Brian Kiley on The Man Who Would Be King

And Brian got in touch with me, uh jeez, quite a few years ago now as a stuff you should know listener and just reached out and said, hey, me and actually some of the other guys in the writer's room are are big fans of the show, and we think you and Josh are great and just wanted to touch base when you're ever out here. Would love to go to lunch or something. And that sort of struck a new um kind of email slash online Facebook friendship

with Brian. I was finally able to meet Brian and a few of the other guys in person a few years ago when he invited me to the set of Conan and out to lunch on the back lot and showed me backstage and towards the offices and has always just been so kind to me, and UM, I kind of joke to him on the episode, UM that he always treated me like a professional peer, even though I certainly didn't deserve it, because Brian and anyone in that writer's room to me, I just hold on such a

pettus soll Um. Conan was always after Letterman, you know, the Letterman years, my favorite late night show and um still still remain so today. So always so much respect for those guys. And Brian has always been such a good guy to me, really one of the nicest guys

in show business. And a stand up as well, really funny stand up, and we we talk a lot about that and have a really good conversation about writing jokes, and he's very open, unlike a lot of comics about the process and and doing stand up and and writing great setups and punch lines over and over a year after year for himself and for Conan. So we had

a great conversation. His movie Crush was the nineteen seventy five action adventure from John Houston, the Man who would be King movie that I had not seen before that I liked very much. So here we go, everyone with the great Brian Kylie on the man who would be king how you doing. I'm okay, how's your little girl? She is great? Uh, you know, I mean you know

the deal. And in fact, you gave me some good advice early on, which was, um, the things that you just sort of think you'll remember, you won't, and to like write down as much as you can. That's the only advice I ever give young parents, because there's so much No one is funnier than a five year old. Yeah, you know, you know, I've been around comedians and comedy writers for years. Still five year olds are hilarious every day.

Well it's funny because we, uh, I'm trying to teach her about like the rules of comedy and stuff and the rule of threes. And from the very beginning when we would go to the playground, I would do this silly bit where I would on the swing, I would act like I was texting someone or on my phone, and she would kick it out of my hands and she, you know, it's like at that age is just again again again. And I said, I'm only going to do

it if you call it the phone bit. And so from the time she was like three years old, she calls everything a bit to the phone bit. Oh my god, that's so fantastic. And then with the again again again thing. Um, I had to teach her about a bit having legs. I was like, that bit doesn't have legs. What does that mean. I was like, well, some some bits you can do over and over and over and it's still funny. It's some you do it two or three times and then it's not so funny anymore. And that means it

didn't have legs. So now the thing is, come on, daddy, that bit has legs. That's so funny. Oh my god. Now your kids are both long gone now right, yeah, I mean my daughter is actually home right now, but she's she's going to grad school, so she'll she'll be going back. You know, she missed out. She graduated in May, but she didn't get to have a graduation and all

that stuff. Man. So um, but she'll be going back for the last semester to get out for masters in a couple of weeks of And my son actually is going to be going to law school, so he's moving home for a couple of months until he is what he's gotten into a few but he doesn't know what you when he's going to yet, so wow, that's great until that sort out. So yeah, but both what kind

of lawsy interested in? I actually think he wants to get into politics, so I know, I know, I think he's really interested in that, so be interesting to see. I don't know. I mean, that's you know, it's funny because I came out of college and went into comedy, so I have no moral high ground to stay with my kids. You know, you're gonna be practical or what you know. So yeah, yeah, that was actually I mean

that Segway is kind of into our first Um. And by the way, the recording is going to be fine, he said, okay, great, great, so this is the show. We're doing the show now we are. I am curious, so I know you're from the Boston area. Where were you actually born and raised? I was born and raised in Newton, mass which is just outside of Boston. It's actually touching Boston. Um, and uh yeah, I'm from on the middle of five kids and a big Irish Catholic family.

And then I went to college. I went to Boston College and then I started doing comedy in in Boston when I was in college, and then I came out and just did stand up to Then uh, I got hired to Conan. Wow, so you started stand up in I mean, what would this have been the mid eighties earlier? Yeah, early eighties. I yeah, I graduated in eighty three, so I started, I guess eighty two or something at two and then, um, I started getting some actual gigs my

senior year. It would be for like thirty dollars to go to New Hampshire or something, and you know and do ten or fifteen and you know, I had still little time. I only had like ten minutes or whatever. You know, you build it up, and then um, I just came out of college and it was I kind of luckily the comedy boom kind of happened right when I was graduating. So I came out and there were all these gigs and I was able to make a living. I mean a meager living, but I was able to

make my living. And then, um, I was on the road probably about one week a month, so most of the time I was there. There was enough work in Boston because you could go there were colleges, your clubs. There were one night ers. You know, you might drive to Maine one night and do a show and drive back that night, and then the next day you're doing a college in Vermont, or the next night you're in Connecticut at a at a just a bar or whatever, you know. Just but there was a ton of gigs

in New England in those days. So that's cool. I think I remember listening to the Mayrin episode. Did you guys overlap there in Boston? Yeah, we actually did open mics together, and then and then I when I was twenty five, I was hosting Open Mike and we had like Louis c K would come as a new comic right stuff like that, you know. So yeah, so I with Louis c K and Dane Cook and Mark Mayry, like I saw, you know, Joe Rogan and all these people. Bill Burr. Yeah. Now, what what was your family like?

Were they funny? Were you always uh like amidst laughter? Uh? My older brother was funny, and I think he was kind of my role model. And and I would I would do bits um just to make him laugh, you know. Um. I wouldn't say my parents were funny, but I didn't know that they I don't know that they that was a priority. You know. I feel like you and I, I think we were always trying to make our kids laugh. I don't think. I don't think my parents had never occurred to them I should try to make my kids

like kind of kind of the same. And they weren't overly serious. It just it never occurred to them. Probably. No, I think it's a generational thing of yah, you know, um, yes, So I think, you know, it's funny because my younger brother went to Harvard and he was the smart one, and I think early on I was like, oh, my little brother smarter than me, so I had to kind of carve my own niche. You know what, how did

your parents feel about your career? Well, I think that they they always knew I was this comedy nerd and then I love comedy. And I think that even as a little kid, like they'd have company over and I'd have some jokes for them, like from a joke board or or whatever, you know what I mean. And I

think they were kind of like, I don't. I think they were kind of resigned to it in a way of like, but I mean I could make them laugh, which which helped Um, but I don't think that they were like, oh, we can't wait till our kid goes into comedy. Right were you were you listening to like comedy albums growing up and stuff? Was something was going

to had your eye on? Yeah? I was, And there was just when I was a teenager, there was this guy named Kenny Mayer in Brookline, mass which actually kons from who had this radio show and it was from like like eleven to midnight or midnight to one am.

