July 23, 2024 • 48 mins
On today’s episode, comedian Gary Vider talks about growing up with a con man, as Brian admits to a minor scam of his own. Gary describes his years-long grift at Madison Square Garden, going to dog college, becoming a father himself, and his new podcast about his life, #1 Dad, out now from iHeart.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I went to three high schools, so I was kind
of able to like reinvent myself when I would go
to each high school. So I saw, okay, you know,
I had friends of my first high school kids I
grew up with. They think I'm funny, but you know,
they know me. So I need to figure out am
I funny? At this next high school I go to,
and I remember I was funny, and then I remember
(00:21):
I came out a little too strong, eventually being too funny,
and then that becomes annoying. And then I went to
a third high school, I'm like, all right, I kind
of get the idea I could tone it down. And
then I went to college and I'm like, all right,
kind of have a good balance. Hi. I'm Gary Veeter
and I am the host of the limited series podcast
(00:43):
Number one Dad.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Hello again, everybody, and welcome back to the place you
want to be right here on Off the Beat with
your host Brian Bongertner. Of course, my guest today is
an extremely talented stand up comedian, Gary Veader. He really
tickles me. He's dry and understated, but very very clever
(01:16):
and sharp my kind of humor for sure. He's performed
on Conan, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and he
was even a finalist on America's Got Talent. He tours
and performs all over the country, or if you prefer
to stay home, He has a stand up special out
now on YouTube called It Could Be Worse. For his
(01:38):
most recent act, Gary is going back to his very
unique childhood, I love this. You see. Gary's dad was
a real deal con artist. Now we're talking a list
of aliases, fake accounts, shady deals, rated by federal agents.
Kind of con artist. And he even brought his young
(02:01):
son Gary in on some of his scams, like sneaking
into Disneyland or photo copying dollar bills for lunch money,
and even making Gary pretend to be a reporter to
get access to Madison Square Garden, interviewing players including even
Michael Jordan himself. Now, even though he cut his dad
(02:24):
out of his life over twenty years ago, Gary is
now revisiting all of these memories, plus the stories he's
heard from other people, and attempting to reconnect and reconcile
with his father. Luckily, he has recorded his journey for
you and me to listen to on his new podcast,
Number one, Dad Give It a listen. I promise you
(02:46):
won't be disappointed. Please welcome my fascinating, upstanding and well
very funny new friend, Gary Veder.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Bubble and squeak. I love it, Bubble and squeak, Bubble
and squeak. I cook get every mole lift over from.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
The night before.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
What's up, Gary?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
What's up man? How's it going.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Good?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I'm a big fan of the Office, so this is
super cool.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Oh you you are you've seen it before?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Oh, I mean many times over, So this is super cool.
I love it now.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, thank you. That's very nice. I mean mostly people
don't say nice things to me. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You deserve it. And you were are you?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Were you an og or did you find it later?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
No og? I watched it when I was in college,
so it was pretty. It was super cool. And then
I mean it hit, it hit big time. I loved it. No,
I mean, you know it was different than you know
when you find a good show. It's just so nice
and uh yeah, I mean I love Seinfeld. And then
I put for me, I put it right up there
with Seinfeld, and I mean, it was just an incredible show.
(04:13):
And I was said when it when it when it
went off the you know, I mean obviously you completed it.
It was it was a completed show. But I was
sad when it happened when it went on.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Where did you go to college?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
No, we're good University at Buffalo.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Why is that nowhere? Good?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I mean it's a college and you know you pay
for it, but it's not really educational experience. You're just
going to get a degree. And anybody, I feel they
would you know, if a dog went there, it's as
good as a dog. It's like a dog college. That's
probably never happened back, you know, I know it.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yes, this is your all, my moter. You can't say
things like that. I just had a couple of uh,
very entertaining days and evenings and in in Buffalo. I
it was, it was good. What's the place Pink's Pinkies
with the steaks?
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Oh, I don't know. Very late, I don't know about Pinky's.
I know Anchor Bar. I mean there's Anchors and Duffs.
Anchor Bar is a famous one. Duffs.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
That's the whole what do you call it? The wings? Right?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, the supposedly supposedly they started the wings and that
was the big that was the big thing for Anchor Bar,
and they make great wings. They make great wings, duff says,
great wings, and it's kind of if you're from Buffalo.
Those they'll argue who has the best wings. And I
think the people, yeah, I think people from Buffalo. They
go with Duffs a lot. That's their thing. So they
(05:42):
could tell an outside if they pick Ancher Bar. But
my friend actually saw O J. Simpson OJ I said
it was weird.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
But O J.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Simpson at Anchor Bar, Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was a
good guy.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
O J.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Simpson was a good guy.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
But O J.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Simpson not so good.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Uh but yeah O J.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Simpson at ankle Or Bar once and uh yeah he
stabbed them.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Wow he like everybody that I didn't hear that news.
Yeah was this before OJ's problem or after this?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Was this was?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Is that yeah his little miss out? Yeah yeah it's
yeah LEAs right, Yeah, but no, yeah this was after.
This was after this is when he got away you know,
doing it. But hey, so that's it J talk.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Ye're yeah, that's a race we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Shimpson are Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Shims Look, we did our crack research team here analyzed
your life, put you at a computer, spit out a
bunch of data to me. I am totally fascinated, so fascinating.
In fact, i've I have not started your show, but
I have seen all of your teasers and tray. I
(07:00):
am so excited to listen to it. This is not
a joke. Thank you podcast number one Dad, which is
is rolling out as we speak. This is fascinating. You
partnered with Big Money Players podcast, Will Ferrell's podcast Empire.
It's about Gary's family. So I want to start. Usually
(07:23):
I sort of go more chronological here, but this is
a This is a part of your newest project, which
was your your childhood growing up? So where did where
did you grow up?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I grew up on Long Island in a town called
dick Hills.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
And yeah the Unfortunate game.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, I know, unfortunate name, and we're thinking about changing
it for the podcast, even though the podcast is completely true,
like can we get rid of that? But yeah, it's
a podcast called and at least it was not called
Little dick Hills. But anyway, I enjoy. You know, when
I decided to do this podcast, you have to be
very vulnerable, and I was not. Uh when I when
(08:03):
I pitched the idea, I didn't expect it necessarily to happen.
And then as soon as they're like, oh, we're gonna
we agree to this. Nobody ever agrees to anything that
I ever pitched or but they agreed, and there Now
the whole plan is that I go and I tracked
down my father, who I haven't talked to in twenty
four years. And my dad is a con man. So we,
(08:24):
uh we ran a bunch of cons together, which sounds.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
No, but so but this so I want. So you're
grow you're growing up there in Long Island, and are
you aware that your dad is a con man? As
a kid, Now, I know we're going to talk about
your Madison Square Garden experiences, so obviously there were things
that happened. Are you aware that he is growing up
or is he just dad?
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Well, he's dad, but I wouldn't say I knew that
he was a con man. I knew that he would
kind of cut corners to get around, you get around.
I didn't know the name con man necessarily, but as
I got older, I was like, oh, this, this, this
is what a con artist is. And my dad is
I think one of the best at this because he
never doesn't seem to ever get caught. He gets what
(09:07):
he wants. He's able to manipulate different situations, and yeah,
I would just watch him, you know, could be small things,
but we would be going to Disneyland, and this is
back when Disneyland used to get a stamp on your hand,
and he would have my entire family lick their hands
and then just press it against his, which would get
the stamp, and then we would have all get access
(09:29):
to Disneyland, you know, a simple thing.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
And he'd pay one on one ticket, one ticket. Yeah,
he would pay for one.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Ticket and he would get four other people and for free,
and they you know till they you know, this is
back in the eighties early nineties when you were able
to do this. And he would always find ways, creative
ways to cut corners and wouldn't really care if the
kids were involved or were aware of like what he
was doing. And yeah, pretty much, you know, it was
(09:59):
everything his businesses the same thing. He was involved in
different scams where he had a furniture company and he
wasn't delivering the furniture. And these are a lot of
these scams were things that you could get away with
in the eighties and the nineties, because it's pretty hard
when somebody doesn't get their furniture delivered to figure out
who do I complain to? And am I going to
start making ninety phone calls and waiting on hold for
(10:22):
hours to get to the bottom of this and then
there not to be any resolution. So my dad would
figure out these ways to yeah, definitely rip people off
and get away with it, and he was successful at that.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Wait. So he was the furniture delivery person.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
He owned the whole sorry, he owned the showroom. And
there are people that would get their furniture, but then
there are also people that he just would not deliver
their furniture too. So it was, you know, kind of
a plus minus game where maybe let's say, you know,
ninety percent of people were getting their furniture, but then
ten percent was just handing him money and then he
would never deliver it. Eventually, the Attorney General of New
(11:03):
York State got wind of it and went after him.
But for years he was very successful in doing this
and then just collecting one hundred percent profit and not
delivering the furniture.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So you mentioned before, he he didn't have any sort
of he had no qualms about including you the children, correct,
and how many how many siblings were there?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I have two older sisters.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Okay, so the three of you and is he is
is it? Is there an attitude of hey, son, let me,
let me, let me, let me show you what we
can do here, like is heching you?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah. It was all lesson absolutely grooming me to be
him and kind of showing me, oh, this is how
life works. And we you know, we're seeing I'm seeing
this at his kneeland. I'm seeing this, you know, if
we're going to the movie theater, you know, sometimes you
know you're gonna go with the movie theater with your
parent and my dad and my experience was we would
(12:09):
sneak in. There was no there was no difference except
that he wouldn't want to pay, and he just found
this easy way to do it. You know whatever. It's
me going under the ropes, just like I mean, kids
sneak in all the time, but not with their parents.
