September 18, 2025 • 22 mins
Rick welcomes Sal Vulcano and Tommy Davidson to the showl.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, this is Rick Tittle.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Please join me for the Comedy All Stars Podcast powered.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
By the Eight Side Network.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
In each episode, you'll hear from great comedians, from the
biggest names to those just breaking out. They'll talk about
how they got started, what's coming up next for them,
and everything in between, their specials, their albums, their films,
their TV roles. Get ready to laugh and cry and
hear it all. It's the Comedy All Stars Podcast with
(00:28):
Rick Tittle, powered by.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
The Eighth Side.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Welcome back to Sports Byline USA, coast to coast, border
to border and around the world on the American Forces
Radio Network. We've had all of the impractical Jokers on
the show except one, and we are changing that now
because we are quite pleased to have Salvacana on the
show with us, and he is promoting two things. His
Everything Everything's Fine tour, which is going to go until June,
(00:57):
and also his special Tearied sal Welcome to the show.
It seems like those two kind of contradict each other.
Everything's fine and.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Terrified You got it? Yeah, well, I will say everything's fine.
It's sarcastic.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
To the tour.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Poster is me on stage with the stage burning down,
So that's just a tongue in cheek one. But yeah,
I'm actually I've only announced till June, but I'm actually
taking this tour all the way through twenty twenty six,
so I'm always updating those dates. But yeah, I got
that going on and new talk show and new season.
I'm keeping them keeping very busy. I got kids, so
(01:36):
I'm up every day and I'm very tired.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yes, and I noticed that the dates you're going to
start off on the twentieth in Athens, Ohio. You're doing
about one, two, three, four a month. It's not like
you're really road dogging it and never see your family.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
I like the balance there.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, you know what, So I was taking it easy
at the launch here and then I I'm going to
really start doing two three weekends starting in January, because
I am I just finished filming Season twelve of Jokers,
so it was hard to like really go on the
road hard with the Uible room production. So that just ended.
So this is a little holiday time taking it like
(02:16):
easing it in, and then then we're off to the races.
But yeah, it's been nice. It's been nice, just kind
of doing a handful of dates a month, But but
I'm gonna get back into a you know, more frequently
come January.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I would think most guys would be like, you know,
me and my three buddies from high school were really funny.
What if we got a TV show and you kind
of think we did a season?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I can die happy.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
But you guys just keep going strength to strength every year.
It keeps getting bigger and bigger. You got to pinch
yourself sometimes.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I've been to myself every day, man, every single day.
I can't I could not have I couldn't have dreamed
up a more fun, amazing job in life. I'm so
lucky between the show and I've always wanted to be
a stand up com you know, because I'm a little kid,
and that's what I do. So it's just wild. And
(03:09):
it's not even just the guys.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
The guys and I have known each other since nineteen
ninety we all started high school together. We're genuinely like
real life friends. But that crew is like sixty people
deep now, and they've been with us for over a decade.
I mean were we started in twenty ten. So to
go to work with these people to laugh is just wild.
It's just wild.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I love the name of you guys starting off as
the tender Loins, because out here in San Francisco, that's
by far our worst neighborhood. I don't know if you
knew that.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yes, I know, I'm intimate with that, with that neighborhood.
One of our first ever road gigs as a comedy
troop was back in two thousand and three and we
were there was a San Franking Scutch Comedy Festival and
we didn't know anything about about the go and we
(04:00):
booked a hotel in that neighborhood, so, you know, and
it was we were like, oh, look it's our name,
and we're like, oh, that's gonna be great.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
And it was. It was.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
It was, it was, it was. It was fair. It
wasn't great, it was fair.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I remember that Jesus Is about ten years ago. I
interviewed comedians and and your your buddy Christa Stefano is
in studio with me, and then we always have people
signed the wall, and he came in wearing a Mets jersey,
but then he signed the wall. Hey, Rick, San Francisco
for Life, and I was like, oh.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
That's interesting, that's so funny that he said. He I
mean a moment, a moment before we got on the phone,
he texted me. So I'll get him, I'll text him
back and I'll tell him. I'll tell him that it's
pretty good.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
You know what's interesting speaking to podcasts and correct me
if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
I think it was last year.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I was listening to They Might be Drunk with Mark
and Sam who I was lucky to have them many
times before they they really blew up in studio. But
you were talking that you were getting a little fatalistic
like that, you were thinking a lot about death.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Do you remember saying that?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (05:07):
No, I mean I have those two boys and my friends.
