Episode 1099 - Adam Pally

Episode 1099 • Released February 20, 2020 • Speakers detected

00:00:00Marc:all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies and what the fuck nicks how are you what the fucksters what the fuck wads what the fuckadelics i'm gonna go full list today so this is wptf welcome to the podcast

00:00:30Marc:I can't do a character with a lift because I have a slight lift.

00:00:33Marc:Let's get into the tour dates because they're coming up.

00:00:36Marc:It's coming to a close.

00:00:38Marc:And I'm in Portland, Maine at the State Theater tonight, Thursday.

00:00:41Marc:I know it's a good show.

00:00:43Marc:I've been doing like an hour 45.

00:00:45Marc:I've been doing the special plus a bunch.

00:00:50Marc:I'll be in Providence, Rhode Island tomorrow on Friday at the Columbus Theater.

00:00:53Marc:But I think that's sold out.

00:00:55Marc:New Haven has been tricky.

00:00:56Marc:I'm at the College Street Music Hall on Saturday.

00:01:00Marc:And I guess I'm eating pizza because I've heard that New Haven has some of the best pizza in the whole United States.

00:01:12Marc:And I'm in Huntington, New York at the Paramount on Sunday.

00:01:18Marc:Then Tuesday, March 10th, everyone around the world can see my special, Marc Maron, End Times Fun.

00:01:28Marc:That does not mean end multiplied by fun.

00:01:32Marc:It's not end times fun.

00:01:34Marc:It's end times, these end times fun.

00:01:37Marc:Let's have some fun in the midst of it.

00:01:40Marc:Right?

00:01:41Marc:It's all we can do.

00:01:43Marc:No, it's not.

00:01:44Marc:We can vote our hearts.

00:01:46Marc:Make the right decision.

00:01:50Marc:So look, you guys, some things have happened and don't freak out.

00:01:57Marc:I'm okay.

00:01:58Marc:But some things have happened.

00:02:01Marc:I got a grill.

00:02:03Marc:I'd been talking about getting a grill and I didn't know which grill to get.

00:02:07Marc:And I got some input about a lot of different things.

00:02:09Marc:And I got to be honest with you.

00:02:12Marc:I was sort of swayed a bit, you know, after reading dozens of emails from dozens of people about different grills, different brands of grills, coal versus gas.

00:02:25Marc:The one that really turned me, oddly, was one about the Traeger Grill.

00:02:32Marc:And what I think really sealed the deal for me in the research I was doing is that it was from a guy at Traeger Grills.

00:02:41Marc:And what really made me really close the deal was they were going to give me a grill.

00:02:51Marc:So it was tough.

00:02:53Marc:Read a lot of stuff about a lot of different grills.

00:02:57Marc:But Traeger just sounded the best to me.

00:03:03Marc:And but in all honesty, I would have like it was really between a green egg and a Traeger.

00:03:11Marc:And I got the Traeger.

00:03:12Marc:The guy brought it over.

00:03:14Marc:Traeger guy.

00:03:16Marc:Graham, the rep, brought over in a Traeger truck with a Traeger trailer on it, rolled it out, showed me how to work it with the pellets.

00:03:24Marc:And I cooked my first meal in it the other night.

00:03:27Marc:Halbert.

00:03:29Marc:And grilled vegetables on my new Traeger.

00:03:33Marc:And I got to get the hang of it.

00:03:34Marc:I'm an impatient guy, and I think the idea is we're going to slow cook this shit, man.

00:03:38Marc:Going to get a little smoke convection going.

00:03:40Marc:But it definitely tastes different.

00:03:42Marc:I'm not being paid to plug.

00:03:45Marc:I'm telling you what happened.

00:03:48Marc:I was swayed.

00:03:50Marc:It was a good argument.

00:03:52Marc:You know, I had questions about gas, I had questions about charcoal.

00:03:56Marc:Some guy said, we'll give you a free grill.

00:03:59Marc:And I'm like, all right, that makes sense to me.

00:04:02Marc:That makes a lot of sense.

00:04:05Marc:But I also know people love him.

00:04:06Marc:Rogan's got one out at the compound.

00:04:08Marc:I think he might have two or three of them because he's preparing for the end times out there.

00:04:14Marc:All you guys, you know, you Rogan guys, when the shit goes down before you arm yourselves, you go out to the compound, guys grill some bison.

00:04:23Marc:There'll be supplements for everybody.

00:04:27Marc:Kettlebells, edibles, cage matches.

00:04:32Marc:That's how it's going to go down.

00:04:34Marc:And everybody gets suited up, you know, to get out into the fucking world like Road Warrior.

00:04:41Marc:And then everyone dies of a virus.

00:04:43Marc:Yeah, that ends.

00:04:45Marc:It's Stephen King stuff.

00:04:46Marc:Doesn't matter how well armed you are when the shit goes down.

00:04:50Marc:You could be all locked in in your body armor with your gun and your flamethrower and just be like, I don't feel a little.

00:04:56Marc:What is that?

00:04:58Marc:Oh, oh, here.

00:05:00Marc:Damn it.

00:05:01Marc:The one thing I didn't arm myself against was this.

00:05:05Marc:Because vaccines are bullshit, man.

00:05:09Marc:Don't fuck with the vaccines.

00:05:13Marc:What's the matter with you?

00:05:15Marc:Didn't you get your flu vaccine?

00:05:16Marc:Dude.

00:05:18Marc:Dude, are you all right?

00:05:20Marc:Oh, man.

00:05:22Marc:Fuck, man.

00:05:23Marc:I'm glad I got my vaccine.

00:05:26Marc:Look, I'm being goofy.

00:05:27Marc:Look, you guys, here's what happened.

00:05:29Marc:Adam Pauly is on the show today.

00:05:31Marc:And Adam Pauly, I did not know.

00:05:34Marc:I'd seen him in a movie.

00:05:35Marc:I thought, he's kind of a dicky Jewish guy.

00:05:38Marc:Seems kind of like a dick.

00:05:41Marc:And I'm like, is he acting?

00:05:43Marc:But I'm not saying that.

00:05:44Marc:That's a positive thing.

00:05:46Marc:I'm not saying that as a negative thing.

00:05:48Marc:I'm kind of dicky.

00:05:49Marc:You could ask, I would say, four to five out of ten people, if you said, is Marc Maron a dick?

00:05:55Marc:They'd be like, I think he is a little bit of a dick.

00:05:57Marc:I don't think he's a full dick, but he's kind of dicky sometimes.

00:06:00Marc:Dick-ish.

00:06:01Marc:Where's that TV show?

00:06:03Marc:Is that the next one of that franchise?

00:06:07Marc:Have you seen this new show?

00:06:08Marc:What one?

00:06:09Marc:Dick-ish?

00:06:11Marc:It's just about these people, a family of people that are just kind of assholes.

00:06:17Marc:But is it ethnically based?

00:06:19Marc:No, I'm not even sure if they're a family.

00:06:21Marc:They all live in the same house and they're just fucking dicks, but not totally.

00:06:27Marc:They're just dick-ish.

00:06:29Marc:Just enough to make you say, do I like these people?

00:06:32Marc:And then they do something like, oh, that guy's all right.

00:06:36Marc:Dick-ish.

00:06:36Marc:9 p.m., 10 Central on ABC.

00:06:42Marc:Dick-ish.

00:06:44Marc:Adam Pauly's going to, I think he's on Dick-ish.

00:06:46Marc:Why am I saying this about my guest?

00:06:48Marc:He's on the new Dan Levy.

00:06:52Marc:show indebted and but what i was saying is i saw him in a film and i liked him i i thought like this guy's good he's got i could i felt like we were kindred spirits somehow turns out he's a jersey guy i believe and we are kind of i had a nice talk with him he's not a dick he was acting

00:07:13Marc:Okay?

00:07:14Marc:All right, so that's happening.

00:07:16Marc:Do you want me to read an email?

00:07:18Marc:Do I even know you, is the subject line.

00:07:21Marc:Hey, Mark, me again.

00:07:23Marc:I don't recall getting the first one.

00:07:27Marc:My son and his fiance are planning their wedding, and the talk got to buying an expensive suit.

00:07:32Marc:I told the story of your Tom Ford suit.

00:07:34Marc:Since Joaquin Phoenix won't be at the wedding, it's probably okay to get a nice suit.

00:07:38Marc:As some of you know, I believe that Joaquin burnt a hole in my suit with his cigarette at the premiere of The Joker

00:07:43Marc:oh anyhow the fiance said you didn't actually go buy your own suit it was brought to you by a stylist i said no mark went out like a regular human and purchased the suit which is it oh god please don't have a stylist i'll continue to listen either way because that's what friends do gail hey listen to me

00:08:05Marc:I do not have a fucking stylist.

00:08:07Marc:I would like one.

00:08:09Marc:Maybe this will work the same way the grill works.

00:08:11Marc:I'm very open to being clothed.

00:08:15Marc:You can clothe me.

00:08:17Marc:I'm open to that.

00:08:18Marc:The Tom Ford suit, how that went down, because I don't have a tux, so I asked my old manager, who's rich as fuck,

00:08:25Marc:I said, what should I do?

00:08:25Marc:He goes, hey, man, just go.

00:08:27Marc:He says, just go to Tom Ford, buy yourself the black suit, the three piece suit and the white shirt and some shoes.

00:08:34Marc:You'll be all set.

00:08:35Marc:You'll be set for life.

00:08:36Marc:I had no idea what Tom Ford was like or how much it cost.

00:08:41Marc:Yes, I went over there myself and I and they saw me coming, as they say in the business.

00:08:47Marc:They're like, this guy is clearly only going to buy one thing here.

00:08:52Marc:This is it for this guy.

00:08:54Marc:And we got to get everything we can out of him.

00:08:57Marc:I'm like, I'm looking for a black suit.

00:08:58Marc:And they're like, they read me correctly.

00:09:00Marc:This guy's no billionaire.

00:09:01Marc:He's not going to be back when all the new shit comes in.

00:09:04Marc:This guy needs a suit that he's going to wear in his fucking coffin.

00:09:10Marc:This he's buying the one suit.

00:09:13Marc:It's going to he's going to ride it all the way to the end.

00:09:16Marc:They were correct.

00:09:17Marc:But now it's got a hole in it.

00:09:20Marc:So I got to bring it back.

00:09:21Marc:No, I went there.

00:09:22Marc:I tried on the suit.

00:09:22Marc:They're like, you want the shirt?

00:09:23Marc:I'm like, sure, I'll take a shirt.

00:09:25Marc:Can I try on the shoes?

00:09:26Marc:Yeah, let's have the shoes.

00:09:27Marc:Do I need a belt?

00:09:27Marc:Oh, this suit doesn't need a belt.

00:09:29Marc:The vest, too.

00:09:29Marc:You want the full three?

00:09:30Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:09:31Marc:Then we got to brought the tailor in, had a coffee, talk to the fellas.

00:09:36Marc:You want cuff wings?

00:09:38Marc:No, I don't need... What am I?

00:09:39Marc:How much?

00:09:39Marc:$9,000.

00:09:40Marc:I don't need that.

00:09:42Marc:But the suit was a lot.

00:09:44Marc:I could have bought a pretty good used car.

00:09:46Marc:Maybe that's what I'll do with the next chunk of money.

00:09:49Marc:They can bury me in my Tom Ford suit in my car.

00:09:52Marc:Buy a fancy car.

00:09:53Marc:So that's your answer.

00:09:54Marc:I went in there like a regular schlub and was treated like a schlub.

00:09:59Marc:No, I'm kidding.

00:10:00Marc:They treated me great.

00:10:01Marc:That's part of the whole thing.

00:10:03Marc:You go there, you get the tail, you stand.

00:10:05Marc:And the suit is the best thing I fucking own.

00:10:07Marc:You put it on.

00:10:08Marc:Look, I got an Imperial Armani suit that I bought at Bloomingdale's like a fucking idiot.

00:10:12Marc:And I like it.

00:10:14Marc:But do you put the Tom Ford suit on and you're like, whoa, you can feel the weight of it, the fabric.

00:10:19Marc:It's fucking stunning fortune, but stunning.

00:10:23Marc:And again, I didn't mind spending the money because I'm making a good living and I have no children and no debt.

00:10:29Marc:And I'm not saying that to rub you in your face.

00:10:31Marc:It's just the way I've designed my life.

00:10:33Marc:So great not having kids.

00:10:35Marc:Have I mentioned that?

00:10:36Marc:Nothing against kids.

00:10:37Marc:Good luck with them.

00:10:38Marc:But I can go out and buy a suit and do whatever I want and just wake up, spend money however I want to.

00:10:44Marc:But look, your life is probably great.

00:10:47Marc:You love them.

00:10:49Marc:Sorry.

00:10:50Marc:Sorry.

00:10:51Marc:I'm not trying to be a dick.

00:10:53Marc:Just dickish.

00:10:55Marc:Here's what happened.

00:10:57Marc:i uh i was man do i want to talk about this i'm not going to mention names but there's there's a lesson to be learned in this i okay i got a friend in show business we're not really friends i know him we've hung out a couple times i like the guy like his work not mentioning names you know we got in touch recently and he said let's have lunch so i said great so we set up a lunch date and um

00:11:22Marc:He canceled.

00:11:23Marc:No problem.

00:11:23Marc:Happens.

00:11:24Marc:Done it myself.

00:11:25Marc:But at that time, we set up a date for the following Monday.

00:11:29Marc:And, you know, same time.

00:11:31Marc:So I go over there and I go to the restaurant and I get online to eat because it's like one of those kind of restaurants, popular.

00:11:38Marc:And I text him from the line.

00:11:39Marc:I'm like, you almost here?

00:11:40Marc:I'm online.

00:11:41Marc:And then it's like, oh, fuck, I forgot.

00:11:43Marc:I'm not going to be there.

00:11:44Marc:I could get there in 45 minutes.

00:11:46Marc:And I got like an interview to do.

00:11:48Marc:I have things to do.

00:11:49Marc:So I'm like, don't worry about it.

00:11:51Marc:It happens.

00:11:52Marc:He's like, you know, like, no, I can come.

00:11:54Marc:And I'm like, no, that's all right.

00:11:55Marc:You know, another time.

00:11:59Marc:But to be honest with you, I was a little pissed because I was at the restaurant and I could have actually hadn't that lunch date happened.

00:12:08Marc:I could have went to Tom Ford to bring my suit in to figure out how I get to hold it.

00:12:12Marc:Joaquin Phoenix burnt into my fucking jacket out.

00:12:15Marc:Where do I got to go with that?

00:12:17Marc:But no, I want to meet my buddy for lunch and talk about his work and other things.

00:12:21Marc:But we're not that close.

00:12:23Marc:But I respect him, run into him here and there.

00:12:26Marc:So he blows me off.

00:12:27Marc:And his wife's also in show business, not mentioning names.

00:12:30Marc:And on that ride home, like I was I was upset because the times that I've actually made plans twice with somebody and then blown them off the second time, it really wasn't a priority for me.

