Joe Rogan Experience #692 - Jay Leno

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good morning everybody jay leno thank you very much for doing this man thanks thanks for having me I appreciate it your your place is the most impressive thing that I've ever seen someone own your garage I shouldn't say garage cuz everybody thinks it's a garage you're on you have twelve garages twelve giant warehouse buildings filled with the most amazing cars I've ever seen in my entire life well a couple amazing a lot of them are just old cars that I like that are kind of fun I have a good story if cars got a good story about it I liked how you trying to downplay it but I'm just telling you I was a fellow car nut thank you not nearly of your proportion but I was blown away that place is insane well yeah your videos up right now people love it it's almost a two hundred thousand hits well thank you very much for having me on I really appreciate it was a lot of fun it was it was really cool it was cool to be a passenger in my car and have you drive around somebody else beat the crap out of your car what's more fun than that how did you get started with such an insane collection like what did you start out with now used to work at car dealerships when I was a kid I worked at a Ford dealership I was in charge of odometer recalibrations that was my area really well you know you used to do back in the old days like a guy would bring a car in and then the boss would say I take it the used car back and just turn back to the speedometer okay I mean one guy came in with like a 64 Chevy and I had like ninety two thousand miles so he's making this deal for his new Ford you know buh-buh-buh and went back there with the drills it's been in the back you know this planet with a drill yeah so the guy comes out he goes that no no give me my car back cut now well that was cars him at 15,000 miles on it and he drove away and he went around the block and he came back with a big smile on his face because he knew he had the dealership because he said and they gave him what he wanted because we already turned the clock so you could have caught him and busted him like no no he's not like a federal crime no now it is not caught him I mean he could have caught you yeah but yeah back in the day that's used car dealers it was horrible is terrible I was like I was a kid I was like really this is what they do okay you know what is the worst thing you ever saw them do worse thing well well you know you used to have stuff you want the undercoating okay that's hundred 30 levels undercoating and they put the car in the rack and they take some black paint just spray underneath you know it's like cheap black rust-oleum paint and then tell people is undercoating oh yeah the car business really been cleaned up like the scene from Fargo when they charge them with yeah that's my favorite series by the car with the old couple and it just Yellin Adam a hilarious so you started off just working on cars working in dealerships and then some oil on when I start collecting them well I realize I'm never gonna have any nice cars working at a car dealership you know became a comedian yeah so became a comedian so I thought that's like a good way to make money at the time and it was so yeah you're so in your element when you're around cars and when you do that show it's so different and you know and and I said this with all due respect you were great host of The Tonight Show comic you know talking to like dopey celebrities yeah I mean there are some really interesting ones but then there's me right yeah just really like reality stuff yes and people like you probably never saw that comment either when you first started hosting the Tonight Show there weren't reality stars they didn't exist yeah that's true but you know I really enjoyed it because I like people I like talking to people but a lot of times you don't really talk to the person you talk to the publicist mm-hmm I meant one time we had this ice skater on like oh she's famous she's in the Olympics and then like 10 years later she was in Playboy magazine like she hadn't done anything for ten years then she's in Playboy so we got a call from Playboy would you put so and so and you know okay yeah she was America's Sweetheart now she's naked okay that could be interesting second guess okay fine so she comes in and her manager takes a mr. Longo high speed you we are not mentioning the playboy article I go really why don't you take your client and go home okay I get a comic here in four minutes this is why your client is here you called us because you're naked in Playboy okay hilarious we will we are not mentioning what you're here for right exactly exactly I mean that would happen all the time just publicist would get mad because you yeah the well the manipulation of the image it's it's really not that possible anymore because the Internet kind of all comes out you know it doesn't it dot you know in the old days when you watch old shows with Johnny you see stars come out and they would just make these horrible fashion mistakes or whatever because they dress themselves or they now everybody has handlers you don't do this you don't do that don't talk about the oh no don't talk about that you know it so it gets a little it's not quite as loose as it used to be so you think that some because of handlers and publicists and things long as yeah everybody is handled by somebody now or don't do this no don't kill don't give her actual opinion let's just say that we love everyone you know whatever it might be did you ever think about going back to do a talk show on another networks like them no it never even occurred to me you know you can't make lightning strike twice when we did The Tonight Show we had a good crew I had a lot of stuff left over from Johnny in terms of editing facilities all this kind of stuff and when you try and recreate that again it cost you twice as much with half the budget I mean Arsenio Hall is a good buddy of mine and when I send you know went to do his show again his hands were tied they gave him no budget you know I mean god bless him he made it work as best he could but like for example when a guest would come out from a TV show the man couldn't even play the theme song to the TV show because they didn't have money for music rights so you just had to play like porn music you know I mean just little things like that you don't even think about you know those are that's where the cost comes get any music rights getting this getting that so no I never thought about going to do it again I did it for 22 years you know it was number one when I got it it was number one when I left that was perfect for me how many you know this year in the fight game how many fighters there champ there champ there champ they come out of retirement they get their ass kicked yeah you know you you can't make it strike twice well it with boxing and ends with you know fighting a lot of times it ends really bad for a lot of the great ones it's the saddest thing in the world boxing always ends bad did you ever see requiem for a heavyweight yeah we talked about in the video my all-time favorite movie Anthony Quinn just the greatest actor and he goes in if you haven't seen this movie you gotta get it because it's got Cassius Clay man out Muhammad Ali Cassius Clay and and he plays Mountain Rivera and he he was ranked fifth heavyweight in the world you know back in the 50s in movie takes place in the early 60s and he's still fighting and he goes for a job at unemployment like it's a dishwasher and it's this heartbreaking way to go that was number five I was number five in the world and the woman looks at him like wow oh it's just a gut wrenching scene and he replies it's it must be awful to being a profession with is only one number one like some people think you're funny some people think I'm funny some people use sex some people think I said fine it's all subjective there's only there's not one comedian right and everybody else is ranked below it's whatever you like you know as but to be in a game like fighting where the where it's so wonderful it must be tough to be in a feel with that's if you're the only guy yeah and your whole the whole purpose of it is to dish out destruction yet someone's gonna dish it out to you and along the way you've taken some and before you know it your body just doesn't function the same way my dad was a prizefighter that's what he did how did he retire well I mean he eventually sold in show movie than the insurance company yeah you know my dad grew up in in New York and during the Depression and I never know how far my dad got in school he never actually tell us you know but I know he quit and he became a prizefighter for a while and then he became a Salesman because he's pretty good with kids so we would always watch the fights together that was my dad and I always did Wow did he ever try to get you to do it well yeah we played around a little bit with it but it was just not my I don't have that I don't have that killer instinct I don't hit the guy in the face you know it just it was it was not me it was not me I had a couple of fights when I was a teenager and it was like oh man you know there's nothing like getting your ass kicked to put things in perspective you know most people have never had the crap beat out of them and when you've had that happen to you a couple of times you begin to appreciate the art of negotiation I number of people I meet in this town let me tell you some if I ever see that guy I'm gonna kick no you're not you're not gonna kick his ass because look at you and look at him okay he's a street guy you went to la-dee-da College he just knows stuff you don't know it's not gonna happen but they have this they've never had the crap kicked at him so they just have this attitude that just makes me laugh yeah I think it's healthy for every man to get punched in the face at least once in his life just to get humility yeah a little bit I think yeah knocked out I got knocked out a couple of times and I would see the cartoons where they see stars and I go that's kind of silly no you actually see stars I start twinkling I saw twinkling things it's just like the cartoon I've never going down that one just like the cartoon when I hit the floor yeah there's a lot of people especially in Hollywood that think that fighting is like a movie like you could just piss to whip somebody yeah that always drove me crazy we just whack a guy over the head they just they go out and they wake up but other than that fine well the funny thing about movies is whether you're the good boy good guy the bad guy the punch is always thrown from the perspective of the person throwing the punch I've never seen a movie where the punch is coming at you you know what I mean right so it's always over the shoulder so as the viewer you're always throwing the punch that always makes I want to see a movie where the punch is coming in hitting you in the face while you're sitting there in the theater yeah you don't really get that but yeah where you can see the sparks and what it happens when the punches hit your face that's my light show that's my favorite thing about these superhero movies you see the superhero he punches a car and the car folds up like an accordion and then he punches the other superhero and the guy goes oh oh man yeah well no I didn't his face get crushed like the car just did I don't quite understand cuz it's a movie Jay Leno it's not real life exactly just just a little escape sort of like The Tonight Show you left on top you like that that is rare that someone leaves number one usually want to keep you around everybody left The Tonight Show it was number one Steve on the left one is number one Jack Paar laughing it was number one Johnny left foot it was number one I left no what did you do miss it at all no no I had your time you enjoyed it I loved doing it you know this there's a point your life where at my age I shouldn't have to know all the Jay Z's music okay I mean I'm sorry I