April 7, 2026 • 48 mins
In this episode of “Shrink This!,” Lisa is joined by actress Roberta Wallach from the play, “The People Versus Lenny Bruce” (off-Broadway, 5/7-6/28, @LennyBrucePlay ) to talk about what “freedom of speech” actually means—onstage, online, and in your everyday life. The two get into why saying whatever you want doesn’t mean you won’t face consequences, how comedy has always pushed the envelope (and sometimes torn it open), and why intention vs. impact is where things can get messy. With Celia, they tackle listener questions about using offensive language in group chats, whether your parents get a free pass to be outdated, and if calling your mother-in-law the c-word is ever worth it (spoiler: probably not!). If you’ve ever wondered where the line actually is—or if there even IS a line—this episode breaks down the difference between being honest, being funny, and just being an asshole.
Buy tickets to “The People Versus Lenny Bruce” here, and follow along on Instagram @LennyBrucePlay!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lisa Lampinelli is not a licensed therapist or life coach.
She is a meddling advice giving yana and know it all,
and her words come from her head, her heart, and
often out of her ass. This podcast should not be
misconstrued as therapy. I should be taking with a huge
grain of salt for entertainment purposes only.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
These.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
You need help, You're the problems. Come on, come down,
go leamb take a pill. I think you're insane. Do
what I say, dumb ass, listen to me. You gosh, everyone,
(00:48):
did you miss me?
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You did.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
If you didn't, go fuck yourselves, that's the first curse
of the day. On an episode of Shrink This with
Lisa Lambinelli about what else freedom? I love speech, afraid
of to say what I want and do what I want.
So anyway, for the last two weeks we were off
because Nick had to have boob reduction surgery. Celia's here too.
You seem to have had some boob reduction yourself. Oh no, no,
(01:14):
in a good way. Bitch your side. Tit disappeared, just kidding,
you never had one. I'm looking good, did you.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Miss us?
Speaker 5 (01:23):
I did very much so well.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Thankfully Nick is not here, So this is like a
softer reentry. Yeah, because this is just Lisa. So it's
like entering with lube. With Nick here, it's full on
raw dog. So luckily it is just us and my
very special guest. And I will tell you how I
know her. I have recently become associated because, as you know, Celia,
(01:47):
I'm a woman of the theater. You know that's bullshit.
I'm not at all, but I somehow got contacted to help.
I would talk about consult with this production of a
play called The People Versus Lenny Bruce. Now, for you
(02:08):
youngsters out there who listen to podcasts, you don't know
who Lenny Bruce was. He was a funny, funny, controversial
comedian in the fifties and sixties who's sort of the
martyr for free speech. He got persecuted, he got put
on trial. What's funny is his material back then, when
I read it now, is so tame compared to the
stuff we say now that I'm like, oh my god,
(02:31):
I would have been totally under arrest and probably executed
in the fifties. Thankfully I was still not even a
sperm yet. Is that how I started, Celia? Could you
look that up scientifically on chat GPT. Thank you you're
such a research er. So anyway, in this play, it's
very beautiful. It's about freedom speech, which I think really
echoes what we're going through today in the world. I
(02:52):
started working with them and they told me an old
friend of mine is in the fucking show. And it
was like, get out who And they said, wallach who.
I almost drop the phone because this bitch I have
her in studio. She is a premier stage and screen actress.
She's like one of those classy actors like who does
things with like inside the actor's studio and like all
(03:15):
fancy people like Julliard things like that. And I'm like
always in all of that because comedians are like fiftier
level of fanciness on uh in the entertainment scale. So Roberta,
you are in this play, say hello, thank you for coming.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Today, Hello my love, and watch your fucking.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Language, watch your cut, watch that cunty mouthyrs. I so
you do account of cunts today, I'll do it. Wait,
so we're three cunts in the studio, three cunts way
brings you say, see, I don't like those Brits And
I'll tell you why they think they're fancy. They think
they're more astute and erudite than us. I would say,
(03:54):
you're erudyte Roberta. You have education. You taught me to
I just drop. I realized that right, Well, but you
have acting education. You Let me tell you were referred
to me by Josh Peck. Do you remember Josh Pack?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Absolutely adore him.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Okay, look at Celia's face. She's gagging because she's like,
how do you know Josh Pack? First of all, okay,
are you gagging that? I know Josh Pack?
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Josh from Drake and John.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Josh and I met when we were in a movie together,
the only unsuccessful Judd Apatel movie, Drill Bit Taylor Or.
I played Josh's mother, So it was so when we've
kept in touch. I love him. He's a mensch. So
I saw him in a movie once that was a
serious role, and I texted him. I was sobbing. He
(04:43):
was so good in it, and I said, who is
your acting teacher? I need to learn? And he referred
me to the studio You worked at Bird at the time.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Studio. Yeah, and guess how.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Fancy of an actor Josh is. That method was so
fucking complicated I quit. I was like, Josh, you're smart.
I don't get it. Can I just yell content? Stage?
I don't know. So I met you and you're a
great acting teacher. You told me how to analyze a script,
for God's sake, and I was too scared to continue
(05:16):
because I just didn't have the chaps.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Well, you can always start again.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Now, what do you think for someone of my age,
I'm sixty almost sixty five. Would you say maybe it
would be a fun thing to start acting?
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Well, I don't know that I'd use the adjective fund,
but it could be.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It could be.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I mean, the great thing about acting is, unlike you
know other fields. If you're an athlete, you're done by
a certain age. The great thing about acting is the
more experience you have, the more you have to draw upon.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
So the older you get booboo, the better you bet.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I mean, girl, I have depth, Like this is what
I'm saying stage, and I beg to differ.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You are a wonderful actor.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Oh okay, Celia, see because it always tells me I
stink now, Roberta. When I first met you, your dad,
of course, the legendary Eli Wallack.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I had just.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Watched him for the hundredth time, because I loved the
movie so much. In the Holiday with this, Kate Winslet
and Jack Black and your father and your mom Man
Jackson iconic actors. Correct, was it hard growing up with that?
I'm sure yours is all the time?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
You know people?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Yeah, people ask all the time, right, what did it
feel like to grow up with famous parents? And you know,
the asshole in me goes, well, you mean compared to
what parents I've had.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
In other lifetimes.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Yeah, I mean they were our parents, so you know,
they are pros and cons to anything.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I mean, I feel very blessed.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
I always half jokingly say, I think I chose very wisely. Wow,
you know, but the real gift was that we had
you know, we were in New York based family, acting family,
similar to the Stillers who lived right near us. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Right, So Ben and I always joke.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
That, you know, when people would ask who are your parents,
I would say Jerry Stiller and Anne Mirra, Ben and
Amy would say A Jackson and Eli Waller.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Right right, the trade.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Off, but there were great things about it, but also
as an actor, even more pressure. Yes, right, everyone thinks
nepotism is so great, but then you have to double
prove yourself. But look, I've been doing this for fifty
four years. Yeah, so still going you are, and this play,
I'm telling you it's called Again the People Versus Lenny Bruce.
(07:34):
There is a ticket link.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I make nothing from this, by the way, out of
the goodness of my heart, I said, I take pity
upon this poor playwright who doesn't know how to do
social media. I said, I'll promote some of this show
for you. Go to Lenny Bruce play on Instagram or
Lisa Lampanelli on Instagram. There is a ticket link. The
(07:57):
show starts performances aret May seven. This one preview start,
so it's off Broadway. It's going to beautiful. The script
is hilarious. By the way. I was so scared to
read it when they asked me to get involved, because
I'm always afraid if I read it and don't like it,
I'm gonna have to lie, like when you see an
ugly baby. And I love the script. I think it's
(08:18):
really obviously resonates now and I was like, Okay, how
do we translate freedom of speech to everyday life? Because
I made a living off just saying whatever I thought
was best. That I had the right intention behind as
a comic, but also in everyday life. Yeah, we're allowed
to say anything we want. I could have barged in
(08:39):
here today called Celia the C word and expected, well,
I get to do and say whatever I want. But
also I think what people forget now? Yeah, but then
you got the repercussions. Then you've got the stuff that
comes back on you, and like, well you have to
pay the consequences too. So do you feel like this
(09:01):
just a freedom of speech in general is sort of
resonant now?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Oh? Absolutely? And you know it's funny because our dad's brother,
older brother, someone who was called Sam Wallack, was a
teacher in Brooklyn and he was blacklisted during the era.
So I think you're absolutely right. This is so resonant now.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
The other interesting tie in.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
With Dorothy Kilgallen, who I play, is that Drothy had
a radio show first with her husband, and then she
became really famous because she was on a great game
show that was extremely popular called What's My Line.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Oh and my parents.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
And Alan Arkin were on What's My Line when they
were doing the play love that, you know, Maury Shiskell wrote,
So they are all these bizarre tie ins to it,
but I think freedom of speech is definitely under attack now.
It's so sadly this many years later, we're still having
to fight for the right to free speech.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, and again, I realize some of the stuff Lenny
Bruce said, or controversial comics have said in the past.
What its like my friend Rich Voss or just other
people like that Jim Norton, people who I happen to
agree with politically, how about the ones I don't agree with?
(10:27):
And I'm like, oh, they get to have freedom of
speech too, and it pisses me off. So do I
want Joe Rogan to be able to promote some whack
job on his podcast? I don't want him to, but
I get that we need him to write.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Hopefully, in this country, everyone can spend, even if they
are ginormous aholes.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
So yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I'm also really happy when like millions and millions turn
out for the no King stuff and not so thrilled
when the tiki torches come out for the fucking white
supremacy stuff. Really, I'm like, I know, weirdly, I'm not
a white supremacist yet. I'm I'm I will hopefully one day.
