The Joe Rogan Experience - June 17, 2020


Joe Rogan Experience #1493 - Steve Schirripa & Michael Imperioli

Topics
jar sauce homeless situation read-through Rick Reynolds one-man show prop comics Otto and George puppet show silent UFC fights boxing vs. mma fights protest movement gives hope Kyle Dunnigan face swap videos pandemic jokes vitamin D deficiency
Hosted by
Joe Rogan
Guests
Steve Schirripa Michael Imperioli
Mentioned
Harvey Weinstein Michael Chiklis Talking Sopranos Joey Diaz Tyson Tony Spilaccio Lenny Bruce John Gotti III Steve Sharippa Richard Pryor Jeff Sussman Drew Carey Jamie George Foreman Rick Reynolds Randy Credico Tony Soprano Nick DiPaolo Jesus Christ Edie Falco and 130 more
Joe Rogan Experience #1492 - Jocko Willink Joe Rogan Experience #1494 - Bret Weinstein

Episode Stats


Length

2 hours and 33 minutes

Words per minute

190.42

Word count

29,163

Sentence count

3,820

Harmful content

Misogyny

67

sentences flagged

Toxicity

683

sentences flagged

Hate speech

34

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

On this episode of the podcast, the boys are joined by the man who started it all along with his brother, Steve Scarpino. Steve is the owner and founder of the well-known Italian sauce brand, "The Spaghettino's". Steve and the boys talk about the origins of the company, how it all started, and what it's like to be a small business owner in the late 90s and early 2000s. We also talk about how the sauce became a multi-million dollar company, and how it was acquired by a bigger company. And of course, we talk about some of Steve's favorite things. Enjoy the episode, and don't forget to leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms! Thanks for listening and Good Luck Out There! Timestamps: 1:00 - What's your favorite Italian sauce? 6:30 - What kind of sauce do you like to eat 7:00 8:15 - How much money does it take to run a business? 9:20 - Who are you make? 11:30 12:40 - How do you make the most of your money? 13:00- What do you pay for your sauce 14:40 15:20 16:30- How much does your sauce cost? 17:20- What are you looking for? 18:40- Where do you get paid? 19:15 21: How much do you want to be paid for it? 22:00 Do you need to make your sauce ? 23:50 - Is it better than someone else s sauce 25:00 Is there any other product? 26:50 27:50- What is the best sauce you like? 29:30 Is it good? 30:00 What is your favorite type of pasta? 31:00 Does it cost you? 32:00 Can you have a nice box? 35:00 Should you make it better? 36:30 Do you like your sauce? 35:40 Do you think it's better than mine? 37: Is it more than $20 an hour? 39:30 Should you have it better or $50? 40:00 How much is your sauce better than yours? 45:00 Are you going to make more? 47:00

