Taking a walk.
If you think you're fundy, there's only one way to find out is to go up on stage. The audience will let you know right away if you're find you you know, if you're a singer, even if you're not good, they'll deploy politely. Put your done. In comedy, no one's laughing to be polite. Either you're funny or you're not well. This is exciting. So I'm at Jeffrey Gurian's place in New York City.
Jeffrey is on Comedy Saving with Lynn Hoffman, So I can't wait to walk through Jeffrey's comedy museum taking a walk.
It is this the house of Jeffrey Gurian. Come on, it's gracious. This is the coolest thing ever. Welcome to my comedy museum, jeff balloon and make yourself help. I love a good balloon time at the time good. I have plenty. I got enough balloons for everybody. How often do you have to refurbish these? Well, when they get to be like this, you see these little ones, they lose their air, then they become balloon soup. So I've been on my stove. I got a whole pot of
balloon soup. That's where they go. You never have an old balloon, right, You never have enough balloons, and you never have enough. But it's like too much tuna. If you know my thing with Nicole and John mulaney. There's never too much tuna. There's never too many balloons. I love it. Balloons are a symbol of happiness. You never see balloons in a funeral. Balloons signify fun times, and that's why I'd always have balloons. Well, thank you for
having me here, Jeffrey. It's my pleasure of buzz. I'm really happy that you're beta and this is you know, where do we start? Well, it's an ego monument to myself. You'll notice that in some of the pictures I even let someone else be in the picture. It's not just me. But these pictures go back more than thirty years and they're all very special to me. It's me and Milton Burle, who is my sponsor in the Friars Club. Milton, this was a night teen eighty five Los Angeles at the
La Friars Club. Milton was you know, I grew up watching him on the at Sullivan Shaw. I couldn't believe that we were friends and he sponsored me for membership in the Friars Club, and I got to write from Milton, you know. And there's George Burns and Red Buttons and Tom Bosley and Jackie Mason who I wrote a movie for, and Sammy Davis Junior. Wow, and I mean just the
mister Lewis. Yeah, Jerry Lewis. I got the honor of writing for Jerry Lewis and we became friends, and I went to Las Vegas to see him with Pat Cooper, the Great Pat Cooper. Now here's Jerry Stiller, Ben Stiller's Pinots, Jerry Stiller and Anne Mirror and Tovah Felcher. By the way, that's me with the eighties portal muster just then. Can you wonder who that guy was with the big mustache? You know, here's another picture from Jerry. He said, well, thanking me, I wrote his roast. I was the main
writer for the Friars Club roast for twelve years. So when Jerry was roasted, I had the hour of working with him.
And one of my favorite movies of all time is King of Comedy Ivan. Would you agree with me that Jerry's kind of play it himself a little bit a.
Bit, yeah, a bit, but you know, he had a reputation for being hard to deal with, let's say that. And when I met him he was so nice. I mean, it depends on how you meet people. They sent me to his hotel. I think he was staying at the Waldorf Towers. A man named Bob Sachs was producing the roast in those days and I was his main writer for twelve years. So he sent me to the hotel and Jerry was so gracious and we sat together for two nights, just he and I alone, working on material
for the roast. And while I was with him, he got a phone call that they discovered the gene that caused the Duchen form of muscul in this trophy, and he started crying and tears were running down his face and it was just me there to share that moment with him. Very special. That's amazing, Yeah, truly an amazing thing. And we had stayed in touch for a while. As a matter of fact, there's a picture on this wallow out of me and Jerry that was taken in Las Vegas.
Oh wow.
I went to visit him backstage. I got to write for him and Sammy Davis Junior. They have been friends for forty years, and it was the first time that they performed together. And we got this picture with Sammy at a friar's roost. But I got to write for them. They were performing together in Las Vegas and Jerry called and asked me to write material for that, and then Sid Caesar, you know, the great since c of course, and Norm Crosby, doctor Rumathine. You know, Oh, I got
an important one here, important part of my life. Here. I'm going to go to the very top there. Joey had the talk. She was my crush. Oh Joey, that's her there. Yet that's her too. I remember the ad that she did for Perfect Sleeper. Yes, that's you know that I had permission for my wife? Are you so silly? I was married. I kept a picture on my desk, never thinking I would even know her, and we wound up hanging out home one day to take my kids out for the day, and I introduced her to my
ex wife. I thought she was gonna faint now. Her father was quite in the merry mailman. That's right, very Heatherton, and she was so gorgeous, unbelievable.
