Jeff Garlin

I requested to be on with you. So Jeff, Yeah, how come you're younger and more beautiful in real life? I am. I hear that a lot and I don't know, but you know, people say that, which also means the flip side. I don't look so good on TV. You know where I do look good? I could, ah, you do use the old Warren baby thing. I look good on film, I really do. I'm even thinking of shooting my Next Day and Up special on thirty five millimeter

if I don't do it at Netflix. Netflix for bids film for beds film, and I'm a I'm a pro Netflix guy. I don't have any problems with the streaming into the theater. It's like you gotta deal with what's going on, which is what you write about all the time. It's like, you, sure, I'd love it if if movies like The Long Goodbye or any Robert altmon moot type movie could play in the theater and sustain itself for six months. That's not the world we live in. You

have to make that movie for Netflix. Absolutely, So let's go back a little bit, okay, or afford at the same time, let's do both. Is Wrighty funk hous are gonna be mentioned in the new season of Curb Your Enthusiast. He has mentioned, Yes, we did mention him. Um Bob at first had that being Bob Einstein character playing Marty funk Kauser. He at first had pneumonia and we were all talking to him and I am gonna be okay,

don't worry. And then shortly thereafter, when he was on the end, he found out he had bone cancer and he was gone in weeks. It's unbelievable the way life works with that stuff, you know, it's really devastating. I've been thinking about it that you know, you think you're gonna live forever. I have been to have the CML leukemia,

which is the only cancer there's a pill four. But it wakes you up when I've diagnosed tangers, deal that I'm not going to live forever and there's a limited amount of Now you've had a heart attack, what was that? You know? I didn't have got a stroke? Stroke at a stroke, and I've had heart problems and I've had all sorts of help. Let's start with the beginning. How does one get a stroke? Is there anything about your physicality? It was a purely chance it was. I had back

surgery and after they did it. I'm not saying who did Okay, No, it's funny because back that I'd want to talk off Mike. I've been to see all the back doctors in l A. Yeah. Yeah, So I went to one of them, who, by the way, excellent, except for after the surgery, my left eye was drooping and my wife would say your eyes ripping and go, well, what does that have to do with you know? And

then I was so stressed. I had gotten and I've gotten rear ended, which led to the back surgery, and I got so stressed and that I developed through stress and injury, I developed diabetes. Also, by the way, I want to throw in being fat and not taking care of myself. But that's all it takes to flip the domino and you're off to the races. I woke up one morning the room was spinning. I thought I had vert vertigo of some sort, and it turned out to

be a stroke, and I started slurring my words. I couldn't stand all that sort of stuff went to cedars, and nobody took responsibility for my stroke. It was because of this, because of that, and I am and have been for many years. I don't want to say fully recovered. I never was as quick, both mentally and or physical. Really it was. Yeah, but I'm talking about nuances that I know. No, No, I have the same thing when I take medication. I complain to my doctors all the

same time. You might think I'm fine, But the way I connect words and all these other things, I've lost something, right, right, right, right right. I really am bad at names more than anything. I was always bad, and then it went to all I forget lots of things. Here's the thing. In order for me to be at my best as an actor, as an improviser, as a stand up comedian, I need to have eaten well and slept well. If I sleep well and I eat well, and I exercise. I have

no problems. I am as fast as ever. But if I don't do all three, it'll catch up with me in two days. Well, what people don't realize, you know, because it's a badge of honor to wake up early and get no sleep in straight business. But when you're in a creative business, you don't get a good night's sleep, you can't function, you can't make it either way. Many of the days that I have worked on the goldbergs and or curb your enthusiasm, I've done it on zero sleep.

And the only thing that you know is like I have a lot of energy early on that day, and then in the afternoon it's just it's over. And then you better hope that you're not filming the next day because that's the recovery day. So that's the day that'll kill you. So let's say you don't sleep at all and you work that day. If you've got to work the next day, and even if you get a good night's sleep, you're screwed. Two days. It's a two day screwing. Okay,

So let's go back to the beginning. Yes, you were born in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, June nine, sixty two. So you're not quite sixty yet, you're still in that fifties. Will you still think you're young? Yes? Okay, well I don't think I'm young, but fifties is a delightful decade. Well. The funny thing people don't realize, for all the emphasis on the youth, when you get older, life is better, better,

lay better. My mental steak as compared to when I was in my twenties, you cannot compare the two oties even for their exactly, but you know, it's a secret of aging, even though they push you off the assembly line. So what did your parents do for a living? My father was my family had a plumbing supply business in Chicago, Okay, plumbing supply? How many general were your parents born in America? Yes,

and we're their parents born in America. Yes, that's kind of rare, but it's the generation before that that was not born in America. Okay. And then how did the plumbing business begin? Um? That was I don't even I actually don't know what led them. I know my grandfather born in America. My dad's father had a jewelry business and before I was born and switched to plumbing. Supply, and I don't know it was looking for rings that went on. Yes, yeah, maybe, yes, because there's more money

in this Yeah. No, I had no idea. And my mom was an actress and an artist who kind of gave up her acting career. She got into the Goodman Theater in Chicago and to raise her children. So my mother always lived vicariously through me. And I can tell you this by the way, I know the exact moment when I knew I wanted to be a comedian. Now, I was funny from I'm not exaggerating nursery school on. I was always the funniest kid and pretty popular, not

an outcast, which is weird. The funny guys usually oh is he annoying? But no, it wasn't that case. It was strange. Now I'm eight years old, this is seventy. My parents take me to the Empire Room at the one hotel. It's the oldest hotel in Chicago, the Palmer House. So okay, to see Jimmy Duranty. So I'm watching Jimmy Duranty, and um, looking at jim watching Jimmy Duranty, I can't I'm so engulfed in what he's doing. And then I

look at the audience and how happy they are. On the way home, I asked my parents if that was a job. They said, yes, that's a job. I said, well, that's the job that I want. Okay. Well, one would say a friend of mine books Oprah for live dates, I would say, why would Oprah need to do live dates? As you know, Letterman used to say she has all the money, but he says, there's nowhere else you can get that hit from an audience then live right, Well, yeah,

it's joy by the way. One, It's right, it's joyful and it's purposeful. So she must feel joy and a purpose when she goes out there, because for her to be home alone in a mansion in uh somewhere here in southern California, Hawaii, she's really not in touch with what she's doing or what people are doing. You know, if you're mentally made up to be a fat cat, I think that that's all you know. But if you're made up to be somebody who contributes like Oprah did

for so long, you need that. You need that. She can't just sit at home and go I'm done. Even Letterman came out to do you. Okay, But This begs the question, yeah, you do you need that hit from an audience? UM, I would have to answer truthfully yes, but not from an ego standpoint, but from an ego of knowing that my groove is hitting you know, the audience. I feel the groove, and that groove I improvised generally my entire set, so I need them. I need to

feed off them in order to create new things. So it goes hand in hand. So for me to have joy, and I have discovered like I get joy from your newsletter, even the dark ones, I get joy from it. And joy is to me what it's all about now, being kind to myself and being joyful. So when I do stand up and the audience is digging me and I'm grooving with what I do, I'm filled with joy. Let's say you have a great night. Okay, how long does

a good feeling last. It's it's over by the time I leave stage, by the time I go the same with a bad I mean, the only time I feel bad is if I'm a fault for the bad show. For example, some nights I go on stage and Jerry Seinfeld and I have had discussions on this and we disagree he says, it's always you. You're that you're the one who if you have a bad show, it's because of you, if you you know what I mean, Everything is because of you, And I disagree with that. To me,

it's a partnership with the audience. If I've hit a group and they've hit a group, it's gonna go up. If I had a groove and they are not there. And by the way, it's about their d n A. It's about their job that day, their love life, there, how much money they have, everything that's going on in their lives at that moment. As individuals, they bring it in as a group. So I'll go on stage some nights a man, I've got my groove and they're not

digging me. As I say one thing. But the one thing that I don't recover quickly from is when they're good and I know I'm not. That one really hurts. Okay, let's assume that happens. Yes, why do you think you're not good that night? Because it's it's just it's I can use baseball. You go up to the box and you're swinging. You're like, I don't have my swing. I

don't have my swing. I go up on stage and it's like oh, Especially as an improviser, I'm like, oh, this is not gonna be pretty, this is not gonna be fun, and my professionalism and my craft carry me through to where the audience might not unless they've seen me many times, know that it's a less than good show. I've had this couple of times with musicians where they were very depressed after shows because they didn't think they were right and as a professional you can see the

subtleties they're talking about. But they got a huge response from the audience. The general audience didn't seem to resident well, it goes with that joke. Okay, we're ready, my favorite joke and I'll tame it for this. Actually, don't have to. Okay. So a woman goes up to a comedian, this is your favorite joke, period or no, this is a joke that's about this time, And to me, it explains most comedians I know in this way. A woman goes up to a comedian she says, I saw you on Friday night.

