November 7, 2024 • 11 mins
Erich Bergen comes in to discuss "Dead Funny," a tribute to Joan Rivers, benefiting God's Love We Deliver!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So many reasons we should be thankful for our friend
Eric Bergin. First of all, he's a great guy. He
does great things for the community. We'll get into that
in a minute. Don't know, as he go to get
too big what There's an incredible organization here in New
York City called God's Love We Deliver, and Eric was
so gracious to invite us, all of us over to
help pack food get it ready to go out to
(00:21):
people who really need it. And we appreciate that very much.
I don't think we ever really thanks you properly. Thank
you for getting us involved.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Thank you for coming. It was an incredible day. You
guys were there putting in, putting in some hours in
there we did.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
And I know that you have an event tonight for
God's Love, right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I mean God's Love is one of the you know
institutions in New York City. I mean they what they
do is they cook and home deliver medically tailored meals
to people who are too sick to shop or cook
for themselves all over New York City. They do incredible
work and for so long, Joan Rivers was one of
their biggest champions, and she was on the board and
despite you know, not despite, but besides being one of
(00:59):
the funniest people in the world. She had an incredible heart.
And so tonight we are putting together something I think
she would have loved, which is called Dead Funny, an
all star tribute to Joan Rivers. You know, because she's well,
she's currently dead and she's so funny. Why is something
else gonna happen like she's just currently dead? Well, I
don't know, you know, everything is puzziled these days. So
(01:19):
we're doing it tonight at the Apollo Theater. It is
opening night of the New York Comedy Festival, and we're
raising money for God's Love and it's the lineup is
just nuts.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Well give us the lineup. I know that your co
executive producing this with Melissa Rivers. I am, and who's
on stage being funny? First of all, are you doing
any stand up? Do you do stand up?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Eric? No? The the limits to my comedy are right now.
This is This is as about as funny as I get.
And boy, yeah, exactly, it's a rough crap. No, we
got Tiffany Hattish and oh is she here? No, she's
Oh she's been here. Oh I thought she I thought
she was one of those surprise moments. Yeah she is. Yeah,
(01:59):
we have Michelle Buteaux, Matteo Lane, Randy Rainbow, Joel McHale,
Jeff Ross, Rita Wilson. It's an incredible line up and
that we have a whole slew of surprise guests. So
it's quiet incredible.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Well, so far the line happen is great. We've had
most of those people here with us.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And you don't need to brag. I know you're very fantasy.
I don't know why the name the name. Yeah, I know,
we've all, we've met them all. Screw you, Eric, you
know Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I want to talk to you on about something you
mentioned while the song was playing, you wanting to become
an actor again, even though you're always an actor.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Of course, Eric with huge roles.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
In the musical drama film Jersey Boys. Also, you were
how many seasons in Madam's Secretary.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Big seasons on Madame Secretary.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Huge, huge show. But now here's what I noticed. Right
around pandemic time, Eric kept working, but he was in
a producer's role. You were producing a lot of things
for like people who work in Broadway who lost their jobs.
You did a lot of charity production.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, it almost you still do it is I started
with that very first that the week that COVID shut
down Broadway, I called Rosi O'Donnell and said, will you
do a one night reboot of your show as a
fundraiser for the Actors Fund. We raised like eight hundred
thousand dollars in one night that that very first week
of cod Wow, and then it was off to the races.
The next day. I got all these phone calls from
(03:24):
other charities saying, can you please do that same thing
for us? And I said, no, that's not what I mean.
You're very nice, but that's not what I do. As
it turns out, is what I do. So the Jon
event tonight is something like the three hundred and forty
fifth event I've produced since that time, which is crazy.
It's crazy. I don't sleep. I don't well. I do eat,
(03:45):
but I don't sleep. It's yeah, it's wild. I mean,
it's been a wild, wild time. I'm I'm so I
have this. I have a group of people that I
work with who we produce great things for great causes,
and tonight is certainly one of them. And Elvis, you
did you did a few with with ours. I got Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, but you did you rub card and it worked.