don't I can't pretend to know yeah common and everybody's music I just don't it's you know notice how you brought up a lot of black cars I grew up in the era of Paul Simon and Marvin Gaye and all those get small my it's more my era you know when you're 20 when you're 42 when you're talking to 25 year old supermodel oh it's sexy when you're 64 you like the creepy old guy right so what do you go to school you know save you okay I'm like 40 years older than you are what am I gonna say to you you know so you just have to know when it's time to stuff but your your demeanor your what what your excitement level how natural is when you're doing your car show is very different and I think people would I I think there's two jay leno's there's the Jay Leno that hosts the Tonight Show which is a great entertainer you're a great interviewer but then there's you in your element when you're a host in Jays my gosh I tell you something I enjoy being around show business as opposed to being immersed in it like to me Charlie Sheen's a friend of mine I enjoy every time another hooker pushes one of Charlie's SATs off Mulholland Drive I get a kick out of it like everybody I don't want to be Charlie live that life buddy my enjoy hearing about it and observing Charlie when he comes to the show Charlie how you doing man Oh Jagger whatever it might be so the tonight show's great that way I didn't have to actually be there I could be a part of it without being a part of it right now right because it's not really I'm not really a party guy I'm not a drug guy I'm not an alcohol guy you know it's just not what I do I enjoy observing it whereas with cars it's what I really do cars motorcycles I really just so I am immersed in that whereas with show business I enjoy being around it you know but you still do stand-up so you're still yeah I'm on the road all I'd love to understand it that's the greatest so you're still in show business oh yeah I'm still in show business yeah but you're not in that show business yeah it's like comics will think of stand up as being very different than all the other aspects of show business well it is different than all the other aspects of show business because it's the only one where you don't need any other aspects of show business I mean I got started when I was in Boston I would go into bars with a $50 bill and I I would say I'm a comedian we don't hire comedians I go look it was fifty bucks let me go on the stage to tell some jobs if people leave you keep my 50 if I do okay I get some laughs give me my money back all right cost you about $300 a lot but for the most part it was either yeah kid you a funny here's your money back but you know me you don't really just or okay yeah come back Wednesday come back Wednesday we got a back then they had hootenanny night it was folk singers stop you more machine you know all those kind of songs and they put a comic on in between and that's the one thing about comedy you can take it and do it anywhere I mean we both know actors that are great that are funny but if their TV show gets canceled or the movies no good or the director yeah it's like they're out of work they can't go down to a bar and pass the Hat and tell jokes or even negotiate a salary it's you know so comedy is different because it's it's self-sustaining hootenanny night yeah that's what used to call them ball really yeah Wow yeah so you really did that you would go is that your idea to put a $50 bill yeah because that's you know I was lucky when I started I'd never met another comic I didn't know anything about show business you know you know your Boston you're from Ella from Boston rather and I remember the neighbour lady saying to me you know you can't be a comedian lest you find there was a comedian that's the way it is out there unless your father was a comedian you can't you can't be one then won't let you do it you know what I thought doesn't make any sense so I used to just go around bars and places like that in Boston and I thought I was doing pretty good you know I really wasn't but to me I thought it was pretty good I got my start at a place called Lenny's on the Turnpike up and Route one near Saugus I know that I used to play nice all the time and Lenny made me kind of the house comic and I got to work with Miles Davis Mose Allison all the great jazz artists Wow that's where giggles is and Saugus up there in a place Prince's pizza yeah I mean like Clark's joint it makes me laugh Lenny Clark's brother was that ladies I know honey Clark the funniest guy he really and a true Boston comedian you know I never get sent myself a Boston comedian because I was born in New York and I moved to Boston I was like 10 like my family moved there in 59 and we're still the new people know people that Leno's they came here in 59 you know the other people have been there since building 41 right exactly you know so they're you know they're the relatively new people did you did they have open mic nights back then no there was no such thing as open mic me this is before comedy clubs the comedy clubs didn't equate here did you start I started 1969 Wow and I used to work strip joints I used to work you know you remember the combat zone and Shore yeah I used to work all those strip joints I worked I remember I I teamed up with two strippers Lily pagan and I need a man that was her name and they were like 40 years old and they were like they weren't prostitutes they were they were working-class women big Boston women with short hair that would wear wigs and like we would drive out to Fort Devens to do a show with the soldiers they'd be there with drills and in the you know power tools and they put and she put together this this what do you call that clear plastic they have plexiglass Plexiglas bathtub and and she would take a bath you know like a stripper you know and so and they were tough women and I was like 19 and they were like 40 and one day we're out doing a show and she's in the bathtub you know doing those kind of stuff and I'm on stage just telling jokes said so until and some guy just thoughts heckling me and I remember she gets out of the bathtub walks over grabs a guy by neck punches him in the face breaks the guy's nose the guy goes down the crowd is cheering she leave the kid alone then she gets back in the tub but starts doing it was hilarious it was hilarious Wow oh great it was a great time and they were really nice women they weren't hookers you know these are women that back then being a typist or a secretary that's really what was available to you as a woman if you were not a college-educated woman you know or a waitress or something like that so that's what they did they they had the car with their you know stripper insignia on the side I need a man and you know that kind of a dolled up picture of themselves payment on the fender and we just drive around and I would emcee and introduce the girls and they would come out and do their act you know but they were very protective of me because I was like a kid Wow yeah it was it was really fun that's got to be cool memory oh god no like that it's so much more difficult than the standard signed up at the open mic night I started in 88 it was just a to have stitches would have an open mic night yeah oh there you sign up and you know you'd get on three of them for the comedy boom is fairly new I mean when I started I used to go to the I went to the improv of New York in 69 and the improv them bad bro is say okay four singers than you because it was all Broadway singer that's all the way there really wasn't a lot of people the one to become because most comedians in the mid to late 60s were middle-aged Jewish guys like Rodney Alan King the first new young comics were like Robert Klein Richie Pryor George Carlin don't forget Richie Pryor yeah I used to call Richie going to Richie yeah yeah Wow Richie I've never heard him say Richie Pryor you gotta remember in New York City up to about 66 67 you got what they call a cabaret card which was a license you had a license to be an entertainer and if you use to fall out a word onstage a cop could come in pull your license tear it up you didn't work you could not work Lenny Bruce really helped break that because Lenny went to trial for you know for that that's what you that's what he's arrested for he's just doing his act you know he used to do a bit about if you don't like black I mean who would you rather have sex with Lena Horne or Kate Smith what Kate Smith was an enormous woman at the time and it was a funny joke and oh that's so that's a racist so that's whatever you can't do that and I remember a cop pulled his license and he went to court he eventually won and they did away with the whole cabaret license thing so most comedians were middle-aged Jewish guys had talked about the kids today with the long you know what it has so long to patch it to a damn tie to tell you that these kids they look like a jack deck like a chili smelt like a John these hippies outside and that was what that's what guys did nobody talked stream-of-consciousness nobody did what what Richie in and and and George Carlin I remember George when George was just a straight stand-up and then he became the hippie dippie weatherman and then he had this radical change to the George Carlin we know now but he was the George used to be in a comedy team actually really with who with um I it's named as me but I forgot yeah I've seen some of his early early stuff yeah it's fascinating to look at him because he was such such a different guy yeah the fascinating one is also Rodney because before Rodney had the no respect hook cuz Rodney was Jack Roy for you hey Jack Roy he was Nets his real name Rodney worked and he couldn't make it and then he became an aluminum siding salesman and then he came back at age 44 is Rodney Dangerfield Wow he Rodney had amused by the name of Joe ANSYS Joe ANSYS was one of those guys who was not a comedian himself because he was too shy but was really funny he was a guy all the comedians love to hang out with because he would do table comedy you know you'd sit with four or five comics that it decanters type place or a deli at 2:00 in the morning and he would just riff and awe all the comics would just sit there with pens and pencils caught me down with one because he was so funny but he couldn't he couldn't physically bring himself to get on state he just couldn't do it and he he was a guy that helped I remember Rodney used to do bits and when you hear it one of his earlier he's got a funny one about being an airline pilot where he says that this is Rodney's joke not mine obviously but he says hey folks you look at that right left side of the plane you could see the Empire State Building women look out the right side of the plane in New Jersey there you could see the remains of Flight 418 which crashed in a fiery bald and that field over there Bob you with me on that one weren't you you know I used to make me laugh when he did that and then suddenly riding to became the hole with the one-liner guy but before that he was like a traditional comedian so how much time did he take off in between coming back it was like 10 years right no easy he raised the family rodney was a good guy I don't know if you ever really quit I mean he quit hitting it hard mm-hmm he was selling the Illuma siding and doing all that kind of stuff having a group what a great story have a regular job that's why everybody uses aluminum siding is sort of the bad job because it's a job Rodney had you know yeah rodney was a great story and I mean truly funny guy and the fact that he came back at 44 and just became an icon yeah it's really an amazing story well sometimes you have to grow into your act yeah you know when you're 19 or 20 and you're fresh-faced kid you don't look like - no respect you know Rodney needed to grow into that you know look I tell you you know what the you know the hangdog look and the tie that's too tight and the cheap share it but button didn't look like he'd be choked to death I mean it was a great groan of the