Speaker 1: Good day. My name's Peter Hell. Are you welcome to
Speaker 1: You ain't seen nothing yet.
Speaker 2: In the movie Podcast, we're our chat to a movie
Speaker 2: lover about a classic or beloved movie they haven't quite
Speaker 2: got around to watching until now. And today's guest comedian
Speaker 2: writer actor Ben Russell.
Speaker 3: The first rule of fake club is you do not
Speaker 3: talk about fake club.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: It was you afraid up, you broke my heart.
Speaker 6: I admire your luck, mister Bond, James.
Speaker 7: Bond, Me haven't any right now?
Speaker 5: Don't see nothing here.
Speaker 2: Harold Sun calls today's guest Ben Russell one of our
Speaker 2: most brilliant comic talents, and I wholeheartedly agree. Ben has
Speaker 2: created work for himself and his mates, a true collaborator,
Speaker 2: an ideas man who has created plays such as The
Speaker 2: Tokyo Hotel, No Show and restaurant Fuckheads, which I must
Speaker 2: say I have not seen but I really really want to.
Speaker 2: Ben is a frequent collaborator with Arnie Donner and is
Speaker 2: absolutely killing it at the moment with both his award winning,
Speaker 2: seriously weird and hilarious web series Hugged the Sun with
Speaker 2: his mate Xavier Mikhaled. He's also a very funny man
Speaker 2: and future guest of You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, and
Speaker 2: for his live walking to a show, the Ultimate Hollywood Tours,
Speaker 2: where he takes his audience for a Hollywood tour in
Speaker 2: an Australian city such as Melbourne.
Speaker 1: Sydney, Adelaide.
Speaker 2: He does that alongside his wife, comedian writer, the wonderful Maggie.
Speaker 1: Look.
Speaker 2: The thing I'm really excited that Ben is doing right
Speaker 2: now is a little project called Time to Die. I've
Speaker 2: known about this for a little while. It's a unique
Speaker 2: Aussie idea created by the very talented Tom Winny, which
Speaker 2: sees Ben host with comedian Jenn Fricker, and they have
Speaker 2: two comedians come onto the show, stund up comedians, and
Speaker 2: they both have to write the worst, dodgiest, just the
Speaker 2: skin crawling set they can think of, and the other
Speaker 2: comedian has to perform that in front of a live audience,
Speaker 2: not like a live studio TV audience where they know
Speaker 2: what's going on, like a live comedy room audience where
Speaker 2: they have no idea and they have no concept as
Speaker 2: to why this well known comedian on stage is bombing.
Speaker 2: I've seen the episode. It's called Time to Die, and
Speaker 2: it is coming very soon to the templay as part
Speaker 2: of their pilot week. I really urged Channel ten to
Speaker 2: make this into a full series. I think it's such
Speaker 2: a creative, bold idea, a homegrown idea. It is too
Speaker 2: And like I said, Ben is the host and he's great.
Speaker 2: You know, Ben is innovative, endlessly creative, energetic, hilarious and
Speaker 2: unbloody stokes to be hanging with him today.
Speaker 5: Hello, my name is Ben Russell. My three favorite films
Speaker 5: Blazing Saddles. Well, my name is Jim, but most people
Speaker 5: call me Jim Godfather too. My offer is this Nothing
Speaker 5: and Wayne's World.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be Frank Okay, can I still be Garth?
Speaker 5: And Up until this morning, I had never seen the
Speaker 5: King of Comedy.
Speaker 8: Now you come on, Jerry, and you do your monologue,
Speaker 8: and then when the time comes, this is how I
Speaker 8: see you introducing me.
Speaker 5: You could say something like this.
Speaker 8: Will you please give your warmest welcome to the newest
Speaker 8: King of Comedy, Rupert Hopkin.
Speaker 9: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Lucid Pupkin.
Speaker 9: I was warning fift the new Jersey, which was is
Speaker 9: there anyone nearful?
Speaker 2: It's the age old question. Are they laughing with me?
Speaker 2: Or are they laughing at me. Robert de Niro superbly
Speaker 2: named Rupert Pupkin, a budding comedian who, instead of treading
Speaker 2: the boards in late night stand up clubs, wants an
Speaker 2: express ticket to stardom in his science, his legendary late
Speaker 2: night host Jerry Langford, play by the legendary comic actor
Speaker 2: Jerry Lewis in a possibly career best performance. Rubert's admiration
Speaker 2: for Langford goes far beyond autograph hunting and watching him
Speaker 2: delivering his opening monologues on TV. Not only does Pumpkin
Speaker 2: believe he has what it takes to do what his
Speaker 2: hero does, but deep down he believes he can do
Speaker 2: it better, leading him to take extraordinary steps to make
Speaker 2: his dream come true. Penned by Paul de Zimmerman, a
Speaker 2: flop upon its nine to eighty two release, The King
Speaker 2: of Comedy was a much misunderstood work of genius from
Speaker 2: master filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Audiences didn't quite know what to
Speaker 2: make of De Niro's Travis Bickle slash Jake LaMotta mash up. Thankfully,
Speaker 2: time has been kind and the King of Comedy has
Speaker 2: won its love and respect, the kind that Pupkin himself Craves,
Speaker 2: Ben Russell, be honest, did you ever fantasize about kidnapping
Speaker 2: Burton Newton?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 5: All the time? Yeah, one hundred. Get me on there, bro.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to talk about this film. I'm so
Speaker 2: glad I'm doing it with you. This guy's a few
Speaker 2: films that you hadn't seen. I mean he arrived on
Speaker 2: this film for a couple of reasons, but had this
Speaker 2: film like hung over your head as something you know,
Speaker 2: you were a little bit embarrassed you hadn't seen.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I mean it's kind of gotten this great
Speaker 5: cult status now and rightly so. And I had a
Speaker 5: couple of friends with like, you've got to see this film.
Speaker 5: It's really great. And then of course when Joker came out,
Speaker 5: people would compare it to that, and I didn't know.
Speaker 5: I didn't have any frame of reference, so it was
Speaker 5: always kind of me going, I really should see this
Speaker 5: film and just kind of putting it off, and it's
Speaker 5: just been in my pile of shame for so long.
Speaker 1: It is extraordinary once you see.
Speaker 2: I mean i'd seen The King of Comedy and watching
Speaker 2: Joker when it was released, which I really enjoyed. Still,
Speaker 2: but I don't think I've seen a movie that's worn
Speaker 2: its its reference points or its inspiration on its sleeve
Speaker 2: more than Joker did to the King of Comedy. And
Speaker 2: I think Taxi Drivers in that in there as well,
Speaker 2: possibly Network as well, but I think certainly King of Comedy.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Joker. I didn't realize it was like watching. You know,
Speaker 5: when you watch the Simpsons and then you watch the
Speaker 5: movie that the Simpsons paid homage to, you're like, oh,
Speaker 5: oh wow, I thought that they were just making this up.
Speaker 5: But that's Cape fear.
Speaker 2: Top Phillips to who made Joker, has not backed away
Speaker 2: from that. He's been very open and honest about inspiration
Speaker 2: for It's to the point where Robert de Niro, if
Speaker 2: you if you're trying to get away with something, you
Speaker 2: don't cast Robert de Niro in Joker.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: And a Jerry Lewis role.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly. I think that that was probably the right decision.
Speaker 5: I mean a because de Nero was great in that role,
Speaker 5: but also it does it just kind of comes out
Speaker 5: and goes listen. This is almost a it's almost a
Speaker 5: spiritual sequel somehow, or it's a companion piece to King
Speaker 5: of Comedy. It's like you know, maybe he is. That's
Speaker 5: Rupert pupkin. It's the continuation of that character is a joker.
Speaker 1: Well that's a thought. Did you you watch it this morning?
Speaker 1: How did you watch it? You watch it by yourself?
Speaker 1: Did you watch it?
Speaker 5: I watched it by myself. Yes, yes, on the streaming service.
Speaker 1: On the streaming service, yes, yes, excellent. Okay.
Speaker 2: It is like I said, it was a flop on
Speaker 2: release it. It has gained a real cult following lots
Speaker 2: of people. I know Steve Carrell kind of credited as
Speaker 2: you know, inspiration behind his Fox Catcher performance. So there's
Speaker 2: a lot to talk about, a lot about the performances,
Speaker 2: the themes comedy, and you are a great person to
Speaker 2: talk about all those things. We'll get to those things
Speaker 2: very soon. Let's talk about your three favorite films. Yes,
Speaker 2: Blazing Saddles mel Brooks. That has come up a couple
Speaker 2: of times now and yes, right up there in the
Speaker 2: in the top, in the top, a shalon of comedy.
Speaker 5: Films mel Brooks. To me, I mean, that's just one
Speaker 5: of his films. I could literally pick any year any
Speaker 5: you know, ten, ten or twenty others of his that
Speaker 5: I could put in there. Quite easily. I just love
Speaker 5: mel Brooks. He's he's kind of a If I were
Speaker 5: to pick have an idol, it would be mel Brooks,
Speaker 5: which is weird in this day and age to have
Speaker 5: someone like like that. But I just I love him.
Speaker 5: I love everything he does. I love his comedy, and
Speaker 5: it's sort of been a guiding light from me in
Speaker 5: my sense of humor. Blazing Saddles was one of the
Speaker 5: first sort of real comedy movies that I remember seeing.
Speaker 5: My dad had it on VHS and showed it to us,
Speaker 5: probably probably when he shouldn't have, and I loved it,
Speaker 5: even though I didn't understand a lot of what was
Speaker 5: going on. But it's just it's just so good and
Speaker 5: it's just so I mean, it's still it's amazing. You
Speaker 5: would never be able to obviously make a film like
Speaker 5: that today.
Speaker 1: You'd struggle to get it maze.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but it's so good. And I love anything that
Speaker 5: Gene Wilder's in. Yeah, he's another sort of idol of mine.
Speaker 5: And it's just it's just such an amazing film. It's
Speaker 5: so funny, it's so stupid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I feel like, you know, and obviously there's
Speaker 2: another film we'll get to which you know, lives in
Speaker 2: that the silly, stupid world. But I feel like comedy
Speaker 2: can take itself too serious. Yes, you know, and I
Speaker 2: don't think you're in that camp.
Speaker 5: Definitely not.
Speaker 2: Check out Hug the Sun and and many other things.
Speaker 2: I do find it refreshing, and I love that there's
Speaker 2: genres of comedy that whatever you're looking for, you can
Speaker 2: find it. If you want to go and learn something
Speaker 2: about the world and deep dive into that person's soul,
Speaker 2: you can do that, of course, and that can be
Speaker 2: extremely fun and funny and wonderful. But I think silliness
Speaker 2: is underrated.
Speaker 5: Oh I love silliness. I love venal humor. I just
Speaker 5: it's just so good. I remember just I did a
Speaker 5: presentation in class I think in like year eight about
Speaker 5: Blazing Saddles and I did the I showed the fart scene,
Speaker 5: the campfire camp campfire bean scene, and just talking about
Speaker 5: mel Brooks and how he was my idol at that
Speaker 5: time as well. It's just so inane and dumb, but
Speaker 5: it also is kind of saying something, but it doesn't
Speaker 5: go out of its way to talk about it. It's,
Speaker 5: of course you've got the racial elements there, but it
Speaker 5: doesn't it's not going racism is bad or you know,
Speaker 5: these sorts of things. It's just it just presents these
Speaker 5: things to you.
Speaker 2: Most things, if you think about in comedy, once they've
Speaker 2: been formed in somebody's mind and then put on the
Speaker 2: stage or put on a screen, they're saying something, Yeah,
Speaker 2: but look, you're right, something's hard on the sleeve and
Speaker 2: where I'm telling you what the point is. But sometimes
Speaker 2: it's something as similar as a fart scene, or whether
Speaker 2: it be that scene or another scene, it's still saying
Speaker 2: something about the human condition. I'm not talking about necessarily
Speaker 2: your bowels. It is that the awkwardness I mean I find.
Speaker 2: I will lead off and says, why do you find
Speaker 2: like people shooting their pants?
Speaker 5: It's the ultimate form of humor.
Speaker 2: And I say, well, because you know, as an adult
Speaker 2: it's not supposed to happen, you know, And it's how
Speaker 2: what worst situation can you find yourself in as an adult?
Speaker 2: There's no situation when an adult shits their pants where
Speaker 2: this is okay, Yeah, I can deal with this. In fact,
Speaker 2: I'll deal with it later.
Speaker 5: Whenever you ship your pants as an adult, you know
Speaker 5: it's going to be a good story later.
Speaker 2: But you have to like Andy Dofrain in the Shawshank
Speaker 2: redamnse You've got to crawl through a tuddle of shit,
Speaker 2: yea side, and then you can bounce at the rain
Speaker 2: and rain down on.
Speaker 5: You cleanse yourself. Of course, only once you're cleansed can
Speaker 5: you tell the story and be the hero in it.
Speaker 2: I remember, I remember when the first time I heard
Speaker 2: the term sharted was actually in a film. Wasn't a
Speaker 2: great film. We had enough laughs in it though. Along
Speaker 2: along came Polly, ben Stiller and the late great Philips,
Speaker 2: my double ganger, and he comes up to Ben Still
Speaker 2: at a party where I think he's just bumped into
Speaker 2: Jennifer and Aniston, and he says, have to go, And
Speaker 2: he says why he guys because I.
Speaker 1: Was shut And it is.
Speaker 2: It is fucking beautiful. It's hilarious. And I still think
Speaker 2: it's it's saying something. It is saying something about manners,
Speaker 2: about about the expectations of how we are supposed to
Speaker 2: present ourselves.
