June 16, 2025 • 21 mins
Join your host Lynn Hoffman as she is joined by Tony V. He is a Boston based comedian known for his national stand-up, and acting and the new podcast "Comedy Saved Me" showcases what comedy means to Tony, his influences and what drives his creativity. Tony shares what led him to a career in comedy, how he shaped his material and why he loves it to this day.
Please also check out episode one of Comedy Saved Me with Paul Mecurio.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Comedy Saved Me. So I met a lot of these people,
and you know, we just accepted each other for the
idiot Stanley Warren, and it just I can't tell you.
I don't know if we'd write a wrong but it
really did feel like like I was hit by a
lightning board.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm Lynn Hoffman, and welcome to another edition of Comedy
Saved Me. Now, you may or may not know, but
I host another podcast called Music Saved Me, where we
uncover the healing powers of music with artists and musicians. Well,
Comedy Saved Me shines a light on the powerful forces
behind laughter and comedy. I should also say the healing
(00:42):
forces of laughter and comedy. Today, I'm so lucky to
be joined by Boston's own comedy legend, not just Boston,
though nationally. Tony v Now Tony started his stand up
career in the early eighties, and ultimately he would become
a veteran of the national comedy circuit at with becoming
a fixture on network television. Spending time in Los Angeles
(01:04):
and New York led to appearances on HBO Showtime, also
stints on sitcoms like A Little show called Seinfeld. In Boston,
common Tony's not just hysterically funny. He's also big on
giving back, and he's appeared in countless benefits and fundraisers
giving his time for the American Cancer Society, Children's Hospital,
(01:26):
the Boston Food Bank, and countless other great organizations.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Tony V.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Welcome to Comedy Save Me. It's so great to have
you here, sweet lord.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I heard that Injurer I for bottle is me? Ye?
That does it like that? It was pretty ad. I
was fantastic. I was thinking as you were saying that,
I gotta go see this gun. He sounds great.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
You're so humble, you really are, but that's what makes
you so awesome. And again, thank you for doing this
with us today because I know you're a busy guy.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yes, they put in a rule, but with no pants.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
If people could only see right now, Tony, what was
the first moment that you knew you had a deep
connection with comedy?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I mean, is this going way back? Now? Oh? This
goes yeah, this goes back, you know I uh uh,
you know. Part of what you said about the giving
back and doing the uh the fundraisers and and and
raising money for charities and stuff goes back to I
started out as a social work. I was working in
the mental health field. And then one night I had
(02:32):
always enjoyed comedy, and then I put into uh the
old comedy connection back in the day, and I, you know,
how something hit you and you just go, oh my god,
my home's been here the whole time. This is you know.
And I found this this other group of lunatics who thought, like,
I did you know I in my family? I was like,
(02:55):
you know, I would. They used to say they found
me in the trash because I was not like any
but that they had. I have three siblings and I
was not like any one of them, you know. And
then I found this, uh, this motley crew of Canadians.
I don't know, Star Wars is too old of a
reference for people, but I don't know if you know
(03:16):
the Cantenas, the Canteenas scene, Yeah, and uh, I think
the quote is a more wretched hive of villainous scum
you'll find nowhere and in the universe. And I looked
around and I went, oh my god, these are this
is my tribe. I'm all they're at the Cantina. Yeah,
I'm at the Cantina, and everything seems like it's gonna
(03:38):
be all right? Yeah, can you.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Tell us some of those early influences and maybe some
of the people who were with you at the cantina
that may have helped bring this out within you?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Well, I mean, woefully, there was Lenny Clark, and if
there was no uh, if there was no Lenny Clark,
there would be no Boston Common. And then there's a
fellow named Barry Krime, uh and then uh, Stephen Wright
came from that from that group, and then I became
very good friends with Popcat Gowaite, who went on to
(04:09):
you know, great Famish now the Director and stuff like that.
So I met a lot of these people and uh,
you know, we just accepted each other for the for
the idiots that we were, and it just I can't
tell you. I don't know if it's right or wrong,
but it really did feel like like I was hit
by a lightning board, really, you know. Yeah, And I
(04:32):
don't know that I was any good at first. I
mean I I sucked for a wrong time finding my voice,
and uh, these guys stuck with me, and uh, then
it all just sort of this sort of happened. How
did you.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Stick going forward if you felt like you had a
particularly bad night or a bad show.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Every bad show. I would say, if I ever met
any one of these audience members get in my life,
I don't want them to just to be their only
memory of me. You know. I didn't want to. I
didn't want them to go. It is the guy who
saw that night, he was all he fucked, you know.
