Episode 317 - Kerri Kenney-Silver
Guest:Lock the gates!
Guest:Are we doing this?
Guest:Really?
Guest:Wait for it.
Guest:Are we doing this?
Marc:Wait for it.
Marc:Pow!
Marc:What the fuck?
Marc:And it's also, eh, what the fuck?
Marc:What's wrong with me?
Marc:It's time for WTF!
Marc:What the fuck?
Marc:With Mark Maron.
Guest:Alright, let's do this.
Guest:How are you, what the fuckers?
Guest:What the fuck buddies?
Guest:What the fuckineers?
Guest:What the fucknicks?
Guest:What the fuckstables?
Guest:What the fuckalupa guy?
Guest:I've been corrected.
Guest:Okay?
Guest:Thank you for that.
Guest:Thank you, attentive listener who decided that more than one fuckalupa puss...
Marc:It was what the fuckalupa guy.
Marc:Anyway, look, people, this is Marc Maron.
Marc:This is WTF.
Marc:It's a little chaotic.
Marc:It's late at night.
Marc:I saw the master today, and I have to be straight up with you.
Marc:I'm going to need a few days.
Marc:I don't know how I feel about it.
Marc:I can't quite put together an opinion.
Marc:I'm not sure what I took in.
Marc:It seems to exude a tone and a vibe of,
Marc:that uh that implies to me that i i need to to process this my immediate reaction was it looked perfect in terms of a time an era a feel the acting was tremendous have no idea what to make of it perhaps if i sleep on it i will uh i will be with you with an opinion the next time i talk to you and by the way that will be wednesday we are doing three shows this week great week we've got uh
Marc:Kerry Kenney, of course, from the state and Reno 911 today.
Marc:On Wednesday, we've got the artist Christopher Cooper, Chris Cooper, Coop, the poster artist and painter.
Marc:That's going to be a great episode.
Marc:And on Friday, Lauren Bouchard, the creator of Bob's Burgers, co-creator of Home Movies, and originally got into the world of animation with Dr. Katz, which I appeared on, as did many of the guests you've heard on this show.
Marc:Amazing week.
Marc:Three shows.
Marc:The Master.
Marc:I'm still thinking about it, but I don't know what to think.
Marc:I don't know if that's cowardly on my part.
Marc:It's not that I'm avoiding an opinion.
Marc:I just don't fucking know.
Marc:I have no idea what it was about.
Marc:I saw it.
Marc:I don't quite know.
Marc:It had an impact on me.
Marc:Let me process it.
Marc:Just back off.
Marc:Leave me alone.
Marc:It's worth seeing.
Marc:I will tell you that.
Marc:I'm not sure everything.
Marc:It has not fallen into the slots in my brain yet.
Marc:All the cards haven't lined up.
Marc:I'll get back to you on that.
Marc:Great performances, though.
Marc:Amy Adams acted the fuck out of that movie.
Marc:And Joaquin Phoenix did great.
Marc:Hoffman was great.
Marc:Laura Dern, great.
Marc:Looked great.
Marc:Have no idea how to feel about it.
Marc:I don't know what's going on.
Marc:That's what I can tell you.
Marc:It's been a difficult day over here.
Marc:Boomer, I think, got the shit beat out of him by the cat who's the freeloader on my deck, the crazy stray.
Marc:Some of you know a scaredy cat.
Marc:Boomer seems to have taken a hit.
Marc:Got a little blood on him.
Marc:Don't know what's going on.
Marc:He's not limping.
Marc:I don't know what to say.
Marc:I'm a little pissed off at that cat.
Marc:Don't know what to do when you've got a crazy stray cat that's beating up on your guy.
Marc:And they're still hanging out together.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I don't understand the world of cats.
Marc:I know I'm pissed off at him.
Marc:I don't know if it was the evil deaf black cat.
Marc:That cat's evil.
Marc:The cockeyed deaf black cat I would expect this kind of behavior from.
Marc:But this motherfucker who I've been feeding for over three years who now lives here shouldn't be beating up on my guy.
Marc:He's too old for that shit.
Marc:You know, you get to a point where you're just too old for that shit.
Marc:Cut the guy some slack.
Marc:Can't you tell?
Marc:Have a little respect.
Marc:This is an old guy here.
Marc:I don't know what to do about it.
Marc:There's nothing I can do.
Marc:They're just going to have to work it out amongst themselves, but I hope he doesn't hurt Boomer too much.
Marc:Boomer, come in here a minute.
Marc:Take a break from that bastard, if that's who did it, not that crazy black fucking cat.
Marc:Anyways, I'm a little worked up.
Marc:I was feeling a little ill, and I'm still one of these guys that hangs on to the hopes of tinctures, tinctures and spirits of kinds, elixirs, things you buy at the health food store, things to hang your hope on that are ridiculous, extracts and oils.
Marc:I take oregano oil when I feel like I'm getting a cold.
Marc:I feel like I told you about this before, but I was told by a fishmonger in Astoria, Queens, who was told by a guitar store owner across the street, who was told by a fisherman that oregano oil is the shit.
Marc:Oregano oil will kill, if you time it right, will kill anything viral, anything bacterial, anything that's attacking you on a cellular level.
Marc:It will kill that shit.
Marc:And I believe it.
Marc:If it's coming from a fisherman, I'll believe a fisherman.
Marc:I won't believe a fisherman is God, but I will believe a fisherman knows about taking care of himself because he's out there among the elements on the boats, understanding things.
Marc:This is all coming back to the master.
Marc:Isn't it?
Marc:Now, many of you believe in probably rightfully so that once you get hit, you're not going to be able to stop it with anything but fluids and rest, maybe some vitamin C. I'll take that, too.
Marc:But I got hang my hope.
Marc:I hang my hope on the oregano oil.
Marc:So I happened to buy this small bottle of oregano oil at Whole Foods.
Marc:I didn't know the brand.
Marc:I had not bought it before.
Marc:But I knew I need to have some in the house.
Marc:I have the tablets, too.
Marc:That sometimes works.
Marc:I used to take them on planes as a preemptive measure.
Marc:I'd be sweating spaghetti sauce.
Marc:So I woke up.
Marc:I felt that scratchiness in my throat.
Marc:I felt the tug on my being, the tug of a sickness, the tug of my immune system in battle with something.
Marc:And I'm like, fuck it.
Marc:I'm going to hit the oregano oil.
Marc:So I took a full dropper of this oregano oil, which is strong.
Marc:which got a little kick to it.
Marc:And I squirted a full dropper right into the back of my throat and my throat started to burn like bad, like, oh my God, this is not, this is too much.
Marc:This is too much.
Marc:And I felt it burning and I'm like, I'm starting to cough.
Marc:I'm starting to gag.
Marc:I'm starting to sweat.
Marc:My eyes are starting to burn.
Marc:I'm feeling sweat beat up on my head.
Marc:And I feel like my body is trying to,
Marc:to fight not only the illness but me because i just dumped this shit into it it's rejecting it you know that the first time you ever took a shot of southern comforter jack daniels when you were in high school that feeling like i gotta win this battle so i felt it burn down my esophagus and then go into my stomach and my stomach started convulsing and i'm sweating and i'm literally holding my sides and keeling over like going oh
Marc:like I'm alone I had not eaten I had not put anything into my stomach and I'm alone in my in my kitchen just like oh god no but I know from doing drugs and I know from from uh from just putting bad things in my body at a different point in time that I can ride this out this was the same feeling I had with princess chicken for those of you who have been loyal and regular listeners I'm fighting this thing that I put inside my body to help me kick a cold that hasn't happened yet
Marc:And I'm literally writhing in pain and sweating and burning.
Marc:My entire body is burning.
Marc:It's horrible.
Marc:But I know perhaps it will pass.
Marc:Or else I'm going to have to make myself throw up.
Marc:I'm going to have to do something.
Marc:It was that bad.
Marc:I was literally in my kitchen gagging and sweating and burning from the inside.
Marc:And I'm just waiting for it to pass.
Marc:And I'm like...
Marc:And finally, it started to ease up.
Marc:Finally, I could take a full breath.
Marc:And I just had this moment where after I'd gotten through, I'd gotten through the tunnel that I thought to myself, well, that's got to work.
Marc:That has got to work.
Marc:After what I just went through, how did that not just jolt everything into, that's got to work.
Marc:I feel all right right now.
Marc:I don't think I'm going to do that again, but I probably will if I feel it some more.
Marc:What is that?
Marc:What is that idea?
Marc:That idea of like, man, I got to struggle.
Marc:I got to wrestle with something in order to get to the good part.
Marc:Is that just, it can't be just me.
Marc:I know that life is difficult for everybody, but I didn't have to dump this weird non-FDA approved bullshit into my being that could have probably really hurt me just to have this wrestling match with myself.
Marc:with this dream this hope that this unproven elixir would cure me of my ailments i had to fight that fight there is no reward without a fight that's what happened there that's what happened in the kitchen with that oregano oil i won a battle and if i don't get sick i won a war
Marc:Do you understand?
Marc:I'll be in Ferndale, Michigan on Saturday, this Saturday the 29th for two shows.
Marc:Looking forward to that at the Magic Bag Theater.
Marc:You can pull that thing in there.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Right into your face.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Oh, see that?
Marc:See how that goes?
Marc:Are you a professional?
Guest:So professional.
Marc:Are you a voiceover person?
Guest:So professional voiceover person.
Marc:Do you do voiceovers?
Guest:No, I do some voiceovers.
Marc:For what?
Guest:For cartoons.
Marc:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah, sure.
Marc:Do you have to change your voice to do voiceovers for cartoons?
Guest:Sure I do.
Marc:I have to do one this afternoon.
Guest:For what?
For cartoons.
Marc:For the big adventure, the adventure club?
Guest:Adventure time.
Marc:Adventure time.
Guest:I played, I did one day on that.
Guest:I played some sort of ice queen.
Guest:But that was the only time I did a cartoon where we tried 20 different voices, you know, my bag of voices.
Guest:And ultimately they went with my voice, which was sadly the funniest choice.
Marc:So what should I prepare to do when I'm in there?
Marc:I've done some voiceovers, but I'm just assuming that I need to just be me.
Guest:For that show, I think you're you.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:I think you're you.
