WEBVTT - Carol Leifer

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to Bob left Such podcast. My

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<v Speaker 1>guest today is Carol Weafer, who has a new book,

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

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

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<v Speaker 2>and I it was doing the writers strike, so we

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<v Speaker 2>couldn't write any TV. We met for coffee. Rick had

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<v Speaker 2>just been to an event where someone gave a real

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<v Speaker 2>clunker of his speech at a wedding, and I had

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<v Speaker 2>just come back from a wedding where the father of

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<v Speaker 2>the bride gave a speech that was so bad people

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<v Speaker 2>were talking about it as they were leaving at the

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<v Speaker 2>valet Parker. So we both said to ourselves, as professional

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<v Speaker 2>comedy writers, you know, it's not that it's really not

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<v Speaker 2>that hard to tell your average person how to do

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<v Speaker 2>a speech, how to do a funny speech. And we

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<v Speaker 2>felt like we could walk people through it a to Z,

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<v Speaker 2>make it simple, make it easy, and do it as

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<v Speaker 2>a public service so nobody else has to sit through

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<v Speaker 2>another god awful speech and an event. Even more so, Bob,

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<v Speaker 2>because now, back in our day, a bad speech was

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<v Speaker 2>a funny story sitting around a Thanksgiving something like that.

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<v Speaker 2>Now it's being recorded, it might go up on the

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<v Speaker 2>web and haunt you for the rest of your life.

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<v Speaker 2>So that's why we felt we needed to do this.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, I have to ask you. You do a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of public speaking. The book is brief in for such

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<v Speaker 1>a short book. I was sort of stunned how constructive

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<v Speaker 1>it is. But it seems like preparation. You're a pro

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<v Speaker 1>okay sopose to the person who has a speech a

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<v Speaker 1>year or a speech of lifetime. You do a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of public speaking. Do you prepare and write out a

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<v Speaker 1>speech to this degree or do you do it off

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<v Speaker 1>the top of your head?

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<v Speaker 2>Well, I prepare very intensely. I mean the uh, when

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<v Speaker 2>you're especially when you're paid to speak to a group,

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<v Speaker 2>you want to give it your best shot. So that

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<v Speaker 2>doesn't mean you're kind of winging it up there and

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<v Speaker 2>being loosey goosey. I mean you want to be in

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<v Speaker 2>the moment. But I prepare very much, but I don't

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<v Speaker 2>write it out. And this is what we tell people

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<v Speaker 2>in the book to I have kind of bullet points

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<v Speaker 2>of where that I want to go, so that I'm

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<v Speaker 2>not only you know. Another big mistake that people make

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<v Speaker 2>that we found in doing speeches is that they look

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<v Speaker 2>down and are reading the whole time, and you know

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<v Speaker 2>that it is not good. You've got to be in

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<v Speaker 2>the moment connect with people. So we recommend bullet points

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<v Speaker 2>for a person speaking at an event, and for me,

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<v Speaker 2>I do the same thing. I go up there and

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<v Speaker 2>I have a very clear idea of what I want

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<v Speaker 2>to do with each of those bullet points. But it

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<v Speaker 2>is bullet points.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay. Do you have a couple of greatest hits? Do

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<v Speaker 1>you have memories like a golf player or a baseball player.

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<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, I remember this hit in this game. Whatever.

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<v Speaker 1>Do you have a couple of times where you have speeches?

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<v Speaker 1>We go, man, I really hit it out of the park,

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<v Speaker 1>use another sports metaphor.

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<v Speaker 2>You know where I really feel where you know. I

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

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<v Speaker 2>If someone asks you to speak an event, whether you

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<v Speaker 2>enjoy that invitation or not. As a comedian and more

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<v Speaker 2>so as a person, I like speaking at events because

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<v Speaker 2>I find it's very cathartic for me to share my

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<v Speaker 2>feelings about a couple that were celebrating a person who's

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<v Speaker 2>having a big event. But especially I liked I find

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

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<v Speaker 2>because it really helps me heal in talking about the

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<v Speaker 2>person with people that loved this person as well. So

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<v Speaker 2>I'll give you an example of something that really was

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<v Speaker 2>good for me to talk about at this memorial because

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<v Speaker 2>I knew that all the other people there would understand

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<v Speaker 2>what I was talking about. My cousin Jay sadly passed

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<v Speaker 2>away from cancer at fifty five, and he was an

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<v Speaker 2>amazing person. He was an amazing people person and everybody

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<v Speaker 2>that knew him knew that about him that quality. So

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<v Speaker 2>I told this story about how about when he was

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<v Speaker 2>still well dealing with his cancer, his wife and my

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<v Speaker 2>wife we all went together to the Greek to see

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<v Speaker 2>the Beach Boys, and I know you had the great

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<v Speaker 2>Mike Love on as well. So not only was I

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<v Speaker 2>excited to see the Beach Boys loving their music, but

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<v Speaker 2>we were invited to the after party. And I was

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<v Speaker 2>very excited to see Mike Love because I opened for

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<v Speaker 2>the Beach Boys back in nineteen eighty two at Harrah's

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<v Speaker 2>Okay in Tahoe. This is like one of my first

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<v Speaker 2>big gigs, and I wanted to see if he remembered me.

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<v Speaker 2>So we watched the concert. It's great. We go to

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<v Speaker 2>the after party and there's Mike Love and you know

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<v Speaker 2>when you're at a party and try to make your

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<v Speaker 2>way to somebody, and I saw an opportunity and I

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<v Speaker 2>missed it. And it's another opportunity that I am missed it.

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<v Speaker 2>And I go to the bar to get a drink.

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<v Speaker 2>I turn around. My cousin Jay is talking with Mike G.

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<v Speaker 2>Love like he's known him for a million years, so

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<v Speaker 2>much so that when I walked up, my cousin Jay

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<v Speaker 2>was actually, hey, Mike, do you know my cousin Karrols?

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<v Speaker 2>She opened for you three thousand years ago at Harris.

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<v Speaker 2>So I love telling that story because it encapsulated so

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<v Speaker 2>much of my cousin Jay, and sharing that with everyone

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<v Speaker 2>who knew that story was pitch perfect in the kind

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<v Speaker 2>of person he was. So that kind of thing always

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<v Speaker 2>makes me happy to share what I love about this person,

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<v Speaker 2>but also sharing with everyone what we loved about this person.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, you also tell that story in the book, but

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<v Speaker 1>you leave out did I'm sure I know the answer,

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<v Speaker 1>did or did not? My glove remember you, I have.

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<v Speaker 2>To say I don't think he did.

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<v Speaker 1>I would assume he didn't.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, I think he was polite however he reacted,

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<v Speaker 2>but I don't remember him going oh right, from forty

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

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, wherever you are today, what was the dream back then?

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<v Speaker 1>What did you want to have happened? Or did you

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<v Speaker 1>stumble into this when you were a little girl, you'd

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<v Speaker 1>just say this is what I want to do.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you know, since I was little, Bob, I've always

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<v Speaker 2>loved to perform. I mean in our basement downstairs. I

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<v Speaker 2>made it into a makeshift kind of stage and would

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<v Speaker 2>get up on it and lip sync Barbara streisand albums

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<v Speaker 2>or whatever. I just always loved the spotlight and the attack.

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<v Speaker 2>And I always loved being funny because I got really

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<v Speaker 2>good feedback ever since I was a kid from being

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<v Speaker 2>funny doing impressions or whatever. So I really feel like

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<v Speaker 2>I am living my dream and have lived my dream

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<v Speaker 2>for so many years because I just wanted to be

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<v Speaker 2>in show business really bad.

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<v Speaker 1>Oh, Okay, you definitely are in show business. When I

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<v Speaker 1>certainly became aware of you first, you were a stand up.

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<v Speaker 1>In addition that you've written TV scripts, some of which

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<v Speaker 1>are legendary like Seinfeld and the Marble Rye. You've written

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<v Speaker 1>for the Academy Awards. All of this is fantastic. In

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<v Speaker 1>the back of your mind, you say, well, I really

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<v Speaker 1>wanted to be going back to our generation. I really

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<v Speaker 1>wanted to be as big as Alan King or Joan Rivers.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, as I say, have you followed the ball

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<v Speaker 1>where it bounced or is there still some dream you

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<v Speaker 1>wish to achieve?

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

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<v Speaker 2>with where my career is at. I mean when you ask,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, becoming Joan Rivers or becoming Rodney Dangerfield, I

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<v Speaker 2>don't know that I wanted to be a full time

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<v Speaker 2>stand up comedian. And I'll tell you why is because

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<v Speaker 2>what I love about comedy writing is what I loved

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<v Speaker 2>about being funny growing up. You know, when you are

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<v Speaker 2>stand up, you travel by yourself and you go here

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<v Speaker 2>and there and you work on your own act by yourself.

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<v Speaker 2>But when I'm in a writer's room, I really feel

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

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<v Speaker 2>the synergy and the chemistry of that. I'm kind of

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<v Speaker 2>with my favorite people that people that speak my language,

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<v Speaker 2>and that makes me really happy. So I'm really happy

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<v Speaker 2>that I developed a writing career. It's funny when I

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<v Speaker 2>was offered my first writing job, which was on Saturday

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<v Speaker 2>Night Live in nineteen eighty five. I remember my dad

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<v Speaker 2>was really important figure to me also because he dreamed

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<v Speaker 2>of being a comedian and a comedy writer. So the

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<v Speaker 2>fact that I fulfilled his dream was something that he

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<v Speaker 2>felled about and I was certainly happy about. But I

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<v Speaker 2>remember my father saying to me, and I was like,

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<v Speaker 2>I don't know, Dad, I still love doing stand up.

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<v Speaker 2>He really pushed me to take the writing job because

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

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<v Speaker 2>and I think, looking back, that's very very good advice.

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<v Speaker 2>I think my only regret would be, you know, I

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<v Speaker 2>had my own sitcom, my short lived sitcom in nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>ninety seven to ninety eight on the WB network called

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<v Speaker 2>al Right Already, and it was kind of like my Seinfeld.

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<v Speaker 2>I mean, I wasn't a comedian or anything in it,

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<v Speaker 2>but I really wanted that to take off. I mean,

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<v Speaker 2>I'm sorry that it didn't, but that was really a

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<v Speaker 2>dream that I fulfilled. I just wish that it had

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<v Speaker 2>been more successful.

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<v Speaker 1>Well at this late date, twenty five years in the

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<v Speaker 1>rear view mirror. Okay, there could be many reasons why

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<v Speaker 1>it was not as successful as you wanted to do.

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<v Speaker 1>It could be timing in the schedule, it could be

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

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<v Speaker 1>Or you can look back and say, if I'd just

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<v Speaker 1>done this or that, there would be a greater chance

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<v Speaker 1>of success. So where does the lack of success of

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<v Speaker 1>your personal show lie.

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<v Speaker 2>That is a very very good question. I look, I

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

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<v Speaker 2>this day, the guy who was in charge of the WB,

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<v Speaker 2>who ran the WB at that time, whose name I

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<v Speaker 2>will not mention, still comes over to me and says,

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<v Speaker 2>I'm so sorry I canceled your show. I'm so sorry,

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<v Speaker 2>which I still enjoy. I still enjoy his apology. But

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<v Speaker 2>there's one small regret I have, and I don't know

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<v Speaker 2>that it would have turned the tide. But I do

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<v Speaker 2>think about this one little element, Bob, which was when

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<v Speaker 2>they were deciding about renewing my show or not. It's

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<v Speaker 2>a bit of a more complicated story than I thought.

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<v Speaker 2>I remember Bill Carter, you know, the at that time,

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<v Speaker 2>the media writer for TV writer for The New York Times.

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<v Speaker 2>He liked my show, and he said, I'd like to

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<v Speaker 2>write a piece on it, but if I know that

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<v Speaker 2>it's coming back. So this was relayed to the big

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<v Speaker 2>wig at the WB and he said, we're ninety five

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<v Speaker 2>percent sure it's coming back. So I kind of believe

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<v Speaker 2>ninety five percent. So they had a big meeting that

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<v Speaker 2>I was, you know, should have been at about whether

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<v Speaker 2>they were going to pick it up or not. And

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<v Speaker 2>I was on vacation in uh Hawaii, and I just thought, well,

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

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<v Speaker 2>And they did wind up the five percent canceling the show.

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<v Speaker 2>So I just had that one small regret that because

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<v Speaker 2>my philosophy of being around in show business for almost

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<v Speaker 2>fifty years is on my end. I have to do

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<v Speaker 2>everything I can to make sure things are successful. That's

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<v Speaker 2>my responsibility. So I'm just a little so worry that

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<v Speaker 2>I didn't go to that that meeting, but I yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>I still don't think they would have picked it up,

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<v Speaker 2>but I do think about that.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's go back to the beginning. Would your father do

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<v Speaker 1>for a living?

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<v Speaker 2>My father was an optometrist and his name was Seymour Come.

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<v Speaker 1>On Bob Listen, I got it, isn't it With comedians

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

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<v Speaker 1>that's a good run or something.

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<v Speaker 2>He was an optometrist by trade, but he was the

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<v Speaker 2>master joke teller of joke tellers. He was literally like,

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<v Speaker 2>give me any subject, whatever subject you have, I have

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<v Speaker 2>a joke on it. And you know a couple of

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<v Speaker 2>things he told jokes when I look back now, as

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<v Speaker 2>good as any pro that I know. You really had

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<v Speaker 2>fantastic timing. He had an appreciation of But I saw

0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:07.280
<v Speaker 2>how he connected with people through humor, and he was

0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:10.640
<v Speaker 2>called the tumbler of the family. If you're familiar with the.

0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:12.520
<v Speaker 1>Course from the Mountains.

0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:18.480
<v Speaker 2>Yes, yes, he was always entertaining people with his jokes,

0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.280
<v Speaker 2>and he was funny personally, but he also loved comedy.

0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:25.680
<v Speaker 2>Like we listened to the two thousand year Old Man

0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:28.920
<v Speaker 2>record in my house growing up. We could all practically

0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:36.760
<v Speaker 2>lip sync it, Vaughan Meeterer albums, Alan Sherman. So I

0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:39.920
<v Speaker 2>think not only watching him connect with people through being

0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:44.880
<v Speaker 2>funny and his love of comedy, you know, watching the

0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:47.680
<v Speaker 2>Ed Sullivan Show and watching the great comedians, you know

0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:51.520
<v Speaker 2>Jackie Mason, and Ronnie Dangerfield and Alan King. I mean

0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:59.840
<v Speaker 2>this was like my comedy education through him. So yeah,

0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.480
<v Speaker 2>he just, you know, he was never able to be

0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:07.040
<v Speaker 2>professionally funny. And whenever I asked him, like, Dad, how

0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.840
<v Speaker 2>hung you didn't pursue this yourself, I think he said

0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:14.240
<v Speaker 2>something that a lot of men of that generation would say,

0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:16.280
<v Speaker 2>which was you know, he said, Carol, I had to

0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.320
<v Speaker 2>make a living. You know, it was a far off

0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:24.760
<v Speaker 2>dream to his generation to take that leap, that risk.

0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:31.440
<v Speaker 2>But there's one story about my dad, you know, seeing

0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:34.600
<v Speaker 2>that he was never able to make it professionally, but

0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:40.240
<v Speaker 2>one story that gives me so much solace and happiness

0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:44.960
<v Speaker 2>hearing about it. So my mom was a psychologist and

0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:49.680
<v Speaker 2>every year she would go to the APA convention, their

0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:54.040
<v Speaker 2>meeting or whatever. And one time they went to one

0:16:54.080 --> 0:17:00.200
<v Speaker 2>of those psychological events and the person running it said, oh,

0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:06.240
<v Speaker 2>our entertainment dropped out, and my father said, well, I'm

0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:08.760
<v Speaker 2>happy to go up and tell some jokes if you like,

0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:12.000
<v Speaker 2>and they were like please, great, and I wasn't there,

0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.240
<v Speaker 2>but apparently my father went up and he slayed them,

0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:21.639
<v Speaker 2>I mean, just tore the room apart. And my mother

0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:24.359
<v Speaker 2>was just so happy about it, and everybody was coming

0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:28.040
<v Speaker 2>over to them afterwards, and that made me so happy

0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:32.240
<v Speaker 2>that he did have his moment in the sun. And

0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:34.600
<v Speaker 2>the other thing that makes me feel good about my

0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:38.720
<v Speaker 2>dad of him never getting to have a career in comedy,

0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:44.000
<v Speaker 2>is that when my father passed, the first thing everybody said,

0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:46.560
<v Speaker 2>and you know, you sit shiver for several days, you

0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.800
<v Speaker 2>see a lot of people. The first thing everybody said

0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:54.920
<v Speaker 2>was your father was so funny, and if he could

0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:59.800
<v Speaker 2>know that, even that would would make him so happy.

0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:09.440
<v Speaker 1>Okay, where do he get his material?

0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:13.320
<v Speaker 2>That's a very good question. I don't know. I think

0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.119
<v Speaker 2>over the years he just would hear a great joke

0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:20.920
<v Speaker 2>and then remember it. I remember he had a list

0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:25.040
<v Speaker 2>of jokes that he kept in his wallet, bullet points

0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:30.200
<v Speaker 2>of what the jokes were. I think that's how he

0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.120
<v Speaker 2>called all these jokes over the years.

0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:37.760
<v Speaker 1>Okay, my father told jokes too, you know, it's sort

0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.560
<v Speaker 1>of a Jewish tradition. Do you remember a couple of

0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:41.680
<v Speaker 1>his jokes.

0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:48.120
<v Speaker 2>I do remember a couple of his jokes. Yes, Oh,

0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:53.160
<v Speaker 2>he loved telling this one for sure. So I don't

0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:54.879
<v Speaker 2>know if you've heard this. One guy goes to the

0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:57.159
<v Speaker 2>ticket window of a movie theater with a chicken on

0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:00.360
<v Speaker 2>his shoulder and asked for two tickets. Particularly he asks

0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:02.880
<v Speaker 2>who's going in with him. The guy says, my pet chicken. Here.

0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:06.400
<v Speaker 2>Ticket lady says, I'm sorry, but we don't allow animals

0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:10.320
<v Speaker 2>in the movie theater. So the guy goes around the block.

0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.159
<v Speaker 2>He stuffs the chicken down his pants, goes back to

0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:19.119
<v Speaker 2>the ticket window, buys his ticket, and goes into the movies. Now,

0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:22.480
<v Speaker 2>once the movie starts, the chicken starts to get a

0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:28.159
<v Speaker 2>little hot, so the guy SIPs his pants so the

0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:32.280
<v Speaker 2>chicken can stick his head out and get a little air. Naturally,

0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.240
<v Speaker 2>woman sitting next to the guy sees this, and she

0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:39.320
<v Speaker 2>is understandably appalled. She nurges her girlfriend. She goes this

0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:42.400
<v Speaker 2>guy next to me just and zipped his pants. Woman

0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:45.399
<v Speaker 2>says back, hey, look, you know you've seen one. You've

0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.960
<v Speaker 2>seen them all. And the woman goes, I know, but

0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:55.240
<v Speaker 2>this one's eating my popcorn, all right. I got Bob

0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:55.960
<v Speaker 2>to laugh.

0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:02.800
<v Speaker 1>Sounded like yeah too, Do you have another one?

0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:11.200
<v Speaker 2>I do have another one that Yes, Jewish women love

0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:17.679
<v Speaker 2>this joke, as I hope you'll see. So this Jewish

0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.520
<v Speaker 2>mom is out on the beach with her little toddler,

0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:22.879
<v Speaker 2>having a great time. They're playing in the sun and

0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:25.840
<v Speaker 2>the sand and the surf, having a wonderful time. All

0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:28.480
<v Speaker 2>of a sudden, I don't know where, this huge wave

0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:32.000
<v Speaker 2>comes up, picks up the toddler and shoots him out

0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:35.640
<v Speaker 2>to sea. You know, the Jewish woman is beside herself.

0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:38.000
<v Speaker 2>She looks up at the sky and she says, Oh,

0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:41.479
<v Speaker 2>my God, God, please, I'll do anything, anything, just please

0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:44.119
<v Speaker 2>please bring my little boy back to me, Bring my

0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.480
<v Speaker 2>little boy back to me. Next thing, you know, another

0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:51.320
<v Speaker 2>wave comes up deposits the little boy back on the sand.

0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.560
<v Speaker 2>There he is safe and sound. The Jewish mother picks

0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:57.440
<v Speaker 2>him up. She squeezes her sun like she's never squeezed

0:20:57.480 --> 0:20:59.679
<v Speaker 2>him before. She looks up at the sky and she says,

0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:01.879
<v Speaker 2>he had a hat.

0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:12.000
<v Speaker 1>Ah. That is good, that is good. Okay, your father

0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:14.119
<v Speaker 1>were his parents born in America?

0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:22.160
<v Speaker 2>No, they were, I believe somewhere of Poland.

0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:28.040
<v Speaker 1>Okay, yeah, did you know them?

0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:32.679
<v Speaker 2>I knew my grandfather, Well, I didn't really know. I

0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:36.080
<v Speaker 2>was four when he passed away, so I did not

0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:38.480
<v Speaker 2>know them. And I wish I really should find out

0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:41.640
<v Speaker 2>where exactly they're from, because I did that ancestry thing

0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:45.680
<v Speaker 2>and it came back just one hundred percent Jewish.

0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:50.560
<v Speaker 1>That's actually kind of rare. Really, there's usually three or

0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:53.879
<v Speaker 1>two percent whatever, Bob, I have not done it, but

0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:56.200
<v Speaker 1>I'm just talking anecdotally what I've read.

