Stand Up Lunch 3 with Alex Edelman, Pete Holmes, Wendy Liebman, Greg Fitzsimmons, Andy Kindler and Carl Reiner

The third time's a charm as  Phil & David revist more of their favorite conversations yet with some of their funniest friends who just happen to be comedy icons from a few generations. Listen, laugh and learn. To learn more about building community through food and "Somebody Feed the People," visit the Philanthropy page at philrosenthalworld.com.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Phil Do you remember the first stand up comedy you
ever saw? Do you remember it?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (00:07):
I actually saw George Carlin?

Speaker 1 (00:10):
What I did?

Speaker 3 (00:10):
He played He played a community college in near where
we lived, and I had, you know, the records we
weren't supposed to have because they included the seven words
you can never say on television. I was like twelve
when that came out, and I thought it was the
greatest thing ever. And then he came to the community
college I don't know, fifteen minutes from my house, and

(00:32):
I went to see him.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Wow. Did you guess to meet George Carlin in the years?

Speaker 3 (00:37):
No, I met his daughter, very nute Kelly.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, she tweeted me recently. Oh I know. Or that's
kind of a yes, that's friendship in the world.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Well, we don't have him today.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
No, I wish. I wish we could have. But we
do have some amazing comedians over lunch. So let's have
a little bit more stand up running.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
Let's build the beans to the fat, food for thought,
jokes on tap, talking with our mouthsful, having fun, beas cake,
humble pie, serving up class lovely. The dressing all the side.
It's naked lunch.

Speaker 5 (01:24):
Clothing option here on Naked Lunch just for us. A
great stand up comedian and a Tony winner, Alex Etelman.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
I almost think you know you've discussed how it's about assimilation,
and to me, the most unbelievable sort of I once
was asked about writing something for the theater, and I
had never written for the theater, so I said, let
me go see take my kids to a show. My
wife and I went and took We took our kids
to see Fiddler on the Roof, just as an example
of never heard something musical. When I watched, I remember

(01:51):
a no joke. This was at the Pantages. It was
not a production that was amazing, but I will I'll
never forget when I looked around and it was like
Asian family to my right, Black family to my left,
watching this thing. And then he goes, oh, because it's
not about it's about assimilation, which everybody, every race deals

(02:12):
with assimilations.

Speaker 6 (02:12):
Ever they're only like eleven people who don't deal with this,
and they were all in the Mayflower right like everyone
wonders didn't even those guys, I'd say they assimilated too hard.
They got off and they're like, ah, the culture shock
here is really, how am I going to deal with that?
But but yeah, I think that jokes slightly off, got it?

Speaker 2 (02:33):
But look.

Speaker 6 (02:35):
I think that yeah, everyone has had to deal with
with fitting I guess the term fitting in is a
little bit high school. But yeah, everyone worries about what
does it mean to be American right now? What does
it mean to be part of a larger community right now?
It's a very tough, very very very difficult thing that

(03:01):
we're constantly concerning ourselves with. Right even if you are, say,
the whitest person who's ever lived, and you are in
the whitest environment possibly, say you live in Weston, Connecticut,
and even so you go to the country club and
you're sitting there between Now I'm just totally off the rails,
and they're sitting there between Chet and Tug. See me,

(03:26):
it's my conception of white. I'm not sure. Even then
someone says something about the Patriots and you have to
hide your jets fandom or some stuff like that, like
everyone has. The show is about the parts of the
show as jokes, but it's also about the parts of
ourselves that we hide in order to get along with
our friends. And the question that's always in the back

(03:47):
of our mind, which is, what would my place in
the world be if I was completely and utterly myself?
And what would what doors would close to me, what doors.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Might open to me?

Speaker 6 (03:59):
What what has been the cost of not being secure
enough to be completely and utterly myself? Like those are difficult,
in layered questions. So it is weird for me, though,
because the show is jokes. I think the reason, well,
the reason people joke about bad things is because what
they're actually doing is reminding you that there's always texture

(04:21):
to the human experience and people who have real who
are my people? Not Jews, not just Jews, but anyone
who understands that there is real texture to the human
experience and feels a pathological need in every moment to
constantly pay tribute to that and remind themselves as that
either as a way of finding hope when it feels

(04:46):
like there isn't, or a way of reminding themselves that
they're alive when it feels like they're about to not be,
or a way of grounding themselves in times of great joy.
Like that is a instinct that I really see, and.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
You're literally describing Fiddler on the Roof.

Speaker 6 (05:05):
I have am embarrassed to say I've never seen it?

Speaker 2 (05:09):
What what stopped the podcast?

Speaker 6 (05:11):
I've never seen, never seen Fiddler on the Jenji Khan
is holding a gun to my temple.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
I've never seen a reform temple.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Not a great joke.

Speaker 6 (05:25):
My body is a temple. It's a reform temple.

Speaker 7 (05:28):
That's really.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Let's go into the movie room right now and watch
Fiddler on the Roof.

Speaker 6 (05:34):
It's three hours in ninety five minutes, the oldest and
longest I've seen some of it. Benj Passek, who's a
good friend of ours, he must revere it. Yeah, I
look apparently I've seen a bunch of it. I'm now.
I know that's worse. Actually that I stopped Fiddler.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
On the Roof. I couldn't think too jewish.

Speaker 6 (05:56):
You know what, there is a part of me that
is just like it's so. I live Fiddler on the Roof.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Now.

Speaker 8 (06:04):
I know you.

Speaker 6 (06:05):
I do the candle dance every morning, you know that movie.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Maybe as you get older, because you're very young.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
How old are you death thirty four? Okay, it's time.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
For you to have wind older than this.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
I have wins older than you.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
I actually have shirts older than him.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
But you need to see that just because it is
a brilliantly constructed work of art.

Speaker 6 (06:28):
Also, look, I'm open to it. I love movies the way.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
It don't seem very open to me.

Speaker 6 (06:35):
Here's the thing.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Maybe you're not Jewish.

Speaker 6 (06:37):
I am not. I'm my real name. My real name
is microphone table. My friend's called me Mike.

Speaker 5 (06:50):
And.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
I love that.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
A gentle name is any two objects anything.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
It is your eyes.

Speaker 6 (06:57):
You know my actual gentile formula name. I've I've told
you this, right, I love this. It's the name of
a pre for a man, it's the name of a president,
and then the name of a small city or vice
versa for a woman. So it can be for a woman.
It can Bearlotte Charlotte van Buren, but for me, for
me and mine is Jefferson Albany the third. My friends

(07:19):
call me Chip and.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
I'm Pasadena Buchanan.

Speaker 6 (07:23):
Yeah, nice, I think I saw you dance on.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Can you know a number of us in this room
right now went to the same temple. And I will
tell you that one of the most amazing moments in
my life, because I think with Phil we talk about
Judaism a lot, and yet not really about religion at all.
And one of the things I'll never forget was being
there for our high holiday, which is the only time

(07:48):
I would ever be seen in a temple. And the
Rabbi said at one point, how many of you believe
in God? And if you had made me bet all
the money in the world at that moment, I would
have figured eighty percent of the hands went up, thirty
percent tops of the hands in that room went up.
And I'm like, oh, then why are we here?

Speaker 6 (08:10):
I believe in God. I just have notes. I believe
in God, but he's there's a lot that.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
He you know, and you're canceled.