But it's just like, oh, I hate that it protects
(11:11):
the speech for them, but it has to because then
it won't protect it for me exactly.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
You know, so in every day a little thing called
the constitutional.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Well that's not going to be in existence in four years.
Come on, girls, so Celia, just I know the words
freedom of speech sound lofty, but like, do you notice
yourself like just going, well, I just want to be me.
I just want to say what I want to say,
and like this sometimes at backfire.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
I mean, I say what I want to say mostly
just in my head. Like I'll like really think something
non pc and just keep it to myself.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Or there's that's interesting.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
There are certain friends who I feel like, you know,
like they know you so deeply that you can really
say whatever you want. Yeah, like they'll laugh or they'll
take it with a grain of salt. But yeah, I mean,
these days you can't be walking down the street and
saying things that.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Well, it's so funny when you say you say it
in your head. Cause I have a coach, a somatic coach,
and yesterday and I've been wondering for a long time
if he's gay, but I don't want to like ask.
I don't think it's any of my business, But like,
why do I want to know? I want to know.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I just tried kissing it.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Well, no, he's we do zoom and I tried to
show him a tit and it didn't work. Okay, so
that never works for anyone. So I freaking yesterday he
had on on zoom and I'm not even lying, and
I get the sematics. They can be woo wu type
of people. It was like a furry kind of festival
(12:48):
wear vest and I go, oh, I love your furry
gay vest. I figured I shoved gay right in there,
and he just started laughing. So I'm like, oh cool, Okay,
So maybe we broke the subject, but I would have
had to pay the consequences if he said back to me, look,
I honestly like, we're in a therapeutic environment. I'm kind
(13:09):
of offended that you would say this, So I have
to allow him to have that experience too. Thank god,
he laughed. I did at one point say the R word,
but from a quote from someone, I said so and
so said this our word person, and he didn't seem
to blanche at that. So in a quote, I think
it's okay. But it's so hard to try to be
(13:32):
just the human and not blurt out everything you want to,
because on stage that's what I did. I was like, well,
too bad, I know what I mean, I know my intention.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
But the artist has that kind of freedom, right, I mean,
hopefully hopefully artists have more freedom than other civilians do.
Right for a reason, because it's about provocation. It's getting people,
hopefully to think about things that they don't ordinarily want
to or even understand about themselves. Right, So, yeah, it's provocation.
(14:06):
And certainly that was the thing about Lenny. He was
such a provocateur, you know. But I also really think
that to a certain extent, not so subliminally, it was.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Probably his politics that really got.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
Them going, as opposed to you know, the obscenity Slapping
him with obscenity laws was just convenient, sure, you know
at that time.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Because even if you read, if you see the play,
which you should go to Lenny Bruce play on Instagram
and get tickets, the jokes themselves on paper, like with
my material too, not that I was at all as
anything near Lenny Bruce on paper, like you're like, oh,
Red Blandly, this is just dumb. But then he explains
(14:50):
it and he performs it, the actor is going to
perform it the way Lenny actually did as a beautiful
like closing, and you're like, oh, he was making a
commentary on this issue and this issue what's ostensibly a
dick joke or a p joke, and it's like, oh, okay,
so there's a bigger message here exactly.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
You could say he was a beat poet in that sense, right,
you know of that time.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Well, I always said, like when people would ask me, well,
why do you make all the jokes about race or
about gays or this or that? And I'm like, because
it's not funny to say, Hi, I'm including everyone, because
everyone should be included in society and treated equally. That's
not funny. But by including everybody, you're demonstrating it, and
(15:44):
you're showing it. Nobody's gonna listen to. I'm not doing
a Ted talk. Comics aren't doing Ted. Lenny Bruce was
not doing a Ted talk. He was going, Okay, let
me show you how dumb society is acting and how
these beliefs are stupid through forming this type of material, right,
And I mean he was pushing back against you know,
(16:05):
I remember at that time it was a real swing,
and he was pushing back against the repression you could
say of the fifties. Yeah, you know, so those guys
who were on the fringe early beat nicks.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah, I mean there would be no.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
You know, things would be very different now without that generation, let's.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Put it that way, because they were really.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Groundbreaking, yeah and brave, you know, and they talk about
paying the consequences.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
He certainly did.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Yeah, well, you your mom was Let's see, how old
was your mom in the fifties. Was she like a
wife and mom? Yet?
Speaker 5 (16:43):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Yeah, I mean I was born in fifty five, so
and she turned thirty in nineteen fifty five.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I'm really bad at math.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
So that's okay, all of us nobody and what no
listeners of ours are Asian. But yeah, see, and that's
something you can ye say and I will have to
suffer the consequences. But my agent from Bonnie said, it's okay.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
In the fifties, a thirty year old woman, yeah, is
very different than a thirty year old woman in my generation.
You sure the sixties and seventies, really seventies, right, so
you're already a quote unquote grown up by that point,
you know, so different times, different pressures. So yeah, she
was already I was her second child, so she was
(17:27):
already a mom of two at age thirty.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Wow. So is it where you know how people are
always glamorizing the fifties, Oh if those were the days.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Oh if we could just go back sure to all
that smoking and drinking.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Yeah, and also the voters being all white. You know,
it's like, that's kind of what you want.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
So we address some of that in the play too,
the fact that Dorothy kilgallan makes a comment about gold senator.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
He was the Senator Goldwater.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
What's interesting to me about her is that she was
actually quite a conservative Catholic, but she was such She
also was such an extraordinary journalist, and she spent a
lot of time covering really incredible murder trials and trials
at the time. So she was fascinated, I think, by
(18:19):
by the law. So once she got into that courtroom,
she really believed she had seen Lenny perform, and she
really thought he was a brilliant, brilliant.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Talent and wordsmith.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
You know, she was really taken with his with his
writing too, and she really went to bat for him.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I mean, I know that.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Script is powerful. That's the part in the play that
I when I was reading, I.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
Was like, Oh, I can't wait till she eviscerates his
h I also, I always love when a woman like
just cuts the dick off of a guy, and it's
fantastic what she does, what she does to the prosecuting attorney.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
She just rakes him over the calls. It's great.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
I love like. That's I think why we watch Law
and Order as we do, because just to see old
Mariska hargatea cut a dick off a guy every week. Man,
she's a freaking icon. So cool. Do you know when
do you all start? Have you started rehearsals? Now?
Speaker 2 (19:14):
We start rehearsals the April.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Yeah, my god, we start previews, as you said, But
then we open on the fourteenth, and we're also going
to get to play all through the whole month.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Of June, which is great. Oh, it's so classy.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
People go to the theater. It's classy, even if you're
like a nick like someone who has no breeding, whose
father is a loser who declared bankruptcy twice. Even if
you're a Celia who's a young upstart coming up in
the business, and she has wide eyes and she's like,
oh my god, I have a migraine, but I suffered through.
I'm going to go to the theater. Go to the theater.
(19:49):
There's nothing like a live performance. Do you go to
the theater ever? Out of curiosity?
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Not really, I'll get you this year that I want
to are going more. And then I ended up actually
going to tow in one week.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Wait what did you say?
Speaker 5 (20:04):
I saw all out and then I saw maybe happy ending.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Oh my god, okay, I can't maybe happy ending. I'm
not what you'd call it typical romantic because I hate
like being in love because it's just has not worked
out for me. That is the most romantic show of
all time. What did you think?
Speaker 5 (20:23):
I loved it?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Oh, it's beautiful.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Yeah, I loved it a lot. I've heard otherwise from
stupid people close sources, hate them. I enjoyed it. I
also don't really have like a high standard for Broadway
because I'm not like a huge fan or super power
like I am a fan.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I just well, you don't didn't go yet a lot.
It's okay, Like I'm not a huge jazz fan because
I haven't had the opportunity to go see it much. Yeah,
but It's almost like I've seen the opera three times
only because before my father, like three years before he passed,
I was like, oh, let's start going to the opera
together in Italian.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Come on.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
No.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I felt bad.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
I had to read the translation on the back of
the seat. But I think the more we see it,
we're like, oh, that's cute.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
So you're gonna come to this play with me. I'm sorry.
I couldn't get you into the SNL episode of Harry
Styles as anyone else I spoke to, But I can
get you free tickets to the people versus Lenny Bruce
previous star May seventh. Go to my Instagram Lisa Lampinelli
or go to Lenny Bruce play and the ticket link
(21:28):
is right there.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Dear Lisa, Yeah, I love the word retarded.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Oh god, didn't I just say? Wait? Okay, yes, I
absolve you, Celia from any controversy for these letters. If
people are saying it, you are doing them in quotes.
We do not say the R word, Okay, except I
say it to my therapist. Okay, go ahead, Okay, so
say it again, Dear Dear Lisa.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
I love the word retarded. I grew up with it.
I use it on my friends and I still make
fun of myself with it. Yesterday I use it in
a group chat and none of the other four people responded.
These were other moms I know, but not close friends moms.
Do you think I should stop saying retarded in group chats?
Thanks Debbie in New York, New York.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
I kind of think Debbie should stop saying the R
word in general. And this is from someone who liberally
used it quite a bit on stage, but not in
real life. I use it now. Like I said, I
say the R word. What's another word we can use
(22:36):
that isn't the R word? That's the problem. By the way,
there is an honorable way to use the word. When
you say something's growth has been stunted, you say their
growth has been retard. So it's not like a bad
word in the context of correctness there in using it
in the correct, proper way of speaking. But dude, which
(23:00):
I can't do at this time, the word as a
pejorative it is. It's tough.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
It's tough.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
And I think even years ago, Howard Stern when he
became which I love a little more enlightened, was like
they used to have someone on called Wendy the R word,
and he changed it to Wendy the slow adult because
that's what she wanted. So I would say, ask the
people what they want and what they're comfortable with. I
don't know, I think Debbie. If you're making enemies, there's good.