Marc:I'm a squirrel.
Guest:Yeah, so you're you.
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:I don't know how to method squirrel.
Marc:I think I have to make a squirrel noise.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:There you go.
Marc:That's a chipmunk.
Marc:Is that close?
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:What would you say?
Guest:I don't think squirrels make noise that I know of.
Marc:I'm just going to have them make it up then.
Guest:You're just going to do crazy make-me-ups.
Marc:Where did you come from?
Marc:What is the origin of Carrie Kenney?
Marc:Do I use both names now?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:It's so many names.
Marc:But do you go by Carrie Kenney Silver?
Guest:I go by whatever is easiest.
Marc:You married a Jew?
Guest:I married a Jew.
Guest:Goddamn Jew gave me my hyphen.
Marc:Was that part, was that like, did you have that conversation?
Marc:I've been married twice and neither of them worked out, neither of them hyphenated.
Guest:You know, it was, it was a conversation and I wasn't expecting it to be an issue, but you know, he's a man who's never been married before.
Guest:It's a big deal.
Marc:He wanted to brand you.
Guest:I should be honored.
Guest:But really, to date, I'm just pissed off because it was my choice, ultimately.
Guest:He would have been okay with whatever my choice.
Guest:But ultimately, trying to make and keep a reservation at a restaurant, trying to check in at the airport, people aren't hip to the hyphen yet.
Guest:So it's very confusing for them.
Marc:So you have to say Kenny Silver?
Guest:Yeah, I say Kenny Silver, and then they say, so your first name is Kenny.
Guest:And I say, no, my last name is Kenny Silver.
Guest:So your last name is Silver.
Marc:So are you that same Kenny that was on television?
Marc:You're like, yes.
Guest:Yes, I don't know.
Guest:Sure.
Marc:You're not Jewish, though.
Guest:Not at all.
Marc:Have you had enough of it?
Marc:No, I love it.
Guest:I love it.
Guest:We're doing all the... Not all the... We're picking the easy things to do for my son.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:It's fun.
Marc:What were you brought up?
Guest:Methodist.
Marc:What does that even mean?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I knew you were going to ask that.
Guest:For me, it was...
Guest:It was great.
Guest:I don't have that negative thing about religion growing up.
Guest:It was Christian.
Marc:Was there Jesus around?
Guest:There was Jesus, but not all that much.
Marc:Yeah, just a little Jesus.
Guest:I don't think my church I grew up in would be happy to hear me say that.
Guest:But we had a little bit of Jesus.
Marc:A little Jesus around.
Guest:A little taste, a little sprinkle.
Marc:Yeah, have a little Christ.
Marc:So where did you grow up?
Guest:I grew up in Westport, Connecticut.
Marc:Fancy.
Guest:Really fancy.
Marc:That's like a little kind of old bohemian actor's enclave.
Guest:Yeah, I never saw any of that part.
Guest:I just saw the Martha Stewart and David Letterman type thing.
Marc:That's what I mean.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Sure.
Guest:I don't think of it as artist-y, though.
Marc:Well, those are old artists.
Guest:Should have been.
Guest:I didn't appreciate it at the time.
Marc:It's like New York stage and theater actors where they move if they don't want to go to Los Angeles.
Guest:That's right.
Marc:They live in Westport or Westchester.
Guest:That's right.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Paul Newman has a beautiful theater there.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Did you hang out with Paul Newman?
Marc:All the time.
Marc:Yeah, sure.
Marc:All the time.
Marc:I was four.
Guest:I mean, he couldn't get enough of me.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, lunches.
Guest:We talked about salad dressing.
Marc:Your parents would bring you to the restaurant.
Marc:Here, Paul, this is weird, but you're Paul Newman.
Guest:You're Paul Newman.
Marc:This is our daughter.
Guest:She wants to go into comedy.
Marc:Did you see any of those people around when you were growing up?
Guest:I did.
Guest:I actually have a great story about that.
Guest:I was in the grocery store.
Marc:How old?
Guest:Probably 14.
Guest:Old enough that my mom had dropped me off.
Guest:I went to a movie or something.
Guest:For some reason, I was in the grocery store by myself.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I saw Paul Newman, but it didn't register.
Guest:All it registered was, I know you.
Guest:Right.
Right.
Guest:And so I walked up to him and I said, hi, I think I know you.
Guest:And he was in hindsight.
Guest:What a doll.
Guest:He said, well, what's your name?
Guest:I said, Carrie.
Guest:He said, well, I'm Paul.
Guest:And I said, nice to see you.
Guest:I said, maybe you're a friend of my mom's.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:What's her name?
Guest:Sharon.
Guest:Maybe she's a friend of my wife, Joanne.
Guest:Joanne and Paul.
Guest:Joanne and Paul.
Guest:That doesn't ring a bell.
Guest:And I went home and said, Mom, I met some old guy.
Guest:His name's Paul.
Guest:His wife's Joanne.
Guest:And she went, oh, my God, you saw Paul Newman.
Marc:He must have been so thrilled to not be recognized on some level.
Guest:As that guy.
Guest:And the only thing that would make the story better, which didn't happen, would be if we had turned around and his salad dressing was right there.
Marc:But this was pre-salad dressing.
Marc:And if he was putting it in his cart.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Or eating a salad.
Marc:Right there.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:He's the only one that you saw?
Marc:No David Letterman's?
Guest:No, I didn't see David Letterman.
Guest:Never saw Martha Stewart.
Marc:What's your family racket?
Marc:Is your dad in show business?
Guest:My dad's in radio.
Guest:My dad was Don Imus' sidekick for 35 years up until Nappy Head at Ho.
Really?
Marc:Oh.
Marc:Hogate.
Marc:So what's your dad's whole name?
Guest:Larry Kenny.
Guest:He has no hyphen.
Marc:Not Larry Kenny Silver?
Marc:No.
Marc:The whole family just took this.
Marc:That was my husband wanted the entire family.
Guest:He is very demanding.
Marc:I wonder if I met your dad.
Marc:I never did Imus, but I don't think I would have, but he was the guy.
Guest:You would recognize my dad as sort of a personality, I think.
Guest:Did I just kick you?
Marc:No.
Marc:I kicked something else.
Guest:He, for our generation, kind of a big deal.
Guest:My dad was Lion-O, Lord of the Thundercats.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:Which for boys of our generation was... That was a big... That delayed a lot.
Marc:Really?
Marc:That was a big childhood cartoon?
Guest:Big deal.
Marc:Really?
Marc:In the 80s.
Marc:Big deal.
Marc:See, that's a little before my time.
Guest:Where?
Guest:Are you from the East Coast?
Guest:No, you're from... Yeah, you are.
Marc:I grew up in New Mexico.
Marc:My family's from New Jersey, but I'm born in 1963.
Marc:I'm 48.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So were you in New York in the 80s, 70s and 80s?
Marc:No, I didn't get to New York the first time until 89.
Guest:Okay, so you wouldn't know.
Marc:My father also hosted- But if I go to Imus, I would know.
Guest:If you listen to Imus.
Guest:But my dad also hosted Bowling for Dollars, but just the East Coast version.
Marc:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I wonder if he knows Chris Hardwick's dad.
Guest:I wonder.
Marc:He's a professional bowler.
Marc:He used to be.
Marc:I wonder.
Marc:Back in the day.
Marc:Did you know how to bowl?
Guest:No.
Guest:And not as well as I probably should have.
Guest:I had my own ball, if that's what you mean.
Marc:Did you really?
Marc:And shoes.
Marc:No.
Guest:Sure.
Marc:Who has that?
Guest:When your dad's a host of Bowling for Dollars, you get your own ball.
Marc:How long did he host it for?
Marc:A lot of years?
Guest:Several years.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:So you got your own shoes and ball?
Marc:Was that sort of like a perk?
Marc:Hey, kiddo.
Marc:Hey.
Marc:Here you go.
Marc:Here's a ball.
Guest:No, it was more like a curse.
Guest:No, it was fantastic.
Guest:He's also and continues to be and always was the voice of Sonny the Cocoa Puffs bird.
Marc:No.
Guest:Sure.
Marc:I'm cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:That's your dad?
Guest:That's my dad.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Mm-hmm.
Marc:Does that get any way too?
Guest:I thought you were just looking at me in a way, undressing me with your eyes.
Marc:Well, I had a picture of the bird, and then I had a picture of the sound, and then I had a picture that's your dad, and then I had a picture like, I got to be a squirrel later.
Marc:Maybe I should put a little more into this.
Guest:There you go.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Marc:So is that what gave you the show business bug was watching dad go to work for Don Imus your whole life?
Guest:No, I sat on floors of studios a lot as a kid and it was enticing.
Guest:I wanted to do it so bad as a kid.
Guest:I always knew I wanted to be funny.
Guest:I wanted to do that stuff.
Marc:Like, did you go into the station with them and stuff?
Marc:All the time.
Marc:And where was that?
Marc:CVS or one of the studio or networks?
Guest:It was, well, for a while I was at 30 Rock.
Marc:Right.
Guest:And I had an incredible, one of my first sort of awakenings of knowing I wanted to do this.
Guest:I was...
Guest:Went with him on a vacation day, a school vacation day.
Guest:And their studio was on the same floor as the dressing rooms for Saturday Night Live.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And my dad, you know, it was four in the morning.
Guest:I was exhausted.
Guest:And he was obviously friendly with all the janitorial stuff.
Marc:Why was it four in the morning?
Guest:Because they did morning drive time.
Marc:Oh, so you were like, we're going to work.
Guest:This is 4 a.m.
Guest:to 10 a.m.
Guest:or whatever it is.
Guest:So I was tired.
Guest:I was a kid.
Guest:And my dad said, well, here, this door's open.
Guest:The janitor opened this door.
Guest:There's a bed in there.
Guest:You can take a little nap.
Guest:And I go in this room.
Guest:It's clearly a dressing room.
Guest:And I know I'm in the Saturday Night Live area.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And Gilda Radner came in.
Marc:Is there?
Marc:Is there.
Marc:She'd been up all night?
Guest:No.
Marc:I don't think so.
Marc:I don't know.
Guest:That's a really good question.
Guest:Rehearsal?
