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Hey guys, it s Spadoodle.
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You can always go to davidspade.com to look at my tour dates, because I bless a lot of cities in America with my hilarious stand-up act.
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Or you could not go to it and get on my enemy list.
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Up to you!
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This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.
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But you know, look at how fast, we re almost halfway through the year.
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Crazy, yeah.
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Are you proud of what you ve done in 2020 so far?
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I mean, you always wanna do more, right?
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Life goes so fast, David, it s important to take a moment to celebrate your wins, make adjustments for the rest of the year.
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Therapy can help you take stock of your progress and set achievable goals for the next six months.
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Listen, therapy is the way to go.
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I did it for a while.
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And I think the thing that slowed me down was what they, is driving to Santa Monica in traffic once or twice a week.
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This is online.
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It s a great idea.
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Very convenient.
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It helps you.
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You ve got coping skills, how to set boundaries.
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I mean, there s so many things you can do here to be a better version of yourself.
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You can probably always sharpen it.
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Yeah, I mean, I had a therapist in Portland and I would commute and that was a pain.
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That s a long drive.
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I know it was 1300 miles one way, but you know, it s good therapist.
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But yeah, this one you can mix and match and your thoughts kind of control you and you want to master them.
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And when you talk to someone else, they re able to kind of discern it out.
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So if you re thinking of starting to give therapy a try, give better help a try.
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Yeah, it s entirely online designed to be convenient, flexible, suited to your schedule.
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You fill out a questionnaire, get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapist if you want to, for any reason, no charge.
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Take a moment, visit betterhelp.com slash FOTW today.
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Get 10% off your first month.
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That s betterhelp, H-E-L-P.com slash F-O-T-W.
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Jimmy Jimbo Brewer.
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Jim Brewer is a buddy of mine.
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I don t see barely ever anymore.
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He was on, we overlapped a little bit, we talked about that.
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He is such a character.
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My two buddies in Arizona always hit me up with the Jim Brewer clips.
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He s got great standup, he s bananas.
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He has a really funny story about
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When he worked at Sears, I think he worked in paints or something, in the paint department, and he does this elaborate story of how he called in a bomb threat.
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I think that s what happened.
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It was so, so nuts.
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But everything he says, he knows how to tell a story.
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I ll give him that.
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The guy knows how to talk.
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We were cracking up.
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We asked about, of course, goat boy.
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It took so long for him to get that on, I think, and I don t know.
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If this is just a lot of laughs, we were all laughing.
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Sometimes it s like that.
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Sometimes it s more informative.
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But we just cracked up.
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So stick around, kick back, pull over, put it in park.
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And as you know, Dana is still not here.
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But we did this one right before.
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Last year, we banked it.
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And we are going to get a few out.
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And then hopefully, Dana s back.
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And we just keep going.
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We don t miss a beat.
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So thank you for understanding.
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And he appreciates everything, and he ll be speaking about it and everything when he comes back.
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Here s Jim Brewer.
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Don t do anything without me.
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Nothing.
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Look at Brewer.
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Oh, shoot, hold on.
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Like a rock star, always just showing up when he s ready to go.
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Uh-huh.
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Look at Brewer, looks like De Niro.
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I m on the road, and I literally just checked into an Airbnb.
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Where are you playing?
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This will come out in three months.
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All right, some place in Cincinnati.
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You look good though.
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You look good, damn.
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You do too.
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I took three hours on this Zoom.
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We look good.
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I mean, look where we re at in life.
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We re not sagging, we re not like...
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What s up, guys?
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It s great seeing you guys.
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Things are good, you know.
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Dana, I was with my two idiot friends in Arizona, and we were leaving some deli, and we saw these guys, and they were all old and beat up, and we were like, holy shit, this is really us in 10 years.
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Then they go, hey, Spade, we went to school with you.
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And I go, oh, shut the fuck up, really?
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Is this?
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Well, I m so I was beating the system a little bit there because they go, we totally gave up.
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And I go, well, no, there s a lot of giving up people.
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Well, let s get started.
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Yeah.
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My my relatives, they re not photographed.
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They don t want pictures that they don t they re not on zooms.
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They don t see themselves.
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So they get in the mirror, they put the chin up, they have good lighting, and then they wonder what the fuck happened to me.
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you know like if i put them on you know let me get a little iphone around you let me get a side angle but you can really think you look a lot younger why does everybody look so old but i represent a little further up the ladder than you too so yeah let s see you yeah you can wikipedia well jim s younger than me so you re the you re the kid here
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Jim is still on fire.
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That s one thing I wanted to mention, Jim, the physicality and the energy, because I saw I saw some of your special from last year at the Comedy Store in La Jolla.
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Yeah.
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And I was impressed because a lot of times
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I ll jump around out there.
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I ve seen other comedians do a physical move.
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And then they re, they re doing kind of this, but you went ballistic at the beginning of that special.
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You came out super mellow, put like your phone down and then you d be like five minutes of fucking Jim Carrey, 10 X energy and balls out funny.
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And then I m waiting for, I m going, this guy s going to have to take a seat like Frazier.
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But so do you work out?
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Is that just because you do it a lot?
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Cause you didn t, you sustained it and you didn t get, you didn t get out of breath.
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So how do you, do you have, you re like, no, I listen.
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So I think it was maybe two years ago before I did that, where I was on stage and
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I, I thought someone got up from the, I thought someone was aggravated by something I was saying and they took a baseball and they threw it at me because I was hopping around and I felt my calf.
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And so I literally turned and I went,
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Okay, who did that?
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And they re all looking at me like I m crazy.
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And I went, Oh, no, no, no, you re not getting away with that.
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Like you don t throw things.
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And they re looking at me like I m crazy.
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And then I went to walk.
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I was Oh, God.
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And long story short, I just
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I didn t know you could blow a calf muscle.
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My calf muscle whore.
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Wow.
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How high up was it?
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Was it where that meets the Achilles, like two thirds down?
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Or was it up toward your knee?
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No, it was it was literally the fat.
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Is that part of your calf?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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They were like, if it was just a little bit here, we would have talking about the Achilles heel and the whole.
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OK.
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Yeah.
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So I didn t hit that.
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So because of that,
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I even now, I stretch and I do a lot of stretching before I get out there.
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I do cardio, but I do a lot of stretching before I go out there.
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A lot of stretching, yeah.
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Because you didn t before, right?
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No.
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What comedian goes out there like they re going to the NBA finals?
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I know, I don t do it.
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And then now, and then I go, but I don t move around that much.
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You don t move around.
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And I don t do jokes.
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No, you don t.
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And I just lay down.
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Yeah.
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And you sell out.
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It s called Sleepy Time with Spade.
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I don t know how you sell the tickets.
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They love it.
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Lines around the block.
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But you re doing a rooster thing.
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Your hands are out.
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I mean, it s incredibly physical.
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So anyway, I loved I grew up with that.
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Like I loved Lauren Hardy.
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I love and comedians once prior came out.
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Richard Pryor s, I m the same thing.
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I m just a street entertainer.
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I, whatever, what I grew up on the street, I just see the story.
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And then I elaborate the story and then he, he acts everything out like, Hey, this is what happened.
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No, I m going to act it out.
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But.
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Yeah, that San Diego one, I went extremely nuts on that one.
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Well, plus you re taping.
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Well, it reminded me, because you can fall asleep about stand-up mentally, and when I saw that, I went, damn, commitment should never be underrated.
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Like prior with the gangsters the one in Long Beach his special.
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Yeah, yeah real commitment to the voice and to the character Yeah, extremely entertaining whenever I see anybody throw their voice anywhere.
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I go.
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Yeah, I do that I better do that, but yeah, you go that s really entertaining.
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So Thank you.
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Thank you.
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You know what you re doing up there.
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Mr. Brewer.
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I
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Well, he s not walking through it, which is nice.
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Like you re saying, he s not just going, here s Mac.
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When I grew up and I was doing standup, Dana, before SNL, we were probably the same thing.
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Like when you go on the road and you work with a headliner.
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They could do the same 45 every time you see them for 10 years.
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And then you go, and they re just beginning, middle, end.
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You know it back and forth and they walk back and then they get a drink and you go, shit.
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But for someone to actually think, sometimes you even catch yourself in your own joke and it gets better because you put a new spin on it.
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Because you re saying it and you go, what am I really saying here?
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And you get back into the story the way you thought of it and you gotta say it and lean into it and go, this, this, and it sells it harder.
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You re not just saying it.
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And so when, uh, Jim is, uh, a little more animated or just that style, you have to bring it.
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It s a little trickier.
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It definitely can t walk through it.
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No, I can t.
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I can t walk through there because it s really the bad part of it for me is if that energy is not there, I don t do it.
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If I, if my energy has to stay down here, I can adjust to it and then I could do.
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you know, laid back storytelling.
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But when it s really, really most explosive for me is when there I can feel their energy right out of the gate.
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And then that feeds, I guess like a band.
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And then I, then I start going in all different directions that I didn t really plan.
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And then I m in the zone and that s, that s when I have so much fun, so much fun.
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And I, cause you re surprising yourself in the moment you re going off.
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Yeah.
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Yes, I m addicted to that.
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I don t enjoy repeating.
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Like even now, it s all leading up to some specials, but there s one whole section.
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And every night I m hitting a section, I m like, oh my God, I m bored with this already.
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I need to find another avenue.
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And then I ll find another avenue.
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I m like, ah, I love it again.
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That s very true.
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That s very true.
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It s one new bit, one new idea that lifts the whole night up.
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God, you try to do another bit, you re going out there and you re doing an hour and you go, I have one joke that s new and you cannot wait.
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You re like, here I go, we re in the middle.
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And then I smash it because when it fucking bombs, I put a winner before it and after, and I just act like nothing happened.
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But if it works, the rest of the time I m like, oh yeah, it does wake you up.
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Yes, man, it feels good.
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Yeah, you still can think of fucking jokes.
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It s so hard.
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I hate when something has been killing for a couple of years and then just all of a sudden it starts to fade away.
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Horrible.
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Am I not committing to it?
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You know, I always tell young comedians, I mean, if you see someone run over something in a street, you come up to your apartment, you re talking to your friends, you want to have that kind of commitment and energy.
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You get right to it.
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You re very clear.
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It was this lady driving a car, this and that.
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And then months later, you just unravel it and you don t really, it s, but your energy is still up there, man.
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Well, thank you.
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Let s let s get to the old Jim one said he d love something.
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What would you know?
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I loved I got excited when I saw you guys hook up together and start doing this.
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I thought that was a I thought that was really.
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Fascinating, interesting, I was like, oh, because, you know, it s a billion podcast now.