Speaker 1: And these bowels.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I think it's in our net. It's the
Speaker 5: human brain works. By connecting things, we connect arts, we
Speaker 5: create patterns. So you're going to find meaning in something
Speaker 5: to you. And I think that that's far more powerful
Speaker 5: for the viewer to find meaning in it for themselves,
Speaker 5: not to be not to be like, hey, this is
Speaker 5: the message, which is fine, go for it. But I
Speaker 5: prefer just that discovery and sort of thinking about it
Speaker 5: and tearing it apart and sort of examining on my own.
Speaker 1: And also what is meaning me? It is the analytical
Speaker 1: part of it.
Speaker 5: But also I did not expect this existential.
Speaker 1: But when when? When?
Speaker 2: When you're watching If I'm watching that shouting scene and
Speaker 2: I'm thinking that happened to me once, Yeah, like.
Speaker 1: That takes me back.
Speaker 2: I could take me back to a moment, so that
Speaker 2: means something to me that nobody else knows about.
Speaker 5: Two comedians pull apart the existential quandary of shitting yourself.
Speaker 1: I feel this could be a whole new podcast.
Speaker 2: In fact, I have seriously considered doing a podcast called
Speaker 2: I Shot Myself and this Listen to your Pants Story.
Speaker 5: It's always good stories, always good stories.
Speaker 2: Would be like a regular guest at least two or
Speaker 2: three times a series. I've actually spoken the bill about
Speaker 2: it and mainly women go would you listen to a
Speaker 2: podcast about this? And my straight rate's pretty low. I
Speaker 2: think I'm only about two out of about six have
Speaker 2: sent Well.
Speaker 5: You've got to hit right here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, thank you, Ben Russell. And that's why you
Speaker 2: hear that we're not talk. Wanted to pitch that podcast
Speaker 2: to you. Let's stick in that area with Wayne's World.
Speaker 2: That again, a movie that's come up a lot with
Speaker 2: my particularly comedic guests, lives in the same world of Silliness.
Speaker 2: I kind of full confession. I like Blazing Saddles a lot.
Speaker 2: Wayne's Well, it took a while for me. I'm not
Speaker 2: I was never big as much as I'm talking about
Speaker 2: Silliness being underrated. I was more into the John Hughes
Speaker 2: style of Plans rebels Is, you know, comedies with heart.
Speaker 1: For some reason, it took me.
Speaker 2: A while to embrace those big American sureties.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, well, I mean Plans trends. Steve Martin is
Speaker 5: an all timer. You know how I love that line
Speaker 5: in Plans Trades, how about you follow you one to
Speaker 5: the toilet and watch you take a leak. I just
Speaker 5: love that. For some reason, I get punched in the face.
Speaker 2: It's one of the most credible movies ever. But Wayne's well,
Speaker 2: I mean, it's so you kind of I had no
Speaker 2: idea that OHEMI Repsy wasn't even a massive hit in
Speaker 2: the Yeah States until Wayne's World.
Speaker 5: Made it get number one on the charts again. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, yeah, it's just a great film. It's it's
Speaker 5: something of my childhood again. I'm just I tried to
Speaker 5: think of with top three sort of the biggest impacts
Speaker 5: that films have had on me. Yep, and Wayne's World
Speaker 5: definitely had that. You know, me and my brother would
Speaker 5: just quote this film at nauseum. I could quote any
Speaker 5: part of it. Still, Yeah, did a great garth He
Speaker 5: excuse me? Are they to get bay?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 5: We're looking down and Wain's basement, Only that's not Wayne's basement.
Speaker 5: Dana Carvey is one of my favorites.
Speaker 1: That is very good.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm not surprised, to be honest, if you pull
Speaker 2: that off, But that is a Dana Carvey.
Speaker 1: Here's a funny one.
Speaker 2: In Australia like this, like as op as being household name,
Speaker 2: my mind became a household name is and Dana Carvey
Speaker 2: came a people who love this movie became fan because
Speaker 2: outside this world, well that he's done so much stuff
Speaker 2: over in the Cyah. I feel like he's got He's
Speaker 2: got lost in this movie a little bit as far
Speaker 2: as a reference point.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, it's weird. He's not as much sort of
Speaker 5: a cultural icon as he is over in the States,
Speaker 5: and that's changing. I think people are discovering him, you
Speaker 5: know now. But I mean he's always been there. He's
Speaker 5: kind of always been there. He's kind of his stolewart
Speaker 5: comedy sort of force. I would say, I have an
Speaker 5: American My family are all Americans, so we were sort
Speaker 5: of bred on SNL, namely like the first cast that
Speaker 5: John Belushi and all those guys, and then that just
Speaker 5: sort of grew from there. My love of SNL and
Speaker 5: things like that, sketch comedy and it's all they're all
Speaker 5: to blame for my life choices. They've got a lot
Speaker 5: to answer for.
Speaker 1: And we are grateful for it.
Speaker 2: Then Changing Pace possibly my well, my favorite movie of
Speaker 2: all time. I say that Godfather's parts one and two,
Speaker 2: but I have said Godfather Part two is my favorite
Speaker 2: out of the two.
Speaker 1: We just did part three recently. I listened to the trilogy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: before we.
Speaker 2: Get onto two, are you of the opinion that three
Speaker 2: is not as bad as people?
Speaker 5: I believe I have to I have to confess I've
Speaker 5: not been able to watch the full thing. I've been
Speaker 5: trying to watch the re release yep, and I just
Speaker 5: haven't made it through. I think I'm trepidacious. I put
Speaker 5: off watching it because I didn't want it, because I've
Speaker 5: heard such bad things about it. I didn't want to
Speaker 5: spoil the sort of myth that it was in my
Speaker 5: mind the Godfather, and why.
Speaker 2: Because Luke and I could have easily have stopped this
Speaker 2: doing Godfather Part one and Part two. But I thought, well,
Speaker 2: I really do not believe the Part three is anywhere
Speaker 2: near as bad as people. Actually, no, I've said before
Speaker 2: or that it's just not in the conversation as the
Speaker 2: best film ever like it's previous as are. Yeah, and I
Speaker 2: think that's an unfair bar to be judged against.
Speaker 5: I think the same reason I haven't watched all of
Speaker 5: the Death of Michael Corley only the re release is
Speaker 5: probably the same reason that sort of kept me back
Speaker 5: from watching a lot of I've had a renaissance for
Speaker 5: seventies and eighties films recently where I've been able to
Speaker 5: sit down and just watch them and love them. I
Speaker 5: think prior to that, I have kind of put it
Speaker 5: off because they're different paced. It was a different pace
Speaker 5: back then to film. You know, they let characters sit
Speaker 5: and live in scenes and it wasn't just about getting
Speaker 5: to one thing to the next thing, to the next
Speaker 5: thing to the next thing. You had time to breathe
Speaker 5: and things just happened, and you're like, why was that
Speaker 5: in there? It was just there to tell you a
Speaker 5: little bit about the character and how they sort of
Speaker 5: react to the world around them. And I think that's
Speaker 5: sort of been lost a lot in modern cinema. They
Speaker 5: don't make movies like they used to. Bloody hell well,
Speaker 5: but they don't.
Speaker 2: And I had the opportunity to chat with Miles Taller
Speaker 2: about the Offer, which is about the making of Godfather
Speaker 2: Part one, and we spoke about that that there's a scene,
Speaker 2: that great scene where Salotso and McCluskey and remark the
Speaker 2: assassination and and and there's a scene where they sit
Speaker 2: down and the waiter comes to the table and we
Speaker 2: wait for him to uncork the wine. He actually with
Speaker 2: a corkscrew, and then he paus three glasses of wine
Speaker 2: and we just wait for him to do that. Now,
Speaker 2: now that's not happening, now, No, you know you basically
Speaker 2: you might see the bottle come in the frame and
Speaker 2: poor so you know that the drinks are being poured,
Speaker 2: but you're not you're not waiting.
Speaker 5: No, there'll be dialogue over that, yeah, and that there
Speaker 5: will be very much a background.
Speaker 2: Yeah, although decided on the day, actually opportunity.
Speaker 1: You just have the way that you'll pull the wine. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and through the scene a bit quicker.
Speaker 5: There's something that I kind of miss about that just
Speaker 5: letting just watching these characters that we love and you know,
Speaker 5: just absolutely a doore just enact every day things. It
Speaker 5: makes them instantly more relatable and you go, oh, you know,
Speaker 5: you sort of make a connection. That's how they watch
Speaker 5: someone open a bottle of wine. That kind of humanizes
Speaker 5: them so much more so it gives a little bit
Speaker 5: more of a layer of depth to these characters without
Speaker 5: you even realizing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just be in their world. Yeah for a little while,
Speaker 2: soak it in. You know, you're at a little Taian
Speaker 2: restaurant and some it's about to go down, you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah. And so I recently sort of had a got
Speaker 5: I got into it by watching Sorcerer, which I don't
Speaker 5: know if you've seen, but it's an amazing film, very
Speaker 5: like two films, really slow paced, but then bam, I
Speaker 5: would recommend it. It's the same guy that directed The Exorcist.
Speaker 5: And then from there I went into the French Connection,
Speaker 5: and then from it just the there's another one with Gene.
Speaker 5: I went into all the hack been back catalog because
Speaker 5: I think that he is an amazing actor and that
Speaker 5: was kind of his heyday, yeah, as a leading man,
Speaker 5: and he was such.
Speaker 1: A did you do Missive Burning?
Speaker 5: I haven't seen Mississippi Burning yet. I didn't get that.
Speaker 1: I'm still that is that is going a few years
Speaker 1: and down the track.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm still in like the seventies. So and I
Speaker 5: watched French Connection two.
Speaker 2: Well, well, we did the French Connection with Justin Hamilton
Speaker 2: and it's got the obviously how much the first time.
Speaker 2: I'd seen bits of it I think before, but I
Speaker 2: hadn't much the whole thing. So it was it was amazing.
Speaker 2: It's just an amazing film. But we did not get
Speaker 2: to the second month. That's why way I thought, we
Speaker 2: don't need to come back and do French Connection Part two.
Speaker 5: It doesn't really makes sense the setup, but it's actually
Speaker 5: a good film, right, Yeah, remarkably it's a it's an
Speaker 5: amazing sequel. Okay, yeah, I would say just as good
Speaker 5: as it's got qualities that are just as good as
Speaker 5: the original French Connection.
Speaker 2: And I I feel like when the films as good
Speaker 2: as the French Connection, even if you've heard and the same.
Speaker 2: Is my point of that Godfather Part three to get
Speaker 2: back to that is when if you make a great
Speaker 2: film and they do it so you almost owe them
Speaker 2: the right to check it out.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly, you know, and I know you know of
Speaker 5: that you've seen elements from the French Connection without even
Speaker 5: seeing the French Connection, that the chase and every and
Speaker 5: the staircase and things like that. It's the same with
Speaker 5: Godfather three. You know. I think when I think I'm out,
Speaker 5: they pull me back in. I know that quote, and
Speaker 5: I haven't seen to that part in the film, so.
Speaker 2: Probably outside of an offer you can't refuse. It's one
Speaker 2: of the most quotable Godfather line.
Speaker 5: I think, Yeah, yeah, maybe go to the mattresses, to
Speaker 5: the mattresses.
Speaker 1: And leave the gun and take the canol. Yes, but
Speaker 1: why too? Why does two rise above one? For you?
Speaker 5: For me, it's I mean, it's Robert de Niro's performance
Speaker 5: for me again. You want that lived in world, that
Speaker 5: real world. It takes all the the flashback sequences, I think,
Speaker 5: just lifted up in the way that they kind of
Speaker 5: compliment and foreshadow things in the present day. And it's
Speaker 5: and Robert de Niro's and and what is her name
Speaker 5: his Bruno Bruno, Bruno Kirby. I love Bruno Kirby. Everything
Speaker 5: that Bruno Kirby is in. I'm like, yes, give it,
Speaker 5: good morning, sir. In my heart, I know I'm funny.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I cannot wait.
Speaker 2: I think it's a film you don't you don't get
Speaker 2: it doesn't get spoken about that much. And I think
Speaker 2: it really there's Robert Williams like return to kind of
Speaker 2: you know, and and becoming Robber Williams again.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I didn't even think about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because he was like I remember when he had been
Speaker 2: casting oh the guy from Mocam India.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then it was.
Speaker 5: My dad thought it would be really funny because I
Speaker 5: we got the soundtrack to it, and I memorized everything,
Speaker 5: and I love to watch the film. And he would
Speaker 5: love to team me to a dinner party or to
Speaker 5: a restaurant with friends and just go bed go and
Speaker 5: I would quote and do impressions of Robin Williams in
Speaker 5: Good Morning Nam. I could probably still crank some out.
Speaker 1: Wow, feel free and if you do, and.
Speaker 5: If you do, hey, it's rock and roll. What's it's
Speaker 5: all six hundred? What's the oil stand for?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 1: My God?
Speaker 10: Is Early?
Speaker 1: Speaking of Early?
Speaker 2: I love it, but so to god Father Sue den
Speaker 2: hero Krbier in that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that whole. I mean.
Speaker 2: What I love about that is house seamlessly. You know
Speaker 2: sometimes when you're watching a movie and there's it's told
Speaker 2: over two or maybe three different timelines, and you look
Speaker 2: bit when it cuts back from one to the other
Speaker 2: time one you're little bit disappointed. You're like, I'll go
Speaker 2: back to Yeah, I don't want to come out of
Speaker 2: that world. And I felt like that movie I was
Speaker 2: happy in both worlds.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly. And I love that it has an intermission
Speaker 5: and somebody to just get up and stretch your legs.
Speaker 5: And it's just one of the most I think, perfect films.
