Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Michael Rapaport | Actor/Comedian Commemorates Three Years Since October 7th Attacks on Israel
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I want to go live to Israel. This is one
- 0:02Speaker 1: of my best buddies, and he's a major star here.
- 0:05Speaker 2: Major?
- 0:07Speaker 1: He's a big-time actor, big-time comedian, and he's a big-time
- 0:11Speaker 1: New Yorker. Big time. And it's my dear friend Michael Rappaport.
- 0:16Speaker 1: Michael just did a documentary. I saw it over the summer.
- 0:20Speaker 1: In fact, I sat right behind Debra... What is her
- 0:26Speaker 1: name again? I keep thinking about Debra Winger for some reason.
- 0:29Speaker 1: The one who just joined Bruce Blakeman's campaign. Deborah Messing, right.
- 0:32Speaker 1: I posted the picture yesterday of me and Deborah at
- 0:34Speaker 1: Michael Rappaport's screening of his amazing documentary, Am I Cancelled Yet?
- 0:40Speaker 1: And Deborah hopped on board, as I just said, with
- 0:43Speaker 1: Bruce Blakeman a couple of days ago. But you have
- 0:45Speaker 1: to see Mike's documentary because Rappaport, who is loud like
- 0:50Speaker 1: me all over Instagram and social media, doing documentaries and
- 0:54Speaker 1: speaking all over the world, he's lost a lot of opportunities.
- 0:59Speaker 1: A lot of jobs and doesn't do nearly the amount
- 1:01Speaker 1: of movies. And in his documentary, him and his beautiful wife, man,
- 1:06Speaker 1: I love her. She's great. They're going, you know, they
- 1:10Speaker 1: had some serious conversations and were nervous. Like, what are
- 1:14Speaker 1: we going to do? Nobody wants to hire me because
- 1:17Speaker 1: I'm on the right side of history. But that didn't
- 1:20Speaker 1: stop Michael, just like nothing stops me. So I'm proud
- 1:24Speaker 1: to call him a friend. And again, he's in Israel
- 1:27Speaker 1: this morning. the great Mike Rappaport. Michael, good morning, buddy.
- 1:30Speaker 1: How are you?
- 1:32Speaker 2: Sid, thanks for having me. What an introduction. Can you
- 1:36Speaker 2: record that so in the morning I don't need an
- 1:38Speaker 2: alarm playing music? I just have, you know, like maybe
- 1:41Speaker 2: just like a little bit like a lower volume, but
- 1:43Speaker 2: you just say all those fantastic things about me. What
- 1:46Speaker 2: a way to wake up.
- 1:47Speaker 1: Well, it's all true. And although Kibi probably wouldn't love
- 1:50Speaker 1: it so much, she loves you too. But it's all true.
- 1:52Speaker 1: In fact, where are you this morning in Israel? Where
- 1:55Speaker 1: exactly are you?
- 1:57Speaker 2: I just came back inside the hotel. I've been out
- 2:00Speaker 2: all morning in Tel Aviv. I've been in Jerusalem. I'm
- 2:04Speaker 2: in Tel Aviv today. And, you know, it's very melancholy.
- 2:08Speaker 2: There's a lot of sadness. There's a lot of hope.
- 2:11Speaker 2: A lot of teary-eyed smiles. A lot of contemplation. Obviously,
- 2:21Speaker 2: so many people have been through the worst of the
- 2:24Speaker 2: worst of the worst times. of times and families have
- 2:27Speaker 2: been destroyed and loved ones have been murdered and never
- 2:31Speaker 2: came back. And, um, you know, from, from, from the
- 2:36Speaker 2: most horrible to the idea of soldiers that have fought
- 2:40Speaker 2: and risked everything who've come back, uh, with, with so
- 2:43Speaker 2: many injuries, um, either physical or, or mentally, emotionally, um,
- 2:49Speaker 2: you know, everybody's been through something, you know, there, I
- 2:52Speaker 2: think everybody has, uh, a Netflix series. Every single person
- 2:56Speaker 2: you talk to that's lived through October 7th has a
- 3:00Speaker 2: story where your mouth is a gate and you know,
- 3:02Speaker 2: the ones that are more dramatic to just the families
- 3:05Speaker 2: who spent the last three years running in and out
- 3:09Speaker 2: of bomb shelters with their kids. Um, that being said,
- 3:14Speaker 2: you know, similar to New York and nine 11 life
- 3:17Speaker 2: goes on. Um, And, you know, you must keep stepping forward.