Speaker 6 (08:20):
Yeah, well, what I'm about to say. You can be like, well,
it's good that he's here. I believe in God, but
I think he's got a lot to answer for. Yeah,
I'm not. I'm not thrilled with with all of it.
I'm grateful for the bagels that you just served me,

(08:40):
and I'm glad that God made those possible, and I'm
grateful for Mohmed Ali, and I'm thrilled by Iceland. All
that stuff seems great, but I'm not a fan of
cancer or those flies that burrow into the eyes of children,
or profess wrestling. That's not w W E. Like, I

(09:04):
think that there's very specific. Yeah, none of those things
are on par with one another. Obviously there was obviously
backyard wrestling words. But I think that there is a
real problem. The problem is I think most people I

(09:25):
don't believe in God. I don't even know if I
believe in God. But I believe in a higher calling
or a higher power, or a greater sense of responsibility.
And I also believe in rigorousness. So it prevents me
from being like, I believe in the flow that connects
all things. You're like the Force from Star Wars, like no,
I believe in like I believe in something that requires

(09:47):
like ritual and connection to the past and sacrifice and
in self inconvenience hair shirts, if.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
I may go, tradition shown in tradition, it all.

Speaker 6 (10:03):
Leads preference for you. I don't even know what that's from.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
All leads back what is it from?

Speaker 6 (10:07):
Phil though, Oh I've never seen I don't know. I mean,
like I fill around the roof.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
It's like.

Speaker 6 (10:15):
It's like Seinfeld. Even if you've never seen it, you
kind of know it from all the stuff that's around.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Yeah, I mean, but you won't know the joy of
it until you watch it.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
I've watched a big chunk of it.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
I don't believe you.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
I've seen.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
I've seen through the he watched five of the Ten
Commandments as well.

Speaker 6 (10:32):
Yeah, I only got through adultery, and then, well that
had to be the good pot. I was like, God,
I've been coveting all week.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
I can't.

Speaker 6 (10:41):
I feel attacked.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
I I am not anti religion. Believe whatever you want,
but let's stop killing each other over uh, over this.

Speaker 6 (10:55):
Phil Why would you say something so brave? Y, it's
so controversial?

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Yes, why don't we all just subscribe to the Golden rule?
Wouldn't life be a little easier? But we can't even
do that.

Speaker 6 (11:07):
Because there are people have competing people have disagreements, and
they've got competing None of this is anything to do
with religion per se. But well, look, Judaism is uh.
Judaism was just religion and then Jews uh. And then
Jews became oppressed and diaspora in the in the in

(11:30):
the first, second, third, sixth centuries. And then and then
Judaism becomes something else, and then and then it becomes
something else, and then it becomes Fiddler on the roof,
and it becomes uh, you know, ultra orthodox Judaism in Poland,
and it becomes all these different things that you could
never you know, like, and it becomes like Yeminit Jews

(11:51):
and Jews in kaifengi and uh and kaifeng and in
China are and coaching Jews and and there are all
these different types of Jewish experiences and Jewish tradition and
Jewish lives and so and every religion has that right.
Christians have had, you know, oppressions in different type, and
Muslims have had it. And so then you wind up
with things that are tied to religion but aren't religion,

(12:15):
and then you wind up with problems when those people
run into each other and have disagreements based largely along
the lines of who observes based on what and so
like the rule like why can't we all be good
to each other? It's just much more complicated than that
I write, don't you think?

Speaker 9 (12:30):
So?

Speaker 3 (12:32):
It's the only hope is that we at least live
and let live.

Speaker 6 (12:36):
Sure, I mean acknowledging people's common pain and common humanity
and seeing each other's pain, like, yes, that is the
way to see way.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Can I share The most vivid proof I have that
we're all the same on fundamental level was two thousand
and one. I was asked to interview Yusef Islam, the
artist formally known as Cat Stevens, for his Coming Back
to Music documentary. Went to London, spent time with him.
We won the Muslim Public Policy Award, an award I
was unaware of until that moment. We went to the dinner.

(13:06):
I convinced my wife Frand to come with me to
the Muslim Public Policy Award dinner and sit with Usf Islam.
There was a bad Muslim comedian doing jokes. The one
I remember was enshalla, which I think means make God
will it or whatever he said to it, like enchilla,
which means it ain't gonna happen. It was exactly like
being in the Catskills that a you know. And then.

Speaker 6 (13:29):
By the way, I know that comedians are talking about
and after the podcast, I'll tell you.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
But it was it was like, oh, yeah, we were
all the same. We all have a comedian struggling to
make this award show move along a little quicker?

Speaker 6 (13:43):
Why are you letting this man attack me on your podcast?
But enough you don't have everything about you know, there
are a million, there are a thousand ways to skinning
Cat Stevens, but when you do, the first cut is
the deepest.

Speaker 5 (14:12):
He's a brilliant comedian and podcaster who did not make
it weird on your show, Pete Holmes.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
I'm such a fan of your show Crashing that we
brought it up, like we're not knowing you would be
on right away. Greg fitz Simmons was here recently and
I was just talking about how that show. I just
absolutely loved it.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
Do you have people still who you know, asking for
begging for another season? Asking it's funny. I've never been
asked that, but I get that all the time. Wow,
people go, is there another season? Like, what's weird? Is it?

Speaker 3 (14:45):
It's Jodd Apatow asking.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
You it's HBO going hey please? Which is you know?
I'm happy to say it doesn't like sting, It doesn't
really hurt my feelings, but I am sort of like, no,
I mean, if I guess here's the truth, I'm like,
if you really loved it, you would have known it's over.
But maybe that's not how people watch TV because you

(15:08):
could discover it today and then it's new to you.
So I just shifted my attitude. Why would they know
that it was canceled. There's too many things, too many things,
Like I just watched Dave and the show Dave, and
I was like, this might as well have just come out,
you know, to me, it just came out.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
It wasn't not an end campaign new to you.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
New to you, and crashing is new to people. And
you know, I'm very grateful to be in the seas
because we're right next to curb.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
If you're brown, nice neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
It's a nice neighborhood. We didn't call it Zootopia, but there.
I don't know if I'm deleting myself. I don't know
how we've talked about this. Who's watching what? And how
do you know? We don't know? Like My Special, Yes,
my Special Netflix. I really appreciate that you saw it
live when I saw it. No, he's but we show,

(16:01):
we saw the show.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
We were we were in uh Vancouver. One much fun
I opened for him. They cleared out the audience after
My thing and then brought in a bigger audience. But
Pete is one of the great comics. If you have
a chance to see Pete Holmes. Everybody, are you on
tour this summer?

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Well, if you're always, I'm doing that. See the Netflix
is a joke fest. It's so nice to be included. Yes,
but I'm also anxious, like Ray. It reminds me of
something Ray would say that there's so many shows. How
am I going to get pick my show?

Speaker 3 (16:34):
Literally hundreds of shows.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
But it is May the fourth, the easiest date to remember,
It's Star Wars Day. May the fourth be with you? Yes,
and you can get ticket to Pete homes dot com.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
But what what theater are you at?