I've been on a lot, so I don't remember it.
But down. But but you know my first special ah,
Max are now cool, terrified? And this one is the
stage burned down around me.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
So it sounds like me, well, you just not to
beat a horse.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
But you were like saying, everything's going really well right now,
and so now I'm thinking, uh, oh what if I die?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yeah, that's that's that is how my brain is wired
for sure, Like, oh, something good happen? Okay, where is
the anvil? That's about the pool on my head? You know,
maybebe I grew up. I grew up watching too many
too much a road runner, you know, but I'm always
waiting for the other shoot a full.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Well, you probably, I would say, are the most punished
of all the the jokers.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Do you like it that way?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Well, you're one hundred percent accurate because stats online and
people tell me to my face every day when I
see them, you know, you know, it's so funny. When
the show first started, they did these focus groups and
they found out that people liked when I lost the most.
And I'm quoting this, they said, because people think you
suffer funny and so and that's been like kind of
(06:20):
a little bit of a theme since season one, and
you know, it's it's basically it's a measure of me
saying no the most during the show, or at least
failing to do something they asked me to do. And
I don't think it's changed much. I think we just
finished filming season twelve and I think, man, I think
I lost maybe like maybe like nine times, and Q
(06:42):
lost twice. So it's still going on that way. Basically,
I haven't learned my lesson.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I also know that you went to Saint John's.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I went to a Catholic College too, But I remember
I'm a little bit older than you, and I remember
how great those teams were with Luke Hanseca, Chris Mall
and Mark Jackson. Is it kind of cool that the
Johnny's are I mean, they're not Duke, but they're kind
of back, aren't they.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
It is really cool. Actually, when I was in college
from ninety four to ninety eight, we you know, we
just became the Storm and I think Felipe Lopez was
the big prospect back then. But it's cool being part
of like some you know, a school that has Dision
Division one team. It's like it's it's just something you
(07:28):
can kind of hold on to and and you know,
be kind of proud of when you're in school. So
it was always it was always really cool that, like
because I also mostly went to the Staten Island campus
and that like, you know, it's really based in Jamaica
Queen's so I always felt like I was like just
a little bit adjacent to it. But the team and
being able to roof of the team made it like
way more inclusive.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I think what's interesting too is all the times I've
been in New York, Staten Island is the only borough
I haven't gone to. And you think about all the
funny people coming out there around, you know, like Colin
jose and Pete Davidson and you and your and you know,
Chrissy d.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Was there for a little bit.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
But is it.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Because you know you got to take a ferry?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Why do you think Staten Island is kind of like,
you know, at least for the tourists, they don't go there.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, well, well the only ones that, like you have
to take a boat or a bridge to. I think
people are intimidating it. We're more of a city of
like a town of parks and suburbs. So I think
people are like, well, I mean when you when you
come to New York, how many days do you have?
And I mean you've got to check out you know,
Manhattan and probably Brooklyn and even if you're going to
catch a game, you're going to Queens of the Bronx.
(08:34):
So you know, we're called the forgotten borough for a reason.
But I think I think that there's something in the
dna of being that we're called the step child of
the city that kind of makes you, you know, on
the outside looking in and uh, and you know, I
don't know. I think it's funny because you know, not
that long ago that there weren't really that many names
(08:55):
coming out of Staten Island per se, that you know,
at least in comedy, we always have the Rutsan clan
and we'll have you know, people that came before us.
But like, it's cool now to be like in a
little bit of a community with my friends Colin and
Pete and stuff. And I think that we're just raised differently,
you know, here, and I think it just provides a
different kind of perspective. I think, I don't know, but
(09:16):
you know, we're New Yorkers, but we're like but we're
also like suburb kids, and so I guess we have
a unique you know perspective growing up in this city
but also kind of growing up with like a touchstone
to like the rest of the country being in the suburbs.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, I'm probably the best place to raise a family
of all the boroughs, right.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
I mean, yeah, I mean I guess so, I mean,
you know, as far as like that actual kind of lifestyle, yeah,
we have that in space really, So yeah, I'm raising
my family here and I was raised here. I mean,
everyone I know has left. But but I'm standing firm,
God dammit, and I am here. I'm gonna stick with it.