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:At five in the morning?
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:They must have been going all night.
Guest:But there she was like an angel.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Guest:And I even, you know, at that age, that was the one show I was allowed to stay up and watch and knew that's what I wanted to do.
Guest:And there she was.
Guest:And she signed a book for me.
Guest:And it was very cool.
Marc:What book?
Marc:Just one laying around?
Marc:Her book.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Her book.
Marc:No, just any book.
Marc:Yeah, she had a book.
Marc:The Bible.
Marc:She signed the Bible.
Marc:She signed my Bible.
Marc:I have one of the only Gilderad in her Bibles.
Marc:So when you were in high school and stuff, did you do the song and dance routines?
No.
Guest:I did.
Marc:Terribly.
Guest:I was really bad.
Guest:You know, I became the president of the Staples Players, which is our high school theater group.
Guest:And I think more by gusto than by talent.
Guest:Because when I would audition for the parts, I wouldn't get them.
Guest:I would be like, for instance, we did Oliver.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And of all the, I got Mr. Percy Snodgrass, who's not even a part, really.
Guest:They just mentioned him in a song.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Mr. Percy Snodgrass would often have the, so I was a drunk man at a bar.
Marc:That was my bit.
Marc:No singing.
Guest:No singing for me.
Marc:And that was it?
Marc:That was the whole, your whole musical career in high school?
Guest:It wasn't good.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It wasn't good.
Guest:But I was in charge of stage managing and all that kind of stuff.
Marc:And now, okay, so then, do you have siblings?
Yeah.
Guest:I had halfs, halfies.
Guest:My dad remarried, and when I was in high school, my brother and sister were born.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:So the age difference is great, but we're very close.
Marc:And your mom, they got divorced?
Guest:They got divorced when I was six or seven, I think.
Marc:Oh, boy.
Guest:But remained very good friends.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Very close.
Guest:Still.
Still.
Marc:and you're friends with your mom oh love love my mom good love them all it's it's a it's a good it's a good story that's nice it is i i like the idea that he has to sit next to imus for 30 years like because i yeah like i'm always fascinated with that sidekick business yeah did but i i wish i was familiar with the show did he talk a lot did i or did he just have to follow imus's lead no you know my dad did written bits really
Guest:You know, Don had his show, I don't think there are many to compare it to, but he would do, I guess still does, sort of like cut to comedy bits.
Guest:And my dad would do character voices and he did Nixon and Patton and all these sort of dead-on impersonations.
Marc:Oh really, so he's the impressionist guy.
Guest:Yeah, and then he would do just funny little one-off bits that were written.
Marc:And that's a good living for 30 years.
Guest:It was a fantastic living.
Marc:So he did all right.
Guest:He did fantastic.
Marc:And so does that mean you, like as a kid, you're like, there's Uncle Don.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Is your dad and are they still friends?
Guest:He was a family member.
Guest:Not so much.
Guest:No, not so much.
Guest:Things got weird.
Guest:I think things were always a bit weird.
Guest:That generation, that sort of... I don't know if you saw the... I'm sure you did the Howard Stern movie.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And when he sort of knocks on Don Imus' door and Don's in there, passed out.
Guest:Well, my dad would have been in there with him, passed out.
Marc:So there's a lot of partying going on?
Guest:It was a lot of stuff I don't know about.
Guest:A lot of...
Marc:Except you had to learn it from the Howard Stern movie.
Guest:It was the 70s and 80s.
Guest:It was radio and that time.
Marc:Rock and roll.
Guest:Rock and roll and all that stuff.
Marc:And then that evolves into Don Imus kissing Dick Cheney's ass on a relatively frequent basis.
Guest:Apparently.
Guest:I don't keep tabs.
Marc:No, I know.
Marc:But he did it on the air.
Marc:It's just interesting how that sort of like shock jock thing happened.
Marc:All these guys get older, especially Don, and he became sort of like this political go-to.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:For some of the right wingers.
Guest:People love him.
Marc:Yeah, they do.
Guest:People love him and people are diehard followers.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But your dad and him, not too much.
Guest:Not too much.
Guest:You know, my dad had another career in radio, which was my father was pretty much, he was credited with bringing country music to the East Coast because there were no country music stations in New York in the 70s.
Marc:Is he a country music fan?
Guest:He's a huge country music fan.
Guest:He grew up, you know, farmland in Illinois.
Marc:Oh, really?
Yeah.
Guest:And as a young guy, moved out to New York and moved us as young, my mom and I moved me as a young child to New York.
Marc:From Illinois?
Marc:From farmland?
Guest:From farmland, and my whole family's still out there.
Marc:And do they own farms?
Guest:No, they work in factories and different things like that.
Marc:What part of Illinois?
Guest:Pekin, Illinois.
Marc:Isn't that wild?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Do you think about that often, that you have these Midwestern roots?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I do, and I'm very close to them.
Guest:In my upbringing, I spent my school days in Westport, Connecticut, which was like a J. Crew catalog.
Guest:I spent my weekends in New York with my dad, which was like 80s good skates in Central Park and village people days.
Guest:Amazing.
Guest:And then I spent my summers in Illinois with my family playing in corn cribs and eating popsicles.
Marc:What's a corn crib?
Marc:That's where they keep the corn?
Guest:Yeah, you know those things, like a silo.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So you did that?
Marc:Sure.
Marc:You had that in your life?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Like Midwestern cooking?
Marc:You had a Midwestern grandma or two?
Guest:I'm comfortable anywhere.
Marc:Wow.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So your dad had, oh, the country music thing.
Marc:What is that about?
Marc:He was a jock?
Guest:He was a morning country music drive time morning guy.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:That's exactly how you say it.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And he, you know, oh God, just so beautifully, his natural voice is this guy.
Guest:Yeah, sure.
Guest:How's everybody doing?
Guest:6 a.m.
Guest:kicking off your Sunday morning.
Marc:Is that how he talked to you at home?
Guest:Hey, Kerry.
Guest:We call his answering machine right now.
Guest:That's what you get.
Marc:Really?
Guest:Hey, it's Larry.
Guest:Sorry, I can't answer the phone right now.
Guest:It's just who he is.
Marc:Is that how he reprimanded you as well?
Marc:Hey, how about you not do that?
Marc:What are you thinking?
Marc:Don't put your finger in there.
Marc:Oh my God.
Marc:So he brought country music to the East Coast.
Guest:Well, he was the first country music DJ out there.
Guest:Was it popular?
Guest:It was incredibly popular.
Guest:In fact, there was this huge, I have framed this amazing one page ad in the New York Times when my dad decided to leave and
Guest:And it said something about, oh, it says in huge letters, Larry Kenny is leaving the country.
Guest:And he's got his cowboy boots and his guitar on his back.
Guest:And I guess that's when he was going to Imus.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I should really learn the history of this.
Marc:Did he play guitar?
Guest:Yeah, he did.
Marc:He does.
Marc:Yeah?
Marc:And he sings country western songs?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:So was there a Willie Nelson concert in your childhood?
Guest:There were many concerts in my childhood.
Marc:Did you see the outlaws, like Willie Wayland and Chris Christopherson?
Guest:I saw everybody, but I didn't really get who they were.
Guest:We would just be backstage at these things.
Guest:My dad would emcee them.
Marc:Guys in glittery shirts who smelled like booze.
Guest:Yeah, with toe tap things.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah, with their boots.
Marc:Smelled like booze.
Marc:Saying hi to you.
Guest:Just lots of Jack Daniels bottles.
Guest:Sure.
Yeah.
Marc:So when you went to, so you met the guys in the state in college, right?
Marc:Okay, so you got into NYU, right?
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:And you went into the theater arts program?
Marc:Yep, yep.
Marc:Serious actor, yeah.
Marc:Serious actress.
Marc:Experimental theater wing.
Marc:No.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Those are some good stories.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Tell us about some of those shows.
Guest:Rolled around naked a lot.
Marc:Did you?
Guest:Breathed out of our ass.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I didn't know you could do that.
Guest:It's a lot of money to do that.
Guest:I love that school.
Guest:I had one teacher named Richard Sheslock, who was a protege of Grotowski.
Guest:And he was this legend.
Marc:Two people I don't know.
Marc:Grotowski.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:He was a legend in theater.
Guest:And he was this incredible man who was always chain smoking in the class and
Guest:gray skin and his wife para i think her name was this beautiful i don't know 14 year old indian woman not 14 30 something right um and and we would there was a lot of you know nude movement and sufi breathing and and he died in the middle of the class
Marc:While you were there?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:In the middle of the session.
Marc:Oh.
Guest:Not while I was standing there.
Guest:And just came back to class and he was gone.
Guest:It was, I guess, an honor.
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:To have worked with him?
Guest:Yes, to have worked with him.
Marc:I wonder if he would have died in the class, how many people would have thought, this is a thing.
Marc:It's an exercise.
Marc:This is a bit.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:This is, what do we learn from this?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Pick up his body.
Marc:Yeah, and move it around.
Guest:And breathe out of our asses.
Marc:What is that breathe out of your ass thing?
Marc:Is that a real thing?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Lynn, one of my teachers, Lynn somebody, she would always say, and it was so hard not to laugh, to breathe out of your ass, which meant like really release it, bring it through your nose.
Marc:Did people like pass gas at that time?
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I don't breathe through my ass in a lot of auditions anymore.
Guest:It doesn't get me the jobs.
Marc:Did anyone ask you like, what are you doing?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Just breathing out of my ass like an actor.
Guest:I was smart enough to take it off my resume about a year ago.
Marc:But it was experimental theater was what you were focusing in?
Guest:I guess apparently it was a big deal when you got into NYU.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They would place you in a studio.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But the experimental theater wing was the only one that you had to have an extra audition for.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I didn't do that audition.
Guest:They just said, this is where you should be because it was for people who had already had a base in acting.
Marc:And you did?
Guest:I did.
Guest:I had gone, you know, I had taken classes at Uta Hagen Studio and things like that beforehand.
Guest:Not with her.
Marc:Uta Hagen, that was her name was on the door.
Guest:Sure.
Marc:Yeah, that was.
Marc:So you were going like when you're in high school, you go into the city and the actor's studio.
Guest:Exactly.