Speaker 5: It's similar to King of Comedy. It's at first you go, oh,
Speaker 5: this is going to be a long, slow film, and
Speaker 5: it does take its time, but you're you're glued to
Speaker 5: the screen and all of a sudden you're like, oh,
Speaker 5: we're nearly over. This is amazing. I think that's a
Speaker 5: That's how I know that a film is amazing, even
Speaker 5: if it's like slow and you know, slow pace. But
Speaker 5: I'm just like, yes, I even't looked at my phone once. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, I made THEHD. This is this is a
Speaker 5: testament to how brilliant this film is.
Speaker 2: And for me, even more so, I think than the
Speaker 2: Nero so amazing in it is John Kazzal. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: fraid O like him getting more to do and more
Speaker 2: entrench with the story is just so heartbreak and what
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, I gotta mention every time I
Speaker 2: mentioned John Gazzale he was five and five. We made
Speaker 2: five perfect films. I don't think anyone has done that.
Speaker 2: He had a one hundred percent strike right sadly died
Speaker 2: of cancer early, so we only had five films.
Speaker 1: The conversation that The Hunter.
Speaker 5: A conversation that's I couldn't think of it. But that's
Speaker 5: one of the other films I watched.
Speaker 2: What a Run extraordinary. It just like the best. So
Speaker 2: that's that's what I love about it as well. All right,
Speaker 2: let's let's move on because there's a there's a movie
Speaker 2: that doesn't have the running time of God by the
Speaker 2: Part too, But bloody hell, there's a lot to talk about.
Speaker 2: Nineteen eighty twos The King of Comedy, directed by Martin Scorsese,
Speaker 2: written by Paul de Zimmerman, starting Robb withiniro Jerry Lewis,
Speaker 2: Sandra Bernard, and quite a few others.
Speaker 1: Ben Russell, did you enjoy it?
Speaker 5: I loved it.
Speaker 2: This is there's one film where I was excited because
Speaker 2: I thought, one, I'm pretty sure you're going to love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I was excited.
Speaker 2: I was excited coming Sometimes I'm nervous about what my
Speaker 2: guess is gonna think about the film, and then I thought, one,
Speaker 2: you're gonna love it, and then we're just going to
Speaker 2: talk about it because there's so much to talk about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what do you want to start?
Speaker 5: It's just a wonderful kind of It's funny, but it's
Speaker 5: it doesn't ever try to be funny. It just sort
Speaker 5: of presents these things and this situation. It's an exploration
Speaker 5: of that delusion and fame and celebrity, and it's uh
Speaker 5: and every single member of the cast gives possibly the
Speaker 5: best performance of their career.
Speaker 2: I would say said, it's his favorite performance that Denniera
Speaker 2: gave under his direction.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I would say, so I haven't seen. I
Speaker 5: was surprised because I hadn't seen Diannera do that range. Yeah,
Speaker 5: he does that sort of light and almost goofy, and
Speaker 5: it's verging on goofy. It never goes into goofy. But
Speaker 5: it's this kind of desperate, but not in a Travis
Speaker 5: bickele desperation. It's kind of isolated, but it's not in
Speaker 5: that it's separate from those two that that other character
Speaker 5: completely different sort of take and approach to it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's absolute similarities with Travis bickel and
Speaker 2: I think in Jake Lamota en Raging Ball, but the
Speaker 2: older Jake Lamota, but completely different performance.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right. I saw.
Speaker 2: I saw the influence in this performance that it had
Speaker 2: on even Ricky Gervais, which I never when I watched it,
Speaker 2: probably when I watched it last time, you obviously hadn't
Speaker 2: even come out. But here's a little nuance. It's the
Speaker 2: little you know, the watching and and and the responsing
Speaker 2: responses and and the it was just it was just
Speaker 2: so much to love about his performance.
Speaker 5: It elicits the same like cringiness that you're like some
Speaker 5: of it's hard to watch such awkward, awkward scenes between
Speaker 5: Rupert and the rest of the world, who's kind of
Speaker 5: just lying his way through and just in his own
Speaker 5: caught up in his own world. But yes, that's a
Speaker 5: great observation that it's like Gervais, because I was thinking
Speaker 5: the same thing when I was watching. This is kind
Speaker 5: of the beginnings of that that awkward cringe comedy thing
Speaker 5: that The Office kind of made popular.
Speaker 1: Did you like Rupert?
Speaker 5: I did.
Speaker 1: It's funny, isn't it?
Speaker 2: And so did, even though there are things about him
Speaker 2: that you know, I don't like. I don't like that
Speaker 2: he's trying to take a short cut yeah, like we
Speaker 2: all worked hard to get where we are and going yeah,
Speaker 2: and to kind of think.
Speaker 5: He's never done he never Actually it's he's a stand
Speaker 5: up comedian, but he never has done a gig.
Speaker 1: Gig.
Speaker 5: People are going, Okay, just do a gig, and he's like.
Speaker 1: No, song are you talking to Jerry?
Speaker 5: I love that. I love the fact that he's never
Speaker 5: done a gig ever, and he's like, get me on
Speaker 5: the show.
Speaker 2: Because there was a part of me at one point going, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm surprised I didn't show him doing a gig, Like,
Speaker 2: what does he feel like they made the right call?
Speaker 2: And I love the fact he's so delusional that he
Speaker 2: just because also, as people who perform live, you know,
Speaker 2: that's where that's where you cut your teeth, you know,
Speaker 2: you know, and you get better and better, and it
Speaker 2: takes a long time to get.
Speaker 1: Good, and then you know, a lot a long long
Speaker 1: time to get great, and only a very small percentage
Speaker 1: of people get great, you know. So just to think that.
Speaker 2: This guy can watch a TV show that has all
Speaker 2: lots of tricks and you know, we know about the
Speaker 2: tricks of audiences and we're going to load you with sugar,
Speaker 2: and there's Q cars when they laugh, and there's signs,
Speaker 2: you know, and he maybe not really taking that in.
Speaker 2: He just thinks that, Wow, I just want this. I
Speaker 2: just want to make people laugh. I don't really care
Speaker 2: how I do it or any substance behind it. I
Speaker 2: just want what I'm seeing right now.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think that's what the movie does so well.
Speaker 5: Is that kind of made me think about how you know,
Speaker 5: you know, as an American, you're told her you're special, Hey,
Speaker 5: you're special. It's a manifest destiny. Everyone's just a billionaire
Speaker 5: that's been slightly inconvenienced. But things will get back back
Speaker 5: on track, you know. And it very much is about that,
Speaker 5: Like he you've been told you're special, but not everyone
Speaker 5: can be special, you know what I mean, Like not
Speaker 5: everyone can be Jerry Lewis, but yet he is. He
Speaker 5: has got this determination. He's he's bought his own sort
Speaker 5: of lie, his own bullshit.
Speaker 2: But I think we also like him because he well,
Speaker 2: when he's polite, you know that he does go but
Speaker 2: he's very polite, which is important, I think. And then
Speaker 2: but he's also persistent, and you respect people who are persistent,
Speaker 2: so you kind of you kind of you know, I
Speaker 2: forget the idea that Okay, he's not.
Speaker 1: He's not actually working at his.
Speaker 5: Crimes, but he is driven.
Speaker 1: That he's driven, and we admire that, you know.
Speaker 2: And I think it's so nicely done that the the
Speaker 2: producers they're actually really like if if you walk into
Speaker 2: channel ten or seven or nine of the VC, like,
Speaker 2: that's as nice as they will treat you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the lady, I forget her name, but she's
Speaker 1: really polite.
Speaker 5: Yeah, super polite super professional. I think that they give
Speaker 5: him so much time of day. I'd be like, I.
Speaker 1: Give him too much.
Speaker 5: Job. Man. If I could go in there, you know,
Speaker 5: and just go here's a tape, and they'd be like,
Speaker 5: thank you so much, we'll have a listen to it.
Speaker 5: And then you come back to the saying and we
Speaker 5: listen to it, I would never these days, you wouldn't
Speaker 5: even expect you'd be like, thanks very much, we'll listen
Speaker 5: to it. All right, they're never going to listen to that, Yeah,
Speaker 5: But the fact that they do, and they're just so
Speaker 5: they give him so much, and yet it's never enough
Speaker 5: because he you know, he's on this mission.
Speaker 2: That scene where they're outside when he gets in the cars,
Speaker 2: I gets to the car, that kind of one of
Speaker 2: the early scenes. He rescues him from the MiB but
Speaker 2: in a way and he and he makes the point,
Speaker 2: you know, I put myself on the line for you.
Speaker 1: You can you take some time with me.
Speaker 2: And then they get out at Jerry's apartment and he
Speaker 2: just it's just like just when Jerry thinks it's over,
Speaker 2: it's just like he turns his backside to walking.
Speaker 1: Jerry. One more thing that's so good.
Speaker 2: It is but the balls to do that, and it's balls,
Speaker 2: but it's also being completely lacking of any self awareness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and out of manners.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he he's just oblivious to everyone else.
Speaker 1: And it's it's actually good that it goes.
Speaker 2: He does that so many times because it really tells
Speaker 2: the audience this guy cannot read the room.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's so it's and it's such a great performance
Speaker 5: from de Niro. He plays this. I don't think I've
Speaker 5: seen him in a role like.
Speaker 2: I've wrote it note very similar going. I don't think
Speaker 2: I've seen de Niro play this small. Yeah, like he's
Speaker 2: like and he's just usually there's a even though it
Speaker 2: goes to a pretty dark space. Yeah, he doesn't get
Speaker 2: he doesn't go into that Travis people nice at all.
Speaker 5: I think it helps. It was a great decision that
Speaker 5: it's a toy gun that they hold him up with
Speaker 5: as well, so it's like steaks, but no one's going
Speaker 5: to really die. He's doing something that's horrible. Yeah, but
Speaker 5: it kidnaps someone. But at the same time, you're like,
Speaker 5: it's kind of goofball, and but not in a goofball,
Speaker 5: so it never verges over into sort of dumb goofball.
Speaker 5: The territory, and Sandra Burnhard is so good in it.
Speaker 5: She's so good, she's so great in that.
Speaker 1: I laughed a lot. I'm very rare.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if you're a big laugh out loud
Speaker 2: if you're watching TV by yourself for a film, but
Speaker 2: I laughed out loud at I think it's the first
Speaker 2: flashback scene that we see where all of a sudden
Speaker 2: you're seeing you see Ruber Pumpkin.
Speaker 5: And I also love that Ruber Pumpkin.
Speaker 2: I love that Miss Pannouncey's ain't quite so good in
Speaker 2: many variations.
Speaker 5: It always spells it p U p k and I
Speaker 5: have to do that.
Speaker 2: And I love I love that lad where all of
Speaker 2: a sudden you see Rupert and Jerry at dinner together
Speaker 2: and it's even before you realize pretty quickly it's some
Speaker 2: kind of your scene. But it is so good and
Speaker 2: it made me the performance on both actors. Let's have
Speaker 2: listened to this flashback where it seems like Jerry Langford
Speaker 2: is asking Rupert for it for a favor.
Speaker 5: That's enough.
Speaker 4: I really wish you would think about it again, Okay,
Speaker 4: starting starting up pay It's not that big a deal
Speaker 4: to think. I mean, I am to just think.
Speaker 10: I'm thinking, always telling me to think.
Speaker 11: That's all I do is about how can I not
Speaker 11: think about it?
Speaker 8: I mean, I've been sitting here at lunch, which I
Speaker 8: knew was the reason you invited me from the first place,
Speaker 8: and all I'm sitting here and eating for is to
Speaker 8: get guilty with you.
Speaker 4: Right, I'm asking you to take over the show for
Speaker 4: six weeks.
Speaker 3: I'll give you anything, but don't ask you for six weeks.
Speaker 3: I can't take over the show for six weeks. I
Speaker 3: can't even take over my own life for six weeks.
Speaker 3: And you're asking me to do something that's impossible. It's impossible.
Speaker 3: Don't you wad down there so late? It's impossible.
Speaker 1: I'm what do you want? Tears to come out of
Speaker 1: my eyes?
Speaker 4: Got to be it's got to be a way you
Speaker 4: can work it up. It's just six weeks.
Speaker 8: Think, Yeah, what's your name? Del Delorious?
Speaker 1: That was my father. I love, I love those little
Speaker 1: jokes that he does the confidence.
Speaker 7: Yes.
Speaker 2: By the way, a little fun fact, that was Martin
Speaker 2: Scorsese's daughter who approached the table and Martin Scorsese's mother
Speaker 2: playing the voice.
Speaker 5: And Scorsese isn't it as the director for the TV show.
Speaker 1: I think his dad might even been there, yeah, right,
Speaker 1: at some point. So yeah.
Speaker 2: I love that when it cut from the fantasy seas
Speaker 2: him in his base at home.
Speaker 5: I love how there's no there's no filter, there's no
Speaker 5: nothing to sort of, there's nothing, there's no usual cues
Speaker 5: that we have, you know, when there is a flashback
Speaker 5: or it is imagined, it's just the same as real,
Speaker 5: real life. And I think that that is so subtle
Speaker 5: and wonderful that to Rupert there is no real boundary.
Speaker 5: The reality and the dream and the fantasy are the
Speaker 5: same thing.
Speaker 2: How funny is it that in his fantasy he's not
Speaker 2: just like getting along, you know, being friends with Jerry
Speaker 2: langor but Jerry Lanthorn's busting his ball, ye begging him.
Speaker 2: I can't, I can't take over it for six weeks?
Speaker 1: Why not? What are you doing?
Speaker 5: That's the only real cue that we have is this
Speaker 5: kind of child almost childlike view of the world that
Speaker 5: Rupert has in the dialogue that he's imagining why I
Speaker 5: can't do it? No, it's such a like a kid
Speaker 5: playing imaginary games dialogue. And that's the first like when
Speaker 5: you're like, oh, this is what nah.
