Why Jim Breuer Quit SNL

the jurogan experience i'd even won snl i didn't want snl now you and i both know that was uh nobody came out of going that's the greatest gig it's very rarely people came out they come out like they were in a fight absolutely like they just got out of a [ __ ] bar fight exactly that's how phil hartman was when i first started working with phil hartman in 94 he had just left snl and he it took a while for him to be comfortable around us like the news radio people the actors were super friendly everybody liked to get hammered that was like the big thing we would get [ __ ] blasted drunk yeah but we were all like really like in terms of like actors genuinely supportive like dave foley was the most supportive guy ever like he was always writing jokes for you he was always like rewriting scenes for you like jim come in and say this instead well he would write like really great lines but phil was like he look he was in a competition at first he thought like everybody was going to be competing then he once he relaxed feel like smoke weed and once he relaxed he's like you know going on over there was like everything was like doggy dog and everybody's at each other's throats it's dog-eat-dog it's and there's no rhyme or reason yeah there's no rhyme or reason it's it's just like politics in other words i can't help with congress what bill they're gonna pass even they know even they know this is gonna work nope same kind of stuff it's the same exact thing because you're fighting to get your bits on right you're fighting to get your pieces on you're fine to get your your little sketches on yeah and the worst the the worst part is you know something's gonna work and you have someone come to you towards the end it made me such a dark human being because i i'm the hey man let's all yeah let's all be a team and i used to when i when i worked with hats i said let's look at this roster holy crap let's see who goes in the boston comedy club let's just buy a script and put everyone in it and let them play to their strength wow you know this one i'm like i wish i had the business smarts to go back and do that because you're it would have been it would have been so much fun i mean maybe it would have been disaster maybe this guy maybe i would end up getting leather pants so i got my [ __ ] white lion leather pants but it makes you so you know i i i don't want to better never you never got memories you never got bitter but you understood that bitterness is an option correct and i start smoking an intense amount of pot yeah just to numb myself i remember when you told me you quit you're like dude i'm hearing voices i think the government's following me you went so far i went far i would jim quit and but then i talked to like oh he might have went into never never land he went he went to the land of no return well when you start thinking that the government is watching you nonstop non-stop they're honoring me because they know i think by myself it's like the scene in goodfellas the goddamn [ __ ] helicopter i [ __ ] love that scene but um i will say this um yeah i have have you returned to the fold i haven't returned the way i have in the past but a little bit but i have i have uh you will never see me it's very private you have you're a private weed smoker yeah how does that work in other words i don't do it with people anymore because it keeps the paranoia away because i don't trust anyone oh i don't trust anyone i still don't and i haven't smoked smoked i like i went a bit i went out to colorado and the five little milligrams and the tenderloin fives are nice those little edibles oh my god five's nice yes just have that yeah and then have like a martini martini extra dirty not too dirty i like it dirty i like it i like it not crazy dirty but a little dirty a little dirty i like that olive juice it's delicious i do too so here's what happened my wife this is why this is why my wife's a powerhouse she when you find someone that don't give a [ __ ] about the industry and they only care about you it's very hard as as an artist that's chasing a star because you're always chasing the star and you're always chasing the mansion she would go i'll never forget she's like why you just quit like i seriously are you stupid you don't quit santa live the hell is she and she's like look at you you come home you're miserable they control everything they steal your ideas this one stole i saw my own two eyes how they treated you in this how did they steal your ideas here we go i'll give you i'm sure you don't want to get high first let's go take a pee break let's take a p-ring no here's and again i've released all this okay you know i got a strong moral backbone i'm good so no i don't have any bad feelings what happened was and i'm not going to put out i don't want to hash names and all that but what would happen is something like this you're writing a sketch and then one of the head writers would come in in the doorway and go hey i see you're writing a sketch about blah blah blah because we have the main server and we check everyone's sketches i just want to let you know i'm writing the same thing he goes you can continue yours but you know i'm in the room with lauren i'm just whoa oh yeah so this is that so they would go onto the server they would see the sketches that you're writing and then then there was then there was times where a cast member would come in and look at look at my board and go oh what does that mean like oh that's that's a that's a sketch and i know so and so has come in and i know the ratings are going to be high that week so i'm waiting to bring my a stuff for that everyone's going to come out their fangs out when this one's on so i'm going to save that sketch for when they're on and then this person would ask me oh my god what exactly i said well i'm gonna take it out of its element you know like for like i was back then i was like peshy i'm like pesky is gonna read to children about rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and tell explain why his nose is red and the big joke is because he's a rat and and i compared to a whole neighborhood he's a rat that's why his nose is red when you go and so you end up beating certain kids moba the next week the whole room is set and and you're sitting there and then this person you know lauren goes next sketch is uh you know al pacino or scarface reading to school children rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and you go you you you and you look you see their their eyes are down you know what's going on you know what happened you can't say anything well when you say something which i eventually did dude i think i may be and i want to challenge all snl cast and writers i may be the last one that threatened violence i was in i was in a room with one of the guys and i literally said i will knock your [ __ ] teeth down your [ __ ] throat you [ __ ] if you don't want to [ __ ] be here get the [ __ ] out you don't [ __ ] on my [ __ ] cause you don't want to [ __ ] oh dude whoa and i was and i told him i'll knock him the [ __ ] knock his [ __ ] teeth down i'm not i'm not from the writing world so that's where that place brought me wow and so and that particular instance was see now i'm getting all over that's gotta be coming from the top down because the when when i got alone with philip phil and i became close and you know we would hang out together especially in his his dress room we had a nice dressing room had it all set up had a guitar looking at his aviation books and [ __ ] and he would uh we would talk about his time there and he's like it just made me that's just bitter and angry yes yeah but it seems like it's always been that way that it's been from the top down and and this particular year were you on 95 to 98 so you were on right after phil left yeah because i was with phil in 94. and so when that person did that i then went up to them and i waited and i was like you [ __ ] he goes i didn't no i didn't take it now this one also is getting more air time because they're in with this specific head writer and then the head writer comes to me hey man leave him alone i go hey man stop him from stealing well you know i don't care what he does just leave him alone during my sketches like why you do so you're it's like you're in high school and so yeah it's it it makes you and then here i remember doing something where i played a drunk guy and i didn't know exactly how to do it but i i always wanted to be another foster brooks so long story short i want to do another foster brooks type thing so i did the character i'm not a great writer i'm not a good writer at all um but like i'll come up the character and try to eat and if we could put it in somewhere great and i remember the writer coming up saying yeah lauren doesn't like uh drunks because you know the past and john and blah blah blah oh okay and then two weeks later john belushi yeah i guess that's what he meant and then two weeks later it's the drunk character like what dude what the it's just it's little things that mind screw you like that so by the time the big the big finale was towards the end you know someone told me you know what sandler did sandlin went through this everyone went through this comedians go through this what you got to do is get on the update and you gotta get in the uh do everything you can to go on the update and everything again opening monologue because the head writers can't mess with you because that's that's not really their departure so crazy that that's something you have to think about so then that's why i started doing it if you notice in 98 i started getting more monologues and then even there they were like we got this and then it was uh a final monologue it was matthew broderick and it was when matthew broadwork was on and he he couldn't get through some of the sketches i was doing with him he'd start laughing and so when we went to he really wanted to do this monologue with me and this one these these particular head writers were like no we're not doing it although matthew was like i want to do gems i want to do jim and tracy's and there was two three sketches we had together and he laughed during the dress like he couldn't keep straight fast and then i remember the head this particular writer had a problem with i never probably just didn't like whatever you had a hard-on for me whatever i i can't i don't i don't understand ego if you got an ego that is what it is and he said um yeah it's too bad he laughed because now we don't know if it works so that's going to be caught in this cut and you listen we filmed the monologue it worked but we're gonna go with my monologue during the air show i was like you know what man i'm gonna talk to lauren he goes no you're not i said no i'm i'm talking to lauren now i'm not afraid to talk to lauren anymore because that's an author it's like you know i'll talk to the president don't talk to the president they put this so he would say no you're not you're going to talk to lauren 100 we'll talk to him what no we'll both go talk to him and then that's i knew right from that minute i was done i knew it was done and then that summer this guy named uh gary considine he ran the tonight show and he said jim what happened dude i said what's the matter he goes so-and-so and so and so are are really same you're out no really i go well tell you what i don't want to be there anymore my wife's like just please quit it's just you said in your life if any job no matter how much money it paid makes you a miserable human being and changes the person you are you weren't going to work there it's like look at you you're angry all the time you smoke pot all the time to numb yourself you you're not jim anymore where's the goofy uplifting gym and i wanted to i wanted i feel like you're so stupid but too bad but she was so smart she was so smart and it was the greatest and i give lorne a lot of credit because lauren said to me um jim you're too nice for this business wow and he said which i'll never forget there's a couple things lauren said and i never blamed lauren i always really admired lauren i said uh oh he goes and if you ever want want to do something i'm your producer i'll produce it for you which i never took that opportunity up but i'll never forget when he said that to me so i was very thankful that he was understanding and let me go catch new episodes of the joe rogan experience for free only on spotify watch back catalog jre videos on spotify including clips easily seamlessly switch between video and audio experience on spotify you can listen to the jre in the background by using other apps and can download episodes to save on data cost all for free spotify is absolutely free you don't have to have a premium account to watch new jre episodes you just need to search for the jre on your spotify app go to spotify now to get this full episode of the joe rogan experience