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So talk about comedy again.
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Oh, God.
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And the guy didn t pay me.
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Shut the fuck up.
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No, we agree.
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We just kind of went, oh, I guess we ll try this.
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We started hanging out in L.A.
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when I moved back down a lot.
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And then we just sort of said, let s try it.
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And we didn t really have a plan, obviously.
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But that s the best part of it.
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I mean, even when I even when I started, like we re able to
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just who cares?
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Because the end of day and go back on stage, you re already established in that world.
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You know, all three of us are.
1
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So who cares?
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You know, there s there s I won t say who it is, but there s a gargantuan, at least one or two comics on there.
1
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Nobody s watching the podcast, but doesn t stop the human being from selling out 18,000 seats somewhere.
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But this just opens a whole new door for us where
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In the years ago, we didn t have this.
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And human beings are fascinated by anything that feels authentic.
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It doesn t have to be funny every second, but just, this is a new thing.
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I m glad I m around long enough to like, okay, this is a job that I have.
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A little side gig.
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Did you feel any point you didn t want to get vulnerable?
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Like on the podcast?
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I don t know how vulnerable the two of you get, like how truthful you guys get.
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Dana gets more.
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I would imagine, yeah.
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There s different kinds of vulnerability.
1
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There s stuff that maybe would involve other loved ones.
1
SPEAKER_00
Wouldn t do that, but you can ask me anything you want about anything.
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SPEAKER_01
No, that s, that s the way I mean, that s what I feel like bone.
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I, I, over the years have found out the more vulnerability I put out there, the more honesty, even if I think people are like, Oh, I don t care.
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I m right.
1
SPEAKER_01
I m at that point.
1
SPEAKER_01
I don t care what you know about me.
1
SPEAKER_01
I ll tell you everything.
1
SPEAKER_01
and this one s bad.
1
SPEAKER_01
I don t care.
1
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I don t care.
1
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You got nothing to hold on to anymore.
1
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My problem, Jim, is I m like a tough guy, a hard-ass athlete.
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That s my persona.
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So people don t think anything could ever get to me.
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Impenetrable.
1
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You can t get, yeah.
1
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I m like the Schwarzenegger of comedy.
1
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And so when they see me, they go, nothing s wrong.
1
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There s nothing else other than toughness.
1
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After about a hundred of these, I realized.
1
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The Lenny Dykstra of, well, that s not a good one.
1
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Nails, that s what I was getting at.
1
SPEAKER_02
I don t know about that.
1
SPEAKER_02
Just to nails, that s all.
1
SPEAKER_00
How about a podcast called There s No There There?
1
SPEAKER_00
Just so people know, there s nothing.
1
SPEAKER_00
So the name of your podcast is Brew...
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SPEAKER_02
No verse.
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I got two others for you.
1
SPEAKER_02
Ready?
1
SPEAKER_00
Bruna verse.
1
SPEAKER_00
And it s on YouTube.
1
SPEAKER_00
And is it also audio or is it?
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
I got one of you interview people about their feelings.
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SPEAKER_02
One s called brew who?
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SPEAKER_02
And the other one is called, uh, the brew crew.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yes.
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A few and a couple of guys.
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SPEAKER_00
I like that.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s too easy.
1
SPEAKER_02
We ll go back to that.
1
SPEAKER_00
And then a fitness segment called hit the gym.
1
SPEAKER_00
Why?
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SPEAKER_00
That doesn t have brew in it.
1
SPEAKER_01
I think you guys know, but no, but it s got to hit the gym.
1
SPEAKER_01
I like that.
1
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Well, Dave, I feel honored because one of them, one of them is brew crew.
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Like we started a whole brew crew section shirts, blah, blah, blah.
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But the, but the other one, the who would you say?
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Brew who?
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through where it s sharing a kid right yeah like that i d like to have a look at that yes they can run with it and i started to hear tonight why do you guys any uh... no system okay no you re good there is a little envelope in that hotel room and i m pretty and i got a two hundred dollars i guess you have jim i don t know if you re ever in and l a but when i drive on
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PCH coming out of the 10.
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There s an old Sears.
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It says you used to work at Sears.
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SPEAKER_02
I used to love Sears.
1
SPEAKER_02
And now I m like, this building I think is toast.
1
SPEAKER_02
I don t know what s going on with it.
1
SPEAKER_02
Well, they re closing all of them.
1
SPEAKER_02
Is that because of the massive robberies or did they skip Sears?
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SPEAKER_02
I have no clue.
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SPEAKER_00
I just know- Target and other ones kind of beat them up a little bit.
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that s what I think would happen.
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SPEAKER_01
But did you know, you know guys know Freddie Armisen?
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
So me and Fred Armisen, yes.
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SPEAKER_01
Me and Freddy graduated from the same high school.
1
SPEAKER_01
And Freddy and I used to work at Spears.
1
SPEAKER_01
I love it.
1
SPEAKER_01
In Valley Stream.
1
SPEAKER_01
And he was like, dude, Freddy was, he used to have a Mohawk.
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SPEAKER_01
That s before Mohawks were cool.
1
SPEAKER_01
He had a Mohawk.
1
SPEAKER_01
I would love a Mohawk.
1
SPEAKER_01
And he had combat boots he would wear.
1
SPEAKER_01
What?
1
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
1
SPEAKER_01
And he and he d walk around with like these guys that had dead Kennedy jackets on.
1
SPEAKER_01
And he worked in the lawnmower department or what?
1
SPEAKER_01
I want to say he worked in the auto department, but only, you know, it s like a sales guy.
1
SPEAKER_01
And yeah, you know, I. I don t know if you know it, but when I when I was there, I did a big
1
SPEAKER_01
bomb threat, which, you know, I made a bit, but it was, it was real.
1
SPEAKER_01
Like I cleared the entire store.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I swear to God.
1
SPEAKER_01
So I m, I m sure that both
2
SPEAKER_01
of you, especially Dana have done.
2
SPEAKER_01
So when I worked there, this is, I m like 19 years old.
2
SPEAKER_01
I would call other departments as characters all day long.
2
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I have, I have a dangling cross earring.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m wearing my Judas priest denim jackets.
2
SPEAKER_01
This is where I m at.
2
SPEAKER_01
And, um,
2
SPEAKER_01
you know, there s a big fat guy that worked in toys.
2
SPEAKER_01
So whenever the cabbage packs would come out, he d have all these Jamaican women come in and pissed off because there were no there were no black cabbage patch stuff.
2
SPEAKER_01
So they re like, Why are we waiting for five?
2
SPEAKER_01
So you d have it and that s when I caught and you have to pick up the phone.
2
SPEAKER_01
I need you to go look for Wilson basketball and don t
2
SPEAKER_01
to put me in a hole.
2
SPEAKER_01
So anyway, this one gang, I swear on my kids  lives, this is a true story.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I work in paint.
2
SPEAKER_01
I don t know anything about paint.
2
SPEAKER_01
I know nothing about it.
2
SPEAKER_01
People would come look at me like, hey man, you know, we want to paint the kitchen.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m like, yeah, I would put, I would stain it.
2
SPEAKER_01
Like, I don t know what the hell it does to people.
2
SPEAKER_01
So this guy, so this guy.
2
SPEAKER_02
You gotta sand it, what?
2
SPEAKER_01
So there s a guy in hardware, and I could see him, he s right down the aisle, and I walk in his department, like, hey man, I m Jim, working paint, blah, blah, blah.
2
SPEAKER_01
And he gets really snippy, he s like, hey, you know what, man, stay in your department, you look high all the time, and you don t know anything about what you re saying.
2
SPEAKER_01
So.
2
SPEAKER_01
He s overheard one conversation with you with paint.
2
SPEAKER_01
This is,
2
SPEAKER_01
Um, 86, seven ish.
2
SPEAKER_01
And all I remember, we had a bigger deal going on with Libya, right?
2
SPEAKER_01
It was all everywhere.
2
SPEAKER_01
He shot missiles at a plane and we got to kill Muammar Gaddafi.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I call up, I could see him, and he picks up the phone, and I say, hello, he s on professional.
2
SPEAKER_01
John, Sears Hardware, Bally Stream, how may I help you?
2
SPEAKER_01
And I said,
2
SPEAKER_01
This is, you know, I m doing the whole accent.
2
SPEAKER_01
This is Muammar Gaddafi.
2
SPEAKER_01
I ve sent six Libyan missiles to blow up the Sears hardware department, you know, and I m going on and on.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m doing the noises.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I said, long live paint.
2
SPEAKER_01
Right.
2
SPEAKER_01
Hang up.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I swear to God.
2
SPEAKER_01
Right.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I go into the break room because to go in the break room, you had to go through the paint, paint
2
SPEAKER_01
the doors to everyone would come out to paint.
2
SPEAKER_01
And so I m in the break room and I m hanging out for like 20 minutes.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I go, let me go back out there.
2
SPEAKER_01
Nobody s out there.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I m like, what the fuck is going on?
2
SPEAKER_01
Like nobody s there.
2
SPEAKER_01
There s no customers.
2
SPEAKER_01
There s no people.
2
SPEAKER_01
I go into the toys and the candy.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then the security guy comes out and he s like, hey, man, you got to get out of here.
2
SPEAKER_01
So what s going on?
2
SPEAKER_01
A new guy got a bomb threat.
2
SPEAKER_01
What?
2
SPEAKER_01
We got a bomb threat again.
2
SPEAKER_02
You don t even remember 20 minutes ago.
2
SPEAKER_01
Right.
2
SPEAKER_01
I said, well, I said that was me.
2
SPEAKER_01
I said I was Muammar Gaddafi.
2
SPEAKER_01
I said I m sending missiles.
2
SPEAKER_01
What the fuck?
2
SPEAKER_01
I.
2
SPEAKER_01
I said, I ended with long live paint.
2
SPEAKER_01
He s like, oh man, well we had to evacuate this and the mall.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m like, the mall, you re evacuating the mall.
2
SPEAKER_01
So this is Valley Stream, Greenacres Mall.
2
SPEAKER_01
Long story short, I had to talk with cops and they all laughed.
2
SPEAKER_01
I had to meet with the head guy of Long Island.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, of all the paint.
2
SPEAKER_01
He sits me down, he s got a suit and tie, and I come walking in there, and he s like, so tell me what happened that day at the paint department.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I m like, eh, you know.
2
SPEAKER_01
I should have been doing more paint.
2
SPEAKER_01
I apologize, but all my stuff was done.
2
SPEAKER_01
I got all the sales ones up in the, in the front display and it was slow that night.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I, I keep things light and I, I started, I called him and I, I said, I said, I was MoMA Qaddafi and I sent missiles to hit Sears hardware.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I ended by saying long live paint.