The thing is is, you know over three hundred of
these events you have produced, and you've done a lot
of great things and raise a lot of money and
awareness for incredible organizations. But what about you? What about
that acting itch? Are you acting like well, I want
to act again.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I do have an itch. I am seeing my doctor
about that right after I leave here.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Good idea. Yeah, this is part of the stand up road.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
This is well, I'm trying some material out, you know,
before we go live. The material? Yeah, my a material. Yeah, yes,
I did. I did a few episodes of Bowl. I
went to Broadway and I did Chicago. But the thing
I'm most excited about is in the spring. In April,
i am back to Broadway as a performer and I'll
be in Uh Boop, the Betty Boop musical that is
(04:47):
a while on Broadway that David Boss David Foster wrote
that wrote the score, and Jerry Mitchell, who did Kinky
Boots and Hairspray, is the director of and it's We
We We didn't out of town try out last year,
and it's it's just so much fun. It's just so
much fun, so I will go back to making less
money as an actor in just a few months. Good
(05:09):
for you. That's not a joke. That's real. By the way,
I wanted to get back to making less.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Money, of course, because obviously TV and Broadway are completely different.
Do you prefer one to the other?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, I mean it's there's nothing you get on stage
and there is nothing like that rush. I mean of well,
you know, if there's people in the audience, If there's
no one in the audience, it's a it's a bad thing.
But you know, when you do a killer show on Broadway,
it is a wild rush, that thing that people have
when they have stage fright. The opposite side of that,
that rush you get is it's so it's a rush,
(05:45):
is the best way to describe it. But you have
a dream show that you'd like to do. God, I
don't you know. I wish I was young enough to
do Jersey Boys again because and to play play a
sixteen year old again because it was it was great.
Excuse me, that's not funny. That wasn't a joke.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Oh man, it's that a material coming back.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I'm giving this to Tiffany Hattish tonight. By the way, Yeah,
that's right. You know, I think I'm always excited for
the next one. I'm always excited to see what's next.
And that's why I'm so excited for for Boop. But uh, yeah,
you know I love everything. I mean, I missed my
Madame Secretary guest. I love them all dearly, and I
love doing that show. And uh and my agent really
misses it, my business manager really misses it.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, we'll just talk about tonight because just in case
you have a couple of chairs left, we do.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
In fact, I was on the way down here. They
just we we took out one row of seats. We
put it back in for the cameras, so we have
like one row seats. This is not a line all
the wrong things performing tonight. Nate being so rude to
our guests. No, we love Nate, but he just told us.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
He said they took a row out and now they
put the roe back and now we got to sell
out that road for tonight.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And take a row. Here's the thing we've been figuring.
Oh so, so, oh, here's what you don't know. Teeth. No, no, no, no,
I realized I left something out. We're filming it for TV,
so it's it's gonna be TV special next year. So
we put a rode back in and there are a
few seats left for tonight all on Ticketmaster. Oh yeah,
take a master.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
It's called Dead Funny and all star tribute to Joan Rivers,
of course benefiting Gaunt Love. We delivered it at the
world famous Apollo. I mean, it's gigwi. What's so funny?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I forgot? I forgot. You can see us right now. No,
it's fine. We're just making this and making gestures over here.
It's fine.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
It's gone a thought.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
What's that Gandhi?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Well, you said you wish you were young enough to
sil bey in Jersey voice? Yeah, how so how does
that work with Broadway? Like at what age do you
age out of that role? Because on TV they have
thirty five year olds playing seventeen year old that's right.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Why can't that apply to Broadway? Well, no, it's not
that it can't apply to Broadway. It's that my knees
gave out at a certain point, and I said The
Jersey Boys was a double decker set. No, it's just
I mean that show. You know, I ran my course
in that show. But that show was so great, the
way that it made the audience feel every night. I mean,
it's it's it's uh, what point do people age out
(08:09):
of Broadway? I don't know if you ever age out
of Broadway. I think it's possibly the the It's the
art form for the oldest people in the world. That's
what you just get. Different roles you just keep, you know. Yeah,
I'll go back to Drop. I'm gonna go back Jersey
Boys and play the the the the old mobster that's
you know, lending the boys money. I'll go back and
play that role when they bring it back. So what
are you excited about these days? I mean, have you
(08:30):
seen Sunset Boulevard? I saw Sense of Boulevard in London.
That was the most wild thing I've ever seen in
my life. There's there's I mean, there's lots of incredible
things right now. Sunset's amazing. The Cabaret with Adam Lambert.