great comedy prison I used to work at great woods in Mansfield do you know what that is yeah yeah I was a security guard out there and I got to see a lot of Acts yeah see Cosby out there and Kinnison and when I was working I got to see Rodney and this is when Rodney was in his complete not give a fuck stay right where he wore a bathrobe yeah that's what he would go onstage with yes sir rodney was backstage and you know I'm working in the backstage area and you get to see Rodney like there was a door was open to his dressing room Rodney's hanging out back there walking around pacing slippers on bathrobe nothing on underneath and the bathrobes open yeah he's gonna dick like a horse yeah right he's just allegedly I didn't see it yeah but it was like I was like look at this guy like this guy really doesn't like some people will pretend to not give a fuck this guy really didn't give a fuck his hair was all crazy and he would go onstage with the bathrobe and I couldn't believe it yeah I was 19 at the time right Rodney let me live in his it danger feels a nightclub there was a storage closet in the back and I lived in that for a couple of weeks really yeah they're just a cot in there and you you know with piles of sangria whatever they got to sit just all the liquor and that's where I stayed you lived in Dangerfield just that's where I slept during the day but Wow I worked that Club a lot when I first moved to New York New York was an interest you know it's funny that when I was just getting started those are the last days of the old mob clubs they don't really have mob run joints anymore but those were really really scary I remember I worked a club once and a guy come up stage and he said there you a funny kidney put a hundred dollar bill in my pocket you know and I said oh well thank you sir no no I appreciate it as no please you know give it to the church or donation as I might tell you I don't know you know no I can't through that I really didn't earn it thank you but please give it to maybe a waitress and then he said to me you know you're pretty smart you don't take money from people like me that's very smart nobody's gonna bother you I said okay thank you sir and I realized early on the guys had got in trouble were the guys that wanted to hang with the mob guys and then mob guys hey it's a favor deliver this package to the hotel we yeah sure okay now they're screwed now they're in right and then once years ago my wife why would I went to New York and I was working the Westchester premiere theatre and there was a guy named Jimmy the weasel Friday honey ever had that name Jimmy the weasels look great yeah anyway so these two guys museum mr. Lane house mr. Lee knows you know this is Rocco DiSpirito so we're in the back seat is Cadillac you know so I'm teasing my wife and I just kind of whispered her I didn't think the guys get him I said you know if I go into the city tonight I think I'm gonna need a piece and this guy goes oh mr. Lowe no police he takes a gun out he throws in the bank goes please take that one I said no I was like it no no please there's no numbers on it just you don't need to do nothing with it when you're through just throw it in the trash you know you know usually you know you just throw it away I said I don't know please I insist okay thank you now I got this gun in my wife is just like sweating bullets she's like where are we worked out okay it was just just funny you know just odd well they ran Vegas they ran night clubs in New York oh yeah how did all that die what happened corporations corporations are meaner and nastier to the no oh then within a month oh wait wait wait were at least a mob you got a free drink once in a while you got a look would you lose a grand love me with the restaurant go it of it not what's the corporation's come in it with you had to be a bizarre time to come up it was really man you know it's really funny it's like you always see gangsters on TV but when you're confronted by true Psychopaths it is unbelievable you know I I told the story with Jerry once on his community and coffee but I didn't hear it okay I got a car I could call one day from Sinatra he says AJ this is the Sons of Italy dinner in Italy can you do it when is it he gives me the date and I said Oh mr. Sinatra I'm it's a holiday house in Pennsylvania with the sons of the pioneers that's with you I said I'm opening for them on that day I'd love to do it for anybody can't do it oh okay thing I said uh police anything a couple hours way to get a call from Sinatra's agent hey we called the holiday house they said they don't need you well they don't need you all right guess I'm going to Chicago so I go to Chicago I'm not gonna use any real names because their people are still around so we're doing this thing it's at a golf course and they say to me listen there's a priest here okay so keep your act you know I said okay fine so I got when I do my little act - fine thank you applause applause I sit down so this gangster guy gets up you know goes on welcome you all to this you notice this place and wasn't gonna say shit I think I was gonna say and when he said shit the priest went like this okay what hey father you got your 10 grand in the fucking bag it just goes crazy in his gun and the place is just everybody's just just frozen with fear this guy's just like crazy and the priest is like he's holding his bag with the 10 grand a day you know and then he sits now okay so I'm sitting then the guy call AJ come in just let me ask you something you know Stallone right I said I don't know I'm a rocky just come out this is 1976 everything I said I don't know I mean I met him you know we asked him to do this dinner it's benefit today and he said no he said no and I said well I mean maybe he was busy screaming at me I go you're right I'm sure I'm fine he goes uh he goes uh this is come on let's play some golf i'm sanna we play golf I'll play golf please and now our golf carts and might win this golf cart we drive out to about the 12th hole and we get to 12th hole and there are these kind of 50 60 year old prostitutes topless with leopard skin print miniskirts handing out drinks it was like the craziest day of my life but this guy was like a true psycho criminal I mean just one of those guys like a scene from Goodfellas they just kill you you know I always loved movies where somebody threatened someone they'd go you're not gonna kill me Bob cuz I know you're not that kind of guy no no they will kill you they will kill you and it just really made me laugh is that guy still alive I may still be alive really yeah this is a while ago he's probably dead by now because he was an old guy then yeah it seems like a guy like dad's not gonna make it I'll tell you okay isn't it no he made it through with it she made it Wow just hilarious you know so you don't really have those I'm sure you have still have those guys but very very rarely they're not Italians anymore these Russian well there's always one one organized crime group that sort of dominates the market yeah it just it's just really odd it was it was a fun time to be a comedian but you had to weave your way through for a teen you know Morey Amsterdam in the comic I heard his name yeah he used to be on them on the Dick Van Dyke Show yes yeah well he got famous because he was Al Capone's favorite comedian Al Capone would always come in to see him Wow so Al would put him in a like I know Al Capone would put him in his clubs and that's how Maury Maury really got famous because Al Capone loved him thought he was hilarious you know but imagine if you don't make Al Capone laugh she puts a lot of pressure yeah yeah hilarious what's he like we got nice diamonds cuz a comedy club there weren't comedy clubs they were just either jazz club C jazz clubs were great for comedians because jazz audiences listen rock clubs were bad and during the late sixties comedy was kind of mentality it's were very serious you know everybody do those little plays where this stage is dark and you'd like to flash light under your chin stop your war machine click and then turn it off and then the guys run to another part of the stage click stop your war machine clicking turn you know it's all this conceptual kind of so comedy was really on the back burner it really took Pryor in Karlin and Robert Klein and those guys to make it really pop again for young people what was it before that I mean when when were the first they say that Mark Twain was probably the first recognized stand-up comedian because he used to do these monologues and readings of his work oh sure and he would do them in front of a live audience people would laugh you know stand-up is like jazz it's a uniquely American art form like when you go to England stand-ups over there maybe come out in a dress and they sing a song to do a skit or they do a little dance I mean now they have American style sandal but the idea of I always like comics would look like normal people but were funny I was never a fan of the wacky prop so the crazy has like Johnny Carson Pryor Cosby Klein Carlin sir these guys look like regular guys you see in the street and then when they talked oh my god they were really really funny those that something that really came later cuz most stand-up came out of vaudeville we had to that's what my mother used to say to me all the time when I got sad you know no one wants someone that's funny all the time why don't you sing a little song and then you do a little dance and then you tell it okay - great advice thanks I really appreciate that's what they used to do right yeah that's what they used to do that's so bizarre it's so crazy that it happened in your lifetime I mean you went from doing those original clubs to being around I mean you regularly work at the comedy & magic Club which is like one of the biggest clubs in the country I've been there every Sunday since 78 and when you're not there I've been there yeah it's it's you know I like it I like that Club because it's the best mainstream audience Club you know the Hollywood clubs are great but it winds up being clicky you're doing you know you're doing twenty minutes on a little shop on Melrose that maybe you half-a-dozen people know about and the audience is hysterical the rest of the world's going went you know yeah you've got to you've got to have a broader appeal and when you go to the comedy magic club a lot of that audiences overnight is from the airport they missed the plane whatever the stand in a local hotel Oh see what this is so you get people from all over the country yeah it's a great place anyway just Mike Lacey's just such an awesome guy yeah he's a great guy he's probably the best clever one in there is one of the best of all time he's such a sweetheart just it's like a trickle down from the top to the bottom all that work there it's a amazing spot but you were there for like the you seen the Muny movie Lenny with Dustin Hoffman and Bruce when he they showed the early days of Lenny's comedy we're used to work with strippers and all these different acts and tell a few jokes and be like an MC honey Harlow I think that yeah he married a stripper you know it's interesting Dustin Hoffman's one of the greatest actors but I never bought that he was a stand-up you know stand-up is so uniquely different from acting when people act like a stand-up you know I'm anxious to see Mike Epps now I'm I heard it's gonna play Richie Pryor it's very interesting to see because he's a comic mm-hmm so he understands how that works actors tend to watch themselves when they're on stage by that I mean whereas comics just perform they don't really care if their face looks funny or whatever it is your comic just performing you know so when actors play comedians it never quite works for me as well as a comedian plane ticket me well the worst example is the punch line with Tom Hanks and Sally Fields that's I didn't see that one but I heard about don't know save yourself it's one of those movies were you watching you go what the fuck am I looking at I'm looking at