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Carol Leifer · The Bob Lefsetz Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to Bob left Such podcast. My
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: guest today is Carol Weafer, who has a new book,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: How to Write a Funny Speech. Carol, why this book? Why? Now?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Well, Bob, here's the situation. My co writer Rick Mitchell
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: and I it was doing the writers strike, so we
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: couldn't write any TV. We met for coffee. Rick had
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: just been to an event where someone gave a real
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: clunker of his speech at a wedding, and I had
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: just come back from a wedding where the father of
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: the bride gave a speech that was so bad people
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: were talking about it as they were leaving at the
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: valet Parker. So we both said to ourselves, as professional
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: comedy writers, you know, it's not that it's really not
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: that hard to tell your average person how to do
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: a speech, how to do a funny speech. And we
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: felt like we could walk people through it a to Z,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: make it simple, make it easy, and do it as
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: a public service so nobody else has to sit through
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: another god awful speech and an event. Even more so, Bob,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: because now, back in our day, a bad speech was
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: a funny story sitting around a Thanksgiving something like that.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Now it's being recorded, it might go up on the
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: web and haunt you for the rest of your life.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: So that's why we felt we needed to do this.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, I have to ask you. You do a lot
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: of public speaking. The book is brief in for such
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: a short book. I was sort of stunned how constructive
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: it is. But it seems like preparation. You're a pro
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: okay sopose to the person who has a speech a
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: year or a speech of lifetime. You do a lot
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: of public speaking. Do you prepare and write out a
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: speech to this degree or do you do it off
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: the top of your head?
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Well, I prepare very intensely. I mean the uh, when
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: you're especially when you're paid to speak to a group,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: you want to give it your best shot. So that
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: doesn't mean you're kind of winging it up there and
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: being loosey goosey. I mean you want to be in
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: the moment. But I prepare very much, but I don't
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: write it out. And this is what we tell people
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: in the book to I have kind of bullet points
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: of where that I want to go, so that I'm
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: not only you know. Another big mistake that people make
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: that we found in doing speeches is that they look
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: down and are reading the whole time, and you know
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: that it is not good. You've got to be in
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: the moment connect with people. So we recommend bullet points
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: for a person speaking at an event, and for me,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: I do the same thing. I go up there and
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: I have a very clear idea of what I want
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: to do with each of those bullet points. But it
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: is bullet points.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Okay. Do you have a couple of greatest hits? Do
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: you have memories like a golf player or a baseball player.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I remember this hit in this game. Whatever.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Do you have a couple of times where you have speeches?
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: We go, man, I really hit it out of the park,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: use another sports metaphor.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: You know where I really feel where you know. I
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: like to give speeches, Bob. I don't know about you.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: If someone asks you to speak an event, whether you
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: enjoy that invitation or not. As a comedian and more
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: so as a person, I like speaking at events because
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: I find it's very cathartic for me to share my
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: feelings about a couple that were celebrating a person who's
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: having a big event. But especially I liked I find
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: it especially cathartic when I'm speaking at a celebration of life,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: because it really helps me heal in talking about the
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: person with people that loved this person as well. So
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: I'll give you an example of something that really was
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: good for me to talk about at this memorial because
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: I knew that all the other people there would understand
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: what I was talking about. My cousin Jay sadly passed
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: away from cancer at fifty five, and he was an
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: amazing person. He was an amazing people person and everybody
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: that knew him knew that about him that quality. So
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: I told this story about how about when he was
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: still well dealing with his cancer, his wife and my
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: wife we all went together to the Greek to see
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: the Beach Boys, and I know you had the great
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Mike Love on as well. So not only was I
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: excited to see the Beach Boys loving their music, but
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: we were invited to the after party. And I was
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: very excited to see Mike Love because I opened for
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: the Beach Boys back in nineteen eighty two at Harrah's
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Okay in Tahoe. This is like one of my first
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: big gigs, and I wanted to see if he remembered me.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: So we watched the concert. It's great. We go to
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: the after party and there's Mike Love and you know
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: when you're at a party and try to make your
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: way to somebody, and I saw an opportunity and I
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: missed it. And it's another opportunity that I am missed it.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: And I go to the bar to get a drink.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: I turn around. My cousin Jay is talking with Mike G.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Love like he's known him for a million years, so
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: much so that when I walked up, my cousin Jay
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: was actually, hey, Mike, do you know my cousin Karrols?
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: She opened for you three thousand years ago at Harris.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: So I love telling that story because it encapsulated so
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: much of my cousin Jay, and sharing that with everyone
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: who knew that story was pitch perfect in the kind
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: of person he was. So that kind of thing always
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: makes me happy to share what I love about this person,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: but also sharing with everyone what we loved about this person.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, you also tell that story in the book, but
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: you leave out did I'm sure I know the answer,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: did or did not? My glove remember you, I have.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: To say I don't think he did.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: I would assume he didn't.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think he was polite however he reacted,
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: but I don't remember him going oh right, from forty
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: years ago, Yes you, Carol Leefer, Now that didn't happen.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, wherever you are today, what was the dream back then?
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: What did you want to have happened? Or did you
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: stumble into this when you were a little girl, you'd
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: just say this is what I want to do.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, since I was little, Bob, I've always
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: loved to perform. I mean in our basement downstairs. I
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: made it into a makeshift kind of stage and would
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: get up on it and lip sync Barbara streisand albums
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: or whatever. I just always loved the spotlight and the attack.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: And I always loved being funny because I got really
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: good feedback ever since I was a kid from being
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: funny doing impressions or whatever. So I really feel like
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: I am living my dream and have lived my dream
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: for so many years because I just wanted to be
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: in show business really bad.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, Okay, you definitely are in show business. When I
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: certainly became aware of you first, you were a stand up.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: In addition that you've written TV scripts, some of which
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: are legendary like Seinfeld and the Marble Rye. You've written
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: for the Academy Awards. All of this is fantastic. In
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: the back of your mind, you say, well, I really
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: wanted to be going back to our generation. I really
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: wanted to be as big as Alan King or Joan Rivers.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: You know, as I say, have you followed the ball
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: where it bounced or is there still some dream you
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: wish to achieve?
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Well, that's a really good question. Well, I'm very happy
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: with where my career is at. I mean when you ask,
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: you know, becoming Joan Rivers or becoming Rodney Dangerfield, I
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: don't know that I wanted to be a full time
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: stand up comedian. And I'll tell you why is because
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: what I love about comedy writing is what I loved
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: about being funny growing up. You know, when you are
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: stand up, you travel by yourself and you go here
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: and there and you work on your own act by yourself.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: But when I'm in a writer's room, I really feel
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: like that's my nirvana. I'm with other funny people and
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: the synergy and the chemistry of that. I'm kind of
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: with my favorite people that people that speak my language,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: and that makes me really happy. So I'm really happy
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: that I developed a writing career. It's funny when I
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: was offered my first writing job, which was on Saturday
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Night Live in nineteen eighty five. I remember my dad
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: was really important figure to me also because he dreamed
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: of being a comedian and a comedy writer. So the
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: fact that I fulfilled his dream was something that he
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: felled about and I was certainly happy about. But I
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: remember my father saying to me, and I was like,
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know, Dad, I still love doing stand up.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: He really pushed me to take the writing job because
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: he said, Carol, in any business, it's always good to diversify,
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: and I think, looking back, that's very very good advice.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: I think my only regret would be, you know, I
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: had my own sitcom, my short lived sitcom in nineteen
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: ninety seven to ninety eight on the WB network called
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: al Right Already, and it was kind of like my Seinfeld.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, I wasn't a comedian or anything in it,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: but I really wanted that to take off. I mean,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry that it didn't, but that was really a
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: dream that I fulfilled. I just wish that it had
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: been more successful.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Well at this late date, twenty five years in the
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: rear view mirror. Okay, there could be many reasons why
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: it was not as successful as you wanted to do.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: It could be timing in the schedule, it could be
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: lack of promotion. It could be the audience didn't get it.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Or you can look back and say, if I'd just
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: done this or that, there would be a greater chance
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: of success. So where does the lack of success of
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: your personal show lie.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: That is a very very good question. I look, I
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: know you can't control everything. And by the way, to
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: this day, the guy who was in charge of the WB,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: who ran the WB at that time, whose name I
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: will not mention, still comes over to me and says,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: I'm so sorry I canceled your show. I'm so sorry,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: which I still enjoy. I still enjoy his apology. But
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: there's one small regret I have, and I don't know
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: that it would have turned the tide. But I do
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: think about this one little element, Bob, which was when
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: they were deciding about renewing my show or not. It's
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: a bit of a more complicated story than I thought.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: I remember Bill Carter, you know, the at that time,
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: the media writer for TV writer for The New York Times.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: He liked my show, and he said, I'd like to
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: write a piece on it, but if I know that
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: it's coming back. So this was relayed to the big
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: wig at the WB and he said, we're ninety five
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: percent sure it's coming back. So I kind of believe
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: ninety five percent. So they had a big meeting that
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: I was, you know, should have been at about whether
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: they were going to pick it up or not. And
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: I was on vacation in uh Hawaii, and I just thought, well,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: my people will handle it. Ninety five percent, We're good.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: And they did wind up the five percent canceling the show.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: So I just had that one small regret that because
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: my philosophy of being around in show business for almost
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: fifty years is on my end. I have to do
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: everything I can to make sure things are successful. That's
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: my responsibility. So I'm just a little so worry that
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: I didn't go to that that meeting, but I yeah,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: I still don't think they would have picked it up,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: but I do think about that.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Let's go back to the beginning. Would your father do
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: for a living?
