#492 - Tom Green on How He Got a Show on MTV, Pushing the Envelope When He Hosted Saturday Night Live and His Documentary About His Life

And I just for whatever reason, decided, after I do that, I'm going to lie down on the boardroom table in front everyone ray shaving cream all over my face and scream that I want to be on MTV.

So I did that, and everyone's going, what the hell's this kid in?

And that I took the shaving cream and I walked up to the guy who looked like he was in charge, and I put some on his face.

They called the next day and they picked up the show next day.

Yeah, episode four with Tom Green. I have a list of most influential people that I would eventually like to interview. Okay, now we've marked off the second one, so maybe three now. So on my list, I have David Letterman, Mark Grace, the baseball player, Sting the wrestler, Conan O'Brien, Tom Green, Steve Martin, Adam Durretz, and Garth Brooks. We've had Adam on this show before. Yeah, so he's off the list. Garth, does that count that I've interview him any times? Just

What were your thoughts on it?

I thought it was awesome, Like I was like right behind when he was like super famous. I really got to know him through reruns in his movies. But it was so cool to kind of finally meet him and learn his story after watching the documentary.

Documentary is great, I think too. He thought it was cool we had watched it because it had just come out the night before and he hasn't been able to talk about it with anyone because nobody's really been able to see it.

Yeah, it was so fresh.

Yeah.

So Tom Green has a documentary out, He's got a comedy special out, He's got a war part docuseriies headed to Amazon Prime Video. Is that out now, yeah, series, you can check it all out. I watched every episode of Tom Green Show. I forgot some of the stuff, like the cancer stuff. I forgot how real that was until watching it on the documentary.

That's kind of when I got to know him first. When that story came out, I was like, Oh, that's crazy.

Well, you wonder too, because Andy Kaufman, you know, he died of cancer. And Tom Green was very much a performance artist, not in every way, and I think at times I think he resents people only see him as that, but that's what made him famous. And so Andy Coffin died of cancer, and so when he said I had cancer, I think a lot of people wondered, is this even real? It's the bit, but it was. Yeah, it was very real.

Yeah, it's uh.

I think it's the Statute of limitations has passed on me not being supposed to tell this story.

Because I was not.

Really it was supposed to be kind of a secret back in the time because it was kind of a little bit a weird thing happened. So, you know, TRL, everybody my generation remembers.

To We watched Carson Day Jesse all the yea, everybody.

Hold a request live right. People call in and they request their favorite song and then it goes on the countdown every day.

So that's all.

That is how it works, right, It was everyone would call in and that was really how it worked. They really did do that. But we went and shot this bumbum song and put it on the Tom Green Show, and I went and said call TRL and vote for it, and and we didn't really inform the producers of TRL that we were doing that. You know, MTV knew about it because they knew what was happening, but it sort of fell through the cracks, or maybe they weren't expecting it would go to number one.

I'm sure that was it. It didn't go to number one.

It did go to number one, like the next day, so like the show aired and then it was a you know, I forget what day it aired, but it was the beginning of the week. The show was number one on the Monday of that week and got a call from MTV. Howard, my manager at the time, got a call from MTV. He said, you know, we need Tom to go on TRL on Friday and retire the Bumbump song.

And what do you mean it might why? You know?

They was number number one again on Wednesday, and the call comes again, more frantic, No, he has to go retire. No, Tom doesn't want to retire. He's got the number one song until a request live in America. This is why would you want.

To retire it?

He has to retire it, and they weren't telling us why. And then they call again Thursday, he has to retire. Here's why. And so the following week I probably wasn't supposed to say, but it's been twenty five years. I'm sure everyone can get over it. You know, Carson del he's done. Fine, he's on the Today's Shown hour. But you know they had pre taped the next week because you know, uh, scheduling of whatever it was, so they just basically sort of replicated the Countdown from the week before.

Retired the song.

I was on the Countdown for one week, and they gave me a retirement home plaque, which I have hanging in my recording studio at home. But yeah, I'm still kind of a little annoyed at that though, because I think it would have it would have had a good run. You know, sometimes things would stay number one for weeks and weeks and weeks on end, and then you could really you know, it would have been a really cool thing. But they took this song and turned it into oh,

The bum bum song.

They were obviously speculating what they thought would be the number one song when they were taping those episodes ahead of time. What took over as number one that they thought would have been number one? It was like an n Sync or a olymp Biscuit.

Or I can't remember exactly what it was. I know, I think Britney Spears was on the countdown. I think I think it was ninety eight degrees was on there. I really don't have the I don't remember the exact countdown but it was it was for sure some of those I think lymp Biscuit was for sure was on the countdown then deservedly shout out Fred Durst, a friend

So what does twelve year old Tom listen to music wise? Music wise, like twelve years old, Yeah, that's when you're twelve.

That's an age for me when it kind of all started to come together.

Yeah, well, sugar Hill Gang Rappers Delight I discovered at around twelve, and that was that was a big one.

But I might have been might have been thirteen when I discovered that though.

So twelve would have been Michael Jackson Thriller. See what year was was? I?

Yeah? Was was Michael Jackson Thriller out? Yet in eighty eighty three?

I see the Beg's was the first cassette that I had. My parents gave me a tape deck and the Beg's Staying Alive. I wish they'd given me a different tape, but anyways, no, but so I would listen to that a lot. Twelve years old, I had a few things that I you know, I it was Michael Jackson.

I like TV shows we waited to watch that kind of shaped you and that preteen.

