Episode 1146 - Joe List
Guest:Lock the gates!
Marc:All right, let's do this.
Marc:How are you, what the fuckers?
Marc:What the fuck, buddies?
Marc:What the fucksters?
Marc:What's happening?
Marc:Joe List is on the show.
Marc:He's a comedian out of Boston, out of the Boston area.
Marc:I didn't know much about him.
Marc:I was happy to talk to him.
Marc:When I watched his new special, I didn't realize who he was.
Marc:I'd seen him around, but I thought he was some alt guy, some lanky little alt comic, but he's this...
Marc:He's a joke slinger.
Marc:He's a killer.
Marc:Old school.
Marc:Got his training in the old method.
Marc:Talked about that.
Marc:I was sort of like, wow, this guy's got some weight.
Marc:He's got some heft to his joke delivery.
Marc:So I talked to you Sunday, and let's try to keep it together here.
Marc:But I...
Marc:Monkey is gone.
Marc:Long live monkey.
Marc:Monkey is dead.
Marc:Long live monkey.
Marc:Great cat.
Marc:Great friend.
Marc:Very consistent companion.
Marc:16 years almost to the day my cat monkey was with me.
Marc:Through it all.
Marc:Back and forth from New York a couple times.
Marc:Me and the monk.
Marc:Moncles.
Marc:And all the way from a garbage can in Queens, back alley, to a house on a hill, Highland Park, and now to the big house here.
Marc:Monkey was with me.
Marc:It was time, though, man.
Marc:We had talked about it, me and Monkey.
Marc:Monkey.
Marc:As many of you know, I've been in grief for the past couple months.
Marc:And, you know, I've been worrying about monkey's health for probably close to a year.
Marc:You know, they get old.
Marc:I put his sister down a while back, La Fonda.
Marc:That was rough.
Marc:Terrible.
Marc:It's terrible trying to figure out when, but it was very clear with La Fonda.
Marc:She had lost her mind.
Marc:She had lost a lot of weight.
Marc:She was having trouble balancing.
Marc:She was trying to climb into the toilet, into the bathtub.
Marc:And then she started howling.
Marc:And then I took her in.
Marc:And they rigged her up with a catheter and I held her and the doc sedated her and then asked me, are you ready?
Marc:And I was ready.
Marc:And then that was that.
Marc:Lynn was with me for that.
Marc:I was holding the cat.
Marc:Lynn was holding me.
Marc:So outside of worrying about this cat constantly, constantly, constantly,
Marc:For months and months, I would get up.
Marc:Is he all right?
Marc:Is this today?
Marc:Is he sick?
Marc:Where is he?
Marc:What's going on?
Marc:Is he going to eat his medicine?
Marc:What are we doing?
Marc:Does he have the flu?
Marc:Does he have asthma?
Marc:I mean, there's a whole portion of my brain that was committed on a daily basis, even when I was out of town, to worrying about my cat monkey.
Marc:So connected to this cat.
Marc:I projected a lot of misery on him, but he was okay.
Marc:His quality of life was all right.
Marc:But then it gets to a point where, what is it exactly?
Marc:And we had a long discussion about
Marc:about it you know he knew i was sad and i told him i said look i'm going to be okay you can go if you need to go you can go this is like a week or so ago and he was still jumping up on my bed and sleeping by my head and you know i was crying on my bed and you know he looked at me so you know i get it man i get it i know this has been hard and uh yeah i've been through a lot with you and this is certainly the hardest thing we've been through but i'm i'm here but i'm
Marc:I'm almost done, buddy.
Marc:I'm almost done.
Marc:And I said, okay, man.
Marc:All right, I get it.
Marc:You're like 80.
Marc:He's like, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it's been good.
Marc:And I'm like, well, you let me know when you want to when you want to go when it's time to let go.
Marc:So Monday in the morning, it's weird what you hang on to.
Marc:Like, I'm like, I'm going to try one more time.
Marc:I'm going to give him sub Q fluids.
Marc:I held him down.
Marc:I gave him the fluids.
Marc:He ate his medicine.
Marc:And that was that was the other thing that was making me happy.
Marc:It's like if he would eat his medicine, I would get relieved.
Marc:But what is that quality of life?
Marc:He sat on the couch for five minutes.
Marc:And he ate his medicine.
Marc:It's going to be OK.
Marc:It's not.
Marc:After a certain point, they're just old and they're ready to go.
Marc:And it's on you.
Marc:They don't know when to die because you've made their life good.
Marc:It's on you.
Marc:So I got him in the box.
Marc:I brought him in the afternoon.
Marc:I texted Doc from the parking lot, and he got him in there right away.
Marc:And it was so weird because Monkey is usually crying in the car.
Marc:He was just looking at me.
Marc:He was just peaceful, almost like baby-faced, kind of like, okay, thank you.
Marc:I'm sorry.
Marc:but when they took him out of the car the the guy the tech and i'm like oh man and i had modesto i had doc uh you know i had him do a panel do a blood panel man let's just check it out and he does the blood panel i wait about an hour and he's like you know it looks great everything looks great the kidneys look great i'm like i gave him sub-q fluids he's like oh that's why
Marc:But then he said he lost another .3.
Marc:He's down 1.3 pounds in five weeks.
Marc:That's a lot of his body weight.
Marc:It's not good.
Marc:And I'm like, but his kidneys are all right.
Marc:So, like, what can we do?
Marc:He's like, we can give him an appetite stimulant.
Marc:I'm like, yeah, let's do that.
Marc:Let's give him an appetite stimulant.
Marc:That would be great.
Marc:We'll try that.
Marc:And I was about to take him home.
Marc:And I just sat there and I'm like, wait a minute.
Marc:He can't breathe.
Marc:He's whimpering.
Marc:He's lost a pound in three.
Marc:You know, it's like the medicine's not working for the asthma anymore.
Marc:You know, the sub-Q fluids.
Marc:Am I going to get him an inhaler and do sub-Q fluids three times a week?
Marc:For what?
Marc:So he can sit on the couch for five minutes and eat his medicine?
Marc:So I texted back.
Marc:I'm like, Doc, I don't know, man.
Marc:It don't feel right.
Marc:And I wanted my vet to tell me.
Marc:He helped me with La Fonda.
Marc:He said, it's time.
Marc:And my vet, because he's a great vet over at Gateway in Los Feliz, Modesto, Dr. Modesto, he texted me back, yes, I would honestly euthanize Monkey if it was my cat.
Marc:I said, okay, let me know when to come in.
Marc:But so I went in there.
Marc:They brought me in.
Marc:They walked me back.
Marc:I put the mask on.
Marc:And he was sleeping.
Marc:He was out, but his eyes were open.
Marc:He was sedated, breathing.
Marc:Monkey.
Marc:My cat.
Marc:My old guy.
Marc:And...
Marc:There were two techs in there and the doctor, I said, how many people are gonna be in here?
Marc:And I'm fucking crying.
Marc:Is it just me and you?
Marc:And I'm like, okay, let's do it.
Marc:And I just put my hand on Monkey's chest and his stomach and on his head and I said, go ahead, do it.
Marc:And I just held him.
Marc:and he shot it in him, and then it just stopped, the breath stopped almost immediately, and I walked out.
Marc:I cried a lot on the way home, but I just, the hardest thing is just knowing that you did the right thing, and of course it was the right thing to do, and of course it was the right time to do it.
Marc:And I'm now just realizing just how worried I was about him all the time, all the time.
Marc:And I'm so sad that he's gone.
Marc:But God, what a great cat.
Marc:What a great life.
Marc:And he really fucking hung in there.
Marc:So I'm relieved but sad because I can remember my whole life with that cat.
Marc:I can remember all 16 years, you know, like he's been the constant, him and the other ones, LaFonda and original crew.
Marc:And you got to realize, I don't know, many of you know this story, but it's I don't need to tell the whole story.
Marc:But it was because of those cats.
Marc:that I found my voice on radio.
Marc:It was the adventures of those cats and my adventure with those cats, when I trapped them in Astoria in 2004, when they were a couple months old, the night before the Republican convention, and I was doing daily morning radio, and I brought four feral kittens into my house, and I began talking about that on the air.
Marc:That's where I developed my ability
Marc:to be on these mics.
Marc:My voice on the radio and on this podcast was built on the backs of the Fonda and Monkey, for sure.
Marc:They were the inspiration.
Marc:They were the muses.
Marc:They were the beginning of freeing my voice on radio.
Marc:Godspeed, Monkey.
Marc:Monkey is dead.
Marc:Long live Monkey.
Marc:Thank you for all your support and fan art and everything else and for listening me talk about Monkey.
Marc:He's made his way into at least two of my specials and the fucking Monkers.
Marc:Oh, yes.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:I should mention this.
Marc:On Sunday, August 9th, I will have 21 years sober.
Marc:If I make it to Sunday, I think I'm going to make it.
Marc:I got a pretty strong feeling that I can tell you this now and probably I'll probably bring it up Monday.
Marc:But August 9th, 21 years sober.
Marc:If that inspires anybody, it fucking should.
Marc:It's an amazing thing that I don't even think about that as a solution anymore, drugs or alcohol.
Marc:And I'm off of nicotine for almost a year.
Marc:I think that's like on the 24th or something.
Marc:So not bragging.
Marc:Because God knows being wide awake at this particular juncture in history is not particularly terrific or a great gift, but it is happening.
Marc:And I'm not hiding from it.