But I remember I wasn't I was supposed to be asleep, and I would be listening in my radio when my little transistor or whatever, and he would play whole whole comedy albums, could play like half of an album and I have some commercials and then play another half of another album or whatever. So I would stay up secretly and be listening to Bill Cosby albums or Bob new Heart albums or whatever. Um, and I just love that stuff,

you know. Yeah, I mean I did the same. I mean I think I had a George Carlin album and of course Bill Cosby himself was just sort of a life changing record for me. Um, Like I'd never had a comedy album that I listened to over and over and over and memorized, and I remember when I finally saw it was years later when I saw the actual performance on HBO. It really freaked me out as something I had listened to dozens of times and pictured in my head as a certain way, and I remember actually

seeing it was was weird. That's so interesting. And you know I saw him. I got to see him perform live when I was in my early twenties, and you could just see almost like the technical skills that he had, you know, and he did this whole bit about how how your memory as you get older it goes from your head down really basically to your ass. And he'd say, he go, he had leave the room, you go in

the other room, could remember what he went in. Therefore came back and as soon as he sat down it would occur to him, all that's what I was looking for, you know, so that he was able to weave that into his set. But you know, he could walk around talk about something else and what was I gonna talk about and sitting in the stool and go, oh, now

I remember, and it was such an ingenious callback, you know. Yeah, But it's also that thing of you know, like I love Boody Allen and I loved Bill Cosby and it's so hard you know, you kind of have to keep that to Yeah, it's both very problematic individuals. Yeah, um yeah, and that sucks, you know because Bill Bill Cosby himself was a big part of my childhood and you know, I can't listen to it now without thinking like, what

a what a creep he is? Absolutely, and it's it's so disappointing because you know, so for so many of us, we had him on such a pedestal, you know, and it's like wait what you know, Yeah, when your heroes are exposed like that, it's, um, it's tough. Yeah, especially it wasn't when it wasn't someone got drunk and did one. But it's like, no, this is a forty years series of awful. You know, it's not hard to make up your mind about how you feel about that. So you

met Conan, like, we'll tell me that story. Okay, well this is this is a little bit insane. So uh, Conan. I grew up in Newton and Conan grew uprom Brookline, which are adjacent towns. And we actually did the Google maps one day and he grew up exactly four miles from me, and we went to the same Sunday school when we were a little kid. Oh yeah, So I was in his brother Luke's class and he was in my brother Dan's class. Luke and I would sit it was like a Monday afternoon, you know, and and we

were taught by nuns. And before the nun would come in, Luke and I would talk about the football games the day before, which is it's just hilarious because would be doing the same thing now, you know, like fifty years later. It would be like I would be having the same conversations that we had then, you know. Yeah, so I

knew who Conan was. And then my brother went to Harvard within the same class as Conan, so he would when I was in college, he would show me, he go, remember that guy Conan O'Brien, And he would show me the Harvard lampoons that Conan was the editor and the president or whatever he was, and I read these really funny things and from uh so, and then when he started working on SNL and The Simpsons, I kind of

followed his career at some extent. And it's the kind of thing, is I hadn't seen him since we were little kids, so I would have walked by him on the street and not known who he was. But I knew his name, and I was aware of his success and stuff. So when they announced Conan's gonna take over for Letterman, I was kind of like, oh, I kind

of know that guy, you know. And then some friends of mine got hired at Conan h my friends tom Agna and Chuck clar and Louis c. K for all Boston Comics, and then um, somebody got fired and they were looking for somebody to write his monologue, and I used to. At that time. I was writing a lot of topical jokes in my act. So I joke in the paper every day. It's funny because there's no internet.

I feel like I'm a hundred years sol. But I got through the newspaper and I would write jokes from that and I would do them that night on stage. And so I was so used to writing topical jokes, so I wrote some new ones, but I also put some jokes from my act to look at some new I just sent them a packet of like fifty jokes and then they called said, yeah, okay, you start tomorrow.

And the show was so shaky then, you know, Um, so I had these thirteen week contracts and there will constantly you'll be reading the New York Post and your daily news and maybe rumors of who's going to take over for Conan, like was going to be fired and they get to take over. And then, um, the show just kind of slowly built and slowly built. And then when we started getting uh Emmy nominations, that kind of

gave us some credibility. Um, but it was a long time before we felt kind of secure, like, oh, I think we're okay here, you know. Um. But yeah, and then so as in March, I'll be there twenty seven years. Wow, that is unbelievable. Man. I was an early adopter. I mean I was a Letterman guy growing up. I mean as a kid, I watched Carson, of course, because that's just what you did, and he was, you know, just unbelievable. And I learned so much about um comedy, I think

from watching Carson. And then I have an older brother, you know, a few years older, so that's usually the entre. Like he goes to college and says, oh, you gotta start watching David Letterman, and then he said, Oh, there's this new guy, Conan O'Brien. You gotta watch. It's really great. It's right up your alley. And so I started watching Conan. I mean, what, what was the first year he's So he started in September of ninety three, and then I

started in March of Yeah, I mean I was. I was in college then, and I can't say that I started in ninety three, but I bet you anything it was ninety four. It was pretty early, and it was just sort of perfect being the age that I was then in college, I felt like Conan was the late night host for my generation and really just sort of as much as I love Letterman, still he was still a little bit above my generation. Um and Conan just I don't know, man, there was always that connection, and

I think it's amazing. I think it speaks to your talent and also to his loyalty. I know he's a pretty loyal guy. He really a great guy. And it's so funny because so many times I would have a meeting and it'd start the meeting and everyone's in there, all the red and he'd have a five minute conversation with me first about some Boston sports thing like Okay, what happened last night? Whatever? Everyone else is like these guys. Uh, but yeah, he's a great like I think people would

love to know about what a day is like. Uh, you know, sort of in the in the prime of the show what is the what is the day like? For a monologue writer for and I guess it was it was you and Rob Kuttner sort of as a team for a while, right, Yeah. He well, he didn't start until we were out in l A. So he wasn't parad of the New York shows, but he came out here and he's a joke machine, that guy. Yeah, so funny. What what used to in the old days?

I mean it's still it's shipped a little bit. But and the old days, I'd come into work and they'd be a stack of newspapers on my desk and you go through and you just look for the premises and you just try to find stuff that Conan will joke about, you know, if if there's a plane crash or something, when you know, sometimes the big story is some kind of tragedy that we're not going to do anything without that.