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: My father was an optometrist and his name was Seymour Come.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: On Bob Listen, I got it, isn't it With comedians
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: you're not supposed to laugh out loud and just go yeah,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: that's a good run or something.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: He was an optometrist by trade, but he was the
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: master joke teller of joke tellers. He was literally like,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: give me any subject, whatever subject you have, I have
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: a joke on it. And you know a couple of
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: things he told jokes when I look back now, as
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: good as any pro that I know. You really had
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: fantastic timing. He had an appreciation of But I saw
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: how he connected with people through humor, and he was
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: called the tumbler of the family. If you're familiar with the.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Course from the Mountains.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, he was always entertaining people with his jokes,
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: and he was funny personally, but he also loved comedy.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Like we listened to the two thousand year Old Man
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: record in my house growing up. We could all practically
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: lip sync it, Vaughan Meeterer albums, Alan Sherman. So I
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: think not only watching him connect with people through being
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: funny and his love of comedy, you know, watching the
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Ed Sullivan Show and watching the great comedians, you know
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Jackie Mason, and Ronnie Dangerfield and Alan King. I mean
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: this was like my comedy education through him. So yeah,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: he just, you know, he was never able to be
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: professionally funny. And whenever I asked him, like, Dad, how
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: hung you didn't pursue this yourself, I think he said
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: something that a lot of men of that generation would say,
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: which was you know, he said, Carol, I had to
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: make a living. You know, it was a far off
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: dream to his generation to take that leap, that risk.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: But there's one story about my dad, you know, seeing
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: that he was never able to make it professionally, but
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: one story that gives me so much solace and happiness
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: hearing about it. So my mom was a psychologist and
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: every year she would go to the APA convention, their
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: meeting or whatever. And one time they went to one
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: of those psychological events and the person running it said, oh,
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: our entertainment dropped out, and my father said, well, I'm
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: happy to go up and tell some jokes if you like,
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: and they were like please, great, and I wasn't there,
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: but apparently my father went up and he slayed them,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, just tore the room apart. And my mother
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: was just so happy about it, and everybody was coming
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: over to them afterwards, and that made me so happy
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: that he did have his moment in the sun. And
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: the other thing that makes me feel good about my
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: dad of him never getting to have a career in comedy,
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: is that when my father passed, the first thing everybody said,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: and you know, you sit shiver for several days, you
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: see a lot of people. The first thing everybody said
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: was your father was so funny, and if he could
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: know that, even that would would make him so happy.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, where do he get his material?
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: That's a very good question. I don't know. I think
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: over the years he just would hear a great joke
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: and then remember it. I remember he had a list
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: of jokes that he kept in his wallet, bullet points
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: of what the jokes were. I think that's how he
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: called all these jokes over the years.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Okay, my father told jokes too, you know, it's sort
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: of a Jewish tradition. Do you remember a couple of
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: his jokes.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: I do remember a couple of his jokes. Yes, Oh,
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: he loved telling this one for sure. So I don't
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: know if you've heard this. One guy goes to the
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: ticket window of a movie theater with a chicken on
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: his shoulder and asked for two tickets. Particularly he asks
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: who's going in with him. The guy says, my pet chicken. Here.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: Ticket lady says, I'm sorry, but we don't allow animals
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: in the movie theater. So the guy goes around the block.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: He stuffs the chicken down his pants, goes back to
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: the ticket window, buys his ticket, and goes into the movies. Now,
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: once the movie starts, the chicken starts to get a
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: little hot, so the guy SIPs his pants so the
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: chicken can stick his head out and get a little air. Naturally,
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: woman sitting next to the guy sees this, and she
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: is understandably appalled. She nurges her girlfriend. She goes this
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: guy next to me just and zipped his pants. Woman
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: says back, hey, look, you know you've seen one. You've
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: seen them all. And the woman goes, I know, but
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: this one's eating my popcorn, all right. I got Bob
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: to laugh.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Sounded like yeah too, Do you have another one?
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: I do have another one that Yes, Jewish women love
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: this joke, as I hope you'll see. So this Jewish
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: mom is out on the beach with her little toddler,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: having a great time. They're playing in the sun and
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: the sand and the surf, having a wonderful time. All
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: of a sudden, I don't know where, this huge wave
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: comes up, picks up the toddler and shoots him out
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: to sea. You know, the Jewish woman is beside herself.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: She looks up at the sky and she says, Oh,
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: my God, God, please, I'll do anything, anything, just please
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: please bring my little boy back to me, Bring my
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: little boy back to me. Next thing, you know, another
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: wave comes up deposits the little boy back on the sand.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: There he is safe and sound. The Jewish mother picks
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: him up. She squeezes her sun like she's never squeezed
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: him before. She looks up at the sky and she says,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: he had a hat.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Ah. That is good, that is good. Okay, your father
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: were his parents born in America?
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: No, they were, I believe somewhere of Poland.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, did you know them?
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: I knew my grandfather, Well, I didn't really know. I
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: was four when he passed away, so I did not
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: know them. And I wish I really should find out
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: where exactly they're from, because I did that ancestry thing
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: and it came back just one hundred percent Jewish.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: That's actually kind of rare. Really, there's usually three or
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: two percent whatever, Bob, I have not done it, but
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I'm just talking anecdotally what I've read.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Huh, because did they other people's don't come back one
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: hundred Lutheran? Like, what is with that? I don't get it.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: And how about on your mother's.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: Side, my mother's my grandparents, I think are they're from Russia? Yeah,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: so they're all from the Old Country as we call it.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: As my grandparents were too. So how did your parents meet?
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: My parents met at City College, obviously in New York. Yes.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Do you know any more specifics of how they met
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: at City College?
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: I don't, Other than this story was that my mother
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: was the club cutie of some club she was in.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: And I just remember my father telling of a funny
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: story because my mother was one of six kids, that
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: the first time he went over to my grandparents' house
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: to meet them, my uncle, her younger brother, opened the
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: door and said to my father, we don't like your
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: type and slammed the door.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: That was a humorous thing, or was that real?
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: It was humorous these twenty years later, I'm sure right
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: at the time, not very humorous because I'm sure my
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: mother opened the door back up and was my little
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: brother doing. But I remember that being part of the
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: family lore.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: And so how many kids in the family?
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: There were six in my it was.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: On your generation, your brothers and sisters.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Three?
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: And where are you in the hierarchy?
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: I'm the youngest. And I don't know if you've heard
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: this or not, but a lot of comedians are the youngest,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: the attention hogs.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Well, it's funny. My younger sister prides herself a comedian.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: You have the wherewithal to go as far as you did.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: What are the two older ones up to?
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: Well, the two you know, it's a family very entrenched
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: in the mine world mind world. My brother's a psychiatrist,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: and my sister has a degree, she has her PhD
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: in linguistics, but she is also a therapist as well.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Well, it's funny they're both in their field. Who ran
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: the house? Who are the peants in the family, Your
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: mother or your father?
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: I think my father, my father. It's funny though, when
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: my mother, my mother became a PhD in psychology in
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: the seventies, and you know, that was sort of unusual
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: at that time for women to pursue their career like that,
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: and I give her a lot of credit. But I
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: remember that when my mother started to really embark on
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: her getting her PhD, my father kind of took over
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: a lot of the family chores, like he did the
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: grocery shopping, and he always had a funny story about that.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: I still remember to this day, Bob. He would talk
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: about how when he went grocery shopping, some of the
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: women would, you know, congregate in the aisles, and he
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: would go around them with his cart and say under
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: his breath, totally oblivious. But and then he started he
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: did the grocery shopping. Then he started baking. He got
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: my aunt Ellie's recipe for ruggluch and he started making
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: it at home. And I'm telling you, I haven't had
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: a piece of ruggloch that good since my father's, so
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: I think he's sort of when he retired. When he
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: retired and my mom started to really pursue her education
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: her PhD, that he sort of took over in that
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: way and he did well with it. But he was
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: also very very handy around the house. His father was
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: apparently a landlord, so he learned so many things to
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: do around the house. I know you're a big music
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: lover as I am, because I listened to your pod.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: And when the Mamas in Papa's album came out and
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: the song Monday Monday, he had such a jones for
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: this Monday Monday. He figured out some contraption Bob on
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: the record player that it would keep it just the single,
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: this contraption with string, that it would somehow keep playing
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Monday Monday over and over. So he was very inventive
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: that way as well. But I think he certainly ran
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: the house. He you know what Dad wanted, We we
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: went along with. But it wasn't in a, you know,
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: in a dictatory way, but I think he did. He
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: did wear the pants.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: And where did you grow up?
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: I grew up on Long Island in East Williston, Okay.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Where exactly is that?
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Are you familiar with the are you need?
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna find out how familiar I am right now.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Okay. East Williston is a little town near Roslyn, Minneola.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I just found out recently that my George
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: Santos was the congressman from where I grew up, which
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: I could not believe, could not because it was so
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: democratic and when I was growing up, and to hear
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: that it, wow, it flipped the other way was a
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: bit eye opening to me.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: So did you go to public school?
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: I did go to public school. I went to the
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: school system where I grew up. I think it's still
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: in the top one hundred, if not, like maybe number
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: one of the public schools. People really wanted to live
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: in the area I grew up and because the schools
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: were so great, and I did get a great, great education.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: So what kind of kid were you? Were you a
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: smart kid? Did you do well? You know, how did
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: you fit into the school hierarchy?
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: I like to think I always did well in school.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: I have my own son now and this doesn't apply.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: When I was growing up, it was like, of course
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: I had to do well in school. My parents would
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: have killed me.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: He you know, this came up just yesterday. Looked like
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: and they literally would have killed us.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: Absolutely exactly.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: And it was I think a healthy fear that we
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: had of being killed.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: I can remember. I remember came home on a freshman
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: year with what my father considered to be a bad
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: report card. He started to lose it so much, was
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: so angry that it was less me say, feeling the
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: blow of his being eager, saying, this guy is so
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: out of control it is weird.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: I get it. I totally get it. It does not
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: sound a strange at all to me. Yeah, So did
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: I did well in school? And you know, in high school,
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: I think I was part of a good crowd. I
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: played sports in high school, I was a cheerleader, So
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: school was always good and fun for me. I did it,
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: was in a lot of skits, and did a lot
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: of comedy in high school. So I you know, like
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: I told you earlier, early on, I knew that I
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: wanted to perform and be out there on stage.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you graduated from high school and you go
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: to Binghamton to college. What was that like?