The reason I'm hesitating, I'm trying to think it was like eleven or twelve, you know, because I know, I know, well, shortly after twelve, I got a lot more into music. But it was always sort of just what was playing on the radio when I was twelve, What was on the top ten that night? You know, would be sort of what was you know, whether it was you know, the I don't know, you know, survivor or something like that. You know, Like there's lots of different songs that were

So so BC Boys one of my favorites of all time, like top five albums for sure. It is licensed ill because it was the first one. Yeah, absolutely, like It's what introduced me. I'm just a goofy white kid from Arkansas and they're Jewish rappers from kind of Brooklyn, so not exactly the same, but they were just different. So it was kind of like my infatuation with David Letterman. He was a Midwest guy that looked odd compared to everybody else. Yeah, and I was odd compared to everybody else.

Beastie Boys, David Letterman, Tony Hawk, skateboarding. These were my my, my things that I loved. I mean, I you know, I actually we did a cover band of the Beastie Boys in high school and went up and did I did Fight for Your Right to Party and No Sleep for Bill Brooklyn and run dmc raising.

Hell.

You know this was me rapping on stage and the first year of high school, I guess, and then uh, and then David Letterman. I mean, I talk about this a lot in the documentary.

Because it's it's sort of the precursor to what.

I was doing on my show, where I was trying to emulate David Letterman. I was going out with the video camera and doing stuff on the street, kind of like what David Letterman did when he went out in the street. But it's hard to kind of put it in perspective for people who don't remember what the world

To me. That was my glimpse.

Into the outside world outside of the mainstream television. And then rap music was also like that, you know, listening to Boogie Down Productions or run DMC and these groups coming out of New York City and you're just up in Ottawa going up and wow, what is this?

What is this world? This is exciting? You know?

How close were you guys with organized rhymes actually pursuing that, like for a decade.

I mean, we were really really into it for sure when we were when I was we went down to New York City when I was, you know, a teenager, and we recorded a demo and then then we ended up getting a record deal in Canada on A and M Records, and we sort of did it for a couple of years after that, but then you know, the sort of it stopped it kind of it never was released in the United States. It was a sort of a successful in Canada thing. It would play on the radio.

Got cool at school. Were you guys cool because you were on the radio?

He was cool?

For sure.

I might not have been cool. He was definitely cool.

There was a comedic element to the band, so you know, we you know, I would always say, well, let's put laundry baskets on our heads between songs and play industrial music and do sort of a synchronized dance routine. So we would do this weird stuff. No, he was very funny and we'd do this fine stuff.

But it was cool though.

It was cool, but he was definitely cooler than I was. I was kind of more the goofball, but I made all the beats and stuff and and it was it was exciting, and it kind of We would go down to Toronto to go on much music and we'd host the Rap City Show it was called, and different perform on different shows live. And that's when I really realized start seeing television studios and lights and cameras, and I thought that I want to do this. I want to I want to do television. And that's that's kind of

So how accessible was the public access station where you were?

So it's it's a little different in Canada. So you know, because sometimes you think of public access and it's a real kind of you know, gritty, little crappy little station. But in Canada, so they have the cable delivery company sort of like the it was called Roger's Cable, so the company that you buy your cable from. They were sort of required to create a little community channel and

Took took us in.

I was I was at school broadcasting school, so I had a bunch of kids that knew how to operate cameras and stuff, and we came in and we pitched the show and they they kind of let us go do do four episodes. And then after those four episodes that it was sort of had a little bit of a you know, it was weird enough that they let us keep keep going.

So did people watch that channel in your town just in general?

Like no, not really, no, not really, they had that was it sort of quickly became the show that was sort of did.

There was shows like.

Mayor's The Mayor had a show Mayor's Hotline. They had a sports show where they talked about what the Ottawa Senators were doing. Uh, And they were all sort of very not very watched shows.

But but we sort.

Of built this little following and we'd had a little studio audience and kids came down and sixty kids in the audience, and it just sort of started kind of just kind of slowly catching on, and it then got picked up by the Community Rogers Community Network, so then they started running across Canada.

You were shooting in the same place, they were just distributing it to the.

Other, to the whole country. And then did you.

Feel a change there when that happened?

Could you feel it like you start to be bigger in Canada?

Yeah?

Oh yeah, that was early on because then then then we did a did a pilot for the CBC, which is the national network Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and then that didn't get picked up. But then we went and did two seasons on this small network called the Comedy Network, which is owned by CTV, the other big network, and then we were sort of doing a show that had a had real a real kind of uh. But it

So being that young doing a show weekly, did that feel like you were in the meat grinder at all, even before you were getting paid.

Really, I I was.

Really excited to be doing it.

I just couldn't believe that I even had the ability to do it. So it was my friend Glenn Humplick and my friend Phil Jeru, and they were, you know, buddies of mine. And I met Glenn Humplick at college radio because I've been doing a college radio show at Ottawa University. I didn't go to Ottawa University, but I did the radio show there at midnight until two am I Fridays, And so we were just really I mean, I wasn't getting paid. I didn't get paid to do the show for four or five years. It was just

With it so so long because it was.

A lot of work when I think about it, But at the time, when you're young, you're kind of just so excited just to be doing something.

Who do you hear from?

Is it somebody an executive at MTV? Do they call whomever's now managing your representing you? How quick does all of that happen? And and what's like the board? I don't know, you walk into a business room, like the cliche thing. There's all these chairs and they offer you the big deal you've been waiting for, Like what really happened?

I've got a pretty hilarious story about that. I don't I don't know if I'll see if I can paint the picture properly. So well, First of all, what happened was, I was the show was now kind of popular in Canada enough that I got invited on the one talk show we had in Canada at the time.

It was called Mike Bullard was the name of the host. He just passed away, Rest in peace, Mike.

