Remembering Louie Anderson

Episode 734439 • Released January 21, 2022 • Speakers detected

00:00:05Marc:Hi, people.

00:00:06Marc:Another one of these.

00:00:07Marc:The great Louis Anderson has passed away, and I just wanted to say a few words about my first experience with him when I was a doorman at the comedy store in the late 80s.

00:00:20Marc:I obviously knew who Louis was, but he was already pretty big by then.

00:00:24Marc:He was definitely a very well-established comic.

00:00:29Marc:A very authentic voice and a very funny guy, for sure.

00:00:35Marc:But I'd never seen him before and I was working the door.

00:00:38Marc:But when I watched him, it was one of those lessons in stand-up where you realize it's not just about the joke.

00:00:45Marc:Louis Anderson was this amazing joke craftsman, but he was also this, he was a guy that had his whole physicality sort of timed out and it was almost lyrical.

00:00:58Marc:I mean, he was able to, you know, not just deliver a joke, but then physically accentuate the punchline.

00:01:04Marc:He had a way of phrasing things.

00:01:05Marc:He had a way of moving.

00:01:06Marc:He had a way of pacing his act that didn't change.

00:01:12Marc:And it was amazing to see as a young comic, because I certainly, I don't work that way.

00:01:18Marc:Yeah, I guess, you know, I'm sloppy.

00:01:20Marc:But to see somebody as meticulous and articulate in his style, in his structure, and in his physicality was really mind-blowing.

00:01:31Marc:He really was...

00:01:33Marc:the whole package and it was tight and it was unlike anything else.

00:01:38Marc:It was old school in a way.

00:01:39Marc:He was an amazing, amazing performer.

00:01:43Marc:To be that funny and to have that much pace and build without really, you know, appearing like you're trying.

00:01:52Marc:It was just so laid back and his own groove.

00:01:56Marc:It's very sad.

00:01:57Marc:And I'm very happy that he had such a great kind of second act.

00:02:02Marc:And he was a very sweet guy.

00:02:05Marc:And these are two talks that I had with him.

00:02:09Marc:The first one, you know, was before he won the Emmy for baskets.

00:02:13Marc:And the second one was when he was here for his book.

00:02:18Marc:And he was always so nice to me.

00:02:21Marc:And it's just sad, you know, him and Bob, you know, just it was always fun to see him, you know, just to say hello.

00:02:30Marc:Rest in peace, Louis Anderson.

00:02:38Guest:So you're eating healthy?

00:02:43Guest:Yes, I'm eating healthy.

00:02:44Guest:But what is that?

00:02:47Guest:I'm eating abstinent.

00:02:48Guest:Do you know what that means?

00:02:50Guest:Abstinent, is that a drink?

00:02:51Guest:I set up a program of food that I wasn't going to eat.

00:03:02Guest:Right.

00:03:03Guest:You know, fast food.

00:03:04Guest:You decide.

00:03:05Guest:I decide.

00:03:05Guest:Yeah.

00:03:06Guest:It's up to me.

00:03:07Guest:Okay.

00:03:07Guest:But, you know, I go to OA.

00:03:09Guest:You know what that is?

00:03:10Guest:Sure.

00:03:10Guest:Yeah.

00:03:11Guest:So I go there, and that's where I learned about abstinence, where you pick a meal plan and stick to the meal plan.

00:03:18Guest:Do you do grayscale?

00:03:20Yeah.

00:03:20Guest:You mean the gray sheet?

00:03:21Guest:Yeah.

00:03:22Guest:Oh, that's so funny.

00:03:24Guest:Not very many people know about the gray sheet.

00:03:26Marc:I know, it's like the secret OA thing.

00:03:27Guest:Yeah, I've done the gray sheet.

00:03:30Guest:And that's just like managing everything that goes in your face, right?

00:03:33Guest:Yes, that's a strict, that was invented by a priest in the 60s.

00:03:38Guest:Really?

00:03:38Guest:In OA.

00:03:39Guest:Yeah, I've done it.

00:03:40Guest:I'm basically doing that.

00:03:42Guest:a little different because i built in two snacks and um what are those oh like uh you know nothing good could i just say that yeah yeah like uh hey here's an apple oh god oh apple so it's a state of mind is really what it is it's an honest to god state of mind

00:04:05Marc:You've got to get in it and stay in it.

00:04:06Marc:Yeah, you have to.

00:04:07Guest:This is four weeks, but this is the rest of my life.

00:04:10Guest:Right.

00:04:11Guest:That's the change.

00:04:11Guest:Because on baskets, I had so much fun doing it.

00:04:14Marc:Yeah.

00:04:15Guest:But at that point, there was a point recently where I went, oh, when you see yourself and you go, oh, God.

00:04:22Guest:oh god you know like that scene where i'm going up the stairs that was difficult for me to go up the stairs yeah and i said i shouldn't be it shouldn't be difficult for me to go up the stairs right and so i was going to have the sleeve operation you know what that is where they cut your they just cut your they just take a piece of your intestine out no they cut your stomach in half basically

00:04:45Guest:And they just throw it away?

00:04:46Guest:They just throw it away.

00:04:49Guest:Isn't that like the most weird?

00:04:51Guest:So there's a part of your stomach that has grendelins in it.

00:04:55Guest:I think they're a hormone.

00:04:58Guest:And so at night, those are the things that go, hey, Mark, starving.

00:05:05Guest:We just ate.

00:05:06Guest:Oh, we didn't really eat.

00:05:08Guest:We're starving.

00:05:11Guest:And they cut those out.

00:05:13Guest:Really?

00:05:14Guest:Yeah.

00:05:14Guest:They remove them.

00:05:15Guest:And people have had tremendous success.

00:05:17Guest:Everybody I've met who's had that has lost 100 to 150 pounds in a short amount of time.

00:05:22Marc:But with OA, because I know 12-step stuff.

00:05:25Marc:I mean, what does it look like for you when you're out of control with the food?

00:05:31Guest:Well, let's see.

00:05:32Guest:Not like... Yeah, right.

00:05:35Guest:You know what I mean?

00:05:36Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:05:36Guest:Mine is just like...

00:05:37Guest:It's like I could eat 12 pieces of toast buttered with coffee.

00:05:42Guest:And you know, if you do that slowly, that doesn't seem like a big deal.

00:05:47Marc:But it is a day.

00:05:48Marc:It's in the morning.

00:05:50Guest:It's an hour.

00:05:52Guest:But I mean, you know what I'm talking about, right?

00:05:55Guest:I have a four slicer.

00:05:56Guest:You make four slicers.

00:05:58Guest:And then you butter them.

00:05:59Guest:And then you put four more pieces of bread in so you can cut out that time.

00:06:04Marc:But is there more?

00:06:05Marc:But is there a moment where you're like, I'm not going to.

00:06:06Marc:You know what?

00:06:07Marc:I'll just have four more.

00:06:08Guest:Yeah.

00:06:09Guest:I think you're not even.

00:06:10Guest:Yeah.

00:06:11Guest:There's always a moment.

00:06:13Guest:Right.

00:06:13Guest:But, you know, this is a whole switch.

00:06:15Guest:You know, there's a switch in your brain.

00:06:17Guest:Yeah.

00:06:18Guest:Whether you're either in your addiction or you're not.

00:06:21Guest:Am I right?

00:06:21Guest:That's absolutely right.

00:06:22Guest:And I'm not in my addiction.

00:06:24Guest:It's a relief.

00:06:25Guest:Yeah.

00:06:25Guest:It's such a relief.

00:06:26Guest:Yeah.

00:06:27Guest:Like yesterday, I was in a meeting and they had a cake stand.

00:06:32Guest:of pastries.

00:06:34Guest:At OA?

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

00:06:36Guest:That's really funny.

00:06:37Guest:I used to say, I used to go to this OA meeting where everybody went to eat afterwards and I go, this isn't good.

00:06:42Guest:We shouldn't be going to eat afterwards.

00:06:45Guest:Not together.

00:06:45Guest:Yes, and together.

00:06:47Guest:Someone's going to be like, come on, you guys.

00:06:49Guest:Yeah, never a booth.

00:06:51Marc:Never a booth.

00:06:52Marc:So there's a bunch of pastries?

00:06:55Guest:On a cake thing, and I just, you know, and I looked at them, I looked at them, you know, because I wanted to have what everybody does, you know, a piece of the donut or a slice of the muffin or...

00:07:06Guest:All that stuff, and I just, I didn't have it.

00:07:09Guest:I had a cup of cappuccino.

00:07:11Marc:Oh, thank God.

00:07:12Marc:I mean, I'm shooting my show now, and I'm a compulsive eater, too.

00:07:16Marc:But I'm just so fucking hard on myself, and the craft services.

00:07:20Guest:Isn't it amazing why we're so hard on it?

00:07:23Guest:I just wanted to stop that, because I'm so hard on myself, and I go, Louie, don't be so hard on yourself.

00:07:29Guest:Your dad's dead.

00:07:30Guest:You don't have to worry about him kicking the door of your bedroom in and going, hey.

00:07:34Guest:Hey, let's get some push-ups going.

00:07:37Guest:You bastard.

00:07:38Guest:But what I learned, it's the dad inside you.

00:07:40Guest:Yeah.

00:07:41Guest:Well, you're the dad.

00:07:42Guest:Yeah, it's the dad inside you.

00:07:44Guest:That's the part.

00:07:45Guest:That's a really good point.

00:07:47Guest:That guy, how do you get that guy to die?

00:07:50Guest:I think what you have to do with him is...

00:07:53Marc:Just tell him he doesn't live here.

00:07:56Guest:Yeah.

00:07:56Guest:No, I mean, basically, isn't that it?

00:07:57Guest:Yeah.

00:07:58Guest:I mean, it's the switch again.

00:07:59Guest:Yeah.

00:08:00Guest:It's the door that you lock that you're not going to revisit that.

00:08:03Guest:Yeah.

00:08:03Guest:Because isn't self-pity like one of the most beautiful things comics love?

00:08:08Guest:But it's so appalling.

00:08:10Guest:It can kill you.

00:08:11Guest:That's the really sad part.

00:08:13Guest:People have to be careful with self-pity.

00:08:14Marc:And then when it escalates, it's just bitterness.

00:08:17Guest:Like, you know, if you give self-pity the angry voice, fuck those guys.

00:08:20Guest:Yeah.

00:08:21Guest:Fuck them.

00:08:21Guest:Hey, out.

00:08:22Guest:Kill every fucker around.

00:08:24Guest:Hey, that guy doesn't deserve it.

00:08:26Guest:You know, I did a joke for a long time.

00:08:32Guest:People say a guy was raised by wolves.

00:08:35Guest:I go, and I was raised by bakers and never got a laugh once.

00:08:39Guest:And I always thought, because that's a good joke to me, but only if you're a fat person can you even get it.

00:08:45Guest:You know what I mean?

00:08:46Guest:They just don't get it.

00:08:46Guest:They just...

00:08:47Marc:Yeah, they're missing the piece.

00:08:49Guest:And you can't do jokes about addiction too seriously.

00:08:55Guest:Oh, yeah, because people are sorry for you.

00:08:56Guest:Yeah, then they get sad.

00:08:57Guest:You're okay.

00:09:01Guest:You're okay.

00:09:02Guest:Shut up.

00:09:03Guest:I wanted to laugh.

00:09:04Guest:I don't need support.

00:09:05Guest:Yeah.

00:09:06Guest:You know, it's amazing, isn't it?

00:09:09Guest:I get letters from people all the time.

00:09:10Guest:I get letters like,

00:09:12Guest:Hey, I'm reaching out to you because I noticed, you know, that you're obviously unhappy and awfully big.

00:09:19Guest:Oh, my God.

00:09:20Guest:And if there's any way I can be of any help, really sweet, lovely.

00:09:25Marc:Do you get the Jesus letters?

00:09:28Marc:Like maybe you have a God-shaped hole that you're trying to feed.

00:09:31Guest:But I love, you know, like I always say to them, I'm good.

00:09:34Guest:I'm good with God.

00:09:35Guest:Yeah.

00:09:36Guest:He's not, you know, I'm not.

00:09:37Guest:We have an understanding.

00:09:38Yeah.

00:09:38Guest:Yeah, he's obviously bestowed a nice gift on me and a lot of luck.

00:09:44Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:09:45Marc:So I have memories of you.

00:09:48Marc:I'm surprised you remember me from the comedy store.

00:09:50Marc:Oh, man.

00:09:51Marc:Yeah, my little long-haired, sweaty mark.

00:09:53Guest:Yeah.

00:09:53Guest:A little coaxed-up mark.

00:09:55Guest:You were always nice, though.

00:09:56Guest:Yeah.

00:09:58Guest:There weren't a lot of nice comics.

00:10:00Guest:No.

00:10:00Guest:But you and I, I'm not putting you out that we hung out together or anything, but we both, I think...

00:10:08Marc:occupied a spot at the comedy store yeah that was oh and those guys yeah yeah you know like no matter what no matter what we were like oh yeah we could put you on at some point yeah yeah yeah but like i was a doorman right you know when when uh when i first got out there i was a doorman and you were that was 1987 88 uh-huh so you were pretty you know i was in it then

00:10:32Marc:You were in it, and you were, you know, you really were at the top of the, you know, you were the big comic.

00:10:37Guest:Yeah.

00:10:37Marc:You know what I mean?

00:10:38Marc:I got, yeah.

00:10:39Marc:And, like, you were popular, and I remember the first time I met you, like, it got, like, I made a mistake, and, like, I still, it sort of still sits with me.

00:10:49Marc:Like, you, I was working the door in the main room,

00:10:52Marc:And you're like, who's on?

00:10:54Marc:And you said, who's going on next?

00:10:57Marc:And I said, so-and-so.

00:10:58Marc:And you're like, nah, I don't want to wait.

00:10:59Marc:And I'm like, and then I said, well, can't you just bump them?

00:11:02Marc:And I was making sort of a fat joke, right?

00:11:04Marc:And you were like, don't you ever.

00:11:06Marc:Did I?

00:11:06Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:11:07Guest:But just for fun?

00:11:08Marc:No, no, no.

00:11:08Marc:I was mad.

00:11:09Marc:You were sort of putting me in my place.

00:11:10Marc:And I'm like, yeah, he's right.

00:11:11Guest:That was a little, I don't know that guy.

00:11:13Guest:I like that you did that impression to me.

00:11:15Guest:Hey, who's on?

00:11:17Guest:Who's on?

00:11:18Guest:But I hated bumping people.

00:11:20Marc:I hated bumping people.

00:11:21Marc:I don't like doing it.

00:11:22Marc:I don't know if I can do it.

00:11:23Marc:I don't even know if I'm at that level yet.

00:11:25Marc:But it's always seemed rude to me.

00:11:26Marc:I guess if you're going to do like seven minutes because you got to do a thing.

00:11:29Guest:Yeah, that would be the reason.

00:11:30Guest:That's one thing.

00:11:31Guest:I just didn't want to go late.

00:11:33Guest:And I didn't want to go after when somebody was really filthy.

00:11:36Guest:Well, then that way you didn't work at the store after a while.

00:11:40Guest:Well, sometimes, you know, because I'd go, you know, somebody comes up and they go, and then I come up and go, butter.

00:11:47Guest:Yeah.

00:11:47Guest:Get out of here.

00:11:49Guest:We ate butter.

00:11:50Guest:Keep it going for Sam Kennison.

00:11:51Guest:Next up, Louie Anderson.

00:11:55Guest:Butter Anderson.

00:11:55Guest:Hey, do you want to hear my thing I used to do with Sam?

00:11:57Guest:Yeah.

00:11:59Guest:So Sam would kill it.

00:12:00Guest:Nobody wanted to follow Sam.

00:12:01Guest:Yeah.

00:12:01Guest:Because, you know, you wanted to have some fun yourself.

00:12:04Marc:He'd make a mess of the place.

00:12:05Guest:Yeah.

00:12:06Guest:He'd just crush it.

00:12:06Guest:Yeah.

00:12:07Guest:But even if he didn't kill, people would be like, what the fuck just happened?

00:12:11Guest:Yeah.

00:12:12Guest:Exactly.

00:12:12Guest:Yeah.

00:12:13Guest:It was a different thing.

00:12:14Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:12:14Guest:Changed the whole energy.

00:12:16Guest:And then he'd get off and I'd go, Sam, bring him back.