00:12:43Marc:Like it wasn't.

00:12:45Marc:But whatever.

00:12:46Marc:This guy's been busy.

00:12:47Marc:All right.

00:12:49Marc:So.

00:12:50Marc:In my flurry of anger driving home, I texted Lynn, who I am seeing.

00:12:57Marc:I don't know how you put it.

00:13:00Marc:We're older, and the girlfriend thing is stupid, and I don't like partner.

00:13:04Marc:I'm with Lynn.

00:13:06Marc:I'm with her doing what people you're with.

00:13:09Marc:You do what people you're with.

00:13:11Marc:But she's at home.

00:13:12Marc:I'm driving home.

00:13:13Marc:She knows I went to meet this guy.

00:13:15Marc:I text her.

00:13:15Marc:I tell her what's going on.

00:13:17Marc:He blew me off.

00:13:18Marc:He forgot.

00:13:19Okay.

00:13:19Marc:And then in the car, I text so-and-so and so-and-so, his wife, are shitty.

00:13:28Marc:And I sent that off to the guy.

00:13:31Marc:Yeah.

00:13:34Marc:sent that to the guy that blew me off not to lynn to the guy basically said you and your wife are shitty i did that and not a great moment you know as when you realize what happens and you realize like no no putting that back no nothing there's you just sort of like well there goes that

00:13:58Marc:Not friends with those people.

00:13:59Marc:That's going to be uncomfortable now for the rest of time.

00:14:03Marc:For the rest of time.

00:14:06Marc:But I immediately texted, sorry, now you know how I felt.

00:14:10Marc:Yeah.

00:14:11Marc:Yeah.

00:14:13Marc:What am I going to do?

00:14:14Marc:And then he texted back Jesus.

00:14:16Marc:And I'm like, I know, look, wasn't supposed to go to you.

00:14:20Marc:I got nothing against you.

00:14:22Marc:I was mad in the moment.

00:14:24Marc:I was texting it to Lynn so I could be mad.

00:14:28Marc:And, you know, I like both of you guys, basically.

00:14:30Marc:He's like, well, you could have told me how you really felt I can handle it.

00:14:33Marc:And I'm like, all right, well, I was upset, clearly.

00:14:36Marc:But I like your work and I like your wife's work.

00:14:39Marc:And it was backpedaling to a degree, but it was really one of those things.

00:14:43Marc:It's not like... It was bad.

00:14:47Marc:But we navigated it.

00:14:49Marc:And he said, look, let's reschedule because I like you.

00:14:52Marc:And I'm like, I like you too, man.

00:14:53Marc:I like her.

00:14:54Marc:And I was just mad in the moment.

00:14:56Marc:I'm shitty.

00:14:57Marc:I'm the shitty one.

00:14:58Marc:I'm fucking shitty.

00:15:00Marc:And then I just texted that like 90 times.

00:15:02Marc:I am shitty.

00:15:03Marc:Mark is shitty.

00:15:04Marc:Mark is shitty.

00:15:06Marc:Me, shitty.

00:15:08Marc:And however it affected him, whether he was upset initially, now he just feels bad for me.

00:15:14Marc:Because I have this, clearly have a problem.

00:15:16Marc:I'm going to text him right now.

00:15:18Marc:I am shitty.

00:15:19Marc:Shitty Mark.

00:15:21Marc:Send.

00:15:22Marc:I've been doing it for three days.

00:15:24Marc:We navigated it, but that happened.

00:15:26Marc:So I imagine this has happened to everybody and it could have been worse.

00:15:29Marc:It could always be worse, but that was a pretty bad one.

00:15:33Marc:But hey, let's do this.

00:15:35Marc:I never do this.

00:15:37Marc:If you've got a story about texting something to the wrong person, please send it along.

00:15:43Marc:That would be entertaining for me.

00:15:46Marc:So listen, you guys, it's time to bring out our first guest.

00:15:51Marc:This guy you might know.

00:15:53Marc:from movies.

00:15:56Marc:He's on the NBC sitcom Indebted, which airs Thursday nights.

00:16:00Marc:You can also see him in the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, which is now in theaters.

00:16:05Marc:And here he is.

00:16:06Marc:Please welcome Adam Pauly.

00:16:11Marc:That's how you say it, right?

00:16:12Marc:Really?

00:16:13Marc:Please welcome Adam Pauly.

00:16:21Guest:I moved recently from back to New York.

00:16:27Guest:You did?

00:16:27Guest:Yeah.

00:16:28Guest:Come on.

00:16:28Guest:Three years ago.

00:16:29Marc:Really?

00:16:30Marc:Yeah.

00:16:30Marc:You're not here anymore?

00:16:31Marc:No.

00:16:32Marc:Like where in New York?

00:16:33Guest:Like Westchester?

00:16:34Guest:No, like West Chelsea.

00:16:36Guest:Really?

00:16:36Guest:You bought an apartment in New York?

00:16:37Guest:I bought an apartment in New York.

00:16:39Guest:I sold my house here and I bought an apartment in New York.

00:16:41Guest:A floor through?

00:16:42Guest:uh no duplex no just uh brownstone you're saying things that are so uh sounding so great classic five no uh just an old building in west chelsea that uh that we like kind of renovated and was able to make it for our family and um you bought the whole building uh yeah sure uh

00:17:04Guest:No, we bought like a, it's honestly not, it's modest, but it's so nice to not worry.

00:17:10Guest:Like I don't ever see anybody.

00:17:12Guest:Yeah.

00:17:13Guest:And I used to see everybody.

00:17:14Marc:It's New York.

00:17:16Marc:How are you not seeing people?

00:17:17Marc:So you have three kids and you crammed them into that place.

00:17:20Guest:Yeah, well, they have space.

00:17:21Guest:I mean, I've been on TV for a decade.

00:17:23Guest:I know, I'm not saying you're broke.

00:17:25Guest:They can run around and stuff?

00:17:27Guest:No, no, absolutely not.

00:17:29Guest:No, they can't run around, but they have rooms.

00:17:31Guest:They have their own rooms.

00:17:31Guest:They have their own rooms?

00:17:32Guest:Yes, yes.

00:17:33Guest:Oh, good.

00:17:34Marc:So, wait, so you don't see anybody.

00:17:35Marc:Like, who were you seeing that was the problem?

00:17:37Guest:I lived in Studio City, which is like a great place to have a family and stuff, but like, you know, you'd go to the gas station and you'd see Eddie Murphy.

00:17:46Guest:Yeah.

00:17:46Guest:Some people would think that's amazing.

00:17:48Guest:It was.

00:17:49Guest:In the beginning, it was.

00:17:50Guest:And then it started to make me a little insane because I would just like- In what way?

00:17:56Guest:Because it's like, if it's not a hero of yours, it's like an awkward thing.

00:17:59Guest:And it's like, you're in Studio City.

00:18:01Guest:You are literally in the city of the studios.

00:18:03Marc:Oh, that's wild.

00:18:04Marc:Because most people's complaint about this city is that they never see anybody.

00:18:07Guest:Oh, I can't... Like, you go to... Like, that Walgreens in Studio City?

00:18:10Guest:Forget the fact that it's, like, a fate worse than hell.

00:18:14Guest:You know that one, like, where the parking lot is?

00:18:17Marc:I stay over here, man.

00:18:18Marc:Like, I was in Highland Park before.

00:18:19Marc:Oh, my God.

00:18:20Marc:I got a Walgreens five minutes from here, and it's fine.

00:18:22Guest:There is one CVS in Studio City that is... It's a CVS now?

00:18:25Guest:...which is at the River Styx.

00:18:26Guest:It's, like, it is hell on earth, and you, in your worst condition, will walk in and, like...

00:18:34Guest:bump into exactly like you know I can't even like David Wayne oh yeah sure you know and you're like shit yeah and you're not and you're like not together you're not together and then if you are then you're flummoxed with that whole thing it's like does he know me I don't think he knows me like then you don't say hello you do say hello it's like it is a nightmare I like that you picked David Wayne well cause it's like I did have a thing with David Wayne where like I walked in you see this diner all the time which diner is that good neighbor oh yeah is that good

00:19:02Guest:Yeah, it's like a really great like- Is it on Ventura Boulevard?

00:19:05Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:19:06Guest:Okay, all right.

00:19:07Guest:It's fine.

00:19:07Guest:It's been there forever.

00:19:08Guest:Yeah.

00:19:08Guest:And I saw David Wayne when I walked in one day and I just like, my hubris was just like to walk over and say hello.

00:19:15Guest:Yeah.

00:19:15Guest:And he looked at me like, he's like, I do not know who the fuck you are.

00:19:20Guest:Seriously?

00:19:20Guest:And I am eating.

00:19:21Guest:Really?

00:19:22Guest:Yes.

00:19:22Guest:Was he by himself?

00:19:23Guest:Yeah.

00:19:23Guest:Well, fuck him then.

00:19:24Guest:Writing.

00:19:25Guest:Writing.

00:19:26Guest:And I was like, and I went over and I was like, hey, I just want to say, you know, I would love to work with you.

00:19:30Guest:And he was like, what?

00:19:32Guest:Yeah, so would everybody.

00:19:34Guest:But he's kind of got that vibe, dude.

00:19:35Guest:No, he was in the right.

00:19:37Guest:It was me.

00:19:37Guest:It's like, why would I?

00:19:38Guest:And that kind of neurotic thought I found was healthier for me to just eliminate from my life.

00:19:45Marc:No, yeah, I can see how that particular, the weird thing about being in show business and being in a show business town and running into...

00:19:53Marc:You know, people that are different levels and how do you see yourself and how do they, do they know you?

00:20:00Marc:What's appropriate?

00:20:01Marc:It just makes, it really can.

00:20:03Guest:It's a fucking nightmare.

00:20:04Guest:One time I was eating at a diner, a burger shop, the counter, you know, where you like make your own burgers.

00:20:11Marc:What was that?

00:20:12Guest:Ventura?

00:20:12Guest:It was like a million of them.

00:20:13Guest:It was like an off hour of lunch.

00:20:15Guest:And no joke, Conan is sitting right here, right?

00:20:19Guest:Yeah.

00:20:21Guest:He knows you, right?

00:20:22Guest:Yeah, I've done this show like 10 times.

00:20:23Guest:Oh, no.

00:20:24Guest:And I didn't say hello because I was panicked that he wouldn't.

00:20:30Guest:In my head, I was like, he sees a million Jews a day.

00:20:33Guest:You know what I mean?

00:20:33Guest:5,000 people think I was on a show I wasn't on.

00:20:37Marc:Did you say a million Jews a day?

00:20:39Guest:Yeah.

00:20:39Guest:Think of the amount of people that have come through that couch that look exactly like me.

00:20:42Guest:Can you name those guys?

00:20:46Guest:Sure, I can name them all.

00:20:47Guest:Half of them have the name Adam.

00:20:50Guest:I don't know who they are.

00:20:52Guest:So I was panicked and nervous.

00:20:54Guest:And midway through the lunch, he was like, Adam.

00:20:56Guest:And I was like...

00:20:57Guest:hi Conan and he was like why didn't you say hello to me and I was like I just didn't I just didn't know if you'd recognize me I didn't want to bother you and he's like you did my show like a week ago I was like I know I just I was paralyzed I was paralyzed and like he never let me live it down he still always talks about it like you know which is embarrassing because now I have like low status with Conan which I would have had anyway you just have ball busting status

00:21:27Guest:Yeah.

00:21:28Guest:And I have to be like, yeah, yeah.

00:21:31Guest:It's like, damn it.

00:21:32Guest:Why didn't I say anything?

00:21:33Marc:It made you look like the asshole and you were just nervous.

00:21:35Marc:Yes.

00:21:36Marc:You were trying to do the right thing, but you came off David Wayne.

00:21:39Guest:Yes, I did.

00:21:40Guest:And that's my fault.

00:21:41Guest:That's my fault.

00:21:41Marc:David Wayne, he's tricky because he's a pretty nice guy, but he always seems like he's a little condescending, but he's not.

00:21:49Marc:No.

00:21:51Marc:He's got a thing about him.

00:21:52Marc:It took me years to realize it.

00:21:54Marc:I saw him at a Hanukkah party recently.

00:21:57Marc:So pleasant.

00:21:59Marc:Yeah, but he's always kind of like that.

00:22:00Marc:You project onto him.

00:22:02Guest:Of course, yeah.

00:22:03Guest:I think that I come across, I know I am.

00:22:05Guest:Let's talk about the other Adam Powellys.

00:22:08Guest:Well, I mean, there's a million.

00:22:10Guest:Give me one.

00:22:12Guest:Today, I was at the TCAs, right?

00:22:15Guest:For NBC.

00:22:17Marc:Over at that big hotel?

00:22:18Guest:At the Langham.

00:22:19Guest:At the Langham, yeah.

00:22:20Guest:And someone asked me if I was on a show called Stumptown, which is a drama on ABC that has Jake Johnson in a similar role, I guess, that I would play.

00:22:31Guest:And to me, I felt this to be anti-Semitic.

00:22:34Marc:Uh-huh.

00:22:34Marc:Well, you know, but you're a new Jew.

00:22:36Marc:You're kind of, I guess, in a decade.

00:22:38Marc:No, but you're a new Jew in format.

00:22:41Guest:Yes.

00:22:41Marc:Like, for years, it was the Schwimmer Jew.

00:22:43Guest:Yes.

00:22:43Guest:I'm more of, like, a different kind of Jew.

00:22:45Guest:You're a Seth Rogen Jew.

00:22:46Guest:Yeah, I'm a Seth Rogen Jew.

00:22:48Guest:Yeah.

00:22:48Guest:Although I've been working hard to get more to Paul Rudd Jew.

00:22:53Guest:Oh, yeah, Paul Rudd Jew.

00:22:54Guest:You're close.

00:22:54Guest:But Paul Rudd, he can pass.

00:22:56Guest:I know, and God knows I can't.

00:22:58Guest:I think you can.

00:23:01Guest:I got hair coming out of my ears, my nose.

00:23:03Guest:I guess, but it's not black hair.

00:23:05Guest:It's red, which is even worse.

00:23:07Guest:You're a rare red-haired Jew.

00:23:09Guest:I'm Svartix.

00:23:10Guest:I'm half Svartix.

00:23:12Guest:Who's not... Oh, really?

00:23:13Marc:It's half Sephardic, so shouldn't it be dark?

00:23:15Guest:Well, it's like olive.

00:23:16Guest:It's like Mediterranean.

00:23:17Guest:Right.

00:23:18Guest:So there's that Italian kind of like... Where does red come in?

00:23:22Guest:I don't know.

00:23:23Guest:There's like a redness to that.

00:23:24Guest:When I think of that like swarthy pirate, like red beard type deal.

00:23:28Marc:I guess so, but I think more of a dark sort of Sicilian thing.

00:23:31Marc:Well, that is why my... It's an Arab thing.

