Episode 1244 - Rick Ingraham

Episode 1244 • Released July 15, 2021 • Speakers detected

00:00:00Marc:all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck nicks what's happening i'm mark maron this is my podcast and uh this is pause day

00:00:25Marc:Today, I'm going to be taking the heavy pauses.

00:00:29Marc:I'm going to be fooling around with pauses.

00:00:37Marc:It's part of the medium.

00:00:38Marc:It's what I do here.

00:00:41Marc:How are you feeling?

00:00:43Marc:Are you okay?

00:00:46Marc:Is everything all right?

00:00:50Marc:What am I doing?

00:00:52Marc:Look, the last couple of days I've been doing a junket, a press junket for respect, which means I go to the Four Seasons here in Los Angeles and there I enter a clusterfuck of media who all converge on the Four Seasons to do the respect press junket.

00:01:16Marc:And you just kind of go from room to room.

00:01:18Marc:Some of them are on camera.

00:01:20Marc:Some of them are print.

00:01:21Marc:Some of them are still photos.

00:01:23Marc:It's just, there's like 100 outlets.

00:01:26Marc:I can't even explain it to you.

00:01:28Marc:I've done it before.

00:01:29Marc:I did it for Glow.

00:01:30Marc:I never know what to wear.

00:01:32Marc:I've been wearing the same shirt and the same suit for press for probably almost a decade now.

00:01:39Marc:It's fucking ridiculous.

00:01:42Marc:But man, people are getting excited about this movie.

00:01:46Marc:Look, today on the show, I talked to a comic, Rick Ingram.

00:01:51Marc:Who?

00:01:52Marc:Right.

00:01:52Marc:I know that some of you may say that, but if you've been to the comedy store, you've certainly seen him.

00:01:57Marc:Rick Ingram has been at it for a while, but he's unique in that he, you know, there was a type of comic and I was sort of one of them for a while where they live at the comedy store.

00:02:07Marc:They exist at the comedy store.

00:02:08Marc:Their home is the comedy store and they are part of it.

00:02:12Marc:They are an appendage.

00:02:14Marc:of the Comedy Store.

00:02:14Marc:Now, I don't really know how he'd feel about me saying it like that, but it's true.

00:02:19Marc:There's somebody who is in permanent residence there.

00:02:22Marc:And he came out here years ago and he was well, he'll tell a story.

00:02:28Marc:But I just need you to know that there are some dudes that live at the comedy store and and they're a unique breed.

00:02:37Marc:And they've always been there.

00:02:38Marc:He's one of the people that's it's like Jeff Ross.

00:02:42Marc:You know, he's always been in show business since the beginning of show business.

00:02:46Marc:Rick is sort of like one of those guys.

00:02:48Marc:Young guy, though.

00:02:50Marc:I'm not trying to make him sound like an old man, but I talked to him.

00:02:52Marc:I want to update you on a story because I think it's very sweet.

00:02:58Marc:I told you the story about getting the flat tire when I went down to Dynasty Typewriter to do my Thursday night.

00:03:06Marc:It was a story with Jerry Stahl.

00:03:08Marc:I got a flat.

00:03:10Marc:I mean, if you listen to the show, you know what I'm talking about.

00:03:12Marc:And there was a couple there.

00:03:14Marc:He seemed like a very Italian filly, kind of scary.

00:03:19Marc:His wife was a fan.

00:03:20Marc:He thought I was an asshole.

00:03:22Marc:Turns out his name is Dan.

00:03:24Marc:Her name is Alexis.

00:03:26Marc:And I told you that whole story about...

00:03:28Marc:Him trying to help me and then me being afraid of him, and he was making a skyscraper, both from South Philly, his wife is the fan, yada yada.

00:03:37Marc:He was going to help me with the flat tire.

00:03:39Marc:Then I came out at the end of the night, and his tires had been flattened because he parked in the driveway.

00:03:44Marc:It was a convoluted tale, but...

00:03:47Marc:She sent me one of the nicest thank you notes like this beautifully handprinted, handwritten with illustrations.

00:03:57Marc:She's a big fan of my IG Live, this Alexis woman.

00:04:00Marc:Dear Mark, thank you for Thursday night.

00:04:01Marc:You were such a gentleman shaking my hand and speaking with us.

00:04:05Marc:You killed on stage.

00:04:06Marc:My stomach hurt from laughing for 50 minutes straight.

00:04:09Marc:Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

00:04:11Marc:We know you were having a rough day.

00:04:12Marc:Broken Sammy vase.

00:04:14Marc:You were feeling anxious, i.e.

00:04:15Marc:your process.

00:04:16Marc:Had to prepare for your show.

00:04:18Marc:Had friends with you.

00:04:19Marc:And you had to fix your tire.

00:04:20Marc:We sent you a gift for contingency's sake.

00:04:23Marc:And even though you can change your own tire, we thought you might like to have the inflator.

00:04:29Marc:You can always use it for tires, bike tires, inflatables, for a pool, footballs, etc.

00:04:33Marc:They sent me...

00:04:35Marc:One of those inflators, like you plug it in.

00:04:39Marc:What do they call it exactly?

00:04:40Marc:A tire inflator, air compressor.

00:04:42Marc:That's what she sent me, Alexis and Dan.

00:04:46Marc:What lovely people.

00:04:47Marc:She goes on to, she drew pictures of the box and of the, it's sort of, this whole letter is like, it's almost like a beautiful sort of illustrated children's book for a grownup, for me.

00:05:00Marc:What a thoughtful gift.

00:05:02Marc:been pitching the tv show and uh it looks like someone's gonna give us someone's gonna step up someone's gonna tell us that we can write a script me and the lip site who got a lot of exciting juice those lip site stories from uh james murphy the other day huh what about it

00:05:24Marc:Talked to Rick Rubin the other day.

00:05:26Marc:That'll be coming up.

00:05:28Marc:Everything's... Nothing's okay out there.

00:05:31Marc:The fascists are coming.

00:05:34Marc:The fires are coming.

00:05:36Marc:The future is wobbly for everybody.

00:05:39Marc:The disease is kind of pestering.

00:05:43Marc:It's not going away.

00:05:45Marc:I've had to push back idiots who just resurfaced from moments in my life.

00:05:51Marc:You ever have one of those guys...

00:05:53Marc:You don't really know them that well, but at some point, like 30 years ago, you gave them your phone number and you haven't changed the phone number.

00:06:02Marc:And every so often they just pop in and you got to deal with whatever stage they are at in their fucking life and whatever they're thinking.

00:06:10Marc:But you don't really know them.

00:06:11Marc:But 30 years ago, you gave them your phone number.

00:06:14Marc:You might have talked to them a couple of times.

00:06:16Marc:They might have glommed somehow.

00:06:18Marc:They might have been peripherally involved.

00:06:21Marc:in your life or what you do, but now you don't know what the fuck they do or who the fuck they are.

00:06:26Marc:And all of a sudden they're texting their opinions about why vaccines are bullshit.

00:06:32Marc:Oh, this got specific all of a sudden.

00:06:34Marc:Yeah, I had to block that guy because whatever he thinks, I don't have to fucking deal with it.

00:06:40Marc:I don't have to fucking engage that guy.

00:06:42Marc:What?

00:06:44Marc:I don't know that person.

00:06:45Marc:What?

00:06:46Marc:Just because I met you 30 years ago and we had words?

00:06:50Marc:We're fucking friends?

00:06:53Marc:I don't think so.

00:06:55Marc:And yeah, it's good luck.

00:06:57Marc:And I wish you well.

00:06:59Marc:Spreading the word that can bring more death into the world.

00:07:04Marc:Good for you.

00:07:05Marc:You're doing the Lord's work, stranger.

00:07:10Marc:Guy who I gave my phone number to and maybe had a meal with once, twice, in 33 years.

00:07:18Marc:Leave me the fuck alone.

00:07:21Marc:I get it.

00:07:22Marc:I know where you stand.

00:07:23Marc:You stand with the dummies.

00:07:26Marc:So, look, Rick Ingram is a comedy store fixture, and I don't mean that in a bad way.

00:07:33Marc:Great comic, crowd-working dude, unique, but he's always there, and he's the host of the Comedy Store podcast, which you can check out wherever you get your podcasts.

00:07:45Marc:Also, before I forget, Dark Fonzie Six,

00:07:52Marc:is up now.

00:07:53Marc:Dean Del Rey and myself are doing the Dark Fonzies.

00:07:57Marc:Couple a month.

00:07:58Marc:It's a good chat.

00:08:00Marc:We've got a good rapport.

00:08:02Marc:Easy listening.

00:08:05Marc:So that's Dark Fonzie 6 from me and Dean Del Rey.

00:08:08Marc:The Comedy Store Podcast from Rick Ingram.

00:08:12Marc:And this is me talking to Rick Ingram here in the garage.

00:08:23Marc:I've been meditating.

00:08:25Marc:You?

00:08:26Marc:No, never.

00:08:28Guest:Never.

00:08:29Guest:You never even thought to?

00:08:31Guest:No, I don't want to be at peace.

00:08:33Guest:No?

00:08:34Marc:That's when I'm at my worst.

00:08:37Marc:I think I used to think that.

00:08:39Marc:But the thing is, you know what?

00:08:41Marc:Even if you did meditate, you're not going to.

00:08:43Guest:It's still going to be angry, right?

00:08:44Marc:Yeah.

00:08:45Marc:The moment you come out of that zen, you're like... But that doesn't mean it doesn't do something.

00:08:50Marc:It might not be about peace, but it might be about being able to quiet down your brain when necessary.

00:08:56Guest:I mean, that sounds all right.

00:08:57Marc:It's like a muscle.

00:08:58Marc:Yeah.

00:08:58Marc:You know what I mean?

00:08:58Marc:It's sort of like, how do I... Why am I sitting here...

00:09:03Marc:furious about some other comics bit that has nothing to do with me but is wrong-minded in in its entirety it's insulting to what we do is the reason why i get i get angrier about comedians bits more than anything in the world where i'm just like that's not even funny why is the crowd laughing at that

00:09:23Marc:Well, there's that.

00:09:24Marc:I've grown over the years, my many decades in this business of watching comics kill, who I'm like, am I not understanding the tone?

00:09:36Marc:How does this not... And eventually, sort of like, well, who am I to judge?

00:09:40Marc:What makes me laugh, really?

00:09:44Marc:It's been happening.

00:09:46Marc:It's been coming back.

00:09:47Marc:I was able to shut that off.

00:09:49Marc:Just in terms of the need to be diplomatic and not be a total dick.

00:09:54Marc:Okay.

00:09:54Guest:You're trying to... No, I think I was for a while.

00:09:57Guest:No.

00:09:58Guest:I mean, you definitely seem more pleasant, but I felt like it was probably due to... Yeah.

00:10:05Guest:Yeah.

00:10:06Guest:you know not seeing everyone for a long time no no it's a decision but actually now i'm more pleasant but uh but there's more of that kind of like the is that guy doing it's coming back that tone and saying it to people truth is positivity that's how i look at it if that was what you were feeling at that moment then it would have been wrong to say anything else i or but there's the choice of like is it necessary to say that well

00:10:33Guest:I mean, it depends on how you feel.

00:10:36Guest:I think it is.

00:10:37Guest:And listen, I've been burning bridges in this industry as long as I've been in this industry.

00:10:43Marc:Well, yeah, how long has it been?

00:10:45Marc:I'm trying to think when I first met you, you were like a child.

00:10:48Marc:You were like a child at the comedy store that showed up abandoned.

00:10:53Guest:Basically, yeah.

00:10:54Guest:I was 21 when I showed up there.

00:10:57Guest:What year?

00:11:01Guest:End of 2002.

00:11:02Guest:Really?

00:11:02Marc:It's been that long?

00:11:03Marc:I've been there that long.

00:11:05Marc:Oh, Jesus.

00:11:06Marc:Okay, so that was right when I sort of came back.

00:11:09Guest:Yeah, I was there for maybe a year and a half or maybe two years before you started coming around.

00:11:15Guest:Were you a door guy?

00:11:17Guest:I was, yeah.

00:11:18Guest:I did the open mic, and it was just a clusterfuck of insanity.

00:11:24Marc:I don't know that time.

00:11:26Marc:So where do you come from?

00:11:28Marc:I'm from Kansas City.

00:11:29Marc:Oh, that's right, Kansas City.

00:11:31Guest:Missouri or Kansas?

00:11:33Guest:I'm from the suburbs of Kansas.

00:11:35Guest:So I grew up in a nice suburb.

00:11:39Marc:With nice parents?

00:11:40Guest:Yeah, got great parents.

00:11:41Guest:Really?

00:11:42Guest:Super nice, super supportive.

00:11:43Marc:Brothers and sisters?

00:11:44Guest:Older brother, three younger sisters.

00:11:45Guest:That many?

00:11:46Guest:Yeah.

00:11:47Guest:Religious people in Kansas?

00:11:48Guest:Lots of them.

00:11:49Guest:We weren't.

00:11:50Guest:Oh, that's good.

00:11:51Guest:But, yeah, I was raised by, you know, some of the few liberals in Kansas.

00:11:55Marc:Progressive people?

00:11:56Marc:Creative people?

00:11:57Marc:Yeah.

00:11:57Marc:Supportive people?

00:11:58Guest:Yeah.

00:11:59Guest:Very supportive when I... Still?

00:12:01Guest:Yeah.

00:12:02Guest:More so now, honestly.

00:12:05Guest:Now that I don't need anything from them, they're even more supportive.

00:12:09Guest:They're like, phew.

00:12:09Guest:Yeah.

00:12:10Marc:You did all right.

00:12:12Marc:I guess you're okay.

00:12:13Guest:Yeah.

00:12:15Guest:You know, there was...

00:12:16Guest:Four kids until I was in high school.

00:12:18Guest:My parents had the surprise fifth kid, the sitcom.

00:12:22Guest:These actors are getting too old.

00:12:24Guest:We need to introduce a new character kid.

00:12:27Marc:If we want to keep this show on the air, we better get another one.

00:12:30Marc:So you were in high school when they had one?

00:12:32Guest:Yeah, I was a junior in high school when my baby sister was born.

00:12:36Marc:How old was your mom?

00:12:37Marc:Was it a miracle?

00:12:37Marc:Yeah.

00:12:37Guest:Yeah.

00:12:38Guest:Yeah.

00:12:38Guest:Mom was 40 or 41, but a cancer survivor and had already had done radiation and chemo.

00:12:47Guest:You're not supposed to have kids when you have that.

00:12:49Guest:Yeah.

00:12:50Guest:And apparently she was told she went through early menopause.

00:12:54Guest:Yeah.

00:12:54Guest:So she was like, yeah, you can't have any more kids.

00:12:57Guest:Go ahead.

00:12:57Guest:Party.

00:12:58Guest:Yeah, exactly.

00:12:59Guest:And, you know, mom and dad were handling business, I guess, still.

00:13:03Guest:So four kids in the house couldn't slow that down.

00:13:05Guest:But yeah, so surprise.

00:13:08Marc:Is it nice when you know that they're handling business?

00:13:10Marc:I mean, it's sort of a relief in a way.

00:13:11Marc:I don't think it's awkward.

00:13:13Marc:You guys are without God.

00:13:15Marc:How could you not continue to do that if you're able?