He was a very funny guy. He kind of gave me a did me a solid there. He'd have us on his show and I'd go on and do some you know, goofy thing that I probably, you know, like I was talking about earlier, I probably you know, regret doing, but know it was uh, you know, I would go on with the bags of milk and we have milk comes in bags in Canada, which is strange, but anyways, pop milk bags and milk would fly everywhere and the microphone would break and all this kind of stuff.

But his manager.

Was there, who's from Los Angeles also since passed way. He's in the documentary. His name's Howard Lapidis and he he uh he represented uh, Jimmy Kimmel, who was not you know, he was on radio at the time, and Carson Dally, who was on TRL and UH, Norm McDonald and UH also Doctor Drew and Adam Carolla who were doing Loveline on MTV. So Howard was in the MTV universe and he brought the show there and that's kind of how we got the initial meeting to do the

They flew me down to uh, the Los.

Angeles and I'm probably twenty seven or twenty eight years old, and put me up in the Maundry on Okay, which is the most Los Angeles feeling place to be sort of modern, you know, Artsy Hotel furthest thing from Ottawa, and it's right beside the House of Blues, which is no longer there, but the House of Blues they had these pitch meetings every year for MTV and they bring all the producers and writers into come out and you have a stand in front of the MTV executives, and

You know, it was it was just a gag. It was just a gag.

But and they said, don't don't play that one though, don't play that one. That's so I just was such a idiot. I guess that I you know, they literally told me to make a VHS tape and put this tape on where you paint your parents' house, the one where you love the crutches and you're falling down on the street on the crutches, and the one where you go in the pharmacy and try to buy condoms. Play those three, but don't play the cow utter one. And I was so sort of sure that now we need

You know, in the pitch, you know, you know that this is shot on home.

Video cameras and looks raw, and it looks rough, and because I'm a skateboarder and skateboarders are doing this now, like this kind of thing, and it'll be relatable. And so I really did kind of try to explain why it looked the way it looked. And then I played everything, and then I played the cow atter thing, and of course the room was nuts because it was disgusting, right and funny, it's really funny, you know, dressed as Captain Kirk or something like that, sporting and I'll call over

So I did that, and everyone's going, what the hell's this kid?

And I took the shaving cream and I walked up to the guy who looked like he was in charge, and I put some on his face, and then I just walked out that I was Brian Graydon and then I walked out of the room and and the guy who had been kind of coaching me to do the uh, to do the pitch so, you know, called me and was laughing. So that you put shaving cream on my boss's face. But they called the next day and they

I've ever seen. I did ever. I did never pitched anything before.

I didn't know what a pitch was, but uh, naivete, I guess kind of is good sometimes, but uh and then uh and then they they literally I was moved to They got me an apartment in New York City

At what point could you feel kind of the zeit got your fame be tangible?

It was so crazy because you know, MTV was it's different now, right, everybody watched MTV and we didn't have MTV in Canada either, which was made extra weird because I was walking into this network. I didn't have that kind of sort of I wasn't intimidated by it as much as I think I would have been if I watched MTV. I wasn't emulating I don't think the culture

You know, it was a hit. It was a hit show. It was a hit show.

Was Beavis and butt Head right there too.

Yeah, they weren't making it anymore, so they'd they were running reruns of it, but they'd stopped making it. And uh yeah, Mike Judge was doing movies and stuff and then and he was he was not working on new no show. In fact, our head writer was Chris Brown, who was the head writer of Beaves and butt Head. He came in and worked with me and the writers to kind of come up with all our new material.

Yet, what's the weirdest thing about getting famous?

Uh?

Well, a lot of weird stuff about it, but it's mostly you know, it's mostly pretty exciting, you know. Uh, Like I said, I don't think I really knew how to sort of behave, like how to act as far as you know, you're used to being kind of.

You know, I was used to being.

Kind of an underdog kid who didn't have any sort of access to anything, and always trying to prove yourself to people.

Hey, you know I can.

I'm trying to let people see that you have something to offer with your comedy or whatever. And then all of a sudden, the show's big, and you know, you know, I think the initial like when I was the story I told about Saurday Night Live, the initial instinct is, oh, now I have to really go out there and really

It was still kind of a strange little thing that I was doing up in Canada. That was kind of cute.

Well that's cute that kids doing this thing, and they'd write an article about it. But when when all of a sudden you're on MTV and and doing movies and getting commercials and all sorts of things like that, it did it did become a lot to uh to kind of process for sure.

Did it affect your mental health to have to outdo the last thing constantly? Yeah, Like because they've seen it, so now I got to get crazier, Like, was that a struggle mentally?

I think the thing that was cool about that specifically definitely some stuff affected my mental health and my emotional sort of you know, uh life. I think that was maybe even more to do with a little later, you know, when I was sick and things like that. I got cut cancer when the show was on, and that that got That was where it was started to become too much to kind of handle. But but you know, we had sort of this We had different types of bitsuited.

On the show.

So there was ones that were the crazy, gross ones, and then we had ones that were more dead pan interviews, and so we kind of tried to have different levels and layers to the show that it wasn't always just about trying to up the ante, but there was that feeling like you'd have a bit that would become the one that everyone was talking about and that would be last for a while.

You know, everyone you.

Paint your parents' house plaid, and people were talking about it for a few months, and come on, we did that three months ago. We got to come up with something crazier than that, so, you know, and there's definitely

Yeah, you talked about in the documentary, the the buster Keaton very famous.

The front of the house comes down.

He's standing in the right spot, so right that open went like legendary. But you doing that stunt yourself, replicating that and everyone going on, I don't think you should do this. Insurance said no, but you wanted to do that one. How nervous were you to actually even though you're standing on the right spot, but the house was coming down on top of me. How nervous were you to pull that one off?