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Joe Rogan Experience" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:01.000 One.
00:00:01.000 Steve!
00:00:02.000 Yes, sir!
00:00:03.000 Good to see you, buddy.
00:00:04.000 Good to see you, brother.
00:00:04.000 Really good.
00:00:05.000 Pleasure to meet you, man.
00:00:06.000 Thanks for having us today.
00:00:07.000 Yeah, really, thanks.
00:00:08.000 It's been a while.
00:00:09.000 I saw you...
00:00:10.000 The last time I saw you was at the old studio.
00:00:13.000 Three years ago.
00:00:13.000 It looks exactly...
00:00:14.000 It's eerie.
00:00:15.000 Yeah.
00:00:16.000 I'm going to do it again the next place I move.
00:00:18.000 I'm going to rebuild this whole thing again.
00:00:21.000 That's my move.
00:00:21.000 Just make it look like this.
00:00:23.000 Make it comfortable.
00:00:24.000 You like what you like.
00:00:25.000 It looks like the same thing.
00:00:26.000 Yeah, that way you don't get confused.
00:00:28.000 Same desk?
00:00:29.000 Yeah, this is great.
00:00:30.000 Good to see you.
00:00:31.000 Good to see you, too, brother.
00:00:32.000 I'm bummed out, though, about your sauce.
00:00:34.000 Yeah, yeah.
00:00:36.000 I was just bragging to somebody about it the other day.
00:00:38.000 We grew too fast, but you have two of the last ones left.
00:00:41.000 I don't know what to do.
00:00:41.000 That inexistent.
00:00:43.000 Do I, like, let it sit on a shelf for a while?
00:00:45.000 No, no, no.
00:00:46.000 Listen, the sauce was good.
00:00:49.000 It's all natural and organic.
00:00:51.000 It was all good.
00:00:52.000 Just unfortunately, it grew too fast, and my partner, you know, we had enough.
00:00:58.000 He lost a lot of money, but not for lack of trying, or the product.
00:01:02.000 No, the product's excellent. 1.00
00:01:03.000 Let me tell you the biggest fucking thieves. 1.00
00:01:05.000 Okay. 1.00
00:01:05.000 Bigger than the mob, bigger than any thief. 1.00
00:01:09.000 These stores that you do business with, okay?
00:01:13.000 And the distributors.
00:01:14.000 And then you have all these people with their hand in the pie.
00:01:17.000 So we buy the sauce.
00:01:18.000 It's our recipe.
00:01:20.000 That guy makes it.
00:01:21.000 Now we got to give it to a distributor.
00:01:24.000 You can't go direct. 1.00
00:01:25.000 To like Whole Foods and shit. 0.99
00:01:27.000 So there's other hands in the pie. 0.99
00:01:29.000 Now you give them a bill for 20 grand of sauce that you gave them, and they send you back a check for 3 grand.
00:01:36.000 And they go, well, there was breakage, and there was this, and there was that.
00:01:40.000 And you have to pay more money in the store to have it in the front and have it stacked.
00:01:46.000 Oh, really?
00:01:47.000 You pay more? 1.00
00:01:48.000 You are fucked. 1.00
00:01:48.000 You are fucked. 1.00
00:01:49.000 Just like a book. 1.00
00:01:50.000 You know, I've had books.
00:01:51.000 I don't know if you...
00:01:53.000 I have books out.
00:01:54.000 Barnes& Noble.
00:01:55.000 To say Barnes& Noble, you had a book out.
00:01:58.000 You have a book out.
00:02:00.000 Barnes& Noble, favorite.
00:02:01.000 You gotta pay more for that.
00:02:03.000 To have the book on the shelf turned this way, you gotta pay more for that. 1.00
00:02:07.000 They nickel and dime you, and they fucking kill you. 1.00
00:02:10.000 They are the real mob. 1.00
00:02:12.000 I'm telling you.
00:02:12.000 Are they worse than funeral homes, though?
00:02:15.000 No one's worse than funeral homes.
00:02:16.000 Well, they tug on your...
00:02:19.000 Heartstrings.
00:02:20.000 Yeah.
00:02:20.000 Come on.
00:02:21.000 He was a great guy.
00:02:22.000 Aren't you going to have the nice box?
00:02:24.000 Did you start out doing this just through the internet, though?
00:02:27.000 You know, we started in the stores.
00:02:30.000 We didn't really, you know, we came to Amazon later.
00:02:33.000 My partner...
00:02:34.000 The trade shows.
00:02:35.000 Joe Scarp.
00:02:36.000 Joe Scarpino, great guy.
00:02:37.000 He was here last time.
00:02:38.000 He's my partner.
00:02:39.000 He put up the money.
00:02:40.000 He's a builder.
00:02:42.000 He said, we're going to make $50 million.
00:02:45.000 We're going to sell the company.
00:02:47.000 And he's got $50 million.
00:02:48.000 He doesn't need another $50.
00:02:51.000 Got a little greedy.
00:02:52.000 No, he wanted to go.
00:02:54.000 Listen, he's not a small-time guy.
00:02:56.000 It's all or nothing.
00:02:56.000 So I give him credit for that.
00:02:58.000 It's such a good sauce, though.
00:02:59.000 It kind of seems like you should just do it online.
00:03:01.000 Maybe they'll make a comeback, you know, and like I said, if we would have stayed small, delis, you know, it was doing great, Staten Island, you know, the biggest Italian area, you know, the Guinea gang playing there, all them Italians ate jar sauce, 1.00
00:03:16.000 even they won't admit it, they fucking like that sauce. 0.98
00:03:20.000 Right? 0.99
00:03:21.000 It's a good sauce.
00:03:22.000 It's natural.
00:03:23.000 It doesn't have that acid-y thing that a lot of jarred sauces have.
00:03:28.000 You know, I did all the press. 0.99
00:03:30.000 We did all the shit. 0.99
00:03:31.000 I said if I would have, instead of being a partner, I should have made $20 an hour. 1.00
00:03:36.000 I did well.
00:03:40.000 So you guys are doing a podcast now?
00:03:42.000 We're doing a podcast.
00:03:44.000 Rewatch.
00:03:45.000 Yeah.
00:03:45.000 Sussman clued me into it.
00:03:48.000 Yeah.
00:03:48.000 We got approached by a bunch of different producers towards the end of last year about doing it.
00:03:54.000 It wasn't our idea.
00:03:55.000 And...
00:03:57.000 We thought about it.
00:03:58.000 We had done a show like on stage in conversation, like inside the Actors Studio.
00:04:02.000 And we did all over the country, did Australia last year.
00:04:06.000 And then a couple of producers said, you know, do you want to do a podcast?
00:04:10.000 And we worked.
00:04:12.000 Jeff was the best of the producers, so we figured out a way to do it.
00:04:16.000 We were going to do it in the studio live like this at the end of March in New York.
00:04:20.000 The COVID hit.
00:04:21.000 Everything hit.
00:04:22.000 So we weren't going to do it at all.
00:04:23.000 We were going to put it off because we were depressed and we were like, who needs a podcast in the midst of all this stuff?
00:04:29.000 What is New York like right now?
00:04:30.000 You know...
00:04:34.000 I've been there.
00:04:34.000 I've been here a month now.
00:04:36.000 I have a place down in Orange County. 0.99
00:04:40.000 And New York was all fucked up. 0.99
00:04:42.000 And it's all boarded up. 0.99
00:04:44.000 My daughter's there.
00:04:46.000 I live downtown, way downtown.
00:04:49.000 And I was going out like an hour a day.
00:04:52.000 That's it.
00:04:53.000 I just went out an hour a day.
00:04:54.000 I would take a walk.
00:04:57.000 The streets are empty.
00:04:59.000 The streets are empty at night.
00:05:00.000 Now, after the looting, they destroyed Soho.
00:05:05.000 It's just destroyed.
00:05:06.000 And the cops are very timid. 0.99
00:05:09.000 And it's all fucked up. 1.00
00:05:10.000 I mean, it's all fucked up. 1.00
00:05:12.000 I don't know what happens there. 0.99
00:05:14.000 I mean, I don't know.
00:05:15.000 I don't know how it happened.
00:05:17.000 Like, seeing the cops just standing around while they were looting the art galleries in Soho while they were smashing Fifth Avenue.
00:05:25.000 I don't know. 1.00
00:05:25.000 What the fuck is this? 1.00
00:05:26.000 I don't know. 0.99
00:05:27.000 It's like the end of the world. 1.00
00:05:29.000 You know, de Blasio's the worst fucking... 1.00
00:05:32.000 I'm not a political guy at all, Joe. 1.00
00:05:34.000 Like, not at all. 1.00
00:05:35.000 But he's the worst fucking human that maybe walks the face of the earth. 1.00
00:05:38.000 I kid you not. 1.00
00:05:40.000 And, you know, I owned an apartment in Manhattan for like nine years.
00:05:44.000 And when he became the mayor...
00:05:46.000 Within a year, you saw even six months, right? 1.00
00:05:51.000 You saw like these fucking changes. 0.99
00:05:52.000 I'm going, I'm out. 1.00
00:05:54.000 I'm selling my fucking place. 1.00
00:05:55.000 And I sold my place. 1.00
00:05:56.000 What changes? 1.00
00:05:57.000 All kinds of shit. 1.00
00:05:59.000 The cops, basically they have one hand tied behind their back. 1.00
00:06:03.000 He changed all these laws, stopping frizz, da-da-da. 1.00
00:06:06.000 Some needed to be changed, some not.
00:06:09.000 Just the homeless is everywhere all of a sudden.
00:06:12.000 Yeah.
00:06:12.000 The trains are impossible.
00:06:14.000 There's all kinds of shit going on, you know, and I have to blame the mayor. 0.99
00:06:19.000 I mean, there's, you know, where I live downtown, there's... 0.99
00:06:22.000 Listen, I'm compassionate to the homeless. 0.97
00:06:24.000 I don't know the answer, which is why I'm not the fucking mayor, but... 0.99
00:06:28.000 They're everywhere. 0.99
00:06:29.000 Same thing here. 0.99
00:06:30.000 Our governor was the mayor of San Francisco, which is the craziest fucking place you've ever seen in your life when it comes to homeless people. 0.98
00:06:38.000 And now, after COVID, it's like ramped up 40%. 0.98
00:06:42.000 The homeless situation there, it doesn't even make sense.
00:06:45.000 Like you're seeing these beautiful homes and there's campsites in front of them. 0.96
00:06:49.000 And these people have to come out of their houses and tiptoe around needles and broken bottles and people's shit. 0.98
00:06:56.000 This might get worse, though, right? 0.98
00:06:57.000 After COVID with the economy, you know, collapsing as it did.
00:07:01.000 Yeah.
00:07:01.000 Well, that's what was happening with the COVID, too, in New York.
00:07:04.000 Because, listen, these guys standing on the corner, they're panhandling.
00:07:08.000 There was no one to get money from.
00:07:12.000 I mean, there was no one to panhandle.
00:07:13.000 The streets were completely empty.
00:07:16.000 Broadway, downtown, you could shoot a cannon to it, not a car.
00:07:21.000 Yeah, Mark Norman, you know the comic, Mark Norman?
00:07:24.000 Hilarious guy. 0.99
00:07:25.000 Filmed a bunch of shit with him just running around New York City with empty streets. 1.00
00:07:30.000 Nobody around. 1.00
00:07:30.000 How weird it looks. 1.00
00:07:31.000 Wall Street is empty.
00:07:32.000 All these places that are packed are empty.
00:07:35.000 I don't know the answer.
00:07:37.000 And with the cops, I don't know.
00:07:39.000 I mean, I just don't know.
00:07:41.000 It's all so bizarre, and I think so many people are either going to resign from the force, but definitely not join the force.
00:07:47.000 There's a lot of guys that are thinking about joining the force.
00:07:49.000 That's a tough job, man, for very little pay, and you're putting your life at stake.
00:07:54.000 And just public opinion of the force is down so low.
00:07:58.000 I don't get it.
00:08:02.000 If God forbid I had trouble, I call a cop.
00:08:04.000 I'm pro-cop.
00:08:05.000 I play a cop now.
00:08:07.000 I've been on Blue Bloods for five years.
00:08:09.000 I play a detective.
00:08:10.000 I'm pro-cop.
00:08:12.000 You play cops.
00:08:13.000 You're just playing a detective.
00:08:15.000 Played a homicide detective.
00:08:17.000 We went from wise guys to detectives.
00:08:19.000 There's a fine line.
00:08:20.000 Is there a fine line there?
00:08:26.000 But I agree.
00:08:28.000 New York is...
00:08:29.000 My daughter had just gone back, and it's really depressing, man.
00:08:34.000 You haven't been, right?
00:08:36.000 No, I've been in California since March 1st.
00:08:38.000 I was in New York before that.
00:08:39.000 And so, yeah, I couldn't go back, really.
00:08:43.000 But I live here and there, both places.
00:08:46.000 It was a little easier here up in the Santa Barbara area.
00:08:50.000 I love it up there.
00:08:52.000 Yeah, a lot easier to be quarantined there because you go outside and backyard and stuff like that.
00:08:57.000 Yeah, the beach.
00:08:58.000 Santa Barbara's the perfect size.
00:09:00.000 But I mean, I was in New York.
00:09:02.000 They shut us down March 13th.
00:09:06.000 With two and a half episodes to go, we just got shut down, and then you couldn't even go out of the house two days later.
00:09:13.000 I mean, I wasn't aware of anything.
00:09:15.000 I mean, the trains were packed. 0.86
00:09:16.000 I was taking the train and shit, and I went to a concert a few days before at the Beacon. 0.99
00:09:23.000 Dave Matthews and Jackson Brown, there was a fucking concert, but nobody said anything. 0.99
00:09:30.000 Jackson Brown got sick. 1.00
00:09:31.000 Yeah, he got sick.
00:09:34.000 Maybe at that concert.
00:09:35.000 You know, maybe.
00:09:37.000 But then it was just...
00:09:38.000 I was there for two months and it was gloom.
00:09:41.000 And I'm in a building. 0.99
00:09:42.000 So you gotta watch the elevator, the fucking doorman, the thing, you know. 0.99
00:09:46.000 Order food in. 1.00
00:09:47.000 It makes me crazy.
00:09:49.000 Wipe off the package.
00:09:50.000 Don't wipe off the package.
00:09:51.000 Wear gloves.
00:09:52.000 Don't wear gloves. 1.00
00:09:53.000 What the fuck? 0.99
00:09:55.000 Nobody knows. 1.00
00:09:56.000 It's a very, very confusing time. 0.96
00:09:58.000 Nobody knows what the fuck is going on. 0.89
00:10:00.000 Doing a podcast was a good thing to do in the midst of all this because we figured out a way to do it at home so we didn't have to be in a studio. 0.97
00:10:10.000 Set up a little studio in the house and figured out a way to do it.
00:10:14.000 He was in New York and I was in California and that's how we started.
00:10:18.000 Yeah, it can be done. 0.99
00:10:20.000 There's so many people listening to shit now. 0.98
00:10:22.000 The thing is, consumers are up in terms of watchers, viewers of shows, listeners of podcasts. 0.99
00:10:30.000 It's all up because people were just sitting around doing nothing for months at a time.
00:10:34.000 Right, it was kind of particularly good timing for us because The Sopranos was being binge-watched by people in quarantine, like rediscovering it, young people who had never seen it.
00:10:44.000 I think it was HBO's number two series.
00:10:47.000 And that includes all their new stuff, like Game of Thrones and everything.
00:10:51.000 I think it was Westworld and The Sopranos were their biggest shows during quarantine.
00:10:54.000 The show's been off the air for 13 years. 0.98
00:10:56.000 Well, listen, this is one of the best fucking shows of all time. 0.98
00:11:00.000 It really is. 0.97
00:11:01.000 You guys were on, without a doubt, when the history is written, it is one of the best shows ever.
00:11:06.000 Yeah.
00:11:07.000 No, no.
00:11:07.000 You know what's amazing?
00:11:08.000 Neither one of us watched it in 20 years.
00:11:11.000 I mean, I don't watch the show.
00:11:12.000 I mean, I watched it one time when it came out years ago.
00:11:15.000 Right. 0.98
00:11:17.000 And we were kind of depressed, and we were going, who the fuck cares about a TV show now? 0.92
00:11:22.000 Because the world was coming to an end, especially at the beginning, you know, Joe? 0.98
00:11:26.000 And we had gotten offered shit, and Jeff helped us. 0.94
00:11:31.000 We were giving Jeff, like, contracts. 0.97
00:11:33.000 Is this a good deal?
00:11:34.000 Is this a good deal? 0.99
00:11:35.000 Finally, he said, listen, I'll fucking help you. 0.97
00:11:37.000 We should tell him that Jeff's my manager. 0.99
00:11:38.000 Yeah, Jeff Sussman.
00:11:40.000 So he helped us, and...
00:11:43.000 We started doing the rewatch, which is obviously bittersweet because of Jim.
00:11:48.000 You know, you're watching Jim and he's young.
00:11:51.000 I came on the second season, you know, the second episode. 0.99
00:11:55.000 But the show holds up every fucking... 0.99
00:12:00.000 Like it was shot yesterday. 0.99
00:12:02.000 Besides the phones and the computers, everything else is like it was done yesterday.
00:12:06.000 It's not dated at all, the show.
00:12:08.000 And we weren't going to...
00:12:09.000 You know, we were going to wait until things got back to normal so we could be in a studio like this and be face-to-face, but we got so much...
00:12:18.000 Communication from fans, like on social media, saying, hey, we heard you're doing a podcast.
00:12:21.000 Where is it?
00:12:22.000 We're binge-watching the show in quarantine.
00:12:24.000 Like, tons of, you know, tons of that.
00:12:26.000 So we figured out a way to do it.
00:12:29.000 So, you know, we watched the episode.
00:12:32.000 We're up to episode 12 now.
00:12:36.000 You know, it's on YouTube and wherever you get to podcasts.
00:12:38.000 And then we run down the episode.
00:12:41.000 He wrote five of them, so he knows a lot more than me.
00:12:45.000 I watch it more like a regular viewer. 0.94
00:12:48.000 We tell stories, behind-the-scenes shit, stuff that went on, stuff we remember. 0.97
00:12:52.000 We've had guests. 0.99
00:12:53.000 We've got Edie Falco next week. 1.00
00:12:55.000 We've had the casting people.
00:12:57.000 We've had the two kids, Robert Isler, director, you know, whoever made the show a success.
00:13:03.000 Costume designer, yeah.
00:13:04.000 Well, it's a great thing to do, to go back and review it, just to kind of give the people that are fans this sense of what it was like for you guys and what it's like to see it again.
00:13:13.000 And just to put it into context in history, that's the show that started off these kind of shows.
00:13:20.000 When you think about the shows that you have today, like the Ozarks and all these different...
00:13:25.000 Like really kind of wild shows where you have to follow one episode to the next and you have to know what just happened to pay attention to the new episode. 0.99
00:13:34.000 The Sopranos started that shit. 1.00
00:13:36.000 And it was also the first show where there was a real anti-hero. 0.99
00:13:41.000 And it was also bringing a cinematic quality to television that people would traditionally go to the movies for.
00:13:47.000 Even a novelistic quality.
00:13:49.000 Well, in a sense better, because you could do it over the course of many hours.
00:13:54.000 You weren't limited by an hour and a half, two hour time frame.
00:13:56.000 You could do it over the course of multiple hours.
00:14:00.000 And he wasn't, you know, listen, he was an overweight, balding guy.
00:14:04.000 He wasn't your typical leading man.
00:14:07.000 But he was sexy.
00:14:08.000 Chicks liked him. 0.99
00:14:09.000 They loved him.
00:14:09.000 I told you.
00:14:10.000 We used to say TV doesn't put 50...
00:14:13.000 He used to say all the time.
00:14:16.000 You know, they used to say TV puts 10 pounds on you.
00:14:20.000 I say it takes 50 pounds off you.
00:14:24.000 Well, there was something about his character.
00:14:26.000 I mean, first of all, he was a phenomenal actor, like always, always was. 0.97
00:14:31.000 I mean, he was fucking insane in everything he did. 0.90
00:14:33.000 True romance. 0.98
00:14:34.000 I mean, just go back through his whole history of his career. 0.98
00:14:38.000 But that show, doing Tony Soprano, just fucking synced. 0.97
00:14:44.000 Whatever it was... 0.98
00:14:46.000 Yeah.
00:14:47.000 Those moments when the actor and the role really come together.
00:14:51.000 Because they don't always.
00:14:52.000 They don't always. 0.97
00:14:53.000 He was fucking perfect for that role. 0.91
00:14:56.000 And you know, you see him, like, there's scenes, and now I look at it kind of differently, obviously, than back then, you know. 0.99
00:15:03.000 Back then I was just trying not to get fucking killed, you know. 0.58
00:15:07.000 Now you're watching it, and in one scene, there's some incredible scenes where he's happy, mad, furious, in one three-minute scene. 0.98
00:15:19.000 He goes through four different emotions.
00:15:21.000 He's amazing.
00:15:23.000 I don't know if you remember this, but when I first got the job, I had to go.
00:15:30.000 I got the job.
00:15:31.000 I auditioned.
00:15:32.000 I got the job.
00:15:32.000 I had to go to a read-through.
00:15:33.000 And I happened to see you.
00:15:35.000 I think you were working in Vegas at the Riv.
00:15:37.000 And I said, Joe, what?
00:15:40.000 I asked you in another comic.
00:15:42.000 I think Bill Kirkenbauer.
00:15:43.000 I said, what?
00:15:44.000 What goes on in a re-through?
00:15:46.000 Because even though I had worked, I didn't know.
00:15:49.000 Right, right.
00:15:49.000 And I said, do you do it like 100%?
00:15:53.000 And you told me, you know, like 85%, 90%, like don't go all in.
00:15:58.000 You actually told me that.
00:15:59.000 For an audition or a re-through?
00:16:00.000 For the audition.
00:16:01.000 For the re-through.
00:16:03.000 A re-through. 0.99
00:16:04.000 I mean, do you fucking, you know, you're around the table. 0.99
00:16:06.000 I didn't. 0.99
00:16:07.000 Quite no if you go all, you know, fucking start acting, you know? 0.99
00:16:11.000 Right, right. 0.99
00:16:11.000 Or you just read the lines, which some people do just flat, which is terrible. 0.99
00:16:17.000 I mean, that's not the answer.
00:16:18.000 There's people that actually get fired during the read-through.
00:16:21.000 Right, right.
00:16:22.000 After a read-through.
00:16:23.000 There's actually, you know that, right?
00:16:25.000 Because they're so flat.
00:16:27.000 I didn't know.
00:16:27.000 I honestly, if I would have known that...
00:16:29.000 Well, they shouldn't really be there then.
00:16:30.000 They should have known that already. 0.97
00:16:31.000 Yeah, but if I would have known that you could get fired after the read-through, I would have been shit in my past. 0.99
00:16:35.000 I was so naive. 0.98
00:16:37.000 That I didn't even realize that.
00:16:39.000 Well, that's the interesting thing when I tell people that I knew you from the Riv.
00:16:42.000 They go, what did he do there?
00:16:43.000 I go, he was the talent coordinator. 1.00
00:16:45.000 I go, shut the fuck up. 1.00
00:16:46.000 I go, yeah, I worked for him. 1.00
00:16:47.000 I got booked by Steve Sharippa at the Riviera.
00:16:50.000 It was one of the first times I ever worked in Vegas.
00:16:52.000 It was great.
00:16:53.000 And you had gotten some gigs through Drew Carey.
00:16:55.000 You had done the Drew Carey show.
00:16:56.000 I did the Drew Carey show, Bruce Baum, help me, Kevin Pollack.
00:17:01.000 Those guys at the beginning, absolutely.
00:17:02.000 I did Drew's special.
00:17:03.000 What was the first acting you did, actually?
00:17:06.000 First acting I did was Bruce Baum on the golf course.
00:17:10.000 We did a thing.
00:17:11.000 Then Lenny Clark.
00:17:13.000 I played a prison guard.
00:17:15.000 What, in a special?
00:17:16.000 Yeah, he had like these...
00:17:17.000 Remember Friday Night Comics?
00:17:19.000 Uh-huh.
00:17:19.000 Remember that show on Fox?
00:17:21.000 Yeah, they were like little sketches, five-minute sketches, and we had Lenny Clark in a...
00:17:28.000 He was in the chair, electric chair.
00:17:30.000 Is he from England?
00:17:32.000 No, he's from Boston.
00:17:34.000 And I pulled the switch.
00:17:36.000 I swear to you, I look right into the camera. 1.00
00:17:39.000 Right into the fucking camera. 0.99
00:17:41.000 I didn't know what I was doing. 1.00
00:17:43.000 That was the second thing I did.
00:17:44.000 Then Kevin Pollack put me in his special.
00:17:47.000 I played his bodyguard. 1.00
00:17:49.000 And then Drew and, you know, a little shit, a little shit, you know. 1.00
00:17:52.000 Did you start as an actor or comedian? 1.00
00:17:55.000 Comedian.
00:17:55.000 A comedian.
00:17:55.000 Yeah.
00:17:56.000 I only acted for a little while.
00:17:57.000 I just did news radio.
00:17:58.000 Do you like it?
00:18:00.000 I like stand-up better.
00:18:01.000 Yeah.
00:18:02.000 The acting problem is actors.
00:18:04.000 You have to hang out with actors.
00:18:06.000 That's the problem with acting.
00:18:07.000 Everything is so sensitive and just...
00:18:10.000 It's just, you know, some of them are great.
00:18:13.000 The news radio people were great.
00:18:14.000 It wasn't a problem.
00:18:15.000 The problem was when I'd run into other actors, you meet them. 0.96
00:18:18.000 There's just this boundary of bullshit you have to get to to get to the actual person. 0.96
00:18:23.000 Absolutely. 0.99
00:18:24.000 Whereas comics are right there.
00:18:25.000 They're right there for you. 0.99
00:18:26.000 You meet a comic on the road, like a comic I don't know, I meet them like, hey, what the fuck are you doing? 0.67
00:18:30.000 Oh, I'm working for this guy and that guy.
00:18:31.000 He's right there.
00:18:32.000 They're right there.
00:18:33.000 You meet him instantly.
00:18:34.000 See, I find it the opposite.
00:18:35.000 Really?
00:18:36.000 How so?
00:18:37.000 Actors, I find, like what you're saying about comics, I find it about actors and I find the opposite about comedians.
00:18:42.000 You know what maybe that is?
00:18:43.000 It's that they're your people.
00:18:45.000 Because that's where you're coming from.
00:18:46.000 Right.
00:18:46.000 They know, oh, it's my goal.
00:18:48.000 I'm not saying that just to be contrary.
00:18:49.000 No, no, no.
00:18:50.000 I believe you.
00:18:50.000 I just literally mean it.
00:18:51.000 Yeah.
00:18:51.000 But also, there's a difference between New York actors and L.A. actors.
00:18:55.000 That is true. 0.98
00:18:56.000 There's a big difference between these TV actors, and there's something about they can almost fucking taste it. 0.95
00:19:02.000 It's like the actors that aren't quite there yet, they can almost taste it. 0.91
00:19:06.000 They're kind of working, but they're not secure.
00:19:08.000 They're getting auditions, and maybe they might book something, but maybe they won't.
00:19:12.000 Do you remember when we auditioned for...
00:19:15.000 We auditioned...
00:19:17.000 Look at you!
00:19:18.000 Look, that's my first thing I ever did.
00:19:21.000 Chia Man! 0.99
00:19:22.000 We shot it out here.
00:19:24.000 Look.
00:19:26.000 That's the tuxedo from the Riff.
00:19:28.000 Is it really?
00:19:30.000 Did you show this to David Chase to get the Sopranos?
00:19:33.000 You can see I'm not a golfer, obviously. 0.99
00:19:36.000 When you got the Sopranos, I was like, holy shit. 0.98
00:19:38.000 And for me, it was a thing that I would tell people. 0.97
00:19:41.000 It was like, listen, there's certain things that a person could just do.
00:19:45.000 You can't just go on stage and do stand-up.
00:19:47.000 It takes too long.
00:19:48.000 You can't just learn guitar. 0.99
00:19:50.000 But some people can fucking act. 0.98
00:19:53.000 And you were really good. 0.99
00:19:55.000 Not in theater, though.
00:19:56.000 In film and television.
00:19:57.000 It's different in theater.
00:19:58.000 Oh, God, yeah.
00:19:59.000 You can't just...
00:19:59.000 You can get somebody who's never acted, and if you're a good director or something, get them in front of a camera, make them feel comfortable, give them stuff to do, but you can't put them on a stage.
00:20:08.000 It's because of the crowd?
00:20:10.000 It's like doing, you know, like you said, with stand-up.
00:20:12.000 Yeah, crowd, you're on stage.
00:20:13.000 You have to...
00:20:14.000 You know, there's no second take.
00:20:16.000 You have to create these moments for two hours straight and sustain it.
00:20:20.000 It's not just getting a couple of lines.
00:20:22.000 Right.
00:20:23.000 But, you know, there's actors...
00:20:26.000 Like, you can't just learn stand-up.
00:20:28.000 It's a very underrated art form, okay?
00:20:31.000 Absolutely, to me.
00:20:31.000 You have to do it and do it and do it.
00:20:32.000 You're by yourself, you're out there. 0.99
00:20:35.000 There's actors, like, what's his fucking name? 1.00
00:20:38.000 Piven, the little fucker. 1.00
00:20:40.000 Jeremy Piven. 1.00
00:20:41.000 He's a stand-up comic now.
00:20:43.000 Now, how'd that happen?
00:20:44.000 Is he a stand-up comic?
00:20:46.000 I heard he's very good, though.
00:20:46.000 Or is he acting as a stand-up comic?
00:20:47.000 Did you see his stand-up?
00:20:49.000 I have not seen it.
00:20:50.000 What he's basically doing is what he can do. 0.98
00:20:53.000 I mean, I think because of all that shit that happened with him and the Me Too movement, there's nothing else he can do. 0.97
00:20:59.000 But do you know what I'm saying? 0.98
00:21:00.000 I mean, I've seen comics.
00:21:02.000 Listen, I was around comics from 1986. I started at the Riviera.
00:21:06.000 All right?
00:21:06.000 It's very difficult.
00:21:08.000 It takes guys years and years and years and years to find their voice, their rhythm.
00:21:12.000 Even if a comic, if you don't like their material, not every comic's for every guy, you know the guy's a pro.
00:21:20.000 He's really good.
00:21:21.000 It's subjective.
00:21:22.000 Hey, don't make me laugh.
00:21:23.000 This guy, I think, is hilarious.
00:21:25.000 But you know when a guy just don't have it.
00:21:28.000 I mean, this guy's, you know.
00:21:29.000 And there's numerous actors that...
