Episode 451 - Yakov Smirnoff

Episode 451 • Released December 11, 2013 • Speakers detected

00:00:00Guest:Lock the gates!

00:00:07Guest:Are we doing this?

00:00:08Guest:Really?

00:00:08Guest:Wait for it.

00:00:09Guest:Are we doing this?

00:00:10Guest:Wait for it.

00:00:12Guest:Pow!

00:00:12Guest:What the fuck?

00:00:14Guest:And it's also, eh, what the fuck?

00:00:16Guest:What's wrong with me?

00:00:17Guest:It's time for WTF!

00:00:19Guest:What the fuck?

00:00:20Guest:With Mark Maron.

00:00:24Marc:All right, let's do this.

00:00:25Marc:How are you, what the fuckers?

00:00:26Marc:What the fuck buddies?

00:00:27Marc:What the fuckineers?

00:00:28Marc:What the fucksters?

00:00:28Marc:What the fuckadelics?

00:00:29Marc:What the fuckaholics?

00:00:30Marc:What the fuckabillies?

00:00:32Marc:That's enough.

00:00:33Marc:What's with the attitude, Mark?

00:00:35Marc:Be nice to the people.

00:00:36Marc:They're just tuning in.

00:00:38Marc:Welcome to the show.

00:00:39Marc:It's me, Mark Maron.

00:00:40Marc:This is WTF.

00:00:40Marc:I appreciate you being here.

00:00:42Marc:I sincerely do.

00:00:43Marc:I am incredibly busy.

00:00:46Marc:Not complaining.

00:00:47Marc:That is not a complaint.

00:00:48Marc:I guess it could be a complaint if like, I'm so busy.

00:00:51Marc:But no, I'm just, it's crazy, man.

00:00:53Marc:It's crazy.

00:00:54Marc:I did a 13-hour shoot day yesterday.

00:00:56Marc:Crazy.

00:00:57Crazy.

00:00:58Marc:Not complaining.

00:00:59Marc:Very exciting.

00:01:00Marc:But by the end of 13 hours, I can't even think straight.

00:01:02Marc:Bob Goldthwait was actually directing that particular episode.

00:01:06Marc:We're still in it.

00:01:08Marc:I'm recording this intro before I go.

00:01:09Marc:It's early in the morning.

00:01:11Marc:And I'm getting this out to you before I go act.

00:01:15Marc:Before I go act like me.

00:01:17Marc:Which as a role is, I think that I have a better handle on the fictional me than I do on the real me.

00:01:25Marc:But that's to be expected.

00:01:26Marc:That's why we do it.

00:01:28Marc:That's why you write a fictional you, because you can control them like a puppet.

00:01:32Marc:But then there's always the question.

00:01:33Marc:Yeah, but how real are you, man?

00:01:36Marc:How real are you?

00:01:37Marc:I'm pretty real.

00:01:38Marc:I'm laying it out there.

00:01:39Marc:Yeah, but are you?

00:01:40Marc:Is this all of you?

00:01:41Marc:Are you putting it all out there?

00:01:43Marc:I can't put it all out there.

00:01:44Marc:People, that's a good question.

00:01:46Marc:How many yous are there?

00:01:49Marc:Today, Yakov Smirnoff is on the show, and some of you are like, wow, that's a blast from the past.

00:01:55Marc:What's that guy been doing?

00:01:58Marc:Yakov Smirnoff from the 80s?

00:02:01Marc:What happened to that guy with his hook that certainly isn't relevant anymore?

00:02:06Marc:How does a guy like that survive?

00:02:09Marc:Other people are saying Yakov Smirnoff.

00:02:13Marc:Who is that?

00:02:14Marc:Who is Yakov Smirnoff?

00:02:16Marc:You know, I have this realization that there are some people that listen to this show that I have some comics on, especially ones that are not we're not huge, have no point of reference for them at all, really, unless you you Google it.

00:02:29Marc:Remember, why Google when you can speculate?

00:02:32Marc:Okay?

00:02:32Marc:Keep the conversation interesting.

00:02:35Marc:You know, let the dick that needs to be right ruin the party with his facts.

00:02:39Marc:Don't be afraid to wing it and then get out.

00:02:42Marc:Huh?

00:02:43Marc:Dump some bullshit into somebody's head and get out.

00:02:46Marc:Let them work on it.

00:02:47Marc:It's not on you.

00:02:48Marc:You don't have to get it right.

00:02:50Marc:Just make it interesting.

00:02:53Marc:Yakov Smirnoff was a popular comic in the 80s.

00:02:57Marc:This was the great age of comedy before it all crapped out and rebuilt itself.

00:03:01Marc:Twice.

00:03:02Marc:Yakov Smirnoff was a huge comedy star because he had a hook.

00:03:07Marc:And man, what a fucking hook it was.

00:03:09Marc:He was Russian.

00:03:11Marc:He was Russian and we were in the last throes of the Cold War.

00:03:16Marc:He was a Russian comic talking about how great America was because it wasn't Russia.

00:03:21Marc:What the country.

00:03:23Marc:It was it was a pretty big act.

00:03:25Marc:And this is a time in comedy where I don't think you see as much of it as you used to.

00:03:29Marc:There used to be people that would be they have they have hooks.

00:03:33Marc:People are always looking for hooks.

00:03:36Marc:You know, like, what's my angle?

00:03:37Marc:I want to be the guy that says that.

00:03:39Marc:What's my hook?

00:03:40Marc:But Yakov had it like I briefly, you know, was looking for hooks.

00:03:45Marc:Hey, I'm the sad guy.

00:03:46Marc:Hey, look, I'm the angry guy for no reason.

00:03:48Marc:I'm all worked up for things I'm making up in my head.

00:03:51Marc:That guy, that guy didn't work out.

00:03:53Marc:Hey, I'm the look, I'm the about to cry guy.

00:03:56Marc:Never could find a hook.

00:03:57Marc:But you do think about it, especially if you came up in that time.

00:04:01Marc:You're sort of like, what's my angle?

00:04:03Marc:And usually it's going to be your persona or who you are or some version of that that's going to be compelling, that's going to make people want to see you, not the fact that, hey, he's the guy that wears the hat.

00:04:14Marc:Isn't that the guy that hits himself in the mouth?

00:04:16Marc:I love that guy.

00:04:17Marc:Is that the guy that wears the stupid pants?

00:04:21Marc:That guy's hilarious, the pants guy.

00:04:24Marc:Yeah, hooks were, they're not usually that deep.

00:04:27Marc:Hey, is that the guy with no head?

00:04:31Marc:Pow!

00:04:32Marc:Shit, my pants.

00:04:33Marc:JustCoffee.com.

00:04:34Marc:Available at WTFPod.com.

00:04:36Marc:Look!

00:04:37Marc:So to contextualize, or as I, you know, like I didn't Google it, so I'm speculating, there was a time where these kind of comics were huge.

00:04:47Marc:And certainly Yakov come out of the comedy store.

00:04:50Marc:And I mean, but this was just a unique ethnic hook.

00:04:53Marc:This was a Russian guy in America during the Cold War, comparing the two countries in jokes.

00:05:02Marc:And it was huge.

00:05:04Marc:But Yakov is one of those guys also who, in my mind, and this has happened before on the show and some of you know that, that, you know, you talk to these guys that were huge at a different point in time and then you don't hear from them or they drift away or they become less relevant.

00:05:19Marc:And you're thinking like, what happened to that guy?

00:05:21Marc:That can't be good.

00:05:22Marc:I mean, what the, Jesus, what happened to that guy?

00:05:26Marc:And 99 percent of the time when I talk to these guys, they come in here.

00:05:31Marc:They're fine.

00:05:32Marc:Not only are they fine, they believe and sometimes are doing the best work of their life.

00:05:35Marc:They've they've they've they've reinvented themselves.

00:05:38Marc:They've moved on to some other some other racket, some other angle, some other approach or a reinvention of what they used to do.

00:05:45Marc:That's that's what happens.

00:05:47Marc:You survive somehow.

00:05:48Marc:Most people.

00:05:49Marc:So, I talked to Yakov, and you'll hear that in a minute.

00:05:55Marc:What's my hook, man?

00:05:56Marc:I'm going to be the guy that wears the cord jacket.

00:05:59Marc:I'm the guy that wears the plaid shirt.

00:06:00Marc:I'm the plaid shirt guy.

00:06:02Marc:Yeah, you and about 900 other hipsters.

00:06:07Marc:I'm the guy that has the beard.

00:06:08Marc:I'm the beard guy.

00:06:10Marc:The guy with the beard, but not that guy with the beard.

00:06:12Marc:I'm the guy with the little goatee, the soul patch.

00:06:17Marc:You and nine other guys.

00:06:20Marc:All right, I'm the angry, neurotic guy with the soul patch.

00:06:24Marc:Okay, that narrows it down to three.

00:06:27Marc:Fuck you, who are the other two?

00:06:29Marc:Yeah, I'm the fuck you, who are the other two guy.

00:06:32Marc:That's my hook.

00:06:32Marc:Fuck you, who's the other guy?

00:06:34Marc:Yeah, that's my hook.

00:06:36Marc:Fuck you, I'm the guy.

00:06:38Marc:That's a better hook.

00:06:39Marc:Okay, I just want to be okay, all right?

00:06:41Marc:You know what I mean?

00:06:42Marc:I mean, I just want to be okay.

00:06:45Marc:I don't know how to date, folks.

00:06:46Marc:I'm not going to put out too much information out there.

00:06:50Marc:I don't know how to date.

00:06:52Marc:Generally, I date and spend time with and live with and marry women who approach me.

00:06:58Marc:Hey, I'm a big fan.

00:07:00Marc:Hey, I think you're great.

00:07:01Marc:Really?

00:07:02Marc:That sounds like enough.

00:07:04Marc:Come on in.

00:07:05Marc:Here's half my money.

00:07:08Marc:I'm okay.

00:07:09Marc:I'm okay alone.

00:07:10Marc:I'm doing okay.

00:07:11Marc:All right.

00:07:11Marc:Thank you.

00:07:12Marc:Thank you for asking.

00:07:13Marc:Let's talk to Yakov Smirnoff.

00:07:15Marc:This is an amazing conversation.

00:07:17Marc:Enjoy.

00:07:22Marc:I believe, if I'm not mistaken, Yakov Smirnoff, that I think you lived in the house I lived in.

00:07:30Marc:Did you not live in Cresthill ever?

00:07:32Marc:Yeah.

00:07:33Marc:Right.

00:07:33Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:07:34Marc:So I lived in Cresthill.

00:07:35Marc:You're kidding.

00:07:36Marc:Which room?

00:07:37Marc:I lived in the room right off the kitchen, the little room.

00:07:40Marc:That's where Andrew Dice Clay lived.

00:07:42Marc:Yes.

