We LOVE Keanu Reeves and Samuel Beckett. So to celebrate Keanu being on Broadway right now in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting For Godot” with his “Bill & Ted” friend Alex Winter, Phil and David are bringing you a special “Naked Lunch” reheated with the highlights of Keanu’s “Naked Lunch” recorded with his beloved Dogstar bandmates Bret Domrose & Robert Mailhouse. Then hear Phil’s beloved Monica Horan Rosenthal discussing her passion for Samuel Beckett’s work and especially his play “Happy Days” — from Phil and David’s episodes with Henry Winkler, Monica and Fran Wild and Paul Reubens. So “Happy Days” are here again!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
We hear it Naked Lunch Love Keanu Reeves and Samuel Beckett.
So to celebrate Keanu being on Broadway right now and
Samuel Beckett's waiting for GOODO with his Bill and Ted
friend Alex Winter. Phil and David are bringing you highlights
of Keanu's naked lunch with our rock and roll pal's
dog Star. And then you'll hear Phil's beloved Monica Horan
Rosenthal discussing her passion for Samuel Beckett's work from Phil
(00:24):
and David's episode with Henry Winkler and then with Monica
and fran Wilde. So happy days are here again. Enjoy
the specially reheated naked lunch and congrats Keanu.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Let's build the beans to the fat, food for thought,
jokes on tap, talking with our mouthsful, having fun, the
peace and cake and humble pie, serving up slice lovely,
the dressing all the side. It's naked lun.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Clothing option.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Okay, so now I don't expect you to remember any
of what I'm about to say, but a few months
ago you do remember, of course, Keanu, I'm already touched.
Come on, we were on a plane till London. He
was next to me, and I reminded him that we
had met. I'm going to say nineteen ninety Yeah, probably
at Paul Aaron's house.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Tell the people who Paul Aaron was to you.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Oh he's my stepfather.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
I mean, what a sweet, sweet mant wonderful, wonderful man.
And on the plane you said you were going to
reconnect with him. Did you get to him yet?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I did?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Oh, great, how's he doing?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
He's doing good.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
Oh that's so nice?
Speaker 6 (01:40):
Was he? Because it's interesting I realized we're all in
different ways, showbiz lifers now almost at this point, in
different coming from different angles. But was he? Am I wrong?
Was he possibly one of your gateways into show business
or that?
Speaker 7 (01:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
For sure, a major influence. Yeah. He had directed on Broadway.
Speaker 8 (02:00):
I had gone as a young kid to see some
rehearsals of a production he was doing. Uh, as a
fifteen year old. I had worked as a PA on
one of the sets of his films.
Speaker 6 (02:12):
So he was one of your sort of wow, there
is this world.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Oh yeah, for sure. For sure.
Speaker 8 (02:17):
My mom's show business too, So she was in the
music industry. She was a costume designer.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
She was literally like the seamstress for the band to
borrow a phrase from well not the Seamstress.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
She was the designer of the dresses.
Speaker 6 (02:29):
For a certain period with Dolly Parton, who I parted with,
Phil Harris amazing and Anne Murray at.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Anne Murray Emmy Lou Harris.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I guess I mean Harris all just all legends.
Speaker 8 (02:41):
Yeah, yeah, So I was around Rocket Roll a bit.
She was friends with the producer Bob Ezrin. So I
was at the recording studio in Toronto and NMB this
nine playing their pinball machine.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Like about Alice Cooper.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah yeah, all during that period.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Wow, I must pull Aaron Canadian as well.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
No, he's uh, he was here.
Speaker 8 (03:01):
I don't know he was born. He's born in New
York State, I think so. Yeah. Anyway, so he had
a production company, and long story short, I ended up
getting a manager that was in his company, which certainly
helped me in my career.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
Have you ever run into slash and realize that you're
both like your mom's from the fashion rock world?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Who? No, I've never met that fantastic Well, we have.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
Him right here for each of you.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Wait, I gotta say one thing. At that dinner, it
was a passover Satyr. I don't know if you remember this,
but it was at Paul's house and you're sitting next
to me, and you've never been to a satyr before,
and you have to all read from the pagata, right,
And you asked me, do I have to read this part?
Speaker 5 (03:51):
And it was the Hebrew part.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
I said, no, you can just read.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
We're all going to read the English. And when you did,
you did a great job. You were very young at
the time, as as we all were and now was
and I couldn't help saying, and this is for all
the Jews in the house. I said, that was really good.
I'm now going to call you Shahckianu.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Okay, what does that? What does that mean?
Speaker 5 (04:16):
The one who does not sing, the one who does
not sing.
Speaker 6 (04:19):
It's a blessing.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
It's a it's a blessing for all the like you,
which leads to what does what does the what does
the name Keanu come from?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
What does that mean?
Speaker 8 (04:29):
I've been told it's uh, yeah, which is kind of
a cool breeze through the mountains.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
That's nice.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
The mountains vouch for that, mountains.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
But it's this part of the Hebrew word shack kanu cool.
Did you guys think the interview was going to go
this way, we dive into judaism.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
This is great.
Speaker 6 (04:53):
To prepare for this. I did listen to. Actually you're
not the usual person who's done for under podcast. You've
done a few, but in one use you would like
to do a Broadway musical. You were going to have
to sing. I'm pretty sure they still it.
Speaker 8 (05:05):
Would be My Dream and other People's knife, and it
would close very probably wouldn't even open.
Speaker 9 (05:13):
That's the title for the show, What's My Dream and
other People's Nightmare?
Speaker 3 (05:17):
And it closes. Let's just stop.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Talking about it, all right, man Manta, I could see.
Speaker 6 (05:24):
Well speaking about a nightmare and a dream.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
No, Sweeney Todd, come on.
Speaker 10 (05:28):
No.
Speaker 6 (05:31):
Fiddler on the Roof. Now, you were so Fiddler on
the Roof. Maybe if you were a rich man, if
I could sing, but you okay, you may not want
to sing, but you have Oh I want to sing.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
I just can't sing.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
If you guys had to choose between careers, would you
pick music first or acting first?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
If I had to choose, it would be acting. Yeah,
you're so good.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Because by the way, speaking of Raymond, he he has
said this that if he could be a better golfer.
That's how much he loves golf. He would quit acting.
And Jack Benny, who hilariously pretended to be terrible at
the violin, but he loved it so much he said
he would give up his whole career if he could
really play the violent.
Speaker 9 (06:22):
About Ray, he's a really good dramatic actor.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
He's amazing.
Speaker 6 (06:26):
You know, people never know that.
Speaker 9 (06:27):
I'm like, you see me, like, oh my god.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
They know it now.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
By the way he's movies he's in.
Speaker 9 (06:32):
Yeah, there are two pro find that with comedians a
lot you're not I'm not saying comedian, but someone who's
very good at interpreting a comedian, because yeah, there's a
lot of pain that's like suppressed down there.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
He always says, it's there. My father had hugged me once,
I wouldn't have to do this.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Scene, and there it is.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
The movie Parenthood is where I became a fan of you,
and the show Parenthood is where my wife became a
fan of Ray.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
That's right, he was thinking.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
That's right.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
She thinks he's as a leading man. Yes, very good.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
But Keana, you have comedy chops too. That's kind of
you to say, sir, No, you really do You're fantastic.
That's kind I'm ready. If you want ever want to
do a sitcom, I here for you, all right, but
you have to sing?
Speaker 11 (07:23):
That would be That would be the calm partner. The
said part.
Speaker 6 (07:41):
Only last night my wife is like, have you ever
seen Always Be My Maybe? And I had not until
last night. I think it's maybe. Citizen Kane is pretty good,
but Always Be My Maybe one of the best things
I've ever seen. I'm not joking. I don't know if
I ever ever enjoyed.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
I didn't know he was funny for twenty years.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
That was that was so fun Like, everybody, stop what
you're doing and go watch Kean.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
Keep listening.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
No, no, that's great. He is so super funny in
that you really what a great sense of you.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
When you're surrounded by excellence.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
No, but you you set yourself up in the funniest,
most charming way. Everyone has to see that.
Speaker 6 (08:23):
What is the song that he at the end of
the movie.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Is it called Don't Punch?
Speaker 6 (08:29):
Yeah, that's a hit. There's two songs this year that
I'm telling you. You have to enjoy that song.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Uh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
There was so much part in that movie too. There
was so much it was comedy like Heartstrings.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
And what a great actor Ali Waning is. I mean,
come on, she's a great comedian. And then she has
these acting chops.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
If you watched you saw Beef?
Speaker 6 (08:51):
Did you see that seen?
Speaker 5 (08:53):
Oh my god, she's good her stand up this.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
We got to get her on, David, what are you doing?
Speaker 6 (08:58):
Do you know her?
Speaker 4 (08:59):
I have had dinner with her. She's terrific.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
She's so great.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I got dog star.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
You can get as Alley.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Come on, I'll.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Try in Ali if you're listening.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
One question is about that. I was happy that you
guys knew each other, had met each other years ago.
But there is a thing about being a famously nice guy.
You know, you are both literally known as being nice people,
which is you know, I wonder if that is a burden,
if you think you like having that image of because
I will tell you after we met years ago, I
(09:30):
ran into you only once or twice. Once was with
my now wife when we were on our first weekend
in Vegas before getting married, and you were being nice
to someone at the valet of a Vegas hotel. No
one has ever been nice to someone at the valet
of a Vegas hotel. And I wonder for each of you.