Speaker 1: Nah, nah, and it's it's so.
Speaker 2: And it's the first clue that he's after something more
Speaker 2: than just a shot at stardom in a way or
Speaker 2: to make people laugh. There's something more underlying that we
Speaker 2: do get to later on. Jerry Lewis as Jerry Langford.
Speaker 2: They approached Johnny Carson based on Johnny Carson, he said, no,
Speaker 2: they approached a rat pack. I think each member of
Speaker 2: the rat pack had a crack at it. They eventually
Speaker 2: got to Jerry Lewis.
Speaker 1: He's so good.
Speaker 5: He's really good in it. It makes me wonder why
Speaker 5: he didn't do more dramatic roles because I don't really
Speaker 5: like his comedy.
Speaker 1: Well no is.
Speaker 2: I mean he's common. He has probably aged the worst
Speaker 2: out of yeah, like not even out of being you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not talking the cancel thing, just as just that
Speaker 2: it's a bit too over the top and without any
Speaker 2: real purpose.
Speaker 1: Sometimes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it feels to me like a you know, those
Speaker 5: years of transition where you had silent film actors or
Speaker 5: theater actors do film, you know, the talkies, and it
Speaker 5: was over acting. It was it's kind of a bit yeah,
Speaker 5: I just I just can't stand it, to be honest.
Speaker 5: But in this, I was like, he's amazing at it, Yeah,
Speaker 5: because he is just playing himself.
Speaker 1: Well that's that's.
Speaker 2: What has often been remarked, and he, to be honest,
Speaker 2: it kind of rejected praise for it. It's kind of
Speaker 2: saying I basically was playing myself. And it's weird that
Speaker 2: he wouldn't accept a lot of that praise because, yes,
Speaker 2: he might be playing versions of himself, but a lot.
Speaker 1: Of actors do.
Speaker 2: But he was very disciplined not to try to milk
Speaker 2: laughs that weren't there. Yeah, out of Ego's sake.
Speaker 5: I think you get a glimpse into an artist that
Speaker 5: wanted more, you know, out of his career, who felt
Speaker 5: obviously that he was pigeonholders comedy, but like so many comedians,
Speaker 5: is an amazing dramatic actor. And I would have loved
Speaker 5: for him to get a little bit more of a
Speaker 5: chance because I think he could have been in the
Speaker 5: same league as someone, you know, Robin Williams's type.
Speaker 2: I highly recommended a movie called Funny Bones that he's
Speaker 2: in his dramatic Yeah, roll of a Platte.
Speaker 5: I love Oliver Platt.
Speaker 2: He's great and yeah, English made film, and but I
Speaker 2: think set both in Blackpool, I think in England and
Speaker 2: the Vegas, like Jerry Lewis plays his the Dad and
Speaker 2: he's a Vegas legend and his son's trying to get into.
Speaker 5: Yeah cool, he's not that good A young Oliver Platt.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, it's from my late nineties. Oh hello, yeah
Speaker 2: really yeah. I'm not sure if it would pass the
Speaker 2: muster to make it on this podcast, but I'm very
Speaker 2: happy to talk about anytime somebody wants to put it
Speaker 2: in their top throw.
Speaker 5: Just another thing that I loved about it his performance.
Speaker 5: It's some of it's improvised, especially in the house. Yes,
Speaker 5: he just improvised. That's him again. Why he was saying
Speaker 5: that it's just me when he's sort of explaining to
Speaker 5: Rupert that he's just another person.
Speaker 1: Let's just a person. Let's have a listen to that.
Speaker 1: Saying this is a.
Speaker 5: Sorry, I'll beat you to it today.
Speaker 2: Absolutely me. You bought this one in yourself. Is the
Speaker 2: magic of podcasts. There's been so much talking about the
Speaker 2: magic of movies over the years. Movie magic. This is
Speaker 2: a podcast, podcast magic. This is if I said the
Speaker 2: words Jerry's plea, it'll start up right about now.
Speaker 4: I'm sure we can understand doing the kind of show
Speaker 4: I'm doing. It's mine, Bob. There's so much stuff that
Speaker 4: comes down you can't keep your head cleared. And if
Speaker 4: that's the case, I'm wrong. You're right, I'm wrong. If
Speaker 4: I'm wrong, I apologize. I'm just a human being. With
Speaker 4: all of the foibles and all of the traps to show.
Speaker 4: The pressure, the groupies, the autograph hours, the crew, the
Speaker 4: incompetence those behind the scenes. You think of your friends
Speaker 4: and you're not too sure if you're going to be
Speaker 4: there tomorrow because of their incompetence. They're wonderful pressures that
Speaker 4: make every day a glowing, radiant day in your life.
Speaker 4: It's terrific. Okay. If all of that means nothing, if
Speaker 4: I'm wrong in spite of all of that, then I apologize.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry. If you accept my apology, I think we
Speaker 4: should shake hands. We'll forget the whole thing. I won't
Speaker 4: press charges. You know you two can be in deep trouble,
Speaker 4: but I will not press charges.
Speaker 6: That's easy for you to say, Jerry, but I mean it.
Speaker 4: I mean I'll go to the office and tell them more.
Speaker 4: It's a gag. They'll understand that if I tell them
Speaker 4: it's a gag. They're going to buy it, and then
Speaker 4: we'll put the table on and we'll list sit down,
Speaker 4: Sit down.
Speaker 3: You heard what he said?
Speaker 4: Yeah, right, all of a sudden with a gun on me,
Speaker 4: he wants to make up and be friends.
Speaker 10: What happens when he whilst out the door.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful monologuecause it does feel like it comes
Speaker 2: from a real place, and it's.
Speaker 1: Not it's almost not.
Speaker 2: It's not perfect, like it's kind of like you're not
Speaker 2: exactly sure you thought, like I can get a sense
Speaker 2: of what he's saying with that, like reading that on
Speaker 2: a piece of paper, I will be going, well, that
Speaker 2: seems a bit of mumbo jumper.
Speaker 1: Really, but it actually kind of works for a man.
Speaker 2: I think he's playing a man in a pretty desperate
Speaker 2: situation who's trying to remain calm, and this is this
Speaker 2: is the best monologue he could come up with trying
Speaker 2: to deliver a monologue.
Speaker 5: I think it's it is a real wonderfully naturalistic, authentic, yeah,
Speaker 5: piece of dialogue and I'd love to watch. And that
Speaker 5: was one of my favorite parts of the film, is
Speaker 5: him kind of trying to explain to this guy who
Speaker 5: doesn't get that other people exist that he exists and
Speaker 5: he's just the same. Yeah, it was beautiful and a
Speaker 5: lot of that scene, a lot of the scenes with
Speaker 5: Sandra Bernhard are improvised, yeah, because she was a comic
Speaker 5: experience and so she it was says. He just was like,
Speaker 5: just make it up. It's fine.
Speaker 2: It took a long time to cast that role, and
Speaker 2: then somebody finally said you should check her out, and yeah,
Speaker 2: so they got and yeah, you're right. A lot of
Speaker 2: improvisation went on that you probably know what I'm about
Speaker 2: to say. But Jerry Lewis came up the idea, you know,
Speaker 2: when he finally gets out and he leaves and he
Speaker 2: slaps her and he wanted to like push her onto
Speaker 2: like a glass coffee table with her like smashed through it.
Speaker 2: But like was suggesting on the day and suggesting it
Speaker 2: to Sandra Bernhard trying to sell at the San Bernhardt
Speaker 2: and she was like, oh, yeah, I don't know, I'm
Speaker 2: not sure if I'm comfortable with that, And it's just
Speaker 2: kind of listening nearby, and eventually scors As came and said, no,
Speaker 2: let's let's.
Speaker 1: Let's just keep it.
Speaker 2: But it's funny that he was just like maybe in
Speaker 2: preveduction going to go Hey, Sandra Bernarda said she wouldn't
Speaker 2: have been up for it if it could be done, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, like if it was an organized thing and
Speaker 2: it's safe, and I wasn't going to break a cosick
Speaker 2: on the spur of a moment. Even even Matin Scorsese
Speaker 2: himself scorse put an end to that. Jerrylist also suggested
Speaker 2: that he thought Rupert should have killed Jerry right, which
Speaker 2: because I had said long a long time ago, I
Speaker 2: was getting joke in my mind, and I'm going what
Speaker 2: happens at the end here, So it ended differently than
Speaker 2: what I had remembered. What did you said the role
Speaker 2: of Marsha like doing, because there's a version of this
Speaker 2: movie where it's just Rupert, you know, like Alane, you know,
Speaker 2: he's living in this world by himself. But I thought
Speaker 2: it was nice to have a cat like like somebody
Speaker 2: who's like almost a mirror image, but she's also a
Speaker 2: point in a way.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and you don't know that they know each other
Speaker 5: until way into the film when he's thrown out of
Speaker 5: the office and she's there and like hey, you know,
Speaker 5: and he's like, don't even talk to me.
Speaker 1: The whole. They didn't throw me out, they walked me out.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1: It's so good.
Speaker 5: And there, and her character has a little bit of
Speaker 5: like who is she? You know, it's one of these
Speaker 5: little touches with characters has not explained. You don't have
Speaker 5: any exposition, We don't have a prequel involved in exploring
Speaker 5: the background of that character. You just she's come from
Speaker 5: money somehow, Like her place is beautiful and she has
Speaker 5: a bunch of money, and you're just like, who is she?
Speaker 5: Who is this character? And that's you start to your
Speaker 5: imagination is much more powerful than anything that they could
Speaker 5: just explain to you.
Speaker 2: Well, it's just it's just these filmmakers, you know, the
Speaker 2: new Hollywood, who just know the things that we need
Speaker 2: to know. M you know, like even the fact that
Speaker 2: Rupert goes from being a polite even though obviously has
Speaker 2: no idea about boundaries, but he's very polite and mild mannered,
Speaker 2: and he gets kicked out of the country house and
Speaker 2: then all of a sudden he's a gunpoint, I know.
Speaker 2: And it's just build up with Travis Pickle, you see
Speaker 2: all the build up, Yeah, you see that. It's it's slowly,
Speaker 2: it's simmering and you you're going to it's just gonna
Speaker 2: be in the moment where you know, and he's practicing
Speaker 2: these guns and are you talking to me?
Speaker 1: There's none of that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I think it still works with Travis. I mean,
Speaker 5: it's an exploration of that sort of psychosis, the same thing,
Speaker 5: but it's two different paths to get there. I think
Speaker 5: for Rupert's, his is a much more sustained attack on
Speaker 5: his psyche that he's obviously had, you know, been doing
Speaker 5: since birth, you know, and it's with whereas Travis is
Speaker 5: kind of anger and frustration in the world and how
Speaker 5: disgusting it is. Rupert's is more ambition and the American dream,
Speaker 5: and and how that ambition with no sort of aim
Speaker 5: or direction can kind of warp you, twist you turn
Speaker 5: it turned you into an eventual psychopath like he is.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think Marsha serves as this beautiful companion
Speaker 2: to him. And also she's coming from a different point
Speaker 2: of view in a way that she's for money. She
Speaker 2: doesn't want to be on TV necessarily. She once she
Speaker 2: just wants him. She just loves him, She loves him
Speaker 2: so much. Yeah, I think Scorsese referred to her as
Speaker 2: a sexual terrorist in those scenes, which is actually she's.
Speaker 5: A sexual terrorists.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, Like when I mean, how good is the
Speaker 2: taping up? Like how comical?
Speaker 5: It's so good.
Speaker 2: It's like he's like an igloo like usually the sea,
Speaker 2: you know, people wrapped up with a phone called or
Speaker 2: they have literally masked him up to his from his
Speaker 2: feet to his.
Speaker 5: Neck, and they never play anything any of the All
Speaker 5: the comedy that is in there is never played as comedy.
Speaker 5: And that's what's another similarity between that and The Office
Speaker 5: is that it's just these things that they present to
Speaker 5: you that are kind of in conflict with what it
Speaker 5: should be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no scene of Rupert finishing the last final
Speaker 2: bit of this close up with the sticky tape and
Speaker 2: then standing back to appreciate his work and reveal to
Speaker 2: the audience that Jerry's in like a beehive.
Speaker 5: It's just so funny. I love that shut down when
Speaker 5: he's starting to tape him up. He's just such a
Speaker 5: pathetic little character. Yeah, of Rupert that he has all
Speaker 5: this power now he doesn't know what he loves it.
Speaker 2: With that fantasy scene where he's in Jerry's office and
Speaker 2: he said you got it.
Speaker 1: Even if you're try to get rid of it, you
Speaker 1: couldn't get rid of it, you know.
Speaker 2: And he's like, what about the new gags? They strong
Speaker 2: enough you get out of here? Of course they're strong enough.
Speaker 2: They were stronger than the would hurt or you know,
Speaker 2: whatever it is. But the shot Jerry's is at his desk,
Speaker 2: and the shot of Rupert he looks like a small
Speaker 2: boy in a little you know, kindergarten chair.
Speaker 5: Yeah, with his little suit. That must just been just
Speaker 5: a fraction too small, Yeah that they give him.
Speaker 1: It's just yeah, I didn't notice it, but I've read
Speaker 1: about that.
Speaker 2: He's show an interview with scars Asian DeNiro where de
Speaker 2: Niro kind of shade his mustache.
Speaker 1: Show it was one so I was a little bit
Speaker 1: shorter than the other.
Speaker 5: There's nothing worse than that. There's no coming back from
Speaker 5: that once you realize you made me come like did
Speaker 5: I do that? Now? That's a great fear of any
Speaker 5: mustachioed gentleman.