I was. It was a nail bier for sure.

I mean, just because you know they tested it.

It was it was it was. I mean, I was.

As sure as one can be that the house was not going to kill me. But I wouldn't have done it if I thought there was even a I mean, I guess there's always a chance, but it seemed like a calculated risk. I was glad when we were finished. I was glad it was over. It was the whole house too. It wasn't just the frame of the house. Yeah, and there was glass in the window to try to kind of, you know, modernize it.

A little bit. We can get good breakaway glass and nineteen ninety nine.

So yeah, that's super cool to do something that you've always looked at as legendary, which was why I was so excited to watch all the Letterman stuff in the documentary again grew up. That was like, my guy indulged me a bit, talk about why Letterman was important to you and how cool it was to go on the show and then also get to host the show.

Yeah, and we I found when I was going through all my tapes, I found that moment where where I got the call to host Letterman.

So that was just kind of yeah, you're like with Glenn outside the car and you're like best manager ever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really you could see you get emotional, so you could see it mattered.

Yeah, yeah, it was.

It was a I'd forgotten that tape existed when I got the call from Letterman to host, which was this was a little later, that was in two thousand and three when I was doing a new talk show for MTVS.

But but.

You know, in some ways that was more meaningful even than the first time I got to be a guest on the show.

But but I.

Mean he was you know, everyone has sort of one hero when they're growing up that they just sort of would would just sort of you know that you think the world of and you just sort of consume all of their material, and and David Letterman was definitely mine.

You know, I'm watching this and and this is my thing.

That of course, millions of people felt that way, but it was it was still the the sort of the underground talk show. And so yeah, so to get that call from him, I mean, you can watch my first appearance on the show, and you notice I don't go out on the show and going crazy and flip you know, costume and go crazy because I was, you know, I was out of complete reverence to him.

You know.

It's not that I didn't have reverence towards Jay Leno and the Tight Show and all that stuff, but I was just that was the very first show I'd.

Ever been on.

It was David Letterman, and I was just kind of couldn't even believe that it was happening.

So I just I was sort of a it's fun.

When I watched the footage of it, I'm clearly a nervous wreck. You know, I'm holding my hand on my face and just kind of sort of like a It's one of those things where it feels like you're not even in your body, you know, you're just like, am I even here right now? This is really David Letterman was looking at me talking to me, so but I know I was incredible. And he was the first person to call the show when the show went on MTV and asked us to be on.

So yeah, and then when you get invited back again, if it's the second time, then you realize, well, he must like me, he must not think less of me after I was on, Like that has to be kind of a ribbon, right, Yeah, to go on again, because that means Dave likes you.

Yeah, and when he let me host was the was just unbelievable.

Yeah, the fact that he let me take over for.

The night and and uh yeah, no, it was definitely those were those the highlight moments of the whole you know, the whole uh experience of the of the show and everything was being able to be you know, on on on Letterman. That was that was all I'd ever imagined or dreamed.

Of because things were happening so fast once the show took off on MTV. Was there anything in the documentary footage that didn't make it or did make it that you were able to see to go, oh, maybe I didn't appreciate or understand or have the time to value. Just I was watching the clip of you and Steve Martin Martin Short, Yeah, yeah, that even just owning that picture like feels like you could look at it now and go, wow, that is substantial.

And I can't.

And I look at it, I got I can't believe I had you know, you know at the time, I did have the balls to do it. But uh, but a few weeks later I only had one. But uh, like I because I was before I had my testicular cancer right before.

Actually, I got invited.

On the Martin Short's H Martin Short daytime talk show and Steve Martin was the guest and I was the second guest.

So I'm sitting between Steve Martin and Martin Short. Who are you know two of my heroes?

Right?

And if you talk about.

You know the the most you know amazing silly characters in comedy and history, it's you know Ed Grimley and the Jerk. You know these there are two of their big characters that they did and and that's why, you know,

Still.

I'd been on Letterman, I've been on Oprah a couple of shows, but the whole thing just made no sense that I.

Was going on Aren't Short's Show?

And you know, Steve Martin came back to the dressing room before the show and he sort of told me, watched a bunch of episodes of the show and everything of my show, so so it was they were it was hard to believe that that that actually happened.

Yeah, your music career again, their parallels with Steve Martin, who did music and comedy but also is a proficient banjo player, Like.

He's a real deal musician.

Oh you think at times him and Edie Burkell were and still tour and they do serious bluegrass.

But he's also he's.

The first comedian to ever play a stadium, right, And part of that was he'd plays banjo and but it was comedy, so there would be this blur of you wouldn't really know musically what Steve Martin was doing because he was fantastic technically excellent, but also hilarious with it. When it comes to your music, I feel like you've

You know, we were just nominated to be you As is a rapper named Devon and he had a Canadian rapper and he had a song called keep It Slamming and it was a big popular hit at the time too, so and there was Maestrill Fresh Wes I believe was I don't. I think it was Devon that won that year. But yeah, there was the big rapper back then was mice Real Fresh West and he usually won those two.

So, but how do you feel about the ambiguity with you and your music career?

Because you are proficient, it's always after organized rhyme. It always became something that I just have been doing for fun. And like I said, when I got when we started making these documentary the documentary in the show, you know, I produced these shows too, directed them, but also I'm producing them with my production company, and so I had the creative sort of freedom to decide what the soundtrack's

Yeah.