What's it like like having the the bad rap of
(09:51):
being incredibly nice and kind?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
It's nice?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
What do you want to be known for not being nice?
Because there's enough? But if you've ever been mistreated, you
know what not to do. I think the world will
be better if if everybody, regardless of religion or political belief,
just went back to the golden rule love well, do
unto others as they would do unto you. And if
(10:18):
you can't do that, at least live and let live.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
So I think there's a life's too short to hate.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
But Keanu, really you walk the walk. I mean, you're
you're the.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
There's now legends have crowded anything else?
Speaker 3 (10:36):
What else for God?
Speaker 4 (10:38):
But it's nice to be nice people. I think that's
the message. Henry.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
I love you.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
I'm so happy to see you.
Speaker 12 (10:46):
I'm very happy to be here.
Speaker 13 (10:49):
Do you know who else is that the Jay Ball?
Speaker 5 (10:52):
I've seen her?
Speaker 6 (10:53):
Monica?
Speaker 12 (10:54):
Yeah, Monica, mother wife, excellent actress.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
Yes, but Monica, can you share Since you've been outed
at being at the Naked lunch table, can you talk
about a similar project that you both have been involved
over your careers?
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Well, well like, don't don't say until you read the thing.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Okay, this is called a microphone.
Speaker 13 (11:20):
Because when we did our naked lunch with Fran you
mentioned is.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
My wife who we'll talk about?
Speaker 13 (11:29):
I brought this up. Phil said, what are you working on? Monica?
And I said, I am all during COVID. What saved
my life in COVID was working on Happy Days. So
everybody looks at me, what you're working on Happy Days?
But they're making a play of happy Days. They're doing
a new show. No, it's the Samuel Beckett Happy Days.
Speaker 7 (11:52):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
By the way, what a lot of people don't know
is that Gary Marshall intended to do the Beckett Happy
Days and then Henry walked in and.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Change the whole thing.
Speaker 12 (12:08):
I'm dyslexic. I couldn't read all those words, so I
made up the sound and then I finally added woke.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
There's a legend about your audition.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Yes, tell me if it's true.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Tell me.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
You walk in, they say he combs his hair.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
In the mirror.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
You go up to the mirror and instead of combing
your hair, you take a beat and you look as
if to say it's perfect. What else can I do?
Is that right, and then you sneeze like an old
Jewish man.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
The funds.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
He walked to the mirror.
Speaker 12 (12:56):
And he said, look at that. I don't have to
because it's pify, not the audition during the pilot.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Oh so you had done it.
Speaker 12 (13:07):
No, they asked me to go to the mirror and
comb my hair. It said it in the script. And
I said to the producer Mel Ferber, who was the
director of the pilot in nineteen thirty two, and I said,
(13:27):
I have just made a decision. You know, every actor
has combed their hair that has played a character like this,
so I've decided to do something different. I'll do anything,
but not comb my hair.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Wow.
Speaker 12 (13:42):
And he said, it says you go and comb your hair.
Go comb your hair. I walked to the mirror. I
take out the comb.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
I go, hey, look at it. I don't have to
write it's perfect. Yep.
Speaker 12 (14:00):
And that's how that moment was born, which then went
on to define the character for the next ten years.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
And correct me if I'm wrong. But the first several
episodes were single camera film, no audience twelve first twelve.
Speaker 12 (14:18):
Okay, we almost off the air. Now there were only
three networks, that's right. One hundred shows. Right, we were
forty eighth.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
Wow, not good?
Speaker 11 (14:31):
Huh.
Speaker 12 (14:32):
Gary went to them and said, let's just try in
front of a live audience on the soundstage where Lucy
started three camera wow stage nineteen Right, that was.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
DESI get to the credit for me. That's right.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Ron Howard.
Speaker 12 (14:51):
Had never been in front of an audience before. He
had only done film, right, like a duck to water there,
you couldn't see that he hasn't been doing it for
forty years.
Speaker 5 (15:07):
And the rest of it.
Speaker 12 (15:08):
They came from theater and everybody else came from theater.
Speaker 10 (15:12):
It is true.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
So you must have loved having that audience love of
a sudden, loved it because you come from Yale, you
come from theater, you come from New York, you come
from all these Absolutely, it was it was. It took
off like a rocket because of that theatrical energy that change.
Speaker 12 (15:31):
Yeah, changed everybody's life.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Yes, was it the first taping that you felt it
from right away, right away?
Speaker 12 (15:39):
But to watch Ron Yeah do something he has never done,
not understanding all of the things that I have studied
for twelve years, getting it instinctually. Yeah, And then he
became one of the great acting partners of my career,
of my life.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
I'd love to see you guys again.
Speaker 14 (16:02):
You know what?
Speaker 12 (16:04):
Could you write him?
Speaker 5 (16:05):
Sure? I write something for you.
Speaker 12 (16:08):
Both does so much and somehow it's like Pavarotti, right
the beetle right, Hey, I'm here.
Speaker 14 (16:24):
Now.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
How did you two meet? I'd actually don't know how.
Speaker 13 (16:27):
He actually first actually met at the Ninth Avenue Food
Fair in Manhattan when he was running the deli town No, no,
just eating he is at that time? Were you working
for Almi Pictures? And I had been in a play.
We both had graduated from the same school, but we
(16:47):
didn't attend at the same time. I transferred to my
sophomore year and he had already graduated. I would have
been a freshman when he was a senior. So all
my classmates knew him. And he's a very good alumnus, alumna,
alumni and old guy. And he came to see a
play that we put on ourselves. One wrote it, one
(17:09):
directed it, we all produced it. We put on this
play and he came to see it, which was very
very nice. And I didn't meet him there. But Phil,
would you like to tell the next part because it's
a compliant for.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Me it's like we're reading from the Hagata. I said,
I was a little shy, but I loved I loved
her comedy. I thought she was amazing. And I said,
tell that girl she's funny to one of our mutual friends.
But I didn't want to stick around to say hello,
(17:45):
I just tell that girl she's funny.
Speaker 13 (17:47):
Right, and so, but what he didn't know was all
those kids, they were all like, oh, Phil Rosenthal, Phil Rosendalt,
because he was a big star at hof String University,
and it.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
Was a very big star in high school and college.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
And when I graduated and move into New York City
to pursue an acting career New York, it turns out
didn't hear about that.
Speaker 13 (18:10):
I didn't get the them out.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
They didn't.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
They were unaware.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Jew.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Yes, the paper said, so, so you know, I had
all kinds of odd jobs. But this story is amazing
because two weeks later is the Ninth Avenue Food Fair,
and it's in June of every year, and they block
off Ninth Avenue from thirty seven to fifty seventh Street.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
You ever do it if you've been there, right, like all.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
The restaurants and you get down into the Greek neighborhood
and they've got lambs on a spit outside.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
You know, it's awesome. So I'm walking down.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
The street with a rib in my hand and I'm
dripping sauce on myself.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
That always works with women.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Well listen, listen. But I got to offer something.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
And here comes the funny girl that I saw walking
north as I'm walking south, and she's with a mutual
friend of ours, and we stop and I say, oh,
the funny girl. I say, oh, I'm a big fan
of yours, and she says I'm a big fan of
(19:19):
yours too, Which was that turns out conversation. It turns
out is a lie because just like New York, she
hadn't heard about me either.
Speaker 13 (19:32):
No, I had heard about baby, I just had not
seen you in anything. Yes, so I knew he was
really good. But also I had to deflect, you know,
race Catholic can't take a compliment. I'm a big fan
of yours too. But I did know he was very good,
very talented.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Anyway, Well, that just so happened that that following week,
my roommate and I are doing a play at Columbia
Grad School.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
I'm in the play. He's going to direct it. It's
a comedy and.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
There's a part for a funny girl. I said, how
about that funny girl? And we call her and she says, yes,
she'll do the play, and then we start rehearsing. I
don't know if you've ever been in play, but you
start rehearsing and before you know it, she took advantage
of me.
Speaker 13 (20:16):
What was the play perfect?
Speaker 5 (20:19):
It was called Mault Perfect.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
It was written by Dan Greenberger, right, who I think
it writes promos and stuff for CBS to this day.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Oh wow, Yeah, and that would have.
Speaker 13 (20:31):
Been in the eighty six.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
Nineteen eighty six is when we met, and it was.
Speaker 13 (20:35):
And Tom McGowan was in it.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Yeah, I got ready from college. We were in all
the plays together there. Yeah, and yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
We just had a We had a wonderful time. And Monica,
tell the people what you've been working on for the
last year?
Speaker 13 (20:52):
Oh my gosh. It feels like so many things, but
specifically as an actor, what I've been working on and
the reason I'm going to Marfa, Texas. I haven't contacted
the estate yet of Samuel Beckett, which I will do
to be legit. But in COVID I started learning a
very amazing role, beautiful and difficult part of Winnie in
(21:19):
Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, which is a play from nineteen
sixty one, and they refer to it as the Hamlet
for women because it's so it's just beautiful. I could
go on and on about that.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
I will not, but it has the whole She speaks
the entire show, which is a lot like life.
Speaker 13 (21:41):
She's not wrong because it is a woman who's in
a very difficult predicament. She's buried up to her waist
and her husband is living in a hole in a
mound behind her, and she is surviving. And when Beckett
wrote this play, someone had said to him, why do
you never write roles for women? And he thought about it,
(22:02):
and he had started this play with a man in
the lead, and then he thought about, like, what could
be the worst possible situation, you know, a woman stuck
in the earth, exposed to the elements, practically alone, aunts
threatening to swarm and all these and the sun never
(22:24):
goes down. Who could face all that and go down singing?
