June 24, 2022 • 41 mins
Steven “Sarge” Pickman enters the podcast portal on the Fifth Hour. Sarge has spent decades working rooms as a stand up comic. Overcoming substance abuse and homelessness to perform all over the world, sharing stages with some of the biggest names in entertainment over the years from the Beach Boys to the “Queen of Soul,” Arthea Franklin. Big Ben and Sarge’s paths crossed in the halcyon days when Fox Sports Radio launched in the early 2000s. Sarge tells how he turned a “cold call” to ABC Sports into a career in sports casting. It’s a fun hearted chat you won’t wanna miss! You can follow Sarge on Twitter @Sarge99 and #IAMSARGE, keep track of his upcoming comedy appearance on his website “iamsarge.com” Follow Danny G Radio on Twitter @DannyGradio, Follow Big Ben on Twitter @BenMaller, and listen to the original "Ben Maller Show," Monday-Friday on 450+ terrestrial Fox Sports Radio affiliates, iHeart stream, and SiriusXM Radio channel 83, 2a-6a ET, 11p-3a PT!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Boom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of
the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the rich
pill poppers in the penthouse, to carry out some hot takes,
break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben
(00:24):
Maller starts right now, Hey, we welcome in the great comedian,
a man who I hung out with briefly back in
the day. And I guess the question here to begin,
and I don't even know this story, Sarge is how
did Sarge the comedian end up as a sports talk
(00:46):
show host at Fox Sports Radio? How did that begin? Sarge? Okay,
so my whole life growing up in New York, which
is where I grew up. I grew up in Long Island,
first during the Islanders four Cup administration back in the
back in the you know cusp of the seventies and eighties,
That's where it grew up. And then in New York City,
(01:07):
I wanted to be Marv Albert. I mean I it
was just you know, growing up as a kid, you
weren't allowed to listen to games after eight o'clock, nine o'clock.
Your mother would say, durn that off. And I had
a pillow speaker, and I'd be listening to Marv Albert
in my pillow speaker, not al Albert, not Steve Albert,
not Kenny Albert, for those all those other generations, which
(01:28):
had to be an interesting passover dinner, you know, past
the horse radish, No, you past the horse radish. So anyway,
there was all the Alberts. I wanted to be Marv.
And and so my my quest to become Marv logically
began with me trying to get a job in broadcasting.
And I went out to uh Chase Stadium with a
(01:51):
handheld tape recorder and recorded myself doing the game and
on a tape. You know, I just sat in the
crowd up the first baseline and recorded myself doing the
met game against the Giants as it were at that time,
and um and I began to record. I was twenty
six years old. I said, you know what, I'm gonna
make a tape. I'm gonna figure it out. And so
(02:12):
I did the tape. I played it for a friend
of mine named Andy. He said, that sounds just like
the radio. That's not you, and I said, no, it's
it's me. I promise you it's me. He said, well
that you should be a play by play guy. I said,
I know. I mean, so what do I do? He says,
I don't know. Call call major League Baseball. So I
called Major League Baseball and UH, to make a long
(02:34):
story short, I called the Commissioner's office and a woman
answered the phone and SI, can I help you? I said, yes,
madam as sorry, it's my birthday. I want to be
a play by play guy. Please help me. So she said,
who is this? I said, this is sorry, it's my
birthday and I want to do play. I want to
talk to the commissioner about who I can send my
tape to. Here it sounds really authentic. And then I
(02:55):
played the tape into the phone and she laughed, and
she says, is it really your birthday? I said, it's
my birthday. She says, okay, I'll tell you what. She says.
The commissioner is not gonna talk to you. But what
I'll do is I'll give you. I'll give you a
birthday gift. Come over to the offices of Major League Baseball.
There'll be an envelope for you. At the front desk,
come pick it up. So I jumped in a taxi.
I was on sixty one Street and First Avenue by
(03:16):
Roosevelt Island. I jumped in a taxi. I went over
to Major League Baseball. I went up in the elevator.
No security in those days, because there was no danger,
right and uh, I walked right in, got the envelope,
got in the elevator, and in the envelope the woman
had xerox to roll a dex and she put all
these cards on the Xerox machine and gave me a
(03:37):
list of all the networks in order, alphabetically with you know,
complete with inside numbers of So I went home and uh,
I sat with that list and I looked at it,
and I started with the ace and I called the
number on the list. It said ABC, ABC Sports. So
I dial ABC and this this voice answers the phone.
(03:57):
He says, hello, how can I help you? I said, yes,
this is sorry, it's my birthday. I want to be
a broadcaster. Um, I'm willing to start at the bottom. Um,
who do I need? Just me too? So the guy said,
who is this really? I said, this is sorry, it's
my birthday. I want to be. So the guy said
come on. He says really. He says, is it really
your birthday? I said, yes, it's really my birthday. He said, um, well,
(04:20):
he says, I'm not really the guy you want to
talk to. My assistant stepped away. I've answered my own
phone for the first time in eleven years. I said,
oh really, I said, who are you? He said, well,
I'm ruin our ledge. So I said you're ruined whoa Yeah,
I said, how are you doing? I didn't know who
he was. I said, hey, run, that's a weird name room.
(04:41):
I said, you must ruin everything at family get together.
So he said that's really funny. He said it's it's
Scottish and welch and whatever. So we're talking and he says, um,
how'd you get this number? I said, I can't tell you.
The lady said she'd get killed if I Okay, don't
worry about it. He says, I'll tell you what. He goes,
Happy birthday. The next guy you speak to, I'm gonna
(05:02):
put you through to this guy. Tell him just what
you told me. Well, anyhow, I recreated that same conversation again.
High to my birthday. I want to be a broadcaster.
The guy said, I'm not the guy you want to
talk to. How did you get my number? I said,
I just got off the phone with Roon. He said, oh,
you spoke to run I said, yes, I spoke to Roum.
He said, well, let me put you through to the
next guy. And he put me through the next guy.
(05:22):
And that's what the fourth guy said, What are you
doing this weekend? I said, I don't know. He goes
meet us in Atlantic City by the ABC trucks. He says,
you're hired. I said, what. He says, You're hired. Come
to Atlantic City. We're doing boxing this weekend. It was
the Jeff Harding Dennis Andre's fight in Atlantic City at
Trump uh Convention Center. So I went down there and
(05:45):
I was a runner for the announcers. But in my
mind I thought I was one guy getting sick from
being on the air. And so I started as a
runner at ABC Sports. They hired me for the next week,
and then the next week, and then the next week,
and then I ended up on Wide World. I ended
up on boxing coverage. I ended up on basketball. I
(06:08):
ended up on baseball with Al Michael's, Jim Palmer and
McCarver Monday Sunday night baseball. I was doing both. Jackson's
returned to Yankee Stadium to baseball after the hip injury.
Blah blah blah, the whole thing. I end up at
ABC for a while, I get fired. I end up
at CBS for a while. I got fired. Finally I
(06:29):
ended up at ESPN in Bristol, and I'm living in Bristol,
Connecticut working the seven, the eleven, which was the Big Show,
and the two AM Sports Center with Chris Myers and
Linda Cone. I was working fourteen fifteen, sixteen hour days,
living in Bristol, still doing production, associate work, still doing
(06:49):
assistant producer work, highlight producing, etcetera, etcetera. All these years
I started five six years, I'm working behind the scenes,
thinking I'm gonna be a broadcast. I finally gave up.
I went back to stand up comedy. I moved to
Los Angeles, and then one day a gentleman gave me
a call. He said sorry, I said, yes, Chris Myers.
I said, how are you doing? Chris? He says, hello, anybody.
(07:10):
He says, I need a sidekick. He says, I just
got hired to be a charter post on Fox. Sports radio.
They gave me Psycho Lions as a sidekick. He's gonna
be on the road with baseball a lot. I need
a sidekick. We could do all those funny routines. We
used to do it two in the morning at Bristol
in uh An ESPN. He says, you could just be
(07:31):
my sidekick. They're gonna give you a you know, hourly wage.
Blave blave black. Come in check it out. I came in.
I did the first three hours show with Chris Myers.
The last segment of the first show, there was a
couple of gentlemen sitting on the other side of the glass,
next to the technician on the board. One of them
was James Brown, the host of Fox NFL Sunday at
(07:52):
the time before Metafi took over, and the other one
was a great hair gentleman with glasses. So they motioned
to me to come out. I knew JB from New
York from working at CBS, and the other gentleman said,
how come you don't have your own show? I said,
how come I don't have my own show? I said,
I don't know. I just started today. I'm a sidekick
to this guy. I said, I don't have my old show,
(08:13):
because I just got here. I don't even have I
don't be sure I'm gonna get paid for this. So
he says, come to my office after you get off
the air. And so I went down to this gentleman's office,
and that was David Hill, a Fox Sports who ran
the entire damn place. And he said to me, listen.
He says, I want you to do a show on
your own. He says, you're very funny, you're very talented.
(08:37):
We'll give your own show from five day. I said, well,
what about I'm here to be my friend's sidekick from
you know, Chris Meyer. He says, I I'll worry about him.
He says, who, I said, woman, what am I gonna do?