an optical illusion there's something behind the scenes here that's not really it's not they're not really doing stand-up but the people are laughing hard yeah it because it's hard to write jokes there's nothing harder than writing jokes that's what I hate about because one of you watch a movie as a stand-up any like a TV show tough so I said to him on Thursday and then the audience goes hilarious no right to hold joke okay they always do that's because it's hard it's hard writing job well not only that but a real comic is not gonna want to write jokes for an actor like if I have a good joke you're writing it good juggler I don't keep this one for me exactly fucking shitty one the Tom Hanks over here exactly so you you saw the boom though in the 80s because there was a big boom in the 80s I came along like I caught the crest I was I was there when when I started out people like why I should have started out in 84 84 I was amazing I started in 88 and it was just like right in Boston in particular it was a pretty magical time it was a magical time it was also you know to me you have a lot of people now that rush to the middle and then stay there but 20 years and never quite get because you know I sound like an old guy here but when I started you had to work clean I mean it's really easy to take a clean joke and make it dirty it's almost impossible to take a really funny dirty joke and make it clean it just it doesn't work and when the punchline is some four little word what do you do with that where do you go with it you can't take it past a certain point if you're trying to get on television well if you're trying to get on television you're trying to get any corporate work you know there's two Americas that really are there's one over here and one over here and if you can have a foot in both of them you can do really well for example most corporate dates will pay you ten weeks worth of Comedy Club salaries in one night if you can just work clean and and by working clean I just mean no four-letter words you can talk politics you can do whatever you want but the number of comics that can't get past a certain point because they hit that wall you know they rush right up to it and it's it's like horse power it's like being an athlete plenty of guys can play football how many can get it past that certain you know the average athlete is what one in 10,000 and the average superstar is what one in two or 300,000 and if you want to be that superstar you've got to work you've got to appeal to a more of a mass audience that's an interesting way of looking at it a lot of people would disagree and they would say that all they want to do is do the best comedy or the best art that they can come up with and it's not necessarily something that a corporation is going to want a high well I'm not saying but no yeah I think you're missing my point what I'm saying is what most people do is they want to play the audience where they get the best laugh mm-hmm okay I just go I just do colleges I just do hip little cool places mm-hmm you know I a couple times I booked myself into Oral Roberts University once just to see if I could play the gig this is a challenge just as a challenge like signing up for a triathlon and you know you know a perfect example of that was when Richie Pryor was getting ready to do his live on the Sunset Strip a movie movie Oh stand up I asked them could I follow Richie every single night and Richie would go up from for 90 minutes just blow the room out it's a comedy story I mean people falling down I mean it was the greatest interview ever seen and then I would go on and I realized at that point instead of having an hour's worth of funny material I had about 18 minutes because I was following the greatest comic in the world and my good stuff was okay my okay stuff was yeah and my aunt stuff was terrible but if you just play rooms where everybody laughs at everything you say you never get any better right you know I remember Robin Williams once said to me he said I'm gonna do some stuff tonight where you watch it and okay and they blatant this is the height of Mork and Mindy late and gentlemen with Robin Williams Wow oh the crowd and no matter what Robin said hilarious and that Robin came off what he said I mean that new stuff funny I said really it wasn't because they were reacting to Robin the phenomenon I mean obviously Robin could put a twist on and I'm not putting down Robins interiorly I'm just saying I know you know but he knew after listening to it which part of it really was funny and what wasn't so the idea of eyeballs on one of those people if you're a comic you should be able to play any type of audience if you're a fighter you should be able to fight anybody all right no I only fight tall skinny black guys no no no no I you should be able to play for any kind of room so whatever here comics say well I don't do that or you know people are people you know that that's pretty much what it is yeah there's a there's definitely like cliques in LA all of this people that only like to do alternative rooms and you know which are much more accepting of very bland and that's fine yeah hey I'm not putting it down there's nothing wrong with that but when you don't make it you can't blame it on well the eye or some people go well this audience was really stupid no they're not they're not stupid you just didn't get your point across you know a lot of comedians want to impress an audience with how much they know know itself they'll say the anthropomorphic tendency you know why don't you just say yeah that's how dogs are like people act like humans okay now I know what you're talking about okay if you don't know what anthropomorphic means the jobs not gonna work but you want to impress everybody how smart you are by throwing out anthropomorphic you know comedians sometimes always have an underlying thing they want to get some point across I remember a comedian was on The Tonight Show once and his opening line was you know I'm a liberal Democrat and I said to him don't open why don't just do the material we will figure out your politics within a minute and a half of your set but when you say to yourself here's what I am you already lost half the crowd I mean I don't think most people could figure out my politics from the monologue because I tried to humiliate and degrade everybody equally so one night hola no you and your Republican friend oh no no you and your Democratic buddies I hope you're happy what you said about mr. Bush you know so that was the perfect thing when they got complaints on both sides well what you were doing back then - by by going to these different bars you kind of had to have a bulletproof act you kind of had to have an act that would work on virtually any kind of a club yeah that's what you tried to do I mean it didn't always work my face always right but you kind of had to formulate something and and the real trick was when you get famous somewhere get the hell out of there I mean I knew so many great comics in Boston that were really funny but their material is all about what happens in Boston then they go to Connecticut or New York and didn't work then it doesn't work so to me once I realized oh I'm getting kind of a name for me here I've got to go someplace where nobody knows who I am and then I would go to the next place you and start all over again that's amazing that you knew that though at the time I could feel it you know old we you 20 21 and you see it already figured that out when you're 21 you know this comics are inherently lazy they go to where the laughs are I just can't play that room you know yeah I do better there they they know me they like my stuff there but once you go to the room where you suck because if you can get big laughs in the room where you suck right now you have two rooms you can go to now you got three I mean I sort of pride myself on being able to play any kind of gig what's the gig this bubble the only the only one that was really bad was I did Christian farmers and I realized oh my god things I wouldn't even thought the least bit objectionable weirdo just horrible okay like what do you remember oh I just Christian farmer yeah that was the audience you know it was just I can't remember what the jokes were but just you know any couldn't do a joke about masturbation anything you know just things that were normal everyday no that was horrible you know that when I've is read I noticed in Boston when I started doing road gigs that I had all this great material that I could use in town that was local stuff about like say girls from Revere with their crazy hair girls from Revere were known for having these what we call bulletproof hair right they would have fucking sprayed hair that was like a mile high it was like this crazy time in the 80s well they had these giant hairdos yeah and I would it was a great bit in town and Boston I would do that bit it would kill right I would go to Connecticut it would just die of vicious there's my best bitch you ever worked at Beachcomber and everywhere no I never I don't think comma just closed I worked that place back in the early 70s and I remember the guys hey hey when you come in don't wear your best clothes what it just don't wear your best clothes why I couldn't figure sorry I want my best clothes alright so I'm on stage and I realize the people in front road they'd smoke the cigarettes down to the butt and then they flicking at you you know so I'm on stage once and one lands on my shoulder you know and I don't see it but I hear as I'm sending the joke up I hear people laughing I go oh I'm doing pretty good and then look up Hey look and my jackets on fire because this guy flicked a cigarette and it caught fire and then the guy said to me afterwards I told you weren't the way you good clothes I said Don Wright y'all do that next time just make me laugh Jesus Christ hell it was funny Joey Cola told me who was doing pips in Brooklyn once and there was a guy that was sitting in the front row that kept telling I'm fuck you fuck I fucking hate you you're not funny and the Newcomen's gone lift up his shirt and show his gun and then you know you know Joey cold you know Joey he's a sweetheart hey you know he's like real like high energy real happy guy and this guy's just showing him his gun and saying fuck you oh yeah there's just things that you don't I had so many night I had so many nightmare gigs one of my worst was opening for Tom Jones for two weeks every night in Vegas two weeks so I get there the opening night and I walk out and there were 300 women or maybe 350 women in the Tom Jones fan club and they bought tickets to every show and they had assigned seats so I walk out the first night and then I see these 300 women the first 10 or 15 rows there's a dinner show then so it wasn't it wasn't theater seating like no okay I do my act and I do okay I'm terrible I'm real good okay I got the second night and the same women are in the same seats and I'm doing the same Act I get nothing okay by show 9 it's like hey Mary hey sue how you doing I guess it's the same 300 women every single night and in their mind you see me being on stage is less time that Tom's doing right now don't get the concept there's an opening act but the most humiliating part was I come offstage oh my Gus is awful and I walk out through the front and this girl goes hey great show I said oh thank you she looks at me like I said thank you thank you very much I said how are you good I'm gonna get a bite sure okay I'm talking this girl for a few minutes and she I see she's getting a patient you know she the look we've gone upstairs it or what I not what well I realized she was a hooker work in the room she said good show I thought she'd seen the show she's a good show to anybody to walk out I said oh you didn't see the show know who you I said oh I'm the guy well you wasted my time in that she stomps out no hope then the whole coffee shop looka little guy couldn't game how bad is that guy that hooker walked out on it's harmless what year was this