00:07:43Guest:Yeah.

00:07:43Marc:Yeah, was it red?

00:07:45Marc:No, they had repainted it green for some reason.

00:07:48Marc:Okay, okay.

00:07:48Marc:But Dice came over once and said, yeah, I used to get blowjobs in that bathtub.

00:07:54Marc:Have you ever had a blowjob in that bathtub?

00:07:56Marc:And I was like, I have not yet had the blowjob in the bathtub.

00:08:01Marc:Which room did you live in at Cresco?

00:08:03Guest:I lived upstairs.

00:08:05Guest:First one as you walked in to the right.

00:08:08Marc:Oh, the one that was basically a patio?

00:08:10Marc:It was right in front of the house.

00:08:12Marc:There was a bathroom?

00:08:12Marc:Yes.

00:08:13Marc:And then the big room?

00:08:13Marc:Yes.

00:08:14Marc:Who was in the big room that you couldn't be in the big room?

00:08:17Guest:It was Tom Wilson.

00:08:19Marc:Tom Wilson.

00:08:20Guest:Yep.

00:08:20Guest:He needed a big room.

00:08:22Guest:Sure.

00:08:22Guest:For his tuba.

00:08:23Guest:Yeah.

00:08:24Marc:He had to put his tuba in bed with him.

00:08:25Guest:Exactly.

00:08:26Marc:And who lived in the big room across the way?

00:08:28Marc:Argus Hamilton.

00:08:30Marc:Argus Hamilton, and then downstairs in the other bedroom?

00:08:33Marc:It was Mark King.

00:08:35Marc:Mark King?

00:08:36Marc:Yeah.

00:08:36Marc:No kidding.

00:08:37Marc:No kidding.

00:08:38Marc:Mark King from, no, I'm thinking of, no, no, no, no.

00:08:43Guest:No, he was more of an improv comic.

00:08:47Guest:There was an improv group and- The Comedy Store Players?

00:08:50Guest:Yes.

00:08:51Guest:Yeah.

00:08:51Guest:So he was part of that team.

00:08:53Guest:What year are we talking, Yakov?

00:08:55Guest:We're talking 79, 80.

00:08:57Guest:Wow.

00:08:59Guest:Yeah.

00:09:00Marc:When did you come to America?

00:09:03Marc:77.

00:09:04Marc:So fairly quickly.

00:09:06Guest:Very quickly, yeah.

00:09:06Marc:You ended up in the dark palace of comedy.

00:09:09Guest:It was very interesting to arrive there, and I was performing a little bit in Dangerfields in New York.

00:09:20Guest:Also a dark place.

00:09:21Guest:Dark place.

00:09:22Guest:Yeah.

00:09:22Guest:And that's where I met Andrew Dice Clay first time.

00:09:25Guest:And you can imagine being from Russia and then seeing Andrew kind of walk up to you with the cigarette and kind of towering over you.

00:09:36Guest:And, hey, you're funny.

00:09:40Guest:I like you.

00:09:41Guest:And all of a sudden you get a hug from him and you go, I don't know you.

00:09:45Guest:I don't know you.

00:09:47Guest:I'm scared of you.

00:09:49Guest:And so we literally, this was his first professional gig in Dangerfield.

00:09:56Guest:He got paid first time for his comedy.

00:09:58Guest:When you were there.

00:09:59Guest:And so did I. Right.

00:10:00Guest:First time, we got like $40 a person.

00:10:03Marc:And was Rodney hanging around at that time?

00:10:05Guest:Yeah, he would just, yeah.

00:10:06Marc:Yeah, he would be around.

00:10:07Marc:And that was the first paid gig.

00:10:08Guest:Yeah.

00:10:08Guest:The first paid gig, and then I escaped from New York to LA, and then I was thinking I'll never see Andrew again.

00:10:19Guest:And then there's a knock on the door in the house where I'm living, and Andrew's standing there, and he goes, hey, Yak!

00:10:30Guest:And I'm like, holy cow, how did you find me?

00:10:33Guest:He said, Mitzi, put me here.

00:10:35Guest:I'm your roommate.

00:10:37Guest:So three years.

00:10:38Marc:So that was when he moved out to L.A.

00:10:41Guest:He moved out to L.A.

00:10:42Marc:And Mitzi loved him.

00:10:43Marc:Yes.

00:10:44Marc:So let's go back to like moving because you're the first guy outside of Eugene Merman.

00:10:50Marc:who's a younger guy.

00:10:52Marc:You're the only other guy that I know that moved here from Russia and may have memories of it.

00:10:58Marc:Yes.

00:10:59Marc:Because you were there as an adult.

00:11:00Marc:You left as an adult.

00:11:01Marc:Yes.

00:11:01Marc:And can you explain to me where did you come from?

00:11:05Marc:What town?

00:11:06Marc:I'm from Odessa, Ukraine.

00:11:08Marc:Oh, so that's a big town.

00:11:09Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:11:10Guest:It is.

00:11:10Guest:That's a big city.

00:11:11Guest:It is a million, billion people.

00:11:12Marc:Yeah.

00:11:13Marc:Yeah.

00:11:15Marc:And what kind of world did you grow up in?

00:11:17Marc:What was your father's line of work?

00:11:18Marc:What did your mother do?

00:11:19Guest:My mom was a teacher of Russian literature and my dad was an inventor and couldn't hold a job really.

00:11:28Guest:So he was at home kind of raising me while my mom was raising funds for us to live on.

00:11:34Guest:Really?

00:11:34Guest:Yeah.

00:11:34Guest:And he was inventing a bunch of stuff that was fun to be around.

00:11:39Guest:Yeah.

00:11:39Guest:And there are some goofy inventions.

00:11:44Guest:One was, I remember, the Christmas tree stand that would rotate and would make the lights on the tree blink on and off.

00:11:54Guest:And it was fun for me.

00:11:58Guest:But the problem was the device made all the lights in the entire apartment building blink on and off.

00:12:03Guest:Come on.

00:12:03Guest:I'm serious.

00:12:04Guest:I'm not kidding.

00:12:05Guest:So then my mom yelled at my dad.

00:12:08Guest:Yeah.

00:12:08Guest:And she didn't want us to be reported to the KGB.

00:12:13Guest:And the KGB, you probably still remember, stands for kiss goodbye your butt.

00:12:18Guest:So she was nervous about this.

00:12:20Guest:So anyway, so dad was unsuccessful inventor.

00:12:24Guest:And then eventually, I started performing on the cruise ships on the Black Sea as a comedian.

00:12:33Guest:Uh-huh.

00:12:33Guest:And I got the feeling that I will probably be okay if I would leave Russia because I didn't know.

00:12:41Guest:We were so isolated.

00:12:42Guest:Were you performing in Russian?

00:12:44Guest:Yeah, definitely, yeah.

00:12:45Guest:I didn't speak English.

00:12:46Marc:So you were performing on the vacation ships, the Russian vacation ships.

00:12:48Marc:Correct, correct.

00:12:49Marc:Okay, so you're in this house.

00:12:51Marc:Your mother's nervous.

00:12:52Marc:We're in an apartment with nine other families.

00:12:55Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:12:57Guest:One building or one apartment?

00:12:58Guest:One apartment.

00:12:58Guest:With nine families.

00:12:59Guest:Nine families.

00:13:00Guest:We occupy one room.

00:13:03Marc:So did your mother work for the state, I guess?

00:13:05Guest:Oh, sure.

00:13:05Guest:Everybody did.

00:13:06Marc:Right.

00:13:07Marc:So that's a real thing.

00:13:08Marc:So the idea that the KGB would be raised suspicion because your father was tinkering with the electricity was a real thing.

00:13:14Guest:Oh, totally.

00:13:15Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:13:16Guest:I'm not making this up.

00:13:18Guest:No, I know you're not making it up, but I don't know that Americans or myself know the real threat.

00:13:22Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:13:23Guest:It was strange because people, you know, you live, you have neighbors and you have a stove, one stove for nine families.

00:13:32Guest:Yeah.

00:13:33Guest:And you have to assign time who can use, like for an hour you can use the stove and then another family uses the stove.

00:13:40Guest:Yeah.

00:13:41Guest:And things like that.

00:13:42Guest:So it's very bizarre.

00:13:43Guest:No phone, no car.

00:13:44Guest:It was totally normal life.

00:13:46Guest:And you were also brought up Jewish, right?

00:13:48Guest:I wasn't brought up Jewish.

00:13:50Guest:I was born Jewish, but was not brought up Jewish at all.

00:13:55Guest:That was not even mentioned in our environment.

00:13:58Marc:It was 80.

00:13:59Marc:Was it because you didn't want to be recognized as Jews?

00:14:03No.

00:14:03Guest:my parents didn't want to be recognized as jews right and and so and the whole society was atheistic yeah so the religion was not an issue or didn't want to be that you can't say even the word god in school you would be expelled really yeah so it was totally bizarre that's real shit it's real shit

00:14:27Marc:You know, I mean, no, I mean, I know that, you know, you made a career sort of, you know, out of the tension of the Cold War and Russian-American relationships.

00:14:37Marc:But, you know, and there's a way, you know, we all have our ideas about, you know, spy movies or what we sense from movies about the Soviet Union.

00:14:46Marc:But to really feel, to be in an apartment with nine families, not be able to identify yourself religiously and to be in constant fear of being interrogated for no reason whatsoever.

00:14:57Marc:Absolutely.

00:14:58Guest:That was the world you lived in.

00:14:59Guest:It was normal.

00:15:00Guest:But normal, again, when you grow up in a ghetto, that's normal.

00:15:04Guest:When you grow up in Bangladesh somewhere, it would be normal.

00:15:09Guest:So we didn't see it as really bad all the time.

00:15:13Guest:We had to stand in line.

00:15:16Guest:My grandma would put me in line for bread when I was...

00:15:22Guest:six maybe and she would point you know she'd say stand here i'm gonna go stand in line for milk and that was normal and so our environment was just you do those things that's what you do it was just the way you were how old were you i mean this was i left when i was 26 oh so you were there the whole time see i thought you were gonna go for an easy joke and you didn't i appreciate she put me in line when i was six she came back when i was seven

00:15:47Marc:And I still hadn't gotten the bread yet.

00:15:49Marc:It was right there.

00:15:50Guest:It was there.

00:15:51Marc:But you used it.

00:15:52Marc:You used it.

00:15:52Marc:So good.

00:15:53Guest:Good for you.

00:15:54Marc:I wrote it in my own head.

00:15:55Marc:Is that a joke you do?

00:15:57Marc:No, but I will now.

00:16:01Marc:So, okay.

00:16:02Marc:So 26, you go to college and everything else.

00:16:04Guest:I went to military.

00:16:07Guest:I was two years in the military.

00:16:10Guest:Is that what you had to do?

00:16:11Guest:Yes.

