Episode 1059 - Danny DeVito

Episode 1059 • Released October 3, 2019 • Speakers detected

00:00:00Marc:Lock the gates!

00:00:09Marc:Alright, let's do this.

00:00:10Marc:How are you, what the fuckers?

00:00:12Marc:What the fuck buddies?

00:00:13Marc:What the fucksters?

00:00:14Marc:What's happening?

00:00:15Marc:What the fucking nuts?

00:00:16Marc:How's it going?

00:00:17Marc:Everybody alright?

00:00:18Marc:I'm Mark Maron.

00:00:20Marc:Nice to meet you, or welcome back.

00:00:23Marc:This is my podcast, WTF.

00:00:25Marc:It's been going strong for over a decade.

00:00:28Marc:We're a decade in or so.

00:00:30Marc:A little over.

00:00:31Marc:Isn't that insane?

00:00:32Marc:When you've been doing something a decade?

00:00:34Marc:When you've been doing something twice a week?

00:00:37Marc:For a decade, putting something up twice a week, two a week for a decade.

00:00:42Marc:Hey, look, man, I know a lot of you got jobs.

00:00:44Marc:You've been showing up for years.

00:00:45Marc:Some of you have been at the same place for 20, 30 years.

00:00:48Marc:It's weird, though, right?

00:00:51Marc:It's weird to have a gig for that long.

00:00:53Marc:Ten years.

00:00:54Marc:This has been my gig.

00:00:55Marc:Thanks for hanging out.

00:00:57Marc:Danny DeVito.

00:01:00Marc:is on the show today.

00:01:01Marc:But I was so glad to have him.

00:01:03Marc:He's genuinely one of the most naturally funny fuckers around.

00:01:07Marc:And I'm surprised it hasn't happened earlier.

00:01:10Marc:But he was right here in this room, in my house, hanging around, talking to me.

00:01:15Marc:And you'll get to hear it in a second.

00:01:17Marc:Or in a few minutes.

00:01:18Marc:Depends how you handle this.

00:01:19Marc:Really depends on how you listen to my podcast.

00:01:23Marc:Next week, I'll be at the Miriam Theater in Philadelphia on Thursday, October 10th.

00:01:28Marc:The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

00:01:30Marc:on Friday, October 11th.

00:01:32Marc:And the Schuber Theater in Boston for two shows on Saturday, October 12th.

00:01:38Marc:Then I'm heading to Nashville at the James K. Polk Theater on Friday, October 18th.

00:01:43Marc:The Tabernacle in Atlanta on Saturday, October 19th.

00:01:47Marc:And the Masonic in San Francisco on Saturday, October 26th.

00:01:52Marc:You can go to wtfpod.com slash tour for tickets.

00:01:57Marc:But here's the big news.

00:01:59Marc:I will be taping my Netflix special at the Red Cat Theater here in Los Angeles.

00:02:05Marc:That's in the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex.

00:02:08Marc:Two shows on Wednesday, October 30th at 7 p.m.

00:02:12Marc:and 10 p.m.

00:02:13Marc:Those are on sale as well at wtfpod.com slash tour.

00:02:19Marc:Los Angeles, come out.

00:02:21Marc:I would grab these.

00:02:22Marc:It's not a big place.

00:02:23Marc:It's only a couple hundred people for show, give or take.

00:02:27Marc:All right.

00:02:28Marc:Right down here at the Red Cat Theater.

00:02:30Marc:It's going to be fun.

00:02:31Marc:It's going to be exciting.

00:02:32Marc:It's going to be different.

00:02:35Marc:I don't know how different it's going to be.

00:02:37Marc:It becomes sort of a tricky thing that you can't reinvent the wheel with a comedy special, but sometimes you can get some different angles.

00:02:45Marc:You can make a look a little different, but by coincidence, I don't know if it's by coincidence, but.

00:02:49Marc:I was going to do it at the Schubert, and we couldn't get some shots that we wanted to get.

00:02:54Marc:And the Schubert is not unlike a lot of theaters built in that time, probably early 1900s.

00:03:01Marc:A lot of the specials you see, a lot of the mid-sized theaters that we play as comics are those theaters, vaudeville theaters, some stage theaters built in the early 1900s.

00:03:12Marc:And they all have the same vibe.

00:03:14Marc:Some of them have different ghosts and slightly different decor, but it's sort of the same vibe.

00:03:18Marc:And you get it.

00:03:19Marc:You know it.

00:03:20Marc:You've seen it on other specials.

00:03:22Marc:And we just couldn't pull off what we wanted to pull out there, which was really just a couple of shots that would have been difficult to execute, if not impossible, given the structural problems.

00:03:33Marc:So now we're at the Red Cat.

00:03:34Marc:which is where we're going to shoot the special on October 30th, day before Halloween, 7 o'clock show and a 10 o'clock show.

00:03:41Marc:Los Angeles, that's where we're doing it.

00:03:44Marc:Grab those tickets.

00:03:45Marc:I'm repeating myself, I know, but I'm just telling you you should get them.

00:03:49Marc:This is a classic kind of midsize black box theater where we can really do whatever we want with it.

00:03:55Marc:But it's going to have a different space to it, a different vibe.

00:03:58Marc:It's going to I think it's going to feel different.

00:04:00Marc:It's going to look different.

00:04:01Marc:I'm not exactly sure how we're going to go about doing what we're going to do.

00:04:04Marc:Lynn Shelton is directing and I'm excited about it.

00:04:09Marc:I don't I think I'm going to approach the material a little differently than I usually do.

00:04:12Marc:I've been working on this stuff for over a year.

00:04:15Marc:And I've got to make some choices.

00:04:18Marc:This is the final phase of the process, which is choosing the bits, fitting them together, and figuring out what the arc is or if there's a through line, which I have done.

00:04:28Marc:But I don't know if I've really tightened up to the set to the point where, you know, because I get on stage, man, and I want to go like an hour and a half, two hours.

00:04:35Marc:It just seems to be sort of where I'm comfortable, but I really got to get this down to like 70, 75 minutes.

00:04:41Marc:So that's the trick.

00:04:43Marc:But I hope as many of you can come as possible.

00:04:46Marc:I'm looking forward to doing it there at the Red Cat and right here in town, right here in L.A.

00:04:53Marc:How do you like that?

00:04:55Marc:I'm excited about how aggravated our president is.

00:05:00Marc:I'm excited at how...

00:05:02Marc:freaked out and angry and scary he's gotten because of these impeachment proceedings because he he fucked up for real again and got caught in a way that you know might stick it's hard to know how this system is going to handle anything but thrilling times nonetheless I'm not sure we're going to beat out the environmental collapse but but

00:05:24Marc:Exciting stuff.

00:05:26Marc:And he's a scumbag.

00:05:27Marc:He's a first class, one of the great scumbags of American history.

00:05:33Marc:That said, how do I address this other stuff?

00:05:37Marc:It seems that I get pressured to react to things.

00:05:41Marc:And I just want you to know that there's a lot of things as I get older, like people are asking me, what do I think about Todd Phillips?

00:05:48Marc:What he said in an interview earlier?

00:05:51Marc:about uh why he doesn't make comedies anymore he's directed the joker and it's because you know you can't be funny anymore it's gotten too difficult to be funny with woke culture you know that tired saw that old saw uh

00:06:07Marc:You know, there's plenty of people being funny right now.

00:06:10Marc:Not only being funny, but being really fucking funny.

00:06:14Marc:There are lines, still lines to be road.

00:06:16Marc:If you like to ride a line, you can still ride a line.

00:06:20Marc:If you want to take chances, you can still take chances.

00:06:23Marc:I mean, really...

00:06:25Marc:The only thing that's off the table culturally at this juncture, and not even entirely, is shamelessly punching down for the sheer joy of hurting people, for the sheer excitement and laughter that some people get from causing people pain, from making people uncomfortable, from making people feel excluded.

00:06:48Marc:You know, that excitement.

00:06:51Marc:And as I've said before, it's no excuse.

00:06:54Marc:I mean, if you're too intimidated to try to do comedy that is deep or provocative or even a little controversial, you know, without hurting people, then I mean, you're not good at what you do.

00:07:07Marc:Or maybe you're just insensitive.

00:07:08Marc:And look here, this I think this is what I want to talk about a little bit is that.

00:07:12Marc:Throughout my career as a comic, which is going on 30 some odd years since I've been working, I've done every kind of comedy.

00:07:20Marc:Early on, I was just trying to figure out how to write jokes.

00:07:22Marc:And then I was in the provocative school of comedy where it was part of the agenda.

00:07:27Marc:And I still I hear it ringing around today with this sort of anti-woke racket.

00:07:32Marc:the anti-woke bunch, the edgelords, as my friend Brendan calls them, is that, you know, hey, man, you've got to challenge yourself to make the worst things funny, the darkest things funny, the most heinous things funny.

00:07:46Marc:And I remember being of that school.

00:07:49Marc:Like, if a tragedy happened, you know, how do we turn it right away without any consideration for how it will be received, really?

00:07:59Marc:The challenge was, can you do it?

00:08:01Marc:You know, despite the fact that it might be insensitive or wrong minded or hurt people is just like that didn't matter.

00:08:07Marc:It was really about can you make it funny?

00:08:10Marc:And I believe that there is an earnestness to people who say that's what they want to do.

00:08:15Marc:I believe they don't think they hurt people.

00:08:17Marc:I believe that they don't think that they're causing trouble.

00:08:20Marc:I believe they they just enjoy the challenge of pushing the envelope, you know, just to see if they can do it.

00:08:26Marc:But I understand it.

00:08:28Marc:And again, here's the deal.

00:08:30Marc:If you want to quit making comedies like Todd said he did, if you want to quit doing comedy, fine.

00:08:36Marc:Just quit.

00:08:37Marc:Just don't do it anymore.

00:08:39Marc:But to sit there and complain that it's gotten too difficult, well then, what are you?

00:08:45Marc:You're just not good enough or you can't rise to the occasion or you can't figure out a way around a new perspective?

00:08:56Marc:I mean, that's just a deal.

00:08:57Marc:Maybe it's time for you to quit.

00:08:59Marc:Maybe maybe that's what's happening.

00:09:01Marc:Sometimes it happens.

00:09:02Marc:Maybe, you know, it might be like, you know, coal or any other element that loses its use or it's no longer necessary.

00:09:13Marc:And, you know, you adapt to the new thing.

00:09:16Marc:Maybe that's a way to look at it.

00:09:18Marc:Or you move on to another gig.

00:09:20Marc:But bottom line is, and I'll say it again, is that no one's telling you you can't say things or do things.

00:09:26Marc:It's just that it's going to be received a certain way by certain people.

00:09:30Marc:And you're going to have to shoulder that.

00:09:32Marc:And if you are isolated or marginalized or pushed into a corner because of your point of view or what you have to say, yet you still have a crew of people that enjoy it.

00:09:42Marc:There you go.

00:09:42Marc:Those are your people.

00:09:44Marc:Enjoy your people.

00:09:46Marc:And somehow or another over time, I've really kind of brought together an interesting audience.

00:09:51Marc:My audience is generally fairly grown-up people.

00:09:55Marc:They're usually sensitive, creative people.

00:09:59Marc:They're people that understand my mindset, maybe a little self-involved, maybe a little aggravated, maybe a little existentially despairing sometimes.

00:10:07Marc:I can't generalize.

00:10:08Marc:I know it's not a demographic.

00:10:10Marc:It's more of a disposition.

00:10:12Marc:But the one thing I know is that there are no people out there who are going to cause me problems.

00:10:18Marc:There are no people that misunderstand where I'm coming from.

00:10:20Marc:There are no meatheads or the free thinking crowd or the the drunky kind of, you know, where's the pussy jokes.

00:10:28Marc:And look, I've in my career done plenty of sex jokes, plenty of dick oriented material, vagina oriented material, gender oriented.

00:10:39Marc:I've done I've done all the material.

00:10:41Marc:It's just now I've leveled off into being a little more vulnerable, a little more concerned, a little more reflective, a little older.

00:10:50Marc:And that's the kind of conversation I want to have.

00:10:52Marc:I'd kind of like to have an adult conversation and not some sort of like strange man, child, adolescent, aggravated, angry, entitled conversation.

00:11:04Marc:I'm just fucking grown up.

00:11:07Marc:What can I tell you?

00:11:09Marc:And I'm a grown up without children, which honestly, that worked out for the best, I think, for everybody.

00:11:17Marc:On the other side of the thing, I'm getting a lot of these questions about the controversy.

00:11:24Marc:What is really controversial?

00:11:26Marc:You know, what is manufactured and what isn't this controversy over?

00:11:30Marc:Look, I don't know.

00:11:31Marc:Look, I did one scene in the fucking Joker movie and I did pretty good in it.

00:11:35Marc:And, you know, I know there's a swirl of questions or whatever you want to call it, some sort of cultural psychic whirlwind.

00:11:44Marc:Around, you know, the timing of the movie, the nature of the movie and whether this is the right time for a movie about a guy who's, you know, mentally troubled and, you know, create, you know, in snaps.

00:11:56Marc:All that shit.

00:11:58Marc:You know, I understand.

00:12:00Marc:But shouldn't the focus be on.

00:12:01Marc:Maybe health care, mental health treatment in, you know, on a national level.

00:12:07Marc:Shouldn't the focus be on, you know, gun issues?

00:12:09Marc:I understand progressives and people who are fighting and working hard to create policy that will benefit all people in terms of health care and also in terms of guns.

00:12:21Marc:And it's frustrating because there's a lot of obstacles right now because there's a sort of nihilistic crew of apocalyptic morons in charge on all levels with different variations of apocalyptic from religious to just, you know, fuck you, fuck me, fuck it all.

00:12:38Marc:And I know that that anger doesn't always have a place to land, but it can't land on on movies.

00:12:44Marc:I mean, if anything, the media sort of debate of it is trying to provoke something awful happening.

00:12:48Marc:But movies don't cause this.

00:12:50Marc:And and I don't see how blaming movies is going to help anything.

00:12:54Marc:I do not think that movies are to blame for mentally unstable people taking action in a criminal, violent way.

00:13:06Marc:All right, so Danny DeVito is here, who I love.

00:13:09Marc:Who doesn't love Danny DeVito?

00:13:10Marc:How can you not love the guy?

00:13:12Marc:The 14th season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is now airing on FX.

00:13:17Marc:New episodes air Wednesday nights, and he's also in Jumanji, the next level, which will be in theaters this December, directed by another guest we've had, Mr. Jake Kasdan.

00:13:28Marc:Okay?

00:13:29Marc:So this is Enjoy Danny.

00:13:31Marc:He's very enjoyable.

00:13:32Thank you.

00:13:39Guest:I was doing a play, doing the Sunshine Boys at the Savoy Theater, which was really great.

00:13:44Guest:It's funny, right?

00:13:45Guest:Fucking funny play.

00:13:46Guest:I mean, it's like really great.

00:13:48Guest:And I was working with Richard Griffiths from With Nail and I. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:13:53Guest:He's like a staple.

00:13:54Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:13:55Guest:Really wonderful actor.

00:13:56Guest:Was he able to do the yelling Jew thing?

00:14:00Guest:He did a great job.

00:14:01Guest:He did a great job.

00:14:02Guest:It was really great.

00:14:05Guest:But what I was getting at was that we did at the Savoy Theater, which is built on what they call the embankment.

00:14:12Guest:Right.

00:14:13Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:14:13Guest:And so when you walk into theater, if you're going into the theater and buy your tickets, you go into the gods.

