,920
Speaker 2: seeing these things into action. That is really a high.

1695
01:53:04,640 --> 01:53:10,640
Speaker 1: Okay, you got invited to do comedy going on at

1696
01:53:10,720 --> 01:53:13,400
Speaker 1: nine thirty, you said no, I go to bed at ten.

1697
01:53:15,800 --> 01:53:20,160
Speaker 1: I didn't say no to use the cliche. Are you

1698
01:53:20,320 --> 01:53:23,719
Speaker 1: gonna die on stage? Or at some point you'm gonna

1699
01:53:23,760 --> 01:53:26,479
Speaker 1: put your keyboard away and say I'm done.

1700
01:53:29,240 --> 01:53:32,600
Speaker 2: Well, I think at a certain point that won't be

1701
01:53:32,720 --> 01:53:35,800
Speaker 2: up to me. Look, I am very lucky that is

1702
01:53:35,840 --> 01:53:42,400
Speaker 2: a TV writer turning seventy next year. Then I'm still working.

1703
01:53:42,520 --> 01:53:48,080
Speaker 2: I really don't know many other writers who are my

1704
01:53:48,200 --> 01:53:50,680
Speaker 2: age and who are around. I mean, I have a

1705
01:53:50,680 --> 01:53:53,439
Speaker 2: lot of women who turned fifty and come to me

1706
01:53:53,520 --> 01:53:56,160
Speaker 2: and go I'm starting to feel I'm getting aged out.

1707
01:53:56,960 --> 01:54:00,280
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know what to do, and so

1708
01:54:00,400 --> 01:54:03,439
Speaker 2: I feel very lucky that I'm still doing it. It's

1709
01:54:03,479 --> 01:54:07,679
Speaker 2: just funny. I remember working on the show The Naked Truth,

1710
01:54:08,840 --> 01:54:12,559
Speaker 2: and they hired an older writer to come in because

1711
01:54:13,120 --> 01:54:17,120
Speaker 2: it needed some help, a guy I think who had

1712
01:54:17,120 --> 01:54:20,240
Speaker 2: worked on Dick Van Dyke. I don't remember his name,

1713
01:54:20,320 --> 01:54:22,760
Speaker 2: and I remember thinking and the writers are like, who's

1714
01:54:22,760 --> 01:54:28,640
Speaker 2: this old guy? Who's that? You know it's going to

1715
01:54:28,680 --> 01:54:31,320
Speaker 2: happen to me at a certain point, I hope not.

1716
01:54:31,600 --> 01:54:34,160
Speaker 2: But am I going to be doing this at eighty?

1717
01:54:34,400 --> 01:54:37,440
Speaker 2: I don't think so. I don't know. You know, I

1718
01:54:37,440 --> 01:54:40,320
Speaker 2: get hired for the Oscars a lot because the head

1719
01:54:40,360 --> 01:54:43,480
Speaker 2: writer who's brilliant, a guy named John Max. You know,

1720
01:54:43,520 --> 01:54:47,760
Speaker 2: he's my generation, and I'm lucky that he's hired me

1721
01:54:48,240 --> 01:54:50,920
Speaker 2: so many times. But what happens when John Max is

1722
01:54:50,960 --> 01:54:53,000
Speaker 2: a working anymore? Am I going to get hired? I

1723
01:54:53,080 --> 01:54:56,160
Speaker 2: don't know. I don't think so. So I now I

1724
01:54:56,240 --> 01:55:00,960
Speaker 2: do have to plan for, you know, an escape patch

1725
01:55:01,160 --> 01:55:05,160
Speaker 2: at some point. I'm just happy it's not now, because

1726
01:55:06,040 --> 01:55:09,400
Speaker 2: I'm loving what I'm doing. I'm telling you, especially with

1727
01:55:09,480 --> 01:55:13,040
Speaker 2: this news about YouTube special that I can do and

1728
01:55:13,120 --> 01:55:17,120
Speaker 2: put on up there, it's like re energize me, like

1729
01:55:17,240 --> 01:55:19,840
Speaker 2: I cannot even begin to tell you pop, So look

1730
01:55:19,840 --> 01:55:22,520
Speaker 2: out next time. I talk to you. It'll be promoting

1731
01:55:22,560 --> 01:55:24,760
Speaker 2: my special I swear to.

1732
01:55:24,720 --> 01:55:28,120
Speaker 1: God, well, Carol, I'm gonna be looking out for it.

1733
01:55:28,200 --> 01:55:30,839
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look for cut up clips on social media.

1734
01:55:31,320 --> 01:55:35,080
Speaker 1: Everything the younger generation loves and the older generation derides.

1735
01:55:35,680 --> 01:55:37,840
Speaker 1: I want to thank you so much for taking this

1736
01:55:38,040 --> 01:55:41,000
Speaker 1: time with my audience. Great to meet you face to face.

1737
01:55:41,280 --> 01:55:43,880
Speaker 1: Is someone I followed forever. I was thrilled that you

1738
01:55:44,080 --> 01:55:46,760
Speaker 1: reached out. Seriously. Yes, it was great.

1739
01:55:46,840 --> 01:55:50,480
Speaker 2: Seriously, man, let me you know, give the compliment back

1740
01:55:50,520 --> 01:55:54,600
Speaker 2: to you. I approached you because I love your take

1741
01:55:55,320 --> 01:55:58,960
Speaker 2: on so many things. I think someone of our generation

1742
01:55:59,680 --> 01:56:03,760
Speaker 2: and that have such a clear and interesting voice. I just,

1743
01:56:04,160 --> 01:56:08,320
Speaker 2: you know, read your newsletter every day, and yeah, I

1744
01:56:08,680 --> 01:56:11,760
Speaker 2: approached you because I love what you do. So you know,

1745
01:56:12,120 --> 01:56:14,560
Speaker 2: keep doing what you're doing because it's.

1746
01:56:15,680 --> 01:56:19,760
Speaker 1: Okay. Thanks so much until next time. This is Bob

1747
01:56:19,920 --> 01:56:20,520
Speaker 1: left six