00:21:34.000 Or humorists, whatever they are, that started doing stand-up without putting all the work in.
00:21:39.000 Yeah, I think what happens is the income opportunities get smaller.
00:21:44.000 Yeah, sure.
00:21:44.000 And then they look at stand-up and then someone says, listen, we can schedule a tour for you.
00:21:49.000 You know, you do this size.
00:21:50.000 I don't blame them for doing it.
00:21:52.000 Yeah.
00:21:53.000 I'm just saying, I mean...
00:21:54.000 It's a different thing.
00:21:55.000 I don't blame them, but it's a different thing.
00:21:56.000 Hey, listen...
00:21:58.000 I heard he's good, though, Piven.
00:21:59.000 Is he?
00:22:00.000 I've read reviews.
00:22:02.000 I have no idea.
00:22:03.000 I just find it hard to believe.
00:22:04.000 People were very surprised, actually, that he was good at it. 1.00
00:22:07.000 I still don't like the fuck. 1.00
00:22:09.000 They expected him not to be good. 1.00
00:22:11.000 He's a fucking rude fuck. 1.00
00:22:14.000 But me and you audition, I think you got the role. 1.00
00:22:19.000 We didn't audition for the same role, but it was Bob Simon's movie.
00:22:23.000 What movie is that?
00:22:25.000 I didn't get it, definitely, because I didn't do it.
00:22:27.000 The only movies I've ever done is Kevin James movies.
00:22:29.000 Really?
00:22:29.000 Yeah, yeah.
00:22:30.000 Because we auditioned and Pee Wee Herman came out.
00:22:33.000 Really?
00:22:33.000 Yes, we auditioned Dave Sheridan.
00:22:35.000 What year is this?
00:22:37.000 We're going way back.
00:22:38.000 I was on The Sopranos already, but probably early 2000s.
00:22:42.000 We were there.
00:22:43.000 Dave Sheridan.
00:22:44.000 Oh, I know what you're talking about.
00:22:45.000 He was the star of the movie.
00:22:47.000 We didn't know who he was.
00:22:48.000 That's right. 1.00
00:22:48.000 I did that fucking movie. 1.00
00:22:49.000 That's right. 1.00
00:22:49.000 I forgot I did that movie. 1.00
00:22:50.000 And I said to you, who's this fucking guy or something? 0.99
00:22:54.000 That's right. 0.99
00:22:55.000 And you said, I think he overheard us.
00:22:58.000 He was the star of the movie.
00:22:59.000 What movie?
00:23:00.000 I forget the name of it, but he's a good guy, Dave Shad.
00:23:02.000 Yeah, very good guy.
00:23:03.000 A really good guy.
00:23:05.000 Very funny guy.
00:23:05.000 But I didn't, you know, I said, who's he?
00:23:10.000 I think you overheard us.
00:23:12.000 Who's Dave Shad?
00:23:13.000 He's a comic actor, you know, and a funny guy.
00:23:17.000 And Paul Rubens came out and he said, it's a great room, guys.
00:23:22.000 And we were just sitting there.
00:23:24.000 I didn't get it, you guys.
00:23:28.000 Yeah, that was an interesting take because that guy was a young guy and he had never been the star of a movie before.
00:23:36.000 And they were making this movie.
00:23:37.000 And because they put money into this, the executives were giving him line readings.
00:23:44.000 There was a guy who was wearing cufflinks.
00:23:47.000 Oh, really?
00:23:47.000 And an expensive watch and this really nice tailored suit.
00:23:50.000 And he was telling him how to be funny.
00:23:52.000 That was Rob Simons.
00:23:53.000 That was probably the producer.
00:23:55.000 I don't know who it was.
00:23:55.000 Because I did a movie with him, See Spot Run.
00:23:59.000 And this was after that.
00:24:01.000 That's who it was. 1.00
00:24:01.000 Did he need line readings or the guy was just being an asshole? 1.00
00:24:04.000 He was just being a fucking guy with money. 1.00
00:24:06.000 He's lucky he didn't get smacked for something like that. 0.99
00:24:08.000 Certain situations.
00:24:09.000 You don't do that.
00:24:10.000 Well, I think, you know...
00:24:12.000 The guy wanted to do the movie.
00:24:14.000 He was happy to be the star of the movie, and he just took it.
00:24:17.000 Remember when they gave Dominic a line reading?
00:24:20.000 Dominic's the most calm.
00:24:21.000 Dominic Chiannese played Uncle Drew, the most calm guy, just sweetheart.
00:24:25.000 And somebody gave him line readings, and he flipped out.
00:24:28.000 I was in the car.
00:24:30.000 We were in the camera car, and I was driving on the New Jersey Turnpike.
00:24:35.000 They were towing the car, but the camera was there.
00:24:39.000 I was stuck.
00:24:40.000 I couldn't get out.
00:24:41.000 And the director came over and Dominic was going, don't tell me how to do it.
00:24:46.000 Just tell me what you want.
00:24:48.000 And this is the nicest man in the history, right?
00:24:52.000 And he was going, don't tell me how to do it.
00:24:54.000 Just tell me what you want.
00:24:56.000 What is the thing about actors with line readings?
00:24:58.000 Because now you're not discovering it.
00:25:02.000 You're not creating the moment.
00:25:04.000 You're just imitating it.
00:25:05.000 So it's not organic.
00:25:07.000 And it might not be as interesting as what you're going to come up with as an actor.
00:25:11.000 But it doesn't bother me so much.
00:25:13.000 A lot of directors don't know how to deal with actors, so they think that that's helpful.
00:25:16.000 But it's actually the opposite.
00:25:18.000 It's not helpful because...
00:25:20.000 When they give you a line reading, they would actually say the line the way they want?
00:25:24.000 Yes, sometimes they will.
00:25:26.000 And you know what?
00:25:26.000 That doesn't bother me.
00:25:27.000 Bodies me.
00:25:28.000 I flip out.
00:25:29.000 It hasn't happened much.
00:25:30.000 I've gone off on directors for that.
00:25:32.000 And listen, especially with a sitcom, which I find very difficult.
00:25:35.000 I find one-hour dramas...
00:25:39.000 I like that so much more.
00:25:41.000 Sitcom's a different rhythm, a different beat.
00:25:44.000 I don't think I'm very good at it, and I've done quite a bit of them.
00:25:48.000 You know, the guy's giving me a note.
00:25:50.000 I said, just tell me what you want, man.
00:25:52.000 How do you say it?
00:25:53.000 Tell me how to say it. 0.99
00:25:54.000 I'll fucking do what you want. 0.99
00:25:56.000 Because obviously, I'm not getting what you want. 0.98
00:25:58.000 I want to make the director happy.
00:26:00.000 I want to do a good job.
00:26:01.000 Tell me.
00:26:01.000 It doesn't bother me that much, you know?
00:26:03.000 I have had directors.
00:26:07.000 I did a movie with a young kid.
00:26:09.000 It was a really good role.
00:26:11.000 A younger kid.
00:26:12.000 After every take, he came over to talk to me.
00:26:14.000 Finally, I went... 0.99
00:26:16.000 Like, just let me fucking do my thing. 0.98
00:26:18.000 I'll figure it out. 1.00
00:26:19.000 Just stay away, man.
00:26:21.000 Yeah, they're not appreciative of the fact that you've got to think about what you're doing, and if they're yapping at you, then you're thinking about them, and it interrupts this whole process.
00:26:29.000 Absolutely.
00:26:30.000 You freak out, though, Michael.
00:26:31.000 Yeah, because as an actor, you're playing the scene, the reality of the scene, whatever it is.
00:26:36.000 This guy's saying something and it pisses you off.
00:26:38.000 So that's what you're trying to create.
00:26:40.000 That's what you're trying to do.
00:26:41.000 Someone tells you, say the line like this.
00:26:43.000 Well, then I'm not in the moment.
00:26:44.000 I'm not dealing with this. 0.95
00:26:45.000 I'm just thinking about imitating this douchebag who just told me to say something a certain way. 0.94
00:26:50.000 You know what I mean? 0.95
00:26:51.000 I had a director who said to me, make a comical face.
00:26:56.000 Then I said, I don't know what that means.
00:26:58.000 Do you want me to be happy?
00:26:59.000 Do you want me to be ecstatic, over the top, really excited?
00:27:02.000 Make a funny face.
00:27:03.000 And then I said, I don't know what that means.
00:27:05.000 I think he said, be more cartoonish.
00:27:07.000 And then he said, well, I'm not really good at, I swear to God, he said, I'm not really good at giving direction.
00:27:14.000 I said, that's your job!
00:27:16.000 That's actually the title of the job, is direction.
00:27:20.000 Well, do you feel like as an actor, it's a strange thing to do because you're creating something, but it's also this collaborative effort.
00:27:27.000 You're working with the other actors, but you're also working with the director. 0.56
00:27:30.000 There's the script that you're supposed to be following, and maybe there's some changes to the script, and there's so much going on to try to create your version of it that the more that people are fucking with you, the more that's going to just throw you off the rails. 0.53
00:27:46.000 It does.
00:27:47.000 And what I found is the best people, the best director, best actors and writers make it so you feel very comfortable and that you are free to create and that you're not being dominated and dictated to and stuff like that.
00:28:00.000 Like, for instance, the best example is Martin Scorsese, who I only worked with once in a movie.
00:28:06.000 I felt like I could do no wrong.
00:28:08.000 He creates that environment where you feel completely creative and free.
00:28:13.000 And that doesn't get better than him, you know.
00:28:15.000 Doesn't get better.
00:28:15.000 I would imagine that that's a real skill that you hone, to be able to look at it from the artist's perspective, from the actor's perspective, and just to figure out how to be the least annoying, the most supportive, and then just sort of convey what you're trying to get done in the scene.
00:28:31.000 100%.
00:28:32.000 I mean, both ways.
00:28:34.000 As an actor, too, you learn how to deal with different types of directors and give them what they want and satisfy yourself at the same time.
00:28:42.000 When you're not a skill, when you're learning, it's harder to do that.
00:28:46.000 I got fired from my very first professional job.
00:28:49.000 I was 21. I had been studying for a long time.
00:28:52.000 I've been auditioning, never got anything.
00:28:54.000 I get a play.
00:28:55.000 And I was the lead in a play off-Broadway, but it got a lot of attention because it was based on a true story.
00:29:00.000 And I got fired after the opening weekend because I didn't respect the director.
00:29:07.000 I didn't think he knew what he was doing.
00:29:09.000 And I didn't know how to give him what he needed and still do my own thing.
00:29:14.000 I wasn't skilled enough yet, so they fired me.
00:29:17.000 It was devastating.
00:29:19.000 But, you know, a lot of...
00:29:21.000 Like, I worked with Clint Eastwood a few times.
00:29:25.000 And it's with the casting.
00:29:26.000 He's relying on you.
00:29:28.000 That's why he cast you.
00:29:30.000 So a lot of directors, even big ones, they don't even give you any direction.
00:29:35.000 They hired you.
00:29:36.000 And that's okay.
00:29:36.000 You did your thing.
00:29:37.000 I don't mind that.
00:29:38.000 Yeah, absolutely.
00:29:39.000 You did your thing.
00:29:40.000 And now, go ahead.
00:29:41.000 Take it away.
00:29:42.000 I mean, you know.
00:29:43.000 And it's a lot.
00:29:44.000 Like, he believes it's a lot with the casting.
00:29:47.000 Michael directed me in a movie that he wrote.
00:29:50.000 It couldn't have been better.
00:29:52.000 What movie is this?
00:29:53.000 Called The Hungry Ghosts, a very low indie, very indie movie we did in New York in 2008. And Steve was one of the leads.
00:30:01.000 And it was great.
00:30:03.000 I mean, you know, it was all New York actors.
00:30:06.000 What's that?
00:30:07.000 What was it about? 0.99
00:30:08.000 You know, five people that are fucking lost. 0.99
00:30:11.000 Their life is lost. 1.00
00:30:12.000 I played a guy that was a radio DJ. Late night radio host.
00:30:16.000 That's a coke guy and drunk.
00:30:19.000 You could be a great radio DJ with that voice.
00:30:21.000 Probably with his kids.
00:30:22.000 But it was great.
00:30:24.000 We rehearsed at the time he had a theater.
00:30:27.000 We rehearsed because we didn't have a lot of money at times.
00:30:31.000 We rehearsed.
00:30:32.000 We got out on the street.
00:30:33.000 We did it.
00:30:34.000 Michael was terrific.
00:30:36.000 He knows what he wants.
00:30:37.000 I mean, that's the biggest mistake a director could make.
00:30:40.000 If they're hesitant, You know, they gotta know what they want before they come over and talk to you.
00:30:45.000 You know what I mean?
00:30:46.000 There's a guy hemming and whoring. 1.00
00:30:48.000 You know, it's like, what the fuck? 0.99
00:30:50.000 But talking about line reading, there was an actor, a Broadway guy, that did The Sopranos, a small role. 0.99
00:30:57.000 And it was in a scene with me and Uncle Junior and this guy.
00:31:02.000 And they were actually giving him line readings.
00:31:04.000 He was a Broadway actor and he wasn't getting it.
00:31:07.000 And they wind up dubbing his voice.
00:31:10.000 Oh.
00:31:11.000 They dubbed his voice.
00:31:12.000 Did they, really?
00:31:12.000 Yes.
00:31:13.000 I forget the guy's name.
00:31:14.000 When we get to the episode, I'll tell you.
00:31:16.000 That's insane.
00:31:17.000 Yeah.
00:31:17.000 But you know what else happened on the show numerous times?
00:31:21.000 Like, I did a scene with the rapper Fabulous.
00:31:26.000 And he was great. 1.00
00:31:27.000 There was a scene where I shot the guy in the ass. 0.99
00:31:30.000 I don't know if you remember that. 0.99
00:31:31.000 Oh, I remember that.
00:31:31.000 Yeah.
00:31:32.000 I'm supposed to shoot him in the thigh because I'm a marksman and I get money from him and I shoot him in the ass by mistake. 0.99
00:31:39.000 But I shot it with Fabulous and then a few weeks later they said, listen, you got to reshoot that scene. 1.00
00:31:46.000 So right away I go, well, I fucked up.
00:31:49.000 No, they changed Fabulous to Fabulous. 0.99
00:31:53.000 Treach.
00:31:54.000 Naughty by nature.
00:31:55.000 Good guy.
00:31:57.000 They said he looked too young.
00:31:58.000 They just replaced him.
00:32:00.000 They had the budget and the time and they just brought in another actor.
00:32:07.000 And they would rewrite scenes.
00:32:09.000 If they didn't like the scene after they saw it, they would rewrite it.
00:32:13.000 And numerous times they brought in other actors.
00:32:16.000 There's two different FBI agents.
00:32:19.000 Feruza Balk, you know that actress? 1.00
00:32:21.000 Yeah.
00:32:22.000 She was at the end of episode, season three or something.
00:32:26.000 She never came back.
00:32:28.000 Not only did they, they took her off the DVD. So unless you taped it, You know, like if you taped it back then?
00:32:36.000 What, they re-shot her scenes?
00:32:37.000 They re-shot her scenes, even for the DVD. Wow.
00:32:40.000 So she, unless she has a VHS of it somewhere, she's non-existent.
00:32:45.000 That's crazy, because she's a really good actress, too.
00:32:47.000 No, it wasn't, it probably wasn't anything to do with that.
00:32:50.000 It was, they didn't make a deal with her, maybe she was busy making a movie, I'm not saying it was like...
00:32:55.000 She's got a huge mouth. 1.00
00:32:57.000 Yeah, she was...
00:32:58.000 She smiles, she has this huge, huge teeth.
00:32:59.000 She was in Waterboy.
00:33:01.000 Yeah, that's right.
00:33:02.000 She was great in that. 0.52
00:33:03.000 I just watched that.
00:33:06.000 Me and my family went on a, because we stayed at home for the COVID thing, we had movie night every night.
00:33:10.000 We went on an Adam Sandler binge.
00:33:12.000 It's funny.
00:33:12.000 We watched everything.
00:33:14.000 Underrated fucking funny movie. 0.99
00:33:15.000 That's a funny movie. 0.99
00:33:16.000 The wedding thing is a funny movie.
00:33:18.000 The Zohan is hilarious.
00:33:19.000 That's funny.
00:33:20.000 That is a great movie.
00:33:22.000 Brushing your teeth with hummus.
00:33:23.000 Yeah.
00:33:24.000 Lenny Kazan, he's banging Lenny Kazan.
00:33:27.000 That's a really funny movie.
00:33:28.000 It's a very funny movie, man.
00:33:29.000 Naked, cooking, barbecuing naked.
00:33:32.000 Yes, with the fish.
00:33:32.000 And Nick is very funny.
00:33:34.000 Oh, yeah.
00:33:34.000 Nick Swartz is great.
00:33:35.000 Nick is awesome.
00:33:37.000 I love Nick.
00:33:38.000 Who was the comics that inspired you to be a comedian?
00:33:44.000 Prior first, my parents took me to see Live in the Sunset Strip in the movie theater when I was like 15. He was brilliant.
00:33:51.000 Beyond.
00:33:52.000 You never met him?
00:33:53.000 Yeah, I did.
00:33:53.000 I worked with him.
00:33:54.000 I worked with him five weeks in a row, actually.
00:33:56.000 Wow.
00:33:56.000 Towards the end of his life.
00:33:57.000 It was very odd for me because...
00:34:00.000 That was what really got me interested in stand-up.
00:34:04.000 Because in that movie theater, thinking, I'd never really seen stand-up before, I don't think.
00:34:09.000 Maybe I'd seen it on The Tonight Show or something like that, but I'd never really seen that.
00:34:13.000 And in this movie theater, here I am crying, laughing at this guy that was just talking.
00:34:17.000 And I was like, I can't believe he's just talking.
00:34:20.000 Because if I had seen a funny movie, it was funny, but it was never that funny.
00:34:24.000 I remember you said something about something about Mary.
00:34:27.000 You had just seen something about Mary and we were talking and you go, it's like a comic killing.
00:34:31.000 I'll never forget you said that.
00:34:32.000 Like, it's so funny, it was like a comic killing.
00:34:34.000 Yeah, yeah.
00:34:35.000 That was the feeling that I got watching prior.
00:34:37.000 I was like, I can't believe how funny this guy is just talking.
00:34:41.000 I didn't know you could do that.
00:34:43.000 And you worked with him at the comedy store?
00:34:45.000 I worked with him at the comedy store towards the end of his life where he was really sick and they used to have to crank the volume up in the microphone and went...
00:34:54.000 We're good to go.
00:35:13.000 Because, you know, Mitzi Shore, who owned the Comedy Store, when she had a young comic that she liked, she would shove you after anybody was any good.
00:35:22.000 So if Martin Lawrence was on, I was on after him.
00:35:25.000 If Richard Pryor was on, I was on after him.
00:35:27.000 So you auditioned?
00:35:28.000 Did you audition for the improv and Comedy Store?
00:35:31.000 No, I didn't have to audition for the improv.
00:35:34.000 The improv, you know, if you had TV credits and stuff like that, they'd give you spots.
00:35:38.000 But that was later on.
00:35:40.000 But at the beginning, when you first got to L.A. No, when I first got out here, I had a TV show.
00:35:44.000 I was on a show called Hardball.
00:35:46.000 Oh, that's right.
00:35:46.000 That's right.
00:35:47.000 With Mike Starr.
00:35:48.000 Mike Starr.
00:35:48.000 Exactly, Mike Starr.
00:35:49.000 Shout out to Mike.
00:35:50.000 And that got canceled, and then I got on news radio right afterwards.
00:35:53.000 So the whole time that I was out here, I was on a sitcom.
00:35:56.000 And so the improv, I could just get spots.
00:35:58.000 But I wanted to be at the store.
00:35:59.000 The store was Mecca.
00:36:01.000 Did you ever see that movie, Some Kind of Hero, with Richard Pryor?
00:36:04.000 Yes.
00:36:05.000 And he plays like a, I think it's about a Vietnam vet or something.
00:36:08.000 It's kind of a drama.
00:36:09.000 I think it's a drama.
00:36:10.000 And he's great.
00:36:12.000 He was a great actor.
00:36:13.000 He was great in everything.
00:36:14.000 He was great in that, what was that movie that they did about his life story?
00:36:18.000 Jojo.
00:36:19.000 Jojo Dancer.
00:36:20.000 Oh, right.
00:36:20.000 That was really good.
00:36:21.000 Yeah, that was basically a drama.
00:36:22.000 That's right.
00:36:23.000 That was good.
00:36:24.000 He's the GOAT, in my opinion.
00:36:25.000 I mean, there's Lenny Bruce, who started all off, and then there's Kinison, who was probably the funniest of all time for two years before he burnt out.
00:36:32.000 But then Pryor is the guy.
00:36:35.000 When you look at the guy who changed comedy, he made comedy a personal thing.
00:36:39.000 He made comedy an honest, personal thing.
00:36:43.000 He was the first one, you think?
00:36:45.000 He took what Lenny Bruce was doing and he just did it a little bit better.
00:36:50.000 Lenny Bruce opened the door, though.
00:36:51.000 Lenny Bruce was the guy who got arrested for it.
00:36:53.000 Lenny Bruce was the guy who really changed perceptions.
00:36:56.000 In the 50s and the 60s, what he was doing was revolutionary.
00:37:00.000 There was no one that was doing anything like that.
00:37:02.000 Pushing all those boundaries.
00:37:03.000 Yeah, everyone else was telling jokes, like, two Jews walking to a bar, they buy it. 1.00
00:37:07.000 Ba-dum-bum-tsch. 1.00
00:37:08.000 Well, sure.
00:37:08.000 They all shared each other's jokes.
00:37:11.000 It was Catskill Comics and Ed Sullivan, and that's what all that was.
00:37:15.000 But he was pointing out hypocrisy in society and political things and things about language.
00:37:20.000 Yes, language.
00:37:21.000 But even he started out as an impressionist.
00:37:23.000 Yes.
00:37:23.000 Yeah, he just decided to expand the medium and then he got more and more famous from doing that and then it more became social commentary that was actually funny rather than just what we had thought of as a stand-up comedian before that.
00:37:40.000 And then, of course, Carlin took it from there and then I think Pryor did it better than anybody else.
00:37:45.000 He really opened the door for so many other comedians.
00:37:48.000 And he made it personal.
00:37:49.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:37:50.000 Like almost confessional and introspective.
00:37:52.000 And vulnerable.
00:37:53.000 And vulnerable.
00:37:54.000 As an actor, he brought that too.
00:37:55.000 Yeah, yeah.
00:37:57.000 In everything he did.
00:37:58.000 I mean, he was...
00:37:59.000 They destroyed Lenny Bruce.
00:38:01.000 They just destroyed him.
00:38:02.000 You know, the...
00:38:03.000 The lawsuits.
00:38:04.000 The lawsuits at the end.
00:38:06.000 That's what he was actually reading on stage.
00:38:07.000 He had big problems with drugs.
00:38:09.000 Well, he was a heroin addict.
00:38:10.000 But they just destroyed him on...
00:38:12.000 I mean, they were arresting him for cursing.
00:38:17.000 If you think about that now.
00:38:19.000 Have you seen Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the Amazon series?
00:38:23.000 It's really good.
00:38:24.000 The guy that plays Lenny Bruce is good.
00:38:26.000 He's really good.
00:38:27.000 Who is it?
00:38:28.000 I don't know the actor's name.
00:38:29.000 He's really good.
00:38:31.000 But the way they portray him is very close to how he really was.
00:38:36.000 He was very loved by people.
00:38:38.000 They would come to see him and then the cops would literally drag him off stage.
00:38:41.000 What do you think of her stand-up Well, in the beginning, I think it was pretty good.
00:38:47.000 It seemed like a funny broad who was kind of drunk, who went on stage, who was hilarious, and got laughs.
00:38:53.000 It's just hard to recreate stand-up if you don't do stand-up.
00:38:57.000 Yeah.
00:38:58.000 It's very hard.
00:38:59.000 But that's what I was talking about as a comedic actor.
00:39:02.000 There he is.
00:39:03.000 Luke Kirby.
00:39:04.000 Very good.
00:39:05.000 He even looks like him there.
00:39:06.000 He was also on The Deuce.
00:39:09.000 He played a good role on The Deuce, on HBO. The one thing about Mrs. Maisel, everything is a She's like on all the time.
00:39:21.000 Yeah.
00:39:22.000 That's the one thing.
00:39:22.000 It's like always a funny...
00:39:24.000 You never saw the show?
00:39:24.000 No, I haven't.
00:39:25.000 It's a good show.
00:39:26.000 But it's always like a funny quip.
00:39:27.000 Everything.
00:39:28.000 You ask if she wants coffee, it's a funny joke.
00:39:31.000 It's like a comic that's always on, right?
00:39:34.000 It's annoying.
00:39:36.000 I got to the third season.
00:39:37.000 The third season, it seemed like it was a little manufactured.
00:39:40.000 Like there's this big scene where she's in front of a USO tour overseas.
00:39:45.000 And these guys are laughing.
00:39:47.000 And she's just murdering, laughing at everything. 1.00
00:39:50.000 As a comic, I'm like, this isn't real.
00:39:54.000 This isn't real.
00:39:55.000 This is like a kung fu scene where a guy's kicking guys through windows.
00:39:58.000 You know, it's like there's something about it where I can't relate to this anymore.
00:40:03.000 You've taken this into fiction.
00:40:05.000 But I think the beginning of it was really good.
00:40:07.000 Joe, have you ever just ate it?
00:40:11.000 On stage.
00:40:11.000 Oh, yeah.
00:40:12.000 I don't mean at the beginning. 1.00
00:40:13.000 Oh, I hate shit. 1.00
00:40:14.000 Yeah, of course. 1.00
00:40:15.000 Well, this is one thing.
00:40:16.000 I write a new act every two years.
00:40:19.000 So I do a Netflix special or a Comedy Central special.
00:40:22.000 I throw all that stuff out and I start all over again.
00:40:25.000 And you're going to have some rough sets. 1.00
00:40:27.000 Yeah, I eat shit. 1.00
00:40:28.000 And then, you know, maybe you have a heckler, you get mad at the heckler, and you eat shit. 1.00
00:40:32.000 Do you have go-to heckler, you know, shut up heckler lines? 1.00
00:40:36.000 I mean, you can do that, but really, it's all in what's happening in the moment.
00:40:41.000 They're so different.
00:40:43.000 You know, it's like, do you have a go-to spice for your food?
00:40:47.000 Well, it really depends on what you're eating.
00:40:49.000 What you're doing.
00:40:49.000 Yeah, I mean, it's really, there's...
00:40:51.000 Bell's worked at...
00:40:54.000 Bell also worked at the Riv.
00:40:55.000 I know what you're going to say. 0.99
00:40:57.000 And a lady was heckling him and he says, Lady, the only time you should open your mouth is to switch dicks. 1.00
00:41:08.000 Do you remember the comic Rick Reynolds? 0.99
00:41:12.000 No.
00:41:13.000 Rick Reynolds was hot stuff.
00:41:15.000 He had a one-man show.
00:41:17.000 He was the beginning of that.
00:41:18.000 Played the improvs like I'm going in the 90s.
00:41:21.000 And he had this...
00:41:22.000 I forget the name of it.
00:41:25.000 Maybe...
00:41:25.000 I don't know what the name of it is.
00:41:26.000 Rick Reynolds, he was a San Francisco guy.
00:41:29.000 And he was working...
00:41:30.000 Yeah.
00:41:31.000 And he had a development deal and I think even a sitcom for a short time.
00:41:36.000 And he had an act.
00:41:38.000 And the act was kind of like, you know, he...
00:41:41.000 He kind of came off like a studious guy, and then he would say, would you sleep with me for a dollar?
00:41:50.000 You know, he'd tell a girl, you know, how about for five dollars?
00:41:54.000 Then, of course, for a million dollars, would you go home with me? 1.00
00:41:57.000 And, of course, she says, you're a whore, you're a whore. 1.00
00:42:02.000 So he does the joke. 1.00
00:42:06.000 He gets off stage.
00:42:08.000 A guy, her boyfriend, comes back and punches him in the back of the head.
00:42:13.000 Right at the Riviera.
00:42:15.000 Right?
00:42:15.000 And then, two nights later, a guy's heckling him.
00:42:19.000 He tells the guy, if you don't shut up, I'm going to leave.
00:42:23.000 That's what he tells the guy.
00:42:25.000 That's how he dealt with the heckling. 1.00
00:42:27.000 The fucking guy kept heckling and he walked off the stage. 1.00
00:42:31.000 Yeah, and I was fucking pissed off at him. 1.00
00:42:33.000 That seems like a very odd approach. 0.96
00:42:34.000 Yeah.
00:42:35.000 He said, one more time, and I swear I'm out of here.
00:42:38.000 You're basically giving up all your power to the heckler.
00:42:42.000 Yeah, that's probably why he's not around anymore.
00:42:45.000 Yeah, but he was...
00:42:46.000 Bad strategy.
00:42:47.000 He, in the 90s, he had this one-man show, maybe late 80s.
00:42:51.000 Development deal, big management, you know.
00:42:54.000 Do you remember that guy who had a show called Defending the Caveman?
00:42:58.000 Oh yeah, Rick and Rob Becker.
00:43:00.000 Yeah, I never saw it, but a lot of people did see it, and they told me that he did it for a while, and then he sold the show, and someone else was doing it.
00:43:09.000 Oh yeah, numerous people.
00:43:10.000 He did it in Vegas.
00:43:11.000 There was a guy who did it for years.
00:43:12.000 I think the guy... 0.99
00:43:14.000 What the fuck's his name? 0.99
00:43:15.000 The bald guy who was in The Thing. 1.00
00:43:17.000 He was on The Shield.
00:43:19.000 Oh, Michael...
00:43:20.000 Chickliss? 0.96
00:43:22.000 Chickliss, yeah. 0.99
00:43:22.000 Chickliss did it for a while. 0.99
00:43:23.000 He did it for a while.
00:43:24.000 As a one-man show?
00:43:25.000 Yeah.
00:43:26.000 It was about women and men.
00:43:28.000 It went to Broadway.
00:43:30.000 He made a fortune.
00:43:31.000 It was basically, though, like stock premises.
00:43:35.000 I didn't see it.
00:43:37.000 That's what it was explained to me.
