Latest / Mic Drop Comedy / Ari Emanuel on Channeling Rage and Ego Into Hollywood Success _ The Daily Show

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Ari Emanuel on Channeling Rage and Ego Into Hollywood Success _ The Daily Show · Mic Drop Comedy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being here.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. Ari, you are, as way
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: of disclosure, I work for you. You are my agent,
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: sort of.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I think that's a role reversal. I work for you, John. Bullshit.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: This is the longest I've ever talked to you.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: A lot of people can say that.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Very true. You're a powerful man. And you're a legendary... Agent,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: you're very interesting. But I don't know if you're this interesting. Ari,
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: this is 417 pages.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Did you count how many Fs there were?
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: There's a tremendous amount.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: You should have called the book, me?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: No, you.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: It's 400 pages. I had to read this. Yeah. We
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: could have waited until Bob Odenkirk did the audio.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Bob Odenkirk did the audio?
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: How did you get him?
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Well, it goes way back. I was Bob's agent when Mr.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Show happened.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, God, on HBO. What a great show.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Bob's still a friend. Called him up. He said,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I'm going to read it anyway. Why don't I just
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: read it and make some money? I said, great. I
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: thought I did my... Nice. I did my best agenting there.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: How much do you, as his agent, pay him to
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: do your project?
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: So much.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: So much.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: So much.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I see.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: And is this, what is the impetus of writing the book,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: if I may, because there's a lot of other people
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: in the industry that you've worked with that receive, if
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: I may... less than stellar treatment in the book, but
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: you're still alive and so are they. Why?
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Should I be serious for two seconds?
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: No!
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, be serious for two seconds.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: No, listen, I know this is gonna shock you, but
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: most of the time I'm talking for other people when
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: I represent them. This is the first time I'm talking
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: in my voice. And the main reason is I'm dyslexic, ADHD,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: A lot of parents have come up to me and
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: asked me about that. And this is kind of their
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Thomas guide, which we used to drive in a map
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: to say, if you help your kids, one, get endurance
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: and go through dyslexia and let them struggle as hard
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: as it is for a kid. Right. They can turn
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: out OK. And here's the ways that they can turn
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: out OK. And the great thing about dyslexia is you're
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: not linear thinker. you're, in my opinion, you become a
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: free thinker because you're not attached to the words, you're
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: attached to other things.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: So this is about, given the setback that you may
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: have had with dyslexia, the fact that you can fight
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: through it.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: And then it's also for kids.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: This is not for kids. This is maybe the least, like,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: this ain't Miss Rachel. Let's put it that way.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: But here's what I would say to you. A lot
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: of people starting out in the business.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I started out making 15 cents a mile, and this
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: was my path.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: You were a mailroom guy.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I was a mailroom guy. And this is a Thomas guy,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: a ways about the struggles that it takes. Because, you know, success,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: as you know, is not a straight line. There's ups,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: there's downs, there's pain. And there's a lot of... emotional pain,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: physical pain, actually, that you have to go through if
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: you wanna make it. And this is just to say,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: it's okay. One, it's okay to say what I want. One,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: it's okay to go for it. And one, it's okay
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: to have agency for yourself. And I think one of
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: the most important things for a kid to advocate for yourself.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I never had our best friend.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Did people advocate for you when you had dyslexia? Because
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: I know, and you've talked about this, your parents had
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: very high expectations. For those of you who don't know,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Ari's brother, Rahm Emanuel, worked for Barack Obama and Bill
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Clinton and was the mayor of Chicago. And your brother, Zeke,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: is a world-renowned physician. Correct. And that made you feel
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: sometimes insecure?
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Well, my mom put our grades on the fridge. You
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: walk in, A +, A +, idiot, you know? And,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: you know, like, I wanted my voice. And not that
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: I knew I wasn't stupid, just because you're dyslexic, you're
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: not stupid. But I wanted that ability to kind of
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: make a name for myself. And it takes... Going forward,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: it takes agency, and it takes believing in yourself in
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the face of a lot of different things. And the
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: other thing it does is if somebody tells you, no,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: you can't do it, which they told me I couldn't read,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: they told me you shouldn't start an agency, told me
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: a lot of things I couldn't do. You have to believe,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and that takes a lot, emotionally, physically, to go up
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: against people. And that's not easy.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: You do talk a lot about the dyslexia, your brother's achievements.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: It's set in you. You begin the book with it,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: a rage, an anger in you. I don't see it
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: right now, but I've been on the phone and have
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: seen it.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: For you, I have gone after people with rage. Yes.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Thank you. But where does, is that where the rage
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: is from?
