Latest / Drawn of History / Matt Rife Remembers His Mentor Ralphie May(M4A_128K)

Transcript

Matt Rife Remembers His Mentor Ralphie May(M4A_128K) · Drawn of History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What else at CMAs do you do? Have you spent
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: a lot of time in Nashville or no?
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've been performing here since I was like 16.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Like Zany's was one of the first clubs I ever
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: got to perform at.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Really? Yeah. Did you open up for somebody?
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Oh, a bunch of people. I mean, Tommy Davidson to
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Pauly Shore to Jim Brewer, Bill Bellamy, I've opened for. Oh, Ralphie, obviously.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: When I was like still living in Ohio, he used
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: to let me come down here and do his shows
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  Speaker 2: right before Christmas at Zany's. And he would like, I mean,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: he would pay me, by like five, $ 600, which I'm
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: in high school. So that's like a million dollars to
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  Speaker 2: me so that I could like, I could go back
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  Speaker 2: home and like buy my family Christmas presents with that money.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: He was like the nicest guy. So I mean, I've
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: been coming here for a while. I love it here.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: It's a good comedy scene too.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It's good people, man. It's some of the best people.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I can't believe you got to come down here and
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: work with Ralphie. That was so wild. What was that like?
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Did you see him having troubles back then? I mean,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: that was a long time ago. I mean, he was
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: fat the whole time.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Right. I never knew him to not be gigantic. Um,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: so I mean, there was no, I mean, I was
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: also a 16, 17. So again, I'm not really like
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: looking for problems.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: That's at the, that's you. That's the Brea improv. Yeah.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: I think I'm, I'm 17 in this, maybe 18. Wow.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: I think I'd maybe just turn 18 in that, but
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: look at that watch. Wow. Fake. Couldn't be more fake.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: What's it made out of?
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: It looks like a goddamn Ben 10 watch, dude. It
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: looks like it's made out of ivory. Is it real ivory? No,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: it's not real ivory, man. It's pure plastic. Is it
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: real tusk? Not at all, man. Oh, dude.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Look at Ralphie's smile, bro.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man. I miss him a lot. He was such
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: a good guy. He started when he was super young, too.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I think he started when he was 14. He was
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: full of black.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: He said he was so big because a lot of
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: his inside had a lot of blacks. A lot of
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: blacks in them? Black people inside of him.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, you could fit a couple of black people
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  Speaker 2: inside of him.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: He said there was like a couple of black guys
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: in the front seat and the back seat of him. Because,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: you know, it's not like you give one brother a ride,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: a couple of brothers show up. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: who's that?
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Wait, somebody hopping on the pegs, you know?
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, dude. That was the craziest thing, bro. I used
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: to bike through the neighborhood. And on my way to school,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I'd go through the black area. And my buddy Jonathan
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: would get on the back and then like sometimes a
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: couple of his buddies would get on the front, dude.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: And so I was just this little, just like white
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: little engine that could, dude, you know, just like.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Cavs just pumping.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: I think I can. I think I can. I'm just
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: sitting there. Yeah. And they used to call me the
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: N-word bus. That's what they called me. When they saw
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: me pulling up, they're like, oh, here come the bus.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: And they'd all jump on. Dude, and I'd have to
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: get like five guys to help them get their education
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: or whatever.
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  Speaker 2: And I was like, I can do it.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Help them get their education? Like you're a public service? Bro,
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  Speaker 3: if I didn't get them there, it was like 11
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: more blocks of school. If I didn't get them there,
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  Speaker 3: they wasn't going, bro. They'd stop at block eight.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, bro. Yeah, yeah. One or two dudes got off, bro.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: We never saw them again.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: That's so fucking funny, dude.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: So that was wild, bro. But yeah, Ralphie was like,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Ralphie was one of a kind, bro. I can't name
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: somebody else that's like Ralphie. Can you really?
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: No, man. I really wish I could see how he
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: would have navigated like comedy today. It's changed so much
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: in just the 15 years that I've been doing it
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: and watching him. I mean, not give a fuck isn't
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: the most articulate way to say that, but he was
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: just so unapologetically himself. And people fucked with it, dude.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: I had never met anybody who didn't like him.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Dude, I remember I broke down when he passed. It
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: really hit me hard.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Oh, same, man. That was arguably my first mentor in comedy.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I was.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: I wasn't even, I think I'd maybe just turned 16.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: He was coming to Youngstown, Ohio. He was playing a
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: theater up there. No, I'm sorry. It was Cleveland. He was,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: he was doing a hilarities up there. And this was
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: like when Twitter, like you could, you could reach anybody
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: on Twitter. Everybody was so accessible. So I had like
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: tweeted at him. I was like, Hey, I'm this kid
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: in Ohio and I'm doing comedy now. Can I open
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: for you at hilarity? And he was like, yeah, you
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: know what? Fuck it. Come on down. But my mom
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: ruined it. Oh, why? Well, because she had no experience
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  Speaker 2: in this whatsoever. I mean, to her, this is just
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: a grown man inviting her son up to Cleveland.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Right, this is like pedophilia or whatever.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she had no idea. I mean, I had been
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: doing comedy.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Or humorous pedophilia.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Humorous pedophilia. Maybe five months I've been doing stand-up, so
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I didn't know anything either. So she's asking, like, where
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: do I park? Do we need to buy tickets? What
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: time do we need to be there? Where do we
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: need to go? Do I need to talk to anybody?