00:43:38.000 Someone said, this is the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life.
00:43:40.000 This guy's making millions.
00:43:42.000 All over the world.
00:43:43.000 And it's basically like, you know, standard premises.
00:43:47.000 Men are like this, but women are like that. 1.00
00:43:51.000 Like real standard shit that if you saw a Rodak doing, you would go, oh, this guy's kind of a hack. 0.99
00:43:57.000 But then meanwhile, this guy's doing it as a one-man show, and it's a theatrical production, so it's huge. 0.96
00:44:02.000 I don't know if that's an accurate assessment of it.
00:44:04.000 That's what it was explained to me.
00:44:06.000 But he also hired...
00:44:07.000 So he was kind of a, you know, not fat, but kind of a, you know, chunky kind of guy.
00:44:14.000 And...
00:44:15.000 The other guys that filled in...
00:44:18.000 We're all like that.
00:44:19.000 How great is that though?
00:44:20.000 Like the same body.
00:44:22.000 It wasn't a skinny good-looking guy.
00:44:24.000 They were all like kind of the same.
00:44:25.000 Imagine if Don Myrera did that.
00:44:26.000 Like if you have some guy playing Don Myrera.
00:44:28.000 Well, didn't Gallagher do it?
00:44:30.000 Gallagher did it with his twin brother.
00:44:31.000 And then he sued the brother, right?
00:44:33.000 Yeah.
00:44:33.000 Maybe not his twin, but it's his brother.
00:44:35.000 And they look alike.
00:44:36.000 Yes.
00:44:36.000 Who's Gallagher too.
00:44:38.000 And then after a while, he got tired of Gallagher too doing his act. 0.99
00:44:41.000 Like, hey, give me my fucking act back. 1.00
00:44:43.000 Fuck you. 1.00
00:44:44.000 And so then they were fighting. 1.00
00:44:45.000 I never knew that.
00:44:47.000 And he was touring and doing...
00:44:48.000 Oh yeah, he looked like Gallagher.
00:44:50.000 He couldn't really tell.
00:44:51.000 He looked like a cloned Gallagher, but something went wrong in the process.
00:44:54.000 Like something was slightly off.
00:44:56.000 Like if you were married to him and you came home one day and you're like, hey, are you okay?
00:45:01.000 What's going on?
00:45:02.000 He'd be like, you're not my husband.
00:45:03.000 What is happening here?
00:45:05.000 Dom Herrera 2. There should be Dom Herrera's all over the country.
00:45:09.000 We'll send them out.
00:45:10.000 Headline everywhere.
00:45:11.000 There's Gallagher 2. Which one's which?
00:45:13.000 I don't know which one's which.
00:45:14.000 I say on the right.
00:45:16.000 I think that's on the right is 2. So the guy on the right, he had to grow his fucking hair the same way and wear the same clothes and do the same thing. 0.99
00:45:24.000 Was one better than the other? 0.99
00:45:25.000 I never saw her.
00:45:27.000 Have you had Gallagher on the show?
00:45:29.000 No, I haven't.
00:45:29.000 No.
00:45:31.000 I've heard him on Stern before, though.
00:45:33.000 He's an interesting guy.
00:45:34.000 Very opinionated.
00:45:37.000 But I gotta tell you, he took that prop thing to another level.
00:45:41.000 Yes, he did.
00:45:44.000 Caratop, I don't want to say ruined the genre of prop comics, but he defined it.
00:45:51.000 To the point where no one else can be a prop comic anymore.
00:45:53.000 When I was starting out in 88, there was prop comics.
00:45:56.000 There was all these guys.
00:45:57.000 Some guys would have music.
00:45:58.000 Some guys would have props.
00:46:00.000 Some guys had a puppet.
00:46:02.000 They'd go on stage with a puppet.
00:46:03.000 It was a normal thing. 0.98
00:46:05.000 But there's no fucking prop comics anymore. 0.98
00:46:07.000 Go down to the Comedy Store on a Monday night. 0.98
00:46:09.000 You don't see a single prop comic.
00:46:10.000 They don't exist.
00:46:11.000 No more ventriloquists?
00:46:12.000 That's rare too.
00:46:14.000 I mean, I don't know who, I guess it was, what's his name?
00:46:17.000 Jeff Dunham.
00:46:17.000 Jeff Dunham is like the premier puppet guy.
00:46:20.000 He's a Hall of Famer.
00:46:22.000 Yeah, he's a Hall of Famer puppet guy.
00:46:24.000 He used to work for me at the Riv.
00:46:26.000 Did you ever have Otto and George in?
00:46:27.000 Sure.
00:46:27.000 He's the best.
00:46:28.000 He was a great guy.
00:46:30.000 He was a puppet act, ventriloquist. 0.99
00:46:31.000 He had the dirtiest puppet. 1.00
00:46:33.000 The puppet would say the most fucked up shit, and then he would go, how can you say that? 1.00
00:46:38.000 It was horrifying. 1.00
00:46:41.000 And he worked for me a lot.
00:46:42.000 Remember the show you did at the Riv?
00:46:44.000 Yeah, the dirty show.
00:46:45.000 It was the extreme comedy, XXX. So I had all these filthy guys. 0.94
00:46:49.000 Matter of fact, I was talking to Nick DiPaolo.
00:46:51.000 Nick did it, you know?
00:46:53.000 There he is.
00:46:53.000 There's Otto and George.
00:46:54.000 There's Otto and George.
00:46:55.000 It's so crazy.
00:46:57.000 It's so funny.
00:46:58.000 Someone actually ran on stage at Dangerfields and stabbed the puppet one time.
00:47:04.000 Yeah.
00:47:04.000 They were so mad.
00:47:06.000 And it's so horrifying.
00:47:07.000 Look how scary that is.
00:47:09.000 Crazy eyebrows.
00:47:10.000 The eyebrows would go up when he was hitting his punchlines.
00:47:15.000 And it's Otto and George, and you'd think that the puppet's name would be Otto, but that's George.
00:47:21.000 Yeah, the puppet is George.
00:47:23.000 But Otto, he worked for me a bunch of times, and he had problems, and he would disappear.
00:47:29.000 I couldn't find him.
00:47:30.000 It's obvious he has problems.
00:47:32.000 He was on the west side of town, and he died young.
00:47:36.000 But he did let him in.
00:47:38.000 You know, he started finally, after so many years, getting some recognition.
00:47:42.000 I wish he was around now so we could introduce him through podcasts.
00:47:46.000 I think if he was around now, if I could get him on a podcast and show people who he is, much like Joey Diaz, much like a lot of these guys.
00:47:54.000 You're not going to understand who they are through a traditional format, like a regular television format.
00:48:00.000 You're going to get a shadow of what they really are.
00:48:04.000 You've got to see. 0.98
00:48:05.000 Otto was a wild guy who did these crazy fucking road shows. 0.98
00:48:11.000 We did those Bob Gonzo gigs together in Jersey, and we did Dangerfields for those... 0.99
00:48:19.000 We did prom shows. 0.99
00:48:20.000 Prom shows are the fucking worst thing a comic could ever do. 0.99
00:48:24.000 Because what they do is they take these 17 and 18 year old kids. 0.99
00:48:27.000 They're at their prom.
00:48:27.000 Yeah, I went to one.
00:48:28.000 You went to one?
00:48:29.000 They don't change the audience.
00:48:31.000 So the audience, they just keep shoving new kids in there and hope the other kids leave.
00:48:36.000 So you'll start working.
00:48:37.000 You might have a 7 o'clock show and you don't get out of there until like 2, 3 in the morning.
00:48:42.000 Sometimes you get out of there, it's just starting to turn daylight.
00:48:45.000 And they're just pumping kids in.
00:48:46.000 So they would tell you...
00:48:48.000 Don't change your act.
00:48:50.000 We want them to be bored of your act so that they leave and we get new kids out.
00:48:53.000 Who was that?
00:48:54.000 That Australian guy?
00:48:55.000 Tony?
00:48:55.000 What was the big guy?
00:48:57.000 It was Scottish.
00:48:59.000 A Scottish guy? 0.91
00:49:00.000 Yeah. 1.00
00:49:00.000 Fuck. 1.00
00:49:01.000 What was his name? 1.00
00:49:02.000 Not Tony. 0.98
00:49:03.000 Goddamn, it wasn't Tony. 0.98
00:49:04.000 Tony was Rodney's partner. 0.97
00:49:05.000 He was funnier than most of the comedians, the big Scottish powerlifter guy.
00:49:10.000 He would lift weights with, he would take cement buckets, like a bucket, and fill it with cement.
00:49:17.000 And he would do a lot of his workouts just lifting these buckets filled with cement. 0.98
00:49:23.000 One of the strongest fucking guys I've ever seen in my life. 0.99
00:49:25.000 He was built like a bowling ball with a head on the top of it. 0.99
00:49:28.000 He was the manager?
00:49:29.000 No, he was like a doorman slash maitre d slash bouncer.
00:49:34.000 So if anybody did anything wrong, he was the guy that came in.
00:49:36.000 I saw him pick a kid up by his neck.
00:49:39.000 Literally grab him by his neck and lift him up in the air.
00:49:42.000 And the kid's feet were dangling.
00:49:45.000 Wow.
00:49:47.000 Dangerfields, I went there many years ago in the 70s, and I saw David Fry.
00:49:53.000 You know David Fry?
00:49:54.000 No.
00:49:55.000 He used to do Nixon.
00:49:56.000 He was 5'3". 1.00
00:49:58.000 And he would do fucking Nixon. 0.99
00:50:00.000 The headline sees his palace. 1.00
00:50:01.000 Really?
00:50:02.000 Look him up.
00:50:02.000 David Fry.
00:50:03.000 And he wind up moving to Vegas.
00:50:06.000 And he was Sullivan all the time.
00:50:09.000 And he did Nixon.
00:50:11.000 He was great.
00:50:12.000 Really short.
00:50:15.000 Right?
00:50:15.000 And...
00:50:17.000 He was always lonely, and he was with Randy Credico.
00:50:21.000 You know Randy Credico.
00:50:22.000 So Randy Credico was an impressionist, the two of them.
00:50:25.000 Wait, the guy with Roger Stone?
00:50:28.000 Yeah, Randy used to work for me at the Riv.
00:50:30.000 He was a comedian?
00:50:31.000 Yeah, he was a stand-up impressionist.
00:50:32.000 He did Johnny Carson.
00:50:34.000 I saw him on Carson.
00:50:36.000 There's David Fry.
00:50:37.000 He's five for three.
00:50:38.000 They go over.
00:50:39.000 They're down in Times Square.
00:50:40.000 It's four in the morning, 4.30 in the morning. 0.99
00:50:43.000 There's a hooker on the corner. 1.00
00:50:46.000 They pull up. 1.00
00:50:48.000 They said, how much for a blowjob? 0.99
00:50:52.000 The girl is looking in. 0.99
00:50:54.000 She's looking in the car. 1.00
00:50:55.000 How much the fuck you? 1.00
00:50:57.000 She went, I don't fuck midgets. 1.00
00:50:59.000 Boom! 1.00
00:51:00.000 He was lost for the night. 1.00
00:51:02.000 He was depressed for two fucking months. 1.00
00:51:05.000 He was a bad alcoholic. 1.00
00:51:07.000 And he worked at the Riv when we first opened.
00:51:13.000 Right?
00:51:16.000 He worked, it was like his big comeback, because he was living in Vegas, he used to come around the club, and he did the first show, wore a tuxedo.
00:51:26.000 And between shows he got bombed and Bud Friedman said, go and get him.
00:51:32.000 You know, we gave him a chance and he just couldn't even work.
00:51:35.000 He was a poor guy.
00:51:36.000 And he passed away a few years ago.
00:51:38.000 But yeah, he was headline Caesar's Palace, a real comic.
00:51:42.000 Very depressed, never married.
00:51:44.000 He would say, life is hard, life is hard, life is hard.
00:51:47.000 There's a lot of those stereotype comics, and you would hear about them more back in the day than now, that were never happy.
00:51:53.000 They would go on stage, they would get laughs in the crowd, then they'd be depressed for the rest of the night.
00:51:58.000 Hey, you know, that kind of ba-dump-up comic, I mean, there was a lot more work then, I think.
00:52:04.000 I don't know.
00:52:05.000 There's a lot of work now.
00:52:07.000 You had Catskills.
00:52:08.000 You had nightclubs in New York, Chicago.
00:52:13.000 TV paid more money then.
00:52:14.000 You didn't get scale.
00:52:16.000 I think if you did a variety show then, you got real money.
00:52:21.000 Like Flip Wilson show or Sonny and Cher and there was a Comic Con.
00:52:25.000 I think there was...
00:52:27.000 Flip Wilson show?
00:52:28.000 Remember Flip Wilson?
00:52:29.000 Look, I'm old!
00:52:30.000 I told you I was old!
00:52:32.000 I'm an old man.
00:52:33.000 Cliff Wilson, Sonny and Cher.
00:52:35.000 I love those shows.
00:52:36.000 I remember those shows, yeah.
00:52:38.000 You know, all those variety shows in the 70s.
00:52:42.000 I mean, that was good stuff.
00:52:43.000 What happened to variety shows?
00:52:45.000 I don't think people like them anymore.
00:52:47.000 I don't know.
00:52:48.000 Short attention spans. 1.00
00:52:50.000 I guess that's the new American Idol and The Voice and shit. 0.99
00:52:54.000 Sort of. 0.92
00:52:56.000 But the variety shows would have legitimate famous acts come on.
00:53:01.000 Yeah.
00:53:02.000 Singers. 0.93
00:53:02.000 Yeah. 0.93
00:53:03.000 Singers, comics.
00:53:04.000 Then they had the guy with the plates.
00:53:06.000 Magicians.
00:53:07.000 Yeah, they would do things.
00:53:09.000 Puppet, you know, ventriloquists.
00:53:11.000 Yeah.
00:53:13.000 Joe Rowe.
00:53:14.000 That's what you got to do, Joe.
00:53:16.000 Variety Act.
00:53:16.000 That's the next thing.
00:53:17.000 I can't.
00:53:18.000 I do enough.
00:53:20.000 This is it.
00:53:23.000 It can't be a short attention span, because if that was the case, then podcasts wouldn't work, because podcasts require the most attention span.
00:53:29.000 Now, that's the one thing without podcasts, too.
00:53:33.000 A lot of younger people are discovering The Sopranos, and that was part of the reason we wanted to do one.
00:53:39.000 There's kids that are in their late teens, early 20s, you know, like that age, and they're the podcasters.
00:53:45.000 Yeah, and they were too young when the show was on originally, but that's pretty cool, because a lot of shows don't get that kind of...
00:53:53.000 Resurgence and new generation discovering it.
00:53:55.000 Well, it's the beautiful thing about our era that you can stream shows and binge them.
00:53:59.000 You can do that. 0.94
00:54:00.000 Back in our day, if you wanted to watch old episodes of fucking Starsky and Hutch, good luck. 0.95
00:54:05.000 Sure, absolutely. 0.81
00:54:06.000 Where are you going to find them?
00:54:07.000 Where are you going to find Dragnet?
00:54:08.000 You had to wait for it to be on television.
00:54:10.000 If you wanted to watch an older show, you had to wait for it, or you'd find it somewhere.
00:54:14.000 Now, someone tells you about The Sopranos.
00:54:17.000 Is it on Netflix?
00:54:18.000 No, it's on HBO Max, HBO to Go.
00:54:21.000 HBO and Hulu.
00:54:23.000 And probably Apple TV as well.
00:54:26.000 Yeah, you can probably buy it on Apple TV. Amazon.
00:54:28.000 Amazon.
00:54:29.000 But you just go right to that, boom, you get started.
00:54:32.000 I mean, it instantly starts playing.
00:54:34.000 I mean, it's amazing if you're a kid and you want to discover great old shows or great old films.
00:54:40.000 I mean, you have instant access to them.
00:54:42.000 You don't have to go anywhere.
00:54:42.000 Absolutely.
00:54:44.000 Back then, only 11 million people had HBO. Yeah.
00:54:47.000 Which is nothing.
00:54:48.000 There's probably more people now watching the show.
00:54:50.000 People get together on Sunday nights, right?
00:54:53.000 They have their parties and all that.
00:54:56.000 They would cook and have parties and dress up like the characters.
00:55:01.000 It was harder to watch things.
00:55:04.000 You had to go out and get a physical copy of it.
00:55:07.000 I remember I moved into this house in 2002 and it had a theater.
00:55:12.000 I was like, oh my god, I made it. 0.99
00:55:14.000 I got a fucking theater in my house. 1.00
00:55:16.000 This is the shit. 1.00
00:55:17.000 And I watched Apocalypse Now, the newly remastered version of Apocalypse Now. 1.00
00:55:24.000 The one with the added scenes that weren't in the French plantation.
00:55:28.000 That was really cool.
00:55:30.000 I was just sitting back watching this thing going, this is amazing.
00:55:33.000 And then you find out the history of the film.
00:55:35.000 And then you find out that, like, literally it took like seven years to make that film.
00:55:39.000 And Lawrence Fishburne's a teenager when he's in it. 0.99
00:55:42.000 You know, it's just, fuck what a movie that is. 0.99
00:55:45.000 Yeah, that's a good one. 0.99
00:55:46.000 Look at his career.
00:55:47.000 Actually, Harvey Keitel was originally the Martin Sheen role Willard and actually shot for a while.
00:55:54.000 He got fired?
00:55:56.000 I think they felt he brought too much...
00:55:59.000 Like, Martin Sheen was more of a blank slate, like an everyman kind of.
00:56:02.000 Harvey had a very strong personality, like New York kind of tough guy and a lot more of quirks to him.
00:56:10.000 And he wanted more of like...
00:56:12.000 Martin Sheen was more of like a...
00:56:14.000 Reacting to all the other craziness around him, like Hopper and Frederick Forrest, Fishburne and Brando.
00:56:19.000 And he was kind of the center that just held it.
00:56:21.000 And Harvey was more like a character.
00:56:23.000 That makes sense.
00:56:25.000 That's at least what I heard.
00:56:26.000 But I think Harvey shot for at least a month, maybe more.
00:56:29.000 Wow.
00:56:29.000 Wow.
00:56:30.000 That makes sense, though, because Harvey's such a powerful force.
00:56:33.000 Yeah.
00:56:34.000 When I think of Harvey, can I tell I think of Bad Lieutenant?
00:56:36.000 Yeah, that's a good one. 1.00
00:56:38.000 That fucking movie. 1.00
00:56:38.000 That's a brilliant movie. 1.00
00:56:39.000 Holy shit. 0.99
00:56:40.000 He did a series with him. 0.94
00:56:41.000 What did you do with him?
00:56:42.000 I did the only series he ever did called Life on Mars.
00:56:45.000 We did one season for ABC in 2009 and Harvey played the lieutenant in that and it was his first TV show.
00:56:55.000 It was good to work with?
00:56:57.000 Yeah, I worked with him before.
00:56:58.000 I worked with him on Clockers.
00:56:59.000 I had a couple of scenes with him in that, and then we did...
00:57:02.000 I love Harvey.
00:57:03.000 Harvey's a very hard worker, takes his work really, really seriously, and really good.
00:57:08.000 I mean, Bad Lieutenant, he's incredible.
00:57:10.000 Brilliant.
00:57:10.000 I think that might be his best work ever.
00:57:12.000 And Dangerous Game.
00:57:14.000 Did you ever see that?
00:57:15.000 It's the same director, Abel Ferrara.
00:57:16.000 It's with Madonna and James Russo.
00:57:19.000 Harvey basically plays a version of Abel Ferrara, and kind of a version of himself, and he plays a film director.
00:57:26.000 He's really good.
00:57:27.000 I don't know if I saw that.
00:57:28.000 I'd have to go look at that again.
00:57:29.000 That's a good one.
00:57:30.000 What did you think of the stand-up show on Showtime?
00:57:36.000 Which one?
00:57:37.000 What was that called?
00:57:38.000 What do you mean?
00:57:40.000 It was the Jim Carrey.
00:57:41.000 Oh, I'm Dying Up Here?
00:57:41.000 Yeah.
00:57:42.000 You didn't like it?
00:57:43.000 No, I thought it was flat.
00:57:44.000 Yeah, I kind of liked it.
00:57:45.000 I liked it because a lot of my good friends were in it.
00:57:47.000 Yeah, I'm sure.
00:57:48.000 I liked that.
00:57:49.000 I liked it because it was basically based on the store.
00:57:52.000 Was he a stand-up comedian, Jim Carrey?
00:57:54.000 Yes.
00:57:54.000 He was before he started doing...
00:57:56.000 But Mitzi didn't act like that, right? 0.98
00:57:59.000 I don't know.
00:58:00.000 I didn't even get into it.
00:58:01.000 Oh, you didn't watch the show?
00:58:02.000 No.
00:58:02.000 Okay.
00:58:02.000 How did they have her act?
00:58:03.000 You know, like impossible. 0.98
00:58:05.000 She was crazy. 0.98
00:58:06.000 Yeah, she was impossible. 0.97
00:58:07.000 You know, I met her a few times.
00:58:08.000 She was nice to me because she came out with Paulie.
00:58:11.000 Paulie worked at the hotel.
00:58:13.000 So I met a couple of times.
00:58:15.000 She was always very nice.
00:58:16.000 That's her on the wall. 0.73
00:58:17.000 Oh, is it?
00:58:17.000 When she was younger?
00:58:18.000 Yeah.
00:58:19.000 She was always very, very nice to me.
00:58:23.000 Was she crazy?
00:58:24.000 Oh, yeah. 0.59
00:58:25.000 Yeah, that's why she let the store become what it is. 0.98
00:58:27.000 She basically wanted the lunatics to run the asylum. 1.00
00:58:30.000 She wanted them to fight against each other. 0.92
00:58:32.000 She also know, like, say if you and Michael had a problem with each other, she'd put you on back-to-back.
00:58:36.000 She'd have Michael bring you up.
00:58:37.000 Really?
00:58:38.000 Yeah, if you were dating, if a comic was dating another comic, she'd have them back-to-back.
00:58:42.000 If they broke up, back-to-back.
00:58:43.000 And it was all, this was all...
00:58:45.000 Orchestrated.
00:58:46.000 Yeah.
00:58:47.000 Well, she had a theory about comedy.
00:58:49.000 She wanted people to be put into difficult situations. 0.92
00:58:51.000 That's why I told you when I was 27 and, you know, just sort of getting my feet under me, she had me going after Richard Pryor every fucking night and Martin Lawrence. 0.99
00:59:00.000 If she liked you, she'd throw you to the wolves. 0.99
00:59:03.000 Wow. 0.91
00:59:04.000 And she would laugh about it, too.
00:59:06.000 Like, later on in life, you know, I had a conversation with her and she was laughing.
00:59:10.000 She was like, I always knew where to point you.
00:59:11.000 Ha ha.
00:59:13.000 She thought it was funny.
00:59:14.000 But it was also how she made you a good comic.
00:59:18.000 She forced you to adapt to the moment.
00:59:21.000 If you just go on, if you have an easy opening act who does get some laughs, but doesn't kill too hard, and you go on this cushy spot in the middle, everything's soft and easy, you don't get challenged.
00:59:32.000 You don't grow.
00:59:33.000 And she wanted you to grow.
00:59:35.000 She wanted you to face hardship. 1.00
00:59:37.000 She wanted you to fucking sink or swim, bitch. 1.00
00:59:41.000 This is the Comedy Store, and that's how she treated it. 1.00
00:59:43.000 You know, but the store, which was the Mecca, of course, and then they ended tail off a little bit, and then when you and Joey Diaz and all you guys started coming back, now it's...
00:59:58.000 The spot.
00:59:59.000 Yeah.
00:59:59.000 Or, you know, before the pandemic.
01:00:01.000 Anyway, that's the spot in the whole United States, right?
01:00:04.000 When I came back in 2014, we had already been talking about it for so long on the podcast.
01:00:08.000 It had kind of had a little bit of a ramp up before then.
01:00:11.000 But then when I came back and we were basically telling everybody, hey, I'm at the store.
01:00:14.000 We're there.
01:00:15.000 We're there, you know, five nights a week.
01:00:17.000 It just became mobbed again. 1.00
01:00:19.000 I mean, it was mobbed every fucking night. 0.99
01:00:20.000 It was sold out hundreds of days in a row, three shows, one in the original room, big show in the main room, belly room, just packed every night. 0.99
01:00:30.000 You couldn't get in there.
01:00:31.000 They were at the Dunes.
01:00:34.000 They were before the improv.
01:00:36.000 And there was like...
01:00:38.000 Five headliners, you know, they would have like Dom and, you know, Kinison, Mitchell Walters, you know, and they were at the Dunes Hotel in the big room.
01:00:48.000 And Mitzi four-walled that. 0.99
01:00:50.000 So she made all the money.
01:00:52.000 And she was very smart, obviously a smart businesswoman.
01:00:55.000 She didn't go for the, you know, guaranteed money. 0.99
01:00:59.000 She took a shot.
01:00:59.000 And for years, that was the spot to be.
01:01:02.000 When did that place go under?
01:01:04.000 That was before my time.
01:01:05.000 And then...
01:01:07.000 I want to say in the 90s, early 90s, they knocked the dunes down.
01:01:10.000 But I think it started in 84. The improv opened in 86. And they would have five headliners, Johnny Dark, you know, all the headliners from the comedy store.
01:01:24.000 Jimmy Walker, you know.
01:01:26.000 Well, Vegas is making a comeback when it comes to comedy.
01:01:29.000 Like, there's clubs.
01:01:29.000 There's a lot of clubs, yeah.
01:01:30.000 Yeah, there's clubs. 0.91
01:01:31.000 Like, Jimmy Kimmel's got a club there now.
01:01:33.000 There's a comedy cellar.
01:01:36.000 Laugh Factory.
01:01:37.000 Laugh Factory.
01:01:37.000 Brad Garrett has a thing.
01:01:39.000 Yeah, the Brad Garrett place is great.
01:01:41.000 It's like, it's a good place for, not just for people that are doing big places, but for comic comics.
01:01:47.000 Guys, road guys are just, you know.
01:01:49.000 Hey, when you did Dice's show, You saw Rich Little.
01:01:55.000 Yeah, we all went.
01:01:57.000 He's playing in the Laugh Factory at the Tropicana, right?
01:02:01.000 Yeah.
01:02:02.000 Yeah, Dice does residencies there.
01:02:05.000 He'll be there for months at a time.
01:02:07.000 At the Laugh Factory.
01:02:08.000 I was just there in Vegas for the UFC two weeks ago.
01:02:12.000 And they're doing the UFC without a crowd.
01:02:15.000 It's very strange.
01:02:16.000 We're at the Apex Center, which is an arena that the UFC built.
01:02:20.000 Where is it?
01:02:21.000 It's next to the UFC Performance Institute.
01:02:24.000 It's off the strip.
01:02:25.000 And they built this very small arena.
01:02:28.000 So they do a series of other shows besides just the big UFC pay-per-views.
01:02:33.000 They do this thing called the Dana White Tuesday Night Contender Series where they have up-and-coming fighters compete.
01:02:40.000 And then they do it in a small place with a very small crowd, like 1,000, 1,200 people.
01:02:46.000 But now there's no one, no crowd, because it's the only way you can do the thing.
01:02:51.000 So as I'm driving to the Apex Center, I'm passing the Tropicana, and they've got dice up on the billboard for February. 0.86
01:03:00.000 So it's like long past shows, March, shit like that. 0.95
01:03:03.000 They don't even take it down. 0.95
01:03:05.000 Because everything's been shut down.
01:03:06.000 All the casinos have been shut down.
01:03:08.000 Now they're opening.
01:03:10.000 Did you have a hotel to stay in?
01:03:12.000 No, I didn't even.
01:03:13.000 I flew in the day of the fights.
01:03:14.000 I flew out that night.
01:03:15.000 Yesterday I watched a soccer game, the German league, and they had no fans, but they had a recording of the fans.
01:03:22.000 Oh, that's so weird.
01:03:23.000 And you know, they sing, the fans in Europe sing chants to the team.
01:03:26.000 They had that going on, but there's nobody in the audience.
01:03:28.000 Are they going to do that for UFC? No, no, it's just silence.
01:03:32.000 No recording of cheers and all that. 1.00
01:03:34.000 Yeah, the brilliant part about it being silent is that you can hear the people breathing, you can hear them talking shit to each other, like, hey pussy, hey pussy, how you feeling? 1.00
01:03:43.000 Like, they talk shit to each other when they're beating each other up. 1.00
01:03:45.000 You can hear the body blows, you can hear the wheezing when they're getting hurt, you can hear them heavy breathing when they're tired. 0.99
01:03:51.000 Like, there's so much more depth to it when you don't have an audience.
01:03:56.000 It's undeniable that the audience plays a big factor in the energy, but there's something to just being there.
01:04:03.000 Like I was there for Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje in Florida.
01:04:08.000 We did that in Jacksonville, and it was the same thing, no audience.
01:04:11.000 But that was even weirder because it was a 15,000-seat arena.
01:04:14.000 But there was no crowd.
01:04:16.000 It was just these guys duking it out in this cavernous arena, and the octagon's set up in the center of the arena, and all you hear is the corner men giving advice, and then you hear them beating the shit out of each other.
01:04:28.000 Do you have to adjust anything?
01:04:29.000 You do different, or you just do your thing?
01:04:31.000 I didn't...
01:04:31.000 No.
01:04:32.000 No, I didn't adjust.
01:04:33.000 The only difference is the one in Vegas, they wouldn't let me interview the fighters in the ring after the fight.
01:04:39.000 So I couldn't go into the octagon after the fight.
01:04:41.000 I had to do it remotely.
01:04:43.000 So I had a headset on and I'm looking at them through a screen.
01:04:45.000 It was real weird.
01:04:46.000 And do you think UFC, that's why boxing's not popular anymore?
01:04:52.000 Boxing's pretty popular.
01:04:54.000 Not as it once was.
01:04:57.000 I think MMA is much more exciting.
01:04:59.000 But I think the real big boxing fights are still very exciting.
01:05:03.000 Like Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, that kind of fight.
01:05:06.000 Those are still very exciting.
01:05:08.000 Anytime Canelo Alvarez fights, those are still very exciting fights.
01:05:12.000 It's just, it's not as multi-dimensional as MMA. When you watch a UFC fight and you're seeing head kicks and takedowns and guys getting strangled.
01:05:23.000 It's fucking too rough for me, man. 0.99
01:05:24.000 Fucking tough. 0.99
01:05:25.000 That's tough. 0.99
01:05:26.000 Those are legit tough guys.
01:05:29.000 Even before MMA got popular, the heavyweight division, which used to be so, for years, so exciting.
01:05:36.000 Well, it comes in waves.
01:05:38.000 Deontay Wilder was just starting to become the resurgence of the heavyweight division because he was smashing and knocking everybody out.
01:05:45.000 And then they had that epic fight with him and Tyson Fury, and they knocked Tyson Fury down twice and almost knocked him out in the 12th round.