(10:03):
But no, you know it's cool. I mean like, I'm
only ten minutes outside of the city, so it doesn't
feel like I'm in some like you know, no man's
land or anything. And I work in the city every day.
But I think New York is a really great place
to be raised. It's just like you just experience everything
there is to experience, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah, No, I love it all right, everybody. I know
you got to run at Salvacano the Everything Finds toy
You can go get the tickets that punch Up Live
as well the Terrified Special as well.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Make sure to check that out. Sal great stuff, man,
And if you're ever in San Francisco, come by the studio.
We'd love to have you.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Love to be there, man, Thank you so much for
taking the time.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
All right, good stuff, I'm Marick Tedda.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
We'll take a quick break and we will come home
back on sports Byline.
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Speaker 2 (11:46):
You're listening to the comedy All Stars Podcast with Rick
Tittle powered by eight Side Network. Thank you for that,
and welcome back to the show. Rick Tittal with you
coast to coast and around the world on the American
Forces Video Network. Always great when we can get the
great Tommy Davidson on the show. Many years ago. He
(12:07):
was in studio with me here and his energy was
absolutely legendary in the building. Tommy has two things he'd
like to promote right now. One of them is his
new jazz single rocketing up the charts called Take My Hand.
Another one is a new comedy series called Varnell with
Martin Lawrence. Tommy, welcome back to the show. You and
(12:29):
Martin correct me if I'm wrong. You guys go way back,
like when you first moved to California, right, yeah, we do.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
We back thirty five years ago and first time we
worked together besides the time we did on his TV show.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Now, you guys were just like in the same building,
right You didn't like meet up at the store or something.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Right where we moved out here. We moved in the
same apartment building we started.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
So Varnell.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I actually grew up in Richmond, California with a dude
named Varnell.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Tell us a little bit about that show, please, really
you did? Yeah, big fat guy.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah. Varnell Rnell is local talk shows in California now,
but back then his show was hot thirty five years
later and it's actually a show about a talk show
that's really a talk show, a late night talk show,
(13:39):
and it's funny as hell. Man Martin signed off on it.
We started wait to five years to get it done.
It's a hot show, man, get all the guests we
want because of our notoriety, and it's just fun. Man.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Is it kind of like Larry Sanders where everyone plays
themselves except for the host?
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Yeah, yeah, man, that's good stuff.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
It's pretty cool, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
And I saw that you are such a triple threat
with your single. The first thing I thought of was,
like when you used to do like Algio, Like when
you're singing, how hard is it for you not to
just go into somebody else and start clowning.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
It's very hard. It's hard to sing without them to
save me too, you know. So you know it's just
you know, I'm walking the plank now, you know. But
I'll get used to it, just like I do with
stand up, you know, I've been performing sings since I
was a kid. You just haven't done it in a while.
(14:45):
But I'm ready. I wouldn't have started. I wouldn't started
something that I couldn't finish.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
We're about the same age, and every once in a
while I'll find myself just walking down the street in
my head, I'm.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Going weird.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Either, ah night, I can't help it.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
That's the game that last fore or now people ask me, uh,
these days you would ask, do you know?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah? I think he might have been the first dude
to rock the backwards cagle too.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
I give him that.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Yeah, man, you know it right, you're right about that. Yeah,
you look like a came doing it.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
For a while there. I love that. I mean, do
we call it a comeback?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I mean it's been a while, but for a while
there you were like, I'm kind of done with Hollywood?
Did you like you you took some time off, right?
