Fritz Coleman, Comedian and Retired Weatherman

Alison speaks with  Fritz Coleman, Comedian and Retired Weatherman

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
I'm going back. Why it's the Allison arm Group Show. Yes,
I'm Alisson and some of you probably remember me as
Evil Neillielsen. Tonight I am Alison Arnkrum, and this is
the Alison Argram Show where we talk about things that
make you feel good, the movies and the TV shows

(00:36):
that made us feel good and the people who made
them and people who are doing things now to make
the world a better and more interesting place. And you know,
I always love it when I have a friend on,
so I know and returning, returning after I don't remember
when did I have to on last He's like adorable,
trying things on the floor, so excited I'm dropping things

(00:56):
on the floor I have with me. Yes, some of
you may if you lived in La you may remember
on NBC we had that the man who gave us
our weather in our news, who was absolutely incredible, and
you may also know him as an incredible stand up
comedian for many, many many years. He's but he's opened
all over the United States where everyone from like Rage

(01:17):
Charles to Jay Leno to George Bens. It's like really
an odd grouping you name it, he's done it.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
He now literally has a residency a residency the Puteale
on his current show, Yes the Star Unassisted Living The
Amazing Fritz Golmann.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Well get you were. You were in the thirty eighth
parallels from two fires out there. I'm glad you're okay.
I was.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
I was like, literally, that fabulous thing. What's to watch?
Duty the app and it gives you I don't know
how I mean that gave me the thing because it
would tell me the evacuations known for the Altadeno. Wit
kept move further west until I went that's that's by
the supermarket. That's a little close for the evacuating zone
to be starting there because that's like over there. So

(02:07):
it's like, I guess we should pack. So we got ready,
We got ready or you get out you know the
house insurance papers and the cat carriers. Yeah, And then
then it moved the wind change. But at one point
I looked it was like fire, fire, fire, fire, fire,
and I'm the blue dot in the middle, like an
equal distance from every fire in Los Angeles. And I
was like, well, if we leave, we just get closer

(02:27):
to them.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
And the winds were so strong that the embers were
blowing two three miles and so nobody was really immune
from experiencing this firefight.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well that's when they kept moving the evacuation zones because
they were a little fires here. But we got eighty
mile an hour winds, you need to move.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
And my grandson, My grandson lives in Montrose and oh
down the street just on the edge of the voluntary
evacuation zone. They didn't have to leave, but they were
fully prepared to.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
He was right by the street where I was like,
that's that, yep, I'm up the road. And then we
have the Angelus forest right behind us, and there was
the Greek fire, the Stone fire, the Lyddi of fire.
They were all that, they like right there, and I
was like, well, that's right there, okay, but now it's out.
But what it was, it was like fifty sixty mile
an hour winds with eighty mile an hour gusts. I mean,

(03:16):
it's just like incomprehensible. It's what was working. It was
like Hurd.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
I've told people the whole time I did the weather,
the forty years I did the weather, I live in
Te Luca Lake, I've never experienced when that's so we
had eighty five mile an hour gus in Ta Lufah
Lake and uh and ninety mile an hour GUS at
Burbank Airport, which unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
And they diverted flights. I know, people said that I won.
What my friend said, I had to go to San
Diego to go get my sister. She didn't get it.
People couldn't land planes at the airport, so was that insane.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Seems like they're doing a little bit better now. And yes,
for the climate deniers, I think it's time you opened
your eyes because they're used to be a Santa Ana season,
as you know, being in long resident in October and November.
Now it's all bets are off that they can happen
anytime during the year and be ferocious anytime during the year.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
And the other thing too, was okay in La for
people or not in La No, it doesn't really rain
here much, but it used to be like a desert
a monsoon season November and February. You could count on
getting a lot of rain in November and in February
iffy the rest of the year. So sure you got
the winds in late October and then it rained like
crazy in November, so it was like wet. It wasn't
like a the but who has Santa Anna's in January?

(04:33):
Who has dropped in January?

Speaker 3 (04:35):
And the bad thing is if we have one and
we've done this in the past, where we have a
catch up February and March with the rainfall after all
these denuded hillsides have been exposed and there's a lot
of dirt and that mud has to move somewhere, we
get into a whole different nightmare if we have have

(04:56):
really bad rains in the life.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
I'm saying about the rain's got to come February didn't. Well,
it's going to rain like man, February. There's no way
they're going to have that hillside short up. That's gonna be.
That's going to be a hell of a month's lie.
We did that up here two thousand and nine. We
had the fire that was really in tongue and we
did evacuate and when it rained after that whole hill
moved down. The hill came right down the hill. But see,
this is what you used to do. You use to

(05:20):
explain the weather to people.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
People say, do you miss being in there? And I say, please,
don't ever ask me that again, and don't ask me
the weather. Look on your phone and leave me alone.
Now I don't miss it. I am so I had
a career that I'm so grateful for. I was so lucky.
But it's a younger person's game now. I mean, those
people at my former place of employment, NBC were on

(05:45):
duty for six nights. I mean the people weren't. And
that's a younger person's game.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
So I saw that people standing.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Thankful for doing it, but not.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
Me standing out there in the wind near the fire
at all hours of the day and nine and I
was like, no, it's terrifying. I wouldn't yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
but yeah, you were amazing. Now how did you transition
or was it all the same time from news and
whether in all two stand up comedy?