So I just I just kept at it, and you know,
(05:15):
I found a way to make it work. And I
and that then you could do open mic nights five, six,
eight a week sometime because it was it was new
and it was fresh in Boston. So I would go.
I would do multiple shows a night and work and
work at my crap, you know. Uh And my comedy
is a little bit different. It's not quite as uh
(05:36):
fighting as some of my contemporaries, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So I had to find my own, my own way.
How would you describe your comedy?
Speaker 1 (05:44):
It's you know, a little slice of life. It's uh it.
You know, Periodically during my show, I'll stop and go, jeez,
I wish these were jokes. Do you get this reaction? Yeah,
Like recently, I was just this is just reason and
there's sort of offhandedly I said this to somebody you know,
just once in my life, just once I want my
(06:07):
GPS when I arrived somewhere to go. You know, Tony,
you were right, and I said it, just not thinking
it was funny. And then I was with a couple
of people and they started an hour and I go, oh,
I guess that's a joke. And that's how I approached it.
Do you like making people laugh? I do. I mean,
(06:28):
you know, it's a little bit corny to say it
at this point, but you know when you hear people laugh,
when you can when you get touch a chord in
somebody and hit the note, that's a common a common experience.
Can you expand on that? Yeah, I can only explain
it this way. And my wife sometimes, you know, when
I'm in the dol gums, my wife will will look
(06:51):
at me and to go. You know, there's not many
people who get applause at their job. Nobody ever comes
over to the qu over go and gut. Oh, that
was the fantastic email. You're you're killing it, you know,
so so so that immediate gratification for something built for
your work means a lot to me.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
You know, it's interesting that you say that, Tony, that
that when you're having you said, when you're sort of
in the doul drums, or when you're having a down day,
because when you think about comedians, the last thing you
think about is that they have a bad day, because
you think that they're constantly at work trying to find
ways to make you laugh, and how how could that
affect them?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So so you're real, oh yeah, I mean, you know,
we are humans despite it. You know, I get you know,
I'm hearing a rule book or I'm getting caught from
back home. You know, one of the border is on
the stove went out, I got to work with toilet
take a leak over here. But books, you know, so
you still got to live. And every once in a
while it hits. You're like, okay, medians get aggravated too. Yes,
(07:56):
it's not all but I and it's nothing big. That's
this is my lot. Why I'd think I'm just gonna
be annoyed to debt, you know what I mean, It's
just gonna be little thing that just pick away at
me and they go, what finally, what finally killed Tony?
And they'll go, guy, he couldn't find an elastic band.
(08:17):
I'm curious, Tony.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
We were just talking about a bad day, and you
were saying that you know that it brings you a
lot of joy to make people laugh. Hey, what a
lot of comedians have told me through the years. And
I've never done an interview show like this with them,
but just in passing running into them through television and jobs,
that a lot of times there was some kind of
(08:42):
really horrible moments in their life that pushed them into
comedy or made them see like this epiphany you spoke
of when you just knew when it hate you did
anything like that happen to you as a kid or
growing up or at any point in your life.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, it was a middle child. Oh well that experience everything. Yeah, nobody,
nobody paid attention to me at all, you know, and
I sought attention. And I had two older siblings and
then a younger sibling that was you know, like five
or cent years on either side of me, you know.
So I was the mistake and then my sister was
the try for the girl, which they got thirled about.
(09:20):
I was just sort of you know, running around going
hey day, hey I'm over here, you know that kind
of thing. So, you know, my parents were great, They
had good wong live my mother. Uh we had to
be ninety four. Good for her. Yeah, obviously died in
a skateboard accident. She was ninety four. She had never
been on a skateboard. I guess we could have said something,
(09:41):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Well, I don't know if you know, but I do
host another podcast called Music Save Me. Who are some
of your favorite artists musically like comedy that has impacted
you during difficult times?