Speaker 6 (22:28):
A woman.
Speaker 13 (22:30):
Waiting the chick lit sequel to me, it's better. I
think it's his best play it And you know, around
a few years ago my mother started having dementia, pretty
severe dementia, and he reminded me so much of this character.
So it's like this character survival and also what's happening
(22:54):
to the planet, and just the beautiful poetry of Beckett's
words really got me through the pandemic, the worst of it.
I mean, I got an ulcer after the insurrection, and
as all of us did. There weren't just things going
on globally and pandemic and in our country just personally,
there was so much going on and so many people
(23:17):
in such dire straits, and coping with this play really
helped me cope with all that, so that I've been
working on very seriously for the last time.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
When I met Fran and met her parents when we
got married, her mom said something to me which I
always like, along with the Lenna McCartney quote, is the
most amazing thing anyone's ever said to me. Her mom said,
don't worry, I will never let anything bad happen to
you too, And I thought, who says that? Like, what
where did your life?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Do you have?
Speaker 6 (23:44):
An adult? Tell you?
Speaker 14 (23:46):
Yeah, that's when we are looking for our house and
you're saying, what if we can't afford it and something,
and my mom said, don't worry, David, we would never
let something bad happen to you.
Speaker 13 (23:53):
And David was like, my parents still actively they try to.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Live to that.
Speaker 6 (24:00):
But the funny thing is during the pandemic, I wanted
to like sue them, but I ultimately decided it wasn't actionable.
My mom also offered me twenty thousand dollars if I
never smoked a cigarette until I was forty, and like
a couple of years after that, I was like, she
never paid up. Yeah, this whole time, I could have
(24:22):
been dead by now.
Speaker 15 (24:23):
Yes, Oh my gosh, that's really funny.
Speaker 6 (24:39):
I did get to know your parents, and I have
to say I thought about them the other day because
like what I realized is like Phil is the most
successful person I know. I know a lot of rock stars,
and Phil is the great, the most you know, successful
and talented guy I know. But it was fantastic when
we were in New York once around the CBS up
front of them, we went to the I was in
(24:59):
the hotel room with him. It was actually a day
that There's so many stories to tell. There's a Van
Halen story I could tell, but the amazing story is
that his parents he showed them an animated pilot that
he had done and we sat in like and it
was like the day I think it was like on
a video cassette in the hotel, like big VCR and
we're watching and it's very charming, like everything Phil does.
(25:22):
And at the end, like I think it was, your
dad said, maybe there could be a character like Kramer.
Speaker 16 (25:28):
And what's great is like God at my level of success,
I was think, you know, maybe I deserve whatever, those
little parental stinger lines that bring you down earth.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
But you even had.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
One, and they could it never ended, never ended, But
you know where he's coming from is very popular.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
You have a Cramer. To put a Cramer in there.
Speaker 13 (25:57):
Maybe one timag said to me very early on when
I was auditioning for commercials and I had another friend
who was an actor and her voice she was she
had a very like little kind of voice like that,
and so he would say to me, Monica, maybe if
you try making your voice very high or very low,
that would work.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Make your voice go high and low. The Max Rosenthal school,
it's good advice.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
It's good advice.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
Did you did you did either couple take a honey.
We couldn't afford to the first year.
Speaker 13 (26:33):
First year and we couldn't Yeah, we couldn't take off work.
I was doing a play Vampire Lesbians of Sodom at
the Coronet Theater.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
And yeah, I married her anyway, that's what's called a
red flower.
Speaker 13 (26:45):
And Phil was working on What show were you working
on when we got married?
Speaker 4 (26:53):
I was either working on the Robert Mitcham sitcom We're
Down the Shore or Baby.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
Talk, which was the TV version of Look Who's Talking? Wow,
not as success.
Speaker 13 (27:04):
The most beloved shows, but this is kind of great.
We only had that. We not a week. We had
a few days. We had a few days. We got
married on a Sunday, right and then but then we
went right to New York. I think we had two
days in New York and it was probably back on
webs where my parents.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Parents got married in the same little wedding factory country club.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
The food was not very good.
Speaker 13 (27:29):
It's much better now Drexel Book country Club, Drexel Hill.
But they it was so great. We had the most
fun wedding. I loved, love, loved our wedding. And then
the Tesla's drove us up to New York. We stayed
overnight and then the next night we got to see
Sid Caesar and Imaging Coca at Michael's Pub. Are you
(27:52):
Sketches shows.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Schedul were doing their most famous s and it was
we were laughing.
Speaker 6 (28:03):
It's much better than our honeymoon.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
It was awesome and we just watched it.
Speaker 6 (28:07):
We just watched Wings in Hawaii.
Speaker 13 (28:11):
We went to Hawaii. We had a great.
Speaker 5 (28:13):
Time, unbelievably great.
Speaker 13 (28:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 14 (28:15):
And then that day when you're waiting to go and
all the flights are in the afternoon in Hawaii.
Speaker 13 (28:19):
Yes, we watched Wings all day. We discovered it on
our honeymoon.
Speaker 6 (28:23):
It was and we were first board of one another
and ran out of things to say.
Speaker 5 (28:26):
That's awesome we had.
Speaker 13 (28:27):
Yeah, we had a great himey.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
We went to the Big Island. No sorry, we went
to the Lunai first, which I.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
Need, which is the.
Speaker 6 (28:38):
Most hystorical thing that happened during We loved it. It
was fantastic. But when we were in the lobby, Friend
was like always like wanted to get pictures. And this
is before I became the selfie self obsessed, you know,
the ugliest selfie taker in America and wild about music.
But the in a case, we're in the lobby and
(28:58):
Frian he's a guy walking past. It goes, excuse me, sir,
would you take a picture of us? And it was
Steve Perry from Journey what in front of?
Speaker 13 (29:07):
In front of the piano?
Speaker 6 (29:08):
Right, we were standing sitting in the piano. And the
funny thing is I had just like written something, I'd
reviewed something, and I'm like, Frank, don't you know I
think I maybe had written some mediocre review. And but
he took the picture and years later I got to
know him and to thank him.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
And then then it was that the picture that has
like a nose in it.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
S sorry if you're listening exactly.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
And then we went to the Big Island where we
still took our kids, and we went to the Mono
Lanni where our.
Speaker 14 (29:42):
Kids every year growing up.
Speaker 6 (29:44):
Yeah, it was always Warren Baby and Nette Benning were
there and we always got confused for each other.
Speaker 14 (29:48):
It was just.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
That stories.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
When you were on Raymond, because I'm a good edition
to everything else, was like one of the great stars
on Raymond.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
I agree.
Speaker 6 (30:05):
What was it like did you Was it ever weird
having him, you know, sleeping with the producer or was
it ever weird taking advice or getting input from him.
Speaker 13 (30:15):
I'm going to tell you something. It was like being
like the cheerleader and dating the quarterback something. Because he
was so brilliant. I mean literally the greatest showrunner, the
greatest and Georgie, you're talking.
Speaker 6 (30:29):
To guy who wrote the book The Showrunners. He's the
hero of the book.
Speaker 11 (30:33):
I know, you're right.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
People were wondering why I wanted to do a podcast.
This is why.
Speaker 13 (30:40):
Uh yeah, it's it's there's no there's no gray when
it comes to that. And in fact, listen, it's hard
and his job was hard. It was really good for
the marriage, I think because I got to see what
he was doing all day and how well he was
doing it, and then on top of it, I get
(31:00):
to look really good in the show. I loved working
on that show. The role was so great, my my
role in the family, and just getting to work with
those incredible actors.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
But to be with a husband you were actually attracted to.
Speaker 13 (31:16):
Oh, Brad, you know, Brad. I loved working with him
and he was so I just loved the characters so much,
Like it was so funny when we were doing those
roles off camera, you know, Doris used to always say
nine years never had lunch upset, but he and so
(31:37):
he was. He was a little distant in that area.
You know what I'm saying. He had his boundaries. I
had none. I was. I had lunch with everybody at
all times. I became very very close with the crew
that you know. I Georgia used to say, I was
the first lady. I loved that experience so much. And
(31:57):
and yes, because the writing was so good. I got
to see his incredible work. And there were moments where
it was like we weren't getting it or whatever, and
it would get a little tense. And I remember one
time even Brad said to me once, oh, I wouldn't
want to be you going home time. I'm like, oh no,
he's just gonnay. What are we having for dinner? What
are we drinking?
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Whatever?
Speaker 13 (32:17):
And that was it, and it was a great, great
time of our lives. And it was good because then
I would cut him slack because it was a hard.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
But I'm not surprised that any You seem like shocked
that these people knew who you were. You were gigantic,
you were everybody's favorite. You are beloved, and the world
was a little smaller than there were less choices of
things to watch, so you dominated.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
You were you were.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
I know that every Saturday morning Monica and I, we
were first dating, we would get up on Saturday mornings
and we would watch you, and it actually helped our relationship.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
You're welcome, Yes, became part of your cinematic university.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
That's her, She is.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
There. She is Ruby the Crossing Guard.
Speaker 10 (33:09):
It's Television's Paul Rubens. How are you here, David?
Speaker 5 (33:16):
Say what you were going to say?
Speaker 6 (33:18):
I was just saying that I just was watching last
night and seeing Monica is part of your universe. In
as Ruby is Ruby the Crossing Guard was an utter thrill.
And by the way, you looked wonderful.
