The King of Comedy: An Interview with Alex Bennett

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hello, I'm
Jenny Mack with your daily comedy news.

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This summer on Saturdays, I've been
doing some interviews. Today's guest is Alex

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Bennett, radio personality known for his
mix of left wing politics and humor.

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So why are you talking to this
political guy? John Well? Back in

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the eighties, Alex was a jock
in San Francisco, where the press dubbed

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him the King of Comedy for his
influence on the local comedy scene. So

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you'll hear us talk about people like
Bob gat Goldthwaite and Patton Oswald and Robin

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Williams. Will also talk about some
things like Dave Chappelle and current comedy.

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Alex and I work together, oh
like twenty and four to twenty thirteen,

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something like that, and we would
have very friendly political discussions in the hallway

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every day. We rarely agreed on
anything, but it wasn't the current name

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calling style of political disagreement. It
was always like I feel this way,

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you're crazy. You feel that way, you're crazy. So as part of

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this interview, towards the end,
we lightly talk about politics. I did

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edit back that part of the conversation
one because we had had it before the

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debate, and the pieces on the
board have changed since the debate. And

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two, I don't want to lose
half the audience with you going. I

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can't believe you don't support candidate X. I hate your show now, John

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that I listen to for four years, and you're stupid. And we'll share

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with you whatever you come away thinking
my politics are at the end, you're

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probably wrong. You will hear us
disagree on many things. There's a section

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about old jokes that kind of caught
me off guard. Alex also had some

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hot takes about folks like Kevin Spacey
that I didn't even know how to feel.

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You'll hear that awkwardness. And along
the way, Alex said some swear

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words. I thought about taking them
out. It would have just made for

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choppy edits so Titan, your Belta
notch today. I think there's two or

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three. One of them is the
capital M, capital F one, so

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be prepared for that one. And
if you normally listen to daily comedy news

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with your kids in the car,
don't. Here's Alex Bennett. Let me

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just jump in here again to remind
you we recorded this section before the debate.

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Back to the interview. So in
my own career I went through these

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weird phases. I did news talk
for the first ten years, and then

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when I started doing comedy at Serius
XM, everybody hit me with, well,

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what do you know about comedy or
a news talk guy. Then ten

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years later, when I got into
podcasting and I went back doing news talk,

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everybody said, but you're a comedy
guy. So Alex, the Alex

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Bennett I know is a host on
the left leaning channel on series XM,

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and we used to talk politics a
lot during the days. And then I'm

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talking to Mike Chisholm from The Letterman
podcast who randomly drops your name and ask

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me if I know you, and
I'm like, I know that guy,

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and he reminds me about your comedy
chops and how you'd be a great guest.

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So this morning I'm prepping even though
I know you. But now after

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doing the prep, I'm like,
maybe I don't really know Alex Bennett.

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Because I mean this lovingly. I
when I see the King of Comedy,

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I'm like, oh, I missed
the boat on a big chunk of this

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man's career. Let me dive in
here. So I invite you on today

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not to do our usual political friendly
banter, but to talk comedy. So

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how did you become the king of
comedy? That is not a light term.

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That is not a light term.
And I don't know that I ever

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particularly use the term myself, okay, but when I was in San Francisco,

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I started the thing where I,
you know, everything I ever did

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in this business is just it's organic. I don't sit down and say I'm

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going to do a show with comedians. Okay, the show with comedians kind

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of happened in that one thing led
to another, and before I knew it,

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I was up to my ass in
comics. And then of course the

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newspaper started referring to me as the
king of comedy. You know, when

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I was here in New York years
ago and I did left wing politics and

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I did music, musicians and what
we call left wing politics, the Abby

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Hoffmans and so on, the press
referred to me as the youth guru.

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So you always get this kind of
handle. And the one thing about radio

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that was great in those days is
you could move to a completely different market

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and redefine yourself. And I always
enjoyed comedy, and I met up with

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a comic who came on the show, and he was very funny, and

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I thought, this is very nice. And after the show, I said,

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you have any other friends who might
want to do the show? No

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comedians were doing radio shows at that
time, and he so he said,

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yeah, I got this other friend, Bobby Slayton. And then Bobby Slayton,

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I said, I got this other
friend, Jeremy Kramer, and Jeremy

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Kramer to me this friend and that
friend. Before I knew it, I

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was up to my ass in comics. I was doing live comedy concerts and

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things like that. It became a
literal business for me. Now, what

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was your show back in the day? Were you spinning records? Were you

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mostly talking? Were you doing issues
on the days? You didn't have comedians

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In my career except for the very
early part of my career, I never

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spun records. I always resented the
idea of using somebody else's talent to make

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my show work. Okay, So
I was very much the undisc jockey.

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I mean I came out of being
a disc jockey. I'm not denying that,

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but I got tired of that.
I thought that that was very limited

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in my opinion, and wasn't the
kind of radio I wanted to do,

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you know, so I didn't really
ever play record. I played records occasionally,

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you know, to fill time I
had to go to the bathroom.

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Now, and how early on were
you going jockless? You know? I

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think back to the New York market. Maybe other than wor there weren't there

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weren't really long form talk shows other
than evening sports talk. But the modern

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talk era to me is more very
late eighties, early nineties. But you

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were ahead of that. I was
doing talk in Houston, Texas. Thank

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god. I have to remember the
years now, it goes I go crazy

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trying to remember the years for that. The nineteen sixties maybe late six sixties.

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Yeah, I was doing a talk
show in Houston, Texas as Alexander

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Bennett, the man you love to
hate. I didn't create that, by

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the way, that was given to
me by the radio station. That gets

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back to you know, in later
days, everybody hates Howard Stern, so

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they listened to him three hours a
day. Yeah, exactly when you started

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having the comedians on. There's this
weird thing with the comics. I guess

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when they're not really well known,
they look up to the DJs. And

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then they at some point they pass
radio, and radio is not cool anymore,

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even at serious My listeners know I
will name check. I won't do

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it today. But a particular comedian
who's pretty famous now, who came up

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a lot in two thousand and three, two thousand and four and then forgot

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our phone number, how did they
react to you back in the day.

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Pretty good, actually, And even
to this day some of them will still

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remember me and mention that I had
a part in their career. Then there

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are others who who I had very
much a big part of their career and

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like to deny it, you know, because I made it on my own.

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I didn't need Alex Bennett blah blah
blah blah blah. You know,

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well, yes you did at that
time, and you used me till the

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cows came home. You know.
Yeah, it's not taking credit for someone's

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work. They're clearly talented, but
you giving somebody exposure helps accelerate someone's career,

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and let's just be real about it. Well, I don't want to

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see. Here's the thing. It's
kind of like, and I don't want

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to deny people deny that I had
anything to do with their career. Yet

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on the other hand, I don't
want them to have to say, oh,

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hey, Alex Bennett helped me.
You know, Alex Bennett made my

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career. I don't want that either. I just want them not to resent

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me because I helped them at one
time. You know, I was telling

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the story today. This is interesting. If there are a few comics I

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could probably say I had something to
do with their career. Others who say

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I had something to do with their
careers that I go, well, you

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know, it was more you than
me. Okay. But one guy who

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I absolutely made in San Francisco made
him into a big star, was Bob

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Goldthway. And Bob Goldthwaite came to
us from Boston, where he done okay,

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he came to San Francisco and he
came on my show, and the

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one thing he noticed about me that
nobody else was who did morning shows.

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He was expecting that I was going
to at some point say during the interview,

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well, Bob, come on,
what do you really like And I

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never did that. What I did
is I love being the straight man,

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and I played to the character and
he loved that and because of it,

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because of the combination of me knowing
how to use him and him appreciating what

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I was doing for him. He
became a just I mean, I can't

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tell you what kind of a star
he became. In San Francisco. I

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would hold concerts with Bob Goldthwaye on
the bill, and they sold out in

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fifteen minutes, okay, and these
were sometimes thousand sedars. So you know,

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I made this guy a star in
San Francisco. And then people called

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him to come to LA and be
in the movies, and he did the

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Police Academy films and some other films
and whatever. He comes back to San

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Francisco to do a special on HBO
for one of the one night stands I

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think it was, and I figured
I'll go backstage to say, oh to

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Bob. I haven't seen him in
a while. It's been in LA and

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whatever. I want to see how
he is. And I go in to

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see him and it's, Oh,
Alex, how are you arms around me?

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Jim, I'm so happy to see
you doing so well. Bob.

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Oh, thank you so much.
And I really, you know, appreciate

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our relationship. It was just huggy, kissy, wonderful, all of that.

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Right now, I go out in
the audience ready to see his act,

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and this is being taped, of
course, for HBO, and the

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first ten minutes of his act was
putting me down no way, Yes by

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name or as character by name.
Oh tell me more about that. No.

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I mean, I can't even remember
what he said. But it was

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one thing after another. Alex Bannon, Hey, what this? And he

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no talent, son of a bitch, blah blah blah, you know,

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and I'm going, wait a minute, that wasn't wasn't the guy I was

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talking to fifteen minutes ago, was
it? You know? And after that

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time, I just you know,
I just wrote them off, you know.

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And I never did anything to Bob
except wish the best for him and

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try to set the table for his
career, you know. And he he

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just say, you know, so
I think there's a sense of some comics

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will deny you. Okay, I'll
tell you a guy. It was a

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good guy, Patton Oswald. He
was doing a special in San Francisco for

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HBO, doing it at the Great
American Music Hall, where we did a

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lot of our gigs. And he
said to me, so I get a

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call and it's Patton. He said, Alex, I just wanted to call

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and say hello, and I said, well, it's very nice for me

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to do that, Paton, He
says, no, I wanted to tell

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you to night. I'm just playing
the great American music call. I'm doing

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it special for HBO, and I
have to thank you for my career.

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And I went, hey, you
know, and I said what I always

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say when the comedian would say something
like that, I didn't do it.

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You did it. You were great, you were terrific, you know.

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But it was a nice thing for
him to do. He didn't have to

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do that, you know. He
went out of his way to call me.

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That's super classy. So some guys
are really nice and appreciate what you

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did for him, and nobody should
appreciate what I did for him. Hell,

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they did for me too. I
had a top morning radio show in

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San Francisco and they were part of
the reason why, and so I have

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to thank them too. We used
each other. I find it a weird

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move to go after you were any
jock because in radio back in those days,

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even if you were an all time
ratings guru, maybe twelve percent of

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the town is listening to you and
another twenty percent. I've heard of you.