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: Well, Binghamton was great and I really credit it now
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: looking back with a sort of serendipity of where I
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: am today, because well, I went to Binghamton because my
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: older sister Jane had gone there and I visited and
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: I really liked the school. Also, maybe you can relate
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: to this too, Bob. Growing up, you know, my father
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: is like, can go to any school you want, as
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: long as it's a state school. So Binghamton was the
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: school for me. But while I was there, I was
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: in a theater group with a guy named Paul Reiser,
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: and he was the one who told me that there
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: were these comedy clubs springing up in Manhattan. This is
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: all really new, this is like the late seventies. And
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: he told me about how anybody could go on an
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: open mic night and do five minutes. He had done it,
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: and I did it with Paul. You know, went to
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: an open mic night. I look back now, I can't
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: believe that it, you know, twenty and twenty one. I
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: had the hutzpah to go and do this in a
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: New York City nightclub. But that's also the beauty of youth,
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: having this freshness. And I passed the audition at two
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: comedy clubs, one the Comic Strip where Jerry Seinfeld was
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: the MC that night who put me through, and I
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: passed the audition. Another club, Patchurizing Star that's no longer there,
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: and the MC that night was Larry David who put
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: me through. So I literally go back to my first
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: stay of show business with these guys.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Okay, you grow up on Long Island, you go to Binghamton.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Although you meet Paul Riser is it weird being in
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: a large population with many fewer Jews.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: Wait, what do you mean like when I left? Wait,
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: he asks me, what you mean?
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Okay, I grew up in the suburbs in Connecticut. I
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: went to college. You know, just you're talking about when
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: you're in the suburbs. It wasn't that the Jews were
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: the dominant population in my town, or there were plenty
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: of Jews, but their parents scared him into doing well
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: in school, such as there were a lot of Jews
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: in the top classes. Then I went to college, there
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: were very few Jews, and it actually made me more Jewish.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: I was wondering if you had a similar experience.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: No, No, In fact, I grew up I think in
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: a very Jewish area was one thing. But you know
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: Roslyn Heights, I mean it was almost all Jewish. But
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: when I went to Dampton, it was very, very big
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: Jewish population of students. So I think even more so
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: than where I grew up.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Okay, how did you literally meet Paul Riser?
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: I literally met him. I had auditioned to be in
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: this our dorm. Our dorm section was doing you can't
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: take it with you to play, and I auditioned and
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: I got it, and Paul was in the ensemble. Of
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: course he was hilarious, and that's how I met him.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, you meet him, you like him. You're you know,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: a couple hundred miles from the epicenter of culture in
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: New York City. Do you say to yourself, Oh, this
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: is just a funny guy, or do you say, wait
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: a second, this guy is pretty funny, more funny than
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: the people I grew up with. You know, maybe I'm
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: in college now, maybe this is going to turn into something.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well I skipped one part. Boy, this guy is
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: really funny and he's really cute too, And I dated him.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, we quote from mel Brooks's two thousand year
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: Old Man, I vented him. So yeah, I just I
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: just could tell from going to these nightclubs. This to
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: me felt like a shortcut to Hollywood and fame, because,
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: you know, when I came up and my open mic nights,
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: this was happening to comedians. Freddy Prince would go on
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: the Tonight show Boom the next day he had a sitcom.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: It really was the stepping stone to big, big things
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: for people. So I felt like, instead of doing acting
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: and an agent and an audition and all this stuff.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: I can kind of control this, uh, this path myself,
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: and that always appeal to me. And also I can
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: control my own comedy, which I've always loved over the years,
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: like win or lose. I'm still driving the car here.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's go back to Paul Riser. I got a
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: reason I'm going here. So how do you end up
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: dating him?
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: How do I end up dating him? Well, how does
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: anybody want to do?
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Well? Okay, wait, okay, you and me both know it
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: is very, very difficult to make it to have this
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: level of success, and talent is nowhere near the major
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: percent well, it is is nowhere near the percentage of
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: the wes. And somebody makes it as people think they do.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: There are people who have drive and have opportunity. I'll
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: give you an example. You emailed me, which I was thrilled.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: I've known who you are for decades, and then you
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: mentioned being on the podcast. I was going to ask you, okay,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: but you threw it out there, not in an aggressive fashion.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: So I am interested in the personality. I mean, okay,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: I was dealing with somebody who was a radio consultant
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: the other day when they became a music supervisored. So
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: the opportunity came up, I had no idea what I
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: was doing. I said, yes, I know this person. You know,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: he sort of puts himself in the mix. So are
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: you saying, I mean, let's say Paul Reiser is there
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: very verbal person, You're a very verbal person, and you
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: meet him whatever. You know, there are people waiting at
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: home for the phone to ring, and there are other
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: people saying, hey, we should go get a pizza. Hey,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: you know pushing it forward? Is that your personality?
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: Oh? Completely? And you know I keep talking about because
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: it still stupefies me that I'm doing this for almost
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: fifty years.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: I have always been someone who it's very simple equation
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: to me. You know, I enjoy your podcast. I enjoy
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: your emails every day, and when I am a fan
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: of someone and I feel like I would potentially be
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: a good mix with someone. You know. I had a
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: publicist for my book. I told her way back when
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: to go after getting on your podcast. Nothing ever happened.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: So now that I'm not working with her, well, it's
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: not all that hard. You ever an email? I email too,
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: I'd love to be on your show. I'm glad you
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: pointed out, and not in an aggressive way, because I
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: really feel when you take that step of approaching someone personally,
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: you have to be delicate because if someone feels like
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: you're steamrolling them, you know. I'm on the other side
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: of that. Sometimes I feel like no, no, no, no, no,
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: not interested, and I always go into it. If you
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: had not gotten back to me or gotten back to
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: me and said I'm sorry, I don't have room right now,
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: or whatever your way of saying no was, I would
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: have been fine with it. I mean, I've learned along
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: the way to go after things that I'd like to do,
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: but at the same time, if they don't happen, it's okay, It's.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay. Jumping forward, how do you end up writing
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: for the Oscars?
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: Well, yes, a big jump, but I'm taking it the Oscars,
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: like many things in show business, I was just kind
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: of doing my thing. I think the first time was
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: I was approached was ninety seven, maybe Bruce Falange reached
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: out to me. He was the head writer and asked
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: if I wanted to write for the Oscars. I remember
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: passing the first time because I was in the middle
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: of doing my then sitcom, and then after that I remember,
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: he asked me another time and the next time, and
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: I jumped in and since then, you know, I've done
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: it many times, many many times over the years. And
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: of all the things I love to do, and I
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: do love to do many different things involving comedy, award
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: shows are one of my favorite, absolutely, and especially the
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: Oscars because it's the big kahuna. It's the award show
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: that all the other award shows bowed down to. So
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: I'm very honored to be a part of it.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, when Bruce calls you, do you have a relationship
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: with Bruce? Do you know Bruce at that point? Yeah?
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: I think I think we probably if we didn't, if
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: we weren't friends, we certainly would see each other at things.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: I mean. Another thing that I love about being a comedian,
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: about being a funny person is that, uh, you know
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: other funny people. We're all one people. So when I
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: meet another comedian, I don't have to know what his
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: act is or what her shpiel is or whatever, just
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: knowing that they're professionally funny, there's instantly a bond. I
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: find that people sometimes have this misconception. They asked me
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: about my career where people cutthroat, people competitive and yeah,
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: you know, trying to derail. It's the complete opposite. When
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: I find I'm with funny people, it's the most supportive,
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: fun group of people I could ever be with. Like
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: I said earlier in our conversation, we speak the same language.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: I feel like I'm with people who have the same
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: a similar personality to me in certain ways. So, yeah,
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: Brews gotten in touch with me. I don't know how
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: well he knew me, but he certainly we knew. I
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: knew of him, of course, but you know he knew
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: of me.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, So a lot of you grew up in New York.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: You mentioned the clubs, you know, catch a rising star,
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: et cetera. At the same time, does every comedian know
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: every comedian?
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: Well, not to sound like an old timer, but back
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: in the day, he pretty much did. I mean, I
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: think younger comedians are really just surprised when I tell them,
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: Like when I started, you knew the comedians that were
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: in New York it was probably twenty five people, if
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: that female wise, there were probably four or five. And
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: then out on the West Coast, I got it was
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: very prestigious at that time. Someone came in from oh
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: I should remember the club's name, but it was like
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: a club in Claremont and one in Newport Beach, and
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: they would fly you out there and you could perform
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: these clubs. And then when I went out to California
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: and I saw the scene out here, there are literally
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: twenty people probably that were doing stand up. Now I
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: can't even begin to tell you how many comics there are.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: I go on a lot of times at the Comedy
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: and Magic Club, which is in Hermosa Beach, and I
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: like it because they do a lot. It's ten comics.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: They call it ten for ten, ten comics each doing
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: ten minutes. And I just went this past Saturday. I
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: meet all these great new young comments and every Saturday
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: it's like a new crop. So, yeah, we did know
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: most of the comedians back then.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, you know Netflix was doing a stand up a week. There.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: There's a plethora of comedy. Forgetting the comedy bloom of
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: the eighties and nineties, let's just talk about now. There's
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: a plethora of comedy. Comedy is a broad swath, but
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: let's just start with stand up. There's more than ever before.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: It's more available than ever before. I'll use music as
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: an analogy, it's more than there ever was before. It's
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: big business, but I've been around since the Beatles. It
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: doesn't represent what it used to be, and the acts
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: are in as good. What would you say about comedy.
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: I would actually say about comedy. I don't. I still
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: think people are doing it and doing it well.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: I just.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: You know, I think I also feel like I have
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: to watch my old person ness, my boomer ness and say, eh,
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: you know, the new crop they're not as good as weird.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: And then there's a lot of great comedy out there.
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: And what I think is great about comedy, And you know,
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: by the same token music is if you don't like it,
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: don't listen to it. But you know where I feel
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: like there's certainly a dearth of new rock stars per se. Boy,
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: there's just a shitload of comedy that's out there and
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: really good. I mean you start to think, you know,
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: is there one more airline joke that that's funny? Yeah,
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: I just heard one this past Saturday night. There you know,
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: still mining out there, you know, we're their heads with
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: the lamps on it and finding very good stuff. I
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: think it's great.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, to what degree do you feel the competition.