00:14:22Guest:Right.

00:14:22Guest:Like, in other words, they call the gods the top seats.

00:14:24Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:14:25Marc:Okay, okay.

00:14:26Guest:So the stage is built way the fuck down on the... Right, on the bottom.

00:14:32Marc:Like in a bowl.

00:14:33Guest:Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:14:34Guest:Okay?

00:14:34Guest:Yep.

00:14:34Guest:So basically what it was was 70...

00:14:39Guest:steps from the stage door to the fucking stage 70 steps yeah and that did you in well we did eight shows a week man so i mean you figure it out you want to stay down in the bottom there all during the fucking break between the matinee and the and the thing yeah yeah

00:15:00Guest:You know?

00:15:00Guest:Yeah.

00:15:00Guest:You got to go up.

00:15:01Guest:You got to go up.

00:15:02Guest:Yeah.

00:15:02Guest:So you go up is okay.

00:15:04Guest:You walking up is okay.

00:15:06Guest:Right.

00:15:06Guest:But what you find as you get a little older, your knees start getting a little dodgy, sketchy, whatever it is.

00:15:12Marc:Oh, shit.

00:15:12Marc:Is that what I have to look forward to?

00:15:14Guest:Yeah.

00:15:15Guest:It's going to be great, man.

00:15:16Guest:It's fucking great.

00:15:17Guest:But the secret, listen to me, the secret is backwards.

00:15:21Guest:Right.

00:15:21Right.

00:15:21Guest:Yeah.

00:15:22Guest:Backwards.

00:15:23Guest:You go down backwards.

00:15:25Guest:You hold on to anything you can, a wall, a railing, or whatever, and you go down backwards carefully, and you have no fucking problem.

00:15:34Marc:So you're going to do that after this?

00:15:36Guest:I'm leaving your place going down backwards.

00:15:38Guest:I'm a little disappointed I'm not in the garage, by the way.

00:15:40Guest:Go fuck yourself.

00:15:41Marc:I'm sorry.

00:15:43Marc:First of all, the mythic garage doesn't exist anymore.

00:15:46Guest:It doesn't exist.

00:15:46Guest:I figured that.

00:15:47Marc:But the new garage is beautiful.

00:15:48Marc:It's just not ready yet.

00:15:50Marc:It's like a weird thing.

00:15:51Marc:No, I know.

00:15:52Marc:But if we would have done it a few years ago- Yeah, well- I mean, was that my fault?

00:15:56Marc:Yeah.

00:15:56Marc:How was it my fault?

00:15:57Marc:What do you mean?

00:15:58Marc:You were doing it.

00:15:59Marc:I know.

00:15:59Marc:I was- I was around.

00:16:00Marc:What the fuck?

00:16:01Marc:I talked to- You never asked me to do it.

00:16:03Marc:I never- No.

00:16:04Marc:I talked to McElhaney.

00:16:06Marc:All right.

00:16:06Marc:I have a feeling that maybe we- I don't think so.

00:16:09Marc:Well, it's nice to see you.

00:16:10Marc:It was nice to see you.

00:16:11Marc:So what is this, the 19th season?

00:16:14Guest:14th.

00:16:15Guest:It was so fucking crazy, right?

00:16:17Guest:14 seasons.

00:16:19Guest:I can remember the day the guy says to me, I'm not going to say who,

00:16:25Guest:He says, Danny, what are you talking about?

00:16:28Guest:You're going to do this show?

00:16:29Guest:Yeah.

00:16:30Guest:You're an actor who was on an iconic show on television, Taxi.

00:16:35Guest:Yeah.

00:16:36Guest:Now you're going to do this show?

00:16:38Guest:Yeah.

00:16:38Guest:It's like a blip on the radar.

00:16:40Guest:It's nothing.

00:16:41Guest:It's nothing.

00:16:42Guest:It was more fun than you could ever imagine.

00:16:43Guest:It looks fun.

00:16:44Guest:I've been having so much fun on this show.

00:16:46Guest:It looks fun.

00:16:47Guest:Yeah, and they're all nuts, and it's lovely, and I love them, and they're crazy.

00:16:51Guest:It's just, you know, I don't like getting up in the morning is the only thing about it.

00:16:55Guest:I would like if you could— In general?

00:16:58Guest:In general, but if you could move the time when I had to be there—

00:17:02Guest:We only do it 12 weeks a year.

00:17:05Guest:Right.

00:17:05Guest:Three months.

00:17:07Guest:My mother would say, you're crying with a loaf of bread under your arm.

00:17:10Guest:You know what I mean?

00:17:11Guest:It was like, you know, it's really cool.

00:17:13Guest:It's good.

00:17:14Guest:Don't get me wrong.

00:17:15Guest:I just don't like getting up at 6 o'clock in the morning, getting in the car and going to makeup and hair, which I don't need makeup and hair, except that I don't...

00:17:24Guest:dye my hair usually yeah as black as they want it for frank yeah so i but i do so so i get pampered it's like really nice don't get me wrong i love it they don't make you walk down i just don't like no no fucking stairs that's in the contract it's in the waiver no from here on out no stairs no i will be carried up and down up okay yeah i walk down i may be carried

00:17:48Guest:Or backwards.

00:17:49Guest:I did a play once where the door opens and there's a guy standing there with me in his arms.

00:17:54Guest:Yeah.

00:17:55Guest:What play was that?

00:17:55Guest:It was called Shoot Anything With Hair That Moves.

00:17:58Guest:When was this?

00:17:59Guest:It was done in 1960-something, like eight, down in the village.

00:18:03Guest:It was off Broadway.

00:18:04Guest:68.

00:18:05Guest:Yeah, something like that.

00:18:06Guest:68, 69.

00:18:08Guest:Was that like the beginning?

00:18:10Guest:of you it was like in the early days yeah the beginning was in the like this the early 60s when i that was when i started but the the 68 play door opens is a big guy there with me in his arms i'm selling pot right that's my thing i'm a pot i'm selling pot to these girls in this apartment that's up on the third or fourth floor right

00:18:31Guest:So I come in.

00:18:32Guest:They sit me down.

00:18:33Guest:I show them what I got.

00:18:34Guest:I show them the this.

00:18:35Guest:I got the that.

00:18:36Guest:I got the different kinds of pot.

00:18:37Guest:They buy the pot.

00:18:38Guest:We smoke a little pot.

00:18:40Guest:They say goodbye.

00:18:41Guest:Money exchange.

00:18:42Guest:The guy picks me up, takes me out of the thing.

00:18:45Guest:And one girl says to the other one, says, Frank is such a nice guy.

00:18:49Guest:It's too bad he can't walk.

00:18:51Guest:And the girl says, oh, he can walk.

00:18:52Guest:Thank God he doesn't have to.

00:18:55Marc:Big laugh.

00:18:56Marc:Big laugh.

00:18:57Marc:Yeah.

00:18:58Marc:I'm going to ask you a question.

00:18:59Marc:It's a weird thing.

00:19:00Marc:When I was in college, it's a strange thing that I remember.

00:19:04Marc:I went to school in Milton, Massachusetts, outside of Boston.

00:19:07Marc:We drove into Boston.

00:19:08Marc:This is 1981.

00:19:09Marc:Me and this guy, Rene Fouquier, who was a roommate of mine, a British guy, we drove in.

00:19:15Marc:We went to the Bull and Finch.

00:19:17Marc:It's a bar, right, that Cheers was based on.

00:19:20Marc:Yeah, the base.

00:19:21Marc:Okay.

00:19:21Marc:Well, for some reason, you and your wife were there.

00:19:24Marc:Like, and I don't know why you were there.

00:19:26Marc:Okay.

00:19:26Marc:But you must have been the only night you were there.

00:19:29Marc:Okay.

00:19:30Guest:It probably was.

00:19:31Guest:When did 82?

00:19:34Guest:Okay.

00:19:34Marc:So it was us going out, checking it out.

00:19:37Marc:What the hell is this job you just took?

00:19:38Marc:What the fuck is this?

00:19:39Marc:Yeah.

00:19:39Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:19:40Marc:And you talked to my friend for a long time.

00:19:41Marc:Oh, good.

00:19:42Marc:And I just sat there and looked at you.

00:19:43Marc:And I'm like, that's Martini.

00:19:45Marc:Okay.

00:19:45Guest:It's martini.

00:19:47Marc:It's martini.

00:19:48Marc:It's martini.

00:19:49Marc:It's that little martini.

00:19:50Marc:And also, there's another connection is that my people are from Jersey, many of them from Asbury Park.

00:19:55Marc:Yeah.

00:19:55Marc:Did you know that?

00:19:56Marc:I didn't know that.

00:19:56Guest:Yeah.

00:19:57Guest:Asbury's the greatest.

00:19:58Marc:Well, you seem like a Jersey guy.

00:20:00Guest:I love Jersey.

00:20:01Guest:Jersey's the best.

00:20:01Guest:Do you go back there still?

00:20:02Guest:I go back there, yeah.

00:20:04Guest:I got a place in the- My mother passed away a few years ago.

00:20:08Guest:Oh, she lasted a long time.

00:20:09Guest:Yeah, she passed away a few- My sisters- Sorry, I hear that.

00:20:13Marc:How old was she?

00:20:13Marc:Died a couple years ago.

00:20:14Guest:Oh, sorry.

00:20:15Guest:It's a long, anyway.

00:20:16Guest:Yeah, all right.

00:20:17Guest:So I had a house there that they all lived in, in Interlaken, which is right next door to Asbury.

00:20:23Guest:It's across the lake.

00:20:25Guest:Yeah.

00:20:25Guest:Asbury High School's over here, and then there's the lake, Interlaken, and then right there's Allenhurst, Manisquan.

00:20:31Guest:I'm the Allenhurst, Deal, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:20:33Marc:Deal, where the big houses were.

00:20:35Marc:And when I was a kid, we'd go to Deal, and they used to say, this is, Al Capone had a house here.

00:20:38Marc:All the gangsters had houses.

00:20:40Guest:They were big houses.

00:20:41Guest:Now it's all Persian Jews, I think.

00:20:42Guest:Beautiful big houses on the beach and all nice.

00:20:45Guest:We have a house in this very... My mom lived in.

00:20:49Guest:I sold a house.

00:20:50Guest:I had another house that my niece and her husband live in now.

00:20:54Guest:and it's close by but i don't get down there as much although i did go down a few years ago when they they they said they were going to give me uh an honor like you know and there was a festival film film festival they do a thing in the summer it's really fun and a lot of people go it's beautiful the shore is the greatest it's the it's the most beautiful place in the world i love it so much and i love the atlantic ocean and

00:21:18Guest:You do?

00:21:19Guest:Yeah.

00:21:20Guest:It's different.

00:21:21Marc:It is different.

00:21:22Guest:Yeah.

00:21:23Marc:My parents met in Asbury Park.

00:21:24Guest:Yeah.

00:21:25Guest:And so I went down because they gave me, they said to me, Dan, you come down on this night.

00:21:31Guest:They were going to give me a bench.

00:21:33Yeah.

00:21:33Guest:on the and i said i don't know if you know i don't want to i don't know a bench is like for the bench you know i don't want to name me uh or give me a street yeah street's good you know a bench and then uh i said not the bench you know and uh they said we'll give you a plaque i don't want a plaque and it's fucked up man i don't want so they said i said what else you want i said give me give me a beach yeah

00:21:55Guest:I'll take the 2nd Avenue Beach.

00:21:58Guest:We'll call it Danny DeVito Beach.

00:22:00Guest:Right?

00:22:00Guest:Yeah.

00:22:00Guest:And it was going on, going on, going on.

00:22:03Guest:Negotiations.

00:22:03Guest:Really good.

00:22:04Guest:Yeah.

00:22:04Guest:And then they, last minute.

00:22:06Guest:Yeah.

00:22:07Guest:No beach.

00:22:07Guest:Okay?

00:22:08Guest:I'm going to the thing now.

00:22:10Guest:It doesn't matter.

00:22:11Guest:I'm going to the thing.

00:22:12Guest:Yeah.

00:22:12Guest:Anyway.

00:22:13Guest:And then they called me up and they said, we'll give you Danny DeVito Day.

00:22:19Guest:So I took that.

00:22:20Guest:So November 17th is Danny DeVito Day down the beach, down the shore.

00:22:24Guest:So if you go down there, you fire one up.

00:22:27Guest:What happens on that day?

00:22:28Guest:I said, whatever you want to do that makes you feel good, do it on that day as long as you're not hurting anybody.

00:22:34Guest:Now, do you know Bruce Springsteen?

00:22:37Guest:I know Bruce.

00:22:38Guest:I met him in the 80s.

00:22:40Guest:I didn't meet him down there.

00:22:42Guest:No.

00:22:42Guest:But do you share stories?

00:22:44Guest:Yeah.

00:22:45Guest:Well, we've haunted the same places.

00:22:49Guest:I was down the boardwalk every day when I was a kid.

00:22:53Guest:I remember the boat.

00:22:53Guest:Didn't they have the boat ride?

00:22:54Guest:Well, that was on Wesley Lake.

00:22:57Guest:They had the little boat ride and the swan and all that shit.

00:23:00Guest:And then they had the merry-go-round, which was beautiful.

00:23:02Marc:And the casino building?

00:23:03Guest:And the casino was like amazing.

00:23:06Guest:What's where the merry-go-round was?

00:23:07Guest:Yeah.

00:23:07Guest:And then the convention hall was where Paramount Theater is.

00:23:09Guest:Right.

00:23:10Guest:Down the other end.

00:23:11Guest:Yeah.

00:23:11Guest:Now, the merry-go-round is a very funny kind of story.

00:23:14Guest:Because they fucked it up in those days.

00:23:17Guest:They screwed the shore big time.

00:23:19Guest:All the politicians and all the developers and whatever they were doing things.

00:23:23Guest:Back in the day.

00:23:24Guest:Yeah, they were pulling shit out.

00:23:25Guest:They were pulling stuff out all big time.

00:23:28Guest:Gangsters too, probably?

00:23:29Guest:Somebody.

00:23:29Guest:Who the hell knows?

00:23:31Guest:The first thing that happened was Walter Reed had two big theaters there, Mayfair and St.

00:23:37Guest:James, and he needed them to lower their taxes because-

00:23:43Guest:What was happening was in the milieu of the whole thing, shopping centers were coming into play, like close by, in the right outskirts of the boardwalk.

00:23:54Marc:People weren't shopping.

00:23:55Guest:They weren't shopping downtown anymore.

00:23:57Guest:They were going to these shopping centers.

00:23:58Guest:Why?

00:24:00Guest:Because you didn't have to, there were no parking meters.

00:24:02Guest:Yeah.

00:24:03Guest:You know what I mean?

00:24:03Marc:Right.

00:24:03Guest:So downtown was all parking meters.

00:24:05Guest:You get a ticket, blah, blah, blah.

00:24:06Marc:Yeah.

00:24:06Guest:You know, why are you going to go to Woolworths?

00:24:09Guest:Yeah.

00:24:10Guest:Or are you going to go to Ligget's Drugstore?

00:24:11Guest:Yeah.

00:24:12Guest:And get a parking ticket?

00:24:13Guest:Yeah.

00:24:13Guest:You drive a couple miles out into the circle.

00:24:15Guest:It's beautiful.

00:24:16Guest:And you got parking.

00:24:17Guest:Yeah.

00:24:17Guest:And you got all these stores.

00:24:18Guest:So that started happening.

00:24:20Guest:Walter Reed says, I want to lower my taxes.