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Well, let me say this, and I think this is
true for a lot of comedians. H I if if
I could have done music, I wouldn't amused it. You know,
there was something about me that wanted to perform. I
have no musical ability whatsoever. Interesting that being said, you know,
music became my religion and then, by extension, comedy after that.
(10:17):
The first time I you know, I'm a guy at
rock guy and that Bruce Springsteen is responsible for the
way I approached my work. I continue to listen to
him and be inspired by his work ethic and that's
the kind of thing, the approach I'd like to pay
(10:38):
in my work in comedy.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
You know, that's fascinating. So it really was music that
initially got you.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
That initially gave me that spar you know, seeing him.
You know, I saw Springsteen perform in Boston to nineteen people,
and you would have thought he was in an arena.
He reads all on the stage. Yeah, it's you know,
to nineteen people at the Cask and Flag in you know,
sixteen feet from Fenway Park. And I go, oh my god,
(11:08):
this guy you know, and and that stuped me forever. Wow,
that's why I was lady. Yeah. Musically, if the young
people are listening or whoever's listening in the modern age music,
there's the Beatles and everyone else. That's just the way
(11:28):
life the you gotta accept that. That and I hate
Billy Joel. Oh oh, I disliked Oh do I dare
ask why with a it's a passion that Tita's on psychotic.
I've never met the man. I just his music is insipid.
How about that? Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
The views that are expressed on this show are specifically
by the Gusts.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yes, you you. I take nothing away from me. He's
a very famous man. If book seemed to oil, I'll
just do not all. Well.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
At least you're honest, and that's that's you get points
for honesty. Hey, Before we move on, just for my
my producer Bob, who edits all this together. I wanted
to get that question out right for him so that
it doesn't go too far. Is laughter the best medicine?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It seems like those epichs right up there right now,
uh Pamicella, I think was pretty good. Listen without getting
too into the weeds here. You know, the wall is
a bizarre place, and if you don't laugh at it,
it's gonna suck in, it's gonna it's gonna eat yet.
(12:40):
So I don't think there's anything sacred. There should be
nothing that can't be joked about. I'm one of those guys.
My influence is comedy. Go back to uh fella by
the name of Lenny Bruce uh And then I don't
know if that will rank, but you should look you.
He basically died till we could do it with doing
and enjoy It's Carl and took up batmantle, and then
(13:02):
Richard Fryer and it goes that way. And then I
give a lot of props to Robert Klein. Bill Burke
currently is a big friend as a friend of mine.
I actually opened for mit Fenway Park a couple of
years ago. There's a throw line there that you know,
that's my set of bility.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, they broke all the barriers. Well, it's interesting you
say that. Do you think because one of my best
friends is like that. His comedy is like everything's funny.
There is nothing that can't be funny, you know, even
if you do something and then at the bottom, what
too soon?
Speaker 1 (13:36):
You know?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, yeah, but do you think that if more people
had the ability to laugh at themselves that the world
would be a better place.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
I know it's an odd question, no, no, clear, it's
I mean, none of us asked to be here. It's
an absurd it's an absurd place, you know what I mean?
If if you stop the thing about all the tragedy
and and and bad things in the world, they would
just consume you and you would he would sit you
(14:07):
know with just like that, you know, like a going
through your head. You wouldn't be able to think. Right,
So if you don't laugh at it, you know, we
get called out a lot from you know, being morbid
about stuff, because when you make fun of someone who've died,
say right, and they go, oh too soon and point
it out. You know, they're no more dead today than
(14:29):
they are going to be one hundred years from there's
no degrees of death, you know what I mean. Yeah,
I'm not going to change anything now. I'm not reverenced
that reverend about my my own demise. I I have
one laughing question, and uh, I want my entire funeral
procession to drive through a car wash. Are you serious? Yeah? Yes,
(14:54):
Why that's funny you We've all been in funeral processions, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Every car has to follow the one in front of it,
no questions asked. True, so that by the time car
eight to ten gets up to the front of the line,
the hearse will be coming out and summer grieving. We'll
have to look at someone else in a car and go,
(15:15):
are we going to a car wash? And then I
know one of my friends and I hope he I
hope he paid for the undercarriage. Greets. Don't forget the tires,
the wheel bright the wheel Yeah, you gotta get some
wheel bright on there.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, Tony, what do we do? We have a specific
car wash in mind, just in case you know, well.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
You know, I'm uh, I'm I'm a monthly member of
the executive car washing and around Boston. Okay, so they
get if someone's in my car. They can get to
wash for free. Oh my god, may so pre pay.