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: You know, I didn't have a plan B. I found
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the entertainment business. The minute I heard about it, I
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: fell in love. And I went for it. And that was,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: whether it's not going to business school, making 15 cents
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: a mile, my brother's making fun of me, my father's saying,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: what are you doing in his heavy accent, and going. Yeah,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: and so for me, there was no plan B. There
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: was only plan A. So I just had to make
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: it work. And it didn't matter what it took, I
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: did it. Nothing illegal, but I did whatever it took.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Page 47!
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: I don't want to say I circled it. As you
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: look back, because I think, and I don't think I'm
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: speaking out of school here, but you have mellowed. You've
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: been on a journey. Would that be fair to say?
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: You want to bring the wife out and see if
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: she says there's a son out there?
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: There's like three pages at the end where I was like,
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: oh my God, now he's Forrest Gump. Like, what the
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: f * * * happened?
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Here's what I would say happened.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: A businessman said to me at one point, he said,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: you have to know when you're on the field of
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: business and when you're off the field of business. When
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: you're on the field of business, you do what you
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: need to do. And when you're off the field, you've
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: got to be off the field. And my wife always
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: points out to me, and I've started a new business,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: she says, when you're off the field, let's be off
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: the field. And it has made me better on the field.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: That doesn't mean... There's not thousands of calls and a
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: lot of aggressive.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Working hard is not the same as working angry.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Correct. And I have gone through a lot of work
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: to get to.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: You go on like licking toad expeditions.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Correct, I do.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Now what was that about?
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: What were you trying to get a hold of? Well, Dr. Calm,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: my shrink, said to me.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: His name is not Dr.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Calm, by the way. No, definitely not. He said to
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: me at one point, you have an ego problem. And
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: then we did a lot of work on the ego problem.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: What was the ego problem? Too much or too little? Hello?
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: What are you talking about?
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Too much.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: And he said at one point, which really stuck with me,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: he goes, you know, this anger problem, the ego problem,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: back in the 50s, people that were really successful in
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: business were considered smart. And for whatever reason, that statement
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: hit me. And I remember my parents coming into LA,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: and I picked them up at the airport, and we
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: were talking about, I had just taken over William Morris
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: with Patrick and everybody, and I was explaining the business
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: to my dad, who was asking me a question, my mom,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: and they, in the back seat, they go, well, who
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: does all that? And I said, well, it's not my brother, Rahm,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: or my brother, Zeke, you know, hello. And... That was
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: my life, in not a horrible way, in a beautiful way.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: And I then kind of figured out, you know, I'm
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: not stupid, and I'm not afraid of being found out.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: But that's still sticking.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, it doesn't stick with me anymore.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: As you're leading WME, you're still driven by this idea
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: that I'm not that dyslexic kid.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Well, if your mom and dad said that to you, like,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: who does all this stuff on this show? You would
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: be like, well, you know.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: You don't think that's what they, of course. My brother
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: went to Princeton for sake.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: And so I realized, you know, that's just something in
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: the past. And I went on a journey trying to
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: figure out how to deal with that. I did some psychedelics,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: even though my brother Zeke says he would never do it,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: even though he realizes that there's benefit to them. And
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: it helped me get through, plus being married to a
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: wonderful woman, this little ego thing.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: You feel like you've come to a different place. And
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: why does Rahm still give you shit? I think even
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: at your wedding.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Like, he gave you shit at your wedding.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's just competition. But listen, really why I wrote
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the book, I just want my mom to love me
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: five seconds more than that. That's it.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: What do you think? Let me just say something.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: My mom is still alive. She's 93. I'm doing an
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: event in Chicago. And she's coming. And I'm going to
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: roll her on stage because she's in a wheelchair. She's
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: still a monster, fantastic lady. And I think I got
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: five days more of love than those two guys. Yeah,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I do.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: And that makes it all worth it?
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: You know what you could do to really screw Rahm over? What? Oh,
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: dear god, this would be hilarious. You should run for president.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: You run for president, it would.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Blow his mind. Let me just say, some of the interviews,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: is your brother running?
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: They ask you if your brother. Rahm is running for president.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: No, he's not. What are you talking about? So here's
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: what I would say.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: Here's what I say.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Here's what I say about my brother Rahm, who I
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: love my brothers dearly. Thank God we're in different parts
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: of the country. Once in Washington, once in... He worked
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: in the Clinton administration, Congress... unbelievable mayor, fought the teachers
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: union on strike for nine days, then went into, I think,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: the tough Obamacare for President Obama, got through the financial
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: crisis in 08, and he then went into a region
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: where he worked with all our allies to combat what
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I think is China's aggression. If you're asking me if,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: not that he is, running, there's not one person more
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: qualified than my brother.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: To do it.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: And he would be an incredible president, and I would
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: be unbelievably proud of him.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, my God. You're buying this?
