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Mark interviews writer and producer Alan Zweibel · The Mark Simone Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You're listening to Mark emotion only you are well. Alan's
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: why Belle, the great writer, producer, a comedian, best selling author.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: He has written a great book about his life and
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: his career. You should get it. It's called Laughlines, Laughlines,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Great Book by Alan's White Belle. Also follow him on
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Instagram and Twitter and all that stuff. Alan's Why Belle.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: How you doing, I'm great?
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Mark, How you doing?
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I'm good? I'm good.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Hey.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: You were very very close to Rob Reiner and you've
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: been with the family. How they doing, How's everything going
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: for them?
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's my wife is more in touch
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: with the two kids than I am. You know, we've
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: shanged some texts now and then, but he's actually spoken
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: with them. And you can only imagine. You can only imagine.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: You get two kids whose parents were taken away by
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: their brother, and you know, as far as we're concerned,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: I did a lot of movies with Rob.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: We was very.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Very close the two families, and we were at their
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: house when they brought their children home from the hospital
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: after they were born. So it goes back a long way.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: And I think that those of us who were closest
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: with them are still traumatized to be frank.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: You know, well, well let's get off there, let's get
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: onto something happy. Let's talk about something else. But thanks
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: for the update. But hey, what's the National Comedy Center?
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I see it on your Instagram? The National Comedy Center?
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: What is that?
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's it's this great place. It's in Jamestown,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: New York. So you fly into Buffalo, you make a left,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: and then go for a couple of hours.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, well there's a great location. Who picked this location?
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Well I think they picked it because Lucille Bull was
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: born there.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, Jamestown.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Jamestown. But but we in there a handful
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: of times. And it's it's not a hall of fame
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: as much as it is it's a center for all
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: kinds of comedy. And it's high tech. So if you
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: put in somebody's name in the computer when you walk in,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: it will tell you everything they did, everything they worked with,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: the films of Lucy and ethel on the on the
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: conveyor conveyor belt, you know, all times of these great
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: sort of They have Harper Marx's Celts, the Bottle, it's
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: got George Colin's notes, Carl Reiner. Uh he gave them
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: all of his uh, his papers. So it's quite it's
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: more like a high tech library, but with a lot
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: of visuals. And what's really fun, Oh, Mark, you all
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: love this. They have a bench that if you sit
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: on the bench, a fart sound comes back. Okay. And
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: so I was up there with Lorraine Newman. We were
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: doing something up there, and we were sitting on the
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: couch and there's ten different kinds of farts and I
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: was trying to figure out. I asked the director. I said, okay,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: so you had this idea for a far couch. Fine,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: was there more than one draft of it? Did a
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: couple of them come in and say, yes, those eight
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: of those are good, but you're got to work on
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: the other two. But it's that's not exactly the high
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Row part of it. There is a room upstairs that
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: they call the Blue Room, where they have footage of
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor and people who were considered,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: you know, off collar or revolutionary at the time. It's
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: really if you happen to be in Jamestown, like if
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: you lose a bet and you happen to be in Jamestown,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: you should go there. It's a really great place and
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: I think it was just one museum of the year,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. So it's it's really quite terrific.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: That sounds great except for the location. It sounds perfect.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's not around the corner, you know what
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: I mean. But it's it's if you find yourself and
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Jamestown us stop in.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Hey, everything is documentaries now, I guess because it's
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: it's cheaper to make a documentary than to do a series.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: But that's the most popular thing on streaming is documentaries.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Everybody's raving about that mel Brooks documentary. So isn't that great?
