Brian Posehn, Talking Comedy & Remembering Ozzy Osbourne

Phil & David welcome comedian, actor, voice actor, writer, comic book creator and heavy metal hero Brian Posehn to a "Lunch" that rocks. They share great stories about Brian's life in comedy, his time working with Bob Odenkirk and David Cross in "Mr. Show with Bob and Dave," appearing on sitcoms including "Seinfeld," "The Big Bang Theory" and, yes, working with Phil on "Everybody Loves Raymond."  Also, Brian helps David educate Phil about the late great Ozzy Osbourne. See Brian soon on the new "Big Bang" spinoff, "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe" on HBO Max. To learn more about Brian including his stand up comedy dates, go to https://brianposehn.com.  To learn more about building community through food and "Somebody Feed the People," visit the Philanthropy page at philrosenthalworld.com.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Phil oh, Hi, nice to see you. There's many ways
to book a guest. This is one of the best
and easiest. Was I went into a record store Sunday, Yeah,
and I ran.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Into some guy.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Some guy, well not just some guy. You can't miss
this guy. He's I believe six seven, which I am not.
But we both love Brian posting.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Brian was on Everybody That Was Raymond. He played one
of Ray's high school buddies, along with a young actor
named Bob Odenkirk. And I loved these guys because I
had watched them on Mister Show, which is one of
the all time great sketch.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
I think that's him. All right, you'll know more, Brian.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'm coming, Brian.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
This is Brian Possain.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Let's build means you the fat, food for thought, jokes
on tap, talking with our mouthsful, having fun, peace cake,
humble pies, serving up slass lovely. The dressing on the side,
it's naked lunch.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Clothing optional.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
I never looked, but I had that skateboard in that
T shirt.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Tell us about this, tell us about how these.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Came to be. Are we filming? Okay, we're going, We're moving.

Speaker 4 (01:33):
Wow, We're jumping right in. We want to get to
a plug by.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
The drawings are great, aren't they?

Speaker 4 (01:38):
Yead Brett Parsons is amazing. Yeah, tank Girl for a while.
And my buddy Rick reminder that my co writer UH
got him and he really nailed the eighties feel.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Is this the comic book thing? Is that one of
the ways you survived the pandemic, right that you emotionally
threw yourself into writing comic books.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Not survive because financially there's there's no big upside, But
I love it and it's just uh. And I was
driving my wife crazy during COVID, so I started both
these projects because of that, Like uh, And I called
my co writers and said this one. I called him
and said, hey, I got a skateboarding idea. I want

(02:18):
to call it Gramets and write it about the eighties.
And you know, it was a buddy of mine that
had lived that life too, and I knew he would
be the perfect guy to write it with. And then
the other one, I said, Hey, I got a time
travel police procedural idea because I had been watching a
lot of Dick Wolf productions. Yes, during COVID. I love

(02:39):
the Dick Wolf productions because then when it's over, you
can go dick Wolf or dick Wolf, however you want
to say it.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
My brother in law co created FBI with dick Wolf
nice And it's like, what's funny is think that brand
of dick Wolf is so big that like I always
have to throw in.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
And Kreig Turk and sometimes I'll do like the coyote
hell and you know, and my wife knows that I've
just watched a dick Wolf production. I was watching a
lot of those and came up with the idea of
mixing beloved John Claude van Dam movie time cop with

(03:16):
a police procedural.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
And so this is five years you've been doing these.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
Ith comic book writing takes a while, So yeah, I
started that one. I started Grammets then and Rifters was
a little bit after.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
But well, let's go back to because like when we
ran into each other at the record store of the
other day, from the beginning, and like one of the
crazy things is is that like I feel like Phil
and I both absolutely love you. We go back to
I think when I moved to la it was not

(03:50):
that far after I got here in the early nineties,
but it was really mister show, which I used to
go to with my wife. I think we went. That's like,
it's formative. It's like with your you've been married a
long time, not quite as long as me, you've been
married longer than me, but I know it's with you.
It's pee Wee Herman like you and Monica go back.
Mister show was what pee Wee Herman was to you.

(04:13):
Mister Show was my wife and I our first laughs together.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
That's awesome. Yeah, I feel like that's around when we met,
because you came and actually hung out with us for
a day and observed us like for Rolling Stone, right, yeah, yes, yeah,
And that was the first time I remember meeting you,
but I already knew you as because I actually read
those publications and always did. And that was like my
dream before I got into comedy. I wanted to write

(04:37):
for Rolling Stone or Spin really yeah, because I'm such
a music guy, and then journalism the class wasn't so fun.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Well, by the way, I have good news, the career
ended up not being that much fun, and you comedy
is actually more of a growth industry.

Speaker 4 (04:54):
I interviewed the band Fishbone California band uh Yes, writing
for This Legend. The College newspaper and it was unusable.
I had this, like, you know, twenty minute interview with
the band and I couldn't use any of it and went,
this is hard, and I just started writing fart jokes

(05:14):
and I was like, this is way easier.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, you're reminding me of the first time I wrote
for you.

Speaker 4 (05:22):
Yeah, I think I said that you're because I was
studying to be a rabbi.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Rabbi because you're a friend of raise. Yes from high school.
You and a kid named Bob Odenkirk.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Yes, whatever happened to that guy? And does nothing?

Speaker 4 (05:37):
He's in a movie I just saw last night.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
I saw it too very good nobody to very good action.
Can you believe he's an action hero?

Speaker 4 (05:46):
No? My wife and I were just laughing at and
my son. Last night we get home with the whole family,
went how to your boy to he's sixteen? Now, yeah, great,
and we let him see anything after he saw John
Wick at fourteen. It was kind of well, it's all
out the window now.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Is it the same guys?

Speaker 4 (06:03):
It is a lot of the same people, and uh,
we're just watching something else. And he goes, Bob hutten
Kirk's a badass and I was like, I never thought
anybody would have Magic of the Movies in my life.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
But the first time that we needed high school friends,
we were so the whole gang of us writers. We're
so in love with Mister Show. I'm like, what if
we got these what you got Brian Saying and Bob
Odenkirk to be his buddies, And they come and Ray
says to Brian, what have you been up to? And

(06:37):
you said, I've.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
Been studying to be a rabbi.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's so hard or some freaking freaking hard freaking That's
one of my favorite lines ever because of your delivery.

Speaker 4 (06:49):
It was so good. I have that delivery sometimes, by
the way, I can tap in, by the way.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
In addition to everything else you do, and you're like,
as we're speaking, you're about to I think you're this
weekend Arizona.

Speaker 4 (07:02):
You're you're always Phoenix tomorrow and then Minneapolis on Saturday.
And what are you doing stand up comedies?

Speaker 2 (07:10):
O great?

Speaker 1 (07:11):
But in addition to all of that, you've also been
on these TV shows. So I do wonder when you
walk around and on tour when people stop you. I'm
sure there's a lot of the Mister Show that the
cult following of mister Show that the cool People, the
cool kids? Is it friends Raymond? What do people bring
up to you?