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Yeah? Man? Yeah, you know it was just one of
the you know, it was a life break. Really, It's just,
you know, I couldn't redefined the direction that I'm going
in and it wasn't for that, you know what I mean,
I know, just like life can do it, can it
can it can divertue, you know, you evaluate, and that's
(16:13):
what happened. Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
You know.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
And and the love of this I had taken for granted,
you know. And now I'm just so grateful that I'm
doing what I'm doing. And I realized what I'm doing
everybody can't do, you know what I mean, And it
(16:39):
just it just feels good. And me going into music
was a free freedom of choice.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
You know.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Most of the projects that I have have been around
for years and I worked very hard on them, and
I and I just, you know, I just love my life.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I remember going to see Smashing Pumpkin a few years
ago and at the end we gave Billy Corgan a
standing ovation and he said, you know what, I really appreciated.
He goes, there was a long time in my career
when I didn't appreciate it, and now I really do.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I can understand.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I remember Dana Gould sitting in here with me, like
I don't know, ten years ago, saying, well, this is
how my career went.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Now I know how it went.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
And since that time, he made Stand against Evil, he
did a movie with Bob kat He did, you.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Know, he kind of thought he was done. You ain't
done until you quit, right.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And there's there's you know, there's so
much more life than what we do too, you know.
Matter of fact, you know, the more you blend them,
the better both get. You know.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I think it's nuts now that in Living Color is
like an oldie, you know, it's like classic. It's like
Carol Burne that now or something, your show of shows.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Right, yeah, man, you know I got full grown me
and going out. I was born when it was on.
I'm like, get out of here. Yeah yeah, it's I
just got my stage and every beard and everything. You know.
I'm like, yeah, because you look at me, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Well, that's what I hate too.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Ice to coach high school football in my twenties, and
now these guys walking up to me with gray beards
and they're bald and they go, hey, coach, and I'm like, oh,
oh damn, what happened? So uh the song tell me
about come take my hand please.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
I threw in the police by the way, let's come
take my hand.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Oh yeah, yeah, I got it.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
I got it like I got it.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Nineteen eighty eight, Stanley Clark had a song called come
take my hand. And you know, I was planned to
make it in Hollywood and had met him, and that
was just one of those songs that stuck with me
over the years. See, if I ever become a recording artist,
I want to be able to make that song so
I can talk about that experience. And there it is.
(19:17):
There's a song. And that was you know, my first
movie and first TV series and you know, just really
starting out. That song really kept me inspired to some
hard times for people.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, for people who don't know. Stanley Clark was a
bassist who basically he was winning Grammys plural as a
basis which like no one had ever done.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
Right ever. Yeah, a super beautiful thing. The jazz and
then became a friend.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah, the jazz few I'm always because jazz is so
hard to explain sometimes because some people might say that's jazz, no,
that is, or it all is and sometimes jazz fusion
right right, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Mm hmmmm, Yeah, I go. I adhere to like the
smooth jazz genre. I could do any kind of music,
but I needed to get into the business first, and
so smooth jazz is a good key because I can
(20:35):
do it quality and there's an audience for me. Yeah,
I kind of hard to do something with that, you know,
especially when I looked at how music worked. And now,
if I got a million called million bucks to give somebody,
I can go to him tipop sure.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
You know.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Or if now I wanted to get my you know,
eyeball shot out, I can go into hip hop you know,
or or or you know or have like you know,
three thousand people tell me how bad I am, but
yet they they're sleeping on a living room, couching their
porch in Buffalo, you know what I mean. Well, I
(21:18):
like that.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I like how can transition into like smooth R and B,
you know, like Jeffrey Osborne and that type of thing
that's kind of in my yeah, my groove.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Well, I know you got to run exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
So I want everybody to make sure they check out
the new song from Tommy Davidson. Come take my hand,
And when can we see Varnell with Martin?
Speaker 4 (21:40):
You know, it's kind of on BD plus. We did
eight episodes which will go on the air if they
want to keep us and let us know and both
they'll let us know when they're ready. But the bottom
line is is that we did them and they came
out great. And that you know, that's our only part.
We can only do our job.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
You know, how could it not come out great with
you guys. Great stuff, Tommy Davidson, always a pleasure. Next
time you're in San Francisco, come on bye, man.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
We all love you here.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Wow Man, thank you, Bro, appreciate it, Love it up.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Beard, all right, great stuff. I'm Rick Tittle.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Will take a break and we will get on back
on Sports Byline USA. Thanks for listening in to the
Comedy All Stars Podcast with Rick Tittle on the eight
Side Network.