It's usually about Okay, what's the president doing today? What is is there some celebrity in the news, there's there's some you know. I think in the early days there was a we did a lot of celebrity stuff, but I think it's less less of that now for whatever reason. But um, you'd find areas that you go, okay, you know what, there's something funny about this, and and so you kind of write down the topics that you thought were good to explore, and and sometimes it would be

like an obscure story. But he he didn't like to focus on those. He wanted he wanted us to talk about the big stories for the most part. Pick out the stories. And I'd write a bunch of jokes, and then I'd get together with the other guys, the other monolig writers, and would kind of pool our jokes, and like, how many jokes when you say a bunch of jokes would each of you on a daily basis, Right on every day, I'd write about forty. Wow, but it's amazing.

I'd tried about forty and he would do two of them. So bad jokes, not bad jokes though, you know. It's like that's why these I mean, that's why these shows are so great. It is because they pull together you know hundreds of jokes and tell you know twelve of them. Yeah, no, that's true, and and and some sometimes you have to get the bad ones out first to kind of get

the juices, you know. Um, so in the morning until like eleven or eleven thirty or so, I'd probably write about fifteen or twenty and then would pull them with the other guys and um, we'd um read through them, and it might be like sometimes someone else's joke might t you're a different idea for you. You might oh and so that way, what if we did this instead

or whatever? And then we'd give him the jokes, uh, and then he would mark the ones he'd liked and say more on this or more on that, and then we'd write some new ones, and then we'd go down to meet with them, and he had read through the new ones and pick up the ones elect and then he'd read the ones he liked from the first match and see if they still hold up, and pretty much that was kind of so maybe there's ten or twelve from there, and then he's like, okay, So we'd put

all those on qute cards and then uh, you know it, say it's the president's birthday or something he'd be like, oh, we don't have a good joke on this, we might go back and try to have some last minute hail

Mary is there. Yeah, And then we get in the qute card meeting and have all the jokes that he liked earlier on que cards and then a couple of new ones, and then he reads through them with Andy and our our head writer and and our producer, and we're all there and we pick out the jokes at work and then we picked the order and then he

goes and does them. So's and there are times there's a few times where you know, now with this show, we go out at four thirty in New York, it was five thirty, but there were times that the last minute to come up with something, but they'd like and it was it was like home ranked in the bottom of the ninth or something, you know, like like, well, at the very last second, we got that one in there, and then he went out and did it five minutes later.

And it actually is nice to having that kind of immediacy of you know, you write it and then he goes out and does it that that you know, that afternoon or you know a few minutes later or whatever. I imagine the monotony is pretty intense, and being a joke machine, there's a lot of pressure to be funny every day. And we all have bad days as humans and days where we feel terrible or where you have personal things in your life, Like how hard is it to cast that aside and trudge on? That's a that's

a very good question. You know. It's funny because I never got migraines until I started working there. Yeah, and usually people start getting migraines when they were in their teens or their twenties, and I wasn't. It wasn't for me. It was like in the late nine I would say, I was in my late thirties when I started getting migraines. And yeah, you do have those days. I do think sometimes you do have stuff in your personal life or whatever, but sometimes it can actually be a nice escape actually,

you know, Yeah, I mean that definitely happens. There are times when you're tired, your brain is tired, and you're like,

I just don't have it. You know. That happens sometimes too, but um, you know, but then sometimes you like it took you know, sometimes you're like, oh, it took me a while to get going like my morning match was terrible, and then you know, and that's sometimes I've had my morning batch is terrible, in the afternoon's terrible, and then the third match it's like, oh I finally kind of came alive there and saved it at the last minute. You know. So sometimes you get that little adrenaline boost

or something like that. Um, but you know, luckily, I'm you know, you have other people to work on two, so hopefully you know other Yeah, absolutely, yeah, I mean it's a job where you can't. I you're not allowed to have writer's block. Um, you kind of probably not allowed to like Collins sick if you don't feel great. I mean you have to you have to be that joke joke factory. That's just an amazing thing to do

for twenty seven years. Well it's funny because now it's just it's just Laura Kilmartin and me writing the monologue. And she's great. He is great, and she's so funny. But it is the thing of you know, we can't have a bad day. You know, one of us is a bad day. It's a lot of pressure on the other one, you know. Um, but before we've had three

or four or even six monologue writers. So as the shows, you know, this shows kind of changed and that's only half hour and we have the writers and all that stuff. But um, yeah, I mean there are those times we're like h And also sometimes what you're looking at in the news is is bleak. You know. I remember when I was first there, the first month or two, everything

was fine, and then we had the Oklahoma City bombing. Yeah, and I think Jackie Onassis died at like the same well, like right at the same time, and like every story, you're like, oh, we can't touch any of this stuff. And you know how they have in the USA today they had a little state by state So Conan would come out and be like, hey, did you hear about this controller in St. Palm And what are you talking about? Noe, no one's heard about the right No one cares, you know,

but we couldn't talk about the big stuff. Yeah, I mean that's interesting. You gotta you gotta drill down and find the nuggets in there when the national news is so bleak, especially lately, you know, I mean we're recording this in real time, you know, a handful of days after the capital riots and cheese. Sometimes it's just hard

to find humor anywhere. Oh my god. Yeah, and especially when someone's killed or something that it's like, you know, um, I remember when I was first there, we had some joke about a guy fell into a vat of cheese, and it was the joke was like he's getting better with age, but you know, the guy was seriously hurt, so we couldn't do a joke. But like a month later, ConA would be like, like, we'll be having a bad day and ConA would be like, how's that guy in

the cheese doing right? Right? Well, I'm sure in that writer's room, you know, you bat around all manner of inappropriate jokes and just sometimes you just have to get those out. And also sometimes you know, sometimes shockingly that you said one as a joke for the room and it's on the show. You're like, wait, he picked that. He picked that? When I was I was actually kidding, you know, um uh. We said this thing called staring contest. Do you remember seeing those where Conan and Andy would

have staring contest? Oh yeah, yeah, that was one of my favorite. Oh my god, it was so great and whoever would break so behind Conan he would have these things to come out to distract Andy to get him to break, so it would be all these sight gangs. And it was an amazing bit because it was a silent bit for like five minutes on National TV, and it was really funny. Luisy k came up with that.

