Dana Gould

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, David, Hey Phil. Today is very special. We have
one of the great comedians in America.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm so excited. I literally I sort of live in
the neighborhood with this gentleman and I sort of stalk him.
He doesn't know that. And then I at Sketch Fest
I finally was able to pounce and beg him to
be on our podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Well, let's not waste that he color.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
It's Dana Gold.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
Let's build the beans to the fat, food for thought
and jokes on taip, talking with our mouthsful, having fun,
the beast, the cake and humble pies, serving.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Up slass lovely. The dressing on the side.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
It's Naked Lunch.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Clothing optional. Dana, Welcome to Naked Lunch.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Thank you. I lovely to be here.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I gave you no choice because we were all at
Sketch Fest in San Francisco, and you were in the
lobby trying to avoid lunatics, and I bum rushed you
and begged you, and I they.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Always find you.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yes, I was delighted at the invite. I was delighted
to talk. I'm delighted to be here.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
We go.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Do you think I'm so much more important than I?

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Do we go back a long way. I don't know
if you remember how we met, but I believe it
goes all the way back to when the lady you
were married to, my ex wife craft service person on
a show down the shore. That's right, So that's we're
talking nineteen ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, probably, yeah, right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
And were you you were working on something? Were you
working on Ben Stiller at the time.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, I was hot at that time. But then you
could not approach you, yes, uh yeah. And my my
ex wife, Sue was a cross person down.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
The shore and and she went, oh I.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Saw this morning, don't Your divorce brought us together in
a way you might not realize. But when you moved,
you moved. When you left whatever home you were in,
you moved directly below me in our neighborhood, so that
if my house floods, your house will flood. That's how

(02:25):
close exactly we could all have the same house. But
I'm I am such a fan of yours. I'm like
literally shy when I if I walk in the neighbor with
my dog, and especially because he often will poop on
your corner. That's lovely. There's a great piece of grass
there is I do clean up. It's inviting, I do
clean up after I. Yeah, exactly. That's so this is

(02:47):
sort of a dream come true for both.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Oh that's great, it's great. Yeah, yeah, you worked on
that with Lou Schneider. I believe.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yes, Lou lost his home yep, I heard, Uh, yeah,
how are you?

Speaker 2 (02:59):
We're fine?

Speaker 3 (03:00):
But yeah, but did you evacuate for We did evacuate
for It's funny. Yeah, it's a funny, funny story. We
did have to evacuate because of Runyon and I went
up to Uh, we have a place up in Ventura
County up north around OHI, uh, that Sue has we

(03:22):
used to have it.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Wait before we go, tell the people that she graduated
from being craft service person for down the Shore.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yes, and she became a huge runs the industry. She
went to UTA, became the youngest partner at Utah, and
then moved to HBO, where she ran the joint for
a long time.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
It's unbelievable, and she's so great.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
She's too shy to admit it. But her claim to
fame was taking a pilot out of the garbage that
they passed on and saying, I really think we should
this needs some reshooting and some recasting, but I think
we need to make it. And there was reluctance up
the chain, but she said, nope, I this is the play.

(04:11):
And they went, it's your your call, and they made.
They put Game of Thrones back on productions.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Was in the garbage. In the garbage, I have stories
like this too. It's incredible what people don't know.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Oh well, you put you put one in your book.
We worked on the upfronts for CBS for many years.
One of the biggest, most impactful in a business sense,
in TV history was uh. I think the year before
I started doing the upfront for CBS, Phil, how did
you change TV history forever?

Speaker 3 (04:42):
I can't.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
I'm not going to take full credit.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
For this, but let's let's suffice to say there wouldn't
be uh is it CSI without him going, could I
see something? You know? What else do you got?

Speaker 1 (04:58):
So that's pretty So in the garbage pile of video
cassettes the night before the upfronts and the head of CBS,
just because I was helping him with his speech and
I would direct his performance at Carnegie Hall the next day,
he got to this part of introducing something else at

(05:19):
the upfronts, and he wasn't sure about it, and he
asked what I thought. I didn't think much of it,
and the suits were not happy that I was expressing
an opinion that I was asked. Right, I was just
this creative in the room, and you know how they
don't like them.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yeah, no you should, and so you're off leash.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yes, I'm off. They wanted me on leash. And he said,
where's this other thing? Where's this other Where's the one
I like? And he rummaged through the garbage pile of
video cassettes and he said, and they said, what are
you doing? I just want Phil to see this? And
he puts it on and it's you know, ops finding

(06:01):
out stuff, a hair on a toilet and then we
find it and the music was certainly cool.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
That was the original title, Hair and the hair and
the toilet.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
And yeah, it was a it's a Who song. No no,
that was the theme the music as to Who.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
So right away I like that right away, and right
right away, I think it's cool. And he goes, he goes,
what do you think?

Speaker 5 (06:24):
Like?

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Seriously, what do you think? Like? I don't know, none
of these people know. What do you think?

Speaker 2 (06:28):
I said?

Speaker 3 (06:28):
And I said now that I.

Speaker 6 (06:29):
Would watch Not really, those aren't I said, Jewish television review,
I've ever heard now that I would watch Knock Him
the Beggar says yes, And you know there was a
fight in the room about it because it tested a
little less than the other one that they were going
to put on.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Right, it was absolutely terrible.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Right film's contribution to TV history becomes the biggest success
story in CBS history. As a result, as you mentioned,
the Who did all the theme songs because it was
such a it was a pattern, and so CBS got
the Who to come to the upfront at Carnegie Hall
for nothing because they were making her add so much
money for advertisers, and no one knew. And I'll never

(07:11):
forget that because the night before we're in the room
discussing this, and less Moonvez said, uh, okay, you're the
only people, like the five of us in the room,
only people who know the Who are going to take
the stage. If word gets out, you're all fired. And
I had to raise my hand and go, I don't
actually work for you. I'm only here for this. He goes,
I will hire you and then I'll fire you.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
So that's that's.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
How that went.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
By the way, eat your sandwich, everybody. Today's munch is
from Sycamore Kitchen.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Oh the best, we love it. Uh, But Dana, let's uh,
we're already going so far in the past. Let's talk
about your youth special.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
And first of all, I should say this, please, I
talked a lot about my ex wife.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yes, yes, let me.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
Say something kind of about my wife wife. Yes, please,
fair enough. She's too shy to say that. But she
once shot him man in Reno, just to watch him die.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
That's making Johnny Cash's career even even poss Thank you.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
That's fantastic than you. She has my respect.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
My wife is a whiskey expert.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
And uh, look what I'm wearing.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah, she's a She's a whiskey cement on Instagram. And uh,
guys don't like a tall, beautiful woman that knows more
about whiskey than they do.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
I do.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Well, you're a secure Let me rephrase that whiskey.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Bros don't like, but she who doesn't like a person
who brings something more to the party.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
Insecure people, you seem to be, you know, listening to
the stand of the new Stand Up Special, and it
seems like you're someone who actually like you're a good
advertisement for second marriage because you weren't even looking, as
I understand it from what you say, you weren't looking
to get married.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
I was done.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
You were done, and you're now very glad you're not done.
You seem like a happy man.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Oh yeah, completely, it doesn't work for you.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
We don't neither of us I have a second wife.
We don't have We only have one each.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
But I am looking exact.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, then I tell the first that's the hard part.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
That would be a good episode looking for second wives.
It could be a it would.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Have to be funny. Is that Monica is helping me.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
Look, she's got a disease, hear me, here's the picture.
She knows she's gonna die.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
God's good.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Then she doesn't have it.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Now what second act has?

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Simpsons? Your Simpson's wife, your your success, You're how many
years were you there? It was like eight years. Did
you encounter each other at all in the Simpsons world?
Because you have so many Simpsons connections, Phil.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
I think we're just we're both very big fans of
Mike Scully.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
I've worked on and Matt Shellman, yeah who lost and
Jim Brooks.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, half that staff lost their homes are now homeless.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
That doesn't seem right, doesn't.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yeah, people were forced to flee to their second and
third homes.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
It's an Elway story.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
But no, I mean it's it's awful. But I will say,
and this is surprising. Everyone I've spoken to seems oddly
sanguine about it. I think they're just so happy that
no one got hurt, right, It's like, yeah, you know,
and I and I think when you lose, if everything goes,

(10:42):
there's just like a weird minimalist euphoria that you experience.
I'm guessing I've never had it, like the crap that
I threw in my car when we had to get out.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Well, I was going to say, you're a collector, as
I from what I just as a and I know
you collect a lot of old horror movies. Yeah, stuff,
what did you What did you get?

