the green room with paul provenza 2.01

sorry you can't come in dressed like an idiot [Music] it's a bunch of comedians a novice in French you're not supposed to be here but if you called me to talk that you've ever been offended by anything [Music] [Applause] on this ray I never see ray enough used to share egg creams at the Comedy Cellar and then he got a big hit TV show and they started printing money just a hand directly to him he's part of the whole bailout mess but it's his new show that he took another big leap that's fantastic I took a pay cut we're crying crying darling you your first job in writing didn't carry a hired means who write jokes for the Grammys yeah 1990 yeah you all remember it yeah and I do remember some of the jokes fire away I remember you had some joke a country band came out and the guy had these crazy sideburns and you said I've never seen sideburns like that before and I'm a Trekkie a judge joking also did you that was your job that was my job my joke was why am i hosting the Grammys obviously I have nothing to do with music but actually I do have something to do with music my girlfriend used to do the guy in your a heap that's right out of my journal you had one of the best moments I ever saw on television Bob Dylan had just accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award Yeah right and and it took forever and no he made no sense and Nicholson presented it to him and you came out and after a really long pause you said Jack Nicholson and Bob Dylan we were just discussing how they should do more television what I learned from that you see certainly when I started I think a lot of comics still feel this way and haven't made the transition as they think of everybody as an object so that's an object for a joke because he was on before me but if you end up then actually meeting the person yes there's an apology necessary once did he apologize for babbling like a madman Paul I I also I was I was running down he talked to say he he shouldn't be able to talk before him yeah yeah I got through fair point I am I'm of the younger generation so I just wonder for all of you who are you it's so good it's it's so good because it's so mutual [Applause] the truth is I saw yours you're special like just a couple weeks ago I was really into what you were doing and I said now who is this and then he thought you were emo Philips I'm a big fan of both and you kind of had a quick projectory in a very short time and people gave you [ __ ] for it without even having to yeah the biggest reason people give me [ __ ] is they came on the internet they said that I didn't get enough criticism I wasn't in the clubs grinding right grinding it out but the truth it's up for the older conscious say that I want them to read 10,000 internet comments and see if they don't feel fully criticized it's the most vitriolic personal I mean it's one thing for a heckler to have to heckle you onstage and own that moment but when people are faceless and don't have to get the repercussions for that there were something we'd said about you the first comment I ever got was when I was 15 it was go-go-gadget [ __ ] that seems supportive when honestly I meant it as supportive I know we just cut you right off at the term someone said it so when I first met Bo I asked him who his favorite comic is and he said Hans Teeuwen exactly he's a dutch comedian and when I met you you were 9 I can't really talk about it Krishna the restraining order I was just blown away that you would even know who he was what's his name Hans Taylor you do a little bit of thing is the Dutch absurdist one of the things he does is he brings out a sock puppet which is a black sock so you already I don't like yeah it's a white sock and he just sings a song and feeds the sock a Baby Ruth and just crunches in the baby at the entire time it's insane well I where just seems like there's the really only rules about stand-up comedy is you have to stand up onstage you have to be funny and there seems to be all these invisible rules that people put up like you know starting with your second best joke ending with your best joke who told you this yeah I'd say I took a comedy class now when I was 19 at the University of Arizona I'd never been in a comedy club in my life and I saw that George Carlin was appearing at a club in Phoenix I took my material naively up to see if he would look at it cuz I sat down and wrote some material that I thought was right for Carlin and he was standing by the bar and I asked him if he would read the material and he said why I write my own stuff but I look at it and he said come back tomorrow night and the next night I drove back he does it turned out took me into his dressing room and had read everything and said man you know I think you're really fun I think you're very green but there's something funny on each page because I think what he sensed is the essence of something funny and then that could be developed because at the core your essence is funny then you just attach it to your personality which clearly should be checked hey Gary I got a couple of jokes that I yeah my my Carlin conversations were never really quite that he would just call me on the phone I go hello and he'd go why don't men like to sleep with their women in the mornings I'd go I don't know and he'd go do you ever try and open a grilled cheese sandwich click so he was using my stuff now did you ever have a moment where you were like that guy's amazing I'm gonna go up to him and talk to him well the first comedy album I heard was Bill Cosby somebody stated Bill Cosby Tom to Russell my brother whom I slept with it was my first hearing anyone do stand-up really and it was just so natural and so and and he's the one who turned me on to it you know I don't say emulate him but but that style that conversational style was was just appealing he's funny last night he was hilarious wasn't he no I was how I just the fear is as you get older you don't hold up anymore and it was great you know he's 73 years old and I was laughing just like I was when he was younger yeah did you picture your career this way when you start out is like what you wanted here you know my goal was to do stand-up I just loved this town I was making a living doing stand-up I did The Tonight Show with Johnny I did the HBO I did the young conveyance special with this guy's 17 years ago it was the young comedian special and I was kind of old then yeah I was yeah i noticed that i was like 'if i remember the time this thing ray is so much better than all of us i remember seeing your standup and thinking that guy's gonna be a great writer [Laughter] I worked out aches from Raymond on YouTube and every take you did a different punchline and each one was funnier than the next well before we would tape the show I would sit down with a couple wanted to rise