So I was home, I think, on a paternity leave, and I was submitting jokes remotely, and I submitted a bunch of sight gangs, and I had one that I was just kidding. Was us to make the room laugh? I don't know this is too inappropriate for your show here, but it was a quarterback going under center and then pulling out a gerbil and I swear I was just kidding. And then that night that was the closer and no one was more shocked than me. Hey, I gotta turn

off my fridge real quick. Holder hit this world up. You know, it's so funny because I was so hoping that I would get to throw or commercial for me

Andy's we could do that. Uh. You know, that's one of the things I always appreciated about your stand up two, which I love, which is and I've told you this before, but you know, there are all kinds of different ways to do comedy and and I think when the I hate the labels, but alternative comedy comes around and these weird storytelling storytelling bits, which can all be great, but I always appreciated just your dedication to the craft of the joke and writing a joke with a setup and

a punchline. You get in, you get out, and it's just so clean and uh, I mean, there's this. It's just such an art form. It's really hard to write a joke and you've written tens of thousands of them, probably hundreds of thousands of them over the years. It's just amazing. Well, I do think it's I think early on, I you know, I tried sort of Seinfeld esque sort of observational things. I tried to impression. I tried to do impressions. I was the worst impression is in the

World's like what was I think? Did you do? I tried to do like Peter Falk or whatever. So bad. Um. But I think early on I was realized it's like, oh, you know what, I'm not good at this, and this is what I'm good at. Let me just do that. And because I kept trying to write longer bits, it's you know, if I do forty five minutes if I like, do your head and show that's a hundred and thirty

five jokes. That's a lot of jokes too. And when I had my Comedy Central half hour special, you know they have it on the they have um teleprompter, So put all my stuff on bullet points and the teleprompter and they go, you've got nine jokes. That's a record. Well, I was gonna talk about just the simple nuts and bolts of just memorizing and act that long with that many jokes is astounding. It's you know, it's funny. I mean, when you're doing it all the time, you just you're

just so used to it, you know. But there are times absolutely where, especially coming out to l A. You always every show you're doing short sets, and so when they go, okay, we want you to headline this day, and before it was like, oh, I haven't done forty five minutes like three years, you know, and I've just been all day writing up my set and going through you know, when it's yeah, there are times like oh

I forgot that trunk or what right? I try to keep stuff like okay, here are my high school jokes and here are my jokes. Got to keep Thoms together because otherwise, um, you get lost. But also you have to keep in the same order. Like if you do two or three shows in a night, by the third show, you're like, did I do this joker? You know? So that's got to be scary as hell. It's and you do see comics repeat a joke, and there is that

feeling of have I done this joke before? And then when they laugh, you're like, okay, I few, I didn't write, man, But yeah, that is a terrifying feeling. Oh, I imagine one of your favorite jokes of mine and I can't. I'm hoping you can remember it. But and I know it's like saying to do one of your hundreds of thousands of jokes. But it was a joke about, um, your wife having sex with your wife and a fireman. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there was the chuck about we

we tried to spice things up. We tried some role playing, right, so I dressed up as a firefighter and my wife dressed up as someone who didn't really feel like having sex with a firefighter. That's it. Oh man, I'm glad you remembered it because I couldn't. That's one favorite jokes I told that joke to friends, giving you credit of

course for years after I heard it. Uh, there's just something about it, man, it just kills me because it takes you know, I think that's one of the best kinds of jokes, and that it takes you in a different direction from where you start in such a brief amount of time. Uh, there's that little bit of misdirection that Uh, and it's a surprise. The punch line is a surprise. You think it's going one way and it's a three cent it's joke and it takes you in

another direction. It's just it's brilliant. Man. I love it. I would never retire that joke from act if I were you, That's one of the great jokes. Uh. Do you walk around every day like is it hard to turn off that switch? Or are you constantly is that annoyingly les? Yeah? My loved ones hate me. I mean it's yeah, it's there's constantly that is this something or

is this funny? And not on purpose? Like you just out doing your life and then something strikes you and you're kind of like and I used to keep a little notepad and I would kind of jomp something down, and now I just had my phone and I just put something in the phone if I you know, I have that ever note, put something if I think of a joke. But yeah, I mean still it's I still have that thing of I love when I come up with a new joke that I'm excited about that I

can't wait to try. Yeah, I see certain comics where they have not changed their act at all in twenty years or something. You think, and even if it kills it's like, isn't that boring to just like, you know, if I do a hundred jocks, there's times with it my whole set, I can't wait till the one new joke in the middle, you know, right, And that's the fun part of And so many times you're wrong. You think, oh, way do they hear this? And then it's like, oh,

well they heard it. How disappointing is that when you have a joke that you really love one of your babies, it just doesn't fly. It's you know, especially one that you're excited about. And sometimes a joke can be it's too much of a reach for it. It's like it's you think it's clever, but it's a little too contrived

or something or it's too obscure. And also sometimes it's a thing of you do a joke a hundred times and it works ninety nine and is that one time it doesn't and you want to go, wait, what what's wrong with you? People you know want to say, yeah, I mean, is the audience always right? Do you walk out of there sometimes saying like nah, that that ship

was funny and they didn't get it. Most of the time they're right, But there are those exceptions where you go, now, I've done that joke five times and it's always worked. That's not me, that's on you, you know. Yeah. Um so, I mean there are you can get a dumb crowd, or you can get you know whatever, were the too

drunk or whatever. But for the most part, there's most of the time I think, oh, waited to hear this, and if it doesn't work, I'll look back on it three months later and go, yeah, they were right, that wasn't that wasn't very well. You just briefly mentioned people getting too drunk. What I know, every comic has their own Heckler sort of defense plan. How did you handle

that over the years? What was your move? Uh? Yeah, I would I um, I would try to ignore as much as I could, because sometimes what happened is you come out. I would always record my sets, and the old days now record them on my phone, but the old days I would record them on a tape recorder. And sometimes somebody the front row says something and nobody else can hear it, and so you lash up. Is suddenly the audience is kind of like, why is he

just suddenly lashing on this guy? Right? You know? So I've kind of learned that if but if if it's something that everybody is aware of, um, and something my friend Barry Kirmen's taught me of try to point out in what way they're being a jerk, you know, Um, so if you can kind of flip it on them. But um, I think I got I think I get less heckled now just because I'm older. I think there's a certain like it's almost like I think sometimes they're like, I don't want to be heckling my dad. Like if

we're both and they're heckling, it's one thing. But if they're twenty five and you know, and they see me like, I think there's a little bit of Yeah, I guess, but I think a little bit of respect for my age or whatever you well in your career, Like imagine, like people know who you are when they go to see you, and what kind of an asshole is going to heckle the guy who's been writing like some of the greatest monologues in the past twenty seven years. You

have to be a real shphead. Occasionally there is a real shifhead. But yeah, um, but I do think you um, And I also think I work in better rooms now too. I think you know, when you're in the beginning, you're in every dive and every you know, and also sometimes your rooms where they didn't come for comedy, they don't want comedy, they're out of bar, and okay, we're forcing the show on you. And there sometimes where it's like I think I'm the rude one. This is a couple

that's on a date. I'm like, no, sorry, I'm here. You can't talk now, you know? Wow, man, that is so cool. I mean, I love this insight. Uh. I haven't had a bunch of stand ups. I mean I've had a handful, but um, I don't know. It feels like people don't talk about it that much and always that you're kind of open to talking about things I have just said. I love I mean, it's one of

the things I do. Love stand up and I love talking about it because it's you never really master it in a way, you know, it's it's always a challenge.