Speaker 4 (07:30):
Answer? A lot? There's Seinfeld. I mean I did all
those shows.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
It's but Raymond was your favorite?

Speaker 4 (07:36):
Yeah, for sure? To right, not very But then Big
Bang is the big one now because I've been doing
Big Bang for I did it for a few years
and uh and now I've got the spinoff coming. Oh yeah,
and in September.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
Can I make a confession that I.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
Think you might have watched it?

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Oh no, not at all. I watched it a lot,
but I always wept while watching it in addition to laughing.
Because Eddie Gordetsky, who may be on the podcast Yes
very Soon, went to me one day and said, can
you come in for a brainstorm on a new show
we're talking about. It's about a bunch of geniuses. And
I said when absolutely, he goes, And it was sometime

(08:20):
in it must have been October November, and I said,
I'm going to be in Nashville writing this country music show.
And I said I can't be there that week. And
that show, David was the Big Bang theory, so I
you could have had real money Oh my god, I
could have paid for my comic books lead being your
amazing house. My Pain be a big Bang was a

(08:45):
that had a big bang in terms of its impact.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
Yeah, or so I've heard, not for me but for
the other people involved. Yeah. No, it's a huge show.
And it made my mother in law finally think I'm funny,
which is something I was going for a for a while.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
That's good.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
She loves Bert the geologists, so it all worked out well.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
The parent uh listen, listeners test. I can't even say yes, okay,
that's it's so interesting because like I was once around
Phil's Max and Helen when even Philip Rosenthal, I think
we can both agree is the in comedy terms, sitcom
terms legend. Even he had that parents who went who

(09:25):
said he was showing them a pilot he had worked on,
and I was watching with him. At the end of it,
he goes, you could add a character like a Creamer,
people like a Kramer, And I thought, oh.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yes, why don't you have someone like a Kramer?

Speaker 1 (09:41):
People like that? I said, No, matter what your parents
always will say, he was wrong.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
It just maybe don't say that to your son who
had another sitcom.

Speaker 4 (09:52):
They always my Mom. You know, she would go, I
liked it when you had more energy. It was always fake, Mom,
I was faking it.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
You should said, well then my spirit during child.

Speaker 4 (10:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah, Now I'd be remiss if I didn't notice your
T shirt. Yeah, he signed it.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
No, that's an actual like inside an album picture?

Speaker 4 (10:17):
Was it comedy? He's not pretty one.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
I think it was coming.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
It's not a beautiful picture of young Steve Martin, whose
hair was still he.

Speaker 4 (10:25):
Looks exactly like this still.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yes, he went, have you gotten to show him your
T shirt yet?

Speaker 4 (10:31):
I've never met the man? Well, I have, and it
didn't go well for me. He was he was shooting
l a story on the street and I was auditioning
for one of those old dating shows in the nineties
across the street. I can't even remember what it was called.
But I came out of the audition and then saw
him there, and it was such an l a moment.

(10:52):
I was like, I gotta go say hi to him.
And he's sitting in a chair and he was shooting
on the set. I don't know why security didn't just
tackle me and beat me up, but because you were
too tall maybe, But he did not want to meet me,
but it was fine. I totally understood. I was like,
I started comedy because of you, and he's like, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
I was like, oh man, but you also I did
not until I did a little research for this, I
did not know that you opened for someone we're both
obsessed with who I got to know Don Rickles going
We've told this. This podcast started with Ray and Brad
and Phil and I all telling our Don Brickles stars,
what was what was it like when you opened? And

(11:34):
did he have a field day on you?

Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah? But I loved it. I had been such a fan.
And actually he had picked me and a couple of
people out. Was it the sands of the Stardust one
of the old Vegas places years before I actually met him,
and he made fun of me and called me a
giant crowd and I was like, which is dead on?

(11:56):
Like how did he how did he know? Yeah, our people,
our people know I was German. It's so weird. I've
never been picked out like that before. And uh, and
Doug Benson, who he called a stone Chinese guy and

(12:18):
thought it was late. And then he picked out my
now wife but she was my girlfriend at the time,
and said, uh, what are you doing with these schlubs,
you know, and in the audience and we're right up front,
and it was amazing. But that's what you want, of
course when you go to see him. Absolutely you want
to be picked out and made fun of. And then
when I met him later, I said, hey, I saw

(12:39):
you years ago, and uh, you called my friend. Oh
he actually called him a gay Chinese guy, is what
he said? Not much nicer, yes, And then he called
me a giant crowd and I said you said that,
and he goes and you still like me? And I go,
you didn't call me a gay Chinese guy?

Speaker 1 (13:00):
And you actually opened for him?

Speaker 4 (13:01):
Right? Yes, that was later.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
What was that like?

Speaker 4 (13:03):
That was Chicago when they had that comedy festival for
a while, which was super fun where it would be
all these different venues around the city and then you'd
be there for four days and like, it's one of
my favorite cities to go to and hang out, you know.
And that night I brought my now wife and he
teased her and said, what are you doing with him?

(13:24):
And it was just exactly what you want, you know
when you're meeting him.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
I mean, the most politically incorrect, but everyone knew everyone
was in on the joke, so it was that's all
with love, Yeah, exactly, it was noting.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
No, you didn't feel offended or anything. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
No, he was the sweetest guy. I knew him, got
to know him really well, spent a lot of time
with him, I think, And ironically he introduced me to
Bob Newhart at one point, who I also worship. No
one would know that Bob Newhart was probably had more
edge then.

Speaker 4 (14:02):
Do early material. Yeah, yeah, that's that stuff. The button
up mine is that, Yeah great?

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Tell us your influences, your main, my main influences.

Speaker 4 (14:13):
So for me, the first two guys that I fell
and I I liked funny guys like I liked Frank
Corshen on Batman. He was probably one of the first ones.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
But did you ever see him his night?

Speaker 4 (14:27):
No? No, I later later I did, But that was
my first thing in I was like, this guy's funny,
you know what I mean. That was like the first
time I noticed that, Like, he was funnier than the
other guys on Batman, you know, as really but.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
If you go back now, no one's funnier than than
Adam West. Maybe not maybe not intentional, but he.

Speaker 4 (14:50):
Was one of the first ones, and then the first
two that I got really into were Robin Williams and
Steve Martin, and uh, there was I would look at
the records and I saw that they were both recorded
in San Francisco, and I was I grew up, you know,
forty five minutes away in cinema, so there was this connection.
That's like. I was like, oh, I could kind of

(15:12):
do this. I could go to San Francisco and do that.
It was weird, but that was what brought me in though,
because those guys were nationally known, but I made the
connection that they had recorded it there. I was like
it was somehow achievable.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
You know, how old were you discovering that? Ten ele
oh and you were thinking I'm going to go to
San Francisco.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
Beg and at that point. And then I had friends
tell me I wasn't funny, so I was like, well,
there goes that. But later I had.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Very funny for a German.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
What do you call you a giant crowd? Giant crowd
one of the funniest giant crowds in the business.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
But at ten years old you have that vision.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
I did, and because I also saw sitcoms and I
loved side characters. I loved any guy who would come characters, yeah,
character actors, yes. I didn't like the lead guys. Yeah.
I like the guy who had the jokes don And
I remember I remember at a young age going that's
something I could do too, And then I was the same.