Speaker 7 (33:32):
She had a lot of digital retail. Wasn't that your
first movie?
Speaker 10 (33:41):
But in that first movie, that.
Speaker 13 (33:43):
Was my first and only movie.
Speaker 10 (33:45):
And I have had footage of her looping on my phone.
Speaker 13 (33:49):
Right now because I was like, I'd come from an
alien universe, and I was so excited, and you were
so fond, and the director and everybody on that set
had such a blast. Everyone was so kind. I'm like, Okay,
that's good. Now, I don't need to do that again
because that was quintessential and how much do you were?
(34:12):
I heard you saying about the kind of it was about.
It's the relationship, right, we still say I like you, Philip, like.
Speaker 6 (34:21):
You said that on the podcast with when I ran
and I thought, oh my god, he's incredibly important in your.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
He's yes, he's not only influenced my work, he's influenced
my friggin' life. Like we say things like pee wee.
Speaker 10 (34:36):
And now we're working on something with it with his kids.
Speaker 13 (34:38):
That's right, what you look like a million bucks too.
They can't see him.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
We had him digitally retouched my room.
Speaker 10 (34:46):
Yeah, yeah, amazing.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
We had the whole Lola thing going.
Speaker 7 (34:51):
So this is sort of like a newlywed game kind
of question. But let's see if Monica remembers where was
Philips Diller sitting when we had dinner, where.
Speaker 13 (35:00):
Phil Rosa was sitting right now?
Speaker 10 (35:02):
Do you remember where I was sitting?
Speaker 5 (35:05):
Yes, you're right, Wow, really good.
Speaker 10 (35:09):
This would be.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
It's like speaking of game shows. Right after this, Paul,
I'm going to do something that I think you've done
at least today.
Speaker 5 (35:19):
Go right from here?
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Is it will unfortune it is, and I feel like
I feel like i've been cramming for the s A T. S.
Speaker 10 (35:28):
You know what you're gonna do, you won't do well
if you if you have to be relaxed. You have
to just like take all the pressure off yourself.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
Yes, just have fun, I know, but it's not fun
to be an idiot.
Speaker 10 (35:39):
No, you have to. Well, Phil, I'm not America worker.
I can't no control over that type of thing.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
You gave me some good advice, which was always buy
vowels whenever you can't.
Speaker 10 (35:50):
I didn't tell you that you did. No, somebody else
told you that.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
You're saying, don't buy vowels.
Speaker 10 (35:56):
No, but I didn't tell you anything about buying vow
I said. They're going to tell you this.
Speaker 7 (36:02):
They're going to tell you to like look at the
look at the monitor. Keep looking at the monitor above.
Not of yourself, but the game. There's something that you're
supposed to look at it.
Speaker 4 (36:11):
Because the letters that have been used are there.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
I think so.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
And by the way, when I listen, when I watch it,
it sounds like they have audience noise, but it seems
a little fake. Is there an audience, Yes, of course
it's an audience.
Speaker 5 (36:24):
Yeah, there's people.
Speaker 7 (36:27):
Yeah, it's a huge audience. It's they film it well,
I don't know where they're filming at Sony.
Speaker 10 (36:33):
They well they were filming. I'm trying to think of
an amphitheater. Get The.
Speaker 7 (36:40):
Podcast I was trying to go out on by Herman
was developed mainly because I can't remember the punchlines to jokes,
the setup or the punchline.
Speaker 10 (36:51):
I'm terrible at all that stuff.
Speaker 7 (36:52):
So this is a further proof I had such a
good I was going to say, oh, this is so
Fi auditorium, and I can't and I can't remember the
names of anything.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
That's all right if we get it.
Speaker 7 (37:05):
But you'll do well, I mean you don't think I will. Well,
it'll be entertaining either way.
Speaker 5 (37:10):
It's good for charity.
Speaker 7 (37:11):
People will like watch and be like, I'm so much
smarter than him, and then and then you make people
feel good in that way.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
That's actually one of the things I'm definitely gonna say,
who's going to be feel better about themselves?
Speaker 10 (37:24):
Do you know who will be on with you?
Speaker 5 (37:25):
Two chefs?
Speaker 4 (37:27):
So it's like a special food addition, I guess, or
food people.
Speaker 7 (37:31):
Don't eat anything in the green room or in your trailer,
I would, I would think because.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Here's the thing though, if they do a lot of
like chefy stuff. I'm not a chef either. I'm like,
what am I a guy? A guy who likes things?
Speaker 6 (37:46):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (37:48):
Why am I on this show?
Speaker 10 (37:49):
You're a guy who likes things? All right, you're a
guy who likes food.
Speaker 7 (37:52):
And there's juchef and there's jew chefs.
Speaker 6 (37:54):
There, there's a lot of Judaica questions. You could do
very you could run the table by the way, be
good at that.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
To phone a friend and I'm going to call Paul.
Speaker 10 (38:05):
No, don't call me. I wouldn't know anything.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
I was going to Paul, is this the milk?
Speaker 6 (38:13):
I think you can go on network television?
Speaker 13 (38:17):
And what characters would we be if we were on
the playhouse? We went to Groundlings with you.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
Your your you're asking him to say something that he
doesn't want to say, which is you wouldn't.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
Have been in.
Speaker 13 (38:33):
Such a good friend? Can you think of what?
Speaker 10 (38:35):
I can't? I don't know what you would have been?
May be ushers at the at the show?
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Did you notice a sign on the door that said
the playhouse is full?
Speaker 10 (38:46):
Do you know who was an usher?
Speaker 7 (38:47):
On the opening night of The Bwby's uh bb Herman,
Joe at the Groundlings, Elvira.
Speaker 4 (38:53):
Oh that's how you met.
Speaker 5 (38:55):
No, she was in the she was in the ground
with you.
Speaker 7 (38:59):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (38:59):
And you wrote the.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Original Pee Wee stage show with Phil Hartman amongst many people.
Speaker 10 (39:05):
Yes, absolutely, all the people that were in it.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Co wrote it.
Speaker 13 (39:08):
Who is Missus Renee? I always love Missus Renee.
Speaker 7 (39:11):
Suzanne Kent, she had the greatest She's still with us, Yeah,
she's around. She had this character called Rita Chandelier, Rita Chandelier.
I represent Poncey, ponce Irish mcclella. She was she Enick,
Queen of the Jungle, mel the Flying Chimp, John Provost,
(39:34):
she had all these Like everyone in the Groundings imitated
that character. Every's so good. Can you do a little
bit of I just did it? No, no, no, I
just did it. It's the same character. It's I know,
it's me doing that character of hers. I'm Moses Feldman,
(39:58):
creative the comic book character little Yodie.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
That's what your favorite. But you were doing this, this is.
Speaker 7 (40:07):
What I do.
Speaker 5 (40:08):
I go like, do this? Do this?
Speaker 3 (40:12):
I love it?
Speaker 10 (40:14):
Who else?
Speaker 7 (40:14):
What other fascinating things could I WoT myself?
Speaker 3 (40:18):
You?
Speaker 4 (40:18):
You have so many shop stories, all of which you
are withholding today. But who's your not.
Speaker 6 (40:25):
The one that your editors can't be in the book?
Speaker 4 (40:27):
No, who knocked you out?
Speaker 13 (40:29):
Like?
Speaker 4 (40:29):
Who was like when you.
Speaker 7 (40:30):
Oh, I could tell this really easy, And I was
actually thinking of Carl for a second. But this is
a car. This isn't Carl. But on the same project,
when I when I played Pinocchio on Yeah, it's the
most grating, irritating performance in my career. Like I can't,
I can't even watch it. But I did a scene
(40:51):
the only actor in my entire career until just recently.
This happened to me again just recently that I couldn't
constantly all because I was just going, oh my god,
it was James Coburn, and I was going, it's James Coburn,
like playing the Gypsy. And I've worked with lots of
like huge celebrity stars and stuff, but James Coburn. For
(41:15):
some reason, I was just like, it's James Kubern. I
couldn't like concentrate all. I couldn't remember my lines or anything.
And that just happened to me again. I think she
thought that I was making this up, but I wasn't.
I just worked with oh Man Holland Taylor, Ah right,
she's great, and I could.
Speaker 10 (41:36):
Not concentrate at all.
Speaker 7 (41:37):
I was just like, I think she is so funny,
one of the funniest people ever. And I said, this
has only happened to me one other time in my
hull grain And I'm sure she thought, like, you say
this to everybody, but if you're listening, Holland, yeah, I was.
I was serious, although there's two hundred other people that.
Speaker 4 (41:56):
But do you do you feel when these situations do
you actually feel intimidated or or just like.
Speaker 7 (42:01):
My concentration, I just can't concentrate on I'm just thinking, like, wow,
it's James Coburn.
Speaker 13 (42:06):
And Phyllis Diller asked for us to introduce you to her.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Diller.
Speaker 7 (42:13):
Oh my god, that was one of the most I
didn't know that you never told me.
Speaker 13 (42:16):
That was like the iconic thing for us, the fact
that we even got to meet and know Phillis Diller.
Speaker 10 (42:23):
And then you didn't say the word beg. She begged you,
didn't she left.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
I think she made money and then she she went
home after meeting you and died.
Speaker 7 (42:33):
No, no, she waited a little bit of a time.
Speaker 10 (42:36):
I think not a lot. It's a conversation. We loved Phyllis.
Speaker 13 (42:45):
It's a conversation that was so thrilling. She was so
happy to meet you, and you know comedy icons.