00:24:23Guest:Yeah.

00:24:23Guest:The theater guy.

00:24:24Guest:They wouldn't do it.

00:24:25Guest:He tore down these two movie... I hate the guy for doing it, but I also hate the people who made him do it.

00:24:32Guest:And it's all, you know, basically... The movie palaces, old style.

00:24:36Guest:Yeah.

00:24:36Guest:Mayfair and the St.

00:24:37Guest:James, they tore them down, made them parking lots.

00:24:40Guest:Unbelievably...

00:24:42Guest:Like a knife in your heart when that happened.

00:24:46Guest:And that was early days.

00:24:48Guest:You knew things were happening.

00:24:50Guest:There were a lot of race riots.

00:24:51Marc:Do you remember going there when you were a kid, those theaters?

00:24:54Marc:Every week.

00:24:55Marc:Because you grew up there from childhood, Asbury Park.

00:24:57Guest:1944, I was a baby.

00:25:00Guest:And as soon as I could go to the movie theaters, they took me to those ones.

00:25:05Guest:And what did your folks do?

00:25:06Guest:My father had a candy store on Springwood Avenue.

00:25:09Guest:Like hot dogs and sodas.

00:25:12Marc:Head creams.

00:25:13Guest:Whatever.

00:25:14Guest:Yeah, like a counter, have a counter.

00:25:16Guest:Notions.

00:25:16Guest:A little counter.

00:25:17Guest:He'd go to the, he'd drive, this is funny.

00:25:20Guest:He'd go up to New York on a bus.

00:25:21Guest:Yeah.

00:25:22Guest:Go buy things like wallets and this and that.

00:25:25Guest:On 14th Street.

00:25:27Guest:And put it all in his, he called them notions.

00:25:30Guest:He'd come with a box.

00:25:31Guest:Yeah.

00:25:32Guest:Come down, come back down.

00:25:33Guest:And we'd open it up and he'd have all these like little cuff links.

00:25:37Guest:Yeah.

00:25:37Guest:You know, stuff like that.

00:25:38Guest:Yeah.

00:25:39Guest:You know what I mean?

00:25:39Guest:Cheap stuff and made it look good.

00:25:40Guest:Yeah, made it look good.

00:25:41Guest:He had a pinball machine in there.

00:25:46Guest:Was it a hangout?

00:25:47Guest:it wasn't really a hangout no i don't remember yeah i was too young to really experience that place yeah i was more put me up on a on a stool yeah give me an ice cream cone yeah yeah you know what i mean yeah and then if i was playing the pinball machine i barely could see over the right so they put the box there and i'd get up on the yeah you know play the pinball machine

00:26:10Guest:It was like really a cool place.

00:26:12Guest:My grandfather was a tailor.

00:26:14Guest:He came from Italy, came right down to the shore.

00:26:19Marc:Yeah, a lot of them ended up there.

00:26:21Marc:Yeah, they got off the boat.

00:26:23Guest:Got off the boat, went right down the shore.

00:26:25Guest:My mother was born down there.

00:26:27Guest:So he came in the 1800s.

00:26:28Guest:Did you know him?

00:26:29Guest:I didn't know him.

00:26:31Guest:No.

00:26:32Guest:His name was Lodovico, and he was amazing.

00:26:35Guest:Yeah.

00:26:35Guest:Yeah, I've seen pictures of him.

00:26:37Marc:Did you ever do that genealogy show?

00:26:40Marc:No, I haven't done it.

00:26:41Guest:You should do it.

00:26:41Guest:Yeah, why not?

00:26:42Guest:I'll tell the guy.

00:26:43Guest:Fuck.

00:26:44Guest:Find out what the fuck's going on.

00:26:46Guest:Yeah, you get pictures and everything.

00:26:48Guest:Holy shit.

00:26:48Guest:Scared the shit out of me.

00:26:49Guest:I don't know.

00:26:50Guest:No, I do.

00:26:51Guest:You know how far back.

00:26:52Guest:I want to find out things.

00:26:53Guest:I want to turn over rocks, man.

00:26:55Guest:I want to find out shit.

00:26:56Guest:Where does it come from?

00:26:57Guest:Sicily?

00:26:58Guest:What part?

00:26:58Guest:No, no, no, no.

00:26:59Guest:Senfele, which is above Naples, above Sorrento there in the middle.

00:27:05Guest:You go up the mountains.

00:27:07Guest:It's a mountain.

00:27:08Guest:It's as high as it goes.

00:27:10Guest:And it's a little place.

00:27:10Guest:You can look it up.

00:27:11Guest:It's called...

00:27:12Guest:San F-E-L-E.

00:27:14Guest:And it's a little medieval town just plopped in the middle.

00:27:18Guest:That's where one of my grandparents is from.

00:27:20Guest:Another one is from Potenza, which is a big city, which is a little farther down.

00:27:25Guest:It's nearby.

00:27:26Guest:And then there's Calabria.

00:27:27Guest:So I got a little Calabrese in me.

00:27:30Guest:You know what I mean?

00:27:31Guest:That's what they say.

00:27:32Guest:Is that good?

00:27:33Guest:Yeah, it's good.

00:27:34Guest:It's all good.

00:27:35Guest:Italian.

00:27:35Marc:So you're all Italian.

00:27:36Marc:All Italian.

00:27:37Marc:Yeah.

00:27:38Marc:I was just hoping for Vikings because I'm a Jew.

00:27:40Marc:It's all Jew.

00:27:40Marc:But some of the Vikings came down and did what they did in Poland.

00:27:43Marc:Yeah.

00:27:44Marc:So I was hoping just a little bit of Viking.

00:27:46Marc:No Viking.

00:27:47Guest:You know the Vikings invaded Sicily.

00:27:50Guest:Sure.

00:27:50Guest:That's why you got all...

00:27:52Guest:There's all kinds of mixtures down there.

00:27:54Guest:You know, the Moors, the Vikings, the da-da-da-da-da, all over the place.

00:28:00Guest:Italy is like my, like I have a daughter, Gracie, who's got green eyes and like brownish light hair.

00:28:05Guest:How'd that happen?

00:28:06Guest:Yeah, it's my grandma.

00:28:08Guest:Yeah.

00:28:08Guest:I remember one grandparent, and Gracie looks exactly like my father's mother.

00:28:14Guest:Isn't that wild?

00:28:14Guest:Is Ria Jewish?

00:28:15Guest:Ria's Jewish.

00:28:16Guest:Her dad was born in Poland.

00:28:18Guest:Yeah.

00:28:18Guest:Your mother's family's from Minsk.

00:28:20Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:28:21Marc:It's standard.

00:28:22Marc:Standard stuff.

00:28:23Guest:Right.

00:28:23Guest:Yeah.

00:28:24Guest:Yeah.

00:28:24Guest:Grandmother came over here when she was 16.

00:28:26Guest:Right.

00:28:26Marc:Alone.

00:28:27Marc:Yeah.

00:28:27Guest:Guess where she went?

00:28:29Guest:The beach.

00:28:29Guest:Long Branch.

00:28:31Yeah.

00:28:32Marc:They love the beach.

00:28:33Guest:They love Jersey Shore.

00:28:35Marc:Yeah.

00:28:35Marc:Man, what the fuck?

00:28:36Marc:All those Jews down there.

00:28:37Marc:Just go right to the shore.

00:28:39Marc:Get good vegetables, clams.

00:28:40Marc:Oh, man.

00:28:40Marc:God, clamming.

00:28:41Marc:My father never shoved up about steamers.

00:28:43Guest:Got to get the steamers.

00:28:44Guest:Get the steamers.

00:28:45Guest:Yeah.

00:28:45Guest:We used to go out.

00:28:47Guest:Like when we were kids, we'd get a boat.

00:28:49Guest:Of course, you're like 70 cents, 50 cents.

00:28:52Guest:You get a boat, an old fucking rowboat that just barely was floating.

00:28:55Guest:Yeah.

00:28:56Guest:Right?

00:28:56Guest:You go and get your bathing suit on and you get a hook.

00:28:59Guest:Yeah.

00:28:59Guest:And you go with your pals and you go out to the mudflats in Shark River.

00:29:04Guest:Yeah.

00:29:05Guest:And get on the mudflats, pull the boat up, right?

00:29:09Guest:Yeah.

00:29:09Guest:Dig for clams.

00:29:11Guest:Yeah.

00:29:11Guest:Fill that thing with clams.

00:29:13Guest:Cherry stone clams.

00:29:14Guest:Yeah.

00:29:15Guest:Not the little steamers with the piss clams.

00:29:18Guest:Yeah.

00:29:18Guest:The midsize.

00:29:19Guest:Yeah.

00:29:19Guest:Right?

00:29:20Guest:Stick them in the boat.

00:29:21Guest:Now you got a whole boatload of clams.

00:29:24Guest:Like, really?

00:29:25Guest:Then you get in the water and you swim it.

00:29:28Guest:Yeah.

00:29:28Guest:Back to the dock.

00:29:30Guest:Yeah.

00:29:30Guest:Right?

00:29:30Guest:Yeah.

00:29:31Guest:In the river.

00:29:32Guest:Yeah.

00:29:32Guest:It's not dangerous.

00:29:33Guest:Right.

00:29:35Yeah.

00:29:35Guest:you got bags burlap bags yeah and you stuff the clams in these burlap bags and i mean you get like two three i don't know maybe four bags yeah big burlap bags full of clams yeah and you hook them on the top on the bottom of the dock yeah right with a hanger right and it's called floating them yeah

00:29:57Guest:So they'd stay there overnight in the bags.

00:30:01Guest:Yeah.

00:30:01Guest:And they stay alive and they stay open.

00:30:04Guest:Yeah.

00:30:04Guest:And all the sand would come out.

00:30:07Guest:Ah.

00:30:07Guest:Okay.

00:30:07Guest:Yeah.

00:30:08Guest:And then you take them from there.

00:30:10Guest:You put them in.

00:30:12Guest:You could sell them to the local guy or you bring some to each person's family.

00:30:16Guest:Yeah.

00:30:16Guest:What do they do?

00:30:17Guest:Make chowder?

00:30:18Guest:They make everything.

00:30:19Marc:They open them up.

00:30:21Marc:Yeah, sure.

00:30:22Marc:Chop them up.

00:30:22Marc:Spaghetti and clam sauce.

00:30:23Marc:Eat them raw.

00:30:24Marc:Eat them raw.

00:30:25Marc:Cherry stones.

00:30:26Marc:Yeah.

00:30:27Marc:Amazing.

00:30:27Guest:Chewy.

00:30:28Guest:Beautiful.

00:30:29Guest:Yeah.

00:30:29Guest:Beautiful clam.

00:30:30Guest:Yeah.

00:30:31Guest:Good.

00:30:31Guest:Yeah.

00:30:32Guest:Make me hungry.

00:30:33Guest:Go for a little, you know, a little bit of horseradish.

00:30:40Marc:So good.

00:30:40Marc:Yeah.

00:30:41Marc:Jersey had good produce, too.

00:30:43Marc:Always good.

00:30:44Marc:Yeah.

00:30:44Marc:Apples, tomatoes.

00:30:45Guest:Moonshine.

00:30:46Marc:Yeah.

00:30:47Guest:Moonshine, really?

00:30:49Guest:Yeah.

00:30:49Guest:You knew a guy?

00:30:50Guest:I knew a guy.

00:30:51Guest:Yeah.

00:30:51Guest:Always an old guy.

00:30:54Marc:There's always a guy in Jersey.

00:30:55Guest:Yeah.

00:30:56Marc:You know what I mean?

00:30:56Guest:Or wherever.

00:30:57Marc:But the amazing thing about Jersey to me is like there was a period there where you could get like pretty great Italian food like anywhere.

00:31:03Marc:Yeah.

00:31:03Marc:Like you just drive there.

00:31:05Marc:Everyone's got a place.

00:31:05Marc:Let's go to Joe's.

00:31:06Marc:Where the hell's Joe's?

00:31:07Marc:It's over at the thing.

00:31:08Marc:All right.

00:31:08Guest:And it's the greatest.

00:31:10Guest:My brother-in-law had a pizza parlor.

00:31:11Guest:His father had a pizza parlor in Long Branch, Freddy's.

00:31:15Guest:Yeah.

00:31:15Guest:You couldn't go by there without stopping.

00:31:17Guest:The best.

00:31:18Guest:You were full, and you'd stop and get a pizza.

00:31:21Guest:Yeah.

00:31:22Guest:It's just so good.

00:31:23Guest:It feels like all that stuff is gone.

00:31:24Marc:It's gone.

00:31:25Marc:It's in Florida, kind of.

00:31:26Marc:A lot of it's gone, yeah.

00:31:28Marc:You don't have a place in Florida, do you?

00:31:29Marc:No.

00:31:31Marc:No, I don't.

00:31:31Guest:Not my thing?

00:31:32Marc:Not my thing.

00:31:32Marc:I had a place in Florida.

00:31:33Marc:You did.

00:31:34Guest:For a very short period of time, I had a restaurant in Florida.

00:31:38Guest:Like Danny DeVito's?

00:31:39Guest:I put my name on it, and then it turned into something that was not very good.

00:31:45Guest:Not on the level?

00:31:46Guest:Not on the level.

00:31:47Guest:I found out about it, and I got away from it.

00:31:50Marc:It wasn't a food problem.

00:31:51Guest:No, it wasn't a food problem.

00:31:52Marc:It was a people problem.

00:31:53Marc:Oh, yeah?

00:31:54Guest:Yeah, but I was not there all the time.

00:31:57Marc:What is it with you celebrity fellas?

00:31:59Marc:I don't know.

00:32:00Marc:With the restaurants?

00:32:01Guest:I don't know what the hell is a big deal.

00:32:03Guest:It's not an easy business.

00:32:05Guest:No, I did it as a kind of novelty.

00:32:09Guest:I didn't have to invest any money.

00:32:11Guest:I gave my name.

00:32:12Guest:I went down.

00:32:12Guest:It was beautiful.

00:32:13Guest:They tricked it all out.

00:32:14Guest:It was a gorgeous place.

00:32:16Guest:Food good?

00:32:16Guest:Went a few times.

00:32:17Guest:I brought McElhaney and those guys down there.

00:32:19Guest:To DeVito's?

00:32:20Guest:To DeVito's.

00:32:21Guest:It was good.

00:32:22Wow.

00:32:22Guest:They'll tell you all about it.

00:32:24Guest:It was like kind of, you know, it's a little sketchy.

00:32:27Guest:And then it was South Beach, you know.

00:32:29Guest:And then, you know, it lasted like a few years.

00:32:34Guest:I can't remember.

00:32:35Guest:And, you know, the only thing it cost me was a little bit of like going down there and once in a while, you know, being like, what do you call it?

00:32:46Guest:Like passed around a little bit.

00:32:48Guest:I was like one of the hors d'oeuvres.

00:32:50Guest:Right, right.

00:32:51Marc:So that was it.

00:32:52Guest:Here he is.

00:32:53Guest:Hey, Danny.

00:32:55Guest:Danny's here.

00:32:56Marc:Good.

00:32:56Marc:But you didn't have to go to court or anything.

00:32:58Marc:No.

00:32:59Marc:No, it was nothing like that.

00:33:00Marc:Good.

00:33:01Marc:No.

00:33:01Marc:So when does it, you got how many siblings you have?

00:33:05Guest:I have two sisters who... There's nobody around now.

00:33:09Guest:It's like really a tragic thing.

00:33:11Guest:You hate it when they die.

00:33:12Guest:It's really awful.