01:05:52.000 But then Tyson came back in that round, and then the fight was declared a draw.
01:05:56.000 That was a good one.
01:05:57.000 It was a great fight.
01:05:58.000 And then Tyson Fury came back and beat the fuck out of him in the rematch.
01:06:02.000 And when that happened, everyone was like, Jesus Christ. 0.55
01:06:05.000 Now American heavyweights, like that was a big American heavyweight loss, right? 0.98
01:06:10.000 And in America, there's something about, we don't give a fuck about heavyweights... 0.98
01:06:15.000 From other countries. 0.99
01:06:17.000 Like when Vladimir Klitschko, like you would think like the whole thing was like a white guy as a heavyweight champion would be the craziest shit ever. 0.97
01:06:23.000 Vladimir Klitschko was a heavyweight champion for years. 0.99
01:06:26.000 Nobody gave a fuck. 0.98
01:06:27.000 That's what I'm saying. 0.99
01:06:28.000 Because he was Russian.
01:06:28.000 You know, I used to go to a lot of fights when I lived in Vegas in the 80s.
01:06:33.000 I was at the Hearns Hagler, a couple of them.
01:06:36.000 I was at Mancini when he killed Dooku Kim. 0.98
01:06:39.000 Oh, you were I was at that fight.
01:06:41.000 That was the outside fight, right?
01:06:42.000 Yes.
01:06:43.000 I was at the Cooney Homes.
01:06:49.000 Oh, wow.
01:06:49.000 $100 seat.
01:06:50.000 Guy tipped me.
01:06:51.000 I was a doorman at Paul Anker's club, a bouncer.
01:06:54.000 Guy gave me a $100 ticket.
01:06:56.000 I was all the way to tippy-top at Caesars in the parking lot.
01:06:59.000 Wow.
01:07:00.000 That was the arena.
01:07:01.000 I was at Aguayo Pryor.
01:07:04.000 Alexis Arguello.
01:07:04.000 Yeah, Alexis Arguello.
01:07:05.000 Alexis Arguello prior.
01:07:07.000 Wow, that's a classic.
01:07:08.000 I was at Tyson's first fight when he came out of jail.
01:07:11.000 Oh, wow. 0.99
01:07:12.000 And he beat the shit out of the Irish kid. 0.99
01:07:14.000 Yeah, I was at a whole bunch of them. 0.99
01:07:17.000 A bunch.
01:07:17.000 And then they would have Saturday afternoons at the showboat on the outside of town.
01:07:22.000 I would go to a lot of those.
01:07:23.000 Those were great fights.
01:07:25.000 They had Wednesday night fights at...
01:07:29.000 It was a silver slipper with the mirages.
01:07:33.000 I used to go back then.
01:07:34.000 I haven't been to a fight in years.
01:07:36.000 They used to have a lot of fights at the Orleans too, right?
01:07:38.000 Orleans?
01:07:39.000 That was later on.
01:07:40.000 Yeah, later on.
01:07:41.000 Later on. 0.97
01:07:41.000 But the silver slipper was just a shithole local place. 0.97
01:07:45.000 There's a lot of those in Vegas.
01:07:47.000 Yeah, a local place and they would have these great fighters. 0.92
01:07:50.000 They would come in from LA and Top Rank was a big deal then and Aram's been around forever.
01:07:57.000 Ali came to the set one day in Sopranos.
01:07:59.000 He was a fan of the show.
01:08:03.000 His manager contacted my manager and I met him in front of the studio and brought him Onto the set and nobody knew he was coming and Gandolfini was like in bed.
01:08:14.000 He was doing that when he was in the coma.
01:08:16.000 It was all that stuff.
01:08:18.000 He was like taking a nap between takes and I brought Ali and the whole crew just like froze and then I brought him up to the bed and I tapped Jim. 0.99
01:08:25.000 Jim turned around looked up he went Holy shit. 0.99
01:08:29.000 And he hung out the whole day, man. 0.99
01:08:31.000 Took pictures.
01:08:32.000 Wow.
01:08:32.000 Every crew.
01:08:33.000 People gave him a standing ovation.
01:08:34.000 People were crying.
01:08:35.000 It was crazy.
01:08:36.000 Wow. 0.93
01:08:37.000 He was such a star and such an iconic figure that my parents, who were hippies, They didn't give a fuck about fighting, but when he fought Spinks in the rematch, they made us watch it. 0.79
01:08:48.000 We're living in San Francisco, and we're like, you have to watch this.
01:08:51.000 Muhammad Ali is fighting Leon Spinks.
01:08:53.000 He's gonna get his title back.
01:08:55.000 It was a big deal, because he wasn't just a boxer.
01:08:58.000 It's hard for people to realize that now, in retrospect, but when I was a kid, During the Vietnam War, he was also a symbol of the resistance to this unjust war that we didn't want to be a part of.
01:09:11.000 He's a guy who lost three years of his career because he wouldn't fight in the war.
01:09:15.000 And so they stripped him of his title in his prime.
01:09:18.000 Like, he beat Cleveland Big Cat Williams, probably the finest performance of his young career. 0.98
01:09:22.000 And then for three years, he doesn't do shit until he comes back. 0.93
01:09:26.000 And, you know, it was a... 0.96
01:09:31.000 He transcended sports.
01:09:32.000 Oh, absolutely.
01:09:33.000 All over the world.
01:09:34.000 All over the world.
01:09:35.000 And he got his due, I think.
01:09:38.000 You know what I mean?
01:09:39.000 He's recognized as that guy.
01:09:42.000 It finally happened.
01:09:43.000 It took a while.
01:09:44.000 Look at that.
01:09:45.000 Oh, there you go.
01:09:45.000 That must have been on the set.
01:09:47.000 Yeah, there's the hospital bed behind it.
01:09:50.000 Wow, that's crazy. 1.00
01:09:52.000 You can't make up some bullshit here. 1.00
01:09:54.000 They get right on you. 1.00
01:09:56.000 That's good. 1.00
01:09:57.000 Jamie gets right on your ass and fucking come up with the goods. 1.00
01:10:00.000 He's also a cautionary tale for boxers. 1.00
01:10:03.000 If you think that getting hit in the head has no consequences.
01:10:07.000 Towards the end of his life, it was very hard to watch.
01:10:11.000 Yeah, he wasn't talking that much, but he was very present.
01:10:15.000 He was with it.
01:10:16.000 He just wasn't...
01:10:19.000 Neurologically, he wasn't capable of really speaking anymore.
01:10:22.000 Well, I think Leon Spinks also, right?
01:10:25.000 Yeah, everyone.
01:10:25.000 Joe Frazier, towards the end of his career, was horrible to watch him and listen to him.
01:10:30.000 The only one who's avoided that is George Foreman.
01:10:32.000 To this day, George Foreman speaks great.
01:10:34.000 He sounds normal, which is crazy.
01:10:37.000 It's hard to imagine.
01:10:38.000 What about Holyfield?
01:10:40.000 Holyfield's fighting again.
01:10:41.000 Do you know that?
01:10:42.000 No way.
01:10:43.000 Yes, Holyfield's been training, and he actually looks great.
01:10:46.000 You know, with hormone replacement therapy, they just juice him up with testosterone and growth hormone and fucking get him on a good diet, and next thing you know, he's hitting the bag and looking great, and I think they're trying to set up a Tyson-Holyfield rematch.
01:10:58.000 Wow. 0.79
01:10:59.000 How old is Holyfield?
01:11:01.000 Holyfield's older than Tyson.
01:11:03.000 I think Tyson's 53, and I think Holyfield's 56. That would be something.
01:11:08.000 They'll all get a huge payday, because I think Holyfield was broke too, right?
01:11:11.000 They're both broke.
01:11:12.000 Yeah, I mean, I don't know if Tyson's broke anymore.
01:11:14.000 Has Tyson been on the show?
01:11:15.000 Yes.
01:11:16.000 And Holyfield.
01:11:17.000 Both guys have been on the show.
01:11:17.000 Oh, they both have been on the show.
01:11:19.000 Tyson's got that Tyson Ranch. 0.62
01:11:20.000 He's basically a weed salesman now.
01:11:22.000 He's got this crazy ranch that he's a part of, Tyson Ranch.
01:11:25.000 They grow spectacular weed.
01:11:27.000 That box over in the corner, that gold box, that's a Tyson weed ranch box that he gifted me.
01:11:32.000 And he's got this whole entertainment venue there.
01:11:38.000 They're gonna do shows there.
01:11:39.000 I just think something happened and he just decided...
01:11:42.000 He even said on the podcast, I don't even want to work out.
01:11:45.000 He was like, because I don't want to reignite my ego. 0.97
01:11:47.000 And then something fucking lit a fire under him. 0.93
01:11:50.000 And the next thing you know, there's these videos that got resurfaced of him hitting the pads. 0.99
01:11:55.000 And looks fucking... 0.98
01:11:56.000 Have you seen it? 0.99
01:11:57.000 I did see it. 1.00
01:11:59.000 I would not fuck her. 1.00
01:12:01.000 It's amazing. 1.00
01:12:02.000 And I tell you what, now that would be a huge...
01:12:05.000 Huge!
01:12:05.000 All over the world, that would be...
01:12:07.000 Take my money.
01:12:08.000 Take my money.
01:12:08.000 That would be something.
01:12:10.000 They'd probably do it in Saudi Arabia or something like that.
01:12:11.000 I hope they do it.
01:12:12.000 I hope they do it.
01:12:13.000 Why not?
01:12:14.000 There's interest in that.
01:12:15.000 Yeah.
01:12:15.000 Oh yeah, for sure.
01:12:16.000 Where's Tyson's Ranch at?
01:12:18.000 It's in California, like, towards the Palm Desert area.
01:12:22.000 Oh, okay.
01:12:23.000 Yeah.
01:12:23.000 Because he lived in Vegas for a lot of years.
01:12:25.000 Yeah.
01:12:25.000 He used to play basketball.
01:12:26.000 There was a place...
01:12:28.000 He's the worst basketball player I've ever seen.
01:12:30.000 I'm not kidding. 0.99
01:12:31.000 Terrible.
01:12:32.000 Just terrible.
01:12:32.000 Well, you've never seen me play.
01:12:34.000 Oh, okay.
01:12:34.000 Maybe you.
01:12:36.000 And he used to play.
01:12:38.000 There was a place called the Sporting House behind the Stardust.
01:12:41.000 And, like, everyone played there.
01:12:43.000 Every celebrity.
01:12:43.000 That was...
01:12:44.000 It was like a, you know... 0.99
01:12:46.000 pool and you know racquetball all that shit and he would come and play. 0.97
01:12:51.000 I would never fucking dare say a word to him but he used to try to play a lot of guys. 0.94
01:12:57.000 You played against him? 0.70
01:12:57.000 Yeah. 0.70
01:12:58.000 I played I played in college and you know all the guys from UNOV would play it was like a hundred pounds ago I could play.
01:13:05.000 Tyson was just that's not his thing.
01:13:10.000 No.
01:13:11.000 I just found it really amazing that he decided at 53 he just wanted to fight again.
01:13:17.000 And he said he's gonna do some exhibitions, and that was the thought process behind it, some five-round exhibitions or something like that, but it seems like he really wants to fight for it.
01:13:25.000 I think as the process has gone on, he's gotten better and better shape, and now he's shredded.
01:13:30.000 Look, look, geez.
01:13:32.000 And he's got a podcast, right?
01:13:33.000 Yeah, yeah.
01:13:35.000 He's a really interesting guy.
01:13:37.000 And he did a one-man show?
01:13:39.000 Yep, yeah.
01:13:39.000 He did his one-man show for a while.
01:13:41.000 With Spike Lee direct.
01:13:42.000 This guy who's holding the pads for him is Rafael Cordero.
01:13:45.000 Rafael Cordero is the lead trainer at Kings MMA. He's a very famous MMA trainer, like one of the best striking trainers in the sport.
01:13:53.000 Yeah.
01:13:54.000 So he's working with a great guy, but it's interesting that he chose to work with an MMA guy, too.
01:13:59.000 That's really interesting.
01:14:00.000 Cordero comes from this place in Curitiba, Brazil, called Shoot the Box.
01:14:05.000 It's a very famous MMA camp, famous for the most ferocious fighters in Brazil.
01:14:10.000 And he's been training with Tyson.
01:14:12.000 How long did Foreman fight for?
01:14:15.000 Like, till he was 50?
01:14:16.000 Well, he came back at 36, and everybody thought it was a joke. 0.99
01:14:18.000 He came back 300 and something pounds, fat as fuck, And just looked like, everybody's like, ah, ha, ha, what is he doing? 0.99
01:14:25.000 Why is he doing this? 0.99
01:14:26.000 And then slowly, as the fights went on, he never got ripped, but he got smaller and smaller. 1.00
01:14:30.000 And then when he flatlined Jerry Cooney, everybody was like, holy fuck! 0.99
01:14:34.000 Like, he's real! 1.00
01:14:36.000 Like, this is real!
01:14:37.000 And then when he knocked out Michael Moore, he became the oldest ever heavyweight champion.
01:14:40.000 And I believe he was 45 when he knocked out Moore.
01:14:43.000 And then he's...
01:14:44.000 Had his grills and he made a lot of money. 1.00
01:14:46.000 He made a fucking killing on those grills. 0.99
01:14:49.000 Those George Foreman grills. 1.00
01:14:50.000 Did you have one?
01:14:51.000 Yeah, I had one.
01:14:51.000 Great for grilled chicken.
01:14:53.000 Great.
01:14:54.000 Cooks quick.
01:14:55.000 You didn't have one?
01:14:57.000 They're great.
01:14:58.000 It's actually a pretty goddamn good idea. 0.93
01:15:01.000 That's very funny.
01:15:02.000 I mean, it's not the best way.
01:15:04.000 You know, if you want to cook the most delicious food, it's not the best way to cook.
01:15:08.000 Now, do you cook?
01:15:08.000 Yeah.
01:15:09.000 Oh, yeah.
01:15:10.000 What'd you win?
01:15:11.000 Top chef?
01:15:13.000 Chopped.
01:15:13.000 The Liberty Tournament, yeah.
01:15:15.000 So you're a chef-chef?
01:15:16.000 No.
01:15:17.000 You just like cooking?
01:15:18.000 I'm a home chef, but I'm good at taking what's there and making something out of it, like random stuff.
01:15:22.000 What are you into?
01:15:23.000 Like, what do you like to cook?
01:15:25.000 I like Italian food.
01:15:27.000 I like, you know, I mean, out here, you know, you go to the farmer's market, there's all great stuff that's in season all the time, and I don't know.
01:15:37.000 Soup.
01:15:37.000 I'm really good at soups.
01:15:38.000 Really?
01:15:39.000 Yeah.
01:15:40.000 Yeah, whatever.
01:15:41.000 I mean, I did it because my wife doesn't cook. 1.00
01:15:45.000 She's a designer. 1.00
01:15:46.000 She's good at building things. 0.95
01:15:48.000 So if I wanted to eat good, I had to learn how to cook.
01:15:52.000 So you learned out of necessity and then really got into it?
01:15:55.000 Yeah.
01:15:55.000 Well, I mean, I got into it because I liked eating good.
01:16:01.000 Yeah.
01:16:02.000 But I did this.
01:16:04.000 I got offered to be on this show.
01:16:05.000 I didn't even know the show.
01:16:07.000 My kids were like, no, you'd go and do this.
01:16:09.000 You'll win if you do this show because you're good at cooking with random ingredients.
01:16:14.000 And it was 16 people.
01:16:18.000 One day it was actors, four actors, four comedians, four athletes, and four musicians.
01:16:23.000 Then the winner from each day does the last day.
01:16:26.000 And how do they judge?
01:16:27.000 Based on taste, presentation?
01:16:28.000 Yeah, three professionals judge.
01:16:31.000 Taste, presentation, creativity.
01:16:34.000 What did you cook?
01:16:37.000 Well, I did, yeah, I used ice cream.
01:16:39.000 I made a dessert.
01:16:40.000 You have to make this three rounds every day, right?
01:16:42.000 So there's an appetizer round, a main course, and then a dessert.
01:16:46.000 But for the desserts I made ice cream and I put like booze in the ice cream and that got over really good.
01:16:51.000 Like bourbon, bourbon ice cream, vanilla bourbon, tequila ice cream or something like that. 0.90
01:16:58.000 But they give you weird shit like in one, you open this box and these ingredients you have to use. 0.97
01:17:05.000 Then you have a pantry with all the other like normal staples of all kinds of other vegetables. 0.99
01:17:10.000 Like what would be in the box?
01:17:13.000 Fake blood, like candy blood, or like an unpopped, dried corn on the cob, unpopped.
01:17:22.000 It's like popcorn, but not off the cob.
01:17:26.000 Squid.
01:17:29.000 That's kind of more of a normal thing.
01:17:31.000 So you have to have pretty well-rounded skills.
01:17:35.000 Yeah, and then it's timed, but then the thing I didn't think about that's the hardest thing of it is that there's cameras in your face the whole time, which is really hard.
01:17:43.000 And then if they follow you around because you've got to go move around the kitchen, yeah, you're trying to cook really fast and do something and someone's right here with a camera and that kind of thing. 0.98
01:17:51.000 What the fuck do you do with unpopped corn? 0.94
01:17:54.000 Well, I knew what to do with it, which was good. 0.99
01:17:56.000 You put it in a paper bag and then put it in the microwave.
01:17:59.000 And then you got popcorn and you could do stuff with it.
01:18:02.000 But I had bought it at the farmer's market like the week before just by chance.
01:18:07.000 So I knew what to do with it. 0.99
01:18:08.000 Yeah, I would have been fucked. 1.00
01:18:10.000 You cook for your family? 1.00
01:18:12.000 You win $50,000 for charity.
01:18:13.000 That was the thing.
01:18:15.000 But I wound up winning the last two people were me and Brandy Chastain. 0.68
01:18:19.000 You know, she was on the U.S. women's soccer team. 1.00
01:18:22.000 Not the recent one, but back then she took off her...
01:18:25.000 Shirt and was wearing the sports bra.
01:18:27.000 That was the famous photo or something.
01:18:29.000 Her and I were the two finalists.
01:18:31.000 Did she do that after the show? 1.00
01:18:33.000 That's her move. 0.75
01:18:33.000 She lost. 0.75
01:18:34.000 She does that with everything. 1.00
01:18:35.000 Maybe if she won, she may.
01:18:37.000 Come in second! 0.82
01:18:38.000 No, you don't do that when you come in second.
01:18:40.000 Yeah, you gotta do that for first place.
01:18:42.000 I did it! 1.00
01:18:43.000 You should have pulled your balls out! 0.99
01:18:46.000 So when you're doing this, you get all these ingredients. 1.00
01:18:52.000 What is your thought process?
01:18:55.000 You get the squid and the popcorn.
01:18:58.000 How much time are you getting, by the way?
01:19:00.000 I think for the appetizer, you have 15 minutes.
01:19:02.000 15 minutes.
01:19:03.000 So you open up the box, you've got 15 minutes to make something. 1.00
01:19:05.000 So you're looking at the squid, you're looking at the popcorn, you're like, fuck. 0.99
01:19:09.000 Yeah, and you have to make... 0.99
01:19:10.000 And then there's all different machines, too. 0.57
01:19:14.000 There's like a food processor, there's an ice cream machine, there's like a sous vide machine, which is you put stuff in the plastic, seal it, and then put it into like really hot water and cook it, that kind of shit, if you want to get adventurous. 0.95
01:19:27.000 Yeah, wow. 0.97
01:19:28.000 You better try one.
01:19:29.000 Try one of these shows.
01:19:31.000 No, no.
01:19:31.000 Not for you?
01:19:32.000 No, not interested.
01:19:33.000 What do you make usually?
01:19:35.000 I cook a lot of meat.
01:19:36.000 You know, I hunt, so I eat a lot of elk meat, because if I shoot an elk, I get 400 pounds of meat.
01:19:42.000 What does an elk taste like?
01:19:45.000 Like steak?
01:19:46.000 No.
01:19:47.000 No, it's more like venison, like a deer meat, but more delicious.
01:19:52.000 Is it the deer family?
01:19:54.000 Yes, it is the deer family.
01:19:55.000 It's just a large deer, essentially a large mountain deer.
01:20:00.000 It used to be a plains animal, but then when people started coming around and developing, they started moving into the mountains.
01:20:06.000 So now they're more of a mountain animal, but their real habitat is like grazing in plains, but it's an enormous animal, you know?
01:20:15.000 I eat a lot of that.
01:20:16.000 You get one deer, how long does it last you?
01:20:18.000 A year.
01:20:19.000 Yeah, one elk.
01:20:21.000 But I give a lot of it away too.
01:20:22.000 I have a bunch of commercial freezers in the back.
01:20:25.000 That's an elk on the wall that I shot.
01:20:27.000 That was big.
01:20:29.000 Yeah, it's a big animal.
01:20:30.000 I mean, that's probably a 900 pound animal, that one.
01:20:33.000 That's a really big one.
01:20:34.000 Some of them, you know, a good-sized Utah mountain elk, 800 pounds.
01:20:39.000 So you quarter it up, you take the quarters out.
01:20:42.000 And the family likes it, too?
01:20:43.000 Yeah, they love it.
01:20:44.000 I got good at it.
01:20:45.000 I know how to cook.
01:20:45.000 Yeah?
01:20:46.000 Yeah.
01:20:46.000 That's a specific style of cooking, too, because you've got to make sure you don't overcook it because it's very lean.
01:20:51.000 It's not like a fatty piece of meat where, you know, you could...
01:20:55.000 I kind of cook it longer.
01:20:56.000 You cook it at a low heat and you get it to a very specific internal temperature.
01:21:00.000 Usually I like it like 125 degrees.
01:21:03.000 Then I sear it on the outside in a very hot cast iron pan.
01:21:07.000 You cook?
01:21:08.000 I don't cook much, no.
01:21:09.000 No?
01:21:09.000 No.
01:21:10.000 And I don't eat anything, you know, listen, I eat steak.
01:21:13.000 Not much or sometimes?
01:21:14.000 I could do something.
01:21:16.000 I could make breakfast.
01:21:17.000 Like what?
01:21:18.000 What's your go-to? 1.00
01:21:19.000 I could make fucking eggs. 1.00
01:21:20.000 I could do something here if I got it. 0.99
01:21:24.000 Did you ever work as a cook?
01:21:25.000 Like a short order cook? 0.94
01:21:26.000 You were a clam shucker. 0.99
01:21:28.000 I worked at Umberto's Clam House when I was in high school. 0.66
01:21:31.000 I used to be able to open clams.
01:21:33.000 You know when you would order?
01:21:34.000 I used to be incredible at them.
01:21:36.000 Yeah?
01:21:37.000 Umberto's Clam House was where they killed Joe Gallo.
01:21:39.000 Oh, wow.
01:21:40.000 But they had a second one in Brooklyn where I grew up.
01:21:44.000 No, but Gallo was killed on Mulberry Street.
01:21:46.000 Mulberry Street.
01:21:47.000 There was one on Mulberry Street, Humberto's Clan House.
01:21:50.000 It became famous after that.
01:21:51.000 And then there was one in Brooklyn, and I was like 15, and we used to hang around on the corner, and they were building it.
01:21:59.000 And there was like a guy, you know, we were all hanging around, getting into fucking trouble, a bunch of kids, and he pulled out a big wad of money one day. 0.76
01:22:07.000 I mean, like fucking hundreds, and he said, come here. 0.99
01:22:11.000 Come on, get the fuck out of here. 1.00
01:22:13.000 Take them to the movies. 0.99
01:22:15.000 Back then, a movie was probably a dollar, you know?
01:22:17.000 And I said, no, no, no, I want a job.
01:22:19.000 I don't want your money.
01:22:20.000 And I gave him the money.
01:22:21.000 He was Matty the Horse, which was a big wise guy's brother, Joe.
01:22:25.000 And he kind of became like a mentor.
01:22:27.000 You know, he was like a really good guy, gave me a job.
01:22:29.000 I learned how to open clams, bake clams, clams for the linguine and clams, raw clams on the half shell.
01:22:37.000 You know, squeeze the lemon, the thing.
01:22:40.000 Did being around a lot of those guys when you were younger, did that help you when you were in The Sopranos?
01:22:45.000 Did it help you, like, sort of, because you knew people like them?
01:22:48.000 Yeah, I grew up in that neighborhood.
01:22:50.000 Like, where I grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, at the time, in the 70s, was all...
01:22:57.000 A big mob, enclave.
01:22:59.000 Big.
01:23:00.000 They were everywhere.
01:23:01.000 And you didn't even know who they were.
01:23:04.000 You know, like Joey's uncle.
01:23:07.000 And this is a guy that I went to Little League with.
01:23:11.000 Winded up doing 25 years for murder.
01:23:13.000 And they were just in the neighborhood.
01:23:15.000 They were just, you know.
01:23:16.000 So yeah, I knew that world.
01:23:19.000 I wasn't in that world.
01:23:21.000 I went to college.
01:23:22.000 But I knew that world.
01:23:24.000 I know people.
01:23:25.000 I have friends.
01:23:27.000 You know, it was just that kind of a place, you know, where you just knew them.
01:23:30.000 And somebody was just telling me two days ago, the guy owned a store, like an Italian deli, ravioli store, and I didn't know that he was a hitman.
01:23:42.000 And he sent me an article. 0.99
01:23:44.000 And he murdered two fucking guys in Coney Island, yeah. 0.99
01:23:47.000 This guy named Pete. 0.99
01:23:48.000 And I had no idea about that.
01:23:50.000 And I said, really?
01:23:52.000 He lived up the block for me.
01:23:53.000 I didn't know that.
01:23:54.000 Because, you know, when you're a kid, you know, there was like, you know, he was coaching the baseball team.
01:23:59.000 Then you found out later.
01:24:00.000 I said, I didn't know the guy was a wise guy, like a real guy.
01:24:04.000 And they were everywhere.
01:24:05.000 They sold fireworks.
01:24:06.000 You know, it was that whole thing.
01:24:08.000 It was all Italian-American, you know, and it's changed now. 0.96
01:24:12.000 You know, it's not a little bit of that, but not as much as it used to be.
01:24:17.000 Well, when John Gotti was in his heyday, it was a very strange time for Italian-Americans in New York because that whole area, like when he would have those block parties and, you know, people, there was part of the people that would love him.
01:24:30.000 I love that.
01:24:31.000 To this day.
01:24:32.000 Yeah.
01:24:33.000 To this day, absolutely.
01:24:34.000 You know, I was gone.
01:24:35.000 You know, I left for Vegas in 79, 80. So I was gone through all them 80s.
01:24:41.000 You know, I was in Vegas with those wise guys.
01:24:43.000 Right.
01:24:44.000 And I knew some of them.
01:24:45.000 We talked about it last time I was here.
01:24:46.000 The Pesci character, Tony Spolaccio, who was...
01:24:50.000 Always very nice to me.
01:24:52.000 I mean, he was, give me a 20 every time I saw him.
01:24:55.000 He's alright in my book.
01:24:57.000 But it's interesting, like, the Gotti character, him as a person was very strange.
01:25:01.000 Do you know his grandson is a badass MMA fighter?
01:25:04.000 Oh, no, I didn't know.
01:25:05.000 His grandson, John Gotti III, I think it is, is a legit MMA fighter. 0.98
01:25:10.000 He's really fucking good. 0.98
01:25:12.000 He's shredded. 1.00
01:25:13.000 The kid looks like a fucking killer. 1.00
01:25:15.000 I mean, he looks like an MMA fighter, covered in tattoos. 1.00
01:25:17.000 I think he's undefeated, and I think he's got the majority of his fights, if not all of them, are by knockout.
01:25:22.000 Wow.
01:25:22.000 It's kind of crazy.
01:25:23.000 Listen, people love him.
01:25:25.000 I never met John Gotti.
01:25:26.000 He did a lot of good for a lot of people.
01:25:29.000 Listen, you could only judge someone by how they treat you.
01:25:33.000 You know what I mean?
01:25:34.000 Because people go, well, how could you, you know, blah, blah, blah.
01:25:36.000 Hey, he was good to a lot of people.
01:25:38.000 He was known to be a good fighter, too, John.
01:25:40.000 John was?
01:25:41.000 Yeah.
01:25:41.000 That's how he kind of came up.
01:25:43.000 He was very good with his hands.
01:25:44.000 He was, you know, toe-to-toe and was pretty nifty as a fighter.
01:25:49.000 He was very public, though.
01:25:51.000 Yeah.
01:25:51.000 That was the thing that the old guard didn't like.
01:25:54.000 But he was flashy when he became the boss.
01:25:57.000 He was like this guy that made a big show of who he was versus a lot of these guys like Vincent de Chin would act crazy and walk around a bathrobe.
01:26:05.000 Well, God, he was like Al Capone.
01:26:06.000 Yeah.
01:26:07.000 At least he enjoyed himself.
01:26:08.000 These other guys, some of these other guys.
01:26:11.000 He enjoyed himself.
01:26:12.000 He was out to restaurants.
01:26:13.000 Good look.
01:26:13.000 He had movie star looks.
01:26:15.000 At least he enjoyed himself.
01:26:16.000 He had a nice family.
01:26:18.000 Some of these guys are holed up. 0.99
01:26:20.000 They have millions of dollars and they live in like some shit one bedroom tenement. 0.99
01:26:25.000 Like Uncle Junior. 1.00
01:26:26.000 Like Uncle Junior. 1.00
01:26:26.000 He lives like this shitty life. 1.00
01:26:28.000 He's got hundreds of thousands here and there. 0.99
01:26:31.000 It's like, why are you living like that?
01:26:33.000 You might as well go out and enjoy it, right?
01:26:35.000 Right.
01:26:36.000 Yeah.
01:26:37.000 And they still get caught. 1.00
01:26:38.000 Even the guys who live like shit, they still get caught. 1.00
01:26:41.000 Those old timers, you know, those old timers used to just... 1.00
01:26:44.000 I don't know what they did with the money.
01:26:46.000 Well, they were trying to avoid prosecution.
01:26:49.000 Yeah, but...
01:26:50.000 Didn't work out.
01:26:51.000 Almost every mobster, unfortunately, winds up dead or in jail.
01:26:56.000 Yeah, yeah.
01:26:58.000 Michael, did you grow up around that?
01:27:00.000 A little bit, yeah.
01:27:01.000 A little bit, but more...
01:27:04.000 I got out of that area when I was in my teens, really, and was in the city, you know, in the village, and around actors and musicians and stuff like that.
01:27:15.000 Was that something that it always called to you, being an actor?
01:27:18.000 No, not really.
01:27:20.000 I was going to go into be a doctor or something like that, you know?
01:27:24.000 Really?
01:27:24.000 I was always really good in school and...
01:27:27.000 But my father was a bus driver in the Bronx, and he started doing community theater when I was in high school.