Marc:And do the method work.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I had a giant portfolio.
Guest:I remember thinking this is really going to get me into places.
Guest:But but in hindsight, what I'm realizing it was supposed to be for artists.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So it was an enormous like four foot by three foot briefcase.
Marc:With your resume?
Guest:With my resume of all the plays that I had, you know, not gotten into and just random pictures of me.
Guest:And you thought you needed the big one.
Marc:I needed that.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:It's the artist's portfolio.
Guest:There's going to be a lot of kind of pages to fill.
Marc:Sure.
Guest:My career is going to be full.
Marc:Do you remember what you did in the actor's studio?
Guest:No.
No.
Marc:Nothing.
Guest:No, no.
Guest:I have the book, though.
Guest:Then I still have the little notes that I put in the hornets.
Marc:Because I don't know.
Marc:I used to take acting with a guy named Mark Howard in New York, who was another one of those guys.
Guest:Big deal.
Marc:Well, who knows?
Marc:They're all big deals if they last long enough.
Guest:It said so in the ad.
Marc:He's a little old man by the time I got there.
Marc:And they all have that vibe where they're cult leaders in their little world.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they're telling you stories about Vanessa Redgrave.
Marc:Sure.
Guest:She's an actress.
Marc:Right.
Marc:One of those stories.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And you do the thing.
Marc:But I don't remember getting any practical education about anything.
Guest:I think I did.
Guest:I think I did.
Guest:I like to think I did and I just use it, but I don't ever have to sit down and say...
Guest:A, B, and C. That it's just part of me now.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But when you went to NYU in the experimental theater, like outside of breathing out of your ass or through your ass.
Guest:This is such a good commercial for them.
Marc:Yeah, but what were some of the work you did?
Marc:I'm always sort of fascinated.
Marc:Did you do plays?
Guest:We did plays.
Guest:I'm really proud of the work I did, actually.
Guest:Was there screaming and crying?
Guest:Of course there's screaming and crying.
Guest:But we did some normal work too.
Guest:We did a production of, I think my favorite, two favorite things I did.
Guest:We did a production of Bus Stop.
Guest:And I played Marilyn Monroe's character.
Guest:And the reason why the experimental theater twist on it was, it was if she were alive today, basically what she would be.
Guest:And it was pretty much Courtney Love.
Yeah.
Guest:And we took that to the Amsterdam.
Marc:You were playing Marilyn?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Basically playing Marilyn in bus stop, in the play bus stop.
Guest:But what she would be like if she were still alive.
Guest:And we took that to the theater festival in Amsterdam and did great.
Marc:And you played it like Courtney Love?
Guest:I realize now in hindsight, she was pretty much like Courtney Love.
Marc:So you played her fucked up?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it went over pretty well?
Guest:It went over well.
Marc:I saw a revival of that play.
Marc:It's a pretty sparse kind of good play.
Guest:It is a good play.
Marc:But there's only four characters in it, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We added more.
Marc:Yeah, sure.
Marc:Why not?
Marc:Revise it.
Marc:That's experimental theater.
Marc:We're just going to rewrite the classics.
Guest:We're just going to fuck with it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And you went to Amsterdam?
Guest:We went to Amsterdam.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And performed it for how long?
Guest:For not very long, the run of the festival, whatever that is.
Marc:How old were you, like 18, 19?
Guest:I guess I was a junior or senior.
Guest:20?
Guest:20, yeah.
Marc:And you were in Amsterdam?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Was that fun?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I don't remember.
Guest:You don't remember anything?
Marc:I remember a lot of it.
Marc:Did you smoke some hash?
Guest:Oh, yeah, we smoked hash.
Marc:Yeah, you had to.
Guest:Yeah, at the airport.
Guest:You have to before you go into the...
Marc:So when did you get involved with those fellas?
Guest:Well, Mike, I feel like, you know, I knew you were going to ask me that.
Guest:I feel like Michael Black and I were in a creative writing class together at NYU.
Marc:Was he a dick?
Marc:No.
Marc:Seriously.
Guest:No, he was shy.
Guest:But I got that.
Guest:I gravitated right towards him.
Guest:We were the only two weirdos in the class.
Guest:And we gravitated towards each other.
Guest:And I feel like he said, look, I found this flyer for a comedy group that's having auditions.
Guest:And I said, we'll go together because I'm too afraid to go alone.
Marc:Really?
Marc:So now I'm not remembering.
Marc:So was it Showalter and Wayne?
Guest:No, Todd Hollebeck.
Marc:Oh, right.
Marc:Hollaback.
Guest:Todd Hollaback.
Guest:He still works at NYU, I believe.
Guest:But Todd was holding auditions for this thing.
Guest:And I remember I had like a bag of props and went in with my characters.
Guest:And I did my audition and I got in the group and so did Michael.
Marc:It sounds like they didn't turn away anybody.
Guest:They did.
Guest:They did, believe it or not.
Guest:Believe it or not, they did.
Guest:And it wasn't the state that you know.
Guest:That wasn't the group.
Guest:Michael, Tom wasn't there yet.
Guest:Tom joined a couple years in.
Marc:Marino?
Guest:Marino was in.
Guest:Marino was in.
Guest:And there were a couple of women.
Guest:There was another two guys that you don't... So how many were there in the final mix?
Marc:13?
Marc:13?
Guest:In the final mix, 11.
Marc:11.
Guest:The 10 guys and me.
Marc:10 guys and you.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And what happened to the other girls?
Guest:They just disappeared.
Marc:Oh, see, I knew there was something weird about that crew.
Marc:Salacious.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:No, it just, you know, it evolved.
Guest:And some of it, we became more serious and, you know, it became...
Marc:Did it evolve when you got the TV show?
Marc:Like when the TV show was sort of like, we can only take 11.
Marc:You're going to have to cut.
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:No, no, no, no.
Guest:No, because MTV would have loved more women, girls.
Marc:Right.
Guest:They would have loved color.
Guest:They would have loved lots of things.
Marc:Right.
Guest:But we just weren't that.
Guest:So no, we were that by the time we went to MTV.
Marc:How the hell were you like?
Marc:Were you like the den mother of this mess?
Guest:No, not at all.
Guest:Oh, God, no.
Marc:How come you were the only girl?
Oh.
Guest:Because I'm not very girly, I don't think.
Guest:I don't think it ever stuck out as the girl, you know?
Marc:I can't remember.
Marc:How many were their sketches?
Marc:Were they all dressed like girls?
Guest:Oh, sure.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, I think we were all girls as much as, you know.
Guest:We just did the... Not just.
Guest:Last year, we did the Sketch Fest reunion of the state.
Guest:All of you?
Guest:All of us.
Guest:And it was... God, too?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And it was so fun.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:It was so fun.
Guest:And it was all new material.
Guest:And I played a guy, I think, in five of the ten sketches.
Guest:So...
Marc:And they played girls in some?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Mm-hmm.
Marc:But if you were to characterize... Let's play a word association.
Guest:Okay.
Marc:Let's try that.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:And you just say the first words that come to your mind when I mention somebody.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Kevin Allison.
Guest:Gay.
Guest:Am I playing it right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Tom Lennon.
Guest:Brother.
Guest:My brother.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Michael Ian Black.
Guest:Another brother.
Marc:Oh.
Marc:From another mother.
Guest:You want dirt is what you want.
Marc:Not really.
Marc:I'll give you some dirt.
Marc:I just, okay.
Guest:How about Michael Showalter was, I thought when we were in the group, I was going to marry Michael Showalter.
Guest:Really?
Guest:That was my, he puts his pen down and sits back in his chair.
Guest:That was, yeah, I had this dream that Michael and I were going to be this like legendary comedy couple.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That didn't happen.
Marc:Like Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:That didn't happen.
Marc:No?
Marc:No.
Marc:Did you sleep with them?
Guest:No.
Marc:Oh.
Guest:Not quite.
Marc:No one's going to hear this, right?
Marc:No.
Marc:No.
Marc:How many did you sweep with?
Guest:How many?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:No, none.
Guest:Jesus.
Guest:How many?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:There's a lot of guys around.
Guest:A dozen.
Marc:A dozen.
Marc:You drink, you know?
Marc:I don't know.
Guest:We did drink.
Guest:Showalter would... The joke about Showalter was that he would wander off a lot.
Guest:He was busy.
Guest:He always had something else to do.
Guest:And the joke when he was out of the room was that he was making muffins and that he had to go check the muffins.
Guest:And I don't know if he ever caught on that that was the joke, but he would come back in the room and someone would say, everything okay?
Guest:And he'd go, yeah, that's good.
Guest:And we would all be waiting for these legendary muffins.
Marc:That never happened.
Marc:He never brought back muffins.
Marc:He strikes me as a very serious guy.
Yeah.
Marc:As he's gotten older, he just seems pensive and sort of serious.
Guest:I don't see much of him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's sad.
Guest:Well, we're on opposite, I almost said continents, but that's what it feels like.
Marc:And David Wayne always strikes me as sort of like a little snobby.
Guest:Oh, my God, that's hilarious that you say that.
Marc:Really?
Guest:I think so the opposite.
Marc:Really?
Guest:In fact, I feel like of anyone in the group, I feel like David is my little brother.
Guest:And I feel like I must constantly pull him aside and go, you need to be serious.
Guest:You're directing a major motion picture starring Jennifer Aniston.
Guest:Pull it together.
Guest:Get your balls back in your pants.
Guest:This is serious.
Marc:You were in that movie?
Guest:I was in that movie.
Marc:I'm not great with the research and I know you've been in everything.
Guest:Well, that's true.
Guest:So clearly you've done your research.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But when you were on set, you had to be like literally pulling.
Guest:No, no.
Guest:But it's just a general feeling.
Guest:And I love it.
Guest:I love his his his men.
Guest:He just he plays and he's and he's so fun.
Guest:I feel the opposite about, you know, serious dodgy guy.
Marc:Because I came to know you guys after the show, after this date.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I didn't grow up with this date.
Marc:So my impression, like Michael Ian Black and I have always had tension.
Marc:We did it on the show.
Marc:I know.
Guest:I'm so glad you finally got him on here.
Guest:I listened to that.
Marc:I know, but it didn't seem like we resolved anything.
Guest:It didn't?