Speaker 10 (42:52):
I would say to her in the afterlife, You're welcome.
Speaker 6 (42:57):
In the after.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
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 Ferreira
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 4 (43:21):
And don't forget to leave a good rating and review.
Speaker 5 (43:23):
We like five stars.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
You know, thanks for listening to Naked Lunch, A Lucky
Bastard's production.
We hear it Naked Lunch Love Keanu Reeves and Samuel Beckett.
So to celebrate Keanu being on Broadway right now and
Samuel Beckett's waiting for GOODO with his Bill and Ted
friend Alex Winter. Phil and David are bringing you highlights
of Keanu's naked lunch with our rock and roll pal's
dog Star. And then you'll hear Phil's beloved Monica Horan
Rosenthal discussing her passion for Samuel Beckett's work from Phil
(00:24):
and David's episode with Henry Winkler and then with Monica
and fran Wilde. So happy days are here again. Enjoy
the specially reheated naked lunch and congrats Keanu.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Let's build the beans to the fat, food for thought,
jokes on tap, talking with our mouthsful, having fun, the
peace and cake and humble pie, serving up slice lovely,
the dressing all the side. It's naked lun.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Clothing option.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Okay, so now I don't expect you to remember any
of what I'm about to say, but a few months
ago you do remember, of course, Keanu, I'm already touched.
Come on, we were on a plane till London. He
was next to me, and I reminded him that we
had met. I'm going to say nineteen ninety Yeah, probably
at Paul Aaron's house.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Tell the people who Paul Aaron was to you.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Oh he's my stepfather.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
I mean, what a sweet, sweet mant wonderful, wonderful man.
And on the plane you said you were going to
reconnect with him. Did you get to him yet?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I did?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Oh, great, how's he doing?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
He's doing good.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
Oh that's so nice?
Speaker 6 (01:40):
Was he? Because it's interesting I realized we're all in
different ways, showbiz lifers now almost at this point, in
different coming from different angles. But was he? Am I wrong?
Was he possibly one of your gateways into show business
or that?
Speaker 7 (01:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
For sure, a major influence. Yeah. He had directed on Broadway.
Speaker 8 (02:00):
I had gone as a young kid to see some
rehearsals of a production he was doing. Uh, as a
fifteen year old. I had worked as a PA on
one of the sets of his films.
Speaker 6 (02:12):
So he was one of your sort of wow, there
is this world.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Oh yeah, for sure. For sure.
Speaker 8 (02:17):
My mom's show business too, So she was in the
music industry. She was a costume designer.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
She was literally like the seamstress for the band to
borrow a phrase from well not the Seamstress.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
She was the designer of the dresses.
Speaker 6 (02:29):
For a certain period with Dolly Parton, who I parted with,
Phil Harris amazing and Anne Murray at.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Anne Murray Emmy Lou Harris.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I guess I mean Harris all just all legends.
Speaker 8 (02:41):
Yeah, yeah, So I was around Rocket Roll a bit.
She was friends with the producer Bob Ezrin. So I
was at the recording studio in Toronto and NMB this
nine playing their pinball machine.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Like about Alice Cooper.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah yeah, all during that period.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Wow, I must pull Aaron Canadian as well.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
No, he's uh, he was here.
Speaker 8 (03:01):
I don't know he was born. He's born in New
York State, I think so. Yeah. Anyway, so he had
a production company, and long story short, I ended up
getting a manager that was in his company, which certainly
helped me in my career.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
Have you ever run into slash and realize that you're
both like your mom's from the fashion rock world?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Who? No, I've never met that fantastic Well, we have.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
Him right here for each of you.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Wait, I gotta say one thing. At that dinner, it
was a passover Satyr. I don't know if you remember this,
but it was at Paul's house and you're sitting next
to me, and you've never been to a satyr before,
and you have to all read from the pagata, right,
And you asked me, do I have to read this part?
Speaker 5 (03:51):
And it was the Hebrew part.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
I said, no, you can just read.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
We're all going to read the English. And when you did,
you did a great job. You were very young at
the time, as as we all were and now was
and I couldn't help saying, and this is for all
the Jews in the house. I said, that was really good.
I'm now going to call you Shahckianu.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Okay, what does that? What does that mean?
Speaker 5 (04:16):
The one who does not sing, the one who does
not sing.
Speaker 6 (04:19):
It's a blessing.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
It's a it's a blessing for all the like you,
which leads to what does what does the what does
the name Keanu come from?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
What does that mean?
Speaker 8 (04:29):
I've been told it's uh, yeah, which is kind of
a cool breeze through the mountains.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
That's nice.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
The mountains vouch for that, mountains.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
But it's this part of the Hebrew word shack kanu cool.
Did you guys think the interview was going to go
this way, we dive into judaism.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
This is great.
Speaker 6 (04:53):
To prepare for this. I did listen to. Actually you're
not the usual person who's done for under podcast. You've
done a few, but in one use you would like
to do a Broadway musical. You were going to have
to sing. I'm pretty sure they still it.
Speaker 8 (05:05):
Would be My Dream and other People's knife, and it
would close very probably wouldn't even open.
Speaker 9 (05:13):
That's the title for the show, What's My Dream and
other People's Nightmare?
Speaker 3 (05:17):
And it closes. Let's just stop.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Talking about it, all right, man Manta, I could see.
Speaker 6 (05:24):
Well speaking about a nightmare and a dream.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
No, Sweeney Todd, come on.
Speaker 10 (05:28):
No.
Speaker 6 (05:31):
Fiddler on the Roof. Now, you were so Fiddler on
the Roof. Maybe if you were a rich man, if
I could sing, but you okay, you may not want
to sing, but you have Oh I want to sing.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
I just can't sing.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
If you guys had to choose between careers, would you
pick music first or acting first?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
If I had to choose, it would be acting. Yeah,
you're so good.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Because by the way, speaking of Raymond, he he has
said this that if he could be a better golfer.
That's how much he loves golf. He would quit acting.
And Jack Benny, who hilariously pretended to be terrible at
the violin, but he loved it so much he said
he would give up his whole career if he could
really play the violent.
Speaker 9 (06:22):
About Ray, he's a really good dramatic actor.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
He's amazing.
Speaker 6 (06:26):
You know, people never know that.
Speaker 9 (06:27):
I'm like, you see me, like, oh my god.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
They know it now.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
By the way he's movies he's in.
Speaker 9 (06:32):
Yeah, there are two pro find that with comedians a
lot you're not I'm not saying comedian, but someone who's
very good at interpreting a comedian, because yeah, there's a
lot of pain that's like suppressed down there.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
He always says, it's there. My father had hugged me once,
I wouldn't have to do this.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Scene, and there it is.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
The movie Parenthood is where I became a fan of you,
and the show Parenthood is where my wife became a
fan of Ray.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
That's right, he was thinking.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
That's right.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
She thinks he's as a leading man. Yes, very good.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
But Keana, you have comedy chops too. That's kind of
you to say, sir, No, you really do You're fantastic.
That's kind I'm ready. If you want ever want to
do a sitcom, I here for you, all right, but
you have to sing?
Speaker 11 (07:23):
That would be That would be the calm partner. The
said part.
Speaker 6 (07:41):
Only last night my wife is like, have you ever
seen Always Be My Maybe? And I had not until
last night. I think it's maybe. Citizen Kane is pretty good,
but Always Be My Maybe one of the best things
I've ever seen. I'm not joking. I don't know if
I ever ever enjoyed.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
I didn't know he was funny for twenty years.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
That was that was so fun Like, everybody, stop what
you're doing and go watch Kean.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
Keep listening.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
No, no, that's great. He is so super funny in
that you really what a great sense of you.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
When you're surrounded by excellence.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
No, but you you set yourself up in the funniest,
most charming way. Everyone has to see that.
Speaker 6 (08:23):
What is the song that he at the end of
the movie.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Is it called Don't Punch?
Speaker 6 (08:29):
Yeah, that's a hit. There's two songs this year that
I'm telling you. You have to enjoy that song.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Uh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
There was so much part in that movie too. There
was so much it was comedy like Heartstrings.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
And what a great actor Ali Waning is. I mean,
come on, she's a great comedian. And then she has
these acting chops.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
If you watched you saw Beef?
Speaker 6 (08:51):
Did you see that seen?
Speaker 5 (08:53):
Oh my god, she's good her stand up this.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
We got to get her on, David, what are you doing?
Speaker 6 (08:58):
Do you know her?
Speaker 4 (08:59):
I have had dinner with her. She's terrific.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
She's so great.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I got dog star.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
You can get as Alley.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Come on, I'll.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Try in Ali if you're listening.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
One question is about that. I was happy that you
guys knew each other, had met each other years ago.
But there is a thing about being a famously nice guy.
You know, you are both literally known as being nice people,
which is you know, I wonder if that is a burden,
if you think you like having that image of because
I will tell you after we met years ago, I
(09:30):
ran into you only once or twice. Once was with
my now wife when we were on our first weekend
in Vegas before getting married, and you were being nice
to someone at the valet of a Vegas hotel. No
one has ever been nice to someone at the valet
of a Vegas hotel. And I wonder for each of you.
What's it like like having the the bad rap of
(09:51):
being incredibly nice and kind?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
It's nice?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
What do you want to be known for not being nice?
Because there's enough? But if you've ever been mistreated, you
know what not to do. I think the world will
be better if if everybody, regardless of religion or political belief,
just went back to the golden rule love well, do
unto others as they would do unto you. And if
(10:18):
you can't do that, at least live and let live.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
So I think there's a life's too short to hate.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
But Keanu, really you walk the walk. I mean, you're
you're the.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
There's now legends have crowded anything else?