It's it's that the challenge never ends. Really. Yeah, and and just on a personal level, like you started, I think you've got in touch with me many years ago because you listen to stuff you should know, and um, some of the other guys, Rob Kuttner, who is originally from Atlanta when your monologue writing partners listened and Dan Cronin from the show listened, and all of a sudden, like, I'm this guy who never had a job in show business and sort of lucked into this weird career and

I'm getting, uh, I'm getting these heroes of mine that work on the show, that all those all of a sudden, you're getting in touch with me saying you like my work and it always just meant so much to me.

How you in particular, Uh, And I don't know if you've got the book that I've seen, Yeah, yesterday, And part of the inscription was, you know, thank you for always pretending like we were professional peers that always meant so much to me and was such a big boost for me and how I felt about Um, did I

deserve to even do this job? Please? I mean the amount of hours you guys have logged, it's I mean, how many thousands now, I mean it's incredible over four episodes for stuff you should know, and it's it's such a great show because it's it's funny, but it's also you. I've learned so much and it's entertained, you know, and it's never dry, it's it's and you guys have a great chemistry. I don't know, Um, I love it. I think it's it's really been my favorite podcast for years.

So thanks man. I mean, it always meant so much to me that you uh kind of treated me with such kindness and when I went to l at that time and uh you invited me out for lunch and gave me the backstage tour in uh, I mean, I was like a kid in a candy store. You know. It was just amazing, So big thanks, my friend. Absolutely, all right, Do you want to talk a little bit about the man who would be king? Sure should not.

Did you get to see in I did, of course, Um, This is the first time I've actually seen this movie from nine directed by the great John Houston, Um written by John Houston, and I think Gladys Hill from the Rudyard Kipling uh novella was like a short novel. Um, Where did this movie come into your life? And why

is why is this your movie? Crush? My friend Barry Crimmins, who was sort of my mentor, my comedy mentor, he he showed it to me, and I guess I was in my early twenties, and I remember my older brother had mentioned it to me. When you know, there's so many movies. You know, my older brother is seven years older and my older sisters nine and a half years older.

So when I was, you know, twelve and thirty ten or whatever, they were going to see these movies in the seventies that had all this cashe in my mind of like, oh, I'd like to see that, you know, but I couldn't go or whatever. And then a lot of them, as I've gotten older and watched them, you know, at Blockbuster or Netflix or whatever, I'm like, ah, that

movie wasn't very good. I've been waiting forty years to one that movie it was, you know, and somebody don't hold up, but this, this was this really holds up because it's it's such an ingenious story where I read the short story, the novella or whatever it was this week to kind of this. But um, the movie is very true to the to the I mean, the movie is very true to the story. And um, the way he plants these seeds that they all pay off is is so remarkable to me. And I also love my

favorite thing. You know, I used to watch you know, when I watch Batman as a little kid, and when you watch James, there's always this elaborate way they're going to be killed and whatever, and then they get out of it, and it's always whenever. So many movies where the heroes in danger and the way they get out of it is so sort of they just shoot somebody in the hand or whenever they beat them up or whatever. It's so lame. And this one in particular, where you

can have spoilers, you're right. It's a where they're they're crossing the mountains and then is that the giant crevice and they can't get across and they're gonna die, and they just sit there and they start talking, telling their old stories and they start laughing and they laughed so hard that they caused the avalanche. And I just thought that was the most ingenious way of getting over an obstacle, in the way of getting out of the situation I've seen in any TV show or any movie. I just

thought that was so brilliant, you know. Yeah. Um, just to sort of overview for the listeners if you haven't seen it, it's about to former English soldiers who basically are turned into a con artist, like a con artist team a couple of grifters. Danny Dravat in uh one of the great names of all time. Peachy Carnahan is Michael Caine's character, and Sean Connery just like peaque handsome

Sean Connery in this movie and he Uh. They decide to leave India and basically go to the Middle East and grift these um and this is I guess, uh, late eight hundreds, and they decided to a plan for them would be to go and sort of grift these people in the Middle East who they see as as savages into thinking they are kings and eventually gods and and in looting them and leaving and uh, it's it's kind of this crazy plan that that kind of works

until like the very end. It's pretty remarkable, it really is. And the way it's so it's so plausibly done, and the way that they keep every scenario where they get in danger, there's such an ingenious way that they get out of it and win. Yeah, it's it's just so cleverly done. That's what I That's what I love about it. Um. And they're such great actors, you know, oh man, I mean what appairing. I know that earlier Houston tried to

develop it with Bogart and Gable. Yeah, Clark Gable is the Sean Connery role and then Bogart is Michael Caine's role. But when you see these guys, I mean, their chemistry is great. Um. It's not the movie that I thought it was. I I think I thought it was a bit more of a Lawrence of Arabia type of thing. I didn't know how funny it was gonna be. Um, But I think he he hit just the right tone. I think if it were remade today, it would be way bloodier and also way more um played for laughs

kind of been the wrong way. It would be like Owen Wilson in the Rock or something, and probably a lot of dumb jokes. But I think they hit the comedy just right in this movie. I always felt this way that really good dramas because they set the tension up so well that that the comedy always pays off because you're not expecting it and they've created this tension and you're nervous, and then it's like it's such your release, you know, And also you're not looking for a joke there,

you know. Yeah, but I did think that has a bunch of funny lines in it. Yeah, that's I just love the the elaborateness of it and how cleverly it's. It's it's constructed, you know. Yeah, and it's a movie even though it's um At times it feels like it's going to an inevitable conclusion. But for a lot of the movie, you're kind of guessing what's going to happen to these eyes? And is there Like for a while

I was wondering, is there any treasure? Like I kind of thought the conclusion was going to be they go and they do sort of install themselves as a king and his I guess, sort of right hand man. But there's not gonna be any treasure and it'll be all for not but there is treasure, uh, and they discover that. That's one of the funny bits is when Sean Connery holds up that ruby and he's like, look at the shows of this ruby, and then Michael Caine holds one

up it's like three times as big. It's just it's a great little sight gag, especially for those guys who are like pickpockets and whatever. Suddenly they're in the wealthiest room that it's there. You know, it's so great, beyond their wildest beings. Um, it's so awesome. Well, and it looks amazing, like uh, I know, we sound like old guys to say like they don't make them like this anymore,

but they truly don't. When you see these these scenes with three hundred extras and fifty camels and thirty goats and all the costuming, he's just so real and everything would be c G I now or whatever, and yeah, there it is. He like the excuse there are how there's a Yeah, it's incredible. It did remind me of Lawrence of Arabia a little bit, except just for that big sort of sweeping you know, this is John Houston. It's in technicolor, and it's just it's it's just a

real movie. It feels like something not made in n I know, I'm actually surprised it didn't get more acclaimed awards wise or whatever. But yeah, and there's this, you know, Michael Caine is great, and there's all these little side stret So there's a story. He told he was in some movie, some terrible movie in the seventies and it might have been The Swarm or something like that. I'm not sure which movie was, but they asked him about it and he said, you know, I haven't seen the film.