(16:09):
And then other years passed and I didn't do anything
about those things. But then I wound up, you know,
doing both.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yes, but you had the balls to do stand up, yeah,
which I tried once, and I it's not for me.
Did you have a good experience your first time at
the MIC?

Speaker 4 (16:25):
I did, and that probably is a big part of it.
But then I also after that, and I think you
have to have that. Is this just kind of blind
confidence just you and stand up? There has to be
a little bit of like, man, I'm good at this.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
A healthy naivete yeah, not knowing what you don't know?

Speaker 4 (16:46):
Right, So so for those first couple of years, I
just barreled through because I'm like, I don't care what
this guy thinks. I'm funny, Like what this audience, that
audience was wrong. They live in Stockton, what do they know?
You know, I'm going to San Francisco. I'm going to
I'm just doing this and I don't know how I
did that, Like I look back now, because I'm not

(17:07):
that confident now in life, But there was this twenty
something thing where I was just like when we're stupid. Yeah,
I was just like, I found this thing. This is
what I'm supposed to do. Yes, you know, and my
mom was actually really supportive and let me leave college
and you know, with the idea of, hey, I'm going
back if this doesn't work out, and what were major

(17:29):
journalism in communications?

Speaker 1 (17:31):
You made a good choice. Yeah, you know Robin Williams
who I got to work with, you got to work with. Yes,
did you ever, unlike Steve Martin who told you I'm sorry,
did you ever have the moment where you got to
tell Robin what he meant you? Because he was so.

Speaker 4 (17:44):
Amazing great moments with Robin. I got to do improv
with Robin and it was just one of the most
fun things I've ever done in my life, was just
being on the stage in San Francisco with him, and
that's like crazy dream Stern Sketch Fest a few years back.
Well obviously, but yeah, that was one of the ones.
And then he came and saw Patton Oswaldt and myself.

(18:06):
He was in the audience. We're backstage. We were doing
Comedians of Comedy in San Francisco, and somebody goes, hey,
Rob Williams is in line to get in, and we're like,
that's insane, and he was just waiting with other people.
He waited patiently and people were like, go ahead and
go in, and he's like no, no, no. And we
didn't know him then. And then after the show, we're

(18:29):
meeting people and we see him, yeah, you know, twenty
back and we're like, come up, and he's like, no, no, no.
He stayed with everybody waited in line for his turn.
He's just like the coolest human great.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
And then I've never seen anyone We hung out.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
With him for a good hour or so afterwards.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
I never saw anyone who made everyone backstage in an
award show. If he was there and presenting what he did,
like half an hour stand up for every single person
he met and made them all feel important and like
gave every It was just amazing how much love he
put out there.

Speaker 4 (18:59):
Yeah, is one of those. Did you have much interaction
with him?

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Oh yeah, we worked on a project together.

Speaker 4 (19:04):
Oh cool, cool.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
We were going to do actually an animated thing, oh wow,
where he was going to do half the voice in
Billy Crystal was going to do the other half. And
they were hysterical.

Speaker 4 (19:14):
It was a.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
Magical time, and believe it or not, nobody wanted it.

Speaker 4 (19:22):
Yeah, now that happens. Yeah, where you're like what, Yeah,
you should buy this and people will watch it.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
The best picture is in the history of Hollywood, because
I'm sure the people would come in. We'd book a
room at the Talent Agency and the studios would come
to us, and I would kind of host these two
guys opening picture opening a book of portraits of great
apes that were posed as if they were portraits from

(19:52):
a fine portraiture photographer. So they were dressed a little bit,
but they were monkeys and every one of them had
a personality, and we based the show them doing voices
for what these monkeys look like, uh huh, and it
was going to be an old age home for monkeys
in the woods, and they did them and people were crying, laughing,

(20:17):
and then nobody bought it. It doesn't make sense, but
they were. They were hysterical. I bet uh, separately and
together and Robin was just super sweet.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
Yeah, you mentioned comedians in comedy that was You know, again,
there's shows that you think were big. In my head,
I think it was a was it Comedy Central that

(20:49):
it aired on, and to me it was a huge
deal because it was you and Paton. It was you
and it was.

Speaker 4 (20:53):
Also Netflix did a movie with us first that they
put out like when they that must have been the
early yeah, when you would get it in the mail.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Right, yeah, well that's how it started.

Speaker 4 (21:04):
That was the first thing we did.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
I remember that.

Speaker 4 (21:07):
Yeah, and uh and they mena said, I forget how
it happened.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
But who was the full cast? For people?

Speaker 4 (21:14):
It was crazy Maria Bamford, Zach Galifanakis and then Patton
Oswald and myself.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
And what I remember is it was one of those
moments another show you were on news radio where I
was hanging around with Paul Simms and some of the
writers in that place, and it's a moment where I
realized the culture was changing because these were guys a
little younger than me for the most part, but they
I remember they at one point said, David, We're gonna
play video games. You want to play video games? And
I'm like, no, I'm not going to play video games
and I've never played a video game, and that was like, okay,

(21:42):
that's where I became the old guy who doesn't play
video games. But also comic books, like I've never bought
a comic book, but that show comedian, Yes, they started.

Speaker 4 (21:51):
I started.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Well, by the way, Patton Scott one too, doesn't he.

Speaker 4 (21:54):
Yeah, he's done a few different things at this point.
He got to work with DC. I don't know if
he's done a Marvel thing yet, but he's done independent stuff.
He has a creator own book that's doing pretty well. Yeah.
That just came from us both loving it. I mean
we were roommates, you know, I say college, but at
the college age. But we were friends back then and

(22:17):
that's how we bonded. It was like Asian cinema and
you know, Hong Kong films and all that stuff and
action movies and uh, you know, comic books and all
that stuff, and we're still those guys. Revenge of the
Nerds pretty much. That's one of the things in doing
that was my first date movie. I took girls the
nerds like that.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
That's who you're dealing with.

Speaker 4 (22:40):
Yes, I'm right there, that's gay.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Well, that's one of the things that comes up again
and go on this podcast? Is what you loved when
you're thirteen fourteen? At least the men, I know, it
seems like there's almost no change, like it was Springsteen
for me baseball, I still like the exact So what
do you pretty girls that we can't grow up?

Speaker 4 (22:59):
We would bump into each other at freak Beatt. I'm
still that guy. I'm still you know, I would have
been working at freak Beat if I hadn't done this,
you know exactly.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
But what's that like when you're dad? Is it great you?
Does your sixteen year old want to participate in all
that stuff with you?