He says, you can still work with him two to
five if you want, but you're gonna work five to
eight by yourself. I said, okay, fantastic, he said, you
so I had never been talent before. I've been doing
(09:00):
impressions and and here I am. I go from not
working on the radio to working six hours a day
on the radio. And that's how I got my job,
you know, on your network. That is wild and uh sorry,
just the I'd never heard that story that you just
randomly called up and ruined our lage, a legend in television,
happened to answer the phone, and you actually ended up
(09:23):
getting a job out of it. That's wild. That's a
crazy story. It's insane. It's absolutely it's absolutely the truth
and easier than days before background checks and Google and
what have you see, Because when I spoke to Room,
the next time guy I spoke to was Jack O'Hara.
The next guy spoke to was Kirk County Junior, Kirk
(09:43):
County Jr. Uh Kirk County's son. So I went down
the line of all the hierarchy of ABC, and everyone
asked me, how did you get my number? Why? I
just spoke to Ruin. I just spoke to your boss, Jack,
I just spoke to your other boss. And they're like,
oh okay. And so the next guy I spoke to
was a guy named Tony TORTOESI. He said, what are
you doing Saturday? And they hired me over the phone,
(10:05):
and there I was. So it's you know, you gotta
make your own luck, and every one of us has
a story. You have stories like that where you so
you know, the rules don't apply to the lucky. The
lucky have to get in line. The unlucky have to
get in line. But people who just tenaciously align themselves
(10:28):
with the universe and do what is in their heart,
what they really want, what they really want to do. Um,
there's a certain amount of majesty and luck to that.
And that was my dumb luck. When I got fired
from ABC, I just watched the crawl at the end
of the tournament, the nt A Tournament, and I saw
the names going by on the screen when they did
(10:49):
one shining moment, and I saw the name of a
gentleman named Arthur Harris Jr. And so he said he
was the operations vice president of CBS. So what I
did was, when I got fired from ABC the following day,
I called Arthur Harris Junior's phone in his office every
single day for a month and spoke to his assistant,
(11:11):
and every day she would say, he doesn't know. You
stopped calling here. And after two weeks she finally said
to me, is this sires? I said, yeah, she goes,
you know, you're the highlight of my day. I said why,
she says, I don't know. She says, you just righten
my my day. Whatever is going on. You're always funny.
You never give up. Every time I tell you he
(11:31):
won't talk to you, you called back the next day.
So finally, after a month, after a month, on a Monday,
I finally decided, you know what, I'm not gonna call
there anymore. The phone rang Hello, Sergeant, Uh, this is
Arthur Harris Jr. I said, Arthur. He said, no, it's
Mr Harris to you. I said, Hi. Mr Harris said
(11:52):
why are you? Why are you calling me? He says,
I don't know. He says, I wondered why you didn't
call up today, so I to find out if something
happened to you. I said, yeah, but you haven't taken
my call all month. He says, I haven't got a
job for you. But I'd like to meet you. I'd
like to meet the person who I think is the
most tenacious, who never gives up. I want to put
(12:14):
a face with an energy. Why don't you come to
my office tomorrow eleven o'clock And we went to his
office and we went to have lunch. By the time
time we got back to black Rock on Sixth Avenue,
the guy said to me, I don't have a desk
for you. I don't even have a job for you,
I got to clear someone else out in order to
give you. I said, that's fine, I'll wait. He says,
you start Monday, and he hired me. And that's how
(12:35):
I got my job at CBS. So you know it's
in those days, Yeah, it's just blind faith and energy.
You can't really do that. These days. It's much different
with social media and and all that stuff and guard
rails and whatnot. It's hard to pull up. But when
you were doing sports radio at Fox, I remember you
had the evening show West Coast Time on Fox Sports.
(12:59):
How difficult? Wasn't mean you You'd obviously been doing You've
been around all these people and all that was it?
Was it a smooth transition for her? Or was it bumping?
It was easy as could be for me because I
had come from stand up comedy. And you know the
only hard part was, you know, turning that part of
my brain off that is allowed to say anything it
(13:21):
wants when it's got a microphone in its hand. So
once I once I adjusted to that and learned that
I can't just say whatever I want. And I didn't
learn by trial by fire. I mean I just automatically
transitioned into knowing what I couldn't couldn't do, And I
thought I was doing great, and a lot of other
people thought I was doing great too, even though I
(13:43):
didn't have the full respect of the entire staff, um
or you know, of the other people, because you know,
obviously a lot of the people that were producing shows
for talent and that were behind the scenes, you know,
they knew I was a comedian. Um. Then I wasn't
a hardcore other leather neck, uh you know, sports sports guy,
(14:03):
hadn't done radio anywhere else really, Um, it was obvious
that I was grandfathered in because you know, I had
a lot of higher ups from you know, from Pico,
from the Fox lot coming over to visit, etcetera, etcetera. UM,
And I didn't know the politics of radio and the
behind the scenes of radio, and I didn't know the
(14:24):
ridiculousness and the and the uh some of the you know,
corporate stuff that goes on and uh with with talent, etcetera, etcetera.
All I knew was the Mike's open and I just
gotta stick to my segment times. And then they came
to me from Clear Channel, UM, Craig Kitchens and the
Premier people said, well, we we we would like you
(14:44):
to have a sidekick. And at that time, Jason Smith
had been doing my I've been doing my updates, and
so I brought him in. I said, hey, you know what,
I was already using him in parts of the show
when I rejoined segments, So I said, why don't you
come be my lieutenant? And um it was Sergeant the
bad Lieutenant Sergeant the Fox Hall on Fox Sports Radio.
(15:06):
I really didn't know what I was doing. Um, what
was it? What was the thing? I remember when callers
would call up, they had to say something, what was
the he was in the foxhll? Was you required the
Yeah they would say. They would say sir, yes, sir,
and I would give them permission to speak freely. I remember,
(15:28):
I remember that was hilarious. But but then I was
I've always been a sports guy, and believe me, I
used to. UM, I used to in the early days,
back in those days, you know that when we were
broadcasting not from Sherman Oaks, but from over on the
Fox lot, and the executives over there said, hey, uh,
(15:52):
if you have any ideas for TV shows, let us know,
and uh, you know, we're we're blowing out a lot
of things on the sports that let us know. Let
us know if you have any idea. So I went
into one of the executive's offices and I said, here's
an idea for show. Um, it's Sargeant the Fox Hall,
and I can be the anti Rome. I don't have
to be the crass, obnoxious, sarcastic, sneering smug. I can
(16:14):
be the positive, uplifting, funny, same thing, but the other
side of the coin from Rome. And UM. I said,
we could put bleachers in and chain link fence, and
there could be a coffee table with billiard balls in it,
a bunch of chairs. And because we're in l A,
we could have rotating co hosts every week. You could
have Dickerson in. You can have this guy in. You
can have Marcus Allen, you could have you know this
(16:35):
guy and uh I and I would host it and
um and I put I put the thing on his desk.
So after about three months, I said, whatever happened with
that treatment? I sent you that one pager? He said, Oh,
come on, come on, I want to show you something.
He says, we can't do York Show because we're already
doing something really similar. So I was like, what do
you mean? And he took me in the studio and
it was everything that I put in the treatment, except
(16:57):
for they hired uh lamp Ley to host it and
they were doing a thing and they were doing a
thing called Best Sam Sports Show. Yeah, and that was
your A lot of that was your idea that you
were well, yeah, well yeah, but but you know what,
you know, I'm not gonna prove I didn't get the
idea while I was, you know, in the John in
the building. I wasn't gonna sue the company, uh for
(17:21):
you know, from all you took my idea. So the
guy said to me, hey, listen, we'll get you a
job on the show. You'll do voice overs. All the
stuff that Looney does, all the stuff that Tom Looney
did all those years. Was I was doing it before Looney.
I was doing all the voice overs. I was writing
all the funny segments. I was doing some hits on
the show. Um. So now I'm working daytime on the
Fox lot, and then we're moving to Sherman Oaks. I'm
(17:42):
doing radio. So from never being talent only being a comedian,
I was doing TV during the day and radio in
the evening, three hours of show prep before I would
go on the air out in the out and Mountain,
the Patti over there, over in between the and I
and I was, you know, working both ends of it
and loving it and uh and then you know something's changed,
(18:06):
and then uh, you know. I was offered a reduction
in pay and one of my veteran radio friends, a
gentleman named Shadow Stevens, I said, what do I do?
They want to give me a reduction in pay because
they say that I'm getting paid more than the amount
of advertising my show was generating. UM. I was on
in a hundred and fifty nine affiliates. UM. I thought
(18:28):
that was good enough since we started with thirteen and
they were, you know, not willing. He says, never take
a cut and pay. You're a really funny guy. You
have other options. A lot of radio guys don't have that.
Go back to doing stand up and if it's supposed
to be, it'll be, and if it's not supposed to be,
it won't be. And I continued working on best to
have sports show. I went back to my stand up.
