Darryl Lenox from 2013
Marc:Daryl Lennox.
Marc:Long time, man.
Guest:I know.
Guest:It's been a long, long time.
Marc:I think the last time, what, was it Vancouver or Montreal?
Marc:What was that?
Marc:When we had the standoff on the debaters?
Marc:That's where we first met.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you greeted me into comics.
Guest:Oh, that's right.
Guest:And that had a big impact on me.
Marc:Did it?
Guest:Yes, it did.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:You opened for me, and that was fun.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:When I met you in Canada, it surprised me that, I mean, you were a Canadian comic.
Marc:You lived up there, didn't you?
Guest:Yeah, I was American.
Guest:I'm American, but I lived there for 11 years, yeah.
Marc:Well, how did that, how the hell, why'd you run away, Daryl?
Marc:What made you leave the States?
Guest:I married a lady in L.A.
Guest:And she was from a particular part of the world that doesn't take any horseshit.
Guest:Rhymes with miserable.
Guest:And she caught me in a bunch of bullshit.
Guest:I deserved it.
Guest:And she threatened to kill me evening at the improv, had me assassinated, I mean, shot and whatnot.
Guest:And so then she called all the bookers that I had in my books.
Guest:And told him that I was a liar and a con man and an asshole.
Guest:And so then I was like, I got no place to go.
Guest:So I had one.
Guest:Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Guest:Back up, man.
Guest:Hey, man, listen.
Guest:That sounds like a fucking rich story.
Guest:Listen, I've been trying to tell you this story for a long time, Mark.
Marc:All right.
Marc:So you're just a young comic.
Marc:How old are you, man?
Guest:I was 27 at the time.
Marc:And where'd you move?
Marc:So you started comedy in Los Angeles?
Marc:In Seattle.
Marc:Started in Seattle, yeah.
Marc:Now, why'd you end up in Seattle?
Marc:Did you grow up there?
Guest:No, my father lived in Seattle and I wanted to meet him.
Guest:So I moved from Vegas after I graduated from high school to find him in Seattle.
Guest:I played a little college basketball up there.
Marc:Wait, so you grew up in Las Vegas.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I guess we better start there because I didn't know anybody grew up in Vegas.
Marc:Wait, so your mom ended up in Vegas?
Guest:Yeah, my mom, I'm a matriarch.
Guest:They all moved to Vegas from Arkansas.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And my mom had me and my sister in Vegas.
Yeah.
Marc:And your dad wasn't around?
Guest:My dad was in the Air Force, went to Vietnam, came back a little crazy.
Guest:And then he moved to Seattle and started his, he became a pimp and a drug dealer.
Guest:And so my mom chased him up there with me and my two sisters.
Guest:And then he didn't like them there, so she went back to Vegas with us.
Guest:And then I went chasing after him when I was 18.
Marc:How old are you, man?
Marc:46.
Marc:All right, so your old man was in Vietnam.
Marc:He flew in Vietnam.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he came back not in good shape.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And then he just took off.
Marc:How old were you then?
Marc:Three.
Marc:So you had no idea who he was?
Marc:No.
Marc:And then you decided to track him down at what age?
Guest:I called him when I was 16.
Guest:I got a basketball scholarship letter.
Guest:And then I called him and he told me that he was living in Seattle and told me that he was a PIMP.
Guest:And I said, well, I want to come visit you.
Guest:So I went and visited him when I was 17.
Guest:And then when I was 18, I went to go get him for good.
Marc:Go get him.
Marc:Go get him, yeah.
Marc:Now, so you go up there, you're 16.
Marc:Your dad tells you he's a pimp.
Marc:Now, is your first reaction like, well, that sounds good.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I just learned what nepotism meant, so I thought I might be able to get in on some of that.
Marc:Maybe he needs an assistant.
Guest:It can be Lennox and Sons prostitution.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Just to help me deal with girls.
Guest:I was so miserable at them.
Guest:I thought I must need some new tricks or something.
Marc:maybe my old man can help he seems to have this under control so you go up there and what you know what was that environment like i mean you're 17 and uh and and you know you just what was that world like was it chaotic was it scary i mean what was he uh strung out or anything it was very very different compared to being with my mom and and and at this now four sisters and my grandma it was a very strong matriarch and i just hated hated hated hated all the women in my life and i was
Guest:real nerdy dude even though I was a basketball player so girls just shit on me at any given chance and you were great you were surrounded by women at home yeah and you couldn't get you couldn't get over out in the world right so you figure old man would help you out so I go there and I'd never seen uh a man have that much control over everybody in the room I mean guys are just sitting there waiting for him to say something and women were just fawn over him and
Guest:And bringing him whatever he wanted and bringing him cash.
Guest:And I'd never seen that before.
Marc:So he was holding court.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And was he happy to see you?
Guest:He was first weird proud that he had had a son.
Guest:And then I was, you know, pretty good athlete and stuff.
Guest:But then he realized that I had no man skills.
Guest:I couldn't do anything.
Guest:He sent me a, there was a big drug deal going on.
Guest:He wanted me to get out of the house.
Guest:He asked if I knew how to drive.
Guest:Well, I didn't know I knew how to drive.
Guest:So he gave me a whack of cash, and I drove and ran into a bus in Seattle.
Guest:Smacked the shit out of a bus.
Marc:Which is not, that's not good news for a pimp drug dealer.
Guest:Nope, nope.
Marc:When they're like, where's your dad at?
Guest:Exactly, and I'm doing the drug deal.
Guest:So I had to call him, and I'm sitting in the back.
Marc:You let drugs in the car or you were going to pick up?
Guest:He was, I don't know where he was at.
Marc:No, but when you got in the accident, you just had cash.
Marc:You didn't have drugs.
Guest:No, no, no, just cash.
Guest:I just had a cash just to, you know, fuck around with.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And then, so he came up there and cussed me out in front of the police officers and everybody and told me, if you didn't know how to drive, why'd you say you know how to drive?
Marc:Right.
Guest:And I just, I was a nuisance for him.
Guest:I had met some girl who gave me a stolen calling card and I was too lazy to go call from the phone call.
Guest:Pay phone, like she said.
Guest:So I called from his house.
Guest:So now the FBI is calling Mr. Pimp, drug dealer, saying, why is these calls coming from your house?
Guest:And so I was just a nuisance to him.
Marc:So in Seattle, what neighborhood was that?
Guest:That was on Beacon Hill.
Marc:And was he like running street hookers or was it a phone business?
Marc:Nah, he was pretty smart, man.
Guest:So he had them put up in the high-end hotels with all them knockout drops and all that sort of stuff.
Guest:And he had some on the streets and he had escort service.
Guest:He was running Anchorage, Alaska.
Guest:So he was in the game.
Marc:Jesus Christ.
Marc:So where's he now?
Guest:He's back in Seattle now.
Guest:He's my biggest fan.
Guest:We are the best of friends.
Guest:He's my biggest fan.
Marc:He's back in Seattle?
Marc:Where'd he go?
Guest:To jail.
Guest:That's where people go when you do that sort of stuff.
Guest:Caught up with him?
Guest:Caught up with him, man.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And check this.
Guest:So listen to this.
Guest:So at the time, my life was changing.
Guest:His life was changing.
Guest:And the divorce and all that sort of stuff.
Guest:I was in a hotel doing some triple one-nighters.
Guest:And my wife had told me, this is right after the earthquake in Northridge, right?
Guest:And she's like, you know, you're an asshole and da-da-da-da-da.
Guest:And then.