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So if you go up and you
start talking about the morning Man,

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half the audience might not know who
you're even talking about. Well, in

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San Francisco, they they probably knew
pretty well. If they were going to

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a comedy show and they were interest
in comedy, they probably listened to my

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show. Good point, So you
know that's why that played. But you

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know, so some comedians are really
appreciative and others aren't. I don't care

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if they aren't appreciative. But no, don't go on television for fifteen minutes

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or ten minutes of your comedy act
that they're taping and put me down.

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You know, I don't deserve that. And at this point, he's still

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doing the character. No, he's
not doing that anymore. No, not

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anymore. But when he ripped o
oh yeah, it was still doing the

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characters. Yeah. Yeah, he
almost seems like a different personnel. It

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does make me laugh that he titled
one of his albums, you don't look

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the same either. I thought that
was very funny. But he's done over

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his act. I do enjoy his
modern comedy. Well. I The thing

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that I found about Bob is that
sometimes you create a character that America loves

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in his case in San Francisco.
That character is a very lovable character,

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a person who was totally afraid of
everything and screamed and you know, it

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was whatever, and it was a
great hack. But at a certain point,

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people like that suddenly one day wake
up and go, oh, I

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want to marry you. To know
what the real Bob Goldthwait is Like,

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Well, they aren't buying the Bob
Goldwaight that you know eats dinner every night

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with his family. They're going there
to see Bob Goldthwait the comedian, And

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sometimes they start resenting the character they're
playing. And it's sad when that happens,

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because some of them create great characters. You know. One guy always

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persisted beautifully was Emo Phillips. Sure, And I got to tell you Emo

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had a character. If anybody had
a character, Emo had a character.

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Okay. And I would sometimes sit
down either backstage or at a party or

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whatever with Emo and have a really
strong political discussion, kind of like you

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and I used to have. And
he was a right winger, rabid right

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winger, and so we would go
back and forth and discussing it and very

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intelligent guy. And I really like
Demo a lot, even though we didn't

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agree politically, but he had you
know, he had a character. He

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always lived with that character. He
didn't care if anybody want to know who

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the real Emo Phillips was, you
know. But backstage did he drop it

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and speaking in more normally he dropped
it completely? Yeah, dropped it completely.

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Now another guy. People always ask
me about Gilbert. Yes, I

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was gonna bring Gilbert up. Yeah, Gilbert had a character, no question

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about it. Was Gilbert that way
when he wasn't on stage, Well,

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he sounded like Gilbert, but he
was quieter. He's much more demure.

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I mean every year we would both
go to the same party, Christmas party

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together, and we hate parties,
so we both went off into a corner

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and would talk for hours, you
know. And yeah, there was a

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Gilbert voice, but it wasn't the
Gilbert persona. You know what I'm saying.

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That's a different between the persona and
how you still sound like yourself when

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you're off the off the stage,
but the demeanor is not the same.

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Yeah, you'd be hey, Gilbert, let's go back to Studio three.

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Oh okay, And that's said.
You wouldn't get the the afflac Duck parking

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back at you exactly exactly more with
that look's been ittt after this. What

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made San Francisco such a great comedy
scene it still is. There are certain

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cities, you know, New York, Boston, Philly, Austin in there.

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Now I can go back and forth
in la but San Francisco definitely had

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a scene, still has a scene. The Great Sketch Fest. What is

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it about the uh? You know, I'd like to say that at least

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that comedy scene during that period of
time, which was the nineteen seventies,

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was part of the way it was
because as a me I mean, I

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had a radio show and we promoted
comedy, and comedians came on and established

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their characters on the you know,
these guys were these guys were fool proof

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when they went to do a gig
somewhere because people had already accepted their voice

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as it was. You know,
because what a comedian has to do when

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they first go on stage is establish
who they are to the audience. And

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you got to do that as quickly
as possible. You should be able to

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do it in the first five minutes, so that if nobody has ever seen

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a Gilbert Godfreed in the first couple
of minutes. He's got to establish this

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character and bring you into his world. Well, if you did my radio

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show, you didn't have to do
that because everybody had already been brought into

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your war and they were there because
they probably heard about it on my show

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that you were playing somewhere and they
went to see you. So you didn't

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have to do that salesmanship. I
mean, I could go on stage and

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I could get big laughs on stage, but I'm not comedian. I was

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an MC of these shows, and
yet I got laughs just simply because it

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was all based upon they listened to
me on the radio and I said something

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that I had to do with the
radio show or whatever, you know,

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So it may made comedians' jobs a
lot easier. Yeah, and you can.

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You can kind of cruise on attitude
and timing for three four five minutes

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in front of one audience once.
I've been talking with several guests recently about

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things that sound like comedy but maybe
there's no actual joke there. You can

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kind of get into that rhythm.
Yeah, well, I'll I'll give you

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an example of something I said.
You have to establish yourself in the first

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couple of minutes. Here, on
stage, bring people into that world of

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yours, that kind of skewed world
that you have, and then they laugh

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along with you at these things.
The best comedian I've ever known for bringing

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people into them as a guy by
named Larry Bubbles Brown. I don't know

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if you know who Larry Bubbles Brown. Tell Larry Bubbles Brown for my money.

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Is one of the most professional comedians
alive. Okay, And Larry plays

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this dead pan on stage okay,
and the first words out of his mouth

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are, yesterday, somebody tried to
steal my identity. Now they've got no

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life. That sets it all up
for the next ten minutes. It doesn't

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matter. He's established that character with
that one joke. I was reading an

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article I think it was yesterday with
Jerry saying that he'll set up like you

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know, I'm having an argument with
my wife and he said the audience knows

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it's not true, but they're willing
to go for the ride. They're willing

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to go for the bit. Oh
yeah, absolutely. Listen. Henny Youngman

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was saying take my wife please,
long after she was dead, you know,

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so I mean, but still it. You know, it's important that

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you establish yourself when you first go
on stage. You know, I'm bringing

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people into that world of yours,
that craziness that you inhabit. But as

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a comedy snob, I sometimes struggle
with I'll be watching a set and I

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understand that, you know, the
basic compared to graphing out a sentence when

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you're in grammar school, the basic, here's a premise. Let me exaggerate

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it for effect. Let me tell
something that happened very colorfully. Let me

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say something that probably didn't happen at
all, but it's funny, and later

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do the callback. I get that, But sometimes I'll watch a set and

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I just don't believe a single word
coming out of the artist's mouth that I'm

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like, that never happened. This
is just a made up story for laughs,

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And I struggle connecting with it that
they haven't sold it to me.

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Whereas Jerry's admitting to the tricks of
the magician, and I go, yeah,

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all right, I can imagine having
Maybe it's maybe I'm profiling back to

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myself. I can imagine having a
fight with my wife. Maybe that's what

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the connection is. Could also be
no comedy too, Well, well,

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that's true, I was that can
spoil it for you. I have one

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of my best friends over the years
has been Bobby Slayton. Well, why

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you think is inexorably the one of
the greatest stand ups alive? Okay,

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And he doesn't even do his act
anymore because he feels he's been, you

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know, shut out of the business
by people being too socially what's the word

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I'm looking for, socially? Right? Correct? Okay, because his act

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isn't that way puts down everybody,
Chinese, black people. He's a black

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guy in the audience, you know, he's kind of like Rickles in that

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in that fashion, and Bobby is
just an incredible comic, and he finds

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he can't work anymore because his act
has problems that people are just to to,

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Oh, that's not correct. You
shouldn't say that about women. You

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know, can't do the wife jokes
anymore, even though his wife's dead by

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the way, but he can't do
the wife jokes, so he's got to

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the girlfriend jokes. He can't do
them anymore. Most he said, most

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of my acts being got it.
But who are the people that are offended?

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I talked about this on the show
the other day. Every day there's

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an article some comedian I just saw
Julie Louis Dreyfuss reacting to it. You

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can't say anything anymore. But who
are these people who's actually canceled? Like,

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who's telling Bobby he can't do that
act when he goes to a college

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and they start booing him for a
joke. You know, there are a

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lot of comedians now who just will
not play colleges any longer. Yeah,

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I know, Jerry's one of them. Can you imagine like that they're too

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politically correct? Yeah, a college
student being more uptight than a sixty seven

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year old comedian, Like what is
happening? That's absolutely correct, you know.

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And the fact is that I hate
it when I see that Bobby decided

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to quit the business. He just
you know, it's that and salaries they're

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00:22:51.240 --> 00:22:53.680
paying too. You know, they're
trying to get away as cheaply as possible.

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Hey, Slate, you want four
thousand a week, I can go

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get Bobby asshole to to work for
a third of that. You know,

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So why should I hire you?
Because you're a draw? You're not a

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draw in this theater? Blah blah
blah blah blah. You know, I

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mean, it's just it's very hard
for for especially older comedians today to work.

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You know, I mean, I
have my I mentioned Larry Bubbles Brown.

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He may not know, but he
He's worked more consistently with people than

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I've ever known because he's the perfect
opening act. And so he always opens

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for Dana Carvey. And there's this
Spanish guy that he opens up for.

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I can't remember his name now,
Sparsa Philippias Sparsa, Philippia Sparsa. Anytime

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he's in the Bay Area, he
has bubbles open for him. Heah bubbles

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open for him at the Netflix Festival, you know, because he's a great

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opening act, because he does one
of his main things is he doesn't spoil

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the room. There can be who
spoil the room. You put a Bob

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Goldthwaite on, Nobody wants to follow
him. Why not because he's great,

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Because he's loud, and loud comedians
are hard to follow. So you want

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an opening act that doesn't spoil the
room. And he doesn't spoil the room.

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I was looking at your resume and
I had no idea. I found

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00:24:21.839 --> 00:24:26.400
this poster HBO comedy Half Hours hosted
by Alex Bennett nineteen ninety five. Fillmore

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00:24:26.519 --> 00:24:30.720
Poster fifty Bucks, by the way, But listen to this lineup. I

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00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:34.000
mean you were there, Bob,
Jonathan Katz, Mark Maren, Judy Gold,

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00:24:34.119 --> 00:24:38.319
Dana Gould, Jeanine Garoffalo, Carlos
Mencia. I mean, that's some

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00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:42.079
lineup. If I had to rank
them, Jonathan Katz is the seventh greatest

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00:24:42.079 --> 00:24:45.039
comedian on that list. That's some
show. Yeah, that was, But

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00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:49.680
that was an HBO one Night stant
or half what were they half hour comedy

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00:24:49.759 --> 00:24:53.240
half hour comedy hour? Yeah,
that was for the This was an HBO

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00:24:53.400 --> 00:24:57.480
show that they were taping in San
Francisco. And all I did at that

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00:24:57.599 --> 00:25:03.759
point I if you listen to the
old One Night one night Stands the first

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00:25:03.799 --> 00:25:08.759
season, I'm the announcer on the
first season. But I all I did,

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really was I hustled the crowd into
the into the show, and then

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I opened up the show by being
the warm up guy. But I did

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those were not my shows. The
posters pretty awesome, though, it is

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00:25:23.079 --> 00:25:27.960
I know you. Also, it
says here you're the host of Public Television's

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00:25:27.960 --> 00:25:32.599
comedy Tonight. I'm k q ed
I again, you're somebody I talked to

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00:25:33.240 --> 00:25:37.160
every day for ten years. I
had no idea six five seasons, and

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00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:41.960
then I was replaced as a host
by Whoopy Goldberg. I can argue that

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00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:48.839
either way. Right says it says
tonight the part of Alex Vanner will be

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00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:55.319
played by Whoopy Goldberg. At least
it's somebody we've heard of. H No.