So my dad would have me going under the ropes
and then I would be down the corridor and then
he would tell the usher, hey, my son has my ticket.
(12:29):
And I'm you know, seven to ten years old at
the time, and I looked even younger when I would
be ten, I would look like I'm seven. So it
worked to his advantage the way that I looked and
for him to have access. And of course we would
see his movies at the same time. It wouldn't be
movies that I would want to see. What we would
be saying. You know, we'd be seeing Rambo and I
(12:50):
would see I remember seeing dances with wolves. So there
was all the things that he was interested in. Going
to say, but but yeah, but I was growing up
quick and taking the life lessons that he taught me.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Well, I want to talk about that, but before I've
got to mention Madison Square Garden. So you guys would
consistently how would you get into Madison Square Garden? Because
that feels like, yeah, it's you know what's funny is
I heard a story a few years ago about there
is a vip entrant. Did you utilize that?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
No, I don't know if they had that back in
the day, but I do remember taking the elevator and
the vip I've been in that vip entrance and that
is so I'm very familiar with it.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I've heard of people sneaking in there. But how would
you get into Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Okay, so back when Sports Illustrated for Kids was very relevant,
I was getting the magazine and I was I adored
sports everything, and especially the New York Knicks and the
New York Rangers. And my dad and I we went
to a few games, not at Madison Square Garden but
at Nasau Coliseum, and we would never have access to
(14:00):
any of the players or anything. And I remember one
time we tried meeting players and I just waited with
the rest of the kids, and kind of the players
leaving that entrance, that VIP entrance that you're talking about
at Madison Square Garden. They had something very similar in
NASA Colisseum. But you're waiting. If you're waiting over there
for players to leave, you're waiting with a whole bunch
of other people, and hopefully maybe you're going to get
an autograph. And I remember we did that. And then
(14:23):
soon after that, my dad said, the Rangers are playing,
We're going to go to a game at Madison Square Garden.
And I didn't think much of it. I thought it
would be just like every other time we've went. And
this time he called up Madison Square Garden and told
them that Sports Illustrated for Kids would be there, and
on the way to the garden, he told me that
(14:45):
I would act as a reporter for Sports Illustrate for
Kids and he's going to be the photographer, and I
don't have to say anything, just follow my lead. And
we went to Madison Square Garden for the first time
this is back in like the nineteen ninety two to
ninety three season, to a Knicks first game, and it
plan worked flawlessly. They gave us press passes when we
(15:05):
walked in, and then I went into the locker room
and I would interview the players on the Knicks and
which would be Patrick Ewing and John Starrks, Charles Oakley,
Anthony Mason, they were all on the team at the time. Yeah,
and completely rolled out the red carpet for us. And
after that happened, we just kept doing it and nobody
suspected a thing, especially because you're doing it frequently enough,
(15:28):
they just become acquainted with you. So everybody would go
assuming that we're there as Sports Illustrated for Kids, and
I go into the visiting team's locker rooms, and then
I started going to Ranger games also, and we went
to some big games for basketball I mean, the biggest
that I consider is when I went to Michael Jordan's
double Nickel game where he came back to the Garden
(15:50):
for the first time. He scored fifty five points, and
after the game, I went into locker room and I
interviewed him and sat with him and got an autograph card,
an autograph picture or photograph card, and he took a picture.
And then I went to Rangers were in the Stanley
Cup in nineteen ninety four, and I went to game one,
Game five, and Game seven, and we're going to all
(16:11):
these games. Every game that I ever went to with
my dad. We never paid for a ticket, We never
had a seat. We would always find a great seat.
He would be off taking pictures with the rest of
the photographers because he's keeping up the scam, and I
would be sitting either in the press area by myself,
or he would locate a seat that was open that
would be like a special area. So when the Rangers
(16:33):
won the Stanley Cup Game seven, I was sitting pretty
much right behind the goalie of I want to say
it was yeah, of the Vancouver Canucks goalie, and right
there I'm sitting glass and I witnessed everything and then
after the game, I go into the locker room and
I interview the players for the Rangers, and then I
went to the team after party. And this is all
(16:55):
without a ticket everything. And then after that my dad did.
Nothing was ever too big or too scary for my dad.
The Rangers celebrated at Gracie Mansion, which is Mayor Giuliani
was the mayor at the time, which was his house,
and we went there and we went to the team
like whatever celebration that was a few days later there,
(17:15):
and he went past the security detail for the mayor
and everything, and not a problem because they believe that
we were pressed. And so this is something that of
course is definitely worth jail time for trespassing. But my
dad didn't get He was bringing his kid there and
he just keeping up appearances. Nothing phased him, and his
(17:36):
camera definitely helped give him access. But of course, his
his you know, it's his quick talking, his thinking, and
he was always able to maneuver. He always seemed like
he was somebody who could get out of anything or
figure out a plan to get whatever he needed, and
that was definitely beneficial. A lot of people look at
scamming as they become a little bit fearful. I'm not
(17:58):
going to do this because I might get caught. My
dad never seemed like that person. He didn't he didn't care,
he didn't getting caught. They never never crossed his mind.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
How did it? How did it turn sideways?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Because everything he was doing was a lie. Everything was
a scam. So, you know, I mentioned the furniture stuff,
and chronologically we're a little bit out of order, but
that was going on around the same time the Sports
Illustrated stuff was going on. And then he had other businesses.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Mainly it was a telephone business where he would help
install telephone systems to different various businesses and payphones as well.
Payphones were big in the in the nineties, and he
would he would say that he, you know, in the
payphone business. He would say that he was at and
T and that's how he's getting accounts. He's getting big
accounts Toys r US and Costco and a lot of
(18:49):
a lot of different gyms that were big balleys had
you know, had a had a gym back in the
in the nineties, and so he'd have these access to
it by just basically, you know, saying he was certain
person great at impersonating people. Eventually, AT and T got
wind of this and then took him a court and
we had the US Marshall's Raidar house because he was
saying that he was somebody that he wasn't, and they
(19:11):
brought a big case against him, which is that this
is all talked about in the podcast. But all this,
all this heat, all all these problems that happened with
my dad really took a toll in the family. And
then on top of that not the greatest father. You know,
part of being a father is being selfless, and he
lacked a lot of selflessness and it definitely hurt where
(19:33):
you're kind of wondering as I got older, were you
doing those things at the garden for me or were
you doing it more for you? And you're it starts
crossing your mind. Was it just the need to lie
into to con people and to scheme or did you
really want to just take your son to the game
and this is the only way that you could do it.
And the podcast really dives into trying to figure out if, uh,
(19:57):
if if that was his goal, if his goal really
was for me, and also maybe has he changed has
he changed his ways because I want to track him down.
I want to find out what he's been doing for
the last twenty four years, because yeah, we stopped talking
when we were fifteen.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
You and you were fifteen.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Right, have you found him?
Speaker 1 (20:34):
So that's what the that's what the pod in the podcast, Uh,
right now, I'm trying to figure that out. I'm trying
to I'm trying to locate him. You know, a con
man and a guy. You know, numbers get changed a lot,
things aren't, things aren't as easy, but you kind of
have an idea, like hopefully where he is. And definitely
when I decided to do this, I I believe that
(20:56):
I would be able to find him. And the reason
why is as soon as I start talking about him,
I think that he'll make himself more present. So you
know that there there are things that I didn't I
didn't think that it wasn't wasn't going to happen. So
and that's kind of where I'm at in the podcast,
where I'm very hopeful that I'll be able to find him,
but it might not be as easy when it's just
(21:16):
me trying to trying to look. So, you know, I
reach out to different people and trying to get phone
numbers and and trying to locate it. But I'm you know,
I'm not an investigative reporter by any means, So you
know I'm doing everything you can do that that any
normal person would do also, But hopefully the goal is
to find him and to see what he's up to
(21:37):
and and possibly reconcile. But reconciliation is is a tough
thing because it doesn't just happen over you know, a
talk during a podcast. It's going to take time and
have somebody and yeah, and maybe TV it would work
that way, but it's going to take a minute. And
so if you know, we were to meet it, it's
(21:59):
a work in progress no matter how it looks.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Number One, Dad, the podcast, It is such an amazing story.
I don't want you to give any more of it away.
I don't really care about my listeners, but for me personally,
I want to hear it all play out limited series.
It's fascinating to me and the psychology of that and
going through that as a kid, and as you just mentioned,
(22:27):
was he doing was he giving me his kid those
experiences or was it all just about him? I can't
wait to see how this resolves itself, which also transitions
me beautifully expertly, if I do say so, myself into
your now future successful career as a comedian. Do you
(22:50):
think that your dad and the experience that you had
with your dad shaped you in any way to who
you are today.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
It's tough because I never wanted to give him any
credit for anything that I became. You know, part of
you know, if I if I wanted meeting him, I
wanted to show him that I wound up being different
than he was. But the fact of the matter is
my childhood shape me, and it showed me that you
could do things that are outside the box. A lot
(23:21):
of people don't believe that certain things could be accomplished.