Speaker 3 (06:16):
I mean, I got my And I'll preface this by saying,
real meteorologists hate this story, but it's true. So I
came out here in nineteen eighty here meeting Los Angeles
to do stand up and I was working at the
Comedy Store in nineteen eighty two, and my friend, who

(06:36):
was working at NBC at the time, brought his boss
and his boss's wife to see me do a show
at the comedy Store Friday night. You know, long six
seven people in the show, and I talked on stage
about having gotten my career start working for Armed Forces
radio and television. That's how I cut my business. So

(06:57):
and I told some anikotes about being forced to do
the weather but not knowing anything about it. But that
didn't seem to bother the Navy. They didn't care. So
so I got upstage and I went to meet these
people backstage. And this is a true story. I know
it sounds outlandish, but it's true. And the man said
to me his position was he was the news director,

(07:18):
the vice president of news at Channel four. He said,
this is a very odd question, but do you have
any desire to come and do some vacation relief fill
in work for me? I have a main weather guy
who hasn't had a vacation in a year. I need
some help on weekends. I just need a utility player.
Do you have any desire to do that? And I said,
you did hear me say that I don't know anything

(07:40):
about the weather. He said, perfect, there's no weather in California.
This will work out great. So I said, okay, you
know I was making, as you well know, twenty five
dollars a set at at the comedy store. So I
almost asked out when he.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Asked me, you were lucky to get that.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yeah, So I said, yes, I accept I carry your
wife to the car. Is there anything I can do
for each? So I had to audition. So I auditioned
the following week and I got the job, being the
utility player doing the fill in work for two years.
Then the main weather guy left to go to CBS
and I was bumped up and I retired two weeks

(08:18):
shy on my fortieth anniversary. It's the greatest stroke of
show business luck since that woman was discoveredy Sharp's pharmacy
in the forties. I'm so lucky. But that's how we started.
I was doing comedy first, and then I got the
weather job.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Well, I mean, I can see why you say real
meteorologis go.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Yeah, right, because you know they've been looking at their
barometers since they were six and measuring the wind on
the shed, and this was their dream. I literally backed
into a career. But you know how I came out
here In nineteen eighty, which is what I'll call the
end of the comedy's tsunami, when there was a comedy

(09:01):
a shop in every town in America. There were more
of those than Starbucks, and doing the road was hard.
I was what they call a feature act, in middle act.
Nobody knew who I was, so I wasn't a headliner,
so I was a middle act. So for a feature
spot for six days, you'd made five or six hundred dollars.
And sometimes I have to pay your own transportation, and

(09:22):
I had kids. I can't I can't do this, I
can't afford. So in this opportunity to do, the weather
presented itself. Boom. It was an astonishing stroke of luck.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
And I know you mean. I started doing stand up
when I was fifteen years old in nineteen seventy seven,
at the peak of you know, Rusty Blitz's impromptu bagel
and every coffee house and every stand up and you'd
have a place, you know, transmission repair and stand up comedy.
It was ridiculous. And I played every darn one of
them in the comedy store, in the improv and the thing.

(09:53):
I did them all. And then in the eighties it
all got weird. They started making movies about being a
stand up comed and all of a sudden it became
this weird thing. And I don't think that God is
good in the eighties. I think we had a real
peek in the seventies.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
No, I agree in it, and then especially around town
where the clubs here are what they call show case clubs,
where they don't want to pay you. They just want
to give you an opportunity because it's comedy college. You're
working on our stage, honing your craft, and you may
get discovered.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
So well, I know who said that, I know who
said that. She said that to me too, yeah, oh no.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
And then they had to go on strike in order
to get paid.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
That was the whole time I was there. There's pictures
of me if you get the book I'm doing about
that covers the whole history of Thoms strike. Two pictures
of me with my little picket sign. I was out there.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
I was out there, and you know, and they, you know,
you had to pry twenty five dollars a person out
of their reedy little pause. And the truth of the
matter was these people, you know, Missy Shore and Bud Freeman,
were millionaires. And what other entertain venue would you not
pay your talent?

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Would the strike little start?

Speaker 3 (11:10):
It was crazy.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
It started over someone asking for gas money. Somebody actually
asked for gas money, and she couldn't even do that,
and they did, could I get a sandwich or something
in pre gas? But it's like absolutely not. And then
we're like, okay, this is getting out of control.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
So it was possible to have a career.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, so it was a hard time.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
Now.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
I was reading about how you were initially inspired way
back in high school. Your uncle got you tickets to
George Carlin.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
Oh you gotta go, you gotta go. Yes, I you know,
many people of my generation see him as the uh,
the uh, the lighthouse in a in a foggy night.
He was the guy who, anyway, I want to see
this show. Uh. In the sixties, seventies and eighties, they
used to have shows along the East Coast called fairs.