Speaker 4 (23:19):
Absolutely? Yeah, we have a great relationship. It's crazy, like
we just did NERD Christmas is what I call San
Diego Comic Con. There we go down and my wife
doesn't go. She went a few years ago when he
was young, but then she learned. She's like, oh, I
don't like this. She didn't like the floor. It's insane.
I mean, you know, fifty thousand nerds going through all

(23:41):
that stuff, and we love it and we'll shop, you know,
and then I'll do comedy or do signings. This year
I had to do I was at the image booth
and we just have a blast. And then in the
old days I would go have like a drink with
a friend at night, and this time I was like,
let's watch iron Man three. It's on Gable and we

(24:04):
just sat in the hotel room and watched iron Man.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Made yourself your perfect companion.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
I really have, Like I didn't know you could just
make a kid that liked the same stuff as you.
And that is your past.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
But there's something about you I admire because I know
a lot. I'm a music obsessed person and I push
certain things on my kids. But I think it was
on Jimmy Pardo's podcast or something I remember you saying
something you you are a metal you called yourself Grandpa Metal,
the metal nerd or and we're going to talk a
little bit about heavy metal in a minute, please, But

(24:34):
the thing that I thought was cool about you, And
again I'm not a heavy metal guy, but I've always
loved you and found your interest in music fat, you know,
really interesting. But with your son, you said like he
likes hip hop as well, which is of course the
arguably the heavy metal for his generation, and you are
open he's expanded your mind as well.

Speaker 4 (24:56):
Yeah, well, now he likes Bob Dylan. He's all over
the place. He just and I just I love it.
You know. That's how I was, And nobody help me.
My mom was really cool about that stuff. Just let
me kind of buy and do whatever, you know, if
I could afford it, if I could go to the
record store and buy myself a cassette, she didn't, you know,

(25:16):
go no, you can't have that.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
You know.

Speaker 4 (25:18):
It was never like that. I was, you know, seeking
things out, and he I take him to Amba, I'd
take him to the record store and he you know, goes, hey,
can you get this? And there's like a stack of
stuff and it's all over the place and it's great.
I love it. And I've never like pushed him like, hey,
you should maybe have a little iron Maiden in there,

(25:38):
you know, like if he if he likes it, he
likes it. And he did when he was young, like
he loved we. We didn't push it on him, but
like he just naturally loved you know, crazy Train and
would sing that as a kid. And well now he's
embarrassed by that stuff.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
But let's talk Ozzie, because I think Phil, I don't
know how much like the passing of Ozzy Osbourne recently.

Speaker 4 (25:58):
I don't even know what you love. I'd love to know.
I want to know what you grew up on too,
because I don't know what music you grew up with.
But uh yeah, because we're a little different in age.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
But I'm I'm old.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
Right, But do you like classic rock stuff? For you?

Speaker 2 (26:16):
I think seventies is where I am cool?

Speaker 4 (26:18):
Cool? Yeah, so you never got into Sabbath or.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
No, no, it was a nice Jewish boy.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
I didn't even like different Sabbath.

Speaker 4 (26:27):
Have you met Scott Ian? I don't think if I heard, Oh, okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
But I've been out with That's that's Paton's friend, right, Yes, yeah,
I've been to dinner with him and his weird yeah yeah,
great guy.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
And he's a foodie too, he is, and I've done that.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
I would never know that he's mister antrit.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
Yeah. No, he's the nicest. And is he married to
uh yeah, Meat Love's daughter Pearl.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
Who seems like a lovely person.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
He's great, that's who the wife is, Yes, meat Love's daughter, yes,
meat Love Sandwich.

Speaker 4 (26:57):
Yes rock star yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
But for people out there, like even like my wife
was like, you know, I had the experience of writing
for Ozzie a few times, like with Sharon and maybe
once without Sharon. I remember I was the first person
after they won a Grammy, like relatively recently that Black
Sabbath guys came backstage and I got to congratulate them.
But for people who are shocked by the outpouring of

(27:24):
love for Ozzie, uh, what do you think made? Because
this is the biggest heavy metal passing of all time,
it feels like, yeah, what what?

Speaker 4 (27:34):
Well, because he was the biggest, he's he's the number one,
he's our boss. Definitely. Yeah. They always call him the
Prince of Darkness, which I always thought it was kind
of cringey, but.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Well, because he also was actually the irony is I
think it's so big sweet.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah, So if you're me, you only know his most
famous thing is that he would bite the heads off
bats in performance, so that keeps even.

Speaker 4 (28:02):
That's not even true. I love it that it happened
more than once. No, I think it happened once by accident.
By accident, somebody threw about on stage and he just
thought it was fake and was wasted, And that's the
one legend on that. And then he also ate a
Bird at a meeting, right, I think he was some
sort of I think it was signing at a record

(28:23):
you know, it was like a record label sign. Yeah,
that one and now that was him. But the other
one I thought him, you know, but.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Even as an accident, he's not coming over for lunch
with me.

Speaker 4 (28:37):
That was part of the mystic as a teenager, I
guess we were just different teenagers.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
Oh my god, he's he's he's legendary.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
Well, what I loved about Black Sabbath is what they
set out to do. And I didn't know that as
a fan, but that's what drew me in. So when
they started that band, you know, there were other heavy bands.
There were other blues based hard rock bands, you know,
led Zeppelin and The Birds, all that stuff, and they
wanted to be different from that, and they intentionally they

(29:07):
wanted to be dark. They wanted to be like h
Hammer horror films. And they grew up on these British
you know. Plus they grew up you know, post war
and in a depressing place in Birmingham. And they say
that that's a big influence on why their music was dark,
is they grew up in a dark place. There was
all these you know, bombed out buildings that as kids,

(29:29):
that's what their life was. And then they loved these
movies as escapeism and they wanted to turn hammer horror
films into music. And that's why I love them, you know,
that's what you right away. Yeah, as soon as I
heard heavy metal and like they're you know, iron Maid was,
I was more into iron I was more into the

(29:50):
eighties stuff, and then I went back into Black Sabbath.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
But you actually had a like, I was there some
event where you interviewed Geezer in something?

Speaker 4 (29:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah, Geezer was Butler, another member of Yeah Best.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
Yeah, well in the Writer. He wrote a lot of
the lyrics.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
To what What? What was that event?

Speaker 4 (30:06):
That was? He had a book last year and uh
he They sought me out. They asked me if I
would host. He said yes, of course, yes, and you're
and we were in Denver and it was super fun.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
In addition to Don Rickles, do you ever open for
heavy metal bands because of your famous love for heavy metal?

Speaker 4 (30:25):
I have, and that can go well or it can.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Go what's a What's a well?

Speaker 4 (30:30):
And what's a Terribleand I did a co headlining thing
with a Mastodon in Atlanta. Now, yeah, they're They're great
and that was super fun. And then I opened for Slayer,
which is probably the scariest of all metal bands. Uh
and their fans are frightening.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
The classic record you must own called Rain and Blood?
Is that what it is?