I saw it with Eddie Redmain. I haven't seen it
with Adam yet. So good. There's a great show on
Broadway right now called Water for Elephants that has a
few more weeks. Uh. My, my, one of my oldest
(08:52):
friends in the world, Shanna Tao, broke the show called
stuffs that's on Broadway, which is just incredible, especially right now,
but it's kind of the beginning of the the the
women's rights movement, and that has a few more months
on Broadway. There's incredible stuff. I mean, my feeling about
Broadway is buy a ticket, don't research what you're going into.
Just buy a ticket to the thing that looks great,
(09:13):
and off your phone and just go away for two hours.
I mean, it's that that's the best thing in the world.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Nate had a question, what's that name?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Okay as an actor? Oh my god, it's a two
part question. Have you ever had to use a and
how large is your privacy sock? Have you ever had
for one? Yeah? Yeah, this is a great this is
now the world. No, now that we're off the air,
this is a really good question to talk about. And
(09:42):
I would like to I have a whole I have
a whole diagram. Actually what I thought will answer the question.
You'd answer the question. Yeah, Well, I was on CBS
and I and the thing about CBS is if there
was a privacy sock involved, I think most of the
viewership for CBS would have a stroke. I I think so.
I don't think that's it's not it's not what you're
(10:04):
it's not what you're thinking it would be if we
were on AH at home. Nate is so intrigued your
second half. How big the sock? Yeah, it's uh, it's adjustable,
depending depending on what what temperature the shower is, like
(10:25):
soccer sock. Well, I actually it's a compression sock.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
I'm sorry the material to be fair, To be fair,
Eric and I have had this conversation and his word
was epic.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
That's what I heard. That's true. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Okay, So tonight I am.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
So happy I didn't tell my mother to listen in
this morning. This is horrifying. I'm sure she'd be very
proud of you.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, Eric, Eric Bergan of course, uh co executive producing
with Melissa Rivers. Tonight It's Dead Funny, an all star
tribute to John Rivers. Of course, we're raising some money
for our friends at God's Love we deliver at the
Apollo Theater. Go to ticketmaster dot com. Is that where
we're going?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
That's right?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yes, okay, yeah, or you can go to g l
w D dot org to donate money.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Anyway. You're the best, Eric, And next time I want
have my boy, thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I'll
So many reasons we should be thankful for our friend
Eric Bergin. First of all, he's a great guy. He
does great things for the community. We'll get into that
in a minute. Don't know, as he go to get
too big what There's an incredible organization here in New
York City called God's Love We Deliver, and Eric was
so gracious to invite us, all of us over to
help pack food get it ready to go out to
(00:21):
people who really need it. And we appreciate that very much.
I don't think we ever really thanks you properly. Thank
you for getting us involved.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Thank you for coming. It was an incredible day. You
guys were there putting in, putting in some hours in
there we did.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
And I know that you have an event tonight for
God's Love, right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I mean God's Love is one of the you know
institutions in New York City. I mean they what they
do is they cook and home deliver medically tailored meals
to people who are too sick to shop or cook
for themselves all over New York City. They do incredible
work and for so long, Joan Rivers was one of
their biggest champions, and she was on the board and
despite you know, not despite, but besides being one of
(00:59):
the funniest people in the world. She had an incredible heart.
And so tonight we are putting together something I think
she would have loved, which is called Dead Funny, an
all star tribute to Joan Rivers. You know, because she's well,
she's currently dead and she's so funny. Why is something
else gonna happen like she's just currently dead? Well, I
don't know, you know, everything is puzziled these days. So
(01:19):
we're doing it tonight at the Apollo Theater. It is
opening night of the New York Comedy Festival, and we're
raising money for God's Love and it's the lineup is
just nuts.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Well give us the lineup. I know that your co
executive producing this with Melissa Rivers. I am, and who's
on stage being funny? First of all, are you doing
any stand up? Do you do stand up?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Eric? No? The the limits to my comedy are right now.
This is This is as about as funny as I get.
And boy, yeah, exactly, it's a rough crap. No, we
got Tiffany Hattish and oh is she here? No, she's
Oh she's been here. Oh I thought she I thought
she was one of those surprise moments. Yeah she is. Yeah,
(01:59):
we have Michelle Buteaux, Matteo Lane, Randy Rainbow, Joel McHale,
Jeff Ross, Rita Wilson. It's an incredible line up and
that we have a whole slew of surprise guests. So
it's quiet incredible.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Well, so far the line happen is great. We've had
most of those people here with us.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And you don't need to brag. I know you're very fantasy.