(18:51):
I lost my Fox Sports radio slot. They gave it
to a number of other people. They tried people, they
used people, they did pick whatever it was, and I
never looked back. And and now I live in a
place called Delray Beach, Florida. Um. I worked, you know,
fifty two weeks a year around you know, the East
Coast mostly um, a little bit of Vegas, a lot
(19:13):
of East Coast, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore, New York, Boston,
New Jersey. I'm gonna be in New Jersey. I'm gonna
be Atlantic City this weekend, um doing some shows and
down here in Florida, which is a bastion of retirees
and people who uh know what I'm talking about because
(19:33):
they're from you know, New York, New Jersey, Boston. So yeah,
the good news, Starge is at your age here you
can stay there and you're not that old. But now
you're set up, right, you don't have to move to
Florida when you get older. You're already there. You're you're
set up. I'm already here, and you know what it.
You know, I was born in Miami Beach, so um,
i live fifteen miles north. I'm fifty miles north of
(19:56):
Miami Beach. Um. But I love Florida. I love Um,
the warm weather. I love being by them. I live
on the beach. Um, I love the ocean. I don't
have to put our wet suit. UM, I can go
on the ocean here. It's like the tropics. And UM,
I love it down here. And so a lot of retirees.
Retirees need entertainment, you know, And UM, I do a
(20:19):
lot of shows. There's there's hundreds and hundreds of golf
um communities, country clubs and gated communities with people over
fifty five that phil seven to twelve hundred seat venues
to come see comedy. And I don't have to get
(20:39):
on a plane. For years, I was on planes and hotels.
I'm in Toledo, I'm in I'm in Palm Springs, I'm
in I'm in Amarillo. Now I can. I'm in Naples,
I'm in Tampa. I mean, I'm in Delray. I'm in
West Palm Beach, I'm in Boca. I'm in Miami, and
I'm home. You know, I've got I got a fourteen
(20:59):
year old tail, I've got a fifteen year old marriage. UM,
you know I'm happy. Yeah. Well, and sorry, and before
we'll move on from Fox Sports Radio, but I want
you to know that I've I'm still there. I haven't
actually did lee. They fired me in twenty nine and
I was I was laid off. I was out of
(21:19):
work for six months in twenty six days, and then
they brought me back. But other than that, I've been
there since. I remember when the thing launched with thirteen
affiliates in Binghamton, New York. Right that we're Binghamton, Pittsburgh,
a few other places in the early days. But you'll
be happy to know, Sarge, that they have threatened to
move out of the Sherman Oaks compound for probably three
(21:42):
or four times. But we are still there and it's
the same exact studio as you left. All of the
stains are still there. I'm sure that there's stuff that
you left behind it somewhere in the cupboards at Fox
Sports Radio. So it's it hasn't changed at all. It's
exactly the same just as how you left it back
in the day. Serge. You'll be happy to well, you
(22:05):
know I I left it, but you know I never
I never made a big, a big showing of leaving.
Like I was told by by personal friends of mine
that were pretty successful in radio. They said, don't don't
don't do a victory lap, don't do a goodbye tour.
Just um, the day before you're leaving, tell people tomorrow
(22:25):
is gonna be your last show. Say thank you, and
you know, go go out into that good night and
don't don't do that. Don't burn the bridge, don't get
So that's exactly what I did. Uh, you know, I
I uh And you know what, it's almost like dying
when you leave somewhere like that. And I know you
you probably experienced that. It's like you're dying and the
whole world is gonna go on without you. Yeah, it's
(22:48):
totally it's totally true. And you think, you know, this
is a big part of your life. You do it
every day and radio. Once you do radio, and you
know this sergeant gets in your blood and you're you're
it's it's just who you are. And then when you
you're not working there and you turned on the station
and someone else's you're like, oh my god. Well, you know,
and I grew up, you know, Ben, I grew up
not only with some of the some of the greats
(23:11):
uh in broadcasting, but I also grew up in a
place called New York where we had a thing called
w f a N and the early days of w
f a N, which was the original first sports radio
you know, all network format. And so I've been listening
to the way before Mike and the mad Dog. I mean,
(23:32):
I grew up with Matt dog Russo from the Mad
Dog Channel. Um. We grew up in Long Island. We
went to school together. I was a catcher. He was
the shortstop on our on our middle school team. And
so I knew I knew about sports radio and listened
to sports radio. And somewhere in the back of my heart,
the combination of passion for sports and my comedic ability,
(23:54):
you know, at some point dovetailed into an opportunity. Um,
and it was really out of nowhere, it was, and
I stopped trying to be a radio host. That I
got a bunch of radio work. UM. I wouldn't recommend
that to people who are young and and coming up
and trying to figure out what to do. I suggest you,
you know, get educated and and apprentice places and intern
(24:16):
places and learn and start from the bottom so you can,
you know, learn every single nugget. But at the end
of the day, Um, it goes how it goes for
all of us, and uh so I'm glad to hear
that things. You know, things are good over there, and yeah,
I know things are things are going. They were on
over five affiliates. Now the network is past ESPN by
(24:37):
many people believe. So it's done. It's done very well.
So but I I want to talk more about you, Sarge,
and and not just the sports radio stuff. But I
knew that you were a comedian and I remember we
crossed paths obviously during those days, but I had no
idea you had done gigs you were on stage or
performing for before a wreath of Franklin and and a huge,
(25:02):
huge performance back in the day. I mean, I had
no idea, Storge. I mean, this is a fascinating thing
to me that you you were and obviously you're very successful,
but you were around these other people that were also successful.
How did I not know this, Sarge? How did I?
How was that aware of it? To be honest with you,
And I know this sounds a little bit salty, but
(25:22):
I'm I'm a humble I'm a humble guy. I've never
I've never been the kind of person that that is
really you know, a braggart or someone that you know,
it's It's rare in in our business to have people
that aren't constantly you know, patting themselves on the back
or tooting their own horn. But I had really good
(25:42):
mentors that taught me not not to see. I'm I know,
I'm also I'm also I don't want to jink set.
It's like when I started doing comedy. You know, I
started at the very very bottom. You know, Um, you
have to you have to know this. I had a
drug and alcohol problem in the late eighties after I
was relieved of my responsibilities at CBS, UM and and
(26:03):
and you know, my first job after I got cleaned,
my first big job was back at ESPN, you know,
living in Bristol. But I have been homeless and drug addicted,
an alcoholic and living under a bridge in in New
York City. I never told anybody that either, Um, you know,
and I've been swept up in the mid eighties and
late eighties in the whole crack thing, with crack and
(26:24):
PCP and all the drugs and the alcohol. And I
literally went from working NFL Sundays at CBS in the
control room, UM at the Broadcast Center to under the
Manhattan Bridge, UM stealing for my drug habits. So when
I got clean and sober and I was given an
opportunity to turn my life around, they asked me what
(26:46):
I wanted to do with the rest of my life
if I couldn't fail, and I said that I wanted
to be a comedian. I always wanted to be a comedian.
And so when I moved to New York, I started
at the bottom and open mic night and I just
showed up ten twelve places a night to try and
get stage time. In New York. I developed a ferocious
approach to, you know, trying to get stage time. And
(27:07):
then one night I performed you at a place called
Carolines on Broadway on an off night on a Tuesday,
did a set and uh. The next day I got
a call from William Morris Agency, which is a big
entertainment firm. At the time, they were the biggest in
the business, and they said uh. I said, wow, did
you get my invitation to come to the show at Carolines?
And the guy said yes. I said, so you were
(27:28):
there last night and the guy said no, And I said,
what do you mean you weren't there? He says, well,
sometimes it's better that I heard about your set rather
than that I was there for it. Everyone's talking about you,
I said, really, and I was an open micer. So
the guy said, hey, listen, come up to the office.
We're at sixth Avenue. We'd like to sign you, and
(27:48):
I want you to need all the agents over here.
So I went up to the agency, I met everybody,
they signed me, and a month later I was in
the Melody tent in Cape Caught with Natalie Cole opening
for her, and um, all I've ever done was a
bunch of local gigs, making making making nothing. But here
I am with Natalie Cole in front of you know,
(28:09):
several thousand people and Cape cod and then uh, they
heard about me and I ended up with Donna Summer
and the tour started at Radio City Music Hall in
New York. And the next thing you know, I found out,
without knowing this, that I was a really good, high energy,
funny opening act. Um. Maybe it's because I didn't care
(28:30):
about the fact that the people weren't there to see me.
They were there to see the star that went on
after me, and it didn't phase me because I didn't
really know that that was the deal. I just showed up.
I went, I went on stage, and then once again you,
you and you and I both shared something in common
with both big guys and I kind of I'm a
big guy on stage, and um, I command a little
(28:51):
bit of attention. I'm likable. UM I I love people.
Um I have no fear because I pray and I
meditate to get rid of my fear. Why because I
can't have a drink or smoke a joint. So I
pray and I meditate. Did you ever have did you
ever have stage fright when you started? You know? You
always I had stage fright. I had stage fright. Well,
(29:16):
what I learned was if I have a bunch of
meditations that I do to take away the fear that
I learned that I learned in the early stages of
becoming clean and sober, that helped me to not drink
and drug. And so when I got to stand up
and I was scared before I would go on, I
would just go in the men's room and do my bit,
and you know, and get rid of it with spiritual means.