00:16:12Guest:Two.

00:16:12Guest:Two years.

00:16:13Guest:What did you do?

00:16:14Marc:What was your rank?

00:16:15Guest:Or what was your job?

00:16:19Guest:The job originally started, I was in the artillery training.

00:16:24Guest:And then later on, I got, I'm an artist, so I paint.

00:16:29Guest:So they start using me for propaganda machine kind of, you know, to paint Lenin and Stalin.

00:16:36Guest:You did?

00:16:37Guest:You painted Lenin and Stalin?

00:16:38Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:16:38Marc:Over and over again?

00:16:39Marc:You say that like you're exhausted.

00:16:41Marc:It's like, we need another one with his hands like this.

00:16:43Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:16:44Marc:Bigger one of his head.

00:16:45Guest:Exactly, exactly, yeah.

00:16:47Guest:Yeah, otherwise I would be still standing in line for bread.

00:16:51Guest:Yeah, the callback.

00:16:53Guest:Here we go.

00:16:54Marc:So you were a talented painter, obviously, if you could handle that.

00:17:01Guest:Actually, the rest of them were not good at all.

00:17:05Guest:So I was actually modest.

00:17:07Guest:I remember when they asked who can do art, I was the last one to raise my hand because everybody else raised their hand because they want to get out of the trenches and shooting and crawling through the mud and all of that stuff.

00:17:22Guest:And I was the last, they said, no, you guys don't know anything.

00:17:26Guest:The sergeant would just go yell at them and say, you don't know how to paint, you don't know how to draw anybody else.

00:17:32Guest:So I raised my hand and then changed my, that made me survive the army.

00:17:37Guest:So at that time, were there conflicts going on?

00:17:39Guest:Yes, Czechoslovakia, they invaded Czechoslovakia, so I could have been in the front lines.

00:17:46Guest:Oh my God.

00:17:47Marc:So was that your goal in life, was to be a painter?

00:17:52Guest:It was probably a comedy was overpowering everything.

00:17:57Guest:However, my parents thought that I was crazy to even think about that.

00:18:00Marc:Was there a Russian comedy scene?

00:18:02Guest:Yeah.

00:18:03Guest:I mean, you'll think I'm joking, but there was a department of jokes in every state.

00:18:10Guest:and they would censor your material once a year, and you had to stay with the script for a year, and they would send that script to the main department of jokes, which was in Moscow, and that's how they would approve it, and that's how you had the job for a year.

00:18:25Guest:It was called the department of jokes.

00:18:26Marc:The department of jokes, yeah.

00:18:28Marc:And this was for all entertainers, I imagine.

00:18:30Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:18:30Marc:Like if they were television presenters or anything, that if someone was gonna make a joke,

00:18:35Marc:It was a censor, but it was a statewide censorship.

00:18:39Guest:Statewide censorship.

00:18:40Guest:And the guys who were censoring were totally not funny.

00:18:45Guest:I mean, they had no idea.

00:18:46Guest:They never are.

00:18:48Marc:Now it's just for legal reasons now.

00:18:50Marc:But of course, they can't be funny.

00:18:52Guest:So you're dealing with somebody.

00:18:54Guest:You would have to sneak by them some humor that they weren't getting.

00:18:58Guest:And so some of the jokes were really clever, but they were disguised as something else.

00:19:04Guest:And then you would come up with the material that was good.

00:19:08Guest:So you would go to the Department of Jokes.

00:19:10Guest:You write it up.

00:19:11Guest:And then if they need to question you, you would go there.

00:19:15Guest:But otherwise, they would stamp it and send it back to you.

00:19:17Marc:So, all right, so you would write it up, but were you ever, like, called down?

00:19:21Marc:Like, was there ever, like, Mr. Yakov, we need you to come down and explain this joke?

00:19:29Guest:Yes.

00:19:30Guest:Yes, there have been a couple of times.

00:19:32Guest:One joke I remember that I wrote, and it was a joke that an actor,

00:19:39Guest:a tiny little ant got married to female elephant.

00:19:44Guest:Because you couldn't talk about government, politics, religion, and sex.

00:19:52Guest:The rest was fine.

00:19:53Guest:So animals were a big topic.

00:19:57Guest:So little ant gets married to female elephant, and after first wedding night, elephant died.

00:20:07Guest:And the little aunt said, only one night I enjoyed myself.

00:20:11Guest:And now for the rest of my life, I have to dig this grave.

00:20:16Guest:Right?

00:20:16Guest:Yeah.

00:20:17Guest:Funny, funny.

00:20:18Guest:But they thought I was talking about some communist.

00:20:21Guest:Maybe I was talking about the Communist Party or the KGB.

00:20:24Guest:It was a metaphor for the little.

00:20:25Guest:Right.

00:20:26Guest:So I said, no, no, it was just animal.

00:20:28Guest:And did they let you do it?

00:20:30Guest:Yeah, they let me do it.

00:20:31Guest:Really?

00:20:31Marc:But you went and defended that joke.

00:20:33Guest:Yeah, I did.

00:20:33Marc:That's hilarious.

00:20:35Marc:You have such a limited palette to work with.

00:20:38Guest:Yeah.

00:20:39Marc:And then they call you to the carpet to defend this thing.

00:20:43Marc:Defend this thing.

00:20:44Marc:And then it's a victory that you get to do the ant digging the grave joke.

00:20:48Exactly.

00:20:48Guest:Oh, thank God.

00:20:50Guest:Thank God.

00:20:51Guest:I'm allowed.

00:20:53Guest:I'm allowed.

00:20:54Marc:I'm alive.

00:20:54Marc:I'm not in prison for the elephant joke.

00:20:57Marc:That was close.

00:21:00Guest:Did you know other Russian comedians at the time?

00:21:02Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:21:04Guest:There was a group of... There were some famous ones that were on the radio and television on the regular basis.

00:21:10Guest:Arkady Rykin was very popular and the Soviets liked him.

00:21:16Guest:He was...

00:21:16Guest:He had a little bit of the edge, but he was always on their side of the edge.

00:21:22Guest:Uh-huh.

00:21:24Guest:You mean the communist side?

00:21:25Guest:Yeah.

00:21:25Guest:Well, there was no other side.

00:21:28Guest:So if you're on that side, you're on the grave side.

00:21:31Guest:It's like you don't want to be the elephant.

00:21:37Marc:Yeah.

00:21:38Marc:So, okay.

00:21:39Marc:So when you say that he had an edge that tended towards it, like you say he had a little bit of an edge, which in your mind meant what?

00:21:44Marc:That he pushed buttons?

00:21:45Guest:He pushed a button.

00:21:46Guest:He would talk about, yeah.

00:21:48Guest:But he would expose some things that the Soviets knew that there was problems there, like deficit of food and things like that.

00:21:56Guest:Right.

00:21:56Guest:So he would make a sketch.

00:21:58Guest:He would be a sketch, kind of a one-person sketch.

00:22:02Guest:He would play several characters.

00:22:04Guest:Yeah.

00:22:04Guest:And and then he would be do a little bit of humor, like Georgian Russian Georgians would be kind of funny guys to imitate.

00:22:16Guest:So he would do that.

00:22:17Guest:And then they would be the wealthier one.

00:22:20Guest:So they would have things that most people in Russia wouldn't have.

00:22:24Guest:They had a phone.

00:22:25Guest:Right.

00:22:26Guest:Or they had a car.

00:22:27Guest:OK.

00:22:28Guest:OK.

00:22:28Guest:They were rich.

00:22:29Marc:So so he was sympathizing with the worker.

00:22:31Right.

00:22:32Marc:In other words, obviously there were rich people within communism and you could target them subtly to sort of empower the worker.

00:22:43Guest:Exactly.

00:22:43Guest:And then you would identify with him and you would not feel as crappy.

00:22:48Marc:And even though some of the higher ups within the communist party were like, well, we got a big house, but we're willing to take this hit to give the worker a little bit of relief.

00:22:58Guest:Totally.

00:22:59Guest:You're right on.

00:22:59Guest:Right.

00:23:00Marc:Like it's like if they can feel just a minor amount of victory through this dumb joke, that's not a problem with that.

00:23:05Guest:Exactly.

00:23:06Guest:Yeah.

00:23:06Marc:Now, if they base their movement against us on the joke, then we got to kill the comic.

00:23:11Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:23:12Guest:Totally.

00:23:12Marc:Totally.

00:23:13Guest:Yeah.

00:23:13Guest:And because he was.

00:23:16Guest:So popular.

00:23:17Guest:And at that time, taking somebody's material, we didn't even think about it.

00:23:24Guest:It was like so little of it.

00:23:26Guest:So I could do a parody of what he did next day on stage, and it was totally accepted because it was already approved by the Department of Jokes for him.

00:23:37Guest:Right.

00:23:37Guest:So why would I want to write my own stuff and then try to approve it when I could take what he's doing and just do it?

00:23:46Marc:That's sort of fascinating.

00:23:47Marc:So it wasn't even an issue of theft.

00:23:48Marc:It was like, all right, so there's a bit that the party's okay with.

00:23:52Guest:Exactly.

00:23:53Marc:And it's like the limitations that you were given to actually be original was tricky.

00:24:00Marc:And you obviously had some of your own original jokes.

00:24:02Marc:But if the people didn't give a shit,

00:24:04Marc:No, nobody cared.

00:24:05Marc:And it was just entertainment, state-sanctioned entertainment.

00:24:08Guest:Exactly.

00:24:09Guest:And they also knew that it was him because he was so popular.

00:24:13Guest:And this will be interesting.

00:24:15Guest:I don't think I ever told any.

00:24:16Guest:But we had no radio, but we had a state-run, like one speaker that was in every room of the, I'm not exaggerating, in every room of the apartment.

00:24:32Guest:And it was in the corner normally mounted.

00:24:33Guest:There really was that?

00:24:34Guest:One speaker, yes.

00:24:35Guest:And it was one station.

00:24:39Guest:But you can turn it on and off.

00:24:41Guest:Yeah, you can turn it on and off.

00:24:42Guest:Right, right.

00:24:44Guest:So he would be on that main, the only station that we had.

00:24:49Guest:So everybody heard that routine.

00:24:52Guest:Right.

00:24:52Guest:Once on Sunday morning, once a month, he would present something new.

00:24:58Guest:And it was like everybody would wait for that.

00:25:01Guest:This was a big deal.

00:25:04Guest:Get a little laugh.

00:25:05Guest:So then they wanted more of that.

00:25:07Guest:So I was kind of, and that was training in comedy for me.

00:25:12Guest:I would forbade them get that routine.

00:25:15Guest:And then in the club or in the theater, I would perform it like, you know, once a year or something like that.

00:25:22Marc:And you do the voices and everything.

00:25:24Marc:Yeah.

00:25:25Marc:I would do that.

00:25:25Marc:So that was a sketch.