2
SPEAKER_01
Um, and dude, this guy goes,
2
SPEAKER_01
All right.
2
SPEAKER_01
Why don t you just sell more paint?
2
SPEAKER_01
We do a little less phone calls.
2
SPEAKER_01
I keep my job.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
That guy quit after five days because everyone would walk by his department going, look out, there s missiles coming.
2
SPEAKER_01
Oh, John.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
He was in his 40s.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I m sorry if you work in Sears hardware and you re 40, like something happened.
2
SPEAKER_01
You know what I mean?
2
SPEAKER_01
Like something he s either living in the basement, like this bad divorce, something s going on.
2
SPEAKER_01
You ain t working Sears hardware.
2
SPEAKER_02
And by the way, it s it s more it s more Amar Gaddafi calling directly.
2
SPEAKER_02
He doesn t have some guy call to.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_02
That s a, that s a red flag right there.
2
SPEAKER_03
It s just calling the hard Libya, all the way to a Sears hardware department springs.
2
SPEAKER_03
I m going to call 5,000 tonight.
2
SPEAKER_00
You tell the people of the hardware and the, and the tool bits that they re going down.
2
SPEAKER_00
You tell Prescott, Nevada that I m coming for them.
2
SPEAKER_00
You spread it around.
2
SPEAKER_00
This is straight from the Dutch brothers of paint.
2
SPEAKER_02
Is that something?
2
SPEAKER_00
And you tell the department store Stearns next to you, they are next.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m going after Radio Shack!
2
SPEAKER_00
Chess King!
2
SPEAKER_00
Every Radio Shack is going to be gone by morning!
2
SPEAKER_00
My name is Grant Nabacki!
2
SPEAKER_00
Norbert Chess King!
2
SPEAKER_00
You will never buy three suits for $99!
2
SPEAKER_00
Ever again!
2
SPEAKER_00
Food court, goodbye!
2
SPEAKER_00
Baskin Robbins must die!
2
SPEAKER_00
I have no problem with Panda Express.
2
SPEAKER_00
Goodbye, Panda King, all of you.
2
SPEAKER_00
So long, Sbarro.
2
SPEAKER_00
Ta-ta, Tater Junction.
2
SPEAKER_01
It sort of made sense.
2
SPEAKER_01
So yeah, I know Freddie was, I think Freddie was one of the- Did he get caught in the rubble or what happened with it?
2
SPEAKER_02
So here, I don t even get the story.
2
SPEAKER_02
I go, so no bombs?
2
SPEAKER_02
The bomb didn t hit?
2
SPEAKER_02
No, no.
2
SPEAKER_02
Okay.
2
SPEAKER_04
No Qaddafi, no bombs, just a joke.
2
SPEAKER_04
Some people just go, but there must ve been some kind of bomb or some threat.
2
SPEAKER_04
No, it was really made up, but something got damaged.
2
SPEAKER_04
No, nothing did.
2
SPEAKER_04
No, it was all made up.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yep.
2
SPEAKER_02
That s good though.
2
SPEAKER_02
Dana, we stumbled into Sears because I love Sears and I used to go to the wish book and get all my, Oh, I always loved Sears.
2
SPEAKER_02
The wish book for Christmas, you know, you go through it and circle stuff and then Santa would get it.
2
SPEAKER_04
The only thing was is my brother, I had three older, the brother got the Schwinn Stingray.
2
SPEAKER_04
monster green score.
2
SPEAKER_04
My parents ran out of money, so nothing against Sears, but I got the Sears front loader and it was just such a downgrade from the Schwinn, but that I recovered.
2
SPEAKER_04
Jim s like, I knew a guy in bikes at Sears.
2
SPEAKER_04
Jim had a great Schwinn Stingray as a kid.
2
SPEAKER_01
I had a Schwinn Scrambler.
2
SPEAKER_01
Oh, and it had
2
SPEAKER_01
multiple gears it had mag mag wheels no way all my life and this is when i realized you re lying there s no way
2
SPEAKER_01
Absolute, and I m right around my neighborhood all like, yeah, this is, I got a Schwinn Scrambler with black mag wheels, eat it.
2
SPEAKER_01
It was stolen.
2
SPEAKER_01
What?
2
SPEAKER_01
That night out of my garage.
2
SPEAKER_01
That s the neighborhood was like, yeah, no, we don t show off here.
2
SPEAKER_01
Take it.
2
SPEAKER_02
Oh, you showed off.
2
SPEAKER_01
Oh, you puffed up.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, man.
2
SPEAKER_04
Right into the neighborhoods.
2
SPEAKER_04
What s up?
2
SPEAKER_04
I almost got my bike stolen.
2
SPEAKER_04
New pimp sled.
2
SPEAKER_04
We went into a hardware store and we shoplifted bike locks and then came out and locked up our bikes.
2
SPEAKER_04
True story.
2
SPEAKER_01
That s a good, well, there was also a big racket going at Sears.
2
SPEAKER_01
Like you go to, they had, it was like gangster mafia.
2
SPEAKER_01
I swear on my life, there was a guy, I think his name was the Benedetto and he d be in class
2
SPEAKER_01
He d be like high school and Benedetto would be like, bro, you know anyone wants a VCR?
2
SPEAKER_01
And VCRs then were like, oh shit, you can score.
3
SPEAKER_01
And VCR, he s like, you re going to go into a hardware, you re going to buy like a wrench for like $1.99, and you re going to buy a garbage pail.
3
SPEAKER_01
The garbage pail is you got to pick up down by the loading dock.
3
SPEAKER_01
You ask for Vinny, you ll have that.
3
SPEAKER_01
The VCR will be in that, but I got to get you $40 by Friday.
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh my god, you sure?
3
SPEAKER_00
That s a score.
3
SPEAKER_01
That was a huge score.
3
SPEAKER_01
These guys were just, oh man.
3
SPEAKER_00
I just have to say that because you re standing and moving to the camera, it s like you re making your own feature film.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s so funny.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like you re going into a close up and your face is a little distorted because you re chin is down.
3
SPEAKER_00
So you re totally this weird character in a movie just then.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was going, damn, what is going on?
3
SPEAKER_00
It s like, hey, you know, I won t say to you this, you know, motherfuckers, you know,
3
SPEAKER_02
Jim, this guy in my seventh grade, and he was such a little puss, but he was such a tough talker, and he goes, hey man, were you gonna, I go, I m thinking, one time he busts me, he goes, what are you doing this summer, Spade?
3
SPEAKER_02
I go, we re thinking of heading to Calif.
3
SPEAKER_02
I tried to be fucking cool, I said, Calif?
3
SPEAKER_00
He goes, you fucking tried to say Calif and not say the whole word to be cool, and I go, no, I was gonna say California, he goes, no,
3
SPEAKER_02
He told everyone, but he was such a little puss.
3
SPEAKER_02
And he walked around and he said, so no one would bother me.
3
SPEAKER_02
He goes, I m tied into the Bonanno family.
3
SPEAKER_02
And it was like a big real mafia family.
3
SPEAKER_02
And everyone was like, holy shit.
3
SPEAKER_02
No one questioned, why is a seventh grader working for the Bonanno family?
3
SPEAKER_02
But we all stayed away from him because that scares people.
3
SPEAKER_01
Dude, I grew up around all those Bonannas.
3
SPEAKER_01
There is nothing funny you know we we d be playing roller hockey and you know in the middle of the game.
3
SPEAKER_01
And we re like nine years old, 11 years old, a bunch of us.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I remember there s always a couple of kids like, did you hear what happened to Uncle Nicky?
3
SPEAKER_01
What?
3
SPEAKER_01
The government arrested him for taxes or something.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then I never met, there was at least three kids that I knew, and their fathers would always get arrested, but no one really knew what they were, and you don t know what s going on.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then the older you get, you re like, oh, shit.
3
SPEAKER_01
My god Their their parents are tied in the mafia.
3
SPEAKER_01
How do you know that they come from little Italy?
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, what do you think they re fucking doing politics there?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, they were there they found a guy behind Around my street this little bar used to go into Kate s a loom and In there.
3
SPEAKER_01
It was only I think we were there for
3
SPEAKER_01
go in there for like a year and we d sneak in there and they found and the cops are all out there like what s going on?
3
SPEAKER_01
And I found a guy and cement and a bunch of boxes like what?
3
SPEAKER_01
Holy shit.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that.
3
SPEAKER_01
I watched all that around me.
3
SPEAKER_01
Dude, even when you start making it to I m sure both you guys were approached by many type of people.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, they
3
SPEAKER_01
They all come out of the woodwork.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then he turns me two inches and he goes, hey girls, my buddy Spade, blah, blah.
3
SPEAKER_02
I just wanna say hi.
3
SPEAKER_02
And I m like, wait, I just met Mikey literally four seconds ago, but it s an interesting move.
3
SPEAKER_02
Like he s my man.
3
SPEAKER_02
And some people are middlemen.
3
SPEAKER_02
Like they go, hey, you should come to this thing.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then they ll tell the place they re bringing me.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then he s the middleman getting attention because he s like the guy that got me in.
3
SPEAKER_02
But he goes, hey, these guys want you to come.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then I go and then.
3
SPEAKER_02
He goes, hey, take care of your dinner.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then he goes, then I see him with the waiter going, just pay for his dinner.
3
SPEAKER_02
Like he s a fucking on TV.
3
SPEAKER_02
And I m like, oh, this wasn t even set up ahead.
3
SPEAKER_02
This is just a guy, a flim flam man, bullshitting his way through town.
3
SPEAKER_02
But there s a lot of those.
3
SPEAKER_02
There s more of those than real people.
3
SPEAKER_02
No, you re right.
3
SPEAKER_00
So how were you in high school, Jim?
3
SPEAKER_00
I mean, were you popular?
3
SPEAKER_00
Were you a stud?
3
SPEAKER_00
Were you a nerd?
3
SPEAKER_00
No, no, no, no, no.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was way too shy.
3
SPEAKER_01
I wasn t a stoner yet.
3
SPEAKER_01
I wasn t a stoner yet.
3
SPEAKER_01
I didn t tripod until my senior year, right before I graduated.
3
SPEAKER_01
But that really didn t kick in until I was like 20 years old, 21 years old.
3
SPEAKER_01
High school, I was really quiet unless I was the back of the room kid.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I d always go for the back of the room.
3
SPEAKER_01
And once I was back in the room, if I can disrupt this guy and get this guy on my team or this chick on my team.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then we d have, you know, I drew a little cartoons, try to crack up this one.