(12:01):
In the summer. They have these things that look like
circusile tents and they were quite beautiful and they could
fit three thousand people into one of these tentsis it
was a great venue. So my uncle gave me tickets
to see George at the Valley Forge Music there, which
was outside Philadelphia. It was fantastic, And I mean I

(12:22):
had seen comics on at Sullivan and the Tonight Show,
and you see them do five minute chunks and a
very controlled circumstance. But I never saw one do a
show where they're doing an hour ninety minutes of just
them talking with no notes and maybe a bottle of
water and a stool on the stage. And I'd never
seen how that's done. And I also didn't understand how

(12:45):
it may take you ten years to build, you know,
an hour and a half of a good headlining set.
I didn't know how that all worked. But I just
saw George Carlin stand up there for an hour and
a half and say these words that he had seemingly
never said before. That was one of his brilliant things.
He would just seem so off the cuff and honest

(13:06):
to God. It was a truly religious experience. It changed
my life. I never thought I could do it professionally,
but I was so moved by that I I it
was otherworldly to me. He was like a TV evangelist
the way he manipulated the emotions of the crowd, and
it changed my life. So he was the guy I
also like Robert Klein.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
It was a oh my god, yes, yeah, yeah, these
are the mass I absolutely grew up watching Carlin and
as Fast because Carlin started coming out in a suit
with the show.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
Bob knew they were like the Vegas he kind of
slick suit guys. And then they both had a religious
conversion and became.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Who they were, and yeah, and then he turned into
George Carlin, always brilliant, and I love that. That's always
a great moment when when if I have a good
night with my show, is when I have some maths
and my friends come up to me and go, Okay,
which thing was written and which thing was the ad lib? Okay,
this was an ad lip. No, that's in the script.
This was in the script. No, that was an ad lib.

(14:09):
And I so far they I drove people map and
I go, yes, yes, when it all flows, when it
all just flows, get that one. You've never been stamp
comedy for absolutely forever, as you've said, and amazingly, you know,
many people would say, oh, is that a young man's game.

(14:30):
But as we've seen, not necessarily, we've seen all the
people who kept going all the way, all the way.
I mean, oh my god, you know, Bob, Ob was
one hundred still telling jokes we could. That's a great
thing about that. You know, beauty may may go away,
but funnies forever, and that's created these shows. You've got
the thing. You get a podcast, a radio show, you show,

(14:51):
you have this thing of unassisted living, and it is
now exploded to the point that you literally have a
residency at the El Portal.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
THEFA we've been doing. Have you ever been in there?
It's a it's a beautiful venue.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
You're in this room there, studio.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
It's called the Marilyn Monroe Forum. It's one hundred seats,
which is perfect for me, and it's semi circular. It's
a very intimate room. You can walk right up and
have eye contact with the audience and I really love it.
And we've been there over a year. We've had a
year of sold out shows. Wendy Leave mean, you know,
Wendy is my opening. We're doing a show on January

(15:31):
twenty sixth for a fundraiser for the Wildfire Recovery Fund.
One hundred percent of the profits will go to you know,
housing and medical care and mental health abilities for people
who have been displaced by the fires. And the response
for it has been so good we're going to do

(15:51):
it again on February twenty third, So we have two
shows and we have a special guest for this one.
In my old television show that I had following Saturday
Night Live called It's Fritz, we had a band that
was led by Lawrence Juber, who is the lead guitarist
of Paul McCartney and Wings, and he's at one of

(16:11):
the great session players of all time. He's going to
come and open that show for us and then Wendy
and then I said, we're giving him a nice show.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Okay, you think I need to go, Wendy leave, it's
going to be there too. I'm like, Okay, getting in
the car, getting in the car.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Honest, people on the planet.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
She's absolutely brilliant. This is incredible. I'm seeing the outpouring
of support where people are doing huge benefits now for
everyone in the firemning.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
Where Billie Eilish and all these huge bands are going
to do the forum.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
We're all going, but.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
People want to feel empowered because everybody has an acquaintance
or a coworker or a relative who has experienced the
tragedy of this fire. I mean, uh, it's unbelievable. What's
going on just east of where you live in Altadena
and Eaton Canyon. It's unbelievable. I mean, when they do
those shots of the cameraman in the car and they

(17:03):
just drive down the street and property after property of decination,
of completely denuded properties where you can't even recognize that
there was a home.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
There, and two friends, two friends who lost their house.
I mean, to the dirts, to the bricks, just awful.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yeah, So we're just going to allow people to come
and express Again. This is not one of those million
dollar fundraisers. It's just a small thing. But I think
people like to feel like they're contributing to the welfare
of their neighbors and stuff.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
So and you know, it's about feeling better too, is
sort of on the show. People need desperately to laugh,
to be entertained, to feel good. We've just been through
so much stress. I mean, as I said, I was
ridiculously lucky, just landing right smack in the middle of
the whole thing. But the constant alerts and going, well