00:23:33Guest:That's why my skin color... Hispanic juice.

00:23:35Guest:My skin color, I always look like I'm like nauseous because it's...

00:23:39Guest:It's that spartic, like, yellowy jaundice.

00:23:44Marc:Red-haired Jews confound me.

00:23:45Marc:Me too.

00:23:46Guest:I don't get it.

00:23:46Guest:They're genetic flukes.

00:23:47Marc:It is, and it only comes out of my facial hair and stuff, so it's... So, yeah, so you're of the new Ilka, the new kind of Jew, the Jew that can almost pass.

00:23:56Marc:Like there was a period there in the 80s and 90s where it was like, these guys are Jews.

00:24:00Marc:Yeah, like Jerry and like.

00:24:02Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:24:02Marc:And Schwimmer.

00:24:03Guest:But I always felt you could pass.

00:24:05Guest:I mean, I have a very vivid image of you in my childhood comedy because like, you know, when you're a comedian, a kid, and you're like, I'm going to be a comedian, you stay home from school and watch like every premium blend and every minute, you know, thing.

00:24:23Guest:So I was the angry guy.

00:24:23Guest:But you could pass.

00:24:25Guest:You were Jewish and it was very obvious, but I feel like you similarly passed.

00:24:31Marc:There was a period there where I chose not to talk about it because I didn't know how to talk about it without doing this sort of like, well, I'm a Jew and Jews do this.

00:24:41Marc:Like Jackie Mason, Jews like to sit down.

00:24:43Marc:There was a period in my life where I was furious about it.

00:24:46Guest:I understand that completely.

00:24:48Guest:And I do it.

00:24:49Guest:I feel like it's ingrained in us to do it because we're like apologizing for our existence in some way.

00:24:53Marc:Well, also, though, depending what generation you are, I mean, you know that it's familiar.

00:24:58Marc:I mean, it's like there's a tone of like, you know, first or second generation immigrant New Jersey, New York Jews.

00:25:05Marc:Yeah.

00:25:05Marc:That they were in our family.

00:25:06Guest:I mean, yeah, that's what we are.

00:25:08Marc:So after a point though, my family left New Jersey and I didn't grow up, I grew up visiting that, but it bothered me that the stereotype held.

00:25:20Guest:It's like one of the weird stereotypes that still has held and is actually still perpetrated.

00:25:27Guest:It's still cool to say or assume.

00:25:29Marc:I'm better with it now and I think it's on us too.

00:25:32Marc:I think as a Jew now, you either have to announce it or be a coward.

00:25:36Marc:Yeah.

00:25:37Marc:No, I mean- Because they're after us again.

00:25:41Marc:Of course.

00:25:42Marc:I don't like how- No one gets to live through that.

00:25:45Marc:No, we're all gonna- We weren't.

00:25:46Marc:You know, it's like the ones that lived through it ran.

00:25:49Marc:So, you know- Yeah.

00:25:49Guest:Well, that's why I never wear sandals.

00:25:52Guest:Ever.

00:25:52Guest:And I don't think any Jew should-

00:25:54Marc:It's choosing time.

00:25:55Marc:We're coming down to the wire here.

00:25:57Guest:When I'm on vacation and there are other Jewish families and I see them and their kids in flip-flops, I just have to say- If you don't know what's going to happen- At any time.

00:26:06Guest:I don't care that we're in Puerto Vallarta out of sandals.

00:26:09Marc:Do you think the only place you can wear sandals is in Israel?

00:26:12Guest:Yes.

00:26:12Guest:And even then we might be chased out or up.

00:26:15Marc:Yeah.

00:26:16Marc:There's other problems in Israel.

00:26:19Marc:But you grew up Jewy Jew?

00:26:21Guest:Yes, fairly Jewy Jew.

00:26:22Guest:Where?

00:26:24Guest:All over.

00:26:24Guest:I grew up, I started in Manhattan.

00:26:26Guest:My parents were trying to make it as actors and musicians.

00:26:32Guest:Yeah.

00:26:33Guest:They were in a Catskill rock band called Pally and Pal that like toured around.

00:26:39Guest:Come on.

00:26:39Guest:Yeah.

00:26:40Guest:That's what your parents did?

00:26:42Guest:Well, until I was around six, and then my dad had a bad year in auditioning, I think, is how he phrases it.

00:26:52Marc:Yeah, when you were six.

00:26:54Guest:Yeah, and they had me young.

00:26:56Guest:And he quit and finished his degree and went back to medical school and moved us to Illinois, so I was in Skokie.

00:27:04Marc:Illinois?

00:27:05Marc:And Skokie?

00:27:07Marc:He really hates himself.

00:27:08Guest:Yeah, he really was punishing himself.

00:27:10Guest:He had a bad year.

00:27:12Marc:So I'm going to go to med school and move to Skokie, where Nazis march.

00:27:16Guest:Yep, and he did it.

00:27:18Guest:You remember it?

00:27:20Guest:I remember all of it, yeah.

00:27:22Guest:Six isn't old enough to like, I remember them playing music, and I remember... Really?

00:27:26Guest:Yeah, Six is like, you know, those big sentimental things.

00:27:29Guest:Sure, man.

00:27:30Guest:You'd go to Kutcher's and see them play a set.

00:27:32Marc:Yeah, oh, you went to Kutcher, so they were like in the lounge kind of?

00:27:35Guest:Yeah, they'd be in the lounge, and they'd be singing and doing their bit.

00:27:38Marc:And your dad would play guitar?

00:27:40Guest:Piano, and my mom would sing and lie on the piano.

00:27:43Marc:Oh, so like a burlesque, not a burlesque.

00:27:44Guest:No, it was more like a- Cabaret thing.

00:27:46Guest:Cabaret, yeah.

00:27:47Guest:It would be like, you know, and it was like really wholesome because it would be like the family hours.

00:27:51Guest:Was she funny, though?

00:27:52Guest:Yeah, they were hilarious.

00:27:53Guest:They were hilarious.

00:27:54Guest:And they would do it in this like winky way where they would like kind of tear the fourth wall down, and they'd do this bit where they'd be like, my mom would be like,

00:28:02Guest:Steven do you know what the most important thing in life is and my dad would be like vamping on the piano and be like actually I don't care and she'd be like it's friends and he'd be like oh well you gotta have friends and then they'd like sing into it and it was like really I was just like I remember sitting there like

00:28:22Guest:With a bunch of old Jews?

00:28:23Guest:Yeah, blue hair is just my eyes wide being like, whoa, this is so cool.

00:28:27Guest:Yeah, it's amazing.

00:28:27Guest:Yeah, and then it was over.

00:28:30Marc:But they did it for a while.

00:28:32Guest:A while before us.

00:28:33Marc:Did they ever have a break?

00:28:34Marc:Did they ever go on television?

00:28:36Guest:No, they never got a break.

00:28:37Guest:I mean, my dad had like several close calls.

00:28:39Guest:He was like,

00:28:40Guest:With success in show business?

00:28:41Guest:With success in show business.

00:28:41Guest:He was, like, the first face of Levi's Jeans, which, like, button fly, which at the time was, like, a huge style in the 70s.

00:28:49Guest:There were, like, these, you know, pale blue button fly, like, where the button was, like, very prominent.

00:28:54Guest:And he was, like, the campaign face for that.

00:28:56Guest:On the print ads?

00:28:57Guest:And the actual ad.

00:29:00Guest:There was, like, an ad.

00:29:01Guest:And so, like, that...

00:29:02Guest:there wasn't a lot of stuff going on.

00:29:04Guest:Like that was a big break.

00:29:06Marc:Right.

00:29:06Marc:And then he made some commercial money.

00:29:08Guest:Yeah.

00:29:08Guest:So he thought he was on his way.

00:29:09Guest:Yeah.

00:29:09Guest:And he played piano at the Empire Diner.

00:29:12Guest:On the west side?

00:29:12Guest:On 10th Avenue.

00:29:13Guest:Yeah.

00:29:14Guest:And that's how he made money.

00:29:16Guest:It's a little place.

00:29:17Guest:Yeah.

00:29:17Marc:But it was like right when it got renovated and it was groovy?

00:29:21Guest:It was groovy before.

00:29:22Guest:Yeah.

00:29:23Guest:This was like when they had a piano in the corner.

00:29:25Guest:Yeah.

00:29:25Marc:It was like the heyday.

00:29:26Marc:Because I remember because like my folks,

00:29:29Marc:My people are from Jersey and there was a New York connection.

00:29:32Marc:I remember when the Empire, like it was in the 70s where I think they renovated into this amazing thing.

00:29:38Guest:Well, now it's like, yeah, and now it had another resurgence again.

00:29:42Guest:But then anyway, after he finished medical school at University of Chicago, he moved us back to Livingston, New Jersey.

00:29:47Guest:Livingston.

00:29:48Guest:And so I went to high school in Livingston, New Jersey.

00:29:51Guest:Wow.

00:29:52Guest:So he had a bad year.

00:29:56Guest:It must have been awful.

00:29:57Marc:But the thing is, it's like the wiring was in place enough for him that his default was to go back to medical school.

00:30:05Marc:So that must have been on the table.

00:30:07Guest:I think when I talk to him about it, and we've talked about it a little bit more recently, actually, for the first time, he very plainly just will say, like, I just didn't love it.

00:30:18Guest:Show business.

00:30:18Guest:Yeah.

00:30:19Guest:He's like, I just didn't love it.

00:30:21Guest:And you have to love it because every time you get told no, if you don't love it, you have a thought in the back of your head that goes, well, fuck it.

00:30:29Guest:I'm just not going to do it anymore.

00:30:30Marc:Well, I mean, but the thing is, you can love it, whatever, but when you have a little bit of success, he's better off that.

00:30:37Marc:He had a bad year.

00:30:38Guest:Yeah.

00:30:39Guest:I mean, well, his life was very- Because if he didn't love it and he had an okay year, he might not have ever gotten out.

00:30:46Guest:I think the way he thinks of it is that inevitably, he equates the love to talent and success in his way.

00:30:52Guest:It's like he didn't love it enough to stick it out that far, and it's all about just sticking it out to him.

00:30:58Marc:But what I'm saying is that his plan B was just to go to medical school.

00:31:02Guest:Yeah.

00:31:02Guest:Well, he's a Jew from Long Island.

00:31:03Guest:I know.

00:31:04Guest:You know, that's what... I think I'm sure that there was some kind of agreement that he's not telling me with his mother that was like, I'll fund you.

00:31:10Guest:If it doesn't work.

00:31:12Guest:And then it didn't work.

00:31:13Guest:And he was like, all right.

00:31:14Guest:All right, I'm ready.

00:31:15Guest:Yeah.

00:31:15Guest:Did you know your grandparents?

00:31:17Guest:I knew... I have two grandmas still alive who are...

00:31:21Guest:Really?

00:31:22Guest:I'm supremely old, and then I have two grandfathers who died really young.

00:31:25Guest:So it's a roulette.

00:31:28Guest:Yeah.

00:31:28Guest:I'm like, could be tomorrow.

00:31:29Guest:What are they, like 80, 90?

00:31:32Guest:92, each of them.

00:31:32Guest:That's great.

00:31:33Guest:Yeah.

00:31:34Guest:They're cognizant?

00:31:35Guest:Totally.

00:31:35Guest:Yeah.

00:31:36Guest:Unfortunately.

00:31:37Marc:And they call you?

00:31:38Guest:Are you all right?

00:31:40Guest:Yes.

00:31:40Guest:You haven't called.

00:31:41Guest:And you're like, I have called.

00:31:42Guest:You don't remember?

00:31:43Guest:Very much.

00:31:44Marc:But you don't consider yourself Jersey.

00:31:47Guest:I didn't spend enough time in any place really to- But you're a New York person.

00:31:53Guest:I live in New York.

00:31:54Guest:Yeah, I love New York.

00:31:54Guest:No, you're born there.

00:31:55Guest:Born there and grew up there.

00:31:57Guest:Like the Illinois thing, that didn't define you.

00:32:00Guest:no my accent a little bit i mean like how long were you there uh from six to eleven so formative years of speaking yeah so you got a little of that i got a little of it yeah and i can turn it up and down yeah um uh but my accent is like the only thing really and and family and you know i have some family out there but jersey how was that defining you went from all high school junior high uh eighth grade through

00:32:25Marc:So that's where you learn how to smoke cigarettes?

00:32:27Marc:Mm-hmm.

00:32:27Marc:And to hang around?

00:32:29Guest:Weed.

00:32:29Guest:Everything.

00:32:30Guest:Comedy.

00:32:30Marc:Because you're younger than me.

00:32:33Marc:You're fucking 20 years younger than me almost.

00:32:35Marc:That's fucking stupid.

00:32:37Guest:I was worried that this is a turn that was going to take.

00:32:46Guest:You fuck.

00:32:47Guest:I was really worried that my, yeah.

00:32:51Guest:No, it makes you feel any better.

00:32:52Guest:I don't have a lot of money.

00:32:54Guest:No, you're doing all right.

00:32:55Guest:He's been on TV 10 years.

00:32:56Guest:Yeah, but it's gone.

00:32:58Marc:It is gone.

00:32:58Marc:And you look old.

00:33:00Guest:I know.

00:33:00Marc:You're beat up.

00:33:01Marc:You're miserable inside.

00:33:02Marc:I'm weathered, man.

00:33:03Marc:I've seen it all.

00:33:04Marc:I mean, when I saw you, like, because you got pitched, and I'm like, I know that guy.

00:33:08Marc:He's a dark Jew.

00:33:10Marc:He's a dark Jew.

00:33:11Marc:He's a dark Jew.

00:33:12Marc:I saw him in a couple of things, and he can't hide the slight edge.

00:33:16Marc:Something's not right in that guy.

00:33:17Marc:A lot.

00:33:19Guest:I'm hanging on by a thread, Mr. Maron.

00:33:22Guest:Are you?

00:33:23Guest:Yes.

00:33:25Marc:So when we were talking about guitars, that's a Fender.

00:33:29Marc:Yeah, I love that.

00:33:30Marc:I played something like that.

00:33:31Marc:That's a Strat, but I have a Tele.

00:33:34Marc:You said you're a Tele guy, and I have a yellow Tele.

00:33:36Guest:Really?

00:33:37Guest:Actually, I had an all-black one with a humbuckers.

00:33:39Guest:So not a Bruce Springsteen telly.

00:33:40Guest:No.

00:33:41Guest:Well, he did play it on the River Tour.

00:33:43Guest:But this is... No, this was an Eddie Vedder.

00:33:47Guest:When he first started playing guitar with the band, he had this black-on-black telly with two big humbuckers.

00:33:53Guest:It sounded like a Les Paul.

00:33:54Guest:It was so thick.

00:33:55Marc:Yeah.

00:33:55Marc:With those Fender humbuckers.

00:33:57Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:33:58Guest:And I still have it.

00:34:00Guest:But I was in a movie where I was in a band and I played that Fender, a Strat similar to that, but it was like a 77 that they rented.