Speaker 2 (16:45):
I don't know, but all I was told was it's
bigger than what you normally play, and we're worried. That's
what my team said.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
Yeah, I'm doing my little live show. I'm doing the
Netflix is a joke thing. On May ninth, that the
what used to be the Ace Hotel.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
That theater Okay, and.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
It's still the theater at the Ace Hotel. There's just
there's no way, right. But yes, I'm worried too.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah, there's so many and I'm not a comic.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
But it's it.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
That's the vibe. I'm so grateful to be on Netflix.
But what I was about to tell you was my
specials on Netflix. But it's a lease. You know, we're
not married. They they bought the special. I forget for
how long. Oh, it's not for ending it, but it
will be forever if enough people watch it. So it's
like I'm promoting it but I don't know, and they
don't know. But they could lie, they could lie, but

(17:38):
I have to think, not out of goodness of anybody's heart,
but if people are watching it, that means it's good.
It's valuable to the platform. So I'm like, please watch it,
don't put it off. If you want to see it.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Watch it.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Watch it.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
I'm telling people, watch this show. It's a great show.
You will laugh a lot.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
It's called I Am not for everyone, but you are actually,
which is what is so sweet. And then I owe
you a grandpa. These are our bits. I'm always so
happy to see you. It's so nice.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
I love you.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
We have fun, we do, but it's not enough because
you're always on the road.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Well that's not entirely true. I live in Oha. That's
really the problem.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
That's phil Yeah, for how long has that been the case?

Speaker 2 (18:20):
For about two years?

Speaker 3 (18:21):
It's phenomenal there.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
It is phenomenal. It's like, the whole place is your house.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Well, do you know what we have to see?

Speaker 2 (18:27):
That would get a big laugh if people knew how
nice your house was. It's like the whole town is
Phil's beautiful house. I'm not roasting up, but like, the
whole place is beautiful and it's really special.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
But don't make me a target.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
I'm taking you down. Man. No, so I think that
has cut into my but I just I was actually
just setting some intentions and I was like, I want
to be a friend and I listed I have to
list them. I go, who are the people when I
go into LA to do my podcast? Who could I see?
It was Phil and it was like five other people.
I don't was like, that's totally manageable, Like you can

(19:02):
do it. I'm in l A all the time. But
sometimes and I'm not, this isn't best Pete. I don't
mind this, Pete. But sometimes Pete has two hours to
kill between a podcast and a show. Yeah, and I'll
just get a salad and eat it in my car.
And it's like that's very sad. It's no. It starts rating.
I'm wearing Willie Loman's overcoat.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
Pete you found me, am I centrally located for you?

Speaker 1 (19:28):
Oh yeah, usually like where you're.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
Playing tomorrow night, the logo, Oh that's great, easy.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Very close. Now I'm coming by, that's awesome. Is this
a pilot? How many pilots are? Just like if somebody
doesn't have boundaries, that's every pilot. I'm going to pitch
you a pilot that I don't really want to make.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
I went to dinner with my roommate and my my
college roommate now works for the FBI. It was actually
this kind of like heartbreaking thing where I he kind
of wanted to be friends again, and I was like,
I've changed so much and it was one of those
like not a minut life crisis, but you're kind of
like I don't think you love me. You love the
idea of being twenty years old with me, Like I'm
a different guy, right, and he really and I love

(20:09):
this person. We're still friends, yeah, but like I was like,
you haven't really kept up with who I am, Like
not a lot to talk about it anymore, right exactly,
And that's okay, yeah, but like I'm so different and
I think you don't miss me, you miss what our
life was when we were in college. But we had
this kind of dinner where we kind of had to
hash that out. Then I was like, but what if

(20:29):
he then uses his FBI database to like kind of
infiltrate my life, like he really won't take no for
an answer.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
Wow, I was, because that shows up wherever you are.
Here's the synergy. My brother in law created FBI, the CBS,
FBI runs FBI True. I think we have a package. Yes,
you ought to my brother in law, Craig the Genius
co created with Dick Wolf. I think there's an FBI

(20:59):
show here.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
Actually think that this what you just pitches is actually
a pretty good movie.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
Yeah, it's an okay movie. It's a little single white
female the comedy. I tend to not like comedies that
are like someone's in hell, like they're getting the screws
put to them, like wedding crashers. It's not for me
right where they're like and I just can't get out,
Like that's not funny, Vince vond being like it's actual.
Now she keep following me.

Speaker 3 (21:22):
My wife doesn't like a sitcom where she sees the
trouble is coming.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Oh, don't do that.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
Oh now they're in trouble. I agree, and I'm like,
this is where the funny part is.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Have you noticed there's a modern phenomenon, the last so
effect where there is no conflict now, where the conflict
is very mild, and I actually kind of like it.
It's it's nice, it's nice. Yes, here's what it is.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
You tell me.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
I feel like a lot of things, like the New
Indiana Jones. I don't think this is shots fired. The
New Indiana Jones was everything we wanted, but not a
lot of what we needed. You know what I'm saying,
Like a lot of movies, a modern, a very relatable
modern phenomenon is you watch something and you were completely
fan serviced. They gave you everything, okay, but you left

(22:05):
and you were like, why didn't it stick to me?
Why did it just kind of go away? Could be
because there's too much stuff, like if that Indiana Jones
movie had come out in nineteen ninety one. Sure, but
like I also think there's just something The human animal
is very interesting. We want to work for certain things.
We want to we want to invest, we want to
be forced to invest, but not too much. What I'm

(22:27):
saying is you don't want to go on a date
with someone who you get the feeling that they're just
trying to predict your every need and beat you to
it and give it to you. Do you know what
I'm saying? Yes, that's not that engaging of a relationship.
You go on a date and they were perfect on paper,
but you go home and you're like, I didn't feel
a spark because things need to be complicated and sticky
and broken. Does that make sense?

Speaker 10 (22:46):
Absolutely?

Speaker 3 (22:47):
I think the shorthand for that is, how about a script.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
And a Grandpa?

Speaker 3 (22:53):
I mean today today to work nice? I always say
the workstops at the poster.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
Wow. Okay, So I was like, oh, I'm losing Phil.
You do understand what I'm saying. Of course I do.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
You.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
You could have a poster right that sells the movie,
but there has to be a script that that does
everything that you're talking about. Yeah, Because the reason you
don't love the Indiana Jones is because the story and
script is not as good as the other Indiana Jones,
or at least the first three, right right, I'm with you.

(23:28):
The third one is my favorite with Tron Card because
that had the best story. It has the best story,
and the characters were so great. You saw the prequel,
you saw the sequel all in one movie.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
It was fantastic. I completely agree. And you had a
dad and he was great.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
He was Sean Connery, which is perfect cast.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
But Indiana Jones when I was growing up, was my dad.
You know, like I projected my own father onto this
hero character.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
You know, like I couldn't really project Max Rose's fall
onto that character.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
You know, Jay Holmes wasn't exactly going around with a
whip and a fedora.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
But that was like best I've heard I've heard otherwise,
any different context.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
David, you actually did think you're that way?

Speaker 1 (24:10):
No, But I was with Harrison Ford last night. Last
night was a Helen Mirren tribute Mark Helen Trivia and Trivia,
and he presented as her current you know, co star
on a Yeah three or whatever. But I had an
amazing and I think it made.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
Someone told me backstage, I've been in a show with
this woman.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
I had the experience of He came in, he was
the last you know, he just presented her the award
at the end, and I was asked to write something
up for him, but he was going to just go
out there and wing it. But then he said put
it in prompter if I wanted in the end, And
as he walked in to do this, I was trying
to get out of the Beverly Hilton because I I
did not want to get caught in that valet line.