00:33:13Guest:It's like really sad.

00:33:15Guest:My sisters were like 16 and 10 years older than me.

00:33:20Guest:Uh-huh.

00:33:20Guest:my oldest sister angie was my real like she was like my mom almost right and uh she was um and my mother was like an amazing woman uh it's just uh that angie took over a lot because my mother had me when she was in her mid 40s and uh so i was the baby i was the prince i was you know the boy yeah they had a couple other kids who passed away during the depression

00:33:44Guest:You know, during the early days with the whooping cough.

00:33:48Guest:And then they were in the bread line, you know.

00:33:49Guest:And years ago, people don't remember a lot of stuff that happened in our country in the days of the Depression where people were really hurting.

00:33:58Guest:They had no jobs.

00:33:59Guest:They had nothing.

00:34:01Guest:You know, things were really, really, really bad.

00:34:04Guest:Cold water flats, that kind of thing.

00:34:07Yeah.

00:34:07Guest:And if you had kids, you know, there was no, you know, the doctor was a thing that you had.

00:34:12Guest:It was very hard to keep them healthy.

00:34:14Guest:And two babies, one was in the hospital, a boy who I always heard about.

00:34:23Guest:And one was a little girl who was actually a couple of years old who got the whooping cough in a cold water flat during the depression.

00:34:33Yeah.

00:34:33Guest:then they they extricated themselves from the they were there they were in the city yeah yeah because they my mom who lived in jersey he married her it was really like you know but he wanted to be in the city he was yes he was a guy from brooklyn he was he he did a lot of like he had a pool hall your old man my old man really you know worked all the time yeah uh and uh and

00:34:57Guest:Went back, but his family was there.

00:34:59Guest:Yeah.

00:35:00Guest:So he was with his mother and his father.

00:35:01Guest:Right.

00:35:02Guest:That kind of thing.

00:35:03Guest:Yeah.

00:35:03Guest:And then they had some things with the babies that didn't work out.

00:35:07Guest:Then they all came back down to- The beach.

00:35:10Guest:To the beach.

00:35:11Guest:And they went, my grandfather was a tailor.

00:35:13Guest:He had a little store that he had a tailor shop in.

00:35:16Guest:Yeah.

00:35:16Guest:But still, it was a hard time.

00:35:18Guest:So he went to work for a big department store.

00:35:21Guest:He made clothing like really- On his own.

00:35:25Guest:It was really good stitching.

00:35:26Marc:Yeah.

00:35:27Guest:But then he went to work for a department store and did the same thing, tailored- He was the guy they brought out.

00:35:33Guest:Like, let's get the guy to come out and do the pants.

00:35:36Guest:Right.

00:35:37Guest:But he stayed there and he did a lot of suits.

00:35:39Guest:So the store was empty.

00:35:41Guest:My father was enterprising.

00:35:43Guest:What he did was he took it over and put a candy store in there.

00:35:48Guest:Get it?

00:35:48Guest:And my grandfather owned this little building, right?

00:35:53Guest:Downtown?

00:35:55Guest:On Springwood Avenue.

00:35:56Guest:And it was the normal thing.

00:36:00Guest:Was that the big street?

00:36:02Guest:That was one of the streets.

00:36:04Guest:Asbury Avenue was a big street.

00:36:05Guest:Cookman Avenue, that was more mainstream.

00:36:07Guest:Springwood Avenue was a little bit farther.

00:36:09Marc:Which one was the dirty street with all the dirty business on it?

00:36:12Marc:Hookers and whatnot.

00:36:14Guest:I don't know.

00:36:14Guest:I mean, there was hookers everywhere.

00:36:17Guest:I mean, it's like a business.

00:36:19Guest:Everybody's trying to make ends meet some way.

00:36:22Guest:You know, I mean, there's a lot of difficulty out there.

00:36:25Guest:People are suffering.

00:36:26Guest:People are starving.

00:36:27Guest:And in those days, you know, this was like...

00:36:31Guest:You know, I guess was before FDR and well, it was around that time.

00:36:36Guest:I had a couple of uncles who worked for the park system.

00:36:39Guest:Yeah.

00:36:39Guest:You know, and that was because of that.

00:36:41Guest:Yeah.

00:36:42Guest:It was a big deal.

00:36:42Guest:It was all, you know, the new deal, the new deal, the new deal.

00:36:46Guest:Yeah.

00:36:46Guest:Yeah, bringing people out of the poverty level.

00:36:49Marc:Yeah.

00:36:50Marc:So you had the two sisters, and one was sort of a surrogate mom.

00:36:55Guest:Yeah, and she was the one who had the beauty polish.

00:36:57Guest:My Uncle John, who was a hairdresser, she worked for him.

00:37:01Guest:Is this your mother's brother or your father's brother?

00:37:04Guest:This is like an Uncle John that you call an Uncle John who's because his wife is best friends with your mother.

00:37:10Guest:Right, yeah, Uncle John.

00:37:12Guest:So Uncle John was my, you know, and he took care of Angie in a big way, my sister Angie, who needed a job, and she went to work for him in the beauty parlor.

00:37:25Guest:Right.

00:37:25Guest:She went and got her license and the whole deal and blah, blah, blah.

00:37:28Right.

00:37:28Guest:And then Angie, Uncle John was getting old.

00:37:31Guest:He was into, like, finger waves.

00:37:34Guest:You know, like, he had, like, the real old clientele from the Jersey Shore.

00:37:39Guest:Right.

00:37:40Guest:And they did all these, like, you know, kind of, like, yeah, in the 30s.

00:37:44Marc:Like the flapper?

00:37:45Marc:Yeah.

00:37:46Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:37:46Guest:Yeah, that kind of shit.

00:37:48Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:37:48Guest:Really, I watched him work when I was a kid.

00:37:51Guest:Right.

00:37:51Guest:You see, it's a grat-tail comb, you know, and you do the...

00:37:54Guest:Like the things like.

00:37:55Guest:Right.

00:37:56Guest:And it's like, it comes out like.

00:37:57Guest:Yeah.

00:37:58Guest:Really, really beautiful.

00:37:59Guest:It's like a little work of art.

00:38:00Guest:Yeah.

00:38:01Guest:Anyway, my sister worked for him.

00:38:03Guest:And then, and I was doing things like gardening.

00:38:09Guest:Yeah.

00:38:09Guest:Worked for a gardener, Giacomo Dosarno.

00:38:11Guest:Yeah.

00:38:11Guest:Really great guy.

00:38:12Guest:Yeah.

00:38:12Guest:Giacomo.

00:38:13Guest:Giacomo.

00:38:13Guest:He had his, you know, like he was a college graduate.

00:38:17Guest:He had his, you know, I don't know if he had a master's or what he had, but he was like a real smart guy, historian, guy into history.

00:38:25Guest:Couldn't get a job.

00:38:26Guest:No, he was a gardener.

00:38:27Guest:He had a real nice truck and he was a real nice guy and he was smart.

00:38:32Guest:And I learned some stuff.

00:38:34Guest:I worked with him.

00:38:35Guest:I do that every year.

00:38:37Marc:Pulling weeds and learning about history.

00:38:39Marc:Learning about shit, man.

00:38:42Marc:And when does the desire to act?

00:38:45Marc:That doesn't come for a while.

00:38:47Marc:So you're gardening?

00:38:47Marc:What other odd jobs?

00:38:48Guest:Okay, so my sister got me.

00:38:50Guest:Yeah, Angie.

00:38:51Guest:Angie says one day, why don't you come to work?

00:38:54Guest:So she goes from Uncle Johnny's, and she opens up this place.

00:38:58Guest:Beauty Power.

00:38:59Guest:Oh, man.

00:39:01Guest:On Asbury Avenue.

00:39:02Guest:So she says to me one day,

00:39:05Guest:What are you doing?

00:39:07Guest:I wasn't going to go to college.

00:39:09Guest:Gardening.

00:39:09Guest:I'm gardening.

00:39:11Guest:I just graduated high school.

00:39:13Guest:But I got a good job.

00:39:14Guest:And in the winter, what are you going to do?

00:39:17Guest:Well, we shovel the snow.

00:39:22Guest:that was the business changes the business changes man what do you do you rake leaves you burn leaves you shovel snow in the garden when the flowers are coming do the beds do the thing snip around the who's and what's and you know you got a nice garden and if you get three four houses in a row you don't have to move the truck right right her pitch is you become a hairdresser I said what she says you go I send you she sends me to school yeah which is right down in Asbury

00:39:52Guest:Yeah.

00:39:53Guest:And I say, come on, man.

00:39:55Guest:I mean, I don't know.

00:39:58Guest:I work with my hands.

00:40:00Guest:That's what you got to do.

00:40:00Guest:You work with your hands.

00:40:01Guest:It's the same thing.

00:40:02Guest:Okay.

00:40:03Guest:So long story short, she sends me to this thing.

00:40:06Guest:I prepare all summer.

00:40:08Guest:You go to school to learn to be a hairdresser?

00:40:14Guest:I'm like always on my bicycle, always on my friends, always down the boardwalk, always bird dogging women, always trying to get like, you know, this is a Jersey guy.

00:40:24Guest:We're down at the, you know, this is like what we do.

00:40:26Guest:You know, you hang out, you go to the pizza parlor.

00:40:28Guest:It's still happening.

00:40:29Guest:It's always that way.

00:40:30Guest:It's the life.

00:40:31Guest:It's eternal.

00:40:32Guest:You know, it's...

00:40:35Guest:So now I'm going to dances, going to things.

00:40:40Guest:I'm like a young man.

00:40:41Guest:I got to drive a car.

00:40:43Guest:I got a little shit box.

00:40:45Guest:I'm working as a gardener, and she's got me doing hair to my mother, my aunts, my cousins, anybody she can get to sit in the thing.

00:40:57Guest:She buys me all the stuff.

00:40:59Guest:Yeah.

00:41:01Guest:And, you know, I started doing it.

00:41:03Guest:yeah you were cutting hair i i didn't start cutting hair they didn't trust me with a scissor right away right but eventually yeah really yeah eventually i did it all and then i went to school so she sent me to this place she's a beauty school yeah wilfrid academy uh-huh so you went the whole you went i went and you learned how to cut hair for real

00:41:26Guest:Yeah, you learn a lot of things.

00:41:27Guest:You learn how to do pin curls, rollers, combing out things.

00:41:32Guest:What about men's hair?

00:41:33Guest:Men's hair?

00:41:33Guest:No, I didn't do men.

00:41:34Guest:Okay.

00:41:35Guest:So I know, it's a beauty parlor.

00:41:38Guest:Angie's a beauty salon.

00:41:39Guest:Now, I'm going to this thing.

00:41:41Guest:She got me the smock, the bag with all the shit in it, everything.

00:41:46Guest:I've been working in the summer, learning how, getting a little head start.

00:41:50Guest:I know I got to go up.

00:41:51Guest:I'm a little nervous, going to go up to this place.

00:41:53Guest:Wilfrid County it's up there on Cookman Avenue yeah I walk up the stairs open the doors I look inside yeah there's 35 girls in there yeah okay you're like all right pretty good so I thank my sister she was really instrumental in teaching me a lot of things

00:42:14Guest:And I never forget her for that.

00:42:16Guest:And she was a beauty.

00:42:17Guest:And she died a few years ago.

00:42:18Guest:She's gorgeous.

00:42:19Guest:She was great.

00:42:20Guest:She was the best.

00:42:21Guest:She was like one of the, you know, the rare, you know, one of these rare mentors.

00:42:26Guest:Like, it was like really great.

00:42:28Guest:How long did she keep the shop?

00:42:30Guest:She kept the shop for quite a while.

00:42:31Guest:I worked there for about two or three years.

00:42:33Guest:And then I...

00:42:34Guest:I left.

00:42:35Guest:I went to New York and I went to school in kind of an odd way.

00:42:40Marc:How'd you tell her you were leaving?

00:42:42Marc:I just told her I was going.

00:42:43Marc:It's cool.

00:42:44Marc:We were all cool about stuff like that.

00:42:45Marc:You think you could still do hair?

00:42:46Guest:I could probably still.

00:42:48Guest:You know, I mean.

00:42:49Guest:Styles are different, but you think you could, like if you were.

00:42:51Guest:Yeah, I probably could do it.

00:42:52Guest:Like at gunpoint?

00:42:54Guest:Oh, it wouldn't need to be gunpoint.

00:42:55Guest:Yeah.

00:42:56Guest:No, no.

00:42:56Guest:I like doing it.

00:42:57Guest:I think it's a really cool thing.

00:42:59Guest:Yeah?

00:42:59Marc:Yeah, I used to cut my kids.

00:43:00Marc:No, I just mean like if you had to really, you know.

00:43:03Guest:You mean go back to work?

00:43:04Marc:No, I mean just sort of.

00:43:05Marc:I'd do that.

00:43:06Marc:Like could you do a style of a head of hair?

00:43:07Marc:Yeah, I could do it.

00:43:09Marc:That's good.

00:43:10Marc:I have no problem.

00:43:10Marc:It's like riding a bike, right?

00:43:12Marc:It is kind of like riding a bike.

00:43:14Guest:So you go to New York?

00:43:15Guest:I go to New York, and I went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, but that's another story.

00:43:20Guest:One thing leads to another, and you never know what's going to happen around here.

00:43:22Marc:Who was your guy at the Academy of Dramatic Arts?

00:43:25Guest:There was a guy, Mr. Barrett was this guy.

00:43:28Guest:I called him Mr. Barrett.

00:43:29Guest:He was the guy who taught acting styles, and he talked, you know, about...

00:43:34Guest:people that I'd never heard of, like Stanislavski, and introduced me to playwrights that I'd never read.

00:43:42Guest:I never saw a play.

00:43:44Guest:What compelled you to do it then?

00:43:46Guest:Well, I got up.

00:43:49Guest:The machinations of getting there was the whole thing.

00:43:52Guest:Angie telling me to go to New York to try to learn how to do makeup, and we were going to open up a makeup stand.

00:43:59Guest:Oh.

00:44:00Guest:I went to this place for kind of convoluted reasons.

00:44:08Guest:Anyway, once I got there and I enrolled in the night school.

00:44:14Guest:At the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

00:44:17Guest:And then once I got up.

00:44:19Guest:It's almost like as a stand-up guy.

00:44:21Guest:I've never done stand-up, and it's got to be the most exhilarating thing in the world once you get up and do it.

00:44:28Guest:Because I know that that's what happened to me.

00:44:30Guest:Once I got up,

00:44:32Guest:To do a scene?

00:44:34Guest:To do a scene.

00:44:36Guest:And I was in there with the classmates and whatever.

00:44:40Guest:Yeah.

00:44:41Guest:Once I got up and I started connecting the things and starting to feel like I had something under my feet.

00:44:49Guest:Yeah.

00:44:50Guest:And knew what I was doing.

00:44:51Guest:Yeah.

00:44:52Yeah.

00:44:52Guest:And could do more than one thing at the same time.

00:44:57Guest:Like think about the thing that you're up there and then you're trying to figure out what the character's wanting and doing.

00:45:06Guest:And then all of a sudden the fact that maybe some things click.

00:45:10Guest:Right.

00:45:11Guest:And you feel like there's a response, because that's part of it, too.

00:45:15Guest:The audience is a big part of it, too.

00:45:17Guest:Right.

00:45:18Guest:Then that thing happens.

00:45:19Guest:It happened to you, I'm sure.

00:45:20Guest:Yeah.

00:45:21Guest:You know, where you go, holy shit.