Marc:Maybe a little.
Marc:He's still, I don't know.
Guest:I don't know that anybody feels like they can really get in there with Michael.
Marc:But you knew him when he was just a sweet guy and shy guy.
Guest:He's the same as he's always been.
Marc:With you.
Guest:I think maybe just less depressed.
Yeah.
Marc:Oh, he was depressed?
Guest:Yeah, I think we all have had our... Camarino doesn't say... Camarino's never been depressed.
Marc:Never depressed.
Marc:No.
Marc:He just seems like he was always like, hey!
Guest:He's always wanted to dip his balls in it.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:He's just that guy.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's refreshing.
Guest:I want a little bit of that.
Marc:Just dip his balls in it?
Guest:Just wants to dip his balls in it.
Marc:And with Truglio...
Guest:Oh, you know, I hate when people say nicest guy in the world.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Joe Latruglio is the nicest guy in the world.
Marc:He is sweet guy.
Guest:I have never met a human being that has that has run into Joe under any circumstance and not said, holy crap, he's the nicest guy in the world.
Guest:And I've been in 700 vans with that man at four in the morning.
Guest:you know, on shoots and frustrated and pouring rain and freezing cold.
Guest:Still a nice guy?
Guest:Beyond.
Marc:Yeah?
Guest:Just to the core.
Guest:Just to the core.
Guest:It makes us all look evil.
Marc:And like, okay, so who are the other guys?
Guest:And the rest.
Guest:Ben Garant, the most prolific writer, genius you'll ever meet.
Marc:He's a good guy.
Marc:I interviewed him in South by Southwest and I didn't really know him.
Guest:He's a good, solid guy.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:Him and Tom got a real thing going.
Marc:No.
Guest:Oh, ridiculous.
Marc:With those movies.
Guest:And they so deserve it.
Marc:And they always throw you a bone, right?
Guest:Oh, they always throw me a bone.
Guest:We have, you know, I'm very, very lucky.
Marc:Let's talk about Viva Variety.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:How many seasons was that on?
Guest:Wasn't that a bizarre fucking day?
Marc:It was.
Marc:Where the fuck did that come from?
Guest:We were on for 74 seasons.
Guest:No.
Guest:We were only on for three or four seasons.
Guest:I don't even know.
Marc:You did like what, 40 shows?
Guest:Something like that.
Guest:It was who was asleep at the wheel when they let us put that show on.
Marc:What was that show?
Guest:Here's what it was.
Guest:How did it come about?
Guest:Tom wrote it as a sketch for the state, and we did it as a sketch.
Guest:And then years later, Tom said, what about this as a show, as an actual show?
Guest:And everybody was like, that's going to happen.
Marc:And you were like married in the show, right?
Guest:We were ex-
Marc:Okay, that's right.
Guest:It was originally called the Mr. and Former Mrs. Lopan Variety Program.
Guest:Right.
Guest:MME.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And the conceit was that we were a variety show like Sonny and Cher.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Huge in Europe.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Now coming to America.
Marc:And no one knew you here.
Guest:No one knew us.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Guest:But but we had history.
Guest:And Michael play Michael Ian Black played a brilliant character named Johnny Blue Jeans.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Who is really hip hip with the with the you know what's happening these days but stuck sort of in the the rerun you know.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Time of culture.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So we pop culture but from 20 years.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So we, but it was a variety show.
Guest:It was a true variety show.
Guest:So we had, we had Run DMC.
Guest:We had Whoopi Goldberg.
Guest:We had Shelley Long.
Guest:We had Stacey Keech.
Guest:We had Chibo Mato.
Guest:We had the most random, wonderful guests on that show.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And to this day, it is not on DVD.
Marc:Why is that?
Guest:You cannot get it.
Marc:It's gone.
Marc:It's gone.
Marc:Is it on YouTube?
Yeah.
Guest:Bits of it.
Guest:Not even the best bits.
Marc:Isn't that a bummer?
Guest:It's bizarre is what it is to me.
Guest:I think it's music licensing is what it has to be.
Guest:Because if I own a network at four in the morning and you need something to run, you own this.
Guest:It's sitting in your vault.
Guest:We're not entirely unrecognizable personalities for you.
Guest:Why wouldn't you run this thing?
Guest:But I think it must be music licensing.
Marc:Because they'd have to pay every time they use the song.
Guest:They'd have to go back and pay these bands, yeah.
Marc:If they repeated it.
Guest:I guess.
Marc:Huh.
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:I don't either.
Marc:God, someone should get on that.
Guest:You know, once a day.
Marc:Someone do some research out there.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Once a day?
Guest:Once a day I'll get a tweet about, you know, why can't I see Viva Variety?
Guest:And I would love to myself, if you find it.
Guest:Send me a copy.
Marc:Now, when you guys worked in the state and in Viva Variety, I mean, how much, because Tom is so fucking funny and you're so funny and Michael's funny.
Marc:I mean, how heavily scripted was it usually?
Guest:And Viva Variety?
Guest:Very.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Everything was heavily scripted up until Reno.
Marc:Was it on prompter?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:We are very good at learning scripts.
Guest:And we're also very anal about the material.
Guest:And we always believed up through Viva Variety and pilots beyond that no one ever saw, that we were terrible at improv.
Guest:That was our sort of bit was we are great scripted.
Guest:We are terrible at improv.
Marc:None of you guys really did the improv thing?
Guest:No, we tried.
Guest:We even had a sketch in our live show of the state, which we originally called The New Group, about how bad we were at improv.
Guest:And it wasn't until necessity made it so that we had to do improv when we did the pilot for Reno because we had no time to write it that we ended up doing improv.
Guest:And it turned out that in character we could do improv, but the improv games we were not smart enough for.
Marc:That's interesting because the state was so important to so many young people.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:And now improv has taken over the world.
Guest:It has.
Marc:Now the new kids are all about the improv.
Guest:Improv and sketch.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But when you guys wrote, if you were so heavily scripted, what was the writing process on the state if there were 11 of you?
Guest:everything was was like banging your head against the wall but everything it was a true democracy and everybody had a vote and if anyone said no we didn't do it so there was a lot of chair throwing and i remember somebody punched somebody in the back of the neck we're gonna have to get names on that uh i don't know if i i think david wayne punched i think david wayne
Guest:punched ken marino in the back of the neck he had to reach up for that yeah and if you know these people that's that's a that's a bold move um who had the hottest temper marino oh yeah marino but in uh you know i never i know none of it ever came my way yeah i just love to watch it but but his temper was was was justified and impassioned about the work it's not like he was just a hothead for no reason right you know i mean this was this fart joke was going to stay in this goddamn bit because i wrote it and it's funny
Marc:You know, we got to sell it.
Guest:We believed.
Guest:I mean, we just we were writing the gospel and it was a big deal.
Marc:Did you have any idea at the time just that you would be the biggest thing on MTV?
Guest:We thought we would be bigger.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We really we really thought you were going to be a new franchise.
Marc:Like you're going to be like SNL.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Start spinning off movies.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:In fact, the first time it was suggested to me.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:How'd that go?
Guest:They ended up not taking any new women that year.
Guest:I think that was the year Molly Shannon stayed.
Marc:So did you do the whole Lauren Michaels?
Guest:I did it.
Marc:What was your experience?
Guest:It was terrifying.
Guest:Yeah, I think that I think that I believe they must do it that way on purpose to instill because I since then I've never had an audition.
Marc:Were you sit and wait for four hours and sit and wait?
Guest:cold room i feel like i was in the basement that was like seven buildings away and someone comes and gets you in a page jacket and they lead you through you know hallways and yeah you're trying to keep up with your bag of props yeah and you know hit the mark you have four minutes do your best so this was the camera audition this was a camera audition it wasn't in the old conan studio that's not where they did it i don't think so they just oh no and it was terrifying and you got no laughs i
Guest:I got no laughs and I just didn't feel at the time.
Guest:I thought this is wow.
Guest:If this if I want to be in this business, this is what it's going to be every time.
Guest:Thank God it's never been.
Marc:Did you have the one on one with Lauren?
Guest:I know I had I had him and two other women were in the room at the table.
Marc:Probably Marcy Klein.
Guest:Marcy Klein.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And just another scary woman.
Guest:And another scary woman.
Guest:I'm sure they're lovely people, but that's a scary position to be in.
Marc:And it didn't, did you feel like it went?
Marc:No.
Marc:You just were doing your characters in a vacuum alone?
Guest:Just doing my characters in a vacuum.
Guest:I don't think that I did a bag lady, but in my memory, I did like a crazy bag lady.
Marc:And you remember that?
Guest:All my confidence just down the tubes.
Marc:Really?
Marc:For how long?
Marc:How long did it take?
Guest:For like a minute, and then I was back doing state stuff.
Marc:So what happened?
Marc:Now the state, I can't remember, I've talked to so many of you guys about it, but it got sort of pulled out from under you?
Marc:Is that what happened?
Guest:Yes and no.
Guest:It feels like just a tornado hit and everyone has kind of different memories of what happened.
Guest:In my memory, what happened was it was suggested to us that this CBS carrot was the one to grab at.
Guest:And, you know, you're a kid, you've just had a successful run on this level and all of a sudden this next level is being offered.
Guest:And so we, excuse me, we jumped for it.
Guest:Terrible idea.
Guest:We had a good thing going.
Marc:And they weren't letting you go.
Marc:We didn't know that.
Guest:For years later, we found out that they wanted to keep us for more.
Guest:And I don't think our people were having it.
Guest:So we ended up staying on CBS and it was a miserable failure.
Marc:How come I don't remember it being on CBS?
Guest:Because nobody knew.
Marc:Did it air?
Guest:It aired.
Guest:And I remember we were watching it live.
Guest:It was a Halloween special.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And even the TV guy just said Halloween special.
Guest:So our own audience didn't know that we were there.
Guest:And I remember we were watching it together and Michael Black turned to me and he goes, why do I feel like we're the only people watching this right now?
Guest:And then they cut to like a Geritol commercial and we realized we are.
Marc:You thought you were in.
Marc:You had a deal for what, a number of episodes?
Guest:We had a deal for, loosely, a loose deal for two specials.
Marc:To see if it worked?