Guest:This is the Israeli wife?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And she, so she reams me out on the phone.
Guest:I'm watching TV.
Guest:And then I see my old man almost wanted.
Guest:He was making a run from the face.
Guest:no yeah come on yeah dude he was running from a helicopter no he was they you know they put you on okay america's most wanted we're looking for this guy right here oh so so they didn't catch him they caught him eventually but he was running wow yeah so right when his like my life was changing and then i saw he was on there i was like oh man
Guest:We're both going through it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, okay, so when did you start comedy?
Guest:I started comedy October.
Guest:First time I ever got on stage October of 88, open mic, Comedy Underground.
Guest:I remember that place.
Guest:Good club.
Guest:They want me back, by the way.
Marc:They want me back?
Guest:They want you back.
Guest:i mean but i love that room i loved ron reed and uh and john fox and i certainly have a history so you grew up doing you came in you came up doing john fox gigs yeah so you had to deal with that insanity i was uh i was young and so it was all great man it was great to see you guys come in it was the best comedy community in the country for me to see all the san francisco guys la guys everybody across the country would come and work that club
Marc:Everybody loved that club.
Marc:It was like one of those.
Marc:It was an organic space.
Marc:It was in the basement.
Marc:It had the low ceilings.
Marc:You had the bar upstairs.
Marc:It was one of those rooms where people were like, yeah, it doesn't pay well, but it's fucking great.
Marc:You'd go, and then you'd have to do that other gig sometimes.
Marc:What was that Island gig?
Marc:You'd do the Comedy Underground.
Marc:Didn't you drive up to do the something parrot?
Marc:It was in a mall.
Guest:Elephant Castle in Bellingham.
Marc:Yeah, the Elephant and Castle in Bellingham.
Marc:That horrible pub in that mall.
Marc:It wasn't a good stage situation.
Marc:People were sitting behind you.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then there was another gig I thought I went to.
Marc:It wasn't in Bellingham, but I thought I actually had to take a boat to a gig once.
Marc:Probably over to Bremerton.
Marc:Yeah, the Bremerton.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It was like, yeah, it was at a weird bar.
Marc:It was with Tony Kameen.
Marc:And then there was another gig that was part of this run.
Marc:There was the one on the island, and then you'd go to Warsaw, Idaho, or not Warsaw.
Marc:Moscow, Idaho.
Marc:Moscow, Idaho.
Marc:Yeah, man.
Marc:Whoa, shit.
Marc:And then you'd come back.
Marc:All you'd be looking forward to was doing the goddamn underground.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You'd be like, in one week, you'd paid all the dues necessary.
Yeah.
Marc:But that run to Moscow, Idaho, that was like six hours or something, wasn't it?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Did you do that gig?
Marc:Of course I did.
Marc:Dude, I met a fucking racist fuck.
Marc:Some dude sat me down after I did that gig, and he had just gotten out of jail, some white guy, and he was trying to tell me, like, hey, you're really funny.
Marc:Let me tell you about this area.
Marc:So he's breaking it down, and then somehow or another,
Marc:he brought up jews like you know like he's like you know i you know i fucking hate jews and he's like you're not a jew are you and of course in that moment i said nah hell no i fucking jews fuck the jews uh but but it was a very white and very weird yeah yeah
Guest:Idaho, scary, right?
Guest:Coeur d'Alene, Moscow, all that stuff was right over there.
Guest:Moscow tried to be the hip college part of this day.
Marc:Yeah, right, right.
Marc:Yeah, sure.
Marc:Yeah, like that worked.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But, all right, so now you're doing the fucking thing.
Marc:Now, when did you start losing the eyes?
Marc:They've always been really, really bad.
Guest:But you can start losing the eyes.
Guest:Still play ball?
Guest:Yep.
Guest:Still play ball.
Guest:Just bigger contact than a normal person should have to wear.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Then I detached a couple of retinas and stuff.
Guest:But then I lost a sight in the left eye in about 97, I think.
Marc:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then the right one just started to deteriorate.
Guest:But I got them stable now.
Marc:Yeah?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Did you get surgery?
Marc:Did you get any of the, they fixed it from the inside?
Guest:They could nothing to do with the left one except straighten it out.
Guest:It'll always be blind.
Guest:In the right one, I had some cataracts and a corneal scratch on there.
Guest:They fixed that.
Okay.
Marc:Now, was that just a genital or not genital, a genetic thing or what have you?
Guest:I'm the only one with bad eyes in the family.
Guest:I was just born really, really with elongated myopic eyes to an exaggerated sense.
Guest:And then you can't correct that other than with glasses and it doesn't do anything.
Guest:So my optic nerves are a little stretched out and retina is a little stretched out because of the way my eye is shaped.
Guest:And so they just get, you know.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Beat up.
Marc:So when your dad was in prison, I mean, what was that?
Marc:How long was he in for?
Guest:Three different occasions, four years on one, and then a couple more.
Guest:All together, I think it's been about 11 years.
Marc:And did you go up there and shoot it?
Guest:No, no, no, no.
Guest:Really?
Marc:Nah, I don't want to go to prison.
Guest:I don't even want to visit him.
Marc:So you never went over?
Guest:No.
Marc:Why?
Marc:Because you're afraid that you might not be able to leave or what?
Guest:Some stuff I just think you're not supposed to see.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:One of them is your dad in prison?
Guest:Yeah, I mean, dude, I'm delusional.
Guest:I have pictures in my head that I want to stay the way they are.
Guest:I love the fact that I have a father and I have a relationship with him, even though he was not the most morally upright guy, but I didn't want to see him in prison.
Marc:Yeah, it would have been too heartbreaking.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I don't want to change that picture in my head.
Marc:So you start doing comedy in Seattle.
Marc:You're watching the guys come through down there in the underground.
Marc:I don't know if I remember meeting you.
Marc:Did I ever meet you back when you were starting out?
Guest:No, I was a quiet guy.
Guest:I would just stare back and stare at everybody.
Marc:Oh, yeah, in the back of the room there?
Guest:I would never come and introduce anybody.
Guest:I didn't think I had anything to say to anybody, so I'd just watch and watch and learn and learn.
Marc:Yes, because I went up there quite a few times, I remember.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then, all right, so when did you start actually gigging?
Marc:Did you do the festival up there?
Marc:Did the competition.
Marc:And did you place all right?
Guest:The first year took it brutally hard.
Guest:And then the next year I thought I was ready to win.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then made the semi.
Guest:So I made the semi the second time I did it.
Marc:Those competitions are the fucking worst, man.
Marc:And then with John running them, I never knew what the fuck was going on.
Marc:I did the San Francisco one twice and just watching those numbers and seeing them post that shit is the same thing with that one where they'd have those judges and you didn't know who the fuck they were and they'd post those stupid numbers on the wall and you'd be like, how the fuck did that happen?
Marc:What does that number mean?
Marc:Just a bunch of comics and you're watching guys starting to lose their mind.
Marc:Oh, the snapsets were the best, aren't they?
Marc:Oh, dude, I saw Shang fucking lose it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Shang was serious with Shangri at the San Francisco Comedy Conference.
Marc:He'd just fucking come unraveled.
Marc:And then some dudes would just crack under the pressure.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:Because it was like, I don't know what the Seattle one was, but I think the San Francisco one was like four fucking weeks.
Marc:It was like a month of bullshit.
Guest:Seattle's the same way.
Guest:I saw a mime lose it.
Guest:He was just getting crushed.
Guest:Because everybody that does it thinks I'm going to win.