Marc:So try to, if you need to stay sober, if you need to, if you have a problem or you think you have a problem, there's always help.
Marc:You can find help.
Marc:There's always a meeting somewhere online now.
Marc:You can go to a meeting any place in the world right from your house now.
Marc:Okay, enough of that.
Marc:Boston.
Marc:Joe List comes from Boston.
Marc:And he did his training in a similar way that I did, you know, with some of the dudes that I knew that I came up with.
Marc:And it was kind of a great, it was a great talk because I didn't know him.
Marc:And, you know, I started in Boston, really.
Marc:And he's got a new comedy special Joe does.
Marc:It's called I Hate Myself.
Marc:Joe List, I Hate Myself premieres tonight at 9 p.m.
Marc:Eastern on YouTube as part of Comedy Central's stand-up channel.
Marc:Joe financed it himself and then he taped it a week before everything shut down.
Marc:He also has a weekly podcast that he hosts with Mark Normand called Tuesday Stories.
Marc:Get that wherever you get podcasts.
Marc:And this is me and Joe List coming up.
Music
Thank you.
Marc:how are you man uh i'm pretty good i'm nervous this makes me nervous why does it make you nervous i mean i guess i we don't really know each other i don't know you yeah we don't think we know each other at all but um i mean i know you through the show i'm a big fan of the show we chatted in montreal last year a little bit almost a year ago today probably that's right and so you know me through this show and maybe you've seen my stand-up or no
Guest:Yeah, quite a bit.
Guest:Yeah, so I was on a bringer show with you in, I was bringing, in 2002, 2001, Stand Up New York.
Guest:Maybe it might have even been 2000.
Guest:I was a kid.
Marc:It must have been a rare night because I fucking hated that place and never went there.
Guest:Yeah, it was definitely, you seemed unhappy and I did the thing where I was like, hey, I'm opening for Marc Maron.
Guest:I said that to you, which many people have said to me since.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And it makes me think, boy, this guy must have hated me.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, fortunately, if there was any sort of hate, it's gone away.
Marc:I don't recall it.
Marc:You're probably right in that moment.
Marc:It was probably not great, but wow.
Marc:Yeah, it's so weird when people say certain clubs like that one.
Marc:I'm like, I hated going in there.
Marc:I hated working at that place.
Marc:I hated every everyone who ran it over the years that it went on.
Marc:But I know that a lot of people who came to New York went through there because they did so many of those bringer shows.
Guest:yeah that was like well i started in uh boston so like i would do i found out about bringer show so i would drive down with my bringer like my family i drive down with like four people and drive to new york do a set and then drive back really yeah that was like my and i thought you know in the time i thought i was like here we go baby we're going to new york new york city right mom who who was like who was in the car with you
Guest:I drove down a couple times with my mother, father, and sister, and my uncle one time.
Guest:That was a car, and it was like a regular sedan, so there'd be like four of us in the car.
Marc:And you'd go, and you'd see where you were on the lineup, and you'd wait sometimes.
Marc:Was there ever one of those nights where you didn't go on until everyone was...
Guest:gone it wasn't too bad like that no i mean like i feel like i don't remember that i'd have like a decent spot because i actually brought my people but i remember there was a lot of people that would sign up and they weren't able to get their people and so that would be i did have to squabble and try to get people and that happened to me once where i went all the way to new york and i was like i'll just figure it out and i was like barking for myself like i was trying to get people off the street to go to the club yeah and say that they came to see me
Guest:Really?
Guest:Did it work?
Guest:One time I did get a couple of people to do it.
Guest:They were like, okay.
Guest:And it was because I did a tour at NBC.
Guest:I did like the NBC Studios tour.
Guest:We went to 8-H or whatever.
Guest:I looked at Conan's set or whatever.
Guest:You actually were just a tourist at the tour.
Guest:Yeah, I was a tourist at NBC.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And it was like two British ladies.
Guest:And I was like, if you like comedy, you could go to Stand Up New York tonight and tell them you're there to see me.
Guest:And they were like, sure.
Guest:And they did it.
Marc:Well, you know, I think I'd seen you once before somewhere, and then I watched the whole special the other night.
Marc:Oh, God.
Marc:What's it called again, the special?
Guest:It's called I Hate Myself.
Marc:Good.
Marc:So I...
Marc:But like I watched it and I've been watching the specials lately because I've been kind of sad and I enjoyed it because like it's weird.
Marc:You're sort of an unassuming guy.
Marc:You seem like a wiry little guy, but you certainly you certainly know how to fucking, you know, hit those jokes with a bat.
Guest:Oh, thank you.
Guest:I appreciate that.
Guest:I was worried about where that was going.
Guest:And thanks for watching it.
Guest:I mean, that makes me nervous.
Guest:You're the first person to see it.
Guest:I mean, literally outside of my, I guess, manager and agent, whoever did the editing.
Marc:No, it was it was great.
Marc:It's what's interesting is how much of it, you know, sadly, kind of plays as nostalgia already, like flying, flying on planes.
Marc:You know, you're doing this whole bit about planes, which is, you know, that's something we talk about because we spend so much of our life on planes.
Marc:But now, like six months into this fucking shit show, it's kind of like, I remember.
Marc:Yeah, you could just lay down on planes and it was a nice thing to do and fly, you know.
Guest:Yeah, it's strange.
Guest:I've done a couple sets here in New York, like outdoor shows.
Guest:And you naturally set up jokes by being like, I was on the subway the other day.
Guest:And you have to be like, I was on the subway six months ago.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So they're having outdoor shows like who's doing that?
Guest:So there's a bunch of shows now.
Guest:It's pretty wild, man.
Guest:The other day, my friend of mine had like three sets.
Guest:So Stand Up New York, aforementioned Stand Up New York, has shows in Central Park, Battery Park, and Astoria Park.
Guest:No microphone.
Guest:They're just like essentially picnicking.
Guest:No microphone.
Guest:No.
Guest:And you just stand there and kind of yell at people that are picnicking, basically.
Yeah.
Marc:But they didn't come for the show?
Guest:You're just sort of imposing?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:They did come for the show.
Guest:So they're aware of the show, and Stand Up New York has little, almost like political signs.
Guest:You know those little, you stick them in the grass?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But instead of saying Biden, it says Stand Up New York.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And they will kick people out if they're in that space.
Guest:Right.
Guest:There was a guy, the first show I did there, there was a guy like laying on a blanket napping and they were like, excuse me, this is the stage for our show.
Guest:So he had to move.
Guest:But the people are actually coming.
Guest:Like they have a big email list and I guess people are aware of it and they're, you know, entertainment starved.
Guest:So there's actually, there was like 50 people there.
Guest:And I heard one show had like 90 people.
Guest:No mic.
Guest:No mics.
Guest:You got to just project out to the folks.
Guest:It's a little strange.
Yeah.
Marc:No, I mean, it seems nice.
Marc:It seems intimate.
Marc:It seems like a theater.
Marc:But, you know, my thinking is, like, are they still that fucking cheap?
Marc:They can't find a little setup that you can have outdoors so you guys can talk through a microphone?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Maybe there's noise ordinances or something.
Guest:I don't know what's going on.
Guest:But then there's a couple, like, drive-in shows, too, at Bel Air Diner.
Guest:You used to live in Astoria.
Guest:I live here, and it's, like, a couple blocks from here, and they're all in their cars, and they flash their lights if they like a joke.
Guest:It's...
Guest:Now, see that?
Guest:Did you do that one?
Guest:I've done it a couple times.
Guest:Now, I did the first one.
Guest:I was on the first New York City show.
Guest:So you can't hear laughter.
Guest:Well, now they have some outdoor table set up, like under a little tent, sort of, or under a, whatever you call it, like a canopy or something.
Guest:So you can hear those people.
Guest:So you can hear about 15 people, and then you can see people smiling through their windshield.
Guest:Huh.
Marc:Now that that doesn't sound satisfying to me.
Marc:I mean, maybe, you know, you're sort of like, you know, nuts and bolts joke guy.
Marc:So you can just kind of plow through your shit, you know, and just take the hit without, you know, addressing it.
Marc:But I would feel that it would be difficult to pace yourself and sort of an odd exercise.
Guest:It's really strange.
Guest:And the nice thing, the other night, so I've done a few now of just outdoor or whatever, and I've done a bunch of Zoom shows, which are very strange also.
Guest:Now, are these for money?
Guest:Some of them are money.
Guest:Like Comedy Cellar did their first Zoom show, and they pay because they're the Comedy Cellar.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And Stand Up New York did pay a spot pay for the Central Park thing.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so did the Bel Air Diner, actually.
Guest:Yeah, I guess all of them are.
Guest:Some of the Zoom shows are not.
Marc:So the Zoom shows, how is that?
Marc:Do you tell people to take their mutes off so you can hear them laughing, or how does it work?
Guest:It's really strange, but I'm oddly getting used to it.
Guest:Well, that's what I was going to say just real quick was at the Bel Air this past weekend was the first time I've done like seven or eight sets outside or on Zoom.
Guest:That was the first time that I was like, oh, that fucking joke ate it.
Guest:That sucked.
Guest:It was the first time having a feeling of like shit.
Guest:And for the most part, you're like, there's no judgment.
Guest:I can't judge this set or whatever.
Guest:I'm just getting up and saying things, remembering them.
Marc:But I mean, are you doing it because you're you're starved to be on stage or like a feeling of obligation?