And when I was able to see that my father
was able to accomplish things not doing things the right way,
but it took a lot of thought and a lot
of creativity. It really made me think that doing something
that I want to do with my life, if which
is stand up comedy, it seems very difficult, seems so
far fetched, and nobody really believes it. When I was
(23:43):
growing up, like kids in my school and when I
was in high school, and you tell them that, oh,
I'm you know, well, I'm thinking about maybe writing, you know,
TV or or doing stand up comedy. And to them,
it's almost like you might as well say that, you know,
Aliens landed, which by the way, I heard that they did,
but I was really talk about it, so I I,
you know, I would say it and nobody believed. But
(24:05):
I had a belief in myself. I to me, I
saw the impossible being done through my what my my
father's lens. But I knew that I could possibly translate
that into thinking outside the box. And and if if you,
if you work hard, if you if you're creative, just
like my dad was, maybe my my dream of becoming
a stand up comic can can be fulfilled.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
When did you start having the idea? Well, is it
for you? Is it about performing? Is it about making
people laugh?
Speaker 1 (24:35):
What?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
What is it for you that drove you towards it?
And when did that start to happen? Was your dad
still around?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah, he was around. I saw him being funny. I
always thought that he was funny. I remember him being
I mean, he was extremely charming and people. He would
make people laugh and I saw him do that, and
to me, I guess you know, when I when I started,
I do remember having the thought that, oh, you know,
you could have been to me. I thought, oh, you
could have been a comedian. And I'm sure he wasn't
(25:04):
as funny as I thought he was, but I do
remember him telling Joe. I remember telling jokes, and I
remember thinking when I was young, I was like, oh, wow,
like that is funny, and I can't wait to be
older to make adults laugh. I remember I could. I
could make some of my friends laugh, but I wasn't
making adults laugh. And I remember thinking, oh, if I
(25:25):
could make adults laugh, that would be good. That would
be that could be something. And then as I got older,
I started thinking about it more. And because my parents
have everything that they were going through, I went to
three high schools, so I was kind of able to
like reinvent myself when I would go to each high school.
So oh, I saw Okay. You know I had friends
of my first high school kids I grew up with.
(25:46):
They think I'm funny, but you know they know me.
So I need to figure out am I funny at
this this next high school I go to, and I
remember I was funny, and then I remember I came
out a little too strong. Eventually, being too funny and
then becomes annoying. And then I went to a third
high school, I'm like, all right, I kind of get
the idea I could tone it down. And then I
went to college and I'm like, all right, kind of
have a good balance here. And there's a there's definitely
(26:09):
a weirdness of being a comedian. If you tell people
you're going to be a comic or you want to
be a comedian, then they start thinking that, oh, you're
just trying to be funny, and they kind of shoot
it down. A lot a lot of people when you
tell them that you have this goal of becoming something,
they tend to shoot it down because maybe they're afraid
of it, but they or they see that you're trying
it and and and that's what they want to do
(26:32):
and but or that's just their mentality. But yeah, it's
a it's a tough thing to go through. And uh,
but you have to just kind of be your own
person and have your own faith in that. I mean,
you know that it's a I mean going you know,
when you say that you want to be acting an actor,
that what makes you think that you're going to get picked,
You're going to get a goal and it's a tough
thing to go through, but you have to fight through
(26:53):
that stuff and and just yeah, there's some luck involved,
but I mean, obviously there's it's majority of it is
skill and you have to back it up when it
when the time is right, because you know, if you
didn't back it up, you wouldn't have got you wouldn't
have been on the office, it wouldn't have happened. You're
able to backround.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Do you consider yourself an actor?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
You know, I maybe not until recently, but because but
now and and listen, I if you watch me on stage,
it doesn't seem like I'm performing at all, but I
because I stand still, I'm very monotone and but yeah, right,
I'm talking to the right person. But you know, but
(27:33):
there is acting in it. There is a performance in it.
I might not be jumping around or making crazy facial expressions,
but I try to think of being in the bit.
And you you there's little movements that go a long way.
So there's acting in stand up. But as far as
acting acting, I'm not. I'm definitely not an actor, but
(27:54):
I think I I could play myself. I could do that,
you know, but so so it'd have to be something
I would write. I don't. I'm not going to be
able to be you know, Jim Carrey man on the Moon,
but I could be you know, Gary Vetter searching for
his father, if it was, if that was a TV show.
Speaker 6 (28:11):
Pitching it now, Yeah, one of the things that I
like to talk to people about because you know, look,
there's Gary the little kid or high school kid, college
kid who wants to make people laugh.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
But to me, there's a distinction between and.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
I call it.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I don't know if this is right or not, but
like I'm doing an activity versus like, oh, this is
what I want to do, this is what I'm going
to focus in and that I want to do in
my life. Was there a moment for you or was
there a time where it changed for you where you
were like, oh, this is a pursuit that I'm going
to put my whole self into.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Well, I didn't think there was something else that I
really wanted to do, and I don't think there's something
that I thought that I could enjoy doing. So I
would look at people and everybody, you know, I mean,
people do it every day, but I didn't think I
could do this. I didn't think I could put it
on a suit every day and go to an office
and maybe be in that suit in hot weather and
(29:13):
sitting in my car and traffic. I thought of all
these things. I wanted a job that had some freedom,
that maybe allowed me to travel and maybe, you know, yeah,
I might go to Dayton, Ohio. No offense Dayton, but
it's not the you know, the best place for me
to go visit, but I would I would be like, Oh,
that's cool. I get to go there and do stand
up so, you know. So these are things that I
(29:36):
thought would be cool, and I was envisioned myself, Oh,
I could be a comic and then I'd come home
and then my family would be there and they would
think that it's cool. I also thought that too. I
thought that maybe one day I would have a family
and I would be a comic and my kids would
be be like, oh, my dad's a comedian. That's a
cool thing. So I thought that could Maybe that's what
(29:57):
I wanted my dad to actually be. So I wanted
my kids to be proud of me, because I didn't
really feel proud of my dad. I felt that I
had to really keep that decide what he was doing.
I wasn't proud that not only was he installing payphones
and that was his business, but he was conning people
too in a process. You know, he was doing all
these things to rip people off. And yeah, I wanted
(30:19):
my kids to be proud, and I wanted to be
proud of my dad.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
You know, something just occurred to me. And by the
time this errors, we will have passed. I guess I'm
exposing myself, but I was going to thinking about this. No, no, no,
this experience will have passed. But I'm sharing something with you.
I probably should not share this at all, but I
have a daughter and just right now, this week, she's
(30:44):
participating in let's just call it a camp. And in
order to participate in this camp, she has to be
of a certain age. Now she is not that age, okay,
but all of her friends are doing this again, let's
call it a camp. We lied, I lied. I lied.
I signed her up and basically put her correct birthday
(31:08):
and put it a year earlier. And I'm not joking
with you. The entire day yesterday, I felt guilty. I
felt I felt horrible. So I'm just thinking back again
about your dad and that idea of like bringing your
kids and without judgment, saying myself, I am currently right
(31:31):
now doing the same thing. Yeah, and you felt guilt.
I felt incredible guilt. But and this is I guess
where I at least can assure myself that I'm different.
I made that decision not because I needed some time
off this week and I needed to stick her somewhere,
(31:51):
right like, this is an activity that she legitimately loves,
that she will legitimately excel at with her friends in
the summer, and so I wanted her to have this experience.
Does that make it any better? I don't know, but it's.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Just I think so, because yeah, I think it really does.
I think, you know, you're kind of answering the question
that I'm searching for is that did my dad do
it for me or for himself? And here you're trying
to do something for your daughter that will benefit her,
and you're you know, what you're getting out of it
is her pure enjoyment, that her succeeding and what she's doing.
(32:32):
And it sounds like, you know, hands down the right decision.
Now it doesn't It doesn't make it any better that
you had to, Like, yeah, but you know, sometimes you
maybe That's the thing is sometimes you might have to
to fib a little bit. That's a that's a little
fits a little.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
I tried to explain to her literally what I said
to her, I'm sorry to interrupt you was right. So
remember our little white lie. That is what was the
word I said. And I was like, is that a
good thing to explain? I mean, at some point she's
gonna understand it, right, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
It's yeaascinating. I mean I think I now I find
and you know, don't get me wrong. I mean I
learned from somebody who was constantly lying, and I kind
of showed me, oh, maybe you can lie. And there
are things like, yeah, just lie. You don't know. What
my dad was showing me was that that he lies
all the time. So then I realized, oh, I don't
want to be like him, so you know, I won't.
(33:23):
But it's still that lying is still in me. And
I would still lie as I was getting older, and
I would lie about things that I didn't need to
lie about. And eventually, you know, I meet my wife
and I'm you know, I she would get upset with
me because I would lie about something silly, like not
tell her anything, tell her something.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I would tell her.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
I would tell her everything for the most part, but
then things I would leave out and she would be like,
why are you not telling me that? And I realized
that was a big problem. I can't not tell her stuff.
It was just in me. And she taught me a
lot about just just be as forthcoming as possible and
there's no there's no reason not to and because then
you're hiding something. So my dad kind of just showed
(34:06):
me that that was okay to do. And it really
took some time to break that up.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
In twenty fourteen, ten years ago, now, you participated in
a little competition. It was explained to me as a
March Madness type competition Caroline's on Broadway. You beat beat
that's what you were the champion and beat sixty three
(34:49):
of the best young comedians out there. Now here's my question.
First off, congratulations ten years later. Is there anybody who
you hang out with now that is in the stand
up world that you beat that you can hold over
their head? That's really where I'm angling here.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Is there anybody you do so many of these things?
There were so many when those were in the early days.
I was probably doing comedy five years. At that point,
five six years, you're you're in these infancy days of
doing stand up where you're just trying to get ahead.