and go let's see if there any second takes to do that kind of stuff but we still I still thought of them yeah I just give himself more of a compliment because that's the preparation that then allows him to get even freer after he does all that so that's the Zen Buddhism in you yeah you've been on a real introspective journey haven't you till now that's right no cuz where's mark and I we've talked about this on his pocket WTF podcast it's the best so we get really personal and we had a conversation where we were talking about how introspective we got and how it screwed with us and is that the same as self obsessive uh in your case absolutely I mean how do you make the shift introspective sounds like actually no boy do you know yourself obsessive yes then yours introspective well this is there's a difference though you can still be introspective and not show any of that on stage directly like I don't talk about life I mean you're so clearly if I make this is a compliment you are so clearly a very unique fellow that it's clear that just by being yourself that stuff comes out of you it doesn't mean that you have to talk about yourself necessarily right no no no right right right I know that you've been on an internal journey a spirit children would you call the spirit spirit yeah it's it's it's pronounced spiritual you know you know I've been meditating far too far too long to be happy about anything the I'm at peace and but I don't really don't know what I want to say about this well Gary brought one of his monk friends very serious month to the set of knocked up one yeah and I was you know a little nervous and what it turned out we were shooting was a woman wearing a prosthetic vagina and the head would just come in and out in and out for that scene in the movie and so we have Gary and the monk at the monitor and I'm just going like okay head out of vagina head in Medinah and among the monkeys in his robe with a shaved head with headphones on yes and there's really nothing to hear except him yelling that's too far out yeah and yet the beauty of it was as I was watching him and he would smile because he felt what was happening was funny so in the movie knocked up yes a head was coming in and out of a vagina well in the movie it just came out when you shoot a movie I thought it was like an indecisive baby but we forgot the key to it is this monk is that he has seven fingers yeah and in total in total and so he comes to the to our hotel room and my wife instantly just said what happened to your fingers which usually you would wait a minute to ask somebody and so now my children are there and I'm thinking well this is a great moment cuz he'll teach them about Buddhism and this will change their lives yeah and so he said well in order to really practice and teach I burned them off I covered them with cloth and I lit them on fire and I meditated as a way of testing myself to be strong so I could teach other people your kids and my kids are like holy [ __ ] you know and then I hung out with a monk all day and then I came back and and I said so my wife and what'd you think of the monk hoping like in addition to the finger thing she had a spiritual moment and she just said that guys [ __ ] nuts if I didn't bow I would [Laughter] [Applause] stay on comedy and comedy seems so inherently Western it's like to understand Eastern oh then that might me be me being so no your but I like how does that affect your perspective I'm calm because I don't I don't lay down some wisdom Wow yeah that is the correct question the answer to that takes a tad of time I think the eastern philosophy really encourages authenticity authenticity and nothing but authenticity what I saw when I saw you on stage is I didn't see a fake moment but here's where it gets difficult to explain or understand is that bow actually when he performs his there's a lot of ironic detachment there there's a lot of you know you're not really revealing yourselves I never talk about what I really think about on stage directly because I just don't think I don't value what I think at this point how about those issues well just really like I don't I don't think anyone wants to get up in here a 20 year old like tell them what they tell the world what would you do a favor just kind of making sure give me a favor would you do art is dead because I think that song says everything that I think I'm talking about yeah he's a prop comic [Laughter] [Music] art is dead heart is dead and art is dead art is dead entertainers like to seem complicated we're not complicated I can explain it pretty easily have you ever been to a birthday party for children one of the children who won't stop screaming cuz he's just a little attention attracts her when he grows up to be a comic or actor he'll be rewarded for never maturing for never understanding or learning every day can't be about and there's other people yourself there's a must be psychotic it must be demented to think that I'm worthy of all this attention of all of this money you worked really hard for I slept in late while you worked at the drugstore my drugs attention I am an addicts but I can pay to indulge in my habit it's all an illusion I'm wearing makeup I'm wearing Meg art is dance the people think you're funny how do we get those people's money settle art instead we're rolling it so I'll Carly enrolls in history [Music] so he's got a bunch in the show has got a part in all the poor people way more deserving of the money go budget it cuz we wanted our name and lights when we could've been a family of four for 40 [ __ ] for nine forty [ __ ] I'm an art if these God forgive me I am an artist please don't premiere me I an artist he's don't respect me I am an artist feel free to correct me self standard art is self obsessed artist I am an artist I am an artist but I'm just a kid I'm just a kid I'm just a kid maybe I'll grow out of it Thank You Man I think that's kind of interesting from a comic as I thought it was cute it's very hard to watch someone that funny that young when you think of how unfunny you were at 20 years old all I did at 20 is worried about my hair I think yeah that's a dead end as long as you guys as you got more successful did you did you feel like you got better or do you get more insecure I'm out of this one right yeah me too [Laughter] [Applause] pay attention I think if I think of when I was the happiest and I'm not complaining I love what I'm doing and all that but I think when I was doing stand-up I was going in a cellar and hanging out with you guys and my twins with two years old kind it was crazy I think of that and I was still kind of screwed up there but I think I was the happiest thing but I'm happy now - I'm not saying I'm not happy now I'm saying I love my show I love what I'm doing I love getting the gray is happy yeah ray is happy so that don't we