01:27:36.000 He was like 40. Just one day starts acting in plays, which, looking back, knowing what it takes, it's very courageous, you know, somebody to do that.
01:27:46.000 And so I always saw cool movies and...
01:27:49.000 Even saw some theater in New York because my parents took me.
01:27:53.000 But then in my last year of high school, I was like, well, what the hell?
01:27:56.000 What do you really want to do?
01:27:57.000 I mean, if you could do anything, I really literally asked myself that question.
01:28:01.000 If you could do anything, what would it be?
01:28:04.000 And I was like, I guess.
01:28:05.000 I really didn't want to stay in school for 10 years either, like studying.
01:28:09.000 I was kind of sick of that.
01:28:11.000 And then come out in debt.
01:28:12.000 Come out in debt.
01:28:13.000 That's the big one.
01:28:15.000 That's a big one.
01:28:16.000 Flavors the way they live their life. 0.98
01:28:18.000 Yeah, they live their life starting out of the gate in their career hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
01:28:23.000 Yeah, and not just doctors.
01:28:25.000 Yeah, even even people who don't even go to grad school.
01:28:27.000 Sure.
01:28:28.000 Yeah, that's really rough.
01:28:30.000 So you asked yourself that question and how'd you come up with acting?
01:28:34.000 Yeah, I had some good teachers in high school who brought us to theater and I was reading a lot of plays in high school in the library in my school and just got into it more and more my last year or two of high school.
01:28:48.000 I wasn't acting.
01:28:49.000 I didn't do any acting then.
01:28:50.000 And then after high school, I went to an acting school in New York and took a couple of classes there and then stayed for a long time, actually, with a teacher and met a lot of people that I still work with today back then, you know, a couple of who were on The Sopranos,
01:29:06.000 actually.
01:29:07.000 Is live performance, is that your love, like, theater?
01:29:11.000 Um...
01:29:12.000 You know, it is...
01:29:14.000 I mean, I love all of it.
01:29:15.000 I mean, it's always about the specific project and the material and the people you're with, but...
01:29:21.000 Doing it live is really special because, A, you're doing the whole story every night from beginning to end, right?
01:29:28.000 And you're on stage for whatever, two hours.
01:29:31.000 It's that concentration and that commitment.
01:29:33.000 You know, movies and television, as you know, is broken up into little bits throughout the day.
01:29:38.000 And it's a different kind of concentration.
01:29:41.000 But there is something special about being in front of an audience.
01:29:45.000 It's different every night.
01:29:46.000 The reactions are different every night.
01:29:48.000 And there's an interplay.
01:29:50.000 That's very exciting.
01:29:53.000 So, do you still do it now?
01:29:55.000 Do you go back and forth between doing films?
01:29:57.000 I haven't in a while.
01:29:57.000 I mean, theater.
01:29:58.000 I mean, I did...
01:30:00.000 I hope to start doing it again soon, you know?
01:30:03.000 At one point, my wife and I built a theater, and we were producing new plays.
01:30:08.000 Where'd you build it?
01:30:10.000 West 29th Street, Manhattan.
01:30:11.000 Oh, wow.
01:30:12.000 Around...
01:30:12.000 I think we opened in 2003. So, when you say built the theater, like, what was there before...
01:30:17.000 I was just like a raw space.
01:30:18.000 I think it was a club at one point.
01:30:21.000 And then literally my wife and my father-in-law built it.
01:30:24.000 And it looked like a theater from like 100 years ago.
01:30:27.000 It was beautiful.
01:30:27.000 How did you get the craftsmanship?
01:30:29.000 Where did you get the people to do that kind of work?
01:30:32.000 My wife and my father-in-law.
01:30:33.000 They did it all themselves?
01:30:34.000 They did a lot.
01:30:35.000 I mean, there were a couple of people that they contract certain things out for.
01:30:38.000 He passed away, but he was a master carpenter.
01:30:41.000 He was just brilliant.
01:30:42.000 And my wife's really good.
01:30:43.000 How many seats was it?
01:30:45.000 75 seats.
01:30:46.000 It was very intimate.
01:30:47.000 And we did only new plays that had never been done.
01:30:50.000 And we also had classes there.
01:30:54.000 Acting classes.
01:30:54.000 What year was this?
01:30:55.000 Between 2003 and like 2010. So this is a real labor of love.
01:31:02.000 Yeah.
01:31:03.000 It's not like you can make a lot of money off of 75 seats.
01:31:05.000 No, we didn't make money.
01:31:06.000 No, it actually wound up costing.
01:31:08.000 That's why we went out of business.
01:31:09.000 After the economy collapsed, we lost a lot of our funding.
01:31:13.000 We lost all the corporate funding, pretty much.
01:31:15.000 We had a few private donors who really loved what we were doing.
01:31:19.000 I built the theater, basically.
01:31:21.000 I did a movie.
01:31:24.000 Kind of a not-so-good movie for Harvey Weinstein, actually.
01:31:28.000 Oh, wow.
01:31:29.000 And that money went and built the theater.
01:31:31.000 Wow.
01:31:32.000 That had to be a really interesting thing, like the moment you're on stage on this theater that you built.
01:31:39.000 Yeah.
01:31:40.000 And you're performing these plays.
01:31:42.000 I mean, that had to be a dream realized.
01:31:44.000 That had to be a pretty special moment.
01:31:45.000 Yeah, I didn't act that much there.
01:31:47.000 I did more directing.
01:31:48.000 I mean, we produced all the plays.
01:31:50.000 I directed a bunch of them.
01:31:51.000 I think I only acted in one of them.
01:31:54.000 Oh, really?
01:31:54.000 But it was kind of the inmates running the asylum, really.
01:31:57.000 It wasn't really a company, but it was a company by default because there were a lot of people that...
01:32:01.000 Go-to people that I, you know, worked with.
01:32:04.000 But it was...
01:32:05.000 Yeah, it was really rewarding.
01:32:07.000 My wife built all the sets for all the shows as well as built the place itself.
01:32:12.000 So intimate.
01:32:13.000 75 seats.
01:32:14.000 Really intimate.
01:32:14.000 Yeah, really intimate.
01:32:16.000 That's a wild decision to make, to build your own theater.
01:32:20.000 It was her idea.
01:32:21.000 I wouldn't have done it, probably.
01:32:23.000 Wow.
01:32:24.000 Because I had worked in theater.
01:32:26.000 I started producing theater in my early 20s with a company, and I knew it's hard.
01:32:32.000 It's not a good business model.
01:32:34.000 Right.
01:32:36.000 But if you have the kind of passion, and we just found a way to do it, she was like, no, we'll build it.
01:32:41.000 I was like...
01:32:41.000 But it was really fun while it lasted.
01:32:45.000 Hmm.
01:32:47.000 Yeah, he wanted me to do a play.
01:32:48.000 He offered me a play.
01:32:50.000 That's not for me.
01:32:51.000 No?
01:32:52.000 You have no desire?
01:32:52.000 I did one night only.
01:32:54.000 What'd you do?
01:32:55.000 Guys and Dolls in Carnegie Hall with a bunch of Tony winners and me. 0.99
01:32:59.000 But listen, if you're going to do a fucking play, Guys and Dolls... 0.99
01:33:04.000 Guys and Dolls. 1.00
01:33:04.000 I was so scared. 1.00
01:33:06.000 Remember I told you? 0.99
01:33:06.000 I was so fucking... 0.99
01:33:08.000 Joe, I would have fought Shaq instead. 0.99
01:33:11.000 I swear to God.
01:33:13.000 You know, my agent called.
01:33:16.000 I said, sure, I'll do it.
01:33:17.000 Nathan Lane and all Patrick Wilson and Megan Mullally, all these great people.
01:33:22.000 And me, I went, okay, Jack O'Brien, one of the biggest Broadway directors.
01:33:27.000 And I went, okay, it's a charity for Carnegie Hall.
01:33:32.000 Wow.
01:33:32.000 And there you go.
01:33:33.000 Big Julie.
01:33:35.000 Look at you.
01:33:36.000 And so...
01:33:39.000 You know, nine days rehearsal, I'd never been so scared in my life.
01:33:43.000 I tried to get out of it.
01:33:44.000 I told my agent, get me out of it.
01:33:47.000 She said, I can't.
01:33:48.000 I said, there's no way.
01:33:49.000 And I did it, and it was the best thing.
01:33:52.000 When I was done, we had dress rehearsal in the afternoon, and then at night, it was packed.
01:33:58.000 Nine days?
01:33:58.000 Nine days rehearsal.
01:34:00.000 I took the train up to 42nd Street in a rehearsal space every day.
01:34:04.000 But what, you did the whole play?
01:34:06.000 The whole play!
01:34:08.000 And they memorized all the lines? 1.00
01:34:09.000 I memorized all the fucking lines. 1.00
01:34:11.000 I came in off book. 1.00
01:34:13.000 Is that unusual?
01:34:14.000 That's fast.
01:34:16.000 We would do 30 days.
01:34:17.000 That's for drama.
01:34:19.000 We didn't do musicals, so you're not talking about adding choreography and all that stuff.
01:34:24.000 But usually 30 days, 4 weeks.
01:34:26.000 Had an orchestra.
01:34:28.000 It was fantastic.
01:34:29.000 I mean, the night, I was so scared I didn't tell anyone except for my wife and kids.
01:34:34.000 They're the only ones that came.
01:34:36.000 I had fourth, I gave them.
01:34:37.000 That was it.
01:34:38.000 And afterwards, I was sky high.
01:34:41.000 It took me a few days to come down because I was so scared, but then it was so great.
01:34:45.000 Nathan Lane, there's nobody funnier than Nathan Lane.
01:34:48.000 Now, did you want to do it again after that?
01:34:51.000 Or was it such a...
01:34:52.000 Oh, I don't know.
01:34:53.000 I don't know if I... You know, I don't know.
01:34:55.000 If it was the right material, maybe, you know, I don't know.
01:34:59.000 Now, is that a...
01:35:00.000 That's a rushed performance, or a rushed getting ready...
01:35:04.000 It was one night only for charity, you know.
01:35:08.000 I mean, if you were... 0.87
01:35:09.000 And that was another thing that added pressure, because, you know, if you're doing the play, you're going, all right, if I fuck up Tuesday, I'll come back Wednesday.
01:35:17.000 This was... 0.96
01:35:18.000 You were all in.
01:35:19.000 This is all or nothing. 0.95
01:35:20.000 If I fucked up and there was producers out there, the guy from Cats, the big producer, what's his name? 0.91
01:35:26.000 The creator. 0.94
01:35:28.000 Andrew Lloyd Webber?
01:35:29.000 Yeah.
01:35:29.000 He was there.
01:35:30.000 There was all these people and actors. 1.00
01:35:31.000 It's like, you fuck up now. 1.00
01:35:34.000 I would have been mortified if I blew my line. 1.00
01:35:37.000 I was so scared.
01:35:38.000 It's not like, so you blow your line on TV. You film it.
01:35:43.000 All right, fuck it. 1.00
01:35:44.000 I'll go back. 1.00
01:35:45.000 This was it.
01:35:47.000 Yeah, that's it.
01:35:48.000 That's it. 0.98
01:35:49.000 2,500 people, I was shitting in my pants. 0.79
01:35:52.000 Seriously, one of the most scared things ever.
01:35:54.000 Did you have a lot of nerves when you started in stand-up?
01:35:58.000 Yes.
01:35:58.000 Yeah.
01:35:59.000 It's scary when you start.
01:36:01.000 Yeah, and I came from fighting.
01:36:03.000 I went from fighting.
01:36:03.000 I was even fighting.
01:36:04.000 I had three kickboxing fights while I was doing stand-up, and I think my first stand-up was more nerve-wracking than fighting, for whatever reason.
01:36:13.000 It's terrifying.
01:36:14.000 Yeah, I mean, it's just also like...
01:36:17.000 What about now?
01:36:17.000 People didn't...
01:36:18.000 No.
01:36:19.000 No.
01:36:20.000 Now it's just fun.
01:36:21.000 I mean, it'll probably be nervous for me at the end of the month because I haven't done stand-up in three months. 0.99
01:36:25.000 Like, before I'm doing the Houston Improv just to fuck around and knock the dust off, I'm sure before I go on stage the first time, I'm like, holy fuck, do you even remember how to do this? 0.97
01:36:36.000 Because it's been so long, you know? 0.99
01:36:37.000 I've never had a stretch of my career three months with no stand-up.
01:36:42.000 I've taken three weeks off before and it felt weird.
01:36:44.000 So taking three months off is going to be very strange.
01:36:47.000 Do you combine, like, set material with improvisation and freeform stuff?
01:36:53.000 Yeah, like, there's always something going on in the audience, or there's always something that happens that day, or something that's going on in the news that you can talk about in the moment.
01:37:01.000 But you have to have some, at least I do, I have to have some structure.
01:37:05.000 So, basically, I have places where I know I want to get to, and then...
01:37:10.000 The rest of it is...
01:37:11.000 You have to be there.
01:37:14.000 You can't just be reading the lines and rigid with your script.
01:37:18.000 Because then the audience doesn't feel like you're having fun.
01:37:20.000 They don't feel like it's fun.
01:37:23.000 You're orchestrating a dance.
01:37:25.000 It's not just...
01:37:27.000 You're putting on a stand-up routine.
01:37:29.000 You're orchestrating their evening.
01:37:31.000 You're having fun.
01:37:32.000 There's a lot to the art form.
01:37:36.000 It would be hard to explain it to a computer.
01:37:39.000 You know what I mean?
01:37:41.000 There's a rhythm.
01:37:43.000 There's a thing that's happening with the audience.
01:37:46.000 That makes sense.
01:37:47.000 Just as simple as like if there was a huge storm that day and everyone went through it together and you're showing up.
01:37:52.000 Exactly.
01:37:52.000 Something like that affects.
01:37:54.000 Exactly.
01:37:54.000 You may refer to it.
01:37:56.000 And then there's chaos in the crowd.
01:37:58.000 I've seen brawls in the crowd. 0.99
01:38:00.000 All kinds of crazy shit happens. 0.99
01:38:01.000 But now you're so well known. 0.99
01:38:04.000 so do they laugh when they give you a break for like 30 seconds the beginning you got about 30 seconds they're like oh you're here steve all right but if you don't deliver the fucking goods we came out of our house we got a baby said we're so excited you're there And then 30 seconds later, 0.99
01:38:22.000 like, where's the fucking jokes, man? 0.99
01:38:24.000 This is terrible. 1.00
01:38:25.000 And then they're mad at you.
01:38:26.000 And then it's worse.
01:38:27.000 Like, I've seen that happen with comics at the store, where, like, a famous guy will go on stage that doesn't really do stand-up, but does stand-up every now and then. 0.98
01:38:34.000 And that is the worst fucking place to do that, because you're on a lineup with murderers. 0.91
01:38:38.000 You know, it's Bill Burr and Chris D'Elia and Joey Diaz and Al Madrigal, all these killers, and then some jack-off from a sitcom will try to jump on stage and do 15 minutes and just... 0.99
01:38:50.000 In the beginning, they're like, oh my god, it's that guy from that show. 1.00
01:38:53.000 And then 30 seconds later, they want to cut your fucking head off. 1.00
01:38:57.000 That's not a good idea. 1.00
01:38:58.000 Just do the sitcom and stay away.
01:39:01.000 Or if you're going to do stand-up, you've got to treat it like you're about to go do a fight.
01:39:07.000 You want to be in shape if you're going to fight.
01:39:10.000 If you're going to do stand-up, you better be in shape for it.
01:39:12.000 You better be prepared.
01:39:13.000 You better have real material that's tried and proven or whatever you've written. 0.99
01:39:18.000 You better go over that shit with a fine-tooth comb. 0.99
01:39:21.000 You better be loose. 1.00
01:39:22.000 You better be ready.
01:39:24.000 You've got to be prepared.
01:39:25.000 Start small, maybe, to go out of town.
01:39:27.000 Do some open mic nights.
01:39:28.000 Do some guest sets if you're a guy.
01:39:31.000 But there have been some people that were famous first, and then they became stand-ups.
01:39:36.000 I think Charlie Murphy's probably the best example of that.
01:39:39.000 Charlie was Eddie's brother, so he's famous for that.
01:39:41.000 And then he did the Chappelle show, which was arguably the greatest sketch comedy show of all time.
01:39:47.000 And he had these hilarious parts.
01:39:48.000 But the guy had never done stand-up. 0.99
01:39:50.000 And so here he is, a huge fucking star. 0.98
01:39:54.000 Already, and then he's going on stage, and he's learning how to do stand-up in front of this audience. 0.98
01:39:59.000 And I think that's incredibly difficult.
01:40:02.000 Almost impossible. 0.98
01:40:03.000 Takes balls.
01:40:04.000 It's almost like Tom Hanks in Punchline.
01:40:07.000 Yes.
01:40:08.000 He acted like a stand-up.
01:40:10.000 He wasn't a great stand-up, but did a good job.
01:40:13.000 You ever see that movie?
01:40:14.000 It's a good movie.
01:40:16.000 Sally Field, Tom Hanks, they acted as a stand-up.
01:40:20.000 You could tell he's not a stand-up.
01:40:22.000 Yeah, you see it in, like, it's like when someone's playing a fighter in a movie, or there's a lot of other things.
01:40:28.000 Oh, a baseball player.
01:40:29.000 Baseball player. 0.99
01:40:30.000 You say, this guy can't even fucking throw. 0.99
01:40:31.000 Exactly. 0.99
01:40:32.000 Like, with basketball, you say, this guy can't play.
01:40:34.000 Exactly.
01:40:35.000 Exactly.
01:40:36.000 Yeah.
01:40:36.000 There's things that you can see, like, people that smoke cigarettes would tell me that you could tell by a way a guy's holding a cigarette that he doesn't really smoke.
01:40:43.000 Absolutely.
01:40:44.000 They hold it too high in the...
01:40:46.000 I could never.
01:40:47.000 You can always tell.
01:40:48.000 We talked about that on the podcast.
01:40:49.000 Just the way they hold it.
01:40:50.000 I could never smoke.
01:40:51.000 I don't smoke anymore, but I did.
01:40:53.000 I've never smoked in my life.
01:40:55.000 Never.
01:40:56.000 A cigar, I could get away with.
01:40:58.000 If I had to smoke a cigarette, I don't even know how.
01:41:01.000 I could never do it on the show.
01:41:03.000 I think part of the problem is they're aware that they have a cigarette on them, whereas the person who smokes cigarettes, they just light that cigarette, and they always have a cigarette in their hand, so it's just a normal part of being who they are.
01:41:14.000 Of course.
01:41:14.000 Whereas if you don't, you're like, I got a cigarette in my hand.
01:41:17.000 Everything you're doing, like, there's a cigarette in my hand.
01:41:19.000 I'm going to smoke a cigarette now.
01:41:21.000 It's like...
01:41:21.000 You can tell.
01:41:22.000 You can absolutely tell.
01:41:23.000 Yeah, you can tell.
01:41:24.000 You can tell.
01:41:25.000 You say, this guy's not a smoker, man.
01:41:28.000 I'm sure guitar players feel like that.
01:41:31.000 When you watch a guy playing a guitar player in a movie, I don't know how to play guitar, so I don't understand if he's doing it right or wrong, but I would imagine that would be infuriating.
01:41:39.000 A lot of stuff. 0.97
01:41:39.000 But listen, I used to watch the shows in Vegas, movies like from Vegas or TV shows, and in the first two minutes, you go, this movie sucks. 0.97
01:41:49.000 This sucks. 0.95
01:41:50.000 That'll never happen. 1.00
01:41:51.000 The deal is rooting for you.
01:41:53.000 Yeah, come on. 0.77
01:41:54.000 This will never happen.
01:41:56.000 Just like in New York, a Woody Allen movie.
01:41:58.000 Some Woody Allen movies are like fantasy.
01:42:00.000 The beautiful block with the trees.
01:42:03.000 It's like, if you're from that place or...
01:42:07.000 You're a comic, you know immediately, so that would never happen in a million years.
01:42:12.000 I guess in gangster movies too, you see a lot of bad, there's a lot of bad ones.
01:42:16.000 Oh yeah.
01:42:18.000 What's an example of an obviously bad one?
01:42:21.000 Oh, Jesus.
01:42:22.000 I don't even know. 1.00
01:42:23.000 There's so many fucking bad ones where you go, this is just ridiculous. 0.99
01:42:28.000 This is just, you know. 0.99
01:42:29.000 I did one, Kill the Irishman, which I didn't like.
01:42:34.000 There's some really good actors in it.
01:42:35.000 But there's so many things that are off.
01:42:38.000 It was a period piece.
01:42:40.000 It's a fun movie.
01:42:41.000 I enjoyed that movie.
01:42:42.000 Did you like it?
01:42:42.000 A lot of people liked it.
01:42:44.000 I didn't like it.
01:42:45.000 I liked it.
01:42:46.000 The first cut, I hated it.
01:42:48.000 I remember I went to a screening. 0.99
01:42:50.000 I told my wife, I fucking hated it. 0.99
01:42:52.000 And it got better. 0.99
01:42:53.000 And as years gone on, people...
01:42:55.000 We shot it in Detroit.
01:42:57.000 It was supposed to be in Cleveland. 1.00
01:43:00.000 You know, just little shit. 1.00
01:43:01.000 Maybe if you're just a viewer, you wouldn't notice. 1.00
01:43:04.000 But I did.
01:43:06.000 But there's so many bad...
01:43:10.000 I heard Travolta playing Gotti was a bad one.
01:43:14.000 I heard that was hilarious.
01:43:16.000 I heard it was so bad it was good.
01:43:18.000 I didn't think Travolta was so bad.
01:43:20.000 I thought a lot of the other things were bad.
01:43:24.000 I think they shot some of it in Cincinnati.
01:43:29.000 So that means the extras are from Cincinnati.
01:43:31.000 You know what I mean?
01:43:32.000 Right, right, right.
01:43:34.000 But there's a ton of them.
01:43:37.000 People love that genre.
01:43:39.000 People love the mob genre like the westerns or horror films.
01:43:44.000 It's the same thing.
01:43:45.000 Particularly after The Sopranos.
01:43:46.000 The Sopranos really kick-started that. 1.00
01:43:50.000 That genre became far more popular.
01:43:53.000 I think Mob City was a TV show.
01:43:58.000 There's been so many of them.
01:44:00.000 You got the nail on the head, the gangster in a can kind of guy.
01:44:06.000 You got some different stuff.
01:44:08.000 You say, this guy doesn't scare me for two seconds.
01:44:11.000 You know what was crazy for me was going back and watching the original episode of Sopranos where it read like a comedy.
01:44:17.000 Oh yeah.
01:44:18.000 Very different show.
01:44:20.000 Very different show.
01:44:20.000 When Edie Falco has the gun and she's outside, and her daughter is coming back into the window.
01:44:28.000 But I'm like, this is like a comedy.
01:44:30.000 It was a different show. 0.99
01:44:32.000 Edie Falco's character evolved and became this very complex woman who is battling with this reality that she's living with this guy who's a fucking murderer and a mob boss, and she's enjoying the perks of that. 0.96
01:44:46.000 It became like this very interesting character. 0.69
01:44:49.000 But in the beginning, it wasn't like that.
01:44:51.000 In the beginning, the first episode was kind of funny.
01:44:53.000 Yeah, when I auditioned and read the script, I wasn't sure if it was a full-on spoof of the mob.
01:45:00.000 I really wasn't sure.
01:45:02.000 There was the murder scene that my character does, and there was some dramatic stuff.
01:45:07.000 There was a lot of humor in it.
01:45:09.000 Yeah.
01:45:09.000 And it was around the time, I think, Analyze This, so there was the mob spoof, and I wasn't sure.
01:45:16.000 I couldn't say that, you know, from just reading that pilot episode, it was hard to tell.
01:45:21.000 But...
01:45:22.000 I really liked the cast they were putting together, and that was the thing that really sold me on it.
01:45:27.000 I knew some of them, like Edie and Tony Sirico and Vinnie Pastore.
01:45:32.000 I knew Jim's work, but I didn't know him personally.
01:45:34.000 I'd seen him in a play, so I was like, this is a good cast.
01:45:39.000 But it was very hard to tell from that pilot script.
01:45:43.000 What happened that it evolved and it became what it...
01:45:46.000 I think it was always – that was always the plan.
01:45:49.000 Like anything, you start to see what you have.
01:45:52.000 Like what are these actors bringing?
01:45:54.000 What are they playing to their strengths and what kind of qualities they're bringing to it?
01:46:00.000 Just like there's that one scene in the pilot where at the end – towards the end of the pilot and my character tells Tony Soprano, oh, I could go to Hollywood and sell my story or something.
01:46:09.000 And in the script, it was kind of, he was like fatherly, like, you don't want to do that and sell out.
01:46:14.000 You got to stay with us and build a family or whatever.
01:46:17.000 And instead, Jim just grabs me, you know, by the throat or something like that.
01:46:22.000 And it became very menacing and very intimidating.
01:46:26.000 And he really, you know, and I think David saw that and was like, oh, wow.
01:46:30.000 That's the guy.
01:46:31.000 That's the character.
01:46:33.000 And it probably influenced how he took the story and how he would write it.
01:46:38.000 But I think a lot of the tone was already in his head.
01:46:41.000 But seeing what the actors were bringing to it, I think...
01:46:46.000 You know, influenced a lot. 0.83
01:46:47.000 Gandolfini was so fucking believable.
01:46:50.000 I mean, you know, when you think about a guy who just embodied a role, like when he was Tony Soprano. 0.81
01:46:57.000 And he wasn't like that.
01:46:59.000 That's the other thing.
01:47:00.000 He was more like a hippie.
01:47:01.000 You know, he was very laid back.
01:47:03.000 You know, he wore like Birkenstocks and like a bandana on his head.
01:47:06.000 Big music guy.
01:47:07.000 He didn't really talk like that.
01:47:09.000 He was... 1.00
01:47:10.000 I wipe my ass with your feelings. 1.00
01:47:12.000 Hey, big music guy. 1.00
01:47:13.000 He never wanted to do a talk show.
01:47:17.000 I would say, everyone thinks you're Tony Soprano.
01:47:21.000 Why don't you pick, whether it be Letterman or whatever, and show them The real Jim, you're a very intelligent guy.
01:47:28.000 I mean, he's not that guy at all.
01:47:31.000 Matter of fact, he would say to me, like before the season, let's go down and have dinner at Il Cortil, which I ran into you there one time.
01:47:39.000 Let's go down to Murray Street.
01:47:40.000 I want to start getting back into the swing of things, because he wasn't.
01:47:44.000 He didn't hang around with those guys.
01:47:46.000 He wasn't that guy at all.
01:47:48.000 But he never did a talk show.
01:47:50.000 He did 60 Minutes.
01:47:51.000 He wouldn't do any of the talk shows.
01:47:54.000 He said, I'm not interesting.
01:47:55.000 He wouldn't do anything.
01:47:56.000 And he didn't grow up around that.
01:47:57.000 He grew up in Jersey.
01:47:58.000 He went to Rutgers University.
01:48:00.000 He was an actor, theater guy.
01:48:02.000 I'll tell you what's funny.
01:48:04.000 I wrote a kid's book called Nicky Deuce, and it turned it into a movie, and Michael's in it. 0.91
01:48:11.000 Paulie Walnuts and Johnny Sack and I was in Jim's trailer and he had just did the movie with Brad Pitt, a mob movie and he said Harvey Weinstein called and he wants me to do Letterman and I said I don't do talk shows and And he gets calling and he says he got fucking nasty with Jim. 0.98
01:48:30.000 And Jim said, I will beat the fuck out of Harvey Weinstein. 0.99
01:48:35.000 He fucking calls me again. 1.00
01:48:36.000 I will beat the fuck out of him. 1.00
01:48:38.000 For the money he paid me, I'm not fucking doing it. 1.00
01:48:41.000 Sweet. 1.00
01:48:42.000 And this is all before the Harvey Weinstein shit, when he was still the king shit. 1.00
01:48:47.000 This is 2012, you know? 0.99
01:48:49.000 When you see that Academy Awards speech thank you compilation, where all the people go up, all the various people that eventually talk shit about him go up and praise Harvey Weinstein. 0.66
01:49:00.000 I never saw it. 0.71
01:49:01.000 Oh my god, it's so bizarre.
01:49:02.000 It's so strange.
01:49:04.000 Because they were intimidated.
01:49:05.000 He had that much power over people's careers and they didn't feel like their voice would be heard or that people would, you know, take them seriously. 1.00
01:49:12.000 He'd have to find a way to fuck you, basically. 1.00
01:49:15.000 Fuck you up. 1.00
01:49:16.000 He would know me every three or four times. 1.00
01:49:21.000 Like, I run into him in Madison Square Garden and there's a restaurant, Rebecca Grill, which he had owned a piece of at one point.
01:49:28.000 And give you a half-ass hello, maybe.
01:49:31.000 He was way above. 0.92
01:49:31.000 I was beneath him. 0.92
01:49:33.000 He never got punched in the face.
01:49:36.000 Is that what it is?
01:49:36.000 I heard Jason Priestley punched him in the face.
01:49:39.000 Jason Priestley?
01:49:40.000 Yeah, yeah.
01:49:41.000 I heard that.
01:49:42.000 He got out of line and Jason Priestley punched him in the face.
01:49:44.000 Wow. 0.99
01:49:45.000 I think nobody beat the shit out of Harvey Weinstein. 0.99
01:49:47.000 And it wouldn't be that difficult. 1.00
01:49:49.000 He could fucking hardly breathe. 0.99
01:49:51.000 He's smoking, chain smoking. 0.99
01:49:52.000 He wasn't a tough guy.
01:49:53.000 He was tough with assistants.
01:49:56.000 If you thought about a character in a film, Harvey Weinstein is almost too on the head.
01:50:04.000 Almost unbelievable.
01:50:06.000 Nobody would do that.
01:50:07.000 He would never get away with all that.
01:50:08.000 Too much, too much.
01:50:09.000 How many years is he doing?
01:50:11.000 20-something years.
01:50:12.000 Nobody would do that.
01:50:13.000 20-something years.