00:25:26Marc:And they never said like, he's doing that guy.

00:25:28Marc:Yeah.

00:25:28Marc:They were happy I was doing it.

00:25:30Guest:We loved that bit.

00:25:31Marc:Yeah, we loved it.

00:25:32Guest:Because they were almost comedically starved.

00:25:36Guest:Oh, totally.

00:25:37Guest:It's like a singer in a bar or something sings a hit song.

00:25:43Guest:We go, yeah, so that's how they were.

00:25:46Guest:And he never said to you, you're doing my shit.

00:25:49Guest:No.

00:25:49Guest:No, he didn't.

00:25:51Guest:Yeah, he was too big.

00:25:53Guest:He didn't care.

00:25:54Guest:I was in Odessa.

00:25:55Guest:He was in Moscow.

00:25:56Guest:Yeah.

00:25:56Guest:No.

00:25:57Guest:And no one gave a shit.

00:25:58Guest:No, no, no, no.

00:26:00Guest:It was just funny stuff and they wanted more funny.

00:26:03Marc:Well, you know, it's interesting.

00:26:04Marc:It's not unlike, you know, the Catskills.

00:26:07Marc:It's not unlike Vaudeville in a sense.

00:26:09Guest:That's true.

00:26:10Marc:You know, I was just thinking about this bit, you know, the bit, and slowly I turned.

00:26:16Marc:Do you know the Three Stooges bit?

00:26:18Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:26:19Marc:The Niagara Falls bit.

00:26:21Marc:Did you say Niagara Falls?

00:26:23Marc:So, you know, I watch that bit because I became sort of fascinated with the idea of that, that you got a bit that, you know, Abbott and Costello did, the Three Stooges did, many people did in vaudeville, and people didn't give a shit who made the bit.

00:26:35Marc:They were just like, do the funny bit.

00:26:37Guest:Do it your way.

00:26:38Guest:It was funny, yeah.

00:26:39Marc:Did you find when you did that stuff, though, just out of curiosity?

00:26:42Marc:Because it's rare that you can talk to somebody that was not only encouraged, but there was no shame in it.

00:26:54Marc:Oh, not at all, no.

00:26:55Marc:But did you find that you could make it your own in any way, or did you even try not to?

00:26:59Marc:There was no point to it.

00:27:00Guest:No point, because then they would compare it, and then...

00:27:03Guest:You didn't do it like him.

00:27:05Guest:Yeah, it's like Whitney Houston singing Dolly Parton's song.

00:27:10Guest:Once you compare it, you go, oh, one of them is not so good.

00:27:14Guest:For me, yeah.

00:27:15Guest:Yeah.

00:27:15Guest:So I think that it was as verbatim as possible.

00:27:20Guest:And then it was more of a parody that they thought was accurate.

00:27:25Guest:It was like, oh, he's just like Reichen.

00:27:28Guest:Right.

00:27:29Guest:Right.

00:27:29Guest:gave you credibility oh i get it so were you able to at that time integrate your own jokes into yeah yeah yeah oh yeah you were just sort of the set piece normally it would be it wasn't a one-man show normally i would be traveling with a band or something so i would be master of ceremony so i would come out and do this bit and then come out again doing my bit then come out again do something else yeah it was a collection of things fascinating actually i like the one speaker thing like that's something i only thought was in movies maybe i'm naive

00:27:58Marc:About communism.

00:28:00Marc:I guess I didn't want to believe the worst.

00:28:03Marc:Yeah, it's pretty weird.

00:28:05Marc:Yeah, and who was... So you lived through several presidents.

00:28:09Marc:What did you catch?

00:28:09Marc:The tail end of Khrushchev and then Brezhnev.

00:28:13Marc:Correct.

00:28:13Marc:And then Yeltsin.

00:28:17Guest:Yeltsin.

00:28:18Guest:I left, actually, I left during Brezhnev time.

00:28:24Guest:Before Yeltsin.

00:28:25Guest:Before Yeltsin.

00:28:25Marc:So you lived through Khrushchev and Brezhnev.

00:28:28Marc:Yes.

00:28:28Marc:And that was it.

00:28:29Marc:That was it.

00:28:29Marc:They hung around a long time.

00:28:31Guest:Yeah, they didn't leave.

00:28:33Marc:Now, were you at all political in any way in the sense, not as a comedian, but, you know, when you saw Nixon talking to Brezhnev, I imagine you were old enough to remember that shit.

00:28:43Marc:Not really?

00:28:44Marc:Yeah.

00:28:44Guest:They were very selective what we saw.

00:28:48Guest:Very, very selective.

00:28:48Guest:So we saw a lot of stuff, and you guys, you just heard that comedian on the speaker.

00:28:53Guest:Well, and that was a treat.

00:28:54Guest:No, what we saw was how Americans do bad things in the world.

00:29:01Guest:That was it.

00:29:04Guest:We didn't see good stuff coming from America.

00:29:08Marc:Do you have recollections of what those beliefs about America were when you were a younger person?

00:29:12Guest:Oh, yeah, that Americans were, there were rich people there who would sell their mother for money.

00:29:20Guest:And then there would be their poor people who were homeless.

00:29:27Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:29:27Guest:but they were sitting in front of their house and they looked a lot healthier than we did, but somehow they were homeless.

00:29:37Guest:So things like that.

00:29:38Guest:So some of it was obvious to us that it was propaganda.

00:29:41Guest:My shift happened, major shift, when I started working the cruise ships and I actually met Americans because I was a master of ceremonies and I was supposed to do every evening do some activity with like a cruise director.

00:29:56Guest:I had contact.

00:29:58Guest:Actually, I could talk to them because it was against the law.

00:30:02Guest:This is not a joke.

00:30:03Guest:Against the law to talk to foreigners.

00:30:07Guest:But because I was privileged to have this, I was supposed to meet them and involve them in activities and all of that.

00:30:14Guest:And I had an interpreter.

00:30:16Guest:I could understand what they were saying, what they're talking about.

00:30:19Guest:So all of a sudden, I had this fascination with Americans.

00:30:22Guest:They had...

00:30:22Guest:They had spark in their eyes.

00:30:24Guest:They looked like they ate food.

00:30:27Guest:It's like I wanted that so much.

00:30:30Guest:They looked like they ate food.

00:30:33Guest:Yes.

00:30:34Guest:And so I finally, that was when I came to my parents and after working on the cruise ships and I said,

00:30:43Guest:I think we need to get out.

00:30:45Guest:And this is an interesting kind of a callback from what we talked about earlier.

00:30:49Guest:Yeah.

00:30:49Guest:My, my dad surprised my mom was against going to America because she was scared.

00:30:55Guest:She, she didn't think I would be able to learn English.

00:30:58Guest:Right.

00:30:58Guest:And, uh, I, I tried to learn German in Russia and didn't learn it.

00:31:02Guest:So she was like worried that, that I was going to be.

00:31:05Marc:But what do you think?

00:31:06Marc:She was also worried about just making, like, it seems that a lot of people, even if they could leave Russia and

00:31:11Marc:Like they grew to not necessarily love it, but they understood the system at hand.

00:31:15Marc:It was simple.

00:31:16Marc:And on some level, it was predictable.

00:31:19Marc:True, true.

00:31:20Guest:However, her fear was more... She saw the opportunity.

00:31:26Guest:However, she didn't know if I...

00:31:28Guest:I was going to make it.

00:31:30Guest:And there was no way for me to prove myself there, even though I was a fairly successful comedian there.

00:31:37Guest:But she was like going, how are you going to speak in Russian and make people laugh?

00:31:43Guest:And then I actually took my parents on a cruise ship to see what I was doing.

00:31:48Guest:And I was doing shows in front of a thousand people who didn't speak Russian.

00:31:53Guest:But we had interpreters and I would do like a game show.

00:31:57Guest:Would it be like Miss Cruise or a variety show or something like that.

00:32:05Guest:They didn't require much of my Russian, but my facial expressions.

00:32:10Guest:Yeah.

00:32:10Guest:And my timing was still making this whole group of people who were totally from all different countries, they were laughing.

00:32:18Guest:And so she started to see that.

00:32:20Guest:But then she was going, how can we afford it?

00:32:22Guest:We don't have enough money.

00:32:24Guest:And my dad surprised us.

00:32:26Guest:He went to the kitchen cupboard and got a coffee can.

00:32:30Guest:This was like totally shocking to mom and me.

00:32:34Guest:And he opened the coffee can and inside there were money, like rolls of money stuffed in there.

00:32:41Guest:And we were both in shock and mom said, where in the world did you get coffee?

00:32:48Guest:And how, where is this money coming from?

00:32:52Guest:Well, after inventing all these crazy inventions, my dad actually invented something that was successful.

00:32:57Guest:He invented the device.

00:32:59Guest:It was a small kind of a device that measured the integrity of concrete.

00:33:05Guest:Uh-huh.

00:33:06Guest:And concrete in Russia was like their national flower or something, you know.

00:33:11Guest:Yeah.

00:33:11Guest:And here is my dad inventing something that has integrity of concrete.

00:33:16Guest:I didn't know concrete had integrity.

00:33:19Guest:And so they gave him enough money, enough to buy three airline tickets to go to America.

00:33:28Guest:And he didn't tell anybody.

00:33:29Guest:because everybody made fun of him as this crazy inventor.

00:33:33Guest:He wanted to keep it secret, so when I was ready, because he wanted to go.

00:33:41Guest:She didn't want to go, so I was the tiebreaker.

00:33:45Guest:When I was ready, he wanted to have the opportunity to make it possible.

00:33:49Guest:Well, why'd they let you leave?

00:33:51Guest:Well, Carter at that time was making deals with the Russians.

00:33:57Guest:Russians were starving.

00:33:58Guest:Yeah.

00:33:58Guest:They didn't have any wheat.

00:34:02Guest:Yeah.

00:34:02Guest:And they were so bad at this.

00:34:04Guest:So was there a wheat embargo?

00:34:06Guest:Well, no, no.

00:34:07Guest:This was just wheat shortage.

00:34:09Guest:But we weren't giving you wheat.

00:34:12Guest:We didn't want to give wheat because there was no human rights.

00:34:15Guest:Yeah.

00:34:16Guest:And Carter said, you show some human rights, we will give you wheat.

00:34:22Guest:Yeah.

00:34:22Guest:So we were exchanged for some tons of wheat.

00:34:25Guest:You got out on the wheat business.

00:34:26Guest:Yeah, exactly, exactly.

00:34:28Guest:Every time I see a Wonder Bread truck, I salute, you know, because I could be still standing in line for bread.

00:34:35Guest:Sure.

00:34:36Guest:Anyway, so now we were given the permission.

00:34:39Guest:It took a while.

00:34:40Guest:The Russians didn't give it away easily.

00:34:42Guest:Yeah.