I think the expectation was I'm gonna play the music and hear the absurdity, and then it felt, oh, this isn't absurd, and is that absurd that it's not absurd? And so then I'm like been origamiing myself, and in my mind I made the parallel like I would do this with Steve Martin's stuff when he was being making

Yeah purposefully. Yeah, No, for sure, they're very serious most of them. There's a couple funny ones in there, for sure, But I don't I've never really listened to funny music. I mean, I did make the bum bum song, so the bum bum song was as silly as they get. But but but I don't know, it's something about when I it could also be.

My limited amount of chords that I know, so it's you know.

All these sort of minor chords.

There's sad chords, you know. But uh, I don't know.

I think I just uh, when I sit down to write music, I always try to write, uh, something that's coming from the heart. And a lot of times those emotions aren't funny. They're more introspective and thoughtful, thoughtful emotions, and those are the words that come to mind. But and and and you know, writing a soundtrack for the show, the show was about coming home and returning home to family and and going back to your roots. So I wanted to have a nice, sort of real soundtrack to the show.

Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor, and we're back the Bobby Cast.

I watched your documentary last night.

Oh wow, awesome, Oh wow, thank you thanks for watching.

I was excited. My wife missed you by a few years. So she wasn't fully familiar with the MTV show. Yeah, she had seen some of the other like the movie stuff, but she didn't know like your whole story.

Yea.

So always a bit of a risk whenever you recommend.

Any show to anybody, because like, I believe this show is going to be so good, and so I was like, oh, but she finished, and she was like.

I'm really rooting for Tom oh right, And so we watched it last night.

It was it was, it was great, and I had high expectations and it met all of them.

Oh thanks Bobby, just a fan. I appreciate it.

You know, it's a it's kind of been a I mean, it just came out yesterday, and uh, it's been kind of a cathartic thing releasing it because it's very personal and and it's uh, you know, it's it's my whole life of you know, not just uh, the Tom Green Show on MTV, but leading back before it, and I've always kept all my footage and I wanted to want to tell the story right.

So it was it was cool putting it together.

For sure, watching and we'll jump around a little bit of watching how you did the show at your house? Like we've done a show at my house for so many years, but there have been a couple of times where people have like shown up drunk or like shown up to the.

House, Toya and that I'm drunk right now, which.

Is why I brought it up.

But it's like, you know, when you're inviting people into your house, it's a pretty intimate thing and we have. We have like a ninety nine percent success rating.

Yeah.

Yeah, was that ever an issue for you where people would show up to your house and it's like, oh, I don't know how this feels.

Well that was That was when I was doing my webovision. Yeah, and I built the studio in my living room, and uh, you.

Don't just say who it was. I just wonder if, well, it might have been me.

Actually, I mean it started it was kind of a bit of a wild and crazy show, and you know, so I would always have drinks with the guests and things like that. So so there was times where maybe we had a few too many, for sure.

But never somebody showed up with like a like a big entourage with guns or anything like that. Uh.

Never guns. No, never guns. That that's one thing we ever had to deal with. But there's probably a couple of times where we maybe had a few too many drinks with I know it was you know, a lot of people, actually everybody you know, like you know, but I think I kind of I've stopped doing that. I stopped drinking while on the show. I've decided that experiment

So that was something.

That I found out knew about you was your very early beginnings of performance was going to the amateur night. Yeah, you would go because again, I felt like I knew a lot. That's why I liked the documentary because it showed a lot of things that back then there wasn't social media in the ability to just dial in on somebody and find everything right and to see that.

How long do you think you and every week? Or did you go every week to the amateur night?

Yeah? I was.

This was in the eighties, So I was started when I was sixteen years old and I started going down to Yuck. Yucks was the comedy club and still there and run by Howard Wagman who's still there, and he's encouraged me to go on stage when I was a kid. But i'd go down because I was a big fan of Norm McDonald who's from my hometown. And you know, that was sort of when I just discovered what stand up comedy was really and it was just so exciting.

At the time.

There was, like you said, no podcasting or internet even and and you know the podcast the comedians you'd see would be on the Tonight Show and that was it. And so to be in a live club at sixteen years old. They had a restaurant license, but it felt like you were going to a bar, and it felt cool to be in a bar at sixteen and then eventually ended up getting on stage, and you know, it was Ottawa is a smaller city. It's the capital of Canada,

I stopped doing stand.

Up for a few years, and then then the after the Tom Green Show was on MTV, I got back into it.

So the total cliche thing is that when I've been to Canada, my show, my radio shows on in different Canadian markets, Ottawa one of them. Now, everybody's so much nicer there. And that was the cliche I had heard before. And then we would go even in Toronto, someone would come up to you on the street and here You're like, what are you going to take for me? And there it's like here are you lost? Can I help you?

Like it's not always. It's not like that in a lot of places here.

Yeah, it's I mean, although we just had a great conversation with everyone at the waffle house just down the road.

Well, the South, they're nice.

It's just the creative part of I just feel like it's such a competition.

Yeah, States, it is, especially in in.

The bigger cities.

But you know, I think you can have good experiences and bad experiences. And when you're when you're just starting out, maybe you're not as threatening to other comedians when you're just sixteen years old and just trying it out. But you know, I've had you know, I sometimes find too, like when you're from somewhere else, everybody's like when Americans come up to Canada, Canadians are really happy to see Americans and probably want to, you know, show you a good time in our country, you know. Uh.

And I find that can be true when we when we come down here to the South. You know.

But I got show tonight in Nashville, so I don't want to say everyone here as an.

Asshole yet give it the night. So it feels there's a lot of content. Because I watched the documentary and then it was like a four. It was like a four part series that what it is, No, can you explain what's happening with all the content because you have special have the documentary, the music, listen to the record. You kind of walk me through what you listen to the record.