00:12:20Guest:Sam, oh my God, everybody.

00:12:24Guest:Sam, let's hear it.

00:12:26Guest:I keep it going.

00:12:27Guest:I go, can you guys see if Sam will come back and just take another bow?

00:12:32Guest:Folks, you'd like that, right?

00:12:33Guest:Yes, we'd like it.

00:12:34Guest:And I'd keep doing it until people were going, okay.

00:12:37Okay.

00:12:37Guest:we're just we're done with him then i had then you had their attention because otherwise you know but i just do it and i was doing it for fun myself right yeah yeah can you believe it i go to the front row can you believe that yeah come on bring him sam and he's already he's already in the back doing blow running around he was a piece of work yeah but uh when did you when did you sort of uh where'd you start in minneapolis

00:13:02Guest:Yeah.

00:13:04Guest:They had a little club in Minneapolis.

00:13:05Marc:Which one?

00:13:06Guest:Mickey Finn's.

00:13:07Marc:Yeah?

00:13:07Guest:1978.

00:13:09Guest:That while ago?

00:13:10Guest:Yeah.

00:13:11Marc:And you grew up in Minneapolis?

00:13:12Guest:I grew up in St.

00:13:13Guest:Paul.

00:13:14Guest:But people will still introduce you from Minneapolis.

00:13:16Guest:Yeah, because no one knows what St.

00:13:17Guest:Paul is.

00:13:18Guest:Because St.

00:13:18Guest:Paul, that's nothing to people.

00:13:20Marc:But how was... Huge family, right?

00:13:23Guest:Yeah, 11 kids.

00:13:24Marc:How does that happen?

00:13:25Yeah.

00:13:25Guest:I know people say, were you a Catholic?

00:13:29Guest:I go, no, my dad was a musician.

00:13:31Guest:Was he?

00:13:32Guest:Yeah, he was a pretty famous musician early in the 1900s, believe it or not.

00:13:36Guest:Wow.

00:13:37Guest:See, I'm the second to the youngest.

00:13:40Guest:Yeah.

00:13:41Guest:And so my dad was born in 1901.

00:13:43Guest:So you were like the 10th kid?

00:13:45Guest:I was the 10th kid out of 11.

00:13:47Guest:Uh-huh.

00:13:48Guest:And my mom was obviously very fertile.

00:13:52Guest:She had 16 children, five died, two sets of twins, and the first baby died.

00:14:00Guest:You know, because babies dying back then was probably more common than... So you didn't know any of them.

00:14:05Guest:They died at childbirth.

00:14:07Guest:I never experienced any of that.

00:14:09Guest:That was all long before me.

00:14:11Guest:I was the second to the last child.

00:14:13Guest:How old was your mom when she had you?

00:14:15Guest:41, I think.

00:14:16Guest:So she had like one every couple of years?

00:14:19Guest:Yeah, she used to say, because back then you would, they'd keep you in a hospital for a week if you had a baby.

00:14:28Guest:And she'd say, that's the only vacation I ever get is when I have a baby.

00:14:33Guest:And I always thought, poor mom.

00:14:35Guest:She was the sweetest person in the world.

00:14:37Guest:Yeah, she's the model for that character I'm doing.

00:14:40Marc:Oh, it's such a great character.

00:14:43Marc:Because Zach was like, I hear a voice from my mother, and it sounds like Louis Anderson.

00:14:48Marc:And apparently Louis C.K.

00:14:49Marc:just like, what?

00:14:49Marc:Call Louis Anderson.

00:14:51Guest:Is that what happened?

00:14:52Guest:Isn't that a funny thing?

00:14:53Guest:I got a call from Steve Levine, agent at ICM.

00:14:58Guest:And he says, Louis C.K.

00:15:00Guest:wants your number.

00:15:01Guest:And I go, give it to him.

00:15:02Guest:And he called me and goes, Louie, I'm with Zach and Galifianakis, we're doing a sitcom and we want you to play a part.

00:15:10Guest:And I go, yeah.

00:15:11Guest:Those two people call you and go, yeah.

00:15:14Guest:He goes, we want you to play Zach's mom.

00:15:16Guest:I go, yes.

00:15:18Guest:I've been doing my mom's voice in my act since the beginning.

00:15:24Marc:So you're just doing your mom, basically.

00:15:26Marc:I'm just doing my mom.

00:15:29Marc:But you had no problem with the... It seems to me that you really are enjoying it.

00:15:34Marc:I'm loving it.

00:15:35Guest:I grew up with five sisters.

00:15:38Guest:And a really sweet mom.

00:15:39Guest:Is this the first time you sort of theoretically- This is the first time that I did anything except for Dom Irira in one of his specials.

00:15:45Guest:Yeah.

00:15:45Guest:I played the maid who came in while he was sleeping.

00:15:48Guest:Right.

00:15:49Guest:And he goes, was that Louie Anderson?

00:15:52Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:15:53Guest:That was just that little tiny, it's the only time I ever- So you're doing drag, kind of.

00:15:57Guest:Yeah, kind of, but I never looked at it as drag, I have to be honest with you, Mark.

00:16:01Guest:No, right.

00:16:01Guest:You know what I just tried to do with the character is like, be real.

00:16:04Guest:Right, that's how it's playing.

00:16:05Guest:And try to change the voice.

00:16:07Guest:People are loving it.

00:16:08Guest:People love it.

00:16:08Guest:Yeah.

00:16:09Guest:Yeah.

00:16:09Guest:And it's good for you.

00:16:10Guest:Jonathan Kreisel.

00:16:11Guest:Yeah.

00:16:11Guest:You know who he is.

00:16:12Guest:I do know who he is.

00:16:13Guest:Portlandia.

00:16:14Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:16:15Guest:Who directed it?

00:16:16Guest:He directed all the episodes.

00:16:17Marc:And what was the direction?

00:16:20Marc:They just let you do what you wanted to do?

00:16:22Marc:No.

00:16:23Guest:He had a very specific thing in mind, Jonathan.

00:16:25Guest:Really?

00:16:26Guest:What was that?

00:16:27Guest:He said to me at the beginning of the project, he said, think of this as a three and a half hour movie.

00:16:34Mm-hmm.

00:16:34Guest:And I thought, that's a really good way of looking at something.

00:16:36Guest:The whole series.

00:16:37Guest:Yeah, the whole series.

00:16:39Guest:And then he would never say it wasn't good.

00:16:44Guest:Never.

00:16:44Guest:Yeah.

00:16:45Guest:Never.

00:16:45Guest:But he would say, what if, what if we try it?

00:16:49Guest:Right.

00:16:49Guest:Or just some little, it was always minute, you know.

00:16:53Guest:It was minimal words.

00:16:55Guest:And then I would say oftentimes, hey, can I just say it how my mom would say it?

00:16:58Guest:Yeah.

00:16:59Guest:And that's where a lot of those words have come from.

00:17:01Guest:Oh, yeah?

00:17:01Guest:Yeah, like...

00:17:03Guest:You know, that whole Arby's.

00:17:09Guest:You know, we had an Arby's.

00:17:10Guest:That was our first fast food by our house.

00:17:13Guest:The curly fries.

00:17:14Marc:Oh, that stuff.

00:17:15Marc:I think it's paprika.

00:17:16Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:17:17Guest:Well, I always think paprika is the funniest of words of all the spices.

00:17:23Guest:You want paprika on it?

00:17:24Guest:No, I don't want paprika on it.

00:17:26Marc:But then you're like, if you find one of those curly fries makers, I'd like to have one.

00:17:31Guest:I would like to have one.

00:17:33Guest:Wouldn't you like to have one?

00:17:35Guest:I mean, not that you'd use it ever.

00:17:36Guest:I know, but not that you'd ever use it.

00:17:39Guest:But you'd have it.

00:17:40Guest:You could just take it out of the drawer.

00:17:42Guest:That's a Midwestern thing.

00:17:44Guest:Here, let me show you something.

00:17:45Guest:What?

00:17:46Guest:Look at this.

00:17:47Guest:Do you know what it is?

00:17:48Guest:No.

00:17:48Guest:It's a curly fry cutter.

00:17:50Guest:Yeah.

00:17:50Guest:And then put it back.

00:17:51Guest:And that's it.

00:17:52Guest:Do you have one?

00:17:53Guest:No, I didn't think so.

00:17:56Guest:That's the essence of my mom.

00:17:57Guest:I didn't think so.

00:17:58Marc:But there is something about the Midwest.

00:18:00Marc:There's this sort of sturdy kind of emotional monotone that is very passive aggressive and very sort of like polite, but a little jabby.

00:18:11Guest:I used to do a bit in my act, but nobody really liked me doing it.

00:18:15Guest:I do a bit where Midwesterners will cut you with a razor and then go, oh my God, let me run up and get my first aid kit.

00:18:24Guest:And then they will bandage you up.

00:18:26Guest:I don't know what got into me.

00:18:28Guest:I just was nervous.

00:18:30Guest:And then when they get it all bandaged up, they will rip the bandage off.

00:18:34Guest:Oh, I don't know why I did that.

00:18:37Guest:And it's just a constant, you know what I mean?

00:18:41Guest:They're so, because I have a theory that they're in the house too long.

00:18:44Marc:And it's cold.

00:18:45Guest:From the winter, you're in the house too long and you start thinking, I'm going to kill somebody.

00:18:50Guest:I'm going to lose my mind.

00:18:51Guest:Cabin fever.

00:18:52Guest:Cabin fever.

00:18:53Marc:So what kind of musician was your dad?

00:18:55Guest:You never had a cabin.

00:18:55Guest:No, you never did?

00:18:56Guest:My dad, believe it or not,

00:18:58Guest:played with hoagie carmichael big band guy yeah big band and jazz he was a jazz trumpet and cornet player really yeah and he toured he was a touring musician you know one time in the 80s i was opening for uh crosby stills and nash for really for a benefit yeah

00:19:16Guest:I never played the clubs.

00:19:20Guest:I got really lucky.

00:19:21Guest:I went from The Tonight Show to the Comedy Store at the Dunes.

00:19:25Guest:And I got to remember this writer's name, but he was a Vegas writer.

00:19:30Guest:He was a street named after him there.

00:19:33Guest:And he reviewed me.

00:19:35Guest:And it was such a great review that the next week I got a job opening for the Commodores.

00:19:42Guest:At Bally's.

00:19:43Marc:Right, yeah, in Vegas.

00:19:45Guest:And I had an agent, Frank Rio, who handled Bob Hope, Marlena Dietrich, and lots of big artists.

00:19:53Guest:You know, what's his name, Johnny Mathis, and all these people.

00:19:57Guest:And so he started getting me

00:20:00Guest:gigs you know I went I went from I went from the Commodores to the Pointer Sisters to Smokey Robinson to Natalie Cole all in Vegas or to all in Vegas yeah almost was a few touring like you know the I the Westbury music fair so I started getting those jobs yeah and they were real lucrative yeah that was more money than I ever made like in a year

00:20:26Guest:Well, let's track it.

00:20:27Marc:Let's go back and write it out.

00:20:29Marc:So you were in Vegas and someone knew your dad or what?

00:20:32Guest:There's a guy comes... The security comes to me after the show.

00:20:35Guest:There's a guy who... Your dad taught him trumpet lessons.

00:20:40Guest:I go...

00:20:41Guest:Good, bring him back, because we have no memorabilia of my dad.

00:20:44Guest:Did you know him?

00:20:46Guest:I didn't know the guy.

00:20:46Guest:Your dad?

00:20:47Guest:Yeah, yeah, I knew my dad, yeah.

00:20:49Guest:I wrote a book about my dad, Dear Dad.

00:20:51Guest:I'll send it over to you.

00:20:52Guest:Oh, good, yeah.

00:20:53Guest:Yeah, so letters I wrote to my dad 10 years after he died.

00:20:58Guest:Oh, how old were you when he died?

00:21:00Guest:I was 27.

00:21:00Guest:Oh, so you knew him, yeah.

00:21:03Guest:I knew him.

00:21:05Guest:LAUGHTER

00:21:06Guest:And this guy came back and he said, your dad, I took trumpet lessons from your dad.

00:21:11Guest:He was a great trumpet lesson.

00:21:12Guest:I go, what was he like?

00:21:13Guest:He was hard.

00:21:14Guest:He was tough.

00:21:15Guest:I go, I know he was a prick, right?

00:21:17Guest:And you know what I mean?

00:21:18Guest:I go, oh good, he wasn't just mean to me.

00:21:22Guest:But he brought me a poster.

00:21:24Guest:a woodblock print sure yeah louis anderson and his orchestra wow and it looked you know like i was named after him it looked like one of my posters from the 80s uh-huh and it was just so it was like oh my dad because i had heard about all this stuff right right but it was real my dad toured he was probably in these kind of places sure so it was a big thing to me

00:21:49Marc:So by the time you kind of have a memory or a relationship with him, he was not working as a musician anymore?

00:21:55Guest:He was 50 when I was born.

00:21:56Guest:Right.

00:21:57Guest:So he had false teeth and he pretty much lost his lip for playing the trumpet.

00:22:02Guest:Really?

00:22:02Guest:Yeah.

00:22:03Guest:But he would play the harmonica and he would play the ukulele when my mom was mad at him.

00:22:08Guest:Oh, he'd go into the room.

00:22:09Guest:He'd do love songs.

00:22:10Guest:Oh, really?

00:22:10Guest:To make it up to her?

00:22:11Guest:Yeah, to try and make it up to her.

00:22:13Guest:So your relationship with him, he was hard on you?

00:22:16Guest:He was an alcoholic.

00:22:17Guest:Sure.

00:22:18Guest:He was a mean, violent alcoholic.

00:22:22Guest:He never hit me.

00:22:23Guest:Yeah.

00:22:23Guest:But he was very mean to my mom and hit my older brothers and sisters before I was really even in the family.

00:22:31Marc:So by the time you were awake, he was exhausted?

00:22:33Guest:He was tired.

00:22:34Guest:He was tired, yeah.

00:22:35Guest:And I hear that about parents all the time, you know.

00:22:37Guest:They get exhausted.

00:22:38Guest:They get exhausted.

00:22:41Guest:But you grew up in that chaos.

00:22:43Guest:I grew up in that.

00:22:44Guest:What's that going to be?

00:22:44Guest:It's like a nuclear bomb.

00:22:46Guest:I always tell people, growing up in an alcoholic family is one of the weirdest things because it's like being around nuclear fallout.

00:22:56Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:22:57Guest:Because later in your life, it comes up.

00:23:01Guest:It really affects your whole life.

00:23:04Marc:Well, yeah, but what someone brought up to me that I didn't really think about, which makes good sense, is that when you have a parent like that, you just don't know what the hell's going to happen ever.

00:23:12Marc:Right.

00:23:13Marc:Yes is no, no is yes, and you're right.

00:23:15Marc:And when they're coming home, you're like, what's it going to be like?

00:23:18Marc:You had that kind of parent?

00:23:20Marc:Well, he was a bipolar guy, so it was erratic.

00:23:23Marc:It wasn't alcohol-based, but it was still like- Same behavior, though, right?

00:23:26Guest:Right.

00:23:27Marc:Is he going to blow up?

00:23:27Guest:up is it yeah you know because he wasn't home that much you know he's a doctor so when he was home you're like all right everyone's got to play this game now you know i hope i hope he can find everything he's looking for going around right right god forbid he decides like where's that hat yeah oh no oh god and you know they do it on purpose it seemed like i know you know you just want to go your hat's right here yeah but you don't know where it is but you don't know and there isn't even a hat there might not be there might not be and then after he's made everyone cry he's like oh i think i got rid of that

00:23:56Guest:And then no conscience about it or anything.

00:24:00Guest:But did you ever have this happen where you walked in the house and you knew you picked up on it immediately without seeing anyone?

00:24:10Marc:You just feel it.

00:24:11Guest:You just felt it.

00:24:12Guest:And I don't know if that was something you imagined and it turned out that way or if it's something you develop.

00:24:19Marc:I think you must have, because I have the same thing now with audiences a lot of times.

00:24:25Marc:And you must have it.

00:24:26Marc:I mean, comics don't talk about it that much.

00:24:28Marc:But I can sit backstage in the main room, you know, whoever's on before me, and hear just the vibration.

00:24:34Marc:I'm like, all right, I know what that is.