00:34:10Guest:Uh-huh.

00:34:10Guest:Was it good?

00:34:11Guest:Oh, my God.

00:34:12Guest:It was like heaven, heaven.

00:34:13Marc:It's just like that similar neck and...

00:34:16Marc:This is American, like, 87.

00:34:19Marc:Like, I just, like, I bought it new when I was younger, obviously.

00:34:23Marc:And now it's like a, you know, it's an old guitar, actually.

00:34:25Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:34:26Marc:So, like, it's got a, it definitely has a feel to it, a weight to it.

00:34:29Marc:Like, I've gotten reacquainted with it.

00:34:32Guest:I just had to relearn how to play that style on a Strat.

00:34:36Guest:Like a Strat, it just requires a different kind of vibe in your hands.

00:34:40Guest:I think that's true.

00:34:41Guest:It's like tinnier.

00:34:42Guest:You can't beat it up the way that you would a Les Paul.

00:34:45Guest:You could have a Les Paul.

00:34:46Guest:You just want to like... You just make mud.

00:34:48Guest:Yeah.

00:34:49Guest:Yeah.

00:34:50Guest:But like I love even like how Jack White switched to that telly with the...

00:34:55Guest:On the last couple albums, he was playing that light blue telly.

00:34:59Guest:Yeah.

00:34:59Guest:And it was so heavy.

00:35:01Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:35:02Guest:It was so heavy.

00:35:02Marc:That's my favorite kind of sound.

00:35:04Marc:Yeah, but he's got a lot of weird pedals and shit, man.

00:35:07Marc:I know all that.

00:35:08Marc:You know what I mean?

00:35:08Marc:I like to fucking play relatively clean.

00:35:11Marc:You know what I mean?

00:35:11Marc:I like it to sound kind of like a guitar.

00:35:14Guest:Yeah, I know.

00:35:14Guest:I like it to sound like the screams of a demon.

00:35:18Marc:He definitely does that.

00:35:20Marc:So did you play in bands?

00:35:21Guest:I played in bands in high school.

00:35:23Guest:You did?

00:35:23Guest:Yeah.

00:35:23Guest:You were that good?

00:35:24Guest:No, no.

00:35:26Guest:And I got kicked out of a few bands.

00:35:27Guest:For what?

00:35:28Guest:For not being good.

00:35:28Guest:For being bad at being in a band.

00:35:32Guest:Did you sing?

00:35:33Guest:I did, and that's one of the first things that got me kicked out.

00:35:36Guest:The singing?

00:35:37Guest:Well, I was just not very good at it at the time.

00:35:39Marc:So what year is it?

00:35:40Marc:This is like sophomore year?

00:35:41Guest:Freshman year.

00:35:41Marc:Freshman year.

00:35:42Marc:So you're making new friends?

00:35:44Guest:I'm making new friends.

00:35:45Guest:Smoking cigarettes, smoking weed.

00:35:47Guest:No, weed came to me quick because of my family, because Jews, I feel like Jews just like- Gravitate to weed?

00:35:52Guest:Yeah, I had a cousin who was giving me weed like very early on.

00:35:55Marc:It's weird because my relatives were cokey.

00:35:58Guest:Oh, Jesus Christ.

00:36:00Marc:But that was because it's 20-year difference.

00:36:01Guest:Right.

00:36:02Guest:Yeah, I guess so, yeah.

00:36:03Guest:Mine had calmed down.

00:36:05Marc:Exactly.

00:36:05Marc:By the time you got it, they were like this.

00:36:07Marc:Well, there was weed around too, but I remember my aunt and my uncle and that whole trip.

00:36:11Marc:Oh, of course.

00:36:12Marc:My mom's cousin was in the fashion industry, so there were grown people just thinking it was okay to do blow at the dinner table.

00:36:18Guest:Oh, my God.

00:36:19Guest:Yeah, man.

00:36:20Guest:That's insane.

00:36:20Guest:Yeah, mine is similar.

00:36:21Guest:It's just toned down.

00:36:22Guest:It's like Passover.

00:36:23Guest:There's like this unspoken thing where it's like,

00:36:26Guest:the adults go to that way and the kind of kids go to that way and then everybody comes back to the table and everyone's just kind of like alright yeah a little easier now it's easier yeah we don't need to do the questions no it was a nice tint on the night yeah we're not gonna get through the questions we'll do two yeah we'll do two if we can read it we'll do two

00:36:47Marc:So the bands, were they cover bands?

00:36:50Guest:Yeah, mostly.

00:36:50Guest:I don't think I ever really wrote a song.

00:36:52Guest:I think it was mostly just cover bands.

00:36:53Guest:And you're a Bruce guy?

00:36:54Guest:I was a Bruce guy, but at that point I was covering, because it was early, early, mid-90s, a lot of Nirvana.

00:37:01Guest:Oh, yeah?

00:37:01Guest:Yeah, I mean, I was like, when Nevermind hit, I think I was 14, 13.

00:37:05Guest:Wow.

00:37:06Guest:So that's, you know...

00:37:09Guest:That's it.

00:37:10Guest:It was over.

00:37:12Marc:That's a lucky time to get that stuff.

00:37:15Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:37:16Guest:I feel very lucky for my musical.

00:37:18Marc:Because I was 34 when that happened.

00:37:20Marc:Wow.

00:37:21Marc:You must have been like, these motherfuckers are insane.

00:37:24Marc:I understand it.

00:37:25Marc:No, come on, dude.

00:37:25Marc:I was around.

00:37:26Marc:For me, when I was in high school, when I was a senior maybe in high school or a sophomore, it was when Van Halen 1 came out.

00:37:35Marc:So it had that weird effect of like, what the fuck is that?

00:37:38Guest:Yeah, I've never seen guitar played like that.

00:37:40Marc:Right.

00:37:41Marc:But everybody, it was everywhere.

00:37:43Marc:Yeah.

00:37:43Marc:And when I was in the Lower East Side, I lived on the Lower East Side, and I was already doing comedy and shit, obviously, when Nevermind came out, and it was everywhere.

00:37:51Guest:Yeah.

00:37:51Marc:And it was undeniable.

00:37:52Marc:And I got totally into it.

00:37:53Marc:I got all the sub-pop shit.

00:37:55Marc:I got into everything that that label put out.

00:37:57Marc:I was the music guy.

00:37:58Guest:Yeah, I mean, that was huge for me.

00:38:01Guest:That whole Seattle thing changed.

00:38:03Guest:Soundgarden.

00:38:04Guest:Yes.

00:38:05Guest:I think I still... Mudhoney?

00:38:07Guest:Mudhoney, love it.

00:38:08Guest:I think I still... I interviewed Mark Arm.

00:38:10Guest:...dress like that.

00:38:10Guest:Yeah.

00:38:11Guest:To a certain extent.

00:38:11Guest:You're wearing a suit today.

00:38:12Guest:Well, it was for you.

00:38:14Guest:Yeah.

00:38:15Guest:And another thing.

00:38:16Marc:You went to the thing.

00:38:17Guest:I went to the thing before.

00:38:18Marc:It's fun.

00:38:18Marc:You wore a suit with sneakers and no tie and his shirt's on top.

00:38:22Marc:I'm trying to pass.

00:38:23Guest:You're doing a thing.

00:38:24Guest:I'm trying to pass.

00:38:25Marc:It's like, oh, there's the schlubby... Thank you.

00:38:27Marc:You're not passing.

00:38:28Marc:Thank you.

00:38:28Marc:You're like, you know, oh, that guy's unkempt on purpose.

00:38:31Guest:Yeah, exactly.

00:38:32Guest:You don't think that's coming across?

00:38:33Guest:I work very hard at this.

00:38:34Guest:This wig costs $2,000.

00:38:36Guest:Come on.

00:38:38Guest:No, this is real.

00:38:39Guest:I know.

00:38:41Marc:No, I have to classify that.

00:38:44Marc:You're rocking out?

00:38:47Guest:Playing cover bands?

00:38:48Guest:Playing cover bands and trying to get the band into a talent show and all that stuff.

00:38:53Guest:That's where you're going to play.

00:38:54Marc:Did you think you were going to do a musician thing?

00:38:56Guest:I did for a little, but very early on I got kicked out of this band because I just was not a good singer at the time.

00:39:05Guest:And it became very clear to me that maybe I'm not that good at this as the other band.

00:39:14Marc:But sometimes like what I realized later, which was sort of problematic, was that it's more important to be who you are than to be good.

00:39:22Marc:But you can't realize that when you're younger.

00:39:23Marc:Do you know what I mean?

00:39:25Marc:Yes.

00:39:25Marc:Because if you listen to most music, a lot of the people that play it, it's pretty simple and everyone's kind of limited.

00:39:30Marc:And the people that are like not limited and are amazing are kind of boring.

00:39:34Marc:But the people that find the one or two things that they do well and they just commit to it, they get through.

00:39:39Guest:Well, yeah, it's like it's like Meg White on the drums.

00:39:42Guest:Yeah.

00:39:42Guest:It's a thing.

00:39:43Guest:It's a thing because there is no judging of how it is.

00:39:46Guest:It's just this is the drums that we play.

00:39:48Marc:Yeah, this is it.

00:39:48Marc:And rock and roll is built for that.

00:39:50Marc:But when you're in high school, you can think like, I'm not as good as that guy.

00:39:52Guest:Yeah, and I think that when you're not making the calls, I wasn't necessarily a popular kid or whatever.

00:39:57Guest:I was just kind of in the middle of the pack.

00:39:59Guest:Were you?

00:40:00Guest:Yeah, I was just kind of sitting there floating, hadn't found what I liked.

00:40:04Marc:But you couldn't play the whole room?

00:40:05Guest:You weren't that funny yet?

00:40:08Guest:Uh-uh.

00:40:08Guest:I was painfully shy, but also being like, I think I could, so I would take little baby steps and it wouldn't work.

00:40:18Guest:You know what I mean?

00:40:19Marc:So you weren't funny in high school?

00:40:21Guest:I became funny after that.

00:40:24Guest:The stone guy was just trying to- Well, I found comedy after that because I went, my parents-

00:40:29Guest:I had quit basketball.

00:40:30Guest:They stayed together?

00:40:31Guest:Yes, they stayed together till one died.

00:40:33Guest:Oh.

00:40:33Guest:Which is the goal, I think.

00:40:34Guest:That's what we're talking about.

00:40:37Guest:Who passed?

00:40:38Guest:My mom.

00:40:38Guest:Oh, sorry.

00:40:38Guest:Oh, it's okay.

00:40:40Guest:And I was not on a team anymore and they were worried about me.

00:40:45Guest:Yeah.

00:40:46Marc:You know, because I was like- So you played basketball like freshman year?

00:40:49Marc:Yeah, like every Jew.

00:40:51Guest:Not me.

00:40:51Marc:Really?

00:40:52Marc:You have no athletic-

00:40:53Marc:No, I am, but I don't like competing.

00:40:55Guest:Yeah, similarly.

00:40:57Guest:I mean, I can do shit.

00:40:58Guest:Even that stressed me out.

00:41:00Guest:Yeah, so I was like, fuck this.

00:41:01Guest:I'm not doing this in high school.

00:41:04Guest:And then they put me in this AV study with the guidance counselor because there was a meeting about my productivity.

00:41:10Guest:An AV study?

00:41:11Guest:Yeah, we had a room in Jersey that had AV equipment.

00:41:15Guest:a camera and a thing.

00:41:18Guest:And I was pretty depressed in a pretty... After the basketball thing fell through and the band hired you?

00:41:24Guest:Yeah, I was pretty depressed and I was getting high a lot and cutting school and going home in the middle of the day and watching Premium Blend and shit.

00:41:31Marc:I cut a lot of school.

00:41:33Guest:Yeah, you can only watch so many Kids in the Hall episodes and Kevin Meaney sets.

00:41:38Marc:So you're watching Comedy Central?

00:41:40Guest:Yeah, and...

00:41:43Marc:At that time, it was like that, too.

00:41:45Guest:Yeah, that's all it was.

00:41:46Marc:So was I on Short Attention Men Theater?

00:41:48Guest:Yeah, and you did have a blend, too, with like a red shirt, right?

00:41:53Guest:I had a... I don't know why I remember the shirt.

00:41:55Marc:I had a half hour.

00:41:58Marc:Was that premium blend in a half hour?

00:41:59Marc:I had a red shirt and a suit, and there was a freak show banner behind me.

00:42:02Marc:Not a great set.

00:42:04Guest:I mean, I remember just being like, oh, well, I could do it.

00:42:09Guest:I could do it.

00:42:09Guest:A Jew could do it.

00:42:10Guest:He's a dark Jew.

00:42:11Guest:Yeah, I could do it.

00:42:13Guest:And then, yeah, and so then I went to this TV studio and kind of started, like,

00:42:20Guest:Getting high in the air.

00:42:20Guest:I was like, oh, wait, this is fun.

00:42:23Guest:And I started doing sketches and I had a- You were recording them?

00:42:27Guest:Uh-huh.

00:42:27Guest:And I had a morning show where I did the morning announcements- For the school?

00:42:30Guest:For the school.

00:42:31Guest:Oh.

00:42:32Guest:And it kind of took off in the school.

00:42:35Guest:So that's when you found you- And that's when I was like- Oh.

00:42:37Guest:He found his voice.

00:42:38Guest:Yeah, I was like, this is what I'm doing.

00:42:40Guest:Yeah.

00:42:41Guest:And a lot of it was like-

00:42:43Guest:You have that stuff, important stuff.

00:42:47Guest:Somewhere, yeah.

00:42:48Guest:Some video?

00:42:51Guest:Some of it is funny.

00:42:53Guest:I did this one thing called teacher hunting where I would follow a teacher after school, basically stalk them, and then run up to them with a camera while they were doing an errand.

00:43:03Marc:In real life.

00:43:04Guest:In real life.

00:43:04Guest:Yeah.

00:43:05Guest:And it was always funny because the teacher would be like, stop it.

00:43:09Guest:Stop it.

00:43:11Guest:This is my life.

00:43:12Guest:And then you'd play that clip until their hand got up.

00:43:16Guest:And still to this day, I'm like, that is a good bit.

00:43:19Guest:Yeah.

00:43:20Guest:And there was a bunch of stuff like that.

00:43:21Guest:Did you get in trouble?

00:43:22Guest:Yeah, in the most charming way.

00:43:24Guest:My parents loved it.

00:43:26Guest:Anytime a call came, they thought it was the greatest thing ever.

00:43:29Marc:A fun type of shit.

00:43:30Guest:Shit starting.

00:43:31Guest:I think they felt confident that there was something going on.

00:43:34Marc:Did you have a diner in New Jersey?

00:43:36Guest:The Ritz Diner.

00:43:37Guest:Okay.

00:43:37Marc:What was yours?

00:43:39Marc:My grandparents used to go to Pompton Queen.

00:43:42Marc:Okay.