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00:25:55.400 --> 00:25:57.400
I was the host of that show
for I think it was five years.

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What was that show? Like?
What happened on it? It was

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00:26:00.119 --> 00:26:06.720
a half hour show, three comics
per show came out of what was I

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00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:10.640
think it's now called Wolfgangs, or
maybe it was called Wolfgangs. I can't

358
00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:15.079
remember now, But anyway, we
did. We did the shows out of

359
00:26:15.160 --> 00:26:19.400
there, and we would go in
once a year, spend a couple of

360
00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:23.759
nights and do all these shows.
And you know, and I got residuals

361
00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:27.799
for another twenty years. Oh that's
nice. Fifty cents or five thousand dollars

362
00:26:27.799 --> 00:26:32.440
going to ask, Well, No, I got paid one hundred and fifty

363
00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:36.079
dollars a show. And then you
know, when they put the shows back

364
00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:40.799
on and ran the various places and
so on and so forth, the ones

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00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:42.440
I really made off, you know
who, maybe the most money I've ever

366
00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:49.920
made. Bill Maher is a still
run his HBO one night Stand on the

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00:26:49.960 --> 00:26:55.240
Max and every time they keep doing
that, every year I get another check

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00:26:55.440 --> 00:27:00.160
each year. It's for less and
less money, but I figure over the

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00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:03.599
years I've made maybe three four thousand
dollars from Bill Maher. Thanks Bill,

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00:27:04.599 --> 00:27:08.720
Thanks Bill, just for doing the
opening. But by the way, that's

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00:27:08.759 --> 00:27:12.599
a that's a great story that she's
doing the one night stand, okay,

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00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:18.599
or yeah, HBO's one night Stand. So I do the warm up,

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right, and every night I get
a little better, I get a little

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funnier, get you know, I
get a little I build a little act.

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By the fifth night of doing these
shows, I'm pretty damn good.

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Okay, but I'm not a stand
up but I never will be, and

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00:27:33.200 --> 00:27:38.839
I don't ever expect to compete in
that arena. But anyway, so we're

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00:27:38.839 --> 00:27:44.559
doing the show that night, with
among other things, Bill Maher doing his

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00:27:44.599 --> 00:27:47.559
show. So I do the warm
up, you know, and a part

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of it is I'll say, like, how many here, like I don't

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00:27:49.839 --> 00:27:53.119
know, I don't know who the
president was at the time, and some

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00:27:53.200 --> 00:27:56.920
of them will boo and cheer and
so. But what you're trying to do

383
00:27:56.039 --> 00:28:00.119
is, among other things, you're
trying to get a reaction from the audience

384
00:28:00.119 --> 00:28:06.160
that they can have some sound to
use if they have to fill in the

385
00:28:06.200 --> 00:28:10.200
show, like laughing or applauding or
whatever. I get the people to applaud

386
00:28:10.279 --> 00:28:14.160
all it. So anyway, so
before I go on, I'm called into

387
00:28:14.200 --> 00:28:18.519
Bill Maher's dressing room and he looks
at me. He says, you're Alex

388
00:28:18.599 --> 00:28:22.759
Bennett. I said, yes,
you're the warm up guy on the show.

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00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:25.640
I said, I'm not really the
warm up guy. I'm kind of,

390
00:28:25.680 --> 00:28:30.079
you know, just going out and
getting people warmed up. And so

391
00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:34.440
he says, do you do any
political And I said, well, you

392
00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:38.720
know, I use a few political
things to get people to applaud and to

393
00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:42.599
cheer and get a reaction. You
know, how many people here like so

394
00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:47.279
and so? And I can't.
I can't remember it was president at the

395
00:28:47.319 --> 00:28:51.279
time, and who the the opposition
was, you know. But and he

396
00:28:51.319 --> 00:28:55.079
says, so you do comment,
you do do political. I said,

397
00:28:55.440 --> 00:28:59.200
well, that's not really political.
I'm just you know. He said,

398
00:28:59.200 --> 00:29:02.559
well I do political, so stop
doing it. And I looked at him

399
00:29:02.599 --> 00:29:06.480
and I said, I happen to
know you're making twenty thousand dollars for this

400
00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:12.759
show tonight. Follow me motherfucker.
That's fantastic. Yeah, political comedy has

401
00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:17.799
kind of become a lightning rod.
Now, if I'm thinking back, depending

402
00:29:17.799 --> 00:29:21.359
on the president, some president's made
for better comedy. Everybody had a generic

403
00:29:21.440 --> 00:29:25.720
Nixon, Everybody did the Ronald Reagan, Whyale, you know, maybe not

404
00:29:25.880 --> 00:29:30.599
so much Bush. Other than somebody
doing Dana Carvey's. Nobody really nailed Obama.

405
00:29:30.640 --> 00:29:33.880
But I feel like these days,
other than the late night guys piling

406
00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:37.880
on Trump, I feel like there's
a fear to really go political at all.

407
00:29:38.039 --> 00:29:41.759
You just immediately lose half the audience. Whereas back in the day,

408
00:29:42.119 --> 00:29:45.559
you could make a Bill Clinton joke. Yeah you could, and people would

409
00:29:45.640 --> 00:29:49.240
laugh at it because you're making fun
of the of the character Bill Clinton,

410
00:29:49.359 --> 00:29:59.480
not the personal problems that Bill Clinton
might have. You know, I think

411
00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:03.039
that people are too sensitive. Yeah, you're going to lose half the audience

412
00:30:03.039 --> 00:30:04.920
if you tell them where you are
politically. These days, I think that

413
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:11.319
goes for any place. You know, the trouble I have and I you

414
00:30:11.319 --> 00:30:15.680
know, I enjoy all the bashing
of Trump. I have no compunctions about

415
00:30:15.759 --> 00:30:21.839
that, but I wonder if it
isn't cheap because he's really easy to get

416
00:30:21.839 --> 00:30:26.440
a laugh from. You know,
yes, it's a really it's it's almost

417
00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:29.240
like, why don't you use the
F word? Why shouldn't you use the

418
00:30:29.359 --> 00:30:32.440
F word? Hear? I?
Well, I always hated comedians who would

419
00:30:32.519 --> 00:30:36.640
use well we can say it here, who used fuck as a punchline.

420
00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:40.559
You know, they'd be telling him
and fuck and that's the point, and

421
00:30:40.559 --> 00:30:45.640
everybody would laugh, and I go, that's not comedy. You don't use

422
00:30:45.799 --> 00:30:49.160
that as a punchline. And the
same thing is true with Trump. Very

423
00:30:49.279 --> 00:30:55.039
easy, it's very easy to do
that, you know. And I don't

424
00:30:55.039 --> 00:30:57.599
know if I had a comedy act
somewhere, if I would go after Trump,

425
00:30:57.640 --> 00:31:03.519
because I consider it maybe cheap.
But conversely, I personally like a

426
00:31:03.720 --> 00:31:08.480
good old fashioned Joe Biden is so
old joke, and the joke's not really

427
00:31:08.599 --> 00:31:14.240
about Biden despite his age. It's
really a so and so is so old

428
00:31:14.400 --> 00:31:18.079
punchline. Here. I love those. Well, I am eighty four years

429
00:31:18.119 --> 00:31:22.480
old, and I get a bit
upset by them because again, they're kind

430
00:31:22.519 --> 00:31:26.359
of a cheap shot. You know. It's always about oh yeah, blah

431
00:31:26.359 --> 00:31:32.119
blah blah. I'll expend it meta
musil you know, uh, I you

432
00:31:32.119 --> 00:31:34.240
know, at eighty four, I
don't know if I find ages funny.

433
00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:41.039
You know, we got enough problems
being old, but people laugh at us.

434
00:31:41.519 --> 00:31:44.400
So see, I don't know.
I want to keep the courage of

435
00:31:44.440 --> 00:31:45.839
my own convictions here. And you
and I have a twenty year relationship of

436
00:31:45.880 --> 00:31:51.519
respectful discussions. And so where you're
you were always wrong, I was always

437
00:31:51.519 --> 00:31:53.759
wrong. I admitted that to you
in the pre dape. I like a

438
00:31:53.839 --> 00:31:57.880
good solid you know. Joe Biden
was at the D Day ceremony. It

439
00:31:57.920 --> 00:32:01.000
was the first time he had been
there since serving as a colonel in nineteen

440
00:32:01.079 --> 00:32:06.079
forty five. Like, it's a
silly joke and at the risk of offending

441
00:32:06.119 --> 00:32:07.799
you, Hey, Alex Bennett was
talking about D Day. It must have

442
00:32:07.839 --> 00:32:12.000
been really great for him to see
his old friends. Like, it's just

443
00:32:12.039 --> 00:32:15.599
to me, that's just a joke, joke. Well, to you,

444
00:32:15.720 --> 00:32:17.759
it's a joke, joke. To
somebody that age, it's not as much

445
00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:21.799
of a joke. It's kind of
like saying, oh, that joke about

446
00:32:21.839 --> 00:32:24.440
a black person is just a joke. Joke, you know, but if

447
00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:28.680
you're black, it may not be
a joke. So then what can we

448
00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:32.359
joke about? Well, you can
joke about anything. And I have the

449
00:32:32.440 --> 00:32:36.680
right to be offended by it if
I want to, But I don't have

450
00:32:36.759 --> 00:32:39.200
the right to stop you from offending
me. That makes sense, It makes

451
00:32:39.240 --> 00:32:43.680
total sense. Yeah, I have
the right to be offended, you know,

452
00:32:44.359 --> 00:32:47.720
And as I got older, I
have I can hear you when I

453
00:32:47.799 --> 00:32:52.920
give it. I'll tell you a
story. I was doing comedy tonight in

454
00:32:52.960 --> 00:32:55.839
San Francisco, and what I would
have to do is I would have to

455
00:32:55.880 --> 00:33:04.480
go into Channel nine in San Francisco, which was the PBS station, and

456
00:33:04.599 --> 00:33:07.799
record some voiceovers for stuff we had
missed or for the shows that we were

457
00:33:07.839 --> 00:33:13.000
doing or whatever. But I do
the voiceovers. So I'm sitting over there

458
00:33:13.039 --> 00:33:19.000
waiting in the lobby to get going
on this thing, and the woman who

459
00:33:19.119 --> 00:33:25.000
is the receptionist there says, by
the way, mister so and so over

460
00:33:25.200 --> 00:33:30.160
at over Easy would like to see
you now. Over Easy was the show

461
00:33:30.200 --> 00:33:36.799
they did with you downs. It
was about age and about aging, okay,

462
00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:38.839
And so I said, okay,
I've got a couple of minutes.