- 3:22Speaker 2: You must keep shining. And this is the Jewish state
- 3:25Speaker 2: of Israel and the light will never go out. And
- 3:28Speaker 2: you've been here. The people of Israel to me are
- 3:32Speaker 2: very much like the bread and butter people of Israel.
- 3:37Speaker 2: New York, the working class people from mostly from the boroughs,
- 3:42Speaker 2: the hardworking people, the gritty people, the ham and eggers,
- 3:47Speaker 2: the people that like are just humble and, you know, just,
- 3:51Speaker 2: you know, appreciate their family and appreciate, you know, watching
- 3:55Speaker 2: a game with their family. Like that to me is
- 3:57Speaker 2: very much akin of the Israeli people. We're very similar
- 4:01Speaker 2: to the best of the best of New Yorkers. and
- 4:04Speaker 2: especially the kinds of people that listen to your show.
- 4:08Speaker 1: But unfortunately, Michael, and thank you for saying that, and
- 4:10Speaker 1: you're right about that, I'm not sure they're the majority
- 4:12Speaker 1: of people anymore. I mean, you're in Israel today, but
- 4:15Speaker 1: if you were home and sitting outside by your Upper
- 4:18Speaker 1: East Side apartment, by Gracie Mansion, maybe having a cup
- 4:21Speaker 1: of coffee at Starbucks, which you do occasionally, and New
- 4:24Speaker 1: Yorkers love to meet and greet you, you would notice
- 4:27Speaker 1: that today, this is unbelievable, there are pro-Hamas rallies and
- 4:32Speaker 1: protests everywhere. Pro-Hamas. People celebrating what happened on October the
- 4:37Speaker 1: 7th will be roaming our streets in New York today.
- 4:40Speaker 1: The mayor won't do anything about it because he's with them.
- 4:43Speaker 1: The police commissioner has to chalk it up to the
- 4:46Speaker 1: First Amendment. So you talk about a sad day becoming
- 4:50Speaker 1: exponentially more sad. Your New York, which you just talked
- 4:54Speaker 1: about in such glowing terms, these animals are going to
- 4:58Speaker 1: be up and down the streets in big numbers.
- 5:02Speaker 2: Well, I'm aware of that, and I'm glad you don't
- 5:05Speaker 2: call them protesters. Call them celebrators. They're celebrating death. They're
- 5:11Speaker 2: celebrating rape. They're celebrating kidnappers. They're celebrating arsonists. And they're
- 5:16Speaker 2: not protesting anything. This is like a year later for
- 5:20Speaker 2: them after when the Knicks won the championship. You'll kind
- 5:23Speaker 2: of feel like that. That day of October 7, three
- 5:26Speaker 2: years ago, was the greatest accomplishment that the doctors... the dentists,
- 5:32Speaker 2: the school teachers, the civilians, the fathers of Daza ever did.