Guest:The idea was to see if it worked.
Guest:We're going to introduce the audience to you.
Marc:Was it a late night thing, like 11.30?
Guest:It was a late night thing.
Guest:I think.
Guest:I think it was a late night thing.
Guest:And people were going to fall in love with us.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Nobody saw it.
Guest:No one fell in love.
Marc:And you lost your gig at MTV.
Marc:Mm-hmm.
Marc:And then everybody scattered and tried to do other projects.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, we had to.
Marc:So what were some of the other, like, okay, so you did Viva Variety, and there were a lot of other state-related projects, and you guys all seemed to work together.
Marc:And you were in the movie, too.
Marc:You did that.
Marc:That's myth.
Guest:I did that, but my scene got cut.
Guest:And I thought, I'll fly out there in the rain and do this movie, because I know my scene won't get cut, because it's with David Wayne.
Guest:But it got cut in it.
Marc:So you're not in the final cut at all?
Guest:No, I'm in the deleted scenes.
Marc:Did they put those out on the DVD at least?
Guest:They did.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:They did.
Marc:Did people write to you and say, you should have been in the movie?
Guest:You want to know a secret that I've never told anybody?
Marc:Yes, please.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:I was at the time engaged to a crack addict.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Sober, when we met, went back to crack.
Marc:Right.
Marc:During your engagement.
Guest:During our engagement.
Guest:At the beginning, I didn't know.
Guest:Then I started to catch on.
Guest:When I got called out to do this, he disappeared.
Guest:And I was afraid he was dead.
Guest:So I was frantically looking for him on the cell phone.
Guest:The scene is me in a tent with David.
Guest:Right.
Right.
Guest:Joe Latruglio comes and steals our motorcycle.
Guest:We come out of the tent and have this nonsensical conversation in the tent.
Guest:I am calling over and over and over again.
Guest:You're my fiance's cell phone number thinking he's dead.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Wiping the tears away.
Guest:Coming out to do my comedy bit.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then later, I think he wasn't.
Guest:He didn't die.
Guest:I don't know about I don't know now.
Marc:I don't know how.
Marc:Who was this guy?
Marc:I mean, was he an actor?
Guest:He was not an actor.
Guest:I thought I would.
Guest:But I was only attracted to for most of my life.
Guest:I was only attracted to alcoholics, drug addicts.
Guest:You had to have something up because that was attractive to me.
Guest:But you had to be just completely self-loathing.
Marc:But you didn't come from that.
Guest:no your your folks no alcoholism no there was alcohol there was there was all that kind of stuff yeah you know um everybody's you know great now but but there was a history of of what i think everybody has a bit in their family sure but i was i was attracted to that sure that was attractive to me so you just picked this guy up on the street not on the street but but you know basically you know
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And you got engaged.
Marc:Did he have a job?
Guest:He was very handsome.
Guest:He used to be he was an ex baseball pitcher.
Marc:No kidding.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:For real?
Marc:For real.
Marc:Like pro?
Guest:I think semi pro and then had an accident.
Guest:Drug related accident and then could never pitch again.
Guest:And there was something like I'm going to really change this guy's life.
Marc:You were going to fix them.
Guest:I was doing sketch comedy and changing people's lives.
Marc:Sure.
Guest:You know, it was it was all up to me.
Marc:It sounds like it worked and it went really well.
Marc:So how long did you want?
Marc:What are some other interesting types that you're involved with musicians?
Guest:Yeah, musicians.
Marc:Sure.
Guest:I was engaged before that.
Guest:I was engaged twice.
Guest:I was engaged to a musician before this guy.
Guest:Before the baseball player.
Guest:Yeah, I was engaged to Nathan Larson, who's now married to Nina Pearson of the Cardigans.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then there was another musician?
Marc:Who was the first engagement?
Guest:There were many musicians.
Guest:No, he was the first.
Guest:By the way, you are as confused right now as everyone in my life has ever been.
Marc:No, you've had three engagements before this, before you married.
Guest:No, two engagements before I married.
Marc:Okay, so it was a baseball player, crack addict.
Guest:First, the musician.
Marc:The musician, but he wasn't a crack addict.
Guest:Not a crack addict.
Marc:Just a sad guy.
Guest:Not sad, just a musician.
Marc:Trouble, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:What did he play?
Guest:He played guitar and he was a singer.
Marc:Oh, so he had that personality.
Marc:That personality, yeah.
Marc:Not a bass player.
Guest:He's a rock star.
Marc:Yeah, just all about him.
Guest:And I was, it propelled me into my music career.
Marc:Oh, I overlooked that.
Guest:Yeah, apparently.
Marc:Yeah, so what was that?
Guest:I had, right out of college, some girlfriends and I, we were dating musicians.
Marc:Sure.
Guest:They were all on tour.
Marc:Was that the career?
Guest:That's it.
Guest:What do you think of it?
Yeah.
Marc:Very smart.
Guest:You're going to really be embarrassed when I tell you what actually happened, that you didn't do your research.
Marc:I don't do any research.
Guest:Well, now.
Guest:I'm schooling you now.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:I don't even know if this is in the research.
Guest:We did.
Guest:While they were away one time, we said, there's instruments laying around.
Guest:Let's pick them up.
Guest:And as a joke, kind of, we'll learn a song.
Guest:And when they get home, we'll say, we're musicians, too.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:well did you play an instrument no none of us did okay but i had a bass guitar in my apartment the drummer had drums in hers and we we rented a studio for half an hour you had your boyfriend's instruments yeah okay yeah i didn't know how to plug them in or anything loved it yeah kept coming back yeah and one day a guy poked his head in and he said you guys are pretty good do you want to play a party in brooklyn we said we've only got four songs he's like great played this party in brooklyn at the party john zorn sure
Guest:You really know John Zorn?
Marc:Of course I do.
Marc:From the Knitting Factory.
Marc:I have a couple of his records.
Marc:I love his Naked City.
Marc:Yes, okay.
Marc:And the Ennio Morricone album.
Guest:So you really do know?
Marc:I do.
Guest:John Zorn, I didn't at the time.
Marc:Do now.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:He said, I have a Japanese import label called Avant Records.
Guest:Do you want to do your first record with them?
Guest:Sure.
Guest:We only have four songs.
Guest:He said, well, you better quickly write six more.
Guest:So we did.
Guest:We recorded our first album.
Guest:It got three and a half stars in Rolling Stone magazine.
Guest:They said, oh, this new sound, Riot Girl with two R's, three R's.
Marc:What was the name of the outfit?
Guest:We were called Cake Like.
Guest:Very difficult to say.
Guest:You have to say it very slowly.
Marc:Cake-like.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Hmm.
Guest:They did several page thing on us in Spin Magazine.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Rico Kasich got wind of us and came to see us.
Guest:Get out of here.
Guest:And said, I want to produce you.
Guest:Can I take you to Electric Ladyland Studios?
Guest:I want to do a single.
Guest:Get out of here.
Guest:So we did a single with Rico Kasich.
Guest:After we did the single, we were playing Knitting Factory.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:A couple nights in a row.
Guest:And he said, I've got some friends that I want to bring to see you tomorrow night.
Guest:Ric Ocasek did.
Marc:Ric Ocasek.
Marc:He used to live down by, not downtown, but I used to see him a lot over by Gramercy.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I've been there with his wife, Paulina.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:So he said, I want to bring a buddy of mine to come see you play.
Guest:Neil Young, he brought to Knitting Factory.
Marc:So after- What were you playing?
Guest:Bass?
Guest:I played bass.
Guest:I was lead singer.
Guest:Who played guitar?
Guest:Nina Hellman, who's an actress, theater actress in New York.
Guest:Jody Seifert, who's a fashion, who works in fashion.
Guest:Played drums?
Guest:Played drums.
Guest:So we, Neil came back, Neil, came backstage after the show and said, I'm starting a new label.
Guest:Right.
Guest:On Warner Brothers, off of Warner Brothers called Vapor Records.
Guest:And you are exactly what I want.
Guest:Will you be my first band or one of my first bands on Vapor?
Marc:Neil.
Neil.
Guest:So we recorded two records with Neil.
Guest:We did the Horde tour with him, had our own little unicorn speckled bus on the Neil Young tour and played all around the world.
Guest:That's cake-like.
Guest:That's cake-like.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I moved out here and then it pretty much ended because- And this was in between the state and what years was it?
Guest:This was as the state was winding down.
Guest:It was all through Viva Variety.
Guest:And we played our last show in 98 when I moved out here.
Marc:So this is one of those things that all your fans know, but I didn't know.
Guest:I don't know if all my fans know.
Marc:I mean, like, I didn't know.
Guest:I think, in fact, probably most of my fans don't know.
Marc:You might want to update your Wikipedia page.
Guest:Do you think so?
Guest:It also says that I'm an avid banjo player, which I love.
Guest:I've never played the banjo, but I would love to be an avid banjo player.
Marc:But how can cake, like, not be on your... I think it is.
Marc:Oh, Kenny Silver is an avid banjo player and ukuleleist and was also the lead singer and bass guitarist of the indie rock band Cake-Like.
Guest:There you go.
Guest:I own a ukulele.
Marc:She has a longtime friendship with actor Nick Swardson.
Guest:That's true.
Marc:With him attending Thanksgiving dinner.
Guest:That's true.
Guest:Why is that in there?
Guest:And who knew that?
Guest:How do they know that?
Guest:I've known Nick since he was a baby.
Marc:But you know, but the, like where it says attending Thanksgiving dinner, you can actually link to Thanksgiving dinner.
Guest:Really?
Guest:What is Thanksgiving dinner?
Guest:What did they have at that dinner?
Marc:The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada is a large meal generally centered around a large roasted turkey.
Guest:Often involving people like Nick Swanson and Carrie Penny.
Marc:That's weird because you can link back to you two.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We had a famous dinner.
Guest:The first dinner.
Guest:Second only to the first Thanksgiving dinner.
Marc:You've known Nick Swardson since he was a kid?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, yes.
Guest:I mean, in New York when he first arrived in New York.
Marc:But that was okay.
Marc:He was already a comic, though, in Minnesota.
Guest:He was a comic in Minnesota.
Guest:I say kid.
Guest:He was a kid.