463
00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:43.000
I'll go over there. And I
went over there and I introduced myself.

464
00:33:43.440 --> 00:33:45.119
He said, Hi, you know, he says, I've listened to your

465
00:33:45.119 --> 00:33:50.119
show in the morning along, he
said, and you make jokes about old

466
00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:52.079
people, he said. Now,
I'm not here to tell you to stop,

467
00:33:52.799 --> 00:33:57.319
he said, but the fact is, it's hard enough being old.

468
00:33:57.519 --> 00:34:01.839
Because this guy was the expert on
aging and agism. He says, difficult

469
00:34:01.920 --> 00:34:06.480
enough getting old without having somebody make
fun of you. And he said,

470
00:34:06.680 --> 00:34:08.480
you really should stop doing that.
And I thought about it, and I

471
00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:13.239
said, you know, he's right, and I never did another. So

472
00:34:13.440 --> 00:34:19.000
he's so old joke ever again,
because he felt that it's hard enough getting

473
00:34:19.039 --> 00:34:22.800
being old, but it gets really
hard when people are giving it making a

474
00:34:22.920 --> 00:34:27.159
joke about it. You know.
Now, I appreciate that. I think

475
00:34:27.199 --> 00:34:30.920
one of the things, especially as
we age, is you learn that life's

476
00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:34.599
a journey and all you can try
and do is be a better person than

477
00:34:34.639 --> 00:34:37.199
you were the day before. And
along the way, some mistakes were made.

478
00:34:37.280 --> 00:34:40.719
I've been open with this audience back. I try. I try.

479
00:34:40.760 --> 00:34:45.679
I try to be the worst person
I can be every day. I figure

480
00:34:45.760 --> 00:34:49.159
I didn't do it well enough when
I was younger. I want to get

481
00:34:49.280 --> 00:34:51.800
it down when I'm older. You
know, a great thing about being old

482
00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:57.760
is that you can tell just yell
at people, get out of my way,

483
00:34:57.840 --> 00:35:00.920
get off of my lawn, you
know, and they fully expect it,

484
00:35:01.280 --> 00:35:06.199
so what are you doing? You
know? I remember back at Serious

485
00:35:06.360 --> 00:35:09.400
it was pretty early in my run. We had something on the air and

486
00:35:09.440 --> 00:35:14.559
one day one of my friends from
out Q, which was the LGBTQ Plus

487
00:35:14.599 --> 00:35:17.639
station, came by in a very
friendly way and said, what the hell's

488
00:35:17.679 --> 00:35:21.320
your problem? And I was like, what are you talking about? And

489
00:35:21.360 --> 00:35:23.239
he pointed out the thing that we
had on the air that was offensive.

490
00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:28.320
That here, twenty years later,
I'm embarrassed by I wish we hadn't done

491
00:35:28.320 --> 00:35:30.679
it. At the time I put
it on the air, I approved it.

492
00:35:30.679 --> 00:35:34.639
It didn't accidentally make it on the
air. I was just too stupid,

493
00:35:34.679 --> 00:35:37.559
ignorant, foolish, uneducated, didn't
realize we were hurting people. And

494
00:35:37.599 --> 00:35:40.320
we took it off the air as
soon it was brought to our ted what

495
00:35:40.519 --> 00:35:45.559
was it? Jim Brewer had a
bumper. He used to use a word

496
00:35:45.599 --> 00:35:49.320
that rhymes with rag and starts with
F. I don't want to use it,

497
00:35:49.840 --> 00:35:53.159
and he would explain it as it
had nothing to do with sexuality.

498
00:35:53.440 --> 00:35:59.000
He would describe it as the kid
who couldn't kick the kickball in the playground.

499
00:35:59.280 --> 00:36:04.599
Was how Jimmy and us denim jacket
wearing knuckleheads from Queens and Long Island

500
00:36:04.639 --> 00:36:07.639
who grew up in the eighties didn't
think twice about it. And then the

501
00:36:08.559 --> 00:36:12.559
friend coworker came over and I was
like, what is your problem? And

502
00:36:12.679 --> 00:36:15.480
I was horrified. I'm still horrified
by this twenty twenty five years later,

503
00:36:15.559 --> 00:36:19.800
but I don't have a time machine. I'll loan up to it. I'm

504
00:36:19.800 --> 00:36:22.760
sorry we did it, but I
can't go back in time. Yeah,

505
00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:28.800
but also, you did it at
a time when it was still fairly acceptable

506
00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:32.920
and wasn't in your purview as being
wrong. Today, you might not do

507
00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:37.840
it today, you might feel guilty
about it because you now know how wrong

508
00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:40.840
it was in retrospect, but at
the time you didn't. I'll tell you

509
00:36:40.880 --> 00:36:45.039
when I was, you know,
I had comedians on every morning, and

510
00:36:45.159 --> 00:36:50.400
all of a sudden, in the
middle of doing my little morning comedy show,

511
00:36:50.519 --> 00:36:54.360
something hit San Francisco that hit San
Francisco before it hit anywhere else.

512
00:36:54.440 --> 00:37:00.159
It was a thing called AIDS and
it was hitting pretty badly and people were

513
00:37:00.280 --> 00:37:04.840
dying by a high number. But
I, being the straight guy, not

514
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.400
hanging out in the in the Castro
district or anything like that, never really

515
00:37:10.519 --> 00:37:15.719
thought about it. You know,
and I had comedians coming on making jokes

516
00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:21.519
about age, okay, which at
that point he went, oh, well,

517
00:37:21.599 --> 00:37:22.800
yeah, it's just a joke about
AIDS. Oh blah blah blah.

518
00:37:23.320 --> 00:37:27.599
One night, I'm watching television.
They show a guy with age and he's

519
00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:31.119
got all these CARPOSI sarcoma all over
his face and his body and so on,

520
00:37:31.719 --> 00:37:36.039
and he's gone and looks like he's
on the edge of death. And

521
00:37:36.079 --> 00:37:39.719
I said to myself, there's no
joke in this disease. So the next

522
00:37:39.800 --> 00:37:44.280
day I went in and every comedian
came on and he said, no age

523
00:37:44.400 --> 00:37:47.199
jokes. And I was the first
guy actually in San Francisco to realize that,

524
00:37:49.159 --> 00:37:52.719
you know, but I just found
that I didn't see anything funny in

525
00:37:52.800 --> 00:37:55.800
age. I didn't see it.
There's only one funny age joke I've ever

526
00:37:55.840 --> 00:38:01.960
heard, okay, and that was
what's the worst part about having AIDS?

527
00:38:02.960 --> 00:38:07.199
Having to tell your parents your haitian. That's a good joke, I know.

528
00:38:07.320 --> 00:38:09.719
I just I wanted to laugh at
the joke. That's a good joke.

529
00:38:09.719 --> 00:38:12.280
And I'm like, can I laugh
at this? Am I going to

530
00:38:12.320 --> 00:38:16.400
be canceled? This is the struggles
you see every other gay joke these comedians

531
00:38:16.400 --> 00:38:22.039
were doing was at the expense of
the person being gay? Okay, that

532
00:38:22.159 --> 00:38:27.039
joke does it isn't at the expense
of somebody being gay and and so uh,

533
00:38:27.079 --> 00:38:30.480
you know. But otherwise I just
said, no more jokes about ads

534
00:38:30.920 --> 00:38:32.800
and I hit it right on the
head. Then a lot of other people

535
00:38:32.880 --> 00:38:37.239
realized that that was the way to
go too, you know. But I

536
00:38:37.280 --> 00:38:40.400
mean, it was horrible. It
was a horrible disease. What's funny about

537
00:38:40.400 --> 00:38:45.559
it? How did comedians react to
you putting up a boundary? None of

538
00:38:45.559 --> 00:38:47.760
them were bothered by it. They
understood what I was saying. That's great,

539
00:38:49.039 --> 00:38:51.360
explained I explained it to him.
I said, I you know,

540
00:38:51.440 --> 00:38:55.519
I've seen people with aids and it's
not funny. There's nothing you wouldn't tell

541
00:38:55.559 --> 00:39:00.000
me a funny joke about cancer.
You know, you can't really come up

542
00:39:00.039 --> 00:39:04.039
with a funny cancer joke, can
you? And they said no, And

543
00:39:04.079 --> 00:39:06.639
I said, then, how can
you come up with a funny age joke?

544
00:39:06.960 --> 00:39:09.880
For those of us at a certain
age, my age, Eddie Murphy's

545
00:39:10.400 --> 00:39:16.079
brow Slash Delirious was a cornerstone comedy
piece because we were too young to realize

546
00:39:16.119 --> 00:39:22.440
what a Richard Pryor cover act.
It was, but his. He has

547
00:39:22.800 --> 00:39:27.039
the first ten to fifteen minutes of
that set. There are some age jokes

548
00:39:27.039 --> 00:39:30.320
in there. I mean nothing in
that set as aged particularly well, but

549
00:39:31.280 --> 00:39:35.039
I could probably do the entire thing
off the top of my head. That's

550
00:39:35.039 --> 00:39:37.960
how many times I listened to it
and laughed at it. As a fourteen

551
00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:42.320
year old, I never found Prior
a very good stand up interesting talk to

552
00:39:42.360 --> 00:39:45.159
me, not Prior, Not Prior, Eddie Murphy. I thought you were

553
00:39:45.199 --> 00:39:49.119
going to go on a heart take
here, Alex Bett. It well for

554
00:39:49.199 --> 00:39:54.639
exactly the reason you said it wasn't
funny because he was trying to be Richard

555
00:39:54.679 --> 00:40:00.320
Pryor only in a leather suit.
Well even sunset strip, Richard's wearing a

556
00:40:00.440 --> 00:40:05.440
red suit. It's a total lift. Again, I was fourteen, I

557
00:40:05.480 --> 00:40:07.960
didn't know. But as I've studied
this, I go back and I listened

558
00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:14.000
to the way Richard tells a story, the voices Richard does, and Eddie's

559
00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:15.880
a cover act doesn't mean it's not
funny, but it's a cover band.