Oh 76 I would love to go back in time to those days god I would love to go back just to see what it was like well it was really any different than now I mean you're on stage or the microphone it really wasn't a whole lot different I mean what the culture must have been so different the culture was different you know Freddie Prinze was a good friend of mine you remember Freddie yes Freddie used to stay with me when he worked the Playboy Chico in the man he could when the man played the Playboy Club in Boston and there the Playboy you had to do six shows a night he had the penthouse in the play room and I remember I had to there was a singer and I had I would open and then she would take her band to come upstairs and I would pass her in the hallway she'd be carrying these drum sets because the musicians they don't have to move the round-trip singer has to move the drums and big sweat stains under her arms and she'd be in tears by the fourth show she just looked like she would but beat up but anyway Freddie's on stage and he's talking about Nixon and he said I think the jokey so the President Nixon whatever blah blah blah and this guy knew I had to say you watch your mouth you know it's a brother you know it's date and Fred and when he said a Nixon doesn't doesn't through something he sucks well this guy takes out a gun stops firing it over Freddie's head you know she's a chutes it into the cut and the whole club just hits the ground you know just just crazy stuff that really doesn't happen a whole lot anymore where was this club was this Boston Wow yeah Jesus Christ I thought clubs are actually great you know people they exist anymore they still do but Hugh Hefner I give him credit he was the first guy no he was the first guy to let blacks walk through the front door that Club and play in the club Dick Gregory Louie Armstrong all these acts he treated them as equals which today you think wasn't know in the old days black performance had to go in through the kitchen half always you came in through the front door and you were treated with respect if anybody said anything racial in that nature you got thrown out of the club so he was really sort of a pioneer and being you know equality for performance so I always I mean I've done a million Hugh Hefner jokes as everybody else but I always give him credit for that usually he was really great that way well he certainly he's always been on sort of the cutting edge socially I know certain so yeah I mean now in a sense you know now it seems like it's kind of silly but yeah well it's a hard gig to hold on to you know he was at the Disneyland recently and I was you know Disneyland they give you that VIP pass if you're famous person right okay you get to go through the exits right I didn't know about that back then and so he had gotten into the ride before you know he hadn't gotten the one I just sort of walked him in through the back door so all sudden he was there with like this captain's hat on with these two girls that just had their faces spray-painted on yeah like this is the oddest thing that this guy does it's just so odd yeah I just it does seem fuck is he's so old yeah yet he's still hanging around I'm like trying to piece it together for like the next hour like does he enjoy this still or is this just like a publicity angle I'll take my fare back in 76 Schwarzenegger and I get invited to half 25th anniversary party comfortable mention Dre and you know some are like God I knew Arnold Arnold was enormous then he's like twice the size he is them yeah so with the hanging around and then have says to me you know Jerry would you like to have lunch with the girls for the girls I said sure that'd be great so I go into this dining room and it's a beautiful mansion but it looks like a frat house you know it's all the wood is chipped indented on the part ISM there's a big long table no chairs about half a dozen of the Playboy Bunnies hanging around you know in street clothes I was and this Butler guy walks in with the biggest bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken I'd ever seen it looked like a trash can he just puts it down and all the girls dive in and grab a piece of chicken I said really this is the playboy lifestyle this is a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken I got like a garbage can full of so he feeds them like the way you would feed chickens right my own chicken area let's put the food out in the olds there you go that's a that's a weird place the if you go by the grotto they still have the old phones like the old yeah a buddy of mine went there this is like it sounds like an old joke but it's a funny story so he goes he's never been before and he's like really nervous so he's walking down by the grotto and he sees a couple of girls naked in the pool so he hides behind a tree and he's watching and he's watching he's watching him and he's so nervous he takes out his cigarette smoking and security works up gresling goes hey no smoking huh he just thought he'd get busted no he got busted for smoking it just made me laugh that is very funny just so stupid yeah I was there for I hosted him it was either marijuana policy project or normal I can't remember who who had it but I hosted this this event that they had there a fundraising event and it was very strange to be around the grotto and just to be in this place just to think of all the things that have happened in that place out of odd you know you got a lot of old guys guys my age now and girls are going oh look what James Franciscus gave me oh yeah beautiful ring you know whatever just some old movie star from the 80s you know hilarious it's just hanging on yeah trying their best yeah well if you're still in the game every now and then a pitch comes your way you got it right that's right low-hanging fruit so when you're in your day when you when you started out doing these strange clubs and you know hootenannies and all and all that jazz how long was it before the comedy club came around how was that how was that received comedy club came around the beginning of the eighties probably so like right when I I start in 88 so when they were talking about like 84 that was really when I kind of really started out what's out of the the peak and then it then cuz you know the comedy clubs in the 80s probably paid more money than that you now really yeah yeah and then they realize they realized oh there's a million comics we don't have to pay these guys anything and then the price went way down by with a 50% drop way way off because in the early days there weren't that many comedians who really weren't aware I was when I went to New York go to the improv there may be three comedians and like 10 singers Wow audition night now everybody wants to be a comedian but by then back then it really was not what it is now what was it about comedy that just drew you to it because it seems like that is not an easy path back then it seemed like there's no direct route like now you can go to the comedy store you sign up for potluck night and you know if you go enough nights in a row you're eventually gonna get on stage yeah you know for me I was dyslexic as a kid so I really wasn't good anything except just talking and it's or bullshitting whatever might be and you know I I used to like to watch comedians on TV and I thought well this might be a fun thing to try and do and that's pretty much what I did I mean when I got started I went to Emerson College and I took a course and I took speech courses because you had to give a talk at the end and what I used to do was I would memorize like a George Carlin routine I would never say it out loud I would memorize in my head I would say okay I'm gonna go on a few minutes and I would do his routine and then this says they hit the stage I would slip into my own experiences like I remember he he the clan he had the class clown album so I would recite his jokes and then when I hit the stage I would say you know what I always a kid I was also a class clown and then I would I would tell funny stories of what everyone's about my but I used his rhythm as the impetus to get me into it I'm I never didn't hear George's material but it just worked for me as a way to it's kind of a you know because I guess she started yeah it's like we did married a long time you watch porn first yeah when I was working at Boston Globe I used to deliver the globe yeah and I would go to the places where I would pick up the papers and there's a bunch of guys this guy named uh I forgot his name he's an Indian gentleman who is actually a pharmacologist in India and he couldn't get a license for it in America so he's working as a as a paper guy the Boston Globe a really bright guy right and you know he would talk to me about American culture and stuff like that I asked him you ever heard of Sam Kinison I was obsessed with Kennison back then yeah this is like 86 before I ever started doing comedy and I would I would do like a Kennison bit for him yeah and he was crying I was doing a bit about Sam Kinison had a bit about dog psychologists oh yeah yeah he goes he goes I'd like to get in on some of that money he goes yeah well you're having a problem with Sparky yeah Sparky's not it he's not acting himself I'll take care of it first of all you're a fucking dog oh yes you know he was a funny person horrible guy yeah he nasty guy yeah you know seems like and near the end he was pulling guns on people and well there was a used to be a bullet hole at the Commons in the belly room sign that for whatever reason some asshole decided to repair I was so fucking mad oh yeah and I hadn't been there in seven years and I came back and that the the sign was fixed ago what did you do what did you do that wasn't bad was it was history I can't remember if I was I'm not sure if I put him on The Tonight Show first he was how I was guest-hosting and I had Sam on one time he might have been on before that I'm not I can't I said I'm not gonna try and take credit for that but you know he was truly funny just really dark I mean just nasty I mean we're just like how so young comic in the hall Bank just rip them I mean way crueler than it needed to be I mean it was and he was brilliant you know but it's like when Sam died it was like that's almost how he had to go out because he was so like he had that hilarious bit about necrophilia then what yeah nothing funnier yeah okay so what's your next bit okay if you have a thing about screwing dead people what is what's the more outrageous than this I know right you know he kept trying to top himself and he's able to do it you know but it just got so crazy and then it's that thing where you start believing your own publicity instead of just showing up and it's a comic you now have an entourage Brian everything you say is funny you can't you know it's a comedy perspective to be able to say to people is this really funny or none you know no it's not that good man okay thanks like what is saying about Robin you had to be able to to ask people that question that's why Steve Martin quit Steve Martin yet what he talked about in his book that he just got to a point where just everything he said was funny and it just he knew it was wrong he was a great guy Steve is the one that brought Johnny in to see me it's really yeah and I was always very grateful for that you know I love Steve Martin know he's a great husband a great guy and and intelligent guy thoughtful guy really looks at it analytically from an artists perspective he's really you know he's one of those guys like I said like Johnny who looks like a normal person but they just think unusual and think funny in Kinison is my favorite example that I use to young comics when I talk about like you got to stay the course like you can't like once you make it it's even more hard because once you make it then people require things of you and you have to look at yourself as objectively and as analytically as you look at the whole world kinnison was brilliant in my opinion he was like one of the best ever it's not the