You're trying everything, and you know, there's that was one contest,
and that was a good one because I was in
New York and you got to be seen by different
(35:30):
managers and agents and I got an age manager after
that and I won. Yeah, and then you get bookings
at Carolines and that's cool. But you know, it could
have it. Really, it could have happened to me, ey
the way I look at it, it could have happened
to anybody, because you do that and then you get
that and then somebody else gets something else. So it's
it's all it all. It all happens for everybody, if
(35:52):
I feel, if it's supposed to happen, and your career
kind of moves along as time goes on. But uh,
I couldn't even tell you who was in it. I
know there was one person. I know, the person who
had to go. I know there there was one person
who was in, who was in the finals, who is
a finals with me, who's a runner up who I beat?
Uh So technically I do have it.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
His head.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Yes, I beat him and he is my friend, but
so so I okay, so yes, I do have I
take it back. I have one person and I hold
it over his head all the time, no matter what
you do, because I'm a better stand up comedian and
he's you're better.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
You won, he won, You're a champion. The next year,
season ten of America's God Talent, you become a finalist there.
Do you think that that the Caroline's thing helped you
to get that?
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, totally. You know I did before even
that March Madness thing in twenty fourteen that you mentioned,
I did a couple other contests and there was one
I came in second that was in Atlanta, and what
I realized was that if you come in second, nobody
really nobody cares. Nobody cares if you come in second and.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
The first love.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yeah, extactically, yeah, I mean that's how it goes and
and and you know, all the glory goes to whoever wins.
So when I then I went to that you know
thing at Karenlines where they did the March Madness thing,
and I was like, all right, I gotta win it
because nobody's gonna care if you don't. Nobody's gonna remember
if you came in second.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
And then I when I went, your buddy, no right, yeah, exactly,
he quit. He's the garbage right now, which is a
good job. But so then I did America's got talent,
and I kind of went in with that mentality. I
have the way I tell jokes there. I have some
longer jokes, longer bits, but for the most part they're short,
and I could get to laugh pretty quickly. I could
(37:44):
get to laugh in ten fifteen seconds and a lot
of jokes, So I thought I had an advantage.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
And I really went in with a lot of confidence
that that that this could happen, that I could that
I could advance. I didn't know how far, but I
was really hopeful. I felt that if in the right situation,
I could maybe catch a hot streak. And I was
fortunate I got a hot streak I had. I had
people that went before me that weren't stand ups that
you know, I'm going to a ventriloquist and then a
(38:12):
parrot and all the things that are not stand up comedy,
so you still have to perform and it's a different setting.
But I felt that my act would uh would really
come out and really play itself well in front of
their audience, and and it and fortunately enough it did
and and that was that was a good moment for
sure in my career.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I watched your first Colbert Club. Oh but you you
appearing on Colbert and Conan and those late night shows.
Do you feel like that, because you know, back in
the back in the olden days, right, it was like
being on Johnny Carson was like it for you in
(38:54):
your experiences doing those shows? Was it similar, Like do
you feel like that gave you some street crowd?
Speaker 1 (39:01):
So it's such a different world. And I looked at
it when I started doing stand up, that's that. It
was all I wanted. My first TV appearance that I
ever had was on Conan. It was Conan when he
was on TBS, and I grew up my Conan was
my guy. I loved Jay Leno, I love Letterman too,
but Conan was what I grew up watching. I love Conan.
(39:23):
I would watch him all the time, and I wanted
to be on his late night show. And then he
moved to TBS, and then I was started doing stand
up probably around that same time, and I tried getting
an internship there when I was in college. That never
that that didn't work out, but I tried, and I
really wanted to be somewhere in Conan's world, and I
(39:45):
tried so hard, and then I finally got the offer
to do Conan and I did it, and it was
kind of like an outer body experience when you're on
the show. Because I watched this guy growing up. I
never thought that I would be on TV, and this
was my opportunity. I'm going to show these people that
said that being a stand up comedian, people that I
(40:06):
that that knew me that this is not going to
this isn't gonna happen, And now here I am doing
stand up comedy and I'm on TV. I made it,
And that's really what I was. It's just complete. You're
just on pilot mode doing your set in front of
that that camera because they keep everything. Everything you say,
it's just it's good, but it was, it was. It
(40:26):
was incredible. It was an incredible experience. And then you know,
then I did I did Colbert a little while later,
and it was the same deal, same thing. You still
have that outer body experience where I'm I'm on the
Ed Sullivan stage in the in this theater. It's like
so many, so many historic people. You try not to
think about it, but it can't. You can't help it
because until you go on, you're you're just sitting there
(40:49):
with you know, in this environment. And then then you're
on stage and now you're doing you have to do
your set, words have to come out of your mouth.
It's unbelievable, but it But but you do it and
and yet and if you practice enough, that's all you
want to do. You want to just keep practicing, keep practicing,
keep getting you know, if you're a comic, keep getting
on stage, because when that moment comes, you're just it's
(41:12):
like a fight or flight mode and you just just
do it. You say it and then and then hopefully
you know, it goes well.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Uh, you recently released comedy special. It could be worse.
Do you enjoy doing those? Do you enjoy having those
out in the world.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
For sure, it's a you know, a sense of completion.
I worked on an act that I was doing for
about a little over two and a half years, and
I feel the jokes are good. You know, things change
over time, so you're you know, you're mixing things back
and forth. But these are jokes that I took on
the road, and I would I would be saying, and
I feel like I perfected him to the best I could.
(41:53):
And then you deliver in front of a camera. Uh,
and and that's it, that's the final product. And then
I put that on YouTube, and so far it's been
a good response, and yeah, people people think it's great.
And you know, I mean, I'm not that obviously the
biggest comic in the world, but it's a good way.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Now.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
YouTube is such a great way to get people that
might not be familiar with you to actually see you.
And uh, yeah, that's that. That's been a so far,
a good, good thing to release.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
That's awesome. Do you like still like being on the road?
Speaker 1 (42:23):
I really like the road, I really do. I enjoy
it because you're really the only way to find out
if a joke works. I mean, I live in New York,
but the only way to find out if a joke
works is if you take it everywhere. You got to
make sure that it's going to work for in all
these different scenarios, you know, in front of different types
of people, and you want I want every everybody as
(42:44):
much as possible. You're never going to make everybody like
your comedy, but I want to make as many people
as possible enjoy my comedy. So the only way to
do that is by testing the material out and doing
it in different situations.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Yeah you're a dad yourself down.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Yeah I am. And that's kind of what got the
podcast going was that my my first son was born,
and it made me really reflect on Okay, here's I
have a son. You know all I did have. I
had a dad that was in my life, and you know,
how am I going to be as a father. And
that's what got me thinking more on the podcast. But yeah,
(43:22):
being a dad and it is amazing. I love it.
And now now I have a second son as well,
so I have a four year old now and one
and a half year old, So it's pretty it's pretty special.
And yeah, I mean it's everything I ever wanted. I
never you know, my wife and I it wasn't easy
(43:42):
for us to have kids. Uh, in the beginning. I
tried first, then she tried, and now it was we
both she was going, uh we had to do IVF.
So it was it was a struggle and but we
were able to do it. So we're so thankful that,
you know, as heart of the process. As we're now
we have two, two beautiful kids.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
That's awesome. That that to me is the hardest part
about being on the road right when you've got when
you've got the little ones at home. Yeah, it leaves
an empty space at times. As much as you love
what you're doing, as much as you you know, know
that for yourself and for your family, you have to
be out there. That's a that's a that's a tough part.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
It's very tough. I was just away this past weekend.
It was only for a day, uh to Atlantic City,
so I had I had to go for a night
for a gig and it was I was fortunately enough.
But before that, the week before I was, I was home,
so I didn't and so i'd been home. I had good,
good times at home and it was great, and then
I just had to go away for a night. And
(44:47):
that's just it's such a short trip. You know, a
lot of times I've gone for for maybe five days
at a time, but this time was just one night,
and it's just it's it's just tough. No matter how
many days it is, I feel I'm missing out. I'm
missing out on things, missing things out in their childhood
and my wife, she's really supportive, she's wonderful, and she goes.
(45:08):
You know, you don't don't have to say you're sorry,
like you're making money for the family and and yeah,
but I want to I feel I want to be there.
I don't want to miss out on things. And but
it's inevitable. But uh I, it is very hard. It's
very hard to do, so, you know, but I love
the road too, so yeah, so it's it's but it's.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
You got to do what you gotta do.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
There's no easy way around it.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Well, Gary, you're clearly a great, caring father. You're a
delightful guy. I wish you all the best. I know
these limited series podcasts, when you're editing together material, it's
a lot of work. I know from personal experience. So
I first off, I applaud you for going through the
(45:54):
effort and for going inside yourself and exposing yourself not
in a weird way. That's cool and important. Number One
Dad the podcast. I'll be a subscriber today, Gary.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
I promise you that I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Good luck to you on the road and at home
and with with the podcast. I can't wait to hear
if you find your dad.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Thanks so much, Brian.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
All Right, cheers man, Gary, that was awesome. Thank you
so much for sharing with me and the world your story.
(46:41):
I know it wasn't easy getting to a place where
you can talk about it, but man, it is so
fascinating to me. I'm so glad that you've put this
podcast together and I can't wait to learn how this
all unfolds. Good luck finding your dad. Listeners, you too
can follow Gary's story on Number One Dad wherever you
(47:02):
listen to your podcast. In fact, you can just add
it to your cue right now, since you're already here.
Do it, do it, Do it now now. I promise
you won't be disappointed, and tune in here next week,
because well, we have a very special guest back on
the podcast revisiting us, regaling us with stories of his childhood.
(47:27):
I don't know. Get ready, office fans. As always, it's
going to be a wild ride. Off the Beat is
hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our
(47:48):
executive producer, Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia.