Speaker 1: Which you are.
Speaker 2: And because you can't necessarily fix the other side, you
Speaker 2: eat one show gets to fix the other side because
Speaker 2: you can't keep doing it otherwise you get yourself.
Speaker 1: It's a very tricky.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you don't want that.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about the when they go to the
Speaker 2: house break in, because off the back of that fantasy secret,
Speaker 2: I think he says he come to the house, come
Speaker 2: to the house.
Speaker 1: I go to the house with Rita. I mean, actually,
Speaker 1: let's talk about Rita.
Speaker 5: She's so good.
Speaker 1: She's so good.
Speaker 2: Diane Diane Abbott, who was married to Hero at the time.
Speaker 2: Really yeah, wow, And there's.
Speaker 5: So many great stories with this film. Yeah, it's such
Speaker 5: a legendary kind of mythologized film now and then there's
Speaker 5: so many awesome stories like that that I didn't even
Speaker 5: read in the im D drivia page. I didn't even
Speaker 5: I didn't see that when I did when I saw it. So, yeah,
Speaker 5: that's cool. She's great in it.
Speaker 1: Well, she's great.
Speaker 2: And let's have a listen to when they're on their
Speaker 2: their date and Rupert as we've all done, I'm sure
Speaker 2: then we've got out in the autograph book and asked
Speaker 2: her to have a look at a look at it.
Speaker 8: Listen, listen, don't tell anyone here, but you're looking at
Speaker 8: the new king of comedy.
Speaker 1: Why not?
Speaker 5: Why not?
Speaker 8: A guy can get anything he wants as long as
Speaker 8: he pays the price.
Speaker 9: What's so funny about that?
Speaker 5: I mean, crazier things have happened.
Speaker 8: You don't understand what a shot on Langford means. That's
Speaker 8: coast to coast, national TV, a bigger audience than the
Speaker 8: greatest comedians used to play, doing a whole lifetime, a
Speaker 8: shot at a free ticket in a comedy circuit, A
Speaker 8: comedy show of my own.
Speaker 12: The Rupert Pupkins Show.
Speaker 8: Everything and all that leads in one direction, reading Hollywood,
Speaker 8: a beach house in Malibu, right.
Speaker 1: On the ocean, and we'll keep a suite at the Sherry.
Speaker 8: Everybody stays there when they make it big way up top,
Speaker 8: so we can.
Speaker 3: Look down at everybody and yell, hey, tough luck, suckers,
Speaker 3: Better luck next time.
Speaker 2: Come on.
Speaker 10: What do you say?
Speaker 4: It sounds wonderful, rup and I a wish you the
Speaker 4: best of luck, you know, But it's getting late and
Speaker 4: I'm a working girl.
Speaker 11: I gotta go home.
Speaker 12: I don't get you here.
Speaker 8: I am offering you a way out Rita.
Speaker 1: Every king needs a queen. I want you to be mine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's I was kind of.
Speaker 2: He's already presented the autograph book, and that's him presenting
Speaker 2: his Caisugus.
Speaker 1: It's kind of he's almost.
Speaker 2: Laying at the movie in a way, like this whole
Speaker 2: idea of he's more obsessed with all the trimmings that
Speaker 2: come being on TV and being famous and not really
Speaker 2: thinking about the work or the craft or the feeling
Speaker 2: it will give him to make people laugh and then
Speaker 2: how to write a joke.
Speaker 5: There's no thought at all in the film, and we
Speaker 5: never see it at all as to the how he
Speaker 5: plans to get there. It's all just I'm going to
Speaker 5: do this. I'm going to be a big thing. It's
Speaker 5: just a hollow it's hollow ambition, yeah, with nothing to
Speaker 5: really present for it. And this is a great, this
Speaker 5: is hard to watch scene because she like he's like,
Speaker 5: oh oh this is well, what's so pathetic?
Speaker 1: It's so pathetic.
Speaker 2: And what's interesting about that relationship though, is that because
Speaker 2: the film's obviously a comment on fame and fandom, but
Speaker 2: it's not just seen from Rupert and Marsha's eyes. I
Speaker 2: think there's a lot to be read into how Reader
Speaker 2: plays with Rupert, like she she does kind of like
Speaker 2: hearing about these famous people to a degree, and later
Speaker 2: on when she sees him on the t you know
Speaker 2: on the TV show.
Speaker 1: She kind of likes that, you know, she despite and
Speaker 1: you know, she likes the.
Speaker 2: Idea of going to She's really really excited to be
Speaker 2: at the country House. You know, she takes him upstairs
Speaker 2: to get it on and she's very happy to be there.
Speaker 2: Like I'm sure she seems like a pretty smart woman.
Speaker 2: I'm sure she's ignoring some red flags that are probably
Speaker 2: going off in total.
Speaker 5: She is kind of she's us. She's like the audience,
Speaker 5: we kind of know that something's not right with him,
Speaker 5: but we're still kind of rooting for him. We still
Speaker 5: kind of like him, and we're complicit in this.
Speaker 2: The country House, I mean, the performance of the butler,
Speaker 2: Kim Channelly's name is like it's Japanese butler, and he
Speaker 2: improvised a lot of his lines. Even when Jerry comes
Speaker 2: back and playing golf and the door.
Speaker 5: That was such a great moment.
Speaker 2: So you know what if you watched it and you
Speaker 2: didn't know that the door, he couldn't open the door,
Speaker 2: and then so it's kind of stuck. And then Jerry
Speaker 2: finally comes in and they just kept it going and
Speaker 2: he improvised most of his lines, and it's just what
Speaker 2: he's just on the phone saying I'm scared.
Speaker 1: Everything's gone wrong. He's touching everything.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, it's such a funny. I love that. That
Speaker 5: whole the guest House yeah sequence. I thought that was
Speaker 5: such a great part of the show.
Speaker 2: Love The character name is John O by the way,
Speaker 2: which is unexpected touch.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But when they leave and he comes back, he opens
Speaker 2: the door and he says, you did well.
Speaker 5: It's so good. It's such a nice little touch and
Speaker 5: not overplayed. It's just really really spot on.
Speaker 2: If a pupkin is out there today in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: how has the landscape changed, do you think?
Speaker 1: With social media? You know, like what how would he?
Speaker 1: Would he have a podcast? Would he have.
Speaker 5: He'd have a podcast, he'd have a TikTok, he'd have
Speaker 5: it all.
Speaker 2: That's why would that be enough to serve his desire?
Speaker 2: Like we would would We're getting five hundred looks yeah
Speaker 2: on TikTok.
Speaker 1: I'm sure how they measure it.
Speaker 5: I imagine him would be one of those like YouTubers that
Speaker 5: do crazy things yeah and are super annoying.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Two people and with no their psychopaths out. You can
Speaker 5: go on YouTube and see any of them.
Speaker 1: Exit so package reveals.
Speaker 5: Yeah, just any anything, Yeah, just you know pranks, you
Speaker 5: know those awful doing pranks in the hood. It'd be
Speaker 5: one of those guys. We're doing pranks in the hood,
Speaker 5: We're punching down, you know, making pranking homeless people or
Speaker 5: something like that.
Speaker 1: That's what he.
Speaker 5: Would be doing. But going to a going to a
Speaker 5: forest in.
Speaker 2: Japan, oh god, and then finally getting into boxing all yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: But what would satisfy him? Do you think now? Like
Speaker 2: back in nineten eighty two, you were basically it was
Speaker 2: basically get on TV or radio and that was tonight
Speaker 2: I was the mecca. But what I wonder what would
Speaker 2: satisfy him now? Would it be getting five hundred followers
Speaker 2: on Instagram? Would that be enough for him to feel
Speaker 2: like he's been seen and heard?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Well, I think and this we kind of see from
Speaker 5: in the ending. I don't think he can be I
Speaker 5: don't think, especially now when there's so much going on
Speaker 5: in so many different ways to get likes and get
Speaker 5: that dopamine hit. I don't think that he would be. Ever,
Speaker 5: I think his appetite is unfillable.
Speaker 2: So yeah, because it comes from a deep seed of
Speaker 2: place and let's have let's have a listen now to
Speaker 2: the wedding fantasy sequence where you recently married. I believe
Speaker 2: your wedding went way smoother, yes, than this, but I'll
Speaker 2: ask you afterwards. I have a question whether if there
Speaker 2: was any apologies giving in your service. So let's have
Speaker 2: listened to the wedding of Rupert and Rita given by
Speaker 2: Rubert's ex high school.
Speaker 1: Principal, dearly beloved.
Speaker 11: When Rupert here was a student at Clifton High School,
Speaker 11: none of us, myself, his teachers, his classmates drank that
Speaker 11: he would amount to a hell of bees. But we
Speaker 11: were wrong, and you, Rupert, you were right. And that's
Speaker 11: why tonight, before the entire nation, we like to apologize
Speaker 11: to you personally and to beg your forgiveness for for
Speaker 11: all the things we did to you. And we'd like
Speaker 11: to thank you personally all of us for the meaning
Speaker 11: you've given our lives. Please accept our warmest wishes Reader
Speaker 11: and Rupert for a long and successful reign together. We'll
Speaker 11: be back to marry them right after.
Speaker 1: This work commercial. So good.
Speaker 5: It's that that child like kind of naivete innocence of
Speaker 5: Rupert coming through you know, that fantasy that your principle
Speaker 5: is going to come and apologize for all the things
Speaker 5: they did to you.
Speaker 2: Such a principle, and you've got his kind of hero
Speaker 2: that he wants to be. Jerry Lanford looking in the
Speaker 2: back every shoulder, looking quite proudly for the look of yeah,
Speaker 2: maybe I was wrong about this guy. And and you
Speaker 2: know all these things that he's saying, you know it's true.
Speaker 2: We do I owe this guy in apology.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's it reinforces towards it. When you
Speaker 5: finally see him do his monologue. He talks a lot
Speaker 5: about his childhood and he's definitely in this kind of
Speaker 5: arrested development. He's not been able to he's still imagining
Speaker 5: and he's got dreams of becoming an astronaut and he's
Speaker 5: never been able to move past that, so he's never
Speaker 5: been able to really develop into an adults. It's cool.
Speaker 5: It's a really great writing. Yeah, amazing writing.
Speaker 1: It's beautiful writing.
Speaker 2: I've just scopped down a couple of notes along the
Speaker 2: way that I just forgot we've kind of mentioned these things.
Speaker 2: But I do want of one of the really funny
Speaker 2: the times we had big laughs where things he would
Speaker 2: say things like when he's getting kicked out of a
Speaker 2: reception from the security guard and yeah, he's already asked
Speaker 2: in the leaves so many times and he's you know,
Speaker 2: they finally get him out, and just at the end
Speaker 2: of the scene he says, in other words, you want
Speaker 2: me to leave the building? Yeah, yeah, that's what we want,
Speaker 2: and there's not When Jerry kicks me out of the
Speaker 2: country house, he says, I can take a hint, like.
Speaker 1: After I can take a could be the.
Speaker 5: Funniest line in the midom Yeah, that is very good.
Speaker 2: There's a scene also just when Jerry is walking down
Speaker 2: the street. I was just about to say yelling at
Speaker 2: somebody says at the phone box, yeah, you take this one.
Speaker 5: It was apparently a carson that it happened a carson,
Speaker 5: didn't or something to Jerry? Yeah right, yeah where this woman?
Speaker 5: I hope you get cancer?
Speaker 1: Yeah you want to?
Speaker 5: Can you say something to my son in law?
Speaker 2: You say something? And it happened that it's happened to
Speaker 2: me before. Not how that ended. But people come up
Speaker 2: and say, oh, I've got somebody on the phone, can
Speaker 2: you say hi to them? And you know I usually oblige.
Speaker 2: But the idea that if I had to say if
Speaker 2: I had said no, they turned to quick and I
Speaker 2: hope you get cancer.
Speaker 5: I know, just that anger, just the sort of entitlement
Speaker 5: that I think people have to this person is very
Speaker 5: interesting and it was a good from Jerry. I think
Speaker 5: that's why they kept his name his first name, is
Speaker 5: so they could actually film him walking down the street
Speaker 5: and all that stuff with the construction workers going Jerry, Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know that's all that. They're not actors. The only
Speaker 5: people that were actors were the phone booth lady.
Speaker 1: Yes, I believe in that. Yeah, and the Clash in
Speaker 1: one of the scenes, yes as.
Speaker 5: Well, making fun of Sandra Bernhard.
Speaker 2: Was that great scene where where you know, he's at
Speaker 2: the phone box and I think even some of the
Speaker 2: one or the members of Clash might be that scene
Speaker 2: as well. And and he's saying he's calling, saying, I'm
Speaker 2: just calling from my office, like he's in the middle
Speaker 2: of it in New York. It's the only phone that's
Speaker 2: working people, Yeah, hassling in the get off, Yes, he's
Speaker 2: in his office.
Speaker 5: There's just so many good moments, Like in the film,
Speaker 5: it's scattered with these amazing little moments that you you
Speaker 5: empathize with. Rupert. I like, I see, I see something
Speaker 5: in myself, that kind of delusion that I think all
Speaker 5: entertainment people in entertainment have to have.
Speaker 2: I think it's a really good thing to talk about, Like,
Speaker 2: let's not ignore the fact that we work in entertainment.
Speaker 1: And what was your like thoughts on fame growing up?
Speaker 2: And I mean I remember thinking I want to be
Speaker 2: a comedian and I want to know maybe one day
Speaker 2: make a film and working television. And I've always said
Speaker 2: it was always about the work and it still is.