00:43:42Marc:Because I always think about diners only really exist in Jersey in the proper way.

00:43:46Marc:Well, Jersey is kind of frozen in time.

00:43:49Marc:But it's like people go to the fucking diners, and there's diners all over them.

00:43:53Guest:But the whole state is like that.

00:43:54Guest:It really is.

00:43:55Guest:I still go there.

00:43:57Guest:My family there a lot.

00:43:59Guest:My sisters live in Jersey City.

00:44:01Guest:Yeah.

00:44:02Guest:They didn't always go, right?

00:44:03Guest:They moved there when it got nice, right?

00:44:05Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:44:05Guest:They gentrified it themselves.

00:44:06Guest:The two of them.

00:44:08Guest:How many?

00:44:08Guest:The two of them.

00:44:09Guest:The Pally sisters.

00:44:10Guest:The Pally sisters, but they're famous for gentrifying.

00:44:12Guest:Yeah.

00:44:12Guest:Once you like go outside of Jersey City and that like buffer from New York.

00:44:22Guest:Yeah, past Newark.

00:44:23Guest:You're finding delis.

00:44:24Guest:You're finding like, and not like delis like you think, like a real deli.

00:44:28Marc:Right, and then just like an Italian restaurant that's amazing.

00:44:30Guest:That just has Italian food.

00:44:32Guest:Yeah.

00:44:32Guest:And it's like, how does no one know about this?

00:44:35Guest:Yeah, because, and it is frozen in time.

00:44:36Guest:And when those people that are running it and like sitting in there waiting for you to come, when they die, it's gone.

00:44:41Marc:Yeah, I think a lot of it's starting to go.

00:44:43Marc:Yeah.

00:44:44Marc:It feels that way.

00:44:44Marc:Yeah.

00:44:45Marc:Anyway, so getting back to it.

00:44:48Marc:So you're making the videos, you're chasing your teachers.

00:44:51Marc:You're getting into minor trouble that your parents find endearing.

00:44:55Guest:Yes.

00:44:56Marc:What are your sisters?

00:44:57Marc:They older?

00:44:57Guest:They're younger.

00:44:58Marc:Oh.

00:44:59Marc:They turn out all right?

00:45:00Guest:Yeah, they turn out great.

00:45:01Guest:Both are great.

00:45:02Guest:My sister was a nurse of pediatrics at the hospital, special surgery, and she's on leave now.

00:45:08Guest:She just had her first child.

00:45:09Guest:And my other sister was the head of display at Christian Louboutin, which is a cool job because she would design how the stores look.

00:45:18Guest:And then she branched out on her own.

00:45:19Guest:Now she's kind of starting her own job.

00:45:21Marc:Freelance design for windows and stores?

00:45:24Marc:Mm-hmm.

00:45:25Guest:Um, she's doing more like interior actually.

00:45:27Guest:So like she comes into a space.

00:45:29Guest:Yeah.

00:45:30Marc:She like come into a space in New York and kind of, yeah, it's super, they're both.

00:45:33Marc:Yeah.

00:45:33Marc:If you get hip with that, that's probably a pretty good gig.

00:45:35Guest:Yeah.

00:45:36Guest:And she's good at it.

00:45:37Marc:So, um, you gotta remind me to show you that book downstairs of, uh, these photographs of, uh, I'm just, I remember this from before cause you were Kutcher's like there, I have a book, a photography book of a woman who shot all those hotels in the condition they're in now.

00:45:51Marc:Really?

00:45:52Marc:And they're all abandoned and dead.

00:45:54Marc:Yeah.

00:45:54Marc:And it's kind of devastating.

00:45:56Guest:Just waiting for Mrs. Maisel production to move up there.

00:46:00Marc:Don't do it on the set.

00:46:01Marc:Come help us rebuild the place.

00:46:03Guest:Kevin Pollack's here.

00:46:06Marc:Kevin Pollack is the Jew.

00:46:09Marc:And he'll admit that.

00:46:10Marc:Who's going to play him?

00:46:11Marc:Who's going to play the Jew?

00:46:12Marc:Kevin Pollack's not available.

00:46:14Guest:Well, we'll have to can it.

00:46:15Marc:I have a fear that I'm going to be that guy.

00:46:17Guest:That's a good gig.

00:46:18Guest:The Jew?

00:46:19Marc:The middle-aged Jew?

00:46:20Marc:Hell yeah.

00:46:20Marc:We need the middle-aged Jew.

00:46:22Marc:Because if you notice, Judd Hirsch has to be the old Jew.

00:46:25Marc:And if there's ever an old Jew necessary, Judd Hirsch or George Segal.

00:46:30Guest:He was great in Uncut Gems, man.

00:46:32Guest:He's great in everything.

00:46:33Guest:He's a great actor.

00:46:33Marc:Yeah, he's great in everything.

00:46:34Marc:He was on my show.

00:46:34Marc:He played my father.

00:46:35Marc:And then he played a father, I think, on the Goldbergs.

00:46:38Marc:And he played a father.

00:46:39Marc:He's always, you know.

00:46:41Marc:Crotchety Jew.

00:46:41Marc:Yeah.

00:46:42Marc:And he's almost 90, I think.

00:46:44Marc:He's old as shit.

00:46:45Marc:He's got a little baby.

00:46:46Marc:He's got like a five-year-old, six-year-old.

00:46:48Marc:God, that scares me.

00:46:50Guest:Does it?

00:46:50Guest:I never want that to happen to me.

00:46:52Marc:I think the woman who had the kid is younger.

00:46:54Marc:Yeah.

00:46:54Marc:Oh, yeah?

00:46:58Marc:So don't worry about the kid.

00:46:58Marc:The kid will be taking care of you.

00:47:00Guest:No, I'm not worried about the kid.

00:47:02Marc:I'm worried about her.

00:47:03Guest:You're worried that you're going to have kids when you're- I'm worried that I would be the type of old guy that that would happen to.

00:47:09Guest:You have three, and how old are you?

00:47:11Guest:I'm 37.

00:47:11Marc:Yeah, it's already happening.

00:47:13Guest:How the fuck did that happen?

00:47:14Guest:I'm never going to make it.

00:47:16Guest:How did that happen?

00:47:16Guest:I don't know.

00:47:17Guest:I grew up quickly.

00:47:19Marc:I don't know what that means.

00:47:20Marc:You have a choice.

00:47:21Marc:You wanted three?

00:47:21Marc:Yeah, I wanted- Because you grew up with three.

00:47:24Guest:I grew up with three, and I have a really romantic story with my wife, and so once we got engaged and we started dating- You have a romantic story with your wife?

00:47:35Guest:Yeah, it's this nice story.

00:47:36Guest:What is it?

00:47:37Guest:He looked at me with such disdain.

00:47:39Guest:He said that.

00:47:41Marc:I want to hear you romantic.

00:47:42Guest:We met in high school.

00:47:43Marc:I see nothing but darkness.

00:47:45Guest:Oh my God, really?

00:47:47Guest:Most people tell me I'm a light in their lives.

00:47:48Marc:No, no, no.

00:47:50Marc:I'm saying that when you say romantic, I'm like, good luck.

00:47:54Marc:That's where my 20 years gets me.

00:47:56Guest:I'm happy for you.

00:47:57Guest:I'm not happy.

00:47:58Guest:Does that make you?

00:47:59Guest:I don't have a lot of money and I'm not happy.

00:48:01Marc:No, I don't want you to be happy.

00:48:02Guest:No, I'm kidding.

00:48:03Guest:I'm very happy.

00:48:04Guest:But we met in high school and then kind of went away.

00:48:09Guest:She's a Jersey person?

00:48:10Guest:Yeah, and we went away and kind of found ourselves for a long time and then found each other and then got married and had kids.

00:48:16Marc:So like you were out and about and you dated in high school?

00:48:19Guest:Yeah, her last year.

00:48:22Guest:Yeah, for a little bit.

00:48:24Guest:She's older than me.

00:48:24Marc:You went and lived your life?

00:48:26Marc:Kind of, yeah.

00:48:26Marc:She's older than you?

00:48:27Guest:Yeah.

00:48:27Marc:What, like two years?

00:48:28Guest:One year.

00:48:29Marc:One year.

00:48:29Marc:And then what you felt like, how did they... We moved back to New York at the same time and reconnected.

00:48:37Guest:Where was she?

00:48:37Guest:She was in Rhode Island and I was in Tucson, Arizona.

00:48:41Marc:For what?

00:48:42Guest:College, I started there.

00:48:43Guest:You were in Tucson?

00:48:44Guest:Yeah, I went to U of A. Oh, we didn't get there yet?

00:48:46Guest:No, I'm going slow.

00:48:47Guest:Oh, yeah, we're in high school.

00:48:49Guest:For something so uninteresting, I'm really taking my time.

00:48:51Guest:Whatever, I've got to do that with you guys.

00:48:57Marc:You're not uninteresting because I'm enjoying myself.

00:48:59Guest:Oh, okay.

00:49:00Marc:See, it's only uninteresting if I'm trying to get through it.

00:49:03Marc:I'm not really trying to get through it.

00:49:04Guest:You did use the words, I've got to do this with you guys.

00:49:10Marc:I'm talking about you charming Jews.

00:49:12Marc:I had your buddy Ben on here.

00:49:14Marc:Schwartzy?

00:49:14Guest:Yeah.

00:49:15Guest:Yeah.

00:49:15Marc:You know, and I don't even, I didn't even know what he did.

00:49:18Guest:Me either.

00:49:19Guest:I just know he's great.

00:49:21Marc:You know, but I was like, you know, I don't know, I'm not sure exactly what this guy does.

00:49:25Marc:And my producer's like, he's one of those guys.

00:49:27Marc:He's like a professional talker and you'll get a kick out of him.

00:49:29Marc:And I'm like, all right.

00:49:30Marc:And I looked at some stuff he did and he was funny and he's a good actor.

00:49:33Marc:And,

00:49:33Marc:He's very chipper and he moves a very rapid clip.

00:49:37Marc:I couldn't find the darkness in there really.

00:49:41Marc:I don't know if there is.

00:49:42Marc:He seems to be very busy in his head and in real life.

00:49:47Marc:Ambition.

00:49:48Guest:Ambition.

00:49:49Guest:Ambition can sometimes fight darkness.

00:49:54Guest:Interesting.

00:49:56Guest:I'm just wondering if that's a nice thing to say.

00:49:59Guest:I don't know if it is.

00:50:00Guest:Maybe we should cut this out.

00:50:03Guest:No, maybe ambition is not the word.

00:50:06Guest:Drive.

00:50:07Marc:I think that's true.

00:50:07Guest:Focus.

00:50:08Marc:No, I think that's true.

00:50:08Marc:Focus.

00:50:09Marc:Yeah.

00:50:10Marc:Well, that's actually an interesting idea that what is the difference between drive and ambition?

00:50:15Marc:I like that because ambition, in some respects, when people say that about people, especially me, it's not a compliment.

00:50:22Guest:Right.

00:50:23Guest:Right.

00:50:23Guest:It means that you're cutthroat.

00:50:25Guest:It means that you will sacrifice a relationship.

00:50:28Marc:Or you might not be talented.

00:50:29Marc:Right.

00:50:30Marc:And you're sneaking your way in.

00:50:32Marc:Right.

00:50:32Marc:Sometimes ambition will fill in for talent.

00:50:37Marc:It can get you the job and you'll be okay, but you're not going to be amazing.

00:50:41Guest:Yeah.

00:50:41Guest:I never thought of ambition as a dirty word like that.

00:50:44Guest:No, no, it's not dirty.

00:50:45Guest:To me, I said it because I don't think of it as a negative on that level.

00:50:49Guest:I do see the negative in ambition, especially when it's blind.

00:50:52Marc:To me, ambition implies planning, which I do not do.

00:50:55Marc:Right.

00:50:56Guest:No, I don't either, obviously.

00:50:58Marc:Ambition is like, I know where I'm going.

00:51:00Guest:Yeah, no, I don't have that.

00:51:01Guest:I definitely don't have that.

00:51:03Guest:I wish I did.

00:51:04Guest:I do too.

00:51:05Guest:Why don't we have it?

00:51:06Guest:Because you quit basketball.

00:51:08Guest:Well, I think it's because I'm better looking.

00:51:15Guest:Hmm.

00:51:16Guest:In general?

00:51:17Guest:Yeah.

00:51:18Guest:Then... Schwartz?

00:51:19Guest:Yeah.

00:51:20Guest:Just if you want to stack it up.

00:51:21Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:51:23Guest:No, no, no.

00:51:24Guest:I think it's... I don't know why.

00:51:27Guest:I just wish I did.

00:51:28Guest:I think I have a decent business mind.

00:51:31Guest:So you mean you can get away with stuff?

00:51:33Guest:Yeah, I feel like maybe I found that early on.

00:51:35Guest:I was thinking about this the other day.

00:51:37Guest:My bar mitzvah was a very formative moment in my comedy.

00:51:42Guest:Did you have a theme party?

00:51:43Guest:No, this is the actual reading of the Haftorah.

00:51:46Guest:Oh, really?

00:51:46Guest:Yes.

00:51:47Guest:It was huge for me when I was talking about this in therapy.

00:51:51Guest:I was trying to get at the root of why I need so much affirmation.

00:51:55Guest:I remember my bar mitzvah.

00:51:59Guest:Yeah.

00:52:01Guest:Half-assing it.

00:52:02Guest:Legit.

00:52:03Guest:Like, faking it.

00:52:06Guest:Making up words and melodies.

00:52:08Guest:Oh, really?

00:52:09Guest:Essentially, faking the Torah portion.

00:52:12Guest:How did you get away with that?

00:52:14Guest:No one said shit.

00:52:15Guest:The guys that are old and they're sitting on a thing.

00:52:19Marc:Were you conservative?

00:52:20Guest:Yeah.

00:52:21Guest:So you really had to do it.

00:52:22Guest:So it's Saturday morning.

00:52:23Guest:It's Saturday morning.

00:52:24Guest:I'm doing it.

00:52:24Guest:Just you?

00:52:25Guest:Just me doing it.

00:52:26Guest:But like, I did not do a good job, but I kind of enthusiastically sold it and everyone fucking was really happy about it.

00:52:36Guest:And like, I remember that feeling of being like,

00:52:40Guest:You motherfuckers don't even know.

00:52:43Marc:Think about you now going to a bar mitzvah.

00:52:45Marc:Are you really like following along?

00:52:48Guest:No, exactly.

00:52:48Marc:And I knew that.

00:52:49Guest:I had like a bird's eye viewer.

00:52:50Guest:I was like, these people don't care.

00:52:52Guest:They're here for me.

00:52:52Guest:They just want to see me do a little song.

00:52:54Guest:His voice hasn't changed.

00:52:55Guest:Yeah, and I remember having such like

00:52:58Guest:power in that, being like, I now control the situation.

00:53:01Marc:They're like saying, when's the food?

00:53:03Guest:Where we go after this?