Guest:Is it the money?
Guest:What?
Guest:You know, that's a good question that I haven't really put that much thought into.
Guest:I guess it was the outdoor one.
Guest:Some of it's just to see like, let's see what this is like.
Guest:I guess it's another form of stand up.
Guest:And yeah, I guess just to the same reasons.
Marc:Yeah, that we go out and we did shows every night at one in the morning for nobody.
Marc:If you're born with the compulsion and it's inside of you, you don't ask those questions.
Marc:You just do it.
Marc:It's like, oh, there's a show.
Marc:I'll do it.
Marc:Where is it?
Marc:Okay.
Guest:Yeah, basically, that's it.
Guest:And some of them have paid, and I'm like, great, I'll make a few bucks.
Guest:And the one in Astoria is down the street from my house.
Guest:And the one in Central Park, my wife was on.
Guest:She's a comic.
Guest:And I was like, I'll go with you.
Guest:And then they threw me up there.
Guest:You did a guestie in Central Park at the No Mic Show?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I'm not doing indoor shows yet.
Guest:I've canceled all those or postponed those for now because I'm trying to do the right thing.
Guest:So where's this special going to be on?
Guest:YouTube.
Guest:That's the new thing.
Guest:It's a YouTube.
Marc:And how does that work?
Marc:So you shot it over at the Comedy Cellars outlet?
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, the Village.
Guest:I shot at the Village Underground.
Marc:Yeah, the Village Underground.
Marc:And who produced it?
Marc:Was it a Comedy Central or a Comedy Cellar joint?
Marc:What is it?
Guest:No, it's just me.
Guest:I just I just hired a guy to shoot it.
Guest:The Comedy Cellar gave me the room and the door because they're extremely generous.
Guest:and I just hired my own film crew to edit it and make it, and that was it.
Marc:And you had Bobby Kelly bring you up?
Guest:No, Sean Donnelly was the host.
Guest:Oh, Sean Donnelly?
Guest:Yeah, and it was just a regular old night at the cellar.
Guest:I mean, that's what I wanted it to be initially was like, let's just do a night at the cellar because that's –
Guest:Those are fun.
Guest:Do you find, I find sometimes if you have fans there, comedy fans are, are tricky sometimes because they listen to all the podcasts and they begin to want inside jokes and they know you and they have heard stuff and they, I don't know.
Guest:I like, I like random audience members.
Guest:Um, but it was a Tuesday night and like the day of they were like, Hey, we got 40 reservations.
Guest:So, uh, we had to kind of push to fill it in and then we did and it was great.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, I don't know.
Marc:I mean, it's I think it's bold to you.
Marc:I mean, you must be pretty used to that room.
Marc:I don't think either of those rooms are that particularly easy.
Marc:They feel like challenging rooms to me.
Marc:And especially if it's just their fucking people that come in there.
Marc:It's hit or miss.
Marc:So you were able to bring in half a house of people that know you.
Guest:Yeah, there ended up being a bunch of people that knew me and everyone tweeted and did the thing and pushed it.
Guest:So there was a lot of like comedy fans.
Guest:And I got enough fans in New York to do.
Guest:We did two shows that the first show was like a.
Guest:yeah like uh enough people probably half the room was fan fans and then maybe the second show was like a fifth of the room yeah um but i think that's a good mixture of people that are really rooting for but sometimes you know you get in your head i'm like if they're fans they've probably seen me they've heard it they need something weird they're comedy nerds they're not gonna laugh and then i misjudged and i realized that they're actually fans because they love you and they want you to do well and so they're hyped up yeah they end up making a great audience
Marc:Yeah, that's the worst thing that we do with our heads is that we just make these weird assumptions because we're so hard on ourselves.
Marc:So, you know, we're tired of our own shit.
Marc:And if we're doing old shit, there's you know, you're pretty sure that like, well, without saying I'm tired of it, you just put it on them.
Marc:And they're like, they got to hate this one.
Marc:They they heard when I came up with this on the podcast.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And they're going to judge, you know, but they're they don't you know, no one's thinking about us as much as we are.
Marc:And, you know, they're happy to be part of the event.
Guest:Yeah, of course.
Guest:And but I think if anyone hears a joke for a second time, they're like that.
Guest:He's doing the thing.
Guest:He's setting it up like it just happened.
Guest:He's full of shit.
Guest:And that's my own projection.
Guest:You know, like the comedy fan is not all of a sudden you're the revelation that they realize, like, they're not making this up.
I mean, yeah.
Guest:But that's how you feel.
Guest:I mean, you get in your head and you start to create those.
Marc:Well, yeah.
Marc:I mean, well, it's just sort of like, you know, it's like, how do I feel about hearing a joke a second time?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:You know, and then a lot of times people oddly, you know, if you think about people like Gaffigan, but this is how we judge ourselves.
Marc:I mean, yeah, all people want to hear him do his Hot Pockets, you know, for a decade.
Marc:And it was the bane of his existence.
Marc:But but that's not how we think about it.
Marc:I mean, I've thrown away so much material that nine people heard on a show that no one fucking watched that I worked a half a year on.
Guest:Yeah, totally.
Guest:I mean, I've had that with like, can I do this on Conan?
Guest:Because I did it on live at Gotham.
Guest:And you're like, nobody, nobody memorized your live at Gotham set.
Guest:Nobody.
Guest:I think you said it at one point on this podcast.
Guest:I think I remember it was you saying it about like, hey, could you guys, I know some of you have been around for years, but could you let the rest of these folks just catch up?
Guest:Like you might have to hear another bit you heard from some YouTube video that you guys watched, but let everyone else catch up to this.
Marc:Well, that's the thing, man.
Marc:If you think about the time I'm older than you, when I think about like, you know, I've done like six, seven, you know, hour, hour and a half, you know, between five CDs and four or five specials or whatever.
Marc:But nobody listened to some, you know, to the first, you know, eight episodes.
Marc:There's like eight hours worth of my material, some of it pretty good, that most people have never fucking heard before.
Marc:And it's just there on the fucking garbage heap.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:People want to hear that stuff and they want to hear it over and over again.
Marc:Maybe.
Marc:I mean, it's like, have you ever thought about like, you know, I'm just going to cover my first album.
Marc:I'm going to go out.
Marc:and cover my 2002 release.
Guest:Well, sometimes comics, like Gary Gullman's a friend of mine and one of my favorite comedians.
Guest:He had that great bit about abbreviations, and he made it into this documentary he watched about abbreviations, and it's like a nine-minute bit.
Guest:It's one of the best bits I've ever heard.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I remember seeing him do like a 40-second version of that in 2003.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Where he just had the first couple things and it was whatever.
Guest:And I was like, that's clever.
Guest:And then so obviously he circled back to a notebook or something.
Guest:It was like, oh, this never became anything.
Guest:And then with more skill made it a great thing.
Guest:So I'm sure we have premises from 20 years ago that could be gold now.
Marc:That's probably true.
Marc:I used to go on Conan all the time with half-baked shit because...
Marc:I do.
Marc:I'd always do panel and they'd get stuck for guests and they'd call me up on a day's notice and go, can you do it?
Marc:And I'd be like, I got some stuff.
Marc:And I and there's so much stuff that I did on Conan that later became actual jokes.
Marc:It's embarrassing.
Marc:Well, that's not embarrassing.
Marc:That's terrific.
Marc:I know.
Marc:But but by the time you do the final joke, it's like, you know, I don't know.
Marc:Oh, I see what you mean.
Marc:You know, it wasn't as funny as it could have been when I did it originally.
Marc:But when you do panel, you can get away with a premise.
Marc:You know, you can't when you're doing a stand-up, but you can kind of throw the funny thing out there in conversation.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I remember Hedberg did that on his second album where he did an entire joke again just to add a tag.
Guest:And he was like, I didn't want to deprive you guys of that line that I came up with after.
Yeah.
Guest:And it's great.
Guest:It works.
Guest:I don't think Twitter was around them, but I don't think anyone was mad at them.
Marc:I don't think anybody really does get mad.
Marc:And I think the people that get mad are just trolls or they're just mildly disappointed, obsessive fans.
Marc:And that's their lot in life.
Marc:Those people that are like, I know everything you do.
Marc:It's like, well, I'm sorry.
Marc:I'm probably going to disappoint you eventually.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah, they're unhappy people.
Guest:I'm trying to remind myself that anyone on social media that's taking the time to write something negative is probably unhappy and I should, you know, pray for them or something.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I mean, I've been that guy.
Guest:Haven't you?
Guest:That's writing mean stuff to people?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:In response, if somebody was mean, I would justify my anger.
Guest:I just had it a couple weeks ago.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, yeah, I've been that guy.
Guest:But I've never initiated, I've never watched a movie that I hated and tried to find the address of the director to let him know that I thought it sucked.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:To TP his house or something?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I've never written to Scorsese and been like, hey, this one wasn't quite as strong as Goodfellas.
Guest:What was up with The Departed?
Guest:So you're from Boston?
Guest:Yeah, I started in Boston.
Guest:No, but you grew up in Boston?
Guest:I grew up south of Boston, Whitman, Massachusetts.
Marc:See, how do I not know that?
Marc:I fucking played every dumb bar in New England, and I don't know where Whitman is.
Guest:It's a small town.
Guest:I mean, there's probably only been a handful of comedy shows there.
Guest:It's next to Brockton, if you know Brockton.
Guest:Oh, sure.