(29:38):
And that I went on stage and I was able
to be creative. See, because when you go on stage
with your stage fright, all the audience sees is your
fear when you go on stage relaxed as you and
you leave your stage fright in the bathroom behind a
bunch of meditations and a couple of prayers. Next thing
you know, they're seeing you. So there was no cotton out,
(30:00):
there were no shaky hands. I operated perfectly, creatively, imaginatively,
and then I knew that's where I should be, you know,
standing there making people happy because I was happy. And
to make a long story short, that's my whole life.
My whole life is you know, dedicated to making people
happy an hour and a half and two hours at
a time, and um, I get to do it. And
(30:23):
the same way as you know, people can't live. You're
part of people's lives. Uh, in your day job, you're
part of people's lives. They don't know what they do.
Uh if if they didn't turn on uh you know
Ben Maller and and you know so it's never it's
never a good idea to underestimate. Um, the contribution that
(30:45):
you make, no matter whether your company thinks so or
whether your paycheck reflects it. Um, your contribution is is
magnificent and vital to people. And uh, you know you'll
never you'll never get paid what you're worth. So just
do what you just do what you're here to do
is really the message. So as a comedian, sorry, I'm fascinating.
(31:08):
I love Colm and you're you're very good at would
you do? But how how much time do you spend
when you're how how often do you rotate material? Like?
What's the whole process? How you make the hot dogs?
When it comes to comedy? Is there a secret formula
that you have you know you will for each There
are many different types of comedic talent. Mine is more
(31:28):
extemporaneous and I'm not as much of a writer as
some people. So for instance, to just you know, to
give you an example of a couple of guys that
you do know, Seinfeld is a is A is a ferocious,
meticulous technician and engineer of words. Smith. You know he
every word, every of every joke, every concept, every topic
(31:51):
is deliberated over and then reworked and worked and rewritten. Um,
I'm more like Kevin Hart. Kevin Hart. Um, we go
on stage, you bring a bunch of bullet points, and
we talk our comedy into being because we're personality comics.
I'm a personality comic. I go on stage if you
go on YouTube and you an your type in comedian
(32:12):
Sarge or Sarge comedian, you'll see um. I'm very extemporaneous.
I rotate material um daily because I operate from the
file cabinet theory. I just opened a bunch of drawers
and pull out files and go, what do we have here?
What do we have here? What do we have here?
Because I have the courage to not worry about uh
(32:34):
dead air, I go on stage, I open cold every
night with what my day was today, and then I
take off from there. So basically my comedy is live,
and every time people come to see me, it's a
different show. No, that's great, Yeah, that's wonderful. And and
(32:54):
how are you surviving? I feel bad for all comedians
these days because of the way things are going, Starge.
Where we've seen comedians canceled. You tell a joke, somebody
didn't like it, and the next thing you know, it
blows up on the internet. And do you feel sometimes, Starge,
like you're you're dancing around land mines when you're on
stage these days with the whaler world in much in
(33:17):
much the same way then, as you know from the
experience of others and from the failings of others and
the mistakes of others, and you know, being a radio
house knowing I better not talk about that. I better
not talk about that that way. I better not bring
that up. I bet or not use those words. I
better it's you know what, um, people can listen for.
(33:39):
So so when it comes to comedy, I took a
pause for a minute, you know, when things started getting
a little hairy. But at the end of the day,
the courage of people like Adam Corolla, UM and others
like that, who don't even breathe hard, they just do.
I gotta do me. I can't worry about this person
(34:00):
is gonna be upset about this. That person is gonna
be upset about that I do jokes. Jokes are all
about somebody or something. And if you've lost your sense
of humor, it's a dead giveaway that you've taken yourself
too seriously. And I'm not in a situation where I
(34:21):
can you know I'm gonna be canceled. Knock on wood.
I'm not a big target, um, I'm I'm a working
class comic who's got a hundred and fifty gigs a year.
My audiences love what I do. I'm not on the
same level as people who are targets for cancelation, and
quite frankly, I stay away from the more you know,
(34:46):
potent dangerous subjects. I don't really need to comment on politics.
I don't really need to comment on people's genitalia. I
don't need to make any commentary about people's gender ideology.
I can you know, so as long as you stay
away from those things and keep it experiential and personal,
(35:07):
I'm just reporting my life. I'm sharing my life with people.
And if they don't, if they find something distasteful or
they don't like it, then don't come see me um
or don't watch or change the channel. You know, we
used to be free to change the channel if you
don't like the show or the song that's playing, change
the channel. Don't don't petition to have the person executed. No,
(35:32):
I'm right there with you, Storgs. I deal with this
in the radio world, where you know, we're around the
same age, and I feel like we've had, you know,
similar lives as far as you know entertainment. We grew
up where if you didn't like something, all right and
go to the next show, and and people today are
just not I'm not everyone, but a lot of a
lot of people are like, no, no, no, We've got
to get rid of this. This is terrible. And I
(35:53):
was like, it's like, it's like going to a restaurant
and you don't like the food, and then we got
to close the restaurant down because you had a bad meal,
then just going to the next restaurant. It's just ridiculous. Well,
I'll tell you where that where that. The evolution of
that is very simple. You know, the world became a
place where everyone reacts to everything when social media and
(36:13):
like buttons got involved and people just started reading headlines
instead of the entire article, when people started listening to
books instead of reading them. People don't think anymore. They
don't want to think. They just want to react. They
hear something and they react. They hear a jump, they
don't like the react that you're a word. They don't like.
(36:35):
They react. Everything is reactionary, nothing is deliberative, and so
we're constantly reacting to everything and reacting to everybody. And
then at some point, maybe if people haven't moved on
to the next thing they're reacting to, there may be
some deliberation, but there really is no deliberative process anymore,
(36:59):
and all people do is react and move on to
the next reaction. React, react, react, And it's the same
as a dating app. They swipe, swipe, I don't like
this person. You're making all these judgments based on the
way people look. Shallow, shallow, shallow. I don't like this person,
I don't like, don't like. Go oh, there's a guy. Oh.
I like his hair, I like her eyes, I like
(37:19):
her body. You know, boom boom boom. So it's like
that hot or not hot, and it's exactly the same thing.
So when I'm standing in front of an audience for
two hours, the reason why I work to a more
mature crowd, you know, is because those people still like
to be told a story, not to be using you know,
(37:40):
four letter words all night. Every other word is m
F this, m F, m F this, m F m
F those MF grabbing myself and screaming. You know. I
tell stories. I take people on a journey, and that
the age of my customer still enjoys being told the story,
still enjoys a long show, you know that includes um,
(38:01):
you know, a lot of deliberative stuff and things to
think about. So to make a long story short, Um,
I'm not gonna be around too much longer. So now
you'll be You got a cult following star you you're
you're in good shape. And and I I was blown away.
So I was like, I was your Your name had
come up in conversation in the hallways of Fox Sports Radio,
(38:25):
right and so a while back, and I was like,
I wonder what Sarge is up to? And and I
had lost track e And then I found and you
got all the gigs and all that, and you've got
a website and and whatnot and so and then I
I discovered you. You're an author, Sarge the community. You
wrote a book a couple of years ago. Tell me
about that. Um, well, A dear friend of mine was
(38:47):
a guy named Gary Marshall who created Happy Days and
The Odd Couple for television and Pretty Woman, you know,
the legendary Gary Marshall. Yeah. And Gary Marshall said, uh,
you know, one night he saw me and a A
A her uh in in Los Angeles and he came.
He called me a couple of days later, and he said, uh,
he asked me what he called me on the phone.
(39:08):
He got my numbers somehow, and he said, uh, what
are you so happy about? So I said, what who
is this? You know it's Gary Marshall. Gary Marshall, Oh
my god. So we started talking and he wanted to
know why I was so happy. He said, you're such
a happy guy. I've never seen a happy comedian. I
worked with Gleason, I worked with Robin Williams, I worked
(39:30):
with this one, I worked with that one. He says,
I've never met a happy comedian. He says, you're a
happy guy. And the reason I can see that is
because I'm happy too. And I said, oh. He says,
what are we good? What are we gonna? Get together?
So I said, get together? And so I got together
with Gary Marshall and I went over to his house,
into Luca Lake, and uh, you know, one of the
first things he said to me was, you've got to
(39:52):
write the book and then write another book. He says,
the world needs to know it, but you need to
share yourself with people. He says, life is so temporary.
Write the book, write the book. And so uh, I said, okay,
I'll write the book. He says, And when you write
the book, I'll write the foreword for you. He says,
maybe I'll put my name on the cover of the
book for you and maybe people will say, oh, Gary Marshall,
(40:14):
I'm sorry, maybe they'll pick it up. So to make
a long story short, Gary Marshall insisted that I write
a book. And I've sold about forty six thousand copies
and uh and I signed every single one of them
with you know, I've gone through a lot of Sharpie's. Um.
But it's all about my mixed rates upbringing. Um, and
(40:35):
it's all about my life on the streets and my life. Uh.
There's even some you know stuff in there about Fox
Sports Radio and about the story I told you at
the top of the podcast, and and all the things
that have happened in my my life has been truly
extraordinary then and um and uh so I thank you.