00:24:36Marc:Or if you walk into a room and you're like, no, there's a little badness here.

00:24:39Marc:That table, that's going to be a problem.

00:24:42Marc:You can feel the vibe of it.

00:24:43Guest:Sometimes I'm wrong and I'm projecting, but you know.

00:24:46Guest:Most times you're not though, because I do it all the time.

00:24:48Guest:I go, I'll hear somebody go, say the wrong way they're saying it, scream out or drunk.

00:24:55Guest:Right, right, right.

00:24:56Guest:And make sure they're out by the time I get on there.

00:24:58Guest:Because I'm all about removing people.

00:25:00Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:25:01Guest:Yeah, I don't have any qualms.

00:25:02Marc:Well, because your presentation, why would you want to engage with that?

00:25:09Marc:I mean, some dudes will fucking do that thing.

00:25:11Marc:I won't do it.

00:25:12Marc:No, why not?

00:25:13Guest:I don't want anything to do with that.

00:25:15Guest:I'm a sensitive child on stage.

00:25:17Guest:I know.

00:25:18Guest:I am.

00:25:18Guest:I'm not the guy who, because I get too mean.

00:25:22Guest:And people go, God, he can be mean.

00:25:24Guest:You don't want to show him that.

00:25:25Guest:But I get, like, I go, hey.

00:25:27Guest:Hey, I think we should be able to kill hecklers, I'll say.

00:25:31Guest:It would change comedy.

00:25:33Guest:They wouldn't fuck around anymore.

00:25:34Marc:Oh, that's funny because your tone is so sweet and you're so wide open that the moment there's a problem, it's like, hey, you're a bad, you should go to hell.

00:25:42Guest:And then people go, oh, I don't trust Louie anymore now.

00:25:45Guest:I don't like him.

00:25:46Guest:There's a lot going on in there we don't know about.

00:25:49Guest:Oh, he's bad inside, that guy.

00:25:52Guest:Don't give him the pie afterwards.

00:25:55Guest:He doesn't deserve it.

00:25:56Marc:That's so weird, though.

00:25:57Marc:So wait, so when you wrote the book to your father, you were sort of reckoning with your feelings?

00:26:03Guest:I was on tour.

00:26:04Guest:Yeah.

00:26:05Guest:I was at the Summerfest.

00:26:07Guest:You know what that is in Milwaukee?

00:26:08Guest:Mm-mm.

00:26:09Guest:It's an outdoor thing, which is the worst forever.

00:26:11Guest:Oh, it's the worst for comedy.

00:26:13Guest:It's the worst.

00:26:13Guest:Yeah, the worst.

00:26:14Guest:And I was in excess was in the stall next to me.

00:26:18Guest:So they were playing while I was talking.

00:26:19Marc:Oh, boy.

00:26:21Marc:So there were two stages?

00:26:22Guest:There were like two or three stages.

00:26:24Guest:The worst.

00:26:25Guest:The worst.

00:26:25Guest:And it was daytime.

00:26:26Guest:Yeah.

00:26:27Guest:And people were like walking through.

00:26:29Guest:You can't focus.

00:26:30Guest:What is he?

00:26:31Guest:Hey, fatty!

00:26:33Guest:He's all right.

00:26:35Guest:You're all right, though!

00:26:37Guest:Shut up.

00:26:38Guest:So I'm coming out of... People think they're funny.

00:26:43Marc:But it's always kind of like that weird, drunky lady just walking by and wants a little attention.

00:26:49Guest:Hey!

00:26:50Guest:Ugh, God.

00:26:51Guest:Hey, I know you!

00:26:53Guest:Shut up.

00:26:55Guest:So I'm driving out of there and drunks, we're avoiding hitting drunks.

00:27:00Guest:I'm getting a car ride out to the hotel.

00:27:02Guest:And I get back at the, and while I'm doing that, I go, oh, this is my, this is like my life with my dad.

00:27:09Marc:As a passenger?

00:27:10Guest:Yeah, I was in the backseat, you know, getting a ride back to the, where they have the volunteers that take you back.

00:27:15Guest:And that guy's going, look at all these drunks.

00:27:18Guest:And I go, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:27:19Guest:And I get back and I write a letter to my dad.

00:27:23Guest:I just I don't know why.

00:27:25Guest:I just had a journal and I wrote in it.

00:27:26Guest:Yeah.

00:27:27Guest:And I wrote a letter.

00:27:28Marc:Yeah.

00:27:28Guest:And I said, hey, I just finished this and blah, blah, blah.

00:27:33Guest:Just spilled it out.

00:27:35Guest:And then I wrote like.

00:27:36Marc:And he's already passed.

00:27:37Guest:He's already dead 10 years.

00:27:40Guest:And I just kept writing these letters on the tour, filling up these journals.

00:27:46Guest:And People Magazine, Todd Gold was going to do an article on adult children of alcoholics.

00:27:54Guest:So I said, they said, do you have anything?

00:27:59Guest:I go, I have these letters.

00:28:01Guest:And I gave them a few of the letters.

00:28:04Guest:And I got such a response from people writing in.

00:28:07Guest:that I was in the process of doing an autobiography for Simon & Schuster.

00:28:13Guest:And I said, I don't want to do that.

00:28:16Guest:I want to do this book.

00:28:18Guest:And they said, well, we don't want to do that book.

00:28:20Guest:And so I said, well, I'm not doing the book you want.

00:28:24Guest:So I went to my agent and found me Penguin.

00:28:28Guest:And they did the book, and it turned out to be a bestseller.

00:28:31Guest:It's on Amazon now.

00:28:33Guest:It's finally on Kindle.

00:28:35Guest:Did you do a book on tape?

00:28:37Guest:I did do a book on tape.

00:28:38Guest:It was very emotional.

00:28:40Guest:Lots of crying in it.

00:28:41Guest:Really?

00:28:41Guest:Yeah, because this book is very emotional.

00:28:43Guest:Sure, of course.

00:28:44Guest:I completely take the journey to find out who my dad really was.

00:28:49Guest:Right.

00:28:49Guest:I went, my dad...

00:28:51Guest:was a fascinating guy that I didn't know.

00:28:54Guest:He was raised, his father was a great inventor.

00:28:57Guest:He invented like 50 things.

00:28:59Guest:Well, deep fryer.

00:29:03Guest:Some sort of deep fryer thing way back.

00:29:05Guest:And he was an alcoholic, and he sold them all to lawyers, all the patents.

00:29:10Guest:And then him and his wife would go on these cross-country train drunks and leave the kids.

00:29:17Guest:And on one of the trips,

00:29:19Guest:There was a murder in the house by a Swedish gang.

00:29:22Guest:On the train?

00:29:23Guest:No.

00:29:23Guest:In your house?

00:29:24Guest:No, in my dad's house growing up.

00:29:26Guest:Oh, okay.

00:29:27Guest:His parents were gone.

00:29:28Guest:Yeah.

00:29:28Guest:And there was a murder.

00:29:30Guest:Uh-huh.

00:29:30Guest:And it was a Swedish gang in Minnesota, which was a weird thing.

00:29:34Guest:Yeah.

00:29:35Guest:And they took all the kids away, including my dad.

00:29:39Guest:Because they weren't there.

00:29:44Guest:And there was a murder.

00:29:45Guest:Who got murdered?

00:29:47Guest:Somebody at the house.

00:29:49Guest:It wasn't one of them that got murdered, but the daughter who was in charge of them killed herself out of...

00:29:55Guest:Out of shame?

00:29:56Guest:Yeah, out of shame.

00:29:57Guest:And then my dad got adopted.

00:29:59Guest:Oh, you know what?

00:30:00Guest:They got put up for adoption.

00:30:01Guest:You know how that works?

00:30:03Guest:They put people, where that term comes from, put you up in front of the congregation at the church.

00:30:08Guest:Really?

00:30:09Guest:And people would pick who they wanted.

00:30:12Guest:Wow.

00:30:12Guest:And it was like a service.

00:30:14Guest:Everyone's gonna leave with a kid.

00:30:17Guest:Well, no, but it was a good, yeah.

00:30:19Guest:But it was good and bad, you know what I mean?

00:30:21Guest:Like the kids didn't have a place.

00:30:23Guest:So the community was trying to be helpful.

00:30:26Guest:Lutherans?

00:30:26Guest:Lutherans, yeah.

00:30:28Guest:And so I think they were Lutherans.

00:30:30Guest:I'm not sure.

00:30:33Guest:But my dad and his sister got split up.

00:30:36Guest:He had a sister who was very close in his age.

00:30:38Guest:He went one place and she went another.

00:30:41Guest:And it destroyed him.

00:30:43Guest:And he got adopted by a German family who worked them as a farmhand.

00:30:48Guest:And he stayed in a different part of the house and he ate different foods.

00:30:51Guest:indentured servant yeah he and he never oh my god and then at 15 he went and made them sign a thing he goes i'm gonna i'm gonna i want to join the army he says you have i want you to sign this and say i'm old enough to join the army did they and they did and he learned he became a bugle player

00:31:11Guest:For World War II?

00:31:12Guest:Yeah, World War I. Wow.

00:31:14Guest:Yeah.

00:31:15Guest:It was like 1916 or 1917.

00:31:17Guest:That's a crazy story.

00:31:19Guest:It is, isn't it?

00:31:20Guest:It's a good story, though.

00:31:21Guest:And so I figured that out.

00:31:22Guest:I go, oh, my God, my dad had a most miserable thing.

00:31:26Guest:Yeah.

00:31:27Guest:And he was a better person than his parents were in some grotesque way, right?

00:31:32Guest:Yeah.

00:31:32Marc:Well, there's a journey to it, like as as an adult child, complete journey of an alcoholic.

00:31:39Marc:You know, you've got all this resentment, you know, and you've got all this shame and, you know, all this stuff that you hold them responsible for and they're monsters in your eyes.

00:31:47Marc:And it sounds to me that the process of working through this and finding more out about him allowed you to to see him as a person and maybe forgive him.

00:31:55Guest:I did forgive him.

00:31:56Guest:The book is all about forgiveness.

00:31:58Guest:And I got 10,000 letters from that book.

00:32:01Guest:I have all the letters still in storage.

00:32:03Guest:Of people that were like, you really helped me?

00:32:04Guest:I had much worse, yeah, but I had much worse lives than I. Like I'd read those letters and go, oh my God, this guy.

00:32:10Guest:One guy sent me when he was beat by his father by a two by four as a child.

00:32:15Guest:And he still loved his father.

00:32:18Guest:They're your father.

00:32:21Guest:They're your father.

00:32:22Guest:It's so fucked up, Louis.

00:32:23Guest:You know, like my dad, it is.

00:32:25Guest:But this is what I always say to people.

00:32:27Guest:Even...

00:32:29Guest:I mean, this is how people get damaged when husbands and wives divorce.

00:32:38Guest:Even though my dad was a monster, the fact that he stayed together was better than had he left on some weird deal.

00:32:47Guest:And so isn't that the weirdest thing?

00:32:49Guest:Like the sunshine you need...

00:32:52Guest:to get from your father's being there is so necessary, even if he's a monster.

00:33:00Marc:I don't know if you've heard this, but I just read about this recently, is that the thing is, though, about loving the monster when you're a kid is what happens when you're a little kid

00:33:12Marc:You know that there's something wrong.

00:33:14Marc:Right.

00:33:14Marc:Right?

00:33:15Marc:But they're your dad.

00:33:16Marc:Right.

00:33:16Marc:So you love him.

00:33:17Marc:Right.

00:33:17Marc:Right?

00:33:17Marc:So you think like, well, then who is... If you love your dad and that's your dad and you have to love him because it's your nature and he's a monster, who gets to blame for feeling shitty?

00:33:29Guest:You do.

00:33:29Guest:Right.

00:33:30Guest:Right.

00:33:30Marc:That's so crazy.

00:33:31Guest:Yeah.

00:33:32Guest:Because you are the reason they drink when you grow up.

00:33:35Guest:You're the reason your dad was bipolar.

00:33:37Guest:Right.

00:33:38Guest:If he wouldn't have had you...

00:33:40Guest:If he would have just had the other kids.

00:33:42Guest:I mean, that's how people do it though.

00:33:44Marc:Or just the fact like maybe I feel weird.

00:33:47Marc:I feel emotionally abused or alienated.

00:33:49Marc:So it must be my problem when it's really because they're emotionally incapable.

00:33:53Marc:So you blame yourself and then you make this weird parent inside of you that can barely handle you.

00:33:59Marc:I don't know.

00:33:59Marc:It gets a little crazy.

00:34:01Guest:But the good thing is for both of us is how many jobs could we have done?

00:34:10Guest:Do you know what I'm saying?

00:34:11Guest:Look at you.

00:34:12Guest:You have the number one podcast in the world because of that miserable father.

00:34:16Guest:I hate to say that.

00:34:17Guest:And I have the same thing because of my crazy mother and my miserable father.

00:34:23Guest:Right.

00:34:24Guest:The gift that just keeps giving.

00:34:27Guest:And taking and giving and taking.

00:34:32Marc:But do you ever think about that?

00:34:33Marc:Like, I don't know.

00:34:34Marc:When I see people who have regular jobs and stuff, you know, God bless them.

00:34:38Marc:Yeah, I'm glad they're doing okay.

00:34:39Marc:But like, I would not fit into that environment.

00:34:41Marc:I don't know how to behave like a person.

00:34:43Guest:But I'll ask you a question that I was asked when the book came out.

00:34:46Guest:Yeah.

00:34:48Guest:Would you trade it?

00:34:50Guest:that childhood for a normal upbringing?

00:34:53Guest:And I always said, yeah.

00:34:54Guest:Yeah, I would.

00:34:55Guest:I would.

00:34:56Guest:I think I would, too.

00:34:57Guest:Because I think that's the right thing to say.

00:34:59Guest:Because I already had this, and this wasn't easy.

00:35:02Guest:It's not easy.

00:35:03Guest:So, yes.

00:35:04Guest:So, like, other people also don't know how to deal with you because they go, are you crazy?

00:35:09Guest:Right.

00:35:09Guest:And you go, yes.

00:35:10Guest:Yeah, I am.

00:35:11Guest:And they go, because there's, you know, like, the whole thing is, for our family, did you have this?

00:35:17Guest:What?

00:35:17Guest:Where secrets were currency.

00:35:20Guest:They're like the power in the family.

00:35:24Guest:Like you don't talk about your family being, you know.

00:35:27Guest:You couldn't have friends over because you didn't know how your dad was going to act.

00:35:31Guest:Right.

00:35:32Guest:You know, people were terrified of my dad because he would yell at them in the yard if they walked on his lawn.

00:35:38Guest:Right.

00:35:38Guest:When also it's a little embarrassing.

00:35:40Guest:Oh, completely embarrassing.

00:35:41Guest:Yeah.

00:35:42Marc:And you don't want your dad to be drunk in a chair.

00:35:44Marc:Yeah.

00:35:44Marc:My mom was a little more embarrassing than my dad.

00:35:47Marc:But secrets, it turns out what's weird about secrets is that with your father, you get to a certain age and if they live long enough, then they'll be like, now you want to know something?

00:35:56Marc:I'm like, I don't think so.

00:35:58Marc:Because they'll start telling you shit.

00:35:59Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:36:00Marc:And it's like, ugh.

00:36:01Guest:You know, and there's such a, was your mom, like my mom was a lovely person, but she enabled a lot of this behavior.

00:36:11Guest:Like my dad quit drinking at 69, and my mom turned to me and said, I told you he'd quit.

00:36:18Guest:And I go, oh my God.

00:36:20Guest:i i mean oh my god i couldn't even like i just was in i didn't even say anything to her i just walked in my room i think and just went oh my god this is what you come from this is this is the denial she thinks that she got him to quit at 69 69 how did your other siblings fare

00:36:40Guest:they all suffered yeah there was drinking people who were a lot like my dad and physio the physiology became uh some became alcoholics uh-huh um the people who were like my mom which is me more codependent oh yeah codependent those kind of things yeah enabled people and and

00:37:03Guest:How many of them are around?

00:37:08Guest:There's only five of us left out of 11.

00:37:12Guest:Are you close?

00:37:12Guest:Yeah, super close now.

00:37:13Guest:That's good.

00:37:14Guest:Yeah, because we're all like, oh, man.

00:37:16Guest:Are they up in minutes?