Speaker 3 (11:06):
The thing that I had to be very very careful
with is I have one of the flying saucers from
Edwoods Plan nine.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
From Out of Space that Edwood it's in the movie.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, and I had to everyone's running around bubble wrapping
and flying saucer.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
You were doing that?

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Oh, Yeah, people left my kids and they're staring at me.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Where you're going dead saucer, saucer needs the backseat.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
But no, it was I mean, and I was. It
was I was embarrassed, believe me. And I have It
was yeah I have. I don't have a lot of stuff.
I have a small amount of stuff that's very special
to me. But like Scott Alexander, who was right so
with Larry Karazuski, great screen, right, Yeah, they wererotight ed wood.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Which is the connection there.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
He came over my house once and he walked in
and he went, oh, it's not as horrible as I
figured it with you. No, I have children, I'm not gonna.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
But what I'm what I'm what's moving and upsetting about
people who've lost their homes is it's not just the
home or all the crap that we have in our home,
when well the meaningful things we have in our home.
It's your neighborhood. It's your it's your life in your neighborhood.
It's your neighbors seeing them every day. If you had

(12:37):
a relationship, it's going to that corner store that's not
even there anymore.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
And it's just and that's not coming back and exactly
in that form. No, no, yeah, it's a I never
be the same. No, I have a weird feeling that
it's you know, because not everybody is going back to
where they were and it's going to take forever and
the toxicity. And I had this feeling like the the

(13:02):
Palisades is going to sort of be like Calabasas is
going to become the Palisades, and that maybe Sierra Madre
will become Alta Dina, you know. I just I don't
know what's going to happen. And there's also the opportunity
to rebuild those cities as the you know, in America

(13:22):
we would say the city of the future. In a
civilized country, you would say a city meaning underwater, underground wiring.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yes, we don't know it.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yeah, no, No, you go to you know, you go
to Taiwan or somebodace. You're in the airport and then
you land at Lax and it's like, oh, this is
like time travel back in the mid century.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
That's right. Uh, there's a lot of countries who we
could get some lessons from. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
I don't want to say Lax is stuck in the past,
but the Wi Fi code there is Briarcliffe to three
six one.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
One of my favorite things you do is hanging with
doctor z Oh.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
I'm impressed you even know it.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
I know it. I love it. Tell the people how
that came about.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Well, going on the road got too easy, kidding. I
was no longer at a place where I would lose
money by performing, so I reinvented my career. No, I've
always been a fan of Planet of the Apes too.
For some reason, it rang my bell as a kid

(14:57):
the way in a big like in the way Spall
rings people's bells or Springsteen rings people's bells, Like, this
very specific thing just knocked me for a loop. I've
always loved it. On The Ben Stiller Show, I wrote
a sketch Planet of the Apes the musical before they

(15:19):
did it on The Simpsons.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Wow, separate development and that was great.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yeah, and mine was not as funny as theirs.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
But you still sued yourself.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Sims we got canceled, and we got canceled before they
did it. And what we did in The Ben Stiller
Show is like, if you come up with a sketch
that's a big budget, what's another sketch that we can
do with the same set costumes or something. Just yeah.
So I thought the musical sketch was a commercial, like
when Hamilton comes to.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
The pantages, it's coming, and it was just that, yep.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
And then I thought, okay, then for the second act,
we can do from the producers of Planet of the
Apes the musical Doctor Zayas is Mark Twain tonight right,
and oh my god right never filmed. It never did.
And the only reason I wrote it is because I
wanted to do it, you know, I wanted to get
in the makeup.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
And do it.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
And that makeup that's not you're just putting on a
plastic mask.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
That is no, that's it's it.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
You spent time. You've got the real guys who choked out.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
Well, yeah, yeah, it's interesting. So nine years go by,
ten years go by, No, I'm sorry, that was ninety
two Ben Sila Show, ninety two, ninety three Cancel wins Emmy, Yes,
seventeen years go by, And I'm on the phone with
John Hodgman and he was saying, and we're just talking

(16:46):
and he's saying, I'm doing this thing on the internet
where I'm trying to find because there's a picture of
Mariy Seven's from Planet of the Apes on set reading
Mark Twain's biography and I'm trying to get somebody to
do doctor as doing Mark Twain, and then went, oh
my god, that's so funny. I wrote that as a
sketch like fifteen years ago, and he said, do you

(17:09):
want to do it a sketch faest?

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (17:11):
Man, oh that's where you did.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
My first thought was, no, that sounds like a lot
of work, right, But I'm really good friends with a
lot of makeup people just by being in that world,
by being a super nerd. And I called up my
friend Greg Nicotaro, who's one of the exec producers of
The Walking Dead. He's the n in KNB Effects, the
Effects company, one of my best friends. This is literally

(17:37):
the conversation, Hey, Greg, it's Dana. Is there somebody over
there that can do a Doctor Zaya's makeup on me?
It'll be in San Francisco, but we'll put him up
and get him up there. Yeah, hang on, yeah, and
he'll do it.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
That was it.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
That was the conversation.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
Wow, these are good people to know.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
Yeah, So I did it, And it's on YouTube. If
you do Doctor Za's Mark Twain, you can find it
on YouTube. I'd see that and then and then somebody
saw that and they called me and said, would you
like to come to TCM because we're doing Planet of
the Apes as a Fathom event and Pat Mankwitz wants
to interview doctor Zais before the movie and that will

(18:16):
show that at Christmas.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yeah, So Andy and I flew to Atlanta and that's
where the character started to come about that he's didn't
Planet of the Apes. He's done a lot of stuff.
He's done all these that's one movie.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
He's a real guy.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
Yeah he's and then uh, and then so we did
and that was really funny, and it was just like
we all have that love of show business and like
when Orson Wells would go on merv Griffin and their
friends are famous and it's just like you know, and
and and that stuff. You don't have to write it,
it just comes out. You know, I'll tell you a

(18:54):
hell on Earth being an Escrow with Alan Alda.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
That's hellen.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
How many times can you how many times can you
inspect a chimney take a guess? You know, just that
kind of weird Might Douglas stuff. And then during the pandemic,
my friend Rob Cohen, who you all know, yes, said
you know, we were bored, and we're like, let's do
it as a talk show and we can do it
like Space Ghost where they're on monitors so there's no

(19:21):
COVID threat, right, And we did and it was great.
And then the third season we get to have real
guests and now I do live shows all the time.
It's just like it's a weird side hustle. But when
we first started to do the show, they we said, like,
it's between two ferns, but I'm an oranguttack yep. But

(19:41):
then people immediately started doing the weird passive aggressive between
two ferns kinds of stuff, which I cannot do. I'm
not good at it. I'm not a good roast comic.
I don't have that. I like people, you know, I'd
rather be nice. And so I was like, stop, this
isn't working. And Janet Varney was the guest, so fortunately

(20:05):
it was somebody that was so fast on their feet
and Rob said no, no, he's Sammy and that was it,
and that was the final thing. It was like, yes,
your your every guest is my favorite guest. Yeah, it's
just that you're you know, it's like and that whole like, well,
I'm going to London when you go, would you tell

(20:26):
them this belongs there? Would you tell them that my
heart belongs there? That hole? And that was it? That
was and now it's it's it's just so fun to do.
It's just a stupid.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
And how long does it take to get into make.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
When I do the makeup, it's two hours and it
takes about an hour to get off actually, because the
only thing that's different about the makeup that I wear
from the movie is the glue. The glue is better now.
They used to use spirit gum.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
I remember that, right.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
There's a very famous movie with a very famous actor
that's still alive who drank so much they sweat alcohol
and it dissolved the spirit gum and their appliance has
started falling off. So they had to develop a new
kind of adhesive that was alcohol resistant. It's this stuff
called Telesis and it's basically surgical glue, surgical adhesive, and

(21:25):
you have to paint it off with Tellus's remover. You
have to buy them together. Wow, but you when it's on,
you can't pull it off my face.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
And there's fake teeth in the front, right, fake.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
Teeth in the front. Yet they were a little thing
either paint my teeth out or I have a little
thing I put over my teeth.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
I'm going to guess your budgets for these are less
than the Tim Burton Planet Apes movies, and they are
considerably more entertaining.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Well, the makeup was not the problem in that movie.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
But don't you miss movies where it was practical, not
talking just about play every games. It was so much
more fun because.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
You're seeing to make and you're talking and you're yeah,
And I will say I like those new movies. I think, yes,
are great, but not We're of a generation where I
can tell if it's fake, even great fake, I know
it's fake. And like they're making another Gremlins or a
remake of Gremlins and it's all practical.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
Oh really, yeah, Beetlejuice.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
Beetle Juice was mostly practical, and I can tell. And
especially with comedy, because you can only have so many
breaks from reality. Comedy itself is a break from reality.
If you're doing a sci fi comedy, you really have
to know what the rules are and because if it
looks fake, then comedy doesn't work because We're not in

(22:50):
reality anyway, so that's not gonna work. Uh so, and
I know that because I had a horror comedy show
in it.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
And in Jurassic Park originally they built practical dinosaurs. Yes,
and that was thrilling to see because they were right.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
And even though some were cg you're you had a
practical dinosaur in the movie, so you could see it
and feel it. Yeah, you get And it's just because
you can do anything doesn't mean you should.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
Well, the magic is gone, so it used to be
you go to the movies. How did they do that stuff?