(17:57):
what if the wind changes the whole city? Is this
this feeling of when does this end? When does this end?
And the people who were right there and the people
who evacuated right at the edge, that's just when you evacuate.
If you're lucky, if you're so lucky. You evacuate, you
come back to your house. And in two thousand and
nine we did that. We had to evacuate. The fire
was right there and we're like, we're gone, and fabulous,

(18:21):
brilliant hung a fire department. They're famous in France. We
love them. And they got it out and we came
back and oh the house is still here, a little smokey.
But the sensation when you sit there at a friend's
house with your things piled there and go, this might
be all I own. Yes, And for you know, a

(18:42):
couple of my friends, it was, well, yeah, that's it this,
I have this, I also have this, I have a jacket,
I have their shoes. It's just just that what that
does to your psyche cannot described.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Question, and you mentioned it before. I think comedians have
a unique responsibility right now. I don't do any politics,
and I think over and above the fires, just the
general malaise that the planet is in right now, the
comedian can take you out of your head for an
hour and a half and just make you forget all

(19:18):
those things and talk about My whole act is just
talking about what I have in common with other people
my age. And so if you can just which connects
people to one another. And to me, I think that's
a gift. Weren't a really weird place in America right now?
People are feeling very vulnerable and wondering if the whole
thing's going to last. And I think comics have a

(19:38):
great job to make them forget that.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
For an hour. I think so. I think so. And
you talk about that that you're an assisted living is
just hilarious. You have Mattine your shows. You're at an
early hour.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yes, my demographic needs to be owned by dark.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
It's like I've got it outside. We'll do the show
earl since dressed y'alls has come in and you can
all get the early Bird special dinner and.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
Get home and done precisely. They appreciate it. And it's
only an hour and a half because some people time
their medication when they.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Come to my shows, and people have to go to
the bathroom. Maybody can sit as long as you can.
I've read well. Robin Tyler the Brilink me and she
had a show she did for years and then she
remounted it and she put in an intermission because she said,
I have to go to the bathroom now during the show.
I can't just stay who.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
They've They've invited me to keep going at the Elports
in perpetuity, and I say, they want to be so
old that I have to stop the show twice for
pee breaks. But that's okay for me and the audience.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Well, this is in perpetuate. What is it like to
have a residency now, I said, I've played clubs, I've
been on the road. To have a residency, well.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
It's the loosest interpretation of a resid I do one
show a month, and and you know, around LA and
the clubs, you get a tenor a fifteen minute spot,
but you can't put together a headline set doing ten
or fifteen minutes. You have to have an opportunity to
do an hour piece everything together, do your transitions, have

(21:18):
ebbs and flows in the energy of the show. And
the only way you can do that is to be
able to do an hour, an hour and fifteen minutes.
And this affords me at least once a month to
go and stretch out and try to plug everything in
and see how it fits in long form. And it's
been a gift. It's really helped me to write more
and not be afraid to try stuff.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
Oh, it's fantastic. I mean that's the thing. When I
first started doing my one woman shows, which is like
an hour and a half Confessions of Pravery Bitch. First
time went to New York ish an hour and a
half and I went, I'm in La Comic twenty minutes.
It's like a lifetime on stage. Who has an hour
and a lot?

Speaker 3 (21:54):
Yeah, No, A's one hundred percent true. You have to
be and you know I can't go in the road.
I mean I would go in the road, but I don't.
So you know, the road helps you striped out a
little bit. I don't get the benefit of that now.
So this is a wonderful opportunity, at least once a
month to kind of take a deep breath and be
a human being and talk to them, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, and.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
Give them and I like that, as you said, you
can see them an intimate space. That's why I do
like often the smaller cabarets because they're right there. You
can talk to them. It's great to say, oh, look
I played this huge place, but you know this is a.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
Semi circular a stage arrangement, and it's it's just awesome.
You can just walk right up and talk to the
front row if you choose to. I mean, I don't
do crowd work, but when you make eye contact with them,
it makes them feel good, you know. I like this.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
I like this. Now. Obviously you're coming up with this
one for the twenty six, which will be you know,
fundraiser for this savage fire we've all just survived. You
do a lot of charity work. When you go to
your website, immediately they're just right there there. You have
three different charities that you regularly associate.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
Well, I'll tell you, during my career as a weather person,
the most satisfying part of that job was being invited
to do what I call community outreach, you know, nonprofit work.
I always said that when I would put my head
down at night, those things were infinitely more satisfying than

(23:24):
being inaccurate about the weather four our five days a week.
You know, my personal satisfaction universe, and so it was
very important to me. And it's unbelievable, you know how
it is. You you had a powerful star notoriety around
the United States. You can show up somewhere, they can