00:37:16Guest:We made it.

00:37:18Guest:Don't you think?

00:37:19Guest:We made it.

00:37:21Guest:We made it.

00:37:23Guest:Are they in Minnesota?

00:37:24Guest:They're in Minnesota or Wisconsin or South Dakota.

00:37:27Guest:That's where my mom grew up in South Dakota.

00:37:29Guest:My dad grew up in Minnesota.

00:37:31Guest:Really kind of Midwest.

00:37:32Guest:Yeah, very Midwest.

00:37:33Guest:Full on.

00:37:34Guest:Full on.

00:37:34Marc:And you got a bunch of nephews and nieces.

00:37:36Marc:27 nephews and nieces.

00:37:37Guest:Oh, my God.

00:37:38Guest:And 22 great nephews and nieces.

00:37:40Marc:It's a big family stuff.

00:37:41Guest:Big family.

00:37:42Guest:Oh, that's nice.

00:37:43Guest:Yeah.

00:37:43Guest:We just had 100 people, 100 and some people show up for a summer little reunion.

00:37:50Guest:It was really nice.

00:37:51Guest:And it's really fun to see how they're doing better.

00:37:55Guest:Yeah.

00:37:55Guest:How they...

00:37:57Guest:I've escaped.

00:37:58Guest:Yeah.

00:37:59Guest:You know, like some, I think the DNA spreads a little.

00:38:02Guest:Yeah.

00:38:03Guest:So that it's not so.

00:38:04Guest:Breaks down a little.

00:38:05Guest:Yeah.

00:38:06Guest:But, you know, a lot of people went through drug use or drug addiction and those addictions are sneaky.

00:38:14Guest:Yeah, and they do run in families.

00:38:15Marc:They do run in families.

00:38:16Marc:So let's go to, like, let's track the comedy life.

00:38:19Guest:When did you decide to be an entertainer?

00:38:22Guest:I just, you know, I used to watch The Tonight Show with my dad.

00:38:27Guest:Oh, you bonded with that?

00:38:28Guest:Yeah, because he was a musician.

00:38:30Guest:He loved Doc Severinsen.

00:38:31Guest:Yeah.

00:38:32Guest:The trumpet player.

00:38:33Guest:And then he'd let me stay up and watch The Comedian.

00:38:36Guest:I always wanted to watch The Comedian.

00:38:38Guest:Oh, yeah?

00:38:39Guest:And Johnny and Jack Benny was a big, I was a big Jack Benny fan.

00:38:43Marc:Loved him?

00:38:43Guest:Yeah, it's timing.

00:38:45Guest:It's just so beautiful.

00:38:47Guest:No one does that like you.

00:38:49Guest:Well, it's sweet of you to say.

00:38:51Guest:It's a rare thing, dude.

00:38:52Guest:Yeah, nowadays I don't think very many people do it.

00:38:55Guest:And Jonathan Winters.

00:38:56Guest:I was infatuated with his crazy.

00:39:00Guest:Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, Richard Pryor, and Jackie Vernon.

00:39:08Guest:I loved him!

00:39:09Guest:He was one of my favorites.

00:39:10Marc:He was one of my favorites.

00:39:11Guest:Yeah, sing-songy.

00:39:13Guest:Yeah, he's so sweet, too.

00:39:14Guest:Yeah.

00:39:16Guest:He was a sad sack.

00:39:17Guest:He was a sad sack, which is exactly what my character has been often.

00:39:22Guest:Yeah, you think so?

00:39:23Guest:I think so.

00:39:24Guest:He's a fat guy.

00:39:25Guest:He's doing this stuff.

00:39:26Guest:Yeah, I guess so.

00:39:27Guest:Kind of a sad sack character.

00:39:28Guest:Yeah.

00:39:28Guest:I used to just do one-liners.

00:39:31Guest:I can't stay long.

00:39:32Guest:I'm in between meals.

00:39:33Guest:Yeah.

00:39:33Guest:I used to do that.

00:39:34Guest:I go, I went to a fat camp, broad jump, I killed her.

00:39:39Guest:Just fat jokes.

00:39:42Guest:So it was a fat character.

00:39:44Guest:So that's what you started doing?

00:39:45Guest:And I was a very deliberate hope in the delivery.

00:39:49Marc:Well, that's efficient.

00:39:51Guest:It was very efficient.

00:39:52Guest:And I paced and I did that.

00:39:54Guest:And then I was kind of a Rickles comic.

00:39:56Guest:Where does this start?

00:39:58Marc:So you're watching that when you're a kid.

00:40:00Guest:Yeah.

00:40:00Guest:Did you go to college?

00:40:01Guest:I did a dare.

00:40:02Guest:I wasn't going to be a comic, but somebody dared me to do it because they thought it.

00:40:06Guest:Because people would always laugh at me.

00:40:07Guest:When?

00:40:07Guest:How old were you?

00:40:08Guest:I was 25.

00:40:09Guest:Did you go to college?

00:40:10Guest:I did go to a place called Antioch Communiversity.

00:40:15Guest:Communiversity?

00:40:15Guest:I've never heard that word.

00:40:17Guest:In the 60s, 70s.

00:40:18Guest:You know where the kind of the, in all the poor areas, I grew up very poor.

00:40:25Guest:Really?

00:40:26Guest:Yeah.

00:40:26Guest:They grew up, they had these communiversities.

00:40:30Guest:Yeah.

00:40:31Guest:And it was all, I think me and my brother were the only white kids in it.

00:40:35Guest:Yeah.

00:40:35Guest:And they had like an Angela Davis dean who married a white lawyer.

00:40:42Guest:It was just like, I go, oh.

00:40:44Guest:Radical.

00:40:45Guest:Very radical.

00:40:45Guest:Yeah.

00:40:45Guest:And I learned a lot.

00:40:47Guest:I was a political science major.

00:40:48Guest:And then I just said, oh, I'm just such a bad student.

00:40:51Guest:Yeah.

00:40:52Guest:And I don't want to read all this.

00:40:53Guest:Yeah.

00:40:54Guest:I want to just hang around.

00:40:56Guest:I just want to hang.

00:40:57Guest:Comics just want to hang around.

00:40:58Guest:They do just want to.

00:40:58Guest:And I think I had a little learning disability reading.

00:41:01Guest:Yeah.

00:41:01Guest:Because later when I found audio books, I was voracious in my reading.

00:41:08Guest:But to read and comprehend, I had a problem with it.

00:41:11Guest:So you're 25.

00:41:12Guest:So I went there, 25, did it on a dare.

00:41:14Guest:Yeah.

00:41:15Guest:Where?

00:41:15Guest:At Mickey Finn's on 3rd and Central in this little 50-seat bar with Jeff Turbino, Scott Hansen, Gary Johnson.

00:41:30Guest:These are all Alex Cole.

00:41:32Guest:I don't know if Cesario was there yet or not, but...

00:41:35Marc:He's a Minneapolis guy?

00:41:36Guest:Yeah, well, he's Kenosha, but he came to Minneapolis.

00:41:40Guest:Alex Cole, I think I recognize that guy.

00:41:42Guest:Alex Cole, Scott Hansen, the great big guy.

00:41:44Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:41:45Guest:Did you ever work with him?

00:41:46Guest:No, no.

00:41:49Guest:And Jeff Turbino, and we only had like...

00:41:53Guest:We just had like six or seven people.

00:41:55Guest:So that's when the show was over.

00:41:57Guest:So we'd all do our 15.

00:41:59Guest:And then I became the emcee because I said I'll be an emcee.

00:42:02Guest:So you started the comedy scene?

00:42:04Guest:No, they started, but I came very shortly after.

00:42:07Guest:And on the dare, the first time you did it, how'd it go?

00:42:09Guest:I killed it.

00:42:10Guest:Just because I had all my friends there.

00:42:12Guest:My dad was there and my mom was there.

00:42:15Guest:So it was just going to be a one-time thing.

00:42:16Guest:So it was like an open mic kind of thing?

00:42:18Guest:It was an open mic.

00:42:19Guest:I did like three minutes.

00:42:20Guest:And you loved it?

00:42:21Guest:And I just, I said, this is fun.

00:42:24Guest:And something weird.

00:42:25Guest:And my legs were shaking and the guy said, and I was way too on the mic like that.

00:42:30Guest:And my friend said, hold back, Louis.

00:42:32Guest:Hold back.

00:42:33Guest:And I go, I'm doing the best I can.

00:42:34Guest:These are the best jokes I have.

00:42:36Guest:You know, trying to be funny and that.

00:42:38Guest:And then it just, it felt so comfortable.

00:42:42Guest:Mm-hmm.

00:42:42Marc:And so you started off, the first jokes you wrote were all weight-related?

00:42:46Guest:I think the first one was, I can't stay long.

00:42:48Guest:Oh, let me move this so you can see me.

00:42:50Guest:Oh, right, right.

00:42:50Guest:Fat jokes like that.

00:42:52Guest:I was a kid, voted most likely to become a group.

00:42:56Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:42:59Guest:When I was born, I weighed 60 pounds.

00:43:02Guest:Real rudimentary.

00:43:04Guest:The doctor had to bring a crane in to slap my ass.

00:43:07Guest:You know, those kind of jokes that you just look back and go, wow.

00:43:10Marc:Complete self-deprecating.

00:43:11Guest:Yeah, complete self-deprecating.

00:43:13Guest:And then one day, you know, I love to work.

00:43:17Guest:And so we worked seven days a week.

00:43:18Guest:We had a very vibrant comedy scene in Minneapolis.

00:43:22Guest:Because it was just a little club.

00:43:23Guest:And it was packed.

00:43:24Guest:And it charged a dollar.

00:43:25Guest:And we were so happy to split it up.

00:43:28Guest:Bill Bauer, too.

00:43:29Guest:If you ever remember Bill Bauer.

00:43:32Guest:Bill Bauer was a great, God rest his soul.

00:43:34Guest:He was a great comic.

00:43:35Guest:So one day, a guy was with, I go, is that your dad?

00:43:39Guest:To the kid, he goes, oh, is that your dad?

00:43:42Guest:Yeah.

00:43:42Guest:He goes, is he nice?

00:43:43Guest:He goes, yeah, he's a nice guy.

00:43:45Guest:I go, my dad, he wasn't nice.

00:43:47Guest:He never hit us.

00:43:48Guest:He'd just carry a gun.

00:43:49Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:43:50Guest:And then I did.

00:43:51Guest:He never shot it.

00:43:52Guest:He'd go.

00:43:53Guest:Yeah.

00:43:53Guest:And then I hit on that vein.

00:43:54Guest:Yeah.

00:43:55Guest:I mean, I started.

00:43:56Guest:The family vein.

00:43:57Guest:I hit on the family thing.

00:43:58Guest:Yeah.

00:43:58Guest:And a guy who we were working with, Roman Decare, a little guy who played a tiny harmonica.

00:44:04Guest:Yeah.

00:44:05Guest:Said, Louie, if you do that family stuff,

00:44:08Guest:and you have a clean act, you'll become famous.

00:44:11Guest:And for some reason, that stuck when he said it.

00:44:14Guest:I mean, you know, he was an older person, and I thought, well, he must know something.

00:44:17Guest:He's a Shriner.

00:44:21Guest:And then that was a really wonderful thing to stumble on the family stuff.

00:44:29Guest:Yeah.

00:44:29Guest:You know, my mom.

00:44:30Guest:And then I just told things about my, the real things about my mom and dad.

00:44:34Guest:Yeah.

00:44:34Guest:And people loved it.

00:44:35Guest:And people liked it because I do their voice and I made my dad a real mean guy.

00:44:41Guest:Yeah.

00:44:41Guest:And was he all the time?

00:44:43Guest:He didn't want to be bothered.

00:44:46Guest:Yeah.

00:44:46Guest:Do you know that thing with a dad like that?

00:44:48Guest:Yeah.

00:44:48Guest:But he was a lovely person.

00:44:49Guest:If you met him, he would be very nice to you.

00:44:53Guest:Sure.

00:44:53Guest:They always are.

00:44:54Guest:Yeah.

00:44:54Guest:The monsters are.

00:44:56Guest:Then the door closes.

00:44:57Guest:All right, everybody.

00:44:59Guest:All right.

00:45:00Guest:Party's over.

00:45:00Guest:Yeah, party's over.

00:45:02Guest:Yeah.

00:45:02Guest:Where's my wrench?

00:45:05Guest:It was always that, when you said that hat thing.

00:45:09Guest:It was like living with a terrorist.

00:45:11Marc:Yeah, you're right.

00:45:12Marc:Yeah, and you'd hear the sounds of things.

00:45:15Guest:Here we go.

00:45:17Guest:It was like out of a cartoon.

00:45:19Guest:It was like, what is it?

00:45:21Guest:The Tasmanian Devil.

00:45:22Guest:Right, right.

00:45:25Guest:Oh, I know they did it.

00:45:27Guest:My family did it.

00:45:27Guest:I'm going to get that.

00:45:29Guest:And then he'd yell and he'd terrorize everyone and then we'd eat and my mom would feed us.

00:45:36Guest:Just have some food.

00:45:37Marc:So when did you go to LA?

00:45:39Marc:When did you decide?

00:45:40Marc:Now, who else was there?

00:45:41Marc:So you named some of the guys.

00:45:42Guest:Jeff Turbino.

00:45:44Guest:Right.

00:45:44Guest:who's still working, doing comedy.

00:45:47Guest:Scott Hansen's still doing comedy.

00:45:49Guest:I think I know Scott Hansen.

00:45:50Guest:I just can't picture him.

00:45:52Guest:Alex Cole.

00:45:53Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:45:53Guest:Jeff Cesario, of course.

00:45:55Guest:Cesario, yeah, yeah.

00:45:55Guest:Yeah, Joel Hodgson came onto the scene.

00:45:58Guest:He did it.

00:46:01Guest:I'm sure I'm missing Liz Winstead eventually joined that whole group.

00:46:06Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:46:08Guest:It was a good scene because Minneapolis has more theater seats than anywhere outside of New York.

00:46:15Guest:And it's a good audience.

00:46:16Guest:Great audiences.

00:46:17Guest:They're not mean.

00:46:19Guest:No, they're lovely people.

00:46:20Guest:That's why they taught me how to really do the stand-up, really.

00:46:23Guest:Well, you're afforded...

00:46:25Guest:You know, that luxury of having polite, painfully polite people.

00:46:29Guest:Yeah.

00:46:30Guest:Well, they give you a shot.

00:46:31Guest:Uh-huh.

00:46:32Guest:Yeah.

00:46:32Guest:Right, right.

00:46:33Guest:But if they didn't like it, they didn't laugh.

00:46:35Guest:Yeah, right.

00:46:36Guest:They just sit there.

00:46:37Guest:And, you know, I met some really important people in my comedy life.

00:46:41Guest:Oh, yeah, I know Scott.

00:46:42Guest:There in Minneapolis.

00:46:44Mm-hmm.

00:46:44Guest:I met Leonard Barr, who was very nice to us.

00:46:48Guest:We brought him in.

00:46:50Guest:Jeff Trubino was really smart.

00:46:51Guest:He goes, let's bring Leonard Barr in, because people know who he is, and we'll pay him, and then we'll be all able to perform.

00:46:59Guest:Then we brought Henny Youngman in.

00:47:01Guest:Yeah, and then Henny Youngman really liked me, and I wrote for him for a while.

00:47:05Guest:You did?

00:47:05Guest:Yeah, he was a terrible writer, but he liked me.

00:47:07Guest:he had a heavy grandson larry kelly who became a good friend of mine and i wrote jokes for his grandson he goes write some of those fat jokes for my grandson all right now get out of here no he was really sweet and then rodney yeah came to town yeah the celebrity carlton room uh-huh uh the carlton celebrity room yeah and we all went down to see him i go let's go see him and i see rodney

00:47:33Guest:Yeah, and I read about that he likes scotch.

00:47:35Guest:So I bought a bottle of Glen Levitt scotch.

00:47:38Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:47:38Guest:And we brought it to him.

00:47:40Guest:And we were so Minnesotan, we brought balloons.

00:47:42Guest:You know, congratulate, hello, Ron.

00:47:44Guest:You know, it's so silly.

00:47:46Guest:And so he was so moved by that.

00:47:50Guest:And he never forgot that I brought him that scotch.

00:47:53Marc:Oh, yeah?