3
SPEAKER_01
Um, but it wasn t until we did a, a sketch night.
3
SPEAKER_01
Right.
3
SPEAKER_01
And
3
SPEAKER_01
Basically, you know, this kid, one of my best friends was like, Jim, you got to do Sketch Night.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m like, I m not doing Sketch Night.
3
SPEAKER_01
He s like, nah, man, this is different.
3
SPEAKER_01
They re really cool.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m like, ah, this is fine.
3
SPEAKER_01
Nah, I don t want anything to do with theater.
3
SPEAKER_01
He s like, nah.
3
SPEAKER_01
So they basically, like a Cosby bit, our school, each grade,
3
SPEAKER_01
Each grade had to do a thing from the Bible, even though we weren t a school of faith, right?
3
SPEAKER_01
So my friend writes up pretty much, and he swears he had no clue Cosby did it, was the qubit spit.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, God goes, Noah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I need you to yeah, build a big cubit.
3
SPEAKER_01
Let s give it he goes.
3
SPEAKER_01
But but all at that time, all I would do is all day imitate professional wrestlers running into the locker, smashing their heads.
3
SPEAKER_01
And the other thing I would do is talk like Eddie Murphy, non stop all all day.
3
SPEAKER_01
So he said, do it as Eddie Murphy.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I finally agree to it.
3
SPEAKER_01
And this is so, now that I really think of it, like, I could really get, today s world, oh my God, they would have me, he s racist, he needs to be canceled.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I came out as Moses, but as Eddie Murphy, Eddie Murphy being Moses.
3
SPEAKER_01
And all I remember,
3
SPEAKER_01
Well, I got to hear this.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Well, well, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I came out and I was like, what your mother?
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, I m doing all that.
3
SPEAKER_01
And the place.
3
SPEAKER_01
It explodes, I ve never I ve never killed that hard since.
3
SPEAKER_02
Not really.
3
SPEAKER_01
I ve been trying to.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s the most memorable.
3
SPEAKER_01
Maybe I should do all my stuff that I m doing now, just do it as Murphy back in 85.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that s funny.
3
SPEAKER_01
The next day in school.
3
SPEAKER_01
I swear to God, it s like a movie.
3
SPEAKER_01
So all the hot chicks are like, oh my God, you re so funny.
3
SPEAKER_01
All the guys I always were intimidated by, like the jocks, and they were like, bro, we gotta hang out, man.
3
SPEAKER_01
You re a pisser.
3
SPEAKER_01
I never known you was such a pisser.
3
SPEAKER_02
It s like a teen movie.
3
SPEAKER_02
Everything s going perfectly the next day.
3
SPEAKER_01
It was, Dave, if you wrote the script, you went, eh, it s a little too predictable.
3
SPEAKER_02
Too corny, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it really was that.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then the next night I had to do it again, they were chanting, and I just, I was already on the verge of like, I m gonna be a stand-up, I m doing it, but this.
3
SPEAKER_01
This put me over the edge.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was like, oh, yeah, I m going after this.
3
SPEAKER_00
Did you swear at the high school thing or no?
3
SPEAKER_00
No.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, but no, no, no, no.
3
SPEAKER_01
OK.
3
SPEAKER_02
You did it without swearing.
3
SPEAKER_02
That s pretty good.
3
SPEAKER_01
I said your mother a lot.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m like, yeah, what d you say?
3
SPEAKER_01
And I was doing this with my hands for some reason.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m like, what did you say?
3
SPEAKER_01
Your mother.
3
SPEAKER_02
Your mother was enough back then.
3
SPEAKER_02
We didn t need crude language.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you can hint at it.
3
SPEAKER_00
Now it s gotta be nail on the head.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, high school, if you can be cool, that s fucking spreads like wildfire.
3
SPEAKER_02
That s great.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so that, but otherwise high school, I really wasn t, I was mostly quiet.
3
SPEAKER_01
I grew up on a street.
3
SPEAKER_01
We never had to leave the street.
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, we had chicks, we had everyone who I still hang out with is from that street.
3
SPEAKER_01
We re all within two, three years of each other.
3
SPEAKER_01
To me, that was the greatest.
3
SPEAKER_01
Everyone knew each other.
3
SPEAKER_01
Everyone looked after each other.
3
SPEAKER_01
It was like brothers and still is to this day.
3
SPEAKER_02
Where were you?
3
SPEAKER_02
What city?
3
SPEAKER_02
Valley Stream.
3
SPEAKER_02
You keep saying this fake name, but where is that?
3
SPEAKER_01
What state?
4
SPEAKER_01
I m sorry, New York.
4
SPEAKER_03
New York.
4
SPEAKER_01
Long Island.
4
SPEAKER_01
Long Island.
4
SPEAKER_03
Long Island.
4
SPEAKER_03
So we grew up
4
SPEAKER_01
where Valley Street, the end of the street, almost like the movie Eight Mile, the end of the street was all black.
4
SPEAKER_01
We were the beginning of all white.
4
SPEAKER_01
So you had this racial tension, and we weren t really allowed to walk on their side.
4
SPEAKER_01
They were like, get back on that side, white boy.
4
SPEAKER_01
Sorry.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then if they would come down the street, we d all just stare.
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh my God.
4
SPEAKER_03
You don t do shit, you pussy.
4
SPEAKER_03
What s that?
4
SPEAKER_03
You don t do anything?
4
SPEAKER_03
No, we were scared to death, I m not kidding.
4
SPEAKER_02
What, were you going to challenge the neighborhood?
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
With a popsicle stick you sharpened?
4
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_03
But were you friends with any black guys?
4
SPEAKER_02
I don t know.
4
SPEAKER_02
You guys are in trouble now.
4
SPEAKER_02
I m going to sharpen this popsicle stick.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s like a knife, man.
4
SPEAKER_03
You roll a hula hoop at them.
4
SPEAKER_02
Take that.
4
SPEAKER_02
Go get some dirt bombs.
4
SPEAKER_03
Oh, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
So then you re friends with these guys still because of that bond of that that street.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
They come to every time.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
Have either one of you.
4
SPEAKER_01
Played the Paramount in Huntington, New York.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
4
SPEAKER_02
Is that when they give you a brick afterwards?
4
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s a fucking 40 pound brick.
4
SPEAKER_02
I m flying out the next day.
4
SPEAKER_02
I m on Southwest.
4
SPEAKER_02
I have to take it.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s got my name on it.
4
SPEAKER_02
And we go like a few blocks to the driver goes, just pull over somewhere.
4
SPEAKER_02
But great, great club.
4
SPEAKER_02
Very hot.
4
SPEAKER_02
You know,
4
SPEAKER_01
They are hands down the greatest people towards artists.
4
SPEAKER_01
I think it s one of the greatest venues in the whole country.
4
SPEAKER_01
Downstairs they have that whole hip private room and all that jazz.
4
SPEAKER_01
I play there like every three, four months.
4
SPEAKER_01
And my, Mike, the kids that I grew up with, they always meet me there.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then we go downstairs in a room and, you know, it s like being a bunch of knuckleheads back being kids again.
4
SPEAKER_02
Do you ever hear this though, with relatives or friends that come to your shows backstage to go, no matter how many times I hear those bits, they re still funny to me.
4
SPEAKER_03
Such a burn.
4
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_03
It s such a quiet burn.
4
SPEAKER_02
I ve heard that thing you did 35 times, I still laugh.
4
SPEAKER_03
I actually, that s based on me, I think.
4
SPEAKER_03
And you re like, no, no.
4
SPEAKER_03
No, I tell everyone, that s about me, right?
4
SPEAKER_03
No.
4
SPEAKER_03
So how did these friends... No, it s about, no, it s not you.
4
SPEAKER_02
Go ahead.
4
SPEAKER_02
How did they respond when you started to get really successful?
4
SPEAKER_02
I mean, first you must have exploded in the clubs or became a headliner at some point, right?
4
SPEAKER_02
Started to make good money.
4
SPEAKER_02
I m assuming you weren t a 10-year tortured guy.
4
SPEAKER_02
It seems like with your skill set and attitude, pretty quickly, no one wanted to follow you.
4
SPEAKER_02
Put it that way.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
So that started 89 to about 93.
4
SPEAKER_01
So Long Island, then my parents did the move.
4
SPEAKER_01
They went to Florida.
4
SPEAKER_01
I moved down there and I kind of
4
SPEAKER_01
lost my whole direction moving down there.
4
SPEAKER_01
I couldn t really afford New York on my own.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I went down there and then I re-amped and I started going to comedy clubs.
4
SPEAKER_01
So it was 89 started
4
SPEAKER_01
In Florida you started?
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then that led to being on the road, I can t follow this guy, this kid s a pain in the ass, and that was the greatest time ever.
4
SPEAKER_01
Just staying in crappy condos and listening to like, I ve been doing comedy like two
4
SPEAKER_01
and you hear all the story, it was a lot of fun.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then- Did you ever have novelty acts where you show up at the comedian s condo and like the ventriloquist took the headliner s bedroom?
4
SPEAKER_02
Oh, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
You can t do that.
4
SPEAKER_02
You cannot do that.
4
SPEAKER_02
Because if people are listening, there s a comedian s condo and there s- Yes.
4
SPEAKER_02
Usually the headliner gets the master bedroom.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, for sure.
4
SPEAKER_02
But if the clown showed up early and then you re like, well.
4
SPEAKER_02
Why is there a juggler in the master?
4
SPEAKER_02
Exactly.
4
SPEAKER_02
The novelty acts.
4
SPEAKER_02
We had a puppet named Chuck Wood.
4
SPEAKER_02
He didn t want you to look at him.
4
SPEAKER_02
Don t touch Chuck.
4
SPEAKER_02
It really was like a human being to him.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s a piece of wood, fuckface.
4
SPEAKER_02
So anyway, go ahead.
4
SPEAKER_02
I m only walking my way up to your SNL thing and trying to figure out the timeline of that where you found yourself as a performer.
4
SPEAKER_01
Stand up brings me back to Long Island.
4
SPEAKER_01
Now I m getting the city clubs.
4
SPEAKER_01
Uh, I landed my first TV show pretty quick, but it was an all, it was an all urban black show, uptown comedy club and they filmed it.
4
SPEAKER_01
It was the real poor man s Apollo living color.
4
SPEAKER_03
Was it on UPN?
4
SPEAKER_03
Do you remember what UPN was?
4
SPEAKER_02
I think I remember that show.
4
SPEAKER_01
No.
4
SPEAKER_01
MTV?
4
SPEAKER_01
No, Dave.
4
SPEAKER_01
No, actually MTV took the show.
