Episode 1426 - Alex Borstein
Marc:Lock the gates!
Marc:All right, let's do this.
Marc:How are you?
Marc:What the fuckers?
Marc:What the fuck, buddies?
Marc:What the fuck, Knicks?
Marc:What's happening?
Marc:How's it going?
Marc:Where are we at?
Marc:Where are we at as a country?
Marc:Where are we at as a planet?
Marc:Where are we at as, you know, just a guy sitting in a room on a mic?
Marc:That's where I'm at.
Marc:Today on the show, Alex Borstein is here.
Marc:You know her from MADtv.
Marc:Also is the voice of Lois in Family Guy.
Marc:And for her Emmy-winning performance as Susie on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the final season of that premieres tomorrow.
Marc:Also, her first-ever comedy special premieres next week.
Marc:It's called Alex Borstein, Corsets and Clown Suits.
Marc:And it's weird.
Marc:You know, I've known about Alex for a long time.
Marc:I've seen some of her work.
Marc:I'm not a Family Guy guy.
Marc:Uh, I, I don't, I don't know that I watched any mad TV.
Marc:I watched, I watched the first season of marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but I did watch her, her special, which is sort of a, it's a, it's a combination of things.
Marc:It's a, it's comedy, but it's also, there's a, uh, uh, what's the word cabaret element to it.
Marc:It's an odd thing.
Marc:And she's the filthy, which I, I appreciate.
Marc:Um, also, uh,
Marc:We had to start this interview.
Marc:For some reason, I think it was the winds this time.
Marc:The power was out when we started.
Marc:So we were sitting in the dark with batteries, and then it came on about 10 minutes in, and we switched over.
Marc:So there is a shift in audio quality because of that.
Marc:Also, you'll notice...
Marc:During the conversation that neither of us remembered to really mention or for some reason realized again until somewhere in the middle that we were both in the bad guys.
Marc:So that was an exciting moment.
Marc:I don't think I don't think Alex really knew that I was in the bad guys.
Marc:You you you decide when you hear the moment you decide.
Marc:Also, I have a very specific plug because I want to help a friend of mine, a friend of the shows.
Marc:It's a very specific show.
Marc:Danny LaBelle, a comedian, has a new film that's a half comedy special, half documentary called Reconquistador.
Marc:And it's about this trip he took to Spain to...
Marc:to trace his Sephardic roots and perform in the old country.
Marc:Now, here's where it gets a little specific.
Marc:It's playing at the Lamley Town Center in Encino, California, on Wednesday, April 26th.
Marc:Go to lamley.com for tickets, L-A-E-M-M-L-E.com.
Marc:Very specific plug, but he could use people there because he's trying to get it picked up or sold to a streamer so people can actually see it.
Marc:So if you're anywhere in the Encino area,
Marc:Go see this thing that Danny, it's taken a while for him to put it together, but here it is.
Marc:And again, if you're in Encino on April 26th, you can go to the Lamley Town Center.
Marc:to see Reconquistador.
Marc:Also, I like to give a shout out to, in another current events, this, I don't know what's going on with this Bud Light thing.
Marc:I do think it's interesting.
Marc:Like, it's weird how, when you start to see people who latch on to things who don't give a fuck about it, but are just looking, like, you know, when you get somebody, like, you know, Kid Rock,
Marc:I mean, who gives a fuck about Kid Rock just sort of bumper hitching onto the hate machine for a little anger juice to try to grab a bit of quickly fleeting relevance like he gives a shit.
Marc:You start to really realize that there's a whole bunch of personalities that are just grifting on the stupidity of the hate market.
Marc:Oh, I can't.
Marc:Even just talking about that, even just thinking about that out loud just made me exhausted.
Marc:Seriously.
Marc:It just made me feel like, you know, oh, my God, I'm disappearing as I say this.
Marc:In lighter news.
Marc:I took a buster to the vet today.
Marc:Here's what's weird about me and why I don't have a dog.
Marc:If you want to know, like some people ask me, like, why don't you have dogs?
Marc:I'm like, first of all, I grew up with dogs.
Marc:And second of all, my complete enmeshment with the three cats I have.
Marc:And cats are not as needy or as attentive or as affectionate or as...
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Right now, Charlie Beans is pretty intelligent.
Marc:He can fetch and shit.
Marc:He knows his name.
Marc:He'll play.
Marc:He'll chase a ball and come get it.
Marc:I don't think he could handle a Frisbee, but he can do a ball in the house, a small scrunchie ball.
Marc:But because of my enmeshment and my insane projections and anthropomorphizing of my cats, the idea of even having a dog is crazy.
Marc:It would drive me crazy.
Marc:I would not be able to have any life at all without panic.
Marc:And that's also why I don't have children.
Marc:Because like Buster, who's almost seven,
Marc:who, as some of you know, when he was less than a year old, ate some fucking plant and went into renal failure.
Marc:I saved his life, but we're not sure what his kidney function is or if both of them are even working.
Marc:I feel like he might just have one going.
Marc:But now he's, you know, almost seven.
Marc:And here's why I took him to the vet.
Marc:He seemed to be not eating as much as he usually does.
Marc:He threw up once after he ate, which I think was probably because he ate too fast.
Marc:And and he's acting very friendly and very needy and kind of adorable.
Marc:And I thought, like, what the fuck is wrong with this cat?
Marc:He's usually a little standoffish, but sweet nonetheless.
Marc:But now he's just sort of like, what, all of a sudden he's like Mr. Nice Guy, Mr. Climb on my chest, Mr. You know, kind of rubbing himself up against me.
Marc:And I thought, like, he must be dying.
Marc:That's how my brain works.
Marc:This cat's acting differently.
Marc:He doesn't seem sick.
Marc:He's actually kind of a nicer cat.
Marc:I better take him to the vet.
Marc:So I took him to this new vet, got old Buster checked out, got some blood work, haven't heard back yet.
Marc:But I'll try not to assume that because he's becoming a sweeter old cat that for some reason he's dying.
Marc:On the vegan front, I think I might have eaten some egg and some bread products.
Marc:I'm going to let it go.
Marc:And also made my own falafel.
Marc:Deep fried it, the whole fucking thing, and it came out spectacular.
Marc:Also, figured out how to make good hummus.
Marc:I'll give you a hint.
Marc:Requires a Vitamix.
Marc:It's about texture, mostly.
Marc:You know, if you want to get it like the stuff you get in the supermarket and texturally.
Marc:I always thought there was some mystery to it.
Marc:Like what kind of magic grinder do these Middle Eastern people have that makes their hummus so smooth?
Marc:But I'm hanging in there.
Marc:Got to make an appointment for the blood work.
Marc:That's where we're at.
Marc:I think you're all caught up.
Marc:Alex Borstein was a good time.
Marc:As I said, tough, filthy, funny.
Marc:Loved it.
Marc:The final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel premieres tomorrow, April 14th on Prime Video.
Marc:Her comedy special, Alex Borstein, Corsets and Clown Suits.
Marc:Premieres next Tuesday, April 18th, also on Prime Video.
Marc:And again, I should tell you that at the beginning of this conversation, we were battery operated because there was a power outage in my neighborhood.
Marc:OK, heads up.
Marc:You'll hear it.
Guest:What are you looking at?
Guest:Your sign language WTF.
Marc:I know.
Marc:Isn't that interesting?
Marc:I mean, somebody gave that to me a long time ago.
Marc:And I've just kept it.
Marc:I don't think everybody knows what that is.
Guest:I'm special.
Marc:Do you know sign language?
Guest:A little bit.
Marc:Have you had to use it?
Guest:No, it was, you know, I took that as a language in university.
Guest:And have you communicated with...
Guest:The deaf?
Guest:Maybe inadvertently, but I mean, I don't have any deaf, you know, members of my family or people in my immediate.
Guest:I'm friends with Marlee Matlin, but Marlee's a lip reader.
Guest:You know, she doesn't.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:She doesn't need to sign with people who don't know how to sign?
Guest:Oh, she does not need to.
Guest:But yeah, I took it in college and I took it with my friend Chris and we used to go on the weekends to the movies and not speak and try to use our sign language to communicate and see if we could get through a day and we could maybe do like a half an hour.
Marc:Did people think you were deaf?
Guest:Perhaps, until we started giggling and realized we didn't know how to say something.
Marc:So...
Marc:In college, what else did you do?
Guest:I ate a lot.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I did.
Guest:I ate a lot.
Guest:There was a candy machine in the dorm, and I kind of slept in front of it.
Guest:Where'd you go?
Guest:San Francisco State.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:I studied rhetoric.
Marc:What does that mean, rhetoric?
Guest:What does it mean?
Guest:Rhetoric.
Guest:I always tell people I have a BA in BS.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But it's not like logic.
Marc:Rhetoric is...
Guest:No, it's not like logic.
Guest:I mean, it's the art of persuasion.
Guest:It's being able to persuade the masses with language.
Guest:Yeah, speaking.
Guest:A lot of people become lawyers and go into advertising.
Marc:Were there any classes where the teacher said, look, you know, Hitler was a bad guy, but I think we could really learn something.
Guest:Let's study his speeches.
Guest:Well, no, actually, you do look at – we looked at speeches of bad guys as well as good guys.
Guest:Yeah, you know, the –
Guest:We're looking at the Checkers speech with Nixon, which is a famous one.
Guest:Yeah, a lot of Hitler's addresses.
Guest:Early Hitler.
Guest:Early Hitler.
Guest:The good stuff before he went pop.
Guest:Yeah, no, it was a really good.
Marc:In retrospect, do you think it helped you at all or did anything?
Guest:Oh, absolutely.
Marc:Yeah?
Guest:I mean, comedy is persuasion and anything you write.
Guest:I worked in advertising.
Guest:That's what I did first.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:Really?
Guest:It was great.
Yeah.
Marc:So where'd you grow up?
Marc:Here?
Guest:You didn't grow up here.
Guest:I grew up both.
Guest:A suburb of Chicago and then Southern California.
Guest:Which suburb?
Guest:Chicago?
Guest:Deerfield.
Guest:Born in Highland Park.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Jews.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Happy Passover, by the way.
Marc:Yeah, to you, too.
Guest:Thanks.
Guest:So I'm from both places a little bit.
Marc:I like Chicago.
Guest:I love Chicago.
Marc:It's great.
Guest:It's an easy town.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's easy.
Guest:It's not as hard on you as New York, but it's a real city.