00:47:54Guest:Yeah.

00:47:54Guest:Because you see him over the years?

00:47:56Guest:Yes.

00:47:56Guest:And then he came and performed at our little club and put us on the map.

00:48:01Guest:I called the press and I said, you know, Rodney's going to be there or Jeff did.

00:48:04Guest:Somebody called the press.

00:48:05Guest:How great was it to watch that guy?

00:48:07Guest:Yeah, because we all went on first and he watched us.

00:48:09Guest:Yeah.

00:48:10Guest:And then he got up and went, boy, you play this club means you got no act.

00:48:13Guest:Yeah.

00:48:14Guest:You know, you really let us know.

00:48:16Marc:I think he's one of the, like, he does not, he literally does not get the respect that he deserves.

00:48:22Marc:And I don't know why.

00:48:23Marc:The same with Sam.

00:48:25Marc:Given that Sam was a monster.

00:48:26Guest:I think among comics they get the respect.

00:48:28Marc:I guess so.

00:48:29Guest:Because people, you know, comics know exactly if somebody's good or not.

00:48:35Guest:Yeah.

00:48:36Guest:And comics don't deny that.

00:48:39Guest:Yeah.

00:48:39Guest:But the public...

00:48:41Guest:We don't measure all the other things about Sam.

00:48:46Guest:We don't measure all the other things about Rodney.

00:48:49Guest:We just measure, I mean, I don't know, Rodney was the last great character comic to live.

00:48:56Guest:I mean, when Rodney came to our club, that was it.

00:48:58Guest:And then he called me after that.

00:49:02Guest:When I came to LA and said, I want you to do the Young Comedian special.

00:49:05Guest:Right.

00:49:06Guest:And Sam was on that.

00:49:07Guest:Yeah.

00:49:07Guest:And that, and when, oh, that was a, that was an unbelievable experience because he said, I want you to go on last kind of as a, as a compliment to me.

00:49:16Marc:This was shot at Dangerfield, right?

00:49:18Guest:Yeah.

00:49:18Guest:And I said, okay, but I didn't want to go on last.

00:49:20Guest:I wanted to go third.

00:49:21Guest:Yeah.

00:49:22Guest:Third.

00:49:22Guest:That's the place.

00:49:22Guest:Third's always the best.

00:49:24Guest:Yeah.

00:49:24Guest:Hey, let me just go on third so that you guys can.

00:49:27Guest:They'll be warmed up and then I can leave.

00:49:31Guest:So Sam went on fifth.

00:49:32Guest:Well, go ahead.

00:49:34Guest:So it was you, Sam, Dom.

00:49:36Guest:Yeah.

00:49:37Guest:Harry Basil.

00:49:38Guest:Yeah.

00:49:38Guest:Bob Saget.

00:49:39Guest:Yeah.

00:49:40Guest:Rita Rudner.

00:49:41Guest:Yeah.

00:49:41Guest:Howie Gold.

00:49:43Guest:Wow.

00:49:44Guest:Bob Nelson.

00:49:45Guest:Yeah.

00:49:46Guest:Not Dom?

00:49:47Guest:I don't think Dom was on that one.

00:49:48Guest:Not on that one?

00:49:49Guest:And Sam.

00:49:49Guest:He might have been, though.

00:49:50Guest:Yeah.

00:49:51Guest:But Bob Saget was on it.

00:49:52Guest:Yeah.

00:49:52Guest:I think I got everybody on there, but I probably missed somebody.

00:49:55Guest:And Sam.

00:49:56Guest:And Sam.

00:49:58Guest:Or it could just be the one Sam was on.

00:50:00Guest:Yeah.

00:50:02Guest:Because what happened was Sam went on fifth.

00:50:05Guest:Yeah.

00:50:06Guest:And nobody had ever seen Sam in New York City.

00:50:09Guest:Yeah.

00:50:10Guest:And I went, oh.

00:50:11Marc:But you knew him from L.A.

00:50:12Guest:at that point.

00:50:12Guest:Yeah, but I mean, he completely killed the room.

00:50:16Guest:Yeah.

00:50:16Guest:Did he do well, though?

00:50:18Guest:Yeah.

00:50:18Guest:No, yeah.

00:50:20Guest:People saw somebody brand new.

00:50:21Guest:And they went crazy.

00:50:24Guest:They went crazy.

00:50:25Guest:And all you thought about is, oh, I'm on last.

00:50:28Guest:How the fuck am I going to follow that?

00:50:29Guest:Right.

00:50:30Guest:But luckily I lucked out because after four more people, they had- Regrouped?

00:50:37Guest:Yeah, regrouped.

00:50:38Guest:And so I had a good set.

00:50:39Guest:But I still never forgot.

00:50:42Guest:That was the first time I saw-

00:50:45Guest:A phenomena happened in front of me.

00:50:48Guest:Sam.

00:50:49Guest:Yes.

00:50:50Guest:That was the first time I saw when people must have saw Robin for the first time.

00:51:02Guest:Or Andy Kaufman.

00:51:03Guest:Or Elvis.

00:51:05Guest:It was that kind of a thing.

00:51:06Guest:He was like an Elvis.

00:51:07Guest:I think among comics, Sam was considered one of the less groundbreaking people, don't you?

00:51:13Marc:Well, I wonder, because I see a lot of young comics and everything else, and their heroes are a little different.

00:51:20Guest:Well, yeah.

00:51:21Guest:And I think that Sam... I don't think Sam was us to... I don't think he could be our hero, because I don't think we could emulate him.

00:51:29Marc:Right, because he was a little wrong-minded, but stylistically... Yeah, he was a little wrong-minded is exactly right.

00:51:36Guest:That's a really great way to put it.

00:51:37Marc:But stylistically, you listen to that first record, like Hotter Than Hell, and you're like, holy shit, no one has done that.

00:51:43Marc:And Hicks was his own thing, and they knew each other, but Hicks went highbrow in a way, but Sam was like... Hicks was a satirist, completely.

00:51:51Guest:Sam was a performer.

00:51:52Marc:Yeah, he's a clown.

00:51:53Guest:Am I right?

00:51:53Guest:Yeah, I think so.

00:51:55Guest:He was a preacher.

00:51:56Guest:But he had a shtick.

00:51:57Guest:Yeah, he had a shtick.

00:51:58Guest:He had a definite shtick.

00:51:59Guest:He was a rock star comic.

00:52:01Guest:Right.

00:52:01Guest:Okay, so you come to L.A.

00:52:03Marc:in what year?

00:52:03Guest:81.

00:52:04Marc:Oh, my God.

00:52:06Marc:Really?

00:52:07Marc:Yeah.

00:52:08Marc:And then when did you get in at the store?

00:52:10Guest:Jimmy Walker finally made Mitzi watch me.

00:52:14Guest:Oh, really?

00:52:14Guest:Yeah.

00:52:15Guest:In what year, 82?

00:52:16Guest:I think it was 82, yeah.

00:52:19Guest:Yeah.

00:52:20Guest:And then... What did she say?

00:52:25Guest:He's a sweater comic.

00:52:28Guest:I go, what?

00:52:28Guest:You're a sweater comic.

00:52:30Guest:Wear a sweater.

00:52:31Guest:Don't wear a jacket.

00:52:33Guest:All right, man.

00:52:33Guest:You're from the Midwest?

00:52:34Guest:And then she pinched my cheek.

00:52:36Guest:I'm from the Midwest.

00:52:38Guest:I love Mitzi.

00:52:38Guest:She was always nice to me.

00:52:40Guest:Did you wear a sweater?

00:52:42Guest:I had it in the car.

00:52:45Guest:And she go, where's your sweater?

00:52:46Guest:I go, it's in the car.

00:52:47Guest:You want me to get it?

00:52:48Guest:No, but wear it next time.

00:52:50Guest:You know?

00:52:52Guest:Because I didn't want to wear a sweater.

00:52:53Guest:I didn't want to wear this sweater.

00:52:58Guest:She told me to wear a scarf.

00:53:00Guest:She did, honestly?

00:53:01Guest:See?

00:53:02Guest:You're a poet.

00:53:03Guest:You should wear a scarf.

00:53:04Guest:That's kind of a nice thing, though.

00:53:05Guest:It is.

00:53:06Guest:When that happened, when I started doing more work, it was good.

00:53:10Guest:It was good for me.

00:53:11Guest:Yeah.

00:53:11Guest:Because I was never caught up.

00:53:13Guest:Luckily, I was never caught up in all the bullshit.

00:53:16Guest:Of varying kinds.

00:53:17Guest:Yeah.

00:53:18Guest:I just didn't get it.

00:53:19Guest:I just said, let's get my time.

00:53:21Guest:I'd always say to Debbie, who was upstairs and everything, give me an earlier time if you can.

00:53:26Guest:I want to get in and get out.

00:53:27Guest:Yeah, that's what I do.

00:53:28Marc:Give me the third or fourth spot.

00:53:30Marc:I don't even know what that place looks like after 1030.

00:53:32Marc:Yeah.

00:53:32Marc:It still gets weird.

00:53:35Marc:It's always going to be weird.

00:53:36Guest:You know the OR is still like you know how good the set is if you go to the OR.

00:53:42Guest:I don't care what the crowd is.

00:53:44Guest:It's a really true barometer.

00:53:47Guest:You can eat it in there.

00:53:49Guest:You can eat it easily.

00:53:50Guest:With just a piano player you could just eat it.

00:53:53Guest:He can just go no good.

00:53:56Guest:So I went there and worked.

00:53:59Guest:I was always first, second or third on

00:54:01Guest:Yeah.

00:54:02Guest:You know, I was always early.

00:54:03Guest:Mitzi just put me on early.

00:54:05Marc:Yeah.

00:54:05Marc:And how'd you get the Tonight Show?

00:54:08Guest:Oh, you know, that was a bitter pill for me.

00:54:10Guest:I auditioned for two years.

00:54:13Guest:Jim McCauley said, you're not Johnny wouldn't like you.

00:54:17Guest:You're not Carson material for two years.

00:54:20Guest:And then the Letterman people booked me.

00:54:22Guest:And then the Tonight Show called the next day and said, we want you on.

00:54:28Guest:And I thought, oh.

00:54:29Guest:So I did it because I wanted to do Johnny Carson's show.

00:54:34Guest:Not anything against Dave, but that cost me dearly with Dave for a while.

00:54:38Guest:For a couple years.

00:54:40Guest:Really?

00:54:41Guest:The producer wouldn't have me.

00:54:42Guest:Bob?

00:54:43Guest:No, it was a woman.

00:54:44Guest:I can't think of her name.

00:54:45Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:54:45Guest:She apologized to me later in life when I ran into her once.

00:54:50Guest:She goes, I'm sorry I did that, but we were so mad at you.

00:54:53Guest:And I go, I wrote Dave a note, I think, once and said, hey, Dave, even you would have picked it.

00:54:58Guest:And did he get back to you?

00:55:00Guest:Then I was on shortly after that, so Dave kind of changed it.

00:55:03Guest:And I did Dave.

00:55:04Guest:He was already gone by the time he got to the store, though, right?

00:55:07Guest:Yeah, yeah, he was gone.

00:55:07Guest:He was gone.

00:55:08Guest:He wasn't there.

00:55:09Marc:So what was it like doing Johnny for the first time, being on that stage?

00:55:12Guest:Was your dad still around?

00:55:14Guest:No, he was gone.

00:55:15Guest:But my mom was, so that was a good thing.

00:55:18Guest:Was it great?

00:55:19Guest:You know what was so great about The Tonight Show was...

00:55:23Guest:I was so prepared, I had nine Tonight Shows prepared when I got the first Tonight Show.

00:55:29Guest:I had nine already.

00:55:30Guest:That's smart, that's what they used to do.

00:55:31Guest:That's what I always said, I'm gonna have.

00:55:34Guest:I'm gonna get on the Tonight Show more than once, hopefully.

00:55:37Guest:So I finally got on, and here's what I noticed.

00:55:42Guest:how little everything was back there.

00:55:46Guest:That little stage, and I was behind that curtain, that curtain that I watched, honestly, for my whole life, how cheaply made it looked, up close.

00:55:57Guest:And then that band come back, and I could hear the pencil hitting it, and hear Johnny say, this next young man,

00:56:05Guest:making his national television debut.

00:56:07Guest:He'll be opening at the Comedy Store at the Dunes Hotel tomorrow night.

00:56:11Guest:Please welcome Louie Anderson.

00:56:13Guest:And then, really, I don't know what really happened.

00:56:15Guest:I mean, I do, but it was almost like an out-of-body experience.

00:56:19Guest:Yeah.

00:56:20Guest:And I had a killer set, shook Johnny's hand, and...

00:56:26Guest:Did it change?

00:56:27Guest:Did it change your life?

00:56:28Guest:Yeah, the next day I got a holding deal from NBC.

00:56:32Guest:Mm-hmm.

00:56:32Guest:And... Did it change the audience coming?

00:56:36Guest:Like, did people show up?

00:56:37Guest:Not quite yet.

00:56:38Guest:Right.

00:56:39Guest:You know, because... I mean, it did at a club or something.

00:56:44Guest:It did at a club.

00:56:44Guest:Mm-hmm.

00:56:45Guest:And then I did like nine Tonight Shows in six months.

00:56:48Guest:Wow, so you were prepped.

00:56:50Guest:Johnny really liked me.

00:56:51Guest:Johnny really liked me.

00:56:52Guest:And I didn't realize how much he liked me.

00:56:55Guest:I wish I would have been more conscious of that.

00:56:58Guest:I was so full of myself, so egotistical.

00:57:01Guest:Yeah, because you're like, I'm doing another Tonight Show.

00:57:03Guest:You know what I mean?

00:57:04Guest:But you actually take yourself seriously, which is a huge mistake.

00:57:08Guest:You should really... That's why this second wave of success I'm having in the show is so... I have it really...

00:57:15Guest:you're humble yeah i'm not reading the reviews right you know that stuff well everyone loves you yeah they've been very nice to me about it yeah but that tonight show that was the pivotal point in our lives yeah and that era don't you feel yeah like that was the thing to do and then a letterman of course was a lot of people picked letterman they wanted to be letterman comics they had they didn't really want to but i i don't know that i wanted to be a carson comic i was too late for carson yeah you were too

00:57:44Marc:And I didn't get my first Letterman until long after a lot of my friends did.

00:57:48Marc:And it was so thrilling.

00:57:50Marc:It doesn't matter.

00:57:52Guest:It's such a personal journey.

00:57:56Guest:It really is.

00:57:57Guest:The first Tonight Show, the first Letterman.

00:57:59Guest:It's so amazing.

00:58:00Guest:It's such a personal.

00:58:02Marc:Now, a lot of that stuff doesn't really matter.

00:58:05Marc:But to you, to do Letterman, that was one of the things you were working for.

00:58:09Guest:That was the touch zone.

00:58:10Guest:That's the thing.

00:58:11Guest:That was our American Idol.

00:58:13Marc:Yeah, well, it was, but as a comic, it was validation.

00:58:16Guest:Oh, rites of passage.

00:58:17Guest:Rites of passage, sure.

00:58:18Marc:Rites of passage.

00:58:18Marc:And it was a validation.

00:58:20Marc:You know, when I, my first Letterman, I dressed up.

00:58:24Marc:And I love that part of show business.

00:58:25Marc:Like, even when I do a theater or a club where you're backstage and you're like, look at this garbage.

00:58:29Marc:This place is falling apart.

00:58:32Marc:There's sad food there.

00:58:34Marc:And who's this guy holding the thing?

00:58:36Marc:But I love being backstage because there's that moment where this is really the dirty part of show business.

00:58:40Marc:It's the walk to the clean part.

00:58:44Marc:It's theater, right, exactly.

00:58:46Marc:And then walk back to the dirty part.

00:58:48Marc:Right, exactly.

00:58:49Marc:And you did the thing.

00:58:50Marc:But I was so ecstatic.

00:58:51Marc:Every time I did Letterman, I was ecstatic.

00:58:53Marc:And the one time that I was able to sit and talk to him, I couldn't even believe it was happening.

00:58:59Marc:And it wasn't that long ago.

00:59:00Guest:Did you just keep looking at him when you were doing it?

00:59:02Guest:Yeah, I was looking at him right in the face.

00:59:04Guest:You just go, and they know you're looking like that.