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Right?

Speaker 1 (23:25):
That's thrilling that that guy did jumped off that burning
building into the how now we know how? Yeah, he's
not there. It's fake. It's a thing. Tom Cruise has
to do a nine month campaign saying I really drop
a motorcycle.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
Otherwise you and no one asked why?

Speaker 1 (23:45):
And he got insurance for that? How did that? That's
the question? Now, how did they get insurance?

Speaker 2 (23:49):
There should be an oscar for that, right, getting assurance?

Speaker 1 (23:53):
You saw that movie when you finally see it looks fake. Yes,
even though he's really doing it because the ground that
he's on, he couldn't possibly you know they built the
ramp the mountain on it. Yeah, so that takes you out.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, it's a do it or don't and yes and don't.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, please don't mean that guy.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
Being a Planet of the Apes fan, have you, by
any chance seen my favorite statue in la is we
do some we help? The Motion Picture Intelligence used.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
To be in my old backyard.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
What that the Roddy McDowell.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yeah, the sculpture that's at the Screen Actors Retirement, it's
the Motion Picture Intellivision.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
I lived in that house. Yeah, so another connection to planet.
We're thrilled beyond belief to get that house.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Sue and I were looking in houses and we walked
into that house and the guy said that used to
belong to an actor named Roddy McDowell, and I felt
Sue's eyes ratchet. Yeah, and it's also her dad's favorite
movie too, So it's just like, well, this is a
fader complete.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
That was a that was from the movie Battle from
the Planet of the Apes. It was in Roddy McDowell's
backyard again in Brian pennock Us took it, refurbished it,
and when Roddy passed, they put it at the Screen
Actor's Guild Retirement Home. They would do these benefits for
the screen Actor's Guild Retirement Home at Roddy's house.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
It's a Motion Picture Intelligient Fund. I'm just correct picture
Television for fund.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
Yes, and we continued that tradition and one night Roddy
mcdell's sister was there, who lived I believe in the fund,
and I said, you know, if you ever want to

(25:39):
come to the house and walk around or look at
the roses, because there's his famous rosebush that Elizabeth Taylor planted,
and she just went, well, I think that would be weird.
I'm not hitting on you, though.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
It is a great line. If you ever want.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
To elizabe the Taylor's rose bushes. Yeah, it was very strange.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
Did you loving the uh, you know, horror movies when
you got I don't know what year you came out here,
but did you make it a practice Because Phil often
talks about how he got to know. I know, I
know mel Brooks you got to write with and work with,
But did you were there certain legends you went out
of your way to get to know when you got here.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
No, there are people that I it was again Forrest
Ackerman that everybody knew that you had to go to
his house that I did. That was a big thing
for me. And uh, But what I find weirder now
is the people that I know that I'm friends with
that I can't believe your friend friends with. And I'm

(26:47):
talking about like now like Joe Dante and now Leonard Malton. Like,
I'm friends with Leonard Malton.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
Too, the greatest, He's the greatest guy in the world.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
But I'm friends with Leonard mal.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
You're it's like you're it's like your friends with with
Paramount Pictures, Yeah, or like the Memorial Rogers.

Speaker 3 (27:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
I have a hip hop feud with Leonard, very bitter.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
One of his one of his many hip hop fund act.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
That's a bad he's a badass.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
You got a Dana. You got to come to movie
night with him.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
He's Oh my god, that would be fantastic.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Have you ever been to Phil's movie night? No, that
seems insane.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
That's going to change.

Speaker 3 (27:28):
It's weird that we're doing this podcast because we should
say Phil and I don't speak.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
This is a this is our our Dean and Jerry Mode.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Well, by the it's a telephone. By the way, I
did notice you were on a Seinfeld, you were on
a King of Queen Everything, not a Raymond that I
know of.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
I might have been, No, I might have been writing
by that time.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
I think I just would have been ninety six to
two thousand and five.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
Oh yeah, no, I'm I I could have, but I didn't.
I did a lot of stuff like now eight, and
then I realized I had a face for writing.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
To when you're stopped, When you were stopped on the street,
what are the I imagine even though it's one Seinfeld,
there are a certain amount of people who will say,
what do people bring up to you besides just your
your hard ware?

Speaker 3 (28:18):
Well, now I'm very very I'm really thrilled now that
I get a lot doctor c which I love because
I created it out of whole cloth. And I've always
been so like, I love the kind of comedy that

(28:39):
I can't do right, you know, so I like Paul
Rubins and Peewee was to me, I.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
Know that was it.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
I was always just like to have a thing that
you created that's not you. And then at this very
late stage of my career, finally did it. Like even
though it's I'm not comparing, but still I love that
I was the voice of a video game in the
late nineties, and I think that more than anything else,

(29:08):
and then called.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Gex, yes, my kids, that's yeah, that's a big deal.
And I don't know what it.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
Means me neither. But my daughter was like, my oldest
daughter is a is a big gamer. And she literally
called me up and she's like, you were you were
a video game from college and like, yeah, why did
you never tell me?

Speaker 1 (29:29):
I was like, did that game make the transition to
the newer systems that are.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
On they're redoing it now.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
Do you get to be part of it?

Speaker 5 (29:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah, that's fantastic.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
Yeah, that's it's really fun. I just remember, uh and
I Rob Cohen and I wrote all this stuff.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
Either did either of you know Paul Simms at all?

Speaker 7 (29:49):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Sure, Paul.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
When Paul Simms, I was doing a book where Phil
is the star of called The Showrunners, where I followed
a bunch of showrunners through a season, and I followed
Paul Sims. And I remember the exact day that I
was at the news radio office and all the guys
in that writer's room said, Okay, we're gonna play video games.
And I went what And I literally just remembered thinking, no,

(30:12):
I don't want to play video games. And I left
and I were thinking, I never played a video game
in my life, and.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
Writers will do anything but avoid writing agains the thing.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
I don't play video games either, and I was like that,
I love it is why I love Mike Scully. I
like to go home. I like to go in and
work and know that I'm we got to get this
much done and then we're gonna go home and you'll

(30:43):
live a life, because if you don't have a life,
you get nothing to write about.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
You're now talking this is your shared religion.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
I think, yeah, but it's it's crazy how many people.
It was also just you know, when we're all in
our twenties and we're not married, we won't have kids,
and we're not tough. That'specana. But the kidnap, that's themacho thing.
We're five in the morning. Yeah, oh yeah, how dumb.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
I always hated it and nothing ever got fun there
at three in the morning. You just thought it did. No,
you're hopped up on Twizzlers and then no.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
And I I tell this story a lot. We were
at the Simpsons and Mike was like, guys, I'm sorry.
We have to get this done. We have to stay late.
We'll got a pizza. Call your family, call your wife
if you she's expecting you. It won't be that bad.
But we gotta stay late. Okay, I'm walk into a

(31:37):
volcano for Mike. I don't care. I call up, but
I'm gonna be late. We all come back to the room.
He goes, uh shit, I told my kids. I take
him to see Chicken Run. Just coming an hour early tomorrow.
We we came in at nine and we was done
by nine forty.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
You are at the mercy of whatever life that show
runner has at home. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:57):
If he doesn't a table, you shall remain.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yes, they do not want to go home. Yeah, so
they take it out on you. Yeah, terrible. I worked
for many of those. No, me too. We were home
by five or six every single night doing Raymond, because,
like you said, that's where the stories are coming from.
First of all, yeah, and second of all, if you
have a good system, you don't have to stay late.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
No, no, and you're and you're right at three in
the morning. At three in the morning, it's not funnier.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
No, there is a great in fact, it's just you're angrier.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
You're angrier. I don't know this guy's name. You you do.
He had a recipe box with cards in it. Oh yeah, okay,
it's a rewrite on a pilot or something with Levittan,
Steve Levittan, and it's very late and somebody pitches a
joke and Steve goes, ah, no, it's too jokey, it's