Speaker 4 (30:54):
Rain and Blood? Yeah? R r E. I d.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
To go to sleep.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
What was it like opening for.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
They were flipping me off? It was ten fifteen thousand
kids outdoors in Austin, Texas. It was a festival for
any comedian. But I take that kind of stuff because
of the challenge. I was like, Oh, that'll be a
nightmare and super fun. And I purposely went up and
talked about my cats and just like the stuff that

(31:25):
I knew would lose them. And I was like, I
know you hate me because I'm a Slayer fan. I
too want to watch Slayer. And once I did that,
I broke most of the audience and they were with
me once they realized I was one of them. And
I kind of make fun of myself, which is what
I've done my entire career. It's a lot of self deprecation.
But there were still guys just flipping me off the

(31:47):
entire time, and I loved that I was making fun
of them. I was like, this guy hates me so much.
If you can see this guy's face, he was just screaming,
you know, expletives at me over and over. He wanted
me to he hated me, and I was just like, well,
I'm gonna talk about my cats, how fun cats are.
And that made me heavy be the.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Only person ever to open for Don Rickles and Slayer?
Is there anyone probably who else is on the list
of people you've opened for?

Speaker 3 (32:15):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (32:16):
I mean John Stewart, great proops in the old days.
I didn't open for a lot of guys, right because
I started headlining pretty quick, but uh yeah, those are
the big ones and uh yeah, and Slayer.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
That's crazy. So so for someone like Phil who probably
doesn't go deep with Ozzie's music, what would you recommend?
Where would people?

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Where should I start?

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah? Where should he start?

Speaker 4 (32:46):
I love the first record just go you got to
hear Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath on Black Sabbath, Like
the record is called that and it's their first record
and they hit it's also the self titled song on
the first record, only Wang Chunk. Yeah, that's where you start.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
I would record Bad Company also did it?

Speaker 4 (33:04):
Yes, for sure? Is that on their sad on Bad Company? Yes,
they sing a song that they're probably the only band
that Boston never did a song called Boston on Boston?
Did they know?

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Although I love them, but.

Speaker 4 (33:18):
I would start there and uh, those early records, you
can't really go wrong. I love all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
Did you last thing about Ozzie there was the unique
timing of his death with doing this was so great.
You talk about the event and did you watch it
and what did you think of?

Speaker 4 (33:37):
Yeah, I'm still kicking myself. I know people I know,
and all my friends went, and I could have. I
found out through Geezer's team that I had tickets like
three weeks before the event, and I had already decided
I wasn't going to go by that because I had
reached out, I had my agent reach out. And then

(33:58):
because it was a charity, you had to actually buy them.
So I was willing to buy the tickets, but I
just didn't know how I was going to get there,
and never you know, then I was like, it fell
on my birthday, so for other a bunch of reasons,
we just stayed home. And now after it, I'm like
I watched it all day streaming.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
What did you think of it?

Speaker 4 (34:17):
I loved it.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
So they filmed it, so you yeah, watch whatever you want.

Speaker 4 (34:20):
Yeah, all the all the bands leading up to it.
It was like a whole day show, which I'm glad
I didn't. I'm too old for those all day metal shows,
Like I can't do it anymore all day anything. Uh,
but watching it was amazing. Any highlights of it, Yeah,
his his stuff when he when he did his solo,

(34:41):
the solo stuff with Zach Wild and then when and
then I loved this kid, young Blood who did Changes People.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
That is one of the most performances of the year.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
I was blown away. I didn't know who that kid was,
but that's.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
By the way. You would love that. Yes, Changes is
sort of the the.

Speaker 4 (35:00):
Beautiful Black Saba Soong. It's yeah, it's already the original
is I think it's only piano, right, Does it ever
break out into drums and bass?

Speaker 1 (35:08):
And I don't think so.

Speaker 4 (35:09):
They did live for this this version, but yeah, that
kid came out of nowhere and kind of stole the day.
Everybody was talking about it. And my buddy Frank Bellow
from Anthrax played bass on that track. So I was
excited to see him and then this kid, you know,
just crushing it.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
And then how many days was it a week or
two later?

Speaker 4 (35:31):
That a few weeks later. Yeah, I was shocked and
I'm still not over it. Yeah, he's a big one.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
Did you meet him?

Speaker 4 (35:40):
I did a couple of times, and I had more
interactions with his family. Sharon. I did a roast of
and she loved it. I was very mean to her
and she her British sense of humor. She loved it.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
What was one of the jokes she said about her?

Speaker 4 (35:55):
Oh, I can't even say it, really, it was pretty
so mean.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
I wrote little Rickles.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
I wrote a very sweet old vaudeville joke for Ozzy
and he was. He killed with it at the Grammys
when you're because he almost there was he almost died
so many times, I'm sure more than we know. But
there was one. Do you remember there was some incident
like he was on a lawn in a gardening thing.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
Oh, I thought you were going to talk about that. Yeah,
he flipped an ATV. That's what it was.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
I'm sorry, that's what it was. And after soon after that,
he appeared on the Grammys with and I and they
said write something for him, and he was not in
great shape, and uh, I just wrote, I said, Ozzy,
how about like the oldest vaudeville joke of all it's
great to be here, it's great to be anywhere, right,
And he delivered. That's the thing. The Prince of Darkness
was funny. He was funny and sweet, and that's what

(36:41):
the reality like. I don't watch reality shows, but I
saw enough of the Osbourne's to go, oh my god,
people fell in love with the guy.

Speaker 4 (36:48):
Yeah. I watched every episode of that because I was
obviously already a fan. Even my son is named after
Randy Rhodes. My son is Rhodes.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Can you explain who Randy Road?

Speaker 4 (36:57):
So Randy Rhodes is Ozzy He's It's so weird because
he's one of my favorite all time guitar players. But
he really only played on two albums and then some
Quiet Riot stuff demos because he was in the band
Quiet Riot and Ozzie found him when Ozzie started his
solo work after he left Black Sabbath early eighties. It's

(37:18):
like eighty eighty one, and he's changed guitar playing. He's
just Edward van Halen, but more classically influenced would be
the easiest way to is that track to you? Yeah,
you hear that? And because his mom his family taught
guitar in the valley and that's like how he got started.

(37:40):
He would teach people and other bands and you.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
Know, and he died phil very tragically, like I think
actually was Ozzie basically watching.

Speaker 4 (37:49):
Ozzie was in a tour bus and they were on
a plane, a small plane, and they buzzed by the
bus and they did it a second time and crashed.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
Oh uh and uh they did it to like full around.

Speaker 4 (38:03):
To full around to use the guys on the bus.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
So in honor of Randy Roads, who is there's I
know people who worked on documentaries, but this guy lives
such a short time, but he burns brightly for guitar.
Uh fans, Let's hear what what what song can we
play to show you the what you love about Randy
work with Ozzie?

Speaker 4 (38:22):
Uh, mister Crowley's probably because it's so dark and just
what I love about heavy metal.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
Let's hear a little mister Crowley, Mister Crowley young, Let's

(39:05):
start of mister show yes cool, yes for mister Crowley.
Let's go to mister Show Us.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Did you know Bob and David before mister Show David.