I'll prepay.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Good for you that you do that, though I do
have some friends that do that. I always wonder I
don't You don't know a lot of people that prepay
for car washes.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah I do. I do. I can go get my
car washed four five times a month by want. That's great.
Do you do it twenty bucks? Do you?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Does it bother you when people try to be funny
when they talk to you just because you're a comedian.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
No, you know, funny's funny. When people try to r it,
I go like, all right, all right, let's fake, let's
dial it back, let's leave it to the profession. It's
sim it down.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
So you mentioned something tony up in front that you
were a social worker, which I find fascinating because I've
met a lot of people and who want to give
back in society that didn't always start out in the
jobs they have Like you.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Are a comedian.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
In nineteen eighty two, your high pressure job was a
case worker for the Somerville Health Center.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, I work with a Somerville cambandge mental health set.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
There there's nothing more giving of yourself in your job especially,
you know.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
It was very streadful because I work with families and
you know, they were often abused children, and you know,
we had to make decisions to keep kids safe and
take them out of the environment who was and I
dealt with some really damaged people. And you know, that's
how excited I would go to comedy club. You know,
when I say it was new, it was like six
(17:11):
months the comedy scene when I started. So I would
go to would read that thinking and as I said,
I always enjoyed comedy, you know. And then one day
and then she didn't show up. They asked me to
introduce people, and I was.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Now since then, obviously you're helping people. Before when you
make people left, you're helping them, whether you did it
for that reason or not. Have you always wanted to
make people happy or entertain or help people.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yeah, I think I've always seen the you know, the
downside of the world, and if you can, you know,
make somebody's way a little bit easier. Anyway, I think
it's useful and has a purpose. And there's also the
dark side of me. I had my moments with partying,
and you know, some questionable ways of ripping. So you know,
(18:01):
if I get hit by a truck, I wanted to
be coming out of Children's Touch Gill Benefit. Yo, maybe
I get some points for that.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Atn't you got a lot of points in my book,
But not just because you're from Boston and I'm from
Boston too.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Where did you go up?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
My first ten years was Waltham, Massachusetts, and then Newton
until I'm left town Newton, And I did a little
in Boston because my boyfriend at the time lived right downtown,
so I got a little taste to living in the city.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
But you know, listen, Boston when you travel, you find
us out. Boston goes from Boston into Vermont in the
north and then as far as Rhode Island south, so anywhere,
and people gone from Boston you go, oh, you're from Boston.
No oh yeah, chulm me. I go, okay, close enough,
close enough, yeah as well. Yeah, you're right. You could
(18:56):
be from Springfield and you're still from Boston. From Boston, yeah, people, no,
do you do you believe comedy has healing powers? You know,
it might be a little bit of a stretch in general,
but I also have had people come up to me
after shows and go. You know, I was in a
really bad move for some reason, I decided to come
(19:18):
to a comedy show, and I feel much better now.
So I think there is something cathartic about comedy. You
know that that that abandonment of your mental faculties has
got to be good for something else. It's a forty
five minute distraction from your terrible life.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
No, And you know it's funny you say that. We
just had a neuroscientist on the Music Saved to Me
podcast and he literally said that something does happen in
your brain with the vibration and rhythm of music, And
so all I can think of was maybe comedy and laughter,
that that vibration of laughter or the exhalation of the air,
(20:01):
and that may act we be therapeutic.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I mean, you know, when you can get somebody your
lab uncontrollably, that's that's as good as it gets.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
To me.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
If I can get somebody that the past beer to
their nose, I think that it's the best thing that
can ever happen.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Well, Tony, You're really just amazing and I'm so grateful
that I got a chance to take some of your
time away from your vacation. Although it's a working vacation
because in Aruba they have a club that you perform at.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Is that right? Yes, a ruber Raysed comedy club. Awesome resort.
It's a great club and even when I'm not here,
it's worth going to. And you know, I have to
get back to smoking a cigards in the sun. That's right.
Can you do a little more of that for me too.
I will do as much of it as you needed.