00:59:06Guest:They go, oh, he's gone.

00:59:08Guest:He's out of his tree.

00:59:11Marc:Do you know what I mean?

00:59:11Marc:It was so thrilling.

00:59:13Marc:Like, it was the only time I did panel, and it was only a few years ago.

00:59:16Marc:I told this story about Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, because they'd both been on my podcast.

00:59:20Marc:And it got some real laughs.

00:59:22Marc:And the producer was happy.

00:59:23Marc:They're like, he's a great guest.

00:59:24Marc:And I'm like, just in time for it.

00:59:26Marc:Because I always wanted to be a panel comic.

00:59:28Marc:And I did that with Conan for years.

00:59:30Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:59:30Marc:But for me, watching Letterman and Richard Lewis or Jay or even George Miller, the panel guys.

00:59:35Marc:George Miller.

00:59:36Marc:Right.

00:59:36Marc:I love George.

00:59:37Guest:yeah i just love the panel guys the guys who had that dynamic with the host and you're like oh here he here comes what what's going on with this guy yeah i always wanted to be that and you know those guys were naturals at it yeah yeah you know what i mean like the steinberg and that was the early guy you know who'd sit with johnny right right you know do his thing but you're right george miller was a genius at it yeah you know and some people were really good at it

01:00:03Guest:I was more of like a joke guy.

01:00:07Guest:My panel was good, but it was joke oriented.

01:00:10Guest:I wanted to do jokes.

01:00:11Guest:I didn't know how to really interact with Johnny.

01:00:13Guest:I was terrified that I would upset him.

01:00:16Marc:Did you ever sit there for a minute?

01:00:18Guest:Yeah, yeah.

01:00:19Guest:No, I had nice talks with him.

01:00:20Guest:How are things going?

01:00:21Guest:He goes, good, good, good.

01:00:23Guest:I go, they're good.

01:00:24Guest:Thanks to you, Johnny.

01:00:25Guest:Don't thank me.

01:00:26Guest:He'd never take any credit for anything.

01:00:28Marc:You said you didn't do a lot of clubs because you were opening for musical acts and bigger venues.

01:00:33Guest:I did find certain clubs I did all the time, like the Comedy Works because I knew the people.

01:00:38Guest:Oh, it's the best, the Denver?

01:00:39Guest:Yeah, that one with the cave.

01:00:40Guest:It's almost too good.

01:00:41Marc:It's like you kill in there and you're like, that wasn't even a whole joke.

01:00:44Marc:Yeah, it's so true.

01:00:46Marc:It's so good.

01:00:47Marc:It almost feels like cheating.

01:00:49Marc:It's like, I can't trust that situation.

01:00:50Guest:It's true though it is.

01:00:52Guest:Then you try it later and nothing.

01:00:53Guest:Nothing, nothing.

01:00:54Guest:Hey, what about that?

01:00:56Guest:I got a big laugh on that pause.

01:00:58Guest:Nope, not here.

01:00:59Guest:No, not here.

01:01:00Guest:I don't know, there's something magic about that room.

01:01:02Guest:Well, I think it was just the ceilings are real low and downstairs.

01:01:06Guest:And it was like this.

01:01:08Guest:It was like an amphitheater.

01:01:09Guest:Yeah, a little teeny amphitheater.

01:01:10Guest:A little teeny amphitheater.

01:01:11Guest:And you just, the laughs rolled right down to you.

01:01:15Guest:Yeah, it was amazing.

01:01:15Marc:And it got loud in there.

01:01:16Marc:You could kill it.

01:01:17Marc:It's still amazing.

01:01:18Marc:You could kill it.

01:01:19Marc:So how many dates do you do now?

01:01:21Marc:Do you do Vegas?

01:01:22Marc:Do you do a run or not?

01:01:23Guest:100 and something probably.

01:01:24Guest:Really?

01:01:25Guest:I still do.

01:01:26Guest:I quit the regular show in Vegas.

01:01:28Guest:Yeah.

01:01:28Guest:Why?

01:01:29Guest:I just got tired of it.

01:01:29Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:01:30Guest:Well, I get tired of it.

01:01:31Guest:You got 120 shows you're competing with.

01:01:34Guest:Yeah.

01:01:35Guest:You know, and I just said, and then I got this show, and then I just said, I don't want to do this.

01:01:41Guest:I don't want to.

01:01:42Marc:And you have to live there, or did you fly back and forth?

01:01:44Guest:No, I live there.

01:01:44Guest:I live there.

01:01:45Guest:I've lived there for 10 years.

01:01:46Guest:You still live there?

01:01:47Guest:I've had the show there for 10 years.

01:01:49Guest:In Vegas?

01:01:50Guest:Yeah.

01:01:50Marc:So you live there now?

01:01:51Guest:Yeah, I live there now.

01:01:52Guest:Oh, you're just in town for a couple days?

01:01:53Guest:I'm in here.

01:01:54Guest:Yeah, I just came in to do some press and people want to talk to me because they think I'm funny.

01:02:00Guest:You are funny.

01:02:01Guest:I know, but you know, I was there for 10 years.

01:02:04Guest:Nobody called.

01:02:05Guest:I got to put a dress on and everybody wants to talk to me.

01:02:09Guest:It's true.

01:02:10Guest:I'm happy, but I know what it's like.

01:02:14Guest:I would talk to you anytime.

01:02:16Guest:Even before the dress.

01:02:17Guest:Thank you very much.

01:02:17Marc:Now, you had the same agent as Bob Hope.

01:02:19Marc:Did you ever spend time with Bob Hope?

01:02:21Guest:I did.

01:02:21Guest:Should I tell you my Bob Hope story?

01:02:23Guest:So, I'm at Bally's.

01:02:25Guest:Bob never played the stage.

01:02:28Guest:in Vegas he thought it was beneath them or his agent did or someone so we do corporates though and I said to my Frank I go I gotta meet Bob Hope I'm working in Bally's at the same time he goes alright I go what's he getting for this cause that's what comics want to go he's getting 250,000 Louis I go god really for just doing this he's getting 250,000 I go can you get me one of those I'll do a series of things for 250,000

01:02:57Guest:And so I go up there.

01:03:00Guest:I've finished my show.

01:03:01Guest:I'm up there in the back watching him from a table off to the side.

01:03:05Guest:How old was he then?

01:03:06Guest:Like 80s?

01:03:06Guest:Oh, man.

01:03:07Guest:He's got to be, yeah.

01:03:09Guest:Yeah.

01:03:10Guest:He looks terrific.

01:03:11Guest:Hey, I want to tell you, you know.

01:03:13Guest:I was having a great time.

01:03:14Guest:Anyway, do the joke.

01:03:17Guest:Was he killing it?

01:03:18Guest:Killed it.

01:03:19Guest:Killed it.

01:03:19Guest:They were crazy.

01:03:21Guest:Yeah.

01:03:21Guest:Yeah, yeah.

01:03:22Guest:Right?

01:03:23Guest:Yeah.

01:03:23Guest:And then, and I'm just, and he's doing, it's going on 90 minutes that he's up there.

01:03:29Guest:Really?

01:03:30Guest:And I'm super impressed.

01:03:31Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:03:32Guest:I go, 90?

01:03:34Guest:Beautiful.

01:03:35Guest:Then he starts with, hey, let me bring my wife up here, Dolores.

01:03:42Guest:And then they do the songs.

01:03:44Guest:You know what I mean?

01:03:45Guest:It's amazing.

01:03:47Guest:It's, you know that one?

01:03:48Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:03:49Guest:And then he goes,

01:03:50Guest:Thanks for the memory.

01:03:51Guest:And everybody goes crazy.

01:03:53Guest:So then Frank signals me.

01:03:55Guest:He's about ready to get off.

01:03:57Guest:And I come back.

01:03:58Guest:And you know how a makeshift stage in a banquet room.

01:04:03Guest:But a Bob Hope makeshift stage.

01:04:05Guest:A little different.

01:04:07Guest:And he comes.

01:04:08Guest:He's finished.

01:04:08Guest:He's done it.

01:04:10Guest:And he comes and you know how you're coming to a rail, you know, like a staircase?

01:04:15Guest:Right, down from the platform.

01:04:16Guest:Yeah, down from the platform.

01:04:18Guest:And he comes and they go, how was it, Bob?

01:04:20Guest:God damn it.

01:04:22Guest:I tripped on a fucking cord going out there and I could have been fucking killed.

01:04:30Guest:And so the whole time he was out there for 90 minutes, he had been waiting to yell at somebody.

01:04:37Guest:About a cord?

01:04:37Guest:Yeah.

01:04:38Guest:And he was so hot.

01:04:40Guest:Yeah.

01:04:40Guest:You want me to break my neck out there?

01:04:43Guest:And I just go, let go, Bob.

01:04:45Guest:Yeah.

01:04:45Guest:Yeah, who's in charge of that?

01:04:47Guest:And then Frank Rio goes, this is a young comedian, Louis Edison wanted to meet you.

01:04:53Guest:Oh, hi, kid.

01:04:55Guest:Anyway, if anybody knows, make sure those chords are never out there.

01:04:59Guest:Hi, kid.

01:05:02Guest:And that was it.

01:05:02Guest:That was it.

01:05:03Guest:That was it.

01:05:03Guest:Hi, kid.

01:05:04Marc:But I really appreciated it.

01:05:06Marc:Sometimes it's funny with comics where, because I love comedy, you love comedy, and you have your heroes and stuff.

01:05:12Marc:I couldn't meet Pryor.

01:05:15Marc:I just couldn't.

01:05:15Marc:I met him at the comedy show.

01:05:17Marc:Sure.

01:05:17Marc:When I was there, he was- But he wasn't very friendly.

01:05:20Guest:No, he was real aloof.

01:05:22Guest:I think he was in his head doing his thing, or he didn't want to talk.

01:05:25Marc:But I just remember it was after he burned himself up, and he was starting to rebuild.

01:05:29Marc:Oh, okay.

01:05:30Marc:And he went to the OR.

01:05:30Marc:It was when I was a doorman.

01:05:32Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:05:32Marc:And he bombed.

01:05:33Marc:you know and he had a hard time with some audience members there were these girls there they were all excited because there's some rock band who were just watching and they you know they were distracted and rich did everything he could and he's very vulnerable up there it's like really it's unbelievable it was it was really a lot and i watched him you know one of my heroes just sort of like have a hard time and then he got off stage and you know he's smoking a cigarette and i just watched him like walk down the hall with mitzi and it was like it was enough you know what am i going to

01:06:00Guest:Yeah, that's a beautiful image right there.

01:06:02Guest:I saw that too.

01:06:04Guest:I didn't want to say anything either.

01:06:06Marc:I just said hi.

01:06:06Marc:Yeah, yeah.

01:06:08Marc:There were guys who were, like even Rodney, who I met once.

01:06:12Guest:Hey, Mark.

01:06:14Marc:How are you doing?

01:06:15Marc:LeBeau told me the funniest story about Rodney and Sam.

01:06:18Marc:Because him and Sam had a relationship later.

01:06:20Marc:When Rodney was older and Sam had been up for a few days.

01:06:25Marc:I can't remember exactly the story.

01:06:26Marc:He and Sam?

01:06:28Marc:No, Sam had been up.

01:06:30Marc:Sam had been up and he was calling Rodney and he was in trouble of some kind.

01:06:33Marc:It looked like it looked after two days of that shit.

01:06:36Marc:Just straight partying.

01:06:38Marc:And I guess it was Carl was there and Sam was there.

01:06:40Marc:And Rodney walked in and goes, oh, look at little Nero.

01:06:43Guest:Rodney was the best.

01:06:49Guest:I was good friends with Rodney.

01:06:51Guest:You were?

01:06:51Guest:Yeah.

01:06:52Guest:I was with him when he died.

01:06:53Guest:You were?

01:06:54Guest:I was in the hospital, yeah.

01:06:55Marc:Oh my God, really?

01:06:56Guest:Yeah, I was there for 30 days with Joan.

01:06:59Marc:And later in life, he had gotten on medicine and he felt better, right?

01:07:03Marc:He was great.

01:07:05Guest:They did a surgery and he didn't come out of it.

01:07:07Guest:Oh, really?

01:07:08Guest:They were going to fix, I think, a vein or an aneurysm or something.

01:07:14Guest:Oh, no shit.

01:07:15Guest:And he never regained consciousness.

01:07:17Oh.

01:07:17Guest:You know, he was up there, you know, and he had a life.

01:07:21Marc:But I was happy that it seemed that he had found, because I think one of the reasons he gets a little overlooked is that he wasn't a social guy.

01:07:28Marc:No, he was a cranky.

01:07:29Marc:He was right before social media, really.

01:07:32Marc:But like with other comics, it seemed that he- Oh, he loved them.

01:07:35Marc:Yeah, he had a crew, though, just his guys and everything.

01:07:38Marc:And he was heavy, man.

01:07:40Marc:Richard Lewis used to say, he used to call depression the heaviness.

01:07:43Guest:Yeah.

01:07:44Guest:Rising head.

01:07:45Guest:Yeah, it's heavy, man.

01:07:45Guest:Yeah, yeah.

01:07:46Guest:He said to me one time, you know, you're all right because you're a goy.

01:07:50Guest:Yeah, yeah.

01:07:50Guest:You got a goy head, you know.

01:07:52Guest:He goes, I'm a Jew.

01:07:54Guest:I got a Jew head.

01:07:55Guest:I'm fucked.

01:07:56Guest:I'm fucked because I got a Jew head.

01:07:59Guest:I love him.

01:08:00Guest:And I just said, I love you, Rodney.

01:08:02Guest:He goes, do you, kid?

01:08:03Guest:Thanks a lot, man.

01:08:04Guest:Oh, that's beautiful.

01:08:05Guest:And I'd hug him.

01:08:05Guest:He hated being hugged.

01:08:07Guest:He goes, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

01:08:10Guest:I go, I'm going to hug you.

01:08:12Guest:I'm going to kiss you, too.

01:08:13Guest:Hey.

01:08:15Marc:You know who reminds me of him?

01:08:16Marc:I think my generation's equivalent is Attell.

01:08:19Marc:Yeah.

01:08:20Guest:Very, very similar.

01:08:21Guest:I agree with you.

01:08:22Guest:Yeah.

01:08:23Guest:I love Attell.

01:08:23Guest:I love him.

01:08:24Guest:Great joke.

01:08:25Guest:Such a great joke.

01:08:26Guest:Oh, my God.

01:08:27Marc:It's astounding.

01:08:28Marc:He's one of those guys where you just watch.

01:08:29Marc:I've known him forever.

01:08:31Marc:I rarely talk more than three minutes.

01:08:32Marc:He's like, what?

01:08:33Marc:I'm like, nothing.

01:08:34Marc:How you doing?

01:08:34Marc:Good.

01:08:35Marc:You?

01:08:35Marc:Yeah.

01:08:36Guest:But I like people that are really real like that.

01:08:40Marc:Oh, yeah.

01:08:40Marc:He's the best.

01:08:41Guest:You know what?

01:08:41Guest:I always admired all the comics who chose a course that they could live with, even though it wouldn't be the most lucrative course.

01:08:51Guest:And it would probably be a harder road.

01:08:53Marc:I don't think they have a choice.

01:08:55Guest:In their mind.

01:08:58Guest:Yeah, maybe in their mind, but they're really kind of heroes.

01:09:03Guest:They're heroes in their thing.

01:09:06Guest:They don't care.

01:09:07Guest:I don't care if you like me or not.

01:09:08Guest:I like those people.

01:09:10Guest:I don't care if anyone likes me.

01:09:12Guest:I think Rodney...

01:09:14Guest:I think he liked being liked.

01:09:17Guest:Well, I think we all do deep down.

01:09:18Guest:It's just hard to get to it.

01:09:20Guest:Rodney loved comics when they would hang around.

01:09:25Guest:He was always surprised that he was so famous.

01:09:28Guest:Do you know that?

01:09:29Guest:No.

01:09:30Guest:He was surprised he was so famous.

01:09:31Guest:Oh, really?

01:09:32Guest:You know me?

01:09:33Guest:Hey, you like that, huh?

01:09:36Guest:Hey, you're a pretty girl, aren't you?

01:09:38Guest:But he was always really sweet.

01:09:40Guest:He was really sweet.

01:09:41Guest:That's good to hear.