I hear it's dreadful, but I have seen the house that had paid for and it's beautiful. I mean, he's just such a legend and he's uh and this is sort of peaque Michael Caine as well, um in the mid seventies, so funny, and that that just he he's an actor, who uh. I know, he had a harder time getting work at first because of his accent, and he was always sort of told to be to put on a bit more of the posh English accent, but that no one has a better speaking voice than Michael Caine.

Oh my god, I love that scene. Is it road Trip? What's that scene with those two guys have the dueling Michael Caine. Oh, I don't know. It's a great He's two British guys again and one guy does that Michael Caine. He does look really good Michael Caine, and the other guy's like no, no, no, and then he does his Michael Caine and you're like, okay, you win. It's better. Yeah, it's even better. It's so good. I'm blanking on. Um.

Their their names, but it's so good. Um. But I was so the woman that Sean Connery tries to marry in the movie. So that's Michael Caine's real life. What right? I saw that afterwards? Shakira Kane Kirakane, so I looked up in Wikipedia. So he had seen her on a Maxwell House coffee commercial and he got her number from her agent and he called her like ten days in a row and she's like no, no, no, whatever, and then she agreed to go on a date with him

or whatever. But can you imagine that you see someone on a commercial and you're like, you know, like I had the power to just say I want to date her. I tried that years ago with flow from progressive and didn't work out. I got nowhere. I don't know what to tell, but I was just meaning that I thought that was such a cool thing of like, really, you can do that and they're still married. I mean they've been married since three or something like, Yeah, unbelievable. Yeah,

that's very cool. I wondered, Um, actually I looked her up to because I wondered if they had met on

this movie, but um, they had met previous. And you know, I guess she got the part because it was Michael Caine's wife and she was beautiful, right, and yeah, and she had the good look the look for that that you know, because it's funny because I remember seeing around the world in Eighty Days and at one point they're in India and David Niven meets this Indian princess and it's Shirley McClain and you're like, wait, I love Shirley McClain. However I don't. She hasn't seen that Indian to me,

I don't know. Yeah, I mean those are the days when they would, you know, appropriate whatever they wanted. Yeah. Yeah, So but it was it's kind of cool that it his his wife had this memorable part, you know, oh totally. And then that wedding scene too was so creepy. I mean, this movie does have some intense moments. Then I think it's sort of interesting to balance out sort of the lighter comedic parts with some really I mean, that's a very intense scene, that wedding scene. The movie is really

very grounded, Like those guys seem very real. Their friendship seems like they've been friends forever and they've been through everything together. And um, it's such a plausible movie for for considering what what the stakes are and what's happening. You know. Um, that's what I love about it. You you totally you go, okay, I'm with you for this ride. Because some always were like okay, come on, you know, but this is like, all right, I'm on board here, you know. Yeah. I mean it's kind of a buddy

comedy adventure movie. Um, what was your take on The one thing I didn't quite get my head around was this the contract they signed to not woman eyes or to not drink, Like, what what was your take on that? Why they did that? Oh? I My take was that, you know, they were these sort of m delinquent soldiers

for so long yeah. You know. My take was that they were constantly drinking and constantly womanizing, and I think that they had been I got the impression that they've been so much trouble and for years and years, so they're like, Okay, we're finally going to cut it out and do this right this right? Yeah, okay, Yeah. I think that's a good read. That's the way I looked

at it. Yeah. Uh. And you know Christopher Plumbers in those early scenes as Rudyard Kipling and that great set up at the beginning when Michael Caine comes in unrecognizable as Michael Caine, but you hear the voice and you're like, well, of course it's Michael Caine. But he's got that great line though he's kind of grotesque looking, and Christopher Plumber looks at him and then kind of looks away, and he goes keep looking at me. It helps, It helps to keep my soul from flying off. It's like such

a great line. Yes, yes, and it's this And reading the novella, there was a lot of things you go, oh, this is this went right into the movie. It's usually they take a lot of liberties with these things. But I mean, there's beautiful lines that are just in the movie, but there's also beautiful lines that they took from the story that's like, yeah, why why would you lose that? You know? Yeah, yeah, that's cool. But that is a

very lyrical thing because it's great. I love that. Yeah, and I thought I thought it was also cool how they I mean, there's never any thought given to to this not working, uh, this crazy idea against all odds, even making it to where they're trying to go, which is sort of I guess near what would be Afghanistan today, through the you know, through the mountains in the winter, and like can they even get there? And their attitude

is just so casual about the whole thing. And he's got that other great line when Chris for plumbers Kipling is telling him kind of the story of Alexander the Great is the last like white man who had been there, uh and left, and he said Alexander the Great, Well, if a Greek can do it, we can do it. And I love the idea that it seems like he had never heard of Alexio the Great. No, Yeah, it

definitely that kind of came across. I love the setting to there's something about I think being a kid raised on Raiders of the Lost Dark, and uh, there was this great war movie called The Gallipoli with Mel Gibson from when I was a kid that I watched on

HBO a hundred times. There's something about the setting in this period of India and these these bazaars that they would walk through in these markets that, uh, I just it has so much energy, I think, And it was one of the things that I loved about Raiders so much. This this land where you're a kid from Georgia, like

it just seems so fantastical and interest. And the movie opens with that with just like three or four minutes of just life there at this bizarre and it just it has to be real footage, right, just of you know people, you know, a guy putting the scorpion on his tongue and all that, and you're like, oh my god, you know these things that um there's a great um frans Copa story I think it's called like the Hunger Artist or something, where this guy is out where he

doesn't he's on a like a hunger strike, and people are following. People would gather to look at the guy as he's in public, like just sitting there, not eating for fort like each day to build up, and it gets to forty days and and and then people lose interest and start drifting away. And it's like, well, is it not eating for fifty days more more of an accomplishment than not on But the people like, we're bored with this, so then they've kind of feeled away. Mh. Well.

The character of Billy Fish is pretty great. He is the I guess sort of soldier who serves as translator in the movie, played by said Joffrey uh And one of the more fun characters is sort of the third leg of of this of this duo who meets his I guess kind of tragic end. But he's such a fun character in the movie. I think he's so great, and I think I think he was like an Indian soldier or something who got captured and then um ended

up just staying there. And so he you know, speaks perfect English and he had, you know, has affection for these British guys when they show up, and yeah, I don't think they could have done it without without him explaining what's going on or explaining this is the local chieftain that you wanted, you know, getting good with or take over his thing or what over. He kind of guided them along the way. Um, he was a great character. I was that actor and other things that I would know.