thinking he's not [ __ ] happy but there's another layer to this I just have a little piece that pulled out of the documentary you did a documentary with Tom Celtic piano during one of the hiatuses Raymond we went on a stand-up tour and he said I'm gonna film it and that was it became this thing yeah it was against my will almost it's called 95 miles to go and there's some really really interesting stuff in here that put on the guy put on the homeless guy with the good voice all this adulation yes there's a part of me the inside of thinks and it doesn't buy in at all I think like there's something gonna be the things any split second they could turn on me and say are you really a dick we don't like it you know I mean they like the pros the golf pros would be my friend of course because it's artificial anyway hey baby but I mean even nobody I'm saying I don't even buy the artificial I don't even buy that they like me as a star because I guess it's because inside I know I'm not quite what they think I am it's a it's a weird feeling of even when they're cheering there's a little part of you that still feels like you're an imposter does that ever go away not according to anybody I've talked to yeah I think you think when your show ended that it was just such a monster success one of the greatest shows ever in television nine years he never got weaker that it would fill your ego so you would feel great for 20 years and then it just didn't happen I I believe that like for like a week like like this is enough I write my father never hugged me but this is [ __ ] enough he hugged me wives my father and it was I was about 20 and it felt very awkward and I know now what made it awkward the nudity [Laughter] [Applause] my mom would tuck me in and say [ __ ] me honey your father aughh you and then in your ear say I don't want to live anymore you know I could never make out what he was saying I was at a bomb in some of my brother's kids Bat Mitzvah it was my job to buffer my father from the world I go to pick him up thinking were going to my brother's house to see the kids I say you're ready to go he goes where we going I said well we're going to see Craig's kids and he goes before and I said cuz they're your grandchildren he goes you know some people get something mad that I can't get anything out of that why is that I mean is that consistent with how you grew up with him what that he's a pathologically selfish narcissistic bipolar freak yeah is that what you're asking me or am i reading into it oh I'm asking you is did you learn anything about you yes what did you learn about you I learned that I never want to be that that I have to fight the wiring Wow well right I don't think it's going well now we get along fine he writes me emails in all caps I want to hear about your journey I want to know if you've if you've attained anything through your study of Buddhism I I don't know if it ain't is the right word so with the whole thing's a mess I mean you get closer to just being what exactly does that mean so translate it into comedy what it means oh my god translating how do you I well it's closest to where he's starting which is I'm not really trying to be anything right now I'm sitting down I'm gonna this is what I do do you think Bose is healthy I think I was really healthy yeah and and he can be as funny as ice [ __ ] up you know I always come on you gotta be on by you want to be yeah yeah well the really [ __ ] up part was the little time I spend in clubs I'd find myself jealous of the problems that our comics had because I felt like I wasn't legitimate because anything that I've achieved I've achieved in light of nothing like I've had people patting me on the back since day one like I think I did that's hard I know that's true there's a thing Gary's DVD where he's talking to Jerry Seinfeld and he was saying Gary you know it's not all about pain you don't say be in pain to be funny isn't it about talent can't he just be born with like a god-given gift and you're just a talented person and you can communicate and it's all about that I said I hear rage well I just think the absolute comedy comes from pain I think kind of limits what comedy is because I think comedy comes from love it comes from like fear it comes from hey you're gonna tell me you're not [ __ ] angry oh no no no I mean come on I saw that song I see oh no no no what you went through no I'm talking total anger but I just say that it's you're angry aren't you but I'm arrogant from everything it comes from everything is what you're saying if the anger there I don't think that's damage that I need to fix I'm just like stuck up enough to think that they're wrong we've just focused on anger here and all that stuff the problems with the parents but there will be other elements that include love and everything else you've mentioned that as you sort those out they will continue to give you be fodder for your next song right that's all it's whatever yeah yeah yeah just that absolute calm but someone who isn't sorting out those that stuff within them are we meeting here again next week yes all right it's helping me tremendously but but all my journey is is to be authentically Who I am not trying to be somebody else under all circumstances sure there isn't the whole world is confused because they're trying to be somebody else to be your true self is it takes an enormous work then we could start to look at the problems in the world but instead of ego drives it ego drives the world the ego drives the problems so you have to work in an egoless way this egolessness which is the key to being authentic is a battle and it's a battle that has to be won before we're worried about the economy now I think that for a comic it's a dangerous path so yeah I'm curious do you think you think being a comic sort of like stunts our growth in that direction I would say that I struggle to not have that happen that's my struggle yeah but why did the birds fall out of the sky first of all I don't think really a lot of them are that good at flying [Applause] everybody takes it for granted there's a bird we're talking about how hard is to be a comic and we know they're all different all of a sudden five hundred Birds fell how many guys haven't made it through the improv I'm assuming that I will get a little bit of an understanding of what your journey towards enlightenment has been like I want to understand this is not a safe environment to do it what would be a safe environment why do you just keep asking me about it but I feel that you're very close to the vest about about your experience and i'm janie something in our society that says there's some importance to heart and authenticity not just money power and how are we going to control the world shut out the town Gary Shandling [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: offely