I'm very grateful for you inviting me, um and you know,
(40:55):
and and actually looking me up and getting in touch
and inviting me to goin you here, because uh, you're
one of the really really sweet guys. And uh, you know,
once I left there, I was gone. Business is business,
and so it's just very nice. No, it's great, listen,
it's great to catch up with I know I've kept
you long enough here and you've got things to do
(41:16):
and all that, but this weekend, Atlantic City, this podcast
dropping on a Friday, and obviously your website right if
you want to. You have a bunch of gigs lined
up and they can go to your website. We'll put
that in the profile of the podcast and starts thank you,
thank you, it's great that you're a good mench Sorry,
you're a good manch Thank you, Ben, thank you, God
(41:37):
bless you and be well and have a have a
wonderful weekend.
Boom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of
the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the rich
pill poppers in the penthouse, to carry out some hot takes,
break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben
(00:24):
Maller starts right now, Hey, we welcome in the great comedian,
a man who I hung out with briefly back in
the day. And I guess the question here to begin,
and I don't even know this story, Sarge is how
did Sarge the comedian end up as a sports talk
(00:46):
show host at Fox Sports Radio? How did that begin? Sarge? Okay,
so my whole life growing up in New York, which
is where I grew up. I grew up in Long Island,
first during the Islanders four Cup administration back in the
back in the you know cusp of the seventies and eighties,
That's where it grew up. And then in New York City,
(01:07):
I wanted to be Marv Albert. I mean I it
was just you know, growing up as a kid, you
weren't allowed to listen to games after eight o'clock, nine o'clock.
Your mother would say, durn that off. And I had
a pillow speaker, and I'd be listening to Marv Albert
in my pillow speaker, not al Albert, not Steve Albert,
not Kenny Albert, for those all those other generations, which
(01:28):
had to be an interesting passover dinner, you know, past
the horse radish, No, you past the horse radish. So anyway,
there was all the Alberts. I wanted to be Marv.
And and so my my quest to become Marv logically
began with me trying to get a job in broadcasting.
And I went out to uh Chase Stadium with a
(01:51):
handheld tape recorder and recorded myself doing the game and
on a tape. You know, I just sat in the
crowd up the first baseline and recorded myself doing the
met game against the Giants as it were at that time,
and um and I began to record. I was twenty
six years old. I said, you know what, I'm gonna
make a tape. I'm gonna figure it out. And so
(02:12):
I did the tape. I played it for a friend
of mine named Andy. He said, that sounds just like
the radio. That's not you, and I said, no, it's
it's me. I promise you it's me. He said, well
that you should be a play by play guy. I said,
I know. I mean, so what do I do? He says,
I don't know. Call call major League Baseball. So I
called Major League Baseball and UH, to make a long
(02:34):
story short, I called the Commissioner's office and a woman
answered the phone and SI, can I help you? I said, yes,
madam as sorry, it's my birthday. I want to be
a play by play guy. Please help me. So she said,
who is this? I said, this is sorry, it's my
birthday and I want to do play. I want to
talk to the commissioner about who I can send my
tape to. Here it sounds really authentic. And then I
(02:55):
played the tape into the phone and she laughed, and
she says, is it really your birthday? I said, it's
my birthday. She says, okay, I'll tell you what. She says.
The commissioner is not gonna talk to you. But what
I'll do is I'll give you. I'll give you a
birthday gift. Come over to the offices of Major League Baseball.
There'll be an envelope for you. At the front desk,
come pick it up. So I jumped in a taxi.
I was on sixty one Street and First Avenue by
(03:16):
Roosevelt Island. I jumped in a taxi. I went over
to Major League Baseball. I went up in the elevator.
No security in those days, because there was no danger,
right and uh, I walked right in, got the envelope,
got in the elevator, and in the envelope the woman
had xerox to roll a dex and she put all
these cards on the Xerox machine and gave me a
(03:37):
list of all the networks in order, alphabetically with you know,
complete with inside numbers of So I went home and uh,
I sat with that list and I looked at it,
and I started with the ace and I called the
number on the list. It said ABC, ABC Sports. So
I dial ABC and this this voice answers the phone.
(03:57):
He says, hello, how can I help you? I said, yes,
this is sorry, it's my birthday. I want to be
a broadcaster. Um, I'm willing to start at the bottom. Um,
who do I need? Just me too? So the guy said,
who is this really? I said, this is sorry, it's
my birthday. I want to be. So the guy said
come on. He says really. He says, is it really
your birthday? I said, yes, it's really my birthday. He said, um, well,
(04:20):
he says, I'm not really the guy you want to
talk to. My assistant stepped away. I've answered my own
phone for the first time in eleven years. I said,
oh really, I said, who are you? He said, well,
I'm ruin our ledge. So I said you're ruined whoa Yeah,
I said, how are you doing? I didn't know who
he was. I said, hey, run, that's a weird name room.
(04:41):
I said, you must ruin everything at family get together.
So he said that's really funny. He said it's it's
Scottish and welch and whatever. So we're talking and he says, um,
how'd you get this number? I said, I can't tell you.
The lady said she'd get killed if I Okay, don't
worry about it. He says, I'll tell you what. He goes,
Happy birthday. The next guy you speak to, I'm gonna
(05:02):
put you through to this guy. Tell him just what
you told me. Well, anyhow, I recreated that same conversation again.
High to my birthday. I want to be a broadcaster.
The guy said, I'm not the guy you want to
talk to. How did you get my number? I said,
I just got off the phone with Roon. He said, oh,
you spoke to run I said, yes, I spoke to Roum.
He said, well, let me put you through to the
next guy. And he put me through the next guy.
(05:22):
And that's what the fourth guy said, What are you
doing this weekend? I said, I don't know. He goes
meet us in Atlantic City by the ABC trucks. He says,
you're hired. I said, what. He says, You're hired. Come
to Atlantic City. We're doing boxing this weekend. It was
the Jeff Harding Dennis Andre's fight in Atlantic City at
Trump uh Convention Center. So I went down there and
(05:45):
I was a runner for the announcers. But in my
mind I thought I was one guy getting sick from
being on the air. And so I started as a
runner at ABC Sports. They hired me for the next week,
and then the next week, and then the next week,
and then I ended up on Wide World. I ended
up on boxing coverage. I ended up on basketball. I
(06:08):
ended up on baseball with Al Michael's, Jim Palmer and
McCarver Monday Sunday night baseball. I was doing both. Jackson's
returned to Yankee Stadium to baseball after the hip injury.
Blah blah blah, the whole thing. I end up at
ABC for a while, I get fired. I end up
at CBS for a while. I got fired. Finally I
(06:29):
ended up at ESPN in Bristol, and I'm living in Bristol,
Connecticut working the seven, the eleven, which was the Big Show,
and the two AM Sports Center with Chris Myers and
Linda Cone. I was working fourteen fifteen, sixteen hour days,
living in Bristol, still doing production, associate work, still doing
(06:49):
assistant producer work, highlight producing, etcetera, etcetera. All these years
I started five six years, I'm working behind the scenes,
thinking I'm gonna be a broadcast. I finally gave up.
I went back to stand up comedy. I moved to
Los Angeles, and then one day a gentleman gave me
a call. He said sorry, I said, yes, Chris Myers.
I said, how are you doing? Chris? He says, hello, anybody.
(07:10):
He says, I need a sidekick. He says, I just
got hired to be a charter post on Fox. Sports radio.
They gave me Psycho Lions as a sidekick. He's gonna
be on the road with baseball a lot. I need
a sidekick. We could do all those funny routines. We
used to do it two in the morning at Bristol
in uh An ESPN. He says, you could just be
(07:31):
my sidekick. They're gonna give you a you know, hourly wage.
Blave blave black. Come in check it out. I came in.
I did the first three hours show with Chris Myers.
The last segment of the first show, there was a
couple of gentlemen sitting on the other side of the glass,
next to the technician on the board. One of them
was James Brown, the host of Fox NFL Sunday at
(07:52):
the time before Metafi took over, and the other one
was a great hair gentleman with glasses. So they motioned
to me to come out. I knew JB from New
York from working at CBS, and the other gentleman said,
how come you don't have your own show? I said,
how come I don't have my own show? I said,
I don't know. I just started today. I'm a sidekick
to this guy. I said, I don't have my old show,
(08:13):
because I just got here. I don't even have I
don't be sure I'm gonna get paid for this. So
he says, come to my office after you get off
the air. And so I went down to this gentleman's office,
and that was David Hill, a Fox Sports who ran
the entire damn place. And he said to me, listen.
He says, I want you to do a show on
your own. He says, you're very funny, you're very talented.
(08:37):
We'll give your own show from five day. I said, well,
what about I'm here to be my friend's sidekick from
you know, Chris Meyer. He says, I I'll worry about him.
He says, who, I said, woman, what am I gonna do?
He says, you can still work with him two to
five if you want, but you're gonna work five to
eight by yourself. I said, okay, fantastic, he said, you
so I had never been talent before. I've been doing
(09:00):
impressions and and here I am. I go from not
working on the radio to working six hours a day
on the radio. And that's how I got my job,
you know, on your network. That is wild and uh sorry,
just the I'd never heard that story that you just
randomly called up and ruined our lage, a legend in television,
happened to answer the phone, and you actually ended up
(09:23):
getting a job out of it. That's wild. That's a
crazy story. It's insane. It's absolutely it's absolutely the truth
and easier than days before background checks and Google and
what have you see, Because when I spoke to Room,
the next time guy I spoke to was Jack O'Hara.