Marc:Yeah, it's got its own thing and people are not ashamed to eat or smoke.
Oh, yeah.
Guest:Everybody's really real there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And the food's real.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The pizzas are deep and the meat is fatty.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I will go to Lou Malnati's every time I'm there.
Guest:You're a Malnati's?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I don't give a fuck what people say.
Guest:I like Malnati's.
Guest:I'm not hardcore.
Guest:I also like to, you know, oh my God, I can't even think of the name right now.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I was going to say DiGiorno, but that's the shit you get at home.
Marc:No, it's, yeah, what is it?
Ah!
Guest:I can't even think of it right now.
Marc:Do you know Pequod's too?
Marc:No.
Marc:Oh, that's another one.
Marc:But you're talking about the other big one.
Marc:And I can't remember it either because I'm old.
Guest:It'll come to me.
Guest:It's almost DiGiorno.
Guest:It's close.
Guest:It's close.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'll scream it in the middle.
Marc:But I'll defend lose all day long.
Marc:And I don't eat it any other time.
Guest:If I go to Chicago, I'll eat it.
Guest:I sometimes get it shipped.
Guest:When I'm working in Brooklyn, I'll ship.
Marc:The deep dish.
Guest:Malnados to Brooklyn.
Guest:Don't tell New Yorkers.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I mean, it's a different thing.
Marc:And then there's people that argue it's not really pizza.
Guest:But you know what?
Guest:I feel the same way about the cities.
Guest:There's a place in my heart for both places.
Guest:For Chicago and New York?
Guest:And L.A.
Guest:And like pizza's fucking great anywhere.
Guest:I love pizza.
Guest:I can even have like roller rink pizza that's, you know, 350 a slice.
Marc:The only time pizza's bad is when the crust is soggy.
Guest:I might agree with that.
Marc:That's the only fucking time.
Marc:I mean, if there's a soggy crust situation or if you go to lift it up and it can't hold together, I'm like, it angers me in a way that's slightly disturbing.
Guest:The thing I don't like is too much red sauce.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Marc:Too much tomato sauce can kill it for me.
Marc:But you have a sense that this is LA's a city.
Marc:I've been trying to, I'm grappling with that lately.
Guest:It's a series of villages.
Guest:Yeah, that's right.
Guest:They're tied together.
Guest:I always say that like LA has no, there's no torso.
Guest:It's all limbs.
Guest:There's no torso.
Guest:There's no center heart.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But they're limbs and limbs are fucking important and they're great.
Guest:And you can find beautiful things on the tips of the fingers.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, I'm in Pasadena and it's charming and I love it.
Guest:There's a bunch of museums there.
Guest:There is life.
Guest:There is culture.
Guest:Do you go to them?
Guest:I do sometimes.
Guest:I got kids, so I do some of that stuff.
Guest:Oh, you got to bring them.
Guest:Make them look at the art.
Guest:yeah make them look at things yeah make them uh the huntington gardens is really beautiful that's great yeah there's a there's a great music you know the museums there are beautiful the library which is that one right outside of uh past eagle rock the beginning of pasadena going that direction there's that private collection museum right there with all the modern stuff the norton simon yeah yeah yeah that's a good one right yeah yeah and it's it's real small and it's real doable and it's nice
Guest:No, I do.
Guest:And there's a California museum there.
Guest:And then there's, uh, yeah, there's, there's, I don't know.
Guest:I kind of like, I like it.
Guest:I like, and I like little pockets and silver.
Marc:Like, and I like put, you know, places in Venice and I like, you go all the way out there to Venice to me, like going to the West side.
Marc:It's like, we got to, you know, bring, you know, pack a bag.
Guest:It's a thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You pack a lunch.
Guest:You pack a lunch.
Guest:It's a thing to go out there.
Guest:But it's nice to know it's there.
Guest:Nice to know you can get somewhere.
Guest:My kid surfs.
Guest:We can get to water.
Guest:How old's the kid?
Guest:He's 14 and she's 10.
Marc:So you got kind of, you know, they're up there.
Marc:I mean, they're getting there.
Marc:They're like little people.
Guest:They are little people.
Marc:They're good people?
Guest:They're good people.
Guest:Actually, she's the same size as me already, and he's taller, so they're not that little.
Guest:They're good.
Guest:He's rough.
Guest:He can be rough, but he is super interesting.
Guest:I think it's going to be worth it.
Guest:Was your ex-Jewish?
Guest:No, he was not born a Jew.
Guest:He kind of like did a light version of converting when we got married and was into it.
Guest:But I don't think he continues to do anything.
Marc:A light conversion?
Guest:Light conversion.
Guest:Is that a thing?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's Jew light.
Marc:But do you get paperwork on that or do you—
Guest:There's no mikvah.
Guest:You don't get stewed.
Marc:They don't do that to dudes.
Marc:But did he get like bar mitzvahed?
Guest:No.
Guest:Didn't get bar mitzvahed.
Marc:Confirmed or anything?
Marc:Stamped?
Marc:No.
Marc:Not even by a reform library?
Guest:No.
Guest:And he was already a circumcised person because of the time he was born.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:So, yeah, it was pretty much he took some classes and was like, all right.
Marc:Yeah, I get it.
Guest:I'm down with this.
Marc:And are you raising them Jewish to kids?
Guest:I am.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Because I watched the special, and you're a dirty Jew.
Marc:I am.
Guest:I am a filthy... I've been saying lately that it's kind of like a filthy TED Talk.
Marc:Yeah, kind of.
Marc:Yeah, it's... It's a mixture of things, but I had not... It's really different.
Guest:It's not stand-up.
Marc:No.
Marc:I mean, but we've been in the same orbit for years somehow.
Marc:I mean, I've known of you one way or the other at different versions of our lives.
Marc:I mean, you're younger than me, but when I was at Comedy Central, I mean, your name was always around.
Marc:You're always doing things.
Guest:Yeah, likewise, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it became one of those situations where at some point when you showed up on Mrs. Maisel,
Marc:I had realized that, like, we had both fallen into the category at some point of, like, whatever happened to those people?
Marc:Oh, her.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I remember her from the thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And then we kind of landed on our feet somehow with, I don't know about you, but I still have spite.
Guest:Interesting.
Marc:Against some things.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I've been really lucky.
Guest:I've been really lucky.
Marc:You're doing very well.
Marc:You're winning prizes.
Guest:Well, but I hopped from Mad TV to Family Guy, which is still running.
Guest:And then I worked on Gilmore Girls.
Guest:And then I worked on this show called Getting On for HBO.
Guest:And then I got really lucky.
Marc:You were always working.
Marc:So you've always been in the mix.
Marc:There's people like, what's right now?
Marc:What's he talking about?
Marc:She's been working the whole time.
Guest:Well, but it's, but it hasn't been, you know, this show that I did before Maisel called Getting On was three seasons on HBO.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:One of my favorite things of all time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Some of the best work.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I loved it with Laurie Metcalf and Niecy Nash.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:But no one was watching.
Guest:It was a real specialized little niche thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:People were like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:When this finishes, Game of Thrones comes on.
Guest:That's all they knew about it.
Marc:They saw the last five minutes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, you know, it's just, I've been lucky to be, to be working, but it hasn't been something that everyone's been diving into.
Yeah.
Marc:So how long were you in Chicago when you were growing up?
Guest:About age 10 we moved out.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And you always had family there?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So you always went back.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It was one of those things.
Marc:And your parents moved to California?
Guest:Yep.
Guest:Why?
Guest:Honestly, my mother was like, I can't do another fucking winter.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:She really just felt like I can't do it.
Guest:And my father's sister had made the move out to Los Angeles.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So they just said, let's do it.
Guest:Let's go somewhere warmer.
Yeah.
Marc:And they loved it?
Marc:And they loved it.
Guest:What business are they in?
Guest:My dad is a therapist.
Marc:Is that true?
Marc:Like really?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Like what kind?
Guest:Like psychiatrist, psychologist?
Guest:A PhD.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Not a psychiatrist.
Marc:He's the old school Jewish guy?
Guest:Old school.
Guest:He married family.
Guest:He also in Chicago had a place called Midwest Family Resources.
Guest:And he also worked with like the Gilda Club out there.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And in LA, yeah, a lot of family therapy couples.
Guest:In LA, he had Los Angeles Family Institute.
Marc:What was his approach?
Guest:Just not listening.
Guest:He's a really good not listener.
Guest:People just, I guess, talk and figure it out in his office for themselves.
Marc:As he detaches in front of them?
Guest:I guess so.
Guest:We always marveled.
Guest:I mean, maybe that's why he couldn't listen at home because he'd given it all at the office.
Guest:Drained.
Guest:But he just didn't hear shit after.
Guest:No kidding.
Guest:No kidding.
Guest:The time clock.
Marc:Well, it's funny because I was thinking about this this morning for some reason about my life and about therapists I've seen in my life and about this one in particular that just they all have like they sort of have this.
Marc:The good ones have this weird gaze.
Marc:They do that.
Marc:You know, you're not sure whether it's engaged or not, but you can project onto it and assume that it's being absorbed.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:He is a walking Rorschach.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And what about your mom?
Guest:My mom raised us for the first part of our lives.
Guest:And then she had a couple careers.
Guest:When we moved to California, she opened a candy store.
Wow.
Guest:She opened a chocolate and a candy store, which, you know, for a fat kid was the best and worst thing that she could have done.
Guest:Her first one was in Northridge, California, and then her second one was in Sherman Oaks.
Guest:Like, just candy stores?
Marc:Like, did she make the candy?
Guest:She made some of them.
Guest:Okay, I'm going to tell you something.
Guest:Do you remember Alan Thicke had a show called Thicke of the Night?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:She was on Thicke of the Night because she made X-rated chocolates.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:She made— Little cocks.
Marc:Chocolate cocks, chocolate boobs.
Marc:She made the tricky chocolate vagina?
Guest:There was—I'm not joking.
Guest:There was a—it was like a sucker.
Guest:You know, it's made of chocolate.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It was a sucker that was a vagina.
Guest:And as you might imagine, was not a huge seller.
Marc:No, it's hard to do the vagina like that.
Guest:It's hard because she would hand make these with a mold and she several times tried doing them like Caucasian skin tone and it was not appetizing.
Guest:I don't know how men do it.
Guest:And then she did it in chocolate and you could not see any definition of what it was.
Guest:So it really just did not.
Guest:But the cocks...
Guest:Did very well.
Marc:You might be able to pull off a vagina cookie, I think.