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: I don't feel the competition, and I'll tell you why,
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: for a couple of reasons. One is I noticed that
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: when I go up as an older person, I mean,
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: I don't think I you know, I'm a boomer, but
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: I think people people like it. I would say, you know,
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: people my age like to hear from someone of their generation,
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: but I think younger people like it as well. I remember,
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: you know, watching older comedians when I was young and
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: enjoying them. But I don't feel competitive because nobody is me.
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: Nobody is me Bob, and I have my own take.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: I've always had my own individual take on things that
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: connect with audiences. I'm pleased to say, and the more
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: that I keep writing, I don't feel like I'm ever
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: in anybody's class. And the great thing about comedy is
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: it's all about what you're putting out there, and if
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: what you're putting out there is good, you're not really
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: in competition with anybody else because it's your own thing.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: So how would you describe your own act in your
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: own sensibility?
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: My act, Well, i'd like to I think it's I'd
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: like to think it's whimsical. It's not aggressive or attacking
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: or anything like that. I feel like it's just it's whimsy.
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: But the great thing about I think being a funny person.
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: And I heard this from I was flying back, no
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: airline joke to come. I was flying back from somewhere
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: and they had a masterclass by David Sedaris and I
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: watched it, and I thought he said something pretty profound
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: that I hadn't realized for all these years that I
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: do comedy. And he was talking about how funny people
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: have the advantage of having embarrassing or terrible things happened
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: to them and then making humor out of it. I like,
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: for example, what he talked about was, I'm paraphrasing, but
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: he went to the doctor for something and they asked
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: him to want dress and put on one of those
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: horrible robes that open in the back, and they had said,
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: and then go to this room and wait. And he
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: went into this room where there were all people dressed
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: and waiting, and he sat there for a couple of
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: minutes before he kind of realized, oh, I'm apparently in
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: the wrong room, and he left. But he was talking
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: about how too, you know your average person, that's a
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: horrible thing and you just kind of Grin and Barrett,
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: you go off to the other room. But funny people,
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: we can take that story and make hay of it
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: and make it humorous. So the terrible things that happened
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: to us can become fodder. And I found that in
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: my own life, you know, Like I was walking my
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: dog recently in my neighborhood and I got to a
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: crosswalk and instead of stopping, this car of young guys
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: came and barreled through the crosswalk, almost hitting me. And
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: so what did I do. It was kind of stupid.
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: I flipped them off, so big mistake. You know, they
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: did a new turn. They're following down the street, honking
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: their horn. I was really scared. And then one of
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: them rolled down the window and he said to me,
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: you're a fat whore. And he also said, and your
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: dog is ugly. But anyway, so I tell this story
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: now on stage of what happened minus the dog, you know,
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: and he said you're a fat horror and yeah. It
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: was really shaken up. And I went home and I
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: said to my wife, yeah, fat, And the audience loves
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: the story. You know, I've taken something that was really
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: upsetting to me, and now it's part of being funny.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: If you went back and looked at your early material,
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: would you cringe or you say, no, that's my act.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, now I'm very Someone recently sent me my first letterman,
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: which was in nineteen eighty two. I mean, it's like
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: watching my daughter. It's like that far back, and I
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: just get a real kick out of it. I really
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: even sort of miss I have. I had this kind
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: of joyful, you know, uncratered enthusiasm going out there that
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: I sort of miss now, this youthful exuberance, No, I love.
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: I love watching my old stuff and remembering what I
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: was thinking when I was doing it, and what was
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: going on, and all.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: That tell me about your state of mind today visa
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: the yesteryear. That youthful exuberance you say you wish you had,
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: you say you don't have it, tell me about that.
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I think that I look back at
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: that youthful exuberance and I just look at it as
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: being young. I mean I miss it justin in being young.
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: I don't miss it in terms of oh I wish that,
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: wish I had that today. It's just to me, watching
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: your younger self is fulfilling in a certain way, because
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: it's like, oh, that's who I was back then, and
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: look at me. I was really acting young because I
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: was young. So I do miss the like when we
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: were talking about when I went on those open mic
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: nights at twenty and twenty one, I do miss the
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: I would say recklessness, but it's not the jumping in
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: to anything when you're young, because you're young and maybe
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: in a way clueless of the consequences, but you're ready
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: to jump off that cliff. And certainly now as an
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: older person, you know, I'm not going to go hang gliding.
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: I'm not. I know you ski. It's like, what what
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: are you thinking? I don't want to fall. I've had
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: too many friends at this age fall. I have to
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: get a good pair of sneakers. Maybe I'll get sketches. Bob, Yeah, right,
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: spoke so highly of them. But yeah, there's a certain
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: caution being older that I respect a lot.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm less worried about that aspect then more the
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: state of mind, of career and then mixing and aging. Yes,
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: when you're nobody from nowhere, you have this incredible desire
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: to push walls down and make it by anybody's standards.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: In comedy, in Hollywood, You've made it. I'm not saying
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: that reads a complacency. It could in some people, but
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: certainly not in your case. But you know, you look
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: at the game and say, well, what are the targets
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: out there? And even if I achieved that target, would
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: it mean enough for me to do it? You know,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: once I achieved it?
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well. The good thing about stand up comedy is
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: I know that there's more for me to say, there's
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: more jokes for me to write, There's more things I
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: like to say and talk about. So I always look
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: ahead optimistically in that way. And as we've been talking
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: a lot before about this, nobody has will ever have
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: my act or my jokes. So to me, that's always
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: been a big advantage in the SHOWPI Is World, because
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: I'm not trying to write a show for somebody. I'm not.
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: You know, it's a whole different thing when you work
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: in one as one, and I always think like there's
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: always an audience for I think what I'm doing, what
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: anybody's doing. If you connect with whoever you connect with,
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: that to me that that's a thumbs up. And more importantly,
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: I think Bob I dig being creative. That's my Jones.
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: You know, that's my thing. It really makes me feel alive. Really,
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: it's what led to writing my book. I mean, I
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: was writing a TV I couldn't do it because of
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: the strike. Honoring the strike. I always like to be
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: that I'm working on. That's I'm thinking about that. Yeah,
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: that's that's my fix.
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's look at Bill Maher. Let's not get into
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: his act or whatever. And he's got a TV show's
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: had a TV show for thirty odd years. He says
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: he's quitting the road if you look at some of
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: his numbers, not necessarily going clean everywhere. But that's not
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: really the point. I know Richard Lewis. I knew Richard
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: a certain amount, not a lot. Which people don't realize
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: about Richard, which I have to throw in, is he
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: was that guy. You know, there's so many people you think,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, you know, it's just so hilarious, but you know,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: well he only he unfortunately passed, but he only wanted
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: to do so much work. Now, your career is not
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: that of the average stand up comedian. But let's say
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: the aviad, you know, we look at it. You could
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: go book thirty dates of whatever number of tickets you
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: could sell somewhere between five hundred and fifty thousand, and
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: you can go out and you collect money. You reach
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: this age. Is that's still satisfying?
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: Absolutely? Absolutely? Yeah. I don't know why. I'm just interested.
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: Why would you think it would not be?
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, let's use a couple of examples musicians. Musicians
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: have hits otherwise you can't play it all. And if
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: you go on the road you have to play those
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: hits and people find out you're not, then people are
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: not going to come. There are a lot of musicians
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: who say, hey, yeah, you know, I'm singing my hit,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about doing the laundry, etc. We live in
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: an interesting world where there's so much stuff. Okay, such
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: a if you do something live, it's a momentary thing
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: for that audience, and then you move on and do
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: it for another audience. With a comedian, it tends to
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: be a similar act. So uh huh. At what point
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: do you say, well, I'm out here, it's fun hearing
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: people laugh, I'm getting paid, but it doesn't mean the
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: same thing because it's not moving my career forward. Let
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: me throw that into the mix. It used to be
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: in the sixties certainly the seventies, if you wanted to
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: be successful, going on the road was part of growing
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: your audience. Okay, certainly for an established comic who's charging
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: an admission fee in excess of thirty five dollars, it's
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: not really growing their audience. That's not how you grow
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: your addies. Not to mention it, it's so hard to
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: grow your audience today. So you could be sitting at
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: home saying, especially if you have enough in your bank account.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: You know, this is sort of a pass thing. But
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: using an example, I could come up with a tweet
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: that's so good it could go viral. I could do
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: a skit on TikTok so good, I could reach millions
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: of people. Whereas, if I go on the road, I'm gonna,
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: you know, when I'm all said and done, I'm gonna,
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: you know, reach a small fraction of the population. And
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: am I really moving the needle forward? You know? Conversely,
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: you're talking about playing the Oscars. You know, we can
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: debate all day long how many people actually watch the show,
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: et cetera, But a shit ton do And you say,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: I'm sure if you're there, and the comedian lands your
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: joke and there's a big laugh. You know you're talking
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: about velling. This is the greatest thing that ever happened.
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: You're on a high for a couple of days. Okay,
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: But that's different from saying, oh, yeah, I told a
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: joke and Poughkeepsie the audience loved it.
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I think you're missing the experience of
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: being a comedian because as many times as I've told
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: the joke, when the audience laughs at it, it's like
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: the first airing the laugh for the first time. But
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: it's interesting what you bring up, Okay, Bob, because you know,
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: I'm getting a re education on comedy every moment because
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: things change, and things changed drastically from when I started
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy seven. For example, Now I've thought a
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: lot about, ah god, it would be great if I
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: could get a special like on net Felix or Hulu
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: Prime one of those. I'm not going to get a special.
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: It's just not going to happen. But talking to these
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: young comics as I do now, one of them was
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: telling me the other night he went on and he
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: said to the audience, oh, this is great because I'm
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: about to tape my special. And after he got off stage,
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: I said, Oh, that's cool. Who are you doing this
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: special for Netflix Hulu? He was like, I'm taping it
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: myself and then I'm putting it up on YouTube. And
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, like why would you do that?