Speaker 2: I love writing jokes, I love creating. But I mean
Speaker 2: we're growing up thinking I wouldn't it be nice, though,
Speaker 2: to be able to have people recognize you and oh
Speaker 2: yeah and ask for your autograph?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: As a kid, you were like oscars, you.
Speaker 1: Know, actor. I imagine going to the excuse me, sir?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have that naivety that it's all
Speaker 5: good and as all this, you know, people love you
Speaker 5: and things like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you never thought.
Speaker 2: I think more people think aware of it now on
Speaker 2: the downside of fame, particularly with the birth of social
Speaker 2: media more recently, that people are more understanding of it.
Speaker 2: But I think back then, when I was growing up,
Speaker 2: I mean, everyone on TV was living perfect lives. So
Speaker 2: it's not just about oh, well you get to Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's money and it's it's a choicing partner and respect
Speaker 2: and love. And I've always kind of rallied against the
Speaker 2: idea that all comedians are kind of searching for love
Speaker 2: they want. I've always kind of gone, no, I just
Speaker 2: makee people laugh. And the older I get, I'm starting
Speaker 2: to draw some lines and kind of going.
Speaker 1: No, I kind of I get it. Yes, I do.
Speaker 2: I do crave love, even though I've come with perfect childhood,
Speaker 2: loving parents, So I don't know exactly where it comes from.
Speaker 2: But I'd be lying if I said I don't crave
Speaker 2: as much love as I could possibly get and respect
Speaker 2: in a way, you know, like it means a lot
Speaker 2: to me that peers respect me and that you know
Speaker 2: that what I'm doing is of a you know, is
Speaker 2: of a certain standard, you know, and it's not unimportant.
Speaker 1: I think I've got a pretty good.
Speaker 2: Balance where I'm at of what is you know, getting
Speaker 2: that balance right? Yeah, So you can't play you can't
Speaker 2: always be going for respect, you know, like, even though
Speaker 2: you have your own ways of you judging either a
Speaker 2: joke in the moment or a career choice.
Speaker 5: You can't keep You can't always just do things and
Speaker 5: be like, oh, will this will other comedians, you know,
Speaker 5: respect this or not. You know, you're afraid of what
Speaker 5: others might think. You just have to There comes the
Speaker 5: point where you just have to jump.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. And you always say you can't always play to
Speaker 2: the back of the room. There used to be comedians
Speaker 2: always taking in the back of certain rooms. And you know,
Speaker 2: and I've seen some comedian who would just basically do
Speaker 2: jokes to make them laugh and yeah, the audience again,
Speaker 2: this is okay, I guess, but yeah, so but yeah,
Speaker 2: so growing up, when did you kind of start putting
Speaker 2: a career in comedy together?
Speaker 1: What what did it in your mind? Did it look like?
Speaker 5: I don't know it. That's a very good question, A
Speaker 5: deep question, Peek. I just hate to talk about movies,
Speaker 5: talking about exit the meaning of life on these podcasts. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I just wanted to. I was because I'm originally an actor,
Speaker 5: so I came from theater. I did a lot of
Speaker 5: theater in the grew up in Perth to American parents.
Speaker 5: Long story there, how they.
Speaker 2: Got there, By the way, I haven't seen a restaurant
Speaker 2: I mentioned it in the I haven't seen it, but
Speaker 2: I really want to.
Speaker 1: Restaurant. Fuck is what a great title.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was a shadow with Xavier Michael. It is
Speaker 5: very beautiful, beautiful man. But yeah, I think it was
Speaker 5: just I wanted to My idols were mel Brooks, Geene Wilder,
Speaker 5: you know, Ron Williams. I wanted to be an actor.
Speaker 5: I loved acting, I loved showing off. I got into
Speaker 5: it in a high school and kind of kept going
Speaker 5: with it, and then comedy just kind of happened accidentally.
Speaker 5: Really I was I didn't realize at the time, but
Speaker 5: I was a comedic actor. And then just someone signed
Speaker 5: me up for a five minute spot at Lazy Susan's
Speaker 5: Comedy then, which is now another comedy room, and I
Speaker 5: just kind of did it and people laughed and I
Speaker 5: was like, oh. And in Perth, back in you know,
Speaker 5: the early two thousands, you could get paid for work
Speaker 5: that you had no business doing. Right, so I would.
Speaker 5: I got MC spots and support and had you know, headlines. Way,
Speaker 5: I had no business getting those spots. But back then
Speaker 5: people didn't really come over to Perth you could make
Speaker 5: a living. I found myself just making a living off
Speaker 5: stand up as my main sort like income source, and
Speaker 5: then doing acting and improv as well. And I eventually
Speaker 5: moved over to Chicago and was like, I can't I
Speaker 5: know that I'm in a bubble. I know that I'm
Speaker 5: in this isolated sort of sphere that's not real, not real.
Speaker 5: I wanted to get out and learn and expand and
Speaker 5: you know, grow, And so I went to the opposite
Speaker 5: of Pupkin. Yeah, exactly, I challenged myself. So I went
Speaker 5: to Chicago and studied with Second City and Io and
Speaker 5: Sketch Comedy. So that, yeah, and that was a very
Speaker 5: different That was a big wake up call. And so
Speaker 5: just in how indifferent the universe is to you, and
Speaker 5: how I think it really checked checked the privilege that
Speaker 5: I had from Perth, you know, and I didn't I
Speaker 5: had no place in those in those jobs. But I
Speaker 5: was just there because there weren't very many comedians over
Speaker 5: in Perth, but that people wanted to see comedy. And
Speaker 5: we had a great little community in Perth where you'd
Speaker 5: have some old people or older people that would that
Speaker 5: were great influences on us coming up and then there's
Speaker 5: you know, now that and then they've all just left,
Speaker 5: you know, we've all just scattered to the wind now
Speaker 5: from Perth and they've had to kind of rebuild themselves,
Speaker 5: which is tough. But I was very lucky growing up
Speaker 5: there at that time, I think. But I just enjoyed it.
Speaker 5: I just loved it. I loved the challenge. I love
Speaker 5: trying to get a crowd over to your side. And
Speaker 5: because crowds were rough in Perth, in some of the
Speaker 5: smaller rooms especially, and they will let you know and
Speaker 5: heckle quite often. I haven't hecklings kind of gone out
Speaker 5: of vogue, thank god.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I've always felt when I was traveling
Speaker 2: around early I always thought Sydney was the one city
Speaker 2: where it felt more of a sport still like it
Speaker 2: felt like people were still keen for a heckle, And
Speaker 2: I always got asked a lot about heckling when I
Speaker 2: was talking to people in Sydney.
Speaker 1: It wasn't still a big thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I felt like, you're right, it was going out
Speaker 2: of vogue, and that I think now it's almost completely out.
Speaker 5: Yeah, people don't like it, No, I think the I
Speaker 5: think that everyone's got the memo.
Speaker 2: Well, I think because prices have gone up so much,
Speaker 2: it's not Yes, we've paid for this.
Speaker 5: That's ite a recession looming. I didn't pay to see you.
Speaker 1: He's not adding a minute to the show because he's
Speaker 1: handling a little shit.
Speaker 5: And I think that's it very much so that people
Speaker 5: pay their money and they want to see the show
Speaker 5: and let the comedian entertain us. Please let them do
Speaker 5: their job. So I think that's absolutely the answer. That's
Speaker 5: the why that's gone out of a What did.
Speaker 2: You think of Rupert's stand up? You have a little listen.
Speaker 2: You mentioned it before. It gets great insight into his history.
Speaker 2: It's down in time of really, I think, really dive
Speaker 2: into his backstory. But let's have a little listen of
Speaker 2: some of Robert Pupkins's debut on The Jerry Langford Show.
Speaker 8: But like everyone else, I grew up at large part
Speaker 8: thanks to my mother. If she were only here today,
Speaker 8: I'd say, hey, Mom, what are you doing here?
Speaker 1: You've been dead for nine years.
Speaker 3: Oh but seriously, you should have seen my mother.
Speaker 8: She was wonderful, one beautiful, intelligent alcoholic. We used to
Speaker 8: drink milk together after school.
Speaker 1: Mine was a marginized was long. Once you're up for speeding.
Speaker 9: The Clark are doing fifty, all right, But in our garage.
Speaker 2: I mean, I couldn't find out old. I don't know
Speaker 2: who wrote it. I did did pause him and write
Speaker 2: it and get a comic in to kind of write
Speaker 2: those lines.
Speaker 1: I mean, was it better than you thought?
Speaker 5: Or I thought there was really well done in the
Speaker 5: fact that it's stylized, you know, you know, they chose
Speaker 5: a style that was very much around in that time,
Speaker 5: in that era, and yeah, they kind of put it
Speaker 5: whacked a genre on it, yes, And it's always easier
Speaker 5: to build something when you've gone, oh, we're this is
Speaker 5: the genre. So I think that that really helped it
Speaker 5: and sort of protected it from if they had actually
Speaker 5: just tried to do like a Dan Carlon, you know,
Speaker 5: not Dan George carl Dan Carlon's Hardcore History. Great another podcast,
Speaker 5: but anyway, Yeah, George Carlin, you know you've been like,
Speaker 5: you can smell the you can smell when people when
Speaker 5: screenwriters are trying to do stand up in scenes like
Speaker 5: you remember that I've forgotten the name of it. It's
Speaker 5: Tom Hanks punchline. Yes, and you're like, oh, what is this? Yeah,
Speaker 5: you could smell it. You get smell a fake a
Speaker 5: mile away. Yeah, So I think that protected it from me.
Speaker 5: I thought it was great. I do have a question
Speaker 5: for you, because you don't know what's real. This kind
Speaker 5: of breaks the viewer's mind because you're like, his mother
Speaker 5: is dead? Is this real? What's real? What's imagined? Is
Speaker 5: that voice when he's in the basement imagined? Is his
Speaker 5: mother actually dead? Or is he lying to the audience here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a really good point, and I like that
Speaker 2: they don't tell us I mean even I mean, you
Speaker 2: can get to the end.
Speaker 1: Now. Did this performance even happen.
Speaker 5: To take place? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean I think that it did because they do
Speaker 2: watch it at the bar, but that could still be. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but showing this off to read it. But if he's
Speaker 2: showing it off, then I don't think the FBI agents
Speaker 2: are there. So no, I'm taking the performance did happen?
Speaker 5: I would agree with you.
Speaker 2: It's what happens next? I think that. Yeahs up for debait.
Speaker 2: So let's let's have a listen to the reaction.
Speaker 5: Spoilers, Yes, spoilers if you haven't seen a film made
Speaker 5: in nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you're an o and a half into this podcast,
Speaker 2: but let's have it. Listen to Rubert's fate.
Speaker 1: And what has to rank is the most bizarre debut
Speaker 1: in recent times.
Speaker 10: A self style committee named Rupert Pupkin appeared on The
Speaker 10: Jerry Langford Show last night Hopkin on the air.
Speaker 4: There is no doubt that the incident has made the
Speaker 4: name Rupert Pupkin a household.
Speaker 7: Word officials estimate that Rupert Pupkin's performance has been viewed
Speaker 7: by a record eighty seven million American household.
Speaker 13: Rupert Pupkin, the kidnapping King of comedy, was sentenced today
Speaker 13: to six years imprisonment at the government's minimum security facility
Speaker 13: in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, for his part and the abduction of
Speaker 13: talk show hosts Jerry Lanks.
Speaker 10: Conference anniversary of his appearance on The Jerry Langford Show,
Speaker 10: Rupert Pupkins told the gathering of reporters that he still
Speaker 10: considers Jerry Langford his friend and mentor. He reported that
Speaker 10: he had and spending his time writing his memoirs, which
Speaker 10: had been purchased by a leading New York publishing house
Speaker 10: for in excess of one million dollars.
Speaker 13: Rupert Pupkin was released today from Allenwood after serving two
Speaker 13: years and nine months of a six year sentence. Hundreds
Speaker 13: were there to greet the thirty seven year old comedian
Speaker 13: and author, among them his new agent and manager, David Ball,
Speaker 13: who announced that King for a Knight, Pupkins's best selling autobiography,
Speaker 13: would be appearing next September as a major motion picture.
Speaker 7: He said he had used his day at Adamwood to
Speaker 7: sharpen his material. He said that he and his people
Speaker 7: were weighing a number of attractive offers and that he
Speaker 7: looked forward to resuming his show business career.
Speaker 14: And now, ladies and gentlemen, the man we've all been
Speaker 14: waiting for and waiting for, would you welcome home please,
Speaker 14: Television's brightest you star, the legendary, inspirational, the one and
Speaker 14: only King of comedy, Ladies and Gentlemen, Rupert Pupkin.
Speaker 1: So did all of that happen?
Speaker 5: Yeah? I don't know. I think from a if you're
Speaker 5: thinking of it from the screenwriter's perspective, and what I
Speaker 5: think that they're trying to say is, yeah, there's people
Speaker 5: with that hollow kind of ambition with that just say
Speaker 5: that they're good and they're the king of comedy. And
Speaker 5: I think that they're trying to say that that actually
Speaker 5: pays off in the end. And that you know, I'm
Speaker 5: sure that you know, throughout your career, Microe, you've sort
Speaker 5: of come into these people that you know along the way.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of kind of lost souls that are like, yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm doing this and I'm here, and you're like, you've
Speaker 5: got nothing to back it. But yeah, I think that
Speaker 5: they're saying that that does pay in the end. Crime
Speaker 5: pays in Hollywood and in the entertainment scene industry. I
Speaker 5: think that's if you're going for that, then yes, it
Speaker 5: is real. But if you're going for a sort of
Speaker 5: what are we seeing that where it's a it's a
Speaker 5: the movie is his fantasy. Yeah, so we're seeing both
Speaker 5: of it. So he's an unreliable narrator. So yeah, I
Speaker 5: think that I don't. It's wonderful at kind of putting
Speaker 5: that doubt in your mind. Yeah, I think that there's
Speaker 5: a definite possibility that never happened in real.