best ever in 1986 yeah and by 1989 he was a fucking shell of himself and well barely acceptable it was that case of all comics like to have some sort of open wound alcoholic drug addict - straight - gay - something so they have an excuse when it doesn't get a laugh hey I did pretty good concern I was stoned now it's pretty funny cuz I was drinking all day before me when I say they always need a reason why it didn't work if it didn't work and so consequently you get to that point where that crutch gets bigger and bigger and bigger you know so the idea is to try and put that stuff aside it's a lot of discipline being a comic you really have to you can't believe your own publicity I'm a huge believer in low self esteem I think it's because when you have low self-esteem you don't imagine automatically think you're the smartest one in the room right you know you just shut up and maybe listen and take some advice and whatever and work harder but you know actors and criminals there's high self-esteem the cops hadn't come that would have been the greatest robbery you know they all have a reason why there's always somebody else's fall you know and that's the thing Sam had that Sam you worked at the crutch got bigger and bigger and he got funnier and funnier you needed more drugs and more whatever - because oh that's that's why the third show didn't work man because I was so high okay wasn't Sam's fault he was - huh you know it does that make any sense you know it does I also think he was so caught up in partying that he never really sat down and wrote anymore well again that's the same we're saying the same call it partying call it whatever you want you know the real trick to being a comedian is is it's it's focused you know it's a genetic flaw that makes you a comedian it's not nothing right it's not a plus it's a negative I mean if you happen to live in the time with the Crusades what who's the soldier making all the men left kill him all right we just happen to live in a time when comedies advantageous but it right you're a soldier this guy's hysterical my men are all laughing another pea kill that guy boom a gallop there you go simple as that oh you be the gesture for the king until he decided to cut your head off and everybody anything I was a pressure gig - no but see that that was you know I remember years ago when I started tonight's show there were other guest house on opposite me that guess how other shows and I remember and I'd go home every night night right and I remember one time I turned on the news and I saw one of the hosts at a Laker game when I go you're not gonna have a monologue tomorrow night I know he's not because I'm writing jokes and he's been at the Laker game all night and when I watched his monologue the next night the person didn't have any material I mean he he got through it but it wasn't crisp it wasn't sharp you know Ryan you have to focus that discipline is really it's ironic in a way because what makes you a comic in the first place usually because you're fucked off in school and you were the class clown you didn't have any discipline that was me yeah I was meant to Jay has the ability but does not apply himself exactly verbatim I bet you go across the board Richard Jeni you know Dave Chappelle every fuckin comic that would have the same yeah I mean I remember my mother was called in to school once with the guidance counselor and I'm sitting there the guidance counselor my brother have you ever thought of taking Jay out of school my mother and why and he said well you know education is not for everyone I'm going hello I'm in the room you work at McDonald's after school right well they have an excellent program with that McDonald University you learn to make change and run the register you know Jesus Christ oh yeah hilarious teachers don't I don't know if they understand or they don't understand but when you set an example like that for a kid you put it in front of them like that they're not gonna they should drop off and take a trade or something like that actually I credit one of my teachers mrs. Hawkes I had this teacher and she pulled me aside one day and she said you know you're not a very good student but I see you in client I see you in the hallway and you seem to be telling jokes and people she says why don't you write some of these stories down and I'll give you credit and English class and you can read into the class and I said oh it was the first time in my life I really enjoyed doing a homework I went out and I wrote the story out now that's a and they change line they rewrote it and I realized I'd spent like two hours work on the homework assignment I normally would just been 10 minutes on and when I went to school next day and I read it I when it got laughs she said okay I'll give you I'll give you name for that and went oh thank I mean this is a teacher taking something that I could use in the real world you know I'm not I'm just like sick I'm not gonna use algebra that we're gonna use algebra but this teacher saw something where she said okay and you know I set up a scholarship for and I she passed away fairly young breast cancer but it was it was just great because I had never really thought about he grew up in Andover Massachusetts think about being a kid you think about working in the factory or something and I thought oh it was the first time in my life I had used comedy and it got me something I got an a I got an A in this paper you know okay so then that's how I started that's really what got me going I used to draw cartoons that's how I got into it is to draw cartoons and my teachers like doing sex acts with other students like nature's pet or LC now you'd be sent to prison like visual I didn't show like genitals but you know I showed like the Boy Scout camp when I was a kid and I think with camp on way in New Hampshire I went to camp in New Hampshire as a boy's job okay okay well we had a camp counselor mr. Butler I think his name and this is like Cub Scouts it's like 9 10 11 and if you did something wrong for punishment you had to stack rocks and build the wall in front of mr. Butler's cabin nude okay oh geez you know when you're 9 and 10 you just you know really I don't think that ever happened but it was mostly and and mr. button would sit there with his pipe and just kind of uh-huh yeah sit in the rocking chair and you know it was probably East crust it's probably eight years later I'm on like route 495 going through Worcester it never occurred to me because you know when you're a kid it's skinny-dipping all you're not thinking anything like that it just never occurred to you that mr. Butler's probably a pervert but once you got older you realize oh yeah you meet a few perverts you know this is not the normal punishment sir I rest my case what was about Kinison that was so mean like what was it when you're saying he's just a nasty person I know you know Carla Bowe is a friend of mine but he must have some story so he's got a horrible story okay his child turned out to be kinnison's child okay so Kinnison was banging his best friend's wife yeah behind his back and it's it's terrible I mean and I don't know what his relationship like is like with the child the anemia of the stories that you know I mean it's not the child's fault it's I would like to think that I would be man enough to recognize it's not the child's fault and not punish the child for it and just still treat the child like it's my child especially since kinnison's dead but he might you know he had been paying alimony and child support for this for the longest time and it's just what a betrayal to this friend okay well there you answered your own question with the next question yeah that's not good yeah but I'd heard that they did some wife swapping and shit back then I don't know about that complicated I just knew it was just kind of nasty just mean is it's interesting because that that guy just sort of changed what comedy was for a little bit very good it was an it was a truly unique style nobody else had worked like that ever I mean just as Rodney had a style and Robin had a style a Kennison had a style no one has had come along before or since really with that energy that strangeness to it it was an anger obviously that came from and whether abuse or religious and tolerance whatever it was when he was a kid did you ever read his brothers book my brother Sam no I'd rather bill wrote a book and it's a really good book and it's really objective it's really it's not like a fluff piece right and he said that Sam got hit by I think was a car or a truck when he was a young boy and was never the same again and head injuries often times lead to like very impulsive radically different behave that would certainly be the case there yeah he was impulsive and radical yeah but like you say it's it's it's a bit like that animal with the horn grows out and eventually curves and grows back into its own head and it goes crazy I mean that's kind of like what Sam was I mean like 84 85 86 nothing bigger yeah by the early 90s it was uh it was pretty it was why I got to see him live after his HBO special like almost immediately after and he didn't really have material right he like he had all that HBO stuff that he couldn't really do anymore right because everybody had seen it so now he was like one of the first realizations that like Wow brought this whole act for 10 years you know worked for 10 years honed my act developed this dis killer power that's why you don't do HBO specials you don't do any special no why is that because I like to know where my act is all the time what does that mean but by that I mean if you want to see it I will come to where you are and do it there's nothing more annoying to me people say hey I just saw sound so special and it didn't seem that funny I said where'd you watch it I my phone okay you know something watching it on your iPhone by yourself is not gonna make you laugh okay it's not the same you know the difference between looking in the window of a nightclub and hearing it and being on the other side the window and being in the room that energy engulfs you I mean it's part of it if you're willing to pay attention I'll come to where you are and I'll do it okay I like piecemeal work right joke tell joke get check that's pretty much the way my life is the idea I mean I remember we had a comic on The Tonight Show once he said oh my HBO specials brewing this week can you can you plug it I said yeah okay he says then I'm going on the road I said what material doing the road well they don't do a lot of stuff in the special I said you know it's gonna be the next time he came back like eight months later he was like oh my god you were right people I just heard that I heard that crap last night cuz people watch the special before they come see you they like you well let's watch a special then go see him and then they are so pissed that they spent 50 bucks or whatever it is for a ticket that now they now they hate you you know you so to me when you do one of those specials you get probably a nickel of you maybe a penny of you but when you do a live on inch you're making 20 bucks 50 bucks but for a lot of comics that's how they build an audience they build an audience by putting together an HBO special that someone who likes and then they write a whole new act and then when someone comes out to see them they'll see wax that works for some people but you know to me I always meet people say I'm writing a new hour and then I watch it and I go it's not an hour that's about 16 minutes really because there's a lot of uh-huh and oh what else man how y'all doing everybody good y'all good move tonight hey how's that better hey man I don't you know that's that's not it's boom boom it's like it's like throwing punches and especially old Boston style yes and style it's very attack like Lenny Clarke that's what I think I mean when you get something that works you but you got to build that right yeah but you can build it you can go you can do TV appearances you can do 5-minute bits