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: He was like, Oh, that's the way to go these days.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: Tell me how a comedian he knows that a Netflix special.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: He did so much better putting his own up on YouTube.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: And then I was like, okay, and then I'm thinking
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: about material, how much material I need? What do you
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: need to do an hour now and fifteen? He is like, no,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: thirty forty minutes. You can do less than that. People
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: only a wived for the first ten minutes. And then suddenly,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: now I seek that I can have a special. And
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: do I do a special? I performed for so many
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: Jewish groups? Yeah, so surprised. I could do a special
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: of all my Jewish material and put it out there,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: and I bet you, Bob, I bet you I'd get
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: twenty or thirty groups that hire me, which would be fantastic.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I think there's always that. To me, was
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: so exciting to hear that. That made my year hearing
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: that thinking about a special, and especially my personality as
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: you touched on earlier. I can make this happen in
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: three seconds.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: Fantastic, Okay, I had the same experience. I see a
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: lot of comedy on TikTok and Instagram reels and they'll
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: say my special, and I'll say this person has a special,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: And that's how I found about the YouTube specials. But
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: you just laid it out. You speak to Jewish groups,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: you have the material. What's going to take to get
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: you over the hump to actually do it?
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: You mean to actually get the gigs, no.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: To film, you know what. Listen, ten minutes plus ten
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: minutes is enough. Yeah, you stand up there and you
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: do ten minutes worth of Jewish stuff. It's going to
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: lead to work.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: So you found out about it the Comedy Magic Club.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: Are you going to do it?
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: Of course I'm going to do it. Of course. Am
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: I going to do it right now? I don't know.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: I'm promoting my book, Bob. That takes a lot of
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: energy and effort. I'm also of the age that I
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: am like to be in bed around ten you know
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: what I mean? My souted ten twenty. You know, comedy.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: The biggest challenge for me is it's a young person's game.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: In terms of the hours. You know Fraser Smith, who
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: was you know, a big DJ on k Los. He's
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: out there killing him. I worked with him Saturday night.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: He's so funny. He was like, come on my show
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: at the comedy Store. I'm like, great, I haven't been
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: on at the comedy store. This is a way in.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: He was like, yeah, I start my show at nine thirty.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: And I was thinking, all right, I'd like to do it, Frasher,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: but you got to get me on early. I got
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: to get home, I got to get to sleep. Can
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: I tell you another joke that my father told all
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: this reminded me of this. Oh my god, do I
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: love this joke? Okay, So this guy comes home from
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: the doctor. The wife says to him, what did the
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: doctor say? Guy says, I can't believe it. Doctor says
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: I have twenty four hours to live. The wife is like,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: oh my god, I can't believe it. Well, what would
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: you like to do? And the husband says, how about sex?
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: So they have sex and then she says all right, honey,
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: what would you like to do? Now? He says, how
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: about some more sex? She goes, okay, honey. Now when
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: they're done, she says what would you like to do?
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: Now?
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: The husband says, how about sex one more time? She goes, look,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: I gotta get up in the morning. Yes, so I
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: gotta get up, Bob.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, those are a couple of your father's greatest hits.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: Do you have a couple of jokes whether you tell
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: them on stage just amongst friends that are just your
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: favorites and you whip.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: About, Oh, jokes that I tell hm, that is interesting.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 2: You mean jokes for my act that I like to
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: tell people.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: They can be from your act, but a couple of
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: things that you know, you know, we'll always get a laugh,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: irrelevant of context, who's president, whether the you know, the economy,
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: who the audience is. You know, you tell this joke
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: and you smile because it always works, and you like
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: to tell it.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, oh why I you know, talk about when
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: I mentioned to you. It doesn't matter how many times
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: you've told the joke. If people laugh, that's all you need.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: I'm not sitting there thinking, oh, I have to tell
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: this joke one more time. I'm always like, I get
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: to tell this joke one more time. Now. I do
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: a lot of you know, gigs where I got to
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: fly there Okay, So I love doing this joke because
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: people always like to know that you're in the moment,
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: that you're in their city, that you got there. So
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: many times I start my set by saying, oh, it's
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: great to be here. You know, I flew in yesterday.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 2: But I have a great travel tip for you guys.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: You know how like when you fly on Southwest and
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: you want to keep that seat empty next to you,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: I have the best way to do it. Okay, when
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: someone walks down the island and says to you, is
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: someone sitting here? Just say no, one except the Lord.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: And it always works. It always always works. So once
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: I do that joke, I know I'm in like Flint
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: and I can use that expression with my fellow boomer.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely a little believe it or not. I never
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: saw those two movies. But okay, let's go back. So
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: how do you decide to leave Binghamton and go to
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: New York.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: Well, it was a very easy decision for me because
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: I had passed the audition at the Comic Strip and
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: it was the summer of my junior year, finishing my
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: junior year, and I decided I wanted to become a comedian,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: So I told my parents. It's another thing. I look
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: back now, I go to my Jewish parents, I'm going
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: to leave college. I will finish at Queen's College, which
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 2: was my mother's alba mater, so I had some brownie
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: points there. But when I look back, and I think
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 2: I said to me, I want to start to try
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: to become a comedian, and my father says to me, well, look,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: you got to strike while the iron's hot. You know
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: that was pretty remarkable. I don't know how I would
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 2: feel as a parent if my kid had done the
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 2: same thing. So that's how I left Binghamton and finished
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: my education at Queen's. God. I used to do a
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: joke back then Bob about Queen's which was, you know,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: it's a very tough school, Queen's College, very tough. You
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: need a pen to get in the young people. They
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 2: don't use pens.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: Now, Okay, the act that you did to pass the audition,
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: how long did you work on that act before you
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: took the stage.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: Not long. I just kind of I think I had
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: kind of done a version of it at Binghamton opening
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: for a friend of mine who is a singer. So
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: I had an idea and I'm sure I ran it
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: by Paul, and I'm sure Paul ran his set by me. Yeah,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: not a long time.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, you moved to New York, you know the stories
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: have become legendary. Yeah, I'm working at five clubs in night.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: What happened to you? First you were in school? A
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: Were you doing that? B? Did you have a day
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: gig after you graduated from school?
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: I did well. First, I was living at my parents' house.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: I was going to Queen's College during the day, and
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 2: at night I would drive into the city to do
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: my act. And then, you know, it was a pretty
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 2: great at Queen's College. I had a professor who let me, Yeah,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: he let me do this as a course. I would
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: come in and play my tapes of my stand up
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: and we would listen to it and critique it. And
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: I think that was pretty great. Thank you Queen's College
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: for the support. So when I graduated school, I moved
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: into the city and I had to get a job.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 2: So for three seconds I worked at this coffee company,
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 2: a coffee wholesale, and then I remember the boss saying
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 2: to me, my friend needs somebody at his office. He's
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: a private eye and he needs a secretary and I
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 2: was like, it was a good typer. I was like,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 2: so I met with the guy and it was a
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: private eye. It sounded really very you know, very glamorous
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: and very you know, Maltese falcony. But he was a
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: guy who gave polygraph tests two people who wanted to
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 2: work at places as varied as burger king and escort services.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 2: So he needed someone to type up via dictaphone, that
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: archaic piece of technology writing up the reports. So this
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 2: is a great job for me for two reasons. One was,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: as mentioned, I was a very good typer, so to
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 2: operate the dictaphone, I was asis at that. But also
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: he was very understanding of my stand up situation. I
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: said to him, because I was going on so late,
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 2: can I work eleven to six with no lunch? And
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 2: he said, okay, is a lot of the work it's done, okay,
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 2: So to get to the office at eleven that was nice.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: That was very understanding of gracious of him. So that's
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: what I did. Until I was seeing that I was
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 2: making enough money. My first gig, oh my god, Bob
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 2: Baroque College in Manhattan, one hundred bucks to perform. I
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 2: felt like I had hit the Vegas jackpot one hundred bucks.
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: Oh my god. So yeah, that was my day job.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 2: I just was in Manhattan recently and I just passed
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: by four fifty seventh Avenue just to look at the
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: building again of where I worked. Yeah, it's funny.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, how long after college could you give up your
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: day job?
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: I think it was about tak about a year. That's
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 2: so bad what.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: Happened within that year financially such as you didn't need
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: it anymore?
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 2: I found that I was making enough from gigs you're
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: in there to pay the rent and be able to
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: just be a full time, full time comedian. That was
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: another thing that my father said when I said I
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: wanted to be a comedian. He said, you know, it's
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 2: a cash business, and cash is king Carol.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: As long as you don't put it in the bank.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: So yeah, okay. On the West Coast, they weren't paying
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: the comedians at the conventional clubs. Hey, what was the
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: situation on the East coast? And to what degree were
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: there like at Baruke College? What were these other gigs
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: and how did you get them?
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 2: You know, you got cab fare at these clubs, which
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: was about five bucks, but you also got to eat there,
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 2: but you couldn't have cheesecake. That was only if you
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 2: were the empcy, but so free meals. It just became like, hey,
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 2: there's a club in Jersey, they drive you out, you perform,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 2: You make forty bucks here and there, you do a college,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: you get the hundred bucks's. It was all kind of
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 2: word of mouth, kind of booking. Somebody did this gig,
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 2: Oh you should do this gig, and blah blah blah,
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 2: and you kind of through connections started to make enough
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 2: money that way.
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: And when you're doing that, you give up your day job.
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: What is the dream? Dev ready to court of a
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: see you? What would you say? This would be what's happening?
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 2: That was the absolute holy ground to get on the
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: I think in my journey what happened was gladfully David
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: Letterman had seen me. I was in a New York
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: comedy competition and I always talk about it because I
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 2: came in fourth and Eddie Murphy came in fifth. Okay, yeah,
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 2: good job, judges right. And then when he got his show, oh,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 2: he recommended me to the Tonight Show and they passed.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 2: But when he got his late night show, he put
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: me right on. So and then I went on to
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: do it twenty five times, but it kind of marginalized
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 2: me as a Letterman act. So the Tonight Show didn't
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 2: really take me seriously. But Bob relentless garral Leifer never
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 2: say die every time I would no audition for it,
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 2: audition over and over and over. And then finally two
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 2: months before, three months before Johnny retired, they booked me
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 2: on the show, So I got to do it once
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: with Johnny.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, when you say auditioned for them as a practical matter,
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: what was that you actually did.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 2: They would come to a club and they would put
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 2: together a showcase for them of comedians and I would
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 2: be one of them.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, you worked with them all. You know amongst the
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: younger generation, Letterman is cakeing. Letterman changed late night because
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: it really became more of a comedy show, whereas with
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: Johnny and his generation or more interviews, you didn't have
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: to come in with the so called funny story like
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: you do today. So what has been your experience with
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: all these late night hosts?