(32:51):
too sweaty. And this guy goes, it's two thirty. Put
it in.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
That's good.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
That's a great lie.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
I thought you were going to do the thing about
the the guy with the recipe box.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
Or no, But it was the same guy. Yes, it
was the same guy that said that.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
I thought that that's the only story I know, But
it's two thirty. Put it in is even better.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
The other story that I don't I don't know the
showrunner and I don't know the guy that did it,
but it's one of the wow work in the room,
guy gets called show runner, gets called out, comes back
in sorry with my wife. My daughter just had her period,
and one of the runners goes, thank god.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
That you know the writers were there's no better place
for laughs. That's the thing.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
Oh yeah, And that was the thing being an actor too,
when I went into a writer's room. I was like,
oh no, I'm definitely one of these guys. Yes, funnier,
it's where the fun is funnier. Yeah, I like to
here's ironic coming from me. Now I don't have to

(34:15):
wear makeup.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
And your squad was working for an hour ready for this.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Yes, it's the world's office.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
Now I have two giant trunks. It's so ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
But yeah, no, it's the costumes great too. The costume.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
Yeah, it was Andy's costume. But then I started to
I love that period of show business from like sixty
six to seventy four.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yeah, you know, everybody smokes.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
Everybody smokes a lot of the lure, a lot of ascots.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
We're drinking.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yeah, everybody's hammer.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
It's amazing.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
Life was match game. Life was just match game.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
Yeah yeah, and that's when they were There were obviously
gay people, but it was never said they just wore
ascots exactly.

Speaker 3 (35:05):
They were a gentlemen that were it was.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
It was fit like Charles Saws and Riley and yeah
it was Paul Lynde. I love these people. We as
a child. Do you just think they're funny characters? They're
great characters.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
Here are you ready? For some here's my favorite algorithm. Yes,
Paul Lynn is to Alice Ghostly. Oh my god, what
Charles Nelson Riley.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
Is too?

Speaker 3 (35:34):
Oh the girl from Laughing, not Ruth Buzzy, but.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
Not Goldie Horn, not Tomlin.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Oh I should have had it full. They both do this.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Very good, very good.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
It's good to know your punchline before you start the joke.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
No, but it doesn't matter. It's very good. I like.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
We all had to think and then yes, it makes
perfect sense.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
Here's the that you don't here's somebody them.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Maybe they were the same person. Well that's the thing that.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
Yeah, this is so name droppy. So we were like again, people,
I can't believe. I know Drew Friedman, the cartoonist. Yes,
he used to do all those pointillism coverage of The
New York Observer. He wrote a book called Any Relation
to Persons Living or Dead is Purely Coincidental. That defined
my sense of humor. Yes, I know him, Yes, and

(36:28):
he sent me. We're talking on the phone last night.
He sent me a lobby card of Bella Lugosi meets
a Brooklyn Gorilla, signed by Sammy Petrillo, who if you
don't know what this is Bella Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn
Gorilla is a Dean Martin Jerry Lewis movie that does
not star Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. It stars Sammy

(36:49):
Petrillo and Duke Mitchell doing Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
This is a movie night at the height of Dean
and Jerry's fame. A cover fan, yes, but put on
the trailer and look at it, and it would be
like if we found a guy that looked like Adam

(37:09):
Sandler Ted Mitchell, and we did an Adam Sandler movie
with this guy, but not Adam.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
But that's movies anyway, now, But imitations to see you've got.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
To see Sammy petroll be because you're like, no, that's
Jerry Lewis. No, it's not.

Speaker 1 (37:27):
And I Betty Sutler than Jerry, even though of Jerry.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
Can't it's nineteen fifty five or six or something. It's
like right at the peak.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
And meet Brooklyn Gorilla. Yeah, and what had happened feature
film full.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
What happened was and that's the world that I loved,
that weird milten Burroll discovered this kid, Sammy Petrello, that
looked just like Jerry Lewis, and he put him in
a sketch on the Texicos Theater playing Jerry's baby came
out of a stroller at the end of a sketch,
and then a low rent like Albert Zugsmith or whoever

(38:10):
it was, said like, let's make a Dean and Jerry
movie without Dean and Jerry and we'll just bury their
names in the credits. And people think it's Dean and Jerry.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
Great, And they got a guy named.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
Duke Mitchell who looks just like Dean.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
Oh my god, it's mind buckling, the nerve to do that.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
No, it's and literally Jerry Lewis was like, what this
and he offered to buy the negative and burn it.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
I mean, it was a huge I could see Jerry
Lewis getting really upset, like, I own, wow.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
Before I leave, we're gonna watch the trailer on a
phone or a computer. I want to watch you watch it.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
I can't wait, But you can't wait.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Can you talk about writing with the real mel Brooks,
not the knockoff mel Brooks?

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Because that was why I was thinking of. That was
what I was thinking of, ghostly, because I was very
lucky incredibly lucky. Mel wanted to write Spaceball's too. I
guess I can say this then, and he wanted to
write it with somebody. He wanted to write it with
an Irish guy because he wrote the first one with

(39:18):
his writing partner who was but he was ill at
the time.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
Yes, so he said too.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
He walked across the hall and went into Scottlandlarry's office
and said, who's funny? Into Star Wars? Because Mel does not.
Mel doesn't like science fiction fantasy. It's the only genre
he's paraded that he has no interest in. And that's
why there's a castle in it, because he got into
it like it's a fairy tale. And so they said, well,

(39:48):
our friend Dana Goul's pretty funny, and he knows he's
a science fiction guy. Because all right, let me get
some other names. Because he didn't know who it was,
so he called his Stuart Cornfeld, who used to run
Brooks Films, and he goes, who's funny, No Star Wars,
and sore it goes, my friend Danichol's pretty funny and
he knows science fiction. So he goes, all right, you're
off with two.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
So I went in.

Speaker 3 (40:08):
I didn't. I never got hired. I just didn't get fired.
They said, come in for a couple of days. If
you guys get along. You know, it's an acquired you know,
you gotta you get a fit with a guy. Yeah,
and it worked, and we wrote a really funny shrip.
It's not the one that's in production now, but we
did write a really funny script.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
And I didn't know there was one in production.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Yeah, Josh gadd is doing it.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Oh yeah, great, he's great.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
Yeah, hopefully.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
I heard you on another show talk about how he
got angry, which I've never seen and yelled at me,
yelled at you, but not Yes.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
He was yelling at his son.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
He yelled to you.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yeah we should not.

Speaker 3 (40:47):
So Mel has a Mel has a family before he married,
and he has three kids in New York, and you
know he's mel is arguing with his son who's sixty three.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
This boy, my boy, those difficult years with the kids
when they're sitting.

Speaker 3 (41:08):
Would you ever call you off? I'm like, oh, this
is what it's like to get yelled at by mel Brooks.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
Yeah, when you were When I heard the same podcast
that you did, and it was so exciting for me
because you were talking about being on the mail end
of it when he would then go off to be
with Carl for dinner. Yeah, through Phil, Like you must
have had this for years. But towards the end we
had thirty lunches with Carl and we were the opening
act because then and then Mel went over and it's

(41:36):
like one.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
Of the Chicken from Versailles nine times.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
No, it was always the deli. It was always well,
they also did.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
Carl had a kind of a nanny who would cook
for both of them too, and they would sit and
watch movies.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
Yeah. In fact, I got into a show that they
got into, Babylon Berlin. It was like you got to
watch Babylon Berlin. Yes, and there's like Carl doesn't pay
attention to them, always scrow with them. I'll go, who's it?
And a lie, Oh that's what they just found out
sheesus sister.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yes, but they'd warm up with Jeopardy. First. They watched
Jeopardy and then I said, and what kind of movies
do you watch? And they would say, we like movies
that have the phrase secure the perimeter in the Yeah, by.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
The way, as do I I never watch commedies.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Just great, But you know, Carl passed away. During one
of those evenings, he went up to go to the
restroom and didn't come back. And Histmel is the one
who discovered his best friend.

Speaker 3 (42:32):
I did not know that.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
Yeah, yeah, wow, thank yous to Phil. I got to
really get to know Carl and I think of him
every day because he his best wisdom. The last thing
I think he ever said to me was, David, here's
my best advice. Always pee before you go. And every
time now I'm anywhere I ever.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Get in a car right now, especially especially your rage.

Speaker 3 (42:56):
Now I'm trying to what was the other? Okay, so
this is a really fun Mel story. Mel Mel thought
doctors he was funny, and he went and doctors he
was going to be in this version of this and
I said, I have uh, he still can be. Why not?