00:45:25Guest:It's like this.

00:45:26Guest:You go down the shore.

00:45:27Guest:It's a real, real hot day.

00:45:29Guest:Yeah.

00:45:31Guest:You're looking at the Atlantic Ocean.

00:45:34Guest:And you start walking in.

00:45:35Guest:And your feet immediately get frozen.

00:45:38Guest:And you go, oh.

00:45:39Guest:And then it's better.

00:45:40Guest:And you go to your ankles.

00:45:41Guest:And then it's better to go to your knees.

00:45:44Guest:Right?

00:45:45Guest:And then your thighs a little bit.

00:45:47Guest:Yeah.

00:45:47Guest:And then your balls.

00:45:48Guest:Yeah.

00:45:49Guest:And then you jump in.

00:45:50Guest:Yeah.

00:45:51Guest:He's staying for a minute, and you're like, oh.

00:45:54Guest:No, you can win.

00:45:54Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:45:55Marc:You're okay.

00:45:55Marc:Swim out there, yeah.

00:45:56Guest:You swim out there.

00:45:57Marc:And that was the feeling.

00:45:59Guest:I think so.

00:46:00Guest:Yeah, and so.

00:46:01Guest:If I remember correctly, it was like I got hooked on myself.

00:46:04Guest:Yeah.

00:46:05Guest:Yeah.

00:46:05Guest:And then you told your sister, like, no makeup can happen.

00:46:08Guest:And I came back, and I said, yeah, boy, this is really interesting.

00:46:10Guest:You know, you're reading of Mice and Men.

00:46:13Yeah.

00:46:13Guest:You know what I mean?

00:46:17Marc:Yeah.

00:46:17Marc:And that was it?

00:46:18Marc:She was happy for you?

00:46:19Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:46:20Marc:You got her blessing?

00:46:21Marc:Always got my blessings from my sisters and my family.

00:46:24Marc:So how do you start working in the biz over there in New York?

00:46:27Marc:You just start doing shows where you're a pot dealer who's carried by a man?

00:46:31Guest:No, you start other ways.

00:46:32Guest:That was the big time.

00:46:36Guest:Oh.

00:46:36Guest:Yeah.

00:46:38Guest:That was a paying job.

00:46:40Marc:You're making it.

00:46:40Guest:You know, you're making it then.

00:46:41Guest:No, I was doing like, you know, I did like what they call summer stock, which is like I took, I got a play.

00:46:47Guest:Early 60s?

00:46:48Guest:Yeah.

00:46:48Guest:Early 60s, Goodspeed Opera House, Dennis Playhouse, Children's Theater.

00:46:54Guest:On the Cape?

00:46:55Guest:Children's Theater.

00:46:56Guest:In Dennis, Massachusetts?

00:46:58Mm-hmm.

00:46:58Guest:Wow.

00:47:00Guest:Played the Wicked Wizard in some made-up play.

00:47:04Marc:Yeah.

00:47:04Guest:All for kids.

00:47:05Guest:Really great.

00:47:05Guest:And you got an agent that's booking you on this stuff?

00:47:07Guest:No, no, no, no.

00:47:08Guest:I didn't have an agent.

00:47:09Guest:What, did you just look it up in the paper?

00:47:10Guest:Yeah.

00:47:11Guest:Backstage, show business, those papers.

00:47:14Guest:We used to look at it.

00:47:15Guest:You'd go on open calls and stuff like that.

00:47:18Guest:Were you doing children's theater?

00:47:19Guest:Yeah.

00:47:19Guest:And you'd wind up getting-

00:47:21Guest:You know, getting called for something.

00:47:23Marc:Yeah.

00:47:23Guest:And, you know, it's a job, it's a job, it's a job.

00:47:26Guest:Was it all comedy?

00:47:27Guest:It was mostly comedy, yeah.

00:47:28Marc:Were you being typecast?

00:47:29Guest:It was all funny.

00:47:30Guest:It was all comedy.

00:47:31Guest:Yeah.

00:47:32Guest:I don't think it was very tragic.

00:47:34Guest:No.

00:47:34Guest:It was really straight.

00:47:35Guest:What, for the kids?

00:47:36Marc:Children's theaters?

00:47:37Marc:Yeah.

00:47:37Guest:Yeah, everything was like, you know.

00:47:40Guest:Yeah.

00:47:40Guest:Over here.

00:47:42Guest:You know what I mean?

00:47:42Guest:That kind of thing.

00:47:43Marc:Yeah.

00:47:44Guest:It was all fun.

00:47:45Guest:I got a cape in one show, the Wicked Wizard.

00:47:47Guest:Yeah.

00:47:48Guest:Come on, scare the shit out of everybody.

00:47:49Guest:You know what I mean?

00:47:50Guest:Yeah.

00:47:50Guest:And also, you know, it had a lot to do with your, you know, I guess, you know, when you say top casting, I don't know if anybody knew

00:47:58Guest:The only thing you have is you.

00:48:00Guest:Yeah.

00:48:00Guest:So what do you think the type is?

00:48:03Guest:Who's hiring you?

00:48:04Guest:Right.

00:48:04Guest:Yeah.

00:48:06Guest:You think I'm a certain type?

00:48:07Guest:Yeah.

00:48:07Guest:Great.

00:48:08Guest:You going to pay me?

00:48:09Guest:Yeah.

00:48:10Guest:I'll take it.

00:48:13Marc:You go do it.

00:48:14Marc:What was the first serious role?

00:48:18Guest:That's a tough question, man.

00:48:21Marc:Have any of them been serious?

00:48:23Marc:Have you ever been serious?

00:48:24Marc:How do you mean?

00:48:25Marc:Give me one.

00:48:26Marc:Oddly, you know, like I can remember the movies, but I'm saying that like if you were like when you were younger, was there a play where you had this sort of like there was a weight to it?

00:48:35Marc:You know, it wasn't just sort of like, hey, look at this.

00:48:37Marc:We're connecting.

00:48:38Marc:We're getting laughs where you're sort of like, holy shit.

00:48:40Marc:Like, I mean, like.

00:48:42Guest:I did small parts and things like I did a clerk in a in a Pirandello play.

00:48:48Guest:that was serious play yeah I don't think I did anything that was like you know the fucking pawnbroker or something like that you know what I mean yeah so how do you get like how does like the first movie happen

00:49:03Guest:Well, like, for instance, I was doing an off-Broadway play.

00:49:06Guest:Right.

00:49:07Guest:The one where you carried the popular?

00:49:09Marc:No, no.

00:49:09Guest:This one was called The Shrinking Bride.

00:49:11Marc:Yeah.

00:49:11Guest:This was at the Mercury Theater.

00:49:13Guest:It was on 13th and 3rd Street.

00:49:17Guest:And a guy from NYU came to see it.

00:49:21Guest:And he recommended me to a guy who was doing his thesis.

00:49:29Marc:Yeah.

00:49:29Guest:A film student.

00:49:30Guest:Sure.

00:49:31Sure.

00:49:31Guest:And I did a movie.

00:49:32Guest:It was my first movie.

00:49:33Marc:Is it around?

00:49:34Guest:Yeah.

00:49:35Guest:It's called Hot Dogs for Gauguin.

00:49:37Guest:He's laughing.

00:49:40Marc:Why?

00:49:41Marc:It's fucking funny.

00:49:41Marc:That's why.

00:49:42Marc:Of course it's funny.

00:49:45Marc:I'm glad you got it.

00:49:46Marc:Is it online?

00:49:47Marc:What do I look like?

00:49:48Marc:I don't know.

00:49:49Guest:What the fuck am I?

00:49:50Marc:It's not even on your credits.

00:49:51Marc:Want to look?

00:49:52Marc:No.

00:49:53Marc:Hot Dogs for Gauguin.

00:49:54Marc:I don't know.

00:49:54Marc:That's the one you should see.

00:49:56Marc:That's...

00:49:57Marc:Out of all of them.

00:50:00Guest:Yeah.

00:50:00Guest:That was probably my best work.

00:50:02Guest:Oh, my God.

00:50:03Guest:Without a doubt.

00:50:06Guest:NYU, are you kidding me?

00:50:07Guest:It's great school.

00:50:09Marc:What was the part?

00:50:11Guest:It was the part of a photographer who was trying to take... He was a down-and-out photographer, had no dough, lived in a little apartment, but he heard about a guy who took the picture of the Hindenburg blowing up.

00:50:27Guest:He happened to be there when the fucking Hindenburg...

00:50:31Guest:Was just about to hit the mooring station.

00:50:35Guest:Yeah.

00:50:35Guest:And.

00:50:36Marc:And he knew that guy.

00:50:38Marc:Yeah.

00:50:38Guest:No, he heard about him and he knew the guy became famous because he was right there to take the picture.

00:50:45Guest:Yeah.

00:50:45Guest:So all I have to do is take a picture.

00:50:50Guest:Yeah.

00:50:50Guest:Right.

00:50:51Guest:Yeah.

00:50:52Guest:But I can't wait for the fucking another Hindenburg.

00:50:56Marc:Got to make something happen.

00:50:59Yeah.

00:50:59Marc:Now, should I tell you?

00:51:01Marc:Don't spoil it.

00:51:02Marc:I'm not going to ruin it.

00:51:04Guest:I'm not going to say another word.

00:51:07Marc:Try to find hot dogs for Gauguin if you want to know what happens.

00:51:11Marc:There you go.

00:51:13Marc:But how do you get Cuckoo's Nest?

00:51:15Marc:I love that one.

00:51:15Guest:I did Cuckoo's Nest off-Broadway at the Mercer Arts Center for almost a year.

00:51:23Guest:With Kirk Douglas?

00:51:24Guest:No.

00:51:25Guest:He did it in 1964.

00:51:28Guest:On Broadway, he played McMurphy.

00:51:30Guest:I did it.

00:51:32Guest:What happened with Cuckoo's Nest is it was way ahead of its time when Dale Wasserman wrote that play that Kirk actually commissioned.

00:51:42Guest:He did the play on Broadway.

00:51:43Guest:Kesey wasn't happy.

00:51:45Guest:Nobody was happy.

00:51:46Guest:It didn't do well.

00:51:48Guest:Nobody went to see it.

00:51:50Guest:Kesey couldn't have been happy for anything anyway, I don't think.

00:51:54Guest:Anyway, what happened was

00:51:55Guest:Kirk tried to get the movie made.

00:51:58Guest:He couldn't get it made.

00:51:59Guest:With him.

00:52:00Guest:All of a sudden, in San Francisco area, these two guys, Rudy Golan and Jay Sankiewicz, put the play on the play.

00:52:10Guest:Yeah.

00:52:11Guest:The same play.

00:52:12Guest:Yeah.

00:52:13Guest:And they were successful.

00:52:16Guest:But that was in the... It was like in 1970.

00:52:18Guest:Yeah.

00:52:19Guest:Yeah.

00:52:20Guest:Because at that time, people started catching up to Kesey.

00:52:25Guest:Right.

00:52:26Guest:Sure.

00:52:26Guest:Okay?

00:52:27Guest:Yeah.

00:52:27Guest:And now everybody was reading his book, and they were looking at what was going on with mental health, and how they were throwing everybody out of the hospitals, and it was all about pills every week in the doctor's office.

00:52:40Guest:Yeah.

00:52:40Guest:lobotomies lobotomies and the total shit hit the fan and and the play was successful in san francisco they brought it to new york off broadway yeah and i auditioned for the part of martini with lee sankiewicz and and got it and how'd the play do great and bill devane played mcmurphy oh wow and uh and i could see that yeah he was great and uh

00:53:06Guest:we ran, we were at the Mercer Arts Center and we ran for like almost a, I left after, this is an actor who needs work.

00:53:16Guest:Right.

00:53:16Guest:I left after a year.

00:53:18Guest:And I had another job.

00:53:19Guest:So I got another job.

00:53:21Guest:But the idea is, you know, you get a part.

00:53:23Guest:I didn't think I'd ever leave a,

00:53:25Guest:Leave a play.

00:53:26Guest:And I love doing it.

00:53:27Guest:I love doing it.

00:53:27Guest:Well, Martini was sort of- Martini's a great character.

00:53:30Marc:Yeah.

00:53:30Marc:Childlike.

00:53:31Marc:It must have been fun.

00:53:33Guest:Yeah.

00:53:34Guest:A lot of fun.

00:53:34Guest:Yes.

00:53:35Guest:Give me.

00:53:36Guest:Yes.

00:53:36Guest:I got a pencil.

00:53:37Guest:I got a pencil.

00:53:40Guest:I got a pencil.

00:53:41Guest:I got a pencil.

00:53:41Guest:It's two pencils.

00:53:42Guest:You put them back.

00:53:44Guest:Right there.

00:53:45Guest:Martini's right there.

00:53:47Guest:He came back.

00:53:49Guest:The only thing I'm not doing is sitting on my feet.

00:53:51Guest:I should do that.

00:53:53Marc:And then they just thought you were for the movie because you were the guy.

00:53:56Guest:Well, they saw it.

00:53:59Guest:Milo saw it.

00:54:00Guest:But I first auditioned for Hal Ashby.

00:54:02Guest:Hal Ashby was going to do it.

00:54:03Guest:Really?

00:54:04Guest:Yeah.

00:54:04Guest:There was a very brief period of time when Hal Ashby was going to do that.

00:54:08Guest:He could have done a good job, too.

00:54:09Guest:He was a great director.

00:54:11Guest:And I auditioned for him, and it was kind of like I had a friend on the inside, Michael Douglas, who I met at the Eugene O'Neill Foundation in Waterford, Connecticut in 1960-something.

00:54:23Guest:We were smoking a lot of pot together and did that whole thing.

00:54:26Guest:That's when I was doing my summer stock thing.

00:54:29Guest:Oh, and that's where you met Michael Douglas?

00:54:31Marc:64, 5.

00:54:32Marc:What was he doing up there?

00:54:34Guest:He was actually in school in UCSB, but he was doing a summer program in Connecticut.

00:54:40Guest:Ah, and that's where you met him.

00:54:42Marc:And he's championing the thing.

00:54:43Guest:He's championing the thing, and he was in my corner.

00:54:46Guest:Yeah.

00:54:47Guest:Then Milos did his great audition process, which was so amazing.

00:54:55Guest:We go to this place, the Harlequin Studios up in midtown Manhattan, and you go upstairs and there's a semicircle of chairs and one chair in the middle.

00:55:08Guest:And all these actors...

00:55:10Guest:And Milos was the big nurse.

00:55:13Guest:And he would improvise with you and ask you questions.

00:55:15Guest:So if you're Martini, you say, Mr. Martini, what did you do today?

00:55:18Guest:What did you do today?

00:55:19Guest:What was your day like?

00:55:21Guest:And you go, well, I did this, that.

00:55:23Guest:And then he'd go, well, Mr. Harding, what do you think about how Mr. Martini conducted his day?

00:55:30Guest:Yeah.

00:55:31Guest:And then Harding would break my balls, and then I would attack Harding, and then he would get Scanlon in there, and he would get... So he got the entire group.

00:55:41Guest:Was Christopher Lloyd there?

00:55:43Guest:Okay.

00:55:44Guest:So, no, because, well, every time you go back...

00:55:48Guest:Yeah.

00:55:49Guest:Right?

00:55:49Guest:Yeah.

00:55:50Guest:He was there eventually.

00:55:51Guest:Right.

00:55:52Guest:But every time you go back, there were some people who were the same and some people who were different.

00:55:58Guest:Yeah.