Hi, this is Rick Tittle.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Please join me for the Comedy All Stars Podcast powered.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
By the Eight Side Network.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
In each episode, you'll hear from great comedians, from the
biggest names to those just breaking out. They'll talk about
how they got started, what's coming up next for them,
and everything in between, their specials, their albums, their films,
their TV roles. Get ready to laugh and cry and
hear it all. It's the Comedy All Stars Podcast with
(00:28):
Rick Tittle, powered by.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
The Eighth Side.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Welcome back to Sports Byline USA, coast to coast, border
to border and around the world on the American Forces
Radio Network. We've had all of the impractical Jokers on
the show except one, and we are changing that now
because we are quite pleased to have Salvacana on the
show with us, and he is promoting two things. His
Everything Everything's Fine tour, which is going to go until June,
(00:57):
and also his special Tearied sal Welcome to the show.
It seems like those two kind of contradict each other.
Everything's fine and.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Terrified You got it? Yeah, well, I will say everything's fine.
It's sarcastic.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
To the tour.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Poster is me on stage with the stage burning down,
So that's just a tongue in cheek one. But yeah,
I'm actually I've only announced till June, but I'm actually
taking this tour all the way through twenty twenty six,
so I'm always updating those dates. But yeah, I got
that going on and new talk show and new season.
I'm keeping them keeping very busy. I got kids, so
(01:36):
I'm up every day and I'm very tired.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yes, and I noticed that the dates you're going to
start off on the twentieth in Athens, Ohio. You're doing
about one, two, three, four a month. It's not like
you're really road dogging it and never see your family.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
I like the balance there.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, you know what, So I was taking it easy
at the launch here and then I I'm going to
really start doing two three weekends starting in January, because
I am I just finished filming Season twelve of Jokers,
so it was hard to like really go on the
road hard with the Uible room production. So that just ended.
So this is a little holiday time taking it like
(02:16):
easing it in, and then then we're off to the races.
But yeah, it's been nice. It's been nice, just kind
of doing a handful of dates a month, But but
I'm gonna get back into a you know, more frequently
come January.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I would think most guys would be like, you know,
me and my three buddies from high school were really funny.
What if we got a TV show and you kind
of think we did a season?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I can die happy.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
But you guys just keep going strength to strength every year.
It keeps getting bigger and bigger. You got to pinch
yourself sometimes.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I've been to myself every day, man, every single day.
I can't I could not have I couldn't have dreamed
up a more fun, amazing job in life. I'm so
lucky between the show and I've always wanted to be
a stand up com you know, because I'm a little kid,
and that's what I do. So it's just wild. And
(03:09):
it's not even just the guys.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
The guys and I have known each other since nineteen
ninety we all started high school together. We're genuinely like
real life friends. But that crew is like sixty people
deep now, and they've been with us for over a decade.
I mean were we started in twenty ten. So to
go to work with these people to laugh is just wild.
It's just wild.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I love the name of you guys starting off as
the tender Loins, because out here in San Francisco, that's
by far our worst neighborhood. I don't know if you
knew that.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yes, I know, I'm intimate with that, with that neighborhood.
One of our first ever road gigs as a comedy
troop was back in two thousand and three and we
were there was a San Franking Scutch Comedy Festival and
we didn't know anything about about the go and we
(04:00):
booked a hotel in that neighborhood, so, you know, and
it was we were like, oh, look it's our name,
and we're like, oh, that's gonna be great.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
And it was. It was.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
It was, it was, it was. It was fair. It
wasn't great, it was fair.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I remember that Jesus Is about ten years ago. I
interviewed comedians and and your your buddy Christa Stefano is
in studio with me, and then we always have people
signed the wall, and he came in wearing a Mets jersey,
but then he signed the wall. Hey, Rick, San Francisco
for Life, and I was like, oh.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
That's interesting, that's so funny that he said. He I
mean a moment, a moment before we got on the phone,
he texted me. So I'll get him, I'll text him
back and I'll tell him. I'll tell him that it's
pretty good.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
You know what's interesting speaking to podcasts and correct me
if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
I think it was last year.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I was listening to They Might be Drunk with Mark
and Sam who I was lucky to have them many
times before they they really blew up in studio. But
you were talking that you were getting a little fatalistic
like that, you were thinking a lot about death.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Do you remember saying that?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (05:07):
No, I mean I have those two boys and my friends.