0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:02.000
<v Speaker 2>Huh, because did they other people's don't come back one

0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:06.399
<v Speaker 2>hundred Lutheran? Like, what is with that? I don't get it.

0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:08.760
<v Speaker 1>And how about on your mother's.

0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:18.200
<v Speaker 2>Side, my mother's my grandparents, I think are they're from Russia? Yeah,

0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:22.720
<v Speaker 2>so they're all from the Old Country as we call it.

0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:27.280
<v Speaker 1>As my grandparents were too. So how did your parents meet?

0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:36.399
<v Speaker 2>My parents met at City College, obviously in New York. Yes.

0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:39.320
<v Speaker 1>Do you know any more specifics of how they met

0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:40.960
<v Speaker 1>at City College?

0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:46.400
<v Speaker 2>I don't, Other than this story was that my mother

0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:51.359
<v Speaker 2>was the club cutie of some club she was in.

0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:57.280
<v Speaker 2>And I just remember my father telling of a funny

0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:00.240
<v Speaker 2>story because my mother was one of six kids, that

0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:04.720
<v Speaker 2>the first time he went over to my grandparents' house

0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:09.560
<v Speaker 2>to meet them, my uncle, her younger brother, opened the

0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:12.800
<v Speaker 2>door and said to my father, we don't like your

0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:14.920
<v Speaker 2>type and slammed the door.

0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:19.120
<v Speaker 1>That was a humorous thing, or was that real?

0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:23.480
<v Speaker 2>It was humorous these twenty years later, I'm sure right

0:23:23.520 --> 0:23:27.280
<v Speaker 2>at the time, not very humorous because I'm sure my

0:23:27.320 --> 0:23:30.160
<v Speaker 2>mother opened the door back up and was my little

0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:33.240
<v Speaker 2>brother doing. But I remember that being part of the

0:23:33.280 --> 0:23:34.560
<v Speaker 2>family lore.

0:23:36.200 --> 0:23:37.719
<v Speaker 1>And so how many kids in the family?

0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:40.920
<v Speaker 2>There were six in my it was.

0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:43.280
<v Speaker 1>On your generation, your brothers and sisters.

0:23:44.160 --> 0:23:44.440
<v Speaker 2>Three?

0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:47.199
<v Speaker 1>And where are you in the hierarchy?

0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:50.680
<v Speaker 2>I'm the youngest. And I don't know if you've heard

0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:54.400
<v Speaker 2>this or not, but a lot of comedians are the youngest,

0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:56.040
<v Speaker 2>the attention hogs.

0:23:57.200 --> 0:24:00.600
<v Speaker 1>Well, it's funny. My younger sister prides herself a comedian.

0:24:00.680 --> 0:24:03.960
<v Speaker 1>You have the wherewithal to go as far as you did.

0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:05.960
<v Speaker 1>What are the two older ones up to?

0:24:07.840 --> 0:24:11.200
<v Speaker 2>Well, the two you know, it's a family very entrenched

0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:17.720
<v Speaker 2>in the mine world mind world. My brother's a psychiatrist,

0:24:17.960 --> 0:24:23.320
<v Speaker 2>and my sister has a degree, she has her PhD

0:24:23.400 --> 0:24:27.000
<v Speaker 2>in linguistics, but she is also a therapist as well.

0:24:28.200 --> 0:24:30.880
<v Speaker 1>Well, it's funny they're both in their field. Who ran

0:24:31.040 --> 0:24:33.760
<v Speaker 1>the house? Who are the peants in the family, Your

0:24:33.760 --> 0:24:34.600
<v Speaker 1>mother or your father?

0:24:36.760 --> 0:24:42.920
<v Speaker 2>I think my father, my father. It's funny though, when

0:24:43.400 --> 0:24:48.240
<v Speaker 2>my mother, my mother became a PhD in psychology in

0:24:48.280 --> 0:24:53.320
<v Speaker 2>the seventies, and you know, that was sort of unusual

0:24:53.400 --> 0:24:58.800
<v Speaker 2>at that time for women to pursue their career like that,

0:24:59.359 --> 0:25:01.800
<v Speaker 2>and I give her a lot of credit. But I

0:25:01.880 --> 0:25:04.720
<v Speaker 2>remember that when my mother started to really embark on

0:25:04.840 --> 0:25:09.520
<v Speaker 2>her getting her PhD, my father kind of took over

0:25:10.600 --> 0:25:14.919
<v Speaker 2>a lot of the family chores, like he did the

0:25:14.920 --> 0:25:18.280
<v Speaker 2>grocery shopping, and he always had a funny story about that.

0:25:18.359 --> 0:25:20.600
<v Speaker 2>I still remember to this day, Bob. He would talk

0:25:20.640 --> 0:25:23.159
<v Speaker 2>about how when he went grocery shopping, some of the

0:25:23.200 --> 0:25:26.879
<v Speaker 2>women would, you know, congregate in the aisles, and he

0:25:26.880 --> 0:25:30.320
<v Speaker 2>would go around them with his cart and say under

0:25:30.359 --> 0:25:42.760
<v Speaker 2>his breath, totally oblivious. But and then he started he

0:25:42.800 --> 0:25:45.960
<v Speaker 2>did the grocery shopping. Then he started baking. He got

0:25:46.080 --> 0:25:51.399
<v Speaker 2>my aunt Ellie's recipe for ruggluch and he started making

0:25:51.400 --> 0:25:53.520
<v Speaker 2>it at home. And I'm telling you, I haven't had

0:25:53.520 --> 0:25:58.280
<v Speaker 2>a piece of ruggloch that good since my father's, so

0:25:58.560 --> 0:26:01.800
<v Speaker 2>I think he's sort of when he retired. When he

0:26:01.880 --> 0:26:06.840
<v Speaker 2>retired and my mom started to really pursue her education

0:26:08.119 --> 0:26:11.479
<v Speaker 2>her PhD, that he sort of took over in that

0:26:11.520 --> 0:26:13.399
<v Speaker 2>way and he did well with it. But he was

0:26:13.440 --> 0:26:20.399
<v Speaker 2>also very very handy around the house. His father was

0:26:20.440 --> 0:26:25.239
<v Speaker 2>apparently a landlord, so he learned so many things to

0:26:25.359 --> 0:26:28.560
<v Speaker 2>do around the house. I know you're a big music

0:26:28.640 --> 0:26:31.399
<v Speaker 2>lover as I am, because I listened to your pod.

0:26:32.080 --> 0:26:37.560
<v Speaker 2>And when the Mamas in Papa's album came out and

0:26:37.640 --> 0:26:41.720
<v Speaker 2>the song Monday Monday, he had such a jones for

0:26:41.800 --> 0:26:46.679
<v Speaker 2>this Monday Monday. He figured out some contraption Bob on

0:26:46.720 --> 0:26:51.240
<v Speaker 2>the record player that it would keep it just the single,

0:26:52.320 --> 0:26:55.760
<v Speaker 2>this contraption with string, that it would somehow keep playing

0:26:55.840 --> 0:27:01.080
<v Speaker 2>Monday Monday over and over. So he was very inventive

0:27:01.560 --> 0:27:04.680
<v Speaker 2>that way as well. But I think he certainly ran

0:27:04.760 --> 0:27:10.320
<v Speaker 2>the house. He you know what Dad wanted, We we

0:27:10.480 --> 0:27:13.600
<v Speaker 2>went along with. But it wasn't in a, you know,

0:27:13.720 --> 0:27:17.359
<v Speaker 2>in a dictatory way, but I think he did. He

0:27:17.400 --> 0:27:18.720
<v Speaker 2>did wear the pants.

0:27:19.080 --> 0:27:20.240
<v Speaker 1>And where did you grow up?

0:27:21.800 --> 0:27:27.080
<v Speaker 2>I grew up on Long Island in East Williston, Okay.

0:27:27.119 --> 0:27:28.080
<v Speaker 1>Where exactly is that?

0:27:30.160 --> 0:27:31.600
<v Speaker 2>Are you familiar with the are you need?

0:27:31.720 --> 0:27:33.840
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna find out how familiar I am right now.

0:27:34.720 --> 0:27:40.480
<v Speaker 2>Okay. East Williston is a little town near Roslyn, Minneola.

0:27:41.040 --> 0:27:41.440
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

0:27:42.480 --> 0:27:48.440
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And I just found out recently that my George

0:27:48.480 --> 0:27:52.800
<v Speaker 2>Santos was the congressman from where I grew up, which

0:27:52.800 --> 0:27:57.840
<v Speaker 2>I could not believe, could not because it was so

0:27:58.080 --> 0:28:01.360
<v Speaker 2>democratic and when I was growing up, and to hear

0:28:01.400 --> 0:28:05.639
<v Speaker 2>that it, wow, it flipped the other way was a

0:28:05.800 --> 0:28:06.960
<v Speaker 2>bit eye opening to me.

0:28:07.400 --> 0:28:08.679
<v Speaker 1>So did you go to public school?

0:28:09.880 --> 0:28:14.560
<v Speaker 2>I did go to public school. I went to the

0:28:14.680 --> 0:28:17.880
<v Speaker 2>school system where I grew up. I think it's still

0:28:17.920 --> 0:28:21.000
<v Speaker 2>in the top one hundred, if not, like maybe number

0:28:21.040 --> 0:28:25.240
<v Speaker 2>one of the public schools. People really wanted to live

0:28:25.400 --> 0:28:28.160
<v Speaker 2>in the area I grew up and because the schools

0:28:28.160 --> 0:28:32.320
<v Speaker 2>were so great, and I did get a great, great education.

0:28:32.560 --> 0:28:35.440
<v Speaker 1>So what kind of kid were you? Were you a

0:28:35.480 --> 0:28:38.600
<v Speaker 1>smart kid? Did you do well? You know, how did

0:28:38.640 --> 0:28:40.480
<v Speaker 1>you fit into the school hierarchy?

0:28:43.760 --> 0:28:46.560
<v Speaker 2>I like to think I always did well in school.

0:28:48.640 --> 0:28:50.880
<v Speaker 2>I have my own son now and this doesn't apply.

0:28:51.000 --> 0:28:52.560
<v Speaker 2>When I was growing up, it was like, of course

0:28:52.560 --> 0:28:54.360
<v Speaker 2>I had to do well in school. My parents would

0:28:54.360 --> 0:28:54.800
<v Speaker 2>have killed me.

0:28:54.920 --> 0:28:57.120
<v Speaker 1>He you know, this came up just yesterday. Looked like

0:28:58.040 --> 0:28:59.880
<v Speaker 1>and they literally would have killed us.

0:29:00.160 --> 0:29:01.760
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely exactly.

0:29:02.080 --> 0:29:02.400
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

0:29:02.960 --> 0:29:05.880
<v Speaker 2>And it was I think a healthy fear that we

0:29:06.000 --> 0:29:07.600
<v Speaker 2>had of being killed.

0:29:09.280 --> 0:29:12.520
<v Speaker 1>I can remember. I remember came home on a freshman

0:29:12.640 --> 0:29:14.840
<v Speaker 1>year with what my father considered to be a bad

0:29:14.920 --> 0:29:18.479
<v Speaker 1>report card. He started to lose it so much, was

0:29:18.520 --> 0:29:24.600
<v Speaker 1>so angry that it was less me say, feeling the

0:29:24.600 --> 0:29:27.000
<v Speaker 1>blow of his being eager, saying, this guy is so

0:29:27.160 --> 0:29:28.840
<v Speaker 1>out of control it is weird.

0:29:31.720 --> 0:29:33.880
<v Speaker 2>I get it. I totally get it. It does not

0:29:34.120 --> 0:29:37.560
<v Speaker 2>sound a strange at all to me. Yeah, So did

0:29:37.640 --> 0:29:42.080
<v Speaker 2>I did well in school? And you know, in high school,

0:29:42.200 --> 0:29:46.840
<v Speaker 2>I think I was part of a good crowd. I

0:29:46.840 --> 0:29:51.400
<v Speaker 2>played sports in high school, I was a cheerleader, So

0:29:51.840 --> 0:29:55.080
<v Speaker 2>school was always good and fun for me. I did it,

0:29:55.200 --> 0:29:57.720
<v Speaker 2>was in a lot of skits, and did a lot

0:29:57.720 --> 0:30:01.600
<v Speaker 2>of comedy in high school. So I you know, like

0:30:01.680 --> 0:30:04.760
<v Speaker 2>I told you earlier, early on, I knew that I

0:30:04.800 --> 0:30:09.280
<v Speaker 2>wanted to perform and be out there on stage.

0:30:09.560 --> 0:30:12.800
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so you graduated from high school and you go

0:30:12.840 --> 0:30:15.120
<v Speaker 1>to Binghamton to college. What was that like?

0:30:16.120 --> 0:30:22.200
<v Speaker 2>Well, Binghamton was great and I really credit it now

0:30:22.240 --> 0:30:28.680
<v Speaker 2>looking back with a sort of serendipity of where I

0:30:28.720 --> 0:30:32.160
<v Speaker 2>am today, because well, I went to Binghamton because my

0:30:32.360 --> 0:30:36.800
<v Speaker 2>older sister Jane had gone there and I visited and

0:30:36.880 --> 0:30:41.680
<v Speaker 2>I really liked the school. Also, maybe you can relate

0:30:41.720 --> 0:30:44.600
<v Speaker 2>to this too, Bob. Growing up, you know, my father

0:30:44.680 --> 0:30:46.520
<v Speaker 2>is like, can go to any school you want, as

0:30:46.520 --> 0:30:51.920
<v Speaker 2>long as it's a state school. So Binghamton was the

0:30:51.960 --> 0:30:54.960
<v Speaker 2>school for me. But while I was there, I was

0:30:55.000 --> 0:30:58.840
<v Speaker 2>in a theater group with a guy named Paul Reiser,

0:31:00.400 --> 0:31:02.840
<v Speaker 2>and he was the one who told me that there

0:31:02.880 --> 0:31:06.560
<v Speaker 2>were these comedy clubs springing up in Manhattan. This is

0:31:07.000 --> 0:31:11.040
<v Speaker 2>all really new, this is like the late seventies. And

0:31:11.080 --> 0:31:16.160
<v Speaker 2>he told me about how anybody could go on an

0:31:16.160 --> 0:31:18.800
<v Speaker 2>open mic night and do five minutes. He had done it,

0:31:19.640 --> 0:31:24.280
<v Speaker 2>and I did it with Paul. You know, went to

0:31:24.360 --> 0:31:26.520
<v Speaker 2>an open mic night. I look back now, I can't

0:31:26.560 --> 0:31:30.480
<v Speaker 2>believe that it, you know, twenty and twenty one. I

0:31:30.560 --> 0:31:33.600
<v Speaker 2>had the hutzpah to go and do this in a

0:31:33.640 --> 0:31:37.240
<v Speaker 2>New York City nightclub. But that's also the beauty of youth,

0:31:37.560 --> 0:31:42.880
<v Speaker 2>having this freshness. And I passed the audition at two

0:31:42.960 --> 0:31:47.080
<v Speaker 2>comedy clubs, one the Comic Strip where Jerry Seinfeld was

0:31:47.120 --> 0:31:50.280
<v Speaker 2>the MC that night who put me through, and I

0:31:50.360 --> 0:31:54.080
<v Speaker 2>passed the audition. Another club, Patchurizing Star that's no longer there,

0:31:54.520 --> 0:31:56.720
<v Speaker 2>and the MC that night was Larry David who put

0:31:56.800 --> 0:32:00.000
<v Speaker 2>me through. So I literally go back to my first

0:32:00.080 --> 0:32:02.640
<v Speaker 2>stay of show business with these guys.

0:32:03.480 --> 0:32:08.880
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you grow up on Long Island, you go to Binghamton.

0:32:08.960 --> 0:32:13.000
<v Speaker 1>Although you meet Paul Riser is it weird being in

0:32:13.080 --> 0:32:17.360
<v Speaker 1>a large population with many fewer Jews.

0:32:19.000 --> 0:32:22.960
<v Speaker 2>Wait, what do you mean like when I left? Wait,

0:32:23.600 --> 0:32:25.040
<v Speaker 2>he asks me, what you mean?

0:32:25.960 --> 0:32:28.000
<v Speaker 1>Okay, I grew up in the suburbs in Connecticut. I

0:32:28.040 --> 0:32:31.160
<v Speaker 1>went to college. You know, just you're talking about when

0:32:31.200 --> 0:32:34.440
<v Speaker 1>you're in the suburbs. It wasn't that the Jews were

0:32:34.440 --> 0:32:37.000
<v Speaker 1>the dominant population in my town, or there were plenty

0:32:37.040 --> 0:32:39.680
<v Speaker 1>of Jews, but their parents scared him into doing well

0:32:39.680 --> 0:32:42.520
<v Speaker 1>in school, such as there were a lot of Jews

0:32:42.600 --> 0:32:46.320
<v Speaker 1>in the top classes. Then I went to college, there

0:32:46.320 --> 0:32:50.160
<v Speaker 1>were very few Jews, and it actually made me more Jewish.

0:32:50.200 --> 0:32:52.120
<v Speaker 1>I was wondering if you had a similar experience.

0:32:53.920 --> 0:32:57.200
<v Speaker 2>No, No, In fact, I grew up I think in

0:32:57.200 --> 0:33:01.280
<v Speaker 2>a very Jewish area was one thing. But you know

0:33:01.440 --> 0:33:05.280
<v Speaker 2>Roslyn Heights, I mean it was almost all Jewish. But

0:33:05.360 --> 0:33:08.760
<v Speaker 2>when I went to Dampton, it was very, very big

0:33:08.840 --> 0:33:12.160
<v Speaker 2>Jewish population of students. So I think even more so

0:33:12.200 --> 0:33:13.200
<v Speaker 2>than where I grew up.

0:33:14.160 --> 0:33:17.120
<v Speaker 1>Okay, how did you literally meet Paul Riser?

0:33:19.240 --> 0:33:25.520
<v Speaker 2>I literally met him. I had auditioned to be in

0:33:26.920 --> 0:33:31.840
<v Speaker 2>this our dorm. Our dorm section was doing you can't

0:33:31.880 --> 0:33:36.560
<v Speaker 2>take it with you to play, and I auditioned and

0:33:36.600 --> 0:33:41.280
<v Speaker 2>I got it, and Paul was in the ensemble. Of

0:33:41.320 --> 0:33:44.960
<v Speaker 2>course he was hilarious, and that's how I met him.

0:33:46.240 --> 0:33:48.680
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you meet him, you like him. You're you know,

0:33:49.960 --> 0:33:52.560
<v Speaker 1>a couple hundred miles from the epicenter of culture in

0:33:52.560 --> 0:33:56.160
<v Speaker 1>New York City. Do you say to yourself, Oh, this

0:33:56.320 --> 0:33:57.959
<v Speaker 1>is just a funny guy, or do you say, wait

0:33:58.040 --> 0:34:00.440
<v Speaker 1>a second, this guy is pretty funny, more funny than

0:34:00.440 --> 0:34:03.320
<v Speaker 1>the people I grew up with. You know, maybe I'm

0:34:03.360 --> 0:34:05.640
<v Speaker 1>in college now, maybe this is going to turn into something.

0:34:07.560 --> 0:34:11.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, well I skipped one part. Boy, this guy is

0:34:11.040 --> 0:34:15.080
<v Speaker 2>really funny and he's really cute too, And I dated him.

0:34:15.360 --> 0:34:20.160
<v Speaker 2>I mean, we quote from mel Brooks's two thousand year

0:34:20.200 --> 0:34:27.920
<v Speaker 2>Old Man, I vented him. So yeah, I just I

0:34:28.040 --> 0:34:32.520
<v Speaker 2>just could tell from going to these nightclubs. This to

0:34:32.600 --> 0:34:38.880
<v Speaker 2>me felt like a shortcut to Hollywood and fame, because,

0:34:39.880 --> 0:34:44.120
<v Speaker 2>you know, when I came up and my open mic nights,

0:34:44.880 --> 0:34:48.480
<v Speaker 2>this was happening to comedians. Freddy Prince would go on

0:34:48.560 --> 0:34:51.600
<v Speaker 2>the Tonight show Boom the next day he had a sitcom.

0:34:52.280 --> 0:34:57.000
<v Speaker 2>It really was the stepping stone to big, big things

0:34:57.080 --> 0:35:00.920
<v Speaker 2>for people. So I felt like, instead of doing acting

0:35:01.080 --> 0:35:04.280
<v Speaker 2>and an agent and an audition and all this stuff.

0:35:04.480 --> 0:35:09.799
<v Speaker 2>I can kind of control this, uh, this path myself,

0:35:10.040 --> 0:35:13.000
<v Speaker 2>and that always appeal to me. And also I can

0:35:13.040 --> 0:35:18.440
<v Speaker 2>control my own comedy, which I've always loved over the years,

0:35:18.520 --> 0:35:22.759
<v Speaker 2>like win or lose. I'm still driving the car here.

0:35:24.760 --> 0:35:28.239
<v Speaker 1>Okay, let's go back to Paul Riser. I got a

0:35:28.239 --> 0:35:32.120
<v Speaker 1>reason I'm going here. So how do you end up

0:35:32.239 --> 0:35:34.879
<v Speaker 1>dating him?

0:35:35.160 --> 0:35:38.759
<v Speaker 2>How do I end up dating him? Well, how does

0:35:38.800 --> 0:35:39.960
<v Speaker 2>anybody want to do?

0:35:40.040 --> 0:35:43.960
<v Speaker 1>Well? Okay, wait, okay, you and me both know it

0:35:44.080 --> 0:35:48.640
<v Speaker 1>is very, very difficult to make it to have this

0:35:48.840 --> 0:35:56.160
<v Speaker 1>level of success, and talent is nowhere near the major

0:35:56.360 --> 0:35:59.560
<v Speaker 1>percent well, it is is nowhere near the percentage of

0:35:59.560 --> 0:36:02.160
<v Speaker 1>the wes. And somebody makes it as people think they do.