I don't know why the name the name. Yeah, I know,
we've all, we've met them all. Screw you, Eric, you
know Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I want to talk to you on about something you
mentioned while the song was playing, you wanting to become
an actor again, even though you're always an actor.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Of course, Eric with huge roles.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
In the musical drama film Jersey Boys. Also, you were
how many seasons in Madam's Secretary.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Big seasons on Madame Secretary.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Huge, huge show. But now here's what I noticed. Right
around pandemic time, Eric kept working, but he was in
a producer's role. You were producing a lot of things
for like people who work in Broadway who lost their jobs.
You did a lot of charity production.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, it almost you still do it is I started
with that very first that the week that COVID shut
down Broadway, I called Rosi O'Donnell and said, will you
do a one night reboot of your show as a
fundraiser for the Actors Fund. We raised like eight hundred
thousand dollars in one night that that very first week
of cod Wow, and then it was off to the races.
The next day. I got all these phone calls from
(03:24):
other charities saying, can you please do that same thing
for us? And I said, no, that's not what I mean.
You're very nice, but that's not what I do. As
it turns out, is what I do. So the Jon
event tonight is something like the three hundred and forty
fifth event I've produced since that time, which is crazy.
It's crazy. I don't sleep. I don't well. I do eat,
(03:45):
but I don't sleep. It's yeah, it's wild. I mean,
it's been a wild, wild time. I'm I'm so I
have this. I have a group of people that I
work with who we produce great things for great causes,
and tonight is certainly one of them. And Elvis, you
did you did a few with with ours. I got Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, but you did you rub card and it worked.
The thing is is, you know over three hundred of
these events you have produced, and you've done a lot
of great things and raise a lot of money and
awareness for incredible organizations. But what about you? What about
that acting itch? Are you acting like well, I want
to act again.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I do have an itch. I am seeing my doctor
about that right after I leave here.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Good idea. Yeah, this is part of the stand up road.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
This is well, I'm trying some material out, you know,
before we go live. The material? Yeah, my a material. Yeah, yes,
I did. I did a few episodes of Bowl. I
went to Broadway and I did Chicago. But the thing
I'm most excited about is in the spring. In April,
i am back to Broadway as a performer and I'll
be in Uh Boop, the Betty Boop musical that is
(04:47):
a while on Broadway that David Boss David Foster wrote
that wrote the score, and Jerry Mitchell, who did Kinky
Boots and Hairspray, is the director of and it's We
We We didn't out of town try out last year,
and it's it's just so much fun. It's just so
much fun, so I will go back to making less
money as an actor in just a few months. Good
(05:09):
for you. That's not a joke. That's real. By the way,
I wanted to get back to making less.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Money, of course, because obviously TV and Broadway are completely different.
Do you prefer one to the other?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, I mean it's there's nothing you get on stage
and there is nothing like that rush. I mean of well,
you know, if there's people in the audience, If there's
no one in the audience, it's a it's a bad thing.
But you know, when you do a killer show on Broadway,
it is a wild rush, that thing that people have
when they have stage fright. The opposite side of that,
that rush you get is it's so it's a rush,
(05:45):
is the best way to describe it. But you have
a dream show that you'd like to do. God, I
don't you know. I wish I was young enough to
do Jersey Boys again because and to play play a
sixteen year old again because it was it was great.
Excuse me, that's not funny. That wasn't a joke.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Oh man, it's that a material coming back.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I'm giving this to Tiffany Hattish tonight. By the way, Yeah,
that's right. You know, I think I'm always excited for
the next one. I'm always excited to see what's next.
And that's why I'm so excited for for Boop. But uh, yeah,
you know I love everything. I mean, I missed my
Madame Secretary guest. I love them all dearly, and I
love doing that show. And uh and my agent really
misses it, my business manager really misses it.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, we'll just talk about tonight because just in case
you have a couple of chairs left, we do.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
In fact, I was on the way down here. They
just we we took out one row of seats. We
put it back in for the cameras, so we have
like one row seats. This is not a line all
the wrong things performing tonight. Nate being so rude to
our guests. No, we love Nate, but he just told us.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
He said they took a row out and now they
put the roe back and now we got to sell
out that road for tonight.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And take a row. Here's the thing we've been figuring.