I've been on a lot, so I don't remember it.
But down. But but you know my first special ah,
Max are now cool, terrified? And this one is the
stage burned down around me.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
So it sounds like me, well, you just not to
beat a horse.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
But you were like saying, everything's going really well right now,
and so now I'm thinking, uh, oh what if I die?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yeah, that's that's that is how my brain is wired
for sure, Like, oh, something good happen? Okay, where is
the anvil? That's about the pool on my head? You know,
maybebe I grew up. I grew up watching too many
too much a road runner, you know, but I'm always
waiting for the other shoot a full.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Well, you probably, I would say, are the most punished
of all the the jokers.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Do you like it that way?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Well, you're one hundred percent accurate because stats online and
people tell me to my face every day when I
see them, you know, you know, it's so funny. When
the show first started, they did these focus groups and
they found out that people liked when I lost the most.
And I'm quoting this, they said, because people think you
suffer funny and so and that's been like kind of
(06:20):
a little bit of a theme since season one, and
you know, it's it's basically it's a measure of me
saying no the most during the show, or at least
failing to do something they asked me to do. And
I don't think it's changed much. I think we just
finished filming season twelve and I think, man, I think
I lost maybe like maybe like nine times, and Q
(06:42):
lost twice. So it's still going on that way. Basically,
I haven't learned my lesson.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I also know that you went to Saint John's.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I went to a Catholic College too, But I remember
I'm a little bit older than you, and I remember
how great those teams were with Luke Hanseca, Chris Mall
and Mark Jackson. Is it kind of cool that the
Johnny's are I mean, they're not Duke, but they're kind
of back, aren't they.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
It is really cool. Actually, when I was in college
from ninety four to ninety eight, we you know, we
just became the Storm and I think Felipe Lopez was
the big prospect back then. But it's cool being part
of like some you know, a school that has Dision
Division one team. It's like it's it's just something you
(07:28):
can kind of hold on to and and you know,
be kind of proud of when you're in school. So
it was always it was always really cool that, like
because I also mostly went to the Staten Island campus
and that like, you know, it's really based in Jamaica
Queen's so I always felt like I was like just
a little bit adjacent to it. But the team and
being able to roof of the team made it like
way more inclusive.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I think what's interesting too is all the times I've
been in New York, Staten Island is the only borough
I haven't gone to. And you think about all the
funny people coming out there around, you know, like Colin
jose and Pete Davidson and you and your and you know,
Chrissy d.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Was there for a little bit.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
But is it.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Because you know you got to take a ferry?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Why do you think Staten Island is kind of like,
you know, at least for the tourists, they don't go there.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, well, well the only ones that, like you have
to take a boat or a bridge to. I think
people are intimidating it. We're more of a city of
like a town of parks and suburbs. So I think
people are like, well, I mean when you when you
come to New York, how many days do you have?
And I mean you've got to check out you know,
Manhattan and probably Brooklyn and even if you're going to
catch a game, you're going to Queens of the Bronx.
(08:34):
So you know, we're called the forgotten borough for a reason.
But I think I think that there's something in the
dna of being that we're called the step child of
the city that kind of makes you, you know, on
the outside looking in and uh, and you know, I
don't know. I think it's funny because you know, not
that long ago that there weren't really that many names
(08:55):
coming out of Staten Island per se, that you know,
at least in comedy, we always have the Rutsan clan
and we'll have you know, people that came before us.
But like, it's cool now to be like in a
little bit of a community with my friends Colin and
Pete and stuff. And I think that we're just raised differently,
you know, here, and I think it just provides a
different kind of perspective. I think, I don't know, but
(09:16):
you know, we're New Yorkers, but we're like but we're
also like suburb kids, and so I guess we have
a unique you know perspective growing up in this city
but also kind of growing up with like a touchstone
to like the rest of the country being in the suburbs.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, I'm probably the best place to raise a family
of all the boroughs, right.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
I mean, yeah, I mean I guess so, I mean,
you know, as far as like that actual kind of lifestyle, yeah,
we have that in space really, So yeah, I'm raising
my family here and I was raised here. I mean,
everyone I know has left. But but I'm standing firm,
God dammit, and I am here. I'm gonna stick with it.