(24:59):
I want to get the hell out.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
And at that moment I realized I'd lost my keys.
It's the whole story that you don't need to hear about.
But at that moment I realized, Okay, and maybe this
is why the Indiana Jones movie didn't do that well
at a certain point, just familiarity, having been around, getting older.
I was in the position of wanting to say hello
to Harrison, who I've worked with over the years, and

(25:22):
then I realized, I lost my keys. I'm just gonna
get the fuck out of here.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
And I know that the plot of this Indiana Jones
movies was Indy loses his keys.

Speaker 8 (25:31):
Where are my keys? These keys belong in my pocket.

Speaker 5 (25:43):
In nineteen eighty five, she took a class called how
to be a Stand Up Comedian and clearly passed with
flying colors.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Here's Wendy Leidman.

Speaker 11 (25:49):
I don't know if it's irony, but.

Speaker 12 (25:52):
I had never been married I always had some I
was always dating somebody. But I used to talk about
my ex husband. I just made you do a spit
take almost because my jokes aren't really real. So I figure,
like in art, I'm allowed to make things up. So

(26:15):
I would talk about my ex husband how he had
a five year old mentality, and or when we broke
up there was a kid involved him.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
The funny is our first date.

Speaker 13 (26:31):
It wasn't really date. It was supposed to be a
script conference, and we go out this place. I found
a place with a waterfall, I don't know, for your
script conference.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
I was looking forward, you know.

Speaker 13 (26:40):
Yeah, yeah, And so I said, so, tell me more
about your brother.

Speaker 8 (26:45):
She was, I don't have a brother.

Speaker 11 (26:46):
Because I talked about my brother, like.

Speaker 13 (26:49):
I realized that a lot of her act was fiction,
you know. And I was kind of going down the list,
and you're getting involved with a serial lot.

Speaker 12 (26:56):
No, but I only lie on stage. I'm very very
except on stage. But uh so, yeah, So I got
a little material from being involved with the man who
had children I never had. I never had children of
my own. I couldn't according to my least.

Speaker 11 (27:21):
I'm just doing material for you.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
Terrible. The line I think there's a line that I
remember here.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
I live for jokes.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
I love this And as a comedian or who who
was the people that sparked you to want to do comedy?
Because you know, it's very interesting, like you're your material
is so smart, so subtle and nuanced, all things that
are no longer viable in the world now, things that

(27:53):
you don't hear that you know. It's like as someone
who grew up like in college loving Stephen Wright or
for instances, it has that kind of linguistic elegance. But
who were the people who And I don't know if
it was men or women, but who were the people
who made you want to do.

Speaker 11 (28:08):
Commed for real?

Speaker 12 (28:11):
I saw him on the Tonight Show when I was
in college, on a little black and white TV and
I just was mesmerized. I thought it was the funniest thing.
And then the next week I was flying home from
Boston to New York and he walks onto the flight
and I'm like, I know, I know him, I know

(28:32):
I know him. Oh it's Art care Funkle. And then
I was going to say something to him when he
got off, and he never came off the plane. I
don't know if he went out the back, but that
was very Stephen Wright like. He has been a real
influence on me, and I've gotten to meet him and

(28:53):
he's a lovely man.

Speaker 10 (28:55):
He is and he's like that.

Speaker 14 (28:57):
He is like that.

Speaker 11 (28:59):
And I was a huge fan of Paula Poundstone.

Speaker 12 (29:04):
Oh I still am. And I remember meeting her in
Boston when I was still doing open mic, and I thought,
why should I even bother doing this? This is I'll
never be that funny. And the older I've gotten, the
more I realize everybody is different and has their own
voice and it's not a competition.

Speaker 11 (29:27):
There's room for both of us.

Speaker 12 (29:30):
I did a show recently and she was the host,
and she sat in the front row and laughed at
everything I said and then tweeted about me the next day,
so I felt like full circle. This is amazing because
I think she's one of the best because what she
does when she's on stage is she involves the audience,

(29:52):
and the audience loves to know that the comedian is
not just reciting a script and that they are the
funny person, that their brain is the funny and so
to see her in motion, the audience really loves that.

Speaker 6 (30:10):
And she's really fast, so fast.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
The women ahead of her a generation, And you know,
we talked a little bit before we started recording about
Hacks the TV show. Like I got to work a
couple times with Joan Rivers, I got to work. I
was on a panel once, I think with Ray and
Ray Ramondo and philm maybe with Phyllis Diller, like at
the TV Academy, someone I never thought I would meet.

(30:35):
Did you have any encounters with these the women like
your sort of mother's generation legends.

Speaker 12 (30:42):
Barnstorm Phillis called me Liebman, which I loved, and I
did a show. I was on the Bob Hope special
and she was on the show as well, and that's
where I got to meet her. And then I was
at the Friars Club and she was being honored, so
I got to meet her again. So then she invited
me to her house once for a Christmas party, and

(31:05):
at the beginning of the party, she gathered everybody in
the hall and said, don't use this bathroom because the
loft doesn't work and you're gonna get locked in. We'll
have to call the fire department. And then sure enough,
an hour later, somebody's locked in the bathroom and it's Phyllis.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
That's really funny.

Speaker 11 (31:26):
But I loved her and I got to meet Joan
a couple of times. She knew my uncle.

Speaker 12 (31:33):
I have one relative and show business. His name was
Tony Holland Anthony Holland. He was like a character actor
on mash He was in the movie All That Jazz,
and she was in an improv group with him, and
so I felt connected with her.

Speaker 6 (31:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (31:54):
So, actually, growing up, I knew I had this uncle
or distant reliv who was in show business, and I
always wanted to talk to him about it, and he
was never available. And so now I have all these
like relatives who are younger, and I always make myself
available to talk show business with them if they want
to hear it.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
I when my partner and I first came to town,
one of the first meetings we had was with Joan Rivers,
and she liked us and we wrote a pilot for her. Well, yeah,
it didn't go, but we got to know her and
she was amazing.

Speaker 12 (32:27):
She's just hysterical, and that's who they probably are doing
in hacks, is that.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
I've always assumed.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
So I figured that I would figure that too.

Speaker 11 (32:37):
Somewhat. We were amazed.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
Who else would it be?

Speaker 12 (32:40):
We were watching about yes yesterday or the day before,
thinking who can afford a house like this? Like what
comedian can afford a house like this?

Speaker 11 (32:50):
Joan Rivers could.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
That's right because she diversified too.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
It wasn't just from stand up right.

Speaker 12 (32:56):
She made like billion dollars on QBC.

Speaker 6 (32:59):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
I had the most amazing encounter with her in whatever
town QVC is based in in Pennsylvania. I was brought
in by Hall and Oates when they got along to
interview that on QBC. They wouldn't let a cute like
Daryl I think, didn't want a QVC a interviewer, so
they flew me in and I so, I'm at the
one good hotel in that town of bumfuck, Pennsylvania where

(33:21):
that QVC was. But the only other person in the
hotel I could tell was Joan Rivers. And every time
I checked, it was going into check a phone call
or whatever it was. At the front desk, she was
demanding more pillows and more towels, exactly like you would
want her to be.

Speaker 12 (33:35):
It was just as Monica Piper says in her act.
They have to give you things when you call and
ask bring me ten towels for what?