- 5:37Speaker 2: That's why they celebrated like they won the championship. And
- 5:41Speaker 2: that's why these scum bums... in our city, and these
- 5:44Speaker 2: are mostly elitist pigs or fake refugees that grew up here,
- 5:50Speaker 2: that have status because of the corrupt UNRWA, which is
- 5:54Speaker 2: connected to the corrupt United Nations. These are people that
- 5:58Speaker 2: if you can spend the day celebrating anything, On a
- 6:04Speaker 2: random Thursday, on a random Wednesday, how could you afford
- 6:09Speaker 2: that lifestyle? Why aren't you at work, pig? Why aren't
- 6:13Speaker 2: you at work, scumbum? So these are people that are
- 6:16Speaker 2: getting paid. They're the disenfranchised. They're the miserable. These are
- 6:21Speaker 2: the same people that complain about everything. And more than
- 6:24Speaker 2: they hate the Jews, they hate themselves. And they hate
- 6:27Speaker 2: themselves because most of their mothers and their fathers, they
- 6:30Speaker 2: didn't give them the attention and nurturing that they yearn for.
- 6:36Speaker 2: So I understand what's going on. It's going to be
- 6:37Speaker 2: happening all over the world. It's a scar and a
- 6:40Speaker 2: stain on still the greatest city in the world. And
- 6:44Speaker 2: we know what we have in Gracie Mansion. And can
- 6:48Speaker 2: you imagine, Sid, three years ago on October 7th, when
- 6:52Speaker 2: the animals, the terrorists, We're live broadcasting, not hiding it
- 6:58Speaker 2: like most criminals, most criminals, arsonists, rapists. They don't want
- 7:02Speaker 2: to get caught. These people broadcast it in real time
- 7:06Speaker 2: for the world to see. They wanted us to see it.
- 7:09Speaker 2: They showed the world that the mayor of New York's
- 7:13Speaker 2: wife was watching that. and liking tweet after post after
- 7:19Speaker 2: video after video. Can you imagine seeing anything as horrible
- 7:24Speaker 2: as that footage of those photographs from that day and
- 7:26Speaker 2: in real time? And this is a female. This is
- 7:30Speaker 2: a woman.
- 7:31Speaker 1: She's liking it. And this is why I'm so fed
- 7:35Speaker 1: up with the New York media. I know her last
- 7:37Speaker 1: name sounds Italian, Russo. I've been killing this lady, Melissa Russo,
- 7:41Speaker 1: NBC locally. She's Jewish, okay? Her dad, Italian, but her mother, Jewish.
- 7:46Speaker 1: She saw me at the Israeli Day Parade. She was
- 7:48Speaker 1: very angry with me because I said that Mamdani wants
- 7:51Speaker 1: to see dead Jews. And I said, well, wait a second.
- 7:54Speaker 1: Until he demonizes the Intifada, that's what that word means.
- 7:58Speaker 1: What did he get mad at me for? And just
- 8:00Speaker 1: last week, when the mayor made that ridiculous video, he's
- 8:03Speaker 1: going to combat anti-Semitism. Melissa Russo was right. She was gushing.
- 8:08Speaker 1: She was gushing. So she's despicable. Melissa Russo at NBC,
- 8:13Speaker 1: Marsha Kramer, CBS. She's not a heck of a lot better.
- 8:16Speaker 1: You've got a New York media that fawns over this
- 8:20Speaker 1: guy when the truth is he's an anti-Semite, jihad, racist scumbag.
- 8:27Speaker 2: Period. Period. I concur. And his wife is also. Period.
- 8:31Speaker 2: I concur.
- 8:32Speaker 1: And his father, who sat there, his father was one
- 8:35Speaker 1: of the guys that helped construct the Columbia stuff.
- 8:38Speaker 2: They're dogs. They're dogs. Corroded dogs. Sick puppies. So, yes,
- 8:43Speaker 2: we know this, but let's not talk about them. Let's
- 8:45Speaker 2: talk about us. And let's talk about, and to really
- 8:49Speaker 2: emphasize what happened that day should never be forgotten. I
- 8:54Speaker 2: will say, Sid, that, you know, when I'm here in
- 8:57Speaker 2: Israel and I contemplate, you know, my trips, your trips,
- 9:00Speaker 2: everything I've seen, you know, all the people that I've met,
- 9:04Speaker 2: all the hostage families who had loved ones that never returned,
- 9:07Speaker 2: some who had the great miracle of having them returned.