Marc:A tart?
Marc:Yeah, with enough detail.
Marc:I've seen some vagina work on candies and cookies.
Guest:You might need icing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:No, you do.
Marc:You need colors.
Marc:You need texture.
Guest:I think like one of the producers of the thick of the night went in there and got something for a bachelorette party or I don't know what.
Marc:And thought it like, what a great guest.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:And so they invited her on.
Marc:So that was a specialty of hers?
Marc:Chocolate Cox?
Guest:That was.
Guest:But it was also regular chocolates and jelly beans.
Guest:Jelly bellies were a big thing then.
Marc:But did she have to have a separate section that kids couldn't go in?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:X-rated.
Guest:X-rated chocolates.
Guest:There was a shelf that was covered.
Guest:I'm not joking.
Guest:Of course.
Guest:And then later in life, she went back to school and became a therapist as well.
Marc:Wow, two therapists.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And you say you were a fat kid?
Guest:Yeah, surprise?
Guest:No.
Marc:Yeah, I'm still a fat kid.
Marc:I grew up with some of the fat things.
Marc:My mother was an ex-fat person, which is the worst.
Guest:That's hard.
Marc:She was anorexic.
Guest:No joy.
Marc:No joy at all, just trying to control her kid's fat.
Marc:So I'd pudge out, and then I'd get this horrible detachment, the trips to the husky section.
Marc:Oh.
Guest:So you're a husky?
Marc:I was a husky.
Marc:I don't think I ever made it to fat, but I was husky.
Guest:I look back on pictures now and I'm like, I wasn't even fat.
Guest:I was like normal, but there was kind of this weird, I don't know, this pressure.
Marc:Who decided?
Marc:Your parents put the pressure?
Marc:The therapists were?
Guest:Yeah, I think my dad had a vision of, and I adore my dad.
Guest:This is not like slam Irv time because he's the bee's knees.
Marc:Oh, Irv, great name.
Guest:That generation, Keith, and he was like raised an Orthodox Jew.
Guest:I think he thought I'd be just kind of this little princess, like little, you know, dresses and pink and tights.
Guest:And I came out really different.
Guest:And I think he...
Marc:Never quite adjusted.
Guest:Never quite adjusted and couldn't wrap his head around.
Guest:And his wife, you know, my mom's been studying her whole life and she weighed, you know, 118 pounds forever and didn't lift a finger, never exercised.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I think he was just a little bit like, what, what is this?
Guest:Yes.
Marc:You know, how does this happen?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Are they both born here?
Guest:No, my mother was born in Budapest.
Guest:She's Hungarian.
Guest:And my dad was born in Atlanta.
Marc:Because I saw them at the show.
Marc:You really gave them a... You really took them... You really pushed the envelope.
Guest:They're a part of the show.
Marc:With the folks in the room.
Guest:They're a part of it, man.
Guest:It was... Honestly, this show, this comedy special, is really just... I wanted this...
Guest:documented in some way, you know?
Guest:It's like, if it finds an audience, that's a wonderful bonus.
Marc:Well, it's a weird thing because it's like, at some point it kind of becomes a cabaret in a way, right?
Marc:So, you know, you do the songs, you have the ukulele players, the Spanish guys.
Marc:It's not, yeah, it's all funny all the way through, but touching too.
Marc:And a little more elaborate than a comedy special.
Guest:Yeah, that was that's that was been a little bit of a trick in terms of marketing it or getting it out there.
Guest:That's I want to make it clear.
Guest:Yeah, it's not, you know, set up punchline, set up punchline, joke, joke, joke.
Marc:But the good thing is, is it is filthy and that and it's good.
Marc:Like, I don't think there's enough filth.
Marc:In the world?
Marc:Well, we all used to do, like, I used to do filth.
Marc:I used to do more filth than I do now.
Marc:But I just like some of the, I like the filthy talk from the ladies.
Marc:Like Belle Barth or something like, you know, old school.
Guest:Just dirty.
Marc:Dirty.
Guest:I like the juxtaposition of me kind of having a late blossoming, coming kind of late to all of the topics in my show and discovering myself a little bit more sexually as an old lady.
Guest:And the juxtaposition of it with this age.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:That's something that I enjoy about being a little filthy.
Marc:But also it's just about women's...
Marc:voices of a certain age comedically disappear.
Marc:There's not many of them.
Marc:Like I had Kathy Ladman on here a few weeks ago and I watch her at the comedy store sometimes and Fallon put her on.
Marc:She's older than me, older than you.
Marc:She's in her 60s.
Marc:And she's very straightforward about where she's at in her life and how she looks and everything else.
Marc:And it's fucking hilarious.
Marc:And it shouldn't be a unique voice, but it is culturally.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We're still, the broads are still, we're used as a spice.
Guest:We're like a surprise on the plate as opposed to an entree.
Marc:She did a joke the other night.
Marc:It just, it really got me about how, like, you know, that sometimes she pees a little now and it's not, you know, like when she laughs and stuff, you know, and she said, she said, my niece asked me to blow up a balloon.
Marc:I did.
Marc:And I had to change my pants.
Guest:Does she have children?
Marc:She's got one kid.
Guest:Okay, that makes some sense.
Marc:No, but she didn't have birth.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Marc:I don't know what it is.
Guest:The pelvic floor has left her?
Marc:I don't know, but I can't remember the exact setup.
Marc:But you cover all that, too.
Marc:That's a very funny bit you do about having two cesareans.
Marc:And so your pussy's only 20 years old?
Guest:Yeah, my pussy age is 20.
Guest:Isn't that something?
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:So it's good.
Guest:Yeah, no, that was a real, that part of the show is real.
Guest:There's a lot of, you know.
Marc:I believe pussies age well in general.
Guest:Do you?
Marc:I do.
Guest:You're a good man.
Guest:You're a good man.
Marc:Because, you know, I've dealt with many of different ages.
Marc:And I just, I find like, well, this thing.
Marc:Humble brag.
Marc:Yeah, this thing holds up pretty good.
Marc:These seem to hold up pretty well.
Oh.
Marc:Here comes the electricity.
Guest:Hey, the power just came back on.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:It's a Passover miracle.
Marc:Do we shift, though?
Marc:That's going to be the big question.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:You tell me.
Guest:What would you like to do?
Guest:Are we starting over?
Marc:No, no.
Marc:We don't have to start over.
Marc:I could probably use both.
Marc:But I think the smart thing to do would just be to continue on.
Marc:And let's see.
Marc:Okay, let's keep talking about vaginas.
Guest:Oh, what was I going to say about vaginas?
Guest:I think the vaginas are usually attached to a person.
Marc:Yes, which is good.
Guest:And as the vagina ages, the person is aged.
Guest:And I think that person just tends to know how to use it and what they want.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they're not shy to smack your hand out of the way and just fix something themselves.
Yeah.
Guest:And that's a beautiful thing.
Marc:Sure, when you have the confidence to do that.
Marc:I do think that people behave oddly in the sexual space.
Marc:Hold on, there's a lot of things coming on right now.
Guest:It's exciting to watch you work.
Marc:Man, we could even turn lights on.
Marc:Hold on a second.
Guest:You sure you want to do that?
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Get back to that pussy talk in just a second.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:So, hold that thought.
Marc:I like talking about vaginas in a frank way.
Guest:I'm holding it.
Guest:I'm holding it.
Guest:I'm looking at the stuff on your desk right now.
Marc:I was working on it.
Marc:I'm trying to figure out what to talk about.
Marc:Is it comic right now?
Marc:Because I just did a special and I'm tapped.
Marc:So I'm trying to figure out what topics I want to cover.
Guest:You're welcome to do pussies.
Marc:Well, I'm thinking about it, but it's a little tricky.
Marc:Men talking about pussies, you know, versus you.
Marc:I'm going to sit there and do like a nice 10 minutes on what I think of vaginas.
Guest:But you've got a different perspective.
Guest:Literally.
Marc:Literally.
Marc:Right.
Marc:No, but no one wants to hear my perspective.
Marc:They've had enough of the male perspective of pussies, I think, in general.
Guest:Um, I guess.
Guest:I don't know if it's been a frank observation of a real... Like, there's outside pussies and inside pussies.
Guest:I didn't even know that.
Marc:Wait, really?
Guest:Yeah, I didn't know that.
Guest:I think it was... God, how many years ago?
Guest:Someone introduced me to some chart from, like, the Netherlands or something.
Marc:Some bizarre... In terms of, like, labia situation?
Guest:Yeah, in terms of the actual...
Marc:All right, we're going to make the big switch.
Marc:Hold on.
Guest:Okay, here it goes.
Guest:Three?
Marc:Let's turn this off.
Guest:Did it happen?
Marc:Yeah, we can go over to these mics now.
Guest:I'm still having a double situation.
Guest:You don't have to.
Marc:Give me it.
Guest:Wow.
Marc:Yeah, and now you can put cans on.
Guest:Should I?
Marc:Sure, why not?
Guest:But I can hear you.
Marc:I know, but it's like it adds a whole different dimension.
Marc:See, now we're in it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And now we can kind of bring that in.
Marc:And now it's like, yeah.
Guest:Do that.
Marc:How's that feel?
Guest:Good?
Guest:I feel like we are the world.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Wow, that was amazing.
Marc:So we've transitioned into the bigger mics.
Marc:Those listening might notice a slight difference.
Marc:I think it was the right thing to do.
Guest:I think it's beautiful.
Guest:We've shown a progression in our friendship and our work.
Marc:So back to vagina.
Marc:So this discovery of yours.
Marc:But let's go back.
Marc:Let's go back first.
Marc:So where do you start show business?
Marc:You go to San Francisco State.
Marc:You learn rhetoric.
Marc:You said you're at an ad agency?
Guest:While I was in San Francisco State, I did some stand-up in the dorms.
Guest:There was like a comedy competition.
Marc:So you did do stand-up?
Guest:I did a little stand-up and actually it was a competition that was on the college campus and Margaret Cho.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:She's from San Francisco.
Guest:But was not at the college.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I think she like fudged and got into the competition and smoked us all.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:She'd been like doing actual stand-ups.
Marc:What year is that?
Uh.
Guest:I went in 89.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So it was between 89 and 92.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I joined a sketch comedy group in college.
Guest:In college.
Guest:We performed on the campus and caused a lot of trouble.
Guest:It was really fun.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We got, like, political.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was actually a good first taste of, like, pushing the envelope.
Yeah.