Guest:Nick's comedy stop.
Marc:Sure, I know Brockton.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Is there still a Nick's in Brockton?
Guest:No, I don't think so.
Guest:No, I think that's gone.
Guest:There might have been in January.
Guest:I mean, certainly there's not right now, but there might have been in February.
Marc:So you grew up in Whitman near Brockton.
Marc:How big is that town?
Marc:Just tiny?
Guest:Small, small town.
Guest:It does have the claim as the place that the chocolate chip cookie was invented.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:So we have that going.
Marc:And it's also.
Marc:People actually stopping by for that?
Marc:I mean, is that a draw or no?
Guest:No, I don't think anybody knows about it or cares about it.
Guest:Is there a place that makes cookies there?
Guest:There used to be Toll House, like the Toll House factory or something was there, but it burned down before I moved there.
Guest:Toll House, isn't that a keyboard thing?
Guest:Or no, is that a separate thing?
Guest:Maybe.
Guest:I gotta be honest, I'm regretting the chocolate chip cookie thing now.
Guest:I got nothing on it.
Guest:Got no information.
Guest:I got no info.
Guest:That's my one sentence I say, and usually people go, oh, wow, that's cool.
Marc:So what kind of town is it?
Marc:I'm trying to picture it.
Marc:That's not near Fall River, right?
Guest:No, it's a little ways.
Guest:I mean, relatively, it's near there.
Guest:I think it's probably a half hour from Fall River, maybe.
Guest:Whitman's like a real small town.
Guest:It's also, its other claim to fame is it's the used car capital of Massachusetts.
Guest:That'll give you a Springsteenian image of the town.
Marc:A lot of used car dealerships kind of deal?
Guest:Yeah, I think there's like 12 or 14 used car dealerships in a town that's, I think, like four and a half square miles.
Guest:I feel like people from Whitman are going to really nail me on Twitter for not having my facts straight.
Guest:Yeah, it's like a real small, you know, my parents always say they grew up closer to the city and they just drove south until they could afford a house.
Guest:That's basically how they ended up there.
Guest:Oh, so what was your folks' business?
Guest:My dad worked at a hospital.
Guest:He's like in charge of purchasing, like he, you know, buys the gowns and whatnot.
Guest:It's like an administrative job at a hospital and my mother was sort of a secretary at an insurance company.
Guest:So your dad's still in that racket?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He is, yeah.
Marc:So he's still working.
Marc:So you've got to be busy trying to get that PPE for the COVID people.
Guest:I think he is, yeah.
Guest:I think so.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:You don't talk to him anymore?
Guest:I talk to him.
Guest:We don't not talk.
Guest:We didn't get in a fight and stop talking, but he's a real quiet kind of Boston Irish Catholic kind of guy.
Guest:Just real, very stoic.
Guest:Really?
Guest:There's not a lot of, I always joke.
Marc:Even if you asked him direct informational questions, it would be tough to get an answer?
Guest:exactly yeah it's uh my mother always jokes she goes when we go on a car ride i bring a book he's a tough he's a tough nut great guy funny guy but uh you're not he's not he's not a giver i always joke i did letterman and people say wow man your dad what did he what did your dad say and i was like nothing and they're like i know but what did he say and i'm like no actually nothing he said zero things um but they come to the shows and laugh i mean they're good people they laugh
Marc:So you have like nine brothers and sisters?
Guest:No, no, small.
Guest:It's just one older sister, but my mother has four siblings and they all have kids.
Guest:So it was always a big family.
Guest:There was always 20 or 30 people around.
Guest:Irish, huh?
Guest:Irish, Scottish, yeah.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:But like, was it, were they into the Irish thing?
Guest:Not too much.
Guest:My dad was Irish, but his family wasn't around as much.
Guest:It was always my mother's family, the Campbells.
Guest:So more Scottish, but definitely everyone gets together.
Guest:We drink and we drink hard and heavy and it was always together.
Guest:Like the idea of people talk about family reunions.
Guest:I'm like, that's always been mind blowing to me.
Guest:I'm like, we were together every Saturday and Sunday, every weekend of my life.
Guest:No need for a reunion.
Guest:They're just here.
Marc:There's six days between reunions.
Guest:yeah exactly everyone lived 10 miles apart everyone was together and it's still very insular it's still like that oh definitely i'm the only one that left and moved and i come back and it's a lot of like how's new york yeah there he is yeah exactly exactly
Marc:And they're looking at you like you're like you're different somehow.
Marc:And then they tell you you're not different.
Marc:And then you've got to humble yourself or be humbled.
Guest:It's a lot of that kind of feeling.
Guest:And it's yeah, it's definitely shaped a lot of my.
Marc:So are they Boston Irish?
Marc:Would you say your dad's for people?
Guest:yeah i suppose so yeah i think so yeah they have a definite new england vibe it's a very new england but not hard they're not hard boston irish no no there's an accent like you would notice an accent but they don't sound like they're not like yeah yeah yeah yeah it's a little more um subtle they definitely would be someone would say what's up why are you guys talking like that but they're not they're certainly not intimidating they're not like goodwill hunting right you know boston
Guest:that character that Casey Affleck Dunkin Donuts guy have you seen that bit is so fucking funny dude cut your nails kid yeah I love that that's great he really gets it doesn't he it's great no yeah we don't have that but it's definitely not far that that vibe yeah it's a lot of a lot of drinking and yelling and joking
Marc:Right, so when you started, when did you start knowing that you wanted to do the comedy?
Guest:I always feel like it feels trite to be, as long as I can remember, Mark, who I wanted to be.
Guest:But it really was, I think, as early as third grade, and the story always sounds so cheesy and made up to me, or maybe I'm just self-conscious, but I watched, I think it was Doing It Again or Jamming in New York, one of those George Carlin's on HBO.
Guest:Later George Carlin.
Guest:yeah 1990 and so i was eight and like third grade and i remember they played like the intro they played clips from all of his thing and i remember the rat shit fat shit dirty old twat and it was just the idea of what he's saying this crazy shit i mean that was my idea of comedy was like saying insane shit and i remember him talking about
Guest:Dan Quayle and Margaret Thatcher, and I didn't know who any of the people were, but I was like, oh, I can tell this is great.
Marc:Right, right, right, yeah, no, yeah, that feeling of excitement, like, are we allowed to do this?
Marc:Yeah, it was insane.
Marc:How can a grownup be talking like this?
Guest:Yeah, it was cool and fun and insane, and then I was a kid, late 80s, early 90s, when it was really booming, so it was VH1 I would watch in the morning, and A&E, Evening of the Improv, and Comedy Central started to come around, and HBO,
Guest:So it was like comedy everywhere.
Guest:I was just obsessed with it.
Guest:And then Bill Cosby too.
Guest:Like we got together.
Guest:Like I remember my family and this is still so cool to me would go and like rent like a Louie Anderson or a Cosby and then we would eat dinner and like the VHS would sit on top of the TV.
Guest:Like we're going to fucking take that out.
Guest:As soon as we're done eating, we're taking it out.
Guest:And I remember thinking that was like amazing that this dude and it was like pink circles, like that neon ish writing.
Guest:And I'm like, oh, man, we're going to pop it in.
Guest:And again, like not knowing what the jokes are, but it was like my family was loved it.
Guest:And I thought like, oh, that's a way to get attention from my family is the deeper meaning, I guess, is like this is the way to stand out.
Guest:But they they were comedy fans.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:They were very like, they loved it.
Guest:They loved Louis Anderson, Boozler, Cosby, and Carlin, a little younger ones, a little bit.
Guest:I don't know if my parents were as into Carlin, but my uncle.
Guest:I got an uncle who's like four years older than me, and he really showed me a lot of this stuff.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:It was like that classic thing of like, as early as you understand that that could be a job, you're like, well, obviously, I want that job.
Marc:yeah i don't know that i understood if it could be a job well i mean i knew that they yeah clearly they were entertaining people like i i don't know if i ever thought in terms of the job part i was just sort of like that looks like uh the best thing to do whatever that guy's doing you know yeah it seemed fun and i like again like through therapy and uh that stuff i see that it was like okay that's how you get attention because
Guest:You know, that growing up for me, everybody was very serious in my family and work sucked and raising kids was a lot of work and everything was shitty, except the weekends you'd drink and watch comedy and then it was fun and we'd go back to life being shitty again.
Guest:So I think I thought, oh, I could be that guy that makes it fun.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But shitty how?
Marc:Just like, you know, not much passion in the work.
Marc:Everybody's just sort of like you do it to get by so you can enjoy yourself on Saturday.
Guest:yeah that kind of shitty like just commute and desk work and right you know driving the kids to school didn't seem to be very pleasurable to anybody that i was around no one seemed to be doing anything they actually wanted to be doing right yeah and that um that was built into me of like even as a really young kid being like well that sucks yeah i'm not gonna do that
Guest:why are they not happy with what they're doing yeah why don't they do this why don't they do something about this is how i felt when i was young and then i'm like as we're recording this i'm sitting in front of a bruce springsteen poster then i got to an age where bruce springsteen basically made a career out of writing about that about your family about yeah about my family about the idea of people getting stuck in things that they don't want to do and then that combination made me really like
Guest:The combination.
Guest:We got to get out of this town, man.
Guest:I was like one of those guys, you know, combination of stand up and Bruce.
Guest:You're like, this is we only live once.
Guest:This is it.
Marc:Yeah, exactly.