Speaker 2: I agree, and I and I hope it didn't happen.
Speaker 2: I just be being a comedian like yourself, who I've
Speaker 2: driven out. You know, many years ago, you drove kilometers
Speaker 2: to get a ten minute spot somewhere, and and I
Speaker 2: can't see this idea of cheating your way into comedy
Speaker 2: even though it's on TV. The kind of there's a
Speaker 2: slightly weird different thing that we think of in a
Speaker 2: comedy live room kind of, you know, and we kind
Speaker 2: of take exception that he hasn't gone and done the
Speaker 2: hard yards, but there it is a TV thing that
Speaker 2: they're dealing with in this movie, which is I guess
Speaker 2: slightly different. But that light the way that he tried
Speaker 2: to find a backdoor into comedy, and the superlatives they
Speaker 2: use for him.
Speaker 5: Is in his voice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's so over they're over the top, inspiring, legendary.
Speaker 2: You know, it's just are you really yeah? Are you
Speaker 2: really that if you've done what he did?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Thinking talking hearing you talk about it is because the
Speaker 5: language that is used in that in the epilogue is
Speaker 5: very similar to the language that is used in his fantasies. Yeah,
Speaker 5: he's kind of, you know, very grandiose and very childlike
Speaker 5: in a way.
Speaker 2: Yes, And even when they indulge in all kinds of
Speaker 2: hyperbole when they're bringing ou famous talk show hosts, it just.
Speaker 5: Feels even you've actually sold me.
Speaker 2: And there's one more element that, for the first time
Speaker 2: we've seen weed these patent suits the whole way through,
Speaker 2: and in this sequence for the first time, he's wearing
Speaker 2: a one colored suit which is orange in prison.
Speaker 5: Yes, orange orange.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 2: What I would have loved like I love the wee
Speaker 2: can debate this like I don't necessarily but in a
Speaker 2: way what I would what I would love, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: have mind and I might open ended ambiguous endings. But yeah,
Speaker 2: and I think this is great. That's part of me
Speaker 2: that I wonder even if I wonder if Scorsese had considered,
Speaker 2: you know, ending on a him a shot of him
Speaker 2: lying back in his cell.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he jumps it.
Speaker 2: Now, I still haven't heard Scores address this. I'm he
Speaker 2: must have been asked about it, but I just I
Speaker 2: don't know there's parliament that would actually love to know.
Speaker 2: Now's I've spoken about it before, I've speaking about it again.
Speaker 1: Now I just want to know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's definitely. I love an open end like that.
Speaker 5: It's to me, it's a It's the best kind of
Speaker 5: ambiguous ending because it it gives you an answer. It says,
Speaker 5: this is an answer. But whether you trust the narrator
Speaker 5: or not, that's yes, that's another question. The narrator has
Speaker 5: already been demonstrated to not be to kind of tell
Speaker 5: lies to their favors. So yeah, it's really interesting. And
Speaker 5: I think at that point that you bring up, and
Speaker 5: also with the language that is used, I think that
Speaker 5: there's a strong possibility that it is still fantasy.
Speaker 2: And he doesn't start his myn like where we where
Speaker 2: we finish off that clip, it's Ryvert Pumpkin, and then
Speaker 2: he just nods and smiles and this Ryvert Pumpkin and
Speaker 2: he says it like three or four times, I think,
Speaker 2: and the audience just keeps clapping. I can imagine him
Speaker 2: lying back in his cell, just listening to it, and
Speaker 2: he's not even going into the routine.
Speaker 5: He's just enjoying it because he doesn't say anything because
Speaker 5: he doesn't He hasn't written anything, He hasn't got a
Speaker 5: second routine, he doesn't have a second routine. I think
Speaker 5: you've blown this wide open, to be honest, That's.
Speaker 2: Why they call me the King of podcasts. Before we
Speaker 2: get into some fun facts, I mentioned it in the intro,
Speaker 2: But let's have a good chat about this wonderful, extraordinary
Speaker 2: new project you're working on and involved with. I've known
Speaker 2: about this for a little while. Those who are comedy
Speaker 2: nerds may already know about it. Time to Die is
Speaker 2: an extraordinary idea by our friend Tom Whitty that you're hosting.
Speaker 2: It'll be on tendplay very soon, and tell us the idea.
Speaker 2: I explained it in the opening, but in your words,
Speaker 2: tell us the idea.
Speaker 5: So two comedians are tasked with writing material for the
Speaker 5: other comedian. So we give them very loud to it's
Speaker 5: like three to four minutes, and they have to write
Speaker 5: for the other comedian. And it goes because comedians are
Speaker 5: all evil inherently, it goes about it the way that
Speaker 5: you expect it is.
Speaker 11: It is.
Speaker 2: It's cringey in that in that glorious possible way that
Speaker 2: you are. You are, but you are watching, and it
Speaker 2: is laugh out funny. You are watching. And in the pilot,
Speaker 2: which is I said in ten plays soon, you've got
Speaker 2: Tom Cashman and Sonya Deio, who are both.
Speaker 5: Hilarious, Yeah, amazing comedians.
Speaker 2: Amazing comedians, and good on them for taking the bullet
Speaker 2: and going, yeah, I'll jump into these scary waters. And
Speaker 2: they have to perform these in front of like unsuspecting
Speaker 2: live comedy room. So they've just seen Tom Gleason, you know,
Speaker 2: and then they walk on and they got to follow
Speaker 2: that and then kind of and deliver this ship house routine.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and not wink. Yeah, there's none wink wink
Speaker 2: going on.
Speaker 5: No, No, the audience is unsuspecting. So, yes, there are
Speaker 5: cameras in the room, but they just think that, I
Speaker 5: mean they're cameras. Sometimes people film their sets, so you
Speaker 5: don't know who those cameras are for. And then we
Speaker 5: so we filmed the audience reactions and we also film
Speaker 5: vox pops outside afterwards. Oh so good, and it's it's
Speaker 5: really exciting. It was exciting to be there and watch
Speaker 5: it live because it's on purpose, but the audience don't
Speaker 5: know it's on purpose. And so for the comedian, it
Speaker 5: feels it feels like death. It feels like you're dying.
Speaker 2: And one of the worst things as a comedian to
Speaker 2: do the thing you fear the most before every gig,
Speaker 2: is dying.
Speaker 5: But at the same time it's kind of you're kind
Speaker 5: of also protected because it's not your material. Yes, but yes,
Speaker 5: that's what kills me is when you go, I'm going
Speaker 5: to write this new joke. Yeah, here we go. I
Speaker 5: think it's funny.
Speaker 1: Do it.
Speaker 5: No, you dies and you go, oh this is heartbreaking. Yes,
Speaker 5: this is brutal. Yeah, but here comedy. You know you don't.
Speaker 5: It's it's awful to watch in the best possible way,
Speaker 5: but also their protector because it's on purpose. It's kind
Speaker 5: of like how when you got the COVID vaccine, you
Speaker 5: felt like you had like you had like little simulation,
Speaker 5: a simulation of you know, the side effects. It's kind
Speaker 5: of like that for death. For dying on stage, you
Speaker 5: get to have the simulated side effects of death.
Speaker 1: Is it is so much fun. I can't wait for
Speaker 1: people to see it on template.
Speaker 2: We will also give it a shout out when it's
Speaker 2: finally on it. It's we're expecting it the next week
Speaker 2: or two, yeah, to be rolled out.
Speaker 5: So check us out on the socials. Time to Die
Speaker 5: au on the tweets.
Speaker 1: And where do they find you on the on the socials.
Speaker 5: On the tweets, on Ben Russell's with an S and
Speaker 5: I am on the instagrams and the twitch. Yeah, I
Speaker 5: do the streams. The streams, Peter, It's a brave new
Speaker 5: world out there.
Speaker 1: Where do they find you on the twitch?
Speaker 5: Bond member there you go?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because yeah, I watch your mobile.
Speaker 5: It is oh four, we'll be.
Speaker 2: So check all those things. Zat follow band. Very funny man,
Speaker 2: very journalus to come and join us today. This movie
Speaker 2: comes with homework. I really do appreciate it. Some fun
Speaker 2: facts before we go. We've got to mention a few.
Speaker 2: As we went along. DeNiro was unsure and was nervous
Speaker 2: about the casting of Jerry Lewis, and he spoke of
Speaker 2: Martin Scorsese and he said, I'm really I'm not sure
Speaker 2: about this. Is he going to be he gatistical? Is
Speaker 2: he going to try to go for laughs? And was
Speaker 2: blown away. How good Jerry Lewis was. I think I
Speaker 2: did mention it. He thought Rubert should have killed Jerry. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's funny that scored we went Scorre say is saying
Speaker 2: no to your suggestions of violence.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's weird this kind of film, Jerry.
Speaker 5: I think because Scot says is quoted to say that
Speaker 5: he thinks that Rupert is more violent than Travis Bickle, Right, Yeah,
Speaker 5: in a way in in sort of his action, maybe
Speaker 5: not in the literal violence, but in the kind of
Speaker 5: the way that he lives and is I think, And
Speaker 5: that's interesting to sort of think about mullover.
Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, well, I mean Chelvis Bickle ends up
Speaker 2: going in and saving Yeah, Jodie Foster, you know, he
Speaker 2: is is violence, but he basically takes out a pimp.
Speaker 2: And and I wonder when this was released in ninet
Speaker 2: eighty two, people coming off of main streets and taxi
Speaker 2: driver and raging bull, and people may have expected something
Speaker 2: like that. They got something like it in a way,
Speaker 2: but it was also completely different.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm curious to sort of know the reasons why
Speaker 5: it flopped. Because it was a flop. It did not
Speaker 5: make back its money.
Speaker 2: He says he was ready to go out of New
Speaker 2: Year's Even Entertainment and antas on, which I think had
Speaker 2: just started, and they did the thing that the flop
Speaker 2: of the year.
Speaker 5: Yes, it's so weird comedy, it's so I mean, I
Speaker 5: can understand. One of my other favorite movies is Sorcerer
Speaker 5: by William Friedkin earlier on the podcast, that didn't do
Speaker 5: well because it released on the same weekend as Star Wars.
Speaker 5: Oh that's so you can see why that didn't work.
Speaker 5: But for this, I wonder why, you know, whether it's
Speaker 5: like people expected something different.
Speaker 2: Or Yeah, I think some as you said, that Hollywood
Speaker 2: was going through a bit of a change and the
Speaker 2: darker films weren't necessarily what people wanted.
Speaker 5: I think it's one of Scors's lighter films.
Speaker 1: It is a comedy.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think that's a joyous thing to watch
Speaker 2: in moments. It does you know, it makes you think,
Speaker 2: and it makes you feel different things, and and it's uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean we haven't mentioned a scene where you seen
Speaker 2: down with the cobble cutouts of Oh Jerry and Eliza Manlly.
Speaker 2: I mean just slapping on his knee, get.
Speaker 5: Out of here, give him a kiss. Yeah.
Speaker 2: DeNiro, famous researcher, hung out with a super fan called
Speaker 2: Vinnie Gonzali's aka Fat Vinnie, who was a massive kiss fan,
Speaker 2: and they actually kind of got along quite well. He
Speaker 2: was a massive like autograph hunter, so he kind of
Speaker 2: you know, followed him around for that and you know,
Speaker 2: learnt off him. DeNiro then off hi him a job
Speaker 2: as his driver. Well, the movie was shooting, but Vinnie
Speaker 2: Fat Vinnie turned it down because kiss this gone on
Speaker 2: to it.
Speaker 5: You can't falter man with principles.
Speaker 1: Fat Vinnie.
Speaker 2: He knows what he likes and it's not dinner it's kiss.
Speaker 1: Scene and Ace Paul.
Speaker 5: That's a great story.
Speaker 2: Scor says he was in quite ill health. I know
Speaker 2: when he was making this movie. Was a tough shoot
Speaker 2: for him. Jerry Lewis that scene when we spoke about
Speaker 2: the I hope you have cancer? He directed that sen
Speaker 2: mart school sage. He said, that's your idea. Why don't
Speaker 2: you why don't you shoot?
Speaker 14: Cool?
Speaker 1: He said it was.
Speaker 2: He was amazing at his timing, like he's almost like
Speaker 2: one two three bang one two three bang one two bang,
Speaker 2: like just he just had a rhythm of a you know,
Speaker 2: a comedian, I guess, but almost always like a dancer
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 5: Was he he was a music music man? Yeah, he
Speaker 5: did all that stuff with Dean Martin.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 5: And that's you know, I think that that I'm a
Speaker 5: big believer in that. Mel Brooks again going back to
Speaker 5: my is he's he was a drummer first, So I
Speaker 5: think rhythm, Yeah, finding your own rhythm and where that
Speaker 5: sits in your own voice. But yeah, rhythm and comedy
Speaker 5: and pretty much everything is so vital. Absolutely, and you
Speaker 5: can definitely see that, like, you know, think what I
Speaker 5: might like or don't like about Jerry Lewis. You can't
Speaker 5: deny that he is one of the masters of his field.
Speaker 5: And you can see that timing in his performance and
Speaker 5: you can still I'll see that comedy. Yeah, the comedy bones.
Speaker 5: He's got comedy bones.
Speaker 2: Yes he does, he does. Milo's foreman was almost going
Speaker 2: to direct this. It was with him, like in the
Speaker 2: mid seventies. Paus him and had written it. De Niro
Speaker 2: had seen it. I had liked it. I think took
Speaker 2: it the score say. He said, no, he didn't quite
Speaker 2: get it. And it took him a while, and he said,
Speaker 2: it took me about another five years I think, until
Speaker 2: he had experienced even more fame and he understood the
Speaker 2: nature of fame a bit more, and then the movie
Speaker 2: made more sense to him. So he came on board
Speaker 2: and they said, yeah, let's do it, and they did.