0:36:02.800 --> 0:36:05.319
<v Speaker 1>There are people who have drive and have opportunity. I'll

0:36:05.360 --> 0:36:10.160
<v Speaker 1>give you an example. You emailed me, which I was thrilled.

0:36:10.440 --> 0:36:13.080
<v Speaker 1>I've known who you are for decades, and then you

0:36:13.320 --> 0:36:17.680
<v Speaker 1>mentioned being on the podcast. I was going to ask you, okay,

0:36:18.640 --> 0:36:21.600
<v Speaker 1>but you threw it out there, not in an aggressive fashion.

0:36:22.760 --> 0:36:27.800
<v Speaker 1>So I am interested in the personality. I mean, okay,

0:36:27.840 --> 0:36:30.400
<v Speaker 1>I was dealing with somebody who was a radio consultant

0:36:30.400 --> 0:36:32.719
<v Speaker 1>the other day when they became a music supervisored. So

0:36:32.880 --> 0:36:36.719
<v Speaker 1>the opportunity came up, I had no idea what I

0:36:36.760 --> 0:36:40.200
<v Speaker 1>was doing. I said, yes, I know this person. You know,

0:36:40.239 --> 0:36:44.040
<v Speaker 1>he sort of puts himself in the mix. So are

0:36:44.080 --> 0:36:46.879
<v Speaker 1>you saying, I mean, let's say Paul Reiser is there

0:36:47.160 --> 0:36:49.640
<v Speaker 1>very verbal person, You're a very verbal person, and you

0:36:49.680 --> 0:36:52.920
<v Speaker 1>meet him whatever. You know, there are people waiting at

0:36:52.920 --> 0:36:55.839
<v Speaker 1>home for the phone to ring, and there are other

0:36:55.920 --> 0:36:59.200
<v Speaker 1>people saying, hey, we should go get a pizza. Hey,

0:36:59.320 --> 0:37:03.120
<v Speaker 1>you know pushing it forward? Is that your personality?

0:37:04.080 --> 0:37:10.760
<v Speaker 2>Oh? Completely? And you know I keep talking about because

0:37:10.760 --> 0:37:14.080
<v Speaker 2>it still stupefies me that I'm doing this for almost

0:37:14.160 --> 0:37:14.920
<v Speaker 2>fifty years.

0:37:16.680 --> 0:37:17.040
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

0:37:17.160 --> 0:37:22.680
<v Speaker 2>I have always been someone who it's very simple equation

0:37:22.840 --> 0:37:28.480
<v Speaker 2>to me. You know, I enjoy your podcast. I enjoy

0:37:28.920 --> 0:37:32.560
<v Speaker 2>your emails every day, and when I am a fan

0:37:32.680 --> 0:37:36.239
<v Speaker 2>of someone and I feel like I would potentially be

0:37:36.400 --> 0:37:39.239
<v Speaker 2>a good mix with someone. You know. I had a

0:37:39.280 --> 0:37:42.359
<v Speaker 2>publicist for my book. I told her way back when

0:37:42.680 --> 0:37:47.840
<v Speaker 2>to go after getting on your podcast. Nothing ever happened.

0:37:47.920 --> 0:37:52.920
<v Speaker 2>So now that I'm not working with her, well, it's

0:37:53.040 --> 0:37:56.719
<v Speaker 2>not all that hard. You ever an email? I email too,

0:37:57.719 --> 0:38:00.880
<v Speaker 2>I'd love to be on your show. I'm glad you

0:38:01.000 --> 0:38:04.200
<v Speaker 2>pointed out, and not in an aggressive way, because I

0:38:04.239 --> 0:38:08.040
<v Speaker 2>really feel when you take that step of approaching someone personally,

0:38:08.600 --> 0:38:11.319
<v Speaker 2>you have to be delicate because if someone feels like

0:38:12.040 --> 0:38:16.120
<v Speaker 2>you're steamrolling them, you know. I'm on the other side

0:38:16.160 --> 0:38:18.560
<v Speaker 2>of that. Sometimes I feel like no, no, no, no, no,

0:38:18.640 --> 0:38:22.319
<v Speaker 2>not interested, and I always go into it. If you

0:38:22.360 --> 0:38:25.759
<v Speaker 2>had not gotten back to me or gotten back to

0:38:25.800 --> 0:38:27.880
<v Speaker 2>me and said I'm sorry, I don't have room right now,

0:38:28.040 --> 0:38:31.040
<v Speaker 2>or whatever your way of saying no was, I would

0:38:31.080 --> 0:38:34.200
<v Speaker 2>have been fine with it. I mean, I've learned along

0:38:34.239 --> 0:38:37.840
<v Speaker 2>the way to go after things that I'd like to do,

0:38:38.000 --> 0:38:43.520
<v Speaker 2>but at the same time, if they don't happen, it's okay, It's.

0:38:43.680 --> 0:38:47.400
<v Speaker 1>Okay, okay. Jumping forward, how do you end up writing

0:38:47.480 --> 0:38:48.880
<v Speaker 1>for the Oscars?

0:38:50.440 --> 0:38:57.160
<v Speaker 2>Well, yes, a big jump, but I'm taking it the Oscars,

0:38:58.000 --> 0:39:03.200
<v Speaker 2>like many things in show business, I was just kind

0:39:03.239 --> 0:39:06.319
<v Speaker 2>of doing my thing. I think the first time was

0:39:07.440 --> 0:39:11.240
<v Speaker 2>I was approached was ninety seven, maybe Bruce Falange reached

0:39:11.280 --> 0:39:12.919
<v Speaker 2>out to me. He was the head writer and asked

0:39:12.960 --> 0:39:17.360
<v Speaker 2>if I wanted to write for the Oscars. I remember

0:39:17.480 --> 0:39:21.080
<v Speaker 2>passing the first time because I was in the middle

0:39:21.120 --> 0:39:27.200
<v Speaker 2>of doing my then sitcom, and then after that I remember,

0:39:27.239 --> 0:39:30.400
<v Speaker 2>he asked me another time and the next time, and

0:39:30.480 --> 0:39:34.040
<v Speaker 2>I jumped in and since then, you know, I've done

0:39:34.040 --> 0:39:36.880
<v Speaker 2>it many times, many many times over the years. And

0:39:38.000 --> 0:39:39.719
<v Speaker 2>of all the things I love to do, and I

0:39:39.800 --> 0:39:45.520
<v Speaker 2>do love to do many different things involving comedy, award

0:39:45.600 --> 0:39:49.759
<v Speaker 2>shows are one of my favorite, absolutely, and especially the

0:39:49.800 --> 0:39:54.160
<v Speaker 2>Oscars because it's the big kahuna. It's the award show

0:39:54.239 --> 0:39:57.279
<v Speaker 2>that all the other award shows bowed down to. So

0:39:57.440 --> 0:40:00.000
<v Speaker 2>I'm very honored to be a part of it.

0:40:07.480 --> 0:40:10.160
<v Speaker 1>Okay, when Bruce calls you, do you have a relationship

0:40:10.200 --> 0:40:13.600
<v Speaker 1>with Bruce? Do you know Bruce at that point? Yeah?

0:40:13.760 --> 0:40:16.920
<v Speaker 2>I think I think we probably if we didn't, if

0:40:16.960 --> 0:40:23.160
<v Speaker 2>we weren't friends, we certainly would see each other at things.

0:40:23.200 --> 0:40:25.640
<v Speaker 2>I mean. Another thing that I love about being a comedian,

0:40:25.760 --> 0:40:30.680
<v Speaker 2>about being a funny person is that, uh, you know

0:40:30.800 --> 0:40:34.560
<v Speaker 2>other funny people. We're all one people. So when I

0:40:34.640 --> 0:40:38.000
<v Speaker 2>meet another comedian, I don't have to know what his

0:40:38.120 --> 0:40:41.080
<v Speaker 2>act is or what her shpiel is or whatever, just

0:40:41.160 --> 0:40:45.880
<v Speaker 2>knowing that they're professionally funny, there's instantly a bond. I

0:40:46.000 --> 0:40:49.040
<v Speaker 2>find that people sometimes have this misconception. They asked me

0:40:49.080 --> 0:40:53.120
<v Speaker 2>about my career where people cutthroat, people competitive and yeah,

0:40:53.520 --> 0:40:58.399
<v Speaker 2>you know, trying to derail. It's the complete opposite. When

0:40:58.520 --> 0:41:03.440
<v Speaker 2>I find I'm with funny people, it's the most supportive,

0:41:03.680 --> 0:41:06.839
<v Speaker 2>fun group of people I could ever be with. Like

0:41:06.880 --> 0:41:10.680
<v Speaker 2>I said earlier in our conversation, we speak the same language.

0:41:10.719 --> 0:41:14.800
<v Speaker 2>I feel like I'm with people who have the same

0:41:14.880 --> 0:41:20.560
<v Speaker 2>a similar personality to me in certain ways. So, yeah,

0:41:20.680 --> 0:41:22.799
<v Speaker 2>Brews gotten in touch with me. I don't know how

0:41:22.800 --> 0:41:25.840
<v Speaker 2>well he knew me, but he certainly we knew. I

0:41:26.160 --> 0:41:28.879
<v Speaker 2>knew of him, of course, but you know he knew

0:41:28.880 --> 0:41:29.200
<v Speaker 2>of me.

0:41:31.080 --> 0:41:34.560
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So a lot of you grew up in New York.

0:41:34.600 --> 0:41:37.000
<v Speaker 1>You mentioned the clubs, you know, catch a rising star,

0:41:37.080 --> 0:41:40.920
<v Speaker 1>et cetera. At the same time, does every comedian know

0:41:41.000 --> 0:41:41.800
<v Speaker 1>every comedian?

0:41:45.120 --> 0:41:48.799
<v Speaker 2>Well, not to sound like an old timer, but back

0:41:48.840 --> 0:41:53.759
<v Speaker 2>in the day, he pretty much did. I mean, I

0:41:53.800 --> 0:42:00.239
<v Speaker 2>think younger comedians are really just surprised when I tell them,

0:42:00.560 --> 0:42:04.399
<v Speaker 2>Like when I started, you knew the comedians that were

0:42:04.440 --> 0:42:07.480
<v Speaker 2>in New York it was probably twenty five people, if

0:42:07.520 --> 0:42:14.680
<v Speaker 2>that female wise, there were probably four or five. And

0:42:14.719 --> 0:42:18.120
<v Speaker 2>then out on the West Coast, I got it was

0:42:18.320 --> 0:42:25.879
<v Speaker 2>very prestigious at that time. Someone came in from oh

0:42:25.880 --> 0:42:27.799
<v Speaker 2>I should remember the club's name, but it was like

0:42:27.880 --> 0:42:31.040
<v Speaker 2>a club in Claremont and one in Newport Beach, and

0:42:31.080 --> 0:42:33.200
<v Speaker 2>they would fly you out there and you could perform

0:42:33.360 --> 0:42:37.560
<v Speaker 2>these clubs. And then when I went out to California

0:42:37.640 --> 0:42:41.320
<v Speaker 2>and I saw the scene out here, there are literally

0:42:41.400 --> 0:42:44.839
<v Speaker 2>twenty people probably that were doing stand up. Now I

0:42:44.880 --> 0:42:48.359
<v Speaker 2>can't even begin to tell you how many comics there are.

0:42:48.440 --> 0:42:50.840
<v Speaker 2>I go on a lot of times at the Comedy

0:42:50.840 --> 0:42:53.160
<v Speaker 2>and Magic Club, which is in Hermosa Beach, and I

0:42:53.280 --> 0:42:57.160
<v Speaker 2>like it because they do a lot. It's ten comics.

0:42:58.960 --> 0:43:01.439
<v Speaker 2>They call it ten for ten, ten comics each doing

0:43:01.480 --> 0:43:05.080
<v Speaker 2>ten minutes. And I just went this past Saturday. I

0:43:05.200 --> 0:43:09.320
<v Speaker 2>meet all these great new young comments and every Saturday

0:43:09.360 --> 0:43:14.520
<v Speaker 2>it's like a new crop. So, yeah, we did know

0:43:14.800 --> 0:43:16.680
<v Speaker 2>most of the comedians back then.

0:43:17.920 --> 0:43:22.480
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you know Netflix was doing a stand up a week. There.

0:43:23.480 --> 0:43:26.840
<v Speaker 1>There's a plethora of comedy. Forgetting the comedy bloom of

0:43:26.840 --> 0:43:29.279
<v Speaker 1>the eighties and nineties, let's just talk about now. There's

0:43:29.320 --> 0:43:34.120
<v Speaker 1>a plethora of comedy. Comedy is a broad swath, but

0:43:34.239 --> 0:43:38.600
<v Speaker 1>let's just start with stand up. There's more than ever before.

0:43:38.800 --> 0:43:42.879
<v Speaker 1>It's more available than ever before. I'll use music as

0:43:42.920 --> 0:43:46.919
<v Speaker 1>an analogy, it's more than there ever was before. It's

0:43:46.960 --> 0:43:50.080
<v Speaker 1>big business, but I've been around since the Beatles. It

0:43:50.120 --> 0:43:52.879
<v Speaker 1>doesn't represent what it used to be, and the acts

0:43:52.880 --> 0:43:55.880
<v Speaker 1>are in as good. What would you say about comedy.

0:43:58.320 --> 0:44:03.600
<v Speaker 2>I would actually say about comedy. I don't. I still

0:44:03.640 --> 0:44:07.759
<v Speaker 2>think people are doing it and doing it well.

0:44:09.920 --> 0:44:10.480
<v Speaker 1>I just.

0:44:11.960 --> 0:44:15.040
<v Speaker 2>You know, I think I also feel like I have

0:44:15.120 --> 0:44:19.000
<v Speaker 2>to watch my old person ness, my boomer ness and say, eh,

0:44:19.200 --> 0:44:21.920
<v Speaker 2>you know, the new crop they're not as good as weird.

0:44:22.160 --> 0:44:26.160
<v Speaker 2>And then there's a lot of great comedy out there.

0:44:26.160 --> 0:44:29.880
<v Speaker 2>And what I think is great about comedy, And you know,

0:44:29.920 --> 0:44:33.560
<v Speaker 2>by the same token music is if you don't like it,

0:44:33.640 --> 0:44:38.360
<v Speaker 2>don't listen to it. But you know where I feel

0:44:38.400 --> 0:44:44.200
<v Speaker 2>like there's certainly a dearth of new rock stars per se. Boy,

0:44:44.239 --> 0:44:48.000
<v Speaker 2>there's just a shitload of comedy that's out there and

0:44:48.920 --> 0:44:52.600
<v Speaker 2>really good. I mean you start to think, you know,

0:44:53.040 --> 0:44:56.920
<v Speaker 2>is there one more airline joke that that's funny? Yeah,

0:44:57.280 --> 0:45:00.279
<v Speaker 2>I just heard one this past Saturday night. There you know,

0:45:00.800 --> 0:45:04.120
<v Speaker 2>still mining out there, you know, we're their heads with

0:45:04.239 --> 0:45:08.680
<v Speaker 2>the lamps on it and finding very good stuff. I

0:45:08.680 --> 0:45:09.400
<v Speaker 2>think it's great.

0:45:09.719 --> 0:45:12.880
<v Speaker 1>Okay, to what degree do you feel the competition.

0:45:17.400 --> 0:45:21.719
<v Speaker 2>I don't feel the competition, and I'll tell you why,

0:45:21.760 --> 0:45:28.560
<v Speaker 2>for a couple of reasons. One is I noticed that

0:45:28.640 --> 0:45:33.080
<v Speaker 2>when I go up as an older person, I mean,

0:45:33.239 --> 0:45:37.000
<v Speaker 2>I don't think I you know, I'm a boomer, but

0:45:37.840 --> 0:45:43.120
<v Speaker 2>I think people people like it. I would say, you know,

0:45:43.239 --> 0:45:46.719
<v Speaker 2>people my age like to hear from someone of their generation,

0:45:47.040 --> 0:45:50.200
<v Speaker 2>but I think younger people like it as well. I remember,

0:45:51.320 --> 0:45:54.239
<v Speaker 2>you know, watching older comedians when I was young and

0:45:54.320 --> 0:46:01.520
<v Speaker 2>enjoying them. But I don't feel competitive because nobody is me.

0:46:03.239 --> 0:46:06.799
<v Speaker 2>Nobody is me Bob, and I have my own take.

0:46:06.880 --> 0:46:10.319
<v Speaker 2>I've always had my own individual take on things that

0:46:10.400 --> 0:46:15.000
<v Speaker 2>connect with audiences. I'm pleased to say, and the more

0:46:15.080 --> 0:46:18.680
<v Speaker 2>that I keep writing, I don't feel like I'm ever

0:46:18.719 --> 0:46:22.560
<v Speaker 2>in anybody's class. And the great thing about comedy is

0:46:22.640 --> 0:46:25.960
<v Speaker 2>it's all about what you're putting out there, and if

0:46:26.000 --> 0:46:29.040
<v Speaker 2>what you're putting out there is good, you're not really

0:46:29.080 --> 0:46:32.600
<v Speaker 2>in competition with anybody else because it's your own thing.

0:46:34.200 --> 0:46:36.560
<v Speaker 1>So how would you describe your own act in your

0:46:36.600 --> 0:46:41.840
<v Speaker 1>own sensibility?

0:46:42.160 --> 0:46:49.520
<v Speaker 2>My act, Well, i'd like to I think it's I'd

0:46:49.560 --> 0:46:55.279
<v Speaker 2>like to think it's whimsical. It's not aggressive or attacking

0:46:55.760 --> 0:47:01.480
<v Speaker 2>or anything like that. I feel like it's just it's whimsy.

0:47:02.360 --> 0:47:06.160
<v Speaker 2>But the great thing about I think being a funny person.

0:47:06.280 --> 0:47:11.279
<v Speaker 2>And I heard this from I was flying back, no

0:47:11.320 --> 0:47:14.480
<v Speaker 2>airline joke to come. I was flying back from somewhere

0:47:14.520 --> 0:47:21.239
<v Speaker 2>and they had a masterclass by David Sedaris and I

0:47:21.320 --> 0:47:24.879
<v Speaker 2>watched it, and I thought he said something pretty profound

0:47:24.920 --> 0:47:27.600
<v Speaker 2>that I hadn't realized for all these years that I

0:47:27.680 --> 0:47:32.600
<v Speaker 2>do comedy. And he was talking about how funny people

0:47:32.640 --> 0:47:37.800
<v Speaker 2>have the advantage of having embarrassing or terrible things happened

0:47:37.800 --> 0:47:43.640
<v Speaker 2>to them and then making humor out of it. I like,

0:47:43.719 --> 0:47:47.480
<v Speaker 2>for example, what he talked about was, I'm paraphrasing, but

0:47:47.560 --> 0:47:51.080
<v Speaker 2>he went to the doctor for something and they asked

0:47:51.120 --> 0:47:53.040
<v Speaker 2>him to want dress and put on one of those

0:47:53.080 --> 0:47:58.279
<v Speaker 2>horrible robes that open in the back, and they had said,

0:47:58.320 --> 0:48:00.400
<v Speaker 2>and then go to this room and wait. And he

0:48:00.440 --> 0:48:03.200
<v Speaker 2>went into this room where there were all people dressed

0:48:03.239 --> 0:48:05.920
<v Speaker 2>and waiting, and he sat there for a couple of

0:48:06.000 --> 0:48:09.560
<v Speaker 2>minutes before he kind of realized, oh, I'm apparently in

0:48:09.600 --> 0:48:15.959
<v Speaker 2>the wrong room, and he left. But he was talking

0:48:16.000 --> 0:48:20.600
<v Speaker 2>about how too, you know your average person, that's a

0:48:20.640 --> 0:48:23.520
<v Speaker 2>horrible thing and you just kind of Grin and Barrett,

0:48:23.520 --> 0:48:25.960
<v Speaker 2>you go off to the other room. But funny people,

0:48:26.000 --> 0:48:28.200
<v Speaker 2>we can take that story and make hay of it

0:48:28.560 --> 0:48:32.000
<v Speaker 2>and make it humorous. So the terrible things that happened

0:48:32.040 --> 0:48:35.200
<v Speaker 2>to us can become fodder. And I found that in

0:48:36.320 --> 0:48:42.400
<v Speaker 2>my own life, you know, Like I was walking my

0:48:42.560 --> 0:48:47.080
<v Speaker 2>dog recently in my neighborhood and I got to a

0:48:47.160 --> 0:48:52.920
<v Speaker 2>crosswalk and instead of stopping, this car of young guys

0:48:52.960 --> 0:48:58.080
<v Speaker 2>came and barreled through the crosswalk, almost hitting me. And

0:48:58.200 --> 0:49:00.560
<v Speaker 2>so what did I do. It was kind of stupid.