Marc:We got to get out.
Marc:And that was the feeling, basically.
Marc:So your childhood, it wasn't like abusive or weird, emotionally detached and slightly miserable.
Guest:Yeah, I would say it was a good childhood.
Guest:It's weird.
Guest:I'm someone that deals with that thing where I have severe anxiety and panic disorder and alcoholism and depression and all these things, and I don't have...
Guest:For a long time, I'd beat myself up because I didn't have the right thing to point to for it, where I was like, I was never molested.
Guest:My parents were together.
Guest:We had enough money.
Guest:Look, now as an adult, I realize we didn't have very much money, but we had certainly enough.
Guest:We weren't, whatever, starving.
Guest:So I've always had that feeling of like, I'm a piece of shit for being anxious and struggling because I had great parents and a great upbringing.
Guest:So I still don't know what's going on there.
Guest:I think I could help.
Guest:Please.
Marc:Well, here's the thing.
Marc:I don't know the nuances or the particulars, but just from what you were saying about your old man, you know, if there's emotional detachment,
Marc:Where, you know, you're not getting the input or the nurturing or the sort of affirmation of of your parent that that's a sort of it's a slightly it's a mild emotional abuse.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So what happens when you're younger is.
Marc:And this is just the theory I locked into is that, you know, whatever shortcomings your parents have, however, they're fucking you up because they're not paying attention correctly.
Marc:You know, you're not going to blame them for what you just did.
Marc:You didn't do it again.
Marc:Like you're going to blame yourself.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So you think like I must be fucked up because they're my parents.
Marc:They're perfect.
Marc:I must be the fucked up one.
Marc:So in in the gap between their whatever their detachment is or however they're emotionally not treating you correctly, you install a parent of your own in your own head that calls you an asshole your entire life.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:That's what my therapist has been telling me for quite a while.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Very similarly.
Guest:And he'll, I do do that a lot where I'll go, yeah, but this, and he's like that you're doing it again.
Guest:And I'm like, ah, shit.
Guest:And, um, and also my mother's also a very, very anxious person, OCD.
Guest:And so that's a lot of learned.
Marc:So you got the detached guy and the panic guy.
Guest:Yes, exactly.
Marc:The detached father and they're like, oh, where are you going?
Marc:Don't wait.
Marc:Don't.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:That.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:A lot of not so bad as that, but a lot of definite anxiety.
Guest:And I think now and I've talked to my family about this now with young kids in the family, there's not a lot of separation between talking really serious matters about.
Guest:car wrecks and disease and people breaking into the house right hearing that as a kid being like someone's gonna break in our house or whatever so that's a lifelong fear and all those kind of things oh so she was just freaked out about everything and and uh that's not it's sort of antithetical to nurturing um panic
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:So a lot of a lot of panic, anxiety and certainly longing for that attention, love and feeling of being protected.
Guest:That's what my therapist always says is you feel unprotected in the world, which I do.
Guest:Yeah, I have.
Marc:I wish I had the longing for love more.
Marc:Like, I think my parents were so manipulative that that's how I sort of process love.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So, like, now, like, the idea of love, it's like, you're fucking with me.
Marc:It's not.
Marc:It's like with an audience, a girlfriend, doesn't matter.
Marc:Yeah, I don't buy it.
Marc:You don't really like me.
Marc:Right, yeah, yeah.
Marc:That's my cross to bear.
Marc:I never believed the love.
Guest:Yeah, I think I deal with that a little bit, too.
Guest:My therapist has to go, well, your wife married you.
Guest:She did commit to being with you for life.
Guest:And you're like, yeah, but I think, I don't know.
Marc:She's running a con of some kind.
Guest:Yeah, something's up.
Guest:But yeah, that's a lot of the feeling, for sure.
Marc:So did comedy?
Marc:Yeah, I often wonder that, like, you know, because I was compelled early to like to, you know, when I was 11 or 12.
Marc:And I didn't certainly didn't know how to pursue it as a job.
Marc:And, you know, even when I was in college, it still didn't make sense to me.
Marc:I remember approaching Paul Reiser when I went to see a comedy show at this stand up or at the comic strip when I think I was in college.
Marc:And I was like, I want to do comedy.
Marc:How do you do it?
Marc:And he's like, well, you just got to do it.
Marc:And I'm like, how the fuck does that mean?
Marc:You know, there was no.
Marc:But by the time you got in there, there was actually there were there was a path.
Marc:There was a whole community of people trying to do it that you could go find fairly easily in Boston.
Guest:Yeah, it was weird.
Guest:So I feel like now the way people talk was that was sort of, I started in 2000, and it sounds like that was sort of like a dip spot, because obviously it's been sort of booming in the last few years.
Marc:Dude, you know, the dip, like, you know, depending on what city you're in, the dip has been going on since the late 80s.
Marc:Like, you know, like I was in Boston and...
Marc:88.
Marc:So that's when I started working doing standup.
Marc:But the thing was, in Boston, it didn't matter that there was a dip because you were doing one nighters.
Marc:So there was three companies that booked a million one nighters all over.
Marc:And there was Knicks in town.
Marc:So it wasn't like it was a comedy boom, but you could go to Brockton.
Marc:And fucking play, you know, a hotel lobby.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:So that was the way it was then.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, yeah, I started in 2000 and I similarly didn't know where to go, really.
Guest:And then I was walking like I had just graduated high school and didn't had no plans to go to college or anything.
Marc:And you had never done it before.
Guest:never done it and um well i should say one time i opened for my friend's band because they knew i wanted to be a comedian and um it was a little different i went up and uh this is like embarrassing but hilarious i had a bag of trick i was a prop act right and i had a i had a raw hamburger bun and i asked a guy in the crowd what's your name and he said whatever steve and i said nice to meet you and i threw a raw burger patty at him yeah not at him but like to his feet you know
Guest:Wow.
Guest:And then I had a green lay.
Guest:How'd that go over?
Guest:Didn't hit, but I had some high school buddies there that thought it was funny because it was ridiculous.
Guest:Didn't hit.
Marc:Because you would have had to hold the meat up and...
Marc:Then throw it, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, but you probably didn't do that.
Marc:You probably just panicked.
Guest:It's funny you said that, because I do remember now, after this show, people saying, like, we didn't know what that was.
Guest:Yeah, right, yeah.
Guest:They were just like, what was that?
Guest:What happened?
Marc:You got a big plan in your head, and then you rush through it, and it doesn't land, and it's just a weird moment, right?
Guest:Yeah, it's just completely weird.
Guest:And then I ripped off George Carlin had that old poem about his hair, and I wrote one about the word fuck.
Guest:It was like, fuck is a word, often heard, often slurred.
Guest:It was like this Carlin ripoff and...
Guest:It was bad.
Guest:I mean, I probably did like two and a half minutes or something and then brought out my friend's band.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And probably too fast and just sort of like, yeah, but I mean, it's weird.
Marc:That's what, that's what we got to do.
Marc:I don't, you know, there's no way, there's no way to be good at it at the beginning.
Marc:It's just, it's just terrifying and stupid.
Marc:And, you know, you just want to get through that three minutes and like, you know,
Guest:fuck man i did i just if i really put my mind back there it was just nothing but panic and he'd spend the entire day or week just like i gotta do three minutes on saturday you know it's a nightmare yeah it didn't make any sense but you had to um do it it was strange and i was a kid i was like 18 i just graduated high school a few weeks ago so they just set up the um the commuter rail which is like the train directly from whitman to boston so
Guest:I was like walking around Boston just aimlessly, and I happened to walk by, over by Fenway, there was like a Howard Johnson's, and it said Open Mic Wednesday.
Guest:It was like a Chinese restaurant.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I called in like the Yellow Pages, and it was like an Asian guy.
Guest:I won't do the voice to spare everybody, but he was like, you know, come in Wednesday.
Guest:I could barely understand him, and I was like, great.
Guest:And I thought, all right, I got a gig.
Guest:This is going to be better.
Guest:This is like an adult.
Guest:This is a real comedy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was called Chop's Lounge, and that's where I actually started in like October 2000.
Guest:Chop's Lounge.
Guest:Chops Lounge.
Guest:By Fenway.
Guest:Yeah, right next to Fenway.
Marc:At the Howard Johnson's next to Fenway.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:I can't picture that.
Marc:Is that an old Howard Johnson's?
Guest:Well, now it's gone.
Guest:Now it's like a really hip hipster like bar that whole neighborhood.
Guest:I don't know when the last time you were in the Fenway area, but it's completely changed like the last three years.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:There's like high rise buildings and like really cool burger joints and all kinds of bars and rooftops.
Guest:It's like it looks unrecognizable.
Guest:And I've only been gone for I guess I've been gone 13 years now.
Marc:So this is the bar at Howard Johnson's near Fenway.
Marc:And who was hosting that fucking nightmare?
Guest:A guy named Larry Lee Lewis.
Guest:I don't know him.
Guest:He probably came around after you, but he did like old vaudevillian jokes and played the piano, like a boogie woogie piano.
Guest:He was a combination of, I guess, Jerry Lewis and the old vaudeville jokes.
Guest:And he would do a lot of like, you know.
Guest:Is he an old guy?
Guest:I mean, he was old to me.
Guest:Now, looking back, he was like 52, because he did a joke.
Guest:He'd say, I'm a 52-year-old pothead.
Guest:But to me, I was 18.
Guest:He was like an antique.
Guest:I thought he was an old man.