I think you're amazing. I am going to have sex with you. I'm gonna fuck you crazy, I'm gonna do things to you that you've never had done before. It's gonna be the greatest night of sex in your life. And he looks at her and she's so beautiful, and he looks here in the eyes and did you see the early show or the late show? And to me, that's it, man, if you saw that, if you saw the show, I wasn't proud of. I don't want to have sex with you. But if you saw the good show,

let's go sister. Well that's you know, there's a similar line about the music business. It's not about the money. It's about the money, right of course. Well that's whenever a player says in sports, it's not about the money. Don't say that. So let's go back. Um, when you do the show and you improvise, you know, if you Richard Lewis, he he comes out with a series of notes and he's always looking notes. He's got long long

We've toured together many times. So how much of your act before you hit the stage is somewhat conceptual in your brain most of the time? Zero? Really, Yes, Now, when I'm on stage, a story I've told before may occur to me for the moment that I'm in and I'll go with it. So I have had shows which are improvised, and I have had shows that are without any intent improvised because I told stories that fit in with where my head was going and where the audience

was going. Now, talking about The Deer Departed, Robin Williams found a lot of times was the things he said were really not funny. The people were reacting to the energy and the delivery. Now, when you improvise everything, do you think that and it's a good night that the audience is with you or your material is really hitting always the ad it's with me. As an improviser. By the way, I don't get any points for being an improviser.

It's not like you were kind of off tonight, but you get bonus credit because you made it all up, you know what I mean, especially as I get older now like I'm about to shoot a comedy special in in May. Okay, this is just let's go. This is for Netflix. I actually, as of yesterday it was for Netflix. It might be for Netflix, it might be free. Let's just say as if yesterday it was for Netflix, that would assume that ink is not dry. But you made a deal. I've had a deal with Netflix for the

longest time, so I just still understand the business. Well, no, no, it was it was I approached them with a budget and and what I wanted to do. They rejected the budget, and they rejected what I wanted to do. What I wanted to do is I want to shoot it on film. Netflix will not shoot anything on film because I want my Here's the thing, there's it's like making a record album. It's it's it's like everyone sounds the same. If you watch you said, watch Netflix one after another every special.

What's different about the comedian? What's different about how it looks? And I'm trying to make mine look to be really frank, like the wedding scene from The Deer Hunter, which which by the way, sounds crazy, but my it's it's it's it's the presentation. You're going to be that dark. No, No, that just say me speaking at a wedding. I'm giving a toast the special. Hypothetically, if you do it on film, much more expensive? Is it? It's not that much more expensive. See.

Netflix doesn't let anything be shot on film. Everything must be four K, six K. I mean you can just transfer it, you think, but they don't want to do that. Your father is running. Is a plumber? Okay? No, he's not a plumber? Yes? Was it like? And where is this in Chicago and California Avenue? Okay? And how big on the west side? How big an operation is this? Um, it's a big building. I don't know how many employees? Do you think? Oh god? I thirty? Okay, so it's

a big operation. And did you used to go there and help out? I did, which was mostly meant. I watched cub games on a little black and white TV in the front office because it was all day games. And I went into a room and just collected different screws, and then I went where the guys hang out and there were Playboy centerfolds up on the wall, nine sixties Playboy centerfolds. And it was very exciting. Okay, So let's

say I love going. And then on the way home, my dad would buy me a model that was the that was it, and that was so happy. Revel models that a monogram. Did you paint them or just assembled? I just assembled them too. It could be too serious. I love the glow in the dark monster ones that was after my time, A little older than you. But you're at my house suddenly the toilet breaks, can you fix it? No? Okay, so you know nothing. I know how to plunge. Okay, how many a good plun How

many siblings are there in your family? I have one brother, a younger brother who runs a temple in in suburban Chicago. Okay, to what degree do you consider yourself Jewish? I'm a Jew? Okay, I'm not religious. You don't go to synagogue? I have gone many times. I was bar mitzvahed, but I am not religious. No, although I am very proud of being a Jew, and I do believe in God, but I

don't necessarily believe in a specific God. I believe there's a higher power than me, something bigger than me that exists. I don't know what it is, Okay. And that's something you got from a a or is that just something you have? Well, hey, you have to find a higher power as you see it, and for me, it's more like life experience that I believe in a higher power. It also is humbling to know that there's something bigger than me. I'm not the biggest thing, you know that

gets out of control. And you see people in the world today in different positions, different artists who they think that their ship don't stink like literally, and that's not me. I I like to be. By the way, I've had moments of great ego in my youth, you know, and even in my adulthood. I've made mistakes. But I am all about being confident in what I do and being a humble person, and so being humble that means I believe. And by the way, the higher power to me is

the universe. I just believe this stuff. Okay, as a Jew in today's society, today's world, yeah, are you scared a little bit? Nope, that's not ignorant. I think a lot of craps going down most definitely. I think there's anti Semitism. But for me in Los Angeles, California, doing what I do, I don't. I don't. It's not so I'm not ignorant enough to say it's not happening. It's just not affecting me. It's like poverty is not affecting me except on an emotional level when I see it.

So I don't like to be you know, you asked me what side am I my liberal or where I was before you asked me that, And I told you I don't want to be labeled anything, you know, because I am bothered by it's the groucho marks thing. I never want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member. That's really how I am. And I am annoyed by liberals, not as much as I am conservatives, but I'm annoyed man limousine liberals out here in l A and the and the political correctness

get the funk out of my way. That goes hand in hand liberal stuff. Unfortunately. That's why I'm saying, don't call me anything, you know. And by the way, to me, liberal means I'm open minded, you're liberal minded, So I don't get what the definition is. And then conservatives like Michael Moore is one of my close friends I love. Other than both of you being overweight, what is the connection? There were just great friends and friends for I don't

remember how long has this been going on. We've been friends for I'll say at least ten years, fifteen years. Okay, you're gonna make a point, I interrupt. No, the point I'm gonna make is whenever I talked to anyone I know who's got a conservative viewpoint about Michael, they are they write him off and I say, have you ever seen one of his movies? And of course the answer is no. Um. And they don't realize that Michael could sit and have a dialogue with them, he wouldn't be

close minded to what their thoughts. I remember, he's the one who predicted that the Trump was gonna win because he's in touch with the people that live in his home state of Michigan. He knows and these are not bad people, you know. So this is one of the things we're getting a little off point here. But but I knew Trump could win because I heard from his supporters all day long. You're writing in the New York Times.

Unless you're on the opinion page, you don't have a name. Okay, so people are blasting me go while something's really happening here. It is. It did. But the point I'm making so the conservatives very close minded, like and I and I lose my crap over that. It's like, please, let's have a dialogue. I want to dialogue with the left and the right and their extreme views. By the way, if you hear me eating, I'm having mango. It's hard to

not have dried mango. Okay, but isn't dried No my nutrition has says that the dried fruit has is easy to eat and has much more sugar, way more sugar, way more. I rarely, if ever, I get dried mango twice a year. Maybe Why why why is that not talking about an old joke? Tonight's the night? Why is tonight different from all other nights? Well, here's the thing. There was some out there. I don't have any of this in my house. I don't need anything with added

sugar ever. And this is actually you know, whenever I go with the stuff there, I cannot resist. Well, I do resist automatically. If this was the mango with the added sugar, I would touch it. But that doesn't mean it's good for you. That just means that other one's really bad. Let's go back, Okay, you like going back and let you know who somebody is, where they come from. I'll go as back as you went. Were you the

golden boy in your family? Uh? Yes? In terms of my mother, my father, my brother and I, we all lived on equal terms. And my mom loved my dad, my mom loved my brother. But as I told you, my mom lived vicary vicariously through me. So I was the favorite. That there's no, there's no doubt about my dad. My brother and I used to joke about it because I didn't take it seriously. I didn't hold it over my brother or my father, and then I go, this is just nuts. But that was her thing. She I

was her favorite. And all her acting stage stuff was done before you were born, or she still continued a little bit. Well, she did after I was born. It's ironic what she did. She did a lot of community theater. She was the lead and the sound of music. She did all these things because she could sing and do the stuff. She got my brother to be in it, really when he was little, and she got my father to be the one guy who went on to become

a professional. I would never do it, wouldn't be caught dead. No, really why because I thought it was stupid. You know, when I was little, she wanted to take me to the sound of music. I wanted to go see a Kung Fu movie, a monster movie, you know something else. Bullet. I remember my dad and I watched Bullet together. Thank God for the invention of BHS because we watched Bullet. I've seen Bullet a hundred times just on VHS alone, let alone, owning the blue ray now and the DVD

and the digital copy and iTunes. Wow, so you have access to it whenever I got a group for bullet, I can get it anytime I want my eye bad anywhere. Okay, So a good student or bad student? Bad student? How bad? Well? I had a d D and I didn't know it. Plus I was all about entertaining the other kids. And now you know a d D. Today the kids take medication. Did you ever take mediation? I did not find out I had a d D until it was twenty four,