01:09:42Guest:Yeah, you know the greatest thing about our business is that we're all pretty connected.

01:09:48Marc:We are.

01:09:49Marc:It's a secret club.

01:09:50Marc:And even if we don't like each other for whatever reason, you see each other, you're like, hey, you're still alive.

01:09:55Marc:You're still alive.

01:09:56Marc:You all right?

01:09:56Marc:Yeah.

01:09:57Marc:What happened to that other guy?

01:09:58Marc:Oh, no good.

01:09:59Marc:Oh, that's sad.

01:10:01Marc:It's true, isn't it?

01:10:02Marc:That's weird.

01:10:02Marc:But I love you, and you're one of the great comics, and I love talking to comics, and it was great talking to you.

01:10:07Marc:You feel like we did it?

01:10:08Guest:Thank you.

01:10:08Guest:Yeah, we did it.

01:10:09Marc:Okay, good.

01:10:10Guest:Yeah, and we'll do it again.

01:10:12Guest:Sure.

01:10:12Guest:We'll come back.

01:10:14Guest:I'd love to talk about more stuff.

01:10:17Marc:Okay.

01:10:18Marc:Thanks, Louie.

01:10:18Guest:Thank you.

01:10:20Marc:First of all, congratulations on the, what is it, the third season now?

01:10:28Guest:Yeah, third season of Baskets.

01:10:30Guest:Or as some people say, I love you on buckets.

01:10:32Guest:On buckets.

01:10:33Guest:And last year you won an Emmy, right?

01:10:35Guest:First year, yeah, first year I won the Emmy.

01:10:38Marc:Last year Trump won the Emmy.

01:10:39Marc:Trump won?

01:10:40Marc:I mean, Baldwin.

01:10:42Marc:That's right, Baldwin, that's right.

01:10:43Marc:Yeah.

01:10:43Marc:But so you did the third season, people love it, and then on the cover you're in drag on the cover of the book.

01:10:48Guest:Yeah, yeah.

01:10:48Guest:Yeah.

01:10:49Guest:Hey, Mom.

01:10:49Guest:It's good, isn't it?

01:10:50Guest:Yeah.

01:10:51Guest:That's the episode I won the Emmy for, the Easter brunch episode.

01:10:56Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:10:57Guest:That's great.

01:10:58Guest:It was a lot of fun.

01:10:59Guest:So how did the book, how did it come to be?

01:11:01Guest:I was overwhelmed one day after playing the part, basically, or feeling it.

01:11:09Guest:I started feeling different about my mom, because I'm playing a mom.

01:11:14Guest:Yeah.

01:11:14Guest:And I went home, and my phone wrote...

01:11:17Guest:I just started writing a letter to her.

01:11:22Guest:Hey mom, how are ya?

01:11:23Guest:I'm sorry I haven't written for so long.

01:11:26Guest:You know, she's been gone for a long time.

01:11:28Guest:But I hadn't, I talk to her all the time.

01:11:32Guest:You do?

01:11:32Guest:Yeah, I talk to people, my dad and my mom.

01:11:35Guest:Really?

01:11:36Guest:My brothers and sisters, uh-huh.

01:11:37Guest:When you're just at home?

01:11:39Guest:You know, when I'm out somewhere, I might go, look at this setup, huh?

01:11:43Guest:Right?

01:11:43Guest:My dad, look at this setup, huh?

01:11:45Guest:You need 10 minutes in here, Dad.

01:11:47Guest:You could get this all straightened out.

01:11:49Guest:He's got a mishmash.

01:11:50Guest:I don't know what he's doing with these things.

01:11:52Guest:Trying to reach these.

01:11:53Guest:It looks Scientology-ish to me.

01:11:56Guest:I got obsessed with the sound.

01:11:59Guest:But that's your dad, huh?

01:11:59Guest:That's my dad.

01:12:00Guest:Look at this setup.

01:12:02Guest:What is this?

01:12:04Guest:Is this a craftsman house?

01:12:05Guest:They're so dingy and dark, for God's sake.

01:12:08Guest:You got to open up at least part of the roof to get some damn light in.

01:12:12Guest:And my mom would go, hey, would you ever consider selling that rug?

01:12:17Yeah.

01:12:17Guest:Wow, kid, that's a beauty.

01:12:20Guest:What is that, a 9x12?

01:12:22Guest:Is it an 8x6?

01:12:23Guest:I have a perfect spot for that.

01:12:25Guest:If you're ever going to get rid of it, I wish you would just let me know.

01:12:27Marc:So your parents exist in you all the time.

01:12:30Marc:All the time.

01:12:31Marc:I never thought about the practical therapeutic benefits of that.

01:12:38Guest:It's good because I have actually thought...

01:12:41Guest:I just was mean to that person, Dad, because of you, because you were mean.

01:12:46Guest:That's how I got that voice.

01:12:48Guest:I never was mean.

01:12:49Guest:You were mean, then I learned how to be mean, and now I'm mean, but it's really you yelling at the person at the airline.

01:12:56Guest:Oh, that's interesting.

01:12:57Guest:It's hard to explain that to the person at the airline.

01:13:00Guest:Yeah, I always have to go back as my mother and go, listen.

01:13:04Guest:I'm so sorry.

01:13:06Guest:Because it's really true because I will always go and apologize and go, listen, that wasn't me.

01:13:12Guest:That was just, I'm really sorry.

01:13:14Guest:I don't know what got into me.

01:13:16Guest:I'm fat.

01:13:17Guest:I'm hungry.

01:13:19Guest:So I'm hangry.

01:13:20Guest:I'm hangry, which I hate that expression.

01:13:24Marc:So that's interesting though.

01:13:25Marc:So you're in constant conversation with these parents that have been gone a long time.

01:13:30Marc:But your brothers and sisters too?

01:13:31Guest:Yeah, like I'll say to my brother, you know, I have, yeah, we've lost seven, believe it or not, at 11.

01:13:37Guest:Wow.

01:13:38Guest:So I'll say, I wish I would have done more to help you.

01:13:40Guest:I wish I could have helped you be healthier.

01:13:42Guest:I wish I could have saved you.

01:13:46Guest:You know, because I have a, you know, when you grow up in a big family like that, it's kind of like growing up in a commune, you know?

01:13:51Marc:Yeah, yeah.

01:13:52Guest:You know, these, everybody has their place, and you're part of all them.

01:13:56Guest:Like, I'm part of them.

01:13:57Guest:You know, my sister Mary who loved to eat and my mom who loved to eat, you know, and I'm, I'm part of my dad who loved to indulge in alcohol.

01:14:07Guest:I, you know, that addiction I have, but I don't compulsively eat anymore.

01:14:11Guest:So I feel like I'm, I just feel so grateful for that.

01:14:15Guest:You feel better, right?

01:14:16Guest:Yeah.

01:14:16Guest:Cause I used to like,

01:14:17Guest:I still size up all the food I come across.

01:14:22Guest:I'm at a hotel and they have free a cauldron of pretzels that you can take.

01:14:30Guest:And then they have a cauldron of cookies next to the cauldron of pretzels.

01:14:34Guest:I guess for a healthy or a not healthy choice.

01:14:37Guest:And then they have all the free sodas, juices in a little refrigerator that you can just take.

01:14:44Guest:Like you can just take it, I say.

01:14:46Guest:Yeah.

01:14:47Guest:Yeah, take all you want.

01:14:48Guest:Can I empty it?

01:14:50Guest:Because I'm a poor kid.

01:14:52Guest:You know, like I'm never going to have anything again.

01:14:55Guest:Can I have it all?

01:14:56Guest:And so, but I have to, I talk to myself about that.

01:15:00Guest:But what about when it's in the room, man?

01:15:02Guest:They have it in the room too, but I don't, the mini bar thing, because it's a rip off in my mind.

01:15:08Guest:So I just go, I'm not going to, and also, if you don't have anything in the mini bar,

01:15:14Guest:then that's the key.

01:15:15Guest:Are you telling them to empty it?

01:15:16Guest:I always empty, no, but I always take everything out and put my water and stuff in the little fridge.

01:15:21Marc:But like after a show, you don't go back and eat the candy bar?

01:15:25Marc:No, no.

01:15:25Marc:Do you?

01:15:26Marc:Yeah.

01:15:26Marc:Oh.

01:15:27Marc:I don't know what else to do.

01:15:28Marc:I'm trying to reward myself.

01:15:30Guest:Well, I always have the protein bars with me.

01:15:34Guest:Oh yeah, which ones?

01:15:36Guest:Quest usually, because they're the least good tasting.

01:15:39Guest:Yeah.

01:15:39Guest:Not, I mean in a bad way, but they're the least sugary.

01:15:42Guest:Right, right, right.

01:15:43Guest:There's...

01:15:44Guest:one gram of sugar in them.

01:15:46Guest:Oh, that's not bad.

01:15:47Guest:Yes.

01:15:47Guest:And like 28 grams of protein.

01:15:49Guest:Oh, great.

01:15:50Guest:So I need it.

01:15:51Guest:Cause I, cause when you're in a, when you're stopped compulsively eating, you forget to eat.

01:15:57Guest:Really?

01:15:58Guest:Yeah.

01:15:58Guest:Because you, you're either all, all in or all out.

01:16:01Guest:So you have to, you know, I have to have a schedule in that.

01:16:05Guest:But the hard part is when you're on the road or when you're doing a book tour, you know this.

01:16:09Guest:Yeah.

01:16:10Guest:You're going everywhere in one day.

01:16:12Guest:You're going to over 100 places.

01:16:15Guest:Doing like three bookstores in a day.

01:16:16Guest:It's like doing drugs.

01:16:18Guest:It's like kind of a drug type of thing.

01:16:20Guest:Oh, with the junket thing.

01:16:21Guest:So you do a radio show, then you go to the store, and then you're going to do a dinner or whatever.

01:16:25Guest:And then you do.

01:16:25Guest:No, but yes.

01:16:26Guest:But no, I mean, you go to the radio, like you go do a radio, you go do a TV, you go do a podcast.

01:16:32Guest:Yeah.

01:16:33Guest:Then you go, then you, so you got to plan lunch in there because you know, the agents and managers will fill up all the time.

01:16:40Guest:Right.

01:16:40Guest:They don't care about you.

01:16:41Guest:Yeah.

01:16:42Guest:Yeah.

01:16:42Guest:They care about getting the book on that thing out.

01:16:44Marc:Yeah.

01:16:45Marc:So this book.

01:16:46Marc:Yeah.

01:16:46Marc:What did you learn about yourself doing this?

01:16:49Yeah.

01:16:49Guest:how ungrateful I was to my mom at times.

01:16:54Guest:But I also understood that I was good to her too.

01:16:59Guest:But I learned mostly, man, you should ask your parents what you wanna ask them.

01:17:05Guest:Yeah.

01:17:07Guest:Because...

01:17:09Guest:You won't get, when they go, you don't get a chance.

01:17:12Guest:Like I would like to know in my mom, I was like, how did you, what was it with dad?

01:17:16Guest:Why would you stick with this monster that long?

01:17:19Guest:Was it just a time thing where when you have 11 children in the 60s, you don't, or 50s, you don't...

01:17:29Guest:Where are you gonna go with 10 kids?

01:17:32Guest:Nobody's gonna take you in.

01:17:33Guest:There's no shelters back then.

01:17:34Marc:Sure, and what are you gonna do with your life?

01:17:36Guest:I think was a big question.

01:17:38Guest:And my mom, this is a great, this is one thing about my mom.

01:17:43Guest:When my dad quit drinking when he was 69, my mom turned to me and said, I told you he'd quit.

01:17:51Guest:And I said, that's...

01:17:53Guest:Even then I knew that was really the pathology of our family.

01:18:00Guest:As long as it works out at some point.

01:18:02Guest:Yeah, you're validated.

01:18:04Guest:Yeah, you're validated.

01:18:05Guest:She won, I guess.

01:18:07Marc:I guess.

01:18:08Guest:She never gave up.

01:18:09Marc:Did he become a better person after he quit?

01:18:11Guest:No, he was beating her.

01:18:12Guest:No one's worse than he went to one AA meeting and went, I don't need this fucking AA.

01:18:18Guest:And then we had to quit going to Al-Anon, because we didn't have any strength with that.

01:18:24Guest:With alcoholism, everything works off the alcoholic and the alcoholism.

01:18:31Guest:It all fuels.

01:18:31Guest:When you get home, you say, you think he's drinking?

01:18:37Guest:When you walk in, that's your big question.

01:18:39Guest:That's an unfortunate thing to grow up with.

01:18:42Guest:I always say it's like fallout.

01:18:44Guest:Of course, like shrapnel.

01:18:46Guest:Yeah, it is.

01:18:47Guest:It's like shrapnel.

01:18:47Guest:What is that?

01:18:48Guest:Ask me.

01:18:50Guest:Ask me, Louie.

01:18:52Guest:Louie, you're the laziest human being in the world.

01:18:55Guest:Right?

01:18:56Guest:Yeah.

01:18:57Guest:And I go, well, thank you, Father.

01:18:58Guest:He goes, it's not a compliment.

01:19:00Guest:That's always made it come bad.

01:19:03Guest:And then my mom would chime in, well, you did say world, Andy.

01:19:06Guest:And if he was, wouldn't that be something?

01:19:10Guest:She had it all worked out.

01:19:12Guest:My mom was the loveliest.

01:19:13Guest:You would have loved my mom, honestly.

01:19:15Guest:You would have loved her, yeah.

01:19:16Guest:She's every good part of me.

01:19:18Guest:Every good part of me is my mom.

01:19:19Marc:That's sweet.

01:19:20Marc:But right, so what do you mean you quit going out on it after he went to 1AA meeting?

01:19:25Marc:Yeah, and so he kind of threw a bucket of water on all that.

01:19:28Marc:We didn't know.

01:19:31Guest:We didn't have any self-worth.

01:19:33Guest:He owned all of us.

01:19:35Guest:He owned all of us.

01:19:36Guest:But I wish my mom would have kept going.

01:19:39Guest:I think it could have changed her and maybe she could have left.

01:19:42Marc:Or at least had a little more boundaries for herself.

01:19:46Guest:And then people who quit drinking

01:19:50Guest:find ways to be meaner in some other kind of side.

01:19:54Marc:If they don't do the other work.

01:19:55Guest:If they're dry drunks.

01:19:57Guest:I'm a little dry myself.

01:19:59Guest:Are you?

01:19:59Guest:These days, yeah.

01:20:00Guest:Yeah, you haven't been going to meetings?

01:20:02Guest:No.

01:20:02Guest:I'm going to a meeting tonight because I said, damn it, get to the meeting.

01:20:08Guest:Then I looked at where it was and I went, you're still going.

01:20:10Guest:Because the traffic here is almost unbearable.

01:20:14Guest:I don't know how people even go out of their house.

01:20:16Guest:If I had a job, I'd just quit it.

01:20:18Guest:I wouldn't drive every day like that.

01:20:20Marc:It's the worst.

01:20:21Marc:I wouldn't be able to do it.

01:20:22Marc:It's just fucking horrible.

01:20:24Marc:There's no rhyme or reason to it.

01:20:25Marc:It's every day, all day long.

01:20:28Guest:Let's go back to when they were odd and even days.

01:20:31Marc:You're right.

01:20:32Marc:I like to go out late at night.

01:20:33Marc:I like when I drive home from the comedy store at midnight on a Tuesday.

01:20:36Marc:I'm like, this is how it's supposed to be.

01:20:39Guest:This is how it was when you moved here.

01:20:40Guest:Yeah, you can just drive.

01:20:42Guest:You remember in the 80s when it was really not too bad.

01:20:44Guest:Not too bad.

01:20:45Guest:Now when I come here, I just go, how did they do it?

01:20:48Guest:I don't know what the hell's going on because it's not going to get any better.

01:20:50Guest:And you can't get mad at anyone really about it.

01:20:53Guest:Because you're all in the same boat.

01:20:55Guest:Yeah, it's despair.

01:20:56Guest:Because how does it change?

01:20:58Guest:It doesn't change.

01:20:59Guest:And that's when you might yell at your mother if you had to be in the car with her.

01:21:03Guest:While she was going on those times.

01:21:05Guest:My mom would go, well, look at this.

01:21:06Guest:Now, what kind of car is that, Louie?

01:21:09Guest:Oh, God.