Speaker 11 (33:45):
I just want them?

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Yeah, to her credit, she went downstairs and I demanded them.
I love it.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
It's funny we're talking about her because she just came
up on my Instagram today a crazy interview with this
lady who a young woman who was called her mean
and one of the whole interview to be about how
mean she is.

Speaker 7 (34:04):
And she's eighty one.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
At this time, right and who Joe, Yeah, that her
comedy is so mean, and she keeps.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
Trying to.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
Defend herself really and say that she never goes after
anyone who's not and people know that she's only kidding
and it's only for laughs. And if I make fun
of somebody's dress, it's not about them, it's we're talking
about fashion. It couldn't be more innocuous. And the woman
wouldn't stop, and Joneses just said, you know what, You've
been nothing but negative. You have no interest in saying

(34:34):
how many people have laughed over the years. You're only
going after that, and I'm out of here, and she leaves.
I'm Live TV.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
Good for her.

Speaker 14 (34:41):
Well.

Speaker 12 (34:41):
She also said she never put her husband. Oh no,
I'm thinking fang Philip still I never made them the
butt of the joke, made themselves the the joke. Do
I make you the butt of the jokes.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Every single time?

Speaker 5 (35:09):
He's a wonderful comedian, heavy winning writer and long standing podcaster.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
Greg Fitzsimmons, what's it like for.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
You with some of like you mentioned Joe Rogan, you mentioned,
you know, Mark Maron. These people were working comedians like you,
you know, and then they've become like Joe Rogan has
become like a significant political figure in our culture, which
is fucking weird to me. I never would have predicted
that when I was on the set of news radio

(35:35):
back in the day. Mark Maren has become you know,
probably on the other side a little bit of the equation. Yeah,
But what's it like for you to see these guys
become what they've become.

Speaker 10 (35:45):
I feel a little bit like the guy that's standing
on the platform and the train just pulled out, and
you go, what happened to me?

Speaker 1 (35:51):
You know?

Speaker 10 (35:51):
And I realized that.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
You're every bit as good as them, if not better.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Well, thank you, better as a comedian than Oh Rogan
ever was on his best day. And Mark Maron, I don't.

Speaker 10 (36:03):
Mean someone you'd want to talk to yes, well, I well,
thank you for the praise. I think I think I
spread myself a little thin in my career. I've always
been I don't know if it's good or bad, but
I've always been somebody that like when an opportunity comes along,
somebody gave me advice early on. It might have been
Henny Youngman, really take the job, take the job, don't know.

(36:26):
He said, take my wife, take take my job please.
And so I always had this mindset of, like, you know,
life kind of presents you with things and they're all
a challenge and they'll all make you grow and and
so I would do everything. And so I was in
New York. I was doing commercial auditions all day, and
then I was going to acting school at night, and
then I was doing stand up and putting spec scripts together.

(36:47):
And so I've spent thirty three years writing podcasting, stand
up hosting, and I think I didn't put the effort
into the podcast that these guys put behind it.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
Oh wait, you, as as we said at the beginning,
you're you're a podcast pioneer with them. When do you
start to realize was there a specific moment when you
started to realize, Hey, this podcasting.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
Me may be a thing.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Or was it so slow?

Speaker 10 (37:13):
I think it was so slow. Yeah, yeah, I think
it's just.

Speaker 3 (37:16):
There seems to have been a slow growth to where
now we have a podcast.

Speaker 10 (37:21):
Yeah, well, and which I love. I love new people
coming into because I think all boats rise with the tide.

Speaker 9 (37:27):
I think everyone and anyone can have a podcast.

Speaker 10 (37:30):
That's great. It's great because you have fans from Embodilla's Raymond,
you have fans from your career.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Not really, but thank you.

Speaker 14 (37:37):
No you do.

Speaker 10 (37:38):
I mean obviously you got. I mean you're active on
social media and you're going to promote this show and
people that didn't listen to podcasts are now going to
tune in and they're going to go, oh, I'm on
the I'm on the app. Let me see what other
podcasts are out there. And it just keeps building.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
By the way, this is amazing. How as you get old,
you forget. There's like like a big thing that we mentioned.
Mar I mentioned Mark Marin to you. Both of us
have forgotten until this moment. Maybe you haven't forgotten. Like
at one point early in my career, I was asked
to do a comedy show and to go pitch shows
and we sold a pilot and I auditioned the male

(38:12):
and female host for a music not a music an
entertainment news show, and we picked Greg Fitzsimmons for our pilot.
I don't know if you remember this, And Laura Kitelinger,
do you remember this now? We auditioned Mark Marin and
we said not a he'll never be a host, and
you got the job. It's sort of like one of

(38:34):
those pilots I think it was FX.

Speaker 10 (38:36):
Yes, I do, sort of.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
It almost happened, and we will have millions of things.

Speaker 11 (38:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (38:43):
I feel like we and Kitelinger have done like five
pilots together. We did a thing for Comedy Central where
we watched movies with Warren Hutcherson, and then they sent
us all to Australia and we shot some stuff in Australia.
She's the best. You should have Laura Kaitelinger on sometime.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
I don't know if she'll pack are call. Did you
know Laura?

Speaker 2 (39:01):
I remember once?

Speaker 8 (39:03):
Did she?

Speaker 2 (39:04):
Did she date Jack?

Speaker 10 (39:06):
They lived together for like ten years?

Speaker 14 (39:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (39:08):
They came for Satyr once here.

Speaker 10 (39:09):
Oh really they really did. Wow, she's like the sharpshooter.
She's lovely, but in terms of punching up. She's like
she's the queen. She comes into shows, you know, Will
and Grace and then uh uh, we don't want the
two waitresses, two broke girls. And she she's always working,
and she's just the person that comes in one or

(39:31):
two days a week and just loads the script with
great jokes.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
Just go ahead. Are you still in touch with her?

Speaker 10 (39:37):
I just did her podcast two weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Great, yeah, I did see that.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
Someone else.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
I didn't even know how to podcast just started. Yeah,
all right, great, Hi Laura, can you and we can
cut this?

Speaker 1 (39:52):
Do you talk about Ellen? Sure?

Speaker 10 (39:55):
I had an NDA. Yeah, And I and I once
talked about around the Howard Stern Show. You worked on
there for hello two years?

Speaker 1 (40:04):
Okay.

Speaker 10 (40:04):
And so after I've been fired for I don't know
a year, and I went on, what did you do
smiler for getting fired? Oh no, no, no, no, you
want to know why I got fired?

Speaker 1 (40:16):
I really do.

Speaker 10 (40:16):
Okay, so let me finish this. Yeah, So I go
on Stern and I called it a toxic work environment.
And by the time I got back to my hotel
in New York, I had a call for my lawyer
that Warner Brothers had called with a cease and desist,
and that if I broke my NDA again they would
sue me for at tremendously.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
Wait a minute, were you the first person to say
that in public?

Speaker 10 (40:36):
I think so, Oh, this is way before this thing
blew up.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
This is how many years this was?

Speaker 10 (40:42):
In two thousand and six, I would have said it,
probably so I got fired.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
Can I talk about this. I don't want you to
get sued by Warner Brothers.