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: I ended up asking him so many questions on behalf
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: of my mom. He was like, hey, man. I actually,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: it's actually not going to work out. So he can't,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: he canceled on me. And then maybe six months later
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: he was doing Youngstown and And he let me come
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: up and do that. That was like my first theater show.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Paid me $ 100 for it. It was nice.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Did you hold that against your mom?
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, I was devastated. Because to me, I was like,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: this is going to be my big break. You know
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: what I mean? I'm going to be this famous comedian
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  Speaker 2: after doing one guest spot in Cleveland.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, but that's all it takes, dude. You get three
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: minutes of a video. Somebody bringing you up. You get
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: to bring Ralphie up. Anything. When you're that age.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Of course. bananas I know it would have been awesome
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: the theater show was very cool I actually ended up
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: meeting Tony Hinchcliffe's mom at that show in Youngstown yeah
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: she was just like yeah I have a son who
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: just moved to LA he's doing comedy out there like
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Jeff Ross I didn't think anything of it I didn't
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  Speaker 2: know anybody moved to LA and he was like you
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: fucking know my mom and why did why was she
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: at that show she was just a Ralphie fan no
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: yeah it was totally totally random I was just taking
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: pictures of people after the show and she was like
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: yeah my son lives out there he said his mom
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: still has like the piece of paper that I signed
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: for her she kept it even after all those years
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: oh that's pretty cool dude so crazy yeah I forget
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  Speaker 2: he's from Youngstown huh dude was it a pretty urban
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  Speaker 2: show no dude Youngstown was so white it was so
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: white dude but I mean this was also when he
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: was doing Ralphie was doing this bit about the n-word
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: and I think it I think it made it into
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: one of his specials where he was basically trying to
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: make a point that if you desensitize the word and
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: make it mean something different. So he was like, I
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: think we should name the most delicious flavored cookie, the
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: M word. That way you say like, I love. Oh,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: I see that. You could say it more optimistically. But
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  Speaker 2: this was like a mostly white room with a few
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: black people, but it didn't matter. Like the joke was
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: just great across the board. Like he was for everybody.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: His crowds were so eclectic.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And I loved coming up with that. I never wanted
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: to like pigeonhole and play to like a specific audience.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: I'm like if he can appeal to everybody, like that's
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: the main goal.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, dude. Well, yeah, just to be your– I think
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  Speaker 1: to try and– be as close to your truth as
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  Speaker 1: what it is. And I think Ralphie was that guy.
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  Speaker 1: He was just like, he loved like being accepted by
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  Speaker 1: black folks and white folks. He loved bringing them together
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  Speaker 1: with humor. Uh, and he loved just like being able
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: to kind of be welcomed in that space because to
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: be in that space also and navigate comedy, it's important
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: because you have like a, you don't have a responsibility
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: or something, but you can bring people together. If two
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: people can laugh at the same joke, That's a big thing.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more. I think sense of humor is
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: so important, dude.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Dude, that's so cool that you got to have some
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: of those moments with him.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, when I first moved to L.A., he used to
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: pick me up. We'd go to like a diner. He'd
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: make me order like three entrees. And I was like,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: is this fucking for you? He was like, no, whatever
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: you don't eat, you can take home with you. Now
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: you have like groceries for your week. Yeah, I have
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: leftovers for it. The nicest guy, man. Wow. I know.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: I know.
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  Speaker 1: Dang, that's big, bro. That's a big heart. He was
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: mostly heart. Harden brothers inside of him.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, mostly Harden brothers. He was one of those people
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  Speaker 2: that like, I wish I could have got to share
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  Speaker 2: what I get to go through now with him because
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: I knew him from like so, so young and he
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: was somebody that I looked up to.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Just to get his perspective on it, see what advice
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: he would have had, you know?
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, dude, that was a huge loss. What did he
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: pass away from exactly? Did he have pneumonia pretty bad?
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: I think it was COVID. I think he had early COVID.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: I just want to get clear on that.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: It was not COVID. I'm pretty sure it was a
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: heart attack. Yeah, cardiac arrest.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Ralphie made out of cardiac arrest caused by hypertensive cardiovascular disease.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: The Clark County, Nevada coroner officially ruled his death as natural.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: I mean. He was battling pneumonia at the time. That
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: happens a lot. Ralphie had a heart attack. His lung collapsed.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, that lung was exhausted. I mean, God damn, bro.
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  Speaker 1: I think I can.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: I think I can.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I think I can, dude. We got to get these
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: brothers to school, dude.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: That was his long, dude.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Oh, damn, bro.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: He would love that joke, though. He would love that bit.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Oh, he would love it, bro. Dude, honestly, I'm not
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: even joking. I can feel him smiling right now.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: That's one thing, bro.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: I believe that there is this– like between space and time,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: like if we say like, Ralphie, we love you and
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: we miss you and thank you for all the times
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: you made us laugh, I think he can feel that somewhere.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: I think so.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: So I think that there's like a way that you
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: can transfer like a feeling or like a hope, you know,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: through space and time, you know? I don't know.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: No, you can call it prayer. You can call it whatever,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: whichever angle you want to come from. I think it
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: does affect things. Yeah. And here's the thing, even if
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: it doesn't, isn't it so much better to just believe
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: it anyways?
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: 100%.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Isn't life just better to believe it?