00:55:59Guest:And so what he was doing was building his cast.

00:56:03Guest:I think I auditioned like, it got to be five, six times.

00:56:06Marc:And it was all through improvising.

00:56:07Marc:All through improvising.

00:56:08Marc:Wow.

00:56:09Marc:So you'd go.

00:56:10Marc:You seemed to be a constant.

00:56:13Marc:You were in.

00:56:13Guest:And then you'd see Vinny Schiavelli there twice.

00:56:16Marc:Yeah.

00:56:16Marc:And then you'd see Lloyd there.

00:56:17Marc:They were also.

00:56:18Marc:That was like a great time.

00:56:19Marc:It's life-changing, right?

00:56:20Marc:A great time.

00:56:21Marc:And people, like, it's odd.

00:56:23Marc:I would imagine that even with Taxi, even with this, Sonny, there's still people that like, you know, Martini.

00:56:28Guest:Yeah, they love it.

00:56:29Marc:They love it.

00:56:30Guest:It's a great movie.

00:56:31Guest:Milos made a great movie, and it was amazing.

00:56:33Guest:It was a great project all around, and everybody was really fun in there, and I got to work.

00:56:38Guest:And Scatman was such a trip.

00:56:41Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:56:41Guest:Oh, my God.

00:56:42Marc:And Jack, when you met Jack, was that when you first met him?

00:56:45Marc:That's when I first met him.

00:56:46Marc:And you're both Jersey guys.

00:56:47Guest:He's from Madison Square, and I'm from Asbury.

00:56:49Guest:Yeah.

00:56:49Guest:But we were born in the same hospital.

00:56:51Marc:Are you guys still pals?

00:56:52Marc:Mm-hmm.

00:56:52Marc:Is he all right?

00:56:53Marc:He's good.

00:56:54Marc:Good.

00:56:55Marc:I've known him for a long time.

00:56:56Marc:So like after Cuckoo's Nest, were you living here?

00:56:58Guest:I came out here, yeah, after Cuckoo's Nest because that was like a movie.

00:57:01Marc:After it?

00:57:02Guest:Yeah.

00:57:02Guest:Where did it shoot?

00:57:03Guest:Here?

00:57:04Guest:It shot in Salem, Oregon.

00:57:06Guest:In Oregon.

00:57:06Guest:In the hospital.

00:57:07Guest:And most of it was in the hospital.

00:57:09Guest:And then we did Depot Bay for the fishing scene.

00:57:11Guest:That was really fun, except we all got sick as a dog.

00:57:15Guest:Because Milos wanted to go out 15 miles out into the water.

00:57:19Guest:He didn't want to see land wherever he shot.

00:57:21Guest:And so we had boats with us, like a police boat and a ba-ba-ba boat.

00:57:27Guest:And then we did that.

00:57:28Guest:Then I came back here.

00:57:29Guest:I came to California, and I was doing little parts.

00:57:33Guest:Like I did some police woman.

00:57:35Guest:I did a star skiing hutch.

00:57:37Guest:I did a couple other things.

00:57:39Guest:And then I did Going South.

00:57:43Guest:That was fun.

00:57:43Guest:And then in 78, Joel Thurm, who's a casting director, asked me to read this pilot.

00:57:51Guest:And that was that.

00:57:54Guest:That was that.

00:57:55Guest:Yeah, I loved it.

00:57:56Guest:That was great.

00:57:57Guest:Yeah.

00:57:58Guest:Really fun.

00:57:59Guest:And that was with Brooks.

00:58:00Guest:78.

00:58:01Guest:Yeah, Brooks Weinberger, Stan Daniels, Dave Davis, the whole pack.

00:58:06Guest:It was like an amazing experience.

00:58:07Guest:We'll talk about it.

00:58:09Guest:Life-changing.

00:58:10Guest:I just talked to Mary Lou.

00:58:12Guest:She was on the show on Monday.

00:58:14Guest:God bless her.

00:58:15Guest:God bless her.

00:58:15Guest:Ask her if she remembers what shirt I was wearing when I went to work.

00:58:20Guest:I would have.

00:58:22Guest:So you get that script, you get cast in it.

00:58:25Guest:Well, you get that script and you got to go meet them.

00:58:28Guest:So I did this thing.

00:58:29Guest:It's a famous story that you've heard a million times.

00:58:33Guest:I got the script.

00:58:34Guest:I love this part.

00:58:36Guest:Yeah.

00:58:36Guest:Louis was a great part now you gotta go in and meet them and Joel said you know these are guys I didn't know anything about them because I'd never seen Mary Tyler Moore I'd never seen any of these shows no I was doing other things man I didn't even watch television you know what I mean so it was cool I went to Paramount they had this beautiful office they were all in there

00:59:01Guest:I'm at the doorway.

00:59:03Guest:Brooks is in there.

00:59:04Guest:Weinberger, Stan Daniels, Dave Davis, a couple other people.

00:59:09Guest:Weinberger's got his sleeves rolled up and a script in his hand, right?

00:59:13Guest:And there's a chair right across the way from you.

00:59:16Guest:And you know that's the hot seat.

00:59:17Guest:So you're at the door.

00:59:18Marc:They're sitting at a table?

00:59:20Guest:They're sitting around like a real soft, cushy place behind a coffee table.

00:59:27Guest:Very well-appointed office.

00:59:29Guest:There's the chair.

00:59:30Guest:Beautiful.

00:59:30Guest:And there's the chair that you know that so well we do.

00:59:34Marc:We know.

00:59:34Guest:So you go.

00:59:35Guest:And so Thurm, Joel Thurm says, this is Danny DeVito.

00:59:39Guest:This is the... How you do?

00:59:42Guest:I say, one thing I want to know before I start.

00:59:45Guest:who wrote this and i threw it on the table and that was it they there was one step man was in total terror i thought man you yourself out of a job nothing and then they hit and you know brooks and those guys i just didn't know them at all they laugh like you know they have their own like patented and they went crazy they were all out of now i walked to the chair

01:00:13Guest:I know where I am.

01:00:15Guest:Yeah.

01:00:15Guest:It's my room.

01:00:16Guest:Right.

01:00:16Guest:You got big enough.

01:00:17Marc:You did it.

01:00:18Guest:It's my room.

01:00:18Guest:Yeah.

01:00:19Guest:I couldn't say anything that wasn't funny.

01:00:23Guest:I said, and?

01:00:25Guest:And they fucking piss.

01:00:27Guest:I go, so?

01:00:29Guest:Boom.

01:00:31Guest:You know what I mean?

01:00:33Guest:So it was a gift.

01:00:34Guest:It was a good one.

01:00:35Guest:And then I got to meet all my best friends.

01:00:38Guest:I met the whole cast to become my best friends.

01:00:42Guest:We did it for five years only.

01:00:44Guest:People think we did it longer.

01:00:46Guest:I mean, I'm doing Sonny now.

01:00:47Guest:These guys are terrific, and I love them.

01:00:49Guest:14 years we've been together.

01:00:51Guest:Really?

01:00:51Guest:15 years.

01:00:51Guest:That's true, right?

01:00:52Guest:Because we took a year off for when Caitlin had babies, and one of the babies.

01:00:57Marc:So they're like family.

01:00:58Guest:So they are my kids.

01:01:00Guest:I feel like they're my, you know, getting older kids.

01:01:03Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:01:05Marc:I have younger kids.

01:01:06Marc:And everyone from Taxi, you guys, you know.

01:01:08Marc:No, we're good friends.

01:01:09Marc:Yeah?

01:01:10Marc:Yeah.

01:01:10Marc:I work with Judd on my show.

01:01:12Guest:Judd, well, we did the Sunshine Boys downtown.

01:01:16Guest:Yeah.

01:01:17Guest:So with Richard Griffiths, I did that in London.

01:01:20Guest:He passed away.

01:01:22Guest:Yeah.

01:01:22Guest:And then Judd came in, and we had a ball down here.

01:01:26Guest:Can you imagine?

01:01:27Guest:Yeah, it's fun, right?

01:01:28Guest:Oh, we had so much fun.

01:01:29Guest:And there were a couple things that were really cool doing it with Judd because he was coming in to the play.

01:01:37Guest:Right.

01:01:37Guest:So I had it down.

01:01:38Guest:I had done the show 400 times or something.

01:01:41Guest:He comes into the show, and there were a couple of nights where he looked at me, and we had the same kind of relationship.

01:01:48Guest:Right.

01:01:48Guest:In a way that Judd and Louie, and one time he looked at me in the middle of the thing and he went, Louie, and we just took that one little beat.

01:01:58Guest:On purpose or he didn't know?

01:01:59Guest:No, he didn't know.

01:02:00Guest:He didn't know.

01:02:00Guest:It was like really cool.

01:02:02Guest:He was in the moment.

01:02:03Guest:He was in the moment.

01:02:04Guest:We were doing it.

01:02:05Guest:I was breaking his balls and he's going, Louie.

01:02:08Guest:Willie.

01:02:09Guest:It's very easy to make.

01:02:11Guest:We had so much fun.

01:02:12Marc:Oh, that's so hilarious.

01:02:13Marc:After 113 Louys.

01:02:16Marc:I love him.

01:02:16Marc:Right?

01:02:16Marc:Of course it's in his brain.

01:02:18Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:02:19Guest:You're Louie.

01:02:20Guest:We had a great time.

01:02:21Guest:And I see Tony all the time.

01:02:22Marc:You do?

01:02:23Guest:Yeah, Mary Lou once in a while and Carol Kane and Chris.

01:02:27Marc:Oh, Carol Kane.

01:02:28Guest:Chris and I see each other in New York.

01:02:30Marc:Lloyd is great, huh?

01:02:31Guest:Yeah, yeah.

01:02:33Marc:He lives in New York?

01:02:34Marc:He lives in New York, yeah.

01:02:35Marc:And Jeff passed away.

01:02:38Guest:Jeff left.

01:02:39Marc:Yeah, and Andy left.

01:02:41Guest:And Andy's gone.

01:02:42Guest:Yeah, Andy, my boy.

01:02:44Marc:Good boy.

01:02:45Marc:How was it working with Milos on that?

01:02:49Guest:It was a complicated shoot.

01:02:52Marc:Yeah.

01:02:54Marc:But I love Miloš.

01:02:55Marc:Oh, because I saw the documentary about Jim, too, so we all know it was complicated.

01:02:59Guest:Yeah.

01:03:00Guest:But we had a good time.

01:03:01Guest:I mean, everybody was smiling.

01:03:05Guest:We had a good time.

01:03:06Guest:Yeah?

01:03:06Guest:Do you think it honored the story?

01:03:10Guest:I think it wasn't exactly Andy, but it was damn close.

01:03:17Marc:The spirit of...

01:03:19Guest:Yeah, he was like really... I think more childlike Andy was more like... There were simpler things about Andy.

01:03:30Guest:Yeah.

01:03:30Guest:And I guess when you do a movie, you're only going to the extreme stuff.

01:03:37Guest:But there was some simple things.

01:03:38Guest:Andy would be like sitting in his dressing room eating sushi during the day.

01:03:43Guest:Yeah.

01:03:43Guest:And you could go in and talk to him and hang out with him without...

01:03:48Guest:having to worry about becoming part of his art project.

01:03:53Guest:Right.

01:03:53Guest:Which most of the time you were.

01:03:55Guest:You know, like there were a couple times that I was in, when I first met and I'd be in the hallway hanging out and he's there and he'd come out of his dressing room and all of a sudden some woman would come in with a package like delivering.

01:04:08Guest:Yeah.

01:04:09Guest:You know, a UPS person or a postal worker.

01:04:14Guest:Right.

01:04:14Guest:Yeah.

01:04:14Guest:And he would start on her.

01:04:16Guest:And they go, what are you doing?

01:04:18Guest:Taking a job away from a man.

01:04:19Guest:You should be in the kitchen.

01:04:21Guest:And then she'd get pissed off at him.

01:04:24Guest:And then we would all come out.

01:04:26Guest:I'd be out in the dressing in the hallway.

01:04:29Guest:What's going on out here?

01:04:30Guest:And they would be rolling up their sleeves and wrestling.

01:04:33Guest:And they would get on the ground and they would wrestle.

01:04:36Guest:Now, here's the thing about that.

01:04:39Guest:I didn't think about it until many years later.

01:04:42Guest:I bought it.

01:04:44Guest:And everybody else bought it.

01:04:46Guest:But I suspect that that woman was on the payroll.

01:04:53Guest:Okay?

01:04:54Guest:Yeah.

01:04:54Guest:That's how fucking crazy Andy was.

01:04:56Guest:Yeah, of course.

01:04:57Guest:She came in, dressed in a uniform.

01:05:00Guest:Yeah.

01:05:01Guest:To put on a show.

01:05:02Guest:Right.

01:05:03Guest:Okay, well, maybe I'm a little slow.

01:05:05Guest:He did the thing really well, and we all bought it.

01:05:08Guest:Like, what are you doing?

01:05:09Guest:A little slow took years.

01:05:11Marc:Took years.

01:05:12Marc:Yeah, a little slow.

01:05:14Guest:so when do you like after taxi when do you start producing like how does that happen for a guy like you well i'm on the direct always so i did i did you directed first i did a few taxis i did a couple of short films and then i you know and then uh throw mama came along and uh they offered me the part of owen and i said that you know i would do it if i could direct it you love directing yeah i love directing

01:05:38Marc:So that was nice.

01:05:39Guest:Because I was doing it, like, as a, you know, the first time I wanted to direct was when I saw Battle of Algiers.

01:05:50Guest:Ponte Corvo's movie.

01:05:52Guest:It was in the 60s.

01:05:53Marc:About the revolution in Algiers.

01:05:54Guest:In Algiers.

01:05:56Marc:Yeah.

01:05:56Guest:It's an amazing movie.

01:05:57Guest:Yeah, it is.

01:05:59Guest:And so I thought, what the fuck does a director do?

01:06:02Guest:You know?

01:06:03Guest:And that's when I started, like, exploring it.

01:06:06Guest:And then...

01:06:07Guest:So I got the chance to do Throw Mama, which was... They wanted you in it, and you said, I want to direct it, too.

01:06:12Marc:And they were like, okay?

01:06:13Guest:Yeah, and they went for it.

01:06:14Guest:Billy and... Billy.

01:06:16Guest:Crystal.

01:06:17Marc:Oh, yeah.

01:06:18Marc:He still buddies with him?

01:06:18Guest:Yeah.

01:06:19Guest:Yeah.

01:06:20Guest:And Larry Bresner.

01:06:21Guest:Yeah.

01:06:21Guest:He passed away, but he was a good guy.

01:06:24Marc:He produced it.

01:06:25Marc:That was Billy's manager?

01:06:26Marc:Mm-hmm.

01:06:27Marc:Yeah.

01:06:27Yeah.

01:06:27Marc:But that movie did okay?

01:06:30Marc:Did okay.

01:06:31Guest:Did really good.

01:06:31Guest:And then I went and did, after that, I think was War of the Roses.

01:06:36Guest:That did good?

01:06:38Guest:That did really good, yeah.

01:06:39Guest:I remember that movie.

01:06:40Guest:Yeah, I love that movie.

01:06:41Marc:And you're still acting, but you're directing that, right?

01:06:43Marc:Yeah.

01:06:44Marc:You're in that?

01:06:44Marc:I'm in that, yeah.

01:06:45Marc:And you've got Michael Douglas in it from the old days?

01:06:48Guest:Mm-hmm.

01:06:48Guest:And then I decided to start a company called Jersey that would basically... It was a weird thing that happened in those days where it was like right on the tail of the auteur kind of movement.