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 2: Well, the great thing about doing sense well on any show,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 2: you know, I did MERV Griffin back then, and a
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 2: solid gold you know, a cornucopia of appearances on shows.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 2: You just had to go out and do your thing
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 2: and be funny. Let me tell you some MERV Griffin audience,
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 2: those white haired ladies, you know, with the pocketbooks in
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: their lap. That was not an easy audience. But that
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 2: toughens you up. You know, you have to really do
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 2: badly as a comedian to get good. There's no way
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 2: around that. You have to figure it out, and a
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 2: lot of that is bad sense. But another thing that
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 2: I'm seeing now, Bob, with the evolution of time and
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 2: how things work, you know, with my book now, to me,
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 2: I'm always like, I gotta get on the tonight show.
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 2: I gotta get on this show. It's podcasts. It's podcasts.
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 2: You're in a good business, Bob. You struck while the
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 2: iron was hot, corning up. When my editor told me
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 2: the other day, O'Brien, you're doing his podcast so the
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 2: most books by far. So you know, it's a it's
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 2: a different it's a different world now. But I don't know.
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 2: I think it was very good for stand up comics
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 2: back in my day because it was the pathway to
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 2: getting your own show, you know, becoming a quote star.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 2: It's not that now, even you know, writing on shows
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: like Seinfeld. When I the Marvel Why which was my
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 2: episode when it aired the next day, everybody was talking
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 2: about it was a water cooler show. I hadn't explained
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: to our son what water cooler show means. People you know,
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 2: we're on mass would watch these shows and could reference them. So, uh,
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 2: that was a special time. That's not happening anymore.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, But you would go on Letterman, you would riff
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: with him. How much of that was one hundred percent
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: in the moment And what was the essence of Dave?
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: What made him special?
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 2: Well, you certainly didn't. You sat down and you knew
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 2: there were bullet points of things he was going to
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 2: talk about, but so much of that was spontaneous, just
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 2: to people talking. I always had a great connection with
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 2: him in those days. He was so supportive of me.
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, he executive produced one of my specials at
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 2: the time. So I always felt going out there, which
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: is important, that he was an ally, that he was
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 2: a friend, so that that made it easy. And he
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 2: is really, and back then, especially a master interviewer. I mean,
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 2: any any artifice, any bullshit that comes his way, he
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 2: you know, will not have it. You know, he takes
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: out the knife and cuts away the bullshit fat. So
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: that also made it fun because you knew you had
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 2: to be at the top of your game certainly talking
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 2: to him, that's for sure.
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, this is a classic question. Anybody in the New
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: York scene who didn't make it big, who you thought
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: was going to.
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 2: Oh, there are always lots of people like that. Wow,
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 2: I hate to say their names just because I don't.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: Let me ask a different question. Are they still in
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: the game.
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 2: No, No, A lot of people had to make the
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 2: decision at a certain point when it wasn't working of like,
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 2: I've got to find something something new to do. And
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 2: I've found out with actors as well that I've worked
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 2: with along the way, you know, se la Vie, but
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 2: I you know, but know that there were some incredible
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 2: people who people had their eye on and said this
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 2: person is going to skyrocket and for whatever reasons, And
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 2: you know, along the way, there are self defeating reasons,
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 2: self sabotaging reasons, some people that just didn't try hard enough.
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 2: Because as we were kind of touching on before, you know,
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 2: there's no coasting. I mean, in this business, you always
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 2: have to advocate for yourself. It's like a shark. You
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 2: got to keep swimming because if you don't, you'll go
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 2: by the wayside. I think quickly. So I think people
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 2: who are successful and have stayed successful have really put
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 2: the work in to keep themselves relevant and happening.
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: Did you ever contemplate giving up going straight? As they say?
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 2: No, I mean maybe I did early, early on, because
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 2: you have so many bad stuffs and so much horror
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 2: when you start. And my mother did confess to me
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 2: a few years later. I thought you were going to
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 2: be a lawyer, you'd get it out of your system.
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 2: But I never did for too long. I mean, I
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 2: don't mean this in a big headed way. I just
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 2: mean it in an honest way. I've always believed in myself, Bob.
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 2: I just I've just always felt like I have something
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 2: to say and I think it's good and I think
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 2: it's funny, and if people don't get it, I'm just
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 2: gonna keep doing it. That's my attitude.
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: Okay. Seinfeld gets his show with Larry Day. The average
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: person doesn't know lyric except the guy in the background
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: on the Friday show. At that point in time, it's
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: called the Seinfeld Chronicles. It was the initial order, I
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: think four episodes. Whatever you hear that they have a
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: show needs say iconic looking back, But when they got
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: the show, did you say, oh, good for them, or
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: one of us is finally broken through, or they're on
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: their way, or you know they're doing what they're doing.
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: I'm doing what I'm doing.
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 2: Well. Of course, being friends with both Jerry and Larry,
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 2: I was thrilled when Jerry got the show. I thought
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 2: that was great. I thought they were totally onto something,
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 2: and I thought, that's fantastic for them, That's that's great.
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 2: I was heavily into doing my stand up at the time,
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 2: but you know, I thought it was fantastic. Like I
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 2: was saying, comedians love other comedians. I would be nothing
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 2: but happy for two of my good friend's success. What's
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 2: interesting about my writing on Seinfeld? As many times I've
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 2: touched upon in our conversation my being a fan and
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 2: pursuing avenues that I'm interested in, Actually these guys came
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 2: to me and asked me if I wanted to write
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 2: on the show. So that was very lucky for me
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 2: because I was lucky that Larry David didn't want to
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 2: hire any writers that had written for TV before. Because
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 2: he felt like they had been poisoned by the system.
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 2: So I was lucky that they reached out to me
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 2: because we were friends. They liked to work with people
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 2: that they already had a good rapport with, you know,
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 2: sitting in writing rooms and being on a show as
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 2: many hours of being with people, so you got to
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 2: like hang. It be an easy hang to work at
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 2: these jobs. And I was very complimented that they felt
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 2: like my style of writing would compliment the show. But
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 2: when I did get the job, and that was thrilling
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 2: to be hired as a writer over there. You bet
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 2: I went in the first day with three pages it's
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 2: got to be sixty ideas of things. I wanted to
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 2: be ready when I showed up for the first day
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 2: that you know, I wanted to make sure they knew
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 2: they made a good decision.
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, so drill a little bit deeper. You show up
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: the first day. How did it work?
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 2: It worked rather well because I pitched. I know, I
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 2: definitely pitched one of the ideas that eventually became.
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: Let me change it. Your first day? Was it us
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: with those two What was the first day the whole
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: so called writer's room.
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the first day was just the writer's room, just
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 2: meeting everybody and people had some writers had been there before,
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 2: so kind of giving us a lay of the land
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 2: of how it works and being with Larry and Jerry,
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 2: and it was a bit of a getting to know
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 2: you time.
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: Okay. So in terms of scripts, did everybody come with
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: ideas and then they sifted through the ideas? How did
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: they split up the work?
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, at Seinfeld, it was really all about the ideas,
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 2: and so how it worked was you would go in
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 2: individually and pitch to Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld in
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 2: their office. They shared an office and took a seat
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 2: and gave it your best shot with ideas and they
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 2: would either spark to things that's great. Especially Larry David
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 2: would get very very excited and animated when he liked
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 2: one of your ideas. It was just thrilling to him
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 2: to seize upon something that he could see he could
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 2: make hay out of. And then there are cluckers along
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 2: the way. But you know, like you'd get that nah,
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know, I could see that on another show.
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 2: I don't know. But if you hit on something that
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 2: they liked, it was, you know, a howl Loujah moment.
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you hit on something light they like. Do
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: they then say, go write the script. No.
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 2: What they would say then is come back with a
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 2: sort of outline of what that would mean for each
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 2: of the other characters. Like when I pitched Lane thinks
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 2: the Korean manicurists for talking about her behind her back
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 2: in Korean, and they liked that idea, then it's like,
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 2: go back and try to think of George's story, a
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 2: Kramer story, and a Jerry story. So you would work
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 2: on that and once they felt that you had something
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 2: workable there, then you would go off and write a draft.
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: Okay. Seinfeld had a very specific but not conventional layout
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: with the A and the B story and things usually
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: coming together when you went to write the first script,
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: did it already have that structure?
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 2: I think, following what you kind of outlined of what
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 2: was going to happen in each scene. Yeah, that kind
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 2: of structure was there. But I think it's very important
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 2: for me to say we're looking at Seinfeld why it
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 2: was also such a learning experience for me, and I
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 2: can speak for every other writer there is. I would
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 2: turn in a draft as other writers would. Then Larry
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 2: and Jerry would do their pass on the draft, and
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 2: so every Seinfeld that you see, you're seeing their version
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 2: of whoever's draft that was. So I learned a lot
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 2: seeing what they kept of my drafts, what they threw
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 2: out of my drafts, what they changed of my drafts.
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 2: So their presence is really all over the show.
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and to what degree with Seinfeld was their conventional
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: writer room stuff where you're sitting there with a script
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: and people are throwing out jokes and you're saying no,
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: and you're building from that.
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 2: Well, Seinfeld was a different show in terms of how
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 2: it worked, in terms of it was more kind of
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 2: individual study sort of model in that you worked one
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 2: on one with Larry and Jerry with your idea, with
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 2: your script, with your outlines, all that kind of thing.