Oh so, so, oh, here's what you don't know. Teeth. No, no, no, no,
I realized I left something out. We're filming it for TV,
so it's it's gonna be TV special next year. So
we put a rode back in and there are a
few seats left for tonight all on Ticketmaster. Oh yeah,
take a master.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
It's called Dead Funny and all star tribute to Joan Rivers,
of course benefiting Gaunt Love. We delivered it at the
world famous Apollo. I mean, it's gigwi. What's so funny?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I forgot? I forgot. You can see us right now. No,
it's fine. We're just making this and making gestures over here.
It's fine.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
It's gone a thought.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
What's that Gandhi?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Well, you said you wish you were young enough to
sil bey in Jersey voice? Yeah, how so how does
that work with Broadway? Like at what age do you
age out of that role? Because on TV they have
thirty five year olds playing seventeen year old that's right.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Why can't that apply to Broadway? Well, no, it's not
that it can't apply to Broadway. It's that my knees
gave out at a certain point, and I said The
Jersey Boys was a double decker set. No, it's just
I mean that show. You know, I ran my course
in that show. But that show was so great, the
way that it made the audience feel every night. I mean,
it's it's it's uh, what point do people age out
(08:09):
of Broadway? I don't know if you ever age out
of Broadway. I think it's possibly the the It's the
art form for the oldest people in the world. That's
what you just get. Different roles you just keep, you know. Yeah,
I'll go back to Drop. I'm gonna go back Jersey
Boys and play the the the the old mobster that's
you know, lending the boys money. I'll go back and
play that role when they bring it back. So what
are you excited about these days? I mean, have you
(08:30):
seen Sunset Boulevard? I saw Sense of Boulevard in London.
That was the most wild thing I've ever seen in
my life. There's there's I mean, there's lots of incredible
things right now. Sunset's amazing. The Cabaret with Adam Lambert.
I saw it with Eddie Redmain. I haven't seen it
with Adam yet. So good. There's a great show on
Broadway right now called Water for Elephants that has a
few more weeks. Uh. My, my, one of my oldest
(08:52):
friends in the world, Shanna Tao, broke the show called
stuffs that's on Broadway, which is just incredible, especially right now,
but it's kind of the beginning of the the the
women's rights movement, and that has a few more months
on Broadway. There's incredible stuff. I mean, my feeling about
Broadway is buy a ticket, don't research what you're going into.
Just buy a ticket to the thing that looks great,
(09:13):
and off your phone and just go away for two hours.
I mean, it's that that's the best thing in the world.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Nate had a question, what's that name?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Okay as an actor? Oh my god, it's a two
part question. Have you ever had to use a and
how large is your privacy sock? Have you ever had
for one? Yeah? Yeah, this is a great this is
now the world. No, now that we're off the air,
this is a really good question to talk about. And
(09:42):
I would like to I have a whole I have
a whole diagram. Actually what I thought will answer the question.
You'd answer the question. Yeah, Well, I was on CBS
and I and the thing about CBS is if there
was a privacy sock involved, I think most of the
viewership for CBS would have a stroke. I I think so.
I don't think that's it's not it's not what you're
(10:04):
it's not what you're thinking it would be if we
were on AH at home. Nate is so intrigued your
second half. How big the sock? Yeah, it's uh, it's adjustable,
depending depending on what what temperature the shower is, like
(10:25):
soccer sock. Well, I actually it's a compression sock.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
I'm sorry the material to be fair, To be fair,
Eric and I have had this conversation and his word
was epic.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
That's what I heard. That's true. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Okay, So tonight I am.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
So happy I didn't tell my mother to listen in
this morning. This is horrifying. I'm sure she'd be very
proud of you.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, Eric, Eric Bergan of course, uh co executive producing
with Melissa Rivers. Tonight It's Dead Funny, an all star
tribute to John Rivers. Of course, we're raising some money
for our friends at God's Love we deliver at the
Apollo Theater. Go to ticketmaster dot com. Is that where
we're going?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
That's right?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yes, okay, yeah, or you can go to g l
w D dot org to donate money.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Anyway. You're the best, Eric, And next time I want
have my boy, thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I'll
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