(23:31):
That's your consequence. Either find really cool people, quote cool
people who want to hear the word, or you're gonna
have to find other friends because your mom bitches ain't
delighted with you. Right now, What do you think.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Robert, Well, you know, mentally challenged and I mean, yeah
or whatever. You know, it's tricky these days that things
become so PC right right, that you're you're censoring yourself
to a certain extent. But I think your point list
is really well taken. It has so much to do
with context. Yeah, you know, it's it's hard to generalize.
(24:06):
But because I do have people I've known in my
life who are more mentally challenged, I don't want to
particularly make fun of them. And so, for example, when
my nephews were young, they they came from a generation
where they would just say everything was gay.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Oh you're so gay, that's gay.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Yes, And I almost physically accosted them, might say, if
you say it one more time, I'm punching you in.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
The face because listen, you little faggot, you.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Know, Oh my god, I love you, know whatever, because
it's just it's so, it's just, but it comes from
I think, lack of education.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
It's just like people don't really know.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
I mean, I would generations, right, I would have to
say to my parents, don't say, uh, Oriental. I would say,
you have to say Asian mom, you know, or whatever.
But it's not their fault. They come from a different time.
But but when it's something that's cool in the generation, they're
not really thinking it through on how it can really
(25:07):
be offensive. Same thing with the N word. I mean,
there are generations. I had a black mom too, you know,
who helped raise me. And for someone like that, who
was part Native American, who had fought against the KKK,
that's not funny.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
And I think it's almost like we, first of all,
new generations have to give our generation time to grow
and learn. And again I talked about this before. I
have a trans friend who I for the first couple
of years, I would constantly misgender them and I would say,
oh my god, I'm sorry, and he would go, it's fine.
I know the intention isn't bad, right, but in the general.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
I mean, we're doing the biggest we can. I have
a hard time with the pronouns, and of course I
always say because it's not they it's not natural, right,
So I'm such an asshole. Someone once asked me, you know,
at a round table, what are your pronouns? And I said,
my pronoun my pronouns are dame and star.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
I actually like that because I just say, mind's cunt.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
And so I think that works. But to deVie, yeah,
know your audience. If it's not working for you, don't
do it. I think that's the thing. It's not working
for you if And also I question the why do
you want to keep alienating people? Is that your psychological
way of distancing yourself, of being like I'm a cool mom,
(26:32):
I'm not a regular mom. Is that your way of well,
look at me the victim who people are against. So
you have to investigate why you're willing, like this weekend,
I'm going to Cripolu for a meditation in yoga retreat.
Like they you can't yell at the front desk person.
They have a non violence policy, like if my room
(26:55):
isn't warm enough, like I remember once I was freezing
and had to move to a different room, you have
to really be calm and just stand there and be like,
do you mind if I move to another room? Even
if they say we don't have one? You say, well,
I would like a refund, Like you can't be loud.
You gotta know your audience a little and her audience.
(27:18):
It's clearly landing that it's not working for old Debbie.
So get new friends. Ask yourself why you want to
isolate and stay different and work on yourself. Go to therapy.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
Okay, next, Okay, Dear Lisa, my dad is seventy and
still refers to my brother as the homosexual. I've told
him to say gay, but he refuses to and says
it's a free country. Does free speech excuse someone from
acting like an asshole? Thanks? April and Austin, Texas.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Wait, but what's so? I guess the problem is in
the word the yeah, because it's like, oh, my son
is homosexual is fine? My son the homosexual isn't. Which
I always appreciated when black fans would come up to
me after shows and be like, I would rather you
called us, you know, the way you joke around with
(28:07):
the slurs. I would rather that then hear someone with
hate go oh that African American or the black So
I think this is like the way the father's saying it.
Does it sound that way to you werebirded? Yeah? Jabbing out?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (28:25):
But also as you were saying before, I think, check
check in with your son. What does he want to
how does he want to be referred to?
Speaker 3 (28:34):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
There are a lot of gay men I know who
who like to be called homosexual, ye like to be
called you know, whatever it is. But you know, eventually,
hopefully a lot of this type casting, if you will,
will disappear. We're just human beings, you know. So, but
we've all been programmed to label so yeah, yeah, but Lisa,
(28:59):
I'm ready to you six hundred dollars an hour to
shrink me man.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
I also.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
How Area dies one of her major talents.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
There you go, But yeah, I would just say and
again what was the actual question though, like at the end,
what's the two choices?
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Do I let my dad be an asshole?
Speaker 5 (29:18):
Does free speech excuse someone from acting like an asshole?
Speaker 3 (29:22):
It doesn't excuse them, But it allows them. That's the
whole problem. It's like, and honestly, I guess you could
just say to your dad enough times, Dad, ask him
when he wants to be called and again, then you
leave it up to the person. Free free agency and
free speech. But oh, eve a April, poor April. She's
named after a month.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
And by the way, I'm seventy. Seventy is not that
all so wad.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
It's not as if you're talking about someone and I
don't mean to sound like an agist, but it's not
as if you're talking to somebody who's well into their
nineties or even the low hundreds.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Okay, yeah, well he's also seventy and he doesn't speak
like that. I know, I know.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
I still say LATINX because I'm really worried about, like,
because it became very popular during COVID to say LATINX,
and I was like, I'm not going back. I'm staying woke. Yeah,
next letter please from a non month named person.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Okay, dear Lisa, my mother in law is a cunt
and I'm pretty sure she knows it. Can I tell her?
Thanks Washington?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Okay, the mother Okay, pretty sure she knows. I guess
we need to find out does she really know? Like
maybe you could like pass her a note like it
says are you a cunt? And then you say checkbox
that says yes or no. That's like the old one
you want to date someone in grade school. So maybe
(30:45):
she doesn't know she's a cunt though, like I say,
count a lot love it. It's always been my favorite word.
Ah not, it has always but all throughout my career
and now. But I'm not a cunt in real life,
and so I can call myself a cunt. So maybe
I wonder if she means her mother's an actual cunt.
(31:06):
And I think if you're an actual cunt, you don't know,
So I don't know. What do you think?
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Like I mean, hopefully all the time.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
That's why I used, you know, use the British as
the britishism before, because the Brits use kunt as a term.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
It can be a term of endearment, right, So, but
you're right.
Speaker 4 (31:34):
I think if someone knows they are and and continues
to act that way, that's one thing, right, But you're right.
I think if most of the time, if you want
to ask them, if you want to nail them and
really ask them. If they are, it's likely that they're
gonna deny it, right, right, So how do you continue
(31:56):
being one? Or maybe listen, you can own it these
tricky questions. It's it's like saying, you know, what do
you say to an alcoholic who runs around saying I'm
an alcoholic?
Speaker 3 (32:06):
I know, good for you?
Speaker 4 (32:07):
So are you doing anything about that? So if you're
a real cunt, are you doing anything about that? Or
are you just owning that as your title and that
gives you license to just trash everybody?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I mean, what kind of cunt are we talking about?
Speaker 3 (32:19):
If it's someone like me who's not actually a county
but likes it as an feel free to say it,
but also you know what I object to too. I
used to have people come up to me after shows
and be like, hey, count and I'd be like, the
way you say it sounds like you mean it, so
keep the show to me. I'm the one who's funny.
(32:40):
You're stupid and not the R word. I would be like,
you're dumb. Just I'll sign your thing and let's go.
So I even had a we talked about this on
the podcast before somebody come up to me at the
cemetery of all things, and don't ever make jokes at
a cemetery. You never know if the person's in mourning.
Luckily I wasn't all sad. I was just doing the
flowers or whatever. The guy was like, Hey, is that
(33:01):
that big mouth, thin soul comic with the and I go, dude,
that's inappropriate for the place we're in. So I think
sometimes people don't have any delivery, so you gotta be careful.
I say, what's her name? What's this dummy's name?
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Robin?
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Robin, you dumb cunt. Don't tell your mother she's a cunt.
Her mother in law. All mother in laws can be
that way, I get it.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Not my ex mother. God, you're fabulous. She was really good.
She broke them all mine, the best.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
One I ever had. I dated this guy and the
mother was dead. Those are the best. But dead mothers
in law are the best. But just don't just don't
rock the boat, just do it behind her back, as
all good sense would tell you. Next letter, Dear Lisa.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Yeah, I say fuck a lot when I speak, including
at work. Can this legally get me fired? I don't
say fuck you to anyone, but I do drop a
lot of f bombs. Thanks, Nia, NY's from where? Okay, well, listen,
I love the F word. But I always had this
rule on the roasts. I used to do these celebrity roasts.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
If you can imagine on the Comedy Central, if you
can also imagine that, and I had a rule two
fucks and one cunt per roast. And I'll tell you why,
cause you could bleep them and you could still understand
the jokes. In an eight minute set, you're gonna still
hear the jokes. At one point, fuck becomes a default.
(34:31):
So it sounds like for her, it's a default. If
it's intentional, it's funny. If you're doing it for a purpose,
it's fun, it's lighthearted. It can be like meaningful. But
I think if she's just going around using it as
an um or a filler, maybe look at it and see,
oh what else could I say? Or is it holding
me back? I don't know. She yes, Can I get
(34:53):
legally fired? I don't know, Celia, what is a policy?