Speaker 2: Let's learn the one final scene. This is a I
Speaker 2: forgot to play it earlier. It is I think it's
Speaker 2: a really funny scene. This is the Q card scene
Speaker 2: where it's a lot of perfect the conceptually, this idea
Speaker 2: that you've got a TV show show host and you've
Speaker 2: kidnapped him and he's making demands and you are using
Speaker 2: Q cards on him like the fucking this the thought
Speaker 2: alone is and then.
Speaker 5: It's I love how patient he is in this.
Speaker 2: It's so patient, and he's he's dropping the cards. They're
Speaker 2: upside down, they're back to front. Let's have a listen this.
Speaker 2: It's a great way by Jerry Lewis is again not
Speaker 2: trying to go, just letting the script do the work,
Speaker 2: and his performances is just perfect.
Speaker 4: I have a gun.
Speaker 5: At my head.
Speaker 4: If a man who identifies himself as.
Speaker 1: The King.
Speaker 4: Cards upside down is not allowed to be the first
Speaker 4: guest on You've got a blank card. I'm reading from
Speaker 4: two cars. It's tonight's show. You will never see me.
Speaker 1: Go back.
Speaker 4: Alive again. It's not drammatically correct, but I think you
Speaker 4: have the idea.
Speaker 1: They passed on to that. It's just it's just beautiful. Oh.
Speaker 5: I forgot one little bit of extra trivia is that
Speaker 5: both de Niro and Scussez you said that this was
Speaker 5: the most kind of emotionally taxing yes movie. Yeah, and
Speaker 5: they wouldn't work together for a little while after this
Speaker 5: because it was so exhausting for them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is extraordinary considering their previous films. Yeah, you
Speaker 2: think about it or raging bull main streets, and this
Speaker 2: is the one that broke them.
Speaker 5: I know, it's fascinating. I mean, to its credit, I
Speaker 5: genuinely do think that this is probably Robert de Niro's
Speaker 5: best performance in terms of dynamics.
Speaker 1: I wrote these most unique creations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, I feel like some of these other characters
Speaker 2: bleed into each other. Sometimes I feel like I can't
Speaker 2: quite think of another role where he's he's like this.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like. The one that comes to mind is
Speaker 5: Jessica Chastain in Tammy Fay.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 5: She plays something that's so out of ordinary for her
Speaker 5: because usually she plays a very monotone character. Yeah, it's
Speaker 5: very close to her, you know whatever. But she plays
Speaker 5: something so wild and outside of your sphere of expectation
Speaker 5: of that actor and who they are. I think that
Speaker 5: I'm most impressed when actors do that, because you're like,
Speaker 5: you're playing against TI, you're playing you're taking something that's
Speaker 5: a real challenge and you're succeeding in it. And it's
Speaker 5: just a joy to watch another an actor do that.
Speaker 2: Everyone's at the top of their game in this movie,
Speaker 2: including that is what was mentioned. Final thing that that
Speaker 2: shot in the limo that the opening sequence shot off
Speaker 2: the hand Sandra Bernard's hand on the limo window and
Speaker 2: you to see DeNiro's face kind of through it. Because
Speaker 2: I think there's a whole prison thing going on in
Speaker 2: this film too, like that that they're both kind of
Speaker 2: in prison. Like Jerry Lewis's character is in prison, meals
Speaker 2: by himself. He's in his own prison.
Speaker 5: He's always by, he can't really go outside. He's isolated
Speaker 5: the same as man. We're really taking this party. Yeah,
Speaker 5: it's that's cool. They're both isolated people.
Speaker 1: Yes, Jerry has no friends. Yeah, he doesn't have a
Speaker 1: girlfriend or a wife or a mistress.
Speaker 5: He's alone at his holiday house. Yeah, playing golf by himself.
Speaker 1: John Age is one of his best mate.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Oh that's yeah.
Speaker 2: There we go, Ben Russell, this movie comes with homework.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching it, mate.
Speaker 5: It was absolutely a joy to watch it. I loved it.
Speaker 2: Well mate, well time to die. Check it out and
Speaker 2: we'll catch you soon.
Speaker 5: And I also love being on this podcast. Thank you
Speaker 5: so much for having me.
Speaker 1: Is there anyone new? Well that was great fun.
Speaker 2: I really enjoy hanging out with Ben Russell and what
Speaker 2: a great movie. I knew he was going to love it,
Speaker 2: and because they had or he has time to die,
Speaker 2: his new comedy venture on tenplay starting soon. I thought,
Speaker 2: what a great combination. So, yeah, what a movie, What
Speaker 2: an absolute movie. Derek Meyer is from Casway Studios dot com.
Speaker 2: Are you you are the King of Podcasts? They say,
Speaker 2: have you seen The King of Comedy?
Speaker 12: I saw it years and years ago, Yeah, and I
Speaker 12: was I found it very uncomfortable. Yeah, and that comparison
Speaker 12: with the taxi driver was sort of in in my
Speaker 12: head at the time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so it wasn't as disturbing as that.
Speaker 12: But I do have an an innate fear of doing comedy.
Speaker 12: I've always assumed that this would be a horrific film
Speaker 12: for a comedian, right, but until today, he's kind of
Speaker 12: opened my eyes to the fact that it isn't. It's
Speaker 12: a horrific film for someone whose teacher said, h you
Speaker 12: should be a comedian, but you know that you just can't.
Speaker 1: You haven't got the.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think with a comedian watching it, you kind
Speaker 2: of you know if you have been able to make
Speaker 2: a living out of being a comedian. I mean, you
Speaker 2: kind of relieve you're going to go Thank God when
Speaker 2: I because when you start out from a journey always,
Speaker 2: so when you start out doing comedy, we all started
Speaker 2: the same way. Every standard comedian has started the same way,
Speaker 2: in that they booked in somewhere and they walked to
Speaker 2: a microphone in front of an audience, not knowing if
Speaker 2: this was going to turn into something of a career.
Speaker 1: You just don't know, and it's that is scary.
Speaker 2: It's a scary, scary moment, and there's more scary moments
Speaker 2: to follow, potentially even scarier. So the fact that the
Speaker 2: fact that Rupert hasn't even tried to do any of that,
Speaker 2: I don't know. He kind of like you're not looking
Speaker 2: at him, like he is a comedian in a way.
Speaker 12: Too far away from the real situation.
Speaker 2: He's like a comedy fan. He's a comedy fan. He's
Speaker 2: not a comedian. He's a comedy fan. And there are
Speaker 2: there are people who will look at comedians and say
Speaker 2: I could do that, because the trick of comedy is
Speaker 2: to make it look effortless and to make it look easy.
Speaker 2: I think actually Jerry makes that point in the movie.
Speaker 2: You're not supposed to see the work that goes with it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I though it's a wonderful film. A wonderful film. Highly
Speaker 2: suggests you are spooking it to your friends. We love
Speaker 2: hearing from you, our listeners. We love We're coming to
Speaker 2: an end of this season. We're going to take a
Speaker 2: very short break, much shorter than the last break. We're
Speaker 2: going to make up for the long break we took
Speaker 2: last time. Maybe maybe it got two or three weeks.
Speaker 2: I will let you know very soon. We've got a
Speaker 2: couple more episodes to go. We would love to hear
Speaker 2: from you. You can do this by getting onto our
Speaker 2: speak Pipe. Just go through wherever you found this. There'll
Speaker 2: be a link. You go to speak Pipe and it's
Speaker 2: like an answering machine message Derek.
Speaker 12: Yes, yeah, well you got is. It's just a web
Speaker 12: based thing. So you find the website. It's actually speakpipe
Speaker 12: dot com forward slash y a s.
Speaker 1: And why he hasn't he seen nothing yet?
Speaker 12: I ain't seen nothing yet. And so you just you
Speaker 12: just press the button and go for it. Do it
Speaker 12: from your phone or your computer or whatever it is.
Speaker 12: And we've got one. We've got a good run today
Speaker 12: from Amy.
Speaker 6: Hey, hey, Derek, thanks so much for the podcast. It's
Speaker 6: been such a joy to listen to. Just a really
Speaker 6: positive and fun chat about movies every week, and I've
Speaker 6: actually watched some great new films that I would never
Speaker 6: have seen just to keep up with the podcast. So
Speaker 6: that's awesome. I am a huge Tarantino fan, and I
Speaker 6: don't think correct me if I'm wrong that we've done
Speaker 6: a Tarantino movie yet. So I'd love to hear, especially
Speaker 6: my personal favorites pulp fiction, but yeah, kill Bill, Reservoir
Speaker 6: Dogs all absolute classics, and I would love to hear
Speaker 6: a chat about one of those ones. Thank you so much, buy.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Amy, and fantastic suggestions.
Speaker 2: I'm surprised we haven't done more Tarantina or will correct you, Amy,
Speaker 2: because you are slightly wrong. We have done one Tarantino movie.
Speaker 2: In fact, it was his latest movie, Once upon a
Speaker 2: Time in Hollywood. We did that with Phil Lloyd, my
Speaker 2: costar in How to Stay Married. Yeah, I'm surprised we
Speaker 2: haven't done Reservoir Dogs to pulp fiction. I think because
Speaker 2: most movie fans have seen or you know, Tarantana is
Speaker 2: one of those directors that if he's got a movie
Speaker 2: coming out, everybody just gets there. And his movies, you know,
Speaker 2: have you know, so loved that. I think if you
Speaker 2: you know if you're half a movie fan and you've
Speaker 2: gone back and watched it, but we will. There's no
Speaker 2: doubt there are people out there. I mean, who would
Speaker 2: have thought, Well Head hadn't seen Star Wars and Judith
Speaker 2: Lucy hadn't seen the Sound of Music. So it'll be
Speaker 2: somebody who has not seen pulp fiction or Reservoir Dogs,
Speaker 2: no doubt about that. In fact, I'll commit to tracking
Speaker 2: somebody down who hasn't seen one of those films for you, Amy,
Speaker 2: thank you very much for your speak pipe and yeah,
Speaker 2: we'll continue on the show next week. Hopefully you'll be
Speaker 2: tuning in. We have a fantastic again another up and
Speaker 2: coming comedian. I say that it sounds a bit patronizing
Speaker 2: to say he's an up and coming comedy. He's been
Speaker 2: working in this craft for over ten years now and
Speaker 2: he's really had a wonderful even though there's been a pandemic,
Speaker 2: he's had a wonderful last couple of years.
Speaker 1: His audience is growing and growing.
Speaker 2: His name is Daniel Connell and he's had a fantastic
Speaker 2: last couple of Melburn International Comedy Festivals. He's touring the
Speaker 2: country very soon with his show Gutless wonder. He's just
Speaker 2: got off the Melbourne International Comedy Festival road show where
Speaker 2: he killed them, killed them, slayed them. And he's a
Speaker 2: very funny guy. He's written on the project before, so
Speaker 2: I've gotten no Dan over the years and very funny,
Speaker 2: very dry. Check him out online if you like, you
Speaker 2: want to go the sense of who Dan is. Comedy
Speaker 2: nerds will know who he is now next week. It's
Speaker 2: a funny show next week because we've already recorded it.
Speaker 2: And something strange happened. It's at first you ain't sed
Speaker 2: nothing incident, isn't.
Speaker 1: It, Derek?
Speaker 12: Yes, it was an amusing moment.
Speaker 1: We didn't quite know what to do.
Speaker 2: What happened was we were supposed to do Lost in Translation,
Speaker 2: the Bill Murray Scull your Hansome classic from two thousand
Speaker 2: and three and directed by Sophia Coppola, which I thought
Speaker 2: was nice coming off Got Father three from a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks ago. And Dan arrived and I explained just
Speaker 2: how the start the show by naming your three of films,
Speaker 2: and then to say, up until today you hadn't seen
Speaker 2: Lost in Translation and he had. He's kind of face
Speaker 2: went a bit white, and I said, what's wrong? And
Speaker 2: he said, I think I watched a wrong movie. I
Speaker 2: watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. So it presented
Speaker 2: a bit of a pickle Dan and made a big
Speaker 2: effort to get to the studio. I'd seen Fear and
Speaker 2: Loathing once. It didn't necessarily we spoke about with Damien Power.
Speaker 2: It didn't have a great kind of hasn't lasted in
Speaker 2: my memory. It's not a movie I've gone back to.
Speaker 2: I felt the need to go back to. But I remember,
Speaker 2: I do remember seeing it. So we speak about his
Speaker 2: favorite films, and then we speak about Fear and Loathing
Speaker 2: in Las Vegas in a way that's maybe I would say,
Speaker 2: less of a deep dive than what you Ain't Seen
Speaker 2: Nothing Yet listeners are used to. But still it's a
Speaker 2: very funny act. We joke around a lot about the
Speaker 2: mistake that was made. It's funny. We talk about Johnny
Speaker 2: DApp and Terry Gilliam and lots of different things, and
Speaker 2: a little bit of loss in translation as well, which
Speaker 2: we all get to down the track is what a
Speaker 2: wonderful film that is. But that's next week. You Ain't
Speaker 2: Seen Nothing Yet? First, you ain't seen Nothing Yet. Controversy
Speaker 2: slash incident, Daniel Connell, fantastic median, fear and lithing in
Speaker 2: Las Vegas.
Speaker 13: And so we leave Old Pete, save fan Salt, and
Speaker 13: to our friends of the radio audience, we've been a
Speaker 13: pleasant good night