maybe twenty five. And did you ever experiment taking the medication? No, because there was it wasn't around. By the way, the term a d D. When I was in high school ever said that just someone who couldn't been I would. I was a poster boy for that if I had a d D. Because I'm I think I'm an intelligent person. So I think if I had a d D, I would have been more successful in school. And I dropped out of college. I went to University of Miami for film,

but I dropped out to become a comedian. Okay, let's go back your father. Your father was owning a pretty successful business for when he sold it. But this is thing he sold it, Well, my grandfather sold it, and then my father proceeded to he went. We moved from Chicago to South Florida, a little bit slower. So your father owned your grandfather owned it, and your father was working there, was working there, owned a part of it. He got a piece of it. So did my uncle,

my dad's brother. So why did your grandfather decide to sell it? He wanted to retire to Florida and didn't want to keep it going. And uh, it was a bone of contention between my father and him to keep it going in by the way, I don't know if it's still called Bilko, but that company went in to

be a hundred million dollar gigantic company. Oh that's like you know, you killed my dad, right, Okay, So your father moved to Florida, Florida with my grandparents were down intending to do what the first first thing he did. And when we moved down here, he had to have been early thirties, I mean not here, but South Florida. And he went first into real estate and then he became and he did this for years. He was a legal administrator. He ran law offices because when he was

working in the plumbing supply. He was studying to be a lawyer. But my father also had a d D. And with two very wild children, it was not gonna happen. And so would you have considered yourselves upper middle class during your I my life varied from lower middle class to upper middle class to lower middle like back and forth in my Okay, but like, did you go on

family vacations? We went on family vacations. But we when I was very young, during the plumbing supply years, we go down to South Florida to the Beau Rivage, which cost a lot of money, in nice hotel in Miami Beach. And then years later I remember we go on vacation to holiday in places. So I'm saying we bounced around. And being from Chicago and with the with the upbringing that I had, I consider myself very blue collar. Like I'm a self a blue collar. That's the Chicago mentality.

It's a Chicago mentality with sort of now, yes, I had moments of upper middle class, but I never thought of Okay, would you consider Chicago hot dogs and pizza to be the best hot dogs? Yes? Why? Because they're I here's the thing, forget why Vienna hot dogs eaten at the at the cafeteria at the Vienna hot Dog Factory are about as good as you can get. I didn't know you can do that. You can do it. My friend on Clark Street their movies on YouTube of hot dug being made and they gross you out. Can

you tour the Vienna Factory? Well, by the way, I don't know, I'm sure you can. Ira Glass did a story on this American Life, or maybe it was for prior to This American Life. He did a story and what it was they discovered they they automated a part of their thing and the hot dogs weren't coming out right. So they literally had to do a thing where a guy had to wheel him on a cart for this exact period of time from one building to another. And

it still does. I don't know how they do it exactly, because it wasn't coming out right and what and the color wasn't right? Because what about pizza pizza? It's a deep dish pizza in Chicago. Loom Male Nadies is my favorite, delightful. It does not compare to New York pizza. New York then sliced pizza. Come on, that's the best. Actually, I think have you been Have you been to Peppi's in New Haven? No? No, But what I'm saying I understand, I understand Northeast. We're talking as it eat or is

your last meal? What do you want to eat? Geez, I don't have that. That's like asking me about bucket list. Crap. I don't have a bucket list. I don't have a last meal. Okay. So, by the way, I'm happiest in a deli. And what do you eat in the deli? Oh? It can vary everything from mazza bride to locks and bagel to a pastrami sandwich to but those are three, Okay. Can you get a good bagel in Los Angeles? The only bagel that's really good is one called Bagel Broker,

which is on Beverly just Um east of Fairfax. Really Bagel Broke, because you know, a friend of mine from Toronto emailed me that Friedman's has a to to bagel. There's Montreal bagels, which are a little bit different. It intrigues because I remember growing up a bagel was something like if you you could break a tooth biting into it and that hard shell. Where's bagel's today are too soft. But well they're more role like. That's not my but but by way to me, a bagel should be hard

on the outside and soft exactly. Yeah, yeah, I know that's go to New York exactly. Well, New York and hard to find it. So where do you move to in Florida? I moved to South Florida Plantation, Florida, which is just west of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And how old were you when you moved? Oh jeez, I was what great? Uh? Sixth grade? So was it a hard transition? It was

a very difficult transition. The suburbs of Chicago too, And and I get an argument with my I have a friend from New Orleans and she's like, Florida is not the South, especially South Florida. And I'm afraid it is the South because as much as there's the ocean in a different type of bye, the more you go inland, there's a lot of quote crackers, there's a lot of Southerners. I was the first Jew. A lot of kids but

black and white ever met. It also helped me develop my humor, because my humor got me out of fights, and then if it didn't thank God. I'm a big, strong guy, so you know not, I didn't get picked on as much as so do you think it affected your comedy and your career moving at sixth grade? Yes, without a doubt, without a doubt, because um, it's just any adversity or change for an artist as a as a kid is good. And I'm not saying I had a dysfunction here or this happened, and therefore I use

that negativity to be a comedian. But all adversity for not only comedy, just success makes you more interesting the more you go through. It makes you way. So the advert city and the difference in moving to Florida only helped my comedic perspective. Okay. And at what point you went to see Jimmy Durant in Chicago? Yes? At what point did you say I'm a professional start working on your comedy when I was I? Um, I was twenty years old and I dropped out of school. Okay, let's

pause that for a second. You go to high school being melting pot public high school? Yes? And are you popular? I'm the most popular kid in school, really, unequivocally. Okay. And if you look up my school on the Instagram, it talks about me going out and being famous and no, no, not God. And by the way, you know it's so funny. I don't like people having phones at my shows. But I'm I'm I'm not afraid of stayings thing stupid. I know I'll say something stupid, what But what I do

know I'm not gonna say is something ignorant. I know I will never say something ignorant. I don't have it in me. Will I say something embarrassing and stupid, you bet I will, it's not if it's when, but not ignorant. So when I was in high school, I never, by the way, I never know when in my high school did that stuff. We were a very tight high school. And I'm talking colors, religions. It was people got along. The only time there was a period, I remember there

was rioting in in Um part of Miami. I'm trying to remember Overtown in South in Miami, and I remember that the blacks at school were a bit agitated, but they're hanging out with the same white guys that were always there. And I remember two guys and there was crowds around him. Almost came to blow as a black and a white guy it was me that broke it up. It was with laughs. I got so many laughs that the guy shook hands and there was never a fight.

And were you did you have girlfriends? In high school? I dated girls. I was very popular with girls. I did not have until I got married. I was how old were you when you got married? I got married at thirty two and I'm now just about divorced a wonderful woman who I will never say anything bad about. And I should get credit for that. I shouldn't get credit for that. Well, why are you getting divorced them? It's just, you know, things run their their thing, you

know what I mean. And I want to talk about, you know, the deep personal things of that with her. But I have nothing but respect for She's the mother of my children. I never understand how people have split up and they hate each other. I don't. I mean, I get it, but I don't get it. So, but what I wanted to say is, prior to my wife, my record for going out with anybody was two months. Two months. Well, why was your wife so special that she stuck? I don't know. I loved her and she

didn't give up on me. I think all the other ones gave up on me, and my wife did not give up on me. God bless her. Okay, so you're going, and I had to have a great life because of her. I'm a better artist because of her, you know. And and my children. I have two boys, eight and twenty two. I'm madly in love with them. What do they do

all day? Um? The younger one is interning at a clothing company downtown and the older one works on the set of Curb Your Enthusiasm and he's an extraordinarily gifted comedic actor. Now as a father, I go, it's great to say that, But Larry David will say to me, James is his name. James is the funniest kid I've ever met. I just look at him and I want to leave. The dude's funny. But trying to get them motivated to see this is your gift. Because I actually

talk about this in my stand up. I tell people, don't follow your dreams unless your dreams are what you're great at. Let's say you're a singer, you live in St. Louis, about to graduate high school, and you're like, oh, do I go pursue my dream in l A. But you know what I'm really good at math. I'm great at math. I say, become a great accountant, and with the extra money from your successful accounting career, because that's what you're

great at, buy some recording time, record yourself. How are some musicians play that music for your friends and let them tell you that you made the right decision. Well, you know, I think this is very wise advice. I think all the time. You know, in the tech business they call it pivoting if it's not working. I mean, I believe at most is talent, the other is desire. By the way, there's so much that goes in, but so many people don't even have the talent to put

the idea with this. All day long, people email me there's stuff this, but I don't listen to most of it. You can't respond because as soon as you tell them they're not great, they go berserk. I've had a lot of bad experiences, but it's rare that someone has the ability, never mind the mindset and willingness to do what it takes to make it. You know, when I get to the improv, I'm at the improv here in l A most every Friday. There's they have two rooms. I love

this room. Called the lab, and before I go into do my show, I stopped into the other room and I just watched one or two comedians. And rarely, rarely, I mean I think once or twice have I got thought, who's that? That's great? The rest of the time it's either oh straight shrugged my shoulders or me thinking to myself, who the hell told you this is something that you're good at? Now. This reminds me of going to the Fillmore East uh in December seventies see Laura Nero. I

was a big fan of Laura Nero. For those who know rock history, the manager was David Geffen because also the manager of Jackson Brown, who we put on the bill, didn't have a record for over a year after that. But here's a guy playing alone on the guitar, playing people, and you, holy sh it, this guy's got it. This guy's got Notarbably, if you don't know the material, whenever you say hey, you're unimpressed. But I can only tell one story like that. By the way, Jackson is good enough.