Speaker 4 (39:13):
So it happened so fast. I met David like in
ninety three, I think ninety two, ninety three. I was
living in San Francisco and he was up doing He
was doing a lot of stand up then, and we
had this great spot, the Improv in the middle of
the city, and it was before it was called the

(39:34):
Alternative Comedy, but a lot of us that are were
known as that. We're getting regular spots there and that
was our hangout. And he came and we all met
and became friends instantly. We were all kind of around
the same age and definitely the same you know, sensibilities.
You know, he made me laugh the first time I
saw him on stage. It was insane, and and we

(39:57):
became friends pretty right away. And then I'm moved down
right after that to work at MTV, like it was
your job, you were. I got hired on a show
that was Remote Control was huge, and so they wanted
to follow it up. They so they had a show
called Trashed where college students and their roommates would come
on with like my skateboard and you know, my senior

(40:22):
picture in a frame and we would destroy that. If
you got the questions wrong, it was trashed. We would
destroy your stuff. And it was all. It was myself,
Dana Gould, David Cross, Jenny Garafflow, and I was one
of the writers on the show with Steve Higgins from

(40:42):
Saturday Night Live, yeah, and Al Higgins and Dave Higgins.
Well Al didn't work on that, but he worked on
a show later with me. But that was our crew
and we had David do some bits on it. And
right around then I met Bob one night Virgin Records.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Like we saw each other Sunday.

Speaker 4 (41:03):
That's my happy place is alone in a record store.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
I had my dog.

Speaker 4 (41:09):
Yeah yeah, but me, I could be in a record
store for hours. And I worked in him in the
old days, and that's just where I'm the happiest. And
I was walking through Virgin and he kind of disrupted
my disrupted me. He's like, hey, are two friends with
David And I'm like, yeah. I wasn't very cool. I
was very very nineties hipster, grungy dude, the long hair

(41:33):
and you know, I had a sub pop jacket that
said loser on it, and I was very that guy.
And Bob apparently was totally charmed by it. He loved
that I was kind of an a hole and didn't
care to meet him, and then told David, he's like
that Brian kid seems kind of funny. That was I'm

(41:54):
not trying to make a good impression. I was actually
kind of blowing it, and it worked the opposite. Like
he loved that I was kind of surly, and we
became friends from there and started writing sketches together right away,
and they were doing Bob and David, but they were
involving me, and we would shoot stuff and around town
and then before mister Show and because it was called

(42:19):
three Goofballs at one point, really yes, where they would
have a different person be the third goofball, and I
did it a couple of times. I got to be
the third goofball and that was it. So when they
when the show took off, I was like one of
the first guys that they said or said would write,
you know. So season two, Season one was all it

(42:41):
was just written by them. They wrote four episodes and
they handled everything and we got to see it. A
bunch of us, but Paula Tompkins and a couple of
us that wound up writing on the show, and Bill
od and Kirk, Bob's brother. We came to it like
a table read and that was like my first table
read of you know, like a real show, and every

(43:03):
sketch crushed. Yeah, and I was like, no notes, you know,
And I.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
Don't think I've ever left harder than going to those lives.

Speaker 4 (43:10):
Oh, they were amazing then.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
You know, when to watch them live doing that stuff.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
The pop we got off Titanica is still the biggest
laugh I've ever gotten in anything of when we revealed
David with the little the little puppet body, when they
pulled the sheets off and the puppet bodies there and
Jay Johnson whoever's underneath using the you know, moving the
field the feet and somebody else is moving their arms,

(43:37):
and the audience went out of their minds and we
were like wow, Like that was the first show and
we had to do it twice. We we shot everything
twice on that first season.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Have you stayed in touch with everyone of those people,
except for Jay Johnson, who's taken quite some interesting turns.

Speaker 4 (43:55):
Yeah, yeah, but but yeah, everybody. I went to Cross's
sixtieth last year and flew out to New York for
that and I just texted Bob today to tell him
that nobody too was amazing. So yeah, yeah, we're still
all pals and we do we did. We've been doing
this charity thing for the last couple of years and uh,

(44:16):
it's super fun. We're just getting on stage with Bob
again and doing anything that he asked me to. You know,
he writes it all. I don't write anything, and he
just goes do this, and I just say what he
tells me.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
Well, I will say the opposite. He loved your attitude
when you were a little surly at the record store.
I saw a different because when I think of his success,
like the amazing success he's having right now this week
with his movie and all that. I remember at the
Aspen Comedy Festival when he came up to Phil Who
and he was asking you. I was happened to be

(44:50):
next to you. He was asking you for all sorts
of writing advice about how do you do a sitcom?
How do you do you know? It was he was
for however cool you guys were alternative. It seemed like
Bob always wanted to do great things and do alone well.
He could.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
He could do mainstream, he could do mister show. He
could do. He could do whatever he wants. He's super talented.

Speaker 4 (45:12):
He'd already written Get a Life when I met him,
and so when I'm I love that show, and like
when I first met him, I was like, dude, you
worked on that? Yeah, you know. And then to find
out all the SNL sketches that were so famous, like
you know Farley down by the River, that's Bob. Bob
wrote that for Farley, Yeah, the Bears he worked on,

(45:34):
like you know, dub AARs like all that stuff. Like
he's one of the funniest humans and the smartest guys
I've ever worked with too.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
That Titanica sketch did you mentioned? Is that your favorite
of all the sketches.

Speaker 4 (45:47):
Of mine that I wrote? Yeah? That, So that was
my idea And it wouldn't exist if it wasn't for
Bob being more open to it, because the other guys
were like, this is dark, this is not funny, this
is bad. I just didn't like my sketch, and Bob's like, well,
what did you like about it? What story do you
want to tell? And he just was so smart about

(46:08):
comedy of like he would never kill it a bit
right away just because it didn't get a laugh the
first time. He'd go, well, you you wrote it yesterday,
you thought of this, you brought it to this room
because you believe in it. So what do you believe
in it? And it's such a smart A lot of
head writers don't do.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
That, you know, that's fantastic.

Speaker 4 (46:29):
And that's what I The biggest thing I learned from
him is to kind of like give an idea a
chance and give it a room to breathe and look
for what's funny that's about it? You know.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
That's actually the opposite of SNL, which is why he
probably didn't stay there.

Speaker 4 (46:43):
You get, Yeah, I think he was going crazy the
whole time one at that yeah, a place he wanted
to be a performer too and could so yeah, you get.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
You know, they have the four hour table read on Wednesday,
and imagine if your sketch that you work so hard
on is in hour three or four, you're dead your
chances of scoring. And so it's just throwing the garbage
without that discussion.

Speaker 4 (47:08):
Which is why I never wrote there, because after I
did Mister Show and we had all been told how
rough it was like when agents would go, hey, SNL's
looking I'm like, nah, you know.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
You guys, you were getting to do the sketches you.

Speaker 4 (47:22):
Yeah, plus yeah, it was kind of like I kind
of wrote on the best sketch show or one of them.
You know, absolutely, people, I think even Rolling Stone said
it was three, like twenty years ago, said it was
number three after SNL and Python, And to me, that's fair,
but Fair's but I would say, I would say s

(47:43):
CTV before us. But because SCTV, to me, that's one
of the reasons I love sketch too, because we talk
about my stand up influences, but my sketch influences were
definitely SCTV because I loved SNL. But then I found
set TV. Late at night, I was, you know, at
my grandmother's house watching her cable and she had stuff

(48:05):
that my show that I didn't get where I lived,
and I saw that and it was like it seemed otherworldly.
And it was because it was from Canada, right, but
it seemed like from a whole other place.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
I think people, if you, if you really ask them,
what do they laughed hardest at. I think they're saying
mister show and SATV before they say fair.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
Yeah, yeah, batting average wise because I would say yes,
and personally, I can tell you I never remember laughing
harder with my wife than mister show Live, like when
during taping.