Speaker 3 (10:36):
What else for God?
Speaker 4 (10:38):
But it's nice to be nice people. I think that's
the message. Henry.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
I love you.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
I'm so happy to see you.
Speaker 12 (10:46):
I'm very happy to be here.
Speaker 13 (10:49):
Do you know who else is that the Jay Ball?
Speaker 5 (10:52):
I've seen her?
Speaker 6 (10:53):
Monica?
Speaker 12 (10:54):
Yeah, Monica, mother wife, excellent actress.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
Yes, but Monica, can you share Since you've been outed
at being at the Naked lunch table, can you talk
about a similar project that you both have been involved
over your careers?
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Well, well like, don't don't say until you read the thing.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Okay, this is called a microphone.
Speaker 13 (11:20):
Because when we did our naked lunch with Fran you
mentioned is.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
My wife who we'll talk about?
Speaker 13 (11:29):
I brought this up. Phil said, what are you working on? Monica?
And I said, I am all during COVID. What saved
my life in COVID was working on Happy Days. So
everybody looks at me, what you're working on Happy Days?
But they're making a play of happy Days. They're doing
a new show. No, it's the Samuel Beckett Happy Days.
Speaker 7 (11:52):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
By the way, what a lot of people don't know
is that Gary Marshall intended to do the Beckett Happy
Days and then Henry walked in and.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Change the whole thing.
Speaker 12 (12:08):
I'm dyslexic. I couldn't read all those words, so I
made up the sound and then I finally added woke.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
There's a legend about your audition.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Yes, tell me if it's true.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Tell me.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
You walk in, they say he combs his hair.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
In the mirror.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
You go up to the mirror and instead of combing
your hair, you take a beat and you look as
if to say it's perfect. What else can I do?
Is that right, and then you sneeze like an old
Jewish man.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
The funds.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
He walked to the mirror.
Speaker 12 (12:56):
And he said, look at that. I don't have to
because it's pify, not the audition during the pilot.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Oh so you had done it.
Speaker 12 (13:07):
No, they asked me to go to the mirror and
comb my hair. It said it in the script. And
I said to the producer Mel Ferber, who was the
director of the pilot in nineteen thirty two, and I said,
(13:27):
I have just made a decision. You know, every actor
has combed their hair that has played a character like this,
so I've decided to do something different. I'll do anything,
but not comb my hair.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Wow.
Speaker 12 (13:42):
And he said, it says you go and comb your hair.
Go comb your hair. I walked to the mirror. I
take out the comb.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
I go, hey, look at it. I don't have to
write it's perfect. Yep.
Speaker 12 (14:00):
And that's how that moment was born, which then went
on to define the character for the next ten years.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
And correct me if I'm wrong. But the first several
episodes were single camera film, no audience twelve first twelve.
Speaker 12 (14:18):
Okay, we almost off the air. Now there were only
three networks, that's right. One hundred shows. Right, we were
forty eighth.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
Wow, not good?
Speaker 11 (14:31):
Huh.
Speaker 12 (14:32):
Gary went to them and said, let's just try in
front of a live audience on the soundstage where Lucy
started three camera wow stage nineteen Right, that was.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
DESI get to the credit for me. That's right.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Ron Howard.
Speaker 12 (14:51):
Had never been in front of an audience before. He
had only done film, right, like a duck to water there,
you couldn't see that he hasn't been doing it for
forty years.
Speaker 5 (15:07):
And the rest of it.
Speaker 12 (15:08):
They came from theater and everybody else came from theater.
Speaker 10 (15:12):
It is true.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
So you must have loved having that audience love of
a sudden, loved it because you come from Yale, you
come from theater, you come from New York, you come
from all these Absolutely, it was it was. It took
off like a rocket because of that theatrical energy that change.
Speaker 12 (15:31):
Yeah, changed everybody's life.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Yes, was it the first taping that you felt it
from right away, right away?
Speaker 12 (15:39):
But to watch Ron Yeah do something he has never done,
not understanding all of the things that I have studied
for twelve years, getting it instinctually. Yeah, And then he
became one of the great acting partners of my career,
of my life.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
I'd love to see you guys again.
Speaker 14 (16:02):
You know what?
Speaker 12 (16:04):
Could you write him?
Speaker 5 (16:05):
Sure? I write something for you.
Speaker 12 (16:08):
Both does so much and somehow it's like Pavarotti, right
the beetle right, Hey, I'm here.
Speaker 14 (16:24):
Now.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
How did you two meet? I'd actually don't know how.
Speaker 13 (16:27):
He actually first actually met at the Ninth Avenue Food
Fair in Manhattan when he was running the deli town No, no,
just eating he is at that time? Were you working
for Almi Pictures? And I had been in a play.
We both had graduated from the same school, but we
(16:47):
didn't attend at the same time. I transferred to my
sophomore year and he had already graduated. I would have
been a freshman when he was a senior. So all
my classmates knew him. And he's a very good alumnus, alumna,
alumni and old guy. And he came to see a
play that we put on ourselves. One wrote it, one
(17:09):
directed it, we all produced it. We put on this
play and he came to see it, which was very
very nice. And I didn't meet him there. But Phil,
would you like to tell the next part because it's
a compliant for.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Me it's like we're reading from the Hagata. I said,
I was a little shy, but I loved I loved
her comedy. I thought she was amazing. And I said,
tell that girl she's funny to one of our mutual friends.
But I didn't want to stick around to say hello,
(17:45):
I just tell that girl she's funny.
Speaker 13 (17:47):
Right, and so, but what he didn't know was all
those kids, they were all like, oh, Phil Rosenthal, Phil Rosendalt,
because he was a big star at hof String University,
and it.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
Was a very big star in high school and college.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
And when I graduated and move into New York City
to pursue an acting career New York, it turns out
didn't hear about that.
Speaker 13 (18:10):
I didn't get the them out.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
They didn't.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
They were unaware.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Jew.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Yes, the paper said, so, so you know, I had
all kinds of odd jobs. But this story is amazing
because two weeks later is the Ninth Avenue Food Fair,
and it's in June of every year, and they block
off Ninth Avenue from thirty seven to fifty seventh Street.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
You ever do it if you've been there, right, like all.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
The restaurants and you get down into the Greek neighborhood
and they've got lambs on a spit outside.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
You know, it's awesome. So I'm walking down.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
The street with a rib in my hand and I'm
dripping sauce on myself.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
That always works with women.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Well listen, listen. But I got to offer something.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
And here comes the funny girl that I saw walking
north as I'm walking south, and she's with a mutual
friend of ours, and we stop and I say, oh,
the funny girl. I say, oh, I'm a big fan
of yours, and she says I'm a big fan of
(19:19):
yours too, Which was that turns out conversation. It turns
out is a lie because just like New York, she
hadn't heard about me either.
Speaker 13 (19:32):
No, I had heard about baby, I just had not
seen you in anything. Yes, so I knew he was
really good. But also I had to deflect, you know,
race Catholic can't take a compliment. I'm a big fan
of yours too. But I did know he was very good,
very talented.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Anyway, Well, that just so happened that that following week,
my roommate and I are doing a play at Columbia
Grad School.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
I'm in the play. He's going to direct it. It's
a comedy and.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
There's a part for a funny girl. I said, how
about that funny girl? And we call her and she says, yes,
she'll do the play, and then we start rehearsing. I
don't know if you've ever been in play, but you
start rehearsing and before you know it, she took advantage
of me.
Speaker 13 (20:16):
What was the play perfect?
Speaker 5 (20:19):
It was called Mault Perfect.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
It was written by Dan Greenberger, right, who I think
it writes promos and stuff for CBS to this day.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Oh wow, Yeah, and that would have.
Speaker 13 (20:31):
Been in the eighty six.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
Nineteen eighty six is when we met, and it was.
Speaker 13 (20:35):
And Tom McGowan was in it.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Yeah, I got ready from college. We were in all
the plays together there. Yeah, and yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
We just had a We had a wonderful time. And Monica,
tell the people what you've been working on for the
last year?
Speaker 13 (20:52):
Oh my gosh. It feels like so many things, but
specifically as an actor, what I've been working on and
the reason I'm going to Marfa, Texas. I haven't contacted
the estate yet of Samuel Beckett, which I will do
to be legit. But in COVID I started learning a
very amazing role, beautiful and difficult part of Winnie in
(21:19):
Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, which is a play from nineteen
sixty one, and they refer to it as the Hamlet
for women because it's so it's just beautiful. I could
go on and on about that.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
I will not, but it has the whole She speaks
the entire show, which is a lot like life.
Speaker 13 (21:41):
She's not wrong because it is a woman who's in
a very difficult predicament. She's buried up to her waist
and her husband is living in a hole in a
mound behind her, and she is surviving. And when Beckett
wrote this play, someone had said to him, why do
you never write roles for women? And he thought about it,
(22:02):
and he had started this play with a man in
the lead, and then he thought about, like, what could
be the worst possible situation, you know, a woman stuck
in the earth, exposed to the elements, practically alone, aunts
threatening to swarm and all these and the sun never
(22:24):
goes down. Who could face all that and go down singing?
Speaker 6 (22:28):
A woman.
Speaker 13 (22:30):
Waiting the chick lit sequel to me, it's better. I
think it's his best play it And you know, around
a few years ago my mother started having dementia, pretty
severe dementia, and he reminded me so much of this character.