You have a job? Can you just I guess they
can reprimand you.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
Okay, but that was a law or like a policy would,
But it.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Could be that you made someone like say, suppose Stephanie
our video gal, the Asian Stephanie or as I can
call her Oriental if she she's neither, which is why.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
We call her that.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Suppose she's like, hi, boss and hr, I'm uncomfortable because
I'm Christian and I was raised like where we don't
say fuck, so I'm uncomfortable. I guess they could pull
you in and be like, look, your language is making
some dumb cunt our word uncomfortable. So I don't think
(35:40):
you get fired.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
Doesn't it also depend on where you work. You work
at a strip club, I think you're fine, you know.
Maybe I don't know, but again it's it's what you said,
know your audience, you know. But it's funny because true
confessions here. When I teach young students in any life language,
by the way, forgive me, but it's a generation that
(36:05):
says like, like you know all the time, yeah, not
understanding that where that came from. We're from valley girls, okay,
oh yeah, totally okay. So like you know, like like
like like, so what I do is I say, if
you say like one more time, this is as an actor.
If you say it one more time, it's a dollar.
Every time you say.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Ooh, I get rich really quick.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
But what's great about it is that then they start
to become self aware, they become mindful of that they're
just using it, as you said, as filler.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
They don't know where it comes from now.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
And and what it does is it dumbs you down
because you're making everything to use a big fancy word subjunctive.
It's at sorta kind of like you know, you're not
owning anything that you're saying.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Yeah, so a well placed fuck is, but it has
to be well placed. It has to be because I
would notice even on those rows too, would somebody do
fuck every joke? Which is fine. I don't care freedom
of speech for all, but they're gonna bleep everything and
it has no meaning. We're not gonna understand the joke.
So I think elective electing to say it is great
(37:16):
over using who cares and ps. If a coworker is uncomfortable,
they're gonna tell you're gonna know soon enough if you're fired.
So who's next? What other mental midgets do we have?
Speaker 4 (37:31):
Dear?
Speaker 5 (37:32):
Are there any words you don't think we should ever say?
Thanks Lexi and Banger Maine.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Yes, okay, Banger, I don't think we should have to
say banger bangor bangor Maine bang, just a banger. I
think we should never say. And this is obviously as
a retired comic who said all these things. Obviously the
N word for some reason, even as a comic. Help
(38:02):
me analyze this roperty. You're Jewish?
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Right, No, I'm the wrong half.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
Oh so your mom was Catholics, Communicated Irish Catholic, but
your dad was Jewish.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Yeah. I can't even say the word. And it's not
even a curse. It's a terrible slur. There was one
Jewish slur I could not even bring myself to say.
And I was like, am I being racist against Jews
by not saying this? But no, the K word for Jews?
Uh huh, I can't even say it now. Why is
(38:32):
that such a Why did you think that hits so hard?
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Well? The Holocaust hit hard too, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
So I think it's it's those kinds of things, right,
that still have resonance historically for people.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yes, listen again, generational.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
Because I've spent so much time teaching in Japan, I've
had I had to stop people's saying Jap yes, right, so,
but to understand that it's a generational thing sometimes, right,
that that causes these differences in speech, in the usage.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Of certain words.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
But I think, uh, as you said, so much of
it is again as an actor, as a comic, as
a performer.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
It's it's the intention behind it.
Speaker 4 (39:25):
It's how you say it, it's the context, it's how
you use a word. And that's again what Lenny Bruce
was all about. To a great extent. What he did
was he would use back then, which were considered very
controversial words to a level of levels of absurdity. It's
an ass, it's an ass, it's an ass, an ask.
(39:46):
So it was almost as if he was rapping right, Okay,
so the words, and that was something that Drothy Kilgallen
talked about.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yes, there were certain.
Speaker 4 (39:56):
Words that her mother would freak out if her mother
had ever heard and come out of her mouth. But
when you say fuck, fuckuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, funk,
fun fuck fuk fuck a million times, it loses. Yes,
it's it's sting. And so I think it depends on again,
so many of these words that can seem really offensive
(40:18):
if they're said from a place oddly enough of love,
can be quite funny.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
And that's how I made a living because I knew.
Thank god I had people who I mean, you have
immediate ways to fact check at how it's landing with
the people you're using it on. I remember once I
filmed one of my specials and I think if you
watch especially you can see them right in the front
row or it was a Jewish couple probably in their
(40:44):
forties with their young kid who is probably fifteen, and
their shirts said Juwe number one, Juwe number two and
mini Jew and they will please make fun of us.
So if I can fact check it with okay, that's
okay with them. They they want to be singled out. Also,
like you gotta be sure your intention is right, but
(41:08):
not be afraid to apologize if there's a fence take,
and I think people get really like, no, I can
do whatever I want. How about just be like, oh gosh,
it hurt your feelings, like just a human thing. So
when you say the word JAP, I won't say it
again because it came back on me so bad. Because
I was taping my audio book of my non bestseller
(41:31):
Chocolate Please, the Lisa Lambinelli Story, and George de Kay
and I were friends from Star Trek and I had
met him through the celebrity prentise. So we really liked
each other. And I had him record a chapter because
just him reading in in his and he would say
this gay intonation is funny in my voice and his,
(41:53):
so I like promote it. And I said the jay
word about him not knowing that in the forties it
was so horribly against people in the internment camps and everything. Well,
he calls me and he is so upset. Of course
I'm an idiot at the time. I don't double down
at all. I center myself like an idiot. I start crying.
(42:13):
But I think that actually softened him up, because I
didn't do it on purpose, but I just, oh my god, George,
I'm so sorry. I would never, of all people who
I would never want to offend you, so he forgave me.
We became even more friendly after that, but I had
to apologize. You don't go, yeah, man, well you knew
I was a comic, like, yeah, he did. But also
(42:35):
he just did you a big fucking favor, and you
could say, I'm sorry I hurt your feelings exactly.
Speaker 4 (42:40):
But also, I think it's funny about the Jewish thing
because when I because I played on a fronk when
I was young, people always assumed I was Jewish, right,
unlike Anne Mirra, who actually converted.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
To Judaism, right right.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
My mother never our mother never.
Speaker 4 (42:57):
Did, Okay, but there was There are euphemisms too. It
can be subtle certain kinds of racism or anti semitism. So,
for example, when I was a young actress, very often
people would say she's too ethnic.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
Oh yeah, that was code. Yes, right, so.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
You can't you can't win.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
Now, Well, what do you think also about I'm gonna
make this very vague. Do you think a non Jewish
performer should do Anne Frank?
Speaker 4 (43:32):
Okay, So I'm gonna tell a quick little story about that.
I was doing a play out in at the La
Joya Playhouse years ago, Donald Margley's play, where I played
a four hundred and fifty pound undifferentiated schizophrenic who was
whose parents were Holocaust survivors. Okay, so she was definitely Jewish.
(43:54):
And at the time, Michael Grife, you know who directed Rent,
had brought me out to do this play and they
were doing a production of Rent at the same time
on the main stage.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
So Pa comes up to me.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
A director, an assistant comes up to me and said
there's a young woman who's a big fan of you
or she wants to meet you.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Is that okay? I went, yeah, sure.
Speaker 4 (44:14):
So this lovely little African America, this little black, fabulous
little pistol comes up to me and she goes, I
saw you in Anne, Frank, and I ran home. I
thought you were so great. I ran home and I
did you Frank in the mirror? And you're the reason
I decided to become an actress. And I started to cry,
(44:37):
Yeah sure, And I thought, great, yeah, a black at Frank,
why not? You know, I mean, yeah, so I think
some of this gets so PC. It's as an artist
that it's a tricky line.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
Yeah, because I think I got a little two PC
on that, because you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
So for example, I mean, I speak Spanish, but in
this day age, I can't get cast as Latina in.
Speaker 5 (45:05):
Right.
Speaker 4 (45:05):
But but but and you know, I understand, you know
when you look at a film like Breakfast to Tiffany's.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
And you see Mickey Mickey Rooney playing this, you.
Speaker 4 (45:19):
Know the so and and for example, certain friends of
mine in Japan thought that the film, uh oh god,
the movie that takes place in Tokyo that's so good.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
With Sophia Coppola's.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
Film Oh My God Lost in translation translation that they
found it very offensive. They found a lot of that
very offensive, and I can understand why. But I think
that actors need freedom. The differences are I think when
when it completely changes the context of the play or
changes makes it so improbable historically, that's when you have
(45:57):
certain issues. But should And again, a really close friend
of mine is a real champion for disabled actors and
she has a real hard problem with non disabled actors
playing disabled roles.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
And I can understand all of that, you get it right.
Speaker 4 (46:13):
But at the same time, freedom of speech. We need
freedom of artistic expression as artists.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
So I know it's double edged sword.
Speaker 4 (46:20):
It's just tricky, but so it's it's you can't really
make generalization.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Yes, I guess it's one case at a time.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
Well, you know what's lucky In this Lenny Bruce play,
I will be playing a black, disabled Jewish and Frank
at a talk back.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
You never know.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
People are so excited for the next president. So Verberta,
thank you so much for coming on today.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Pleasure, I love you, I love you too. It's so
great to see.
Speaker 3 (46:51):
Yay, so everybody listen. Go to my Instagram page Lisa
Lampinelli or the Instagram page Lenny Bruce. Get your tickets
for The People Versus Lennie Bruce. You will laugh, you
will be moved, You will learn about one of the
greatest minds and mouthpieces in comedy who suffered for every
(47:12):
other comic who came after him. Go see The People
Versus Lennie Bruce, roberta good luck in the play, or
as they say, break a cunt, and Celia, thank you
for being here today. Get back to that Mike and
say goodbye to me because you love me or obsessed
with me, you need me? True?