(20:51):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
I appreciate that. Work on that tan. Don't forget to
flip in thirty minutes. Thanks so much for coming on.
He save me, Tony V. Check him out. He's amazing.
And even if you're not in a rub because he'll
be back up in Boston before you know it and
around the world. M
Comedy Saved Me. So I met a lot of these people,
and you know, we just accepted each other for the
idiot Stanley Warren, and it just I can't tell you.
I don't know if we'd write a wrong but it
really did feel like like I was hit by a
lightning board.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm Lynn Hoffman, and welcome to another edition of Comedy
Saved Me. Now, you may or may not know, but
I host another podcast called Music Saved Me, where we
uncover the healing powers of music with artists and musicians. Well,
Comedy Saved Me shines a light on the powerful forces
behind laughter and comedy. I should also say the healing
(00:42):
forces of laughter and comedy. Today, I'm so lucky to
be joined by Boston's own comedy legend, not just Boston,
though nationally. Tony v Now Tony started his stand up
career in the early eighties, and ultimately he would become
a veteran of the national comedy circuit at with becoming
a fixture on network television. Spending time in Los Angeles
(01:04):
and New York led to appearances on HBO Showtime, also
stints on sitcoms like A Little show called Seinfeld. In Boston,
common Tony's not just hysterically funny. He's also big on
giving back, and he's appeared in countless benefits and fundraisers
giving his time for the American Cancer Society, Children's Hospital,
(01:26):
the Boston Food Bank, and countless other great organizations.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Tony V.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Welcome to Comedy Save Me. It's so great to have
you here, sweet lord.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I heard that Injurer I for bottle is me? Ye?
That does it like that? It was pretty ad. I
was fantastic. I was thinking as you were saying that,
I gotta go see this gun. He sounds great.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
You're so humble, you really are, but that's what makes
you so awesome. And again, thank you for doing this
with us today because I know you're a busy guy.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yes, they put in a rule, but with no pants.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
If people could only see right now, Tony, what was
the first moment that you knew you had a deep
connection with comedy?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I mean, is this going way back? Now? Oh? This
goes yeah, this goes back, you know I uh uh,
you know. Part of what you said about the giving
back and doing the uh the fundraisers and and and
raising money for charities and stuff goes back to I
started out as a social work. I was working in
the mental health field. And then one night I had
(02:32):
always enjoyed comedy, and then I put into uh the
old comedy connection back in the day, and I, you know,
how something hit you and you just go, oh my god,
my home's been here the whole time. This is you know.
And I found this this other group of lunatics who thought, like,
I did you know I in my family? I was like,
(02:55):
you know, I would. They used to say they found
me in the trash because I was not like any
but that they had. I have three siblings and I
was not like any one of them, you know. And
then I found this, uh, this motley crew of Canadians.
I don't know, Star Wars is too old of a
reference for people, but I don't know if you know
(03:16):
the Cantenas, the Canteenas scene, Yeah, and uh, I think
the quote is a more wretched hive of villainous scum
you'll find nowhere and in the universe. And I looked
around and I went, oh my god, these are this
is my tribe. I'm all they're at the Cantina. Yeah,
I'm at the Cantina, and everything seems like it's gonna
(03:38):
be all right? Yeah, can you.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Tell us some of those early influences and maybe some
of the people who were with you at the cantina
that may have helped bring this out within you?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Well, I mean, woefully, there was Lenny Clark, and if
there was no uh, if there was no Lenny Clark,
there would be no Boston Common. And then there's a
fellow named Barry Krime, uh and then uh, Stephen Wright
came from that from that group, and then I became
very good friends with Popcat Gowaite, who went on to
(04:09):
you know, great Famish now the Director and stuff like that.
So I met a lot of these people and uh,
you know, we just accepted each other for the for
the idiots that we were, and it just I can't
tell you. I don't know if it's right or wrong,
but it really did feel like like I was hit
by a lightning board, really, you know. Yeah, And I
(04:32):
don't know that I was any good at first. I
mean I I sucked for a wrong time finding my voice,
and uh, these guys stuck with me, and uh, then
it all just sort of this sort of happened. How
did you.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Stick going forward if you felt like you had a
particularly bad night or a bad show.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Every bad show. I would say, if I ever met
any one of these audience members get in my life,
I don't want them to just to be their only
memory of me. You know. I didn't want to. I
didn't want them to go. It is the guy who
saw that night, he was all he fucked, you know.