0:49:00.600 --> 0:49:05.600
<v Speaker 2>I flipped them off, so big mistake. You know, they

0:49:05.640 --> 0:49:10.560
<v Speaker 2>did a new turn. They're following down the street, honking

0:49:10.600 --> 0:49:14.520
<v Speaker 2>their horn. I was really scared. And then one of

0:49:14.560 --> 0:49:17.480
<v Speaker 2>them rolled down the window and he said to me,

0:49:18.120 --> 0:49:29.279
<v Speaker 2>you're a fat whore. And he also said, and your

0:49:29.320 --> 0:49:35.680
<v Speaker 2>dog is ugly. But anyway, so I tell this story

0:49:35.760 --> 0:49:39.440
<v Speaker 2>now on stage of what happened minus the dog, you know,

0:49:39.520 --> 0:49:42.600
<v Speaker 2>and he said you're a fat horror and yeah. It

0:49:42.640 --> 0:49:45.560
<v Speaker 2>was really shaken up. And I went home and I

0:49:45.600 --> 0:49:52.440
<v Speaker 2>said to my wife, yeah, fat, And the audience loves

0:49:52.480 --> 0:49:55.520
<v Speaker 2>the story. You know, I've taken something that was really

0:49:55.600 --> 0:49:59.920
<v Speaker 2>upsetting to me, and now it's part of being funny.

0:50:01.080 --> 0:50:05.560
<v Speaker 1>If you went back and looked at your early material,

0:50:06.160 --> 0:50:09.280
<v Speaker 1>would you cringe or you say, no, that's my act.

0:50:10.920 --> 0:50:17.680
<v Speaker 2>Oh, now I'm very Someone recently sent me my first letterman,

0:50:18.239 --> 0:50:21.759
<v Speaker 2>which was in nineteen eighty two. I mean, it's like

0:50:21.880 --> 0:50:24.840
<v Speaker 2>watching my daughter. It's like that far back, and I

0:50:25.280 --> 0:50:27.200
<v Speaker 2>just get a real kick out of it. I really

0:50:27.640 --> 0:50:30.839
<v Speaker 2>even sort of miss I have. I had this kind

0:50:30.880 --> 0:50:39.160
<v Speaker 2>of joyful, you know, uncratered enthusiasm going out there that

0:50:39.760 --> 0:50:46.759
<v Speaker 2>I sort of miss now, this youthful exuberance, No, I love.

0:50:46.960 --> 0:50:52.640
<v Speaker 2>I love watching my old stuff and remembering what I

0:50:52.719 --> 0:50:55.040
<v Speaker 2>was thinking when I was doing it, and what was

0:50:55.080 --> 0:50:56.520
<v Speaker 2>going on, and all.

0:50:56.400 --> 0:51:01.640
<v Speaker 1>That tell me about your state of mind today visa

0:51:01.719 --> 0:51:06.200
<v Speaker 1>the yesteryear. That youthful exuberance you say you wish you had,

0:51:06.640 --> 0:51:08.640
<v Speaker 1>you say you don't have it, tell me about that.

0:51:12.480 --> 0:51:18.000
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. I think that I look back at

0:51:18.000 --> 0:51:21.759
<v Speaker 2>that youthful exuberance and I just look at it as

0:51:23.400 --> 0:51:27.800
<v Speaker 2>being young. I mean I miss it justin in being young.

0:51:27.920 --> 0:51:30.239
<v Speaker 2>I don't miss it in terms of oh I wish that,

0:51:30.760 --> 0:51:34.920
<v Speaker 2>wish I had that today. It's just to me, watching

0:51:34.960 --> 0:51:40.560
<v Speaker 2>your younger self is fulfilling in a certain way, because

0:51:40.600 --> 0:51:42.640
<v Speaker 2>it's like, oh, that's who I was back then, and

0:51:42.680 --> 0:51:45.279
<v Speaker 2>look at me. I was really acting young because I

0:51:45.400 --> 0:51:53.239
<v Speaker 2>was young. So I do miss the like when we

0:51:53.239 --> 0:51:55.600
<v Speaker 2>were talking about when I went on those open mic

0:51:55.719 --> 0:52:01.680
<v Speaker 2>nights at twenty and twenty one, I do miss the

0:52:02.080 --> 0:52:07.080
<v Speaker 2>I would say recklessness, but it's not the jumping in

0:52:07.120 --> 0:52:10.840
<v Speaker 2>to anything when you're young, because you're young and maybe

0:52:10.880 --> 0:52:15.320
<v Speaker 2>in a way clueless of the consequences, but you're ready

0:52:15.360 --> 0:52:20.080
<v Speaker 2>to jump off that cliff. And certainly now as an

0:52:20.080 --> 0:52:23.640
<v Speaker 2>older person, you know, I'm not going to go hang gliding.

0:52:24.280 --> 0:52:26.920
<v Speaker 2>I'm not. I know you ski. It's like, what what

0:52:27.000 --> 0:52:32.239
<v Speaker 2>are you thinking? I don't want to fall. I've had

0:52:32.360 --> 0:52:36.440
<v Speaker 2>too many friends at this age fall. I have to

0:52:36.440 --> 0:52:39.960
<v Speaker 2>get a good pair of sneakers. Maybe I'll get sketches. Bob, Yeah, right,

0:52:41.000 --> 0:52:46.840
<v Speaker 2>spoke so highly of them. But yeah, there's a certain

0:52:46.920 --> 0:52:50.960
<v Speaker 2>caution being older that I respect a lot.

0:52:51.440 --> 0:52:55.880
<v Speaker 1>Well, I'm less worried about that aspect then more the

0:52:55.920 --> 0:53:01.479
<v Speaker 1>state of mind, of career and then mixing and aging. Yes,

0:53:01.600 --> 0:53:06.160
<v Speaker 1>when you're nobody from nowhere, you have this incredible desire

0:53:06.760 --> 0:53:11.560
<v Speaker 1>to push walls down and make it by anybody's standards.

0:53:11.600 --> 0:53:15.280
<v Speaker 1>In comedy, in Hollywood, You've made it. I'm not saying

0:53:15.360 --> 0:53:18.320
<v Speaker 1>that reads a complacency. It could in some people, but

0:53:18.440 --> 0:53:22.359
<v Speaker 1>certainly not in your case. But you know, you look

0:53:22.400 --> 0:53:24.759
<v Speaker 1>at the game and say, well, what are the targets

0:53:24.800 --> 0:53:29.600
<v Speaker 1>out there? And even if I achieved that target, would

0:53:29.600 --> 0:53:32.440
<v Speaker 1>it mean enough for me to do it? You know,

0:53:32.480 --> 0:53:33.600
<v Speaker 1>once I achieved it?

0:53:34.560 --> 0:53:41.319
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Well. The good thing about stand up comedy is

0:53:43.280 --> 0:53:46.839
<v Speaker 2>I know that there's more for me to say, there's

0:53:46.880 --> 0:53:50.239
<v Speaker 2>more jokes for me to write, There's more things I

0:53:50.440 --> 0:53:53.759
<v Speaker 2>like to say and talk about. So I always look

0:53:53.800 --> 0:53:59.040
<v Speaker 2>ahead optimistically in that way. And as we've been talking

0:53:59.080 --> 0:54:03.600
<v Speaker 2>a lot before about this, nobody has will ever have

0:54:03.719 --> 0:54:07.120
<v Speaker 2>my act or my jokes. So to me, that's always

0:54:07.280 --> 0:54:11.960
<v Speaker 2>been a big advantage in the SHOWPI Is World, because

0:54:12.800 --> 0:54:16.560
<v Speaker 2>I'm not trying to write a show for somebody. I'm not.

0:54:18.560 --> 0:54:20.520
<v Speaker 2>You know, it's a whole different thing when you work

0:54:20.960 --> 0:54:24.360
<v Speaker 2>in one as one, and I always think like there's

0:54:24.760 --> 0:54:28.920
<v Speaker 2>always an audience for I think what I'm doing, what

0:54:29.000 --> 0:54:32.040
<v Speaker 2>anybody's doing. If you connect with whoever you connect with,

0:54:32.960 --> 0:54:37.040
<v Speaker 2>that to me that that's a thumbs up. And more importantly,

0:54:37.360 --> 0:54:43.720
<v Speaker 2>I think Bob I dig being creative. That's my Jones.

0:54:44.040 --> 0:54:48.360
<v Speaker 2>You know, that's my thing. It really makes me feel alive. Really,

0:54:49.320 --> 0:54:52.920
<v Speaker 2>it's what led to writing my book. I mean, I

0:54:52.960 --> 0:54:56.360
<v Speaker 2>was writing a TV I couldn't do it because of

0:54:56.400 --> 0:55:01.200
<v Speaker 2>the strike. Honoring the strike. I always like to be

0:55:01.719 --> 0:55:08.160
<v Speaker 2>that I'm working on. That's I'm thinking about that. Yeah,

0:55:08.320 --> 0:55:09.520
<v Speaker 2>that's that's my fix.

0:55:10.000 --> 0:55:13.160
<v Speaker 1>Okay, let's look at Bill Maher. Let's not get into

0:55:13.200 --> 0:55:15.680
<v Speaker 1>his act or whatever. And he's got a TV show's

0:55:15.719 --> 0:55:19.040
<v Speaker 1>had a TV show for thirty odd years. He says

0:55:19.040 --> 0:55:21.480
<v Speaker 1>he's quitting the road if you look at some of

0:55:21.520 --> 0:55:24.160
<v Speaker 1>his numbers, not necessarily going clean everywhere. But that's not

0:55:24.280 --> 0:55:28.240
<v Speaker 1>really the point. I know Richard Lewis. I knew Richard

0:55:28.239 --> 0:55:31.200
<v Speaker 1>a certain amount, not a lot. Which people don't realize

0:55:31.200 --> 0:55:33.319
<v Speaker 1>about Richard, which I have to throw in, is he

0:55:33.520 --> 0:55:36.560
<v Speaker 1>was that guy. You know, there's so many people you think,

0:55:36.800 --> 0:55:40.840
<v Speaker 1>oh yeah, you know, it's just so hilarious, but you know,

0:55:41.239 --> 0:55:44.040
<v Speaker 1>well he only he unfortunately passed, but he only wanted

0:55:44.080 --> 0:55:47.080
<v Speaker 1>to do so much work. Now, your career is not

0:55:47.440 --> 0:55:50.839
<v Speaker 1>that of the average stand up comedian. But let's say

0:55:50.840 --> 0:55:52.279
<v Speaker 1>the aviad, you know, we look at it. You could

0:55:52.320 --> 0:55:57.040
<v Speaker 1>go book thirty dates of whatever number of tickets you

0:55:57.040 --> 0:56:00.200
<v Speaker 1>could sell somewhere between five hundred and fifty thousand, and

0:56:00.280 --> 0:56:03.560
<v Speaker 1>you can go out and you collect money. You reach

0:56:03.719 --> 0:56:06.200
<v Speaker 1>this age. Is that's still satisfying?

0:56:08.280 --> 0:56:15.240
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely? Absolutely? Yeah. I don't know why. I'm just interested.

0:56:15.239 --> 0:56:16.600
<v Speaker 2>Why would you think it would not be?

0:56:16.719 --> 0:56:20.880
<v Speaker 1>Oh okay, let's use a couple of examples musicians. Musicians

0:56:20.920 --> 0:56:23.399
<v Speaker 1>have hits otherwise you can't play it all. And if

0:56:23.440 --> 0:56:25.160
<v Speaker 1>you go on the road you have to play those

0:56:25.239 --> 0:56:27.120
<v Speaker 1>hits and people find out you're not, then people are

0:56:27.120 --> 0:56:29.879
<v Speaker 1>not going to come. There are a lot of musicians

0:56:29.840 --> 0:56:32.640
<v Speaker 1>who say, hey, yeah, you know, I'm singing my hit,

0:56:32.680 --> 0:56:36.440
<v Speaker 1>I'm thinking about doing the laundry, etc. We live in

0:56:36.520 --> 0:56:41.879
<v Speaker 1>an interesting world where there's so much stuff. Okay, such

0:56:41.920 --> 0:56:46.640
<v Speaker 1>a if you do something live, it's a momentary thing

0:56:46.760 --> 0:56:50.719
<v Speaker 1>for that audience, and then you move on and do

0:56:50.800 --> 0:56:53.880
<v Speaker 1>it for another audience. With a comedian, it tends to

0:56:53.920 --> 0:56:57.800
<v Speaker 1>be a similar act. So uh huh. At what point

0:56:57.840 --> 0:57:01.680
<v Speaker 1>do you say, well, I'm out here, it's fun hearing

0:57:01.680 --> 0:57:06.400
<v Speaker 1>people laugh, I'm getting paid, but it doesn't mean the

0:57:06.520 --> 0:57:09.759
<v Speaker 1>same thing because it's not moving my career forward. Let

0:57:09.800 --> 0:57:13.200
<v Speaker 1>me throw that into the mix. It used to be

0:57:14.160 --> 0:57:17.960
<v Speaker 1>in the sixties certainly the seventies, if you wanted to

0:57:18.000 --> 0:57:22.400
<v Speaker 1>be successful, going on the road was part of growing

0:57:22.440 --> 0:57:28.160
<v Speaker 1>your audience. Okay, certainly for an established comic who's charging

0:57:28.280 --> 0:57:33.439
<v Speaker 1>an admission fee in excess of thirty five dollars, it's

0:57:33.480 --> 0:57:36.320
<v Speaker 1>not really growing their audience. That's not how you grow

0:57:36.360 --> 0:57:39.120
<v Speaker 1>your addies. Not to mention it, it's so hard to

0:57:39.200 --> 0:57:42.120
<v Speaker 1>grow your audience today. So you could be sitting at

0:57:42.120 --> 0:57:45.640
<v Speaker 1>home saying, especially if you have enough in your bank account.

0:57:46.040 --> 0:57:48.160
<v Speaker 1>You know, this is sort of a pass thing. But

0:57:48.280 --> 0:57:51.600
<v Speaker 1>using an example, I could come up with a tweet

0:57:51.680 --> 0:57:55.280
<v Speaker 1>that's so good it could go viral. I could do

0:57:55.360 --> 0:57:58.680
<v Speaker 1>a skit on TikTok so good, I could reach millions

0:57:58.720 --> 0:58:02.160
<v Speaker 1>of people. Whereas, if I go on the road, I'm gonna,

0:58:02.480 --> 0:58:04.160
<v Speaker 1>you know, when I'm all said and done, I'm gonna,

0:58:04.200 --> 0:58:07.600
<v Speaker 1>you know, reach a small fraction of the population. And

0:58:07.880 --> 0:58:11.200
<v Speaker 1>am I really moving the needle forward? You know? Conversely,

0:58:11.200 --> 0:58:14.000
<v Speaker 1>you're talking about playing the Oscars. You know, we can

0:58:14.040 --> 0:58:16.880
<v Speaker 1>debate all day long how many people actually watch the show,

0:58:17.200 --> 0:58:20.680
<v Speaker 1>et cetera, But a shit ton do And you say,

0:58:20.920 --> 0:58:24.320
<v Speaker 1>I'm sure if you're there, and the comedian lands your

0:58:24.440 --> 0:58:27.040
<v Speaker 1>joke and there's a big laugh. You know you're talking

0:58:27.040 --> 0:58:29.760
<v Speaker 1>about velling. This is the greatest thing that ever happened.

0:58:29.880 --> 0:58:33.280
<v Speaker 1>You're on a high for a couple of days. Okay,

0:58:33.320 --> 0:58:35.760
<v Speaker 1>But that's different from saying, oh, yeah, I told a

0:58:35.880 --> 0:58:37.800
<v Speaker 1>joke and Poughkeepsie the audience loved it.

0:58:39.960 --> 0:58:43.920
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. I think you're missing the experience of

0:58:44.000 --> 0:58:49.479
<v Speaker 2>being a comedian because as many times as I've told

0:58:49.520 --> 0:58:54.920
<v Speaker 2>the joke, when the audience laughs at it, it's like

0:58:55.040 --> 0:58:58.400
<v Speaker 2>the first airing the laugh for the first time. But

0:58:58.480 --> 0:59:02.600
<v Speaker 2>it's interesting what you bring up, Okay, Bob, because you know,

0:59:03.520 --> 0:59:07.720
<v Speaker 2>I'm getting a re education on comedy every moment because

0:59:08.640 --> 0:59:12.800
<v Speaker 2>things change, and things changed drastically from when I started

0:59:12.880 --> 0:59:17.080
<v Speaker 2>in nineteen seventy seven. For example, Now I've thought a

0:59:17.080 --> 0:59:19.400
<v Speaker 2>lot about, ah god, it would be great if I

0:59:19.400 --> 0:59:22.800
<v Speaker 2>could get a special like on net Felix or Hulu

0:59:23.120 --> 0:59:25.520
<v Speaker 2>Prime one of those. I'm not going to get a special.

0:59:25.880 --> 0:59:29.640
<v Speaker 2>It's just not going to happen. But talking to these

0:59:29.720 --> 0:59:33.840
<v Speaker 2>young comics as I do now, one of them was

0:59:33.920 --> 0:59:38.680
<v Speaker 2>telling me the other night he went on and he

0:59:38.720 --> 0:59:41.560
<v Speaker 2>said to the audience, oh, this is great because I'm

0:59:41.600 --> 0:59:44.880
<v Speaker 2>about to tape my special. And after he got off stage,

0:59:44.880 --> 0:59:46.520
<v Speaker 2>I said, Oh, that's cool. Who are you doing this

0:59:46.560 --> 0:59:50.440
<v Speaker 2>special for Netflix Hulu? He was like, I'm taping it

0:59:50.600 --> 0:59:53.320
<v Speaker 2>myself and then I'm putting it up on YouTube. And

0:59:53.360 --> 0:59:56.160
<v Speaker 2>I was like, oh, like why would you do that?

0:59:56.360 --> 0:59:59.160
<v Speaker 2>He was like, Oh, that's the way to go these days.

1:00:00.240 --> 1:00:04.600
<v Speaker 2>Tell me how a comedian he knows that a Netflix special.

1:00:04.680 --> 1:00:07.840
<v Speaker 2>He did so much better putting his own up on YouTube.

1:00:08.480 --> 1:00:10.160
<v Speaker 2>And then I was like, okay, and then I'm thinking

1:00:10.160 --> 1:00:13.800
<v Speaker 2>about material, how much material I need? What do you

1:00:13.840 --> 1:00:16.200
<v Speaker 2>need to do an hour now and fifteen? He is like, no,

1:00:16.520 --> 1:00:19.440
<v Speaker 2>thirty forty minutes. You can do less than that. People

1:00:19.640 --> 1:00:23.680
<v Speaker 2>only a wived for the first ten minutes. And then suddenly,

1:00:23.680 --> 1:00:26.640
<v Speaker 2>now I seek that I can have a special. And

1:00:27.000 --> 1:00:29.800
<v Speaker 2>do I do a special? I performed for so many

1:00:29.880 --> 1:00:35.360
<v Speaker 2>Jewish groups? Yeah, so surprised. I could do a special

1:00:35.360 --> 1:00:37.760
<v Speaker 2>of all my Jewish material and put it out there,

1:00:38.200 --> 1:00:40.720
<v Speaker 2>and I bet you, Bob, I bet you I'd get

1:00:40.720 --> 1:00:44.880
<v Speaker 2>twenty or thirty groups that hire me, which would be fantastic.

1:00:45.240 --> 1:00:50.880
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, I think there's always that. To me, was

1:00:51.080 --> 1:00:54.640
<v Speaker 2>so exciting to hear that. That made my year hearing

1:00:54.720 --> 1:01:00.120
<v Speaker 2>that thinking about a special, and especially my personality as

1:01:00.160 --> 1:01:05.600
<v Speaker 2>you touched on earlier. I can make this happen in

1:01:05.760 --> 1:01:07.320
<v Speaker 2>three seconds.

1:01:07.320 --> 1:01:18.720
<v Speaker 1>Fantastic, Okay, I had the same experience. I see a

1:01:18.760 --> 1:01:22.320
<v Speaker 1>lot of comedy on TikTok and Instagram reels and they'll

1:01:22.320 --> 1:01:25.400
<v Speaker 1>say my special, and I'll say this person has a special,

1:01:25.400 --> 1:01:28.240
<v Speaker 1>And that's how I found about the YouTube specials. But

1:01:29.120 --> 1:01:31.760
<v Speaker 1>you just laid it out. You speak to Jewish groups,

1:01:31.960 --> 1:01:34.800
<v Speaker 1>you have the material. What's going to take to get

1:01:34.800 --> 1:01:36.360
<v Speaker 1>you over the hump to actually do it?

1:01:38.200 --> 1:01:40.720
<v Speaker 2>You mean to actually get the gigs, no.

1:01:42.400 --> 1:01:47.000
<v Speaker 1>To film, you know what. Listen, ten minutes plus ten

1:01:47.040 --> 1:01:49.960
<v Speaker 1>minutes is enough. Yeah, you stand up there and you

1:01:50.000 --> 1:01:53.200
<v Speaker 1>do ten minutes worth of Jewish stuff. It's going to

1:01:53.320 --> 1:01:54.000
<v Speaker 1>lead to work.

1:01:54.680 --> 1:01:55.200
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

1:01:55.240 --> 1:01:57.680
<v Speaker 1>So you found out about it the Comedy Magic Club.

1:01:57.760 --> 1:01:59.880
<v Speaker 1>Are you going to do it?

1:02:01.200 --> 1:02:05.040
<v Speaker 2>Of course I'm going to do it. Of course. Am

1:02:05.080 --> 1:02:07.960
<v Speaker 2>I going to do it right now? I don't know.

1:02:08.360 --> 1:02:11.000
<v Speaker 2>I'm promoting my book, Bob. That takes a lot of

1:02:11.120 --> 1:02:17.440
<v Speaker 2>energy and effort. I'm also of the age that I

1:02:17.440 --> 1:02:19.680
<v Speaker 2>am like to be in bed around ten you know

1:02:19.680 --> 1:02:25.920
<v Speaker 2>what I mean? My souted ten twenty. You know, comedy.

1:02:26.000 --> 1:02:28.680
<v Speaker 2>The biggest challenge for me is it's a young person's game.