Our producers are Emily Carr and Seth Olanski, and our
talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, our theme song Bubble
and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Breton
I went to three high schools, so I was kind
of able to like reinvent myself when I would go
to each high school. So I saw, okay, you know,
I had friends of my first high school kids I
grew up with. They think I'm funny, but you know,
they know me. So I need to figure out am
I funny? At this next high school I go to,
and I remember I was funny, and then I remember
(00:21):
I came out a little too strong, eventually being too funny,
and then that becomes annoying. And then I went to
a third high school, I'm like, all right, I kind
of get the idea I could tone it down. And
then I went to college and I'm like, all right,
kind of have a good balance. Hi. I'm Gary Veeter
and I am the host of the limited series podcast
(00:43):
Number one Dad.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Hello again, everybody, and welcome back to the place you
want to be right here on Off the Beat with
your host Brian Bongertner. Of course, my guest today is
an extremely talented stand up comedian, Gary Veader. He really
tickles me. He's dry and understated, but very very clever
(01:16):
and sharp my kind of humor for sure. He's performed
on Conan, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and he
was even a finalist on America's Got Talent. He tours
and performs all over the country, or if you prefer
to stay home, He has a stand up special out
now on YouTube called It Could Be Worse. For his
(01:38):
most recent act, Gary is going back to his very
unique childhood, I love this. You see. Gary's dad was
a real deal con artist. Now we're talking a list
of aliases, fake accounts, shady deals, rated by federal agents.
Kind of con artist. And he even brought his young
(02:01):
son Gary in on some of his scams, like sneaking
into Disneyland or photo copying dollar bills for lunch money,
and even making Gary pretend to be a reporter to
get access to Madison Square Garden, interviewing players including even
Michael Jordan himself. Now, even though he cut his dad
(02:24):
out of his life over twenty years ago, Gary is
now revisiting all of these memories, plus the stories he's
heard from other people, and attempting to reconnect and reconcile
with his father. Luckily, he has recorded his journey for
you and me to listen to on his new podcast,
Number one, Dad Give It a listen. I promise you
(02:46):
won't be disappointed. Please welcome my fascinating, upstanding and well
very funny new friend, Gary Veder.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Bubble and squeak. I love it, Bubble and squeak, Bubble
and squeak. I cook get every mole lift over from.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
The night before.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
What's up, Gary?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
What's up man? How's it going.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Good?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I'm a big fan of the Office, so this is
super cool.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Oh you you are you've seen it before?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Oh, I mean many times over, So this is super cool.
I love it now.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, thank you. That's very nice. I mean mostly people
don't say nice things to me. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You deserve it. And you were are you?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Were you an og or did you find it later?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
No og? I watched it when I was in college,
so it was pretty. It was super cool. And then
I mean it hit, it hit big time. I loved it. No,
I mean, you know it was different than you know
when you find a good show. It's just so nice
and uh yeah, I mean I love Seinfeld. And then
I put for me, I put it right up there
with Seinfeld, and I mean, it was just an incredible show.
(04:13):
And I was said when it when it when it
went off the you know, I mean obviously you completed it.
It was it was a completed show. But I was
sad when it happened when it went on.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Where did you go to college?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
No, we're good University at Buffalo.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Why is that nowhere? Good?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I mean it's a college and you know you pay
for it, but it's not really educational experience. You're just
going to get a degree. And anybody, I feel they
would you know, if a dog went there, it's as
good as a dog. It's like a dog college. That's
probably never happened back, you know, I know it.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yes, this is your all, my moter. You can't say
things like that. I just had a couple of uh,
very entertaining days and evenings and in in Buffalo. I
it was, it was good. What's the place Pink's Pinkies
with the steaks?
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Oh, I don't know. Very late, I don't know about Pinky's.
I know Anchor Bar. I mean there's Anchors and Duffs.
Anchor Bar is a famous one. Duffs.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
That's the whole what do you call it? The wings? Right?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, the supposedly supposedly they started the wings and that
was the big that was the big thing for Anchor Bar,
and they make great wings. They make great wings, duff says,
great wings, and it's kind of if you're from Buffalo.
Those they'll argue who has the best wings. And I
think the people, yeah, I think people from Buffalo. They
go with Duffs a lot. That's their thing. So they
(05:42):
could tell an outside if they pick Ancher Bar. But
my friend actually saw O J. Simpson OJ I said
it was weird.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
But O J.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Simpson at Anchor Bar, Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was a
good guy.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
O J.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Simpson was a good guy.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
But O J.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Simpson not so good.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Uh but yeah O J.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Simpson at ankle Or Bar once and uh yeah he
stabbed them.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Wow he like everybody that I didn't hear that news.
Yeah was this before OJ's problem or after this?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Was this was?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Is that yeah his little miss out? Yeah yeah it's
yeah LEAs right, Yeah, but no, yeah this was after.
This was after this is when he got away you know,
doing it. But hey, so that's it J talk.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Ye're yeah, that's a race we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Shimpson are Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Shims Look, we did our crack research team here analyzed
your life, put you at a computer, spit out a
bunch of data to me. I am totally fascinated, so fascinating.
In fact, i've I have not started your show, but
I have seen all of your teasers and tray. I
(07:00):
am so excited to listen to it. This is not
a joke. Thank you podcast number one Dad, which is
is rolling out as we speak. This is fascinating. You
partnered with Big Money Players podcast, Will Ferrell's podcast Empire.
It's about Gary's family. So I want to start. Usually
(07:23):
I sort of go more chronological here, but this is
a This is a part of your newest project, which
was your your childhood growing up? So where did where
did you grow up?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I grew up on Long Island in a town called
dick Hills.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
And yeah the Unfortunate game.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, I know, unfortunate name, and we're thinking about changing
it for the podcast, even though the podcast is completely true,
like can we get rid of that? But yeah, it's
a podcast called and at least it was not called
Little dick Hills. But anyway, I enjoy. You know, when
I decided to do this podcast, you have to be
very vulnerable, and I was not. Uh when I when
(08:03):
I pitched the idea, I didn't expect it necessarily to happen.
And then as soon as they're like, oh, we're gonna
we agree to this. Nobody ever agrees to anything that
I ever pitched or but they agreed, and there Now
the whole plan is that I go and I tracked
down my father, who I haven't talked to in twenty
four years. And my dad is a con man. So we,
(08:24):
uh we ran a bunch of cons together, which sounds.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
No, but so but this so I want. So you're
grow you're growing up there in Long Island, and are
you aware that your dad is a con man? As
a kid, Now, I know we're going to talk about
your Madison Square Garden experiences, so obviously there were things
that happened. Are you aware that he is growing up
or is he just dad?
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Well, he's dad, but I wouldn't say I knew that
he was a con man. I knew that he would
kind of cut corners to get around, you get around.
I didn't know the name con man necessarily, but as
I got older, I was like, oh, this, this, this
is what a con artist is. And my dad is
I think one of the best at this because he
never doesn't seem to ever get caught. He gets what
(09:07):
he wants. He's able to manipulate different situations, and yeah,
I would just watch him, you know, could be small things,
but we would be going to Disneyland, and this is
back when Disneyland used to get a stamp on your hand,
and he would have my entire family lick their hands
and then just press it against his, which would get
the stamp, and then we would have all get access
(09:29):
to Disneyland, you know, a simple thing.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
And he'd pay one on one ticket, one ticket. Yeah,
he would pay for one.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Ticket and he would get four other people and for free,
and they you know till they you know, this is
back in the eighties early nineties when you were able
to do this. And he would always find ways, creative
ways to cut corners and wouldn't really care if the
kids were involved or were aware of like what he
was doing. And yeah, pretty much, you know, it was
(09:59):
everything his businesses the same thing. He was involved in
different scams where he had a furniture company and he
wasn't delivering the furniture. And these are a lot of
these scams were things that you could get away with
in the eighties and the nineties, because it's pretty hard
when somebody doesn't get their furniture delivered to figure out
who do I complain to? And am I going to
start making ninety phone calls and waiting on hold for
(10:22):
hours to get to the bottom of this and then
there not to be any resolution. So my dad would
figure out these ways to yeah, definitely rip people off
and get away with it, and he was successful at that.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Wait. So he was the furniture delivery person.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
He owned the whole sorry, he owned the showroom. And
there are people that would get their furniture, but then
there are also people that he just would not deliver
their furniture too. So it was, you know, kind of
a plus minus game where maybe let's say, you know,
ninety percent of people were getting their furniture, but then
ten percent was just handing him money and then he
would never deliver it. Eventually, the Attorney General of New
(11:03):
York State got wind of it and went after him.
But for years he was very successful in doing this
and then just collecting one hundred percent profit and not
delivering the furniture.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So you mentioned before, he he didn't have any sort
of he had no qualms about including you the children, correct,
and how many how many siblings were there?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I have two older sisters.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Okay, so the three of you and is he is
is it? Is there an attitude of hey, son, let me,
let me, let me, let me show you what we
can do here, like is heching you?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah. It was all lesson absolutely grooming me to be
him and kind of showing me, oh, this is how
life works. And we you know, we're seeing I'm seeing
this at his kneeland. I'm seeing this, you know, if
we're going to the movie theater, you know, sometimes you
know you're gonna go with the movie theater with your
parent and my dad and my experience was we would
(12:09):
sneak in. There was no there was no difference except
that he wouldn't want to pay, and he just found
this easy way to do it. You know whatever. It's
me going under the ropes, just like I mean, kids
sneak in all the time, but not with their parents.