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 2: They would and then we'd all meet for lunch. We'd
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 2: all eat lunch in the office, and that was when
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 2: all the writers were together. I mean, they would occasionally
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 2: call us together if they were looking for a certain
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 2: joke or a certain idea for somebody's joke, But that
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 2: was more the exception than the way that it worked there.
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, when I went on to write for the
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 2: Larry Sanders Show, that's where I experienced the classic writer's
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 2: room of a sitcom, where pretty much every day you're
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 2: starting and finishing all in a conference room, sitting around
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 2: a table and coming up with ideas, maybe even you
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 2: know what is called gang writing a script. They just
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 2: put it up on a monitor and we all kind
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 2: of write it together. I actually like writing like that,
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 2: and that's more classic writers whom I actually enjoy that
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 2: style now more, and when I've had a show, that
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 2: is the style that I like to use. And it's
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 2: also the way the thing that I was talking about
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 2: at the beginning of our conversation about I love being
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 2: with funny people. It just, you know, so much so
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 2: that I kind of call it a profession. You know.
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 2: To me, it's like a thank God it's Monday kind
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 2: of thing because I have so much of a good
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 2: time in the writer's room that opposed to like maybe
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 2: going to a party on the weekend or some you know,
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 2: snore event. It's like that's my favorite spot.
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, the heat of the writer's room. You know, a
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: Jewish family, you tend not to hold back. Somebody comes
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: up and say that's a terrible idea, and you march
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: forward and everybody you know the bruise is no one
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: sits there says, how dare you say that to me? Okay, yeah,
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: in the heat of the writer's room, in the style
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: you're talking about with Larry Sanders, does anything go or
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: do you have to be aware of the politics in
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: your choice of words?
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 2: I don't think so. I think any good writer has
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 2: learned way back when you got to go for broke,
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 2: because sometimes the thing that you think, oh, everybody, this is,
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 2: this is so out of left field. This is such
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 2: a wild idea and if they don't like it, I'm
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 2: going to be laughed out of the room. Turns out
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 2: to be the best idea that anybody's ever heard. So
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 2: you have to know you got to go for broke,
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 2: and somebody got on, you know, the head writer going, boy, no,
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 2: that's a terrible idea. You just you really have to
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 2: have a teflon back to be in a writer's room
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 2: because there will be so many ideas that are not good.
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 2: But you know that one that flies so many times
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 2: has been me, I don't know if I should say
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 2: this one, and it turns out to be incredible.
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: Let's go back to Seinfeld for a minute. So I
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: knew Jerry from his late night appearance is his famous
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: checkout line routine. So I'm watching from the very beginning. Okay,
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: Ultimately the show becomes a gigantic kit. Jerry's on camera,
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: Larry puts out this special that is really uneven as charitable,
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: but then he has krubed your enthusiasm and all of
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: a sudden, wait a second, that was more his show.
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: Let me put it this way, what did Jerry bring
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: to the show other than being on camera?
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 2: No, No, Jerry brought you know. It's really important for
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 2: people to know and remember that every Seinfeld they see it. Yeah, yeah,
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 2: Larry David, but Jerry is in there. They were partners
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 2: to the end. I mean, you'll appreciate this analogy. I
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 2: think as a music person, Bob, but I really compare
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 2: their their comedic partnership as Lennon and McCartney, Larry David being,
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 2: of course the more Lenin of the twosome, the more cynical,
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 2: you know, the unfriendly maybe, and Jerry being the pop
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 2: light sensibility of a McCartney and together, I think it
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 2: fused this beautiful partnership and show. So yeah, don't count
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 2: out Jerry for a second, for.
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: Sure, Okay, when you worked on Curb, which legendarily was
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: builled as improvisational because Larry didn't want to work that hard,
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: what was it like working on Curbs opposed to Seinfeld?
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 2: Well, and I don't know about that. I don't think
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 2: it was that Larry didn't want to have to work
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 2: too hard. I think what he felt was he had
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 2: such an incredible ensemble of comedy players around him that
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 2: he knew he was going to get the best of
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 2: that show, letting these people do their thing, which it did.
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 2: You know, what was funny about Curb was I went
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 2: from Hacks over the Curb. Hacks. The writer's room was
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 2: all on Zoom, so you were not together with people.
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 2: You were together with people virtually. But I think, as
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 2: people can tell, you can't write a good show on Zoom,
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 2: and Hacks is the proof. But then once the writer's
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 2: room is over, the writers are not on set, the
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 2: three show writers are on set, and the writer's room
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 2: is gone. So when I went from that, then I
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 2: went over to Curb, and Curb my whole job, which
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 2: was this is my favorite of everything, is I had
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 2: pitched show ideas earlier to them, some of which they
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 2: took But then my job when I went over there
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 2: is I was just there when they shoot it, and
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 2: it was just me and a couple other writers. You're
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 2: just there for an idea or a line for someone,
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 2: or is mostly lines, like we need a line for this,
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 2: we need lines for that, because when you improv sometimes
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 2: it's not a script. Something isn't working or you need
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 2: a better line. And then you sit on set and
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 2: you just come up with lines and ideas while you're
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 2: shooting it. And to be there while Curb was shooting
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 2: was amazing and to watch the synergy of these you know,
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 2: so many times when I worked there, I thought, Gee,
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 2: the next show that you know, I'm lucky to have
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 2: where I'm the executive user, maybe I should let people
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 2: just improv and have an outline of what happens. Let
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 2: them improv, and then you see quickly it's only you know,
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 2: the show was twenty five years. They had a rhythm
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 2: and a comfort with each other that that kind of improvisation,
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 2: you know, was unique to that show. You can't kind
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 2: of throw people in there and hope they'll come up
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 2: with a brilliant show. That was Curb's genius.
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: So if I saw a script of curb before they
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: shot it. What would it look like? How fleshed out
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: was it?
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 2: Well, it was they worked off a very detailed outline.
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 2: It would probably be about twelve pages of what the
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 2: scene was, who was in it, and kind of what
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 2: needs to happen in that scene, and also some lines
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 2: potential lines for it. But you'd be holding an outline usually,
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 2: like I said, about twelve pages.
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: Okay. Gary Shandling, who got great inside Press, died before
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: his time. Never wanted to be a permanent late show host.
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: What was Gary's special sauce?
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 2: Oh? Gary? I mean I still miss him to this day.
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 2: Just as a sidebar, so interesting to me. He came
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 2: to my wedding to my wife Lori, which was ten
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 2: years ago in December, and for some strange reason, after
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 2: the ceremony, beginning the reception, we talked to Gary, my
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 2: wife and I. It had to be at least twenty
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 2: five minutes. And you know, when you're getting married, you're
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 2: mixing and you're talking to people for two seconds here
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 2: and there and blah blah blah. We must have talked
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 2: for twenty five minutes. And then that following March she
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 2: passed away unexpectedly and I just I feel so grateful
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 2: that that weird thing that happened at the wedding of
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 2: talking to him the most of any guests that that
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 2: happened before he passed. But anyway, what was amazing about
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 2: Gary was not only comedically spot on, you know, had
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 2: that thing that Larry David has that Jerry has. He
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 2: knew when he had agreed since of scene structure, kind
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 2: of like a director of a play. When I worked there,
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 2: he could be in a scene, he could be watching
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 2: a scene and know when something was not working or
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 2: working well, or need to be changed slightly. His sense
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 2: of story and scene structure was really something to behold,
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 2: and I think that was his special sauce. He also was,
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 2: I think, like most great comedians who become stars, so likable.
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, he was so neurotic, you know, his persona,
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 2: but I think it was so endearing that people really
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 2: latched onto his neuroses and him. But I really feel
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 2: like with his passing, we just lost such a great
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 2: comedic voice.
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, you know, there's been a number of controversies in comedy.
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: When this is released, there may be a few more
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: on the EVB in the rear view mirror. What is
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: your position on this first threshold is you say, I
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: don't want to weigh in Republicans laugh too. We have
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: the situation in ri Odd, we have the situation with
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Kimmel Colbert before is your first major thing? I
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: want to stay out and what does it take for
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: you to take a stand?
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 2: I don't. I don't really like to get into it
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 2: because I feel like, what's what's out there, what's going on,
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 2: is beyond my control. I mean, obviously Jimmy Kimmel, I
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 2: mean I don't know anybody personally who could say, oh, yeah,
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 2: he should have been taken off the air. I mean,
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 2: free speech is incredibly important, and he had every right
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 2: to say what he wanted to say about the situation.
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 2: I'm not the only person that's going to say it wasn't.
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 2: I don't think it was that controversial it was. I
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 2: think they lit on something that they thought was a
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 2: bigger thing than it was. But more importantly than that,
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 2: it's a free speech issue and that's important. Yeah. But
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 2: and I sent Jimmy an email that I congratulated him
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 2: on his comeback to the show and his monologue that night.
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 2: I thought it was brilliant. But I don't like to
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 2: get into political things because you know, social media, Bob,
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 2: I call it the yentification of the world.
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: Right, everybody's got good description.
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I don't know. I don't want to be
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 2: a part of it. I just don't. I mean, look,
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 2: I'm happy that what happened with Jimmy Kimmel, that he
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 2: got support and he's back on the air. I think
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 2: that was important. I think we'd be in a very
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 2: difficuent different situation if he was permanently taken off the air.
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 2: I think that would be a signal an even scarier
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 2: time that we're maybe living in now. But yeah, I
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 2: don't know. I don't like to get into it.
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: Well, let's go a different direction. If you wanted to
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: know which way the wind blew. In the late sixties
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: and early seventies, you listened to a record. FM radio
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: was the heartbeat of America. We live in a world
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: now where the guy who runs Ukraine is literally a comedian,
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: and the power of comedians has never been greater. To
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: what degree can comedy change the mindset of the population.
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 2: I think it has a great, great power to do that,
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 2: you know, I know he's a comedian, but it's I
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 2: don't I'd like to see his act, you know, uh,
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I know you say he's a comedian,
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 2: but he doesn't really use his comedy right to political effect.