00:53:04Guest:Exactly, and I was giving it to them by like, fucking cutting it off.

00:53:07Guest:You know what I mean?

00:53:08Guest:And so I remember that feeling very intrinsically, I think it still equates to today.

00:53:16Marc:Well, I think that's why I connect with you.

00:53:19Marc:Because I was trying to figure it out.

00:53:20Marc:Like, my dad's a doctor, too.

00:53:21Marc:But that didn't hold once he told me that he started in show business.

00:53:25Marc:So I'm not standard.

00:53:26Marc:But my dad's self-involved.

00:53:28Guest:Mine is as well.

00:53:29Marc:Right.

00:53:30Marc:You know, whatever it is.

00:53:32Marc:Narcissism.

00:53:32Marc:I don't know.

00:53:33Marc:I think mine might be pathological.

00:53:35Marc:But I don't know about yours.

00:53:36Marc:But self-centered.

00:53:37Marc:It's there.

00:53:38Marc:It's there for sure.

00:53:40Marc:But, no, it's the thing about, like,

00:53:42Marc:You know, you can sort of focus enough to do something really well once.

00:53:48Guest:Yeah.

00:53:49Guest:Yes.

00:53:50Guest:That's why I started doing improv.

00:53:52Marc:Because I was like, I saw... You might get through, like, you might do one amazing game of pool, but if you've got to do two, it's not going to happen.

00:54:00Guest:Go to find out.

00:54:00Guest:So you'd walk away.

00:54:01Guest:So you'd put the thing down confidently and be like...

00:54:03Guest:for one good game and that's the end of it yeah that's kind of my whole MO for friends too you got about one year with me we'll be the best friends what were you saying about improv improv was very much like that I remember seeing the UCB at like 19 and being like

00:54:23Guest:Oof.

00:54:24Guest:Yeah.

00:54:25Guest:That looks fun.

00:54:26Guest:It doesn't look like anyone's working too hard.

00:54:28Marc:Yeah, I can do that.

00:54:29Marc:I can do that.

00:54:30Marc:So when you, did you finish college?

00:54:32Marc:You went to college in Tucson?

00:54:33Guest:I didn't finish Tucson school.

00:54:35Guest:I dropped out.

00:54:36Guest:Arizona State?

00:54:36Guest:I dropped at U of A. I dropped out of U of A. My dad, no, my brother went to U of A. That's why I'd use it.

00:54:41Guest:It's a lot of Jews.

00:54:43Guest:Yeah.

00:54:44Guest:Yeah, a lot of everything there.

00:54:45Guest:Big school.

00:54:46Guest:Big school, big party school.

00:54:47Guest:I like Tucson.

00:54:48Guest:Tucson is fun.

00:54:50Guest:I, you know, spent all my Israeli bond money on drugs and stuff.

00:54:54Marc:Did you really have that much?

00:54:55Marc:2K.

00:54:57Marc:Really?

00:54:57Guest:Yeah.

00:54:57Marc:You were able to cash out with that much?

00:54:59Guest:Well, my parents made sure that I didn't have any cash after my bar mitzvahs.

00:55:02Guest:They put it in Israeli bonds, and then I, like, waited until I was...

00:55:04Marc:I got some bonds that I've given me on my bar mitzvah.

00:55:06Marc:I don't think they're, and they've long since matured, but I don't think, I think they kind of stopped.

00:55:10Guest:I put everything out at $2,000 and for one year, not even a year.

00:55:14Guest:What'd that get you?

00:55:15Guest:That was just weed, I guess?

00:55:16Guest:No, I was able to get like molly and, and cocaine and stuff like that.

00:55:19Marc:Over the course of the, yeah, yeah.

00:55:21Guest:Spread it out.

00:55:21Guest:I spread it out.

00:55:22Guest:And then I tried to sell weed one time and, and I bought a, I think I, I don't remember.

00:55:27Marc:I was a blow guy later in college.

00:55:29Marc:You just burned through bread.

00:55:30Guest:No, I didn't, I didn't get, I never really got into it, but I didn't like that really until I was older.

00:55:35Guest:Yeah.

00:55:36Guest:Yeah.

00:55:36Marc:Yeah.

00:55:37Marc:Yeah.

00:55:37Marc:When, when you have to kind of act like you like people.

00:55:40Guest:Yeah.

00:55:41Guest:And then it's like, that's the easiest way to do it.

00:55:42Guest:I'm excited to be here.

00:55:45Guest:Yeah.

00:55:46Guest:Shit's going to happen.

00:55:47Guest:If people could read behind my eyes in that, it's like, I want to be,

00:55:51Guest:gone.

00:55:53Marc:Really?

00:55:54Marc:I want out.

00:55:54Marc:I want out of this.

00:55:55Guest:I do not want to be here.

00:55:56Marc:I actually genuinely got excited when I was on blow.

00:56:00Marc:I, you know, I was like, you know, and then you realize like, like, how does that look?

00:56:06Guest:You know, when you're just sort of like, Hey man, I have the actual like opposite effect, oddly, because I think I, I get riddle in effect.

00:56:13Guest:Yeah.

00:56:13Guest:I get really quiet and like shut down and like, but calm.

00:56:16Marc:Oh, just drinking it.

00:56:17Marc:Yeah, it's been 20 years for me, man.

00:56:20Guest:Yeah, I mean, it's good.

00:56:22Guest:That's good.

00:56:23Guest:Yeah.

00:56:23Guest:That is good.

00:56:24Guest:So you spent all your Israel bonds.

00:56:26Guest:And then I was just doing nothing.

00:56:27Guest:I just hated it.

00:56:29Guest:Two years?

00:56:29Guest:Two years.

00:56:30Guest:It was hot and like... Dry hot, though.

00:56:33Guest:Yeah, it was still... Not lemon, dude.

00:56:35Guest:I know.

00:56:35Guest:There's no... Dude, I liked it, but it was...

00:56:38Guest:not for me.

00:56:39Guest:And I also, I remember seeing, like you have these moments in your life where you see what, what the like salmon in the stream are doing.

00:56:46Guest:And I was very much like, I don't think I want to do that.

00:56:48Guest:Yeah.

00:56:49Guest:Communications degree.

00:56:50Guest:Yeah.

00:56:50Guest:What does that mean?

00:56:51Guest:It's going to end bad.

00:56:52Guest:I'm going to end up at working like an Equinox.

00:56:53Guest:Like I could see that.

00:56:54Guest:Equinox, you know, shame and high.

00:56:57Guest:Uh, I always say it Equinox and it feels like it's a gym for horses.

00:57:01Marc:But like, why would it be Equinox?

00:57:03Marc:Equinox.

00:57:04Marc:It's like, it's like, you're a gym guy.

00:57:07Guest:I'm not, but I could see my life.

00:57:11Guest:That was Equinox?

00:57:13Guest:Or whatever.

00:57:13Guest:Working in a gym?

00:57:14Guest:Where else are you going to work?

00:57:15Guest:There's only two jobs you can have now.

00:57:17Guest:What?

00:57:17Guest:Working in a gym or driving Uber.

00:57:19Guest:Yeah, you can drive an Uber.

00:57:20Guest:Yeah, but that didn't exist then.

00:57:22Guest:No.

00:57:22Guest:So just Equinox.

00:57:23Guest:Equinox is my only option.

00:57:27Guest:And I made an audition tape for the actor's studio and got in.

00:57:33Guest:In New York.

00:57:35Guest:Mm-hmm.

00:57:35Guest:Oh, that's good.

00:57:36Guest:Yeah.

00:57:37Marc:So, real acting.

00:57:39Marc:Real acting.

00:57:41Marc:And what were your audition pieces?

00:57:43Marc:What'd you have to do, a classical and a modern?

00:57:45Guest:I made a film.

00:57:46Guest:They were expanding their film program.

00:57:47Guest:I got it through the back door again.

00:57:48Guest:They were expanding their film program.

00:57:50Guest:And you figured out an angle.

00:57:52Guest:Pretty much.

00:57:53Guest:They were expanding their film program and opening it up to...

00:57:57Guest:So I made a short sketch and I borrowed some cash and I shot it on 16 millimeter because I had a connection at the New York Film Academy who would let me edit on those old Steinbecks.

00:58:10Guest:And I made this cool sketch about me racing the stairs versus the elevators.

00:58:17Guest:It's a very artsy, fun thing, but I acted in it and everything.

00:58:21Guest:And I gave it to them and they were like, yeah, you got in.

00:58:23Guest:This is great.

00:58:24Marc:So a two-year program?

00:58:26Guest:It was a four year program, but I had to make it up over the summers, the two years that I missed.

00:58:30Guest:Really?

00:58:30Guest:Yeah.

00:58:31Marc:So it's a full four years.

00:58:33Guest:Yeah, I have a bachelor's.

00:58:34Marc:From the actor's studio.

00:58:35Marc:Wow.

00:58:36Marc:Yeah.

00:58:37Marc:Now that's a good history.

00:58:40Guest:It means nothing.

00:58:41Guest:I know.

00:58:41Guest:i i would have i didn't even care about the i was going to ucb the day i landed like back in new york back in new york and so what drew you there why i mean how did you do that what led me to that was the show uh was on tv right as i was leaving tucson and the show very clearly said like you know we have a theater yeah in new york city well they were starting a whole industry

00:59:07Marc:Yeah.

00:59:08Marc:And they changed the entire industry of comedy.

00:59:11Guest:For sure.

00:59:11Guest:And I was lucky enough to be considered an early wave.

00:59:16Marc:And so I got hands-on experience with... So you get into Actor's Studio, and then you go over there, you see the improv, like you said, and you're like, I can do this.

00:59:24Guest:And I like it better.

00:59:25Guest:And it's more what I want to do.

00:59:26Guest:And you sort of lived there.

00:59:27Guest:Yeah, I lived there.

00:59:28Guest:And I was an intern, and I was a bartender, and I taught classes eventually, and I did everything...

00:59:36Marc:Who were your teachers initially?

00:59:39Guest:Matt Walsh, Manzoukas, Owen Burke, Peter Gwynn taught me for a little bit.

00:59:54Guest:Funny guys.

00:59:55Guest:Yeah, really funny.

00:59:55Guest:Seth Morris is the guy who was the most bring me in, who saw me at 19 and was in his class, and he was like, no, you're actually funny, was Paul Scheer.

01:00:11Guest:And so I feel like that- You didn't know you were funny quite yet?

01:00:14Guest:I knew I was, he didn't know.

01:00:16Guest:No, I knew.

01:00:17Guest:But you're in those classes and those classes, you're trying so hard.

01:00:20Guest:I was sweating blood in those classes, just wanting to be good.

01:00:25Guest:You know what I mean?

01:00:27Guest:It was in these dingy spaces and Besser was sleeping in the back of one of them.

01:00:33Marc:And Walsh lived on top of one.

01:00:35Guest:Yeah, with a dog.

01:00:37Guest:And then it clicked a couple years in.

01:00:42Guest:So Seth Morris was important?

01:00:44Guest:He was important to me.

01:00:45Guest:Yeah, very important.

01:00:46Marc:I love him.

01:00:46Marc:And I think he's one of the unsung heroes of the improv game and just in funny people in general.

01:00:52Guest:I just think, yeah, he's a genius and I love everything he does.

01:00:56Guest:I think Bob Duca is the funniest character.

01:00:59Guest:He's great.

01:01:00Guest:And I remember he did a one-man show.

01:01:02Guest:I'm so from Northern California, I think it was called.

01:01:05Guest:It's just great.

01:01:07Guest:He's great.

01:01:08Marc:We used to use him on radio bits back when I was doing radio.

01:01:11Marc:Oh my God.

01:01:12Marc:I don't remember who turned us on to him.

01:01:14Marc:One of the guys who was running UCB out here and he introduced us and he did several characters.

01:01:23Marc:Phoner bits that were just so funny.

01:01:26Marc:He was on my show.

01:01:28Marc:He was on Marin.

01:01:29Marc:He played yoga instructor.

01:01:30Guest:Well, that's like right up his alley.

01:01:33Guest:Yeah, I mean, I really lived there.

01:01:37Guest:And I'm proud of that, the work I did there.

01:01:39Guest:I mean, I did the lights for The Swarm, which was like the big, you know, that was Andy Daly.

01:01:44Guest:That was like, you know, I did the lights for them for two years.

01:01:47Marc:What is that?

01:01:47Marc:That's his show?

01:01:48Guest:That was his improv show.

01:01:49Marc:What was the structure?

01:01:50Marc:Why is it The Swarm?

01:01:51Guest:That was just the name of the group.

01:01:52Guest:It was like him.

01:01:53Marc:But it's all Harold kind of stuff?

01:01:55Guest:No, that was just like them improvising for like an hour.

01:01:57Guest:And it was like watching Andy Daly every Friday night was like, that's changed my life.

01:02:05Guest:Yeah.

01:02:05Guest:You know, legit.

01:02:06Marc:Well, yeah, I mean, as a doorman at the comedy store, that's how you fucking dig in.

01:02:09Guest:Yeah, and you need that.

01:02:11Guest:Yeah, for sure.

01:02:12Guest:To me.

01:02:12Guest:To learn, yeah.

01:02:14Guest:And then, I would say like three to five years in, it clicked, and I was like, oh, I'm good.

01:02:20Guest:Oh, I see.

01:02:21Guest:So it clicked in that way?

01:02:22Guest:Yeah.

01:02:23Guest:You'd done your time?

01:02:24Guest:Kind of, and I just, it's just, you started, I don't know if stand-up is like this, but you're just kind of like seeing the...

01:02:32Guest:the thing a little where you're like, oh, okay.

01:02:34Guest:Right, right, right.

01:02:35Guest:This goes there and that goes there and this is how we do this.

01:02:38Guest:It's ingrained.

01:02:38Guest:Yeah.

01:02:39Marc:You know, and you have a, you can actually, you have those moments where you're like, I know what's going to happen in one second.

01:02:44Marc:It's going to be amazing.

01:02:45Guest:Yeah, and it does.

01:02:46Guest:And then you're like, yeah, wow, that is amazing.

01:02:49Guest:Yeah.

01:02:49Guest:And then you have terrible ones too.

01:02:51Guest:But yeah, I remember that feeling so vividly of being like, well, now I have this power.

01:02:57Marc:Now I can do this.

01:03:01Marc:But the actor studio, is that doing anything?

01:03:03Marc:It didn't really do anything.

01:03:05Marc:But you stayed there for four years?

01:03:06Guest:I had to.

01:03:07Guest:My parents were the only way that, they didn't have much money because they were paying off all this student debt for my dad.

01:03:15Guest:So we lived very modestly.

01:03:18Guest:Medical school?

01:03:18Guest:Yeah.

01:03:18Guest:What kind of doctor?

01:03:19Guest:An osteopathic internist.

01:03:21Guest:So we lived very modestly.

01:03:23Guest:And they were like, we understand that you're studying at some theater underground.

01:03:31Guest:Yeah.