Guest:Larry Lewis, huh?
Guest:It sounds like he might have been around when I was there.
Guest:I think he had just kind of started late in life.
Guest:But it was like a true open mic.
Guest:Whoever showed up went on, and there was some good comics there.
Guest:Dan Mintz, you probably know.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:He was always there, and...
Guest:some other people.
Guest:That's where he started.
Guest:That's where Dan started.
Guest:I believe so.
Guest:He was around, I think he was a Harvard guy.
Guest:So he was always there.
Guest:And then Dan Levy is another LA guy that was always there.
Guest:Yeah, I know Dan Levy.
Marc:Yeah, the other Dan Levy, right?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Eugene Levy's kid and Dan Levy, who's a TV writer.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, I like Dan.
Marc:I like both of them, but I know Dan.
Marc:Sure.
Guest:So he would be there, and then there was a lot of just crazy people, like actual crazy people that would go up, and I was like a kid with jokes who spent my day trying to write jokes, and then there was some old psychos, and then there was some Boston veterans would show up.
Guest:Teddy Bergeron would show up.
Guest:Teddy, Teddy.
Guest:Hello, Teddy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He had a boombox.
Guest:He would record his set with like a boombox with a tape deck on it.
Marc:That's my son.
Marc:He'll drop it.
Marc:Teddy had some of the best fucking jokes.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:I mean, like, what a sad old fucker.
Marc:But I'll tell you, man, did you listen to that live one I did with him?
Marc:Like, it was kind of astounding because, you know, Teddy's story, and I'm sure you've heard some version of it, is just horrifying.
Marc:Mm-hmm.
Marc:And, you know, it's just it's astounding that he's alive and he's a very sort of like a sad it's a sad story.
Marc:But what was really interesting is I found him.
Marc:I tracked him down to do a live WTF and he wasn't easy to find.
Marc:He doesn't like have a phone.
Marc:I had to call somebody that knew him or a relative.
Marc:I don't remember how I got him.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And I hadn't seen him forever.
Marc:And he's in the dressing room for WTF, you know, and yeah.
Marc:He's in sweats, and he's like, you know, I'm working on a new thing about Mother Teresa and the Pope, and maybe I'll try that.
Marc:And I'm like, I don't know.
Marc:I'm already sucked into this nightmare codependent Teddy world in seconds, and I hadn't seen him in 20 years.
Marc:And we get out there on stage, though, dude, and people don't know him anymore, really.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And a lot of my audience wouldn't know him at all.
Marc:And he's trying his new stuff.
Marc:And I see him, you know, sweating it out.
Marc:And I know there's no way he could have tested it or anything.
Marc:And then he's got all those.
Marc:I knew he had all those great jokes about, you know, his father, you know.
Marc:So I go like, so when you grew up, your father, what was he like?
Marc:He's like, my father.
Marc:And he just, he like...
Marc:He just went into those bits, dude, and they killed.
Marc:And it was like it was like almost moving, you know, like these bits that have been around for decades.
Marc:And they and they were so well honed and so well written and so personal and perfect.
Marc:And they just he just started doing them and they just were like it was like no one had ever heard them before.
Guest:it was a beautiful moment yeah no he's he's amazing i've tried hard to find old footage of him i think there's a set of him on the old letterman show yeah that looks real weird it's not great uh yeah whatever quality right yeah when he would get it together and do i'm sure the same bits that he did in 1982 that i saw in 2001 like there's no santa claus and she's on a wire
Guest:exactly yeah that bit was like magical i mean it was great now he had one of my favorite jokes ever was the uh you know hockey players are tough you know that joke he's hockey players are tough they get you know hit in the face of the puck they'll get 15 stitches come out and play the third period baseball players those guys aren't tough and he goes you always watch the game they go here's a aussie taylor steps to the plate he uh missed the first half of the season he was frightened by a small child last halloween
Guest:yeah it's funny it's beautiful so they would come who were some of the other veterans that would drop by that was like tony v maybe occasionally but most of those guys didn't touch that place because it was like this was like low level open mic open mic but then i started doing um dick doherty's comedy vault on sunday nights then you'd see tony v and um all those guys kevin knox was a big part of the the scene then
Guest:And then he ran the Monday at the comedy connection.
Guest:And that was like the big to me.
Guest:There was a time in my career where Monday night, if you could get to the comedy connection, which was their like new talent night, that was like the tonight show at that point in my career.
Guest:And Kevin Knox hosted it.
Marc:Oh, so Noxy, so you were there before he died and before Loretta got sick.
Marc:Like, those guys started with me, you know, or, like, they were kind of around my generation.
Marc:I remember, you know, when Noxy started and those guys, because I was in Boston...
Marc:I guess I was there in 88 and I was, you know, I moved to New York in 89, but I had to go up there every weekend to work.
Marc:So I was I was in Boston 89 through 91, 92, you know, working all those one nighters and Knicks and everything else.
Marc:So all those guys were around that generation, you know.
Guest:Yeah, it was great to be around those guys because, like, I didn't know any of those guys.
Guest:And, like, I was one of the people that thought that the comedians were, you know, Bill Cosby and George Carlin and Rosie O'Donnell.
Marc:That's a good point about Boston where you get this whole working class bunch that, you know, you wouldn't know.
Marc:And you still wouldn't know them.
Marc:Like, I started with Joe Yannetti.
Marc:Like, I did open mics when I was in college with Yannetti.
Marc:and uh who else that kevin uh or brian kiley and yeah like i mean the guys who were doing open mics fred do you remember simply fred was he around when you were he was probably no he just went by the name fred it was like yeah um there were some other ones i don't know what happened to him
Guest:Yeah, I was a big comedy connection guy and doing all those one-liners you talked about.
Guest:That was VFWs and Firehouses and KFCs or KFC, I should say.
Guest:That was my comedy.
Guest:And I'm still nostalgic about those gigs.
Guest:Those are some of my best sets I've ever had were in like Firehouses and VFWs.
Marc:Well, it's interesting that when you pay your dues like that, you really are coming in cold.
Marc:I mean, it's like guerrilla comedy.
Marc:They're only having comedy night there once a week or once a month or whatever the fuck it is.
Marc:It's not a comedy club.
Marc:And if you're opening, it's like you just walk up to nothing.
Marc:You've got to make something of it.
Guest:And all the headliner guys would grab you and be like, don't do anything about the room because you couldn't do any material.
Guest:I couldn't be like, look at this chandelier because they're like, I'm taking that first 20 minutes.
Guest:Yeah, because they're going to be all trash.
Marc:Yeah, they're doing 45 and they want to get out as easy as possible.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:So it was definitely going up cold and you had to have jokes and you had to have them fast because they were just, you know, red faced firemen.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like, who's this fucking queer guy?
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:He had to really fight for it.
Guest:But it was great.
Guest:I mean, I loved it.
Guest:I mean, to me, I was like, I'm in showbiz.
Guest:That's all I ever wanted was to be a comic.
Marc:It was a hell of a way to pay your dues to do those kind of rooms.
Marc:I mean, because that's how I started on those two-man shows.
Marc:You know, you really get tough.
Marc:I mean, it's like by the time you get to a comedy club, you're like, oh, my God, this is easy.
Marc:This is great.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And a lot of those shows, they would go up and there'd be a picture of like a nine year old girl.
Guest:And they'd be like, this is for Susan who got hit by a van and she passed away.
Guest:And then like her friends would come up and they do that, like literally do that stuff.
Guest:And then they would be like, here's comedy.
Guest:It's like a cliche, but that would happen all the time.
Marc:I didn't do so many of those as I did like Pancho Villa's in Lemonster, you know, where you drive out to a restaurant in Lemonster.
Marc:And that was one of the good ones.
Marc:Or the Taunton Regency Hotel, you know, they'd had a full weekend gig, you know, in the conference room.
Marc:And those were good ones, you know?
Marc:That's crazy.
Guest:Yeah, some of them were fun.
Guest:But yeah, there was a lot of crazy gigs and hell gigs that I now I look back and I'm like, oh, that was really fun.
Marc:It's a yeah, it's a very specific way to pay your dues.
Marc:I look back and I literally cannot understand how I managed it.
Marc:I was a neurotic, angry, uncomfortable Jewish guy driving around the New England countryside performing for fucking Irish townies.
Marc:You know, I remember when Nixon Saugus opened, you know, my God.
Marc:It was, yeah, I don't have nostalgia for that.
Marc:I have, I think, PTSD.
Marc:That's my experience.
Guest:That's funny.
Guest:Nick's in Saugus at the Kowloon.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I would always joke that's one of the few rooms that has a detailed police officer in the showroom.
Guest:This is the uniformed cop with a handgun that he's assigned to be in the room, which is always comforting.
Yeah.
Marc:Knicks was kind of rough, dude.
Marc:The original Knicks was still very much alive and intact and dug in when I started there.
Marc:And it was really something to see.
Marc:You could kind of feel the whole dark history of Boston in that place.
Guest:Yeah, it's a tough.
Guest:Those are tough rooms, but it was fun.
Guest:I mean, to me, it was like I saw a lot of I learned a lot of things to do and not to do a lot of ways not to pursue a career.
Guest:And you start to slowly see like, oh, there's a lot of anger and bitterness in the middle of that.
Guest:While I was up there, they made the movie when stand up stood out, which I'm sure.
Guest:Did you see that movie?
Marc:Was that the one with a lot of France Salomita in it?