- 9:12Speaker 2: You know, I just, you know, I just, it's just...
- 9:17Speaker 2: So many lives were destroyed and there was so much destruction.
- 9:22Speaker 2: And I really would urge everybody in New York with
- 9:25Speaker 2: a heart to give a beat, to give a prayer,
- 9:27Speaker 2: to give a meditation, to just give a thought, to
- 9:32Speaker 2: make sure that those people, their memory may forever.
- 9:35Speaker 1: Be a blessing.
- 9:36Speaker 2: Yes. Yes. Of the most important because, you know, we
- 9:39Speaker 2: could we could talk about, you know, the Yankees. You
- 9:42Speaker 2: could talk about the Giants. But but today is it's
- 9:45Speaker 2: a sad day. This is one of the historic day.
- 9:48Speaker 2: And the fact that it it's mutated into scum bums
- 9:53Speaker 2: in our city that will be dancing without jobs, jobless
- 9:59Speaker 2: scum bums. It's crazy that this has somehow been okayed
- 10:03Speaker 2: and they could.
- 10:04Speaker 1: Do it under the guidance of free speech and all this.
- 10:07Speaker 1: They're also physically repulsive. I don't know why, but I've
- 10:10Speaker 1: seen these people. Many rallies. I've walked right in the
- 10:12Speaker 1: middle of them. And they're all ugly. I don't know
- 10:14Speaker 1: what it is. But then this is part of the
- 10:16Speaker 1: reason why. They've got, like you said, their parents never
- 10:18Speaker 1: cared about them. They're ugly. They're not hooking up with
- 10:22Speaker 1: good-looking people getting great jobs. So this is what they've
- 10:25Speaker 1: decided to do with their lives, which is really pathetic.
- 10:28Speaker 1: I do want to ask about you, though, Mike, because
- 10:30Speaker 1: your documentary, Am I Cancelled Yet? I mentioned this at
- 10:32Speaker 1: the top of the conversation. It goes into the conversation
- 10:36Speaker 1: you and your wife had a couple of times, serious conversations.
- 10:39Speaker 1: Here you are a big time actor. You've acted with
- 10:42Speaker 1: everybody from Robert De Niro to Jimmy Gandolfini to you
- 10:46Speaker 1: name it. You've made unbelievable movies from higher learning to amazing,
- 10:50Speaker 1: amazing cable shows like Atypical. You've had an unbelievable career.
- 10:55Speaker 1: And now the last couple of years, you've hit the
- 10:58Speaker 1: scene on the comedy side with big, big shows at
- 11:01Speaker 1: the biggest comedy clubs all over the country. But your
- 11:05Speaker 1: career has taken a bit of a beating the last
- 11:07Speaker 1: couple of years because, oh, my God, you decided you
- 11:11Speaker 1: were going to be on the right side of history.
- 11:14Speaker 1: Do you regret, Mike Rappaport, do you regret at any
- 11:18Speaker 1: point sticking up for the victims here, not the genocide people,
- 11:24Speaker 1: the victims because of what's happened in your personal life?
- 11:29Speaker 2: Not a regret. I will continue taking steps forward. I have...
- 11:37Speaker 2: I will do it all again. I'll continue doing it.
- 11:40Speaker 2: I have nothing to apologize for.
- 11:42Speaker 1: I am... It.
- 11:46Speaker 2: Nothing I did, nothing I said, how I behaved, everything
- 11:50Speaker 2: I've seen, it all came extremely natural. And it was
- 11:56Speaker 2: like drinking water and like breathing to me. And, you know,
- 11:59Speaker 2: as far as the frustrations that I've suffered and deal
- 12:02Speaker 2: with with my career, it sucks. But I do believe
- 12:05Speaker 2: that it'll come around. I do believe that I'm talented.