Yeah, So did you start capturing your life and pictures? At the beginning of your comedy life, or were you capturing pictures when you were in your dental part of your life.
I captured pictures all the time, but you know, years ago, people didn't have a camera with them all the time. These were taken by other people. I didn't have a camera with me. It was amazing how I got these. And you know what I always like to explain, I never I never got one autograph in my life. It's not it was not interesting to me. The reason I took pictures was because I admire people that are successful,
that accomplished things in their lives. And it's like, if you meet somebody in a group of ten people, they'll say, Hi, how are you guys to meet you, But there's a very good chance they're not really aware of your presence when you're alone with them, when it's just one on one, unless they're insane and they have to know you're there. That's when I would take the picture, me, just me and them in a picture, and I would like, I'm actually meeting all these people, and I don't even know
how I did it. People say, I do meet all these people. You haven't seen this wall yet. There are many walls here, but in this war there's a well here's me and Pat Cooper. Buddy Hockett, I was just with his son last weekend at the Borschvell Festival. Sandy Hackett came over to me, great Buddy Hacket story. The Friars Club asked me to call Buddy Hacke. He was the roastmaster her big roast and they said, cold, buddy,
I'll offer him your assistance in writing jokes. Well, I must have got him on a band day and was in a bad mood, and he was very insulted that the Frigles Club thought that he would need help write jokes. So he was very angry and I was appealent. I said, look, it wasn't why I didn't get your number out of nowhere. They told me to call you right the day of the roast. He came over to me and we sat down together and he apologized. He said he was very sorry. He was just in a band mood that day and
he didn't know who I was. And we took this picture on Sandy loved that story about his dad. Just amazing. Paul Sorvino, Oh yeah, we not to be very good friends at Rich Little I got to write for his roast with them, George Siegel, Mike Douglas, Douglas, Mike Douglas. On this wall there is me and Bill again at an event in his honor. He was honored as Man of the Year. There's Henny Youngman and Tony Orlando and
just another Jerry up there too. Yeah, and then the Jerry Lewis thing and at the top Myron Cohen and body Gunty. Oh wow, at Dick showing if you remember Dick showing, sure, Jan Murray. Yeah, I got to write from all those kinds. Just so amazing to me. This one looks like I created it with CGI if you remember the Woody Allen movie Zeleg Yeah, it's Henny Youngman, Sid Caesar, Jean Bayliss, Jan Murray, Norm Crosby, and what the heck am I doing? It's like amazing. Oh I
love it. I created Oh my god, one, I have a house full of toys every place you look. You know what I lecture on happiness, I tell people to create their own happiness center, And what that means is that the only place you can control your envirable is where you live. Once you leave the house. At the mercy of whatever the universe has in store feed you. You go left or right, your whole life is different. You go left, you could win the lottery. Go right,
you could trip me forward. Who notice, you go the way you're supposed to go, because if you overthought it, you would become kind of tonic. You wouldn't go anywhere. So the only place you can control your environment is where you live. And some people live in dark apartments and they wonder why they're depressed. As you'll see, I need brightness. I'm like a plant. So my carpeting is white, and my piano is white, and my car is white, and I have bright colors all ground, and I have
toys and crayons and balloons. And you would take little children live to it, but I do it for me. It's first me, my inner child. It is my best friend. I walked in. I wasn't necessarily feeling that great. I got stiffed with an earlier meeting. But you know what, it's all forgotten because I'm in a good space here. That's so when.
I'm in your your comedy museum, our comedy museum, and well, what I've learned is that things work out the way they're supposed to, not necessarily the way we expect them to, with the way we'd like them to, but we were supposed to do this today instead of you doing that other thing, you know what, And that's why it worked.