So I just I just kept at it, and you know,
(05:15):
I found a way to make it work. And I
and that then you could do open mic nights five, six,
eight a week sometime because it was it was new
and it was fresh in Boston. So I would go.
I would do multiple shows a night and work and
work at my crap, you know. Uh And my comedy
is a little bit different. It's not quite as uh
(05:36):
fighting as some of my contemporaries, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So I had to find my own, my own way.
How would you describe your comedy?
Speaker 1 (05:44):
It's you know, a little slice of life. It's uh it.
You know, Periodically during my show, I'll stop and go, jeez,
I wish these were jokes. Do you get this reaction? Yeah,
Like recently, I was just this is just reason and
there's sort of offhandedly I said this to somebody you know,
just once in my life, just once I want my
(06:07):
GPS when I arrived somewhere to go. You know, Tony,
you were right, and I said it, just not thinking
it was funny. And then I was with a couple
of people and they started an hour and I go, oh,
I guess that's a joke. And that's how I approached it.
Do you like making people laugh? I do. I mean,
(06:28):
you know, it's a little bit corny to say it
at this point, but you know when you hear people laugh,
when you can when you get touch a chord in
somebody and hit the note, that's a common a common experience.
Can you expand on that? Yeah, I can only explain
it this way. And my wife sometimes, you know, when
I'm in the dol gums, my wife will will look
(06:51):
at me and to go. You know, there's not many
people who get applause at their job. Nobody ever comes
over to the qu over go and gut. Oh, that
was the fantastic email. You're you're killing it, you know,
so so so that immediate gratification for something built for
your work means a lot to me.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
You know, it's interesting that you say that, Tony, that
that when you're having you said, when you're sort of
in the doul drums, or when you're having a down day,
because when you think about comedians, the last thing you
think about is that they have a bad day, because
you think that they're constantly at work trying to find
ways to make you laugh, and how how could that
affect them?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So so you're real, oh yeah, I mean, you know,
we are humans despite it. You know, I get you know,
I'm hearing a rule book or I'm getting caught from
back home. You know, one of the border is on
the stove went out, I got to work with toilet
take a leak over here. But books, you know, so
you still got to live. And every once in a
while it hits. You're like, okay, medians get aggravated too. Yes,
(07:56):
it's not all but I and it's nothing big. That's
this is my lot. Why I'd think I'm just gonna
be annoyed to debt, you know what I mean, It's
just gonna be little thing that just pick away at
me and they go, what finally, what finally killed Tony?
And they'll go, guy, he couldn't find an elastic band.
(08:17):
I'm curious, Tony.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
We were just talking about a bad day, and you
were saying that you know that it brings you a
lot of joy to make people laugh. Hey, what a
lot of comedians have told me through the years. And
I've never done an interview show like this with them,
but just in passing running into them through television and jobs,
that a lot of times there was some kind of
(08:42):
really horrible moments in their life that pushed them into
comedy or made them see like this epiphany you spoke
of when you just knew when it hate you did
anything like that happen to you as a kid or
growing up or at any point in your life.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, it was a middle child. Oh well that experience everything. Yeah, nobody,
nobody paid attention to me at all, you know, and
I sought attention. And I had two older siblings and
then a younger sibling that was you know, like five
or cent years on either side of me, you know.
So I was the mistake and then my sister was
the try for the girl, which they got thirled about.
(09:20):
I was just sort of you know, running around going
hey day, hey I'm over here, you know that kind
of thing. So, you know, my parents were great, They
had good wong live my mother. Uh we had to
be ninety four. Good for her. Yeah, obviously died in
a skateboard accident. She was ninety four. She had never
been on a skateboard. I guess we could have said something,
(09:41):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Well, I don't know if you know, but I do
host another podcast called Music Save Me. Who are some
of your favorite artists musically like comedy that has impacted
you during difficult times?
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Well, let me say this, and I think this is
true for a lot of comedians. H I if if
I could have done music, I wouldn't amused it. You know,
there was something about me that wanted to perform. I
have no musical ability whatsoever. Interesting that being said, you know,
music became my religion and then, by extension, comedy after that.