So it's like this character survival and also what's happening
(22:54):
to the planet, and just the beautiful poetry of Beckett's
words really got me through the pandemic, the worst of it.
I mean, I got an ulcer after the insurrection, and
as all of us did. There weren't just things going
on globally and pandemic and in our country just personally,
there was so much going on and so many people
(23:17):
in such dire straits, and coping with this play really
helped me cope with all that, so that I've been
working on very seriously for the last time.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
When I met Fran and met her parents when we
got married, her mom said something to me which I
always like, along with the Lenna McCartney quote, is the
most amazing thing anyone's ever said to me. Her mom said,
don't worry, I will never let anything bad happen to
you too, And I thought, who says that? Like, what
where did your life?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Do you have?
Speaker 6 (23:44):
An adult? Tell you?
Speaker 14 (23:46):
Yeah, that's when we are looking for our house and
you're saying, what if we can't afford it and something,
and my mom said, don't worry, David, we would never
let something bad happen to you.
Speaker 13 (23:53):
And David was like, my parents still actively they try to.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Live to that.
Speaker 6 (24:00):
But the funny thing is during the pandemic, I wanted
to like sue them, but I ultimately decided it wasn't actionable.
My mom also offered me twenty thousand dollars if I
never smoked a cigarette until I was forty, and like
a couple of years after that, I was like, she
never paid up. Yeah, this whole time, I could have
(24:22):
been dead by now.
Speaker 15 (24:23):
Yes, Oh my gosh, that's really funny.
Speaker 6 (24:39):
I did get to know your parents, and I have
to say I thought about them the other day because
like what I realized is like Phil is the most
successful person I know. I know a lot of rock stars,
and Phil is the great, the most you know, successful
and talented guy I know. But it was fantastic when
we were in New York once around the CBS up
front of them, we went to the I was in
(24:59):
the hotel room with him. It was actually a day
that There's so many stories to tell. There's a Van
Halen story I could tell, but the amazing story is
that his parents he showed them an animated pilot that
he had done and we sat in like and it
was like the day I think it was like on
a video cassette in the hotel, like big VCR and
we're watching and it's very charming, like everything Phil does.
(25:22):
And at the end, like I think it was, your
dad said, maybe there could be a character like Kramer.
Speaker 16 (25:28):
And what's great is like God at my level of success,
I was think, you know, maybe I deserve whatever, those
little parental stinger lines that bring you down earth.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
But you even had.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
One, and they could it never ended, never ended, But
you know where he's coming from is very popular.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
You have a Cramer. To put a Cramer in there.
Speaker 13 (25:57):
Maybe one timag said to me very early on when
I was auditioning for commercials and I had another friend
who was an actor and her voice she was she
had a very like little kind of voice like that,
and so he would say to me, Monica, maybe if
you try making your voice very high or very low,
that would work.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Make your voice go high and low. The Max Rosenthal school,
it's good advice.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
It's good advice.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
Did you did you did either couple take a honey.
We couldn't afford to the first year.
Speaker 13 (26:33):
First year and we couldn't Yeah, we couldn't take off work.
I was doing a play Vampire Lesbians of Sodom at
the Coronet Theater.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
And yeah, I married her anyway, that's what's called a
red flower.
Speaker 13 (26:45):
And Phil was working on What show were you working
on when we got married?
Speaker 4 (26:53):
I was either working on the Robert Mitcham sitcom We're
Down the Shore or Baby.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
Talk, which was the TV version of Look Who's Talking? Wow,
not as success.
Speaker 13 (27:04):
The most beloved shows, but this is kind of great.
We only had that. We not a week. We had
a few days. We had a few days. We got
married on a Sunday, right and then but then we
went right to New York. I think we had two
days in New York and it was probably back on
webs where my parents.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Parents got married in the same little wedding factory country club.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
The food was not very good.
Speaker 13 (27:29):
It's much better now Drexel Book country Club, Drexel Hill.
But they it was so great. We had the most
fun wedding. I loved, love, loved our wedding. And then
the Tesla's drove us up to New York. We stayed
overnight and then the next night we got to see
Sid Caesar and Imaging Coca at Michael's Pub. Are you
(27:52):
Sketches shows.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Schedul were doing their most famous s and it was
we were laughing.
Speaker 6 (28:03):
It's much better than our honeymoon.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
It was awesome and we just watched it.
Speaker 6 (28:07):
We just watched Wings in Hawaii.
Speaker 13 (28:11):
We went to Hawaii. We had a great.
Speaker 5 (28:13):
Time, unbelievably great.
Speaker 13 (28:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 14 (28:15):
And then that day when you're waiting to go and
all the flights are in the afternoon in Hawaii.
Speaker 13 (28:19):
Yes, we watched Wings all day. We discovered it on
our honeymoon.
Speaker 6 (28:23):
It was and we were first board of one another
and ran out of things to say.
Speaker 5 (28:26):
That's awesome we had.
Speaker 13 (28:27):
Yeah, we had a great himey.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
We went to the Big Island. No sorry, we went
to the Lunai first, which I.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
Need, which is the.
Speaker 6 (28:38):
Most hystorical thing that happened during We loved it. It
was fantastic. But when we were in the lobby, Friend
was like always like wanted to get pictures. And this
is before I became the selfie self obsessed, you know,
the ugliest selfie taker in America and wild about music.
But the in a case, we're in the lobby and
(28:58):
Frian he's a guy walking past. It goes, excuse me, sir,
would you take a picture of us? And it was
Steve Perry from Journey what in front of?
Speaker 13 (29:07):
In front of the piano?
Speaker 6 (29:08):
Right, we were standing sitting in the piano. And the
funny thing is I had just like written something, I'd
reviewed something, and I'm like, Frank, don't you know I
think I maybe had written some mediocre review. And but
he took the picture and years later I got to
know him and to thank him.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
And then then it was that the picture that has
like a nose in it.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
S sorry if you're listening exactly.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
And then we went to the Big Island where we
still took our kids, and we went to the Mono
Lanni where our.
Speaker 14 (29:42):
Kids every year growing up.
Speaker 6 (29:44):
Yeah, it was always Warren Baby and Nette Benning were
there and we always got confused for each other.
Speaker 14 (29:48):
It was just.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
That stories.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
When you were on Raymond, because I'm a good edition
to everything else, was like one of the great stars
on Raymond.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
I agree.
Speaker 6 (30:05):
What was it like did you Was it ever weird
having him, you know, sleeping with the producer or was
it ever weird taking advice or getting input from him.
Speaker 13 (30:15):
I'm going to tell you something. It was like being
like the cheerleader and dating the quarterback something. Because he
was so brilliant. I mean literally the greatest showrunner, the
greatest and Georgie, you're talking.
Speaker 6 (30:29):
To guy who wrote the book The Showrunners. He's the
hero of the book.
Speaker 11 (30:33):
I know, you're right.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
People were wondering why I wanted to do a podcast.
This is why.
Speaker 13 (30:40):
Uh yeah, it's it's there's no there's no gray when
it comes to that. And in fact, listen, it's hard
and his job was hard. It was really good for
the marriage, I think because I got to see what
he was doing all day and how well he was
doing it, and then on top of it, I get
(31:00):
to look really good in the show. I loved working
on that show. The role was so great, my my
role in the family, and just getting to work with
those incredible actors.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
But to be with a husband you were actually attracted to.
Speaker 13 (31:16):
Oh, Brad, you know, Brad. I loved working with him
and he was so I just loved the characters so much,
Like it was so funny when we were doing those
roles off camera, you know, Doris used to always say
nine years never had lunch upset, but he and so
(31:37):
he was. He was a little distant in that area.
You know what I'm saying. He had his boundaries. I
had none. I was. I had lunch with everybody at
all times. I became very very close with the crew
that you know. I Georgia used to say, I was
the first lady. I loved that experience so much. And
(31:57):
and yes, because the writing was so good. I got
to see his incredible work. And there were moments where
it was like we weren't getting it or whatever, and
it would get a little tense. And I remember one
time even Brad said to me once, oh, I wouldn't
want to be you going home time. I'm like, oh no,
he's just gonnay. What are we having for dinner? What
are we drinking?
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Whatever?
Speaker 13 (32:17):
And that was it, and it was a great, great
time of our lives. And it was good because then
I would cut him slack because it was a hard.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
But I'm not surprised that any You seem like shocked
that these people knew who you were. You were gigantic,
you were everybody's favorite. You are beloved, and the world
was a little smaller than there were less choices of
things to watch, so you dominated.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
You were you were.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
I know that every Saturday morning Monica and I, we
were first dating, we would get up on Saturday mornings
and we would watch you, and it actually helped our relationship.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
You're welcome, Yes, became part of your cinematic university.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
That's her, She is.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
There. She is Ruby the Crossing Guard.
Speaker 10 (33:09):
It's Television's Paul Rubens. How are you here, David?
Speaker 5 (33:16):
Say what you were going to say?
Speaker 6 (33:18):
I was just saying that I just was watching last
night and seeing Monica is part of your universe. In
as Ruby is Ruby the Crossing Guard was an utter thrill.
And by the way, you looked wonderful.
Speaker 7 (33:32):
She had a lot of digital retail. Wasn't that your
first movie?
Speaker 10 (33:41):
But in that first movie, that.
Speaker 13 (33:43):
Was my first and only movie.
Speaker 10 (33:45):
And I have had footage of her looping on my phone.