Yeah, cool, cool, Well, so it's funny, like, uh so there's these three projects that are coming out on Amazon on Prime Video. And the documentary is sort of the story of the show and the history of the show, my old show, and how I got to where I am today having moved back to Canada and got this farm and this mule Fanny and sort of a new chapter in my life. And then there's a show called Tom Green Country and that's a docuseries and that's more about my life now.

That's a four part series, so.

And it's it's really about me settling in on the farm and getting my mule Fanny. I didn't grow up with with mules and horses and chickens and things like this. So it's been a really fun few years there. This kind of documents the first year on the farm. And but I've always loved being out in nature and outdoors and you know, fishing and camping and canoeing, and things like that.

So I'm not kind of it's not.

Not exactly a fish out of water story where I'm walking around like I don't know how to you know. It's it's a little bit of that because I was in Los Angeles for twenty years and now I'm back home. But but it's a it's a real fun show. It's it's it's a lot different than my old show, sort of a you know, I'm really trying to.

Show the you know, the I guess, just the reality of what it's.

Like being in Canada and my family and and being really honest and and open about uh, you know, the feeling that I have of returning home after being in Los Angeles for so long. So so there's there's a different tone to it. And the music in the show, the soundtrack of it. We recorded it all at the

So so I'm assuming not coincidental that at least two of the covers I'm a big Beernaga Ladies fan. Yeah, yeah, so I saw a fad a million dollars.

It's one of my favorite songs for them.

And then the other one is Brian Adams Summer sixty nine both Canadian.

Yeah, absolutely not coincidence right.

Now, and Gordon Lightfoot Canadian and uh Tragically hip Head by a Central also so yeah, there's four covers of four Canadian uh legendary bands on there, and uh, you know, we just honestly the album. I just went in and recorded some of those cover songs just uh just two weeks ago, not even a week and a half ago, and we really just kind of posted this just uh yesterday or today really so came up on Spotify today.

You know.

When I was a teenager, I was in this rap group and we were nominated for a Juno Awards, like a Canadian Grammy Award, and we were just silly trying to be like the Beastie Boys or something. And I've

So do you feel the same vulnerability, because if you're writing a song, like you just said, it's the same thing with telling jokes and doing a special, you're like, okay, judging me.

I hope people like what they're judging. Do you feel that.

With the comedy special the same way you're talking about with the original songs?

A little bit?

But the nice thing about stand up is you know, you work it out over time, and you know, I've been on the road, you know, for years now, and I'm always sort of sort of slipping new jokes and creating this set that eventually you end up in go film.

It's I think it's just playing it through in your head.

And it's not so much that I'm worried about it not going well. It's more about I'm worried about remembering every little detail of some new jokes or some new things. And sometimes in the on the day you're reshuffling around what you want to say because you're in a different city or whatever. So so so that's but that's the fun of stand up, right then you release, You get that release, and I find when I did do two shows in a night, or if you're taping two shows

So I struggle with feeling super secure. So February my special comes out on CMT February fourth. Never done one before. Oh wow, okay, never right.

I hate it now.

It has an error, but I hate it now because I'm done with it and I'm like, this is not good.

Well, it's it's normal to not necessarily want to watch your stand up special over and over again, like I have a I sometimes have a hard time watching my my myself back, you know.

Because you see every little thing you could do different.

I'm sure part of the edit and watching the edit is like every fraction of every second where it's just like I'm so over me that it's like the promotion of it even feels weird because I'm like, I don't even know if I believe in it anymore.

It's probably a good thing, I think now, because if you were too into it then that that might come off as a little unlikable too, you know, Like I mean, I think I think you can go too far the other way, you know, where you're just so into looking at yourself that maybe no one else would want to want to look at you know, like.

The house too.

We have no more mirrors either. We eliminated me totally from the house.

People like to see that vulnerability, I think can stand up because they want to see an authentic performance and they want to see somebody that's being real. And everybody feels nervous when they're on stage. So I wouldn't. I wouldn't worry too much about that. I think that's probably a normal thing. A lot of people never look at their specials they go up there.

I wouldn't if I wasn't a control freak. I think with the creative part of it, even with like books and stuff like, I never want to read them back after I've written them, but I feel like if I don't, then I'm going to miss something.

And regret it.

So I'm like weighing the two shames, which while I feel more shame if I don't do, which is not the best place to be. That's what I feel like. I'm always balancing out the shame of me not being good.

Yeah, yeah, I know that feeling.

Was there ever a confidence Was there ever a confidence issue with you creatively?

Yeah? Oh sure. Yeah. I think a lot.

Of of what I do comes from that fear and

You know, I had this new kind of show, I.

Guess you would say, which was just outrageous in a different way because we were out in the streets shooting with video cameras and it was different, and I had this sort of thought in my head that like, I always have to be completely wild and nuts every time I go on a show. If I'd go in Conan O'Brien or Jay Leno or you know, a talk show of some sort, I would feel like I have to

Done this or that?

And making this documentary was that terrifying for sure, to

Were you able to when editing the footage be proud of that kid? I get therapy with a whole up picture up of me as a kid and go like, let's talk to this kid.

Were you able to have that moment?

I think so.

I think it's sort of almost kind of happened yesterday when I when we released the doc to the world, and sort of this I'm sort of going through it right now, even just just the past two days, people

And but.

You know, I remember I had two friends of mine who were friends from high school, actually were writers with me on The Tom Green Show, but really it was my friends from high school, and I were, you know, coming up with crazy stuff to do with video cameras. And all of a sudden we were on MTV and I got asked to come on Saturday Night Live. And I asked them make it. I bring my friends from the show along.

Can they do some skits with us?