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 2: But I know how important a comedy is, and you
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 2: know this regard. I also know that if you're a
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 2: political comedian, now, half the audience is going to like it,
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 2: and half the audience isn't. But people do what That's
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 2: why I stay at a poll in my act. You know,
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 2: A great compliment that I feel like I get now
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 2: is you know I was happy to just laugh for
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 2: as long as you were on and not think about
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 2: what's happening in the world in politics, and that that
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 2: compliment resonates with me. You know, I'm happy about that.
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 2: But comedy is still important. It will always be important.
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 2: It can change some people's minds. It cannot change people's minds,
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 2: and I think every comedian who's a political comedian knows that.
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 2: But just having that voice is really what we have
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 2: to protect.
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: Okay. I have a friend who says all the great
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: songs are written in collaboration. I don't happen to agree,
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: But if you're writing for yourself, if you're writing for
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: a show, there are inherently other people there. But if
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: you're writing for yourself, do you doing it solo is
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: the best way? Or do you want to be able
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: to bounce it off somebody?
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 2: Oh you mean writing a TV show?
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: No, writing like stand up stand up joke?
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I even with my stand up. Well,
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 2: first of all, for a TV show, bouncing it off
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 2: other people is absolutely a must, because especially the you know,
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 2: the beauty of a writer's room is somebody will have
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 2: a good idea, somebody else will take it to the
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 2: next level, somebody else does that, and then bam, the
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 2: last person has the best incarnation of whatever that thought
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 2: or joke was. So there is this. It's kind of
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 2: magic to me, and I love that about a writer's room.
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 2: So for a TV show, absolutely, But even for my
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 2: stand up I will get together with a friend or
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 2: two and say this is what I'm working on. What
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 2: do you think of this punchline? What do you think
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 2: of this tag to the joke? And sometimes they'll, you know,
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 2: we'll give each other. They'll do that, you know, with
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 2: me with their material, and it's always fun to bounce
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 2: things off somebody.
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, going back to the Oscars, Can you ever have
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: a victory at the Oscars? The Oscars are hosted and
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: pretty much all the time the critics come down on
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: the host. You know, you have people who bring in
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: their own writers room lettermen. Did it got some of
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: the worst reviews ever. Bob Hope used to do it,
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: but it was bland. Is it something that you can
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: never achieve or is there a holy grail such an everyone?
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: Even Chris Rock did it and didn't completely succeed. Can
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: anybody succeed at that gig?
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely? I mean look at the reception then Conang
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 2: got this past year.
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: Did you work on that show?
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 2: I did? I did, and I think it raised him
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 2: unlike many other hosts, raised him to an even higher
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 2: level hosting the show because so many comedians, I think
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 2: that job is like there's no upside to hosting mak Oscars.
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 2: I think with Conan and with Jimmy Kimmel even it's
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 2: a big upside because I think they did so well
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 2: doing it well. Conan's coming back this year that I
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 2: think it's enhanced their comedicness to people.
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: And circling back to the book, So this book about
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: writing speeches, giving speeches. Yes, you couldn't write scripts because
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: his union was on strike. Who came up with this
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: specific idea for.
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 2: A book, Well, my partner Rick Mitchell and I because
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 2: sitting there and talking about these bad speeches that we
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 2: witnessed and were horrified at, it just became you know,
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 2: Bob's stand up is like a speech every night. It
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 2: is you have to have a good start, and you
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 2: know what your middle is going to be, and you
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 2: have to wrap it up in a certain way that
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 2: wraps the whole thing up. And that's what a good
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 2: speech is. I mean, the biggest piece of advice we
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 2: given our speech book that I think is very consoling
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 2: to people right off the bat, besides the fact of
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 2: what you mentioned that it's small, it's handy, it's not
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 2: threatening when people pick it up. It's not like a
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 2: tone like an Encyclopedia Britannica that you pick up. It's
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 2: something that you know you can digest. But anyway, the
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 2: tick that we give is keep it five minutes and under.
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, what a simple piece of advice that is
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 2: that needed to be in a book because most people
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 2: don't know that. How many times have you gone to
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 2: event the person goes on and on, they think, oh,
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 2: I love this pruson so much. So more is more.
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 2: There's a reason more is more did not become the same. Also,
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 2: not realizing I just went to a memorial this happened,
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 2: you keep it five minutes an under because many other
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 2: people are speaking and people don't realize that. So we
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 2: just felt like having a whole book of duh things
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 2: for people when they write a speech. What's important and
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 2: what's nice is I'm getting feedback from people on Amazon
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 2: or whatever. I read every review. It's like this book
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 2: really helped me. I was afraid to write a speech.
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 2: It wasn't that hard, and then when I did it,
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 2: I got some nice feedback. And that's really all we
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 2: wanted from the book. The other thing, Bob, is we
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 2: looked at, of course, before we pitched this, publishers other
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 2: books on the subject, and there are subjects about writing
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 2: a speech and if you about writing a funny speech,
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 2: but they're written by Thornton, how Max you know people
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 2: you've never heard of. We are two bona fide Emmy
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 2: winning writers. So we feel like we can take a platform,
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 2: excuse me, in telling people, giving them an idea of
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 2: what to do.
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 1: Well, I guess what I'm really asking. Were you sitting
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 1: riffing with your partner and say, whoa, there's a book here,
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: or were you saying we can't work we should write
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: a book. Oh this is an idea.
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, No, it wasn't the latter. It was certainly the former.
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, I never kind of come up with something, well,
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 2: what the hell will do this? You know, it really
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 2: was a nice timing of things that as buddies just
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 2: meeting for coffee, Hey, I just went to this event.
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah I went to one too, and just sitting there thinking,
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 2: you know, normal people need this advice, let's do that.
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 2: And it was convenient that it was during you know,
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 2: I told you so early on in our marathon discussion,
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 2: which I am adjoining. You know, being creative makes me
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 2: feel alive. And I have a project and to pitch
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 2: this to publishers and see if somebody buys it, and
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 2: deciding between the people that were interested that is I
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 2: can't tell you what a thrill it gives me. And
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 2: to be doing it at my age and this many
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 2: years in show business to still be taken seriously and
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 2: embraced that way is it's just you know a wonderful part,
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 2: a big part of my life.
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, you read a book like this, you know you
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 1: can't work writing scripts and it's fun. Can you make
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: any money?
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, book writing. It's really the luck of
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 2: the draw if you kind of hit it or you don't,
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 2: but you know what you can. We had to reach
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 2: a certain number of books sold where we're starting, where
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 2: we can start to earn a profit. And I believe
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 2: that in seven months we are very close to the
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 2: profit margin, which I am looking forward to. Yes, yes,
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 2: you can make some money if your book hits. And
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 2: what's nice is it's connecting with people and I'm happy
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 2: about that. We're happy about that.
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: And is there another book cooking on a burner?
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 2: I don't have one yet. No. If you have some ideas, Bob,
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 2: if you have coffee with a friend and you both
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 2: experienced something, pass it along to me and maybe we
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 2: can make a book out of it. Now I'm gonna really.
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 2: When I have a book, I really like to sit
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 2: with it a while. Because I bring it to my
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 2: speaking events, to my stand up events. I do some
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 2: things for gratis, but then I say, hey, can you
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 2: buy can you buy a book for everybody who's intending.
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 2: You know, my wife teases me that I'm Wilma Loweman,
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 2: that I'm out there every day selling my wares. So
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 2: you know, I'll give it it's best shop, but you
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 2: know it, I might just come out there with one other,
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 2: another idea, because you know what my jam is, Bob.
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 2: I love doing what I do and thinking and producing
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 2: seeing these things into action. That is really a high.
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, you got invited to do comedy going on at
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: nine thirty, you said no, I go to bed at ten.
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: I didn't say no to use the cliche. Are you
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: gonna die on stage? Or at some point you'm gonna
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: put your keyboard away and say I'm done.
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 2: Well, I think at a certain point that won't be
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 2: up to me. Look, I am very lucky that is
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 2: a TV writer turning seventy next year. Then I'm still working.
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 2: I really don't know many other writers who are my
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 2: age and who are around. I mean, I have a
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 2: lot of women who turned fifty and come to me
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 2: and go I'm starting to feel I'm getting aged out.
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 2: You know, I don't know what to do, and so
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 2: I feel very lucky that I'm still doing it. It's
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 2: just funny. I remember working on the show The Naked Truth,
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 2: and they hired an older writer to come in because
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 2: it needed some help, a guy I think who had
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 2: worked on Dick Van Dyke. I don't remember his name,
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 2: and I remember thinking and the writers are like, who's
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 2: this old guy? Who's that? You know it's going to
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 2: happen to me at a certain point, I hope not.
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 2: But am I going to be doing this at eighty?
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 2: I don't think so. I don't know. You know, I
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 2: get hired for the Oscars a lot because the head
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 2: writer who's brilliant, a guy named John Max. You know,
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 2: he's my generation, and I'm lucky that he's hired me
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 2: so many times. But what happens when John Max is
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 2: a working anymore? Am I going to get hired? I
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 2: don't know. I don't think so. So I now I
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 2: do have to plan for, you know, an escape patch
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 2: at some point. I'm just happy it's not now, because
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 2: I'm loving what I'm doing. I'm telling you, especially with
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 2: this news about YouTube special that I can do and
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 2: put on up there, it's like re energize me, like
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 2: I cannot even begin to tell you pop, So look
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 2: out next time. I talk to you. It'll be promoting
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 2: my special I swear to.
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 1: God, well, Carol, I'm gonna be looking out for it.
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna look for cut up clips on social media.
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: Everything the younger generation loves and the older generation derides.
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: I want to thank you so much for taking this
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: time with my audience. Great to meet you face to face.
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: Is someone I followed forever. I was thrilled that you
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: reached out. Seriously. Yes, it was great.
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 2: Seriously, man, let me you know, give the compliment back
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 2: to you. I approached you because I love your take
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 2: on so many things. I think someone of our generation
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 2: and that have such a clear and interesting voice. I just,
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 2: you know, read your newsletter every day, and yeah, I
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 2: approached you because I love what you do. So you know,
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 2: keep doing what you're doing because it's.
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 1: Okay. Thanks so much until next time. This is Bob
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 1: left six