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Yeah, you know it's not true.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
I loved you, I missed you the last two weeks.
We will be back in another two weeks. Lucky and
also again, please listen to this podcast on the iHeart App.
Is that what it's called? Yes, the iHeartRadio App or
wherever you find your podcast by Nick, You were here
in spirit but not in girth.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
We love you, believe
Lisa Lampinelli is not a licensed therapist or life coach.
She is a meddling advice giving yana and know it all,
and her words come from her head, her heart, and
often out of her ass. This podcast should not be
misconstrued as therapy. I should be taking with a huge
grain of salt for entertainment purposes only.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
These.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
You need help, You're the problems. Come on, come down,
go leamb take a pill. I think you're insane. Do
what I say, dumb ass, listen to me. You gosh, everyone,
(00:48):
did you miss me?
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You did.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
If you didn't, go fuck yourselves, that's the first curse
of the day. On an episode of Shrink This with
Lisa Lambinelli about what else freedom? I love speech, afraid
of to say what I want and do what I want.
So anyway, for the last two weeks we were off
because Nick had to have boob reduction surgery. Celia's here too.
You seem to have had some boob reduction yourself. Oh no, no,
(01:14):
in a good way. Bitch your side. Tit disappeared, just kidding,
you never had one. I'm looking good, did you.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Miss us?
Speaker 5 (01:23):
I did very much so well.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Thankfully Nick is not here, So this is like a
softer reentry. Yeah, because this is just Lisa. So it's
like entering with lube. With Nick here, it's full on
raw dog. So luckily it is just us and my
very special guest. And I will tell you how I
know her. I have recently become associated because, as you know, Celia,
(01:47):
I'm a woman of the theater. You know that's bullshit.
I'm not at all, but I somehow got contacted to help.
I would talk about consult with this production of a
play called The People Versus Lenny Bruce. Now, for you
(02:08):
youngsters out there who listen to podcasts, you don't know
who Lenny Bruce was. He was a funny, funny, controversial
comedian in the fifties and sixties who's sort of the
martyr for free speech. He got persecuted, he got put
on trial. What's funny is his material back then, when
I read it now, is so tame compared to the
stuff we say now that I'm like, oh my god,
(02:31):
I would have been totally under arrest and probably executed
in the fifties. Thankfully I was still not even a
sperm yet. Is that how I started, Celia? Could you
look that up scientifically on chat GPT. Thank you you're
such a research er. So anyway, in this play, it's
very beautiful. It's about freedom speech, which I think really
echoes what we're going through today in the world. I
(02:52):
started working with them and they told me an old
friend of mine is in the fucking show. And it
was like, get out who And they said, wallach who.
I almost drop the phone because this bitch I have
her in studio. She is a premier stage and screen actress.
She's like one of those classy actors like who does
things with like inside the actor's studio and like all
(03:15):
fancy people like Julliard things like that. And I'm like
always in all of that because comedians are like fiftier
level of fanciness on uh in the entertainment scale. So Roberta,
you are in this play, say hello, thank you for coming.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Today, Hello my love, and watch your fucking.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Language, watch your cut, watch that cunty mouthyrs. I so
you do account of cunts today, I'll do it. Wait,
so we're three cunts in the studio, three cunts way
brings you say, see, I don't like those Brits And
I'll tell you why they think they're fancy. They think
they're more astute and erudite than us. I would say,
(03:54):
you're erudyte Roberta. You have education. You taught me to
I just drop. I realized that right, Well, but you
have acting education. You Let me tell you were referred
to me by Josh Peck. Do you remember Josh Pack?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Absolutely adore him.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Okay, look at Celia's face. She's gagging because she's like,
how do you know Josh Pack? First of all, okay,
are you gagging that? I know Josh Pack?
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Josh from Drake and John.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Josh and I met when we were in a movie together,
the only unsuccessful Judd Apatel movie, Drill Bit Taylor Or.
I played Josh's mother, So it was so when we've
kept in touch. I love him. He's a mensch. So
I saw him in a movie once that was a
serious role, and I texted him. I was sobbing. He
(04:43):
was so good in it, and I said, who is
your acting teacher? I need to learn? And he referred
me to the studio You worked at Bird at the time.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Studio. Yeah, and guess how.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Fancy of an actor Josh is. That method was so
fucking complicated I quit. I was like, Josh, you're smart.
I don't get it. Can I just yell content? Stage?
I don't know. So I met you and you're a
great acting teacher. You told me how to analyze a script,
for God's sake, and I was too scared to continue
(05:16):
because I just didn't have the chaps.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Well, you can always start again.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Now, what do you think for someone of my age,
I'm sixty almost sixty five. Would you say maybe it
would be a fun thing to start acting?
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Well, I don't know that I'd use the adjective fund,
but it could be.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It could be.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I mean, the great thing about acting is, unlike you
know other fields. If you're an athlete, you're done by
a certain age. The great thing about acting is the
more experience you have, the more you have to draw upon.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
So the older you get booboo, the better you bet.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I mean, girl, I have depth, Like this is what
I'm saying stage, and I beg to differ.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You are a wonderful actor.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Oh okay, Celia, see because it always tells me I
stink now, Roberta. When I first met you, your dad,
of course, the legendary Eli Wallack.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I had just.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Watched him for the hundredth time, because I loved the
movie so much. In the Holiday with this, Kate Winslet
and Jack Black and your father and your mom Man
Jackson iconic actors. Correct, was it hard growing up with that?
I'm sure yours is all the time?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
You know people?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Yeah, people ask all the time, right, what did it
feel like to grow up with famous parents? And you know,
the asshole in me goes, well, you mean compared to
what parents I've had.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
In other lifetimes.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Yeah, I mean they were our parents, so you know,
they are pros and cons to anything.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I mean, I feel very blessed.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
I always half jokingly say, I think I chose very wisely. Wow,
you know, but the real gift was that we had
you know, we were in New York based family, acting family,
similar to the Stillers who lived right near us. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Right, So Ben and I always joke.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
That, you know, when people would ask who are your parents,
I would say Jerry Stiller and Anne Mirra, Ben and
Amy would say A Jackson and Eli Waller.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Right right, the trade.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Off, but there were great things about it, but also
as an actor, even more pressure. Yes, right, everyone thinks
nepotism is so great, but then you have to double
prove yourself. But look, I've been doing this for fifty
four years. Yeah, so still going you are, and this play,
I'm telling you it's called Again the People Versus Lenny Bruce.
(07:34):
There is a ticket link.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I make nothing from this, by the way, out of
the goodness of my heart, I said, I take pity
upon this poor playwright who doesn't know how to do
social media. I said, I'll promote some of this show
for you. Go to Lenny Bruce play on Instagram or
Lisa Lampanelli on Instagram. There is a ticket link. The
(07:57):
show starts performances aret May seven. This one preview start,
so it's off Broadway. It's going to beautiful. The script
is hilarious. By the way. I was so scared to
read it when they asked me to get involved, because
I'm always afraid if I read it and don't like it,
I'm gonna have to lie, like when you see an
ugly baby. And I love the script. I think it's
(08:18):
really obviously resonates now and I was like, Okay, how
do we translate freedom of speech to everyday life? Because
I made a living off just saying whatever I thought
was best. That I had the right intention behind as
a comic, but also in everyday life. Yeah, we're allowed
to say anything we want. I could have barged in
(08:39):
here today called Celia the C word and expected, well,
I get to do and say whatever I want. But
also I think what people forget now? Yeah, but then
you got the repercussions. Then you've got the stuff that
comes back on you, and like, well you have to
pay the consequences too. So do you feel like this
(09:01):
just a freedom of speech in general is sort of
resonant now?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Oh? Absolutely? And you know it's funny because our dad's brother,
older brother, someone who was called Sam Wallack, was a
teacher in Brooklyn and he was blacklisted during the era.
So I think you're absolutely right. This is so resonant now.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
The other interesting tie in.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
With Dorothy Kilgallen, who I play, is that Drothy had
a radio show first with her husband, and then she
became really famous because she was on a great game
show that was extremely popular called What's My Line.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Oh and my parents.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
And Alan Arkin were on What's My Line when they
were doing the play love that, you know, Maury Shiskell wrote,
So they are all these bizarre tie ins to it,
but I think freedom of speech is definitely under attack now.
It's so sadly this many years later, we're still having
to fight for the right to free speech.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, and again, I realize some of the stuff Lenny
Bruce said, or controversial comics have said in the past.
What its like my friend Rich Voss or just other
people like that Jim Norton, people who I happen to
agree with politically, how about the ones I don't agree with?
(10:27):
And I'm like, oh, they get to have freedom of
speech too, and it pisses me off. So do I
want Joe Rogan to be able to promote some whack
job on his podcast? I don't want him to, but
I get that we need him to write.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Hopefully, in this country, everyone can spend, even if they
are ginormous aholes.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
So yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I'm also really happy when like millions and millions turn
out for the no King stuff and not so thrilled
when the tiki torches come out for the fucking white
supremacy stuff. Really, I'm like, I know, weirdly, I'm not
a white supremacist yet. I'm I'm I will hopefully one day.
But it's just like, oh, I hate that it protects
(11:11):
the speech for them, but it has to because then
it won't protect it for me exactly.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
You know, so in every day a little thing called
the constitutional.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Well that's not going to be in existence in four years.
Come on, girls, so Celia, just I know the words
freedom of speech sound lofty, but like, do you notice
yourself like just going, well, I just want to be me.