00:34:43Guest:But we lucked out, and it was like, okay, here we are.

00:34:48Guest:Where'd you move?

00:34:50Guest:New York.

00:34:51Guest:What part?

00:34:52Guest:Brighton Beach?

00:34:52Guest:I actually was uptown New York in Washington Heights.

00:35:01Guest:And stayed there for a little while.

00:35:03Guest:Then I got a job in the Catskills as a bar boy.

00:35:07Guest:I was looking for any kind of job.

00:35:10Marc:And that's sort of like, I mean, the Catskills were not the Catskills like they were back in the day, but they were still there for the Hasidim.

00:35:17Marc:Were they the Hasidim yet?

00:35:18Guest:Not yet, not yet.

00:35:19Guest:They were just old Jews.

00:35:21Guest:Jewish resorts, yeah.

00:35:23Guest:And big, you know, like the one that I played was in Grossinger's.

00:35:27Guest:Sure.

00:35:27Guest:And it was not played.

00:35:29Guest:I was bar boy.

00:35:31Guest:Yeah, which meant what?

00:35:32Guest:You just, you were clean, you know, ice trays.

00:35:33Guest:Bring ice.

00:35:34Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:35:35Guest:Bring pina colada, make whatever.

00:35:39Guest:Go down the basement, kid, and get the- Exactly, exactly.

00:35:41Guest:And you're 26 years old, right?

00:35:42Guest:27?

00:35:43Guest:Yeah, 26, 27.

00:35:45Guest:I was getting $1.30 an hour plus some tips, and I loved it because it was money, and I had a place to live.

00:35:55Guest:They put you up, and I could watch the shows

00:36:00Guest:Because the bar would be shut down when everybody moved from Pink Elephant Lounge to the main room.

00:36:08Guest:And so I could stand in the back and watch comedians.

00:36:11Guest:Who?

00:36:12Guest:Oh, it would be like- Like Freddie Roman.

00:36:15Guest:Freddie Roman would be big time.

00:36:17Guest:Mousy Lawrence.

00:36:19Guest:Yeah.

00:36:19Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:36:20Guest:All of those guys.

00:36:21Guest:The old guys.

00:36:22Guest:I remember Eddie Fisher came.

00:36:24Guest:It was a big deal that he came there to sing.

00:36:28Guest:And so it was like a great training for me, even though I didn't understand.

00:36:34Guest:They would say things like...

00:36:39Guest:the Kennedy case, what was the, when he, the girl drowned, what was it?

00:36:46Guest:Chappaquiddick.

00:36:46Guest:Chappaquiddick, right.

00:36:47Guest:And I'm listening and my English is like this little, you know, and I'm going, what is Chappaquiddick?

00:36:53Guest:Right, right.

00:36:54Guest:And then the bartenders would explain to me what they did.

00:36:57Guest:So it was learning English and getting my ear tuned into what American people like.

00:37:04Marc:And also to the rhythm of those guys.

00:37:06Guest:Yes.

00:37:06Marc:Like you got Freddie Roman, you got Mousy Lawrence.

00:37:08Marc:It was like Sandy Baron, too, maybe.

00:37:10Marc:I don't remember.

00:37:11Marc:Do you remember, you don't remember any other guys?

00:37:13Marc:Some of the old guys going up there still, like Jack Carter?

00:37:16Marc:Yeah.

00:37:16Guest:Buddy Hackett Buddy Hackett and you know who else came Johnny Carson came I mean it was like a big deal they hired him to come there and they were not getting his stuff they were I was like I was blown away but he performed there one night

00:37:33Marc:and they weren't getting it so he's an established guy he's johnny carson but you know what it was though it was he wasn't jewish exactly exactly is that they would go to the coffee shop and say yeah you're afraid you're roman is so much better you know well there's a there's almost a sort of a yiddish cadence that that sort of carried on that that that rhythm of jewish comedy was definitely distilled there yeah it was it

00:37:57Marc:It was definitely.

00:37:58Marc:And you sort of got to see that.

00:38:00Guest:I did.

00:38:01Guest:And then I, fast forward, I probably 10, maybe eight years later, I become, so now with 84 or something like that, I become bigger and bigger and bigger.

00:38:14Guest:And so Concord Hotel, which was their big mama, they hire me to play there.

00:38:23Guest:Yeah.

00:38:23Guest:And now I am in 3,000-seat theater on Labor Day weekend.

00:38:31Guest:This is your first, oh, this is later.

00:38:33Guest:Way later, yeah.

00:38:35Guest:On the big stage.

00:38:40Guest:So I'm playing Vegas at that time, Atlantic City, so I'm doing pretty good.

00:38:45Guest:I walk on that stage.

00:38:46Guest:And they're laughing, but very little.

00:38:51Guest:It's more like, oh, that's cute, funny.

00:38:55Guest:So I'm working faster and faster.

00:38:57Guest:My burning material just to stay afloat.

00:39:02Guest:and so i'm i walk off the stage and i i go back and then the uh i'm i'm depressed because i'm going this i thought it was kind of a homecoming kind of a big big thing and i'm gonna kill and and i did okay you know and the owner of the hotel runs in and he's a big guy and he picks me up and he swirls me around he said you

00:39:26Guest:You're the star.

00:39:28Guest:You're the best.

00:39:30Guest:And I'm going, were you in the same room as I was?

00:39:33Guest:And he said, yes, they loved you.

00:39:37Guest:You killed your life.

00:39:39Guest:And I go, wait, wait, wait, explain.

00:39:41Guest:I don't get it.

00:39:41Guest:They weren't barely laughing.

00:39:43Guest:He said, no, you don't understand.

00:39:45Guest:This is a two-door room or four-door room.

00:39:49Guest:I said, what does that mean?

00:39:50Guest:He said, when they like somebody,

00:39:54Guest:They start leaving in the middle of the show and we have to open two doors.

00:39:59Guest:Right.

00:40:00Guest:When they don't like somebody, we have to open all four doors.

00:40:04Guest:He said, no one left.

00:40:07Guest:He said, you are the star.

00:40:10Guest:You made it.

00:40:11Guest:You are so great.

00:40:14Guest:So, yeah.

00:40:14Guest:What do you make of that, though?

00:40:16Guest:Is it just that they're so miserable?

00:40:18Guest:No, no.

00:40:18Guest:I think it's just a different culture.

00:40:20Guest:Was it primarily old people, though?

00:40:22Guest:Yeah, older people.

00:40:24Guest:But I think it's just more of a, they're enjoying it and they're smiling.

00:40:28Guest:They're not conditioned to necessarily laugh big laughs.

00:40:32Marc:And also with the resort like that, it's probably just part of the package, right?

00:40:35Marc:You go to the show, you pay your money.

00:40:36Guest:It's not, you got a choice.

00:40:38Guest:You didn't come right.

00:40:39Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:40:40Marc:It's like the thing's going on.

00:40:41Marc:You want to go, I don't know if I like that.

00:40:43Guest:You get pastrami and Smirnoff.

00:40:45Marc:Yes, yes.

00:40:48Marc:all right so okay so let's go back to uh to new york for a minute so you're there you know you're doing the uh the barback gig and and how do you get in it uh what makes you try to start doing comedy in america what was that oh i wanted to do it when i was coming in i mean i knew that that's what i want i just didn't know if i can do it or not yeah

00:41:09Guest:And then I watched the comedians in the Catskills.

00:41:13Guest:Then I started going to like Catch a Rising Star.

00:41:17Marc:Hanging around, just hanging around.

00:41:19Guest:Yeah.

00:41:19Guest:Jerry Seinfeld was a big shot at the comic strip at that time.

00:41:24Guest:So he would come out Monday night.

00:41:27Guest:All the rookies are there trying to get the time slot.

00:41:30Guest:So this is 78?

00:41:31Guest:Yeah.

00:41:31Guest:Yes, and he would go, so you can come back every other week and you will indubitably, another word that I was learning, indubitably do this for the rest of your life.

00:41:45Guest:And Jerry would say that and I would write it down and I would go and look it up indubitably.

00:41:52Guest:So yeah, so that was, but it wasn't, the Catskills gig was over because it's seasonal.

00:42:01Guest:Mm-hmm.

00:42:01Guest:Then I went to Florida for a little while and was trying to get a job on a cruise ship, got a job on the Royal Caribbean, but my English was so bad still.

00:42:15Guest:They hired me, but they didn't- As an act?

00:42:17Guest:No, assistant of cruise director.

00:42:22Guest:But then they realized that I don't speak English, but I was already on board.

00:42:28Guest:So there's still people in St.

00:42:30Guest:Thomas looking for that bus.

00:42:34Guest:And so they got rid of me pretty quickly.

00:42:39Guest:I was done.

00:42:40Guest:And then I heard about, I started working.

00:42:43Guest:There's a company in New York.

00:42:47Guest:It was a company.

00:42:48Guest:It was called Greeting Bells.

00:42:49Guest:And a lot of Russian people were working.

00:42:52Guest:It was just they were gluing things for Christmas ornaments and things like that.

00:42:57Guest:So I was hired as a shipping manager there.

00:43:01Guest:Uh-huh.

00:43:01Guest:So I was doing that.

00:43:03Guest:Meantime, at nighttime, I would go to Good Times Cafe or a catch or- Open mics, basically.

00:43:09Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:43:10Marc:And at that time, had you found that hook yet?

00:43:16Marc:I mean, the What a Country?

00:43:17Guest:No, no, no.

00:43:18Guest:That later, that's in Comedy Store.

00:43:20Marc:So what kind of stuff were you doing?

00:43:22Guest:Just translated some jokes, elephant.

00:43:25Guest:From Russia?

00:43:25Guest:Yeah.

00:43:26Guest:You did the elephant joke.

00:43:27Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:43:28Guest:Well, that's all I knew.

00:43:29Guest:And how'd it go?

00:43:30Guest:Not very good, but I would get a laugh after not getting a laugh.

00:43:37Marc:Sure, sure.

00:43:37Marc:Well, you were sort of an anomaly.

00:43:39Marc:You had the accent.

00:43:40Marc:You could barely speak the language, and Americans love to laugh at foreigners.

00:43:44Guest:Yeah, well, but it was encouraging still.

00:43:46Guest:I felt that I was growing in that field, and then...

00:43:53Guest:I heard a friend of mine, well, excuse me, the lady who is the owner of the company knew somebody who knew somebody who knew a producer of Tree's company, Ted Bergman.

00:44:06Guest:And Tree's company was huge at that time.

00:44:08Guest:So I figure if I go to Hollywood and I meet Ted Bergman, I'll become a star.

00:44:14Guest:And then I can come back in 10 days and buy a nice place for my folks.

00:44:20Guest:Good idea, right?

00:44:22Guest:Yeah.

00:44:22Guest:So I had the round trip ticket, 10 days, become a star.