Speaker 10 (40:55):
But let's just say. Let's just say there was a
woman who was like, it was like family to us,
and so she died back in New York and I
was doing they asked me to do audience warm up
as well as being a writer on the show, and
which was like a second paycheck. I got paid like
a full salary to do that.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
Were you there when Jason Gellis was there? By the way, Now, okay,
he was a writer's assistant on our show and did
a script or two for us as well. I really
went over there, oh as a writer or writer assistant
writer in the final years.

Speaker 10 (41:27):
Oh yeah, Brian KYLEI was there in those last year too.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
All right.

Speaker 10 (41:30):
Sorry, So anyway, I was doing the warm up as well,
and then I said I have to go to New
York tomorrow for a funeral. I'm giving the eulogy. And
so I said, I'll take a red eye tonight so
I don't miss the show. I'll miss tomorrow. I'll take
a red eye back and then I'll be here the
next day. And I wrote out two pages for whoever

(41:51):
was going to fill in. I'd never missed a day
for somebody to come in and fill in. I gave
him the whole breakdown. Here's what you do. Go to
the funeral, fly back, walk into the office fired oh
from the War, and the producer said to me, this
is a bad idea. Ellen's not gonna like this. You
missing a day, well a.

Speaker 9 (42:09):
Day, a day.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
When you covered yourself on everything.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
I think this might have been right after Greg left.
But I did the Emmys one year when Ellen was hosting.
No I was there. I wrote on those and what
I remember was, I Ellen was sort of nice to us,
to me, but I've never seen a group of writers
so scared of their host. Like you can tell a
lot by who a person is by how they interact

(42:36):
with their writers, like Trevor Noah's it's so much fun
in the party and but a very focused working party. Yeah,
that was not the way I felt around all fear.

Speaker 10 (42:49):
Everybody was in fear all the time, which is crazy.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yeah, is there a reason for that? Do you think
there's any rationale that you can figure out why that?

Speaker 10 (42:56):
I mean, I feel for anybody whose name is on
a show, they got to do a monologue, they gotta
interview guests, they got to dance, and they've got to
do publicity. After the show, everybody else leaves and they're
on with Atlanta doing you know, pickups for the morning
news show, and it never ends, hair, makeup, wardrobe. And

(43:18):
I think it can be a grind and I think
that it can bring out the worst in some people.
But I don't I don't blame anybody for that. I
always feel like, you know, look, my job is to
show up and write jokes. That's it. I'm not here
to be somebody's friend, and I'm not here to be
supported and coddled, which I think is like the new
generation of writers. And so yeah, so I just I

(43:41):
took it as a you know, I was the guy
that showed up at the clubs in New York City
when I was breaking, and I stayed till three in
the morning to get one spot or maybe not get
a spot that for.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
Years loved it.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
Right, we're here because we loved it.

Speaker 10 (43:55):
Yeah, and whatever it took to get there. You just
being in the arena right felt amazing.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
Was the pursuit of happiness? Yeah, that that in and
of itself was enough.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
Yes, Who did you start out with in New York?

Speaker 3 (44:09):
Was?

Speaker 10 (44:09):
I started in Boston when I was in college, and
I started with you ready for this, here's who is
at like the open mics with me? Who is Bill Burr,
Paterse O'Neill, Mark Maron, Louis c k, Dane Cook, Bobby Kelly,
David Cross. Wow, yeah, all at the same time.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
What happened?

Speaker 10 (44:31):
I don't know. I got to get in touch with
them reunion and uh and it was I think it
was because Boston was a very fertile ground for comedy
because you know, Massachusetts, it's very hard edge, it's very sarcastic.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
My friend Alex Settleman, Oh yeah, yeah, Alex a wonderful line.
He said that he came from a pretty racist part
of Boston called Boston.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
That's a great joke.

Speaker 5 (45:00):
This funny man acted ful phil on everybody loves Raymond
and has been a comedians comedian and worse, here's Andy Kindler.

Speaker 3 (45:06):
You come out here to be an actor, is that right?

Speaker 9 (45:10):
I came out here to be a musician, a musician, singer, songwriter, guitarist.
So I played classical violin as a kid and I
hated it, okay, and then I started to had bands
in college and that's why humber bands.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
Right, But you're acting teacher.

Speaker 9 (45:24):
Your acting teacher to when I got out to La,
I high cover bands.

Speaker 1 (45:28):
What would have been when you got here to La?
What are you playing? Okay?

Speaker 9 (45:32):
So this is what's so sad about it. I came
out and I want to be I wanted to be
a musician my whole life. My whole family was hilarious.
Everybody in my family's hilarious. That's too easy, I figured, right,
I mean, I just didn't think about how comedy could
be a career. I wanted music so bad. I came
out in nineteen seventy eight, my favorite band became Talking Heads.

(45:54):
I was not talking Heads, but that was not me
in seventy eight, right, I was not ready.

Speaker 10 (45:59):
I came out.

Speaker 9 (45:59):
I'm not running enough to Madame Wang's West or whatever.
The was happening with the music machine. I did none
of that. I went straight into cover bands, straight into
these cover top forty bands, and it all ended. This
is an absolute true story. I was playing a club
and our name of our band, this is terrible, was Transfusion,
which we thought meant we're going beyond fusion. We couldn't

(46:23):
play fusion.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
It's a spiro Gyrus is not enough for you?

Speaker 9 (46:26):
Yeah, but we couldn't play Spira yeah, And so we
were in but people thought we were heavy metal group Transfusion.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
Right.

Speaker 9 (46:32):
So I'm in a bar where they you know where
they hate us because they think it's heavy mouth. And
I'm saying, how's everybody going? And this is totally true.
The club owner passes up a note to me, and
the note says, cut the chatter.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
Oh that's awesome. Now anyone else from Transfusion? Did they?
Anyone else in your life? Then stay in music and
have a like a hit a run of hoods.

Speaker 9 (46:57):
Interestingly enough, what do I say? Bob Mammott was in
my group. Bob Mammett is a half brother of David Mammott,
and he's gone very popular in kind of like environmental
type music. He was a great, unbelievable piano player.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
So how then do you fall into comedy? Director? You know,
how did life lead you to comedy?

Speaker 9 (47:24):
Well, I mean I beating my head again.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
So I did everything that you don't want to do.

Speaker 9 (47:27):
I sold door to door for two years. I got
one joke that never even gets a laugh. The joke
is I sold door to door for two years. The
only thing I learned people don't like to be disturbed
at home. So I was working at a stereo story.
I had all these things. I was on a worker
and I was telling h stereos for University Stereo. And

(47:50):
we were having a picnic, and we were all I
was doing impressions of everybody. And my friend Bill Kaufman,
who was who was a therapist then quit being a
therapist and he was working at this store. He said,
you gotta do we should do. He convinced me to
do it. So I without him, I don't know if
I would.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
I mean I probably got it one night.

Speaker 9 (48:06):
Yeah, Andy and Bill. I was with him for three
years in a group called Andy and Bill.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
And which part were you?

Speaker 10 (48:15):
Just so fun?

Speaker 6 (48:16):
Exactly what?

Speaker 9 (48:17):
Tom Sharpling loves that every time? Which one were you
and it was really bad. I mean it was it
was it was better to start calmedy with somebody else.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
By the way, he's a writer to who better to
have a partner. I started with a partner, and it
was makes things a little easier.