you can do when people do something for a whole hour and they watch it boy that's a lot I mean you give them a taste and then you come do it in person I mean I can only say what's worked for me right I mean it works for me because I have jokes I wrote yesterday I have jokes I wrote 20 years ago and they both still work because hey I know the last time I did this routine about this was 12 years ago when I was in this town any idea of any of those people being in the audience tonight probably minimal you know if I walk on a stage just on like I hate what I do a talk show appearance the next night I from in a club I make sure not to do that material because they just heard it yesterday right so the idea that anybody can call up stuff that I did at any time unless you have new material every single day it doesn't make sense I had this conversation with Ari Shaffir it's a good buddy - yeah great comedian and you know we were talking about it and he said that when you work on old stuff if you keep old stuff where you tighten it up or you keep it keeps you from expanding as an artist and you and making stuff that's more relevant to how you think right now there might be something to that but it also keeps you famous it also gets the point people go boy I walked in and it was a tough room and the crowd was talking boy he got him you know again we're talking about I'm talking about playing hard ticket rooms where people go who is this guy what is it I never seen it when you like when you play Jersey when you play the Jersey Shore you got 70 year old guys you got teenagers you got grandmothers you got longshoremen you got sale you got every conceivable type of crime you know when you do a comedy club your plans essentially to the same person right they all think alike and feel like I mean to me I mean I like when I do I always gear my joke some jokes about men some about women so to me I love playing a racially and gender diverse crowd I hate it's all guys that's the worst I hate oh it's all women I like it because it keeps everybody on it's the only releases itself you know you do a joke about a man drew a joke but a woman to do it and and that's what works for me so to me I think what he's saying is probably true I'm just talking about making a living when you have to go somewhere and do the job you know the down-and-dirty part of it okay there's the fun part of show business and then there's a part where you've got to go to work listen that's it's the B'nai brif Society they're hiring you next Wednesday they'll give me a thousand bucks okay you've got to go there and knock that crowd out I mean that's what you got to do and you think that doing special somehow or another takes away from no I don't think special takes away from that I mean look I'm just talking about me no no I know that's why I'm curious because you're one of the few guys one of the I consider you a great comic and you've been doing it for everybody does you've been doing it forever but there's very little of your work out there I think there's a Showtime show that I watched from a good you did a Showtime spent long time yeah I got that and I burned the master but somehow that's the opposite of what most people do most people constantly want to put out new stuff Carlin put out a new hour basically every year well don't forget see I was fortunate I had a platform every night on The Tonight Show where I had to do 14 minutes every single night okay so you write 14 and then it's probably 11 or 12 by the time it hits here so I didn't need to do special because I had a little tiny bit of something out every single day a little bit of an advertisement for people come see okay so that's what worked for me before I had I made sure I did Merv Griffin Mike Douglas weather and every four to six weeks I would do Letterman and and and that's how I kept it out there just give them a little bit of a taste and when they come to your town they're not sticky that is interesting because you are definitely seeing a lot of people today that are watching stand-up from a YouTube clip that they're watching it on their phone and it's just not going to be the same it's not saying you need to experience it I you know live yeah it's frustrating to me when I people say they didn't think something was funny or anything so I watched avatar on my iPhone I think it was that great well first of all it's a 3d movie you can't watch it on your iPhone stop it you know yeah it's not supposed to be convenient it's comedies supposed to be in a room that's a little uncomfortable it's just a little too cold you know all the elements that make you see like um yeah I've tried to do comedy in Hawaii you're standing on stage and guys and sale fishes are going by and you know if you know what it's the sun's out at midnight what do you do it did you ever do stand-up in a really really big place like a giant arena oh sure what do you think about that like that seems to me like you know they do this oddball comedy tour now and they're doing like 20,000 seat places and you know I thought about I was like man that seems like a lot of goddamn people to do stand-up for it's very strange it depends what you like for example I like doing stand-up so I'd rather do 10 mm seat rooms than 120-thousand seat room yeah I mean because I like doing it it's fun to do you know it's fun to tell jokes it's fun to see the person right there when you do those 20,000 seat things okay there's a light in your eye and you can hear laughs but it's you're not really experiencing it the same so it's offensive I mean I know comics that just Letterman was never comfortable in front of live audience Dave was not funny as he is he just didn't like to me stand-up it wasn't it just he didn't like it me I like it I like reaching out and having the audience and that's when the Tonight Show really came alive for me when I redid the studio and brought the audience right up close to me so I could touch hands with people like right yeah when I have something you know whatever it might be so I like it I like the human contact you know stand up it's probably the most basic form of human communication there's no with the exception of the microphone that's it there's no trick there's no gimmick it's just humans interacting you know the other reason I like stand-up is people don't gather anymore you know when I grew up an end over once a month they would have the town meeting at the Grange Hall which is dumb as that sound in North Andover and the whole town would show up nothing ever got done but people gathered in a room and it was fun to experience a room full of people laughing or reacting to something now everybody taxes or sits there's a social awkwardness to the iPhone but when you put people in a little room it's a little uncomfortable in the yelling staging you talk to them and that room is rolling with laughs it's really the greatest thing in the world it's it's unbelievable yeah I agree I think it's an amazing art form it's the most fun for me to watch as well as to do I loved I loved watching it I still love sitting in the back of the saw Tom Papa last night he was Hilaire comas really good at name he's so funny and you know I got to sit in the back of the room after I got off stage and watch him at the back of the comedy store I'm like I just still love it as an art form I mean to me it's like listening to music you know I meant when I first met Letterman I didn't really know Dave and I saw him at the Comedy Store and Dave had a great way to turn a phrase I remember he had I don't do the joke justice he said I joke about he was talking about editorials on small-town TV stations and we at w-whatever are diametrically opposed to the practice of using orphans as yardage markers on public golf courses something like that and I thought I just like the way he phrased it to me that's like listening to a James Taylor song just the way all those words come together you know when Seinfeld used to have a bit about going to the dodgem cars that the and the hopeless father-and-son team and I like hopeless father inside so I just like the way they phrase things so to me listening to good comedy I can listen to it over and over yeah no I agree I I love listening to the way certain people phrase things and like you were saying about how you going onstage after listening and reciting Carlin in your head how it sort of helped you like that rhythm and cadence you know 100 Thompson used to do that he used to write The Great Gatsby he used to write it out like just copy The Great Gatsby to sort of learn the rhythm of the words yeah I think a lot of us have experienced going on stage and sort of feeling like you're doing someone else's cadence and rhythm I caught myself once too one time on stage at the comedy connection and I felt like I was in the middle of doing Richard Jeni I was like I was being Richard Jeni while I was on stage I was like Oh like I'm kind of stealing this guy's he was one of the best that that people don't talk about he was one of those guys that sort of the guys of today maybe don't realize how great that guy was he really was yeah he was one of the best at taking a bit and stretching it out - I love his bit on gay marriage you know this is before gay marriage is illegal obviously and he used to a bit about how great it was for gay guys Bob I'd love to marry you but it's against the law it used to really make me laugh look Steve I'd love to but it's against the law it was the perfect guy excuse not to get married it's against the law and he would take a bit and stretch it out over seven ten minutes I mean he would find every single nook and cranny that that could be very more any guy but it's not of insecure but very funny he was troubled yeah he was troubled like Manny but so disciplined yes constantly working constantly writing new Messiah fellas like that very discipline really writes and comes up with new stuff and you can see the difference - you can see the jokes come every six to nine seconds verses every 30 seconds or some guy hey y'all good mood how y'all doing yeah get to the joke right right right yeah that's that's that old-school attitude to that people don't have a lot of attention they just they don't have much time for this go go go go go Seinfeld's one of the few guys that rivals you as a our collector - I'm not quite he's a Porsche guy he only Portuguese an expert now he's got some German self Mercedes but but he's a real expert he knows his stuff yeah that comedians in cars getting coffee is a very interesting shop it's a great show it's really fun you know everybody tells you you can do Gary's a perfect example the Seinfeld show about nothing now nobody's gonna watch that and biggest show of ever when he had this idea I would just drive around we just talked about every want no no you got to have it all laid out first no you don't and he proved that you didn't need to well that's what's going on with the internet is that you don't the idea that these producers and executives and directors have always had that run networks that this is the only way to be entertaining they're wrong it's just another way to but you watch it'll come full circle again and people go I'm sick of this freeform stuff I want something a little more you know say just it's just the age you live in most people do this show and they make it about an hour maybe an hour and 20 before they have to take a leak yeah you look like you're about right there what's as long as you want it to be oh we could end it right now if you like I got a meeting at 1:00 but let's let's wrap it up then okay we'll wrap it up thank you very much for having me anytime you ever want to come back again I would be more than honored to have you call me and I'm here it was an honor to do your show I love your show Jay Leno's Garage my episode is on this week with my 1965 Corvette and it was an honor to come and tour your facility and send with the Chevelle and the and they absolutely absolutely love you buddy thanks I appreciate it [Music] [Music]