00:44:25Guest:I was on it.

00:44:26Guest:Yeah.

00:44:27Guest:And Ted, unfortunately, couldn't make it to the show that I lined up.

00:44:32Guest:I went to improv and went to comedy store, lined up Sunday night in the improv, Monday night in the comedy store.

00:44:41Guest:Those are the open nights.

00:44:42Guest:Open nights.

00:44:43Guest:Yeah.

00:44:44Guest:And the gig and the improv did not go well.

00:44:49Guest:It was late night and nobody was, Bud was there, but no one was carrying it.

00:44:54Guest:Nobody listened.

00:44:56Guest:And in the comedy store, Ted Bergman was supposed to be there, but he couldn't make it.

00:45:03Guest:Yeah.

00:45:03Guest:And so I performed, I was kind of bummed out, but I did about three, four minute bit.

00:45:09Guest:And it got a decent response and I got off stage, but now I'm going, I only have seven days or six days.

00:45:17Guest:To make all this money.

00:45:18Guest:To make all this money to come to New York and buy a Fifth Avenue apartment because my parents are living in Washington Heights.

00:45:27Guest:I want to make good.

00:45:29Guest:There was an assistant, Mitzi, Mitzi's assistant, Chrissy.

00:45:33Guest:She was an English girl and she ran after me after I finished my set and she said, congratulations.

00:45:41Guest:I said, and I'm bombed.

00:45:43Guest:What a waste of money.

00:45:45Guest:My big dream.

00:45:47Guest:And she said, I said, congratulations of what?

00:45:51Guest:And she said, Mitzi liked you.

00:45:54Guest:And I said, who is Mitzi?

00:45:57Guest:And she said, she's the owner of the comedy store.

00:46:00Guest:Go talk to her.

00:46:01Guest:So I go sit down next to Mitzi and Mitzi, you know, goes.

00:46:05Guest:In the original room?

00:46:05Guest:In the original.

00:46:06Guest:In that booth?

00:46:07Guest:In the booth.

00:46:07Guest:By the door?

00:46:08Guest:That's right.

00:46:08Guest:Yeah.

00:46:09Guest:And she goes, you're very good.

00:46:15Guest:You should stay in Los Angeles.

00:46:17Guest:There is always place for good and different.

00:46:22Uh-huh.

00:46:22Guest:And I still don't know who I'm talking to.

00:46:24Guest:Sure.

00:46:24Guest:So I said, okay.

00:46:25Guest:And she said, oh, by the way, come back tomorrow and see a regular show.

00:46:31Guest:Come back next day.

00:46:32Guest:Yeah.

00:46:33Guest:On stage.

00:46:34Guest:This is without exaggeration.

00:46:36Guest:Letterman.

00:46:38Guest:Mm-hmm.

00:46:38Guest:Leno.

00:46:40Guest:Mm-hmm.

00:46:41Guest:Billy Crystal.

00:46:42Guest:Yeah.

00:46:42Guest:Richard Pryor.

00:46:44Guest:And Jeff Altman.

00:46:47Guest:Jeff Altman with the pants.

00:46:48Guest:Yeah.

00:46:48Guest:Yeah, sure.

00:46:49Yeah.

00:46:49Guest:Oh, I tell you, I'm going to.

00:46:50Guest:Exactly.

00:46:52Guest:And I'm sitting there in the back.

00:46:53Guest:Oh, Robin.

00:46:55Guest:Robin stopped by.

00:46:56Guest:Robin Williams.

00:46:57Guest:Number one.

00:46:58Guest:Mork and Mindy was number one, and he just dropped in.

00:47:01Guest:And I'm sitting there, and I can't believe I just died and went to heaven.

00:47:07Guest:Right.

00:47:08Guest:From the Catskills to- Yeah.

00:47:11Guest:Yeah.

00:47:11Guest:From Odessa.

00:47:13Guest:From Odessa, right.

00:47:15Guest:And so I never cashed in that ticket, never went back.

00:47:20Guest:Mitzi gave, she said, what does your dad do?

00:47:23Guest:I said, he's a building construction engineer.

00:47:27Guest:And she said, well, bring him over here.

00:47:29Guest:I'll give him a job as a handyman.

00:47:32Guest:So it was like, okay.

00:47:35Guest:So I brought my parents- To LA.

00:47:37Guest:To LA, and my dad and I, I helped him because he couldn't really do what she needed done a lot of times.

00:47:45Guest:So I became the carpenter at the comedy store, and that was about two years of that.

00:47:53Guest:Do you remember what you built?

00:47:55Guest:The belly room upstairs, you know, pretty much all the booths and all the stage and everything.

00:48:01Guest:You did that?

00:48:02Guest:Yeah, I did that.

00:48:04Guest:A lot of, well, they did refurbishing original.

00:48:08Guest:I did a lot.

00:48:08Guest:And then also the main room.

00:48:11Guest:Yeah, a lot of there.

00:48:12Guest:When they made it nicer?

00:48:13Guest:Yeah.

00:48:14Guest:Mm-hmm.

00:48:14Marc:Yeah.

00:48:14Marc:Isn't that something?

00:48:15Marc:So you were one of those guys.

00:48:17Marc:She always had guys like, I used to drive the truck for her.

00:48:19Marc:I was a doorman.

00:48:21Marc:I'd drive the Jeep.

00:48:22Marc:And then there was Greg Hilbers who used to paint the painting.

00:48:25Marc:He did the painting.

00:48:26Marc:Comics ran that place.

00:48:28Marc:Well, yeah.

00:48:29Marc:Somebody ran it.

00:48:29Marc:All right.

00:48:30Marc:So you come out here.

00:48:31Marc:You bring your parents out there.

00:48:33Marc:You set them up.

00:48:33Marc:Where are you guys living?

00:48:35Marc:uh on whitley avenue it it's near franklin and whitley in hollywood so it's uh right next to fredericks of hollywood you know places like that yeah so all right so now you're in at the store you're not only in you know she wants you to be a comic she's got your building shit yeah uh and every day you know you're going there at night and at that time all those people you mentioned are around jimmy walker maybe still around oh yeah yeah yeah he was in here boy he had a lot to say yeah

00:49:02Guest:He'll throw some people under the bus, that guy.

00:49:08Guest:So, like, Roseanne, too?

00:49:09Guest:Jim Carrey?

00:49:10Guest:Yeah.

00:49:11Guest:Those were coming in.

00:49:12Guest:They were probably in 1980, you know, so I was already kind of coming out.

00:49:18Guest:They were coming in.

00:49:19Marc:When you say coming out, now, when did the moment come and how did it happen for you where you realized that the novelty...

00:49:27Marc:of what you were doing in this country, to sort of create the hook, what a country, and build jokes around the tension here.

00:49:36Marc:Because on some level, you were relieving the tension, not unlike being a state-sanctioned comedian in Russia, who's supposed to ease the tension of existing in Russia.

00:49:49Marc:Condition, right.

00:49:50Marc:Right.

00:49:51Marc:Here you're easing the tension of what Americans perceive Russia to be.

00:49:56Marc:And also, I mean, you know, enforcing some stereotypes, but with a lightheartedness that very much that enabled people to realize that people live there and come from there.

00:50:05Guest:Absolutely.

00:50:06Guest:And when I look back now, when I look, because it was building because there was several people like other comedians would be around, like Biff Maynard, Kipadada, or

00:50:20Guest:People like that, they would say, good job, good job, whatever.

00:50:24Guest:And at some point, what a country.

00:50:27Guest:I said it so many times that one of the audience members, I think, would say, what a country.

00:50:35Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:50:35Guest:And it kind of repeated, and at that point it wasn't yet established, and then I started recognizing how many times I used that, and then it became a big deal.

00:50:47Guest:I did the routine about new freedom, that I walked in the store and I saw this box that says new freedom, and I said to myself, what a country, freedom in a box.

00:50:59Guest:I bought 15 of them.

00:51:01Guest:And so that became kind of that cemented that line.

00:51:06Guest:And then America loves Smirnoff.

00:51:09Guest:And I got off the plane.

00:51:11Guest:I saw that sign.

00:51:12Guest:And I said, what a country.

00:51:13Guest:Yeah, right, right.

00:51:14Guest:So those became kind of my signature pieces.

00:51:18Guest:But what was interesting at that time, I was releasing detention.

00:51:22Guest:I wasn't aware of that, by the way.

00:51:24Guest:It was totally unbeknown to me.

00:51:26Guest:However, that's what catapulted me into stardom fast because I didn't understand why.

00:51:34Guest:I thought I was just a funny guy.

00:51:37Guest:But it was also that tension that was happening.

00:51:40Guest:The opposite side of this, fast forward, 1991, Soviet Union collapses.

00:51:48Guest:David Letterman has a top 10 list of things that now will change.

00:51:53Guest:And Yakov Smyrna makes number one.

00:51:55Guest:He will be out of work.

00:51:58Guest:And I thought it was funny because I'm living in Pacific Palisades.

00:52:02Guest:I have $2.5 million home.

00:52:04Guest:I am playing Vegas, Atlantic City.

00:52:06Guest:My contracts are secure.

00:52:08Guest:I'm good.

00:52:09Guest:Yeah.

00:52:10Guest:Six months later, all of them did not renewed.

00:52:14Guest:None of them renewed.

00:52:16Guest:Because your act was no longer relevant.

00:52:18Guest:Exactly.

00:52:18Guest:No more pressure.

00:52:19Guest:No more tension.

00:52:21Guest:And I went, wait a minute, but I'm still funny.

00:52:24Guest:And they said, but we don't need that.

00:52:27Guest:So how did that make you feel?

00:52:31Guest:What did you go through at that moment?

00:52:33Guest:Scared.

00:52:34Guest:I mean, I had two little kids.

00:52:37Guest:My son was just, well, my wife was still pregnant with Alexander when this was happening.

00:52:44Guest:And it was all of a sudden like, holy cow.

00:52:47Guest:So I started looking for places that would not know that the Soviet Union collapsed.

00:52:56Guest:Come on.

00:52:58Guest:And Branson, Missouri was the place.

00:53:03Guest:I'm not kidding.

00:53:04Guest:They didn't care.

00:53:07Marc:So at some point you were like, you know, I'm not going to change my act.

00:53:11Marc:There's got to be some moron somewhere.

00:53:13Marc:Yeah.

00:53:14Marc:That won't be bothered.

00:53:16Guest:Well, to be fair, I did change my act.

00:53:20Guest:We had to.

00:53:21Guest:No, my act have been changing since the 80s, like 85.

00:53:27Guest:You know, when I got married, it was all about being married.

00:53:30Guest:Right.

00:53:31Guest:That wasn't what people knew me for.

00:53:34Guest:Right.

00:53:35Guest:So it was, do you remember Van Meter?

00:53:38Guest:Yeah.