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Well, you've got Apa tow Is a good tal and
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: he sent me it both parts of it before he edited.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: And these are great you know what they are there
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: time capsule things there when you look at Rob Ryan
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: as who you mentioned earlier, did a really good one
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: about Albert Brooks. You've got all of these documentaries that
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: based it shows a oh, an objective kind of tribute
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: to people. Yeah, it's subjective because you're doing a documentary
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: about them. There was one on Chevy, there was one.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: You know, they're doing one on me. Because of all
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: the people I worked with, so they can get all
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: they got, all those people giving testimony. It's not me
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: that they're selling, but all these people endorsing me, and
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: they've been working on it for a couple of years now.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: But I like them. I like them. As a matter
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: of fact, Judd at the House sent me a rough
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: hut of one that he did. It hasn't been released
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: yet on Norm McDonald and if you were a fan
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: of Norms, you'll eat up every second of this. It's
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: really good. So I like them.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, now that's great, Souff. As long as we're pluging documentaries,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: there's a new Sinatra documentary. It's called Echoes of an Icon.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: It was on Fox Nation. It's also on Amazon. It's great.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: You should go look at that. What else, Hey, you're
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: working on the Rodney Dangerfield Broadway show.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, as a matter of fact, I put it aside
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: to be on the phone with you right now, and
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: I know that's okay. I needed to break mark. It's
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: really fun. I've been working on it a very long time.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: It's not an easy thing to do. It's easy for
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: me to capture his voice. But what way do you
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: take it? How do you do it? We had a
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: reading of it all a few months ago. It went
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: very well, but then the producers wanted to go another
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: way with it, and I resisted at first. But now
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: that I'm writing it, I'm going, yeah, they were right.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: It's more intimate. It's more intimate if I make it
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: more of a monologue, you know, where he tells jokes,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: but he also tells about his life and it gets
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: very very touching at points. So I'm having a really
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: good time doing it. I can't wait for the next step.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the off stage Rodney was quite different from the
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: on stage Rodney. And his private story is pretty complex
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: and interesting, sus So it's.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Very complex, you know. If you read his book, he
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: was very very open about a childhood where mom never
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: hugged him, Dad was never around. He was out there
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: as a little kid, you know, on the streets. And
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: when he ultimately created this character, I don't get no respect.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: I think that there was for him. I think it
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: was cathartic. I think it tapped into a part of
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: him that was true, and it was part of his therapy,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: and I think that that's why he resonated. He just
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: wasn't a guy telling jokes, which he had the best
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: jokes in the world. But I think that you believe
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: that there was a part of him that was believed it,
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: you know, and he's and actually he says, you know,
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: he says in his book that the reason that he
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: told those jokes one right after another and did them
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: so rapidly that he was afraid he was going to
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: lose the audience between jokes, that he didn't get to
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: the next punchline. So you're talking about an emotional deprivation there,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: you know underneath. You know, I don't want to get
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: at the psychobabble about it, but he was a real
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: guy and he did have his demons.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, now is this show going to get into it
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: in real life? The drugs, the women.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Oh, the drugs, the women. Listen, you know. And I've
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: been asking people who knew him better than me. I
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: knew him pretty well. But you know, I've heard that
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: you remember a Catcherizing star of course, Yeah, okay, Catchurizing
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Star was a showcase up and coming comedians. Rodney would
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: stop in there, you know, let's say ten o'clock at night,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: wearing his pajamas. He walked from his apartment through the
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: streets and his pajamas, so that I have no explanation
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: for no one's to tell me why.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: You know, he actually lived like a block from Catch
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: a rising star.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and yes, he did live very very close to Catch,
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: and he from everything that I've learned, he opened up
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Danger Fields because he wanted to be near the kids. Yeah, okay,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: he lived it was like a few blocks away, so
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: he didn't want to be on the road as much.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: You know, he wanted to sleep home at night and
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: be a father. So you know, there were really good
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: intentions there.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: And his partner Dangerfields, Tony Babaka, who's the guy that
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: really ran the club. He's still alive and well he's
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: living in Long Island and.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's my understanding as well, that's my you know,
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: it was the hangout, you know, they're on occasion and
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: uh and it was a thrill to meet him and
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: you go downstairs to his dressing room and you couldn't
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: believe you were talking to this guy, you know, in
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: a bathroomly genuine.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: In his bathroom, Yeah exactly.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: But then he would take off the bathrobe and walk
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: the caturizing stone at John.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Well, you were lucky because with me, the bathrobe was
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: there were no pajamas, just the bathroom, so you got luck.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, frightening.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Anyway, everybody follow Alan's Wybell on Twitter and make sure
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: he follow his Instagram. It's very good. And get his
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: book is a life story and it's a funny, wonderful
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: book of stories. It's called Laughlines by Alan's Wibell. Just
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: go to Amazon and get his book, laugh Lines, Alan's Wybelle,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Thanks for being with.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Us, Thanks for having me. Mark said here, all right.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Take care. Hey, don't forget Buck and Clay Noon Today.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: I love that show. And then at three o'clock Sean
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Hannity most listened to radio show in America and don't
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: forget Jimmy Fayla tonight at nine on seven to ten
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: WR