1:02:29.280 --> 1:02:33.160
<v Speaker 2>In terms of the hours. You know Fraser Smith, who

1:02:33.200 --> 1:02:36.880
<v Speaker 2>was you know, a big DJ on k Los. He's

1:02:36.960 --> 1:02:39.280
<v Speaker 2>out there killing him. I worked with him Saturday night.

1:02:39.320 --> 1:02:41.680
<v Speaker 2>He's so funny. He was like, come on my show

1:02:41.720 --> 1:02:44.280
<v Speaker 2>at the comedy Store. I'm like, great, I haven't been

1:02:44.280 --> 1:02:45.880
<v Speaker 2>on at the comedy store. This is a way in.

1:02:46.360 --> 1:02:48.960
<v Speaker 2>He was like, yeah, I start my show at nine thirty.

1:02:49.320 --> 1:02:51.960
<v Speaker 2>And I was thinking, all right, I'd like to do it, Frasher,

1:02:52.000 --> 1:02:53.640
<v Speaker 2>but you got to get me on early. I got

1:02:53.680 --> 1:02:57.000
<v Speaker 2>to get home, I got to get to sleep. Can

1:02:57.040 --> 1:02:59.280
<v Speaker 2>I tell you another joke that my father told all

1:02:59.280 --> 1:03:03.240
<v Speaker 2>this reminded me of this. Oh my god, do I

1:03:03.280 --> 1:03:05.600
<v Speaker 2>love this joke? Okay, So this guy comes home from

1:03:05.640 --> 1:03:07.960
<v Speaker 2>the doctor. The wife says to him, what did the

1:03:08.040 --> 1:03:11.280
<v Speaker 2>doctor say? Guy says, I can't believe it. Doctor says

1:03:11.320 --> 1:03:15.280
<v Speaker 2>I have twenty four hours to live. The wife is like,

1:03:15.760 --> 1:03:18.520
<v Speaker 2>oh my god, I can't believe it. Well, what would

1:03:18.520 --> 1:03:21.720
<v Speaker 2>you like to do? And the husband says, how about sex?

1:03:22.720 --> 1:03:25.720
<v Speaker 2>So they have sex and then she says all right, honey,

1:03:25.720 --> 1:03:28.080
<v Speaker 2>what would you like to do? Now? He says, how

1:03:28.080 --> 1:03:32.760
<v Speaker 2>about some more sex? She goes, okay, honey. Now when

1:03:32.760 --> 1:03:34.440
<v Speaker 2>they're done, she says what would you like to do?

1:03:34.520 --> 1:03:34.680
<v Speaker 1>Now?

1:03:34.800 --> 1:03:38.120
<v Speaker 2>The husband says, how about sex one more time? She goes, look,

1:03:38.840 --> 1:03:44.400
<v Speaker 2>I gotta get up in the morning. Yes, so I

1:03:44.480 --> 1:03:45.520
<v Speaker 2>gotta get up, Bob.

1:03:46.320 --> 1:03:50.200
<v Speaker 1>Okay, those are a couple of your father's greatest hits.

1:03:50.600 --> 1:03:53.320
<v Speaker 1>Do you have a couple of jokes whether you tell

1:03:53.360 --> 1:03:56.360
<v Speaker 1>them on stage just amongst friends that are just your

1:03:56.400 --> 1:03:57.640
<v Speaker 1>favorites and you whip.

1:03:57.400 --> 1:04:05.720
<v Speaker 2>About, Oh, jokes that I tell hm, that is interesting.

1:04:05.840 --> 1:04:07.800
<v Speaker 2>You mean jokes for my act that I like to

1:04:07.840 --> 1:04:08.400
<v Speaker 2>tell people.

1:04:09.760 --> 1:04:12.680
<v Speaker 1>They can be from your act, but a couple of

1:04:12.760 --> 1:04:16.640
<v Speaker 1>things that you know, you know, we'll always get a laugh,

1:04:16.800 --> 1:04:21.200
<v Speaker 1>irrelevant of context, who's president, whether the you know, the economy,

1:04:21.760 --> 1:04:24.560
<v Speaker 1>who the audience is. You know, you tell this joke

1:04:25.000 --> 1:04:28.280
<v Speaker 1>and you smile because it always works, and you like

1:04:28.400 --> 1:04:28.880
<v Speaker 1>to tell it.

1:04:30.480 --> 1:04:36.480
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well, oh why I you know, talk about when

1:04:36.480 --> 1:04:39.240
<v Speaker 2>I mentioned to you. It doesn't matter how many times

1:04:39.280 --> 1:04:42.360
<v Speaker 2>you've told the joke. If people laugh, that's all you need.

1:04:42.640 --> 1:04:44.680
<v Speaker 2>I'm not sitting there thinking, oh, I have to tell

1:04:44.720 --> 1:04:46.600
<v Speaker 2>this joke one more time. I'm always like, I get

1:04:46.640 --> 1:04:50.440
<v Speaker 2>to tell this joke one more time. Now. I do

1:04:50.520 --> 1:04:53.040
<v Speaker 2>a lot of you know, gigs where I got to

1:04:53.080 --> 1:04:56.919
<v Speaker 2>fly there Okay, So I love doing this joke because

1:04:56.960 --> 1:04:59.240
<v Speaker 2>people always like to know that you're in the moment,

1:04:59.400 --> 1:05:03.000
<v Speaker 2>that you're in their city, that you got there. So

1:05:04.200 --> 1:05:08.680
<v Speaker 2>many times I start my set by saying, oh, it's

1:05:08.960 --> 1:05:11.280
<v Speaker 2>great to be here. You know, I flew in yesterday.

1:05:12.120 --> 1:05:14.120
<v Speaker 2>But I have a great travel tip for you guys.

1:05:14.200 --> 1:05:16.760
<v Speaker 2>You know how like when you fly on Southwest and

1:05:16.800 --> 1:05:18.919
<v Speaker 2>you want to keep that seat empty next to you,

1:05:19.560 --> 1:05:21.080
<v Speaker 2>I have the best way to do it. Okay, when

1:05:21.120 --> 1:05:23.040
<v Speaker 2>someone walks down the island and says to you, is

1:05:23.040 --> 1:05:28.640
<v Speaker 2>someone sitting here? Just say no, one except the Lord.

1:05:32.080 --> 1:05:37.400
<v Speaker 2>And it always works. It always always works. So once

1:05:37.440 --> 1:05:40.120
<v Speaker 2>I do that joke, I know I'm in like Flint

1:05:41.160 --> 1:05:43.920
<v Speaker 2>and I can use that expression with my fellow boomer.

1:05:44.360 --> 1:05:46.360
<v Speaker 1>Yes, absolutely a little believe it or not. I never

1:05:46.360 --> 1:05:50.920
<v Speaker 1>saw those two movies. But okay, let's go back. So

1:05:51.120 --> 1:05:54.160
<v Speaker 1>how do you decide to leave Binghamton and go to

1:05:54.200 --> 1:05:54.600
<v Speaker 1>New York.

1:05:57.000 --> 1:05:59.600
<v Speaker 2>Well, it was a very easy decision for me because

1:06:00.840 --> 1:06:04.800
<v Speaker 2>I had passed the audition at the Comic Strip and

1:06:04.840 --> 1:06:07.640
<v Speaker 2>it was the summer of my junior year, finishing my

1:06:07.720 --> 1:06:12.240
<v Speaker 2>junior year, and I decided I wanted to become a comedian,

1:06:12.520 --> 1:06:17.160
<v Speaker 2>So I told my parents. It's another thing. I look

1:06:17.200 --> 1:06:20.960
<v Speaker 2>back now, I go to my Jewish parents, I'm going

1:06:21.000 --> 1:06:24.920
<v Speaker 2>to leave college. I will finish at Queen's College, which

1:06:25.000 --> 1:06:29.280
<v Speaker 2>was my mother's alba mater, so I had some brownie

1:06:29.320 --> 1:06:32.600
<v Speaker 2>points there. But when I look back, and I think

1:06:32.640 --> 1:06:34.560
<v Speaker 2>I said to me, I want to start to try

1:06:34.600 --> 1:06:37.360
<v Speaker 2>to become a comedian, and my father says to me, well, look,

1:06:37.360 --> 1:06:41.600
<v Speaker 2>you got to strike while the iron's hot. You know

1:06:42.000 --> 1:06:44.520
<v Speaker 2>that was pretty remarkable. I don't know how I would

1:06:44.600 --> 1:06:47.600
<v Speaker 2>feel as a parent if my kid had done the

1:06:47.680 --> 1:06:53.320
<v Speaker 2>same thing. So that's how I left Binghamton and finished

1:06:54.000 --> 1:06:59.040
<v Speaker 2>my education at Queen's. God. I used to do a

1:06:59.120 --> 1:07:03.560
<v Speaker 2>joke back then Bob about Queen's which was, you know,

1:07:03.600 --> 1:07:06.640
<v Speaker 2>it's a very tough school, Queen's College, very tough. You

1:07:06.680 --> 1:07:13.120
<v Speaker 2>need a pen to get in the young people. They

1:07:13.160 --> 1:07:14.200
<v Speaker 2>don't use pens.

1:07:14.240 --> 1:07:19.160
<v Speaker 1>Now, Okay, the act that you did to pass the audition,

1:07:20.200 --> 1:07:23.320
<v Speaker 1>how long did you work on that act before you

1:07:23.360 --> 1:07:24.120
<v Speaker 1>took the stage.

1:07:26.440 --> 1:07:29.960
<v Speaker 2>Not long. I just kind of I think I had

1:07:30.080 --> 1:07:33.560
<v Speaker 2>kind of done a version of it at Binghamton opening

1:07:33.600 --> 1:07:35.640
<v Speaker 2>for a friend of mine who is a singer. So

1:07:35.800 --> 1:07:38.680
<v Speaker 2>I had an idea and I'm sure I ran it

1:07:38.800 --> 1:07:44.480
<v Speaker 2>by Paul, and I'm sure Paul ran his set by me. Yeah,

1:07:44.640 --> 1:07:45.720
<v Speaker 2>not a long time.

1:07:47.320 --> 1:07:52.160
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you moved to New York, you know the stories

1:07:52.200 --> 1:07:55.439
<v Speaker 1>have become legendary. Yeah, I'm working at five clubs in night.

1:07:55.960 --> 1:07:58.560
<v Speaker 1>What happened to you? First you were in school? A

1:07:58.800 --> 1:08:01.640
<v Speaker 1>Were you doing that? B? Did you have a day

1:08:01.720 --> 1:08:03.600
<v Speaker 1>gig after you graduated from school?

1:08:04.920 --> 1:08:08.160
<v Speaker 2>I did well. First, I was living at my parents' house.

1:08:09.080 --> 1:08:11.520
<v Speaker 2>I was going to Queen's College during the day, and

1:08:11.600 --> 1:08:14.440
<v Speaker 2>at night I would drive into the city to do

1:08:14.640 --> 1:08:21.040
<v Speaker 2>my act. And then, you know, it was a pretty

1:08:21.040 --> 1:08:28.439
<v Speaker 2>great at Queen's College. I had a professor who let me, Yeah,

1:08:29.000 --> 1:08:31.120
<v Speaker 2>he let me do this as a course. I would

1:08:31.120 --> 1:08:34.000
<v Speaker 2>come in and play my tapes of my stand up

1:08:34.040 --> 1:08:36.400
<v Speaker 2>and we would listen to it and critique it. And

1:08:36.439 --> 1:08:39.120
<v Speaker 2>I think that was pretty great. Thank you Queen's College

1:08:39.400 --> 1:08:44.920
<v Speaker 2>for the support. So when I graduated school, I moved

1:08:44.960 --> 1:08:49.799
<v Speaker 2>into the city and I had to get a job.

1:08:50.160 --> 1:08:54.479
<v Speaker 2>So for three seconds I worked at this coffee company,

1:08:54.520 --> 1:08:57.880
<v Speaker 2>a coffee wholesale, and then I remember the boss saying

1:08:57.920 --> 1:09:01.120
<v Speaker 2>to me, my friend needs somebody at his office. He's

1:09:01.120 --> 1:09:05.400
<v Speaker 2>a private eye and he needs a secretary and I

1:09:05.520 --> 1:09:07.600
<v Speaker 2>was like, it was a good typer. I was like,

1:09:08.800 --> 1:09:10.960
<v Speaker 2>so I met with the guy and it was a

1:09:11.000 --> 1:09:15.600
<v Speaker 2>private eye. It sounded really very you know, very glamorous

1:09:15.640 --> 1:09:22.600
<v Speaker 2>and very you know, Maltese falcony. But he was a

1:09:22.640 --> 1:09:27.519
<v Speaker 2>guy who gave polygraph tests two people who wanted to

1:09:27.560 --> 1:09:36.320
<v Speaker 2>work at places as varied as burger king and escort services.

1:09:37.439 --> 1:09:43.360
<v Speaker 2>So he needed someone to type up via dictaphone, that

1:09:43.760 --> 1:09:49.160
<v Speaker 2>archaic piece of technology writing up the reports. So this

1:09:49.320 --> 1:09:51.960
<v Speaker 2>is a great job for me for two reasons. One was,

1:09:53.120 --> 1:09:55.960
<v Speaker 2>as mentioned, I was a very good typer, so to

1:09:56.080 --> 1:09:59.719
<v Speaker 2>operate the dictaphone, I was asis at that. But also

1:10:00.680 --> 1:10:06.080
<v Speaker 2>he was very understanding of my stand up situation. I

1:10:06.120 --> 1:10:08.880
<v Speaker 2>said to him, because I was going on so late,

1:10:10.200 --> 1:10:15.240
<v Speaker 2>can I work eleven to six with no lunch? And

1:10:15.280 --> 1:10:18.040
<v Speaker 2>he said, okay, is a lot of the work it's done, okay,

1:10:18.120 --> 1:10:21.439
<v Speaker 2>So to get to the office at eleven that was nice.

1:10:21.760 --> 1:10:26.280
<v Speaker 2>That was very understanding of gracious of him. So that's

1:10:26.320 --> 1:10:28.360
<v Speaker 2>what I did. Until I was seeing that I was

1:10:28.360 --> 1:10:31.880
<v Speaker 2>making enough money. My first gig, oh my god, Bob

1:10:32.120 --> 1:10:37.160
<v Speaker 2>Baroque College in Manhattan, one hundred bucks to perform. I

1:10:37.280 --> 1:10:42.120
<v Speaker 2>felt like I had hit the Vegas jackpot one hundred bucks.

1:10:42.479 --> 1:10:47.000
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god. So yeah, that was my day job.

1:10:47.120 --> 1:10:51.200
<v Speaker 2>I just was in Manhattan recently and I just passed

1:10:51.240 --> 1:10:53.960
<v Speaker 2>by four fifty seventh Avenue just to look at the

1:10:53.960 --> 1:10:59.280
<v Speaker 2>building again of where I worked. Yeah, it's funny.

1:11:00.040 --> 1:11:03.360
<v Speaker 1>Okay, how long after college could you give up your

1:11:03.439 --> 1:11:03.920
<v Speaker 1>day job?

1:11:05.840 --> 1:11:11.320
<v Speaker 2>I think it was about tak about a year. That's

1:11:11.360 --> 1:11:12.240
<v Speaker 2>so bad what.

1:11:12.280 --> 1:11:15.599
<v Speaker 1>Happened within that year financially such as you didn't need

1:11:15.640 --> 1:11:16.240
<v Speaker 1>it anymore?

1:11:17.400 --> 1:11:22.840
<v Speaker 2>I found that I was making enough from gigs you're

1:11:22.880 --> 1:11:25.880
<v Speaker 2>in there to pay the rent and be able to

1:11:26.400 --> 1:11:29.560
<v Speaker 2>just be a full time, full time comedian. That was

1:11:29.600 --> 1:11:31.760
<v Speaker 2>another thing that my father said when I said I

1:11:31.800 --> 1:11:33.680
<v Speaker 2>wanted to be a comedian. He said, you know, it's

1:11:33.680 --> 1:11:37.120
<v Speaker 2>a cash business, and cash is king Carol.

1:11:38.080 --> 1:11:39.599
<v Speaker 1>As long as you don't put it in the bank.

1:11:40.520 --> 1:11:45.000
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, okay. On the West Coast, they weren't paying

1:11:45.080 --> 1:11:48.680
<v Speaker 1>the comedians at the conventional clubs. Hey, what was the

1:11:48.720 --> 1:11:53.080
<v Speaker 1>situation on the East coast? And to what degree were

1:11:53.120 --> 1:11:56.040
<v Speaker 1>there like at Baruke College? What were these other gigs

1:11:56.040 --> 1:11:59.640
<v Speaker 1>and how did you get them?

1:12:00.960 --> 1:12:05.760
<v Speaker 2>You know, you got cab fare at these clubs, which

1:12:05.840 --> 1:12:09.040
<v Speaker 2>was about five bucks, but you also got to eat there,

1:12:10.520 --> 1:12:13.280
<v Speaker 2>but you couldn't have cheesecake. That was only if you

1:12:13.360 --> 1:12:20.400
<v Speaker 2>were the empcy, but so free meals. It just became like, hey,

1:12:20.439 --> 1:12:25.200
<v Speaker 2>there's a club in Jersey, they drive you out, you perform,

1:12:25.479 --> 1:12:28.759
<v Speaker 2>You make forty bucks here and there, you do a college,

1:12:28.800 --> 1:12:32.240
<v Speaker 2>you get the hundred bucks's. It was all kind of

1:12:32.280 --> 1:12:36.120
<v Speaker 2>word of mouth, kind of booking. Somebody did this gig,

1:12:36.160 --> 1:12:38.040
<v Speaker 2>Oh you should do this gig, and blah blah blah,

1:12:38.120 --> 1:12:42.519
<v Speaker 2>and you kind of through connections started to make enough

1:12:42.600 --> 1:12:43.719
<v Speaker 2>money that way.

1:12:44.280 --> 1:12:46.760
<v Speaker 1>And when you're doing that, you give up your day job.

1:12:47.400 --> 1:12:49.880
<v Speaker 1>What is the dream? Dev ready to court of a

1:12:50.040 --> 1:12:53.120
<v Speaker 1>see you? What would you say? This would be what's happening?

1:12:54.880 --> 1:12:59.639
<v Speaker 2>That was the absolute holy ground to get on the

1:13:01.400 --> 1:13:10.040
<v Speaker 2>I think in my journey what happened was gladfully David

1:13:10.120 --> 1:13:13.000
<v Speaker 2>Letterman had seen me. I was in a New York

1:13:13.040 --> 1:13:19.040
<v Speaker 2>comedy competition and I always talk about it because I

1:13:19.080 --> 1:13:24.240
<v Speaker 2>came in fourth and Eddie Murphy came in fifth. Okay, yeah,

1:13:24.439 --> 1:13:30.800
<v Speaker 2>good job, judges right. And then when he got his show, oh,

1:13:30.840 --> 1:13:33.519
<v Speaker 2>he recommended me to the Tonight Show and they passed.

1:13:34.720 --> 1:13:37.160
<v Speaker 2>But when he got his late night show, he put

1:13:37.200 --> 1:13:40.040
<v Speaker 2>me right on. So and then I went on to

1:13:40.080 --> 1:13:44.840
<v Speaker 2>do it twenty five times, but it kind of marginalized

1:13:44.880 --> 1:13:48.920
<v Speaker 2>me as a Letterman act. So the Tonight Show didn't

1:13:48.920 --> 1:13:56.599
<v Speaker 2>really take me seriously. But Bob relentless garral Leifer never

1:13:56.640 --> 1:13:59.439
<v Speaker 2>say die every time I would no audition for it,

1:13:59.520 --> 1:14:03.599
<v Speaker 2>audition over and over and over. And then finally two

1:14:03.640 --> 1:14:08.519
<v Speaker 2>months before, three months before Johnny retired, they booked me

1:14:08.600 --> 1:14:10.519
<v Speaker 2>on the show, So I got to do it once

1:14:10.600 --> 1:14:11.240
<v Speaker 2>with Johnny.

1:14:11.280 --> 1:14:17.000
<v Speaker 1>Okay, when you say auditioned for them as a practical matter,

1:14:17.080 --> 1:14:18.479
<v Speaker 1>what was that you actually did.

1:14:20.280 --> 1:14:22.400
<v Speaker 2>They would come to a club and they would put

1:14:22.400 --> 1:14:26.519
<v Speaker 2>together a showcase for them of comedians and I would

1:14:26.560 --> 1:14:27.160
<v Speaker 2>be one of them.

1:14:27.560 --> 1:14:31.400
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you worked with them all. You know amongst the

1:14:31.479 --> 1:14:36.400
<v Speaker 1>younger generation, Letterman is cakeing. Letterman changed late night because

1:14:36.400 --> 1:14:39.599
<v Speaker 1>it really became more of a comedy show, whereas with

1:14:39.680 --> 1:14:43.040
<v Speaker 1>Johnny and his generation or more interviews, you didn't have

1:14:43.120 --> 1:14:45.559
<v Speaker 1>to come in with the so called funny story like

1:14:45.600 --> 1:14:48.920
<v Speaker 1>you do today. So what has been your experience with

1:14:49.000 --> 1:14:51.560
<v Speaker 1>all these late night hosts?

1:14:53.280 --> 1:14:57.920
<v Speaker 2>Well, the great thing about doing sense well on any show,

1:14:57.960 --> 1:15:00.200
<v Speaker 2>you know, I did MERV Griffin back then, and a

1:15:00.439 --> 1:15:08.720
<v Speaker 2>solid gold you know, a cornucopia of appearances on shows.