Guest:And then I came back to Southern California.
Guest:I started a master's program and got an internship at an ad agency.
Marc:A master's program in rhetoric?
Guest:In more communication, yeah.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:And went to an ad agency and got a, what do you call it, internship.
Guest:And then they hired me as an employee.
Guest:And at the same time, I started taking classes at Acme Comedy Theater.
Marc:So you're back down here in L.A.?
Guest:Back in L.A.,
Guest:And then joined the Acme sketch comedy group.
Guest:Yeah, I remember the Acme.
Guest:It's gone, right?
Guest:I think it is gone.
Guest:They existed for quite some time on La Brea.
Guest:Then they switched back to their valley location.
Guest:And they may still be in the valley.
Guest:I'm not sure.
Marc:It was interesting because that's not one of the big ones.
Marc:You know, when people talk about it, like you got Groundlings and you got ImprovOlympic, IO, and all that Chicago-based Second City.
Marc:But I remember driving by the theater anyways and knowing people that cook improv there.
Marc:Yeah, Corolla was an Acme person.
Marc:That's not a great reference.
Guest:Just saying.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And a lot of the people that came out of there, a lot of people went on to write and a lot of people wrote in different ways, shapes, and forms.
Yeah.
Guest:In terms of on screen, you know, I came out of there and I'm not sure who else.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But yeah, we were like around the corner from Groundlings.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You could just see it.
Marc:You could see where the big show was happening.
Guest:I loved it though because we didn't have – Groundlings had that thing where the board of performers voted on who moves up.
Marc:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:Acme had one dude who decided what company you'd be in, and there was no reason for him to not.
Guest:There was nothing political or weird or you didn't have to befriend.
Marc:It wasn't seen as a channel through which to get to a portal to show business necessarily.
Guest:Yeah, and it was kind of—I mean, everyone hoped for that.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But it was the one guy who decided who got into which company, and he decided what material made it into the shows, and I kind of liked it.
Guest:You know, you paid.
Guest:You paid a monthly fee to be a member.
Marc:It just seems like the Groundlings was like one of these—it's like Juilliard.
Marc:If you can hang, you got a good shot at getting something.
Guest:Yeah, it's where SNL looks to get their people.
Guest:So how did you get cast out of there?
Guest:It was very strange.
Guest:I like—
Guest:I threw myself into one of the comedy festivals, Aspen.
Marc:Yeah, I remember that.
Marc:How do you mean you threw yourself in there?
Guest:Well, there was one year that I performed there as like the bubble, what was it, the bubble room?
Guest:It was something called the bubble room.
Guest:And I either hosted or just performed.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And then the next year— It's the HBO Aspen Comedy Festival.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The next year, I went just to tag along with someone else that got in somewhere.
Marc:Early 90s?
Guest:Yeah, I was like hoping just to soak it up and just be around everyone and see what's what.
Marc:You can barely breathe up there.
Guest:And then I met people who were from Austin, Texas, starting a new sketch festival called Big Stinkin' International Comedy Festival.
Guest:This is early 90s?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:They called it BS.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Big Stinkin'.
Guest:And I wrote their number down.
Guest:They wrote mine down.
Guest:We kept in touch.
Guest:And I submitted myself and four other people to their festival.
Guest:And we got in.
Guest:And that's where we performed.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that's where the MADtv casting people saw us.
Guest:Really?
Marc:Oh, so they didn't see you at Acme?
Guest:No.
Marc:It was actually at some other big deal.
Guest:Yeah, like they were located maybe a mile from Acme and had never been.
Guest:But they saw us in Austin, Texas.
Guest:And we went with the Acme Comedy Theater name.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And all five of us got auditions and I just got really lucky.
Marc:And then you were on MADtv forever?
Marc:I was on for five seasons.
Marc:Where'd you meet the husband guy?
Guest:My ex-husband I met at Acme Comedy Theater.
Marc:Huh.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:How long were you together with that guy?
Guest:We were together totally close to 20 years.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:I thought you watched the special, man.
Guest:I did.
Marc:What's going on?
Marc:I didn't know the years were mentioned.
Guest:You're right.
Guest:And some of it's not true.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We were together close to 20 years.
Marc:Huh.
Marc:And badly?
Guest:I mean...
Marc:It's the worst of worst.
Guest:I mean, no, we're lucky.
Guest:We're still, we do everything.
Guest:We do a lot together.
Guest:We're all going to go skiing tomorrow together.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Going to go to Big Bear and we'll see.
Marc:Oh, it's got to be a lot of snow up there.
Guest:I think so.
Guest:It's been dumping here.
Marc:So you got, all right, so that's nice.
Marc:You get along with the guy and the kids.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Doing the right thing.
Guest:Life is short.
Marc:Who cares?
Marc:Yeah, I'm trying to, yeah, I'm trying to think that way.
Guest:Yeah, I think – I mean, end badly.
Guest:Obviously, it ended because things weren't perfect or good.
Marc:But no, it's not full of vitriol and horror and resentment and betrayal and whatever.
Guest:No.
Guest:I mean, yeah and no.
Guest:But I also don't – I don't have – I just – it's not like I even decided.
Guest:It was just like, this is foolish.
Guest:I'm not going to carry around.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Whatever.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Life is short.
Marc:Why do – like, it is the worst thing.
Marc:When you get older and you realize that and you realize like, what do I really owe these people?
Guest:Well, and to owe that horrible feeling.
Marc:To not be into it anymore?
Guest:Yeah, but why carry anger?
Guest:This already happened.
Guest:Not wasted, but you've already passed through 20 years.
Guest:Maybe you've got 20 left.
Guest:Just fucking change direction and move on.
Guest:Sure.
Marc:Did you go to couples counseling?
Guest:I mean, we did towards the end.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:To figure out how to end it?
Guest:I guess so.
Guest:Or to try to save it?
Guest:I think it was just to create a net.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I think we knew we were about to fall off the high wire and let's create this net and see if we can fall strategically.
Right.
Marc:So when you were doing Mad TV, was he on?
Marc:He didn't.
Guest:He came on and did a couple of bit parts.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But no, he was not on it.
Marc:Was there that weird tension of you successful?
Guest:I don't think so.
Guest:I don't.
Guest:I mean, I think as we grew, after we got married and as we grew, maybe that was something that was hard.
Guest:Maybe that was a piece of the puzzle that was hard for him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I don't think he'd ever be grudged.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was just a bulldog.
Guest:I was like, get here.
Guest:Get there.
Guest:Put myself here.
Guest:Try to do this.
Guest:Try to do that.
Marc:And he's just more of a— You're a tough Jew.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You know, I mean, you know, and I like it.
Marc:I mean— Not that that matters, but, you know, it is—like, when you talk in the special—
Marc:You know, about your grandparents being Holocaust survivors.
Marc:Was your mother as well?
Guest:Yeah, my mom and my grandma, yeah.
Marc:So your mom was a kid.
Guest:Yep.
Marc:And they got out of where?
Guest:They got out of Budapest.
Guest:They were, I mean, I've told this story before, but they were not shipped off to a camp.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My mother's grandparents were.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Great-grandparents.
Marc:They died in the camp?
Guest:They perished, yeah.
Guest:They died in Auschwitz.
Guest:Perished.
Guest:Perished.
Guest:They were murdered.
Guest:How do we say that?
Marc:The Jews make it soft.
Guest:They were murdered in Auschwitz.
Guest:But my grandmother with my mother in a buggy was in line to be shot into the Danube.
Guest:At the Emmys, I said a pit.
Guest:But the Danube.
Guest:And she walked out of line.
Guest:Your grandmother.
Guest:My grandmother turned to the guard, the Hungarian guard, who were almost worse than the Nazis.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And said, you know, what happens if I step out of line?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he said, I don't have the heart to shoot you, but somebody will.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Guest:And she left.
Guest:She walked out of line.
Guest:With your mother.
Guest:Walked out of line, went around the corner.
Guest:With the baby.
Guest:Took the star off her arm.
Guest:She also had her 10-year-old niece and walked right back into the apartments that they had been pulled out of and went from floor to floor gathering what she could.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:That could be of value to help her.
Guest:And started walking.
Guest:It didn't stop walking.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:It's so fucking...
Marc:Heartbreaking.
Guest:It's heartbreaking, but it's also just badass.
Marc:No, it's totally badass.
Marc:But like, you know, now.
Guest:How she did it.
Guest:I don't know how she did it.
Marc:But I think for me, in thinking about that stuff, you know, like because these are stories that, you know, that you have personal experience with because it's your family.
Marc:But as Jews of a certain country.
Marc:You hear them all the time.
Marc:You hear them growing up.
Marc:We were made to know this stuff in a deep way.
Marc:But I, you know, I think for a lot of my life, the connection to really experiencing the empathy necessary to feel it is hard.
Marc:Because it's so massive.
Marc:And for some reason now, because of the climate of the hatred in this country, and you feel a real possibility of othering to the point of extermination, it resonates much deeper for me.
Guest:It does.
Guest:I mean, even, you know, you jokingly starting the podcast and saying, like, you're a dirty Jew.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I go, oh, that's that's just so dangerous now to like really to really throw that around.
Guest:Like, I just I'm always terrified now that.
Marc:Well, yeah, but I mean, I think we can own it.
Marc:Someone will come after me.
Marc:Oh, you mean for being a Jew?
Guest:Yeah, you know, it's always – Yeah, but you do what I do.
Marc:I mean, you know, you didn't – you may – you put that – you were very Jew forward on your special.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:And I think that's – I think that's the only way – Yeah.
Guest:There's nothing like any institution can do to better anti-Semitism or get rid of it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's a personal thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:If somebody loves your work, it loves you, and then they find out you're also Jewish, it's like, oh –
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:All right.
Guest:I thought I hated these people, but maybe.
Guest:Well, I guess that's one way to look at it.
Marc:You know, I think that's a good way to look at it.
Marc:But like I find more so than not, they find like they go like, yeah, well, she is a little Jew-y.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, I like her, but you can see the Jew.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I think.
Marc:Maybe I'm not giving people the benefit of the doubt.
Guest:There's many times that people will say like, oh, you don't look Jewish.
Guest:What does that mean?
Guest:I'll hear that a lot.
Guest:And I'm like, does that mean I'm pretty?
Guest:What is that?
Guest:Is it?
Guest:Thank you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:People usually think I'm Irish.
Guest:They assume that I'm like black Irish or something.