(10:03):
But no, you know it's cool. I mean like, I'm
only ten minutes outside of the city, so it doesn't
feel like I'm in some like you know, no man's
land or anything. And I work in the city every day.
But I think New York is a really great place
to be raised. It's just like you just experience everything
there is to experience, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah, No, I love it all right, everybody. I know
you got to run at Salvacano the Everything Finds toy
You can go get the tickets that punch Up Live
as well the Terrified Special as well.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Make sure to check that out. Sal great stuff, man,
And if you're ever in San Francisco, come by the studio.
We'd love to have you.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Love to be there, man, Thank you so much for
taking the time.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
All right, good stuff, I'm Marick Tedda.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
We'll take a quick break and we will come home
back on sports Byline.
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Speaker 2 (11:46):
You're listening to the comedy All Stars Podcast with Rick
Tittle powered by eight Side Network. Thank you for that,
and welcome back to the show. Rick Tittal with you
coast to coast and around the world on the American
Forces Video Network. Always great when we can get the
great Tommy Davidson on the show. Many years ago. He
(12:07):
was in studio with me here and his energy was
absolutely legendary in the building. Tommy has two things he'd
like to promote right now. One of them is his
new jazz single rocketing up the charts called Take My Hand.
Another one is a new comedy series called Varnell with
Martin Lawrence. Tommy, welcome back to the show. You and
(12:29):
Martin correct me if I'm wrong. You guys go way back,
like when you first moved to California, right, yeah, we do.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
We back thirty five years ago and first time we
worked together besides the time we did on his TV show.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Now, you guys were just like in the same building,
right You didn't like meet up at the store or something.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Right where we moved out here. We moved in the
same apartment building we started.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
So Varnell.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I actually grew up in Richmond, California with a dude
named Varnell.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Tell us a little bit about that show, please, really
you did? Yeah, big fat guy.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah. Varnell Rnell is local talk shows in California now,
but back then his show was hot thirty five years
later and it's actually a show about a talk show
that's really a talk show, a late night talk show,
(13:39):
and it's funny as hell. Man Martin signed off on it.
We started wait to five years to get it done.
It's a hot show, man, get all the guests we
want because of our notoriety, and it's just fun. Man.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Is it kind of like Larry Sanders where everyone plays
themselves except for the host?
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Yeah, yeah, man, that's good stuff.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
It's pretty cool, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
And I saw that you are such a triple threat
with your single. The first thing I thought of was,
like when you used to do like Algio, Like when
you're singing, how hard is it for you not to
just go into somebody else and start clowning.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
It's very hard. It's hard to sing without them to
save me too, you know. So you know it's just
you know, I'm walking the plank now, you know. But
I'll get used to it, just like I do with
stand up, you know, I've been performing sings since I
was a kid. You just haven't done it in a while.
(14:45):
But I'm ready. I wouldn't have started. I wouldn't started
something that I couldn't finish.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
We're about the same age, and every once in a
while I'll find myself just walking down the street in
my head, I'm.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Going weird.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Either, ah night, I can't help it.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
That's the game that last fore or now people ask me, uh,
these days you would ask, do you know?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah? I think he might have been the first dude
to rock the backwards cagle too.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
I give him that.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Yeah, man, you know it right, you're right about that. Yeah,
you look like a came doing it.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
For a while there. I love that. I mean, do
we call it a comeback?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I mean it's been a while, but for a while
there you were like, I'm kind of done with Hollywood?
Did you like you you took some time off, right?
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Yeah? Man? Yeah, you know it was just one of
the you know, it was a life break. Really, It's just,
you know, I couldn't redefined the direction that I'm going
in and it wasn't for that, you know what I mean,
I know, just like life can do it, can it
can it can divertue, you know, you evaluate, and that's
(16:13):
what happened. Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
You know.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
And and the love of this I had taken for granted,
you know. And now I'm just so grateful that I'm
doing what I'm doing. And I realized what I'm doing
everybody can't do, you know what I mean, And it
(16:39):
just it just feels good. And me going into music
was a free freedom of choice.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
You know.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Most of the projects that I have have been around
for years and I worked very hard on them, and
I and I just, you know, I just love my life.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I remember going to see Smashing Pumpkin a few years
ago and at the end we gave Billy Corgan a
standing ovation and he said, you know what, I really appreciated.