Guest:Nobody goes in thinking they're not going to win.
Guest:So mime came and just got waxed for six nights in a row.
Guest:And the seventh night at the Elephant and Castle, there was a beach chair, a lifeguard chair on the gig.
Guest:And so he climbed on top of the beach chair with the microphone and started talking.
Guest:We're like, holy fuck, the mime's talking.
Guest:So he goes in his long dissertation about how mime is a true art form in comedy.
Guest:And of course he goes long.
Guest:So he did like 30 and everybody was like, wow.
Guest:And then he climbs off the mic.
Guest:He climbs off the beach and leaves the mic on the fucking chair.
Guest:Way up there.
Yeah.
Guest:What the fuck was their beach chair doing there?
Guest:Dude, it was Elephant Cousins.
Guest:It was a stupid gig.
Marc:That was the worst thing about the festival is that they, like Fox had all those relationships with all these rooms.
Marc:Some of them were better than others and you'd be like, you know, so much depended on it because there was money to be won and there was also gigs to be won.
Marc:And then you'd have to perform in these fucking horrible things.
Marc:I'm trying to remember.
Marc:It started out with like 40 comics, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:The first week was 40.
Marc:And then the second week it was 20.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then the third week it was 10.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then the last week it was five.
Marc:Right.
Marc:God damn it.
Marc:It was hard.
Marc:God, remember when people used to snap?
Marc:I wish I would have seen that mime snap.
Marc:I used to love that shit.
Guest:Oh, we would all wait for it to happen because we knew it was going to happen.
Marc:Someone was going to go.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:But you know what, back then though, man, I think it was, even though it was weird and sometimes suspect, it was the only way you could kind of move up or prove yourself.
Marc:What, to lose it?
Guest:No, to do well in those competitions, right?
Guest:Because that was before.
Marc:Right, you had to get on the map a little bit.
Guest:You had to get on the map a little bit.
Marc:And get the fuck out.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You know, like with the, yeah, with San Francisco, I mean, the first year I did, I came in like 13th or something.
Marc:Then I did another year and I came in second.
Marc:I was really good at coming in second.
Marc:Yeah, me too.
Marc:I'm really good at coming in second.
Marc:I came in second in the Boston.
Marc:But then it just comes down to like weird.
Marc:The weird thing was that I know on that last set that Alzaraki had me.
Marc:There was no, yeah, it was just, it was his night.
Marc:That's a horrible feeling when you're like, you do your set and you're like, ah, fuck, wasn't my night, man.
Marc:my night yeah oh ray james you know ray james i remember him yeah well he's you know he's a writer now but it was uh at the san francisco comedy competition he knew he was finished and uh it was outdoors at a winery there's like 2 000 people in an outdoor theater and ray just comes up he's like well i don't know i'm gonna try some new stuff and he pulls out a piece of paper and he just does this open mic set and he goes like five or six minutes long it was beautiful
Marc:We were upset about it, but it was beautiful.
Guest:It was still funny.
Marc:Yeah, Hedberg was on that show when he was just Mitch.
Marc:He wasn't Mitch Hedberg, just Mitch.
Marc:Was he up in Seattle for a while?
Marc:Yeah, he sure was.
Marc:He lived up there?
Marc:Yeah, he did.
Marc:Yeah, I think I just talked to Lynn about that.
Marc:Were you guys buddies?
Guest:Yeah, you know what?
Guest:He actually came to the department and asked some advice because the agents back then were telling him that he should cut his hair so he could be more corporate viable.
Guest:I was like, don't cut your fucking hair, dude.
Marc:I can't imagine Mitch going like, hey, rocking his head back and forth.
Marc:With his rolled up sleeves on his suit.
Marc:I don't know if it's the right thing to do.
Marc:But, all right, so when did you start actually working?
Marc:When did you decide to move down to L.A.?
Marc:How old were you?
Guest:uh i thought i was ready pretty quick pretty quickly what two years in yeah two years in two years and i was ready i got uh i got this man i had it yeah i learned how to do a call back and i had to get a laugh within first 30 seconds that's all you need is a call back and can you get a laugh for a minute formula down but the callback is like the greatest trick in the world audiences think you're a wizard if you're just like oh my god that's from the joke from before i know
Marc:they love that they were incredible and i would do them fast too yeah i mean i get the fastest callbacks ever one joke and call it back right away right away just weave them in and out they really are you know always impressed with that yeah i don't really do it enough i don't really plan to do it but it happens organically sometimes but but yeah they think that it's like oh my god he's uh i don't know why it's so impressive it's fun when you know it's gonna work you know what i mean yeah
Guest:So two years in, you moved to LA.
Guest:Two years, I had to do LA.
Guest:I got an evening at the improv right away.
Guest:So that, of course, made me ready.
Marc:So you go down to Santa Monica Improv, do your big TV spot.
Marc:Bud's there.
Marc:Bud's there.
Marc:Room full of dummies.
Marc:Yeah, Pat Paulson hosted.
Marc:Pat Paulson.
Marc:Pat Paulson.
Marc:Did he get your name right and shit?
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:So how'd that go for you?
Guest:It went great.
Guest:I think the set, I thought, did well.
Guest:But, man, I was such a jacked up dude in the head back then.
Guest:I was expecting...
Marc:you know somebody to come and get me as soon as I got off stage and risk me off that's right here's your mansion this is the movie you'll be starring in you know and here's your choice of women that's what I thought that's what I was ready for and you got handed your ass didn't you did I ever yeah that first run into LA man it's uh well what ended up happening
Guest:Uh, it was all to my own doings.
Guest:Uh, so I, I just thought it was supposed to, you know, my time.
Guest:I was destined for this thing.
Guest:And then, uh, and I had, man, I'm, uh.
Marc:How much time did you have?
Marc:Like a half hour?
Marc:You had 20?
Marc:About a half hour.
Marc:You couldn't headline yet?
Guest:No.
Guest:Thought I could, but I could stay up there as long as you needed me to.
Marc:So.
Marc:That's what you learned doing those road gigs, man.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Those one-nighters.
Marc:Where are you from, man?
Guest:Yup.
Guest:Trying to sneak in a street joke, pretending like you just wrote it.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:That was me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I got in a big trouble, man.
Guest:I wanted it so bad.
Guest:This is all part of my legacy in Seattle.
Guest:It's an ugly one.
Guest:But I wanted it bad, dude.
Guest:I just wanted to make it.
Guest:And so I read all those self-help books and visualized it and stuff.
Guest:And so this is when Greenstein was the biggest agent in the world.
Guest:And so I wrote him a letter after nothing happened in L.A.
Guest:and said, from this moment on, I'm going to consider you my agent and I'm going to act accordingly.
Guest:So I sent it and acted on the faith and all that sort of nonsense.
Marc:Did he write you back?
Marc:Of course not.
Marc:Why would he?
Marc:So you just decided with your positive thinking that you're going to put this guy in the spot.
Marc:What was his first name?
Marc:I remember that guy.
Guest:Was he a Gersh?
Guest:Rick Greenstein was at William Morris at the time.
Guest:So, okay.
Guest:So he, yeah, nothing, huh?
Guest:Fired a letter, nothing.
Guest:And so, but I didn't care because I thought this is all part of the manifestation process.
Guest:So you were delusional.
Guest:I told you that about 15 minutes ago.
Marc:No, I know that, but I didn't realize the degree of it.
Marc:So you, so.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:So you were still in Seattle when you wrote that letter?
Marc:This was before you did Evening at the Improv?