Guest:He was younger than all of us.
Marc:Right.
Guest:And had no place to go on Easter's and Thanksgiving, so he'd come.
Guest:He became a member of my family.
Marc:But that's really.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So that's like your family in Westport in Westport.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because I lived, you know, 45 minutes away and I take all the wayward.
Guest:David Wayne would come and Nick Swartzen and we'd have Thanksgivings and Tom and Ben.
Marc:So like this whole cake like thing was sort of at a weird, I guess, juncture in that New York scene where Zorn was sort of the Lower East Side genius.
Guest:Mm hmm.
Marc:And he was very into noise and things breaking apart and loose orchestrations of things and kind of just riffing things to death.
Guest:That's right.
Marc:In a weird, almost noise-like way.
Guest:That's right.
Marc:But he was sort of a genius in terms of arrangement.
Marc:He was a sax player, right?
Yeah.
Marc:And so, but the Neil Young thing is completely bizarre.
Marc:So did you get to know Neil?
Guest:It was bizarre to me at first.
Guest:And then the more I got to know him and know about him and see other people on his label and his choices, he is remarkably progressive.
Guest:I mean, his choices and his, I didn't know that about him.
Guest:And it seemed as random as could be to me in the beginning.
Guest:And then the more I got to know him, the more I realized we really did fit that bill.
Marc:And it's a very interesting thing about Neil Young is that you can listen to his music, almost all of it, any time, and it transcends sort of era.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Like he's that unique.
Guest:He is.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he's a nice guy?
Guest:Unbelievable.
Guest:Unbelievable.
Marc:Did he ever play with you guys at all?
Guest:No, he didn't.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:No, I wish.
Marc:Do you miss the rock life?
Marc:I do.
Marc:I mean, why didn't that continue?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Just out of circumstance, really.
Guest:I couldn't see myself playing with anyone else because that's just what I knew was those people.
Marc:And you all just learned to play as you went along?
Guest:We learned to play.
Guest:I still don't know notes or anything.
Guest:We had a vocabulary where we would say, okay, you're going to do the two chunk, chunk, chunk, and then I'll do the...
Guest:I played bass through a Sans Amp distortion pedal.
Guest:Through a what?
Guest:Through a Sans Amp distortion.
Marc:You're not supposed to do that.
Marc:I didn't know that.
Marc:Just to make it all fuzzy?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:People were saying they liked our sound because it didn't sound like anything else.
Marc:Because you didn't have any control of it really.
Guest:I would have sounded like Smashing Pumpkins if I could have.
Guest:I just didn't know how to do that.
Marc:So it was the innocence of it?
Guest:I think so.
Marc:That's spectacular.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Marc:So then, okay, so you're doing Viva Variety and you're doing Cake-like.
Marc:The state is over.
Marc:It was a busy time.
Marc:You're dating musicians and crackheads.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And then what was the big game changer that brought you into your grown-up life?
Guest:Viva Variety moved us here.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Our senior year.
Guest:Our senior year.
Yeah.
Guest:Wow, that's so real.
Marc:Did you graduate college?
Guest:I did, yeah.
Marc:Good, good for you.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Parents were happy.
Marc:Very happy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Our senior year of Viva Variety, our final season, they moved us here, which was a perfect way to move into this animal that is LA.
Marc:Were you dragging a man?
Guest:Were we what?
Marc:Were you dragging a man with you?
Marc:Was there a man at this time?
Guest:No, I don't remember.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:I don't think so.
Marc:Not important.
Guest:Not important, apparently.
Guest:Not important enough to remember.
Guest:I don't think so.
Guest:And so I moved out here with Tom and Ben and Michael Black, and we set up our little homes.
Marc:He's back east again now, right?
Guest:Michael is, yeah.
Guest:Yeah, it's more for him and his family.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But yeah, so that was pretty much that that pretty much ended the band because I'm here now.
Marc:And I like that none of them went on to be musicians of any kind.
Marc:They're all another.
Marc:The other two girls are in women are in.
Guest:Well, they still play music at times, you know, but it was a very special, unique thing.
Guest:I think it was a safe place.
Guest:I think it would be scary to now, you know.
Marc:Sure, and it was unique to the time.
Marc:It was unique to the time.
Marc:It was a very New York thing.
Guest:Yeah, it was.
Guest:And the Riot Grrrl thing was very specific.
Guest:It was very specific to the East Village where we lived.
Marc:Well, that type.
Marc:You know, there was like a few... Because I think they would probably trace the Riot Grrrl thing probably to Sweeter Kenny in Washington.
Marc:There was L7.
Marc:L7, that's right.
Marc:Oh, right, that.
Marc:Yeah, right, the chick bands in general.
Marc:I always consider L7 a rock band, though.
Marc:You know, like they didn't...
Marc:I guess they were riot girls.
Guest:Well, they knew what they were doing.
Marc:Yeah, they rocked hard.
Guest:They were a proper band.
Marc:But they weren't like, I can't remember.
Marc:They weren't really punk rock, though.
Marc:They were more like hard rock, weren't they?
Guest:Well, people just, I think when you were a girl band then, you were a riot girl band.
Guest:I mean, people would say, you know, cake-like, you know, they're like whole.
Guest:And we were nothing like whole.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:But we were a girl band, and it was the same time, and we dressed cool.
Marc:Yeah, I get it.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:I've been schooled.
Guest:there yeah so okay so you're out here and let's let's talk about reno before we uh we don't talk about it yeah what was the inception of that we were doing uh tom and ben and i had a deal uh to do a pilot for fox and it was a sketch show and you know they kept we kept getting the the vibe every couple years that people would say we want to do sketch again you know and right and they really wouldn't want to do sketch again they would want to you know
Guest:They'd be excited about it for a minute.
Guest:So we wrote a sketch pilot.
Guest:And, you know, I can't remember the exact timeline, but it was minutes until we were about to shoot because we were at a table read for the network.
Guest:And it was the cast.
Guest:It was the Reno cast that, you know, most of them.
Marc:How many are there in that?
Guest:Six of us, eight of us.
Guest:And we do the table read for this very written sketch show that had nothing to do with Reno.
Guest:And they weren't excited anymore.
Guest:And I can't remember if it was Tom or Ben who that night said, hey, what if we've got $4 left?
Guest:I mean, sets are built.
Guest:We can't reinvent this thing.
Guest:We don't have time to write anything.
Marc:What were the sketches or what was the idea?
Marc:It was just a general sketch show?
Guest:It was a general sketch show.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:And it was funny.
Marc:It's amazing how many deals they give out for those things and how few were made.
Guest:How few were made.
Guest:And I think we knew that.
Marc:Why do they do that though?
Marc:Do they think it's going to be cheaper?
Marc:I mean, what?
Guest:I think they think they want...
Guest:They that that they want sketch and at the end they get afraid of a loose thing and they want a theme.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then they try and put you into this.
Guest:Well, what are is are you a magical box that opens and sketches fly out or are you the junkyard band behind the old theater and the other crazy characters make the sketches?
Guest:Right.
Guest:I think they get afraid of Just Sketch.
Guest:So they got afraid.
Guest:And Tom said, well, what if we spoof a show that's on their network, Cops, and we rent some uniforms and we run out and we shoot it on video and it's improv because we don't have time to write it.
Guest:And that's what we did.
Guest:And they didn't pick it up.
Guest:And at least a year went by, maybe two.
Guest:And Jim Sharp from Comedy Central called and said, what's with that pilot you guys did?
Marc:Two years later.
Guest:At least...
Guest:At least two years, I believe.
Guest:And Jim was our producer on the state.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And now working at Comedy Central.
Guest:And he said, what about that pilot?
Guest:And Fox ultimately sold it to them, but forgot to sell the movie rights.
Guest:So we ended up doing the movie with Fox.
Marc:And how many movies you've done too?
Marc:One.
Marc:Just one?
Marc:We just did one.
Marc:And Reno, how many seasons is that done?
Guest:Six.
Marc:It's very popular.
Guest:Yeah, it's very popular.
Marc:And is there more?
Guest:No.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:It's over.
Guest:It's over.
Guest:I heard tell that someone, Danny DeVito and John Langraff are our producers, that someone was in talks with Netflix about maybe... Picking up a few episodes?
Guest:I never heard those talks.
Marc:I just heard about it.
Marc:Like they're doing with Arrested Development?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I don't know how much of that is true, but...
Marc:Hmm.
Marc:That's interesting.
Marc:I get the whole media landscape is changing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So now you basically act.
Guest:I do.
Guest:I do.
Guest:I do.
Guest:I love to do mainstream stuff.
Guest:I love fun things like this Wanderlust movie that I did.
Guest:We had the time of our lives making it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Alan Alda was in it and, you know, member of the commune with us.
Guest:And he said to us, this is this is the greatest work experience I've ever had.
Guest:You know, it was that good making it.
Guest:So I do those mainstream things.
Guest:I do sitcoms and multi-camera.
Marc:It's like fun things.
Guest:Yeah, but I also- Didn't you do Ellen too?
Guest:I did the Ellen show for one year.
Guest:That was really fun.
Guest:I love multi-camera now as a mom, as a person who likes to be in bed at 10.
Guest:I love to go in, get in front of an audience.
Guest:I get my laugh.
Guest:I have my dressing room.
Guest:I have my dinner and I go home.
Guest:I love it.
Guest:I'm not above doing your crazy neighbor.
Guest:Knock, knock, knock.
Marc:Was there a point in your life where you were above that?
Marc:Oh, sure.
Guest:College.
Marc:But that was it?
Guest:That was it.
Marc:You were like, I got integrity.
Marc:I'm never going to be.
Guest:I had integrity for the four years that I was in college.
Guest:And then I realized.
Marc:What's it worth?
Guest:What's it worth?
Guest:But also those kind of things give me fun.
Guest:you know well the thing is when you're a comedic actress and a good one like you are i mean if you look at a piece you're like i can shine in this and this could be fun i'm i i uh don't want to be cocky by saying this is a very cocky thing to say but i'm i'm i love to get a laugh in something even if i feel like that something is not the greatest piece of art that's ever happened i still enjoy coming in and getting my my laugh and you're a comedian yeah
Guest:I need it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I need it.