4
SPEAKER_01
What s his name?
4
SPEAKER_01
Took the show.
4
SPEAKER_01
He told me.
4
SPEAKER_01
When I saw it on, what s his name?
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh, God.
4
SPEAKER_01
Robert Townsend?
4
SPEAKER_01
No, no, no, no.
4
SPEAKER_01
So it s filmed in Harlem.
4
SPEAKER_01
It was a great show.
4
SPEAKER_01
It was, it was, you know, it was fun.
4
SPEAKER_01
You re doing sketches on it.
4
SPEAKER_01
We re doing sketches.
4
SPEAKER_01
And now I m doing the clubs at night.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m now I m doing like seven, eight sets on the weekends and I m in in every club and I m feeling like I m a badass.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then I got a huge development deal and then another development deal.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then me and Chappelle were launched to spin off of a Tim Allen show, the home improvement.
4
SPEAKER_01
And we filmed, I was on the cover of TV.
4
SPEAKER_01
God, I was buying leather pants.
4
SPEAKER_01
I was broke.
4
SPEAKER_01
I was like, this was happening.
4
SPEAKER_01
And the second episode, the commercials were on.
4
SPEAKER_01
It was called Buddies.
4
SPEAKER_01
We were following Home Improvement and they fired me.
4
SPEAKER_01
What?
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, they fired me.
4
SPEAKER_01
the second episode right before the premiere.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I had all my I had my childhood friends out.
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh, you you want to talk about traumatized.
4
SPEAKER_00
Right.
4
SPEAKER_00
So.
4
SPEAKER_01
I just remember being I just got told, like, hey, man, they let you go like we.
4
SPEAKER_01
But the commercials are on like, I don t.
4
SPEAKER_01
How is it like they re still airing the commercials?
4
SPEAKER_01
Like, what the fuck is going on?
4
SPEAKER_01
And that was my first big taste of Hollywood.
4
SPEAKER_01
So now I go to my room, and thank God my best friends were there that I grew up with, because they bring it back to blue collar.
4
SPEAKER_01
Because I m like, oh my God, the whole Hollywood world, they re going to be fucking angry.
4
SPEAKER_01
And they re already crushed my mini bar.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it s like 1 p.m.
4
SPEAKER_01
like came in and you re right.
4
SPEAKER_01
Something happens.
4
SPEAKER_01
I can.
4
SPEAKER_01
They fired me.
4
SPEAKER_01
What do you mean they fired you?
4
SPEAKER_01
They fired me.
4
SPEAKER_01
So it s just I just no more doing it.
4
SPEAKER_01
And they think for a second.
4
SPEAKER_00
And my one friend goes, well, I got a fucking limo for tonight, so I guess I m paying and we re going out because you ain t got a fucking job.
4
SPEAKER_01
And he really just made it so simple.
4
SPEAKER_01
Like, fuck it.
4
SPEAKER_01
You ain t got a job.
4
SPEAKER_01
Let s go hang out.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I went to the improv on Melrose.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I remember the comedian, you know, you think they re all your friends.
4
SPEAKER_01
You re like, hey, man, I heard what happened.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
I ll never forget this.
4
SPEAKER_01
So.
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh, no.
4
SPEAKER_01
Your character that got fired.
4
SPEAKER_01
Can you tell me about, because I m auditioning tomorrow.
4
SPEAKER_02
Why?
4
SPEAKER_02
Blood in the water.
4
SPEAKER_02
What should I do different to get the job you got fired from?
4
SPEAKER_02
You have any hints?
4
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
4
SPEAKER_01
So then that led to another pilot.
4
SPEAKER_02
I can t believe Rob Schneider would say that to you.
4
SPEAKER_02
That s what shocks me.
4
SPEAKER_02
No, I m kidding, Rob.
4
SPEAKER_02
He s a friend of ours.
4
SPEAKER_02
Give me some tips.
4
SPEAKER_01
I get fired from another one.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m sorry, I didn t get fired.
4
SPEAKER_01
The main character gets fired.
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh, it was Clerks from the movie Clerks.
4
SPEAKER_01
And they fire, what s his name?
4
SPEAKER_01
Kevin Smith.
4
SPEAKER_01
They fire Kevin Smith.
4
SPEAKER_01
So now I m,
4
SPEAKER_01
They fired the guy who invented this?
4
SPEAKER_01
Who s running these shows?
4
SPEAKER_01
How do you get rid of Kevin Smith?
4
SPEAKER_01
And so the Frenchie something from Third Rock from the Sun was on the show.
4
SPEAKER_01
French Stewart.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yes, Frenchie Stewart was part of it.
4
SPEAKER_01
He was a great guy.
4
SPEAKER_01
It gets picked up, and then it gets dropped, and then I m
5
SPEAKER_02
And then SNL was like, hey, will you audition?
5
SPEAKER_02
And all my life, I said, no way am I doing that show.
5
SPEAKER_02
And why I m like, no, because I saw this one and this one and this one go into that show and they came out miserable, dark human beings.
5
SPEAKER_02
I don t know what s going on there.
5
SPEAKER_02
I already hate the industry.
5
SPEAKER_02
I ve already seen enough.
5
SPEAKER_02
And so the process to get on, which by the way, Lauren loves you, Dana.
5
SPEAKER_02
He loves you.
5
SPEAKER_02
Dave, I m sure he loves you too.
5
SPEAKER_00
I was about to say, you don t have to lean so hard.
5
SPEAKER_00
You start to say a D and I started to look at the camera a little harder.
5
SPEAKER_00
And then you go.
5
SPEAKER_00
No, he loves you guys.
5
SPEAKER_02
He loves you guys.
5
SPEAKER_00
No, he loves staying up on.
5
SPEAKER_00
He used to bounce Dane on his knee at read through.
5
SPEAKER_00
I remember it s fine.
5
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, yeah, no.
5
SPEAKER_02
So it was a process.
5
SPEAKER_02
And then once I saw it was a new cast,
5
SPEAKER_02
And I met Will at the club.
5
SPEAKER_02
I was the last guy hired on that cast.
5
SPEAKER_02
Dave was, Spade was still on there.
5
SPEAKER_00
I did a year overlap with you, correct?
5
SPEAKER_00
Yes, yes.
5
SPEAKER_00
And Will Ferrell started, was it Sherry Oteri?
5
SPEAKER_00
Sherry, Chris Kattan, and your- David Keckner, Nancy Walls.
5
SPEAKER_00
Daryl Hammond.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, so they were sort of replacing
5
SPEAKER_00
Not only Dana, that was a big reset.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
Cause it was, it was replacing that whole bunch.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I hung a year too long.
5
SPEAKER_02
Dave, do you remember, do you remember the, the, the, so
5
SPEAKER_02
We, for us, you know, I m like, oh my God, this is really happening.
5
SPEAKER_02
Now we re really going to be on TV.
5
SPEAKER_02
You, Dave, we re, we were on the bleachers and we re giving a press conference.
5
SPEAKER_02
All right.
5
SPEAKER_02
Norm is right next to me.
5
SPEAKER_02
you are one level down.
5
SPEAKER_02
And to be honest with you, I m a little, I m starstruck by you and I m starstruck by Norm, right?
5
SPEAKER_02
I m like, oh my God, like, oh my God.
5
SPEAKER_02
And Norm came up to me, hey man, you re funny.
5
SPEAKER_02
And they re going, Marcy Klein s going, Norm, put out the goddamn cigarette.
5
SPEAKER_02
He s like, eh, I m not done yet.
5
SPEAKER_02
And he s smoking at this press conference.
5
SPEAKER_02
And then,
5
SPEAKER_02
He finishes it, and they asked me a question.
5
SPEAKER_02
And Lorne goes, no, no, it was Warren Littlefield.
5
SPEAKER_02
And Warren Littlefield goes, Jim Brewer.
5
SPEAKER_02
He goes, Jim Brewer, you re like the New York guy.
5
SPEAKER_02
You grew up here.
5
SPEAKER_02
And what s it like?
5
SPEAKER_02
being perhaps the real New Yorker, and your whole life watched Saturday Night Live, and now here you are, part of this new cast.
5
SPEAKER_02
And I just simply went, I didn t watch Saturday Night Live growing up.
5
SPEAKER_02
And you went, ha, ha, ha, ha.
5
SPEAKER_02
Wrong answer.
5
SPEAKER_02
You said something like that.
5
SPEAKER_02
You said it like under your breath, but I could tell it generally made you laugh and I didn t know what that meant.
5
SPEAKER_02
And then he tried to recover and I just knew at that moment, I m like, oh no.
5
SPEAKER_00
Cause Marcy came up and strangled you?
5
SPEAKER_02
Oh my God, that was a bad answer.
5
SPEAKER_02
And then they tried to recover and I said, oh no, it was because I was a kid and I wasn t allowed to stay up that late.
5
SPEAKER_02
He said, surely when you were older.
5
SPEAKER_02
And I went, no, man, I was out Saturday nights.
5
SPEAKER_02
I m so stupid.
5
SPEAKER_02
Jesus.
5
SPEAKER_02
So stupid.
5
SPEAKER_00
Oh my God, Brewer.
5
SPEAKER_00
They go, do you know where you are right now?
5
SPEAKER_00
And you re like, I don t even know what the fuck is going on.
5
SPEAKER_00
Where am I?
5
SPEAKER_00
I was, I was like, I just got fired from this.
5
SPEAKER_00
I don t know what s going on.
5
SPEAKER_00
Am I fired again?
5
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_02
Kevin Smith is gone.
5
SPEAKER_02
Like, come on.
5
SPEAKER_02
I don t fucking see.
5
SPEAKER_02
Ask me these questions.
5
SPEAKER_02
Ask Will a question.
5
SPEAKER_02
He s happy.
5
SPEAKER_01
So you came in with all those people.
5
SPEAKER_01
Now I hosted maybe 95 or 96, but I remember
5
SPEAKER_01
you as just a powerhouse, because on the show I did, the Joe Pesci show, which we should talk about, and then the madness and silliness and the verb, I think we talked about it when I was there, of goat boy.
5
SPEAKER_01
That thing was like, those two bits were killer as far as what I did.
5
SPEAKER_01
I think I came on the Pesci show.
5
SPEAKER_01
Was I Ross Perot or some shit?
5
SPEAKER_01
I don t know.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
With Pesci and then goat boy.
5
SPEAKER_01
So anyway, I showed up a year later and it looked like you were, you know, just, just doing, you were hot.
5
SPEAKER_02
I felt good, but you were, you brought like,
5
SPEAKER_02
When you came on, I mean, we started off with Tom Hanks.
5
SPEAKER_02
Whoa.