Guest:No, no, this was after the Evening at the Improv.
Guest:Oh, you went back.
Guest:No, this was literally after the taping.
Guest:I hung around L.A.
Guest:waiting for somebody to come find me where I was and get me.
Guest:And so I wrote the letter while I was in L.A.
Marc:But you wouldn't move down here yet?
Guest:Not moved down here yet.
Marc:Yeah, right.
Guest:So then I sent the letter off, and then I went back to Seattle, and I thought it was just going to be okay until somebody asked me what happened.
Guest:And I just said, I got Rick Greenstein as an agent.
Guest:And they were like, what?
What?
Guest:So then it went from visualization to a lie.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then... But you believed it?
Guest:I believed that it was going to happen.
Marc:But did you, like, when you were lying, did you know you were lying?
Yeah.
Marc:Was it a waiting game?
Guest:My plan was eventually he's going to write me back or eventually he will just hear of me and then everything will be right in the long run.
Marc:So it would all fall into place.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:All right, so what happened?
Marc:So you go out and you start lying in Seattle.
Marc:Oof.
Guest:yeah yeah and what happened how how'd that uh fuck you uh comic commits fraud appeared in the in the newspapers uh but what but just by just saying it no no because then everybody got excited because i was a young kid that all of a sudden was on even at the improv and had a hot agency william morris and stuff and so then then suddenly i was ready to headline yeah uh and so i just yeah all right so you got all this momentum like the local bookers are like he's he's the hot kid now
Marc:Yeah, because Greenstein's on board and everything, so they're starting to book you.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then who broke that story, Daryl?
Guest:I broke, well, then I got into too much heat of, I can't keep coming up with this horseshit.
Guest:So somehow I figured Arsenio Hall would bail me out if I wrote him a letter.
Guest:So I wrote him a letter, and he did not respond.
Right.
Guest:What was that letter?
Guest:Dear Arsenio, I am in serious trouble.
Guest:I told everybody.
Guest:Rick Greenstein is my agent.
Guest:I know your father is a preacher, and I'm standing on this biblical verse, Mark 11, 23.
Guest:It's about faith.
Guest:Here's a picture of me playing basketball, an autographed Hooters menu, Charles Barkley.
Guest:Please put me on your show soon.
Marc:And this is a handwritten letter.
Guest:Put it in a manila envelope, the picture.
Guest:No, I wasn't a rookie.
Guest:I had stationary, dude.
Guest:Come on.
Marc:All right.
Marc:All right.
Marc:So you sent that off.
Marc:This was your Hail Mary.
Guest:This is it, man.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So nothing happened.
Guest:So I told everybody, yeah, I got to go do our sending on March 15th.
Marc:Oh, so you went ahead and.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It was only a matter of time before you got back.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:yeah oh you were fucking nuts all in yes bananas crazy yeah so i come down here on some miles and i just sit in an apartment uh and uh with a friend of mine and uh and then a phone rings and uh it's uh a lady named roberta penn let me forget her from seattle times right she says did you say you're gonna be an arsenio yeah you wish william morris i was like yeah no comment
Marc:yeah so then that story came out and then i was i was persona non grad in seattle felt so enchained of a bear to myself oh my god so you just like you could no longer go home no now why why do you think that uh that woman i mean what drove her to that story i mean the why why'd she you know i always wonder about that somebody must have tipped her off to some shit
Marc:yeah i know who it was oh you do yeah he was a comic friend a friend yeah do you still friends with that guy we we reconciled yeah well i mean yeah i mean he kind of had it coming wait wait in the sense that uh how did you take that assault because on some level was he doing it out of jealousy or or out of friendship i mean was he concerned for your sanity and say let's help this guy out and take him down or was he like he's lying fuck that big guy
Guest:uh i don't know you asked me to speculate on his thought process you speculated about the future of your fucking career that was mine though i'll tell you what he told me afterwards he said he said after he said we were just young and we both we made mistakes you made that mistake uh by doing that and he goes i made the mistake by doing what i did so that's what and you guys are cool yeah all right so now you can't go back to seattle
Marc:What, you're sweeping on some friend's couch in Los Angeles?
Marc:Nope.
Guest:I decided this was before foreclosures and whatnot happened, so I just stayed in this apartment until I had a gig in Phoenix at the Last Laugh.
Guest:Remember that shit club?
Marc:Sure.
Marc:You owned a house in Seattle?
Guest:No, I just pretended like I was.
Guest:You're going to have to kick me out like I owned it.
Guest:That's how I was.
Guest:I was just renting.
Guest:I was just not going to leave.
Marc:So you couldn't do stand-up.
Marc:You didn't have no friends around.
Marc:Nope.
Marc:So you just sat there with your delusional self.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:But at that time, once the lie got shattered,
Marc:Did that humble you to the point where did you actually put things into perspective then or you just saw it as a little road bump there?
Marc:Did the delusion continue or were you fucking done?
Marc:No, I had to find somebody to marry me first.
Marc:So that was the next plan?
Guest:Yeah, that was the next plan.
Marc:So you get kicked out of the apartment.
Guest:Yeah, I meet a girl in Phoenix.
Marc:At the last laugh?
Guest:At the last laugh.
Marc:You're headlining?
Marc:No, I was middling.
Marc:Oh, you're middling.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:For who?
Marc:Derek Cameron.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, no, I remember that guy.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:All right.
Guest:So you're middling.
Guest:And what happens?
Guest:He and I go out.
Guest:I'm just too wrecked to go out at all.
Guest:But he makes me.
Guest:So we go to this nightclub, Bobby McGee's.
Guest:And then I see this girl walk by.
Guest:She was just beautiful.
Guest:I didn't know what ethnic mix she was, but she was.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I pretend like I was shy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Put some of my old man's moves on her and got her.
Marc:What is that?
Marc:What would that be?
Marc:Give me some pimp moves.
Marc:Maybe I could use them sometime.
Marc:You can't.
Marc:No?
Marc:No, it's an inherent thing.
Marc:You got to have it or you don't.
Guest:I can't give you any moves.
Marc:You learned it.
Guest:What do you mean it's an inherent thing?
Guest:Inherent thing.
Guest:It's genetics.
Guest:I learned how to do this from him.
Guest:But if I tell you to do stuff that he told me to do, you would... Dude, I got the iceberg swim book.
Marc:I can go look this shit up.
Guest:Go ahead.
Guest:You go right ahead.
Guest:Did you ever think that maybe you could be a pimp?
Guest:I know I could.
Guest:I know I could, but... You choose not to?
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:You know who tried to be a pimp?
Marc:Keith Robinson.
Marc:He's got the funniest story about that.
Guest:Keith Robinson tried to be a pimp?
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Oh, I didn't know that.
Guest:Well, you got to talk to him about that.
Guest:I will.
Marc:he thought he was it's very funny they got the best of him he just did he couldn't he couldn't manage it he ended up being a the hooker's bitch is what he ended up he didn't quite have the the upper hand in the situation is what what i recall but uh all right so you get this girl so get the girl and uh and at the time she was uh i knew she when i found out she was a single mom then that would really help me get where i wanted to go with her
Marc:This was it, huh?
Guest:This was plan B. This was plan B, was that if I had somebody that was legally bound to help me get out of my horse shit, I'd be okay.
Marc:I know that one.
Marc:Yeah, I did that.
Marc:I married somebody.
Marc:That'd make me normal.
Marc:That'd get me on the level.
Marc:So how old was the kid?
Marc:The kid was five.
Marc:All right.