Speaker 1 (43:17):
He knows we're putting it out there. I heard this
ring put doctor Z in space Port.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
There's a canteen. They're in a nightclub, and I say
to Mel, what if Doctor C's on stage with a
ventriloquis dummy but it's in like the loin cloth like
Charlton Heston and I how are you doing today, Ricky?
And the dummy doesn't answer and I go, what's what's
going on, Ricky? And he doesn't answer, and then I go,
what's up? And then the dummy turns its head and
then has a brain surgery.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
And that's what I said.

Speaker 3 (43:46):
I go, Lemmy turns his head and has a brain
surgery scar and Mel goes, no, no, no, he knows.
And then he got up and he walked over to
the wall. It was just a wall, posters on it,
and he goes.

Speaker 8 (44:05):
This is the Library of comedy. Show me the book
where inside it says punchline brain surgery.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
And we ended up with a different I love that story.
Oh my god. That's the difference between young and old
right there.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
But was great was that I felt eight miles tall
because he felt comfortable enough to do that. Yeah, And
like like if he thought I was a loser, you
just go.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
You're also getting wisdom from the.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
Guy, yeah, yeah, And he gave me. He he gave
me some great, great advice about you know, and it
was just you know, here's not to get like heavy
when you're in he when you're that age ninety three
four at the time.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
A young man of ninety four. Yeah, now he's ninety eight.

Speaker 3 (45:02):
Yeah, my dad's ninety four. Yeah, and no doubt drunk
as we speak, still going, You're still going. You can't
get close enough with the steak of a mallet to
take this guy down.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Does he like your wife, the whiskey girl.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
Oh yeah, no, he had doors.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
Cat Yeah, this neighborhood. They're very fond.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
But he was just like my father was like cat taste.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
This, tell me what that is.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
She was.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
That's triple sack. But when you're a male's Adrian, you're
my dad's agent. Somebody you know goes every day.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
I know it's terrible, and that's just a.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
Part of the day. New York Times needs a quote
for Neil Simon. New York Times needs a quote for
so and so. New York Times needs a quote for
so and so.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
I had that with Jack Nicholson. I was interviewing him
about the movie he did with Morgan Freeman, about Bucket Lift,
and he told me about a friend of his who
that day. I said, oh my god, I'm so sorry
going to the funeral. He goes, David If. I went
to funerals of everyone I loved. I do that every day,
And I remember thinking, wow, it was sort of that

(46:10):
he was hitting that.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
Yeah, this is the reward for living a long life
as you get to see everyone you know and love
die before you.

Speaker 3 (46:18):
But I'm wondering if that takes the spooky off it.
And it's like, well, I don't know what it is,
but everyone I know is there.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
So right, it's true. You know it's true because.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
Woody Allen was always like, is this it? We just
we're booing to me dying.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
It's over?

Speaker 3 (46:38):
Yeah, get do were you.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
Was into Woody as I was, and he was he was.

Speaker 3 (46:45):
Really we're about the same age. Probably he was really
important because I'm I have four older brothers. They're all
a foot taller than I am. They're all my mother.
Mother's party was just out of testosterone, and you know,

(47:07):
I got beat up my whole life, you know, And
it was just like, yeah, that's like when he was here,
When Mell yells at me, I'm like, well that's it,
that's a that's a best Get.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
You yell at me?

Speaker 1 (47:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:21):
Yeah, because he was he didn't get into fights. He
wasn't a tough guy. He would get out of fights.
I didn't know it at the time. He was just
doing Bob Hope, but that was important to have somebody
that you admired. That was like, yeah, no, he's he's
doesn't like getting punched.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Either, and uh, hero for the rest of us.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
Yeah, and and then yeah exactly, and but then that
you know, you get older and because like is this it? Yeah,
this is it and it's funny. Drew and I were
talking last night about that scene in Manhattan was like
those piers by Sezon.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
It's like, oh, stop right, he is the most.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
So the most pretentious thing. And also his character has
a kid and he's lying on his couch. He has
a son with Meryl Streep in that movie, and he's
lying on his couch right, dictating into a tape recorder
the things that make life worth living. It's like potato
Head Blues. By the way he forgets his son. Wow,

(48:23):
she doesn't mention his kid.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
Oh my god, what a great point.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
And that's the only problematic thing about everything else in
that movie is you.

Speaker 3 (48:31):
Can do it today. Another weird thing like that. Again,
like we think of the late seventies and early eighties.
I was like, well I was younger, but it was
so you see these things and you go, what what
like Manhattan or yeah, the one that always boggles my
mind is the end of Close Encounters.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
Yeah, we're Richard Dreyfus, says Compider's family.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
Who has two kids in the woods.

Speaker 7 (48:57):
Later, I know, later this is more important. Spaceship with
you could be devoured in the right I could.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
It's so good. But Spielberg fixed it by showing us
the inside of the space.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
Which he too has credit. He regrets both of those,
yes he does. He regrets him leaving and he regrets
doing showing the inside.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
Yeah, but what kind of puts the eye abought every
version me too, the same one.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
Yeah, yeah, no, I know, but it is it's like, wait, wait.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
The original was perfect. I thought it was perfect.

Speaker 3 (49:39):
But there are all these things that I really love
them that have these classic things that you don't think about.
I mean the great and and yeah, these these these
things like Raiders of the Lost Arc. Yeah, Indiana Jones
is utterly irrelevant to the plot of that movie when
you look at screenwriting rules of the proactive protagonist. Yeah,

(50:03):
his mission is to prevent the Nazis from getting the arc.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
Okay, he fails.

Speaker 3 (50:09):
The Nazis open the arc, and the arc defends itself.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
He doesn't matter, he doesn't do goddamn thing. But it
was fun.

Speaker 5 (50:18):
But it was fun.

Speaker 1 (50:19):
Yeah, it was fun, but it was we didn't care.
Sometimes you shouldn't look too closely.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
That's quel Yes, that's exactly word for word what Frank
Darabah said.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
Really.

Speaker 3 (50:30):
Yeah. I was filming something with him and I told
him that. He was like, you can't look you can't
look too deep, you.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Can't go to those Well, if the movie's done a
great job, you don't think of that, Yeah, only enough
like you would.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
Yeah, well you go back and what's all those things
like whenever, But you think about it when you get notes.
Of course, it's like, well, how do I know he
loves his kids? I don't know where's the coast guarden?

Speaker 1 (50:49):
Jaws? We just got please.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
That's true too. That's like I lived on Cape God
for three years that I've never seen an empty horizon
of my stopping.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
They have to you know.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
My theory about Jaws that that it works on so
many levels and on one very specific level. That movie
is about two Jews on a boat with a gentile.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
That is that movie.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
It's a comedy. It starts oddly, but it gets two
Jews on a boat with a gentle. Oh, my god,
this guy's gonna kill us. All we don't belong here
is the water? Right? Did you see the play they did?

Speaker 2 (51:42):
No?

Speaker 3 (51:42):
I wish I did did.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
It was really good.

Speaker 3 (51:45):
My friend Greg, Greg Nikotaro is a giant Jaws fan.

Speaker 5 (51:48):
Me too.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
My favorite movie he has in his house. I'll take
ap to Greg's house. What he has Ben Gardner's Head.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
Wow, one of the one of the great movie scares
of the all time.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
Shot down a fields pool. I'm sure you know all
this that.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
Does not exist. That that feeling of being in that
theater now and having the audience as one leap out,
yeap and scream yep, it doesn't exist. Yeah, that was
That was what the greatest movie going experience of my life.
I can't think of a better one than that.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
But I still like, I saw a great movie the
other night and I walked in at the theater.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
Yeah, and I walked out.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
I was like, that was great. Yeah, I didn't. It
was a Steven Soderbergh's presence. And it's a ghost story. Yeah,
told everything is the ghosts pov.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
Oh. I saw the preview for this the other day.
It's out or you saw screen out?

Speaker 3 (52:48):
No, it's out. And not only it's well acted, it's
well written. It's well structured that you never notice that
it's all this POV like. It doesn't it's not a gimmick. Yeah,
it works. And at the end there's a twist that
you go, oh, not in a million years did I
figure that out? It was, it's and it just made
me feel great, Ah, this is this is what it's

(53:09):
all about.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
Yes, yeah, it was great. I love that when that happens.
There's a gorgeous movie. I want to tell not just you,
but everyone all we imagine as light is light.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
Have you heard of this?

Speaker 1 (53:21):
Yeah, so it's from India. It's the most beautiful movie
of the year. It wasn't even submitted for some political reasons.
I don't know what it is. But that's that. That
and Anora are my favorites.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
Of the year.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
You know, I haven't seen Anora yet. I have the
I have the disc.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
It's very quatch it.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
Yeah, no, it's I still and I love going to
the theater.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
I used to.