He's my pal too. Okay, So you go to University of Miami and then you drop out at age twenty, Yes, aged twenty dropped out. My dad insisted that I keep going to school. I went to Broward Community College because he kept on going. You need something to fall back on. He didn't believe in it, but I passed auditions my first night at the comic strip in Fort Lauderdale. Okay, you no doubt that that I was doing what he

had you done to rehearse for that. Um, I was ignorant enough to think that you could rehearse, so I put together. I did a joke. Oh, the worst joke about uh. I asked my teacher if I could can I go to the bathroom. She'd say, I don't know, can you? I felt like paying on her desk, And that was my first joke. Then I did an impression of Adam West, which is the only impression, by the way. People don't know he played Batman that I do. An old Black man and an old Jewish man and Adam West.

Those are my three, and they're not embarrassing. I think they're very act I would do all three for you. Here's here's the first. Here's Adam West. It appears to me, Commissioner Gordon, that the Joker, Riddler and the Penguin have escaped, so help me if they harm aunt Harriet. That's Adam West. Okay, we've been doing since I was a kid. Okay, here's old Jewish Man. I gotta tell you, we're gonna go down and we're gonna have the most delicious meal you've

ever had. The Old Black Man is so similar. It's just changing a few So what we did was we went down and they were qorded us. We didn't never see the microphones. Is then we go down. I got my guitar, I got I'm playing slot and they're listening. You know what I mean, They're very they boat. This is what they have between them. You know, it's like I got that, okay forgetting you, but I was me. I'm asking a different question forgetting you. To what degree

is comedy changed since you started? Oh geez, well, it's changed in one way and one way only, and that is when I started there. When I started, yeah, there was cable TV in two but in general, we went through the same landscape together as people young old. We knew the same references. I could do a Larry Tate reference from Bewitched, and I knew the audience would know who I'm talking about. No longer can you do any pop culture references. It's like there was always a law

early on, don't do sports. Don't talk about sports, you lose the audience. Well, I gotta tell you, I think you have a better shot of hooking in the audience talking about an NFL football team than you do talking about pop culture. That more people are together on understanding a sport than they are about any particular That's one of the reasons I think that SNL doesn't work. It's like they used to have all the Star Trek and all the Samurai stuff whatever, and they don't have those

hooks because no one has actually seen all these shows. No, but that's why. By the way, the only time that they can do good with anything with pop culture is when they do a game show, because that's timeless. Like when I just saw recently with John Mullania What's in her Name or what's the Name? I was grabbing my stomach laughing, which is rare for SNL. It was fantastic. But the stuff that they do with with sort of real husband wife characters and same with stand up man.

So I when I go on stage, what I talk about is life, my life. The audience is life experiencing things that we all share, no matter who our favorite singer is, no matter what TV show we watch, we share certain things and that so it really does separate comics because you really, you know, I'll watch certain comics and I'll go you think everyone digs what you're saying, or you think everyone politically agrees with what you're you're saying,

it's an assumption that's wrong. It's a wrong assumption. You have to talk about what you're It's like it's a fine line. I think it's really important to talk about what you're passionate about, but also taken to account. So you have to present it in a way that an audience knows, this is what you're passionate about, and lo and behold if you guys groove, that's fantastic. Like I talk about what you think is funny because it's popular,

Like every time you read about Ariana Grande. We're at a point in pop culture where it's about being popular, it's not about being great. The coach Ello lineup, for example. So I can say the same thing amongst comedy. When I was a younger comedian, if you were a hack, a popular hack, let's say Gallagher, it's not like Gallagher would walk into a local club and people would be nice and ask him if he wants to go up. You'd be polite because he's fucking galling just because of

decent be a decent person. But it wouldn't be like wow. Now, I see this in the comedy world, where if you're a famous comedian, whether you're good or not, everybody's excited and they want to put you on. People are so into the fame of it all, as opposed to this person is great. Who's great today? Um? John Mullaney? I just know John Mullaney. I saw him in the two person show on US right with Nick Kroll. I thought that was greatly makes him great? And I say, I

know he hasn't quite resonated yet. The jury's out with me, but keep going. I think he's the only person who uh Chappelle is magnificent. Um uh, I mean you have to. I'm my better at having someone say a name And Okay, I understand. I don't like being put on the spot with because I don't believe me. I totally understand. Let's go back, so you decide. So the very first night you passed auditions, how long after that do you stop going to school if I had my way at that moment.

But I love my father, and it was a lot of fighting on our parts, even though we had great love for each other in respect. My dad was an affectionate kind man um and I had to work through the years. I dropped out of school maybe a year later, and then he probably like three years later, four years later, told me I'm as funny as any comedian he's ever seen. Which whatever how I heard from my parents was I

was a shiphead. That's not that's what I play on the Goldberg's a guy who calls his kids from runs. I would never call my kids. Okay, but your parents are not with us anymore, no, they My mom died this past year. My dad died about five years ago. But they were around to see your success very much. So I dedicated I wrote a book about five years ago. I dedicated that to my father. My father, by both

my parents not only saw Curb Your Enthusiasm. They were on an episode of Curb Your Enthusist, which one the one where Larry thinks he's saving a guy who's being baptized in from drowning, But what he does is he makes the guy changed his mind from being baptized. I think he was marrying Cheryl's sister. My parents were the group of part of the group of Jews. Okay, okay, So at what point you go on you pass the audition, At what point do you start making some money? Oh god,

I so I started a comedy of twenty. I didn't start making money until I was twenty six. I think I made twenty in a year. That was in my first year. Maybe that I made money, Um, but you were not going to give up. No. And I had day jobs, you know, like what, Well, my early on I had everything from working. I worked in lots of record stores because I knew a lot about me. Is like, I worked in a surf shop. I was the only guy in the surf shop. That was my favorite job

because the girls were so nice to me. When someone came into trying to bikini, they called me over, asked me very very kind. Um. So I always had day jobs. And then in Chicago, I moved from Florida to Chicago. Okay, So what you're doing when you're doing the day so graves over the phone. Okay, Yeah, when you're doing these day jobs, you're living at home. Yes, living at home. So how do you decide to boot to Chicago. I

wanted to be in Second City. SETV was a big Monty Python and SETV were both big influences on me. So I knew that Second City, which was the pipeline to SNL and set V, I'm gonna do that. And also I didn't want to move as a stand up to New Yorker Los Angeles yet I checked them out, but I would to check them out me. I went to New York for a little while, I went to l A for a while, and I just thought, Nope, not ready for this yet. I want to get better.

And at the time, your act was not improvised. No, I mean I could. I had improvised, but I didn't know what I was doing it. So you go to Chicago and where do you stay? I stayed with my aunt and uncle and then I got an apartment. I had said, how long did it take to get My dad did something wonderful for me. My dad collected rent when I was in Florida trying to make it because like, you want to be a comedian, great, You're gonna have to pay me rent. So I paid him rent and

then the day I moved out. He gave me all the money back, and then I because he knew I wouldn't save it, So I saved this for you. He gave it to me, and that's how I was able to get an apartment. Okay, and you're in Chicago. How long does it take to get into Second City? Oh? It took me years to get into Second City. I started working as a stand up pretty quickly. But Second City. Well, the thing is, initially I started in classes the Second City.

They're not hiring me. I worked in the box office, and I worked in the box office with Steve Colbert. We worked in the box Was he Colbert then? Or Colbert? He was Colbert? He was Stephen Colbert then. Yeah, he was never Colbert. Okay, let's go back, because his brothers and sisters are Colbert. Well, but but but he he would have changed it to Colbert. I met him when he was probably in his early twenties. Okay, so but switching.

He's now the king of late night TV. But forgetting that, to what degree is being on one of those late night shows beneficial these days? For a comedian? It's not beneficial at all, except that a little legitimacy. So you can say you did stand up on Colbert Show. You know, it means nothing. When I was a kid, and when I was a young stand up, I'm saying we still lived in the age where you'd go on the Tonight Show and if Johnny gave you the okay sign and

called you over, you probably were a star. I saw rose Anne bar at the time. Of course, Dost goddess saw what's his name who hosts the prices right now? Oh Drew carry The other one I saw was out of Boston, what's his name? The very dry wit one line, Stephen right. No, So that that's the world. Then there was Letterman, where if you could be one of the panel guys, Paul Rubens, Pee Wee Herman, Richard Lewis, Jay Leno all became stars from that, so you could become

a star. Well since then, and there might be an exception or two. No, no stars, it does. I did Letterman back in the day as a stand up. People saw it and it meant a lot, and it was legitimizing and pretty big, But there was nobody calling me the next day to develop something with me. I was doing that on my own, Okay, but okay, so how do you ultimately get into your in the box office? How do you ultimately become a member of Second City?