(23:46):
increase their ticket prices and sell out, and all you
have to do is show up and tell jokes. I mean,
it would be immoral not to help them. It's too
it's not like you're getting there bandaging people or feeding
homeless people every day. You can have great help with
very little effort.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
Well that's what I've liked, that that I've been able
to just because the thing I did fifty freaking years ago.
Now that I mean, I'm able to go out to
smaller charity organizations around the country, all kinds of places,
and they'll make money. They'll make money, the.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
Non corporate oriented ones where you're not feeding the bureaucracy
of the organization. You're really you know, you're giving them
some help. They can pull them out of a financial
rudd or something.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Well, it's like during the eighties and nineties that did
a ton of stuff for Age Project Los Angeles. But
over the years there's many many age projects serving people
with HIV all over the country, even in small towns.
And you know, Madonna and Lady Gaga and that they're
not coming, they're not they're not getting that's going to starts.
Are not going to go there and do their fundraiser,
their walk. They're in you know, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, it's

(24:52):
not happening, and I can go in and then they
can have a really successful event.

Speaker 3 (24:59):
And that mindset. I mean, there are so many very
generous stars and everything, but there's so many people that
are so preoccupied with making sure they don't lose whatever
money they have, and they don't do a lot for
other people.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
I've never enjoyed. I've always said, like, you know, if
you're here, you know you're second up oxygen. I mean,
don't be a waste of it. And when you have fame,
whatever fame you have, however, notoriety, even even if it's
like weird fame or this, but it's like, can you
do something with that? Is there somebody somewhere that will
make a donation if you do a PSA, if you're.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
Putting asses in seats, you should help.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
People if you can put an asset seat anywhere. Absolutely
it's so easy. And now, of course, with our fabulous,
insane Internet, the ability now for a celebrity of any
strength to be able to get out there and say, hey,
can you help people, can you help this charity, et cetera.
I just lost their audio for a second I had

(26:00):
I was.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Being asked a question and I didn't want to bother with,
but uh no, I it's a very satisfying part. And
times like this, you know, it's not even the amount
of money that you help with, it's whatever you think
you can afford, but it's people just want to feel
empowered to do something. Because I sort of compare this

(26:25):
firestorm with the homeless population, the homeless situation in La.
It's it's so ever present and so big that you feel,
why should I help? There's no way they're ever going
to solve this is too big, and this fire almost
feels the same way. But if you just give them
a little way to at least make their emotions felt,

(26:47):
and by helping in some small way, then you're you're
healing yourself and you're healing to help the people you're benefiting.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
So right, and it's something because I mean I've already
said tee you that everyone's bringing donations and the fire
departments are going to stop stop at the pie and
the donuts. I haven't it please, And there's bags and
bags of clothes they're inundated. So something where it's like, okay, look,
here's a group hereer charities that are directly helping these
people and the survivors and you can help them. But
here we're going to send them a check. And all

(27:15):
you need to do is come on the twenty six
and be relaxed and have a wonderful time with you
and when you leave, in for Heaven's sake.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
Exactly are you still doing your one person show?

Speaker 1 (27:25):
I am. I'm going to be a star, fucking myself.
I'm going to be in Atlanta in April. I'll be
in Provincetown in July. I'll be in New York in May.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Absolutely well, people should go see you because you're one
of the most naturally funny people ever doing it. I
remember you from laugh Factory days. I haven't been there
in a long time, but you talk about people, you
know ages, It doesn't matter how old you are, as
long as you're still funny. Tom Dreesen, who is eighty
years old, ghost of a laugh Factory all the time,

(27:57):
he's still cranking to twenty five year old drunks. You
know he still doesn't.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Rich Little Rich Little was doing it. I think he's
still doing four shows a week because he's it's right
down the street. He's in Vegas and he goes down
the street to the Laugh factor outlet there at the
hotel and does four shows a week, and he's got
audio visual stuff. He's got his paintings going, and he's
I guess, but here's here's a crazy thing. Because growing

(28:24):
up in show business and doing comedy, I met all
of the old stars. So Rich Little and I are
sitting at the breakfast table talking about people we know,
and I go, wait, how old about? Why do I
know all the same people as Rich Little? That seems wrong.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
So that just seemed like real show business back then.
You know, he was on the Johnny Carson Show a
million times and that was real show. But I love
to talk to those old guys. Yeah, I met I
met Bob Newhart, God rest his soul at a birthday party,
and I said, you love the old stories about show business,
and it does. I'm sure you do, so, I said,

(28:58):
he do you do? You you missed in Las Vegas?
And he said, no, Las Vegas stopped being good when
the Mob stopped running Las Vegas. He said, working for
the Mob in Las Vegas was a luxury. They treated
you so well, and people dressed up to come to shows.
They sometimes wore tuxedos to come to shows, and they
were true limousines, and it was a dress up. You know.