Guest:Oh, interesting.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But you never went really back to stand up after doing it in college?
Guest:Solo shows?
Guest:I really didn't.
Guest:I mean, well, I did some open mics at the belly room and stuff, but the late night 2 a.m.
Guest:waiting.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And a lot of the people were dudes in a not very friendly environment.
Guest:It just – not even like – While you were on MADtv though?
Guest:No, no, no, no.
Guest:Before.
Guest:Yeah, before.
Marc:So you kind of wandered around and saw the nightmare of it?
Guest:Yeah, a little bit.
Guest:I just felt like, I don't think I could ever do this.
Guest:And I always worried if I tried to be a road comic that I would take my life.
Guest:I mean, seriously, I think I would be very lonely and very depressed.
Guest:And I think alone in hotel rooms for too many times, I think I would just make very bad choices.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, it was like that for a long time, doing that for me.
Marc:But at some point it turns into like, I don't have to clean this place.
Marc:It's quiet.
Marc:Room service.
Marc:Kind of.
Marc:If you're not out there, some anonymous comic just working at a club where no one gives a shit about you, that's sad.
Guest:Post-Mad TV, I was able to – I mean, not that Mad TV was massive, but it was visible enough that I was able to do shows here and there that I was invited to that was from – I'd go to Sacramento and at the Depot.
Guest:The characters that I did on Mad TV became like gay icons.
Guest:Oh, they did?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'd be invited to, you know, open the Pride Week or do this or that.
Guest:And that was so much fun because it's a friendly audience.
Guest:Yeah, sure.
Guest:And you don't even – you don't have to work too – I mean, you're working hard, but it's not like – But you're doing a bit.
Guest:I didn't feel like I needed to have a crafted set that I've been working on for six years.
Guest:I could kind of go and deliver and stream of consciousness and have notes and, you know.
Guest:But no, I didn't – I didn't –
Guest:Was Bobby on MADtv with you?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We overlapped just at the end of mine.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We were on together.
Marc:He's a good little guy.
Guest:I have not talked to him in ages.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But he is one of the most fearless people I've seen on stage.
Guest:He's just wild.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So after MADtv, what was the plan?
Marc:To do TV stuff and whatever came?
Guest:I left MADtv because I was developing – I developed my own show, this pilot that was picked up and never got put on the air.
Marc:What was it?
Guest:It was called Life at Five Feet.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It was basically a Cyrano ripoff.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Guest:Truth About Cats and Dogs ripoff.
Guest:It was me looking like me as a struggling writer, and I got an opportunity to ghostwrite a column for a supermodel.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Guest:For like a cosmopolitan.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:It was cute.
Guest:It was a fun way to deliver that same story and kind of what I wanted to talk about in terms of life is really different when you look a certain way.
Marc:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:And it was cute.
Marc:It didn't go.
Guest:It didn't go.
Guest:And then I did Gilmore Girls.
Marc:How often were you a recurring guest on there?
Guest:Yeah, I was supposed to be on it, but I auditioned for it the same time Mad TV was still on and I was under contract and they wouldn't release me.
Marc:And that was the Palladinos?
Marc:That was the Palladinos.
Marc:Gilmore Girls was huge.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, the part that I had then went to Melissa McCarthy.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I did recurring stuff.
Guest:And then Gilmore Girls came about because Dan Palladino ran the writer's room at Family Guy.
Guest:He was my boss in the writer's room.
Marc:You were already in Family Guy?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:By that time that happened?
Marc:I can't remember these times.
Marc:I had an ex-girlfriend that was, like, compulsive about the Gilmore Girls.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Marc:I would just watch it on a loop.
Marc:She had mental problems.
Guest:Well, she was your girlfriend.
Marc:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But, you know, who doesn't have mental problems, right?
Marc:I hope everyone does.
Marc:Well, I think it's the root of all our problems.
Marc:90% of the world's problems are personal problems.
Guest:I think you're right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's just like no one can agree how to deal with those problems.
Marc:And most people are like, I'm not right.
Guest:No, I think you're right.
Marc:And that leads to, you know, people being killed.
Guest:I mean, yeah, with Hitler, it was just a bad mood.
Marc:Just unresolved trauma.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You know, untreated trauma.
Marc:It's all untreated trauma.
Marc:But the Family Guy was a good gig.
Marc:Oh, it still is.
Guest:God bless Family Guy.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, that was – I mean insurance, money, everything.
Guest:Yeah, it's – and I mean honestly like I still – we do table reads weekly and I receive those scripts and there are – Oh, my God.
Guest:I would say a good five things that make me laugh out loud.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:At this age and this stage.
Guest:Every time.
Guest:So, like, for me, as long as I am still cracking up.
Marc:You've done almost, like, 400 of those things?
Marc:400 episodes.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:That's crazy.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So you just, like, you know, you just get checks in the mail all the time, basically.
Guest:I am the luckiest woman in baseball.
Guest:Yeah, it's astonishing.
Guest:That is crazy.
Guest:Yep.
Marc:Wow, so you were doing great.
Marc:Here I thought like we were struggling at the same time.
Marc:You weren't struggling.
Guest:Yeah, I didn't want to make you feel bad.
Guest:I just nodded.
Guest:You did fine.
Guest:I've been a lucky girl.
Marc:You've been going at it.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I've done a lot of pilots that never went anywhere.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:I've definitely seen the boo-hoo side of things, but I've also been really lucky.
Marc:How big is the boo-hoo when you get a cartoon check?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:The check actually comes in, it's animated.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's hard to take to the bank.
Marc:Does it talk?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:When I go to the bank, they giggle, but they cash it.
Marc:Oh, you were in the movie I was in.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:We're in a movie together.
Marc:What movie?
Marc:The Bad Guys.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:We're co-stars, man.
Marc:I'm the snake, man.
Marc:I'm the snake.
Marc:You gearing up?
Marc:We're both in that movie like all the time.
Marc:We never talk to each other.
Marc:We just unwrapped the reality of show business.
Marc:No one knows anyone.
Marc:Well, no, but it's the weird thing about animation and doing it during COVID is that, I mean, I didn't have any scenes with you.
Marc:So, like, me and Sam.
Guest:No, that's not true.
Guest:Don't I throttle your neck?
Marc:Oh, yeah, maybe you do, yeah.
Guest:I squeeze your neck.
Marc:Well, I mean, we must have been on that weird live read promo.
Marc:We were around.
Guest:I wasn't on the live read.
Guest:I was busy.
Marc:I was shooting.
Marc:Oh, right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And I mean, I did work in person and on Zoom with Sam because that was my partner.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But that's so funny.
Marc:That's funny.
Marc:We have major parts in a movie together.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Marc:It can only happen with animation, though.
Marc:That's very funny.
Marc:I say a spinoff.
Marc:Cop Snake.
Marc:I'm into it.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:I like doing the snake.
Marc:Kids love the fucking movie.
Marc:And DreamWorks is six minutes from here.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's all about the commute in LA.
Marc:They're like, can you do two hours?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:What, now?
Marc:You want me to come now?
Marc:They don't let you just do it from this setup?
Marc:No.
Marc:It's better to go down to the bunker.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Nowadays, since I'm in Pasadena, if somebody says, oh, these people want to meet with you at Sony, I'm like, no.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:No, it's too far.
Guest:Would it shoot at Sony?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Nope.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I'd rather go to Vancouver and resettle.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Because you can just go from Burbank than drive to the west side to Culver City.
Guest:I would rather fly from Burbank to Sony.
Guest:They should have a flight that does that.
Marc:A chopper to Sony.
Marc:They should.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, there was a while there where I just was sort of like, you know, where you have these meetings set and they were just generals.
Marc:And it'd be like down by HBO or Comedy Central or something.
Marc:I'm like, nah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Because, you know, especially when they're like, when they schedule you at like four, I'm like, what are they doing all day that I got to fucking spend three hours in traffic for what?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, get me a better time.
Marc:Four o'clock fucking meeting.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:That was a nice thing about writing on Family Guy that, you know, they're like near the La Brea Tar Pits down there.
Guest:And that commute could murder you.
Guest:But yeah, but we were lucky they would start at 10 or 1030.
Guest:That is a decent, beautiful giving thing to do.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I'm glad we're all doing things in person again, but that's still an issue is driving somewhere.
Marc:I know.
Marc:But this Mrs. Maisel thing, you know, I didn't know what to do with that show.
Marc:Because as a comic, initially I was like, damn, this can't be.
Marc:It's about comedy.
Marc:It's going to suck.
Marc:But it didn't.
Guest:I think they handled it so theatrically.
Marc:It's just shy of a musical in the way it looks.
Guest:It's theatrical.
Guest:It feels like you're seeing a massive production.
Guest:And I think Amy, you know, who created it, was very smart in making
Guest:And Midge's stand-up style, I'm not saying she's a female Lenny Bruce, but the stream of consciousness.
Guest:Well, that's what people don't realize about that.
Guest:That was genius because it enables you to just enjoy monologues, watch it, say, yes, this is a funny piece.
Guest:This is saying something interesting and not judging.
Guest:The beats.
Guest:Set up punchline.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, I thought that was kind of genius about it, too, because I didn't want to like it, but I liked it, you know.
Marc:And I interviewed her years ago.
Marc:Rachel.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I really wanted to be critical of it.
Marc:And I met the guy who played Lenny Bruce, who I actually think did a very good job.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He did tremendous stuff.
Guest:That's not easy to ask.
Marc:It's not because how are you going to play that guy?
Marc:And even Dustin Hoffman was okay.
Marc:And that's all you can judge yourself against.
Marc:But I think he captured the humanity of the guy.
Marc:He's this historical mess.
Marc:But he was a very charming, funny guy.
Guest:You feel for him.
Guest:And season five, you do even more so.
Guest:You really feel for the guy.
Guest:Yeah, new season.
Guest:That drops.
Guest:April 14th.
Marc:April 14th?
Marc:I got to catch up.
Marc:But I was, you know, I realized very quickly that they had backloaded, you know, something into that character.
Marc:Like, that woman, as a comedian, would not have existed in that time.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So they had to make these choices, like you said.
Marc:You know, what do we... You can't model her after even Joan Rivers at that time.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Because that was a shtick.
Marc:It was a thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Everyone was shtick.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So the idea to sort of rethink...
Guest:a female comedian who who had the guts to say something yeah was something that didn't exist yeah so they put it in and i think it works great yeah she kind of took i think amy took like the heart of almost like a folk singer at that time right like a political feminist folk singer uh and instead of songs turn it into monologuing yeah you know and that's the character and and
Guest:Amy always speaks to that.