560
00:40:16.519 --> 00:40:21.760
Prior was empirical. He was He
was one of the best of all time.

561
00:40:22.880 --> 00:40:29.039
I didn't come to appreciate Carlin till
years later in fact I interviewed him,

562
00:40:29.119 --> 00:40:31.119
and that's what kind of made me
listen to more Carlin in a different

563
00:40:31.159 --> 00:40:37.320
fashion, and I got to really
like Carlin's work. I thought that as

564
00:40:37.480 --> 00:40:44.599
a stand up comedy he was comedian. He had he had had a rhythm

565
00:40:45.440 --> 00:40:50.599
in his in his style, and
it was very precise that show that anytime

566
00:40:50.639 --> 00:40:54.679
he went on stage, all of
that material was literally set in stone,

567
00:40:54.760 --> 00:41:00.079
word for word before he went on
stage. There was no ad libbing or

568
00:41:00.119 --> 00:41:04.039
whatever, but it was brilliant in
the way it was presented, in his

569
00:41:04.239 --> 00:41:08.000
timing on it. Much like years
earlier I had was privileged to see and

570
00:41:08.199 --> 00:41:14.960
was a fan of Lenny Bruce.
And Lenny was a very musical act.

571
00:41:15.119 --> 00:41:21.079
I mean he was to comedy what
Miles Davis was to jazz. There was

572
00:41:21.119 --> 00:41:28.239
a rhythm there in his presentation that
was very musical, very musical. I

573
00:41:28.280 --> 00:41:31.199
feel like Lenny has gotten left behind. I forgot who said this recently.

574
00:41:31.320 --> 00:41:35.440
One of the topics that'll come up
is when we talk about best comedian of

575
00:41:35.440 --> 00:41:37.000
all time, like, you know, where do you want to start?

576
00:41:37.039 --> 00:41:40.360
You want to start at Shakespeare or
at what point? And somebody compared Carlin

577
00:41:40.480 --> 00:41:45.920
and prior to almost being John the
Baptists of comedy, of ushering in that

578
00:41:46.079 --> 00:41:50.320
modern era of maybe instead of doing
ten to fifteen minutes, we're going to

579
00:41:50.320 --> 00:41:54.320
do an hour here and putting out
albums. And that's when comedy started to

580
00:41:54.519 --> 00:41:59.679
change. And I feel like Lenny
got a little bit left behind. A

581
00:41:59.679 --> 00:42:01.639
part of that, as somebody who
has programmed comedy on the radio for twenty

582
00:42:01.760 --> 00:42:07.599
years, is factually the recordings just
aren't as good. I remember it serious.

583
00:42:07.679 --> 00:42:09.760
Early in the run, my boss, Jeremy Coleman asked me why I

584
00:42:09.760 --> 00:42:14.000
didn't play much Richard Pryor, and
the answer was because the record sounded like

585
00:42:14.039 --> 00:42:16.239
garbage, and when we pumped them
through the satellite and back and through the

586
00:42:16.239 --> 00:42:20.320
speakers, they didn't sound good on
the radio, so I didn't play them.

587
00:42:20.360 --> 00:42:22.239
Now, since then they've been well
remastered. But I feel like Lenny

588
00:42:23.519 --> 00:42:27.760
Missus Masel kind of helped a little
bit. But I feel like Lenny got

589
00:42:27.800 --> 00:42:32.159
left behind. Lenny got left behind, and he shouldn't be. His voice

590
00:42:32.199 --> 00:42:37.639
is still resident. The stuff he
was talking about, still much of it

591
00:42:37.639 --> 00:42:43.679
can play today and not have I
don't know if I don't think it's aged

592
00:42:43.760 --> 00:42:47.079
badly. I just think people have
forgotten him. You know, I think

593
00:42:47.119 --> 00:42:51.800
if they played him today, people
would get a good, good laugh out

594
00:42:51.840 --> 00:42:53.960
of it. The question, then, is who's the they. That's the

595
00:42:54.000 --> 00:42:58.519
issue. Oh they is the buying
public, you know, and what are

596
00:42:58.519 --> 00:43:02.320
they buying today. I've just seen
some of the comedians that are out there,

597
00:43:02.400 --> 00:43:06.639
and I, quite frankly and maybe
I sound like an old man,

598
00:43:06.920 --> 00:43:13.800
feel a lot of them don't deserve
the adulation they're getting. I liked the

599
00:43:13.920 --> 00:43:16.480
what's his name mulaney for a while
and then I watched him do this thing

600
00:43:16.480 --> 00:43:20.920
on Netflix a couple of weeks ago, and he was terrible. It was

601
00:43:21.039 --> 00:43:24.599
just horrible. See, I think
that show is misproduced. I've talked about

602
00:43:24.639 --> 00:43:29.800
this on the podcast a lot.
You know, well, you know you

603
00:43:29.920 --> 00:43:32.719
posted talk radio. Civilians can't tell
a story, get their point and get

604
00:43:32.719 --> 00:43:37.119
them out of there. And I'm
watching this thing screaming at my television.

605
00:43:37.280 --> 00:43:40.840
They're taking calls from civilians. You
have Jerry Seinfeld sitting next to you.

606
00:43:40.880 --> 00:43:44.199
All you have to do is shut
up and ask you a question and hang

607
00:43:44.280 --> 00:43:47.239
back. Why are you letting some
Oh that's the one thing. That's one

608
00:43:47.239 --> 00:43:50.440
thing a lot of people have never
learned. And that was the reason I

609
00:43:50.519 --> 00:43:53.159
was good at doing what I did
on radio. I was not perhaps a

610
00:43:53.280 --> 00:43:57.440
very good comedian, but I was
one of the world's best straight men,

611
00:43:57.880 --> 00:44:02.320
and I knew how to play straight
man to people. And that was the

612
00:44:02.480 --> 00:44:07.119
you know I did. I mention
with Goldthwaite. The reason Goldthwaite liked me

613
00:44:07.320 --> 00:44:10.960
was because I never Most interviewers that
would interview Goldwaite would have stopped and said,

614
00:44:10.960 --> 00:44:15.039
come on, Bob, tell us
what you really like. And I

615
00:44:15.079 --> 00:44:20.440
didn't do that. I played to
the character, and I played straight man

616
00:44:20.480 --> 00:44:24.360
to the character. And I always
loved playing straight man over anything else or

617
00:44:24.400 --> 00:44:28.280
the butt of jokes. Yeah.
Sure, And if you get a good

618
00:44:28.360 --> 00:44:30.960
guest. This gets back to Johnny
Carson theory. People would say, did

619
00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:34.440
you see Carson last night? He
was great, And what they meant was

620
00:44:34.559 --> 00:44:39.599
Don de Luiz told a great story. Well here was the great talent that

621
00:44:40.039 --> 00:44:45.079
Johnny had. He knew when to
shut up. Yeah, you know really,

622
00:44:45.639 --> 00:44:50.639
Steve Allen once said, and it
resonated with me, and I was

623
00:44:50.679 --> 00:44:53.880
never a big fan of Steve Allen's, but he was right. He said,

624
00:44:54.280 --> 00:44:57.920
you're running a talk show. There
are a couple of things you should

625
00:44:57.960 --> 00:45:00.239
remember. Number one, you're having
the g on to work for you.

626
00:45:00.760 --> 00:45:06.000
Okay, So don't try to top
him. And that's probably the best piece

627
00:45:06.039 --> 00:45:09.360
of advice anybody could take. If
you're interviewing a comedian, don't try to

628
00:45:09.360 --> 00:45:14.280
top him, try to get the
next joke out of him. I took

629
00:45:14.280 --> 00:45:19.480
that approach to programming, specifically the
Raw Dog Channel. I have heard over

630
00:45:19.519 --> 00:45:23.239
the years other comedy products, and
everyone tries to make the bumpers, things

631
00:45:23.239 --> 00:45:30.880
like comedy radio and you're coming out
of George Carlin's perfectly honed routine, the

632
00:45:30.880 --> 00:45:34.079
one they chose to press the vinyl. Don't follow that with a joke.

633
00:45:34.159 --> 00:45:37.360
We just said the station idea and
moved on to the next thing. That

634
00:45:37.119 --> 00:45:39.639
advice. You're not going to be
funnier than the comedians, no way.

635
00:45:40.559 --> 00:45:45.679
Well, and the other thing he
said was the other rule is don't try

636
00:45:45.719 --> 00:45:51.880
to be funny, try to be
fun. He said, Funny you can't

637
00:45:51.880 --> 00:45:57.119
do constantly. You can't get a
laugh every time. Fun you can always

638
00:45:57.159 --> 00:46:01.360
be enjoyable. That makes sense absolutely. I've never been a fan of comedian

639
00:46:01.400 --> 00:46:04.559
guests that go for their act.
Alex, how you doing, I'll tell

640
00:46:04.599 --> 00:46:07.280
you how I'm doing. I just
got back from the airport and this TSA.

641
00:46:07.880 --> 00:46:12.000
You know it just Oh, I
hated comics that just did their act.

642
00:46:12.239 --> 00:46:15.360
Yeah, you know, so how
are you these days? Well,

643
00:46:15.440 --> 00:46:17.280
funny thing happened to me yesterday.
Blah blah blah blah, and I'm going

644
00:46:17.960 --> 00:46:22.679
I like the comics who just could
sit there and add lib with me,

645
00:46:22.880 --> 00:46:28.360
toe to toe, and that was
wonderful. And some of them were terrific

646
00:46:28.400 --> 00:46:30.639
at it, you know, But
when they came on did nothing but material,

647
00:46:30.679 --> 00:46:32.760
that was the last time they were
going to be on my show.