00:13:17Guest:Yeah, I remember people being like, oh, does that freak you out?

00:13:20Guest:And being like, no.

00:13:21Guest:I would hope.

00:13:22Guest:Yeah.

00:13:23Marc:Hope the folks are still fucking.

00:13:25Marc:Yeah.

00:13:25Marc:What else is there?

00:13:27Marc:What else is there?

00:13:28Guest:It's truly my greatest passion is to make sure all the folks are still fucking.

00:13:32Guest:How old's your brother?

00:13:35Guest:He's a year and a half older than me.

00:13:37Guest:What'd that guy end up doing?

00:13:39Guest:He just works a regular job.

00:13:40Guest:Like a regular person job?

00:13:42Guest:Yeah, normal human being.

00:13:43Guest:In Kansas?

00:13:44Guest:Yep.

00:13:44Guest:Yeah, he's got a family.

00:13:45Marc:Nice guy?

00:13:46Guest:Really nice dude.

00:13:47Guest:Wow.

00:13:48Guest:Yeah, I mean, you know, bullied the shit out of me as a kid.

00:13:51Marc:Was he a football player?

00:13:53Guest:No, no.

00:13:54Guest:He played baseball until high school, and then he was just a normal.

00:13:58Guest:And what job did your dad do?

00:14:00Guest:Dad was a corporate lawyer and mom was a teacher.

00:14:04Guest:Oh, so you grew up nicely.

00:14:06Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:14:07Guest:I mean, it's disturbing that I'm able to be funny at all.

00:14:12Marc:That's good.

00:14:13Marc:I thought you were like a runaway.

00:14:15Guest:Listen.

00:14:15Guest:I had plans in all truth.

00:14:19Guest:Yeah.

00:14:19Guest:You know, I read a bunch of books and watched a bunch of movies and stuff when I was growing up.

00:14:23Guest:I'm like, I had a plan ready to run away.

00:14:25Guest:Yeah.

00:14:26Guest:I'm like, as soon as shit starts going bad and then it just kept being good.

00:14:29Guest:Really?

00:14:30Marc:When did that plan start to manifest?

00:14:32Marc:Like you were like, what, 10, 11?

00:14:34Guest:Yeah.

00:14:35Guest:I was just like, you know what?

00:14:36Guest:That seems pretty cool.

00:14:37Guest:You know, that guy's living in a carved out tree.

00:14:40Guest:Yeah.

00:14:40Guest:One of these days, my parents are going to get really mad at me.

00:14:43Guest:They're going to yell, and that's when I'm hitting the highway.

00:14:46Marc:Yeah, and finding that tree.

00:14:47Guest:Yeah.

00:14:48Guest:Yeah.

00:14:49Marc:Did you do comedy in high school?

00:14:52Guest:The first time I did comedy was I did it once in high school.

00:14:55Guest:I was vice president of my school.

00:14:59Guest:Oh, my God.

00:15:00Marc:Yeah.

00:15:01Marc:How did you get so fucking broken?

00:15:03Yeah.

00:15:04Guest:um it happened it got there i just always disliked humanity i think and so i grew up most people i knew were very religious like christians yeah um you know i've never believed in anything so so well kansas is sort of one of those places where you know in the very near future most progressives and good people rational people will leave yeah

00:15:28Marc:Like, there's going to be this sort of balkanization of the Midwest, and, you know, there's just not enough good people to support it, and they can only hang on to that so much.

00:15:38Marc:But our towns, it's not going to matter.

00:15:40Marc:You've got to leave or get more good people there, because it's no good.

00:15:44Guest:I feel like they just accept that if they can just find, like, 10 good people... Well, I think that's what most of us do, but I don't know what the solution is, because some of those places where...

00:15:55Marc:What's sad to me is like, even if fascism takes over, most people are going to be like, I'm okay, though.

00:16:02Marc:I mean, it's not really, I'm okay.

00:16:04Guest:If you don't change people's lives that much, they'll never care.

00:16:07Marc:No, they're just sort of like, what is it?

00:16:10Marc:Fascism when?

00:16:11Marc:Now it's happening.

00:16:12Guest:They don't even know what that means.

00:16:13Guest:No, of course not.

00:16:14Guest:It's just like, well, I can still go to the store.

00:16:16Guest:Right, yeah.

00:16:17Guest:The scaredest I saw in America was those first four weeks of COVID lockdown.

00:16:22Guest:Yeah.

00:16:22Guest:And then people were like, well, we can't wipe our ass.

00:16:25Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:16:26Guest:All we can eat is the low-carb vegan pasta.

00:16:32Guest:Yeah.

00:16:32Guest:You can't even get that shitty whole grain pasta.

00:16:36Guest:There's a panic around paper products.

00:16:38Guest:People were freaking out.

00:16:40Guest:It was spectacular.

00:16:41Guest:I was telling Dean Del Rey, maybe a week ago, you were crushing in the main room.

00:16:48Guest:And I said, man, he is fucking killing it right now.

00:16:50Guest:And I don't know if he's any different or if the rest of the world just finally understands.

00:16:55Guest:It's actually not that great.

00:16:57Guest:Yeah.

00:16:58Guest:Everything is actually kind of shitty.

00:16:59Guest:Yeah, a little bit.

00:17:00Guest:And that's why every time people are like, dude, you're so negative.

00:17:03Guest:No one says it anymore.

00:17:04Guest:Yeah.

00:17:05Marc:Is that true?

00:17:06Guest:Yeah.

00:17:07Guest:I haven't had one person.

00:17:08Guest:The parking lot guy one night when you and I pulled in at the same time.

00:17:12Guest:Oh, right.

00:17:12Guest:Said something about, oh, the two most negative people here.

00:17:15Guest:And we immediately gave him the fucking business.

00:17:18Guest:I don't hear it anymore.

00:17:20Guest:People are just like, yeah, things are kind of shitty.

00:17:22Marc:They caught up.

00:17:22Marc:Yeah.

00:17:23Marc:Finally.

00:17:23Marc:Yeah.

00:17:24Marc:The negative people have found their time.

00:17:26Marc:Well, it feels like that, man.

00:17:28Marc:Watching these people, you know, like, really?

00:17:30Marc:We're just going to go right back to your wife is a problem?

00:17:33Marc:Yeah.

00:17:34Marc:Yeah.

00:17:35Marc:For 10 minutes?

00:17:35Marc:Well, that was, I was going to say earlier about, it's not so much that I feel that anyone's committing a crime against our...

00:17:42Marc:Business or because comedy really, for the most part, the person that was inspired or actually spoke truth to power or did anything uniquely interesting was was the rarity.

00:17:54Marc:Most most people are kind of run of the mill.

00:17:57Marc:Sure.

00:17:57Marc:B room headliners.

00:17:58Marc:Yeah.

00:18:00Marc:For in the history of comedy.

00:18:02Marc:And there were thousands of them.

00:18:03Marc:Yeah.

00:18:03Marc:Always.

00:18:04Marc:Yeah.

00:18:04Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:18:05Marc:But what happens to me when I'm sitting in those rooms, it's like, you have 15 minutes.

00:18:10Marc:This is what we're doing with five?

00:18:11Guest:Yeah.

00:18:13Guest:The thing that always bothered me, and I think it's part of what made me do what I do, which a lot of people hate, was when I worked at the comedy store, I worked six nights a week.

00:18:23Guest:And so back then, there was no one there.

00:18:26Guest:It would be like 10 people in the crowd.

00:18:28Guest:And I watched the same comics do the same 10 minutes, the same 15 minutes,

00:18:32Guest:Every night, five nights a week.

00:18:36Guest:And I'm just so dumbfounded by it.

00:18:39Guest:Why would you do that?

00:18:39Guest:Are we in a time glitch?

00:18:41Guest:Yeah, this hasn't worked yet.

00:18:44Guest:You're not working it out.

00:18:45Guest:It's not like they're adjusting how they're performing it.

00:18:48Guest:They're just doing the same shitty 15 minutes with the same beats and the same.

00:18:53Guest:Yeah, like an automaton.

00:18:55Guest:Yeah.

00:18:55Guest:I know.

00:18:56Guest:Like eventually they thought, you know what it is?

00:18:58Marc:It's the crowd every night.

00:18:59Marc:Sure, of course.

00:19:00Marc:I mean, I've gotten committed to lines that don't work because I enjoy them.

00:19:04Marc:They're throwaway lines, but I'm not going to move them.

00:19:06Marc:But that's not the... The whole joke isn't hinging on them.

00:19:10Guest:Yeah, and that's not what I'm talking about.

00:19:12Marc:No, I know.

00:19:12Marc:I know what you're talking about.

00:19:13Marc:Full bits.

00:19:14Marc:Full bits.

00:19:14Marc:Yeah.

00:19:15Marc:There's sometimes like... Well, let's go back.

00:19:19Marc:So you're in Kansas City because I think that you...

00:19:22Marc:You know, you're a guy, you are a true product of the store, and you choose to stay on the shelf there.

00:19:28Guest:Yeah.

00:19:29Guest:Yeah.

00:19:29Guest:I mean, I don't really have any other option.

00:19:32Guest:Right.

00:19:32Guest:One of my worst qualities in this industry is I can't hang out somewhere.

00:19:40Guest:If I don't have a spot, I can't hang out there.

00:19:42Guest:No, I can't either.

00:19:43Guest:When people are like, dude, you should go to the improv.

00:19:46Guest:I'm like, I don't want to go there.

00:19:47Guest:They give me a spot like three times a year.

00:19:49Guest:It's always at 1230 at night.

00:19:51Guest:It's always like seven people.

00:19:53Guest:Yeah.

00:19:54Guest:And it sucks.

00:19:55Guest:It's terrible.

00:19:55Guest:If they gave me great spots, then I'd do it.

00:19:58Guest:But I'm not going to just go to comedy clubs and hang out.

00:20:00Marc:Look, I know what it's like to, you know, there's nothing wrong with living at the store.

00:20:04Marc:I mean, I literally lived there.

00:20:07Marc:I mean, not as long as you've been there, but I mean, I think that you were the last of that system because the system's gone.

00:20:16Marc:And when you got there, it seemed like it was still weirdly in place.

00:20:21Marc:Like she was still kind of active.

00:20:23Marc:She was still around.

00:20:23Marc:Yeah.

00:20:24Marc:So how do you leave Kansas?

00:20:26Marc:In a huff?

00:20:27Marc:Did you go to college?

00:20:28Marc:What happened?

00:20:29Guest:I went to...

00:20:30Guest:I went to film school.

00:20:31Guest:You did?

00:20:31Guest:My original dream was to be a film director.

00:20:35Guest:Right.

00:20:35Guest:I still would love to do that.

00:20:37Guest:I have no ability to do that.

00:20:38Marc:But maybe that's just, maybe, I don't know.

00:20:41Marc:It could happen.

00:20:42Marc:You're going to have to apply some will to it.

00:20:44Marc:Sure.

00:20:45Marc:It's not going to like, oh my God, it's happening.

00:20:47Guest:Well, I thought it was the 90s, so people just still push that you can do anything.

00:20:54Guest:Sure.

00:20:55Marc:Some people still believe that.

00:20:56Marc:You know the one I can't stand is like, if you work hard, you'll be a success.

00:20:59Marc:No, you'll be effective.

00:21:03Marc:Yeah, you can get work.

00:21:04Marc:Yeah, exactly.

00:21:05Marc:That's it.

00:21:06Marc:It's like you can get work if you work hard.

00:21:08Guest:Yeah, that's what you can do.

00:21:09Guest:Right.

00:21:09Guest:You're going to have to make connections with someone at some point.

00:21:12Marc:But it's like if you...

00:21:14Marc:It's like it was upsetting me yesterday where it's sort of like, you know, this idea like because you're possessed by the demon of comedy.

00:21:22Marc:You've chosen to do, you know, improvisation and sort of fly by the seat of your pants, which is ultimately the best rush of what we do, you know.

00:21:31Marc:But, you know, some people just think like, you know, if I just kind of work hard and keep working and, you know, if I really kind of like put this amount of time in, you know, I deserve to be rewarded.

00:21:41Marc:I'm like, I don't know.

00:21:42Marc:Because at some point, if you have undeniable talent and you don't kill yourself, eventually someone will come around.

00:21:49Guest:Someone will see it, right.

00:21:49Marc:But if you just do a good job, there's plenty of people that do a good job.

00:21:54Guest:Yeah, I think a lot of... I call it...

00:21:58Guest:In the mirror comedy.

00:21:59Guest:Yeah.

00:22:00Guest:Which I think is like 80% of comedians.

00:22:02Guest:It's like they came up with a bit.

00:22:04Guest:Yeah.

00:22:05Guest:They could do it in a mirror.

00:22:06Guest:Right.

00:22:07Guest:Get it perfect how they want to say it.

00:22:08Guest:And then they do it on stage.

00:22:10Guest:Most comedians aren't funny.

00:22:11Guest:Yeah.

00:22:12Guest:Like if you talk to them off stage, you're like, oh, that kind of shitty.

00:22:16Yeah.

00:22:16Guest:You know, they're typically bad people, but they're just not that interesting.

00:22:21Guest:But they learn a skill.

00:22:22Guest:Right.

00:22:22Guest:That's true.

00:22:23Guest:That's it.

00:22:24Guest:And it is like for five or six years, if you work really hard at it, you can learn how to be a comedian.

00:22:30Marc:That whole element of it annoys me.

00:22:33Marc:Yeah.

00:22:34Marc:But it's always been true.

00:22:36Marc:And I think that some of the people that I think are not as funny, or you would think they aren't funny offstage.

00:22:43Marc:I've seen people who I thought just were never going to get the hang of it, or weren't funny, get funny.

00:22:50Marc:Because really it was about...

00:22:53Marc:people not understanding they're funny.

00:22:55Marc:You know, it wasn't, they weren't just joke machines.

00:22:57Marc:They just didn't know how to do it any other way.

00:22:59Marc:You look at someone like Todd Berry, Nate Bargetsy, you know, like they're not going to change gears.

00:23:04Marc:Either eventually people, Jeff Ross was like that too.

00:23:06Marc:I couldn't, he was always kind of successful, but watching him was like watching fucking paint dry before he became an insult guy.

00:23:13Marc:Like when he was Jeff Liftschultz and he had hair, it was sort of like, what is,

00:23:17Marc:Yeah.

00:23:17Marc:Oh, see, I didn't even know about that.

00:23:19Marc:What, that his name was Jeff Lifshultz?

00:23:20Marc:That or- He had hair?

00:23:21Marc:Yeah, all of that.

00:23:22Marc:Oh, yeah, he had a full Jersey mullet.

00:23:24Marc:Wow.

00:23:24Marc:Back when he started.

00:23:25Marc:We were all younger, but I just couldn't understand.

00:23:27Marc:He was one of those guys, I'm like, what are they, I don't understand, why is this guy successful?

00:23:31Guest:Yeah, I still have moments where I wonder.

00:23:34Guest:Anyways, despite all that, all right, so you wanted to be, right.

00:23:38Guest:I wanted to be a director.

00:23:39Guest:Right.

00:23:40Guest:So my first year of college, I went to film school, small film school in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

00:23:46Marc:I grew up in New Mexico.

00:23:48Guest:Yeah.

00:23:48Guest:I went to the College of Santa Fe, which is now defunct.

00:23:53Guest:It's one of the only colleges I've ever heard of that went bankrupt and no longer exists.

00:23:58Guest:During COVID or just in general?

00:24:00Guest:No, about 10 years ago, something like that.

00:24:02Guest:I didn't even know there was a- I knew that St.

00:24:05Guest:John's was up there.

00:24:06Guest:Yeah, that was our quote unquote rival, I guess, but- The philosophy school?

00:24:10Guest:Yeah, they were just these two small kind of liberal arts schools.

00:24:16Guest:The College of Santa Fe was like, they had film, theater, a couple other things.

00:24:21Guest:Was it more like a summer camp?

00:24:23Guest:I mean, it felt really bizarre.

00:24:27Guest:It was smaller than my high school.

00:24:29Guest:And the teachers, I just hated.

00:24:33Guest:They were like super artsy.

00:24:36Guest:Oh, yeah?

00:24:37Guest:Were they like locals?

00:24:38Guest:Probably.

00:24:39Guest:No big names?

00:24:40Guest:I've never heard of any of them outside of there.

00:24:42Guest:What'd you have to take?

00:24:44Guest:It was all just like these introductory film classes.

00:24:47Marc:But did you have to do other liberal arts things?

00:24:50Guest:I took an English class that was amazing.

00:24:53Guest:The teacher was pretty crazy.

00:24:55Guest:I remember the first day being like,

00:24:57Guest:I think she's on mushrooms.

00:24:59Guest:And then like maybe two months into the semester, she just didn't show up.

00:25:04Guest:Yeah.

00:25:05Guest:And we were like, all right.

00:25:06Guest:So we hung out of class for 10 minutes and left.

00:25:08Guest:Then went back on the Wednesday, wasn't there.

00:25:11Guest:Really?

00:25:11Guest:Missed like a solid three weeks.

00:25:13Guest:No explanation.

00:25:14Guest:No explanation.

00:25:15Guest:And no one did anything.

00:25:15Guest:No one did anything.

00:25:16Guest:College didn't care.

00:25:17Guest:It was just like whatever.

00:25:18Guest:Yeah.

00:25:19Guest:And so after like three or four weeks, someone, I stopped going and someone was like, hey, I said,

00:25:26Guest:I can't even remember what her actual name was, like Ms.

00:25:28Guest:Davis or something, really normal.

00:25:30Guest:They said, she's back.

00:25:31Guest:And so the following Monday or whatever it was, I went to class and she was there and just all trippy.

00:25:39Guest:Really?

00:25:40Guest:She was like,

00:25:41Guest:So everyone, I want everyone to call me Marmica from now on.

00:25:46Marc:Marmica?

00:25:46Marc:Marmica.

00:25:48Marc:That's what she wanted.

00:25:48Marc:So that's what she figured out over those three weeks.

00:25:51Guest:Yeah.

00:25:51Guest:And she told, someone goes, where have you been?

00:25:55Guest:And she goes, oh, I'm sorry for my absence.

00:25:58Guest:I was at the fair.

00:25:59Guest:The fair.

00:26:00Guest:No idea what that meant.

00:26:01Guest:No fair that anyone could figure out anywhere nearby.

00:26:05Marc:I like that as a general answer for mysterious absence.

00:26:09Marc:For weeks.

00:26:10Marc:For weeks.

00:26:11Marc:Was it the fair?

00:26:12Marc:Was it the fair?

00:26:12Marc:Which fair?

00:26:13Marc:No.

00:26:15Guest:The fair.

00:26:17Guest:The fair?

00:26:18Guest:Yeah.

00:26:19Guest:Uh-huh.

00:26:20Guest:Yeah, so I had that class.

00:26:22Guest:I had some bullshit social science class.

00:26:25Guest:It was like we learned about nonsense.

00:26:29Guest:Right.

00:26:29Guest:What about the actual film study?

00:26:31Guest:The film study was, according to the other people who I became friends with that stayed there, by their senior year, they got to work on projects.

00:26:41Guest:Uh-huh.

00:26:41Guest:There was no actual film stuff being done other than just basically film history class where they're showing us movies and, you know, oh, here's Citizen Kane.

00:26:52Guest:Take a look at the Zoom.

00:26:53Guest:That's the first time anyone ever Zoomed.

00:26:55Guest:Yeah, the deep focus.

00:26:56Guest:Yeah, you're like, okay.

00:26:57Guest:Deep focus.

00:26:58Guest:I probably saw Citizen Kane six times, and each time they were trying to claim that there was something else about it that was amazing.

00:27:06Guest:There is, yeah.

00:27:07Guest:And I remember being like, okay, this is a cool film.

00:27:10Guest:I'm not learning anything by watching this.

00:27:12Guest:I've seen this film.

00:27:14Guest:I want to make films.

00:27:15Guest:I watched this because other people were like, hey, you should watch Citizen Kane.

00:27:19Guest:So I did that for a year.

00:27:22Guest:Watched Citizen Kane.

00:27:23Guest:Watched Citizen Kane for a year.

00:27:24Marc:Yeah.

00:27:25Guest:I remember I had this one crazy teacher who made us do like this four week project on costume design or something.

00:27:36Guest:I want everyone to make an alien costume.

00:27:40Guest:Yeah.

00:27:40Guest:And I just remember being like, this is dumb.

00:27:43Guest:I made some shitty costume out of, you know, poster board or whatever it was.

00:27:47Guest:And I remember her being like, this is unimaginative.

00:27:50Guest:And what you're doing is taking ideas from other alien costume creators and just being like,

00:27:57Guest:I don't want to make alien costumes.

00:27:59Guest:How does this fucking help me?

00:28:00Guest:I want to make a movie.

00:28:01Guest:Yeah, I don't want to be the costume person.

00:28:03Guest:You hack alien costume maker.

00:28:06Guest:Looking back, she was 100% right.

00:28:09Guest:You just lifted some classic inspiration.

00:28:12Guest:Yeah, it's like every- From garbage aliens.

00:28:15Guest:Every dog alien that exists now in every film is the same shit, and they stole it from me.

00:28:20Guest:Yeah.

00:28:21Marc:And I stole it from the best.

00:28:23Marc:Yeah.

00:28:23Marc:recaptured the box alien it was from the robot so it was ridiculous you dropped out i dropped out and then i transferred to university of kansas because i could get in yeah is there anything good about kansas um not really i mean like i think i've driven through there you know and i think i've uh i don't think i've ever performed there but like is there something like uh like kansas city is it sort of like oh you got to

00:28:49Marc:Well, they got the ribs, right?

00:28:50Marc:Barbecue.

00:28:51Marc:I mean, that's the main thing is food.

00:28:53Marc:Kansas City, Kansas.

00:28:54Marc:But Kansas City, Missouri, it's different.

00:28:57Guest:It's different.

00:28:58Guest:I mean, it's basically the same, but there's just a state line that goes down.

00:29:02Guest:The city was created before there were states.

00:29:04Guest:Oh, so it's on both sides.

00:29:06Guest:Yeah.

00:29:07Marc:It's a river.

00:29:07Marc:Oh, that's right.

00:29:08Marc:Okay.

00:29:08Marc:The Missouri River basically splits the city.

00:29:11Marc:So I have been there and I've had this conversation before.

00:29:13Marc:I have done a show in Kansas City.

00:29:16Yeah.

00:29:16Marc:Is that where Arthur Bryant's is?

00:29:18Marc:Correct.

00:29:18Marc:Okay, yes.

00:29:19Marc:I performed there.

00:29:20Marc:It was okay.

00:29:21Guest:Yeah, it's okay.

00:29:22Marc:I did a theater of some kind.

00:29:23Marc:I did all right.

00:29:24Marc:Yeah, it's a standard Midwestern city.

00:29:27Marc:That's right.

00:29:28Marc:That's what it is.

00:29:28Marc:Standard Midwestern city.

00:29:30Marc:It's okay.

00:29:31Marc:No one's downtown ever.

00:29:33Guest:No.

00:29:34Guest:They're trying really hard.

00:29:35Marc:That's every Midwestern city.

00:29:37Marc:Yeah, they're all like, we rebuilt it.

00:29:39Guest:It's now the Power and Light District.

00:29:40Guest:And you're like, you got the power company to sponsor your cool downtown area?

00:29:45Yeah.

00:29:45Guest:We built the Sprint Center.

00:29:47Guest:But we don't have a pro team to play in there.

00:29:50Guest:What are we using it for?

00:29:52Guest:They'll come.

00:29:53Guest:If you build it, they'll come.

00:29:54Guest:We work hard.

00:29:55Guest:When they built it, that's what they said.

00:29:56Guest:We're going to attract an NHL or an NBA team.

00:30:00Guest:They never showed?

00:30:00Guest:Everyone was like, we're good.

00:30:03Guest:I remember the last NBA basketball game I went to was before the Kings moved out of Kansas City in like 86.

00:30:10Guest:Yeah.

00:30:10Guest:And I haven't gone to a game since.

00:30:12Guest:Whenever people are like, you ever go to a Lakers game?

00:30:14Marc:I'm like, no.

00:30:15Marc:All right.

00:30:15Marc:So you go back to Kansas City.

00:30:16Marc:You go to college.

00:30:17Marc:Yeah.

00:30:17Marc:I went to college.

00:30:18Marc:And at this point, are you like, fuck this?

00:30:20Marc:Fuck life.

00:30:21Guest:Fuck you.

00:30:22Guest:I was disheartened the moment I had to go back to Kansas.

00:30:26Guest:Did you like Santa Fe, though?

00:30:27Guest:It's nice.

00:30:27Guest:I love Santa Fe.

00:30:28Guest:Yeah.

00:30:28Guest:The school was worthless and was way too expensive.

00:30:31Guest:How'd you choose that fucking school, dude?

00:30:35Guest:They showed up at my high school.

00:30:37Guest:Oh, you did one of those college fairs?

00:30:39Guest:No, I took the standardized test or whatever it was and I had marked on there that

00:30:46Guest:film and cinematography were of interest yeah and the college of santa fe obviously were sending reps out to yeah gather foolish middle americans that didn't know any better right and uh so i got called to the office in high school my senior year yeah and they said yeah this college recruiter wants to meet with you and

00:31:06Marc:You're getting recruited by a small liberal arts college because you like movies.

00:31:11Guest:Because I marked that I liked cinematography.

00:31:13Marc:This guy seems like a top movie-liker.

00:31:17Marc:We could draft this movie guy.

00:31:18Marc:The guy likes movies.

00:31:20Guest:Apparently, this guy has good grades and is interested in movies.

00:31:24Guest:He's the only one.

00:31:25Guest:He's our draft choice.

00:31:26Marc:Yeah.

00:31:28Marc:Talk to the principal.

00:31:29Guest:Yeah.

00:31:30Guest:How can we get this kid, the kid that likes movies?

00:31:34Guest:We need him.

00:31:35Guest:This is going to set us on the right path.

00:31:39Guest:And then it's like all these weird, like Annie Letterman went to college there.

00:31:43Guest:She did?

00:31:44Guest:Yeah.

00:31:44Guest:She actually graduated from there.

00:31:46Marc:She graduated from that college in- College of Santa Fe.

00:31:49Marc:And look how well she's done.

00:31:51Marc:Yeah.

00:31:51Marc:So many big names come out of there.

00:31:53Marc:You both have filthy mouths.

00:31:55Marc:If you would have stayed the whole four years, you would have been dirtier.

00:31:58Guest:We both started partying.

00:32:00Guest:That's what we got out of.

00:32:01Guest:Did you know her there?

00:32:02Guest:No, no.

00:32:03Guest:Is she older than you're younger?

00:32:04Guest:She's younger than me by a few years.

00:32:06Guest:I think I knew that about her.

00:32:08Marc:I'm sure we talked about that.

00:32:10Marc:That's wild.

00:32:11Guest:Yeah.

00:32:12Guest:Yeah.

00:32:12Guest:I mean, I've met a number of people who were like, yeah, I went there for a year.

00:32:17Marc:That's the plan.

00:32:18Marc:So it was one of those schools where you didn't need to have grades, really.

00:32:22Marc:No.

00:32:23Marc:You just need to have a little bread.

00:32:24Marc:You need a little money.

00:32:25Marc:Yeah.

00:32:25Marc:I went to one of those liberal arts colleges.

00:32:27Marc:We had a...

00:32:28Marc:It was primarily like sort of upper middle class kids who were not living up to their potential, but they had a very seriously good program for dyslexics.

00:32:39Marc:So it was this weird mixture of stoner Jewish kids from Long Island and, you know, earnest dyslexic people.

00:32:45Marc:Nice.

00:32:45Guest:We're trying to figure out how to function.

00:32:48Guest:I can't even read this guy.

00:32:51Guest:We both can't, but I'm just high.

00:32:53Guest:Yeah, it was weird.

00:32:57Guest:It was a lot of rich kids.

00:32:58Guest:I saw people shoot heroin for the first time.

00:33:00Marc:I remember when I first saw someone shooting up.

00:33:02Marc:Yeah.

00:33:03Marc:The vomiting right after.

00:33:04Marc:That put the kibosh on it for me.

00:33:06Marc:So does that always happen, the vomiting?

00:33:08Marc:I'm out.

00:33:08Guest:yeah that doesn't seem like fun yeah i got into vomiting much later due to unchecked diabetes uh oh no but uh yeah i i like maybe the second week i was at college it just seemed like you in order to drink and vomit you had to put a lot more work in you really got to drink a lot yeah it seems like if if the heroin is is just okay yeah you might be able to vomit yeah just by doing a little bit with one little bit yeah it's just the the shock to the system i like to earn my vomit me too i want to put in the effort yeah

00:33:37Guest:Yeah, I walked into the... I lived in the dorm, and I walked into the little common bathroom area.

00:33:44Guest:There's like three stalls or whatever, and there was just a dude on the floor, puke all over the place, needle on the ground.

00:33:51Guest:Did he die?

00:33:52Guest:No.

00:33:52Guest:I basically shook him awake, and he was trying to tell me that he was just sick.

00:33:56Guest:That's what he kept saying.

00:33:57Guest:I'm like, dude, there's a needle on the floor.

00:34:00Guest:No, I'm just sick.

00:34:02Guest:Dude, there...

00:34:03Guest:All right, man.

00:34:03Guest:You have a belt around your arm.

00:34:05Guest:Why are you lying to me?

00:34:07Guest:I don't give a fuck.

00:34:07Guest:I'm just trying to figure out why I can't take a shit because you're laying across three stalls.

00:34:14Guest:Why are you shooting up in the bathroom?

00:34:15Marc:Why don't you shoot up in your dorm room?

00:34:17Marc:It's like across the hall.

00:34:18Marc:It was training.

00:34:19Marc:He was trained to shoot up in bathrooms when he's out.

00:34:22Marc:You go to a stall.

00:34:23Guest:You close the door.

00:34:25Guest:You don't lock it.

00:34:26Guest:That way when you slump off the toilet of this glamorous lifestyle.

00:34:30Guest:Yeah.

00:34:32Guest:Yeah, so I just remember being like, whoa, I should start drinking.

00:34:35Guest:That's what I remember thinking.

00:34:36Guest:I was like, I need to start drinking.

00:34:38Marc:I need to do something, but this isn't it.

00:34:40Guest:I can't do this.

00:34:41Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:34:42Guest:I'm going to build up to it.

00:34:43Guest:I'll start with pot and alcohol and work my way there.

00:34:46Marc:Did you hit a wall with that shit, or you've always been able to manage it?

00:34:50Guest:With what?

00:34:51Guest:Booze?

00:34:52Guest:I drank considerably throughout the early 2000s.

00:34:58Guest:I quit when I found out I was diabetic.

00:35:01Guest:All right, so how long do you stay at the University of Kansas?

00:35:04Guest:I stayed at the University of Kansas for two years.

00:35:07Guest:Again, they have a film school.

00:35:11Guest:It's completely pointless.

00:35:13Guest:It was basically just a film history degree.

00:35:17Marc:Well, apparently, you know, like you wanted more of a you want to at least be able to shoot a movie.

00:35:23Guest:I should have just gone to like one of these L.A.

00:35:26Guest:Right.

00:35:27Guest:Intense year and a half.

00:35:28Marc:To learn how to cut.

00:35:30Marc:Yeah.

00:35:31Guest:You can learn camera work.

00:35:32Guest:Yeah.

00:35:33Guest:Just, you know, basically worked for someone for free for a couple of years.

00:35:36Marc:Get a P.A.

00:35:37Marc:job.

00:35:37Marc:Yeah.

00:35:37Marc:I think is what people do.

00:35:39Marc:So you didn't finish college.

00:35:41Marc:No.

00:35:42Marc:You just decided to come to Los Angeles?

00:35:44Guest:I started doing stand-up when I was in college at KU.

00:35:47Guest:I started going to Stanford and Sons in Kansas City.

00:35:50Guest:From 2000 to 2008-ish, I would hang out at the comedy store almost every night, and I would get pretty drunk.

00:35:58Guest:And about two hours in, I would just turn into drunk Argus Hamilton.

00:36:03Guest:That was what I would do.

00:36:04Guest:That was your bit?

00:36:04Guest:That was my shtick.

00:36:06Marc:I kind of remember it.

00:36:07Guest:That's how I became friends with some of the older comics.

00:36:09Guest:I did it to Charlie Hill, and he was like, oh, this is the best.

00:36:14Guest:And he would laugh so hard.

00:36:15Guest:Remember how hard Charlie Hill would laugh?

00:36:17Guest:You could just hear it for miles.

00:36:18Guest:And so anytime someone would be up there, he would be like,

00:36:21Guest:get over here, Argus, come talk to so-and-so.

00:36:24Guest:Oh, hey, buddy, good to see you.

00:36:27Guest:I was always hammered.

00:36:28Guest:I never knew what year it was.

00:36:29Marc:I remember, so, all right, so after Stanford and the Sons, you do your residency, you get your $20.

00:36:35Marc:Yeah.

00:36:36Marc:Who do you open for?

00:36:36Marc:How, like, because that, usually that's a time when you're in your hometown still.

00:36:40Marc:Like, I did some gigs after I fucking got all fucked up on Coke, you know, at the comedy store before I knew how, you know, the business worked.

00:36:48Marc:But like, I remember like I opened for when I went back to Albuquerque, like Jeff Foxworthy before he had the redneck hook.

00:36:54Marc:Right.

00:36:55Marc:Guy named Jimmy Woodard, who is like, I don't know what happened to that guy.

00:36:59Marc:But it's sort of like you start to see how the job works.

00:37:01Marc:Who did you see when, you know, when you were hosting?

00:37:04Marc:um i saw uh tracy morgan was the biggest name that came through there yeah what about some of the non-names do you remember them like what were they like just b room headliner kind of guys yeah there was uh james inman yeah was a guy who was he from seattle right or portland somewhere he was a angry kind of guy yeah yeah did the stanhope uh uh spectrum

00:37:28Guest:Correct.

00:37:29Guest:Yeah.

00:37:30Guest:He did.

00:37:30Guest:He was doing like he had a thing then called the Greyhound Diaries was like a slideshow comedy show where he traveled around America on a Greyhound.

00:37:39Guest:Yeah.

00:37:39Guest:Oh, OK.

00:37:40Guest:But it was like it was different enough.

00:37:43Guest:Like when he would do the random shows throughout the week, it was always yelling about how we got to take over the local radio station.

00:37:51Guest:Right.

00:37:51Guest:Because they keep playing 38 special.

00:37:54Marc:Yeah.

00:37:55Guest:Yeah.

00:37:55Guest:we're gonna play NoFX and whatever it was, all punk rock shit.

00:37:59Marc:There was a whole bunch of guys that kind of, there's not many of them, but the people that were born out of Hicks have a sort of definition of, they get very angry about bad rock music.

00:38:13Guest:Yeah, they do.

00:38:16Guest:Honestly, I always thought he was funny.

00:38:19Guest:He was very angry, but that was kind of one of the local guys.

00:38:25Guest:He was local in Kansas City at that point, so I'd see him a few times a month at least.

00:38:31Marc:He's one of those guys where I'm like, he kind of made a little noise for a minute a while back, and I'm like, I don't know what happens to those guys.

00:38:38Marc:That's where he is, huh?

00:38:39Marc:Kansas City, where did he end up with a woman?

00:38:41Guest:yeah i think so and i honestly don't really know what he's up to i just know he's still in kansas city i see him posting uh-huh um he's very political minded sure everyone's an idiot yeah um so yeah so i was doing that i still was living uh up at ku um walked in on my girlfriend another dude and said all right it's time to make a move

00:39:06Guest:That's really what shattered me into being a true comedian.

00:39:10Guest:You literally walked at him?

00:39:12Guest:Literally walked in.

00:39:12Guest:And she was in the middle of it?

00:39:15Guest:He was pounding that thing out, and he was a dude I knew, a friend of mine.

00:39:21Guest:What did they do?

00:39:23Guest:they stopped and uh he he kind of rolled off of her and yeah they looked at me like oh shit yeah and i i just remember being like what the fuck is going on yeah um i remember the visual of it to me is still that he had a pretty large penis right and being like this is disturbing yeah and um yeah and then it was all the worst things that could happen everything

00:39:49Marc:Every nightmare you could imagine.

00:39:50Marc:They're going at it.

00:39:51Marc:They stop.

00:39:51Marc:They look at you.

00:39:52Marc:Dick is huge.

00:39:53Marc:Dick is huge.

00:39:54Marc:Still erect.

00:39:55Marc:And there's nothing they can really say.

00:39:57Guest:No, no.

00:39:58Guest:And then, yeah, then I just remember there was a lot of shouting.

00:40:03Guest:Dude laughed, obviously.

00:40:04Guest:And then there was a lot of yelling.

00:40:05Guest:You can work this out.

00:40:06Guest:Yeah.

00:40:07Guest:Listen, we have some things to talk about.

00:40:10Guest:Yeah, we fought, and then at some point, there's a knock on the door, and I answered the door, and it was the dude's roommate, who was also a guy we knew.

00:40:23Marc:Did he leave his dick here?

00:40:24Marc:He said he left his dick here.

00:40:26Guest:He literally was like, is he here?

00:40:27Guest:And I go, no, he's not here, man.

00:40:29Guest:What the fuck do you want?

00:40:29Guest:And he was like, our house is on fire.

00:40:31Guest:And I was like, perfect.

00:40:33Guest:And then I remember, there was like 30 minutes where I was fully convinced, like, I did that with my rage.

00:40:39Guest:This is an amazing moment.

00:40:41Guest:It created something within me.

00:40:44Guest:I'm powerful.

00:40:44Guest:I'm going to Los Angeles.

00:40:46Guest:This is the time to strike.

00:40:48Guest:And I do remember once I was out here just being very thankful that I moved out here at rock bottom.

00:40:56Marc:Yeah.

00:40:56Marc:because it's tough when you're first out here heartbroken heartbroken uh that first major heartbreak uh you had no real skills none whatsoever i was an impressionist i did impressions that was what my comedy was yeah when you were

00:41:11Guest:hosting at Stanford and Sons you were doing I wanted to be on Saturday Night Live that was my dream that was the next so film direction gonna have to put on hold I figured I would get famous from a solid three or four year run on Saturday Night Live and then I could just take over to my own thing yeah

00:41:28Guest:Who were the impressions of?

00:41:30Guest:I did George Bush, George W. Bush.

00:41:33Guest:Yeah.

00:41:35Guest:I did an impression of Warwick Davis, the midget from the movie Willow.

00:41:40Guest:Okay.

00:41:41Guest:That was for some reason.

00:41:42Guest:That was kind of like a left field impression.

00:41:43Guest:Yeah, I thought that was really funny.

00:41:45Guest:Yeah.

00:41:45Guest:And most of the time the crowd was like, who's he doing an impression of?

00:41:48Guest:That's how you know you're really doing a good one.

00:41:51Guest:Too esoteric.

00:41:53Guest:Yeah.

00:41:54Guest:The little guy from the... All right.

00:41:57Guest:Yeah, I did impressions of Dirty Seinfeld.

00:42:00Guest:That was a pretty hacky shtick I did.

00:42:03Guest:Yeah, I mean, none of them were in any way really good.

00:42:08Guest:No Dice?

00:42:09Guest:No.

00:42:10Guest:I was uninfluenced by Dice until he took me on the road.

00:42:13Guest:And I wasn't really influenced, but that was like my first time being introduced to Dice comedy.

00:42:18Guest:It was like 2003.

00:42:20Guest:Yeah, you'd just become an appendage.

00:42:22Guest:Yeah.

00:42:24Marc:We're going to eat!

00:42:26Marc:I think I'm gonna stay in my, come on!

00:42:28Guest:Yeah, that's pretty much how it was.

00:42:30Guest:He was super nice to me and he'd always invite me to things.

00:42:33Guest:I remember once he was like, hey, we're having a Hanukkah party.

00:42:36Guest:And I was like, okay.

00:42:37Guest:And he was like, you gotta come.

00:42:38Guest:So I went and I got there and it was just me.

00:42:40Guest:And he was like, it's Hanukkah dinner.

00:42:42Guest:Why am I here?

00:42:44Guest:He's like, if I told you it was Hanukkah dinner, you wouldn't have come.

00:42:47Guest:I'm like, yeah, that's true.

00:42:50Guest:It was just me and him and his sons and Eleanor.

00:42:52Guest:Eleanor was his girlfriend at the time.

00:42:54Guest:Well, that's nice.

00:42:55Guest:Yeah, it was nice.

00:42:56Guest:He was always really nice to me.

00:42:57Marc:He's just an odd man.

00:42:58Marc:I think he is a nice guy at heart.

00:43:00Marc:He is.

00:43:00Marc:Once you get past the whatever.

00:43:02Guest:The shtick.

00:43:03Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:43:03Marc:Great dad.

00:43:04Marc:I remember being like, wow.

00:43:05Marc:He does seem to have stability and he seemed to have held on to his money.

00:43:10Marc:Yeah.

00:43:11Marc:Yeah, he's definitely like a good Jewish guy.

00:43:16Guest:Yeah.

00:43:17Guest:You know, loyal guy.

00:43:18Guest:People like morning radio people would always get mad when they would, you know, I'd be doing a show somewhere back when I could get booked random places and they'd be like,

00:43:27Guest:I see you open for Andrew Dice Clay.

00:43:29Guest:I saw him at a gym once, and he was really rude and blah, blah, blah.

00:43:34Guest:Is he kind of a dick?

00:43:35Guest:I'd be like, no, he's a nice dude to me.

00:43:37Guest:I mean, he's probably a dick to random people who talk to him at a gym in Tampa or wherever.

00:43:44Guest:It wouldn't be.

00:43:45Guest:Hey, Dice.

00:43:47Guest:Hey.

00:43:47Guest:Hickory dickory, right?

00:43:49Guest:He's like, I'm doing my workout.

00:43:52Yeah.

00:43:52Marc:every time i'm back he's actually a pretty pretty good guy they'd always be like okay yeah and then i'm like no dirt you're not gonna play along so all right wait so you get out here and and uh you're heartbroken and fucked up so how do you end up at the store what happened what is that um before what's your what's your fucking store story how do you get in there

00:44:12Guest:Before my girl cheated on me, me and her had decided we were going to move to L.A.

00:44:20Guest:or New York.

00:44:21Guest:That was the goal.

00:44:21Guest:So we came out over Christmas break from, I think, sophomore year of college or something.

00:44:27Guest:I was 20.

00:44:28Guest:Yeah.

00:44:29Guest:And we just stayed with a buddy of mine's family who lived out in Redondo.

00:44:33Guest:Yeah.

00:44:33Guest:And...

00:44:34Guest:my buddy uh dave his dad is one of those guys who's like redondo yeah they lived in redondo beach yeah his dad's one of those guys who just thinks he always has the right connection to everything yeah and so i told him you know i want to do comedy i want to look at the comedy clubs and and uh he said oh well you know my business partner's son is a comedy manager and maybe he can hook you up yeah like yeah cool man yeah

00:45:00Guest:So he told me, all right, his son said to meet one of his clients at the comedy store in West Hollywood.

00:45:08Guest:And so I went and met this guy named, a black comic named Freeze Love.

00:45:13Guest:Yeah, sure.

00:45:13Guest:And I guess he was opening for Eddie Griffin or something at the time.

00:45:17Guest:So he met me up there and then I got there early and I was only 20 and they wouldn't let me in.

00:45:24Guest:And so I was like, well, this sucks.

00:45:26Guest:And then Freeze Love got there and he was like, man, this is the comedy store and there's no rules.

00:45:31Guest:And I was like, oh really?

00:45:33Guest:And so we walked back to the same door guy, who I believe was Capparillo.

00:45:37Guest:Yeah.

00:45:37Guest:And he was like, hey, he's with me.

00:45:39Guest:And he was just like, okay.

00:45:40Guest:And then we just walked in, went up, watched the show in the belly room.

00:45:44Marc:I love it.

00:45:45Marc:There was that time where comics were at all the doors.

00:45:48Marc:It was like, no one's going to put their ass on the line for anything.

00:45:51Marc:Hell no.

00:45:51Guest:He was just like, all right.

00:45:52Guest:Yeah, when I worked the back door, if it's anyone who wanted to go in, you're in.

00:45:56Guest:Yeah, okay.

00:45:57Guest:Yeah.

00:45:58Guest:Harris Pete used to yell at me all the time.

00:46:00Guest:why aren't you checking did you even send them to the front there's no one there who cares one guy wants to stand in the back what does it matter harris pete holding the line of the old guard of doormen so mad the greatest harris pete performance i ever watched was him telling jeff garland that he needs to go up front and pay at the front and jeff garland i'm on the marquee yeah and he was like i don't know who you are you got to go up front

00:46:28Guest:And just be like, he's literally stopping the biggest celebrity at the comedy store.

00:46:34Marc:Yeah, but someone who should pay it up front.

00:46:37Marc:Most likely.

00:46:39Guest:We're going to get him fired.

00:46:40Guest:Like, he's worked here for a thousand years.

00:46:42Guest:You're not going to get him fired.

00:46:43Guest:Oh, Garwin got him mad at Harris Pete?

00:46:45Guest:Yeah.

00:46:46Guest:Yeah, Harris was, he was, I enjoyed Harris in that no matter who you talked about, he would be like, he's a piece of shit.

00:46:54Guest:Everyone.

00:46:55Everyone.

00:46:55Guest:What?

00:46:55Guest:Who?

00:46:56Guest:Oh, piece of shit.

00:46:57Guest:Except for Jim Varney.

00:46:59Guest:Varney was the greatest comic that ever performed.

00:47:02Marc:Jim Varney?

00:47:03Guest:Yeah, it's great.

00:47:04Marc:So it's so funny.

00:47:05Marc:You got in the death throes of that generation.

00:47:10Marc:So what happened?

00:47:11Marc:You auditioned for Mitzi?

00:47:13Guest:I just performed that night and then went back to Kansas and was like, I'm going to move to LA because I got to perform at the comedy store in LA and that's obviously- That's my credit.

00:47:22Guest:Yeah.

00:47:22Guest:My ticket.

00:47:23Guest:So, uh, I, I think I was in Kansas another six or seven months.

00:47:28Guest:Saw the, uh, saw the, the girlfriend getting fucked.

00:47:32Guest:And then maybe a month later or two months later, something like that, I moved to LA and, uh,

00:47:39Guest:Started doing the open mic, and back then it was like- Just at the store?

00:47:44Guest:Just at, I'd do all the open mics.

00:47:45Guest:I did the factory where you have to wait all day.

00:47:47Guest:You'd sign up at like noon.

00:47:50Guest:Are you doing potluck?

00:47:51Guest:Doing potluck.

00:47:52Guest:Standing on line, the guys dressed in chef hats and garbage bags?

00:47:55Guest:Yep, picking out of the bucket.

00:47:56Guest:Some weeks not getting a spot when you just see like- Who was running it, Don?

00:48:00Guest:No, it was dude Fat James.

00:48:03Guest:No, I didn't even know Fat James.

00:48:04Guest:He was the parking lot guy.

00:48:06Guest:He acted like big time-

00:48:08Marc:Was Chewy there when you were there?

00:48:09Guest:No, Chewy had been fired maybe two years before, but he still came around.

00:48:14Marc:Chewy in his hat and his bad blow.

00:48:15Marc:Yep, his odd job look.

00:48:18Marc:Yeah, the odd job.

00:48:20Guest:And everyone always says, oh, he's a great blues guitar player.

00:48:23Guest:That's what people said.

00:48:24Guest:No idea if that's true.

00:48:26Guest:I still would get, when I worked the parking lot, I would still get people once a month.

00:48:30Guest:Looking for Chewy.

00:48:31Guest:They would come in, hey, is Chewy here?

00:48:33Guest:No, he's not.

00:48:34Guest:Oh, do you know where I can find them?

00:48:36Guest:I'm like, you're going to have to find Blow somewhere else, man.

00:48:38Guest:Do you have any Blow?

00:48:40Guest:Oh, man, I can tell you stories about this place.

00:48:42Guest:I'm like, I don't want to hear any stories, man.

00:48:44Guest:You can't park here.

00:48:44Guest:You'll hear them.

00:48:46Marc:You're going to hear all the stories eventually.

00:48:48Guest:Yeah, so I did the open mic for like four months and then-

00:48:52Guest:Eleanor and Renna Zizi and Ari Shafir, those guys got me, asked me if I wanted to work the door and kind of explained the process.

00:49:02Guest:You know, you start here as a doorman and then you get to showcase.

00:49:05Marc:What, you didn't get the job from Mitzi?

00:49:07Guest:So Mitzi gave me the job, but I had to, in order to get in, because Mitzi wasn't watching the potluck then.

00:49:14Marc:She would come in, watch showcases.

00:49:17Marc:Like when she saw me, she said I could be a doorman.

00:49:19Marc:That was where I started.

00:49:20Marc:Like, it wasn't like, you know, you can be a non-paid regular, regular.

00:49:23Marc:It's like, you can be a doorman.

00:49:25Guest:My showcase for Mitzi was to keep my doorman job.

00:49:29Guest:Oh, okay.

00:49:29Guest:So they gave me the job, and they're like, at some point, Mitzi's going to watch you, and if she doesn't like you, you're going to get fired, just so you know how it works.

00:49:37Marc:Yeah.

00:49:37Marc:Oh, fuck.

00:49:38Marc:Yeah.

00:49:39Marc:I got to audition for my doorman job.

00:49:40Guest:There was this dude named Drew who was just awful, and I got hired same time as him, and he was such an idiot.

00:49:49Guest:Me and this other doorman named Mark Hatchell used to just, we'd give him horrible advice and really push it, and he would always take it.

00:49:57Guest:We were like, you know what people love?

00:49:59Guest:Dogs.

00:50:00Guest:And he'd be like, yeah?

00:50:01Guest:And we'd be like, so if you had the mannerisms of a dog that would make you more likable, you think so?

00:50:07Guest:Yeah, man.

00:50:09Guest:So this dude's up there chasing his tail and stuff on stage.

00:50:12Guest:And Mitchie's there.

00:50:14Guest:And we're like, dude, you got to do the dog thing tonight.

00:50:16Guest:It's going to be killed.

00:50:17Guest:And so he's up there.

00:50:18Guest:You guys never notice it.

00:50:20Guest:Don't address it.

00:50:21Guest:Don't address it.

00:50:21Guest:Just do it.

00:50:22Guest:Just do it.

00:50:23Guest:And he gets like a minute and a half into a set.

00:50:25Guest:And then you just get him off the stage.

00:50:28Guest:And then she fired him and then we were like, we're kind of dicks.

00:50:31Guest:They never had a chance anyway.

00:50:32Guest:So, so the night I, I showcased for, uh, she had like eight people that she wanted to see.

00:50:39Guest:She came specifically to pass Ari Shafir.

00:50:42Guest:That was the, the point of her coming that night.

00:50:45Guest:Yeah.

00:50:45Guest:And, uh,

00:50:46Guest:to pass the tall jew yeah he he had showcased 20 times everyone said he's the new gary shandling or whatever it was that was that was the word that took a turn for the wrong yeah yeah um so yeah she decided she was passing him and she came and she passed him and kirk fox and then she wanted to watch some people and they told me you're not getting up tonight

00:51:10Guest:because she has this list of showcase people.

00:51:13Guest:I said, okay.

00:51:14Guest:And then they came back to me.

00:51:15Guest:I was at the back door, and they said, we can't find all these people.

00:51:18Guest:Basically, all these people bailed, because they didn't want to go up.

00:51:21Guest:And I'm like, what?

00:51:23Guest:You told me I wasn't going up, and they said, you got to go up.

00:51:26Guest:And so I went up and did...

00:51:28Guest:my three minute set or whatever, keep my doorman job.

00:51:32Guest:And I did the same bullshit.

00:51:33Guest:I still do today where I go out and act like the crowd's really excited to see me, whether or not.

00:51:37Guest:Yeah.

00:51:38Guest:And I just hear Mitzi cackling in the back.

00:51:40Guest:I'm like, well, that's good.

00:51:41Guest:There's maybe four people in the audience.

00:51:42Guest:It's like, no way you can do good.

00:51:44Guest:Right.

00:51:45Guest:Right.

00:51:45Guest:Um, I did my three minutes and I got off stage and she gave me the scary old lady finger.

00:51:52Guest:Come over here.

00:51:53Guest:Yeah.

00:51:53Guest:I'm like, Oh God.

00:51:54Guest:Yeah.

00:51:55Guest:And I expected her to be like, you're fired, you're terrible.

00:51:59Guest:Instead, she was like, oh, you're great, you gotta do more stage time.

00:52:02Guest:And I was like, okay.

00:52:04Guest:Where are you from?

00:52:05Guest:Kansas, oh, good, Midwest, that's good.

00:52:08Guest:I'm like, cool.

00:52:10Guest:We done?

00:52:11Guest:Yeah, and I just stood there silently like, what am I supposed to do?

00:52:14Guest:And then she literally goes, you can go.

00:52:16Guest:And I went, oh, okay.

00:52:17Guest:I walked straight back to my doorman post.

00:52:21Guest:And then Duncan Trussell was the talent coordinator then.

00:52:24Guest:Yeah.

00:52:24Guest:And he comes back.

00:52:25Guest:He got my name on the wall.

00:52:26Guest:Yeah.

00:52:27Guest:He goes, hey, man, Mitzi said you're passed.

00:52:29Guest:And he used to fuck with me all the time.

00:52:31Guest:So I just thought he was lying to me.

00:52:33Guest:I'm just like, okay, man.

00:52:34Guest:Yeah.

00:52:34Guest:No, that's great.

00:52:36Guest:Yeah.

00:52:36Guest:Okay.

00:52:37Guest:Yeah.

00:52:37Guest:I'm serious.

00:52:38Guest:Okay, man.

00:52:39Guest:And then the next day they called me and said, I can put in my avails and stuff.

00:52:44Guest:I'm like, really?

00:52:45Yeah.

00:52:45Guest:And I had like maybe four minutes.

00:52:47Guest:At that point, they stopped doing impressions.

00:52:49Guest:Yeah.

00:52:50Guest:Because all my peers at the comedy store were like, dude, this shit is hacky and terrible.

00:52:54Guest:Never do this again.

00:52:55Guest:Yeah.

00:52:56Guest:And I, of course, listened to them.

00:52:57Guest:Yeah.

00:52:58Guest:And I was like, oh, okay.

00:53:00Guest:And so then she gave me a spot opening the show like that week on Thursday.

00:53:05Guest:Yeah.

00:53:05Guest:And I just bomb my ass off for 15 minutes, just trying to stretch my four minutes the best I could.

00:53:11Guest:Sure.

00:53:12Guest:And then, yeah, bringing up Argus.

00:53:14Guest:And he gave me the, okay, bud, when you bring me up.

00:53:20Guest:I'm just like, uh-huh.

00:53:21Guest:And I remember being so concerned about getting his introduction right.

00:53:25Guest:What is it?

00:53:26Guest:It was like some, this guy.

00:53:29Guest:Syndicated columnist.

00:53:30Guest:Exactly right.

00:53:31Guest:Yeah.

00:53:32Guest:Yeah, and everyone had told me the one rule at the comedy store is you don't make fun of Argus.

00:53:37Guest:And so I was like, okay.

00:53:38Guest:And so I tried really hard.

00:53:39Guest:And then after like six months, I was like, no, you know what?

00:53:42Guest:I think I'm just going to make fun of Argus.

00:53:44Guest:This is going to happen.

00:53:46Guest:And then that became my- The drunk Argus.

00:53:49Guest:Yeah, and then it became drunk Argus.

00:53:50Guest:Actually, it was just an Argus impression.

00:53:52Guest:Has he seen it?

00:53:52Guest:Yeah.

00:53:53Guest:And?

00:53:53Guest:Hates it.

00:53:55Guest:It was just an Argus impression.

00:53:57Guest:And then Johnny Carson died.

00:53:59Guest:And that night, the impression became drunk Argus.

00:54:03Guest:Right.

00:54:04Guest:Because I showed up and people were like, Argus, sorry about Johnny.

00:54:06Guest:Well, it was just me sloppy drunk yelling about Johnny Carson.

00:54:12Guest:I was on there.

00:54:14Guest:It was 1986.

00:54:18Guest:I was doing cocaine with Todd Bridges and a young Markie Post.

00:54:23Guest:And I was just trying to put together these random connections of 80s celebrities.

00:54:30Guest:Yeah.

00:54:31Guest:And that was just what I did when I was not performing.

00:54:35Guest:I basically lived as Drunk Argus in my offstage time.

00:54:40Marc:and so so then you from and that's 2002 yeah it was 2002 2003 and then you just that's when you became a fixture yeah at the store yeah and you were just always you were the guy that was always there because i mean i because i had that experience there myself and i was when i first met you i'm like oh he's the guy that's always here guy yeah

00:55:00Marc:It was.

00:55:02Guest:I stopped.

00:55:04Guest:Basically, I worked there five or six nights a week.

00:55:06Guest:So I was always there.

00:55:08Guest:And then after that, once I got fired from working the door, then it was like I could go.

00:55:14Guest:How did you get fired from working the door?

00:55:17Guest:I didn't get my shifts covered on a last second.

00:55:22Guest:Pauly asked me to go on the road with him.

00:55:24Guest:I think he was supposed to take Steve Renizzisi and Renizzisi canceled because he booked a commercial or TV thing.

00:55:31Guest:So Pauly called me on Wednesday and was like, dude, we're going to Charlotte, bro.

00:55:35Guest:And I was like, okay.

00:55:37Guest:And I got one of my shifts covered and the other one they wouldn't cover.

00:55:39Guest:And I'm like, who cares?

00:55:40Marc:There's no one here.

00:55:41Marc:But also that's the deciding moment.

00:55:43Marc:It's like, I'm here to be a standup.

00:55:46Marc:I'm not here to be a door guy.

00:55:47Guest:Yeah.

00:55:48Guest:Yeah.

00:55:48Guest:I'm going to go on the road with Pauly.

00:55:50Guest:And it's Pauly.

00:55:51Guest:So obviously this is going to be cool.

00:55:53Guest:Yeah.

00:55:53Guest:And then, yeah.

00:55:54Guest:So then we were.

00:55:55Guest:Who fired you?

00:55:56Marc:Who was that manager?

00:55:57Marc:Dean.

00:55:58Marc:Oh, Dean.

00:55:58Marc:Little bald Dean.

00:55:59Marc:Pauly's friend.

00:56:00Marc:Pauly's buddy.

00:56:01Marc:Yeah.

00:56:01Marc:Really?

00:56:01Marc:They couldn't work that shit out?

00:56:03Marc:Nope.

00:56:03Marc:So you're there like from 2002 on.

00:56:06Marc:So you were there.

00:56:07Marc:You witnessed the Rogan Mencia fights.

00:56:10Marc:Yeah.

00:56:10Guest:I broke it up.

00:56:12Guest:I wandered on stage after like 30 minutes of the Who Has a Bigger Dick contest.

00:56:17Guest:Yeah.

00:56:19Guest:Dean, the same guy, manager, was like, dude, someone's got to do something.

00:56:23Guest:And there's a bunch of comic doormen going like, I ain't going to do it.

00:56:26Guest:So I literally did the hackiest shit I could think of, and I took my shirt off, and I walked up on stage while they were arguing.

00:56:33Guest:Yeah.

00:56:34Guest:And in Drunk Argus character, hey, give it up for Angel Salazar and Kippadatta.

00:56:41Guest:Yeah.

00:56:41Guest:And Rogan put the mic down and just walked off like, oh, I'm not dealing with this shit.

00:56:47Guest:And then Mencia followed him off and then they went and fought off stage.

00:56:52Marc:And that was a long time brewing between those two guys.

00:56:55Guest:Yeah.

00:56:55Marc:It seems to me that when you got there,

00:56:57Marc:There was always this sort of like jockeying for for leadership.

00:57:01Marc:Like somebody said to me, it's like recently, like, well, now that Rogan's gone, who's going to be the new alpha?

00:57:07Marc:I'm like, maybe it's just going to be an egalitarian place where people work on their fucking comedy, stupid.

00:57:12Marc:Right.

00:57:13Marc:Like maybe it's going back to what it was supposed to be.

00:57:16Marc:You know, people.

00:57:16Marc:The weird thing is, I think during the.

00:57:18Marc:the history of that place, people became stars, but it didn't mean they had the run of the place.

00:57:23Marc:But they kind of did.

00:57:24Marc:They kind of did.

00:57:26Marc:In the 70s, Pryor made that place.

00:57:30Marc:And Mitzi knew it.

00:57:32Marc:And Mitzi encouraged this shit.

00:57:34Marc:Mitzi was a troublemaker.

00:57:36Marc:And she encouraged this insanity sometimes.

00:57:39Guest:She let Pryor and Robin Williams and them do their shit for an hour or whatever.

00:57:44Guest:But it was the thing.

00:57:45Guest:And I could be wrong, but from what I've heard over the years and like Charlie Hill used to tell me a lot of stories.

00:57:51Marc:I talked to him a lot about it.

00:57:52Marc:Well, he's got to bend the ear of some of these guys.

00:57:54Marc:It's a sad thing.

00:57:55Marc:I didn't get to talk to Charlie Hill because he was like the main Native American comic.

00:57:59Marc:One of the first ones that made it on television and stuff.

00:58:02Guest:Yeah.

00:58:02Marc:Nice guy.

00:58:03Guest:Super nice dude.

00:58:04Guest:A lot of weed.

00:58:05Guest:A lot of weed.

00:58:06Guest:Yeah.

00:58:06Guest:When I met him, he couldn't smoke anymore because of his heart.

00:58:09Guest:Oh.

00:58:09Guest:And Mitzi sent me, first time in La Jolla, Mitzi sent me with Charlie Hill for Thanksgiving, Cowboys and Indians theme, because I was from Kansas.

00:58:17Guest:Right.

00:58:17Guest:I'm a cowboy.

00:58:18Guest:And when I explained to her that Thanksgiving is about pilgrims and Indians, but whatever.

00:58:23Guest:I was happy to get a La Jolla spot.

00:58:26Guest:Yeah.

00:58:26Guest:but i was nervous because i never met charlie and uh i knew we were going to be staying in a condo together and before they redid it yeah when it was when it literally furniture yeah it was like a murder scene but it was just stains all over that fucking wallpaper the wicker and the wallpaper from the green room the jungle room yeah yeah yeah yeah and it was disgusting like the carpet was right so gross yeah um here it's beautiful now

00:58:50Guest:But yeah, he was great.

00:58:54Guest:He got there.

00:58:55Guest:I'm just like, fuck, this dude's a lot older than me.

00:58:57Guest:And I think I was 22 or something.

00:58:59Guest:Yeah.

00:58:59Guest:But he was awesome.

00:59:00Guest:Super nice.

00:59:01Marc:It's weird about that generation, like even Argus, how they can still do the job.

00:59:06Marc:Like, you know, like those guys that have been at it forever and are primarily sort of joke tellers.

00:59:11Marc:Like, it's sort of astounding that, you know, that despite the way Argus looks or the fact that no one has any point of reference for him.

00:59:18Marc:Sure.

00:59:19Marc:That he kind of kills.

00:59:20Marc:Yeah.

00:59:20Marc:You know, it's just it's kind of like it's a testament to because it's not easy.

00:59:25Guest:No.

00:59:26Guest:And now he's like it's kind of like soft Republicanism.

00:59:30Guest:Yeah, a little bit.

00:59:31Marc:It's almost like it's almost edgy because he plays centrist, but he's I don't know what he is.

00:59:36Marc:It's hard for me to figure out what the fuck he is.

00:59:38Guest:I just remember he always used to talk about how he is one of the last remaining Southern Democrats.

00:59:43Marc:Right.

00:59:44Guest:And I know that basically means Republican.

00:59:46Guest:Yeah.

00:59:46Guest:But yeah, like a lot of his jokes now, I'm kind of like, I'm not even sure what the viewpoint is.

00:59:53Guest:I just feel like he's tiptoeing the edge of.

00:59:56Marc:Yeah, I get that too.

00:59:56Marc:I got that with Eliza recently.

00:59:57Marc:That's why I lost my shit.

00:59:59Marc:It's like you just spent five minutes making fun of homeless people with no point at all.

01:00:04Marc:Right.

01:00:04Marc:Other than to make fun of homeless people and that they're an inconvenience to you.

01:00:08Marc:And you can't punch down any lower than that, really.

01:00:11Marc:Yeah.

01:00:12Marc:And I'm not saying that punching down isn't funny, but not all the way down.

01:00:15Marc:Yeah.

01:00:15Guest:I mean, I'm pretty sure I punch down sometimes.

01:00:19Guest:Sure.

01:00:20Guest:To do an extended bit about it's too easy and it's weird.

01:00:25Marc:You know, it just doesn't feel right.

01:00:28Guest:You know, it's very Austin.

01:00:30Guest:comedy vibe all the austin comedians who kept complaining about all the homeless people and how that's one of the things about la they all want to get away from just ignoring the fact that there's a tremendous homeless population in austin as well but good riddance to the austin comics so so you got to know charlie

01:00:49Guest:I got to know Charlie and he kind of just he told me a lot about the early days.

01:00:54Guest:I get very fascinated by places that kind of envelop me, I suppose.

01:01:00Marc:Well, but the thing is, it's like you're a unique thing.

01:01:02Marc:I was the same way that and not everybody's like that.

01:01:06Marc:And you're sort of looked at as a weirdo.

01:01:08Marc:That if if that place speaks to you in some sort of way, you can understand, like if you feel like, you know, you're a part of that place, you know, going back centuries or whatever.

01:01:17Marc:Yeah.

01:01:18Marc:I don't know what that is, but I had it as well.

01:01:20Marc:It was just sort of like, oh, this is I have finally found finally found the place where I belong.

01:01:25Guest:Yeah, that's how I felt.

01:01:26Guest:It was like I've always felt odd.

01:01:29Guest:I know a lot of it was growing up kind of being weird in Kansas.

01:01:32Guest:Everyone there is very much in line with the we think of this is how you think, this is what you do.

01:01:38Guest:And I never fit into that.

01:01:40Guest:And it was truly the first place I ever went where I...

01:01:43Guest:One, I didn't feel weird.

01:01:46Guest:The people who were there were so weird, I felt normal.

01:01:49Guest:Right.

01:01:49Guest:And that was kind of refreshing.

01:01:50Guest:It's like a riddle in effect.

01:01:51Guest:I'm not the weirdest one here.

01:01:53Guest:Yeah, this is odd.

01:01:54Guest:Yeah.

01:01:54Guest:I'm a pretty normal, decent person compared to some of these monsters.

01:01:59Guest:There was this dude, Jim Painter, who to this day was one of the funniest comics I ever watched.

01:02:04Guest:It just truly made me laugh.

01:02:06Guest:All the guys of kind of my generation of comedy store people loved him.

01:02:11Guest:But he was so deranged and was so weird.

01:02:13Guest:What happened to that guy?

01:02:15Guest:Eventually, Barris kind of started fucking with him, and he legitimately just quit and never came back, and I think he probably just works a normal job.

01:02:27Guest:But I don't know how.

01:02:28Guest:That's how weird he was.

01:02:29Guest:I don't know how that guy exists in society.

01:02:32Marc:When I got here in 2002, that's when I met you and Duncan, and he was like, oh, man, you're Marc Maron.

01:02:39Marc:I'm like, yeah, I never...

01:02:40Marc:He's like, we'll get your name up because I was a regular.

01:02:43Guest:Yeah.

01:02:43Marc:She passed me in 1995 at the Aspen Comedy Festival.

01:02:48Guest:Yeah.

01:02:49Guest:But they hadn't written names in so long because when they painted your name up, it was the same time they painted my name up.

01:02:54Guest:Right.

01:02:55Guest:And the only reason any of us got our names up was because Kirk Fox offered to pay for all of it.

01:03:01Guest:He wanted his name on the building so bad that he asked Mitzi.

01:03:06Guest:He said, Mitzi, what if I pay for my name?

01:03:09Guest:Yeah.

01:03:09Guest:She said, no.

01:03:10No.

01:03:10Guest:He said, what if I pay for all the names?

01:03:13Guest:Okay.

01:03:13Guest:Really?

01:03:14Guest:Yeah.

01:03:14Guest:He paid for my name?

01:03:15Guest:Kirk Fox paid for, I think there was like 70 of us.

01:03:19Guest:Really?

01:03:19Guest:Whose names got put on the building because Kirk paid for it.

01:03:23Guest:Wow.

01:03:23Guest:And then after that, then it became, Mitzi then kind of started kind of fading out of-

01:03:30Guest:of uh really kind of being in control day-to-day stuff and uh and then they started doing it at first it was like every two years they would paint more names on there was it the same old guy yeah same dude yeah i don't know that he still does it no but for at least the first five times they started painting names in my era it's the same guy

01:03:48Marc:There used to be a comic that used to, like his pictures in the hallway that used to be the handyman.

01:03:52Guest:Yeah.

01:03:53Marc:Greg Hilbers.

01:03:54Marc:Yeah.

01:03:54Marc:Greg, you've seen that picture?

01:03:55Guest:Yeah, he's got the camouflage mustache.

01:03:57Guest:You're like, is it there?

01:03:58Guest:Kind of an acorn haircut.

01:03:59Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:04:01Guest:He was the handyman.

01:04:02Guest:He was one of the main references I would make as Drunk Argus.

01:04:06Guest:Greg Hilbers and Greg Eagles, myself.

01:04:09Guest:And a young, and it was always Henry Lee Reeves or whatever it was.

01:04:16Guest:Just pulling for the pictures.

01:04:17Guest:Yeah, that's how old it was.

01:04:18Marc:When I was there, man, all those people were kind of still around.

01:04:22Marc:Wow.

01:04:22Marc:You know, like I would see like Joey Kamen.

01:04:25Marc:Okay.

01:04:25Marc:I would see Karen Haber, Karen Bobbitt.

01:04:30Marc:Yeah.

01:04:31Marc:I would see like...

01:04:34Marc:Damon Wayans was around a lot.

01:04:38Marc:Jan Hart.

01:04:41Marc:Rick Wright.

01:04:43Marc:Johnny Dark.

01:04:44Marc:Jack Perdue.

01:04:45Marc:Tim Jones.

01:04:46Marc:They were all Blake Clark.

01:04:48Guest:Blake Clark was still working.

01:04:50Marc:I love Blake Clark.

01:04:51Marc:Me too.

01:04:52Marc:But they were all still hanging on.

01:04:55Marc:Jeff Altman was there all the time.

01:04:57Marc:He was still there when I was there.

01:05:00Marc:Steve Odenkirk.

01:05:01Marc:Yeah.

01:05:02Marc:Those were the shows.

01:05:03Marc:Harry Basil was still doing comedy.

01:05:06Marc:This was what I was watching.

01:05:08Marc:Yeah.

01:05:08Marc:Fleischer would come in.

01:05:10Marc:Yeah.

01:05:11Marc:That's what Mooney was on all the time.

01:05:14Marc:Mooney.

01:05:15Marc:Bob Abreuva.

01:05:16Guest:Robert William Apreuva.

01:05:18Marc:Yeah.

01:05:18Marc:Bob Apreuva.

01:05:19Marc:Yeah.

01:05:19Marc:He would be around talking to himself.

01:05:21Guest:One night, my 25th birthday, I got hammered with Robin Williams at the comedy store.

01:05:28Guest:You were the one.

01:05:29Guest:Yeah.

01:05:29Guest:I didn't realize that he had been sober or whatever.

01:05:32Guest:You did it.

01:05:33Guest:He later told me that he had been drinking for like a couple of months at that point.

01:05:37Guest:Yeah.

01:05:38Guest:I got smashed with them.

01:05:39Guest:Yeah.

01:05:40Guest:And I just thought it was cool.

01:05:41Guest:I'm like, oh, this guy is a legend.

01:05:43Guest:I'm getting wasted.

01:05:44Guest:Same thing.

01:05:45Guest:Drunk Argus-ing him and loving it, improvising with that.

01:05:48Marc:Yeah.

01:05:49Guest:He must have loved you.

01:05:50Guest:He was loving it.

01:05:51Marc:Yeah.

01:05:51Marc:He loved to play.

01:05:52Marc:Because did he duel Drunk Argus with you?

01:05:54Guest:No, he would just, he played a version of himself trying to calm Drunk Argus down.

01:06:00Guest:And my thing was, I would just go through his entire resume and tell him how none of it was going to work.

01:06:05Guest:This TV show about a damn alien, no one's buying that crap.

01:06:09Guest:He's like, it was actually really popular, August.

01:06:12Guest:No one wants to see that.

01:06:14Guest:Leave it on Happy Days.

01:06:16Guest:August, listen, it was actually really popular and it ended a long time ago.

01:06:20Guest:The Cadillac Man, no one wants to watch that.

01:06:22Guest:And then his thing was he was like, what's so funny about this is imagine someone is the teacher's pet at your school and everyone kind of resents him.

01:06:34Guest:And then you go away for 25 years and you come back and there's someone you don't know just mocking that teacher's pet.

01:06:42Guest:He's like, it's almost enjoyable in a weird twisted way.

01:06:45Marc:The funny thing is, is that he's still the teacher's pet to her spirit dead.

01:06:50Guest:Yeah.

01:06:51Guest:Still get spots.

01:06:53Guest:No one's going to fucking stop it now because Peter's won't let him.

01:06:57Guest:Right.

01:06:57Guest:Peter's just like, yeah, whatever.

01:06:58Guest:He did his time.

01:07:00Guest:He made mom happy, I guess.

01:07:02Guest:But he's the only one, though.

01:07:03Guest:I know.

01:07:04Guest:So at the end of the night, though, Robin, we're standing in the hallway just drunk, and he's telling me how much fun he had and how it made him feel young back in the day.

01:07:14Guest:And I'm just like, this is really cool.

01:07:16Guest:He likes me.

01:07:16Guest:He thinks I'm making his life fun.

01:07:18Guest:And then Robert William Apervia goes on stage, and he's like, what the fuck?

01:07:23Guest:He goes, I was here 20 years ago, and this guy was wandering around.

01:07:27Guest:And I go, well, he's worse.

01:07:29Yeah.

01:07:29Guest:Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

01:07:31Guest:Lemon Jello.

01:07:31Guest:This guy's rambling on stage about Jay Leno conspiracies.

01:07:36Guest:Yeah.

01:07:37Guest:Yeah.

01:07:38Guest:Wow.

01:07:38Guest:But yeah, I just remember being that.

01:07:39Guest:The constant.

01:07:40Guest:Yeah.

01:07:41Guest:He's been here for decades.

01:07:43Marc:Yeah.

01:07:44Marc:Creeping people out.

01:07:45Marc:Yeah.

01:07:45Marc:I still feel like I'm part of that place.

01:07:47Marc:Like last year, before the...

01:07:50Marc:the pandemic is that I wouldn't hang around at night, you know, cause I just, it was not my life anymore.

01:07:55Marc:But like now that like all the fucking, you know, uh, you know, swinging dicks are gone.

01:08:01Marc:It actually feels nice to be in the hallway and to be, I like it.

01:08:05Marc:I remember one time I was back in the hallways, like before the pandemic and Lou Dinos come in, you know, and nobody knows that guy.

01:08:11Marc:But I didn't really know him, but I knew of him and I'd met him before.

01:08:15Marc:Lou Dino was one of Dice's guys, I think, briefly.

01:08:19Marc:And he was a guy.

01:08:20Marc:Right.

01:08:21Marc:And these people, I always love when they come in and they're amazed that the place still looks the same, but they don't know anybody.

01:08:29Marc:Right.

01:08:30Marc:So when you go like, hey, Lou Dino, they're like...

01:08:31Marc:They light up.

01:08:32Marc:They get so excited.

01:08:33Marc:Right.

01:08:33Marc:Someone knows they existed.

01:08:35Marc:Right.

01:08:35Marc:Yeah.

01:08:36Marc:Greg Hilber, same thing.

01:08:37Marc:Yeah.

01:08:38Marc:I saw him at the store.

01:08:39Marc:They kind of, sometimes they'll just, they literally kind of manifest out of the picture.

01:08:44Marc:Yeah.

01:08:44Marc:In their current selves.

01:08:46Guest:Yeah, I saw Hilber's one night.

01:08:48Guest:I think he was doing Argus's basement.

01:08:51Guest:Oh, is that what he was there for?

01:08:52Guest:It must have been the same night.

01:08:53Guest:Yeah, because him and Bruce Baum were both there.

01:08:57Marc:Oh, Bruce, baby man, yeah.

01:08:59Guest:And I just remember being like, I saw him, I'm like, is that the dude?

01:09:02Guest:And then I asked him, I'm like, who's that?

01:09:03Guest:I'm like, I don't know, some old comic.

01:09:04Guest:Yeah.

01:09:05Guest:And so I went down to see what they were filming or whatever Argus was doing.

01:09:09Guest:Someone was like, yeah, oh, do you know Greg?

01:09:11Guest:And I'm like, I knew it.

01:09:12Guest:Yeah.

01:09:13Marc:I recognize him just from the ghost, the photo.

01:09:17Marc:So Tommy's the guy in charge.

01:09:20Marc:Tommy's running things.

01:09:20Marc:For the most of your tenure early on.

01:09:23Marc:Yeah.

01:09:23Marc:And he's giving like half hour spots to Caprullo and to Rogan, which seems unorthodox to me.

01:09:28Guest:Yeah.

01:09:29Guest:And everyone just was okay with it.

01:09:30Guest:And basically every night Eddie Griffin would come in at like 1130.

01:09:35Guest:And nobody's there.

01:09:36Guest:No one's there.

01:09:37Guest:No audience.

01:09:38Guest:No audience.

01:09:39Guest:It's the dark time.

01:09:40Guest:Yeah.

01:09:40Guest:The dark years.

01:09:41Guest:So these guys like Eddie are coming in thinking like, wait, wait, let's go.

01:09:44Guest:Let's go to the store.

01:09:45Guest:Yeah, and he usually would bring a crew of like three or four guys with him, and he would literally just walk into the walk-in freezer and take a bottle of champagne out and start drinking it.

01:09:57Guest:And at like midnight, he would go on stage, and then he would ramble on.

01:10:04Guest:Nobody there?

01:10:04Guest:No one there.

01:10:05Guest:There'd be as many people in his crew as there was in the audience, and he would ramble on for like three hours.

01:10:12Guest:Wow.

01:10:13Guest:I'm smart.

01:10:14Guest:I went to Harvard and Yale.

01:10:16Guest:And I'm like looking it up.

01:10:17Guest:He didn't go to college at all.

01:10:19Guest:Why would you?

01:10:21Guest:It always blew me away when people lie about their history in modern day.

01:10:26Guest:We can literally check all that.

01:10:29Marc:But just the...

01:10:31Marc:Like when that place gets untethered, like imagine when she started to drift, it's my belief that once she started to drift, you know, the, the place was losing its life force.

01:10:40Marc:Yeah.

01:10:40Marc:But Tommy had the run of the place and he was like, it was, I used to say like, it's like, is she even alive?

01:10:45Marc:Yeah.

01:10:46Marc:Like he used to come up to me and go, Mitzi really wants you to have the fourth spot.

01:10:48Marc:I'm like, it's like the Bates house.

01:10:50Guest:I mean, he would, it was, we all believe that there was a weekend at Bernie scenario going on for a solid five or six years.

01:10:56Guest:Yeah.

01:10:57Guest:Because he'd always do the same thing.

01:10:58Guest:Well, you know, Mitzi said the kid from Kansas.

01:11:01Guest:That's how she refers to you.

01:11:02Guest:Yeah.

01:11:03Guest:No, it isn't.

01:11:04Guest:Yeah.

01:11:04Guest:And he used to do it to everyone.

01:11:05Guest:And one night, Holtzman flipped out on him.

01:11:10Guest:And he was like, oh, you know, Mitzi said this.

01:11:12Guest:And Holtzman's like...

01:11:13Guest:I was at her house today.

01:11:15Guest:She didn't say that.

01:11:16Guest:He started screaming at him at the front cover booth.

01:11:18Guest:Was he at her house today?

01:11:19Guest:Yeah.

01:11:20Guest:Holtzman had gone over and visited her.

01:11:21Guest:So he knew that everything Tommy was saying was utter bullshit.

01:11:25Guest:Yeah.

01:11:25Guest:But it was just Tommy truly believed that she spoke through him without having to speak to him.

01:11:31Guest:Right.

01:11:31Guest:And it was like this weird, like he felt possessed.

01:11:34Guest:It was like Steve Martin and all of me.

01:11:37Marc:Was he writing in her handwriting too?

01:11:39Marc:Right.

01:11:39Marc:Probably.

01:11:40Marc:I remember she used to write all the schedules.

01:11:43Guest:Yeah, so he was in charge.

01:11:45Guest:And when he took over talent coordinator- From Duncan.

01:11:49Guest:From Duncan.

01:11:50Guest:It was 100% based on Pauly was making that fake reality show, Minding the Store.

01:11:56Guest:Yeah.

01:11:57Guest:And he wanted there to be a talent coordinator character that he could abuse, basically.

01:12:02Guest:Yeah.

01:12:03Guest:And Duncan was like,

01:12:03Guest:i'm not doing that yeah yeah and so tommy fell into the role what was he doing how did he get the where was he he was the he was a phone guy a couple days a week and he worked a cover booth three nights a week that's where he started and that was literally all he did yeah and he would just sit in the cover booth at this point not a talent coordinator and still tell everyone well you know i'm i'm one of the funniest people here i choose not to go on stage all right let me go

01:12:28Guest:Oh, okay.

01:12:30Guest:Anyway, I'm just checking in.

01:12:32Guest:Put my name on the list.

01:12:33Guest:No audiences, dark times.

01:12:34Guest:No audiences, yeah.

01:12:36Guest:And so the one thing Tommy did that I thought was good was he really started trying to just, I guess, push out.

01:12:45Guest:some of the element of the leftovers from the 90s who weren't making an effort.

01:12:53Guest:Then it was basically like Rogan was basically the only name who would do like an hour in the middle of the show.

01:12:59Guest:Right.

01:13:00Guest:And that was just kind of the way it was.

01:13:02Guest:Yeah.

01:13:02Guest:And then, you know, he'd put in Sebastians and Caparillos.

01:13:08Guest:Those guys started kind of being the meat of the lineup.

01:13:13Guest:Right.

01:13:13Guest:uh brett ernst maz jabrani yeah um i haven't seen brett ernst around i think he moved away i think he moved away like four or five years ago he moved to ohio or something out of the business i think he just does road gigs now he's on cobra kai yeah yeah yeah um yeah i think he yeah he got married or whatever uh-huh i believe that's what

01:13:35Guest:what happened to him but yeah they those were the guys who basically the lineup was basically the same yeah every night and then rogan was like super aggressive then i don't know if he was not smoking pot yet or what what the deal was but it was like it was way more yeah aggressive right and he would fight with people a lot in the crowd yeah i remember there was a lot of like choking people out on the patio threats to do so right and he always had like the mma guys with him right um

01:14:05Guest:But yeah, it was way more aggressive.

01:14:09Guest:Maybe he just got more famous and just didn't want to deal with people.

01:14:13Marc:I think he made a choice to be better.

01:14:18Guest:Pot, I think, made a difference.

01:14:19Guest:I do too.

01:14:19Guest:It went super mellow in comparison.

01:14:24Marc:Yeah, it's just like, I mean, that place, you know, there was a period there where it was sort of like gang ridden.

01:14:31Marc:Yeah.

01:14:31Marc:Before you were there.

01:14:32Marc:The late 90s, mid 90s.

01:14:34Marc:You know, where it was people shooting and guns.

01:14:36Marc:It's weird how- Tupac and people were hanging out and fighting.

01:14:40Marc:Just letting things

01:14:41Marc:take over you know forces but then all of a sudden she was no longer a force and Tommy was doing his number and I had to kiss Tommy's ass because when I got back to LA in 2002 I had no traction no one gave a fuck about me and I was running around trying to do alt rooms and you know I just wanted to be it took me a long time when I finally got comfortable in the OR it was such a huge day for me

01:15:03Marc:to finally, and that was in 2003 or four, where I was getting spots, Tommy was giving me, I was getting the respect I deserved as a guy who was- A professional comedian.

01:15:14Marc:And there, part of that place.

01:15:16Marc:But I was still terrified to go on.

01:15:19Marc:When you start doing the OR and you're like, I can't see anybody.

01:15:23Guest:I'm just floating up here.

01:15:25Guest:Who am I talking to?

01:15:26Guest:Yeah.

01:15:26Guest:Is there even anyone listening?

01:15:28Guest:Yeah, I had many nights going through that psychological.

01:15:34Guest:But once you don't give a fuck, what a great room.

01:15:37Guest:Yeah, it's my favorite.

01:15:38Guest:It's ridiculous that they still only pay $20 for it, but at the same time, in terms of...

01:15:44Guest:Just a good comedy room.

01:15:46Marc:Low ceiling.

01:15:47Marc:Everything's dark.

01:15:47Marc:All of a sudden not be afraid of those rooms was such a huge thing for me.

01:15:51Marc:Like there's still so much of me that lives at that place.

01:15:53Marc:Like now that like all the like now, you know, all the people that were just cowering in cracks and crevices are now sort of like, hey, we can talk in the hallway.

01:16:01Marc:You know, like Raheem and like, you know, like, you know, people are hanging around like nice people excited.

01:16:06Marc:It's like, oh, my God.

01:16:08Guest:I honestly love the crew that's there now.

01:16:11Guest:It's great.

01:16:12Guest:Since the COVID.

01:16:13Guest:The sweep.

01:16:14Guest:Yeah.

01:16:14Guest:Since the sweep.

01:16:16Guest:It's awesome.

01:16:18Guest:It's the first time in probably 10 years that I enjoy offstage.

01:16:23Guest:Yeah.

01:16:24Guest:Not as much, but close to as much.

01:16:26Guest:As close as can be to the onstage feelings.

01:16:28Marc:It feels sweet.

01:16:29Marc:It feels like there's people excited to do the work.

01:16:32Marc:Yeah.

01:16:35Marc:What is your job there now?

01:16:37Marc:Do you have a job on the inside or are you just doing stand-up?

01:16:40Guest:I just do stand-up.

01:16:41Guest:I have a podcast I started doing at the store.

01:16:44Guest:They're starting their own podcast network.

01:16:46Guest:Didn't I do it?

01:16:47Guest:That was the old one I did.

01:16:49Guest:We're talking about bringing that back.

01:16:50Guest:That's just the Comedy Store podcast.

01:16:53Marc:You and Eleanor.

01:16:53Guest:Me and Eleanor, yeah.

01:16:55Guest:And now I'm doing one with Sarah Tiana where it basically influenced off of crowd work where she just brings in normal people.

01:17:03Guest:Oh.

01:17:04Guest:And I basically crowd work them for 20 minutes.

01:17:06Marc:When did you realize that that was going to be your thing?

01:17:10Guest:Um...

01:17:11Guest:There was a comic named Freddy Soto who passed in the mid-2000s, and he was like one of the bigger names, kind of up-and-coming guys when I was working there.

01:17:27Marc:I remember, a Latino guy.

01:17:28Guest:Yeah.

01:17:29Guest:Very funny guy.

01:17:30Guest:People loved him.

01:17:30Guest:And he'd watch me some nights just because he was hanging out.

01:17:34Guest:Yeah.

01:17:36Guest:He'd always tell me, always, it was like three conversations, but he would be like, you're way funnier than you are on stage.

01:17:43Guest:And I was just doing straight jokes.

01:17:46Guest:Yeah.

01:17:46Guest:You know, this is happening and blah, blah, blah.

01:17:48Guest:Right.

01:17:49Guest:It was like Last Comic Standing style.

01:17:51Guest:Right.

01:17:51Guest:Obvious jokes and he'd just be like, dude, you're funny off stage.

01:17:56Guest:Yeah, you got to figure this out.

01:17:57Guest:Yeah, the robot you are on stage is not who you are.

01:18:00Marc:It's so hard because I've told people that and most people can't really hear it.

01:18:04Marc:They don't know what to do with it.

01:18:05Marc:Yeah, but like there's a lot of people like that.

01:18:07Marc:It's like, you know, what are you doing up there?

01:18:10Marc:Yeah, yeah, you're making up a thing.

01:18:12Marc:that is like not serving who you really are.

01:18:15Guest:Yeah.

01:18:15Guest:They're not getting anything about you.

01:18:18Guest:Yeah.

01:18:19Guest:And it's not, it's not like it's doing so well that you're like, well, this is what I have to do.

01:18:24Guest:It's like, yeah, you're doing mediocre at best.

01:18:27Marc:Well now like there's no truth to it.

01:18:29Guest:So that's when he started to.

01:18:31Guest:So he just, he was like, even if you got to start going up there with no plan and just trying to figure out who you are,

01:18:38Guest:than do it.

01:18:40Guest:And so I started doing that more.

01:18:42Marc:You got hooked on it?

01:18:43Guest:Yeah, and then it was like the rush of like, because when I started comedy, I didn't realize that people do the same schtick every night.

01:18:51Guest:And I should have known that.

01:18:53Guest:Even you, you got to repeat a few things.

01:18:56Marc:Yeah, and I do.

01:18:57Guest:Now I do, I would say half of my set is probably material.

01:19:02Guest:But the material I do,

01:19:04Guest:feels authentic to me.

01:19:05Guest:Yeah, because you can throw it in any time.

01:19:07Guest:Yeah, and it comes from something that I probably developed from talking to a crowd.

01:19:11Marc:Right.

01:19:13Guest:But it just feels genuine to me.

01:19:15Guest:Like when I get off stage, I don't feel like a frog.

01:19:16Guest:Because you don't know when it's going to happen.

01:19:18Guest:Yeah, yeah.

01:19:18Marc:You know, there's sort of like, because I have bits

01:19:21Marc:I've been doing it so long, I know that I did three or four fucking CDs and specials before anyone knew who I was.

01:19:28Marc:So there's this weird resource of bits and pieces that kind of drop in occasionally.

01:19:34Marc:I'm like, that's okay.

01:19:35Marc:No one knows that joke.

01:19:37Guest:I remember when you first started showing up, just being like, yeah, I guess he was around.

01:19:43Guest:Someone told me he was around in the Kinison cocaine days.

01:19:46Guest:I'm like, oh, okay.

01:19:47Guest:And then a girl that I knew from college was out visiting, and we were hanging out at the comedy store, and you walked by, and she was like, is that Marc Maron?

01:19:55Guest:And I was like, yeah.

01:19:57Guest:And she was like, oh, man.

01:19:58Guest:She talked about your radio show or something and how great it was.

01:20:02Guest:And I'm like, oh.

01:20:04Guest:And then the girls, super cool.

01:20:07Guest:A girl I knew whose opinion of funny things and movies and stuff I liked.

01:20:11Guest:And so I'm like, oh, Maron must be cool.

01:20:13Marc:passed her test but i but other than that i honestly didn't know that much about you so well that's i was thinking about that last night because i almost brought it on stage last night i was gonna you know and for like some nights i'm just sort of like i still get this thing where like i've i've gotten like i just right when the pandemic left i'm like i'm going every night i gotta work out yeah i went and plowed through an hour and a half last week at fantasy at dynasty typewriter but then like last night i'm like i'm not feeling it man like this crowd's really good it makes me hate them and

01:20:42Marc:Yeah.

01:20:42Marc:And I was going to go... And Segura was on.

01:20:46Marc:But it wasn't like... It wasn't like his crew.

01:20:50Marc:It was just a good crowd.

01:20:53Marc:Yeah.

01:20:53Marc:Crowds have been pretty good.

01:20:55Guest:Yeah.

01:20:55Guest:And I was like, fuck it.

01:20:56Guest:I'm going to go fuck this up.

01:20:57Marc:And I started thinking about how...

01:21:00Marc:Like, I'm like, I'm relieved to be a guy that just kind of plugs along.

01:21:06Marc:Like, you know what I mean?

01:21:07Marc:It's like, I never got the type of success where a large swath of the country would be disappointed with my next special.

01:21:15Marc:Right.

01:21:15Marc:Do you know, like the weight of me is not competing with me.

01:21:19Marc:There's a lot fewer of them and there's more of the like, who the fuck?

01:21:21Marc:fuck is this guy right there's still most people are still like i don't i think i've seen this guy you can exist yeah in the world work yeah yeah you can work shit out people aren't like oh it's not like if you watch chris rock not have a great set it does it on purpose though yeah it's like if you watch chris rock in the club you're being used right to just see if the mathematics of his jokes work sure he's just he's just gonna

01:21:46Marc:Sleep through his jokes.

01:21:48Marc:Yeah.

01:21:48Marc:And then when he has to do them for real money, he will turn on.

01:21:50Marc:He'll turn it up.

01:21:51Guest:Yeah, for sure.

01:21:52Guest:Yeah.

01:21:52Marc:But does the skeleton work and then the body?

01:21:56Marc:Yeah, right.

01:21:57Marc:And I get that.

01:21:58Marc:Yeah, that's working out like I've been I've actually been doing like, you know, legit jokes lately.

01:22:03Marc:A few of them.

01:22:04Marc:I get bored with them so quickly.

01:22:06Marc:Yeah.

01:22:07Marc:I wrote this joke about how, you saw that one about my cats are acting weird.

01:22:11Marc:Yeah.

01:22:11Marc:I think there's going to be an economic collapse.

01:22:13Marc:Yeah.

01:22:14Marc:That to me is a great joke.

01:22:15Guest:It's funny.

01:22:15Marc:Yeah, it is.

01:22:16Marc:But I'm tired of it.

01:22:17Guest:You're already burnt out.

01:22:18Guest:Yeah, I can't sell it.

01:22:19Guest:I was like, I'm going to do this.

01:22:21Guest:You know what I mean?

01:22:22Guest:What I think is funny is you're doing a bit now.

01:22:27Guest:I won't do the whole bit, obviously, but it's about people having kids and how you have cats.

01:22:32Guest:Yeah.

01:22:33Guest:And the difference is when I follow you, I'm standing in the back like, fuck, I had a kid during the pandemic.

01:22:40Guest:Oh, you're the guy.

01:22:42Guest:Yeah, and then I'm like, God damn it.

01:22:43Guest:I don't always put that in there.

01:22:44Guest:And then he said something about having to put your cat down.

01:22:48Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.

01:22:49Guest:And then I'm like, oh, thank God I had to put my dog down during the pandemic too, so I'm both worlds.

01:22:56Marc:It's not personal.

01:22:57Guest:Yeah, I don't take it as a personal attack.

01:22:59Marc:When I watch the crowd love that bit, I'm like, fuck.

01:23:02Marc:That's what I was noticing, too.

01:23:05Marc:The stuff that you're doing that's political or motivated by anger and real social criticism, there's more of that.

01:23:13Marc:Yeah.

01:23:13Marc:And there's more lines about it, and they're solid.

01:23:15Marc:And you kind of slip them in in the middle of the reverie.

01:23:18Marc:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

01:23:20Marc:I love that, because people are like, what did you see?

01:23:22Marc:And then, boom, you're on to the next thing.

01:23:24Marc:Yeah.

01:23:24Marc:But I feel that the focused anger is good.

01:23:28Guest:Yeah.

01:23:29Guest:I honestly feel like, you know, I've been doing comedy for 21 years now.

01:23:35Guest:I've been in L.A.

01:23:36Guest:for 19 years doing comedy all the time.

01:23:40Guest:Yeah.

01:23:40Guest:And I've never had any level of success to where I can take time off.

01:23:44Guest:Right.

01:23:44Guest:And so I never would have felt comfortable doing it.

01:23:48Guest:But being forced to do it.

01:23:51Guest:I honestly feel like it really helped me for a solid four or five months.

01:23:56Guest:I was like, I just needed to depressurize from doing it.

01:24:01Guest:And then after that, then I started getting super antsy about it where I'm like, all right, well, now my brain feels rested.

01:24:06Marc:That's weird because I felt like I'm not going to do it anymore.

01:24:09Marc:Really?

01:24:10Marc:Yeah.

01:24:10Marc:I don't miss it at all.

01:24:11Marc:And maybe I'm better.

01:24:12Marc:That's really what I thought.

01:24:12Marc:I think I'm all better.

01:24:14Guest:Yeah.

01:24:15Guest:No, maybe six months.

01:24:16Guest:That's how I was.

01:24:17Guest:I'm just like, this is good.

01:24:18Guest:And after that, I'm like, fuck, I got to do something.

01:24:20Guest:And you had a baby.

01:24:21Marc:Yeah.

01:24:21Marc:And you have a wife.

01:24:22Marc:I have two kids.

01:24:23Guest:You have two kids?

01:24:24Guest:Yep.

01:24:24Guest:And yeah, met my wife at the comedy store.

01:24:27Marc:How's it going?

01:24:28Marc:It's good.

01:24:28Marc:Yeah.

01:24:29Marc:What does she do?

01:24:29Guest:She's a journalist.

01:24:31Guest:She's a writer.

01:24:32Guest:She was a Reuters correspondent.

01:24:35Marc:Oh, okay.

01:24:36Guest:You guys are holding up?

01:24:37Marc:Yeah.

01:24:37Marc:Got health insurance and everything?

01:24:38Guest:Yeah, man.

01:24:39Guest:She's a legit adult.

01:24:41Guest:Oh, really?

01:24:41Guest:It's pretty nice, yeah.

01:24:42Guest:Oh, good.

01:24:43Guest:Yeah, she's cool.

01:24:45Guest:She's Israeli, so she doesn't have American- Wild, keeping you in line?

01:24:49Guest:Yeah, definitely.

01:24:50Guest:She definitely is.

01:24:52Marc:Look at Luke Schwartz.

01:24:53Marc:He's like, I got married.

01:24:54Marc:I'm like, yeah, to a doctor.

01:24:55Marc:I'm like, what the fuck?

01:24:56Guest:Yeah.

01:24:57Marc:When he got married, I was saying, I'm like, wait, that guy has a girlfriend?

01:24:59Marc:Yeah.

01:25:00Marc:Yeah.

01:25:00Marc:Good for him.

01:25:01Marc:Yeah.

01:25:01Marc:Got married to like someone with a real life, but he's like, he's one of those good kids.

01:25:05Marc:He's a good kid.

01:25:06Marc:Like, you know, like it's like, uh, I used to see people like, I remember when I, when I first met Esther Pavitsky, you know, and she was just sort of trying to figure out where she belonged.

01:25:16Marc:And I was literally like, don't go to the store.

01:25:18Marc:Yeah.

01:25:18Marc:It's going to ruin you.

01:25:19Marc:Yeah.

01:25:20Marc:Little Esther is not.

01:25:21Marc:Yeah.

01:25:21Marc:It's like, you know, why not just take care of, you know, who you are?

01:25:23Marc:Because that place is going to be in there.

01:25:25Marc:But she did all right.

01:25:27Marc:She stuck it out.

01:25:27Guest:Yeah.

01:25:28Marc:Yeah.

01:25:28Marc:I always advise people, get out of here.

01:25:30Guest:Yeah.

01:25:32Guest:Where were you in 2004 when I needed that mark?

01:25:36Guest:I was there.

01:25:37Marc:I would have told you.

01:25:38Marc:If you would have just told me.

01:25:39Marc:I told fucking Duncan Trussell.

01:25:40Marc:I'm like, you don't want to be a satellite comic.

01:25:42Marc:Get out from under Joe.

01:25:43Marc:Yeah.

01:25:44Marc:And he was like, he remembers that.

01:25:45Marc:Yeah.

01:25:46Marc:It didn't quite happen too quickly.

01:25:48Marc:Yeah.

01:25:49Marc:Because he's one of the guys that built Joe.

01:25:51Marc:Yeah.

01:25:51Marc:Like he gave like him and Diaz gave Joe fundamentally was not a drug guy.

01:25:56Marc:There's sort of that side of him.

01:25:59Marc:For sure.

01:25:59Marc:You know, that the mellow out and alter your mind.

01:26:03Marc:And yeah, there's a big chunk of Trussell perception in that Joe implanted.

01:26:10Guest:Yeah, I agree.

01:26:11Guest:Yeah.

01:26:12Guest:Love Duncan.

01:26:13Guest:Duncan is great.

01:26:14Guest:He's one of the most genuine and bizarre human beings I've ever met, but has like a truly good essence.

01:26:21Marc:Yeah, yeah.

01:26:22Marc:It's like, wow, this is a good dude.

01:26:24Marc:It is great.

01:26:24Marc:He's one of the funnest people to make laugh.

01:26:26Marc:Yeah.

01:26:27Marc:Cause he'll fuck.

01:26:28Guest:He'll cackle.

01:26:29Guest:Yeah.

01:26:29Marc:Yeah.

01:26:30Guest:Duncan's great.

01:26:30Guest:Yeah.

01:26:31Guest:He was, like I said, when I started, and again, I remember being kind of like irritated by it, but having been a part of that place for so long now, now it makes perfect sense.

01:26:42Guest:I'm a 21 year old kid who shows up and I'm talking shit to people.

01:26:46Guest:Yeah.

01:26:47Guest:I remember at one point Paulie pulled me aside while I was talking shit to some old paid regular.

01:26:52Guest:And he's like, dude, what are you doing?

01:26:54Guest:There's this guy named Jeremy Dingle.

01:26:57Guest:I don't even know that guy.

01:26:58Guest:He did this weird, he had an audio track that he played and he acted out sound effects and shit.

01:27:05Guest:And so one night he was there and I just started ripping into him.

01:27:08Guest:To his face?

01:27:09Guest:To his face.

01:27:10Guest:Wow.

01:27:11Guest:Just being like, yeah, why don't you go up there and do some fucking sound effects, man?

01:27:14Guest:Whatever it was.

01:27:15Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:27:15Guest:Just trying to show I have a big dick.

01:27:18Guest:The brittle swagger.

01:27:20Guest:Yeah.

01:27:20Guest:And just like no one laughing.

01:27:22Guest:Everyone just kind of looking at me like, why did we hire that douchebag?

01:27:25Guest:Yeah.

01:27:26Guest:And Pauly being like, dude, you got to stop that.

01:27:29Guest:I've grown to love Pauly, really.

01:27:31Guest:Pauly's a lot cooler than he used to be.

01:27:33Marc:It's just like he finally is completely self-aware in some way.

01:27:37Marc:Yeah, like he does self-deprecating jokes.

01:27:40Marc:But I like how he's like, I used to be the weasel, and then by the end of the 15, he is the weasel.

01:27:45Guest:Yeah.

01:27:45Guest:He's just like, that's who I am.

01:27:47Guest:The only grows there.

01:27:48Guest:Yeah.

01:27:48Guest:Yeah, he used to be such a douche to me that I had this resentment for the longest time.

01:27:55Marc:It's so impotent now.

01:27:57Guest:Like he can't manage it anymore.

01:27:59Guest:I remember giving him a line when I was on the road with him and him being like, dude, that's not funny.

01:28:06Guest:But it was like a self-deprecating joke.

01:28:09Guest:But it was 2003 and he wasn't far enough away from being in movies to where he was ready to poke fun at himself.

01:28:17Marc:He also saw his future as being the king of that place.

01:28:23Marc:Someone's got to write that fucking book if anyone cares.

01:28:27Marc:I'm just so happy, everybody.

01:28:28Marc:The people that love the place love it.

01:28:31Marc:And they work.

01:28:32Marc:Like, even Jeselnik has come around.

01:28:33Marc:I remember years ago, I said to him, I said, like, what if they can't they can't sell this place?

01:28:39Marc:He's like, well, it's just another fucking room.

01:28:41Marc:And now he's sort of like born again.

01:28:43Guest:He's like, I love this place.

01:28:44Guest:He's a dude that, he's one of the guys that I've talked about with like, who's the alpha?

01:28:48Guest:Yeah.

01:28:48Guest:And I'm like, yeah.

01:28:49Guest:To me, it honestly feels like now there's a bunch of what the alphas would consider betas.

01:28:55Guest:Right.

01:28:56Guest:But we just respect each other.

01:28:57Guest:Right.

01:28:58Guest:Which is an amazing vibe.

01:29:00Marc:No, it's just about the work.

01:29:01Marc:Yeah.

01:29:02Marc:It's not about like, you know, this fucking weird energy that has to pervade everything, you know?

01:29:08Marc:Yeah.

01:29:08Marc:All right, buddy.

01:29:08Marc:Well, that was fun.

01:29:10Marc:Thanks, man.

01:29:10Marc:Did we cover it all?

01:29:11Marc:There's more.

01:29:13Guest:Yeah.

01:29:14Guest:We barely dented.

01:29:16Guest:Yeah.

01:29:18Guest:What about more Tommy stuff?

01:29:20Guest:Dude, we're only to 2006.

01:29:22Guest:So.

01:29:25Guest:We'll pick it up another time.

01:29:26Guest:Yeah.

01:29:27Marc:All right.

01:29:27Marc:I'll talk to you.

01:29:28Marc:I appreciate it, man.

01:29:30Yeah.

01:29:35Marc:Okay, Rick Ingram.

01:29:36Marc:You can listen to him on the Comedy Store podcast, and you can see him at the Comedy Store almost any night that they're open.

01:29:47Marc:Here comes the noodling.

01:29:49Marc:Here it comes.

01:30:01Here it comes.

01:30:04.

01:30:05.

01:30:13Thank you.

01:30:35guitar solo

01:30:58.

01:30:59.

01:31:10guitar solo

01:31:34Marc:Boomer lives.

01:31:36Marc:Monkey LaFonda.

01:31:38Marc:Cat angels everywhere.