Views: 1,103,506

Rating: 4.9407363 out of 5

Keywords: bo burnham, ray romano, marc maron and garry shandling

Id: wwXAmpMv32Y

Length: 27min 39sec (1659 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 18 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/The_Adventurist]

I LOVED this show and this is arguably the best episode. I wish they brought it back, doesn't seem like it would be an expensive production.

[u/gonesnake]

Thanks for posting! That was sweet. Pretty cool contrast between the older comics and Burnham. And a good cross section of different kinds of comedians: sitcom successes (Shandling, Romano), a guy that achieved later in life (Maron), and someone that rolled into writing and producing over standup (Apatow).

[u/awesomeman462]

I love this show and Bo Burnham is one of my favorite comics working today, but he seemed so awkward and left out, being the youngest of the group.

[u/kielbasa330]

Is "It's Garry Shandling's Show" available to stream anywhere?

[u/saxwellreddit]

"That's a dead end" line by Gary to Marc Maron is one of the best off-the-cuff deliveries I've ever seen. For someone reason the dry honest-but-not-too-honest way he throws it at him is just genius and makes me laugh every time.

Every few months I think of it and go replay this vid -- too good.

[u/[deleted]]

Ron Jeremy is having a blast.

[u/neutralstrike]

I loved the episode with Doug stanhope, Dave Attell and Garofalo.
Sad its was cancelled.

[u/ballzak0206]

Fuck, I miss this show

[u/dssboucher]

man, I need more of that. thanks