I just want to say what I want to say,
and like this sometimes at backfire.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
I mean, I say what I want to say mostly
just in my head. Like I'll like really think something
non pc and just keep it to myself.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Or there's that's interesting.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
There are certain friends who I feel like, you know,
like they know you so deeply that you can really
say whatever you want. Yeah, like they'll laugh or they'll
take it with a grain of salt. But yeah, I mean,
these days you can't be walking down the street and
saying things that.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Well, it's so funny when you say you say it
in your head. Cause I have a coach, a somatic coach,
and yesterday and I've been wondering for a long time
if he's gay, but I don't want to like ask.
I don't think it's any of my business, But like,
why do I want to know? I want to know.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I just tried kissing it.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Well, no, he's we do zoom and I tried to
show him a tit and it didn't work. Okay, so
that never works for anyone. So I freaking yesterday he
had on on zoom and I'm not even lying, and
I get the sematics. They can be woo wu type
of people. It was like a furry kind of festival
(12:48):
wear vest and I go, oh, I love your furry
gay vest. I figured I shoved gay right in there,
and he just started laughing. So I'm like, oh cool, Okay,
So maybe we broke the subject, but I would have
had to pay the consequences if he said back to me, look,
I honestly like, we're in a therapeutic environment. I'm kind
(13:09):
of offended that you would say this, So I have
to allow him to have that experience too. Thank god,
he laughed. I did at one point say the R word,
but from a quote from someone, I said so and
so said this our word person, and he didn't seem
to blanche at that. So in a quote, I think
it's okay. But it's so hard to try to be
(13:32):
just the human and not blurt out everything you want to,
because on stage that's what I did. I was like, well,
too bad, I know what I mean, I know my intention.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
But the artist has that kind of freedom, right, I mean,
hopefully hopefully artists have more freedom than other civilians do.
Right for a reason, because it's about provocation. It's getting people,
hopefully to think about things that they don't ordinarily want
to or even understand about themselves. Right, So, yeah, it's provocation.
(14:06):
And certainly that was the thing about Lenny. He was
such a provocateur, you know. But I also really think
that to a certain extent, not so subliminally, it was.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Probably his politics that really got.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
Them going, as opposed to you know, the obscenity Slapping
him with obscenity laws was just convenient, sure, you know
at that time.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Because even if you read, if you see the play,
which you should go to Lenny Bruce play on Instagram
and get tickets, the jokes themselves on paper, like with
my material too, not that I was at all as
anything near Lenny Bruce on paper, like you're like, oh,
Red Blandly, this is just dumb. But then he explains
(14:50):
it and he performs it, the actor is going to
perform it the way Lenny actually did as a beautiful
like closing, and you're like, oh, he was making a
commentary on this issue and this issue what's ostensibly a
dick joke or a p joke, and it's like, oh, okay,
so there's a bigger message here exactly.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
You could say he was a beat poet in that sense, right,
you know of that time.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Well, I always said, like when people would ask me, well,
why do you make all the jokes about race or
about gays or this or that? And I'm like, because
it's not funny to say, Hi, I'm including everyone, because
everyone should be included in society and treated equally. That's
not funny. But by including everybody, you're demonstrating it, and
(15:44):
you're showing it. Nobody's gonna listen to. I'm not doing
a Ted talk. Comics aren't doing Ted. Lenny Bruce was
not doing a Ted talk. He was going, Okay, let
me show you how dumb society is acting and how
these beliefs are stupid through forming this type of material, right,
And I mean he was pushing back against you know,
(16:05):
I remember at that time it was a real swing,
and he was pushing back against the repression you could
say of the fifties. Yeah, you know, so those guys
who were on the fringe early beat nicks.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah, I mean there would be no.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
You know, things would be very different now without that generation, let's.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Put it that way, because they were really.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Groundbreaking, yeah and brave, you know, and they talk about
paying the consequences.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
He certainly did.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Yeah, well, you your mom was Let's see, how old
was your mom in the fifties. Was she like a
wife and mom? Yet?
Speaker 5 (16:43):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Yeah, I mean I was born in fifty five, so
and she turned thirty in nineteen fifty five.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I'm really bad at math.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
So that's okay, all of us nobody and what no
listeners of ours are Asian. But yeah, see, and that's
something you can ye say and I will have to
suffer the consequences. But my agent from Bonnie said, it's okay.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
In the fifties, a thirty year old woman, yeah, is
very different than a thirty year old woman in my generation.
You sure the sixties and seventies, really seventies, right, so
you're already a quote unquote grown up by that point,
you know, so different times, different pressures. So yeah, she
was already I was her second child, so she was
(17:27):
already a mom of two at age thirty.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Wow. So is it where you know how people are
always glamorizing the fifties, Oh if those were the days.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Oh if we could just go back sure to all
that smoking and drinking.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Yeah, and also the voters being all white. You know,
it's like, that's kind of what you want.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
So we address some of that in the play too,
the fact that Dorothy kilgallan makes a comment about gold senator.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
He was the Senator Goldwater.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
What's interesting to me about her is that she was
actually quite a conservative Catholic, but she was such She
also was such an extraordinary journalist, and she spent a
lot of time covering really incredible murder trials and trials
at the time. So she was fascinated, I think, by
(18:19):
by the law. So once she got into that courtroom,
she really believed she had seen Lenny perform, and she
really thought he was a brilliant, brilliant.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Talent and wordsmith.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
You know, she was really taken with his with his
writing too, and she really went to bat for him.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I mean, I know that.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Script is powerful. That's the part in the play that
I when I was reading, I.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
Was like, Oh, I can't wait till she eviscerates his
h I also, I always love when a woman like
just cuts the dick off of a guy, and it's
fantastic what she does, what she does to the prosecuting attorney.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
She just rakes him over the calls. It's great.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
I love like. That's I think why we watch Law
and Order as we do, because just to see old
Mariska hargatea cut a dick off a guy every week. Man,
she's a freaking icon. So cool. Do you know when
do you all start? Have you started rehearsals? Now?
Speaker 2 (19:14):
We start rehearsals the April.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Yeah, my god, we start previews, as you said, But
then we open on the fourteenth, and we're also going
to get to play all through the whole month.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Of June, which is great. Oh, it's so classy.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
People go to the theater. It's classy, even if you're
like a nick like someone who has no breeding, whose
father is a loser who declared bankruptcy twice. Even if
you're a Celia who's a young upstart coming up in
the business, and she has wide eyes and she's like,
oh my god, I have a migraine, but I suffered through.
I'm going to go to the theater. Go to the theater.
(19:49):
There's nothing like a live performance. Do you go to
the theater ever? Out of curiosity?
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Not really, I'll get you this year that I want
to are going more. And then I ended up actually
going to tow in one week.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Wait what did you say?
Speaker 5 (20:04):
I saw all out and then I saw maybe happy ending.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Oh my god, okay, I can't maybe happy ending. I'm
not what you'd call it typical romantic because I hate
like being in love because it's just has not worked
out for me. That is the most romantic show of
all time. What did you think?
Speaker 5 (20:23):
I loved it?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Oh, it's beautiful.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Yeah, I loved it a lot. I've heard otherwise from
stupid people close sources, hate them. I enjoyed it. I
also don't really have like a high standard for Broadway
because I'm not like a huge fan or super power
like I am a fan.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I just well, you don't didn't go yet a lot.
It's okay, Like I'm not a huge jazz fan because
I haven't had the opportunity to go see it much. Yeah,
but It's almost like I've seen the opera three times
only because before my father, like three years before he passed,
I was like, oh, let's start going to the opera
together in Italian.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Come on.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
No.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I felt bad.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
I had to read the translation on the back of
the seat. But I think the more we see it,
we're like, oh, that's cute.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
So you're gonna come to this play with me. I'm sorry.
I couldn't get you into the SNL episode of Harry
Styles as anyone else I spoke to, But I can
get you free tickets to the people versus Lenny Bruce
previous star May seventh. Go to my Instagram Lisa Lampinelli
or go to Lenny Bruce play and the ticket link
(21:28):
is right there.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Dear Lisa, Yeah, I love the word retarded.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Oh god, didn't I just say? Wait? Okay, yes, I
absolve you, Celia from any controversy for these letters. If
people are saying it, you are doing them in quotes.
We do not say the R word, Okay, except I
say it to my therapist. Okay, go ahead, Okay, so
say it again, Dear Dear Lisa.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
I love the word retarded. I grew up with it.
I use it on my friends and I still make
fun of myself with it. Yesterday I use it in
a group chat and none of the other four people responded.
These were other moms I know, but not close friends moms.
Do you think I should stop saying retarded in group chats?
Thanks Debbie in New York, New York.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
I kind of think Debbie should stop saying the R
word in general. And this is from someone who liberally
used it quite a bit on stage, but not in
real life. I use it now. Like I said, I
say the R word. What's another word we can use
(22:36):
that isn't the R word? That's the problem. By the way,
there is an honorable way to use the word. When
you say something's growth has been stunted, you say their
growth has been retard. So it's not like a bad
word in the context of correctness there in using it
in the correct, proper way of speaking. But dude, which
(23:00):
I can't do at this time, the word as a
pejorative it is. It's tough.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
It's tough.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
And I think even years ago, Howard Stern when he
became which I love a little more enlightened, was like
they used to have someone on called Wendy the R word,
and he changed it to Wendy the slow adult because
that's what she wanted. So I would say, ask the
people what they want and what they're comfortable with. I
don't know, I think Debbie. If you're making enemies, there's good.