Marc:And the old man was nowhere around?
Marc:No, he was gone.
Marc:Okay, so you meet her.
Marc:How long did it take you to get in there?
Guest:Four months.
Guest:Four months after we met, we were married.
Guest:Did you move to Phoenix?
Guest:I moved to Phoenix.
Guest:And then we moved to L.A., Sherman Oaks.
Guest:And then four months after the marriage, it was done.
Marc:so eight months yeah so you met her four months later you married her yep four months later done uh-huh so i guess you're not in touch with that kid anymore you know she you know what actually i reconcile with her and a little girl too yeah we're good yeah i made peace with all that stuff all right well let's let's figure out just how big of an amends that had to be okay so how'd that shit hit the fan
Guest:I told her 98% of the truth, but she's very fancy and very, very, very good looking.
Guest:But she was Israeli?
Guest:She was, her parents were Israeli Jews.
Marc:Jewish girl.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:So you got an Israeli Jew.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That is the hardest, most aggressive type of Jew.
Uh-huh.
Marc:But not in a mental sense, but in a physically daunting... Tough, strong, you know.
Marc:Could kick your ass, probably?
Guest:She threw some good rights at me.
Guest:Did she?
Guest:She hit me a couple good times.
Marc:Oh, you did that whole thing?
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:So when did it start to go bad?
Marc:So you get married?
Marc:Would you rent a house?
Guest:No, we had an apartment over in Sherman Oaks.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah, and so we got an apartment, and then...
Guest:The only thing I didn't tell her was I told her all the shit I did in Seattle and upbringing stuff, but I did tell her that I had Rick Greenstein as an agent.
Marc:You kept that one going.
Guest:I had to keep that one going, I thought.
Guest:Because I knew if I was in L.A., I would eventually run into him, and then he'd see me work with my 27 minutes, and then that would be it.
Guest:So you still held on to this Rick Greenstein thing?
Guest:Yeah, held on a little too long.
Guest:Have you talked to Rick about this?
Guest:Yeah, I did, actually.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:yes i did where montreal you know exactly i was at montreal uh-huh yeah and how'd that conversation go i heard carlos mancier go hey greenstein and i go oh are you greenstein he goes yeah i got a story for you and he goes you had no idea who you were no idea yeah he goes does it involve me i go of course i wouldn't say it if it didn't go all right he goes i'll find you later so he meets me at the the the bar where everybody congregates at
Guest:So he goes, oh, let's hear the story.
Guest:So I told him I wrote this letter and then I saw his face kind of blank in his mouth.
Guest:He goes, I remember that letter.
Guest:He did?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He said, I remember that letter.
Guest:I go, yeah, you didn't do anything about it.
Guest:He goes, oh.
Guest:So I told him, you know, just turn the point of disaster, blah, blah, blah.
Guest:And he goes, well, how'd it go now?
Guest:I go, I'm here now, so I'm doing good.
Marc:He's huge.
Marc:He's a huge booking agent.
Marc:He's a nice guy.
Marc:I've known him for a million years.
Marc:Comes from Great Neck.
Marc:Like, his family's from Great Neck.
Marc:I met with him when I was actually looking for agents.
Marc:I think he does Chappelle.
Marc:He does a lot of people.
Marc:Big guys, man.
Marc:Yeah, but he's been around for a long time.
Marc:I remember him when he was a kid.
Marc:It's weird when you're in this business and you keep seeing the dudes around.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then finally it's like, oh, fuck, yeah, of course, you know.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:All right, so he remembered the letter.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And you told him the whole fucking thing?
Marc:Told him the whole thing.
Marc:Did he laugh?
Guest:It wasn't a real laugh.
Guest:It was a laugh with the eyes wide open, like keep your eyes on that guy laugh.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:How recently was this?
Guest:This was the first time in Montreal, so that was 98, man.
Marc:oh my god all right so okay let's go back to the story so you kept the rick greenstein lie alive for your new bride my new and her daughter because you want to make sure that she thinks you're going to bring some shit in exactly right yeah and and then what what when does the first turn of the screw when does it start to go bad for daryl lennox uh it wasn't bad it just turned out that way but one day her brother was in town visiting from israel from new mexico
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:She was telling her brother was trying to do some acting.
Guest:And so Jill was telling how hard it is.
Guest:And, you know, Daryl has one of the big agents.
Guest:And, I mean, things are just, you know, are just really slow.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And so then I could see her face change.
Guest:And she goes, can I talk to you in the bedroom, please?
Guest:So we go into the room.
Guest:She goes, you don't have an agent, do you?
Guest:I was like, no.
Ugh.
Guest:no yeah so she figured it out yeah so i thought i thought that was the last hurdle that would be okay because once all the shit was out i could really yeah relax get honest and put it on the table there yeah do it uh-huh too much damage for uh-huh too much damage
Marc:Wait, what?
Marc:So where's the drama?
Marc:When does the drama start?
Guest:She just said, I don't respect you.
Guest:I don't love you.
Guest:You're just a liar and stuff.
Guest:So I tried to fight for her for a while.
Guest:And then we went away at the Christmas for New Year's Eve, Christmas and New Year's Eve.
Guest:And I was back in Phoenix.
Guest:And then the earthquake hit.
Guest:And the earthquake hit.
Guest:I was doing my own amends anyway.
Guest:And so I made a phone call to an ex-girlfriend to apologize to her and all the other ones.
Marc:What's this got to do with the earthquake?
Guest:Well, in a second, the earthquake hit.
Guest:And so she went through the old phone bill and saw that I had made a phone call to this ex-girlfriend.
Guest:And she assumed that I was calling this girl to try to hook something up.
Guest:And so she said, why'd you call that girl?
Guest:I said, I was apologizing.
Guest:She goes, I don't believe you.
Guest:You're a fucking liar.
Guest:You don't have a place to come home to.
Guest:And that was it.
Guest:and this was it so you were kicked out of your sherman oaks apartment kicked out of sherman oaks apartment from the road and then i came back to tell my second evening at the improv and uh she said come over i was across stand at her friend's place across the street her friend's house my friend okay and she said come over and figure out this phone bill because you're going to pay it so i go over there and she's telling me i'm in love with somebody else now and and
Guest:I said, good.
Guest:And then I wouldn't react to her.
Guest:And so she threw some scissors at my head and then started punching me.
Guest:And I was like, well, I'm just leaving.
Guest:She goes, I'm going to kill you tonight.
Guest:So she told everybody that she was going to kill me.
Marc:And so that didn't happen?
Guest:No, it didn't happen.
Guest:You left and she was going to come kill you?
Guest:She was going to have somebody kill me at the evening at the improv.
Guest:really yeah she said she's got friends you're gonna die tonight they're gonna i'm gonna kill you at the improv so that was that must have been a hell of a set a lot in the balance there wasn't gonna be your last set one of the best ones i've done so of course you know bud and all those guys over there like oh daryl this is a big game this is it for you tonight huh so they're making jokes about it but uh you know i just did the set so you were in with bud by then i mean like everything was cool no i mean i'd only met him two times
Marc:But you told them you were going to be assassinated?
Guest:No, she called the damn club and told everybody that she was going to come.
Marc:Oh, shit.
Marc:So they came up to you before and said, we got a phone call?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And you know, my manager at the time was Jack Mondras.
Guest:Remember that fucker?
Marc:Jack Mondras.
Marc:Bill Hicks' manager.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I remember that guy.
Guest:Jack Mondras was my manager.
Guest:He dumped me that night before the show.