Speaker 13 (33:49):
Right now because I was like, I'd come from an
alien universe, and I was so excited, and you were
so fond, and the director and everybody on that set
had such a blast. Everyone was so kind. I'm like, Okay,
that's good. Now, I don't need to do that again
because that was quintessential and how much do you were?
(34:12):
I heard you saying about the kind of it was about.
It's the relationship, right, we still say I like you, Philip, like.
Speaker 6 (34:21):
You said that on the podcast with when I ran
and I thought, oh my god, he's incredibly important in your.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
He's yes, he's not only influenced my work, he's influenced
my friggin' life. Like we say things like pee wee.
Speaker 10 (34:36):
And now we're working on something with it with his kids.
Speaker 13 (34:38):
That's right, what you look like a million bucks too.
They can't see him.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
We had him digitally retouched my room.
Speaker 10 (34:46):
Yeah, yeah, amazing.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
We had the whole Lola thing going.
Speaker 7 (34:51):
So this is sort of like a newlywed game kind
of question. But let's see if Monica remembers where was
Philips Diller sitting when we had dinner, where.
Speaker 13 (35:00):
Phil Rosa was sitting right now?
Speaker 10 (35:02):
Do you remember where I was sitting?
Speaker 5 (35:05):
Yes, you're right, Wow, really good.
Speaker 10 (35:09):
This would be.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
It's like speaking of game shows. Right after this, Paul,
I'm going to do something that I think you've done
at least today.
Speaker 5 (35:19):
Go right from here?
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Is it will unfortune it is, and I feel like
I feel like i've been cramming for the s A T. S.
Speaker 10 (35:28):
You know what you're gonna do, you won't do well
if you if you have to be relaxed. You have
to just like take all the pressure off yourself.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
Yes, just have fun, I know, but it's not fun
to be an idiot.
Speaker 10 (35:39):
No, you have to. Well, Phil, I'm not America worker.
I can't no control over that type of thing.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
You gave me some good advice, which was always buy
vowels whenever you can't.
Speaker 10 (35:50):
I didn't tell you that you did. No, somebody else
told you that.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
You're saying, don't buy vowels.
Speaker 10 (35:56):
No, but I didn't tell you anything about buying vow
I said. They're going to tell you this.
Speaker 7 (36:02):
They're going to tell you to like look at the
look at the monitor. Keep looking at the monitor above.
Not of yourself, but the game. There's something that you're
supposed to look at it.
Speaker 4 (36:11):
Because the letters that have been used are there.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
I think so.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
And by the way, when I listen, when I watch it,
it sounds like they have audience noise, but it seems
a little fake. Is there an audience, Yes, of course
it's an audience.
Speaker 5 (36:24):
Yeah, there's people.
Speaker 7 (36:27):
Yeah, it's a huge audience. It's they film it well,
I don't know where they're filming at Sony.
Speaker 10 (36:33):
They well they were filming. I'm trying to think of
an amphitheater. Get The.
Speaker 7 (36:40):
Podcast I was trying to go out on by Herman
was developed mainly because I can't remember the punchlines to jokes,
the setup or the punchline.
Speaker 10 (36:51):
I'm terrible at all that stuff.
Speaker 7 (36:52):
So this is a further proof I had such a
good I was going to say, oh, this is so
Fi auditorium, and I can't and I can't remember the
names of anything.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
That's all right if we get it.
Speaker 7 (37:05):
But you'll do well, I mean you don't think I will. Well,
it'll be entertaining either way.
Speaker 5 (37:10):
It's good for charity.
Speaker 7 (37:11):
People will like watch and be like, I'm so much
smarter than him, and then and then you make people
feel good in that way.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
That's actually one of the things I'm definitely gonna say,
who's going to be feel better about themselves?
Speaker 10 (37:24):
Do you know who will be on with you?
Speaker 5 (37:25):
Two chefs?
Speaker 4 (37:27):
So it's like a special food addition, I guess, or
food people.
Speaker 7 (37:31):
Don't eat anything in the green room or in your trailer,
I would, I would think because.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Here's the thing though, if they do a lot of
like chefy stuff. I'm not a chef either. I'm like,
what am I a guy? A guy who likes things?
Speaker 6 (37:46):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (37:48):
Why am I on this show?
Speaker 10 (37:49):
You're a guy who likes things? All right, you're a
guy who likes food.
Speaker 7 (37:52):
And there's juchef and there's jew chefs.
Speaker 6 (37:54):
There, there's a lot of Judaica questions. You could do
very you could run the table by the way, be
good at that.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
To phone a friend and I'm going to call Paul.
Speaker 10 (38:05):
No, don't call me. I wouldn't know anything.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
I was going to Paul, is this the milk?
Speaker 6 (38:13):
I think you can go on network television?
Speaker 13 (38:17):
And what characters would we be if we were on
the playhouse? We went to Groundlings with you.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
Your your you're asking him to say something that he
doesn't want to say, which is you wouldn't.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
Have been in.
Speaker 13 (38:33):
Such a good friend? Can you think of what?
Speaker 10 (38:35):
I can't? I don't know what you would have been?
May be ushers at the at the show?
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Did you notice a sign on the door that said
the playhouse is full?
Speaker 10 (38:46):
Do you know who was an usher?
Speaker 7 (38:47):
On the opening night of The Bwby's uh bb Herman,
Joe at the Groundlings, Elvira.
Speaker 4 (38:53):
Oh that's how you met.
Speaker 5 (38:55):
No, she was in the she was in the ground
with you.
Speaker 7 (38:59):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (38:59):
And you wrote the.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Original Pee Wee stage show with Phil Hartman amongst many people.
Speaker 10 (39:05):
Yes, absolutely, all the people that were in it.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Co wrote it.
Speaker 13 (39:08):
Who is Missus Renee? I always love Missus Renee.
Speaker 7 (39:11):
Suzanne Kent, she had the greatest She's still with us, Yeah,
she's around. She had this character called Rita Chandelier, Rita Chandelier.
I represent Poncey, ponce Irish mcclella. She was she Enick,
Queen of the Jungle, mel the Flying Chimp, John Provost,
(39:34):
she had all these Like everyone in the Groundings imitated
that character. Every's so good. Can you do a little
bit of I just did it? No, no, no, I
just did it. It's the same character. It's I know,
it's me doing that character of hers. I'm Moses Feldman,
(39:58):
creative the comic book character little Yodie.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
That's what your favorite. But you were doing this, this is.
Speaker 7 (40:07):
What I do.
Speaker 5 (40:08):
I go like, do this? Do this?
Speaker 3 (40:12):
I love it?
Speaker 10 (40:14):
Who else?
Speaker 7 (40:14):
What other fascinating things could I WoT myself?
Speaker 3 (40:18):
You?
Speaker 4 (40:18):
You have so many shop stories, all of which you
are withholding today. But who's your not.
Speaker 6 (40:25):
The one that your editors can't be in the book?
Speaker 4 (40:27):
No, who knocked you out?
Speaker 13 (40:29):
Like?
Speaker 4 (40:29):
Who was like when you.
Speaker 7 (40:30):
Oh, I could tell this really easy, And I was
actually thinking of Carl for a second. But this is
a car. This isn't Carl. But on the same project,
when I when I played Pinocchio on Yeah, it's the
most grating, irritating performance in my career. Like I can't,
I can't even watch it. But I did a scene
(40:51):
the only actor in my entire career until just recently.
This happened to me again just recently that I couldn't
constantly all because I was just going, oh my god,
it was James Coburn, and I was going, it's James Coburn,
like playing the Gypsy. And I've worked with lots of
like huge celebrity stars and stuff, but James Coburn. For
(41:15):
some reason, I was just like, it's James Kubern. I
couldn't like concentrate all. I couldn't remember my lines or anything.
And that just happened to me again. I think she
thought that I was making this up, but I wasn't.
I just worked with oh Man Holland Taylor, Ah right,
she's great, and I could.
Speaker 10 (41:36):
Not concentrate at all.
Speaker 7 (41:37):
I was just like, I think she is so funny,
one of the funniest people ever. And I said, this
has only happened to me one other time in my
hull grain And I'm sure she thought, like, you say
this to everybody, but if you're listening, Holland, yeah, I was.
I was serious, although there's two hundred other people that.
Speaker 4 (41:56):
But do you do you feel when these situations do
you actually feel intimidated or or just like.
Speaker 7 (42:01):
My concentration, I just can't concentrate on I'm just thinking, like, wow,
it's James Coburn.
Speaker 13 (42:06):
And Phyllis Diller asked for us to introduce you to her.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Diller.
Speaker 7 (42:13):
Oh my god, that was one of the most I
didn't know that you never told me.
Speaker 13 (42:16):
That was like the iconic thing for us, the fact
that we even got to meet and know Phillis Diller.
Speaker 10 (42:23):
And then you didn't say the word beg. She begged you,
didn't she left.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
I think she made money and then she she went
home after meeting you and died.
Speaker 7 (42:33):
No, no, she waited a little bit of a time.
Speaker 10 (42:36):
I think not a lot. It's a conversation. We loved Phyllis.
Speaker 13 (42:45):
It's a conversation that was so thrilling. She was so
happy to meet you, and you know comedy icons.
Speaker 10 (42:52):
I would say to her in the afterlife, You're welcome.
Speaker 6 (42:57):
In the after.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
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 Ferreira
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 4 (43:21):
And don't forget to leave a good rating and review.
Speaker 5 (43:23):
We like five stars.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
You know, thanks for listening to Naked Lunch, A Lucky
Bastard's production.
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