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Guys, hold on one second.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Hold on one second. He's an agent. His whole job is...
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: That's how he got Tyler Perry his own f *
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: * * ing studio. There is not one actor I
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: would trust more.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Then you.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Then Madea. Fantastic. But you don't... It's so interesting to
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: me because, you know, when I read this book, I
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: have to say, I had a feeling for you that
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: I hadn't had before. There's a lot of this that
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: feels like you don't enjoy it. That there were moments...
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: You know, you talk about your thyroid gave out and
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: you lost 20 pounds. That, you know, you were squeezing
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: it so hard that it felt... torturous to you to
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: live it. Is that how it felt going through it?
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Did you enjoy it?
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: I've loved every minute.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: For real?
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: People say, are you happy? Because I asked the question,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: are you happy? I would say the following. First of all,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: what the fuck is happy? But second of all, I'm satisfied.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: I'm happy. And as my mother taught us when we
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: were growing up, would you like to have a meaningful
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: life or a life of pleasure? I would rather have
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: a meaningful life because that is a life of pleasure.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: And I have had an incredible meaningful life. I've enjoyed
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: all of it. It has been brutal at times, but
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: I have learned a ton.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: You did something, speaking of that meaningful life that can
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: be brutal at times, you went to, you're being honored
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is a huge Jewish organization.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: In your speech, you stand up, this is two years ago?
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: And you give a Jeremiah ad against Bibi Netanyahu.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: And his treatment of Palestinians.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: And Israel's complicity in that. Yeah. To the point where
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: people are booing you and walking out.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Huzzah. Because that's not an easy thing to do.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: Here's what I.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: That goes to my mom and my dad. They took
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: us down to protest civil rights movements in Chicago, three
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: little boys, her walking down there from the suburbs.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: But you're a Sabbath Jew. You do the whole... If
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: I did that, people would be like, well, sure he
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: has a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich for Passover.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: But I'm willing to stand up for what I believe in,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: what I think is right. and what I think is
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: not right. When my brother was in the White House
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: during the Obama administration, Bibi Netanyahu in a meeting said,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: you're a self-hating Jew, and I think my brother's speech
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: in Israel where he talked about he's not making Jews
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: in Israel safe, those are things that are important to do,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: and you have to stand up for yourself, have your voice,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: have agency, and those are the things my mom taught me.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Right, well done. I appreciate that. What would you do
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: as an agent? I'll give you one. This will be
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: a nice little test. Let's say you're an agent and
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: you've got a big music star. And his opening act
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: goes out. And says things that, and you're the kind
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: of music star that's just out there like, I wear
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: dungarees with your picture on it. Like that kind of shit.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: How would you as an agent, and then stadiums start
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: to cancel. And they say, you've got to get rid
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: of these guys. If you're representing Ed Sheeran, What do
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: you do? We'll go through it. I'll have you represent Macklemore.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: I'll have you represent Ed Sheeran. And I'll have you
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: represent Bob Carr.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Well, I'll just do the Macklemore for you.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Do the Macklemore for me.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: So as I would say to you is the following.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: I do not believe what is happening in the West
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Bank is fair and right and just. But if you're
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: talking about, and I had this conversation with a client recently,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: and we can all, the great thing is I'm okay
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: to have a discussion, disagree and have a, and get better.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: But I don't believe the word genocide is the proper
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: word for what happened in the West. You don't? I
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: do not.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: So that would be your complaint about Malcolm?
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: I would have this conversation with him where we can
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: sit down as human beings. I don't want to live
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: in a country that is a cult or in a
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: kind of echo chamber. I want to have a conversation
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: with him where we can all sit there and say, okay,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: here's the one argument, here's the other, and let's get
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: to a point where we can have a conversation.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: But even if it's not the proper word.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Do I think it needed to go to the extent
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: it needed to go to?
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Right. That they would literally have a guy say, you're
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: not coming into my stadium because that's dangerous. That's my question. Right.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Well, that's a conversation I would have with Bob Kraft
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: and those people about their opinions about those things. This
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: is a lot of gray.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Right. Who would you say you to first?
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: I say you to a lot of people first.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: I meant in this situation.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: In this situation, it's too delicate to say F you.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Would you have encouraged Bob Kraft not to have canceled,
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: not to have threatened to pull those guys?