Speaker 9 (48:34):
And not alone, that's right. And I kind of really
am glad I did it. And then but then it
would be like I would start to rift with the audience.
He gets so mad because always start to rift with
the ion, or I would bow from the bits quicker
than anybody would bow from. Yeah, we're here now on Mars,
and I don't feel like I'm.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
So it was not yes, And it was absolutely not yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (48:56):
And so I went on my own in nineteen eighty six,
and starting in nineteen eighty seventh through ninety two, I
was on the road for like five years. I was
like thrilled because I got.

Speaker 15 (49:06):
Into comedy right when the boom was happening, So there
couldn't have been plenty of jobs, plenty of jobs, I mean,
not the greatest crowds yet ultimately, because the comedy booms
had to explode.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
Because you're famous for now and have been for years,
is this kind of going after the big Yes? The
big markers in comedy or TV or movies. Did was
that always part of the act or did that develop developed?

Speaker 9 (49:35):
Because I'll never forget. I went to you know Steve Shirippa, right, yeah, yeah,
So Steve Shirippa used to be the entertainment director at
the Riviera Hotel. Then he would fly to New York
and they didn't even know he was flying New York
to be in the what Yes, they didn't even know.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
And he ran this whole thing.

Speaker 9 (49:52):
So he would be showing me all these at resumes
and kits that came in for for you know, to hypnotists.
Like one time he took me to what like a
magician and he goes, I gotta get him in the
bigger room because I can see where the hand's going.

(50:12):
So yeah, but so but all these horrible acts would
send all these things, and so I got fascinated. Like
a guy, for example, was an a'l be sure impersonator,
and I don't know how how would you know what
albu short sounded like? So I got fascinated.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
I met al be Sure because he did a duet
with David Bowie. I was there when they recorded. Yes
there's uh on his Black Tie, White Noise album, not
necessarily the biggest record, but I've met albe Sure, and
I would not know how to determine an I'll be sure, impersonating.

Speaker 9 (50:44):
That's his original name, I'll be sure. Yeah, So that's
what got me into like I started to really like
I think it was also influenced from se TV because
they really made fun of that's true. So I think
I just had that and then I had a lot
of anger in bitterness about where I was that came
out as humor. So it did start from like I

(51:06):
had to though therapy. It used to be when I
was in therapy, I was like, I jay len I
had to portray jay Leno as an evil presence or
just funny, right, which I could. But the more I
went along with it, the more I realized it's really
just a roast so exactly. Yeah, Rickles, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:25):
But there's something more inside about you than Rickles, right, Yeah, absolutely,
you were you. I mean you really do have to
know a little bit more about show business.

Speaker 9 (51:37):
Yeah, but even like offering what like when one of
the first speeches, I said, I'm offering a million dollars
for footage of Woopy Goldberg being funny. Oh boy, now
people love Whatopy Goldberg. Yes, and she's not funny. I
mean you you people know.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
I can tell you.

Speaker 3 (51:53):
Having seen her first one woman show that Mike Nichols directed.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
I remember Broadway.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
She was pretty funny.

Speaker 9 (52:02):
But didn't you think that that Lorraine Newman and had
already done the Valley She like did a valley girl thing.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
I thought, yeah, there might have been a similarity. But
she did lots of characters and she was kind of
a revelation. She came out of nowhere and suddenly she
was on Broadway and she was fantastic. Did you see
that Joe maybe tape that shoe.

Speaker 9 (52:24):
But but I think it was the comic relief that
turned me against her. Billy Crystal.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
To save the world for doing comic relief.

Speaker 9 (52:39):
Well, Billy Crystal said to Rob Williams, you're stealing from me.
We haven't even left the studio.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
Film. I think we should add a little bit of
an interview we did before we started this podcast, but
that we've presented on this podcast. Because he was one
of your maybe your funniest friend.

Speaker 3 (52:59):
Every well, yeah, and an absolute legend, and we were
very lucky enough, I think to record him in. We
didn't realize it, but it was near the end of
his life, and it's one of the great influences not
just out me, but anybody who ever wrote TV comedy
or like to laugh.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
Car Rener.

Speaker 3 (53:19):
So, with all this background, yes, sir, do you remember
your first laugh that you got?

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (53:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (53:25):
When I was a very young kid, I was I
could a guy named Lou Holes was on radio.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Yeah, come a little closer.

Speaker 14 (53:35):
Oh, there was a guy on radio called Lou Holes
who told stories. Yeah, and I remember the first story
I told. He talked about the most stubborn man in
the whole world.

Speaker 8 (53:46):
He says.

Speaker 14 (53:48):
I think this is the actually had a half a
Jewish accent. Weren't really He said, I had this toothache.
I went to the dentist and I said, I got
a toothache. He says, which is that as you're the dentist,
you got the diploma. You tell me which is the truth?

Speaker 8 (54:06):
He says, He's most stubborn man in the world. He
pulled He pulled out a tooth. He says that the
tut that's not the truth. He pulled me out an
attitude is that the dut.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
No, it's not the truth.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
He pulled me.

Speaker 14 (54:20):
I'm so stubborn. He pulled me out all the tooths
from the mouth. And today I would tell him which
was the truth.

Speaker 7 (54:27):
And so I used to tell that story.

Speaker 3 (54:29):
Great, Oh my god, it's great. Yeah, going back how
many years for that?

Speaker 8 (54:33):
Oh my god?

Speaker 2 (54:34):
I got.

Speaker 8 (54:36):
Six or seven?

Speaker 7 (54:37):
Come on, yeah, so you just hearted a ninety year old.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
That's phenomenal.

Speaker 8 (54:43):
I well, I wouldn't tell him which was the dute tut.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
Shouldn't we shouldn't we do a little animated cartoon of
that bit if you can, if you as the voice.

Speaker 8 (54:57):
Oh, sure, that's a good idea.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
I have a lot of ideas for Carl.

Speaker 3 (55:02):
I still have a documentary that I want to do
about Carl and Mel's friendship through the years, because I
don't know if people know, but your friend mail comes
over quite often, would you say? Not every night?

Speaker 8 (55:16):
Almost every night?

Speaker 3 (55:17):
Almost every night. Yeah, you have dinner in front of
the TV. Yes, you look for movies that have the
phrase secure the perimeter, secure the perimeter and settle in
and get some rest and get some rest. That's probably
in more movies.

Speaker 8 (55:35):
Yeah, right now, we watch we watch Rachel.

Speaker 14 (55:40):
Maadow the so you can yell at the screen, and
Rachel Maddow and all of the Samantha b and.

Speaker 3 (55:47):
You like all that, All of everyone watch Colbert.

Speaker 7 (55:50):
Colbert is brilliant, brilliant and Oliver.

Speaker 8 (55:56):
Trevor have you seen They're all every one of them brilliant.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:01):
Uh, Seth Myers, Seth Myers beautiful.

Speaker 8 (56:04):
And we always watch MSNBC and Nick kay.

Speaker 3 (56:07):
And and Jimmy Kimmel has has come up to watching
him now and all of them is they're like the
national conscience, right.

Speaker 8 (56:16):
I think Colbert does the best job. Yeah, he's the
most brilliant.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
Yeah, he's the his do you remember the Colbert rapport?

Speaker 7 (56:23):
Oh, she played the when he played a fake, uh fake?

Speaker 3 (56:26):
You know how good he was at it. The Bush
administration thought he was Republican and invited him to perform
at the White House Correspondence.