1:15:09.560 --> 1:15:11.040
<v Speaker 2>You just had to go out and do your thing

1:15:11.280 --> 1:15:13.799
<v Speaker 2>and be funny. Let me tell you some MERV Griffin audience,

1:15:13.960 --> 1:15:17.960
<v Speaker 2>those white haired ladies, you know, with the pocketbooks in

1:15:18.000 --> 1:15:21.000
<v Speaker 2>their lap. That was not an easy audience. But that

1:15:21.080 --> 1:15:23.800
<v Speaker 2>toughens you up. You know, you have to really do

1:15:23.960 --> 1:15:27.559
<v Speaker 2>badly as a comedian to get good. There's no way

1:15:27.600 --> 1:15:30.280
<v Speaker 2>around that. You have to figure it out, and a

1:15:30.320 --> 1:15:35.360
<v Speaker 2>lot of that is bad sense. But another thing that

1:15:35.400 --> 1:15:39.720
<v Speaker 2>I'm seeing now, Bob, with the evolution of time and

1:15:41.080 --> 1:15:46.000
<v Speaker 2>how things work, you know, with my book now, to me,

1:15:46.120 --> 1:15:48.080
<v Speaker 2>I'm always like, I gotta get on the tonight show.

1:15:48.120 --> 1:15:52.200
<v Speaker 2>I gotta get on this show. It's podcasts. It's podcasts.

1:15:52.240 --> 1:15:55.160
<v Speaker 2>You're in a good business, Bob. You struck while the

1:15:55.200 --> 1:15:59.320
<v Speaker 2>iron was hot, corning up. When my editor told me

1:15:59.360 --> 1:16:02.519
<v Speaker 2>the other day, O'Brien, you're doing his podcast so the

1:16:02.560 --> 1:16:06.240
<v Speaker 2>most books by far. So you know, it's a it's

1:16:06.280 --> 1:16:11.240
<v Speaker 2>a different it's a different world now. But I don't know.

1:16:11.360 --> 1:16:14.400
<v Speaker 2>I think it was very good for stand up comics

1:16:14.439 --> 1:16:18.160
<v Speaker 2>back in my day because it was the pathway to

1:16:19.000 --> 1:16:23.360
<v Speaker 2>getting your own show, you know, becoming a quote star.

1:16:24.200 --> 1:16:29.639
<v Speaker 2>It's not that now, even you know, writing on shows

1:16:29.680 --> 1:16:33.200
<v Speaker 2>like Seinfeld. When I the Marvel Why which was my

1:16:33.240 --> 1:16:36.240
<v Speaker 2>episode when it aired the next day, everybody was talking

1:16:36.240 --> 1:16:38.559
<v Speaker 2>about it was a water cooler show. I hadn't explained

1:16:38.600 --> 1:16:43.720
<v Speaker 2>to our son what water cooler show means. People you know,

1:16:43.960 --> 1:16:51.839
<v Speaker 2>we're on mass would watch these shows and could reference them. So, uh,

1:16:51.960 --> 1:16:55.240
<v Speaker 2>that was a special time. That's not happening anymore.

1:16:56.960 --> 1:17:00.360
<v Speaker 1>Okay, But you would go on Letterman, you would riff

1:17:00.560 --> 1:17:04.920
<v Speaker 1>with him. How much of that was one hundred percent

1:17:05.040 --> 1:17:10.400
<v Speaker 1>in the moment And what was the essence of Dave?

1:17:10.520 --> 1:17:11.679
<v Speaker 1>What made him special?

1:17:14.760 --> 1:17:18.160
<v Speaker 2>Well, you certainly didn't. You sat down and you knew

1:17:18.200 --> 1:17:20.519
<v Speaker 2>there were bullet points of things he was going to

1:17:20.600 --> 1:17:24.360
<v Speaker 2>talk about, but so much of that was spontaneous, just

1:17:24.479 --> 1:17:27.800
<v Speaker 2>to people talking. I always had a great connection with

1:17:27.880 --> 1:17:30.840
<v Speaker 2>him in those days. He was so supportive of me.

1:17:31.240 --> 1:17:35.320
<v Speaker 2>I mean, he executive produced one of my specials at

1:17:35.320 --> 1:17:39.400
<v Speaker 2>the time. So I always felt going out there, which

1:17:39.400 --> 1:17:41.840
<v Speaker 2>is important, that he was an ally, that he was

1:17:41.880 --> 1:17:47.640
<v Speaker 2>a friend, so that that made it easy. And he

1:17:47.960 --> 1:17:52.760
<v Speaker 2>is really, and back then, especially a master interviewer. I mean,

1:17:52.840 --> 1:17:58.559
<v Speaker 2>any any artifice, any bullshit that comes his way, he

1:17:59.240 --> 1:18:02.040
<v Speaker 2>you know, will not have it. You know, he takes

1:18:02.080 --> 1:18:06.200
<v Speaker 2>out the knife and cuts away the bullshit fat. So

1:18:08.280 --> 1:18:11.040
<v Speaker 2>that also made it fun because you knew you had

1:18:11.080 --> 1:18:13.240
<v Speaker 2>to be at the top of your game certainly talking

1:18:13.280 --> 1:18:14.519
<v Speaker 2>to him, that's for sure.

1:18:15.520 --> 1:18:19.280
<v Speaker 1>Okay, this is a classic question. Anybody in the New

1:18:19.360 --> 1:18:22.719
<v Speaker 1>York scene who didn't make it big, who you thought

1:18:22.800 --> 1:18:23.559
<v Speaker 1>was going to.

1:18:26.200 --> 1:18:31.200
<v Speaker 2>Oh, there are always lots of people like that. Wow,

1:18:32.000 --> 1:18:35.440
<v Speaker 2>I hate to say their names just because I don't.

1:18:36.120 --> 1:18:38.280
<v Speaker 1>Let me ask a different question. Are they still in

1:18:38.320 --> 1:18:38.719
<v Speaker 1>the game.

1:18:39.840 --> 1:18:44.360
<v Speaker 2>No, No, A lot of people had to make the

1:18:44.479 --> 1:18:47.600
<v Speaker 2>decision at a certain point when it wasn't working of like,

1:18:47.720 --> 1:18:52.719
<v Speaker 2>I've got to find something something new to do. And

1:18:53.840 --> 1:18:56.719
<v Speaker 2>I've found out with actors as well that I've worked

1:18:56.720 --> 1:19:01.200
<v Speaker 2>with along the way, you know, se la Vie, but

1:19:01.800 --> 1:19:06.560
<v Speaker 2>I you know, but know that there were some incredible

1:19:06.560 --> 1:19:09.360
<v Speaker 2>people who people had their eye on and said this

1:19:09.600 --> 1:19:15.200
<v Speaker 2>person is going to skyrocket and for whatever reasons, And

1:19:16.080 --> 1:19:20.520
<v Speaker 2>you know, along the way, there are self defeating reasons,

1:19:20.560 --> 1:19:25.920
<v Speaker 2>self sabotaging reasons, some people that just didn't try hard enough.

1:19:28.000 --> 1:19:32.519
<v Speaker 2>Because as we were kind of touching on before, you know,

1:19:32.560 --> 1:19:37.920
<v Speaker 2>there's no coasting. I mean, in this business, you always

1:19:38.000 --> 1:19:40.960
<v Speaker 2>have to advocate for yourself. It's like a shark. You

1:19:41.040 --> 1:19:45.920
<v Speaker 2>got to keep swimming because if you don't, you'll go

1:19:45.960 --> 1:19:49.200
<v Speaker 2>by the wayside. I think quickly. So I think people

1:19:49.240 --> 1:19:54.360
<v Speaker 2>who are successful and have stayed successful have really put

1:19:54.920 --> 1:19:59.200
<v Speaker 2>the work in to keep themselves relevant and happening.

1:20:00.560 --> 1:20:04.479
<v Speaker 1>Did you ever contemplate giving up going straight? As they say?

1:20:05.520 --> 1:20:11.080
<v Speaker 2>No, I mean maybe I did early, early on, because

1:20:11.080 --> 1:20:16.919
<v Speaker 2>you have so many bad stuffs and so much horror

1:20:17.080 --> 1:20:20.000
<v Speaker 2>when you start. And my mother did confess to me

1:20:21.080 --> 1:20:23.240
<v Speaker 2>a few years later. I thought you were going to

1:20:23.320 --> 1:20:25.320
<v Speaker 2>be a lawyer, you'd get it out of your system.

1:20:26.080 --> 1:20:31.360
<v Speaker 2>But I never did for too long. I mean, I

1:20:31.400 --> 1:20:34.680
<v Speaker 2>don't mean this in a big headed way. I just

1:20:34.800 --> 1:20:38.320
<v Speaker 2>mean it in an honest way. I've always believed in myself, Bob.

1:20:38.520 --> 1:20:46.799
<v Speaker 2>I just I've just always felt like I have something

1:20:46.840 --> 1:20:48.920
<v Speaker 2>to say and I think it's good and I think

1:20:48.960 --> 1:20:53.120
<v Speaker 2>it's funny, and if people don't get it, I'm just

1:20:53.160 --> 1:20:56.760
<v Speaker 2>gonna keep doing it. That's my attitude.

1:20:57.040 --> 1:21:00.880
<v Speaker 1>Okay. Seinfeld gets his show with Larry Day. The average

1:21:00.920 --> 1:21:03.440
<v Speaker 1>person doesn't know lyric except the guy in the background

1:21:03.439 --> 1:21:06.920
<v Speaker 1>on the Friday show. At that point in time, it's

1:21:07.040 --> 1:21:10.559
<v Speaker 1>called the Seinfeld Chronicles. It was the initial order, I

1:21:10.560 --> 1:21:15.320
<v Speaker 1>think four episodes. Whatever you hear that they have a

1:21:15.400 --> 1:21:21.120
<v Speaker 1>show needs say iconic looking back, But when they got

1:21:21.120 --> 1:21:25.680
<v Speaker 1>the show, did you say, oh, good for them, or

1:21:25.720 --> 1:21:28.679
<v Speaker 1>one of us is finally broken through, or they're on

1:21:28.720 --> 1:21:31.599
<v Speaker 1>their way, or you know they're doing what they're doing.

1:21:31.640 --> 1:21:32.879
<v Speaker 1>I'm doing what I'm doing.

1:21:34.960 --> 1:21:39.160
<v Speaker 2>Well. Of course, being friends with both Jerry and Larry,

1:21:39.240 --> 1:21:41.760
<v Speaker 2>I was thrilled when Jerry got the show. I thought

1:21:41.800 --> 1:21:46.160
<v Speaker 2>that was great. I thought they were totally onto something,

1:21:46.880 --> 1:21:52.759
<v Speaker 2>and I thought, that's fantastic for them, That's that's great.

1:21:52.840 --> 1:21:56.120
<v Speaker 2>I was heavily into doing my stand up at the time,

1:21:56.160 --> 1:22:00.439
<v Speaker 2>but you know, I thought it was fantastic. Like I

1:22:00.520 --> 1:22:04.120
<v Speaker 2>was saying, comedians love other comedians. I would be nothing

1:22:04.160 --> 1:22:09.120
<v Speaker 2>but happy for two of my good friend's success. What's

1:22:09.160 --> 1:22:13.160
<v Speaker 2>interesting about my writing on Seinfeld? As many times I've

1:22:13.240 --> 1:22:18.760
<v Speaker 2>touched upon in our conversation my being a fan and

1:22:21.680 --> 1:22:27.519
<v Speaker 2>pursuing avenues that I'm interested in, Actually these guys came

1:22:27.560 --> 1:22:30.080
<v Speaker 2>to me and asked me if I wanted to write

1:22:30.120 --> 1:22:33.760
<v Speaker 2>on the show. So that was very lucky for me

1:22:33.880 --> 1:22:38.320
<v Speaker 2>because I was lucky that Larry David didn't want to

1:22:38.439 --> 1:22:42.479
<v Speaker 2>hire any writers that had written for TV before. Because

1:22:42.520 --> 1:22:45.160
<v Speaker 2>he felt like they had been poisoned by the system.

1:22:45.760 --> 1:22:48.320
<v Speaker 2>So I was lucky that they reached out to me

1:22:48.439 --> 1:22:53.360
<v Speaker 2>because we were friends. They liked to work with people

1:22:53.400 --> 1:22:55.439
<v Speaker 2>that they already had a good rapport with, you know,

1:22:55.920 --> 1:22:58.040
<v Speaker 2>sitting in writing rooms and being on a show as

1:22:58.080 --> 1:23:01.560
<v Speaker 2>many hours of being with people, so you got to

1:23:02.080 --> 1:23:05.600
<v Speaker 2>like hang. It be an easy hang to work at

1:23:05.680 --> 1:23:10.719
<v Speaker 2>these jobs. And I was very complimented that they felt

1:23:10.760 --> 1:23:17.040
<v Speaker 2>like my style of writing would compliment the show. But

1:23:17.200 --> 1:23:19.839
<v Speaker 2>when I did get the job, and that was thrilling

1:23:19.960 --> 1:23:23.240
<v Speaker 2>to be hired as a writer over there. You bet

1:23:23.320 --> 1:23:27.320
<v Speaker 2>I went in the first day with three pages it's

1:23:27.360 --> 1:23:30.519
<v Speaker 2>got to be sixty ideas of things. I wanted to

1:23:30.560 --> 1:23:34.360
<v Speaker 2>be ready when I showed up for the first day

1:23:34.400 --> 1:23:38.479
<v Speaker 2>that you know, I wanted to make sure they knew

1:23:38.600 --> 1:23:39.719
<v Speaker 2>they made a good decision.

1:23:40.600 --> 1:23:43.200
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so drill a little bit deeper. You show up

1:23:43.240 --> 1:23:44.599
<v Speaker 1>the first day. How did it work?

1:23:47.240 --> 1:23:52.880
<v Speaker 2>It worked rather well because I pitched. I know, I

1:23:52.920 --> 1:23:56.360
<v Speaker 2>definitely pitched one of the ideas that eventually became.

1:23:56.960 --> 1:24:00.240
<v Speaker 1>Let me change it. Your first day? Was it us

1:24:00.280 --> 1:24:02.880
<v Speaker 1>with those two What was the first day the whole

1:24:02.960 --> 1:24:04.280
<v Speaker 1>so called writer's room.

1:24:05.080 --> 1:24:09.160
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the first day was just the writer's room, just

1:24:09.760 --> 1:24:16.200
<v Speaker 2>meeting everybody and people had some writers had been there before,

1:24:16.640 --> 1:24:20.759
<v Speaker 2>so kind of giving us a lay of the land

1:24:20.920 --> 1:24:23.599
<v Speaker 2>of how it works and being with Larry and Jerry,

1:24:23.680 --> 1:24:26.960
<v Speaker 2>and it was a bit of a getting to know

1:24:27.080 --> 1:24:28.679
<v Speaker 2>you time.

1:24:30.920 --> 1:24:35.600
<v Speaker 1>Okay. So in terms of scripts, did everybody come with

1:24:35.760 --> 1:24:38.519
<v Speaker 1>ideas and then they sifted through the ideas? How did

1:24:38.560 --> 1:24:39.599
<v Speaker 1>they split up the work?

1:24:42.200 --> 1:24:45.880
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, at Seinfeld, it was really all about the ideas,

1:24:46.280 --> 1:24:50.560
<v Speaker 2>and so how it worked was you would go in

1:24:50.560 --> 1:24:56.479
<v Speaker 2>individually and pitch to Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld in

1:24:56.520 --> 1:24:59.719
<v Speaker 2>their office. They shared an office and took a seat

1:25:00.000 --> 1:25:03.280
<v Speaker 2>and gave it your best shot with ideas and they

1:25:03.400 --> 1:25:09.120
<v Speaker 2>would either spark to things that's great. Especially Larry David

1:25:09.120 --> 1:25:14.760
<v Speaker 2>would get very very excited and animated when he liked

1:25:14.800 --> 1:25:18.160
<v Speaker 2>one of your ideas. It was just thrilling to him

1:25:18.320 --> 1:25:22.240
<v Speaker 2>to seize upon something that he could see he could

1:25:22.240 --> 1:25:26.040
<v Speaker 2>make hay out of. And then there are cluckers along

1:25:26.080 --> 1:25:28.879
<v Speaker 2>the way. But you know, like you'd get that nah,

1:25:29.000 --> 1:25:32.120
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, I could see that on another show.

1:25:32.320 --> 1:25:34.760
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. But if you hit on something that

1:25:34.800 --> 1:25:40.799
<v Speaker 2>they liked, it was, you know, a howl Loujah moment.

1:25:41.000 --> 1:25:43.720
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so you hit on something light they like. Do

1:25:43.840 --> 1:25:47.559
<v Speaker 1>they then say, go write the script. No.

1:25:47.880 --> 1:25:53.599
<v Speaker 2>What they would say then is come back with a

1:25:53.680 --> 1:25:59.519
<v Speaker 2>sort of outline of what that would mean for each

1:25:59.560 --> 1:26:05.000
<v Speaker 2>of the other characters. Like when I pitched Lane thinks

1:26:05.080 --> 1:26:08.960
<v Speaker 2>the Korean manicurists for talking about her behind her back

1:26:09.080 --> 1:26:12.760
<v Speaker 2>in Korean, and they liked that idea, then it's like,

1:26:12.840 --> 1:26:16.640
<v Speaker 2>go back and try to think of George's story, a

1:26:16.720 --> 1:26:20.160
<v Speaker 2>Kramer story, and a Jerry story. So you would work

1:26:20.200 --> 1:26:24.320
<v Speaker 2>on that and once they felt that you had something

1:26:25.080 --> 1:26:28.519
<v Speaker 2>workable there, then you would go off and write a draft.

1:26:29.680 --> 1:26:34.759
<v Speaker 1>Okay. Seinfeld had a very specific but not conventional layout

1:26:35.160 --> 1:26:37.639
<v Speaker 1>with the A and the B story and things usually

1:26:37.640 --> 1:26:41.000
<v Speaker 1>coming together when you went to write the first script,

1:26:41.560 --> 1:26:43.360
<v Speaker 1>did it already have that structure?

1:26:47.160 --> 1:26:50.680
<v Speaker 2>I think, following what you kind of outlined of what

1:26:50.760 --> 1:26:54.559
<v Speaker 2>was going to happen in each scene. Yeah, that kind

1:26:54.600 --> 1:26:57.880
<v Speaker 2>of structure was there. But I think it's very important

1:26:57.880 --> 1:27:01.840
<v Speaker 2>for me to say we're looking at Seinfeld why it

1:27:01.960 --> 1:27:06.840
<v Speaker 2>was also such a learning experience for me, and I

1:27:06.880 --> 1:27:10.200
<v Speaker 2>can speak for every other writer there is. I would

1:27:10.240 --> 1:27:13.759
<v Speaker 2>turn in a draft as other writers would. Then Larry

1:27:13.760 --> 1:27:18.040
<v Speaker 2>and Jerry would do their pass on the draft, and

1:27:18.080 --> 1:27:21.880
<v Speaker 2>so every Seinfeld that you see, you're seeing their version

1:27:22.400 --> 1:27:26.840
<v Speaker 2>of whoever's draft that was. So I learned a lot

1:27:27.520 --> 1:27:30.599
<v Speaker 2>seeing what they kept of my drafts, what they threw

1:27:30.640 --> 1:27:34.360
<v Speaker 2>out of my drafts, what they changed of my drafts.

1:27:34.439 --> 1:27:40.479
<v Speaker 2>So their presence is really all over the show.

1:27:43.040 --> 1:27:46.880
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and to what degree with Seinfeld was their conventional

1:27:46.920 --> 1:27:50.080
<v Speaker 1>writer room stuff where you're sitting there with a script

1:27:50.439 --> 1:27:52.920
<v Speaker 1>and people are throwing out jokes and you're saying no,

1:27:52.960 --> 1:27:53.960
<v Speaker 1>and you're building from that.

1:27:56.360 --> 1:27:59.439
<v Speaker 2>Well, Seinfeld was a different show in terms of how

1:27:59.640 --> 1:28:02.760
<v Speaker 2>it worked, in terms of it was more kind of

1:28:02.880 --> 1:28:09.599
<v Speaker 2>individual study sort of model in that you worked one

1:28:09.640 --> 1:28:12.240
<v Speaker 2>on one with Larry and Jerry with your idea, with

1:28:12.320 --> 1:28:15.479
<v Speaker 2>your script, with your outlines, all that kind of thing.

1:28:15.800 --> 1:28:18.720
<v Speaker 2>They would and then we'd all meet for lunch. We'd

1:28:18.760 --> 1:28:21.599
<v Speaker 2>all eat lunch in the office, and that was when

1:28:21.680 --> 1:28:24.640
<v Speaker 2>all the writers were together. I mean, they would occasionally

1:28:24.640 --> 1:28:27.120
<v Speaker 2>call us together if they were looking for a certain

1:28:27.240 --> 1:28:30.519
<v Speaker 2>joke or a certain idea for somebody's joke, But that

1:28:30.680 --> 1:28:34.800
<v Speaker 2>was more the exception than the way that it worked there.