He goes, there was a long time in my career
when I didn't appreciate it, and now I really do.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I can understand.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I remember Dana Gould sitting in here with me, like
I don't know, ten years ago, saying, well, this is
how my career went.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Now I know how it went.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
And since that time, he made Stand against Evil, he
did a movie with Bob kat He did, you.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Know, he kind of thought he was done. You ain't
done until you quit, right.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And there's there's you know, there's so
much more life than what we do too, you know.
Matter of fact, you know, the more you blend them,
the better both get. You know.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I think it's nuts now that in Living Color is
like an oldie, you know, it's like classic. It's like
Carol Burne that now or something, your show of shows.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Right, yeah, man, you know I got full grown me
and going out. I was born when it was on.
I'm like, get out of here. Yeah yeah, it's I
just got my stage and every beard and everything. You know.
I'm like, yeah, because you look at me, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Well, that's what I hate too.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Ice to coach high school football in my twenties, and
now these guys walking up to me with gray beards
and they're bald and they go, hey, coach, and I'm like, oh,
oh damn, what happened? So uh the song tell me
about come take my hand please.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
I threw in the police by the way, let's come
take my hand.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Oh yeah, yeah, I got it.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
I got it like I got it.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Nineteen eighty eight, Stanley Clark had a song called come
take my hand. And you know, I was planned to
make it in Hollywood and had met him, and that
was just one of those songs that stuck with me
over the years. See, if I ever become a recording artist,
I want to be able to make that song so
I can talk about that experience. And there it is.
(19:17):
There's a song. And that was you know, my first
movie and first TV series and you know, just really
starting out. That song really kept me inspired to some
hard times for people.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, for people who don't know. Stanley Clark was a
bassist who basically he was winning Grammys plural as a
basis which like no one had ever done.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
Right ever. Yeah, a super beautiful thing. The jazz and
then became a friend.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah, the jazz few I'm always because jazz is so
hard to explain sometimes because some people might say that's jazz, no,
that is, or it all is and sometimes jazz fusion
right right, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Mm hmmmm, Yeah, I go. I adhere to like the
smooth jazz genre. I could do any kind of music,
but I needed to get into the business first, and
so smooth jazz is a good key because I can
(20:35):
do it quality and there's an audience for me. Yeah,
I kind of hard to do something with that, you know,
especially when I looked at how music worked. And now,
if I got a million called million bucks to give somebody,
I can go to him tipop sure.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
You know.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Or if now I wanted to get my you know,
eyeball shot out, I can go into hip hop you know,
or or or you know or have like you know,
three thousand people tell me how bad I am, but
yet they they're sleeping on a living room, couching their
porch in Buffalo, you know what I mean. Well, I
(21:18):
like that.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I like how can transition into like smooth R and B,
you know, like Jeffrey Osborne and that type of thing
that's kind of in my yeah, my groove.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Well, I know you got to run exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
So I want everybody to make sure they check out
the new song from Tommy Davidson. Come take my hand,
And when can we see Varnell with Martin?
Speaker 4 (21:40):
You know, it's kind of on BD plus. We did
eight episodes which will go on the air if they
want to keep us and let us know and both
they'll let us know when they're ready. But the bottom
line is is that we did them and they came
out great. And that you know, that's our only part.
We can only do our job.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
You know, how could it not come out great with
you guys. Great stuff, Tommy Davidson, always a pleasure. Next
time you're in San Francisco, come on bye, man.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
We all love you here.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Wow Man, thank you, Bro, appreciate it, Love it up.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Beard, all right, great stuff. I'm Rick Tittle.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Will take a break and we will get on back
on Sports Byline USA. Thanks for listening in to the
Comedy All Stars Podcast with Rick Tittle on the eight
Side Network.
Host
Rick Tittle
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