And so you know, they said yes, Lauren Michael said yes, and they gave us a little office and and now I'm there with my two friends and we're writing these sketches and we're trying to push the envelope, you know, as far as we can because we're thinking.

It's got to be the craziest thing, you know.

But I sort of think in hindsight sometimes I thought, oh geez, you know, I I think some of the writers at the show might have interpreted that as I brought my own writers and all this stuff, and they didn't really understand it was just like kind of me kind of trying to you know, include my friends, you know, so so.

Getting emotional, so.

It's it's weird. It's a weird thing. I do get emotional about it because it's like it's weird. You try to do the right thing, and then it gets misinterpreted and it's very it's very tough sometimes when when it kind of you know, it's it's nice to be able to tell this story in a way where Okay, I've been driving all day too, so I'm okay, I'm doing fine, Bobby.

It feels like maybe they the other writers or performers were unfairly territorial, thinking you had other intentions when you brought your boys with you.

It's it's it's a very competitive environment Saturday Night Live. I've found over the last few years, I've seen a lot of other people, cast members and stuff doing interviews about their time on the show, and I sort of okay, cool, it happens to everybody. You know, everybody's young, they're there to prove themselves. You only get so much time on the air, and and so then you know, when we came in, we were just you know, kids coming in and we're trying to sort of do the same thing,

Uh.

And I'm sort of surprised they gave us as much leeway as they did. Kind of wish they hadn't actually, but uh but no, it's it's, it's, it's it's it's definitely a unique episode and people are starting to discover it again on you know, all line and stuff.

So the Bobby Cast will be right back. Mm hmm. This is the Bobby Cast.

What about four more questions and Mike has a couple before we wrap up.

What would you say was the most fun.

Micro period of all of your the most fun like what did you do where you're like, man, this is awesome where you can appreciate it.

I've been saying this quite a bit lately because it honestly, I really am having the most fun I've ever had right now.

It's uh, I.

Think I just feel like I'm in a place where I'm you know, able to handle and understand what it is that I'm doing more. It's I'm not overwhelmed by it. It's not it's not on MTV and being thrust into everybody's face, so there's a little bit pressure, less pressure and honestly getting to know this.

This this the.

Animals that I have, now this beautiful mule that I am learning to ride, and it's very peaceful out there. And I'm also just recently engaged as well, beautiful fiance Amanda, So so my life's kind of coming together and uh, in a way that is I'm feeling very settled and moving back to Canada and getting this farm. It's it's the first time I've ever lived somewhere where I know, I have no intention to ever leave. I'm not going to move somewhere else. I'll be living, you know, at

And you've driven the whole way.

Yeah, we drove here. Yeah, we drove, well, we drove.

Our first show was in Chattanooga yesterday, so that was the first show. Yeah, So we just drove down from Canada. Was we took a couple of days.

It was nice.

Yeah, I can't believe you drove.

That's yes.

Well, we're actually in my camper van that that I got at the beginning of the pandemic. So we're when we're when we're on we have some breaks built into the UH into the UH tour, and then we're gonna go do some some off off grid camping, maybe head out to the Grand Canyon and do some photography and uh we write some more songs.

Have you ever been out there to the Grand Canyon. You've seen it?

Yeah, yeah, it's one of the things that I am and I've.

Been able to do some cool stuff and see some cool stuff, but.

It's like still in awe of like how massive and magnificent, Yeah, that thing. And mostly I'm just like, I'll google image it. I'm good, you know, but like, that's a really cool part of the country in the world that I.

Still I would like to spend more time. There.

Something very mysterious and magical about the American Southwest. And so much of Hollywood was based on, you know, those John Ford movies out in Monument Valley and and and when when the pandemic happened, you know, when I was

It's like Boho Van it's called.

And then they take a rampro master and they put a fridge in it, and they put solar panels on the roof and these you know, battery systems in it so you can So I kind of discovered that at the beginning of the pandemic, and I would go out into the desert. I built a recording studio in the van, and I started exploring the because I was living in La at the time, so I'd go out for a few weeks out to various places and just kind of

This rabbit hole.

Of all the places that are out in this country that are not even widely talked about, like Native American ruins that are just incredible, like incredible. Everyone always talks about Machu Pichu, you know, and and and you know, the pyramids and all of these incredible ancient sites, right and people are so interested in But there's so much of that kind of thing from the same as old

Nothing is more American and southern. To watch out, everybody's got a gun around here. Ever, it's all of us. We're all packing right now. So yep, that's really cool. Two questions. Let talk to me about the dog, Charlie, big dog guy myself and you come up with a dog, I love it.

Rescue rescue.

Yeah, she's called a potcake dog.

They're from the Bahamas. They call them potcakes, and they basically the local Bahamanian people like they feed the straight dogs the burnt rice from the bomb of the pots they call them Potcakes' generations of you know, dogs had got off the ships and they've become these sort of mixed breeds.

They're really sweet dog.

And her name's Charlie because she's named after John Steinbeck's Travels with Charlie in Search of America. And I got her right at the beginning of the pandemic where I got the van. And my dad said, oh, that's like travels with Charlie, And I said, oh. Steinbeck and he had a camper van and he drove around America and he wrote a book about America, and so I did that with my YouTube channel. Whole first year of traveling in the van is on my YouTube channel. If you

So final question from me, what bit over your career have you done that you still think is super funny? Uh?

Well, probably the Slutmobile.

The car hilarious.

Can I say that on it?

You can't.

It's funny.