- 12:08Speaker 2: I do believe that, you know, what I do as
- 12:11Speaker 2: an actor, I'm professional. I'm on time. I kick butt professionally.
- 12:15Speaker 2: On every show, every movie, every set, every day, every take,
- 12:19Speaker 2: I give blood every single time I go to work.
- 12:22Speaker 2: And it'll turn around because I know I've done nothing wrong.
- 12:25Speaker 2: I've broken the laws. And, you know, I have to
- 12:28Speaker 2: explain nothing to nobody. And I'm looking forward. And I promise,
- 12:32Speaker 2: you know, in the next couple of probably maybe next week, Sid,
- 12:34Speaker 2: I'm going to come in. To the station. If you'll
- 12:39Speaker 2: allow me. I know you're busy. You got a lot
- 12:40Speaker 2: of friends. A lot of people calling. And announce where
- 12:43Speaker 2: everybody can see the documentary Am I Cancelled Yet? Which
- 12:46Speaker 2: I'm very proud of. Which is very funny.
- 12:48Speaker 1: I can't wait.
- 12:48Speaker 2: Very emotional. Very inspiring.
- 12:50Speaker 1: So good.
- 12:50Speaker 2: And super honest.
- 12:51Speaker 1: So good.
- 12:52Speaker 2: And I think a lot of people will be able
- 12:53Speaker 2: to relate to it.
- 12:54Speaker 1: They're going to love it. And now, I think I
- 12:56Speaker 1: saw this. I was so happy for you. I guess
- 12:59Speaker 1: you're at a screening somewhere in Israel, and the crowd
- 13:03Speaker 1: actually broke a record. Believe it or not, we actually
- 13:06Speaker 1: have data that backs this up. After the documentary was completed,
- 13:11Speaker 1: did you get a record-breaking, and deservedly so, 26-minute standing ovation?
- 13:20Speaker 2: Now, we're fact-checking it, Sid, and we're sending the numbers,
- 13:24Speaker 2: we're crunching the numbers and the data to the Guinness
- 13:28Speaker 2: Book of World Records. But yes, and I had heard
- 13:32Speaker 2: one of these documentaries at the Venice Film Festival once
- 13:35Speaker 2: got 25 minutes. which is absurd to me. Because, I mean, listen,
- 13:40Speaker 2: I love my kids. You love Gabriel, your beautiful son,
- 13:43Speaker 2: your daughter. I wouldn't clap. There's nothing my kids could
- 13:47Speaker 2: do that I would clap more than 90 seconds. I mean,
- 13:50Speaker 2: this is... So, yes, it was a great night. And,
- 13:53Speaker 2: you know, the people here, like you know, the people
- 13:56Speaker 2: of Israel are... incredibly spirited, gorgeous, fun, unique, just human beings.
- 14:06Speaker 2: And I appreciate my timing. I appreciate all the trips here.
- 14:09Speaker 2: I appreciate the love here. And I appreciate, you know,
- 14:13Speaker 2: everything in New York, you know, from the people. And
- 14:16Speaker 2: I'm just a guy, man. I'm just a guy. My
- 14:18Speaker 2: wife is just, you know, a woman, you know, and
- 14:22Speaker 2: I'm just a regular guy. And I'm just, you know, like,
- 14:25Speaker 2: you know, I'm just a dude. I'm just a dude from...
- 14:28Speaker 2: From New York City.
- 14:29Speaker 1: Yeah, more than that, man. And I love when people
- 14:31Speaker 1: go crazy when they see you in Israel. It's all deserved, man.
- 14:34Speaker 1: I mean, you've been amazing. I mean, you and I
- 14:37Speaker 1: were friends before, and we've had some fun times on
- 14:40Speaker 1: the radio. But what you've done the last three years,
- 14:43Speaker 1: let me say it because you're a humble guy. What
- 14:45Speaker 1: you've done the last three years is nothing short of magnificent.