(23:31):
That's your consequence. Either find really cool people, quote cool
people who want to hear the word, or you're gonna
have to find other friends because your mom bitches ain't
delighted with you. Right now, What do you think.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Robert, Well, you know, mentally challenged and I mean, yeah
or whatever. You know, it's tricky these days that things
become so PC right right, that you're you're censoring yourself
to a certain extent. But I think your point list
is really well taken. It has so much to do
with context. Yeah, you know, it's it's hard to generalize.
(24:06):
But because I do have people I've known in my
life who are more mentally challenged, I don't want to
particularly make fun of them. And so, for example, when
my nephews were young, they they came from a generation
where they would just say everything was gay.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Oh you're so gay, that's gay.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Yes, And I almost physically accosted them, might say, if
you say it one more time, I'm punching you in.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
The face because listen, you little faggot, you.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Know, Oh my god, I love you, know whatever, because
it's just it's so, it's just, but it comes from
I think, lack of education.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
It's just like people don't really know.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
I mean, I would generations, right, I would have to
say to my parents, don't say, uh, Oriental. I would say,
you have to say Asian mom, you know, or whatever.
But it's not their fault. They come from a different time.
But but when it's something that's cool in the generation, they're
not really thinking it through on how it can really
(25:07):
be offensive. Same thing with the N word. I mean,
there are generations. I had a black mom too, you know,
who helped raise me. And for someone like that, who
was part Native American, who had fought against the KKK,
that's not funny.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
And I think it's almost like we, first of all,
new generations have to give our generation time to grow
and learn. And again I talked about this before. I
have a trans friend who I for the first couple
of years, I would constantly misgender them and I would say,
oh my god, I'm sorry, and he would go, it's fine.
I know the intention isn't bad, right, but in the general.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
I mean, we're doing the biggest we can. I have
a hard time with the pronouns, and of course I
always say because it's not they it's not natural, right,
So I'm such an asshole. Someone once asked me, you know,
at a round table, what are your pronouns? And I said,
my pronoun my pronouns are dame and star.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
I actually like that because I just say, mind's cunt.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
And so I think that works. But to deVie, yeah,
know your audience. If it's not working for you, don't
do it. I think that's the thing. It's not working
for you if And also I question the why do
you want to keep alienating people? Is that your psychological
way of distancing yourself, of being like I'm a cool mom,
(26:32):
I'm not a regular mom. Is that your way of well,
look at me the victim who people are against. So
you have to investigate why you're willing, like this weekend,
I'm going to Cripolu for a meditation in yoga retreat.
Like they you can't yell at the front desk person.
They have a non violence policy, like if my room
(26:55):
isn't warm enough, like I remember once I was freezing
and had to move to a different room, you have
to really be calm and just stand there and be like,
do you mind if I move to another room? Even
if they say we don't have one? You say, well,
I would like a refund, Like you can't be loud.
You gotta know your audience a little and her audience.
(27:18):
It's clearly landing that it's not working for old Debbie.
So get new friends. Ask yourself why you want to
isolate and stay different and work on yourself. Go to therapy.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
Okay, next, Okay, Dear Lisa, my dad is seventy and
still refers to my brother as the homosexual. I've told
him to say gay, but he refuses to and says
it's a free country. Does free speech excuse someone from
acting like an asshole? Thanks? April and Austin, Texas.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Wait, but what's so? I guess the problem is in
the word the yeah, because it's like, oh, my son
is homosexual is fine? My son the homosexual isn't. Which
I always appreciated when black fans would come up to
me after shows and be like, I would rather you
called us, you know, the way you joke around with
(28:07):
the slurs. I would rather that then hear someone with
hate go oh that African American or the black So
I think this is like the way the father's saying it.
Does it sound that way to you werebirded? Yeah? Jabbing out?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (28:25):
But also as you were saying before, I think, check
check in with your son. What does he want to
how does he want to be referred to?
Speaker 3 (28:34):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
There are a lot of gay men I know who
who like to be called homosexual, ye like to be
called you know, whatever it is. But you know, eventually,
hopefully a lot of this type casting, if you will,
will disappear. We're just human beings, you know. So, but
we've all been programmed to label so yeah, yeah, but Lisa,
(28:59):
I'm ready to you six hundred dollars an hour to
shrink me man.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
I also.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
How Area dies one of her major talents.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
There you go, But yeah, I would just say and
again what was the actual question though, like at the end,
what's the two choices?
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Do I let my dad be an asshole?
Speaker 5 (29:18):
Does free speech excuse someone from acting like an asshole?
Speaker 3 (29:22):
It doesn't excuse them, But it allows them. That's the
whole problem. It's like, and honestly, I guess you could
just say to your dad enough times, Dad, ask him
when he wants to be called and again, then you
leave it up to the person. Free free agency and
free speech. But oh, eve a April, poor April. She's
named after a month.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
And by the way, I'm seventy. Seventy is not that
all so wad.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
It's not as if you're talking about someone and I
don't mean to sound like an agist, but it's not
as if you're talking to somebody who's well into their
nineties or even the low hundreds.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Okay, yeah, well he's also seventy and he doesn't speak
like that. I know, I know.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
I still say LATINX because I'm really worried about, like,
because it became very popular during COVID to say LATINX,
and I was like, I'm not going back. I'm staying woke. Yeah,
next letter please from a non month named person.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Okay, dear Lisa, my mother in law is a cunt
and I'm pretty sure she knows it. Can I tell her?
Thanks Washington?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Okay, the mother Okay, pretty sure she knows. I guess
we need to find out does she really know? Like
maybe you could like pass her a note like it
says are you a cunt? And then you say checkbox
that says yes or no. That's like the old one
you want to date someone in grade school. So maybe
(30:45):
she doesn't know she's a cunt though, like I say,
count a lot love it. It's always been my favorite word.
Ah not, it has always but all throughout my career
and now. But I'm not a cunt in real life,
and so I can call myself a cunt. So maybe
I wonder if she means her mother's an actual cunt.
(31:06):
And I think if you're an actual cunt, you don't know,
So I don't know. What do you think?
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Like I mean, hopefully all the time.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
That's why I used, you know, use the British as
the britishism before, because the Brits use kunt as a term.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
It can be a term of endearment, right, So, but
you're right.
Speaker 4 (31:34):
I think if someone knows they are and and continues
to act that way, that's one thing, right, But you're right.
I think if most of the time, if you want
to ask them, if you want to nail them and
really ask them. If they are, it's likely that they're
gonna deny it, right, right, So how do you continue
(31:56):
being one? Or maybe listen, you can own it these
tricky questions. It's it's like saying, you know, what do
you say to an alcoholic who runs around saying I'm
an alcoholic?
Speaker 3 (32:06):
I know, good for you?
Speaker 4 (32:07):
So are you doing anything about that? So if you're
a real cunt, are you doing anything about that? Or
are you just owning that as your title and that
gives you license to just trash everybody?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I mean, what kind of cunt are we talking about?
Speaker 3 (32:19):
If it's someone like me who's not actually a county
but likes it as an feel free to say it,
but also you know what I object to too. I
used to have people come up to me after shows
and be like, hey, count and I'd be like, the
way you say it sounds like you mean it, so
keep the show to me. I'm the one who's funny.
(32:40):
You're stupid and not the R word. I would be like,
you're dumb. Just I'll sign your thing and let's go.
So I even had a we talked about this on
the podcast before somebody come up to me at the
cemetery of all things, and don't ever make jokes at
a cemetery. You never know if the person's in mourning.
Luckily I wasn't all sad. I was just doing the
flowers or whatever. The guy was like, Hey, is that
(33:01):
that big mouth, thin soul comic with the and I go, dude,
that's inappropriate for the place we're in. So I think
sometimes people don't have any delivery, so you gotta be careful.
I say, what's her name? What's this dummy's name?
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Robin?
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Robin, you dumb cunt. Don't tell your mother she's a cunt.
Her mother in law. All mother in laws can be
that way, I get it.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Not my ex mother. God, you're fabulous. She was really good.
She broke them all mine, the best.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
One I ever had. I dated this guy and the
mother was dead. Those are the best. But dead mothers
in law are the best. But just don't just don't
rock the boat, just do it behind her back, as
all good sense would tell you. Next letter, Dear Lisa.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Yeah, I say fuck a lot when I speak, including
at work. Can this legally get me fired? I don't
say fuck you to anyone, but I do drop a
lot of f bombs. Thanks, Nia, NY's from where? Okay, well, listen,
I love the F word. But I always had this
rule on the roasts. I used to do these celebrity roasts.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
If you can imagine on the Comedy Central, if you
can also imagine that, and I had a rule two
fucks and one cunt per roast. And I'll tell you why,
cause you could bleep them and you could still understand
the jokes. In an eight minute set, you're gonna still
hear the jokes. At one point, fuck becomes a default.
(34:31):
So it sounds like for her, it's a default. If
it's intentional, it's funny. If you're doing it for a purpose,
it's fun, it's lighthearted. It can be like meaningful. But
I think if she's just going around using it as
an um or a filler, maybe look at it and see,
oh what else could I say? Or is it holding
me back? I don't know. She yes, Can I get
(34:53):
legally fired? I don't know, Celia, what is a policy?
You have a job? Can you just I guess they
can reprimand you.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
Okay, but that was a law or like a policy would,
But it.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Could be that you made someone like say, suppose Stephanie
our video gal, the Asian Stephanie or as I can
call her Oriental if she she's neither, which is why.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
We call her that.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Suppose she's like, hi, boss and hr, I'm uncomfortable because
I'm Christian and I was raised like where we don't
say fuck, so I'm uncomfortable. I guess they could pull
you in and be like, look, your language is making
some dumb cunt our word uncomfortable. So I don't think
(35:40):
you get fired.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
Doesn't it also depend on where you work. You work
at a strip club, I think you're fine, you know.