Guest:When he heard that shit?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:This is too much for me.
Guest:I can't deal with it.
Marc:What happened to him?
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:All right, so now we're talking, Daryl, I mean, it seems like this wall, this bottom you hit, I mean, that's what, what are we looking at, 1992?
Guest:1993.
Guest:1993.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:You were thrown out of Seattle, and then... Ran out of Seattle in 92, married to Jill in 93, and then... And then Jack Madras fired you.
Guest:Yep, so that was all January of 94.
Marc:And Bud probably was not that comfortable with the situation, but he probably thought it was funny.
Marc:Yeah, they all did.
Marc:Yeah, and then, so what happens then?
Marc:Because I met you in fucking...
Guest:Like, what the fuck have you been doing?
Guest:That's how I got to Canada.
Guest:I had no place to go, so that's where I went.
Guest:And then I started all over.
Guest:And what I did was it was very therapeutic.
Guest:So it's a great piece of advice that Jill gave me.
Guest:And I took it.
Guest:She said, you know, you need to grow up.
Guest:Everything you do is a lie, and you're half a man, and you need to get through the bottom of your shit.
Guest:So I did.
Guest:So I called everybody I had hurt and hadn't been hurt by and apologized, and then called my mom.
Guest:I just went through everybody, just crying in a phone booth in Seattle, sobbing, crying, crying, crying.
Guest:After I left L.A., I went to Seattle.
Marc:With a bag of quarters or a stolen credit card?
Guest:Just a legitimate credit card.
Guest:Legitimate credit card.
Guest:You asshole.
Guest:You asshole.
Guest:So that was it.
Guest:And then I called one club, and they said, you know, come on up to Vancouver.
Guest:You got one week of work here.
Guest:So I did, and the guy let me stay there.
Guest:And that was it?
Guest:Did you get citizenship?
Guest:Nope.
Guest:You just moved in?
Guest:I just moved and stayed there in the basement of this guy's club.
Guest:Which club was that?
Guest:It was the Comedy Cave in Surrey, BC.
Guest:I doubt you did it.
Marc:No, I've only been up there for the festival.
Marc:Canada's relatively new to me outside of Montreal.
Marc:I've done a lot of work up there since.
Marc:And that's how you became sort of a Canadian comic.
Guest:I got to start every single day, Mark.
Guest:I was new.
Guest:I didn't have to lie to anybody, hustle to anybody.
Guest:I just started my whole life over.
Guest:And I apologized and everybody was going to be mad at me.
Guest:But that was it.
Guest:What were the hardest apologies for you?
Guest:Um...
Guest:There's this kid whose name I'm not going to say, but I took some money from him that I shouldn't have with no full intention of giving it back.
Guest:That was really hard.
Guest:Comedian?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Not anymore.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That was really hard.
Guest:Did you give him his money back?
Guest:He wouldn't take it.
Guest:He wouldn't take it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So that was probably the hardest one.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Your relationship with your mother, was that strained?
Marc:Or was it, you know, she didn't know what was going on, right?
Guest:She understood it.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:She understood.
Guest:She said, you know, I understand what you're trying to do, but don't be a martyr.
Guest:You made mistakes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And she said, I did the best I could.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:What do you want me to do?
Guest:I did the best I could.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, that's nice.
Marc:That's pretty practical advice.
Marc:Now get on with it, basically.
Marc:Yeah, that was it.
Marc:How many sisters do you have?
Marc:Four.
Marc:No brothers.
Marc:No brothers.
No brothers.
Marc:Are you in touch with them all?
Guest:Yeah, we're all very close.
Marc:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, that's good.
Guest:Are they still in Vegas?
Guest:One's in North Carolina.
Guest:The rest are in Vegas.
Guest:I'm going to North Carolina in a couple weeks.
Guest:I know.
Guest:Good nights.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You down there?
Guest:You work down there?
Guest:I've been trying to get in that club for years.
Guest:I think with the special, hopefully it'll help me.
Marc:And the special, when did you tape it?
Guest:October 2nd, 2010.
Marc:Yeah?
Marc:You happy with it?
Guest:I'm very happy with it, man.
Marc:Yeah?
Marc:It's what?
Marc:On Showtime?
Marc:Stars.
Marc:Stars.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That's good.
Marc:Yeah, it is.
Marc:That's that dude over there, Chris Albrecht's over there from HBO.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Have they been doing a lot of specials?
Marc:You're one of the only ones?
Marc:Only one.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That's exciting, man.
Marc:That's very cool.
Marc:So, all right.
Marc:So, you go to Canada.
Marc:Now, I have to assume that, you know, a black man in Canada doing stand-up, they're like, great, we have one.
Marc:Let's get this guy working.
Guest:That was on most of the promos they had.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:We finally got one, Canada.
Marc:What?
Marc:There must have been a little truth to that.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:And did you do, what'd you do?
Marc:The Breslin shit and...
Marc:yeah i mean it took a while to get into breslin stuff but i did uh just crazy weird horrible independent stuff in like saskatchewan saskatchewan and northern everything northern everything northern what was the experience there you're you're you know like an american dude you're a black dude and you're going into the whitest part of the world in a way and none of the white tricks work
Guest:No?
Guest:No.
Guest:Which means what?
Guest:What are the white people?
Guest:So, you know, as a brother, they try to give you some sympathy, courtesy, you know, because you're black laugh stuff.
Guest:You can say anything as a black comic American.
Guest:You can get them to laugh about just about anything with a little hint of racial.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like little juice.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:White people, this.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Anything.
Marc:And they laugh.
Guest:But that's not your bag.
Guest:That's not my bag.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They just don't do that in Canada.
Guest:It's a different culture.
Marc:Right.
Guest:So I had to learn how to talk about what was in the moment and not...
Marc:having any race base behind it because there's not that history of guilt right like you know the the i imagine white audiences by and large the reason why they get relief from that is they're carrying this weird burden of their own repressed maybe not so repressed racism so they got a fucking you know they want that alleviated right they want to be spoken to right they want to be tapped on the wrist a bit i guess i guess
Marc:But in Canada, there's none of that baggage.
Guest:There's none of that.
Guest:So none of the jokes wouldn't make any sense.
Guest:And so in my Dan Quayle jokes, nothing flew.
Guest:So I just turned all over, man.
Guest:Going to the deep south, and they eat everything in the south.
Guest:Tastes like chicken.
Guest:They would just stare at me up there with that stuff.
Marc:Nothing.
Marc:Got no point of reference.
Marc:Nothing.
Marc:So that's weird.
Marc:So you had to sort of define...
Marc:your sensibility without the cultural baggage of uh of that american black thing yeah worked out though huh yeah i learned how to do it the right way i think yeah and how long did you like knock around up there um when did you come back here dude i got kicked out in 2005. oh because of uh paperwork stuff yeah they're a little tough about that what you you had over overstayed your welcome
Guest:They changed the paperwork laws so you didn't have to have work permits.
Guest:That changed in about 2003, but nobody knew how to do that.
Guest:So they told me I was working there illegally and kicked me out.
Guest:And where'd you go?
Guest:Here to L.A.
Guest:for a little while, and then I moved to New York.
Marc:So you came back here just to give it another shot?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:What happened that time?
Yeah.
Guest:I was confident in my skills then.
Guest:I was confident in my skills.
Guest:And so I'd done the Montreal Festival.
Guest:So Bud started to give me some spots.
Marc:Down at Melrose?
Guest:Melrose, yeah.
Guest:And then it just wasn't enough?