Marc:How many laughs do you need a week to survive?
Guest:I'm down to four.
Marc:Well, that's pretty good.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You're growing up.
Guest:My standards are so low.
Marc:You know, that changes.
Marc:Like in 10 years, you're going to need 20 again.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I don't even care if you're laughing at me, Mark.
Guest:I'll take it.
Marc:Well, you got a kid.
Marc:That's got to be worth a few laughs.
Guest:He laughs at me all day long.
Marc:Well, there you go.
Marc:You figured it out.
Guest:I got dressed up for the Emmys this year, and he said, why are you wearing that ridiculous costume after seven hours of hair and makeup?
Marc:That must have felt good.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You just went?
Guest:No, my husband's been nominated the last several years.
Guest:He's won two.
Marc:Wow.
Guest:My husband's a cinematographer.
Guest:He does The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men.
Marc:Those are big shows.
Guest:They're big shows.
Guest:Yep.
Marc:Those are big shows and you must live in a big house.
Guest:We have a nice house.
Guest:We have a nice house.
Marc:Where is that located?
Guest:It's located in Malibu, California.
Marc:That's very nice.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:You drove a ways to get here.
Guest:I took the helicopter.
Marc:Well, that's very nice.
Marc:Is that what landed on top?
Marc:It's a very quiet helicopter.
Marc:It must be one of those new ones.
Guest:It's not that long a drive.
Marc:It isn't?
Guest:No.
Marc:how'd you come like the 405 i took the foot no i took the 10 to the one something sure the 110 yeah highway but like malibu like i don't think i've ever spent any time ever in malibu now like i just picture you know the pictures i've seen of bob dylan's mosque shaped house so you like right around there we are really we are so you can look out and go like there's bob dylan's house yeah oh do you ever see him at the store
Guest:You know, he, I am now friends with his son.
Marc:Which one?
Guest:Jacob.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:The one that everyone knows.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:He and his wife are amazing.
Guest:You know, it's a community with lots of people with young kids and somehow something's in the water, but lots of young boys.
Guest:So those of us with young boys, we, we gravitate to each other.
Guest:And some of them are.
Marc:And Jacob's got a young boy.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And do they live in that house?
Guest:No.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:Does the old man live in that house?
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:Oh, see now.
Guest:I've only seen him one time.
Marc:Who, Bob?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:The Paul Newman moment?
Guest:Yeah, it made me very nervous.
Guest:I think I know you.
Guest:I'm Bob Dylan.
Guest:Yeah, no, there's lots of fancy famous people around there.
Guest:Where'd you see him?
Guest:At Jacob's house.
Guest:Oh, okay, okay.
Guest:Yeah, and then it felt even weirder because I was like, I don't want to breach the, you know...
Guest:Oh, you want to try to act like it's not Bob Dylan?
Guest:And he was sitting there all by himself.
Guest:And I thought, if this was just a normal person, I would have gone up and introduced myself.
Guest:I'm a friend of your son.
Guest:But I steered clean.
Guest:He just sat there by himself.
Marc:Was it a party or something?
Guest:It was the kid's birthday party.
Marc:And Bob was just sitting alone?
Guest:For a minute until his son came.
Guest:And yeah, people were, yeah.
Marc:And then he looked up and talked.
Marc:It's just fascinating to me that Bob Dylan would be doing anything.
Guest:I avoid famous people because I don't want to be that person.
Marc:What?
Guest:That's like, I'm talking.
Guest:I don't want you to think I'm talking to you because you're famous, so I will avoid talking to you.
Marc:So you mean you don't want to try and act normal?
Marc:I don't want to try.
Guest:Because he's got to know.
Guest:She's just talking to me.
Marc:That's what my friend who follows him a lot, like he's seen him hundreds of times.
Marc:Follows him?
Guest:Oh, goes to see him.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:Because I call him the old Jew.
Marc:And I think he calls him the old Jew.
Marc:I'm like, are you going to see the old Jew?
Marc:I don't know who came up with that first, but I like that.
Marc:I've seen him a couple of times.
Guest:I saw him one time when VH1 was doing those unplugs.
Guest:And we were on MTV at the time, I think.
Guest:And so we got to go to this VH1 thing.
Guest:And I just remember I had the giggles that I was sitting next to Tom Lennon, huge Bob Dylan fan.
Guest:And I couldn't stop laughing.
Guest:I was excited or something.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:And I remember Tom being like, they're going to move us if you don't stop laughing.
Guest:I just was excited and it was awkward.
Marc:Tom's very funny.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:But isn't there like six kids from that original Dylan brood?
Marc:I mean, doesn't Jacob have like five brothers and sisters?
Guest:He has some brothers.
Guest:I don't, I don't know his family that.
Marc:I'm sorry.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:All right.
Marc:I'm sorry.
Marc:I'm pressuring you.
Marc:You have to get all defensive about it.
Marc:No, no.
Marc:I mean, you got defensive.
Marc:So I got defensive.
Marc:Did I?
Marc:I realized that like you're my guest and I'm trying, I'm just needling you for information.
Guest:No, I would tell you if I knew.
Marc:Who else do you see hanging out at the grocery store in Malibu where you were like, I can't say hi to them.
Guest:Angeline is there a lot.
Guest:She's one of those kinds of celebrities.
Guest:Angeline, the one who drives the pink car?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:She's in Malibu?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I don't know if she lives there.
Guest:You just see her there a lot.
Guest:She's like 100 years old.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:She's crazy looking.
Marc:The billboards are gone, so I don't know who was bankrolling her, but I don't see any more Angeline.
Guest:She still does the whole thing.
Marc:And she drives around that pink car?
Guest:Pink car.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:She's like a cartoon character.
Marc:I used to be able to see her drive her up and down Sunset.
Guest:Yeah, I know, but you know, I could... Do you know the story on her?
Guest:No.
Marc:I don't either.
Guest:I thought you were about to launch into this great story.
Marc:No, I mean, all I heard was that she had a rich husband.
Guest:Yeah, that's all I know.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:That may be the whole story.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And that she just drove around in that car.
Marc:I don't know what she did.
Marc:I don't know what she did.
Marc:She used to have billboards up with Angeline.
Marc:There'd be a phone number and that'd be it.
Guest:And what do you do when you call it?
Marc:Can you drive your car here?
Guest:Hello?
Marc:Hi.
Marc:We wanted to drive that pink car by the birthday party.
Marc:I don't know.
Guest:Are you Angeline?
Marc:Okay, bye.
Marc:Nick Nolte?
Guest:I don't think I've ever seen Nick Nolte.
Marc:I don't know who else would have seen Nick Nolte.
Guest:We've got a lot of famous friends who've got kids in the school.
Guest:They're just people.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:A lot of nice people.
Marc:Well, that's good that they're nice.
Marc:It's not unlike Westport, Malibu, in a way.
Guest:Apparently.
Guest:Although, as a kid, it's funny.
Guest:I remember my mom would say when I was growing up, you'll appreciate this place someday.
Guest:But I was so...
Guest:punk rock and angry and i was like this is so establishment and everybody has money and nobody's helping anybody lots of people were helping people lots of people were doing great art lots of people were doing but all i could see was the you know right the gucci the upper middle class or the upper class thing yeah they're paving paradise sure that one strip of stores yeah this is what it is yeah yeah and now i live there basically in the west coast version and it's fantastic you're a grown-up yeah i know better
Marc:Well, thank you, Carrie Kenney.
Marc:I feel good about this conversation.
Marc:Do you?
Guest:I feel so good about it, especially because I felt like you were going to make me cry in some way.
Guest:Why do people think that?
Guest:Because I thought you were going to say, I remember you and you were dot, dot, dot, and it wasn't going to be good.
Marc:You were always nice and funny.
Marc:Was I?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I don't have any of those things.
Marc:Do you have some memory of me where I was mean to you?
Guest:No, but I think there's a legend of you.
Guest:That you're that way, but even though you were never that way to me.
Marc:How am I going to make you cry?
Marc:There's no, I mean, there's no reason to cry if we don't have to.
Marc:I mean, you know, we did all I could.
Marc:Yeah, you tried.
Marc:No, I didn't.
Marc:No.
Marc:No, I mean, there was... Are you trying now?
Guest:Because now I feel like I'm going to start crying.
Marc:I'll wait.
Marc:Does this sound like crying, Carrie?
Guest:No, it's laughing.
Guest:Sorry, it's not going to happen.
Guest:I'll call you on my way home if it happens.
Guest:I'll come back.
Marc:What was your first pet?
What?
Guest:Ha, gotcha.
Marc:Thanks for hanging out.
Guest:Thank you.
Marc:Oh, that's our show.
Marc:What a lovely conversation.
Marc:Boomy.
Marc:Are you here?
Marc:Boomy.
Marc:I love Kerry Kenny Silver.
Marc:There I did it.
Marc:Put it at the end.
Marc:Go to WTFPod.com for all your WTFPod needs.
Marc:Get on the mailing list.
Marc:Get some merch.
Marc:Get the app.
Marc:Look at who's been on the show.
Marc:Leave some comments.
Marc:Do what you have to do.
Marc:As I said at the beginning, three shows this week.
Marc:Today we had Kerry Kenny Silver.
Marc:On Wednesday we have Chris Cooper, or Coop, the poster artist and painter.
Marc:Friday, Lauren Bouchard.
Marc:I will be at the Magic Bag in Ferndale, Michigan, outside of Detroit, Saturday the 29th.
Marc:I think I'm going to go take some more oregano oil now.
Marc:JustCoffee.coop, of course, available.
Marc:I've got no pow.
Marc:I shit my pants because I feel like I'm getting sick.
Marc:Boomy.
Boomy.
Marc:God damn it, man.
Marc:If that dumb fucking cat hurts my cat again, I don't know what I'm going to do.
Marc:What am I?
Marc:Like, what?
Marc:You can't bully a cat bully.
Marc:I mean, what am I supposed to say to the cat bully?
Marc:This is coming out of your own insecurity.
Marc:Why don't you just cry and accept who you are and not take out your frustration and anger out of your own insecurity on other cats?
Marc:Is that what I should say to this cat?
Marc:You think that'll get through?
Marc:I can't even touch this cat.
Marc:I got to go find Bremen.
you