Speaker 4 (48:44):
Yes, and other sketch shows do like our format a lot,
or they'll do like I've seen a lot of stuff
over over the years on SNL where it's like wh
that felt really, mister showy?

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Try who deserves some credit for it? Because was it
h who put it on?

Speaker 4 (49:01):
Yeah? It was. Caroline Strauss was our she's executive, she
was our main exec and we always felt like we
had the LA love. She was out in LA and
the New York people. We always felt like they didn't
care because they would move our show around and put
episodes of real sex on like they bump us at

(49:24):
the last minute, like we're supposed to be on a
Saturday at midnight and then you turn on to watch
our shows. We'd have like little parties.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
I was so pissed when I accident.

Speaker 4 (49:33):
Beyond We're like, what the you know?

Speaker 2 (49:35):
That's funny?

Speaker 4 (49:37):
But she was always like that. I remember that show
being pretty they were hands off. They were because also
who was watching it was like college kids and and
their dorms and not many else but but we got
to do like exactly what we wanted to do.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
You know, what was the movie experience when you guys
tried to make the movie.

Speaker 4 (50:00):
It was a long process. But but again, so lucky
I got to be a part of it. There was
five five guys writing a movie, which is a lot.
That's too many guys. That's like for too many guys.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
That's how many takes to write a Who.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
Wrote Rudy will await your foundation.

Speaker 4 (50:22):
Uh, that's my sketch. But that's that's probably a Bob joke. Yeah,
that sounds that just the way that's worded, it sounds
like Bob wrote it. You mean that line, that line,
Rudy will await your foundation, That was my sketch.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Yeah, So, Brian, that's a fantastic one of the funniest
things I've ever seen in my life.

Speaker 4 (50:44):
We were we were at was it Uta or no,
maybe it was Three Arts. We were at an agency
and it was so fancy. We were all there and
I felt, you know, like, I'm dressed like this back then.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
And which is a tooxedo.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
Yeah, I dressed like Jeff Spiccoley. Still. Yes, I'm still
that guy. He's my spirit animal and so we're making
fun of ourselves. And I said to Scott Ackerman, I go, God,
you know we're losers and we're in this fancy place.
I go, I bet you this agency. Can we what's

(51:22):
the language like on this? I said, bet you they
don't have a shitter, And I was just being crude,
but I was like, I bet you they don't have
an actual toilet. It's too fancy. And then Scott laughed
at that and we started laughing about it, and we
were like, what about a restaurant that's too fancy to
have a toilet? And that's where the burgund burgundilo Bob

(51:45):
decided to pronounce it burg and why the lean on
the why for I don't know why, but just to
be silly. And uh, that's where that sketch came from.
A restaurant too fancy to have a shitter. But then
you ship in a gold box and they mail it
home to you. Like the logic of it goes out
the window.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
I mean, it couldn't be cruder. And yet it's so sophisticated,
it's so funny. God bless you.

Speaker 4 (52:13):
Well that channeling Python. We all we all loved the crass,
crazy but smart yes, python stuff, and that's what we
were trying to do, and you know, all doing that
in a group and making each other laugh. And some
of my favorite memories are just Bob and I we

(52:34):
wrote the sketch It's to Sir, it becomes to serve
with love parody where it's the going up the mother's asses,
but it's the it's the substitute teacher who all the
kids are just being an asshole to. And that came
from Bob and I. We were just sitting around at lunch.

(52:55):
Everybody left the office for lunch one day and he
and I are just still sitting in the office and
we were just joking around, and he started doing a character,
like a substitute teacher character, and I just started being
surly and shooting down everything he said and just making
fun of him. The next thing we know, we have
a sketch. Everybody comes back and we go, hey, we

(53:17):
wrote a sketch, and they're like, you assholes. We're on
lunch and you guys are creating comedy. And I was
literally laying on a couch as we wrote that bit,
just and but it came so naturally because Bob just
knew what was funny and he just he kind of

(53:40):
just made that bit come into you know, fruition or
you know, just messing around.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
So now Brian, you have to tell you want to
let's talk a little more about this.

Speaker 4 (53:52):
I just wanted to give you guys, but this consuming
you now making no, no, now, now I'm done, and
I'm working on another another image book. Yeah, taking a
couple of influence. I can't I mean actually talk about
that one. But yeah, no, no, I'm working on other
books and because I just love love it, maybe it'll

(54:14):
pay off, maybe it'll get turned into something.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
But right, do you already when you do when you're
doing these looking at the IP, and do you think
who should play who?

Speaker 4 (54:24):
A little bit? I didn't so much on what part
is for Phil which would fill.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Well, I think I'm the kid in the middle.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
Yeah, yes, yeah, the other he's not the metal kid.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
And the big bang sort of spin off. Tell us
about that sort of experience.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
A year and a half ago, Uh, Chuck Laurie called
me and said, hey, I'm writing a show for you. Wow,
And my head exploded, and uh, I like why he
never called me? This was my first phone call from
Chuck Laurie over the years working for him, and I
see my phone actually as his name, and I called

(55:02):
my wife another room, and before I even picked it up,
I go, look, look what is happening. Because it wasn't.
Phil Rosenthal called me. I would be as excited. I
was like, We're doing the spinoff from Everybody Loves Raymond. Yeah.
The last time remember I got I did that second

(55:26):
episode was when ray I made ray buy a go
Kart track a go Kart track, So, yeah, the go
kart spin off is what I could have been hoping for,
but no, I had kind of it had been planted.
He had talked over the years that he had a
spinoff idea for a couple of us, you know, me

(55:47):
being one of them. And I also kind of beetlejuiced it.
I would say, I would jokingly to my wife go hey,
you know, I would say his name. I would say
Chuck Lorian in the mirror, and then Chuck called. So
I may have made the whole thing happened. And you're

(56:09):
I read the secret many years.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
Is your wife a manager agent, she's a manager, and
Bob's manager. Bob's wife is a manager. Is it interesting
that all of you alternative free thinkers married people who
have maybe more common sense. Well, yeah, I married a
business manager a little I.

Speaker 4 (56:31):
Couldn't function without her. She knew that. She goes. I
got to straighten this guy up. He needs help.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
And you have the one boy or more one?

Speaker 4 (56:41):
Yeah? One?

Speaker 2 (56:42):
And what's his name?

Speaker 4 (56:43):
Rhoads? Like I said, just what we said, Herod? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
Where's your next trip with him? Where are you going
to take him?

Speaker 4 (56:50):
We're going to Pismo next week because he starts school again.
He's private school, so they don't start till like September.
Everybody else has been in school for like three weeks.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
I don't get it. Why would you start school?