In my case, somebody had quit and they had a tour company, tour company to tour during company, someone had quit and they had a space and they just were stuck, and so they go, oh, Jeff, you go on that gig. Next thing. I know, I'm in the company and I'm working my way up. I was fired and quit many times from Second Why were you fired? Well? I was fired? Because why was I fired? I honestly don't know. I think it was your work or your personality. Oh I

think it was. Here's why I was mostly fired. When I was fired was because I was a stand up. There was great competition if you they felt a Second City from the office, although I had the office on my side. The other actors were like, you wanted to stand up? Go do that? And but what was cool was the stand ups thought it was cool that I was doing Second City. I was doing both and what

was I think? This is fascinating At Second City. When I walked out on stage, the audience loved me, okay, and my other actors didn't love me or respect me so much, flip it around. When I was in stand up and stand up was so hard. I go on stage. The audience couldn't We're just like, what what is this? We're not digging this, But the other comedians would be in the back laughing at everything I was doing. Over time and even doubt. But in that period I had

great adversity coming from both ends. Now, Second City, of course, is a feeder. As you said to the television show and also to SNL, was that a dream of yours? Or you just wanted to be on SNL so bad, so bad? And did you have an audition? I had a couple. First audition I had, as I'm walking, it's a night. It was the night that Rob Schneider auditioned. Who else? Um? It was that era. As I'm walking to the stage, this is true, Um, Lauren Michael's left

walk doubt not, I don't think because of me. He just had had enough. And I went on stage and I saw him walk out, and my heart dropped. The audience have no idea what's going on? And I told the audience the truth about how I felt. I said, I feel it's like my responsibility to perform for you, but my heart has been broken. I can't do it. They gave me a standing ovation, but I didn't get on. Another time in New York, I auditioned for Marcy Klein.

She was the scout and I destroyed. I mean I could not have been And then she proceeded to tell my manager, we're only hiring women now, and so I never got on. And I know that there's a lack of sexiness to me, and I'm aware of it in terms of hosting it now because um, musically especially it's about pop stars. And then in terms of the host, who's got who's hot and who's got the big movie. If it's not one of those two, you ain't hosting, you know, And I'm not sure it's such a badge

of honor anymore anyway. Well, no, it nice to be asked, but it is nice to be asked, and certainly it doesn't have the same thing. Um. But I actually think they're not bad right now. You know what I don't like SNL. Believe it is the political skits. I think they're boring. I find SNL is someone who certainly grew up with the original cast. Too many of it, I watch too many of the skits don't have a punch line.

No punch line. It's like the the the one of those movies, not the screen movies, the ones that did the parody of the screen movies. Oh yeah, yeah, I can't remember that anyhow, they did a bunch of those. Everything was a joke of recognition. It's all about Oh, if I say this like that and look this, that's all you need. And it's like, no, And by the way, I don't even need jokes. I need scenarios. I need to sit you. I think it's all set up. I

don't think anybody who's in this kind. I like to work when i'm motivated, But if you're working against deadline, people have no idea how hard it is to get it. Very David never got anything on the show. That's all you need to know, as I say, But as I say, there's the little tiny thing. It's like I was talking to Irving as off manages the Eagles. We're talking about Don Henley. But Don Henley is notoriously finicky, shall we say, they we're talking about a specific show, and look at you.

It's that one percent that makes it. The Eagles. You know, you think it was no big deal to him. That's one percent. That makes all the difference. Something about the Eagles only recently. And I used to love them when I was a kid, and then I liked them. I've always liked them, but I'm digging them so much, especially their first album. They were really great and great so I know they're still touring and stuff, but I'm I'm about the original. But what it was was so spectacular

that that I I maybe took it for granted. You know, look for me, it's about retrospect what was going on. And they took a lot of crap. Anybody who's that successful takes crap. And they're not really lovable guys. But the Glenn Fry, they had a memorial for him at the Forum that Irving said I couldn't write about, and most people don't know about. It was an amazing thing. In terms of the performer, Stevie Wonder and uh Bob

Seger came out and did Heartache Tonight. Everybody wrote a single did that, but Don Headley stood on stage and for an hour told the story of the Eagles and if you know your Eagles history. They were originally the backup band for the Step They flew to play a gig in Washington, d C. First gig of the tour. The night before. Linda was there and Glenn Fry sat up all night with Don Henley telling him what the Eagles was going to be, literally for hours and hours

till the sun came up. It's like they knew what they were doing. And but uh, let me try to wind it back here a little bit. Can I just say one other thing? Right? Sure? Of course? I love um uh moments of uh what's it called when people just sort of catch their breath. Um. I want to thank Dan McCarroll on your show for introducing me to you. I had the only people who don't know Dan McCarroll right now. He's working in the Amazon Music for that.

He was president of Warner brother for that, President Capital. But he started out as a drummer, Cheryl Crow's drummer that he being drummed in a band called the Grays. He is he's managed to survive with many have not. He most certainly has. And he is a gentleman, and he's got a great sense of humor. And I just love the guy, and I just want to say he got me, he said, He told me, I had to.

And then when I get your newsletter or your email, and then I I mean, I can look through my mails of what i've my mail, what I've opened, and it's your stuff. I can go through like the last thirty emails and two are opened and there you Well, it's kind of funny you mentioned in that, because you know, my mother now has dementia and this will not resonate with her. But I remember it's about fifteen years ago. I forwarded her an email from Quincy Jones. Okay, I'm

actually gonna see Friday night, and I got no response. Okay, So I was on the phone lit by saying, you know, what do you think about that email I sent you? Quincy just just oh yeah, you know, you know Quincy Jones. Just yeah, I mean, you know the guy. Just I didn't think it was that Quincy Jones. How would you know Quincy Jones? How great is that? But these are these are motivating factors. But anyway, the ideas that she does randomly someone named Quincy Jones, right right? How many

other questions? Crazy? So um, you're how long do you just go back? Let's go back, let's go back to Chicago. How long are you. They're working in second City being a stand up. I'm there for well, I was there between getting fired, getting hired, my stand up, this, this, doing, this appearance, that appearance. I would go live in New York, I go live in l A. I went back and forth. But at this point, no day jobs. You're just making

as a stand up, making it as a comedian. At this point, yes, making what kind of money at the end of the year, varying from I had lots of debt to varying too. I don't know sixty, you know, and i'd paid off most of my debt. I didn't pay off my debt really until my early thirties. And then I was out of debt. I was I was broke again, but never in debt again, right, Okay, um, so yeah, and then I finally decided I'm gonna New York's where I'm going. Okay. To what degree were the

relationships you made in Chicago beneficial to your career ultimately? Well, they're all well it's not see eight, It's not the relationships that were beneficial to my career. It's what I learned there that was beneficial to my career. The relationships are all still friends of mine. They're all people I still work with. Most of them. I've hired on even ones who had me fired or didn't want I've had

most the greatest revenge of success. And I've hired everyone who was in the company that wanted to get rid of me. I've hired them all on curb your enthusiasm, and are they gracious about It'll see, I don't let them know. I find that during the course of my life, people who are great to me I remember, and people who are crappy to me, the ones in the middle,

I don't remember it. Now here's the revenge. When the crappy ones, I'm nice to them, I do great things for them, and they think they got one over on me. But I remember, and it makes me so happy. I don't I don't need to tell them. I don't need to remind them. Why do I want them to make them feel bad? Think you pull one over on me? Have a great time. Well, there's certain people will not kind of break too. It's a very limited list. By the way, I won't spend time with those people. I

understand that. You know I wouldn't and then you know, but then I'm going to new York. That was also the same situation. It was a lot of what I learned, but also like my friends that I befriended there, my early friends all got on to great success. Dennis Leary, John Stewart, we were all poor together, um, and great friends together. I mean, I love John. John is still a great now. They went on to great success years ago before your success or mine was. How did you

feel about that? So happy for them, not jealous, but I was frustrated that it hadn't happened for me. But I was not nothing but happy for them. What are some of the lessons you said you learned in being in Chicago, Well, it's not as much. Look you go through life, you become a better man, hopefully. But for me it was just how to be a better actor looking someone in the eye. My approach when I'm with another actor in a scene is not for me to

be better, It's to make them look better. If God willing, they have the same attitude, both performances go up. That's not generally the case. You're the one making them look better and they want to make themselves look better, which they don't necessarily do every time. UM. I also learned how to take what I learned from Second City and do it on the stage when I do stand up

improvising from an outline. Now, I may have one or two stories that I think of on the way to the gig, and i'll, if I remember, i'll talk about them. But in general I don't even have an outline. But when I shoot my special, I'm gonna have a very strong outline. Okay. So now, when you're in New York, at what point you said, when you're in Chicago you were trying to make things happen for yourself, like you know, it sounded like you know, you had projects, etcetera beyond