Guest:She always says, like, what's special about her is she didn't hide behind a character.
Guest:She didn't put on a fat suit like Sophie Lennon's character.
Guest:She wasn't doing a bit out there.
Guest:She was being herself.
Guest:And everybody was doing bits then.
Marc:And I think it saves the—you know, it gives the show some sort of interesting integrity because, you know, you can kind of go to that—the space of when that time was, you know, with a very modern voice, really.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Hers.
Guest:Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Guest:There's some people who would watch it and be calling out anachronisms of that sort.
Guest:That wouldn't be – and it's like that's why it's interesting.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:We didn't want to make a 50s – another 50s show of a woman in the 50s and have everything be – Right.
Marc:No, yeah.
Guest:That's not what Amy was after.
Guest:She wanted that juxtaposition.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's almost like what was behind –
Marc:What could possibly be happening in the mind that was not expressed at that time of a woman with some guts?
Guest:Yeah, I've been very happy to be on it and part of it.
Guest:And my character is so much fun and...
Marc:It's a great looking show.
Marc:Like you said, the theatrical nature of it is kind of insane.
Guest:Oh, and the camera work.
Marc:It always struck me as like a musical without songs.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:That, you know, everything's orchestrated.
Marc:The patter, the pace.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's all very sort of the minutia of it is clearly an obsession for somebody.
Guest:Yeah, well, Amy's a dancer.
Guest:She came from dance, and so everything's got a rhythm.
Guest:She has music under everything.
Guest:Everything's choreo.
Guest:I mean, the camera guys and women have to move like ballerinas to capture some of that stuff.
Marc:It's really, really tough.
Marc:And when you got cast, was it an offer, or did you read?
Marc:Oh, no, I auditioned.
Guest:Amy...
Guest:But you knew her from Gilmore.
Guest:Amy and I had been friends from Gilmore.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And she said like, wait, are you really moving to Barcelona?
Guest:This was 2016.
Guest:Was that the plan?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You live there now?
Guest:No, not anymore.
Guest:I'm back in the States.
Guest:But she was like, are you really moving?
Guest:I said, I'm really moving.
Guest:Because remember that thing we talked about like four years ago?
Guest:I actually wrote it and I want you to read it.
Guest:Well, but I'm moving.
Guest:Just read it.
Guest:I read it.
Guest:I mean, literally, it was almost on the plane.
Guest:And, of course, loved it.
Guest:And then flew in to audition for it.
Marc:From Barcelona.
Guest:From Barcelona.
Guest:I think we had already moved to Barcelona.
Guest:And it was kind of that feeling of, well, you know what?
Guest:I'll audition.
Guest:Chances are I won't get it.
Guest:And then I got it.
Guest:I was like, well...
Guest:I'll do the pilot.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm only going to be in Barcelona a year.
Guest:No big deal.
Guest:I'll do the pilot.
Guest:Chances are it won't get picked up.
Guest:And then I got picked up.
Guest:And then I wanted to stay in Barcelona.
Guest:So then it became a real trick of going.
Guest:I was triangulating.
Guest:It was like Barcelona.
Marc:And he won an Emmy the first season, right?
Yeah.
Guest:I think it was the first season.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Was it the first season?
Marc:You won two.
Guest:Or the second season.
Marc:First and third.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:But you won two Emmys for this character.
Marc:Yeah, I did.
Marc:Wild.
Guest:I did.
Guest:Yeah, it is wild.
Guest:It's really wild.
Guest:And I didn't realize it until just now in this podcast.
Guest:No, but until recently.
Marc:Well, I mean, that's why, you know, when you really think about it, it's like a totally unique and new female character, really.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I think just kind of this balls out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, coinciding with a time that the world's like exploring this non-binary and not, you know, ascribing to a particular gender or looking, having to look a certain way.
Guest:It fell right into kind of the timing of what was happening.
Marc:I like her because she's scrappy and like an okay hustler.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, she doesn't know what she's doing.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:She's not quite sure how to negotiate yet.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:But she's, yeah, she's just like a bulldog, you know?
Marc:And how was working with Rachel?
Marc:I mean, she's a very put-together actress person.
Guest:I know.
Guest:We're completely different animals, but we are so lucky.
Guest:Like, we adored each other.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:From the get-go.
Guest:Like, the audition that I did, I went in the room, read a little bit alone, and then they said, now Rachel come in, and we had to do a chemistry read.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And that's how I met her in the room.
Guest:And sometimes when you audition with someone else, it's a little fucked up because you have kind of worked on what you're going to do a little bit.
Guest:And all of a sudden you get with the other person.
Guest:They're not dancing to the same.
Guest:They don't hear the same song and their footwork is totally different.
Marc:Or they're not engaging with you.
Guest:Yeah, and it completely stunts or cock blocks your performance and you're stuck.
Guest:And with her, it was like we had been dancing all our lives.
Marc:It just worked.
Marc:I think from when you have real sketch experience, your ability to adapt to people and performers is pretty deep.
Guest:It helps, but it's still hard if you don't have that chemistry.
Guest:That match isn't there.
Guest:And it was just there.
Guest:And she's just – she's such a good actress.
Guest:She's just so committed.
Guest:She's so professional.
Guest:She was terrified of not being funny enough and worked on it and worked on it and worked on it.
Yeah.
Guest:And, yeah, I had no complaints.
Guest:Rachel was a dream to work with.
Marc:Yeah, she seems pretty – she reminds me – like, I worked with Alison Brie for three seasons.
Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Marc:But, like, I was talking to somebody about – I was talking to Jean Cameron.
Marc:Oh, about Alison.
Marc:Yeah, about Alison and Betty because they're very different actresses and they come from a different, you know, process.
Marc:And it's kind of interesting that when you work with somebody enough, you see how they work.
Marc:And you can see the differences in how you work.
Guest:But you have like a look on your face.
Guest:Like, what does that mean?
Marc:What was the difference?
Marc:Like what you're saying about her, you know, you're just coming in and doing however you're going to do it.
Marc:But you can see that Allison is in it and has a process.
Marc:Like, you know, Betty is from New York theater.
Marc:Allison's from, you know, Los Angeles, you know, film and television.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:And there's like a different process at hand.
Marc:And it's just sort of a – it's just funny.
Guest:Yeah, like when I read the script for Marvel Sisters Banjo, there was no how should I play this or what about this?
Guest:Let me try this.
Guest:There's just – in my head, I saw who she was.
Guest:It's like – Yeah, it comes off the page.
Guest:Yeah, it came off the page to me and I – there was no other way to do it than what I went in and did.
Guest:I couldn't – if they had adjusted me, if they had said –
Guest:You know, don't make her that New Yorkery or don't – like maybe I could have adjusted this.
Guest:But really it was just this is who I think she is and either you agree and cast me or this is not who it is.
Marc:But it's – a big part of it is you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Some of her is me.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean like that's who – like when you – A lot of her is Amy but some of her is me.
Marc:No, but I mean like you as a performer, right?
Marc:I mean you've got to put –
Marc:You know, yourself into it.
Marc:This isn't like you're not doing an impression or.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Like I can see like when I do something, I'm not.
Marc:There's always going to be plenty of mark there for everybody.
Guest:Yeah, I do.
Guest:Susie did like make me.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:It was a little bit of a grunt, like some of that.
Guest:You know, on the set, like I'd be a little bit more of a loner and want to go off on my own.
Guest:When COVID struck, you know, they had a little tent that I would go inside because I didn't want to have to be in a mask.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So everyone called it my troll hole.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I would just kind of disappear into the grouch.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It certainly does.
Guest:Whereas like when I was on Getting On, that character was such an eternal optimist and had a bubble to her.
Guest:She was a mess but had a bubble and it was very different.
Guest:I was very light on set and very different.
Guest:So there is some of it that –
Guest:Crawls in there and affects you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But yeah, she was.
Marc:Well, it's good.
Guest:And Rachel's more, Rachel really studies.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Studies a character and wants to move how the character would move.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:She's.
Marc:That's a lot.
Marc:I'd like to be that, have that much process.
Yeah.
Guest:You'll get there.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:When they take bad guys to Broadway, you got it.
Marc:I got to learn how to dance.
Marc:On your tail.
Guest:In a snake outfit.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:But now, how did you, like, if you're not doing solo work, how did you put that together, this special, this cabaret piece?
Marc:And wait a minute, before that, why'd you choose Barcelona?
Marc:Why not?
Marc:I mean, Barcelona's great.
Marc:Do you speak Spanish?
Marc:A little, yeah.
Marc:What was it about Barcelona?
Marc:Was this a Trump reaction?
Guest:You know, it was, as I kind of talk about in the special, it was a little bit of, I give up in this business.
Guest:But why would you give up?
Guest:Everything was going well.
Guest:After Getting On was taken off the air.
Guest:We did three seasons.
Guest:And then I wrote a show that I was developing for myself and Alan Arkin.
Marc:Oh, God.
Marc:What a genius.
Guest:Genius.
Guest:Do you know that guy?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And he's royalty.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I agree.
Guest:So I had written this show and said network picked it up.
Guest:We were going to do it.
Guest:They wanted to do it as the summer thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Launch it in the summer.
Guest:It was him playing my father in a sitcom situation.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But then there were these kind of live-action cutaways.
Guest:And Alan loved it.
Guest:He said yes, and my mind was blown.
Guest:And this network said yes, and we started doing it, and we were doing it.
Guest:And then they wouldn't pay Alan Arkin his... His nut.
Guest:His nut.
Guest:And his nut was not big.
Guest:He was not being insane.
Guest:It was...
Guest:It was more than reasonable for Alan Arkin to be on Fox.
Guest:I couldn't even believe it.
Guest:And they wouldn't make it happen.
Guest:And then I offered to give up my pay as an actor to double it for him, which was pretty much what – and he was like, that's insane.
Guest:And these people have no respect and we shouldn't – the whole thing fell apart.
Marc:And at that point I just said – These people have no respect.
Guest:I can hear him saying that.
Guest:I just said, like, I don't understand this business anymore.
Guest:I need a break.
Guest:And it was post-divorce.
Guest:And I really wanted to get away from everyone else around me and the perception people have of a divorced person.
Guest:And so I kind of absconded to Barcelona with my kids.
Guest:My ex-husband also went.
Guest:We all went because I'm not going to separate my kids.