Guest:I met my girl, man.
Guest:And so she came out here.
Marc:I met her, right?
Marc:Yeah, you met her.
Guest:And so I asked her where would she be more comfortable living, New York or L.A.
Guest:She said New York.
Guest:It's close to her family.
Guest:Her friends are there.
Guest:And I go, all right, let's go to New York.
Marc:Now you're married?
Guest:Yeah, four years now.
Marc:You got kids?
Marc:No kids.
Marc:Going to do that?
Marc:I don't think so.
Marc:Really?
Marc:She ain't busting your balls about it?
Guest:No, she's just as ambitious in her career thing as I am.
Guest:She's a singer-songwriter.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, the kid thing's a little tricky.
Guest:That's worrisome for you, isn't it?
Marc:i've been married twice i'm almost 50. yeah and now i'm with a girl that wants them and it's you know i'm on the i'm on the hot seat buddy a lot of things going on you guys don't want me to be too old yeah if we're gonna do that yeah yeah it's a little problematic right now so when in new york so you what you're basically touring headliner and in new york you work uh which clubs you primarily doing there
Guest:When I do decide to go out, I always go Hannibal's joint, and then stand-up's always been pretty good.
Guest:Hannibal's out in Brooklyn?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, you guys' buddies?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:He's a good cat.
Marc:He's a good dude.
Marc:He seems to be blowing up a little bit.
Marc:Why does he take you with you?
Marc:Why does he take you with him?
Marc:What do you mean, why does he take me with me?
Guest:I wouldn't go anywhere.
Guest:I want to do it myself.
Marc:Oh, okay, all right.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Sometimes it's a good gig.
Marc:Do you understand that?
Marc:Dude, I would do the exact same thing you'd do.
Guest:Listen, I've been listening and calling you forever, dude.
Marc:I'm a fucking headliner.
Guest:Forever.
Guest:I'm not going to go open for some punk.
Guest:Do you understand what you did with this?
Guest:Is that you gave all the guys who wanted to do it in a quote-unquote the right way a viable option.
Guest:What?
Guest:A feel-the-dreams dude for us.
Guest:really yeah i'm not kidding man there's a bunch of guys that we all thought this is how you're supposed to do it you know you work the craft and you work on your game you do all these sorts of things and then after a while they change the rules yeah and and you don't know what to do you're just walking around with skills and talent and you don't know what to do and they're offering you fifteen hundred dollars for a week yeah and you know and you go
Guest:So when you did this, man, everybody... The podcast.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:When you made the podcast happen, then we all thought, okay, all right, now there actually is an out clause to this thing.
Guest:I fucking hope I helped.
Guest:That's very nice to hear.
Marc:Well, you know, it's like...
Marc:It was weird because the intentions of it, I didn't have any clarity around why I was doing it other than I wasn't just going to fade away.
Marc:And then when I started to realize that there were a lot of guys like me and you and a lot of unsung heroes out there
Marc:and when i started talking to them uh it became like it almost became a way for comics to catch up with each other yeah like you know they'll listen to this show and like yeah i hadn't seen him in like 20 years and hey i guess he's doing all right i heard him on your show like we don't get to see each other or talk to each other but you know when i talk to people and people listen to it it feels like we're all talking you know and it's just that that kind of communication i had no idea would do anything for my stand-up i just i just needed to keep talking
Marc:So in working towards a special,
Marc:I mean, you're talking like, you know, a good 20 years of shit.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And, you know, what do you primarily, well, you don't have to do any bits, but how did the whole thing evolve for you, your comedy style?
Marc:I mean, if you're going from Dan Quail jokes to doing Canadian material, you know, what's the focus of your shit?
Guest:The surgeries.
Guest:I had the surgeries, and there was one particular moment in the surgery where the ophthalmologist had to use a needle and thread to sew an implant in my eye.
Marc:Oh, God.
Guest:And it was a lot of pressure leading up to it.
Guest:And I had convinced myself that, you know, I only had one eye and it was really going bad.
Guest:And I was very frustrated with the way the business was turning.
Guest:I just didn't feel like I had enough strength.
Guest:And my stepdad had passed away too, and it looked like a pretty goddamn good way.
Guest:He didn't look stressed or frustrated or any of that stuff anymore, and I thought that doesn't look as bad as everybody says it does.
Guest:What, the dying?
Guest:The dying, yeah.
Guest:Just didn't.
Guest:And so I convinced myself that the surgery, which was risky, didn't work out, then I would check out.
Guest:So I decided to go to Vancouver, the place I was most happiest at, and do the surgery.
Guest:And if it didn't work out, then I was going to be fine with it.
Marc:you're just gonna yeah end it yeah yeah i know that feeling that's where i was when i started the podcast okay well it's because that's the up thing about what we do is that especially if you're proud yeah in uh is that you know you get to a certain point where and you took some serious hits you know you'd be exiled from a community
Marc:because of your bullshit and you know and you made a lot of you know detours and bad choices and you make up for all that but still you know you got 20 years 25 years in this thing and you start to think well what the fuck am I going to do and then you start to picture those options and you're like I ain't fucking doing that right
Marc:How do I go to a job?
Marc:What are you going to be the guy that's like, yeah, I was on Evening at the Improv.
Marc:How do you live with that?
Marc:It's a personal shame.
Marc:I mean, most other human beings, if they got to change a career, all right, they'll fucking bite the bullet.
Marc:But there's something about not having kids, not having baggage, being your own guy, that when you're up against that wall, all you're dealing with is you and your fucking pride.
Marc:That's the equation.
Marc:It's you versus your pride.
Marc:And then you have that moment where you're like, you know, I feel so good just to think I can just check out.
Marc:But I wonder, you know, and I wonder this about myself, too.
Marc:I wondered about you.
Marc:I mean, would you ever really do that?
Marc:I mean, I don't know that like, you know, it's a very dramatic.
Marc:And if your brain works that way, it works that way.
Marc:And you find some relief in that, that, you know, like I could just, you know, kill myself.
Marc:You know, it's a relieving thought.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:But I don't know if it came right down to it.
Marc:I mean, fortunately, you know, things turned around for us.
Marc:But I mean, do you really?
Marc:I mean, it's a good thing to say, but do you really think you would have done it?
Guest:You know what?
Guest:Obviously, I look back at it now and say, no, I wouldn't have.
Guest:But at the time, it was so scary.
Guest:And then the frustration levels were so high.
Guest:And the thing that I had always thought was,
Guest:could get me through was my belief in myself and my skills but when those weren't answering the bell right right right it's like you know i'm ready where you know put you know put me in the game coach what do you well i mean for you i don't know what else there is to do now yeah i just don't know what else to do now yeah yeah and playing balls out
Guest:And so now if you decide to take away this one extra eye and now I'm totally blind and I have skills that nobody seems to think are worth anything.
Guest:And I'm never going to see this person that I'm in love with again.
Guest:And, you know, I got to depend on every single fucking person in my life to get me around.
Guest:I just don't think I could live like that.
Guest:So I didn't think that I could.
Guest:So if if.
Guest:The enormity that I was feeling at that time, if that light had went out when he was working on my eye and he told me this is never going to happen again, I really don't think I could have did it, man.
Guest:I just don't.
Guest:I've overcome too much.
Guest:I didn't think I was strong enough to do that.
Marc:To be blind and unemployable.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I get it.
Marc:I definitely was not there, but I can understand it.
Marc:And so what turned it around?
Marc:You didn't lose your eye.
Guest:Nope.
Guest:The guy working that hard.