1:28:35.000 --> 1:28:38.960
<v Speaker 2>I mean, when I went on to write for the

1:28:39.080 --> 1:28:44.719
<v Speaker 2>Larry Sanders Show, that's where I experienced the classic writer's

1:28:44.840 --> 1:28:50.719
<v Speaker 2>room of a sitcom, where pretty much every day you're

1:28:51.240 --> 1:28:54.679
<v Speaker 2>starting and finishing all in a conference room, sitting around

1:28:54.720 --> 1:28:59.400
<v Speaker 2>a table and coming up with ideas, maybe even you

1:28:59.439 --> 1:29:02.760
<v Speaker 2>know what is called gang writing a script. They just

1:29:02.840 --> 1:29:05.599
<v Speaker 2>put it up on a monitor and we all kind

1:29:05.600 --> 1:29:08.280
<v Speaker 2>of write it together. I actually like writing like that,

1:29:08.960 --> 1:29:13.840
<v Speaker 2>and that's more classic writers whom I actually enjoy that

1:29:13.960 --> 1:29:18.200
<v Speaker 2>style now more, and when I've had a show, that

1:29:18.400 --> 1:29:20.800
<v Speaker 2>is the style that I like to use. And it's

1:29:20.840 --> 1:29:24.479
<v Speaker 2>also the way the thing that I was talking about

1:29:24.479 --> 1:29:27.519
<v Speaker 2>at the beginning of our conversation about I love being

1:29:27.720 --> 1:29:32.400
<v Speaker 2>with funny people. It just, you know, so much so

1:29:32.960 --> 1:29:37.360
<v Speaker 2>that I kind of call it a profession. You know.

1:29:37.439 --> 1:29:40.120
<v Speaker 2>To me, it's like a thank God it's Monday kind

1:29:40.120 --> 1:29:42.360
<v Speaker 2>of thing because I have so much of a good

1:29:42.360 --> 1:29:44.599
<v Speaker 2>time in the writer's room that opposed to like maybe

1:29:44.600 --> 1:29:47.200
<v Speaker 2>going to a party on the weekend or some you know,

1:29:47.400 --> 1:29:50.880
<v Speaker 2>snore event. It's like that's my favorite spot.

1:29:58.760 --> 1:30:03.200
<v Speaker 1>Okay, the heat of the writer's room. You know, a

1:30:03.320 --> 1:30:07.840
<v Speaker 1>Jewish family, you tend not to hold back. Somebody comes

1:30:07.880 --> 1:30:10.920
<v Speaker 1>up and say that's a terrible idea, and you march

1:30:11.000 --> 1:30:14.639
<v Speaker 1>forward and everybody you know the bruise is no one

1:30:14.640 --> 1:30:20.240
<v Speaker 1>sits there says, how dare you say that to me? Okay, yeah,

1:30:20.280 --> 1:30:22.559
<v Speaker 1>in the heat of the writer's room, in the style

1:30:22.560 --> 1:30:26.080
<v Speaker 1>you're talking about with Larry Sanders, does anything go or

1:30:26.120 --> 1:30:28.200
<v Speaker 1>do you have to be aware of the politics in

1:30:28.280 --> 1:30:29.439
<v Speaker 1>your choice of words?

1:30:31.000 --> 1:30:34.080
<v Speaker 2>I don't think so. I think any good writer has

1:30:34.200 --> 1:30:38.400
<v Speaker 2>learned way back when you got to go for broke,

1:30:38.840 --> 1:30:43.360
<v Speaker 2>because sometimes the thing that you think, oh, everybody, this is,

1:30:43.400 --> 1:30:46.559
<v Speaker 2>this is so out of left field. This is such

1:30:46.720 --> 1:30:49.760
<v Speaker 2>a wild idea and if they don't like it, I'm

1:30:49.760 --> 1:30:51.639
<v Speaker 2>going to be laughed out of the room. Turns out

1:30:51.680 --> 1:30:55.479
<v Speaker 2>to be the best idea that anybody's ever heard. So

1:30:55.520 --> 1:30:57.599
<v Speaker 2>you have to know you got to go for broke,

1:30:58.120 --> 1:31:03.000
<v Speaker 2>and somebody got on, you know, the head writer going, boy, no,

1:31:03.520 --> 1:31:06.360
<v Speaker 2>that's a terrible idea. You just you really have to

1:31:06.400 --> 1:31:09.519
<v Speaker 2>have a teflon back to be in a writer's room

1:31:09.560 --> 1:31:14.120
<v Speaker 2>because there will be so many ideas that are not good.

1:31:14.640 --> 1:31:19.679
<v Speaker 2>But you know that one that flies so many times

1:31:19.720 --> 1:31:22.000
<v Speaker 2>has been me, I don't know if I should say

1:31:22.040 --> 1:31:25.120
<v Speaker 2>this one, and it turns out to be incredible.

1:31:25.479 --> 1:31:28.680
<v Speaker 1>Let's go back to Seinfeld for a minute. So I

1:31:28.760 --> 1:31:31.879
<v Speaker 1>knew Jerry from his late night appearance is his famous

1:31:32.000 --> 1:31:37.799
<v Speaker 1>checkout line routine. So I'm watching from the very beginning. Okay,

1:31:38.479 --> 1:31:43.360
<v Speaker 1>Ultimately the show becomes a gigantic kit. Jerry's on camera,

1:31:44.800 --> 1:31:49.360
<v Speaker 1>Larry puts out this special that is really uneven as charitable,

1:31:50.080 --> 1:31:52.439
<v Speaker 1>but then he has krubed your enthusiasm and all of

1:31:52.479 --> 1:31:56.840
<v Speaker 1>a sudden, wait a second, that was more his show.

1:31:57.680 --> 1:32:01.439
<v Speaker 1>Let me put it this way, what did Jerry bring

1:32:01.560 --> 1:32:04.360
<v Speaker 1>to the show other than being on camera?

1:32:05.400 --> 1:32:10.840
<v Speaker 2>No, No, Jerry brought you know. It's really important for

1:32:11.240 --> 1:32:18.080
<v Speaker 2>people to know and remember that every Seinfeld they see it. Yeah, yeah,

1:32:18.200 --> 1:32:21.760
<v Speaker 2>Larry David, but Jerry is in there. They were partners

1:32:22.479 --> 1:32:25.600
<v Speaker 2>to the end. I mean, you'll appreciate this analogy. I

1:32:25.600 --> 1:32:30.760
<v Speaker 2>think as a music person, Bob, but I really compare

1:32:31.080 --> 1:32:39.040
<v Speaker 2>their their comedic partnership as Lennon and McCartney, Larry David being,

1:32:39.160 --> 1:32:44.640
<v Speaker 2>of course the more Lenin of the twosome, the more cynical,

1:32:45.880 --> 1:32:50.080
<v Speaker 2>you know, the unfriendly maybe, and Jerry being the pop

1:32:50.320 --> 1:32:55.040
<v Speaker 2>light sensibility of a McCartney and together, I think it

1:32:55.200 --> 1:33:03.679
<v Speaker 2>fused this beautiful partnership and show. So yeah, don't count

1:33:03.760 --> 1:33:07.400
<v Speaker 2>out Jerry for a second, for.

1:33:07.439 --> 1:33:13.880
<v Speaker 1>Sure, Okay, when you worked on Curb, which legendarily was

1:33:13.920 --> 1:33:17.840
<v Speaker 1>builled as improvisational because Larry didn't want to work that hard,

1:33:18.320 --> 1:33:21.440
<v Speaker 1>what was it like working on Curbs opposed to Seinfeld?

1:33:24.600 --> 1:33:27.639
<v Speaker 2>Well, and I don't know about that. I don't think

1:33:27.680 --> 1:33:29.880
<v Speaker 2>it was that Larry didn't want to have to work

1:33:30.040 --> 1:33:32.439
<v Speaker 2>too hard. I think what he felt was he had

1:33:32.479 --> 1:33:38.120
<v Speaker 2>such an incredible ensemble of comedy players around him that

1:33:38.240 --> 1:33:43.400
<v Speaker 2>he knew he was going to get the best of

1:33:43.439 --> 1:33:48.880
<v Speaker 2>that show, letting these people do their thing, which it did.

1:33:50.439 --> 1:33:52.760
<v Speaker 2>You know, what was funny about Curb was I went

1:33:52.800 --> 1:33:58.360
<v Speaker 2>from Hacks over the Curb. Hacks. The writer's room was

1:33:58.439 --> 1:34:05.280
<v Speaker 2>all on Zoom, so you were not together with people.

1:34:05.320 --> 1:34:09.479
<v Speaker 2>You were together with people virtually. But I think, as

1:34:09.920 --> 1:34:13.679
<v Speaker 2>people can tell, you can't write a good show on Zoom,

1:34:13.800 --> 1:34:17.160
<v Speaker 2>and Hacks is the proof. But then once the writer's

1:34:17.240 --> 1:34:21.720
<v Speaker 2>room is over, the writers are not on set, the

1:34:22.240 --> 1:34:25.559
<v Speaker 2>three show writers are on set, and the writer's room

1:34:25.640 --> 1:34:27.960
<v Speaker 2>is gone. So when I went from that, then I

1:34:27.960 --> 1:34:33.559
<v Speaker 2>went over to Curb, and Curb my whole job, which

1:34:33.640 --> 1:34:39.599
<v Speaker 2>was this is my favorite of everything, is I had

1:34:39.600 --> 1:34:44.040
<v Speaker 2>pitched show ideas earlier to them, some of which they

1:34:44.160 --> 1:34:46.400
<v Speaker 2>took But then my job when I went over there

1:34:46.520 --> 1:34:49.679
<v Speaker 2>is I was just there when they shoot it, and

1:34:50.080 --> 1:34:52.040
<v Speaker 2>it was just me and a couple other writers. You're

1:34:52.080 --> 1:34:56.320
<v Speaker 2>just there for an idea or a line for someone,

1:34:56.600 --> 1:34:59.640
<v Speaker 2>or is mostly lines, like we need a line for this,

1:34:59.680 --> 1:35:02.800
<v Speaker 2>we need lines for that, because when you improv sometimes

1:35:03.280 --> 1:35:06.599
<v Speaker 2>it's not a script. Something isn't working or you need

1:35:06.640 --> 1:35:09.320
<v Speaker 2>a better line. And then you sit on set and

1:35:09.400 --> 1:35:12.960
<v Speaker 2>you just come up with lines and ideas while you're

1:35:12.960 --> 1:35:16.400
<v Speaker 2>shooting it. And to be there while Curb was shooting

1:35:17.160 --> 1:35:22.880
<v Speaker 2>was amazing and to watch the synergy of these you know,

1:35:22.960 --> 1:35:24.920
<v Speaker 2>so many times when I worked there, I thought, Gee,

1:35:24.960 --> 1:35:27.280
<v Speaker 2>the next show that you know, I'm lucky to have

1:35:27.360 --> 1:35:30.080
<v Speaker 2>where I'm the executive user, maybe I should let people

1:35:30.439 --> 1:35:33.000
<v Speaker 2>just improv and have an outline of what happens. Let

1:35:33.000 --> 1:35:35.960
<v Speaker 2>them improv, and then you see quickly it's only you know,

1:35:36.000 --> 1:35:39.200
<v Speaker 2>the show was twenty five years. They had a rhythm

1:35:39.360 --> 1:35:43.400
<v Speaker 2>and a comfort with each other that that kind of improvisation,

1:35:44.240 --> 1:35:46.960
<v Speaker 2>you know, was unique to that show. You can't kind

1:35:47.000 --> 1:35:49.240
<v Speaker 2>of throw people in there and hope they'll come up

1:35:49.280 --> 1:35:53.720
<v Speaker 2>with a brilliant show. That was Curb's genius.

1:35:54.240 --> 1:35:59.120
<v Speaker 1>So if I saw a script of curb before they

1:35:59.240 --> 1:36:02.040
<v Speaker 1>shot it. What would it look like? How fleshed out

1:36:02.200 --> 1:36:02.439
<v Speaker 1>was it?

1:36:04.400 --> 1:36:08.000
<v Speaker 2>Well, it was they worked off a very detailed outline.

1:36:08.080 --> 1:36:12.000
<v Speaker 2>It would probably be about twelve pages of what the

1:36:12.040 --> 1:36:15.200
<v Speaker 2>scene was, who was in it, and kind of what

1:36:15.560 --> 1:36:18.719
<v Speaker 2>needs to happen in that scene, and also some lines

1:36:19.360 --> 1:36:25.080
<v Speaker 2>potential lines for it. But you'd be holding an outline usually,

1:36:25.120 --> 1:36:27.799
<v Speaker 2>like I said, about twelve pages.

1:36:28.960 --> 1:36:36.080
<v Speaker 1>Okay. Gary Shandling, who got great inside Press, died before

1:36:36.200 --> 1:36:39.760
<v Speaker 1>his time. Never wanted to be a permanent late show host.

1:36:40.080 --> 1:36:41.759
<v Speaker 1>What was Gary's special sauce?

1:36:44.520 --> 1:36:49.280
<v Speaker 2>Oh? Gary? I mean I still miss him to this day.

1:36:51.360 --> 1:36:56.479
<v Speaker 2>Just as a sidebar, so interesting to me. He came

1:36:57.080 --> 1:37:00.240
<v Speaker 2>to my wedding to my wife Lori, which was ten

1:37:00.320 --> 1:37:07.240
<v Speaker 2>years ago in December, and for some strange reason, after

1:37:07.280 --> 1:37:10.160
<v Speaker 2>the ceremony, beginning the reception, we talked to Gary, my

1:37:10.240 --> 1:37:12.080
<v Speaker 2>wife and I. It had to be at least twenty

1:37:12.080 --> 1:37:15.559
<v Speaker 2>five minutes. And you know, when you're getting married, you're

1:37:15.680 --> 1:37:18.000
<v Speaker 2>mixing and you're talking to people for two seconds here

1:37:18.040 --> 1:37:20.559
<v Speaker 2>and there and blah blah blah. We must have talked

1:37:20.680 --> 1:37:24.960
<v Speaker 2>for twenty five minutes. And then that following March she

1:37:25.040 --> 1:37:31.680
<v Speaker 2>passed away unexpectedly and I just I feel so grateful

1:37:32.000 --> 1:37:35.680
<v Speaker 2>that that weird thing that happened at the wedding of

1:37:35.720 --> 1:37:37.920
<v Speaker 2>talking to him the most of any guests that that

1:37:38.080 --> 1:37:42.839
<v Speaker 2>happened before he passed. But anyway, what was amazing about

1:37:42.920 --> 1:37:49.840
<v Speaker 2>Gary was not only comedically spot on, you know, had

1:37:49.880 --> 1:37:55.400
<v Speaker 2>that thing that Larry David has that Jerry has. He

1:37:55.560 --> 1:38:03.000
<v Speaker 2>knew when he had agreed since of scene structure, kind

1:38:03.040 --> 1:38:05.599
<v Speaker 2>of like a director of a play. When I worked there,

1:38:06.000 --> 1:38:08.320
<v Speaker 2>he could be in a scene, he could be watching

1:38:08.360 --> 1:38:12.840
<v Speaker 2>a scene and know when something was not working or

1:38:12.920 --> 1:38:17.719
<v Speaker 2>working well, or need to be changed slightly. His sense

1:38:17.960 --> 1:38:23.840
<v Speaker 2>of story and scene structure was really something to behold,

1:38:25.280 --> 1:38:30.880
<v Speaker 2>and I think that was his special sauce. He also was,

1:38:32.600 --> 1:38:37.000
<v Speaker 2>I think, like most great comedians who become stars, so likable.

1:38:37.240 --> 1:38:40.680
<v Speaker 2>I mean, he was so neurotic, you know, his persona,

1:38:41.640 --> 1:38:46.599
<v Speaker 2>but I think it was so endearing that people really

1:38:46.680 --> 1:38:54.400
<v Speaker 2>latched onto his neuroses and him. But I really feel

1:38:54.680 --> 1:38:58.040
<v Speaker 2>like with his passing, we just lost such a great

1:38:58.600 --> 1:39:01.240
<v Speaker 2>comedic voice.

1:39:01.600 --> 1:39:06.519
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you know, there's been a number of controversies in comedy.

1:39:06.560 --> 1:39:09.240
<v Speaker 1>When this is released, there may be a few more

1:39:09.280 --> 1:39:12.280
<v Speaker 1>on the EVB in the rear view mirror. What is

1:39:12.320 --> 1:39:17.519
<v Speaker 1>your position on this first threshold is you say, I

1:39:17.520 --> 1:39:21.880
<v Speaker 1>don't want to weigh in Republicans laugh too. We have

1:39:22.000 --> 1:39:25.360
<v Speaker 1>the situation in ri Odd, we have the situation with

1:39:25.479 --> 1:39:31.160
<v Speaker 1>Jimmy Kimmel Colbert before is your first major thing? I

1:39:31.280 --> 1:39:34.640
<v Speaker 1>want to stay out and what does it take for

1:39:34.680 --> 1:39:35.839
<v Speaker 1>you to take a stand?

1:39:40.920 --> 1:39:44.280
<v Speaker 2>I don't. I don't really like to get into it

1:39:44.400 --> 1:39:51.000
<v Speaker 2>because I feel like, what's what's out there, what's going on,

1:39:52.360 --> 1:39:56.200
<v Speaker 2>is beyond my control. I mean, obviously Jimmy Kimmel, I

1:39:56.200 --> 1:40:01.559
<v Speaker 2>mean I don't know anybody personally who could say, oh, yeah,

1:40:01.560 --> 1:40:04.720
<v Speaker 2>he should have been taken off the air. I mean,

1:40:05.360 --> 1:40:10.439
<v Speaker 2>free speech is incredibly important, and he had every right

1:40:11.320 --> 1:40:15.400
<v Speaker 2>to say what he wanted to say about the situation.

1:40:16.320 --> 1:40:23.439
<v Speaker 2>I'm not the only person that's going to say it wasn't.

1:40:24.880 --> 1:40:27.360
<v Speaker 2>I don't think it was that controversial it was. I

1:40:27.400 --> 1:40:31.439
<v Speaker 2>think they lit on something that they thought was a

1:40:31.439 --> 1:40:34.439
<v Speaker 2>bigger thing than it was. But more importantly than that,

1:40:35.280 --> 1:40:40.960
<v Speaker 2>it's a free speech issue and that's important. Yeah. But

1:40:41.640 --> 1:40:44.840
<v Speaker 2>and I sent Jimmy an email that I congratulated him

1:40:44.840 --> 1:40:48.720
<v Speaker 2>on his comeback to the show and his monologue that night.

1:40:48.800 --> 1:40:53.519
<v Speaker 2>I thought it was brilliant. But I don't like to

1:40:53.520 --> 1:40:59.479
<v Speaker 2>get into political things because you know, social media, Bob,

1:41:00.439 --> 1:41:04.440
<v Speaker 2>I call it the yentification of the world.

1:41:06.800 --> 1:41:09.120
<v Speaker 1>Right, everybody's got good description.

1:41:10.720 --> 1:41:14.439
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And I don't know. I don't want to be

1:41:14.479 --> 1:41:18.719
<v Speaker 2>a part of it. I just don't. I mean, look,

1:41:19.360 --> 1:41:23.920
<v Speaker 2>I'm happy that what happened with Jimmy Kimmel, that he

1:41:24.000 --> 1:41:26.400
<v Speaker 2>got support and he's back on the air. I think

1:41:26.439 --> 1:41:28.400
<v Speaker 2>that was important. I think we'd be in a very

1:41:28.400 --> 1:41:32.559
<v Speaker 2>difficuent different situation if he was permanently taken off the air.

1:41:32.600 --> 1:41:36.600
<v Speaker 2>I think that would be a signal an even scarier

1:41:36.680 --> 1:41:43.160
<v Speaker 2>time that we're maybe living in now. But yeah, I

1:41:43.200 --> 1:41:45.920
<v Speaker 2>don't know. I don't like to get into it.

1:41:46.479 --> 1:41:48.680
<v Speaker 1>Well, let's go a different direction. If you wanted to

1:41:48.720 --> 1:41:51.960
<v Speaker 1>know which way the wind blew. In the late sixties

1:41:52.000 --> 1:41:55.920
<v Speaker 1>and early seventies, you listened to a record. FM radio

1:41:56.080 --> 1:41:59.200
<v Speaker 1>was the heartbeat of America. We live in a world

1:41:59.280 --> 1:42:03.640
<v Speaker 1>now where the guy who runs Ukraine is literally a comedian,

1:42:04.920 --> 1:42:09.479
<v Speaker 1>and the power of comedians has never been greater. To

1:42:09.640 --> 1:42:16.000
<v Speaker 1>what degree can comedy change the mindset of the population.

1:42:18.840 --> 1:42:22.000
<v Speaker 2>I think it has a great, great power to do that,

1:42:24.920 --> 1:42:30.960
<v Speaker 2>you know, I know he's a comedian, but it's I

1:42:30.960 --> 1:42:33.640
<v Speaker 2>don't I'd like to see his act, you know, uh,

1:42:35.040 --> 1:42:37.080
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. I know you say he's a comedian,

1:42:37.120 --> 1:42:41.160
<v Speaker 2>but he doesn't really use his comedy right to political effect.

1:42:41.760 --> 1:42:47.800
<v Speaker 2>But I know how important a comedy is, and you

1:42:47.840 --> 1:42:50.760
<v Speaker 2>know this regard. I also know that if you're a

1:42:50.800 --> 1:42:54.960
<v Speaker 2>political comedian, now, half the audience is going to like it,

1:42:54.960 --> 1:42:59.000
<v Speaker 2>and half the audience isn't. But people do what That's

1:42:59.000 --> 1:43:02.400
<v Speaker 2>why I stay at a poll in my act. You know,

1:43:02.479 --> 1:43:06.160
<v Speaker 2>A great compliment that I feel like I get now

1:43:06.360 --> 1:43:09.599
<v Speaker 2>is you know I was happy to just laugh for

1:43:10.040 --> 1:43:12.040
<v Speaker 2>as long as you were on and not think about

1:43:12.040 --> 1:43:15.880
<v Speaker 2>what's happening in the world in politics, and that that

1:43:15.920 --> 1:43:19.120
<v Speaker 2>compliment resonates with me. You know, I'm happy about that.