It's funny how the world's changed, you know, Like at the time we were just saying it openly in Oprah. I'd say it, you know, and I was like, I don't know if I would have used that phrasing today, but but you know, it was my parents nineteen ninety two Honda Cord where I painted the you know, the pornographic scene, had an air brushed on their car and Dad wakes up in the morning, what the hell have you done to the car? It's you know, it's their reaction,

Undercutter's Pizza was so funny.

One of the best reactions, and that was because that was that was one of the I think that may have been the first, if not one of the very first videos we shot when we moved to the United States, and we're in Long Island, and you know, the bit is, I dress up like a pizza delivery guy. I follow, we stake out a pizza shop. I follow the pizza delivery guy. I've got my own pizza, but there's no no toppings on it. I've got a fishing tackle box

That's the bit.

But you know, we had no idea that the guy who I was delivering the pizza too is like working on his car, you know, and he.

Was like sort of a pretty.

Tough guy, got real Matt Eastern, chasing me with a hammer and screaming at me. And okay, this is but you know, it's sort of the reaction was always was always what was So those are two a couple of my favorites.

Yeah, I love the bit where you just lay down and that's all reaction. But you got to have the courage, the nuts to just lay there and let people slowly build and then when do you choose just to get up?

Yeah, that was one of the first, one of the first because that was early on in the show, and that was one of the first bits that happened.

That was really that people started talking about a lot. And I used to do that in.

School, Like I would just basically lie down on my face with my hands at my side. Later people called that planking, but and just to kind of confuse people, right, it was just sort of a stupid thing I would do. So then I think that bit was exciting to us because we had a wireless microphone and it was the first time we had a wireless microphone. So we realized, oh, I can be across the street. We can do a sort of the candid camera type of bit. So we put the camera up on top of a building and

So maybe Canadians aren't that nice. I don't know.

That's that's so funny. I love people like reactions, Mike. A couple of questions for Tom.

Yeah, I love the documentary. It kind of reminded me a lot of how many of your quotes have become a part of my vocabulary. Like I can't see tubing without saying tube That's what is the quote that people reference to you the most? They say, that's my favorite Tom Green quote?

Uh, well, you know, daddy, would you like some sausage?

That's a big one from from Freddy got fingered h you know, probably tubing, tubing, Tubing is good. I see the bum bum song gets a lot of references. People will sing that. There's always a lot of little sort of melodic things, like people remember the theme song of the show. This is Tom yeah, people with yeah yeah.

To speaking of road Trip, I didn't realize that you work with Todd Phillips on a Pepsi commercial and he went on, you know, direct road Trip directed Hangover Joker. When you guys did road Trip, did he kind of just let you do you in those scenes? Or what direction did he give you?

Yeah?

Well, I wasn't the mouse when I put the mouse in my mouth. That wasn't in the script. So and also the song, the tiny Salmon song that was that was pretty interesting because there was a guitar on the set and you know, I know at the time I could play three chords and now I can play four, so it's pretty good. But he said, you know you want you want to write a song, So I wrote that tiny Simon song on my lunch break and then came back and they filmed it, and then they ended

Yeah, it looks like you're rock star touring on your comedy. I mean, it's all the way until June. And the difference would be if I'm on the road at all, I do Thursday, Friday Saturday or Friday Saturday come back.

Yeah, it looks like you're out.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean all the way and you guys will put it up in the notes as well, but all the way until June.

Yeah, so you guys are just here.

Yeah.

Well, no, I have a couple of breaks in there, and there's few breaks in there we're gonna but but yeah, for the most part, it's pretty pretty intense tour.

But it's good.

It's fun, you know. Like I said, we're traveling in the in the you know, on the road, not getting on the airplanes. It's it's just nice. The shows are close together. We're in Chattanooga last night, in Nashville tonight, onto Dallas, Tulsa, Oklahoma City. Then will be at Joe Rogan's Comedy Club, the Comedy Mothership, and then Houston and we get a little break and then we pick it up again in Colorado. But yeah, it's uh and it's it's fun because I'm playing a lot of music venues

Set, and then I pull out the guitar. I'll play the.

Tiny Salmon song and and do some fun songs and then kind of ended off with a few of my uh more songs from the record.

Yeah, so everybody check out this is the Tom Green documentary.

Loved it. The Amazon Prime specials.

Those are the It's a It's a at your House.

I mean, it's like life now. It's a four part.

Three four part Yeah, Tom Green Country, and then.

That's not out yet because I haven't seen so that comes out on the thirty first, gotch So it'll be out when this Yes, yeah.

And there's a stand up special two that comes out in a couple of days, so it's the documentary. Then there's a stand up special which is called I Got a Mule, and then the show Tom Green Country comes out on the thirty first.

They'll all be out by the next.

Week and take it to the toy you get him at Tomgreen dot com.

Tom.

Thanks and I'm sure I've stolen hundreds of things from you without even realizing it over the years, like no doubt, So thank you for all that.

Thank you, Bobby. I mean, it is so cool. I mean, I you know, I sort of rolled the dice and hit you up on Instagram and said I'm going to be in Nashville and I'd love to come on your show, and you just it was so cool that you got.

Right back to me. Man.

It was such a that's awesome, man. It's just an honor to be here in your an amazing place, and thank you.

I just gud You're real and not a scam.

I fell for those Nigerian prince things way too many times, So that's what I thought you might have been.

Yeah, it's real, he's really here.

Yeah, next time I'll send a Nigerian prince just for thank you.

I'm more comfortable with that. Yeah, give him my account number and we're just good after that.

Go to Tom Green dot com, get tickets to the tour, and go to Amazon. The documentary is great and there's just a lot of Tom Green content.

Love to see it. Tom. Thank you for coming by.

Thanks Bobby, thank you, thanks for listening to a Bobby cast production.