Guest:I mean, it's supposed to be a 10-minute procedure, but he had to not use the laser beam, use the needle and thread.
Guest:And he was grunting.
Guest:He was working so hard.
Guest:And he told me that this is just going to hurt, and I'm sorry.
Guest:And it became a catchphrase for me unintentionally.
Guest:But...
Guest:What, this is just going to hurt and I'm sorry?
Guest:That's what he said.
Guest:This is just going to hurt and I'm sorry.
Guest:And it was hurting, too.
Guest:He wasn't lying to me.
Marc:So you were not under full anesthetic?
Guest:Well, he asked if I wanted to be unconscious, and I said no, because I just wanted to see.
Guest:I didn't want to wake up and never see anything for the rest of my life.
Marc:So if you were going to lose it, you wanted to see to the very end.
Guest:I wanted to see that light go out.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Guest:So he had your eye open?
Guest:Open, and he just stitched one, purled two, and I'm staring up into that light and listening to him grunt.
Guest:He took a break, and then I came back and got back in there, and then he was done.
Guest:And then I sat up and I looked down and I could see my fucking shoelaces.
Guest:And I'd never seen anything that clear in my life.
Guest:And it just blew me away.
Guest:And then I realized that I hadn't done anything.
Guest:I hadn't done anything that would even warrant killing myself.
Guest:I mean, I'm not even in the game yet.
Guest:And so I said, have I worked as hard
Guest:on my life and my career the way that guy just did on my eye.
Guest:And I said no.
Guest:So then that was it.
Guest:And I went back and let go of Lou, manager.
Guest:And I just stopped chasing Letterman.
Guest:I'm like, I'm going to do this by myself.
Guest:I'm going to work on this thing as hard as I can by myself.
Guest:And then everything changed.
Guest:I got different management.
Guest:And I wanted to tell that story on stage.
Guest:And we put everything together and got the funding for the thing from some friends.
Guest:And that was it, Blind Ambition.
Guest:Wow.
Marc:Who would have known that shoelaces would have that kind of impact in that moment?
Marc:So this is actually, the show is a themed show.
Marc:It's a one-hour piece, more than just stand-up.
Marc:It's a movement through this journey.
Marc:Wow, man.
Marc:Well, I'm glad it worked out.
Marc:Me too.
Marc:So now, in terms of, you know, is any part of your life, you know, because this is one of those things, this is one of those type of performances, one of those type of specials that have a great deal of impact on people struggling with similar struggles.
Mm-hmm.
Marc:And I know that it's just sort of interesting to me that for somebody who put a lot of stock in the type of leadership that people who do positive thinking and do motivational type of stuff, that was part of your earlier life, are you finding that when you do shows that it's having that type of effect on people?
Guest:yeah it's the first man dude you ask good questions um it's the first time that i ever felt like this is what i was supposed to be doing oh that's great to have people come up you know san francisco's at cobs and uh
Guest:This guy comes up to me in a wheelchair and he says, that stuff you talk about, suicide, I think about it every day.
Guest:I go, how long?
Guest:He goes, I've been in a wheelchair for seven years.
Guest:I think about it every single day.
Guest:And he goes, to hear you talk about what you did, it just gives him some hope.
Guest:And that's better than Dan Quayle and chicken moose butt jerky stuff.
Guest:I mean, it's like what somebody's been doing in 22 fucking years is supposed to have the impact on it, right?
Guest:My life is supposed to have some impact.
Marc:Something relevant.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That your experience as a shared experience can make other people feel less alone and feel like there's hope.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, shit.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, it's different than just being an entertainer.
Marc:So you're getting a little bit of that kind of feedback.
Marc:Getting a lot of that stuff, man.
Marc:It's good.
Marc:Is there a community?
Marc:Are you active in any sort of community around this stuff?
Guest:You know, I'm part of this Third World Eye Care Society.
Guest:What is that?
Guest:Where, you know, a bunch of Third World people don't have eyeglasses and contact lenses.
Guest:So if you got some old eyeglasses, you bring them to me and we'll ship them out to Third World places.
Marc:Well, I mean, that's fucking moving shit, man.
Marc:And you getting feedback?
Marc:Getting good feedback.
Guest:CD is good, man.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:One of the top five albums of the year, man.
Guest:Thank you, brother.
Marc:I'm fucking proud of you, man.
Marc:We almost lost you.
Marc:We almost lost Daryl by his own hand.
Marc:Thank God for those shoelaces being clear.
Marc:We would have been denied the journey and everything's good with the lady.
Guest:Yes, of course, because my faux attempt to be setting you up on a love connection, I've gotten asked repeatedly what happened on that date that I set you up on.
Marc:I don't know what happened.
Marc:I think that, you know, I don't think I was ready to be doing the dating thing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Number one, I was a little confused by, I wasn't confused, but it was sort of like, like I think it was one of those decisions where it's like, I know that I can't, you know, really follow through with this thing.
Marc:So am I just going to, you know, sleep with Daryl's friend and then have that thing?
Guest:Which was the end result.
Guest:That's all she wanted anyway.
Guest:She was so mesmerized by your ass on stage.
Guest:She was like, I want it.
Marc:I blew it.
Marc:You know, sometimes you just, no, she was great.
Marc:I mean, she was nice, a little kooky, but yeah, I just hit a wall with some shit.
Marc:I'm trying to think if there was other extenuating circumstances.
Marc:that maybe would have stopped me from doing that you know like i don't know who if i was dating somebody or i wasn't but i know that time period you know for those few years after the divorce or after the separation it was just a fucking i was i was not uh in the right state but all right so yeah i should have fucked her yeah you had a freebie man
Guest:That was 07.
Guest:Where were you at?
Guest:You were doing all the divorce stuff on stage in 07.
Marc:Yeah, that was real appealing shit.
Marc:Awesome, dude.
Marc:Yeah, I had to put that to rest.
Marc:You keep doing that for too many years.
Marc:People are like, isn't he over this shit?
Guest:I mean, how long does this go up for?
Guest:He's going to have to let some of this shit go.
Guest:You were missing clues, though.
Guest:Good-looking chicks were bringing you cookies after you unearthed your soul on stage all the time.
Marc:Yeah, well, I always do that, and I get a lot of cookies.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:I mean, things started to, all that hate kind of, you know, that bitterness, that anger, boy, you know, when your heart gets hard, boy, you're just going to have to, I mean, I imagine that's a similar thing, you know, when you were making those amends.
Marc:It's like, you know, you got a certain choice in your life.
Marc:Am I going to hold on to this shit?
Marc:Right.
Marc:But that's a real choice.
Marc:Or am I going to let the grief start?
Guest:Am I going to live my life every day just mad and not work on it?
Guest:I'm just going to walk around and be mad.
Guest:I just don't want to live like that.
Marc:Yeah, you know those guys.
Marc:And then it's not mad about... Eventually, it's not mad about one thing.
Marc:It's just mad.
Marc:And then they lose sight of whatever the hell it was that broke their fucking heart.
Marc:And they never look at it quite that way.
Marc:They always look... People...
Marc:It's always a broken heart, one way or the other.
Marc:But you can turn that into like, I got fucked.
Marc:They fucked me.
Marc:It's like, no, you got your heart broken, like every fucking person does.
Marc:And either you're going to cry about it and let it go, or you're going to take it out on the world.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I think we did all right.
Marc:Yeah, we did all right.
Guest:Thanks, Daryl.
Guest:Hey, man.
Guest:Thank you very much, Mark.
Thank you.