stand up. No stand up in Second City in Chicago. Okay, but what only did you say, I've got to make it happen for me as opposed to waiting for the big breakthrough. Uh well, if you mean what I'm about to say, I can tell you my early thirties, my early thirties, from starting at twenty, my early thirties, maybe when I turned thirty, but around there is when I decided that all I was going to do was worrying about being great. I was not going to concern myself

with my career at all that includes head shots. I mean I had head shots, but I wasn't worried about my head shots, wasn't worried about my representation. I worried about nothing except being great. And I've kept that attitude since then. Okay, since uh the early nineties. Okay, for most people, the breakthrough was when you're working with Larry. Would you consider to be that first breakthrough for yourself or what breakthrothws came after moving to New York? Well,

you have to understand the Larry thing. Um, I approached him with the idea because I had been before. I want to hear that between moving to New York and approaching Larry, had you approached other people and you tried to make Okay? Yes, I mean yes, I would try to make things happen. And I had development deals before I met Larry. I had delvelpment development deals at CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox. Okay, so and none of them panned out. Okay. So when I was writing a show with a guy

named Allen's why belt you know? Okay, So Allen's why Belle and I are writing a show uh four um uh CBS, they're looking for a companion show to everybody loves Raymond. It's either gonna be the Jeff Garland program or King of Queens. We know what it was. However, in that suite of offices, Larry David shared an office with Allen's Why bell and Billy Crystal, and I saw all three of them. How do you know why Bells? Why bell Um wasn't a quaintance, but he was teamed

up with me with the producers. Okay, so they're all in the office, and so I would go in and sit and talk with Larry every day. We knew each other as stand ups, and then one day we went to lunch and he started asking me about stand up and I said, well, if you ever want to do a stand up special, because that's what HBO was interested in,

I've got a great idea for one. You know, we go behind the scenes of the making of a stand up special and then at the end, you don't even have to do this, right, the special could be the making of you know. It was his idea that I'd be as manager because I just wanted to actually, in my head, I want to be behind the scenes. I just wanted to direct it did anyway, So he insisted I'm as man that I play as manager, and then

he insisted that I'd be the executive producer with him. Now, I'd never produced anything, let alone to be the executive producer with the greatest comedic television producer of my generation right now, I mean Larry, he wasn't involved. It's funny because I ran into the movies and Santa Monica one day and you reckon. I mean for though, this is before Currer Enthusiasm. That afternoon movie. They said, you know, Larry,

you know Seinfeld hasn't been great since you left. And he looks at me because the only two of us goes, I don't want to hear that. I'm still part of the bla blah blah blah blah blah, which is so Larry. But at that point most people had no idea who

Larry was. They thought it was all Jerry, right, okay, And the last two seasons of the show that he wasn't there, I can say, we're really funny but crazy broad All the minutia of when Larry was there and the actual and all that crazy pain of it was Larry. So seeing so you can see Seinfeld without Larry, right, okay? And that's what the last two years were a little bit too broad for me, but still funny as hell, but not not now. It was that window when you

were all sharing an office. It was after that even it was after the finale of Seinfeld, which he came back, of course, and it was after Sour Grapes, so he wasn't like both of those. The Seinfeld got a lot of criticism because they're in jail, and Sour Grapes did not do well. He wasn't miserable because of that. He was Larry David. He's fine, you know. But I would walk in his office and we'd sing, truly, because we had little kids. We'd be singing Shirley Temple songs. Um.

But then I told him this idea. He said, let's talk about next thing I know where with Ari Emmanuel in Chris all Breck's office HBO, and we pitched the idea and Chris Aubrek said, the thing that you always dream of hearing when you pitch something, how can I not do this? And then when we and it was only for an hour special. While we're filming the hour special, first day of filming, we had so much fun. Larry David comes up to me and goes with this be

great to do as a TV series. Now in my head, I'm like going, yeah, right, it would be amazing to make this a TV series. I'm on a TV series with you doing too. Yeah. Sure, yeah, and we did. But also know that our first year on the air, even into the second year, HBO referred to our show as their little experimental show. Right now, personally, we all have our opinions. Okay, I do not think the special

was as good as Curb Your Enthusiasm. I think Curb Your Enthusiasm took it to a whole Netherlands, the whole different thing. Okay, what's a special improvised? Yeah, all that is improvised. Okay, it improvised because of you. Were because Larry's lazy. He's not lazy, but um because of me? Really yeah, the improvisation parts because of me. Well, I thought it was Larry who didn't want to script. Well no, he loves not having a script, don't get me wrong,

But that initial idea was me. So let's assume you go to film an episode and you're deep into the series now, so maybe you have it down, but when you first started, it's like, Okay, you gotta shoot, you know, half an hour. How much of it is conceptualized. There's a six to seven page script that Larry David writes where everything you need to have a funny half hour of TV is in there. He's the best there is. That's what separates Curb from any other improvised show. And

we're going to improvise our show. Well, good luck to you. You don't have Larry David. So it's funny my dialogue. Every scene changes like I make up different but the story is there and what has to happen is there. So let's assume we're shooting. Yeah, how many takes? Will? They all depend to the scene. Just Larry and I much quicker if there's three or four other people, can take longer, if there's three or four other people that

are not regulars on the show, even longer. But it's all based on what we do as we shoot a take and then we discuss it. This went on, this, don't know about this, Let's do this this time, and then you go do that one again. But don't do this now. Do you ever get the six or seven page outlined and say, Larry, I'd like to make some changes. Never in over a hundred episodes. That has never happened

any notes. This is true. I get the outline. Do you know that any notes that I've given them were just that you repeated that beat or that at the end doesn't make sense here? Because of this, I have never ever given a note, And I can say proudly I've never given him an idea for the show. People approaching people approach me out time. So people come up to me and I said, they say, I've got this great idea. I go A few things I want to tell you. Number One, I'm on the show. I'm a

producer on the show. I have never given my ideas. I said, no that. Number two, no one, no one has ever come up to me on the street and given me a good idea. And I've gotten hundreds upon hundreds. They still insist, and I still have to tell them, yep, put yours on the pile. It ain't funny, And they're never funny. They're extra NiFe. I know. I know the same thing in the music business. But when you I got to the part rise, I said, too many bad experience.

I don't even tell them they're not funny, right because they just can't believe it. Everybody in their whole life is thought. You know, they're the funniest person they ever They shove it down my throat, you know. Okay, So do you have favorite Curb episodes? I have one in particular that I love. And by the way, the current season we're filming, we're wrapping it up soon, um, is

my favorite season we've ever shot. There are subtleties to the new season that bring me more joy than you can imagine, and the whole storyline is just it's amazing. I love it. Um. My favorite episode is one that's entitled Wandering Bear. It's where Cheryl's vagina it is and Larry's gardner. Wandering Bear tries helping her with her vagina, and at the same time, Larry and I keep watching Girls Gone Wild and my dog gets run over. I love it, and I know dog gets run over. He's

fine at the end of the episode. But the point being, is itself contained. A lot of Curb there's the arc of the season. This one particular episode is completely self contained. It's not tied into anything. And if I was had to show somebody someone goes, what's your show about, I would show them that episode. I love that episode now You're on the inside. And certainly a number of seasons of Curb were made, and then Larry went on like a hiatus to make that movie, etcetera. Where did that

leave you? Well, he didn't go on hiatus to make a movie or to do the play. We were just on hiatus and he didn't know what he's gonna do. What it did for me was I had to earn money doing stand up. I made a couple of movies and I took the job on the Goldberg. So tell us how that happened. I got a script. The script kind of the Archer kind of reminded me of Archie Bunker.