The next guy spoke to was Kirk County Junior, Kirk
(09:43):
County Jr. Uh Kirk County's son. So I went down
the line of all the hierarchy of ABC, and everyone
asked me, how did you get my number? Why? I
just spoke to Ruin. I just spoke to your boss, Jack,
I just spoke to your other boss. And they're like,
oh okay. And so the next guy I spoke to
was a guy named Tony TORTOESI. He said, what are
you doing Saturday? And they hired me over the phone,
(10:05):
and there I was. So it's you know, you gotta
make your own luck, and every one of us has
a story. You have stories like that where you so
you know, the rules don't apply to the lucky. The
lucky have to get in line. The unlucky have to
get in line. But people who just tenaciously align themselves
(10:28):
with the universe and do what is in their heart,
what they really want, what they really want to do. Um,
there's a certain amount of majesty and luck to that.
And that was my dumb luck. When I got fired
from ABC, I just watched the crawl at the end
of the tournament, the nt A Tournament, and I saw
the names going by on the screen when they did
(10:49):
one shining moment, and I saw the name of a
gentleman named Arthur Harris Jr. And so he said he
was the operations vice president of CBS. So what I
did was, when I got fired from ABC the following day,
I called Arthur Harris Junior's phone in his office every
single day for a month and spoke to his assistant,
(11:11):
and every day she would say, he doesn't know. You
stopped calling here. And after two weeks she finally said
to me, is this sires? I said, yeah, she goes,
you know, you're the highlight of my day. I said why,
she says, I don't know. She says, you just righten
my my day. Whatever is going on. You're always funny.
You never give up. Every time I tell you he
(11:31):
won't talk to you, you called back the next day.
So finally, after a month, after a month, on a Monday,
I finally decided, you know what, I'm not gonna call
there anymore. The phone rang Hello, Sergeant, Uh, this is
Arthur Harris Jr. I said, Arthur. He said, no, it's
Mr Harris to you. I said, Hi. Mr Harris said
(11:52):
why are you? Why are you calling me? He says,
I don't know. He says, I wondered why you didn't
call up today, so I to find out if something
happened to you. I said, yeah, but you haven't taken
my call all month. He says, I haven't got a
job for you. But I'd like to meet you. I'd
like to meet the person who I think is the
most tenacious, who never gives up. I want to put
(12:14):
a face with an energy. Why don't you come to
my office tomorrow eleven o'clock And we went to his
office and we went to have lunch. By the time
time we got back to black Rock on Sixth Avenue,
the guy said to me, I don't have a desk
for you. I don't even have a job for you,
I got to clear someone else out in order to
give you. I said, that's fine, I'll wait. He says,
you start Monday, and he hired me. And that's how
(12:35):
I got my job at CBS. So you know it's
in those days, Yeah, it's just blind faith and energy.
You can't really do that. These days. It's much different
with social media and and all that stuff and guard
rails and whatnot. It's hard to pull up. But when
you were doing sports radio at Fox, I remember you
had the evening show West Coast Time on Fox Sports.
(12:59):
How difficult? Wasn't mean you You'd obviously been doing You've
been around all these people and all that was it?
Was it a smooth transition for her? Or was it bumping?
It was easy as could be for me because I
had come from stand up comedy. And you know the
only hard part was, you know, turning that part of
my brain off that is allowed to say anything it
(13:21):
wants when it's got a microphone in its hand. So
once I once I adjusted to that and learned that
I can't just say whatever I want. And I didn't
learn by trial by fire. I mean I just automatically
transitioned into knowing what I couldn't couldn't do, And I
thought I was doing great, and a lot of other
people thought I was doing great too, even though I
(13:43):
didn't have the full respect of the entire staff, um
or you know, of the other people, because you know,
obviously a lot of the people that were producing shows
for talent and that were behind the scenes, you know,
they knew I was a comedian. Um. Then I wasn't
a hardcore other leather neck, uh you know, sports sports guy,
(14:03):
hadn't done radio anywhere else really, Um, it was obvious
that I was grandfathered in because you know, I had
a lot of higher ups from you know, from Pico,
from the Fox lot coming over to visit, etcetera, etcetera. UM,
And I didn't know the politics of radio and the
behind the scenes of radio, and I didn't know the
(14:24):
ridiculousness and the and the uh some of the you know,
corporate stuff that goes on and uh with with talent, etcetera, etcetera.
All I knew was the Mike's open and I just
gotta stick to my segment times. And then they came
to me from Clear Channel, UM, Craig Kitchens and the
Premier people said, well, we we we would like you
(14:44):
to have a sidekick. And at that time, Jason Smith
had been doing my I've been doing my updates, and
so I brought him in. I said, hey, you know what,
I was already using him in parts of the show
when I rejoined segments, So I said, why don't you
come be my lieutenant? And um it was Sergeant the
bad Lieutenant Sergeant the Fox Hall on Fox Sports Radio.
(15:06):
I really didn't know what I was doing. Um, what
was it? What was the thing? I remember when callers
would call up, they had to say something, what was
the he was in the foxhll? Was you required the
Yeah they would say. They would say sir, yes, sir,
and I would give them permission to speak freely. I remember,
(15:28):
I remember that was hilarious. But but then I was
I've always been a sports guy, and believe me, I
used to. UM, I used to in the early days,
back in those days, you know that when we were
broadcasting not from Sherman Oaks, but from over on the
Fox lot, and the executives over there said, hey, uh,
(15:52):
if you have any ideas for TV shows, let us know,
and uh, you know, we're we're blowing out a lot
of things on the sports that let us know. Let
us know if you have any idea. So I went
into one of the executive's offices and I said, here's
an idea for show. Um, it's Sargeant the Fox Hall,
and I can be the anti Rome. I don't have
to be the crass, obnoxious, sarcastic, sneering smug. I can
(16:14):
be the positive, uplifting, funny, same thing, but the other
side of the coin from Rome. And UM. I said,
we could put bleachers in and chain link fence, and
there could be a coffee table with billiard balls in it,
a bunch of chairs. And because we're in l A,
we could have rotating co hosts every week. You could
have Dickerson in. You can have this guy in. You
can have Marcus Allen, you could have you know this
(16:35):
guy and uh I and I would host it and
um and I put I put the thing on his desk.
So after about three months, I said, whatever happened with
that treatment? I sent you that one pager? He said, Oh,
come on, come on, I want to show you something.
He says, we can't do York Show because we're already
doing something really similar. So I was like, what do
you mean? And he took me in the studio and
it was everything that I put in the treatment, except
(16:57):
for they hired uh lamp Ley to host it and
they were doing a thing and they were doing a
thing called Best Sam Sports Show. Yeah, and that was
your A lot of that was your idea that you
were well, yeah, well yeah, but but you know what,
you know, I'm not gonna prove I didn't get the
idea while I was, you know, in the John in
the building. I wasn't gonna sue the company, uh for
(17:21):
you know, from all you took my idea. So the
guy said to me, hey, listen, we'll get you a
job on the show. You'll do voice overs. All the
stuff that Looney does, all the stuff that Tom Looney
did all those years. Was I was doing it before Looney.
I was doing all the voice overs. I was writing
all the funny segments. I was doing some hits on
the show. Um. So now I'm working daytime on the
Fox lot, and then we're moving to Sherman Oaks. I'm
(17:42):
doing radio. So from never being talent only being a comedian,
I was doing TV during the day and radio in
the evening, three hours of show prep before I would
go on the air out in the out and Mountain,
the Patti over there, over in between the and I
and I was, you know, working both ends of it
and loving it and uh and then you know something's changed,
(18:06):
and then uh, you know. I was offered a reduction
in pay and one of my veteran radio friends, a
gentleman named Shadow Stevens, I said, what do I do?
They want to give me a reduction in pay because
they say that I'm getting paid more than the amount
of advertising my show was generating. UM. I was on
in a hundred and fifty nine affiliates. UM. I thought
(18:28):
that was good enough since we started with thirteen and
they were, you know, not willing. He says, never take
a cut and pay. You're a really funny guy. You
have other options. A lot of radio guys don't have that.
Go back to doing stand up and if it's supposed
to be, it'll be, and if it's not supposed to be,
it won't be. And I continued working on best to
have sports show. I went back to my stand up.
(18:51):
I lost my Fox Sports radio slot. They gave it
to a number of other people. They tried people, they
used people, they did pick whatever it was, and I
never looked back. And and now I live in a
place called Delray Beach, Florida. Um. I worked, you know,
fifty two weeks a year around you know, the East
Coast mostly um, a little bit of Vegas, a lot
(19:13):
of East Coast, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore, New York, Boston,
New Jersey. I'm gonna be in New Jersey. I'm gonna
be Atlantic City this weekend, um doing some shows and
down here in Florida, which is a bastion of retirees
and people who uh know what I'm talking about because
(19:33):
they're from you know, New York, New Jersey, Boston. So yeah,
the good news, Starge is at your age here you
can stay there and you're not that old. But now
you're set up, right, you don't have to move to
Florida when you get older. You're already there. You're you're
set up. I'm already here, and you know what it.