01:50:14.000 Yeah.
01:50:15.000 And there might be more, right?
01:50:16.000 They've got cases in LA. Well, there's way more cases.
01:50:18.000 Yeah, there's way more cases.
01:50:19.000 This is just what he's been convicted for.
01:50:21.000 I mean, he apparently was behaving like that for decades.
01:50:24.000 So you're telling me nobody knew?
01:50:26.000 They knew.
01:50:27.000 They all knew. 1.00
01:50:27.000 That's what's crazy is it's worked into his fucking contract. 1.00
01:50:30.000 His contract had, if you get this amount, per sexual harassment case, they had it that he would have to pay this much. 0.99
01:50:40.000 If it was two, he'd have to pay that much. 1.00
01:50:42.000 If it was three, imagine if you're signing up for a place like, Steve, I know you're a piece of shit, so this is what we're going to work into the contract. 1.00
01:50:48.000 All your piece of shit behavior, we're going to write it down, and you're going to be penalized per contract. 1.00
01:50:53.000 I didn't know that. 1.00
01:50:54.000 It's amazing.
01:50:56.000 They're all complicit.
01:50:57.000 This is something that I don't understand.
01:51:00.000 These assistants, people in his office, people that knew this stuff, that saw this stuff, that set him up that he was meeting the girl in the lobby, but then she comes down and says, oh, Harvey needs to meet you up in his room.
01:51:16.000 She was part of it, or he, or whatever the assistants were.
01:51:19.000 It was like...
01:51:21.000 I mean, I would never do that. 0.99
01:51:23.000 They can play dumb. 0.95
01:51:24.000 Yeah, I would never be privy to that. 0.99
01:51:26.000 No, of course not.
01:51:27.000 But you also, you don't have to.
01:51:30.000 And when you think of an assistant in particular, you're thinking about someone who has virtually no power.
01:51:34.000 And there's a thing called diffusion of responsibility, where there's too many people involved, you don't feel like you're responsible.
01:51:40.000 You don't feel like you, you know, that's when they say it's easier to assault someone in front of a hundred people than it is to assault someone in front of one person.
01:51:47.000 Because one person might step in and stop you.
01:51:49.000 But 100 people will sit around and go, someone's got to stop this.
01:51:52.000 Gotcha.
01:51:53.000 I think that when you're an assistant, you're probably working check to check.
01:51:59.000 You got this guy who's the king of Hollywood.
01:52:01.000 He's worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
01:52:04.000 Intimidating you.
01:52:04.000 Yes.
01:52:05.000 And he's a big, angry guy.
01:52:07.000 He yells at people.
01:52:08.000 He yells.
01:52:08.000 That's what he did.
01:52:09.000 You know, what's amazing to me is people still haven't come forward, people that worked with him, actors, whatever, actresses, I think they're still afraid somehow he's going to come back, like in a horror film.
01:52:22.000 He's dead, he's not dead.
01:52:23.000 Some people don't want to deal with that publicly.
01:52:26.000 It's a hard thing to talk about.
01:52:29.000 They don't want everybody to know.
01:52:31.000 I think you're right.
01:52:32.000 I don't mean people that he assaulted, just people that...
01:52:38.000 I just think they don't want to talk about it publicly.
01:52:41.000 I think you're right about that.
01:52:43.000 He's already been caught.
01:52:44.000 It's over.
01:52:45.000 They got him.
01:52:46.000 He's in jail.
01:52:46.000 He'll be in jail forever.
01:52:47.000 He's fucked up. 1.00
01:52:48.000 His body's falling apart. 1.00
01:52:50.000 He can't even walk.
01:52:51.000 I mean, it's punishment.
01:52:53.000 What a fall from grace.
01:52:54.000 A spectacular fall in just a few years.
01:52:56.000 I mean, if you go back seven years ago, there's not a whisper of this, right?
01:53:00.000 So seven years later, the guy's in jail, can't walk, you know, his body's falling apart. 1.00
01:53:06.000 That's where he just got to get somebody to give him the cyanide pill and fuck it. 1.00
01:53:10.000 Should have done that. 1.00
01:53:11.000 He had to know where this was going when he was free.
01:53:15.000 I don't think he did know.
01:53:17.000 I think he thought he was going to get off, and he was planning a comeback.
01:53:21.000 I know one of his attorneys that was there early on, and he fired him.
01:53:26.000 And I ran into him right before he got sentenced, a few weeks before. 0.99
01:53:31.000 And I said, this fucking Harvey's going to get off. 0.99
01:53:34.000 And he said, no, no, no. 1.00
01:53:36.000 You see, he won't get off.
01:53:37.000 If he would have kept me, I would have got him off.
01:53:42.000 How would he have gotten him off?
01:53:44.000 I didn't go, you know, I mean, I know the guy, Quaintance from the Knick Games, and sure enough, he got, what, 23 years?
01:53:51.000 It seems like things happen in the court of public opinion on guys like that.
01:53:55.000 Well, it certainly did.
01:53:56.000 I would have just, there's no way I would want to be.
01:53:59.000 What kind of life is that?
01:53:59.000 He's such a character.
01:54:01.000 I mean, just with his disgusting face and his body and, like, everything about it. 0.99
01:54:06.000 Horrible, horrible. 0.99
01:54:07.000 You had some dealings with him, huh?
01:54:08.000 Yeah, I did a couple of jobs with him.
01:54:10.000 I wrote a script for him to work with him kind of closely on that.
01:54:14.000 Did he try to grab you?
01:54:16.000 No.
01:54:16.000 He tried to grab me.
01:54:18.000 What was he like?
01:54:20.000 You know, he was okay with me.
01:54:22.000 You know, he had opinions.
01:54:25.000 He was all right.
01:54:26.000 I mean, it was just work.
01:54:28.000 There was nothing.
01:54:29.000 I mean, obviously...
01:54:29.000 You didn't go to dinner with him or nothing?
01:54:30.000 No, no.
01:54:31.000 It was only in his office and stuff.
01:54:33.000 And I did a job for his brother.
01:54:35.000 Another job for his brother.
01:54:36.000 I think his brother was a nicer guy, right?
01:54:38.000 He's okay.
01:54:39.000 I think he was very intimidated by Harvey.
01:54:41.000 I think Harvey was a bully to his brother.
01:54:43.000 Big time.
01:54:45.000 It's such a fascinating story.
01:54:46.000 It's incredible.
01:54:47.000 And he has a wife and the two kids.
01:54:49.000 And a beautiful wife.
01:54:50.000 It's crazy. 0.99
01:54:51.000 It's like, how the fuck does that even happen? 0.99
01:54:53.000 Beautiful wife. 0.99
01:54:54.000 And it's one of those things that if it's in a film, it's almost like he's too much of a villain.
01:55:01.000 Yeah.
01:55:02.000 You're right.
01:55:02.000 That would never happen.
01:55:03.000 All the details, when you put it all together, you're like, no, really?
01:55:06.000 In Hollywood, where he's famous, and he's dealing with the most famous people in the world?
01:55:10.000 Right, and everybody keeps their mouth shut, and he fucks A-list stars and then puts them in films?
01:55:15.000 Like, what? 0.99
01:55:16.000 Do you think that some of the women that have denied having sex with him had sex with him?
01:55:23.000 Yes.
01:55:24.000 You do?
01:55:25.000 Yes.
01:55:26.000 I wondered about that.
01:55:27.000 I would have probably.
01:55:28.000 I don't know. 1.00
01:55:28.000 You would have fucked him? 1.00
01:55:29.000 No, I wouldn't have talked about it if I did. 1.00
01:55:31.000 Yeah, exactly.
01:55:32.000 I don't know.
01:55:33.000 Do you want to talk about that? 0.99
01:55:34.000 That's hard shit to talk about. 1.00
01:55:36.000 I understand, but the thing about Harvey Weinstein and people like that If he would have said, listen, I'm a fat, disgusting bastard, but if you bang me, I'll put you in the next movie. 1.00
01:55:51.000 They would be people lined up around the corner. 0.99
01:55:55.000 I think that is part of what he did.
01:55:57.000 No, no, I think, I don't know if that's true, you know?
01:56:01.000 I think, from what I understand, I don't think he needed to do this.
01:56:04.000 I think it's his ego.
01:56:06.000 I think that's true.
01:56:07.000 Like Bill Cosby was the same thing.
01:56:08.000 Yes, yes, it becomes a pathology.
01:56:11.000 And I think there's also a thing about power.
01:56:13.000 It's a power thing, to have power over people.
01:56:16.000 And also to have power over these beautiful actresses that everybody else was lusting over. 1.00
01:56:20.000 You put some actress in a film and she's the center of everyone's attention. 0.91
01:56:24.000 She's got a small dress on. 1.00
01:56:27.000 She walks into a room and the whole place lights up and she's sucking Harvey's dick. 1.00
01:56:33.000 It's the power thing. 1.00
01:56:34.000 Because he could have had tons of women. 0.59
01:56:36.000 He could have had a ton of women. 1.00
01:56:40.000 I think it's an addiction thing too.
01:56:42.000 Yes.
01:56:43.000 I think if you, you know, there was a recording of this one girl that he had groped and then, you know, she wanted a movie role and he's grabbing her and he's like, just come back to my place.
01:56:51.000 Come on, come on, just come back.
01:56:52.000 Like you're hearing it like a guy asking for heroin.
01:56:56.000 Yeah.
01:56:56.000 And he was almost sniveling, like begging her.
01:56:59.000 It was weird.
01:57:00.000 Like he'd go from being really intimidating to almost begging like pity me.
01:57:04.000 I need you.
01:57:05.000 Please don't embarrass me.
01:57:07.000 You know, it was very weird.
01:57:08.000 Yeah, I think it's an addiction thing.
01:57:10.000 I think there was so much going on with that guy.
01:57:13.000 I mean, he had two young...
01:57:15.000 I don't know if they're daughters.
01:57:16.000 Do you have two young daughters?
01:57:18.000 I think he has older kids, younger kids.
01:57:20.000 They had his wife and they were just gone.
01:57:22.000 Right?
01:57:23.000 Unless he just said...
01:57:24.000 That's a rough trip.
01:57:25.000 Unless he just said, I'm going away.
01:57:27.000 I mean, I don't know if they visited him or what.
01:57:29.000 Jesus Christ.
01:57:31.000 It's all crazy.
01:57:32.000 It's a Shakespearean story.
01:57:34.000 It is.
01:57:36.000 Epic proportions.
01:57:37.000 Horror story for everyone involved.
01:57:39.000 Horror story.
01:57:40.000 The casting couch in Hollywood, if you stop and think about it, right?
01:57:43.000 You've got all these women. 1.00
01:57:44.000 They want to be in films.
01:57:45.000 They want to be stars.
01:57:46.000 Then you've got these guys that can actually help them, make them stars, but they want something. 0.97
01:57:51.000 And then you set up this dynamic that's existed since, you know, the fucking 20s. 0.89
01:57:55.000 Imagine what it was like back then. 0.99
01:57:57.000 Oh, my God.
01:57:57.000 Well, you know the Fatty Arbuckle story?
01:57:59.000 Yeah.
01:57:59.000 Did you read the book, I Fatty, that Jerry Stahl wrote?
01:58:03.000 No.
01:58:03.000 It's fantastic.
01:58:04.000 Yeah?
01:58:05.000 It's kind of almost like a fake memoir written from his point of view.
01:58:09.000 It's brilliant.
01:58:11.000 He was the biggest star of his day.
01:58:14.000 He was known all over the world.
01:58:17.000 Yeah.
01:58:17.000 I mean, he was basically like...
01:58:19.000 He was a comedy star, a huge star, and he did something with a woman where he stuck a bottle up her vagina. 1.00
01:58:25.000 Well, this goes into it. 0.99
01:58:27.000 Apparently, there's theories that he didn't really do that.
01:58:30.000 That it was set up because the guy was jealous of him, like a studio guy.
01:58:35.000 Yeah, it goes into that.
01:58:37.000 It's a really good book.
01:58:38.000 Jerry Stahl, who wrote Permanent Midnight.
01:58:40.000 Oh, okay.
01:58:41.000 That's a great book.
01:58:42.000 Is there real evidence that points to the fact that he was set up?
01:58:46.000 There is.
01:58:46.000 I think there is.
01:58:46.000 Jesus Christ.
01:58:47.000 And that was the end of his career?
01:58:49.000 Oh, yeah.
01:58:49.000 Done.
01:58:50.000 Toast.
01:58:50.000 Done.
01:58:51.000 The girl died.
01:58:53.000 Oh.
01:58:55.000 That's awful.
01:58:55.000 Yeah, there's different theories that he was set up by somebody and that all that was just...
01:59:01.000 Holy shit. 0.99
01:59:03.000 Yeah, imagine that. 1.00
01:59:04.000 That's crazy.
01:59:04.000 Well, I can tell you the world is a better place with Harvey Weinstein off the streets.
01:59:09.000 Honestly, what he did to all these actresses and women and assistants.
01:59:14.000 Just horrible.
01:59:16.000 Not sexually, but he destroyed guys too, you know, and directors, and just a horrible human, and Jesus. 0.94
01:59:23.000 He was getting away with it, right? 0.89
01:59:25.000 For the longest time.
01:59:26.000 For the longest time.
01:59:27.000 Behavior that was reinforced by the people around him, and then he got away with it.
01:59:31.000 What's also interesting is, like, if you help someone murder somebody, you would get an accessory.
01:59:37.000 You would get prison time.
01:59:40.000 There would be charges, but there's no charges.
01:59:44.000 Against any of the people that absolutely knew what he was doing.
01:59:46.000 But that's what I'm saying.
01:59:47.000 I have two daughters.
01:59:48.000 Aiding and abetting?
01:59:49.000 That doesn't apply to that.
01:59:50.000 Joe, I got two daughters in their 20s.
01:59:53.000 I don't think my daughters in a million years, no matter how much they wanted to be in the business, would be an accomplice to that.
02:00:01.000 And tell the girl and say, well, Harvey's going to be up in the room.
02:00:04.000 Or whatever crazy things, go get Harvey's medicine to... 1.00
02:00:10.000 Fucking inject his dick or something. 1.00
02:00:13.000 Come on! 1.00
02:00:14.000 Do you know what he had?
02:00:15.000 I was going on this text thread with a bunch of comics. 0.99
02:00:18.000 He had a type of gangrene that you get from diabetes on his dick. 0.99
02:00:26.000 And his dick was horribly malformed. 0.97
02:00:29.000 So I had this, we were talking about this, and then I googled it, and then I said to my friends, do not google this. 0.99
02:00:35.000 And then they're like, why not?
02:00:37.000 So I send them a photo of it.
02:00:39.000 Horrible.
02:00:39.000 Of what it looked like.
02:00:40.000 Oh my god, it's like... 1.00
02:00:42.000 Your genitals just rot away. 1.00
02:00:45.000 All the skin around it rotted away. 0.99
02:00:47.000 And that was one of the things that one of the actresses had said is that she thought that he was maybe intersex or transgender or that he had a vagina because he was so scarred up. 0.98
02:00:58.000 Oh my god. 0.99
02:00:59.000 So it's like, again, it's almost too on the head. 0.94
02:01:04.000 As a movie character, he's almost too disgusting.
02:01:08.000 Well, who do you see playing him in this movie?
02:01:12.000 Good question.
02:01:13.000 Who could pull it off?
02:01:14.000 Christian Bale.
02:01:16.000 I hope they don't make the movie.
02:01:19.000 I don't want to see that movie.
02:01:22.000 If nothing else, Lifetime will do it.
02:01:24.000 They're going to make the movie.
02:01:25.000 They'll do it.
02:01:26.000 Lifetime will do it.
02:01:28.000 I was going to say this.
02:01:30.000 There's all this talk about CGI acting.
02:01:33.000 And that they're going to be able to create CGI characters that act in films.
02:01:38.000 I think it'll be really boring.
02:01:40.000 I agree with you.
02:01:42.000 But maybe you could have a CGI Harvey Weinstein and just actually no one has to play him.
02:01:49.000 No one wants to play Hitler now.
02:01:51.000 You don't want to be the guy.
02:01:53.000 Oh, that's that guy who played Hitler.
02:01:55.000 You know what I mean?
02:01:57.000 So like playing Harvey Weinstein in a film.
02:02:00.000 I think at some point there'll be a movie.
02:02:02.000 I think so.
02:02:03.000 There has to be.
02:02:05.000 The only thing that would hold it back would be Hollywood saying, you know, like, this is probably not good for us.
02:02:10.000 Yeah.
02:02:12.000 It's opening wounds.
02:02:15.000 And you would have to, I mean, if someone really wanted to thoroughly research it and really find out what actually happened, it would take a long time.
02:02:23.000 Well, those two girls did. 0.99
02:02:25.000 Yeah.
02:02:25.000 That wrote the book.
02:02:27.000 There's a book out.
02:02:28.000 I think they were writers for the New York Times or the New Yorker.
02:02:31.000 There is a good book out about two...
02:02:34.000 They really researched.
02:02:37.000 Does it go into detail about the speculation of which actresses actually... 0.68
02:02:42.000 I didn't read it.
02:02:43.000 I mean, I don't know for sure.
02:02:45.000 But I think at some point...
02:02:46.000 You know what?
02:02:47.000 Didn't they not want to make the Belushi movie years ago?
02:02:50.000 Remember that?
02:02:50.000 Who played Belushi?
02:02:52.000 Michael Chiklis.
02:02:53.000 Michael Chiklis.
02:02:54.000 Really?
02:02:54.000 Once again.
02:02:55.000 But that's a very different story.
02:02:56.000 After defending the caveman.
02:02:59.000 Very different story.
02:03:00.000 Very different.
02:03:01.000 Yeah, very different.
02:03:02.000 But wait a minute.
02:03:03.000 But they didn't want to make that at the time.
02:03:04.000 That was a big thing.
02:03:06.000 Because of the drugs?
02:03:08.000 Yeah, they were trying to protect them, I guess.
02:03:12.000 And Hollywood kind of fed that.
02:03:15.000 Beasts also.
02:03:16.000 But he died and he was beloved.
02:03:18.000 Yes.
02:03:19.000 Absolutely.
02:03:20.000 Wired.
02:03:21.000 This is it?
02:03:22.000 Oh, there he is.
02:03:24.000 Is that supposed to be Jeremy Pippen?
02:03:28.000 Look at him there.
02:03:30.000 Wow.
02:03:30.000 He's so young.
02:03:31.000 Yeah.
02:03:32.000 Wow.
02:03:33.000 And they didn't want to make that movie.
02:03:35.000 And a lot of actors didn't want to be in it.
02:03:38.000 Because of that reason, you know?
02:03:41.000 Interesting.
02:03:41.000 I never saw this.
02:03:42.000 They thought it might have damaged careers.
02:03:44.000 Do you remember that?
02:03:45.000 I don't.
02:03:46.000 I'm old.
02:03:46.000 That was a long time ago.
02:03:47.000 Yeah, big difference.
02:03:48.000 I'm old.
02:03:49.000 But the CGI thing is weird, right?
02:03:51.000 I think they're going to do that.
02:03:53.000 I think they're going to have CGI movies.
02:03:55.000 I think they're going to do it.
02:03:57.000 They've tried to do it before with that Tom Hanks animated film.
02:04:01.000 You remember that film?
02:04:02.000 No.
02:04:03.000 It's like a Christmas movie. 1.00
02:04:04.000 He's on a fucking train. 1.00
02:04:06.000 Oh, okay. 1.00
02:04:07.000 Do you remember that, Jamie?
02:04:10.000 Something Express.
02:04:11.000 Yeah, something Express.
02:04:12.000 At least they won't want a bigger trailer.
02:04:15.000 The producers will like it.
02:04:17.000 The producers will love it.
02:04:18.000 The producers will love it.
02:04:19.000 Well, they'll love it because they can completely eliminate the artists.
02:04:21.000 I don't have to listen to this big mouth. 1.00
02:04:24.000 Fucking whiny actor. 1.00
02:04:26.000 Yeah, there it is. 1.00
02:04:28.000 The Polar Express.
02:04:30.000 It was very strange, but it wasn't realistic.
02:04:32.000 It was that uncanny valley between realistic, actual people and animation.
02:04:40.000 It was some strange sort of...
02:04:42.000 But you get the feeling that as time goes on, they're going to get better and better at this, and then one day they're going to be able to nail it.
02:04:48.000 Right, they'll get like Marlon Brando to do a movie.
02:04:51.000 Right.
02:04:52.000 Stuff like that.
02:04:53.000 Like when Tupac came to Coachella and they had the hologram.
02:04:56.000 Yeah, they'll do stuff like that. 0.87
02:04:58.000 And that King Cole and his daughter, remember they sang the thing?
02:05:02.000 Oh, yeah.
02:05:02.000 Sinatra's coming back.
02:05:04.000 A new here to eternity.
02:05:06.000 God, that's so strange. 1.00
02:05:09.000 Does that shit drive you crazy? 1.00
02:05:10.000 Kind of, yeah. 1.00
02:05:12.000 Hey, I'll be retired by then.
02:05:13.000 I've done green screen stuff, and I find it really boring and tedious.
02:05:17.000 Green screen stuff?
02:05:18.000 Yeah.
02:05:18.000 No, I haven't done that animated version thing, but green screen is...
02:05:21.000 Well, yeah, given your sensibilities, if something came up like that for you, like a Jurassic Park-type movie or something like that, would you even be interested in that?
02:05:29.000 I don't know.
02:05:29.000 It depends where I'm at at the time.
02:05:31.000 Right.
02:05:31.000 You know, if I was broke or not or something, I don't know.
02:05:34.000 Yeah.
02:05:35.000 Sometimes you have to factor those things in.
02:05:37.000 Right, of course.
02:05:37.000 No, I mean, the most fun thing is when you're, you know, dealing with other actors and going eye to eye and playing off each other.
02:05:44.000 To me, at least.
02:05:45.000 Not everyone's like that.
02:05:46.000 A lot of people like doing action and all that stuff.
02:05:49.000 I don't really care for that stuff so much, you know.
02:05:52.000 Yeah.
02:05:52.000 I like more of the, you know, interaction.
02:05:54.000 Well, that's the best part of the business.
02:05:56.000 The actual work, you know.
02:05:58.000 Of course.
02:05:58.000 I don't like show business.
02:05:59.000 I don't know if you do.
02:06:00.000 I don't.
02:06:01.000 No.
02:06:02.000 I like the actual...
02:06:03.000 There's days, like even on Blue Bloods, I'm working, and I work a lot with Bridget Monahan or Donnie Wahlberg, and you go...
02:06:10.000 This is why I became an actor.
02:06:12.000 This was a lot of fun.
02:06:14.000 They respect each other.
02:06:16.000 The material's really good.
02:06:17.000 The scene goes.
02:06:19.000 What do you mean by you don't like show business?
02:06:20.000 I'm not a... 0.99
02:06:22.000 The whole bullshit, agents, managers, opening nights. 0.98
02:06:27.000 I mean, it's not for me. 0.99
02:06:28.000 I went to the Emmys four times, the SAG Awards. 0.99
02:06:31.000 I wanted to stick fucking needles in my eyes. 0.99
02:06:34.000 I mean, it's just not me. 1.00
02:06:36.000 I just...
02:06:37.000 I like real people.
02:06:38.000 Most of my friends are...
02:06:40.000 Friends that I've had my whole life.
02:06:43.000 You know, Michael's one of my closest friends, but you know what I mean.
02:06:47.000 I mean, I'm not a showbiz guy.
02:06:50.000 There's some guys that showbiz guys.
02:06:51.000 They love it.
02:06:52.000 They love going in and pitching.
02:06:54.000 I love it.
02:06:54.000 I love this.
02:06:55.000 I love that.
02:06:56.000 The whole world, the whole scene.
02:06:58.000 I don't, you know.
02:06:59.000 I like the work.
02:07:01.000 That's it.
02:07:02.000 I was kind of in show business even at the Riviera by default.
02:07:06.000 Somehow I went from a bouncer to booking acts.
02:07:11.000 I don't dislike them.
02:07:12.000 I'm just not a show business.
02:07:13.000 It's a funny path.
02:07:15.000 It's a funny path.
02:07:16.000 Your path is very funny.
02:07:17.000 Very strange.
02:07:19.000 I tell them I'm like an Italian Forrest Gump. 0.99
02:07:25.000 It's such a weird world.
02:07:27.000 You just sort of stepped into it.
02:07:30.000 Kind of, yeah.
02:07:31.000 And listen, I've worked very hard and I love the work.
02:07:37.000 But that part I don't like.
02:07:39.000 Some people love it.
02:07:40.000 They're always there opening night, you know, and at premieres.
02:07:44.000 Listen, I'm there if I'm supporting someone, a friend of mine or something like that. 0.98
02:07:50.000 I don't go just to go on the red carpet, take pictures, and the fuck do I care, you know? 0.95
02:07:54.000 I mean, that's not my thing. 0.97
02:07:56.000 Yeah.
02:07:57.000 Yeah, no, I don't like it either.
02:07:59.000 I don't think you like that kind of stuff.
02:08:01.000 You like you're doing what you do.
02:08:03.000 Yeah, that's why I like doing this.
02:08:04.000 It's like it's outside of it.
02:08:06.000 Absolutely.
02:08:07.000 Yeah. 0.89
02:08:08.000 I mean, you know, like I said, the work on The Sopranos, on other shows, on movies, you go, man, that was fucking great.
02:08:15.000 I had a great day, you know? 0.90
02:08:17.000 Yeah.
02:08:18.000 Not even if it's high profile.
02:08:20.000 Like, we did the movie.
02:08:21.000 That was great.
02:08:22.000 Every day was a great day, but...
02:08:24.000 Now, are they resuming filming now for things?
02:08:28.000 The governor of California said, I think this week, they're allowing some productions to open up again.
02:08:34.000 Not in New York.
02:08:35.000 I'm here in August, maybe, early September.
02:08:38.000 What's interesting is because of the protests, the COVID cases have ramped up and no one's saying that.
02:08:43.000 It's hilarious.
02:08:44.000 They're like, I don't know what happened. 0.96
02:08:45.000 They're all playing dumb on TV because no one wants to blame it on the protests or connect it in some way to the movement because then you'll be labeled a racist or something. 0.81
02:08:55.000 So they're not even saying anything. 0.98
02:08:56.000 So the people that we're relying on for the news are playing dumb as to why hundreds of thousands of people marching together face-to-face, screaming, How that ramps up.
02:09:08.000 I guess we're going to know in about two or three weeks.
02:09:10.000 We already know.
02:09:11.000 We already know.
02:09:12.000 But the mayor of New York, de Blasio, said the people either getting tested or whatever, don't ask them if they were protesters.
02:09:21.000 Yes.
02:09:21.000 Yeah, that's part of it.
02:09:23.000 When they're doing contact tracing, they're not allowed to ask if you were a part of a protest.
02:09:30.000 Which is hilarious.
02:09:31.000 The world is upside down.
02:09:33.000 I want out.
02:09:33.000 It's so strange.
02:09:34.000 I want off.
02:09:35.000 Does it bounce back?
02:09:36.000 Stop the world.
02:09:37.000 It'll bounce back.
02:09:38.000 You think it'll bounce back?
02:09:38.000 It'll be different, but it'll bounce back.
02:09:40.000 It's going to take a long, long, long time.
02:09:41.000 Do we ever get to a place of logic?
02:09:44.000 Do we ever get to a balanced place?
02:09:46.000 I don't know.
02:09:47.000 This woke ideology that's permeated politics now. 0.98
02:09:52.000 It went from being a thing that only existed in universities to it was existing in like tech startups and it was starting to get into media and it was working its way to journalism and now it's fucking everywhere. 0.96
02:10:06.000 It's in life.
02:10:06.000 But often things have to go really far before they kind of find a balance into society.
02:10:12.000 Like a lot of the protest movement Which I find hopeful is a lot of young people.
02:10:16.000 Yes.
02:10:17.000 Very diverse crowd who are just saying, we don't want this world we're inherited with racism and institutional, you know, systemic racism and stuff.
02:10:25.000 And that gives me a lot of hope.
02:10:26.000 The protest gives you hope.
02:10:27.000 The protest.
02:10:28.000 You know, when Parkland happened and there was this big movement of young people who were saying, we're scared to go to school.
02:10:34.000 We want something done.
02:10:35.000 That was, you know, these kids who were saying, hey, we want something different.
02:10:39.000 And as they get older, you know, I think it'll be integrated into society in ways that, you know, will work.
02:10:48.000 I hope.
02:10:49.000 You have to have hope.
02:10:50.000 Otherwise, it's just too, you know...
02:10:53.000 I have a lot of hope in the young generation.
02:10:56.000 I really do.
02:10:57.000 Well, I have hope in humans.
02:10:59.000 And I think that if you look at the history of humans, if you go back 200 years, the way people behaved, and you compare it to today, there's a vast improvement in almost every area.
02:11:09.000 100%, I agree.
02:11:10.000 And I think this is a big blip on the radar, this is a big moment in time, and I think we'll come out of that on the other end, a better species.
02:11:17.000 I agree. 0.99
02:11:18.000 But along the way, there's gonna be a lot of devastation, like the fucking looting and the rioting and this stupid shit with de Blasio not asking if people have been protesters to find out what effect this thing has had. 1.00
02:11:30.000 Where you do get people that are in the middle of a pandemic and you get them on top of each other breathing each other's spit. 1.00
02:11:36.000 And that's what's happening.
02:11:39.000 The world is insane. 0.99
02:11:40.000 It's fucking insane, Steve. 0.99
02:11:41.000 It's gone crazy, man. 1.00
02:11:43.000 It has.
02:11:44.000 And there's nowhere to go.
02:11:45.000 You can't say, well, I'm just going to pack up and where?
02:11:49.000 Well, what's really crazy is it's all overseas, too.
02:11:52.000 I've been looking at these London riots.
02:11:54.000 They're having riots now in London and in France. 1.00
02:11:57.000 What the fuck happened that this shit made it all the way across the ocean? 1.00
02:12:02.000 It's so strange. 1.00
02:12:04.000 It's like, how did you guys start fighting?
02:12:05.000 Like, what are you rioting for?
02:12:06.000 What are you doing?
02:12:07.000 Yeah.
02:12:08.000 You know what I mean?
02:12:08.000 Well, they're protesting, too.
02:12:09.000 They're not just rioting.
02:12:10.000 Right, right, right.
02:12:11.000 There's also people who just, you know, have conscience about this and want change.
02:12:15.000 But there is, you know, the extreme, you know, people who are...
02:12:19.000 And some people who are not protesting who are just causing...
02:12:22.000 In some ways, it's hopeful because it shows you that the United States still radically affects the world culturally.
02:12:31.000 That's true.
02:12:31.000 When there is something that's happening over here, the rest of the world sort of takes notice.
02:12:36.000 The United States, like it or not, does take the lead culturally.
02:12:40.000 Oh, yeah.
02:12:42.000 Yes, they do.
02:12:43.000 I mean, and then with films, that's a huge part of it.
02:12:48.000 I mean, TV too.
02:12:49.000 TV and films.
02:12:50.000 I mean, you stop and think.
02:12:51.000 I mean, there's been some great films and movies and television shows that have come out of England and the UK and other parts of the world.
02:12:57.000 But overwhelmingly, the art form emanates from here.
02:13:01.000 Oh, yeah.
02:13:01.000 We take the lead.
02:13:02.000 Yeah.
02:13:02.000 Yeah.
02:13:03.000 And then with stand-up, that's...
02:13:05.000 I mean, this is where it started.
02:13:06.000 Stand-up started in the United States, and the difference between the stand-up here, the level stand-up here versus the level everywhere else, totally incomparable.
02:13:14.000 Now, have you done stand-up in other countries?
02:13:18.000 Yeah, go ahead.
02:13:19.000 Yeah, yeah.
02:13:19.000 Yeah, I get it, man.
02:13:20.000 Four bottles of water.
02:13:21.000 I don't know how you're still here.
02:13:22.000 Have you done...
02:13:24.000 Yeah, I've done stand-up in Australia.
02:13:26.000 I love doing it in Australia.
02:13:27.000 I've done stand-up in England.
02:13:29.000 I've done stand-up in Ireland.
02:13:32.000 And audiences, what do you find?
02:13:34.000 Smarter?
02:13:35.000 They're great. 0.99
02:13:36.000 Smarter, dumber? 0.99
02:13:37.000 Attentive, very attentive. 0.99
02:13:38.000 Very attentive.
02:13:39.000 Yeah, like I took my friend Tony to Stockholm, Sweden, and he was like, he goes, dude, I felt like I bombed.
02:13:45.000 I go, no, they laughed.
02:13:46.000 They just laugh and then they listen.
02:13:48.000 It's different.
02:13:49.000 You get a different vibe.
02:13:50.000 You just have to, and then the second show, he goes, I got it now.
02:13:54.000 He goes, it just felt so different.
02:13:56.000 He goes, it just felt like there's no, they didn't roll with you.
02:13:59.000 I go, you also have to remember English is their second language.
02:14:01.000 So when they're listening to you, there's, you know, they have to kind of translate it and they're laughing, but also cultural context is very different.
02:14:10.000 Like they get our culture, they get the context, but it's not as front and center as it is if you're doing a show in Columbus, Ohio or something like that.
02:14:19.000 Wasn't it like in the 90s?
02:14:23.000 Where comics were going to England.
02:14:26.000 U.S. comics didn't like the audiences here anymore.
02:14:30.000 Hicks.
02:14:31.000 Rich Hall.
02:14:34.000 Some other comics.
02:14:35.000 It was a ventriloquist.
02:14:37.000 David something.
02:14:38.000 He went to Australia and England, right?
02:14:40.000 Yes.
02:14:41.000 Well, they're very...
02:14:42.000 England has fantastic audiences, and they're really attentive.
02:14:46.000 They really listen well, and they do their stand-up very differently.
02:14:50.000 Their stand-up over there is, like, thematic.
02:14:52.000 Like, they'll do...
02:14:53.000 They'll have a theme, you know, and they'll carry that theme through their whole stand-up.
02:14:58.000 It's very different.
02:14:59.000 But, you know, there's been comic...
02:15:01.000 Like, Ricky Gervais is a great example.
02:15:03.000 They've done very well.
02:15:05.000 He's got a great show.
02:15:06.000 I like his show on Netflix.
02:15:08.000 Oh, yeah.
02:15:08.000 He's great at everything he does.
02:15:09.000 He's great.
02:15:09.000 He's hilarious.
02:15:10.000 Funny, funny.
02:15:11.000 Yeah.
02:15:11.000 And I loved when he was hosting the Golden Globes.
02:15:14.000 Loved that.
02:15:15.000 He was great.
02:15:17.000 Really great. 1.00
02:15:18.000 Yeah, I mean, just tells him, shut the fuck up. 0.99
02:15:20.000 Yeah, it's beautiful. 0.99
02:15:21.000 Because there's so much virtue.
02:15:22.000 This latest thing, all these actors have this black and white...
02:15:26.000 Video where they're talking about racism.
02:15:28.000 I take responsibility.
02:15:29.000 What are you doing?
02:15:31.000 You know what I was saying to my friend?
02:15:32.000 I go, you know what that is? 0.99
02:15:33.000 These motherfuckers haven't gotten any attention for months because they haven't been filmed. 1.00
02:15:38.000 Jumping on it. 0.99
02:15:39.000 Well, you talked about it with the song Imagine at the beginning, right?
02:15:43.000 Yes. 1.00
02:15:43.000 You fucking morons. 1.00
02:15:45.000 They got blowback from that. 1.00
02:15:47.000 Well, they got blowback from this, too.
02:15:48.000 Everything they try to do that virtue signals, like, you know, we're going to take a stand.
02:15:53.000 This is no longer going to happen.
02:15:54.000 It's not good.
02:15:56.000 Like, nobody thought it was good.
02:15:57.000 Like, this is not what this is. 1.00
02:15:59.000 What this is is a fucking horrible cop. 1.00
02:16:01.000 It's a really bad guy who killed somebody. 1.00
02:16:04.000 It's not like these actors are out there being racist and holding people back.
02:16:08.000 That's not what you're doing.
02:16:10.000 You're taking responsibility.
02:16:11.000 No, you're trying to get attention.
02:16:12.000 That's what you're doing. 1.00
02:16:13.000 This stupid fucking thing you're doing. 1.00
02:16:15.000 I wish they ever feel like doing that again. 1.00
02:16:18.000 Call me.
02:16:19.000 Call me.
02:16:20.000 I'll tell you how it's going to turn out. 0.99
02:16:22.000 Every one of these dumb things you're going to do, I'll tell you how it's going to come out.
02:16:25.000 If you're going to have one actor and then the next, you're going to cut to each one of them, I take responsibility. 0.96
02:16:30.000 No, you don't.
02:16:30.000 You take attention.
02:16:31.000 You're sucking it up like a sponge. 1.00
02:16:33.000 Shut the fuck up and wait. 1.00
02:16:35.000 You're a week away from filming again. 1.00
02:16:37.000 But that's also what we've talked about.
02:16:40.000 There's people that do stuff.
02:16:42.000 You know, for the money, right?
02:16:44.000 And then there's some that the money is irrelevant.
02:16:47.000 They need to be told how great they are and pat on the back.
02:16:51.000 That's what they need. 0.96
02:16:52.000 And then there's some of them that are so wrapped up in this liberal and progressive ideology that they literally can't see how dumb this looks to the rest of the world.
02:17:01.000 They think they're going to do a good thing, and they think that through their celebrity, they're going to use their platform and their voice, and they're going to make a difference. 0.99
02:17:08.000 If you really think that as a professional actor, you're going to make a fucking difference with racism and crime and violence and police brutality, you should stop acting because you should go to a fucking doctor and get your head checked. 0.99
02:17:20.000 I agree. 1.00
02:17:21.000 There's something wrong with you. 1.00
02:17:21.000 Just shut up and act. 1.00
02:17:23.000 Shut up and act. 1.00
02:17:23.000 You can express your opinions. 1.00
02:17:26.000 That's cool.
02:17:28.000 Yes, but don't preach!
02:17:30.000 But that video was a little bit...
02:17:33.000 Cringy! 0.98
02:17:35.000 ...sanctimonious and very, you know...
02:17:37.000 Yeah, I got it from a bunch of my friends.
02:17:38.000 I don't even know what it means, I'll be honest with you.
02:17:40.000 It means I want attention.
02:17:41.000 Yeah.
02:17:42.000 It means I want attention and get ready to cringe. 1.00
02:17:44.000 Get ready to clench your butthole shut and go, oh no, no, what are you doing? 1.00
02:17:49.000 What are you doing? 0.99
02:17:50.000 Yeah, that was kind of weird.
02:17:51.000 Do you guys know who Kyle Dunnigan is?
02:17:53.000 No.
02:17:53.000 Kyle Dunnigan is a hilarious comic who does a lot of these face swap videos.
02:17:59.000 He does Caitlyn Jenner. 0.98
02:18:04.000 His Instagram page is the funniest fucking Instagram page on the planet Earth, by far. 0.98
02:18:10.000 But he's got this new one that he did. 0.99
02:18:13.000 Go to it, Jamie.
02:18:14.000 Go to Kyle Dunnigan's Instagram page.
02:18:16.000 You gotta see this, where he has these characters that he does with the face swap, and he shoves them into that video.
02:18:25.000 So you get, and it's just, it lampoons.
02:18:29.000 Yeah, wait till you see this, because this is the perfect antidote for that cringe.
02:18:34.000 Here we go.
02:18:35.000 Jamie, we'll cue this up here. 1.00
02:18:38.000 The guy is a goddamn genius. 0.99
02:18:40.000 I take responsibility. 1.00
02:18:41.000 I don't see it, Jamie.
02:18:42.000 Did you see this?
02:18:43.000 Steve?
02:18:43.000 I take responsibility.
02:18:45.000 I'm on the fence about it, but I'm missioning.
02:18:49.000 I take responsibility for every unchecked moment.
02:18:53.000 For every time I said, give me five.
02:18:56.000 On the light hand side.
02:18:59.000 I'll take responsibility for not listening to Megan.
02:19:02.000 And?
02:19:04.000 And leaving me knickers on the floor.
02:19:06.000 They're called underpants.
02:19:08.000 I will no longer allow an unchecked moment.
02:19:11.000 I will no longer throw away the African-American part of the Oreo cookie just to get to the creamy white mill. 1.00
02:19:19.000 I will hire more black hookers. 1.00
02:19:22.000 Going for a job should not be a death sentence. 1.00
02:19:25.000 Sleeping in your own home should not be a death sentence.
02:19:29.000 Sorry, I guess?
02:19:30.000 I don't know.
02:19:32.000 We are no longer bystanders. 0.95
02:19:34.000 Well, who the hell's that broad? 1.00
02:19:37.000 Racist murderous cops need one. 0.99
02:19:42.000 The only time it's gonna stop is when you start truly holding the perpetrators to account. 0.98
02:19:49.000 Start putting them in jail.
02:19:50.000 You're welcome.
02:19:53.000 Racism.
02:19:54.000 Rest in peace.
02:19:58.000 That is funny.
02:20:00.000 That's good. 1.00
02:20:01.000 That's good, but that's nothing compared to some of his other shit. 0.99
02:20:04.000 Go to his page if you need something to laugh at. 0.98
02:20:06.000 But have you seen the real one?
02:20:08.000 Yeah.
02:20:08.000 You saw it.
02:20:09.000 He does ones with the Kardashians where he has Caitlyn Jenner talking to the Kardashians, but the Kardashians don't really talk.
02:20:15.000 They just make noises.
02:20:16.000 Like, me, [... 1.00
02:20:18.000 No, you're fucking idiot. 1.00
02:20:19.000 That's not what I said. 1.00
02:20:24.000 It's genius.
02:20:25.000 It's genius.
02:20:26.000 Yeah, this is what it is.
02:20:28.000 And I like a lot of those people that are in that video, unfortunately.
02:20:30.000 I think they're great.
02:20:32.000 I just think somebody should talk to them.
02:20:33.000 Somebody outside the business.
02:20:35.000 Just grab them by the shoulders.
02:20:36.000 That's their publicist.
02:20:37.000 They're not seeing people.
02:20:39.000 They're not getting feedback.
02:20:40.000 That's what it is.
02:20:41.000 Yeah, they need feedback.
02:20:42.000 Someone needs to grab them and go, listen to me.
02:20:44.000 Don't do this one.
02:20:46.000 Don't do this.
02:20:46.000 Don't do this.
02:20:47.000 The publicist is...
02:20:48.000 Well, the problem is also if someone comes up to them and tells them, are you willing to take a stand against racism?
02:20:53.000 And they're like, no.
02:20:55.000 You can't say no.
02:20:56.000 So you just wind up doing it because you don't want anybody to think you're a racist.
02:20:59.000 So you just kind of hop on board.
02:21:01.000 They did get big blowback.
02:21:03.000 Of course.
02:21:04.000 And the song.
02:21:05.000 The song got the bigger blowback. 0.99
02:21:07.000 Because that was ridiculous. 0.95
02:21:08.000 She was all smiling and beautiful. 0.99
02:21:11.000 Imagine there's no heaven.
02:21:12.000 And the big mansions.
02:21:13.000 And what was that about?
02:21:15.000 That was about the pandemic.
02:21:16.000 But in the meantime...
02:21:17.000 What does Imagine have to do with the pandemic?
02:21:20.000 Exactly!
02:21:20.000 The song has nothing to do with the pandemic.
02:21:22.000 It was Gal Gadot's idea.
02:21:24.000 She was apparently calling up all these celebrities asking for them to join in in song and they're gonna heal everybody through love and music.
02:21:32.000 You know, people had their big mansions and a guy can't pay his...
02:21:37.000 But meanwhile, what a terrible song to sing when people are dying.
02:21:41.000 Imagine there's no heaven.
02:21:42.000 Imagine grandma's just rotting. 1.00
02:21:44.000 But also that song has nothing to do, doesn't parallel the pandemic.
02:21:49.000 And you know, Joe, and especially at the time in New York, I mean, we've had three or four people that we know that died, you know, and numerous people that got sick.
02:22:00.000 And they were those refrigeration trucks.
02:22:04.000 I mean, they were everywhere, man, and the ambulances were going. 0.99
02:22:07.000 I mean, you know, things have calmed down, but it was fucking horrible. 0.90
02:22:11.000 It was 800 people a day in New York at one point in time, which is crazy to imagine. 0.67
02:22:15.000 I mean, think about nine of your theaters, right?
02:22:19.000 It was horrible, and then you knew people.
02:22:25.000 I mean, there's a guy who owned a diner, a couple diners.
02:22:29.000 I've known the guy for 20 years.
02:22:30.000 A photographer from the garden, a good guy.
02:22:33.000 He died.
02:22:34.000 Another friend of mine.
02:22:35.000 I mean, they died.
02:22:36.000 And numerous people got it.
02:22:38.000 So it's a real thing.
02:22:40.000 I mean, some places there wasn't many cases.
02:22:44.000 So...
02:22:44.000 I could understand in a way you see it on TV, yeah, but it's not here.
02:22:49.000 But in New York, people are holed up.
02:22:53.000 They can't pay their rent.
02:22:54.000 They can't pay their bills.
02:22:55.000 They can't eat.
02:22:56.000 Luckily, they got stimulus and unemployment eventually.
02:23:00.000 At the beginning, no.
02:23:02.000 You know, and you got some celebrity.
02:23:04.000 Ellen's saying it's like being in jail.
02:23:06.000 She lives in the biggest house in the world. 0.79
02:23:08.000 Yeah.
02:23:08.000 On the beach.
02:23:09.000 Yeah.
02:23:09.000 It couldn't be any better where she's living.
02:23:11.000 The thing about Ellen was she got a little blowback. 1.00
02:23:13.000 She got a lot of blowback, but that was a funny joke.
02:23:15.000 She said, I'm in the same clothes every day and everyone's gay. 0.92
02:23:19.000 It's like being in jail. 0.87
02:23:20.000 That's funny.
02:23:21.000 Is that what the joke was?
02:23:23.000 Yeah, that's what the joke was.
02:23:24.000 Oh, okay.
02:23:24.000 She wasn't saying, I'm in jail over here in my mansion.
02:23:27.000 Okay, then I got it wrong. 0.98
02:23:28.000 Yeah, what she said was fucking funny. 0.98
02:23:31.000 You know, she's like, this pandemic is like being in jail. 1.00
02:23:35.000 I'm in the same clothes every day and everyone's gay. 1.00
02:23:37.000 I mean, that's funny.
02:23:39.000 That's funny. 0.98
02:23:39.000 Because she's gay. 0.98
02:23:40.000 She lives with a gay woman. 0.98
02:23:41.000 I mean, it's like, that's a funny joke. 0.76
02:23:43.000 It was a good joke.
02:23:44.000 My mistake.
02:23:45.000 People were mad at her.
02:23:46.000 I'm like, oh, come on.
02:23:47.000 Oh, they took it out of context.
02:23:49.000 Yes.
02:23:49.000 Yeah.
02:23:49.000 Well, they didn't care.
02:23:51.000 It's also when people are broke and people can't literally...
02:23:54.000 They're not just broke.
02:23:55.000 There's no hope in sight, and it's no fault of their own.
02:23:58.000 It's a very bad situation.
02:24:00.000 Terrible. 1.00
02:24:00.000 They don't want to hear any fucking jokes from some really rich lady who lives on the beach talking about how this is like prison. 1.00
02:24:06.000 I mean, honestly, and listen... 0.99
02:24:09.000 I'm very compassionate.
02:24:11.000 I mean, these people lost their jobs and they didn't have extra money.
02:24:15.000 Or maybe they're divorced and child support. 1.00
02:24:18.000 I mean, this is real shit. 1.00
02:24:20.000 And there was no way to make money. 1.00
02:24:22.000 Right.
02:24:22.000 That's it.
02:24:23.000 Even as much as a guy wanted to go to work or whatever.
02:24:26.000 There was no work to be had.
02:24:28.000 No work to be had.
02:24:29.000 Everything shut down.
02:24:30.000 Yeah.
02:24:30.000 It's a mess.
02:24:32.000 Yeah.
02:24:32.000 And then you take into account how...
02:24:35.000 Alcohol, like sales, was an essential business.
02:24:38.000 Liquor stores is an essential business.
02:24:40.000 But Alcoholics Anonymous was banned.
02:24:43.000 Yeah, it's crazy.
02:24:43.000 So you couldn't go to meetings.
02:24:44.000 So this is people that are just like in despair and then they can't go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and they can't work. 0.98
02:24:52.000 And then, you know, there's a lot of fucking, a lot of bad things happening. 0.96
02:24:56.000 Sunday was the first time I had a drink in three months. 0.98
02:24:59.000 Since this thing started.
02:25:00.000 I didn't have one drink.
02:25:02.000 I was depressed.
02:25:03.000 I knew if I get a drink and watch TV all night.
02:25:07.000 I just had my first drink on Saturday.
02:25:11.000 What did you spend the time doing during the pandemic?
02:25:14.000 You know, I would walk just about every day and really nothing.
02:25:21.000 I mean, I'm not a big TV guy.
02:25:23.000 I was reading, watching some TV, doing the podcast, preparing that, doing press, you know, radio and Zoom and shit like that.
02:25:34.000 It kind of kept us sane.
02:25:35.000 We were doing two a week, then we went down to one.
02:25:38.000 I had my wife with me and my daughter.
02:25:40.000 We cooked every night and I didn't see my older daughter for over a month and a half.
02:25:46.000 She just lives in a village.
02:25:48.000 I didn't even see her.
02:25:49.000 You couldn't even see her.
02:25:51.000 Plus, I don't want to get sick.
02:25:53.000 I'm overweight.
02:25:54.000 I'm not a smoker or nothing.
02:25:59.000 My wife's a marathon runner, but we're older. 0.99
02:26:02.000 I don't get fucking sick. 0.98
02:26:03.000 We were careful. 0.97
02:26:05.000 I'm still careful here.
02:26:09.000 Listen, it's a terrible thing, man.
02:26:12.000 And it's not over.
02:26:13.000 No, it's kicking back in.
02:26:15.000 That's what's crazy, because of the protests and because a lot of the states have lifted up their social distancing and then people are acting like there's nothing happening, so they're going to bars and they're drinking on top of each other.
02:26:27.000 People are tired of it.
02:26:28.000 Yeah, they're tired of it.
02:26:29.000 And feel like, oh, if it's open, it's open, let's go.
02:26:31.000 Right, exactly.
02:26:32.000 I understand that, but the thing is, it hasn't gone away. 0.98
02:26:35.000 I mean, I don't know what the fucking answer is. 0.93
02:26:38.000 I understand everyone's tired of it, but listen, down in Orange County, the beaches are packed. 0.98
02:26:44.000 Well, the good news is vitamin D is one of the most important factors in keeping a healthy immune system.
02:26:50.000 And one of the things that they found out was that 80 plus percent of the people that are in the ICU with COVID have a vitamin D deficiency.
02:26:58.000 Four percent have sufficient levels of vitamin D. It's a huge factor, because vitamin D is not just a...
02:27:04.000 I had a lady, Dr. Rhonda Patrick, she's been on my podcast several times. 0.87
02:27:08.000 She went into this whole...
02:27:09.000 I brought her on to talk about how to strengthen your immune system during this time.
02:27:13.000 And she said one of the most important factors is vitamin D. It's a huge factor.
02:27:17.000 It's one of the reasons why people on the East Coast, they get that seasonal depression, they're not going out in the winter, and if they're not supplementing with vitamin D, 70% of America is vitamin D deficient.
02:27:30.000 70%.
02:27:31.000 It has insufficient levels.
02:27:32.000 And that's in the sun, vitamin D? Yes, you get it from the sun.
02:27:34.000 That's the best way to get it for sure, is to get it in the sun.
02:27:36.000 But you can supplement it.
02:27:38.000 And it has a big impact to supplement.
02:27:40.000 5,000 IUs a day.
02:27:41.000 Supplement.
02:27:42.000 Take it.
02:27:42.000 And you know, like you said, I didn't understand that.
02:27:45.000 Liquor store is essential, but all these other things aren't essential.
02:27:50.000 And... 0.99
02:27:51.000 I mean, you're fucking drinking, your immune system's going down. 1.00
02:27:55.000 You're depressed as fucking hell. 1.00
02:27:56.000 There were some nights, you know, I can't sleep at night. 1.00
02:27:59.000 So I go to bed at 2 o'clock, 2.30 in the morning.
02:28:02.000 I mean, some nights just, I mean, I'm...
02:28:04.000 I'm up alone. 0.98
02:28:05.000 It's fucking horrible. 0.98
02:28:07.000 But there's a logic to the... 1.00
02:28:09.000 The reason why they had alcohol being an essential business is there's logic to it.
02:28:15.000 And that is there's a lot of people that are alcoholics.
02:28:17.000 And if you make them quit cold turkey and they can't buy any booze, you're going to take beds up that would be better suited for people that have COVID. Gotcha.
02:28:24.000 So the idea is just like let these people have their alcohol.
02:28:26.000 They just didn't think it was going to last as long as it did.
02:28:29.000 They thought this was going to be a couple of weeks of lockdown and then we'd get back to business. 0.99
02:28:32.000 But obviously here we are in fucking June. 1.00
02:28:35.000 I mean all this shit happened. 1.00
02:28:37.000 Mid-June. 1.00
02:28:37.000 Middle of March. 1.00
02:28:38.000 Three months.
02:28:39.000 Three solid months.
02:28:41.000 It is easier here.
02:28:43.000 After being in New York, I was there for two months of it.
02:28:47.000 It's just easier here.
02:28:49.000 It's easier here because people are more spaced out.
02:28:51.000 Exactly.
02:28:52.000 You get in your car.
02:28:52.000 I've got a little...
02:28:53.000 I've got a backyard.
02:28:54.000 I've got a thing.
02:28:54.000 It's just easier as opposed to being holed up.
02:28:57.000 And I've got a pretty good sized apartment, but...
02:29:00.000 It's not the same.
02:29:01.000 Yeah. 0.99
02:29:02.000 Going down the elevator and the shit, you know. 0.99
02:29:04.000 And here it's sunny every day too, which is obviously better for your immune system. 0.99
02:29:08.000 And it's just better for yourself anyway.
02:29:10.000 Yeah. 1.00
02:29:10.000 Just like you wake up, it's fucking... 1.00
02:29:12.000 It's better for your head. 1.00
02:29:13.000 Exactly.
02:29:14.000 Yeah, I mean, I get New York.
02:29:16.000 I get it.
02:29:16.000 I just don't want to do it anymore.
02:29:18.000 You know, it's like I could be there occasionally for fun.
02:29:21.000 Have you ever lived in New York?
02:29:22.000 Never lived in the city.
02:29:23.000 I lived in New Rochelle when I lived in New York.
02:29:25.000 I grew up right in Mount Vernon.
02:29:27.000 Oh yeah?
02:29:27.000 Okay, yeah.
02:29:28.000 I knew a guy named, a pool player named Mount Vernon Tommy.
02:29:32.000 Vinnie Pastore's from New Rochelle.
02:29:34.000 Oh, is he really?
02:29:34.000 Yeah.
02:29:35.000 And I think Chuck Zito as well.
02:29:37.000 Oh, no kidding.
02:29:38.000 Yeah, I lived there because I couldn't afford to have a parking spot.
02:29:41.000 You know, I needed a place to...
02:29:42.000 I had to have a car because I had to do gigs.
02:29:46.000 I didn't know that you lived there.
02:29:48.000 Yeah, that's where I lived.
02:29:49.000 Where'd you work?
02:29:50.000 All the places in Long Island?
02:29:52.000 Everywhere, yeah.
02:29:53.000 Connecticut, Long Island, Jersey.
02:29:55.000 Pips.
02:29:55.000 Oh, yeah, I did Pips in Brooklyn.
02:29:57.000 Yeah, I did that.
02:29:58.000 That was our friend's friend.
02:29:59.000 Ray Garvey.
02:30:00.000 Did you know Ray Garvey?
02:30:01.000 No.
02:30:02.000 He...
02:30:03.000 At some point, well in the 90s.
02:30:05.000 He bought it at some point.
02:30:06.000 He owned Pips.
02:30:08.000 But that had been there forever.
02:30:10.000 Yeah.
02:30:11.000 It's gone now, right?
02:30:12.000 It's gone.
02:30:13.000 I think it's a sushi restaurant.
02:30:14.000 Is it really?
02:30:15.000 Yeah.
02:30:15.000 Yeah.
02:30:16.000 Yeah.
02:30:18.000 That was where Rodney started, David Brenner.
02:30:20.000 Richard Jenney too.
02:30:22.000 Richard Jenney.
02:30:23.000 I think Dice.
02:30:24.000 I don't know if he started, but Dice.
02:30:25.000 And Seinfeld was there early on.
02:30:30.000 Shoepshead Bay, right?
02:30:31.000 Yeah.
02:30:32.000 And there was no comedy clubs back then. 0.99
02:30:36.000 A bunch of rowdy fucking Brooklyn guys there. 0.99
02:30:39.000 That couldn't have been an easy gig. 0.99
02:30:41.000 Oh, it was a tough gig, yeah.
02:30:43.000 Yeah, Joey Cola, my friend Joey Cola was there, and some guy was- Joey's great.
02:30:47.000 Oh, you know Joey?
02:30:48.000 He comes on with us to- The live show.
02:30:50.000 The live show.
02:30:51.000 Ask him about Pips. 1.00
02:30:52.000 Some guy was showing him his gun, sitting in the front row, pulling up his waist, showing him his gun, going, fuck you, fuck you, look at this. 1.00
02:30:59.000 And Joey's up there, hey! 1.00
02:31:01.000 Trying to tell his jokes.
02:31:03.000 Yeah.
02:31:03.000 Yeah, we do this comedy with the conversation with the Sopranos.
02:31:06.000 He's a comic.
02:31:08.000 He comes with us everywhere.
02:31:09.000 He opens it and he interviews us on stage.
02:31:11.000 Oh, that's hilarious.
02:31:12.000 He's the best guy.
02:31:13.000 I love Joe.
02:31:13.000 There's no better guy.
02:31:14.000 I've known him for 30 years.
02:31:16.000 Yeah.
02:31:16.000 Good guy.
02:31:16.000 He's a great guy.
02:31:17.000 And he's been around a long time.
02:31:18.000 Yes.
02:31:19.000 Yeah, he's a funny comic, too.
02:31:20.000 Yeah.
02:31:21.000 Yeah, he does great.
02:31:22.000 And we had a European tour that got canceled, of course, to the 16 cities.
02:31:27.000 And Joey was coming with us.
02:31:28.000 Now, when something like that gets canceled, do they have an idea when to do it again?
02:31:34.000 We're talking next June.
02:31:36.000 We're supposed to do it.
02:31:38.000 UK and Ireland.
02:31:40.000 Well, that's probably safe.
02:31:41.000 A year from now, that's a good bet. 0.97
02:31:43.000 In Australia, we were doing like 2,500 people a show, which is just this little show, me, him, and Vinny, and we had an Australia comic who was a nice guy, but he fucking died every night except for his hometown. 0.97
02:32:00.000 Adelaide. 0.94
02:32:01.000 He was in Adelaide.
02:32:02.000 But this year we're out there.
02:32:05.000 We're playing the London Palladium two nights.
02:32:07.000 Oh, wow.
02:32:08.000 It was doing big business.
02:32:09.000 That's awesome.
02:32:10.000 Yeah.
02:32:11.000 And, you know, like I said, we answer questions.
02:32:13.000 Joey does a comedy.
02:32:14.000 And we've done it a lot of places here.
02:32:17.000 Atlantic City, Foxwoods.
02:32:18.000 And this time Joey was coming on the road.
02:32:21.000 So right now we're scheduled next June.
02:32:23.000 Well, I hope nothing crazy happens between now and then.
02:32:27.000 I hope not.
02:32:28.000 Jesus Christ.
02:32:29.000 That's a big hope.
02:32:30.000 It is a big hope, right?
02:32:31.000 Because it's hard to tell.
02:32:33.000 It's like you would have imagined, oh, you're going to be fine.
02:32:35.000 But all bets are off now.
02:32:37.000 All bets are off.
02:32:39.000 We're behind the looking glass now.
02:32:41.000 Yes.
02:32:41.000 It's a strange time.
02:32:43.000 It certainly is.
02:32:44.000 But listen, tell everybody one more time the name of your podcast, how to get it.
02:32:48.000 Talking Sopranos.
02:32:49.000 You can go to TalkingSopranos.com or Apple Podcasts, wherever you get podcasts, and YouTube.
02:32:55.000 We have a YouTube channel.
02:32:56.000 Gentlemen, thank you for being here.
02:32:57.000 Thank you.
02:32:58.000 Good seeing you.
02:32:59.000 Always good seeing you, brother.
02:33:00.000 Thank you.
02:33:00.000 Thank you so much.
02:33:01.000 Thank you.
02:33:02.000 Great to meet you.
02:33:03.000 All right, everybody.
02:33:04.000 Bye.
02:33:06.000 Joe, thank you very much.
02:33:07.000 That was fun.
02:33:07.000 That was fun.
02:33:08.000 Sorry, I had to run it.