Guest:yes yeah he made it yeah and they did like a documentary about all these guys and how they all had fun and it was great but they did too much booze and drugs and they ended up fucking up their careers and then i watched it while i was doing the same thing and didn't even heed the warning i was like that movie's great so you were uh wait you're sober i'm sober now yeah so you were a boozy fucking kid
Guest:Yeah, I was a big booze kid.
Guest:Yeah, through my 20s, yeah.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah, I really got after it.
Guest:It was bad.
Marc:And then you copped to being an alcoholic.
Marc:Do you do the thing?
Guest:I do, yes.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Marc:Oh, shit.
Marc:So what had to happen for that to go?
Marc:So like early on when you're doing the gigs in Boston, you're just getting fucked up?
Guest:yeah so like i mean a lot of the driving gigs i went early early on my first like year or two i would be like i don't drink before a show i thought i'd have this i wanted to be like this disciplined you know and then after a while you're like well i'll have a beer during the show i was underage for a lot of that too i started when i was 18 yeah so it'd be more like get fucked up after and i still had like high school friends that were all the age where you get crazy drunk and stuff
Guest:and then eventually you drink i drink during the show and then it became a thing of like let me see how drunk i can get during the show it doesn't take too long to get to get there and then um yeah i mean then i started doing the road and then the road of course that was like this is like heavenly because i'm in a hotel or a condo across the street yeah you don't have to drive and you drink for free and you could just crawl back to your hotel
Guest:Yeah, and then it became the thing.
Guest:And I also had that romanticism of it, of like, that's what you do.
Guest:I'm like an artist, man.
Guest:You get fucked up.
Guest:I'm a drunk comic.
Guest:Yeah, you did that thing, huh?
Guest:Yeah, I fancy myself like an IRA.
Guest:I'm like, you know.
Guest:Sure, Dylan Thomas.
Guest:Exactly, yeah.
Guest:So I thought I was one of those guys, except I wasn't writing any jokes and wasn't going anywhere.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So what did your bottom look like?
Guest:I had things that should have been a bottom.
Guest:I've told this story on a lot of podcasts, but one night in New York, I was a blackout guy, and I ended up shitting in a girl's bedroom on her floor and urinating also.
Marc:Oh, that's great.
Marc:Like in the middle of the night?
Guest:Yeah, it was actually like in the morning, which is strange.
Marc:So you thought you were in a bathroom, probably.
Guest:I thought I was in the bathroom, I think.
Guest:I mean, I have to presume, because that wasn't my sense of humor.
Guest:Right.
Marc:No, I remember when I was drinking, I once peed on the floor in the bedroom, and I was pretty sure I was in the bathroom, but I wasn't.
Guest:Yeah, it was that kind of deal.
Guest:And the women, it was two girls that were living there.
Guest:They had already left for work, which I didn't realize because when I woke up and realized what I had done, I texted them and I was like, oh, my God, I'm so sorry.
Guest:And they were like, no problem.
Guest:You were fine.
Guest:It was funny.
Guest:And I was like, man, these fucking girls party.
Guest:And I was like, Jesus.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I happened to be going to Seattle the next day.
Guest:It's a crazy story.
Guest:I was going to Seattle the next day for the Seattle Comedy Festival, which is a month long.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I ended up missing my flight because I was so fucked up.
Guest:And I flew across the country with like shit on my pant leg and the whole thing.
Guest:And when I landed and turned my phone back on, I had a text being like, we had no idea what you were talking about.
Guest:This is crazy.
Guest:You're a piece of shit.
Guest:And then I was like, oh, that's more like it.
Guest:That seems like a more better response.
Guest:You didn't even clean it up?
Guest:I cleaned up what I could, but I had to run.
Guest:So like the main pieces I got, but there was still like a urine and some traces of it.
Guest:Sure, sure.
Guest:And that was the end of that.
Guest:No, that's what's crazy.
Guest:That still didn't end it.
Guest:I remember landing in Seattle and I was like, I got to take a break from drinking.
Guest:And I was like, well, I'm not going to stop.
Guest:drinking so i might as well drink tonight and i kind of kept going so it was kind of one of those bottoms you just kind of i'll just hang out down here for a while yeah sure and then and then i took a couple swings at it when i first moved to new york i had some days 20 days and then um
Guest:You're going to meetings, though?
Marc:Yeah, I did a couple times.
Marc:So you moved to New York, but you were going at it in Boston.
Marc:When did you move to New York?
Marc:How far in?
Marc:When did that start?
Guest:I moved in April of 2007.
Guest:So I was about seven years into comedy when I moved to New York.
Guest:To Astoria?
Guest:Yeah, I just kept going and getting... And I would drive back all the time because...
Guest:I showed up to New York.
Guest:I was opening for DePaulo on the road, and I had opened for Dane Cook in these big spaces, and I was friends with Colin Quinn, and I knew Dave Attell.
Guest:And so when I showed up, I thought people were going to be really excited that this guy who knows Nick DePaulo and Colin Quinn just came to town.
Guest:How do you know Colin?
Guest:Colin?
Guest:I knew Colin just through a gig.
Guest:I opened for DiPaolo, and the two of them had a gig, and I met him through that, and then somehow I knew he was similar to me in that fashion, so he's been very helpful to me in my sobriety.
Guest:Oh, sobriety.
Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Marc:It's interesting because I did the...
Marc:I like when I watch guys, especially guys I don't really know from New York, because New York is so like, you know, incestuous and insulated comedically that, you know, like any generation, I can kind of see some of the influences.
Marc:So it's always for me, it's always fun to play like who who got into this guy's head.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And I definitely identified Colin in in you.
Yeah.
Guest:Oh, that makes me feel good.
Guest:I mean, hopefully not to the point that I know, but no, no, no.
Marc:There's just there's like a slight on a couple of jokes.
Marc:There's a slight turn that I'm like, what is that?
Marc:Like, that's sort of a colony thing, you know, and which is no, it's not bad.
Guest:No, there's definitely moments.
Guest:I mean, I don't know if you still have that or maybe not, but I'll write a joke and be like, you know, you write it in your voice and you do it.
Guest:And I'm like, there's a moment where I'm like, how did I come to that?
Guest:And I'm like, ah, that's, that's this Colin joke.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Or that's this DiPaolo bit.
Guest:Sure, sure.
Guest:Or this is that Carlin thing.
Marc:One of the first guys, one of the first gigs I ever did, I opened for Nick DiPaolo and he's really, he's like my age.
Marc:He was just added a little, like it was a Captain Nix in a gunk with Maine.
Yeah.
Guest:um well i started open for nick in 06 this is a funny story my i couldn't at the comedy connection i was their guy i would just open for all the people that were coming through and i was supposed to open for nick and um i couldn't do the thursday because i had some private gig and so this other guy filled in that night and evidently that guy was in the green room with nick and he said uh
Guest:Hey, how long you been doing comedy?
Guest:And Nick said, shut up.
Guest:We're not girls.
Guest:We don't have to force a conversation.
Guest:He's like, you can just sit there.
Guest:And so that guy called me and he's like, hey, man, this week, don't try to talk to this guy.
Guest:He's crazy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I said, OK.
Guest:And I just sat in silence for like three nights, you know, six shows, never said a word.
Guest:And at the end, DePaulo goes, I like you.
Guest:You keep to yourself and you got some jokes.
Guest:You want to go on the road?
Guest:And I said, sure.
Guest:And so for like a year, I just would travel all over with Nick just silently.
Guest:And eventually we started, you know, having arguments and fights and, you know, in love.
Guest:But yeah, that was like extremely helpful that the guy was like, don't be yourself with him.
Marc:Don't talk to the monster.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So, yeah, I mean, he was like a big influence comedically.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:As well.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:But like I can definitely see that.
Marc:So then you like so you got sober for good.
Marc:It stuck when how many times?
Guest:2012.
Guest:So what happened that time was just the same thing lingering around knowing like I knew very early in my drinking that I was like, this is I don't think I'm supposed to be.
Guest:This isn't how people other people are drinking, you know.
Guest:yeah and i always kept friends that were um older and married so i always had that thing i'm not as bad as that guy right i was one of those guys and then um yeah i was i tried a couple times and so i knew about the thing and everything and um i started dating my now wife and she's so she's 11 years sober today as a matter of fact
Guest:she had a couple years and she was willing to date me and so i kind of got closer to it that way and uh but kept drinking the way i was and it wasn't till like christmas 2012 and my brother-in-law his father had just passed and uh like days earlier and i was making jokes about it to him and i just remember him being like what are you what are you doing dude and having that that shame of you're kind of drunk and
Guest:i was drunk and kind of yeah because something you know you think you're being funny or whatever yeah yeah sure and i remember him being like what are you doing i was like i don't know man i don't know and worse than like shitting in a girl's shoe and fucking hating myself and getting herpes was just somebody i love being like dude what is this and just being like fuck yeah i don't know i'm sorry that was what did it the insensitivity
Guest:Yeah, that kind of moment of like, I mean, and a lot of other things, my career, I really hated myself.
Guest:I was still featuring and I had never, I couldn't get on any TV or anything.
Guest:I had the same material and just all that kind of shit, self-hatred.
Guest:And yeah, so December 28th, 2012 was my last drink.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:That's great, man.
Guest:Yes, it's nice.
Guest:And like all the I mean, every bit of success I've had in relationships and comedy has come since then.