I don't know. Man, he looks sort of familiar. Let me see, I'm kind of looking now. Of course, he's probably one of these guys who was in hundreds of movies. I'm looking now. He was in My Beautiful Laundrette, he was in Gandhi. Uh, and I'm sure a whole host of movies from India. Uh. He's probably like their biggest actor,

like in history or something in Bollywood. Um. He's got one of the great lines too, when he meets them sort of early on and they meet Utah, the local sort of tribal leader or king, and he says, uh, he said, I often tell Utah about Englishman's giving names to dogs and taking hats off at the women giving names to dogs. That's such a great line, like, and

I love that. It's such a cool thing of because they're going and looking at their customs, like what are these people doing and the idea of it of flipping it and being like why would you name a dog and why would you own? That kind of thing is so great of them looking at British customs is crazy, you know, yeah, I mean it also it does touch a little bit on some more uh some deeper pools of thought about cultural relativism without really kind of getting

to self serious. But there, you know, there there is this sort of theme that runs through the whole thing about these white men coming to a Middle Eastern country who they think are savages, imposing their will on them. Everything from uh peac trying to train these soldiers in the British way and a scene that ends up being very funny the one to three just trying to get them to march and to these things too, then sort of accepting them and working with what they have rather

than trying to make them British soldiers. That's interesting, the statement it makes off and on. That's true. And so I think that the those people, they they kind of won them over in a way. They they you know, I felt like I felt like both Sean Connery and Michael Kaine's character really kind of had affection for these

people towards the end, you know, oh for sure. I mean that's the whole sort of hook of that third act is when it comes time to split with the Gold they have that four months left until the spring thaw, I guess, and you kind of see it coming that Sean Connery is bought in and he likes being king. He likes being king, and he's like, hey, I'm like, I feel like he's got like a he feels like he's the father to these people or something in a way, and and doesn't want to leave them, you know, wants

to marry one of their women and stay there. And um, yes, it is. There is sort of a maturation on them their in a way, I think from where they start out, you know. Yeah, I mean there's that great scene where he's, uh, he's sort of playing judge and settling disputes between local tribes, and it's sort of in that moment I think where he really turns and and feels like, you know, there's a better way that you should be doing things, that is more fair, more equitable. Um, but it doesn't feel

like forcing the Western way on these people. It feels more like, hey, you'd be smarter if you sort of did these things in a and your tribe would be better for it, right, right. And that's such a funny thing where there's you know, the guy's wife there's a rule of wife sleeps with If you sleep with someone else's wife, you have to give the guy five goats or whatever. Yeah, so he would on his wife out, yeah,

and never sleep with these guys. And now he's got like forty ghosts because he's pimping his wife, you know. And he's like, yeah, you know. That's and the way that Sean Parney is like wait, wait, he's taking a good law and twisting it around. And then he makes the guy's wife sleep with excellent number of guys to pay off the debt or whatever. Um, it's really funny. Um. Well, and that's when he starts taking it seriously and you sort of see the switch when and I think Houston

played it totally correct. I think if it were made today, it would be way more of a sinister feeling of like when he asked Peach to start like, I think you should start bowing when I come in, just to sort of, you know, keep up appearances. And and Michael Caine sort of gives him that side. I like, he's really buying into this. And when he talks about destiny, it was his destiny. I think Houston hit the right tone there. And today that would be way melodramatic and

even sinister. Yes, yes, absolutely, and yes, and I think that beast some more. It would be more heavy handed where they're that are that racism that they come in with or is something? And I think, you know, I think this really it's the subtlety of the film. I really like, you know, yeah, that's a really good point. I mean, you've got two of the bigger actors of

the day. And uh and I did see I read Pauline Kale's review from six is really really great, super long review, and she kind of makes that same point you do, with the subtlety and how John Houston feels content to just sort of sit back and let let it happen rather than try and force too many things to happen, right, right, And and it is an adventure story, and it is the kind of thing of the fact

that they are these ordinary guys. Yeah, and they're gonna go try to take over, and they've got this big plan. You know, it's it's such a cool adventure that you you know, yeah, I mean, he's he refers to himself. I can't remember the king's name. Uh, I can't remember the name, but it's you know, very sort of regal,

sort of Middle Eastern name uh. And I think it's very key that there their names are Danny and Peachy, uh and not like Richard and James, because every time you started to start to buy into this thing, Michael Caine comes in with that Cockney accent and calls him Dan Danny, and he gets called Peache in return, and it's sort of this constant reminder to them and to

the audience I think of who these guys are. Yes, And I love when you know, in the beginning, before they go, before they leave in their adventure, they get caught and they get in trouble and the local official calls them detriments or whatever, right right, you know, and then um, they was saying we decided to leave the country, and it's like, well, and the Kipling characters like, I'm

pretty sure you were asked, right. There's such a great comic duo that the one part where you know they're not supposed to be womanizing, and the naked temptress comes in and disrobes in front of Peachy and he's just sort of babbling about like, you know, not supposed to be doing this, and then Sean Connery comes In Danny comes in and immediately puts an into it and Michael Caine's line is, Danny, thank god you arrived. But by all accounts, they do stay. I guess cell of it.

I mean, they don't break that contract it seems like, and it does seem and they don't drink, and you get the feeling that these guys this is like a big departure for these guys of what they past, you know, well, and their success follows because they do succeed and kind of most everything they do um and you actually get sort of sad when you know they're gonna split up in and Peach is like, I'm leaving and Danny says I'm not, and uh he tries to talk him into it,

but you you know that it can it's not going to end well. At that point, I think, well, I also have I I love British actors, you know, I feel like they're they're always seem to be classically trained, and there so many of our American actors are sort of personality actors, you know what I mean, Like like I love Bruce Willis, but he's Bruce Willis in every movie and he's just kind of being Bruce Willis, you

know what I mean. And these guys that they really they know they're craft so well, Um, I don't know, I always I just think they're great, you know. Yeah, and boy Connery was just there's one of the lines from pollin Kale which you should you probably appreciate, is uh. She talks about his lack of hairpiece, which I guess he wore a lot back then. She says, Connery plays this role without his usual hairpieces and undisguised and bare domed.

He seems larger, more free. If baldness ever needed redeeming, he's done it for all time. Well, I'm sure that part of my me going, wait, you can be a leading man as a bald guy. This this is the greatest movie I've ever seen. Well Connery, Bruce Willis, you know there was a famous story when he was a young man where he somebody recommended him to Hitchcock to star, and was it, Martie, there's some Hitchcock movie that you know.