648
00:46:34.119 --> 00:46:37.320
More coming up with Alex Bennett.
As I mentioned in the open, in

649
00:46:37.400 --> 00:46:40.960
this next section, here we lightly
talk about politics. The reason I'm sharing

650
00:46:42.000 --> 00:46:45.840
it is because Alex and I are
friends and for ten years in the hallway

651
00:46:45.880 --> 00:46:49.199
every day we discussed politics, so
I thought it would be weird of me

652
00:46:49.320 --> 00:46:52.840
to have Alex on and not talk
politics at all. Don't worry, we're

653
00:46:52.840 --> 00:46:58.039
not getting too much into it.
We mentioned George Carlin when I was programming

654
00:46:58.039 --> 00:47:01.320
the Rodock Channels. He had his
final two albums, and at the time

655
00:47:01.559 --> 00:47:07.400
I did not like them. I
thought it was bitter Carlin had lost his

656
00:47:07.480 --> 00:47:10.400
way, And twenty years later,
I think he's the great profit of the

657
00:47:10.400 --> 00:47:15.280
twenty first century. I mean,
his leader political material. I can play

658
00:47:15.320 --> 00:47:17.599
some of those bits today. It
sounds like he recorded them this morning.

659
00:47:17.880 --> 00:47:21.800
I mean, he did get bitter
more and more bitter as time went on,

660
00:47:22.719 --> 00:47:28.039
you know, But he was I
think, and I wasn't a big

661
00:47:28.079 --> 00:47:32.239
fan of his for years because I
didn't like him because all of a sudden,

662
00:47:32.320 --> 00:47:36.599
he was wearing his hair long,
you know, and wearing a beard,

663
00:47:36.719 --> 00:47:38.519
like he wanted to play to the
hippies of the day, you know,

664
00:47:38.960 --> 00:47:42.880
where before he had worn a suit
and been, you know, George

665
00:47:42.960 --> 00:47:49.039
Carlin, mister strait. And it
took me a while to realize the real

666
00:47:49.079 --> 00:47:52.639
George Carlin was what I was seeing, not the one who was wearing the

667
00:47:52.679 --> 00:47:55.880
suit. So he was horing himself
out. It was back then where he

668
00:47:55.960 --> 00:47:59.760
was wearing the suit, not when
he was trying to appeal to me.

669
00:47:59.800 --> 00:48:04.519
But but I resented that, and
so for years I didn't like or listen

670
00:48:04.559 --> 00:48:07.480
to Carlin. And then when I
finally did, I went, this guy's

671
00:48:07.719 --> 00:48:14.079
he's the best. His presentation,
He's timing everything, impeccable and something to

672
00:48:14.119 --> 00:48:16.960
say. He had something to say. It wasn't just she's always something to

673
00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:22.440
say. Yes, absolutely for the
modern scene, is there anybody that floats

674
00:48:22.440 --> 00:48:25.519
your boat? Who was it?
There was a female comic who was on

675
00:48:25.639 --> 00:48:30.400
the Brady Roast. I'm trying to
remember her name name, Nicky Glazer,

676
00:48:30.119 --> 00:48:35.760
Nicki Glazer. I think she's very
funny. She crushed, She crushed that

677
00:48:35.880 --> 00:48:38.159
day. Yeah, that was the
only thing on that whole thing that was

678
00:48:38.159 --> 00:48:43.679
worth watching. By the way,
that Brady Roast was the worst thing I've

679
00:48:43.719 --> 00:48:45.280
ever seen. Oh, I think
it's the best thing of the year.

680
00:48:45.519 --> 00:48:47.960
Talk to me, No, I
don't. I'll tell you why. I

681
00:48:47.960 --> 00:48:52.280
mean, they had people who are
not comedians trying to roast him, and

682
00:48:52.360 --> 00:48:57.360
what you got to do? You
know, too bad. Gilbert isn't alive.

683
00:48:57.920 --> 00:49:00.199
He's the guy who knows how to
do a roast, you know.

684
00:49:00.719 --> 00:49:06.519
And Nicki Glazer came close to that. You know, she was very good.

685
00:49:06.599 --> 00:49:08.719
I became a big fan of her. And then I watched your specials

686
00:49:08.719 --> 00:49:14.280
my wife and I and she's very
critical and she just loves Nicky Glazier.

687
00:49:14.960 --> 00:49:20.000
You know. I enjoy the art
of the roast when the comedians kind of

688
00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:22.360
switch up instead of so the rest
of Tom Brady, instead of making Tom

689
00:49:22.440 --> 00:49:27.480
Brady jokes, sort of goes sideways
and say, oh, and Alex Bennett's

690
00:49:27.519 --> 00:49:30.320
here, and then just take some
come. That's what you did at Roast.

691
00:49:30.639 --> 00:49:34.039
That's what you did at Roast.
Though. See the thing is the

692
00:49:34.159 --> 00:49:37.320
Roast died the day they put them
on TV. But now that it's on

693
00:49:38.599 --> 00:49:44.239
Netflix, they should be as filthy
as is humanly possible. Because you got

694
00:49:44.280 --> 00:49:46.559
to remember the Friars Club. These
guys I would see. I had a

695
00:49:46.599 --> 00:49:50.519
friend who belonged to the Friars Club, so I went to the Friars Club

696
00:49:50.559 --> 00:49:52.400
with them a lot. And I
went to one thing one night where they

697
00:49:52.440 --> 00:49:55.920
were just doing something with somebody.
It wasn't a Roast or anything, and

698
00:49:55.960 --> 00:50:00.480
it was all these old comics,
you know, the Sheechy so On sos

699
00:50:00.559 --> 00:50:05.559
and the you know Bobby so and
sos. And they were all getting up

700
00:50:05.599 --> 00:50:07.880
one after another. And I don't
think I've ever laughed that much in my

701
00:50:08.199 --> 00:50:13.599
life. All of a sudden,
these mediocre comics that I'd seen on TV

702
00:50:13.679 --> 00:50:16.440
and gone, hey, you know
old borsch belt come. They were just

703
00:50:16.760 --> 00:50:21.000
killing it. When they didn't have
any cameras there, when they didn't have

704
00:50:21.000 --> 00:50:25.400
any microphones there, and nobody was
gonna in years later put them in judgment

705
00:50:25.400 --> 00:50:30.800
of what they had said at that
rost. My Guide to Interviewing Alex Bennett

706
00:50:30.840 --> 00:50:35.239
says, I'm supposed to say Robin
Williams at some point I've been remiss.

707
00:50:35.280 --> 00:50:37.840
Were nearly an hour in Did you
have encounters with Robin? Do you have

708
00:50:37.840 --> 00:50:42.599
any good Robin stories? Robin did
my show in San Francisco total of one

709
00:50:42.639 --> 00:50:45.280
time. It was a very memorable
time. It was wonderful to have Robin

710
00:50:45.320 --> 00:50:52.239
on. The reason Robin didn't might
do my show a lot is because I

711
00:50:52.480 --> 00:50:58.960
had to call him on stealing jokes. I felt that, you know,

712
00:50:59.119 --> 00:51:04.519
a comic coming up, works hard
at getting material, you know, and

713
00:51:04.559 --> 00:51:09.760
to suddenly have it stolen from him
and used on the Tonight Show. Ruins

714
00:51:09.800 --> 00:51:14.960
that joke in just about a minute
and a half, so that this guy,

715
00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:17.280
whenever he goes on stage and does
that joke again, people yell out,

716
00:51:17.480 --> 00:51:22.159
oh, Robin Williams did that joke, Because if Robin Williams did the

717
00:51:22.280 --> 00:51:28.239
joke, it was his joke,
okay, and he would keep stealing material.

718
00:51:28.320 --> 00:51:30.719
I remember sitting at Cobbs Comedy Club, the old Cobbs Comedy Club,

719
00:51:31.079 --> 00:51:36.800
back in the back room the night
that Robin was on the Tonight Show,

720
00:51:37.480 --> 00:51:40.000
and all these comedians were sitting there
one after the osis, that's my joke.

721
00:51:40.280 --> 00:51:45.599
That's my joke. It's my joke. It's my joke. And the

722
00:51:45.679 --> 00:51:51.159
fact was that I you know,
I met up with Robin once. I

723
00:51:51.320 --> 00:51:53.559
said, you know, you just
shouldn't. You shouldn't steal from people.

724
00:51:53.599 --> 00:51:58.320
That's what I have against you,
Robin. You know it's not right.

725
00:51:58.440 --> 00:52:01.320
These people are coming up, They
they fight for every piece of material they

726
00:52:01.400 --> 00:52:07.599
have, and then you use it
one night on the Tonight Show and it

727
00:52:07.599 --> 00:52:08.920
can never be done again. I
don't care if you want to write him

728
00:52:08.920 --> 00:52:13.119
out a check for it. The
only person that has a right to say,

729
00:52:13.199 --> 00:52:15.320
yes, you can use my material
as a guy who's material it is,

730
00:52:16.119 --> 00:52:19.920
and not for you to steal it
first and send the check later.

731
00:52:20.280 --> 00:52:22.440
So how does a guy like that
make it? Is he more charismatic,

732
00:52:22.599 --> 00:52:25.960
is he handsome? He has a
better agent? Hollywood doesn't care if you

733
00:52:25.960 --> 00:52:30.400
steal jokes, all of that.
In his later years, Robin got to

734
00:52:30.440 --> 00:52:35.920
be very good about this and he
did improve and I have to give him

735
00:52:35.920 --> 00:52:38.199
credit for that. Okay, And
there are a lot of comics who love

736
00:52:38.280 --> 00:52:43.000
him because he did good stuff for
them. Okay, So I'm going to

737
00:52:43.079 --> 00:52:46.679
give Robin that and give him a
pass on the rest of it. But

738
00:52:46.960 --> 00:52:52.440
how he made it, How can
I describe it? His act was doing

739
00:52:52.480 --> 00:52:57.639
the best impression of a comedian he
possibly could. I got it. Do

740
00:52:57.679 --> 00:53:00.519
you get what I'm saying? I
totally get what you're saying. But yeah,

741
00:53:00.559 --> 00:53:05.920
before it sounds like comedy. But
he's telling you that Robin Williams is

742
00:53:05.960 --> 00:53:08.320
so funny, and I'd say,
okay, tell me something funny. He

743
00:53:08.440 --> 00:53:13.960
said, silence. It was just
that he went on, he did this

744
00:53:14.079 --> 00:53:19.840
comedy which is basically word salad.
You know you didn't really understand it,

745
00:53:20.199 --> 00:53:22.440
but you weren't willing to admit you
didn't understand it. And then when he's

746
00:53:22.440 --> 00:53:27.159
finished, went, oh, that
guy's great. Are you following Dave Chappelle?