Out this way. If you haven't done that another thing, we might not be doing this. And I've had to learn to think that way. I've been studying spirituality for about thirty years and it's changed my way of approaching the things that happen in your life. It just it leads you to be more comfortable. I believe I sent you Teek, not Han. You know, yes, sir, I wasn't sure who sent That's me, And that.
Was because of your spirituality and the importance on taking a walk of mindfulness. And it's a little gift that I pass on to people because I so love it.
It so connects you with a moment, and so much for sending that. You're very welcome to my pleasure. Well, I instantly connected with you.
While we spoke on the phone that I knew this was going to bring greater things and greater joy.
Tell it's what I write about, you know. I write about happiness, mindset and changing negative thinking to positive thinking. And overcoming obstacles. All of us are given obstacles to overcome, and you can either be crushed by them or you can draw on some inner strength, sometimes that you didn't even know you had to overcome them. I always talk about it myself, you know, I was a very severe stubber. I started through my twenties and behind. I couldn't even
say my name. I can never say Gourian. And now as an avocation, I work with stubborers a local world. As you can see, not only don't I stutter, but you can't even shut me up. I haven't I talk a lot, but you know, but I'm very grateful that I don't stutter anymore. And I helped to cure myself because no one was able to help me. And it has to do with thought controlling your mind. There was nothing wrong with me. I realized what day I didn't
sturvey what I was more. I always stunded when I was trying to talk to somebody else, and just told me, you can't have a true disability based on your location or who was in the room with you. You know, for a man has a limby limbs and everyone of his house, you can't go into a room and close the door. I walk perfectly. But if I can speak fund alone that theoretically it means there's nothing wrong with me, and so I use that information to cure myself.
That's why you were perfect for being on with Linn Hoffben on Comedy Save Me. We also have the other podcast, Taking a Walk and Music Saved Me. You told me a story about what.
Music means to you in terms of connecting with it and the power of it that I think related to The Beach Boys.
Can you tell that story? I have two powerful music stories. Yeah, The Beach Boys saved me in high school because I was very depressed in high school. It's a strange time to both through and as a kid, I'm an EmPATH. I didn't know that word of that. I think I knew it, but I feel things more deeply that I want to and I have no choice. So it means that there was a time if I was with you and you were said, I was saying with you that you were ill. I overfelt my feelings and it's very
hard to handle that, especially as a boy. As a guy, you know, men don't like to talk about sensitivity. It's another thing that I write about because I've learned sensitivity is a great strength, it's not a weakness. So the Beach Boys helped me get through it. I put on their music Don't Worry Baby, and helped me around all the songs and it always made me happy. And years later I got to meet them on the Rank carpet because besides everything else I do in comedy, I'm a
comedy journalist Comedy Matters TV. And I had well with six hundred and fifty videos that I've shot with people in the comedy world, not that they're in the comedy world, but they showed up at a friar was Roast and I got to interview them and I got to thank them for saving me, for helping me get through through high school. And my other thing, how comedy saved me. I use music in my healing work. I spent twelve years at VERYU as a clinical professor at oral medicine
and oral facial pinion. And because of stress, many people clench them glight their teeth. It's called bruxism and it causes a lot of physical symptoms and it can cause what people think of my grain headaches and facial pain and neck pain, at shoulder pain and even back pain, and people live in terrible pain without realizing that it's
coming from their jaws. They're not true migrant headaches. In this country alone is more than one hundred and fifty million people who suffer with what they think of my brain headaches that are really coming from their tmj And so I wound up. I developed a technique of healing called STAR therapy. STAR and starts an acronym for spiritual transformational affirmative resonance therapy RESI in it stance for my voice because I speak the whole time I do it.
It's like a guided meditation and refers to music, which is what this story is going to be about. And mostly it refers to a truth. If I say something to you that you need to hear, it will resonate inside of you as a truth. So I was using music by your man Macked Stephen Helper, who is known as the father of New Age music. He is a man in the seventies now, and I sent him a letter more than twenty years ago telling him that I was using his music to take away pain from patients.
Because music gets absorbed by the second Chapra and I'm marrying him to energy exchange. That's a whole other story about my life. I've been involved in energy since I'm a child. When I was a very little kid, I already felt that I could take away pain my names, and I would do it up my sister, my little sister, and I used it all through my life. When I was in practice as a cosmetic dentist, people would come to me with headaches and I would take it away
just through touch. So I wrote a letter to Stephen Helper telling him that I used his music, and I never heard from him. Twenty years goes by, and I come home one day and there was a message job by Phoneman. He said, I'm calling you a reference to a letter that you set me twenty years ago. He said, I never saw it the turn down. His assistant hadn't it. Thank god, he didn't throw it away, filed every way, put it in a drawer. Steven Is, working on his memoirs,
came across my letter and tracked me down. My number never changed, and he said to me he was so moved by what I wrote. He said, I want to put music to your words. Write me a guided meditation, and I did and he has music. He put music to it and it's called Journey to your Heart. It's giving me chills. I can't believe it that I have
a guided meditation with Stephen Helper. And so about a year ago, I did a weekend il I land a weekend workshop at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, which is a very famous institute where Deepak Chopra speaks in Kroen mc mace and I did a weekend there and I brought that music to U this for my students who came for that weekend. You know, very special thing for me. Using music. Music is very very powerful. It can change your movement and it can change your life.
And so I use it as my healing work. I love it. That's a great that's a great story. And here on this wall, so here are some of my favorite comedians. Me dancing with Gilbert Gottfree from my Dancing with Comedian series. We lost him this past year. Such a dear friend. Years us when we were kind of kids. I still have my mustache there. This one is a crazy one. Okay. It's me, Richard Belzer and Paul Schaeffer holding a picture. Oh wait, okay, Okay, hold on a second.
It's me Richard Belzer, a Poul Scheffer holding a picture of me Richard Belzer and Paul Schaeffer holding still another picture, Schaefer, that little picture is that one over there? And then a few years later I took I brought it with me. We stood in the same order and took that picture. And a few years later we did that, and then we actually got the fourth at the Friars Club, the four and one picture and the picture and the picture in the picture we took. We got this over about
twenty years. Oh, his Charlie Sheen. When I was still in my dental office with Chuck Zito, who was not a famous after in those days. He was Charlie Sheen's bodyguard. Hell's Angels Too Yells. He just had a documentary about his life. I was there at the premier. Chud Zito, an American hero, an amazing guy who's been a friend of mine all these years.
They'll be right back with more of the Taken a Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
I want to go back to Belzer for a second. Sure, so I grew up, I think I told you instance Anford Connecticut. He grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Oh, I think so, yes, And so I would see him often as he would come up to the radio station that I worked at in Fairfield County, Danbury, Connecticut.
And then I see him at you know, when Howard Stern would do a Grammy week from LA and New York, and I would bring my radio station to that same roundtable that Howard was part of. Bells was a big regular, as you remember on Howard every time I ran into him. What made me.
Feel so special about Belzer is he never forgot. He wasn't like, hey, who were you? Yeah, yeah, like you know, looking at you like he didn't know. He always remembered.
He was definitely like that. And he was one of the first once Happening and that live starter. He was a host for a weekend because I was up there that week must have been in the early days of Best NL, which was seventy five, you know, crazy crazy. Let me see what Joe Rogan when he had Hangir and Tiffany Harsh. Here's me taking away a headache from Andrew Dice Clay him I'm in LA. Somebody on the camera and got that scene, which was great we were sitting Yeah, I'm one of the few people that ever
wrote for Dice and he says it openly. I'm just thinking that on my own he says it. He said it on on one thing on Sirius Exam. He shoutowed me out three times in an hour. And we were sitting there talking about material that we were working on, and he said, and he had a bad headache, and I said, well, sit down, I'll take it away. And we were in the party lot of Mell's Diner and someone at a camera and got that picture. It's not cool. It is cool this Nibbie Schumer. Yeah, Brus Willis when
I wrote for him for his roast. You know, this was a great honor. I was Patres O'Neill's co host on The Black Philip Show. I'm definitely one of the only white guys that was ever honored for Black History Month. It's the truth. I was honored for Black His during month. I had a big event that Huntok College, me and Daddy Simmons Russell Simmons brother. Oh wow. And it was because I created comedy workshops for inner city kids. Oh and I was his colt host. Was if great honor.
He left us too early, at only forty one years old. See if he just flushed me in this picture we sent and JB. Smooth, See if you can pick me up? I think I can. You think you've I believe so. Did you remember the great Phil Hartner? I was going to say, yeah, that's him. I met my piano over there. Oh yes, I was. I was supposed to see him that terrible weekend that he was killed at nineteen ninety eighty and I was out in LA and he invited
me to come out for the weekend. I don't remember why I didn't go, but I told my mom that I was going to spend the weekend. And when the news came out, the initial report was that two men were found dead in his house. That my mom called in a panic to see if I was all right. It's crazy. Who's a dear friend who is just so a little hotty? Over there? Victoria Victoria self Stet one of the harness models in the world. Yeah, she was amazing. Let me see who else? Michael Bolton, great comedy fan,
love Rodney Dangerfield. Oh wow, we used to do a lot of stuff together. Yeah, let me see on this wall. Let me see behind you. Here's right here, Ben Stiller, Oh yeah, Michael ian Black, that's me in there is another Phil Hartman and Dana Carvey, John Lovitz. John Lovitz introduced me on TV on my national comedy debut on Access on Access TV, Gotham Comedy Live. Here is me and Paul Shower, Lauren Michaels, the founder and producer of
Saturday Night Live, and Pete Holmes. And there's another picture with me and Patrese. He was so big, and Dan de Niro was the second co host that I was the third co host on the show on Exam Radio, Robert Wooll. I haven't seen him in a long time.
Oh, and what a good guy on this wall this one here, yeah, oh see, here's me and Woody.
He almost smiled, not quite that night. I actually made him laugh that night. I hadn't seen him in many years, and his best friend, John Domania was going to reintroduce us, and I was about to say that, you know, Woody, I'm a good friend of Jack Rollins, and I don't know what made me change, but at the very last second I said to Woody, I'm a very good friend of yours, and he just struck him so funny, and he started to laugh and he said, really, how long
do we know each other? They decade? We're very close. Oh and he just left. I'm like, I can't believe I'm making Woody On left, you know, Oh, oh great. It is Seinfeld and Kevin Horror. That's why I produced
the benefit Kradi and Kevin Hort was the star. And may Pan May Penn, the one that John Lennon left Yoko for about a year or so, Hassan Minaj, Jimmy Fallon, of course, one of the nicest guys in the business, Bill Boston guy, Yeah, Bill burh when he had Rainy, Joe Piscoopal before he started working out, Ken Jong, another doctor in show business. Another and then on this wall. This was my cover story in the New York Times.
They did a story about me and this was backstage on Broadway with the stares from the Catskills on Broadway. It's so funny. And I just did the Borsch Belt Festival this week. Dick Capri was the first comedian I ever wrote for, and I got to meet his son, who's also named Jeffrey. Jeff Capri is a comedian who was performing at the festival. I never knew him. I knew of him, and we find him that Dick also passed away this past year in December at ninety three
years old. I see one baby Jade out here. Oh this joe Mlady. Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah. I wasn't aware of who you meant for a minute. Yeah, Nicole and Joey Mlandy. And that's them in character. That's the jacket that they made me. That's an exact replica of the Guardian Angels. But mine, says Gurionade my greatest piece of memorabilia because him in September of Boston. Yeah, he's amazing.
And there's Amy Poehler and Joan Rivers. That picture there is when I brought Michael Bolton to meet ray Romano. We were out in LA and they were both fans of each other, but they have never met. So I brought Michael to the set where everybody loves Raymond. And there's my dear friend Danny a Yellow and mat Dylan. And let me see Peter Max, the great artist, Joan Rivers, Katie Perry's comedy debut, and Jaded Appatoo, the Great Charles Broden.
Charles Broden was amazing. His daughter, Marian is a great comedian as well. Really yeah, she she hosts a lot of shots.
You know what, I think Charles is one of his greatest, if not his greatest role.