I was writing a movie that uh, I was gonna about to do for Netflix that I eventually did called Handsome, which is a Netflix mystery movie kind of like Colombo meets The Long Goodbye. UM still on there, please watch if you can. I'm very proud of it. But um, I got this script saying they're very interested in me, and they told me they cast Wendy McClendon covey, who I love and I wanted to work with. And I told her that a million times, and yeah, so I was happy to do that, and did you think it

was going to be a hit? I had a strong feeling. And by the way, I'm a person. I remember I was on a TV show called What About Joan with John Cusack and we got canceled before we filmed an episode one week and I remember people crying and I and I walked around with my friend Wally Langham who had been on the Larry Sanders Show as one of the writers, and we had been through the mill a million and we've said to people, what did you expect

to happen? So for me to say that I thought that The Goldbergs, if given a shot, was gonna be a hit, I am not surprised. I mean I thought it had everything that you needed for today to be a hit, and so I'm not surprised by it. People love that show. And are you as you walk through your life, are you more recognized from Curb or The Goldbergs. Well, it all depends. If I'm not around where comedy fans

are for whatever. Let's say it's the morning, it's the farmer's market at Fairbacks, and third it's all Goldbergs, you know what I mean. Or the afternoon, especially the tourists all Goldbergs. But if I'm in any sort of environment where there's any sort of hip nous or edge or comedy fans Curb and then it's a mixture, depending on where and what you know what I mean, But it all depends because comedy fans don't watch the Goldbergs, you know,

comedy fans watch Curb with south Park. It's like there's a handful of shows on the list where comedy fans go, Oh, I go there for my comments, okay, just because I'm interested. Are there any others besides those two? I don't know. You'd have to tell me the name of a show. Okay, the comedians watch broad City. I think that that would fall in line of a comedic show. Yes, like those types of shows that comedians. You know, Netflix has to do special every week? Do people watch that only to

make fun of them? Really? Yes, one is worse than the next, and this is not this is Here's the thing. I'm a young comedian. If you had a special that was special, then it came to I'd have somebody opening for me. And two weeks later, and I'm not exaggerating this ship, Oh, I just got my first special. You did. You're not even developed yet. You don't even have a voice. I don't say that outline. I don't want to hurt you know. They have fun and they're special. Of course,

doesn't go anywhere because they don't have a voice. They just give specials out. They give specials out to people who are kind of well known actors who decide they wanted to stand up. What's a budget for something like that, Well, it can be as little as a hundred thousand, and then you go up to what they're they're paying with twenty million for them at one time. Now, I'd have to say, if you're well known, it's kind of leveled out. It's about a million um all in with your salary

and the thing. And if you're not known, three hundred thousand. Okay. What about people who took their brand from The Daily Show and went on Netflix like Farhood, Manas and Michelle who got canceled, They still created a voice for themselves and they still have fans. I guarantee. Well, his show is doing what seems to be doing well on Netflix.

But the point being is if she appears somewhere, she's gonna sell tickets, you know, So she carved out a career for herself, and if she takes it seriously, she's only gonna get better. I mean, she has her voice to contend with. Some people can't get past It's like Rush. You know, I've never I think Rush is my friends. I have friends that worship Rush. I cannot get past Getty Lee's voice. I try and I just can't. But I understand why why they dig them. They are an interesting,

good band, great band, but it ain't my thing. Okay without getting deeply into Rush. You can't get late at a Rush concert. There no women there. But uh, in terms of Curb, now, were you jumping up and down said this is my big break once it finally went to series. No, I jumped up and down. Was when Larry David said, let's go pitch it to Chris Albrecht, and I thought I was gonna be the director. So I had my own like, oh, this could be My attitude was this could be the start of something. Here's

what the secret of Curb. Your enthusiasm is more than anything from the get go, and there is an exception to this, but I don't want to get into. But early on and from the get go, we only did what made us laugh, and we were shocked when anybody called on or dug it. We We had no intention of being an iconic show, zero zero thoughts of it even being possible. Whereas I told you Goldberg's I could see it being a hit. I knew it would never be iconic Curb. I not only did, I never thought

it'd be iconic ever, let alone a hit. So now you're in your fifties, you are comfortable. What would you like to achieve before the grim Reaper appears? Oh dear God, again your bucket list? You know, what's my last meal? I don't? Okay, So okay, So it's not even a grim Reaper, because the Grim Reaper comes for everybody. What do I want to do? I want to keep contributing.

I want to compete, keep I want to continue to be relevant artistically, because I think that age doesn't matter if you're relevant, if you've got something to say or something to put out there that's relevant to human beings that I and ease people, continue to ease people's pain, and that contribute. I'm good man, What does that? I've got things I'm developing, I've got I mean, you know, television series, movies, different things, And to me, I just want to be relevant. I want to be doing I

don't want to be doing good work. I want to be doing great work. I want to continue. And I also think I'm one of those people that gets better as he gets older. I don't think that I am. What makes me funny is still in me. With the success I've had already, I will never be a fat cat. Okay, you know I drive a Tesla. Yeah, you know what I mean. Oh, look at me. I'm not in touch. I drive in Tesla, but you know where I pull into fucking Ralph's Fresh Fare and buy my own groceries

and deal with whatever ship's going on in there. I do my own stuff, you know what I mean? Man, I want to be part of it, because when you stop doing that is when you're not relevant, is when you're not in touch. Absolutely I couldn't agree or yeah, So what does it day look like when you're not you know, shooting, well as much napping as possible. So that's the luxury that I take advantage of, is napping. Um, I have not I have not had the opportunity to

go to I love movies. I've not been to a movie the last movie I saw was a special early morning screening that I took my friend's son too of the Spider Man movie The Spider Verse, which I loved. I have not had a chance. I love movies. I love music. I go see live music. Um, I try and arrange it that there's the least amount of irritating people around me that I can. I found certain areas to sit it, like the Hollywood Ball where like, oh, I won't be bothered here. This is awesome. And I'm

not talking about fame bothered. I'm just about talking about people being idiots bothered. Um. I love music, I love sports. I love swimming. So where do you swim? I have a pool. I have a pool, not even like you know, it's December, and could eat it up if I want, and I did, but right now I turn the heat up and turn on a couple of weeks close, you know. But I also But I really, I gotta tell you, man, I love I play guitar, not good, but I dig it. I did doing an open a learning old blues riffs.

I'm learning a John Lee Hooker riff right now. So I dig that. I dig chilling. That's what I did doing I'm not. I don't like going to awards. I don't like big parties. I love a good dinner party. How about going out to dinner with friends? Whatever? You're just you're stay at home guy. Well no, I mean I might go to Musso and Frank's and and uh meet Dan McCarroll and his wife, um and or Mark Flanager, now One's Largo or where my close friends are. I

love spending time with my close friends. Um. I'll go to sugar Fish on occasion. But in general, man, I'm a homebody. My life is extraordinary. I don't need my life. It's like you know that for me, the thought of going out to dinner on Friday or Saturday night is the worst. I gotta tell you. Nothing makes me happier than going to bed early on a Saturday night. Right,

I love it. I love it. Okay, So you mentioned earlier that you can't do pop culture in stand up comedy, and now I remember in an era both in movies and music, when you could literally be comprehensive, you could see it all and yeah, but now we're not in that era. No. By the way, I like to maintain a level of understanding. The number of artists that my children will bring up, or that someone bring up that I literally this is a person. I go to the

new songs on Spotify. I've Spotify, Title and um Apple Music, Amazon Music. What's that? What's the logic of having all of them? I mean, I have all of them. Have to pay well, Title because they pay the artists. Bet the other ones just not a convenience. Sometimes I look for one song and the other ones don't have it. I'm like, oh, there you go. And by the way, what I used to spend on c d s, I can afford to buy all those. Um. So I'm on there and I'm checking stuff out and I'll be behind

the wave. My kids will laugh at all behind the wave. Now there's too much stuff out there, you know. But I do know that a lot of it is is pop. By the way, a great pop song is delightful. So do not get me wrong. I'm not that much of a curmudgeon, but I find that most music that I am presented with is completely empty. You know, it's just so so. And I used to like, you know, it's so funny you say that you like like I like

Public Enemy. I remember going to see them at the Palace and remember sitting next to Easy in the back of the room watching them. So if I say I don't like rap, you know, some people might oh, he's racist or something. You know, no, which I've heard, you know, because you're white. No, man, I dig what I dig. I love Coltrane, you know I love Jimmy. I mean, I don't care what someone's I care about greatness. Man care about great Okay, And then I couldn't agree more

of that. People can't handle that. Just because you made an effort doesn't mean I want to partake. And when what people don't understand when something is great, I love to tell everybody. That's what people don't realize. What's more joyful than that? Right? We everybody has? Firstly talking about kids. So kids have a short attention span. They don't have

a short attention span. They have an incredible ship detector. Next, next, next, next, That's why I love your writing, because you're hip to that. People think it's an attention span. No you, but I have a d D. You give me something to watch, I'm gonna watch it exactly. There's somebody who dies every year playing video games for three days straight in Asia. Okay, don't tell me about it. By the way, you think I go see Lords of a Ray be at the

Cinerama Dome that I'm like, I gotta go take a break. No, I'm enchanted for my one time every time, you know. So it's not a matter of kids today don't have the attention spans. Their attentions, yes, are in their phones, but they're looking for something to connect well the people that I mean, I'm really anti the anti phone thing. What could be better than have a device? It's totally personalized to you, all right. By the way, think of having that thing when you're a little kid, would you

have done anything different? I you would have had it. I'm not sure what I've done anything different? I mean, I mean, I mean, you would have been into it about That's what I'm saying. So I'm not gonna judge. And by the way, mine is my iPhone is a tool for me exactly. It's personal. I just do you

do flipboard. I'm not a flipboard person. I love flipboard because I've designed all these stories of stuff that I'm it used to be because I got really I got a free subscription to a O L and the nineties when he's charged by the minute. So I spent my whole life. I lost the nineties to a O L. Whatever. But I tell my shriek. He used to take me an hour in the early part of the century to go through all my sites. Okay, now it's just endless. It's something, but I'm really I'm really into it. I

like the pulse. The other thing about it is if you're into something, you can become an expert. You can dive. You can dive into anything I know. So it's not that that's negative. It's what we're bringing to them. I met a dude and I can't remember the thing. He's a friend of a friend and he was running. He was at the time. I don't think he still is. He was put in charge by maybe universe like him or who in charge of verve? Right, the history of verb Oliver and I'm friends with Don was right, So