01:07:07Guest:From the 70s?

01:07:08Guest:Yeah, with De Palma, with Scorsese and with all these guys.

01:07:13Guest:In my deal, I had a good deal for my directing services.

01:07:21Guest:And what I was thinking was I could open that up to other directors that I liked and that I thought would be good.

01:07:32Guest:So I started this company and basically wanted to make sure that I would find young, new, talented people.

01:07:44Marc:You partnered up with a producer guy?

01:07:45Guest:Yes.

01:07:47Guest:Two people I partnered up with.

01:07:49Guest:And then we did some movies.

01:07:52Guest:Did big movies?

01:07:53Guest:We did big movies, yeah.

01:07:54Marc:I mean, Pulp Fiction is a big movie.

01:07:56Guest:Well, Pulp Fiction was like, yeah, that was my... The way that happened was...

01:08:01Guest:One of my partners gave me Reservoir Dogs to read.

01:08:06Guest:And I said, this is amazing.

01:08:08Guest:I want to do this movie.

01:08:10Guest:But the Reservoir Dogs was already being made.

01:08:13Guest:Yeah.

01:08:14Guest:So I said, well, okay.

01:08:16Guest:I'm sorry.

01:08:16Guest:I missed that one.

01:08:17Guest:But I'd like to meet the guy.

01:08:19Guest:So while he was editing, I hadn't seen the movie yet.

01:08:23Guest:Quentin was editing.

01:08:25Guest:And I had a meeting with him.

01:08:27Guest:And I said, I'd like to do your next movie.

01:08:30Guest:And he knew you?

01:08:31Guest:Yeah, he knew me.

01:08:33Guest:He knew me.

01:08:33Guest:And I had also an entree from Stacy, who was my partner in the company.

01:08:41Guest:And I said, I'd like to make your next movie.

01:08:44Guest:What is it?

01:08:44Guest:And he says, well, I don't know what it is.

01:08:47Guest:And he started saying, I have these stories.

01:08:51Guest:It's intertwining.

01:08:52Guest:I said, listen, I love this Reservoir Dogs.

01:08:55Guest:I'm too late.

01:08:56Guest:but I would like to do your next movie, whatever it is.

01:08:59Guest:Can we make a deal right now?

01:09:03Guest:Right?

01:09:04Marc:He said that.

01:09:05Guest:I did.

01:09:05Guest:Yeah.

01:09:06Guest:And he said yes.

01:09:08Guest:And we went to Tristar.

01:09:11Guest:I had my deal with Tristar.

01:09:13Guest:And I made a deal for his next, paid for whatever his script was.

01:09:19Marc:Yeah.

01:09:19Guest:Make his next movie.

01:09:20Guest:Yeah.

01:09:21Guest:I didn't know what it was.

01:09:22Guest:Yeah.

01:09:22Guest:But you knew it was something.

01:09:24Guest:I knew who the guy was.

01:09:25Guest:Who the guy was.

01:09:25Guest:Yeah.

01:09:26Guest:Yeah.

01:09:26Guest:And a year later.

01:09:29Guest:I was in my house and I had called him.

01:09:33Guest:I knew that his movie was success.

01:09:35Guest:I'd seen Reservoir Dogs by now.

01:09:38Guest:I knew he was promoting it all over the world and just was so happy to wait for what was coming.

01:09:45Guest:Yeah.

01:09:46Guest:And it came.

01:09:46Marc:It was great.

01:09:47Marc:And it was Pulp Fiction.

01:09:48Marc:Yeah.

01:09:49Marc:You read that thing and you're like, holy shit.

01:09:50Guest:Holy shit.

01:09:51Guest:This is amazing.

01:09:52Yeah.

01:09:53Guest:Thank you, God.

01:09:54Guest:Yeah.

01:09:56Marc:But that was a big couple of years.

01:09:57Marc:You did Pulp Fiction, Reality Bites, Get Shorty.

01:10:00Marc:Yep.

01:10:01Marc:So that was how you entered the production world.

01:10:05Marc:Big time.

01:10:05Marc:And those were all- All fun.

01:10:07Marc:They were all big movies.

01:10:08Guest:And all made by people that I cared about.

01:10:11Marc:Yeah.

01:10:11Marc:And you stayed in it for a while, right?

01:10:14Marc:You did what, Aaron Brockovich?

01:10:15Marc:Yep.

01:10:16Marc:That's a big movie.

01:10:17Marc:That was big.

01:10:17Marc:Did you win an Oscar?

01:10:19Marc:We were nominated.

01:10:20Marc:That's good.

01:10:21Guest:Yep.

01:10:22Marc:She won an Oscar.

01:10:24Marc:Yeah.

01:10:25Marc:Julia.

01:10:26Marc:Julia.

01:10:26Guest:Yeah.

01:10:28Marc:Gattaca.

01:10:29Marc:Garden State.

01:10:30Marc:Garden State.

01:10:30Marc:Nice.

01:10:31Guest:You had to do that because of Jersey?

01:10:33Guest:Had to do that.

01:10:34Guest:Zach.

01:10:35Guest:Zach.

01:10:35Guest:Love Zach.

01:10:36Guest:Had to do that.

01:10:37Guest:Pam Abdi.

01:10:38Guest:Pam Abdi was like my...

01:10:40Guest:She was my driving force through all of that.

01:10:44Guest:Oh, yeah?

01:10:44Guest:Jersey girl.

01:10:45Marc:Yeah.

01:10:45Marc:She worked at the Jersey film?

01:10:47Marc:Yeah.

01:10:47Guest:She started out as a... She came from Emerson.

01:10:50Guest:Yeah.

01:10:51Guest:In Boston.

01:10:52Guest:Yeah, in Boston.

01:10:53Guest:She was answering phones at Jersey, right?

01:10:56Yeah.

01:10:56Guest:Jersey films, Jersey films.

01:10:59Guest:I see her every day when I go to work, right?

01:11:01Guest:And I said, what's up, Pam?

01:11:02Guest:What's going on?

01:11:03Guest:I started talking to her.

01:11:05Guest:She's from North Jersey.

01:11:06Guest:I said, no kidding, where?

01:11:07Guest:And then we started talking Jersey.

01:11:09Guest:Okay, next thing, you know, she's working as my assistant.

01:11:17Guest:Moved her to there because we had a lot in common, a lot of talk.

01:11:21Guest:Met her father and mother, really sweet people.

01:11:23Guest:She was like, oh, man, great people.

01:11:25Guest:from Jersey, and she says to me, you got to watch this show that's on.

01:11:31Guest:I said, what is it?

01:11:32Guest:She said, it's called The Sopranos.

01:11:35Guest:I said, oh, what is it about?

01:11:37Guest:She said, it's about mob guys in New Jersey.

01:11:39Guest:I said, oh, Pammy...

01:11:41Guest:You know, come on.

01:11:43Guest:Do I have to just inundate myself with mob guys?

01:11:46Guest:Is there anything else in the world for Italians except the mob?

01:11:50Guest:Yeah.

01:11:50Guest:And she says, no, Danny, you got to, you know, and she's got the accent, the whole thing.

01:11:54Guest:You got to watch this show.

01:11:56Guest:This is really good.

01:11:57Guest:I said, Pam, I'm not going to watch that show, all right?

01:11:59Guest:Okay.

01:12:01Guest:Now.

01:12:03Guest:Every week, she's going, you damn know what you're missing.

01:12:07Guest:You know what I mean?

01:12:08Guest:And I'm going, I'm not going to watch the show.

01:12:12Guest:So I get, you know, like this thing becomes.

01:12:15Guest:You committed to it.

01:12:16Guest:Yeah.

01:12:16Guest:This thing, this little game.

01:12:18Guest:Yeah.

01:12:19Guest:OK, she becomes, she was my assistant for a while.

01:12:22Guest:She becomes a story editor at the company.

01:12:25Guest:She's the head of the story department.

01:12:27Guest:And then she becomes the president.

01:12:30Guest:of the company.

01:12:31Guest:Jersey Films?

01:12:32Guest:Yeah, Jersey Films.

01:12:33Guest:Right?

01:12:34Guest:She does, she produces all the movies that you were mentioning, Garden State, all these movies.

01:12:41Guest:Yeah.

01:12:41Guest:She becomes the producer, the president of the company

01:12:45Guest:Cut to all these years go by, and we're still very, very close.

01:12:52Guest:She's amazing.

01:12:53Marc:She's still in movies?

01:12:55Guest:Big time movies, right?

01:12:56Guest:Big time.

01:12:56Guest:She's producing, doing all kinds of great stuff.

01:12:59Guest:Okay.

01:13:01Guest:Cut to many years later.

01:13:05Guest:Our company has dissolved, and I'm doing other things.

01:13:10Guest:Why did you dissolve the company?

01:13:12Guest:We had differences in the hierarchy, in the business.

01:13:17Marc:You got out of the production rack.

01:13:18Guest:Yeah, you know, we just got, we separated the people who were in the company.

01:13:23Guest:I still do producing.

01:13:26Marc:You do?

01:13:26Marc:Yeah.

01:13:27Guest:Stuff you're in?

01:13:27Guest:I have a first look deal at FX, and I do stuff like that.

01:13:31Guest:I'm doing all that stuff.

01:13:32Guest:And I'm making movies, I'm making a couple little things, and we're doing another.

01:13:36Guest:That's a whole other story.

01:13:37Guest:But what I was getting at was my big resolve here coming up.

01:13:42Guest:Yeah, I'm ready.

01:13:44Okay.

01:13:45Guest:I find this movie that I was thinking about directing, and there's a great part in it for a really good actor named James Gandolfini.

01:13:55Guest:Yeah.

01:13:55Guest:So I say, oh, wow, this would be great if I could get Gandolfini in this.

01:14:00Guest:I think I might do this movie.

01:14:02Guest:Which movie?

01:14:03Guest:I'm not going to say.

01:14:04Guest:All right.

01:14:04Guest:So I contacted him.

01:14:08Guest:Now, it's way after his show's off the air.

01:14:11Guest:He's doing theater.

01:14:13Guest:He's doing all kinds of stuff.

01:14:15Guest:I saw him.

01:14:15Guest:Gods of Carnage.

01:14:16Guest:Gods of Carnage.

01:14:17Guest:Great.

01:14:18Guest:Okay.

01:14:19Yeah.

01:14:20Guest:Lunch, okay?

01:14:22Guest:Lunch with Danny and James.

01:14:26Guest:I got the food and my house.

01:14:29Guest:So he goes, Bob, we're talking about the script, right?

01:14:33Guest:And there's things to talk about.

01:14:35Guest:You know, there always are and this and that and the other thing.

01:14:38Guest:The end of the meal, we're sitting there.

01:14:42Guest:We're having a great time.

01:14:43Guest:And we're going to get together again.

01:14:47Guest:And I say, I want to say to you something right now that I don't think any other producer in Hollywood can say to you.

01:14:56Guest:He says, what?

01:14:58Guest:And I say, I have never seen The Sopranos.

01:15:08Guest:And he goes, what?

01:15:09Guest:That's fucking great, man.

01:15:14Guest:You've never seen it?

01:15:15Guest:I say, not one episode.

01:15:19Guest:And then I tell him the story.

01:15:21Guest:Must have made him feel good in some weird way.

01:15:24Guest:Then I went out and bought the box set and watched every one of them in four months.

01:15:27Marc:Great, though, right?

01:15:28Marc:Great show.

01:15:29Marc:Wasn't it?

01:15:29Marc:Great.

01:15:30Marc:Satisfying when you can watch it one after the other.

01:15:33Guest:Then I got to have another lunch with him and talk about it, and he didn't remember shit.

01:15:37Guest:Oh, really?

01:15:38Guest:Yeah, that's the kind of thing.

01:15:40Guest:Yeah.

01:15:40Guest:Do you remember that show where you did- Nope.

01:15:42Guest:Nope.

01:15:42Guest:You just burned right through it.

01:15:43Guest:I worked with him once in- He was in Get Shorty.

01:15:47Guest:Oh, that's right.

01:15:48Guest:He was the thug in Get Shorty.

01:15:49Guest:That's right.

01:15:50Guest:Gets thrown down the steps.

01:15:51Marc:Yeah, he had those little thug parts.

01:15:53Marc:True romance, too.

01:15:54Marc:Yeah.

01:15:56Guest:He was a thug.

01:15:57Marc:he's good yeah he was great he was great he was great a nice guy in the julia julia louis dreyfus movie that last one he did right right sweet guy right on the steps it's very hard to see him as a sweet guy it was a hard transition he was he's a sweet guy you did death to smoochie too which great people love some people love it some people don't yeah i don't know if they get i don't know if they get great experience yeah great experience i've worked with robin yeah

01:16:21Guest:Oh, man.

01:16:22Guest:Did you know him from before?

01:16:24Guest:Yeah.

01:16:25Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:16:26Guest:You know, and Edward?

01:16:27Guest:Edward's the best.

01:16:28Guest:He's the greatest guy to work with.

01:16:30Guest:He's just, like, collaborative.

01:16:31Guest:He's good.

01:16:32Guest:He's, like, fun.

01:16:33Guest:I just interviewed Norton.

01:16:35Guest:Oh, he's a great guy.

01:16:35Marc:I haven't put it up yet.

01:16:36Guest:What a great guy.

01:16:37Marc:Oh, man.

01:16:38Marc:Smart guy.

01:16:38Guest:Smart guy.

01:16:39Marc:Intense.

01:16:40Guest:Intense, really good.

01:16:41Guest:Hard worker, right?

01:16:42Guest:Very hard worker.

01:16:44Guest:I love him so much.

01:16:45Guest:It was so good to work with.

01:16:47Guest:And we did it in Canada.

01:16:49Guest:We did it in Toronto or Toronto, however you say it.

01:16:53Guest:And we had a lot of fun.

01:16:54Guest:It was really good.

01:16:55Guest:And Robin was amazing.

01:16:57Guest:Oh, God.

01:16:57Guest:Just the work.

01:16:59Guest:Yeah.

01:17:00Guest:Really good.

01:17:01Guest:Fun, right?

01:17:01Marc:What an experience, man.

01:17:03Guest:What a good experience.

01:17:05Marc:But you haven't directed a film since then?

01:17:09Guest:No, I did a short film called Curmudgeons.

01:17:11Guest:Okay.

01:17:11Guest:Did you see it?

01:17:12Guest:No.

01:17:13Guest:Where do you get that one?

01:17:14Guest:You can see that on Vimeo.

01:17:15Guest:Okay, I'm Vimeo.

01:17:16Guest:Yeah, curmudgeons.

01:17:18Guest:Who's in it?

01:17:19Guest:Me and David Margulies.

01:17:20Guest:You know David Margulies?

01:17:21Guest:I know the name.

01:17:22Guest:You know David, right?

01:17:23Guest:Yeah.

01:17:23Guest:David, he passed away, but he's such... One of those guys... I'm just getting that picture of him in my face.

01:17:30Guest:David Margulies I met on the Pirandello play I told you about...

01:17:34Guest:In 1968, one of the fucking supreme, wonderful people in the world, David Wood, my buddy.

01:17:43Guest:And we did so many cool things together.

01:17:46Guest:Forget about even on film or in things that we were in, but just like, you know...

01:17:54Guest:readings of things.

01:17:57Guest:Oh, there's a script we're going to read at EST.

01:17:59Guest:I'm a member of the Ensemble Studio Theater in New York where that Kurt Dempster started.

