A Convo With Greg Charles

Greg Charles talks about the legacy of Caroline's Comedy Club in New York!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
For what would you talk about on your on your podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Firm Elvis the fifteen Minute Morning Show.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hey, welcome to the fifteen Minute Morning Show podcast. Anyone
want to be here with you? Just finding out?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey, So we had a great, great conversation with Caroline
Hirsch and of course Greg Charles from Carolines on Broadway
or Carolines, and of course we talked about the New
York Comedy Festival. And then after we thank them for
coming in, we you know, went to a break. The
conversation continued here in the studio and of course with
their permission, we recorded it because we wanted to play

(00:43):
it for you on the podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Interesting stuff listen in. Yeah, No, so no.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
One of the cool things about you know, Carolines. And
I always say this, Caroline's to me is like the
Studio fifty four of comedy, Like you never know who's
gonna show up or who you're gonna see. And I
remember many years ago, our general manager grabbed me as
I was leaving at the end of the day and
he said, oh, you got to go meet our new doorman.
Really handsome guy. He's British. Go upstairs, introduce yourself and

(01:13):
I go up and there's this guy in a black
suit and tie and he said, hey, mate, nice to
meet you. I said, I'm Greg, I'm the PR guy
for the club. He's oh Idriss and we started talking.
He had just moved here to him. I think he
was living in his car at the time, and and.

Speaker 4 (01:33):
He was he was a star in Yeah, he.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Did, he did.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
He was on some so I guess the British equivalent
of what our daytime dramas are here. He was a
fairly big star over there. Nobody knew who he was here.
I mean, he was just you know, I hate to
say it like that, but he, you know, knew to
America and just a doorman, not a name, knowing who
He was the nicest, sweetest man you could ever meet.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
In your entire life.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
To hear that, he was so wonderful, And I'm sure
I don't think this is a problem sharing this part
of the story, because he's told this story publicly. He
used to sell weed and he would sell it. He
would sell it to Dave Chappelle when he was had
on Awesome, and I'm told it was the worst weed

(02:23):
ever seeds. Everything I heard from a friend. I know
nothing about it, but An interesting part of the story
is I will never forget this because it resonates to
this day. And I always shared the story is I
was leaving one afternoon and we were talking and he
got a call and flip phone, that's how far back
this was. And he said, oh, I got to take this.

(02:45):
It's my agent. I'm not going to do the British accent.
And he goes out on the street and he looked
very animated and excited, and he came back in and
he said, I have to leave, and I said, what's wrong.
He said, I just got a call back for a
show on HBO, And that was when he got the
wire and he he left and became Idris Elba International

(03:06):
Superstar Bond.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
At some point I heard.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
What he doesn't want to do Bond. Now I think
he's past that. Yeah, I wanted him to be Bond.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
But he came back there. He he just left you
high and DROI though, how dare he?

Speaker 3 (03:19):
But he's come back to the club and visited, and
you know I ran into him once and he just
couldn't have been you know, sweeter.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
And story when it was on Saturday Night Live.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Oh, when he hosted Saturday Night Live. He he mentioned
us in his monologue. If you see him in interviews
or read interviews with him, he always mentions his first
job in America was as Caroline's dormouse.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
When he goes on Saturday Night Live. He goes on
and he said, and now my phone is He's on,
and my phone is going wild. People are texting me.
I can't believe he's saying. You know, I was in
the comedy business. That's why I'm doing Saturday Night Live.
You know. I just worked down the block from here
at Caroline's and when to the whole story, it was
so fabulous.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Wo, so cool. See, this is why the book needs
to happen, Carolyn.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
You got to get that going, have You know what, Caroline,
The thing about writing a book is you learn a
lot about yourself.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
You'd be surprised how much about you you will learn
when you write it down, you know.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yeah, And you know, years ago I started to get
some interviews, and it's funny enough that I got some
with Paul Rubens. Oh wow, I was supposed to make
his first.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Movie with him.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
Really, the Pee Wee's first big Adventure. Yeah. So and
he comes to me and he goes, you know, my
friend's gonna direct, but he hasn't directed before. It was
Tim Burton.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Oh my god, that's like Danielle's everything, by everything Tim Burton.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, this is crazy.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
So crazy and amazing people you know from that you
met forty years ago that come up with where people
are and who's ma making TV shows and who's writing
them now amazing.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
How fascinating was it hanging out with them earlier today? Right?

Speaker 3 (05:05):
They were great, cool and those are only the stories
that they remember, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, yeah, there you go.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
She should write that book, Caroline Hurst. Also, we love you,
Dave Charles.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
I'm sorry. Also we love you Greg Charles. And that's
our fifteen minute morning show podcast. Don't know how long
it was, but who cares. We'll see you later. Bye.
The fifteen Minute Morning Show