So my dad would have me going under the ropes
and then I would be down the corridor and then
he would tell the usher, hey, my son has my ticket.
(12:29):
And I'm you know, seven to ten years old at
the time, and I looked even younger when I would
be ten, I would look like I'm seven. So it
worked to his advantage the way that I looked and
for him to have access. And of course we would
see his movies at the same time. It wouldn't be
movies that I would want to see. What we would
be saying. You know, we'd be seeing Rambo and I
(12:50):
would see I remember seeing dances with wolves. So there
was all the things that he was interested in. Going
to say, but but yeah, but I was growing up
quick and taking the life lessons that he taught me.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Well, I want to talk about that, but before I've
got to mention Madison Square Garden. So you guys would
consistently how would you get into Madison Square Garden? Because
that feels like, yeah, it's you know what's funny is
I heard a story a few years ago about there
is a vip entrant. Did you utilize that?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
No, I don't know if they had that back in
the day, but I do remember taking the elevator and
the vip I've been in that vip entrance and that
is so I'm very familiar with it.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I've heard of people sneaking in there. But how would
you get into Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Okay, so back when Sports Illustrated for Kids was very relevant,
I was getting the magazine and I was I adored
sports everything, and especially the New York Knicks and the
New York Rangers. And my dad and I we went
to a few games, not at Madison Square Garden but
at Nasau Coliseum, and we would never have access to
(14:00):
any of the players or anything. And I remember one
time we tried meeting players and I just waited with
the rest of the kids, and kind of the players
leaving that entrance, that VIP entrance that you're talking about
at Madison Square Garden. They had something very similar in
NASA Colisseum. But you're waiting. If you're waiting over there
for players to leave, you're waiting with a whole bunch
of other people, and hopefully maybe you're going to get
an autograph. And I remember we did that. And then
(14:23):
soon after that, my dad said, the Rangers are playing,
We're going to go to a game at Madison Square Garden.
And I didn't think much of it. I thought it
would be just like every other time we've went. And
this time he called up Madison Square Garden and told
them that Sports Illustrated for Kids would be there, and
on the way to the garden, he told me that
(14:45):
I would act as a reporter for Sports Illustrate for
Kids and he's going to be the photographer, and I
don't have to say anything, just follow my lead. And
we went to Madison Square Garden for the first time
this is back in like the nineteen ninety two to
ninety three season, to a Knicks first game, and it
plan worked flawlessly. They gave us press passes when we
(15:05):
walked in, and then I went into the locker room
and I would interview the players on the Knicks and
which would be Patrick Ewing and John Starrks, Charles Oakley,
Anthony Mason, they were all on the team at the time. Yeah,
and completely rolled out the red carpet for us. And
after that happened, we just kept doing it and nobody
suspected a thing, especially because you're doing it frequently enough,
(15:28):
they just become acquainted with you. So everybody would go
assuming that we're there as Sports Illustrated for Kids, and
I go into the visiting team's locker rooms, and then
I started going to Ranger games also, and we went
to some big games for basketball I mean, the biggest
that I consider is when I went to Michael Jordan's
double Nickel game where he came back to the Garden
(15:50):
for the first time. He scored fifty five points, and
after the game, I went into locker room and I
interviewed him and sat with him and got an autograph card,
an autograph picture or photograph card, and he took a picture.
And then I went to Rangers were in the Stanley
Cup in nineteen ninety four, and I went to game one,
Game five, and Game seven, and we're going to all
(16:11):
these games. Every game that I ever went to with
my dad. We never paid for a ticket, We never
had a seat. We would always find a great seat.
He would be off taking pictures with the rest of
the photographers because he's keeping up the scam, and I
would be sitting either in the press area by myself,
or he would locate a seat that was open that
would be like a special area. So when the Rangers
(16:33):
won the Stanley Cup Game seven, I was sitting pretty
much right behind the goalie of I want to say
it was yeah, of the Vancouver Canucks goalie, and right
there I'm sitting glass and I witnessed everything and then
after the game, I go into the locker room and
I interview the players for the Rangers, and then I
went to the team after party. And this is all
(16:55):
without a ticket everything. And then after that my dad did.
Nothing was ever too big or too scary for my dad.
The Rangers celebrated at Gracie Mansion, which is Mayor Giuliani
was the mayor at the time, which was his house,
and we went there and we went to the team
like whatever celebration that was a few days later there,
(17:15):
and he went past the security detail for the mayor
and everything, and not a problem because they believe that
we were pressed. And so this is something that of
course is definitely worth jail time for trespassing. But my
dad didn't get He was bringing his kid there and
he just keeping up appearances. Nothing phased him, and his
(17:36):
camera definitely helped give him access. But of course, his
his you know, it's his quick talking, his thinking, and
he was always able to maneuver. He always seemed like
he was somebody who could get out of anything or
figure out a plan to get whatever he needed, and
that was definitely beneficial. A lot of people look at
scamming as they become a little bit fearful. I'm not
(17:58):
going to do this because I might get caught. My
dad never seemed like that person. He didn't he didn't care,
he didn't getting caught. They never never crossed his mind.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
How did it? How did it turn sideways?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Because everything he was doing was a lie. Everything was
a scam. So, you know, I mentioned the furniture stuff,
and chronologically we're a little bit out of order, but
that was going on around the same time the Sports
Illustrated stuff was going on. And then he had other businesses.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Mainly it was a telephone business where he would help
install telephone systems to different various businesses and payphones as well.
Payphones were big in the in the nineties, and he
would he would say that he, you know, in the
payphone business. He would say that he was at and
T and that's how he's getting accounts. He's getting big
accounts Toys r US and Costco and a lot of
(18:49):
a lot of different gyms that were big balleys had
you know, had a had a gym back in the
in the nineties, and so he'd have these access to
it by just basically, you know, saying he was certain
person great at impersonating people. Eventually, AT and T got
wind of this and then took him a court and
we had the US Marshall's Raidar house because he was
saying that he was somebody that he wasn't, and they
(19:11):
brought a big case against him, which is that this
is all talked about in the podcast. But all this,
all this heat, all all these problems that happened with
my dad really took a toll in the family. And
then on top of that not the greatest father. You know,
part of being a father is being selfless, and he
lacked a lot of selflessness and it definitely hurt where
(19:33):
you're kind of wondering as I got older, were you
doing those things at the garden for me or were
you doing it more for you? And you're it starts
crossing your mind. Was it just the need to lie
into to con people and to scheme or did you
really want to just take your son to the game
and this is the only way that you could do it.
And the podcast really dives into trying to figure out if, uh,
(19:57):
if if that was his goal, if his goal really
was for me, and also maybe has he changed has
he changed his ways because I want to track him down.
I want to find out what he's been doing for
the last twenty four years, because yeah, we stopped talking
when we were fifteen.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
You and you were fifteen.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Right, have you found him?
Speaker 1 (20:34):
So that's what the that's what the pod in the podcast, Uh,
right now, I'm trying to figure that out. I'm trying
to I'm trying to locate him. You know, a con
man and a guy. You know, numbers get changed a lot,
things aren't, things aren't as easy, but you kind of
have an idea, like hopefully where he is. And definitely
when I decided to do this, I I believe that
(20:56):
I would be able to find him. And the reason
why is as soon as I start talking about him,
I think that he'll make himself more present. So you
know that there there are things that I didn't I
didn't think that it wasn't wasn't going to happen. So
and that's kind of where I'm at in the podcast,
where I'm very hopeful that I'll be able to find him,
but it might not be as easy when it's just
(21:16):
me trying to trying to look. So, you know, I
reach out to different people and trying to get phone
numbers and and trying to locate it. But I'm you know,
I'm not an investigative reporter by any means, So you
know I'm doing everything you can do that that any
normal person would do also, But hopefully the goal is
to find him and to see what he's up to
(21:37):
and and possibly reconcile. But reconciliation is is a tough
thing because it doesn't just happen over you know, a
talk during a podcast. It's going to take time and
have somebody and yeah, and maybe TV it would work
that way, but it's going to take a minute. And
so if you know, we were to meet it, it's
(21:59):
a work in progress no matter how it looks.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Number One, Dad, the podcast, It is such an amazing story.
I don't want you to give any more of it away.
I don't really care about my listeners, but for me personally,
I want to hear it all play out limited series.
It's fascinating to me and the psychology of that and
going through that as a kid, and as you just mentioned,
(22:27):
was he doing was he giving me his kid those
experiences or was it all just about him? I can't
wait to see how this resolves itself, which also transitions
me beautifully expertly, if I do say so, myself into
your now future successful career as a comedian. Do you
(22:50):
think that your dad and the experience that you had
with your dad shaped you in any way to who
you are today.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
It's tough because I never wanted to give him any
credit for anything that I became. You know, part of
you know, if I if I wanted meeting him, I
wanted to show him that I wound up being different
than he was. But the fact of the matter is
my childhood shape me, and it showed me that you
could do things that are outside the box. A lot
(23:21):
of people don't believe that certain things could be accomplished.
And when I was able to see that my father
was able to accomplish things not doing things the right way,
but it took a lot of thought and a lot
of creativity. It really made me think that doing something
that I want to do with my life, if which
is stand up comedy, it seems very difficult, seems so
far fetched, and nobody really believes it. When I was
(23:43):
growing up, like kids in my school and when I
was in high school, and you tell them that, oh,
I'm you know, well, I'm thinking about maybe writing, you know,
TV or or doing stand up comedy. And to them,
it's almost like you might as well say that, you know,
Aliens landed, which by the way, I heard that they did,
but I was really talk about it, so I I,
you know, I would say it and nobody believed. But
(24:05):
I had a belief in myself. I to me, I
saw the impossible being done through my what my my
father's lens. But I knew that I could possibly translate
that into thinking outside the box. And and if if you,
if you work hard, if you if you're creative, just
like my dad was, maybe my my dream of becoming
a stand up comic can can be fulfilled.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
When did you start having the idea? Well, is it
for you? Is it about performing? Is it about making
people laugh?