I see the challenge. They all the new whatever. But he had a complete disrespect for owning early holiday and owning people like that. And it's my fervent opinion. You play Billie Holiday for any kid with intelligence, and they're gonna go, how do I get more of that? Listen? Great is great. I'm glad to say. The only other person I've ever said that is something is phenomenal. And it could be anything like the first half of that movie Something Wild, you know that the right where you

know she's just totally totally out of control. Or even now we're talking about our favorite movies. Uh Altman once again? Uh Ship, what's his Western? You know with Warren Beatty and Mrs Miller, there's all this other stuff you love. To testify about that stuff, it's hard to testify about a lot of sheep. That's what you need. Here's the difference. If I may, I feel that if I were to show my son's eighteen and twenty two love movies McCabe and Mrs Miller, they might get bored. And here's what

they need. They need their own McCabe and Mrs Miller. Of course, they need a good movie that has the pacing, the actors, the things they're interested in. I have a friend, her daughter, who I kind of mentor and I just love like she's my daughter. She refused I try and turn around to stuff. She refuses refuses to watch black and white movies. And then I like people who refuse

to watch things with subtitles. Well, I said, you're missing great Hitchcock can make great press and sturgis great, Billy Wilder. There's so much stuff. But what these kids need and people need is their own version of that. And that's not coming because Avengers, the next Avengers, that's not it. Of course, that is not it. And the other way. I love comic books. I collected him as a kid, and I still buy them, you know, and buy a lot of back issues. For the most part, I can't

stand superhero movies. Right, what about the We're in the golden age of TV? Do you watch Netflix? Do you watch HBO? Watch There's always a show that I'm in And so what shows would you recommend right now? The last show that I watched and incomplete I just finished like a week ago, Fouda find a Phenomenal. That's about that's about the the border between Israel and Palestine and all the shenanigans. But it's like it's like the Wire,

It's like the Sopranos, it's like everything. That's one of the few series where the second season was better than the first. Second season was better than the first season was great exactly, but the second season was amazing, amazing, And they have some scenes of action where you're so tense. That one where they were in the backyard and they were surrounding I never seen a scene like that, and they had to go away and come ben anyhow, I

know I'm talking. I don't want to ruin it. But the thing is, the thing I want to tell people listening is know this about Powder. It's Netflix's show, but it's from Israel, and it is subtitled But I'm a guy. If you dig the Sopranos, you dig the Wire, you dig Breaking Bad, this is right there with it. It's it's as good as all. Okay, what else can you recommend Jay's I don't know. I mean, have you watched Happy Valley? No? I by the way, I started watching

the second season of Happy Valley. I don't quite get that, by the way, and I did, wasn't and I thought you I watched the first I liked the idea of it. Um Bob babyl um Berlin. I've only heard great things. I'm not saying it's a long time to get into because one of the know. It's one of those things where it's intentionally people say that I no know what's going on. People say that a long time to get into it is Better Call Saul, And in my opinion, Better Call Saul is the best show on TV. Better

Call Saul is better than Breaking No. One is not no. It is not different apples and oranges. Actually I didn't say that. Uh uh, Granny Smith apple and a food

jimple the two different types of apples. The point I'm making is that the greatness of both cannot be Who would know that Bob oden Kirk could be so good at that, considering that he is my I have many friends that I started with, but Bob oden Kirky and I used to sit on We'd sit on porches our backyard, on the steps of Second City together, dirt broke and best of friends, talking about what do we have to do to have somebody pay attention to us in this town.

And I remember it was about three or four years ago. I'm at Sony that's where we filmed the Goldbergs, and up on the side of Sony in their big you know posters was the Goldbergs and better Cars. And I took a picture and I sent it to him because we were broke together. We and I watched him developed. And also he would help me audition, and I would help him audition on tape for different things. And I saw how good a director he is. I knew how

good an actor was. So I will stand up and say I knew how great Bob oden Kirk could be. I knew he is magnificent. He's also a magnificent man. And like I said, one of my best friends. Okay, in this long thing, long career, which is far from over, do you ever have doubts? Oh? Sure, yeah, you know, yeah, because you get you You feel like quitting. Oh I felt like quitting many times early on. Even now I think like, well, if I don't get to do this,

do I really want to keep doing this? Like and I started thinking, all right, a little bit slower, tell us more about what I mean by that is, so I'm doing the goldbergs now, which is a semi cash cow, you know what I mean? Doing curb. Maybe both of those don't last. So let's say my next three ideas I'll get rejected. So do I think to myself, well, how much do I sell my car for? How much

do I sell my house for? I'll move in a condo where I'll do this and I'll just sit and right, I'll do my stand up and I'll write because I'm at a point now like I told you at fifty six, it's about joy. And if I can't spread joy and enjoy what I'm doing, I don't want to do it. I don't want to do crap. I don't want to I just don't you know what. I you a part of the Avengers, Sure for a week for a lot of money. Would I be in in the Avengers for

six months? No? No? And how much? Uh? It's by the way, I want to Just for the record, nobody's asked me. Nobody has asked me to be in the Avengers or any And by the way, I love comp I want to be in the Silver Surfer movie if I can, just a local anyhow, Um, I love Silver Surfer. How much are you on the road? Not very much at all. The past, I'll say the past since since I've been doing the Goldbergs, you know, um, you know,

I'd say maybe six months in the past six years. Okay, So if you are going to do a special, do you have to do a certain number of gigs? You have to? Well, I'm working in town a lot. I go on stage a lot at the Improv in a Largo and sometimes place called Flappers and Burbank. I do sets, um,

but I'm going on there. I'm gonna be in Chicago, uh next month, uh doing a bunch of sets at Zane East that's the name, and I'm gonna be I'm gonna be in New York doing a week at Carolines and so yes, that's to work out for the special. Then I'm coming back to do a bunch of shows. I have to do it. What's killed me. And really I'm exhausted and I I wish I have to. I have to. I'm going to therapy now, but after therapy, I'm going to bed because I gotta get up early

to film tomorrow. Goldberg's um is that I've had to for the second time. And it's not a matter of feeling bad for me, because I'm extraordinarily I have great gratitude, but I've been filming Curb and the Goldbergs at the same time with doing stand up now gratitude that I have that opportunity, But I have to tell you it's knocking me off my feet. I'm doing I'm working sixty hours a week. And by the way, a lot of other people do that, right, A lot of people don't

get paid like me. So I'm not unaware. But that doesn't make my body have more energy. It doesn't make me physically By the way, if I was twenty five, oh, I could do this all day and all night and not and it is what it is. So I'm doing it, you know what I mean? But I am it's a lot. Okay, So how long have I go to therapy? Oh, well, with a great therapist? Now for about five six years I've had I've had other wonderful therapists, but I say had some crappy ones. But I've been going to therapy

since my twenties. I love, my love therapy, great therapy. By the way, I never knew you could leave therapy feeling like, oh I accomplish something. I didn't know that. I feel that I'm a big believer in therapy, and I certainly go I believe at this point this like it's a secret weapon. I mean, I get all these insights out there and I can't believe, by the way, it's a secret weapon. And you said the word you obviously have a great therapist. You said the word you

get insights. You want insight to this adventure. By the way, a joke is, we lived to eight ninety years old and we still have so much more to learn. Absolutely, I was being thrown to the side at a certain are what I was just just like I'm just getting started. That's how I feel a fifty six. When I was twenty years old, I knew everything. Now that i'm that's all I deal with between working with the kids and the Goldberg's lovely working with talking with my children. Everyone

knows everything, but that's normal. I knew everything, you know, but especially even you know, I think you know, we all have these things where I said ship and I thought I knew ship that I just did not know. I know, I wouldn't now people ask me a question I I don't know. Before I would say, oh, I definitely know this is what you should do, or I like to say I think, but you know, I'm just telling you my opinion. I don't know that it's a fact. Well,

this has been fascinating, Jeff. You know, we need a whole another podcast that has nothing to do with the anchors of your career and just talking about life. Interesting. Well, your your your pieces, whether they be about life or um uh, you wrote about better things. I write that piece. I love her and I love that show. Um I just I can't get enough of your work. Thank you. And by the way, I've been told because I only there's an archive, I can go back and look at

older ones. Right, well, you are like setting me up. It's like being a late night show. Go to left sets dot com slash word press and you can read since two thousand five. Well, fantastic, I'm gonna I'm gonna do that. Now you're interviewing me, Jeff has been by the way, that's that's what it is. It's a conversation right right. You're making me look good, just like you said you do with other actors. Thanks so much. Till next time, it's been Jeff Garland of the Bob Left Sets Podcast