(29:20):
It was a fabulous social affair. Now you got a
guy from Texas and they have a four drink minimum
and he puts his feet on the table and and
heaves his hat on, and he was so funny. But
he's so right. I love the older Jays and show business,
I do.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
I love yet and I'm just yea. I was so
happy I got to work with it like the older
stars like you did. I remember Debbie Reynolds and all
of these people. And I did a telephone with Bob Hope.
For heaven's sakes, I can say I work with Bob.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
There you go crazy.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
So all right, so you are it's the Elportwel but
it's the Marilyn Monroe so I have all my fabulous
press release. So okay. Also, this is only forty dollars
a ticket to this thing, and fifty dollars just get
you the fancy cocktail table. See that is unheard of
in Los Angeles.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
And you're very exclusive because there are only five cocktail tables,
so you better get in more.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Wore.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
That means you get to be right up next to
my physical presence and when I'm talking loudly, you'll feel
my warm breath on your neck.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
To Alport Town. For people don't know, this is the
intimate moon rou for this is sixty nine Lancersham. It's
in North Holloway, North Langersham.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
It's right across the street from the now defunct Lameley Theater,
which is still open but closes. My heart is broken
that the Lameleys are going out of business. But it's
right across the street from that theater and it's so nice.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
I've been there a couple of times. Lovely neighborhood. There's
some really good restaurants in the neighborhood, so it's an
Maybe you.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
Feel the same way. I love working at theaters with
history now, the Elport Townel started as a vaudeville house
in the twenties and thirties and Bob Hope and Red Buttons.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
And all the old born Oh my god, right there.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
And then it became a movie palace. And when she
was eight years old, Debbie Reynolds, who was born and
raised in Burbank, would ride her bike to the Alportal
to watch movies. And that's why later on, when she
was tuning up a show, for Vegas. She would come
and work at the Alportsal. They called the main stage
the Debbie Rentals Stage. It's like sixty seats. It's a

(31:23):
beautiful venue. And and so I love a place because
it's rich with vibes in there, you know, great memories.
And they call it the Maryland Monroe Form where I
work because right across the parking lot from the theater
is North Hollywood Elementary School where she was a student.
So they named it. Wow.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Well, now she was a student everywhere because they moved constantly.
I mean, what is it they talk about? Oh, Maryland
lived here, she lived in forty different apartments. Yeah, she
was ever and everywhere. Yeah, that's what I love is
I do love the history of old theaters. I actually
got to do do a show in French and I

(32:01):
actually got to be at Seatra Dejase in Paris. I
got to play a like three hundred year old theater
in Paris once.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
Well, now tell me what that's like writing humor and
making it land in another language.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
Darn near just the sign if impossible, it's absolutely bananas.
What happened is I met this incredible guy, Patrick Ubatier,
a writer, and he said I think we could do
your American show in French. And seriously he goes, okay, yeah,
half of it is stuff that is completely American. It
makes literally no sense if you translated it anyway. But
there's whole chunks this. Yeah, this crosses over, this crosses over,

(32:37):
that crosses over. And they're obsessed with the little house
in the La Patates on La Prairie. They're obsessed with
the House of Bard, They're obsessed with Nellie Elson. So yeah,
foot in the door there and crazy. So he said,
if we do this part, in this part, and we'll
do kind of a sketch thing. So he's on stage,
it's like a sketch thing, discussed this, then I talk
and then and we did Oh my god, I cannot

(32:59):
describe the hit the was. So then he's like, you
want to keep going. So then he wrote a thing
called La Malo tresor Danelli Olson, which is more totally
different material. Going into the audience was a prop show.
You go into the audience and they pick a thing
out of a box and you go, you've picked that,
and they get a whole story and a sketch and
a video or anything, but it's insane. Then we're currently
doing our our third show. We just launched recently, and

(33:21):
I'm heading out there, uh February March to Nellie Elsen
on Flum And that's to the eighties and I'm from Lesana,
Cat and it's eighties nostalgia, game shows, music, celebrities, all
kinds of craziness for the French versus American stuff that

(33:43):
was hot in the eighties than TV shows.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
Parodies somebody that culture to help you.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
That's fantastic, oh exactly. And all the shows audience participation,
dragging people up onto the stage, really really wacky stuff
and it works. And when I was learning French first Suore,
I barely spoke French when I started I was learning French,
and people said, well, oh, cann't you just do it
yeah phonetically. No, because you have to know where the

(34:10):
joke is is. You have to know where the joke is.
So you actually have to go learn French the hard way,
and I have to actually go crack a book and
go to school. And but that's the thing is there
are things in the two languages are very similar, and
then there are things that are like only funny in French,
that's only funny in English. And you're just like, wow,
that is so weird. So yeah, there's things you can

(34:32):
do where you can say, well, I want to do
this this gag in French and it's like, yep, no
one will get.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
That, all right. Thing of American you know, in the
in the forties and fifties, France was the place where
American musicians who weren't getting their due in the United
States went Berth the Kits, Yes, Earth the Kit then
Dorothy Dandridge and Miles Davis and all these guys. And
Miles Davis was actually depressed having to come back of