00:53:39Guest:Was famous for impressions of Kennedy.

00:53:42Guest:When Kennedy got shot.

00:53:43Guest:It was over.

00:53:44Guest:Yeah.

00:53:45Guest:It didn't end well for Van Meter.

00:53:46Guest:No.

00:53:46Guest:He died recently.

00:53:47Guest:Not too long ago.

00:53:48Guest:Yeah.

00:53:49Guest:Yeah.

00:53:49Guest:And this was, you know, I think Lenny Bruce had the line to bed for Van Meter.

00:53:54Guest:Yeah, for Van Meter.

00:53:55Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:53:56Guest:So for me, it was the Berlin Wall coming down.

00:54:01Guest:I knew it.

00:54:02Guest:I saw the writing on the Berlin Wall.

00:54:04Guest:I knew it was coming.

00:54:07Guest:So my act was changing.

00:54:09Guest:And I did appearance in Tonight Show with Carson and with new material.

00:54:14Guest:But that big mark that I made was the Soviet Russia.

00:54:20Guest:Right.

00:54:20Guest:And so in Branson, though, it's a different culture.

00:54:26Guest:You come, you set up your shop, you work hard.

00:54:30Guest:It's like Wild West, you know?

00:54:33Guest:At that time, it was fairly new.

00:54:36Guest:91 is when it kind of peaked.

00:54:39Guest:Yeah.

00:54:40Guest:I went there in 93 and started working hard.

00:54:44Guest:So my residual kind of effect of people knew who I was and they would give me a benefit of the doubt.

00:54:52Guest:And then my show was patriotic.

00:54:54Guest:It was clean.

00:54:55Guest:It was funny.

00:54:56Guest:All of those things that they appreciate.

00:54:59Guest:Yeah.

00:54:59Guest:And all of a sudden, fast forward, today I own 2000 Seat Theater there.

00:55:06Guest:I entertained over four million people since I got there.

00:55:14Guest:So knock on wood, things went really well for me.

00:55:19Guest:It kind of reinvented and it gave me a chance

00:55:22Marc:To reinvent myself.

00:55:24Marc:When you went to Branson, there was a lot of panic.

00:55:26Marc:And I'm sure you had to sell your wife on the idea to move to Missouri.

00:55:29Marc:But your thought was that, look, I know how this shit works.

00:55:32Marc:I've been doing Vegas.

00:55:33Marc:This is like Vegas.

00:55:35Marc:It's like a southern Vegas.

00:55:37Marc:If I can get a contract.

00:55:38Marc:You got it.

00:55:39Guest:No contract.

00:55:41Guest:Oh, not at the beginning.

00:55:42Guest:You rent your own space.

00:55:44Guest:That's the way it works?

00:55:45Guest:You don't get nothing.

00:55:47Guest:Oh, really?

00:55:48Guest:Yeah.

00:55:48Guest:So it's all a big gamble.

00:55:49Guest:Yeah.

00:55:50Marc:So you have money saved, and you said, let's go rent this.

00:55:52Guest:Whatever I was left, yeah.

00:55:54Guest:Because I didn't go there immediately.

00:55:55Guest:91, Christmas Day, when the Letterman thing happened.

00:56:00Guest:Yeah.

00:56:00Guest:Six months later, I was still working, find a lot, you know.

00:56:04Guest:Right, and then it all hit the fan.

00:56:06Guest:91, 92, I start doing clubs because I'm going, holy cow, I got to make my mortgage.

00:56:11Marc:Were you feeling any sort of embarrassment or humiliation that, you know...

00:56:17Guest:Well, yeah, but that wasn't my priority.

00:56:19Guest:This priority was there's kids, there's family, there's a mortgage.

00:56:24Guest:What do you do?

00:56:25Guest:Yeah.

00:56:26Marc:Right, but going out to clubs after what you, it's hard, right?

00:56:30Guest:It was, but it wasn't, the problem was that- You lived through the Concord.

00:56:34Guest:I lived through Russia, so this was not, I was standing in line at six years old.

00:56:41Guest:So no, it wasn't a big deal.

00:56:43Guest:That ego was okay.

00:56:45Guest:But I remember going to a club in Alabama.

00:56:48Guest:There was a comedy, still a good comedy club in Alabama.

00:56:52Guest:And I remember that was still, and I was still doing Vegas, but I would start seeing the patterns.

00:56:58Guest:The gigs were not renewing.

00:57:00Guest:So they invited me to Alabama, and I remember coming back to LA, to Pacific Palisades, and telling my wife, I said, I don't know what I felt here, but there was a guy, the owner of the comedy club, has like 200 seat plays.

00:57:16Guest:He came, picked me up in Lexus.

00:57:19Guest:He was wearing Armani suit.

00:57:21Guest:He was relaxed, and I was at that point not relaxed.

00:57:25Guest:Yeah.

00:57:26Guest:And I said, he was relaxed, and it was nice.

00:57:30Guest:I liked it.

00:57:31Guest:And she looked at me and I said, are you nuts?

00:57:34Guest:She grew up in a small town in Oregon, so it wasn't, but still, coming from LA, it was kind of a shock to her that I was even thinking that.

00:57:43Guest:So it started my thought process.

00:57:46Guest:Oh, maybe I need to think of something different than what I'm doing because this is hard.

00:57:52Guest:And then, embarrassment wasn't a big deal.

00:57:57Guest:The problem was that those clubs were not filling up.

00:58:01Guest:They weren't selling tickets.

00:58:04Guest:That was hard, because there I would get a guarantee, and I wouldn't make money to the club owner, and that did not feel good.

00:58:13Marc:Right, so when you say that when you went there and you focused on these elements, you made a list of elements, patriotic, clean.

00:58:23Marc:Now, when you say patriotic, do you feel, is your patriotism specifically your own or do you feel like you're pandering to a tone?

00:58:31Guest:Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:58:33Guest:When I describe to you my life,

00:58:39Guest:Sure.

00:58:39Guest:No, I hear it.

00:58:40Guest:Yeah.

00:58:40Marc:I mean, your gratitude for America is going to be different than some sort of aggravated jingoism.

00:58:45Marc:Exactly.

00:58:46Marc:Yeah.

00:58:46Guest:Right.

00:58:47Guest:And that's they feel that they feel that it's genuine.

00:58:50Guest:It's coming from the core.

00:58:51Guest:It's not like I'm standing there waving the flag.

00:58:53Guest:I'm saying I'm grateful to be here, period.

00:58:56Marc:And you're not saying fuck the Republicans, fuck the Democrats.

00:58:58Marc:You know, it's not a political issue with you.

00:59:00Marc:Which is good.

00:59:01Guest:Yeah, yeah, and I don't say fuck anyway, so yeah.

00:59:05Marc:But you know what I'm saying is that, you know, in a lot of, you know, there is a lot of right and left stuff.

00:59:11Guest:No, no, I don't, I don't.

00:59:13Marc:It doesn't matter.

00:59:14Marc:Right, because you're actually, your sense of America is a land of opportunity.

00:59:18Guest:It's fundamental for you.

00:59:19Guest:freedom yeah totally and you experience it in a very every day every day you appreciate it deeper totally than many of us i would imagine totally and had many opportunities to go up and down even in branson there was time when i had a manager who you know kind of run the company down and i was a million dollars in the hole being in that environment i had to kind of pick up myself by the

00:59:47Guest:bootstraps again and rebuild my company and all of that kind of stuff.

00:59:51Guest:So yeah, and I see when people care to help and people turn away when they see that you're not involved or not genuine.

01:00:01Guest:All of those things are very accurate.

01:00:03Guest:They're real.

01:00:04Guest:Yeah.

01:00:04Guest:And I'm not crying on anybody's shoulder.

01:00:07Guest:I just pick up myself and go and do it because I start thinking, why was I so successful there?

01:00:16Guest:And because of the pressure that was happening in Cold War, I said, what's another Cold War happening?

01:00:22Guest:And I found it, and it's in our bedrooms.

01:00:25Guest:Yeah, sure.

01:00:25Yeah.

01:00:25Guest:It's between men and women, and we are pointing missiles at each other because we don't understand why there's so much tension.

01:00:36Guest:So we just clash.

01:00:37Guest:We clash.

01:00:39Guest:I'm experiencing that right now.

01:00:40Guest:Okay.

01:00:41Guest:Between you and I?

01:00:42Guest:No, no.

01:00:43Guest:Oh, good, good.

01:00:45Guest:So, yeah, I can tell you the show is called Happily Ever Laughter, and we sold out 10 shows.

01:00:52Guest:We had to add now second time shows.

01:00:56Guest:So it hit the nerve again that something, it's Happily Ever Laughter and the Cold War in your bedroom.

01:01:05Marc:So you were able to sort of draw on your past recognition and then bring it into something immediate.

01:01:13Marc:Current.

01:01:13Marc:And general, too.

01:01:14Guest:General and job security.

01:01:16Guest:Yeah.

01:01:17Guest:This ain't going to go away.

01:01:19Guest:That's right.

01:01:19Guest:There is not going to be.

01:01:21Marc:Are you running it here to prepare it for Branson or have you been doing it in Branson?

01:01:25Guest:No, I've been doing it in Branson.

01:01:27Guest:Then I took it to Broadway.

01:01:29Guest:I did it at American Airline Theater for three months there.

01:01:33Guest:It's kind of an evolution of comedy from my perspective.

01:01:38Guest:I also went back to college, got my master's degree in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

01:01:44Guest:I'm a professor at Missouri State University.

01:01:46Guest:So I'm doing a lot of different things.

01:01:48Guest:I'm not kidding.

01:01:49Guest:This is all because I'm very passionate about this.

01:01:52Guest:I noticed how laughter is there when we're in the beginning of the relationship.

01:01:58Guest:And later on, we totally don't know how to recreate it, no matter how funny we are.

01:02:04Guest:It has nothing to do with how funny we are because everyone creates a lot of laughter early in the honeymoon stage.

01:02:11Guest:And then we don't know how to sustain it.

01:02:13Guest:And so as a comedian, it became a challenge.

01:02:16Guest:I wanted to figure this formula out.

01:02:18Guest:And I've done a lot of scientific research, empirical studies, all of that to bring this to the surface.

01:02:26Guest:So that's what I'm doing now here.

01:02:28Guest:Okay, well, without doing the material.

01:02:30Marc:Yeah.

01:02:31Marc:As a psychologist.

01:02:32Marc:Yes.

01:02:34Marc:What, you know, let's see, let me ask some personal questions.

01:02:36Marc:Go.

01:02:37Marc:So what do you do when it seems like things, you know, that the communication is broke down to such a degree and resentments have built up over years?

01:02:46Marc:You know, how do you begin to sort of evolve out of it?

01:02:49Guest:Great question.

01:02:50Guest:Great question.

01:02:51Guest:I talk about what starts, what creates laughter in the beginning, right?