Speaker 8 (56:34):
Then that's fun.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
And you should see a tape of that because he
gives it to Bush, right to his face in front
of these in the most hostile room you've ever seen.
It's an It's probably the bravest act of comedy in
our lifetime. Well, well you can probably tell me. Tell
me brave acts of comedy like the bravest act of
comedy you ever saw or did.

Speaker 8 (56:57):
The bravest act of comedy.

Speaker 3 (56:59):
Yeah, I don't know, because I would nominate that one you.

Speaker 8 (57:03):
Saw, right, Oh yeah, I don't know. I can't remember.

Speaker 3 (57:09):
That's all right, you can't remember everything.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
Calm when you first saw Steve Martin? What because I
to me, the greatest book about show business not by you,
is his book Born Standing Up. I think it's it's
I think it's biography I've read. Yeah, it's it's just
purely my son. I said, it's maybe my favorite.

Speaker 8 (57:29):
Book because it's my favorite biography of all time. Nobody
ever wrote, well he is?

Speaker 1 (57:34):
What did you recognize about him?

Speaker 14 (57:36):
But you know, well, first of all, he's genius category,
no question about it. And he knows more about art
than anybody.

Speaker 10 (57:45):
I know.

Speaker 8 (57:46):
This is interesting.

Speaker 14 (57:47):
I one year, I think I got some award in
Washington Mark Twain, and Steve was there.

Speaker 8 (57:54):
He came and he said, I would like this.

Speaker 14 (57:57):
Oh is that's the one where he well, I'd like
to say some nice things that are called but there
isn't neither time, no say.

Speaker 4 (58:06):
So.

Speaker 8 (58:06):
Another one when I got an a FI award. He
everybody was there.

Speaker 14 (58:11):
And Clooney and everywhere, and and Steve taped his He's
I would love to have been there. I can't tell
you how much I wanted to go there. But right
now I'm next door having.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
Dinner next door, and he was.

Speaker 8 (58:27):
He was next door, and he took a picture. He
was next door at a restaurant having He never showed up.
But that's him.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
That's him.

Speaker 14 (58:35):
But what I was saying about, he had the saddest
life ever. His father never spoke to him. His mother,
you know, he called me once. He never he never
was a big one to pick up a phone to call.

Speaker 8 (58:50):
But he had to tell me this. He's I just
got a call from my mother.

Speaker 14 (58:53):
And mother never spoke to when she was interested in
three things, her makeup, her hair, and her dress.

Speaker 8 (59:01):
And she was in tears, and she said, Steve, I
just have to tell someone. He thought his father died.
She said the new carpeting arrived. He couldn't believe it.

Speaker 14 (59:14):
She called him to tell she had to tell someone
that carpeting came. That's they're crazy. Imagine what parents they had.
And his father never said a word to him. When
he opened on Saturday Night Live for the first time
and did his act, his father was writing for the
world for the real estate journal in town, and he said,

(59:37):
Steve Marlin was on. It could have been a lot
funnier o his father. I never they never, they never spoke,
and cold, they never spoke. And he finally and when
his father passed away, he went to visit him. On

(59:58):
his dying, dying bed, he said, as he closed his eyes,
I love you, right, said, I love you to him.

Speaker 7 (01:00:07):
Whatever his problem was he had. But that's but Steve's genius.

Speaker 14 (01:00:15):
When he was a young performer, going all over the country,
he was a very art lover. He went to every museum,
in every gallery he could, and knew all every painting,
every young old painter. And we're at this place in
in in in Washington, right before I got that thing,

(01:00:38):
and we're having dinner at a room in the you know,
on the grounds, beautiful room all the more Walter ceiling
were paintings stacked up. And after dinner, I was a joke,
I said, And now we're gonna have a little fun.
I said, as a matter of fact, it's not fun,

(01:00:59):
but you going to be impressed. I said, I'm going
to point to a painting and Steve Martin is going
to tell you the name of the painting and the artist. Okay,
let's go, and I point a way up there. He
says warm for duly so, and so he did like
ten or thirteen of them. The curator was there and

(01:01:19):
I said, so far, how many has he got?

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
Right?

Speaker 14 (01:01:22):
She said all of them? He had them alrighty. He
was all early American painters that nobody ever heard of,
and he knew every one of them. So brilliant it
was unbelievable. He was my first concert ever.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
My dad when he left my mom got into bluegrass,
and he took me to see the Nittigritty Dirt Band
at Carnegie Hall. And the opening act walked out and
it was a guy with an arrow through his head.
I was nine, and he said. The first joke he said,
was I just inherit a million dollars, so I don't
give a fuck if you laugh. Oh, And I laughed,
I just inherited a million dollars, so I don't give

(01:01:58):
a fuck if you laugh. And my dad said, that
young man will never make it in show business. And
I thought, it's the most brilliant thing I've ever seen,
you know, by the way he could have.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
Played with the nitty gritty dirt brand too.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Well see his blue Crass comedy shows.

Speaker 14 (01:02:12):
Either way, he said he never told a joke. He
approached jokes. He never told any joke. He never finished
the joke. He started a joke and then he'd get
crazy feet as something. Right, He never told it a joke.
He just got laughs doing crazy things. It's a genius category.

Speaker 1 (01:02:33):
One of the greatest jokes I ever heard, which he
I think asked us to cut out of. We did
a tribute to him. I think it was the America's
Cinematach tribute and Katherine O'Hara told this story which was amazing,
which was I guess he was going through divorce and
she said they were on the set of the movie
and he said, Catherine, would you give me a really
bad blowjob? And she went, Steve, I love you, I'll

(01:02:54):
give you a really good blowjob. He goes, no, no,
I'm not horny, I'm just homesick. Jesus, what a brilliant joke. Yeah,
and that was right when he's getting divorced Victoria Victoria. Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:03:11):
And you know, interestingly, he finally married the right girl
and when he got a baby. I remember going to
his house that was a day old and he was
holding that baby, and I was, oh, I held a.

Speaker 7 (01:03:27):
Baby, and he had his hand under the baby's head
to make sure.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
And he stayed he was afraid to become a father.

Speaker 8 (01:03:35):
He said, I love my paintings and art so much.

Speaker 14 (01:03:39):
I know if I have a baby, I'll get involved
in and lose all my So he didn't want to
get involved with saying, but he's such a dautiful father.
And oh, I got to call me, he said. He
sends me the latest picture of his kid. It's such
amazing that he came to that point. He's a dutiful,
loving father.

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
Went out to lunch with Carl and Steve once. I
think you were there, George, remember when we were talking
about the two thousand year old Man and Steve started
doing the two thousand year Old Gentile where you would
you played your role as the interviewer and do you
remember what you ate back when? And he would say

(01:04:22):
not not really.

Speaker 16 (01:04:31):
Naked Lunch is a podcast by Phil Rosenthal and David Wilde.
Theme song and music by Brad Paisley, Produced by Will Sterling.
Executive produced by Phil Rosenthal, David Wilde and Our Consulting
journalist is Pamela Challon. If you enjoyed the show, share
it with a friend. But if you can't take my
word for it, take Phil's.

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
And don't forget to leave a good rating and review.

Speaker 7 (01:04:51):
We like five stars.

Speaker 16 (01:04:52):
You know, thanks for listening to Naked Lunch, a lucky
Bastard's production.