1:43:19.840 --> 1:43:24.400
<v Speaker 2>But comedy is still important. It will always be important.

1:43:24.520 --> 1:43:29.920
<v Speaker 2>It can change some people's minds. It cannot change people's minds,

1:43:30.400 --> 1:43:33.320
<v Speaker 2>and I think every comedian who's a political comedian knows that.

1:43:33.400 --> 1:43:38.960
<v Speaker 2>But just having that voice is really what we have

1:43:39.080 --> 1:43:39.639
<v Speaker 2>to protect.

1:43:41.160 --> 1:43:45.559
<v Speaker 1>Okay. I have a friend who says all the great

1:43:45.600 --> 1:43:49.680
<v Speaker 1>songs are written in collaboration. I don't happen to agree,

1:43:50.120 --> 1:43:54.160
<v Speaker 1>But if you're writing for yourself, if you're writing for

1:43:54.200 --> 1:43:57.280
<v Speaker 1>a show, there are inherently other people there. But if

1:43:57.320 --> 1:44:02.519
<v Speaker 1>you're writing for yourself, do you doing it solo is

1:44:02.560 --> 1:44:04.240
<v Speaker 1>the best way? Or do you want to be able

1:44:04.280 --> 1:44:05.600
<v Speaker 1>to bounce it off somebody?

1:44:07.439 --> 1:44:09.160
<v Speaker 2>Oh you mean writing a TV show?

1:44:09.880 --> 1:44:12.439
<v Speaker 1>No, writing like stand up stand up joke?

1:44:12.520 --> 1:44:16.679
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I even with my stand up. Well,

1:44:16.720 --> 1:44:19.360
<v Speaker 2>first of all, for a TV show, bouncing it off

1:44:19.400 --> 1:44:26.600
<v Speaker 2>other people is absolutely a must, because especially the you know,

1:44:26.640 --> 1:44:29.320
<v Speaker 2>the beauty of a writer's room is somebody will have

1:44:29.360 --> 1:44:31.720
<v Speaker 2>a good idea, somebody else will take it to the

1:44:31.760 --> 1:44:34.760
<v Speaker 2>next level, somebody else does that, and then bam, the

1:44:35.760 --> 1:44:40.719
<v Speaker 2>last person has the best incarnation of whatever that thought

1:44:40.880 --> 1:44:44.360
<v Speaker 2>or joke was. So there is this. It's kind of

1:44:44.439 --> 1:44:47.719
<v Speaker 2>magic to me, and I love that about a writer's room.

1:44:48.080 --> 1:44:51.120
<v Speaker 2>So for a TV show, absolutely, But even for my

1:44:51.200 --> 1:44:54.800
<v Speaker 2>stand up I will get together with a friend or

1:44:54.840 --> 1:44:58.760
<v Speaker 2>two and say this is what I'm working on. What

1:44:58.800 --> 1:45:02.559
<v Speaker 2>do you think of this punchline? What do you think

1:45:02.560 --> 1:45:05.720
<v Speaker 2>of this tag to the joke? And sometimes they'll, you know,

1:45:05.960 --> 1:45:09.280
<v Speaker 2>we'll give each other. They'll do that, you know, with

1:45:09.360 --> 1:45:12.559
<v Speaker 2>me with their material, and it's always fun to bounce

1:45:13.000 --> 1:45:14.560
<v Speaker 2>things off somebody.

1:45:15.280 --> 1:45:19.800
<v Speaker 1>Okay, going back to the Oscars, Can you ever have

1:45:19.920 --> 1:45:24.120
<v Speaker 1>a victory at the Oscars? The Oscars are hosted and

1:45:24.320 --> 1:45:30.680
<v Speaker 1>pretty much all the time the critics come down on

1:45:31.080 --> 1:45:34.800
<v Speaker 1>the host. You know, you have people who bring in

1:45:34.840 --> 1:45:38.120
<v Speaker 1>their own writers room lettermen. Did it got some of

1:45:38.120 --> 1:45:41.439
<v Speaker 1>the worst reviews ever. Bob Hope used to do it,

1:45:41.479 --> 1:45:44.920
<v Speaker 1>but it was bland. Is it something that you can

1:45:45.000 --> 1:45:48.759
<v Speaker 1>never achieve or is there a holy grail such an everyone?

1:45:49.080 --> 1:45:53.160
<v Speaker 1>Even Chris Rock did it and didn't completely succeed. Can

1:45:53.280 --> 1:45:55.160
<v Speaker 1>anybody succeed at that gig?

1:45:56.040 --> 1:45:59.920
<v Speaker 2>Oh? Absolutely? I mean look at the reception then Conang

1:46:00.080 --> 1:46:01.559
<v Speaker 2>got this past year.

1:46:02.800 --> 1:46:04.000
<v Speaker 1>Did you work on that show?

1:46:04.920 --> 1:46:08.160
<v Speaker 2>I did? I did, and I think it raised him

1:46:08.360 --> 1:46:11.960
<v Speaker 2>unlike many other hosts, raised him to an even higher

1:46:12.080 --> 1:46:16.840
<v Speaker 2>level hosting the show because so many comedians, I think

1:46:16.880 --> 1:46:21.240
<v Speaker 2>that job is like there's no upside to hosting mak Oscars.

1:46:21.280 --> 1:46:24.960
<v Speaker 2>I think with Conan and with Jimmy Kimmel even it's

1:46:24.960 --> 1:46:27.759
<v Speaker 2>a big upside because I think they did so well

1:46:29.000 --> 1:46:33.960
<v Speaker 2>doing it well. Conan's coming back this year that I

1:46:34.000 --> 1:46:39.360
<v Speaker 2>think it's enhanced their comedicness to people.

1:46:40.960 --> 1:46:45.000
<v Speaker 1>And circling back to the book, So this book about

1:46:45.040 --> 1:46:50.160
<v Speaker 1>writing speeches, giving speeches. Yes, you couldn't write scripts because

1:46:50.200 --> 1:46:53.360
<v Speaker 1>his union was on strike. Who came up with this

1:46:53.479 --> 1:46:54.680
<v Speaker 1>specific idea for.

1:46:54.640 --> 1:46:58.479
<v Speaker 2>A book, Well, my partner Rick Mitchell and I because

1:46:59.240 --> 1:47:02.880
<v Speaker 2>sitting there and talking about these bad speeches that we

1:47:03.800 --> 1:47:11.160
<v Speaker 2>witnessed and were horrified at, it just became you know,

1:47:12.520 --> 1:47:15.280
<v Speaker 2>Bob's stand up is like a speech every night. It

1:47:15.320 --> 1:47:19.840
<v Speaker 2>is you have to have a good start, and you

1:47:19.920 --> 1:47:22.040
<v Speaker 2>know what your middle is going to be, and you

1:47:22.120 --> 1:47:23.760
<v Speaker 2>have to wrap it up in a certain way that

1:47:23.800 --> 1:47:25.920
<v Speaker 2>wraps the whole thing up. And that's what a good

1:47:26.000 --> 1:47:29.680
<v Speaker 2>speech is. I mean, the biggest piece of advice we

1:47:29.800 --> 1:47:33.160
<v Speaker 2>given our speech book that I think is very consoling

1:47:33.240 --> 1:47:35.640
<v Speaker 2>to people right off the bat, besides the fact of

1:47:35.680 --> 1:47:39.559
<v Speaker 2>what you mentioned that it's small, it's handy, it's not

1:47:40.360 --> 1:47:42.880
<v Speaker 2>threatening when people pick it up. It's not like a

1:47:43.000 --> 1:47:47.120
<v Speaker 2>tone like an Encyclopedia Britannica that you pick up. It's

1:47:47.160 --> 1:47:51.000
<v Speaker 2>something that you know you can digest. But anyway, the

1:47:51.040 --> 1:47:53.519
<v Speaker 2>tick that we give is keep it five minutes and under.

1:47:54.000 --> 1:47:57.280
<v Speaker 2>I mean, what a simple piece of advice that is

1:47:57.560 --> 1:48:01.559
<v Speaker 2>that needed to be in a book because most people

1:48:01.880 --> 1:48:04.360
<v Speaker 2>don't know that. How many times have you gone to

1:48:04.400 --> 1:48:07.920
<v Speaker 2>event the person goes on and on, they think, oh,

1:48:07.960 --> 1:48:11.040
<v Speaker 2>I love this pruson so much. So more is more.

1:48:11.360 --> 1:48:15.479
<v Speaker 2>There's a reason more is more did not become the same. Also,

1:48:15.640 --> 1:48:19.040
<v Speaker 2>not realizing I just went to a memorial this happened,

1:48:20.400 --> 1:48:22.760
<v Speaker 2>you keep it five minutes an under because many other

1:48:22.840 --> 1:48:26.840
<v Speaker 2>people are speaking and people don't realize that. So we

1:48:27.040 --> 1:48:32.879
<v Speaker 2>just felt like having a whole book of duh things

1:48:33.280 --> 1:48:36.240
<v Speaker 2>for people when they write a speech. What's important and

1:48:36.280 --> 1:48:42.000
<v Speaker 2>what's nice is I'm getting feedback from people on Amazon

1:48:42.360 --> 1:48:45.720
<v Speaker 2>or whatever. I read every review. It's like this book

1:48:45.800 --> 1:48:47.920
<v Speaker 2>really helped me. I was afraid to write a speech.

1:48:48.120 --> 1:48:50.000
<v Speaker 2>It wasn't that hard, and then when I did it,

1:48:50.080 --> 1:48:52.720
<v Speaker 2>I got some nice feedback. And that's really all we

1:48:52.760 --> 1:48:57.360
<v Speaker 2>wanted from the book. The other thing, Bob, is we

1:48:57.439 --> 1:49:01.840
<v Speaker 2>looked at, of course, before we pitched this, publishers other

1:49:01.880 --> 1:49:04.880
<v Speaker 2>books on the subject, and there are subjects about writing

1:49:04.920 --> 1:49:07.719
<v Speaker 2>a speech and if you about writing a funny speech,

1:49:08.080 --> 1:49:12.280
<v Speaker 2>but they're written by Thornton, how Max you know people

1:49:12.320 --> 1:49:15.719
<v Speaker 2>you've never heard of. We are two bona fide Emmy

1:49:15.960 --> 1:49:22.080
<v Speaker 2>winning writers. So we feel like we can take a platform,

1:49:22.880 --> 1:49:27.640
<v Speaker 2>excuse me, in telling people, giving them an idea of

1:49:27.680 --> 1:49:28.280
<v Speaker 2>what to do.

1:49:28.920 --> 1:49:32.000
<v Speaker 1>Well, I guess what I'm really asking. Were you sitting

1:49:32.160 --> 1:49:36.040
<v Speaker 1>riffing with your partner and say, whoa, there's a book here,

1:49:36.520 --> 1:49:39.479
<v Speaker 1>or were you saying we can't work we should write

1:49:39.479 --> 1:49:41.920
<v Speaker 1>a book. Oh this is an idea.

1:49:44.640 --> 1:49:51.080
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, No, it wasn't the latter. It was certainly the former.

1:49:51.200 --> 1:49:56.000
<v Speaker 2>I mean, yeah, I never kind of come up with something, well,

1:49:56.040 --> 1:49:59.840
<v Speaker 2>what the hell will do this? You know, it really

1:50:01.560 --> 1:50:04.960
<v Speaker 2>was a nice timing of things that as buddies just

1:50:05.080 --> 1:50:07.439
<v Speaker 2>meeting for coffee, Hey, I just went to this event.

1:50:07.520 --> 1:50:11.639
<v Speaker 2>Yeah I went to one too, and just sitting there thinking,

1:50:12.200 --> 1:50:16.400
<v Speaker 2>you know, normal people need this advice, let's do that.

1:50:16.560 --> 1:50:20.640
<v Speaker 2>And it was convenient that it was during you know,

1:50:21.560 --> 1:50:26.120
<v Speaker 2>I told you so early on in our marathon discussion,

1:50:26.240 --> 1:50:29.840
<v Speaker 2>which I am adjoining. You know, being creative makes me

1:50:30.000 --> 1:50:34.080
<v Speaker 2>feel alive. And I have a project and to pitch

1:50:34.160 --> 1:50:38.439
<v Speaker 2>this to publishers and see if somebody buys it, and

1:50:38.880 --> 1:50:44.360
<v Speaker 2>deciding between the people that were interested that is I

1:50:44.400 --> 1:50:46.720
<v Speaker 2>can't tell you what a thrill it gives me. And

1:50:46.760 --> 1:50:50.559
<v Speaker 2>to be doing it at my age and this many

1:50:50.640 --> 1:50:55.720
<v Speaker 2>years in show business to still be taken seriously and

1:50:55.760 --> 1:51:02.719
<v Speaker 2>embraced that way is it's just you know a wonderful part,

1:51:03.040 --> 1:51:04.439
<v Speaker 2>a big part of my life.

1:51:05.840 --> 1:51:08.800
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you read a book like this, you know you

1:51:08.840 --> 1:51:12.800
<v Speaker 1>can't work writing scripts and it's fun. Can you make

1:51:12.840 --> 1:51:14.280
<v Speaker 1>any money?

1:51:16.960 --> 1:51:21.640
<v Speaker 2>Well, you know, book writing. It's really the luck of

1:51:21.680 --> 1:51:24.759
<v Speaker 2>the draw if you kind of hit it or you don't,

1:51:25.640 --> 1:51:29.360
<v Speaker 2>but you know what you can. We had to reach

1:51:29.400 --> 1:51:33.639
<v Speaker 2>a certain number of books sold where we're starting, where

1:51:33.680 --> 1:51:38.200
<v Speaker 2>we can start to earn a profit. And I believe

1:51:38.680 --> 1:51:43.120
<v Speaker 2>that in seven months we are very close to the

1:51:45.240 --> 1:51:48.519
<v Speaker 2>profit margin, which I am looking forward to. Yes, yes,

1:51:48.640 --> 1:51:51.599
<v Speaker 2>you can make some money if your book hits. And

1:51:51.640 --> 1:51:56.759
<v Speaker 2>what's nice is it's connecting with people and I'm happy

1:51:56.800 --> 1:51:58.080
<v Speaker 2>about that. We're happy about that.

1:51:58.880 --> 1:52:01.559
<v Speaker 1>And is there another book cooking on a burner?

1:52:03.479 --> 1:52:07.000
<v Speaker 2>I don't have one yet. No. If you have some ideas, Bob,

1:52:07.040 --> 1:52:09.960
<v Speaker 2>if you have coffee with a friend and you both

1:52:10.720 --> 1:52:13.640
<v Speaker 2>experienced something, pass it along to me and maybe we

1:52:13.680 --> 1:52:16.120
<v Speaker 2>can make a book out of it. Now I'm gonna really.

1:52:18.240 --> 1:52:21.479
<v Speaker 2>When I have a book, I really like to sit

1:52:21.560 --> 1:52:23.720
<v Speaker 2>with it a while. Because I bring it to my

1:52:25.439 --> 1:52:28.800
<v Speaker 2>speaking events, to my stand up events. I do some

1:52:28.920 --> 1:52:31.640
<v Speaker 2>things for gratis, but then I say, hey, can you

1:52:31.680 --> 1:52:34.599
<v Speaker 2>buy can you buy a book for everybody who's intending.

1:52:35.200 --> 1:52:39.200
<v Speaker 2>You know, my wife teases me that I'm Wilma Loweman,

1:52:40.200 --> 1:52:43.040
<v Speaker 2>that I'm out there every day selling my wares. So

1:52:43.400 --> 1:52:46.240
<v Speaker 2>you know, I'll give it it's best shop, but you

1:52:46.280 --> 1:52:49.360
<v Speaker 2>know it, I might just come out there with one other,

1:52:49.439 --> 1:52:53.880
<v Speaker 2>another idea, because you know what my jam is, Bob.

1:52:54.160 --> 1:52:58.800
<v Speaker 2>I love doing what I do and thinking and producing

1:52:58.920 --> 1:53:03.920
<v Speaker 2>seeing these things into action. That is really a high.

1:53:04.640 --> 1:53:10.640
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you got invited to do comedy going on at

1:53:10.720 --> 1:53:13.400
<v Speaker 1>nine thirty, you said no, I go to bed at ten.

1:53:15.800 --> 1:53:20.160
<v Speaker 1>I didn't say no to use the cliche. Are you

1:53:20.320 --> 1:53:23.719
<v Speaker 1>gonna die on stage? Or at some point you'm gonna

1:53:23.760 --> 1:53:26.479
<v Speaker 1>put your keyboard away and say I'm done.

1:53:29.240 --> 1:53:32.600
<v Speaker 2>Well, I think at a certain point that won't be

1:53:32.720 --> 1:53:35.800
<v Speaker 2>up to me. Look, I am very lucky that is

1:53:35.840 --> 1:53:42.400
<v Speaker 2>a TV writer turning seventy next year. Then I'm still working.

1:53:42.520 --> 1:53:48.080
<v Speaker 2>I really don't know many other writers who are my

1:53:48.200 --> 1:53:50.680
<v Speaker 2>age and who are around. I mean, I have a

1:53:50.680 --> 1:53:53.439
<v Speaker 2>lot of women who turned fifty and come to me

1:53:53.520 --> 1:53:56.160
<v Speaker 2>and go I'm starting to feel I'm getting aged out.

1:53:56.960 --> 1:54:00.280
<v Speaker 2>You know, I don't know what to do, and so

1:54:00.400 --> 1:54:03.439
<v Speaker 2>I feel very lucky that I'm still doing it. It's

1:54:03.479 --> 1:54:07.679
<v Speaker 2>just funny. I remember working on the show The Naked Truth,

1:54:08.840 --> 1:54:12.559
<v Speaker 2>and they hired an older writer to come in because

1:54:13.120 --> 1:54:17.120
<v Speaker 2>it needed some help, a guy I think who had

1:54:17.120 --> 1:54:20.240
<v Speaker 2>worked on Dick Van Dyke. I don't remember his name,

1:54:20.320 --> 1:54:22.760
<v Speaker 2>and I remember thinking and the writers are like, who's

1:54:22.760 --> 1:54:28.640
<v Speaker 2>this old guy? Who's that? You know it's going to

1:54:28.680 --> 1:54:31.320
<v Speaker 2>happen to me at a certain point, I hope not.

1:54:31.600 --> 1:54:34.160
<v Speaker 2>But am I going to be doing this at eighty?

1:54:34.400 --> 1:54:37.440
<v Speaker 2>I don't think so. I don't know. You know, I

1:54:37.440 --> 1:54:40.320
<v Speaker 2>get hired for the Oscars a lot because the head

1:54:40.360 --> 1:54:43.480
<v Speaker 2>writer who's brilliant, a guy named John Max. You know,

1:54:43.520 --> 1:54:47.760
<v Speaker 2>he's my generation, and I'm lucky that he's hired me

1:54:48.240 --> 1:54:50.920
<v Speaker 2>so many times. But what happens when John Max is

1:54:50.960 --> 1:54:53.000
<v Speaker 2>a working anymore? Am I going to get hired? I

1:54:53.080 --> 1:54:56.160
<v Speaker 2>don't know. I don't think so. So I now I

1:54:56.240 --> 1:55:00.960
<v Speaker 2>do have to plan for, you know, an escape patch

1:55:01.160 --> 1:55:05.160
<v Speaker 2>at some point. I'm just happy it's not now, because

1:55:06.040 --> 1:55:09.400
<v Speaker 2>I'm loving what I'm doing. I'm telling you, especially with

1:55:09.480 --> 1:55:13.040
<v Speaker 2>this news about YouTube special that I can do and

1:55:13.120 --> 1:55:17.120
<v Speaker 2>put on up there, it's like re energize me, like

1:55:17.240 --> 1:55:19.840
<v Speaker 2>I cannot even begin to tell you pop, So look

1:55:19.840 --> 1:55:22.520
<v Speaker 2>out next time. I talk to you. It'll be promoting

1:55:22.560 --> 1:55:24.760
<v Speaker 2>my special I swear to.

1:55:24.720 --> 1:55:28.120
<v Speaker 1>God, well, Carol, I'm gonna be looking out for it.

1:55:28.200 --> 1:55:30.839
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna look for cut up clips on social media.

1:55:31.320 --> 1:55:35.080
<v Speaker 1>Everything the younger generation loves and the older generation derides.

1:55:35.680 --> 1:55:37.840
<v Speaker 1>I want to thank you so much for taking this

1:55:38.040 --> 1:55:41.000
<v Speaker 1>time with my audience. Great to meet you face to face.

1:55:41.280 --> 1:55:43.880
<v Speaker 1>Is someone I followed forever. I was thrilled that you

1:55:44.080 --> 1:55:46.760
<v Speaker 1>reached out. Seriously. Yes, it was great.

1:55:46.840 --> 1:55:50.480
<v Speaker 2>Seriously, man, let me you know, give the compliment back

1:55:50.520 --> 1:55:54.600
<v Speaker 2>to you. I approached you because I love your take

1:55:55.320 --> 1:55:58.960
<v Speaker 2>on so many things. I think someone of our generation

1:55:59.680 --> 1:56:03.760
<v Speaker 2>and that have such a clear and interesting voice. I just,

1:56:04.160 --> 1:56:08.320
<v Speaker 2>you know, read your newsletter every day, and yeah, I

1:56:08.680 --> 1:56:11.760
<v Speaker 2>approached you because I love what you do. So you know,

1:56:12.120 --> 1:56:14.560
<v Speaker 2>keep doing what you're doing because it's.

1:56:15.680 --> 1:56:19.760
<v Speaker 1>Okay. Thanks so much until next time. This is Bob

1:56:19.920 --> 1:56:20.520
<v Speaker 1>left six