(35:00):
the United States because of the racism here, but over
there he was totally accepted as the genius he was.
This is me.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
I am totally accepted as the genius. I am a.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
Big between Santa Barbara and the Mexican border. I don't
do it.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
They do. French people, of course, are mad for various
American movies and TV shows, and they think we're just like,
we're adorable. Best when we try to speak French, like
how adorable? That's fair funny you tried to speak they
think we're cute. And then the corsty love little house.
If you if you go to franch it's just telling me,
you know me, and they like Millie Elson and something

(35:40):
that I do. I don't know, it's just it's something
gel somewhere I hit. They get me, I get them.
I don't know, it makes no sense, but I do.
And uh so I've been. I go there and they
I am greeted insanely warmly, and the shows are sold
out and it's just this Bonker's chemistry.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
You do autograph signings and stuff like that over there.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
So I do that and then this. You know, this
year was the fiftieth anniversary as Little House, so all
of us from the show this last of twenty twenty four,
we did fiftieth. I don't know how many things we did.
It was back to back, like every weekend we were
doing some kind of show. Either I was doing my
stand up show somewhere and signing, or we had a
Little House themed autograph event and it was we had
an event in see Me Values like Woodstock. We had

(36:21):
eighteen thousand people show up. Wow, that's wonderful the power
of TV.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
But not only that, we've had other people on from
you know, my three dads and or my three sons. Yes,
and I talked to these guys and they say, you know,
the new streaming platforms like me TV have given all
these shows a second and third generation of fans, and
people are really finding joy and solace and watching these old, wonderful,

(36:55):
gentle shows that show humanity, like Little House and all
that family connections. People love that, and it's sort of
I'm sure you're growing second and third generation fans.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
Oh god, we I last I checked. I think we'ree
a six or seventh generation of fan because if they
were if they were an adult in the seventies and
watched it, and then their kids and then their kids.
I said, we have the original generation, the rerun generation, oh,
the before school reruns and the after school reruns. Then
we had the VHS people, the cable people, the VHS people,
the DVD generation. And I was talking to an older

(37:29):
lady and she had a granddaughter that she's, well, I
watch it my children. What I don't think my granddaughter
watches it? And she goes, yes, I do. I watch
it on YouTube on my phone. And wow, there's a channel,
Because you know Roku and everything, so check out these out.
All your favorite shows are out there. There's some channel
on Roku that literally shows Little House in the Prairie
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and
nothing else. I can't imagine, but I would be like

(37:53):
to watch that. But it's absolutely it has taken a
lot the content.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
And you know a lot of shows were like that.
I mean, we're in a dark, sort of abrasive world
where humor is darker, raggedy now. And it was something
you could watch with the whole family and and there
were always issues you could discuss as a family. And
I guess it's awesome.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
And I think that's true. I mean that's why you know,
with this show, as I say, the alost Arms, we
talk about things to make you feel good. There's so
much incredible television and film that people are turning back
to because there were things in it that were comforting
or meant something and allowed you to process things emotional.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
Family survival and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
And no matter what was going on, the Engles had
it worse. So exactly, so that's why even in the fires,
it's like it's a prairie fire, it was like a
prairie fire, star it was a very fire because it
tore through there. I absolutely have it. So we need
your assistant looking for an assistant residency. It's, as you said,

(39:01):
you don't really do crowd work. But do people come
up to you afterwards? What sort of things do they
ask you?

Speaker 3 (39:07):
Well, I have this dual career where I was on
TV as a weather person for forty years, and it's
a really interesting kind of broadcasting because you break the
fourth wall. You know, you're talking right to the audience
every night, and you come on at the same time
every night, and at five eighteen. I would come on

(39:29):
for the five o'clock weather for forty years every night.
So people have this emotional connection with you, so they
want to come up and just you know, they might
not even talk about the show they just seen and
how brilliant it was. Sometimes they just want to say
how you affected their life. Or I now have a
parrokeet named Fritz thanks to yours. Yeah, that kind of thing,

(39:52):
you know.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
But well that's true, and it's where it's just the
news and the weather.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
This is a true story. So I was in which
is close to my house, and I was, you know,
looking raggedy. I had the flu or something. I had
pajama bottoms on it. This lady came up to me
and she said, I've been a fan of yours. I
just love you. I've been watching you for all these years.
I want to make a suggestion. I said, Okay, here
it comes. I said, please. She said, never wear that

(40:20):
tie that you wore a last Thursday, because it doesn't
compliment your hair.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
You know.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
And these are older women that they treat you like
an aunt, but they feel like because they invite you
into their house every day for forty years, they are
entitled to an opinion to tell you how they feel
about you. And you just have to smile because it
comes from a good place. And it's really interesting.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Wait, because you don't know that, but they know you.
And I've had people even say that to me. They
sort of even get it, you know. Some people just say, well,
I know you. I've had people come up and go, oh, hi,
this is really weird. You don't know me, but I
really really really know you.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
That horring on stalks, you know, like you're in my
living room.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
I'm sorry. I feel like, yes, it's okay.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
Yes, an emotional connection with these people and the camera
doesn't lie. People have a good sense of who you
are just by the way you communicate with them and
how you react to the interact with the other people
you work with. It's really quite fascinating. But it's a gift.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
As kookies is doing the weather. It's a weird thing
because people are watching you, going, can I play golf tomorrow?
Is my child's game going to?