(10:17):
The first time I you know, I'm a guy at
rock guy and that Bruce Springsteen is responsible for the
way I approached my work. I continue to listen to
him and be inspired by his work ethic and that's
the kind of thing, the approach I'd like to pay
(10:38):
in my work in comedy.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
You know, that's fascinating. So it really was music that
initially got you.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
That initially gave me that spar you know, seeing him.
You know, I saw Springsteen perform in Boston to nineteen people,
and you would have thought he was in an arena.
He reads all on the stage. Yeah, it's you know,
to nineteen people at the Cask and Flag in you know,
sixteen feet from Fenway Park. And I go, oh my god,
(11:08):
this guy you know, and and that stuped me forever. Wow,
that's why I was lady. Yeah. Musically, if the young
people are listening or whoever's listening in the modern age music,
there's the Beatles and everyone else. That's just the way
(11:28):
life the you gotta accept that. That and I hate
Billy Joel. Oh oh, I disliked Oh do I dare
ask why with a it's a passion that Tita's on psychotic.
I've never met the man. I just his music is insipid.
How about that? Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
The views that are expressed on this show are specifically
by the Gusts.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yes, you you. I take nothing away from me. He's
a very famous man. If book seemed to oil, I'll
just do not all. Well.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
At least you're honest, and that's that's you get points
for honesty. Hey, Before we move on, just for my
my producer Bob, who edits all this together. I wanted
to get that question out right for him so that
it doesn't go too far. Is laughter the best medicine?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It seems like those epichs right up there right now,
uh Pamicella, I think was pretty good. Listen without getting
too into the weeds here. You know, the wall is
a bizarre place, and if you don't laugh at it,
it's gonna suck in, it's gonna it's gonna eat yet.
(12:40):
So I don't think there's anything sacred. There should be
nothing that can't be joked about. I'm one of those guys.
My influence is comedy. Go back to uh fella by
the name of Lenny Bruce uh And then I don't
know if that will rank, but you should look you.
He basically died till we could do it with doing
and enjoy It's Carl and took up batmantle, and then
(13:02):
Richard Fryer and it goes that way. And then I
give a lot of props to Robert Klein. Bill Burke
currently is a big friend as a friend of mine.
I actually opened for mit Fenway Park a couple of
years ago. There's a throw line there that you know,
that's my set of bility.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, they broke all the barriers. Well, it's interesting you
say that. Do you think because one of my best
friends is like that. His comedy is like everything's funny.
There is nothing that can't be funny, you know, even
if you do something and then at the bottom, what
too soon?
Speaker 1 (13:36):
You know?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, yeah, but do you think that if more people
had the ability to laugh at themselves that the world
would be a better place.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
I know it's an odd question, no, no, clear, it's
I mean, none of us asked to be here. It's
an absurd it's an absurd place, you know what I mean?
If if you stop the thing about all the tragedy
and and and bad things in the world, they would
just consume you and you would he would sit you
(14:07):
know with just like that, you know, like a going
through your head. You wouldn't be able to think. Right,
So if you don't laugh at it, you know, we
get called out a lot from you know, being morbid
about stuff, because when you make fun of someone who've died,
say right, and they go, oh too soon and point
it out. You know, they're no more dead today than
(14:29):
they are going to be one hundred years from there's
no degrees of death, you know what I mean. Yeah,
I'm not going to change anything now. I'm not reverenced
that reverend about my my own demise. I I have
one laughing question, and uh, I want my entire funeral
procession to drive through a car wash. Are you serious? Yeah? Yes,
(14:54):
Why that's funny you We've all been in funeral processions, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Every car has to follow the one in front of it,
no questions asked. True, so that by the time car
eight to ten gets up to the front of the line,
the hearse will be coming out and summer grieving. We'll
have to look at someone else in a car and go,
(15:15):
are we going to a car wash? And then I
know one of my friends and I hope he I
hope he paid for the undercarriage. Greets. Don't forget the tires,
the wheel bright the wheel Yeah, you gotta get some
wheel bright on there.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, Tony, what do we do? We have a specific
car wash in mind, just in case you know, well.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
You know, I'm uh, I'm I'm a monthly member of
the executive car washing and around Boston. Okay, so they
get if someone's in my car. They can get to
wash for free. Oh my god, may so pre pay.