- 14:49Speaker 1: You've become one of the great, and I mean great,
- 14:52Speaker 1: Jewish people, fighters for Israel everywhere. in the history of
- 14:55Speaker 1: that country. And I know how it goes when you
- 14:58Speaker 1: walk the streets there, Mike. They go nuts. And that
- 15:00Speaker 1: makes me very, very happy. Enjoy your day there today.
- 15:04Speaker 1: I know, again, it is a solemn day. Are you
- 15:06Speaker 1: planning to go to any other, I don't know, rallies?
- 15:10Speaker 1: meetings or vigils.
- 15:12Speaker 2: There's some, some memorials and some get togethers and, and, and, uh,
- 15:16Speaker 2: you know, I'm, um, I'm going to be there. And,
- 15:19Speaker 2: and I mean, it's like the whole state of Israel,
- 15:21Speaker 2: it's one big memorial going on all over the place. Uh,
- 15:25Speaker 2: you know, even, you know, the businesses, I think everybody
- 15:28Speaker 2: is very, very aware of it. And, and, uh, you know,
- 15:31Speaker 2: but yes, I'm going to something later on this evening
- 15:33Speaker 2: and then I'll be on my way back to New York.
- 15:35Speaker 2: It's been a great trip. And, you know, and like
- 15:38Speaker 2: I said, hopefully I can come see you in the
- 15:41Speaker 2: flesh because you dress fantastically. Have you ever made like
- 15:44Speaker 2: one of the radio's best dressed list? This is one
- 15:48Speaker 2: of the things that I feel like you, I mean,
- 15:51Speaker 2: you got that face, that gorgeous face and that beautiful,
- 15:54Speaker 2: beautiful bald head. But you dress, you are, no, Sid,
- 15:59Speaker 2: you are a finely dressed man. Like you don't play around.
- 16:03Speaker 2: And you come in there when it's, 3.30 in the
- 16:06Speaker 2: morning in the winter, sharp as a tack.
- 16:11Speaker 1: Well, thank you very much. I do take that seriously, Joe.
- 16:13Speaker 2: I'm serious.
- 16:15Speaker 3: I mean, people, this is what you should, I mean,
- 16:17Speaker 3: you post the clips on the radio, you know, from
- 16:20Speaker 3: the radio, but I'm like, every time I come in there,
- 16:23Speaker 3: I mean, the guy, the suits fit fantastic.
- 16:26Speaker 2: You smell good. You look good. But the clothing, the linen,
- 16:30Speaker 2: the cotton, you.
- 16:31Speaker 3: Do it all.
- 16:33Speaker 1: Mike, I couldn't love you more than I do. Joseph
- 16:35Speaker 1: Abu taught me many, many years ago, you can never
- 16:39Speaker 1: be overdressed, but you can certainly be underdressed. And I
- 16:42Speaker 1: can actually point to the day where I stopped wearing
- 16:45Speaker 1: shorts and T-shirts to do my radio show when my
- 16:48Speaker 1: credibility went through the roof and people like presidents and
- 16:51Speaker 1: prime ministers started paying attention. Did it help you? Oh,
- 16:55Speaker 1: it helped me tremendously. Tremendously. It really did.
- 16:59Speaker 2: All right. All right.
- 17:00Speaker 1: Thank you for taking notice, Mike. Have a safe trip home.
- 17:03Speaker 1: I love you so much. Thank you for this great conversation.
- 17:06Speaker 1: Thank you, Michael.
- 17:07Speaker 2: Thank you. I love your family. I send love, and
- 17:08Speaker 2: I'm sending love to everybody in New York City.
- 17:10Speaker 1: We all love you, too. The amazing comedic actor alive
- 17:13Speaker 1: in Israel this morning, the very talented Michael Rappaport.
- 17:18Speaker 4: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
- 17:21Speaker 4: You can hear Sid and Friends in the Morning weekday
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- 17:45Speaker 4: so you never have to wonder.
- 17:47Speaker 1: What the heck is going on here?