5
SPEAKER_02
And then that s where the goat really got launched.
5
SPEAKER_00
Did you do the first show with Tom Hanks?
5
SPEAKER_00
Your first show?
5
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
5
SPEAKER_00
Oh, boy.
5
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
5
SPEAKER_02
And we did the goat.
5
SPEAKER_02
And to be honest with you, that character, I pitched it as a guy with Tourette s.
5
SPEAKER_02
That s all.
5
SPEAKER_02
I said, I want to do a guy, and he gets nervous.
5
SPEAKER_02
He gets nervous when he s with chicks and he sings and he starts, you know, a little here.
5
SPEAKER_02
And then Tom Giannis, who is a writer, waited months and he finally came to, I already forgot about it.
5
SPEAKER_02
No one cared about this character.
5
SPEAKER_02
And he comes to me and he goes, Hey, I think I, I think I got a great idea.
5
SPEAKER_02
So I ve been thinking about the goat.
5
SPEAKER_02
I was eight months ago.
5
SPEAKER_02
He s like, no, no, no.
5
SPEAKER_02
So what if,
5
SPEAKER_02
What if it was an experiment?
5
SPEAKER_02
Because, you know, we re in the Middle East a lot.
5
SPEAKER_02
So they, they re hybriding, and they and they have to get up in the mountains, but our but our soldiers can t do it.
5
SPEAKER_02
So they get a goat and a person and the military, but it doesn t work.
5
SPEAKER_02
So they just, they just really sing about it a lot.
5
SPEAKER_02
And then so they don t know what to do with this guy who loves the 80s.
5
SPEAKER_02
Because and so a vh1 gives them a show.
5
SPEAKER_02
I m like, are you fucking
5
SPEAKER_02
are you serious that s the craziest shit i ve ever heard i mean insisted on doing it and i was pissed like this is so stupid and it just it it murdered it was it was just confusing to people but the thing about it jim
5
SPEAKER_01
is that as an audience member watching it it s like you don t i don t know how long you re gonna bray as a goat or when you might hit a little one so there s an improvisational quality that the audience can feel you as a performer are in tune with that for all that stand-up of like oh they like it i m gonna hit one here and i m gonna do a long one here so it had this
5
SPEAKER_01
that was pretty electric.
5
SPEAKER_01
Everyone s just waiting for it, then you go a long time without it, and everyone s like, and then you do it, and they go, yeah!
5
SPEAKER_02
Well, here s something you don t know, and I owe you an apology and you don t even know why.
5
SPEAKER_02
Oh, OK.
5
SPEAKER_02
Accepted.
5
SPEAKER_02
Yes.
5
SPEAKER_02
No.
5
SPEAKER_02
So when you first of all, you came on, you know, for a lot of us, especially me, I was like, oh, shit, like this is wow.
5
SPEAKER_02
And Lorne was already prepping the table like we re going to have when Dana comes here.
5
SPEAKER_02
He s just it s going to be like he was already setting the table.
5
SPEAKER_02
You guys have no clue how this is going down.
5
SPEAKER_02
Right.
5
SPEAKER_02
So
5
SPEAKER_02
I never had anyone improv, right?
5
SPEAKER_02
And by the time you came on, I started feeling like, look, I got some, I m starting to have those Tuesday night dinners.
5
SPEAKER_02
Okay, you re in the cool group.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m having Tuesday night dinners.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m like, oh,
5
SPEAKER_01
Jim, uh, the brand Xeno is fresh.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
5
SPEAKER_02
Give it a try.
5
SPEAKER_02
Right.
5
SPEAKER_02
And you came on and absolutely murdered.
5
SPEAKER_02
You were, you were, um, wham.
5
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, no, no.
5
SPEAKER_01
George Michaels.
5
SPEAKER_01
George Michaels.
5
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_02
Michael.
5
SPEAKER_02
And you were murdering.
5
SPEAKER_02
And I would like,
5
SPEAKER_02
Like I look back in time, like, God damn it, I wish I just listened and watched more and then fed off your energy.
5
SPEAKER_02
Where during that, you re crushing and then I would do something, but then you d improv and I d get, I d be like, you re stepping on my shit.
5
SPEAKER_02
And I, and I try to recover.
5
SPEAKER_02
And there was even one where I put like an angry guard, I was like.
5
SPEAKER_01
I was George Michael.
5
SPEAKER_01
And who were you go for?
5
SPEAKER_01
We were.
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh, is that mashup?
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
God, I remember now.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
So it s George Michael and the go boys are.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_02
You are so bonny at it.
5
SPEAKER_02
And but it was the first time that I that we really had someone
6
SPEAKER_02
What I would say is super professional and like so in the element of live, like we re still, we re still learning.
6
SPEAKER_02
Dave already left, Nate already left.
6
SPEAKER_02
So now we re figuring out, like we stick to the lines.
6
SPEAKER_02
We don t go too far off it, but you brought this whole, and I just wish at that moment, I understood that even better.
6
SPEAKER_02
Um, because that sketch probably would have went too off.
6
SPEAKER_02
even a monstrosity level, if I was willing to play as much as your expertise at the time.
6
SPEAKER_01
But you probably also thought you would get in trouble.
6
SPEAKER_02
I did.
6
SPEAKER_01
I did.
6
SPEAKER_00
Well, yeah, but just for a second, I mean, I had done 140 shows, then I m coming back.
6
SPEAKER_00
This was your third show?
6
SPEAKER_02
This was the second season, but maybe my third real sketch.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and I felt that I needed 60 or 80 shows for the audience to kind of discover me and for me to get more confident.
6
SPEAKER_00
I mean, in another level.
6
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I got more confident, but you were still early on.
6
SPEAKER_00
So, you know, I just thought you were a kindred spirit that you were playing with rhythms.
6
SPEAKER_00
I thought your Pesci was great.
6
SPEAKER_00
Um, and it was just a really funny take on, on Joe Pesci.
6
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
6
SPEAKER_00
I thought you were just a completely kindred spirit to me as a performer.
6
SPEAKER_00
I felt that way.
6
SPEAKER_00
And I always, I loved, I really admired
6
SPEAKER_02
like both you guys, like whenever you guys would just like Dave, once in a while would come up and he would just interact with me backstage.
6
SPEAKER_02
You re like, Dave, just talk to me.
6
SPEAKER_02
He thinks I m cool.
6
SPEAKER_02
He didn t, you know, you had no clue you had that effect.
6
SPEAKER_02
But I people always say, how was your experience there?
6
SPEAKER_02
And I always say, I don t have
6
SPEAKER_02
I loved being a part of the whole thing.
6
SPEAKER_02
And between you and I, I would have loved to even still be on there.
6
SPEAKER_02
I wanted to be the guy who stays on there for like eight years, and then the summer times makes killer movies.
6
SPEAKER_02
I wanted to make Lorne Pratt out.
6
SPEAKER_02
I wanted to, and you know, don t always go that way.
6
SPEAKER_02
I started having, Fred Wolf, who is,
6
SPEAKER_02
Oh yeah, our friend, also Fred.
6
SPEAKER_02
He was a tremendous ally in Steve Korn and all those guys.
6
SPEAKER_02
And then once they quit, it was a lot more difficult.
6
SPEAKER_02
You were on your own.
6
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, yeah.
6
SPEAKER_02
And they told me that.
6
SPEAKER_02
They literally
6
SPEAKER_02
I swear to God, I ll never forget.
6
SPEAKER_02
I didn t understand what they meant.
6
SPEAKER_02
And Fred came up to me and said, Jimmy B, Jimmy B, you re my guy, but I got to be honest with you, I m leaving, man.
6
SPEAKER_02
I m going to go help Spade.
6
SPEAKER_02
And I said, you re on your own, bro.
6
SPEAKER_02
This is going to get tough.
6
SPEAKER_02
I didn t understand what that meant.
6
SPEAKER_01
Politically, you didn t have anyone backing you?
6
SPEAKER_02
I had no clue what that meant.
6
SPEAKER_02
And then I learned it.
6
SPEAKER_00
We ve heard a version of this story from other cast members.
6
SPEAKER_00
Go ahead.
6
SPEAKER_02
And then
6
SPEAKER_02
When Steve Korn left, he was the last guy, like I didn t know you can go to Lauren and plead your case.
6
SPEAKER_02
And I knew, I think it was my third episode and I had enough with certain individuals, not cast writers.
6
SPEAKER_02
And it was really, I realized I was fighting egos
6
SPEAKER_02
which you can t fight.
6
SPEAKER_02
And, um, it was extremely frustrating.
6
SPEAKER_02
It made me very angry.
6
SPEAKER_02
Um, and I remember that night it was Matthew Broderick and I, the person came in and said, Hey, I know it worked during the, the dress show, but we re not going to do that.
6
SPEAKER_02
We re going to do the other thing.
6
SPEAKER_02
I was like, you motherfucker, you, you want that sketch on.
6
SPEAKER_02
So God, then you fucking, so, um,
6
SPEAKER_02
I said, whose decision was that?
6
SPEAKER_02
Lauren.
6
SPEAKER_02
I said, well, then I ll go talk to Lauren.
6
SPEAKER_02
He went, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
6
SPEAKER_02
I m fucking talking to Lauren and I want to hear from him.
6
SPEAKER_02
We re not doing this shit because I had enough of your shit.
6
SPEAKER_02
You ve been nonstop.
6
SPEAKER_02
And then I knew it that moment.
6
SPEAKER_02
It s like those memes.
6
SPEAKER_02
This is the moment when Jim knew he fucked up.
6
SPEAKER_02
And I got a call that summer.
6
SPEAKER_02
From an NBC executive, he s like, Jim,
6
SPEAKER_02
I don t tell anyone I can get fired for this, but what happened between you and so-and-so?
6
SPEAKER_02
I don t, I don t know.
6
SPEAKER_02
And I said, he s like, well, they re trying to ask you right now.
6
SPEAKER_02
I m like, what?
6
SPEAKER_02
They re like, oh yeah, they re zoning.
6
SPEAKER_02
And these, these guys want you out.
6
SPEAKER_02
I m like, really?
6
SPEAKER_02
I said, you know what?
6
SPEAKER_02
I don t want to, I don t want to be there.
6
SPEAKER_02
That s the way it s going to be.
6
SPEAKER_02
I really don t want to be there.
6
SPEAKER_02
I m smoking pot all the time.
6
SPEAKER_02
Trying to numb myself.
6
SPEAKER_02
I m becoming angry.
6
SPEAKER_02
I ve seen enough.
6
SPEAKER_02
I ve seen, I ve seen enough.