You know, I was born in Miami Beach, so um,
i live fifteen miles north. I'm fifty miles north of
(19:56):
Miami Beach. Um. But I love Florida. I love Um,
the warm weather. I love being by them. I live
on the beach. Um, I love the ocean. I don't
have to put our wet suit. UM, I can go
on the ocean here. It's like the tropics. And UM,
I love it down here. And so a lot of retirees.
Retirees need entertainment, you know, And UM, I do a
(20:19):
lot of shows. There's there's hundreds and hundreds of golf
um communities, country clubs and gated communities with people over
fifty five that phil seven to twelve hundred seat venues
to come see comedy. And I don't have to get
(20:39):
on a plane. For years, I was on planes and hotels.
I'm in Toledo, I'm in I'm in Palm Springs, I'm
in I'm in Amarillo. Now I can. I'm in Naples,
I'm in Tampa. I mean, I'm in Delray. I'm in
West Palm Beach, I'm in Boca. I'm in Miami, and
I'm home. You know, I've got I got a fourteen
(20:59):
year old tail, I've got a fifteen year old marriage. UM,
you know I'm happy. Yeah. Well, and sorry, and before
we'll move on from Fox Sports Radio, but I want
you to know that I've I'm still there. I haven't
actually did lee. They fired me in twenty nine and
I was I was laid off. I was out of
(21:19):
work for six months in twenty six days, and then
they brought me back. But other than that, I've been
there since. I remember when the thing launched with thirteen
affiliates in Binghamton, New York. Right that we're Binghamton, Pittsburgh,
a few other places in the early days. But you'll
be happy to know, Sarge, that they have threatened to
move out of the Sherman Oaks compound for probably three
(21:42):
or four times. But we are still there and it's
the same exact studio as you left. All of the
stains are still there. I'm sure that there's stuff that
you left behind it somewhere in the cupboards at Fox
Sports Radio. So it's it hasn't changed at all. It's
exactly the same just as how you left it back
in the day. Serge. You'll be happy to well, you
(22:05):
know I I left it, but you know I never
I never made a big, a big showing of leaving.
Like I was told by by personal friends of mine
that were pretty successful in radio. They said, don't don't
don't do a victory lap, don't do a goodbye tour.
Just um, the day before you're leaving, tell people tomorrow
(22:25):
is gonna be your last show. Say thank you, and
you know, go go out into that good night and
don't don't do that. Don't burn the bridge, don't get
So that's exactly what I did. Uh, you know, I
I uh And you know what, it's almost like dying
when you leave somewhere like that. And I know you
you probably experienced that. It's like you're dying and the
whole world is gonna go on without you. Yeah, it's
(22:48):
totally it's totally true. And you think, you know, this
is a big part of your life. You do it
every day and radio. Once you do radio, and you
know this sergeant gets in your blood and you're you're
it's it's just who you are. And then when you
you're not working there and you turned on the station
and someone else's you're like, oh my god. Well, you know,
and I grew up, you know, Ben, I grew up
not only with some of the some of the greats
(23:11):
uh in broadcasting, but I also grew up in a
place called New York where we had a thing called
w f a N and the early days of w
f a N, which was the original first sports radio
you know, all network format. And so I've been listening
to the way before Mike and the mad Dog. I mean,
(23:32):
I grew up with Matt dog Russo from the Mad
Dog Channel. Um. We grew up in Long Island. We
went to school together. I was a catcher. He was
the shortstop on our on our middle school team. And
so I knew I knew about sports radio and listened
to sports radio. And somewhere in the back of my heart,
the combination of passion for sports and my comedic ability,
(23:54):
you know, at some point dovetailed into an opportunity. Um,
and it was really out of nowhere, it was, and
I stopped trying to be a radio host. That I
got a bunch of radio work. UM. I wouldn't recommend
that to people who are young and and coming up
and trying to figure out what to do. I suggest you,
you know, get educated and and apprentice places and intern
(24:16):
places and learn and start from the bottom so you can,
you know, learn every single nugget. But at the end
of the day, Um, it goes how it goes for
all of us, and uh so I'm glad to hear
that things. You know, things are good over there, and yeah,
I know things are things are going. They were on
over five affiliates. Now the network is past ESPN by
(24:37):
many people believe. So it's done. It's done very well.
So but I I want to talk more about you, Sarge,
and and not just the sports radio stuff. But I
knew that you were a comedian and I remember we
crossed paths obviously during those days, but I had no
idea you had done gigs you were on stage or
performing for before a wreath of Franklin and and a huge,
(25:02):
huge performance back in the day. I mean, I had
no idea, Storge. I mean, this is a fascinating thing
to me that you you were and obviously you're very successful,
but you were around these other people that were also successful.
How did I not know this, Sarge? How did I?
How was that aware of it? To be honest with you,
And I know this sounds a little bit salty, but
(25:22):
I'm I'm a humble I'm a humble guy. I've never
I've never been the kind of person that that is
really you know, a braggart or someone that you know,
it's It's rare in in our business to have people
that aren't constantly you know, patting themselves on the back
or tooting their own horn. But I had really good
(25:42):
mentors that taught me not not to see. I'm I know,
I'm also I'm also I don't want to jink set.
It's like when I started doing comedy. You know, I
started at the very very bottom. You know, Um, you
have to you have to know this. I had a
drug and alcohol problem in the late eighties after I
was relieved of my responsibilities at CBS, UM and and
(26:03):
and you know, my first job after I got cleaned,
my first big job was back at ESPN, you know,
living in Bristol. But I have been homeless and drug addicted,
an alcoholic and living under a bridge in in New
York City. I never told anybody that either, Um, you know,
and I've been swept up in the mid eighties and
late eighties in the whole crack thing, with crack and
(26:24):
PCP and all the drugs and the alcohol. And I
literally went from working NFL Sundays at CBS in the
control room, UM at the Broadcast Center to under the
Manhattan Bridge, UM stealing for my drug habits. So when
I got clean and sober and I was given an
opportunity to turn my life around, they asked me what
(26:46):
I wanted to do with the rest of my life
if I couldn't fail, and I said that I wanted
to be a comedian. I always wanted to be a comedian.
And so when I moved to New York, I started
at the bottom and open mic night and I just
showed up ten twelve places a night to try and
get stage time. In New York. I developed a ferocious
approach to, you know, trying to get stage time. And
(27:07):
then one night I performed you at a place called
Carolines on Broadway on an off night on a Tuesday,
did a set and uh. The next day I got
a call from William Morris Agency, which is a big
entertainment firm. At the time, they were the biggest in
the business, and they said uh. I said, wow, did
you get my invitation to come to the show at Carolines?
And the guy said yes. I said, so you were
(27:28):
there last night and the guy said no, And I said,
what do you mean you weren't there? He says, well,
sometimes it's better that I heard about your set rather
than that I was there for it. Everyone's talking about you,
I said, really, and I was an open micer. So
the guy said, hey, listen, come up to the office.
We're at sixth Avenue. We'd like to sign you, and
(27:48):
I want you to need all the agents over here.
So I went up to the agency, I met everybody,
they signed me, and a month later I was in
the Melody tent in Cape Caught with Natalie Cole opening
for her, and um, all I've ever done was a
bunch of local gigs, making making making nothing. But here
I am with Natalie Cole in front of you know,
(28:09):
several thousand people and Cape cod and then uh, they
heard about me and I ended up with Donna Summer
and the tour started at Radio City Music Hall in
New York. And the next thing you know, I found out,
without knowing this, that I was a really good, high energy,
funny opening act. Um. Maybe it's because I didn't care
(28:30):
about the fact that the people weren't there to see me.
They were there to see the star that went on
after me, and it didn't phase me because I didn't
really know that that was the deal. I just showed up.
I went, I went on stage, and then once again you,
you and you and I both shared something in common
with both big guys and I kind of I'm a
big guy on stage, and um, I command a little
(28:51):
bit of attention. I'm likable. UM I I love people.
Um I have no fear because I pray and I
meditate to get rid of my fear. Why because I
can't have a drink or smoke a joint. So I
pray and I meditate. Did you ever have did you
ever have stage fright when you started? You know? You
always I had stage fright. I had stage fright. Well,
(29:16):
what I learned was if I have a bunch of
meditations that I do to take away the fear that
I learned that I learned in the early stages of
becoming clean and sober, that helped me to not drink
and drug. And so when I got to stand up
and I was scared before I would go on, I
would just go in the men's room and do my bit,
and you know, and get rid of it with spiritual means.
(29:38):
And that I went on stage and I was able
to be creative. See, because when you go on stage
with your stage fright, all the audience sees is your
fear when you go on stage relaxed as you and
you leave your stage fright in the bathroom behind a
bunch of meditations and a couple of prayers. Next thing
you know, they're seeing you. So there was no cotton out,
(30:00):
there were no shaky hands. I operated perfectly, creatively, imaginatively,
and then I knew that's where I should be, you know,
standing there making people happy because I was happy. And
to make a long story short, that's my whole life.
My whole life is you know, dedicated to making people
happy an hour and a half and two hours at
a time, and um, I get to do it. And
(30:23):
the same way as you know, people can't live. You're
part of people's lives. Uh, in your day job, you're
part of people's lives. They don't know what they do.