747
00:53:27.239 --> 00:53:32.760
I'm I'm bothered by Dave Chappelle's greatness, and yet he has chosen to

748
00:53:32.840 --> 00:53:38.440
make his someday obituary. The second
line is going to be about digging in

749
00:53:38.519 --> 00:53:43.679
on transgender jokes. The way I've
been explaining this lately is, Alex,

750
00:53:43.719 --> 00:53:45.559
you know why it's so hot in
New York City today because of the trans

751
00:53:45.599 --> 00:53:47.880
And you slap your knee and you
mug for the camera with a smile and

752
00:53:47.920 --> 00:53:52.000
you get a laugh, and I
it boggles my mind. Why is Dave

753
00:53:52.079 --> 00:53:55.719
Chappelle choosing to make that the thing
that's going to be the second line of

754
00:53:55.760 --> 00:54:00.880
his open I think, and this
is just I can't read David Chappelle's mind,

755
00:54:01.280 --> 00:54:06.159
but let me try and do it
for a second here. I think

756
00:54:06.199 --> 00:54:09.519
he doesn't want to give up.
He doesn't want to say I won't do

757
00:54:09.679 --> 00:54:14.320
that because you're pressuring me. He
wants to say I won't do that because

758
00:54:14.360 --> 00:54:16.840
it's his decision. And I think
that's why he digs his heels in.

759
00:54:17.440 --> 00:54:22.079
You know, I saw a very
interesting interview with the Piers Morgan, who,

760
00:54:22.599 --> 00:54:25.840
again as a person I don't particularly
find wonderful, but he did a

761
00:54:25.920 --> 00:54:30.599
terrific interview with Kevin Spacey, and
Spacey was saying, you know, I

762
00:54:31.000 --> 00:54:36.079
haven't been found guilty of anything anywhere. All the charges have been thrown out.

763
00:54:36.239 --> 00:54:39.760
You know, anybody who sued me
civilly is lost. He said,

764
00:54:39.960 --> 00:54:44.519
I should be working right now.
And then he asked them, well,

765
00:54:44.559 --> 00:54:47.519
how do you feel about Netflix?
And he said Netflix as soon as this

766
00:54:47.559 --> 00:54:52.800
thing hit, before I was even
found guilty of anything, or even put

767
00:54:52.840 --> 00:54:57.280
on trial, or even charge they
got rid of me, He said,

768
00:54:58.039 --> 00:55:00.599
you would think they would have been
that way Dave Chappelle, but they weren't.

769
00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:06.000
He said. They didn't go after
Dave Chappelle in the same way they

770
00:55:06.039 --> 00:55:09.280
went after me, and I did
nothing interesting. Why do you think,

771
00:55:09.440 --> 00:55:14.760
why do you think Netflix has stood
by Dave Chappelle and dug their heels in.

772
00:55:15.760 --> 00:55:19.920
I find it disingenuous that Netflix always
has a House of Cards on the

773
00:55:19.960 --> 00:55:22.039
main menu, but never a picture
of Kevin Spacey's. Kevin Spacey's in this

774
00:55:22.119 --> 00:55:24.360
show, I had no idea.
Really, is he an house of Cards

775
00:55:24.559 --> 00:55:31.639
the show? Everybody but the man's
been erased, literally erased from anything.

776
00:55:32.079 --> 00:55:37.119
They even took him out of a
movie and replaced him with Christopher Plumber in

777
00:55:37.199 --> 00:55:40.559
the cost of several hundred thousand dollars
to film the scenes and to pay the

778
00:55:42.119 --> 00:55:47.360
actor. You know, what's happened
to Spacey is sad. It's time for

779
00:55:49.679 --> 00:55:52.880
the people in the industry to turn
around and say it's time to hire Kevin

780
00:55:52.920 --> 00:55:58.000
Spacey again. That seems like one
of those things that you know he'll have.

781
00:55:58.679 --> 00:56:01.239
It won't be at He'll have to
come back and play against type,

782
00:56:01.239 --> 00:56:06.400
whatever type would be, and just
do a really deep character role. Yeah,

783
00:56:06.440 --> 00:56:09.519
but he has to get hired first, you know, and nobody will

784
00:56:09.599 --> 00:56:14.360
hire him. There are some people
starting to come to his defense now,

785
00:56:14.519 --> 00:56:16.199
so maybe one of those people will
say, you know, he's a good

786
00:56:16.239 --> 00:56:20.320
actor, I want him in my
movie. Screw all of you, you

787
00:56:20.320 --> 00:56:23.159
know, and that will break it. But he mentions Kirk Douglas with the

788
00:56:23.559 --> 00:56:30.159
with the Blacklist and the fact that
Dalton Trumbull wrote Spartacus and he was going

789
00:56:30.239 --> 00:56:34.079
to put on a they were going
to put on a fake name for Dalton

790
00:56:34.079 --> 00:56:39.920
Trumbull on the screenplay, and Kirk
Douglas said, no, the Blacklist stops

791
00:56:40.079 --> 00:56:45.119
here, and I'm putting his name
on this movie. When that happened,

792
00:56:45.360 --> 00:56:50.119
everybody else dropped the blacklist as well, and that was the end of it.

793
00:56:50.320 --> 00:56:52.559
What he needs is his Kirk Douglas. It's interesting to bring up.

794
00:56:52.599 --> 00:56:58.199
He is one of the few actually
canceled Luis K's Top of Mind because of

795
00:56:58.199 --> 00:57:05.320
the new documentary What Happened to Louie
On the Flip Side, Jerry Seinfeld's dating

796
00:57:05.400 --> 00:57:07.199
history is quite colorful, and everybody's
like, yeah, okay, whatever,

797
00:57:08.079 --> 00:57:13.039
Yeah, but here's the thing with
Louie that just really bothered me. These

798
00:57:13.079 --> 00:57:17.239
women go to see him. He
says, do you mind if I pull

799
00:57:17.239 --> 00:57:22.920
out my penis? Did any of
them say no? No? None of

800
00:57:22.960 --> 00:57:28.440
them said no, and so Louis
did, and then they're offended by it.

801
00:57:28.639 --> 00:57:31.519
But he asked permission first. That's
a real gentleman. But what about

802
00:57:31.559 --> 00:57:37.960
the implied power dynamic? How do
I say no to this person? Well,

803
00:57:37.000 --> 00:57:39.880
I mean you could just you could
walk out of the room. He

804
00:57:39.920 --> 00:57:44.440
asked you in a very pleasant way. He didn't ask you in a threatening

805
00:57:44.519 --> 00:57:46.679
way. You know. If you
if you want to look at his penis

806
00:57:46.679 --> 00:57:51.239
in order to curry favor with him, then who's being the whore? I

807
00:57:51.239 --> 00:57:54.320
don't have her re tour? How
I'm gonna leave that alone. These days

808
00:57:54.320 --> 00:58:00.039
you're hosting on gabinet. It's great
to see you're still doing there. And

809
00:57:59.880 --> 00:58:04.079
I see the post on Facebook.
Looks like a very lively group. If

810
00:58:04.079 --> 00:58:07.880
you could explain as everybody what GABNet
is and how we can participate. Oh,

811
00:58:07.960 --> 00:58:10.000
GABNet is just you know, a
bunch of people calling up talking about

812
00:58:10.039 --> 00:58:14.280
stuff. I have a Monday show
which I do, which I really like

813
00:58:14.320 --> 00:58:19.760
because just really friendly people who like
each other as opposed to a bunch of

814
00:58:19.800 --> 00:58:24.280
people who start arguing with each other, which is on Wednesdays, Thursdays and

815
00:58:24.360 --> 00:58:30.679
Friday nights at ten thirty Eastern.
The other show is four o'clock on Mondays

816
00:58:30.679 --> 00:58:35.679
on the Facebook. So it's you
know, it just it just makes us

817
00:58:35.719 --> 00:58:38.880
eighty four year old still have to
force to use as chops. Now.

818
00:58:38.920 --> 00:58:44.119
I think that's good, you know, for several reasons. I always say

819
00:58:44.119 --> 00:58:46.000
it's good to have something on your
calendar, and we all need to get

820
00:58:46.039 --> 00:58:49.599
these things out of our system one
way or another. It's one of the

821
00:58:49.679 --> 00:58:52.159
reasons I started this podcast is you
know, me yelling at the wall about

822
00:58:52.199 --> 00:58:55.840
Chappelle does nothing. At least here
I can have, you know, a

823
00:58:55.880 --> 00:59:00.639
couple thousand people either agree or disagree. Also, if I could, I'd

824
00:59:00.719 --> 00:59:02.159
like to push something I haven't pushed
in a long time. That is that

825
00:59:02.239 --> 00:59:07.639
on thegabnet dot net, which is
our web page, there's a thing called

826
00:59:07.760 --> 00:59:15.119
Alex Bennett's Life in the Passing Lane. It's the history of my life in

827
00:59:15.519 --> 00:59:20.719
sixty nine episodes. Wow, and
a lot of it has stuff about the

828
00:59:20.760 --> 00:59:23.599
comedians, a lot of it has
stuff to do with you know, nineteen

829
00:59:24.599 --> 00:59:31.599
seventy's, nineteen sixties, radical era, you know, and people that I

830
00:59:31.679 --> 00:59:37.960
would have have had a relationship with, like John Lennon and so on,

831
00:59:37.559 --> 00:59:42.400
and it's every inch of my life. And I think people might find that

832
00:59:42.599 --> 00:59:45.400
interesting. Thank you for saying,
John Lennon. I had that on my

833
00:59:45.440 --> 00:59:50.280
notes and I forgot to ask you
about it. You met John Lennon?

834
00:59:50.280 --> 00:59:52.760
What's John Lennon? Like I often
said that if people, if you met

835
00:59:52.840 --> 00:59:55.800
John Lennon, you'd be expecting,
oh boy, I'm going to meet this

836
00:59:55.960 --> 01:00:01.639
brilliant, brilliant guy, and he
it almost seems stupid. Oh wow,

837
01:00:01.800 --> 01:00:07.440
you know, yeah, he never
had what he was. He was a

838
01:00:07.480 --> 01:00:14.119
savant. You know. What he
did musically was brilliant, just the best

839
01:00:14.239 --> 01:00:19.119
lyricist. He and Coleport are two
of the best lyricists of the last century.

840
01:00:19.440 --> 01:00:23.840
Okay, incredible, Yea. Yoko
was the brains of the family.

841
01:00:24.559 --> 01:00:29.639
Okay. I like Yoko a lot, and I like John John was okay,

842
01:00:29.719 --> 01:00:34.760
but I especially liked Yoko. You've
got a couple interesting takes here.

843
01:00:34.800 --> 01:00:37.800
I've never heard that take on the
Yoko. What is it about her?