Speaker 1 (24:35):
What?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
What is it for you that drove you towards it?
And when did that start to happen? Was your dad
still around?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah, he was around. I saw him being funny. I
always thought that he was funny. I remember him being
I mean, he was extremely charming and people. He would
make people laugh and I saw him do that, and
to me, I guess you know, when I when I started,
I do remember having the thought that, oh, you know,
you could have been to me. I thought, oh, you
could have been a comedian. And I'm sure he wasn't
(25:04):
as funny as I thought he was, but I do
remember him telling Joe. I remember telling jokes, and I
remember thinking when I was young, I was like, oh, wow,
like that is funny, and I can't wait to be
older to make adults laugh. I remember I could. I
could make some of my friends laugh, but I wasn't
making adults laugh. And I remember thinking, oh, if I
(25:25):
could make adults laugh, that would be good. That would
be that could be something. And then as I got older,
I started thinking about it more. And because my parents
have everything that they were going through, I went to
three high schools, so I was kind of able to
like reinvent myself when I would go to each high school.
So oh, I saw Okay. You know I had friends
of my first high school kids I grew up with.
(25:46):
They think I'm funny, but you know they know me.
So I need to figure out am I funny at
this this next high school I go to, and I
remember I was funny, and then I remember I came
out a little too strong. Eventually, being too funny and
then becomes annoying. And then I went to a third
high school, I'm like, all right, I kind of get
the idea I could tone it down. And then I
went to college and I'm like, all right, kind of
have a good balance here. And there's a there's definitely
(26:09):
a weirdness of being a comedian. If you tell people
you're going to be a comic or you want to
be a comedian, then they start thinking that, oh, you're
just trying to be funny, and they kind of shoot
it down. A lot a lot of people when you
tell them that you have this goal of becoming something,
they tend to shoot it down because maybe they're afraid
of it, but they or they see that you're trying
it and and and that's what they want to do
(26:32):
and but or that's just their mentality. But yeah, it's
a it's a tough thing to go through. And uh,
but you have to just kind of be your own
person and have your own faith in that. I mean,
you know that it's a I mean going you know,
when you say that you want to be acting an actor,
that what makes you think that you're going to get picked,
You're going to get a goal and it's a tough
thing to go through, but you have to fight through
(26:53):
that stuff and and just yeah, there's some luck involved,
but I mean, obviously there's it's majority of it is
skill and you have to back it up when it
when the time is right, because you know, if you
didn't back it up, you wouldn't have got you wouldn't
have been on the office, it wouldn't have happened. You're
able to backround.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Do you consider yourself an actor?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
You know, I maybe not until recently, but because but
now and and listen, I if you watch me on stage,
it doesn't seem like I'm performing at all, but I
because I stand still, I'm very monotone and but yeah, right,
I'm talking to the right person. But you know, but
(27:33):
there is acting in it. There is a performance in it.
I might not be jumping around or making crazy facial expressions,
but I try to think of being in the bit.
And you you there's little movements that go a long way.
So there's acting in stand up. But as far as
acting acting, I'm not. I'm definitely not an actor, but
(27:54):
I think I I could play myself. I could do that,
you know, but so so it'd have to be something
I would write. I don't. I'm not going to be
able to be you know, Jim Carrey man on the Moon,
but I could be you know, Gary Vetter searching for
his father, if it was, if that was a TV show.
Speaker 6 (28:11):
Pitching it now, Yeah, one of the things that I
like to talk to people about because you know, look,
there's Gary the little kid or high school kid, college
kid who wants to make people laugh.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
But to me, there's a distinction between and.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
I call it.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I don't know if this is right or not, but
like I'm doing an activity versus like, oh, this is
what I want to do, this is what I'm going
to focus in and that I want to do in
my life. Was there a moment for you or was
there a time where it changed for you where you
were like, oh, this is a pursuit that I'm going
to put my whole self into.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Well, I didn't think there was something else that I
really wanted to do, and I don't think there's something
that I thought that I could enjoy doing. So I
would look at people and everybody, you know, I mean,
people do it every day, but I didn't think I
could do this. I didn't think I could put it
on a suit every day and go to an office
and maybe be in that suit in hot weather and
(29:13):
sitting in my car and traffic. I thought of all
these things. I wanted a job that had some freedom,
that maybe allowed me to travel and maybe, you know, yeah,
I might go to Dayton, Ohio. No offense Dayton, but
it's not the you know, the best place for me
to go visit, but I would I would be like, Oh,
that's cool. I get to go there and do stand
up so, you know. So these are things that I
(29:36):
thought would be cool, and I was envisioned myself, Oh,
I could be a comic and then I'd come home
and then my family would be there and they would
think that it's cool. I also thought that too. I
thought that maybe one day I would have a family
and I would be a comic and my kids would
be be like, oh, my dad's a comedian. That's a
cool thing. So I thought that could Maybe that's what
(29:57):
I wanted my dad to actually be. So I wanted
my kids to be proud of me, because I didn't
really feel proud of my dad. I felt that I
had to really keep that decide what he was doing.
I wasn't proud that not only was he installing payphones
and that was his business, but he was conning people
too in a process. You know, he was doing all
these things to rip people off. And yeah, I wanted
(30:19):
my kids to be proud, and I wanted to be
proud of my dad.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
You know, something just occurred to me. And by the
time this errors, we will have passed. I guess I'm
exposing myself, but I was going to thinking about this. No, no, no,
this experience will have passed. But I'm sharing something with you.
I probably should not share this at all, but I
have a daughter and just right now, this week, she's
(30:44):
participating in let's just call it a camp. And in
order to participate in this camp, she has to be
of a certain age. Now she is not that age, okay,
but all of her friends are doing this again, let's
call it a camp. We lied, I lied. I lied.
I signed her up and basically put her correct birthday
(31:08):
and put it a year earlier. And I'm not joking
with you. The entire day yesterday, I felt guilty. I
felt I felt horrible. So I'm just thinking back again
about your dad and that idea of like bringing your
kids and without judgment, saying myself, I am currently right
(31:31):
now doing the same thing. Yeah, and you felt guilt.
I felt incredible guilt. But and this is I guess
where I at least can assure myself that I'm different.
I made that decision not because I needed some time
off this week and I needed to stick her somewhere,
(31:51):
right like, this is an activity that she legitimately loves,
that she will legitimately excel at with her friends in
the summer, and so I wanted her to have this experience.
Does that make it any better? I don't know, but it's.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Just I think so, because yeah, I think it really does.
I think, you know, you're kind of answering the question
that I'm searching for is that did my dad do
it for me or for himself? And here you're trying
to do something for your daughter that will benefit her,
and you're you know, what you're getting out of it
is her pure enjoyment, that her succeeding and what she's doing.
(32:32):
And it sounds like, you know, hands down the right decision.
Now it doesn't It doesn't make it any better that
you had to, Like, yeah, but you know, sometimes you
maybe That's the thing is sometimes you might have to
to fib a little bit. That's a that's a little
fits a little.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
I tried to explain to her literally what I said
to her, I'm sorry to interrupt you was right. So
remember our little white lie. That is what was the
word I said. And I was like, is that a
good thing to explain? I mean, at some point she's
gonna understand it, right, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
It's yeaascinating. I mean I think I now I find
and you know, don't get me wrong. I mean I
learned from somebody who was constantly lying, and I kind
of showed me, oh, maybe you can lie. And there
are things like, yeah, just lie. You don't know. What
my dad was showing me was that that he lies
all the time. So then I realized, oh, I don't
want to be like him, so you know, I won't.
(33:23):
But it's still that lying is still in me. And
I would still lie as I was getting older, and
I would lie about things that I didn't need to
lie about. And eventually, you know, I meet my wife
and I'm you know, I she would get upset with
me because I would lie about something silly, like not
tell her anything, tell her something.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I would tell her.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
I would tell her everything for the most part, but
then things I would leave out and she would be like,
why are you not telling me that? And I realized
that was a big problem. I can't not tell her stuff.
It was just in me. And she taught me a
lot about just just be as forthcoming as possible and
there's no there's no reason not to and because then
you're hiding something. So my dad kind of just showed
(34:06):
me that that was okay to do. And it really
took some time to break that up.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
In twenty fourteen, ten years ago, now, you participated in
a little competition. It was explained to me as a
March Madness type competition Caroline's on Broadway. You beat beat
that's what you were the champion and beat sixty three
(34:49):
of the best young comedians out there. Now here's my question.
First off, congratulations ten years later. Is there anybody who
you hang out with now that is in the stand
up world that you beat that you can hold over
their head? That's really where I'm angling here.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Is there anybody you do so many of these things?
There were so many when those were in the early days.
I was probably doing comedy five years. At that point,
five six years, you're you're in these infancy days of
doing stand up where you're just trying to get ahead.
You're trying everything, and you know, there's that was one contest,
and that was a good one because I was in
New York and you got to be seen by different
(35:30):
managers and agents and I got an age manager after
that and I won. Yeah, and then you get bookings
at Carolines and that's cool. But you know, it could
have it. Really, it could have happened to me, ey
the way I look at it, it could have happened
to anybody, because you do that and then you get
that and then somebody else gets something else. So it's
it's all it all. It all happens for everybody, if
(35:52):
I feel, if it's supposed to happen, and your career
kind of moves along as time goes on. But uh,
I couldn't even tell you who was in it. I
know there was one person. I know, the person who
had to go. I know there there was one person
who was in, who was in the finals, who is
a finals with me, who's a runner up who I beat?