Marc:But it's nice that you were able to be with a sober person who you were dating and still be a fuck up.
Marc:And she kind of stuck with you that long.
Marc:So at least you didn't just jump in right at the beginning.
Marc:Like she she lets you kind of flop around for a while.
Guest:Yeah, it was about a year and a half, and she didn't give me like an ultimatum or anything, but she, I mean, she knew, I mean, we had drank together when she was still out, and she kind of knew, and I was pretty good about keeping it away from her.
Guest:You think?
Guest:yeah yeah so um and then uh she was like great and she didn't you know i was like i'm sober i was like doing that and she was like okay like she wasn't like yeah she didn't get too excited about it but um you know i got in there and fucking got it done it was great so now you got like eight years and change or something uh seven inch it'll be eight in december
Marc:And that's great, man.
Marc:That's so fucking good.
Marc:It's better, right?
Marc:Yeah, I love it.
Marc:That's why, like, you know, for some reason, like, because, like, you know, I watched you and, like, I know the difference between, you know, a guy that came up the right way in stand-up comedy clubs doing the real deal and, like, alt people.
Marc:And, you know, you kind of look a little alt-y at first and then I'm listening to you.
Marc:I'm like, this guy's got teeth, man.
Marc:What the fuck is he about?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And this is now, you know, it all comes to it all comes to into it comes into clarity here.
Marc:You know, I came up.
Marc:You came up with the old timers with the old monsters.
Marc:And there you go.
Marc:You were a little monster yourself.
Marc:And look at you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, well, that's, I mean, thank you.
Guest:I appreciate it.
Guest:But that's, that to me was comedy in Boston.
Guest:When I started was killing.
Guest:I mean, that to me, that was what people in Boston valued more than any, I mean, sometimes to a fault, but that was the most valued thing for the first six or seven years I was doing comedy was crushing.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And so I was like, Jesus, I better be one of those guys.
Guest:And now I've backed off of that a little bit of like, all right, there can be some space to breathe and, you know.
Marc:And then you toured with Louie, too.
Marc:You toured with Nick and Louie.
Marc:It's so funny because Nick and Louie used to live with each other in this fucking apartment Barry Katz owned.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:Back in the day.
Marc:What a fucking disaster those days were.
Marc:But you toured with him and you played the big rooms, huh?
Guest:Yeah, I got to do that.
Guest:So I met Louie.
Guest:I was at the cellar and he was sitting on the steps, fortunately, not like downstairs.
Guest:So I couldn't see him because if I had seen that he was there, I would have been like, oh, gee, and tried to.
Guest:I was just kind of fucking around and he liked what I was doing.
Guest:And then, yeah, we ended up chatting and having the Boston thing and all that stuff.
Guest:So you got to play Madison Square Garden?
Guest:yeah i did the garden a couple times and um did all the the whole europe thing and the private jet and stuff it was pretty amazing and back then he had the great audience yeah it was huge i mean it was like the shows were all killer and we were flying private and it was like a dream it was insane i mean i got a funny garden story though there's one show that just wasn't great or they weren't loving me and i'm just struggling i'm doing like 20 minutes it's like 15 000 people a lot of them are trying to find their seats and
Guest:You know, you ever, you know, when you do a joke, sometimes some one guy will laugh and you're like, Hey, this fucking guy gets it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I almost did that at Madison square garden.
Guest:I can one guy, one guy in like two 14 just, he goes, ah, and I, there was a brief moment where I was like, this fucking, I was like, I can't do that in front of 15,000 people.
Guest:This guy gets it over here.
Guest:But, um, yeah, did the whole, the whole thing.
Guest:I mean, it was like, it was, it was wild.
Guest:It was quite a experience.
Marc:So what do you do?
Marc:So in general, where were you at before the lockdown where you're just out there headlining and you and Mark Norman do a podcast?
Guest:Yeah, so I do the podcast with Mark Norman, Tuesdays with Stories, which I've been doing for years, and we do that, and that does real well, I mean, relatively well to me.
Guest:And I started another podcast, which is, I don't know if this is good or bad, but it's very much based on this one.
Guest:I wanted to have the conversations you were having, but it's called Mindful Metal Jacket, and it's about...
Guest:you know anxiety therapy all that kind of stuff and uh-huh and uh started doing that and that's been really fun and uh meaningful to people that have emailed me and stuff which is nice and then i'm just like kind of a road dog i'm doing about 40 weeks all the you know funny bones and madison and all those dr grins and side splitters and all those gigs any of that stuff back on the docket or no not yet
Guest:They all just keep getting moved right now.
Marc:Is that a baby?
Marc:Do you have a baby?
Guest:No, sorry.
Guest:My wife just came in and our door is very squeaky.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Guest:But I was hoping it didn't pick up.
Guest:Everything got moved?
Guest:Everything just keeps getting pushed to next year.
Guest:So now my 2021 is starting to look decent.
Guest:But I'm just trying not to do the indoor shit right now.
Guest:I don't want to be part of that.
Guest:Yeah, get sick.
Guest:And do you ever tour with your wife?
Guest:Yeah, I bring her on the road when I can, and yeah, when I can.
Marc:It's nice.
Marc:And it's working out?
Marc:You guys are doing good?
Guest:Yeah, I love it.
Guest:I mean, it's great, because you get to feel like home on the road, and I get to get laid on the road.
Guest:It's nice.
Marc:That's great.
Marc:And clearly, this was the wrong time to have this conversation.
Marc:What else are you going to say?
Guest:No, even if she was not here, I would say it's great, and yeah, I love it.
Marc:Wish her a happy anniversary for me.
Marc:Oh, I will.
Guest:I will do that.
Marc:On her sobriety.
Marc:And to you, too, congratulations.
Marc:And the special was very funny.
Marc:I got some solid laughs.
Guest:Oh, thank you.
Marc:And what are you doing for your anxiety?
Marc:Do you have tools?
Marc:What do you do?
Guest:Well, so now I do, I mean, the thing you mentioned helps a lot.
Guest:And I got really into meditation.
Guest:Really?
Guest:I've been meditating for a while, but I just got really into the Sam Harris has an app, Waking Up.
Guest:Do you know that guy, Sam Harris?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I heard of him, yeah.
Guest:He's great.
Guest:He has an app called Waking Up, and I highly recommend it.
Guest:There's a ton of shit on there, like long interviews with meditation people, but he has an introduction course.
Guest:He does a lot of guided meditation, loving-kindness meditations, half-hour meditations, and I've gotten really, really into that, and that helps a lot.
Guest:And, um, yeah, just a lot of reaching out and talking to friends and like-minded people's really helped and, and therapy.
Guest:I got a therapist that I love and it's, it's a full-time job.
Guest:I mean, it's a, it's a constant combination of all those things to be even sane.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, I might do.
Marc:I've been dancing around the meditation idea for a while.
Marc:And I just recently, since my girlfriend died, I got into that.
Marc:Yeah, I'm not really a God person, but I from being sober, I would, you know, I would pray because I was told to do it.
Marc:And I find that, you know, in times of crisis, I'll do it and it makes me feel better.
Guest:Yeah, that stuff is really, really helpful.
Guest:And it's funny because all of these things, but especially that stuff to me is easy to forget.
Guest:And then you hear it again and you're like, fucking right.
Guest:It's right here.
Guest:Like Colin Quinn is a guy I talk to a lot and he'll just say things that he said to me a million times.
Guest:And I'm like, Jesus, fuck, how did I?
Marc:yeah well that's why i forget that well that's why we you know we have to stay engaged with the fucking program right because like all of a sudden you feel like shit and they ask you you know whoever your your guys are they ask you are you doing this you're like no you're doing this i'm not did you go to a thing i didn't so what do you think's gonna happen thanks oh yeah right
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:I heard someone say something great the other day.
Guest:He said, you know, he talks to people and they'll say, how are you doing?
Guest:They say, good.
Guest:And he goes, well, how are the people around you doing?
Guest:This is a great thing, a great tool to remember of like, I'm fine.
Guest:And then you're like, everyone behind you is just fucking bleeding and crying.
Guest:Yeah, who's the crying lady?
Guest:Oh, her?
Guest:Shit, I forgot about her.
Marc:Good point.
Yeah.
Marc:All right, well, keep at it, man.
Marc:It was great talking to you.
Guest:Yeah, thanks a lot, Mark.
Guest:I appreciate it.
Marc:Good talk.
Marc:I like that guy.
Marc:Joe's special, I Hate Myself, will be available starting tonight at 9 p.m.
Marc:Eastern on YouTube.
Marc:I'm going to play a little guitar for the original crew, Monkey and La Fonda, Boomer, the unsung heroes, Meanie, Hissy, Moxie, Butch, Def Black Cat, Scaredy Cat.
Marc:My original crew, Monkey and La Fonda.
Marc:So now I will dump all of my love and attention into Buster Kitten, who's going to be overwhelmed by it.
Marc:But I think ready for it.
Marc:Because Buster Kitten was certainly neglected because of my old senior cats.
Marc:And now it is Buster Kitten's time.
Marc:I hope he stays healthy for a while.
Marc:I'm going to bring him in to be checked.
Marc:Because he had problems.
Marc:He almost died from kidney failure when he was like two.
Marc:But now it's Buster's time.
Marc:The time of Buster Kitten begins.
.
.
.
.
Marc:Shout out to the original crew.
Marc:Boomer.
Marc:Monkey.
Marc:LaFonda.
Marc:Live.