In a movie. I hope it's an old one. That Midnight Run. Yeah, yeah, great, Midnight was amazing. Yeah. Is that Mariah carrying you is? Yeah? Look at you.
Harry Jeffrey and all the girls love you. Brooke Burke and Denise Rich Denise not personally and uh, Brittany, you got no what's her name? Leasa guest too with high Voltage. Yeah, my old friend high Voltage. Now I'll show you inside. There's there's more I believe than in that.
Why I ran out of frames and I ran out of I ran out of war space. This is a Peter Max right here? Is it it? Yeah? Oh, this is something that Peter Max made for me personally. I was honored by with a film I wrote, the first interactive film that Sony ever made, and Peter Max was my guest at the party in my honor nineteen ninety three and he drew this on a dinner nap gun for me. Oh fa, and I have it. It's personalized because I used to teach him to say words in
a different way. So instead of wild, I told him to pronounce it willed because he was an artist and he was conceptual, and he understood that you don't have to pronounce words the way they're supposed to. Yeah, so he called me doctor Wild and he wrote WI with two dots over it, so you did know to pronounce it will. So that's another fun piece of memorabilion that I have more pictures, believe it or not. These are all the sobran Ellas starting with James or Feeding at
the top and greatest TV show ever, Greatest ever. And I did a movie. I wrote a movie called I Am Woody. And the guy that played Johnny Sack, who was not allowed by the HBO. He was under contract. He couldn't play a gangster, so he played a doctor. And it was about a violent mob boss who was obsessed with Woody Allen and he survives a mob hit and he comes out of it with amnesia and now he thinks he's Woody Allen. But he's six foot five and three hundred pounds, so he's a huge Woody Allen.
And it won some words. That post was called I Am Woody this movie I'm Your Man is the first interactive film. That was epper Mania that I wrote with Michael mean Black.
And then Ground with guys that went on to form the State on MTV, and then so Many paid a half a million bucks to outfit the theaterre on Nineteenth Street with buttons and the audience who pressed the buttons and changed the direction of them.
Wow, yeah, it was really I was live there with first one. There's a movie I wrote with Scott Mayo or Face to Face that's Being of Stockwell. Yeah, Stockwell. I had a bunch of book stars, Jovin Relli, Alex Wroppo, a bunch of book stars were in You. That's My I Am what You Will Be. That's the first book I never wrote. Filthy, funny and totally offensive. It was based on my writings for the Friars Roots and they asked me to get celebrities to tell them their favorite
nasty jokes. So I got two hundred and fifty CELEBRITI used to tell me the nastiest jokes. They ve horrible, horrible men. There's me Scott bo at the premiere for our movie at Peter Dinklice. Whoever knew that Peter Dinglish would go on to be one of the biggest stars in the world. Right here, that's when we first met, and then back here you can follow me through its Jim Gaffigan when he first came to New York. I was just with him the other night, Jim Gaffiican he
and Mark Marin my my favorite. Then a thing at the ninety second Street y from Mark's new special called Panicked, So I was there as a guest. But that's Jim when he first came to New work. He looks younger now than he did then. Oh yeah, you know. Now here's another Me and Mill Burrow and Me at the Friars Club. Howie Mandel holding my book Filthy, Funny and totally Offensive. Lewis Black, Russell Peters, David Cross, John Cleese. I was very excited to meet John Cleese because I'm
at Big Biddy pythe up there. Yeah, yes, and here's Mitch Hedberg. This was taken shortly before he passed away. My dear friend, Richard Lewis. A lot of people think we have similar hair. Talk about that. Jackie Mason again, Colin Quinn, Jeffrey Jeffrey Ross, who will be opening up Broadway. So look you had there. I knew all of these guys when they had here. Amazing Yet Jeffrey Ross is opening a long Broadway thinking in the next month or so.
Really Yeah, David Steinberg right to the right, David Steinberg. Yeah. Also used to be a dear friend. Haven't spoken to my one pid Another Gilbert picture, Russell Peters Tracy warning when you had a Musturs. Yeah, another Howie Mandel picture. Yeah.
So it goes on along amazing on a long Jeffrey yeah, crazy right, yes, So what do you what are you working on these days?
Jeffrey, Well, I have a huge potential project. When we turned off the cab, I'll show you the sizzle real thing. I don't think we can shoot it, okay with with Dale Hughley.
You know Dale, you of course I do the original Kings of Comedy. There's men dil and it's a huge, huge project that DL will be producing it. That's as much as I can say right now.
We like teasing people. Chris Rock, Chris Rock, Nick Cannon, Cedric the entertainer, Eric Andre, the craziest man in Colmedy. Yes, Tracy working backstage at one of the shows in Brooklyn. I went out to visit him there, so there's a lot. It's amazing, Jeffrey, they did these articles about me. So Jeffries, though, what would you tell somebody who might be listening and watching, who is thinking about getting into comedy and it isn't quite sure.
They don't have self confidence maybe, and they don't understand the depth of the work and what the art of the work is. Give them some reality and some encouragement.
Well, interestingly enough, those two things don't really go together. If you're meant to be in comedy, you know it, you can feel it inside. If you think you're funny, there's only one way to find out is to go up on stage. The audience will let you know right away if you're finding or not. You know, if you're a singer, even if you're not good, they'll deploy politely. Could you have done in comedy? No one's laughing to be polite. Either your funny or you're not. You know.
And it took me many years to get the courage to go out on stage because I have been writing for famous people, because I was a dentist. I didn't want to look like a novelty and I wanted people to take me seriously, so I didn't even tell them about my day job. You know, Joe Rivers figured it out, which she saw something that my nurse had strict instructions to never interrupt me when I'm with a patient, unless
it's for show business. So my nurse would come in and she'd say, you know, doctor Lewis is on the phone. If it was Jerry Lewis or Richard Lewis, she'd say doctor Burle. The only one no one believed was doctor danger Field. So she comes in one morning and she says, doctor Rivers is on the phone. Can you take the call? I said, sure, okay, So I go and it's Jones calling from Las Vegas, and she is, what do you do during the dinner? I said, I work? She said, well,
obviously you work. What is it that you do? So I knew she knew because the Times article had come out, and then there was the TV shows. We're doing stories about my multiple careers. So I said to her, is this concerning the vicious room of going around that I'm
a dentist? I said, Joan, you know, I've heard of accusing people of a lot of things, but that's really low, and she just laughed, and she goes, why didn't you tell me I think it's great, And I said, because no one hires you in show business because you're a dentist. They hire you in spite of the fact. You know, it's not exactly a prerequisite to go to dental school
to be in show business. So what I would tell people is like, look, it's a very hard field to make a name for yourself if you think you're funny, and there's only one way to find out, and you go up on stage and an open mic and see how people respond to you. It's any different being funny with your friends and being funny in front of strangers and trying to convince them that what you think is funny is actually funny, you know. So it's a good
way to find out. You go up at an open bic in front of a whole room full of bitter comics who think they're funnier than you, and see if you can make somebody laugh, you know, and if you're meant to be in comedy, you'll know it.
You know.
It takes a lot of perseverance. It's like anything in the entertainment world. You have to believe in yourself. And if you really think you have talent, you know, there's a saying talent finds a home. If you have talent, somebody will notice it. There comes a point where you have to be honest with yourself. If you're not funny, you just have to admit to yourself, maybe this is not for me.
It's a perfect way to end this wonderful episode of Take a Walk Here in New York City with Jeffrey gury In. Also check out Jeffrey on the Comedy Saved Me podcast with our dear friend Linna Hoffman.
But Jeffrey, it's an honor.
To meet you in person, and thanks for all you continue to give us, sir.
Thank you very much. Buzz It's an honor for me to be on your show with you. And if people do like happiness, go to Amazon and check out my books. You know I like books. I have eight books now, five one comedy one with Chris Rock. I'm Free on Happiness, mindset, overcoming obstacles and changing negative thinking to positive thinking. So you just have to look up Jeffrey gury In on Amazon and all my books will come up. Thank you so much, Thank you, Jeffrey, are very welcome.
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