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Bob Kraft, I don't know if you know, he does
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: the blue square.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: I don't know what that means.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: He has given a lot of money to a movement
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: to stop hate.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: How's that going?
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Well, you know something? We need more of that. We
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: need more people talking about, let's not hate each other,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: let's talk to each other. Let's not talk about things
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: that are really kind of, I think, let's all get
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: on the same page about what we're discussing. We can disagree,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: but let's not be disagreeable. I think people have said that.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: And Bob Craft is doing an incredible job with the
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Blue Square to try and combat hate. And I don't
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: like hate anywhere in the world. And I don't like
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Jews committing hate on West Bank Palestinians. I don't like
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: any of it. And I think there's a way to
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: kind of, we have to keep on having this conversation.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Do you believe what he said on stage was hate?
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: I don't think it was completely understanding the facts. And
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: I think it was belittling to Jewish people, too.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: So if someone got on stage and said, like, happy
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Hanukkah or.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Well, as I said in the book, Don, there's certain
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: people that have said things that I think are hateful. Right.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: and I have written about Mel Gibson and Kanye that
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: I didn't.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Think were right. How do you, you know, it's so
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: interesting because it is, the people in this book, like,
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: you're in with very powerful people, and there are bodies,
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: and they are buried, and like, you have relationships that
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: are severed, people that you came up with, and it's
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: been difficult. And you write about Mel Gibson and how
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: upset you were and Kanye and all that. But Elon escapes.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: He's still a very good friend of yours, but he's
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: very clearly, I don't know if you get his Twitter feed,
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: but I can't stop it somehow.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Here's what I would say. I think he's done incredible
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: things for the human race. and continues to do great
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: and unbelievable things.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: And when I did, when I, when I, when I,
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: when I disagree with him, when I disagree with him,
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: he and I have a conversation where we have a
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: very intense conversation and hopefully I have moved him in
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: this situation.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I would have the conversation.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: And do you still do that? Like, can you call
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: him up and go like, Hey, what's with the Rhodesia
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: nostalgia pictures?
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: I text them all the time about stuff.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And he accepts that.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. We get into very good conversations about it
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: and heated. And I think that's a good thing. Again,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: I do not want to live in a cult. I
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: want to live in a society. In society, you have
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: to talk.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: You're a complicated individual. Listen, but I enjoy you very much.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: I enjoy talking to you. And I very much enjoyed
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: the book. Because my favorite part about the whole book
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: is just out of nowhere, and this is random, and
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: this is very inside baseball, but you hate Jeffrey Katzenberg.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: And that's so funny to me.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, we were a small agency.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: We get these seats right next to the Laker bench
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: in the heyday. Phil Jackson.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: This is the best.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Shaq, Kobe, we're winning. We can't afford to see it.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: And getting Lakers tickets is, for your business, you look
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: like a big guy, you're making deals. We look enormous, right?
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Billboard. He goes behind my back, I have a contract,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: tries to steal them. On your own kipper. And I go,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: I'm going to sue you. And I go, then he
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: doesn't give, we're starting out, doesn't give us a package
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: on a Jeffrey Lane show. Then....
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: A package is you get a percentage of the profits
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: and things like that and a fee that goes along
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: when you bring like... the director and an actor and
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: a few other people.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: And then there's some other things that he does. And
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: then I had a problem with, he called me up
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: and says, do you want to meet and give money
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: to President Biden? I said, do you think I need
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: you to help me get the President Biden? My brother
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: was in the White House.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: And then when things go south, when things go south
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: and President Biden, it's.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Going south, and I'm going nuts. Like I said a
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: year before, this is not right. Raising the money, I
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: can get you in a room, I call him up,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: does nothing.
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: I'm like....
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: What the are we talking about here?
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: You know, like if you say you can do it
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: one time, go deal with it.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: But you said literally you were on a date with
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: your wife, your present wife, and he was sitting next
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: to you, and you asked to move loudly while sitting
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: next to him.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: And that's it.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: No.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: Of all the people you run in the world with,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: of all the Elons and the Kanye and all the
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: blue squares, the one guy.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: No, but no. That guy is a guy who, from
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: my perspective.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Is does stuff that it's only about himself. All the
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: stuff he talks about is about his own reflection. And yeah,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: he definitely me and I was not gonna put up
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: with it.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: So that's such a great story. By the way, and
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: it's all, all of it is in here. The Laker
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: story that got like, it's great. And if you're in
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: the business, it's great. And if you're not.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: I'm definitely not. It's not a, well, I'm not saying
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: there's all the things that I did great. No, there's
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of stupid shit I did in that book. Yeah. Crazy.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's crazy. I love it. Roll the calls available now.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: All right.