So somebody recommended him to Hitchcock. And the two guys are in the meeting, and the guys like, oh here he comes now. And Hitchcock looks out the window and sees Connie walking down the street and goes, yeah, he'll do and you know, he's so charismatic, this handsome, but I just loved it. It's just just seeing him walk down the street. Gop. Okay, yeah, let's put this guy in my movie. You know, let's let him say. Of course, well, he just had that gravity toss and uh absolutely, it

was so sad. I mean we lost him just just last to your right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was such a big loss. He had such graviy toss. And in this movie, you know, he's clearly going to be the one. He takes that arrow in that first battle, which becomes sort of they event eventually give him a golden air. It becomes sort of his riding crop that he carries around or a scepter, and they really fall into their roles.

Like my appeaci is it seems content to slide in there is the number two because in his mind he's they're just biding their time until they can get out of there. But Connery buys into it. It's a really interesting thing it does, and it's just it's just another one of their scams, but it's just a bigger one. Yeah, you know, um, but you did feel like but you

do feel like those actors. I don't know if they personally, they just they just seem to like it, you know what I mean, Like you believe their friendships so much, and I don't know if what they were like personally together, but um, you know, my friend always talks about in that You've got mail where it's Tom Tom Hanks and um Dave Chappelle are best friends, and it's like they have three years apart, like talking about you know, yeah,

that was a pretty odd pairing. These two seem like like it would really break my heart if I read that behind the scenes Connery and Kane hated each other or something like that. I agree, I agree, you really want that thing of no, no, no, they they had this bond or something. You know, I know that at some point who else was it? It was Peter O'Toole, God, I want to say Laurence Olivier were also. I know it was Peter O'Toole and I can't remember the other.

But we're also kind of cast as the two leads after Gable and bog Art. But I don't know, it just feels like it was meant to be with these guys. Yeah, I didn't know about these other these other attempts or whatever, but um, yeah, and this is one I'm so glad because there are movies that I loved when I was young, and then I watched now and go, oh my god, I was a more yea. Um, but I I love it when a movie holds up and you're like, yeah, you know what this is. Uh, this is still great,

you know, yeah, it definitely holds up. And I think as you get older, they are probably other things you can read into it. Lessons about greed and uh, like I mentioned before, cultural relativism and um, colonialism, you know, being the conquering white men in pith helmets probably would have been lost on me as a my young twenties. Absolutely absolutely, But I do think there are certain things that work on different levels. And there are things that I didn't think about when I saw in my young

twenties that I think about now. But I could still appreciate it then and now too, you know, yeah, yeah absolutely. And then that ending, you know, the inevitable conclusion, you know, you know it's over when he in the wedding scene he bleeds and they're like, you're not a god. And he's sort of delusional at that point that he can sort of keep his rain going in the in the face of being found out. Um. Hard not to kind of think about what's going on in the news these

days about the delusional king. But Michael Caine is by his side, is like the jig is up made, like like we gotta get out of here. And they start closing in on them, and you know, they have a handful of guns. But when you have seven guys coming out, you're with Rocks, You're dead absolutely. And that's also he's the same line is in the story where he goes the slut bit me and it's like, you know, you're marrying this virgin whatever. I don't think she's a slut.

I don't know what. No, that was a weird line. It's like, you're forcing yourself on this woman. She's scared to death of you because she thinks, uh, sleeping with a god will kill her. Um, that's Michael Caine's wife. And I was shocked to see that was the line in the story. I'm like, wow, I didn't know that word was around back then. Yeah. No, me, neither neither. And it was completely inappropriately Yeah. Uh shocking amount of

um or a lack of blood and there. You know, there are a lot of big fight scenes, but you know, like I said, would be way bloodier today and more sort of gory and in your face. There are a lot of battle scenes, but you just see sort of swinging of swords and things. Uh, you don't actually see anyone,

you know. It's a pretty tame movie. Yes, yes, And it do feel like the battle scenes seem sort of oddly realistic in terms of what like a primitive battle would have looked like a thousand years ago or something. You know. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Uh. And that that bridge scene at the end is just brutal. I mean, these guys they know it's over. And for a movie that sort of danced on the lines of comic leaf

all throughout, it has a really heavy ending. Do you know, a man going to his noble death and singing that song. It's just and like waiting as they chopped that rope bridge down and yet carry up, you know. And yeah, god, it was just it was brutal to watch that fall, that endless fall that he has. It's like it looked really real. Yeah, yeah, I'm so glad that that you watched it and we got to talk about this. Yeah, it's great. Um, you know, Peach ending up crucified it.

Coming back around to the explanation of why he looked the way he did. It was just tough. Man. I didn't expect it to end on in such a brutal way. Yeah, yeah, but it was almost like the inevitable ending though. You know, yeah, I think so, uh great movie. Man, It's been on my list forever. It's uh, you know, every review I read from back then it was just are stars. I think you got four Academy Award nominations. Some of the

legends of the business worked on it. The great Edith Head did the costuming, and um, I think I don't think anyone won the Academy Wear but she was certainly nominated along with John Houston. I mean the fact that I know her name and she's a costume design I was like, you have to a certain you know, foot level do you have to get at? But she's a household name, you know, she must have been amazing. Yeah. Well, I remember when I worked as a p A in

l a um at the Universal Building. I would do a lot of costumer runs and the wardrobe building was the Edith Head Building, and so that's why I always knew her name. It was like, you get the Universal Costumer department is named after you, then your your legend. Well good stuff, man, thanks for coming on. Oh thanks so much for having me it so uh, it's I'm

honored to be part of this. Yeah. I wish we could have done it in person, and we we've talked about it for a long time about when on my one of my l A trips, but it kind of got to the point with the lockdown where I was just like, we just need to get you on here anyway we can. You can't do anything in person these days. So I know, I talked to my kids over zoom and they're living at home, So all right, thanks Brian Kylie. And where can people follow you on Twitter and anything

else you want to? I'm at Kylie Noodles. Conan calls me Noodles, so that's where that And then I'm on Instagram at Brian Kylie Comics. Oh cool. I just got on Instagram semi recently, so well, I'm pretty new to it to Actually, my daughter is like, what that's not a post that should be part of your story? Yeah, Emily tells me that stuff too. I don't know the difference, all right, Thanks Brian, all right, buddy, thank you so much. Okay, everyone, I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did.

It was great to hook up with Brian. It was fun to pick his brain about comedy and writing jokes and what that's like and being a joke machine. Pretty astounding and a very cool job that he's done exceptionally well for many, many years. One of the best in the business, if not the best. So big thanks to Brian for coming on and sharing that insight, for having such a great talk on the man who would be king, and for being so kind to me over the year. So big thanks to Brian, and thanks to you all

for listening. And we will see you next week. Hope you enjoyed it. Movie Crash is produced and written by Charles Bryant and Meel Brown, edited and engineered by Seth Nicholas Johnson, and scored by Noel Brown here in our home studio at Pont City Market, Atlanta, Georgia. For I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,