01:18:06Guest:And anyway,

01:18:09Guest:We would do things like, oh, dang, we're going to read this play.

01:18:12Guest:We're going to read it for backers.

01:18:14Guest:Okay, we'll go.

01:18:15Guest:We all go, the actors go up into the, you know, in this shitty elevator.

01:18:20Guest:You go upstairs and you're on the fifth floor of this building that's like just barely held together by rat shit.

01:18:26Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:18:27Guest:Wooden floors that are all broken.

01:18:28Guest:Yeah, all fucked up.

01:18:29Guest:Yeah.

01:18:30Guest:And we're all in a circle.

01:18:32Guest:And it's actors just talking.

01:18:34Guest:And what have you been doing?

01:18:35Guest:This is the thing.

01:18:36Guest:How's it going?

01:18:37Guest:Is this happening?

01:18:37Guest:What's going on?

01:18:38Guest:And we're waiting and we're waiting and waiting.

01:18:40Guest:And David's going, dear hearts, just a moment.

01:18:44Guest:I don't know when these people are coming, but these women have the money and we've got to wait for them.

01:18:49Guest:OK, we keep going, keep going, keep going.

01:18:52Guest:All of a sudden, somebody comes running into the room.

01:18:56Guest:You guys, the fucking elevator is stuck between floors.

01:19:00Guest:I don't know how long it's been like that.

01:19:03Guest:holy shit we go down two flights they're in between the third and fourth floor the people the women were supposed to be the backers it was like arsenic and old lace we pried them out of there they were in little gingham dresses and shit you know what i mean they look like they look like they had pin curls yeah it was like hysterical we pulled them out what happened to the project they didn't they didn't back it yeah

01:19:28Guest:I think it was a John Noonan play, John Ford Noonan.

01:19:31Marc:All right, so I just want to say a couple of things before we talk about Jumanji, which I think is very important, is that I thought your performance, I was so thrilled with the Penguin, I can't even begin to tell you.

01:19:46Marc:Oh, man, I had a ball doing that.

01:19:47Marc:But, I mean, it was like, I remember when I saw it,

01:19:50Marc:And I was like, how did DeVito get such depth to this thing, this guy?

01:19:55Marc:It was heartbreaking and beautiful and funny.

01:19:59Marc:But it was almost like a fucking opera.

01:20:01Guest:It was operatic.

01:20:02Marc:I love that.

01:20:03Guest:I've never seen anything like it before.

01:20:05Marc:I love that.

01:20:05Guest:It's free.

01:20:06Guest:I was free.

01:20:07Guest:And you know what it is?

01:20:08Guest:It's like we all wear masks.

01:20:10Guest:We all do.

01:20:11Guest:Everybody does.

01:20:12Guest:We know that, right?

01:20:13Guest:Yeah.

01:20:15Guest:Okay.

01:20:15Guest:This was really the ultimate thing.

01:20:19Guest:I was in that makeup trailer for three hours, putting Oswald on.

01:20:23Guest:Yeah.

01:20:23Guest:Nose.

01:20:24Guest:Yeah.

01:20:25Guest:This, that, and the other thing.

01:20:26Guest:Hair, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.

01:20:28Guest:And Tim is like one of the most inventive directors ever.

01:20:32Marc:Tim Burton, yeah.

01:20:32Guest:Yeah, Tim Burton.

01:20:34Guest:I mean, it's basically when you're on set with him, you're watching him paint.

01:20:39Guest:You're watching him...

01:20:40Guest:take that piece of your Oswald, there's Batman, there's the Catwoman, there's the duck, there's the this, there's the penguins, there's the sets.

01:20:53Guest:And he's like...

01:20:55Marc:It's almost like German expressionistic cinema.

01:20:58Guest:You're watching him do it.

01:20:59Marc:Yeah.

01:21:00Guest:And it's like amazing.

01:21:01Guest:And he's running around.

01:21:02Guest:He's on that side of the set.

01:21:04Guest:He's on that side.

01:21:05Guest:Yeah.

01:21:05Guest:He's here.

01:21:05Guest:He's there.

01:21:06Guest:Putting it all together.

01:21:07Guest:And somehow in that context, I become a free man.

01:21:15Guest:Huh.

01:21:15Guest:What was the prep?

01:21:18Guest:I think it was all inside.

01:21:21Guest:Did you spend time with penguins?

01:21:22Guest:I did.

01:21:23Guest:I went down to San Diego.

01:21:24Guest:I walked in and saw the King Penguins.

01:21:28Guest:I remember I had one kid.

01:21:31Guest:Jake must have been in a little wheelie thing.

01:21:34Guest:He was really young.

01:21:35Guest:Your kid?

01:21:36Guest:Yeah.

01:21:36Guest:And I was with Rhea and the kids.

01:21:39Guest:Everybody came.

01:21:40Guest:We went down to visit the penguins.

01:21:42Guest:And we had a nanny, an English nanny.

01:21:45Guest:She was a really great woman, Sandra.

01:21:47Guest:She was really terrific.

01:21:49Guest:And I remember what the guide was saying.

01:21:52Guest:We're going to the penguin cage now.

01:21:56Guest:And the king penguins grow 90 to 100 pounds.

01:22:03Guest:And we're going to go in there.

01:22:05Guest:And Danny's going to be able to go in there and be with them.

01:22:08Guest:And the woman, there was a beat.

01:22:10Guest:We're walking, and the British woman said, a 9,200-pound penguin?

01:22:20Guest:No, 9,200 pounds.

01:22:22Guest:Anyway, we went in, and it was cool.

01:22:27Guest:But I don't like the idea of zoos.

01:22:30Guest:I, you know, it's just, it's, it's, I'm not into like the, you know.

01:22:35Marc:Animals in captivity?

01:22:36Guest:I don't like the animals in captivity.

01:22:38Guest:I'm doing a movie now that's about it.

01:22:40Guest:That is like really.

01:22:42Guest:About what?

01:22:43Guest:It's about a gorilla.

01:22:45Guest:It's called the one and only Ivan.

01:22:47Guest:And it's based on a true story about a gorilla, Ivan, who was brought from the lowlands when he was a baby.

01:22:59Guest:Yeah.

01:22:59Guest:He was taken.

01:23:01Guest:But he lived with people who cared about him.

01:23:04Guest:Yeah.

01:23:05Guest:Like as a baby.

01:23:06Guest:Yeah.

01:23:07Guest:But then got big and they put him in a roadside attraction in Florida.

01:23:15Guest:Yeah.

01:23:15Guest:That's pretty sad.

01:23:16Guest:I'm already sad.

01:23:18Guest:But the good thing, okay, Ivan... True story?

01:23:22Marc:It's based on true story, yeah.

01:23:24Marc:So the family, this happens with tigers too, you know.

01:23:28Guest:Yeah, I know.

01:23:28Guest:People buy a tiger, a baby tiger gets big and they can't.

01:23:31Guest:You know, animals shouldn't be in cages.

01:23:34Guest:We know that.

01:23:35Guest:But here's the thing.

01:23:36Guest:So what happened with Ivan, which is in the movie, it's written by this woman, Applegate.

01:23:43Guest:It's a kid's book.

01:23:44Guest:Yeah.

01:23:45Guest:And in fact, I won't even tell you any more about it.

01:23:47Guest:Don't.

01:23:47Guest:You should read it.

01:23:48Guest:Okay.

01:23:49Guest:Get it.

01:23:49Guest:It's called The One and Only Ivan.

01:23:51Marc:And then I'll know.

01:23:52Guest:And it's going to come out in a year from now.

01:23:55Marc:So, well, that sounds great.

01:23:57Marc:Really cool.

01:23:57Marc:Heavy.

01:23:58Marc:Yeah.

01:23:58Marc:But the penguin, though, like you're free.

01:24:00Marc:You're free.

01:24:00Marc:Yeah.

01:24:01Guest:I felt that.

01:24:02Guest:So you get into that thing and you're in behind that mask and you're going along and you've got all this padding.

01:24:08Guest:I'm like a bulbous kind of, I've got layers of shit on me that all feel like mine after like an hour.

01:24:17Guest:Yeah.

01:24:17Guest:You know what I mean?

01:24:18Guest:And my face, V Neal did the makeup and I feel like you can live in it.

01:24:25Guest:You can take it.

01:24:25Guest:talk and I had teeth and I had this mouthwash that I put spirulina in and I squirted into my mouth and I could drool and I could do anything I wanted.

01:24:41Guest:I could take the place apart if I wanted.

01:24:44Guest:You know what I'm saying?

01:24:46Guest:And that was so good.

01:24:47Guest:And Tim let you go.

01:24:49Guest:And it was good.

01:24:51Guest:And I never had more fun.

01:24:55Guest:I mean, I have fun on all the things I do.

01:24:57Marc:Yeah, I bet.

01:24:58Marc:But this one was like.

01:24:59Marc:I love Michael Keaton's Batman.

01:25:01Guest:Yeah, Michael's so sweet.

01:25:03Marc:Yeah, he is.

01:25:04Guest:And great.

01:25:04Guest:And I could be around Michelle Pfeiffer all day long.

01:25:08Guest:I mean, that's like a given.

01:25:09Marc:She's great.

01:25:09Guest:Is she nice?

01:25:11Guest:Really sweet girl.

01:25:12Marc:I just love that movie.

01:25:13Guest:People were really nice on the whole thing.

01:25:17Guest:Vincent was on that movie.

01:25:19Guest:Vincent Schiavelli was in that.

01:25:21Guest:He played one of my henchmen.

01:25:22Guest:Yeah.

01:25:25Marc:The guy from Cuckoo's Nest?

01:25:26Marc:Yeah.

01:25:27Guest:Yeah, Vincent's in there.

01:25:28Marc:I thought, and also the other thing I want to say is that I thought that you, like, I like this movie, and no one talks about this movie, but The Rainmaker, I love that movie.

01:25:36Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:25:37Marc:And I thought you were, that was a great performance.

01:25:40Guest:Yeah.

01:25:40Guest:Tried six times to pass the bar.

01:25:43Marc:Yeah.

01:25:43Guest:Couldn't pass the bar.

01:25:44Marc:Yeah.

01:25:44Guest:But he did, finally, you know.

01:25:46Marc:And you working with Mickey O'Rourke and Mickey Rourke, I mean.

01:25:49Marc:Mickey Rourke and, yeah.

01:25:51Marc:And Damon.

01:25:51Marc:And Matt Damon, yeah.

01:25:52Marc:It was such a sweet fucking dynamic.

01:25:54Marc:Loved it.

01:25:55Marc:That movie.

01:25:56Marc:Loved it.

01:25:56Marc:And Francis, was he all together?

01:25:57Marc:Francis was great.

01:25:58Marc:Yeah.

01:25:59Guest:Yeah.

01:25:59Guest:Francis was great.

01:26:00Guest:We had a good time.

01:26:01Guest:And let's see, Mary Kay Place.

01:26:05Guest:Yeah.

01:26:06Marc:Oh, that's heavy.

01:26:07Guest:You know, it was good.

01:26:09Guest:It was really, it was a lot of fun.

01:26:13Guest:People don't talk about it as a Francis movie, though.

01:26:15Guest:It's kind of interesting.

01:26:16Guest:Yeah.

01:26:16Guest:And there was a really, there were a couple of things that were really fun.

01:26:20Guest:Like, one, he did.

01:26:21Guest:You know, you expect, you always expect something.

01:26:24Guest:Like, you know, you hear stories about him and this, that, and the other thing.

01:26:27Marc:Yeah.

01:26:27Guest:And you expect that he's not going to be on the set.

01:26:29Guest:Right.

01:26:29Guest:He's going to direct from the Silverfish.

01:26:32Guest:One day, I said to him, man, you know, he was on the set every day.

01:26:37Guest:Yeah.

01:26:38Guest:I said, you know, I'm not getting the full Coppola experience, man.

01:26:41Guest:You're on the fucking set.

01:26:43Guest:Yeah.

01:26:44Guest:You know, you're talking to the actors.

01:26:45Guest:Yeah.

01:26:46Yeah.

01:26:46Guest:Get out of here.

01:26:48Guest:And the next day I came to work, there were big speakers.

01:26:52Guest:I didn't really notice it.

01:26:53Guest:I was just breaking his balls.

01:26:55Guest:Next day, Danny, move over camera right.

01:26:58Guest:He was a big speaker.

01:27:00Guest:And I said, oh, you motherfucker, you did it.

01:27:03Guest:And that was good.

01:27:05Guest:He came back the next day.

01:27:06Guest:He's a sweet guy.

01:27:07Guest:He went out of his way to.

01:27:08Guest:We ate lumbarjuns all day.

01:27:10Guest:What are those?

01:27:10Guest:These little onion things that you fry up.

01:27:13Marc:Oh, did he make them?

01:27:15Marc:Mm-hmm.

01:27:15Marc:He's a cook.

01:27:16Marc:He's a cook.

01:27:17Marc:All right.

01:27:17Marc:So, okay.

01:27:18Marc:So I just wanted to say that.

01:27:20Marc:Yeah, thank you.

01:27:20Marc:I wanted to give you some love for that performance.

01:27:23Marc:That was a lot of fun.

01:27:24Marc:And that character.

01:27:25Marc:And Jake Kasdan, I've talked to many times.

01:27:27Marc:Sweet guy.

01:27:27Guest:Yeah, Jake was great.

01:27:28Marc:And Jumanji, this is the third one?

01:27:30Guest:Yeah, thanks.

01:27:31Guest:Well, you got Robbins, and then you got the next one they did.

01:27:35Guest:I don't know, but it's fun.

01:27:37Guest:I got to work with Danny Glover, who I love.

01:27:39Guest:He's a sweet, really good guy.

01:27:41Marc:And how's the new season of Sonny?

01:27:43Guest:Oh, we had a great time.

01:27:44Guest:We finished.

01:27:45Marc:With Sonny, it's good.

01:27:46Guest:We finished our 14th season.

01:27:48Guest:We did a noir show.

01:27:49Guest:We did a couple interesting things.

01:27:52Marc:Well, you seem great to me.

01:27:54Marc:In life?

01:27:56Marc:Yeah.

01:27:56Marc:Oh, good.

01:27:57Marc:Thanks.

01:27:57Marc:You too.

01:27:58Marc:Your brain's working good?

01:28:00Mm-hmm.

01:28:01Marc:How are the kids?

01:28:03Marc:Kids are great.

01:28:04Guest:And you get along with Rhea?

01:28:05Guest:Get along with Rhea, Lucy, Gracie, and Jake doing great.

01:28:09Guest:Gracie's painting, Lucy's acting and producing, and Jake is producing.

01:28:13Guest:Rhea's doing a movie in New York right now.

01:28:15Guest:It's all good.

01:28:16Marc:It's great talking to you, man.

01:28:17Guest:Great talking to you, man.

01:28:24Marc:And he did walk down the stairs backwards.

01:28:27Marc:I watched him do it.

01:28:29Marc:The 14th season of Always Sunny in Philadelphia is now airing on FX.

01:28:32Marc:New episodes air Wednesday nights.

01:28:35Marc:And Jumanji The Next Level will be in theaters this December.

01:28:39Marc:That was Danny DeVito.

01:28:41Marc:And that was a fucking great time for me.

01:28:46Marc:You got to love Danny DeVito.

01:28:48Marc:I'll play some guitar.

01:28:49Marc:It's just some sort of ethereal, echoey, country-ish, three-chord progression.

01:28:59Marc:Dig it.

01:29:17¶¶

01:29:48Marc:Boomer lives.