Speaker 3 (53:44):
There was a place that I used to take my
kids every weekend in the summer, the mission Tiki Drive In.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
I went during the pandemic for the first time to
see Oh Christopher Nolan's movie that came out during the pandemic.
Oh yeah, yeah ten. My sons were desperate, and it
was such a flashback to childhood because back East. Yeah, sure,
those drive ins were these creepy, strange places I loved
going to.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
Didn get to sound better, well, yeah, in my car
radio now a car radio now. But I kind of
like the romance of that.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
Yeah, and then you drive away and pull it out.
Here's a question I didn't think i'd be asking you,
did either of you See Hubie Halloween, I'm Sandler film.
In that movie, they go to the drive in, and
it's the drive in that I worked at in high
school in Massachusetts. So I loved I worked at one
in high school. I loved them, and we used to
go every weekend during the summer. And then it closed

(54:39):
and they sold the land. But now there's another place
I go, the Guardina Cinema. And Guardina it's independent, hasn't
been touched since nineteen eighty Paneling and you know, it's
it's just.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
It's and you're still there now and it's an independent
movie theater.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
And I know them, and they say, like, do you
want to serve you want to show a movie, And
I say yeah, Because if there's a movie I want
to see in the big screen, I just say, let's
get this. So this this Friday and and this is
coming out February seventh, I am hosting a screening of
the Omega Man, Oh Boy and Vincent Price and the

(55:19):
Last man't o my God? And you get to see
him on the big screen.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
That's great?

Speaker 2 (55:22):
Am I right?

Speaker 1 (55:23):
That? Uh?

Speaker 2 (55:24):
My hero? My first hero in terms of like TV
film writing, Rod Serling was absolutely absolutely massive to me
and I I went to Cornell and like went to
his archives at ford Ithaca. Uh have you done deep
dives into him? If you run his daughter?

Speaker 1 (55:40):
I know?

Speaker 3 (55:41):
Yeah, No, I have. I have a couple of I
have more than one painting of Rod in my home.
You're gonna have to come to the home.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
Were you as a bigger fan? I think he was
a genius.

Speaker 3 (55:49):
The episode it's absolutely genius.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
So someday we would like to invite you back with
Anne SURLINGH have like a tribu.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
Here's I mean when you said it's a cookbook?

Speaker 3 (55:59):
Yeah, yeah, it's funny. Chris Matheson, who's was Ed Solomon's
old writing partner, they wrote the Bill and Ted movies together.
His father was Richard Matheson, who was at.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
My favorite episodes of Twilight Zonner and wrote.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
Duel and wrote a billion things. I am legend, but
it's just so funny you talk about people that grew
up here. And he said to me once, oh, my
mother used to hate it when Rod Serling would come
over for dinner because the drapes would smell like cigarettes.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
For ah, that's funny, But it's a cookbook. Works as
a punchline for a comedy, it works as a punchline
for a horror movie. It's the greatest last line of anything.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
I was just in Japan taking bullet trains, and for
some reason I disturbed my wife by always going will
it be next up?

Speaker 3 (56:47):
Will it?

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Really?

Speaker 2 (56:48):
She has no idea.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
And then you drive through hollyw when you go, oh,
I bet they got it from there. It's like you
see street side because down on the one oh five
by the airport, there's aage in DeSoto which was the
fireman and emergency right, And I'm sure Jack Webb was
like that was a good name.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
Well that Scotch.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
I look what Matt Greening did. Yeah, all the all
The names are streets in Portland where he grew up
of the Simpsons.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
I grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey, and there was
a when I was a kid, there was a black
cop show very briefly called Tenafly, trying to sound like
super Flying, right, and I think there was no one.
It was the whitest town in the world. You knew,
some showrunner, some creator, driving.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
Uh full circle. Rod Serling wrote the script for Planet
of the Apes.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
He wrote the original Yeah, why didn't I know that?

Speaker 3 (57:42):
And then it was uh wait, and it was He
wrote the novel by Pierre Bull. Rod Serling wrote the
first two drafts, and those two drafts were like the
book took place in a modern city, and then they
Michael Wilson, who was a blacklisted writer, did the other
we write is his credit on the film. Yeah, that's

(58:04):
written by Rod Serling and Michael Wilson.

Speaker 6 (58:05):
Huh.

Speaker 3 (58:06):
I adapted rod Serling's draft as a graphic novel called
Plenty of the ex Visionaries, and it's the movie as
Rod wrote it. It's interesting in that the version that
Rod wrote is very much a political thriller. It's really
Seven Days in May, which he also wrote yes, with
those characters. But I didn't realize. So I have his

(58:27):
drafts and they're big. They're like one hundred and forty
page drafts like these are clearly these are like, we're
gonna have to cut this, but this is what we have.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
What I didn't realize was when you write a graphic novel,
you have seven to nine panels a page, one action
per panel. So I had to wake up every day,
sit down and cut Rod Sarling. Oh no, no, the
worst feeling, angry, smoking ghost and a botany five hundred suit.

(58:56):
Why cutting out? That's great, that's the whole scene.

Speaker 5 (58:58):
What do you do?

Speaker 2 (59:00):
We could so use Rod Serling to do an episode
about like whatever metaphor he would find for what's going on.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
I don't know, ye right now he did he did it.
He did that. I'm sure there are episodes that we
could point to him go this is now right now?

Speaker 3 (59:12):
Yeah, it's yeah, the Peter Falk, Yeah, it's that. I
don't know where to go with that.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
I don't know what to do.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
You mentioned Woody Allen. I only want to ask. I
was thinking about this comedy albums, Woody Allen's comedy albums.
There was a collection that came up, the Stele up
here ye, the single best mind blowing in my life.
What were the comedy records? I don't know from you.
What were the comedy as that changed your life?

Speaker 1 (59:36):
Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Well, my heroes, But.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
But those are I just talking about this with Drew.
Those are seminal album. Bad choice of words and I
genuinely did not mean to do that, but those, yeah,
you can't take that away. Why is there air no that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
To Rustle, my brother, whom I said, yeah, that's.

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
Part of the parthenon of this art force. And also
I'm sorry they didn't do anything. Errol Flynn didn't do
They didn't do anything. Chuck Berry didn't do Charlie Cha, yeah,
Charlie chaff all these guys.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
It's don't remember you said, don't look, don't look too close?

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Well, speaking of stand up, do we just you're even
if you don't want to. We want to promote your
new special Secure, which I want to film not that
far from here, right Dynasty Typewriter And it was great.
I paid jewel. I paid my ten dollars last night
and loved it. Talk about it a little.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
It's the Jewel the Dynasty Typewriter, the old Hayworth Theater.
It's the jewel in the crown of.

Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
The mid Wilshire. We could walk there.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
It's where the I think I said, it's where the
mid Wilshire comes out to play. No, it's uh, you
know it it's uh when you're you know, for a comedian,
it's really out there working comedians approaching And this is
really George Carlin. I think did this. You know, you

(01:01:24):
create an hour and then you film it and release
it as an album, and then you work on your
next hour, right, And it's like a writer writes novels,
you know, and this was like so it was really
important to me, Like I did another special and now
I'm working on my new stuff. And even though I
have other careers, I still do that because I I'm

(01:01:47):
good at it and I love doing it. Thank you.
And it's yeah, it's called Perfectly Normal, and it's a
it's available on uh you know, it's right now. It's
on this platform called eight hundred Pound Gorilla.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
Which I am now a member of.

Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
Yeah, that's the label. And then it goes to YouTube
in February, I mean it would have been.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
I think February thirteenth, so it should be yeah, and
then the.

Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
Album on the fourteenth, and you know, great, and now
you're already on the next Well, yeah, so I'll tell
you a story if you get a minute.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
A minute.

Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
So I finished this special and then I'm like, I
have no material. I have zero. My set list is
not nothing because I just burned all that. Well, I burned,
but it's on the shelf now. And then then you
do that panic like hands, hands are funny? What's funny

(01:02:40):
about hands? And then I'm like, no, live my life.
Things are going to happen. I'll write about them.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
Two days later my mother dies. Oh, like, I don't
need material, bad bad. What if my car got towed?
There's this comedy what if I got a bird?

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Exactly? You didn't want a whole hour, but I think, god, God,
rest is sold.

Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
I had twenty minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
I gotta chunk about so it shouldn't be a total love.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
I got a chunk about my mother and the Yeah,
the inept planning of my mother's passing. It paid for itself.

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
Yeah, but you're talking about comedy albums. I was like,
to me, there was like George Carlin and then there
was other people that did comedy, and my mom took
me to see him when I was sixteen.