01:03:32Guest:But if you want to not get a real day job until you're 21.

01:03:38Guest:Yeah.

01:03:38Guest:And act like this is still university and you're going to go and you're going to go over the summer and you're going to finish and you're going to get, you know, whatever it is.

01:03:45Guest:And I did.

01:03:45Guest:I got it.

01:03:46Guest:And I walked and they were so proud.

01:03:47Marc:And it means nothing.

01:03:49Marc:No, but I mean, really, I mean, what means nothing is one thing.

01:03:52Marc:But were you doing serious scene work?

01:03:55Guest:Yeah.

01:03:56Guest:But not well.

01:03:56Guest:Not well.

01:03:57Guest:And like that to me, acting.

01:04:01Guest:classes and I've taken all of them are really a way to shake it.

01:04:07Guest:Like the whole goal of all of these things is to get comfortable with being embarrassed.

01:04:12Guest:Yeah.

01:04:13Guest:That's like what, that's my whole life.

01:04:14Marc:That's like what, that's why I got into comedy.

01:04:17Guest:It's a hundred percent of what the acting, when you, when they put a mask on you and it's a lion and, and there's 45 students staring at you and you're in a onesie and

01:04:30Guest:with a lion mask on yeah on 18th street on a tuesday at 11 and it's freezing cold yeah and they're like go lion yeah there is no good or bad you're not going to be good or bad you're you know what i mean like a baptism of fire yes it's just to be embarrassed it's just to like literally get comfortable with being embarrassed and i think the one thing i took from all those acting classes was just like as soon as i got a real job they were like

01:04:56Guest:Gain 30 pounds and get into this woman's bathing suit.

01:04:59Guest:And you're like, okay.

01:05:00Guest:One thing twice.

01:05:01Guest:You did that?

01:05:02Guest:Yeah.

01:05:03Guest:For like three years.

01:05:03Guest:Yeah.

01:05:04Guest:On national television.

01:05:05Guest:Which show is that?

01:05:06Guest:Happy Endings.

01:05:07Guest:Oh.

01:05:07Guest:You had to gain 30 pounds to do that?

01:05:09Guest:Well, I was like already heavy.

01:05:10Guest:And then they were like, why don't you keep going?

01:05:12Guest:Really?

01:05:12Guest:Yeah.

01:05:12Guest:I was a heavier guy.

01:05:13Guest:But when I started.

01:05:14Guest:Why the woman's bathing suit?

01:05:15Guest:That just the character was like, no, it's okay.

01:05:20Guest:The character was just kind of crazy and would always be in drag a lot.

01:05:25Marc:So that's interesting.

01:05:26Marc:So, cause I like still, I think for me, the comedy thing was,

01:05:34Marc:all about transcending embarrassment, but also about having control in those moments.

01:05:39Marc:Yeah, it's the ultimate.

01:05:41Marc:I mean, I still look at it.

01:05:42Marc:I don't know if I could put on 30 pounds and wear a woman's bathing suit.

01:05:45Marc:So maybe the lion mask was important.

01:05:47Guest:It was.

01:05:49Guest:You're right.

01:05:49Guest:It's not that it's not worth anything.

01:05:52Guest:I just think, and it is worth something, and scene work is important, and learning how to do it is important, and all that stuff.

01:05:58Guest:But I look at the stage time I got,

01:06:02Guest:At nights?

01:06:04Guest:Yeah.

01:06:04Guest:At those places?

01:06:04Guest:Like, that Tuesday night, I would go to UCB and wait around until, like, midnight and get on stage.

01:06:11Guest:And, like, that was way more, you know, like, I pull on those moments way more day-to-day in my job than I do that line.

01:06:19Marc:But, yeah, I get it.

01:06:20Marc:But I think that there's something about those moments.

01:06:23Marc:And I was thinking about this about other shit, you know, like about...

01:06:27Marc:These things that you do once that seem daunting or terrifying, but once you do them, it changes your neural pathway thing.

01:06:38Guest:Yeah, that's a beautiful way to say it.

01:06:40Marc:Do you know what I mean?

01:06:41Marc:Because I had to put a cat down, and I never did that, but I've had cats die, and I grew up with a lot of animals.

01:06:45Marc:My mom would take them in, but I knew that I had to go and be there with this cat

01:06:49Marc:to do that, you know?

01:06:51Marc:And I'd never done it before, and I'm fucking 56.

01:06:53Marc:And I did it, and it was emotional and beautiful and terrible, but now I'm like, okay.

01:06:59Marc:That is something I can handle.

01:07:03Guest:Well, yeah, I mean, death especially.

01:07:07Guest:My mother dying is a formative moment in my life.

01:07:12Guest:How old were you?

01:07:12Guest:I was 30, and she was 52.

01:07:17Mm-hmm.

01:07:17Guest:and it was 20 days before my son, my first child was born.

01:07:22Guest:Oh my God, what happened?

01:07:23Guest:Just didn't wake up.

01:07:25Marc:Really?

01:07:25Guest:Mm-hmm.

01:07:26Guest:This is like a brain aneurysm.

01:07:27Marc:Really?

01:07:28Marc:Mm-hmm.

01:07:28Marc:I guess out of ways to go.

01:07:30Guest:Yeah, probably very pleasant.

01:07:32Marc:And how did, how was it, obviously it was terrible, but I mean, what do you take from it?

01:07:38Guest:Well, it's hard to take much from it when it's,

01:07:40Guest:when it's like a healthy person.

01:07:43Guest:You know, it's like hard to... I think the thing that I took from it and I'm still like working through is that lack of control.

01:07:51Guest:Like, to me, it's all connected to what I do every day.

01:07:55Guest:It's like...

01:07:56Guest:I found at a young age I could control a room and that became what I got off on was like the power of performing and like, you know, kind of manipulating people with my, you know, whatever skill.

01:08:09Guest:And when someone dies, it's so final and there's no, especially out of the blue like that, there's no control over it that you have to like relearn almost what you wanted out of comedy, what you wanted out of being funny in the first place.

01:08:25Marc:Right.

01:08:26Marc:And also just the fact that it's so fragile, that life is so fucking fragile.

01:08:30Marc:And it's like everybody's just one step away from possibly something horrible happening.

01:08:34Marc:Of course.

01:08:35Marc:Yeah.

01:08:35Marc:I mean, like you can't let your brain do that too much.

01:08:38Marc:But I imagine the grief of that.

01:08:39Marc:So it just, you know, it kind of hung over your experience with the birth of your first.

01:08:43Guest:Yes.

01:08:44Guest:Yes.

01:08:45Guest:I think it's still it's hung over a lot of my life still because.

01:08:48Guest:Not fair.

01:08:50Guest:I'm comfortable with all those emotions.

01:08:54Guest:It's more just like when you lose someone, it's always there.

01:08:59Guest:The void.

01:09:00Guest:The void.

01:09:01Guest:I'm at the stupid TCAs today, and I'm talking about my new show, which is about my parents moving in with me.

01:09:09Guest:And this one reporter was like, are your parents funny?

01:09:13Guest:And I was like, my dad is kind of funny.

01:09:15Guest:Yeah, and I did a little thing, and I was trying to make it clear.

01:09:19Guest:That's the end of the parent thing.

01:09:21Guest:She's like, and your mom?

01:09:22Guest:Yeah.

01:09:22Guest:And even that small moment now, seven years later, you're like, oh, she's dead.

01:09:30Guest:She's gone.

01:09:31Guest:And I didn't get to say goodbye.

01:09:35Guest:Any other questions, you assholes?

01:09:38Guest:And I worry if I'm going to die at the same age every night.

01:09:44Marc:That would have been great.

01:09:46Guest:Yeah.

01:09:47Guest:Like, it's just, you know, but the fact that you even, like, the pang of that bit is, like, always there.

01:09:54Guest:Every day, every second, you know, you're like, you have to deal with that.

01:09:57Guest:Yeah.

01:09:57Guest:So it puts life in perspective in a different way, like you're talking about.

01:10:01Guest:Neurologically, it's like, now I've done that.

01:10:03Guest:Right.

01:10:03Marc:Yeah, it's a powerful thing, you know, and there is like, there's certain things I regret that I didn't do in my life that could have programmed me a little differently.

01:10:15Marc:Because it is that, obviously that was, you know, a terrible, you didn't expect it.

01:10:22Guest:Yeah.

01:10:23Marc:But you deal with it, but like there are things that I could have done on purpose that would have,

01:10:27Marc:You know, done me a lot of good.

01:10:30Guest:Yes, of course.

01:10:31Guest:That I did not do.

01:10:32Guest:Yeah, of course.

01:10:32Guest:And that's probably out of just fear.

01:10:34Marc:Yeah, fear, insecurity.

01:10:36Marc:Like, why do it?

01:10:37Marc:I'm full of dread all the fucking time.

01:10:39Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah.

01:10:40Marc:It's like what I go through just to even talk to you.

01:10:42Marc:It's like, this is unnecessary.

01:10:44Marc:How difficult is this going to be?

01:10:45Guest:Do you know how nervous I was?

01:10:46Guest:I...

01:10:47Guest:was up all night no you were not yes I was and I listened to the Brad Pitt that was easy Leonardo DiCaprio one and what put me at ease is like halfway through when the buzzing starts and you start freaking out and you can tell like as a performer you can tell that it's not fun and games anymore like at one point like you're obviously playing it up because Brad's laughing and then there's like it's like a small muttering where you're like where the fuck does this go and it's like I don't know

01:11:17Guest:This frustration of, like, embarrassing.

01:11:20Guest:You're like in front of Leonardo DiCaprio.

01:11:22Guest:Right, right.

01:11:22Guest:It kind of put me at ease.

01:11:23Guest:I was like, okay.

01:11:24Marc:I like that you picked up that I played it up a little bit, but there was still the undercurrent.

01:11:27Guest:Of course, yeah.

01:11:28Guest:You have to because he's a fan.

01:11:31Guest:He's admitted that he's a fan.

01:11:32Guest:Yeah, yeah.

01:11:32Marc:Put on a little show, right?

01:11:33Marc:Yeah.

01:11:34Marc:It was really happening, but I embellished it.

01:11:37Guest:But then you can tell that there is the moment you're like, what if it doesn't work?

01:11:41Marc:Yeah, it's getting away from me.

01:11:44Guest:It was great.

01:11:45Guest:Well, good.

01:11:45Guest:So that puts you at ease.

01:11:46Guest:It put me at ease.

01:11:47Guest:But I was very, yeah, I mean, Obama, you talk about Obama.

01:11:49Marc:I know, but like, you know, I've talked to a million of your friends too.

01:11:52Marc:I've talked to like all your friends.

01:11:53Guest:And sometimes it's, it can be, you know.

01:11:55Marc:No, I get it.

01:11:56Marc:I don't know what people go through.

01:11:57Marc:But I don't like, because so much of it hinges on it.

01:11:59Marc:Like, look, it's like, like, it just really depends.

01:12:02Marc:Like, I have these pieces of paper here.

01:12:05Marc:And if there's a guest coming in, like, I'll do a thing.

01:12:08Marc:And you, I did nothing.

01:12:09Marc:And while we were talking, I put diner down.

01:12:11Marc:Yeah.

01:12:12Marc:Interesting.

01:12:13Marc:So I obviously felt like, I think I can talk to this guy.

01:12:16Guest:It's not going to be.

01:12:17Guest:Oh, that's nice.

01:12:18Guest:It's not going to be a problem.

01:12:19Guest:You know, you're not the first person to have that happen while they're talking.

01:12:21Guest:What?

01:12:22Guest:Put diner down or have nothing?

01:12:23Guest:Write down subconsciously diner.

01:12:26Guest:It's like memento everywhere I go.

01:12:30Marc:So, okay, so that was your first big role.

01:12:33Marc:And then, like, I know you've done a lot of movies.

01:12:35Marc:I think the first time I really noticed or saw you was in Joshy.

01:12:38Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.

01:12:39Marc:You know, because, you know, I'm sure if I looked at some of these other movies that I saw, like taking Woodstock, I can't remember that movie.

01:12:47Guest:I have the distinction of being in a lot of great directors' worst films.

01:12:50Marc:Oh, Ang Lee's worst movie, huh?

01:12:53Marc:Yeah.

01:12:54Marc:But I'd have to go back and look at you, but Joshy, I thought you were funny and kind of dark and a little menacing.

01:12:58Guest:Oh, thanks.

01:12:58Guest:Yeah, that's a dark role.

01:12:59Marc:It is, man.

01:13:00Marc:It's kind of a dark movie, and I know that you worked on the Mindy Project for a long time.

01:13:04Marc:Yes.

01:13:05Marc:And that was a big thing, right?

01:13:07Guest:Yeah, that was a really good job.

01:13:08Guest:I got to learn a lot from her.

01:13:12Guest:Yeah?

01:13:12Guest:Yeah, a lot.

01:13:13Guest:I mean, she's powerhouse.

01:13:14Guest:Like what'd you learn?

01:13:16Guest:how to tell people what you want and not apologize for it.

01:13:21Guest:Like how to creatively be like, no, you are wrong.

01:13:25Guest:Right.

01:13:25Guest:A lot of my early career, it's similar to the Jew thing.

01:13:29Marc:It's like, you pushed over your pushover.

01:13:31Guest:I wasn't a pushover.

01:13:31Guest:I was just like, okay, that's how this goes.

01:13:33Guest:Like, and then I learned from her that like, if you're here, there's a reason you're here.

01:13:38Guest:So let's,

01:13:41Guest:hash it out like right you know she's very direct and good like that and it's right and it's like you know you should have that at least that fundamental confidence that they want you yeah for whatever fucking reason never ever doesn't think that they want her and it's awesome and like i learned that it was it's it's really a lesson i think i even in the way that i produce now it's like yeah a lot of it is just from watching the

01:14:03Marc:Well, I mean, what's your primary struggle in terms of your sense of self with this stuff?

01:14:11Marc:Is it insecurity?

01:14:12Marc:Are you down on yourself?

01:14:14Marc:I mean, you say you're not happy.

01:14:15Marc:I know you're relatively happy.

01:14:17Guest:No, I'm happy.

01:14:19Marc:What's the anxiety generator?

01:14:22Guest:God, it's changed throughout my life, but I would say throughout the last decade, it's death.

01:14:32Guest:And people in my family, some of them die young.

01:14:36Marc:Not your grandparents, not your grandmother.

01:14:39Guest:Two of them, but my mother's father died at 42.

01:14:41Guest:Heart thing?

01:14:42Marc:Heart attack.

01:14:43Guest:Yeah.

01:14:43Guest:So it's like either my grandpa, my grandpa on the other side died of 54 of a heart attack.

01:14:49Guest:So like, you know, it's either or it could be either or.

01:14:54Marc:Sometimes the good genes win, dude.

01:14:55Guest:I know that'd be great.

01:14:58Guest:But I, um, yeah, I, I think I want, I have a, a real hunger and not ambition because,

01:15:05Guest:a hunger to do a lot of stuff yeah i like to do things yeah and and like um that's a good thing and i get anxious about the void of not like what happens if you don't work yeah oh yeah and it makes it's like a black hole to me

01:15:26Marc:Yeah.

01:15:27Marc:Yeah, I know.

01:15:28Marc:I do know that feeling.

01:15:29Marc:But like now I'm dealing with another feeling.

01:15:31Marc:It's like when I go like, what happens if I don't?

01:15:34Marc:That'd be amazing.

01:15:36Guest:God, I mean, it's true.

01:15:38Guest:I mean, I feel such relief when someone says, you know what?

01:15:42Guest:They're moving it.

01:15:44Guest:No matter what it is.

01:15:46Guest:Oh, it could be like, I can need the money so bad.

01:15:49Guest:I think, but you know, we're pushing it till June.

01:15:50Guest:I go, oh my God.

01:15:52Guest:Are they sure June?

01:15:53Guest:Do they want to go to December?

01:15:54Guest:We could do a whole year.

01:15:55Marc:I could wait, man.

01:15:56Guest:I could wait.

01:15:57Marc:We could work on it, yeah.

01:15:58Guest:But at the same time, if I don't have that lined up, I feel.

01:16:02Guest:No, I know.

01:16:04Marc:It's nice to have work.

01:16:05Marc:It's nice to be wanted.

01:16:06Guest:I don't know.

01:16:06Guest:My dad just, I guess my dad, like that is probably too, like failure.

01:16:10Guest:Like not.

01:16:11Guest:Probably living a lot for him in that way.

01:16:14Marc:How's he doing?

01:16:14Guest:He's doing okay.

01:16:16Guest:He's doing okay.

01:16:17Guest:It's hard.

01:16:18Guest:Since your mom?

01:16:19Guest:Yeah.

01:16:20Guest:Especially big things have happened.

01:16:23Guest:My mom passed away and then I had kids and my sisters had kids and my career kind of took off.

01:16:28Guest:A lot of big things have happened that I think he wishes my mom was here for.

01:16:35Marc:Oh, right.

01:16:36Marc:So there's a lot of that.

01:16:37Marc:But he appreciates it.

01:16:38Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:16:39Guest:I think so.

01:16:40Guest:He's definitely living vicariously.

01:16:42Marc:Is he out here?

01:16:43Guest:Half the time.

01:16:44Guest:When he comes out, his new girlfriend.

01:16:48Guest:Oh, I met in New York.

01:16:49Guest:Is he in New York?

01:16:50Guest:He's in New York half the time.

01:16:51Marc:But his girlfriend is out here?

01:16:52Guest:Yeah.

01:16:53Guest:How do you meet her?

01:16:54Guest:She's the mother of a filmmaker.

01:17:00Marc:Hmm.

01:17:01Marc:Okay.

01:17:03Guest:Like through me.

01:17:04Marc:Oh, yeah.

01:17:04Marc:Oh, really?

01:17:05Marc:Yeah.

01:17:05Marc:So you kind of set your dad up kind of?

01:17:07Marc:Yeah, I guess so.

01:17:08Guest:That's nice.

01:17:09Guest:Yeah.

01:17:09Guest:And he's happy-ish?

01:17:10Guest:He's happy, yeah.

01:17:11Guest:I mean, it's good.

01:17:13Guest:I mean, I pray for ease for him.

01:17:16Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:17:18Guest:It was like, he was such a baby boomer.

01:17:21Marc:Was there a point there where you were not, where you had a problem with him?

01:17:27Guest:Yeah.

01:17:27Guest:Well, I think all, you know,

01:17:31Guest:The father-son dynamic is challenging them when you lose a parent.

01:17:36Guest:I think it gets accelerated the void of who's going to decide now what we do.

01:17:44Marc:Well, yeah, there's got to be some empathy switch has to be thrown.

01:17:47Marc:I mean, just as they get older even, you're sort of like, how long are you going to be mad at the guy that's having a hard time walking?

01:17:53Guest:Yeah, that has certainly, you know.

01:17:56Guest:Yeah.

01:17:57Guest:And he's so helpful with the kids and like, you know, it's hard to be mad with him.

01:18:05Marc:Yeah.

01:18:05Guest:It's hard to be mad with him.

01:18:06Guest:Well, good.

01:18:07Guest:Well, that's nice.

01:18:07Guest:But I, yeah.

01:18:08Marc:So this new show, I'm probably going to talk to Dan, who I've known a long time.

01:18:13Marc:I guess he's really found, you know, he's creating a TV show.

01:18:19Marc:And it's on NBC.

01:18:20Marc:It's a big deal.

01:18:21Guest:Well, I mean, I think the thing, the cool thing about what Dan is doing is he's kind of not trying to do anything.

01:18:29Guest:He's not, he doesn't push very hard.

01:18:32Guest:He's just kind of like okay with being this clean, he's like a clean comic.

01:18:38Guest:Yeah.

01:18:38Guest:who kind of is not on purpose clean.

01:18:41Guest:It's just his life is kind of, you know.

01:18:43Guest:Married?

01:18:45Guest:Married with kids.

01:18:46Guest:And like, it was a comfort in that.

01:18:48Marc:Yeah, I just remember when he was sort of like, you know, he'd wear nice tinted sunglasses or glasses and he had kind of a Beatles haircut.

01:18:55Marc:He was kind of a group.

01:18:56Guest:Yeah, that hair was a mess.

01:18:57Guest:That hair was a mess.

01:18:58Guest:I tell him often.

01:18:59Guest:Is it still that way?

01:19:00Guest:No, thank God.

01:19:01Guest:I tell him often the coolest thing about him is his son's haircut.

01:19:05Guest:Oh, yeah?

01:19:05Guest:Because he is just like.

01:19:06Marc:The son's haircut, you got a good haircut?

01:19:08Guest:Well, I mean, he's a kid, so whatever he does is gonna be better than what Dan had.

01:19:10Marc:So he created this show?

01:19:12Guest:Yes.

01:19:12Marc:And it's got NBC commitment to, a season is happening.

01:19:16Guest:We did a season.

01:19:18Guest:13?

01:19:18Guest:13, starts in February.

01:19:20Marc:And it's you and Fran Drescher plays your mother?

01:19:23Marc:Yes.

01:19:23Marc:And who plays your father?

01:19:24Guest:Steven Weber.

01:19:25Marc:Wow.

01:19:26Guest:Yeah.

01:19:27Guest:Huh.

01:19:27Guest:And Abby Elliott plays my wife.

01:19:29Marc:Oh, that's nice.

01:19:30Guest:Yeah.

01:19:30Guest:I like her.

01:19:31Guest:Jessie Hodges plays my sister.

01:19:32Guest:She's great, too.

01:19:33Guest:And then we got Richard Kind coming around.

01:19:36Marc:Oh, yeah, he's great.

01:19:36Guest:Yeah, awesome.

01:19:37Guest:It's the best.

01:19:39Marc:And what's the pitch?

01:19:41Marc:It's so simple.

01:19:42Guest:I'm living a very happy life in Connecticut.

01:19:49Guest:Doing what?

01:19:49Guest:What's your job?

01:19:50Guest:Contractor.

01:19:51Guest:I'm making a good living.

01:19:52Guest:Beautiful kids, beautiful wife.

01:19:54Guest:And my parents go broke.

01:19:56Guest:and have been broke for a long time and lying to us, and they lose the house and they move in with us.

01:20:00Marc:Now, are they like histrionic people?

01:20:02Marc:Are they dramatic?

01:20:03Marc:Like, is it over the top?

01:20:05Marc:Kind of like, what'd your dad do?

01:20:08Guest:How'd he go broke?

01:20:09Guest:Well, he just didn't plan.

01:20:11Guest:Like, they had no retirement plan.

01:20:12Marc:So it's not like, he's not like, I blew it all on it.

01:20:14Guest:No, it's very real.

01:20:16Guest:It's just like, he had no retirement plan, and then my mom busted her hip at SoulCycle, and they had no insurance.

01:20:23Marc:So it's not too broad.

01:20:25Guest:No, I mean, they're broad.

01:20:26Guest:It's Fran Drescher.

01:20:26Guest:I mean, they're broad parts.

01:20:27Guest:Yeah.

01:20:28Guest:Like it's it's very, you know, it even looks vintage in that way where it's like the couch is there.

01:20:37Marc:Well, it seems like a classic NBC show.

01:20:39Guest:It is.

01:20:39Guest:Yeah.

01:20:40Guest:In the most comforting way.

01:20:41Guest:Yeah.

01:20:42Guest:And I was kind of what I wanted to do.

01:20:44Guest:Uh huh.

01:20:44Guest:I wanted to tone it down a little from the.

01:20:47Guest:I had done a couple things in a row that were a little insane, like big swings that didn't quite work out.

01:20:52Guest:Which ones are those?

01:20:54Guest:I did a time traveling show with Lord and Miller on Fox a couple years ago that just didn't work out.

01:21:01Guest:Yeah.

01:21:02Guest:and then I did a show last year on YouTube that I'm, I really loved about, um, uh, a hip hop entourage where, where the main rapper dies and the entourage just like fend for themselves.

01:21:16Guest:And that was like a big crazy swing and that didn't work out.

01:21:20Guest:And so I had like kind of eat, you know, um,

01:21:24Marc:I kind of went for it, and now it was time to... So you see this as something that, if it works, could be kind of a stable... It would be nice for a couple years.

01:21:33Guest:I haven't had that in a long time.

01:21:35Guest:Yeah, not since Mindy?

01:21:36Guest:Yeah, probably.

01:21:39Guest:Ambition is waving constantly with me.

01:21:48Marc:But, like, what's your, in terms of your creative drive, I mean, this is, like, the one plight of the actor that I, like, I never set out to do that because I couldn't handle it.

01:21:58Marc:But, like.

01:21:59Marc:But now you're.

01:22:00Marc:I do, all right.

01:22:01Guest:Working so much.

01:22:01Marc:Yeah.

01:22:02Marc:No, it's nice.

01:22:03Marc:I mean, I always wanted to, but I was not going to live that life.

01:22:05Marc:You know, comedy was my life, which was not an easier life, but it was a life I had control over.

01:22:10Marc:Yeah, you don't, no one's going to tell you at the club you didn't get it.

01:22:12Marc:Yeah, and also, right, no one's going to tell me what the fuck to do either.

01:22:15Marc:Right, yeah.

01:22:16Marc:So, you know, but, like, you know, waiting for somebody to come up with something that you fit for.

01:22:22Guest:Yeah, I never did that.

01:22:24Guest:I created most of it, besides Happy Endings and Mindy, like, I've created most of the stuff that I've done.

01:22:29Guest:Even Joshy, I did that story.

01:22:31Marc:Oh, yeah.

01:22:32Guest:And...

01:22:33Guest:I never, the UCB, you always wrote for yourself.

01:22:37Guest:Right, right, right.

01:22:38Marc:Oh, that's good.

01:22:39Marc:So maybe that part of your brain needed a break, right?

01:22:42Marc:I think so.

01:22:42Guest:That's what it was like.

01:22:43Guest:I had just kind of, I'd put everything I had in these last two big swings and it was like, I gotta recharge a little and by doing, and I also wanted to play a dad, like my kids watch multicams.

01:22:56Guest:Do they?

01:22:57Guest:Yeah, they love them.

01:22:58Guest:From the old days?

01:22:58Guest:Yeah, but like good ones.

01:22:59Guest:Yeah.

01:23:00Guest:My kids love Friends.

01:23:02Guest:They love Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

01:23:03Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:23:04Guest:It's like really good.

01:23:05Guest:If you haven't watched that show in a while.

01:23:07Marc:It's interesting that the simplicity of those, when you uncomplicate them, that kids can watch them.

01:23:11Marc:Of course.

01:23:12Guest:It's so simple.

01:23:13Guest:Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is about a fish out of water.

01:23:16Guest:Yeah.

01:23:17Guest:And my kids just sit there and they laugh and it's...

01:23:19Guest:I wanted that a little because I had been for a long time not showing them my work.

01:23:25Guest:Oh, really?

01:23:26Guest:Too heavy?

01:23:26Guest:Too weird?

01:23:28Guest:Josh, he's a suicide comedy.

01:23:30Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:23:33Marc:Yeah, but also, they're doing a lot of them now.

01:23:36Marc:The three camera thing never really went away.

01:23:39Guest:I like it.

01:23:40Guest:Got a live audience.

01:23:41Marc:You're putting on a show.

01:23:42Guest:Yeah.

01:23:43Guest:Makes me miss Brody.

01:23:45Guest:Doing the warm up.

01:23:46Guest:We were saying that the other day.

01:23:48Guest:Warming up is such an art.

01:23:50Guest:Who's warming up over there?

01:23:52Guest:We've been through not a lot of comedians.

01:23:54Guest:We had a hypnotist.

01:23:55Guest:We really ran through it.

01:23:56Guest:really yeah it's hard a lot of shows yeah brody was good at it he where are you from the best at it he was the best at it yeah like created a party yeah even and there's a long hours and long days but it was like you know he's checking in with you how you doing nikki you got like it was like just felt yeah yeah i don't know it's like a coach we were reminiscing that like god we've a year earlier two years earlier

01:24:22Guest:Sad, sad fucking thing, man.

01:24:25Guest:But on that note... This has been great.

01:24:29Guest:I think I've definitely cheered everybody up.

01:24:32Marc:No, but are people excited about the show?

01:24:34Marc:Yeah.

01:24:35Guest:Yes, yeah.

01:24:36Guest:Again, there's not a lot of places where you get to go to work and be funny, so it's really nice.

01:24:43Marc:Well, good, man.

01:24:44Marc:I wish you the best of luck.

01:24:45Marc:It was a pleasure talking to you.

01:24:47Guest:Oh, you too.

01:24:47Guest:This was a real thrill.

01:24:49Guest:I'm a huge fan, and thank you.

01:24:51Thank you.

01:24:51Marc:Adam Pauly, ladies and gentlemen.

01:24:57Marc:He's in the new Sonic the Hedgehog movie, and he's on Indebted.

01:25:03Marc:The Dan Levy Show.

01:25:06Marc:Not Daniel Levy.

01:25:08Marc:Okay?

01:25:09Marc:Dan Levy, who was here.

01:25:11Marc:Also, I wanted to give you a heads up next week.

01:25:15Marc:There's going to be special new merchandise to mark the first decade of WTF.

01:25:24Marc:Yeah, so look forward to that.

01:25:25Marc:And maybe I'll play the harmonica again.

01:25:27Marc:How would that be for everybody?

01:25:30Marc:Okay.

01:25:31Marc:And then back to the guitar.

01:25:33Marc:All right.

01:25:34Marc:Great.

01:25:35Marc:Thank you.

01:25:36Marc:Thanks for coming.

01:25:37Marc:Nice to see you.

01:25:38Marc:Good.

01:25:40Marc:Terrific.

01:25:42¶¶

01:26:11Guest:Boomer lives.