Speaker 4 (57:03):
I don't know. I don't get it either. But he's
out in Sierra Canyon, out in Porta Ranch. That's where
his school is, way out there. But he starts then,
and so we're going to take a little Pisma trip
and then and then we start production for on my show,
so I'll get busy. You're the lead in this show,
one of them number two on the on the call sheet.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
Who was in it with you?

Speaker 4 (57:27):
Kevin Sussman is the main lead. He's so the show
is called a Stuart fails to save the universe and
he's Stuart and I'm Bert again. And then Lauren Lapkis
is joining us. She was on the other show and
as his girlfriend. And then John Ross Bowie from the
original show, and then some of the legacy cast have

(57:51):
signed on to do episodes and wow, yeah it's cool,
that's fantastic. Will be HBO Max, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
Yeah, in front of an audience.

Speaker 4 (58:02):
No, it's a whole other thing. It's single camera, it is,
but that's what he wanted to do. He wanted to do.
So the way it was pitched. Yeah, the way it
was pitched is a show that the guys on the
original show would watch. So he wanted to He wants
to do like a real sci fi driven that's you know,

(58:22):
about different timelines and you know that that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
His his new show is on on Netflix, Leanne, that's
in front of an audience, I think, or if it's
not it there's a laugh track but shot like four camera.
But that's doing great.

Speaker 4 (58:39):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
Yeah, if mister Show was your best writing experience, I
say this as someone who's been into different kinds of
writing rooms for like event shows, and what was the
worst writing gig you ever had?

Speaker 4 (58:50):
Oh, I don't want to throw anybody over the under
the bus. I worked on a thing I probably wasn't
it shouldn't have been. I wanted to do sitcom work,
but the one I picked it was The Anger Management
and it was they were one of the shows that

(59:12):
they were going to do in the Tyler Perry mode
where it was one hundred episodes in like three years.
You remember this when there's like.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
A trend, go, yeah, it's actually the Russian model.

Speaker 4 (59:24):
Yeah, oh is that kind of what? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Oh wow, yeah yeah every three days shoot a show.

Speaker 4 (59:29):
Wow. So that's what we did. We did ten, but
I only worked on the first ten and h They
had writers said hey, this isn't working out, and I
was like, no, no, this is definitely not working out.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
The only thing you sacrifice doing it that way is
the quality of the show.

Speaker 4 (59:45):
I I'm too much of a perfectionist for that world,
uh they you know, or for that show at least
because or for that type of show. Because they would
just land on things and I would go, we're not done.
You like that, we could do better and they're like no, no, no,
that's good, we got it. I'm like that joke's like

(01:00:06):
one hundred years old and they're like, nope, nope, nope.
And then I went home one day because I had
fought to not have a toilet affected by or a
toilet effect a shower, because that felt like a really
cliche comedic bit. You know, they're like, oh, he's taking

(01:00:27):
a shower and she the toilet so the water changes.
And I'm like, where do you live like that? Nowhere
in the valley does that work like that? Right? That's
not a real thing, even it's a fifties conceit, a
comedic conceit, And I hated it, and I was like,
this isn't a million other things. We shouldn't be doing this.
And it was in a script that I had to

(01:00:48):
name my name on and they had rewritten me and
put that bit in. And I was way too upset
for a writing job, like, you know, it shouldn't affect you.
You shouldn't go home going, you know, from a sitcom
writing job. You're writing comedy. And I was angry every day.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
You know what we call that caring?

Speaker 4 (01:01:11):
And I had a two year old at home. The
reason I had taken the sitcom job is I wanted
to be at home more for my child. And then
I found out that, uh, this job, you know, I
was never going to see him, like I'd be up
before he got up and home after he was in bed.
And so one night I come home and I'm mad

(01:01:33):
that that bit was in the script, and so I
sit down with my two year old and we watched
the I think it's the second Chipmunks movie, or maybe
it was in the first one Chipmunks, you know, the
live action, Yeah, toilet flushes well while Dave's taking a shower,

(01:01:53):
al then Alvin flushing the toilet. I lose my mind.
I'm watching Chipmunks with my kid, and I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Just like, did you bring it in the next day?

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
I know, I told them as soon as I got
I showed up on set and I was like, you know,
just you mothers, just that stupid bit I watched last night.
I'm watching the Chipmunks movie and they did the bit
in the Chipmunks movie. You guys should be, you know,
ashamed of yourself, right, No one cares you ever miserable?

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
Like I know you did a Robert Mitcham sitcom. Sure,
what was the most miserable of you ever?

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
Were on a show that it happens on every show
that maybe you're not running, you're going to disagree with
running it. But but oh yeah, absolutely a terrible show.

Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
You know he did. Look Who's talking? The sitcom called
Baby Talk.

Speaker 4 (01:02:51):
I remember that show. Yeah, so.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Uh George Clooney was cast in the John Travolta role,
and have this day if we see each other, we
hug and say we survived.

Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
Baby that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
Yes, but I guess there's so much terrible out there.
But your attitude is right that you should be mad
if it's your name on the screen.

Speaker 4 (01:03:16):
I was like Comedy Police every day, like everybody's scripts.
I was like Simpsons did it? South Park did it?
You know? I've seen that joke, you know, But I
also always did it the bad way where I go, hey,
I can beat it, you know, Like I I wouldn't
just go, hey, that joke sucks. What about I go
that jokes? I might not say it sucks, but I go,

(01:03:38):
why don't we try this?

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
By the way, that's the that's the way to be
that have You can't just be negative and say this things.
You have to offer something. There's nothing wrong with what
you did there.

Speaker 4 (01:03:50):
Don't beat yourself on I did no I knew I
was the funny part of this.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
He wrote, He wrote the best skeedch ever.

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
Absolutely, should we.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
Yeah, we gotta run. Can we keep this guy forever?

Speaker 4 (01:04:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
But can we end with any you made? You made
a heavy metal record, a funny a metal record.

Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
Nice?

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
Can you pick a track to go out on that
you are especially tell us that story of one of
the tracks that you love the most.

Speaker 4 (01:04:18):
Let's go self titled it's Grandpa Metal, So we'll do
the title track Grandpa Metal. And I wrote it making
fun of Scottian and just did a bunch of old
guy jokes. But it was just kind of the crust
and myself I've called Grandpa metal too. It's just the
crusty old guy who doesn't think music. Has you know,

(01:04:39):
done anything worth while since like nineteen ninety three.

Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
Well, thank you, Grandpa Metal.

Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
Oh man whatever? Grandpa Metal.

Speaker 5 (01:05:14):
Naked Lunch is a podcast by Phil Rosenthal and David Wilde.
Theme song and music by Brad Paisley, Produced by Will
Sterling and Ryan Tillotson, with video editing by Daniel Ferrara
and motion graphics by Ali Ahmed. Executive produced by Phil Rosenthal,
David Wilde and our consulting journalist is Pamela Chella. If
you enjoyed the show, share it with a friend. But
if you can't take my word for it, take Phil's.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
And don't forget to leave a good rating and review.
We like five stars.

Speaker 5 (01:05:39):
You know, thanks for listening to Naked Lunch, a lucky
Bastard's production.