844
01:00:38.159 --> 01:00:43.559
I think she was brilliant. I
think she was a brilliant artist, and

845
01:00:44.480 --> 01:00:49.800
I think her association with John Lennon
kind of stifled that because she was living

846
01:00:49.880 --> 01:00:53.039
in his shadow, and she shouldn't
have. She was too good at what

847
01:00:53.119 --> 01:00:57.920
she did. She was a brilliant
artist before he met her, and she

848
01:00:58.320 --> 01:01:02.719
could you know, I loved you, Yoko. I think the world of

849
01:01:02.800 --> 01:01:07.639
Yoko. Did you ever see the
photo album that are mutual coworker Pat Saint

850
01:01:07.719 --> 01:01:10.840
John, the New York City disc
jockey has Did he ever show you his

851
01:01:10.880 --> 01:01:16.280
photo album? No? So aside
from the amazing photos, the way Pat

852
01:01:16.280 --> 01:01:19.639
would present it to you, He'd
put it on the table and he'd very

853
01:01:19.639 --> 01:01:22.719
slowly flip the pages and he'd be
like, and this is me with and

854
01:01:22.760 --> 01:01:27.400
your brain is going, it's obviously
John Lennon, And this is me with

855
01:01:27.719 --> 01:01:32.159
It's obviously David Bowie. And everybody
in this photo album is like elite Mick

856
01:01:32.239 --> 01:01:37.440
Jagger level rockstar. You to identify
every single person they're in the picture with

857
01:01:37.480 --> 01:01:39.199
Pat, but he takes the minute
to explain to you, like, and

858
01:01:39.239 --> 01:01:42.880
this is me with, Yes,
those are the Eagles. Well, and

859
01:01:42.960 --> 01:01:46.159
there are moments in my life that
I have tapes that are kind of like

860
01:01:46.239 --> 01:01:50.199
that. I mean, I was
the first guy in the United States to

861
01:01:50.280 --> 01:01:57.480
interview Elton John, for instance,
I had on all of the Grateful Dead

862
01:01:57.519 --> 01:02:00.679
at the same time except for Pig
Pant, and I got high with them,

863
01:02:00.679 --> 01:02:02.960
but not because I wanted to.
They were I had a lawyer that

864
01:02:04.000 --> 01:02:06.760
said to me, if somebody starts
smoking a joint in our studio, you

865
01:02:06.760 --> 01:02:09.840
can let them, but you can't
join. Yeah, okay, So they

866
01:02:09.880 --> 01:02:14.199
came in. They all lit up
at the same time, and the room

867
01:02:14.360 --> 01:02:16.840
was filled with marijuana smoke, but
I couldn't have any And by the end

868
01:02:16.880 --> 01:02:20.960
of the hour, I didn't even
know what my name was anymore. That

869
01:02:21.039 --> 01:02:23.119
is a great story. I should
get on top. But I want to

870
01:02:23.159 --> 01:02:27.800
ask you. I got to spend
a couple of minutes I'm talking about Okay,

871
01:02:28.239 --> 01:02:30.000
I want to lose half the audience
here, so I'll just say nothing.

872
01:02:30.039 --> 01:02:32.480
I'll let you answer. Where do
you think we're heaving on? I'd

873
01:02:32.480 --> 01:02:37.000
be the right winger and then you
can be the left winger and then we

874
01:02:37.039 --> 01:02:42.199
can keep the whole audience. How
do you handicap this thing? Is Uncle

875
01:02:42.280 --> 01:02:45.719
Joe going to pull this off?
Or we looking at Trump too well,

876
01:02:45.760 --> 01:02:51.239
there's no way that Joe should lose
this. I mean, if you're a

877
01:02:51.320 --> 01:02:54.079
sensible human being I mean, look, it's not even a choice for me

878
01:02:54.199 --> 01:02:58.800
either. If I didn't have to
vote for Joe Biden, I wouldn't vote

879
01:02:58.800 --> 01:03:01.000
for Joe Biden. And quite for
I don't have to vote for Joe Biden.

880
01:03:01.400 --> 01:03:07.199
I live in New York and our
votes are all chopped down into what

881
01:03:07.400 --> 01:03:13.480
seventy nine electoral votes. So he's
going to win this state whether I go

882
01:03:13.559 --> 01:03:15.880
out to vote or not. All
right, But in a state like oh,

883
01:03:15.920 --> 01:03:20.440
say, South Carolina, then there's
a place you got to get out

884
01:03:20.480 --> 01:03:23.079
and vote. And why do you
have to vote for Joe Biden? And

885
01:03:23.199 --> 01:03:28.719
listen, it's not a great it's
a terrible choice we're being handed here,

886
01:03:29.119 --> 01:03:32.440
you know, and it's rumored that
most of America doesn't even like the choice.

887
01:03:32.800 --> 01:03:37.760
I think back to our hallway political
discussions and how far we've come.

888
01:03:38.199 --> 01:03:42.280
I mean, some of the stuff
we would talk about was, boy,

889
01:03:42.360 --> 01:03:45.639
look at that John Kerry. Look
at him on a surfboard. He's so

890
01:03:45.760 --> 01:03:49.440
out of touch. These were the
discussions we were having. Now you would

891
01:03:49.519 --> 01:03:53.800
kill for such a candidate. I
still wouldn't kill for John for him,

892
01:03:53.800 --> 01:03:59.760
but I yeah, I don't know. I just feel there are better people

893
01:03:59.760 --> 01:04:02.639
out there. Was suited to run
for office. Well, think about in

894
01:04:02.679 --> 01:04:09.519
the past, we have candidates got
not canceled, but eliminated because oh so

895
01:04:09.639 --> 01:04:15.280
and so might have smoked marijuana or
somebody went on a stage, I got

896
01:04:15.280 --> 01:04:20.960
canceled, which come a long way. Yeah, we sure have. We've

897
01:04:21.039 --> 01:04:26.360
lowered our expectations. How do we
get better people to run? I think

898
01:04:26.400 --> 01:04:30.840
we have to offer them the ability
to run and not be assailed in the

899
01:04:30.880 --> 01:04:34.039
way they get a sailed today.
You know, to be able to run

900
01:04:34.119 --> 01:04:38.519
on the basics, like what you're
going to do for the country. I

901
01:04:38.519 --> 01:04:41.559
mean, the thing that bothered me
most about Trump is when you ever hear

902
01:04:41.679 --> 01:04:45.239
him talk about what he's going to
do for the country. Basically most of

903
01:04:45.280 --> 01:04:49.960
his speeches are railing against all the
harm that's been thrown his way, and

904
01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:55.400
then how he was cheated with the
trial in New York and blah blah blah

905
01:04:55.440 --> 01:04:58.440
blah blah, and there's no like, well, here's how I'm going to

906
01:04:58.480 --> 01:05:02.480
make America better in modern times.
There's the show biz aspect of it.

907
01:05:02.519 --> 01:05:06.519
I think back to al Gore.
One of his big things was the climate

908
01:05:06.519 --> 01:05:13.639
emergency he's running for basically Bill Clinton's
third term, and he got outperformed by

909
01:05:13.639 --> 01:05:17.400
a fake cowboy. Yep, Trump
figured out the game. He's better at

910
01:05:17.400 --> 01:05:21.199
the game than everybody else. Well, I don't know if he's better at

911
01:05:21.199 --> 01:05:26.159
the game. I mean, he
had everybody convinced that he was really good

912
01:05:26.199 --> 01:05:30.440
with money, you know, and
now we've learned he doesn't know a thing

913
01:05:30.480 --> 01:05:34.920
about money, you know, And
everybody went, oh, I saw him

914
01:05:34.960 --> 01:05:39.760
on the Apprentice. He really knows
he really knows money. Well, this

915
01:05:39.800 --> 01:05:45.119
isn't the Apprentice. This is America. This is democracy that's at stake.

916
01:05:46.360 --> 01:05:49.199
But the debates are a reality TV
show. All I have to do is

917
01:05:49.199 --> 01:05:51.840
get up there and zing you a
couple of times and I win the night.

918
01:05:53.400 --> 01:05:57.800
Yeah yeah, but I don't know
that he can do that with Biden

919
01:05:57.920 --> 01:06:00.800
necessarily. You know, the optics
don't look good. If you're going to

920
01:06:00.880 --> 01:06:05.719
portray Biden is this old, doddering
old man. Then what are you doing

921
01:06:05.760 --> 01:06:09.519
if you go after him? You're
beaten up on an old man, you

922
01:06:09.599 --> 01:06:12.840
know, And we know you don't
like that. We've brought this full circle.

923
01:06:12.920 --> 01:06:15.480
I don't like that at all.
I don't like it getting beaten up

924
01:06:15.519 --> 01:06:18.199
on. All Right, we've now
lost half the audience. So who's your

925
01:06:18.199 --> 01:06:23.320
favorite comedian of all time. My
favorite comedian of all time couldn't even begin

926
01:06:23.400 --> 01:06:27.920
to say, because there are so
many good ones and for different reasons.

927
01:06:28.639 --> 01:06:33.000
I mean, Seinfeld is beautiful at
what he does. He's a beautiful If

928
01:06:33.000 --> 01:06:36.639
I had an example of here's a
comedian you should watch to see how to

929
01:06:36.719 --> 01:06:43.880
be a comedian, it would be
Seinfeld. Okay. On the other hand,

930
01:06:44.960 --> 01:06:47.000
you know Lenny. I saw Lenny. Lenny was a favorite of mine

931
01:06:47.000 --> 01:06:50.559
when I was growing up, you
know, So I mean, who was

932
01:06:50.599 --> 01:06:56.519
the greatest of all time? They're
all great for different reasons. But I

933
01:06:56.559 --> 01:07:01.280
could make you a list. I
suppose top ten that would be much fairer,

934
01:07:01.400 --> 01:07:04.440
but that would take too long here, So is there one show you

935
01:07:04.519 --> 01:07:11.559
remember seeing that sticks out? I
think the comedian that I think is maybe

936
01:07:11.360 --> 01:07:17.920
the best stand up club comedian in
the country is Bobby Slate. You're probably

937
01:07:17.920 --> 01:07:21.280
not all let familiar with Bobby.
I'm sure you are on a certain levels,

938
01:07:21.320 --> 01:07:28.800
but you know, I don't think
I've seen a better stand up than

939
01:07:28.840 --> 01:07:32.639
Bobby period. You know, plants
his feet on the stage and he makes

940
01:07:32.679 --> 01:07:35.679
you laugh. That's the job,
and that's Alex Bennett. And I hope

941
01:07:35.679 --> 01:07:44.960
you enjoyed him a little feistier than
usual, and that's your comedy news for

942
01:07:45.000 --> 01:07:46.079
today. Back somewhere with a normal
episode. See then.