Channel: PowerfulJRE

Views: 1,247,590

Rating: 4.8856163 out of 5

Keywords: Joe Rogan Experience, JRE, Joe, Rogan, podcast, MMA, comedy, stand, up, funny, Freak, Party

Id: 6YQvWK9GPsY

Length: 15min 1sec (901 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 19 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/needle_girl]

he's told these stories a lot but i take them with a grain of salt. it reminds me of how Jay Mohr relays a lot of awful anecdotes in his SNL book but downplays the fact that he himself was also kind of a douche, and several cast members have said some of the stuff in his book is either exaggerated or straight up false

Adam McKay (the writer Breuer is talking about) said on another podcast that he didn't perceive any of it this way and gives completely different reasons as to why Breuer's SNL tenure ended poorly. obviously that's only his own perspective, but i think what happened was McKay was just kind of a hardass as headwriter and Jim took it very personally. the writers room isn't as competitive and toxic nowadays compared to the 90s from what current writers have said

[u/Hikeonanon]

I think I could be in a room with him for about 30 seconds.

[u/grozenlampreys]

He doesn't name him here, but if you've heard his WTF Marc Maron interview from years ago the guy hes talking about who made him snap and go nuts as was Adam McKay, who (according Breuer at least) had it out for Jim and tried to get Lorne to fire him the entire time he was on SNL.