Info

Channel: PowerfulJRE

Views: 3,271,696

Rating: 4.7704296 out of 5

Keywords: Joe Rogan Experience, JRE, Joe, Rogan, podcast, UFC, MMA, comedy, stand, up, Deathsquad, funny, Freak, Party, Stand-up Comedy (TV Genre), Humor, Jay Leno (TV Producer), Joe Rogan (Celebrity), JRE #692, 692, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (TV Program), The Tonight Show (Award-Winning Work), Jay Leno's Garage

Id: wvdM_u4NZQw

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 85min 45sec (5145 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 03 2015

Reddit Comments

Great Mob story

👍︎︎ 36 👤︎︎ u/Severince 📅︎︎ Sep 04 2015 🗫︎ replies

Just a few minutes in and damn, its great to hear a talk show host talk about how fake the industry is.

👍︎︎ 25 👤︎︎ u/PlaysForDays 📅︎︎ Sep 04 2015 🗫︎ replies

That was a fun podcast. Really hoping he comes back again and does 2 and a half, 3 hours

👍︎︎ 14 👤︎︎ u/sweatybeard 📅︎︎ Sep 04 2015 🗫︎ replies

Need more than an hour thirty!!

👍︎︎ 13 👤︎︎ u/ayoungad 📅︎︎ Sep 04 2015 🗫︎ replies

That was a great podcast

👍︎︎ 25 👤︎︎ u/TheYetiCaptain1993 📅︎︎ Sep 04 2015 🗫︎ replies

I've only even seen Leno on the Tonight Show, he's a really cool guy outside of that format.

👍︎︎ 10 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Sep 04 2015 🗫︎ replies

Biggest name star to date on jre?

👍︎︎ 21 👤︎︎ u/nothumbnails 📅︎︎ Sep 03 2015 🗫︎ replies

That hooker story... wow.

👍︎︎ 8 👤︎︎ u/TruNinja619 📅︎︎ Sep 04 2015 🗫︎ replies

" I don't know why they don't like each other"

NOBODY FUCKING LIKES ABBY MARTIN

👍︎︎ 8 👤︎︎ u/chaddaddycwizzie 📅︎︎ Sep 04 2015 🗫︎ replies