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
Yeah, that's about when I saw him too.

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
Yeah yeah, and look at a Dinner Theater issue.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
Yeah, Chateau, the Chateau Deville and Yadick, Massachusetts.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
Yeah, he was you know, if you're eleven or twelve
years old and that album comes out, uh the seven
words you can't say on television, Yeah, like this is
my New God.

Speaker 3 (01:03:55):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. And he had a weird career,
I mean a weird career because he was like three careers.
You know, he was a straight comic and then he
became this counterculture icon and those three albums Hair Grow,
Yeah FM and Am classicalmon Occupation Fool were like the
comedian as a rock star. Then he kind of coasted.

(01:04:17):
He'll be the he would have been the first person
to tell you kind of coasted. And then Sam Kinnison
in the early nineties scared him because he realized that
Sam was doing was shopping on his street sort of,
and he loves Sam. He didn't, you know, he was
just like but he realized shook him out of his torpor,
and then he had this whole burst of insane creativity

(01:04:41):
with jamming in New York and back in town and
all these just those of the specials that people still
point to. That YouTube and TikTok is full of all
of those quotes predicting what we're living through now.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
The angry old man, but all of the stuff about it's.

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
A club and you ain't in and all of where
we are now. He had it in nineteen ninety one.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
He sure did.

Speaker 3 (01:05:06):
This is coming.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
Were there any of the older comedians from the generation
before who reached out to you, who were supportive of
you or not or horrible to me?

Speaker 3 (01:05:14):
I mean, I know no one was ever horrible to me. No.
I mean I did this second to last Bob Hope
special that was kind of fun.

Speaker 1 (01:05:23):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:05:24):
Did a commercial with Bob Wow?

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
Just yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
I actually do at Brookshields.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
I do a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
I do a long bit about it on my special.
I know it's wrong where I'm doing a commercial with
Bob and I have to put my arm around him,
and as I said, it was like his arm felt
like a sweater full of light bulbs and he's utterly
unaware that I'm next to him.

Speaker 1 (01:05:47):
Oh man, And my.

Speaker 3 (01:05:48):
Line is join me and my new best friend. This
Thursday on his comedy special in NBC, Bob terms of me,
and he's supposed to go, hey, I love this kid.
Didn't she use to be my caddie?

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
Oh god?

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
And he turns to me and he goes, hey, I
let you kid jays. It's utterly intelligible, and this is
you can see this already special. I can't wait. And
the guy goes, we're gonna go again, and my arms

(01:06:23):
around him the whole time and I let my arm down.

Speaker 5 (01:06:27):
Why?

Speaker 3 (01:06:29):
And the director can't say he messed up his line,
so he goes, peanuts, what you're eating? Peanuts? Had some
peanuts on your chin? And hang on because he was
eating peanuts, but he didn't. Then a makeup woman comes
and pretends to white peanuts up his chin so they
can get another get then get another take out. The

(01:06:49):
kid didn't you?

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
Oh my god? Yeah, you know this is what's coming
for us coming? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:07:01):
No, I know, but you know. Carson quit because he
didn't want to be Bob Hope specifically.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
Yes, he also hated that they did him on SNL. Yes,
he said, when that starts happening, you're gone.

Speaker 3 (01:07:16):
Yeah yeah, yeah, Who was the who was the guy
that really like God, gotta be that guy.

Speaker 5 (01:07:27):
For me.

Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
Yeah, oh, everyone, we've been talking about Woody, Neil Simon,
mel Brooks, all the heroes.

Speaker 3 (01:07:35):
The one I'm leaving out was Albert Brooks, the best
sensational when I you know it all Madame. A couple
of times he's great, but like when I and the and.

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
The Greatest maybe my favorite comedy album of all time,
Comedy Manters one right, yes, yes, no, and where he
talks about the opening act like Richie Havens. We're supposed
to have Danny Hutton from Three Dog Night on soon.
We have a mutual friend, yes in Kentucky. Yes, he's
still a pairing in Kentucky.

Speaker 1 (01:08:10):
Exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:08:10):
They play the whole stage.

Speaker 1 (01:08:12):
Oh okay, oh no, not today.

Speaker 3 (01:08:15):
If you watch me on stage, it's Albert Brooks in
terms of the intensity and the contained manic energy. My
wife calls me falcon because what I perform I look
like a falcon when it runs. Uh great, that's uh,
it's all. It's all Albert Brooks.

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
He it's all well, you know he came out of
the hilarious Yes, yes, well yeah, there's that.

Speaker 3 (01:08:41):
There's that. I'm sure you know, I'm telling you nothing
you don't know. Johnny Carson is interviewing Carl Reiner says,
who's the funniest person you know? And he says, my
son's friend at thirteen.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
He would go over there and crack up. Yeah, Carl,
Mel all this other friends.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
It happened in this house. My wife said she'd never
seen me happier than when Albert Brooks came over to
say hi. I would have been. I was too shy
to say how to him, and he thought he knew me,
which he did not, And I got to meet him.
I've never to me.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
He is movie we showed, we showed Defending Your Life.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
Oh, and he came over to do the commentary.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
Which, if you go back, he out acts Meryl Street
in that movie.

Speaker 3 (01:09:24):
We just I just watched that. I watched that not
too long ago.

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
Yeah, it's it's great, it's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (01:09:30):
Yeah, it's funny because people always think of the first three.

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
Yes, I.

Speaker 3 (01:09:38):
Just i'd missed this, but he did a thing at
sketch fast like A Q and A.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
I missed it too.

Speaker 3 (01:09:42):
Yeah, and at the end of it did it. He goes,
I don't want to short clip package. I just I'm
going to be selfish, and I want to watch the
scene with Gary Marshall from Lost in America Best and
he goes, I just want to watch an audience watch it, and.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
And it is.

Speaker 3 (01:09:58):
It's just like and and I would always we both
knew everything and have his albums memorized. And if I
haven't seen her in a year, I walked I hadn't
seen her in a year, and we I've known her forever.

(01:10:20):
We're very close. I walk into a room, I see
her at the back of the room, and I go,
Turkey dinner now.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
And she turns around Turkey dinner, and she knows immediately
what I'm like, I'm a star has bought. I thought
you were gonna say, Turkey dinner is.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
A weird clip from A Star has Bought. Near time
you come to town, you're gonna come to the house.
I will dinner now, Okay, dinner.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
He does both sides of the company, and they're barely different.
But it doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 (01:10:51):
It doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
He's so funny.

Speaker 3 (01:10:54):
Yeah. Oh, it's just like and there's something about.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
Oh, I bet I have one that you don't that
you haven't heard. His brother Bob Bob Uh dies yes
and he did you hear this? He got up to
make the euloge. Oh my god, and he gets up
and he's because I'm just devastated. I don't even know
what to say. I don't I just I don't know

(01:11:18):
what to say. I thought it was Cliff who died.

Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
Is something?

Speaker 1 (01:11:24):
Brother? Oh? Pretty great?

Speaker 2 (01:11:30):
No, but you're a student of comedy. Did you ever
hear Parker Karcass his father? I've never actually heard anything.

Speaker 3 (01:11:37):
I have heard like clips of stuff, But to be
a performer whose father was a performer who died on stage.
And here's the weird story about that that I only
read this recently. His father died on stage at a
Friars Club show.

Speaker 1 (01:11:55):
Right, okay, he finished, he killed apparently killed, sat down,
died die.

Speaker 3 (01:12:01):
It's a Friars Club show in Beverly Hills. People think
it's a joke that he saw. Of course, then they
realize it's not. Milton Burle says, is there a doctor
in the house? Thirty eight hands go up because.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
It's a Friars Club show Hill amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
So they get him backstage. They literally stripped the bulbs
of a lamp to shot like cut his heart open.
They shocked his heart next it And this is like
whenever it was the sixties or whatever, you know, they
like they were literally like shocked his heart with a
lamp to try to get it till a yeah, but
you can't imagine that camp. In the meantime, Milder goes,

(01:12:37):
we got to keep doing the show.

Speaker 1 (01:12:39):
Who's who is next?

Speaker 3 (01:12:41):
So and so is going to sing a song? Do
it the song without you? There's no tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:12:47):
Amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
I know, it's just like do you know any other song?

Speaker 1 (01:12:53):
There is a clip of Milton saying, get up sing
something that. Yeah, yeah, I forget to get the sing He.

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
And Richard Matheson wrote a book about Milton Burrell. I
am legend.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
Dick Seawan died on stage and his last words were,
do you know what that is?

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
You know what that?

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
Uh? He was going into route Let's pretend that everyone
is dead and I'm the last person alive and he
drops it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:25):
There's a book by Burke Hearns and Jeff Abramson. I
believe it's called The Show Won't Go On, which is
just every performer that died on stage.