Marc:I went to him and said— So this is post-divorce?
Guest:Post-divorce.
Marc:But you brought the ex-husband to Barcelona.
Guest:I said, look, how would you feel about a year abroad?
Guest:I've never done it and I've always wanted to.
Marc:So that was a plan.
Marc:It wasn't like forever.
Guest:It was supposed to just be a year.
Guest:He said, okay, I'll do it.
Guest:So, you know, we got him a separate place.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We did it.
Guest:And then one year, you know, we fell in love with it.
Guest:It turned into two years and then three and then four.
Marc:Did you get citizenship?
Yeah.
Guest:No, but, you know, I would still be there if COVID hadn't happened.
Guest:You loved it.
Guest:I loved it.
Guest:But we did leave September 2016.
Guest:And, you know, two months later, Trump took office.
Guest:So everyone attributed it to I escaped.
Marc:Right.
Guest:And then I like to say, yes, yes.
Guest:I was so wise.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:But literally, we missed his, you know, term.
Guest:I was gone for the Trump term.
Marc:So lucky.
Guest:Although I had a lot of apologizing to do in Barcelona for it.
Marc:Sure, but you didn't have to live in the insanity here.
Guest:Yes, but, you know, social media, online.
Marc:No, I know, but it's really not there, though.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like, you know, even when I'd go to Canada, I'm like, holy shit, it's not here.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:You know, it's just different.
Guest:Yeah, I could turn a deaf ear.
Marc:Yeah, because it's not dictating the culture you're in.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right?
Guest:It was the best thing I ever did.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But you're back.
Guest:But I'm back.
Marc:Huh.
Marc:I've been to Barcelona.
Marc:It's pretty.
Marc:It's great.
Marc:The food's good.
Marc:It's an interesting city.
Marc:You know?
Marc:I love it.
Marc:I was there for, I think, one of my honeymoons.
Guest:It's like the best.
Guest:How many times have you been married?
Guest:Twice.
Guest:Oh, I didn't know that.
Marc:No kids.
Marc:Twice mattering.
Guest:So you're still figuring out the sex part then?
Marc:I'll get it.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:I'll show you after.
Marc:Okay, good.
Marc:Because it sounds like you've got it handled now.
Marc:Yeah, I know.
Guest:Barcelona is really good food.
Guest:Really great climate.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Doable.
Guest:You can walk across the whole city.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The metros, great.
Guest:The people are cool.
Guest:I just loved it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I loved it.
Marc:Spain's pretty great.
Marc:I just wish I spoke another language.
Guest:Where are you from?
Marc:I grew up in New Mexico.
Marc:My people are from Jersey.
Guest:New Mexico.
Marc:Yeah, we were of the first Jewish settlers.
Guest:I don't know anyone from New Mexico.
Marc:Why would you?
Guest:I think you're it.
Marc:Yeah, my dad set up his practice here.
Marc:They're both from Jersey, my parents.
Marc:My dad was in the military a couple years, and then he, you know, Albuquerque was a growing city, and he was starting a medical practice.
Marc:So, you know, that's where we ended up.
Guest:You prefer New Mexico to Old Mexico?
Marc:I never go to old Mexico.
Guest:I want to start calling it old Mexico.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:Why not?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But I hear Mexico City is great.
Marc:I might go to Mexico City.
Guest:I would love to explore Mexico.
Guest:I just have not done it.
Marc:I've been to Oaxaca.
Guest:You have?
Marc:Yes.
Guest:I don't know why I haven't done it either.
Guest:It's right there.
Marc:Oaxaca is stunning.
Guest:But there's so many places I haven't been in the States.
Marc:There's that too.
Guest:I've never been to Wyoming.
Marc:You should go to Wyoming.
Marc:There's a thing there.
Guest:Have you been there?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I want to ride horses in Wyoming.
Marc:You can do that.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:There's like, you know, oddly, you know, most of the national parks are pretty stunning in the States.
Guest:I want to do a U.S.
Guest:tour.
Marc:Have you been in Niagara Falls?
Guest:Yes.
Marc:It delivers.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, you know, it's not a great town on this side.
Marc:The Canadian side is a little better.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:In better shape.
Marc:But the falls themselves, you're like, holy fuck.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Grand Canyon.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, Arch, the Utah one, Zion.
Guest:I've never seen the Grand Canyon.
Guest:Oh, my gosh.
Guest:I haven't seen Niagara Falls.
Guest:I saw Niagara Falls when we shot the Gilmore Girls pilot because we shot in Canada.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We did a day trip there.
Marc:It's great.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's kind of stunning.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, look, I'm not as narcissistic or as nervous as I come off.
Marc:I do travel internationally.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I've done shows in different places.
Marc:But I think I get a little awkward around language differences because I don't know – it makes me anxious just to fucking figure out how to order food and stuff.
Marc:But my buddy Tom said with these translating apps on your phone – It does change things.
Marc:You can almost pull it off.
Guest:It's a game changer.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But also so many people speak English wherever you go.
Guest:I get it.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:In Barcelona, I was so excited to try to speak Spanish everywhere and people would like deal with me for a few minutes and then just answer in English.
Guest:Enough.
Guest:They're just as excited to use their English.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:So, yeah.
Marc:I got to let that go.
Marc:I got to just kind of do it.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But I guess I'm not that hot on going to Mexico.
Guest:You said that you feel like L.A.
Guest:is not a city.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And like, are you happy or do you wish you lived in New York or what's your story?
Marc:I love this house.
Marc:I love the convenience of where I am.
Marc:You know, I don't know how attached I am to the idea of L.A.
Marc:You know, I'm kind of but this neighborhood is great.
Marc:It's beautiful.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I like my house.
Marc:But do I love L.A.?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I don't seem to take advantage of much.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:I miss – like when I go to New York, I go to museums and shit because I only got a few days.
Marc:But here, like there's major art going around.
Marc:I'm like, ah, I missed it.
Marc:I'm like, what were you doing?
Marc:It's 15 minutes from you.
Guest:I have never been to the Getty.
Marc:Well, that's a schlep.
Marc:But still, what's wrong with me?
Marc:It's not a great place.
Marc:I've never seen the Broad.
Marc:Well, that's something – that's relatively new.
Guest:I got to get back into things.
Marc:Right, or LACMA.
Marc:There's just a big great show at LACMA.
Marc:I missed it.
Marc:Why is that?
Guest:Because you're busy.
Guest:You're doing this little pod business.
Marc:I don't take advantage of – I don't know.
Marc:I thought about going to New York, but it's like after three days, I thought about getting a place there, but you got to go use it.
Guest:You know what's something that happened that was really a beautiful thing?
Guest:The Barcelona experience, what it gave me.
Guest:I let go of being so precious about where I am and really learning.
Guest:At the end of the day, I can find a handful of great restaurants anywhere.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And I got my people and I've got friends and it doesn't matter.
Guest:And the house, the place that I live in, it's great.
Guest:But I also just when I lived in Barcelona, I rented a place.
Guest:I didn't attach so much importance to where I am or what I have or what city or just wherever.
Marc:And also everything becomes like literally about five mile radius.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean like if you really look at your life wherever you live, it's like those are the supermarkets.
Marc:I go to that place to eat.
Marc:Sometimes I hike at that place.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And on an odd day, I'll go to the other side of town.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm lucky where I'm at in L.A.
Guest:that it's walkable.
Guest:I got a little village type situation and can get to the market, can get to the movies on foot, can get to a bookstore.
Guest:That's nice.
Guest:I'm a happy girl.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:And you can do that anywhere.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But it's so small because people always ask you.
Marc:It took me a while to learn that though.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:I learned in New York where it's like I live in New York.
Marc:People are like, wow, New York.
Marc:I'm like, yeah, there's about five blocks.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's true.
Guest:My cousin that lived there, she's 80-something.
Guest:She said like downtown.
Guest:I've never been downtown.
Guest:I go to my bodega, my dry cleaner.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's wild.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I used to say I never – why go above 14th Street?
Marc:What's up there?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But what I was asking, how did you put together the special?
Marc:What were the decisions?
Marc:How did you find the Spanish ukulele players?
Marc:The Spanish Jews.
Guest:The Spanish Jews.
Guest:The spews.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Eric Mills and Salvaré.
Guest:Eric is American, but he's lived in Barcelona for 25, almost 30 years.
Yeah.
Guest:I met, you know, Maz Jobrani?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So Maz knew I was moving to Barcelona and he's like, oh, I'm going to hook you up with my friend.
Guest:I got to hook you up with my friend, Eric.
Guest:And I was, you know, those, sure, sure, sure.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Took his name, took his number.
Guest:Right.
Guest:We met up for lunch in Barcelona and immediately we're like, this guy is family.
Guest:Like, this is my brother.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he became a lifeline for me there.
Guest:And...
Guest:I had just met him.
Guest:It was, what, October, November.
Guest:His birthday was March.
Guest:He said, for my birthday, I want to go to Amsterdam, my favorite city.
Guest:I'm bringing you and this other friend who I love named Salva.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm going on a three-way weekend in Amsterdam.
Yeah.
Guest:And the three of us got high that weekend in Amsterdam, went to see art, ate everything, and we played music for each other all weekend.
Guest:Like everyone was like, oh, no, no, do you know this?
Guest:And playing on our, what about this song?
Guest:And then we started kind of singing together.
Guest:Salva had his ukulele and then...
Guest:And then I told some stories about what led me to come to Barcelona.
Guest:And we just kind of started realizing there's a really neat vibe.
Guest:It led to me writing some of these stories out.
Guest:It's almost a soundtrack.
Guest:They provide like a soundtrack to these stories.
Guest:And it turned into that.
Guest:Then we like wrote a couple original songs, comedic songs.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:wrote a couple more and then started doing these kind of cover songs.
Guest:And then I said, you know what that sounds like?
Guest:I started singing a song over it.
Guest:We realized it was the same chords.
Guest:So we created these weird medleys.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Little by little, it just turned into something.
Guest:And then the first time we ever did the show was actually in Brooklyn.
Guest:My friend Rocky, you know Rocky from Lulu?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:She was like, bring this thing.
Guest:This sounds amazing and interesting.
Guest:Bring it to the Union Hall in Brooklyn.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:First time we ever did anything on stage was in front of 100 people.
Guest:It was nuts.
Marc:It's a nice little room downstairs.
Marc:Great room.
Guest:And it went great.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And we were like, this is something.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So we kept working on it, expanded it, wrote more, did it in Barcelona twice, did it in Madrid, did it in Dublin.