Maybe I don't know, but again it's it's what you said,
know your audience, you know. But it's funny because true
confessions here. When I teach young students in any life language,
by the way, forgive me, but it's a generation that
(36:05):
says like, like you know all the time, yeah, not
understanding that where that came from. We're from valley girls, okay,
oh yeah, totally okay. So like you know, like like
like like, so what I do is I say, if
you say like one more time, this is as an actor.
If you say it one more time, it's a dollar.
Every time you say.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Ooh, I get rich really quick.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
But what's great about it is that then they start
to become self aware, they become mindful of that they're
just using it, as you said, as filler.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
They don't know where it comes from now.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
And and what it does is it dumbs you down
because you're making everything to use a big fancy word subjunctive.
It's at sorta kind of like you know, you're not
owning anything that you're saying.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Yeah, so a well placed fuck is, but it has
to be well placed. It has to be because I
would notice even on those rows too, would somebody do
fuck every joke? Which is fine. I don't care freedom
of speech for all, but they're gonna bleep everything and
it has no meaning. We're not gonna understand the joke.
So I think elective electing to say it is great
(37:16):
over using who cares and ps. If a coworker is uncomfortable,
they're gonna tell you're gonna know soon enough if you're fired.
So who's next? What other mental midgets do we have?
Speaker 4 (37:31):
Dear?
Speaker 5 (37:32):
Are there any words you don't think we should ever say?
Thanks Lexi and Banger Maine.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Yes, okay, Banger, I don't think we should have to
say banger bangor bangor Maine bang, just a banger. I
think we should never say. And this is obviously as
a retired comic who said all these things. Obviously the
N word for some reason, even as a comic. Help
(38:02):
me analyze this roperty. You're Jewish?
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Right, No, I'm the wrong half.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
Oh so your mom was Catholics, Communicated Irish Catholic, but
your dad was Jewish.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Yeah. I can't even say the word. And it's not
even a curse. It's a terrible slur. There was one
Jewish slur I could not even bring myself to say.
And I was like, am I being racist against Jews
by not saying this? But no, the K word for Jews?
Uh huh, I can't even say it now. Why is
(38:32):
that such a Why did you think that hits so hard?
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Well? The Holocaust hit hard too, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
So I think it's it's those kinds of things, right,
that still have resonance historically for people.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yes, listen again, generational.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
Because I've spent so much time teaching in Japan, I've
had I had to stop people's saying Jap yes, right, so,
but to understand that it's a generational thing sometimes, right,
that that causes these differences in speech, in the usage.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Of certain words.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
But I think, uh, as you said, so much of
it is again as an actor, as a comic, as
a performer.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
It's it's the intention behind it.
Speaker 4 (39:25):
It's how you say it, it's the context, it's how
you use a word. And that's again what Lenny Bruce
was all about. To a great extent. What he did
was he would use back then, which were considered very
controversial words to a level of levels of absurdity. It's
an ass, it's an ass, it's an ass, an ask.
(39:46):
So it was almost as if he was rapping right, Okay,
so the words, and that was something that Drothy Kilgallen
talked about.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yes, there were certain.
Speaker 4 (39:56):
Words that her mother would freak out if her mother
had ever heard and come out of her mouth. But
when you say fuck, fuckuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, funk,
fun fuck fuk fuck a million times, it loses. Yes,
it's it's sting. And so I think it depends on again,
so many of these words that can seem really offensive
(40:18):
if they're said from a place oddly enough of love,
can be quite funny.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
And that's how I made a living because I knew.
Thank god I had people who I mean, you have
immediate ways to fact check at how it's landing with
the people you're using it on. I remember once I
filmed one of my specials and I think if you
watch especially you can see them right in the front
row or it was a Jewish couple probably in their
(40:44):
forties with their young kid who is probably fifteen, and
their shirts said Juwe number one, Juwe number two and
mini Jew and they will please make fun of us.
So if I can fact check it with okay, that's
okay with them. They they want to be singled out. Also,
like you gotta be sure your intention is right, but
(41:08):
not be afraid to apologize if there's a fence take,
and I think people get really like, no, I can
do whatever I want. How about just be like, oh gosh,
it hurt your feelings, like just a human thing. So
when you say the word JAP, I won't say it
again because it came back on me so bad. Because
I was taping my audio book of my non bestseller
(41:31):
Chocolate Please, the Lisa Lambinelli Story, and George de Kay
and I were friends from Star Trek and I had
met him through the celebrity prentise. So we really liked
each other. And I had him record a chapter because
just him reading in in his and he would say
this gay intonation is funny in my voice and his,
(41:53):
so I like promote it. And I said the jay
word about him not knowing that in the forties it
was so horribly against people in the internment camps and everything. Well,
he calls me and he is so upset. Of course
I'm an idiot at the time. I don't double down
at all. I center myself like an idiot. I start crying.
(42:13):
But I think that actually softened him up, because I
didn't do it on purpose, but I just, oh my god, George,
I'm so sorry. I would never, of all people who
I would never want to offend you, so he forgave me.
We became even more friendly after that, but I had
to apologize. You don't go, yeah, man, well you knew
I was a comic, like, yeah, he did. But also
(42:35):
he just did you a big fucking favor, and you
could say, I'm sorry I hurt your feelings exactly.
Speaker 4 (42:40):
But also, I think it's funny about the Jewish thing
because when I because I played on a fronk when
I was young, people always assumed I was Jewish, right,
unlike Anne Mirra, who actually converted.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
To Judaism, right right.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
My mother never our mother never.
Speaker 4 (42:57):
Did, Okay, but there was There are euphemisms too. It
can be subtle certain kinds of racism or anti semitism. So,
for example, when I was a young actress, very often
people would say she's too ethnic.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
Oh yeah, that was code. Yes, right, so.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
You can't you can't win.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
Now, Well, what do you think also about I'm gonna
make this very vague. Do you think a non Jewish
performer should do Anne Frank?
Speaker 4 (43:32):
Okay, So I'm gonna tell a quick little story about that.
I was doing a play out in at the La
Joya Playhouse years ago, Donald Margley's play, where I played
a four hundred and fifty pound undifferentiated schizophrenic who was
whose parents were Holocaust survivors. Okay, so she was definitely Jewish.
(43:54):
And at the time, Michael Grife, you know who directed Rent,
had brought me out to do this play and they
were doing a production of Rent at the same time
on the main stage.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
So Pa comes up to me.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
A director, an assistant comes up to me and said
there's a young woman who's a big fan of you
or she wants to meet you.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Is that okay? I went, yeah, sure.
Speaker 4 (44:14):
So this lovely little African America, this little black, fabulous
little pistol comes up to me and she goes, I
saw you in Anne, Frank, and I ran home. I
thought you were so great. I ran home and I
did you Frank in the mirror? And you're the reason
I decided to become an actress. And I started to cry,
(44:37):
Yeah sure, And I thought, great, yeah, a black at Frank,
why not? You know, I mean, yeah, so I think
some of this gets so PC. It's as an artist
that it's a tricky line.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
Yeah, because I think I got a little two PC
on that, because you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
So for example, I mean, I speak Spanish, but in
this day age, I can't get cast as Latina in.
Speaker 5 (45:05):
Right.
Speaker 4 (45:05):
But but but and you know, I understand, you know
when you look at a film like Breakfast to Tiffany's.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
And you see Mickey Mickey Rooney playing this, you.
Speaker 4 (45:19):
Know the so and and for example, certain friends of
mine in Japan thought that the film, uh oh god,
the movie that takes place in Tokyo that's so good.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
With Sophia Coppola's.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
Film Oh My God Lost in translation translation that they
found it very offensive. They found a lot of that
very offensive, and I can understand why. But I think
that actors need freedom. The differences are I think when
when it completely changes the context of the play or
changes makes it so improbable historically, that's when you have
(45:57):
certain issues. But should And again, a really close friend
of mine is a real champion for disabled actors and
she has a real hard problem with non disabled actors
playing disabled roles.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
And I can understand all of that, you get it right.
Speaker 4 (46:13):
But at the same time, freedom of speech. We need
freedom of artistic expression as artists.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
So I know it's double edged sword.
Speaker 4 (46:20):
It's just tricky, but so it's it's you can't really
make generalization.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Yes, I guess it's one case at a time.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
Well, you know what's lucky In this Lenny Bruce play,
I will be playing a black, disabled Jewish and Frank
at a talk back.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
You never know.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
People are so excited for the next president. So Verberta,
thank you so much for coming on today.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Pleasure, I love you, I love you too. It's so
great to see.
Speaker 3 (46:51):
Yay, so everybody listen. Go to my Instagram page Lisa
Lampinelli or the Instagram page Lenny Bruce. Get your tickets
for The People Versus Lennie Bruce. You will laugh, you
will be moved, You will learn about one of the
greatest minds and mouthpieces in comedy who suffered for every
(47:12):
other comic who came after him. Go see The People
Versus Lennie Bruce, roberta good luck in the play, or
as they say, break a cunt, and Celia, thank you
for being here today. Get back to that Mike and
say goodbye to me because you love me or obsessed
with me, you need me? True?
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Yeah, you know it's not true.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
I loved you, I missed you the last two weeks.
We will be back in another two weeks. Lucky and
also again, please listen to this podcast on the iHeart App.
Is that what it's called? Yes, the iHeartRadio App or
wherever you find your podcast by Nick, You were here
in spirit but not in girth.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
We love you, believe
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