Uh So technically I do have it.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
His head.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Yes, I beat him and he is my friend, but
so so I okay, so yes, I do have I
take it back. I have one person and I hold
it over his head all the time, no matter what
you do, because I'm a better stand up comedian and
he's you're better.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
You won, he won, You're a champion. The next year,
season ten of America's God Talent, you become a finalist there.
Do you think that that the Caroline's thing helped you
to get that?
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, totally. You know I did before even
that March Madness thing in twenty fourteen that you mentioned,
I did a couple other contests and there was one
I came in second that was in Atlanta, and what
I realized was that if you come in second, nobody
really nobody cares. Nobody cares if you come in second and.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
The first love.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yeah, extactically, yeah, I mean that's how it goes and
and and you know, all the glory goes to whoever wins.
So when I then I went to that you know
thing at Karenlines where they did the March Madness thing,
and I was like, all right, I gotta win it
because nobody's gonna care if you don't. Nobody's gonna remember
if you came in second.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
And then I when I went, your buddy, no right, yeah, exactly,
he quit. He's the garbage right now, which is a
good job. But so then I did America's got talent,
and I kind of went in with that mentality. I
have the way I tell jokes there. I have some
longer jokes, longer bits, but for the most part they're short,
and I could get to laugh pretty quickly. I could
(37:44):
get to laugh in ten fifteen seconds and a lot
of jokes, So I thought I had an advantage.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
And I really went in with a lot of confidence
that that that this could happen, that I could that
I could advance. I didn't know how far, but I
was really hopeful. I felt that if in the right situation,
I could maybe catch a hot streak. And I was
fortunate I got a hot streak I had. I had
people that went before me that weren't stand ups that
you know, I'm going to a ventriloquist and then a
(38:12):
parrot and all the things that are not stand up comedy,
so you still have to perform and it's a different setting.
But I felt that my act would uh would really
come out and really play itself well in front of
their audience, and and it and fortunately enough it did
and and that was that was a good moment for
sure in my career.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I watched your first Colbert Club. Oh but you you
appearing on Colbert and Conan and those late night shows.
Do you feel like that, because you know, back in
the back in the olden days, right, it was like
being on Johnny Carson was like it for you in
(38:54):
your experiences doing those shows? Was it similar, Like do
you feel like that gave you some street crowd?
Speaker 1 (39:01):
So it's such a different world. And I looked at
it when I started doing stand up, that's that. It
was all I wanted. My first TV appearance that I
ever had was on Conan. It was Conan when he
was on TBS, and I grew up my Conan was
my guy. I loved Jay Leno, I love Letterman too,
but Conan was what I grew up watching. I love Conan.
(39:23):
I would watch him all the time, and I wanted
to be on his late night show. And then he
moved to TBS, and then I was started doing stand
up probably around that same time, and I tried getting
an internship there when I was in college. That never
that that didn't work out, but I tried, and I
really wanted to be somewhere in Conan's world, and I
(39:45):
tried so hard, and then I finally got the offer
to do Conan and I did it, and it was
kind of like an outer body experience when you're on
the show. Because I watched this guy growing up. I
never thought that I would be on TV, and this
was my opportunity. I'm going to show these people that
said that being a stand up comedian, people that I
(40:06):
that that knew me that this is not going to
this isn't gonna happen, And now here I am doing
stand up comedy and I'm on TV. I made it,
And that's really what I was. It's just complete. You're
just on pilot mode doing your set in front of
that that camera because they keep everything. Everything you say,
it's just it's good, but it was, it was. It
(40:26):
was incredible. It was an incredible experience. And then you know,
then I did I did Colbert a little while later,
and it was the same deal, same thing. You still
have that outer body experience where I'm I'm on the
Ed Sullivan stage in the in this theater. It's like
so many, so many historic people. You try not to
think about it, but it can't. You can't help it
because until you go on, you're you're just sitting there
(40:49):
with you know, in this environment. And then then you're
on stage and now you're doing you have to do
your set, words have to come out of your mouth.
It's unbelievable, but it But but you do it and
and yet and if you practice enough, that's all you
want to do. You want to just keep practicing, keep practicing,
keep getting you know, if you're a comic, keep getting
on stage, because when that moment comes, you're just it's
(41:12):
like a fight or flight mode and you just just
do it. You say it and then and then hopefully
you know, it goes well.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Uh, you recently released comedy special. It could be worse.
Do you enjoy doing those? Do you enjoy having those
out in the world.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
For sure, it's a you know, a sense of completion.
I worked on an act that I was doing for
about a little over two and a half years, and
I feel the jokes are good. You know, things change
over time, so you're you know, you're mixing things back
and forth. But these are jokes that I took on
the road, and I would I would be saying, and
I feel like I perfected him to the best I could.
(41:53):
And then you deliver in front of a camera. Uh,
and and that's it, that's the final product. And then
I put that on YouTube, and so far it's been
a good response, and yeah, people people think it's great.
And you know, I mean, I'm not that obviously the
biggest comic in the world, but it's a good way.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Now.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
YouTube is such a great way to get people that
might not be familiar with you to actually see you.
And uh, yeah, that's that. That's been a so far,
a good, good thing to release.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
That's awesome. Do you like still like being on the road?
Speaker 1 (42:23):
I really like the road, I really do. I enjoy
it because you're really the only way to find out
if a joke works. I mean, I live in New York,
but the only way to find out if a joke
works is if you take it everywhere. You got to
make sure that it's going to work for in all
these different scenarios, you know, in front of different types
of people, and you want I want every everybody as
(42:44):
much as possible. You're never going to make everybody like
your comedy, but I want to make as many people
as possible enjoy my comedy. So the only way to
do that is by testing the material out and doing
it in different situations.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Yeah you're a dad yourself down.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Yeah I am. And that's kind of what got the
podcast going was that my my first son was born,
and it made me really reflect on Okay, here's I
have a son. You know all I did have. I
had a dad that was in my life, and you know,
how am I going to be as a father. And
that's what got me thinking more on the podcast. But yeah,
(43:22):
being a dad and it is amazing. I love it.
And now now I have a second son as well,
so I have a four year old now and one
and a half year old, So it's pretty it's pretty special.
And yeah, I mean it's everything I ever wanted. I
never you know, my wife and I it wasn't easy
(43:42):
for us to have kids. Uh, in the beginning. I
tried first, then she tried, and now it was we
both she was going, uh we had to do IVF.
So it was it was a struggle and but we
were able to do it. So we're so thankful that,
you know, as heart of the process. As we're now
we have two, two beautiful kids.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
That's awesome. That that to me is the hardest part
about being on the road right when you've got when
you've got the little ones at home. Yeah, it leaves
an empty space at times. As much as you love
what you're doing, as much as you you know, know
that for yourself and for your family, you have to
be out there. That's a that's a that's a tough part.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
It's very tough. I was just away this past weekend.
It was only for a day, uh to Atlantic City,
so I had I had to go for a night
for a gig and it was I was fortunately enough.
But before that, the week before I was, I was home,
so I didn't and so i'd been home. I had good,
good times at home and it was great, and then
I just had to go away for a night. And
(44:47):
that's just it's such a short trip. You know, a
lot of times I've gone for for maybe five days
at a time, but this time was just one night,
and it's just it's it's just tough. No matter how
many days it is, I feel I'm missing out. I'm
missing out on things, missing things out in their childhood
and my wife, she's really supportive, she's wonderful, and she goes.
(45:08):
You know, you don't don't have to say you're sorry,
like you're making money for the family and and yeah,
but I want to I feel I want to be there.
I don't want to miss out on things. And but
it's inevitable. But uh I, it is very hard. It's
very hard to do, so, you know, but I love
the road too, so yeah, so it's it's but it's.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
You got to do what you gotta do.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
There's no easy way around it.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Well, Gary, you're clearly a great, caring father. You're a
delightful guy. I wish you all the best. I know
these limited series podcasts, when you're editing together material, it's
a lot of work. I know from personal experience. So
I first off, I applaud you for going through the
(45:54):
effort and for going inside yourself and exposing yourself not
in a weird way. That's cool and important. Number One
Dad the podcast. I'll be a subscriber today, Gary.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
I promise you that I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Good luck to you on the road and at home
and with with the podcast. I can't wait to hear
if you find your dad.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Thanks so much, Brian.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
All Right, cheers man, Gary, that was awesome. Thank you
so much for sharing with me and the world your story.
(46:41):
I know it wasn't easy getting to a place where
you can talk about it, but man, it is so
fascinating to me. I'm so glad that you've put this
podcast together and I can't wait to learn how this
all unfolds. Good luck finding your dad. Listeners, you too
can follow Gary's story on Number One Dad wherever you
(47:02):
listen to your podcast. In fact, you can just add
it to your cue right now, since you're already here.
Do it, do it, Do it now now. I promise
you won't be disappointed, and tune in here next week,
because well, we have a very special guest back on
the podcast revisiting us, regaling us with stories of his childhood.
(47:27):
I don't know. Get ready, office fans. As always, it's
going to be a wild ride. Off the Beat is
hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our
(47:48):
executive producer, Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia.
Our producers are Emily Carr and Seth Olanski, and our
talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, our theme song Bubble
and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Breton
Host
Brian Baumgartner
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