6
SPEAKER_02
I was, I was also traumatized by the Farley situation.
6
SPEAKER_02
That was,
6
SPEAKER_02
So, I saw enough on both sides of the curtain.
6
SPEAKER_02
I was like, you know what?
6
SPEAKER_02
I m going to have some kids.
6
SPEAKER_02
I m going to walk away for a little while.
6
SPEAKER_02
I m not made for this.
6
SPEAKER_02
I m really not made for this.
6
SPEAKER_02
Not in this style of environment where it s that hardcore show business.
6
SPEAKER_02
But
6
SPEAKER_02
I really wanted to be there for, like, I loved, I loved the show.
6
SPEAKER_02
I loved showing up on Thursdays to watch the band.
6
SPEAKER_02
I love to hang out the bands.
6
SPEAKER_02
I would watch the other sketches.
6
SPEAKER_02
I would cheer our cast on.
6
SPEAKER_01
You re a good cheerleader.
6
SPEAKER_01
You are.
6
SPEAKER_02
I fucking love it, man.
6
SPEAKER_02
I cheer for everyone.
6
SPEAKER_02
I really don t.
6
SPEAKER_02
I m not in competition with anyone.
6
SPEAKER_02
But so that was my tenure.
6
SPEAKER_02
But I also realized as life went on, like,
6
SPEAKER_02
Lorne is, he s like, I ll use the word mobster, where I would go to, they re like, hey, we wanna meet you.
6
SPEAKER_02
And the first thing they d always say, so how are you with Lorne?
6
SPEAKER_02
I m like, I don t know, this is a reality TV show.
6
SPEAKER_02
Like, does it really matter right now?
6
SPEAKER_02
I m like, yeah, I think it was good.
6
SPEAKER_02
I think we ended okay.
6
SPEAKER_02
And it did.
6
SPEAKER_02
And the last thing Lorne said to me was, Jim,
6
SPEAKER_02
You re too nice for this industry.
6
SPEAKER_02
If you ever want to do anything, I m your producer.
6
SPEAKER_02
I said, thank you, Lorne.
6
SPEAKER_02
And that s, that s how we, you know, and I see him at like the four years or something like that.
6
SPEAKER_02
But I always, I always had a deep admiration for him because
6
SPEAKER_02
I also understand his view where he s watching people and bringing them to a place.
6
SPEAKER_02
And some people get frustrated and they think they need more attention.
6
SPEAKER_02
But I don t know.
6
SPEAKER_02
I even just having kids and dealing with that with a little staff here and there.
6
SPEAKER_02
I don t know how you do that with entertainers like us that are just nonstop.
6
SPEAKER_02
Oh, my God.
6
SPEAKER_00
What is it about that show?
6
SPEAKER_00
I mean, the people we ve interviewed.
6
SPEAKER_00
Some of them have said similar kind of stories.
6
SPEAKER_00
One cast member said, I don t really know why I left or what really happened, but there was a sea change, a couple of writers left, and these are very successful people.
6
SPEAKER_00
Suddenly it got kind of tilted, but none of us ever get that experience.
6
SPEAKER_00
out of our heads just because it s 8-H, it s New York City, it s live.
6
SPEAKER_00
You ll never get it quite out of it.
6
SPEAKER_00
But I just think, yeah, you re such an organic sketch player.
6
SPEAKER_00
It just fits you like a glove.
6
SPEAKER_00
And it s too bad you didn t have just... All you needed was one writer who gets you, who also has a voice in the room after a read-through.
6
SPEAKER_01
Steve Korn.
6
SPEAKER_00
And it was great writing.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, great guy.
6
SPEAKER_01
Also, I had one against me, but I had a couple for me.
6
SPEAKER_01
But still, things were getting killed because I didn t have everybody on my team.
6
SPEAKER_01
So it would be like half would get through or a third.
6
SPEAKER_01
And I was like, ah, I had a dissident in there.
6
SPEAKER_01
Is that the word?
6
SPEAKER_01
But you don t know that usually.
6
SPEAKER_01
I didn t know until later.
6
SPEAKER_01
And then you go like, fuck, it drives you batty.
6
SPEAKER_01
You don t know what s going on.
6
SPEAKER_02
No, you don t know what s going on, even to the point where I found out something else later down the line.
6
SPEAKER_02
But I think why it s so frustrating for you, Dave, people like me, Dana, I would say more comedians.
6
SPEAKER_02
The reason being, we do our presentation, we get the immediate feedback, so we know what works.
6
SPEAKER_02
So when you re in the, when you re, when you re creating a sketch or whatever, and you know, it s going to crush.
6
SPEAKER_02
And then you re you do the read through and it murders.
6
SPEAKER_02
And then it s not even acknowledged.
6
SPEAKER_02
It s.
6
SPEAKER_02
And we say, imagine you re going for a baseball team and you re like, okay, everyone line up.
6
SPEAKER_02
All right, speed.
6
SPEAKER_02
You re a pain.
6
SPEAKER_02
Oh, shit.
6
SPEAKER_02
This guy s hit.
7
SPEAKER_03
12 line drives off the wall, three in the upper deck.
7
SPEAKER_03
All right, here comes another, this guy looks smart.
7
SPEAKER_03
He s got grass where he s from, Harvard.
7
SPEAKER_03
Okay, Harvard guy.
7
SPEAKER_03
Okay, that s a bunt.
7
SPEAKER_03
All right, it s a one strikeout, caught looking.
7
SPEAKER_03
Wow, it s another one caught looking with the runners on base, Jesus.
7
SPEAKER_03
Okay, so here s who we picked.
7
SPEAKER_03
We picked out the Harvard guy, like what?
7
SPEAKER_03
Wait, are we going to the game?
7
SPEAKER_03
Like, are we competing today?
7
SPEAKER_03
What is going on?
7
SPEAKER_03
And so it was when you re in those battles and you see them with your own two eyes, you just go, oh, my.
7
SPEAKER_00
it s there s no rhyme or reason well sometimes did you have anyone who would like you kill with that and it doesn t get on the show that was in the room with lauren picking the show not even in an angry way but like what s up with my sketch i mean what was it what was how is it too redundant hosted and like it was there any rhyme or reason that you could
7
SPEAKER_03
Find out about them.
7
SPEAKER_03
I wouldn t abort what I would get.
7
SPEAKER_03
This is, see, I m starting to have flashbacks now.
7
SPEAKER_03
I thought I buried this and I patted it all down, but now like, ugh!
7
SPEAKER_00
Yes, mission accomplished.
7
SPEAKER_03
There was, this is what drove me nuts.
7
SPEAKER_03
I would get this.
7
SPEAKER_03
Hey, listen, Lauren doesn t like drunk characters.
7
SPEAKER_02
The character is really funny, that you do, but he s, you know, since, you know, since like John and stuff, like he doesn t, nothing like drinking ladies, not into it.
7
SPEAKER_03
I went, oh, okay.
7
SPEAKER_03
Two weeks later, very similar, but now different cast member and they just changed the angle, made a little smarter.
7
SPEAKER_03
And you re sitting there going, I know what the fuck you just did.
7
SPEAKER_03
They don t know.
7
SPEAKER_03
I know what the fuck you just did.
7
SPEAKER_00
I m getting flashbacks to Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
7
SPEAKER_03
Then I have this, right?
7
SPEAKER_03
This one.
7
SPEAKER_03
Oh, so you re in your room, it s like,
7
SPEAKER_03
3.30 in the morning, you re almost done with the sketch that you re finally going for.
7
SPEAKER_03
And this fucker would come in my doorway.
7
SPEAKER_03
Hey, uh, with his little pencil in his mouth.
7
SPEAKER_03
So, um, I see that you re doing a sketch about meatballs or whatever it was like, I just want, you know, I m writing one just like it.
7
SPEAKER_03
Like, how do you know I m writing a sketch?
7
SPEAKER_03
Well, we have a server with everyone, what everyone s writing.
7
SPEAKER_03
I m like, well, I m just telling you, I m writing one and most likely it ll get on.
7
SPEAKER_03
Oh boy.
7
SPEAKER_00
What?
7
SPEAKER_00
That s aggressive.
7
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
7
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
7
SPEAKER_01
So you re still gonna write yours?
7
SPEAKER_01
That s what they want you to go, oh, I ll skip it then.
7
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, right.
7
SPEAKER_03
But he s also someone that gets in the room.
7
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, because it s gonna bump with him and he ll kick you out.
7
SPEAKER_03
And you re like, God damn, like that is foul.
7
SPEAKER_03
That s just foul.
7
SPEAKER_03
So yeah, there was individuals that, one in particular, who I would call out.
7
SPEAKER_03
I know he s just honest when I told you this story.
7
SPEAKER_03
And then he finally reached out on Twitter.
7
SPEAKER_03
He goes, stop lying about I m the one who wanted to get you fired.
7
SPEAKER_03
And I went, well, it s the truth.
7
SPEAKER_03
Well, and then he finally, I said, I don t do Twitter.
7
SPEAKER_03
You can call me and we can talk about it.
7
SPEAKER_03
And he couldn t, huh?
7
SPEAKER_03
Interesting.
7
SPEAKER_03
Go ahead.
7
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
7
SPEAKER_03
He couldn t believe I was holding on to this this long, but just like anywhere, if you re enjoying your life and someone goes, Hey man, I m gonna make your life miserable and get you fired.
7
SPEAKER_03
You fucking remember that.
7
SPEAKER_03
So, um,
7
SPEAKER_03
The person emailed me, and he said, it went from, I never had any pull with Lorne, and the fact that you think I actually had any power to try to get you fired is just ludicrous.
7
SPEAKER_03
I have zero power.
7
SPEAKER_03
I go, well, it s funny, because I know for a fact someone in that room called me.
7
SPEAKER_03
And they said, quote, Jim needs to go.
7
SPEAKER_03
I think he s an issue.
7
SPEAKER_03
We can get someone who s just as funny and maybe more animated, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
7
SPEAKER_03
I just don t think, I think he s way overrated, blah, blah, blah.
7
SPEAKER_03
And he could tell by the quote, like, oh shit.
7
SPEAKER_03
So he, who s he talking to?
7
SPEAKER_03
So then his next email said, well, maybe I didn t,
7
SPEAKER_03
Encourage them to keep you.
7
SPEAKER_03
And then I finally said who the person was.
7
SPEAKER_03
And they went, well, I m sorry that you ve been holding on to this.
7
SPEAKER_03
You re a great power.
7
SPEAKER_03
If I did that, I apologize, blah, blah, blah.
7
SPEAKER_03
And I went, that s all right.
7
SPEAKER_03
I just wanted you to acknowledge that I knew.