01:02:57Guest:So like eHarmony.com, for example, they have 10 million subscribers.

01:03:02Guest:They ask what is the qualities that you want the most in your partner.

01:03:06Guest:Number one quality by far is sense of humor.

01:03:12Guest:But from my studies, what I learned that women want somebody who will make them laugh and men want somebody who will laugh.

01:03:20Guest:Yeah.

01:03:21Guest:not in the bedroom yeah not pointing and laughing yeah but so because we feel um sense of accomplishment when the woman is laughing so woman's laughter is what we're really after because we can make her laugh we can make her do many other things sure it's the gateway right so but but we focus on that but how do we get it it's not just our sense of humor what what do we do

01:03:46Guest:We think of things that she really needs in the early stages of our relationship.

01:03:53Marc:You want to impress them and be kindred spirits?

01:03:59Guest:Whatever they need, we give them.

01:04:01Guest:And whatever we need, they give us.

01:04:04Guest:Hopefully.

01:04:05Guest:Well, otherwise you wouldn't ask her to marry.

01:04:07Guest:Right.

01:04:08Guest:Yeah.

01:04:09Guest:Normally, as a psychologist, this is studies that have been done over and over again.

01:04:13Guest:Man asks a woman to marry him when he feels the most respected.

01:04:18Guest:Uh-huh.

01:04:19Guest:And woman says yes when she feels the most loved.

01:04:22Guest:Uh-huh.

01:04:22Guest:It's that in that split second, but nobody knows what we did right.

01:04:28Guest:So we say, I do.

01:04:29Guest:And when we don't, because we don't know what to do.

01:04:32Guest:So what I'm trying to explain to people, it's about gift, G-I-F-T, give importance, fun, and time.

01:04:39Guest:So if we focus on those things, you're asking, how do you start breaking those down?

01:04:44Guest:If you look at that and say, how can I give her what's important to her?

01:04:48Guest:Not what's important to me, what's important to her.

01:04:51Guest:That's what you did during the honeymoon stage.

01:04:53Guest:And you got the result.

01:04:55Guest:And the same thing, fun.

01:04:57Guest:What was fun for her?

01:04:59Guest:Not for me, but fun for her.

01:05:00Guest:That's how you got her.

01:05:02Guest:And how much time?

01:05:04Guest:You didn't want to be apart.

01:05:05Guest:I remember when my wife and I, we were, I tell this joke, we would be,

01:05:10Guest:on the phone even if I was in another part of the country and it would be like for hours giggling, laughing.

01:05:16Guest:And then one of us would say, it's late, we need to go to sleep.

01:05:19Guest:And the other one said, no, you hang up first.

01:05:22Guest:No, you hang up.

01:05:23Guest:No, you hang up.

01:05:24Guest:Did you hang up yet?

01:05:26Guest:A year later would be like, you hang up, hello, hello.

01:05:31Guest:So we get sidetracked and that becomes no longer important.

01:05:35Guest:And we don't give importance.

01:05:37Guest:We take each other for granted.

01:05:39Marc:So when you decided to go back to school, you were doing okay.

01:05:42Guest:Yeah.

01:05:43Marc:And your incentive for going back to school was what?

01:05:48Guest:I was so into recognition of this power of laughter and recognition what laughter can be a gauge.

01:05:56Guest:Uh-huh.

01:05:57Guest:that I wanted to have credibility, and I already knew the answer.

01:06:02Guest:The answer was, it does work.

01:06:04Guest:As a comedian, I know when you're connected the right way, laughter happens.

01:06:09Guest:So you invented a laughter gauge.

01:06:11Guest:In a way.

01:06:12Guest:Your father invented a cement gauge.

01:06:14Guest:Yes.

01:06:14Guest:You guys are gauge makers.

01:06:17Guest:Gauge makers.

01:06:17Guest:I call it a laugh bulb.

01:06:20Guest:You know, a laugh bulb.

01:06:21Guest:When it lights up, you know you're connected.

01:06:24Guest:That's true.

01:06:25Marc:Yeah.

01:06:25Marc:Very true.

01:06:25Guest:And when there is no laughter, you better figure it out.

01:06:28Guest:Yeah, and you got a master's degree?

01:06:31Guest:In positive psychology, yes.

01:06:33Guest:Positive psychology.

01:06:34Guest:It's a new field that is booming right now.

01:06:37Marc:Positivity is booming.

01:06:38Marc:And I find sometimes it's aggressive, and that seems to be a contradiction in terms to me.

01:06:43Guest:No, it's not.

01:06:43Guest:Aggressive positivity is disturbing.

01:06:46Marc:This is not a positive statement.

01:06:47Marc:Fuck you, you're negative.

01:06:49Marc:That is not.

01:06:51Guest:That would not be part of my course.

01:06:53Guest:No, no, it's not.

01:06:54Guest:So what is the course that you teach?

01:06:57Guest:Positive psychology?

01:06:57Guest:Is that what it's called?

01:06:58Guest:What I teach is psychology of laughter.

01:07:00Guest:Okay.

01:07:01Guest:Yeah.

01:07:01Guest:That's what my course.

01:07:02Guest:And they let you do that, which is great.

01:07:04Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:07:05Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:07:05Guest:And they love me doing that.

01:07:07Guest:Yeah.

01:07:07Guest:And who takes that course?

01:07:08Guest:Undergrads?

01:07:09Guest:Actually, we opened it to the college and then also the community.

01:07:14Guest:So my class would be like a hundred people class.

01:07:18Guest:And it could be younger people, older people.

01:07:20Guest:It gives them credit and then they do whatever they want.

01:07:25Marc:And is it, are you on the, do you work for the school or is it, are you a visiting professor?

01:07:31Guest:No, I'm, well, it's called adjunct professor.

01:07:34Guest:Yes.

01:07:34Guest:So I go there, I do one semester and then I'm done.

01:07:39Marc:Hey, last question.

01:07:40Marc:Are there any guys from the old days that you still talk to?

01:07:44Guest:Right from the comedy store.

01:07:46Guest:Harry Anderson.

01:07:47Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:07:48Guest:I still chat with him once in a while.

01:07:52Guest:Uh-huh.

01:07:52Guest:Andrew and I will connect once in a while, too, you know.

01:07:56Guest:You and Dice?

01:07:58Guest:Yeah.

01:07:59Guest:Dice makes me laugh so hard.

01:08:01Guest:He's a funny guy.

01:08:01Marc:Did you see the new Woody Allen movie?

01:08:03Marc:I did not see it yet.

01:08:04Guest:He's terrific in it.

01:08:05Guest:Great.

01:08:05Marc:I mean, like, he's been in here.

01:08:07Marc:We've talked.

01:08:07Guest:No good.

01:08:08Marc:Yeah.

01:08:08Marc:And I think a lot of people don't realize what a fairly genuine and sweet guy that guy is.

01:08:13Marc:Yeah.

01:08:13Marc:He's a good guy.

01:08:14Marc:And sometimes you guys hang out?

01:08:16Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:08:18Guest:And I'll hang out.

01:08:18Guest:I'll go to the comedy store and once in a while see Louie Anderson I just saw about a month ago.

01:08:26Guest:We hung out for a little bit.

01:08:27Guest:So, yeah, so it's still there.

01:08:29Guest:There's still that community.

01:08:30Guest:Uh-huh.

01:08:31Marc:Just go up to the belly room and see the booths you built, too, and realize how far away you've come.

01:08:36Guest:Yeah, actually, I'm filming a commercial.

01:08:39Guest:Saturday, we're filming a commercial.

01:08:40Guest:I called him and said, and it's going to be the most interesting man in Branson.

01:08:46Guest:Oh, you're riffing on that guy.

01:08:48Guest:We're doing a parody of that, so we'll shoot it at the comedy store.

01:08:51Guest:In the booth that I built, which was significant for me.

01:08:55Guest:It was kind of fun.

01:08:56Guest:Yeah.

01:08:56Guest:I know.

01:08:57Guest:They're saying, where can we find a booth that looks like that commercial?

01:09:00Guest:I go, I know where it is.

01:09:03Guest:I made one.

01:09:04Guest:I built one.

01:09:04Guest:Yeah.

01:09:05Guest:Are your folks still around?

01:09:06Marc:No, unfortunately, they passed.

01:09:08Marc:I'm sorry.

01:09:09Marc:Well, look, this is a great story because you're a survivor, but it doesn't seem like you had to go all the way down to the bottom to come back up.

01:09:18Guest:No, no.

01:09:18Guest:Actually, I've been blessed.

01:09:21Guest:This whole thing, Branson gave me an opportunity to go to Cocoon, kind of do that thing.

01:09:27Guest:there develop this new show that i'm very proud of and it's and and come back offering something different which is what made me famous to begin with i was there when there was a tension and now there's a huge huge tension uh between men and women that's never going to go away no one's going to break that wall down

01:09:50Guest:Right, right.

01:09:51Guest:However, you can know how to get over it by rising above that wall.

01:09:57Guest:Well, it was great talking to you.

01:09:59Guest:Really nice meeting you.

01:10:01Marc:Thanks so much.

01:10:07Marc:All right, that's it.

01:10:08Marc:That is a great story.

01:10:11Marc:You know, you want to put it into the context of the history of comedy, whatever.

01:10:14Marc:It was a pleasure to talk to that guy.

01:10:17Marc:Look, folks, that's it.

01:10:18Marc:Go to WTFPod.com for all your WTFPod needs.

01:10:21Marc:Get the app, upgrade to the premium, stream all 400 episodes.

01:10:27Marc:Get some merch.

01:10:28Marc:There's a few Christmas things left.

01:10:30Marc:Do what you gotta do, alright?

01:10:32Marc:Leave a comment.

01:10:33Marc:Enjoy.

01:10:34Marc:We're gonna have some premium content available soon.

01:10:37Marc:Marin, the first season of Marin's gonna be available on Netflix on December 28th.

01:10:43Marc:I'll give you some more info on that as we get closer to that.

01:10:47Marc:I gotta go.

01:10:48Marc:I gotta work.

01:10:49Marc:Gotta shoot.

01:10:50Marc:Gotta do the thing.

01:10:52Marc:I haven't seen Def Blackcat in like four days.

01:10:54Marc:It's bullshit.

01:10:54Marc:It's fucking bullshit, man.

01:10:56Marc:It's happening before they go, but I was getting kind of attached to them, man.

01:10:59Marc:I was seeing them every day, seeing them every day, and that other idiot showed up, and now he's gone.

01:11:05Marc:I don't know.

01:11:06Marc:Maybe it's because I'm at home all day.

01:11:08Marc:Maybe I'm missing them.

01:11:09Marc:Maybe I'm missing them.

01:11:10Marc:I do know this.

01:11:11Marc:Coyotes are bullshit.

01:11:13Marc:Boomer lives!