Speaker 3 (41:31):
They don't care about isobars and isotherms and low pressure
and high pressure. Please, for the love of God, do
I have to put on my child's Hello Kitty raincoat
for school tomorrow? That's all they want to know. That's
all they want to know. They don't care about all
the science. And if you can communicate that in a
friendly way every day, they'll be your friend. Because if

(41:53):
you look at all the channels. When I started, there
were three channels, two for it, So everybody's doing the
same thing at the same time. All the weathermen came
on at the same time, all the sports guys. So
the only thing is going to attract them to you.
You're giving the same information from the National Weather Service
as the handsome guy on Channel seven is giving. What

(42:14):
makes them watch you instead, that's when your own personality
and whatever you have to offer subliminately is what attracts
them to you, you know. So it's it's a very
odd business.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
But I mean that's that's his life. I mean, it's
how you interact with other people. Is what makes your life,
your existence in your career. That's what comes down to,
all right, So I got to give them the scoop.
So twenty six these it's sun Sunday Sunday Sunday Sunday Sunday,

(42:48):
January twenty six and February twenty third March at three o'clock,
three o'clock. You can kind of go in and get
a little dinner.

Speaker 3 (42:55):
Afterwards and go can be out in your home by
dark if.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
You don't hope by dark. The Old Port Health Theater,
which is absolutely gorgeous in the intimate form. Sundays at
three and this one, the twenty sixth and the twenty
third are benefits for people who just went through that fire. Now,
what's the organization that's getting this fire recovery fund?

Speaker 3 (43:16):
California Community Foundation. Oh, we love that people that have
been displaced from their home, that need mental health services,
that need medical services. They are case workers and they
will escort you through the harrowing process of having.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Been That's yeah, that's the big because my friends I've
talked to just like Okay, yeah I got my check whatever.
I've talked to the insurance company, the check is coming.
I've talked to FEMA. I have a place to But
have you slept well?

Speaker 3 (43:44):
No? No, that that's one hundred percent. It's your I
think your mental health is a bigger issue. Just the
the insecure feeling of losing everything and not having a
home is trauma.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
I mean just massive, massive trauma that these people are
going through. So for tickets, there is online ticketing and
it is just go get El Portal Theater. That's and
spelled the fancy way FTA l e E l p
O Portal po R finta E, Theatra, theaver dot com
slash fruits gold. I mean, you can google it's the

(44:19):
El Portal Theater. For a toy, there's on your website. Absolutely,
on the Fritz Coleman website. You can find it the
El Portal website. Absolutely, and honestly, nowadays for a show
in LA forty dollars is a freaking stick.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
I do that.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
I never charged too much for my shows. I never
charged too much my shows.

Speaker 3 (44:36):
No, I mean you look at Broadway and stuff. You
can spend a couple of hundred dollars for tickets for everything. Now,
we just wanted to be accessible. Just come and have
a good time.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. I want to do this because
you talk about well yell life, life and being older.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
We're talking about having grandchildren, taking medication at night before
you go to bed. It changes in your body that
you can't control. It's all the relatable things, joy, the
euphoria of becoming of a certain age.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
And this is the longest running, It's the Portal's longest
running attraction. This has been selling out your setting records
for doing it.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
Said the same thing about the Tower of Terror. But
we're you know, we're just cranking away and we're so
thankful because I'm sure you worry about this and talk
about it with your other performing friends. We all wonder
in the era of streaming if live performance is going

(45:35):
to be a thing, and I hope so, because it's
the community aspect of having a common reaction to what
you're watching that makes us human beings and just coming
out for a live event it's very therapeutic.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
I hope you never I found that only twenty twenty
when all my live events were shut down, and I
began doing things online, but doing things online, reading online,
doing live things online, doing live comedy shows, my living
where I was still high there. How you doing it?
You okay out there talking directly to people, and it
was incredible the response I got. I felt better, they
felt better, and then when I could go live again,

(46:08):
it was just like the sky had opened.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
It's a public service. I think comedians have never been
more important. As long as you're not reminding people of
how dark the world is. Just take them out of
their heads for it now.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Yeah, they already know that, all right. Thank you so
much your delight.

Speaker 3 (46:24):
You're awesome. You're so good at this and everything you do,
and I'm happy to talk to you, all right.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
This is fantastic. Sunday Sunday, Sunday, January twenty six, El Portal,
three o'clock. What three o'clock? You got nothing to do
at three o'clock on a Sunday afternoon. Come on and
you see Fritz and Wendy. You are beautiful Windy Leaving,
who we love so much, and you'll be helping all
of these people who including my personal friends, who lost
absolutely everything in the fires. So we love you. Thank you,

(46:50):
thank you so much for coming on, and thank you
to talking ladies and gentlemen. Fritz Coleman and I'm Alison Arkham.
This is the Allis and Argham Shows, The Bag Ti