7
SPEAKER_03
And because this person s an incredible writer.
7
SPEAKER_03
I think- And it s tough.
7
SPEAKER_03
It s tough coming from somebody good too.
7
SPEAKER_03
He s so good.
7
SPEAKER_03
I wish I could be in any of his stuff.
7
SPEAKER_03
They re incredible.
7
SPEAKER_03
And that s what hurt more and that s what was more frustrating.
7
SPEAKER_03
It s like, dude, just, if you don t like me, just, there s other ways to do it.
7
SPEAKER_03
As long as it s funny.
7
SPEAKER_00
There s an organic, volatile, emotionally violent thing around Saturday Night Live.
7
SPEAKER_00
It just is.
7
SPEAKER_00
You throw 10 comedians in a room, 20 writers, and there s only so many spots on the show, and all kinds of stuff happens.
7
SPEAKER_00
You create alliances.
7
SPEAKER_00
It s Game of Thrones.
7
SPEAKER_00
You start moving the chess pieces.
7
SPEAKER_00
Survivor.
7
SPEAKER_00
I ll give this person.
7
SPEAKER_00
I ll combine with this person.
7
SPEAKER_00
We ll try to defeat, you know.
7
SPEAKER_00
It s a very typical story.
7
SPEAKER_00
I mean the great thing is like you re as funny or funnier than you ve ever been and you re killing it.
7
SPEAKER_00
I feel that way.
7
SPEAKER_00
You ve got a huge following and you re you re just everybody s at some point off SNL except for Kenan Thompson but
7
SPEAKER_00
He s unfireable.
7
SPEAKER_00
Who may be the greatest cast member ever, but we all are ex... And it s no matter what happens, even if you re Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell, they re going to do Saturday Night Live and their movies.
7
SPEAKER_00
So it is a thing, but I think you made a great mark and your story, you just have to forgive
7
SPEAKER_00
the whole experience.
7
SPEAKER_00
I do.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I know that when you talk to us about it right now, I have the same thing.
7
SPEAKER_00
I ll go completely back to something.
7
SPEAKER_00
It brings me back to Utah.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I ll be really animated for 10 minutes and then just move on.
7
SPEAKER_00
But we re all X-Cast members.
7
SPEAKER_00
Most people have some regret or something that didn t go.
7
SPEAKER_00
You know, there s certain it s just very common.
7
SPEAKER_00
So anyway, I have my you have my empathy.
7
SPEAKER_00
That s that s a wicked story.
7
SPEAKER_03
Well, I ll tell you, I ll tell you both like it s
7
SPEAKER_03
I m, I m honored to come on here.
7
SPEAKER_03
I ve always looked up to both of you.
7
SPEAKER_03
Um, I ve always looked up to the both of you.
7
SPEAKER_03
So like when you guys, when I saw you guys connecting, I actually, I really liked the fact that
7
SPEAKER_03
You can finally see a different side of the two of you, just the talking side, and you can go in all these directions.
7
SPEAKER_03
I love what you guys are doing.
7
SPEAKER_03
So I was very honored to be part of this.
7
SPEAKER_00
For sure.
7
SPEAKER_00
Thank you.
7
SPEAKER_00
I mean, it is the thing about podcasting, because if I go on stage, you know, it s always
7
SPEAKER_00
Fasten your comedy safety belts, the man s coming, you know.
7
SPEAKER_00
And now I m just in a room chatting, I can be myself, but there is that pressure.
7
SPEAKER_00
He s, oh my God, he s going to fucking levitate, you know.
7
SPEAKER_00
So it s, I mean, it s a good problem to have, you know.
7
SPEAKER_01
I feel like back at SNL, I was like, especially that year I stayed over, it was such a weird
7
SPEAKER_01
bridge year for me because Adam and Chris left, my two main guys, Schneider was gone, maybe Timmy was still there.
7
SPEAKER_01
Tim was there.
7
SPEAKER_01
But I was only doing, Lauren goes, stay and I ll give you five minutes a week and you do whatever you want.
7
SPEAKER_01
And so I didn t really have two sketches.
7
SPEAKER_01
So there was a slight disconnect.
7
SPEAKER_01
So I don t even know how I came across to cast because I was so worried about
7
SPEAKER_01
doing these five minutes, I had my own little thing to do.
7
SPEAKER_01
It was like update, you get your own little chunk.
7
SPEAKER_01
And so I am in the cast, but I m not really, I don t think I did many sketches.
7
SPEAKER_01
It was more like I d go on the road, try to do field pieces.
7
SPEAKER_01
So I come back, and I didn t get that close to anybody, even though it was kind of fun.
7
SPEAKER_01
I was in the middle ground, you know what I mean?
7
SPEAKER_01
You were, you were.
7
SPEAKER_01
And it wasn t as fun for me, probably wasn t as fun for them to be on the cast with me either, because I felt like I was a senior that stayed a year too long.
7
SPEAKER_01
And I was like, shit, what am I still doing here?
7
SPEAKER_01
And I sort of had that caustic humor, which changed over the years.
7
SPEAKER_01
But it was definitely a weird time for me, and I thought, I shouldn t be here anymore.
7
SPEAKER_01
It wasn t as fun.
7
SPEAKER_01
It was fun doing those little bits, but there s so much time in between.
7
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I m not really part of rehearsal.
7
SPEAKER_01
I m not really part of.
8
SPEAKER_01
music, I m not part of, and the show s going on without me, and I m like, I m with one writer on the side doing bits, pre-tape a lot of the time.
8
SPEAKER_01
So definitely weird, I just didn t get that close to anybody that time, it was an odd, it was like one step too many.
8
SPEAKER_01
I should ve just pulled the plug.
8
SPEAKER_01
But like you, if you got nowhere to go and you re on SNL, everywhere else feels like down.
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SPEAKER_01
And you know, like you re saying these stories and the reason they resonate is because everyone isn t asking you about buddies, the pilot, they re asking about SNL the rest of your life.
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So they just have nothing else to say.
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They go, SNL, and then that s just a thing that you re stuck with.
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But it s also, no matter what your time frame is, you ve got two iconic things that people would always bring up.
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I assume if you do a Q&A or someone yells out Goat Boy or Pesci, I don t know if you throw it in there when you re riffing.
8
SPEAKER_02
So you made your mark.
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SPEAKER_00
I like that.
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SPEAKER_00
I call it like you went to battle and everyone got to tap.
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SPEAKER_00
to.
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And no matter what, like, how s your career?
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SPEAKER_00
And you and you go, and they go, Oh, shit, you made a mark that that
8
SPEAKER_00
The goat is wow.
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
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Because to get through that and get a catchphrase or get a sketch, people know it s almost impossible.
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That s what I wanted, even having bye bye or something where people knew it.
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And you go, hey, I went on the show.
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I came out and there was something that caught on or, you know, you just part of the history of like, hey, I got something in there that people would remember.
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And the show is still fucking going and still going.
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You re still coming up with shit.
8
SPEAKER_02
Going full circle when Fred Armisen left the show, he emailed me and goes, how do you deal with it?
8
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He left and he couldn t watch it.
8
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He goes, they re doing my show.
8
SPEAKER_02
What s going on?
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So everybody has this melancholy.
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If you re ever near the building again, it s like going back to your high school on a Sunday afternoon and going, really?
8
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There s this sort of emotionality.
8
SPEAKER_02
That s the fun part of this podcast because everyone has these feelings about that show.
8
SPEAKER_02
You know, something about it.
8
SPEAKER_02
And Lorne is still there and it s still in 8-H and it s all the sex same.
8
SPEAKER_01
Amazing.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, he gets terrified walking in those halls.
8
SPEAKER_02
Anyway, are you going to have enough energy to perform tonight or you feel good or what are you going to do?
8
SPEAKER_00
I m actually off tonight, so that s good.
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SPEAKER_00
I got an off night tomorrow.
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SPEAKER_00
I ll do the show.
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SPEAKER_00
All right.
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SPEAKER_00
And then I m doing I think I m losing my mind.
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SPEAKER_00
I booked, I think,
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SPEAKER_00
50 shows all the way through May where I m doing like two weeks on, two weeks off, two weeks on, two weeks off.
8
SPEAKER_00
I haven t done that.
8
SPEAKER_01
That s tough.
8
SPEAKER_02
You ll get sharp.
8
SPEAKER_02
And then are you gonna shoot another special?
8
SPEAKER_02
You shoot that on your own, right?
8
SPEAKER_02
And put them on YouTube?
8
SPEAKER_00
I m filming, you know, this is what I learned.
8
SPEAKER_00
I don t, yeah, on YouTube.
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SPEAKER_00
It s all YouTube.
8
SPEAKER_00
So I m filming three shows next week.
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SPEAKER_00
One is at one venue.
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SPEAKER_00
and the other one is at that paramount.
8
SPEAKER_00
Um, so yeah, and we ll see, and we ll see how that goes.
8
SPEAKER_02
And it s three cameras.
8
SPEAKER_02
I mean, you control the lighting.
8
SPEAKER_02
I mean, it s kind of, not overkill, but it s not 20 cameras and all that shit.
8
SPEAKER_00
No, no, no, no, no.
8
SPEAKER_00
No one cares about that anymore.
8
SPEAKER_00
No one cares about that.
8
SPEAKER_00
What I ve, what I noticed too, is like, you can, you can hire the biggest production team and put everything in it.
8
SPEAKER_00
If you just put from your phone, a little piece of the set, it s, it s, that s all they want to see.
8
SPEAKER_00
No, it doesn t matter.
8
SPEAKER_01
No one ever says, it looked like Scorsese.
8
SPEAKER_01
They go, no, it was funny or it wasn t.
8
SPEAKER_02
It looked like Lawrence of Arabia.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_02
Was it funny?
8
SPEAKER_02
No, but fucking David Lean came back from the dead, man.
8
SPEAKER_01
Well, good luck with it, man.
8
SPEAKER_01
Good luck with the tour.
8
SPEAKER_01
Thank you, Jim.
8
SPEAKER_02
A pleasure.
8
SPEAKER_02
So I hope we see you around campus as they say.
8
SPEAKER_01
Talk to you soon, buddy.
8
SPEAKER_01
Pleasure.
8
SPEAKER_01
Enjoyed it.
8
SPEAKER_01
Thanks, man.
8
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This has been a presentation of Odyssey.
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Please follow, subscribe, leave a like, a review, all this stuff.
8
SPEAKER_01
Smash that button, whatever it is, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Fly on the Wall is executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Jenna Weiss, Berman of Odyssey, Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment, and Heather Santoro.
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The show s lead producer is Greg Holtzman.