01:21:10Marc:Why aren't you angry?

01:21:13Marc:My mom was just here.

01:21:14Marc:I gotta read how you handled it.

01:21:17Guest:I don't get along with her as good as I want to.

01:21:18Guest:Why don't you become friends with her and stop thinking of her as your mother?

01:21:22Guest:That was always the problem.

01:21:24Guest:You never thought of her as your mother?

01:21:28Guest:Who are you?

01:21:29Guest:Just some lady I grew up with.

01:21:31Guest:Listen, can I tell you how valuable it would be?

01:21:34Guest:You gotta just start hanging out with her.

01:21:35Guest:You gotta bite the bullet.

01:21:37Guest:Listen, she put up with you all those years.

01:21:38Guest:Kinda.

01:21:40Guest:Is a young boy, though, didn't she?

01:21:41Marc:Yeah.

01:21:43Guest:I think she... Yeah, I mean... Well, why don't you have those conversations?

01:21:48Guest:But you've got to put out and go to the dinner and sit through it.

01:21:51Guest:And you've got to... God, she knows everything about you, and you need to know everything about her.

01:21:59Guest:I'm trying.

01:21:59Marc:So you can get...

01:22:00Marc:I'm not telling you what to do.

01:22:01Marc:No, but she came over, because I got the new house, and it's got a guest room.

01:22:04Marc:I thought, this will be good.

01:22:06Marc:It's grown up someplace for my mother to stay.

01:22:08Marc:I can't wait for the complaint she made.

01:22:11Marc:Oh, she didn't?

01:22:12Marc:No, she's so scared of me that she just walks on eggshells.

01:22:17Marc:But she came out, and I'm like, there's the room.

01:22:20Marc:It's nice.

01:22:21Marc:I immediately got physically ill when she got here.

01:22:24Marc:I was like, oh, I'm sick.

01:22:26Marc:And then after two days, I was just sort of like...

01:22:28Marc:now I'm never gonna get her to stay at a hotel again.

01:22:33Marc:Where does she live?

01:22:34Marc:Florida.

01:22:35Marc:Oh, yeah, she probably doesn't even wanna.

01:22:37Marc:She must have had fun though.

01:22:38Marc:No, it was fun.

01:22:39Marc:I guess it's just hard because it's not that we weren't close, but I don't quite know how to be around her for more than a day.

01:22:47Guest:Because you are selfish.

01:22:50Guest:And what does she like to do?

01:22:52Guest:You find out what she likes to do and go do it.

01:22:54Guest:I bought her a purse.

01:22:55Marc:That's nice.

01:22:56Marc:Yeah.

01:22:57Marc:Yeah.

01:22:57Marc:We went shopping.

01:22:58Marc:We went to see art.

01:22:59Marc:There you go.

01:23:00Marc:Yeah, we did stuff.

01:23:01Guest:You did stuff.

01:23:02Guest:Yeah.

01:23:02Guest:What is her hang around thing in Florida?

01:23:05Guest:I don't know.

01:23:05Guest:Does she play cards at all?

01:23:07Guest:Does she do any kind of thing?

01:23:08Marc:She likes to walk her dogs and she does her exercises.

01:23:13Marc:She goes to the Pilates and they go sit at the pool sometimes.

01:23:16Marc:Maybe they play cards.

01:23:17Marc:I don't know.

01:23:18Marc:It sounds like you were nice to her and you were just hard on yourself.

01:23:21Marc:I was nice.

01:23:21Marc:Well, that's a, yeah, I was.

01:23:23Marc:I was sad that I got ill.

01:23:24Marc:And I don't think it was her fault, but she got here the day after.

01:23:27Guest:Oh, you got sick?

01:23:28Marc:Yeah.

01:23:29Marc:Oh, physically sick?

01:23:30Marc:Yeah, physically sick.

01:23:31Marc:And I felt bad.

01:23:32Marc:Did she take care of you?

01:23:34Marc:Oh, no, that's her thing.

01:23:36Marc:She's like, I'm not, that Florence Nightingale thing's not for me.

01:23:39Marc:Did she say that?

01:23:40Marc:She said it all my life.

01:23:41Guest:Oh, you'd have to talk to her about that.

01:23:43Guest:Oh, yeah?

01:23:44Guest:Why not?

01:23:45Guest:Like, what isn't the right thing to say?

01:23:46Guest:Go, Mom, what does that mean?

01:23:48Guest:That means I never took care of you.

01:23:50Guest:You should say, that really screwed me up.

01:23:51Guest:She does.

01:23:52Marc:I've done it from the stage.

01:23:53Marc:I've done it on the podcast.

01:23:55Marc:All she says now, she's like, I'm sorry.

01:23:57Guest:I know, but what?

01:23:58Guest:She's gotten better.

01:23:59Guest:Oh, good.

01:24:00Guest:Because maybe she was trying to make you stronger.

01:24:04Marc:I think she just didn't know how to really do it.

01:24:07Guest:Maybe no one, you know, did you ever ask her how it was for her?

01:24:10Guest:Yeah, yeah, I talk about that.

01:24:11Guest:And so that must have been hard.

01:24:12Marc:Yeah, I think with my parents' generation, they didn't know how to be parents.

01:24:16Marc:It didn't come natural.

01:24:18Guest:Listen, because it was, I don't think it,

01:24:20Guest:They knew, because they were raised by people who just kind of pushed them out in the yard and said, get the lawn done, right?

01:24:30Guest:Back in those days, you had a bunch of chores.

01:24:32Guest:My dad talked about it like he had built the house himself.

01:24:38Guest:I don't know if you know this, Louie, but not everybody has wooden floors.

01:24:44Guest:And I go, what?

01:24:45Guest:I didn't know where he was going.

01:24:47Guest:Dirt!

01:24:49Guest:That's what I'm talking about, dirt!

01:24:52Guest:And for a floor, you're complaining.

01:24:56Guest:Dirt.

01:24:57Guest:Dirt.

01:24:58Guest:We had a dirt floor.

01:25:02Guest:And I just thought he was so funny.

01:25:04Guest:I didn't know he was so funny.

01:25:05Guest:I thought he was kidding.

01:25:06Guest:He goes, no, it was dirt, Louie.

01:25:08Guest:A friend of mine had a sod roof.

01:25:12Guest:I just laugh at that stuff.

01:25:13Guest:But he was serious.

01:25:14Guest:This has been such a good thing for me, this book.

01:25:18Guest:This book in the baskets.

01:25:19Guest:Yeah, because I wrote all the stuff.

01:25:20Guest:I wrote all the stuff.

01:25:22Guest:Did you get emotional?

01:25:24Guest:You should hear the audio.

01:25:26Guest:I cry through the whole thing.

01:25:27Guest:Really?

01:25:27Guest:I cry a lot in it.

01:25:28Guest:Yeah, because I said, what am I going to do, not cry?

01:25:32Guest:I mean, you can still hear it, but you can understand it, but I...

01:25:36Guest:I cry more.

01:25:37Guest:Yeah, I cry more too.

01:25:39Guest:Yeah, it's good for us.

01:25:40Guest:If we don't cry, I'll eat and I'll be mean.

01:25:47Guest:It's better for me to get that loss that we're dealing with.

01:25:51Marc:What did we lose?

01:25:52Marc:What are we grieving?

01:25:53Marc:The lack of a good childhood?

01:25:55Guest:Yeah, your mom didn't take care of you.

01:25:58Guest:How about that?

01:25:59Guest:My dad didn't ever, I don't remember him saying, I really love you, I'm really proud of you.

01:26:03Guest:You're all right, kid.

01:26:05Guest:You're all right, kid.

01:26:06Guest:You know, you got a point, Louie.

01:26:08Guest:It's too bad it's at the top of your head.

01:26:10Guest:That's what he used to say.

01:26:12Marc:My mom actually has gotten, she does it now.

01:26:15Marc:I'm proud of you.

01:26:15Marc:I love you.

01:26:16Guest:Yeah, she should be.

01:26:18Marc:I did all right.

01:26:19Guest:Yeah, you did all right.

01:26:20Guest:I heard you on a Bill Simmons podcast.

01:26:23Guest:You were just so good, and it was so interesting to hear what you did, how you did it, and what you did.

01:26:29Guest:I love listening to him.

01:26:30Guest:I think he's an innovator like you are.

01:26:32Guest:It was interesting.

01:26:33Guest:Is he as nice as I think he is?

01:26:34Guest:He's very nice, a guy.

01:26:35Guest:And he's a little snide, right?

01:26:37Guest:He's snide.

01:26:38Marc:I like his snideness.

01:26:39Marc:He's a real Boston guy.

01:26:41Guest:Yeah, he's snide.

01:26:41Guest:He's got a little snide.

01:26:42Guest:I like all of that group.

01:26:44Guest:I like all that group, Jimmy and all those guys who you know would shave your head.

01:26:50Guest:Sure, while you're sleeping.

01:26:52Guest:Sure, yeah.

01:26:52Guest:If you got drunk, they'd write on your face.

01:26:54Guest:Yeah, they'd write on your face.

01:26:58Guest:Which I would never do but would think it would be funny, but I would feel terrible forever.

01:27:02Marc:No, you'd be the guy going like, don't do it, don't do it.

01:27:05Marc:Oh, you're doing it.

01:27:06Guest:Let me put the exclamation point.

01:27:08Guest:Yeah, I'm just going to do a little.

01:27:09Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.

01:27:10Guest:I put the exclamation point.

01:27:12Marc:How has it changed?

01:27:13Marc:Like the show, are you doing dates?

01:27:18Guest:Yeah.

01:27:18Marc:And has it changed the more people coming out or what?

01:27:24Marc:You can't tell.

01:27:24Guest:You know, I can't tell.

01:27:26Guest:I got my crowd.

01:27:27Guest:Yeah.

01:27:27Guest:But then I hear every show, we love you, Christine.

01:27:31Yeah.

01:27:31Guest:Oh, really?

01:27:31Guest:From Baskets?

01:27:33Guest:Yeah, they really love that character.

01:27:35Guest:Oh, yeah?

01:27:35Guest:They are in love with her.

01:27:36Guest:You know, they'll come, and people will just hug me sometimes in an airport and go, I just love Christine.

01:27:42Guest:And I go, oh.

01:27:44Guest:I'll tell her you said hi.

01:27:45Guest:But there's a lot of you in that.

01:27:47Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:27:49Guest:But we're both a lot of our parents.

01:27:52Guest:So what book did we have to choose from?

01:27:57Guest:We became them.

01:27:58Marc:We became them.

01:28:00Marc:I'm fighting it, though.

01:28:01Marc:You seem to have allowed it to happen.

01:28:03Guest:Yeah, I put the dress on and everything.

01:28:06Guest:I didn't know this character was gonna turn into my mother, I'll be honest with you.

01:28:10Guest:That just happened.

01:28:11Guest:Because I started saying to Jonathan Kreisel, a great director and a great friend and a great...

01:28:15Guest:really knows how to make stuff.

01:28:18Guest:You know, Portlandia, what a genius idea.

01:28:22Guest:I'd say to him, hey, do you mind if I try it like my mom?

01:28:26Guest:And he'd always go, yeah.

01:28:27Guest:And that was the right thing, because I was just trying to find out who it was and kind of make myself disappear.

01:28:34Guest:And it was so much fun.

01:28:35Guest:First of all,

01:28:38Guest:I really appreciate what women must go through because, you know, men, we don't get all that get up and all that stuff.

01:28:46Guest:You need to smell your clothes to make sure that they're... You'll ask other people, does this look all right?

01:28:51Guest:I do anyway.

01:28:52Guest:I don't know.

01:28:53Guest:I have pictures from me in the 80s that look like I'm in a clown outfit because I thought, yeah, that's a pretty color shirt.

01:29:01Yeah.

01:29:01Marc:I have pictures of me on TV in a lot of different clown outfits.

01:29:05Guest:Yeah, it's crazy.

01:29:06Guest:Why the fuck?

01:29:06Guest:What was I thinking?

01:29:08Guest:Can't someone mention anything?

01:29:10Guest:I had striped bell bottoms on once.

01:29:12Guest:I looked like a Ferris wheel.

01:29:14Guest:You know?

01:29:15Guest:A carousel.

01:29:16Guest:That's what it looked like.

01:29:17Guest:A carousel going around.

01:29:19Guest:Just pictures and pictures.

01:29:21Guest:You know how lucky are we though, Mark?

01:29:24Guest:80s, 90s, 2000s.

01:29:27Guest:You know, 2010s.

01:29:28Guest:Come on, we did, that's 40 years, right?

01:29:32Guest:We're 40 years.

01:29:33Guest:You must be very close.

01:29:35Guest:This is my 40th year.

01:29:36Marc:Of stand-up?

01:29:38Yeah.

01:29:38Marc:I think since the first, I started working in 88, 98, 2008, so almost 30 years.

01:29:45Guest:30 years standup.

01:29:46Marc:Yeah.

01:29:47Marc:Yeah, yeah.

01:29:48Marc:Unbelievable.

01:29:48Guest:Wow.

01:29:49Guest:Unbelievable.

01:29:50Guest:It's crazy.

01:29:51Guest:Yeah.

01:29:51Guest:Do you remember how hard it was?

01:29:53Guest:Well, yeah.

01:29:55Guest:I mean, I was kind of driven, though, and I...

01:30:01Guest:You know, I had a little pocket full of fat jokes.

01:30:04Guest:And boy, everybody loves funny or something.

01:30:07Guest:So I always got them with that.

01:30:09Guest:And then...

01:30:13Guest:Evolved.

01:30:14Guest:I always asked to be the MC.

01:30:17Guest:Because I knew I could use that time to develop myself.

01:30:21Guest:No one wanted it.

01:30:23Guest:No one wants to be the MC.

01:30:24Guest:In Minneapolis?

01:30:24Guest:In Minneapolis.

01:30:25Guest:Nobody wants to be the MC.

01:30:27Guest:I want to because I could try out stupid ideas or they'd come into my head.

01:30:33Marc:Do you remember Tom Arnold?

01:30:34Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:30:36Marc:I just worked with him a couple weeks ago.

01:30:38Marc:I did some benefit or something at the store, and he was on before me just bringing his... Yeah, he's so great.

01:30:44Guest:He's such a study in everything, isn't he?

01:30:45Marc:I don't know what's going on, but he basically did... He truncated his one-man show that basically ends with, I think, his dad dying of cancer or something.

01:30:55Marc:So he's doing a 12-minute set, and he's got cancer in it at the end.

01:31:01Marc:And then I go up next and I'm like, Jesus Christ.

01:31:05Marc:Did you say something?

01:31:06Guest:Yeah, of course I did.

01:31:07Marc:Of course I did.

01:31:07Marc:I said, I'm going to start with cancer.

01:31:11Marc:And end with, I'm going to be a baby.

01:31:13Guest:Yeah, exactly.

01:31:13Guest:I'm not Florence Nightingale.

01:31:16Guest:I don't buy that crap.

01:31:18Guest:Huh, Mark?

01:31:19Marc:Yeah.

01:31:21Marc:Well, look, I'm excited for you.

01:31:24Marc:I'm excited about the book.

01:31:25Marc:I'm glad you came by.

01:31:26Marc:You make me laugh.

01:31:27Marc:And this looks great.

01:31:28Guest:You know, it's always great to see you.

01:31:29Guest:And thank you for, I wanted to mention, when I did your podcast last, I had so many comments and people coming up to me about us talking.

01:31:42Guest:Oh, that's great.

01:31:43Guest:About our dads and our experiences.

01:31:46Guest:Oh, yeah.

01:31:47Guest:So thank you so much.

01:31:48Guest:It helps people.

01:31:49Guest:It helps, and it helps us.

01:31:50Guest:Yeah, I think so.

01:31:51Guest:Yeah.

01:31:51Guest:Yeah, I always love it.

01:31:53Guest:Can I... What?

01:31:54Guest:Can you give me your mom's address, and I'll send her the book?

01:31:58Guest:I got... They sent me five.

01:32:00Guest:Well, let me sign one for her.

01:32:02Guest:Okay.

01:32:02Guest:Is that okay?

01:32:02Marc:Yeah, I'll let you sign this one.

01:32:03Marc:Okay.

01:32:04Marc:All right, thanks, Louis.

01:32:05Marc:All right, thank you, Mark.

01:32:15Bye.