Uh if if they didn't turn on uh you know
Ben Maller and and you know so it's never it's
never a good idea to underestimate. Um, the contribution that
(30:45):
you make, no matter whether your company thinks so or
whether your paycheck reflects it. Um, your contribution is is
magnificent and vital to people. And uh, you know you'll
never you'll never get paid what you're worth. So just
do what you just do what you're here to do
is really the message. So as a comedian, sorry, I'm fascinating.
(31:08):
I love Colm and you're you're very good at would
you do? But how how much time do you spend
when you're how how often do you rotate material? Like?
What's the whole process? How you make the hot dogs?
When it comes to comedy? Is there a secret formula
that you have you know you will for each There
are many different types of comedic talent. Mine is more
(31:28):
extemporaneous and I'm not as much of a writer as
some people. So for instance, to just you know, to
give you an example of a couple of guys that
you do know, Seinfeld is a is A is a ferocious,
meticulous technician and engineer of words. Smith. You know he
every word, every of every joke, every concept, every topic
(31:51):
is deliberated over and then reworked and worked and rewritten. Um,
I'm more like Kevin Hart. Kevin Hart. Um, we go
on stage, you bring a bunch of bullet points, and
we talk our comedy into being because we're personality comics.
I'm a personality comic. I go on stage if you
go on YouTube and you an your type in comedian
(32:12):
Sarge or Sarge comedian, you'll see um. I'm very extemporaneous.
I rotate material um daily because I operate from the
file cabinet theory. I just opened a bunch of drawers
and pull out files and go, what do we have here?
What do we have here? What do we have here?
Because I have the courage to not worry about uh
(32:34):
dead air, I go on stage, I open cold every
night with what my day was today, and then I
take off from there. So basically my comedy is live,
and every time people come to see me, it's a
different show. No, that's great, Yeah, that's wonderful. And and
(32:54):
how are you surviving? I feel bad for all comedians
these days because of the way things are going, Starge.
Where we've seen comedians canceled. You tell a joke, somebody
didn't like it, and the next thing you know, it
blows up on the internet. And do you feel sometimes, Starge,
like you're you're dancing around land mines when you're on
stage these days with the whaler world in much in
(33:17):
much the same way then, as you know from the
experience of others and from the failings of others and
the mistakes of others, and you know, being a radio
house knowing I better not talk about that. I better
not talk about that that way. I better not bring
that up. I bet or not use those words. I
better it's you know what, um, people can listen for.
(33:39):
So so when it comes to comedy, I took a
pause for a minute, you know, when things started getting
a little hairy. But at the end of the day,
the courage of people like Adam Corolla, UM and others
like that, who don't even breathe hard, they just do.
I gotta do me. I can't worry about this person
(34:00):
is gonna be upset about this. That person is gonna
be upset about that I do jokes. Jokes are all
about somebody or something. And if you've lost your sense
of humor, it's a dead giveaway that you've taken yourself
too seriously. And I'm not in a situation where I
(34:21):
can you know I'm gonna be canceled. Knock on wood.
I'm not a big target, um, I'm I'm a working
class comic who's got a hundred and fifty gigs a year.
My audiences love what I do. I'm not on the
same level as people who are targets for cancelation, and
quite frankly, I stay away from the more you know,
(34:46):
potent dangerous subjects. I don't really need to comment on politics.
I don't really need to comment on people's genitalia. I
don't need to make any commentary about people's gender ideology.
I can you know, so as long as you stay
away from those things and keep it experiential and personal,
(35:07):
I'm just reporting my life. I'm sharing my life with people.
And if they don't, if they find something distasteful or
they don't like it, then don't come see me um
or don't watch or change the channel. You know, we
used to be free to change the channel if you
don't like the show or the song that's playing, change
the channel. Don't don't petition to have the person executed. No,
(35:32):
I'm right there with you, Storgs. I deal with this
in the radio world, where you know, we're around the
same age, and I feel like we've had, you know,
similar lives as far as you know entertainment. We grew
up where if you didn't like something, all right and
go to the next show, and and people today are
just not I'm not everyone, but a lot of a
lot of people are like, no, no, no, We've got
to get rid of this. This is terrible. And I
(35:53):
was like, it's like, it's like going to a restaurant
and you don't like the food, and then we got
to close the restaurant down because you had a bad meal,
then just going to the next restaurant. It's just ridiculous. Well,
I'll tell you where that where that. The evolution of
that is very simple. You know, the world became a
place where everyone reacts to everything when social media and
(36:13):
like buttons got involved and people just started reading headlines
instead of the entire article, when people started listening to
books instead of reading them. People don't think anymore. They
don't want to think. They just want to react. They
hear something and they react. They hear a jump, they
don't like the react that you're a word. They don't like.
(36:35):
They react. Everything is reactionary, nothing is deliberative, and so
we're constantly reacting to everything and reacting to everybody. And
then at some point, maybe if people haven't moved on
to the next thing they're reacting to, there may be
some deliberation, but there really is no deliberative process anymore,
(36:59):
and all people do is react and move on to
the next reaction. React, react, react, And it's the same
as a dating app. They swipe, swipe, I don't like
this person. You're making all these judgments based on the
way people look. Shallow, shallow, shallow. I don't like this person,
I don't like, don't like. Go oh, there's a guy. Oh.
I like his hair, I like her eyes, I like
(37:19):
her body. You know, boom boom boom. So it's like
that hot or not hot, and it's exactly the same thing.
So when I'm standing in front of an audience for
two hours, the reason why I work to a more
mature crowd, you know, is because those people still like
to be told a story, not to be using you know,
(37:40):
four letter words all night. Every other word is m
F this, m F, m F this, m F m
F those MF grabbing myself and screaming. You know. I
tell stories. I take people on a journey, and that
the age of my customer still enjoys being told the story,
still enjoys a long show, you know that includes um,
(38:01):
you know, a lot of deliberative stuff and things to
think about. So to make a long story short, Um,
I'm not gonna be around too much longer. So now
you'll be You got a cult following star you you're
you're in good shape. And and I I was blown away.
So I was like, I was your Your name had
come up in conversation in the hallways of Fox Sports Radio,
(38:25):
right and so a while back, and I was like,
I wonder what Sarge is up to? And and I
had lost track e And then I found and you
got all the gigs and all that, and you've got
a website and and whatnot and so and then I
I discovered you. You're an author, Sarge the community. You
wrote a book a couple of years ago. Tell me
about that. Um, well, A dear friend of mine was
(38:47):
a guy named Gary Marshall who created Happy Days and
The Odd Couple for television and Pretty Woman, you know,
the legendary Gary Marshall. Yeah. And Gary Marshall said, uh,
you know, one night he saw me and a A
A her uh in in Los Angeles and he came.
He called me a couple of days later, and he said, uh,
he asked me what he called me on the phone.
(39:08):
He got my numbers somehow, and he said, uh, what
are you so happy about? So I said, what who
is this? You know it's Gary Marshall. Gary Marshall, Oh
my god. So we started talking and he wanted to
know why I was so happy. He said, you're such
a happy guy. I've never seen a happy comedian. I
worked with Gleason, I worked with Robin Williams, I worked
(39:30):
with this one, I worked with that one. He says,
I've never met a happy comedian. He says, you're a
happy guy. And the reason I can see that is
because I'm happy too. And I said, oh. He says,
what are we good? What are we gonna? Get together?
So I said, get together? And so I got together
with Gary Marshall and I went over to his house,
into Luca Lake, and uh, you know, one of the
first things he said to me was, you've got to
(39:52):
write the book and then write another book. He says,
the world needs to know it, but you need to
share yourself with people. He says, life is so temporary.
Write the book, write the book. And so uh, I said, okay,
I'll write the book. He says, And when you write
the book, I'll write the foreword for you. He says,
maybe I'll put my name on the cover of the
book for you and maybe people will say, oh, Gary Marshall,
(40:14):
I'm sorry, maybe they'll pick it up. So to make
a long story short, Gary Marshall insisted that I write
a book. And I've sold about forty six thousand copies
and uh and I signed every single one of them
with you know, I've gone through a lot of Sharpie's. Um.
But it's all about my mixed rates upbringing. Um, and
(40:35):
it's all about my life on the streets and my life. Uh.
There's even some you know stuff in there about Fox
Sports Radio and about the story I told you at
the top of the podcast, and and all the things
that have happened in my my life has been truly
extraordinary then and um and uh so I thank you.
I'm very grateful for you inviting me, um and you know,
(40:55):
and and actually looking me up and getting in touch
and inviting me to goin you here, because uh, you're
one of the really really sweet guys. And uh, you know,
once I left there, I was gone. Business is business,
and so it's just very nice. No, it's great, listen,
it's great to catch up with I know I've kept
you long enough here and you've got things to do
(41:16):
and all that, but this weekend, Atlantic City, this podcast
dropping on a Friday, and obviously your website right if
you want to. You have a bunch of gigs lined
up and they can go to your website. We'll put
that in the profile of the podcast and starts thank you,
thank you, it's great that you're a good mench Sorry,
you're a good manch Thank you, Ben, thank you, God
(41:37):
bless you and be well and have a have a
wonderful weekend.
Host
Ben Maller
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