Guest:And then we did London, the Soho Theater.
Marc:That's a nice little place.
Guest:And we did like five days there.
Guest:Oh, so you're really polishing it up.
Guest:And then we did New York again and we did L.A.
Guest:And then we were set to do Sweden and Israel and Amsterdam and COVID happened.
Guest:Shut us down.
Guest:But while we were in L.A., the Amazon folks came and said, yes, we want to do this as a special.
Marc:Yeah, because it definitely looked polished.
Marc:It definitely looked like it was stage ready and that you had done it in front of audiences and it was tight.
Guest:I'm real curious – thank you.
Guest:I'm real curious how it's received, how it reads.
Guest:It's a live theater performance that's filmed.
Guest:I'm hoping – I'm curious.
Marc:I think it reads as – like if you want to genre-ize it, it's a cabaret thing really.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, it's definitely – it's a little bit of wishful drinking, Carrie Fisher.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:A little bit of Sandra Bernhardt.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Without you, I'm nothing.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:John Leguizamo.
Guest:There's some of – it's like a theater.
Marc:It's definitely a theater thing, but like this sort of banter with musicians.
Marc:And then once you start singing, I'm like, well, this is like the second half.
Marc:I mean, you do a Bowie medley.
Marc:You do the original stuff.
Marc:I think you did a Cure song in there somewhere.
Guest:It's loaded.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But like – but those are earnest.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You know, and it's pleasant.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And, you know, and it's a weird approach to that because, you know, this is – you're not sitting at a piano.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You've got two guys on ukuleles.
Guest:Yeah, which is so weird.
Marc:But it's great.
Marc:And they have a sweet presence and you have banter.
Marc:But, I mean, the first 20 minutes is a stand-up show, really.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:There's – but there are some little –
Guest:Sincere moments.
Guest:Of course.
Guest:Sincere moments and a little bit sad moments.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And as I said, some of it's really, really, you know, autobiographical.
Guest:And some of it's wild, fun bullshit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That made me laugh.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's definitely its own thing, you know.
Marc:But it feels like, you know, structurally, it just feels like a very personal story.
Marc:cabaret theater performance, right?
Guest:Yeah, I think that the songs are there to kind of help tell the story.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Guest:Even the ones that feel like, you know, they're earnest and they're there for a reason.
Guest:And they're telling part of the story or setting the mood for where the story should go.
Marc:And I just like that, you know, you cut to your parents, you know, these moments.
Marc:Because my parents come to see me, too, and you never know what to do with that.
Marc:Obviously, they know you, but we know that we're sitting there saying filthy shit and horrible things about the Holocaust and about ourselves in front of our parents.
Marc:And part of it is like, what are you going to do about it?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's like, ha-ha, I'm up here.
Guest:Too late.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:Listen, my dad...
Guest:You know, as I say in the show, was raised like Orthodox Jewish and pretty conservative and had no idea how his daughter would turn out.
Guest:And there's this, it's like that old joke of, you know, Jewish women saying the food's terrible and the other one says, yeah, in such small portions.
Guest:I think that's how my dad feels like, God, I wish she wasn't saying any of this, but I wish the show was longer.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I want her up there longer.
Guest:I love seeing her up there.
Guest:He can't get enough of my career.
Guest:Oh, that's great.
Guest:He has every Google Alert set.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:Comes, bothers me at all hour.
Guest:Was it always like that?
Guest:Yeah, he was way more worried about me going into this professionally.
Guest:My mother was always like, she's a star and can do anything.
Guest:I survived the Holocaust.
Guest:Anything's possible.
Guest:But he was always a little bit more like, get a college education.
Guest:Make sure you have something to fall back on.
Guest:I don't know if you do this.
Guest:Why do you need to do this?
Guest:But then I think he – there's a performer inside of him as well.
Guest:I think he got off on it a little bit.
Marc:Well, it's nice when they are actually able to relax and just be proud if they're capable of it.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:He's so proud.
Marc:Yeah, because most of it is just fear.
Guest:We just did Paley Fest last night for Maisel, and my parents came.
Guest:And my children came.
Marc:At the Paley Center place?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:The Paley Center.
Guest:It was the closing night.
Marc:And, you know, my parents.
Marc:We did a panel.
Marc:We showed an episode.
Guest:We didn't show an episode.
Guest:They showed a retrospective from seasons one through five.
Guest:And then, you know, we talk for an hour and people want to see that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Always blows me away.
Marc:What's the audience like for Maisel, generally speaking?
Guest:It's a really interesting mix.
Guest:Family Guy for a long time was so identifiable.
Guest:I could be like, it's these young dudes.
Guest:Gilmore Girls, it's this.
Guest:If I'm at an airport and I see girls approaching me of a certain age, I know they were Lizzie McGuire movie fans.
Guest:You can see.
Guest:But Maisel's always a shock.
Guest:I thought it would be just young female, but it's...
Marc:I thought it would be older.
Marc:I think whatever's left of the old Jews must love it.
Guest:It's also a bunch of old Jews.
Guest:But, like, it's also guys.
Guest:Dukes love the show.
Guest:And we're huge in India.
Marc:Well, that's because of the spectacle of it.
Guest:India is huge.
Guest:And in Spain, in Barcelona, it was gaining this huge popularity.
Guest:And there's not a lot of Jews in Barcelona.
Guest:It attracts people because, you're right, it's grand.
Marc:Yeah, the theatricality of it.
Marc:Like, it makes total sense that it would be successful in India.
Yeah.
Guest:But it's also Indians and Jews, there's a very similar.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, don't you find that like with Indian friends that you have?
Guest:Like a lot of my, we all had the same pressures academically.
Guest:We all were told like you have to succeed in a certain way.
Guest:And family, family, family, tradition, a holiday every week.
Guest:Yeah, I didn't grow up with that.
Guest:No one else has heard of.
Guest:I can hear it.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Real similar kind of family-heavy tradition and culture that I think Maisel feels like comfort food there, too.
Marc:Oh, I see.
Marc:How Jewish are you, generally, with traditions and whatnot?
Guest:Up to here.
Marc:Oh, yeah?
Guest:No.
Guest:You know, I take the stuff I like and I get rid of the stuff I don't.
Guest:So we have done like our little Shabbat every Friday night.
Guest:You do?
Guest:But what that consists of is, you know, a challah.
Guest:Candles and a challah.
Guest:And, you know, my son says the little thing over the grape juice.
Yeah.
Guest:And then that's – it's not like we're unplugging after that.
Guest:No, but that's something.
Guest:It's just – I just loved Friday nights at home with those candles and challah.
Guest:Really, it's about the challah.
Guest:Let's be honest.
Guest:Do you make it?
Guest:Do you make challah?
Guest:God, no.
Guest:Professionals do it and they know how to do it.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:Who am I?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:You know, we do Hanukkah.
Guest:Yeah, sure.
Guest:I'm going to go to a Seder tonight with my cousins.
Marc:Oh, that's nice.
Guest:So it's like the highlights.
Guest:I like the greatest hits.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But I mean, Shabbat candles, it's not nothing.
Marc:No, it's beautiful.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, like that's a thing.
Marc:You know, it's a weekly reminder that isn't sort of based in some stereotype of like, you know, like I'm miserable, I'm this, I'm that, I ate too much.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:Like the reminders of cultural Judaism to actually have some sort of ritual that plants you in the history of the thing is nice.
Guest:Candles are a huge part of being Jewish.
Guest:It's, you know, every anniversary of my grandmother's death, we light a Yorzai candle.
Guest:And my friend Katie.
Guest:And Hanukkah is about lighting candles for eight nights.
Guest:And Shabbat.
Guest:There's something about that flame.
Guest:And I kind of meditate staring at it, which I'll do.
Marc:That's nice.
Guest:I dig it.
Guest:Yeah, man.
Guest:So I take the good and I lose the bad.
Marc:Good.
Marc:Well, you're doing great.
Marc:It was great talking to you.
Marc:I'm glad we did it.
Guest:I'm glad, too.
Guest:I wasn't sure when I showed up if I was going to be cut up.
Guest:What the hell does that mean?
Marc:In the middle of Glendale, the beautiful house is like, this is where I die.
Guest:I just think it's bold of you to invite people to your home.
Guest:What if I'm going to come back and cut you up?
Marc:Well, that'll be a story.
Marc:Thanks for coming.
Marc:Thanks for having me.
Marc:So how was that?
Marc:That was me and Alex Borstein.
Marc:I'm giving you the, what do you call that?
Marc:The retro tease, in case you didn't know who you were listening to.
Marc:The final season of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel premieres tomorrow, April 14th.
Marc:Her comedy special, Alex Borstein, corsets and clown suits premieres next Tuesday, April 18th.
Marc:Both are on Prime Video.
Marc:Hang out for a minute.
Marc:Okay, people, if you want to learn a little more about my record collection and the memories it brings up, you can check out the latest bonus episode on the Full Marin.
Marc:I did replace or get all of my Skinner records, all my Aerosmith records, all my Tom Waits records.
Marc:I got all of the ACDC records.
Marc:I have all the ZZ Top records.
Marc:I have records that were important to me when I was younger, both townie and non-townie, both townie and art records.
Marc:But I do... The great thing about collecting vinyl is just...
Marc:how many records you have that you've never seen before, and artists that have been around forever or were at a different time have many records out that I didn't know anything about, or I just knew two songs.
Marc:So all that to say, recently, and this happens with artists occasionally in my collection, I've decided that some of the big answers might lie in the Canned Heat catalog.
Marc:To get weekly bonus content, plus every WTF episode ad-free, sign up for the full Marin by clicking the link in the episode description or go to WTFpod.com and click on WTF+.
Marc:Next week, we've got Ray Romano on Monday, my first one-on-one with him, and Lily Rabe from HBO's Love and Death on Thursday.
Marc:which I liked a great deal, both her and the show.
Marc:All right?
Marc:Do we cover it?
Marc:I'll let you know how Buster is.
Marc:All right?
Marc:And also, I'm going to maybe engage with AI.
Marc:We'll see.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I don't know what happens now.
Marc:I don't know what happens now, other than some dirty guitar that I've probably played before.
Marc:Oh.
guitar solo
Thank you.
guitar solo
Marc:Boomer lives.
Marc:Monkey and LaFonda.
Marc:Cat angels everywhere.
Marc:I gotta take Buster to the vet now.
Marc:He's alright.