I'll prepay.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Good for you that you do that, though I do
have some friends that do that. I always wonder I
don't You don't know a lot of people that prepay
for car washes.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah I do. I do. I can go get my
car washed four five times a month by want. That's great.
Do you do it twenty bucks? Do you?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Does it bother you when people try to be funny
when they talk to you just because you're a comedian.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
No, you know, funny's funny. When people try to r it,
I go like, all right, all right, let's fake, let's
dial it back, let's leave it to the profession. It's
sim it down.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
So you mentioned something tony up in front that you
were a social worker, which I find fascinating because I've
met a lot of people and who want to give
back in society that didn't always start out in the
jobs they have Like you.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Are a comedian.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
In nineteen eighty two, your high pressure job was a
case worker for the Somerville Health Center.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, I work with a Somerville cambandge mental health set.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
There there's nothing more giving of yourself in your job especially,
you know.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
It was very streadful because I work with families and
you know, they were often abused children, and you know,
we had to make decisions to keep kids safe and
take them out of the environment who was and I
dealt with some really damaged people. And you know, that's
how excited I would go to comedy club. You know,
when I say it was new, it was like six
(17:11):
months the comedy scene when I started. So I would
go to would read that thinking and as I said,
I always enjoyed comedy, you know. And then one day
and then she didn't show up. They asked me to
introduce people, and I was.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Now since then, obviously you're helping people. Before when you
make people left, you're helping them, whether you did it
for that reason or not. Have you always wanted to
make people happy or entertain or help people.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yeah, I think I've always seen the you know, the
downside of the world, and if you can, you know,
make somebody's way a little bit easier. Anyway, I think
it's useful and has a purpose. And there's also the
dark side of me. I had my moments with partying,
and you know, some questionable ways of ripping. So you know,
(18:01):
if I get hit by a truck, I wanted to
be coming out of Children's Touch Gill Benefit. Yo, maybe
I get some points for that.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Atn't you got a lot of points in my book,
But not just because you're from Boston and I'm from
Boston too.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Where did you go up?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
My first ten years was Waltham, Massachusetts, and then Newton
until I'm left town Newton, And I did a little
in Boston because my boyfriend at the time lived right downtown,
so I got a little taste to living in the city.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
But you know, listen, Boston when you travel, you find
us out. Boston goes from Boston into Vermont in the
north and then as far as Rhode Island south, so anywhere,
and people gone from Boston you go, oh, you're from Boston.
No oh yeah, chulm me. I go, okay, close enough,
close enough, yeah as well. Yeah, you're right. You could
(18:56):
be from Springfield and you're still from Boston. From Boston, yeah, people, no,
do you do you believe comedy has healing powers? You know,
it might be a little bit of a stretch in general,
but I also have had people come up to me
after shows and go. You know, I was in a
really bad move for some reason, I decided to come
(19:18):
to a comedy show, and I feel much better now.
So I think there is something cathartic about comedy. You
know that that that abandonment of your mental faculties has
got to be good for something else. It's a forty
five minute distraction from your terrible life.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
No, And you know it's funny you say that. We
just had a neuroscientist on the Music Saved to Me
podcast and he literally said that something does happen in
your brain with the vibration and rhythm of music, And
so all I can think of was maybe comedy and laughter,
that that vibration of laughter or the exhalation of the air,
(20:01):
and that may act we be therapeutic.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I mean, you know, when you can get somebody your
lab uncontrollably, that's that's as good as it gets.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
To me.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
If I can get somebody that the past beer to
their nose, I think that it's the best thing that
can ever happen.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Well, Tony, You're really just amazing and I'm so grateful
that I got a chance to take some of your
time away from your vacation. Although it's a working vacation
because in Aruba they have a club that you perform at.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Is that right? Yes, a ruber Raysed comedy club. Awesome resort.
It's a great club and even when I'm not here,
it's worth going to. And you know, I have to
get back to smoking a cigards in the sun. That's right.
Can you do a little more of that for me too.
I will do as much of it as you needed.
(20:51):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
I appreciate that. Work on that tan. Don't forget to
flip in thirty minutes. Thanks so much for coming on.
He save me, Tony V. Check him out. He's amazing.
And even if you're not in a rub because he'll
be back up in Boston before you know it and
around the world. M
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