Speaker 1 (01:13:34):
Yeah, it's a great Uh, Grandma, I'm gonna get you
that book. Who was Irene. Uh what was her name,
Grandma Great, she's doing Pippin. I think, oh, it's time
to start living. And they turn her around in the
chair and by the time she turns back to the
to the audience dead.

Speaker 3 (01:13:55):
Irene. Yeah, good night, Irene. I was actually looking at
this thing for a doctor's thing. You google him age
Irene Ryan, which we've all done when but there are
photos of her when she's younger. She was gorgeous.

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
Really, yes, av I will look yeah, but it's really weird.

Speaker 2 (01:14:15):
It's like, yeah, I look at her granddaughter on the show.

Speaker 3 (01:14:19):
She was you know, my manager from years ago. David
Campbell was a stage manager in Broadway for years and
he almost slept with Diana Rigg anyway, and he was like,
not for what she looked like that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:38):
Hysterical, but yeah, you have to for the thanks for
the memories.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
Yeah, just like I met I met Lauren McCall. I
had a write for her when she got her Honorary
Governor's Award. She was still sexy, she was sure, but
it was like crazy, like she's still it was still
Laura of a Call and funny as hell.

Speaker 3 (01:15:00):
Yeah, I took I was very very close with a
woman who named Myla Nurmi, who was famous as Vampira
in the fifties, and she, uh, you could still see
it in her face, like, oh yeah, no, you were
like a stunner.

Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
You know who's like that. And Margaret sat next to
her at an Emmy's one year and I like, still.

Speaker 1 (01:15:24):
Sexy still Jane Fond, beautiful, Jane.

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
Fond, who yep, did the podcast here? Yes, absolutely, what
did Mila. I'm sure they all don't give a ship
what we think, but it is very much.

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
Oh, she would she would say, well, she would care
what you think.

Speaker 3 (01:15:36):
Mila dated Elvis, She dated Orson Wells. Oh she was
James Dean's best.

Speaker 2 (01:15:41):
What's her type?

Speaker 3 (01:15:42):
It's like well Orson Wells and you know around in
the in the.

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
Fifties and fifties.

Speaker 3 (01:15:49):
But she said, the first time Orson saw me in
flagrant delectai, I was sprawled on the bed and he
looked at me and said, nice carcass And I thought
only Orson could see me naked and think of a turkey.

Speaker 1 (01:16:07):
Hysterical. That's fantastic she was, That's fantastic.

Speaker 3 (01:16:11):
Yeah, she was a riot.

Speaker 1 (01:16:13):
You know his story. He went to Pinks and ate
seventeen hot dogs and went home and died. Oh is
that what it was? Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:16:25):
I thought it was just to get out of listening
to Peter Mugdonovich. I was this is where you beer
all day. I was leaving Edge Tommy John Surgery, and
I'm leaving the physical therapy place in Burbank. Yeah, And
I just walked by and the managers on the phone
and I just hear Peter Bogdanovich cannot just come in

(01:16:46):
here and use the treadmill. I love I love living here.

Speaker 1 (01:16:52):
I'm never moving like Yeah, I know, I love living
It is heaven for nerds like us.

Speaker 2 (01:16:57):
Yeah, I'm telling you now, I'm gonna have a whole
different feeling when I go to a motion picture in
television home the campus and I just always sit by
that statue.

Speaker 5 (01:17:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:17:05):
I think it was from Battle for the Planet of
the Ages.

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
Yeah, anything else cool in the house, Well that's.

Speaker 3 (01:17:12):
He had it in the house and it was gone
by the time.

Speaker 1 (01:17:15):
We moved there, already there.

Speaker 3 (01:17:18):
Yeah, but uh no, he had a lot of he taped.
He had all these videotapes that we had and it
was literally just like very meticulously labeled like evening shade.
Uh and then like Rebel without a Cause and it
was just like things he taped. Things he taped without
a Cause from from broadcast.

Speaker 1 (01:17:40):
And he was famous parties or something. No, just stuff
that he taped because people people talked. Well, there's legendary. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:17:47):
And when you go to the Max Factor Museum at
Hollywood and Vine, the powder room from the house has
been re is reconstructed in there because in the powder
room there were all of these photos of just people
partying at the house and you see like Harrison Ford

(01:18:09):
talking to Betty Davis in my kitchen, but it's not
my kitchen. Yes, And when he passed, Paul Rubins said,
you have to save the powder room, right, and they
literally took it out. I extracted it, you know, took
the tile and rebuilt it in the Max Factor Museum.
When we bought the house, I had to go there

(01:18:30):
to photograph it so we could match the tile when
we rebuilt it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:35):
Wow, and it's and it's all it's all there. That's
great that you got to live there, that's very cool. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:18:41):
Now they're they're still there. Yeah, he was. And we
have a little Roddy shrine there and I met rodd
he was great. I met Roddy, I met Heston. I
was very lucky. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:18:55):
I used to run into uh Heston at the liquor
store instead Udio City all the time. I remember when
I went to get like something from the Brists for
my first child, I ran right into Heston and I thought,
that's a good sign. I see God, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:19:10):
Exactly do it with my teeth. Well, I just shouldn't
say that. No, I apparently he used to go to
kit Craft all the time, and I did politically incorrect
with him. The first Bill Mars show was that like
it was great because you know, it's again, it's like
meeting the Lincoln Memorial.

Speaker 1 (01:19:31):
Hello, and then it's Moses.

Speaker 3 (01:19:35):
We was talking, we disagreed about something and I said
something and they got to laugh and they went right
to commercial and it looked like I shut him down,
where if you read it, it was just like, but
I gotta laugh and we'll be right back. He didn't
get to finish his point and he leans over to

(01:19:58):
me like that and I'm just no, please, don't believe.
And he looks over and he goes, so you're an actor.
Things are going well, obviously you're you're on this so
what do you do?

Speaker 2 (01:20:13):
And so lovely?

Speaker 3 (01:20:14):
Well, yeah, come back to the commercial. This hippie doesn't
know his next commercial. If you have a tough year,
you can always go on the Cobra program. I developed that,
and then after the show we talked. I told him
how much plenty of the apes meant to me. And
I said, my Christmas card that year was my face
over a gorilla from the movie dragging him on a leash.

(01:20:37):
And I said, this might be kind of dorky, but
would you mind signing this? And he signed it, and
then he started to walk away, and he stopped him
and came back and he grabbed my shoulders like that,
and he went, this might be dorky too, but I'd
be happy to send you a picture from the film
if you'd like. I went, I said, that would be

(01:20:57):
the greatest. He went, give me your address, And the
four days later show he did it.

Speaker 2 (01:21:03):
He did it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:04):
He was Minch old school Moses and it was.

Speaker 3 (01:21:08):
Back when people could disagree with you politically and it
doesn't mean you had to murder them.

Speaker 1 (01:21:13):
Uh, that's the best advice that we could get today. Yeah, Dana,
we love you. This flew by. Yeah, all right now,
We're now, We're reconnected. You're coming to movie night.

Speaker 3 (01:21:24):
I'm coming to movie night. You're gonna watch Let's put it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:28):
On right right now.

Speaker 5 (01:21:30):
Duke Mitchell and Sammy Patrollo turn An Island Paradise into
tho Zanies Madhouse. In the seventies, Charlita puts a gleam
and Duke Mitchell's eyes your only life, your man. Muriel

(01:21:53):
Landers puts the whammy on semi.

Speaker 3 (01:21:59):
Ve go ahead, get out of here right your Like.

Speaker 5 (01:22:05):
Ramona, the romantic Chip takes off on a romantic chase
of her own stage. It's interesting, really think so Ny
counting Capital Bella Lugosi finds the perfect subject to turn
a gorilla into a goop Ahead versudvice.

Speaker 3 (01:22:31):
Away, you're trying to tell me I don't understand, Away,
What am I dumb or something?

Speaker 5 (01:22:35):
I don't don't answer that.

Speaker 1 (01:22:37):
I wanted a day understand and I'll talk back.

Speaker 3 (01:22:42):
Yeah, I play.

Speaker 1 (01:22:43):
You gotta get out.

Speaker 3 (01:22:44):
The Naked Lunch is a podcast by Phil Rosenthal and
David Wilde.

Speaker 2 (01:23:05):
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.

Speaker 3 (01:23:18):
Thanks for listening to Naked Lunch, a Lucky Bastard's production

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

Crime Junkie

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Dana Gould

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

Crime Junkie

Stuff You Should Know

All Episodes

Dana Gould

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist